Shards of Sunset

by fmriver

The Do-Over CH01

Hours later found Sunset Shimmer in the back of Joe's Donut's, morosely eating some day olds. He was gruff, and wouldn't risk breaking the law by just giving leftovers out, but old Joe and a couple other places in Canterlot skirted that state law by boxing them and packing them on an old rack instead of dumping it into the trash right away. Not his problem if someone stole em out of the suspiciously clean plastic crates. There were a few places like that around Canterlot that she had helped her survive long enough to get her balance the first time around.

Sunset had been able to figure some things out. She now knew what day it was, the 27th of August, a day after she first came through the mirror. To be honest, this sounds a lot more like the type of punishment that Harmony Magic would pull

The first time around she had returned to the statue, despondent from what little she had gleaned about the human world, and tried to return only to realize the portal had closed. She'd broken down at the time, scraping her new hands against the statue as she cried, blaming Princess Celestia for 'forcing Sunset' to take the drastic action of using the portal by her refusal to explain things to the young unicorn and attempt of exile from the palace.

She had ended up sputtering out of energy and laying there for hours till nightfall, before walking aimlessly, ending up in greater Equestria Metropolitan area for a while. Thankfully it seemed she had returned at the moment right after her original breakdown at the statue, and she could avoid those harrowing days outside the relative bubble that was the township of Canterlot.

I miss my loft. Sunset had checked it for some illogical reason. The old carshop two-flat was still boarded up and abandoned, with none of the changes she'd made through the years. She had been so proud of herself when she had been able to buy it at auction from the township for a steal her second year here. Sunset mentally trembled at the having to relive some of the most difficult times of her life again, without even the little she had been able to make for herself. She refused to live in the school rafters for a year again.

The only positives she was able to claw at in her mind was that at least instead of trying to fix her mistakes and make it up to others, she didn't have to make those mistakes in the first place. It didn't hurt that she still had all the knowledge and tricks she learned about surviving here, though she wouldn't be able to use some of it due to turning a new leaf. The bag's contents had become her consolation prize with everything else having clearly fallen off the rails.

For that reason, tonight Sunset would NOT go to the sketchy fence and get tricked into giving away literal pounds of gold and priceless gems just to blow the wad of money he would throw at her on the week rate motel. Instead she'd bunker down till morning and head to the Trading Post, an antique shop on Mane and Lake.

Sunset found herself trying to recall a good spot to spend the night as she scurried off with some extra donuts stuffed into her bag. Old Joe would look the other way about evaporating stale donuts, but he would definitely call CPS if he caught a kid actually trying to nest down in that alley for the night. She also wanted to be closer to the Trading Post Antique store. She had to get there first thing in the morning.

Sunset ended up laying down in the quarter-full commercial sized recycling bin in the alley behind the Quill's And Things bookstore, less than a block from target. These types of bins usually would get emptied once a week, and with how empty it was, it would likely be at least a few more days before any truck came around to empty it. It also had the benefit of not having any rotting food or stench nearby to get on her clothes. She literally couldn't afford to wash herself or her clothes till after tomorrow morning.

The old antique shop owner, Fair Trade, came in and ran it alone during the morning. He was much more fair than some back alley fence, but she knew he was obsessed enough with old coins to not ask questions and pay a premium for a couple Equestrian gold bits, as long as his grown son Fair Shake wasn't in the store yet.

She needed enough for a phone and a week at the motel. With some cash along with some gullible cashiers and the wonderful magic that was public library internet, she would be more than able to get a bank account set up and begin the process to create her paper trail again. If it went to plan she'll actually have a bank account by the end of the week, which will let her get a WeBuy and an Etchie accounts, and auction some more bits and sell some art. WIth a lot of luck she might get the old man to refer her to his jeweler friend to appraise some of her smaller raw gems as a favor.

Last time around Sunset at this point would have been feeling proud of herself as she tucked into her motel bed for tricking that back alley criminal to pay her for most of her worthless Equestrian currency and middling quality gemstones. Sunset would have struggled for the next few weeks, finding the library and barely figuring out enough to sign up for school at Canterlot.

Afterwards Sunset had focused on making money by selling homework, info and essays. She hadn't really known she could have been monetizing her art or junkyard finds till she was pretty set up as the delinquent kingpin, and hadn't needed to pursue it any more to survive. Making money off of the cheating economy wasn't really an option this time, so

Meanwhile, the fence would get caught with some of her larger equestrian stones that he hadn't been able to move along, likely as he mostly dealt with pickpocket and small time burglars. Afterwards most of the stolen goods would all be sold in a police auction, where they had thought the things were colored crystals. A hobby gemologist on vacation had bought the lot, and after a few pretty quick buys and sells, including being faceted by one famous jeweler, they ended up at Sotheby's, turned into a platinum necklace named 'The Sunrise Ruby', estimated in the low millions before it was sold in a private sale.

It had given Sunset visceral pain when she had read that article in the local paper about where some of her gemstones had ended up the first time by the end of her first year here.

This time around Sunset would do better. She knew she wouldn't have the type of paperwork worthy of standing up to the type of scrutiny folks would give with that kind of windfall for a while yet, but with the gold she had and her hard earned knowledge of how to best liquidate her bits, she would be able to comfortably survive and set herself up till her identity and life was rock solid in a couple years, as long as things kept to plan.