Alternative Origins

by TalkingToMyself

Chapter 29

Sunset smirked from her table at the cafeteria. Usually, she had her fake-happy smile in school, especially for the teachers, but today her natural smirk just slipped through. Nobody at her table would call her out on it, the few who were allowed to get so close to her had been handpicked after all. Sunset had heard some mutters on the hall that she had become ‘arrogant’ ever since she became Spring Fling Princess, but that was just jealous babbling. It’s not arrogance if I’m just better than them. In that regard, the humans at CHS were a lot like the students at Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.

Sunset’s expression soured a bit when she thought of Equestria and the princess, but she shook it of quickly. So far, everything was working as planned, even better than she had hoped. She had been playing nice, offering help and advice and faked a genuine interest in her fellow students and their ‘oh so special’ clubs. After a few weeks of playing nice and friendly, she was now in the position where people came to her.

Everybody wanted to be seen with her. Every club begged for her to join, or at least visit. Whenever there was new gossip, people would ask Sunset Shimmer for approval first, before anyone believed any new rumor. And, since Sunset controlled the main hotspots for gossip, Sunset was firmly in control of almost all the student body at CHS. And the funniest thing of all, they didn’t even realize it.

Thanks to her reputation with the teachers, nobody suspected anything from a role model student like Sunset, so she could basically snoop around in any matter she wished. Not that she had to do much actual snooping, as most student seemed eager to share anything they knew, all to make themselves look better in front of the others, or at least make the others look worse. Sunset had never been a fan of Princess Celestia holding court and listening to whiny nobleponies for hours, but now she could see the benefit of having any news coming to her almost automatically.

With those news, it was easy to identify and neutralize any potential threats to her position of power. Like Firefly, who had a chance of outrunning her popularity, but also had a few embarrassing secrets that made her vulnerable. Mix that with friends who were eager to share some of those secrets once Sunset asked the right questions, and suddenly the well-loved senior didn’t even dare show her face in school again. And even if she did, thank the Gods for the internet! Everybody used social media and blogs to post even the tiniest detail of their lives, but barely anyone made the effort to set up proper security. Getting some blackmail material for Firefly had been as easy as plucking ripe apples from a tree.

And so, one by one, all the clubs had fallen. Only a few dedicated members stuck together, bickering against those who left and ‘betrayed’ them, while those who had left had their share of moaning and complaining as well. Everything was breaking down into nice little cliques, easy to control and manipulate for Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset barely listened to the babbling next to her. Lavender was too excited that she got invited to the ‘in’ table to notice anyways. Instead Sunset focused on the group of girls a few tables over. In the middle of her friends sat Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash was a freshman like her, and a prodigy, although they couldn’t be any more different. While Sunset excelled on an academic and intellectual level, Rainbow Dash was good at sports. Really good at sports. Coaches were gushing about her ‘action on the field’ and Rainbow was already the star member of every team she joined, just one step ahead of becoming team caption if rumours were true (and Sunset knew they were; She had spread them after all).

Right now, Rainbow Dash wasn’t with any of her teammates, but with her friends instead. While each of the five girls seemed nice enough individually, they definitely made for a weird and loud mix at the table.

Rarity stood out mostly for her looks. She wore a carefully arranged outfit that she had probably made herself, and even makeup, and she was trying to look more mature than her true age. Pinkie Pie on the other hand was the loudest of the bunch, paired with her brainless bubbliness that made her irritating at best, but usually she was just plain annoying. Applejack filled her quota of weird with a stetson cowboy hat and her farmer’s drawl. On top of that, Sunset had even seen her shout out that cliché “YEHAW!” on multiple occasions. Applejack was also the most stubborn of the bunch, tied with Rainbow Dash, which meant the two of them were competing over anything they could think of, most of the time. Like right now, as they were in a heated argument over something insignificant, again.

Sunset watched as the last of the girls intervened with just a few words. Fluttershy’s voice didn’t travel far through the background noise of the cafeteria, but Sunset had heard her in class a few times. The shy girl was unable to do more than whisper it seemed but her loud and brash friends always listened to her. And since Fluttershy hated fighting in general, she was always there to make sure none of their arguments got out of hand. Despite being the most quiet, Fluttershy was the one who balanced out the group and made their unusual friendship work.

If Sunset wanted to control them, all she had to do was take care of Fluttershy first. That seemed just about easy enough and so, Sunset watched them from her table with a satisfied smirk.

Tearing their group apart would give her leverage on Rainbow Dash and in extensions on the sport teams. It would also make it easier to manipulate any of the others, in case she needed them for any future projects. And last but not least, it would also serve as an example that weird friendships like theirs were doomed to fail. When Sunset tore them apart, the other students would think twice about spreading out of their safe, ‘approved’ social circle.

Sunset’s smirk grew even wider and Lavender who was still babbling next to her got ecstatic

“Oh my gosh Sunset, that’s so cool! I never knew you played an instrument as well.”

“Wait, what?”

Sunset, who had completely tuned out what Lavender had said, turned her attention back to the table. Lavender stared at her in awe like a love-struck puppy. Sunset was about to shut her down, but all the others from her table had approving smiles as well and muttered their consent that music was cool. Now that she thought about it, school bands and orchestras were a thing and being known as a musician might score Sunset some more points with those kind of people. Plus, she might even squeeze some extra credit out of this.

So instead of unleashing at Lavender, she flashed her brightest smile to her

“Yeah, I only picked it up recently, but it’s a lot of fun. I really get to express my creativity when I play music.”

Sunset of course felt none of that, but she knew she had said the right things when she got even more nods from her peers and even noticed a few heads from other tables turning her way now

“Wow Sunset, that’s so great! What kind of instrument do you play?”

Sunset held back a curse. She should have seen a follow-up questions like that coming. She didn’t let any of her internal anger show as she kept her smile in place and just said the first thing that came to her mind

“I started playing guitar a couple weeks ago.”

“That’s so cool! Me too! We should totally do a session together, right Sunset?”

Sunset perked her brow at that. This Lavender girl got annoying very fast. The others on the table picked up and started laughing at her, none of them willing to risk Sunset’s disapproval. Lavender, now fully aware that she had overstepped, sunk down into her chair and held her head low. It was a feeble attempt to hide that she was blushing from embarrassment and the others picked on it quickly and laughed more.

Sunset didn’t laugh, she didn’t have to. Her minions were doing the dirty work for her before she even had to tell them. The bell rang and everyone in the cafeteria got moving, including Sunset’s table. When Lavender stood up, somebody accidentally shoved her from behind and made her drop her lunch tray. When it hit the floor with a loud clatter, almost all of the cafeteria turned around to look and soon started laughing.

Lavender kneeled on the floor to pick up the mess, but mostly to hide the tears that shot into her eyes. She thought she was going to die from embarrassment, but then she noticed someone was helping her. She looked up and saw it was Sunset Shimmer. Their eyes met, but Lavender’s hopeful smile froze when she saw the cold, calculating glint in Sunset’s eyes. For the first time, she got a glimpse behind Sunset’s smile that now seemed as insincere as her voice

“You need to be more careful, Lavender. Nothing happened now, but you wouldn’t want to get hurt by accident, now would you?”

Lavender’s smile instantly fell apart and she shook her head quickly. Without another word, she picked up the tray and ran away from Sunset Shimmer as fast as she could.

Sunset looked after her, with her smirk back in place. She hadn’t planned this, but the opportunity to thoroughly intimidate Lavender was just too good to pass up. She probably wouldn’t bother Sunset at lunch anymore and if Sunset ever needed her from anything, she now would be very willing to agree.

Sunset left the cafeteria with her usual cloud of people around her. Although they were not talking to her, the topic of music and instruments stuck with them. It really seemed to be a very popular thing and Sunset would take advantage of that. I probably need to pick up a guitar now and a book or two on how to play. Can’t be that hard, if a dork like Lavender can do it.

Sunset smirked as she walked to the next class. In the end, Lavender might have done her a favor after all. Maybe, she wouldn’t go too hard on her next time. Maybe.

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[JMP]

Well, now that Sunset's got writing figured out, nothing really left to stop her from manipulating everyone.