• Published 28th Feb 2018
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Full Circle - Sotharan

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Part I: Moon of Remorse || Chapter 16: The Wall of Friendship

The next day, the girls met up as before and escorted Sunset to her locker. There was little change in the demeanor of their fellow students, except that there was less surprise and more contempt. As they approached the locker, Rarity cried out and covered her mouth with her hands. Rainbow, who was up in front with her, actually growled. Applejack’s mouth became a thin line. A hint of the smell of a farm was in the air.

“It’s ok, girls,” Sunset said listlessly without stopping. “I expected this. Let me see how bad it is.”

Rarity whirled and blocked Sunset’s path to her locker, along with Rainbow and Applejack. Together, the three of them formed a wall keeping the locker from Sunset’s view. “No,” Rarity said tersely, in no uncertain terms. “What’s your combination?”

“Rarity…”

“Not another word, Sunset. Give me your combination, and the books you want to drop off. Are there any books, or anything else, in there that you need before lunch?”

Sunset swallowed. Rarity could be intimidating when she was angry, even though Sunset knew the anger wasn’t directed at her. “Uh, no, I’m good. Here.” She rummaged around in her bookbag and handed a book to Rarity, along with a scrap of paper detailing her locker combination.

“Thank you, darling. Pinkie and Fluttershy will take you to Homeroom. Applejack and Rainbow and I will take care of…this,” she finished distastefully, curling her lip. Rainbow and Applejack nodded somberly.

“Oh…okay. Thanks, girls,” Sunset breathed with true gratitude.

“Think nothing of it,” Rarity said simply.

“Let’s go, Sunny,” said Pinkie quietly, her hair partially deflated. She gently took Sunset’s arm and turned her around. She and Fluttershy led Sunset away.

Applejack sighed and turned to Rarity and Rainbow. “That was a good idea, Rarity. She shouldn’t have to see that.”

“Totally, Rares. Good call! But what are we going to do about it?” asked Rainbow.

“It will be up to the janitor to clear it up, I expect. May I ask the two of you to get everything out of it and keep it all for Sunset for now? I need to go and see Ms. Celestia.”

“Ah think Ah’m pickin’ up what you’re layin’ down, Rarity. We’ll take care of it,” said Applejack, with a smirk and a wink.

Rarity gave her a knowing smile in return and headed toward the administrative suite.

“What were you two talking about, AJ?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

Applejack couldn’t resist teasing Rainbow a bit. “Sugarcube, if you can’t figure it out on your own, Ah don’t think there’s much Ah can do for you.” The two girls continued to needle each other good–naturedly as they emptied Sunset’s locker.


Rarity entered the administrative suite. She was aware that she was going to be late for Homeroom, but she was certain that Celestia would excuse her. She went straight up to Celestia and Luna’s administrative assistant, Ms. Paper Clip.

“Excuse me, Ms. Clip, but I wonder if I might have just a moment of the Principal’s time?”

Ms. Clip was actually quite nice, but such a request by a student so early in the morning was completely out of her experience. “Ms…Rarity, is it? The Principal has just gotten into her office. I doubt she’s even had her coffee yet, and in just a minute she’ll be doing morning announcements. I’m not inclined to disturb her unless it’s urgent or important.” She tried not to get heavy handed with the student – she had asked respectfully, after all.

“I see,” Rarity responded. “Well, perhaps I could speak with Ms. Luna for a moment.”

Ms. Clip shook her head. “Ms. Luna’s in there with her. They always do the announcements together so they’re on the same page for the day.”

Rarity was about to find some way to protest that the matter was in fact important, and would concern both the Principal and her deputy, when the door to the office opened and Celestia herself leaned out. Rarity could see Luna standing just behind her. They both looked concerned.

“I heard your voice, Rarity,” Celestia said. “Is everything all right?”

Rarity didn’t miss a beat. “Ms. Celestia...I think Sunset will need to be assigned a new locker. And it will probably be best that as few people know its location as possible,” she said somewhat grimly.

Celestia closed her eyes and grimaced. Behind her, Luna facepalmed. “Of course. I should have thought of that,” the Principal replied. “Bring her by at lunchtime and Luna will give her a new one. I expect the janitor’s services will be required?”

“Indeed, ma’am,” answered Rarity with an emphatic nod of her head. “Applejack and Rainbow are emptying her locker as we speak. Also, we were able to keep Sunset from seeing it.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” said Celestia gratefully. “That was very thoughtful of the three of you. Luna, would you write late excuses for Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash?”

“It would be my pleasure,” said Luna, and turned to go to her office.

“Wait, Luna. I want you and Paper to hear this. And you too, Rarity. In fact, please pass on what I’m about to say to your friends. Here’s another thing I should have thought of.”

The other women listened carefully.

“I have to be careful about even the appearance of favoritism, but Sunset is a…special case. If any of the five of you, Rarity, need to talk to me or Luna about Sunset, you can come here and talk to Ms. Clip. She will track us down.”

Rarity nodded.

Celestia turned to Ms. Clip. “Paper, if Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, or Fluttershy need to talk to me or Luna about Sunset Shimmer, you have my permission to interrupt either of us. Even if we are talking to the superintendent. Ok?”

Ms. Clip looked slightly stunned, but nodded.

“All right. Rarity, you may go with Luna.”

Rarity smiled at Celestia and headed to the door to Luna’s office. Once she was gone Celestia turned to Ms. Clip.

“Paper, you and I have known each other for a long time.”

“That we have, Tia. That we have.” Paper Clip’s eyes were a bit wide.

“I need to share something with you that you may find somewhat shocking. But you deserve to know, because you’re a friend, because I trust you, and because I may need your help.”

The tension went out of Paper Clip’s body. “Of course, Tia. It’s about Sunset Shimmer, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Let me finish the morning announcements, and then I’ll fill you in.”


And so the third week of Sunset’s recovery continued. Each day, her friends were there for her, sometimes only one or two of them at a time, sometimes all five. But however many were with her from moment to moment, they were able to keep her from harm.

Often they would physically interpose themselves between Sunset and whoever was trying to hurt her, whether with words or deeds or both. Things even started to die down a bit by Friday. Sunset wasn’t sure, but she decided that the rest of the school was beginning to remember that her five friends were heroes. This gave them nearly unassailable credibility, which had the effect that when they stood up for Sunset, people tended to back off. Sunset called it “The Wall of Friendship” to herself.

It didn’t hurt that the five of them had such impressive personalities. For example, nobody kept taunting Sunset when Applejack appeared. A single look from her was enough to get just about anybody to leave her alone immediately. And when groups of students started appearing to deliberately hound Sunset, Rainbow would add her glower to the mix. Sunset had watched in awe as just the two of them had, without a single word, glared away a sizeable gaggle of sophomores intent on avenging themselves. When it came to Pinkie, she could be surprisingly…unsettling when she was angry, too. It was so uncommon for her to be anything but happy and bubbly that in many cases it was enough for her to simply frown to get people to move along. People didn’t know what to make of the frown. Maybe it was dangerous – a frowning Pinkie just didn’t compute, and no one was interested in exploring what it might mean. And Rarity! Rarity’s tongue was like a whip. She tolerated no unkindness at all. There were a few students who were able to approach Sunset in a more mature fashion, and Sunset had the good grace to apologize (generally tearfully) for whatever she had done and to ask for forgiveness, which, in the cases of these more mature students, was usually given. These kinds of interactions Rarity permitted, because she knew that Sunset had really hurt the students in question. But anyone who just called her names, or tried to shove her, or shouted or yelled – Rarity would snap them back with one or two sentences. She had a way of making “two wrongs don’t make a right” hit home like a GPS-guided cruise missile. More than once Sunset thanked Celestia (the Princess, not her mom) that Rarity had decided to be gentle with her.

But it was Fluttershy who took the cake. Once again, Sunset found herself amazed by the degree to which she had underestimated her. Apparently (the other girls knew about it already and spoke of it in hushed tones), Fluttershy had the ability to do this thing they called “The Stare”. Sunset would never forget the first time she witnessed it in action. A senior football player, who Sunset had once blackmailed, had decided it was time for payback. And he intended to use his fists to carry out the transaction. Fluttershy had been around the corner when the huge young man appeared seemingly from nowhere and pinned Sunset to the wall with a growl. Sunset had resigned herself to some pretty bad bruises when Fluttershy had stormed around the corner with a look of such fury on her face that Sunset herself was terrified.

“WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” she had thundered, literally rattling the nearby lockers. The senior, startled and frightened, had dropped Sunset and shrunk away from Fluttershy, who continued to bear down on him without stopping. “IS THAT HOW WE SOLVE PROBLEMS, MISTER? I DON’T THINK SO! WHY, YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A BIG BULLY YOURSELF! AND YOU A SENIOR! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNGER STUDENTS! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO LEARN?”

“…um…”

“I’M WAITING!”

“…no…”

“THAT’S RIGHT. Now,” she said, allowing her voice to come down in volume a bit, “did Sunset do something mean to you that you’d like to talk to her about?”

“…well, y-yes…”

“Sunset,” Fluttershy said, whirling to face her. “Do you know what he’s referring to?”

Sunset still looked hardly less terrified than the football player. “Yes, Fluttershy, I do,” she answered in a small voice.

“Well, I think you know what to do, then,” said Fluttershy firmly.

Sunset turned immediately to the still cowering linebacker. “Strongside, I’m so sorry about the pictures. It was wrong of me to take them, and it was wrong of me to make you do things so that I’d keep them secret. I really, really wish I hadn’t done any of it, and hope you’ll forgive me someday. And I’ve destroyed the pictures. Here.” She showed Strongside the picture app on her phone, which only had a few pictures on it now, mostly of her new family and friends. “I haven’t saved any of them anywhere else. Fluttershy, will you back me up on that?”

“I certainly will,” said Fluttershy. “I watched Sunset delete all her blackmail pictures last week.”

“I’ll never do anything like that to you again, I promise,” said Sunset, blushing with shame.

Strongside had no idea how to respond, so Fluttershy prompted him. And, though her voice was no longer raised, the look on her face had not changed. “Did Sunset cover it all?” she asked.

“…yes…that was it…”

“Good. Now, do you have anything you’d like to apologize for?” she asked pointedly.

Strongside swallowed. He turned to Sunset. “Uh, sorry for shoving you, Sunset. It’s…not right to…try to hurt you to get back at you.”

“It’s ok,” Sunset responded. “Let’s…just try to put it all behind us.” She looked warily at Fluttershy, trying to make sure she was saying the right thing.

Fluttershy nodded. “Now. Don’t you have somewhere else to be, Strongside?” Fluttershy asked sternly.

“Hehe. Yep. Yep, I sure do. I’ll just…be going now.” He started backing up. “See…you two later!” He suddenly turned around and walked away very quickly.

Fluttershy made a small hmphing sound to herself and turned to Sunset, who was still staring at her with huge eyes. “What? What is it, Sunset? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Sunset shook her head as though to clear it. Suddenly, Fluttershy looked like her usual self, and sounded usual too. “Umm. Yeah. I’m fine, Flutters. Let’s…just get to class.” And I am going to be talking to the others about this one…


There was one thing that Sunset learned during her third week of recovery that was truly hard for her to bear. She had wondered what her friends did on weekends, since they weren’t with her. She had been planning to ask, when Rainbow, walking her to class one day, provided the information unsolicited.

“Boy, I’ll sure be glad when you’re done helping out with the front door, Sunset,” she said randomly.

“I will too,” Sunset agreed, not yet having the courage to tease Rainbow with the obvious joke about how that would mean she didn’t have to help anymore either.

“’Cause then you can start coming to our rehearsals!” Rainbow cried joyfully.

“Rehearsals?”

“Yeah. Didn’t somebody tell you? I’m starting a band! It’s going to be called the ‘Sonic Rainbooms!’”.

“…Oh. No, no one had told me yet,” Sunset confessed, starting to feel slightly uneasy.

“Well, I’m telling you now. I’ve already got AJ on bass, Pinkie on drums, Rarity on the ‘keytar’ – yeah, that’s a thing, apparently – and Flutters is going to…do backup singing and tambourine and extra things like that. She can actually sing really well – we’ve just had a hard time getting her to sing loud enough,” Rainbow related.

“…I can see how that might be an issue,” admitted Sunset, as she felt her stomach contract with a shot of adrenaline.

“Oh, and how could I leave out the most awesome member of the band? Me! Of course!”

In spite of her discomfort, Sunset managed to give Rainbow a wry smile, knowing Rainbow was being deliberately insufferable. She was pretty sure Rainbow was doing it on purpose, anyway…

“Yep, I’ve got lead guitar AND lead vocals! It’s a lot to do, but I’m up to the challenge,” Rainbow continued haughtily. “We’ve been rehearsing just on weekends so far, because, well…”

“One of you is with me the rest of the time,” Sunset finished for her, trying to suppress a pang of guilt.

“Well…yeah. So that’s part of why I’ll be glad when you’re done. But don’t get me wrong! Obviously I’ll be mostly glad because you’ll be off the hook and can start having more fun in the afternoons,” Rainbow corrected herself hurriedly.

This time Sunset couldn’t quite completely hold back a small snort. Rainbow had the good grace to rub the back of her head a bit sheepishly.

As a moment of quiet fell between them, Sunset was forced to address the icy feeling in the pit of her stomach that had begun when Rainbow had listed the members of her band. Should I mention that I play guitar? Would they even let me be in the band? Wait – what am I thinking? Sunset felt her own heart fall through her feet. How could I even ask? If I join, no one will ever want to see them play, or even want to hear their music.

...I’d be the death of them.

And with that truly depressing thought, Sunset harshly resolved never to bring up her guitar playing ability to her friends. But a part of her had to admit – she hoped they’d at least ask her. Someday.


Later that day Rainbow was sitting with AJ during a study period. Something was bothering her – nagging at the back of her mind. At last she spoke up.

“Hey AJ.”

“Yo,” responded Applejack without looking up from her work. She was used to Rainbow fidgeting, interrupting, and generally failing to get down to business during study periods, so she’d developed the habit of not even looking up unless it was going to be something earth-shakingly important.

“Do you think Sunset should be in the band?” Rainbow asked, without preamble.

This time Applejack did look up. She seemed to think for a minute, then answered. “Well, Ah don’t see how she could be. For one thing, we’re kinda full. Ah mean, the only thing we could use would be a rhythm guitarist, but Ah can’t imagine Sunset can play guitar. She’s only been using fingers for a couple years, for heaven’s sake.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. You’re probably right.”

“Don’t worry sugarcube. We’ll make sure she’s taken care of. She can come to all our rehearsals and give advice and help with the sound equipment. Maybe she can even write some songs. That would be cool.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Rainbow answered. She still felt vaguely uncertain, but then the bell rang, pushing thoughts of anything but getting home as fast as possible out of her mind

Author's Note:

If you need to know what was smeared on Sunset’s locker, it was manure. Horse manure, to be specific. I’ll let the reader imagine what word(s) the manure spelled.

I like the idea, too, that Celestia and Luna aren’t able to predict everything that happens to Sunset when she returns to school. They are distracted by their anxiety about her, and so they aren’t quite performing at maximum. That’s just human reality.

It was fun to describe the force of the girls’ different personalities. They are all exceptional, and Sunset rightly recognizes that she is in the company of heroes.

Would you want to deal with an angry Pinkie Pie? Well, would you?

There are few things more enjoyable than writing about The Stare… surely you all knew it would show up at some point!

I think it’s a reasonable approach that Sunset would decide on her own not to ask to be in the band. She wouldn’t want her bad reputation to affect her friends, and that’s consistent with someone who’s feeling almost self-destructively guilty. She does wish they would at least ask, though even if they did she would say no thanks (at least, at this point).

Applejack isn’t the vindictive sort. She really means what she says here, about Sunset probably not having the skill to play an instrument yet, and about offering to let her write some songs. I also like the idea that Rainbow does consider asking Sunset to be in the band, but gets distracted. It sets the stage for Rainbow Rocks, where the band has become a fully-fledged issue of distraction/contention among the five original bandmembers.

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