Sunset Helpers

by Spirit Shift

CH25: Cashing in a Favor

“Um, hello!” called Fluttershy in her typical, little more than a whisper, voice. Reaching out slightly she offered a paper to a local passerby who deigned to give her any attention.

However, as that person walked passed, a person wearing a large golden retriever outfit stood in their way and forcefully handed said person a piece of paper.

“Woof,” they said straightforwardly, much to the nervousness of the person taking the flyer. Without delay, that person jaunted down the sidewalk, hesitantly moving past the large guard dog.

This continued, standing outside the local pet shop that Fluttershy worked at, the two of them working hard to promote an upcoming adoption event being held by said pet shop. Although there was a sizable amount of foot traffic on this fine morning, no matter what she tried, Fluttershy continued to fail to gain attention. But, like a loyal guard dog, the person in the costume assisted with more… forceful methods.

This girl turned out to be Sunset Shimmer who, in fact, had volunteered that day in an attempt to help out and raise her trustworthy status with the people.

“You know,” Sunset said, her voice muffled by the thick layer of dog costume around her, “When I said I’d help you, I didn’t think it would be like this.” Inside the costume, Sunset, her brow shimmering with sweat, rolled her eyes.

Fluttershy looked over at her and smiled. “Oh but you look so cute in that outfit!” she chirped, her voice as melodic as a singing bird. “Plus, it's so hard to get anyone else to wear it, Pinkie and Coco are the only ones, but Pinkie usually has to work and Coco is too small.” she muttered, frowning slightly. “No offence!” she quickly added.

Sunset chuckled. “It’s alright, she’s not even here. I think Rainbow needed her for something anyway. But, what I really mean, is that I thought this would be helpful in getting people to see me more favourably.”

Sunset handed out a flyer to a passing woman before turning back to Fluttershy. “Cuz, you know, nobody can tell it's me?”

Fluttershy gave a slight gasp, realizing immediately what Sunset meant. Glancing towards the ground shyly, she began to mumble. “Oh… I’m sorry, Sunset. I didn’t realise. You don't have to wear it, you know!” she urged.

Just as she said that, though, two kids came up to Sunset and hugged her legs. They were a pair of small twin girls, one with bright pink hair and another with pretty blue hair. Sunset smiled, and leaned down to give them both head pats.

“Do you two want a puppy just like me?” she said, her voice a bit higher pitched and silly.

The two girls nodded happily and Sunset gave them both a flyer. “Then give this to your parents. Come adopt a puppy later this month! I’ll see you there!” she said.

The girls ran off giggling while Sunset just smiled, something pretty much impossible to see from within the costume. “It’s alright, I kinda like the feeling though. It feels… nice,” she muttered, trailing off into a whisper. “Not being judged… or at least feeling like I'm being judged, I mean.”

Fluttershy, who had been trying to offer a flyer to a man at that point, turned to Sunset. “Hm, I’m sorry Sunset. Did you say something?”

Sunset shook her dog head, her silly costumed tongue flopping back and forth. “I said it’s fine! I don’t mind. I’ll be doing more things later with the other girls too,” she answered, loudly this time.

~~~

“Oh, Darling, I’m so glad you’re taking our advice about not worrying about Screwball,” Rarity beamed, adjusting her stylish work glasses. “You’ve been doing so much better recently.”

In the library, Sunset and Rarity sat surrounded by papers and flyers as the two engaged in both planning and jovial gossip. Having gotten permission from Cheerilee to use it as an afterschool base, the two managed to avoid being kicked out for talking at length.

Sunset glanced and the sheet in front of her, a long sheet with a list of names, before filing it into a stack next to her. “Well, its not so much that I’m not worrying about her,” she muttered, still filing. “It’s more like she’s been pretty quiet for the past week.”

“Really?” Rarity gasped while clicking away at her laptop, on it was an art program that housed a prototype flyer for some kind of event.

“Actually, it’s kind of weird,” Sunset mused, a grin slowly growing on her face. “It’s almost like her pranks are getting less effective. Maybe she’s finally gotten bored.”

“Tsk tsk tsk,” Rarity chided, sucking her teeth. “Don’t you dare get too comfortable, darling. She could be building up to something. By the way,” she asked, looking over at the paper Sunset had been studying, “can you hand me that list of participants you’re holding?”

Sunset handed over the paper and continued. “No, I really mean it, it's strange. Like, for example; my locker, you know the one that's always got something in it, was open this morning, and the egg trap was already triggered.” She said, looking over at Rarity with a raised brow. The girl in question simply hummed and continued her typing, paper in hand.

“Or after I had finished helping out Fluttershy, I went back to change into my regular clothes, and the bathroom looked like it had seen a whipped cream explosion, but for some reason, my clothes were fine?”

Sunset grabbed another set of papers and began organising them. “I mean, I had an extra set anyway, just in case, but my original clothes were…” She paused at one particular sheet. Looking over at Rarity, she pointed to one specific name.

“I didn’t know that Pinkie’s sister went to this school,” she said, pointing to Marble Pie’s name.

“Hmm? Yes, she’s in the Pottery club with Softspot and Shoeshine. Speaking of which,” she leaned over towards Sunset and removed her glasses to look directly into Sunset’s eyes for the first time during that session.

“I really cannot thank you enough for spending time helping me with this year's Art contest<’ she said, her tone soft and genuine. Hearing it caused something to swell inside of Sunset. “It’s always such a hassle organising all of the artistic clubs in this school.”

“Of course!” Sunset said, turning back to her, a bashful smile plastered on her face. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time, so I really hope just organising it might put me in at least a few people’s good graces,” she said sheepishly, looking down at the floor.

The feeling in her chest from Rarity’s words of appreciation grew, however, so did the longing to hear them from others outside of her group. Just like with Fluttershy, only getting them from working outside of the spotlight was the only way she could get close to that feeling. But someday, perhaps she could step in front of a crowd and hear them directly.

Rarity reached a hand into view and sat it onto her thigh. ”Don’t you worry, this year’s show will be magnificent, especially since they’re allowing the sewing clubs to submit clothes as art” she said, a sly grin growing on her face. “My club will most certainly be taking home first place!” she finished, turning her nose up into the air.

“Oh, my gosh! Finally,” an exasperated voice echoed through the library. Turning in their seats, Rarity and Sunset watched as Diamond Tiara of all people strode into the room, a disgusted look on her face.

She glanced from book to book, sticking her tongue out all the while. “Eugh, I should have known you would be here,” she muttered, glancing back over to Sunset. Hand on her hip she stopped right in front of the two.

“And… what do you want?” asked Sunset, confused. Looking over a thought occurred to her, and in an instant her mood soured.

Diamond simply smirked at her. “Time to pay your debt, Shimmer.”

This elicited no small groan from Shimmer as she sat her head right into her palm, much to the confusion of Rarity who could only look between the two.

“Can this wait,” she moaned, gesturing with a hand to Rarity and the stack of papers between them. “I’m kinda busy.”

Diamond Tiara gasped and rolled her eyes indignantly. “Of course not, you think I have the kind of free time that you do?” she said, smirking and looking Sunset up and down. “Or do you want me to use what little I have to blast that picture of you all over the school.” She held up her cellphone, a glitter and rhinestone embedded status symbol of her social power.

With a sigh, Sunset turned to Rarity and began whispering. “I’m sorry Rarity, remember I told you about the incident at the mall,” she whispered, glancing over at Diamond Tiara.

It took her a second, as Rarity was currently in work mode and not in gossip mode, for her to recall that particular conversation. But as soon as she did, her eyes lit up and she began to shoo Sunset away.

“Oh, of course, darling. Go take care of it. I can handle the rest,” she said quickly.

Sunset looked back at the pile and grimaced. “Are you sure? I only managed to organise the list of signups by art submission, section out the gymnasium by club, create a list of judges, and fill out the information packets of only 80% of the entrants. There’s still so much left to do!”

Rarity could only stare at her in shock, her mouth embarrassingly agape. “Sunset, we’ve only been working for an hour.”

Sunset’s eyes went wide as she looked between her and DT who, at that point, began surfing her phone in boredom. “Exactly, we’re running so far behind,” she urged, desperately looking for a reason to NOT go with the entitled preteen.

Rarity merely rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sunny, dear. All that's left are designing and printing these flyers to spread around the school and finishing those information packets. I think I can handle it on my own.”

Sunset nodded and reached over to grab her back. However, the bundle of air she grabbed apparently wanted her attention more. Leaning down, Sunset peered around and under the table, searching with increasing fervour for her missing backpack.

“Can you PLEASE, hurry up?” Tiara’s voice echoed from behind her.

Eventually, Sunset returned to the world above the table. “Have you seen my book bag? I know I brought it with me.”

“Isn't your pack usually trapped with a prank of some sort?” she asked in return.

Sunset merely shrugged as she continued to look around. “Usually, but I’d rather have it with me than let it go off in front of someone else.”

“Just so you know, my finger is hovering RIGHT over the send button with at least 30 students in this school attached and 10 from Crystal Prep… just so you know,” muttered DT, casually still playing on her phone.

Rarity sighed and pulled Sunset from under the table. “Then I will make sure to be careful when I find it. Go find out what Ms. Tiara wants please before I need to spend more time recovering your social image,” she said, the last part through gritted teeth.

Just as ordered, Sunset left the work to Rarity who immediately began typing and clicking away.

“Finally,” she huffed, turning to walk out of the library. “This place is for nerds.” As she strode away, she gave an arrogant flip of her hair.

“I can see why you two like this place,” she said, smirking back at an increasingly annoyed Sunset. “Follow me, please, I’ve got a special favour for you.”

The girl in question looked back at her current problem, yet another one to stack on her growing list, and sighed before trudging after Diamond Tiara.

Author's Note:

Man, Do i smell a new mini arc? Dang, sounds fun. Lets go!

Comments

[PonyPuffy 2012]

Honestly Sunset constantly being beat down and having crap happen to her(mostly due to Screwball) is beginning to annoy me. I can understand others being weary and or resentful of Sunset due to her past actions but this is just feels like torture porn. Some of the students like Diamond Tiara and Roseluck are acting no better than she was and yet her friends seem to just brush it off and tell her not to worry about it. Sunset needs to stand up for herself and state just because she did terrible things in the past doesn't give the rest of the students the right to treat her like a punching bag.

Apologies for the long rant but that was something I needed to get off my chest.

[Spirit Shift]

11492202
Thats fine my dude, I'm glad you were able to type it out. It not really torture porn. In retrospect its really only a few people still messing with Sunset and a handful of attention seekers. Roseluck did something, but that was back in the first story and she hasn't done anything since. I tried to get it across in a more through background clues that most people are more or less fine with her as of the current chapter, something noted in the Snowball chapters of this story that the only ones still upset with her are those with more personal grudges. A large part of this story is Sunset learning to stand back up against people like that and gaining confidence in herself to fight back against people who try to push her down and that happens over time.

Obviously I'm not a perfect writer, so maybe it comes off differently to some people, but that's largely my intent. To pit Sunset up against people with personal grudges (Octavia) and people who are just naturally annoying (Diamond Tiara) who will try to break her stride, but standing up against and despite them, will restore who she is on the inside. This is the journey we're taking to get there and i'm glad you're still here, despite your criticisms

[Fetch]

Sunset: You know what, Diamond? Go ahead and send it. I am done trying to make everyone like me. My friends like me, and that is all In need.

Diamond: But...

Sunset: Do you really want to be the new bully of Canterlot High? The next Demon of CHS?

[PonyPuffy 2012]

11492260

Thanks for responding. Students who had been personally wronged by Sunset(like Octavia) would understandably take longer to be willing to give her a chance, and I do see what you're trying to do and I applaud you this is a good story I was frustrated though that it seemed like nothing was right for Sunset despite her trying so hard to redeem herself with the help of the Rainbooms and Coco. I do wonder what Screwball's motive for her "pranks" are since they just make things worst for Sunset.

[The Fan Without a Face]

Also imagining Sunset in a giant dog, mascot outfit is funny and adorable and now I wish there was fan art of it.

[redandready45]

Wonder how Sunset will get out of this...

[Eurvos Morgenbrise]

Calling it now: Screwball stole Sunset's backpack.

[The Fan Without a Face]

Diamond Tiara making Sunset cash in a favor for her. That could easily go in a lot of very bad directions for Sunset as we've seen what happens when Diamond has anything over anyone. Thankfully I doubt that's gonna be how things play out in this scenario.