A Whole New World

by Knight Light

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Luna, Drama, Princess Cadance, Alternate Universe, Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 49553

Investigating a mysterious pulse of magic when trying to avoid repairing the wedding, Twilight stumbles upon the magic mirror only to get trapped on the otherside. Will a less angry Sunset help her?

The wedding was a disaster, Twilight abandoned by her friends and family alike during it yet expected to get things fixed up after the defeat of the changelings, it is understandable that she is upset. Trying to clear her mind she takes a walk and comes across a normally guarded corridor, though is left unguarded due to the recent crisis causing her to investigate. It isn't to get out of worrying about a wedding she isn't invited to, not at all.

She finds the portal mirror and enters it to explore it, her anger at the others encouraging her to skip any safety precautions. Unfortunately, she ends up trapped on the other side on the run from people trying to catch her. That is until one girl finds her, a girl willing to believe her story and offers to help. A girl with a much more painful past who is still working on her own issues. A girl who goes by the name of Sunset Shimmer.

Featured on:
April 25, 2016
April 26, 2016
A big thanks to everyone who made this possible! :heart:

Published 2016-04-25 04:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-27 00:26:35 UTC

Chapter 1 Thursday & Friday (Edited)

Thursday
Twilight's POV

“‘You have a wedding to prepare’ she says. ‘You have a lot to think about’ she says.” Twilight mocked as she trotted somewhat angrily from the reception hall where just hours ago a changeling queen had all of Equestria in her hooves. She was still feeling conflicted over the whole ordeal as she warned them; warned her mentor, her friends and her older brother that something was seriously not right. Sure, maybe she could have gone about it a little better when it came to her need to save her ungrateful brother. And look how that turned out.

So much property damage could have been avoided as well as what injuries innocent ponies sustained from the invasion if some pony listened. Hay, she still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that Celestia was allowing a wedding to go on when they were on high alert like they were. “Am I being too harsh?”

Stopping to sit, she debated if she was being too harsh over Shining Armor’s reaction. Admittedly, she was excited at first too though she was also hurt that she had to hear about the wedding from Celestia’s letter first. She didn’t even know her brother was dating Cadence in the first place. No, he doesn’t get to pull all that. He doesn’t get to throw me away after everything I’ve done and expect me to fix it for his sorry flank! If it wasn’t for Cadence, I’d tell them all to buck off and see how they like it!

Pushing the anger back, Twilight rose and decided that the sooner she could get this farce of a wedding back on track the sooner she could get out of there. Setting off in search of a quill and some parchment to make a checklist of everything that needed done, Twilight stomped down the hallway toward the stairs to her tower. The farther she moved, the more her anger melted away into a sullen mood.

Despite her depressed state, she still noticed the distinct lack of guards lining the passage. It was kind of odd, actually, especially when she was used to at least a few standing at attention or patrolling. She had to remind herself that all of the guards were called away from all but the most important of post to make sure there were no changeling stragglers. Something else that was making Twilight upset at the sheer absurdity of Princess Celestia telling her she had a wedding to prepare. Really, shouldn’t they be out there assessing the damage the changelings caused instead of putting together another wedding so soon? Especially since it was the wedding that caused all this in the first place?

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only sane pony around here...” Twilight scoffed. She stopped in her tracks, however, as she noticed a certain corridor missing the guards that were usually stationed there. As far as she knew, the dungeons didn’t need guarding at the moment, but this passage was one which Celestia always steered Twilight away from. The Princess had always refused to talk about what was in them or why they were avoided, which piqued Twilight’s curiosity. Even when she tried to investigate on her own, there were always guards stationed at its entrance who wouldn’t let anyone but the Princess or Captain of the Guard pass. If it was so important to Celestia, why leave it unguarded now?

“This is either another bucking test or a gross case of incompetence.” Twilight grumbled, the anger and stress of the day’s events pushing her to act more and more against how she normally would. Of course, she realized that, but she just couldn’t bring herself to abandon her anger at the situation.

No matter what the specific reason was, her curiosity managed to get the better of her as she slowly started to make her way down the passage. She tried to tell herself that she was only making sure that everything was secure, but she knew that a part of her was trying to avoid thinking or working on a wedding she wasn’t even invited to any longer. She still couldn’t get the image of Shining Armor, her BBBFF, dismissing her outright rather than trusting her judgement.

Quickly wiping the moisture forming in her eyes, she approached the first door she came to. Her lavender aura taking hold of the handle, she muttered, “Let’s see what’s behind door number one.”

After jostling the handle a few times, Twilight couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that the door was locked. She quickly decided not to try any spells to release the lock either; even without guards, the doors may have had spells placed on them to detect intruders. Releasing her hold on the door, she turned to try the door immediately across the hall. A lucky feeling swept through her as the door was not only unlocked, but swung open easily to reveal…a storage room full of cleaning supplies.

“Great, just great. A locked room and a janitorial closet.” Twilight groaned, closing the door back as she moved to the next door. “As they say, the third time’s the charm.”

Twilight never got a chance to do anything but begin to grasp the handle as a pulse of magic from farther down the hallway washed over her gaining her attention. Something about it seemed familiar, and almost chaotic as well. It didn’t really feel malicious, but it did feel powerful. Could there be some super secret hidden laboratory down here, or some all powerful artifacts sealed within the room? She wasn’t sure, but she intended to find out.

She was really hoping for a super secret laboratory with powerful unicorns doing research, especially since, with no guards to divert the flow of traffic, ponies here for the wedding could possibly come this way. If there was some kind of all powerful artifact stored here, it was just an accident waiting to happen. And that’s if somepony didn’t intentionally steal it with attention directed elsewhere.

Slowing down as she reached the door, Twilight quickly debated one last time if she should really be doing this. It could still be a test from Celestia, and she wasn’t sure if she needed to investigate or leave it alone. Feeling another pulse gently flow over her, Twilight made up her mind and gripped the handle in her magic. “Buck it, I’m not leaving something potentially dangerous unsecured.”

Stepping into the room Twilight couldn’t help noticing how Spartan and unassuming it was. There was none of the lavish decoration which covered almost every other inch of the castle. Instead there was just a raised dias at the center of the room with a large mirror sitting right in the middle. Curious, Twilight moved over to the mirror just as she felt another pulse of magic. Since there was nothing else in the room, she concluded that the mirror had to be the source.

Upon closer inspection, Twilight found the mirror to be breathtakingly elegant in design. Its frame was intricately wrought with jewels set in that seemed to glow softly. Moving to look into its smooth surface, Twilight found nothing out of the ordinary as she stared into her reflection. A ripple across the surface made Twilight take a step back even while her reflection began to change into… something else. Looking closely, Twilight saw that the being was very similar in stature to minotaurs and some dragons, but possessed a weaker, more slender frame as well as a color scheme very similar to her own. As she reached towards the surface, its five blunted claws reciprocated the action, mimicking her cautious approach.

Another ripple washed out across the shiny surface, and the figure was replaced by a similar one. Unlike the other one, however, this one radiated so much power that Twilight could feel it through the mirror itself. It could just be the magic of the mirror itself, but the energy floating from the mare’s eyes as well as the long, slender horn shrouded in magic made Twilight believe it had to be something else.

Cocking her head, Twilight inspected the creature and couldn’t help noticing the dark wings on its back. “Are you an alicorn?”

Another ripple across the mirror made Twilight stumble a little and press more on the mirror, causing her hoof to sink into the surface. Surprised, Twilight was able to catch herself and pull her hoof free, only to stare at it and the mirror in shock. She still wasn’t too sure what the mirror was, but she had a theory on how it worked. Deciding to test it, she put her hoof against it again and wasn’t surprised when it sank in with only the mildest of resistance.

“I suppose it could be a gateway spell,” Twilight mused to herself, but she knew it was unlikely. When she was a foal Celestia had shown her one as an example, but the spell was rare knowledge since it required much more magic than any normal unicorn could call on. Just hours ago, she had been subjected to a similar spell at the hooves of Queen Chrysalis, though she had only used a portal, which was basically an advanced form of teleportation.

The gateway spell, however, couldn’t be cast on the spur of the moment. Instead, it was anchored between two points and took less power to maintain. It was rarely used, though, since the spell still took more power than most unicorns could call upon. The other reason gateways weren’t more common, and that they weren’t common knowledge, was that the spell matrix was too easy for somepony to tamper with, and if they didn’t know what they were doing the result could be catastrophic. So much so that it could possibly wipe Canterlot off the face of Equestria. As such, it was illegal to cast one without proper supervision and preparation.

It was no wonder that Celestia normally kept this area closed off to everypony, but Twilight didn’t understand why the princess kept the mirror intact if it was potentially very dangerous. The mirror could be used to kill every innocent pony in Canterlot while the princess, with her superior abilities, would most likely survive. Just what the buck is she thinking?

“No, even the princess wouldn’t be foalish enough to do this. Maybe this is how some of the changelings got here through the barrier,” Twilight surmised, which made her want to run to Celestia immediately and find out what was going on. Just as she was turning to do so, however, the memory of earlier made her stop. No pony took her concerns seriously earlier, and this was too important to risk the same result. Twilight looked back at the mirror, deep in thought. After a moment’s hesitation, she turned around and faced the mirror once more. “Just a quick peek on the other side to make sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

With a little hesitation, Twilight pushed against the surface again and slowly followed her hoof through this time. As she crossed the threshold, her world exploded in bright lights as it felt like her body was twisting and contorting, before she suddenly found herself thrown out the other side. Landing hard on the ground, she couldn’t hold in a grunt of pain as she waited for her head to stop spinning.

Once she regained her focus, she looked around and was happy to see that she was outside in the fresh air with a bright full moon hanging overhead. Groggily, she started to shift, almost immediately realizing that there was something wrong with her body. It was slow to respond as her vision swam, but she managed to raise one hoof then another to stare in shock as the blunt claws from the creature in the mirror. With an ear splitting shriek, Twilight’s last grip on consciousness slipped away as slumped back against the cold hard ground under some kind of statue.

Celestia's POV

“Please leave me be for awhile. After all that has happened today, I feel I need to take some time to think.” Celestia sighed, trying her best to keep her regal appearance after the fiasco that occurred only hours ago and had almost caused her to lose everything she held dear. That thought sparked something, a nagging feeling that she was overlooking something important.

“As you should,” one of the two guards flanking her snorted before catching himself. His partner gawked at him in utter terror as the three came to a stop, while all he could do was begin to shake and sweat as he realized that he spoke that thought aloud.

Celestia sighed before putting on a warm smile. “Come now, my little pony. There is no need to fear me. If there is something you wish to get off your chest, please do so.” She said to the guardspony. While normally such behavior was unusual for any guard, she knew that everyone was on edge after the catastrophe of a wedding.

“Well, your highness, many of us believe that this whole wedding was a load of horseapples. I mean, who in their right mind holds an event such as this in the middle of a state of emergency? Do you know how hard WE have had it this past week? We’ve hardly had any rest at all because the entire guard was on high alert all week! And while I normally wouldn’t be one to question your motives, we hardly had any time to prepare for attack before the wedding was announced. I mean, because of that wedding, we weren’t anywhere near our top condition when the changelings attacked!” The guard ranted, gradually letting his true anger towards the situation show.

Of course, he was right. This wedding should have been postponed and would have if she didn’t let Cadence convince her otherwise. The same Cadence that turned out to be an imposter and nearly overtook Canterlot because of her lack of judgment.

“I’m sorry, I know I messed up. I let an enemy infiltrate us and convince me to do something I was hesitant about. And poor Cadence and Twilight had the worse of it.” Celestia said as her ears folded back as she hung her head. Moments later, however, her eyes snapped wide open in realization.

“I never told Twilight how proud I was for everything she has done today! I didn’t even apologize to her!” Celestia cried out as she spun and galloped as fast as she could down the hallway, her two guards hot on her hooves after sharing a look of confusion. Celestia made her way to the nearly restored reception hall, with several guards looking up from their tasks in surprise.

“Twilight, where’s Twilight?” Celestia gasped out, trying to catch her breath. It had been too long since she had run like that and she admitted to herself that it may be best to lay off the cakes for awhile. At least, after the wedding.

“Lady Sparkle went to her chambers awhile ago to fetch a quill and some parchment to organize everything, your majesty.” One of the guards said slowly as he approached the princess.

“It’s been awhile, though. Maybe somepony should go check up on her. She did seem rather upset.” Another guard said, a mare who adjusted her helmet as she tried not to shoot a dirty look at Celestia. A look the princess felt she deserved.

“There you are, Princess. Have your seen Twily? I couldn’t find her in her room.” Shining Armor asked cautiously as he trotted into the room, making Celestia’s worry grow even more. “I realized I never reinvited her to the wedding and I kind of want to talk about what happened and apologize, you know?”

“All of you spread out and find me Twilight Sparkle, NOW!” Celestia shouted, the Canterlot Voice seeping in and causing all guards present to scatter save for the groom to be.

“You don’t know where she is? Where could she have gone?!” Shining Armor asked, looking more worried with each passing moment.

“I hope she just went for a walk, but I fear that our actions either drove Twilight away, or, Sol help us, a changeling escaped your spell and captured her.” Celestia said, swallowing nervously at the terrified look crossing the stallion’s face. She really hoped Twilight was simply clearing her thoughts, but still she feared the worst.

Friday
Twilight's POV

“Hey noob, get up.” A slightly familiar voice called roughly, rousing Twilight from unconsciousness. Sitting up with a splitting headache, Twilight found that the sun, as always, was a pain in the flank when not wanting to be woken. Shaking the grogginess away, she managed to finally get a good look at the creature calling out to her. It seemed to be a mare if the creature was comparable to a minotaur, though it definitely wasn’t. It did have a short, white mane and piercing eyes that seemed to be glaring into Twilight’s soul.

“Was I out all night?” Twilight managed to ask though her mouth and throat felt so dry.

“Hell if I know, but I thought you might want to wake up before the pig found you. Then again, it’s always funny seeing him bitching at new blood for napping under the statue.” The mare laughed, making Twilight look up to see a very weird looking pony statue that seemed like it was made by the hooves of a horrible artist.

“Leave the newblood alone Gilda,” An extremely familiar and unwanted voice said, startling Twilight. Turning slowly Twilight found what could only be Rainbow Dash standing there with a net holding a couple balls inside. “Yo newblood, bell’s going to ring in five, so you better head in and talk to the principal if you haven’t already gotten your schedule.”

“What are you doing here?” Twilight demanded, glaring at the rainbow maned girl who returned the glare after a moment. Even while Twilight was angrily looking at Rainbow Dash and wondering why the Pegasus even bothered following her, her mind was coming up with numerous possibilities for what happened to her body. The most logical one being that it was some kind of transdimensional doorway with an enchantment that changed a pony’s body to something that could adapt and survive here.

“You know what? Fine, stay out here, no skin off my back. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Rainbow Dash snorted before spinning to follow Gilda, merging into a crowd of other creatures heading towards an important looking building just a little ways down the path Twilight was on. She wasn’t sure why Rainbow Dash followed her and acted the way she did, but there wasn’t any immediate danger as far as she could see. Just strange creatures that she would possibly come back and study later. For now, though, she needed to go home and get something to eat.

Turning around, she tried to step through the side of the statue, but instead walked face first into its base, causing her head to hurt worse as it bounced off the now solid surface. She stumbled back a few feet, holding her head while trying not to scream at the base of the statue for doing this. Could the portal be closed? She really hoped that wasn’t the case, but it had been at least several hours since she had come through and it was possible that it was only open certain times of the day. It wouldn’t be the first spell that she heard of that was triggered by either the sun or moon.

As Twilight stumbled around, trying to get her bearings, she bumped into what felt like a very pudgy wall. “You okay there kid?” A gruff voice asked as Twilight, surprised, snapped her head around to see what she had bumped into. As she did, she came face to face with a slightly more rounded male than the ones she saw heading towards the large building. Looking up, for the creature was taller than she was, she couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated by the look of annoyance in his eyes. The fact that he was wearing something akin to a formal uniform of the Royal Guard didn’t help matters much.

“Y-yeah, I was just trying to get home.” Twilight groaned out, rubbing the sore spot tenderly where she hit the statue’s base where the portal was. It felt weird to do so, especially with the extra digits at her command. She then wondered if some kind of instinct was kicking to make her rub any injured spots so tenderly and without the need for conscious thought. It would explain why standing on her hind legs was so easy even if she wanted to be on all fours.

“Kid, the bell just rang, so it’s too late to go home. You better get to class or you’re going to be late.” The male said as his look of agitation began to increase.

“Class? I haven’t been to school in years!” Twilight said as she shook her head in disbelief. She refused to have this male, guard or not, send her to take classes she had already completed. Trying to gather her magic to perform a short range teleportation, Twilight froze in horror she realized she had no way to channel it. She could feel it flowing through her body, even if it felt a little odd, but it refused to heed her command.

“Look kid, I’m not playing games with you. Either come along peacefully or I’ll personally escort you to the principal’s office. Your choice,” The male said as he reached out to grab Twilight, who barely managed to dodge as she clumsily backed away.

“I’m not going in there, I have to find a way home!” Twilight shouted before turning around and running away from the male as fast as she could. She ignored his shouts and kept running, forcing him to chase until he stopped in order to catch his breath. Twilight kept going instead of resting to make sure she had put plenty of distance between him and her. The only problem now was that she had no idea where she was or what she was supposed to do.

No, that wasn’t the only problem either. She had lost her MAGIC! Was this what unicorns who lost their horns felt like? Shaking a little, Twilight struggled to push past the fear and concentrate on calling forth her magic. It wasn’t hard for her to find, but it was impossible for her to control, seeming to slip through her hooves every time she thought she had it.

Get ahold of yourself, Twilight. It’s still there, you can feel it. You just have to figure out how to get back through the portal, and everything else will return to normal.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Her magic was a very important part of her. Hay, it was her cutie mark for Faust’s sake! Despite the fear knawing away inside of her, she focused on keeping a cool head. Nothing could be accomplished by panicking, right? She nodded grimly, forcefully ignoring the part of the brain telling her that panicking was the third best thing she did after magic and studying.

Finally observing her surroundings, she saw more creatures waking up and down the stone paths by the buildings, while large metal carriages seemed filled the center of the streets. As she looked on, amazed by what she saw, she noticed that the creatures were giving her curious glances as they went about their business. Thankfully, however, nopony was trying to stop her or bother her this time.

Allowing herself a moment to breath, Twilight focused on what actions to take next. Think Twilight, you are one of the generation’s smartest ponies. What should I do?

“Research!” Twilight called out in excitement, earning her a few odd looks and making her wilt in embarrassment as her cheeks burned. It didn’t deter her from her goal, though, and she set off to find a library. At least, she would have, but her stomach growled in protest for neglecting it. She had skipped most of her meals helping with the wedding and trying to protect her brother and “friends”. It was almost enough to make her say buck it and wander blindly in search of food. She had no money on her though, and she had no clue how this world worked compared to her own. She was just happy that she could understand the language and read what few signs she already passed.

As she continued in the direction she was headed in earlier, she wondered if there was some way she could maybe do a few hours worth of work in exchange for a small meal somewhere. Or maybe she could even do what most civilized ponies look down on and graze. It wasn’t like anypony would see her, and she was getting hungry.

“Would you like a sample of our new burger?” A male wearing an apron over other clothes asked as he shoved a large platter of some greasy, parchment-wrapped burgers out to Twilight. “Please lady, I can’t go back in until I get rid of them all.”

“I would like a sample, thank you. They’re burgers?” Twilight asked as she tried to resist the urge to grab one and rip the paper off. A good hayburger would be pure bliss.

“Only the best this side of Canterlot.” The male chuckled, though he looked a bit nervous before whispering. “I have to say the best, but if you don’t like it just toss it. Just please take one! Hell, take two!”

“I’d love to, thank you.” Twilight said with relief in her voice. She tried to use her magic to levitate them off the tray, only to remember she couldn’t call on her magic for the moment. Instead, she clumsily managed to grasp two of them after several tries, one in each hand.

“Are you okay? It almost looks like you never used your hands before.” The male asked, the bored expression starting to change into one of concern.

“My hands? Why would you ask that? I use my hands all the time! I use these all the time!” Twilight said in a rush, giggling nervously as the male started slowly backing away from her.

“Suuure you do. Look, if you need help, I can go get my boss or something.” The male suggested.

“No thanks, I’m late for an important meeting. Yeah, important! Nice meeting you!” Twilight said giving her biggest false smile that was bordering on creepy as she quickly shook her head no. She slowly backed away before spinning around to hurry around the corner. Finding a bench, where she slumped down with a tire sigh.

After several minutes of experimentation, Twilight got used to grasping stuff with her hands, though the appendages were a lot harder to control separately. She found herself instinctually using them properly at times, but couldn’t manage anything too complicated. After all, a solid hoof was completely different from this weird thing.

After a few attempts, Twilight managed to tear the paper off the end of the burger and looked at it curiously. It had a strange smell to it, and didn’t look like any burger she had seen before. The bun was there, as was the cheese and other toppings. The hayburger itself, though, was replaced with a patty made of something she couldn’t identify.

Cautiously, Twilight raised the burger up to smell it, making her mouth water at the unusual but delicious aroma wafting from the hot food. Carefully, she took a small bite and chewed it a few moments, taking in the strange taste. Slowly, her eyes widened as she stared at the food gripped in her hand. Within a few minutes, she had finished off both burgers, almost wishing she had a third. She would have to figure out how to make these strange hayburgers, or whatever they were, back home.

Before she could even stand up, however, one of the metal things suddenly pulled up right in front of her, making her jump in shock. It was different from the others, as it was much longer and had more windows than the ones she had seen. The door in front of her opened up, revealing a male staring down at her from a seat inside the thing.

“Are you getting on or not? Sheesh,” the male asked in a rather annoyed tone. Twilight choked a little before finding her voice.

“I need to get to the library. Does this thing go there?” Twilight asked as she stood up and cautiously approached the thing. She ran her fingers along the frame of the now folded door, finding her earlier guess that it was made of metal to be correct.

“Yes, the bus stops at the library,” The male said, rolling his eyes. “Now are you getting on or not?”

“I guess.” Twilight said, though she was worried about being in such an enclosed space. If she needed to escape like from the guard back by the portal, she would have nowhere to escape to. Still, if it was going to take her to the library, it might be her best bet to get there quickly, as the vehicles seemed to move a lot faster than the creatures were capable of.

Climbing the steps, she looked down a long aisle with benches on either side with creatures filling a few of them. Taking a deep breath, she went to take a step down the aisle, but the male grabbed her hand and glared up at her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” The male asked angrily as he let Twilight’s hand go and pointed to a clear box with pieces of green parchment inside.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” Twilight said softly as she looked back and forth between the male and box.

“Money, girl, you have to pay to ride the bus.” The male said slowly as if talking to somepony with a slow mind. That statement made Twilight want to facehoof. She should have known better; the device did resemble a train without rails and it would stand to reason that one would have to pay for a ticket.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any bits with me.” Twilight said feeling embarrassed for her mix-up.

“Brat, this is Canterlot, we don’t use whatever crap you people use. We use cash, dollars, so either cough up a buck for the ride or get off.” The male snarled, reminding Twilight of a diamond dog and making her cringe a little.

“Can you at least tell me where I can find the library?” Twilight asked hoping not to anger the male even more.

The male rolled his eyes. “Go straight down that way about half a mile until you reach Main Street, then turn right. The library will be a few blocks down,” The male said as he pointed down the street the bus was following.

“Thank you, I’m really sorry for the trouble.” Twilight said before climbing down the steps of the bus, feeling even more humiliated by the whole fiasco as she heard several of the creatures snickering.

“Damn foreigners,” the male grumbled before the door shut and the bus was on its way, leaving Twilight standing there with a destination in mind. Taking a deep breath, Twilight started on her trek to the library in hopes of finding some information on the magic of this world. She was also hoping to find information on the portal, because if the anchor point was the base of a statue she doubted it was temporary.

Sure she had her theory about the portal possibly being powered by the moon, but she was sure she had at least a few hours before the sun set, if the solar cycle was the same as back home. Twelve hours daylight and twelve hours of night; evenly split between the two sisters. She was, of course, worried that she may have been out of it longer than she thought, but she couldn’t head back to the portal if there was still a chance of the guard being there. At least if she waited until dark it would probably be easier to sneak to it. At the very least, I might be able to learn a little more about this world.

By the time she reached Main Street, Twilight was feeling worse for wear; her hooves, unused to this body, felt especially sore. She kept reminding herself that she just had a little farther to go before reaching her destination; then she could take a well deserved break.

Seeing the stores begin to space out more on this road made Twilight feel a little relieved, as it resembled things back home. When she found the library, however, she was instantly put on guard, for a great number of metal carriages were stopped in front of the building. Her library back in Ponyville never had this many visitors, especially at one time. Even the Canterlot Royal Library, which could get busy at times, seemed relatively docile compared to the sheer number of beings she assumed were inside this building. If there were more than one of these creatures inside for each carriage outside, it could make researching more difficult because of the lack of space and privacy.

Steeling her resolve, Twilight walked through the sea of carriages and to the glass door of the library. She had to admit she was shocked when it opened on its own like magic, but the confirmation that there was magic here managed to soothed Twilight’s nerves a little. Taking in the large space, she couldn’t help but feel awed. The number of books in this building put even the Canterlot Royal Library to shame, it was so big. She could almost feel herself drooling at all the knowledge laid out before her. If she wasn’t so worried about finding a way home, she could probably spend weeks here studying without reading even half of the books.

Giddily, Twilight started looking for a card catalog to begin her search. With this many books available, there were sure to be more than a few books on the subject, no matter how rare portal magic was. Filled with renewed vigor, Twilight began sweeping through the aisles. After a few minutes of searching however, she had still seen no signs of a card catalog, but she had seen several signs over strange boxes.

Opting to instead take the slow approach, she quickly discovered that grouping was based on subject matter. After wandering for a bit, she found a section dedicated to magic, with titles such as ‘Card Tricks for Beginners’ and ‘101 Tricks to Entertain.’

The discovery left Twilight downhearted as she left the books and headed out toward the reference desk. She had been trying to avoid it, as the woman didn’t look to be in a good mood when Twilight first noticed her earlier. It had been probably hours since she first came in, checking through so many shelves and finding nothing she could really use. She had to be overlooking something, and with the lack of a card catalog there were no other options.

“Ummm, excuse me. Could you help me find something?” Twilight asked quietly, a part of her wanting to kick herself for acting like Fluttershy for a moment. Not that Twilight blamed the mare for being scared of her surroundings, since it was a fear Twilight had known ever since she woke up in this strange world.

“Did you check the card catalog?” The female asked, barely giving Twilight a passing glance. Her narrow gaze was focused solely on the newspaper in front of her.

“I couldn’t find one,” Twilight nervously admitted, looking down as the female turned toward her, quirking her brow in confusion and annoyance.

“Really? There are over a dozen computers set up solely for book searches, and you couldn’t find one?” The woman asked with a roll of her eyes.

“What’s a computer?” Twilight asked, earning an even harsher glare from the female.

“What do you want?” The female huffed out, poking a rectangular box with a bunch of smaller blocks inside it on her desk. As soon as she had done so, another box in front of her lit up. Twilight smiled as she realized it must be some kind of enchanted card catalog to save space and allow multiple ones to be set up around the library. It was brilliant!

“Books on magic,” Twilight replied as excitement began to fill her. She was so close! With this female’s help, Twilight would soon have all the books she needed.

“Look, if this is some kind of joke, I’m going to throw you out. I saw you looking at the magic books earlier,” The female said with growing anger.

“Those were stage tricks, I need books on real magic. Maybe journals by Starswirl the Bearded or Clover the Clever,” Twilight explained, though she doubted those books would be available here. At the very least there should be journals by other noteworthy mages, or even mages from this world alone.

“If you wanted fantasy, you should have just said so. They’re over there, or you can go through the double doors back there to the young adult’s section. I think they might have a few My Little Pony DVDs that just came in.” The female sighed, a little anger leaving her. “I’m sorry for being so rude, it’s just been a very rough day and I’m tired of people being too lazy to look things up themselves. My kids love Princess Night and her students, too.”

“What’s a DVD?” Twilight asked slowly, trying to figure out who this ‘Princess Night’ pony was.

“Your serious, aren’t you?” The flabbergasted female asked, looking closely at Twilight’s face.

“Look, I’m not looking for fantasy. I need books on real magic, maybe older tomes with portal theory.” Twilight tried explaining once again.

“Look, we don’t carry books on witchcraft if that’s what you are looking for. If we did have anything, it would most likely be under fantasy or religious, but we don’t carry that type of garbage as far as I know.” The female said as her kindness turning back into hostility.

“You there! Stay where you are!” A gruff male voice called suddenly from the front of the library, gaining the attention of the patrons, the female and Twilight herself.

“What’s going on?” The female asked, looking a little frightened.

“Is that the nutjob we’re looking for?” A second one asked the first. Twilight swallowed nervously as she realized the new males had similar uniforms to the guard from earlier. Their presence worried Twilight, not to mention the fact that they thought she was a nutjob.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone? I’m not looking for trouble, I just want to find some books on magic so I can figure out how to reopen the portal and go home.” Twilight said, fighting back tears. All she wanted now was to go home, and with these guards after her those chances seemed slim.

“Yeah, I’d say it’s her.” The first male said, giving Twilight a sympathetic look. “Look kid, we don’t want to hurt you. If you just come with me I promise we’ll get you all the help you need.”

The kind tone in the male’s voice made Twilight want to trust him, even if her instincts were telling her he was lying. She actually took a step towards him before hearing his partner mutter, “Yeah, like being locked up in a padded room somewhere.”

Her hopes of receiving help dashed, Twilight spun around and ran down one of the reference aisles where a female was sitting on a stool next to a stack of books, reshelving them. Twilight easily made her way through the tight space, but when the first guy came he found it a little more difficult. He managing to make it through, he was about to take off after Twilight just as the second tripped on the books and knocked them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs and books. Twilight looked back long enough to see that they were occupied before sprinting out the door. By the time the two males made it out, she was well out of sight.

For the next several hours Twilight made her was back to the statue slowly and carefully, making sure to stick to the alleys as much as possible. It wasn’t until after dark that she finally made it back to the statue, where she found it, thankfully, unguarded. Even with no signs of the guards around it, Twilight kept a close eye on her surroundings as she made her way to the surface. With a deep breath, she once again placed a hand on the surface, only to find it solid. In a panic, she checked the other three sides before letting out a frustrated yell, pounding her appendages against the surface as she screamed and cried.

Sobbing, Twilight leaned against the statue’s base, slowly sliding down and curling into a ball. She was beginning to wonder if this was even a test or trap. She didn’t want to let her imagination go in that direction, but after her treatment at the hooves of the princess, her brother, and her friends, she was wondering if this was more of a punishment. Was she tricked into coming here while the portal sealed after her? She wasn’t sure, but at the moment, all she cared to do was lay there and cry.

“I’m sorry Princess, please let me come home! PLEASE!” Twilight loudly cried until she could cry no more.

Author's Note

I will admit that this was much harder to write than I thought it was going to be. I originally didn't want to change much, just patch things up so that it would flow better. I just couldn't figure out how so decided I was start from scratch though keep the story pretty much the same though the timing of events have changed a bit and instead of Twilight telling Sunset about her library experience, I wrote it into her view to try and make it flow better without the back and forth.

Below is the original for comparison:

As Twilight sullenly made her way through the palace, she was actually a little surprised to find the corridor near the dungeon’s entrance left unguarded. Sure, she should have expected it with the guards running around trying to get everything under control after the whole changeling invasion, but this was just reckless.

“Something that probably wouldn’t have gotten so bad if they only bothered to listen to me.” Twilight seethed to herself. Shaking her head, she tried to banish the negative feelings from her mind. She had a task to handle now, a wedding to fix and have ready ASAP no matter her feelings on the subject.

Curiosity got the better of her, though. Memories of the Princess always steering Twilight away from the area pushed her forward. Normally she would never even consider doing what she was about to do. Knowing that the Princess didn’t want her going back there would have been enough. But after dealing with the betrayal of her so-called friends and mentor-slash-second-mother-figure, she just couldn’t find it in herself to care whether or not Celestia approved of her snooping around.

‘Besides’ Twilight thought as she crossed the threshold into the hallway, ‘somepony has to make sure whatever is back here is secured and it’s either this or work on a wedding I’m not even allowed to attend.’

Twilight snorted in disgust at the lack of guards, something Rarity would certainly call ‘unladylike behavior’. She knew they were all pulled away because of the crisis but this was just sloppy. Trotting farther down the corridor, she kept an eye out for any signs of trouble. The invasion only ended hours ago and who knew if any changelings managed to escape the final spell that defeated them. The whole wedding should have been called off until they were sure that every pony was safe. Or at least postponed. Anything but pulling off a rush job just to get another ready by tomorrow.

“So what’s behind door number one?” Twilight mused quietly.

Checking the first door on the left, Twilight rattled the doorknob and found it firmly locked. The door just opposite of it wasn’t but it was filled with what seemed to be cleaning supplies. Twilight grumbled and shook her head. So there was... what? A locked door and a supplies closet? What was so bad about that? Looking ahead she could make out more doors lining both sides of the chamber that looked the same as the first two. Twilight knew better than to think that, just because they didn’t look like they were magically secured in anyway, they didn’t hold something possibly dangerous.

Moving to the next door Twilight mumbled something about door number three being lucky as her magic wrapped a lavender glow around the handle. Just as Twilight began to open it, though, she sensed a strong chaotic surge of power a few doors farther down. It felt so familiar that she stopped what she was doing and snapped her attention to the magic she was feeling. Almost in a daze, Twilight moved slowly towards the door separating her from the mysterious power she could sense. Opening it carefully, Twilight found a spartan room with nothing but a small, raised, dais in the middle, on top of which was an ornate looking mirror that was to be giving off the magic.

“It’s beautiful.” Twilight whispered to herself in awe as she slowly moved up to the gleaming surface to see herself looking back. After a few moments the image started rippling across the surface changing the image of the pony into a completely different creature with blunted claws and no fur other than its mane. The colors looked like Twilight’s own making her wonder just what she was seeing. The image changed again showing another image of the creature's mane floating upwards as energy flowed from its eyes and a large, slender horn spiraled upward from its head.

“What?” Twilight asked slowly, licking her lips as she cocked her head with the image doing the same. Reaching forward Twilight expected to feel the cold surface of the mirror yet it sank into it shocking the mare. Yanking her hoof back, the reflection doing the same, Twilight studied it a few moments before she formed a theory.

She couldn’t explain the image away, but she has seen a few portals created by Celestia before. They just weren’t widely used or known about as it took a lot of magic to create them, but she was victim to one just a few hours ago courtesy of the changeling impersonating Cadence. She started to turn from the mirror intent to go get some guards to watch it in case something came through and find the princess when the thought of Celestia stopped her.

“Forget it, I’ll look into it myself. Probably what will happen anyways.” Twilight growled turning back to the mirror, her feelings toward her long time teacher souring even more. Her anger pushing her to ignore what would normally be common sense Twilight slowly stepped into the mirror feeling no resistance, not that she expected to. What she didn’t expect was the wild twisting ride through brightly colored lights before landing roughly on a hard surface. The landing shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did making Twilight look down at the scuff marks on her…claws???

“AAHHHHHHHHHHH!” The scream rang out through the night before Twilight fainted in shock from both the trip through the mirror and finding herself in an unfamiliar body.

“Thanks, Moonie is going to love it.” Sunset Shimmer said with the smile she saved for very few people, though that list had been growing more lately. Pulling the bag open as she walked out of the small toy store, Sunset looked down to see two small custom stuffed unicorns and an earth pony. One looked just like sunset would as her true self while the smallest one had the same coat while its mane and tail had the same pattern though the main color was a dark blue with the streaks being a light blue. The earth pony had a light peach colored coat and a bright blue mane and tail.

“It was our pleasure!” The old man behind the counter called as he waved at the retreating girl.
Smiling as she began humming the theme to My Little Pony, Sunset cut down the alley a block away from the store to get to the bus stop before she missed it. She didn’t make it very far when motion behind the dumpster caused her to jump back while fighting of the mind numbing fear that threatened to take control.

“Who's there?” Sunset snapped out, barely able to keep her voice under control. She was busy mentally berating herself for coming down the alley when she knew better. There were reasons she avoided alleys usually.

A frightened squeak made Sunset relax some as there was no mistaking it for being anything other than a girl, likely a scared one. Cautiously Sunset moved toward the only side of the dumpster that had space to fit between it and the wall making it the only entrance and exit. Peeking around the back she saw a huddled girl shaking like a leaf. From what Sunset could see, the girl had light purple skin, darker purple hair with a pink streak and dressed in filthy clothes. She was obviously in trouble, much like Sunset herself once was.

“Hey there, are you okay?” Sunset asked softly as she knelt down next to the girl. She knew it was a stupid question, but it got the girls attention.

“I want to go home.” The girl sniffed, looking up to Sunset with bloodshot eyes with bags under them. It looked like she hadn’t had any sleep for awhile.

“Well, where do you live? I’ll do my best to make sure you get home.” Sunset asked softly reaching toward the girl who flinched back from her. Shaking her head sadly Sunset dropped her hand.
“You wouldn’t believe me!” The girl snapped out, her mood changing from the frightened state Sunset found her into an angry one as she shoved her face into Sunsets, only a few inches between them. There was a wild look in the girl’s eyes, a look that worried Sunset as nobody should look that scared.

“Honey, you would be surprised what I would believe.” Sunset said unable to hold back the snort of ironic amusement.

“I’m from a different world and when I tried to get help they royal guards tried to arrest me. I can’t even control my magic here and I don’t have access to anything that can help me get back home!” The girl sobbed out, her body slumping as if finally giving up. “I don’t care anymore, just throw me in the dungeon.”

“What are you?” Sunset asked making the girl to look up at her in surprise. By her calculations the mirror portal was open lately and she had a bad feeling that she knew what was going on. “Since you said magic, I’m guessing you’re a unicorn.”

“You believe me?” The girl gasped in shock.

“It helps that I came from Equestria too.” Sunset said softly, giving the girl an encouraging smile. She found herself having to brace herself as the girl clumsily threw herself in Sunset’s arms sobbing until falling asleep. Looking down at the girl Sunset couldn’t help feeling that she should know this girl. “Twilight?!”

Sunset couldn’t hold back the growl of anger as she stared down at the girl she once hated with a passion. There was no other explanation, the mirror was in the palace and this girl was the same age as Sunset. She had to be the girl the bitch in princess clothing replaced Sunset with, there was no other explanation. Did the bitch throw away yet another pony when she was no longer useful?

Chapter 2 Wednesday (Edited)

Sunset Shimmer
6 Years Ago

It was so cold without her fur and she had to admit that the creatures in this world made her miss home. A part of her even wished just to be held by that old nag who dared throw her out of her own home. In hindsight it was stupid demanding Celestia turn her into an alicorn no matter how much Sunset knew it was her right to be one, to be a princess. She knew that the new purple unicorn that seemed to be Sunset’s age was taking up all of Celestia’s time no matter how much she begged and pleaded with the Princess.

Another cold breeze blew into the large cardboard box that Sunset was huddled up in trying to stay warm. It only served to strengthen her resolve as she would be in the same predicament back in Euestria or here in this world. It had only been a few days, but Sunset promised herself if she was here for days, weeks, months or even years that she would survive. She would show that bucking nag that Sunset Shimmer didn’t need her!

“C-Cold!” Sunset hissed as she hugged herself tighter. She only packed a few things in her saddlebag before coming here including a few books and bits. She didn’t expect to lose her form, much less her fur as well. “I bucking hate you Princess!”

The box being jostled made Sunset shrink into herself more as she heard the humans whispering in what seemed like a heated argument just outside the box. It didn’t take long for her to learn what the creatures were and even less time to decide it wasn’t in her best interest to trust them. She had seen a few fights between humans since she had been here and they had scared her enough to avoid them at all costs.

“Look man, I’m telling you I’ll pay double later if you just front me a little. I’m going crazy here, no money for a fix or a decent prostie.” A voice pleaded, it’s desperation clear.

“And I said no, I’m getting out of this stuff man. My own kid overdosed this week because of my stash in the garage. No more.” Another voice replied, deeper and kind of sad sounding as the box above Sunset’s head began to dip in. It didn’t take a genius to figure out one of the men were leaning on it. She wasn’t sure if she should try to stay hidden or make a break for it. Her decision was taken out of her hands when the whole box caved in on top of her followed by the man.

“Son of a bitch!” The man cried out stumbling to his feet and catching a glimpse of a dazed Sunset through a large tear in the box that he just created. Before Sunset could make a break for it he had reached in and grabbed her by the arm and roughly yanked her out making her scream in pain while trying and get free.

“What are you doing? She’s just a kid!” The other man snapped out with an angry look on his face. His approach was halted as the man holding Sunset pulled one of those ‘L’ shaped devices out of his pants and pointed it at the other.

“I don’t give a shit! I just found my fun for the evening and since you aren’t going to help me with my other fix you can go!” The man said waving the thing in the other guy’s face as he backed away with a look of fear and disgust. After he was gone the man holding Sunset pulled her around to face him with the scariest look Sunset had ever seen. “Looks like we get to have some fun.”

Sunset Shimmer
Present Time: Wednesday

Sunset bolted upright in her bed, holding the sheets to her chest as she shook while trying to catch her breath. She hated this time of year because of the nightmares it always brought. Thankfully it was several months after Moonie’s birthday so Sunset’s mood wouldn’t spoil the girl’s birthday celebrations. It still took a toll on Sunset as she remained somewhat more paranoid and on edge during this time.

“Just great, now I’ll never get back to sleep.” Sunset groaned after noticing the clock display that read 2:00. A little shaky Sunset climbed from her bed, sliding her feet in her house shoes and throwing a robe on and tying it shut. It wasn’t the air making her shiver though as much as she tried to tell herself it was, but rather her nerves and left over fear from the nightmare. Heaving a deep sigh Sunset set off out of her room in search of something to help calm her nerves.

As she stepped out of her room she looked across the hall where another room had it’s door cracked open with the soft light from the nightlight within spilling out across the floor joining with the one in the hall. Quietly she stepped across the hall to push the door open to find a young girl’s room and despite it being a little difficult to see everything she knew where each and everything in it was.

To the right of the door was a little desk with a lamp on it with a bookshelf filled with many books including every single story, every single spinoff of ‘My Little Pony’ which was surprisingly such a huge hit. No matter if it was the stories of the rebellious Sunlight Strider which was fantasies of adventures she dreamed about as a filly to the comics based of the cartoon serious where Bright Moon and her two friends went on misadventures while learning under the sole ruler of Equestria, Princess Night. Then there was also the stories based off the legends and history of Equestria tweaked a bit for a better story.

To the left of the door was a dresser filled with more clothes than Sunset had ever seen as a filly and it filled her with happiness that she was more than well off enough to afford them now. And if that wasn’t enough, every open surface other than the desk was filled with toys and stuffed animals, most being from My Little Pony though there were the occasional different toy scattered into the mix. There was no television in the room though as Sunset didn’t think it was a good idea as she wanted to see what was playing on it. In a few years maybe, but not now.

As she moved past the desk she noticed that there was a new stack of papers there and crayons. Sunset was really tempted to try and see them better as she really enjoyed her daughter’s drawings. She may have been a little biased, but the artist was very good for her age. Looking over towards the center of the room where a small bed with dark sheets and blankets with a night sky theme with moons and stars, Sunset smiled as she could make out the small figure sleeping peacefully. Stepping over to the bed Sunset fixed the covers on the barely five year old girl, then leaned down and kissed the top of her head. She could just make out the matching skin tone as the two shared the same as well as hair design. Instead of Sunset’s flame colorization, the little girl had dark blue for the dominant color with a light blue as the secondary.

Shaking her head as she thought of Sonata once again, the girl could pass as their daughter instead of the actual relationship they shared. Not that either of them swung that way to begin with, Sunset especially. She didn’t really feel as if she would ever be ready for an actual romantic relationship. Just too many things preventing it, mainly the fact that every year at this time she would see his face in her nightmares time after time. It was kind of unbelievable that the man who ran was the one who called the police saving Sunset from even more pain from the bastard. It was too late to stop what happened that created the child sleeping in the bed, but Sunset wouldn’t change it.

No matter how much pain she has been through over the last few years, this little girl was the best thing that has ever happened to her. She was her light, her reason for going on and finding a better path in life. She was doing so much better this year as she moved past lashing out in anger and hatred and had done her best to be the role model this little girl needed. The mother that bitch in Equestria never was to her.

“Don’t worry Princess Night, we will stand with you to face the Solar tyrant and lock her back in the sun for another thousand years!” Moonlight Dreamer groaned out as she shifted in her sleep making Sunset smile. The cute action pulled Sunset away from her growing dark thoughts. It took everything for Sunset not to ‘Dawww’ at the incredible cuteness that was her daughter.

“Sweet dreams little Moonie.” Sunset whispered before sneaking back out of the room. As she walked to the stairs she looked farther down the hall to make sure both doors were closed tight before descending slowly to make sure she didn’t make any noise. Not that she was worried about the empty room, it was the one that her Granny Peach was in that worried her. She was pretty sure the older woman really wouldn’t approve of what she had planned so didn’t want to wake her.

Slipping through the living room that had leather couches and love seats set up in a U around a coffee table facing the biggest television Sunset could find with the best entertainment system she could get. The shelves on either side lined mostly with family friendly movies, a few less family friendly ones locked away in a drawer on the bottom. Nothing nasty, just ones that were a little scary or more mature than the normal things she let Moonie watch.

Passing through the dining room where there was a hutch with formal dinner sets she made it to the kitchen where there was a smaller table set along with a double oven built into the wall and an island surrounded by stools on one side and a range in the middle. A sink and dishwasher lined one wall while a large fridge was on the other next to the door to the pantry. It was probably the biggest kitchen she had ever seen, but she insisted on it when she had the house built for her family. Thankfully the light that she turned on here wouldn’t shine out thanks to the swinging door.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure that she didn’t wake Granny Peach up, Sunset stepped over to the pantry and reached above the doorframe and found the hidden key. It wasn’t a good idea leaving the pantry unlocked since it had not only the junk food stashed inside, but also the knives and the prize Sunset was after. Unlocking the door and stepping inside she walked straight ahead following the shelves that lined each of the four walls with all kinds of foodstuffs and other kitchen items except for one shelf near the top of the farthest rack. A shelf Granny Peach reserved for herself. A shelf where Sunset grabbed a bottle of scotch and retreated to the kitchen to hopefully work up a good enough drunk that her nerves would settle down. Within a minute she had a glass with ice before taking a seat at the table.

For several minutes Sunset sat there just staring at the bottle. It wouldn’t be the first time she had a drink to calm her nerves, but Granny Peach really didn’t like her doing it. There was alternatives such as mixing the right herbs along with some other ingredients and add a spark of magic to activate the inert properties to make it a real potion to soothe her nerves and help her sleep. There were two problems with that method, the first being that it took several hours to brew the potion and the other was that she already had another potion brewing occupying the equipment needed. Why didn’t I make some earlier?

Taking a deep breath Sunset opened the bottle and poured some in the glass as she watched the amber colored liquid wash over the ice before enough was poured to raise the ice and throw the small cubes around in the turbulent liquid until she slowed pouring it and finally stopping all the way when the glass was mostly full. Looking at the glass she wondered if she should have gotten a regular glass that would hold a lot more instead of a shot glass which wouldn’t hold enough to really start affecting her much.

Taking a small sip she had to hold back the coughing fit that accompanied the warm feeling the liquor brought despite the ice as it traveled down her throat. She couldn’t help thinking about the last year and how good it has actually been up until recently. “I wonder if this is the normal crap or if the stress is getting to me.”

“I’d say a combination of both.” A voice said from behind her nearly causing her to spill her drink. Looking up she found Granny Peach pulling out the teakettle and begin filling it with water.

“I can explain Gran!” Sunset choked out only for Granny Peach to give her a small, sad smile.

“You don’t have to explain, I know you have had it rough since the news of that poor girl came.” Granny Peach explained, “That doesn’t mean you need to be resorting to my liquor young lady. I’ll make us some tea then we can talk about it.”

“Thanks Gran.” Sunset smiled as the older woman plucked the glass from her hands and empty it down the sink.

“You’re more than welcome Sunny.” Granny Peach said as she pulled out the things needed for a good tea to sit them on the table before returning to grab the kettle before it started to whistle to avoid waking Moonie up. After preparing their tea Sunset stared into her mug stirring it slowly.

“Gran, have I told you how much I love you lately?” Sunset asked giving a genuine smile to the older woman. She couldn’t help admiring how even this early in the morning the woman’s pale peach colored skin and light blue hair seemed to be perfect, even her brown colored eyes seemed fully aware and full of love and knowledge ready to be shared.

“An abundance of times, but I’ll never grow tired of hearing it.” The woman said while giving a teasing smirk over her mug while blowing across it. The water was hot, on the verge of boiling which would have caused the kettle to whistle yet Granny Peach plucked it off the fire just at the right time. Something the older woman had a knack for doing that confused Sunset. “I heard you mention stress though honey, are you still stressing over that Fluttershy girl? You know you didn’t push her into trying to kill herself.”

“Maybe not Gran, but if I didn’t break those girls up before giving up being a bitch to everyone then they would have been there for Flutters. Gran, it’s because of me that Gilda had such an easy opening to bully and push her into believing it was the best option.” Sunset sighed, knowing it was all true yet Granny Peach would probably dismiss it.

“I won’t deny that you did some shitty stuff, dear, but that wasn’t who you really are. You were hurting and angry over what that bitch did to you only to get attacked by that monster. You have changed and the young woman I see sitting before me right now is the young woman I knew was deep inside that little hellion I adopted when I learned of what happened.” Granny Peach explained as she reached her free hand across to take Sunset’s and give it a squeeze. “You are doing everything you can think of to make up for the things you did in the past, but you need to let go of the past to move onto the future.”

“Sometimes I wonder if just secretly paying bills for people who really need it is doing anything to make up for what I did.” Sunset said as she stared down into her tea wishing she had the scotch back.

“I still think you should give some of them a chance to become friends with you. Let them get to know the real you like that Trixie girl.” Granny Peach suggested, letting Sunset’s hand go as she motioned to the tea. “Drink before it gets cold.”

“Trixie isn’t a friend, Gran. She’s a necessary acquaintance.” Sunset grumbled, not wanting to get into the same argument that they always got into with her lack of friends. If you could even call it an argument. “You know I can’t risk having friends. It’s bad enough that Trixie knows about Moonie, what do you think would happen if Gilda found out about her. What about any number of students who I hurt in the past few years since we moved into here?”

“You really should have more faith in humanity, you might find that we can be very surprising honey.” Granny Peach teased, already knowing the truth and accepting it about Sunset. She’s seen much stranger things in her long years.

“I do have faith in you Gran, it’s the kids at school I’m not so sure about.” Sunset sighed with a roll of her eyes.

“Look, why don’t you take the day off from school and go visit Fluttershy. She will be returning back to school tomorrow don’t forget.” Granny Peach suggested as she finished her tea.

“Gran, I don’t think she wants to see me right now.” Sunset pointed out, still blaming herself for what had happened to Fluttershy despite Granny Peach’s constant reminders that she didn’t push Fluttershy into taking a whole bottle of pills.

“The whole school has visited her, everyone except for you.” Granny Peach said as she made herself another cup of tea from the left over water in the kettle.

“Gran, it isn’t happening so let’s please drop it.” Sunset sighed, giving the best pleading look she could. Not that she was good at them in the first place. No, the one who was best with such looks in this house was Moonie all thanks to Sonata’s influence when the girl managed to visit thanks to their hectic tour schedule.

“Okay, I’ll drop it for now. I think we should discuss the other things bothering you.” Granny Peach suggested.

“Gran, it’s fine, they are just nightmares that will go away soon.” Sunset said, squeezing her mug a little tighter as she took another sip. The look on that man’s face would always haunt her.

“Maybe you should let me make an appointment with your doctor and call you off of school for today.” Granny Peach suggested, only to be caught between pride and disappointment. Disappointment as she really hoped the girl would accept though she pretty much knew she wouldn’t. Proud because Sunset was genuinely trying to do her best all around wither it be for school or being a good role model for Moonie.

“No thanks, I have tests today. Plus it would be better if I stayed occupied because I think less about it then.” Sunset explained, running her fingers through her hair.

“Sunny…just don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Okay? I’m here for you no matter what.” Granny Peach said softly, getting up to go hug Sunset.

“I know Gran, I love you.” Sunset said as the woman kissed the top of her head before straightening back up.

“And I love you my little Sunbeam. Maybe you should go get some rest.” Granny Peach suggested as she gathered their things up and put them in the dishwasher to clean.

“I’m too worked up, Gran. I’m going to head down to my office and get some work done.” Sunset said as she got up and hugged the woman, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I might as well get caught up on some of the stuff I’ve been putting off.”

“Just don’t overdo it.” Granny Peach sighed, knowing that there was no way to talk Sunset out of it.

“I won’t, goodnight Gran.” Sunset said as she left the kitchen followed by Granny Peach who flipped the light out.

“Good night hon.” Granny Peach replied.

It didn’t take long to make her way back through the living room and through the door under the stairs to descend into the basement which was her sanctuary. Of course the first room was just for laundry and was rather small, but passing through a door there led into her office where she had a large desk with a desktop computer sitting on top with a large entertainment center with a tv similar to the one upstairs with even more movies. Only difference was that the movies in the shelves on either side of it had more mature movies mixed in since Moonie wasn’t allowed down here due to her work being dangerous. Her glyphs kept any accidents contained down here, though most work was done in her lab which was hidden in another room off this one with all of her tomes in a hidden library in the opposite direction with another room which could be accessed off either of those for testing out new theories or existing magic. All of the hidden rooms were reinforced even more to keep anything from even having the smallest possibility of hurting her family.

Looking over at her desk she sighed when she noticed the stacks of paperwork there from offers from various publishing houses and movie studios to try and get her to sale all her rights to My Little Pony to them thinking that they could manipulate her after learning that she is younger than expected. As if they ever stood a chance against her seeing that she was a better manipulator than any of them could ever hope to be. Not that she was very proud of the skill any longer, but it was at times a necessary evil.

The offers wasn’t the only thing though, her journal concerning the sirens sat open as she was going over everything that she has done for them so far. Their current tour was coming to a close and she was sure they would stop by soon if for no other reason than Sonata manipulating her sisters into coming to see Moonie. Sunset swore the youngest of the sirens could be just as manipulative as Sunset at times as the girl admittedly was happy go lucky, but she wasn’t as stupid as she led others to believe. She supposed it was a good defense mechanism over the years until their luck ran out. If they hadn’t attacked Sunset back when they did, she was sure they would be dead from those religious zealots who believed anything different was evil. They weren’t religious, they used it as an excuse because no sane religious person would torture an innocent in the name of their god, especially a child.

Flipping through the book she came across a few sketches she made including a pony-like insect that she remembered reading about back in Equestria called a changeling and a very well endowed woman with small bat-like wings and a long prehensile tail and a single jagged horn on her forehead which was a succubus she once met though it wasn’t the queen which she had come to know after. Both species fed on love and both were the basis for what she had done for the sirens. It was a lot of work, as well as dangerous to both the sirens and herself. It was worth it though as it kept the sirens from causing riots and hate to spread wherever they went which was being noticed by the zealots. Now they didn’t cause anything when they sang, all they did was absorb the ambient energies that the excitement and adoration of their fans gave them allowing more normal lives. Well, as normal as newly international superstars could lead anyways.

“I’ll worry about this later, I should check on Granny Smith’s potions and prepare her tea leaves.” Sunset sighed, moving to the opening between two of the shelves where an autographed poster of the sirens hung and placed a hand on the wall channeling magic into it causing the surface to ripple as if it was water. Taking a deep breath she stepped through into her lab to begin what really should have already been done if she wasn’t so preoccupied with everything else. Something that only happened when she was as stressed out as she was now.

Princess Luna

“I’m sorry Princess Luna, but your sister asked to be left alone with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza for the time being.” The two solar guards said stiffly as they crossed their spears barring Luna’s entry into the throne room. Normally she would respect her sister’s wishes to be left alone, especially after the harrowing ordeal that was the invasion.

Normally.

This wasn’t normally.

“You two idiots have until the count of three to move and let me pass, or by every star in the night’s sky I will make sure the two of you have the most horrible nightmares ever conceived every night for the rest of your miserable lives.” Luna growled at seeing the sweat begin to bead upon the two stallion’s brows as they did a commendable job of not letting their knees hit one another from all of their shaking.

“One…” Luna said as she gave them a sweet smile that bordered on the insane as her teeth began to sharpen and her coat began to darken. Not that she would really hurt the poor ponies who was only doing their job. She was royally pissed off though and these two would not keep her from her prey.

“Two…” Luna began to cackle as the shadows began to dance around them blocking out some of the morning light. Her Nightmare Moon transformation began to sweep over her quicker and quicker with each heartbeat.

“Three!” Luna cackled as she took on the guise of Nightmare Moon making the two guards jump to either side of the large doorway. And with that the darkness suddenly went away and Princess Luna was left standing there suppressing a giggle despite her foul mood. “Thank you.”

“Y-Y-Your welcome, Ma’am!” The two guards saluted as the looked like they has seen a ghost.

Taking a deep breath Luna charged up her magic deciding on a much more dramatic entrance, she blew the large heavy doors clear off their hinges making them clatter across the floor stopping just feet before reaching the two thrones where Celestia was sitting in one and Cadence was resting in the other. Neither looked in very good shape as both had obvious signs of crying, but for once Luna couldn’t bring herself to give a buck. At the moment she had used up every single buck she could spare for her dear sister.

“I have had enough waiting dear sister. Where is Twilight Sparkle?” Luna hissed out, her eyes flashing momentarily as she fought the sudden rage in her heart at seeing Celestia before her. She hated being this way, but enough was enough. “Where is my descendants?”

“Descendants?” Cadence asked as she turned a shocked gaze back and forth between the two sisters.

“Luna, please dear sister, we will talk about this later.” Celestia pleaded while motioning with her eyes towards Cadence.

“We will talk about this now dear sister!” Luna snapped out angrily. “For months I searched for any possible descendants from my children before the nightmare took over and you knew! You bucking KNEW!”

“Auntie, perhaps you should calm down.” Cadence said softly as she got up and went to put a calming hoof on the dark alicorn.

“No Cadence, I will not calm down.” Luna snarled trying her best to get her emotions under control before a repeat of a thousand years ago occurred. Only this time it wouldn’t be her getting locked up in the moon.

“Sister, I told you after the wedding and after I secured Twilight’s ascension-“ Celestia started only to be cut off by Cadence.

“What do you mean Twilight’s ascension?” Cadence asked, turning to narrow her eyes at Celestia.

“Yes sister, please do tell.” Luna snarled as that was never part of the deal. Luna promised to back off from dropping the bomb of information so as not to overshadow the joyous event that was supposed to be Shining Armor and Cadence’s wedding. To keep from blurting out the information she had kept to her quarters for most of the duration of the preparations intending to only join them at the wedding and reception. In order to do so she had room service bring her her meals which apparently included something laced with enough sleeping potion to knock her out during the entire attempted wedding and invasion. As embarrassed as she was for falling for it, she couldn’t help wonder why she was only knocked out and not killed.

“Sister, Twilight is special and so close to achieving what only so few-“ Celestia began once again trying to soothe things over, not that it was doing any good.

“Save it! I. WANT. MY. GRANDPONIES!” Luna bellowed using the full effect of the Canterlot Voice actually pushing Celestia back several inches.

“Grandponies?” Cadence asked with confusion.

“The House of Twilight is the last of my descendants and they don’t even know it. They should be the highest ranking noble family in Canterlot yet sister dearest lets blowhards like the Bluebloods trot all over them.” Luna snarled, “My family is considered the lowest of the low on the nobility food chain and I will not have it!”

“Wait, are you saying that Twily and Shiny are-“ Cadence said slowly as her eyes slowly grew in size as full realization hit.

“My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfoals.” Luna said with a curt nod making Cadence’s mouth drop open.

“Auntie Luna, Celestia believes that she may have a possible idea of what could have happened to Twilight.” Cadence said as she ignored the frantic hoof signals from Celestia trying to get her to be silent until Luna’s fury once again began to return.

“And when were you going to tell me this?” Luna seethed.

“I wasn’t,” Celestia sighed hanging her head in defeat. “I was going to try and find out if Twilight went through the mirror first.”

“And how were you going to do that?” Luna demanded as she glared at her sister with such intense anger Cadence was afraid the older sister would burst into flames. She knew the only mirror in the palace that a pony would go through is the mirror portal.

“By using a journal that is part of a pair to try and contact…an ex student of mine.” Celestia said, the pause making Luna study her intently.

“What aren’t you telling me, sister?” Luna growled out.

“I’m not hiding anything sister. I simply failed a student some years back by not being there for her as I should have been. She took what few things she had as far as I can tell and fled through the portal while it was still active, including a magic journal that acted as two way communication between us.” Celestia explained making Luna study the face of her sister as the white alicorn scuffed a hoof on the ground.

“There’s something you aren’t telling me.” Luna accused Celestia as Cadence swallowed nervously. The only student that she remembered being around other than Twilight was.

“Sunset Shimmer. She’s the student you threw out of the castle.” Cadence said slowly, remembering the angry unicorn.

“Wait, you threw a student out of the castle? What was she doing, living here?” Luna asked, studying the saddened look on Celestia’s face. A look that didn’t truly sit right with Luna.

“Her mother was one of the servants here.” Cadence said with a far off look. “Now that I think about it, she still works here. Stays in the servant’s quarters if I remember right.”

“Let me get this straight, dear sister of mine. You threw the filly of one of the castle servants out on the street. A servant who is still here mind you, while that poor filly had nowhere to go?” Luna asked clenching her teeth.

“It wasn’t like that!” Celestia snapped, her eyes blazing as she glared at Luna who took a step back. “I loved Sunset Shimmer! I did everything I could think of to turn her around until I felt I had no other choice but to use scare tactics! Do you really think I would throw my own…“

“Your own what?” Luna asked as Celestia’s anger died down as she balked on finishing her rant. “She wasn’t your student, was she? She was your own daughter.”

“Auntie Luna, don’t be ridiculous. Why would Auntie Celestia throw her own daughter away instead of giving her the life she deserved as a princess?” Cadence said as she tried to banish the claim from her mind. Only the look on Celestia’s sullen face wouldn’t let her.

“She was an illegitimate foal, Caadence. Her father was a dignitary from Saddle Arabia and if the nobles found out about her it would be a feeding frenzy. They would have been after both her and me trying to discredit me and either use her or make her life miserable. She was better off being raised by a pony I trusted to help guide her on the right path. I just didn’t expect her to have so much power so early.” Celestia sighed, “I had no choice but to take her under my wing when the little ponies at my school kept harassing her about being a servant’s daughter.”

“Yeah, just more elitist scum replacing the old. I thought after a thousand years you would have straightened that out, but I guess I was more wrong than I thought.” Luna said shaking her head in a mixture of anger and disappointment in her sister. She loved her sister dearly which was the only reason she didn’t completely despise Celestia at the moment. If any pony was close to earning that though, it was her dear sister.

“How could you, Auntie?” Cadence asked with a horrified expression, covering her mouth with her hooves.

“Look, we are getting off track here. You said you have a journal that can communicate with your daughter?” Luna demanded, a curt nod from Celestia being her only answer. “Then I want it and full access to the mirror. With a connection between the books I should be able to force the portal open and go in search of Twilight and Sunset Shimmer.”

“Wait, why both of them?” Celestia asked out of curiosity.

“Because I intend to find both my granddaughter and niece and bring them home, or at the very least, make sure they are okay.” Luna explained, “I will be the one going though.”

“Let me go Auntie Luna, I have to find Twily and make sure she is okay and Equestria needs you.” Cadence suggested.

“You may come, but I go as well. Equestria did okay without me for a thousand years. What’s one more week which is all I’m planning for it to take. And even then, if we are stuck there for the thirty moons, again Equestria can get by without me. Family is what is important, something you could do with learning dear sister.” Luna growled giving Celestia a scowl. “I want that journal by this evening dear sister.”

Cadence turned to look up at the sullen expression on Celestia before hurrying to catch up with Luna who was fixing the door that she broke just minutes before. “Auntie, what are you doing?”

“I’m fixing the doors.” Luna replies as she finished her repairs.

“Why?” Cadence asked as she walked with Luna out of the room.

“So I can slam them.” Luna snarked before doing just that leaving Celestia behind.

“So many centuries. I worked so hard to make things right, and no matter what I do I still mess them up.” Celestia sobbed to herself. “I try to do the right thing for every pony, so why does it always turn out like this?”

As Luna and Cadence began their journey down the hall a threstral came running up to them breathing heavily. “Your majesty, Lady Scroll has found some more information regarding your family.”

“What is it?” Luna asked feeling hope that maybe something good will finally happen this day.

“She believes that she traced two more of your descendants down. One is a showmare and the other, well, we aren’t sure. For the moment she is missing, but the captain has already dispatched a group to search for her.” The threstral panted out.

“I have more grandfoals?” Luna asked hopefully, a sense of happiness at the news filling her.

Author's Note

So, here is the first part of the chapter 2 rewrite, It will actually be 4 chapters total around 20k words. I hope it is okay, I tried following advice when I wrote it and I might have went overboard trying to explain things, though everything isn't explained right away which I am sorry for. There is just no way to fit it all in without making it seem even more long winded than it may already be.

Also, below is the original chapter 2 for comparrison.

The strange creatures were everywhere as Twilight took in her surroundings upon waking up. All of them seemed to be walking on their back hooves rushing around her and the cold hard ground where she found herself. Pulling her front hooves up she stared in horror at the things her beloved hooves had become. It was strange who she could feel each appendage when before it was a solid hoof.

“Going to be late for class freak!” One of the creatures called out as it walked by, a sneer on her face as she glared at Twilight.

“Leave her alone Gilda, she’s probably just a new student.” A familiar voice chided drawing Twilight’s attention to another creature with the same mane colors as Rainbow Dash.

“Whatever dweeb.” Gilda snapped out as Twilight looked as the two of them in growing shock. Were Gilda and Rainbow Dash really here?

“You new here?” Rainbow Dash asked with a cocky smile which made Twilight growl out as she stumbled to her back hooves. Her legs felt like jelly as she swayed back and forth staring at one of the ponies who turned their backs on her.

“What are you doing here?” Twilight demanded, angry that girl followed her through the portal. Her mind was quickly processing possible theories of what could have possible have happened to her body. One of the most likely possibilities was the portal could have been a transdimensional pathway with an enchantment to change a ponies body into something that could survive here.

“I go to school here, though I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you around here.” Rainbow scoffed confusing Twilight. “Look, if you’re new here you should head to the office and check in. I got to get to class.”

Twilight watched as Rainbow walked away muttering about crazy girls pissing Twilight off even more. She wasn’t crazy, this whole situation was. Shaking her head she turned to look at the statue that she remembered coming through. Weird that one end of the portal was anchored to a mirror and the other to the base of a large pony statue. Or what resembled a pony though it wasn’t the best likeness.

“Twi, anybody that looks familiar to you here isn’t somebody you know. This is a mirror world to ours. Everyone you know back home likely has a version of them here.” Sunset said as she sipped on her milkshake, smiling a little as Twilight clumsily ate her meal. It was a little amusing seeing the girl struggle with using her fingers to use her fork and shovel chunks of salad in her mouth. Salad dressing dripping down her chin.

“Seriously?” Twilight asked, a little shocked but a curious expression slowly forming. “Multiverse theory?”

“Most likely.” Sunset said, unable to help herself. Taking a napkin she reached across the table to wipe the mess from Twilight’s face with an amused smile making Twilight brush.

“Sorry, it’s just weird using these things.” Twilight said so quietly that Sunset nearly missed while wigging her fingers.

“They’re called fingers Twilight.” Sunset grinned, dipping a fry into her milkshake. “So, what happened next?”

“I’m going home.” Twilight sighed as she stepped up to the base, giving one last look over her shoulder before stepping through the portal. Or she tried to, but instead she ended up bumping her head on the solid surface making her cry out while stumbling back into another of the creatures caught her.

“Careful kid.” A male voice said causing Twilight to jump away from the creature holding her. Looking at the male, he had very short brown hair and was wearing what looked to be some kind of uniform. At least what appeared to be one. “You better get to class.

“School? I don’t go to school anymore. I have to get back home!” Twilight said, turning back to the statue and testing the surface still finding it solid. She tried using her magic to scan it, but she couldn’t pull from it. It wasn’t gone, she could still feel it deep inside her, but it refused to listen to her commands.

“Are you on something kid? Come on, let’s get you inside.” The male said making a grab for Twilight’s arm making her jump back. She tried again to call up her magic to teleport, but it just refused to respond.

“You don’t understand, I need to figure out the key to opening the portal so I can get home.” Twilight said, realizing the male was starting to get angry and without her magic and her lack of knowledge of this body, Twilight didn’t stand a chance against him. Instead she sighed, walking towards him slowly as if surrendering.

“Good, just stay calm and we will get you some help.” The male said making Twilight scoff, quickly turning and surprising the male as she ran away from him. At first he gave chase, but he appeared to not be very good at running as he quickly ran out of breath allowing Twilight to escape.

She was now in a place she didn’t know with nowhere to turn too, unless she wanted to track down Rainbow Dash. There was something wrong with her though as Rainbow showed no signs of recognizing Twilight. The best thing Twilight could do is maybe find the local library and hope they might have the tomes she needed to figure out why she couldn’t call upon her power and figure out the key to opening the portal. It took her the rest of the day to finally find the library, but by then it was well past dark and despite the lights the doors were sealed tightly. With a reluctant sigh Twilight realized she would have to sleep outside in he elements. Hopefully there weren’t any storms on the schedule for the night.

“Twi, you have a lot to learn about this world.” Sunset said sadly, “I promise to do everything in my power to help you through this. The portal though, it only opens for three nights about every two and a half years.”

“I won’t see my family for two more years?” Twilight asked with mixed feelings.

“I’m truly sorry.” Sunset sighed as she looked Twilight up and down again. She had to bark at a few of the other patrons eating when they stared at Twilight’s ragged appearance. It wasn’t every day you saw a girl who looked as if she could be homeless with dirt all over her clothes enjoying what was now her third salad. If Sunset wasn’t so well off her purse would be crying. “How many days were you alone on the streets?”

“At least six moons, maybe seven. I kind of lost track these last few days.” Twilight sighed, melancholy over the news about the portal home. She was clearly fighting back tears.

“Did you ever get a chance to go inside of the library?” Sunset asked, getting a nod in reply. She was trying to change the subject to get Twilight’s mind off the fact she won’t see Equestria for at least a few more years.

“Excuse me, but could you help me find some books? Maybe some older tomes if available?” Twilight asked the older female behind the desk that said reference. She had already tried looking herself though quickly became lost as the library system was vastly different than hers. She also couldn’t find anything on magic no matter how hard she tried.

“Did you try the card catalog?” The female asked, narrowing her eyes in annoyance at Twilight making her shift nervously.

“I couldn’t find it.” Twilight replied with a bashful smile.

“There are computers all over the library and you couldn’t find one?” The female sneered.

“What’s a computer?” Twilight asked getting an incredulous glare from the woman who stood up.

“What are you looking for?” The woman asked as she continued glaring at Twilight.

“I need any books you have on magic. Journals from Starswirl the Bearded or Clover the Clever. Also anything you may have on teleportation magic, especially portals if you have anything.” Twilight explained though she knew any books on portals was an extremely long shot.

“Is this some kind of joke? Look kid, if you want fantasy go look in the young adults section under fantasy.” The woman said lazily waving her hand in a direction on the other side of the library.

“No, not fantasy. Magic. I need to figure out how to reopen a portal.” Twilight explained slowly hoping the woman would understand her needs and not brush her off again.

“I’m sorry young lady, but we do not carry books on witchcraft or any other mumbo jumbo you kids want to play at.” The woman said, her annoyance in Twilight clearly growing.

“You, stop right there!” A rough voice called from near the entrance gaining both their attention. There were two more men in uniforms that seemed a little similar to the guard from before though they seemed different somehow.

“Is that the nut job we’re looking for?” The second one asked.

“What’s going on?” The older female asked.

“I don’t want any trouble, I just want to find some books on magic so I can open a portal and get home.” Twilight pleaded with the males.

“Just come quietly and we can get you all the help you need.” The first said in a bit of a kinder tone, though Twilight felt as if he was lying.

“Yeah, get you locked up nice and tight in a padded room.” The second one scoffed earning a glare from his partner. Twilight couldn’t afford to be locked up though, she needed to get out of there before they could catch her. The two males gave chase around some lower shelves as Twilight saw a small stack of books ahead. She jumped over them as did the closest guard, but the second wasn’t as lucky as he slipped on it and fell forward where he grabbed his partner out of reflex taking them both down giving Twilight time to escape.

“I’ve been avoiding the royal guards ever since trying to figure out what to do. I’ve been trying my best to access my magic, but all I could do was manage a small spark of magic from these.” Twilight said wiggling her fingers.

“Yeah, magic kind of works a lot differently here. To most it doesn’t even exist. And as for the guards, they were police officers. Kind of similar I suppose. I’’’ get you caught up with the differences of this world.” Sunset explained noticing that Twilight finally finished her meal. Thankfully she already called Gran and let her know she was going to be very late and to not wait up. “You still hungry?”

“No, I’m stuffed. Thank you so much, I haven’t had anything really to eat in days.” Twilight sighed in content, though she was still depressed about everything. Not that Sunset could blame her after hearing the story about the changelings and now the week Twilight spent trapped here.

“Okay, good. This week has already been hell on you so let’s get you to my place and we can get you a warm shower and bed.” Sunset said getting a huge smile from Twilight.

“Really?” Twilight asked, excited about the prospect of getting cleaned up and a soft bed to rest in. She needed sleep as she hardly slept much lately.

“Really, let’s go home.” Sunset said giving a smile to the other girl as she gathered up their trays and garbage to dump on the way out.

Chapter 3 Wednesday Cont. (Edited)

Sunset Shimmer

Sunset was really beginning to curse her stubbornness when insisting on not getting herself a personal vehicle. Instead she shared the minivan she bought for Granny Peach when she needed to take Moonie somewhere. Normally she used public transportation to keep those she bullied from damaging any vehicle she may be caught driving. And unlike popular belief, she didn’t own a motorcycle nor was she a member in a bike gang. She just liked leather jackets and the occasional pair of shades. Leather was cool unlike those stupid hats the one teacher kept wearing. Who the hell wore a fez anyways?

Wearily she made her way upon the school grounds, well aware of the bags under her eyes. The first thing she noticed was how cheery the students seemed to be. There were banners already hanging above the entrances welcoming Fluttershy back despite the girl not even returning until tomorrow. Everyone seemed eager for it, their happy and eager expressions soon changing as Sunset passed by earning more than a few glares. Funny, she prided herself on not needing friends as they were a risk to her daughter, and yet the attention toward her hurt a little.

“Speaking of Shimmer, I just found out that Granny Peach is her granny and is taking care of her.” Applejacks voice came from near the base of the statue. Quietly Sunset made her way over to them so she could listen to what was being said about herself. She kept telling herself it didn’t matter, but she didn’t want Granny Smith going without the tea and potions that kept her arthritis and joint pain in check. A pain that could get so bad she would call in off of work from school. I wish she would just accept the stupid offer.

“That sweet old woman is related to that cunt?” Rainbow Dash scoffed as she caught the soccer ball she had been dribbling into the air with her knees.

“Language Rainbow Dash! A lady doesn’t use such crude language.” Rarity admonished with a flip of her hair and upturned nose.

“Rares, I ain’t no lady. I’m this schools best soccer player and jock, and all athletes trash talk.” Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Anyways, back to the point, how did you find out?”

“Well usually Granny Peach drops off the stuff she makes for Granny Smith, but she was late this time so Granny Smith stopped by on the way to work the other day. She saw that snake leaving for school and asked about her.” Applejack explained, “Granny Peach wouldn’t say much, only that Sunset was her granddaughter but anything beyond that Granny Smith would have to ask Sunset herself.”

“You mean the fact that Sunset was adopted and has a kid that Granny Peach is protecting their privacy so nobody that Sunset bullied in the past would try and use the kid to get to Sunset and hurt her despite it taking a real sicko to even try something so pathetic and Sunset is partly using the whole situation to keep everyone at arms length because deep down she’s afraid of being hurt again if she let anyone get to close and friendly with her because deep down she’s really lonely and just needs a real friend to give her a hug and let her cry out all of her past pains and frustrations and show her what real friendship can do?” Pinkie Pie gasped out in one breath, finally taking a chance to breath as her hair straightened out a little. Sunset was both shocked and worried at just how accurate the whole thing was. Well, most of it anyways. She didn’t need friends, just acquaintances and allies such as the Dazzlings and Trixie. Their relationships were purely business except for them playing Auntie to Moonie.

Just how in the hell does she know all of that?!

“Sugarcube, what have I told ya about making up such outlandish nonsense?” Applejack asked crossing her arms.

“Darling, I find it hard to believe that any of that could even be remotely true. Sunset Shimmer is many things, but even she has more pride than to be a common street walker.” Rarity said in disgust at just the thought of that.

“I may not be a common street walker, but not every one of them is some trash!” Sunset snapped out before catching herself. It was a touchy subject with her, but it was too late to undo the damage now.

“Darling, it’s disgusting to even think of such a thing.” Rarity scoffed angering Sunset even more.

“Go fuck yourself Shimmer, nobody wants you here.” Rainbow Dash sneered before being cowed by the angry glare coming from Rarity.

“Why defend them? Don’t tell me that Pinkie Pie was actually right.” Rarity asked, a little pity and worry entering the fashionista’s eyes.

“No, but I’ve volunteered to help halfway houses.” Sunset sniffed, covering the fact that her so called volunteering was actually donating to the only two of them that was local. They tried giving the ones either forced into it by someone or those who felt they had no other choice a safe place to go and help getting back on their feet. Sunset’s donations not only kept them open, but gave the people staying there a chance to actually go to school and learn skills needed to make a better life for themselves. “I’ve meet more than a few teenage runaways that was forced into doing it or felt they had no other choice. Do you know how it feels to be alone with nowhere to go, no roof over your head and no guarantee that you will have any kind of food at all?”

“Like you do.” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“Apparently better than any of you.” Sunset snapped trying to cover the pain in her eyes as she remembered her dream and what it was like before the police came. For days she had been cold with nowhere to go and no way to get real food other than pulling it from the trash.

“Darling, are you okay?” Rarity asked as she gave Sunset a worried look.

“You all can go fuck yourselves for all I care!” Sunset snapped out flipping them dual birds before spinning around and stomping away. Damn them for making me feel this way! And damned those dreams for making me feel so damned vulnerable!

“What the hell was that about?” Rainbow Dash growled getting the others to glare at her. “What? What did I say?”

Pinkie Pie

“That was weird, even for that girl.” Applejack sighed shaking her head, her Stetson hat in hand.

“Yeah, it kind of was.” Rarity said as she watched the flame haired girl stomp toward the school.

Pinkie Pie was tempted to go after her, but she had to admit she was scared of Sunset. Instead she chose to stay with her friends while cursing herself for saying what she did. It had really upset Sunset and she wasn’t even sure where it came from. She had always had her pinkie sense, but this, this was something entirely different. Something scary while labeling her even more of a freak. Something that she could keep at bay with her old medications, but with their insurance no longer covering it the visions were coming at random times. Times such as this risking her getting in trouble because of it.

“As interesting as all this is, I’m still more worried about Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash grumbled, looking up at the sky for a few minutes before facing the girls again. “What do you think this person wants with Shy or her mom?”

“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity asked.

“The donations?” Applejack asked, already knowing what Rainbow Dash was hinting at. She was worried about the same thing. It just wasn’t normal for some rich person to swoop in and pay for everything Fluttershy’s family needed while refusing to show her face. Something that seemed to be going around lately and nobody had a clue as to who was behind it.

“What do you think they want? Shy has already been through enough, you know? If this is some sicko getting their kicks by helping them and then demanding something outrageous in return later, it will destroy Shy.” Rainbow Dash said kicking a pebble sitting on the paved path they were gathered on.

“Darling, there is such a thing as being generous for the sake of generosity.” Rarity said flipping her hair.

“Look, all we can do is stick by her like we promised her mom when she comes back tomorrow.” Applejack said, “It’s the best thing we can do for now besides pray that this whole donor thing is on the up and up.”

“I’ll see you girls later, I have to run inside for a few minutes before classes.” Pinkie Pie said, waving at the others as she hurried toward the school. It was a bit of a lie she admitted since she just wanted to get away from the others for a few minutes, but it was partly the truth as she did need to grab a few things from her locker. The locker down what was known as the haunted hallway as no matter what was done, the lights never lasted very long and always flickered. It was declared that there were no fire hazards from it, but there were no real explanations for the phenomenon either. The other lights gave plenty of illumination still, the shadows just made it seem creepy.

Trudging through the school she turned down the hall to her locker when she was suddenly shoved roughly into the wall. Nobody else was nearby since most students avoided this hall when they didn’t need to be down this way. Nobody except for herself and apparently a very pissed off Sunset Shimmer who was breathing heavily and glaring daggers into Pinkie Pie.

“H-Hey there Sunny, what’s up?” Pinkie Pie managed to squeak out only to be pulled away and slammed into the lockers again. This wasn’t the Sunset Shimmer from the past year, this wasn’t even the Sunset Shimmer that was a bully. No, she could tell this Sunset Shimmer was protecting something like a raging mama bear.

“Don’t you dare Sunny me, you pink party menace!” Sunset growled into her face making Pinkie Pie whimper a little. “Who else have you told about my daughter?”

“No one, it just came out, honest!” Pinkie Pie whimpered.

“What do you mean it just came out?” Sunset asked as her grip loosened up letting Pinkie Pie relax a little.

“I get these visions, usually my meds took care of them.” Pinkie Pie whispered, eyes darting back and forth making sure nobody was around to hear while avoiding looking directly at Sunset who completely released her and took a step back.

“Took care of them?” Sunset asked arching a brow in question.

“Our insurance won’t cover them any longer and I was forced to change. Nobody believes me about my visions or Pinkie Sense.” Pinkie Pie sighed.

“I believe you.” Sunset said softly getting Pinkie Pie to snap her head up to look into the now gentle and sincere visage of what was a raging demon moments ago. “And if you promise to NOT talk about my life or family anymore, not even to your friends, I will see what I can do to help you.”

“Really?” Pinkie Pie perked up, her hair poofing up more than earlier even. “You would really help me?”

“I’m not a monster despite popular belief.” Sunset Sighed, “But I will do what is needed to protect my own. Even if that means alienating everyone around me to do it. I don’t enjoy seeing others suffer and I try to do what I can to help out when I can.”

“You. It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one paying for all of Fluttershy’s bills!” Pinkie gasped out, unsure if she was jumping to conclusions or if this was just a part of her visions.

“I will neither confirm or deny that, but I expect you not to go around blabbing that allegation either. For now just give me your number and decide if you want your meds back to what they were or if you want to learn to control these visions of yours. I don’t know much about the stuff, but I will look into it and I do know someone who does know more about them than me. If you decide to, I’ll put you in touch with them.”

“You’d really do that for me?” Pinkie Pie asked as she took the offered phone from Sunset Shimmer who gave a curt nod. “I want my medicine back, I don’t need to think about it! I can deal with my Pinkie Sense, but the visions I can’t deal with.”

“Of course, but I expect you to keep everything quiet. I have a reputation to maintain after all.” Sunset replied with a smirk, but the sadness behind her eyes showed how much she must secretly hate said reputation. Shakily Pinkie Pie quickly saved her number in Sunset’s contacts list, a few numbers looking familiar to her.

“And what is going on here?” Luna demanded scaring the two, Pinkie Pie quickly passing the phone back.

“We were just talking.” Pinkie Pie said with a grin, but the look Luna returned made it clear the older woman didn’t exactly believe her.

“While I am proud of the turn around this year Ms. Shimmer, I truly hope you aren’t relapsing.” Luna said stiffly.

“I swear it was nothing!” Pinkie Pie protested.

“Very well then, Ms. Pie. Please head to your class while Ms. Shimmer accompanies me to my office. We have other things to discuss.” Luna said, waving Pinkie Pie off who looked reluctant to leave at first.

“I’ll see you later, Pinkie.” Sunset said earning a nod from Pinkie before she turned and hurried off down the hall.

Sunset Shimmer & Luna

Vice-Principal Luna’s office was as dark as usual with very little light leaking through the blinds, the few working lights overhead lit in a way to cast shadows all through the room. It was a tad creepy Sunset admitted, even for someone used to stuff like this, but today it was unnerving her more than the intimidation that it was meant to invoke. She could feel a chill run down her spine which had nothing to do with the intended scare tactics and more to do with exaggerated memories of a dark alley, a box and the main reason for most of her worst problems other than that nag back in Equestria.

“Do you recognize any of this?” Luna asked stiffly as she dropped into her chair and pulled out a rather thick looking file. It seemed the woman didn’t want to waste any time with whatever it was that she wanted, but Sunset was extremely curious as to what could be in the file. Picking up the thick folder, Sunset took a seat and began leafing through the contents wondering how this woman managed to come across all of this. “I bet you are wondering how I gathered all of this. Well, I didn’t. An old aquiantance, a private investigator, dug all this up when I asked them to look into the person funding Fluttershy’s recovery.”

“So why show this all to me?” Sunset asked, keeping a straight face despite feeling the color draining from her face. To be fair it was partly because of her lack of sleep due to the nightmares and the creepiness of the office making it worse. And to be staring at evidence that she wanted nobody to come across wasn’t helping her nerves any either.

“Because Ms. Shimmer, I don’t know whether to be very proud of you or extremely disgusted.” Luna explained as she narrowed her eyes angrily. “This last year you have seemed to turn your life here completely around and become a student I could say I’m very proud of. A young woman I could be very proud of.”

“What does this have to do with me?” Sunset asked, swallowing several times trying to overcome her growing nervousness. Surely Luna didn’t have proof that this was all documents that Sunset was behind since she had her lawyer take care of most of it.

“I’m very worried about Fluttershy, her mother is a dear friend of mine in college before she was forced to quit. So when she came to me asking what she should do with the money being sent her way, not only for Fluttershy’s hospital bills, but enough to get a new car and be able to stay with Fluttershy without having to worry about work, it was safe to say I was a little worried as well.” Luna nearly growled, “I talked to my friend about it and they quickly discovered that the lawyer dealing with Fluttershy’s case has also been doing a lot more. There is the silent partner trying to by into the Apple’s farm, the anonymous donations to the sporting department for new equipment when there was debate about if we were going to have enough money, the new instrument purchased for Octavia when that Gilda girl smashed the old one. The investment in Sugar Cube Corner to remodel and buy new ovens when their old ones went out. Or how about bailing Rarity’s family out of debt when her parents were close to divorcing. Or how about-“

“That’s enough!” Sunset snapped out before she could stop herself as she threw the folder at Luna who surprisingly caught it without dropping a single piece of evidence. “Have you ever thought that the person behind all of this is trying to do something good and just doesn’t want their name out there as if they are doing this for attention?”

Of course Sunset was trying to do good for the people she hurt. She knew it was kind of selfish, a way to help cleanse her guilt without anyone knowing it was her. And when she used a lot of the money she made from her intellectual properties, she really didn’t need all the money she was making from the stocks and investments she made. And it was a lot since it seemed like everything she touched turned gold. Perhaps it was just karma repaying her now after shitting all over her early life.

“Maybe if this person didn’t have a huge track record prior to this year of manipulation and bullying, I could very easily see that. With your track record though, I can’t help but wonder if maybe you are trying to be nice to lull everyone into a false sense of security. It’s bad enough with some of these if that is what is going on, but Fluttershy tried to kill herself! If this is some kind of game Ms. Shimmer, I don’t care who you are related to, I’ll make you suffer!” Luna growled out, her eyes becoming predatory and actually unsettling Sunset.

“Do you honestly believe I would do something like that?” Sunset asked as she uselessly tried wiping away the forming tears. In truth she actually had feelings for the woman, feelings she usually tried to deny, but feelings that were there nonetheless. Not romantic feelings, but love one would have for a close family member as this was the mirror version of the aunt she never got to know. The aunt she always wondered if she would love Sunset unlike her own mother. To hear the woman actually threatening her really hurt.

“That’s the problem, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me, would you?” Luna asked, her glare slowly dying away to a much more gentle expression though the damage had already been done. She didn’t intend on hurting Sunset, only doing what she normally did using intimidation to get her answers as she always did. Her frustrations over the whole thing and her quick temper had managed to get the better of her once again.

“I would never want another mother going through what Fluttershy’s is. I know I’d never…” Sunset sniffed, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket.

“Never what?” Luna asked, before shocked realization began to set in. From the look in Sunset’s expression this whole Fluttershy thing was wrecking havoc on the young woman. Sunset was a mother herself, and if Luna looked at it that way she could see why Sunset would want to help her. The others though didn’t exactly make a whole lot of sense.

“You know what, Vice-Principal? Believe what you want, I don’t care. I was stupid to actually think you were any different than that bitch you call a sister!” Sunset snarled, not really meaning it. She had actually come to respect the human Celestia as she had a more open heart than the pony version. She knew she was channeling her problems with the pony Celestia and casting them on the human version, but right now she just didn’t care. She was tired, exhausted really, and to have the one person she wanted to believe would never be like this just pushed her over the edge.

“Ms. Shimmer, while I know I crossed a line and I am really sorry, I ask that you please try to be more civil.” Luna said as she put the file away in her desk.

“You want civil?” Sunset asked maliciously, standing up and sweeping papers, pens and other odds and ends on the desk toward Luna making the woman gasp in shock. She was frozen even more in shock when Sunset literally flicked her off with both hands, fingers mere inches from her face. “How’s fuck you for civil? You can take this damned school and shove it up your ass until it ends up behind your eyes! I’ll go register at Crystal Prep before I put up with this crap!”

“Ms. Shimmer, please calm down.” Luna pleaded as she rose from her seat and started coming around the desk. Sunset started to turn to storm from the office, but Luna grabbed her by the arm just before she made her escape. Gathering the struggling girl into her arms Luna hugged her tightly whispering apologies.

“I’m so sorry, I was wrong to have accused you like this.” Luna whispered, gently stroking Sunset’s hair while holding the younger girl to her. It wasn’t that much of a challenge really holding the squirming girl from escaping with one arm, but in the girl’s current condition it was made easier.

Sunset wanted nothing more than to yell and scream at the older woman who refused to let her go, but she was just too tired. Her exhaustion over the past few days refused to cooperate with her usual defense mechanisms and ended up causing the teen to give in and buried her face into the older woman crying. She guessed she should count herself lucky that it had been ages since she had a panic attack being restrained like this.

“I’m so sorry, Sunset. I really should have known better. I’m the adult here, and stress doesn’t give me the right to threaten you the way I did.” Luna whispered into the girl’s hair, running her fingers through it while rubbing the girl’s back now that she stopped struggling. She was actually surprised when Sunset actually reached up to hold onto Luna as if she was a life preserver.

“You are so lucky that I understand about stress and that I’m exhausted. Otherwise, I would hit you right now.” Sunset finally sniffled as she began to calm down, though she was feeling extremely embarrassed about breaking down like she did. This was the first time Luna had ever said or done anything remotely hurtful to her, so Sunset wasn’t going to hold it against her this time letting her know with joking tone.

“I would deserve it.” Luna sighed as she finally let Sunset back away. It actually surprised the woman that Sunset let her take a tissue and dry some of the tears from her face. Gently she caressed Sunset’s cheek looking deep into her eyes with a soft, encouraging smile. “You know, you remind me of myself when I was younger. I was so full of anger too you know.”

“Yea, I can see that actually.” Sunset said trying to grin, though her teary eyes ruined the effect as Luna leaned in to kiss the girl’s forehead.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked, worry evident in her expression despite the anger a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, I think I really needed that.” Sunset sighed, feeling a bit better after releasing some of her pent up emotions. She couldn’t help wondering if perhaps it would be better to allow herself to have a meltdown more often. It felt very therapeutic.

“Here, sit down.” Luna said as she guided Sunset back to her seat, the girl sitting down as she ran a hand through her hair.

“So, what happened?” Sunset asked after the two stared at each other for several minutes, breaking the silence before it became too uncomfortable. “You said I reminded you of yourself?”

“I can’t tell you a lot, there is a lot of family secrets involved. What I can tell you is that when I was younger, my sisters got a lot of attention while I got almost none. I decided if I wasn’t going to get the attention I felt I deserved, I would make them give it to me. Long story short, I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I hurt a lot of people during that time, some way more than others.” Luna explained as a faraway look crossed. “I still remember a lot of them even today and I still regret what I’ve done.” Luna turned her attention back to Sunset as her expression became a bit more serious. “I’ve learned that in order to move on I needed the forgiveness of one person more than anyone else.”

“Principal Celestia’s?” Sunset asked softly, sure that it was the person Luna was talking about. It made the most sense to Sunset after all as if it was anywhere similar to her own version of the sisters’ problems, then Luna must have hurt Celestia. Though Sunset wasn’t too sure that everything Celestia finally admitted to her was completely accurate.

“Hell no.” Luna chuckled, “Forgive my language, please. Even though I love my sister, I don’t need forgiveness from her for anything. No, the person I learned I needed the forgiveness from was myself. I was holding myself back with regret and self loathing that I went from one extreme to another. Is that what you are doing Sunset?”

Sunset sat staring up at Luna digesting her words, her brows knitting in confusion as it didn’t make a lot of sense to her at first. Why would Luna need to forgive herself if it were others that she hurt? And what exactly did she mean that she went from one extreme to another?

“Just think about it, Sunset.” Luna sighed rubbing her eyes, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice it earlier, I usually would have. You look exhausted, have you been getting enough sleep? Are you having problems with Granny Peach or your daughter?”

“I’m just dealing with things?” Sunset said slowly, trying to decide just what to tel Luna and what not. On one hand, both Celestia and Luna had kept their mouths shut about Moonie and kept her records sealed from prying eyes. Otherwise the whole school would know by now. On the other hand, she wasn’t too sure she wanted the Vice-Principal psychoanalyzing her. She got enough of that crap from her doctors.

“What kind of things? I can’t say I’m very happy with what I caught you doing to Miss Pie.” Luna said, studying Sunset’s eyes and expression for any hints of deception.

“I’m not exactly proud of jumping Pinkie Pie like that, but I would do it again to protect my daughter.” Sunset admitted. “Do you have children?”

“My children died a long time ago sadly, but yes I had children.” Luna said as she now turned her eyes away from Sunset’s own as pain filled them. “I do have grandchildren, but because of family politics I can’t see them.”

“What kind of family politics keeps you away from your own grandchildren?” Sunset blurted out in shock, angry that anyone would keep somebody away from their grandchildren.

“They aren’t like me, Sunset. My sisters and I come from a family that, to my shame, look down on those different from us. It isn’t something I agree with, but if my family where to learn about my grandchildren…I fear for them.” Luna sighed, looking down on the desk where a picture of a family that Sunset was familiar with. A family she herself looked into out of curiosity when she learned this world held so many parallels to her world. Sunset wasn’t sure how close Luna was to her family, or the type of people the were, but Sunset did know she would never let anybody tell her she couldn’t see Moonie.

“I wish I knew what to say.” Sunset said as she stood up and gave Luna a hug, the woman returning it with a smile and a kiss on the head.

“You don’t have to say anything, it is my burden to bear.” Luna said as Sunset pulled back, the older woman giving a smile. “I also have two wonderful nieces, three of them actually yet I’m still trying to figure that one out.”

“You know, maybe I can trust you.” Sunset sighed, giving Luna a knowing look. “After all, you remind me so much of the aunt I never had.”

“I do, do I?” Luna asked, arching a brow though the look on her face was practically screaming shock.

“Oh, you do. And I think since you trusted me as much as you did, I guess I can trust you.” Sunset sighed falling back into her chair. “I am exhausted, but it isn’t because of Moonie or Granny Peach. It is a lot of different things, though breaking down just now felt really good.”

“Then what is going on?” Luna asked, shifting a little getting more comfortable.

“Well, first off the other students are starting to get to me. And no, I’m not saying who.” Sunset said, waving off the concerned look on Luna’s face. “It will blow over soon enough, right now the students are just learning that they can ban together and stand up to bullies.”

“Sunset, after what Fluttershy went through, if all people learned was how to bully then what good would have come of it. If the bullied become the bullies, then how long will it be before another student tried to kill themselves?” Luna said shaking her head, “I’m sorry Sunset, I won’t mention your name, but this can’t go on. The cycle in only reversing itself, but it needs to be broken.”

“I understand, but please don’t bring my name up.” Sunset sighed, wondering if telling Luna about that was a good idea. The woman did have a point though, Sunset may have felt responsible for Fluttershy, but if she didn’t let Luna try and stop it then she would only be responsible for more.

“I promise I won’t, but is that all that is bothering you?” Luna asked, “What about the evidence I showed you? Does that have anything to do with why you look like you would be at home on the walking dead right now?”

“I resent that remark.” Sunset scoffed with a mock glare being sent the older woman’s way earning a bit of a chuckle. “Okay, I admit I’m the one doing that. I’m just trying to make up for what I did in the past though. Even after I stopped being so angry, I pushed people away afraid that if they got too close they would find out about Moonie. It wasn’t until Granny Peach found the exact words to break me from doing that did I stop. And then when Fluttershy did what she did, it proved how right she was.”

“Can I ask what those words were?” Luna asked, very curious to what those words could be.

“She asked how I would feel if somebody was hurting Moonie the way I hurt others. Defense mechanism or not, if it was Moonie being bullied I wouldn’t care. All I would care about was the pain Moonie was in.” Sunset sniffled a little.

“You would do anything for her, wouldn’t you?” Luna asked.

“Yeah, but thinking about all the pain I caused when Granny asked me that really struck home. I couldn’t get the memories of everything I did out of my head until I started trying to make up for the things I did. I didn’t want people knowing that I was trying to change though, I wanted to stay feared and hated. So I quietly stopped bullying and whenever I could see something that I could do to fix something for someone I hurt, I did it. I know it won’t fix what I did, but it makes me feel better knowing that I made that person smile instead of cry.”

“Sounds noble, but if it is causing you to loose sleep then maybe you should rethink things.” Luna suggested, noticing how much Sunset was shifting in place and looking more and more nervous. She kept playing with her hair or the hem of her skirt, straightening it out. There was something more going on, and Sunset was obviously avoiding it.

“It really isn’t even that.” Sunset sighed as she slumped farther into her chair. I get like this every year at this time. It’s when it happened, when I was attacked.”

“Oh Sunset!” Luna gasped out in horror. No wonder the poor girl was so worked up and exhausted. She must be having trouble sleeping because of the anniversary and the memories it brought up. Granny Peach had once mentioned it to keep Sunset from getting in more trouble than she did after punching out Gilda in the middle of the hall. The only reason both students got out of too much trouble was they both had witnesses saying the other started it.

“It will be fine. As long as I keep busy I don’t think about it much and it goes away in a few days. Better than a few years ago, it took weeks.” Sunset said, waving it off though her eyes still looked haunted.

“I’m going to call and have your Granny come pick you up. You should go home and rest, not be here right now if all it is going to do is make things worse.” Luna said turning to grab her phone before realizing it was on the floor with the rest of the things Sunset swept off the desk.

“Please don’t, I have several tests today and those always help me focus. The more I have to focus on the better.” Sunset pleaded, jumping up out of her chair.

“Please, I need this. I need to just focus on a normal day and get back to my routine. It is the only real thing that helps.” Sunset pleaded, a little surprised at herself. It was true though, she needed routine right now. Routine or a crisis to get her mind off of things and she seriously doubted she was going to be facing a crisis anytime soon.

“I don’t really feel good about sending you to class if things are bothering you this much. If you promise to come see me if anything happens or if you need to get away then I guess I don’t have much choice.” Luna sighed as she started picking up things from the floor. Sunset joined her quickly with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry about the mess.” Sunset said sheepishly.

“This, a mess? You should have seen Celestia’s office the last time she pissed me off. Now THAT was a mess!” Luna said laughing loudly which for some reason got Sunset to join in on after a few moments. “Let me find my excuses and I will write you one for class so you won’t be counted as tardy.”

“Thanks.” Sunset said with a new found grin, wondering if she would have enough time to stop and fix her makeup. She was sure she really did look like a mess right then.

Author's Note

Edit 6-17-2016

I made some changes to the Luna and Sunset scene, though once again I went back and forth with it, I have to say I like it better than the previous version. Still a little unsure about it, but I have a feeling it is going to be one of those scenes that never seem perfect no matter how many times it is fixed. A little extra though, I almost had Sunset call Luna Auntie in a joking matter at the end to earn a wistful look from Luna. I thought it would be a little overboard, but decided to change it either way just in case.

And just to let you know, that is NOT a typo when Luna mentions sisters as in plural. It is something that will come out later.

I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter. I redid the final scene between Sunset and Luna a few times changing things back and forth. At one point I even had Sunset flicking Luna off and storming out of the school with a threat of enrolling at Crystal Prep and ending up going to SugarCube Corner to spend the day. I'm trying to introduce Sunset's character, motives and everything over these few chapters and it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so without making her seem like a Mary Sue, too weak or too strong. She has a lot of faults including trying to be too self reliant at times yet seems to be so weak and vulnerable when she's extremely exhausted though it's called just being human. She just doesn't see it that way which is another of her faults. And yes, she is rich from her royalties and investments going through Granny Peach since she still isn't of age even if her intellectual properties do go through her.

Still, I experimented with the final scene trying to use a two person perspective. Not sure how well it worked out and I'm really not sure how I like the scene period. Below is one of the other ways it could have went, unedited of course. I'm kind of thinking about scratching the current version and going back to this direction.

Vice-Principal Luna’s office was as dark as it usually was with very little light let through the blinds and the few working lights overhead lit in away to cast shadows all through the office. It was a tad creepy Sunset admitted, even for someone used to stuff like this, but today it was unnerving her more than the intimidation that it was meant to invoke. She could feel a chill run down her spine which had nothing to do with the intended scare tactics and more to do with exaggerated memories of a dark alley, a box and the main reason for most of her worst problems other than that nag back in Equestria.

“Do you recognize any of this?” Luna asked stiffly as she dropped into her chair and pulled out a rather thick looking file. It seemed the woman didn’t want to waste any time with whatever it is she wanted, but Sunset was extremely curious as to what could be in the file. Picking up the thick folder as it landed on the desk in front of her, Sunset took a seat and began leafing through the contents wondering how this woman managed to come across all of this. “I bet you are wondering how I gathered all of this. Well, I didn’t, a private investigator dug all this up when I asked them to look into the person funding Fluttershy’s recovery.”

“So why show this all to me?” Sunset asked, keeping a straight face despite feeling the color draining from her face. To be fair it was partly because of her lack of sleep due to the nightmares and the creepiness of the office making it worse, but to be staring at evidence that she wanted nobody to come across wasn’t helping her any either.

“Because Ms. Shimmer, I don’t know whether to be very proud of you or extremely disgusted.” Luna explained as she narrowed her eyes angrily. “This last year you have seemed to turn your life here completely around and become a student I could say I’m very proud of. A young woman I could be very proud of.”

“What does this have to do with me?” Sunset asked after swallowing several times trying to overcome her growing nervousness. Surely Luna didn’t have proof that this was all documents that Sunset was behind since she had her lawyer take care of most of it.

“I’m very worried about Fluttershy, her mother was a dear friend of mine in college before she was forced to quit. So when she came to me asking what she should do with the money being sent her way not only for Fluttershy’s hospital bills, but money to get a new car and be able to stay with Fluttershy without having to worry about work, it was safe to say I was a little worried as well.” Luna nearly growled, “I hired a private investigator that I have used more than a few times and they quickly discovered that the lawyer dealing with Fluttershy’s case has also been doing a lot more. There is the silent partner trying to by into the Apple’s farm, the anonymous donations to the sporting department for new equipment when there was debate about if we were going to have enough money, the new instrument purchased for Octavia when that Gilda girl smashed the old one. The investment in Sugar Cube Corner to remodel and buy new ovens when their old ones went out. Or how about bailing Rarity’s family out of debt when her parents were close to divorcing. Or how about-“

“That’s enough!” Sunset snapped out before she could stop herself as she threw the folder at Luna who surprisingly caught it without dropping a single piece of evidence. “Have you ever thought that the person behind all of this is trying to do something good and just doesn’t want their name out there as if they are doing this for attention?”

“Maybe if this person didn’t have a huge track record prior to this year of manipulation and bullying I could very easily see that. With your track record though I can’t help but wonder if maybe you are trying to be nice to lull everyone into a false sense of security. It’s bad enough with some of these if that is what is going on, but Fluttershy tried to kill herself! If this is some kind of game Ms. Shimmer, I don’t care who you are related to, I’ll make you suffer!” Luna growled out, her eyes becoming predatory and actually unsettling Sunset.

“Do you honestly believe I would do something like that?” Sunset asked as she uselessly tried wiping away the forming tears. In truth she actually had feelings for the woman, feelings she usually tried to deny, but feelings that were there nonetheless. Not romantic feelings, but love one would have for a close family member as this was the mirror version of aunt she never got to know. The aunt she always wondered if she would love Sunset unlike her own mother. To hear the woman actually threatening her really hurt.

“That’s the problem, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me, would you?” Luna asked, her glare slowly dying away to a much more gentle expression though the damage had already been done. She didn’t intend on hurting Sunset, only doing what she normally did using intimidation to get her answers as she always did.

“I would never want another mother going through what Fluttershy’s is. I know I’d never…” Sunset sniffed, whipping her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket.

“Never what?” Luna asked in shock making Sunset sight in relief as she realized the woman most likely didn’t know about her daughter. At the same time she couldn’t hold back the growing anger and hurt that was flowing inside of her like a raging storm.

“You know what, Vice-Principal? Believe what you want, I don’t care. I was stupid to actually think you were any different than that bitch you call a sister!” Sunset snarled, not really meaning it. She had actually come to respect the human Celestia as she had a more open heart than the pony version. She knew she was channeling her problems with the pony Celestia and casting them on the human version, but right now she just didn’t care. She was tired, exhausted really, and to have the one person she wanted to believe would never be like this just pushed her over the edge.

“Ms. Shimmer, while I know I crossed a line and I am really sorry, I ask that you please try to be more civil.” Luna said as she put the file away in her desk.

“You want civil?” Sunset asked maliciously, standing up and sweeping papers, pens and other odds and ends on the desk toward Luna making the woman gasp in shock. “How fuck you for civil? You can take the damned school and shove it up your ass! I’ll go register at Crystal Prep before I put up with this crap!”

“Ms. Shimmer, please calm down.” Luna pleaded as she rose from her seat and started coming around the desk.

“Go to hell!” Sunset screamed before storming out of the office much faster than Luna seemed to be able to keep pace with. She knew she was out of line, that she wasn’t really planning to go to Crystal Prep as she didn’t want to deal with her. Not that the school was as bad as it used to be, but Sunset really couldn’t take that Cinch look alike in large doses. She was kind of cool and fun to be around at times for short periods, but her nature alone made Sunset shiver.

Ignoring the protests from Luna and the damned lazy security guard, Sunset made her way out of the school deciding that maybe it would be best to be away from there for the day before she did something she would really regret. She was just too unstable to be around anyone who might upset her anymore for the moment. Instead she debated going home, but she didn’t want to be around Granny or Moonie being this agitated. Moonie could tell when Sunset was really upset no matter how hard Sunset tried to hide it. She just didn’t want to upset Moonie or worry Granny Peach.

“Maybe I’ll head over to Sugarcube Corner and get a bite to eat. A double chocolate milkshake might be a good way to cool down.” Sunset mused silently. It might be good to see the Cakes, one of the only ones who knew about some of the nicer things she had done this year. Mrs. Cake always seemed to know how to soothe her nerves.

It didn’t take long to reach Sugarcube Corner, a small bakery and café where many students stopped by in search of a quick bite or a place to just hang out with friends. A place where Sunset didn’t come to often except when she had a doctor’s appointment for either Moonie or herself. Pushing the door open she was suddenly assaulted by the wondrous, delicious smells that wafted from the kitchen where the Cakes were likely hard at work.

“Good morning, we’ll be right with you!” Mrs. Cake called from the back as the bell over the door alerted the woman to the presence of a customer.

“Take your time!” Sunset called back as she browed the display case before stopping on a special treat that she didn’t get the chance to grab here that often. It was something that the Cakes only made on occasion, but with the new remodel they promised to make them more often.

“So where’s little Moonie?” Mrs. Cake asked as she walked out of the back with a smile for Sunset.

“She’s at home with Granny Peach, I kind of just needed some time alone.” Sunset admitted sheepishly, hoping the woman wouldn’t push it.

“What happened?” Mrs. Cake asked crossing her arms and giving Sunset the look. It made Sunset shiver a little as it was something every mother knew, and despite being a mother herself now, Sunset was still a teen and still fully susceptible to its power.

“I kind of had an argument with my Vice-Principal.” Sunset sighed in defeat, tearing her gaze away from the peanut butter and chocolately treat calling her name.

“Well, we are all caught up and Mr. Cake can man the register for a few while we grab a quick snack. Go on out and grab a booth and I’ll be there momentarily.” Mrs. Cake said with an encouraging smile.

“Sure.” Sunset said with a shrug of her shoulders before hopping into the booth farthest from the door, the one she always took. After getting settled in Sunset wondered if perhaps this was a bad idea. Sure coming here when she had a reason not to be at school was great, but she was technically skipping school which she already knew she was going to be lectured by Granny over.

“I have your favorites.” Mrs. Cake said as she slid a tray with a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream and a cherry and a peanut butter bar in front of her as the woman took a seat herself across from Sunset with a muffin and coffee.

“Oh wow, thanks.” Sunset said as she had to fight the urge to just grab the treat.

“Your very welcome honey, don’t forget you own part of this place.” Mrs. Cake said.

“No, I told you I only did it because I didn’t want to lose Moonie’s favorite place to get cookies from. She’d be devastated if you closed down. I don’t want any real ownership of the place, just for you to keep supplying my little girl with sugary sweets.” Sunset said softly, trying to keep her voice down in case people overheard. It may have been the slow time of the day, but customers still came in and out.

“Then I’ll repay you when we can.” Mrs. Cake said as she sipped her coffee.

“Like hell you will, there is no way I am going to take anything from you for that. You are one of the only people I can trust and I help those people that I trust.” Sunset said seriously, nodding her head before taking a rather large bite of her treat and fighting the moan of pleasure as the peanut butter goodness assaulted her taste buds. “This is really good!”

“I’m glad that you are enjoying it.” Mrs. Cake giggled before her expression sombered a little. “Sunset, you don’t have to keep being alone.”

“I attacked Pinkie Pie today.” Sunset admitted, heading off the path the conversation was going by admitting what she had done. “I’m so sorry.”

“What did you do?” Mrs. Cake asked while she studied Sunset, a slight disappointed look crossing her face though she kept it in check. Something Sunset always liked about the woman, she could be emotional but she always heard the whole story before passing judgment.

“I know you didn’t, but is there anyway that Pinkie Pie found out about my situation with you?” Sunset asked, wondering if perhaps Mrs. Cake was behind it though she pretty much did believe Pinkie Pie.

“None, I never talk about during store hours and when I talk with my husband it is only after we have closed and Pinkie Pie went home.” Mrs. Cake explained.

“She told the girls about my situation and was pretty accurate. I kind of got her alone and pushed her against some lockers and threatened her to keep her quiet about that stuff. She told me about her meds.” Sunset said as she washed some of the peanut butter down with chocolately milkshake.

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie has some issues that her parents try their best with. They just don’t understand her or depression and their insurance stopped paying for her normal medications and said she needed to be switched to a similar one.” Mrs. Cake said shaking her head in disgust, not that Sunset could blame her. It was disgusting how insurance and politics hurt people so much and they didn’t even care. “Her parents just don’t know how to deal with her anymore so we are talking about letting her move in here with us.”

“I offered to help her with that after she told me something similar. I know someone at Crystal Prep who may not be an expert in visions, but she knows more about the stuff than I do.” Sunset said, “Of course there is also the option of maybe finding the right herbs to help her or even providing the funds to get the medications she needs.”

“Why do you want them to see you as some kind of monster, Sunset?” Mrs. Cake asked sadly.

“Because I was a monster. I was horrible to every person in that school when I first started. It was people like Granny, you and my daughter who helped me get over being that selfish brat.” Sunset sighed, “And now, now I can’t trust them to now about Moonie. There are so many of them that may hurt Moonie to get to me for what I did.”

“You don’t have to tell everybody, but you don’t have to be alone either. I know you are friends with that singing group you girls like as well as that magician.” Mrs. Cake said as she finished her muffin and was nursing her coffee.

“Friends is such a strong word really, I prefer allies or acquaintances.” Sunset replied earning a sad look from the older woman.

“One of these days you will learn that you don’t have to be alone, that it is okay to open your heart to the idea of friendship. I know my niece would love to give you a chance. Despite her problems, she is a very loving girl who has a knack for seeing the good in people. And you have a lot of good that you seem intent on keeping hidden deep down.” Mrs. Cake said, “Though I do want to know why you are skipping school exactly.”

Sunset sighed as the conversation came back around to why Sunset left the school, which a part of her really didn’t know about.

“I admit, it was partly my fault and I may have let my lack of sleep and frustrations get the better of me. First attacking Pinkie Pie like that, then letting the Vice-Principal bait me like that. If I just kept a level head I wouldn’t have admitted to the contracts and reports that she had was really mine.” Sunset admitted, settling in to tell Mrs. Cake everything that happened.

Chapter 4 Wednesday Cont. (Edited)

Sunset

“Maybe I’ll head over to Sugarcube Corner and get a bite to eat. A double chocolate milkshake might be a good way to calm my nerves.” Sunset mused silently. It might be good to see the Cakes, one of the only ones who knew about some of the nicer things she had done this year. Not even Vice Principal Luna’s evidence folder had everything in it. Besides, Mrs. Cake always seemed to know how to soothe her nerves and she needed to get Pinkie Pie’s pharmacy information. Thankfully her last period was a free one so she could skip out with no worries and have time to visit the café before school let out.

It didn’t take long to reach Sugarcube Corner, a small bakery and café where many students stopped by in search of a quick bite or a place to just hang out with friends. A place where Sunset didn’t come to often except when she had a doctor’s appointment for either Moonie or herself, or when she could stop by during slow times. Pushing the door open she was suddenly assaulted by the wondrous, delicious smells that wafted from the kitchen where the Cakes were likely hard at work.

“Good afternoon, we’ll be right with you!” Mrs. Cake called from the back as the bell over the door alerted the woman to the presence of a customer.

“Take your time!” Sunset called back as she browsed the display case before stopping on a special treat that she didn’t get the chance to grab here that often. It was something that the Cakes only made on occasion, but with the new remodel they promised to make them more often. It was just a surprise that there were even any left this late in the day.

“So where’s little Moonie?” Mrs. Cake asked as she walked out of the back with a smile for Sunset.

“She’s at home with Granny Peach, I kind of just needed some time alone.” Sunset admitted sheepishly, hoping the woman wouldn’t push it.

“What happened?” Mrs. Cake asked crossing her arms and giving Sunset the look. It made Sunset shiver a little as it was something every mother knew, and despite being a mother herself now, Sunset was still a teen and fully susceptible to its fearsome power.

“I kind of had an argument with my Vice-Principal.” Sunset sighed in defeat, tearing her gaze away from the peanut butter and chocolately treat calling her name.

“Well, we are all caught up and Mr. Cake can man the register for a few while we grab a quick snack. Go on out and grab a booth and I’ll be there momentarily.” Mrs. Cake said with an encouraging smile.

“Sure.” Sunset said with a shrug of her shoulders before hopping into the booth farthest from the door, the one she always took. After getting settled in Sunset wondered if perhaps this was a bad idea. Sure coming here was always a nice thing to do, but she couldn’t help worrying about the consequences if she ran into a mob of students coming in. It didn’t matter that there was an assembly and the teachers constant preaching against bullying lately, all some of the students cared about was getting back at those bullies who hurt them. Even if they were becoming bullies in the process. Yeah, she could handle herself, but she was worried about the place.

“I have your favorites.” Mrs. Cake said as she slid a tray with a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream and a cherry and a peanut butter bar in front of her as the woman took a seat herself across from Sunset with a muffin and coffee.

“Oh wow, thanks.” Sunset said as she had to fight the urge to just grab the treat.

“Your very welcome honey, don’t forget you own part of this place.” Mrs. Cake said.

“No, I told you I only did it because I didn’t want to lose Moonie’s favorite place to get cookies from. She’d be devastated if you closed down. I don’t want any real ownership of the place, just for you to keep supplying my little girl with sugary sweets.” Sunset said softly, trying to keep her voice down in case people overheard. It may have been the slow time of the day, but customers still came in and out. Note to self, pick up a dozen or so for Moonie’s sleepover with the twins tomorrow night.

“Then I’ll repay you when we can.” Mrs. Cake said as she sipped her coffee.

“Like hell you will, there is no way I am going to take anything from you for that. You are one of the only people I can fully trust and I help those people that I trust.” Sunset said seriously, nodding her head before taking a rather large bite of her treat and fighting the moan of pleasure as the peanut buttery goodness assaulted her taste buds. “This is really good!”

“I’m glad that you are enjoying it.” Mrs. Cake giggled before her expression sombered a little. “Sunset, you don’t have to keep being alone.”

“I attacked Pinkie Pie today.” Sunset admitted, heading off the path the conversation was going by admitting what she had done. “I’m so sorry.”

“What did you do?” Mrs. Cake asked while she studied Sunset, a slight disappointed look crossing her face though she kept it in check. Something Sunset always liked about the woman, she could be emotional but she always heard the whole story before passing judgment.

“I know you didn’t, but is there anyway that Pinkie Pie could have found out about my situation with you?” Sunset asked, wondering if perhaps Mrs. Cake was behind it though she doubted it and pretty much believed Pinkie Pie’s claim. From her studies it wasn’t uncommon for those with severely watered down witch genes to not develop the magic a normal witch would have, instead sometimes gaining visions or other mental abilities. They could be blocked off with the right medications such as antidepressants or medications to combat bipolar or other mental disorders.

“None, I never talk about it during store hours and when I talk with my husband about it, it is only after we have closed and Pinkie Pie went home for the night.” Mrs. Cake explained.

“She told the girls about my situation and she was pretty accurate. I kind of got her alone and pushed her against some lockers, threatened her to keep her quiet about that stuff. She told me about her meds.” Sunset said as she washed some of the peanut butter down with her chocolately milkshake resisting another urge to moan in pleasure. Damn, if they tried they would put Starbucks out of business.

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie has some issues with her parents. They try their best with her, but I’ve already told you before how religious they are and how strict they are with her. They believe that praying will heal everything, but the good Lord doesn’t help those who don’t try to help themselves. And to make matters worse, they just don’t understand Pinkie or her depression, and their insurance stopped paying for her normal medications saying she needed to be switched to a similar, cheaper one.” Mrs. Cake said shaking her head in disgust, not that Sunset could blame her. It was disgusting how insurance and politics hurt people so much and they didn’t even care. And to add hurt onto it, the girl’s parents sounded like real pieces of work. It made Sunset wonder just how a religious family could have witch’s blood anywhere in it. “Her parents just don’t know how to deal with her anymore so we are talking about letting her move in here with us if Maud doesn’t take her in. It’s really sad.”

“I offered to help her with that after she told me something similar about the insurance. I know someone at Crystal Prep who may not be an expert in visions, but she knows more about the stuff than I do.” Sunset said, “Of course there is also the option of maybe finding the right herbs to help her, or even providing the funds to get the medications she needs.”

“Why do you want them to see you as some kind of monster, Sunset?” Mrs. Cake asked sadly. “You may be a witch, but even I can see you have such a good heart. Even when I met you during our classes together I could tell you had a good heart.”

“Yeah, Lamaze class is a great place to learn about the real you.” Sunset joked with a roll of her eyes earning a laugh from the older woman. “Anyways, I was a monster. I was horrible to every person in that school when I first started. It was people like Granny, you and my daughter who helped me get over being that angry, selfish brat.” Sunset sighed, “And now, now I can’t trust them to know about Moonie. There are so many of them that might hurt Moonie to get to me for what I did.”

“You don’t have to tell everybody, but you don’t have to be alone either. I know you are friends with that singing group you girls like as well as that magician.” Mrs. Cake said as she finished her muffin and was nursing her coffee.

“Friends is such a strong word really, I prefer allies or acquaintances.” Sunset replied with an exaggerated scholarly air in an attempt to lighten the mood more only to earn a sad look from the older woman.

“One of these days you will learn that you don’t have to be alone, that it is okay to open your heart to the idea of friendship. I know my niece would love to give you a chance. Despite her problems, she is a very loving girl who has a knack for seeing the good in people. And you have a lot of good that you seem intent on keeping hidden deep down.” Mrs. Cake said, “Though I do want to know why you are skipping school exactly.”

Sunset sighed as the conversation came back around to why Sunset left the school, which a part of her really didn’t know about.

“Actually it was last period and as you know it is a free period for me.” Sunset said getting Mrs. Cake to give a grateful smile.

“Well, I’m happy you decided to come spend it here, we don’t get to see you that often.” Mrs. Cake said. “Are the twins still invited tomorrow night?”

“Of course, Moonie is looking forward to it. I’ll also try to come more often.” Sunset said as she pulled a twenty out as Mrs. Cake was shaking her head no. “I won’t freeload, you know that. Besides, it was worth every cent. Just send some cookies with the munchkins and keep the change for a tip.”

“Sunny.” Mrs. Cake sighed taking the money so Sunset wouldn’t keep arguing about it knowing that she would do it.

“It’s fine, you know how important it is to me to do this. Though you can do me another favor. You know what pharmacy Pinkie uses?” Sunset asked getting a nod in confirmation in reply. “Good, please text me the information for it when you get a chance later. I need to go do a few things before I can head home.”

“Sunny.” Mrs. Cake called out as Sunset began to leave getting her to look back. ”Please take care.”

“I will, you to.” Sunset said, giving a smile back as she returned toe wave from Mr. Cake as well.

Thankfully Sunset made it out and down the block before the loud voices of students heading towards Sugarcube Corner to unwind after school. A part of her almost wished that she could be a part of that, to be able to have a few people she could call friends and be able to hang out and just joke about normal things. She knew better though, she was far from normal all the way from being from another world to being what could be classified as a witch, though she was different from one. She was also a teenage mother who loved her daughter very much and would put Moonie’s happiness before Sunset’s own.

Heaving a sigh, Sunset pulled out her phone feeling it vibrate. Checking the messages she noticed she missed one earlier. The gifts she special ordered for Moonie as an extra present was finished earlier than expected and ready for pickup. She was happy about that since she was worried about how long they would actually take to complete. The toy store’s owner warned her that the level of detail she was asking for could mean that the project could run into delays. Seeing it actually finished early made her day so much better.

Scrolling farther down she was surprised to see Mrs. Cake had already sent the information Sunset wanted. Smiling she forwarded it to her lawyer asking her to look into setting up a tab for Pinkie Pie’s medications and seeing if the pharmacy still had the regular scripts on file. She knew it wouldn’t be so easy getting all the information, but she could get the tab set up at least and let Pinkie Pie know it was there. Hopefully it was just what Sunset suspected and the medication would keep the party girl from blurting out people’s secrets like that. It may not be on purpose, but it had the potential to cause even more damage than Sunset ever had.

Princess Cadence

“Just great.” Cadence groaned as she rested in the gardens soaking up some much needed sunlight after spending so long in those caves. She had come straight here after breaking off from Luna letting the other alicorn go off and do some private things, not that Cadence minded as she was really looking forward to resting out her in the calm and quiet. A quiet that was shattered by the voices of several mares and a dragon. Oh Joy.

“The egghead still hasn’t showed up back home, Princess Cadence.” Rainbow Dash said as she landed on the ground with the other elements of harmony. The fact that they were the so called elements was the only reason she didn’t immediately call the guards and just have them thrown out. Well, all but one.

“Don’t call Twilight that!” Cadence snapped as she stood up, stretching and working out the kinks as she felt a surge of anger at the Pegasus who dared belittle her little sister. Even if such a title was only in name for the time being.

“What. It’s just a nickname.” Rainbow Dash huffed.

“Sugarcube, perhaps it would be best to refrain from upsetting the nice princess.” Applejack hissed out only to be ignored.

“What? Egghead is my nickname for Twilight, she loves it.” Rainbow Dash said waving a hoof in dismissal.

“Listen to me you arrogant little nag!” Cadence snorted shocking the others in the group. “I may not have been around you and her, but I know how much that word hurts Twilight because it was the same word all of those stuck up ponies called her making her cry so much when she was a filly. If I even hear you utter that word around me one more time, I swear I’ll buck your sorry plot into the sun!”

“Sorry princess!” Rainbow Dash squeaked, all of the group looking a little scared by Cadence’s attitude. She had to admit it felt good being angry like this and venting her frustrations on some pony deserving of it.

“Please forgive Dashie, she’s just worried.” Pinkie Pie said softly before ducking behind Rarity when Cadence turned her steely gaze upon her.

“No, I don’t think I will forgive any of you.” Cadence snorted, “Well maybe one of you since I’m sure he has a reason for his actions, though I am very disappointed in him.”

“You don’t hate me?” Spike asked, slinking forward as he looked up at Cadence with a teary eyed expression.

“Of course not Spike. I’ve seen the interactions between you and these nags, and I have my own theories of what happened. I do expect an explanation later and a choice; either you realize what you have done and prepare a real apology for Twilight or you can go and stay with your so called crush.” Cadence said giving Spike a little smile before frowning at Rarity.

“Darling, what are you looking at me for?” Rarity asked, swallowing nervously as the alicorn’s glare intensified making the unicorn eep out.

“Don’t feed me that you snobby little priss.” Cadence seethed, “I’ve seen the way you toy with poor Spike’s emotions within ten minutes of really meeting you. You should be ashamed of yourself! Spike is a child in dragon years and you are a full grown mare!”

“But-“ Rarity started, but was interrupted by Cadence silencing her.

“Be silent!” Cadence yelled, her voice nearly becoming a roar. “Each of you are guilty of crimes against Twilight from everything I’ve heard. And while I normally reserve passing judgment on others without getting the other side of the story, I’ve seen enough of your group to know some of you are no better that the plot kissers I’ve come to know in Canterlot.”

“Princess Cadence, please, we really care for Twilight.” Fluttershy squeaked out, barely heard with how soft she was speaking.

“I will not forgive any of you for what you have done to Twilight until the time she herself does. I’ve read all of her letters to Auntie Celestia, so I feel I already know you lot a lot better than you may think. I know I haven’t been around you all that much, but I have been enough to know the letters were most likely not exaggerations.” Cadence said, “While some of you may genuinely feel regret for your actions at the wedding and may even feel real friendship toward Twilight, the others are a lot more suspect.”

“If I may ask your highness, who do you think has genuine feelings for Twilight?” Applejack asked with confusion, yet a curious expression.

“I’ll tell you who I find the most suspect, Rainbow Dash and Rarity.” Cadence said glaring at the two. “I’ve hear you kissing Spitfire’s plot even after Twilight disappeared trying to get in good with the Wonderbolts. As for you Rarity, I’ve seen how you twist poor Spike around your hoof and kiss any plot who you think can further your career. How you kept bragging about how ponies would know your name far and wide after hearing you designed my wedding gown. Well guess what, I won’t be needing your services for my wedding!”

“But! But Princess! Please rethink-“ Rarity pleaded only to be shut up with an angry snort from Cadence. A part of her did feel bad for being this harsh with the group, even if she felt they deserved it right now. She wanted to drive home how bad they messed up and hopefully get them to actually seriously think things over. If perhaps they did and proved their sincerity to her, then maybe she would be willing to deal with them. The only ones she wasn’t going to rip the heads off of were Spike since she was sure what happened there was entirely the baby dragon’s fault, the shy Pegasus who really did seem like such a kind soul, and Pinkie Pie who was just to earnest to actually meant any harm intentionally. Cadence wasn’t even too sure that Pinkie Pie could harm anyone if she tried with her more innocent seeming outlook on life. The others were all suspect, and Cadence didn’t want to deal with any of them except for Spike until they got their acts together.

“Spike, stay here with me. The rest of you, I assume you haven’t rested much since traveling back from Ponyville. Go to your rooms and think over every thing you have ever done for or to Twilight since meeting her. Seriously think about what was going through your heads when you turned your backs on her.” Cadence said, shaking her head wondering why she was even giving them this chance. “We will speak more in the morning and if I like what I hear then we can talk.”

Ignoring any parting words by the dejected mares as they trotted off in a sullen mood, Cadence turned to Spike with a sad look. “Spike, why did you do it?”

“I don’t know Cadence.” Spike sighed, “I didn’t mean to hurt Twilight I just went along with every pony.”

“With every pony Spike, or with one in particular?” Cadence asked, searching for the truth in Spike’s eyes and the blush that started appearing on his cheeks was all the confirmation Cadence needed. “Spike, we need to have a different sort of talk later. Just answer me this; do you regret what you did?”

“I do! I hate myself for abandoning Twilight! Now she’s gone and hates me!” Spike sobbed burying his face in his claws. “I hate me!”

“Shhhhh, shhhh Spike, she doesn’t hate you.” Cadence whispered as she wrapped her wings around the small dragon and pulled him into a hug. “It will all be okay Spikey, I promise.”

Sunset

“They look beautiful.” Sunset said in awe, her eyes glued on the stuffed pony plushie in her hands that was an exact likeness to her true form. If she didn’t know better she would wonder if Patch Work was actually from Equestria and knew her before coming to this world. She really didn’t believe she gave enough details for this, but once again the old man had outdone himself.

“Only the best for my best customer.” The man said stroking his long beard as he gave a hearty chuckle. Some of the kids around here called him Santa Clause with good reason as the man looked like he could really be the jolly man with an attitude to match. Running a small toy store who preferred quality over quantity only helped further the harmless misconception.

“Somehow I doubt I am your best customer, but I do know where to go for good quality stuff.” Sunset said with a smile, giving the man one of the few licenses to craft My Little Pony toys. Sure she let a large toy company mass produce them, but she made sure her lawyer got Patch Work a royalty free license without letting on who the creator really was. And the real My Little Pony enthusiast almost always ordered from him as he did the best job on the toys.

“Well, you and that cute daughter of yours is. It was a pleasure making these for little Moonie and it was a cute idea that you came up with making My Little Pony toys based off the people who ordered them. I have a feeling it is going to be a huge hit with kids wanting a customized one of themselves.” Patch Work chuckled.

“Well, they are worth every cent.” Sunset said with a grin as she slid the plush pony back into the bag with the ones based off of Moonie and Granny Peach. They had set her back a good amount, but they were worth it even if they cost about ten times as much as those low quality ones she had seen at larger chain toy stores. They were one of the few mistakes she had actually made, agreeing to let the company make toys when shown concept art only to learn that she was stuck with letting them be mass produced now because of the license she granted them. Thankfully it was nonexclusive. “Thank you so much for hurrying the order up.”

“It was my pleasure, you better head home though it is getting dark.” Patch Work suggested waving toward the window where the light from the setting sun was shining through. She would have done been heading home of it wasn’t for her hanging out around across the street waiting for a girl she knew from school with a little sister both inside the toy store to leave. They took far longer than she wished, and the time it took to get the tab set up and text Pinkie Pie of the news it was far later than she wanted to stay out.

“Thanks, I’ll see you later.” Sunset smiled, her purchases already paid for and walked out the door with bags in hand as Patch Work waved and wished her well. Checking the clock on her way out let her know that the bus for home would be pulling in to make a pick up within five minutes and it would take ten to go around the block. Of course it would only take two minutes if she cut through the alley the toy store sat on. The alley that was cast in shadows with very little light.

What the hell do I do? I don’t want to wait another hour for a bus out here when it is going to be dark!

Not that she was afraid of the dark, she knew the only creatures around here that haunted the night were less than the fingers she had on her two hands. And those people were of the nonthreatening variety. No, it wasn’t the things that went bump in the night that scared her. It was dark alleys where the humans strayed into looking to fulfill their vices and addictions that bothered Sunset. Especially with her nightmare from the night before reminding her of the reason why she stayed away from then usually unless in a hurry, and even then she was cautious.

Less than a minute left! Damn it!

Taking a deep breath to stop the shaking she just realized she was doing, Sunset closed her eyes a moment as she heard the bus and ran. She hurried down the alley and saw the bus slowing to the stop at the other end and almost made it until she heard a noise. At first she froze in utter fear, panic gripping her heart as she ignored the urge to flee. The noise was a whimper, a feminine sounding whimper behind the dumpster.

It could be any number of things, and yet something inside her knew. There was someone scared, terrified behind that dumpster on the other side of the white picket fence that called out to her. It could have been somebody hurt, hurt like she once was or even worse. She knew she should walk away just incase it was a trap of some sort, and yet she found herself ignoring the bus pulling away as her feet cautiously carried her into the gate and slowly around the dumpster where a girl had her knees hugged to her chest crying into them sat rocking back and forth.

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked softly, putting her bags down and reaching out for the girl who shied away while drawing into herself more.

“Please, why won’t you just leave me alone! All I want is to figure out how to open the portal back up so I can go home!” The girl sobbed, finally looking up at Sunset with a tear stained face. Her eyes were so red and puffy and there was a look of hopelessness in her eyes that made Sunset’s heart go out to her. What got her the most was that this girl was the exact image in a photo she had seen hours ago in the photo on Luna’s desk. She was filthy, as if she hadn’t had a bath in days which make Sunset wonder because she hadn’t seen any missing person reports.

“Wait! You said portal? What portal?” Sunset asked, her mind grasping onto that one word that the girl cried. Was this girl? No, she couldn’t be! She looks just like her though…

“In that statue.” The girl whimpered.

“The portal to Equestria?” Sunset asked slowly as she studied the girl’s expression waiting for any kind of recognition and couldn’t help cursing mentally when the girl’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“You believe me?” The girl asked looking as if Sunset’s answer was the most important thing in the world.

“I should, I came from there years ago.” Sunset sighed. “Look, it isn’t safe staying out here, come with me and I’ll get you something to eat and a place to get cleaned up until we figure out what to do.”

“This could be a trick!” The girl gasped shaking her head and scooting back away from Sunset.

“If I’m right you were a student of Princess Celestia and your name is Twilight Sparkle.” Sunset said, though a part of her was hoping it wasn’t so. She was a mirror image of the human Twilight that she had seen when looking into that family just to see who she was here. For a long time she hated Twilight Sparkle and blamed her for everything. Looking down at her now though would have made any anger she had go away if it hadn’t already.

“How do you know me?” Twilight asked.

“I used to live in the castle when you were first brought there.” Sunset said holding out her hand. “I want to help you, but I can’t unless you trust me. Come on Twi, give me your hand and I promise I will do whatever I can to make sure you get home safely.”

“I’m not sure if I have a home.” Twilight muttered making Sunset’s anger flare though she managed to beat it down for now. No reason scaring Twilight any more than she already was. Thankfully she took Sunset’s hand after looking at it and back to her own a few times. Sunset decided it would be best to ask about the comment later and get Twilight home for now.

“Sorry, I haven’t had much to eat.” Twilight sheepishly said as Sunset helped her to her feet and her stomach decided to let itself protest it’s current neglect.

“Well, the bus won’t be back for an hour and we can get something to eat real quick while we wait.” Sunset said with a smile as she grabbed her bags and led Twilight out of the alley.

Author's Note

Finally Sunset finds the human Twilight. Hope you liked, I'' try to get the next chapter done editing soon.

Chapter 5 Wednesday Concluded (Edited)

Pony Fluttershy

Fluttershy sat curled in a ball as her friends formed a circle with her around a table in their suite filled with numerous snacks and drinks. It was one of those really nice, quality built tables with exotic designs that must have been imported from somewhere like Neighpon. So many intricate carvings in the black surface that Fluttershy could spend hours just staring at as the small group sat on the softest cushions that must have ever been made. It would be better than facing things as they were.

“Where do you thing the egghead is?” Rainbow Dash asked, exhaustion and frustration in her voice. Not that Fluttershy could blame her, none of them had much sleep since they learned of Twilight’s disappearance and it was weighing heavily on all of them. She couldn’t help feeling regret for not staying with Twilight when she needed it most. She really wasn’t too sure why she had walked off with the others, but looking across the table to Rainbow Dash made her remember. She followed her friend who assured her that Twilight was just overreacting. At the time it seemed so reasonable, but now Fluttershy couldn’t help hating herself for it.

“Dash, just please cut the name calling out!” Applejack snapped, wiping her eyes with a hoof as she tried holding back tears for their missing friend.

“I don’t care what some pink princess wannabe says, I’ll call my egghead whatever the buck I want!” Rainbow Dash snarled out angrily, “Where does she get off telling me what I can and can’t call Twilight?”

“Ladies, please calm down.” Rarity pleaded, trying to be the voice of reason between the two. She’s been trying to be the voice of reason for the whole group since learning that Twilight was missing which surprise Fluttershy. Gone, well mostly gone, was the drama queen as she stepped up assuming a more leader like role among the group. Not that Rainbow Dash and Applejack appreciated it much at first.

“I love Twilight! I don’t want some bucking pony I barely know telling me I don’t!” Rainbow Dash seethed angrily, clenching her jaw.

“We didn’t show her much love, Dashie.” Pinkie Pie sniffed, her hair flat and eyes watery. “Why did we do it? We didn’t know that meanie changeling queen when she pretended to be Princess Cadence. Yet we sided with her and turned out backs on Twilight. She hates us!”

“Shush darling, don’t say that.” Rarity said softly as she pulled a sobbing Pinkie Pie against her, letting the pink mare wail into her fur without once complaining that it would stain her coat. “We messed up, sure, but friends mess up all the time. We’ll find Twilight and we will make things right.”

“Not if the nag has anything to do with it. She fired you as her seamstress, how long do you think she moves to get rid of all of us?” Rainbow Dash scoffed, her eyes watering.

“That hurt, I admit it, it is going to have a huge impact on my business and livelihood.” Rarity sighed as she leaned her head on Pinkie Pies as the pink pony just curled into the white pony seeking comfort.

“Buck your livelihood! Were talking about Twilight Sparkle missing because of our buck up!” Applejack snarled, drawing back in shock as she noticed the tears running down Rarity’s muzzle.

“Darling, I’ll let that go as I know you are upset like the rest of us. Unlike you though, I don’t have Big Mac to help cover my side of things while I’m away. You should be worried too though because if this effects your farm then it could impact your livelihood.” Rarity explained as she visibly tried to fight back the tears, her body shaking.

“What does my livelihood have to do with Twilight missing, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, calming down a little despite still seeming agitated.

“Tell me, Applejack. If our businesses go under what happens to our families? To Sweetie and Bloom?” Rarity asked, Applejack’s face draining of color despite her fur as realization sunk in. “I’m worried sick about Twilight, but I’m also worried about what little family I have left.”

“This isn’t fair!” Rainbow Dash snapped, slamming a hoof down on the table making the snacks jump as she fought back more tears. “How did we come to this? How the buck did I do something so stupid? So uncool!”

“Rainbow.” Fluttershy sighed as she got up and went to hug her oldest friend.

“I’m sorry egghead! I’m so sorry!” Rainbow Dash cried as Fluttershy held her while trying her best to comfort the brash, sometimes arrogant Pegasus. Fluttershy knew that no matter how brash and arrogant Rainbow might seem at times, the mare was just as caring and kind as Fluttershy herself despite hiding it behind a wall of bravado.

“Look, we’re all tired so maybe we should just get some rest and hopefully things will look up tomorrow.” Rarity suggested and got murmurs of acceptance from the others though Fluttershy herself knew that none of them would sleep well despite her own agreement to try and rest. They were worried about Twilight and more than a few of them kept having nightmares about the wedding where they found Twilight dead because they didn’t take her serious when she really needed them to.

Princess Luna

“What’s wrong your highness?” A threstral night guard asked as she stood watch over the entrance to the chamber holding the mirror that apparently worked as a conduit for a portal to a whole other world.

“I have a lot on my mind.” Luna sighed, looking over to the guard realizing that it was Night Shade who was her most trusted guard when it should have been another. “What happened, why are you here? Not that I mind but, shouldn’t your shift be over?”

“Yeah, but I was worried after seeing how distraught you were earlier and switched out with Reaver so we could talk.” Night Shade replied as she pulled her helmet off. Unlike many of the solar and night guard, Night Shade’s appearance didn’t change much when donning the illusion enchanted helmet of their group. Only big change was the mare’s mane was much longer and a bit of a mess.

“What’s there to talk about? We should be celebrating my grand stallion marrying Princess Cadence. I should be celebrating with my family as I told them about our connections and plans to bring their houses back to the royal status they deserve. Instead we are running damage control because of a failed invasion that really should have been easily prevented in the first place. My sister and I are at odds, my grand mare in missing, my grand stallion and Princess Cadence’s relationship is in limbo. And I have a lot of work ahead of me getting this stupid thing to actually work.” Luna replied in a sarcastic tone while motioning with her front hooves as she grew more and more panicked with each point until she was breathing heavily and focusing on calming down.

“Are you alright, Princess?” Night Shade asked, giving a sad look to her Princess and the one she devoted all of her loyalty to.

“No, I’m not sure I will be either until all of this is settled. And then there is the fact none of it even makes any sense.” Luna sighed, looking forlornly up into the reflective surface of the mirror. “You know I was drugged so I wouldn’t interfere with the invasion right?”

“Yes, I’m one of the only ones who know the whole truth.” Night Shade said, “Are you worried about the security and it happening again?”

“No, well yes, but tell me Night Shade, how does it make sense?” Luna asked, a worried look filling her eyes.

“What do you mean your majesty?” Night Shade asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“Why would an invading force go to such lengths to keep Celestia, Cadence and myself alive? Apparently they had us at their mercy so why spare us? Why go to such great lengths to make sure no pony was seriously physically harmed?” Luna asked, giving the mare several moments to think it over though the confusion in her expression only grew.

“What about tricking Twilight to attack Princess Cadence?” Night Shade asked, pointing at what did seem like an obvious trick on the changeling’s part to try and get Twilight to hurt Cadence.

“I don’t think it was because of what every pony else is saying. Think about it, even in her weakened state Cadence is an alicorn and more than capable of taking care of herself. She would be able to dodge the clumsy attacks of a unicorn who is attacking in a blind rage as Cadence claimed Twilight to be in. Yes the crystals surrounding her nulled her magic, but the moment Twilight shattered the wall her magic returned.” Luna explained, “I have a theory this changeling wanted Twilight to attack Cadence knowing that Cadence would never harm the pony she loved as a sister.”

“Why do that though? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Night Shade asked, pacing back and forth now thinking over what she had heard.

“No it doesn’t, I can’t figure out why go to all of the trouble. Was the changeling trying to instill a sense of betrayal? Something more? Something less? I just don’t know and that is what is bothering me so much. Everything is a mess right now and on top of it I’m worried about all of the unknowns.” Luna sighed. Suddenly her ears perked up as she heard a noise shuffling on the other side of the door causing her to make shushing motions with her hoof before moving to open the door to find Celestia pacing back and forth. The white alicorn froze when she realized Luna was standing there looking at her.

“Hello sister, I went to personally bring my journal to your room. You weren’t there so I left it on your bed, but I still wanted to talk to you.” Celestia said as her eyes flicked back and forth nervously, ears drooped as her mane looked as if was barely maintaining it’s ethereal form.

“Hello sister, please let’s step inside to avoid prying ears. Night Shade, if you will please excuse us.” Luna said as she trotted back inside, Night Shade bowing before silently leaving the room. Celestia slowly moved into the chamber closing the door before dropping to a sitting position on the floor.

“How are you doing?” Celestia finally asked, looking up at Luna with a look as if she was fighting back tears. Luna really hated seeing her like this, even after everything.

“I’m doing fine, sister.” Luna said as she sat in front of Celestia, facing her with very little space between them. “I have to say, Starswirl did an excellent job on this mirror.”

“I’m not so sure he made it.” Celestia sighed, old wounds clear in the depths of her eyes.

“If she was here she would know for sure. She would also probably be better at figuring out these unorthodox spell matrices. I believe I can do something, but it won’t be easy.” Luna sighed.

“Please let’s not talk about her, I already lost her and now I’m losing you.” Celestia sobbed out, her body shaking with each powerful sob as Luna gathered her sister into her wings.

“Shhh, you aren’t losing me.” Luna sighed as she nuzzled Celestia. “We are having an argument dear sister. I may be upset with you, even a little disappointed, but I love you. You are my sister, my family, and you will never lose me.”

“I’m so sorry Luna. I try and I try, but no matter how good I am at being a Princess I always fail at everything else. I failed at being a sister. I failed at being a mother. I failed as a teacher. All I seem to do is fail at everything important to me.” Celestia sniffled.

“We all mess up sometimes sister, it is part of being alive. What is important is we learn from our mistakes and move on the best that we can.” Luna said, taking up a kind yet wise tone of voice.

“Since when did you get so smart?” Celestia asked, leaning into her sister’s embrace.

“I can’t always be as childish as I want to be. And after this I think we both will be doing some growing up.” Luna said.

“I hope I don’t do too much more growing, my plot is already going to be huge after all that comfort food.” Celestia sighed earning a bit of a giggle from Luna making them both smile. “Things are going to be okay, right sister?”

“Yeah, they are.” Luna agreed though she couldn’t help feeling a sense of foreboding.

Sunset

Sunset watched Twilight from the corner of her eye as they two rode silently on the bus towards her home after missing another one while listening to Twilight’s story. The darker haired girl was sitting by the window struggling to get the wrapper open on the last burger in the bag of take-out Sunset ordered as they left. They each had a large salad since Sunset was worried about Twilight freaking out over eating meat, and yet when the girl heard someone ordering a cheeseburger as they left Sunset had to hold back the giggle seeing the wide eyed hungry look on Twilight’s face. So Sunset grabbed a couple of them to go on the way out and they just made this bus as it pulled in. She figured why not since Twilight said she already had one since being here and knew what they were when Sunset asked.

It was hard to miss the frustration on Twilight’s face as she struggled to open the wrappers, just as it was seeing her eat the salad with the fork. Her whole fist gripped the fork then, and now she clumsily worked the wrapper. It looked as if she had some experience working her hands, but not enough to be used to things. It would have to be something to work with her with, teaching her dexterity and some of the differences in this world before getting her enrolled at the school if she even bothered with it.

The thing she was dreading was telling Twilight the truth about what help she could give her. Until the portal reopened Sunset wasn’t too sure if there was much she could actually do. She did intend to contact those few she knew who might have other ideas, but she didn’t hold out much hope. She didn’t want to go back to hr world so didn’t care much about the portal, but now with Twilight here there was more of a reason to look into it.

“These are so good.” Twilight moaned as she stuffed the trash back into the paper bag it came in. “I can’t wait to get back to Equestria and try making them myself.”

“What?” Sunset asked as she turned fully to face Twilight with a look of shock. “You said you knew what they were. You do know, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, they’re cheeseburgers.” Twilight said with a huge grim making Sunset want to smack herself in the face. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Later, this is our stop.” Sunset said as she jumped up, grabbed her bags and motioned for Twilight to follow as the large vehicle pulled to a stop. Shrugging Twilight hopped up and followed Sunset out carrying the paper bag full of trash. “Please keep quiet until we get to my office. I don’t want to wake anyone up.”

“Okay.” Twilight agreed, nodding as she followed Sunset closely.

The two made their way down a block and to a large home that didn’t have any lights on showing through the windows. Of course Sunset expected this seeing as it was past Moonie’s bedtime and usually Granny Peach retired to her own room after or stayed up to talk with Sunset depending on the situation. Before the last year the older woman would also wait up for Sunset if she was running late, but after turning over a new leaf and showing even more responsibility that she already did, Granny Peach started trusting her to make it back herself knowing that Sunset sometimes had business to take care if. And with Sunset’s earlier text Granny Peach already knew to expect Sunset to be late.

Opening the door as silently as she could, Sunset let Twilight in and closed the door behind her. Motioning the other girl to follow, Sunset made her way down to her office and put her new purchases next to the desk as Twilight looked around in awe.

“Welcome to my office, feel free to look around, but be careful. I need to go check on something really quick so get comfortable.” Sunset said as she dropped her keys in the desk.

“Thanks, where can I putt his though?” Twilight asked showing the mostly crumpled bag in her hands. With a roll of her eyes Sunset took it with a promise to take care of it. After a quick stop to throw the trash away, Sunset made her way upstairs to first check on Moonie and give the sleeping girl a quick kiss goodnight. After making sure the guest room next to Granny Peach’s was okay and the bed was made and clean Sunset once again descended to the basement to find Twilight looking through her movie collection. Not that Sunset was sure that Twilight knew what a BluRay was.

“These are weird looking books.” Twilight remarked as her eyes traveled from one title to the next, not bothering to pull any out. Sunset couldn’t blame her as the shelves were the perfect size for holding the cases and didn’t allow you to see the tops very well until you removed it from the shelf.

“Those aren’t books, they’re movies. I’ll explain that later though.” Sunset sighed, “I need to talk to you so have a seat.”

“Is everything okay?” Twilight asked taking a seat on the couch in front of the entertainment center.

“It depends on how you look at things.” Sunset sighed joining Twilight on the more than spacious couch. “Look, I wanted to talk to you about something else first. You said every pony really hurt you when they abandoned you. For the moment, I just want you to think about that. Do you really want to go back to a place, to the ponies who would do that to you?”

“I don’t know.” Twilight finally admitted after chewing her bottom lip until Sunset wanted to smack the girl over the head to tell her to quit it. Is this how Gran feels when I do that? “We’ve been through so much, but after the wedding I’m scared that no pony really wants me around.”

“Twilight, while I have my doubts about things, I’m sure that you are wanted. What about your parents?” Sunset asked, trying to remember if Twilight had parents or what. She realized that she actually knew more about the human Twilight that she did about the pony one despite not even meeting the human one.

“I don’t know, we haven’t talked much since I moved to Ponyville. They didn’t even tell me there was going to be a wedding until the last moment, no pony did.” Twilight sighed making Sunset begin to see a pattern. Twilight may be taking things differently than they actually were as she may be feeling put out due to not even being told about such a life altering event. Things may not have been as bad as Twilight was seeing them, still the things that happened were pretty shitty.

“I’m not even going to pretend that I understand what you are going through Twilight. I have a lot of my own demons, a lot caused by that bitch Celestia, but this just sounds like it must have been horrible.” Sunset sighed as she reached over and squeezed Twilight’s shoulder. “I promise I will help you in any way I can. If you truly want to go back I will help you get back. If you want to stay I will give you a place to stay here and teach you what it means to be human and get you set up with an identity.”

“What if I decide to go home?” Twilight asked, though by the tone of her voice and the sad look in her eyes Sunset could tell she was unsure of the idea of returning where she was hurt so much.

“Twilight, the portal naturally opens for three nights every thirty moons.” Sunset sighed as Twilight’s eyes flew wide in shock. “There may be other ways to get it to open sooner though. I have people here that I know who may have ideas. They still know more about this world’s magic than I do, but I’ve learned a lot from them.”

“There’s magic here? I haven’t been able to use any.” Twilight asked, hope shining in her eyes as she wiped them with the back of her hand. It seemed like this Twilight was just as consumed with seeking knowledge as the human Twilight was reportedly.

“Magic works different here. The humans here who can use magic are usually known as witches, though some call themselves shaman or wizards. Humans usually can’t just call upon magic though the ones that are born as a witch can take the magic that they generate or pull from the aether and channel it into medium to get different results.” Sunset explained, “I can do that, and you should be able to, but it works a little different for us.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as Sunset got up and walked over to her desk and opened a drawer on it pulling out a chain with a small red gem attached to it.

“Have you been feeling sore lately, maybe hot?” Sunset asked as she rejoined Twilight on the couch with the small necklace.

“Yeah, I think I’m getting sick from not eating much or something.” Twilight said as she shook her head.

“That isn’t it. We may share many similarities with the witches of this world, but we aren’t connected to it. I’ve found that different species from our world likely react to the changes differently. Unicorns such as us produced large amounts of magic that we constantly discharged through our horns which were our medium there. Here, we don’t need such a medium to cast magic as we can’t do all the things we did in Equestria. Our mediums here consist of runes or potions for example. They can do a lot, but they can’t levitate our tea for us. We have hands for that anyways.” Sunset reached into her top and pulled out a necklace she was wearing showing Twilight. Unlike the one in Sunset’s hand, the one she was wearing had a slight glow to it.

“Why is that one glowing?” Twilight asked.

“Because it is drawing the excess magic out of my body that I don’t use. If left unchecked it can make you sick and maybe even kill you. Of course that is just conjecture, but I was very sick before Granny Peach took me to see a shaman she knew. It was this shaman who figured out what was wrong and since then she crafts these for me. They’re great because they can be charged and used for spells later. They can also be used to create small shields or shock waves for protection if you release the magic stored in them.” Sunset explained helping put the new one around Twilight’s neck.

“That already feels kind of better.” Twilight admitted, heaving a sigh of relief.

“As long as they make contact with skin they will draw out excess amounts of magic and store it. It will have to either be discharged or changed out about once a month, but you don’t need to wear it at all time. At most I would go without it maybe a day or two if needed, but a few hours away from it won’t hurt you.” Sunset explained. “I’ll teach you about magic for as long as you want or as long as you are here. Of course you will have to spend weekend class time with an apprentice I have.”

“This world seems so weird.” Twilight sighed, “Maybe it would be best if I go back. Though the thought of learning does sound kind of exciting.”

“Good, just concentrate on the fun you will have learning for now. I’ll get a hold of the people I know after I get done at school tomorrow and see what they can do to help me with the portal.” Sunset said, relieved that Twilight wasn’t completely breaking down. Then again she cried pretty good when Sunset first found her so maybe Twilight was still just emotionally burned out from that. “Twilight, I do have several rules about staying here with me. There isn’t many people I would allow to do this, but you need help and frankly I have no other ideas on what to do with you.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, playing with the gem on her necklace.

“The most important rule is don’t hurt my daughter and things will be fine.” Sunset said getting a shocked look from Twilight.

“You have a daughter?” Twilight asked a little shocked.

“Yes, and I will do everything and anything to protect her. I’m taking a huge risk on you, but you are from my world and I kind of can’t turn you away.” Sunset said, Besides, if I’m right, it would be wrong to turn you away.

Author's Note

So the editing took a lot longer than I wanted it which I'm really sorry for. This would have been done last night though if not for the bad thunderstorms. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm even doing justice to the different characters, even if they are from my head canon world for this story since I'm not to sure if I'm getting emotions and conversations to sound right or natural. I suck at it, I know, but hopefully I'm getting better at it.

I did cut out a lot of info dumping from the last season since I will be going over the same stuff soon again and thought it best not to have it twice and the upcoming scene seems like it would be more natural to have it in it.

Chapter 6 Thursday Part 1

Friday Night, Nearly Four Years Ago

Sunset was, as usual for her, upset as she stalked through the darkening streets of Canterlot. She knew more than she once did about the real world that was her current home and counted herself lucky that she didn’t face worse than she did when she first arrived. Then again, she couldn’t help feeling at times maybe it would have been for the best. Maybe it would have been better if some creature of the night had happened across her and just ended her life on the spot.

Kicking a can as she was passing a very dark alley she couldn’t help feeling a shiver cross travel down her spine as memories surfaced despite her attempts to keep them buried. Her momentarily lack of focus cost her though as a pair of hands grabbed her and dragged her into the darkness kicking and screaming, though the hand over her mouth pretty much muffled her cries. It took several moments to push the fear down enough to regain some control of herself as her vision began to adjust to the darkness to see a frightened girl with a blue ponytail shaking her head.

“Dagi, we need real help.” The girl sniffled as the person holding Sunset hissed out in a strained feminine voice.

“We can’t trust anyone, look what they did to Aria!” Sunset’s captor hissed out as Sunset slowly snaked her hand into her pocket, clasping the fully charged gem she had there for emergencies.

“But what good is grabbing her going to do, Dagi? Even if we feed we can’t heal, what are we supposed to do?” The scared girl nearly sobbed out.

“She has powerful magic, can’t you feel it? We feed from her, then we will have enough strength to enchant the doctors at the hospital to treat Aria with no questions!” The angry girl holding Sunset hissed as a third joined them, barely keeping herself upright.

“Dagi, just let me die. I’m tired of this life, tired of having to scrape what little we can to survive when the miasma barely begins to feed us any longer.” The new girl choked out, voice barely audible as she coughed up some blood. The same blood staining a good portion of her clothes in the stomach area. It was a miracle the girl was even standing, then again from what Sunset could figure out, it shouldn’t be a surprise. These girls were not human.

“Enough!” Sunset snapped out angrily after the girl holding her let her hand slide away from her mouth a little. Sunset griped the gem in her pocket, unlocking the flood gate and letting part of the magic held within to just flood out in a shockwave knocking all three girls around Sunset off their feet. “If you think you are going to off me, then prepare to be disappointed. I have someone waiting for me at home, and I’m not going to let you idiots keep me from her.”

“Please, help Aria! Please! You can do magic, right? Real magic?” The pony tailed girl sobbed as she crawled to her knees and pulled at the hem of Sunset’s shirt while staring up with bright, wide eyes.

“Leave her be Sonata, just leave her be.” The injured girl coughed as she rested on her back on the ground where the shockwave threw her. Looking over to see another girl with the biggest hair Sunset had ever seen, she shook her head. She had no reason to help this girl, they were going to do something to her so why help them?

“But, magic!” The girl sobbed out as Sunset knocked her away before starting to storm from the alley.

“We will find some other way Sonata. I won’t let you two down, you are my sisters.” The big haired girl cried softly while staring at the ground from her prone position. Sunset had a feeling that the girl hardly ever cried, but if something wasn’t done very soon then no matter how strong the girl seemed, the injured one would die.

With a heavy sigh and cursing how soft she had started to become since giving birth to her daughter not long ago, Sunset turned and headed to the bleeding girl.

Thursday

“Damn alarm!” Sunset grumbled as she sat up quickly in bed, rubbing her face after hitting the off button. It had been awhile since she had dreamed of her first meeting with the Sirens, but it was preferable to the other dreams she had been having during the week. She would have to thank Sonata for the email Sunset got right before crawling into bed letting her know that the trio was taking a break from singing to finish their last year of school at an actual school. One of the lovely side effects that changing their triggers had, getting rid of their immortality. Thankfully they weren’t upset about that little turn of events, though Sunset herself did feel a little bad about it happening.

With a heavy sigh, Sunset crawled from her bed to get the morning started. She could already hear Moonie helping Granny Peach with breakfast so Sunset went about her morning routine as she got ready for what promised to be a long and possibly stressful day. After she finally made herself presentable, Sunset found her way downstairs to find Twilight hungrily eating pancakes at the table where Moonie was just sitting down herself with one of the new toys she got. It brought a smile to her face making her glad that she told Twilight to give the presents to Moonie this morning. Granted Sunset planned to be there at the time, but she never mentioned that.

“I was going to let you sleep in Sunny.” Granny Peach said with a sad smile while pulling out Sunset’s mug from the cabinet and filling it with coffee before handing it over.

“Thanks Gran, but you know I have to go to school today. Now more than ever.” Sunset said as she flicked her eyes towards Twilight. She had explained things to the older woman last night before checking her emails and hitting the bed. Thankfully she agreed with Sunset that it was probably for the best to have her stay there. She was just too naïve to be stuck with someone else who may end up abusing that innocence.

“If you insist.” Granny Peach sighed, knowing there was no changing the teen mother’s mind.

“Good morning sweetheart.” Sunset said kissing the top of Moonie’s head and hugging her making the girl giggle.

“Morning mama!” Moonie chirped in excitement showing off her new pony version of herself.

“That’s really cute.” Sunset said, feeling a small tinge of jealousy over not seeing her daughter get these special gifts though quickly swallowed it down.

“Auntie Twilight got it for me! And guess what! Auntie Sonata sent me their new CD and said they might come visit soon!” Moonie cheered making Sunset laugh now.

“That was nice of her honey, maybe Granny Peach will help write a thank you letter today.” Sunset said as she helped load the table with everyone’s breakfast that was kept simple yet filling for the day.

“She already did mama.” Moonie chirped while moving her new gifts out of the way of her food.

Sighing as her phone went off, Sunset excused herself from the table to answer it long enough to have a hopefully brief conversation with her lawyer.

“Hey Sharp, what’s up?” Sunset asked, too early to deal with prolonged pleasantries dealing with her work life though keeping it friendly since the two of them were close enough to let formalities go anyways.

“I got you the farm, though there are certain conditions.” Sharp Justice said, her voice a little hesitant which did worry Sunset a little.

“Why does it sound like I’m not going to like these conditions?” Sunset asked as she ran fingers through her hair, blowing a strand out of her face as it dropped down in front of her eye.

“Well, I got him to agree to a non disclosure clause that if he mentions anything about what is revealed to him outside the office he will lose the farm to keep him from telling anyone who you are.” Sharp said nervously.

“And why would he know who I am?” Sunset asked, keeping her temper in check as she had a bad feeling as to what was coming.

“He demanded meeting you early this morning at my office to get a feel for how honest this transaction really is.” Sharp said in a rush in order to get everything out before Sunset could interrupt her.

“And there it is, this week is going down the drain.” Sunset growled, “Don’t worry Sharp, you did everything you could. I need to stop off and see someone before I come in, so I should be there in maybe two hours at most.”

“That’s great, and I do have another bit of news. That production studio that has been trying to get you to sign a new three movie deal has made a new offer. You would have complete creative control of each of the movies if you want and you would be paid separately for each movie. They want you to do some promotional stuff that they will pay five million for if you do a live book signing with exclusive media rights to their news outlets including exclusive interviews.” Sharp explained, no longer tense.

“I’m not sure about that, you know I really don’t want to reveal myself as the creator. Just don’t reject it yet, see if you can get them to hold the deal for awhile.” Sunset said as she started doing calculations in her head. While she wasn’t hurting for money with all her accounts set aside for helping people, day to day living, and family things, that much money was tempting as it could go a long way to helping even more people at the least and providing for Moonie and Granny Peach if anything happened to her.

“They said you have ninety days to make a decision. Anyways, I’ll let him know you will see him in two and a half hours. That should give you plenty of time to take care of your business and make it here to prepare I presume.” Sharp said, laughing as she reminded Sunset of a very important fact. “You know I can’t see you nod, right?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. That will be perfect, see you then. And thanks again Sharp.” Sunset said, laughing to herself and being thankful for the chance to draw her out of her bad mood just a bit more.

“What’s wrong dear?” Granny Peach asked as Sunset returned to the table after sending a quick text to Trixie asking to meet up under the bleachers soon.

“Nothing, I just have to meet up with Sharp so I probably won’t make it to classes today. It will give me more time to stop off at Crystal Prep and find out if there is anything they can do to help get Twilight home.” Sunset explained.

“What about her?” Moonie asked as she pointed to Twilight, “Doesn’t she have school too?”

“It isn’t polite to point honey,” Sunset admonished with a soft giggle shaking her head at Moonie’s quiet eep and sorry, “Though you have a point, she does need classes. Instead of school though, Granny Peach will be giving her lessons to help her get better control of her hands. Your friends should be over later today for your sleepover tonight.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to these.” Twilight sighed as she wiggled her fingers for emphasis.

“You will, give it time. Though I’m hoping I’ll have good news on the front when I get home tonight.” Sunset said giving an encouraging smile though she didn’t feel very confident. She wouldn’t even be going to Crystal Prep if she could avoid it since after her recent dreams she was feeling very sensitive and the attention from that woman always sent shivers down Sunset’s spin.

“What would the principal think if she knew you three were out here smoking? Hmmm?” Sunset smirked as she glared down the Diamond Dog trio who was sneering at her, but was putting out there cigarettes. It didn’t take long to make it onto school grounds, though she wouldn’t be staying for long. She just needed to assign her apprentice a task for the day.

“Someday Shimmer, your get yours you stupid bitch.” The tall lanky one said. Sunset never really bothered to learn their names as they were all bark and no bite as well as being pretty pathetic to boot. While someone like Principal Celestia was an optimist believing that everyone could be redeemed, Sunset didn’t. Sunset was a realist, and she knew the three losers stalking away from her was likely heading to an early death when they were stupid enough to finally try something like they always talk about doing.
She had another twenty minutes until school started and she needed the area under the bleachers on the soccer field for her meeting. She had called one of the few students at CHS that she trusted on her way to school and asked to meet up with them. Moments after no one was around the air filled with a sparkling purple smoke signaling the girl’s arrival.

“Behold, the Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!” Trixie called out, standing there with her arms thrown high in a dramatic pose.

“Hmmm, great job finally getting the smoke to flow out more. Try another couple drops of the catalyst in your next potion though; it might make it more dense.” Sunset greeted with a nod of approval as Trixie deflated. The girl was doing very well for someone who last year was using cheap parlor tricks and failing half the time.
“Trixie will try, you were right that this smoke works better than Trixie’s old smoke bombs.” Trixie agreed, biting her lip. “You aren’t here to cancel Trixie’s class this weekend are you?”

“Not at all, though you will likely have a new classmate. Don’t worry though, I won’t ignore you. You are my student and I take that seriously.” Sunset said, refusing to make the same mistakes the bitch made with her. She may have a lot less anger towards the princess, but after hearing Twilight’s story it was surging up again. “I do have a favor to ask.”

“Of course, the Great and Powerful Trixie always comes through for Trixie’s Great and Powerful teacher!” Trixie boasted.

“I know Gilda might try to pretend otherwise, but she fears you. She knows you use real magic and she won’t go against you. I want you to keep an eye on Fluttershy today, my lawyer said she’s coming back.” Sunset explained getting a knowing look from Trixie.

“Come on, you know it wasn’t your fault. You haven’t really bullied anyone much all year.” Trixie said softly, switching to a more serious expression.

“Nor have I stopped it. Gran was right, how would I feel if Moonie was bullied? It’s what got me started thinking and back off from pushing everyone away as much. I mean how would I feel if my own daughter was bullied?” Sunset said, “What happened to Fluttershy though.”

“Wasn’t your fault. Trixie knows something that might help settle your mind. Fluttershy’s friends have made up and have been visiting Fluttershy every day.” Trixie said getting a look of relief from Sunset before it changed to confusion.

“Wait, how would you know? Have you been spying on them?” Sunset asked as she leaned against a support pole.

“Sunset, the whole school visited Fluttershy while she was in the hospital except for a few.” Trixie explained, “Trixie went multiple times and witnessed them go from quiet around each other to best friends who seemed like they were never apart.”

“Good for them, Fluttershy needs good friends right now.” Sunset wistfully replied.

“Trixie thinks you do too.” Trixie replied tentatively waiting for the normal argument from the last few months to start.

“Trixie, all I need is my family and what few allies I have.” Sunset said with less force than she would have months ago. Sure she knew the Dazzlings considered her a friend and family after changing the trigger in their amulets to absorb love instead of negative emotions. Something they didn’t trust her to do at first, but there were those who were getting suspicious and have even attacked them.

“So what, Trixie isn’t a friend?” Trixie asked giving Sunset a challenging smirk.

“Trixie…is my student.” Sunset hesitantly replied. Sure a few months ago she had no trouble denying a real friendship between them. Now she couldn’t even bring herself to shoot Trixie down which only earned a victorious grin from the magician.

“Ha, you can’t even deny it. Soon Shimmer, soon you will admit that you have friends! You aren’t fooling Trixie at all! Trixie knows your dirty little secret after all.” Trixie grinned.

“What secret?” Sunset asked with worry since she had a lot of secrets.

“Everyone is talking about how some rich benefactor is secretly paying for Fluttershy’s bills through their lawyer. Well Trixie has met your lawyer and seen the same lawyer delivering a check to Fluttershy’s mom. The mysterious benefactor is YOU Sunset Shimmer!” Trixie gloated while pointing dramatically at Sunset who brushed the hand away gently.

“Really, I already had to tell my daughter it isn’t polite to point, do I have to do the same for you?” Sunset asked.

“So you don’t deny it?” Trixie giggled. “Shimmer, you have a kinder heart that you want to show. Trixie really wishes Trixie knew why you hide it so much.”

“You know why, I can’t afford letting everyone know about Moonie. I’ve made a lot of enemies and they might use her to get to me. I can see Gilda actually attacking Moonie while at the playground with Gran.” Sunset explained.

“Sunset, all playing aside, Trixie worries for you. It isn’t healthy to push everyone away.” Trixie whispered.

“Trix, sometimes I envy people like Fluttershy and you.” Sunset said wiping moisture from her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love
Moonie and wouldn’t change a thing. Sometimes though I have to admit I envy your freedom. You have the freedom to do whatever you want, to feel whatever you want. Whenever you want.”

“You can if you wanted.” Trixie urged.

“No, Trixie, I can’t. I got myself into this mess being the bitch I was. Even if I wanted friends, there is no one out there who would be willing to give me a chance. And even if they did, I don’t have the luxury to enjoy it. I have a daughter Trixie, a daughter I have to protect and keep away from those who would hurt her to get back at me.” Sunset shuddered a little struggling to get herself back under control. Trixie was getting good at getting under her skin like this lately and was only getting better. Trixie was about to say something when the bell rung making Sunset curse at losing track of the time. “Come on, let’s go before we’re late.”
Neither of them noticed a girl hunched down in the bushes, face hid behind her long pink hair with wide shocked eyes.

The trip to her lawyer’s office only took a few minutes after leaving school since it wasn’t very far away. On the way there she sorted through some pictures she had stored on it which she only had on there because she could lock her phone and the encryption was so good not even the best hacker she knew could get into it.

Walking into the office she nodded in greeting to the receptionist who waved her on back mentioning her guest was already there. Taking a deep breath Sunset pushed the door open to see Sharp sitting at the end of a table with Big Macintosh, or as everyone called him Big Mac sitting next to her. While her lawyer smiled up at her Big Mac sent her a look so dark she could have sworn the temperature dropped a few degrees.

“What is she doing here?” Big Mac asked as he glared up her making Sunset freeze for a moment. She liked planning things out better than this whenever she could and while she had several plans forming, she doubted any would work. She was flying blindly here which she did not really enjoy, but could manage. She hoped she could at least.

“This is the benefactor who wishes to invest in your fame Mr. Mac.” Sharp said patting the young man’s arm. “As I explained, the benefactor is the same one behind a lot of the charity or investments to better the city, especially for the last year.”

“I don’t want no charity, especially from the likes of her!” Big Mac growled out.

“Do you see this?” Sunset demanded as she shoved her phone into Big Mac’s face. “This is my daughter, and she means the world to me. I’ll do anything to protect her and make sure she has the best chances that she can to have a good life. If that means I had to go door to door begging for spare change just to take care of her, I would! I thought you loved your little sisters the same way.”

“I do.” Big Mac said softly, swallowing nervously as he stared at the picture. “Family is everything to an Apple.”

“I have had to do things to keep people at an arms length to make sure she is kept safe. While I regret a lot of it because some of it was me lashing out from the pain I was in at the time, it doesn’t forgive my actions. I’ve done my best to quietly pay back all of those I hurt with your family being some of the last. If you want, just look at this as payback from the pain I caused.” Sunset said as she took the folder Sharp handed to her and flipped through it as she sat down before taking a pen to make some changes to the demands from Big Mac.

“I don’t know what to say, we do need help or we are going to lose the farm. Granny didn’t understand that the taxes changed a few years ago and now we owe so much money in taxes as well as mortgage payments that they are threatening to foreclose on it.” Big Mac sighed.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I am going to pay the mortgage and catch you up on your taxes no matter what. I still want to invest in the farm though if you will let me. Let’s face it, with your sisters going to school and your Granny working in the cafeteria trying to make extra money to catch you up, you just can’t be expected to take care of the farm yourself.” Sunset sighed as she slid the folder back across the table to Big Mac. He had asked for some business classes to help him with the business side of the farm and the help of a couple workers. Sunset added that all three of the younger apples will get scholarships to do as they pleased with, at least five workers and some new farm equipment that wouldn’t affect the personal touch but would still be enough to make things a bit easier.

“Are you serious?” Big Mac asked as he flipped through the pages, noticing that Big Mac’s name was to be attached to everything and Sunset’s name would be nowhere to be seen.

“Very serious, and I urge you to accept this. Think of your sisters. I know the farm is a big part of your family, but they deserve the options to do something else if they want.” Sunset said.

“Thank you, may I please think about this?” Big Mac asked softly, the want to accept clearly reflecting in his eyes.

“Please do, but please don’t take too long either.” Sunset said with a smile as Big Mac chuckled.

“You know, I’m starting to think there is a whole other side to you than you show people.” Big Mac said.

“Thank you, that is the idea. I prefer to keep my daughter out of the light as much as possible though that may have to change sooner than I would have liked.” Sunset sighed, “Anyways, I have to go, I have another meeting across town. Thank you for coming in Big Mac and thank you for giving my offer some though.”

After a quick handshake Sunset was off to the next encounter of the day.

Author's Note

I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I'm back.

ORIGINAL CHAPTER:

Wednesday Morning

“Momma! Momma! Guess what?” A little girl with Sunset’s skin tone and dark blue hair with light blue streaks cried as she jumped up into Sunset’s arms.

“You shrunk another inch?” Sunset teased good naturedly as she kissed the top of the girl’s head and sat her at the table as an older woman sat dishes down. “And good morning little munchkin.”

“Noooooo! Auntie Sonata sent me their new CD!” The little girl chirped out, her attention finally falling onto the new person sitting at the table with a look of curiosity. “Who are you?”

“You shouldn’t point like that honey.” Sunset giggled while ruffling the girl’s hair earning a squeak of protest making Twilight giggle. “That’s great though, maybe after breakfast we can write your aunties a thank you letter.”

“Granny already did.” Moonlight replied getting a grin from Sunset.

“That’s a good girl. Thank you Gran for helping her.” Sunset said with pride in her voice.

“You’re very welcome dear. Why don’t you introduce yourself dear?” Granny Peach asked as she turned her attention to Twilight despite the two already meeting when they first woke up.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight said, picking the bag up off the floor from next to her. It was the bag that Sunset had when she found Twilight the night before. Looking at the girl she could see a lot of Sunset in her confirming Sunset’s claims that she had a daughter. Something Twilight had no problems admitting she found a little surprising as they were the same age. It wasn’t unheard of for young mares to have foals in Equestria, but it was pretty rare.

“I’m Moonlight Dreamer, but Granny Peach, my aunties and mommy call me Moonie.” Moonlight exclaimed excitedly as the older woman.

“She is such a sweetheart.” Granny Peach said as she brought a couple of containers from the fridge over to put them on the table. “She’s my little Sunsehine’s beacon of light.”

“Granny!” Sunset cried out in embarrassment earning the older woman to chuckle as the teen started scooping something from a pan that she had been cooking at the stove with before the little girl came barreling into the room onto Twilight and Moonlight’s plates.

“You can’t deny that she keeps you out of trouble.” The woman laughed as she took her seat at the table after placing a plate of toast and three mugs of something steaming at the table in front of Twilight as well as Sunset and Granny Peach’s places. Sunset joining her after getting the second pan and scooping stuff out on their plates and putting the pan in the sink.

“More like keeps me from causing trouble.” Sunset snorted with a roll of her eyes.

“Well, for being such a good girl maybe you deserve a reward.” Twilight said nervously, handing the bag over to the girl who took it after looking to Sunset for permission. Moonlight happily took the bag after Sunset gave her a nod of approval.

“Thank you so much!” Moonlight cried happily looking down in the bag before gasping. Pulling each of the ponies out she found versions of her family including herself. “Where did you get My Little Pony versions of us?”

“She had them specially made.” Sunset said giving a nervous Twilight a wink.

“Well let’s dig in before our omelets get cold.” Sunset chirped out taking a big bite. Studying the girl Twilight could tell that she seemed so happy and carefree sitting there enjoying a breakfast as everyone engaged in small talk. It was such a different mood than the night before. Sure she seemed happy then, but she seemed more reserved. Right now she seemed so carefree that Twilight couldn’t help smiling.

“Gran, before I forget, I left Granny Smith’s usual order of herbs as well as a potion to help with her cough I’ve noticed she’s had the last couple of days in case she comes by. Also, the lawyer should be by to pick up the checks for the hospital and the humane society.” Sunset explained, her mood suddenly turning a bit more serious.

“I really wish you would let me tell her that you are the one preparing them for her.” Granny Peach sighed out, putting her fork down and giving Sunset a solemn look as the two ignored Moonlight’s quiet giggles at Twilight’s way of holding the fork as if it was a knife she was going to stab something with.

“You know why I don’t Gran, its better that she thinks it is coming from you.” Sunset sighed, “I might be getting a certified letter in the mail today. It’s the new contract from that animation studio wanting to make a My Little Pony movie.”

“Really? There’s going to be a movie?” Moonlight gasped, her attention drawn away from Twilight leaving Granny Peach to try and help her get a better handle on using the fork.

“My Little Pony?” Twilight asked, quirking an eyebrow in askance.

“It’s kind of this story I made up that may have, kind of, became uber popular.” Sunset grinned sheepishly.

“Made up, huh?” Twilight asked in an amused tone. If Sunset made a living from telling stories from their world, who was Twilight to complain?

“Oh Twi, Granny is going to show you some exercises for you to do while I’m at school to help with your dexterity. I can’t help you with your bra every time.” Sunset teased making Twilight blush for some reason. “Anyways, just try and stay in today and I’ll bring some hair dye home with me tonight.”

“Dye?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, we can’t have you mistaken for the other Twilight, now can we?” Sunset asked making Twilight choke. “Anyways, I’m off. Be a good girl for Gran while I’m at school honey.”

“K, Momma, have fun.” Moonlight chirped after Sunset kissed the top of her head. By the time Twilight got herself under control Sunset was out the door.

“What would the principal think if she knew you three were out here smoking? Hmmm?” Sunset smirked as she glared down the Diamond Dog trio who was sneering at her, but was putting out there cigarettes.

“Someday Shimmer, your get yours you stupid bitch.” The tall lanky one said. Sunset never really bothered to learn their names as they were all bark and no bite as well as being pretty pathetic to boot. While someone like Principal Celestia was an optimist believing that everyone could be redeemed, Sunset didn’t. Sunset was a realist, and she knew the three losers stalking away from her was likely heading to an early death when they were stupid enough to finally try something like they always talk about doing.

She had another twenty minutes until school started and she needed the area under the bleachers on the soccer field for her meeting. She had called one of the few students at CHS that she trusted on her way to school and asked to meet up with them. Moments after no one was around the air filled with a sparkling purple smoke signaling the girl’s arrival.

“Behold, the Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!” Trixie called out, standing there with her arms thrown high in a dramatic pose.

“Hmmm, great job finally getting the smoke to flow out more. Try another couple drops of the catalyst in your next potion though; it might make it more dense.” Sunset greeted with a nod of approval as Trixie deflated. The girl was doing very well for someone who last year was using cheap parlor tricks and failing half the time.

“Trixie will try, you were right that this smoke works better than Trixie’s old smoke bombs.” Trixie agreed, biting her lip. “You aren’t here to cancel Trixie’s class this weekend are you?”

“Not at all, though you will likely have a new classmate. Don’t worry though, I won’t ignore you. You are my student and I take that seriously.” Sunset said, refusing to make the same mistakes the bitch made with her. She may have a lot less anger towards the princess, but after hearing Twilight’s story it was surging up again. “I do have a favor to ask.”

“Of course, the Great and Powerful Trixie always comes through for Trixie’s Great and Powerful teacher!” Trixie boasted.

“I know Gilda might try to pretend otherwise, but she fears you. She knows you use real magic and she won’t go against you. I want you to keep an eye on Fluttershy today, my lawyer said she’s coming back.” Sunset explained getting a knowing look from Trixie.

“Come on, you know it wasn’t your fault. You haven’t really bullied anyone much all year.” Trixie said softly, switching to a more serious expression.

“Nor have I stopped it. Gran was right, how would I feel if Moonie was bullied? It’s what got me started thinking and back off from pushing everyone away as much. I mean how would I feel if my own daughter was bullied?” Sunset said, “What happened to Fluttershy though.”

“Wasn’t your fault. Trixie knows something that might help settle your mind. Fluttershy’s friends have made up and have been visiting Fluttershy every day.” Trixie said getting a look of relief from Sunset before it changed to confusion.

“Wait, how would you know? Have you been spying on them?” Sunset asked as she leaned against a support pole.

“Sunset, the whole school visited Fluttershy while she was in the hospital except for a few.” Trixie explained, “Trixie went multiple times and witnessed them go from quiet around each other to best friends who seemed like they were never apart.”

“Good for them, Fluttershy needs good friends right now.” Sunset wistfully replied.

“Trixie thinks you do too.” Trixie replied tentatively waiting for the normal argument from the last few months to start.

“Trixie, all I need is my family and what few allies I have.” Sunset said with less force than she would have months ago. Sure she knew the Dazzlings considered her a friend and family after changing the trigger in their amulets to absorb love instead of negative emotions. Something they didn’t trust her to do at first, but there were those who were getting suspicious and have even attacked them.

“So what, Trixie isn’t a friend?” Trixie asked giving Sunset a challenging smirk.

“Trixie…is my student.” Sunset hesitantly replied. Sure a few months ago she had no trouble denying a real friendship between them. Now she couldn’t even bring herself to shoot Trixie down which only earned a victorious grin from the magician.

“Ha, you can’t even deny it. Soon Shimmer, soon you will admit that you have friends! You aren’t fooling Trixie at all! Trixie knows your dirty little secret after all.” Trixie grinned.

“What secret?” Sunset asked with worry since she had a lot of secrets.

“Everyone is talking about how some rich benefactor is secretly paying for Fluttershy’s bills through their lawyer. Well Trixie has met your lawyer and seen the same lawyer delivering a check to Fluttershy’s mom. The mysterious benefactor is YOU Sunset Shimmer!” Trixie gloated while pointing dramatically at Sunset who brushed the hand away gently.

“Really, I already had to tell my daughter it isn’t polite to point, do I have to do the same for you?” Sunset asked.

“So you don’t deny it?” Trixie giggled. “Shimmer, you have a kinder heart that you want to show. Trixie really wishes Trixie knew why you hide it so much.”

“You know why, I can’t afford letting everyone know about Moonie. I’ve made a lot of enemies and they might use her to get to me. I can see Gilda actually attacking Moonie while at the playground with Gran.” Sunset explained.

“Sunset, all playing aside, Trixie worries for you. It isn’t healthy to push everyone away.” Trixie whispered.

“Trix, sometimes I envy people like Fluttershy and you.” Sunset said wiping moisture from her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Moonie and wouldn’t change a thing. Sometimes though I have to admit I envy your freedom. You have the freedom to do whatever you want, to feel whatever you want. Whenever you want.”

“You can if you wanted.” Trixie urged.

“No, Trixie, I can’t. I got myself into this mess being the bitch I was. Even if I wanted friends, there is no one out there who would be willing to give me a chance. And even if they did, I don’t have the luxury to enjoy it. I have a daughter Trixie, a daughter I have to protect and keep away from those who would hurt her to get back at me.” Sunset shuddered a little struggling to get herself back under control. Trixie was getting good at getting under her skin like this lately and was only getting better. Trixie was about to say something when the bell rung making Sunset curse at losing track of the time. “Come on, let’s go before we’re late.”

Neither of them noticed a girl hunched down in the bushes, face hid behind her long pink hair with wide shocked eyes.

Chapter 7 Thursday Part 2

The trip to Crystal Prep took an hour’s bus ride that involved changing buses twice which was more than okay with Sunset. It gave her plenty of time to brace herself for the upcoming encounter with a woman she cared for a little more than she should in a family sort of way. It was odd, she looked up to the one woman who could get on her nerves, scare her and impress her all at once. And in truth, in some other dimensionally way, she suspected that she was related to this woman seeing who Sunset’s own mother was.

As she walked the halls she noticed how clean and beautiful the school was while the students were in class at the moment. Of course Canterlot High was a nice school, but they didn’t have the money to spend on the little things that schools like this had. Thankfully the security guards that was included in those little things knew just who she was and not to stop her. Benefits of being on the inside she supposed.

Walking into the office she was surprised to see Cadence herself sitting at the secretary’s desk in a flurry of paperwork. Something that Sunset herself couldn’t help admiring the slightly older woman for. She could be in the midst of hell and yet not a single hair would be out of place and her makeup and clothes would be perfect as always. And the weird part was, she didn’t even inherit her mother’s abilities.

“Hey Sunset, I’m glad you’re here. I was going to try and call you later. I wanted to invite you to the wedding.” Cadence said with a smile as she put her pen down and hurried around the desk to give Sunset a tight hug. It was something that Sunset couldn’t accept when first meeting the woman, but Cadence had quickly got her used to it. It made Sunset feel guilty though for not giving her own Cadence more of a chance before crossing the mirror portal.

“So Shiny and you are finally tying the knot?” Sunset teased as Cadence stepped back.

“Yep, about time too. Though it won’t be happening for a few months. There’s a darkness coming that we don’t want to deal with during the wedding.” Cadence said, the first signs of worry Sunset had ever truly seen on the woman entering her eyes. This must have been something really big.

“What kind of darkness?” Sunset asked, worry for her family setting in if it was bad enough to put the normally unflappable woman on edge.

“My grandfather.” Was Cadence’s short reply which threatened to make Sunset laugh before realizing it could be bad seeing just what the woman’s mother actually was.

“Cadence, is that Sunset out there?” A voice over the intercom sitting on the desk asked.

“It is Miss Cinch.” Cadence confirmed over the intercom with a roll of her eyes.

“Please send her in, we have much to discuss.” Cinch replied before Cadence looked apologetically.

“Sunny, please be careful, my mother is in a mood and don’t want her to upset you. You know how she is.” Cadence sighed, motioning for Sunset to go on in.

Taking a deep breath Sunset gave a nod before walking into the office with the name plate reading; Principal Abacus Cinch. Looking around the office after shutting and locking the door behind her Sunset could already see the curtains closed though there was no sign of the woman to be seen. Not that it meant Sunset was alone in the room.

“Such beauty.” A voice whispered in Sunset’s ear making her shiver as a pair of vice like, yet gentle arms encircled her from behind pulling her against the soft body standing there. “I really wish you would reconsider my offer, I’m telling you if you have the right lover I promise you would not only enjoy it, you would be begging for more.”

“You know how wrong that sounds on so many levels?” Sunset asked with a cocked eyebrow as she willed her body to keep from shaking and pushed the fear of being touched like this deep down. She knew the woman wouldn’t do anything to hurt her and she wouldn’t be the so called lover mentioned. No, the woman was a worse matchmaker than her daughter.

“I’m so sorry!” The voice hissed out as the arms and body pulled back as if burned. “I forgot what time of year it is, are you okay child?”

“I’ll be better once you change, hearing Cinch’s voice and seeing you flirt like that in her body gives me the creeps.” Sunset laughed, though it held some truth. Cinch would have made a good demon as manipulative and cruel as she was. While this woman maintained a strict discipline at the school, she promoted working together and having friends unlike the real Cinch who was somewhere in the tropics enjoying early retirement.

“Fine.” The woman said as she rolled her eyes as a green flame traveled from her feel upwards burning away the old visage which was a masquerade to the real dark skinned form of Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings which was an offshoot of a succubus though not seen as true demons by most in the know. “Better?”

“Much, though I have to ask, what’s up with this upcoming darkness that is, I’m guessing, your father?” Sunset asked.

“You don’t have to worry about that old bastard, he won’t cause trouble while here. He has a hate for humans that is legendary though he won’t risk getting in trouble with the Dark Council, even if he is the third oldest vampire alive.” Chrysalis said, “And before you ask, I can’t tell you anything else other than he is only here to talk to my sisters. As far as he is concerned, I’m dead to him after being turned into this.”

“I’m sorry.” Sunset said, knowing how it can hurt being rejected by family though the woman waved it off.

“Don’t be, as far as I’m concerned my father is trash that I wouldn’t mind seeing dead. Enough talk about that though, I’m sure there was something else you came here for. And from the look in your eyes, this isn’t a social call.” Chrysalis asked as she sat at her desk motioning for Sunset to take a seat.

“Well, you know how I’m from another dimension. Well, someone I kind of know decided to pop over here from that dimension and they are stuck now. I know I said I didn’t care about going back over, but have you discovered any way to open a new portal or anything?” Sunset asked hoping that maybe she could hurry and send Twilight home while also hoping that maybe she could get the girl to stay for awhile. She’d really like to get to know the girl and it would be for the best to get her to understand just how Celestia works and how little she really cares for anything other than looking good for her little ponies. Of course deep down Sunset knew that was a little harsh, but so was what happened to her.

“I’ve looked and even consulted other dimensional travelers I know of such as Jason Blood and his demon, but it appears your dimension is tightly sealed except for the portal that can not be manipulated from this side. If anything is to be done, it will have to come from the other side.” Chrysalis admitted sadly, obviously feeling bad about not being able to help.

“Its fine, I kind of think it may be for the best. She probably would benefit from the time away so she can rest and heal her heart if possible.” Sunset sighed.

“If there is anything that either Cadence or I can do, you know all you have to do is ask. I know you have a hard time accepting this at times, but we see you as family and do love you. We would do anything we can to help you.” Chrysalis said giving Sunset a toothy smile showing off her fangs. Sunset knew she was fighting the urge to hug Sunset again, but was trying to avoid upsetting Sunset knowing how stressful that kind of attention really gets this time of year.

“Thanks, I actually do see you as the aunt I never had.” Sunset smiled, leaving off that she probably does have across the portal though she wasn’t too sure just what happened to her despite knowing some about changelings.

The rest of the afternoon was thankfully quiet since Moonie was playing with her friends and watching movies under Granny Peach’s loving care while Sunset was doing some paperwork Sharp had sent her though now Fluttershy’s mother was demanding to meet with her secret benefactor being fearful that everything wasn’t on the up and up. Something she wasn’t looking forward to, but was setup for Saturday which worried Sunset. Still, if she was lucky the woman wouldn’t come into the office.

“Hey Sunset.” Twilight asked, holding something behind her back as she was dressed in her new pajamas Granny Peach had bought for her that morning while Sunset was out.

“Yeah Sparky, what’s up?” Sunset asked, thankful from a break from the headache that was trying to form from the aggravation and stress paperwork caused her usually.

“Well, I wanted to show you this.” Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes at the nickname but by now realizing Sunset wasn’t going to change it. She hesitantly showed off the pad of paper she was holding and Sunset had to give a proud smile seeing the chicken scratch level of writing evolve into readable writing that was Twilight’s name.

“You are doing great Sparky, much faster than me when I first started.” Sunset beamed with pride at the girl.

“I know you said you wanted to wait until everyone was in bed, but I was hoping that maybe you could tell me what you found out today.” Twilight whispered making Sunset sigh, thankful the girl was able to hold it in for this long at least.

“I’m sorry Sparky, but I didn’t learn anything helpful today but I still have sources I can check. And besides, just look at it this way, you get a nice vacation here with me until we figure this out.” Sunset said with a half smile trying to cheer the girl up.

“It’s okay, I sort of expected something like that. This world doesn’t have a lot of magic really, does it?” Twilight asked.

“More than you know, Sparky, it just isn’t at our fingertips like the magic in Equestria was at our horn tips. Just give it time for now, everything will be okay. I’ll do everything in my power to help you.” Sunset said hugging the girl who quickly hugged back.

“I know you will, thank you Sunset.” Twilight sniffled.

Cadence watched out the tower window to the ponies below hanging out in the gardens. It was hard to believe that yesterday she was ready to tear them apart but after a night of Luna invading her dream to inspect what happened with the Changelings turning into an impromptu trip visiting each of those mares dreams, though the mares knew nothing about it, Cadence couldn’t deny that they did care for Twilight greatly.

It still wasn’t enough to get them off the hook with her, family and friends were the two most important things to Cadence and seeing how much those mares had hurt their close friend, Cadence’s little sister in all but blood, had the alicorn seeing red. She would give them a chance to redeem themselves, but would leave the final decision up to Twilight when found. Still, they managed to show Twilight that there was more to books and Spike, so for that they did deserve some praise.

Those ponies weren’t the only thing on her mind though. There was something else bothering her greatly, the same thing bothering Luna. Except for the little stunt pitting Twilight and Cadence against each other momentarily, the changelings never harmed anyone beyond drugging or knocking them out. Even while held prisoner by them they treated Cadence with the upmost amount of respect and care. Always referring to her as Princess in a loving way while when referring to Luna or Celestia it was always mocking. And they really tried to feed her, though she was the one who refused to eat which was what made her weaker and weaker making it her fault for that. The only question though was why?

Author's Note

Thanks Rixec for pointing out some spelling mistakes.

I had enough time to finish what I wanted for Thursday and get it published today, yay!

Chapter 8 Friday Part 1

Friday

The morning so far had been just as rough as the day before making Fluttershy thankful that it was Friday. Of course she was skipping second period, but after all of those eyes on her all morning and her friends crowding her so much, she just needed a little room to breath. Not to say that she didn’t appreciate the concern, especially after what she had done, but she realized that it was a mistake. A mistake born from her father and brother’s abusive attitudes until the divorce and they left. Then her mother’s retreat into the bottle after her career was ruined before it could even take off because of some stunts her own father pulled hurting the two he left behind to suffer.

At least her mother wasn’t abusive, just absent from parenting for the most part for a couple years until the final straw that was the relentless bullying from several students pushed her over the edge. She regretted it now, and she was thankful that she didn’t succeed especially now that her mother was getting over her drinking and her friends were getting back together. It was a relief in a way, though all of the attention was starting to make Fluttershy feel smothered.

And if feeling smothered by all of the attention that meant well, it wasn’t the only thing on her mind after overhearing Trixie and Sunset talking yesterday. She didn’t understand a lot of what was said while hiding in the bushes with Angel bunny. She did understand that Sunset had a daughter and it sounded like a lot of the bullying she did was to keep people from finding out. And while Fluttershy didn’t approve of the method, she felt bad for Sunset as it sounded like she needed friends though was afraid she didn’t deserve them.

Washing her face while her mind whirled with the thoughts of everything Fluttershy had on her mind, she took a deep breath before looking up into the mirror to nearly freak out seeing Gilda was standing there behind her looking nervous. Whirling around Fluttershy backed into the sink as she tried to keep her shaking under control.

“Hey.” Gilda said, her hands shoved in her jacket’s pockets as she scuffed a sneakered foot on the floor finding it hard to look into Fluttershy’s eyes. “So, you came back?”

“Yes.” Fluttershy managed to squeak out in a barely audible whisper, though much like Gilda has always been able to do she easily picked up on it.

“Look, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry Fluttershy.” Gilda croaked out, fighting the urge to blush as Fluttershy looked up at her in surprise studying her eyes. “I never meant for things to go far enough that you thought the only escape was to do what you did.”

“Then why do it?” Fluttershy asked, a little anger seeping into her voice as she hugged herself. True, Gilda wasn’t solely responsible for what happened, but she helped push Fluttershy to do it.

“Fluttershy, I really don’t know what to say. DO I tell you my family hates me except for my grandfather because I’m not like them? That I’m weak in their eyes? Or do I tell you that I looked for a person who I could easily target that was weak like my family saw me?” Gilda growled out, pain in her voice and eyes. It was all true and more.

“I know about family causing you pain.” Fluttershy said, wondering if she was crazy as she took a step forward and put a hand on Gilda’s arm in a comforting way trying to follow a belief she had always held that her father tried to beat out of her. That sometimes all it takes is a little bit of kindness to make the world a better place.

“Yeah, I imagine you do with the father you have.” Gilda sighed getting a raised eyebrow in question from Fluttershy who wondered just how the girl knew him. “Our fathers are drinking buddies, man I hate them.”

“Is that the only reason you tormented me?” Fluttershy asked making Gilda flinch at the word.

“I guess I did torment you, I don’t know how you could ever forgive me. Though I guess there was another reason I chose you.” Gilda sighed pulling away from Fluttershy and faced the stalls, leaning her head up against the frame of one. “I did it so I wouldn’t risk showing I had feelings for you and my father finding out. I’m already an outcast in my family, if I don’t find a strong male for a mate, I’m not sure what they will do.”

“You have feelings for me?” Fluttershy gasped taking a step back in shock as she tried to figure out of this was another cruel game or the truth. Looking at Gilda for a few moments filed her with confidence that it was all true which confused Fluttershy even more. What was she supposed to think? Feel? Do? She had no answers to those questions as Gilda balled her hands into tight fists.

“From the moment I met you I felt a powerful draw to you. My family, we are kind of different from most people. It’s said that when one of us finds the one meant to be out mate we will just know it. Choosing a same sex partner is considered the ultimate taboo as we are expected to provide strong children for the next generation.” Gilda explained as she began pacing. “I can’t have feelings for you, they would likely hurt you and me both!”

“Calm down, it’s okay.” Fluttershy said reaching out to pat Gilda’s shoulder. “If you let me, maybe we can work through this. Maybe you just want a friend, not a…mate.”

“I don’t think it is a good idea.” Gilda said shaking her head vehemently. “Look, I am sorry for what I did to you. For what I cased you to do. We just can’t be friends, or close. You have no idea what my family is like.”

“Gilda, you can’t keep going on like this if this hurts you enough to lash out at everyone.” Fluttershy pleaded, intertwining her fingers with Gilda’s. “I don’t know if I would ever be able to be with you, there’s just too much baggage, but it doesn’t mean I can’t help you if you let me. We don’t have to be best friends forever, but we can start somewhere and try and go from there. Casual friends, or more, I’d like to see where it would go if you would let me. We can even be secret friends for now if you like.”

“You know how crazy you sound? This is your second day back and you are trying to befriend the person who put you in the hospital to begin with.” Gilda laughed.

“I was the one who put myself in the hospital by the choices I made. Yes, you may have played a role in that, but so did my friends and family. I’m not going to lie, I still hurt over it. I still have a hard time sometimes accepting that they want to be there for me. But in my heart I know they do, and I’m doing my best day by day to get better. Maybe this is something that will help me, and help you. Like I said, we can just be secret friends for now if you like, maybe chat online or text if you like.” Fluttershy said squeezing Gilda’s hand.

“As long as you don’t ruin my reputation for being the biggest badass here then I suppose the least I can do is try.” Gilda said as she rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. “Come on, we better go before the bell rings.”

“Here, trade me numbers first.” Fluttershy said digging out her phone, after a moment of hesitation Gilda doing the same with a nervous smile.

Author's Note

Thanks Rixec for pointing out mistakes, I fixed them.

First, I wanted to thank the donors who donated on my gofundme to help replace the tire and rim on our van. They helped more than they will ever know.

Second, this is kind of an experiment of a chapter. I think I'm going to try and post what I write out as long as it is at least a whole scene each day I finish it so I can get 2 to 3 at the least out a week otherwise it would take a week or two at most for full chapters possibly. Let me know what you think of this method, if you like it or think I should wait until I have the full chapter.

Third, I'm sorry if most don't like this version of Gilda. At first I was just going to have her feel guilty and apologize to Fluttershy, but I couldn't get the idea of making them at least friends, if not a possible couple at sometime in the future out of my head. And since I really didn't get much comments on my blog post asking about opinions on it other than saying it sounded good I decided to role with it. It will most likely not have a big part to play in the story except for maybe 2 points in the story.

And lastly, I am really sorry about the quality of my current work. I didn't want to let it sit any longer and writing does help relax me surprisingly. But because I have to avoid stress, I am avoiding rereading it a hundred times to pick out each and every mistake and try and make it perfect. And if it sounds bad about not being able to get stressed out from doing something like that, it is no where near as bad as having to avoid a friggin McDouble, cheesburger or a slice of pizza. OMG I could kill for a good burger! :flutterrage: Also, I have more freedom than I did have with the internet computer, but I am still being watched a lot of the time so I don't get stressed out things. So, that being said, I will try to answer comments when I can, but I won't always be able to get to them though I will try when I can as long as I'm not getting a lot of rude ones that spikes my stress levels.

Chapter 9 Friday Part 2

Lunch couldn’t arrive fast enough for Sunset’s liking as she wondered if perhaps she should just pull out of Canterlot High and actually finish off her time at Crystal Prep or even doing home school. With all the hateful looks and whispered comments it was easy to see just how hypocritical some of these students were. It was a shame what happened with Fluttershy, something Sunset wished with every fiber of her being that she could have prevented, but it did happen and it caused a huge anti-bullying campaign with several assemblies, group meetings and fliers and discussions in the classrooms.

The hypocritical part was the people wanting bullying to stop was in effect becoming bullies themselves. It was ironic really. The few bullies who were in the school was mostly kept in line by Sunset, but they still bullied students which made them all targets of the mob who wanted to get rid of bullying by becoming bullies themselves. It was a vicious cycle that really needed to stop. It made Sunset wish she never started being the bully she once was, though the bully problem would have likely been much worse if she didn’t. She didn’t see where anyone really won in this situation.

Walking into the cafeteria was a bit of a shock when she saw Pinkie Pie waving her arms wildly from the table where the pink haired girl was surrounded by her friends who was looking at the hyperactive bundle as if she was insane. At first Sunset was just going to ignore her, but decided to humor the girl on a whim.

“Did you want something?” Sunset asked, arms crossed as she walked over to the table with a group of girls glaring at her except for two. Pinkie Pie was of course ecstatic that she came over, almost vibrating in her seat while Fluttershy looked up with confusion instead of the anger Sunset expected.

“I bought you your lunch silly and hoped you would sit with us.” Pinkie Pie gushed, turned around in her seat with her knees in it and looking up at Sunset with big watery eyes reminding her of a kicked puppy.

“Hell no, if Suntrash is sitting here I’m going somewhere else!” Rainbow Dash snarled as she went to get up, stopped by Fluttershy putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Darling, while I pretty much share the sentiment, you don’t have to be so uncouth about it.” Rarity sniffed in disdain while Pinkie Pie seemed to deflate.

“Girls, you're acting like the bullies you said you wanted to stop.” Fluttershy admonished quietly, but she was heard loud and clear as both Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked away in guilt.

“I reckon we could give you another chance, sugarcube.” Apple Jack sighed, taking her hat off and playing with the brim.

“Yay, now you can stay and eat with us Sunny! We can all be friends!” Pinkie Pie cheered.

“Yes, it might do you some good to make some new friends.” Fluttershy said slowly, clearly trying to think of what to say as this whole experience was probably frightening her and yet the more Sunset looked at her, she seemed as if she might have been more on Pinkie Pie’s side.

“While I thank you for sentiment, I have an important project I have to get to and work on during lunch. I just came to get my tray.” Sunset said as she opened her purse and pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to Pinkie Pie who reluctantly accepted it before Sunset picked her tray up. She was surprised it had everything Sunset herself would have bought on it as well as a cupcake obviously provided by Pinkie Pie herself with a ‘Thank You!’ plastic decoration and candles on it. “Thank you for saving me time Miss Pie. Now if you girls will excuse me, I have work to do in the library.”

It wasn’t a lie, Sunset had brought a few books to go over today searching for any way to create a new portal if she couldn’t open the one already there. She didn’t have much though, just a few tomes Zecora had gifted her with when teaching Sunset about potions. And while most was strictly potion books, they did hold some knowledge here and there other than potions, though the only one that may have helped her was summoning a full fledged demon that she did not trust in the least. Not that it would even help, it would be a long shot that the demon could help if she even did summon one.

“I can’t believe you did that Pinks!” Rainbow Dash hissed as Sunset slowed her pace to overhear the girl’s reaction. “Why on earth would you ask HER of all people to sit with us?”

“Because she needs a friend, and I intend to get her to be friends.” Pinkie Pie said in a voice so full of conviction it unnerved Sunset.

“Look girls, I know she did some really bad things, but maybe there are reasons behind the things she did. Maybe we could at least offer an olive branch and give her a chance.” Fluttershy suggested.

“Shy, I love you girl, but no way in hell am I giving that bitch a chance!” Rainbow Dash snapped out.

“Darling, while normally I would agree with you, I think if this is what Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both want, then we can at least give her a chance. A small one mind you, but a chance none the less.” Rarity said earning a growl from Rainbow Dash, though no actual replies.

“I’m not entirely sure this is a good idea sugarcube, but Fluttershy has a point. People around here are starting to act like the bullies they wanted to stop and that isn’t the way to do things. If Sunset wants to honestly change for the better, if anyone does, we should help them instead of shunning them and making things worse.” Apple Jack said, thoughtful on the whole thing while Rainbow Dash just glowered.

“Fine, but one wrong move and I’m knocking her on her ass.” Rainbow Dash huffed.

“While I don’t really like this either, maybe we should come up with plans to try and get Sunset to interact with us so we can see if she is willing to put her bullying days behind her for real.” Rarity suggested getting reluctant agreement from Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack, Fluttershy being quicker to agree while Pinkie Pie was excited.

Author's Note

Again, thanks Rixec for catching those mistakes.

I wanted to thanks everyone who donated to get the tire and rim replaced on our van. I'm unsure if I should post names here as I want to respect their privacy and don't want to set others on them over it. At the same time I do want to just to honor them, but for now I'll just say thanks to all of the people who did donate, 2 donors donated $25 each, (1) donor donated $50 and one donated $5. And I really appreciate all of the donations, big and small as they all helped more than you will ever know.

I also wanted to thank another user who sent me a private message offering to send me $50 over paypal since they don't use gofundme and stuff, but I already had all the money needed when he sent the message so I thanked them and declined letting them know I no longer needed any more to get it fixed, but I wanted to say thank you again here anyways for the very generous offer. God bless all of you. :pinkiehappy:

Chapter 10 Friday Part 3

Sunset was a little shocked at the change of atmosphere by the end of the day. While there were still hateful whispers targeting former and current bullies, the mood had drastically shifted after the scene in the lunchroom. Many students were talking about how they felt guilty for turning into the very thing they wanted to stop and there were a lot of chatter about actually trying to befriend bullies now instead of driving them out. It was all a little confusing to Sunset who never believed that a positive change in attitude among the masses could happen so quick unlike the negative mood shift that she knew could come at any moment in large emotionally charged groups. She even had to politely turn down several hesitant, though possibly genuine, offers to hang out with students after school.

Hanging out with other students, actually making friends was something Sunset had to remind herself was something she could not afford. Her daughter was special, very smart and very talented and if they were in Equestria Sunset was sure Moonie would have an art inspired cutie mark. The girl was a great artist with an incredible eye for detail, though Sunset felt a little too good of an eye for detail. Moonie quickly picked things up which made Sunset proud, though worried as she saw her daughter hold back more and more so she could stay with her friends and Sunset which worried the teen mother. No little girl that age should be worried about getting too smart in fear of losing her friends and for the life of her, Sunset couldn’t figure out where Moonie even picked up that notion or if there was something else bothering her. Sunset was very careful to make sure either Granny Peach or herself was around Moonie at all times and neither of them would put something like that in the child’s head.

Pushing the thoughts out of her head as Rarity joined Sunset’s walk, keeping pace with her side by side. Looking at the fashionista out of the corner of her eye, Sunset tried to figure out why the girl was following her and almost tripped when she saw the serious expression.

“Hello Sunset, I hope you don’t mind if I walk with you for a bit darling. There are a few things I wish to discuss with you.” Rarity said, her eyes narrowed as she studied Sunset who shrugged.

“Free country.” Sunset replied, not really caring as she was stopping off at the library to have a chat with one of the newer librarians that Sunset knew. A young woman fresh out of college that Sunset met through Zecora. A bit of an unusual name, but then again the woman was a bit unusual being a dullahan with a special neck brace resembling a collar that held the woman’s head on. Unlike the other librarian that Sunset didn’t really care for, this one had passion for books and helping out anyone no matter if they were human or not.

“Good, I wanted to know something.” Rarity said, her voice growing an edge as all attempts at politeness drained out of her while making sure nobody was close enough to hear their hushed conversation as they walked. “Unlike the others, I know the things Pinkie Pie says is almost always true though some things can be a little out there.”

“Yeah, so?” Sunset asked, arching an eyebrow at the girl next to her dreading where this was going.

“Well darling, while I have every sympathy for you I want you to stay away from my friends.” Rarity scowled catching Sunset offguard enough to stop or forward motion.

“Say what now?” Sunset asked, unsure if she heard right.

“I don’t know what you are, no witch has as much mana as you put off when you get mad but you aren’t powerful enough to be a demon. But if you are contracted with one of those filthy evil beasts then stay away from my friends!” Rarits said clenching her fist, shaking slightly. “Those beasts destroyed my family, my parents and little sister is all I have left of it. So I’m telling you right now I won’t let those beasts or any of their playthings hurt anyone else.”

Sunset stared in complete shock at Rarity who stood there shaking as she stared Sunset down. At first Sunset thought it to be anger, but staring into the girl’s eyes showed it to be more fear than anything. Shaking her head she put a hand on Rarity’s shoulder causing the girl to jump a little before saying, “Rarity, relax, I have nothing to do with demons or anything. Before I say anything else though, I need to know just what you are.”

“You know what I am!” Rarity snapped as she studied Sunset before backing down, “You really don’t, do you?”

“Not a clue.” Sunset said making Rarity shake off her hand before running fingers through her hair before giving a long shuddering sigh. “I do know I’m not planning on hurting your friends, your family or you. Rarity, the days of me acting out like an angry child is long behind me. I know I hurt a lot of people and I won’t make excuses for it, but I am also not looking to make a bunch of friends so you don’t have to worry.”

“Then what are you?” Rarity asked, desperate to know what was going on clearly written all over her face.

“If you tell me what you are and promise not to tell anyone, I guess I’ll tell you.” Sunset sighed knowing that if Rarity could sense mana then she wasn’t human, but Sunset thought she knew all of what was considered night creatures that was around. And if she was, then she could trust Rarity with that secret at the least as she would get herself in trouble if she went around blabbing about it.

“I promise on my honor and blood as a witch that I will keep your secret as long as it doesn’t pose a risk to anyone I know or me.” Rarity said seriously, a small spike in her power making Sunset believe her as when a witch swears an oath like that a small part of their magic flares as if cementing the promise.

“This may be hard to believe, but I’m actually not even from this world.” Sunset sighed.

“So you are a demon!” Rarity gasped out, fear returning to her eyes as she took a step back.

“No, I’m considered a witch from what I’m told. My specialty is potions and creating mana batteries with my overflow of magic. This isn’t my birth form though I am locked into it, there is no changing back. Back in my home world I was a unicorn.” Sunset explained, grinning when she saw Rarity’s eyes bug out.

“Darling, you can NOT be serious.” Rarity gasped out, though it was clear she was quickly coming to believe it.

“Very serious, though if I may ask, what is your specialty?” Sunset asked, actually wondering if the two could have some kind of relationship. Of course not as friends, Sunset reminded herself, but perhaps maybe some kind of working relationship.

“My family isn’t a very powerful one, I make charms mostly.” Rarity said, “My grandfather summoned a demon to grant him and my grandmother eternal youth and more power. The demon made all of the promises my grandfather wanted to hear and in the end it killed my grandmother, aunts and uncles, cousins, even my older brother. My dad, he had to kill his own father to banish the demon before he could do any more. So we are kind of laying low when it comes to anything related to the dark. So even my charms are pretty weak and just things to accent my outfits to make them seem more radiant.”

“I’m sorry.” Sunset sighed.

“It’s fine, but I want to know what both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie changed their minds about you all of a sudden.” Rarity said, almost in an accusing manner. “Pinkie Pie I can almost see, but after what happened to Fluttershy, I don’t think she would want to give any bully a second chance so soon.”

“Maybe you just don’t give your friends enough credit.” Sunset huffed as she crossed her arms. “I don’t know about Fluttershy, but I’m paying for Pinkie Pie’s old medication to help with her visions.”

“Why!? I was trying to help her get used to them, not block them off!” Rarity growled out.

“I offered to help her with that, but I gave her the choice between the two options. It isn’t my choice and it isn’t yours, Rarity. Pinkie Pie is the one who has to deal with them, not us.” Sunset said etting Rarity to calm down.

“I see your point.” Rarity conceded. “I can’t say I trust you, but I can see where you are coming from darling. It isn’t easy keeping a secret as big as being nonhuman from your friends, but it is worth it in the end if you have good friends.”

“Friendship isn’t something I can afford, no matter how much money I have.” Sunset said shaking her head, “Look Rarity, if that was all you wanted I have to go. Ms. Bloodgrave is expecting me to meet her outside the library during her break.”

“That dullahan?” Rarity asked shivering, “Those creatures give me the creeps!”

“I never expected you to be so bigoted Rarity. Well, aside from demons, nobody trusts them.” Sunset said, though she wasn’t being completely honest. She might act it, but there were actually good demons much like there was evil humans. The trick was actually finding one as they were extremely rare.

“I’m not, I just find it creepy she can take her head off and walk around holding it or letting it sit on something.” Rarity shuddered again, “It’s not that I dislike her, she just scares me.”

“Whatever, see you around Ms. Witch. Maybe we can work together sometime.” Sunset said waving over her shoulder as she turned and began walking away.

Author's Note

IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ!!!

Wow, got this done sooner than I expected, though I have a serious question that I would like some real thought on from everyone before they answer what I am about to ask. First, I am sorry the quality and length has taken a very big hit as it is becoming harder and harder to write with people looking over my shoulders making it hard to go back over older chapters and notes trying to keep everything straight and half way decent. This summer things will get a lot easier if my chest doesn't feel better or not as one of my cousins is moving back here in town and will be staying with us for awhile. This will take a lot of stress off me because of several reasons from helping out with doctor appointments and seems to be able to keep everyone calm whenever around which will keep even more stress off me helping give me time to think and not get my chest hurting and have a friggin stress induced heart attack. And bonus, they will help keep me away from sites that stress me out, not that I'm going to them anyways but everyone is looking over my shoulder and keeping an eye on what I'm doing on the internet computer and the other a lot too it seems. Sometimes it seems they are doing it less, but it has been bad today and I think it is because they finally realized how stressed out they were making me with their crap the last couple days on top of all the doctor apointments for my brother and now me.

Sorry, anyways here is what is so important that I want everyone to think about. Since I am having a hard time writing a story and keeping things straight, would it be better to put all of my main stories on hod until the summer when they are here and instead work on a story I have been thinking about that would be similar to one I think is called the Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer where I wouldn't have to keep anything straight or any real notes as each chapter will pretty much be a new scene from a different possible story with maybe even future scenes that may or may not make it into my current stories?

I have to go, but I will check out what people think on my phone throughout the night if I can get the stupid thing back on this site as I accidentally closed the tab on the browser and I can NOT type on the damned thing since my thumb is half the size of the screen and a stylus does not work worth a crap with it. I will try to get to comments the next time I am on, sorry I haven't been able to answer the current batch yet.