How Did You Win?

by Formerly Committed

Rating: teen
Tags: Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG), Profanity, Slice of Life, Romance, Rainbow Dash (EqG), Equestria Girls, Sex
Length: 4387

Sunset Shimmer tells how she won her first Fall Formal.

During Twilight Sparkle's first sleepover after the friendship games, she asks a question that opens an old wound.

Published 2022-08-04 02:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-08-04 02:00:00 UTC

The First Fall Formal

A cacophony of noise filled the Sunset’s Shimmers apartment. Twilight Sparkle’s first slumber party was officially underway. After the Friendship Games, the girls had quickly invited her over for a stress-free night of snacks, movies, gossip, and fun.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack sat on the floor in front of the couch playing a cooperative game and were defending themselves against hordes of zombies. They started with their usual fighting game, but when they began arguing after the first round, the others forced them to only play games where they worked together. Though, that didn’t mean Dash had to actively help Applejack when she was swarmed by zombies.

“Dangit, Dash. Come and help me! All I got is this here double-barrel.” Applejack mashed buttons futilely trying to make her character reload faster.

Rainbow snickered as she maneuvered her character farther away from Applejack. “I gotta get a better gun too. Just hold them off for a little bit longer.” She turned her head and whispered a quick, “Get good, scrub,’ followed by an “ow” as a hand yanked her hair from behind.

Rarity sat on the couch behind Rainbow. She was straddling Rainbow and had the girl’s hair in her between her legs sectioned off by color. Red and orange were already in two separate braids with yellow halfway done. She had stopped braiding to give Rainbow’s hair a gentle but stern pull.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. My hands seem to twitch when someone is being petty.” Rainbow Dash grumbled but turned her character around to go help Applejack.

“Ouch!” Applejack yelped, causing her concentration to slip and leading to her character dying. “Dagnabbit!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Fluttershy sat cross-legged behind Applejack, working on her hair. Except, she was trying to get a piece of gum out of her hair. Pinkie had stashed some emergency gum around the room, and somehow, a piece got embedded in Applejack’s hair.

“Sorry again, AJ!” Pinkie Pie yelled from next to the microwave. She was busy making a batch of apology cupcakes. Since Sunset didn’t have an actual kitchen, Pinkie brought out her emergency easy bake oven

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight were sitting on the windowsill. There was just something about becoming a she-demon and trying to kill everyone that made you bond with other she-demons. Sunset was catching Twilight up on the events that brought Equestrian magic to this world and was finishing up the events of the Fall Formal. Twilight had a pen and notepad out, taking notes.

The main reason for telling Twilight was to assuage her worries that everyone from Canterlot High was going to hate her. For Sunset, recollecting the Fall Formal was humbling. It reminded her how terrible she had gotten just for a bit of power. It also reminded her how amazing and forgiving her friends were.

Twilight looked down at her notes. “I have so many questions.”

Sunset blinked. “Oh, well ask away. I’m an open book. Though I’ll warn you, I don’t know much about the magic that’s infecting our world here.”

Twilight frowned. There went eighty percent of her questions. She turned to the first page of her notes and came across the word “How” in big bold letters. “Oh, how exactly did you win the fall formal? From what I understand, you need a combination of academics and social success, but from what you said you weren’t—um, liked.”

Sunset crossed her arms protectively across her chest, rubbing her arm nervously. “Well, it was a combination of bribing and blackmailing people to vote for me and threatening the competition to not run against me.”

Twilight nodded. “That makes sense, except for your freshman year. Unless you’re telling me a freshman with zero knowledge of our world extorted an entire school of upperclassmen in three months.”

“Oh, no. Freshman year was slightly different.”

Rainbow’s character died.

“Oh!” Twilight flipped to a blank page of notes. “How did you win?”

“Youch!” Everyone stopped and turned to stare at Rainbow. All except Rarity who was blushing fiercely with a fist full of Rainbow’s blue hair.

“Sorry, Rainbow darling.” She turned and addressed Twilight. “Twilight dear, there are some things better left in the past.”

Twilight noted that the mood in the room immediately turned south, and everyone had varying degrees of uneasiness on their faces. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to open old wounds.”

Rainbow stared at the Game Over screen.

“It’s not your fault, Twilight. You are an inquisitive person, and we love that about you.” She leaned forward, placing a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “As Sunset told you, she wasn’t the most, er—adjusted individual, and while we all have forgiven her, there are some things that we would just not rather bring up.”

Twilight nodded. “I can understand that. I’d rather forget all about how I almost murdered two universes.”

“Exactly!” Rarity clapped excitedly. “But since, as Applejack likes to put it, ‘the can of worms has been opened,’ now would be a good time to hash it out.”

“Can we not?” Rainbow Dash was standing now, arms crossed in defiance. Her scowl was ruined by her blue and violet locks “The last thing we need is to scare off Twilight with our drama.”

“Well, if she can’t handle us at our diddliest!” Pinkie yelled as she went about the room handing out empathy cocoa and apology cupcakes. “Besides, the rest of the night is gonna be super awkward anyway, might as well bash through it like a tanker truck driving through a nitroglycerine plant.”

“Uh, I’d rather we just forget it was even brought up. T’aint none of our business but Sunset’s and Rainbow’s.” Applejack scratched her head where the gum used to be, it being successfully extracted by Fluttershy.

“It would be nice to know what actually happened without relying on rumors,” Fluttershy said returning from throwing the gum away returning from throwing it away. “Not that I believed them or anything.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “I, uh, guess I can talk about it. But only if Rainbow is alright with it.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to respond but was stopped by a white hand on her shoulder. Rarity whispered something to her that caused her to close her eyes and take several deep, long breaths. “Let’s just get it over with.”

Sunset pushed herself up and off the windowsill. “Maybe we should all change first? We can get as comfortable as possible before we’re uh, not.”

She needed to stall to collect her thoughts. Thankfully, there was agreement among the girls and they all spread out to change into their nightclothes. While the other girls fished through their overnight bags, Sunset bounded up the steps to her loft to grab hers.

She tossed her pajamas onto the bed. Instead of changing, she sat on her bed and buried her head in her hands. She hated moments like this. She was used to telling about her fall from grace, but every time she did, it felt like there was a sword hanging over her head, and that this would be the time that they realized what a terrible person she was and they would finally leave her.

“You don’t have to do this.” The words were so quiet that Sunset for a moment thought they were in her own head. She looked up to see Rainbow—already changed—on the top step looking at her with concern. “We can just go down there and tell everyone to mind their own business.”

Tempting, but she shook her head. “No. They deserve to know what happened. What—what I did.”

Rainbow nodded. “I, uh, have some questions, too.”

Sunset gave a pained smile. “Of course. I’ll be down in a second.” Rainbow nodded and turned to head back down. “Dash, wait!” Rainbow stopped. “Promise me, that we’ll still be friends after tonight.”

Shocked, Rainbow fully turned to address Sunset. She smirked. “At this point, I don’t think even magic could get me to hate you.”

Sunset gave a quick nod. Rainbow turned and left.

All the girls were now changed, and the couch was pushed back for all of them to sit in a circle on the floor. Most were lounging in their respective sleeping bags. Rainbow hugged a pillow in front of her protectively. Pinkie Pie refilled everyone’s cocoa and was passing a bowl of popcorn around. All eyes were on Sunset, who sat directly in front of Rainbow. A self-imposed punishment.

“So I guess I’ll just start. When I first started at CHS I didn’t even know or care about the Fall Formal crown. I was there, mainly, to learn about the world I was in and to practice.”

“Practice?” Twilight ducked her head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

Sunset smiled. “It’s okay, Twilight. Yes, practice. I won’t say my main goal was global domination, but taking over the school was supposed to be only a stepping stone.”

“So you were using the social structure of the student body to see how well you could control them and then would later apply that to the real world.” Sunset nodded. “Fascinating.” Twilight had her notebook out again and was scribbling furiously.

“Anywho, like you said earlier, Twilight, the upperclassmen wanted nothing to do with me. Unless you were on the radar of one of the bullies, they didn’t even acknowledge the freshman existed. Everyone, but one. Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow beamed from behind her pillow. “What can I say? I’m so awesome, not even freshman status can bring me down.” A pillow sailed past her head.

“Rainbow Dash was the anomaly. The only freshman on the varsity soccer team. She was the Wondercolt’s hope to get them to State. The upperclassmen loved her, and she was also going to be my way into the popular crowd.

“Since I could still barely walk on two legs, there was no way I was going to join the team, so I started watching practices to figure out a way to get close to her. The very first practice I went to, she hit me in the face with a soccer ball.”

“Oh, oh! The typical Rainbow Dash hello!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing excitedly. “A soccer ball to the face, followed by an apology milkshake.”

“What?! That is not how I say hello!” Rainbow protested. “I’ve only hit like two people in my life.”

Pinkie raised her hand. “Seventh grade.”

Applejack followed suit. “Eighth grade. Though I didn’t get no milkshake afterward.”

Fluttershy was next. “First grade . . . and second, and third.”

Pinkie jumped on Fluttershy, hugging her. “Don’t worry, Shy. It just means she really likes you.”

Rarity raised her hand last. “Kindergarten. And then in third grade, she broke Sweetie Belle’s nose.”

Fluttershy brought her hands to her mouth and gasped. “Oh, no. I didn’t know that.”

Rarity nodded, smiling at the memory. “Hit her so hard, it took her off her feet. There was so much blood, poor Rainbow thought she killed her. Cried the whole way to the hospital and wouldn’t stop apologizing. For the next three weeks, Rainbow came over every day and waited on Sweetie hand and foot. And Sweetie, being the dear she is, took every advantage of it. I think I still have the picture of Rainbow in that little nurse costume.”

“I’m not sure if I should be grateful or offended I haven’t been hit with a soccer ball yet,” Twilight mused.

“Give it time, dear,” Rarity assured her, sipping her cocoa.

Twilight laughed, nervously.

Sunset giggled. “Girls, we’re getting off topic. And yes, after practice, she took me to get a milkshake to apologize.” Sunset smirked at Rainbow’s expense. “Thinking back now, it was pretty funny how she kept trying to have a conversation with me and failing. Every subject she brought up I knew nothing about.

"She finally gave up and offered to walk me home. When she found out I didn't have one, she literally dragged me to her house and demanded that her parents let me stay."

“Woo-wee! Taking a soccer ball to the face andmeetin’ Dash’s parents in one day,” Applejack joked as she dodged a pillow.

“What’s that supposed to mean? My parents are awesome!” Rainbow crossed her arms, now devoid of the pillow she had thrown at Applejack. “What is this, pick on Rainbow night?”

A white, consoling hand patted Rainbow and another pushed her hot cocoa into her hands. A pang of jealousy shot through Sunset, but she squashed it as quickly as it came. She shook her head and continued.

“Luckily, Rainbow assumed I didn’t know anything because I spent a life on the streets—”

“Right, because I should have guessed that you were a magical horse alien from another dimension,” Rainbow quipped, rolling her eyes.

Sunset giggled behind her own cocoa. “I stayed there for around two weeks until they got me this place.”

Twilight dropped her notebook. “They paid—are still paying for this place?”

“So you’ve been living off Rainbow’s parents this whole time?” Applejack sneered.

“No, they just signed the contract. And put down the security deposit. And bought the furniture. And paid the first month until I got a job … which they helped me get.” Four sets of eyes stared at her incredulously. “What? Like Rainbow said, her parents are awesome.”

Rainbow snickered.

“And they let you stay after … whatever it is you did?” Twilight asked.

Sunset shrugged. “I kept my stuff packed for months waiting for an eviction notice, but it never came.” She turned towards Rainbow for some form of an answer.

“They didn’t feel right kicking a kid out onto the streets even if she was, and I quote, 'a raging bitch.’ But if they ever got sent a bill for unpaid rent, you’d be out on your ass.” Rainbow catches a pillow sent her way. This one from Fluttershy, probably for the language.

Sunset, realizing they were going on another tangent, pressed on. “While I lived with them, and even after, I took in everything Rainbow could teach me about this world, mostly pop culture, movies, school social structure, music.

“A month later we started dating.”

Gasps filled the room. Rainbow buried her head into her pillow. Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack all had varying degrees of shock on their faces. Twilight blinked owlishly at everyone else’s response, while Rarity just sat there with a strained smile rubbing Rainbow’s back consolingly.

They had kept their relationship secret for the short time that they were together. While not an issue in Equestria, homophobia was prevalent in this world, and it would have hindered Sunset’s rise to the top. Luckily, Rainbow was more than willing to keep it private for her own reasons.

In a flash Applejack was on her feet, her face contorted in anger. “So you’re tellin’ me that you dated her before outing her as a lesbian and tellin’ everyone she tried to rape you!”

This time Twilight did gasp.

“I—I didn’t say she tried to rape me!” Sunset shot back.

“Maybe not, but you were just fine lettin’ e’ryone think that!” Applejack countered.

Sunset flinched.

“Applejack, that’s enough. We’ve all forgiven Sunset for what’s she done.” Rarity said in an even tone.

“Seriously? You of all people should be furious for her breakin’ her heart like that, and then she—”

“I was,” Rarity cut her off. “But I’ve had years to get over it.”

Applejack stared at Rarity bewildered. “You knew.” It wasn’t a question. “You knew they dated. You knew and you didn’t tell us.”

“Of course, I didn’t. It was private and no one’s business.” Rarity crossed her arms in defiance.

“No one's—No one’s business?!”

The two continued to argue, and with each exchange, Sunset cowered into herself. This is what she was afraid of. Losing her friends over some new revelation they didn’t know that made her into an irredeemable monster.

“Stop!” Rainbow shouted, her voice cracking. Everyone did and turned towards Rainbow. Her eyes were red from mashing her face into her pillow, and her face was wet. But that did nothing to diminish the glare she was shooting Applejack. “Rarity’s right. We forgave her. I forgave her. Even for the stuff I don’t know about. She’s my friend, and I forgive her.”

Applejack slowly sat back down, scratching the back of her head guiltily. “Aw shucks, I’m sorry, Sunset.”

Sunset took a few deep, steadying breaths. “It’s fine, AJ. I would have been surprised if someone didn’t get angry.”

“As great as this is, you think we can get the short and sweet version?” Rainbow fidgeted on her sleeping bag. “It’s, uh, getting late.” It was a blatant lie. It wasn’t even midnight yet.

Sunset nodded. “Sure, Rainbow.” She was more than happy to skip the particulars of their relationship. “So we dated, and two weeks from the Fall Formal, I—” Sunset took a steadying breath, already feeling the tears well up. Just thinking about it turned her stomach. “I outted Rainbow as a lesbian and told everyone she tried to molest me.”

Official charges were never pressed, but the entire school turned on Rainbow. Most of her friends abandoned her, and she took most of her lunches in Ms. Cheerilee’s classroom. While the school never kicked her off any teams, her fellow teammates made it clear she was no longer welcome. Canterlot High lost every major sporting event that year.

“And as a show of solidarity, they elected me Fall Formal Princess.” She stared into her cooling mug. “I won because everyone voted for me out of pity.” Looking up, she wiped the tears from her eyes and sniffed.

“So any questions?” she asked with a plastic smile.

Twilight clearly had questions. She kept looking at her notebook and back to her new friends but refused to say anything. Slowly, she closed her notes and shook her head. “No,” she whispered out.

Sunset turned to her other friends. None would meet her eye, save Rainbow whose ear was being whispered into by Rarity.

Rainbow scowled, jerking her head back to stare at Rarity. Rarity returned the look with her own stern expression. Rainbow deflated and nodded.

“Why?”

It took a moment for Sunset to realize the Rainbow’s question was addressed to her. “Why?” she echoed back, confused.

“Why did you do it?” Rainbow’s voice wavered with barely contained emotion. “You had no reason to date me. You said it yourself, lesbians weren’t really accepted back then, so dating me would have ruined your reputation too. Was dating me and outing me part of your plan, or did you just use me to get your rocks off?” The anger in Dash’s voice was palpable.

“No!” Sunset all but shouted. “Being your friend was, but I never planned to get any closer than I needed to.” A smile formed on her lips as memories of them together came to mind. “I asked you out because you’re an amazing person, Rainbow. Being with you was the first time I can remember being genuinely happy, even before leaving Equestria. Besides, you were hardly being subtle with those glances you were giving me.”

A ghost of a smirk flashed across Rainbow’s face before turning solemn again. “Then why—I mean—we could have stayed together.”

“Would you have really stayed with me when you realized what a bitch I was?” Rainbow cast her eyes down, shaking her head. “Besides, the night we—um, you know.” She glanced towards their friends, not wanting to tell more than Rainbow wanted.

Rainbow looked up, cocking her head before rolling her eyes. “We had sex, Sunset.”

Sunset blushed but nodded. “Right. That night, I realized I had to leave you and make sure there was absolutely no chance of getting back with you. You said you loved me, and when I said it back I had meant it.” Sunset’s tears were flowing freely now at the memory of that wonderful and simultaneously horrible night. “I got too close to you. I was never supposed to get attached to anyone, let alone fall in love with them. It would ruin everything. So I thought of the worst possible thing I could do.”

Rainbow’s own eyes were starting to water again. “I’m going to bed,” Rainbow said abruptly. She grabbed her tear-stained pillow and laid down. The rest of the girls looked at each other with confusion. With no one willing to break the tension, gradually one by one they all muttered their own goodnights and tried to sleep.

Sunset struggled to fall asleep. She tossed and turned even while her friends around her slept soundly. She kept replaying the events of the night over and over. Mostly, the reactions of Rainbow Dash and the rest of her friends. Were things going to be different now? Would they still be friends in the morning?

Grabbing her phone to check the time, she winced at the harsh light from the screen. It was just past two in the morning. It was far later than she realized. She questioned if at some point she actually did fall asleep, but woke herself up from worry.

Looking to her left from where she lay, Twilight and Rarity slept soundly beside her; Rarity sporting her usual sleep mask. To her right, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack were snuggled within their own sleeping bags. Being directly across from Rainbow, she would need to lift her head up to see her, but when she did, the sleeping bag was empty.

Sunset sat up in panic, worried Rainbow had left. Fortunately, it only took a cursory glance of the room to find Rainbow. She was sitting on the window sill, her legs stretched out, looking out the window, the light from the street illuminating her. She had a frown on her face. It was the sort of frown she usually got in math class. Like, she was working on a problem.

Quietly, she crawled out of her bag and padded towards her. “Rainbow?” she whispered.

Rainbow flinched in surprise. The corner of her mouth tugged upward as she saw Sunset but other than that made no further reply.

As Sunset approached the window, Rainbow pulled her legs in and hugged her knees. Sunset took the silent invitation and sat down on the sill. “Are you okay?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Just thinking,” she answered simply, continuing to look out the window

Sunset didn’t need to ask what about. Instead, she asked another question. One that was plaguing her all night. “Are … are we okay?”

Rainbow’s gaze turned to Sunset for a moment then went past Sunset to fall on something behind. “You kept practicing.”

Confused, Sunset turned around to see what Rainbow was looking at. She assumed it was one of their friends waking up, but they all still slept on the floor. She was about to ask Rainbow what she meant when a hand softly cupped her chin and lifted her head slightly upwards. Her eyes were now focused just above the stairs leading to the loft, on her guitars.

Two of them were blocked from Sunset’s vision by the loft, but she could still see the Flying V. The others she had gotten from the local pawn shop, but the Flying V was a gift. Rainbow had gifted her own guitar when she first started teaching Sunset how to play, claiming she could just use her mom’s old one.

Sunset swallowed the lump in her throat. “I did,” she breathed out. “It was my way of keeping some sort of connection to you, as sad as that sounds.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, sounds pretty pathetic.” Rainbow leaned back and opened her knees. Her hand hesitated for a moment, but then gave a soft tug on Sunset’s arm.

Sunset mindlessly followed Rainbow’s pull and soon found herself laying against Rainbow. Rainbow’s arms draped around Sunset, taking her hands. She could feel Rainbow’s heart hammering against her back.

“I never actually forgave you after the Fall Formal,” Rainbow confessed. “I had seen that Sunset, ya know? I knew you could easily just be pretending to be our friends, biding your time. Rarity thought the same thing.”

Sunset frowned. Now that she thought about it, Rarity knew an awful lot about freshman year last night. “I take it you already told her everything. She did seem to know a lot tonight.” It wasn’t an accusation. Just a statement of fact.

“Yeah, she helped me stay sane that year. Helped me realize you weren’t worth the tears.” Sunset felt Rainbow squeeze her tight. “Sorry, that sounded bad.”

That feeling of jealousy from before came back again. “Were you two ever …?”

She felt Rainbow shake her head against her. “Nah, she’s just an awesome friend, and let’s leave it at that.”

“So you never forgave me?” While it wasn’t an ideal topic change, she didn’t want to dwell on what Rainbow meant.

“Yeah, not until after the Battle of the Bands did I even consider it. I invited you into the band as a trial, I guess. But then you did that riff and it was like all that hate I had for you went away. I knew at that moment, what we had meant at least something to you.”

Sunset’s hands found Rainbow’s and laced them together, giving them an affirmative squeeze. “I know, I apologized to you girls, but I never apologized directly to you. Rainbow, I am so sorry for what I did. And if I have to I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

Rainbow squeezed her again. “So what your sayin’ is that you’ll do anything to make it up to me, eh?” Rainbow asked, mischief in her voice

“Is this going to involve me in jail or dead?” Sunset joked.

“Probably both.” Sunset felt Rainbow’s heart speed up. “What if I said, ‘I wanted another shot … at us.’”

“Dash?”

“Pretty sad, right? Wanting another chance with the girl that ruined my life.”

Sunset tilted her back to look back at Rainbow. Despite Rainbow’s joking words, she could see the nervousness in her eyes. Releasing one of Rainbow’s hands, she cupped her chin. “Pathetic,” she said, then closed the small gap between their lips.

Author's Note

If you've gotten this far, you obviously didn't learn your lesson from the first story.