Ex-Evils Anonymous

by PensacolaRanger

Chapter 4 - Sunset Shimmer Speaks, but Rainbow Dashes

Still sniffling and mopping tears from her eyes, and after checking the hour glass, Twilight noticed Spike’s clawed hands were red and throbbing. “Oooh, my claws… Sorry, Twilight, I don’t think I can continue the scroll tonight…”

“You’ve done a great job, Spike. Go and have a rest; I’ll take it from here…” said Twilight, her magic horn glowing
as she levitated the scroll & quill. Wearily, Spike walked over to an unoccupied corner, and curled up for a nap.

“There’s about 15 minutes left. Two more stories to go. Sunset Shimmer, your turn!” prompted Twilight.

The red & gold maned unicorn who was Celestia’s star pupil and personal apprentice of magic before Twilight Sparkle, now straightened up in her seat. “Thank you very much, everypony…well, so much has been said already, where do I begin? I…guess for starters…” she began awkwardly, “…as some of you know, I don’t live in Equestria anymore, but in another world, in another dimension---accessible by a magic mirror portal---where Canterlot is actually a high school, populated by 2-legged upright creatures called humans...”

Puzzled looks and furrowed brows bloomed on the others’ faces.

“…That would take too long to explain tonight, so moving on…” said Shimmer to save face.

“Umm… basically, I was the popular girl on campus: vain, spoiled, stuck up, a prima donna and proud of it. A bigger bully than most of the boys, perhaps. For three years in a row, I made sure I was crowned Queen of the Fall Formal (the gala school dance) by making sure my contenders looked like fools. I was the self-made expert on put-downs, pranks, embarrassments, smear campaigns, manipulations, insults and accidental injuries. And no one ever caught me or my helpers in the act. Not even Principal Celestia or Vice-Principal Luna!”

At this, Luna sat up! “I am a…a…vice principal in that world?” The way Sunset spoke, it sounded most honorable.
A goofy grin began to spread across Luna’s muzzle.

Likewise, Babs & Trixie were intrigued. Reformed or not, some part of them still had to admire Sunset for her cunning and clever use of misdirection.

As Sunset spoke, she seemed to backslide into her old smug and self-important persona, her aquamarine eyes twinkling with malicious mischief. It made Twilight nervous.

“…Oh, I was indeed the Campus Queen, and no one could stop me! (*Ahem*) Until…”
Here she craned a slow menacing turn of her head toward the group host, and cast a cold squinting stare at her…

“…Twilight Sparkle showed up! Oh, something about how I sneaked back over to Equestria and, um, stole her magic crown to use in the Fall Formal. So to get it back, Twilight ran against me, and organized all the counterparts of her friends here, to help rally the school on her side! Well...needless to say, she won by 'popular demand.' But I soon got my revenge, re-stole the crown, and unleashed its power! It turned me into an all-powerful SHE-DEMON, enabling me to enslave the students’ minds, turn them into a zombie army to invade Equestria, and TRASH all who opposed me! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

By now Sunset had climbed up onto her chair, and was raising her hooves up in GLORIOUS TRIUMPH!
Even Tirek eyed her with admiring amazement.

“THAT'S ENOUGH! SUNSET SHIMMER, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!! YOU PROMISED!!” Twilight ordered sharply!

Snapping out of her reverie, Sunset blinked with large wide eyes, stared around at the others, grinned & blushed sheepishly, and climbed down back into her seat. “(Heh-heh) Sorry...”

“Well… long story short: Twilight had the Elements of Harmony on her side, and well as her friends’ counterparts, and ultimately, I was defeated. (Sheesh, it’s a wonder I wasn’t expelled for that, too.) That was when I realized, with Twilight’s help, that I was so busy tearing friendships apart, I knew nothing about making friendships. That night changed me. Changed my life.” A hesitant but polite applause issued forth.

“Now for the first time in my life, instead of the alpha girl, I was one of the girls. I didn’t have to be the center of attention to be liked anymore…even if I still was. Twilight’s counterpart friends were okay with me, just being myself. But I kept thinking back to that night, when I became the demon. That frightened me. It showed me what a…a monster I’d really become, even before the transformation... the monster I was to Celestia before I left… I never wanted to become either one of those monsters ever again! Like you said, Mr. Tirek: absolute power corrupts absolutely. Also...” she added: “…with great power, comes great responsibility. I realize that now, too.” The minotaur looked over at Sunset in soft amazement, and half-smiled. Another polite applause…

“In that world I’m still a teenager, with no job yet, or a juvenile record. But I learned there, that you don’t need to have a record, to have a bad reputation. I’ve tried to move on…to put the past behind me and be a good girl from now on… but I still get stared at in the school hallways, and talked about behind my back. The other kids turn and look the other way as I walk by. I can’t even get a new boyfriend, after I broke up with…with my Flash Sentry…” Sunset and Twilight exchanged knowing looks on that subject.

“Now I’m starting to see why most ex-evils go right back to their same old wicked ways again, only to wind up caught again and sent back to prison; what’s in it for them to reform? Why turn over a new leaf, when no one’s buying it? How to do prove that your past does not define you, when your record says it does? How are you supposed to go on with your life, forget the past and put it behind you…when everyone else won't forget, and keeps throwing it right back down in front of you? How can you show everybody…everypony...who you are now, when they can't, or won't, see you as anything more than who you were?”

At this time, even though Sunset was trembling with fury, tears glistened in her eyes, Gilda’s eyes, Babs’ eyes, and even Trixie’s. Princess Luna was fighting back tears, and a lump in her throat. Discord leaned over to comfort her, his eyes as moist as hers. The Flim-Flams clutched their tear-stained straw hats to their hearts. Tirek felt his black eyes begin to water, but he quickly turned away and hid his face under the hood.

“(*Sniff*ahem*) Well…my past deeds are on the school record, so I guess that may well be the one keeping the school turned against me. If only more of the good things I did were on it than the bad ones. You know my student voter's registration card has been revoked? Now I can’t vote in school elections anymore, or run for student office. How will I ever get that back? Worse… I may not even be allowed to graduate with the rest of my class! What’ll I do then; get my diploma in summer school? That’s gratitude for you, after all we did together to beat Adagio Dazzle & the Sirens, and save the school from them!! (*Groan*)”

After a moment of thought, Sunset added: “I’ve learned this much from high school paralegal…not even a full governmental pardon, or a full royal pardon from Celestia herself, can get an ex-evil’s record sealed or expunged. The only thing that will even make an ex-evil’s conviction record 'deemed eligible' for sealing or expunging, is to get the conviction overturned! But that costs a new lawyer, a new judge & jury, and too many other legal expenses that only the idle rich can afford! Hmph, good luck there, guys… Okay, I’m done…” Polite applause again.

With her horn glowing bright, Twilight made the quill scribble like crazy, recording all this new data for future reference.

(*SnooOOOrrrt, wheeeeze… SnooOOOrrrt, wheeeeze…SnooOOOrrrt, wheeeeze…*)

Now that Sunset Shimmer had finished her testimonial, everyone was becoming very aware of the peculiar noises coming from the last chair in the room: Rainbow Dash’s chair.

“Ummm… Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, now looking up from her notes, “… Are you asleep??”

Evidently so. All her stress from listening to the testimonials and worrying about her future, had triggered the only
sensible response her body had to the problem: Shut out everything and just go to sleep.

Dash lay curled up in the chair, her wings tightly folded to her back, snoring & wheezing, like she did once in her tent on a camping trip to Winsome Falls.

“D’aww…isn’t that adorable? Poor widdle Dashie’s all tuckered out from listening to our campfire stories!” Discord gushed while roasting a marshmallow on a twig over a small fire he conjured up. He offered the marshmallow to Luna, but she just glowered and turned her head away, so he made all three vanish again.

Twilight sighed in disappointment. “There’s only 5 minutes of sand left in the hour glass. Guess we’ll just have to hear Dash’s story at next week’s meeti-----Dash? Umm… Dash? Is something wrong? *Gasp* Uh-oh…”

The Pegasus pony’s body was jerking in spasms. Her wings twitched. Her head thrashed. She started whimpering and beading with sweat.

Alarmed, both Princesses Twilight &Luna sprang out of their seats and urgently trotted over to Dash.
Then the others sprang up and came over, concerned.

“Oooh…this looks bad…” said Luna.

"What? What's wrong with her?" asked Twilight.

“N-NO!!” Dash yelped! “No..no..no.. Oh, Celestia, please, NO!!” she managed to say in short bursts.

“She is having a BAD DREAM! A NIGHTMARE! STAY BACK, EVERYPONY!” Luna ordered.
.
“A NIGHTMARE!?” Twilight shrieked, worried about her friend.

“WE HAVE TO WAKE HER UP! NOW!!” Luna commanded!

Impulsively, the Friendship Princess brushed past the Night Princess, levitated Dash upright in the
chair, and started hoof-slapping her friend across the face! “WAKE UP, DASH! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!”

“SLOWLY!!!!” Luna urged!

And in that instant, Rainbow Dash SNAPPED her eyes open, WIDE-AWAKE!

"YES! (*Gasp*) NO..." said Twilight.

But…her eyes were wild…. WILD… WITH FRIGHT!

“Too late…” Luna winced.

Rainbow Dash let out an ear-piercing SCREAM OF TERROR!!

Then the terrified Pegasus pony TOOK TO FLIGHT in a MAD RUSH OF FEAR & PANIC!!!

CONTINUED NEXT CHAPTER….

Author's Note:

Whoopsie... never wake up a nightmare victim too quickly.