Expectations of Reality

Monday came quicker than anyone wanted. Especially Sunset Shimmer. She was still injured from her transformation. Her cuts and bruises were healing nicely, she still had a limp and the wounds on her back from where her wings and tail were still burned.

She didn't want to come to school. Not for the usual reasons of course, but because of the way they would insult her. Hurt her. She did it to others. She made others feel the way she did now but she was only one person. This was the entire school. No. She deserved every moment of it. She did this to herself.

She had to repeatably remind herself of the fact as she stepped off the city bus and onto school property. The bell was ringing so students started to pour into school to head to classes. Sunset took in a deep breath when she pushed open the doors to Canterlot High, trying not the second guess herself when the world seemed to come to an abrupt and violent halt.

A large part of the student body stopped in the lobby. There were overdramatic gasps which almost made Sunset have to physically stop herself from eye-rolling. Then there were the hateful glares, the giggling of hate, and the insults. Sunset knew she had study hall. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved that she didn't need to be stuck in a class with 30 people for the next hour.

"That bitch demon should have died."

Sunset couldn't agree more. She tightened her hold on the straps of her bag but pushed on through the shaken crowd. She weaved past people, some more confident than others to throw empty cans or crumpled pieces of paper. Heavens knows they want to kill her. She opened the double doors of the Library, seeing that every table was occupied. She mumbled swear words to herself as some students noticed she entered, then leaned over to their friends to gossip when the bell rang again.

Some students left but Sunset didn't want to sit on the first level of the Library where most of the activity was. She made her way up to the second level, hiding in the corner of the large circular room behind bookshelves that Sunset was sure no one had been to in years based on some of the dust layers sprinkled among the shelves.

She sat down, yanking off her bag with a hard jerk. Making her back seize up in pain at the sudden movement. She took in slow deep breathes to keep quiet to ensure no one heard her.

"Um...You OK?" A breathy female voice called out. She looked in front of her to see a small girl, wearing a red scarf and black zipped up sweater with a scroll and quill on the front with jogging pants and small black boots. She was wearing small round glasses on the bridge of her nose that she had to push up to properly see through them, Sunset guessed they were too big for her face, messy hair that was mostly on one side, pulled into a ponytail mixed with a concerned expression. How did Sunset not hear or see her coming?

"Fine." Sunset snapped. Making the girl flinch. Sunset had only seen the girl occasionally. Strangely Sunset always only saw her in the Library working on some project, taking with Raven Inkwell like they were old friends, or in an art class. Trying to convince the teacher that fine art isn't the end-all, be-all of art.

"Clearly you are not." The girl replied. Stepping away from the cart of books, to walk towards Sunset, who was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. "No offense but you look like you got hit by a truck rather than a friendship laser."

"Friendship...Laser?" Sunset slowly repeated with surprise. "Why are you talking to me? You know what I have done."

"Yeah. I am well aware. I was brainwashed. Very uncomfortable by the way." She pointed out before pushing her glasses back up. "But you are in way worse condition. You suck but...I don't think even you deserve..."

The girl gestured to Sunset's injuries with an awkward gesture by circling her finger towards her. Struggling to find the right words.

"That..." The girl finally said.

"I am fine," Sunset assured her. But the girl was unconvinced. "Really, I am. Not worry about me. Go on doing...Whatever it is that you are doing."

"I am the Library assistant. I work here when I have lunch or a spare. Other than that I am in classes." The girl explained before holding out her hand towards Sunset. "I know who you are. But you probably don't know me. I am Bini Filters."

Sunset nervously looked towards Bini's hand, then back to Bini's blue eyes. Why was she being...Nice? It was starting to concern Sunset. Sunset shouldn't trust her. She would probably just stab her in the back. Sunset reached out and shook her hand slowly. Tensing up in case of a betrayal. Bini smiled, then pulled her hand back once the handshake was over.

"I am assuming you are up here because you are...Hiding?" Bini concluded. Sunset nodded. "Understandable. Almost everyone hates you at the moment. Gah, I mean..."

Bini started stumbling on her words, trying to take back what she said until Sunset grabbed her arm and stood up to make her stop babbling.

"It's fine. I know. I deserve it."

Bini didn't argue with that. She simply chuckled awkwardly and moved back towards the cart.

"I-I got to go. I have more books to shelve and I am sure an honor student like you has tons of work to do. I will see you around, Sunset." Bini said. She waved her goodbye before disappearing into another row of shelves. Leaving Sunset confused.

Luna sighed as she leaned against her sister's desk. Watching Celestia pace back and forth. It was never going to be a good sign when Celestia second-guessed her actions. It was never going to be a good sign when she started pacing. Luna tapped impatiently as Celestia fiddled with a lock of her hair, occasionally mumbling out a few words while she was pacing.

"Tia. This routine hasn't worked before. It won't work now." Luna casually called out. Celestia stopped for a moment, giving her sister a glare of annoyance before continuing to pace back and forth across her office.

"I should have insisted to drive her to the hospital!" Celestia finally said out loud. Expressing her concerns to Luna. "Did you see her this morning, Lulu? She still looked pretty badly injured. She was still limping! I am very worried about her."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Me?" Celestia almost yelled. "What about us?"

"Look I am not that one who has maternal instincts activated right now. I just work at a school. I take care of the student while they are on this property. That is my job. Your job too. But you seem to almost want to invite her into our house to stay!"

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Celestia asked. Luna rolled her eyes, turning her back to Celestia to brace herself against the desk. Now Luna had really done it. She now had confirmation that Celestia really was getting desperate to be a mother.

"Fine. We will take her to the hospital after school." Luna relented. "Wait...How are we supposed to do that?"

"We will tell her the truth," Celestia said as she shoved some files into her cabinet. Luna chuckled that grew into a full-on laugh. "Is something funny?"

"You...Think that simply telling the truth will make her come with us? That's rich! Hey, Sunset Shimmer. Nice to see you. By the way, we know your mother is dead, we suspect you are homeless and you look like hell right now. So we are going to the hospital because again, you look like hell. Yeah. That will go down really well."

"Well, obviously I am not going to say it like that, drama queen," Celestia said with a small smile.

"You might not say it like that but that's how it is going to sound to her," Luna replied. Celestia began pacing again.

"Yes. OK. I will figure it out. Now, for the matter of why I brought you here." Celestia sat down in her chair, then pulled out a file from her desk before handing it to Luna. "The school district has issued an investigation of the incident on Friday."

"Why?" Luna asked as she started to read the file.

"Nasa saw the Rainbow...Beam from space. They told the school board, wanting answers because it happened right outside our school."

"They saw it from...Space." Luna said slowly in disbelief.

"Well, it was very bright. They couldn't see much but they knew it wasn't normal. It wasn't a gas line explosion. We can't play that story. I tried. I spent 3 hours in that meeting on Saturday trying to convince them but...It didn't work. They are sending S.M.I.L.E over to investigate. An Agent...Sweetdrops, I believe is coming next week."

"Great," Luna muttered and handed the file back to her sister. "I think we are screwed."

"I will keep telling them it was a gas line explosion. Bad timing. I will order all teachers to relay that message to their classes to keep the truth from reaching the agency. They may not believe it but they will grow tired of hearing the same answers over and over again. Besides, it's not like they can prove what really happened. They saw the rainbow. Not the actual events on the ground."

Luna mutely nodded as she sat in one of the two chairs in front of her sister's desk.

"What does S.M.I.L.E stand for anyway? I never heard of them."

"Some sort of secret intelligence organization that works with the government to find explanations for events that don't make sense. I don't really know. When I asked they barely gave me anything on the matter. Simply claimed they were secret intelligence, working for the government and everything else was classified. I didn't even get an answer on if we can get more money to hire a construction crew to fix the entranceway. Sunset, Snips, and Snails can't do it on their own."

"That explains why you were so angry when you came home..." Luna said. Celestia nodded, then sighed.

"I hate Mondays."

---End of Chapter Three---