Sketched to life

by Bookpony579

Chapter 1

Sunset walked into CHS, eager to start the day. Along the way to her locker, several students waved and greeted her cheerfully; a stark contrast to before the Battle of the Bands where everyone just glared and whispered when she walked by. You see, a week ago a trio of sirens tried to take over the world using the school's 'Musical Showcase' as a starting point. Sunset helped the Elements to defeat them, gaining both a 'ponying-up' form and acceptance. For showing a complete reformation and saving the world, Sunset was pardoned of her previous crimes and was now free to live her life without the constant shadow of her past hanging over her.

Sunset arrived at her locker to find the other girls waiting for her.

"Can you believe it!?" Rainbow was asking excitedly, holding out her phone for the others to see. "We're still all over the news! We're famous!"

"No kiddin'" Applejack said, "At my apple stand this weekend, I've had people come up to me and ask me to sign the apples they bought!" She shook her head at the thought of people treasuring a piece of fruit just because her name was on it.

"Well I, for one, am enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame." Rarity said with a flip of her hair, "I've had more customers come in wanting to see my personal designs! This is doing wonders for my business. My boss even wants to put some of them on display!"

"I'm glad you girls like, but I'm not comfortable with people wanting to take pictures of me." Fluttershy shuddered, remembering people walking up and taking her photo, even without her permission.

"Don't worry, I'm sure people are still a little surprised by all this. They'll get used to it soon." Sunset reassured her. "I mean, it's not everyday an ancient legend you heard about as kids suddenly comes true with six random teenage girls becoming the bearers of the six most powerful artifacts ever known."

"She's right." Twilight smiled. "I'm sure this will all blow over soon enough and we can get back to our regular lives."

"You mean our regular lives as the most powerful mages in Equestria tasked with fighting any evil bad guys that comes our way, right!?" Pinkie asked.

"Yeah..those lives..." Twilight said nervously. It was still nerve-wracking that she and her friends now had the responsibility of using the elements to keep Equestia safe on their shoulders. The bell rang, signaling the start of the school day.

"We'd better go, we've got training this morning." Twilight turned to Sunset. "See you at lunch?" Sunset agreed and the girls left while she got out her books for her regular magic class. As she opened her locker, a note fell out. Curious, Sunset read it and her eyes went wide with what she saw. She quickly crumpled the note and stuffed it in a pocket of her (fake) leather jacket and got her supplies ready for the day, trying to put the note out of her mind.

The unsigned note had read 'Everyone might buy the whole 'nice girl' act, but deep down, your as much a demon as you were before.'

---

The day seemed to stretch out until lunch finally arrived. But unfortunately for Sunset, it didn't improve her day. Sunset as happily sitting and talking with the rest of the girls as usual, until the subject of the girl's families came up.

"So, what're you girls doing this weekend?" Sunset asked, looking for something to get her through the week.

"Apple family reunion's this weekend. So I'll be busy gettin' everything ready." Applejack said.

"My parents agreed to take me to see the great butterfly migration! I'm so excited!" Fluttershy said happily.

"And my parents are going out of town so I'll be stuck going with her too." Rainbow grumbled, taking a bite of her burger.

"My sister Maud is visiting us so we're going to spend the whole weekend together having fun! Like making candy necklaces, and playing hide-and-seek with her pet, Boulder, and having sleepovers, and.." Pinkie was cut off Applejack jammed an apple in her mouth. Pinkie just blinked, shrugged, and continued eating the apple while everyone else continued.

"Well, my parents are insisting on taking me and Sweetie Bell on a camping trip." Rarity shuddered. "They claim it will be good for us to go 'off the grid' for a while. Can you believe, out it in woods surrounded by bug and no cell reception!" she lamented.

"Yeah, my dad's firm is having a party for everyone and their family, so I'm stuck going too." Twilight sighed, before turning to Sunset. "So what are you up too?"

"Oh..uh..nothing really.." Sunset said nervously.

"Why don't you talk your parents into taking you somewhere too?" Rainbow suggested.

"What's it to you!?" Sunset snapped, glaring at Rainbow. When she realized what she, she sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry, it's just...my parents aren't really into family trips or stuff like that." Sunset picked up her tray with her half-finished lunch and got up. "I've got some work to do, see you later." With that Sunset walked away before anyone could stop her.

"What's up with that?" Rainbow asked. Twilight just sighed.

"Sunset's parents aren't the most.." Twilight struggled coming up with the right term. "..openly affectionate. They're really hard on her to be the best, and I think the last few years put a bit of a...wall between them." as she explained, her friends eyes widened with shock.

"Oh my. Is there anything we can do to help." Fluttershy asked, worried about her friend.

"Just..leave her alone about it. I'm sure she'll be fine soon." Twilight said and her friends reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement...except for Pinkie Pie, who was forming a plan.

---

The day finally ended and Sunset was on her way home. She had found another of those unsigned notes in her locker and that, combined with everything else that happened, was too much for her. She had excused herself from band practice by claiming she had a lot of homework to get to. In honesty, she just didn't feel like dealing with them at the moment. The notes and the conversation from lunch were still running through her head.

She was still thinking about them when she looked up and noticed a sign that read, "The Wishers' Stop", surrounded by stars and attached to what appeared to be a new shop.

"Huh. This wasn't here yesterday..." Sunset muttered. She decided to check it out. A little bell above the door rang when it opened, but no one was in sight. Inside, a various assortment of items were all laid out on tables, hanging on the wall or in shelves, which made her wonder if the owner just picked up any random junk they found and decided to sell it.

"Hello?" Sunset called out, wondering around the store. "Is anyone here?" She continued looking at the strange assortment when a voice spoke up.

"Can I help you sweetie?"

"Gah!" Sunset jumped and turned around. Standing there was a pretty young woman with fair skin, hair as black as the night sky that went just past her shoulders, and stunning violet eyes that reminded her of Twilight's for some reason. She wore a neat button up shirt with jeans and colorful sneakers. She wore a cheerful smile which put Sunset at ease, at least a little bit.

"N-No. It's ok, I'm just looking around." Sunset looked the woman up and down, trying to figure out what was up with her. "This place wasn't here before."

"Yup! I just opened up today!" the woman put out her hand for Sunset to shake, "Name's Stella. And this here is my little corner of the universe."

Sunset shook her hand. "You certainly have a....unique collection." She eyed what she hoped was a fake brain in a jar. Stella just giggled at the statement.

"It certainly is! Each item here is as special as the people who buy them!" She gestured around the store. "Whatever you wish to find can be found right here!" She quickly looked Sunset up and down and smiled sneakily. "In fact.." She walked over to the counter and began looking through items behind it."...I have something here that a creative girl like you will certainly appreciate!"

"Oh no. That's ok, I'm just looking..." Sunset stopped when Stella finally found what she was looking for.

"Ah ha! Here it is!" Stella pulled a pad full of drawing paper. As she lifted the cover to show off the pages, Sunset couldn't help but be drawn to it. The pages were perfectly blank and appeared to be of fine quality too. Stella handed it to Sunset, who flipped through the pages, imagining everything she could draw on the crisp, blank pages. She looked back up to the owner.

"How much?"

"How much you got?" Stella asked. Sunset searched her pockets and managed to come up with two dollars and fifty cents.

"This is all I have..." she said.

"Sold!" Stella promptly grabbed the money from Sunset's hand and put it in the cash register. She then reached behind the counter again and pulled out a set of colored pencils. "I'll throw in these, since your my first customer." Sunset took the pencils and thanked the lady before leaving.

She sure was strange... Sunset thought. It was odd that she had given Sunset such quality sketch paper and pencils for mere pocket change. But she soon shrugged it off and was just glad she got all this stuff at a great deal. She couldn't wait to get home and start drawing!

Meanwhile, Stella watched Sunset go with a mysterious smile before getting back to work.

Author's Note:

And a new adventure commences!

Feel free to comment with any questions or concerns.

Comments

[InkHeartBrony]

While the idea is interesting, I have to point out a few odd things.

It doesn't make sense to me of Sunset's or Twilight's situations. You mentioned that Sunset lives with her parents, which in the EQG doesn't make sense. She wouldn't leave Equestria and convince her parents to come with her. The other option is that she's living with human Sunset's parents, and human Sunset is either dead or somewhere else and pony Sunset took her place.

Or what would make the most sense is that Sunset was taken in by a family in the EQG world.

Now Twilight, this takes place after Rainbow Rocks so this is pony Twilight here. Is Twilight staying with human Twilight's family? I'm so confused with this, if everyone is going away on trips why would Twilight stay. Can't she just go back to Equestria?

It's just so confusing I'm sorry. It could use improvement, I hope you are able to fix it with better explanations for things. If it's some sort of alternate universe situation you might want to explain that in the description. :rainbow huh:

It seems like an interesting concept, I saw no grammar or spelling mistakes really, but I'm just pointing out what could use some help. :twilight blush:

[InkHeartBrony]

The unsigned note had read 'Everyone might buy the whole 'nice girl' act, but deep down, your as much a demon as you were before.'

Another thing I want to mention:
Why is Twilight being such an ass? :rainbow laugh:

Twilight would never say or even write something like that! Even if she was suspicious of someone she wouldn't give away and tell them she's suspicious of them. She would go after clues and do research and in the end we would figure out things.

Even if she would leave a note to a reformed villain saying that- she wouldn't be so rude about it! She would say something more like 'I've got my eye on you' or 'something smells fishy here'. Not calling the person 'still a demon'. I just can't imagine her doing something like this, so I suggest you change the wording there. Now, I don't know if this is gonna be some 'Twilight is evil' story, but if it is, you're making it WAY too obvious.

[Bookpony579]

8351746
This is part of my "Elements of Equestria" series which take place in an alternate world different from the cannon one. You might want to read the two previous stories to get a better idea of how it's different.

Also, the note was unsigned, right now there is no clue as to who wrote it.

I hope this clears up a few things.

[Comickook]

Very little I can say beyond excellent start to this latest story. Once again, the characterizations are quite well done and I've got a bad feeling about the note (though "bad feeling" in the way that is good for story-telling). I know none of Sunset's friends sent the note, but that's ALL I know. Then again, I get that's the whole point right now.

At any rate, I'll very certainly be looking forward to more of this, but will also be very willing to be patient. After all, I get that real world concerns have to come first and inspiration can often be difficult to come by.

[Harmony light]

This has peaked my interest can't wait for the next chapter