This Night Aria

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Reflection

Sunset opened her locker to grab the book Princess Celestia had given her, the insignia of her Cutie Mark on the cover a reminder of the old days-before the Dazzlings, before she turned into that…thing, and before she came to this world.

“Uh, hey…” Sunset looked up to see Flash Sentry approaching her.

Every time she was around him, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt, he actually did seem to pretty nice guy when she had first begun dating him-but unfortunately for him, that was the old Sunset Shimmer who only wanted to use him for his popularity and took great pleasure in publicly abusing him to assert her dominance over the rest of the school.

His hands were jammed into his pockets as her approached her awkwardly, a familiar sense of déjà vu washed over her as she was reminded of the first time he ever approached her, he had believed that she was genuinely a good person deep down and that it was the anxiety of being the new girl in school that was causing her to lash out.

'“Now that’s the bad girl we love to hate!”'

As much as those words had stung, she realized she had probably deserved that after all she had done to him, it made her wonder how much of that had been the Dazzlings’ influence and how much of it was how Flash really felt deep down.

After all, Trixie was generally obnoxious and unpleasant before they showed up and those negative traits had only been amplified by their spell, Sunset also knew from experience how competitive Flash could be.

“Hey, Flash…is everything okay?” she asked.

“Well, I just got finished practicing with my band and….my wallet’s missing.” He sighed.

‘Wait, is he accusing me of something?’

“I think I might have dropped it…have you or any of the other girls seen it?” he asked. “Because I was finishing up a report in the study room yesterday.”

“I’m sorry, we haven’t…actually we’ve been dealing with something that kind of distracted from noticing anything like that.” Sunset replied.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, leaning his back against the locker next to hers.

“Yeah, the Dazzlings came back.”

“And what did they want?” Flash asked irritably.

“They claim that they’ve changed their ways and want to come back to the school.” Sunset sighed. “Not that I completely believe them, but it’s unlikely they could do too much too damage without their amulets, they’re just harmless teenage girls now.”

Flash looked at her skeptically; he knew better than anyone how much damage a ‘harmless teenage girl’ could cause.

“I’m not expecting you to trust them, but I want to you to know what’s going on…I’m nothing like the girl you dated.”

“I know, Sunset.” He sighed. “I just think we should be careful around them-they can still do a lot of damage just through word of mouth-this is high school, after all.”

“Do you think they could’ve taken your wallet?”

“I’m not trying to point fingers, but…” he put his hands in his jacket pockets. “I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Flash lowered his voice.

“There was actually a good chunk of cash in there-not to mention my driver’s license and my student ID, so it’s really important that I get it back.”

“I was wondering why your car wasn’t here this morning…did you walk all that way?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah…”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do…” Sunset replied earnestly, it seemed like a good start to making amends for all of the emotional and psychological abuse she had put him through back when they were dating. In retrospect, she couldn’t believe that he had stayed with her for as long as he did.

“So…do you mind telling me what that is?” he asked, seeing the book. Whenever he used to ask her when he saw it in the past, she would tell him it was none of his business with a string of insults and very descriptive threats of excessive bodily harm should he have dared to go near it. But, now that she had turned over a new leaf it seemed safe to ask.

“Just a diary.” Sunset replied, nonchalantly.

Which was half true, since she mostly kept it to herself for nostalgic reasons and to review the notes she had taken as well as a record of the correspondence she had with Celestia. She also technically wrote in it to tell someone about what significant events had happened in her life. Though, it still didn’t feel right still not being completely honest with Flash while trying to make up for her old behavior.

Flash leaned forward, lowering his voice.

“Do you really believe that those three have changed…or that they’re actually willing to?”

“I changed.” Sunset replied. “But, just between us? I don’t believe it, not for a second. Sure, there are those like me that can learn to be empathetic towards others, but there are people-and I use that term loosely in their case-that just seem to be born bad. No matter how much compassion they are shown, they will always choose to take advantage of others’ kindness.”

“Then…why?” he asked, taken aback.

“As I’ve told the girls, it would be pretty hypocritical of me not to be willing to give someone a chance when they say they want to make an attempt to turn their lives around…and part of me is actually hoping that I’m wrong, but don’t worry-I’ll be watching them very closely.”

Flash looked at her with an expression of concern.

“Sunset, if you need help with this-you know that you can come to me, right?”

She felt her heart stop for a moment before mentally berating herself. Of course, he wasn’t reaching out to her as anything more than a friend. But, if she asked for his help-would it even be a good idea to get him more involved?

Both she, and the Dazzlings had used him as a pawn in their mind games, so it made sense that he would want to get involved, but then how much information should she give him?

There was no telling how much damage she, Twilight, and the Dazzlings had cause to the balance of this world, just by coming over from Equestria. Logically, if there were doppelgangers of prominent figures like Celestia and Luna, there could easily be alternate versions of everyone else. Telling him about her method of communicating with Twilight, could easily make things much more complicated.

“Sunset?” Flash prompted, perturbed by her prolonged silence. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” She snapped back to the real world at the sound of his voice. “Yeah, I’m fine-just thinking, sorry.”

“You know, I’m not going to pretend to understand how magic works…but, the way I acted during the Musical Showcase-as angry as I was at you-I would never act like that, it wasn’t me.” He stated, averting his gaze. “I mean it was me saying that stuff, but I wanted to apologize because…I’m not like that, I was just filled with so much hate for everyone else competing against my band and getting further than we did, and I wanted all of you to pay for taking something that I wanted so bad.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Sunset reassured him. The Dazzlings twisted everyone’s emotions with their dark magic…even something that was supposed to be a friendly social event was turned into a brutal competition of cutthroat musicians. So, it’s cool. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t deserve any of it after….anyway, I’ve still got some more work to do.”

She held up the book for emphasis.

“Okay,” Flash replied turning to leave. “I guess I’ll see ya, then…and don’t forget what I said; if you guys need anything, I’ll try to help out.”

“Flash?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

---

Hey, Twilight-sorry to bother you, but the Dazzlings came back earlier today.

They’re claiming that they want to change their ways, but the girls and I are skeptical.

Those three also claim that without their necklaces, they are not able to feed on the conflicts of others and without being able to, their age may catch up to them and that it could cause them to die.

Any information on Sirens over here is purely based on mythology and I have no idea if it applies to our sirens-I wouldn’t be troubling you with this if I didn’t have the resources-but, the girls and I agreed to keep an eye on them to see if they truly have changed before fulfilling our end of the agreement, they could still cause a lot of trouble without their magic, after all.

Is it possible to simply cast a spell to allow them to continue living without returning their powers?

P.S.

A lot of the student body seems to have warmed up to me since I helped take care of those three, but there are a few that still seem to hate or fear me…which is natural, I guess-but, I’m still working hard on earning that trust-even if the feeling is mutual for some of them, I can’t in good conscience let the Dazzlings get a stranglehold on the school like that, again.

P.P.S.

Sorry, I was afraid to ask last time but…before you showed up I sent a message to Celestia asking for your help and she never responded to me…does she still hate me? I mean, I wouldn’t blame her-but, I actually really miss her and it would be nice to know how to send her a message-that is, if you think that’s a good idea…anyway, I’ll be dealing with school and trying to get a better read on the Dazzlings as I await your response.

Thanks.

---

Sitting on the front lawn of the school, Sunset leaned back against the base of the statue as she looked up at the sky.

Forgiveness was something that she knew she would have to earn after the Fall Formal, deep down she wasn’t even sure if she deserved it. Perhaps she didn’t and Celestia realized that when she left? Why else wouldn’t she try to contact her through the book? Sure, she may have ignored it or lashed out, but to not even make an attempt?

Did she really hurt her that much? Or did she mean so little to her, that Celestia couldn’t be bothered? Looking at Twilight, it certainly didn’t seem like she wasted any time finding a replacement to be her protégé. Then again, maybe she was just looking at it the wrong way?

This world’s Celestia seemed quite callous in stark contrast to the one she knew, who was sometimes stoic, but had a great deal of warmth to her and genuinely cared about those around her, without it feeling forced for the sake of her position. Vice Principal Luna on the other hand, was a complete blank slate to her.

It didn’t take a quantum physicist to piece together that the dreaded Mare in the Moon from legend back in Equestria was Princess Luna, but that was all she knew about her prior to going through the mirror.

Based on what she heard from Twilight, the Trixie in this world was much more of a jerk than the one back in Equestria who would boast a lot for stage presence and had a small stint using dark magic, but much like herself seem genuinely remorseful about her actions afterward.

If there was a Flash Sentry in Equestria, was he anything like the one here? Or was there another difference in his personality?

She couldn’t help but wonder what Celestia would think of her if she knew everything she had done since coming to this world. It didn’t seem like Principal Celestia would be very proud or even all that impressed with one good deed, especially not when compared to Princess Twilight. But, given their differences, perhaps she did care and there was some other reason she didn’t write?

It sounded like she was willing to forgive Luna, but there seemed to be a lot of different factors contributing to that case; Luna was her baby sister, Celestia probably felt guilty for banishing her and being unable to prevent her turn, as well as the fact that Luna was also remorseful.

Now that she had finished cleaning up the debris from demonic rampage and had more or less repaired most of the damage she had caused, if she was able to permanently stop or reform the Dazzlings, and Celestia was willing to forgive her-now that she had the means, it was beginning to feel like she could actually be morally justified in returning home after paying her penance and having all of this resolved.

Hopefully, if there was another Sunset Shimmer in this world, her life wouldn’t be associated with the physical damage she had caused and the negative reputation she had accumulated before that.

That was when a horrific thought occurred to her; what if the other Sunset was a monster like her? What if she discovered dark magic and sought it out to achieve her own ends? What if she also discovered the portal and came to Equestria after learning about the abundance of it?

Sunset stood up as she prepared walk home, the girls were kind enough to rotate with allowing her to spend the night at their houses upon being horrified to learn that she more or less lived in the school, sleeping in a storage closet, using the showers to bathe at night, and stealing food from the cafeteria.

Tonight was Applejack’s turn to host, she and her family had been surprisingly hospitable, despite the insults the old Sunset would make towards their collective intelligence and was even more grateful knowing how prideful and stubborn Applejack could be.

It would be nice to relax before going through the headache of convincing Celestia and Luna to give the Dazzlings another chance to re-enroll, especially when she herself didn’t have much faith in their sincerity, but a promise was a promise-something that she took pride in as it helped differentiate the old Sunset from the new one.

It was going be a long day…

Author's Note:

Next, we get to see how the meeting with Celestia and Luna goes over with the Dazzlings.

Comments

[Imperator Knoedel]

I don't think you have an editor, yes?

[Ianpiersonjdavis]

5466977

I don't trust other people, so no.

[Imperator Knoedel]

5466979 Aw, not even someone with a fellow Sunset Shimmer avatar?

[Kobitsu]

“I was wondering why you’re car wasn’t here this morning

*your