Sunset's human world origin

Katon family home
Date: Mar 3rd, time: 1:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Hey Sunset, how was Ah able ta unde’stand Celestia, n’ she me, when ya needed ta learn English?”

“That’s simple. Celestia was using a translation spell, and since the portal was open, she had magic to fuel it.”

“Ah guess dat would be very useful f’r a diplomat.”

“Yeah, it is. So, the Equestrian First Legion, they were a paramilitary group made up of both civilians and veterans. Like many human hate groups, they viewed change as a threat to their way of life and, by extension, themselves. Even though ponies are the dominant species, Equestria has been open to emigration for nearly five hundred years, and there are also other creatures native to Equestria that have formed their own societies. One of the most prominent being the bison to the South. The Legion would attack and abduct non-pony Equestrians, take them to the borders, and force them onto ships that would take them away from Equestria. They would also attack, terrorise, and even somethimes kill pony hybrid Equestrians.”

“Pony hybrids?”

“Ponies who have a biological non-pony parent.”

“Like thestrals?”

“Yes and no, thestrals are in a weird place because they’ve been so thoroughly hybridized that they’re considered their own thing.”

“Ah see.”

“Now then, Celestia ordered the creation of a task force to deal with them and placed me in command due to my rare hunting and tracking abilities. I was promoted to general first grade to command the task force.”

“Wait, ya were in da military?”

“Yup, I was First Star General Sunset Shimmer of the Equestrian Royal Ground Guard magical warfare division or General Shimmer for short. I joined as soon as I graduated. Princess Celestia wasn’t too happy about it, but it was what my family did. Anyway, I chose the absolute best out of the air and ground guard, and we hunted those traitors to the ends of Equestria and back. We burned their hideouts, destroyed any positive association any Equestrian might have had of them by showing them as the monsters they were, and wiped them off the face of Equoes. Now, they are remembered as a bunch a’ cranky assholes that had nothing better ta do than terrorize ponies. I even wrote a book about it.”, Sunset said proudly then reached into her bag and pulled out her book. She flipped it over to the back cover so Brigid could see the picture of her.

“That’s very impressive, but what happened ta da members?”

“If they surrendered, they were sent to a reform center, our version of a prison. If they fought back, we killed them. We tried to capture as many as we could, but I had a standing order for my soldiers that their lives came before the traitors. There was one hideout deep in the forest that was so heavily booby trapped that I just decided to blow it up personally. Seeing them scurry and run like bugs was cathartic.”

“Sounds like ya have a bit more of a grudge against dem dan jus’ “dey killed me country men”.”

“Do you remember me mentioning my sister, Spitfire?”

“Yeah”

“Well, we’re actually half sisters, and her father’s a dragon. It’s ponies like those within the legion that makes her afraid to be herself. She’s a famous athlete with trading cards and everything, but there’s only one pony outside of our family that knows she’s part dragon. Every time I saw the body of a hybrid, I could only think that Spitfire might be the next one.”

“Ahh, so, it’s not jus’ y’r baby siste’ dat y’re ultra protective of.”, Brigid said while giving Sunset a sly grin.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

“Ah wasn’t laughin’. Ah think it’s cute n’ a good ‘hin’. Ya know, y’re such a’ good siste’ ta Emi. Ya were willin’ ta risk imprisonment ta get some‘hin’ that would help Emi.”

“I’m going to cut you off there. I know what you’re doing.”

“N’ what am Ah doin’?”

“You’re trying to distract me from the fact that I completely failed my mission. I would have been captured if you and Dad hadn’t shown up, this stupid rock did the opposite of what it was supposed ta do, and I couldn’t even bring Philomena home.”

“Who’s Philomena?”

“My phoenix, I promised that I would bring her with me this time, but Celestia captured her right before you and Dad showed up.” Sunset was starting to cry now. She didn’t want to cry, but she just missed Philomena so much.

“Ah’m sorry dat we weren’t dere in time. Do you want ta talk ‘bout ‘er?”

Sunset reached into her bag and pulled out Philomena’s call whistle. It has a wooden body and was stylized to be shaped like a phoenix in a dive position. It has a thin, black rope clenched in its talons. Sunset would blow through the tail feathers, and the sound would come out the mouth. “I found Philomena when she was just an egg. When I was eighteen, Celestia and I were investigating reports of creatures coming out of a forest called the Everfree forest and causing trouble for the nearby town. Now, this isn’t like the Everfree forest behind the school. This forest has the highest concentration of Grogar’s monsters and is highly dangerous. I found her nest destroyed, but she was saved by a tree branch. Her parents were nowhere to be found, and we assumed they were killed. I convinced Celestia to let me keep her, and I helped her hatch and raised her. As she got older, she began helping me in battles. I had this whistle specially made so I could easily call her. I had it enchanted so Philomena can hear it no matter how far away I am and so it’s basically indestructible, especially fireproof. That’s really important when half your family can shoot fire from some part of their body.”

“She sounds like a very special girl.”

“Philomena also was quite the prankster. She used to drive Celestia crazy by hiding her regalia.”

“Hm, Ah c’n’t imagine where she could’ve gotten dat from.”

Sunset gave Bigid her own sly grin. “I really can’t. I was the perfect mare of the court.”, Sunset said in her mock-regal voice.

“Hehe, ya know, Ah don’t think Ah’ll eve’ get used ta ya referrin’ ta y’rself as a mare.”

“Well, I’m not a filly. Hell, I was even looking into ways of having a foal before I left.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, luckily, it seems my pony body is eternally trapped at twenty-six, so I have more time.”

“Do ponies go through menopause?”

“No, and that’s not the problem. Ponies only live until their eighties, and I mean that the oldest pony who ever lived, without some sort of immortality or a spell to elongate their life, died at eighty-nine, and she was barely able to take care of herself because of her age and bad life decisions. I saw the pictures. She was skin and bones. She could only eat food that had been blended into a paste. I don’t want to ever have to go through that.”

“Ah c’n understand dat. Well, lucky f’r ya, y’re now a membe’ a’ a race dat doesn't get like dat until much late’ in life.”

“Yeah, hey, how old is Grandpa?”

“Ah think he’s in his mid seventies. He neve’ told me.”

“I see. Ya know, I like being able to talk openly around you. I used to have to watch what I said, or you’d think I was crazy.”

“Ah’m glad ya c’n talk openly too.”

Sunset continued telling Brigid stories about her time in the royal court until they were finished eating. Once they were done with their lunch, Brigid helped Sunset repack her things. Sunset placed Philomena whistle around her neck like she did years before.

After returning to her room, Sunset pulled out the Gold hoof’s stone and began analyzing it. The thing’s oval-shaped and black and has the Equestria rune for healing carved into it and several gold glowing dots surrounding it, representing the remaining charges. Since Sunset didn’t finish the incantation, a charge wasn’t used. Sunset looked it over for any cracks or damage that might have caused it to super heat. Finding nothing, Sunset placed the relic to her burns and began the incantation. Almost immediately, the relic began to heat up, and that headache returned, leaving Sunset clutching her head. Wait, a minute. Working off a hunch, Sunset shot a text off to her parents.

Did either of you experience anything like a headache while in Equestria?

A little bit of one, but I was bashing my head through doors and ancient alicorns. Why?

Was it a burning sensation?

Yeah, I did think that was strange, but I wasn’t exactly focusing on that. What’s going on?

Yes, my head felt like it was burning. I also felt a burning sensation in the rest of my body. Why?

I think I know why the relic burned Emi.

The relic burned Emi! What happened?

To make a long story short, the relic overheated, and Sunset had to stop.

That means Emi still has cancer, and I don’t think the relic is broken. Emi has Earth magic in her while the relic has Equestria magic. While we were in Equestria, our bodies, containing Earth magic, were interacting with Equestrian magic and that caused us to feel a burning sensation. I’m starting to think that Earth and Equestrian magic are similar to matter and antimatter.

I take this to mean that the relic is useless on this side of the portal.

Exactly

Back to plan (A) then.

Sunset put her phone down with a groan. Everything she had been working towards for the last several months was for nothing. Sunset risked her own freedom and killed three ponies to get what is now a glorified hot rock.

Sunset got up from her couch and over to her punching bag. Sunset began punching it with all her might out of sheer anger and frustration. Eventually, Sunset moved on to smashing into it with her head. “Worthless, worthless, worthless, you don’t deserve their love. You’re just a mistake. You couldn’t help Emi. You hurt her. You hurt her! I’m a terrible sister. I’m a terrible mother.”, Sunset told herself while sobbing.

Minerva’s basement
Date: Mar 4th, time: 8:00 pm

*Minerva’s perspective*

Minerva looked down at her screen with a blank look on her face. It hadn’t taken her long to find them, but Minerva still hasn't decided if she should tell Anura that she found them. It had been 15 years since she had seen those faces, and now, she was staring at their mugshots. They didn’t even look like her parents any more. They almost looked like skeletons with skin pulled tight around their bodies, horrible teeth, and, worst of all, they had looks filled with anger and spite; they looked like monsters.

Minerva so badly wanted to think of them as nothing but the unredeemable, spiteful, horrible people they’ve become, but she couldn’t. She could still remember how her dad taught her how to ride a bike, how her mom taught her how to cook, how they would treat her like a princess. Minerva wanted to murder the every member Sackler family and any doctor that had any part in the opioid crisis.

“What are the chances you two are in rehab?”, Minerva asked herself. Judging by their photoes, the chances of that were slim to none at all. Even though there was no way Minerva was going to take Anura to see them, looking them up made Minerva curious. Despite her better judgment, Minerva began making plans to go see her parents. “I just know I’m going to request this.”

Canterlot Royal Hospital
Date: 8th day of the 3rd month of the 1118th year, time: 1st hour AMR

*Blade Strike’s perspective*

Blade made her way through the halls of the hospital, flowers in mouth and looking for a specific room. She soon found the room and gave the door a knock.

“Come in.” Blade heard from the other side.

Blade entered the room to see a nurse tending to a unicorn mare with a cobalt blue mane and a very light pink coat. The nurse looked oddly familiar to Blade. She had a pink mane with a cream coat and a light blue medical cross for a cutie mark. Blade shook off the deja vu. She was here on a mission. “Can I talk to her?”, Blade asked after replacing the flowers in the vase with the new ones she brought.

“I don’t know. Can you?”, Cobalt joked.

“You’re awake!”, Blade exclaimed in excitement. Blade leaped into the air, landing on Cobalt. Blade wrapped her wings around Cobalt and gave her marefriend a deep kiss.

“I’ll leave you two be.”

“Thanks, Joy.”, Cobalt said.

“Wait, I thought Nurse Joy worked in Baltimare.”, Blade said as soon as Nurse Joy left.

“That was, apparently, her cousin. She said that she has dozens of sisters and cousins all across Equestria named Joy, and they’re all nurses.”, Cobalt said.

“That’s got to be confusing at family gatherings. So, how are you doing?”

“Okay, I guess. Still a little freaked out that there’s another pony’s lungs inside me, and I’ll have to take anti-rejection pills for the rest of my life. So, that’s fun.”

“Do you have any idea who did this? Princess Celestia isn’t saying much, and the other guards are talking about somepony named Sunset the blood eating fiend.”

A serious look replaced Cobalts previous laid back and happy look. “Sunset Shimmer was Princess Celestia’s personal student before Twilight. She’s a thestral hybrid that would lick the blood from her blades.”

“Thestrals are real?”, Blade asked in shock.

“Very. I don't know what happened exactly, but Sunset ran away one day and wasn’t seen again, until now. So, who’s going to be in the search party? I’m only going to be in here for another week. If the team doesn’t headout by then, I’d love to join it.”

Blade’s face turned somber. “There’s not going to be a search party.”

“What?!” It was clear Cobalt was enraged by the news. “That monster killed Spearbiter, severely injured me, and Chap is still in a coma! Let me guess, she’s getting off scot-free because some noble has the hots for her!”

Blade shook her head. “I didn’t hear about any requests like that, but I did hear some interesting rumors.” Cobalt motioned for Blade to go on. “I hear that there’s some sort of magic mirror that can take you to another dimension filled with monsters that Grogar created but had banished because even he thought that they were too terrifying and dangerous to be let loose in Equestria, and we’re not going after her because she jumped through it.”

“Well, if that’s where she ended up, she deserves it.”

*Flashback*

Mistmane district Primary School
Date: 9th day of the 11th month of the 1095th year, time: 6th hour ASR

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset sat on the steps to her school as she waited for Spitfire’s class to get out. The school was situated near the edge of the shelf, and even though there is a wall and it was really bright out, Sunset could see the sprawling hills and fields of the village below Canterlot. Sunset could only imagine what kinds of food they were growing down there. The thought of food made Sunset’s stomach growl. Last night and this morning, Sunset pretended to be full half way through her meal and offered the rest to Dad to make sure he had enough to eat. The last thing Mom needed was for Dad to collapse from hunger while helping her with her treatments.

“Hey, Sunset.”, Silver Treasure called out. Oh no, please no. “Hey, feather brain, I was talking to you.”

Sunset hesitantly looked up to meet Silver’s eyes. She was a unicorn filly around the same age as Sunset, had a silver mane, a purple coat, and purple eyes. “Hi, Silver.”, Sunset squeaked out.

“Where’s your freak of a sister? Did she finally do everypony a favor and go back to whatever freak land she came from? Maybe you should join her. A worthless mistake like you should never have been allowed in Canterlot.”

Sunset was already crying at this point. Silver had been saying these things to Sunset for months now, along with other nasty names. “No! You’re wrong! My sister is coming to get me, and I’m not a worthless mistake!”, Sunset cried out.

“Oh really, you’re not. Huh, I would’ve thought that a pegasus without wings or a unicorn without magic would be a worthless mistake.”

“My magic will come in soon, and when it does, I’ll be the most powerful unicorn to ever live! I’ll even make Starswirl the bearded look like a weakling!”

“Oh yeah? Well, from the looks of things, you’re a skinny little liar.”

“No! You’re the liar! You’re a big, fat, stinkin liar!”

“Nuh-uh, my daddy said so. That means it’s true.”

“Your daddy’s a big, fat, stinkin liar too.” Sunset looked up and Silver spun around to see Spitfire burning holes into Silver with her eyes. “Now, scram before I decide that you’ll me our family’s next meal.”

Sunset couldn’t see Silver’s face, but Sunset could’ve sworn she smelt a little pee. Silver ran off with her tail between her legs which made Sunset chuckle.

“Hey, you okay?”, Spitfire asked while wrapping a wing around Sunset.

Sunset gave Spitfire as big of a hug as her little six year-old legs could manage. “Thank you”, Sunset said into Spitfire’s chest fluff. Under Spitfire’s fluff were her scales, which made hugging her interesting. At least her belly scales aren’t keeled.

Spitfire hugged Sunset back and rubbed her back. “Hey, it’s okay. That’s what big sisters do.”

*Present Day*

Sunset’s room
Date: March 11th, time: 4:00 am

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset woke up to Ki licking her face and what felt like someone sitting on her bed. “Ki knock dat off.”

Anzhong grabbed Ki’s collar and pulled him back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just had an unpleasant dream, not that dream.”

“I have tea. Want some?”

“Yeah”

Anzhong handed Sunset the cup of tea. Earth tea wasn’t as good as Equestrian tea, but there were more varieties of it and decaffeinated teas. Sunset was pretty sure that no pony had even thought of decaffeinating tea. “Thank you”

“Do you want to talk about your dream?”

“Well, when I was a filly, I had a bully. Her family liked to act like they were all rich and stuff, but they were just as poor as the rest of us in the Mistmane district. Because her family presented themselves as better than the rest of us, she believed that she was. Combine that with my family being the “other” and my magic not coming in until I was eight, standard is five to six, and she targeted me like an archer. My classes got out half an hour earlier than Spitfire’s. That’s when she’d target me. Some of the names she would call me were “feather brain”, “wingless pegasus”, “magicless unicorn”, “worthless mistake”, and several insults referring to my family being mixed tribed, meat eaters, and poor that don’t translate well to English. She never got physical, but if she ever did, I was so malnourished at the time that I wouldn’t be able to put up a fight.” Sunset panicked when she realized how that made her parents sound and quickly tried to fix that. “They weren’t starving me. I actually had to pretend to not be hungry in order for my Dad not to starve himself.”

Anzhong put his hand on Sunset’s leg to calm her down. “It’s okay, Sunset. I understand, but I do have a question. Why were you so poor when your mother was an injured vet? Minerva gets a sizable compensation because she lost her legs.”

“Due to how much work is involved in running Equestria, Celestia has delegated many of her duties to the nobility.”

“Uh-oh”

“Exactly. It’s rare for nobility to go into any other branch than the royal guard. That means that most of them have no idea of what war is like and how debilitating injuries can be. Think the most spoiled, out of touch people possible. They don’t even realize how expensive the cost of living is as their family has already paid for their land and houses, and many of the nobles know each other; so, they can just ask their friend to “give them a reduced rate” on their utilities. That lost money is then dumped on us to pay.”

“Oh sweet deities, that’s bad.”

“And I haven’t even got to how much my parents get paid. So, my mom gets paid the ruff equivalent to a hundred bucks a month, and my dad could only work part time because he needed to take care of me, my sister, and my mom. Together, they made enough to pay for the house, utilities, and our land, but not always enough for food. My mom would try and grow food for us, but that’s not easy ta do for a pegasus in a wheelchair. My parents would always make sure we were fed, but that left them weak and Irish potato famine. That led me to stealing food. I really didn’t want to. Needless to say, Spits and I were looking for work as soon as we got our cutie marks.”

“Did you ever bring this up to Princess Celestia?”

“Oh, I did, but she’s too soft and only gave the nobles a slap on the metaphorical rist. She did make two new laws mandating that the disabled vet comps are at least equal to that of a living wage and that if a noble gives their friend a reduced rate, they need to pay the difference. That solved the immediate issue, but the nobility are still trying to screw over the common folk.”

“Please tell me your anti-noble sentiment is not rare.”

“Oh, it is far from rare. If there’s a noble in a town, the whole town hates nobles.”

“Good, and I think we got off topic.”

“Oh, yeah, my dream. Well, it was actually a memory. It was one of the days I was waiting for Spits outside the school. Silver, my bully, was doing her old routine again. I was hungry and stressed and her words just sent me over the edge, and I started crying. Eventually, Spitfire showed up and scared the little crap off, but her words still hurt.”

“I can imagine they would, but Sunset, you are not a mistake, and you are not worthless. You are one of the most important people in my life, and I know your pony family feels the same.”

Sunset was glad Anzhong couldn’t see because her eyes were starting to tear up. “Thank you”

“Now, get some sleep. You have school in the morning.”

Sunset let out a groan and handed the cup back to Anzhong. It was not going to be easy to fall back asleep.

Halls of CMS
Date: March 11th, time: 3:35 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Even if Sunset was tired from last night, it was still good to be able to see Flash again. The skin on Sunset’s arm had fully healed but was still sore and discolored. Jiraiya said that the soreness would subside after a little bit but the discoloration would stay for a while. Sunset just resigned herself to not yearning sleeves that were shorter than her bicep. Even after her talk with Anzhong, Sunset still felt like shit and completely powerless. Sunset hates feeling powerless.

As Sunset was walking down the hall, another kid crashed into her on her right side. Sunset was sent stumbling back while the other kid fell on his butt. A wave of pain rippled through Sunset’s body. It was far from the most painful thing she ever experienced, but it still fricking hurt. At that moment, it was like someone popped a balloon. Every bit of pain, anger, frustration, and guilt Sunset had been feeling erupted like a volcano. “What the fucking hell what that?! Can’t you pay attention to where you’re going?! Even my blind father can avoid crashing into people! What’s your effin’ excuse?!”

The boy looked shocked at Sunset’s outburst, but he wasn’t scared. Sunset wanted him scared.

“I’m sorry, but I’m in a rush.”

“Sorry! Sorry isn’t good enough. That hurt. I’m going to show you just how much.” Sunset’s tone became colder as she went on.

Now, the boy looked scared. Sunset was one of the bigger kids in the school, and the little brat hadn’t even started puberty yet. “What-what are you going ta do to me?”

Sunset grinned wickedly. “Everybody’s still in their clubs. We’re all alone. I’ll show you.” Sunset pulled the brat up by his collar and pulled her good arm back.

“You’re not all alone.”, a quiet voice said. Sunset’s left arm was grabbed from behind, and she turned her head to see who dared touch her.

“Fluttershy”, Sunset spat with venom.

“I saw the whole thing, and I know him. I never liked your methods, but they were necessary. Your methods are not necessary here.”

Sunset dropped the brat and turned around to fully face Fluttershy, making her let go of her arm. “Bold words, coming from you. Aren’t you the one who normally hides behind the others, like a little bug?” As Sunset was speaking, she walked closer to Fluttershy. Fluttershy backed away from her at the same pace. Fluttershy was a bit taller than Sunset, but she was practically a toothpick, and Sunset was an accomplished athlete.

“What you’re doing is wrong, and they’re not here.”

“You’re right; they’re not here.” Sunset took a swing at Fluttershy, but with surprising strength, Fluttershy nailed Sunset with an uppercut. Sunset was left staggering back, just as much from the shock as the actual hit. Sunset tilted her head like a dog would. A gesture Sunset knew Fluttershy understood.

“How do you think I got the other kids to leave me alone?”

Sunset nodded her understanding then tucked her head down and charged Fluttershy. Fluttershy twisted out of the way, grabbed Sunset hand, and attempted to swing Sunset around, but Sunset used the swinging motion to grab Fluttershy. Sunset had Fluttershy’s arms pinned to her body in a bear hug-like hold. Then Sunset used her foot to spread Fluttershy’s legs apart.

“That trick might work on little punks, but it won’t work on me.”, Sunset whispered into Fluttershy’s ear. Fluttershy said nothing and continued to struggle, but the look on her face told Sunset she was scared. Sunset sweeped one of Fluttershy’s legs out from under her and pushed her to the ground. “Next time you try to fight me, actually learn how to fight.” Seeing as the brat had run away, Sunset decided just to leave. Fluttershy wasn’t crying, but she was scared. That was good enough for Sunset, and she needed to get out of there. She knew that Rainbow would hear about it, and Rainbow could actually fight.