Daybreak

She 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.