4 - The Subtle Changes
When Sunset Shimmer heard the bell, her first instinct was to run. It was a siren bell, where a unicorn would take hold of a bell and ring it much faster than any pony could manage in an attempt to confuse and startle fleeing criminals. She had seen the bells used to terrifying efficiency in some of the darker streets of Canterlot, and had sworn she'd never live the sort of life that made them chase after her.
But now, she could hear the bells. Now, she deserved to hear them. They had come for her, and she was going to—
"Sunset? Are you alright?"
The voice cut through the fear, and Sunset remembered where she was. There was Principal Celestia. There was Canterlot High School. And there were the bells, the never-ending bells, getting closer and closer and—
They weren't getting closer. No, the sound of the bells was coming from the school, and it wasn't getting any louder. And the students were running... towards the school?
"Sunset? Is something wrong?"
Sunset focused on the principal. "What... what is that noise?"
Celestia's concerned expression softened, and she smiled. "That's just the bell to let students know that class is about to start. It's nothing to be worried about, Sunset."
"Right. Yeah. Okay." Everything is okay. Hand to the chest, take a deep breath, push it away. Calm. Control. "Sorry about that."
"You don't have to apologize, Sunset." Celestia started walking back to the school, and Sunset was following before she could even realize it. "There must be so much about this place that you don't understand. You don't need to feel ashamed that you're out of your depth."
"Um... thanks?" Sunset smiled a little at the back of that unnaturally shimmering head of hair. She remembered when the princess would say things like 'it's not your fault that I'm immortal'. She'd never known how to take it then, either. "So, what happens now?"
They had reached the doors, and the principal had stopped with her hand against the glass. She was looking down at the place where Sunset had been asleep only a few hours ago, her eyes already clouded with that all-too-familiar mournful remembrance that the princess always had when she thought nopony was watching. Sunset couldn't help but wonder how old this version was, or if she had just lived through something that nobody should ever know.
"Now?" It was like flipping a switch. Her eyes cleared, her smile returned, and the door swung open. "Now, it's time for you to meet the world."
Even though the bell had rung, there were still plenty of students milling around. All of the faces were strange and unknown, but a few of them had eyes that Sunset felt like she should recognize. They were all smiling, and a few of them even waved at her like she was an old friend. She only just stopped herself from waving back.
"I don't feel I can take credit for what Canterlot High School is," Celestia admitted, even as her voice brimmed with pride, "but I can still sing its praises. And Sunset, I think I can safely say that the students of my school are among both the most clever and the most kind in the entire district. You will never find a more genuine group of friends." The principal reached into a pocket, then handed Sunset a piece of paper. "If you can't find your classes, just ask for directions."
Sunset stared at the paper, her relief at being able to actually read the words drowned out by her total confusion. "Are you serious? I just got here! I'm going to look like a complete idiot in front of everyone!"
"Wrong." Celestia took off her signet ring. "You're going to look like a transfer student. And as far as your teachers will be concerned, that's what you are. I'm going to pull some strings, arrange for some remedial tutors. We'll have you caught up on the curriculum within a few weeks, and it shouldn't take more than a few months to get you up to speed on the outside world."
"So why do I have to go to classes today?" Sunset demanded, trying to keep her voice down in case she caused a scene. "Wouldn't it cause less of a disturbance if I just stayed in your office for the day?"
"No, for two reasons." Principal Celestia had started confidently striding through the throng of students, and Sunset did her best to keep up. "First of all, I'll have no idea what kind of tutors to get for you until I have a sense for how much help you need, and the best and fastest way to gauge that is to put you through actual classes. Second of all, I am not in the mood to give the tabloids any fodder by keeping a young mystery teenager locked up in my office all day."
Sunset blushed, and nodded in agreement. "Okay, fair enough." The bell rang again, and she only nearly jumped out of her skin this time.
"Well, good luck, Sunset." Celestia stopped and indicated a door through which several students were already flowing. "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life."
"It's so big," Sunset muttered helplessly. "I didn't think it would be this big."
Ten minutes ago, Sunset Shimmer had thought that Geography was going to be easy. Instead of having to re-learn advanced motor functions or forget everything she had internalized about a magic-run world, Geography seemed like it would just feel like she had been asked to do a project on a foreign nation. A very extensive project, true, but hardly anything as big as trying to work out what the hay a 'constitutional monarchy' was.
All of that had changed when they brought out the atlas. The book was filled with page after page of nations, each of them criss-crossed with so many roads and train lines that one could hardly see the route for the path. The domains of this world had more cities than pegasi had feathers, more borders than a forest had roots, and even an eye so utterly lost as Sunset's could tell that this was a landscape far more intimately acquainted with war than her own.
"Recognize any of it?"
Sunset looked up at the noise, and saw that she wasn't alone. She had been joined by a girl with a cow-wrangler's hat and a frankly voluminous amount of straw-blonde hair tied back in a tail that would have been registered as a lethal weapon on the other side of the mirror. This new girl had on the sort of smile that Sunset had only really seen on farmers: it was like if you took a sunbeam and filtered it through an iridescent canopy of autumn leaves.
"The name's Applejack. You're that Sunset gal, right?" Oh, Sleipnir save her, she even had the country twang in her words. How could any self-respecting mare say no to one of those?
"Sunset Shimmer, yes. Pleased to meet you." Without really thinking about it, Sunset made a fist and held it out, and her brain had just enough time to panic over the faux pas before Applejack bumped it with a fist of her own. Sunset decided not to question it. "And no, I don't really recognize it at all. It's like... I didn't think the world could be this big."
"Yeah, I hear you there." Applejack's gaze shifted to the atlas, and she traced the outline of a misshapen blob of land that the atlas called Prance. "I used to think the world only went as far as the horizon."
"You're not all that wrong," Sunset pointed out. "We can't ever reach the horizon, because it's always beyond where we thought it was. Did you ever try to reach it?"
"Once." That charming voice changed pitch, turned into something close to mournful. "I went further than I ever gone before or since, and just ended up coming back home."
Sunset smiled, turning a page and scrutinizing a landmass that almost resembled a rough map of the Griffon Kingdoms. "That last part's not much of an option for me these days."
"Why's that? If'n you don't mind my prying, of course," she added hurriedly.
"I do, a little." Sunset traced an imaginary line where the Abysmal Abyss could have been. "Suffice to say, I've chased the horizon too long, and I can't see the way back anymore."
She felt Applejack's hand on her shoulder, its grip massaging her in ways she hadn't known possible. "Sorry to hear that, Sunset. Any chance we might be able to find your old haunt in here?"
Sunset sighed, and flipped back to the pages they were supposed to be looking at.
"Not on these maps."
English class was easier, if disappointingly devoid of charmingly rustic farmers. They were studying poetry, and aside from not being familiar with the poets or pretty much all of the history informing their laments, Sunset was much closer to being in her element. Poetry, it seemed, was one of the great universal constants, remaining much the same wherever she went.
The only real difference was that there were a lot more sad poems here.
The teacher sorted the students into pairs, then asked each pair to read a different poem and discuss their thoughts on it. Sunset was paired up with a girl called Rarity with purple hair that she would have called a mess if it wasn't so obviously Ground Zero for the world's most committed and tireless stylist, and so much makeup that Sunset didn't initially realize that white was the girl's natural skin color. It was certainly beautiful, yes, but it was an engineered sort of beauty, as if someone had painted a beautiful woman using a measuring tape.
"You mean you've never read any of Snow-Hair's poems? Darling, how is that even possible? He's only the single most brilliant mind to ever put pen to paper!"
"Genius isn't universally recognized, Rarity." Sunset winced a little when she heard just how barbed those words sounded.
"Still! You're hardly repressed enough to come from somewhere where his works are banned! Or..." Rarity pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, an effect which combined with her massive eyelashes made it look like Sunset was being stared down by two carnivorous worms. "Are you one of those people who doesn't like poetry?"
Sunset sighed, and pulled the poetry book towards her. "For your information, I love poetry. Maybe I have read his work before, but it was misattributed." Rarity gave a small gasp of horror at that last word, and Sunset raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I don't see what's so surprising about that. That sort of thing happens all the time."
"If you're suggesting that makes it acceptable..." Sunset hadn't thought it was possible, but Rarity's knuckles actually got more white.
"Are you a writer, Rarity?"
"Seamstress, actually. I've... had a few bad experiences with someone stealing my designs. It's a bit of a sore spot for me."
"Hey." Sunset reached out and held Rarity's hand. "It's okay, Rarity. I'm sorry for bringing it up. Now, let's see if I recognize your Snow-Hair." She looked down at the book, and started reading.
There was a wall here. Now it is dust.
A tower rose here. Now it is fallen.
An army fought here. Now it is dead.
A spirit was here. It is all that remains.
"I knew it," she whispered. Then, louder she said, "So, turns out I have read his work before. I was just... hearing his name wrong."
"What?" While no longer angry, Rarity was very clearly still confused. "How could you hear his name wrong? It's not exactly a common name!"
"English isn't my first language." Technically, that was true. "His name in my language is something like... Hmm..." Sunset took a moment to clear her throat, then tried to say the words 'Snow-Fur' in Equestrian.
Unsurprisingly, it sounded like a bad impression of a horse.
Biology was next. For a former pony, it was probably the worst class to have right before lunch, but aside from that it was pretty relaxed. From what she could tell, there were dissections, but those weren't until much later in the year.
There were plenty of empty seats in the class, but the closest one to the door was right next to a girl who introduced herself as Fluttershy. Despite the name, she seemed an utterly boundless bundle of enthusiasm, her blue eyes sparkling as the teacher explained the various details of animal digestive systems and the like. Sunset did her best to look interested, but she almost felt like a non-entity sat next to such an obvious enthusiast.
Once the teacher stopped talking and passed out worksheets, Sunset decided to talk. "So... what makes you so interested in biology?"
"I'm an animal lover," Fluttershy answered, filling out the worksheet at speeds that Sunset barely believed a human could achieve. "I do a lot of volunteer work at shelters and animal hospitals, and I really want to be able to provide the best care that I can."
"And cutting up dead frogs is going to help with that?"
Fluttershy gave the kind of smile that would probably start wars when she was older, and nodded. "It's just like surgery, only you don't have to worry about accidentally killing them."
Sunset smiled at that. "I knew a veterinarian once," she mused, looking over her own worksheet and trying to hide her confusion. "Well, more of a falconer, but he cared for his birds just as well as he trained them. This one time, he and I found a baby ph— a finch, and we spent a whole month nursing it back to health."
Fluttershy just sat there, smiling. While Sunset was no stranger to silence, she hadn't yet encountered quite this kind of quiet; A quiet that seemed to suck up every word you said, that genuinely wanted to hear everything you had to say. It was more than a little bit creepy, but it was also weirdly comforting.
"Did you ever see the finch again?" Her voice was quiet now, so quiet that Sunset had to strain her ears to hear it. There seemed to be a hint of wilderness in that voice, as though Fluttershy only spoke like that when she was surrounded by trees.
"Once or twice." Sunset remembered the Great Fire of Baltimare, and how she had danced to Tempo Rubato's violin solo.
"That's nice. It's always good to know that we've actually accomplished something after all of our hard work." Fluttershy looked down at her own worksheet, then at Sunset's. She smiled, and slid her paper over. "Need some help with that?"
Sunset tried to ignore the skip of her heartbeat. "Uh, sure."
As soon as lunch was over, her next class was Phys Ed, which apparently stood for Physical Education, which meant sports.
Sunset Shimmer had not been an athletic pony, being too focused on the cerebral aspects to ever put much practice into what her physical body could actually do. She had been aware of sports in the same way that a weatherpony was aware of a summons to appear before Celestia; It was something that happened to other ponies.
This was only made worse by her new form. Walking was easy enough, running was harder, and whatever in Tartarus this soccer business was might as well be outright impossible. She ran and ran, and tried to kick the ball when she could, but all she ended up doing was tripping over herself and the other students. It took about twenty attempted kicks before she realized that, if she ran behind everyone else, it would look like she was playing while she stayed far away from the ball. And for a few minutes, she enjoyed sports.
Then one of the girls, a cyan-skinned creature with an absolute rainbow of a mane, made eye contact with her and winked. Before Sunset could process what was happening, the rainbow-haired girl flicked her leg and sent the ball sailing straight for Sunset.
She didn't have time to panic. She didn't have time to get angry, or scream, or even think. She only had time to see the ball, and react. She kicked the ball, putting so much force into it that she sent herself falling backwards and thudding into the floor.
A cheer rose up from about half the people playing, and Sunset let out a groan as her part of the chorus. "What're we cheering?" she mumbled, then she felt a hand closing around hers and pulling her up. The world blurred, and then she was standing up and leaning against the rainbow-haired girl for support.
"Man, that was awesome! You just scored the winning goal!"
"I did?" As Sunset's vision cleared, she focused on the net that belonged to the enemy team. There was indeed a soccer ball nestled neatly in the net. "I did that?"
"Yeah you did! I mean, you did have my expert help, but it was your kick." The rainbow-haired girl was smiling, and enthusiastically patting Sunset on the back. "Couldn't have done it without you! The name's Rainbow Dash, by the way."
"I never would have guessed," Sunset joked as she held out her fist to get it bumped. "I'm Sunset Shimmer. I'm the new girl."
"The new awesome girl, more like." Rainbow let go of Sunset for a while, then stepped back and grinned. "You know, you could be really, really good at this game with some practice."
"Really? I thought I was kind of bad at it."
"Everyone's kind of bad at it when they start out. The point is, you've got potential. Wanna realize it?"
Sunset looked back at the net, and at the ball. If she squinted, she could almost pretend there was a fresh boot-mark in it. "I'll think about it."
The last class of the day was Algebra. In other words, the last class of the day lasted about five minutes.
It came as an intense comfort for Sunset to actually be in her element for once. The moment she saw the equations, she knew what was going on. It was not only a level of math that every educated pony passed through and surpassed at some point in their lives, but it was also one of the most basic forms of equation for expressing magic as a formula. The biggest problem on the entire worksheet was that Sunset had to keep herself from accidentally straying into twentieth-level sigilistics by force of habit. She blazed through the work put in front of her so fast that she was honestly surprised that the paper didn't catch fire beneath her fingers.
Once she put her pencil down, Sunset looked around, expecting everyone to be done. Instead, everyone was still furtively bent over their desks, pencils scribbling away and sweat dripping from their brows. There was only one other person who was done, and they were sitting right next to her.
"Hi," the only other smart person in the room whispered. "My name's Pinkie Pie. What's yours?"
"Sunset Shimmer." Sunset stared at this strange girl, with hair that looked more like a sentient glob of cotton candy than anything that could grow from a physical body. "So, how are you so good at this stuff?"
"Well, it's not exactly quantum dentistry, is it?" Pinkie grinned like a diamond-toothed alligator that's just spotted a crippled monkey, and leaned a little closer to Sunset. "What about you? Word on the grapevine is that you're from so far out in the sticks we can't even find it on a map, but you just aced this like it was nothing!"
It was Sunset's turn to grin. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me," Pinkie said, with such unbridled enthusiasm that Sunset couldn't keep a genuine smile off her face.
"I'm a magical horse from another dimension living in self-imposed exile in this world because I tried to kill a god."
Pinkie Pie's eyes went wide, but her smile went wider. "That's so cool! Tell me more!"
It shouldn't have been possible to whisper exclamation marks, but Pinkie managed it.
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Well now, it looks like Sunset isn't immediately going evil like in OTL. How long this holds up remains to be seen.
As opposed to, say, aptitude tests? Granted, Sunset might not even be using the same alphabet as the rest of the school, but Celestia wouldn't think to suspect that. Still, you can't test for social intelligence with a Scantron form...
I now have questions about what permits pony Applejack has for her hair.
I do love how well Sunset's initial impressions of the Humane Five carry over through the narration. In any case, this definitely doesn't seem like it'll be going in the same direction as canon. That only adds to my anticipation in seeing where it ends up. Or, if I'm wrong, just how Sunset goes from here to claiming the crown of Queen Bitch of CHS.
Sunset Shimmer? Meet the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Oh, you don't know that yet and neither do they.
I wonder if, in this world, she will be their friends or be so determined to follow her path of revenge and ambition that she will attack them as she did in the prime timeline? I could see why she might feel the need - It is in the nature of ambition for you to target those who are strong to bolster your own position and these five girls are strong indeed.
Oh Sunset, you have my sympathy!
Only Pinkie Pie wouldn't be phased by the explanation. Very enjoyable so far can't wait for MOAR
You get a
Very interesting story and I am definitely looking forward to seeing where it goes but I do have one little tiny nitpick: no teenager alive speaks like these do; and exactly how late in the morning or how many cups of coffee did the Solar Principal have that she was able to have a philosophical and Technical discussion about the nature of public education?
This chapter is so beautiful
It makes me wish that THIS was the first EQG movie.
This was a really great chapter. I loved the different take on Fluttershy, and I definitely liked that Sunset isn't staying so bitter and is actually enjoying herself.
8035435 That's a fair point. I suspect Cinch would at least pretend to respect Celestia to her face, however.
Very interesting, nice work.
Hah! What a splendid Pinkie
8032419 Well, this is the same girl with this:
in her head.
Was that...A Kami of Old Stone reference? Of all the places.