Sunset wasn't looking forward to going back to school. Nonetheless, she had gotten up and left her temporary apartment rather early as she wanted to get there before anyone else.

She saw a few people out running while she walked down the streets, and silently prayed that none of them would recognise her. So far, none of them had.

She kept flexing her fingers and clasping her hands together. It felt so good to have hands and feet again. The wondrous feeling of being able to move the bones at the ends of her four main appendages was something she had missed immensely while in Equestria, though she had had...distractions and the substitute of magic.

She mentally debated over whether having a horn or a pair of hands was better to pass the time. You can feel it when you pick something up...but magic isn't tangible so it can't be hurt. You can't get arthritis in your horn.

Still undecided as to which was more useful, she approached Canterlot High. All of a sudden, the fact that she was back in the human world was all that more realistic.

Anxiety and frantic thoughts exploded within every part of her, making her heart thump wildly. She could no longer feel her legs; she only knew she was walking as a result of her school looming ever closer.

At some point, she subconsciously decided to sprint the rest of the way. She kept her head down; familiarity had long since taken over the steering wheel.

The run had been longer than expected, so she slowed as she came to the CHS statue. Breathe in...breathe out... She made a mental note to start doing more exercise as she walked round the base of the statue and --

She froze; Fluttershy was there.

No. No, no, no. No, no, no no no no no nonononononononononono.

Memories flooded her mind, bombarding her with every push, every shove, every snarky and spiteful remark she had made at this girl in the past four years. Sunset felt faint from the guilt. She had been preparing herself for facing every student she had picked on, but it was no use: the shame was excruciating.

Fluttershy looked at her, terrified. "S-S-Sunset?" she stammered.

The flame-haired girl took two steps forward, hand poised over her mouth in horror at her past iniquity. Tears formed in her eyes as she dropped her bag to the floor and croaked, "I-I'm so sorry."

Her hand reached out, as if about to pull Fluttershy into a hug, but Sunset retracted it quickly, picking up her stuff and bolting elsewhere. She didn't dare go inside the building for fear that some other harsh reminders of how terrible of a person she had been a year ago would be lurking there, so she went round to the back; nobody'll be on the astroturf at this time, for sure.

But, alas: this was not the case. A dreadfully familiar rainbow-haired teen was standing there, leading the few members of the soccer team who showed up for before-school practice in what appeared to be an intense warmup.

Sunset nearly slapped herself. How could she have forgotten about this? Stupid, stupid, stupid...

A brief image of Rainbow Dash the pegasus flashed in her mind, standing next to Applejack. This world's Rainbow wasn't even friends with this world's Applejack, and Sunset remembered that she was the cause of this. She also recalled seeing Rainbow crying after their friendship had ended, and that she had gone over and teased her for doing so.

"Hey, Rainbow," she had began sweetly, "I'm so glad you're feeling a bit tougher today."

"Shove off," Dash croaked. "It's none of your business."

"Oh, what isn't, sweetie? Come on, you can tell your best fwend."

"You're not my friend," she growled, "and I said shove off."

"Oooo, look at that, you're not such a weakling anymore. You're able to stand up for yourself, oh well done."

"GO AWAY! And stop trying to act like you have friends!"

Sunset cackled. "What, like you do? Yeah, I have great friends, gooooood friends, friends friends friends, friends who I secretly have a crush on, oh yes, friends..."

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow leapt at Sunset, who sidestepped out of the way. Dash landed painfully on the ground and Sunset crouched down beside her.

"Stop fawning over her, you dense idiot. You're only hurting yourself."

Sunset cut the memory off before it tortured her even further. What she did not realise, however, was that she subconsciously applied last thing she remembered saying to her current best friend.

"Stop fawning over her, you dense idiot. You're only hurting yourself."

Sunset couldn't take it. She found a somewhat hidden spot, curled into a ball and sobbed.

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know, darling, I haven't seen her in a year. Sunset bullied you before then, though, didn't she? Why on earth are you concerned?"

"Shhh!" Fluttershy exclaimed quietly. "She'll hear us!"

"Oh, pish posh," Rarity waved dismissively. "You didn't answer my question, darling."

Fluttershy took a bite of her sandwich. "Hmm? Oh, yes. She apologised earlier. Like, really apologised. She was crying and everything."

"Really? Uh...okay then. I guess I'll take your word for it."

Sunset sat at the lunch table opposite to Rarity and Fluttershy's. No one was sitting next to or even on the same table as her, unsurprisingly.

"What're y'all lookin' at?" Applejack craned her neck over their pink and purple heads and spotted Sunset with her head buried in her bag.

Fluttershy bit her lip. "I'm going to sit with her."

She got up, but Rarity grabbed her arm. "No! Darling, she may have apologised, but I don't think you should talk to her. Remember what she did to me when I ran against her for the Spring Fling?"

Fluttershy nodded, pausing for thought. "You don't have to come with me." She walked over and set her food tray opposite Sunset. The girl lifted her head in surprise, then started putting her bag back on.

"You want me to leave...?"

"Oh, not at all," Fluttershy smiled. "I came to sit with you. You seemed lonely."

"How did you guess," Sunset muttered, eyeing the empty seats.

"Are you not hungry?" asked Fluttershy. "You don't seem to have anything to eat."

"No, I'm fine. I feel terrible, anyway. If I eat anything I think I'll throw up."

"Oh." Fluttershy picked at her own food, wondering what to say. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rarity and Applejack leave the cafeteria. "Mind me asking where you've been the past year? You seemed to have changed, a lot...in a good way, I-I mean." The girl kept her eyes down.

Sunset sighed. She really needed to let her feelings out, and it seemed as though this was the only chance she might get. "I've been...travelling," she decided, nodding as casually as she could.

"Travelling?"

"Yeah. Well, for a while at least. I didn't mean to leave for long, but then I met this girl. Beautiful, smart, downright adorable, and kinda socially awkward. If you remember, you gave me that flyer; that was from her. I don't know why, really, but something about her made me go back.

"She's been helping me, far more than I deserve. She's shaped me into such a better person, as you said." Sunset breathed in deeply. "I kinda fell in love with her, and she with me. But, it seemed she only did so much; I sorta broke her heart."

"O-oh." Fluttershy ducked her head shyly. "A-are you alright?"

Sunset clasped her hands together tightly, sucking her lips in as tears formed in her eyes. "No," she whispered. "She was wonderful to me and I treated her like dirt. I didn't deserve to meet her."

Fluttershy wiped her eyes. "I-is there anything I can do?"

Sunset sniffed. "You know Rainbow Dash, right?" Fluttershy nodded slowly. "I wanna apologise for...well," she laughed harshly; now she had to confess everything she had done secretly to Fluttershy and her friends, "Let me start off by saying that...I screwed up, alright? I screwed you and your friends up. I messed with your texts, so that's why you and Pinkie had that misunderstanding --"

"She's still not talking to me," she murmured.

"-- A-and I'm the one who sent Rarity all those e-mails, telling her that Pinkie didn't need volunteers for her various parties. Worst of all, I was the one who told Rainbow Dash that Applejack's bake sale had been moved to another day. If you could tell them all this, and that I'm incredibly sorry, then that'd be wonderful."

Fluttershy thought for a bit. "There's still twenty minutes left of lunch. How about you tell them yourself?"

"-- But I can understand if you all hate me. I know I was a disgustingly mean and vulgar person then, and you can only take my word for it that I'm better now."

The room fell into silence. Fluttershy sat very tensely, unsure of how her friends felt at that moment, and worried that they would put her on the spot by asking for her to side with them.

After one minute passed, Sunset decided to just leave. There was one other person she had to make amends with, anyway. Luckily for her, she still remembered his locker number; she had kept them safely in the back of her mind, just in case.

Flash did not know if her particularly wanted to talk with his ex-girlfriend after school. He thought he had no more business with her, that they were truly done.

The note in his locker, which was now crumpled in his coat pocket, proved otherwise.

When the last bell rang and he made his way out of the school, he thought, hoped that she wouldn't actually be there. But she was, sitting on the edge of the CHS statue, hugging herself.

Flash walked over unsurely. He cleared his throat. "Hey."

"Hi," she mumbled, swinging her legs as a small distraction to her racing heart.

Flash scratched his neck. "...Haven't seen you around in, like, a year."

"Yeah, well, I've been travelling, and changing, and screwing up people's lives," Sunset said bluntly, looking away.

"How d'ya mean?"

She put her head in her hands. "...Flash, can I ask you something?"

"...Sure, yeah: what is it?"

She inhaled and exhaled sharply. "Did I...was I the one who screwed up our relationship? Please answer honestly. I don't need false hope right now."

False hope? "Um...I guess I'm partially to blame, but...yeah. I'd say it was, it was mostly you." He pulled himself up to sit beside her. "Why?"

Sunset looked down. "I met this person. They're in love with me, and...I'm in love with them. But I can't make any moves because I know I'll screw us up too, and I don't wanna do that to them."

Flash looked a her funny. "You're deliberately avoiding using specific pronouns, aren't you? Are 'they' a girl, then?" he laughed, nudging her playfully.

Sunset smiled and waved her hands in surrender. "Ah, you caught me. Sorry. Guys tend to think its weird if their girlfriend has been with other girls."

He smiled. "Yeah, well, you're not my girlfriend, so you have nothing to fear."

Sunset giggled. The two of them sat in thought-heavy silence for a while. Flash put his arm around her, feeling she needed comfort of some sort. "This girl, she did you good. You seem a lot nicer now than you were before."

Sunset smiled weakly. "Yeah, she's kinda amazing. I just wish she wasn't in love with me. It would be simpler then. Y'know, the reason I came here was to get away from her. Sweet goddesses, she makes it so obvious and she doesn't even know it. I don't think I would've been able to hold on for much longer, y'know? I mean, I told her I needed to come here to fix the colossal mess I made, and that's true, but hopefully here I'll be able to move on, and she'll do the same."

Quiet.

"Sorry, I'm rambling. I'm just --"

"No, no, it's alright," assured Flash. "Really, it's fine. You're going through a hard time right now. I'm happy to listen to whatever you have to say, and no that is not a come-on."

The two of them laughed. Sunset continued to talk, and Flash continued to listen, and as the girl walked home that day, she felt she had ended on a good note.

Author's Note

Just a shortish chapter. Sorry if you don't ship Sunlight