Forgotten Home

When they made it to school and went inside, and as expected, the hallways are empty, almost. This had been this way ever since the Anon A Miss incident, and Twilight saw its condition herself since she transferred here.

Twilight turned her head to the girls. "We might as well part ways before class starts," she began. "I need to check on... you know who." She whispered in the last sentence.

They knew who she's talking about, so they give her a nod without a word. "Oh, of course, darling," Rarity agreed. "You go on now, we'll take care of Rainbow Dash here."

Twilight nodded in return. "Okay, and as usual, I'll keep you girls posted of Sunset's condition."

"Sure thing, Twi," AJ replied. "See yah later."

After waving goodbye, Twilight went through the front hallway where would Sunset and the Rainbooms used to meet for band practice. As went by, she finally saw a couple of her schoolmates and as usual, they're giving each other the cold shoulder. But at least they're also nice to her, but it's only a matter of time until someone snaps and attacks anyone whether she's there to see it or not.

But she tried her best not to think about it and hoped everything will be okay. As she gets closer to the room, she heard soft sounds of guitar strings flowing to her ears. Sunset must play her guitar. The sounds gets louder as she gets closer to the band room, she pushed the door open to find instead of the redhead playing guitar, but teaching Snips and Snails playing the acoustic guitar.

"And there," Sunset finished adjusting Snips' fingers into a certain position of the strings. "Now that right there is C. Now strum your guitar while keeping the C in place." She instructed him.

So Snips strum his guitar with his right hand while holding the C form with his left-handed fingers. The guitar made a slightly different sound than when he puts his fingers in a G form a few minutes ago. After a few strums, stopped and gave her a confident smile.

"You're actually right, boss, playing guitar feels good," he said.

Sunset smiled back at him. "Yes, it feels good and fun if you have enough practice," she said and turning back to Snails. "So Snails, how's your A form going?"

Snails kept his fingers in placed. "Yeah, it looks good. And if this is A, should I just strum three strings?"

Sunset nodded. "Yes, so sound gives some life into it."

"Oh, make sense." He then noticed Twilight coming by. "Oh, and boss, Twilight's here."

Sunset smiled at that name. While she's not the Twilight Sparkle she knew back in Equestria, she's still Twilight. She was glad that she stopped her from messing with magic she doesn't understand the day she showed up, had she not convinced Twilight to stop her investigation, then who knows what would've happen. Maybe if one of them might have died.

"Twilight Sparkle," Sunset said with delight. Turning around to face the girl in front of, the horrible scar on her cheek was getting better at this point.

Twilight returned the smile. "Sunset, I see you started teaching them how to play guitar."

"Yes, I thought they need to learn something even if they don't want to start a band on their own," Sunset replied. "I could teach you too."

"Thanks but I'll have to pass," Twilight said as they sit together in a bleacher with the boys. "I'm more interested to see how you've been doing lately."

Sunset smiled with the warmth of feeling tingling. Sure, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, Snips and Snails helped her with her recovery but Twilight was the one who gave her most of the hospitality she needed. She may not be a doctor, but she knows the fractions, the symptoms, and also treatment to all of that.

"As much as I have my real friends here, especially you, I appreciated the hospitality, Twilight," Sunset said gratefully.

"Oh, I'm just doing what I can to ensure you recover," Twilight told her. "The news did said you were hurt pretty bad." She just realized what she said and immediately regret it. "No wait! I didn't mean to-!"

Sunset held a hand to silence her. "Twilight, it's fine," she said calmly. "I just don't want to be reminded of that..."

Twilight sighed. "I know..." she whispered. "And right now, I want to check on you first before class."

Sunset just shrugged. "Okay then, Doctor Twi," she grinned at the nickname she gave her.

"And you two can rest your fingers for now. We'll have class soon." She told them. So they put their guitars back in their cases.

"So," she looked over her condition. "How's your head?"

"Honestly, it's getting better now. Especially this scar."

"Good. How's your ribcage?"

"Getting better."

"Have you eaten your greens every day?"

"I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat."

"I'd have to check your heartbeat but I unfortunately forgot to bring the stethoscope."

"It's fine."

Twilight lift her right leg up. "So, how's your leg? Still functioning as normal?"

Sunset nodded, "Yep. I'm getting better already."

Twilight puts her leg down. "Good, but remember, if you feel anything weird or out of the ordinary, or both, te-"

"Tell you right away, I got it," Sunset chuckled. "Seriously, Twi, you don't need to remind me the same thing repeatedly."

"Well, excuse me for being so concerned for your condition and mental health," Twilight excused. "And I take it that you're still..."

"Traumatized?" Sunset finished. "Yes, I am. But I don't want to talk about it."

"Right," Twilight agreed. Checking the time on her digital watch. "I think we should get going for class. Are you ready?"

Sunset stood up, "Yes, let's go. Snips, Snails, come on."

So the four went out of the band room and make their way for their first morning class. They passed by a group of students stopped glaring at each other and instead gave Sunset very remorseful looks. Ever since her return to this school after the holidays, the school board agreed to give her plenty of space, and never interacted with her, even if they want to see if she's okay or not.

Sunset just scoffed at them and keep going. Snips and Snails kept their guard up to make sure nobody tries to bother her, and Twilight herself can see how regretful they are but she couldn't point a finger to say anything to them.

But as if ignoring them isn't bad enough, a certain blue colored student with white stylish hair and sports a black crop top, and lime sports shorts spotted the redhead walking by, not wanting to waste the chance, the girl caught up with them and stopped in front of their tracks. Much to Sunset's dismay.

Sunset narrowed her eyes at her unwanted bystander. "Night Glider." That venomous tone sends shiver down the athlete's spine.

Night Glider gulped and hold herself together from attempting to run. "H-hey S-Sunset," she stuttered, it's making her feel embarrassing.

"What do you want, Night Glider?" Sunset blurted out, making the girl dead nervous than she is just now.

"L-look, I know what we did was fucked up," she tried her best to explain. "But c'mon, there's gotta be at least something any of us could do to make it up to you. So I thought, "Maybe I should check up on you," you know?" She gave her a nervous grin.

Sunset raised her eyebrow. "Really? That's the best you could do? Pathetic." That word stung the athlete really good.

"Sunset," Twilight tapped her shoulders. "Come on, we should just keep going."

"She's right, boss," Snips said. "We should just ignore everyone else like usual."

"No, wait!" Night stopped them, random thoughts playing in her head, pondering on what to possibly offer. Until then, it clicked her head. "Why don't you read my book?"

Sunset gave her a bored look. "Since when you started making books?"

"Ever since Anon A Miss," she answered. "It usually involves things that happened around me since last Christmas, and everything else that followed, especially that involves you. Then check it," she pulled out her book from her satchel. The cover has a full moon on the upper left corner and down below is the book's title. "Check out NightPoint."

Sunset rolled her eyes at the book. "Not interested." That icy tone hurt Night even more. Sunset ignored that hurtful look and walked away, with the other three following her.

But the athlete still has something to say before they disappear into the crowd. "It's on Sale, you can find them on the internet!"

"No, Sunset, wait!" That familiar voice just made Night's mood even worse. Knowing who that girl is.

The girl was too late to catch up when Sunset and the other three are no longer in the crowd but the girl was not letting up.

"You can ignore her silly book and go read my book!" The blue curly-haired girl bragged, pulling out a book with a few clouds as its cover art. "This one's called HighPoint."

Night gave her a hard shove. "Hey, get lost, High Winds!" She sneered.

High Winds returned the gesture but even harder. "No, you get lost! I made this book first! And stop stealing my thing!"

"No, you're stealing my thing!" Night growled.

"You snooze, you lose, bitch!" High Winds pressed even further.

Night shoved her hard, knocking her to the ground. "Cock-sucking whore!"

Anger boiled in the girl's veins, she kicked Night Glider in the kneecap with a strong kick, making the white-haired girl screamed in agony. "Tit-fucking slut!" High shouted.

****

But Sunset and the others are already lone gone before the two athletes started fighting, as they're farther enough to even hear the commotion back there. But even if they do, Sunset wouldn't care.

Just as they're almost to their first class, which was close to the trophy case, they came across with other unwanted bystanders on their path. Much to Sunset's frustration. It was Fleetfoot, Soarin, and Spitfire. They're both looking over some trophies in the trophy case and also whispering.

"Are you sure you got that in place?" Soarin whispered to either of the two.

"Yeah, I got it down, alright," Spitfire whispered back.

"I don't know, that small piece looks like it's out of place," Fleetfoot pointed out.

Spitfire groaned. "Okay, just give me another two minutes."

Soarin turned to look back and was surprised to see Sunset. He quickly regroup and warned them, "Guys, Sunset's here!"

"Already?!" Spitfire cried in surprised.

They immediately turned around and keep their smiles up as best as they can.

"Sunset Shimmer," Spitfire began, keeping her tone sound convincing as possible. "We are so honored to see you here."

Sunset gave her an icy stare. "What's all this about?"

Soarin cleared his throat. "Well, you came in just about time to see what's in the trophy case. It's something that makes you feel special."

Fleetfoot picked up a bouquet of red roses and added. "And also a beautiful gift."

"The Wondercolts helped put all these together," Spitfire claimed.

Soarin gave her a confused look. "No, you did it." He pointed out.

Spitfire shrugged. "Okay, I took part in this a little but the rest also did their own part."

"No, you did most of the work," Soarin claimed.

"I did, but not everything on my own," she denied.

"Nah, you did everything."

"Will you two quit bickering?" Fleetfoot hissed at them, before returning their welcoming attitudes to Sunset. "So anyway, what do you think?"

Sunset maintain her deadly stare on the three athletes and studied the trophy case. Most of the trophies have designs with her faces on them, there are also old photos of Sunset crowned as Fall Formal queen three times, even small artwork of Sunset standing gracefully by the grassy field, and one shows Sunset laying sideways on the beach with a seductive stare. And there's also a paper hanging in between the two trophies that contains a poem that says nice things about Sunset.

Sunset was unfazed by all the designs of her, she gazed back to them with a weary stare. Fleetfoot gulped and mustered all the courage to gift her with these roses.

"So um..." she said with difficulty. "To make things even better, I got you a gift by myself." She nervously reach out the roses to Sunset.

Sunset bored her eyes on the roses showing no interest of them. "Red roses?" She questioned her. "Really?"

Fleetfoot gave her a nervous smile. "The truth is... I'm... I'm... gay..." she whispered at the last part.

"Uhm, Anon A Miss exposed that about you," Soarin whispered to her.

"I don't want to hear about it!" She snarled at him and turned back to Sunset. "But the actual truth is..." she gulped again, resisting the urge to shut up. "I really liked you since the Battle of the Bands and...I never knew your Anon A Miss..."

Sunset was taken aback by this but keeps her cold nature. "Say what?"

"It's true!" She reasoned with her. "Even back when you're a bully, I'd never thought you'd make yourself so obvious! You always hid your involvement of those bad things, but nothing like Anon A Miss!" She took a moment of silence before continuing. "I wan to be on your side but I'm too scared to even stood up for you. It gets worse when Anon A Miss exposed my secret that I'm gay and all, at least Soarin and Spitfire never disown me for that, but got angry with Anon A Miss. So I thought about giving you something to cheer you up, so I bought these roses."

"You've been keeping them for a long time?" Twilight asked her.

Fleetfoot nodded. "Yeah, and the thing is though," she stared sympathetically at Sunset. "I bought them the same day when you... you... you know..." She couldn't bring herself to bring that up.

Sunset kept her gaze at her. She knew what Fleetfoot was talking about. So she let her continued.

"When the assembly came out, not only the CMC are found out to be Anon A Miss but also how Rainbow Crash set you up with Gilda and her goons, and what they did to you, I...I thought I was too late," and soon, tears formed in her eyes. "At first I thought I was but the second they mentioned you survived I was relief." She glances down at her roses. "And months after that, I couldn't bring myself to give you these, thinking that I'm desperate for your forgiveness. But it's not like that, and when Spitfire came up with the idea with the trophy, it gave me the chance to give these to you."

Sunset stared down at the red roses extending to her reach. After a little moment of thinking, she slowly accepted the roses.

"While I don't know what to feel or think about you, Fleetfoot but I appreciated your honesty," Sunset said with no emotion. "But, it wouldn't matter anyway if you stood up for me. You'll be beaten and taken to the abandoned factory alongside me. And what if you're not lucky enough to survive that?"

Fleetfoot was shocked to hear that, not realizing what would've happened if she stood by her. If she did, would she also survived all that with Sunset? Or would she take the worse beating from Gilda than what Sunset got? Would she be killed first before Sunset?

"Don't overthink about it," Sunset advised, and turned back to the other with an icy glare. "And as for you two, it takes more than that to make up for being one of the worst offenders of Anon A Miss." She rolled her eyes at them and return her gaze to Fleetfoot. "And I'm unfortunately don't have the same feelings as you have for me."

Fleetfoot was heartbroken to hear that, but even if Anon A Miss never happened, she knew Sunset wouldn't be interested in her.

"Alright, I understand." She whispered.

Without a word, Sunset went on her way with her friends followed her from behind. The Wondercolts stared back with sadden looks, as they watched them making their way to their class.

"Welp, all that hard work we put through was for nothing," Spitfire said in disappointment.

"Again, that was you who did all of it," Soarin pointed out.

As the bell rings the second they entered into their classroom, Twilight took her seat next to Sunset with the boys sat behind them. And as usual, cold stares and whispers are given against each other, even the teacher's words aren't enough for them to stop. She made a mental self-note saying that she must find a way to fix all of this.

If only...