“Where do you want this box to go?” Twilight asked, stumbling as she could barely see over the contents in her arms. It was a box filled high with clothes, clothes she was sure Sunset was probably a little upset with parting with judging by some of the price tags on a lot of them. Pinkie was beside her, comedically carrying almost twice as much.
“Over there by the door. The charity box is down the block. I’ll take it there before school on Monday,” Sunset told her, pointing towards the door. She was digging through her closet, looking for clothes to get rid of.
The girls were over at Sunset’s house, helping her clean out the clutter that had accumulated over the past couple of months.
Apparently the guitar player hadn’t even been aware of just how much her apartment was in disarray until Rarity had came to take her measurements for her Fall Formal dress the week before and saw it the moment she had walked through the door.
Appalled, Rarity asked Sunset when the last time she had cleaned her apartment was and the older girl couldn’t even recall.
The next week Rarity had recruited the rest of the girls and convinced them to storm Sunset’s apartment with cleaning supplies that Saturday.
Outnumbered, Sunset gave in, and reluctantly began helping them put things into boxes and garbage bags.
Rainbow Dash whistled. “Hey AJ, check out Sunset’s set up! Dual monitors, and one of those glowly hard drive things! What a nerd!” she snickered.
Pinkie and Applejack giggled too.
“I’m a nerd for wanting quality graphics? And stop goofing around,” Sunset told her, bending down to pick up something that caught her eye. In the dim light she couldn’t see exactly what it was, but when she brought it out into the living room area, she knew immediately what it was.
“Is that—” Applejack started, but saw the look on Sunset’s face and stopped herself.
Fluttershy and Rarity were at her side at once.
“Darling, have you kept this all this time?” Rarity asked, eyeing the item in Sunset’s trembling hands.
“I wanted it to be a reminder. Of all the awful things I’ve done,” Sunset stared down at the tattered leather jacket, almost bewildered at how torn and mangled it was. Had it really been a year? Had everything that transpired really happen in all of 12 months? The Dazzlings, Midnight Sparkle, Camp Everfree, and...the thing that started it all? The Fall Formal?
“Sunset we—” Twilight started, but Sunset cut her off.
“I’m fine. Really. It’s just...it’s been a while since I’ve actually held it in my hands. I’ve always knew it was in there, but after a while it had become so buried in clothes and junk that it became more of a out of sight out of mind thing,” She rubbed her hands over the holes where her demon wings had sprouted. It still smelled of singed earth and magic.
“What was it like?” Fluttershy asked softly. “Were you scared?”
“Did it hurt?” Applejack asked. “There were tears in your eyes when you...changed.”
“There was a brief moment where I was scared, yeah. And it did hurt. But the magic....It changed me. Suddenly I wasn’t afraid anymore. All the anger, and hurt, it solidified itself in me. I had abandoned Equestria, but Celestia, the one being that I thought cared for me, had replaced me. I was nothing to her. I had no purpose. I became a wayward pupil, angered by being thrown away. I started looking for vengeance. And I had found it in...what I became.”
Twilight winced. “I don’t think it was like that for me. I don’t remember much. All I remember is being sucked in, and then...nothing. She took over me and I had no control over what I was doing. It was like watching a first person movie of yourself.”
“That sounds terrifying,” Rarity said, frowning. “Goodness. You girls have been though so much.”
“But what about after the Fall Formal? You didn’t talk to us for a whole two weeks. What were you doing?” Dash asked, sitting down on the sofa.
Sunset looked away from her friends. “I was....adjusting. I wasn’t the head bitch anymore. I held no power over anyone and I didn’t know where I stood. Everyone hated me...and I didn’t know how to handle it. For the first time, I was the one cowering in fear.”
Sunset shivered as she thought of all the times she had been ridiculed and pushed in the hallway, the graffiti on her locker, and the whispers. “Even when I was down I was too prideful to approach you all. I had thought you guys had promised Princess Twilight just to get her out her hair. Did I ever tell you guys why I had ended up on Pinkie’s doorstep that night?”
All of them shook their heads.
Sunset took a deep breath.
It was raining. Hard. Usually when it rained like this Sunset would demand to be driven home by one of the students that feared her. But now, she was standing out in the rain, cementing the front of a school.
Mud caked her jeans, and the water drenching her caused her hair to cover her face. But still, she continued. Her legs ached from kneeling for so long, but still, she continued. She tried to ignore the giggles and snickers as students passed.
She knew they were pointing.
She knew they were laughing.
And she knew, as she heard the mechanical click of a cell phone’s camera, that they were documenting her misery.
It was only fair right? She had spent the past few years terrorizing them. It was only right that they got their chance at her.
“You think this rain is gonna affect our sleepover tonight?” a familiar, deep country drawl filled Sunset’s ears as she continued to fulfill her grueling punishment. Applejack.
“Nonsense darling,” Another voice, high pitched and airy this time. Rarity. “Pinkie would have a fit if we let a little rain stop us from attending one of her slumber parties,”
“More like a heart attack,” A harsh, raspy voice chimed in, drawing a laugh from the other girls. “Seriously, she takes her parties way too seriously.” That was Rainbow Dash.
“It’s only cause she cares, sugarcube,” Applejack said chuckling.
“A little too much if you ask me,” Fluttershy mumbled as Rarity opened her umbrella with a squeal.
The other girls’ laughs drifted off as they walked away.
She hadn’t spoken to those girls in days. And they were acting as if nothing had even happened. Did they forget about her? Did they just promise Princess Twilight that they would take care of her just to look good in front of her? Had they even seen her when they walked past? And if they had, why did they not say anything to her?
Sunset’s stomach churned as she continued to lay the bricks, before leaning over on her side to expel today's meatloaf surprise. At least she had been able to keep it down for a few hours this time. Most of the time if she ate she’d throw it up immediately after.
Sunset rolled over to her side and stared at the darkened sky, wondering if any of this was really worth it. What was she going to do now? She had no friends. And the friends she had been offered, she wasn’t even sure if they really wanted her around, or were going to keep her around as a favor.
“Maybe if we’re lucky enough she’ll off herself,” Sunset heard someone say.
“Can you believe she has the nerve to keep showing up here? Who does she think she is?” Another person said.
“Principal Celestia should have expelled her. We don’t want her here. I know I sure don’t,” the previous student’s friend said.
“She’s so pathetic,”
“Isn’t she?”
“She’s nothing more than a scared little girl.”
“Someone should give her a taste of her own medicine.”
Sunset’s heart started to beat in her ears. They knew that she could hear them. They knew that she could hear them because otherwise they wouldn’t have said it.
Tears started to stream down her face as she stood up. Every student in the courtyard was staring at her, still whispering behind their hands.
“Aw, is she crying? What a crybaby.”
“How does it feel to have someone make you cry?”
“Doesn’t feel good, does it?”
Sunset’s fists clenched, her jaw working as she fought back the torrent of tears that threatened to join the ones currently rolling down her face.
“Maybe you guys should leave her alone. She might try to kill us again,”
“Don’t worry, Twilight Sparkle will just come back and put her in her place.”
“I’m sorry, okay?!” Sunset shrieked, running off. She didn’t care that she was soaking wet, she just knew that she had to leave.
She let her legs carry her, not thinking of where she was going, and she didn’t stop until her lungs were screaming for air.
When she caught her breath, she realized that she was in front of Pinkie Pie’s house. Had she subconsciously ran all the way here? She didn’t even remember how she got Pinkie’s address. But she was here. And she knew why her heart brought her here. She belonged here. She belonged here with them.
These girls, they were meant to be her friends.
All she had to do, was let them in.
Sunset shivered as she rung the doorbell, once, then twice. There was some rummaging, and a few muted voices that she recognized as the girls that had forgiven her when they didn’t have to.
“Who could that be?” Fluttershy asked, curiously.
“I assumed we were all accounted for,” Rarity mused.
“I guess not,” Applejack responded.
The lock turned and the door was opened by a shocked Rarity, who, along with the girls behind her, seemed surprised by Sunset’s appearance. She looked more like a wet rat than a teenage girl.
Standing there, Sunset didn’t exactly know what to say, but let her heart speak for her. “I-I need you guys. No one wants me. I’m so alone, and tired, and I feel like the world is crashing around me. I have no idea who I am anymore. I didn’t mean to ruin your sleepover but I have nowhere else to go. Please.” a sob threatened to come through but she choked it down.
“Of course darling, come in!” Rarity said, ushering in the freezing girl. “Fluttershy, could you run a bath? Pinkie, be a dear and find some spare pajamas for Sunset Shimmer! And Rainbow heat up some of the left over pizza. She must be starving!”
“All those mean things,” Fluttershy murmured. “Everyday. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”
“Me neither,” Dash said, wincing, remembering all the horrible things she herself had said about Sunset before that night.
“It’s okay,” Sunset assured them. “After the Battle of the Bands, a lot of people came up to me and apologized. I told them they didn’t have to, but they felt really bad. And...I know a thing or two about forgiveness,” she laughed, her voice now full of mirth. She looked down at the piece of clothing in her hands.
“Everytime I see this jacket, I’m reminded of the things I lost. But I’m also reminded of the things I gained in their place. Like you guys. And...really cool powers.” she smiled as the girls around her laughed. “Thank you, girls. For taking me in.”
“We didn’t take you in,” Rarity said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You let us in. And we’re glad to have you.”
“Maybe we should throw a party!” Pinkie bubbled. “To celebrate our friendship!”
“I just think you just want to use this as an excuse to throw another party,” Twilight teased.
Pinkie stopped blowing up a balloon she had pulled seemingly out of nowhere. “What makes you say that?”
The girls around her laughed.
Sunset put on the jacket that her former self loved so much and smiled. Maybe she could ask Rarity to fix it, maybe modify it to match her new personality. This jacket was apart of her. It represented where she’d been and how much she’s changed.
And as she thought of a new design to give it a second chance at life just as she had, maybe, just maybe, it’ll be able to represent just how much there was to come.
Author's Note
Just a quick thing to celebrate the day Sunset Shimmer first graced our hhearts. Five years ago today. Love our bacon girl. any way please support me on ko-fi or patreon and ive written a book so if you can please go check it out and support it!
