As Sunset landed on the stage as the sirens ran quickly off the stage, she bent to pick up the remains of what were once heart stones. She should feel proud that the powers of harmony chose her to be a bearer, even if she wasn’t entirely sure what aspect of the elements she represented. What ever it was, it added just enough power to not only stop the Dazzlings power, but completely overwhelm them, returning the students they had under their control to normal.
As she looked over to the Rainbooms and Twilight Sparkle, she noticed that they were all off to the side celebrating. Or more accurately, the Rainbooms were celebrating, talking over everything Twilight kept trying to tell them. Shaking her head, she couldn’t help feeling a little hurt by them still as she studied each and every one of them. Once again, she was reminded how excluded she had been when it came to them since the Fall Formal.
Could she really blame them for only doing the bare minimum to include her in things? They usually used excuses to exclude her from slumber parties, the only one she had been to was the one Twilight had dragged her to in order to brainstorm ways to defeat the sirens. They had always turned down any suggestions she had when making after school plans and only invited her when they actually needed something. Even Fluttershy turned down any chance to spend time with her when Sunset wasn’t volunteering at the shelter.
When they created the band, they even ignored the few suggestions that maybe they could use another backup singer or guitarist. She had hinted as being a decent singer and even tried to show she could kill it on Rainbow’s guitar, only to have the instrument snatched away by Rainbow as soon as Sunset went to pick it up. Sunset knew she shouldn’t be upset that they didn’t invite her in the band since she didn’t outright come out and ask, but should she have needed to if they were really friends like they claimed?
Looking away from them, she could see Principal Celestia and Vice-Pricipal Luna making their way over to the Rainbooms, declaring them the winner of the battle of the bands. The sea of students rushed the stage creating an even larger divide between the Rainbooms and Sunset. Watching the two older woman brought a tear to Sunset’s eye as she remembered how concerned Celestia was after finding out Sunset was from a different world. She had immediately taken Sunset in with Luna eagerly accepting it and was in the process of adopting Sunset.
Remembering their harsh words when Sunset tried to warn them of the sirens brought a pain back to her heart that had been there since it happened. She wanted to believe they were totally under the sirens control and were forced to say those things. Sunset just couldn’t shake the feeling that none of the Dazzlings had enough power to do anything more than suggestions leaving the victim to go by what was really in their heart. If that was the case, those words would have never been muttered. The two women would have maybe grounded Sunset or distracted her by some other means, they would have never said such hateful things if they did care.
Seeing the way that neither woman spared as much as a glance toward Sunset more or less confirmed her worse fears in her mind. Celestia and Luna never really cared, she was just a charity case in favor to Princess Twilight just as the case was with the Rainbooms.
Looking at the crowding and cheering students she realized not even one of them seemed interested in congratulating her in her part for stopping the sirens. All of the hateful and hurtful actions since the Fall Formal along with Flash’s bad girl comment earlier was enough to make Sunset realize something. These students would never forgive her, much less accept her. Not a person, or pony for that matter, would ever accept her.
As a few tears broke free from Sunset turned and quietly left back stage the same way the three girls ran off too earlier. Not that she was following them, she just didn’t want todeal with the huge crowd and fighting her way through it as there were still many students on the ground in front of the stage cheering at the top of their voice.
Making her way to what had been her home for the last few months, Sunset found her bag and emptied it of her school supplies. Instead she shoved some clothes into it, some money and a few pictures of her and the girls as well as Luna and Celestia. She wasn’t sure why she cared, but she didn’t want to leave them behind. Finally she carried her journal and dropped it off on the coffee table before taking one last wistful look at the house that she was starting to think of as home. Deciding against leaving a note Sunset left the house and started walking in a random direction leaving behind her old life.
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Celestia tried her best not to break down as the power strangling her mind finally let go letting her regain full control of her body. Her first instinct was to run to Sunset, but the girl had begged her not to let anyone know they had any kind of relationship which the woman respected. She understood that the girl was already suffering the backlash of her actions leading up to and during the Fall Formal. If it was known Sunset was going to become the principal’s daughter then they would only have more ammunition to harass the girl with.
So in order to keep up appearances Celestia rushed to congratulate the Rainbooms so she could distract the students with congratulating them and sneak off to check on her soon to be daughter. She fought the mind control of the Dazzlings with every fiber of her being, it just wasn’t enough in the end. The Dazzlings had gloated how they never would have been able to if it wasn’t for how much hate and anger the students had for Sunset. The three girls then went on to brag how they were going to force Celestia and Luna to tell Sunset those hateful things to sow the seeds or even more disharmony between the group of friends in order to reap an even better harvest of negativity from the girls Equestrian magic.
As Celestia handed off the trophy to Rainbow Dash knowing that the girl’s ego would make her crow and brag to the crowds getting them worked up, Celestia looked for Sunset so she could sneak off and take the girl with her. Instead she saw a pained look on the girl’s face that broke Celestia’s heart as she tied to get through the sea of students that blocked her view of Sunset. By the time she made it through the crowd to where Sunset was the girl was gone.
For the next hour Celestia and Luna searched the school then the few places they knew Sunset retreated to when upset. If only they went home first, experience just made them believe it would be the last place Sunset headed off to. When they arrived home they found no note telling where Sunset was even as they found enough things missing from the girl’s room to show she had grabbed as much of her stuff that she could carry and left. It broke Celestia’s heart as she begged Luna to help find her and the two would do their best to track her down.
Author's Note
You may be wondering why the status of this is complete? I wanted to get this out of my head as it has been haunting me for awhile and it is the beginning to several different stories I have ideas for. I also wanted to present this to everyone and maybe see if anyone else would lie to write a story using this as a sort of beginning. I will be, maybe, writing several stories when I finish Shadow of the Sun using this as a starting point.