Sunset closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “It started a little over two years ago, just a couple of months after I got here. I’ve always prided myself on being a quick learner, but the technology here is unlike anything in Equestria. I could barely operate a computer to type out homework assignments, and the phones were just plain too much. Simply put, I wasn’t exactly tech-savvy.”

_________________________ * * * _________________________

Sunset sat in front of one of the numerous computers in the library, hunting and pecking each key as she typed her way through her English assignment. She had felt herself get into a groove (or as close as one can get while hunting for every key), and typed out what seemed like a passable paragraph before looking at the Macrosoft Text document she was working on.

“What?” She examined the words on the screen. To her dismay, there were typos throughout the entire thing. “Agh, damnit,” she whispered under her breath as she moved the mouse to one of the typos and clicked. Intending to “delete” the previous letter, she pressed “del” only to omit the wrong one. “No,” she growled, retyping the letter before looking closely at the keyboard, and hitting another button. Her eye twitched as the screen showed she had started a new paragraph at the same location. “No!” Acting desperately and without thinking, she grabbed the mouse and accidentally selected both paragraphs while mashing a row of keys, replacing all of the text, which was really most of the work she had gotten done up to that point. She just stared for a moment, a drop of sweat sliding down her temple as her eye twitched more rapidly. “Celestia damnit!” She yelled as she slammed a fist on the keyboard, producing a random jumble of letters.

“Miss Shimmer!” The librarian, Mrs. Wordsworth, called out, standing from her seat behind the desk. “This is your last warning, young lady! If you raise your voice again, I will remove you from this library. And if I hear such language again, I will escort you directly to Principal Celestia’s office! Is that clear?”

Sunset just groaned and slammed her head on the keyboard in annoyance, arms hanging at her sides. After a moment, she looked up to see that Mrs. Wordsworth had sat back down, but was still glaring in her direction. Sunset looked back at the offending screen, full of now jumbled text and lines of “h’s.” She whispered now, to avoid either punishment, “It’s like you’re mocking me. Why won’t you just make the words I want appear like you do for everyone else? What am I doing wrong?!” She just leaned her head back on the keyboard, arms still dangling.

She felt a light tap on the left shoulder of her leather jacket. “Uhm, e-excuse me.”

“Whatever you want,” she growled without lifting her head, “it had better be important.”

“I, uh, just… wanted to see if you wanted any help. You seem a-uh, little frustrated.”

Sunset looked up to her side to see a young man, she figured just in his early teens by this world’s standards. His hair was a dirty blond mess of waves and curls. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with splashes of white and blue that gave the illusion of a waterfall, along with black dress pants. He also had a full backpack hanging over one shoulder. She sighed and, grabbing the table a bit tighter than she intended, stood before moving aside. “Fine, go ahead. It’s not like you could do any worse than I have.”

“Uh, okay.” He placed his backpack on the floor and sat in her seat, examining the screen. With a few quick keystrokes, he had managed to remove the entire jumble from the screen and return her actual work, such that it was, in a matter of seconds. She just watched in awe as he went through so many motions so quickly, from returning text she was sure she’d lost to fixing her typos and saving the document, all within about a minute. “There ya go,” he looked over to her, but seemed to have trouble looking her in the eyes. “This should be everything you had.”

He rose out of the chair when she put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. “Wait! You…” she looked back at the screen. “You made that look so easy! I can’t even operate one of these things without risking destroying whatever I’m working on.” She turned him around, and he looked up at her on instinct. “You’ve gotta teach me how to use these computers!”

“Really?” He blushed, flabbergasted. He’d never even spoken more than two sentences to a girl at any given time in his young life, and now this girl was asking him to spend time with her, to teach her. “I-I don’t know, it’s a little more difficult for some people to pick up than others. And, uh, de-depending on wh-what it is you wanna learn, it could, uh, take a while to pick up.”

“I’m a quick learner,” Sunset shot back. “I just…” She paused and glanced away, letting go of him while trying to think of the best way to word her explanation. “... haven’t had any experience with them before moving here, and the computer class was already full.”

He simply couldn’t believe it. She was actually insisting that he help her. “Uh, o-okay. Where do you wanna start?”

Sunset looked at the screen that, just moments ago, seemed to mock her mercilessly. “Start by teaching me how to type quicker, and whatever you did to my work just now.”

He gulped, nervous at the inordinate level of attention he was receiving from this fiery-haired girl. “Uh, well the typing thing would take a while, plus visiting one or two external websites. But I guess I could show you what I did with your work.”

“Awesome!” She grabbed both his shoulders as she lowered her head next to his to begin watching whatever he decided to show her first.

“Sunset Shimmer!”

She winced, realizing she’d yelled out again. “Sorry,” she answered back in a loud whispering voice.

Mrs. Wordsworth stood and made her way around the wide desk. “No more apologies, Miss Shimmer. I gave you your final warning, and yet you insist on making a ruckus! Grab your things immediately!”

“What?! But…” she looked back at the young man and the computer. “I haven’t even finished my homework yet!”

“Well, you should have thought of that before continuously raising your voice in the library!” Wordsworth stopped next to the computer table. “Gather your things, now!”

Sunset growled, shooting daggers at the librarian, before relenting and grabbing her bookbag. “Fine! At least I can still get my other work done at home!” She pushed past the librarian before making her way to the doors. “Bucking bitch,” she said under her breath as she stormed out, pushing through the glass doors so forcefully it sounded like they might shatter.

Mrs. Wordsworth sighed after the display. “What that girl’s parents were thinking when they raised her, I have no clue…” She thought aloud before returning to her own seat.

The young man just looked back and forth between the doors and the computer in front of him. A thought crossed his mind. After a few minutes of internal debate and hesitation, he began typing…

_________________________ * * * _________________________

Sunset got off the bus the next morning, her anger mostly subsided, but she was still perturbed at the thought of having nothing to turn in for her English class. Despite not having parents to answer to for her grades, she still despised the idea of not being able to complete a task, let alone actually failing any kind of assignment. “Jeez,” she clutched her arms together as she jogged past a few other students to the front entrance, “spring cannot get here fast enough!” She winced as her hand touched the cold metal of the handle, and rushed into the foyer, meeting the relief of warmth.

She made her way to the cafeteria and got her breakfast, and found a seat to eat her meal in relative peace. She had noted how in many ways, this world was not that different from Equestria. There were still schools, of course, and entire towns with industries, internal commerce, etc. It even seemed that many of the ponies she’d known growing up, including Princess Celestia herself, had a human counterpart in this world. But she’d also noted the differences, one of the biggest (and in her opinion, most annoying) being the length of time one was considered a “child” and expected to attend school. She was a full-grown mare, damnit! She shouldn’t be back in school, rehashing math and science! And it wasn’t as if the history of this world had any major impact on her.

Sunset was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t notice the boy approaching her. “Uh, excuse me?” he asked as he stood opposite her at the table. She simply took another bite of her biscuit without response, a focused look in her eyes. He decided to try again, waving his hand in her sight this time. “Excuse me, Sunset Shimmer?”

Her train of thought was broken immediately as she was brought back to the world around her, and saw the young man from yesterday. “Oh, hey,” she said with a slight grin. “Sorry, I was just… off in my own little world, I guess.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” he smiled back as he took a seat. “Happens to me all the time. My mom likes to tell me I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.”

This got a chuckle from Sunset, much to his delight. As she stopped though, a thought occurred. “Wait, how did you know my name?”

“Well, I’ve heard people talking about you here and there, the new girl with hair like a fiery mane. Kinda hard to overlook. Plus the librarian practically screamed it out yesterday.”

Sunset lowered her gaze, a small sneer appearing on her lips. “Don’t remind me. She’s part of the reason I’m probably going to fail my English class now.” She took a long sip from her cup of juice.

“Oh, yeah, about that…” The young man reached into his backpack and pulled out a few sheets of paper stapled together, setting them on the table.

One glance at the front page was all it took before her mouthful of juice was all over the table. She instinctively brought a hand up in front of her mouth as she coughed, while reaching for napkins with the other to start cleaning the mess she had made. “What the hell?!” She wiped as quickly as possible before tossing the napkins onto her tray and grabbing the papers. “You…” She looked over the page, seeing what little text she had originally managed, poorly, to type out, followed by many more paragraphs, spanning three pages. “H-how..?” She scanned the paper, seeing that the additional work had kept to the original ideas she had put down in the first place. She looked up at the young man in shock. “You did this?”

He looked away, not sure of the intent of her question. “Well, you left in such a hurry, and you basically said you wouldn’t be able to finish it at home, so… I thought I’d just try and help out, ya know? I kept the body on point and double-checked the spelling and grammar, so you should, you know, at least get a decent grade.” He stopped and waited for a response. When none came, he looked up to see Sunset just staring at him, her expression softened to unreadable. His heart began to race. “Uh, I-I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds, I was just trying to help.” He reached towards the paper. “If you don’t want to use it, I’ll throw it aw--”

“No!” Sunset jerked back, pulling it out of his reach. Seeing the looks of confusion and slight hurt on his face, she relaxed and held the assignment in front of her again. “No, I mean… Thanks, for that. I just… I didn’t expect…” She looked him in the eyes, a soft smile on her lips. “I’m not used to people going out of their way to help me.” She looked down at the paper in her hands. “I certainly didn’t expect someone to just do my homework for me.”

“Oh,” he smiled with relief, blushing slightly. “Well, I’m glad I could help out!”

“By the way,” Sunset leaned over the table, making sure she had his attention, “I meant what I said yesterday. I could really use some help learning how to use computers. Especially with so many assignments having to be typed out instead of hand-written.”

The boy hummed to himself in thought. “Well, I could just help you with your homework after classes in the library today. And tomorrow’s Friday, so I could bring my laptop, and we could go somewhere so I can start teaching you what you need to know.”

Sunset sighed with relief. “Ooh, you are a life-saver. Thank you so much!” The morning bell rang, signaling the students to prepare for their first period classes. Sunset slid the assignment into her bookbag and stood with it in one hand and her tray in the other, smiling. “So, the library again, right after the last bell, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” he answered, hoping he didn’t sound too eager.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

He paused, thinking on his answer. “... Just call me Ryan.”

“Okay then, Ryan. I’ll see you this afternoon.” Sunset turned and walked to the tray return window. Ryan headed straight out of the cafeteria. Each made their way to their lockers, then their first classes of the day.

_________________________ * * * _________________________

Ryan was sitting at a table at a cafe near the school, typing on his laptop and clicking various commands in his Macrosoft Text program. Sunset sat closely beside him, watching with intense interest, holding a pencil and notebook to take notes of specific, commonly used commands, as well as shortcut keys that Ryan made a point of mentioning. He currently had a Print Options box open, and was explaining to Sunset what each section’s function was. “... make sure you select the right printer option,” he hovered the cursor around the list of available printers to illustrate, “and print enough copies of your work.” He showed her the Copies section and the box asking how many copies to print. “It’s also good to know, if you only want to print specific pages, like you’ve made certain changes in one or two areas, you can click here, and just type in the page numbers you want.” He looked to his side to see Sunset scribbling away, as she had been doing for the last two hours since they started.

Once Sunset finished writing down the information, she looked back at the laptop screen and waited for a moment, expecting to hear him continue with another point on the program. When he didn’t say anything, she turned her attention to him, and saw a smile on his face. “What?” She giggled lightly.

Ryan realized he had lost his focus, and looked away, blushing again. “Oh, i-it’s nothing. I just…” He couldn’t think of any way to tell her how pretty he thought she was, or how nice it was to just have her attention, even for something so mundane as teaching her how to use software. “... I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Sunset laid her notebook on the table, watching him. “Wait, is it my hair?” She quickly started brushing her fingers through her full mane of hair, trying to make sure it looked okay. “I swear, sometimes it’s just out of control!”

“No, no! Your hair looks be…” he stopped himself. She glanced up at him as she finished brushing through it and swept it back over her shoulder. “... It looks nice.”

“Oh, thanks. It always seems to give me trouble in the winter.” She looked out the window, seeing the rain soaking everything in sight, not that there was much to see. They were still in that period where the sun set early. “And the humidity doesn’t do it any favors,” she grimaced.

Ryan looked out and grimaced as well. “Hey, Sunset. Do you have a ride home?”

She turned her attention back to him with a neutral expression. “No, why?”

He looked at the time on his laptop, and double-checked with the clock in the cafe. “It’s just that, I told my mom to pick me up here a few minutes from now. But, I’d hate to know you’re just walking through the rain, especially in winter.”

Sunset just flapped her hand down and trilled. “Please, I’ve got my jacket, plenty of layers of clothes, not to mention I live just a few blocks away. I’ll be fine.” She was lying, of course. At least partly. True, she had her jacket and wore thermals beneath her shirt and pants, but she had not prepared for rain, and she had learned at an early age that she despised the cold with a passion. Her clothes would be soaked through long before she reached her apartment, and she was not looking forward to the idea of walking through pouring, freezing rain. However, she didn’t want to intrude on this young man who had already devoted a large portion of his Friday evening to teaching her the basics of using a computer and getting her homework done.

“Well…” Ryan was also uncomfortable with the idea, and thought for a moment before continuing. “Maybe I can see if my mom will drive you home. It sure beats walking through this mess.”

“Oh, you really don’t have to,” Sunset objected, though limply. “You’ve already done so much for me today.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be any trouble,” he answered back. “If you’re just a few blocks away, it would be nothing at all.”

“Well, okay. If you’re sure,” Sunset gave into the offer. It would definitely be nice to avoid walking right now.

As if on cue, a minivan pulled into the parking lot of the cafe, the headlights shining at the front entrance before cutting off. Ryan immediately recognized it and started packing his laptop into its case. “There she is now! Give me just a minute and I’ll see if she’s okay with it.” He zipped up his jacket and flipped the hood up, grabbed his bookbag off the floor and carried his things outside to the vehicle. He placed them behind the driver’s seat, and took a moment to speak to the driver through the window.

Only seconds later, he walked back in, his jacket already very wet. “Good news,” he told Sunset with a grin. “You get to stay dry! My mom’s happy to drive you wherever you need.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much!” Acting purely on emotion, Sunset jumped out of her seat and hugged Ryan as tightly as she could, pressing her cheek against his. “I’ll be honest,” she pulled away with a slight blush and a chuckle, and slipped her notebook into her book bag while grabbing her own jacket, “you have no idea how much I was dreading walking home.”

They walked out and made their way quickly to the passenger’s side where Ryan opened the door for Sunset to enter before closing it and entering on the opposite side.

The driver turned around to catch Sunset’s attention. “Hello there,” she said in a joyful tone. “You must be Sunset. It’s nice to meet you.” She reached a hand out.

Sunset accepted the handshake. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you, Miss…”

“Windy Willows, dear,” she answered. “It’s nice to see that my son has a new friend,” she continued smiling, though a bit more softly.

Sunset paused, hearing the word “friend.” An uncomfortable feeling started in her belly, but she fought quickly to quell it. She tried to study the woman in the brief moment she could see her face. She saw her amber hair and matching eyes, the dimples in her smile, lovely white teeth, and the earrings that she couldn’t quite make out at that distance.

“Well, I-I don’t… I don’t know if I’d say we’re friends just yet,” Ryan blurted. Both girls turned their attention to him, one curious and one somewhat perturbed. “I’m just helping her with some schoolwork right now.”

“Well, regardless,” Windy tried to cut him off, “I’m glad he’s found someone to get along with.” She turned around to start the vehicle back up, then looked around as she backed out of the space and began to exit the parking lot. “So, Miss Shimmer, was it?”

She smiled and waved, “I’m fine with Sunset, Mrs. Willows.”

“Alright then, Sunset. My son said you live nearby. Just tell me where to turn and we’ll have you there in no time.”

Sunset agreed, and they were on their way. A handful of turns and about a mile and-a-half later, they arrived at a complex. Despite the darkness, there was a dingy discoloration to the white exterior. Sunset pointed Windy to a parking space close to her apartment. “Well, here you are, honey. Home sweet home.”

“Yeah,” Sunset whispered under her breath, “I guess…” She exited the minivan and walked around to the driver’s side. “Thank you again for the drive, Mrs. Willows. It means a lot.”

“It’s no problem, honey. I’m happy to help one of my son’s friends.” Ryan visibly sank in his seat.

Sunset turned her attention to him. “And Ryan?” He looked up at her curiously, seeing the slightest hint of something familiar in her eyes. “Thanks again for all the help. I’ll see you at school.” She turned away and headed for a set of stairs that led to the second floor.

Windy watched her walk off for a moment before turning her attention to her son in the rear-view mirror. “She’s a very pretty girl. And she seems nice.”

Ryan kept his attention on her as she climbed the stairs. “Yeah, she is.”

Windy frowned slightly. “You know, son, I’d like to see you make an effort to make a real friend, not just another acquaintance to run from at the first sign of trouble.”

Ryan continued to watch as Sunset pulled out her keys and unlocked the door to her apartment, then disappeared from sight. “I’ll try, mom,” he answered. “I’ll try.” With that, Windy backed out of the parking spot and they headed home.

Sunset dropped her book bag on the couch in front of the window, pulled the curtain aside and watched as they drove off. Windy’s words echoed in her mind. “... one of my son’s friends.” She turned around, and slid to a sitting position on the floor next to the window, wrapping her arms around her legs.

Her mind wandered to a time, a very recent time, when the mere mention of the word “friends” filled her with confusion and anger. Princess Celestia, her teacher, her mentor… her adopted mother, had practically disregarded all of Sunset’s academic achievements and pushed her to explore friendship, but she simply couldn’t understand the point of it. And no matter how hard she tried, no matter what offers she made, no matter how nice she was, or who she tried to talk to, she could never seem to make friends with the ponies around her. Some would ignore her, others would actively avoid her. And the more she failed, the harder Celestia would push her.

Sunset grit her teeth and drew herself up tighter as the painful memories flooded her mind. She had wanted to become a more powerful pony, hoping to one day take her mother’s place as the ruler and protector of their land, but she could never quite understand Celestia’s discussions on humility and serving others. She tried to understand, she really did, but no matter how much Celestia went on about them, the concepts never quite seemed to click for Sunset. When any attempt at making friends would fail, she would return to her books and her magic lessons for solace. She would return to Celestia asking for more advice. And she would try again. And again.

Things only seemed to get worse after she discovered Celestia with the magic mirror. Sunset had been curious about the mirror, but Celestia simply refused to ever discuss it with her, always saying that she wasn’t ready or that she wasn’t skilled enough. To Sunset, this felt like not only an evasion to allowing her to learn about something new, but also a direct attack on her magical competence, her knowledge, the only thing she could take complete pride in.

Eventually, after so many failed attempts at making friends, Celestia had outright banned Sunset from the library until she did make friends. But after even more failures, she eventually ignored Celestia’s order, and once again returned to her source of solace: the library. Angry and desperate, Sunset had made her way to the restricted section of the library, and eventually found a book on the mirror. She didn’t hesitate to begin pouring over the information she had been denied for so long.

But it wasn’t long before Celestia had caught up with her. After this, Celestia decided on a far more severe punishment, one Sunset had never even considered possible: Celestia dropped Sunset as her protege entirely, and banished her from the castle.

Sunset felt her tears begin rolling down her cheeks as the fresh memories flashed through her mind, burning in her chest and throat. How dare she? How dare she?! What right did Celestia have to force Sunset into a corner like that, to take away her only comfort, to make her feel so helpless and worthless?! To deny her what she wanted the most?! To accuse her of not even trying when everything Celestia suggested had failed?!

What right did her mother have to abandon her?!

Celestia was a leader. She was royalty! … She was a bureaucrat and a politician. For all her talk about friendship, Sunset knew that Celestia herself didn’t even have friends. She surrounded herself with advisors and servants and yes-ponies. She saw diplomats who also ran countries and dealt with politics. When she was among commoners, she wasn’t treated with respect or friendship, she was fawned over and feared! No amount of humility could change that fact!

And Sunset couldn’t stand being there anymore. Although she was graciously allowed to stay in Canterlot, she had been kicked out of the only home she had known for years. That was why she left, why she took a cowl and a suitcase packed full to bursting with bits, and in the dead of night, burst through the library, attacked the guards, and ran through the portal.

It was because of Celestia, and her hypocrisy that Sunset left. It was because of her bullish insistence on shifting Sunset’s focus to the one thing she simply couldn’t understand or accomplish, and Celestia’s refusal to so much as lift a hoof to do anything to help. It was because of Celestia’s need to cut the ties between herself and Sunset.

Sunset choked out a sob and fell forward onto her hands and knees, balled up a fist and punched into the hardwood floor.

Why couldn’t she just let me study like I wanted to?

She punched the floor again, harder.

Why did she force me to try to talk to ponies who wanted nothing to do with me?

She punched again, harder still.

“Why couldn’t she just leave me alone?!” Sunset cried out, punching at the floor repeatedly. “Why couldn’t she just accept me?!” The pain surged in her knuckles and up her arm. Her tears fell to the floor, forming a puddle. She tried to ignore the pain, and kept punching, trying to take out all of her frustration, but it didn’t last long. The punches began to leave behind her blood, and the pain became too much to tolerate. She fell over onto her side and wept through the bitter memories.

After all the pain, the uncertainty, the sheer pressure she had endured as the protege to Princess Celestia herself… after all of the effort and determination that Sunset had poured into her studies, her attempts at new skills, her desire to show Celestia what she was capable of and just know that she was proud of Sunset... It was only after betraying her teacher… after leaving the mother who had abandoned her… that Sunset had finally found someone that wanted anything to do with her.

She had finally found a friend.

Author's Note

As you can tell, I attempted to include "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer" at the end. Since there are two versions, however, I had to work to meld them together. But I leaned much more heavily on this version of events.