The wind carried the scent of cherry blossoms across the campus of Canterlot High. The cherry blossom trees littered the campus in groups of about four or five, imitating nature's grace as well as a group of teens could do. The trees themselves weren't originally there - they were installed by the school's Environmental Club during the Summer - but their presence was already familiar to the students and faculty. It was as if they had always been there.
At the edge of the school's borders, the land curved down into an impossibly straight slope that required a strong metal gate to be built a foot or two from it to keep the students safe. Among the trees near this gate was a small number of stone tables that over looked the drop off into the depths below, as well as gave an incredible view of the sunset. And though school hours had long been over, a lone girl sat at one of these tables to watch the sun sink beneath the rolling green hills in the distance.
This girl, with her long red hair streaked with golden highlights, stared at the sun with her pale blue eyes in such a way that would make you think that she was angry with it. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but there was no one there to talk to. Soon her expression melted into one of guilt and sorrow, and her head dropped into a basket of arms that rested on the table. Soft sobs emanated from her, shoulders heaving and breathes shaky.
Here was a girl who would have never been caught dead crying just a few weeks ago. A girl who would never had stayed at school this late, let alone by herself, and not for something as petty as feeling guilty for using two students to get herself a place to stay for free for over a year. A girl who wouldn't have even thought to feel guilty. Not before the Fall Formal. Not before... her.
She stayed under the cherry blossoms until the sun could no longer be seen and the sky was darkened to a midnight blue color. She didn't notice as the stars blinked into existence. She didn't notice the blinding lights of the foot ball field turn on. She didn't notice the sound of a beat up pickup-truck pulling up behind her. She didn't notice the car-door slamming shut, or the sound of rapid foot steps on pavement. She didn't even notice the shouts of two voices calling her name.
"Sunset!"
"Sunset, c'mon! What're you doing here?"
"Snails, I don't think she can hear us! I think something's wrong.."
"Uh, what should we do, Snips?"
"I dunno..." The blue-skinned boy started shaking her again. "Come on, Sunset Shimmer! Wake up!"
"Yeah, Sunset, it's time to go home," the taller orange boy added worriedly.
".....It's all my fault...." Sunset mumbled quietly.
"Huh?"
"Snails, did ya hear that? She talked!" Snips exclaimed. He turned back to the girl. "Sunset, I don't know what you're talking about, but it's time to go home, okay?"
"We even got some hot chocolate because it's cold!" Snails added with an encouraging smile.
Slowly, she picked her head up to look at them with a tear-stained face. She shook her head sadly.
"I don't deserve this."
"No, I know, Sunset. You should be living in a big house with all-"
"No, Snips. I don't deserve you guys." She stood up. "I don't deserve to be living in your house, to have my own room, or to have you be so kind to me when I treat you like absolute garbage." The two boys looked at her with an odd expression for a moment, then smiled.
"Aw, c'mon, Sunset. We knew you didn't have a job or nothing," Snips started.
"Or a place to stay!"
"So what were we s'posed to do? Let you be a hobo?"
"But Senior year is almost over!" Sunset exclaimed, "We moved into the house during the Summer, and I haven't helped pay a single month's rent! I don't help with the groceries, and you've been buying me stuff since day one! How could I... How could I ever make it up to you? After I've treated you like I was so much better.... when I'm not..."
"B'chure nice sometimes too," Snails pointed out, "just not when you're fighting with other girls."
"Yeah, Sunset, like when you help us with our homework or with studying, or when you volunteer at that elementary school, or do those jobs for the teachers..."
"But doing those things wasn't for a good reason. Volunteering earns volunteer hours, which we all need to graduate, I was playing teacher's pet to be on the faculty's good side, and helping you guys with your work.... well... I couldn't get over how... dumb you seemed to me.... all these "good" things you think I do had all the wrong intentions! I'm not a good person, I-"
"Then do 'em for the right things," Snips said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"But-"
"It's okay, Sunset. We forgive you. We know you had a rough past and didn't wanna talk about it, but if you ever do, we'll listen. But right now it's really cold and windy, and it's getting really late... it's time to go home."
She looked at the two boys with confusion.
"But I-"
"That wasn't a question, now c'mon," Snails took her right hand in his left as he said this, and Snips took the other.
"...O-okay," she managed to say through new tears. She was lead to the truck and buckled into the passenger seat. Snips headed to the driver's seat while Snails jumped into the bed of the truck, and soon the vehicle was on its way.
"Darn it, Snails, I think she's like really sick..."
"Will we have to take her too the doctor?"
"I hope not. I mean, we got some basic cold stuff and we could always buy some non-prescription drugs... Hey, maybe you're mom would know something? Didn't used to be a doctor?"
"She was a nurse, but that's like the same I think."
"Alright, so we'll call her tomorrow." Snips sighed. "I just hope she'd okay."
"Me too..." Snails scratched the back of his head with one hand. "Hey, do you think she meant all that stuff? Like, do you think she really feels bad?"
"Why of course, Snails! Why would she lie to us?"
"Well, I mean she has before, right?"
"About what?"
"Like, where she's from."
"Huh?"
"I heard that Twilight Sparkle say something about her being from another world..."
"And you're just gonna believe her?" Snips said slightly angry. "And besides; even if she is from a different dimension or something, she never said she wasn't."
"She never said anything about her past at all..."
"And that's up to her, Snails. She'll tell us if she wants to." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "And what she said didn't seem fake. We've seen her force tears for teachers before, and it didn't look anything like that."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Snails stood up and walked over to the kitchen. He picked up a steaming mug and dropped a few marshmallows in. "Think I should bring her some hot chocolate?"
"Sure, I guess. I'll come with you; I wanna see how she's doing."
The two boys walked down to a door near the end of the hallway and knocked on it cautiously.
"Hey, Sunset?" Snips called out.
"We brought you some hot chocolate," Snails said.
But there was no answer.
"Sunset?" Both boys asked simultaneously.
Still there was no response.
Snips and Snails exchanged a worried look before Snips opened the door. Usually, they would find her texting away on her phone as she laid stomach down on her bed, legs crossed and an amused expression on her face. Or she'd be sitting at her small desk completing some homework or formulating some plan of hers.
But she wasn't on her bed.
She wasn't at her desk.
In fact, she wasn't in her room at all.
The window next to her twin-sized bed was open wide, allowing the chilling night air to seep into the room. Upon closer inspection, it was found that the bush underneath the window was crushed in various places, and it was made obvious that someone had left the small house through this exit.
"Oh my gosh! Snails, go call the police!"
"O-okay!" the taller boy ran off to find a phone and left Snips looking out the window. He'd known Sunset Shimmer long enough to know that she wouldn't have been kidnapped without a - considerably loud - fight, so she'd probably left on her own. But that didn't exactly ease his nervousness. In her current condition, both emotionally and physically, he was sure she was putting herself in danger.
A simple missing person's report to the police wouldn't hurt anything in the least.
"Gosh, Sunset, where'd you go?" He then turned and left the room.
Sunset Shimmer half ran half stumbled down the street in a semi-frantic state of mind. Left turn, right turn, right turn... she made each move almost instinctively, muscle memory taking over as she ran through the night. The cool air cut through her heart like a dagger. Few cars passed her as she made her way down the sidewalk, and sightings of vehicles became less and less as she got closer and closer to her final destination.
Soon she found herself looking up at the dark maroon colored main building of the Canterlot Public High School. And, more importantly, the large white marble statue of the "Canterlot Wondercolt". Some part of her mind still scoffed at the name; this was obviously a depiction of an adult Saddle Arabian, not a Pony colt. It had taken some getting used to, at first, that the mascot of the school was a creature she used to resemble. In a way.
But of course, she wasn't here to ponder the oddness of the mascot choice.
She walked up to the statue with some form of calmness, her legs making a shaky attempt of movement as she approached the statue. As soon as she was within a few inches distance from the large base of the structure, she collapsed in a heap of sobs and tears.
"I-I'm s-sorry!" she wailed suddenly, seemingly at the base of the statue, "I d-didn't mean t-to... I just wanted to b-be the best I could be... I tried so hard..." She pulled herself up into a sitting position, her right side leaning against the large, smooth stone. She still sniffled slightly, but seemed to calm down as well. She ran her left hand down the cold surface, fingers pushing against it as if trying to pass through.
"Why didn't you try to stop me, Princess Celestia? Why did you let me go?" she mumbled quietly to herself, "I thought that I was your most faithful student... but you replaced me... with her." She shifted so that her back was resting against the chilling mass of stone and drew up her legs so that she could hug her knees to herself in warmth and comfort. "I thought I was special... but I guess she was better, huh, Princess? You were probably waiting for me to leave," she muttered coldly. "I leave for three years and you've already got someone new to take my place? Someone who became an alicorn, a princess? You must have been planning it out to a T to accomplish all that in just three years..."
She looked up to the sky and focused on a particular three stars.
"Almost three years until..." she sighed, "three years until the portal opens, and then what? I can't go back, not after what I did... not after what I did to your student and what I tried to do to Equestria... Was I really that replaceable? 'Oh look, my student is gone! Whelp, I guess I'll just have to go down to the Student Store to pick up a new one! Gosh, I really struck the jackpot this time! I think I'll make her a freakin' princess!' " Wild hand gestures accompanied her mocking antics, and new tears formed in her eyes.
"What happened to the 'great potential' I had, Celestia? What happened to 'I'll always be there for you'? I-I let you down once, and you don't think I'm good enough anymore... I failed where Twilight Sparkle succeeded. I'm sorry I couldn't bear the sense of failure... I r-ran away like a c-coward!" She started crying again, her face buried in her knees. "I could have had that life... friends... being a princess... an alicorn... b-but.. I ran away from it all...."
"Sunset Shimmer? Is that you?" a feminine voice called out. Sunset looked up to see a familiar face.
"A-applejack?" she said in disbelief, "W-what are you d-"
"What am I doing here? Well I was just about to ask you the same thing, sugar-cube." The farm-girl said as she walked towards Sunset. "What're you doing here all alone at school at this hour? Everyone's out looking for you."
"...Everyone?" she asked skeptically.
"That's right. Those fellas, Snips and Snails, were right worried about you. They came a'hollering to me and my friends to help look for you." Applejack sat down next to her with a warm smile. "They care about you a lot, ya'know."
"I do know," she nodded solemnly, "It's a lot more than I deserve."
"What're you talking about?"
"After everything I've done... treating the school like a toy and then nearly destroying it... I don't deserve such kindness."
"Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute!" Applejack exclaimed. She moved in front of the forlorn girl and place her hands upon her shoulders. Looking her straight in the eyes, she continued, "Everybody, and I mean Everybody, deserves a second chance. And sometimes that chance ain't their second, or ain't even their tenth, but all that matters is that they're willing to change. Now I saw you that night, Sunset. You were crying up a storm because you were sorry. You weren't sorry that you failed, or that you were found out or nothing, but you were guilty. You felt bad about what you'd done."
"B-but how..?"
"Now I might not be the shiniest apple in the bushel," she chucked, "but I know I lie when I see one. I like to call it my little 'super power'. And my super power works both ways; what I saw there was the honest truth. You were sorry, and you wanted to fix everything. Now the school's all fixed up, and you helped out every step of the way."
"I was supposed to.."
"Well, yeah, but I ain't never seen someone in trouble carry out their punishment with such determination. You wanted to make up for your mistakes." She lowered her arms and rested her palms on the ground and studied her for a moment. "And you don't feel like you've done enough, do you?"
"I don't think I'll ever be able to.."
"See, this is how I know you can do it!" she stood up and offered Sunset a hand. "Somebody who didn't wanna change wouldn't be feeling like this, now would they? Hey, they might play goody-two-shoes and fix up the school all nice and tidy, but then they'd be straight back to their old ways. You? Well, it's been three weeks since the school's been back in operation, and we've barely seen hide nor hair of you." She continued to hold out her hand. "And don't you try to say that this could easily all be an act. It coulda been, but my super power woulda warned me." She winked. "Now are you gonna get up, or what? My arm's getting tired!"
Sunset Shimmer stared at the hand for a moment, as if wondering if it were a joke or not.
Then she smiled a smile full of thanks and gratitude before grasping the hand in her own and pulling herself up.
"See, now that wasn't so har-" Applejack was cut off as Sunset embraced her.
"Thank you, Applejack," she said softly.
"Aw, shucks, sugar-cube. Ain't nothing!" she chuckled. A few moments passed, and the hug began to feel a bit awkward. "Uh, sugar-cube? Sunset?" Then the girl's weight shifted, and Applejack knew something was wrong. "Sunset, are you alright?" a few moments passed, and a few soft nudges confirmed her suspicions. "Darnit, she done passed out! Snips did say somethin' about her being sick..."
Carefully, the farm girl carried Sunset to a bench and set her on it. As soon as she was no longer carrying her, Applejack pulled out a cellphone and texted a group message to her friends, Snips, and Snails saying that she'd found her. She then called for an ambulance.
"Oh Lord, please let her be okay..."
"Is she going to be alright?" a girl with purple hair and blue eyes asked, hands clasped together in worry.
"Yes, though it's going to take some time for her to recuperate," the doctor answered.
"D'you know why she passed out in the first place?" Applejack asked.
"What's wrong with her?" Snips blurted out, earning a kick to the shins from Snails. "What?"
"Well, to answer both your questions, it looks like she hasn't been eating."
"Hasn't been eating?" Snails gasped in disbelief.
"But she lives with us! How couldn't we notice that?" Snips added in equal surprise.
"Oh dear..." a girl with pink hair and turquoise eyes murmured softly.
"Patients exhibiting eating disorders tend to be good at hiding it, at least for a little while," the doctor stated.
"But just not eating?" another girl with magenta eyes and rainbow hair said, "How could anyone do that?"
"Most often, a patient won't eat to lose weight. And that could be for a number of reasons."
"But she never said anything about thinking she was fat!" Snip's squeaky voice exclaimed. Snails kicked him again. "Hey!"
"Oh, the poor dear... she must have been feeling simply terrible after what happened last month," the girl with purple hair said sadly.
"Last month?" the doctor asked, curious.
"Well, I can't really go into details, but basically poor Sunset Shimmer was responsible for the destruction at our school... it was purely by accident, of course, but we could tell she felt simply terrible about it."
"Rarity, it ain't our place to be talking about her like this."
"Oh, come now, Applejack. That little tidbit won't harm anyone; did that help, doctor?"
"I believe so," he said thoughtfully. He turned to Snips and Snails, "You two said you live with her? What is your relation?"
"Well uh, she's a friend," Snails started.
"But we're like siblings," Snips concluded.
"Okay, so how has Sunset's behavior been this past week?"
"Well, she's been really quiet..." Snails trailed off, as if thinking, "except when she's crying."
"Crying? How so?"
"I dunno, she just cries. She says stuff sometimes about how she's sorry and stuff. All we know is that she feels bad about... er, what happened last month," Snips said.
"Hmm, well my suspicions are that she has been suffering from a case of typical depression. Symptoms include loss of appetite, loss of or too much sleep, and pervasive sadness."
"What's 'pervasive' mean?" Snips, Snails, and the rainbow-haired girl asked at the same time.
"He means that she always seemed sad, and made others around her feel sad," Rarity said quickly.
"Oh," they responded.
"That does sound like Sunset..." said Snails.
"Yeah... she hasn't really been sleeping or anything," Snips agreed.
"So Sunset's depressed?"
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity quipped at the magenta-eyed girl.
"What? It's a valid question."
"When I was talkin' to her, before she fainted, she did sound pretty depressed..." Applejack consented, "but right before she went, she seemed like she was ready to take the first step in the right direction."
"Well, when she wakes up, the hospital staff will determine whether she needs therapy or not." He scribbled something down on his clipboard and cleared his throat. "Now Mr. Snips, Mr. Snails? I just need to ask you a few simple questions, and then have you fill out these forms."
The boys nodded.
"Alright then. What is the age of Sunset Shimmer?"
"Uh, 18."
"But she's gonna be 19 in like three months!"
"That leads to the next question; when is her birthday?"
Two adults in clean white uniforms sat in the break room of the hospital. It wasn't so much a break room as it was a place for doctors and nurses to discuss their patients, but it was called that nonetheless.
"Are you sure?" A woman wearing a nurse's hat said. The hat displayed a red cross with four small light-pink hearts around it.
"Yes, Red Heart, I'm positive."
"But Doctor Stable!" the woman exclaimed, "that would mean-"
"Now, don't go jumping to conclusions."
"But you just said yourself that she looked exactly like her!" Red Heart said.
"Please don't-"
"She's come back from the dead!"
"Seriously, Red Heart, please. Why must zombies and necromancy be your go-to solution for everything?"
"I don't use it for everything," she scoffed.
"Why would someone with the flu be a zombie?" he deadpanned.
"He had all the symptoms!" she protested, "greenish skin, a void look in his eyes, and he grabbed me!"
"He was falling over because you made him stand up."
"I had to see if he could follow commands like a normal person!"
"Then you screamed and left the room, letting him fall to the floor and throw up. All over himself. Every where"
"Well it's not my fault that I-"
"Watch too many zombie movies?"
"I was going to say 'was misled into believing I was in danger'," the nurse huffed, "and what about this girl, hmm?"
"Well, I do think it's the same person."
"But our only records of a Sunset Shimmer in the country are of a seven year old girl who died eleven years ago!"
"Making this Sunset Shimmer exactly the correct age to be that very girl," he said thoughtfully, "everything that those boys said about her matched up with what we had on file, except for her -post now, since she's 18 - legal guardians because they didn't know." He sighed. "You know, the body was never found..."
"You think she survived?"
"As unlikely as surviving the flash flood that swept away her house and her family is, it's the only logical explanation for her existence. According to the boys she's been living with, she popped up about three years ago and one of their moms took her in. She had said she didn't want to talk about her past, so they never brought it up. Over the summer, they rented a house together, but Sunset's name isn't signed anywhere. They said it was because she said she 'couldn't'." He wiped some sweat away from his forehead. "Red, I don't think this girl wants to be found."
"But Doctor!" she exclaimed, "We're going to report this, right?"
"No, no we're not. We're going to dispose of those files, and pretend she was never here."
"But-"
"You heard me, Nurse Red Heart. This poor girl has suffered enough... this is the least we can do for her."
Red Heart stared at him with uncertainty for a moment before letting out a long sigh.
"Sometimes I wonder why I ever listen to you. If anyone finds out, we'll get in so much trouble..."
"Hey, you're only in trouble if you get caught!" he chuckled.
"Alright, 'mr. funny', so what are we going to do with her? I know no one else is really here right now, but how are we going to sneak her out?"
"Well, she appears to be fine. She doesn't need an I.V. or any force feeding; she woke up about an hour ago and ate willingly, and she wasn't dehydrated when I checked her. I'm going to give her a few vitamins, but she should be able to go home in an hour or so. I know it sounds crass, but we're honestly lucky she passed out so early on; it wasn't so much due to starvation as it was to exhaustion, both emotional and physical."
"Well at least that's taken care of," she said. She shifted in her seat. "So are you sure she's not a-"
"She's not a zombie, Red Heart."
"...okay."
When Sunset Shimmer woke up again, she wasn't in the hospital anymore. She sat up slowly and found that she was laying on a very comfortable recliner in front of a warm fire. The fire place had an ornate frame that matched the crowning that lined the ceiling; a dark chocolaty brown wood for the crowing, and beautiful alabaster marble for the frame. Even with her knowledge of Canterlot life, it didn't take a noble to realize that this house was owned by an incredibly well-off family.
The question was, who's family was it?
Trying to piece together why and how she was in this strange place, Sunset suddenly remembered the hospital. She remembered waking up, eating a small serving of ramen and saltines, then falling asleep again. She began to panic. If she'd been in the hospital... someone would have had to figure out there was something fishy about her identity, right? She'd lived long enough in this world to notice that the social security worked more or less the same. Wouldn't they dub her as an identity thief?
But... then they wouldn't have let her go. And this didn't look like a prison...
"Oh, you're awake! How are you feeling, darling?"
"...Rarity?" she asked, flabbergasted.
"Yes, dear, it's Rarity. How are you feeling?" she repeated her question as she walked towards her, a glass of water in her hand. "Are you thirsty? Hungry?"
"Where's Snips and Snails?"
"They're asleep in one of the guest rooms. They've only been asleep for a few minutes; they wouldn't stop worrying about you. I had to chase them upstairs to make sure they didn't wake you up!" she said jokingly. "Here, Doctor Stable recommended that you take these vitamins. They'll help you get better." She set the cup of water on an end table near the recliner next to three small capsules.
"Did he ask ... any weird questions?"
"Weird questions? Well I can't say he did. Just the usual; name, age, birthday, et cetera, et cetera."
"Oh. Okay." She shifted under the rather large comforter on her. "I... I am a little hungry..."
"I thought you might be." She smiled. "If you'd like a simple snack, I've got most anything; apples, yogurts, crackers and cheese, chips and dip. Just name it. And if you want anything like soup or a sandwich, I can get that for you too. Just don't expect anything like chicken parmesan; I'm not the best cook."
Sunset simply gaped, not fully comprehending Rarity's words.
"W-wh.."
"What was that, Sunset?"
"Why?" she said softly, "Why so generous?"
"Oh, darling, the real question is, 'why not'?" she chuckled and sat down on the couch next to the recliner. She closed her eyes and sighed wistfully.
"I have a little sister, you know. Her name is Sweetie Belle, the little darling. When she was only three, we had the misfortune of 'misplacing' her, as it were, and you can imagine the anxiety my mother was suffering from. I was eight years old, so I couldn't do much to help... I couldn't even ask the children from the neighborhood to help look for her because I hadn't made any efforts to get to know them; I'd thought that since my parents were well off, I was better than them. A few hours passed until my parents came home saying she'd been found by the police and that we were to go pick her up immediately.
"But when we got there, we found that it wasn't the police who'd found her at all; it was a young woman. She didn't stick around for our gratitude and praise, but an officer enlightened us on her story. She'd been at the mall enjoying some frozen yogurt near the toddler's play place indoors, and could see directly into the area. She noticed a little girl who didn't seem to be with any parents, so she decided to stay until they returned. The longer she waited, the more her suspicion was confirmed; parents came and went with their children, and not a single adult identified with this lone toddler.
"She was about to call mall security when she noticed a rather shady fellow take interest in the girl, and though at first she'd thought that the parents had finally come, it became clear that someone else had noticed what she'd noticed. My sister was alone, so he was going to take her. She quickly got up and, luckily, called out 'Sweety' to get her attention to which she responded immediately. The man quickly left, and this woman took my sister to her car and called 911. She reported finding a child and an attempted kidnapping, and the police came post-haste.
"And even with doing all of that, we found that our dear Sweetie Belle had been well taken care of before the arrival of the police. She'd been fed, taken to the bathroom, and even had a small teddy bear. This woman had done all she could for us, and we never even learned her name..." Rarity murmured. "Sorry for such a long story dear, but the point is is that if that woman hadn't done what she did, we probably would have never seen Sweetie again. It was then that I realized that I shouldn't be so selfish with my things; there were others much, much worse off than me. Wouldn't they enjoy them better? And why not always offer help? Help is something that people tend to withhold the most... Being generous is about helping others the best you can, like that woman all those years ago."
"I.. I see.." Sunset said thoughtfully. "But what about-"
"It's not about what the person feels they deserve," Rarity interrupted, "but rather, it's about what the other person can do to help. It doesn't matter what they've done; everyone is the same and should be treated equally. And that equality should be the best any person could give.
"So no matter what you say, I'm not going to with-hold my generosity from you because of something that happened in the past."
"..Thank you." She allowed a small smile to come to her face.
"Now I'm going to go get you some chicken noodle soup - is that alright? - and after that, you need to get back to resting. I'll be back in a little while. Try to get some sleep while you wait, okay darling? The doctor said it was important that you did."
Sunset nodded, a full smile on her face.
Maybe things were going to start looking up after all.
Author's Note
Don't shoot me okay
I like Sunset Shimmer //dies//
