Fauna of the Heart

Morning.

Canterlot High school.

Twelve Years before the Seven Hour War.

“~Hey, Fluttershy~” Sunset Shimmer waved at her friend in passing while hugging a few books to her ample bosom.

With a brisk and bouncy pace, she cavorted through the crowded chambers, following the elongated path towards her locker.

“~Morning, Rarity~” Sunset smiled and gazed aside, eyelashes fluttering. “~Hello there, Trixie! Lookin' Great and Powerful as always!~” As she walked along a few more steps, her brow furrowed as she belched quietly out the side of her mouth: “Snowy-Hair'd Cuck...”

At last, she reached her locker.

The young woman's fingers tickled the circumference of her combination lock...

...and that was when she noticed a strange slip of paper peeking out through one of the horizontal vents of her locker's metal door.

“Huh?” Sunset Shimmer blinked, mouthing off like a guard unaware that Agent 47 was crouching nearby. “What's this?”

Tentatively, she reached two fingers up. She clasped the edge of the paper. She pulled.

It was a sheet of paper—with white and lime bands—colored similarly to a certain girl's turtleneck sweater. As Sunset tugged and tugged, faded gray text appeared in dotted ink.

It's been a long road

Sunset Shimmer's heart iced over in sheer terror. Her mouth hung agape. “What the...?” Against her better judgment, she pulled and pulled some more...

The paper spilled words vertically up the page like a post-industrial fortune cookie message:

Gettin' from there to here. It's been a long time, but my time is finally here

Sunset Shimmer growled. At last, she yanked and tugged and tore at the printer paper, unraveling its full contents like one might disembowel a crucified lemur:

AndIWillSeeMyDreamsComeAliveAtLastIWillTouchTheSkyAndThey'reNotGonnaHoldMeDownNoMoreNoThey'reNotGonnaChangeMyMind

“Rrrrrrgh—Aaaaugh!” At last, Sunset had eviscerated the message for all its pulpy content She tossed the ribbon-note down onto the floor and stomped repeatedly upon it with all her cavewoman strength.
Grrrr-grrrr-grrrr!!!”

By now, a flock of students had gathered in a loose circle. They pointed and giggled and took cell phone photos of Sunset's plight—

“Back off! All of you!” Sunset Shimmer cackled, beyond all measures of “pissed.” She shook a fist while a few of the onlookers scattered, laughing. “It's not funny! Who even uses a dot matrix printer these days?! Honestly! She's a complete psychopath! Aileen Wuornos 2.0 with a side of pickled ginger! And I'm sick of it!”

Clang! The teenager's golden fist formed a dent in the locker, and she hollered upon the coattails of its thunderous echo.

“Do you hear that, Wallflower Blunt Force Trauma?!? It's all over between us! Stop with the frickin' diarrhea meme already and get fornicated, you absolute ostrich!!!”

With the eye wall of the cyclone having been thoroughly vented from her system, Sunset sighed long and hard. Calm and collected, she turned the combination lock and opened the locker...

...only to have a veritable tsunami of used thrift-store-bought Rod Stewart CDs spill out and slam her to the high school floor.

“Augh—FUCK NUGGETS!”