The Best She Can, or, The Rising of a New Dawn

by King of Kings

Learning the Ugly Truth

"Remember, my faithful student, friendship is magic" Sunset said with vitriol in her voice. "As if there's any pony around here except for Celestia that I would actually try to make friends with. After all, all of the other ponies in this city were content to let me starve out on the streets, and all of the servants in this castle act as though I'm beneath them!" Sunset said, as she passed the throne room. She would have kept mumbling about the unfairness of it all as she made her way back to her quarters, but as she passed the throne room, she heard Celestia talking to herself.

"Why can't she quit being so stubborn and just do what she's told?" Celestia complained to herself, unaware of the fact that her student was listening in on what she was saying. "Who cares if the ponies here were willing to let her starve?" She continued.

Upon hearing this, Sunset immediately felt tears coming to her eyes, but stifled her sobs, wanting to learn why her mother was saying this.

"After all, if she can reawaken the Elements of Harmony like I think she can, then my little sister will be returned to me! Everything will work out in the end!" Celestia said, before continuing with "I'll have Luna back, and Sunset will be on the path to becoming an Alicorn!"

Sunset, however, did not hear that last part, having long since galloped down the hall to the room where the mirror that showed her as a powerful Alicorn was, crying tears of sadness and rage all the way there over Celestia's apparent betrayal. "So that's why she rescued me" Sunset said, bitterly. "It was never to give me a better life, but instead it was to make sure that I felt indebted to her so that I would do whatever she said! Well she can find another patsy to use in her plans! As soon as I figure out this mirror's secrets I'll have everything I need right..."

Sunset never got the chance to finish her sentence, as suddenly she felt an explosion of magical energy rocket through her body, sending her to the floor.

"What...what was that?" Sunset asked, as she stood back up. "Well, I wanted to know the mirror's secrets, didn't I?" She said, as she quickly anchored a teleportation spell onto the source of the magical energy.

Upon arriving at the location that she had anchored her teleportation spell to, the first thing that she saw was the devastation. In front of her was what used to be an extremely impressive manor, if the parts of the building that were still standing were any indication, at least. Upon seeing the devastation, her good nature won out, and she immediately ran into the wreckage looking for survivors, despite being sure that she would find none.

'If this is what that mirror does, Celestia's worse than what I thought...' Sunset thought to herself, appalled at all of the destruction surrounding her. She eventually came to the only corpse in the entire building, which was that of a young unicorn colt. Oddly, Sunset couldn't see any burns on his body, which she figured meant that he died from smoke inhalation.

"I'm so, so sorry, little one." Sunset said, with tears streaming down her face. "I should have never went near that mirror" she said, as she began to turn around to leave.

All of a sudden, she saw the colt's chest rise and fall as though he was breathing. She immediately turned back to the colt and watched him very carefully. The colt slowly began to open his eyes, and when she saw this she immediately went to his side to begin a side-by-side teleport.

As she did so, the colt looked at her with wide eyes and asked the question that would forever change her life "Mommy?"

Author's Note:

Suggested music for this story (note that I said suggested and not recommended. I cannot stress that enough.)

I've always felt that Sunset's reason for leaving in canon was a bit...stupid. That, along with the fan theory that she was an orphan prior to Celestia taking her in, and the fact that Celestia was trying to get her to believe that Friendship is Magic, even though if the fan theory about Sunset being an orphan prior to Celestia taking her in is correct than the ponies that had been in Canterlot during Sunset's lifetime would have been willing to let her starve to death on the streets. Add to that a mysterious colt who's powers work like Raven's, and Sunset hearing Celestia talking about the Elements of Harmony and being able to feel magical disturbances, and we've got a story!