Burning Rubber

Sunset woke up to the sound of beeping. It was soft and muffled at first, but it soon became more and more clear as her hearing returned to her.

The next thing to come to her was her sight, as she opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. She could barely see, and so everything was blurry, but she could just make out a white ceiling.

The sound of the beeping was getting a little too much for her to handle, and so she grabbed the pillow she felt under her head and pulled it over her ears.

"Someone make it stop." she said aloud, not recognizing her voice, as it cracked with how dry her mouth felt.

Then, she heard another voice, this one, right next to her.

"Oh, I see you are awake."

She could recognize that voice anywhere, she knew. Even in a crowd of noisy people her voice stood out above them all.

Principal Celestia.

She would be happy to see her, if it weren't for the fact that she currently couldn't. All she could see of the woman was an outline covered in yellow. That is until her vision cleared and she could fully make out the Principal of their school, who smiled down at her.

"I'm afraid we can't stop the heart monitor, dear, it is meant to tell us if you're still with us after all."

"H-Heart Monitor?" Sunset said in surprise as she realized where they were. "Is this the...Hospital?"

"Indeed it is." Principal Celestia said. "You gave us quite the scare. You were unconscious all of fourth period. We were afraid you'd be out all day."

Sunset's expression changed from confusion to sadness as she said, "Would've been better than going home."

"Why, what do you mean, Sunset? Surely you can't be suggesting the school is a better place for you to stay than your own home after all that's happened?"

Sunset tried to sit up, but found that she was having trouble doing so."Of cour-" She coughed at the pain and laid back down.

"Be careful now, Sunset. The doctor said you had a few bruised ribs. "

Sunset allowed herself a small smile at that. 'Well, at least they aren't broken.'

"Now, what were you going to say?" Celestia asked, giving her a reassuring look.

"I was trying to say that of course the school's not a better spot. But I feel safer here than getting caught out in the street by...them."

"Are you referring to Trixie and her friends?" Celestia asked, surprising Sunset.

"Yeah...how'd you know?" Sunset asked in astonishment.

"As a principal it is my job to get to know all of my students personally, names and all." She responded.

"So you know what they did to me?"

"No. i'm afraid I had no idea what they were doing to you in there. I only saw them leave, and then I found you lying on the ground. I'm afraid it is yet another shame I will have to bear on my shoulders." Celestia looked down in sadness.

"I see..." Sunset said, her eyes downcast

"Sunset, what exactly did they do to you in there?" Celestia asked.

Sunset said nothing, not wanting to relive those horrible moments.

"Sunset, you can tell me. I'm your principal. It's my job to keep my students safe, and to make sure that they are alright."

Sunset seemed to think on this for a moment. She bit her lip, mulling it over in her mind. Oh, how she wanted to tell her everything. To finally tell someone of the suffering she's had to endure all this time. To feel some kind of relief after a full year of pain. But what would happen if she spilled it all? Told her of all Trixie's torture. Would it all just get worse?

Before she could decide however, she was cut off by Celestia. "If you don't want to tell me, then that's fine. I understand if it's too painful for you."

Sunset watched as Celestia stood and left, walking towards the door. This was her last chance to be free. She just had to take it and it would all be over. There was no time to worry about the consequences. Before she could grasp the doorknob, Sunset spoke,

"It...It was...horrible..."

Celestia lowered her arm and turned to face her student. "What was? What did they do, Sunset?"

"They found me. The gym storage tent was my only safe haven and they found me. I was just about to leave school and never return, so I suppose in a way you could say they stopped me, but that's not all they did."

Celestia simply sat back down in her chair and listened.

"Trixie, she...she pushed me down onto the ground and stomped on me, pressing her foot into my stomach over and over again. And this was after I had hit my head from being push the way I did. The pain was terrible. TJey called me a she demon. Not to mention earlier this morning..."

"What happened then?" Celestia asked.

"They happened. Those same words were on my locker again. She-Demon, in bright red marker. They wrote it on my notebook, my desk, my laptop, everything they could find. As long as it belonged to me, it was fair game. They'd been doing this for some time now, and...well..."

Celestia's mouth hung open in slight shock. "Why did you not come to me about all of this?"

"I thought I could handle it. I thought that if I showed them I was different, that I could change, that they would stop, and we could all be friends." Sunset sighed heavily.

"Maybe Trixie was right." Sunset suddenly said, surprising Celestia.

"About what, may I ask?"

"She told me that no one will ever forgive me for what I did, That i'll never change. That i'll always be a she demon at heart." Sunset started to tear up. She looked at her Principal and asked,

"Is that true?" Sunset looked up at her principal, tears threatening to stream down her face for the third time that evening.

Celestia looked at her for a moment before saying, "No. But it can be, if you let it be."

Sunset was confused by this. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean that if you believe you cannot be forgiven, You will not be. Forgiveness must first be given to the self, before others can forgive you. If you continue to let your past haunt you, you cannot move forward to the future. If you truly want to change, leave your past behind and show the world who you are now, not who you were before."

Sunset stared in awe at the woman before her. She was so wise. So knowledgeable. So...inspiring.

"How?" she said in a whisper.

"I'm sorry?" Celestia said, "I'm afraid I couldn't quite hear you."

"How do you know so much about this? It's like...it's like..."

"Like i've been there before? Trust me I have, Sunset. More times than you can count. I know how you feel. And I know you feel lost, like you have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. No one to tell you that everything is gonna be alright. That it's not your fault."

"That's the thing, though. It is my fault. I'm the one who hypnotized the students, i'm the one who blew up the school, I'm the one who was mad with power to the point where I tried to kill six of them. That was all me." Sunset said, hanging her head down.

"You may have made some mistakes, Sunset, but you don't have to let those mistakes define who you are. You can move past them, redefine yourself. You are the only one who can make people see the real you."

"The real me?" Sunset repeated.

"That's right. The real you. Now, are you going to sit here and mope around in a clinic bed, or are you going to go out there and change yourself for the better!" Celestia smiled at her.

"I'm going," Sunset wiped her eyes and looked up at the principal. "to change!"

"That's the ticket, Sunset! Now get out there and show the world the real you! ...After you get patched up first, of course."

Sunset looked down at herself to see she was sitting up again, and the bandages on her stomach were slowly coming off, revealing her bruise.

They looked at each other for a moment, before laughing hard, Sunset doubling over a little each time.

"Oh, sunset? By the way, I think I have a way we could get you started down this new path." Celestia suddenly says.

Sunset looks up at her expectantly. "How?"

Celestia's smile widens to a grin."Have you ever heard of...Magi-Cycle racing?"