When Sunset was hit by the rainbow, she lost everything. She had no friends, no family or at least a descent place to call her own. But when all seems lost, she not only found someone that care about her like a mother, but also someone very special.
When Sunset was hit by the rainbow, she lost everything. She had no friends, no family, or at least a decent place to call her own. But when all seemed lost, she not only found someone that cares about her like a mother but also someone very special.
Written by: Cpt. Leo Edited by: Moonriseoversunset
A cold wind blew past a large pile of debris, which once was the entrance of the Canterlot High School. A lonely girl, with bruises and a tattered jacket, was shoveling the rubble. As the wind brushed up against her, she shivered, trying to chase off the wind's piercing coldness.
Everything was going according to the plan. She finally got the crown. She finally gained the ultimate power she always wanted. She could finally prove to her former mentor, that she is worthy of the power that she denied to give her. But as soon as she put the crown on her head, she realized that something went wrong. She thought that when she put the crown on her head, it would simply give her the power she wanted.
But along with the power it gave her something she wasn't expecting, it gave her blinding pain. It felt like she was being torn apart from the inside. Then, she turned into a being that she never wanted to be. She turned into a she-demon. With red skin, claws, and bat-like wings, she turned into a nightmarish creature.
But that was not the end. When the transformation ran its course, she realized she had no control over her body. It felt like she was trapped inside someone else's body, forced to do whatever it wanted. All she could do was watch, helplessly, while events spiraled out her control. She felt like a doll on a string unable to break from the control of her puppeteer.
Fortunately, before she did something that she'd regret for the rest of her life, those six girls were able to stop her. They change her back into a human, gave back her will, by blasting her with a rainbow laser, powered by the magic of friendship. Now, the very same girl was moving all the wreckage she made by destroying half of the school entrance when she turned into a she-demon.
It'd been almost an hour after the school dance came to a close. Her two accomplices had already snuck off, leaving her to tend to their punishment on her lonesome. Sunset also had the chance to run with them, but she decided against it, seeing no reason to cause further trouble.
"Sunset, what are you doing here? The dance is already over." A voice said from behind. Startled, Sunset jumped at the sudden voice, dropping the shovel in the process. She turned around and saw Principal Celestia standing before her. But instead of angry, hateful eyes, she was expecting to see from Principal Celestia, all she saw was concerned eyes.
"Oh.. P-Principal C-Celestia? Uh..um V-vice-Principal Luna t-told me t-to clear all t-this a-away." She answered.
"Yes, I know, but Snips and Snails already left, why didn't you leave with them?" Celestia asked.
"W-well, V-vice-Principal Luna didn't t-tell me to l-leave yet, s-so I thought it b-better to s-stay."
"Well, you can go now. You have already done enough," Celestia said with slight concern.
"Uh... T-t-thank you, Principal C-Celestia." Sunset stammered, before turning to leave the school.
"Do you have a ride? I can give you one if you'd like," Celestia asked, clearly seeing the exhaustion hanging from her eyes.
Sunset thought this for a moment. She never told anyone where she lived. No one knew about her living arrangement. Sunset was determined to keep it that way, even if she was exhausted and wanted a ride to her house. In the end, she ultimately chose to decline the offer. Deciding it better that no one know where she lived.
"N-no, I'm okay. I can make it a-alone." She finally replied.
"Are you sure, Sunset? It's pretty late," Celestia asked concern bleeding into her words.
"Y-yeah, it's not that far anyway," Sunset stretched, hoping that Principal Celestia will let her go without more questions.
"If you are sure," Celestia said. She then brought out a small notepad from her jacket and began writing something. After finishing, she tore the page from the pad and gave it to Sunset. "Here's my number. If you need anything, and I mean anything, please call me." Celestia didn't know why, but Sunset was worrying her in a way she couldn't comprehend.
Sunset, on the other hand, was surprised by this. The one person who should be the angriest with her asked her if she wanted a ride home and now gave her her number out of genuine concern. Sunset destroyed half the school's front entrance, but all Sunset could see from Principal Celestia was concern. Sunset was baffled as she carefully grabbed the paper and slipped it into her jacket.
"T-thanks," She said before turning to leave. Celestia watched her for a few seconds before walking to the school parking lot.
After what felt like an eternity, Sunset finally got to her home. Or at least what she called home. It was an abandoned building on the far side of the city. For someone who controlled a school as a queen bee for two and a half years, she didn't have much. All she had to her name was just some clothes, an old mattress, a mini-fridge, and an old guitar. She had found a large wooden box now used as a table. It wasn't much, but she had a place with running water and a place to sleep.
Drained, that's what Sunset was. Mentally, physically, and emotionally done with the day. As soon as she entered her home, she made a beeline to the mattress and plopped onto it. She brought the blanket over her and slowly let the walls drop. At first, it was just some tears, but soon she began to cry. She cried until she finally cried herself to sleep.
Principal Celestia walked to the front door of her house after she left school. After everything that happened at the school, she needed a good night's sleep. However, after she left school, all she could think about was Sunset Shimmer. The Sunset Shimmer she knew was a hot-tempered, arrogant girl with a stubborn streak as wide as Luna's. Yet the Sunset Shimmer she met not long ago was no longer that girl. She was a scared, meek girl with guilt-filled eyes. The way she acted when the conversation went towards her home and the fact she looked like she could drop any second made her worry even more. For now, though, she needed rest. Everything that happened today took a lot out of her. She made her way to her room, calling it for the night. All the while, thinking of talking with Sunset as soon as possible.
The morning after the Fall Form, Sunset woke up with a strangled gasp. Sunset sweated profusely, exhaustion from the night before, and the lack of restful sleep clinging to her like a wet blanket. Her hope for a good night of sleep after the mess of yesterday turned out to be hopeless as the night was plagued by the nightmare. To make matters worse, the dream was so real, the sights, the sounds, and the feelings felt so real. She felt trapped, unable to stop anything that happened. She was honestly surprised she woke up at all.
After slowing the bass-like pounding of her heart, Sunset got out of bed, wincing from the sudden pain she felt in her back as she shifted to stand. Ignoring the pain for the moment, she went to her mini-fridge to get a quick bite to eat. Upon opening the fridge, her frown turned grim when she saw the inside of her mini-fridge was almost empty.
"Great, I'm almost out of food. I don't even have any money. I wasn't expecting to be here, I really let things go," Sunset said. "I need money, and I can't get like I used to. Its time to see if I can find a job."
After having a quick breakfast, she went to get ready for a day of job hunting. However, when she tried to take off her shirt, the pain from earlier flared up again. She turned her back towards the mirror and tried to look at her back. When she finally saw her back, she saw three large scars on her shoulder blades and her lower back. While her wounds had turned into scars, the shirt seemed to have seared to her back.
"Well, can't complain. I messed with dark magic, now I'm paying the price."
Spending a few minutes to get the shirt off. Sunset stepped into the shower—the water running down her back, doing wonders on her battered back. She stayed there basking in the gentle massage the water pressure was creating. Before too long, she stepped out and proceed to get ready for the day. After a few minutes, Sunset was dressed and left her "home" to find a job. She thought about going to the Sugercube Corner, but she thought better as it was a hangout spot for many at CHS after school. After thinking about it, she decided to try her luck at Canterlot Mall. She knew her chances were low without legal paperwork, the only form of identity being a forged card she created when she first arrived. The chances of people hiring her were already low, but it was going to be even harder to find a job without those key papers. However, Sunset believed in the phrase 'nothing ventured nothing gained,' she'd fail completely if she didn't try, perhaps she could get lucky.
Sunset's first stop was a gaming shop, but Fluttershy's brother was already working there, which meant a big no. Out of the five girls, she was worst to Fluttershy. Her next stop was a clothes shop, but working there would make it more likely to have a run-in with the girls, which she was not looking forward to.
After searching for hours and finding nothing, she decided to go back home. Her stomach, however, had other plans as it growled. She realized it was already noon, and she was exhausted. She didn't know if she was always this weak or if it was a form of punishment from the Elements, all she knew was that it puzzled her to no end. Sure, she's not the athletic type, but she couldn't recall getting this tired this easy. All she did today was walk and stand. Pushing the thought to the back burner, she looked around for a place to eat only to remember her finances or lack thereof. However, her search didn't turn out to be fruitless as she saw a sign hiring part-timers at a Sushi restaurant. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to look there as well, she went inside the misplaced restaurant.
Once inside, she looked around the place. Just like the entrance, it had a Japanese design. Even the workers wore a kimono. She went up to a worker and asked about the position. The waitress directed her to the office at the corner of the store. Sunset knocked on the door, and a woman came out. Once knowing the reason, she allowed her inside. The woman was probably in her mid-40s. The family photo on her office wall depicted her of Japanese heritage.
After talking with the owner for a while, Sunset was given a chance at the job. She would work as a waitress, and fortunately, she didn't need any paperwork other than what she already had. The pay wasn't much, but it was more than enough for her simple lifestyle. She only had to work on Saturdays, meaning her first day started next week. Unfortunately, she needed money now. She only had enough food for tomorrow. After taking the job, Sunset went home thinking about how to survive for a week. She had two choices. Either sell something valuable or survive the days until she got paid on school meals.
She was staring at the ground as she walked, deep in thought. Thus, she didn't see she was walking straight into someone until she collided into them. The person she stumbled back falling on her butt as they let out a very familiar 'Eek'. On the other hand, Sunset remained standing and looked down at the girl she walked into, and her heart stopped the moment she saw who it was.
"F-Fluttershy! I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Here let me-"
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Sunset tried to help Fluttershy up, but before she could reach Fluttershy, Sunset joined her on the ground. Someone had shoved her roughly from the side, away from Fluttershy. She looked up to see who pushed her only to look at their feet when she met a pair of angry magenta eyes.
"R-Rainbow... I-" Fluttershy tried to say, but got interrupted by Rainbow Dash.
"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"
"I-I'm okay... I-"
"What are you doing here? Still, scheming away, or do you still think you can bully Fluttershy? Do you want to get blasted by a rainbow again?" Rainbow asked Sunset angrily. Sunset's eyes went wide. Sunset was pretty sure that they couldn't use that power without Twilight and the crown, but she didn't want to take any chances.
"N-no, I'm not. I-It was an a-accident. I swear," Sunset stammered.
"Oh yeah, then what are you doing here, huh? Princess Twilight asked us to look after you, but I don't trust you. So, if I see you near Fluttershy again, I'm going to give you my version of the rainbow blast, you understand?"
"I under-." Sunset stammered out before hurriedly stood up when Rainbow dash took a threatening step forward. Sunset quickly turned away before she walked away as fast as possible without drawing any more unwanted attention to herself. It felt like everyone was staring at her, and quite frankly, it was making her anxiety turn into near panic. She heard Fluttershy saying something to Rainbow, but she didn't catch what it was as she rushed out the doors and on the arriving bus as she made her way home.
Sunset nervously tapped her boot on the floor as she waited for her stop. Being out in public was not helping her in the least, and she wondered if choosing the mall was such a good idea for a job site. It was guaranteed now that she'd run into other students now, and she hoped no one would find out about her job and come to make trouble. Sunset entered her home, back drenched in sweat, and her breath catching. She felt like she ran all the way back, but she just walked. This was a major concern for Sunset, as being this weak where she lived could lead her to get mugged out on the streets.
"Why am I feeling this weak?" She asked herself. "M-maybe I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep yesterday."
She looked around her for anything that she could sell for money. All she could find of any value was her old guitar, but she doubted anyone would buy it, and she really didn't want to either. II was special to her, and she loved playing it as it helped her to calm her mind. She fingered the strings before she brought it to her chest and began to play it. She spent the rest of the day strumming away, drowning her sorrows in the music.
It was Monday morning and Sunset again woke up with a gasp and a cold sweat. It'd been three days since the Fall Formal and she still had those horrible nightmares. This made Sunset worry. Not much happened Sunday except she ran out of food to eat and only ate two meals. That is if you can even call what she ate a meal.
Sunset got out of the bed and took a quick shower before getting ready for school. Vice-Principal Luna told her, Snips and Snails that they'll get in school suspension for two weeks plus they'll have to help rebuild the wall they destroyed. However, Sunset convinced Vice-Principal Luna that it was all her fault and Snips and Snails were only following her orders. So they got released from rebuilding the wall while Sunset still had to help the construction team alone. But she was completely okay with that. 'I probably deserve it.' She thought.
After leaving her home, Sunset arrived at school early as usual. The construction crew wasn’t there yet but Vice-Principal Luna was standing near the statue waiting for her arrival.
"So you came?" Vice-Principal Luna said in a disinterested voice.
"Y-yes Vice-Principal Luna," Sunset said timidly.
"Good. You'll be helping the construction crew until school ends. You get a break at lunch period. Is that understood?"
"Y-yes." Sunset said. Without any more words, Luna turned around and went inside the school.
Sunset then walked up to the Wondercolt statue where the portal resided and touched the currently inert portal. She released a heavy sigh and sat down, her back to the now cold stone and rested her head on her knees as she waited for the construction crew.
Eventually, the students slowly started coming to the school and Sunset could already feel the hateful glares. She could hear the names she was being called. She looked up for a moment and saw Fluttershy looking at her. But, she had a concerned, sad look on her face completely unlike any other student. Sunset wanted to say something but stopped remembering what happened with Rainbow and dropped her head back onto her knees.
Principal Celestia looked down at the fiery-haired girl through her office window with a thoughtful look. Just two days ago the girl in question was a bully who literally turned into a she-demon. But now all she can see is a girl who is the complete opposite. A girl who seemed filled with so much regret and guilt.
"Tia?"
The sudden voice snapped Celestia out of her thoughts. She turned around and saw her sister staring at her with a concerned look.
"Oh...Luna. When... when did you come in? I didn't hear you."
Luna let out a sigh before speaking again. "You're thinking about her aren't you?" Celestia nodded looking away. Luna followed her expression towards the window. "You sure she's changed?"
"I'm sure of it. That night, she looked broken. Lost. You said it yourself, she didn't argue when you told her to clean the debris that night. Then she convinced you to let go of Snips and Snails from helping the construction team. Why would she do that if she didn't want to change?" Celestia answered before her face became more conflicted. "Then, there was the way she acted when I asked her to give her a ride home. It makes me worry Lulu. She was lying. Did you look into where she lives?"
"Yes, I did. It's an old house in the far side of Canterlot and It's owned by an old lady. Sunset doesn't live there. It seems she gave us a false address."
"I thought so. Princess Twilight came to me a few moments before she left and told me that Sunset is from that other world too. Which means she might be living alone since she came to this world three years ago." Celestia explained. "And with the state she's in, I can't let her live alone Lulu. I need to see if she has proper living arrangements."
'And take her in if she doesn't.' Luna thought to herself. "Very well. I'll see what I can do. It might be better if you talk to her though, Tia." Luna said.
Fluttershy walked into the cafeteria after her morning classes and walked towards their usual table. Her friends were already there and were talking about something. After getting closer, she was able to make out that they were talking about Sunset.
"I'm not going to be friends with her. She'll just stab you in the back the moment you turn around." Rainbow grumbled.
"M-maybe she... won't?" Fluttershy offered, unsure about the girls' reaction.
"She won't? Fluttershy, she shoved you to the floor at the mall."
"She did what?!" Applejack asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, and she was going to attack her. It's a good thing I was there or who knows what she could have done."
"I-it was an a-accident, a-and she was going to help me up. N-not h-hit me."
"Well I don't know what happened there but we did promise Princess Twilight that we will look after her. And we Apples always keep our promises." Applejack declared.
"She's right. I too don't like Sunset one bit, but Twilight's the Princess of Friendship. So if she says Sunset can change, maybe we should lend her a hand." Rarity said.
"Do whatever you want, but I'll keep my eyes on her," Rainbow said annoyed.
Their conversation was cut short as they noticed that the cafeteria was suddenly quiet. They looked at the doors and saw the reason for the silence.
It'd been a few hours since the construction crew arrived and they gave Sunset some work to do. They weren't some merciless slave drivers. They only gave Sunset small jobs, like filling blocks with mortar or carrying things around even if they knew that it was supposed to be her punishment. They didn't know what exactly happened, only that it was her fault.
Even though it was light work, Sunset got tired quickly, which Sunset figured was a side effect of the Elements. Maybe they weren't quite done with her yet.
After what seemed like an eternity, the school bell rang for lunch and one of the construction workers told her to get some rest.
After a small nod, Sunset began to walk towards the cafeteria slowly, looking down. She could feel the glares and knew the quiet muttering was about her. She could make out some of them, but what she heard only made her wish she hadn't.
After a walk that felt much longer than it was, she came to the cafeteria. It was full of noises. But as soon as Sunset stepped inside, It was suddenly so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Sunset glanced towards the students who were looking at her with hateful glares. Sunset slowly and carefully made her way inside the cafeteria and picked up a tray before joining the line, while the students kept their distance from her.
After getting her food, Sunset turned to make her way towards a table far away from everyone else and walked there. She saw the girls that defeated her just last week looking at her. Each had variations of glares aimed at her, except for Fluttershy which puzzled her. Then again she's the kindest girl in the whole school, probably in the whole Canterlot so she concluded that she might be trying to be kind to her. 'A kindness I don't deserve. Especially from her.' She thought.
Any other thoughts she might have had were cut off as the tray she had been holding suddenly flew into the air and dropped onto the ground with a loud clank. She turned her head to the side and saw Lightning Dust walking away with a smug look on her face. She looked down at her meal she had in a while, which was strewn across the floor. She honestly thought about picking out whatever was salvageable she could from the ground. Her pride was buried in the hole she crawled out of at the formal. But she was stopped by the sudden laughter that erupted from around her. She looked around and saw everyone laughing at her.
She knew something like this would happen. Sooner or later, the students will be a lot less afraid of her and would want to get some revenge on her. She didn't think they'd try anything physical yet. But clearly, she was mistaken. It was just a matter of time before someone actually hit her. Rainbow already almost did.
'Maybe I should go. I can make it without food for a couple more days.' With that last thought, Sunset turned around and ran out of the cafeteria.
Fluttershy woke up that morning a little earlier than she normally would with only one goal in her mind. To talk to Sunset. She’d been trying to talk to her since Monday but every time she tried to talk to her, she either lost her confidence or her friends were nearby. She didn’t think her friends would be against helping Sunset. She was just afraid of how they would react. Especially because of how Rainbow was treating Sunset. Even though the other girls did agree to help Sunset, she didn’t want them to break apart again after they'd been apart for so long. But she needed to talk to Sunset before they did. The way Sunset had been acting after the Fall Formal bothered her and she seemed to be getting worse each day.
After getting up and having a shower, she went downstairs and took her breakfast. The fact that Fluttershy’s mother woke up early made it easy to go to school before anyone else. After having breakfast, she asked her mom to drop her at the school. When her mom asked why she’s going to school early, she simply replied she has something to do with one of her projects and she needed to do it before the school starts. She didn’t want to tell her mom about Sunset fearing that her mom would also react the same way Rainbow did, though it was a lot easier to talk with her mom than Rainbow.
Things weren’t looking very good for Sunset Shimmer due in part to her constant nightmares and growing hunger. She tried going back to the cafeteria yesterday but came up with the same result. Except for this time she ended up with food getting thrown at her too. It’d been three days since Sunset ate anything but it felt like she hadn't eaten in a week. These facts along with the weakness caused by the elements made it even harder to work on the wall. Just like every day, Sunset made it to the school early and went to the statue and sat down waiting for the construction team to arrive, alone with her thoughts. Why did Fluttershy look at her with concerned eyes every day? She even tried to talk to her once, only to back off when she saw her friends nearby.
The past two days had been hard for Sunset to work on the wall with the students passing by giving her death glares and sometimes trying to hit her. But the construction crew members stopped most of the students from harming her. But that only made Sunset feel bad. She felt like she was just being a nuisance to the construction crew. Interrupting their work like that.
“Um… excuse me… Sunset-”
“Ah!” Sunset’s been deep in her thoughts the sudden voice made her jump in surprise. She looked up to see Fluttershy staring at her with wide eyes.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you...”
“N-no it’s fine. I was just thinking about something so I didn’t see you.” Sunset quickly said.
“Oh… okay then. I just needed to talk to you.”
“T-talk to me? About what?”
“I just needed to know if you're okay and… to apologize about what happened at the mall.”
“No, it’s fine, you don’t have to apologize. I wasn’t looking where I was going. And… yeah, I’m… f-fine.” Sunset didn’t know why Fluttershy was asking if she’s okay but she didn’t want to make her worry. Unfortunately for her, Fluttershy easily saw through the lie.
“Are you sure… you look… um… t-thin,” Fluttershy asked.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine, really,” Sunset replied. But Fluttershy wasn't buying it.
“Sunset. When did you last eat?” Fluttershy asked with determination she rarely ever showed. No hesitation or stutters.
“Uh… I-”
“Tell me Sunset, please. You didn’t even get to eat your lunch for the past two days.” She pleaded.
“Um… well… um… last… Sunday.”
“What! L-last… Sunday?” Fluttershy yelled in surprise. “B-but… why?”
“I… ran out of food last Sunday and, I didn’t have any money. I-I tried to find a job at the mall but I only found one job. But I have to wait until next Saturday to start my shift there.” Sunset admitted with a sigh
“So that’s why you came to the mall?” Sunset nodded. “But I saw lots of signs of part-time jobs for students at the mall.”
“Yeah, there was, but, do you… do you know about… where I came from?” Sunset asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure if Twilight told them about that.
“Um… yes… Princess Twilight told us a little about you.”
“Well… um… because I'm not from here, I don’t have any paperwork. I was able to forge some so I could go to school but, I don’t have any paperwork they need for a job. And I didn’t feel like forging new papers again after the Fall Formal.”
“Oh! I see. But... you can’t live like this. Y-you won’t make it a week. Y-you look… r-really… w-weak- um… no offense.” Fluttershy said as she looked over Sunset.
“No, it’s fine. I am weak now. I think the elements did something to me.”
“C-can it does something like that?” Fluttershy asked in disbelief.
“You have no idea.” Sunset looked around and saw that students were starting to come to school now.
“Um… I think you should get ready for class now.” Sunset offered. Since the Fall Formal, Fluttershy was the only one to show any kindness towards her. And she didn’t want anything to happen to Fluttershy because of that kindness.
“Okay... But this isn't over yet. I can’t leave you starving like this.” Her earlier determination returned while she said that.
“I-I don’t know if you can help me but, thanks,” Sunset said with a small smile. Fluttershy returned the smile before walking into the school.
Principle Celestia tried her best to focus on the paperwork she had to finish at the moment. But ever since the fall formal she can’t help but think about Sunset Shimmer. This didn’t go unnoticed by her sister who tried to help her in any way she can. In this case, finding out more about Sunset’s life in this world. Celestia’s mind went back to the previous night where she had a conversation with her sister about Sunset.
The Previous Night – Celestia’s Household.
Celestia was sitting on a chair in her library, doing her best to read. She might be a school principal, but her family was quite wealthy and the school was founded by their family. After a few more failed attempts she heard the door to the library open and turned her to head to see Luna walking towards her.
“Oh! Luna do you need something.” She asked.
“Yes, I need to talk about Sunset Shimmer with you,” Luna said with a nod
“Sunset? Did you find where she lives?” Celestia asked hopefully.
Luna shook her head “No, I didn’t. She’s very secretive about where she lives. I tried following her but she took a path through the forest and I lost her. Sorry, Tia.”
“No, it’s okay,” Celestia said looking away from Luna.
“But that’s not exactly what I need to talk to you about.”
“Then what?”
“You should talk to her Tia. And soon.”
“But what am I going to tell her? I… I don’t know-”
“You have to. You have to talk to her for both of you.”
“What do you mean? For both of us?”
“You thought I didn’t notice? I know what you think of her Tia. More than just a student. You haven’t eaten well, you make lots of mistakes on your paperwork, and… can you even read that book properly?” Luna asked pointing at the book Celestia was holding which was still in the beginning. Considering how fast she reads, she had to finish the book by now.
“Maybe you're right.” Celestia finally said, resigning as she placed her book down.
“So, do you want me to call our old friend?” Luna asked.
“Friend? What do you mean?”
“I know you want to take her in Tia. I'm guessing she doesn’t have anyone in this world either. She still wears the same tattered, worn-out jacket.”
“But what if she doesn’t want to come with me?” Tia asked with worry in her voice.
“I don’t know what her choice will be. But, she's a smart girl. She'll know it's in her best interests to accept.” Luna said as she placed a hand onto Tia's shoulder. “Please, talk to her Tia, she doesn’t have to be alone anymore.”
Present.
Celestia looked at the clock and saw she still had plenty of time before the school starts. ‘Maybe I don’t have to ask her about coming with me right now? There's still plenty I can look into first.’ She finally made up her mind and pressed a button on her telephone.
“Miss Raven, can you please send for Sunset Shimmer?”
Since Fluttershy left, Sunset couldn’t help but think about her. Think about what she said. Out of all the people she expected to help her, Fluttershy was the last on her list. Sunset knew about the Elements of Harmony and she deducted that Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness. But the fact that Sunset always tried to take advantage over Fluttershy’s timidness and bulling her for money made her doubt that she’s worthy of her kindness.
‘Why did she help me? I was so mean to her? Is it because she’s the Element of Kindness?’ These thoughts crossed Sunset’s mind as she helped the construction crew in any way she can until Miss Raven called her to the Principal’s office. Now, she began to think about why Principal Celestia was calling her as she walked towards her office in the middle of the angry glares of the students. She knew the only reason why the Students aren’t trying to attack her is that Miss Raven is with her. But she still has to get back to the entrance without her which she wasn’t looking forward to. After what felt like hours, they made it to the Principal’s office and Miss Raven gestured her to enter the office. Sunset walked over to the door and reluctantly knocked on the door. After a little pause, she heard Principal Celestia calling her to come in.
“Sunset, please take a seat.” Principal Celestia said pointing to a chair, trying her hardest not to frown at the look of her student. Sunset walked over to the chair and took a seat without taking her eyes off of the Principal.
“Y-you wanted to talk to me?” Sunset asked, wincing at the slight waver in her voice.
“Yes, Sunset, I need to ask a few questions about you.” Principal Celestia said, studying the girl in front of her. “Before, Princess Twilight left; she came to me and told me about you. But she didn’t say much information saying that it’s up to you to reveal anything about you. All I know is that you are from that world too and you were a unicorn, a pretty powerful one at that, that you became a personal student of Princess Twilight’s mentor, and you and your former mentor had a fall out before you ran from her to this world. I this true?” Sunset simply nodded, glad that Princess Twilight didn’t reveal anything more specific like who her former mentor was.
“This comes to my first question, how did you survived in a completely different world and body from what you are used to for almost three years?”
“Um… I-It was a little hard at first to get used to this body, but after a few days, I got used to it and then I sold some of the things I brought over to this world that had a lot of value here than my homeworld. I-I used that money to rent an apartment.” Sunset half lied after a while, but Principal Celestia knew she was hiding something.
“So the address in your profile is false?” She asked. Sunset slowly nodded. “Do you still have that money?”
“N-no. But I found a job that pays me enough money for the rent, food, and tuition fees.”
“Where is that exactly?”
“Uh… a Japanese restaurant at the mall. They didn’t need any paperwork other than the once I already had.”
“Oh, I know its owner; Tsukihana?* Right?”
“Y-yeah.”
“So I guess the paperwork is forged?” Sunset nodded. “Sunset, as the Principal of this school, it’s my responsibility to ensure the safety of my students. But your case is quite special. As someone who came from a different world, I assume you live alone, right?” Sunset nodded, lowering her head. “In that case, I can’t just take your words without any proof. I need to make sure you have a proper place to live and you have everything you need as a teenager. What I’m trying to say is, that I want to see where you live, and I’ll make sure to ask Tsukihana about your job too. Is that okay?”
Sunset froze. She knew from the beginning that this meeting is going to be a problem. And saying no will only make Principal Celestia more suspicious. She knew that Principal Celestia wasn’t going to harm her in any way but her past experiences with her Principal’s counterpart made her doubt. But then again it was she that messed up. Knowing she won't have any choice in the situation, she simply nodded.
“Good you can go back to work.” Principal Celestia said before looking at the retreating form of Sunset. ‘You are lying Sunset. But I know one thing for sure. You are going to come with me today. I can’t let you live like this anymore.’
The bell rang for the lunch period and Fluttershy was the first one out the class, heading to the cafeteria. Sunset is suffering and she can’t let that happen anymore. So if Sunset can't come to get lunch, then the lunch has to get to her. And that’s what Fluttershy was up to. She quickly made it to the food line and picked a tray, and quickly chose what Sunset might like to eat. Fluttershy turned back to leave the cafeteria only to see Rarity behind her. “Yeep.”
“Oh! Fluttershy you are early today, um… where are you going?” Rarity asked.
“Oh… um… I… I’m going out to eat… with… with my animal friends.” She timidly replied.
“Okay… mind if we join you?”
“NO- I-I mean, I need to be alone with them for now. I-If... you don’t mind.”
“Of course not. We’ll meet you later then.” Fluttershy slowly nodded and left the cafeteria looking for Sunset.
Sunset walked towards a nearby tree, under the constant heat of the sun, after she’s been given to take a rest. It’s not a very hot day, but for Sunset Shimmer, it felt like she’s been walking through a desert for days. However before she could reach the tree, she suddenly felt a dizziness and lost balance.
“Woah!” She yelped clutching her forehead. But before she could fall over, a hand suddenly grabbed her and steadied her.
“Sunset! You okay?” She opened eyes and saw Fluttershy holding her arm with a tray in her hand.
"Uh… yeah. I just felt a little light-headed that’s all.”
“See I told you Sunset, you can’t starve like this. Here I brought you some food.” Fluttershy said with a concerned voice.
“What? Why did you… you don’t have to do this.”
“No, I have to. I’m your friend Sunset. And good friends look after each other.”
“Is this because Twilight told you to?” Sunset asked looking away.
“What? Y-you heard that?” Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah.”
“Um… yes… and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“Um… actually… I always wanted to befriend you.” Fluttershy said looking away. Sunset could see her face had a little tint of red before she looked away.
“But why? I was so mean to you.”
“I know but… I could see someone good inside you. You seemed, alone. And I thought if you had friends, then you could become good.”
Sunset was at a loss of words. Here the shyest person she ever knew, the girl she bullied for money for years, trying to befriend her just because she seemed alone. If only Fluttershy knew how right she was. Sunset couldn’t help but smile in gratitude towards the shy girl. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Um… I think you should eat that.” Fluttershy said pointing at the trey in Sunset’s hand.
“Uh… yeah… Thanks, Fluttershy.”
“You are welcome. Um… may I ask you something?” Fluttershy asked nervously.
“Yeah?”
“Um… w... where do you live- N-not that I think you are homeless-”
“I am homeless.” Sunset said, looking dejected. She didn’t know why but Sunset felt she could talk with Fluttershy openly.
“What!?” Fluttershy yelped in horror.
“You heard it. When I first came to this world, I brought some gems and coins with me. Gold coins. Gold coins are the currency of our world and gems are quite common. People even farm them. So they don’t have any value there. But in this world, they worth a fortune. But I was too late when I knew that. I got fraud and I lost the only perk I had to live in this world. From the money I found, I forged some papers and enrolled here, but since they are illegal and because I didn’t have any necessary paperwork to have a job, all I could use that was to enroll here. I bullied others for their money since I couldn’t have a job… sorry about that. I didn’t have any other choice.” Sunset said, holding back tears threatening to escape her eyes. She thought Fluttershy would become mad at her or leave her after that, but what she didn’t expect was the sudden hug she received from the girl.
“It’s okay Sunset, I don’t mind. I always knew there’s a reason for you to do that. But you can’t live like this. You need a proper place to go. It’s not healthy.”
“Yeah, I know. But don’t worry.” Sunset said.
“But-”
“No really, it’s fortunate I found a job. Just a few more days and I’ll be fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, what you are doing is more than enough for me.”
“O…okay. Um… do you have a phone?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yeah?”
Fluttershy reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Sunset.
“Here, this is my number. Call me if you need anything.” She said. Sunset looked at the paper for a few seconds before taking it, smiling at Fluttershy.
“Thanks.” She said before pulling out her phone and taking a miscall to Fluttershy. Fluttershy smiled with bright eyes at that.
After lunch, Sunset felt a new energy she didn’t know she has before. She was happy. She didn’t expect Fluttershy to help the way she did but knowing there’s at least someone that wants to be friends with her, made her happy. She spent the rest of the day helping the construction crew, happily thinking about Fluttershy. The construction team also saw the change in the girl and even teased her a little. This only brightened the fiery-haired teen even more. The school came to a close as the final bell rang to end the school, and Sunset turned to walk back home. But the sudden voice from behind her stopped her from having another step forward and crushed her happy thoughts.
“Sunset, wait.” Sunset turned around and saw Principal Celestia standing behind her. “Come with me, I’ll take you home.” Sunset's eyes went wide like a deer in a headlight. She knew she had to show Celestia where she lives but she didn’t think it would be now.
“What, n-no it’s okay I can go there myself.” She said.
“Maybe, but you said I can see where you live. So, shall we?”
“But, n-n-now?” Sunset stammered.
“Why do you have a problem with that?”
“N-no… of course not.” Sunset quickly said. “Um… i-its just-”
“You don’t have a home, do you?” Celestia asked looking at the girl in question sadly. Sunset looked down. She could have known that this isn’t going to work. This is her former mentor’s counterpart. If there’s anything she learned about her, it’s that she can’t be deceived easily.
“Y-yeah. I-I’m homeless.” She muttered, but Celestia easily heard her.
“I can’t let you go Sunset. You are coming with me.” Celestia said. Sunset knew from the voice that she didn’t’ have a choice there so she simply nodded. “Do you have anything to take from wherever you have been staying?”
“J-just my clothes and an old guitar.” She said.
“Okay then. Come on.” With that, The Principal lead Sunset to her SUV before pulling off the school grounds.
The ride to Sunset’s home went in relative silence. The only time they talked was when Sunset gave Principal Celestia directions to her home. As they got closer to where Sunset has been living, a frown began to creep into Celestia’s face. A knot in the throat has been added to the mix when they finally arrived at their destination.
“Is this where you’ve been staying?” Principal Celestia asked.
“Y-yeah. I didn’t have enough money to afford an apartment.” Sunset said.
“So you didn’t sell anything for money?”
“I-I did… but, I got scammed because I didn’t have any idea about this world’s economy.”
“Then how did you survive without money for three years? Tsukihana said your first shift starts this Saturday.”
“I… I-I bullied others to get their lunch money and, I wrote essays for money for some Crystal Prep students. It kind of got to me so I didn’t go looking for a job.” Sunset said looking away ashamed. A silence fell over them for a few seconds.
“Okay Sunset, come on. Let’s get you out of here.” With that, they went inside the building and got anything Sunset needed to take with her, which was just her clothes, school supplies, and her old guitar. Celestia then drove them to her home. Neither of them looked at each other or talked.
Celestia drove through the town for a while and turned the SUV into the more wealthy part of the town, and Sunset couldn’t help but think where her principal actually lived. Even though Celestia was her former mentor’s counterpart, she knew a principal doesn’t get paid enough to live a life like royalty. She thought this Celestia just live like others, only to get her expectations crushed as Celestia turned into the driveway of a large two-story house. Celestia turned to the fiery-haired girl and grinned in amaze at the wide-eyed look of Sunset looking at the house.
“Not what you expected is it?” Celestia asked smiling. Sunset suddenly snapped out of her thoughts with a start.
“What? Oh! Um… y-yeah… I didn’t think you had a house this big.” Sunset said.
“What? You thought just because I’m a school principal, I didn’t have a lot of money?” She asked jokingly.
“N-no I-I didn’t think-” Sunset stammered but Celestia cut her off.
“It’s okay Sunset, I was joking. Let’s get you inside.”
They got out of the SUV and Celestia directed Sunset to the house. Sunset flung her guitar over her shoulder and Celestia took her clothes and school supplies. When they came near the door, it suddenly flew open and Sunset yelped in surprise when she saw Vice-Principal Luna standing in the middle of the doorway.
“So you really brought her.” She said, looking at Celestia, arms crossed.
“Yes. Did you have her room ready?” Celestia asked, pushing the frozen Sunset past Luna.
“Yes, I did,” Luna said without taking her eyes off of Sunset.
“Good. Can you make some tea? I’ll show Sunset her room.” Celestia said and without saying a word, Luna walked past them into the kitchen.
“Come on Sunset, this way.” Sunset nodded and followed her. Celestia began to give her a quick tour of the house. “To the left is the living room and to the right, is the dining room. There’s the kitchen, and right in front of the staircase is my office.” They then climbed the stairs onto the second floor.
“The room immediately to the right is the library and feel free to use it any time.” Sunset slowly nodded. “Next to the library is your room and the one just across yours is Luna’s. And over there is my room.” She said pointing to a room next to Luna’s. “Also note that our rooms and basement is off limit for you at the moment. Especially Luna’s room and the basement. So, what do you think?”
“Um… it’s… nice?” Sunset said, unsure of what to tell about the house. It’s actually a great house. But the fact, she wasn’t expecting to see a house like this made it harder to make words.
“Come on. Let’s put those in your room.” Celestia said opening Sunset’s room. “What do you think? Do you like it?”
The room is not that big. It had a double-sized bed, a closet, a drawer, and a table.
“This’ll be your room now. Feel free to make any adjustments to it.” Celestia said. “I’ll go downstairs; you can unpack your stuff okay?”
“Y-yeah, thanks,” Sunset said. After Celestia left, Sunset began to examine the room. She walked to the bed and sat on it. The mattress below her made her feel like she’s in heaven. It’s been a long time since she slept on a bed like this. A very long time. She then began to unpack her things, which took her only a couple minutes. Suddenly, she heard the sound of her phone vibrating and she picked it up from the table. She looked at the screen and saw it was Fluttershy that has messaged her.
Fluttershy: Hey Sunset. How are you? Did you eat anything?
Sunset stared at the message for a while before writing her reply.
Sunset: Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks for checking on me.
Fluttershy: It’s what friends are for.
Sunset then looked around the room for anything to do, she considered going downstairs but hesitated. ‘What if they don’t want me down there? Vice- Principal Luna looked mad at me. Not that I complain considering what I have done.’
At last, she picked her sketchbook and began to doodle in it to pass the time. She often does this or plays her guitar whenever she needs to calm her mind. Especially when she needed to plan some evil plot. But recently, they were the only activities that gave her any kind of rest she needed. She didn’t know how long she has been doodling like that, but a sudden voice from downstairs snapped her out of the world of art.
“Sunset! Dinner’s ready?” She heard Celestia shout from below. She looked at the clock and saw it’s already 7 pm. Sunset quickly closed the book and made her way downstairs. Once she made it to the last step, she looked over the stairs and saw Celestia preparing to get the dinner. She saw Sunset and smiled at her.
“Sunset, come on, dinner’s ready.” She said.
“O-okay,” Sunset said before walking over to the dining room. Celestia gestured to a chair and Sunset sat on it.
“Hope you like pasta,” Celestia said.
“It’s okay. As long as it doesn’t have any beef or pork.” Sunset said. “I-if that’s okay with you.”
Celestia sighed. “Sunset, if you don’t like something, don’t be afraid to say it. You are going to be here for a while anyway.”
“Yeah, that’s something I needed to ask you. What’s going to happen to me now?” Sunset asked uncertainly.
“Don’t worry Sunset; we aren’t going to do anything bad for you. Until we figure out what to do with your situation, you are going to stay here. We know some people that can help us.”
“W-what! So you are going to tell them the truth?” Sunset asked with wide eyes.
“Yes, of course, we have to tell them the truth about you if we need to get there help. And don’t worry, we personally know them. They’ll keep it a secret.” Luna said for the first time since the dinner began, devoid of any emotions. Then a silence fell over them as they quietly eat the dinner.
“Why?” The sudden question from Sunset made Celestia off guard.
“Sorry?” She said looking at the girl, who’s looking down, fiddling with the dinner.
“Why are you helping me? I’m a monster-”
“Sunset! Don’t ever let me hear you say it again.” Celestia said sternly. Luna looked stunned. Sunset looked at her with wide eyes.
‘Is she angry at me? B-but that’s the truth… I am a monster’ she looked at Celestia’s eyes. People rarely saw Celestia angry. Sunset was one of these people, even though it was a different Celestia. She remembers when Princess Celestia was angry. Angry at her, for saying the wrong thing, for doing the wrong thing. But this is not like that. Celestia is angry. But there’s this concern in her eyes that she hasn’t seen in the princess. By now tears began to flow from Sunset’s eyes.
“You need help Sunset. I know you were a bad teenager. But you are not like that anymore. Even when you were bullying others, I saw this potential girl inside you. You are a model student after all.” Celestia said. “You need to change aren’t you Sunset?” Sunset silently nodded. “But you can’t do that alone. You don’t need to do it alone.”
“But that’s the truth, I’m-”
“Sunset,” It was Luna that talked this time. “You were. Not anymore. I saw you made friends with Fluttershy. Will the old you be friends with her?”
“N-no.” She squeaked.
“See. Now eat Sunset, we can talk about this later.” Celestia said. Sunset slowly nodded before resuming her dinner.
After they finished dinner, Sunset tried to help them with the dishes. But Luna declined the offer. Sunset went back to her room and climbed on the bed thinking about what happened at the dinner.
‘Does she really care about me? I- is she… no… the princess didn’t. Probably Princess Twilight asked her to do this.’ She thought, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. ‘Maybe I could ask?’ She kept thinking until she fell asleep.
Sunset and Principal Celestia got off the SUV after it was parked at the school faculty lot. Sunset turned to walk towards the Wondercolt statue but Celestia called her.
“Sunset, are you sure you can work today? You look very tired. Are you even sleeping well?” She asked noticing the bags under her eyes.
“Yeah don’t worry. I can manage.” Sunset said. She actually didn’t sleep well last night because of those horrible nightmares but she decided to not tell about them to Celestia.
“If you are sure. But if it gets hard for you, please come to me. Even though this is your punishment, I don’t want you to be sick.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sunset said. With that, they walked their separate ways.
Living with the principal means you have to come to school very early. Which means the school is devoid of any students. Sunset walked towards the tree she sat on the previous day when Fluttershy brought her lunch. Smiling at the pleasant memory, Sunset sat beneath the tree and opened her sketchbook and began to draw in it. First, she had no idea what to draw, so she began by drawing small lines. The lines slowly turned into a face. Then a long hair with a curl at the end. And before she knew it, she drew the face of the only girl that showed her any kind of kindness, Fluttershy.
“Um… Sunset-”
“Ahh!” Sunset yelped at the sudden voice and quickly closed the book. She saw Fluttershy standing there, with a slight frown on her face.
“Oh… um… sorry, Um… what were you drawing? I-if you don’t mind me asking.”
“O-oh! It’s n-nothing. J-just doodling… ye know… to p-past… time.” Sunset stammered with a blush on her face. She silently thanked herself for closing the book before Fluttershy see what she drew. She didn’t want her to assume things. Not that Fluttershy would think of things like that. After all, she doesn’t have any kind of feelings towards her like that right... Right?
“Oh… okay. Um… Are you okay? Have you eaten anything?”
“Y-yeah, don’t worry.”
“But, y-you said, you don’t have money, s-so… how did you… have something to eat?”
“Th-that’s um… well… I… I… I can’t tell. Not yet anyway. Please don’t ask me about that and don’t worry, I’ll tell you later.” Sunset knew she can trust Fluttershy, but she didn’t know if Principal Celestia would like that. So until she asks her about that, she can’t tell anyone about what happened yesterday.
“Okay… um… would you like to meet my other friends today?” She asked slowly.
“What?”
“Um… they want to talk to you. We did promise Twilight to help you.”
“B-but… they aren’t going to l-like me. What if they-”
“Sunset, look… I know they are angry at you… but they won’t harm you. They want to help you. And, if it makes you feel better, I’m going to be with you the whole time. So what do you say?” Fluttershy asked looking at Sunset with soft eyes filled with kindness and a small smile. Sunset thought about what to say. She could reject to see them easily. But looking at the bluish-green eyes of Fluttershy, she couldn’t make words to say no. Instead, she agreed.
“Okay. Promise you won’t go away?”
“I promise,” Fluttershy said smiling.
“Okay then, lead the way.”
Fluttershy walked into the school building with Sunset right beside her. She looked at Sunset and saw that Sunset have a face of uncertainty. Sunset on the other hand can’t help thinking why she agreed to this. Rainbow’s already against her because of a misunderstanding. What would she do when she saw her? However, any more thoughts vanquished when she felt someone grab her hand. She looked down and saw it was Fluttershy that was holding her arm. Fluttershy was looking away but she could swear that she saw a slight tint of red on her face.
‘Fluttershy? Is she- no… that can’t-... why would-… no… surly she wants to comfort me. She is the element of kindness after all. Nothing else, yeah.’
By now, students are slowly filling in the school. And they all gave her bad looks whenever they passed by. Sunset thought of turning back, but the hand holding her made a stop to her thoughts. And before they knew it, they arrived in the band room. Fluttershy’s friends were all already there and they were talking about something. Sunset picked up a few lines when they got closer.
“So, do ya have a name for it?” She heard Applejack say.
“Yeah, It’s Rainbo-” Rainbow stopped mid-sentence when she saw Sunset and her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?” She asked dangerously and started to walk towards them.
“Rainbow wait-” Rarity called her but she kept walking forward.
“Get away from Fluttershy. I told you if I see you near her ag-” Rainbow suddenly stopped with wide eyes as she saw Fluttershy stepping in front of Sunset as if defending her.
“Rainbow, I brought her here,” Fluttershy said in a stern, confident voice surprising everyone. “And she’s my friend; she can be with me if she wants.”
“What… Fluttershy… are you insane. She’s-”
“That’s enough Rainbow, you heard her.” Applejack said putting a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“What Applejack you too?”
“Rainbow, I know you don’t like Sunset, so are we. But if Fluttershy of all people is willing to give her a chance, we might as well give her a chance too.”
“You are all insane. Do what you want, I’m out of here. Don’t crawl back to me when you all mess up big time.” Rainbow angrily said before stomping her way out the band room. Sunset looked at the whole scene in astonishment. She watched as Rainbow left the band room and talked for the first time.
“M-maybe I shouldn’t be here,” Sunset said and turned to leave but Applejack stopped her.
“No Sunset wait, don’t mind Rainbow.” She said. “Look, we don’t like you at all, but Princess Twilight asked us to help you. And she’s the princess of friendship so maybe you can change. And Fluttershy already being friends with you say something.”
“But don’t expect us to be friends with you instantly like her. You did do some nasty things.” Rarity said.
“Yeah, I know. And I’m sorry for everything I did. I know words can’t change what I did, but I’ll do anything to make up for what I did. I really want to change.” Sunset said, looking down.
“Really! That’s great! If you really did change, we can be the bestest friends FOREVER!! And I will throw you the biggest ‘Yay you changed and we are now the best friends’ party. What do you say huh, huh, huh…” Pinkie suddenly appeared; more like teleported, in front of Sunset giving her a heart attack and began to spurt-out the whole sentence in one breath. Sunset on the other hand was frozen in place like a deer in the headlight, looking at Pinkie, eyes wide.
“I think you scared her Sugercube.” Applejack said.
“What! I did! Sunset are you okay. Sorry if I scared you.” Pinkie suddenly said to Sunset, panicking. Sunset then snapped out of her shock and replied to her.
“Uh- N-no, it’s okay.” She said with a forced smile. Pinkie then kept staring at her for a few seconds with the same panicked face and,
“Okay.” She suddenly said smiling like nothing ever happened. Sunset looked at her dumbfounded.
“You’ll get used to her.” Applejack said patting Sunset’s back. Then the warning bell rang. “Well, time to go to the classes. What do you say, see you at the lunch?” She asked Sunset.
“Y-yeah. I’ll meet you, I guess...” She said, muttering the last part.
Vice-Principal Luna’s gaze shifted from her computer screen to her phone, when suddenly it started to ring. She picked the phone up and looked at the caller’s name and a slight smile crept into her face. She slides the answer icon and brought it to her ear.
“Hello Chrys, what’s up?” she answered.
“Hello Lu, I just called you to inform you that the paperwork are ready. All I need is the signature of both Celesia and the kid and I can take care of the rest.” came the voice of a woman from the other side of the phone. “Would you like me to take them to you?”
“No no I’ll meet you.”
“Why? I like to meet the ‘pony’ myself.” said the woman, emphasizing the word pony.
“Well, not yet. Apparently, Tia hadn’t told the girl about all this yet. Let’s just wait till everything’s over shall we?”
“Okay, but you have to explain everything later okay? It’s not every day that someone calls me for paperwork for a pony turned human; especially when that someone is my girlfriend.” Luna’s face turned red at that.
“W-well I’ll meet you this Saturday Chrysalis, bye.” She said before hanging up.
The rest of the day for Sunset went without any more incidents, other than the occasional glares she received from the students. But Sunset kept working on the wall, ignoring them, until the time for the lunch neared. Soon the bell for the lunch rang and Sunset was dismissed for the lunch. ‘What do I do now? I can’t rely on Fluttershy every day for lunch. And Applejack did invite me to lunch with them.’ She kept thinking before deciding to make her way to the cafeteria. Halfway to the cafeteria, she met Fluttershy.
“Oh, Sunset… are you going to the cafeteria?” She asked. “I can bring a tray outside if you like.”
“No, it’s okay. And Applejack invited me for lunch, so…”
“Okay then.”
They made it to the cafeteria in a couple of minutes, under the constant glares of the students towards the fiery-haired girl. They saw Applejack already there, waiting for others to arrive.
“You should go take a seat with Applejack. I’ll bring you a tray.” Fluttershy said, eying a certain golden-haired girl. Sunset slowly nodded before walking towards the farm girl. Upon getting close to Applejack, she addressed her.
“H-hi… Applejack.” She timidly said. Applejack looked up at her.
“Oh, Sunset. take a seat would ya?” Applejack said, pointing at the chair in front of her. Sunset nervously walked over to the chair and sat on it. “Aren’t you going to get lunch?” She asked noting the lack of a tray with her.
“Um… Fluttershy said she’d bring me a one because of what happened with Lighting Dust.” Sunset said. No later than she said it, Fluttershy came over to them with two trays in her hands. She gave one to Sunset before taking a seat next to her. Sunset thanked Fluttershy taking the tray and Fluttershy smiled at her with a slight blush, which Applejack quickly noted. Silence spread between them for a few seconds before it was broken by,
“What is she doing here?” a yell from Rainbow Dash. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Sunset turned their heads towards her and saw Rarity and Pinkie were right behind her.
“Now now, Rainbow Dash, be nice to her.” Rarity said before taking a seat.
“What! Be nice to her?”
“Come on Rainbow, you think you are the only one that’s pissed at her. We all are. But we made a promise and we have to keep it.” Applejack said.
“Yeah, don’t be such a grumpy pants Dash.” Pinkie said.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we suddenly have to be friends with her,” Rainbow said.
“Yeah we don’t,” Applejack said. “So Sunset, as we said this morning, we won’t be your friends instantly. So first, you have to get our trust. Then, we can really be friends.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll do anything. I really need to change.” Sunset said looking down.
“Huh, change? I highly doubt that a she-demon like you can change just because we blasted you with a rainbow laser and turned back in a couple of seconds.” Rainbow said in disgust. Sunset looked at her in shock, at what she heard.
“A-a couple of seconds?” She whispered.
“What was that, sugercube.” She heard Applejack say.
“Uh- nothing…”
“Okay…” Applejack said, looking at the girl in question with narrowed eyes.
Friday passed without a hitch, other than Fluttershy's occasional bugging to know if Sunset's okay and Lighting Dust trying to bully her, which was intercepted by surprisingly Rainbow Dash. It happened sometime after lunch when Sunset went to get some supplies from the janitor. Sunset was walking towards the janitor's office when she was grabbed from behind. Breaking free from the gapping hands allowed her to see her attacker, only to see Lighting Dust with her lackeys behind her.
"Sunset Shimmer… you have a lot of nerve to come back here after what you've done, don't you?" Lighting Dust said.
"Uh- L-Lighting Dust l-look I-" Sunset tried to talk, but was interrupted when she received a punch in the face from Lightning Dust sent her sprawling on her back.
"Shut up. Just because those girls are with you doesn't mean we are going to forget what you did and be nice to you. I'm convinced you used some mind trick or something to make them like you. Just like you did that night." Lightning Dust bellowed as she grabbed Sunset by the front of her shirt. Sunset's eyes began to water both from Lightning's comment and the pressure to her back.
"Oh, drop the act and get up, She-Demon." She yelled into her face, holding her up as Sunset refused to stand.
'Don't, do it. I'll turn into her again. I don't want to hurt anyone again. She'll leave if I don't do anything.' Sunset thought to herself as she shook her head.
"Why? What happened to the big bad Sunset? Where's all that talk about you putting me in the ground? Why aren't you-"
"Hey, that's enough." They all turned to see Rainbow Dash glaring at Lighting Dust.
"Hey Rainbow, what are you-" Lighting tried to talk, but Rainbow cut her off again.
"Did you forget we have soccer practice now?" She said with a glare. "Now get going, you are already late, the practice began fifteen minutes ago. You know I don't like flakes on my team."
"Fine, Cap," Lighting said before running off with her lackeys.
"R-Rainbow-" Rainbow quickly glared at Sunset, before following Lighting Dust without saying a word. "Thank you," she mumbled.
Although it didn't seem like Rainbow helped her, Sunset had a feeling that Rainbow actually did save her there. Things were slowly looking up for Sunset. Sunset left her room and headed down the staircase into the kitchen and saw principal Celestia sipping from a coffee cup.
"Ah Sunset, you're up. Here," Principal Celestia said, giving Sunset a cup of coffee.
"Thanks," Sunset said, taking the cup.
She sat beside Celestia and began to sip the coffee when suddenly she saw something she'd never thought she'd see. She watched slackjawed as Vice-Principal Luna strolled in like a zombie. She staggard towards the coffee mug, mumbling incoherently. Sunset watched at this with awe, the coffee seemingly reviving her instantly.
"Hehe, you'll get used to that," Celestia said, smiling. "So, do you have any plans today?"
"Um… I have to go to my job today." She said.
"Job? Do you really need one anymore? You don't need the money, you are staying with us now," Celestia stated.
"Well, I'm not going to be with you forever-" Sunset got interrupted by the sound of Luna chocking on her coffee.
"Cough –cough- sorry," Luna said, holding her throat.
"And this was the only job that I could find from the little paperwork I had. And, I kind of liked the job."
"What do you mean liked the job?" Celestia asked.
"Well, the staff is really nice. And you got to wear a traditional Kimono," Sunset twiddled her thumbs with a slight blush.
"Hehe, do you want me to take you there?" Celestia asked.
"N-no, it's okay. I can get there myself. It's not that far from here." Sunset said. "... Principal Celestia, can I ask you something?" She asked uncertainly.
"Yes, what is it?" She asked.
"Um… It's okay if you say no… but… Fluttershy is worried about where I stay and keeps asking to know where I stay. I don't know how long I'm going to stay here. So I guess I was wondering if I can tell her?"
"You'll be staying here longer than you think. So as long as it's only Fluttershy that knows, I see no problem. That being said, I can't stress how important it is for this to stay under wraps. But this is Fluttershy we're talking about, so there should be no cause for concern. I've noticed you are quite close to her." Celestia said teasingly.
"I-I'm not... we're not like... oh dear," Sunset stammered out clearly flustered about what Celestia was suggesting. Both Celestia and Luna laughed at that.
After getting ready, Sunset got ready and left the house and walked toward the bus stop. She was just about to sit when suddenly she heard a ping. Standing still, she pulled out her phone and typing in her code of 7669 and saw it was a text from Fluttershy.
Fluttershy: Good Morning, Sunset. Are you free today? Maybe we can hang out? If that's alright with you, that is. 'Fluttershy wants to hang out with me? But I have to go to the job.'
Sunset: Sorry, Fluttershy. I have to go to my job I told you about. Maybe we can hang out after my shift is over?
Fluttershy: Oh, I forgot. I was hoping to hang out with you at the Animal Shelter. Maybe we can meet for lunch? I still don't know where you stay yet.
Sunset: I'll tell you, Fluttershy. And yeah, let's meet for lunch. I'll let you know then.
After getting on a bus, and waiting through the stop, she arrived at the mall. Sunset made her way to the sushi restaurant. Going inside and getting her uniform from her boss and a quick rundown on her shift, she was given ten minutes to get ready. After dressing up, she began her work. She didn't do much, other than taking orders from the customers and clearing the tables for the next group. It was the first time she wore a kimono, and it took her a while to get used to walking on the pair of geta*.
Before she knew it, her shift ended, and it was time for her to leave. She ordered a Vegi-Sushi to go and left when it was handed over. She sent the time and place to meet Fluttershy earlier. She made it to the park and choose a place where she could talk with Fluttershy privately. Before long, Fluttershy arrived at the park, and Sunset waved to from where she was sitting. Fluttershy took a seat in front of Sunset.
"Hey, Fluttershy. Here, I uh... I brought some Vegi-Sushi." Sunset said, offering the Sushi she brought.
"Oh! Why thank you, Sunset." Fluttershy said. "So… can you tell me where you stay?" She asked.
"Um… yeah, but… you gotta keep this a secret. Can you promise that?" Sunset asked.
"I pinkie promise." Sunset stuck out her pinkie finger while Fluttershy went to make the motions for Pinkie's version. They both paused awkwardly when they went to do different things. After a moment of silence, Fluttershy began to explain. "It's Pinkie's thing. Once you make a pinkie promise, you can never break it."
"Okaaay… ahem… after the fall formal, Vice-Principal Luna made me, Snips and Snails to clean the wall. Snips and Snails snuck out while I stayed behind. After everyone left, Principal Celestia came to me and asked me If I want a ride home. But I didn't want her to know where I stayed. So, I lied to her and told her it wasn't too far and that I'd be fine by myself. She probably saw through it," Sunset began.
"Then, on Wednesday, she called me to her office and asked about my living conditions. I guess Princess Twilight told her about my circumstances and that I was from that other world. I lied again to her, saying I sold some stuff from my world, That I used the money from it to buy an apartment and that I have a job. Though that last one wasn't quite a lie. Anyways, she said she's going to look into my 'apartment' and make sure they were up to her standards. I didn't think she was going to do that the same day. She came to me once the school is over and asked to take her to my apartment. Because she checked out my living arrangement that day, I wasn't prepared for it. She figured out pretty quickly that I don't have an actual place to live. So she took me in."
"Wait, Principal Celestia took you in? So, she adopted you?" Fluttershy asked in astonishment.
'Adopt? Will she- no, don't think about that. It didn't happen before. Who's to say it will happen now? They are the same person.'
"Uh- N-no, She didn't. She said until they figure out something, I'm going to live with them." Sunset said.
"Oh… okay…" Fluttershy said.
They then began to eat their lunch in silence, an uncomfortable silence. Then after they were almost finished eating, Fluttershy talked again.
"Um Sunset… can I ask you something?"
"Yeah?"
"W-when Rainbow said… the rainbow wave only lasted few seconds… you looked surprised. Why is that? I-If you don't mind me asking."
"No, it's okay. I knew I was going to have to tell you sooner or later. When you guys hit me with the elements, I think I passed out. When I woke up in this... this black void. When I looked around, it was just dark, a nothingness. That was when I saw a light. I couldn't see where the light was coming from. That's when I began to think about what happened. I remembered you guy praising Princess Twilight, I remember the feeling it gave me, I remember the anger. Then I felt a sharp pain in my head, and then I began to see things. The t-things I d-did." Sunset said, holding back tears.
"A-all the horrible thing I d-did to everyone, not just people but ponies too. But in the other person's perspective while also feeling what they felt. I was being tormented by myself. It was awful. F-Fluttershy… I-it was very painful. I thought I'm going to die. Fluttershy… I-I know how you felt when I bullied you. I know how you felt when I broke your friends apart. S-so let me ask y-you something. W-why did you really want to b-be friends with me. I-it's not just because of the P-Princess, r-right? Or was it because you thought I could be good?" Sunset said, tears falling down her eyes.
"Um… a-actually… t-there is something. But you need to tell me everything that the rainbow wave did to you first," Fluttershy said, turning red.
"Um… that's about it. After my visions ended at the fall formal, I passed out and woke up in that crater. I've had these horrible nightmares where it begins at the fall formal, and I end up reliving the black void with the light. Without those visions and pains but, there's something…" Sunset stopped thinking about the last part.
"What?"
"Um… the second time I went into that void in my dreams, I tried to reach the light but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get an inch closer to that. But I've noticed that it keeps getting closer to me after every dream. I just wake up closer to it than before."
"Um… that's strange. But I've heard that dreams can actually say things about someone. Maybe, you are getting closer to the light because you turning good now. You made friends now." Fluttershy said.
"I don't know," Sunset said. "Your turn. Tell me, why did you really want to be friends with me?"
"Um… right… that..." Fluttershy said, looking away. She had a slight tint of red in her face. "Um… uh… the promise for the Princess and m-my idea to help you to be good aren't the only reasons. Um… the other reason is… um… I…"
"You…" Sunset prompted Fluttershy to say.
"Um… I… I l-liked you?"
Sunset chocked on her food.
"Cough- cough- sorry, what did you say?"
"Um… I said… I lik-,"
"Oh, hey, Guys, fancy meeting ya here." Fluttershy got interrupted by Applejack, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
"Eyeep!"
"Oh! A-Applejack, hi." Sunset said.
"I'm not interrupting something, am I?" She asked.
"Uh- n-no, of course not… we are just having lunch together, nothing else, right Fluttershy?" Sunset quickly said with a forced smile on her face.
"Y-yeah, t-that's all." Fluttershy quickly said.
"Uh-huh." Applejack said with a smile, arms crossed.
"Well, since I'm free for the rest of the day… I was wondering if we can hang out for a while. I'd like to get to know you, Sunset Shimmer. If you two don't have any plans for the rest of the day."
"Uh- yeah, maybe. What do you say, Sunset?" Fluttershy asked.
"Sounds good to me?" Sunset said uncertainly.
"Okay, then. You two finish up here. I'll be right back," Applejack said before quickly getting out of view.
Vice-Principal Luna knocked on the apartment door in front of her, waiting for an answer. After waiting a moment, the door was opened by a woman wearing a black skirt and a black jacket over a green shirt. She had dark grey skin, dark blue hair, and green eyes.
"Oh, Lulu, it's good to see you," She said, kissing Luna's forehead.
"Hey, Chrysie. So, do you have them?" Luna asked, walking into the apartment.
"Yup. It's all right here." Chrysalis said, holding a manila folder. Luna tried to take them, but Chrysalis pulled them out of her reach. "Ah-Ah… not yet, first you gotta tell me everything about this whole pony business. Then and only then will I give you the file," She said with a smirk.
"Ugh- fine… but I can only tell you what actually happened. Anything else, you need to ask Sunset," Luna said, defeated.
"Fine by me. Now, tell me."
"Okay, it all happened a couple of years ago…"
Luna began to tell Chrysalis all about what happened with Sunset, starting from the day she enrolled at CHS. In the middle of the conversation, Chrysalis made some tea to drink while listening to Luna with the utmost interest.
"… So after that, Celestia took her in. But she hasn't said a single word about that with the kid. She always chickens out when she's going to say that. Also, Sunset looks afraid of Tia more than me for some reason," Luna concluded.
"Huh… honestly, if someone else said anything remotely close to this, I would call the nearest mental ward. But since it's coming from you, it's really hard not to believe," Chrysalis said. "In any case, a deals a deal, here's the paperwork," She said, giving Luna the manila folder. Luna began to skim through it to see if everything is correct. "It has everything Sunset would need. A birth certificate, a social security card, you know. And last but not least, adoption papers."
"Chrysalis, thank you. You are the best," Luna said, giving Chrysalis a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just make sure Celestia talk to the kid soon. Because I want to meet her as soon as possible," Chrysalis said.
"I will don't worry about that."
Sunset walked back to Celestia's home that evening after spending time with Fluttershy and Applejack. Hanging out with Applejack went surprisingly well. She recalled the conversation she had with the local apple farmer.
Flashback
"So, Sugarcube. Ah was wondering if ya could tell us more about your homeworld. What's it like there?" Applejack asked.
"Well, for starters, it's inhabited by mostly ponies. And almost everyone here has a counterpart in that world," Sunset began.
"Almost?" Fluttershy asked.
"I think. I never found my counterpart in this world." Sunset said.
"Ah see. What else?" Applejack asked.
"Well, it's a world of magic. We do use science, but its mostly tied together with magic and creating spells. I suppose you could think of it as chemistry."
"Wow. I wonder what it feels to have magic with you all the time," Fluttershy said.
"It's great. You can do all sorts of things. You can teleport anywhere, make things float, you can grow trees, it's amazing," Sunset said, smiling. It didn't last long as her smile suddenly vanquished. "And I left that behind, everything really, behind searching for power. How the mighty has fallen, huh?" She said somberly. Fluttershy and Applejack looked at her sadly.
"So, I heard what happened with Lighting and Rainbow today," Applejack said, hoping for some sort of distraction from the sudden shift of Sunset's emotions.
"What! What happened? Did they hurt you?" Fluttershy asked.
"Uh… Lighting tried to. But Rainbow came and took her to soccer practice. I think she actually saved me there," Sunset said.
Sunset, why didn't you stand up to Lighting? You are more than capable of that. Applejack asked.
"I-I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. It led me to a place that I never wanted to be at, doing that might make me evil again."
"Look, Sugercube, I don't know if you just acting or if ya are a downright idiot. Sunset, self-defense doesn't make you bad. If you can't avoid conflict, then you should defend yourself if you can."
"I-I don't know. I'll think about it."
That's all I ask."
"Also, Rainbow did save you back there," Applejack said matter of factly.
"Really? Does that mean she'll be friends with me?" Sunset asked, hopefully.
"I don't think so," Applejack said. Sunset hung her head. "Sunset, Rainbow wants to be your friend. She did promise to the Princess. But she's afraid."
"Afraid? Why would she be afraid?"
"Yeah. Rainbow is very loyal to her friends. Even when you broke us apart, it's me that broke up with her. And she doesn't want that to happen again. She's just afraid that you'll break us apart again."
"Oh… sorry. But I don't want to do that again. I want to be good."
"Listen, Sunset, none of us want to be your friend. Well- maybe except for Fluttershy. And maybe you do want to change. But you were a no-good-varmint to everyone. You even told lies about our farm, my family, I don't take kindly to that, Shimmer." Sunset hung her head even lower. "So, I have an idea. You remember when I said that if you want us to be your friends, you have to prove you actually changed?"
"Y-yeah? I'll do anything."
"Okay, then. Why don't you come over to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow? And help out at the farm? If you put in some honest work, I might consider our friendship as a real possibility. What do you say? Want to come a do some honest and good tomorrow?"
"I want to change. So yeah, I will," Sunset said with determination.
End Flashback
Sunset opened the door to Celestia's home and made her way inside.
"Principal Celestia… I'm back," She called out. She saw Celestia sitting on the couch, scanning through a manila folder. Her voice must've snapped Celestia from her thought as she looked up at Sunset.
"Oh, Sunset, you're back. How was your day?" Celestia asked.
"Uh… it's was okay. The job was great. I met up with Fluttershy for lunch after work at the park, and we met Applejack there." Sunset said, walking towards Celestia. "We hung out a bit and, that's it."
"So Applejack's good with you now?"
"Not exactly. But Applejack said to visit her farm tomorrow to help. If I prove to her that I really want to change, then she said she'll be my friend." Sunset said.
"That's wonderful, Sunset. You're growing so much in such a short time," Celestia nodded with joy. Sunset blushed.
"So… what's in the folder? If you don't mind me asking," Sunset said nervously, holding her left elbow in her right hand. She couldn't help but wonder what was inside the folder as she knew that look Celestia wore, she'd seen the Princess with the same look as she read through proposed laws. That meant that whatever was contained in those pages was important. One thing she noticed that all the humans shared with their pony counterparts were actions, how they moved and acted, but that didn't make them identical copies of the ponies she knew. The best analogy that she could come up with is two sides of the same coin. Their experiences are different, but they share some ticks. Like Celestia's look of deep concentration has narrowed eyes, and she sat stone still. She almost always held her chin as she seemed to glare at the problem. Knowing that something was amiss but having yet to catch it in her cage like vision
"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry," Celestia said with slight panic in her tone as she quickly picked up the folder and stood up, with the file close to her chest. "How about some tea and you can tell me about the rest of your day?" She asked. The meaning clear to someone closer to her pony counterpart than anyone could've dreamed, this conversation was over
"N-no, thanks," Sunset said. "I'll… uh… I'll be in my room." She said before making her way to her room.
Unbeknownst to them, Luna watched the whole scene hidden within the staircase's shadows that lead to the basement. "So you want to do this the hard way, huh," She muttered to herself like an evil villain in a comic book.
That night, the dinner went fairly quickly. No one talked that much. After dinner, Sunset went to her room as Celestia began to wash the dishes. Luna decided now was the best time to set up her plan. She climbed the stairs and looked towards Sunset's room. It was closed. She then took one last look behind her and made her towards Celestia's room and went inside.
"Okay, now where are they?" She asked herself. Her eyes fell on the cabinet, and a smile formed in her face. She opened the drawers and found what she was looking for. After setting everything up, she snuck out of Celestia's room and took a peek at Celestia. She was already finished. "Good timing."
Luna walked over to Sunset's room and knocked on the door.
"Sunset, can you come out for a while?" Luna waited a few seconds, and the door open.
"Yes?" Sunset asked.
"Celestia said she wanted to talk with you about something. She said to wait in her room until she gets there." She said in her best serious face.
"O-okay," Sunset said. Luna left to her room, and Sunset walked over to Celestia's room, thinking of what Celestia wanted to talk about.
"Maybe she found me a place to stay."
Once she went inside Celestia's room, she looked around the room. She saw that her room was rather simple despite having money and a palace-like-house, unlike her pony counterparts. Then again, her counterpart was a near-immortal Princess that commanded the sun. While looking around the room, her eyes fell on the manila folder from before.
"It's that folder. Celestia seemed panicked when I asked her about it. Maybe it's personal. I shouldn't-" Sunset's thought suddenly stopped when she saw a part of a word on a paper, which poked out of the folder. She walked towards it with knitted brows and pulled out the paper from the folder and looked at it. Her eyes went wide, and her hands began to shake, reading what's on the form.
"Sunset? What are you-" She heard Celestia saying from behind and she slowly turned towards her and looked up at her shakily.
"W- wh- what… i-is th-this?" She shakily asked.
"S-Sunset I-… I… Sunset… I… maybe we should sit down first." Celestia said shakily, taking a seat on her bad. "Come, sit." She said, patting the spot next to her. Sunset slowly walked towards her, and shakily took a seat next to Celestia.
"Sunset, when you first came to enroll at CHS. I had this… feeling. That we have some kind of connection, a link that I couldn't find a reason for, and I couldn't get that feeling out of my head. Even when you were bullying others, I thought I need to do something. But I never acted, worried that I could break the mysterious link between us," Celestia began. "When Princess Twilight told me that you are not from this world, I realized you were alone in this world and have been for quite some time. Seeing you that night, all bruised and dirty, so depressed… My bond with you screamed at me that it was time to act. So I took you in as soon as possible and asked Luna to make these papers." Celestia put both her hands on Sunset's shoulders and made her look at her eyes.
"Sunset, this is adoption papers; made for you. I've wanted to adopt you for a long time. Sunset, I don't know if you will stay in this world, or if you will go back to someone in that world. I don't mean to replace anyone, but if you sign these papers, you can have a life here. You can have a family here, with me, Luna, and so many people waiting to meet you. I want you to know that I would really like to have you as my daughter. I understand if you don't, but I have to ask, will you be my daughter?"
Sunset couldn't believe any of this. This was the one thing she always wanted. She wanted it so bad before that now it almost seemed like a dream. She's afraid that she'll wake up any moment only to have her hopes shattered. She knew there was only one way to find out. She looked at Celestia's eyes; and then suddenly lunged at Celestia and wrapped her arms around her tightly, catching Celestia off guard.
"I'd l-love to… mom." That last word broke the dam, and Celestia embraced Sunset with tear-filled eyes. Happy tears. They both happily cried together, smiling.
"Thank you, Sunset. I promise I'll be a good mom to you." They both stayed there for a while, happily embracing each other. Unbeknown to them, Luna was listening to the whole thing, just outside the door.
"Mission Accomplished." She muttered with a happy smile.
Celestia and Sunset signed the papers, and Celestia gave Sunset her new ID after the heartfelt moment. Before long, Luna entered the room.
"Ah, I see everything worked out well?" She said. Sunset's smile dropped, but her face was still bright with happiness.
"Hehe, thank you, Luna. For everything. I couldn't have done it without you." Celestia said.
"Don't thank me, Tia. I promised you I'll fix everything." Luna said with a sad look.
"Fix what?" Sunset asked. Celestia took a while before answering.
"That's something Luna would have to tell you. First, you need to know that you have to tell us about your past." Celestia said.
"M-my p-past?" Sunset asked with fear evident in her voice. Celestia noticed this.
"Sunset, I just want to know you better. And I know you did bad things in the past. But know that they are the past. Don't let the past define you." Celestia said.
Sunset looked down for a moment. After thinking for a while, she looked back up.
"Well… y-you know I'm from this… alternate world, right?" Celestia and Luna nodded. "Cel-Mom… when you said that you don't mean to replace anyone, you couldn't replace what wasn't there. I was an orphan back there." Celestia let out a gasp.
"Oh, Sunset…"
"I had no friends back at the orphanage. It was hard for me to make friends. One day, I went to the entrance exam for this big school for gifted unicorns, and I passed with flying colors. This caught the attention of the Ruler of the country. She took me in as her personal student," Sunset paused for a while, thinking what to say next.
"Mom… I don't know if you know this, but both our worlds are quite similar. The major difference being the magic and the inhabitance. Almost everyone in this world has a counterpart in that world. A-and you counterpart i-is… Princess Celestia… my mentor," Sunset said, looking down.
"What?" Luna asked. Celestia let out a gasp and held her hands over her mouth.
"Y-yeah, but something I noticed between this world and mine is that the counterparts look the same and act like the same, but they are not exact copies of each other. They have different experiences and the decisions they made for things can be different. Especially between you and your counterpart." Sunset said. "For one, the Princess is over a thousand years old. And, you adopted me, unlike my mentor. Also, you seem to have more experience over relationships, unlike her."
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked.
"Mom, would you believe me if I said that the whole reason or cause of me going evil is that I wanted a mom?"
"You… what happened?"
"After Princess took me as her personal student, I began to see her as a mother figure. And I wanted it to be that way. So I asked her if she could be my mom, but she refused. She said that we could never have such a relationship. I was so heartbroken." Sunset said. "Then, one day, I saw a door opened to a room that was always locked. When I looked inside, she was looking at this mirror. I walked closer and asked her about it. She wasn't clearly expecting to see me there. She said it's a magic mirror after she got herself together, and she still doesn't know what the mirror does. When I looked at the mirror, It suddenly shifted from the Princess and me into an image of me, looking like a princess. I can still remember her adopting Princess Cadence as her niece when she became a princess. So I thought if I became a princess too, she'd adopt me." By now, Sunset began to sob lightly.
"W-when I asked about the image… she said I-I'm not ready to know about it a-and forbid anymore t-talk about the mirror. She said I should focus on m-make some friends. But as I said, it was hard for me to make friends, and after some failed attempts, I told her that I can't make friends and asked for help. B-but she said I-I was not trying hard and kept telling m-me to try again. S-so, one d-day, I snuck into the forbidden s-section of the Canterlot Library and searched about the mirror. But the librarian saw me and i-informed the Princess. She came with guards and ordered them to lock me in my room until she came back." Sunset is crying tears now. "I-I was terrified, I guess that I would be forced into exile or imprisoned. So I knocked the guards using a stun spell and ran off to the mirror. It was a portal to another world, and I thought I could find a way to become a princess on the other side. And then I came into this world, two and a half years ago. Y-you know the rest." Sunset finished. No one said anything for a while. Sunset, thinking she messed up again, looked down and waited for any of them to speak. But what she didn't expect was the sudden embrace she got from both her mom and aunt.
"Sunset?" Celestia began after they broke the hug. "I'm so sorry. I know it's not my fault, but I should have reached out to you sooner."
"No. Y-you gave me a new chance, a new life, and most of all, a family," Sunset said, smiling.
Luna walked over to the table and picked up the manila folder, "Alright, you two, I'll leave you two alone and Sunset, maybe we should talk sometime later. I also have my end of the deal to keep." Luna said. Sunset nodded.
After Luna left the room, Celestia talked again, smiling, "Sunset, do you want to sleep together? I have to make up for all those years that we could've been a mother and daughter pair. You can tell me more about your world. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of legends and myths that are real in your world." She asked playfully. Sunset's eyes widened with excitement, and she grinned widely.
"Yeah, there are," Sunset said, embracing Celestia one last time
The next morning, Sunset woke up without any nightmares. However, she was still stuck within that void. Though considering what happened the previous night, Sunset felt fresh and happy. She tried to turn around but felt something preventing that action. She opened her eyes, and her heart was filled with joy as she saw Principal Celestia, her mom, hugging her while she slept. Not wanting to wake her up and ruin the moment, Sunset snuggled closer to her mom and fell asleep again.
Before long, Sunset woke up again and looked around. Celestia was nowhere to be seen. She looked at a clock and read it was nine in the morning. After climbing down from the bed, Sunset left her room and walked towards the living room. A quick glance inside showed Sunset Celestia reading a book on the sofa.
"Ah Sunset, did you sleep well?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah. Thanks again. For what you did," Sunset said.
"You don't have to thank me. I should've done it long ago," Sunset smiled and walked over to Celestia and took a seat beside her. "So, are you going to Applejack's today?"
"O-oh, yeah. I said I'd visit her," Sunset said uncertainly.
Noticing this, Celestia spoke reassuringly, "Sunset, don't worry. Everything will be fine. You've come a long way in these past few days. I'm sure you'll do fine." Celestia paused for a moment before asking, "Do you want me to take you there?"
"Shouldn't we keep this a secret?"
"Well, we can't keep this a secret forever. Your friends will eventually know, but until then, it will be advisable to keep this a secret as much as possible. But if you like, you can tell them. They are your friends." Celestia said.
"Yeah."
"Now, go on and get ready. I'll drop you off near the farm, so they won't know you are with me."
Applejack woke up that morning and opened the windows. She breathed the fresh air from the farm and went downstairs to start her day. She remembered that Sunset promised her that she would come today, but the farm girl had her doubts that Sunset would come. Still, Applejack hoped Sunset would visit them. After having breakfast with her family and getting ready for the day's work, Applejack went about her normal routine. When hours went by, she began to think that Sunset wouldn't come today. After working for a while, she decided to call Sunset just to see what her excuse for not coming today was. But just as she was about to enter her living room, she heard someone was walking up to the farmhouse. Turning around, revealed Sunset walking up the path towards the farmhouse. A slight smile crept up her face, and she went to greet Sunset.
"Howdy, Sunset. Ah was beginning to think you wouldn't show," Applejack said.
"Y-yeah. I promised you." Sunset said. "So, did the others know that I'm here?" She asked nervously.
"Yeah, they do. Oh wait, Ah forgot to tell Apple bloom, but Ah wouldn't worry none. She won't do anything."
"O-okay. So, what do you want me to do today?"
"Nothing big. Our storage room needs some cleaning, but everyone is busy today. Think you can clean it?"
"Y-yeah. I'll do it."
"Well, follow me." Applejack said and led the way towards the storage room. It was massive, and just like Applejack said, it needed cleaning done. A lot of cleaning. Boxes were scattered around. Hay was piled up everywhere. And from looking at it, Sunset knew it was to take all day to clean the storage room.
"There you have it. The cleaning supplies are right there." Applejack said, pointing at a corner of the room. "Think you can manage it?"
Sunset just looked at the room, eyes wide. She was just tasked to clean a large room all by herself. But she's wasn't to back off now. "Yeah, I-I can manage this."
"Great. I'll be over at the apple grove if you need anything," Applejack said before leaving Sunset alone.
"Okay, time to do this," Sunset said to herself while pulling up the sleeves of her jacket. She walked over to a large box and tried to push. "Hugh-" By using all of her might, Sunset pushed against the large crater… a few inches. Sunset collapsed to the ground and breathed heavily.
"Huh- huh- this is going to take forever." She said to herself, annoyed.
After leaving Sunset, Applejack went to begin her work. She went over to the apple field and met Big Mac.
"Is she here?" Big Mac asked.
"Yeah, she is. Ah have her clean the storage room. So let's just see what she's going to do now."
"Eeyup,"
Before they knew it, they heard Granny Smith shout for them to have lunch.
"You go, I'll get Sunset." Applejack said, to which Big Mac nodded.
Applejack walked over to the storage room, and she heard shuffling from inside. She went inside and saw Sunset slowly sweeping the floor. Applejack looked around and saw that Sunset hasn't cleaned much in the few hours she's been doing it. That and Sunset looked like someone threw a water bucket at her.
"Wow, Sunset, do you look…"
"Yeah yeah… I … I know…" Sunset said between breaths. "Sorry… I wasn't able to … clean much…"
"Uh… yeah, don't worry about that, Ah just came to tell you it's time for lunch and… you should get some rest first." Applejack said.
"But I haven't even finished half of this." Sunset protested.
"Sunset, there's no way you can clean all this in a day alone. On top of that, you are weaker than I thought." Applejack said, crossing her arms.
"Uh… okay…" Sunset said, looking away.
"Come on, you can have a nap in my room." Applejack said, leading Sunset out of the storage room and to her room.
"There, now get some sleep. I'll wake you up in a while." Applejack said.
"I- I don't want to sleep. I can still work." Sunset protested.
"No, you can't." Applejack said sternly, pushing Sunset onto the bed.
"Bu-but… I haven't… finished…I... can" Sunset protested softly before exhaustion hit like a freight train, and she fell asleep mid protest.
"Wow," Applejack said to herself. She pulled Sunset up onto the bed and into a more comfortable position before leaving the room. She made it to the dining room and took a seat at the table.
"Where's Sunset?" Granny Smith asked.
"What! Sunset's here?" Applebloom shouted.
"Yep, she is, and she's sleeping in my room. She was plum tired after cleaning the storage room, and Ah told her to take a nap. She was out like a light soon as she hit the mattress," Applejack said.
"Really? What did she do to make her that tired?" Granny asked.
"Ah don't know. She seems weaker than she should be, looked like a soaked hog when Ah went to get her."
"Wait, wait, hold on. What's going on? Why is Sunset here? And why is she cleaning our storage?" Applebloom asked, dumbfounded about the situation.
"Well, Sunset said she wanted to change. So I said if she worked at our farm and proved she really wanted to change, I'll give her a chance."
"Bu- but this is Sunset we are talking about. Someone like her doesn't want to change."
"Applebloom, we don't know that. And I'm really sure she wants to change her ways, so let's just give her that little chance, shall we?" Applejack said.
"Okay, okay, that's enough talking. I'll keep an eye on Sunset, you young' uns just eat okay?" Granny said. After that, everyone ate in silence.
After lunch, Applejack pulled out her phone and dialed Fluttershy. She couldn't help but wonder if there is something that she doesn't know about Sunset. After a few rings, Fluttershy picked up the phone.
"Hello, Applejack,"
"Hello Fluttershy, listen… I need to ask you something… about Sunset," Applejack said.
"About Sunset? What is it?"
"Well, did you notice anything… weird about her?"
"Weird?"
"Yeah, well… the fact that she changed after we defeated her is weird enough, but also… she seems weaker. You two are close to each other, right?"
"C-close? What do you mean? We are just friends," Fluttershy said stammering,
"You think I didn't notice? You like her, don't you?" Applejack said teasingly.
"I-I… w-well-"
"Hehe… it's okay, Fluttershy, if you like her, that's your choice. Anyway, did she tell you anything?"
"Um… well…"
"Spill it, I need to know."
"Well… You should actually ask her about this, but… you remember the magic we used to stop Sunset?"
"Mm-hm…"
"Well, that actually did more than what we thought it did. Sunset said, when it turned her back, it left her weak, like a side effect. But she said she's slowly getting her strength back."
"Oh, so… what else did it do?" Applejack asked.
"Sorry, you should ask Sunset that," Fluttershy said.
"Okay… thanks, Fluttershy." Applejack said, hanging up the phone. 'What have we really done to her?' Applejack thought.
Sunset was having a dreamless restful sleep when she was woken up by someone tugging at her.
"Five more minutes, mom…" Sunset protested.
"Hehe, sorry, Sunny, but ya gotta wake up."
Sunset groaned and woke up, and sat on the bed. She looked to the side and saw Granny Smith smiling at her.
"Sleep well?" She asked.
"Um… yeah… sorry. I was supposed to help the farm but-"
"Don't worry about that. You have already done enough. You must be hungry?"
"I-I'm good, n-not hungry at--" Sunset was interrupted by a sudden growl coming from her stomach.
"Hehe, come on," Granny said, leading the way down. "Oh, by the way, your… mom was calling you. She was worried about you."
"M-mom? D-did you…"
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Anyway, I told her I'll take you to school after you woke up. She'll take you from there."
"Um… thanks."
They made it to the kitchen, and Sunset saw a piece of apple pie sitting on a plate.
"There, eat up, then Big Mac will take you to the school," Granny said.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Sunset began to eat the apple pie. She was savoring the pie when Applejack came to her.
"Um, hey Sunset, I… I talked to Fluttershy. Why didn't you tell me you are not well?" Applejack asked.
"Uh… she told you?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah. She didn't tell me much. She told me to ask you about anything else, but she said that the magic we used on you made you weak."
"Y-yeah, it did. But I feel a little better now. And I promised you I'll do anything."
"Yeah, I know but, you gotta tell us if you have a problem, okay? its what friends do." Applejack said, smiling.
"Wait, do you mean?"
"Yep."
"R-really?" Sunset asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. Now eat up." Applejack said, patting Sunset on the shoulder and walking off. Sunset felt a smile creep into her face.
After finishing the pie and bidding goodbye to the Apple family, Sunset got in the family truck, and Big Mac drove off to the school. The entire ride went on with relative silence. Sunset tried to start a conversation, but Big Mac being the strong silent type; she only got 'Eeyup' and 'Nope'. Along the ride, Sunset got a message from Celestia saying that Luna was at the school to pick her up. After getting to the school, Sunset saw Luna's black sports car and walked over to it and got on the passenger seat. The ride back home felt a little uncomfortable as Sunset has never been with Luna alone.
"So, how was the day?" Sunset heard Luna ask.
"U-um… i-it was okay." Sunset quickly said.
"What did you do?" Luna asked. From the way she sounded, Sunset could tell that Luna was also having trouble talking with her.
"Um… I… I cleaned the storage."
"I'm guessing there was a lot to clean. Granny Smith said you were exhausted and sent you to get some sleep."
"Y-yeah I-I was." Luna might have noticed something from the slight waver in Sunset's voice as she pointedly looked at Sunset.
Luna turned her car to their driveway and parked it in the garage. Sunset tried to leave the car, but Luna stopped her.
"Wait for a second, Sunset. I'd like to talk with you." Luna said.
"T-talk with me?" Sunset asked.
"Yes. Sunset, since that night, you've been holding a lot of grief, haven't you? And I know you are hiding something."
"W-what do you mean?" Sunset asked nervously.
"Sunset, let me tell you a story. When Celestia and I were in high school, things weren't better between us. She was always ahead of me. Yes, we both had high marks, but Celestia was always the top of her class." Luna began.
"Because of that, she always gets praised. And it made me jealous. But instead of trying harder, I began to hang out with some bad kids. One day, I went to one of their houses for a party. I didn't tell anyone about it. But Celestia knew something was wrong and found me. I was drunk that night. When Celestia came to my friend's house and snapped at me, I went mad and… I… snatched someone's keys and ran away. I-I got in a car a-and… I-It all happened so fast. I-I hit her, Sunset." Luna said, tears falling down her face. Sunset gasped and held her hands over her mouth.
"T-the doctors said she might not be able to have any children of her own. I-I was sent to juvie for almost 3 years. B-but Celestia came to see me every time she could. After I was released, I continued my studies and now look at me. I'm now the vice-principal alongside my sister." Luna said. "Sunset, let me ask you something. Is what happened that night, my fault?"
"U-um… i-it's…" Sunset stammered.
"Tell me."
"U-um… y-you were drunk and… y-you didn't know that would happen."
"Yes, I didn't know what would happen. But it is my fault. I'm the reason why Celestia can't have children. If I didn't go to the party that night, none of it would happen. Isn't it the same with what happened to you?"
"I-it's-"
"You didn't know that would happen if you put on the crown, did you?" Sunset shook her head.
"But still, what happened that night is your fault. You let your emotions take control, and you almost destroyed everything." Sunset looked down. "But Sunset, that doesn't mean you have to live in the past, fretting over what happened. Everyone makes mistakes in their life. A life without mistakes is a failure. You can't change the past. All you can do is learn from the past and make sure you don't make the same mistakes again, and try to right the wrongs that you caused."
Luna reached over to Sunset and held her shoulder.
"You are a good kid, Sunset. From what I understand, you have been walking down a dark path without anyone to help you turn back. But now you do. You have Celestia, me, you have Fluttershy, and many others, who have yet to stand by you. So cheer up Sunset. You can fix everything. And I know you are going to be the nicest niece I could ask for." Luna said. "Now come on. Tia's waiting for us. And you must tell us what you are hiding." After Luna finished, they left the car and went inside, where Celestia was waiting for them at the dinner tables.
Despite all the glares and bumps, the day was going well for Sunset. She was delighted since it happened all in the previous days. She got adopted, had a girlfriend, and was able to make up with Applejack. Although she also had to talk with her mom and aunt yesterday about her nightmares and physical weakness, but she believed it was for the best. They are her family, after all. That thought brought a smile to Sunset's face. After all this time, she has a loving family. Currently, she was walking to the cafeteria. On her way there, she met Fluttershy.
"Um, Sunset. I wanted to ask you how yesterday went at Applejack's?" Fluttershy asked Sunset.
"Oh, it actually went pretty well, and me snd Applejack are friends now." Sunset happily said.
"Oh, that's great. Oh, and… I, um, I told Applejack about how weak you are now... Sorry, I should have asked first," Fluttershy said.
"Don't be, it's okay. I wasn't able to do much because of it. So, Applejack sent me to get some rest instead."
"Oh, okay."
When they made it to the cafeteria, they got their food and walked over to their usual table. Fluttershy took the seat next to Sunset, all the while Rainbow shot daggers at Sunset.
"Hey, y'all," Applejack greeted.
"Hey," Fluttershy and Sunset said simultaneously.
"So, you made up with Applejack, hmm?" Rarity asked.
"Y-yeah," Sunset said.
"Hmph," Rainbow said, annoyed.
"That's great. Ooh, I should throw you a 'Yay you are friends with Applejack now' party. Then I can throw 'You are friends with me' party, 'you are friends with Rainbow' party and…" Pinkie rambled on, despite Sunset's honest effort all she could make out was 'blah blah blah party' from Pinkie.
"Heh, you'll get used to that," She heard Applejack say while patting her shoulder. "Oh, I also told them about your… situation? Side effect?"
"Y-you… d-did?" Sunset asked.
"Of course, I don't hide anything from my friends," Applejack said with conviction.
"She's right, darling… why haven't you said anything about that?" Rarity asked.
"Um… I didn't see the point. Y-you weren't m-my friends then, and I didn't want to bother any of you."
"I. That's… I see, of course," a flustered Rarity said with a nervous smile.
"Aaanyway, are you free after school today Sunset?" Pinkie interrupted to ask.
"Sorry, what?" Sunset asked.
"I said, are you free after school today, Sunset?"
"Um… yeah, why?"
"Can you come with me after school? I have something to do, and I could really use your help."
"Um… okay?" Sunset said uncertainly.
Just then, the bell for lunch rang, announcing the beginning of classes. The group began to clear away the food from the table and made their way to the doors' trashes. The others waved their goodbyes as they split off down the halls to their respective classrooms. The next period for Sunset was art, with Fluttershy. They got their supplies from their lockers, which were conveniently in the same hallway, and made way to the art class.
"Hey, Fluttershy? What do you think Pinkie has to do after school today?" Sunset asked.
"Hmm. I don't know, but whatever it is, it has to be important. She never invites people unless it's something important, though she does classify a lot of things important, so I really don't have an idea," Fluttershy said.
"Maybe. But I can barely understand her."
"Hardly anybody can, I think her sister understand her, but I really can't tell you. You'll get used to it given time."
"If you say so, it's just, she can even do things that are physically impossible. That or the fact that she knows things that no one should possibly know, with the exception of maybe Discord," Sunset said.
"The chemistry teacher?" Fluttershy asked.
"What? No, he was, is... nevermind. Forget I said anything."
"Oh, okay. That's not all that's strange about Pinkie," Fluttershy said.
"There's more?" Sunset asked disbelievingly.
"Mm-hm, her hair is some kind of portal to another dimension. She literally pulls out things that can't be in it. And she can predict the future."
"Predict the future?"
"Yeah. Immediate future, actually. She calls it her 'Pinkie Sense', and it's very, very accurate," Fluttershy said.
"This is crazy," Sunset said.
"We just leave it alone. The saying Pinkie being Pinkie Pie is starting to catch on," Fluttershy said as they walked into the art class.
The day went on without any further incidents, and Sunset found herself following Pinkie down the sidewalk as they left school. She met her mom before leaving school and told her she's going with Pinkie before leaving. They've been walking for a while now, and Sunset was already getting tired. But when she looked at Pinkie, she saw she was still bouncing her way like she did since leaving school. She seemed to have an infinite well of stamina. She tried to ask her about that and remembered what Fluttershy said.
"Pinkie being Pinkie," She muttered. "Um… Pinkie, are we there yet?"
"Yepperoni, we are here." She said, stopping in front of a building. Sunset looked up at where Pinkie has taken her. Reading the sign brought back the oldest memories from Sunset's childhood.
"A-an orphanage?" She asked Pinkie.
"Yup. I sometimes come here and play with the kids, cheer them up. Some kids get really sad when no one adopts them," Pinkie said with a pained smile as her hair lost some of its poof.
"You don't say?" Sunset muttered bitterly before defensively asking. "And what does it have to do with me?"
"Well, I just like to get to know you. So I just thought I'll take you here, and we can hang out for a while." Pinkie said, still with her usual smile, but Sunset grew more agitated as she looked at it, swearing on Celestia that it was wider than normal.
After talking to the director, they went to where kids play, and Sunset saw kids running everywhere and playing games. "Okay, now what?" Sunset asked.
"Join them and play with the kids, and see if they want anything, help them… smile." Pinkie said, bouncing away while emphasizing the word smile.
"Sure, have the one that spent her life studying and manipulating people play with the kids because that's such a good idea" Sunset walked away, muttering, looking at the kids.
She was never good with kids. She actually never good with any social interactions. So this situation was incredibly uncomfortable for Sunset. It being an orphanage, which was already hitting too close home, didn't help any either. After trying to spend time with the kids, which involved trying to talk with or play with them, which failed miserably most, Sunset had enough. But she couldn't get a chance to talk with Pinkie and leave. While contemplating what to do, Sunset saw someone, away from the others. A girl with long white hair and light blue skin that looked no older than the crusaders. She was sitting away from others, alone, with a distant look. She looked closely at the girl's eyes and saw they look faded.
'Is she blind?' Sunset thought.
Walking closer towards the girl to look at her more closely. The girl's head suddenly turned a bit when she got near. It looked like she was trying to listen to her, which confirmed Sunset's thoughts.
"Um… hi…" Sunset nervously said.
"Hi?" The girl asked with a meek soft voice, which reminded Sunset of Fluttershy.
"May I… sit here?" Sunset asked.
"Um… sure." The girl said.
"So, uh, what are you doing here? You know, away from the others? Don't you want to hang out with them?" Sunset asked.
"I'd like to, but… they don't want to hang out with me," The girl said sadly.
"Why? Is it because…" The girl nodded. "I see. I can understand that I know what it feels like to be alone." Sunset muttered.
This caught the attention of the girl. "I'm Sunset, by the way."
"I'm Snowdrop. Nice to meet you." The girl, now known as Snowdrop, said. "And… what did you mean, you understand?"
"What?"
"S-sorry, if you don't want to talk about it-"
"No, no, it's okay." Sunset quickly reassured her. "I… I don't have a lot of friends either. I sometimes wonder if I have any. I had no one until just a few weeks ago."
"What do you mean, you are friends with Pinkie."
"I… I don't know… if we're really friends yet. I can kind of understand you because I was an orphan too, and I had no friends back then."
"Oh…"
"Yeah. So… How'd you like to be friends with me?" Sunset asked hesitantly.
"F-friends with you, Really? B-but… I'm blind," Snowdrop said.
"So? Even if you are blind, you just see in a different way, right? I don't see any problem with that," Sunset said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Really," Sunset said with a small smile.
Snowdrop smiled before asking, "May I ask you something?" Snowdrop asked. "It's okay if you don't want to answer it."
"Ask away."
"When you said you had no one just a few weeks ago, what do you mean?"Sunset didn't answer right away. She took a moment before answering it,
"Exactly what it sounds like. I was all alone. Back when I was in the orphanage, it was hard for me to make friends. I tried again and again, but it never worked. Even the one person I looked up to as my mother didn't help me and turned me down," Sunset began. "So one day, I ran away. If no one wanted me around, I saw no reason to stay. Since then, I have lived alone. I attended CHS two and a half years ago. Since then, I-I kept everyone at arm's length by bullying them, I was the queen bee of CHS, and I'm the second most feared person of the school, the first one being the Vice-Principal." Sunset looked at Snowdrop and saw she was listening carefully to what she was saying.
"Then, one day, I tried to do something awful and almost succeeded. Luckily, someone stood against me and stopped me. She showed me the error of my ways. That was about two weeks ago. Since then, I've been trying to make amends with myself and fix everything. It's been hard, to say the least. The students at school hate me for what I have done, and they always glare at me or try to hurt me. But I might deserve them for what I did." Sunset sighed as a moment of silence passed. "Maybe I should go. You probably don't want to be near me now." Sunset said, getting up. But before she could take one step, she felt someone hold her arm.
"Wait!" Sunset looked down and saw Snowdrop Holding her arm. "Don't go,"
"You don't want me to leave?" Sunset asked.
"I… I know the past you was a bad person. But I can tell from the way you talk. You regret it. You regret everything. That means you want to be a good person. So, if you don't care that I'm blind, then I don't care who you were before. You are not that person anymore," Snowdrop said.
"So… you'd still like to be my friend?" Sunset asked, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Yes, I would," Snowdrop said. Sunset smiled and sat next to the girl. She held her arm and softly said, "Thanks."
While all these were happening, Pinkie was looking at them with the biggest smile on her face.
"So, how was the day?" Celestia asked Sunset that night at dinner.
"It was great. Pinkie took me to the local orphanage to cheer up the kids," Sunset said, smiling at what happened there. Celestia and Luna looked at Sunset with concerned faces. Sunset, noticing this, quickly alleviated any worry, "It's fine. Believe it or not, I'm glad Pinkie took me there. Because I met someone amazing."
"Oh, who was it?" Luna asked.
"Well, I was trying to play with the kids, but it didn't work that well. When I was about to leave out of frustration, I saw this girl. She was away from the others, all alone. Her name was Snowdrop. I wanted to see why she was not going to play with others." Sunset said before her face left some of its colors. "She was blind, and because of that, no one wanted to be friends with her; she was so sad because of that. I understood what she felt because I know how it feels. No one wanted to adopt her because of her blindness or be her friend. It's so unfair. With me, it's my own fault for not having any friends."
"Oh, Sunset, don't say that," Celestia said, holding Sunset's hand over the table.
"Well, that's the truth, and she was alone for something she didn't do. She had no control over the matter. It's not like she wanted to be born blind," Sunset spoke with passionate anger in her voice.
"She was born blind?" Luna asked.
"Yeah," Sunset said, calming down. "She was, but… she isn't actually… blind. I mean, she is blind, she can't see with her eyes, but she doesn't need her eyes. It's just different."
"Different?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah, that's what really special about her. After I got to know her, we talked a bit. And she actually can walk around without a blind cane. She can hear if there's something in front of her. It's kind of like how bats find their way." Sunset said with a bright smile.
"Wow, really?" Luna asked, amazed.
"Yeah, well, she can't sense everything like what's on a table, but she can pretty much see, from her ears. Snowdrop said she has trouble with stairs sometimes when she's in a place she doesn't recognize, says they look like a wall to her at times."
"She really sounds special," Celestia said.
"Mm-hm, she also said she could hear the stars."
"Hear the stars? That's not possible," Luna said.
"I thought so too. So I asked the director about her, and she actually confirmed all of this. Every night, Snowdrop would sit on her bed and look up at the sky through her window like stargazing." Sunset said. "I just wish someone would adopt her soon," Sunset said with a sigh.
"Don't worry, Sunset, now that she has you, everything will be fine. Why, just a couple of weeks ago, you were so lost, with no one. But look at you now, you've made a lot of progress, and today, you made your first friend all on your own," Celestia said, smiling at the fiery-haired girl. "I couldn't be more proud of you."
After dinner, Sunset went to her room. She picked up her new guitar and began to play it. Celestia, her mom, buying it for her after she was adopted. Sunset was still getting used to calling her that despite her wanting it for so long. She was so engulfed in her music, she almost missed the knocking at the door. Abruptly stopping the string, she focused her attention on the door as the series of knocks ended.
"Sunset, can I come in?" She heard Luna call from the other side. 'Wow, I never thought I'd hear it from her.' Sunset thought.
"Y-yeah, come in." She said, putting her guitar down. Luna opened the door a little and poked her head inside.
"Um… Sunset, if you don't have anything to do… can you come down to the basement? I'd like to show you something," Luna said.
"Isn't that off limit?"
"Not anymore," Luna said, closing the door. Sunset stared in silent shock at the door for a while.
"Well, let's get going."
Sunset placed her guitar back in her case and walked out of the room. She went downstairs and looked down at the basement.
"What could possibly be in there?" She asked herself. "Well, here goes nothing." She braced herself for what is coming and walked down the basement, and knocked on the door. The door suddenly opened with Luna smiling at Sunset.
Luna dramatically spread her arms as she declared, "Welcome to the 'Moon Lair'."
"What is all this?" Sunset asked, dumbstruck as she was led inside.
"Hehe, it's just as I thought. Didn't expect this? It's pretty neat, huh?" Luna said with a smirk.
"Neat? That's an understatement. I would've never imagined," Sunset said, looking at all the colorful LED light scattered everywhere and the enormous flatscreen TV with all sorts of gaming systems attached. There was a complete gaming PC setup on the right side of the TV, and there were shelves filled with CDs and cartridges.
"One little thing, by the way," Luna said.
"What is it, miss Luna?"
"No one, I repeat no one, should ever know about this. Right? Or you are gonna have a bad time," Luna said, looking Sunset dead in the eyes.
"And also, please call me Luna, or aunt or whatever outside of school. We are family, remember?"
"Y-yes mi- aunt."
"Now come on, have you ever played any video games?" Luna asked.
"Um… no. I never had money to play games." Sunset said.
"Well, we have to fix that. I know, let's begin with the classics." Luna said as she walked over to a shelf and picked up a cartridge and an old Sega genesis. She hooked it into the TV. She plugged the cartridge and turned on the game. The game began with the Sega logo.
"Here," Luna said, handing a controller to Sunset. The game went to the title screen, and Sunset read the name. It said 'Sonic the Hedgehog'.
"Classic Sonic the Hedgehog. A platformer like this will be great for you to get accustomed to the controller."
"I've heard of this," Sunset said. She pressed start and began the game. "Green Hill Zone," Sunset said, reading the stage name.
"Yep. The controls are pretty simple. Use the 'D-pad' to move, 'A' to jump. Figure out the special move by yourself." Luna said.
"Okay, let's do this." And Sunset began to play her first game. It took a while for her to get used to the controls, but being a fast learner, she soon got the hang of it and beat the first few stages with ease.
"Jump! Jump! Jump, you need to jump!"
"That's what I'm going to do, mom...- aw shoot!" Sunset said when she got hit by a spike ball on one of the seesaws.
"That's your last life, but you did pretty well for a new gamer," Luna said.
"Thanks, Luna… wait- mom!" Sunset suddenly exclaimed when she realized who she talked to before and looked back. She saw Celestia standing behind them. "H-how long have you been there?"
"Quite a while, actually. I see Luna gave you permission to enter the 'Lair'." Celestia said with air quotes.
"Hehe… yeah," Sunset said, stroking the back of her neck.
"Anyway, it's getting late, so you should go to bed now. You have school tomorrow."
"It's that late already?" Sunset said, looking at the clock.
"That's a little side effect when you get into playing games. So heads up next time." Luna said, patting Sunset's shoulder.
After leaving the 'Lair', Sunset went to her room to call it a night. She was so happy about the day. She made not one but two friends, though she had a feeling that Pinkie was her friend even before today. To top it all off, she got to see another side of her aunt Luna. She flopped in bed and about to fall asleep when she heard Celestia calling her from the other side of the door.
"Sunset, can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Yeah, come in," Sunset said. Celestia opened the door and walked over to Sunset's bed to sit on it. "So… what do you wanna talk about?"
"Well, first I need to tell you that I'm really proud of you. You came a long way since that night," Celestia said.
"Thanks, mom. I've been trying my best."
"I actually want to talk to you about what you said at dinner today."
"At dinner?" Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, about Snowdrop. I'm happy that you became friends with her. Though I have a feeling that when you said someone should adopt her… you didn't mean… someone random, did you?"
"W-what do you mean?" Sunset asked.
"Don't be afraid I'm not complaining or anything. What I mean is when you said that... the way you said it, it almost felt like you want her to be your sister."
"M-my… well… s-she…" Sunset stuttered.
"It's okay, calm down," Celestia said, holding Sunset's shoulder. "Just tell me this. I already talked to Luna about this. Do you want a sister?"
"U-um… it would be nice… but… I-I can't ask you that… y-you've already-"
"Sunset, like you, I also wanted a family. Since what happened with Luna and me when we were in high school… I knew my life wouldn't be easy," Celestia said, stroking Sunset's hair. "But my sister stood with me. Then you came alone to color my world. And now you want to add one more color to it. So how can I say no? Plus, I've always wanted a big family."
Sunset kept looking at her Principal turned mom. She had tears rolling down her face. They weren't tears of sadness in her eyes, but of joy. That overwhelming sense of familial desire, along with her mom's words, quickly brought tears to Sunset's own eyes. Sunset quickly enveloped her mom in a hug.
"I also want a big family," Sunset softly said.
After a few more minutes, they let go of each other, and they both dried their tears off their faces.
"It will take some time for me to adopt her, though. First, we have to make her a room. It won't be easy. She's maybe special because of her abilities, but she still will need help. So we should be prepared for that. Luna and I would also like to meet Snowdrop personally and get to know her, too," Celestia said.
"Yeah, I know. And I will be with you and Aunt Luna through it all." Sunset said.
"Now get some sleep. You have school tomorrow." Celestia said softly.
"Okay," Sunset said, shifting under blankets. Just as Celestia was about to leave, Sunset sleepily said, "I love you, mom."
Celestia stopped and looked at Sunset before she smiled, "I love you too, my Little Sun."
Sunset suddenly stirred awake and stood up. She looked around to see that she was once again in that empty void with the light emitting from far. But when she looked at the light, she saw it was way closer than it was before.
"What's going on?" Sunset asked no one in particular. "What are you trying to say?"
But she got no reply. Sunset then tried to run towards the light but just like before, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get an inch closer.
"Come on. Answer me! What is the meaning of this?!?" Sunset shouted after stopping to catch some breath. A blinding light suddenly answered her, and everything went black before she woke up the next morning to the alarm clock.
The next day, Sunset found herself walking home with Fluttershy after school. Fluttershy had some difficulties with a lesson in math class, so Sunset offered to help her. But since they didn't have any free periods together, Sunset asked if she'd like to go to her place and study there. Fluttershy being the shy girl, agreed with some hesitation.
Sunset usually waited for her mom after school. But today, she decided to walk there with Fluttershy rather than riding home with her mom, and an added bonus was she could talk with Fluttershy on the way there. They made their way to the bus station and got on the bus just before it left. They both sat in the back of the bus, where it was relatively private as no well was around them.
"So um, Fluttershy… I have been meaning to ask… uh do your parents know. About, you know, me… you… and that we're…" Sunset asked Fluttershy, as she played with her hands.
"Oh, um, I-I told them. A-and they were, well they were pretty worried about me, well us, hanging out together… s-special a-about… the past couple of years," Fluttershy said with a nervous voice.
"Oh, s-so, they don't like me…"
"N-not really, y-you were a b-bully… s-so they were w-worried about me b-but… I was able to convince them, and… they said they would like to meet you first if that's fine with you that is."
"M-meet them?" Sunset asked nervously.
"Y-yeah. Will you meet them? If you showed them t-that, you are good now and actually l-love me… they might give you a chance. Will you do it?" Sunset looked at Fluttershy's eyes for a while. Her beautiful opal eyes filled with hope and worry. After a while, Sunset smiled nervously.
"I'd do anything for you," Sunset said, blushing a bit. Fluttershy also blushed a bit as she muttered a small "Thank you."
Getting off the bus five minutes later, Sunset and Fluttershy walked home, with Fluttershy walking alongside her the entire way. Fluttershy looked at the house Sunset took her, and her eyes widened at the look of it.
"Wow… It's so big and wonderful," Fluttershy said with awe.
"Yeah, that's was the same expression I had. Even though mom's counterpart is a Princess and the ruler of Equestria, I didn't think this Celestia would be rich like that. Apparently, her family owns a large company, and guess what that is?" Sunset asked.
"I-I don't know… what is it?" Fluttershy said.
"Remember the person that found CHS?" Fluttershy nodded. "He was the CEO of that company by then," Sunset said, smiling while waiting for Fluttershy's reaction.
"What!" Fluttershy said with wide eyes.
"Yes, since mom didn't have any intention to run a company. She chose to be a teacher and became our principal now. Luna chose the same path after… Something happened," Sunset said, opening the door with the key her mom gave her and held open the door for Fluttershy.
"Something?" Fluttershy questioned.
"Sorry I can't tell you that."
"Oh… okay…"
After they get into the house, they placed their bags on the couch. Sunset went over to the kitchen to get something to eat while Fluttershy prepared for the lesson.
"Let's finish our homework first. So we can focus on your problem last," Sunset said.
"Okay. Let's do that," Fluttershy said.
They then began to do their homework. While they were working, Celestia came home after about forty-five minutes. They both had a fun time despite it being homework. Sunset helped Fluttershy when she was struggling with some of her homework. Sunset saw that Fluttershy was sometimes having trouble when reaching the total, or she confuse the signs or steps needed to complete the problem correctly. She also noted that Fluttershy tends to not write her work down, which leads to getting the wrong answer at the end because of a small mistake.
"Fluttershy? You sometimes miss or confuse the steps. Why don't you write your work down when you're solving an equation?" Sunset asked.
"What? Who told you that? There's no such thing. I do that all the time. Everyone does."
"Really?"
"Of course, Fluttershy. Haven't you seen Cranky Doodle do that too?" They heard Celestia saying. She placed two teacups for the girls and left to get her own.
"He does?"
"Yep."
Before long, they finished their homework and get to work on Fluttershy's lesson.
"Trigonometry, this is an easy one. You just have to be a little creative," Sunset said.
"It is?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, let's begin with the equations," Sunset said, pulling out a blank paper.
"There you go. Good job, Fluttershy." Sunset complimented after she completed another one of her questions.
"Wow, this seems so easy now," Fluttershy said.
"Well, it is now. Wait till you get to more complex questions." Sunset said. They heard the front door opening. 'Oh… Luna's here.'
"Are they hard?" Fluttershy asked with a hint of concern.
"Don't worry, they are not that hard. You just have to understand the question, and with a tiny bit trickery, you'll be able to pull it off."
"Trickery?"
"Yeah, most of the time, the question gives away a part of the answer. All you gotta do is use that to your advantage," Sunset said.
"Oh, Sunset, thank you," Fluttershy said, hugging the fiery hair girl, forgetting all of her shyness.
"Don't mention it. Always happy to help," Sunset said returning the hug. They were suddenly interrupted by a sudden voice, none of them recognized.
"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" The teens quickly let go of each other and looked at the person. They saw a woman with grey skin, dark blue hair, and green eyes. "Looks like our ponygirl found herself a mare," The woman said with a smirk. This made the teen's eyes widen.
"Oh, leave them be, Chrys," Luna scolded from the door.
"What?" Chrysalis said like nothing happened.
"Chrysalis, it's been so long since I've seen you," They saw Celestia coming up to them and greeting the woman.
"Hey, Celi,"
"Uh… mom?" Sunset asked, still confused.
"Oh! Right, Sunset, this is Chrysalis. Chrys, this is Sunset, my daughter," Celestia introduced each other.
"Hey there? Nice to finally meet you. That paperwork of yours was crafted by yours truly, and don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Chrysalis said. "And… who might this cutie pie be." She asked, looking at a blushing Fluttershy.
"Oh… um… I-I'm Fluttershy…" She softly said.
"Okay, Chrys, mind waiting for dinner?" Celestia asked.
"Of course."
"Wait, dinner?" Fluttershy said and looked at the clock. Sure enough, it was late. "Oh! I should get hom-"
"Don't worry, Fluttershy, I talk to your mom already. You can eat dinner with us, then we'll take you home after," Celestia said.
"You called my mom? So, do they know…?"
"They do. I thought it was for the best. Anyway, dinner will be ready soon. You all have a chat while I finish things up."
Sunset was explaining about her homeworld when the dinner was served. After everyone took a seat, they continued their talk.
"So you are telling me that everyone in this world has a counterpart in that world?" Chrysalis asked.
"Not everyone. For instance, I don't have a counterpart here. And some pony's counterparts here seem like they're a different species if they went through the portal. Because they're different from their pony versions. Mom's secretory Raven is a unicorn in Equestria, but this worlds Raven told me her family owns a by-plane, and she loves to fly it. So if she ever went to Equestria, she's most likely to be a Pegasus than a unicorn. Not to mention that, Twilight's dragon was a dog when he crossed over here," Sunset said.
"Wow… So, who are we in your world?" Chrysalis asked curiously.
"Oh, you won't believe it. My and Celestia's counterparts rule that world." Luna said.
"Oh yeah…?"
"It's true. Mom's and Luna's counterparts are alicorns, and they are the high rulers of Equestria. Celestia controls the Sun, and Luna controls the moon and helps ponies with her dream walking magic," Sunset said.
"What?" Chrysalis said disbelievingly. Luna smirked, and Celestia sighed, looking at the two.
"Yup. I think Fluttershy's a pegasus. And you know I was a unicorn. And… I'm sorry… I don't know about your counterpart," Sunset said.
"What? You don't know?"
"Sorry. But a lot of things have happened after I left. Princess Twilight might know about you," Sunset said with an apologetic look.
The rest of the dinner went without any interesting conversations, other than Luna and Chrysalis teasing each other. All and all, it was a nice day. It saddened Sunset a little bit when the time came for Fluttershy to leave, but she'd see her tomorrow, and with all the wonderful memories she got from the day, Sunset went to call it a night. . . . Right after, she played Ocarina of Time and beat the third dungeon on the 3ds Luna gave her.
"Sunset, how would you like to help some freshmen with their studies?" Celestia asked Sunset when they arrived at school.
"Um… freshmen?" Sunset asked.
"Yes. There's a freshman student with some difficulties in his studies. So, we've arranged an extra class for him with one of our top students. Since you are a model student and top of your class, I thought maybe you'd like to help him. Also, this will be a good chance for you to get on the good side of the students."
"Hmm... I don't know, maybe…" Sunset said. She thought on it some more before saying, "Okay, I'll do it."
"Good. I'll give you the details later."
Sunset made her way to her locker, placing all her after-lunch-class material away, and made it to her first class. Along the way, she met up with Applejack as she entered the classroom door. As the day slowly went by, Sunset found herself bobbing her head sideways to a song. It was one of the girls' songs in their newly formed band that Rainbow named The Rainbooms. A band she hoped she'd be apart of, at least one day.
"Ohh yeaaaah!" Rainbow shouted as they finished their song. "That was awesome. If we keep this up, we'll be the best band ever!"
They had just finished one of their songs in the music room. It was during one of the free periods that all the girls shared. Sunset didn't even realize she had the same free period as the other girls and couldn't decide if it was a coincidence or planned out by someone. Her bet was Pinkie if the latter turned out to be true. Another thing she couldn't decide was whether this was a blessing or a curse. Sure she got to hang out with Fluttershy, but she wasn't too sure how the other girls felt about her. Applejack was in the maybe a friend group, while Rarity seemed indifferent towards her, Pinkie was... well, Pinkie, and she was fairly certain Rainbow Dash hated her guts.
"Hee, I'm not lying. It was a great song and the most fun we've had in a long time. We'll just have to come up with some new songs," Applejack said, lying down her bass.
"Agreed. Not to mention Sunset's great at sound balancing. Darling, I didn't think you'd have time to learn how to use a mixer, what with your previous mmhm... commitments. You're quite good at it," Rarity said with a slight pause as she thought of what to call Sunset's bullying stage.
"Um... thanks," Sunset said before muttering under her breath, "I think."
"Huh- oh, anyone can do that," Rainbow said dismissively.
"Oh yeah? Like how you could do well on Mr. Discords pop quiz today without reading last night's chapters?" Applejack asked, smirking.
"Oh, come on, that was Chemistry. I hate it, and you know about Discord's stupid questions. I can't even understand a single thing he says." Rainbow said.
"Maybe you would if you read the chapters," Pinkie laughed before she grew serious, "But you gotta write well on that make-up paper he said he'd give you tomorrow, but if you don't, he's going to fail you and then you won't be able to graduate and then you won't be able to join the air force and then-"
"Whoa whoa hold yer horses Pinkie," Applejack said, putting a hand on Pinkie's mouth.
"You want to join the air force?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah. What's it to you?" Rainbow said, glaring at Sunset.
"N-nothing," Sunset said nervously before looking at the clock, and her eyes widened. "Oh no!" She shouted before pulling out her phone.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked.
"Horseapples! I'm going to be late. I gotta go, bye." She shouted before running off. The girls looked at each other and shrugged.
Sunset ran into the library while panting from all the running. She heard Miss Cheerilee shushing her, and Sunset quickly apologized before walking into the library looking for the kid she's supposed to help. She found him sitting at a table waiting for her. The boy had peach skin and short yellow hair that almost covered his right eye. He wore a blue shirt with trousers, and he had freckles on his face.
"Um… are you… Sweet Peach?" Sunset asked. The boy looked at Sunset, and his eyes widened.
"Uh-um… y-yes… I-I am," Sweet nervously said.
"Good, I'm here to help you," Sunset chirped happily before taking a seat. She saw that the boy was looking at her nervously. "I'm guessing you know about me?" Sunset asked as her cheerful tone became a somber whisper.
"My brother told me about y-you," He said.
"Oh, he did. I'm sure anything he said about me is true. B-but, I'm not like that anymore." Sunset said. "I... I've changed."
"But he said, you are a bully, and the mess at the Fall Formal is your fault. He said you're a monster."
"It... was my fault, and I guess I am," Sunset said, looking away. "But I'm paying for everything I did. I want to help people. I don't want to be a monster anymore. Think you could give me a chance and let me help you. Please?" The boy didn't say anything for a while. He looked at her and her at him for a while. One side searching for a change, the other pleading for a chance.
"Okay, so… you are going to help me with my lessons?"
"Yes, I am," Sunset said, smiling. "And thanks." Sweet Peach smiled and pulled out his books.
For the remainder of the period, Sunset helped Peach in any way she could. The boy seemed to open up more the more time they spent together, which brighten up Sunset. While waiting for Peach to finish a question, she saw Rainbow picking up a book from a shelf when their eyes met. They watched each other for a few seconds with neutral expressions forming a mini staring contest. Sunset first looking away to look at Peach's work. When she looked up again, Rainbow was gone. She glanced around quickly but didn't see her. With a shrug of her shoulders, she went back to helping Peach, not much caring at the moment. If Rainbow hated her, she'd be the bigger pony and not start anything.
"Done," Peach said after he finished the question.
"Good, let's see-"
"Get away from him, you she-demon!" Sunset was interrupted by a sudden voice, which was more annoying than hurtful, though she did wince slightly at the 'she-demon' part. "Don't worry, child, for I the Grrrreat and Powerful Trrrixie will save you from that monster," Trixie shouted, which earned a shush from nearby students and Miss Cheerilee. "What are you doing to this poor child?"
"Uh, I'm tutoring him," Sunset deadpanned. If anyone else did this, Sunset might have felt hurt, but the way Trixie acted always made her annoying.
"Teaching him what? Demonology? How to summon a devil, or maybe how to turn into one? Come on, kid, I'll save you from this demon…" Trixie said, pulling Peach from his arm.
"Um, actually, I'm good." Peach said without getting up from the seat.
"What? Do you not know who this is?"
"Everyone knows who she is… and she's not that bad," Peach said.
"Also, Trixie, mo- Principal Celestia asked me to help him. So please leave us, or I'll have to inform Principal about this," Sunset said, correcting herself.
"What? She did? Ugh… I know you're up to something, but I'll leave you be. I have more important things to do than deal with you. But I'll be back, and you won't be able to hide next time!" Trixie shouted before throwing a smoke-bomb, making everyone cough as she seemingly disappeared. But when the smoke cleared, they saw her run into fall over a book cubby. There was a faint, "I'm okay," from behind the cubby as a passing Scootaloo glanced over the cubby.
"Who's that?" Peach asked.
"Trixie Lulamoon. The "Greatest and most Powerfulest" magician that Canterlot High School as to offer," Sunset said with air quotes when the bell rang. "Well, that's it for today. You caught up pretty well. Will I be seeing you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, and thanks." Peach said.
"No, thank you for giving me a chance I probably don't deserve."
"It's okay. Maybe my brother is wrong about you. So… friends?" Peach asked, holding his hand.
"Friends," Sunset said, shaking Peach's hand.
Sunset picked up some resource books. She went to put them on the shelves when she saw Rainbow reading a chemistry book. From the look of it, she wasn't making any progress. Sunset placed the books on the shelves and went over to Rainbow.
"Um, R-Rainbow…"
"Ugh, what do you want?" Rainbow asked, annoyed.
"Um… do you need any help? I don't mind-"
"No, I don't." Rainbow angrily said.
"Okay, sorry for bothering you," Sunset said before she began to leave Rainbow alone.
"Wait," Sunset turned around and saw Rainbow biting her lips while looking away. "You can help me if you want, I guess, not that I actually need-"
"Okay," Sunset said, taking a seat. "Um… what is the lesson?"
"This," Rainbow said, holding up the book.
Celestia was finishing the last of her work when she heard knocking on her office door. She looked up and said, "Come in," already having an idea who it was. Sure enough, Sunset opened the door and came inside.
"How was the day?" She asked.
"It's okay. Sweet Peach is fine with me. He actually asked to be friends," Sunset said.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Sunset said when she noticed a flier on Celestia's desk. "What's this?" She asked, picking up the flier.
"Hmmm? Oh, it's a new music showcase. We have a lot of talented students in CHS. So me and Luna thought to throw a musical showcase. You and your friends have a band too, right?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah… but I'm not actually a part of it. I just help them with sound balancing." Sunset said.
"But don't you play guitar, as well? I've heard you play, and it's pretty good."
"Yeah, I can play. It's just. They don't know that."
"Why don't you tell them?"
"It's... I don't know… I thought that they might not want me to. I mean, Rainbow's still not good with me, so…yeah."
"Sunset, they are your friends. They won't mind."
"I don't know. I'll ask them later," Sunset said.
The rest of the time passed in silence as Celestia finished her work and Sunset got a jump on her homework. Sunset went over the day in her mind and concluded it wasn't the worst and could have gone so much worse. She was glad that it went alright with Peach and was excited that Rainbow might be showing signs of accepting her. Overall, looked forward to tutoring Peach and forming a bond with Rainbow, maybe she could play soccer with her, and Sunset remembered Fluttershy mentioning Rainbow was a Daring Doo fan. She'd have to make plans to try and get the Rainbow themed girl to like her. Before long, Celestia spoke up after completing a good portion of her work done.
"So… you ready for today?" Celestia asked, stretching as she stood up.
"Well, I was thinking. I should stay home instead," Sunset said.
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked, puzzled.
"I was thinking… rather than go with you… I could stay home and set everything up with Fluttershy. That way… I can surprise her. I told Fluttershy about it, and she said she wanted to help. Just don't tell her about me," Sunset said.
"Hm… okay. I'll go with Luna then," Celestia said.
"Okay… balloons, check… streamers, check... and music, covered. Now, I just have to get the treats once Fluttershy is here," Sunset said to herself, looking over the decorations she got. Celestia and Luna already left a few minutes ago, and Sunset was waiting for Fluttershy at home, thinking of where to put the decorate. The ringing of her phone drew her attention. After looking at the screen, she saw Fluttershy's name and profile picture pop up.
"Hey Fluttershy," Sunset said.
"Hey… I'm on my way. Do you think we'll be able to decorate before they arrive?" She asked.
"Yeah. We got some time before they're home. They said they'd stall as long as possible. She doesn't know they're coming."
"I see. I'm just worried, is all. I'm not very good when it comes to parties. It's more of Pinkie's department."
"Well yeah, but we didn't tell her about Celestia and me. I don't think she will be able to make it now. It's too late for her to help anyway. I wouldn't want to be a bother."
"It's Pinkie. There's no way it would bother her at all. She'll be there to help before you know it. And… you know you have to tell them sooner or later. Maybe you can tell Pinkie first. She's very good at keeping secrets, so you can tell the others later," Fluttershy said to try to convince Sunset to branch out. Sunset thought about it for a moment. Fluttershy's right. She would have to tell them about her newfound relationship with Celestia and Luna sooner or later. Not to mention, Pinkie would find out first even if she didn't tell her about this. Especially if Sunset tried to hide a party from the girl. Pinkie was technically the reason this party was happening in the first place.
"Maybe you're right. Can you call her?" Sunset asked.
"Of course, Sunset," Fluttershy said before ending the call.
After the call, Sunset tried to decorate the home alone, but considering this was her first time throwing a party, she was having some trouble. On her first attempt, she tried going for the only party that she went to multiple times. However, she could barely remember the decorations of the Grand Galloping Gala. She was too busy trying to keep the last piece of cake from being eaten by the selfish nobles. The school dances were still too raw to really look back on without wincing at how she cheated to win. Before long, she heard the bell ringing repeatedly, and she went to open the door.
"Okay, okay, wait a sec, I'm coming. Really Flutter-" Sunset stooped speaking once she saw it's not Fluttershy, but Pinkie Pie. She had somehow gotten here before Fluttershy, even with her arms loaded with bags like she raided every party store in the city, "Pinkie? How did you-"
"No time! Why didn't you tell me about this before? You know I'm all about parties?" Pinkie shouted.
"Uh… sorry Pinkie but… I didn't want to tell anyone about this. You can't tell the girls about this, okay?" Sunset asked.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy told me. And I'm going to Pinkie promise you too, hold this," Pinkie said before giving the bags she was holding to Sunset, causing Sunset to nearly fall over from the weight. She did a series of movements while singing, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," And finished with literally sticking a cupcake in her eye that suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Um… ookay… Sure, a cupcake in an eye, why not? What are these for," Sunset asked, dumbfounded at Pinkie's spectacle.
"They're decorations, games, and stuff for cupcakes." Pinkie said, taking the bags back.
"Cupcakes?"
"Yeah, you were going to buy these, weren't you?"
"Uh… yeah… how did you know?"
"Uh- just a hunch," Pinkie said, shrugging.
"And the games? Pinkie, this is supposed to be a small party, and do you know who we are throwing this for?"
"Yes, I do. And that's another reason why I'm angry with you!" Pinkie shouted.
"Sorry," Sunset said somberly.
"Apology accepted, but Sunset, know I'm not actually mad at you. I'm actually happy for you, I'm just sad you didn't tell, you must be really nervouscited right now. You're not the same Sunset I knew just a couple of weeks ago. I think Principal Celestia saw it before anyone," Pinkie said, placing the bags on the dining room table.
"Thank," Sunset said, smiling.
"Anyway, let's begin. We need to place decorations a little lower so she can feel them. But before that, you need to open the door."
"Why would I need to-" Sunset got interrupted when she heard the doorbell rang. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" Pinkie asked like she absolutely has no idea what she was talking about.
"Uh… nothing," Sunset said before walking towards the door, swearing she heard Pinkie mumble about flowers and rabbits. She opened the door and saw Fluttershy standing on the other side. "Fluttershy, come in. Pinkie's already here."
"I thought so. Sometimes I think there's some kind of magic inside her. Now that I know magic is real, I think she's had it all along," Fluttershy said.
The next few hours went by as Sunset and Fluttershy hung the decorations as instructed by Pinkie and Pinkie baking all the treats in the kitchen. By the end of it, the place looked absolutely amazing.
"Oh, it's just perfect. She's going to love it." Pinkie squealed.
"Yeah, it is," Sunset said.
"But, she can't see any of this," Fluttershy said sadly.
"Oh, don't worry. You made it exactly as I said. She's going to see them all." Pinkie said.
"Well, if you say so," Sunset said.
They then heard a car being parked outside and people walking and talking.
"They are here, come on," Pinkie whispered before she panicked. "We forgot something extremely important!"
"What is it?!?" Sunset asked as she watched Pinkie run into the dining room.
Pinkie's eyes narrowed as she eyed a bag on the counter. She raced across the dining room as she vaulted over the table, narrowly missing the candles. As she flipped over them, she noticed one was leaning over. Thinking quickly, her hand shot out and righted it. She landed the front flip perfectly and slammed into the counter as she snatched the bag and its contents before she raced towards Sunset and Fluttershy. The clanging of heels grew louder as she approached the two. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she exited the dining room, and her hand smacked the lights off. Reaching her shocked friends, Pinkie's hand flashed into the bag, drew out party hats, and placed them on Fluttershy and Sunset's head. As she placed Sunset's hat on, she heard the door handle shake as keys rattled against the knob. They all gathered before the door. A few seconds later, the door opened with Luna, Celestia, and the one they were waiting for, Snowdrop.
"Surprise!!" They all shouted, startling the girl.
"Aaaak!" Snowdrop shouted. "W-what?"
"We made you a surprise party, silly. Did you think we'd just let you into your new house without a party?" Pinkie said.
"Pinkie? Is that you?" Snowdrop asked as Celestia and Luna guided her inside.
"Yep," Pinkie said, popping the 'p'. "This is your new sister." Pinkie said, pushing Sunset forward. "Why don't you guess who it is?"
"Uh… I don't know? Is it someone I know?" Snowdrop asked.
"Of course you do," Sunset said, smiling as she watched the girl's eyes widen.
"S-Sunset…? A-are you…"
"Yeah… I am- oof" Sunset was interrupted by the sudden hug she got from the little girl. Pinkie and Fluttershy awed at that. Sunset returned the hug as she said, "So what do you think?"
"What do I think? I- I don't have words… I… I finally got adopted and… and my new s-sister is you? T-this is the best day of my life," Snowdrop said with happy tears.
Breaking the hug, Sunset said, "Snowdrop, I'd like you to meet my friend Fluttershy. If it's not for her, I won't be able to pull this off,"
"Hi Snowdrop, do you like what we did to the place. Pinkie helped to make it in a way so you can see," Fluttershy said, bowing down to the eye level.
"Hi, Sunset told me about you, and yes, I can see them. I can feel and hear all the streamers and balloons, and I smell treats. You all worked so hard for me," Snowdrop said as she was helped into the dining room.
"You girls did an amazing job. These cakes are amazing," Celestia said, eating a cupcake.
"Really, Tia?" Luna asked, rolling her eyes at her sister eating cake.
"What?" Luna just rolled her eyes at that.
"Well, now you know her weakness," Luna announced. Everyone laughed at that with a "Hey!" from Celestia.
Time passed before they knew it. They all had so much fun. Snowdrop played a lot of games that she never played because of her situation. But Pinkie knew exactly what she could play and made everything that much more fun with her exaggerated actions. Snowdrop already knew that her life would be the greatest.
After they finished having fun, they decided to show Snowdrop the house. The girls took her around the house showing every room. Snowdrop could already tell it is a big house from the distance they walked. Every door had the name of the room in brail, so she knew what room it was until she gets used to the house. After some time passed, Pinkie and Fluttershy left, and Sunset helped Snowdrop to unpack.
After unpacking and hanging together for a while, they heard Celestia calling them to dinner, and they both went to the dining area. Sunset could already tell that Snowdrop was getting used to the house. Sunset never knew how a blind person would eat without seeing where the food is. But Snowdrop seemed fine. She knew exactly where the food was, and she had no trouble. Sunset could see that she was wrong about blind people. They were far more capable than what one would think.
"So, Snowdrop, do you like it here?" Celestia asked.
"It's great. I didn't know when I would get adopted with me being blind and all. Then you and Miss Luna came to adopt me. Then I found out I also have a sister, and she's Sunset. This is great. Thank you so much, Miss Celestia." Snowdrop said with tears shining in her eyes.
"Think nothing of it, Snowdrop. Also, honey, you don't have to be so formally. We are your family." Celestia said, reaching across the table to hold Snopdrop's hands.
"O-okay… m-mom…" Snowdrop said with a smile at the end.
"There you go. It feels great to say that, right?" Sunset said, hugging Snowdrop sideways, and Snowdrop nodded.
"Though, you do have to call us Principal and Vice-Principal at school," Luna said.
"Wait, she's going to CHS too?" Sunset asked with bright eyes.
"Yes, she is. I asked Applebloom to show her the school because she has the same timetable as her so she can help Snowdrop around the school," Celestia said. "Also, can you look out for her? I don't want anything to happen to her while I'm away doing this boring paperwork."
"Don't worry, mom. I'll look out for my little sister," Sunset said, hugging her little sister.
After all the partying and fun from last night, Sunset and the older family members told Snowdrop about Sunset's origin, now that she is a part of the family. Needless to say, Snowdrop was shocked to learn about the alternate dimension. More surprising for Snowdrop was that Sunset was a unicorn, along with what she did at the fall formal. Despite Sunset's worry, Snowdrop was understandable and stood by the words she said when she first met Sunset.
They bedded down for the night, with Sunset sleeping in Snowdrop's rooms until she became accustomed to her new room. Sunset originally planned on sleeping on the floor, but with the insistence of Snowdrop soon found herself snuggling with her new sister as they both slept peacefully. Sunset and Snowdrop were roused from their sleep. Sunset followed her quick routine for school when she was running late before she started to live with Celestia and Luna so that she could help Snowdrop get ready. She was careful not to overwhelm the girl, what with her being used to getting herself ready. Before long, the time came for Snowdrop to attend CHS for the first time. Celestia and Luna went to their office to get the school started while Sunset took Snowdrop to her class.
"So, you ready for the day?" Sunset asked Snowdrop, which interrupted Snowdrop from her thoughts.
"Uh? Oh, yeah. It's a little scary, to be honest," Snowdrop nervously said while playing with the folds of her skirt.
"Why are you scared?"
"Um… my old classmates didn't actually like me for my blindness. What… what if-"
"Sh sh sh-" Sunset interrupted Snowdrop, covering Snowdrop's mouth with her finger. "Don't think about that. It's in the past. Your past is not today. Applebloom and her friends are good kids. They won't think anything bad about you. Plus, you've got me, mom, Aunt, Pinkie, and Fluttershy looking out for ya. So don't worry about that, okay?"
Snowdrop nodded, thankful for her new place in life.
"Um, excuse me… Sunset…" They heard someone calling out to Sunset. They turned to the speaker, revealing a head of crimson hair and a hot pink bow. Applebloom stood awkwardly with her arms behind her back, shifting from foot to foot.
"Oh, Hi Applebloom, I didn't see you," Sunset said.
"I-it's okay… um…"
"O-oh! Right, Applebloom, this is Snowdrop. Snowdrop, this is Applebloom," Sunset said, introducing the two.
"Um… Hi…" Snowdrop said, waving in the direction she heard Applebloom.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Applebloom said.
"Okay, I'll leave you two now. I have to get to class. Snowdrop, everything will be okay. I'll see you later, be brave, okay?" Sunset said, holding Snowdrop's shoulder. Snowdrop nodded with a nervous smile.
"So… you know her?" Applebloom asked.
"Mm-hm, I do," Snowdrop said.
"Okay, so… I'm supposed to show you the school and help you with any-"
"Hey, you two okay? We saw Sunset. Did she try to do anything to the new kid?" They heard Scootaloo shouting with Sweetie Belle right behind her.
"Oh! Hi Scootaloo, nothing happened. You don't need to worry," Applebloom said.
"You sure? I don't know why my sister and her friends are staying with her, but I know she's up to no good," Sweetie Belle said. Applebloom looked a little unsure about what she said.
"Actually, she-"
"D-don't talk to her like t-that. S-she's a very g-good person," Snowdrop said shyly.
"What? Good? Do you even know who she is?" Scootaloo asked.
"Um… y-yes… I know everything about her. I know t-that she was a bully a-and what she did at the fall formal… b-but she's not l-like that anymore…"
"How can you be so sure? She just acts like she's changed," Sweetie Belle said.
"B-because… because she's my sister," Snowdrop said hesitantly.
"What!!" the crusaders all shouted with wide eyes, believing they heard it wrong.
"What did you say?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"She's my big sister," Snowdrop said.
"But I thought… you are joking, right?" Scootaloo asked, still not convinced. Snowdrop shook her head.
"I-I understand if you don't want to be f-friends with me. And I'm b-blind and probably m-more pain that what its wort-"
"What! No! Who said anything about not wanting to be friends with you?" Applebloom screeched in nearly a shout.
"Yeah, we don't care if you are blind either," Sweetie Belle said.
"And, guys, maybe, just maybe… she's right. Let's just wait and see. If Sunset tries anything, our sisters can stop her." Applebloom said, which the other two crusaders nodded to. "Okay, Snowdrop. Let me properly introduce my friends. This is Scootaloo."
"Sup, nice to meet you," Scootaloo said.
"Hi."
"And this is Sweetie Belle."
"Pleasure to meet you, Snowdrop," Sweetie said.
"Um, pleasure."
"Okay, now that that's all over, allow us to give you a little tour around the school," Applebloom said, holding Snowdrop's hand.
Throughout the class, Sunset's mind was elsewhere. It shows with near-constant glances she kept giving the clock. This caught Rarity's attention. Sunset was a model student in terms of grades and behavior in the classroom. Once the teacher started, they had Sunset's complete attention.
"Are you alright, dear?" Rarity asked.
"What?" Sunset asked, snapping out.
"You seem, what's the word I'm looking for, troubled,"
"What… oh no, I'm fine just, just thinking about something. It's nothing to worry about," Sunset said while she glanced quickly at the clock as she tried to go back to the lesson.
After the lesson ended, Sunset was the first out of the class. She quickly made her way through the mobs of roaming teens as she headed over to Snowdrop's class. She was glad that she found paths with very little foot traffic in her time as the Queen Bee as she saw Snowdrop's room. She waited outside the class and waited for Snowdrop to leave. When she finally saw Snowdrop leave the class, she saw Snowdrop was with the crusaders, and she seemed happy enough with her possible new friends. Sunset released a breath and turned back to go to her next class when a voice made her stop.
"Oh, who is your new friend, another loser like you?" Sunset turned around and saw it's Diamond Tiara.
"Oh nothing, just wanted to say hi to the new kid. Though I suppose you're right, I should leave you losers. Besides, what am I going to do with a blind girl anyways," Diamond Tiara said, as Silver Spoon chuckled next to her. Snowdrop lowered her head in sadness, causing Sunset's blood to boil. It's one thing when the students hated her. But when they try to do anything to her family, she couldn't stand there and do nothing.
"Diamond Tiara, jus-"
"Hey! Who do you think you are?" Applebloom got interrupted when they heard the angry voice of Sunset. They turned around and saw Sunset walking up to them.
"W-what! Sunset, I- I was just-"
"You what? Huh, let me tell you something, if I ever, ever see you doing anything to Snowdrop, I'm going to make your life a nightmare, understood? You all forget I still have dirt on everyone here," Sunset said to Diamond Tiara, looking dead in the eye, with her face inches away from her. That last part was a lie, as Sunset had gotten rid of everything the day after the fall formal, but Diamond didn't need to know that. Diamond Tiara could swear that she saw Sunset's eyes flashed orange for a split second before she nodded repeatedly. She quickly ran away with Silver Spoon close at her heels as they fled from them, leaving only a dust cloud where she was before.
"Hey Snowdrop, you okay?" She asked, kneeling beside Snowdrop. Snowdrop nodded, still holding her head low. "Hey, don't be sad. They are the losers for not seeing how great you are." Sunset looked up at the crusaders and saw they are looking at her in fear. "Uh… you okay?"
"W-what!" Applebloom asked.
"I asked, uh… nevermind."
"Sunset?" Snowdrop called. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when you yelled at Diamond Tiara, I felt a lot of heat… like you are on fire."
"I, was what?" Sunset asked, dumbfounded.
"Y-yeah… I felt that t-too," Applebloom said, still looking at Sunset in fear.
"I… I don't know…" Sunset said, looking at her hands. "You should go back to class. And don't worry, Diamond Tiara won't come to trouble you again." Sunset said quickly before leaving for her next class, all the while wondering what had happened.
The rest of the day went by without any more incidents as Sunset tried to focus on her lessons. The keyword was tried, as she was otherwise distracted by a more pressing matter than learning how to solve cosecant formula or something about Chancellor Puddinghead and carrots. She couldn't help but think that maybe her inner demon was back. Sunset made a mental note to talk to Celestia about it. It's better to be safe than sorry. After all, they are her family. Also, Sunset decided it's time to reveal her secret to her friends, as she walked into the music room with Snowdrop. The girls were getting ready for practice when they saw them coming.
"Hey! Snowdrop!" Pinkie shouted as she ran and hugged the blind girl.
"Hi, Pinkie," Snowdrop said.
"So, yer the new kid Applebloom got to show around the school. Well, I'm Applejack, Appleblooms sister. It's nice to meet you," Applejack said, tilting her hat.
"Hi, Applebloom told me about you."
"Hello darling, I'm Rarity, Sweetie Belle's sister. It's a pleasure to meet you," Rarity greeted herself.
"Hehe, of course, she does. I'm only the coolest person in school."
"Anyway, what brings you here? Want to listen to our awesome music?" Applejack asked.
"Actually, I want to tell you girls about something," Sunset said. Everyone looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"About what? And what does it has to do with Snowdrop?" Rarity asked.
"Oh, my… are you going to…" Fluttershy said as she helped Snowdrop to a seat.
"Yeah, it's about that," Sunset said.
"Uh… what are you talking about?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh! Oh! are going to tell them about it? It was killing me the whole time, trying not to say anything about that. I JUST CAN'T KEEP A SECRETE IF THERES NO PARTY INVOLVED." Pinkie shouted.
"Yes, Pinkie, I'm going to tell them about it," Sunset said. "Okay, so...um… I… well… we are friends now… right? So maybe it's time… I tell you about my… family…" Sunset said, unsure about how they would react.
"Your family?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah… well… um, deep breaths Sunset, in, out. Okay, first of all, Snowdrop here is my… sister…"
"She's what?" Everyone asked except Pinkie and Fluttershy shouted.
"Well, it's a long story. I'll tell you from the beginning," Sunset said, as she began to tell her tale. She began from the day of the fall formal, of how Principal Celestia came to her that night. How she found out about Sunset's living condition, hearing this made all the girls gasp.
"You lived in an abandoned factory?" Rarity asked dramatically.
"Uh… yeah… remember? I'm a unicorn from another world. I was fortunate enough to find that place and enough money to forge papers to attend CHS." Sunset said. "Anyway, after she found me, she took me to her home-"
"More like a mansion," Pinkie said, giggling, interrupting Sunset.
"Wait, you've been there?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah, so has Fluttershy."
"Why did you two get to go there?" Applejack asked.
"I'm getting to that," Sunset said. "As I was saying, Principal Celestia took me to her home to stay until we figure out what to do. I had to stay there for a few more days." Sunset said. Then, her face suddenly changed, brightening it a bit.
"Then, on Saturday, the most wonderful thing happened to me. That day, I came home after working at the Sushi Restaurant in the mall. Everything was normal until after dinner. Vice-Principal Luna came to my room and told me that Principal Celestia was looking for me and to wait in her room till she gets back. Once I went to her room, I saw something that I never thought I'd see. Luna planned it all along."
"What? What did she plan?" Rainbow asked.
"Luna's a bit of a prankster. It was obvious afterward."
"What? Luna and a prank? You sure we're thinking of the same Luna?" Rainbow asked again.
"Yeah, both Luna and Celestia are quite different when they're outside of school. Anyway, I saw a manila folder on her table, and a paper was poking outside of it. The word on the paper made me curious, and I went to check it out. And I saw they are adoption papers. Right then, Celestia came inside and saw me. After that, I found out she was going to adopt m-"
"Wait, Principal Celestia adopted you?" Rarity exclaimed as she looked for something to 'faint' on.
"Yeah, she did. I couldn't believe it at the moment. But it was true. Mom didn't want anyone to know about it at the moment because she thought it could cause problems, considering my reputation here." Sunset said, moving closer to Snowdrop. "After that, Pinkie took me to the orphanage, where I met Snowdrop. And yesterday, we adopted her. Pinkie and Fluttershy helped to make the welcoming party. So now, Snowdrop is my little sister," Sunset said, hugging Snowdrop. "And that's about it, anything you want to know?"
"It's all a lovely story, but… how did Celestia actually adopt you? I mean… you are a unicorn from another world, and whatever paperwork you had was forged. Didn't that cause a problem?" Rarity asked.
"Well, one of Luna's friends helped me. She works for the government, I guess, and she did my legal paperwork," Sunset explained.
"Okay, so how did you have money to live?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, would you believe if I said gems don't have any value in Equestria?"
"What?!" Everyone shouted.
"Yeah, they are everywhere there. Ponies even farm them. I had a handful of gems with me when I came to this world, and they worth a fortune here. But it was too late when I knew that. I got scammed, but the money I got was enough to forge the paperwork and live for a few days. After that, I started attending CHS, I… um… b-bullied for money…so yeah…" Sunset said, ashamed at the last part.
"You bullied for money?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah… not the best option, but without legal paperwork, I didn't want to get any job. I'm in a lot of trouble if people found out about me… sorry…" Sunset said, looking down.
After that, a long silence fell upon them. The group all thought of what Sunset had to go through. It made sense why she became so aggressive and controlling in the later years. The stress of her situation and fear of what could happen to her caused her to lash out. Many of them couldn't imagine what Sunset went through these past years. Especially considering that the winters had been particularly harsh. The small two experiencing four blizzards and record-breaking cold fronts. It was thoughts like these that caused them to look at Sunset, not as a bully turned friend, but as a survivor that was now safe and surrounded by people that care for her. For a while, they sat in thoughtful silence until it was broken by Pinkie.
"Well, you have us now. That's never going to happen again. We'll help you whenever you need it. You know what that means? Now that everyone knows your secret, I can at last throw a big, SUNSET AND SNOWDROP GOT ADOPTED PARTY!!!!" Pinkie shouted while jumping and throwing confetti out of nowhere to the amusement of everyone.
"Um… maybe-"
"Save it, Sunset, Pinkie going to throw that party no matter what," Rainbow said, picking confetti out of her hair.
What happened the next few days was something that Sunset could scarcely believe. After revealing her family to the rest of the girls, Pinkie threw her party that she promised Sunset and Snowdrop. The party was great until the girls began to sing a song, when to Sunset's great horror; the girls started to glow with magic. Everyone was so mesmerized by the display of the girls' transforming into their magical pony forms, no one saw how frightened Sunset was. After the song ended, they had to pull Sunset out from behind the couch, where they found her curled up in the fetal position. Apparently, seeing the girls transform so suddenly caused Sunset to relive the Fall Formal's traumatic event. After calming down the distraught teen, they continued the party, careful of triggering any more unpleasant memories for Sunset.
Despite that small hiccup, the weekend ended up being the most fun Sunset ever had. Sunset and Snowdrop spent the much needed time with their mom and aunt. To their surprise, despite Snowdrop's blindness, she is kind of capable of gaming. Sunset and Luna were playing Resident Evil 2 that day, and they were so focused on the game that they didn't hear Snowdrop coming behind them. Sunset was slowly making her way around the police station when a zombie limped behind her. But Sunset didn't know that and kept searching for the zombie, thinking it was still ahead of her when Snowdrop said it was behind her. Sunset quickly turned back and shot in time before it was able to bite her. After a few seconds, Sunset and Luna remembered Snowdrop's blindness and surprised at how she knew where the zombie was. After that, they gave her a game to play, and she did surprisingly well for a blind person. But she was mostly limited to platformers and games with a lot of sounds, as it helps her to "see" where she is with the surround sound system Luna made. Another game that Snowdrop loved to play was Battleship's computerized version with Luna or Sunset helping her with directing her attacks.
After the weekend of excitement, the dreaded Monday came to ruin it. Sunset found herself making her way to the school gymnasium. It was the day before the musical showcase, and every student in the school was helping out to make banners in the gym. She looked around the room and saw the crusaders with Snowdrop and another girl with yellow skin and light purple hair in a ponytail by the stage. Smiling at the scene, she decided to let Snowdrop be to make new friends. She continued to scan the room and saw the Rainbooms at the opposite end of the room. Pinkie saw her and got up before shouting,
"Sunset Shimmmeeeer!! Over Hereeeee!!"
Sunset smiled at them and made her way to the girls surrounding a poster. As she walked over to them, the students around her begin muttering and whispering about her. She couldn't help but blame Pinkie a little after alerting everyone to her presence.
"I had no idea the whole school would be here," Sunset said, sighing. Fluttershy put an arm on Sunset's shoulder to comfort her. Rarity and Pinkie picked up the poster they were working on and showed it to Sunset.
"What do you say, Sunset? Quite the eye-catching advertisement if I do say so myself," Rarity asked.
"It's great," Sunset said after observing the poster.
"And the best part is, it smells like cake," Pinkie said, smiling.
"It does?" Fluttershy asked, to which Pinkie literally smacked the whole poster into Fluttershy's face when she tried to smell it.
"I used frosting instead of paste," Pinkie said. When she pulled the poster back, Fluttershy's face was covered in frosting.
"Uh… Fluttershy, you got a little something…" Applejack said, pointing to her face. Fluttershy tried to get the frosting off but only managed to wipe a little bit. "Did I get it?" The others lightly chuckled to that.
"Here," Sunset said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiped the excess frosting off of Fluttershy's face.
Right then, Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna walked into the stadium.
"Good afternoon, students. I just wanted to say how pleased I am to see that so many of you decided to participate in CHS's first-ever musical showcase." Principal Celestia said, to which all the students cheered. "This is a wonderful opportunity to raise money for all our after school programs. So keep working on those signs and posters." In all honesty, the school had more than enough money, but allowing the students to participate in making money makes it all the more worthy in the end. "I think it's going to be one of the most exciting events here at CHS since the Fall Formal," as soon as Celestia said that, everyone except the Rainbooms and Snowdrop glared at Sunset. That's when Celestia realized what she just said and how the students took it.
On the other hand, Sunset blushed in embarrassment and did a terrible job to cover her face, and slumped in sadness.
"Oh yeah, we're better than ever…
Oh whaa oh whaa
Oh yeah, we're better than ever…"
The Rainbooms finished their song, as all the pony ears, wings, and horns, along with extended hair, disappeared. Sunset clapped at their performance.
"Hehe- I still can't believe that happens when we play," Rarity said, putting her keytar aside. "Oh, I've got to look into some new accessories for these long ponytails and these fluffy pony ears. Oh, maybe, clip-on earrings?" Rarity wondered aloud.
"I just wonder why it happens. Didn't Princess Twilight took the magic along with the crown?" Applejack asked.
"Who cares why it happens," Rainbow said. "It only makes my band look totally awesome."
"OH! Sorry, your band?" Rarity asked, offended.
"Duh… it was my idea to make the band so we can be in the showcase," Rainbow said. "Plus, I'm the lead singer and guitarist."
Just then, they heard someone knocking on the music room door and saw Flash Sentry walking inside.
"Heard you outside. You guys are sounding really tight," He said, walking inside.
"We are getting there. Rarity's coming in a little late on the second verse, and Applejack could use a little bit of work on her bass solo," Rainbow said, not noticing the disapproving looks the others giving her. "They'll get it together before the showcase."
"Okay… uh… I don't suppose any of our friends from out of town might come?" Flash said, holding the back of his head. "You know, it being a charity event and all."
"Sorry, Flash, I don't think Twilight's gonna be in Canterlot High anytime soon," Applejack said, walking up to Flash.
"O-oh yeah… okay… I just… you know, thought, I'd ask," Flash said before pointing finger guns and walked backward, saying, "Uh… keep on… rocking it…" and walked straight into the wall. He quickly moved aside and slipped out of the music room.
"Oh- hehe… someone's a little smitten kitten," Rarity said before realizing Sunset is there. "Oh… sorry, I always forget you and Flash used to be a thing," Rarity apologized.
"No, it's okay… I didn't really have a thing for him like I do for Fluttershy. I just used him to get more popular. Ugh, the old me really was awful, wasn't she?" Sunset said. Everyone else looks elsewhere, but Sunset's eye's except for Pinkie, who bluntly said, "Yup,"
"But the important thing is, you changed your way now. I saw it the day you came to our farm to help out," Applejack said, walking up to Sunset and placing her hand on Sunset's shoulder.
"Thanks, Applejack," Sunset said, smiling before her face turned sad. "But I don't think everyone else at CHS thinks the same way,"
"Don't worry, you are trying, and you're already doing a great job," Fluttershy said, holding Sunset's arm. Sunset smiled at Fluttershy and Rainbow gaged at them, who received an elbow in the gut from Rarity. Just then, the PA system clicked, and the voice of Vice-Principal Luna came from it.
"Sunset Shimmer, please report to the main foyer."
"Gotta run. I volunteered to show some new students around the school. I figured they could get to know the new me before they hear about the old me," Sunset said before running to the school entrance.
She quickly arrived at the entrance and saw a trio of girls standing there. She walked up to them to call them, but she got this weird feeling for some reason. It like there's something invisible around them that made her jittery, like a predator looking at its prey. She put the feeling aside and called out to them.
"Uh… hello… are you the new students I'm supposed to show around?" She asked.
"We are," The one with the poofy orange hair said while the three of them stepped out of the shadows.
After introducing each other, Sunset took them around the school. Everything was going well until they reached the end of the tour.
"That's the science lab. The computer lab is in there," Sunset said, pointing to each location. Just then, she saw a poster made for the showcase and ran towards it. "Oh, we have a new musical showcase tomorrow night; the whole school is going to be there. Since you are new, I'm sure Principal Celestia should allow you to sign up if you go talk to her."
"Oh… a musical showcase?" Adagio Dazzle, apparently the leader of the group, said, looking behind at her two friends.
"We have been known to sing from time to time," Aria Blaze said.
"Uh… hello, we sing like, all the time. That's how we get people to do what we want," Sonata Dusk said, which made the other two angry. Aria and Sonata then began to argue.
"You have to excuse them. They're idiots," Adagio said to Sunset. Sunset just kept looking at them for a while with a slightly confused face as she tried to keep her face neutral before she noticed the identical necklaces they all had.
"Oh, those are pretty. Where did you-" Sunset asked as she reached to inspect them but was cut off when Adagio's hand shot and squeezed her hand. Hard. Realizing what she did, Adagio quickly apologized.
"Hehehe… sorry. These pendants mean an awful lot to us," She said as she let go of Sunset's hand.
"Uh… okay…" Sunset said, rubbing her hand, growing more confused. And she could swear she felt something when she tried to touch the pendant. Sunset watched the two girls walk away before Aria turned around and pulled Sonata along with her.
Lunch was in full swing. Everyone mingled with others in the room as they minded their own business. Sunset walked in and looked around the cafeteria, looking for the girls. When she saw them, she made her way over to them. After days of general fear when it came to walking alone in the cafeteria's aisle or halls, Sunset could finally walk through the hallways and cafeteria without fear of the students trying to actively hurt her. It probably had something to do with the girls or the students having been cooled off. Whatever the reason, Sunset was grateful for it. She sat in the chair next to Applejack. Her mind was hung up on the three girls she just met.
"So, how was the tour?" Applejack asked.
"It's… it was okay, but… there was something… I don't know. Something off about them," Sunset said.
"Off? Off like this?" Pinkie asked, making a beard and a mustache with her hair. "Or off like this?" Pinkie asked as she made a vampire face with salad and fangs made out of baby carrots. Everyone looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Maybe we should let her tell us," Rainbow said to Pinkie. Everyone looked at Sunset as a carrot fell out of her mouth.
"That's just it. I just can't put my finger on it. They just acted. Sort of strange around me," Sunset said, frowning, "Maybe someone already told them about me," Sunset guessed before letting her head fell on the table.
Just then, they heard the cafeteria door opening, and the new girls walked in. And they raised their eyebrows at them when they saw them singing. "Um… what are they doing?" Rainbow asked.
They did their musical number all over the cafeteria. The girls were looking at them, wondering what all this is about. Sunset, on the other hand, felt something strange around them. And whatever it was, it was affecting everyone around them as she saw all the students begin to argue and fight over something. For some reason, it didn't affect her or the girls as she saw they were perfectly fine despite whatever is happening.
"Ohhh… they're that kind of off," Pinkie said, what was on everyone's mind.
After the incident, Sunset and the girls quickly got out of the cafeteria. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow tried to talk to their sisters who were fighting over something which was rarely seen among the trio, to no avail.
"What just happened?" Applejack asked.
"I… I think they have some kind of power… maybe that's what I felt," Sunset said.
"Oh great, we have to do something. The last thing we need is another power crazy demon ruining another special event at CHS," Rainbow said. Sunset looked annoyed at that while everyone else looked at Rainbow disapprovingly. After the Fall Formal and becoming friends with Sunset, the girls tried to sound less offensive as much as possible to Sunset. And they did an excellent job, except Rainbow. Apparently, even though she was cool with Sunset, she still made brash comments towards her by accident, reminding her of how bad she was.
"Whatever, they do have some kind of magic with them. If we get to Principal Celestia and tell her about this, we'll be able to stop them," Sunset said. Everyone else nodded at her.
"Sunset?" They heard a soft voice, very similar to Fluttershy's talk. When they turned, they saw Snowdrop.
"Oh, Snowdrop, you okay?" Sunset asked, walking up to her little sister as she saw the troubled look on her face.
"Um… did something happen back there? Everyone's shouting and I heard some fighting," Snowdrop asked.
"Uh… where were you?" Sunset asked.
"I was in the library with Lily Pad."
"Not to worry you but, did some girls come into the library and sing a song?" Rarity asked. Snowdrop shook her head.
"Well, that explains it," Rainbow said.
"Snowdrop, come with us, something's going on, and we are going to talk to mom about it," Sunset said as she guided Snowdrop.
The girls made their way to the Principals' office, and Sunset knocked on the door. "Come in," They heard Celestia say from the other side. The girls quickly made their way inside.
"Oh, Sunset, what can I do for you?" Celestia asked. They saw Luna just beside her.
"Um… we are here to tell you something about the new students," Sunset began. "I think… they have some kind of dark magic with them."
"Dark magic, you say? I find that hard to believe, they came into my office just a few minutes ago, and they were very delightful," Celestia said.
"You met them?"
"Of course, but do you have any proof of their actions or this "dark magic"? Maybe Sunset Shimmer is just eager to make someone else out to be a bad element so that her actions at the Fall Formal will be old news," Luna said accusingly.
When Sunset heard that, she felt like she had been stabbed in the heart. She never thought she'd hear them say anything like that. And to make matters worse, Celestia didn't defend her either. But surprisingly, Rainbow came forward.
"That's not what happened. We saw what they did at the cafeteria. They are bad news," Rainbow said, trying to convince Celestia.
"Yes, but isn't your band supposed to be a part of the musical showcase?" Celestia asked.
"Uh… I… yes…"
"Perhaps you all are just worried that The Dazzlings are just going to steal your spotlight," Luna said.
"The Dazzlings?" Applejack asked.
"It's the name of their musical group. That's why they came by my office earlier so that they can be in the showcase. They even sang a song to Vice-Principal Luna and me."
"T-they… d-did…" Sunset said, stuttering.
"Yes, and we think having a battle of the bands instead is a marvelous idea," Celestia said. A Sunset could swear she saw a green flash coming from both Celestia and Luna's eyes.
After they attempted to warn the principals proved hopeless, the girls skipped their next classes and gathered outside to plan what to do next. Sunset and Snowdrop were sitting under the Wondercolt statue, taking comfort from each other.
"I can't believe they got to Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna too," Fluttershy said.
"What are we gonna do? They got to everyone," Rainbow said, frustratingly kicking her football.
"Not everyone…" Pinkie sang from the top of the statue.
"Yeah, we were there when the Dazzlings sang that song. It didn't affect us. It's like we are protected from something," Applejack said as she began to think about that incident.
"So let's take them down. It's not like we haven't tangled with dark magic before and totally whooped its sorry butt," Rainbow said. Sunset just sighed in annoyance.
"I'm just glad they didn't get to Snowdrop," Sunset said, hugging her little sister.
"But that's when Twilight was here. We might have some kind of magic inside us, but it only works when we sing a song. I don't know how to use it to 'whup anybody's butt'." Fluttershy said nervously.
"Huh… if only we could send a message to Twilight, so she can tell us how to break the spell The Dazzlings cast on everybody." Rarity said, examining the nail paint she put on her nails.
"Well, that's not gonna happen, the portal's closed," Rainbow said, throwing the ball to the portal, to which Rarity had to duck under, which got her nail paints to spill all down her arm. "And I get the feeling they don't exactly have cell phones where she's from," Rainbow continued ignoring the dramatic screams of Rarity.
'Cell Phones?' Sunset thought for a while before she remembered something. "I may have an idea how we can get in touch with Twilight," Sunset said, smiling before she quickly ran inside the school with Snowdrop holding onto her arm.
The girls all followed Sunset and came to a halt at her locker. Sunset dived into her locker, looking for something before she pulled out a big book with her cutie mark on it. She wiped the dust and opened the book.
"When I was Princess Celestia's student back in Equestria, she gave me this. Even after I ran away, I still held onto it. I think deep down. I knew I was making a mistake, and I still wanted a way to reach out to her. Maybe it still works?"
"Uh… darling? It's a book. What do you mean it still works?" Rarity asked.
"It used to be that when I wrote something here, it appears in a book similar to this in Princess Celesta's library," Sunset said. "I get a message to her. Maybe she can get a message to Princess Twilight."
"So what are you waiting for? Get to writing," Rainbow said, giving Sunset a pen.
Sunset grabbed the pen and glanced at the girls. They all gave her an encouraging nod, and her heart swelled with joy for having someone to help her through this time. A gentle squeeze on her arm had her looking at Snowdrop. She was hugging her arm to give her own share of courage to her. A soft smile formed on her face as she rubbed Snowdrop's head. Looking back at the book, her face formed a determined frown as she gripped the pen hard.
"Huh, been a long time since I wrote these words. Dear Princess Celestia-" Sunset muttered under her breath.
After sending the message to Princess Celestia, Sunset and the girls hung near the portal waiting for a sign from the Princess. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were playing a card game on top of the statue. Rarity was painting Fluttershy's nails while Rainbow, Sunset, and Snowdrop sat beside the statue.
"I'm thinking she's not coming back," Rainbow said, passing the ball between her hands in a solo game of catch.
Just then, the portal suddenly flashed and a small swirling vortex formed. Just as suddenly as it appeared, a purple blur shot out from it. They all looked at the individual and saw it was Princess Twilight and her assistant Spike. Sunset quickly sat up and ran up to her.
"I'm… back…" Twilight said. Rubbing her head. She saw an amber hand sticking out to her and looked up to see Sunset standing there. She went to grab her hand but hesitated for a moment before finally taking her hand and standing up.
"Twilight!" rest of the girls quickly ran towards her and gave her a bear hug. While Sunset moved behind the group of friends reuniting. She didn't want to get in the way of such a happy occasion for the girls.
"You are back. I thought the portal was closed," Applejack said.
"Well, I found a way, and girls… I got some bad news about those new girls." Twilight said. Just then, she saw the little girl hanging on to Sunset's arm. "Who's this?" The girls turned around to see Twilight looking at Snowdrop.
"Oh, Twilight, meet Snowdrop, my sister. Snowdrop, this is the Princess I told you about, Princess Twilight." Sunset said to the confused Twilight and her excited sister.
"Your sister?" Twilight asked.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later, you know when there isn't a dimensional crisis," Sunset said.
"Are… are you really a… p-princess…? Snowdrop asked, reaching out for Twilight.
"You are right. It's nice to meet you Snowdrop, I am a princess. Though my friends just call me Twilight," Twilight said, taking Snowdrop's hand.
"Okay, seems like we have a lot of catching up to do. Why don't we head over to the Sugarcube Corner?" Applejack suggested.
"Oh, I do hate that you had to visit in a time of crisis. We have so much catching up to do." Rarity said, sitting right to Twilight on a sofa.
"For starters, we have that little Snow Apple, and a certain guitarist was asking about you," Applejack said.
"Flash was asking about me!?" Twilight shouted before quickly trying to compose herself, though the damage was already done. "I-I mean, of course, that's very nice of him," The girls just stared at her with a knowing smile.
"Ahem, well now that's very nice, but I have to know about Sunset's sister. How did this happen? I thought you came here alone," Twilight wondered as she turned to her left, where Snowdrop sat.
"I mean, I did come here alone. It's a kind of a long story. In short, we got adopted, and now we are sisters," Sunset said, growing more uncomfortable with the attention of Twilight.
"You got adopted? By who?"
"As I said, it's a long story, so I'll tell you that later. First, we need to stop those girls," Sunset said, as she changed the subject. Sunset didn't know why but she almost wanted to keep her relationship with Celestia secret for now. After all, Twilight was a princess, and from what Spike told them on the way over to Sugarcube Corner, she was a big-time princess now with a title and everything. Twilight really was Celestia's prized pupil. Meanwhile, Sunset was just a self-absorbed brat that betrayed and failed Celestia as her student. The two of them were as different as the night was from the day.
"Right, so what do you know about these girls, I have my suspicions of who they are, but I need to make sure I'm right. And since we don't have the elements with us, we need to find a way to defeat them quickly," Twilight said.
"Well, just as we said, they simply sing, and then everyone around them just suddenly got all mad and crazy," Applejack said.
"They also have these strange necklaces around their neck, and I think they can control people's minds or at the very least their emotions, which is essentially the same thing. They were able to convince m-, I mean Principal Celestia into turning the musical showcase we are supposed to have tomorrow into a "Battle of the Bands"," Sunset said with air quotes before she finished telling Twilight about her observations.
"Also, who said we don't have magic?" Rainbow said, pulling up her phone and showing a video they recorded at the party at Sunset's home. Twilight looked at the video in shock as she saw the girls transform into their magic forms like they had the night of the fall formal. "Pretty sweet, huh? It happens every time we play music."
"Hm… my crown was returned back to Equestria, but some of its magic might have remained here. Now that we are all here, we can use that magic again on those sirens, just like we used it on Sunset." Twilight said but gasped as she realized what she just said. "Sorry, no offense," She quickly apologized to Sunset.
"Ha... none taken," Sunset said, sighing.
"Sirens?" Rarity asked.
"They were a powerful race back in Equestria, but I thought they were extinct," Sunset said.
"They are, but apparently, Star Swirl the Bearded sent the last of them here, and I think it's those three," Twilight said.
"But, that was at least a thousand years ago. How are they still alive?" Sunset asked Twilight.
"I don't know how. It could be they are like Celestia or Discord. They are immortal beings, or there could be some time displacement from Starswirls spell that sent them forward in time. The possibilities are endless, especially considering that Starswirl moved them through space. Many theories exist about dimensional existences and travel that are still in their infancy. All I do know is that we will stop them. We must."
Later that night, they went to the party organized for the Battle of the Band in hopes of defeating the sirens. However, the party was not going well. Everyone was shouting at each other, and some people almost got into fistfights a few times. It was then that Twilight realized just how grave the situation actually was. Her sudden meeting with Flash Sentry confirmed the grimness of their position even further. Before long, the trio the girls were waiting for arrived. Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms quickly made their way over to the Dazzlings. Sunset and Snowdrop waited off on the sideline.
"They are going to stop them, right?" Snowdrop asked Sunset.
"They will, I know they will," Sunset said with conviction.
The Rainbooms held each other's hands with Twilight in the middle, and she shouted with all her might, "Friendship is Magic!!" and unleashed the magic of friendship on the sirens and blasted them with a Rainbow Laser…
… Or at least that's what they expected to do. Instead, what followed was an awkward silence as they waited for the magic to take effect, which didn't happen.
"Something's not right," Sunset said as she waited for the magic to appear like it did that horrible night or the night of the party. Snowdrop gripped Sunset's hand tighter.
Crushing the expectations, what happened next was Adagio making the whole scene into a declaration of war and making the entire crowd yell in anger at each other. Sunset could feel the same dark magic happening again. She was sure Twilight felt it too. Twilight and the girls made their way quickly out of the stadium, with Sunset and Snowdrop meeting them at the doors.
"I don't understand. It makes no sense. I should be able to create the spark that would help us break their spell. That's how it worked before." Twilight ranted as she walked back and forth in front of the school entrance while the rest of the girls sat on the staircase.
"But you used the magic from the crown I was wearing to defeat me. The sirens draw magic from singing, so maybe you should do the same. I mean, the girls only gain power and transform when they sing," Sunset said thoughtfully.
"Hm… I think you are onto something," Twilight said finally after she thought over the suggestion.
"Really?"
"Uh-hu… as Sunset said, you only transform when you sing. So the way to defeat the sirens must be to use a musical counter-spell," Twilight said, grinning, as she finally got the answer thanks to Sunset.
"You mean, like a song?" Fluttershy asked.
"Exactly, but when are we going to use the spell? Do any of you know when we are going to meet them again?"
"The band competition!" Rarity shouted, standing up. "Everyone will be there."
"Guess the Rainbooms are the band to beat," Applejack said.
"And I believe you, Twilight, just became the Rainbooms' newest member," Rarity announced. Twilight quickly turned nervous as all the girls ran towards her. And then Pinkie pulled out various musical instruments seemingly out of nowhere and asked Twilight what she was going to play. Sunset, on the other hand, hide her hurt as much as she could.
"I might take longer to learn to do anything with those," Twilight said, wiggling her fingers. "I'll just sing,"
"Like as in, lead singer?" Rainbow came beside Twilight and asked. "Couse that's usually my gig. You know, it being my band and all."
"Our band." Applejack interjected. "And as the lead singer, she's the one with the magical knowhow to pull this thing off," Applejack said as Rainbow again boasted about her guitar skills.
"It's only temporary. And we don't actually have to win the battle of the bands," Twilight said as a means to pacify the rainbow-haired girl.
"So let's get to learning that musical counter-spell," Rainbow shouted.
"Oh, by the way, isn't Sunset part of the band?" Twilight asked.
"Well, we asked her, but she didn't want to be a part of the band," Rainbow said before Sunset could talk.
"Yes, even though she said she can't play many instruments, she is very good at sound balancing," Rarity pointed out, looking at Sunset.
"Well, yeah… I'll just stick with that," Sunset said, rubbing her head. "So, do you know of any counter-spells?"
"Well, that's just it, I don't know any," Twilight said, to which everyone frowned. "But, I'm sure I could figure out how to write one,"
"Yeah, Twilight can write a spell like it's nobody's business," Spike said, patting Twilight's shoe. "That's pretty much how she got to become a princess in Equestria."
"Technically, I finished a spell. And there's a little more to it than that Spike."
"Yeah, whatever."
"I've got this, come on," Twilight said before picking up Spike and walking back to the school.
"Uh… where are you going?" Applejack asked.
"Well, the last time we were here, Spike and I spent the night at the library."
"Are you crazy!" Pinkie shouted, walking up to Twilight. "We are besties now. Slumber Party at my house," Pinkie said, hugging Twilight and literally lifting her off the ground as they moved towards the exit.
"That's a good idea. I was going to suggest that because I knew Twilight wouldn't have a place to stay the night and I don't think it's a good idea for Sunset and Snowdrop to go back home," Applejack said.
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked.
"Your mom and aunt are under the spell of the sirens. You saw how they acted before, right? So I agree with Applejack. You two shouldn't go back to them at the moment," Rarity said.
Sunset looked down, thinking over what they said. And they were all right. Sunset felt someone tugging her jacket and looked down at Snowdrop.
"We are going to get them back, right?" Snowdrop asked. Sunset could sense the fear in her voice. Even though Sunset didn't show it on the outside, she, too, was feeling the same thing. But for the sake of Snowdrop, she has to be brave.
"Of course, my little snowflake, we are going to get them back, okay?" Sunset said as she hugged Snowdrop. "Alright, we will come with you," Sunset said as she held Snowdrop's hand.
After their failed attempt to stop the Dazzlings, the girls all went to Pinkie's house for a slumber party. And Sunset finally revealed her relationship with Principal Celestia to Twilight. Needless to say, Twilight was surprised and was happy for Sunset and Snowdrop, as well. Sunset already came a long way, and now she had a family. Princess Celestia could stop worrying about Sunset, now that her counterpart is looking over her. Strangely, Sunset asked Twilight not to tell Princess Celestia about it. At the moment, Sunset wanted to wait until she was ready to face Princess Celestia; Sunset later explained it to her. After that, it was Twilight's turn to explain things. She explained how she gained her title, how she got her own castle, and all her adventures afterward. After the storytelling and explanations, the girls all began to relax, and Twilight began her work on the counter-spell.
Applejack and Rainbow were playing a game on Pinkie's console, and Rainbow was getting hammered. Pinkie was browsing through her MyStable page. Rarity gave Sunset a lesson about selfies, something the old bully didn't seem to care about, thanks to having no friends before. Fluttershy and Snowdrop were petting Spike, which the Dragon-turned-Dog was seemed to enjoy. Snowdrop also enjoyed petting the dog as the orphanage didn't allow them to have pets as it didn't want the kids to grow attached to them. Twilight sat on Pinkie's bed and was trying to write the counter-spell.
"So, how's the counter-spell coming up?" Rainbow asked after successfully sabotaging Applejack's chance to win the game.
"Uh- Yeah… it's all coming up great," Twilight said nervously, flipping through the pages of Fluttershy's notebook. "Thanks again for letting me use your notebook Fluttershy. I really like the song you made."
"Thanks, hopefully, we get to play it someday," Fluttershy said, sighing and a slight amount of resentment.
Just then, they heard the doorbell ring, and Pinkie shouted, "Pizzaz's here!!!" and all the girls suddenly disappeared, leaving a dust cloud in their wake.
"You stay here, Snowdrop. I'll make sure they leave the cheese pizza alone," Sunset said, getting up and leaving. Snowdrop simply nodded to her.
After everyone left, only Snowdrop and Twilight remained in the room. Twilight looked at the notes she drew on the note pad and sighed. The spell was not coming around great. She had no idea how to write one. She just hoped she could find a way to write one. Everyone was looking up to her.
"Are you o-okay, princess?" She heard Snowdrop's voice from beside her. Looking at the side, she saw Snowdrop from the looks of it was staring at her forehead in worry.
"Oh yeah- of course, why wouldn't I be?" Twilight asked with a nervous smile as she touched her forehead, "Also, please call me Twilight."
"Um, okay. It's just… you sound… um, troubled. And I can tell… that you're lying." Twilight let out a heavy sigh. There's no point in hiding the fact now. Even though Snowdrop was blind, she's a great observer, a great listener. She's pretty sure Sunset noticed her worriedness too.
"Well, Snowdrop, I'll be honest. I don't exactly know… how to write this spell. But don't you worry. I will finish it, and I'll bring everyone back, okay?" She said to Snowdrop, rubbing her hair.
"Um… Twilight, you said everything you've accomplished is all thanks to your friends," Snowdrop said. "And everyone is looking to you for answers."
"What do you mean?"
"Um… I… I don't know anything about magic… but maybe you don't have to do this alone? Maybe… we can help you… to write the spell?" Snowdrop said after some hesitation.
Snowdrop had a point. Without her friends, many impossible things wouldn't have happened, and Equestria would have likely fallen by now. But should she? On the one hand, just like Snowdrop said, they all look up to her. They called her from worlds away, so they can defeat the Dazzlings. So can she really ask them for help? Then, on the other hand, Snowdrop is right. For someone so little, she was very mature. Everything she has accomplished so far is all thanks to her friends. From the day they first met to defeat the Nightmare Moon, and to the day she got her own castle by defeating Tirek, it's all thanks to them. So maybe, she could ask for help?
"When I feel sad, I used to stargaze at night," Snowdrop said, interrupting her inner musings.
"You stargaze?" Twilight asked.
Snowdrop nodded, "I can't see them. But I can hear them."
"Hear them?"
"Mhmm, and when I do that, it helps me forget why I was sad. But since Principal Celestia adopted me, I haven't been sad anymore," Snowdrop said. "I remember in most stories I've read, stars make the sky look beautiful. I maybe can't see them, but I guess they are beautiful."
"They are Snowdrop. They are the most beautiful thing out there."
"But without a lot of stars, they are not," Snowdrop said with a sad tone. "I was a lonely star for so long. I… I don't want to be alone again," Snowdrop said, as she fought against the tears gathering in her pale eyes. But then she felt someone hugging her.
"Don't worry, Snowdrop. I won't let that happen. You won't be alone anymore. Not you, not Sunset, not anyone," Twilight said with determination in her voice. "Trust me, okay?"
Snowdrop simply nodded as she rapidly blinked away her tears.
That night, after everyone was asleep, Sunset woke up. She quietly made her way downstairs to get herself a glass of water before she saw Twilight sitting at the island. After a sudden meet up with Maud Pie that left her trying to calm both her heart and lungs, Sunset started up a quick conversation.
"It must be nice to see everyone looking up to you," She said. "Instead of waiting for you to cause a problem," She continued looking away. Twilight looked nervous after she said that.
"Just because everyone's expecting something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen," Twilight said.
"But that doesn't stop them from expecting it,"
"It just makes it harder because the last you want to do is-"
"Let everybody down," Both of them finished together. Realizing this, they smiled at each other. Sunset then let out a yawn.
"I should get some sleep. Maybe you should join us. You can't fight if you're too tired to stand on your feet to throw a punch," Sunset said, walking back to the bed.
Twilight looked back at the notebook and the scratched counter-spell in it.
'maybe… you don't have to do this… alone?'
"Sunset?" Twilight called out to Sunset. Sunset turned around to face her. Twilight was going to say something but hesitated as her words caught in her throat. She quickly shook her head and said, "Never mind, it's not important."
The next morning the Rainbooms practiced the Counter-spell. Though from the looks of it, it was not going well. Everyone was out of sync. Twilight's singing was too off-pitched, and Sunset tried her best to balance the sounds, but this caused the others to be thrown out of sync with each other. Not to mention the lyrics didn't flow either. They didn't intertwine with each other, and they fought too much with music. Finally, after what felt like hours, the song came to a close, with Rainbows hair glowing faintly in a failed attempt to transform.
"That sounded way better than the last five times you played," Spike said encouragingly, only for Big Mac to ruin it with a simple "Nope" when he passed by them outside the window.
"I think it's pretty obvious what's wrong with the counter-spell," Rainbow said.
"You turning what was supposed to be the chorus into a five-minute guitar solo?" Applejack asked.
Just like that, the girls began to argue with one another about who was at fault. One claiming the other was slacking off or complaining about costumes or other little things. Sunset looked at all this in worry while taking off the headphones she put on Snowdrop to protect her sensitive Ears. She looked at her watch and saw that they are late for the battle of the bands.
"Guys, we are late for the battle of the band. We have to check-in in 15 minutes," She shouted. Just then, all the girls began to panic. Twilight was shouting over all the commotion that the spell was not ready, which led them to make a plan B, to buy more time. All they had to do was participate in the battle and proceed to the final round.
But the universe had other plans. They were supposed to only perform just enough to pass to the finals, and that's what they did. The problem was, some of the mind-controlled contestants decided to sabotage the Rainbooms. After a few incidents with magnets, confetti, and a spotlight, the performance was ruined very easily. They barely passed onto the next round.
"Rarity, were you trying to make us lose up there?" Applejack asked angrily.
"What?! This was not my fault," Rarity quickly defended herself. While the girls all began to argue again, Sunset, Snowdrop, and Twilight looked at them in worry from the sidelines.
"And what was with confetti Pinkie? How am I supposed to shred if there's paper stuck in my frets?" Rainbow shouted.
"It was a little distracting," Fluttershy timidly said.
"What?!? Says the girl running from a light the whole time, a LIGHT!" Pinkie shouted at Fluttershy.
"Hey, back off," Sunset decided to intervene to help the shy girl. "Listen, all of you. All the other bands were way worse than you. I'm sure you'll make it to the next round. But it won't matter if we don't have that counter-spell ready," Sunset said, to which everyone agreed.
"You go find a place to practice; I'll keep an eye over here," Sunset suggested. "Take Snowdrop with you. The Dazzlings are about to perform soon, and I don't want her anywhere near them."
Once the girls left with Snowdrop and Spike, Sunset waited backstage, keeping an eye out for the Dazzlings. She then saw that Luna had a call. At first, she was pleasantly talking with whoever she was talking to before quickly getting angry over something and hanging up.
'What was that about?' Sunset wondered. Pushing the thoughts aside, Sunset watched as the Dazzlings climbed the stage and began to perform, and she could again feel the dark magic around her. And she watched the whole scene helplessly.
'You will pay for this.'
Sunset was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her phone ringing. When she took it out. She saw it was Chrysalis calling. She moved out of the auditorium and answered the call.
"Hello, Chrys," Sunset answered.
"Hello Sunset, is… is everything… okay?" Chrysalis asked from the other side.
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked, suspecting that it was her that called Luna earlier.
"I called Luna just a few minutes ago, and she was… different. What happened? Is everything okay?"
"Haa… no, everything's not okay…" Sunset said with a sigh.
"What happened?"
"Well, apparently, I was not the only equestrian in this world."
"Go on,"
"Well, to put it simply, there's s this three girls who came into CHS as new students yesterday. Apparently, they are some evil sirens from Equestria, and they can mind control people through their voice. They got everyone at CHS. Only I, Snowdrop, and the girls remain," Sunset said.
"Oh... I see. Well, is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Not that I can think of. We have Princess Twilight here with us, so don't worry," Sunset said. "Wait, maybe there's something you can do."
"What is it?"
"Snowdrop. Me and the girls didn't get affected thanks to the girls being Elements. I had direct exposure to the elements. But Snowdrop only got lucky to be in a different place when the sirens used their power," Sunset said.
"And you want me to look after Snowdrop?"
"Yes, Plea-"
"Don't worry, kid, I'll be there in an hour."
"Thanks, Chrys."
"Anytime, kid." Click*
Before long, the semifinals took place, and the Dazzlings proceeded to the final round defeating the Flash Drives. And the Rainbooms were left to face the Illusions. After the Illusions finished their song, it was Rainbooms' chance to sing. After deciding to play "Awesome as I wanna be", declining Fluttershy's suggestions to play one of her songs, the Rainbooms Climbed the stage.
Unlike the first time, everything was going great. Just a little too great. Sunset watched from the sideline as the girls all sing Rainbow's song about herself, and only Rainbow seemed to be enjoying the song. Everyone else was having a bad time thanks to Rainbow literally sing-boasting herself. And it was causing the one thing they were avoiding.
"This is bad," Sunset said to herself. Then to her great fear, she saw that Rainbows hair was glowing, and she's about to transform. "Oh, no! What do I do… what do I do…?" Sunset screamed inside her head. Then against her better judgment, she quickly dashed towards Rainbow and tackled her, stopping her from transforming.
Sunset walked back down the stage with angry shouts following her. Looking at the girls, she could tell they were having a similar reaction.
"What was that?" Rainbow shouted.
"You were showing them your magic. I didn't know what else to do," Sunset said, trying to defend herself.
"Close the curtains, unplug her amp, give us a chance to deal with the situation?" Rarity said.
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to help."
"Well, you didn't," Rainbow shouted. And that was it for Sunset. She couldn't even hold the tears back anymore.
"I… I-I didn't know… you were showing off your magic, and I didn't know what to do. I panicked, and now the sirens know about all this, and I couldn't do anything to stop it." Sunset shouted, holding her head with both her arms while tears streamed down her face. Twilight moved forward and gave Sunset a hug. "I'm scared, Twilight… I… I don't want to be alone again." She quietly said.
Just then, they heard singing coming from near them. They turned their heads to see the sirens singing a melody circling the principals. Sunset glared at the sirens, already knowing what they are doing. She couldn't stand it. There she was, watching while those things screwed with her family. Her anger roared, 'How dare they mess with my mom and aunt!'. Her vision edges were taking a scarlet tint as she raised to full height with an outright murderous glare. Unnoticed by Sunset, Trixie, who was walking up to gloat about her win, stopped in her tracks. The look on Sunset's face made her hair on the back of her neck stand up. Deciding her will to live was stronger than her will to gloat, Trixie waited for the curtain to accept her victory.
"Get away from them, you bu-" Sunset stopped mid-sentence when she felt someone suddenly hugging her. Looking down, she saw Snowdrop tightly hugging her. Quickly calming down, Sunset glared one last time at the Dazzlings and moved outside with Snowdrop while the girls remained.
Twilight looked at the retreating form of Sunset as she contemplated what happened. " What just happened?" she thought, looking at her still-warm hand.
"There you are," Rarity said when they exited the school in search of Sunset. Sunset was sitting on the staircase with Snowdrop, looking at the road. Sunset looked up and saw the girls.
"So, what happened? Did you make it?" Sunset asked, already knowing the answer.
"Actually, we passed," Applejack said.
"Wait, really?"
"Yes, isn't that awesome?" Rainbow said.
"See, we can still make it. So don't worry," Fluttershy said, sitting next to Sunset while she gave the fire-haired girl a hug. Sunset smiled at her as a blush slowly spread across her face.
"She's right. Let's go practice before the final round," Rainbow suggested.
"You guys go on ahead. I'm waiting for someone," Sunset said.
"Who are ya waiting for, sug?" Applejack asked what was on everyone's mind.
Before Sunset could answer, the guttural sounds of an engine caught the attention of the girls. A black Mustang Shelby gt500 rolled up in front of the school and parked. The roaring engine cut off, and the door opened to reveal a woman. The woman had turquoise hair and green eyes that were predatorial and seemed to glow even the midday sun. Her glare became all smiles when she saw the group of girls. Sunset quickly got up with Snowdrop and moved forward with Fluttershy walking behind her.
"Hey Chrys, glad you came," Sunset said, smiling.
"Hey, Sunset, Cutie Pie," Chrysalis said, greeting Sunset and Fluttershy. Fluttershy blushed and hid behind her hair while Sunset and Chrysalis giggled like schoolgirls. All the girls looked at them dumbfounded. Except-
"CHRYSALIS!!" They heard Twilight shout as she ran forward and pulled Sunset and Snowdrop back, while Spike growled from behind them.
"Get away from her."
"T-Twilight?"
"Whoa whoa, what's up with you?" Chrysalis asked.
"What's up with me? What did you do to Sunset? Are you working with the sirens?"
"What? No. I'm just here to take Snowdrop."
"And what are you going to do with her, huh? I'm-"
"'What's going on?', do you even know who she is?"
"Yeah, I know. She's very close with Luna and Celestia. Why does that- Wait, do you know her counterpart?"
"Yes, I do. Her name is Queen Chrysalis of the changelings. She tried to sabotage my brother's wedding and take over Equestria."
"Wait, wait, you are telling me my counterpart is a villain? A usurper?" Chrysalis asked, confused.
"Yes, so I know you too are a bad person,"
"Hey, wait, Twilight. You can't decide. You don't even know her, aren't you leaping too fast. Look, I understand what you're feeling, ex-student of a princess whose counterpart is my mother. How do you think I felt when I ran and was met with a human version of Celestia? Listen, I don't know anything about Queen Chrysalis back in Equestria, but I can guarantee that she is not a bad guy," Sunset said.
"How do you know?"
"Because she's been a longtime friend of Mom and Aunt Luna. She's also the one that did my paperwork so mom can adopt me. She's the reason that I'm a person in this world." Sunset said.
"Also, I'm a special agent," Chrysalis said, showing her badge to Twilight.
"Oh…" Twilight said, embarrassed.
"Twilight, from what I've seen, things are not completely parallel between our worlds," Sunset said. And Twilight noted a tiny little detail that everyone missed in that sentence. Sunset said, our worlds.
"I'm so sorry about that, Chrysalis," Sunset said, looking back at Chrysalis.
"It's okay. So, Twilight is the Princess you told me about."
"Yeah," Sunset said. She then looked back and held Snowdrop's hand, and guided her forward. "Snowdrop, remember back at the party, Luna was waiting for someone?" Snowdrop nodded. "This is her, Chrysalis," Sunset said, introducing Chrysalis.
"Hey kid, Snowdrop, right? Sorry I wasn't able to join the party. I had a lot of work to do," She explained.
"I- It's okay," Snowdrop said.
"Snowdrop, I'm going to leave you with her, okay? I don't want you anywhere near when the final round takes place."
"But-"
"No buts," Sunset said, placing her finger on Snowdrop's mouth. "I don't want anything to happen to you. Chrysalis is a good person. She'll protect you for me," Sunset said before getting closer to Snowdrop's ear and muttered with a smile, "She's also Luna's special someone."
Snowdrop smiled with her.
"What did you say?" Chrysalis asked.
"Oh, nothing," Sunset said with a knowing smile when she looked at Chrysalis before pulling Snowdrop closer to Chrysalis. "Snowdrop, don't worry. I will bring them back okay. One way or another," Sunset said with determination.
Snowdrop responded by hugging Sunset.
After leaving Snowdrop with Chrysalis, the girls all went to have one final practice before the final round. The girls got their instruments and began to set everything up.
"Um… Sunset?" Sunset heard Rainbow call to her.
"Yeah, Dash?"
"Look, uh… sorry for what happened earlier. You know, blowing up on you like that," Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"No, it's okay."
"But it's not. We should have known how much this was affecting you too."
"Yeah, though I probably could have handled it better. This is exactly why we need to stop them," Sunset said as she and Rainbow joined the other girls.
"Now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense. We were awful back there. Doesn't anyone else think this is strange?" Fluttershy asked, tuning her tambourine.
"Very strange," They heard Trixie saying from behind. Turning around, they saw Trixie with her bandmates.
"What are you doing here, Trixie? Pretty sure losers are supposed to be up there in the cheap seats." Rainbow said, trying to irritate Trixie, and nobody noticed the one with the pink hair sneak towards a lever.
"The great and powerful Trixie is the most talented girl in CHS. It is I who deserve to be in the finals." Trixie said, snapping her fingers at the end. This caused her bandmate with the pink hair to pull the lever, giving the girls no chance to react. The floor beneath them gave way when a trap door opened.
"See you never…" Trixie said when the trap door was slowly closing.
It had been hours since Trixie trapped them beneath the stage. Rainbow kept trying to open the door by force, which only gave her a sore arm.
"Give it up, Rainbow. It's not gonna open. You've been trying this for hours." Applejack said, stopping Rainbow.
"Maybe it doesn't matter if we are trapped down here. I don't think the counterspell would have worked anyway," Twilight said with a resigned look on her face.
"'Course it would've worked Twilight. Assuming a certain band member didn't try to hog the spotlight, the whole time we were trying to play it." Applejack said, accusing Rainbow.
Thus, the girls began to argue with each other. Twilight slipped into the back of the room and slumped down in defeat. Sunset watched all this happening in front of her as she felt the dark magic swirl around them. It kept gathering and slowly filled the room. When suddenly, it clicked.
"STOP! Please stop!" Sunset shouted over the voices, quickly silencing them. "This is what they've been after all along. They are feeding off the magic inside you."
"How can they feed off the magic? It's the magic of friendship," Applejack said.
"Can't you see, there's no friendship here? Ever since you started this band, you've been letting little things get to you," Sunset began to explain. "I never said anything because I didn't feel like it was my place. Not when I was new to this whole friendship thing. I still have a lot to learn. But I know that if you don't work out even the smallest problem right at the start, the magic of friendship can turn into something else," Sunset said as all the girls looked aside, contemplating what she said.
"I can't believe all this tension was happening right under my nose, and I didn't realize it. All I've done since I got here is let you down. I'm supposed to be the one with all the answers," Twilight said sadly.
"No one is supposed to have all the answers," Sunset said, holding Twilight's shoulder. "But you can count on your friends to help you find them."
'maybe… you don't have to do this… alone?'
"I think you already have," Twilight said. "Come on. First, we need to get out of here."
"Great. I don't think pushing the door is going to help any further. We need something else," Sunset said.
"Alohomora…" They heard Pinkie say, pointing a stick towards the door. Suddenly, the door opened.
"How did you-" Sunset stopped when she saw Spike walking in with Vinyl Scratch behind him.
"Sorry I took so long. I had to find someone who wasn't under the sirens spell," Spike said, pointing to Vinyl Scratch, better known by her stage name DJPon3.
"Why isn't she under their spell?"
"Never takes off her headphone?" Spike said.
Once getting out, the girls quickly got ready and went to a good spot to sing their song, which happened to be a hilltop in front of the amphitheater. Though the problem is without any amplifiers, it was just a little too far despite being a good spot to cast the spell.
"How are we supposed to play over them from up here?" Rainbow asked, but her question got answered as DJpon3 honking from inside her car. Which turned into a DJ booth, and it left many questions to be answered.
With everything in place, the girls began to sing the counterspell, and to the joy of Fluttershy, the counterspell was one of her songs. Everyone was able to witness a true battle of the band.
In the beginning, the battle was going great for the Rainbooms. They transformed into their pony forms quickly with spectacular colors. To counter their attempt, the Dazzlings used their power to make spectral sirens of themselves and attacked the Rainbooms with the power of their voice and magic.
Rarity and Fluttershy were able to use their magic to stop Aria and Sonata's sirens. But when Twilight tried to attack Adagio, she reacted quickly and countered Twilight. Then the remaining sirens joined the attack. The joint spell was powerful enough to knock the Rainbooms down, and Twilight lost grip of the microphone, which dropped next to Sunset.
"No… why isn't it working... why don't we have enough power… is this because I don't have my crown…?" Twilight thought. Then she looked at Sunset, who picked up the mic. "No… that's not it,"
"Sunset! We need you!" Twilight shouted. Sunset looked at the microphone in her hand. Then she looked towards where her parents are taking a seat in front of the crowd. Determination to save her family filled her heart. She walked up to the girls and took off her jacket, readying to stop the Dazzlings.
Vinyl started the music. And then she sang. She didn't know how she knew the lyrics, but she did. The girls quickly joined her. And then it happened. Sunset was suddenly lifted off the ground. She felt magic slowly engulfing her before transforming into her pony form, like the girls. Her human ears turned into pony ears, her hair grew in length, and a familiar horn grew on her forehead. Once her transformation was complete, the girls joined her up in the air, and they all began to glow in white light. A pillar of rainbow erupted from behind them, and a seventh color, red, joined it.
Sunset looked in disbelief before her vision suddenly turned white. Sunset brought her hand to cover her eyes from the bright light. Once the light died down to a comfortable level, she removed her hands and looked ahead. What greeted her was not what she expected. Instead of defeated sirens, she saw a tree. With six jewels, a bright crystalline tree, five on branches and one in the middle, embedded in it. The tree of harmony. Looking around, she saw that she was back in the void.
"What?" She said in confusion. "Why am I here?" No answer. Sunset looked back at the tree. She tried to walk towards it. This time, to her surprise, she was actually getting closer. A few more steps and she was right in front of it.
"The tree of harmony?" She said, inspecting the tree. Recognizing it from a book, Sunset read about the elements of harmony. The elements in the tree suddenly began to glow, and Sunset jumped back, startled.
"What's happening?" Sunset gaped in fear and wonder.
The elements in the branches began to glow brighter before a magical light shot from each of them. The lights struck the element in the middle, which Sunset recalled as the element of magic. Sunset backed away from the tree, sensing danger. But she wasn't fast enough as a blinding light shot from the element of magic and hit her.
"Ahhhhhh!!" Sunset screamed as she saw she was burning. The fire erupted from her hands, and her hair also caught in the fire. Sunset quickly waved her arms and tried to put out the fire, to no avail.
"Oh no, oh no, what is happening? Did I do something wrong? Are the elements going to-" and then her panic slowed when she realized something. She wasn't feeling any pain. In fact, she wasn't feeling a burning presence at all. Unlike when she was transformed into a demon, she was feeling warm. It felt nice.
She looked one last time at the tree before her vision again filled with white light. When the light went out, Sunset fell, and before she hit the ground, Twilight caught her.
"Oh, Sunset, you okay?" She asked.
"Uh… what?" Sunset asked, confused, holding Twilight for support.
"Are you okay?" Twilight repeated as Fluttershy came to help Sunset stand.
"Uh, yeah yeah… I'm fine…" Sunset said, still wondering what had happened.
The girls quickly got on Vinyl's car and arrived at the amphitheater. Apparently, despite what happened to Sunset, it only took a few seconds, just like last time. Which meant no one knew what happened to her. Once they arrived at the amphitheater, they saw that everyone was freed from the siren's spell and the sirens are nowhere to be found. Twilight saw something shimmering on the stage and went to see it's a part of the gem that the Dazzlings were wearing.
"So this is how they used magic." She said, picking up the gem.
They then heard someone running towards them. When she looked in the direction the sound was coming, she saw Principal Celestia running towards Sunset and hugging her.
"Sunset! I'm sorry," She said, hugging the girl tight.
"Mom, why are you apologizing for?" Sunset asked, hugging her mom back.
"I… I couldn't do anything. I-I'm your mom, and I wasn't able to protect you,"
"Mom, it's not your fault. It was the sirens," Sunset said.
"Wait- where's Snowdrop?" she asked, panicking.
"Right over here," They heard Chrysalis saying. They looked at the side and saw Chrysalis with Snowdrop. Snowdrop quickly took off and ran towards Celestia.
"Mom!!" She shouted. Sunset and Celestia both caught her as she hugged both of them tighter. "You're back…" She said with tears in her eyes.
"Yes, Snowdrop, I'm back," Celestia said.
"Hey Chrysi," Luna said, walking up to Chrysalis.
"Oh, Lulu."
"Listen, I'm sorry for earlier, I was-" Luna was intercepted by a finger on her mouth. She looked up to see Chrysalis placing a finger over her mouth, silencing her.
"I know, Lulu, it's not your fault. There's nothing you need to be forgiven for. Though, if you're feeling guilty, I wouldn't oppose a romantic dinner, movie, and some alone time together," Chrysalis said, hugging Luna with a giant smirk on her face. Luna returned the hug with quiet giggles. Breaking from the hug, they looked at Sunset, Snowdrop, and Celestia, who was still hugging each other. They couldn't blame them, the kids had almost lost someone they couldn't live without, and the same could be said for Celestia. So everyone basked in the moment, allowing themselves to forget about everything else—even Sunset and her vision that happened minutes before.
