A Bitter Sunset

Sunset gave as much of a strangled groan as her parched throat could mustered, her brow furrowing with intense strength to match the raging pounding in her head. She struggled in her attempts to remember what day it was as she shifted around on her… sofa?

“W-What…?” Sunset mumbled as she rolled to her side and cracked open her eyes, which surprisingly were no longer caked with grime. All the alcohol must really be getting to her now, passing out without realizing it.

“Ah, that must be Pinkie and Fluttershy with the laundry! AJ would you be a darling and get the door?” Sunset froze as a familiar voice rang out through her apartment.

“Great… Not this nightmare… Again…” Sunset groaned as she sat up, the blanket covering her the whole way.

“Oh, Sunset! You’re up… early?” Rarity’s voice sounded amazed as it grew closer to the sitting girl. “Though to be honest, I have never dealt with a situation such as this before.”

“Ya, well why don’t you just shut up and kill me already? Get this nightmare over with already.” Sunset groaned as she attempted to run a hand through her hair, giving a small grunt of pain as it was halted by a seemingly infinite collection of knots.

“Erm, pardon me, darling? Whatever do you mean?” the creaking of Sunset’s floor paused at the Equestrian’s comment. Weird… They’re usually more aggressive than this…

“You heard me, you stupid nightmare. The five of you always break into my room then take turns-”

“Sunset? This ain’t a dream, girl.” And Applejack never talks…

“Yeah, did you really bounce your head off the ground that hard?” Rainbow Dash could be heard walking out of Sunset’s kitchenette. “If she’s concussed it would probably mean going to the hospital.”

“Look, what the fuck are the five of you doing in my apartment? How did you get in?” Sunset stood up and turned around to face the quintet, only to pause and stagger as blood rushed to her head.

“Woah now, girl. Take it easy. You’ve been sleepin’ fer the last… two hours darn near.” Applejack said as she approached Sunset, only to pause when an amber palm was raised towards her.

“Seriously, why are you five here? This isn’t one of my nightmares, so I’d appreciate an answer.” Sunset grumbled as her vision stopped swimming.

“Um… Do you know what day it is?” Fluttershy asked as she walked over and deposited a hamper on the floor, freshly cleaned clothes pouring over the edges.

“Hell if I’d know, but that doesn’t answer my question-”

“Sunset, you’ve been MIA for over a week.” Rainbow threw a damp looking towel over her shoulder as she paused beside Rarity. “What happened? Why are you covered in bandages?”

“...What makes you think I should tell you- any of you, anything?” Sunset tried her best to pull her former queen bitch persona forth.

“Cause we just spent the last two hours cleaning your whole apartment.” came Rainbow’s blunt response.

“Look, fucking thanks, or whatever it is that you plebeians want to hear for helping me, but why are you here? Did Twilight coerce you into coming here?” Sunset’s voice became a vitriolic wave as she tried to get some sort of answer from the group that had cost her everything.

“Ya, tha Princess had asked us ta help ya, and it seems she was right about it.” Applejack crossed her arms as she stood resolute against the fury coming from Sunset. “Ya need help, Sunset.”

“And what in your pathetic little minds would make you think that even if I needed help that I would ask the likes of you? You forget that it’s because of you five that I’m stuck here now, right?” Sunset’s anger had changed to a maniacal cackling before she gave a lunatic grin to the shorter girls.

“Maybe because we are the only ones that would try to if you asked.” Rarity said gently, a sad smile on her face. “Sunset… You were a mess when we got in here, why I’m surprised the landlord didn’t evict you for the state of this room!”

“It took me an hour just to clean all your dishes for fucks sake!” Rainbow said, reaching out and trying to show Sunset just how shriveled and prune like her fingers had gotten.

“We did your laundry for you? Seriously, I had to work some reeeal Pinkie magic to get some of these clean again!” Pinkie pulled out various pieces of clothing that somehow appeared brand new.

Sunset’s response was to storm past the group, her left foot burning in agony as she stomped on it over to the fridge, opening it and retrieving a dark brown bottle from it before crashing towards her washroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

“S-Sunset?” Rarity called out in worry as the door bounced on it’s hinges. “W-What are you-”

“Drinking myself to oblivion, Marshmallow! You should try it sometime!” was Sunset’s mocking response as she slid down along the door until she was seated on the floor. That was only half the truth as tears started to build in her eyes, her voice threatening to start wavering.

“Look, just leave me alone…” Sunset said as cries of worry followed by banging on the door she rested against filled the air.

“Please…” she begged softly, causing the noise to stop and allowing to take a long pull from the brown bottle, her throat burning in a recognizable fashion as the cold alcohol burned it’s way to her gullet.

“We’ll be out here, Sunset. You take your time.” Rarity’s voice could be heard before muffled whispers could be heard depart from the door. Sunset sat there, waiting for the booze to make its way into her system before she started to work at the bandages around her wrists. The dinghy strips of cloth fell away, revealing a vast collection of criss crossing marks of red dug into her flesh, causing the painful memories to come flooding back to her…

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

“Ah, you’re awake. Good!” light slowly filtered into Sunset’s eyes as they slowly cracked open. “How are you feeling?”

“Out of ten? A solid zero.” came Sunset’s tired response. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital, dear. You’ve been here for the last eight hours.” Sunset slowly sat up in her bed, hissing at the burning running through her back. “Oh, careful dear! We don’t need you bursting your stitches!”

“Stitches…?” Sunset’s mind was groggy, but she remembered… “Who brought me here?”

“They said they were your classmates, I think? I’m sorry dear, I wasn’t on shift at the time, and they apparently refused to leave names.” Sunset wiped a hand down her face as she finished sitting up. She was wearing her shirt, or at least the remains of it, the back was all torn out thanks to her magical transformation from the previous night. She could see her jacket hanging off to the side.

“Okay, am I free to go?” Sunset asked, though her attention was elsewhere.

“Once we contact your family-”

“Don’t have any. I’m an orphan.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear. Well then we need you to see the doctor and the front desk to get your antibiotics prescription and to book you out.” Sunset slowly stood up, being careful not to put too much weight onto her bandaged up foot. She wasn’t even standing on it and she could feel the stitches in it.

“Lead the way.”

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

Once again, Sunset’s confidence composure fell apart as soon as she got into her apartment. She shut the door before feeling the weight of the world crashing down upon her, causing her legs to give up as she fell to the cool surface. Her body erupted into spasms as she silently wailed in despair at her current situation.

She had lost her chance to return to Canterlot and prove to Celestia that she was worthy of being a Princess.

She had lost her chance at power.

She had lost her chance at everything…

Sunset didn’t know how long she lay on the floor in an unsightly pile, sobbing away at her new lot in life. She knew she could never return to CHS, not after everything that she had done. Not that she regretted her actions, no, but rather what would happen to her. The students would gang up and assault her most likely, and the school would probably look the other way. She could try to go to the cops, but given her past, as well as the fact that she was more or less someone who didn’t exist in this world, that would be a mistake.

So what could she do?

She slowly crawled and pulled herself along the floor of her flat towards her kitchenette, dragging herself up the fridge as she opened it and pulled out a dark brown bottle, attempting to take a long pull, only to come up short as the bottle emptied in barely a mouthful. She gave a banshee shriek as she tossed it at the wall, missing it as it went sailing past and collided safely with her sofa and landing on the floor with a dull, glassy thud.

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

She didn’t recall when she had passed out, but Sunset slowly pulled herself up off the ground, her whole body heavy and moving as though she was made of lead. She slowly hobbled her way towards the sink, towards the drawer that sat in the counter beside it.

Her shaking hand slipped down to the handle pulling it out with such shaking that the silverware inside could be heard rattling as she slowly pulled it out. A single piece glinted brightly in the light from above her, a steak knife, serrated teeth calling to her as she stared at it with dead, glassy eyes. It had been a donation from the landlady when she had stopped by and noticed Sunset had been lacking a lot of cutlery, and though Sunset had tried many time to tell the older lady that she was a vegetarian, she eventually relented, if only to shut the geriatric up.

Now though…

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Sunset stumbled out of the liquor store, groaning with the weight of bag she carried. It had been most of the money she had left, perhaps enough for a few days food if she rationed, but it was worth it. The single largest bottle of whiskey she had ever seen, and now ten of them were hers! Sure, her foot burned thanks to Sunset not bothering to ever clean the wound, nor purchase those antibiotics, but at least she had something to drown her sorrows!

Her stomach growled.

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

How many days had passed?

Sunset laid… somewhere in her apartment and looked skyward. At least she guessed it was skyward. She had drawn the curtains shut however many days ago and spent her entire time inside drinking. She had already gone through almost half of the bottles, and was pretty sure she should have been dealing with alcohol poisoning already. She reached around for the bottle, her hand flopping weakly against the floor.

Maybe she should just take a nap instead?

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

Hay, that’s what her last meal would be, Sunset decided. Sure, the human body had no reason to eat hay, and apparently if one ate too much it would be bad, but it was cheap, and light to carry. Plus she could mumble something about animals to try and deal with the stench she now carried thanks to not showering since… Whenever the Fall Fuck-up was.

Yes, one big bowl of hay, her last full bottle of whisky, and then everything could be done. Her eyelids shuddered as she snatched the bag from the cashier, a worried look on the… boys face? She didn’t care as she stumbled towards the door, hissing at the brightness of the sun.

Maybe some rocks for her whiskey?

<(‘-‘<) ^(‘-‘)v v(‘-‘)^ (>‘-‘)>

Sunset hissed as she poured the whiskey on her foot, swearing beneath her breath as she swore she saw her flesh start to bubble. Why were those five here? To taunt her? To remind her just how much she had fucked up? Instead she focused on waiting out the worst of the burning from her foot, before reaching down and dabbing away at the excess with toilet paper.

The stitches were almost entirely dissolved before she started, and this only helped eat away at them, though the burning was enough to make tears come to her eyes. She had really neglected the wound, the flesh a sickly red as hardened puss washed away from the wound.

But why was she trying to clean it? It’s not like she owed any of those girls anything! Even if they did clean her whole apartment for her…

They had left some amount of time ago, Sunset was unsure of how much thanks to all the pain she had been in, but they were at least gone.

“Sunset? I know you don’t need help, but please feel free to contact any one of us, okay?” Rarity had said from across the door. “We wrote our numbers on a sheet of paper you had sitting aside, okay?”

“And how the hell am I supposed to call you? Assuming I was wasted enough to do so?” Sunset chuckled into her bottle of whiskey.

“Um… With your phone?” Rainbow Dash was probably looking around with an idiotic look on her face given the way she sounded.

“It’s busted, and I don’t think many places here would accept “Rainbow Lazer Beam” to be a justifiable reason to warranty a piece of slag.”

“Oh…” They had thankfully left shortly after that, leaving Sunset to herself. And her bottle of booze. That had been good times, at the moment however, she was busy slamming a hand on the floor as the pain continued.

“Mother fucker!” she growled as she poured a fourth time onto her foot.

It took a few minutes, but at least the burning and blazing agony died down enough that Sunset could now stand up, if albeit at a glaciers pace, until she was loomed over the sink. Many reflections stared back at Sunset from her shattered mirror, her right hand tingling as the memory came back to her, causing her to growl as she flipped the bottle over one of her wrists.

“Fucking HELL!” she bellowed as similar scabby, pussy wounds on her arms sizzled like eggs in a frying pan, repeating the process two more times before shifting over and doing the same with the other wrist.

Sunset gave a bestial snarl as she dried off the last bits of burning skin before reaching down and into the cabinet under her sink for her first aid kit, grabbing out the last few rolls of bandaging cloth and starting to wrap her wrists up. There was just enough to wrap up her wrists and foot, her foot ended up being wrapped a little tightly but it helped numb some of the burning.

“So. What are you gonna do now, failure?” the reflections from her mirror asked as Sunset lowered her head. “Gonna roll over and play nice? Maybe you can go to a tea party, have a big group hug and sing kumbaya?”

“No.” Sunset growled back, shutting her eyes.

“Face it. You lost, and now they’re taking pity on you. Awww, poor old Sunset Shimmer! She ran away from home because Mommy never loved her!” the voices mocked and sang around her.

“Shut up…”

“She’s never had a real friend because she’s sooo much better than everypony else!”

“Shut… Up…”

“She lost to five teenagers and a real Princess of Equestria, and now she’s drinking her life away! How pathetic!”

“Stop it...”

“Woe is me, for I lost! Mayhap I shall go to yonder sink and grab the knife to end my pitiable existence!”

“Stop it!”

“Your washed up, Shimmer. I bet they’re all laughing at you behind your back now!”

“STOP IT!” Sunset yelled as she tried put her hand through the mirror once again. She grasped the sink, nearly shaking it loose with how heavily she was breathing, tears streaming down her face.

No, she was better than this. She wasn’t gonna roll over just because she lost to some stupid Princess! She was Sunset Shimmer, personal protégé to Princess Celestia herself! And she was not gonna lose face to a bunch of teenagers!

She was gonna show them who it was that still ruled Canterlot High School.

She was gonna prove to Celestia that she was worth paying attention to…