As Sunset neared her friends' cafeteria table, Twilight held up a phone. "Sunset! I think we found your human counterpart. Doesn't she look a lot like you?"
On the little screen, a woman with blonde-streaked red hair sang. She wore a golden crown upon her head, and a white dress with gold accents. At her feet, muscular men wearing skimpy black leather clothing worshipped and grovelled, some wearing devil horns. Special effects had even given her white, feathery wings.
"Oh, my." Rarity cooed. "She has quite the collection of handsome hunks, doesn't she?"
"Oooh!" Pinkie squealed. "I wonder how they feel about whipped cream?"
Sunset blushed. "I...I never thought..."
Twilight gently touched Sunset's hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shock you. But it was a shock to us too."
Rarity pursed her lips. "Seriously, though, I do wonder."
Sunset said faintly, "You wonder what?"
"You've never said a thing about your family."
"I never had one. I was a foundling. Probably an orphan."
"I'm sorry, darling. But I was thinking, if you have a human counterpart...maybe she could be like the sister you never had. If you're an orphan, I wonder if your human counterpart suffered the same tragic fate. Perhaps you and she, together, could become the family neither of you ever had on your own."
"So you think I should try to reach out to her?"
"It couldn't hurt!" Rarity said confidently.
Sunset shook her head. "You have no idea. Let's just...I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"But why ever not?" Rarity pouted. "You could finally find a real family. We know you're musically talented, so that's one common interest the two of you would share. She might even help you become a famous pop star yourself."
"No!" Sunset slammed her hands down on the table. Her friends' lunches shook and wobbled, Fluttershy's milk almost spilling over. "And that's final."
***
The next afternoon, when school let out, Sunset walked out of Canterlot High and saw a white and gold painted helicopter parked on the lawn.
"No," she said. "No way."
Rainbow ran up from behind, slapping her on the back. "YES way! I couldn't let you miss out on such an awesome opportunity. Your own sister, AND famous, AND an international pop star!"
Sunset grimaced. "Belgium. It was in Belgium. Not here. And I don't WANT it to be here."
Rainbow put her arm around Sunset's shoulders. "Sunny, this is your big chance. Don't be shy. Just step up and grab it. If not for yourself, do it for your sister from another...another...you know what I mean. Don't let your human sister down!"
"I don't HAVE a human sister. That I know of, anyway."
"Yes you do."
The helicopter's door opened. A pink-haired man wearing an expensive suit climbed out. He held out his arms. "Darling!"
Sunset growled in a low voice, "Dash, I will kill you. I mean it. Dead. It will hurt a lot."
"Why aren't you more grateful?" Rainbow glanced back and forth between her red haired friend and the elegantly dressed man walking up to embrace her. The man kissed Sunset on both cheeks.
Rainbow gasped. "Do you two already know each other?"
The man looked down his nose at Rainbow Dash. "Princess, who is the garish tomboy who keeps touching you?"
Sunset groaned. "Rainbow, meet Sven Gallop. Sven, this is my friend Rainbow Dash. Or maybe my ex-friend, I'm still deciding."
"'Princess?' Why is he calling you princess?" Rainbow scratched her head.
Sunset's expression was somewhere between a forced smile and a grimace. "Come on, let's get out of here before the whole school sees us." She grabbed Rainbow's arm with one hand, and Sven's with the other, to drag them away from the school.
"Ooh," the man cooed. "You're still so strong, Sunset. So commanding, so regal."
"And the both of you are still in so much trouble," Sunset announced, as she dragged her two companions down the street.
***
The Muddy Cup wasn't one of Sunset's favorite places. None of her friends frequented the coffee and doughnut shop, or ever even went inside. Sunset suspected a drive through trade in quart and gallon size containers of mediocre but cheap brew kept the place afloat.
It seemed like a good hiding spot, so she dragged Sven and Dash inside. They had their pick of tables, so she led them to a spot towards the back.
"Why do you keep calling her 'Princess?'" Dash demanded. "Answer me! I want to know!"
The man smirked. "I have at least two reasons. Reason one: special someones do call each other by our little pet names, to express our affection. Reason two: half of Europe used to call your friend 'Princess.' Princess Angel, the Queen of Euro Dreampop, admired by millions of fans from ages eight to eighty, the singer whose voice is a miracle."
Sunset grabbed her friend by the shoulder. "Dash, Sven calls me 'Princess' because 'Princess Angel' is MY old stage name, the name I performed under. The reason that singer in the video looks so much like me is, we're the same person. Not just 'twins,' or 'counterparts.' I literally toured Europe, years before you and I were friends."
"Yes." Sven nodded. "When I found Sunset, she was nothing. She was playing a beat up old guitar on the streets. But I saw potential in her. I taught and molded her, polished her up, and made her a star. If it wasn't for me, she would be nothing. And without me, she IS nothing."
"She isn't nothing!" Rainbow disagreed. "She's my friend."
Sunset put an arm around Rainbow. "Dash is right. When you and I met, Sven, I was a snotty, selfish brat. And you made me even worse. You taught me to be the most obnoxious prima donna in the world. The best thing Rainbow ever did for me was helping me learn not to be such a jerk."
"Princess." Sven shook his head. "If you don't value yourself, no one else will value you either. You have to knock other people down, so they will look up to you properly, so they will understand you're better than them. That's how the world works. That's how I won you your crown as Queen of Europop. When anyone got in your way, I used my wiles and tricks to crush them, and I taught you how to do the same. That's what I did for you. That's how much I loved you. How much I STILL love you."
"Holy...cow." Rainbow stared at Sven. "Sunset...the things he said just now...he reminds me of you. I mean, back when you were evil."
"'No of-FENSE,'" Sunset said in a sing-songy tone. "But you're right, Rainbow. Sven is a terrible person, and he's my ex for a reason. Ex-manager, ex-boyfriend, ex-friend. Sure, he did a lot to make me famous under that stage name, and he worked hard as my manager. And, yes, he used every dirty trick in the book, and some that AREN'T in the book, to make it happen. But whenever I tried to stand up for myself, for what I wanted instead of what he told me to want...he and I fought like cats and dogs."
"You and I were meant to be together!" Sven insisted. "It was a love for the ages! It still can be!"
"No, it was doomed." Sunset glared. "It was ALWAYS doomed."
Sven shook his head. "No, what was DOOMED was you, if I hadn't found you. You were literally begging for spare change."
"Excuse me?" Sunset said. "It's more polite to call it PLAYING FOR TIPS."
"You say potato, I say POOR people's food. The important thing is, I found you down in the dirt. But I lifted you up and made you a star. When you were lost and homeless, I gave you what you most wanted."
Rainbow asked, "Not having to sleep in a bus station?"
"That too. Come on, Sunset, tell your friend what you wanted. What you yearned for. Tell her what you said to me, the night we first met."
"I...I probably shouldn't have told Sven this. But I told Sven I wanted wings. To become a princess."
Sven smiled proudly. "And that's what I gave Sunset! I found the very best costumers and special effects artists to give her wings, and make her fly. I promoted her career so well, I had half of Europe calling her a princess. Princess Angel, international pop star, beloved by millions."
"Wow!" Rainbow marveled.
"But I wasn't a princess!" Sunset growled. "The wings were fake. The flying was special effects, not real. And the people calling me a princess...if they'd known the real me, who I really was back then, the nasty little person I BECAME under your influence, Sven...I wasn't a real princess at all."
Sven laughed. "A princess is just a girl with a title and a good public relations team. That's all she is. That's why a nation worships her."
"No!" Sunset protested. "A princess is...being a real princess comes from within. It isn't about being looked up to. It's about who you really are. It's about the kind of responsibility that comes from love, not from having an enormous ego. It's about what you would do for pon--I mean, for people even if they didn't know you were helping them."
Sven shook his head. "Sunset, you're as much a fool now as you were when I first found you. No, even more of a fool. At least when you and I first met, you were willing to listen. But now, you just look at everything I did for you and you don't even appreciate it."
"I'm sorry about that," Sunset said. "I know you were doing your best to help me, in your own way. But that wasn't the kind of help I needed."
"The night I found you, the two things you desperately needed were food and a warm place to sleep."
"I needed one other thing."
"A future! Which I gave you. A grand and glorious future, with me by your side."
"Not exactly. I needed to learn how to care about other people. Not just to see people as tools I thought I could use, to get what I wanted."
"Honey, everyone uses other people. That's the way of the world. That's the way it's always been, and the way it will always be."
"That's what I used to think, too." Sunset put her arm around Rainbow again. "But now I know better."
Sven looked at Rainbow, and laughed. "Oh, Sunset. Do you think you've found true love? Someone better than me?"
"No!" Sunset said. "Well...yes to the second part. But Rainbow and I aren't lovers, we're just good friends."
Sven snorted. "Sure." He looked Rainbow in the face. "Miss Dash, I don't know what you think you and Sunset mean to each other. But I can tell you from experience, when Sunset's gotten what she wants from you, or when she just gets tired of you, she'll use you and throw you away. Take it from someone who knows. Because that's what she did to me. I invested so much in building her career, and she threw it all away. Don't be a fool like I was."
For once, Rainbow was speechless.
Sven got out of his chair. "Goodbye, you two. And, Sunset...I made you an angel, but for all I care, you can go to hell." He walked out of the building, slamming the door behind him.
"Wow," Rainbow said. "That was really cool."
"Working for Sven and letting him call himself your boyfriend is NOT cool. It might look glamorous from the outside, but on the inside it's kind of terrible."
"No, not that! What I meant was, you had all that fame, and I guess you walked away from it. And now you told him no AGAIN. That's what's cool, that you stood up for what you really want. For what you think is right."
"Sven has a point, though. He did his best to give me what he'd thought I really wanted, and all I did was throw it in his face."
Rainbow looked out the shop's front window. "But I notice HE's the one who still has the fancy helicopter."
"That's true. Rainbow...the music business can give you a bit of fame, but if you aren't very, very careful, somehow all the money goes into someone else's pocket. Record companies, online music services, professional managers...they're all trying to use you."
"But wasn't it cool to be famous? Playing for millions of people?"
"Singing. Sven wouldn't let me play guitar on stage. He said it didn't fit my image."
"The 'Princess Angel' image he made up for you?"
"Yes, that one."
"But being a big music star in Europe...it must have been fun for a little while, right? I mean, I hope sometimes there were some good things."
Sunset took a deep breath. "Sven found me a few days after the Mirror Portal closed. I was stranded in the human world, a world I knew very little about, a world where I had nothing and no one.
"At first, when I met Sven, I was happy just to have a warm place to sleep at night, and new clothes to wear. Very nice clothes, even if Sven's taste isn't as good as Rarity's. And I got to eat SOME food, even if Sven did usually keep me half-starved, 'to make sure you look pretty, dear'--"
"You're not fat!"
"Thanks, Rainbow." Sunset sighed. "I like to think I know that...but thanks."
Sunset continued, "I learned a lot, working for Sven. I got a lot of practice performing in front of an audience. Not guitar, but singing is better than nothing. But that's not all I learned.
"I also learned by watching Sven be himself. How to sabotage your rivals, how to lie convincingly, how to manipulate and use people. I think I learned more than he wanted me to learn, about that. Not exactly a good influence on me."
"I guess not." Rainbow frowned.
Sunset grinned. "But something good happened, too, at the very end."
"What was that?"
"I got so fed up that I left. I walked away, and that put me one step closer to someday making real friends. You and the other girls." Sunset hugged Rainbow.
Rainbow hugged Sunset back. "So...I think Sven is gone. You want to get out of this place, maybe meet up with our friends someplace that doesn't smell like someone burned the coffee?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
Author's Note
Paragraph prereaders: I thank these people who gave helpful feedback on a paragraph or two or three because I asked for that, even though they didn't ask for credit:
Sockpuppet
~XXXXX~ (asked NOT to be credited) 
Shirlendra
(Punished) Bean (who also preread the entire story somewhat later. See the story's Long Description.)
