Year 1 - Under New Stars

Hectic. Yes, that was definitely the right word. Hectic would be the best way to describe my first month at Signal. Shimmer thought to herself as she flopped down on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling blankly, letting her hands fall over the edges of the bed and just laying there, not really resting but not doing anything either. The setting sun outside painting the otherwise white room in reds and oranges.

She was apparently something called a faunus, and it was causing no end of problems. The mirror’s magic may have made others think she belonged here, but that only went so far. Being the only one of her kind attending this school made her stand out more than a gryphon in a zebra village. She still wasn't even sure what Faunus were other than not quite human, and it's not as if she could ask. There was one advantage, at least, being a non-human had gotten her a a way into the school and a place to stay. Something about an exchange program with the other kingdoms, she hadn't really listened to the specifics. Still, is that worth being an outsider half the school seems to want gone?

“Ugh...” she groaned, burying her face in her pillow, “stupid bucking humans...”

Why is my appearance such a big deal? She wondered to herself. We're effectively two variations of the same thing. A pegasus in Canterlot wouldn't be treated like this... why are they like this?

Thus far her plan was in shambles. The school was a combat academy, so honing the skills she would need to take her rightful throne back home should have been easy... except that something was wrong with her magic. She could feel it was there, and she could visualize the spell matrices as easily as always, but she couldn't do anything with them. If they activated at all, they did so on their own and usually just to patch her up well after the fact... For lack of a better term her abilities seemed, “locked”, somehow. And she was having a hell of a time finding the proverbial “key”. On top of that, recruiting followers was looking to be borderline impossible. She had one ally so far in Yang, but half the school seemed to either hate or distrust her, those that didn't either ignored her or pitied her. I don't need pity, I need allies. I need others who will follow me back to Equestria. I need others who respect me... she mentally grumbled. I had that once... Respect. Authority. The other students at Celestia's School *knew** I was better. Why did she have to take that away?*

Sluggishly climbing off her bed and tromping over to the desk across the room, she sat down in the chair and pulled out one of her books, deciding to put some time into the weekend's assignment, but even that felt like a waste. As always studying was unbelievably boring, but she'd never had any trouble just powering through it before. Of course, back then she was actually accomplishing something....

After an hour of reading and scratching down notes, she was interrupted by a knock at her door.

“Enter.” She stated flatly, turning to see a grinning blonde in her doorway. Not that it was much of a surprise. Given where she was staying, it really could only have been her anyway; the other students wouldn't have bothered knocking. Even if it wasn't a smile, the sight of her only real ally at least cleared the scowl off her face. “Hello Yang. Come to try and cheer me up again?”

“Aw, what gave me away?” She joked, grinning. Striding into the now rather dark room, and flicking on a light, Yang asked “How can you see with the lights off?”

“I just can, there's more than enough light coming in from outside.” Sunset stated with a shrug, glancing briefly out her window at the now moonlit cityscape. To her it seemed as clear as day; darker and more contrasting obviously, since it was night time, but just as visible. Maybe humans just have bad eyesight or something?

“Anyway, there's a an arcade down town. I figured we could head down there and try out some of the fighting games.” Yang suggested with a grin, changing the subject. Sunset just rolled her eyes and sighed, turning back to her book.

“Why would I want to do that?” Sunset questioned flatly, part of her scowl returning and her ears folding back against her hair. She stared at the open page of her textbook blankly, much as she tried to act like she could, she couldn't really focus on her studies right now.

“Because going in town is better than sitting in here alone? It works when Ruby's in a bad mood...” Her friend tried to answer, albeit sounding a bit surprised at Sunset's response.

“Ruby's twelve.” Sunset grumbled, part of her mildly annoyed at being compared to a girl close to three years her junior. Being only a few months younger, she would have expected Yang to see things more her way... Then again they were sisters, maybe that played a bigger part than she had considered.

“Why are you so grumpy lately?”

Because nothing is going according to plan, because I should be running this place by now. Was what she wanted to say, but thought better of it. She needed an excuse. The lack of other faunus IS really annoying... without meaning to, the idea of being alone brought to mind her family, and her friend Flash from back home. No. NO. Don't think about home. Frowning, looking at Yang, she quickly explained, “Because I'm alone here. You can just walk ten feet to find another human, but me? No one.”

“I... Sorry. I guess I didn't think that through.” Yang commented quietly, her usual grin fading, upset that she had apparently overlooked something that simple. Unsure what else to say, Yang opted to let her actions speak for her; pulling Sunset into a hug before leaving her to her books.

Alone in her room again, Sunset scowled. I don't miss Equestria. I don't! I can get by just as well here, I just need to work harder... She thought to herself, not entirely buying her own lie, as she reluctantly went back to her book.

Block. Block. Counter. Duck. Turn. Strike. Sunset repeated in her mind in time to the hand to hand techniques the Professor had them practicing. I just had to have this class first period didn't I? I never get out of here without bruises...

She would have preferred sparring with Yang right now. Her sparring partner, an armored jerk with a jet black... whatever that mane-style was, was starting to get on her nerves. The ones he hadn’t already bruised anyway. More often than not he would improvise his counters and strikes, or move out of turn. That would be fine were this an actual fight, but this was training, Sunset could barely throw a punch properly let alone deflect incoming kicks that came out of nowhere.

“Gah! Stop doing that!” She complained, catching a jab to the side as she tried to take a swing at her opponent. Dropping to her knees one hand clutched her side. You're hitting to hard you moron, it's just supposed to be practice... What is wrong with you? She wanted to say, but all that came out was a pained growl. Sunset didn't bother to get back to her feet.

“Aw... What's the matter? Cant keep up? I thought you freaks were supposed to be fast.” Her sparring partner taunted, drawing the teacher's attention away from the pair he was currently helping long enough for him to shake his head, sigh, and face-palm.

I'm a scholar, not an athlete, with out my spells... Sunset thought to herself angrily, shifting and shuffling away as best she could without fully getting up. Her abilities would kick in soon enough to heal her, but until they did, the less she had to move to put distance between them the better. Part of her very much wished she could just activate them herself the way the instructors did, but she still didn't know how that worked. Her mind wandered as she sat down on the bench, not noticing her sparring partner getting berated by the professor and the instructors behind her. That didn't matter in her mind. What am I without my spells? I can't defend myself, I'm not getting anywhere on anything. No Magic, no talent, no purpose...

A minute or two later, a slight shift in the bench and a hand on her shoulder, indicating someone had sat down next to her, drew her attention back to reality. Looking up she noticed Yang beside her.

“Hey, You okay?” Yang asked, glancing at Sunset's ribs. It didn't take a genius to tell what was going through her mind.

“It'll heal.” Came her answer from a clearly distracted Sunset. She didn't even bother asking where Yang's partner was. Her mind was on other things.

“You shouldn't listen to him. You just need more practice that's all.” Yang stated not a hint of doubt in her voice, “You're doing fine.”

“I don't feel fine...” Sunset grumbled. Her, now signature, scowl back in full force as she stared at the training room floor. The feeling of her abilities finally getting around to healing her doing nothing to lift her mood. “I hate being this weak. I should be able to do better, I used to do better. I had a dozen ways of controlling light but since I got here I haven't been able to do one.”

“Huh?” Yang asked, confused. Staring at sunset as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head. “How can you forget how that stuff works? I thought once you learn to control it, that's it.”

“It's... Complicated. How do you know, anyway?” Sunset asked, wincing at her screw up. She hadn't once mentioned her lost spells, or her other life before now... Still, Yang had implied it could be done... She hadn't found any reference to spells in the library that didn't point her to that Dust stuff, but maybe she'd been looking in the wrong place?

“Mom explained how this trick she can do works, once.” Yang explained, sounding as if that somehow made her an expert on the subject, that stupid grin still plastered on her face. Sunset at least had to admit that Yang certainly didn't lack in confidence.

Feeling a bit more confident now that she at least knew where to look, Sunset got up from the bench, and asked. “We should probably get back to... hey, wait a minute. Where's your partner?”

“He messed up my hair...” Yang stated, her turn to be grumpy. She didn't say anything else. Apparently expecting that statement to somehow be enough to explain her sparring partner's absence.

"Well, mine I think got kicked out of class, since I don't see him anywhere. So I guess that means it's you and me."