Sunset's human world origin

Student council meeting room
Date: Sep 25th, time: 3:30 pm

*Rarity’s perspective*

This week’s meeting had just wrapped up. The no hugging rule had yet to be revoked, but everyone was still trying. VP Waters was a very stubborn man. The dress code had been successfully amended to allow women to have exposed shoulders and knees. The reason why women were ever required to cover those up eluded Rarity, but she didn’t care that much. She was just glad that was no longer the case.

As Rarity was getting up to exit the classroom with the rest of the students, she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder. Rarity turned around to see it was Sunset. Sunset was wearing a black hoodie, black leggings, and black sneakers. Girl really likes her black. Rarity could see a red shirt under the hoodie, and the hoodie had Sunset’s symbol over the left chest and Sunset’s gloves in the pocket. Rarity could also see that Sunset had bags under her eyes along with her regular resting “female dog” face.

“Oh, hello, Sunset. You look - nice.”

“Cut da crap. I look like shit, and I know it.”, Sunset said in her usual gruff demeanor. Rarity cringed a little at the swear. Her mother taught her to be a lady, and that includes not swearing. Normally, Rarity would try to help correct that behavior, but Sunset had made it very clear and damaged a few of Rarity’s shirts informing her that she doesn’t care nor what her help.

“Chm, right. Um, what is it that you want?” Rarity looked around to see that it was just Sunset, Mr. Blightson, and herself, and Mr. Blightson was packing up to leave. Rarity did not like being isolated. It didn’t matter that it was Sunset. The only people Rarity felt safe being isolated around were her four closest friends and her family. Rarity began to fidget and started subconsciously noting all escape routes.

“I found evidence of theft and misallocation of funds. You’re the treasurer; so, I thought you should have a look.” Sunset handed Rarity a manila folder. Inside was several years worth financial documents. “From the look of things, someone has been skimming the money from fundraisers, keeping half, and giving the other half to the football team.”

“Is-is that so? Hm, I-I’ll have to take some time to-to read all this.” Rarity’s voice had quickly become shaky. From her estimations, she had less than a minute before she had a panic attack and bolted for the door.

“Rarity, are you okay?”

“Oh, it’s fine. I-I’m fine.” Rarity gave Sunset a smile that, judging by the face she made, was unconvincing. Sunset merely crossed her arms and gave Rarity a look that was way too similar to the look of a disapproving parent. “I ne-need to not be isolated.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Sunset packed everything up and practically shoved Rarity out into the hallway. There were still a few students in the hall, and Rarity was able to calm down. “We still need ta talk about this, and it needs ta be somewhere private. Where would work for you?”

Rarity took a minute to collect herself and then answered. “The library stacks would work.”

“Good, let’s go.” Sunset led Rarity into the library and into the deepest part of the stacks. After setting everything down on the table, Sunset motioned for Rarity to take a seat. Both girls took their seats, and Rarity began looking over the documents.

Indeed, there was clear evidence of theft, and the way it was done could’ve only been done by people in two positions, but the time span knocked out one of those positions. “Vice Principal Waters has been stealing? It looks like he’s been doing it since he became the Vice Principal.”, Rarity said in shock.

“I know, but there are two problems with this. The first is, I don’t know if Winters is in on it, and second is that there is a Mrs. Waters as the head of the school board.”

“Hm, that’s certainly not going to help our case. Do you have a plan?”

“Two actually. I need your help to gather enough evidence that we can take it to the police. With how much he’s stolen, it will only be a misdemeanor, but it’s enough to get the courts interested.”

“You want me to get enough evidence that Waters' wife can’t save him.”

“Exactly”

“And what is your second plan?”

“Intel gathering on Mrs. Waters. If she’s on our side, we won’t need da cops.”

“What do you mean “intel gathering”?”, Rarity asked suspiciously.

“That’s my job. You just worry about getting the evidence. Rainbow told me about what happened to you but didn’t go into any detail whatsoever. I was wondering what happened.” Sunset was clearly trying to redirect the conversation, but at that point, Rarity knew that she wasn’t going to get the answers she wanted.

Figuring that she might get Sunset to open up to their attempts to befriend her, Rarity decided to tell her story. “Well, let’s see. It happened when I was six years old. I was with my family in Canterlot city to have a nice dinner out. We had finished our meal and were walking back to our car when the paper hat that my little sister was wearing was blown off her head. I ran off after the hat and got separated from my family in the crowd. As I was trying to find them I ended up away from the crowd and all alone. A man spotted me and offered to bring me back to my family. However, that was just a ruse. He grabbed my hand and started leading me to a van with two other men in it. If it weren’t for my dad coming in at that moment, I likely would have been sold into who knows what.”

“How did you know it was trafficking instead of just a kidnapper?”

“That’s what the detective told us.”

“Hm, were they ever caught?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“That’s too bad. You can keep all this. I have more copies.” With that Sunset packed up her stuff and walked off, leaving Rarity with the contents of the manila folder.

Rarity gave the contents another once over before packing up to leave herself. “This is going to be big.”

Ms. Michelson’s house
Date: Sep 29th, time: 4:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset’s parents agreed to let her take guitar lessons with Flash, and she was now at her first lesson. Sunset was surprised when she found out the lessons took place at the teacher’s house as that was not done in Equestria. Sunset seated herself next to flash as the lesson started.

“Hello, children. Sunset, you can grab a guitar, and we can get started.” Ms. Michelson said.

Sunset got up and grabbed one of the guitars. They were all the same brown color, not very exciting, but it worked. Sunset retook her seat, and the lesson began. Ms. Michelson started off teaching proper hand placement, then taught them how to play a few notes. This was all stuff Flash already knew how to do. So, he helped Sunset where she needed it. Near the end of the lesson, Ms. Michelson taught them how to play a simple song.

Once the lesson was over, Sunset, along with a few of the other kids, put their guitars back, but Flash hung on to his. “Don’t you need to put that back?”, Sunset asked.

“No, I own this one.”, Flash responded.

“Oh, how much does one cost?”

“A lot. The cheapest ones go for two hundred dollars. The only reason I have this one is because it was a gift from my brother.”

Sunset gawked at the price. It would take her months to earn enough money to get the cheapest option. It could take her over a year to get a good one. She couldn’t ask her parents for this. She was going to earn the money on her own.

Waters house
Date: Sep 30th, time: 1:00 am

*Sunset’s perspective*

All the lights in the surrounding area had long since been turned out. That left the street illuminated purely by the half moon and the stars. To ponies, this would be considered pitch black. To humans, this would be considered dark. To Sunset, it was no darker than a cloudy day. For her, dark would be when the moon, stars, and her own eyes no longer shined. Sunset was dressed head to toe in the darkest blues she could get a hold of. The only parts of her that were not blue were her shoes, gloves, and eyes. The neighborhood Sunset was now in consisted of smaller houses and various complexes. It was not dissimilar to the neighborhood she was raised in.

Sunset spotted her entry point. There was an open window on the second floor, and it didn’t lead into the master bedroom. It was easy for Sunset to climb up the brick exterior and open the window up fully. Once inside, Sunset removed her shuko and ashiko and placed them in her bag and one of her pockets. The room Sunset was in was a guest room/home office combo. The master bedroom was on the other side of the wall to Sunset’s right. Sunset placed the first of her bugs in the air vent and named it “office bugger” on her phone. Sunset moved on into the hallway. Sunset placed a bug inside the hallway air vent and named it “hall monitor”. Sunset then went downstairs and into the living room. Sunset placed her last bug in the living room vent and named it “LRB”.

With her work done, Sunset turned to head back the way she came but was stopped when she heard footsteps. Sunset hid behind the couch and closed her eyes to cut off the glow. The glow is too dim for most creatures to see, but Sunset wasn’t taking any chances. Sunset heard the footsteps go into the kitchen. The other person walked around the kitchen before heading back up the stairs. Sunset continued to remain completely still until she heard the door to the master bedroom close. Once she heard it close, Sunset stood up but did not head back upstairs. Sunset wanted to wait for the other person to go back to sleep. In the meantime, Sunset looked to see if there were any unlocked doors or windows. There weren’t any, and they had a security system. If she opened anything that they didn’t leave open, that thing would start screeching like a banshee. With her only way out made clear, Sunset crept back up the stairs, careful not to make a sound. Sunset slinked back into the guest room and back over to the window. She attached a grappling hook to the outside ledge and climbed out. Sunset closed the window to where it was when she came in. Careful not to dislodge the hook, Sunset scaled down the wall and onto the grass. With a simple flick of her wrist, the hook came free and fell to the ground. Checking that no one had spotted her, Sunset quickly packed up and left.

Katon family home
Date: same day, time: 3:00 am

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Tell the monster that hides beneath your bed to try somewhere else instead or you'll whack them in the head” Sunset quietly sang her father’s lullaby as she placed her key into the lock and opened the door. “There's demons to slay and monsters to hunt; they’ll cower when they see you, from the giant to the runt” As Sunset walked into the house, she felt a presence. It only took her a second to recognize it as her father, and she knew she was caught. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hello, Sunset. Did you have a good time?” Anzhong’s voice came from the living room.

“Let’s cut to the chase. I’m grounded, aren’t I?”, Sunset said, walking into the living room.

“You are. What made you think it was a good idea to sneak out without telling any of us?”

“Wait, that’s what you’re grounding me for, not telling you that I was sneaking out?”

“Correct. What if something happened to you? We would have no way of knowing where you were. I’ve lost count of the amount of children that go missing, and we don’t know where to start because they weren’t where they said they were going to be.”

“Wait, let me get this straight. You’re saying that I can go anywhere and stay out for as long as I want, so long as I tell you where I’m going?”

“Not anywhere, anywhere, but yes.”

“Oh, I did not know that. Well, now that I do know that, can I be ungrounded?” Sunset was about to give her most adorable smile before remembering Anzhong would not be able to see it.

“We’ll talk about it in the morning. Now, what were you doing out so late?”

“I was planting bugs in the Waters’ house. I wasn’t caught.”

“Adda girl.”

CMS
Date: Oct 2nd, time: 3:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

After talking with her parents Saturday morning, Sunset was still grounded. Their reasoning being that Sunset acted while believing that she was breaking a rule, and her actions resulted in her actually breaking a rule. Sunset was not happy about that and even more unhappy about how that would absolutely stand in court. They wouldn’t even need to add the first part because there’s, apparently, a “negligence of the law is no excuse” thing. There’s a law in Equestria that states “one must be aware of the law to break the law”. That means that towns with odd laws must have signs posted to declare that the law exists, or they are not applicable. Either way, that means that Sunset has to come straight home after school or practice.

As Sunset was walking out of the school, she was stopped by Rarity. “Sunset, wait up!”

“Please tell me that this has ta do with the case.”

“Oh, it does. I had Micro Chips look into the electronic stuff, and he found that the records were edited by Vice Principal Waters’ account.”

“You’re gonna need ta explain this to me. I have no idea what you mean by “electronic stuff”.”

“Oh, you see, at the end of every fundraiser, each club needs to register how much they make into what is called the treasurer’s database. Now, edits can be made by admin staff if an error was made, but there is no way that everyone has been making errors since it’s creation in 2000.”

“If it’s been happening since its creation, then it could just be a bug in the system.”

“Nope, there was a year, 2006, where no edits were made by anyone, and it was the same year that Mr. Waters came down with tuberculous meningitis. Mr. Waters was out of school for the entire year.”

“This is great, Rarity. We might be able to bring this to the police.”

“That’s what I was hoping for. Now, I have to wonder, what’s going on with your second plan?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it.”

“Does it have something to do with spy bugs?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because of the one I found in your pocket.” Rarity held up one of Sunset’s bugs and presented it to her.

Sunset snatched it from Rarity, and Rarity got a pleased look on her face. “How did you do that?”

“I’m a pickpocket. My grandmother taught me how. She had to steal potatoes in order to survive the Nazi ocupation of Poland, and because of that, she taught me how to steal.”

“And here I thought my family legacy was weird.” Sunset turned on her heels and quickly made her way outside.

“Hey! You didn’t tell me what the bugs are for!” Rarity rushed after Sunset but stopped outside the front door.

“And I ain’t gonna!”

Sunset’s desk
Date: same day, time: 6:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Let’s see what you little buggers picked up.” Sunset had her spy bug program set up to record. The house was mostly quiet during school hours, and most of the time the Waters were home had nothing concrete. What Sunset had discovered was that the two were a match made in hell. They’re both unpleasant, rude, and sound miserable. They do talk about school stuff and money stuff but no stealing money from schools.

With nothing on the recordings, Sunset decided to listen in, live. Immediately, she heard crashing and shouting. It took her a minute to figure out what she was hearing. “Dad!”