Daybreakby Eternal ChroniclerChapters1: A step in the wrong direction2: All stray animals3: Not That BrightPrologue: Defeated1: A step in the wrong directionGetting ready for school that morning was harder than usual. Not only did Sunset Shimmer's body ache in more places than she cared to count, or even thought possible due to the work over the weekend, but also because she was having an internal dispute as to what she should do. The first thing that came to mind was to move out of the apartment; it had been rented with stolen money anyway, and she didn't need that haunting her along with her recent upstart. She knew it wasn't a particularly smart decision, but as she packed her backpack she found herself sitting at the edge of her bed fumbling for her key. She wasn't sure how long she sat there staring at it, but it was long enough that she was nearly late for school. When she arrived at the building, the drew up short once she noticed a huge crowd of students gathered around the newly-repaired front of the school, looking on as murmurs of confusion sputtered through the crowd. It had been utterly destroyed not three days ago; Sunset couldn't blame them for being confused about how it had been fixed so quickly. For the second time in five days, she was keenly aware of how close to breaking her back felt. "Just play it cool, Sunset Shimmer." Sunset tried to calm herself as she made her way through the crowd - which had managed to part an opening for her as she recognized the fearful looks in her fellow students' faces. The day was off to a bad start already. "Just... play it cool." Aside from her brooding emotional state and the constant feeling of far too many eyes watching her, the day went by without incident. More than once, she found herself contemplating looking for help, but even the girls she had come to know as the Freshman Five - as it wasn't long after the Freshman Fair that year when she had broken them up - seemed to have every intention of keeping their distance, and in spite of Twilight Sparkle's assurrance that they would be able to help her learn the wonders of friendship, without Twilight there, they shunned her as much as everybody else. The only relief she found throughout the day was at lunch, when her solitude in the corner of the cafeteria hall was interrupted by the only two people she had confided in since coming to the human world: Snips and Snails. She managed a faint smile at that, but kept eating in silence even as they sat down. "Nice work on the front, Sunset Shimmer." Snails offered, his voice slurring ever so slightly with his praise. At the very least, he was straightforward, and he was fairly good at breaking the ice. Sunset Shimmer sighed. "Thanks." She looked up to the rest of the students mingling. "But I still have to make things right for the rest of them." "Oh c'mon." Snips cut in. "You fixed all the damage you caused, what more do you want?" "It isn't the same." Sunset insited, her hand coming down on the table a little harder than she would have liked. "I fixed one day - no, twenty minutes of damage. What about the last two and a half years?" Snips had nothing to say to that. Snails rarely had anything to say anyway, and that was no exception. The voice that did have something to say caught her off guard, and she nearly slid right out of her chair in alarm. "Then y'all'd best get to workin' on it." "Applejack?" Sunset blinked, turning her head to look at the junior cowgirl. "What are you doing here?" Applejack shrugged, taking a seat; Sunset Shimmer noticed she didn't have a food tray with her. "Pinkie Pie says y'all've been lookin' broody all day, said someone aughtta try talkin' to ya." Snips and Snails exchanged a look; Sunset Shimmer nearly came out of her chair again, but was quickly put back in her place. "You done wrong, Sunset Shimmer. Just 'cause the school's fixed up dun't mean y'all're makin' things right." Sunset nodded, taking it all in with a sigh. "But how do I-" She started, but Applejack was already on her way back to her friends. Almost comically and with a resounding thud, Sunset's forehead crashed to the table in front of her. * * * * * The rest of Monday didn't manage to merit any mention; the daily monotony was, to put it simply, entirely routine. Tuesday wasn't any better, but in between classes, she bumped into Rainbow Dash, who seemed altogether in the sort of hurry that demanded quick moving, but she did manage to stop and see who it was she nearly ran over. The pale blue junior frowned once she saw who it was, but came down to help Sunset gather up her dropped books anyway. "Thanks," Sunset offered meekly, pulling the books and a handful of notes close to her chest as she stood up. "I umm..." "Don't wanna hear it." Rainbow interrupted her, subsequently ignoring Sunset's groan of protest. "I bumped into you, I helped you get your stuff back together. As far as that goes, we're even." Sunset blinked. "But-" "Nuh-uh." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You've still got a lot to make up for if you think you're gonna get away with the past two years." "But Twilight said-" "Twilight Sparkle..." Rainbow began, every word deliberate, "-said my friends and me could teach you about friendship, and I'm gonna teach you that if you want to make friends, you gotta be able to make all that mess up to 'em." Sunset Shimmer grimaced. Sensing that she had gotten the point, Rainbow Dash turned and kept on down the hallway. * * * * * Another night of the same nightmare later, and Sunset awoke to find herself violently ill. The nightmares had not gotten worse by any means, but after most of a week with her only rest driving the point home of how horrible she had been, she couldn't take any more, and the stress was coming off poorly for her health. There was no way she could take to going to school after starting the day off as wretched as it was. Instead, she decided to get her laptop and look over a collection of notes she had retained from her studies in Equestria. Of the Elements of Harmony, of Princess Celestia's personal history, of magic in general. Trying to remember when life was not entirely about her cruelty and manipulation. She didn't know how long she sat there reminiscing over her old life as a private student of Princess Celestia's, but her reverie was cut by the sound of her doorbell - which, she noted, was the first time she had ever heard a doorbell in that world. She nearly fell out of bed. Standing at the doorway was Fluttershy, her face half-hidden behind a curtain of bright pink hair and she gave the slightest squeak as Sunset opened the door, as if just seeing her had somehow frightened the most kindhearted girl in the entire school. Sunset didn't know what to think; there was no way Fluttershy could have known where she lived... "Oh, good." Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper and her posture and expression clashing obtrusively with any belief of anything good going on. "You're okay." "Um... yeah. I woke up sick. It was bad, but nothing too serious. How did you..." Fluttershy squeaked again, backing away a little. Sunset cut herself off and leaned against her doorframe. "The others were worried, so I thought maybe I should see if you were okay. Uhm... I'll be going now." Fluttershy nodded, already turning to leave. "Fluttershy, wait!" Sunset called after her, but she was too late, and frankly she didn't have the energy in her to chase the softspoken girl any further than her porch. * * * * * Thursday proved to be the best day of the week so far. Sunset Shimmer went out of her way before school even started to seek out Principal Celestia to investigate a suspicion. It had always seemed to her that she was a lot like Princess Celestia, for as similar as someone could get to resembling a magical princess from Equestria without having any semblance of magic. What prompted her to seek her out however, was a recollection of pony mythology - specifically, the Mare in the Moon. If Celestia could be so similar, and she was in fact Vice Principal Luna's older sister, then it stood to reason that something had happened between them, and they had still gotten along after the fact. It was a ridiculous gamble, but Sunset Shimmer needed to have some knowledge on where she could start. Instead, she only confirmed a sense of sibling rivalry stemming from being born ten years apart. Resigned yet again, Sunset Shimmer went about the rest of her day as she normally would have, keeping the day before's encounter with Fluttershy and the resulting questions it raised top in her mind. "Sunset Shimmer!" The voice was a high-pitched one, behind which was an easily recognizeable junior student with an arguable addiction to sugar. As Pinkie Pie skipped up to her, she stopped with a wide smile. "How've you been?" Sunset was dubious, but the ecstatic energy that seemed to simply ripple off of Pinkie Pie managed to prompt a small, sheepish smile. The wave of awkward and embarrassing relief made her feel somewhat empathetic for Fluttershy, almost spontaneously; she seemed much like the same, except all the time. "I've... been..." Sunset started. "...Having problems." She admitted. "Well of course you have, silly!" Pinkie giggled, giving Sunset Shimmer a noogie that was neither called for nor exactly comfortable, but it was still a more friendly gesture than she had gotten from anyone else so far. "You're still living in the past and being all wishy washy about all the stuff that happened then!" "How can't I?" Sunset Shimmer retorted, sweeping her hand out to the rest of the school. "It's not like I can take back two and a half years of what I did." "Nnnnnope!" Pinkie Pie agreed, giving a little bounce. "But you're just looking at it alllll wrong. You've gotta take your eyes away from behind you and put them back in the front of your head, where they belong!" Sunset could only imagine she meant to say 'stop dwelling in the past', but there was one thing she knew Pinkie Pie was not, and that was 'ordinary'. "If you can't fix the past, you've just got to make the future better!" Pinkie went on. "Like pie! If there's nothing you can do to fix it, you can still make it better!" "Wha-?" "Not the pie, silly." Pinkie Pie scolded, Sunset's question not even started to leave her mouth. "Well, yes the pie. You can't make the pie better, but you can add more good stuff to it." "But-" "Then it'll be good pie with good stuff with it! Like ice cream and whipped cream and strawberries and powdered sugar and-" "I think I get it." Sunset interrupted her, putting a hand on the bubbly student's shoulder to keep her from gushing any more. "And, thanks, Pinkie." "Oh, don't thank me now." Pinkie Pie giggled. "You can thank me when it pays off!" But with that, she skipped away, leaving Sunset Shimmer feeling as if she had been given the missing puzzle piece in a still-unsolved puzzle. * * * * * "Well, I guess that makes it your turn." Sunset Shimmer approached Rarity, who appeared to be waiting for her Friday on her way to lunch. "Whatever gave you that idea, darling?" Rarity questioned, prompting a raised eyebrow. "Have you been looking in on what we've been doing?" "Huh? No..." "Well, it turns out you're right. I was waiting for you." Rarity announced, right as an announcement came over the intercom from Principal Celestia. "Good afternoon students, and happy Friday. I just wanted to remind everyone that the secret santa exchange will be starting today, and going on through next week. If you want to participate, just take a name from the wreath hanging in the cafeteria. That is all." Rarity looked dour at the news, but she quickly brightened up and zipped into the cafeteria, coming back with a dozen named sheets in her hands - four of which Sunset Shimmer recognized as each of her closest friends in the school. "Now, where was I?" Rarity smiled. "About to begin, I think." Sunset blinked, amazed by the tenacity with which Rarity elected to freely participate. "Well, I'm certain by now you've noticed we've each been keeping an eye out for you like we promised." Rarity began. At Sunset Shimmer's nod, she continued. "And we each want to help, but what you don't seem to realize is that you're not going to get anything done by sitting and crying in a corner all day." "What?" Sunset stammered, taking a step back. "I haven't -" "Of course not, darling. It's just a figure of speech." Rarity smiled beautifully, leaving Sunset Shimmer feeling, yet again, impossibly humbled. "But if you want to make a difference for the better, you can't just expect someone to give better to you, either." Sunset said nothing. Rarity took the hint, smiled again and stepped into the cafeteria. "Now come on darling. You don't want to miss lunch. That's a poor way to recover from a sick day." As Sunset Shimmer stepped in, she noticed only two names still hung on the wreath spanning the east wall of the cafeteria; her own, and Rarity's. Neither were a surprise; no one wanted to give the school's mascot of fear anything on top of her reputation for demands, and no one had anything to give - nor the means to get anything to give - that would meet Rarity's standards of a gift. Peeking over her shoulder to ensure Rarity wasn't looking, Sunset reached up and pulled the junior beauty's name from the wreath. An idea was quickly forming in her mind, as if the puzzle she imagined from the day before had just been pieced together at the edges to make its frame. Now she needed to act on it, to fill in the space in between. 2: All stray animalsAs school let out for the weekend to begin, Sunset Shimmer made her way alone to the statue at the front of CHS and stared into her reflection. Whether it was her mind playing tricks on her or some manner of magic in the portal that had closed, but she could have sworn she saw the goldenrod unicorn that was herself staring back at her. The sight made her heart ache, but unlike before, it was not the feeling of a suffocating vice clamping down to choke her into despair, but more of a dull throb. She was still lost, still without friends - perhaps not entirely without, but Snips and Snails seemed like they were only taking sides to be in league with the best. Maybe they felt she had grown into being their friend, but she questioned whether that allegiance was a healthy one. Deciding it better to wait some time before heading home, Sunset shimmer leaned against the base of the statue and slid down against it, allowing herself a moment in the dark to just let it all out. The suffering of the past week was one she knew she deserved, but there was some good to it. As she felt the tears begin to slide down her cheeks, she balled a hand into a fist and clenched at air as if the tension in her arm would distract her from the sorrow. She had to come up with a plan. An idea struck her after some time, hard enough that her head went flying into the base of the wondercolt statue. With a slight "ow" and while rubbing the back of her head where she had made the impact, she came up to her feet. To her surprise, Vice Principal Luna stood not two steps away, for who knew how long. Again, Sunset Shimmer gave a start. "I heard you have been asking about me." The vice principal stated, eliciting a slight nod from the student. "With everything that has happened, I am surprised you would ask about me, rather than someone you know." What could she possibly say to that? Sunset Shimmer reeled, but with a quick glance around she sank back against the statue. "Where I come from," she began, "there's a legend about a mare whose problems with her older sister ended up getting her banished to the moon forever." Vice Principal looked a little confused, but gave a nod. "What does that have to do with asking me about my..." She paused, seeming to piece that together with a slight surprise. "The mare was once known as Princess Luna." Sunset informed her, pulling up her knees and hugging them closer to her chest. "I guess I got it in my head that maybe you might have been... well, more like how I was, a long time ago... I guess I was wrong." Luna seemed to take her time absorbing everything she said. After a moment, she offered Sunset Shimmer her hand. "This is not a conversation we should be having in the cold." She offered. "If you have time, I would like to speak with you in my office." * * * * * "My sister and I do share our differences." Vice Principal Luna explained, sitting down at her desk and looking over folded hands to Sunset Shimmer. "When I was about your age, I was indeed jealous of her, and I even left my entire family just so I could go on without her. What followed was... unpleasant, and I do not want to repeat anything I had done, but it was a very dark time in my life." Sunset nodded, drinking it all in without a word. "Eventually, I was thrown in jail for a year and reprimanded for most of my misdeeds. When my term was done, I wandered back home and made things up with my sister." Luna nodded. "I see a lot of who I was during that year in you now, Sunset Shimmer." * * * * * When she got home, Sunset Shimmer immediately found her laptop and began searching online for every spot of information she could about the five friends she had broken up during her sophomore year. She had spent the trip back thinking of ways she could make it up to everyone individually, since it had occurred to her that there was no way to make amends for everybody at once. If she was going to set things right, she was going to have to make it personal, and that meant getting to know them better on a personal level. To her chagrin, her search was far too easy - made so primarily by the illicit software she had coerced Key Stroke into getting her access to. Honestly, the hardest part for her was to determine who she would focus on first. It took her nearly an hour to decide, but she decided to settle on Fluttershy. She was the only one to express concern so straight to her, and she suspected her reputation as the most compassionate student at CHS was going to lend itself to making her not easy, but less strenuous all the same. It wasn't long before Sunset had hacked into Fluttershy's emails and chat history. Unsurprisingly, she had quite a history for the past week alone with each of her four best friends. Opening the history, Sunset began to read, feeling a little guilty that she was making such an invasion of privacy to better understand the people she hoped to rightly earn as friends of her own. With Applejack: Howdy, Fluttershy. I heard you were having second thoughts about Sunset Shimmer. What's on your mind, girl? Well, I just...; Are we doing the right thing? What do you mean? Keeping our distance. I mean, it's like we're spying on her. You saw her, she's broken to pieces! How can we just stand back and be so cold to her? Have you spit your bit or something? You remember she was the one to split us all up, right? I know, but I wasn't expecting her to take it that hard.... Just you wait, Fluttershy. She's pulled this act before with Rarity, remember? How can you say that! It's true, isn't it? But what if it isn't? What if she's really hurting and we're just making it worse? Then maybe she'll understand the truth of the matter. She's done wrong, now she's gotta make things right from here. ... Look, it's getting late, and I've still got chores to do. We'll talk more tomorrow, y'hear? Okay.... Good night, Applejack. With Rainbow Dash: You'll never guess who I ran into in the halls today. Uhm, who? Sunset Shimmer. I decided I'd jump the ball and give her that talk we were talking about on Saturday. I don't think Rarity minds us switching it out. Oh really? How did it go? I don't know. I mean, I'm still upset about everything that happened. It's not like she's been someone to look up to for the past two years either. I know.... Hey, chin up. We've still got the rest of the week to give her an idea of what she's gotta do.; You're not still second-guessing us, are you? No. I'm just nervous. I don't know if you've seen it, but she's been looking pretty pale this week. I'm worried this will really be getting the best of her. She'll be fine. I hope you're right.... Hey, did you see who got Rarity's tag from the secret santa wreath today? I had something in mind to give to her, but when I got in to get the tag, it was already gone! No one can afford to be her secret santa, who could've done it? Sunset Shimmer blinked, checking the timestamps for the messages. Rainbow Dash's last message had only come ten minutes ago, and the chat log showed Fluttershy typing a response. Hurriedly, she backed out of the hack, her heart hammering as she realized any further looking into her history would be cause for alarm. While it wasn't the greatest insight she could have had, it did give her an idea, but it was as if the idea was upright without a foundation. As if to give her idea that very foundation, her mind flashed back to Thursday morning the week before, and she couldn't help but mouth the words in a tragic sense of deja vu. "It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals." Fluttershy was as compassionate as they said after all, and not just towards other people. She was the very definition of the school eco-kids. With her search for information disrupted and with a bitter aftertaste to the measures she had taken to getting that information, Sunset instead looked up the Canterlot Animal Shelter and saved a copy of their promotional fliers onto her hard drive. A smile found its way onto her face as she looked over several of them to find the one that would seem the most appealing to CHS students. 3: Not That BrightSunset Shimmer was back to her search almost as soon as she had printed up enough Canterlot Animal Shelter fliers to satisfy a day's worth of handouts and posting to walls. Once again she found herself drawn back to pondering who she would admittedly spy on next. She fished out the secret santa tag for Rarity and took a moment to look at it. Rainbow Dash had been planning on getting her something for the holiday season, even despite Rarity's often absurd and expensive tastes. Suddenly she wanted to know what it was the sports star was planning on getting for the fashionista. But, to her chagrin she already knew Rainbow Dash was occupied talking with Fluttershy, and poking her nose into what she was actively doing was a bad idea. Instead, Sunset Shimmer devoted her time to finding information on Rarity herself. Maybe, she figured, there was something in a more affordable reach that she wanted, that Rainbow Dash might have known about. As she went to searching however, she winced as it occurred to her that with expensive tastes fulfilled comes equally expensive tastes in security; Sunset Shimmer was not going to get information about Rarity directly. For the time being, that was out. Instead, she decided to pursue information on Applejack instead. With a grunt of dismay, she realized the search got very narrow, very fast. Applejack had no social networking accounts, her phone was serviced by F&F Wireless - a notoriously cheap but equally unreliable service, at best - and all there was to support any social networking at all was her email account. "Country folk." Sunset sighed, and immediately felt ashamed that she could generalize so easily. From: Workhorsecowgirl@walleyed.net To: Partymena@walleyed.net Subject: Re: Sunset Shimmer Hey Pinkie Pie, Sorry I'm late and all. You know how bad I am with these things. I know you've been watching me, making sure everything runs smoothly and all. I don't think she deserves for us to let her in. After all she's done, we're just gonna forgive her? What's worse, we're not even just telling it to her straight. Playing twisted mind games ain't my thing, Pinkie Pie. I'm not gonna lie to her just because I don't think she deserves better. I hope you know what you're doing. Anyway, I got chores to get to, and homework too. I'll be lucky if I get any sleep at all. Applejack Quoted Text: Hey AJ! Missed you at the get-together, but we all understand. We had the best idea EVER! Twilight said we can teach her friendship, but first we gotta make sure she's willing to learn it. So all we gotta do is tell her she's been doing it all wrong this whole time! I mean, she already knows she messed up, but we've gotta make her want to LEARN, not just throw a pity party (worst parties EVER!). Maybe if she figures that out, she'll be willing to learn from each of us. Just a hunch ^-^ Your pal, Pinkie Pie Sunset Shimmer frowned, looking the email over. It wasn't much to go by, besides the fact that Applejack was a hard worker and as honest as they come, both of which she knew already. Of the two though, she noticed one thing unusual. Applejack was not very well-off, and it seemed like she was working around the clock just to help her family make ends meet. Straightforward, honest, and hard-working were all too often traits that led to a bitter but successful person. After the weekend fixing up the school, Sunset Shimmer realized she had a much more appreciative view of a hard-working individual. Maybe she could set things right after all, even if Applejack was reluctant to let her try. If nothing else, Sunset realized with increasing flattery that these five friends had been intensely focused on setting her on the right path behind her back, and it looked like it had been Pinkie Pie's idea that had put the five of them up to it. She looked up from her computer, noticing with a sense of alarm that it was no longer light outside. Folding down her laptop, she decided to go out and get something to eat at McDo's. She was ready to learn. She was going to learn, and she intended on learning by being there for the very people she had torn apart. Five days in the school week meant she could devote an entire day to each of them. She already had a plan for Fluttershy, and another was quickly forming for Applejack. Maybe things were starting to look up after all. * * * * * That night, Sunset Shimmer's dream was mercifully not a reiteration of her defeat at the magic of friendship. Instead she found herself at the base of a stairway. Looking up, she saw all the people she hoped to gain as friends after the endeavor - even Twilight Sparkle - all together, even sporting the ears and longer hairstyles that accompanied them when their magic properly took hold. The sight was a warming one to see, and each of them were smiling down at her. Her surroundings weren't much different; the view around afforded a glimpse of something akin to a circular ampitheater, entirely stairwell all around. Simply speaking, there was nothing else. Just her, stairs and her six would-be friends waiting for her. Without much hesitation, she began running up the stairs, only to find every stair she came over was replaced again just shy of the six at the top. The revelation brought her pause, but she persisted regardless. She must have been running for hours, not once yielding to aching fatigue, but as she looked up again, the six friends gave each other a nod, and a familiar spiral vortex of rainbow colors erupted from above them. "Wait, no!" She cried out. "I haven't done anything!" Her plea was broken as the familiar force of magic bore down upon her and crushed her into the center. Prologue: DefeatedShe was crushed. At least, if there was a word to describe how Sunset Shimmer felt both physically and emotionally, she believed 'crushed' seemed the most fitting. "You will never rule in Equestria." The voice of Twilight Sparkle sounded firmly ahead and above her, resolute and altogether feeling spiteful as Sunset struggled to come even to all fours. "Any power you may have had in this world is gone." Sunset Shimmer nearly collapsed again. The blast from the vortex of magical energy had left a smoldering crater around its point of impact. In truth, she found herself lucky to still be alive, as broken as she felt. "Tonight, you've shown everyone who you really are." Twilight kept on, driving the point further and further. "You've shown them what is in your heart." But at the same time, somewhere in the recesses of Sunset Shimmer's mind, she knew it was true. Looking up, she realized who stood so tall over her. Not only by name, but by what she represented. Her plan had been to become a princess under Princess Celestia's tutelage, and had been backed by no small amount of foresight, but where she had believed power and command could earn or at least force a pony's way into that position, Twilight's looming image showed how very wrong she was to believe it. Twilight Sparkle had succeeded with the ties of friendship where her efforts in force and manipulation had failed. Seeing such a paired opposite of her intentions standing so commandingly over her told her ever so painfully that not only was there another way to achieve greatness, but it also came at no price from anyone else. Tears spilling from her cheeks, Sunset quivered slightly, all of her ambitions gone and burned away in the vortex that had consumed her only a minute ago. "I'm sorry..." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know there was another way..." "The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria." Twilight commented, her expression and posture drastically more calm and collected than the begrudging looks cast by the five others she had rallied behind her. "It's everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours." Sunset managed to pull herself up to the edge of the crater, her eyes wide with both fear and dejection at the prospects leading forward. After everything that had happened on her clandestine gamble, she found the future to look exceptionally bleak. "But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart." She whimpered, the words themselves telling her just how terrible that had been. "I don't know the first thing about friendship..." Even as her words to Twilight from the day before echoed in her mind - 'You don't know the first thing about fitting in' - she felt a hand close around her own, accompanied soon by another and the effort to pull her out of the crater altogether and back to her feet. Opening her eyes, Sunset glanced past Twilight as the equestrian princess indicated the five girls standing behind her. "I bet they can teach you." * * * * * Sunset woke with a start and gave a groan as she pulled herself out of bed. The same dream had been playing itself over and over, as if the revelation that she needed to improve her attitude wasn't obvious enough from feeling it the first time. She looked around her room, catching sight of the decorations she had all but stolen from the students at Canterlot High School. Her drive for power had built herself a reputation as a monster, as someone to be feared, and she had taken advantage of it to the point where she could simply walk up to a handful of people, make a demand, and come out with enough to afford a junior apartment. Looking around now, at the furnishings she had managed to piece together from stolen money and from raw demands alike, Sunset Shimmer couldn't do anything more than shake her head. Twilight Sparkle's words echoed in her mind's ear: she'll be handing out a lot of apologies. Reluctantly, Sunset Shimmer took her phone off the charger plugged into the wall and gave it a brief lookover. It was only 5:38 in the morning, over an hour before she was due to wake up considering it was Monday and she didn't want to be late back to school, but the feeling of her emotions had battered her all weekend to the point where she could almost feel a metaphysical vice clamping down over her heart, and the uneasiness of the feeling that went with it left her feeling sick in an altogether different way from the work she had put in over the weekend repairing the damage she'd caused to the school. Snips and Snails were assigned to help her, but the first chance she got, she had told them to just go and enjoy their weekend. It wasn't their fault she had transformed and ruined everything, so it felt wrong for them to help remedy what wasn't their doing in the first place. It was going to be a long day.
1: A step in the wrong directionGetting ready for school that morning was harder than usual. Not only did Sunset Shimmer's body ache in more places than she cared to count, or even thought possible due to the work over the weekend, but also because she was having an internal dispute as to what she should do. The first thing that came to mind was to move out of the apartment; it had been rented with stolen money anyway, and she didn't need that haunting her along with her recent upstart. She knew it wasn't a particularly smart decision, but as she packed her backpack she found herself sitting at the edge of her bed fumbling for her key. She wasn't sure how long she sat there staring at it, but it was long enough that she was nearly late for school. When she arrived at the building, the drew up short once she noticed a huge crowd of students gathered around the newly-repaired front of the school, looking on as murmurs of confusion sputtered through the crowd. It had been utterly destroyed not three days ago; Sunset couldn't blame them for being confused about how it had been fixed so quickly. For the second time in five days, she was keenly aware of how close to breaking her back felt. "Just play it cool, Sunset Shimmer." Sunset tried to calm herself as she made her way through the crowd - which had managed to part an opening for her as she recognized the fearful looks in her fellow students' faces. The day was off to a bad start already. "Just... play it cool." Aside from her brooding emotional state and the constant feeling of far too many eyes watching her, the day went by without incident. More than once, she found herself contemplating looking for help, but even the girls she had come to know as the Freshman Five - as it wasn't long after the Freshman Fair that year when she had broken them up - seemed to have every intention of keeping their distance, and in spite of Twilight Sparkle's assurrance that they would be able to help her learn the wonders of friendship, without Twilight there, they shunned her as much as everybody else. The only relief she found throughout the day was at lunch, when her solitude in the corner of the cafeteria hall was interrupted by the only two people she had confided in since coming to the human world: Snips and Snails. She managed a faint smile at that, but kept eating in silence even as they sat down. "Nice work on the front, Sunset Shimmer." Snails offered, his voice slurring ever so slightly with his praise. At the very least, he was straightforward, and he was fairly good at breaking the ice. Sunset Shimmer sighed. "Thanks." She looked up to the rest of the students mingling. "But I still have to make things right for the rest of them." "Oh c'mon." Snips cut in. "You fixed all the damage you caused, what more do you want?" "It isn't the same." Sunset insited, her hand coming down on the table a little harder than she would have liked. "I fixed one day - no, twenty minutes of damage. What about the last two and a half years?" Snips had nothing to say to that. Snails rarely had anything to say anyway, and that was no exception. The voice that did have something to say caught her off guard, and she nearly slid right out of her chair in alarm. "Then y'all'd best get to workin' on it." "Applejack?" Sunset blinked, turning her head to look at the junior cowgirl. "What are you doing here?" Applejack shrugged, taking a seat; Sunset Shimmer noticed she didn't have a food tray with her. "Pinkie Pie says y'all've been lookin' broody all day, said someone aughtta try talkin' to ya." Snips and Snails exchanged a look; Sunset Shimmer nearly came out of her chair again, but was quickly put back in her place. "You done wrong, Sunset Shimmer. Just 'cause the school's fixed up dun't mean y'all're makin' things right." Sunset nodded, taking it all in with a sigh. "But how do I-" She started, but Applejack was already on her way back to her friends. Almost comically and with a resounding thud, Sunset's forehead crashed to the table in front of her. * * * * * The rest of Monday didn't manage to merit any mention; the daily monotony was, to put it simply, entirely routine. Tuesday wasn't any better, but in between classes, she bumped into Rainbow Dash, who seemed altogether in the sort of hurry that demanded quick moving, but she did manage to stop and see who it was she nearly ran over. The pale blue junior frowned once she saw who it was, but came down to help Sunset gather up her dropped books anyway. "Thanks," Sunset offered meekly, pulling the books and a handful of notes close to her chest as she stood up. "I umm..." "Don't wanna hear it." Rainbow interrupted her, subsequently ignoring Sunset's groan of protest. "I bumped into you, I helped you get your stuff back together. As far as that goes, we're even." Sunset blinked. "But-" "Nuh-uh." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You've still got a lot to make up for if you think you're gonna get away with the past two years." "But Twilight said-" "Twilight Sparkle..." Rainbow began, every word deliberate, "-said my friends and me could teach you about friendship, and I'm gonna teach you that if you want to make friends, you gotta be able to make all that mess up to 'em." Sunset Shimmer grimaced. Sensing that she had gotten the point, Rainbow Dash turned and kept on down the hallway. * * * * * Another night of the same nightmare later, and Sunset awoke to find herself violently ill. The nightmares had not gotten worse by any means, but after most of a week with her only rest driving the point home of how horrible she had been, she couldn't take any more, and the stress was coming off poorly for her health. There was no way she could take to going to school after starting the day off as wretched as it was. Instead, she decided to get her laptop and look over a collection of notes she had retained from her studies in Equestria. Of the Elements of Harmony, of Princess Celestia's personal history, of magic in general. Trying to remember when life was not entirely about her cruelty and manipulation. She didn't know how long she sat there reminiscing over her old life as a private student of Princess Celestia's, but her reverie was cut by the sound of her doorbell - which, she noted, was the first time she had ever heard a doorbell in that world. She nearly fell out of bed. Standing at the doorway was Fluttershy, her face half-hidden behind a curtain of bright pink hair and she gave the slightest squeak as Sunset opened the door, as if just seeing her had somehow frightened the most kindhearted girl in the entire school. Sunset didn't know what to think; there was no way Fluttershy could have known where she lived... "Oh, good." Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper and her posture and expression clashing obtrusively with any belief of anything good going on. "You're okay." "Um... yeah. I woke up sick. It was bad, but nothing too serious. How did you..." Fluttershy squeaked again, backing away a little. Sunset cut herself off and leaned against her doorframe. "The others were worried, so I thought maybe I should see if you were okay. Uhm... I'll be going now." Fluttershy nodded, already turning to leave. "Fluttershy, wait!" Sunset called after her, but she was too late, and frankly she didn't have the energy in her to chase the softspoken girl any further than her porch. * * * * * Thursday proved to be the best day of the week so far. Sunset Shimmer went out of her way before school even started to seek out Principal Celestia to investigate a suspicion. It had always seemed to her that she was a lot like Princess Celestia, for as similar as someone could get to resembling a magical princess from Equestria without having any semblance of magic. What prompted her to seek her out however, was a recollection of pony mythology - specifically, the Mare in the Moon. If Celestia could be so similar, and she was in fact Vice Principal Luna's older sister, then it stood to reason that something had happened between them, and they had still gotten along after the fact. It was a ridiculous gamble, but Sunset Shimmer needed to have some knowledge on where she could start. Instead, she only confirmed a sense of sibling rivalry stemming from being born ten years apart. Resigned yet again, Sunset Shimmer went about the rest of her day as she normally would have, keeping the day before's encounter with Fluttershy and the resulting questions it raised top in her mind. "Sunset Shimmer!" The voice was a high-pitched one, behind which was an easily recognizeable junior student with an arguable addiction to sugar. As Pinkie Pie skipped up to her, she stopped with a wide smile. "How've you been?" Sunset was dubious, but the ecstatic energy that seemed to simply ripple off of Pinkie Pie managed to prompt a small, sheepish smile. The wave of awkward and embarrassing relief made her feel somewhat empathetic for Fluttershy, almost spontaneously; she seemed much like the same, except all the time. "I've... been..." Sunset started. "...Having problems." She admitted. "Well of course you have, silly!" Pinkie giggled, giving Sunset Shimmer a noogie that was neither called for nor exactly comfortable, but it was still a more friendly gesture than she had gotten from anyone else so far. "You're still living in the past and being all wishy washy about all the stuff that happened then!" "How can't I?" Sunset Shimmer retorted, sweeping her hand out to the rest of the school. "It's not like I can take back two and a half years of what I did." "Nnnnnope!" Pinkie Pie agreed, giving a little bounce. "But you're just looking at it alllll wrong. You've gotta take your eyes away from behind you and put them back in the front of your head, where they belong!" Sunset could only imagine she meant to say 'stop dwelling in the past', but there was one thing she knew Pinkie Pie was not, and that was 'ordinary'. "If you can't fix the past, you've just got to make the future better!" Pinkie went on. "Like pie! If there's nothing you can do to fix it, you can still make it better!" "Wha-?" "Not the pie, silly." Pinkie Pie scolded, Sunset's question not even started to leave her mouth. "Well, yes the pie. You can't make the pie better, but you can add more good stuff to it." "But-" "Then it'll be good pie with good stuff with it! Like ice cream and whipped cream and strawberries and powdered sugar and-" "I think I get it." Sunset interrupted her, putting a hand on the bubbly student's shoulder to keep her from gushing any more. "And, thanks, Pinkie." "Oh, don't thank me now." Pinkie Pie giggled. "You can thank me when it pays off!" But with that, she skipped away, leaving Sunset Shimmer feeling as if she had been given the missing puzzle piece in a still-unsolved puzzle. * * * * * "Well, I guess that makes it your turn." Sunset Shimmer approached Rarity, who appeared to be waiting for her Friday on her way to lunch. "Whatever gave you that idea, darling?" Rarity questioned, prompting a raised eyebrow. "Have you been looking in on what we've been doing?" "Huh? No..." "Well, it turns out you're right. I was waiting for you." Rarity announced, right as an announcement came over the intercom from Principal Celestia. "Good afternoon students, and happy Friday. I just wanted to remind everyone that the secret santa exchange will be starting today, and going on through next week. If you want to participate, just take a name from the wreath hanging in the cafeteria. That is all." Rarity looked dour at the news, but she quickly brightened up and zipped into the cafeteria, coming back with a dozen named sheets in her hands - four of which Sunset Shimmer recognized as each of her closest friends in the school. "Now, where was I?" Rarity smiled. "About to begin, I think." Sunset blinked, amazed by the tenacity with which Rarity elected to freely participate. "Well, I'm certain by now you've noticed we've each been keeping an eye out for you like we promised." Rarity began. At Sunset Shimmer's nod, she continued. "And we each want to help, but what you don't seem to realize is that you're not going to get anything done by sitting and crying in a corner all day." "What?" Sunset stammered, taking a step back. "I haven't -" "Of course not, darling. It's just a figure of speech." Rarity smiled beautifully, leaving Sunset Shimmer feeling, yet again, impossibly humbled. "But if you want to make a difference for the better, you can't just expect someone to give better to you, either." Sunset said nothing. Rarity took the hint, smiled again and stepped into the cafeteria. "Now come on darling. You don't want to miss lunch. That's a poor way to recover from a sick day." As Sunset Shimmer stepped in, she noticed only two names still hung on the wreath spanning the east wall of the cafeteria; her own, and Rarity's. Neither were a surprise; no one wanted to give the school's mascot of fear anything on top of her reputation for demands, and no one had anything to give - nor the means to get anything to give - that would meet Rarity's standards of a gift. Peeking over her shoulder to ensure Rarity wasn't looking, Sunset reached up and pulled the junior beauty's name from the wreath. An idea was quickly forming in her mind, as if the puzzle she imagined from the day before had just been pieced together at the edges to make its frame. Now she needed to act on it, to fill in the space in between.
2: All stray animalsAs school let out for the weekend to begin, Sunset Shimmer made her way alone to the statue at the front of CHS and stared into her reflection. Whether it was her mind playing tricks on her or some manner of magic in the portal that had closed, but she could have sworn she saw the goldenrod unicorn that was herself staring back at her. The sight made her heart ache, but unlike before, it was not the feeling of a suffocating vice clamping down to choke her into despair, but more of a dull throb. She was still lost, still without friends - perhaps not entirely without, but Snips and Snails seemed like they were only taking sides to be in league with the best. Maybe they felt she had grown into being their friend, but she questioned whether that allegiance was a healthy one. Deciding it better to wait some time before heading home, Sunset shimmer leaned against the base of the statue and slid down against it, allowing herself a moment in the dark to just let it all out. The suffering of the past week was one she knew she deserved, but there was some good to it. As she felt the tears begin to slide down her cheeks, she balled a hand into a fist and clenched at air as if the tension in her arm would distract her from the sorrow. She had to come up with a plan. An idea struck her after some time, hard enough that her head went flying into the base of the wondercolt statue. With a slight "ow" and while rubbing the back of her head where she had made the impact, she came up to her feet. To her surprise, Vice Principal Luna stood not two steps away, for who knew how long. Again, Sunset Shimmer gave a start. "I heard you have been asking about me." The vice principal stated, eliciting a slight nod from the student. "With everything that has happened, I am surprised you would ask about me, rather than someone you know." What could she possibly say to that? Sunset Shimmer reeled, but with a quick glance around she sank back against the statue. "Where I come from," she began, "there's a legend about a mare whose problems with her older sister ended up getting her banished to the moon forever." Vice Principal looked a little confused, but gave a nod. "What does that have to do with asking me about my..." She paused, seeming to piece that together with a slight surprise. "The mare was once known as Princess Luna." Sunset informed her, pulling up her knees and hugging them closer to her chest. "I guess I got it in my head that maybe you might have been... well, more like how I was, a long time ago... I guess I was wrong." Luna seemed to take her time absorbing everything she said. After a moment, she offered Sunset Shimmer her hand. "This is not a conversation we should be having in the cold." She offered. "If you have time, I would like to speak with you in my office." * * * * * "My sister and I do share our differences." Vice Principal Luna explained, sitting down at her desk and looking over folded hands to Sunset Shimmer. "When I was about your age, I was indeed jealous of her, and I even left my entire family just so I could go on without her. What followed was... unpleasant, and I do not want to repeat anything I had done, but it was a very dark time in my life." Sunset nodded, drinking it all in without a word. "Eventually, I was thrown in jail for a year and reprimanded for most of my misdeeds. When my term was done, I wandered back home and made things up with my sister." Luna nodded. "I see a lot of who I was during that year in you now, Sunset Shimmer." * * * * * When she got home, Sunset Shimmer immediately found her laptop and began searching online for every spot of information she could about the five friends she had broken up during her sophomore year. She had spent the trip back thinking of ways she could make it up to everyone individually, since it had occurred to her that there was no way to make amends for everybody at once. If she was going to set things right, she was going to have to make it personal, and that meant getting to know them better on a personal level. To her chagrin, her search was far too easy - made so primarily by the illicit software she had coerced Key Stroke into getting her access to. Honestly, the hardest part for her was to determine who she would focus on first. It took her nearly an hour to decide, but she decided to settle on Fluttershy. She was the only one to express concern so straight to her, and she suspected her reputation as the most compassionate student at CHS was going to lend itself to making her not easy, but less strenuous all the same. It wasn't long before Sunset had hacked into Fluttershy's emails and chat history. Unsurprisingly, she had quite a history for the past week alone with each of her four best friends. Opening the history, Sunset began to read, feeling a little guilty that she was making such an invasion of privacy to better understand the people she hoped to rightly earn as friends of her own. With Applejack: Howdy, Fluttershy. I heard you were having second thoughts about Sunset Shimmer. What's on your mind, girl? Well, I just...; Are we doing the right thing? What do you mean? Keeping our distance. I mean, it's like we're spying on her. You saw her, she's broken to pieces! How can we just stand back and be so cold to her? Have you spit your bit or something? You remember she was the one to split us all up, right? I know, but I wasn't expecting her to take it that hard.... Just you wait, Fluttershy. She's pulled this act before with Rarity, remember? How can you say that! It's true, isn't it? But what if it isn't? What if she's really hurting and we're just making it worse? Then maybe she'll understand the truth of the matter. She's done wrong, now she's gotta make things right from here. ... Look, it's getting late, and I've still got chores to do. We'll talk more tomorrow, y'hear? Okay.... Good night, Applejack. With Rainbow Dash: You'll never guess who I ran into in the halls today. Uhm, who? Sunset Shimmer. I decided I'd jump the ball and give her that talk we were talking about on Saturday. I don't think Rarity minds us switching it out. Oh really? How did it go? I don't know. I mean, I'm still upset about everything that happened. It's not like she's been someone to look up to for the past two years either. I know.... Hey, chin up. We've still got the rest of the week to give her an idea of what she's gotta do.; You're not still second-guessing us, are you? No. I'm just nervous. I don't know if you've seen it, but she's been looking pretty pale this week. I'm worried this will really be getting the best of her. She'll be fine. I hope you're right.... Hey, did you see who got Rarity's tag from the secret santa wreath today? I had something in mind to give to her, but when I got in to get the tag, it was already gone! No one can afford to be her secret santa, who could've done it? Sunset Shimmer blinked, checking the timestamps for the messages. Rainbow Dash's last message had only come ten minutes ago, and the chat log showed Fluttershy typing a response. Hurriedly, she backed out of the hack, her heart hammering as she realized any further looking into her history would be cause for alarm. While it wasn't the greatest insight she could have had, it did give her an idea, but it was as if the idea was upright without a foundation. As if to give her idea that very foundation, her mind flashed back to Thursday morning the week before, and she couldn't help but mouth the words in a tragic sense of deja vu. "It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals." Fluttershy was as compassionate as they said after all, and not just towards other people. She was the very definition of the school eco-kids. With her search for information disrupted and with a bitter aftertaste to the measures she had taken to getting that information, Sunset instead looked up the Canterlot Animal Shelter and saved a copy of their promotional fliers onto her hard drive. A smile found its way onto her face as she looked over several of them to find the one that would seem the most appealing to CHS students.
3: Not That BrightSunset Shimmer was back to her search almost as soon as she had printed up enough Canterlot Animal Shelter fliers to satisfy a day's worth of handouts and posting to walls. Once again she found herself drawn back to pondering who she would admittedly spy on next. She fished out the secret santa tag for Rarity and took a moment to look at it. Rainbow Dash had been planning on getting her something for the holiday season, even despite Rarity's often absurd and expensive tastes. Suddenly she wanted to know what it was the sports star was planning on getting for the fashionista. But, to her chagrin she already knew Rainbow Dash was occupied talking with Fluttershy, and poking her nose into what she was actively doing was a bad idea. Instead, Sunset Shimmer devoted her time to finding information on Rarity herself. Maybe, she figured, there was something in a more affordable reach that she wanted, that Rainbow Dash might have known about. As she went to searching however, she winced as it occurred to her that with expensive tastes fulfilled comes equally expensive tastes in security; Sunset Shimmer was not going to get information about Rarity directly. For the time being, that was out. Instead, she decided to pursue information on Applejack instead. With a grunt of dismay, she realized the search got very narrow, very fast. Applejack had no social networking accounts, her phone was serviced by F&F Wireless - a notoriously cheap but equally unreliable service, at best - and all there was to support any social networking at all was her email account. "Country folk." Sunset sighed, and immediately felt ashamed that she could generalize so easily. From: Workhorsecowgirl@walleyed.net To: Partymena@walleyed.net Subject: Re: Sunset Shimmer Hey Pinkie Pie, Sorry I'm late and all. You know how bad I am with these things. I know you've been watching me, making sure everything runs smoothly and all. I don't think she deserves for us to let her in. After all she's done, we're just gonna forgive her? What's worse, we're not even just telling it to her straight. Playing twisted mind games ain't my thing, Pinkie Pie. I'm not gonna lie to her just because I don't think she deserves better. I hope you know what you're doing. Anyway, I got chores to get to, and homework too. I'll be lucky if I get any sleep at all. Applejack Quoted Text: Hey AJ! Missed you at the get-together, but we all understand. We had the best idea EVER! Twilight said we can teach her friendship, but first we gotta make sure she's willing to learn it. So all we gotta do is tell her she's been doing it all wrong this whole time! I mean, she already knows she messed up, but we've gotta make her want to LEARN, not just throw a pity party (worst parties EVER!). Maybe if she figures that out, she'll be willing to learn from each of us. Just a hunch ^-^ Your pal, Pinkie Pie Sunset Shimmer frowned, looking the email over. It wasn't much to go by, besides the fact that Applejack was a hard worker and as honest as they come, both of which she knew already. Of the two though, she noticed one thing unusual. Applejack was not very well-off, and it seemed like she was working around the clock just to help her family make ends meet. Straightforward, honest, and hard-working were all too often traits that led to a bitter but successful person. After the weekend fixing up the school, Sunset Shimmer realized she had a much more appreciative view of a hard-working individual. Maybe she could set things right after all, even if Applejack was reluctant to let her try. If nothing else, Sunset realized with increasing flattery that these five friends had been intensely focused on setting her on the right path behind her back, and it looked like it had been Pinkie Pie's idea that had put the five of them up to it. She looked up from her computer, noticing with a sense of alarm that it was no longer light outside. Folding down her laptop, she decided to go out and get something to eat at McDo's. She was ready to learn. She was going to learn, and she intended on learning by being there for the very people she had torn apart. Five days in the school week meant she could devote an entire day to each of them. She already had a plan for Fluttershy, and another was quickly forming for Applejack. Maybe things were starting to look up after all. * * * * * That night, Sunset Shimmer's dream was mercifully not a reiteration of her defeat at the magic of friendship. Instead she found herself at the base of a stairway. Looking up, she saw all the people she hoped to gain as friends after the endeavor - even Twilight Sparkle - all together, even sporting the ears and longer hairstyles that accompanied them when their magic properly took hold. The sight was a warming one to see, and each of them were smiling down at her. Her surroundings weren't much different; the view around afforded a glimpse of something akin to a circular ampitheater, entirely stairwell all around. Simply speaking, there was nothing else. Just her, stairs and her six would-be friends waiting for her. Without much hesitation, she began running up the stairs, only to find every stair she came over was replaced again just shy of the six at the top. The revelation brought her pause, but she persisted regardless. She must have been running for hours, not once yielding to aching fatigue, but as she looked up again, the six friends gave each other a nod, and a familiar spiral vortex of rainbow colors erupted from above them. "Wait, no!" She cried out. "I haven't done anything!" Her plea was broken as the familiar force of magic bore down upon her and crushed her into the center.
Prologue: DefeatedShe was crushed. At least, if there was a word to describe how Sunset Shimmer felt both physically and emotionally, she believed 'crushed' seemed the most fitting. "You will never rule in Equestria." The voice of Twilight Sparkle sounded firmly ahead and above her, resolute and altogether feeling spiteful as Sunset struggled to come even to all fours. "Any power you may have had in this world is gone." Sunset Shimmer nearly collapsed again. The blast from the vortex of magical energy had left a smoldering crater around its point of impact. In truth, she found herself lucky to still be alive, as broken as she felt. "Tonight, you've shown everyone who you really are." Twilight kept on, driving the point further and further. "You've shown them what is in your heart." But at the same time, somewhere in the recesses of Sunset Shimmer's mind, she knew it was true. Looking up, she realized who stood so tall over her. Not only by name, but by what she represented. Her plan had been to become a princess under Princess Celestia's tutelage, and had been backed by no small amount of foresight, but where she had believed power and command could earn or at least force a pony's way into that position, Twilight's looming image showed how very wrong she was to believe it. Twilight Sparkle had succeeded with the ties of friendship where her efforts in force and manipulation had failed. Seeing such a paired opposite of her intentions standing so commandingly over her told her ever so painfully that not only was there another way to achieve greatness, but it also came at no price from anyone else. Tears spilling from her cheeks, Sunset quivered slightly, all of her ambitions gone and burned away in the vortex that had consumed her only a minute ago. "I'm sorry..." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know there was another way..." "The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria." Twilight commented, her expression and posture drastically more calm and collected than the begrudging looks cast by the five others she had rallied behind her. "It's everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours." Sunset managed to pull herself up to the edge of the crater, her eyes wide with both fear and dejection at the prospects leading forward. After everything that had happened on her clandestine gamble, she found the future to look exceptionally bleak. "But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart." She whimpered, the words themselves telling her just how terrible that had been. "I don't know the first thing about friendship..." Even as her words to Twilight from the day before echoed in her mind - 'You don't know the first thing about fitting in' - she felt a hand close around her own, accompanied soon by another and the effort to pull her out of the crater altogether and back to her feet. Opening her eyes, Sunset glanced past Twilight as the equestrian princess indicated the five girls standing behind her. "I bet they can teach you." * * * * * Sunset woke with a start and gave a groan as she pulled herself out of bed. The same dream had been playing itself over and over, as if the revelation that she needed to improve her attitude wasn't obvious enough from feeling it the first time. She looked around her room, catching sight of the decorations she had all but stolen from the students at Canterlot High School. Her drive for power had built herself a reputation as a monster, as someone to be feared, and she had taken advantage of it to the point where she could simply walk up to a handful of people, make a demand, and come out with enough to afford a junior apartment. Looking around now, at the furnishings she had managed to piece together from stolen money and from raw demands alike, Sunset Shimmer couldn't do anything more than shake her head. Twilight Sparkle's words echoed in her mind's ear: she'll be handing out a lot of apologies. Reluctantly, Sunset Shimmer took her phone off the charger plugged into the wall and gave it a brief lookover. It was only 5:38 in the morning, over an hour before she was due to wake up considering it was Monday and she didn't want to be late back to school, but the feeling of her emotions had battered her all weekend to the point where she could almost feel a metaphysical vice clamping down over her heart, and the uneasiness of the feeling that went with it left her feeling sick in an altogether different way from the work she had put in over the weekend repairing the damage she'd caused to the school. Snips and Snails were assigned to help her, but the first chance she got, she had told them to just go and enjoy their weekend. It wasn't their fault she had transformed and ruined everything, so it felt wrong for them to help remedy what wasn't their doing in the first place. It was going to be a long day.
