Another Day of Loneliness

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With a moon's full height Twilight is gone, Spike along with her. At once eyes turn to Sunset Shimmer with livid anger and hate.

The former unicorn feel sick to her stomach, a feeling of agony clutching her heart. Scratches decorate her, along with filth from the crater she'd been in. She tried to look away from the glares. In all honesty brainwashing teenagers is not what she wanted, all she wanted was to prove to Celestia that she can be powerful. The demon took control of her, forcing her to do that. She humiliated herself, now she have nothing. Although Twilight's friends said they'd help, but this happy thought is shattered by a sudden raspy voice.

"Oh now you feel bad." Rainbow Dash snaps. "You didn't feel bad when you tore apart our friendship!" Her loyal reputation for her friends proceeds her. She flinched at her harsh comment. "Or when you insulted us and our families ways and ruin our business for a while." Applejack adds. "You sabotaged me when I ran for Spring Fling, destroy my outfits, steal my data, and spread horrid lies about me." Rarity continues. "Plus sabotaged the party and ruin the bake sale." Pinkie finishes. Only Fluttershy remains quiet but even her usually kind face is cold. The tears fall more from Sunset at all the reminders.

"Forget about us trying to be friends with you." Applejack states, the five walking off. Sunset's shoulders slump as everyone disperses, leaving her with the damage. Luna and Celestia are also giving her cold looks. she sniff slightly, wiping her eyes with my sleeve.

"What will my punishment be?" Sunset asked, her voice hollow, her lack of confidence making her vulnerable and breakable. "Firstly you'll repair the damages tonight." Celestia sternly says. "Then you will have a week of suspension while we wait for the court hearings.". Sunset nodded in understanding.

Sunset cannot go back to Equestria. She needs to stayed here, where everyone hates her. She felt she deserve it, deserve worse, a truly negative thought. She don't care though. It is negative, a complete mirror of her choices which lead to this.

Six weeks of community service along with suspension, then Sunset will go back to school on the first weekday after her she finished it. She is helping out with the repairs every weekdays from early 8pm to 6am under the supervision of her supervisor and the head of the construction crew. The service will be tiring, but she brought it on her own self.

Third day of working, it is 5:30am, Sunset was hammering something while clad in a yellow vest and a helmet. Without any warning, seven hooded figures arrived behind her with smug grins covering each of their faces. "Hey Sunset," one of them said and the former bully dropped her hammer and turned to face the boys, her face utterly blank. "Yes," Sunset said quietly. Without warning, one of them opened a trash bag, revealing dozens of water balloons and proceed to throw at her, leaving her utterly soaked in brown paint.

"You made everyone feel like shit," the tall one yelled. "So now we're gonna make you look like shit," the second tallest one said. All the other boys let out some cruel laughter as they continued covering Sunset with mud-colored paint. The girl isn't trying to hide, nor defending herself, and wasn't even hollering threats at them. She just stood there and took it. "What's a matter, gonna cry," another boy said in a taunting matter. Indeed, she was on a verge of tears.

Suddenly, a flash light came into the distance. The group of boys began running away, shouting "police.". A short figure continued to pelt at her, and had to be dragged off by one of the others. One of the construction guys, came running up to the paint covered Sunset.

"What's going on here?!", her supervisor hollored. He looked at Sunset with more than a bit of pity. The man put his hand on Sunset's shoulder and muttered, "Are you hurt?", she shook her head. The man whispered something else, "You can take a short break.". Sunset reluctantly walked away. It was when she got far enough away from the entrance, and felt alone, that Sunset put her face into her hands and began crying.

A figure suddenly appeared beside her, casting a shadow over her. Sunset turned her head to see who it is, and is able to figure out who it is from the silhouette. Applejack, facing her, hands beside both of her hips. Despite the facial expression being hidden in the shadows, Sunset still felt that the expression is possible unsympathetic. After half a minute of silence, Applejack simply walk away.

Even if Applejack did not do anything, she know what this simple action mean. Nobody will ever truly forgive her. She's no longer welcome in the school. She's all alone, and no doubt everybody will want here gone.

Then it is decided. She's done with the school, she's done thinking about making amends, she's done with Equestria, she's done with everything. When she finished her suspension, she's gonna move on, where nobody will hate and reject her, where she can finally be a new person, to prove the world that she had changed.

So what if the Princess is worried about her when she returned. She's the one that told her to seek out the magic of friendship, and she cannot do that all alone while people hate her.

Sunset pulled her motorcycle into the student parking lot. The last day she will park her motorcycle here.

As soon as Sunset entered, all the gossip and chatter ceased as everyone noticed the former bully. The students all gave her looks of fury all the way to the principal's office. She tried to ignore the looks while pacing to the office.

As she walked by Flash, her ex-boyfriend slammed the locker he was emptying in and gave her once last brutal look before walking away. Sunset flinched at the gesture. She knew she deserved it, but it still stung. However, she could not care less about it anymore.

She walk past Raven Inkwell, Principal Celestia's secretary who was looking at her pacing to the office without going through her first. She yelled in fury at Sunset to stop, but she did not listen.

Sunset swung the door open, startling Vice-principal Luna. She looked up from her paperwork, preparing to scream at the former bully for storming in without permission, but was immediately surprised when an envelope is placed on her desk. The former unicorn look at Vice-principal Luna with a blank expression, before running out. "Miss Shimmer!?", the vice-principal screamed as she exited her office to chase after the girl.

Sunset run and run, ignoring the glares and insults from the hallway of students. Vice-principal Luna is also jogging down the hallway, but cannot catch up to the girl's stamina. After Sunset ran through the exit, tears are running down on her face as she hopped on her motorcycle before quickly wear her helmet and drive away. Meanwhile, Luna just arrived outside just in time to see her soon-to-be former student driving away.

Luna dragged herself back into her office. Sighing, she reached for the school's phone and call someone. "Tia.", "Lulu?", the exchange between two sisters started. "I know you're busy but...Sunset just left an envelope in front of my desk and ran away from the school.", "Oh", "It's an oh alright, I could not even catch up with her before she left in her bike. I believe that this envelope will indicate why.", "Okay i'll go to your office now.".

After the conversation, Luna opened the envelope for herself first and she look into the contents: A stack of cash and a folded piece of paper. The vice-principal is surprised by the amount of money, but her main focus now is the other form of paper. She removed it from her envelope, and saw the sentence 'Share with the school' before opening it and scroll through the handwritten contents. Her eyes widened in shock, mouth agape and whispered, "Oh Sunset.".

Not long before that, Celestia walked in and saw her sister's shocked expression. She proceed to ask in concern, "What's wrong?" as Luna turn to her and said, "We need to get to Sunset's house, now!".

The door of an run down apartment slammed open. "Sunset!?" both sisters shouted in unison, no reply for them. They realised the living room is simple in design, not having much decoration, only a couch, a coffee table and a television. The place is slightly moldy on the walls and not far from the living room, a kitchen with some grime on the stove and unwashed dishes. The sisters wondered how can the girl live in such a filthy place, but beggars can't be choosers when you are a horse from an alternate dimension, which makes it even worse considering the horse has left.

Luna opened the door to the bathroom. It is small, with the sink, toilet bowl and showers placing next to each other. Like other parts of the house, the porcelain is filthy, covered in grime and considering most of the bathroom is made out of the material, grime is everywhere. Luna felt nauseous after viewing the bathroom, but she soon closed it as there is no sight of Sunset.

Celestia opened the door to the bedroom. The bedroom is also small, with a bed next to a small table with a drawer. The mattress on the bed is moldy too on it's bedsheets and pillow caused by unwashed drool. There's a small table and chair in front of the bed which had textbooks and worksheets placed on it and it can be quickly deduced that it's a study desk. The principal's heart further ached at not asking about the girl's living conditions sooner, maybe she can help her and she will not be felt alone.

"Tia is she inside!", "No!". Both sisters meet together again at the living room before the elder one said, "We had to call the police." and the younger one nodded before reaching for her cell and dial 911.

The next day, everyone are gathered at the hall before the first period starts. There were chattering, some are casual conversations and some are wondering why are they being called.

The crowd immediately silenced as Principal Celestia walk to the stage. She is unusually tired, bags under her eyes and rubbing her temples while walking down the stage, but still manage to compose herself enough to not slump. She faced the class, takes a deep breath, then begins the speech.

"I'm afraid one of our students went missing yesterday.". The crowd look around to see anybody missing, and allt of them quickly deduced who went missing and just rolled their eyes.

"That student is Sunset Shimmer.". Again, the crowd could not care less of where the former bully went, but Sprint, the track team's captain shouted, "Good! The witch finally got the message!" as students begin to laugh. Both principals are enraged by this, but Luna is the one who grabbed her own microphone and shouted through it, "That is a month detention for you Sprint!". Quickly, the volume died down and the class kept quiet, fearing of further provoking either principal.

Celestia took another deep breath again and continued, "She had left a note an insist that you all know the contents inside.". She opened it and start to read.

To Canterlot High,

If you all are listening to the words inside, means I had disappeared by now. I did so many terrible things to you guys for years, that nobody here want accept me, not even the girls that Princess Twilight instructed to take care of me, to teach me the magic of friendship. I don't blame any of you for that, I am not angry. I know you won't listen to me directly, so I will say what I want to say via this letter. I don't care if you care or believe or not, but at least you listened.

Brainwashed teenagers are not part of my plan, my plan was to only steal the crown and get back to Equestria, but the demon had other plans installed. The thing I never knew I had in me controlled me, leaving me in agony during my transformation, and I am just a passenger in my own body after that. Do you remember I started having tears fall when I turned? It is a painful and burning sensation. When I was blasted, I saw the horrible things that I had done over my life, and I realised how much I had fallen for the sake of power. After I was defeated, I am freed, I felt relieved and happy. I genuinely want to make amends, but no one in CHS will accept me. During my community service, seven of you decide to throw paint balloons at me, and one of you just approach and look at me before walking away. I will not tell who it is, you know yourself.

That moment made me realised something. I will never earn back people's trust back in CHS when everybody wants nothing to do with me, when everybody in the school is a lynch mob. So after I served community service, I will disappear. You will not see me back anymore.

Is this selfish? Yes. Is this foolish? Yes. But Canterlot now only brought me nothing but bad memories, there's nothing to look up to. I no longer care for CHS, Canterlot, Equestria or Princess Twilight. Please, do not come and find me.

Enjoy Life

Goodbye

Sunset Shimmer

P.S. Here's 10 grand for the compensation. Part of it to the funds of the track team, part of it goes to the total amount of money lost by Sweet Apple Acres, and part of it goes to the compensation of the repairs of the school. This is the most I can do.

By now, everybody is surprised and not knowing what to say, especially the five girls. Everybody really want to deduce the letter as her faking it, but it just felt so genuine.

"The police will be involved in the search for her. Let's just hope she is fine along the way. You all are dismissed, go to your classes.". With that, all students quietly stood up and walk out of the hall. Almost all of them not sure what to feel now.

Sunset Ran

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Name: Mia Sutherland
Date of Birth: 10th August 1989
Nationality: American
Criminal Records: None

"Is that all?", a man with a skull tattoo and wife beater asked. "Yes.", Sunset Shimmer said.

After leaving the school, she immediately went home, bring almost all the items she had and left home. She pawned her items: Her electronics, motorcycle, all of her bits and gems and her most common clothing in exchange for money and a new set of fake documentation for her to flee. The local black market gave her a birth certificate, passport and background information that suit to her liking. She liked this black market because it can provide as much illicit services without getting caught, and it is coincidentally the first black market she stumbled into.

"Pleasure doing business with you...Mia.", the man said with a smirk and a wink as the girl replied, "Thanks Skull, and goodbye." before leaving.

While changing her identity, she also changed her appearance in the same black market. She is now wearing a grey hoodie with jeans, her hair dyed brown and cut into a pixie. She also manage to buy black coloured contacts from the store and wear fake glasses. She is not just Mia Sutherland by name anymore, she is Mia Sutherland by looks.

She went by to the nearest bus stop. Looking at the notice board, she realised the next bus is coming a few minutes later, so she sit down and waited. She look around the surroundings of Hooftroit city, where she lived. Run down streets, a few beggars sitting, and friends doing drugs together. The first time she came here, she was appalled by the quality of life, but soon she slowly adapted to it. She is supposed to leave sooner, after she stole the crown. Well, she is still leaving now, but not to Equestria. She do not have a goal on where to go, just go as far away as possible. Soon, the bus came, and she hopped into it.

Roads, that's all Sunset can see. It's been 5 hours, and almost 2:10 in the afternoon now. She is staring blankly at the window blankly, many cars driving past the bus on the highway she is on. Every time when a bus stops on a bus stop, it is always next to small towns or empty roads. Sunset is not interested in such locations she passed by each of them.

Just when she sighed in hopelessness out of not being able to find a perfect place, she saw a sign in front of her outside the window. 'MANHATTAN 1KM'. Seeing the word 'Manhattan' reminded her of Manehattan back in her homeland, and she found it strange that the only place in America that has the same name as one of the places back in Equestria is Canterlot. Regardless, she decide to ignore the confusing naming conventions as she rested her head on the window. She anticipated on arriving to Manhattan, wanting to find out the similarities and differences between it and Manehattan.

After paying the fare, she hopped off the bus and was immediately entranced by her surroundings. Tall buildings are everywhere along with small shops and restaurants dwarfing it, people in business suits are walking on the streets and cars are crowding the streets, moving like a colony of ants. Minus the cars and modern technology, Sunset can see that Manhattan and Manehattan does not have that huge of a difference. The place is full of business, professionalism and consumerism.

After deciding she had look enough, she proceed to find a temporary place to stay in. Walking down the busy streets, she saw there are many places she want to enter, but she just don't feel like visiting one now. If she remembered correctly, hotels are places where she can book and stay in. Given by her limited money, she need to find a cheap one.

As she continued her walk, it became even more frustrating for her to not be able to find a hotel for her. Giving up, she proceed to ask anybody. She saw in front of her a middle-aged man with slightly white hair in a business suit leaning against a traffic light, looking down at his phone. She tapped the man on the shoulder which prompt her to turn around.

Sunset start the conversation, "Excuse me, do you know any cheap hotels over here?", "How cheap?", "A little over 100 dollars?", "Yeah there's one nearby, just walk the opposite direction you are walking and you will past by the sign that says 42nd street. Then turn right and you will see one.", "Thanks.". The man nodded in appreciation as Sunset walk back the direction she is from.

'Soho Hotel', that's the name of this place she is standing in front of as shown by a custom sign hanging above the door. It is a simple yellow concrete building with multiple windows arranged in order and only comprise of a wooden front door which she is standing in front of now. She slowly turn the knob and with a click, she push the swinging barrier open. The interior walls are a thick shade of green, most of the area is empty, except for a glass booth towards her left with an ash tray on the counter and a trash bin beside it. To her left, there are two elevators and a staircase between it. Down the hallway, there's a door to the restroom indicated by the sign of a female and male figure separated by a line.

She went to the counter and ring the bell on it. Soon, the door inside the booth sprung open, revealing a man in his 20s in a red polo shirt with a name tag pierced on it and light brown khakis secured with a belt along with leather shoes. He also has combed back red hair, green skin and a slim figure. He gave a courteous smile towards Sunset and greeted her with a smooth and deep voice, "Welcome to Soho Hotel, my name is Hurwitz and how may I be of service today?". Sunset could not do anything but smile at his courtesy despite managing a cheap hotel, then she replied to him, "I would like to book a room.", "For how many nights?", "2 for now.", "That'll be $254.". Nodding, she pulled out some notes and give him, then he counted the total amount before giving her the change and pick up a book and pen for her. "Fill in your particulars over her.", Sunset nodded again as she jotted down the particulars of Mia Sutherland: Name, Identity Number and the total number of nights she will be staying. After viewing the details, Hurwitz nodded and pass her one of the keys to one of the hotel rooms before saying, "This is your key with your room number, your room is on level 4, enjoy your stay.". Sunset smiled and proceed to the elevator which inside is only illuminated by a small boob light on the ceiling.

"04-323", Sunset thought to herself as she look at her keys before looking to at both sides to see where her room is. She deduced that her right is where the numbers start to increase by order so she slowly walk to her right, checking the numbers one by one. Then she found it, '04-323', right in front of her. Using the key, she opened the door and found a switch next to her. The switch flipped, and the room lit up. The room has white walls and wooden flooring, and in front of her is a standard one person bed with a simple pillow and blanket. In front of the bed is a bulky television on a desk with its remote beside it and behind the bed above it is a window wider than width of the bed with curtains on each side of the frame. Speaking of the desk, the desk still has enough space for customers to put their items, which is more than enough for Sunset as she only had her documentation and wallet with her now. Right in front of her across the bed is another door, presumably to the bathroom.

Sunset unlocked the bathroom and is almost as small as her old one, and only comprise of a sink with a mirror in front, a toilet bowl and a shower. Despite being only 3:30 in the afternoon now according to the clock in the booth she saw, Sunset only feel like staying in her hotel for the rest of the day. So, she stripped her clothing and prepare for a shower.

Naked on bed, curtains closed, Sunset mindlessly flipped through the channels every few minutes on the television. Her clothes are drying beside the television on the desk after she rinsed it from the accumulated sweat for the day. She also removed her contacts and glasses, placing the contacts in a cup of water, and placed both of these items beside the television. So far, they only have limited set of channels, most of them showing old movies, commercials and sports events. She then flipped to a news channel, and what she saw made her eyes went wide and force her to lean closer to the television.

"We are hereby reporting today of a missing student from Canterlot High School.", then a picture of her with a smug grin which is used on a yearbook photo appeared beside the host, "Sunset Shimmer, age 16, 11th grade was last seen by her vice-principal riding her motorcycle away from Canterlot High School today at 7 in the morning after finishing her community service for causing a gas leak 6 weeks prior along with crimes of vandalism, invasion of privacy, stealing of private information and blackmailing. She seems to have no familial connections and lives alone in one of the apartments of Hooftroit.", the picture of the contents of the envelope appeared below Sunset's picture, "She also left an envelope at the vice-principal's office. It contained $10000 dollars and a small letter that is addressed to the school, we will place the contents of the letter on our official website. If anybody have any information on this girl, please contact the police hotline.".

"Oh fuck.", Sunset thought to herself, her mouth slightly ajar and pupils shrunk into pinpricks. She specifically told them to never find her, but again luck does not seem to be on her side. The principals are just too concern to deny her request anyway. She want to move on, to never go back to her past again. And most importantly, she had no actual citizenship in any part of this world, there's little to no information in this world's database. If the cops finds out about it, the government will know and she will probably be locked up in a tight security base. Despite her changing her looks and identity, she know this can only do her so much. She need to lay low for a while, try not to do things that will give in too much of her information. So far, the only thing she did that will compromise it was filling the particulars in the hotel, but that will not give in too much as Manhattan is one of the last places she will be expected to be at.

Pushing the thoughts out of her way, she quickly turned off the television and lie down on her bed while being covered with the blanket. No matter how hard she tried, she cannot get the thoughts of her under the radar over her head. She flipped and turned, but cannot find the most comfortable position for her to sleep. Finally after almost an hour, her eyelids grew heavy and she then fell asleep.

An Eventful Night

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Walking down the halls of Canterlot High, there is no sound, no proper amount of illumination for any school. It's a ghostly place.

For Sunset Shimmer, she is walking down the halls, only her footsteps can be heard. Despite having some light, she cannot properly deduce the full details of her environment, only walking by her instincts. She did not feel any fear, nor dread, almost like this place is normal for her.

"Look what do we have here?", a sarcastic and distorted voice blurted out from behind Sunset. She quickly turned around, and her adrenaline got kicked into overdrive. There she is, the demon, looking at her arms crossed and a smirk on her face that only reveal two of her fangs protruding out from her lips. "How are you still here!?", Sunset replied. She want to run, but is unable to do so. Chuckling, the demon step closer and closer to Sunset, saying, "You really think a simple blast will purge me from you?", she rolled her black eyes with green pupils as she continued, "Please, as long as you are still on earth, the corruption will still be in you. You are branded with it even before you wore the crown.". Sunset is afraid, but she did not show it. She then argued back, "Well jokes on you, I am no longer that person. I'd changed, and I will never let you take control of me ever again.". The demon laughed again, and she retorted, "But for how long? I am still in you, and you can only deal with it so much. Eventually, you will succumb to the same fate that you are saved from again.". And with the last statement, the demon blast into flames.

Sunset jumped back at the sudden disappearance. Her eyes then widened as she felt a surge of pain throughout her body, causing her to fell onto the ground and scream. Then it happened, wings sprouted out from her back, followed by a tail below it. Both of these actions caused her skin to be ripped and some massive amount of blood to soak out from her clothes, leaving her in further agony. Then, her body got so hot that smoke appeared from her body and her skin started to boil and sizzle. Any part of her body that is in contact with the ground hurt even more, causing her to drop and roll around, crying even louder than before. Then when she opened her eyes again, it appeared to be black and green pupils appeared on it. She then look at her hands, it distorted painfully into a set of claws, and she can feel her feet going under the same transformation too. Then she can feel her ears deform and lengthen, her teeth growing sharper, then an sharp appendage ripping out from her forehead. After that, she saw red pigmentation appeared on the hands, followed by the rest of her body.

After the agonising process, the pain subsided instantly. Sunset stood back up, then look at her hands, the proceed to feel every part of her body. She was shocked, a streak of black tear coming out from her left eye. Not expecting things to become worst, she then saw the entire school hallway shatter like they are just paintings on glass, leaving her in a black void. Sunset tried to look for an exit, but the moment when she took a step, she yelped in surprise as an object dropped from the sky, revealing it to a rectangular sheet of mirror. She stared at her reflection in horror, then when she tried to sprint towards the opposite direction, another mirror dropped from the sky in front of her again. When she tried to move to her left, two mirrors dropped down and covered the remaining sides, forming a enclosed box with a hole too far to reach above and leaving her trapped. Now no matter where she turn, she can always see her demonic reflection looking back at her, resulting in more black tears dropping from her eyes.

She covered her face, avoiding the reflections, but then felt stiffness around her body. Her body then moved by its own accord, forcing her to stand straight and hands by her sides, looking at her reflection, cannot even even move her eyes. Green flames then engulfed her, changing her into the demon's outfit topped with a hair that floats like fire and a black tiara with a star on top. "Stop it!", Sunset shouted with a distorted voice which she is shocked by, then her wings flapped and force her to float a few inches off the ground. Her hands then got close together in front of her chest, and a green ball of energy as large as a bowling ball materialise in between.

After the energy is fully charged, the mirror box along with the black floor and ceiling shattered. This time she realised she is at the front of Canterlot High School, floating metres from the ground. She saw on the ground in front of her, the six girls that stopped her, ready to put up a fight. Right behind them, a group of mind controlled teenagers and to her right, two of her lackeys Snips and Snails, who also got turned into demons. They did not exchange conversations, but Sunset then felt herself raising up her hands, then the energy ball got larger and she hurled towards the girls unwillingly. "No!", Sunset shouted as the thick smoke dissipate, revealing a shocking sight. The girls, inside a large crater, bloodied, clothes tattered and unconscious. She shuddered as she floated to the ground, then she the stiffness before is gone. She walked right in front of the crater, then knelt on the edge, sobbing out of her heart's content as the brainwashed teenagers surrounded her like soldiers ready to listen to commands. Then not long later, her minds broke, and she lifted her head, showing the most terrifying forced smile ever conceived as she laughed at the sky, the sound echoing through the night.

Waking up in a cold sweat, Sunset gasped for air in the darkness before hyperventilating. She still felt small bits of everything, the lingering words of the demon in her ears, the pain of the transformation, the stiffness of her body from being controlled, and the stress from killing people. Calling it a nightmare is an understatement, it felt too real, like the demon is foreshadowing in her dreams on what will happen next, slowly eating her sanity away.

After calming down, she realised that she is famished. Deciding to check the outside first, she turn behind to the windows, then slightly open the curtains and take a peek outside. It is dark, but it is hard to tell the time. She stepped off from her bed and check her clothes, which are nearly dry by now. Judging by the dried cotton and the most of the denim being dry, she can confidently assume that it is currently in the middle of the night and she had been sleeping for more or less ten hours. Deciding for a walk, she quickly head to the shower, change her clothes, wear her disguise, grab her clothes and exit the room before leaving it locked.

'4:13', the clock in the same booth indicates, indicating that Sunset's instincts of being in the middle of the night are right. She turned her head towards the door and exit the building, immediately stepping towards the cold midnight breeze. Sunset pulled up her hood, and put both of her hands in her hoody pocket, but it is still not enough for her to not getting goosebumps.

For minutes, Sunset is just walking on the street and looking around. Lights, large buildings, LED signs, all the common things in such a big city in this world. She can feel her face get number and colder every second, as it is the most exposed, but none of the eateries she passed are either closed or do not interest her. She had been walking for a while now, but she remembered her routes very easily.

Then she found a place that interest her. 'Hard Rock Cafe', sandwiched in between two buildings. Through the large glass pane, she can see that the interior is large, and had moveable tables and chairs placed near the walls of the cafe, and the number of it vary with chairs at most 2 and chairs at most 4. She can also see a circular counter in between the cafe covering most of the space, with a kitchen inside consisting of mainly ovens, stoves and hanging shelves. On the counter, there are evenly placed tissue boxes, some condiment packs which consist of chilli and ketchup, and in front of the counter are circular high seats. The colours inside are a shade of soft yellow and some pink, which gives it a relaxing feel. As for the business, there isn't much people now due to the day but those who are inside are mostly working class adults. She can also see about 5 waiters and waitresses wearing pink uniforms and a circular pink hat, the females having an additional waist apron with a pocket in front of their skirts. There are also about 7 chefs in chef uniforms working in the kitchen.

Without hesitation, she walked into the cafe, the door hit the bell above and she is bombarded with the smell of an assortment of pastries and spices. Her stomach made a loud growling, and she quickly look up the menu hanging above the counter and they are quite a few options to choose from for a simple cafe and most of them are made with the same ingredients just in different styles. "Welcome to Hard Rock Cafe, how may I be your service?", Sunset look down in front of the waitress who called her cheerfully. She had black hair, grey skin, black pupils, heavy eyeshadow, and her name tag shows her name, 'Emma'. Her whole outfit and attitude just contrast with her appearance.

Sunset smiled and just made a wait hand gesture which the waitress replied with a small nod as she look around for anything more important to do first. After a short while, she said, "Give me one blueberry muffin, a vegetable sandwich and a hot Americano.". The waitress nodded, repeated the order the ensure she got it right before writing into a paper. "That'll be $10.35.", Sunset gave the waitress the money and she gave back the change before passing the order to the head chef. She sat on a chair in front of her and patiently wait for her food, while enjoying a soft jazz music that is emitting from the speakers.

Minutes later, another customer walked in. He had brown hair, light caramel skin, chocolate brown pupils and a short beard around his face. He had a slightly muscular build, and is wearing a white buttoned up top, dark red khakis and a brown trench coat. He is holding a roll of newspaper and a blue sling bag.

He went on to sit beside Sunset Shimmer as a male waiter with red hair and brown skin approached him. In a smooth voice, "Cappuccino, decaf and a BLT sandwich for me.", the waiter nodded as she jot down and repeat what the man said before telling him the amount he need to give. After receiving the amount and giving the change, the waiter give the order to the head chef. While waiting, he place his bag on the only empty seat beside him and unroll his newspaper to read the news, starting from the cover page.

Out of curiosity, Sunset Shimmer took a quick glance at the contents, but something caught her in the eye and she look back. 'Missing, Sunset Shimmer' with the below displaying her photo like the one shown on the news. It is expected actually for her to be on the papers, but she did not expect to see herself on it now. All she want is to peacefully eat something, but now she have to ponder how long before she will be founded. She had to get more serious in hiding now, but she did not know where to start.

Without realising it, she saw the man is already looking at her with a blank face, causing her to grow nervous inside. She quickly turn her head to the front again, staying as calm as possible. Then suddenly, the man talk to her, "You know I can show you where the newspaper box is if you want to read one yourself.", she turn her head, seeing that he is giving a generous smile. Trying to keep her composure, she smiled back and said, "Sorry, sorry. I don't really read the newspaper, it's just I saw something interesting on the page you are reading now.". The man nodded, and turn back to the paper before replying, "Yeah I can understand. I mean, a missing person report? This is not really a common subject for the press, and this one's a high schooler. And no family? Damn it must be hard for her to be an orphan. Wonder if this is why she became a delinquent?", "Yeah maybe.". Sunset shrugged at the statement, feeling slightly stressed at it and trying to keep her cool down.

"Food's ready.", the waitress placed the food down the table. Blueberry muffin, vegetable sandwich and Americano, all the thing ordered in front of Sunset right now. Her stomach did the calling again, and she immediately grab the sandwich from the plate and devour it in big bites. As she was chewing down the assortment of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, she realised the man is looking at her with that expressionless face again. She immediately look away, blushing before the man let out a snort, looking away himself too before saying, "Oh don't need to be embarrassed, it's just rare for me to see a girl eat the way you did.", "I guess i'm just really hungry.", "I guess you haven't ate a proper meal.", "Haven't had lunch nor dinner since yesterday.". Then man is surprised at her statement, "Why?", "Just arrived to Manhattan yesterday afternoon, got an hotel and just slept in for the rest of the day.", "Are you a tourist?". Shaking her head, Sunset said, "No, just moving away from my hometown.", "For what?", "I don't know yet, just wanting to start my own life from California.", "You're from California?", "Yeah, great place if you ask me, but I just don't get along with my folks well. So after I earned enough money, I left that place.". "You know, I was from California too, although I don't think I see you around before.", the statement cause Sunset some unease, but she still stay calm as he continued, "But again, that is a very big place so it is sensible that I don't see you.". Again, Sunset felt relieved.

Minutes of awkward silence, the man and Sunset just enjoyed their meal, while occasionally glancing at each other. It felt comfortable for Sunset to have somebody to interact with after years of loneliness. Sure even before the Fall Formal she had cronies like Snips and Snails, but she seldom really connect with them, just slurs of insults and orders. Just thinking about her past deeds made her cringe inside, but now she had changed, and she will not fall into the old habits again. By talking with this man, she felt that she just took the hardest small step with ease, by talking with him as a human and not someone who she can manipulate into her crony.

"So, what are your plans now?", the man asked again. Sunset stopped sipping her coffee and look at him, before looking down at her legs again and replying, "I don't really know. I only consider moving on, but no other goals interest me yet.", "So you're just a nomad now?". Sunset snorted at the reply before saying, "You could say that. Hey, at least I had enough money for a few months?". The man rubbed her chin in thought before saying, "You are unemployed right?", "Yeah.", "Are you planning to look for a job?", "Yes but let it be something simple and basic, not really wanting a career for now. Not that I can do it without any college degrees.", "Well I think I can help you with that.". Looking up curiously, Sunset ask, "You can?". Nodding and smiling, the man reach for a piece of flyer from his sling bag and gave it to Sunset.

'Crew members needed for a film directed/written by Sebastian Gosling, limited up to 3, no prior experience or education needed'. Sunset scanned through the key contents, and her face lit up. The man continued, "Name's Sebastian, I am a director and screenwriter for an independent film. So far only one person has called me to apply for this job, but hurry up and consider quickly.", "Yes, thanks for the opportunity. I'm Mia Sutherland.". The man smiled again and they continued back with their meals.

Sebastian and Sunset walk out of the cafe together. Sebastian rubbed the back of his head before saying, "So I guess just call me if you want the job?". Sunset shrugged, "Yeah i'll do that.", both then waved goodbye to each other as they leave in opposite directions.

As she is walking, Sunset noticed that she felt less colder, and much happier. It might be the temperature change, but she felt something else also doing it for her. The feeling inside her, light and warm, spreading throughout her body and soul. "Is this what friendship feels like.", Sunset thought to herself as she continue her walk back.

Start the Flashbacks

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Scrolling through every single word of the flyer, Sunset finally got the full picture of the job. She is going to be a camera operator, will be paid $10 per hour on that day itself, working hours will last between 8-10 hours starting from either 7 a.m or 7 p.m, lunch and dinner will be provided depending on the day, and operators will receive 10% of the box office returns each.

Now looking at the movie. The synopsis is that this movie is a story about two females in the who are lonely in their lives until they met each other. However, their love are bounded by their social classes, with on being a daughter of a rich businessman and one being a teen mother from Detroit. Moreover, both of their families despise dykes and the type of social class their lovers represent. Together, they must face the obstacles or be dragged down by the beliefs. Looking at the location, it is going to be filmed in...Hollywood?

Sunset saw the location and immediately grimaced. She is really interested in this job, the person who is in charge of this movie seems nice enough, and she don't know if she will get something that will have both of these benefits. After all, modern society is demanding, unpredictable and competitive, and she do not know whether she will can accept other possible jobs that she can find. Sure she might be able to handle other simple jobs like waiting tables or cleaning cars, but they are not possibly be fulfilling for her. This job, it is almost like a positive mystical force had dragged her into it, but letting the location be a place filled with numerous famous people and paparazzies might hinder her desire to stay hidden.

But thinking again, Hollywood is full of celebrities, so the priorities of the eyes will be on them. If she just keep herself on the low profile, her presence will be overshadowed easily. With a smile on her face, she finally made her decision.

After exchanging one of her notes into coins, she dropped a 50 cent into a public phone and dialed the number stated on the flyer. After a few rings, Sebastian's voice finally got through. "Hello.", "Hi again Sebastian.", "Mia?", "Yeah.", "So I guess this means you want the job.", "Yes.", "That's fast but okay, so you want me to email you the applications or you come to me.". Sunset tensed up, not knowing how to respond to the question knowing that it will be weird to tell him that he did not have an email. "Hello?", Sebastian's voice finally woken Sunset from her trance and she quickly replied, "Oh sorry, I will come to you. Just that I also cancelled my old email and contacts since they are linked to my parents', and I did not really have time to apply for a new one yet.", "Okay then it's settled. I'm actually still at Manhattan, but the hardcopy applications are still at Hollywood. Maybe we can meet there by 3 days later at 5? Address is printed on the flyer.", "Yeah sure.", "Okay don't be late.".

And with that, the call ended. Sunset put down the phone, then begin to think about her next course of action. Within 3 days by 5 in the afternoon, and Hollywood is very far from Manhattan, thousands of kilometers to put it simply. She don't want to travel the fastest route via plane as she do not want to draw too much attention by going through many security checkpoints. The authorities are on her feet and she need to leave as little traces as possible. Next, she considered calling a cab where she will not be spotted by so many people nor whatever tracking technology security uses, but then she is afraid that not many taxis will want to drive this far. Moreover, taxi services are expensive at around a few dollars per kilometer, so the thousands of kilometers will leave quite a dent in her wallet. The only sensible way to travel is via a shuttle bus, making her be possibly spotted by people. However, she really want the job, and she can easily buy more subtle disguises to hide her looks.

She sighed, then decided on taking a bus instead. It might risk her getting spotted but from her experience, most humans are easily fooled by subtle disguises so the chances are slim. She went and convince the hotel to refund back her money, then ask for the nearest shuttle bus. After minutes of finding, she found it and look at the bookings. Just her luck, there's one at 12 in the afternoon for a trip which will last around 2 days and 21 hours, leaving her at least 8 hours before she need to report to the location. Without hesitation, she immediately book it for around $290. She then went to a store and bought a cap and stroll around Manhattan for hours. After hours of strolling, she decide to buy a few granola bars, some buns and a some water bottles, then go back to the station and wait for the bus to come. With a few minutes of walking distance to spare, she ate a granola and a bun before taking a few sips from one of the water bottles. When the bus arrived, she boarded it and proceed on her road trip. Looking at the number of passengers that boarded when it the bus took off, Sunset realised that not that many people had booked this trip, much to her relief as she can hide more easily

"No!", Sunset's screams are heard throughout the bus as she woke up. She instinctively jumped out from her seat, and realised that all of the passengers are staring at her, and although she did not notice, the bus driver also briefly glanced at her through the rearview mirror before concentrating back on the road. Some passengers are staring with slight anger from being interrupted from their slumber, while some look at her with concern. "Umm miss?", Sunset quickly tilted her head to her right and see that the concerning voice is from a young man with brown cargo shorts, red polo shirt and a black cap. "Are you okay?", the man asked before Sunset quickly nodded her head and saying, "Yeah, Yeah. Sorry guys, just a nightmare, sorry.". And with that, all of them went back to sleep, and Sunset sit back on her chair. "So much for subtlety.", thought Sunset bitterly.

She tried to go back to sleep, but she cannot. That demon is back again, and the dream is the one where she succeeded in killing Twilight and her friends again. Thinking about that, made her think about how many people she had hurt before she got here.

"I don't care what you say mother, I do whatever I want and you can't stop me!", "How dare you disobey me!? I'm the one who raised you ever since your father died!", "Well i'm a big pony now, so I don't need your care anymore!". With that last statement, Sunset left her home and go to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

"I said hay fries, not hay burgers!" Sunset bellowed to the servant, before throwing the plate at the servant's head, who ran out crying.

"Hey want to hang out", "I have more important businesses than dealing with your stupid voice.", Sunset replied with disdain. "OK, sorry for annoying you.", the filly replied before walking away on the verge of tears.

"Sunset Shimmer, you are amazing when you made that vine.", "Exquisite.", "Would you like to eat with us?". Listening to the comments from the 3 ponies, Sunset just scoffed at them as she walk away, "I have better things to do than socialising with lowlifes. I'm going to re-read 'Advanced Elemental Magical Practices' before practicing for my advanced summoning spells exam. What about you? Nothing.". The ponies look at her with digust, "That wasn't very nice.", "She's so full of herself, that's what!", "Her loss. I'm awesome.".

Sunset was walking around the castle, glancing around the castle and accidentally bumping into a few students in front of her. One of the students dropped her book and snack on the floor, but Sunset just glare at them. "Watch where you are going next time!", Sunset barked, shocking the students before walking away with a scoff.

Then she remembered how she arrived to this world.

Sunset and Celestia walk into a room together. In front of both of then is a large mirror, decorated with gems around it's frame.

"Look at yourself in this mirror and tell me what you see.", "A beautiful pony that has nothing but power and potential.". Celestia looked concern, but she suggested to Sunset, "Care to try that again with our some humility taken into account?". Then, a ripple occurred on the mirror, showing Sunset with wings, making the unicorn smirk as she replied, "An alicorn who can rule Equestria.". Seeing her prized pupil's expression made the princess grew even more concern, then she cleared her throat, "You're not ready yet, let's just move on.", "Wait what, bu-", "Now.", Celestia insisted. Sunset then reluctantly walk out with Celestia, but not before seeing something flashing on the mirror briefly which had a slim figure and stand on twos. Knowing that her mentor will not explain it, she decide to keep the image to herself.

Sunset and Celestia are shelving books together in a library. "Can we talk about the mirror?", "No Sunset, you're not ready.". The unicorn grumbled silently before going back to shelve her books.

"So as you can see on this globe, this is where the Changelings live.", Celestia is teaching Sunset about the world. "Can you tell me where the mirror lea-", "No", the mentor replied sourly.

Sunset and Celestia are having a picnic at a park during a sunny day. She looked at her reflection on the pond in front of her before saying, "You know what the pond reminds me of? Mirrors, like the one you show-", "No Sunset, we've been over this. I will not tell you more about the mirror until you are ready.", Celestia almost yelled at her from being annoyed over the same topic. Sunset looked away from the princess before huffing and saying sourly, "I am ready, you just do not want me to do whatever I want.".

Sunset manage to snuck into the restricted section of the library. For hours, she just look through many books to find more about the mirror. Then she found it. "Let's see. Created by Starswirl the Bearded, the mirror will open a portal every 30 moons to another world. There are no accounts of what the world will look like, but-".

"Sunset Shimmer! Put those forbidden books down right now!". Sunset dropped the book and turned her head to face Princess Celestia, who brought along two guards with her. Sunset narrowed her eyes at her, before shouting, "Why should I!? You refuse to tell me about the mirror! You know I am ready, you know I can be great! But you refuse to let me!". Celestia narrowed her eyes and replied at Sunset with her venomous voice, "You are great, but you still don't have the right attitude yet to know what you want to know. You are selfish and full of yourself, you need to reflect-", Celestia then stopped and used her light shield to block the book that Sunset had thrown at her. Sunset is livid now, "Selfish!? Selfish!? Buck you! You're the one that refused to tell me about the mirror, you're the one that tell me that i'm not ready even though I am, you're also the one who refuse to give me the title of princess that I deserve! Now whose the selfish on-".

"Enough!", Celestia used her royal voice which amplified throughout the large library and causing the guards and Sunset to recoil from being startled. Sunset regained her composure and stare at the princess again, who narrowed her eyes and continued, "A princess is an earned title. I have been trying to teach you everything you need to know to be a princess, but you refused to listen. You thinking that you deserve to be one just proved to me that you are not ready.". Sunset snapped back with fury, "Or maybe you are just scared that there will be somepony who will be better than you!"

A strand of tear shed from one of the eyes of the princess from the words, but Sunset is too angry to care. Celestia then look away from her student, before saying, "Very well then. If this is what you think of me, then maybe we should end our relationship here.". Sunset then just stared at her soon-to-be former mentor's back wide eyed, not liking where this is going. "Sunset Shimmer, you are removed from the position as my personal pupil. You can continue your studies, but no longer welcome in my castle until you learned the lesson that I tried to teach you. The guards will escort you out.".

Time slowed down for Sunset as she was dragged away by the guards. When she almost reached the exit, something in the unicorn snapped. "This is the biggest mistake you ever made princess.", her she said with venom under her breath before swiftly knocking out the guards with her magic and galloping back into the castle.

Then she also remembered the people she hurt after arriving into the human world.

Seeing the blue haired target, Sunset Shimmer quickly sit next to him before class starts. Flash saw the girl sitting next to her, but just briefly glance back before continue writing his notes. Moments later, Mr. Cranky came in and start the lesson. Sunset Shimmer is writing down notes with her pencil. Almost an hour past by, then Sunset decide to initiate her plan. With one forceful push, the lead snapped.

Flash heard the snap, then turn towards the girl. He saw Sunset look at her pencil in distraught, before putting it down and letting out a sigh. Meanwhile, Sunset is trying to see if her target will react to the scenario. "Psst", Sunset look beside her and see Flash trying to grin as normally as possible as he passed her one of his pencils. With a faux thankful smile, Sunset took the pencil and continue to jot her notes down.

"Hey!", Flash turned around and saw Sunset Shimmer coming near him. Being a gentleman, he smiled at the girl, "Hey Sunset, do you need something?". Putting on a fake smile, she pretend to shyly rubbed her head before asking, "This might sound embarrassing, but I want to know if we can hang out at Sugarcube Corner after school? You seem like a great guy to be friend with and I don't really have friends over here.". Flash blinked twice at this, then a slight blush formed around his face, "Yeah sure.", "Okay see you at 4.". Sunset waved cheerfully as she walk away from the guitarist.

"You never loved me.", an angry and distraught Flash said. "Of course not, you are nothing but a cowardly little pussy to me!? Now that everybody finally knows me, you've done your job!", Sunset replied. "All these months, the dates, helping you out, it's all nothing to you!", "Listen to me here dork, I did all of these things because I want to impress somebody back home, and it's none of your concern. Now that I don't need you anymore, you can crawl back to whatever cave you came from and cry.". Flash roughly shoved Sunset, "You bitch! I am going to tell everyone who you really are, then let's see-" *SLAP*. Flash rubbed his cheek as Sunset mocked him, "You wanna tell!? Then tell! But remember, everybody sees me as a kind girl who want everything but trouble! I can trick you, what makes you think I can't trick them!?". Sunset then get nose to nose with the boy, "And remember all those secrets you talked to me about through text? I can always publish them. If you want to drag me down, i'll drag you down too. Got it!?", Flash narrowed his eyes at that. Sunset smirked before letting go of him before smirking and saying, "I'll take that as a yes." and walk away from the scene.

Applejack and Pinkie are holding a bake sale, then suddenly Sunset came out with a large handbag, pen and a small notebook. Applejack got startled before Sunset said sheepishly, "Sorry that I scared you.", "Sorry, didn't see you coming.". After an awkward silence, the farmer tried to greet her, "Howdy, nice to see you...", struggling to remember the girl's name.

"Hi Sunny-Wunny!" Pinkie Pie boomed in from behind Applejack, startling the latter. "Long time no see!", "Yes, two hours is long.", Sunset replied with a slightly strained smile, not that both of the girls noticed. Sunset then cleared her throat, "Listen, I need some stories for the school's newspaper, and I wanted to ask you some questions about...baking.", "Really!?" Pinkie Pie asked with excitement, earning a grin from Sunset.

Sunset began to ask questions about baking, but then suspiciously asked a few questions that are a tad bit personal from both girls like schedules, ambitions, characteristics and personal plans, causing both of them to grow uneasy. Regardless, they still comply with some of it. Then, both of them decide that the questions are too much of them, with Applejack trying to brush off the interview, "Sunset, can we talk later? We're a bit busy.", Pinkie nodded in agreement.

Sunset then changed her face into a sad look. "Are you OK sugarcube?", "I understand, you think i'm a freak, i'm a weird person.", Sunset replied in a sad face and tone, trying to pry sympathy out from the 2 girls. Applejack uneasily replied, "No that's not what we mean, it's just...", "Don't need to sugarcoat it, you think i'm annoying. I'm just new to this place, don't really have many friends from where i'm from.", Sunset sighed with a stream of tear falling from one of her eyes, "I feel that joining the newspaper club will help me make some over here. I'm so embarrassed now.".

Pinkie Pie and Applejack shared concerned looks after hearing Sunset's self deprecating talk. Applejack replied soothingly, "Hey, if you need friends, just ask us.", "Yeah, we could totally be BFFs for life!". Sunset stopped tearing, letting out a grateful smile, "Wow, you do not understand how pleased I am after hearing this.".

Both Applejack and Pinkie smiled too before the pink girl replied, "You can join us for lunch tomorrow at Sugarcube Corner, I will cook you the tastiest treats for your tummy!", "Thank you...", "Name's Pinkie Pie!", "Yeah, Pinkie.". Sunset pretend to look at her phone, "Oh sorry, i'm late for something else. Good luck for your pastries, i'm sure people are gonna...get a kick out of it.", "Thanks for the encouragement sugarcube. See you later.", "Bye Sunny!". And with that, the 2 girls went back to the kitchen while Sunset walk the opposite direction.

"Don't our babies look precious?", Pinkie Pie said, cooing at the treats in the oven. Applejack rolled her eyes at this, "Let's just get cleaned up.", and both of them walk away. Meanwhile watching them in one of the hallways, Sunset is standing there with a mischievous smile, then walk towards the still raw baked treats in the oven. She pulled out a container or Miralax from her bag, then proceed to pull the baking tray out and mixing the powder inside the mixture.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack walked out from Vice-principal Luna's office, both looking upset and livid. "What went wrong?", Applejack then bellowed, "Maybe you didn't follow the recipe! And now my family has lost a large part of the business!". Pinkie then grew unusually angry, "Are you seriously blaming me?!", "Yes, maybe it's because you add too much sugar! Not everybody can tolerate that much sweet like you you oblivious moron!", "How dare you Jacqueline Smith! Nobody has ever gotten a tummyache from my cooking before! Maybe is your frowny pants mood that infect the treats!", "That doesn't make any sense!", "You don't make any sense!". The bickering then deteriorated into screaming matches which attracted a crowd of students.

Among the crowds, Sunset Shimmer is watching the fight with joy from a safe distance, knowing that her plan is a success. "Like taking candy from a baby.", she thought to herself.

"I need to go to the bathroom coach.", "Sure but be quick.". With her good reputation among the staff, Sunset managed to simply ask Coach Iron Will to let her go to the bathroom.

After going inside the locker room, Sunset used a hair pin and slowly lockpicked Pinkie's locker. It took some time but she eventually managed to open it and grabbed a phone inside. With a sinister smirk, she access the phone which had no passcode to begin with and typed a message that guarantee the complete break up between Applejack and Pinkie.

Hey Jackie, just want to say that I no longer want to be friends with you. You are a mean meanie who is too proud to admit your wrongs. If you really want us to be friends again, then just admit that you're the one that ruined the bake sale.

And send. Sunset finally sent the message and quickly stow the phone back into the locker, go and wash her face before going back to gym class.

After gym class, Sunset is walking down the hallways before she heard screaming. Quickly deducing what it is, she made a smug grin and walk towards the source and saw Pinkie and Applejack being livid with each other while surrounded by a small crowd.

"How many times I want to tell you!? I did not ruin the bake sale!", "And I am not the one who sent the message! I would never do something that cruel!", "Apparently you are cruel enough to get those people sick!", "I did not!". The full on screaming lasted for about a minute, though Sunset just tuned out from most of the conversation which are mostly insults. However, the last statement is what made her snap back to reality and her grin even wider.

"You know what!? I don't want to be friends with you anymore!", "Whatever Jacqueline!". With that, both girls walked opposite directions with nearby student backing away from them, while the mastermind just stood one side taking pleasure with her successful work.

The baking incident, combined with what turned out to be fake E-mails and messages from Sunset (which she didn't learn about until last week) destroyed Applejack's relationship with Pinkie.

After something similar happened at a baking contest that Sunset was a part of in January, four months later, Applejack pieced together that Sunset poured something into the batter that made everyone sick. She tried to tell off Sunset and rough her up, but the fire-haired girl had covered her tracks, much to her fury.

Howdy Sunset, meet me at the darkened hallway after school. I insist.
From, Applejack

Sunset is standing at the hallway, tapping her foot impatiently while looking around. She is not sure what a farmer will want to speak to her, she had some guesses and already had plans if those things really happen. "Howdy Sunset.", the former unicorn immediately turn to the light, compose herself and put up her most friendly facade.

"Hey Applejack, you want to see me?", Applejack just stood under the light without response, arms crossed, her face being stern. Looking at the farmer, Sunset roughly know how this conversation is gonna go, and she is prepared for it.

Applejack then slowly get close to Sunset, while saying suspiciously, "If you can recall, everybody's food at the baking contest a few months ago caused dozens of people to get sick. Then at the most recent baking contest a few days ago, the same thing happened, except for your food which you took home the price for.", "Coincidence?", Sunset attempt to shrug at the statement. Applejack got even closer, her tone becoming more accusative, "I reckon there's such a coincidence. I also remembered that during me and Pinkie's baking session, you came to us and ask alot of things about us, like our schedules and plans.", "Sorry, i'm late for something else-", "And I heard some students also mention that you did the same thing to them. You know, the ones who are in the baking contest too?". She then narrowed her eyes and pointed an accusatory finger at the suspect, "So you are the good suspect for the shenanigans.".

Sunset then slowly turn her face into a grin, before performing a slow mocking clap. "Congrats, you figured it out in the same amount of time as it takes for you to count to ten.". Needless to say, Applejack went from shock, then to being angry before growling, "So you did spiked the food! Do you know how much damage you had caused!?", Sunset just rolled her eyes, "How much?", "Dozens of people got sick! School funding from the alumni is temporarily cut! Attendees whose food got people sick got banned from baking for major events for the rest of the school year! Also, the school and some of the customers outside decide to cut any ties from my family business for god knows how long! My family lost most of our income because of your stunt!". Sunset put up her hands defensively, but her face still remained smug, "Hey! This is not personal at all!", "Then why did you do it!? Is this your hobby!?".

"Let me say simply and slowly so a hillbilly like you can understand. I. Have. A. Goal.". Applejack went from angry to confused, "Goal? What goal?". Sunset then become angry, "A goal which a trailer trash like you will not understand and don't deserve to know! But if you are still curious, just know that I want to impress someone by getting something! Something that stupid bitch constantly denied me despite all the work I did for her that clearly shows her that I deserve it!", Sunset clenched her fist like a vice grip after finishing her monologue, her nails digging into her palm and drawing abit of blood.

Applejack is in disbelief by now, "That's it!? So you think getting this thing make it worthy for you to hurt people!?", "Correct! You will never be smart enough to understand, this means alot to me. So what if your dumb family lost their little trailer!? So what if friendships are torn apart!? So what if the school lost their funding!? So what if people got sick over the food!? As long as I get what I want, it is justified!".

She pointed to Applejack, who immediately tackled her to the ground and pinning on top of her. Sunset's hands are pressed against the floor, and her torso is stuck in between Applejack's legs. Her head is knocked on the ground, but her dizziness caused by the impact immediately faded away, allowing her to see Applejack's face up close. "I should break every bone in your body right now!", Sunset look amused at this, much to the farmer's confusion and frustration. "Go ahead, beat till your knuckles bleed.", Sunset whispered darkly. Applejack did not do anything, then Sunset mocked, "What's wrong? Don't know how to punch?".

Still pinning her to the ground, Applejack looked around, then look back at Sunset accusingly. "You're going to frame me right? Frame me as the bad guy?", "Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, I can get you suspended for attacking me first.", Sunset continued to smile. Applejack then said confidently, "I can tell Principal Celestia what you did.", "What's your evidence?", the farmer's confidence immediately shattered. "The only thing you have is words coming out from your mouth, and no adult will easily believe a student via it. Moreover, I am an honour student, do you think the teachers will be convinced that I would stoop this low?". Feeling the farmer's grip loosen, Sunset lightly shoved Applejack back who went limp, then she stood up, dusted her skirt before stating, "You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with, nothing to do with all that dumb strength.".

"You're right, I can't.", Applejack admitted sadly, then continued sternly. "But listen to me Shimmer, don't ever try anything like that ever-," Sunset slammed her arm violently at the locker near Applejack, startling her. "Listen here hillbilly, look what I had done with some cheap Mirialax. Everybody is banned from baking and your family's business is in ruins. And no one found out about it except you, but it is still too late to stop it. If I wanted to, I could drive you into the streets begging like a child asking for candy, and you would never see it coming.", Sunset then leaned her head near towards Applejack's head, her mouth very close to her ear. "In layman's terms, you do your own shit, I do my own shit. Got it?", every breath caused the farmer to shiver, but she still nodded. With a victorious smile, Sunset walk away from the scene, while Applejack started to have tears rolling down.

"You mother fucker! You can't do this forever!", Applejack rarely sweared, but Sunset really pushed all of her buttons. Without looking back, Sunset let out a sadistic laugh, "All you dumb hicks only know how to throw empty insults. Let me repeat again. Stay. Out. Of. My. Way.". And with that, she walk away without looking back, leaving the farmer quietly sobbing to herself.

And send. Sunset finally posted another secret of Rarity, among with other secrets and rumors. She had took up a bit of hacking so she did not have to constantly take other people's phones and electronic devices to disguise as them, and also to cover her tracks more easily. Everything she need will be right at her fingertips on her own laptop.

Speaking of which, she is trying to sabotage Rarity's reputation as she is among the competitors for the Spring Fling princess. After doing what she had done, she proceed to go to school. During this time, she also hired Snips and Snails as cronies to extract as much private information from others as possible or even the assumptions of the students towards each other, which is how she managed to get Rarity's rumors and secrets.

Satisfied with her work, she closed her laptop and go to sleep.

The next day as she stepped into the school, students are minding their own business, with only a few giving her brief cold or terrified glares as those are the ones that suspect she caused the shenanigans that are happening at the school or already know what she did but are threatened to not be a tattletale. Sunset just smirked confidently and strutted down the hallway.

Then the main show started. She saw Rarity walking down to her locker, trying to shrink herself down as much as possible. Meanwhile, students who saw her just snickered and gossiped about her. The embarrassed fashionista is trying her best to ignore the chatter as she opened her locker, quivering her lips slightly. "Hey whore!", someone shouted which draw her attention and before she know it, a pack of lube was thrown at her face and fall onto the ground. The girl moaned in slight pain as she held her nose, then looked up to see Bon Bon and Lyra smirking devilishly at her, with Bon Bon continuing her talk, "You will need that, wouldn't want those delicate fingers to scratch your cat.", the whole student who heard it laughed at it. Rarity is even more distraught now, mascara running down her face as she run away from the scene while crying.

Sunset saw everything, the smiled confidently that her plan is a success.

It did not work. Despite the rumors and secrets, Rarity is still among the top choices for the Spring Fling princess, along with Sunset Shimmer. However, it is no matter as Sunset had a backup plan.

Both of the two highest nominees were standing on the stage, awaiting the judgement for the title. Rarity said kindly, "May the best girl win.", "You too.", Sunset extend her arm and allow the fashionista to shake it. After that, Rarity faced the audience while Sunset sneakily smirked and her eyes indicate something dark and sinister is about to happen. Principal Celestia stood on stage with a microphone in her hand with Vice-principal Luna holding a pillow with the crown on top. She pulled out an envelope, "And the winner for this year's Spring Fling princess is-".

Meanwhile above the stage, Snips and Snails are each carrying a bucket of paint. "And the winner for this year's Spring Fling princess is-", the cronies heard the cue, then look down and saw Principal Celestia about to open the envelope. They then aimed the buckets at Rarity, before tilting the buckets and let both of the green and red paint fall like a waterfall.

*SPLASH*, the crowd went silent, Rarity is soaked in paint, Principal Celestia is shocked, and Sunset is smiling victoriously. After a few seconds, the whole crowd started to laugh, "Good show slut!", "Nice makeover you got there!", "You're now as dirty as your heart!". Rarity began tearing up, then ran away from the scene and sobbing.

"Uh.", Celestia look at the piece of paper which is showing Rarity's name. Knowing the winner already ran away and the time of the event need to be cut short, the principal reluctantly and sadly continued, "Sunset Shimmer.". With a quick swipe, Sunset snatched the plastic crown from Luna, "This crown, is mine.", Sunset triumphantly declared as she put on the accessory. The whole crowd applauded.

Both principals are shocked by the girl's roughness, but they could not care less about that. Both adults ran off the stage to look for the crying girl, while Sunset just stood on the stage and soak in the cheers.

"I will send you the details of the auction.", "Okie dokie lokie!". Sunset just heard the conversation between Pinkie and Fluttershy, and it will be essential to her plan. Using her phone, Sunset managed to track the contacts of everyone in school and the exchange of information between them. She can also manipulate the messages sent by the students.

She is now looking at Pinkie's and Fluttershy's contact, seeing Fluttershy trying to send Pinkie the message. 'This saturday, 4:00pm, Silent Auction.', 'This saturday, 4:00pm, Auction Party.', Sunset smiled viciously as she changed the message information, before hitting send to allow Pinkie to view the doctored message.

'Howdy Rainbow, can you help me with my farm at Saturday 12 noon?', 'Howdy Rainbow, can you help me with my farm at Sunday 12 noon?'. Then send again.

"Come on Fluttershy, the game is about to begin!", "Hold on i'm looking!". Rainbow is standing in her underwear while Fluttershy is frantically trying to search Rainbow's soccer attire she promised to wash.

Coach Spitfire stormed in and look at both girls. "Come on Dash! We don't have all day!", "Fluttershy is trying to find my attire.", Rainbow angrily declared. After minutes of searching, there's still no attire, and Fluttershy let out a defeated expression. Coach Spitfire declared, "An sportsman's attire is their responsibility! No attire, no competition for you! You're gonna get a replacement today!", the coach then pointed towards the exit. With a grunt, Rainbow grabbed her usual clothing and went to another place to change, while a timid Fluttershy followed her behind.

"Rainbow please listen!", "Save it Flutters, I've had enough of your excuses!", Rainbow yelled. The athlete the pointed out, "First, you accidentally let some of your animal friends hopped into my bag, causing me to get detention! Next, you dropped my phone into the toilet when I ask you to take care of it! Then, you decide to help me refill the cooler for the team, then all of my teammates got sick including me!", Rainbow inhaled sharply before continuing, "And now, I cannot even attend the competition because you lost my attire! All these things you did, is this some part of a sick joke!?". Fluttershy is fearful now, she had not seen the athlete this angry before, but she managed to stammered, "I d-did not-", "God damn it! Stop! Playing! Innocent! You know what, fine! You want to pretend to me nice, to not be loyal, then you can shove my friendship with you up your ass cause you are not allowed to be near me nor my other friends again!". Rainbow then stormed off, leaving the girl in tears.

Sunset is watching while hiding. After hearing the quarrel, she decide to walk out from her spot. Fluttershy saw her behind, then fell down and staggered back. With a smug smile, Sunset insulted, "Aww what's wrong? Little Fluttershy just lost a friend?", she then get close to the girl, "Well this is what animal loving freaks like you deserve!". Sunset the purposely bumped the girl, causing the animal lover too fall down.

Meanwhile, Rainbow is watching the whole situation without any sympathy. Fluttershy look back at Rainbow begging her to do something, but she just casually walk away. What both girls don't know, is that sunset is hiding the attire in her bag.

Sunset saw Fluttershy walking down the hallway, holding a pink lunch box and heading to the cafeteria. Fluttershy saw Sunset and try to make a distance between them as large as the hallway's width will allow, but it was no use. Sunset quickly close in the distance and blocked the girl with her arm by slamming it into the lockers. Fluttershy is startled, and she did not even register when Sunset swiftly swipe the lunch box away from her.

Sunset raised the lunch up high, before violently open the lid then pour the assortment of lettuce, tomatoes and olive oil all over her head. "Enjoy your meal," Sunset said in a sarcastically, before walking away and leaving the animal lover crying on the ground.

"Hey Sandalwood.", "Sup Shimmy?". Sunset pulled out a pen and notebook, "Can I conduct an interview, on uh...your eco-club yeah that's all.", "Yeah sure. You know, you are one of the few that actually want to know about my club.", Sandalwood excitedly replied. Sunset shrugged, "Well, I just like to know things. Anyway, let's start.".

Minutes gone by and Sunset asked generic questions about the club from the leader. They have fun talking until Sunset asked him about his personal plans for not just him but the club, causing Sandalwood to be slightly uncomfortable, "Uh, why you want to ask that?", "So I can get to know you better.". Sandalwood is still a bit unconvinced, but Sunset then pretend to be embarrassed, "Ugh, i'm so sorry. I don't really have many friends from where i'm from and want to make some here. I join the newspaper club will help me so I can talk to people more. Guess you think i'm weird huh?", covering her face with her hands.

Sandalwood felt a hinge of pity at the girl. He put a hand on Sunset's shoulder and put on a sympathetic smile. Sunset look up to Sandalwood, "Sorry that I don't know about that. Of course I can be your friend. Shall we continue.". The girl's face beamed up at the response as they continued.

"Dude, I swear I did not steal the instruments.", "Sorry dude, all the proof points to you. I really want to believe you but almost everybody think that you steal it.". Sandalwood did not like where this conversation is going with his friend and co-leader of the club, Treehugger while other club members are also looking at him suspiciously. Treehugger said reluctantly, "Sorry dude, but you are out of the club for now. We will see if any more proof will pop up to prove your innocence but you must go for now.". With an annoyed sigh, Sandalwood walked out of the club room.

Meanwhile, Sunset was watching the whole ordeal and smile gleefully. She turn towards her cronies behind her, with Snips holding a bag. She brought a thumbs up, and the two of them smiled proudly.
"Hey you guys are the track team right?". The team's captain, Sprint Speed heard a female voice and turned behind to see Sunset waving at her and the entire team. Being gentlemen, Sprint and the entire track team waved back as the captain spoke up, "Yes and i'm the captain. Do you need something?", "You see, I am part of the newspaper club, and I was just wondering if I can know more about your team.". The entire team smiled at her, then Sprint said, "Go on, ask your best questions.".

Like the usual pattern, Sunset first ask generic questions like the team members and list of achievements, but eventually ask more personal ones not just about the team but also about every single team member. However, the team is too infatuated on the pretty girl that they did not notice fishy things in her questions.

"Hope these questions can help you.", the co-captain, Twinkle said. "Oh they do. Thanks.", Sunset replied with a subtle sly grin before walking away. "She's totally dig into you Sprint.", "Shut up Twinkle.", "Ohhh", the whole team let out the sound. Sunset feel like punching the co-captain when he said that, but she had to retain her image, so she just continued to walk away. After all, she will get her revenge.

"And we're done.", Twinkle let out a satisfied sigh as he finish counted the money they raised from the bake sale for the funding. The rest of the team smiled at their hard work, now they have enough money to support the team, but mainly for the upcoming championship. "I'll put this in the club room, come on Sprint.". They both reached the club room, then Twinkle put the money and Sprint lock the doors as they exit.

However, they didn't realise that Sunset is watching while hiding. After seeing them left, she made sure no one is going to come and witness her before she lockpick the door. She saw the envelope full of money, then swiftly take it and smile victoriously.

"Where's the money!?", Twinkle shouted. The whole track team is distraught, their funds went missing in the club room and the two captains are looking frantically in the room. "I remember I locked the door! Nobody should have know!", "You sure you didn't forget to lock it?", "I'm positive! Maybe you just misplaced the money!". Both captains are on each other's throats right now, they do not know what are the possible causes for the money missing other than Twinkle thinking Sprint forgot to lock the door or Sprint thinking Twinkle replaced the money. The whole track team is divided on who to trust too, with half of them blaming Twinkle and other half blaming Sprint. Not long later, the whole team is fighting one another that it got so bad that Coach Spitfire have to step in and break up the fight.

Sunset look at the team, with a darkly amused expression on her face. "My plan is working.", she said confidently.

"Please Chips I just need to borrow for a while.", "I said no Sunset! Honour student or not, we can't just let students who are not in this club borrow our tech anytime, especially something like a CPU. Why do you even need a CPU for?". Micro Chips is getting increasingly frustrated as Sunset keep begging him to borrow a CPU from the AV Club. Sunset rubbed her back of the head and smile sheepishly to act innocent, "Reasons?", "I don't really care what the reasons are, I can't just let you borrow tech that is school property. If you want a CPU, I can recommend some good stores for you to buy.", "I don't have time for that-", "No means no Sunset!". Maintaining her emotions, Sunset pretend to act disappointed, "Ok." before walking away while Micro Chips glare at her. After closing the door, Sunset's face turn into a scowl and muttered, "You don't wanna help me? You're gonna pay.".

Back at home, Sunset is using her laptop. She manage to hack into and steal Micro Chips' logins and send some lewd messages to one of the school's most feared students, Gilda Griffon.

'Hey Gilds, wanna hang out and ride on Micro express?', 'You wanna hang out in a cast!', 'Come on Gilds, don't be like that.', 'You know you want me.', 'You are really asking for a death wish! You will regret tomorrow!'.

Gilda's face is red in fury as she brandish her phone in front of Micro's face. "What are you thinking!?", "Gilda, i'm not the one-", his words are cut short when he doubled over in pain as the military girl gutted him. "Don't you lie to me! Your email, your doing!", Gilda bellowed. They are in the darkest hallway in the school where little to no student come near to, so nobody can hear them.". The scrawny teen is weeping as he knelt down and hold his stomach as Gilda continued, "You know what? I got no time for this, i'm just gonna teach you a lesson straight away.". She pulled her belt from her cargo pants and grabbed near the buckle side, Micro Chips started breathing heavily as he realised what's about to happen. With a sadistic grin, Gilda said, "Just be grateful that i'm not using the buckle side. But if you do it next time, you won't be lucky.". With that revelation, she swung down the belt as hard as her muscular body can.

For anybody near the hallway, Chips' screams can be heard. But again, nobody seldom go near here. Right now, there's one one figure that is hiding near the hallway.

Sunset closed her eyes as the screams filled her ears like pleasant music. She chuckled, "Karma's a bitch.".

"And the person who scored the highest is...Sunset Shimmer again!", Mr.Cranky proudly called out. Most of the students gave out claps and Sunset smiled proudly to herself as she got her test paper and sit back on her seat. "See students, this is the kind of student you should strive to perform. Always showing the curiosity and excitement of learning is the step towards success.", the teacher pointed out while Sunset laid back on her chair and fold her arms behind her head.

"Teacher's pet.", a student teasingly muttered. Sunset then slightly tilted her eyes to see Gilda trying to hide her snicker along with a few students giggling. Sunset is livid when she heard that, but she still remain her cool and think of her revenge.

"Here's the laptop boss.", "Thank you very much.". Snips and Snails had break into Gilda's locker and steal her laptop as well as the assignment papers after they know that Gilda will need this to get 30% of her science grade. Looking at the laptop, she gestured for the 2 cronies to walk away, indicating that their work is done as she stash the items into her bag. As she is heading home, she threw the items into a nearby trash bin.

The next day, things got real heated. "Sir I swear, I stored all my items in my locker and only know it went missing today!", "Young lady, a student's assignment is their own responsibility. If you lose your items, it's your fault. And since you cannot turn in, you fail this assignment and you are under academic probation for the summer.", Mr. Whooves, a teacher with a posh accent said with exasperation. "What!? No! I already have plans with dad's military buddies-", "It doesn't matter and I don't care! Now sit down before I force you to the principal's office!", Whooves almost yelled while saying that. Gilda sighed in frustration as she walk back to her seat, glaring at anyone who snickered at her.

With an annoyed sigh, the teacher look at the name list. "Okay next is, Sunset Shimmer.", his face and mood immediately lit up at the name. Sunset confidently stood up as walk to the front, while Gilda is glaring at her but not knowing that she's actually the one who sabotaged her work. Sunset plugged in her laptop, the projector project her slides, "Hope you all have a lovely day, today I will be talking about-".

"Hey excuse me.", Sunset approach three girls who are talking. One of them, Muharib is a new student here. "Hey Sunny.", both Lyra and Bon Bon greeted friendly, "Hey Lyra and Bon Bon, can I speak with Muharib for a while first?", "For what?", Muharib blinked and asked curiously. "Just questions about uh, fitness yeah. You look tough for your age and I want to publish your tips on the newspaper.", "Okay then. I guess see you guys later", the compliment made the new girl stand up and wave her friends goodbye, who also waved back.

Muharib followed Sunset to the darkened hallway. The girl felt suspicious but just shrugged it off as getting some privacy. After arriving, Sunset handed Muharib a red sheet of paper and a pen with an odd smile, "Answer this questionnaire before we start.", "Sure.". The girl read through the paper, then her smiling face turned into a frown.

"What's wrong?", Sunset tried to be as friendly as possible. Muharib replied idly, "Nothing, it's just that some of these questions felt a bit too...personal. Why would you need to ask about my weekend plans or any existing lovers?", "Oh yeah that, it's just that it will help me to get to know you better that's all.", "Is it necessary?", "No but, it can help me know you better, maybe we can even be pals.". Muharib started to feel uncomfortable, "Uh sorry, we are not quite there yet and I don't feel comfortable sharing these info with complete strangers.", "Please just do it, how can we be pals if I don't know you?", "Listen sorry, i'm new here. If you want to know me, we can hang out. For now, can you just ask about my fitness?". Sunset can barely hide the hidden annoyance and rage in her voice anymore, "Look, just fill the sheet please.", "No, i'm not comfortable with you yet.", Muharib's voice is firm.

The girl dropped the paper and pen in front of Sunset, then proceed to walk away. She then felt some hugged her from behind, then saw right in front of her a pair of hands, one holding the paper and the other grabbing her hand which is grabbing a pen. "It would make things easier if you just-", "Get off!", Muharib pushed Sunset out of the way and cause her to fall backwards on the ground. "Weirdo.", Muharib angrily called as she walk away.

Sunset is angry and shaken at one of the few people that did not fell under her trap. "She will be a foil to my plans, I have to get rid of her.", she angrily thought.

Sunset then stood up, pulled out her phone then call Snails, "Hey Snails, I want you and Snips to initiate Plan B on someone.".

Muharib was doing pull ups in the school gym. After finishing her session, she sat down on a bench and drank some water. "Hey Muharib.", Snips said to the girl and pretending to be friendly. "Hey...Clips?", "It's Snips and I want to give you something.", he pulled out a plastic bag with a cookie inside, holding the base of the bag. "Cookie?", Muharib's face lit up at the sugary treat, "Yeah sure.". She grabbed the neck of the bag and fish out the treat gratefully before eating the cookie and humming pleasurely

Snips saw Muharib is still holding the bag and said, "I'll throw that for you.". Muharib did not think twice before passing the bag back to the plump and short boy, who continue to grab the area where Muharib did not touch.

"I swear I did not buy the drugs." Muharib said fearfully to Vice-principal Luna. "Ms.Muharib, I promised that if you confessed that you did it we will try to convince the court to made your sentence more lenient.", "But I did not do anything!". In the room, there are two bulky officers, Muharib and Vice-principal Luna, and right between them is a bag full of Marijuana.

One of the officers spoke up, "The bag contained your fingerprints and it's found in your locker, I don't think there is any evidence more concrete than that.". The girl angrily slammed the table, "This is a set up! Somebody could have collected my fingerprints and frame it on me!", "Miss Muharib. If you know the possible suspects, do tell us.". Right now, Muharib is trying to think of one, but for some reason she could not think of anybody capable enough or hate her so much that they would want to frame her. Defeated, Muharib said, "I can't, but I still did not do it.".

Luna sighed, "This could have been settled easily.", then look at the girl with stern eyes, "Miss Muharib, all evidence points to your direction, if you refuse to accept your guilt then I have no choice but to expel you.". Muharib's eyes went wide, "Expelled?", only able to mutter this one word as she was cuffed and dragged down the hallway. Tears ran down as she walk down the hallway, "Please! I am innocent, believe me!", but the students just watch and look like they did not trust her.

Sunset saw Muharib being dragged down and crying, before smirking.

"Oh, I'm really sorry." Fluttershy timidly said. "I just found it, and I thought I should give it to her. I didn't know you had dropped it.", "Well, I did, and I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn't pick up things that don't belong to you!". "It doesn't really belong to you either.", the quiet voice is heard by Sunset. Sunset slammed the lockers hard, "Excuse me!", and Fluttershy slided down in fear, "Nothing.". With a sneer, "That's what I thought. It's as good as mine, and you know it.". She got even closer to Fluttershy, "You really are pathetic. It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals.", causing the wallflower to be on the verge of tears.

"This looks terrible! There should be more streamers near the stage and fewer balloons!", Sunset then popped some of the balloons nearby her with her finger. She went down to the auditorium and check the party decoration done by Pinkie, little to say, she's not satisfied. "Yeah, streamers!", Snips responded as he ripped one in half followed by Snails, "And fewer balloons!", but failed miserably to pop the balloon he is hugging tightly. All of these responses made Pinkie disappointed.

Sunset then went towards to the stack of crates for the drinks. She grabbed one bottle to examine it before recoiled in disgust after saying, "Fizzy Apple Cider. This is my coronation, not a hoedown.". Applejack is trying to hide the anger of what the girl did last year to her family's business, "Well, now, it ain't necessarily gonna be your coronation this time around.". Sunset angrily get close to Applejack's face, "Is that so!?", turning the stetson around, "You country folk aren't that bright, must be why people say such awful things about you.", pull the hat over the farmer's head. She then walk away, leaving an agitated Applejack staring at her.

These things took Sunset 2 and a half years to do, but the memories flashed back to her all at once in less than a second. She did not know that time that what she did was wrong, until that night she was blasted by the rainbow.

After viewing everything she did in the dark void, Sunset's eyes went wide realised how much she had fallen for greatness. She now felt horror, pain, regret, and shame. One final screen appeared, showing Sunset turning into a demon, turning Snips and Snails into followers, destroying a chunk of the school, brainwashing everyone, and finally attempting to kill Twilight and her friends, all without guilt. Sunset cried out, "No! This is not I want! All I want is power!". When the last screen faded, a light shined from above, then she felt her feet went stiff.

Sunset looked down and saw her feet being turned into stone. The more she tried to move her legs, the speed of the stone travelling up accelerated. Being turned into stone and isolated, one of the worst punishments in Equestria, given to the most heinous induviduals willing to destroy Harmony. This is the rarest punishment ever given, and Sunset only ever heard of one creature who is punished using this, Discord. And now, she is to at the receiving end of it, filling her with regret, despair, and desperation. "Please, give me one more chance! I promise to be good! I promise I won't hurt anyone again. Why show me everything I did if you're gonna turn me to stone anyway!?", Sunset said in tears towards the light. However no matter how much she begged, the stone continued to crawl up. Her panic increased as the stone reached her neck, "No! No!-", then her mouth, then further up her face. Every detail except for the texture is copied perfectly, from every loose strand of her hair to the tear streaks on her face. As the stone hit her wide eyes, her vision went black.

Next thing she knew, she was back in the crater from the night. Needless to say, she is traumatised and guilt ridden by the experience. And now, she just want to move on, to be a better person that Canterlot won't easily let her be. During the whole ordeal, she is holding back her quiet sobs.

"Miss?", a deep and rough voice called her and gently shook her. Sunset quickly turned towards the person and realised it is the driver. The driver's eyes went wide as she saw the tear marks at her face, not that Sunset know what he is reacting to until she touched her face, realising she has been tearing up for quite a while. The driver shyly turned to his side and let out a cough, "Umm...this is the rest stop, you have 15 minutes.", Sunset replied with a nod.

She got up, grabbed her bags, adjust her glasses before walking down the bus and looking at the stop, which is a gas station. She then proceed to go to the bathroom, before sitting on the curb and eating her snacks. No matter how much she chewed, Sunset could not extract the taste of the bread, due to her mood being so low after thinking about what she did before.

City of Wonders

View Online

Every joint in Sunset popped loudly as she stretched. Shoulders, back and limbs all cracked in sync with one another from the days spent sitting and sleeping on the bus seat. She's finally here after all this time. Stepping off the bus, she can see that she is next to the shuttle bus station. 8 hours before she need to report, but she do not know where she is. Better to find where she need to report before finding a place to settle in

She look around her surroundings, and to say that the area is big was an understatement. Many roads interlinked together that is just asking for accidents to happen, there is a balanced amount of concrete and grass laying flat on the ground, and she can see a few rich homes from far away. The only thing that is blocking her view is the shuttle bus station behind her. Making things more difficult, this place has no map for her, which means she have to ask people all over again where to go. She then first started asking one of the staff from the station's counter. She pulled out the flyer, "Excuse me, Where is this place?".

Due to the size of Hollywood, it took a couple of hours for Sunset to find the place. It is a small white building, looking like it is less than 10 storeys high. It looks like a place people can live in when they want a affordable price but at the same time comfortable enough for them to stay in, places suitable for independent filmmakers like Sebastian. Looking at the flyer again, she already know what floor Sebastian is staying at based on the unit number printed on it. Knowing where he is staying now, she now needs to find a place to stay.

After some more asking, she finally arrived at one of the nearest hotels. 'Best Western Plus Hollywood Hills Hotel', a red and much smoother concrete infrastructure taller than Soho in Manhattan, but the windows are roughly arranged the same way. Rather than a wooden door this time, it is a glass swinging door with a metal frame surrounding it. Through the glass pane, she can see that the first level's interior is painted yellow on the walls and its white ceiling with a series of circular soft yellow lighting from the halogen light bulbs embedded on it. Right on her left, she can see the counter shaped in a half circle near the entrance, the material made out of heavily lacquered wood and on it she can just see just a simple bell and a pen. The right side is just a notice board shielded by a glass door with information about the hotel and a few about Hollywood, right below the board is a step bin. Down the hallway, is a couple of elevators and a staircase in between it.

Sunset opened the door and the bell above made a sound. She can see a couple of people wearing identical polo shirts with a name tag each, one female and one male. The woman, the one at the counter's front proceed to greet, "Welcome to our hotel, how may I be of service?", "I want to book a room, 2 nights.", "$300", Sunset pass the amount. The woman nodded and bring out a book for Sunset to fill out her particulars, and she fill out Mia Sutherland's. "Johnny, bring me a key.", the woman informed the man who is on the computer, and he nodded and went to one of the hooks and pick the key from it. "Here's your room, enjoy your stay.", the woman said with a smile. Sunset nodded and went to an elevator.

'12-016', the room number Sunset entered. The room is almost the same size and colour as the one with Manhattan, but most the other looks are different. Right beside her, is as door that is obviously the entrance to the bathroom, and right behind the wall she can see the foot of a king size bed, in front of the foot is a long table with both drawers on each end of it having drawers that act as legs also. On top of the table is a small television in between, an electric kettle, a small towel with a few cups stacked together, metal utensils and a couple of bowls and plates on it. Near such amenities is a small basket with some beverage and oatmeal packets. "At least there is something different for me to eat and drink.", Sunset thought as she look into the basket.

Sunset then stripped down to her birthday suit, and lay the clothing on her bed. Despite the decently chilly weather, Sunset still felt slightly sticky, so her first thought now is going to wash herself.

She opened the bathroom door. It is larger than the bathroom in Manhattan, her right is a medicine cabinet with a mirror attached to it, and sink right below the cabinet, and a toilet bowl. On her right, is a bathtub with a tap below and the shower tap above, along with a white shower curtain. Considering the long trip she just took, she decide to settle on taking a bath.

The balanced amount of hot and cold water is filling the ceramic tub, and Sunset take this opportunity to squeeze a generous amount of soap in it which is included in the hotel. After the soapy water is filled to the brim, the girl proceed to climb into the tub, forcing some amount of the liquid to leak out to make way for her body. She dipped her own head down into the tub to soak her hair and face, then move it upwards. With a sigh of relaxation, she rested her head against the wall behind her and enjoy the water's embracing feeling, its warm temperature and the scent of lavender and jasmine from the soap. Sunset closed her eyes, deciding to daydream her own heaven for a while.

Sunset is back in Equestria but in her human form. She is walking around the castle gardens bare footed on the grass, enjoying the nostalgic feeling of coming to this place when she wants to be alone, which is frequently. Sunset feel everything: the warm sun that her mentor always raise daily, the pleasant blue sky and green fauna for her eyes to rest onto, the sound of the fountain spraying out water, the smell of the plants, and the pleasant pricks of the grass on her foot.

Sunset let out a heavy sigh, she felt weightless in this place, like all the presence of her negativity is gone. She sat down on the grass, her hands trailing on the dirt and green, before lying down with them behind her head. She closed her eyes and enjoy the sunlight shining down her skin.

Suddenly, something felt wrong. Her surroundings instantly soar in its temperature, making her boiling hot but oddly not painful at all. Also, she hear things burning and screams of agony. She opened her eyes, and widened in realisation in what she is seeing.

She is now at the balcony of the castle, and the sky she is seeing is now a bloody red, and demon ponies and dragons are flying everywhere in the sky. She got up and look over the balcony, what she see below make her pale even more. Right below her is Canterlot City, but everything is on fire. She can see the pony citizens all panicking and crying. To top it all off, guards with red fur, black eyes and demonic wings are harassing the citizens, imprisoning or/and killing innocents.

Sunset reeled back in horror and though to herself, "Who would do this?". "You of course!", Sunset heard a voice replying joyfully in her head. "What?", she though as her face paled, "Look at yourself.". Sunset did so and look at her hands, they are red with claws. She is in her demon form, shocking her. She began to claw her face, "No! No! Stop it!" and blood began to draw from the areas she clawed.

Sunset's eyes went wide and she leapt out of the bathtub screaming. As her feet and the floor is slippery with soap, she lost her balance immediately and fell down hard on the floor. Her left arm and forehead made the hardest impact, and sunset groaned in pain. The world around her felt dizzy for a while, but she managed to regain her coordination and forced herself to lean against the bathtub. She rubbed her throbbing arm and forehead for relief, and also check for any bleeding. No bleeding, Sunset sighed at that.

She then let out a whimper when she recalled the dream she just had, her heart heaved as she know that this is the possibility of what may happen to Equestria if she is not stopped at that night. Hurting the people in this world is bad enough, but she will start to hurt her homeland if she succeeded at her plan. She tried to brush off the thoughts, even for a little. After a while, she is relaxed.

Suddenly, her eyes widened as she realised she lost track of time. She quickly but carefully stood up and go grab her clothes and items and exit her room.

'4:55', the time Sunset remembered displaying on the hotel's sole clock 10 minutes ago. She is running down the streets using all her effort, panting like a dog and perspiring a bit . She is late for her potential job, and she hated to be late. Punctuality is one of her habits and strengths that she apply to everything, even when she is a bully in CHS. This is the first time that she can recall being late.

After an elevator trip to the 7th floor, Sunset now found herself in front of Sebastian's door with unit number '07-13'. It is just a metre in front of her, but it felt like a mile for Sunset. What will Sebastian say? Will she still get the job? It is her first day reporting and she already left a bad image on her potential employer. There is only one way to find out the consequence.

With a stiff movement of her arm, she grabbed the door knob, twist it and entered the apartment. Sunset took off her shoes and place it on a shelf to her left, the nervously walked into the house. Walking into the living room, she can see a hallway to a few rooms closed by doors. Sunset proceed down the hallway, step by step planning to search room by room for Sebastian.

Before she can open the first door in front of her, it opened itself and caused her to yelp in surprise. Sebastian opened the door wearing a blue short and red shirt, jumping back in shock and screeched slightly at the sudden person standing in front of her. Seconds later, both of them composed themselves to face each other, although they are still pumping with adrenaline.

Sebastian said in between pants, "Jesus Mia, you scared me.". "Yeah, sorry about that. And sorry for being late.", Sunset rubbed the back of her head sheepishly while apologising. Sebastian then smirked, "I thought that you are not coming.", "Lost track of time.", Sunset shrugged and felt relief that he is taking the lateness well. "Just sit on my couch first, i'll get the documents.", Sunset proceed to the living room and sat down on a fabric bleach two-person couch to wait for further instructions.

As she is waiting for Sebastian, she looked around the house. The place is well kept with white walls, the flooring is made up of tiled and polished ceramic. She can see that in front of her are a list of items that made up a living room: a circular simple wooden coffee table and a cube television on the opposite side which itself is on top of a low height shelf. Right beside her, she can see a large window with the huge openings secured by gates. On the table, she only see a cork coaster, a newspaper and a remote. On and in the shelf, she only see a couple of plastic plants and a few books. Overall, the whole place is just lacking any flare, like it is emitting the feeling of loneliness. Most of the things she see here are just for the need, not for the want.

"Here you go.", Sebastian was standing beside her before she can see the room any further, holding a piece of paper and a pen. With a smile, Sunset took the items and read the application. After reading the common terms and conditions, she signed Mia Sutherland's signature on the paper. Sebastian then take the paper back and after scrolling through the signature, he then write what he needs to write.

With a smile, the brown-haired man said, "Okay, now you're my employee now. We will start shooting exactly next week. Report to this place at 7 in the morning.". Sunset took a small piece of paper from him which shows the address she needs to go. Sunset got off from the couch, and walk towards the front door as she greeted Sebastian a goodbye.

"And Mia.", Sunset turned around and saw Sebastian with a stern face this time. "Don't be late this time.", he said sternly, and Sunset just blushed in embarrassment, nodded before exiting his house. Even though she goofed a bit and made her first impression a bit of a downer, she is still glad that the rest of the process went as smoothly as expected. Also, the warm feeling of friendship inside her rise up again, makin her smile all the way to the hotel.

Working Day (the new life starts here)

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A week passed by for Sunset. She had been handling well in the same hotel that she arrived in, managing to ask for extensions to her stay. However, she know that she need to find a decent place to stay soon. Using hotels to stay is not a feasible way to start a new life, moreover trying to hide from authorities. The more Sunset think about it, the more she is worried as she walk to work. She just hope that she earn enough money to get herself a decent home to live in before the worse happens.

Sunset finally arrived at Bicentennial Park, the first location where she is going to be working at. As she passed through the sign and to the entrance, she can see that it is a large patch of grassland with cement pavements, some stone tables, chairs and benches, along with trees that line up with each other. From different perspectives, people can see this place as either a park which it's supposed to be, a small forest or a makeshift backyard for a mansions. It is a decent place for location shooting, with the only downside being the sunlight that is beating down the land. But considering is the Fall, there is not much sun that can cause too much discomfort.

"Mia over here!", a male voice shouted. Sunset turned to her left and saw Sebastian along with 6 other people, 2 males and 4 females. With a smile, Sunset walk towards the group. "Hey Sebastian. Who are these people?", Sunset greeted with a smile before asking him about the 6 others.

"This is Chazelle, he's producing most of the parts of the film.", Sebastian pointed to the chubby man with black hair and beard and red skin. His clothing is a dark blue shirt beneath a grey sleeveless vest with multiple pockets, chocolate brown cargo shorts, sneakers with socks that reach up to his knees and black Randolph sunglasses.

"And this is Olivia, she designs and handles the costumes and props.". Olivia is a slim girl who has orange skin, brown hair, and green pupils. She is wearing a red coloured polo shirt, knee length denim shorts and sneakers without socks. She is lacking any body accessories aside from a white cap with a hole on the top.

"Celia, she will help edit the footage while we are shooting.". Celia is a slimmer young lady with orange skin, purple and short hair on only one side of her head. She is wearing a black tank top beneath a denim vest, short denim shorts and black heeled boots. She has yellow pupils, wears heavy eye shadow and rings with a gold coloured one pierced through a side of her nose and silver coloured ones on each side of her ears.

"And these are the crew you will be working with. Marc and Jasmine.".

Marc is a medium built young adult with white hair, green skin and eyes with black pupils. He is wearing a plain yellow shirt, jeans and sneakers.

Jasmine is relatively fitter than Olivia. She has grey skin, blue pupils and orange ponytail hair that flow down to her back. She wears a yellow shirt that expose her middriff and with ruffles around the collar area and shoulders, skinny jeans and black loafer shoes and white socks. She has light eyeshadow and ear piercings that has a flower symbol dangling with it. Another piercing she had is a silver ring that is pierced through her belly button.

Sunset sheepishly waved back at them, and each of them waved back at her kindly. Sebastian smiled as he saw the group get along well. His face then turned serious, "Alright that's enough talking, let's prepare the setups before the actors come here.". The whole group nodded in agreement as they got up from the stone benches and chairs they are sitting on and get prepare to set up their set.

"And done.", Sebastian said with a proud smile as he look at the few lights, a camera, sound equipment, equipment box, temporary changing room consisting only a curtain and frame and a resting place consisting of a resting mat and a few lunch packs.

A gruff and heavily accented voice patted the filmmaker on the back and said confidently, "Well Seb, I can feel that this film is gonna be a great hit just by the set. You lift me, I lift you, we both will be successful in no time.". Sebastian chuckled at Chazelle's faith in him, while the four crew members are breaking each other's ice on the resting mat while waiting for the actors.

"So what brought you ladies here?", Marc asked awkwardly. Jasmine shrugged, "I just feel like doing something on my free time. College's out for a few months for me.". Olivia said cheerfully, "I'm always interested in going behind the scenes of movies. Working in one has always been my dream. I also hope that I can become a filmmaker in the future too!", the rest smiled in amusement at the girl's cheerfulness. "Meanwhile for me, I want to become an actress in the future. Starting out somewhere in the film industry in any role is the best approach for me. Maybe I can get to be in one of Sebastian's films if he's lucky to succeed.", Celia claimed in a surprisingly elegant voice for her gothic look. After hearing it, Marc felt that it is his turn to share, "Well I finished college recently. I'm currently doing temporary jobs to earn some money to develop my own game, and hopefully that can get the attention of game companies.". Sunset said nothing at all, just daydreaming in front of them.

"Mia?", Sunset yelped as she heard somebody called her. She tilted up and see that her colleagues are giving her odd looks, before rubbing the back of her head and chuckling shyly. "Sorry.", "It's fine, can you tell us why you're here?", Celia inquired. Sunset look around and see them waiting in anticipation, she then immediately recalled what she said to Sebastian when she first met him. Sunset cleaned her throat before saying, "Well I just moved out from my folks and not really sure what to do next,", she shrugged before continuing, "Sebastian and I accidentally met each other and he offered me a job. So, I just took it.". They all nodded at the response.

Sebastian look at his watch and saw that it is 7:40. He stood up and clapped his hands to alert his employees, "Alright the actors will arrive soon, be prepared for my instructions.". The 4 crew members stood up and prepare to listen to what their employers wants them to do. Sunset is going to handle the cameras, Marc is operating the boom mic and Jasmine is currently helping to set up the set and sit by the sidelines for any further instructions.

By the time Sebastian finished instructing them, a small van arrived outside the entrance. The doors opened, and 3 figures stood out and walked into the entrance.

"They're here Seb.", Chazelle said as he look at the approaching figures coming their way. All three of them are wearing equally matching hoodies, jeans and shoes. One hoodie is dark purple, one is dark green and one is dark pink.

The one in dark green is a female with purple skin, purple hair with green stripes tied into two extended pigtails and purple pupils.

The one in dark pink has blue skin, blue hair with dark blue stripes tied to a ponytail and magenta pupils.

Finally, the one in dark purple has yellow skin, a large mass of curly dark orange hair with yellow stripes tied into a ponytail and darker magenta pupils.

Sebastian walked up to the three and extended his arm. "Hello girls, nice seeing you again.", the yellow-skinned one look down at the arm, before she extended her's also and shake while displaying a grin. "Nice seeing you again Mr. Gosling.", she politely said. Sebastian chuckled as he said, "I told you, just call me Sebastian.", "Sorry, got too used to politeness.", she shrugged. Sebastian then noticed the blue girl, obviously showing that he did not meet her before.

"Sorry but who is that?", he asked. She rubbed the back of her head and said sheepishly, "Sorry about the surprise, that's just our other sister, Sonata. She is special, we just cannot leave her alone.". Sonata, seemingly oblivious to what she really means, nodded proudly. The purple girl just rolled her eyes at her antics.

The filmmaker raised her eyebrows, "Will she cause too much trouble?". The yellow girl nodded, "Don't worry, she won't. And if she did, we know how to deal with her.". After moments of pondering, Sebastian sighed and said, "Okay, but next time please just ask me before you decide to bring in more people.". She nodded, and Sebastian lead them to the group.

Sunset could not help but just subtly stare at the 3 with curiosity. She don't know why, but she felt an mysterious aura from the girls. She not sure whether to feel scared or comfortable, but she trust that whoever actors Sebastian hired is not going to cause trouble.

"So these are the other people you'll be working with. Chazelle, my producer. Olivia, props. Celia, editor. Sunset, Marc and Jasmine, my crew members.", Sebastian gestured to the 6 people, who give nods and waves at them. The 3 just stare at them and nodded, but they seem to dart their eyes at Sunset for a moment there. "And guys these are the actresses you will be working with for now, Adagio and Aria.". The one with yellow skin is Adagio, the one with purple skin is Aria. Sebastian pointed to Sonata, "And Sonata is their sister, she's just an last minute audience.".

"So darling, do we start now?", Adagio asked. Sebastian nodded before saying, "Yeah we can. Just get your uniforms and scripts first, we will start in 20 minutes.", he gestured to the equipment box and copies of the script. The girls smiled and nodded back before walking towards the items. "All right get cracking! You know your jobs.", Sebastian ordered, and the workers stand at their positions.

"Camera.", Sebastian said.

"On.", Sunset said.

"Sound.", Sebastian said again.

"Speed.", Marc said.

A clapboard showed up in front of the camera with Jasmine holding it

"Take 5, scene 11.", Jasmine closed the board and move it away after saying it.

"3, 2, 1. Action!", Sebastian said loudly while looking at the script.

Adagio started to walk with the cameras following beside her in a white sleeved dress, golden belt and heels. She is expressing a face of misery and bleakness.

"Cut! That's a great take!", Sebastian shouted with a proud smile. Adagio just smirked proudly at her performance.

"Action!", Sebastian shouted as the camera lie on the stone bench. Adagio came into the frame, her rear sitting down on the bench. The camera then cuts to below her, her face facing downwards at with a miserable expression. Suddenly, another figure showed up in frame sitting beside a stone bench. Aria then entered the frame, clad in skinny ripped jeans, a baggy black shirt and spiked heels sat down next to her with a paper bag. She aggressively took out a burger and a cup of drink. She then placed the drink on the bench and aggressively munch on the food. Meanwhile, Adagio just look at her with disgust. Not noticing her reaction, Aria just picked up the drink and sip it from the cup.

A phone then suddenly vibrated. Aria picked out her flip phone and look at the message.

‘The medicine is not working. Tyler’s fever just gotten worse.’

With a frustrated growl, Aria slammed down the drink so hard that it spilled on the bench, and the puddle reached beneath Adagio’s clothes. With a screech, Adagio jumped out from her chair and turn her head to see the beverage stain on the rear part of her dress more clearly. Her face red in anger, she turn towards the shocked Aria.

“You! You’re paying for my laundry!”, she shouted. Aria got up and said, “Oh suck it up, it’s just a stain.”, “This dress cost me $1000!”, “Well sorry that I ruined your dress!”. Adagio’s eyes narrowed, “If you’re sorry, pay me back.”. Aria shouted, “You clearly have enough money to buy a new dress don’t you!? You rich snobs always like to complain about the most minute things to you!”. An ugly pause ensues between both women, then Adagio growled, “You really wanna go there? Do you even know who I am?”. Aria got close to Adagio’s face, “Even when you’re the president’s child, you wont be able to fuck up my life than how it already is.”. “Try me.”, Adagio growled.

Aria was about to say something else, but her phone vibrated again. She look at the phone, and sighed in frustration. “You’re lucky that I need to do something else. Good bye.”, Aria pocketed her phone and jogged away from Adagio. “Hey come back! I’m not done with you!”, Adagio stomped her foot on the ground, but Aria did not respond and just continue run further away from the frame.

Adagio sighed in frustration, then she looked miserably at her ruined clothing. She yelped when she heard her phone ringing. She pulled out a smartphone and held it to her ear. “Hello mother.”, she chuckled nervously.

“Adele, where in the world have you been!? Jack is getting impatient about you coming late!”, Sebastian is playing the pre-recorded audio of him reciting the lines through his phone and into Adagio’s ear bud that is hidden beneath her hair. Adagio flinched as she is shouted at her ear by the audio, “Sorry, lost track of time.”. The next audio started with a sigh, “Just where are you now?”, “I-I’m at the park.”, “Listen, I don’t really care where are you right now. Just get your ass back home right now.”. With a reluctant look, she said, “Yes mother.”, “Oh and that dress that I gave you better be clean. You wouldn’t want to leave a bad reputation on us wouldn’t you?”. Adagio flinched again, and look down at her shirt. She nervously turn back to her phone, “Yeah, sure. I’ll take care of it.”, “Very well then, bye deary.”. The phone hung up after the statement that obviously does not represent genuine love from a parent. Adagio then look down at the rear again, seeing the stain is still there. With a sigh, she nervously walk out of the frame and pretending to go home, while attempting to get rid of the stain also.

Sebastian look at the finished footage, while Celia is trying to roughly edit the scene on Sebastian’s laptop while writing down small notes. “Okay so I want this part to have more impact, maybe amplify the sound a bit.”, Celia followed the instruction. “Okay Celia, I came up with more parts that can to be the key moments in the scene. Listen to what I say.”, Celia began writing down more notes on her paper.

Sunset just finished drinking her bottle of water, then she turned to Sebastian, who is currently still guiding Celia in editing the footage. She smiled at the cooperation of the entire team, but her mind is mainly focusing on Sebastian. She actually started to grew fond of the guy. The charming and pleasant look definitely do the trick of making her like him, but it is more than what is outside that made her have that feeling. No it is not just the looks, it is his calm, nice and pleasant attitude towards others. From the first day to now, she did not see Sebastian lash out and be demanding towards. He always like to give people the benefit of the doubt and let them have their own style of working. Sure they only met each other for a few days, but she could not help but feel that he applies this attitude to his life also.

Now moving on to the people who made her feel the exact opposite emotion compare to when she see Sebastian: Adagio, Sonata and Aria. From the start of the day to now, the 3 girls just feel odd to her.

Aria has the usual tough girl attitude. Her face does not display at least a small bit of friendliness towards others around her. While she does not outright insult or bully people, her face just indicate that she does not like to talk to people, not that most people come and talk to her. The only ones that willingly talk to her are Sebastian and Olivia. Sebastian because well, he’s the boss. And Olivia because she just seems to like to be friendly regardless. Regardless, Aria still maintain her stoic and tough demeanor.

Meanwhile, Sonata is the exact opposite of Aria. She is probably one of the most friendliest people Sunset had ever met only rivalling Pinkie Pie. Her face always have that smile on her, and she always like to be nice to everybody during the set. Not to offend her or all but Sunset also see that Sonata is the most childish also along the group. She sometimes whine about the smallest of things, and often her sisters have to calm her down.

Now move on to Adagio. She is by far the oddest in the group. She has the coldness of Aria, but also the friendliness of Sonata. She often like to be the silent one, preferring to not talk to people during breaks. The main person she is friendly to is Sebastian, unlike Aria.

However they all have something in common, the interest in Sunset. Frequently, all 3 of them will look analytically at Sunset, then quickly shift away when they are spotted. Furthermore, they look like, especially Adagio and Aria, they want to hide something from others. It was like they are not of the world and is simply hiding in this world.

Speak of the devil, Adagio proceed to make a quick glance at Sunset again with the same analytical look. Sunset barely held back a flinch at that, this is just getting more and more uncomfortable for her.

“Alright let’s continue the shooting. Everybody back to your positions!”, Sebastian shouted. With that, Sunset put down her bottle and move back to the camera.

After a few more hours, Sebastian finally call off the day. He gave a short debrief of what they would do next, when and where to report. Everybody head off to their direction.

“Finally I can get off from those girls.”, Sunset thought with relief as she thread back to her hotel with caution. There is nothing she can predict what the girls would do next. It felt slow for her, but eventually she reached the entrance of the hotel. Just when she was about to turn the doorknob, she heard a voice that she did not want to hear for the rest of the day.

“Hello Mia.”, Adagio spoke in a voice that lies in between politeness and having an agenda. Sunset felt a chill down her spine, she is not moving a muscle at all.

“Oh don’t be so afraid of us, we just want to talk.”, Adagio said in an exasperated tone. With a sigh, Sunset relaxed her muscles and turn to her left where the 3 girls are standing at, but she is still keeping her guard up. Adagio is pressing both of her hands on both her hips, Aria is crossing her arms with the same cold look she always show, while Sonata just narrowed her eyes to look at her while crossing her arms.

“Listen. I don’t know who you girls are, but I don’t want any trouble.”, Sunset replied in a firm manner, anticipating the worse those girls can dish out. Adagio chuckled, “We’re at the same place darling. You know, usually we just ignore the people that we considered lower than us.”, she lifted and inspected her nails, “Those simple crew of Sebastian’s, ugh. They might as well be trash collectors.”. Her head turn back to Sunset, “But you Mia. I detected something…magical coming from within you. Let’s see, don’t you happen to be…out of this world?”.

Sunset reeled back in horror, they know that she is not from this world. But how? She had not spread the knowledge of Equestria to strangers yet.

“G-get away from me, i’m not who you think I am.”, Sunset tried to talk out from this situation, but it seems to just weaken her defences even more. Adagio just rolled her eyes, “Oh please, my years of experience can tell me that you are lying. This world has full of people with shit in their mouths.”. Sunset back against the door fearfully.

“Please, just let me go. Whatever you want to ask me, I don’t know anything I swear.”, she whimpered. The blue one, Sonata looks dismayed and said in a childish tone, “Look Dagi, you scared her. Now she’ll never be our friend.”. Aria just take a quick glance at her before looking back at Sunset, while Adagio just look vaguely annoyed. She then look at Sunset for a few more moments before letting out an exhausted but composed sigh.

“Look darling, sorry that we scared you, we just want to talk. So can we talk it out back in your room?”, Adagio look slightly desperate while asking that. Sunset clenched her fist and said threatenely, “One foot in my room and I’ll call the cops.”. Aria is about to step up, but Adagio signalled her to stop.

Adagio pinched the bridge of her nose, “I see.”. The girl then snapped her fingers, then Aria and Sonata grabbed Sunset on each of her shoulders. Before Sunset can scream, Adagio covered her mouth and stick a needle in her neck. Sunset suddenly felt drowsy, then she felt her world slowly black out.

Sunset suddenly jolted awake from her slumber. She felt herself laying down on a hard and cool surface, like metal. She also instantaneously realised that she cannot move her arms and legs at all, as well as not being able to scream, as a fabric is tied around her mouth. Also quickly, she can see the people in front of her are Adagio, Aria and Sonata. Also the more she scan her area, she realised that they are constrained in a small van.

“Oh you’re awake?”, Adagio said visciously. Sunset struggled more and tried to scream, despite the cloth tied around her mouth preventing that. “Quit screaming darling, we are parked in an alleyway between abandoned buildings, there is nobody to turn to.”, the yellow girl said in a falsely sweet tone. Sunset then struggled more, attempting to loosen the bounds she still had. Aria responded to the snapping of fingers, she force Sunset too sit up straight in a corner. Adagio then took out a knife, then pointed the tip towards Sunset. Sunset reeled back as much as the corner would allow.

“Listen here Mia, you want the hard way, you get the hard way.”, Adagio said threatenly. “I’m gonna ask you a few questions, and you are going to answer with a nod or a shake in the head.”, she narrowed her eyes, “And don’t you dare lie to me, I can tell if you are lying.”.

“First question, do you know Equestria?”, Sunset shook her head. Adagio put the knife closer to Sunset, making her flinch in fear. “Liar!”, Adagio screamed.

“Second question, are you from Equestria?”, Sunset shook her head again. Adagio and Aria gave looks of annoyance, and Adagio move the blade even closer, making the tip touch the skin. Adagio the rip the cloth off Sunset’s mouth. Sunset started to tear up and whimpered at the thought of what they are going to do to her.

“Last chance Mia.”, Adagio said firmly. “Who are you?!”. Sunset cried out, “Mia Sutherland, I’m from California. I don’t know anything about-”, Sunset screamed as she felt the blade penetrating her skin. It is not deep, but it filled Sunset with extreme pain and fear.

“Oh cut the bullshit!”, Aria shouted at Sunset. Sunset shook her head, but the only response was the blade penetrating deeper. Giving up, Sunset cried out.

“Okay you all got me, I’m an Equestrian! Is this what you want!?”. Finally getting at least an honest answer, Adagio finally let go of the blade. Adagio’s face formed a smug grin, “See, is that so hard?”, Sunset just continued to cry.

Adagio went from a kneeling position to a sitting one. “So, now we know who you are, but not how you get here.”, she moved her face close to Sunset’s, “Answer me.”. Afraid for her life, Sunset relented and admitted, “It was through a mirror, I jumped into it.”. The three girls’ eyes widened in shock. “Mirror?”, Aria blurted out. Adagio asked, “Starswirl the Bearded’s mirror?”, Sunset nodded, “From what I read yes.”. The three look at each other before turning back to Sunset.

“Where is it?”, Adagio asked. “Canterlot High School’s front entrance, there’s a statue there.”, Sunset replied simply. Adagio asked with hopeful eyes, “How do we open it?”, “You can’t.”. The three girls’ faces paled at the reply. “The mirror only open every thirty moons for three moons. The last time it happened was a week ago.”, Sunset replied simply. Aria’s right eye twitched, “Do you know how to open it by force.”, “Fuck if I know.”. Aria did not like the answer, so she charged up and punched Sunset right in the face. Sunset fell to the ground, and groaned in pain at the impact. Focusing her vision, she can currently see Adagio pulling back Aria, who is struggling to break free. Sonata said in a pleading tone, “Ari please, don’t-”, “Hell no! This bitch is hiding something, and I want to-”, “Aria stop!”. Aria’s anger, although not completely gone, lessened a bit at Adagio’s warning. “She’s telling the truth.”, Aria relaxed after the claim from her leader. Although still remain slightly skeptical, she let go of the grasp, and walk to the passenger seat at the front of the van.

Adagio sighed and pinched the bridge of the nose, “We are stuck for another two years, by Starswirl’s beard help us.”. Sonata look at Sunset, and asked in a cheerful tone, “So can we keep her?”. Adagio look annoyed at her partner’s question, then turned back to Sunset. “No, let her go. She done her job.”. Adagio faced her with contempt, “Don’t even try to call the police on us. We are like you, we cannot be tracked.”. Sunset just turned away from the leader, but asked without facing her, “Who are you?”. Adagio narrowed her eyes in annoyance, then said, “None of your business darling.”. The leader then go to the driver’s seat, and drove away from the scene.

“Remember, this never happened.”, Adagio warned Sunset why untying her bonds, “See you at work tomorrow.”. She then opened the truck’s back door, and pushed her out of the vehicle. As the vehicle drove away, Sunset got up, dust her clothes, and stare with contempt at the vehicle truck driving away. From Sunset could tell, they dropped her off in an alleyway. With an exhausted sigh, Sunset walked out from the dark area. She then recognised that she is at the area nearby the hotel. She could tell from the exploration she did while staying over here.

Minutes later and Sunset came back to her hotel room. She washed her clothes, took a bath, then poured hot water in a cup with the oatmeal packet she just opened. She then get the bandage and alcohol wipes that she bought previously among the basic supplies when she got here, and patch her cut wound. In her birthday suit, she sat on the bed and eat her supper. Like what happened with eating the bread during a break of her bus trip before, Sunset cannot seem to enjoy what she is eating, but this time it was for a different reason. She briefly become a kidnap victim by her colleagues, and those people like her are Equestrian also. She cannot call the police on them or risk having her world be exposed to the government. Worse of all, they need to continue to work with each other for god knows how much more. Just thinking about them makes her nervous.

Thanks to none of them willing to answer the question, Sunset still does not know who the girls truly are. Are they just normal citizens of Equestria, or evil villians trying to take over the world when they get home. The only confirmed thing she know now is that they did not come her willingly, and they know about the mirror’s existence. Sunset shook off the idea. Good or bad, she decide to just turn a blind eye on what the girls might do. Whatever they are going to do, she trust that Princess Twilight and her ex-mentor Princess Celestia can deal with it.

“Princess Celestia.”, Sunset echoed the name in her head. The memories of her happy days with the princess flashed instantly in front of her, along with the betrayal she committed towards her. If she had just listened to the advice, and not letting her ego wash over her, then she will not be in this situation in the first place. Wiping a stray tear off her face, then rubbing her neck where the bandage is, she continued back to eating her oatmeal, this time it felt completely tasteless to her buds.

Someone To Rely On (Part 1)

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“Let’s take a dinner break. 30 minutes.”, Sebastian shouted to his crew as they wrapped one of the scenes they are filming. As usual, they went to their resting spots and do whatever they want. Sunset went and sat on the stairs in a small mansion. The house is white, and has what people usually expect what a mansion has: A swimming pool, stairs, large rooms. Although those things are of lower quality, the place can still be passed as a rich man’s home. They managed to get this location from a friend of Chazelle’s, who made quite a decent amount as a production designer for some major hit movies and television shows.

Like usual, they got provided meals as promised by the leaflet. Sunset might as well be drooling as she stared down at the lunch packet she got. Today’s meal is fried rice that is mixed with carrots, eggs and bits and pieces of celery, the vegetarian diet which she told Sebastian she is on. With no hesitation, she began digging into the meal. The taste buds of Sunset’s danced with joy as they feel the taste of the ingredients mixed together. While part of it can stem from the fact that ponies are vegetarian, another part of the enjoyment is that this is the only good meal she get everyday, other than just bread or oatmeal.

As she is enjoying her meal, her eyes unwittingly faced towards to Adagio and Aria, who were just sitting at the entrance near the pool. She gave them a cold look. It has been a couple of weeks since she had been briefly abducted by them, and she is still not over it. Luckily, the three of them no longer frequently glance at her like what happened in the first day, and in turn Sunset tried to ignore them as much as possible. So far, there is no conflict between them. Before the two turned around, Sunset went back to eating her meal.

However there is seemingly a pure one inside the group. Sunset drift her eyes to one of the couches in the living room and see Sonata. Yes she joined in with the kidnapping, but it does not seem to faze her when she is in the same room as her victim. She is just happily humming while eating her food, and maintain a friendly cheerful attitude towards everyone including Sunset. The only times when she held back her friendliness towards Sunset is when her sisters are near her, watching her. When they are distracted by something else, that’s when Sonata give Sunset a friendly face, if only for a brief moment. It is like she forgotten the kidnapping even happened.

Sunset then remembered Adagio talked about her sister being ‘special’, then something in her mind clicked in. Is the reason why Sonata did not make a big deal out of the situation because she does not have any social skills? Is it because she is just a blind passenger in the vehicle? Regardless, the fact that Adagio manipulated her own sister to do such things and make her think they are okay filled Sunset with some disgust.

“Hey Mia.”, Sunset jumped up slightly as she heard a sudden voice calling her. Sunset turned back and see Sebastian with a greeting smile holding his own food. “Sorry if I scared you.”, Sunset chuckled at the apology, “There’s nothing to sorry about.”. The filmmaker then sat down next to her. Sunset asked, “Is there something you want to talk about?”. Sebastian replied, “I just want to check up on everybody, especially you. How’s that neck of yours?”. Sunset touched the still healing cut, and feel how much it has theoretically healed.

“It is going fine, at least it does not hurt as much now. And I don’t need a band aid since a few days ago.”, Sunset assured with a smile. Previously when Sebastian asked about the fresh injury, Sunset concocted a story where she accidentally fell down and hit her chin on the corner of a table, and the sharp end pierced her skin. Sebastian then nodded and said, “Okay then.”. The two of them then went back to their meals.

Moments of awkward silence went by for the two of them as eat their meals. “So far I can see you’re doing good, but do you like this work?”, Sebastian asked. Sunset looked up at her meal, then ponder at the question. She grinned before answering, “So far I’m okay with it.”. Sebastian nodded, “Good to hear, so nobody giving you too much trouble?”. Sunset tried her best to hide the contempt in her face. The contempt is not towards anybody in the team, except for Adagio, Aria and Sonata. Forcing a small smile, she said, “No, not really.”.

Both of them have really nothing more to talk about, but Sunset still want to at least talk about something. She then decide to bring up a random question, “Is this your first movie?”. Sebastian chuckled, “If I did not count the short films I made previously, then yes.”. Sebastian asked Sunset, “‘Playing House’, ‘Live By The Sword’, ‘Featherfall’, ever heard of those shorts?”, Sunset shook her head. He then sighed sadly, “Wouldn’t blame you for not hearing those, they are the most popular shorts I made and screened at festivals, but not enough for me to make a breakthrough.”. He looked at his fried rice tentatively, “Been trying to break into the industry for over 5 years, and this film is the biggest project I undertake. If this succeeds, I might too.”.

Sunset look at Sebastian’s face. Despite not vocalizing it, she can tell that he is really nervous about his movie. Despite the friendly demeanour, she can also tell that deep down is also a desperate man. This makes her even more glad that she agreed to take on this job despite it’s ups and downs, and not benefitting herself but also others too. She is helping somebody to achieve their dreams, and she doesn’t care if that person can be considered her friend or just an employer.

However, there is still something else very small that Sunset felt she can do. Extending her hand, she gave a pat on the filmmaker’s back. She said gently, “Hey, I’m sure you will do just fine. This movie feels promising from what I had seen.”. Sebastian smirked at the encouragement.

“You know, it’s kind of odd that you talk with me about this.”. Sebastian then chuckled a bit at that before saying, “I also don’t know why I decided to do that. Maybe because I felt that you are more mature in listening to these things, really need to at least vent out to someone.”. Sunset raised one of her eyebrows, “What about Chazelle? He seems like a cool friend.”. “He’s a decent guy, but he’s not really my friend.”, Sebastian replied simply, “He’s just a random person who saw my short films, and saw my potential for something even greater.”. He continued, “But another reason he hired me is because he is also struggling to crack in this industry. He figured that both of us can work together, and make our first feature length film.”.

“Well you both make a great team.”, Sunset said simply. Sebastian smiled, then said, “Thanks Mia. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I felt more chemistry coming from you.”. Sunset blushed at that claim, which is noticed by Sebastian. Also blushing, the filmmaker waved his hands frantically, “I mean in terms of friendship.”. Sunset sighed in relief, then they both laughed at the awkwardness.

“Friendship.”, the word rang in Sunset’s mind. She is glad that she now knows at least one person considered her as a friend. They then continued and went back their meals.

It is more or less 4:30am, another day of shooting is wrapped. The crew all got debrief, then got their pay and proceed to leave the mansion. They don’t need to work the next day as the next shoot will be in the morning, therefore giving then adequate sleep and rest.

As usual, Sunset go back to her hotel room, but this time she felt unusually sunny. Her walk have slight skips to it as she travel back to her hotel under the midnight sky, and her face plastered with a small smile. She keep thinking of Sebastian’s words, how she considered her his friend.

The keys went inside the doorknob, and the door is pushed open. The familiar smell of freshener seep into not just Sunset’s nostrils, but also the pores in the nostrils. She jumped towards her bed, then landed on the soft mattress on her back. With a sigh, she satisfyingly daydream away her time.

Sunset’s eyes went wide as she hear something growling. It took no more than a second later to realise that she is hungry. With an annoyed expression, she get up from her bed and see what time it is. Judging by the heavy morning sun shining through the blinds, she assume that it is either in the late morning or early afternoon. With that, she decide to prepare something to eat.

As usual, Sunset decide to boil some hot water, then take an oatmeal packet out from the basket. When the water stopped boiling, she lifted the kettle and poured the scalding hot liquid into the mug which she used to contain the dry oatmeal. As she mixed the concoction together, the familiar smell of oatmeal got thicker, and she can smell it. Due to oatmeal being her main breakfast almost every morning, she grew a bit nauseous at the smell. However, this is one of the ways she can think of to minimise her spending habits before finding a stable home.

The bland taste touched Sunset’s tongue as she put the mash into her mouth with the teaspoon. Just the action of swallowing the oatmeal make her tired and sick. She ponder the day in which she can truly have a new life and stable income, and have more variety in her diet. Sure she only lived in this nomadic life for a couple of weeks, but frankly she is getting tired of it.

Sunset then decide to look at the amount of money she had now. Fishing her wallet, she grabbed all of her money from it. She counted the amount she currently had now, does not matter whether those are from the items she pawned a couple of weeks ago or the pay she had. She counted, and she currently had over $9000 and less than $10000 in her savings. This is quite a lot of money, but she still wants to be careful in what she spent those on in order for it to accumulate. However, she also feel the strong urge to buy something nice to eat today.

As she finished going into deep in thought, she made a conclusion. She figured that she is in a very happy mood today, so she might as well treat herself with something nice also. As long as she stayed within the $100 budget she thought of just now, and don’t make this a habit of her’s for now, then it will not make such a big deal. With that, she throw her oatmeal which is still full in the cup into the sink, then take a quick shower before heading out.

As she did some exploration before, she managed to find the eatery that she want to go. “Yogurt Ur Way Café”, the blue words painted and spelled above the entrance door as if the font is written with a quill. While Sunset know it is not recommended to eat cold foods during the start of the day, her mood today just make her crave something sweet and cold foods immediately.

Sunset proceed to push open the door, and stepped inside and see its interior design. The wall’s main colour with blue, although there are varying sizes of cartoonish and realistic drawings pasted on all four sides of the wall. Right in front of Sunset is a counter, and she can see that the paint and drawings end at the edges of counter, the wall within the interior width of the counter only has white on it. What is on the counter is just a simple cashier area with disposable spoons, tissues and straws near it. What is behind the counter is mostly a row of yogurt machines that dispense different flavours, and only a small area is dedicated to the toppings people can choose, all stacked together and with different types of containers for different topping methods, from having sprinkle containers with items like sprinkles, to those that require opening the cap to use the items like regular marshmallows. The rest of the restaurant area is just square tables placed together or circular tables placed individually. The chairs all similar: Wooden, white, cushioning on the sitting area and back rest. Currently she can see only two people at the counter, both males and are wearing buttoned-up collar top with white and blue stripes, and a blue circular hat with a concaved top. The pants are their own personal ones.

Sunset’s eyes lit up at the different confectionaries, and giddily walk to the counter. The cashier, who is looking at his phone, quickly jumped to attention as he saw the customer walking towards him.

“Welcome to Yogurt Ur Way, what can I get you?”, the cashier asked. Sunset look down at the laminated menu that is taped to the counter in front of her. “Give me your 3 flavour combo, strawberry, blueberry and original. Add some sprinkles, marshmallows and peanuts on it. And can I also get your kiwi yogurt drink topped with whipped cream?”. With a smile, the cashier nodded and wrote down the order, “That’ll be $10.95.”. Sunset give him $11, and got back 5 cents, along with a receipt and a small sign that indicates the table number. “Please wait for a moment.”. He gave his colleague the order for him to look, then he nodded. They then proceed to make the individual treats.

Sunset went to a circular table and sit down, then placed the sign on the desk and wait while tapping her fingers. Her eyes then suddenly focused on one of the people in front of her, and she recognised the person. It is Marc, he is sitting behind a circular desk also, with a drink beside him. Since he is currently looking at a laptop, he did not notice that Sunset is looking at her. “Marc?”, the said young man looked up and see who is calling her, and his face is as equally surprised as Sunset’s. “Oh, hi Mia.”, Marc smiled at her.

Despite not shouting, some among the already uncongested amount of customers already stared at both of them with odd looks as the talking is slightly louder than their liking. Feeling the awkwardness, Marc rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. “So, do you want me to stand up or-”, “No don’t, I’ll go there.”. Finishing her reply, Sunset got up from her seat, remove her items from the table, then walk towards Marc’s.

Sunset pulled the second chair near Marc’s table, then proceed to sat down in front of him. Like a gentleman, Marc moved some of his items to the floor to make space for his colleague. Both of them just look at each other awkwardly, waiting for one of them to first speak up. Drumming his fingers, Marc spoke up, “Fancy seeing you here today.”. Sunset shrugged, “Happy to surprise you.”. “So what are you doing here?”, “Just wanting to treat myself with some yogurt.”, Sunset replied. Marc nodded, occasionally glancing back at his laptop before asking, “Your first time being here?”, “Yeah, I figured I will occasionally treat myself since I got some money to spend.”, “Well I’m a regular here, so I can assure you that if you want the best fro-yo in town, you came to the right place.”. Sunset grinned, “Thank you then.”. Not long later, one of the employees came with her order, then take away the number sign. “Enjoy.”, he said simply, and Sunset nodded in appreciation.

For a while there, Sunset and Marc just enjoy each other’s company, and both of them mind their own business. Sunset just daydream and enjoy her food, while Marc is drinking his yogurt drink and working on something with his laptop. Sunset look at him just focusing intently at the laptop, pondering on what he might be working on. She figured she did not want to interfere with the work, but eventually curiosity got the better of her.

Putting down her treat, “Hey Marc?”, Marc looked up and hummed in question. “If you don’t mind, can you tell me what are you working on?”. Grinning, he gladly turn his laptop to the opposite side, allowing Sunset to see what is on the screen. The screen is showing about five windows opened and merged together, they all seem to run different kinds of operations like storage, debugging and even exclusive terms that only the application has such as “Canvas Renderer”. One of the screens show a young Asian like female character with a text box below.

“I’ve been working on this game for quite a while now.”, Marc said proudly to himself. “Right now I’m doing it by myself, but hopefully I can hire more people in the future with the money I’m making.”. Sunset look intrigued by what he is working on, “What kind of game is this?”, “It’s a dating simulator.”. Sunset is surprised at the artistic quality of the images considering it is made by one person. “These are some good drawings from you.”. Marc chuckled at the claim and said honestly, “These assets are just placeholders I downloaded for free from the game engine’s asset store. I’m not really strong in drawing and hopefully I can find an artist in the future, but right now I just need to touch up on the mechanics and stories first.”. Sunset nodded and went back to eating.

“See you tomorrow.”, Marc said courteously as he finished his food, leaving Sunset to continue eating. Sunset nodded and continue with what she is eating. Sunset watched him as he push the door open.

Not long after that, Sunset also finished eating and leave the eatery. She decide to wander around Hollywood as usual when she is bored. At a distance in front of her, she saw Marc again, sitting at a bus stop. A bus then arrives near the bus stop, and Marc stood up, wave Sunset goodbye with his left hand while simultaneously use the other hand to wave for the incoming bus to stop. Sunset also waved goodbye and she walk towards the area. Just like that, Marc hopped into the bus, which passed by Sunset after picking up the passenger.

As Sunset nears the bus stop that Marc was in, something on its seat caught her eye. It is a black A4 spiral notebook, looking like somebody left it here not long ago. Out of curiosity, Sunset decide to open it up and see the contents, partially hoping that she can track down the owner with what is inside. She flipped to the first page, and saw some bullet point notes. “Visual novel game”, “Romance”, “Branching path stories”, these are some of the bullet points on the paper that give Sunset a big clue on who this notebook belongs too. Deciding that she had seen enough to know who this book belongs to, and not to further invade other’s privacy, she closed the book and made her conclusion.

This notebook belong to Marc’s, he left not long ago and the notebook must have slipped out without him noticing. Sunset does not know where he lives, or any of his contact information, so she surely cannot return this book to him now. It is no brainer to her that the best approach now is to keep the book, then return to him the next day at work.

After another day of wandering around, Sunset retreated back into her room, but this time there is something different about her. She is carrying a black backpack, nothing fancy aesthetically but durable and large enough to put items inside. She figured that she need to buy a bag as her supplies will accumulate sooner or later, as well as wanting a decent place to put Marc’s notebook. The point is that she is tired of being restricted to carrying a few of items in her pockets or at hand, so she bought this bag for convenience sake.

Sunset put the backpack on the table, then she lazed back on her bed, taking moments to rest her mind. Slowly, she got up and reach for her backpack again. She fished out something from it, a small book. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", the book’s title is printed with large words at the front cover, with the author’s name, Harlan Ellison written below the title. Right below the title and author’s name shows a fairly disturbing image of a human head without a mouth, two small and legs and an arm below the head, looking like they belong together. The right ear of the head also shaped like a horn, with small humans standing in it or outside it to support the ear.

When she came into the human world and need to study to adapt, she is disturbed by the great amounts of disturbing things humans managed to create. From fictional ones like a grim view of the future where dictatorship and tyranny is king, to historical events like genocide of millions just because of their beliefs or appearance alone. Sunset had seen things that made feared beings in Equestria seem like childish fillies who throw tantrums because they did not get candy in comparison. However out of the need to adapt, she forced herself to study up the disturbing pop culture, fictional and non-fictional.

At first, she is terrified by the details she read, but slowly she got used to seeing such tragedies depicted or happened. Even more slowly, she found some beauty in these tragedies as it is being used to explore useful and entertaining philosophical themes and depictions, especially if those themes are perfectly conveyed. In fiction, she particularly fell in love with Orwellian themes after reading “Animal Farm”, one of the books by George Orwell, whose stories coined and birth the theme of the same name. She still is shocked by such taboo subjects in the media, but still find them entertaining if they have interesting things to explore.

Sunset decide to open the book to its first page and start to read. For hours on end, she just scroll through every sentence, phrase and word inside, trying to digest what those black letters with little to no formatting is trying to convey. Her face transition from, trepidation, to deep in thought, to shock. These three emotions are the only ones Sunset conveyed throughout the story with no specific order.

With a tense breath, Sunset closed the book after reading the ending. She is not anticipating a happy conclusion, but the ending still struck her. Overall, it was a good read. She then realised she lost track of time, and proceed to look at the sky to get a rough estimate of how much time has passed. Judging by the still light blue sky, she estimated that only no more than a few hours had passed, and it is still in the late afternoon. With an annoyed sigh, she gently threw the book on the desk, then lied back down on the bed. Being a strong and fast reader, Sunset managed to read finish the relatively short story of less than a hundred pages within a day, and since this is the only book she bought, she had nothing else to read now. She mentally reminded herself to next time try and find longer books.

Still feeling bored and not tired, Sunset try to think of what else to do. She then decided to just watch television. Grabbing the remote, she switched on the television. This place has slightly more channels than the previous hotel she went to. Again mindlessly flipping through the channels, she stopped at a kids’ channel. The channel is currently showing a cartoon with animals, like all the other kids’ cartoons she ever heard of. Shrugging, Sunset figured that she will just watch this for the sake of it.

For minutes, Sunset’s eyes just glued to the screen lazily. She admit, this cartoon is quite interesting and has more quality than the other kids’ cartoons she heard of, but it is only time when she got bored again. Looking around the room, her eyes drifted to her backpack on the desk. It was then she remembered that Marc’s notebook is still in there. Out of curiosity, she wanted to know what else is written in it.

“No.”, Sunset mentally scolded herself. She is far from the person she was, she will not just invade other’s personal things for no reason. This is Marc’s journal, he definitely do not want some stranger to look at his things. But despite keep telling herself that she should not look at other’s things, her curiosity took over her. She then figured, she’s not using the information for blackmailing the person, and Marc does not seem to treat Sunset like a stranger, so it probably won’t hurt if she just skim through the contents. Making the decision, Sunset go and fish out the book from the bag, then went back to her bed and started to read it.

As she read through the contents of the book, she is quite impressed with the documentation. There are exact notes on what he want his game to have, simple diagrams to illustrate layouts. She can tell that there is extreme passion written all over the project. Everything was fine, until she flipped to the page where the game’s story is.

The story is about the player’s character in his/her first day of school, and he/she had quite a troubled background, and is just trying to get over her past. There, he/she bumped into a female student, and their meet up became rocky. From then on, the rest of the part is just them reluctantly keep on meeting one another, much like any romance cliches she had. For the next few days in the story, the female student become more affectionate to the player, and in the end they become a couple. She can see that Marc had a good concept in mind. However, there is just something wrong with the story.

It is okay if a story has some cliches and there, but this overall plot she read put way too many. Moreover, those cliches feel forced and cause some ludo narrative dissonances in the characters, mostly towards the female character. She can go from a mean girl, to very cowardly, and to a flirty one, with little to no explanation throughout the story. This happens to other supporting characters as well. Also, the branching paths seemingly made little to no difference to the story. There is no butterfly effect level of change, and only some changes in the dialogue and there. She still likes the story, but the plotting of plots and changes is what drags it down.

She know eventually Marc will release his game to the general public, and they will review it also. While she knows that some people might enjoy this story, she couldn’t help but feel it could be improved, and the game will make it bigger in the industry. Marc make it clear before that he wanted to make it big in the industry and get noticed by companies. But if the game is mediocre at best, the audience range might not be large enough to reach such ambitions. She knows its his first game but still, are there some ways she can help?

Well since she already know what is in the works, she now think of ways she can improve the concept and story. How to make the plots more branched out? How to make the story more sensible? How to make the characters more harmonised with their personalities? After she got some rough ideas, Sunset decide to go out, and buy some writing materials so she can jot down what she thought of.

It is the next day in the early hours of the morning, about an hour before 7am. Sunset arrived at a small restaurant where they got the permission to film. However as they are a small budget team, they can only afford a few hours before they need to go, and they will shoot the other scenes in other locations.

As she arrived there, she noticed that Sebastian and Chazelle are already there prepping for the shooting. Sebastian is the first who saw her and waved at her, and Sunset waved back with a smile.

“Thanks for coming early.”, Sebastian said. Sunset shrugged, “You’re welcome.”. The filmmaker then gestured to the restaurant they are going to be filming in, which is still closed as shown by the closed sign on the other side of the door. “We are now just preparing for the shoots, and waiting for the restaurant to open. I guess you can just wait first.”. Sunset nodded simply, and find a good spot where she can sit. Moments later, Celia came next, followed by Olivia. Then finally, Marc came next, greeting his colleagues with a less than usual smile he would give, not that anybody noticed the change that much.

“Hey guys.”, Marc greeted his colleagues as usual. His current present colleagues greeted back, and went back to do their own things. Sebastian give him the instructions before he went to wait for the restaurant to open as well. It was then that Sunset approached where Marc is sitting at, and tapped him from behind. Marc turned back and asked, “What’s up Mia?”. Sunset grabbed her backpack, and proceed to fish out a notebook from it. Marc’s eyes grew wide as he looked at what she grabbed out. “I believe this is yours.”, Sunset kindly said with a smile as she offer the book back. Without hesitation, Marc ecstatically snatched the notebook from her.

“My journal! But how did you found it?”, Marc proceed to ask Sunset. “You left it at the bus stop where we waved goodbye. It was not hard to deduce it belongs to you.”, Sunset replied. “Thank you Mia.”, Marc said in appreciation, before his expression turned into a pondering one. “Did you read it?”, he asked, causing Sunset to tense up a bit as he asked the question immediately. “Um yeah.”, Sunset replied awkwardly.

“Look, sorry if I invaded your privacy, I’m just curious-,”, Marc waved off Sunset’s frantic apology. “Oh no no, don’t worry Mia. I’m not angry, I just want to know that’s all.”. Sunset then nodded in understanding. “But if can, can you tell me your opinion of my game?”. Sunset then nodded before saying, “Okay then.”. Marc then listened tentatively.

“Well first, I just like to say that your idea looks great.”, Marc let out a proud smile at that. “But it’s just the execution of the story feels kind of wrong.”. Marc frowned at that, “Why is that?”. Sunset then give a constructive criticism of her opinions towards the story, how it has some plot holes, and how most of the story elements feel forced into it. After hearing what she said, Marc look dejected.

“Oh, so you’re saying I should scrap the game.”, Marc said sadly. Sunset then replied, “Oh no there’s no need to. You just need to alter the story that’s all.”. The young man the pinched his nose and said in some frustration, “I’ve been coming up with this story for months. I cannot just start over the story. I can write, but I’m not a good writer.”. Sunset felt bad that she caused someone to feel bad, but she hope what she will do next will cheer him up.

“Well you don’t have to.”, Sunset said proudly. Marc looked up and asked confusingly, “What do you mean?”. Sunset fished out something else from her backpack again, and took out another spiral notebook. But this time, the colour of the book is green. “Here, I rewrote a lot of those story parts. Hope it can help you along the way.”, Sunset said. Marc took the notebook from her, and flip through the pages. He is surprised that she managed to write about more than half of the pages already, and she did it in one day. “You don’t have to use all of them if you don’t want to, these are just my ideas that I think can make your story better.”, Sunset shrugged. With a second smile of appreciation, he looked up and said, “Thanks Mia, this could help me. I’ll read it if I have time.”. Sunset nodded, and went back to her resting spot, just waiting for the shooting to start.

The rest of the shooting for the day has ended in the late afternoon, and the crew all go home again as usual. They exited from a park, where they all ended their shift. As usual, Sunset decide to travel home by foot. At first it was tiring when she did this, but good thing is that her slim physique allowed her to quickly get used to the practise. As she was exiting the entrance, somebody tapped her shoulder lightly from behind. Sunset jumped a bit and turn behind her, and she see Marc again with a smile.

“Hey Mia.”, he greeted cheerfully. Sunset greeted back, “Hey Marc, why are you so happy?”. He showed her the notebook she gave him, “Because of this.”. “You like my story?”, Sunset said with some surprise. Marc looked incredulous at her, like she just asked whether people must eat food to survive. “Like? Like? Mia, your story is one of the best things I’ve ever read!”, he said with some excitement. Sunset is surprised at the reception, “Really, you think so?”. “Of course I think so. Your story fits so well with the current concept I am making! You managed to balance consistency in the stories and characters, and not make it so contrived. Your butterfly effect towards the story is also so well thought out that all of them feel like it could happen! You just helped me shaved off a lot of the time I might need to rewrite!”, Marc said confidently. Sunset felt proud at that.

“Of course I might not use all of your plot points, but this is more than good enough for me to have a starting point.”, Marc said awkwardly. Sunset shrugged, “That’s your call.”. Marc then ponder a bit, then asked Sunset, “I was also wondering something else. Would you like to be my story consultant?”. Sunset then waved her hand dismissively and said with a surprising tone, “Oh no no Marc, I am not really good at video games, I don’t think-,”, “Mia, I don’t need you to help me with my game. I just need your help in writing a good story.”. Sunset is still slightly nervous at that offer, “Umm, I’m not sure if I’m a good person to help.”.

Marc chuckled at the nervousness his friend emits, “The fact that you wrote such a story within a day, and your constructive criticism towards my previous one more than proved to me that you’re a good fit. I really need some good advices from you.”. Sunset thought of it, the fact that Marc had enough faith in her mad her excited at helping, but at the same time she is nervous at the prospect. She can identify a good story based on the amount of reading she did, but she cannot just dull out perfect advices for all writers to use. For her, her opinions are just subjective, and only fixed to certain audiences’ tastes. But seeing Marc’s pleading eyes, Sunset sighed and relented.

“Okay then, if you trust in me so much?”. Marc grinned at the acceptance, and asked, “How much do you want to be paid?”. Sunset waved her hands dismissively, “Oh there’s no need, I’m glad to do pro bono.”. Marc then scratched his head nervously, “I’m not sure, I don’t want to leech off from you.”. Sunset then laughed a bit, “Marc, there’s no leeching here. I’m just helping and giving good advices. It’s not like you hired me officially or anything.”. Marc sighed and said, “Yeah I guess. I do need to save some money for more professional things.”. Sunset nodded and walk away, waving her new friend goodbye.

For the next period of time, Sunset and Marc frequently meet one another at either Yogurt Ur Way Café or during shooting breaks on the filming set so Marc can have her opinion on her story. The process have some ups and downs, but mostly flow smoothly that it does not disrupt too much. To Sunset, the process was a bit tiring, but rewarding as she is helping a friend.

Sunset yawned and stretched her muscles as she arrived to the set on the early morning. As usual, Sebastian greeted her, and she find a place to rest as she waits for the others to arrive. She closed her eyes as she slowly drift into a slumber, hopefully to get at least a few minutes of nap time. Then, she felt someone looming over her, and she opened one of her eyes to see who it is.

Marc was standing there with a smile, holding the journal he had. “Hope I’m not disturbing you.”, he said. Sunset opened both of her eyes and chuckled, “No you’re not. So, what do you need help with?”. Marc then said, “Well, that’s the thing Mia. I’m actually almost done with the story.”. Sunset then smiled, “That’s great.”. Marc nodded, “Yup, and I just want to thank you for the help. And also, can you look at what I had before I do any touch ups?”. Sunset nodded, and Marc sit next to her as they go through what Marc had. It took nearly 20 minutes for Sunset to go through all the new details and plot points Marc added, but eventually everything got settled.

Marc closed his book and stood up, content that he is almost done with the story. “Thanks for helping me for a while.”, “It’s my pleasure.”, Sunset said with a smile. Marc then asked Sunset one more question, “Do you mind if I credit you.”. Sunset’s eyes went wide at the suggestion, then decide to reject dismissively, “Oh no, there’s no need for you to do that.”. “Oh come on Mia, you contributed to this as much as me. I want to let people know who helped me.”, Marc said pleadingly. While Sunset knows Marc is doing this for good intentions, she still wants to lay low for a while, at least until this whole missing person situation for her is over.

Sighing, Sunset replied, “Don’t Marc, just don’t.”. “But-,”, “I like the offer, I really am. But seeking fame and attention is not really what I want to do now. Maybe one day you can say if you want to, but just let me just live normally for now.”. Sighing at the rejection, Marc shrugged, “If you say so I guess, but I insist on paying you some of my money if my game manages to make some.”. Sunset nodded, “Deal.”.

“Guys we will start in a few minutes.”, Sebastian said loud enough for the entire crew to hear. Sunset and Marc stood up from their spots, and Marc decide to be the gentleman he is, gestured for his friend to go first. With a smile, Sunset walk in front first, before the passionate game developer followed her behind.

Someone To Rely On (Part 2)

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It has been a month and a half since Sunset is in her new workplace, and she had been handling well. Not only the whole process is smooth for Sunset, but she had made a new official friend in the form of Marc. Ever since she helped him with his work, they had been hanging out with each other if possible. At most a couple of days per week, they will hang out in different places in Hollywood immediately when they are dismissed from work. Often, mainly daytime when they don’t have work, they will hang out in Yogurt Ur Way, the same place where their friendship indirectly gets triggered.

Under the afternoon sun, Sunset and Marc are under the cooling conditioning of Yogurt Ur Way Café. They just finished their desserts, and both are just discussing where they can go. “How about GameStop?”, “For the last time, I’m no gamer.”, Sunset rolled her eyes while saying that. “How about Amazon Books?”, “To be honest, I’m not into books that much.”, Marc replied. Despite their friendship, Marc and Sunset have opposite interests, but still respect each other.

Sunset sighed and laid back, “Well I don’t have any other places.”. Marc then said, “How bout we look around for a while and see.”. Shrugging, Sunset figured might as well follow Marc’s advice, and they both exit the café, seeing where they can go.

Looking for about ten minutes, Sunset and Marc sweat under the beating sun as they continue their search. Despite the size of the place they are in, there isn’t really that much variety of spots that they have a common interest in. The places they explore on previous days are just shopping malls, and frankly they do not want it to become a routine.

Then, they stumbled onto something on the other side of the road. Opposite to where they are standing at, is a comic book store. “COMICS’ WORLD”, the bolded, red and Comic Sans font sign on the store’s roof declares proudly what the store mainly sells. Both Marc and Sunset look at the place with curiosity.

“Have you seen this place before?”, “No.”, Sunset replied. Despite the exploration she did, Sunset has never touched the area they are currently at, let alone the comics store they are looking at now. Sunset and Marc look at each other, their expressions giving the same look of asking whether each other is interested. With a simultaneous agreement from both, they walk across the street, and enter the shop.

As soon as they stepped foot into the entrance, they are greeted by variety of heavy colours on the walls, shelves, ceiling and items before the bell above even made a sound. As soon as the bell made a sound, a person behind the counter looked up from the documents he is currently doing. He is a middle aged man, probably around his 50s, wearing an oversized baseball shirt with a cap, black trousers and soccer cleats. “How can I help?”, he immediately stood up before saying that, trying to sound as friendly as possible. “We just want to look around.”. The man looked like he is trying to hide his dismay behind his face, then looked back at his papers, “Help yourselves, there are plenty of good things I’m sure with attract you.”. Despite feeling awkward that the man is seemingly trying to convince them to buy something, they proceed to browse what this place offers.

Sunset looks around the place. While she still prefer books with plain texts to stimulate her imagination even more, she cannot deny that she occasionally enjoy some comic books also with decent to interesting stories. She can see that most of the comics are of famous established franchises, while some others are obscure but still interesting looking. However, not all of the shelves sell only comics. On the top area of the shelves are other merchandises like action figures, cheap collectables and posters. However, Sunset give little to no notice on those things, and is only focusing on the printed pages.

“Uncle Rodrick where do you want me to put this?”, “Just right here.”. Both Marc’s and Sunset’s ears perked up at the familiar voice. They turned back to the counter, and saw the office door behind it opening, but it is who is coming out that attracts them. Jasmine is coming out of the room, carrying a cardboard box. She put the box to where her uncle told her to put, right at the corner beside the door. When she finished putting the box, she turned outwards and is surprised at who she saw.

“Marc? Mia?”, Jasmine called out to both of them. “Jasmine?”, both of them called back simultaneously. The man behind the counter with Jasmine, Rodrick registered the excitement that his niece emits and look back and forth to see who she is greeting. “These are your friends?”, he asked pointing to Marc and Sunset. Jasmine then corrected, “There are my colleagues from the set, we get along well.”. The man then turned to the two of them with a smile, “Oh yeah, so you two are the Marc and Mia that my niece talked about?”, they both nodded. “Sorry for my attitude just now, I usually treat my customers like that.”, he apologised. Marc replied, “There’s nothing to be sorry for, you’re not being rude.”, and Sunset nodded in agreement. Rodrick laughed kindly, then asked, “You two want to stay here with me and Jas, we both could use some friendly company for a while.”. Deciding they had nowhere else to hang out, they followed the man into the office, followed by Jasmine.

Sunset and Marc both looked around the utilities the office has. No, scratch that. The office might as well be an apartment itself. It has a couch which can be also folded as a bed, which is what they are sitting on now. On the floor next to the sockets, there is a small air conditioner and heater sitting right next to each other. There is a table with a electric kettle, microwave and mini fridge, and what is above is a shelf is some canned and other preserved foods. Moreover, right beside the desk is a sink. There is also a second desk with stacked files and documents. Sure there are no windows, and the wall and paint is quite chipped, but other than that it is quite comfortable to live here.

Rodrick is currently preparing two cups of beverages for Marc and Sunset right in front of the kettle. He walk to them with two mugs in hand. “Here’s your drinks, carful they’re hot.”, the man said. Sunset get her coffee, while Marc took his tea. “You guys can stay and talk to Jasmine if you want, I’ll be going back to the counter now if you need me.”, he then exit the office. Meanwhile Jasmine, who is sitting on a chair, look at them happily. The three of them just give each other friendly smiles, before one of them decide to speak up.

“So what are you doing here Jasmine?”, Marc asked. “My uncle owned this place. I sometimes come here to help him during my free time.”, Jasmine said. Sunset look around the room, before asking something else, “Don’t you think this is a bit too much for an office?”. Jasmine’s face immediately look like she wanted to dodge the question, but instead decide to answer. “Umm yeah, sorry about that. Uncle Rodrick likes to work long hours here. So he wants his office to be as comfortable as possible.”. Deciding not to press further, Sunset accepted the answer.

“Are you two the only employees here?”, Marc asked. Jasmine nodded, “This is a small store, so there’s no need too much hands. And Uncle Rodrick is practically here all the time, so he can manage everything himself.”. Marc said cheerfully, “You two seem close for a guy who worked long hours.”. Jasmine smiled and replied, “He does try and spend his time with me.”. Sunset then decide to ask, “What about your parents?”. Jasmine heard the question, then looked down with a frown. Sunset and Marc looked worryingly at her physical response. Marc then said, “You don’t have to say if you don’t want.”, Sunset chimed in with a nod. Jasmine smiled back, glad that they are not forcing her to talk about uncomfortable matters.

Suddenly, they heard some commotion from outside the office. “Sorry, I really still cannot pay in full-,”, “This is the seventh month Mr Robinson, Mr Whitehead already give you enough time to accumulate the cash and you still cannot pay in full. He is already unhappy enough as it is.”, the man talking to Rodrick said in a respectful but disappointed manner. Rodrick sighed, “Sorry.”, “Listen, he told me that if you cannot pay in full this month, he will come here personally and come for it. And if there is still nothing to show, he will tear down the business. So please try and pay the money you still owe.”, “Yes sir.”. With that, the footsteps sounds like the men are walking away.

Rodrick then came back to his office, then saw the three of them looking at him with concerned faces. “I guess all of you heard it.”, they all nodded. He turned away from them slowly, then pinched the bridge of his nose before preparing a cup of instant coffee. He took a small sip, ignoring the three who is behind him.

“Is it them again?”, Jasmine asked, Rodrick nodded. Jasmine looked down and quivered her lips, like she was about to cry, but decide to hold back. Sunset and Marc look at both of them with worry, but is afraid to say anything.

“You guys should go now.”, Rodrick said simply. Sunset and Marc tensed up at the coldness of the tone. Jasmine’s face remained neutral, but looking like she is siding with her uncle. “Please for your sake, leave now. I want to be alone.”, he said with some exasperation this time. Flinching, Sunset and Marc quickly got off their seats, and exit the office, leaving Jasmine and Rodrick inside.

While they are leaving, Sunset decide to look around the store one more time. “What are you doing?”, Marc asked. Sunset replied, “I’m seeing what I can buy, support their business at least for a bit.”. Marc realised Sunset got the point, inspired by her generosity, he followed her and see what he can buy also.

After some searching, they found the things they decide to buy. Sunset decide to buy a comic series that is bundled in a package for sale, two separate comics and three keychains. Marc decide to buy an electric lantern shaped like a adorable creature character, three separate comic books, a Rubik’s cube alarm clock and two keychains. They put their items at the counter, and was about to ring the bell.

“Just let me think okay!”, both friends flinched as they heard Rodrick shouting, obviously targeting at Jasmine. Then, he quickly stormed out from the room with a frustrated look, and is stunned to see they are still there. He looked down at the items on the counter, and look back at them.

“Umm, you can keep the change.”, Sunset said awkwardly. Marc nodded frantically. Seeing and hearing what they want to do, the man let out a small smile, even if the prices of these items are not enough to pay for his financial troubles yet.

Sunset is currently back at her hotel room, reading one of the current comic books she bought from the store. Taking another spoonful of her oatmeal, she casually flipped to another page when she is done reading the previous. Before she know it, she looked outside her windows, and is surprised that the sky is already dark. Deciding that this is the time to hit the sack, she bookmarked her page, finish her food, and off the lights.

Lying on the bed, she slowly closed her eyes. However no matter how hard she tried, she seem to cannot float away to the slumber she wants. She know what is exactly keeping her awake, but cannot shake it away.

Sighing, Sunset turned to her right, and sees the two of comic books she had finished reading lying on the floor, with the one that she is currently reading on the top. Staring at the printed pages only amplify the worrying thoughts she had towards Jasmine. The girl’s uncle look like he is currently having troubles with supporting the finances for both him and her niece, and it is currently straining their relationship from what she can tell. If this problem goes on, who knows what will happen to them, especially Jasmine.

She can just imagine now what will happen after a month has reached. Jasmine and Rodrick see the store sadly demolished between their eyes, them finding easy but unfulfilling ways to try and support their finances. Moreover, the money they earned might not be as much as they are used too. They might have to resort to become beggars and live in a cardboard box. Then, their relationship becoming more strained as ever. Eventually, one decide to leave one another alone, and made out on their own.

Okay, Sunset realised that she probably exaggerated most of the situation. She is positive that Jasmine and Rodrick will not abandon one another, and she is also sure that their finance situation will not cause them to become homeless instantaneously just because the store closes down. There are probably plenty of decent and easy to get jobs out there that can still allow the same amount if not more earnings than running a small store. But still, the fact that Rodrick still refuse to give up on the store shows that he had love for it, even if he cannot support.

Experiencing personal failures and mistakes before, Sunset can empathize with the feelings of not achieving personal goals and sustaining it. Even if she did not achieve it herself, she does not want the people around her to suffer the same fate, and wish she could help if possible. However, she just don’t know how to help now.

Turning the other side, her eyes remained opened until her mind decide she can rest. Her bags slowly grew heavy, and she drift away to sleep.

“Jasmine?”, Sebastian called out to the said person. Jasmine hear her name, and immediately zoned out from her daydreaming. She turned to Sebastian, who looking at her with some sternness. She immediately nodded and proceed to show the camera the clapboard. “Take 2, scene 40”, she said. “It’s take 1, scene 39 Jasmine.”, Sebastian said with exasperation. “Cut, we’re doing it again.”, Jasmine nervously walked back, and wait for her cue again. This time, she got the procedure and details correct, but that does not save the fact that she got it wrong previously and wasted some time.

After some more filming, the crew decide to have a lunch break. Sunset sat at her spot along with Marc. However what is usually the period where one of the friends starting a joyful conversation, this time it starts with Sunset looking at Jasmine with worry. Marc saw what she is doing and decides that this is not the time for their usual friendly talks.

“Still worry about her?”, Marc asked. Sunset simply nodded, and Marc followed what he is doing by looking at Jasmine. Her face looks like she is somewhat struggling to lift her lips in order to not form a frown, and is eating quite slower than usual. “I just not sure how to help her, it’s not like I have plenty of money to give out.”, Sunset said in pity. Marc sighed and responded, “I get what you mean, but sometimes you cannot just help everybody I guess.”. Sunset know Marc is right, but the statement still made her feel guilty.

Meanwhile, they saw Sebastian approaching Jasmine. He sat down right in front of her, and it looks like he is trying to strike up a conversation with her. Judging by his physical responses, it looks like the replies he got from Jasmine is unsatisfactory, half-baked, or useless. With a disappointed look, he rose and walk away from the girl.

Next, Sebastian arrived next to them. More specifically, he sat beside Sunset as he sees what they are doing. “Looking at Jasmine too huh?”, he asked as he took a spoonful of his meal in his mouth. “That girl has not been performing well from what I see. Tried to ask her what’s wrong, but she don’t want to say.”, he said with disappointment. “Seriously, girl’s stubborn as hell. I fell that she is affecting us today.”. Sunset and Marc looked more bleak, showing some hesitation to admit what they currently know about her.

Sunset know she’s not supposed to do that, but figured that she can trust Sebastian with the information. “What if I told you I might know what is wrong with her?”, Sunset told her friend. Sebastian looked surprised at that, while Marc is in shock at what she wants to say. “You know?”, Sebastian asked with a raised eyebrow. Sunset nodded, “Her uncle is losing her store soon.”. The filmmaker’s eyes widened at that revelation, “What happened?”. Marc is still hesitant to answer the question, so Sunset continued. “He cannot pay the rent in full for a few months. They said if he still cannot pay it the next months along with the extra money he still owed, they will tear down his business.”.

By now, Sebastian felt some sympathy for the girl who is sitting alone. While he is still disappointed at her performance, he can understand what is wrong with her now. “How much is the rent?”, he asked. Marc then decide to reply, “We didn’t ask.”. “I don’t think she will open up either.”, Sunset said. Sebastian realised that approaching Jasmine might be more difficult than expected, but at the same time he still wants to intervene somehow so he can help her. Sebastian then have a idea, and that is the only idea he can think of.

Turning to Sunset and Marc, he asked, “Where is the store?”. The friends turned to Sebastian, who is waiting for the answer.

“This is the place.”, Marc pointed out as they arrived. Out of some soft spot for his employee, Sebastian willingly take a day off from editing his movie scenes, which is what he does when they are not shooting anything. Instead, he decide to look at the current state of Jasmine’s relative’s store via the owner himself, and see what he can do to help her, the uncle or both. Entering the store, Rodrick looked up, and is immediately surprised to see the two people again. However, he is more surprised that they brought a third person here.

“Hey, nice to see you guys again.”, Rodrick put up a warm smile towards Sunset and Marc, but turned to Sebastian with a curious look. “He’s with you?”, Rodrick asked. With a smile, Sebastian approached Rodrick and said, “Yes. I’m Sebastian, the filmmaker that your niece is working with.”. Rodrick is surprised at more of his niece’s co-workers coming in, but happily extended his hand to greet him. Sebastian get the cue, and shook his hand. “Nice seeing you here, Jasmine also says you’re a decent guy.”, “Happy to know that.”.

Rodrick then decide to change the subject, “What are you all doing here?”. Sebastian’s face then turned worried, and claimed, “Well recently, your niece has not been working well with us.”. Rodrick then cocked an eyebrow, “Oh, is it?”. Sebastian nodded and continued, “And I heard is because she is worried about, something.”. Glancing back at Sunset and Marc, Rodrick had a hunch on what is going on. “What is it?”, the store owner ask. “I heard you’re having some financial issues.”, the filmmaker said straight up.

Now Rodrick is really focusing back on Sunset and Marc, looking a bit peeved at them. “Why do you say it?”, he growled angrily at the two, although he did not shout. Both of them stepped back, and Sebastian moved closer to them. “Don’t blame them from it, I was the one who want to know.”, the filmmaker claimed. “These are my problems! I don’t need anybody to know!”, Rodrick is now shouting loudly. Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, “Well your problems clearly affected your niece, and frankly I’m just trying to look out for her like a good employer!”. Hearing the mention of Jasmine caused Rodrick to relax, although not fully.

“Well then, tell me how the hell are you supposed to get me out of this hell hole?”, Rodrick asked hopelessly. “Let me look at the details of the problems first.”, Sebastian said. Even though he doubt it will not help much, Rodrick relented and bring them inside the office.

“$2050 per month isn’t so bad.”, Sebastian said after he read the shop details. Rodrick’s eyes narrowed, and pointed to the log book which is on the other desk. “I also owed an extra $3500 on top of it from the previous rents, and I had to substitute what I earned for food, water and my other necessities.”. “But still, why this problem is only happening now?”. Rodrick then sighed, “It was not always like this. The neighbourhood is getting poorer, less and less people are interested in comics no matter what I do, and I cannot afford more helping hands to help me. I also don’t know why it happens now.”.

In an instance, Sebastian have a hunch on what is going on. “So you’re saying that not that many people buy your stuff here?”, Rodrick nodded. “Have you tried selling your things in public?”. The man sighed with frustration, “I put up posters, post online ads, and also bring some of my stock to the public to sell. But I can only do so much.”.

Marc then stepped in, “So you need more hands to help you?”. Rodrick then said, “If only I can pay them.”. With a smile, Sebastian said, “What if I said you don’t need to?”. Rodrick cocked his eyebrow confusingly, “What?”. “I’m going to help you turn this business around for free.”, Sebastian said. “You can?”, “I’ll try, I think I have a way.”, the filmmaker replied to Rodrick.

Just then, Jasmine entered the store with a wheelbarrow still stacked with some comic books and merchandise, her body sweaty. She was about to say something, then stopped herself physically and vocally as she saw her colleagues, along with her employer. “What are you guys doing here?”, Jasmine asked. With a grin, Sebastian said, “I’m here to fix your store.”.

Sunset, Marc and Sebastian arrived back holding some tools and building metals. Sebastian instructed all of them to wait outside as he work.

Sounds of metal moving around can be heard from the office as Marc, Sunset, Jasmine, and Rodrick wait outside the room for Sebastian to finish what he is doing. However, they are not having a friendly conversation like previously.

After realising that Sebastian wants to help with her and her uncle’s financial situation, she quickly deduced what is going on. While Rodrick managed to calm down after the conversation he had with the filmmaker, Jasmine is still quite peeved at Sunset and Marc telling her boss about her situation. She is currently crossing her arms, looking at them with an irritated look.

Sunset is currently trying to defuse the situation, “Look Jasmine, we all are just worried okay. Sebastian just wants to-,”, “I can perfectly handle myself, this is none of your business.”. Marc then intervened at Jasmine’s remark, “That’s not what we see when we were here.”. Jasmine then decide to turn her head away from them.

Rodrick then decide to step in the conversation, “Look Jasmine I don’t feel like asking help as much as you do, but they made a good point. This is not healthy for us.”. Jasmine then narrowed her eyes at her uncle, “What if this is for nothing again? Remember what happened last time?”. Rodrick look away when he remembered what happened, while Sunset and Marc grew more curious at Jasmine after what she claimed.

Meanwhile, Jasmine realised that she just blurted out something she did not want Marc and Sunset to hear, and quickly silence herself. “Don’t even ask.”, Jasmine told Sunset and Marc, who both said nothing and just nodded. They definitely do not want to further agitate the already pissed off Jasmine.

Nearly five hours passed, and Sebastian is still working way late by the time night rolls around. After closing his store, Rodrick banged on the door and said agitatedly, “Can you hurry up?!”. “Almost done.”, a voice called out from inside. However, it took another half an hour for Sebastian to finally come out.

“It’s done.”, Sebastian said. Marc, Jasmine, Sunset and Rodrick all came in to see what he had worked on. What they see is a simple box like contraption with a door above, a slot below, a crank oh the other side of the and a coin slot beside. “Good thing I took some engineering courses before.”, the filmmaker said.

“What is this?”, Rodrick asked. “Give me your stack of comics and I’ll show you.”. The store owner then took a stack back to Sebastian, who opened the door above the contraption and put the comics inside. Then, he closed the hatch, and fished out a coin from his pocket.

“Watch.”, Sebastian said simply. He then place a coin in the slot, and turn the crank. After one rotation, one comic ejected out from the slot, and Sebastian pulled it out with ease.

The four people in the room are impressed by the device to say the least, and one of them decide to speak up. “Can’t say I’m not impressed. But how does that solve my problem?”, Rodrick inquired. Sebastian explained, “Well clearly your marketing, operations and working place cannot attract enough people to your store. So, why don’t we bring the store to them?”. He pointed to the box, “Just put this box anywhere you want outside. With a little paint job and instructions, it will get some attention and you can make money with this thing”. He pulled out an embedded box right below the crank to show where the money goes to, “This box will store the money people put inside. Just try and collect it once in a while.”. He then pointed to the screws at both the box and the door, “You can use screwdrivers to lock and unlock the door and box.”

After hearing the explanation, Rodrick and Jasmine then look at the box like it is the last hope for them, and Rodrick turned to Sebastian with a smile. “Wow, thanks for that. But can you make more?”. Sebastian then took a piece of paper from the table and show them the blueprint he sketched out. “I already had the blueprint, I’ll try and do as much as possible.”, the filmmaker made the promise. Rodrick nodded, and turned to the device again, “So now what is all left is paint.”. Sebastian nodded, “Yeah, and don’t forget the instructions also.”. “I already know how it works, so I think I’ll do the rest from here.”, Rodrick said. “If you say so.”, Sebastian replied.

With that, Sunset, Marc, and Sebastian said their goodbyes to Jasmine and Rodrick. “Please help to build more of these!”, Rodrick reminded Sebastian as he walk out of the office door, before turning back to the box and seeing how he can decorate it.

When they stepped out of the store, Sebastian was greeted in the face by some a two one-hundred-dollar notes. He turned to his side, and see Sunset stretching her arms holding the bills. “What are you doing?”, “You need to build more of those boxes right? You will need money to do it.”, Sunset replied to Sebastian. The filmmaker then objected, “Mia, I don’t need your-,”, “Please just take it first. You need your money for the movie isn’t it? I don’t want you to use all of yours’s.”.

Unable to argue with that logic, Sebastian decide to take the notes, and smiled to Sunset. “Okay then, thanks for that.”, “Your welcome.”, Sunset replied back. “I guess see you guys tomorrow?”, Sebastian said, Sunset and Marc nodded. They waved goodbyes to each other, and Sebastian followed his own route, while Marc and Sunset walk with each other in the opposite direction.

As they are walking, Marc is trying to stifle a laugh but failed. Sunset saw this and asked Marc, “Are you okay.”. Marc chuckled a bit and said, “You’re into Sebastian isn’t it?”. Sunset blushed at the question, and quickly look away, “No, what makes you say that?”. Marc became amused at his friend’s uncomfortableness, and continue to tease her, “Oh really? I never seen you give out your own money to someone else before, and $200 is no small amount.”. Further blushing, she denied again and made an excuse, “He cannot afford to spend too much okay, he has a movie to shoot.”.

“I can already imagine the scene. Mia Sutherland and Sebastian Gosling kissing under the tree. As their hands ran up and down each other, the man decide to go underneath the girl’s-,”, “Don’t even go there!”. Now face fully red in embarrassment and anger, Sunset repeatedly hit Marc with her backpack, and Marc remained unfazed by the attacks, and started to laugh.

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”, Marc said amid his laughter. After calming down, Sunset sighed and said, “Since when did you become this perverted?”. “There are lots of things you don’t know about me Mia. After all, I thought you have read my visual novel.”, Marc crossed his arms with a grin.

Exhaling the hot air from her nostrils in irritation, Sunset calmed down moments later and continue her late-night walk with her friend. “But for real though, I feel that you actually like him.”, Marc said with a friendlier tone. Realising the cat is already out of the bag, Sunset might as well confess. “I guess you’re right Marc.”, she admitted. “But why him out of all people? Mia.”, Marc asked curiously. Sunset shrugged, “I don’t really know. I have met people who are almost like him, but he just sticks out for some reason.”. Marc then said, “There must be something special about him that you missed.”.

Listening to the tip, Sunset pondered a bit on why she had affection towards the filmmaker. After some soul searching, she felt that she finally found the reason. “Maybe is because he changed my life.”, Sunset claimed. Marc cocked his eyebrow, “Helped you?”. Sunset then came up with a fictional story, “I do not have really that much of a proper childhood. My parents were very conservative people, barring me from almost everything except for studying. My dad’s a lawyer, and my mom’s a stockbroker. They expect me to constantly push for me to ace my exams, excel at every extracurriculars they put me to and get to a good college where I can get a good degree which could get me a good career as high-paid and respected as them. I was trained to only go by their values, and I was always alone.”.

Sunset lowered her head, and is pretending to sound as sad as possible, “But when I did not get accepted to a good college, they are very upset with me. They called me a failed mistake, and eventually stopped talking to me. I settled on a local office job to prove my worth, but it was never enough.”. She quivered her lips, “I began to be more aware how toxic are there. So I began to save a lot of money, until I feel that it is enough for me to resign and leave town.”.

Sunset began to hitched a bit, and Marc decide to put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Sunset showed a smile of appreciation while facing her friend, the look away as she continued her story.

“Anyways, I just wander around. No home, no job, no goal. All the things I did previously are just to impress my folks and leaving town, I never think so far before.”. No longer needing to pretend and continuing to lie about the story, Sunset genuinely smiled as she remembered the night she met Sebastian. “The first place I stop by is Manhattan. I booked a hotel to stay, and I decide to have a midnight snack at a diner.”. “And that is where I met him. We talk for some time, then he realised I was jobless. He offered me a job, and that leads me to where I am now.”.

Sunset rubbed her hands awkwardly, “I guess what I’m trying to say is that Sebastian is the first person that I ever felt a true warmth and connection with. He offers me a new path, and genuinely care about my well-being. He has priorities yes, but I can see that he also never only cares about himself. It is almost like god has seen how much I suffered and offer me an alternate and more hopeful way to change.”.

Marc is comprehending what his friend just said, before speaking up. “Wow, that’s deep Mia. You have quite a story.”. “But does Seb feel the same connection about you?”, Marc asked. Sunset shrugged, “He said he feels much closer to me than you or other people, but only in friendship.”. Sunset then said dismissively, “But that is fine by me, I’m not really looking for a boyfriend now. My first step is to just settle down first.”. Marc then nodded, “I mean that’s your call. After all, you can’t rush romance.”. “Thanks for the support.”, Sunset thanked Marc.

Marc then realised that he is reaching his bus stop. “Oh there’s my stop, bye Mia.”, Marc said as he speed up to the location. “Bye.”, Sunset waved at him while saying it. Just like that, Sunset is walking the rest of the way alone.

For the next month, Sebastian is trying his best to construct a new contraption for Rodrick every day. Every few days, he will finish at most two of , bring it to the store with the help of Sunset and Marc, and allow the store owner for the paint job. Under Sunset’s insistence, she will try and pay part of the resources with some tens of dollars if she can afford to, and Sebastian got used to accepting it. Speaking of affording, the three will also occasionally buy a few items when they drop by the store in order to support the business further, which is greatly appreciated by Rodrick.

However, the three’s relationship with Jasmine is still somewhat strained. While she still comes to work and is performing better compare to the previous month as her issues are mitigated, she became as reserved as ever, and is keeping silent nearly every time. She behave like she constantly needs to hide secrets that she cannot allow anybody to know, which is sensible considering she did not want anybody’s help with her issue in the first place. Marc, Sunset and Sebastian decide to just leave her be, and talk to her about work and nothing else.

Sunset, Marc, and Sebastian are currently walking to the store again, tugging a trolley with another contraption that Sebastian built on it. Sebastian currently had bags under his eyes and is walking with some tiredness, which cause Marc and especially Sunset to worry about him.

“You know, you should take some rest.”, Sunset advised. Sebastian yawned before responding friendly, “Hey don’t worry about me Mia, I can still work. Besides, Jasmine’s well-being is also important.”. “You should have asked for our help.”, Marc said. Sebastian chuckled, “Yeah maybe I should have, but don’t worry too much about me.”

When they finished the conversation, they entered the store and see Rodrick behind the counter. He looked happier than he usually is, not that the three people noticed it.

“Hey, I finished building some more.”, Sebastian said as he pushed the trolley in front of the counter. Rodrick look towards them with lit eyes as he said, “Today will be the last day you need to come kid.”. The three widened their eyes.

“What’s wrong?”, Sunset asked. “Today is payday again, and I finally paid back what I earned.”, the owner claimed joyfully. The three is in shock as they realised they lost track of time, but Sebastian smiled as he said, “That’s good news.”. The owner nodded and said, “Thanks to you, the business grew by 140%. Not only so many people use the machine that it is practically full by the end of almost each day, but more people from everywhere are more willing to come here after seeing the address I painted on the machine, and seeing what other interesting comic books I sell.”. He then grinned, “You should have seen Mr. Whitehead’s reaction when he came a few hours ago. That guy practically fainted as he realised how much I made. He don’t really have that much faith in me in the first place.”.

“Wow, I guess you’re welcome then.”, Sunset said. “I should you’re welcome you guys too.”, Rodrick said as he opened the cash register, and took out a few hundred-dollar bills. “Here, $100 for each of you.”, he offered the money to them. Needless to say, they are surprised by the large generosity. “Rodrick, you don’t need to-,”, “Please, you all helped me equally. Just take this as a token of appreciation. I had a lot of money anyways.”, Rodrick insisted and not giving Marc a chance to finish his sentence.

Giving up at the pleading from the man, the three gladly accepted the money. “Thank you then.”, Marc thanked. “Can we see her?”, Sebastian asked. Nodding, Rodrick gestured for them to follow enter the office. When they entered, they saw Jasmine eating cup noodles on the desk.

“Hey Jasmine.”, Sunset greeted. “Hey.”, Jasmine greeted back without looking at them. Realising the uncomfortableness their friend still felt, they are not sure what to say. “So now your uncle has paid his debts, how are you holding up?”, Sebastian asked. Jasmine just simply shrugged. Realising there is nothing more they all could say, the filmmaker decide to end it with, “Welp, I guess you’re welcome. Hope to see you at work.”. Jasmine just nodded.

Sunset and Marc both also said their byes to the girl, before the three turn around. But just before they could close the door, Jasmine called out to them. “Wait.”, they turned back to Jasmine as soon as she said that. Looking like she is suppressing a smile, Jasmine shyly said, “Thanks, see you at work too.”. Smiling, the three nodded and closed the door.

Rodrick saw the conversation go down, and sighed in dismay. “Sorry about that, Jasmine is still a bit uncomfortable around you guys no offense.”, the store owner said. Sebastian placed a hand on Rodrick’s shoulder and assured him, “It’s fine, I’m just glad she’s okay. Take care.”. Rodrick nodded, “You guys too.”.

With that, the three decide to leave the store. As they are walking outside, Sunset could not help but continue to look proudly at Sebastian. While she already took a liking for the filmmaker ever since she started working for him, she felt her respect and fondness towards him grew way past the limit she thought she could not break after he helped Jasmine unconditionally. She never expected a boss would go this far to help their employees, but Sebastian is a good example that contradicts her view, and she is glad that she managed to meet a perfect person like him.

“I guess see you guys tomorrow too.”, Sebastian said. Sunset and Marc nodded, before they split ways with their employer again. While Sunset and Marc is walking, Sunset is walking with a slight skip in her movement. “You look happy.”, Marc said. “You try to be sad when you met a perfect person.”, Sunset grinned while saying it. Marc laughed at what Sunset said, “That’s it, I’m 100% shipping you two.”. Sunset punched Marc’s arm a few times, but this time both are laughing at each other. After a while, they stopped their playfighting, and continue to walk while discussing other topics.

Someone To Rely On (Part 3)

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Sunset and Sebastian are now currently enjoying a game of chess that Sebastian brought. It is break time and both are having as much short and friendly matches as possible. Ever since Sebastian helped Jasmine through the troubles with Sunset partially helping also, they grow closer together than ever. While they are still friends, Sunset could care less as long as she can hang out with him. Frankly she understands that her current situation cannot dictate any romantic relationship yet.

And what about Marc? Well he and Sunset still hang do hang out during breaks and when they are out of work, but he also starts to hang out with Jasmine too. Occasionally during breaks, he would opt to sit next to Jasmine instead of Sunset, attempting to have small talks with her. Sunset does not mind that Marc wants to do that, as she also felt that Jasmine also needs a friend. Besides, she still have Sebastian to keep her company.

Sunset began to grin in satisfaction as she move one of her pieces to another square, rendering Sebastian’s king unable to move. “Checkmate.”, Sunset said smugly, and Sebastian just laughed at her wits. “Gosh you’re better than I thought.”, the filmmaker said. “Hey you also kicked my ass on the previous match.”, Sunset tried to assure Sebastian. “Yeah, but it looks like you’re the one who learns faster.”, Sebastian complimented. Sunset shrugged, “What can I say? I had a habit of learning things fast.”.

Sebastian then looked up his phone, and realised that break time is almost up. “We need to stop now, break is almost over.”, Sebastian informed her. Sunset nodded, “Okay then.”. Sebastian clean up his chess set, and walk away from Sunset to inform others break time is almost up.

Sunset turned to Marc, who saw how much she likes to hang out with the filmmaker and teased her again by forming a heart with his hands. Sunset jabbed back playfully by flipping her middle finger, causing her friend to laugh at that. Meanwhile, Jasmine is sitting next to Marc, giggling a bit, although it is quite small.

Another day of work has gone by quickly for Sunset, and she proceed to walk home by herself. A mild amount of evening sunlight shone down the street she is walking at. She is currently at a moderately dense city area, where many people and vehicles will pass by her but not to a extent where she cannot freely move.

Sunset suddenly felt herself famished, and look around to see which place can satisfy her empty stomach. Sure she can go home and cook another oatmeal dinner, but she is currently in the mood to have something else. She just needs to find something else that does not put a dent in her wallet.

Speaking of the devil, she saw right in front of her a perfect place she can eat. Just across the street is a Subway joint that Sunset had eaten at a few times every month back in this world’s Canterlot. This is because other than some of their meals being as cheap as a fast food restaurant, Subway gives the option of customise what ingredients you want to have. And with a dozen vegetables and half a dozen sauces, there is plenty enough for a vegetarian like Sunset to choose and love.

Practically drooling right now, Sunset crossed the traffic lights the moment it turned green, and walk across the road. When she finally reached the other side, she can see through the transparent door the interior of the fast food joint already. Inside the seats and tables are arranged in a way where there is a wide gap at the right dedicated to the queuing, and a couple of lanes for safer and faster walking. The counter is way behind the front door after passing by the seats, and what is further behind is a kitchen which is closed by a door. The menu is hanging on top of the counter for customers to see, not that Sunset needs it very much.

The moment she stepped in, she can practically taste the sandwich as the smell of baked bread flow into her nose. Her legs grew a mind of their own as before she know it, she is already queuing up for the food. The lady in front of her greeted her with a smile while clad in a green Subway shirt and a Subway cap.

“What can I get for you?”, the woman asked. Sunset look down at the ingredients displayed, and quickly decided what she wants. She chose the following: Vegetable patty, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, ketchup. After the sandwich finished baking, Sunset opt to make it a meal at around $10 to $11, which means she can get a drink and a cookie with it.

Sunset settled down on a table with the meal. She unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite out of it. As the food is nearly mushy inside her mouth, she washed it down with the soda she had with her meal. She decide to just take it slow this time while eating.

A few minutes into her sandwich, Sunset felt thirsty again. She picked up her drink and took another drink through the straw. In the middle of it, a shadow covered her table, and she turned to the direction it is coming from. Whom she saw surprised her.

It is Olivia, currently holding a tray and looking at her colleague with a smile. “Hi Mia, mind if I join?”, Olivia greeted cheerfully. Sunset shook her head, and Olivia take that as a signal that she can sit with her. Now both girls are sitting in the opposite direction of one another, and are also facing each other.

“How did this always happen?”, Sunset thought about how she managed to always bumped into her colleagues when they are not working. Not that she is complaining, she could use some familiar company. It’s just that it is weird that this happens for the third time.

“Listen, I know we don’t talk that much but, I was wondering how your day was?”, Olivia asked. Sunset woke up from her pondering and replied, “It’s fine I guess.”. The girl responded with a nod, and unwrapped her sandwich to take a bite also. “I see you hang out with Marc and boss a lot, when did you guys become so close?”, Olivia asked in the middle of chewing. Sunset asked, “Can I give you a short answer?”, Olivia shrugged.

“I helped them in one way or the other with personal issues, and we got became friends as a result.”, Sunset said. Olivia just nodded, “I see. But I realised Sebastian is the most comfortable around you. What’s going on?”. Sunset rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “Yeah I also realised that. I guess we just felt a stronger chemistry between each other, he even told me that. Don’t get any ideas, it’s just in terms of friendship.”. Olivia giggled after sipping her drink, “Hey I get it, relationships sometimes can work in weird ways, even friendship. Hell, I had a few weird friends, and we still get along well.”. Sunset smiled in appreciation at that.

Now it is time for Sunset to ask the questions. “Okay enough about me, how was your day?”, Sunset asked. Olivia replied, “It is okay I guess. Just finished work like you, other than that my day is quite dull.”. Sunset moved her head slightly closer, “I remember that you want to be a filmmaker, how’s the process going?”. Olivia let out a small smile at that, “Well, I had a few movies in mind already, and I wrote a few drafts of screenplay.”. She then frowned, “But I don’t really know how to continue from there.”.

“Why?”, Sunset wondered. Olivia sighed, “Other than not really know how to finish the screenplay, I tried to pitch my idea to many companies, but they all rejected the concepts I want to make. Not profitable, lack of experience, they pretty much give almost all the excuses in the book to reject me.”. Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose, “This is partly why I signed up to work on Sebastian’s film, at least I can gain some experience, and probably branch out on my own so I do not need to rely on studios too much for my movies.”.

“So do you gain something so far?”, Sunset asked. Olivia shrugged and smiled, “To be honest, I’m happy to work here. I generally got the gist of how production works, and the environment is not too stressful.”. She then looked down, “But other than that I don’t think I can apply that much to what I want to do. I mean working with you guys is still great, but I’m still a bit worried of how much I can learn.”. “Maybe you can ask for help? I mean, you are already working for a filmmaker.”, Sunset suggested. Olivia cocked an eyebrow and said, “I think he is too busy to care about this, he’s the filmmaker after all.”. Sunset then objected, “Don’t think so low of him, Sebastian is actually quite a decent guy. I’m sure he will take a bit of time to help you.”. “You really think so? I mean I know you’re his friend and all but still.”, Olivia remained doubtful.

Sunset nodded and asked a question, “I want to tell you something, but you must promise to not tell anyone. Can you?”. Olivia nodded. “When Jasmine and her uncle are in financial shape in his uncle’s comic store, Sebastian decide to help them for free. He build a comic dispenser that can be put outside and be used by other people, and he build at most two of it and bring it to the store every few days so Jasmine’s uncle can put it at public places of his choice. Not only the dispenser helped earned the comic store to earn more than enough money to pay back the debts, but business activity in the store skyrocketed as the publicity grew. Sebastian did this for a month, and stopped only about 2 weeks ago when Jasmine’s uncle told him he no longer need his help.”.

Olivia could not help but smile proudly at the story she heard, she really underestimated Sebastian’s kindness towards his employees. “Wow, that’s quite a story. But how do you know this?”, Olivia asked. Sunset answered simply, “Well me and Marc are the ones who found out about this when we accidentally met Jasmine at the comics store, and I was the one who told him when she refused to tell Sebastian.”.

With hopeful and gleeful eyes, Olivia said, “Thanks for telling me this Mia. I’ll consider approaching him for help.”. Sunset nodded, “Okay then.”. With the revelation, both of them proceed back with their meals, while doing some occasional chit chatting.

Sunset walk to work with Marc in early hours of the morning, talking about generic subjects along the way. Like a routine, Sebastian and Chazelle greeted them both, and they greeted them back. While Sebastian is still discussing general work things with his producer before shooting, Sunset and Marc sit below the tree and continue to hang out.

Moments later, Sebastian arrived at the same spot they are sitting in, standing over them with a chessboard in hand. “Mood for one game Mia? I finished my things early today.”, Sebastian asked Sunset. Sunset grinned, “Always.”. “Can I look?”, Marc asked. Sebastian shrugged, “Sure why not?”. Marc move away from Sunset slightly so that Sebastian will have space to sit down and play chess with Sunset. After arranging the pieces, Sebastian allowed Sunset to go first. Sunset started off by moving her black pawn by two squares.

“I also want to tell you both something. Remember Olivia?”, the filmmaker asked while moving his pawn. “Yeah, what about her?”, Marc replied. “Well, she’s promoted to be my assistant director. She’s going to have more duties, and I passed on some of my simple roles to her too.”, Sebastian replied. Sunset smiled while moving her next piece as she had a feeling on how Olivia got the role. “What, why did you give her?”, Marc said with surprise. Sebastian chuckled a bit, “Well it all started yesterday afternoon. When I was editing, that girl called me. She told me that she wants to be an aspiring filmmaker as well, and had actually some good movies she already envisioned. Long story short, she got rejected many times.”, the filmmaker attacked one of Sunset’s pawns with his, occupying the square the black pawn previously resides in. “She also told me it is partly of the rejections that made her want to work here to gain more experience. However, she does not feel that it helps her that much, and ask whether I can give her more duties.”. Sebastian waited for Sunset moving her piece, before moving his bishop. “I told her that I’m not really an experienced filmmaker to go to, but she said she don’t really care about professionalism. The main thing she cares about is learning how to manage filmmaking production well, so she can do filmmaking even without large studio backing. I can really feel the enthusiasm she has, so I relented.”. Sebastian moved another of his bishops. “After some small quizzing for her, a small negotiation with her and Chazelle, I decide to promote her to become an assistant director. However, she will receive the same wage as usual, not that she cared that much.”. Sebastian snorted a bit at a funny incident he recalled, “Girl practically shrieked the moment I told her about the promotion, saying thank you many times through the phone.”. Sunset and Marc laughed along with the filmmaker at Olivia’s antics.

“So what are the jobs Olivia are mainly going to do?”, Sunset asked while moving her knight. “Mainly just tracking the schedule, manage resources and make sure the crew like you guys are doing well. I also agree that she can do some shadow directing here and there even though that is not technically an assistant director’s job, which basically means that her suggestions on how to direct will be a top priority, after mine of course.”. Sebastian then look at both of them with an kind smile, “Not saying you guys are not important though. I know I haven’t say this before but feel free to give any input if you guys want.”. Sunset and Marc smiled back at Sebastian, and all three of them just focused back on the game.

After about ten minutes later, the game is over. Sunset performed a checkmate on Sebastian’s king, and winning the game in the process. “Yes!”, Sunset raised her arms and cheered, Marc clapped for the winner, and Sebastian just sat there speechless. “Wow, you’re too good for this Mia.”, Sebastian complimented proudly, while still a bit stunned at the skills. “Thanks Seb, but you’re not too bad yourself as well.”, Sunset declared. Sebastian laughed, and Sunset laughed back also. Marc just chuckled.

Sebastian then check his phone, and realised that it is about five minutes before shooting starts, and looked around to see that everybody is already here. “Oh we need to gather now, everybody’s here.”, Sebastian ordered as he keep his chess board. Marc and Sunset followed Sebastian to the gathering point when he finished packing the board. A new day of work has started, but this time with a member in a higher role.

“Olivia, are the actresses prepared?”, “Yes.”, Olivia answered Sebastian’s question. “We are doing scene 90.”, “Description?”, Sebastian asked. “Linda has a fight with her parents over her love for Emma, and Linda decides to leave them.”, Olivia stated word by word while reading the clipboard. Sebastian flipped to the page on the screenplay of the scene, “Okay, take a copy of the script and flip to that page.”, Olivia complied by getting a copy of that screenplay and flipped to the same page as Sebastian.

“You are going to read along the lines like me later.”, Sebastian instructed Olivia, who just nodded. “Ready 3, 2, 1.”, “Scene 90, take 1.”, Jasmine clapped the clap board in front of the camera. “Action!”, Sebastian ordered.

Adagio enters the room of the mansion in her red dress and takes off her heels. She then proceed to the stairs, and decide to walk up. But just as she was about to climb the second step. “Just where do you think you are going young lady?”, a middle-aged voice called out from behind her, before the lights in the living room turned on too. Adagio turned around to see a blue-skinned old lady in about her 50s with a red female office worker outfit, her wrists with two golden bracelets and diamond piercings in each of her ears. She has purple hair with blue highlights. Meanwhile standing next to the old lady is a white-skinned man with a buttoned up white top tucked into black tuxedo pants which is held up by a belt. The man has white balding hair, and has a goatee. The only similarity the couple shared is that they dress fancy, and they both are looking at Adagio with contempt.

Adagio rolled her eyes and answered simply, “To my room.”. “At this hour?”, the lady narrowed her eyes further. Adagio sighed and pinched her nose, “I was busy with my work okay.”. She continued to walk up to her room, but stopped midway when the old man started to talk. “Oh really? I never seen you wanting to work that hard in Cashnex before, and Newton told me that you did not ask for any overtime.”. He continued with a colder glare, “Not just that, he also told me you called in sick a few times, and it is during those days when you leave home and saying you’re going to work to me and your mother.”.

Adagio now tensed up slightly at the couple’s suspicion, but her body still remained relaxed when she turned to them. “He must have remembered wrongly.”, she tried to convince them. “My brother is always good in details Linda, what do you expect from the CEO of Cashnex?”, the man remained unconvinced. “You might as well drop the act now, tell us where you have been.”, he this time said in a more firm and insisting tone.

Sighing, Adagio tell them the half-truth, “Fine, I was hanging out with a friend okay.”. The old lady hummed in a unconvincing tone, “I don’t really see you hang out with the people I introduced you to, unless you are hanging out with those poor lowlife peasants beneath us.”. Adagio clenched her fist to hide her anger at the term the old lady used. “No, it was Anthony.”, Adagio lied.

“That is utter nonsense.”, a male voice called out. A male figure entered just in time from the front door. He is wearing a blue suit with a black buttoned-up top inside it. He looked like he is in his mid-40s, and has a mostly shaven beard and hair with clean shaven sideburns.

“Anthony told us that you’ve been avoiding him.”, the old man said to Adagio. “That’s not true, we’ve been going out didn’t we?”, Adagio objected. Anthony’s actor narrowed said, “Yes we went out, but you never seem to care. Every time when I tried to talk to you, you always stay silent. You also try to make up excuses to not see me a few times, and to distant me whenever we went out.”. He walked closer to Adagio, which caused her to back away slightly. “Why are you being like this? We had been dating for months. It’s been months and you’re still not comfortable around me.”.

Now Adagio is feeling suffocated by the questioning of the three people surrounding her. “I don’t know why I’m like this, can we just talk in the morning?”, Adagio look like she is trying to swallow a pit in her throat. “Do you really want us to bring it out?”, the old man started to sound angry. Adagio look at the three in confusion. Sighing, the lady went to get her purse, and pulled out an A4 envelope. Without hesitation, whatever inside it is poured out on the coffee table. What is shown is a bunch of photos with Adagio hanging out with Aria, and one photo of them kissing.

“We knew there’s something fishy going on since last month, so we hired a PI to follow you.”, the old lady said. Adagio just looked at the pictures in shock, not knowing how to comprehend the situation. “I, I -,”, Adagio’s stammer was cut short by the sound of a fist slamming down the table.

Sebastian is currently supervising the scene, making sure the scene go well. Just then, Olivia tapped on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”, the filmmaker whispered. “I think I have a few ways to enhance the scene, if you don’t mind some delays.”, Olivia whispered back. This interests Sebastian, and he look to the girl. “What’s your input?”, Sebastian asked.

“Who is this girl!”, the old man shouted, and the old lady and Anthony’s actors all look at Adagio with furious and questioning look. “Em-she’s Emma.”, Adagio said timidly and quietly, not enough for the three to hear. “Louder girl!”, the old man shouted. “Em-Emma.”, Adagio this time said in a normal voice, trembling heavily and on the verge of tears. “I can’t believe my own daughter not just mince with peasants, but is also a d-dyke! What makes you think you can ruin our image like that!? Ruining your image!”, the old lady’s voice sound like in the mixture of between disappointment and anger.

“Is this why you don’t want to marry me at the start!? Because you already had someone in mind!”, Anthony’s actor said furiously and in a heartbroken voice. He then continued, “I can give you everything! What can that simpleton give you!”. Adagio clenched her fist, and started to ball out her eyes.

“I only fall for her after I met you.”, Adagio clarified, although that obviously does not quell the rage inside the three. “I don’t care, I want you to stop hanging out with that piece of stray! She brings nothing but trouble!”, the old man ordered. “Please, she’s not as bad as you think.”, Adagio pleaded timidly. The old man made a mocking laugh, “Really? Look at what she did to you! Abandoning your future, your family, your assets! You have everything here, and what did she give you!?”.

“Just let me sleep okay? I cannot think now.”, Adagio tries to avoid the problem, and continue to walk upstairs. However, a short moment later, she felt somebody pulled her arm and dragged her downstairs. It is Anthony’s actor who did that. He threw her back to the living room, and her lower back accidentally knocked onto the table’s edge, causing her to wince slightly.

The lady, the man and Anthony’s actor all surround her and ensure she had no way to exit. “We are settling this now.”, Anthony’s actor insisted. The old man fished out Adagio’s phone from her purse she is holding and hand it to her, “You are going to break up with her, right now in front of us.”. Adagio widened her eyes as she is being forced to do the one thing she don’t want to do, regardless of what others say.

“We don’t have all day Linda.”, the old lady tapped her foot impatiently. Trembling her arm, Adagio slowly grabbed the phone, and on the screen. Like she is trying to defuse a bomb and afraid she will cut the wrong wire, she slowly went to her contacts list. She scrolled to ‘Emma’, and just stared on the page without making any moves.

“Gosh you’re stubborn.”, Anthony’s actor rolled his eyes, and proceed to tap the contact by himself. Despite holding the phone, Adagio just let it happen. The only response she emits is her quickening her breath and grabbing the phone tighter. Anthony’s actor the proceed to on speaker mode. After a few rings, a voice called out behind the line. “Hey Linda.”, Aria said cheerfully through the phone, her physical body behind the camera.

The old man reply to the voice, “Listen here you dyke, I am Linda’s father, and my daughter has something-,”.

“Scream and smash the phone now.”, Olivia instructed.

“No!”, Adagio cried out, smashing her phone to the ground in the process. The three people surrounding her are utterly shocked at what she did, and the old lady fumed at her reaction. “Look at what you did young lady!”, the old lady yelled. She then took out her own phone and show it in front of Adagio.

“Twist her arm after she said ‘or’”, Olivia tell Adagio.

“You better call her now, or-,”, the old lady’s words are cut off by her screams as she suddenly felt her arm being twisted. Adagio is currently twisting the old lady’s hand, forcing her to drop the phone. The old man and Anthony’s actor all are in utter shock at what Adagio is currently doing.

“Never.”, Adagio hissed, before pushing the old lady away, and causing her to knock on the railing. The old lady hissed in pain at the impact. Anthony’s actor and the old man are utterly shocked and furious at what they just witnessed. “You ungrateful bitch! How could-,”, Anthony’s actor was cut off by a slap from Adagio. The old man stepped away, afraid of saying anything.

Sunset then lifted up the camera from the tripod, transitioning to handheld cinematography. Whatever the camera recorded, it will be slightly unstable, making it feel like there is an actual person witnessing the conflict.

“Just stop it! I will never break up with her! You will never make me stop loving her!”, Adagio’s face began to turn red in anger, and the dam in her eyes start to break. Anthony’s actor pleaded, “But Linda, I can give you everything. Money, cars-,”, “No shut up! I don’t care about what you can give me, everything I have now is not what I want! I want love, which Emma gave me more than you pieces of greedy shits!”, Adagio shouted. The old man grabbed his chest at that insult, and yelled back, “After everything we give you, you think we do not love you!”.

“I don’t think, I know! Everything you give me and make me do just makes you happy! You never consider and ask what I truly want! Even if I did, you all will not listen!”, Adagio yelled back. “We were giving you every opportunity to succeed! That’s the only way to you can be happy!”, the old lady yelled.

Adagio yelled, “Do I look happy now!?”. “No! You are ungrateful!”, the old lady yelled. Then, Adagio pulled up her skirt, revealing very visible wounds, looking like they are from a cut. Some are already healed and became scars, while some look like they are fresh.

Now the three people widened their eyes at what they are seeing, none of them say anything. “W-When did you have that?”, the old man stammered at the revelation. Adagio sneered, “I did this since I was 14, and I never stop ever since.”. She then continued with a rhetorical question, “Do you think I’m happy now?”.

The old lady then asked, “Wh-Why didn’t you tell us?”. Adagio then yelled, “Because I figured people like you will never listen to me! How many times did I try to express myself, to try and say I don’t like what you are telling me to do, but both of you old fucks just don’t care! I figured that I might as well don’t show you guys what you will not want to see!”. She closed her eyes, and hitched abit before continuing her words, “I figured if following whatever you teach me will make me happy, and make you happy, then I might as well hide my pain and endure it, hoping that eventually things will get better.”. She then narrowed her eyes and growled, “But after so long, I still feel nothing.”

“Emma is the first time I ever felt anything. She understands what I want, even if it does not benefit her. Meanwhile you all, you are all only willing to do something if that benefits you all, never giving me a benefit of the doubt. Money, power, that’s all what you only see in me, and are so blinded by it that you think is love.”.

Now the three felt some shame coursing through their veins. The old man now attempt to speak up, “I’m sorry Linda, how about we sit down and-,”, he flinched the moment Adagio slapped his hand away. “No! It’s too late to talk now! You all can shove all you have down your asses, I don’t want anything to do with it anymore! In fact, I am leaving now!”. Adagio then ripped her dress to show her last act of defiance. And stormed out of the house, pushing Anthony who is in her way. The last thing they hear is the door slamming, and then it is just utter silence.

“And cut! Impressive work everybody!”, Sebastian shouted proudly to the crew. Adagio then walked back in out of her character. “Gosh, can you all be more safe next time?”, the old lady complained as she rubbed the back of her head from the knocking just now. “Sorry darling, guess I went overboard just now.”, Adagio apologised, which is met by a nod of understanding from the old lady. “This is more takes than what we did previously, are we done now?”, Anthony’s actor complained a bit from the strenuous takes. “Yeah sorry for the held back guys.”, Sebastian said awkwardly. “How about I give you guys 20 minutes before we proceed to the next shoot?”, Sebastian asked. Without any verbal response, the crew happily walk to their resting spots.

Sunset, who is currently holding the camera handheld, breath a sigh of relief as she finally can put down the heavy device, resting her arms and back. She then proceed to the stairway, and lie on her back.

Meanwhile, Sebastian and Olivia are talking on the couch, while the filmmaker is looking at the footage they gathered. He is quite impressed with Olivia, as what she suggested really enhances the scene more. “I can’t believe you are this gifted Olivia. Why did you not give your inputs until now?”, Sebastian asked Olivia while looking at the footage. Olivia then laughed nervously, “Guess I’m not confident enough with my abilities after I got rejected by many studios.”. Sebastian then complimented, “Well the studios are wrong. The physical action and handheld cinematography you suggested really enhances the scene, especially during the conflict. It really drags me into the atmosphere and mindset of the characters.”.

“Thanks, sorry for the broken phone by the way.”, Olivia apologised. The filmmaker waved his hand dismissively, “Nah never mind, that only cost like $100 on Ebay, besides I have some spares too.”. Feeling that Olivia can do more, Sebastian turned to her and proceed to say something.

“You know, I have other scenes that we haven’t filmed yet. Maybe you can help me to see how to enhance it? Really can cut off some time for multiple takes like what happened today.”, Sebastian said. Olivia enthusiastically replied, “I would love to.”. Sebastian nodded, “Okay, but can you check on the actors first? And look at how our set and equipment are.”. Olivia nodded, and stood up to look at anything wrong with the set and actors, like what an assistant director should do.

After ensuring everyone and everything is safe, Olivia then proceed to Sunset on the stairs. “Hey Mia.”, Olivia said. Sunset opened her eyes and replied back, “Hey Olivia, how’s your new job.”. Olivia then smiled, “I like it. I actually feel that I’m learning something, and Sebastian like my input so much that he wants me to see what other scenes I can input.”. Her expression then turned a bit serious, “I’m here to also check whether you are okay. Sorry for forcing you to carry the camera by the way.”. Sunset chuckled, “It’s not the worse thing I did. And congratulations on impressing him this much.”.

Olivia nodded, “Good to know and thanks, the others seemed a bit peeved at me for causing multiple takes to happen. Let’s just hope I can plan this well next time.”. “Let’s hope that too, I wouldn’t want to lose my back by the time filming is finished.”, Sunset joked. Olivia, knowing that Sunset is joking, laughed along with her.

“Nice talking to you, I think I’ll go back to Sebastian now.”, Olivia said. Sunset nodded, and Olivia left. “And Mia.”, Sunset turned to Olivia calling her. “Thanks. Lucky to have you here.”, Olivia said with a smile. Sunset smiled back, before Olivia walk back to discuss with Sebastian about the scenes that have not been filmed yet.

Pursuit of happiness

by Reagan

Another Day of Loneliness

Sunset Ran

An Eventful Night

Start the Flashbacks

City of Wonders

Working Day (the new life starts here)

Someone To Rely On (Part 1)

Someone To Rely On (Part 2)

Someone To Rely On (Part 3)