The next morning Sunset woke up about six, only then realizing she had forgotten to get food yesterday. Luckily, her parents had given her enough for the month and would send her more every month throughout the school year so she made a mental note to go find the nearest store and buy enough food for the week. For today, she’d have to grab something on the go.

The first thing she did was head to the restroom and took a nice warm shower. No one else was in there so she had the shower room to herself. It was still dawning on her that she was no longer home, no longer in her own city and was essentially starting over with a new life, in her mind at least. Her parents were certain they would have the whole matter settled by the time Sunset was done with the school year but she wasn’t so optimistic.

After a good twenty minutes, she got dressed, wearing a blue top along with a cream colored skirt, blue leggings and her small leather jacket. She wasn’t usually the type that wanted to stand out but at the very least she could try to make a good first impression. After brushing her teeth and putting on her boots, she grabbed her backpack and headed out, making sure to lock before she left.

Even as she was leaving, she still didn’t see anyone near the front entrance. Then again, she was leaving a little earlier than she had planned. Not even Cadance was down here yet, much to her surprise.

The school was only about fifteen minutes away from the dorm so Sunset wasn’t pressed for time. There was a restaurant nearby that she had looked up and supposedly they had good breakfast. Once she got there, she wasted no time in ordering a breakfast burrito supreme with extra everything (she got away with eating like this most of the time since it hardly affected her weight, much to her parents’ surprise).

She took her time eating, keeping an eye on the time. Once she finished, it was about a quarter after seven so now was as good a time to head over. As she made her way over, now she was starting to see more students going the same direction in her. Some were in groups, conversing with another while others were for the most part walking by themselves, checking their phones and whatnot.

As she got closer, the amount of people started to concentrate and soon she heard someone running behind her, apparently in a hurry. “Excuse me! Coming through! Important soccer team player here!”

Sunset was about to turn around to make sure she was out of the way when something suddenly pushed into her from the side, catching her off-balance and almost caused her to crash into a group of girls, though she was able to balance herself just in time. She looked back and realized the force that almost knocked her over was actually on the ground.

“Oh man…ow…” the girl groaned. Her hair was quite literally all colors of the rainbow and she was wearing a white t-shirt with a blue top with a pink and white skirt. She looked up and grinned slightly. “Heh…sorry about that.”

“You usually run into people every morning?” Sunset asked as she helped the girl up.

“Only when it’s important!” the girl said. “No seriously, there’s a meeting with the soccer team I was supposed to be at five minutes ago so that’s why I’m in a hurry.” She then stared at Sunset. “Now that I think about it…I don’t remember running into you before.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m actually a new student,” Sunset replied.

“Fresh meat huh?” the girl joked.

“Actually I’m a junior.”

“Same. Name’s Rainbow Dash.”

“Sunset Shimmer.” The two of them shook hands. “But didn’t you just say…?”

“Shit! Yeah,gotta go! Hey, if you’re in any of my classes sit next to me alright!?” The girl then ran off again in a hurry. Sunset just shook her head before heading inside the school.

She had been half expecting most of the students to be watching her with either curiosity or suspicion but apparently they paid no attention to her as she made her way to her locker, opening it with the combination she had already memorized. After getting her bag put away, she grabbed her binder and made her way towards her first class, which just happened to be trigonometry.

Once she found the room number, she awkwardly stepped into the classroom which currently was full save a few seats. She then found the teacher and went up to him. “Excuse me, Mr. Doodle?” she said. “My name is Sunset Shimmer and-”

“The new student right?” Mr. Doodle asked, looking like he didn’t really care as he got out a textbook. “Go ahead and sit wherever you like. I’m assuming you were covering sine, cosine, and tangent at your other school?”

“That’s right.”

Mr. Doodle grunted in response while Sunset took her book and sat near the front. The girl sitting next to her has her nose deep inside the book - and it looked like she was much farther in the book than what the syllabus statedat this point of the year. Well, guess it can’t hurt to socialize. “I guess you like to read ahead huh?” Sunset said, chuckling slightly. “I guess that gets you more prepared for the next test…or the one after that.”

The girl suddenly looked up and glanced over at her, pushing up her glasses that were hanging on the bridge of her nose.. “Oh…were you talking to me?” she asked. Her hair was striped with lavender and pink and unlike most of the students in the classroom, she was very formerly dressed.

“Yeah…sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Oh no it’s fine, and you’re right I am pretty far ahead,” the girl giggled. “Luckily I haven’t taken notes on the chapters ahead or else I’m sure Mr. Doodle wouldn’t be happy with me just sitting here. Anyway, I haven’t seen you in class before so…new student?”

“Yeah. I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” the girl said. “I’m actually a former new student myself so I know the feeling of being nervous and all that.”

“Oh yeah? What school?”

“Uh…Crystal Prep.”

Sunset stared at her for a moment. Crystal Prep was one of the biggest schools in the entire district, not even Manehattan came close to it. It was also one of the hardest schools to get into for they required outstanding marks and even then the competition was insane. They were also a juggernaut when it came to sports as well.

“That’s pretty impressive,” Sunset said. “I’m surprised you transferred here of all places.”

Twilight suddenly looked uncomfortable. “It’s…kind of a long story.”

“Oh um…right…”

The bell suddenly rang and almost as if on cue Mr. Doodle got up, ready to teach class. “Alright, settle down and let’s get started. In case you didn’t know, we have a new student with us today but I’m not going to go into the whole thing of having herself introduce herself and whatnot so we’ll just go ahead and continue where we left off from yesterday…”

The current material being discussed was more of a review for Sunset which allowed her to keep up with note-taking as Mr. Doodle demonstrated problems on the board. Near the end of class he asked the students to break off into pairs and start working on tonight’s homework. Naturally, Sunset and Twilight both decided to partner and they were both able to race through almost half the problems before the bell rang again.

“Well, I don’t know if we’ll run into each other again in another class but if not I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Yeah…I guess we’ll see then,” Sunset said, returning the smile.

The rest of the morning continued without much excitement. Thankfully, it seemed that the students here were on the same level as she was in her classes so she didn’t have to worry about catching up. By the time lunchtime came around, she was definitely feeling hungry.

Regardless of what school you went to, cafeteria always ranged from “barely a grade from dog food” terrible to pretty good, though Sunset didn’t really care as long as it tasted good. Luckily, as least from what the menu said and what she saw, the food at least looked edible. Once she got her food and paid for everything, she then had to make the difficult choice on where to sit.

“Hey Sunset!”

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about that any longer since she instantly noticed the girl she met outside the school earlier. Making her way over, she saw there were a couple other girls sitting with Rainbow that she hadn’t met before. “I knew we’d meet each other again at some point,” Rainbow grinned. “How’s your first day going so far?”

“Not bad…just adjusting to everything I guess,” Sunset shrugged slightly as she sat down.

“Oh right, I’m guessing you haven’t met these three, but this is Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Rarity said.

“Howdy,” Applejack said.

“Um…hi…” Fluttershy said.

“So how did your meeting go this morning?” Sunset asked as she started eating.

Rainbow grimaced slightly. “I…may have gotten chewed out a bit for being late…for a third time in a row…”

“Well if you actually went to bed on time instead of playing video games…” Applejack said.

“You play ‘em too!”

“Yeah, but I know when to stop.”

“Whatever…anyway, what brings you to Canterlot anyway?”

“Honestly Rainbow Dash, she should at least get to know us before we start asking personal questions,” Rarity scoffed. “Ahem, I for example am the President of the Fashion Club here. We’re a small group currently but I’m hoping once I show off some of the clothes I made for the Fall Festival it’ll generate more interest.”

“So you’re a designer?” Sunset asked.

“Why of course darling, which reminds me I need to take your measurements before lunch is over.”

“Uh…why?”

“So I can create something in your style of course!” Rarity stared at her for a long minute. “Hmm…yes…alright I think I got it!”

“…Got what?”

“Just roll with it, she does this with all of us,” Applejack said. “Anyway, well I’m from Sweet Apple Acres where you’ll find the best apples in all of Canterlot. I also sometimes help with the Agricultural Club when they’re doing a big project or something. You’ll have to come by sometime for a piece of pie or some cider.”

“The cider is pretty good,” Rainbow added.

The three girls then looked over at Fluttershy, who glanced over and jumped slightly. “Oh right um…well I mostly work at the pet shop downtown though in my free time I sometimes help with Rarity in making the dresses.” She then smiled. “I guess you could say I have a way of…speaking to animals and all that.”

“It’s too bad I’m not allowed pets in the dorm,” Sunset replied.

“Oh? You live at the dorm?” Rarity asked. “Cadance is actually very lenient on those sort of things…though I don’t think she’d let you get away with a dog, at least a big one…”

“Ooh I’d be happy to help find a pet for you if you were interested,” Fluttershy said, a gleam in her eyes now.

“I’ll..think about it,” Sunset said.

“It’s too bad Pinkie isn’t in the same lunch period as us,” Applejack said. “She’d be happy to meet you…well any new student.”

“Just gonna warn you…she’s a bit…uh…overwhelming would be an accurate term,” Rainbow said.

“Wait…there was a girl in my cooking class…pink hair, is really good at cooking and is super hyper?” Sunset asked.

“Yep that’s her,” Applejack said. “I’m guessing you did meet her?”

“Hi! Are you new? I don’t remember seeing you before so you have to be new!” It took Sunset a second to process that a girl was currently talking to her.

“Y-Yeah I am,” Sunset replied.

“Great! My name’s Pinkie Pie but you can just call me Pinkie, everyone else does!”

“Nice to meet you Pinkie. I’m Sunset.”

“Nice to meet you Sunset! We’re going to be great friends and its even greater that we’ll get to cook together!”

“You could say that,” Sunset replied.

“You know, I have a game on Saturday but maybe afterwards we could all hang out somewhere,” Rainbow said. “Consider it a welcome party for our new friend.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Rarity said. “I know it seems strange to you dear but we tend to make friends rather easily around here.”

So I’ve noticed… Well, that wasn’t a bad thing. Making six friends in one day was definitely a good start at least. However, she wasn’t willing to explain how she got here in the first place, at least not yet.

After about another twenty minutes, the bell rung again and Sunset headed for her next class. The rest of the day continued normally, though she did find out that Rarity and Rainbow Dash were in her history class while Applejack and Fluttershy were in her chemistry class.By the end of the day they were able to exchange numbers.

Once school finally let out, Sunset was on her own since Rainbow had soccer practice and the others had their respective clubs to go to. Before heading home, she stopped by a small grocery store and picked up enough food to last her week, mostly sandwiches or anything that didn’t require more than microwaving. It was after four by the time Sunset got back to the dorm.

Cadance was at the front desk when Sunset came in, or at least tried to with the bags she was carrying. “Oh hey Sun-whoa do you need help with that?”

“If it’s no trouble…” Sunset said, her voice slightly strained.

“Not at all,” Cadance said as she took one of the bags. “So how was your first day?”

“Well…hard to believe but I think I made six friends in one day.”

“Wow! That is impressive! But the students at Canterlot High are pretty nice for the most part,” Cadance replied as the two went up to her room. “I don’t suppose you met a girl named Twilight…?”

“Twilight Sparkle? Yeah, she was in my first period class, you know her?” Sunset asked as she got her key.

“We’re pretty close, mostly cause I’m dating her brother,” Cadance smiled. “So she’s kind of like a little sister to me. Did she have her nose in a book?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Some things never change,” Cadance giggled. “Well, I’m glad she has someone to talk to at least. She…doesn’t really have any friends to talk to.”

“She said she transferred here from Crystal Prep.”

“Yeah…she had her reasons but…I shouldn’t say, it’s not my business. Anyway, I’ll let you unpack everything and get to your work. And really, thank you for being a friend for Twilight. Maybe over time it’ll help her come out of her shell a bit.”

“I’ll do what I can I guess,” Sunset replied.

Cadance nodded in thanks before turning around. “The next time I talk to her, is it alright if I tell her you’re living here?”

“I don’t see why not,” Sunset shrugged.

“Alright, well I’ll see you later then Sunset.”

Sunset then closed her door and unpacked everything into the small refrigerator provided. Once that was done, she decided to have an early dinner before getting started on her homework, which mostly consisted of math and chemistry. Maybe tomorrow when she saw Twilight she would ask for her number so they could help each other on problems…though she was certain Twilight probably didn’t need any help.

Once she was done, she settled in and watched some of the usual evening shows that were on Monday night. As soon as it hit ten, she got changed into pajamas and tucked in for the night. Once she fell asleep, she failed to notice her phone had gone off, indicating something was downloading onto her phone.

Author's Note

I realize in my P4 fic, I did the whole morning, afternoon, evening thing which they usually do in the Persona games but since that would probably get annoying to most readers I decided to do away with it this time.