Sunset closed her eyes, the warm sunlight peaking through her window painting her skin in a soft, comforting warmth. She occupied herself with balancing an unlaced shoe on the edge of her toes, letting it hang precariously off the edge of her window sill, one errant movement potentially sending it clattering down to the carpet a few inches below. It was all she could really bring herself to focus on. The constant tick of her old analog clock hanging above her head was like the clanging of bricks stacking up around her in her quiet little dorm room. That and the constant, dull hum of something mechanical on the other side of her wall drowned out the chatter of all the students walking past outside.
Sunset let her head lean over and rest on her window. The warmth of the glass radiated through her hair as she tried to focus on the words coming through it. Something about someone's sister, something about being mad at a roommate, something about a test a girl was glad was over. Sunset couldn't really piece any of it together. People talking about friends, people talking about school... just people talking, really. That's all she wanted to hear.
Sunset opened her eyes and let out a breath. It was only six in the afternoon. She didn't have to check. She knew every time she walked into this little room and set her back pack down into the corner this is what time it'd be. Every night like clockwork. Her homework had already been done in the library after class and she'd grabbed an apple and a sandwich from the cafeteria for her last meal of the day. Just like she'd done every day for as long as she could remember.
Everything was taken care of. She knew she would probably still study for her finals coming up anyway, but if she didn't she would probably be alright. She really had all the time in the world to spend on whatever she wanted now, yet she still sat silent in the window sill, feeling the last warmth of the setting sun peering through her window onto her forearms. Her eyes flicked over to the phone she sat on her desk when she walked in. Still dark. She knew it would be a fruitless effort getting up to check it. No one needed to talk to her. No professor needed to send her a scolding email, no classmate needed to ask her anything, and no friend wanted to hang out with her on this friday night. Just like every other one.
The sidewalk outside grabbed her attention instead. Her mind lost its focus on her shoe hanging over the edge and turned away to the window again. It was only two stories down, so she could see every little detail of the grass growing around the concrete and the roots threatening to interrupt those steady gray lines. Trees painted shadows on the sidewalk sparingly as the summer leaves had mostly fallen already. Sunset watched as one of those leaves sat crooked on its branch, each little gust of wind ready to send it on its way. It was only a matter of time before it floated down to the grass where the groundskeepers would sweep it away, the bright, green sheen it once being forgotten to time, replaced in a couple months by a new set of leaves.
Another deep breath passed through Sunset's nose, then she let it out with another long sigh. Her eyes flicked towards her phone again. She thought about calling one of her friends--asking where their lives were taking them, the things they might do when they met up again--but instead she looked back out towards the window. The conversations always seemed to end up the same way: quick how are you's and worn pleasantries, talks about how they'll met up soon and all the wonderful things they'll do again. She always smiled at the thought of taking a sip of a Sugarcube Corner milkshake, or talking for hours in the dark with each other during a sleepover. That smile quickly left her once she remembered how long it'd been since she actually got to do any of those things. Those conversations with her friends became a staple of her weekend routine. She'd try to call two or three of them until one finally picked up or wasn't busy and she'd waste a few hours of their busy lives before going back to the silence of her little dorm room. Just another weekend of looking between a textbook and that little screen, wishing things could've been different.
Maybe she should've gone to that art college with Rarity, or maybe she should've applied to Rainbow's choice, the one that decided to give her that track scholarship. Maybe she should've just stayed home and helped Applejack at the farm. Maybe this, maybe that, maybe thinking her hindsight was a useless effort. She'd made her choice to come to this college alone. She was never going to get that time back now.
Sunset's eyes trailed off of the branches she was tracing with her gaze and looked back over to the magical journal sitting on her desk next to her pile of textbooks. She played with the idea of writing her favorite Equestian princess, but her motivation soon faded away. Twilight had other things to worry about: nations to save, ponies to help, friendship conundrums to solve... an entire world of responsibilities that meant it usually took a few days for a response to finally pop up. Sunset didn't really feel like sitting in front of a blank page right now anyway.
Yet another sigh left through Sunset's nose, this time edging towards frustration. Sunset closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. For a split second the shoe halfway on her foot lost its balance and slipped onto the ground, leaving Sunset's foot bare to the warmth of the sun as it slowly seeped through her sock. She didn't bother doing anything about the other shoe still laced up. She let her legs stretch out as far as they could against the window sill as her eyes drifted back to the leaf she was so interested in earlier.
Sunset's eyes squinted as she scanned the tree. She knew where it was, but that familiar orange hue was nowhere to be found on that barren branch any longer. The sun encroached even more onto the sidewalk, the shadow losing even more of the shape it once painted there. The leaf that used to be so essential to that tree was now gone forever, left to a fate of being raked up or blown away until it crumbled into nothing. Sunset looked down towards the sidewalk to try to find it, but it had been lost among all the others. It was meaningless to try to search for it in the sea of autumn colors. She caught a glimpse of the wind pulling away some of the leaves and dragging them down the sidewalk and out of her view, probably to somewhere far, far away from the branch that grew it. None of the students seemed to mind as they whisked around their feet. Why should they? They were just more leaves.
Just three more semesters Sunset thought to herself. Another long sigh left her lips as she pulled the other shoe off of her foot with her toes. The shoe clattered to the ground next to its partner, sitting ready for Sunset to start the week all over again in a few days. With nothing else to do, Sunset let herself roll off of the sill and right into her bed. No one was going to call or text her, no friend was going to knock on her door. Even distracting herself with a textbook was just an exercise in redundancy at this point. The familiar, soft sheets glady welcomed her by immediately fighting away the cold air in her room that nipped at her once she left the absence of the warm sun. Sunset wrapped herself up in her blankets, drowning out the rest of the world in a few layers of cotton and wool.
Just another lonely Friday night. Sunset could barely make out the sounds of the outside world anymore. The distant murmurs of the students outside slowly disappeared with the setting sun. Sunset let her eyes close, despite knowing how early she might end up waking up tomorrow. She covered herself even more in her sheets to try to drown out the world. Even still, she could hear that mechanical hum that kept the building going, and the little tick as the seconds passed her by. It may not have been a gentle lullaby, but it was the only sound that had been rocking her to sleep for what felt like an eternity to her.
