Equestria Girls (How I Would Have Done It)

by Calligraphy Legends

|:Prologue:|

In the land of Equestria, a young brilliant amber coated mare stealthily slips through the eastern hall of Canterlot Castle. Her cyan eyes glow with a mixture of bitterness and brokenness. She hugs the shadows as she easily slips past the guards. Stopping only for a moment to slip a letter under Princess Celestia’s chamber door that reads:

Dear Princess Celestia,
I want to say that I’m sorry, but I’m not. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of you telling me that I’m not ready to move on in my studies. I’m going to find out more about the universe, beyond this realm. I feel trapped here, as if I have peaked in my potential. I need to challenge myself. And I want to follow my dreams. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever come back, but don’t bother following me. Nothing you can do or say will change my mind. Besides, by the time you read this, you won’t be able to reach me for another month at the least.

~Sunrise Glitter

As the sound of metal on marble reached her ears, she dashed back into the shadows and down the hall. She would have just teleported, but Celestia had grounded her for practicing “unstable magic” and thus taken her teleportation abilities away.

Leading to Sunrise Glitter now having to silently race from shadow to shadow. Luckily, she could still do some other magic and was thus able to put a silencing spell on her hooves.

She followed the trail that she had memorized through the castle. Up and up and up the stairs. Until, at last, she reached the top. The double doors opened up into an elegant round planetarium. A small one, but a planetarium nevertheless. Sunrise Glitter carefully inspected the ceiling until she found precisely what she was looking for, a hidden door that Celestia believed she knew nothing of. She silently opened it and lowered down the latter. Carefully climbing up and closing the door. She shook off the hood of her black cloak and lit her horn.

She found herself looking at her reflection in a full length mirror. For a moment, she hesitated, looking behind her at the door. Her eyes fell to the floor and a frown slipped onto her lips. Sunrise shook her head and set a look of determination on her face. She was going to do this. She had to. She couldn’t be stuck in this place anymore, being told what she was and wasn’t allowed to learn. There was a whole world to study, a world that Sunrise knew more than she was supposed to know about.

Sunrise Glitter bowed her head and walked through the mirror. Feeling space and time warp around her. She had a strange tickle feeling on her hooves. She looked at them and saw them evaporating into sunset red dust. She began to panic as the dust overtook her whole body. Then, she fell onto stone. It took her a minute to realize she hadn’t been turned dust for more than a moment and now had a solid being. But, what exactly was she?

Sunrise pulled herself up and looked around. It was dark there too. Her black cloak still hugged her new form, but her saddle bags had been turned to messenger bags. She had studied the hidden tomes on this other Equestria, but nothing could have prepared her for her new body. She looked at her hooves, no. The book had called them...What was it? HANDS! That was it! And her back hooves were now...What do they call it? Feet! Hands and feet. Hmm, odd things. Although, they did feel more practical. Especially since she now lacked a horn.

It was rather dark, only the light of the full moon. She instinctively wanted to illuminate her horn, but then she remembered that she didn’t have one. Instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out her flashlight. She had brought one bag full of a three days supply of food and a couple other necessities. The other was full of bits she had been saving for nearly six months now. She knew she was going to need it to start her new life there. She began to, very slowly, walk down the streets. Getting accustomed to her new limbs.

The big question still hangs in the air, why’d she do it? Why leave a lavish life as Celestia’s prized pupil? Well, Sunrise didn’t want to talk about it, but lately she had been feeling useless. Celestia was forcing her to study slowly, to take her time. To learn all this other stuff aside from magic. She wanted to be a leader, she wanted a life where she could actually do something. In her eyes, she was going to be a leader. But in reality, she was going to be a dictator. And a cruel one at that. As Sunrise is a tad bit controlling.

However, Sunrise couldn’t focus on that right now. No, she needed to focus on building a life in this new dimension. She would then slowly work her way up, until she was in charge of everything. After all, so many things in the world would be running so much smoother if she were to be in charge.

---

Sunrise spent the next two days observing the pon- people around her. Learning more about them and their culture. One day, she observed a couple of boys about her age being escorted back to school by an officer. That’s when she realized that if she was going to stay in this place, she needed to blend in. Even more so since people seem to take a liking to those they can relate to. Which meant going to school, blech. Sunrise loved to study magic, but she knew none of her studies at this worlds school would be anywhere near as interesting.

She figured out that she was in Ponyville, which meant that she would likely never run into her counterpart as long as she stayed away from Canterlot. She would have to deal with her alter-world self at a later date.

Sunrise took the time to study the history of this new place, as it was the only drastic difference between her Equestria and this Equestria. Next she had to figure out a way to build herself a life, which meant she needed to somehow be allowed to live alone and under a new identity. Sunrise took the next train out to Manehatten, where she knew of just the counterpart to find. She quickly explained her situation to him and told him she could pay if he could get all necessary paperwork.

“Alright, some basic info,” Secrets began. “Date of birth?”

“Uh, 4/3,” Sunrise lied, already having chosen a date.

“Place of birth?”

“Everfree.” All part of the backstory.

“Age?”

“15.”

“Height?”

“5’3”.”

“Weight?”

Sunrise wrote down her response. She had a perfectly healthy weight and was satisfied with her figure, but she didn’t want to have to say it. It was so much higher than when she was a pony, it made her feel self conscious.

“Parents?” Secrets said after reading the numbers.

“Mother: Witch Tree,” Sunrise made up quickly. “Father: Unknown.”

“Name?”

“Uhm,” Sunrise Glitter looked out the window at the setting sun, it seemed to shimmer with life. She smiled softly to herself. “Sunset Shimmer.”

“Alrighty, meet me back here in the morning with the money.”

“You’d better not double cross me.”

“You bring the money and you ain’t got nothin’ to worry ‘bout.”

Sunrise collected her fake paperwork and headed back to Ponyville the next morning. She then went to Town Hall with a fake story of escaping some crazed cult in the middle of the Everfree. She was granted permission to live on her own, but she would be checked on by Child Services once a month. By the next month she was expected to be in school and have a part time job. They provided her with an apartment that she would have to pay for once she got a job.

“Thanks for dropping me off,” she told the Child Services lady, a kindly woman by the name of Gentle Heart.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and help you get some more clothes and a job?” Gentle Heart said worriedly.

“I’ll be alright.”

“Okay, you start at Ponyville High School on Monday. The principle has already been informed.”

“Thanks, I’ll have a job by then. Bye.”

“Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunrise turned around and took in the fully furnished apartment. She set her bags on the couch and started putting everything away. She’d have to go clothes shopping tomorrow while putting in applications for a job. She turned on the computer they had provided in the apartment (they taught her how to use one at the office) and began typing up her resume.

Sunrise Glitter

No, not Sunrise. She wasn’t Sunrise Glitter anymore. She quickly erased (or, rather, awkwardly erased, as she was still getting used to this strange new object) her old name.

Sunset Shimmer

Author's Note:

The story will mostly be following the mane six (minus Twi) but I thought the story deserved to start off with how Celestia's pupil came to this new world in the first place. Thoughts are appreciated.

Comments

[Calligraphy Legends]

7328106 Thanks Yeah, the prologue is really only to set the story up. It doesn't really start to take off for a couple of chapters.

[Frankie2]

Okay, Decent beginning. I am curious as to how and why you chose from her to have a different name than 'Sunset Shimmer' originally?

[psvitafanboy222]

Wait... where the hell did all the downvotes come from? This isn't bad!