A retelling of Sunset Shimmer's redemption, starting from the night of the Fall Formal and going through the events immediately following the Friendship Games.

Disclaimer: I own none of this source material. MLP: FIM and Equestria Girls belong to Hasbro, and I will not profit from this fanfic financially in any way.

Sex tag is only for brief discussions of sexuality and issues of modesty. There is no actual sexual content.

Author's notes: I've been working on this story for over a year. I'll admit it contains a lot of elements that appear commonly in other Sunset stories -- this is just my take on it. I'll try to give credit where credit is due -- although nearly every idea in this story occurred to me independently, others have actually published stories using many of them first.

The thrust of the story is to take material written for ages say 10-13 (i.e. the EQG movies/shorts/specials) and age it up to make it more dramatic and meaningful. Probably my favorite thing to write was the conversations that must have taken place, both in the human world and in Equestria, but that aren't depicted in any movie or book.

Full Disclosure: Sunset's friends play their usual crucial roles in her redemption and growth, but this is a Momlestia/Lunauntia story too. And there is no shipping. Romance isn't Sunset's priority as she crawls out of the darkness of her former life. Yet.

I had to add the AU tag after Forgotten Friendship came out. Up until then, this story was fairly canon-compatible. Now, it diverges a bit.

Good-natured warning: Feels. Lots of feels.