The New Dawn of the Setting Sun

by The Crazed Werewolf

Chapter 3: Nightmares and a Gift.

The empty hallways echoed strangely as Sunset walked through the school. She felt alone, but at the same time could feel the eyes of, something, watching her. She then saw Principle Celestia step out of one of the classrooms ahead of her. Sunset smiled. Then she noticed the blank stare on Celestia's eyes.

Wait, something is wrong. Why are Celestia's feet not touching the ground? Sunset thought. That's when the demon stepped out of the classroom, one of it's claws wrapped around Celestia's neck. The demon let go of Celestia and she fell to ground. Laughing the demon slowly turned and faced Sunset, stepping over Celestia, the demon began to walk toward Sunset...

Sunset woke up with tears running down her face. Her throat felt like it was on fire. Lightning flashed outside Sunset's bedroom window, it had started raining at some point during the night. Being careful not to make to much noise, Sunset got out of bed and went into the bathroom to get a drink of water.

"Damn, I need to get over these nightmares." Sunset whispered to her self as she went down the hall. She was startled to run into Celestia as she was coming out of the bathroom.

"Sunset," Celestia asked, "what are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep," Sunset said, rubbing the back of her neck, "I guess the thunderstorm woke me."

"More nightmares?" Celestia asked.

"How did you know?" Sunset answered.

"I'm psychic," Celestia said, placing a finger against her forehead, "seriously, I'm a high school principal and a mom, reading kids is what I do."

Sunset chuckled and tried no to look nervous. She knew that Celestia was only trying to look out for her, but Sunset was reluctant to get to close to her mentor's doppelganger. After a moment Sunset decided to say something.

"Oh to Hell with it," Sunset said, "I'm beginning to think that they aren't nightmares, but something else."

"What kind of something else?" Celestia asked.

"Wish I knew." Sunset answered.

"Why don't you tell me about it, Celestia said, kneeling down to look the girl in her eyes, "sometimes all we need is a second perspective."

Sunset proceeded to tell Celestia about all the nightmares she had had over the past week, and about her anxiety about returning to CHS in the morning. Celestia listened to Sunset intently, allowing the teen to completely finish before speaking.

"Sunset, I know that these nightmares are frightening, and I'm not an expert on interpreting dreams. Luna is the person who you may want to talk to about that," Celestia said, "but your past is not today, and you don't stand alone. You have five of the most caring and understanding girls at CHS looking out for you, plus you have myself and Discord."

"My past is not today?" Sunset whispered to herself. Somehow, no matter what world she was in, Celestia seemed to know exactly what Sunset needed to hear.

"Now why don't you go back to bed, you have to get ready for school in a few hours," Celestia said as she stood back up.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully. After Sunset got dressed and reached for her leather jacket. It wasn't on the floor where she had left it.

"Celestia, have you seen my leather jacket?" Sunset asked as she entered the kitchen where Celestia and Discord sat drinking their morning coffee, and Scootaloo sat eating the latest sugar infused breakfast cereal.

"No I haven't," Celestia answered before looking at her husband, "have you, dear?"

"Not recently." Discord responded.

Sunset fixed her gaze on Scootaloo.

"What did you do with it?" Sunset asked the younger girl.

"Not a thing, though I wish I had." Scootaloo replied in a sing-song voice.

"GIRLS! We don't need this today." Celestia said with a tone in her voice that made Discord immediately leave the room, and caused the rest of the morning routine to be passed in silence. The ride to school was especially quiet.

Arriving at the school early, Sunset hesitated before following Celestia inside the building. Scootaloo meanwhile waited outside for her friends Applebloom and Sweetie Belle to show up.

Walking up to her locker, Sunset noticed that someone had written "SHE-DEMON" on it with a permanent marker. How original. Sunset thought sarcastically. She didn't notice that other students had begun to enter the school until she felt some one shove her hard enough from behind to make her smack her head on the locker and fall to the ground. Looking up she saw Trixie standing over her.

"My, my," Trixie said to no one in particular, "how the mighty have fallen!"

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. The silence was suddenly broken by a snicker that Sunset recognized as Scootaloo's. Sunset refused to stand back up, she just folded her arms over her knees and silently wept into them.

"Ah, look at the demon cry." some one taunted to the amusement of the students gathered around.

"What's going on here?" a voice that Sunset recognized as coming from Rainbow Dash asked, once again the corridor fell silent.

"Nothing." Trixie said as she walked away.

"Why I oughta-" Rainbow started to say.

"Oh let her go Sugarcube." Applejack said, crouching down next to Sunset, "are you ok hun?"

"Yeah, I don't think I'm ready to be here though," Sunset said indicating the school around her.

"I'm sure Principle Celestia knows what she's doin," Applejack said comfortingly. Applejack held out her hand and helped Sunset stand back up. Looking around for the first time, Sunset saw that Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity were standing around them having formed a barrier between Sunset and the rest if the student body. The look of fury in Rarity's eyes was particularly unsettling to anyone who looked at the teenage fashionista. Luckily for Sunset, she had at least one of her new friends in each of her classes. By the time lunch had rolled around none of the other students at CHS were trying to confront Sunset.

After school, Sunset sat outside Celestia's office doing her homework while she waited for Celestia to complete her day.

"Ready to go Sunset?" Celestia asked finally as she locked the door to her office.

Sunset nodded as she closed her chemistry book.

"Where is Scootaloo?" Sunset asked as they walked toward Celestia's truck.

"She is over at Sweet Apple Acres working on a history project with Applebloom," Celestia said, "looks like you have someone waiting for you."

Sunset looked from Celestia to where her car was parked. Sitting patiently on the curb was Rarity.

"Sunset, darling," Rarity said holding out a wrapped package towards Sunset, "this is yours, I'm sorry I took it with asking, but I know how much it meant to you."

Sunset cocked an eyebrow at Rarity before opening the package.

"My jacket," Sunset said, "you fixed it. I don't know what to say. Thank you, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me!"

Author's Note:

Well, now that I managed to get this chapter out of my head maybe I can complete the last chapter of Dream Catcher Book 2: Destinies Collide

As always, I appreciate comments, feedback and criticism.

Comments

[diablo4000]

Why wasn't Trixie reported in?

[The Crazed Werewolf]

I'll get to that in the next chapter.

[CapNTilfy]

Scoots is a bitch in this one. o_O

[shadow0knight]

Nevermind, Trixie is back to her old self. The last 2 chapters with Trixie was complete opposite. Guess I'll have to read more to understand more about Trixie.

[aceina]

confused why trixie did a 180 in personality

[The Crazed Werewolf]

9056809
That's why I am planning on rewriting this story.