The First (and last) Unicorn

Chapters

Eques-tential Crisis
Why The Long Face?
Hallway Hearsay

Eques-tential Crisis

Sunset didn't think that horses were going to bother her this much.
She hadn't given much thought to the equines that resided on Earth before, accepting them as a strange parallel to her species populating her home world.
Hanging out with her friends the night before had introduced her to the startling reality of seeing a horse in person.
Applejack had spent the weekend taking care of one of her aunts’ horse ranch while she was out of town, and had invited the girls to spend the night there to experience the farm lifestyle that AJ held so dear; an opportunity which they all- excluding Rarity, had jumped on quite enthusiastically. Sunset had to jump out of the way of Fluttershy's excited flailing at the prospect of meeting a horse, something that the city-dwelling girl had not yet had the opportunity to do. Sunset recognizes the irony of that, though she doesn't bring it up.
Applejack talks the horse up. Apparently, he’s a real sweetheart, really good with kids. She told them this as she led them across the ranch and to his paddock. They had all walked into the fenced-off field laughing at a joke that Pinkie Pie had told, though Sunset's mirth was caught in her throat as her eyes fell upon the white, mud-flecked horse that stands before them. Her friends began to giggle as Sunset stared open-mouthed at the creature.
It's beautiful. It's completely horrifying. It's a twisted, almost nightmare version of a face she knows. A face that she had.

Her friends' laughter nervously trails off when the ex- equestrian’s shock does not fade.
"Sunset, dearie, are you all right?" Rarity asks, putting a hand on her shoulder and wrenching Sunset's attention away from the horse.
"They're gentle giants, Sunset." Fluttershy assures softly. Sunset returns her gentle smile, keeping her eyes far from the horse’s own.
“I know, I'm not scared. " Sunset reassures. "It's just… weird? "
There's a beat of silence.
“Oh my God. You're from Princess Twilight's world. " Rainbow blurts. Sunset blinks.
“...Yeah?” She says slowly.
“If Princess Twilight used to be a pony-”
“Then you would have been one too!” Pinkie finishes excitedly. Sunset flushes a little. While she had never talked about her life in Equestria with her friends, she had assumed that her previous existence a pony was kind of an understood thing.
“Ah shoot Sunset, if ah’ had known about you bein’ a horse I woulda’ given you a better warnin’. Sorry if I startled ya.” Applejack says, dipping her head in apology.
“I'm not startled. And I wasn't a horse." Sunset defends. "I was a pony. Horses live closer to the middle east, near Saddle Arabia."
Twilight slowly mouths ‘Saddle Arabia’ in disbelief, which Sunset neatly ignores.
"Did you like being a pony?" Fluttershy asks sweetly from where she is feeding Harper a sugar cube. Sunset doesn't want to think about why the sight makes her stomach swoop uncomfortably.
"...I did." Sunset says softly, not taking her eyes from the horse, afraid to catch her friend's eyes during one of her rare moments of genuine emotional expression. Let alone actually talking about her old life in Equestria. "There was magic, and the air was clean, and the ponies were kind. I… grew up there, you know?"

There is a moment of weighted silence. Sunset clears her throat awkwardly, waiting for someone else to jump in and change the subject.
"Didya' have a family back home?" Applejack asks somberly. Sunset frowns, not that any of them can see her face. Of course AJ would be the one to ask.
"Nah. Well. Sort of." Sunset says, shrugging. She started to wind a braid into the horse's main. He doesn't seem to mind. “I had people who looked out for me."
"As in…?" Rainbow prompts, clearly growing tired of all the stalling. Sunset braces herself. She hasn't had to face the gush of platitudes and pity in years.
"I grew up on one of those homes for fillies, " Sunset says, falsely casual. None of her friends speak for several seconds.
"So… like an orphanage?" Rainbow asks slowly, earning an elbow to the ribs from Rarity.
"Yeah, I guess." Sunset says with a shrug "It was for wards of the Crown. It was in Canterlot, so don't go imagining any Little Orphan Annie crap, but, you know." Sunset breathes out a soft sigh, pursing her lips a little as she waits to hear what her friends are going to say.
"So.. you don't have parents?” Pinkie Pie says slowly, her hair slightly deflated. Sunset huffs out a deep breath and forces a smile before turning back to her friends.
"Guys! It was fine. Equestria isn't like here, the orphanage was more like a fancy boarding school than anything else."
"But who took care of you?" Twilight asks, her brows furrowed.
"The school." Sunset says stiffly, trying to keep her growing irritation from showing in her voice. "Look, we came here to see some horses, so let's look at the fucking horse!”
She's aware that she's yelling a little, and she knows she shouldn't swear at her friends. She shouldn't yell at them. She shouldn't have told them about the school in the first place.

"...right. Well, this here is Harper, he's been living on my aunt's farm for about ten years," Applejack says. Sunset listens to AJ’s speech about Harper, though it slowly dissolves into static as Sunset's attention is eaten up by watching the multiple of expressions that flit across the horse's face. Expressions that the girls are likely not well versed enough in equine emotion to pick up on.
Annoyance, boredom, amusement, excitement, affection.
She doesn't join in on their conversation.
She doesn't see their worried glances.
And now it is Sunday.
Sunset had spent the remainder of that sleepover doing her absolute damnedest to avoid anything to do with horses, which- as it turns out, is like trying to avoid apple themed paraphernalia in the Apple household. Over the top, farm-specific decor seems to run in the family.
She left in the morning before anyone else woke up.
And here she stands before her mirror, running her fingers through her hair, trying to press her stubborn forelock back into place.

Her hair falls differently without her horn and ears getting in the way. She can't wear her hair the same way she used to no matter how hard she tries and it stings. The body she had grown up in is gone. The Sunset Shimmer of Canterlot's Home for Fillies is dead and gone.
What she has done, with the way that she had spat in the face of the only person who had ever loved her… there is no going back. She has no plans to return to Equestria.
This form is more than just a temporary part of a bigger plan. This is more than something to suffer through as she waits to be given what she's owed. This is her body now. This is what she is. She is a human.
She has no choice but to live with that now.
Her hands are soft. Warm and delicate, suited for the making of things without the aid of magic. They are pressed flat on the cool porcelain of her bathroom sink. She taps them against it. The soft slap of flesh on tile. No clacking. No tapping.
She is no longer able to clop out the beat to the music in her head, the noisy comforting sound of tapping hooves replaced with the icy clicking of her nails. She runs a hand over her face, shuts her eyes, and lets herself miss what it was like to be a pony.
And not just that.
She misses the food. The ponies she swore she was only ever annoyed with. She misses running at full speed- something she can now only hope to mimic on her bike. She misses Princess Celestia. Sunset has not spoken to her mentor since she fled Equestria. She has not even tried.
She knows that her grief for her former teacher is part of the reason that seeing Harper had upset her so much. Although, in all honesty, Princess Celestia did not look at all like Applejack’s aunt's horse. Not only in the face and in his obvious lack of a set of wings or horn, but in the fact that Sunset has had a hard time imagining the Princess with even a fleck of dirt on her eternally spotless white coat.

The teenager sighs, slinking out of her small, dimly lit bathroom and to her bed. She collapses on top, frowning as she pulls the covers around herself. She opens her laptop and sets it on her chest, typing ‘horse documentary’ into the Netflix search bar and clicking the first one she sees. She lets the soothing drone of the horse scientist buzz in her ears as warm white noise.
‘Horses are one of North America’s most majestic creatures, powerful and fast, they are as dangerous as they are beautiful.’
Sunset walks down the long, hedge-lined pathway of the Canterlot Gardens, enjoying the feeling of the cool, shady grass beneath her hooves. She's carrying a book with her to read. It's Oliver Twist. Then it's the Study of Dragon Economics. Then it's Charlotte's Web. Then it's the full account of Gryphon History.
Sunset sits down by the babbling brook she had splashed in as a filly and reads, though she is barely even able to open the book before a shadow falls over the pages.
"Hello Celestia." Sunset says without looking up. No one else would come up to her while she was reading, after all.
"Sunset?" Says the shadow, one that Sunset realizes too late is far too small to be the princess. Sunset turns her gaze upward to see none other than Twilight Sparkle, her glasses pushed up her muzzle. Sunset smiles warmly. How silly is she? Of course it's only Twilight.
"Were you still going to join me and the girls for lunch?” The bespectacled pony asks, making Sunset perk up and slot a bookmark between her pages.
"Of course!" Sunset says excitedly, getting to her hooves and tucking her book into her bag. "I can't believe I forgot that was today! Thank you for coming to get me."
"Of course! " Twilight responds cheerfully, falling into place beside Sunset as they start the side-by-side walk to the cafe where she and her friends had agreed to meet for lunch. I know what it's like to get caught up in your studies. Besides, it wouldn't be the same without you! "
Sunset pretends to examine a street sign and she hides her smile at the sweet sentiment. She still has a little bit of a reputation to uphold after all.
"Thanks Twi." Sunset says warmly as they trot into the cafe and take their seats at the table seating all of their friends.
"Hey girls!” Sunset greets at large as she sits down, sipping her tea. She smacks her lips at the lack of flavor, frowning and setting it down. "How have your weeks been? "
"Pretty good! We're scheduled for a huge rainstorm this week, so I'll have my work cut out for me." Rainbow says with a grin, never one to back down from a challenge, especially where her job as a weather-pony was concerned.
"Ah ‘m glad to hear that," Applejack interjects. "Mah crops could use some rain after this dry spell we've been having."
Sunset lets the easy conversation flow around her, soothed by the presence of her friends.
"Hey Sunset?" Pinkie pie asks, cutting through the din of conversation.
"Hm?" Sunset hums, opening her eyes.
“Don't you wish this could have been the way it was?" She asks. Sunset blinks. The conversation has halted around the table. None of the girls are saying anything. A sense of dread overtakes Sunset.
"You're not where you're supposed to be," Twilight points out around a mouthful of oats. "But you are with who you're supposed to be with. "
“Quite the conundrum dear." Rarity says delicately, sipping her tea.
"You're stuck!" Rainbow says.
"Trapped." Applejack agrees.
"You miss what you used to be and you're guilty about that," Fluttershy says, leaning across the table to put her hoof across Sunset's. "Because the person you used to be hurt so many people."
"Oh my gosh- guys! Look, can we just eat our lunch, please-”
Something grabs her by the back of her mane, making her yelp in fear and pain as she is yanked backward.
"HELP!" She screams, but none of her friends move it all. "PLEASE! HELP ME!"
A pair of feathery wings rustle on Twilight’s back, and when she glances over her shoulder at Sunset she is missing her glasses.
"Sorry girls." She says to Sunset's friends, each of them fixing her with a look of pity. "That's Sunset Shimmer. You girls look like her friends, that’s all. Don't mind her."
"No…" Sunset sobs, twisting and kicking out at her attacker, who shakes her roughly to stop her.
"Hush, Sunset Shimmer." Says the person dragging her. Sunset turns to see her face, though there is no need. There is no mistaking that voice.
"You no longer have a place in this world. " Celestia says, her magic still being used to drag Sunset backward, towards a swirling white portal.
"No, no!" Sunset gasps, still trying to twist herself free from her mentor's hold. "Please- I want to- let me go - "
"You're not a pony anymore." Celestia says calmly, completely sure of herself, as she always is.
"But- but I grew up here! " Sunset pleads. Her friends - Twilight’s friends don't look at her. They sit frozen. Completely unmoving. "It was my home!"
"And now Equestria is safer without you in it." Celestia says coldly.
"Celestia, please! I’ve changed! Whatever I have to do to prove it to you- I just want- can we talk about it- please DON'T!"
The look on the Princess's face as Sunset is thrown through the portal is one that she has never seen before on her mentor's face.
Cold, utter hatred.
"CELESTIA!" Sunset shrieks she snaps awake, flailing aggressively and tangling herself in her sweat-soaked bedding before plummeting to the floor in a heap of alien limbs and red-and-yellow hair. She lays there for a while, her breathing wheezing as she tries to do breathing exercises while feeling like she’s being strangled. Once she manages to get her breathing under control and finally gotten it into her head that it was a nightmare, and nothing more, she angrily wipes away her tears and hauls herself back into bed.

"Stupid." She breathes, checking her phone for the time. It's nearing five AM. She’ll have to be getting up for school soon anyway. There’s no point in going back to bed.
No point risking another nightmare.
Besides she already knows she won't be falling back asleep with her mentor’s furious gaze burned onto the backs of her eyelids.

Author's Note

Hey thanks for reading! this is a pretty fun project, but it's not meant to be taken too seriously, so not all the details will be exactly aligned with canon most likely because i haven't seen the movies in a hot minute.
Anyway, if you enjoyed this leave a comment and let me know if there's anything anyone would like to see from this fic!

Why The Long Face?

Despite all the extra time that Sunset had gained from waking up so early, she was barely able to eat breakfast and run a brush through her hair before she had to stumble out the door and swing herself onto her bike to start the short, pleasant drive to school, ducking down back roads to avoid the worst of the early morning traffic.
The sky is still dark as she rides, though not enough to see the stars. The sun is hidden behind a tree-thick horizon, but shows itself in the blue light spilling over the darkened sky.

Sunset Shimmer pulls into Canterlot High School’s parking lot with an extra ten minutes to spare before the warning bell rings, time she intends to use chatting with her friends. Sunset struggles with her helmet clasp as she walks into school, clipping her elbow into the door as she tries to unstick the clasp.
"Shiiihhooooot." Sunset stutters, correcting herself at a stern glare from Vice Principal Luna. Sunset sighs in relief when Luna only winks and turns away. Pleased to be let off easy, Sunset tucks her helmet under her arm and rushes down the hall as quickly as she can without it technically being running. Luna may not be a hardass about swearing, but she will get on you for running in the halls. God, can that woman yell.

Sunset slows to a stop as she approaches the music room. The door is already open, so they're probably already waiting for her. Sunset steps inside, her smile widening when her friends turn and fix her with matching friendly smiles.
"Hey girls!" Sunset greets cheerfully, any lingering thoughts of her nightmare burned away by her friends' company.
Holy shit. She's starting to sound like Twilight.
"Oh! Oh. Hiiii Sunny!" Rarity says, her voice tight and too high-pitched to sound natural. Sunset feels her smile drop- along with her stomach, as her friends exchange nervous glances. Like... they had been waiting for her to show up.
"...Sunny?" Rainbow Dash asks incredulously. Rarity gives her a stern look, but honestly Sunset would have said something if Rainbow hadn't. Sunny isn't a nickname that Sunset has heard since she was a foal, with it not fitting her bad girl persona. She's only heard it a couple of times in her adulthood, both from Pinkie Pie and occasionally Rainbow, when the athlete wanted to get a rise out of the Sunset, but she has never heard Rarity call her that.
"What? Is a girl not allowed to try new things?" Rarity defends huffily, putting a hand to her chest. Sunset can see an embarrassed flush creeping up the back of her neck and resolves to let it go.

"Uh... Alright." Sunset says. " Did you guys have a good Sunday?"
"Better than yours apparently!” Rainbow says, raising an eyebrow. “You look like a wreck, what happened?"
"Rainbow…" Applejack sighs exasperatedly, pulling the jersey-clad girl to the back of the group by the back of her shirt. "What Dash means is that you don't look like you got a lot of sleep last night, sugar cube. Are you all right? "
"I'm fine girls," Sunset says with a small smile. "I just had some… crazy dreams last night."
"Dreams about horsiiieeeess…?" Pinkie asks, sliding closer to Sunset, who frowns, upset that her friends were able to read her so easily. Before Equestria’s Twilight, before the Fall Formal, and before her friends, Sunset would have shoved Pinkie away and snarled it all of them to leave her alone.
Instead, the Sunset Shimmer of today does something she never would have done a year ago.
She looks down, she bites her lip, and she stumbles over her words.
"I- I didn't- I'm not-" She slams her mouth shut with a clack of teeth before she can make an even bigger fool of herself. No one steps in. They wait for her to finish. They care about how she feels. Sunset takes a breath. "I dreamed that I was- that I was back in Equestria.”
There is a pause.
"That's all?" Rainbow Dash asks incredulously. "Then why do you look like you got hit by a bus?"
"Rainbow!" Scolds at least three of the girls.
The warning bell rings.
"Oh shoot! I have a class to get to, you know. Cause we’re at school! And the bell rang. I have to get to that now, bye!" Sunset rushes out as she walks backward out of the room, eager to get away from this... unlawful interrogation.

She speed-walks to her first hour- AP Lit, and collapses in a frazzled heap at her desk. The bell rings mere moments after she had sat down, and Mr. Doodle-Donkey takes up his usual place at the front of the room, preparing a deep dive lecture into the symbolism of a complicated 18th-century novel. His class may be one of the dullest that Sunset has ever taken in her life, but he seems genuinely passionate about what he teaches, which is more than what she can say about a lot of the teachers she's met in her life.
She allows herself to become completely absorbed in her own research as Mr. D drones on, taking perfect, deliberate notes from a book on Equestrian swamp fauna. She's been working on transcribing the most interesting portions of the book into the last third of her Geology notebook, which may not be the exact thing she's supposed to be doing in her lessons, but it's still learning, and studying has always been Sunset's go-to method of keeping her mind from her troubles.

She carries on with this method of stress relief for the rest of the morning, carefully transcribing the ancient pages into fresh ink, carefully extracting the information and including her own notes and observations. Making it better than she found it. She sighs. This had been exactly what she needed to get her mind off of things. Maybe if she hadn't been so hellbent on being a maniacal dictator/princess, she could have been happy as a scribe back home.
She sits up and stretches out her back, stiff from sitting hunched over her notes, and goes back to writing, her world narrowed into one of delicate cursive and smudged ink.

Her tentative peace lasts until lunchtime, when Sunset must reluctantly put away her books, and join her friends at their usual table.
"Hey Sunset!" Twilight greets as she approaches, marking a page in her book and putting it away.
"Hey girls!" Sunset says with a grin, thankful that her friends are acting relatively normal again. She sets down her bagged lunch and takes out her food, biting into an apple as she sets up the rest of her lunch.
"THAT’S why you're vegetarian! " Rainbow blurts, slamming her hands on the table and startling all of them. A few nearby tables have their attention drawn by the sudden noise, halting in their conversations.
"What?" Sunset asks incredulously, her voice pitching up in her confusion.
"Because you're a horse!" Rainbow says proudly, like she's just solved some great mystery.

Sunset's spork snaps in her hand.

Sunset feels anger burning in her chest, that overly reactive, petty, burning hot anger that she had allowed to rule her life for so long. She clenches her fist under the table and narrows her eyes at her friend. Rainbow had said it loudly enough that a few of the tables around them are giggling, are shooting them curious glances, making Sunset's face redden in mortified rage.
Her friends can surely see her rage. Anger was one emotion that she had always struggled the most to hide. Her friends seeing her unable to control her anger once again only serves to deepen her humiliation, which she responds to with more anger. More lashing out. More defensiveness. A vicious cycle. A poison loop.
Fluttershy silently stands from her seat and gently tugs Sunset's wrist, urging her to follow the animal-loving girl, which Sunset does without argument. Fluttershy leads Sunset out of the crowded, noisy lunch room and into a nearby bathroom, which is thankfully empty of any other students.

When Sunset was in the process of learning how to be a good friend, Fluttershy took up the mantle of acting as what Sunset called a 'Kindness Coach', someone who could see when Sunset was about to blow up or lash out and would guide her away to talk and calm down. Fluttershy's intervention of her fits of rage has no doubt stopped her from getting kicked out of the friend group (and potentially the school) more times than Sunset would care to admit. She should mail a gift basket to Fluttershy's house one of these days.
She hasn't needed Fluttershy to calm her down in months, not since a girl had dumped coffee on her on purpose.
"Are you still mad?" Fluttershy asks quietly. She used to sound so afraid when they were alone together. She doesn't anymore.
"A little." Sunset admits. "Not at you, though. Not really at Rainbow either. "
"Oh?"
"I just- I- I don't know."
"You’ve seemed… sad since we spent the night at Applejack’s aunt’s house. Were you upset by the horse? By Harper?"
Sunset shrugs miserably. She doesn't know if Fluttershy would be able to understand her woes. She doubts that anybody could. Except maybe for the Dazzlings, but it's pretty obvious why Sunset can't go hash it out with them.
"Is it... about how you used to be a pony?" Fluttershy asks softly.
"... I don't know." Sunset heaves, running a hand over her face. "I've been homesick." She finally admits. It’s what stings the most, but it is making up a pretty large portion of the dark cloud hanging over her head. She isn't lying, but her friends wouldn't understand the whole truth. And besides, Sunset isn't sure she's ready to tell them. How could she even put this kind of grief into words?

"Do you… want to ask Princess Twilight to open the portal?" Fluttershy asks carefully, like she's scared of what the answer might be.
"No." Sunset says firmly and instantaneously. “You guys are here. It's just that… well, I'm going to have to reimagine what my future is going to look like now. I was always destined for greatness in magic, but… without that. In this world… what am I supposed to do?"
"You get to choose your own destiny." Fluttershy says with a serene smile, proud of herself. Like she's hit the nail on the head. She's solved the problem. Write it down, stamp it, and send it to Princess Twilight, right?
Sunset smiles back. Her heart is not in it.
"Right." Sunset agrees. She doesn't know how to tell her friend that choice has nothing to do with it.
This, Sunset has found in her time on Earth, is one of the key differences between Ponies and Humans.
Human beings, for the most part, are incredibly resistant to the idea of such things as predestiny. When Sunset had shared bits and pieces of her old life and culture with her human friends, one thing that stuck out to her was their reaction to the concept of a Cutie Mark. They all seemed to find it disturbing, which struck Sunset as odd even then, though she didn't push it.
To a human, a Cutie Mark appeared to be perceived as something of a shackle, a brand that serves as a constant reminder of the duties you must perform.
'It's not like that!' She had wanted to say. 'A Cutie Mark isn't an outside force, it comes from you!'
She could have talked about it for hours, though at the time she hadn't said a word, too new and too unsure in her standing with the girls to argue her point.

She doesn't say it now either, here hiding in the bathroom with Fluttershy. She opens her mouth and she shuts it again. In the briefest flash, a still second, she allows her grief to rock through her like lightning, memories of the joy her destiny had brought her lighting up her mind's eye. She mourns the youthful excitement of combing through dusty old spellbooks, of spending days upon days buried up to her chin in rare and important books, instead of having to subsist on sneaking off for private study sessions with books that Twilight lends her through the portal.

"I can choose my own destiny..."

Sunset Shimmer was so happy on the day she got her Cutie Mark that she cried in front of her bunkmates for the first and last time.
She had been so happy. It had been everything she'd ever wanted.
Sunset catches her own eyes in the bathroom mirror.
The tired-eyed girl in the mirror can't do magic. She doesn't have a destiny, she doesn't even have a horn.
Sunset turns away.
"Let's go back to lunch." Sunset says casually, squeezing Fluttershy into a one-armed hug. "I'm sure the girls are wondering where we are."
"Right, okay. Lunch." Fluttershy agrees quickly, getting to her feet and following Sunset's brisk walk back through the crowded lunch room and to their table. The two girls approach their seats, with Sunset doing her best to avoid the curious gazes and subdued giggles of the groups seated at the surrounding tables.

"I'm sorry for being insensitive." Rainbow says glumly as soon as Sunset sits down, prompted by twin glares sent her way by Applejack and Twilight.
"It’s okay, " Sunset says, opening her fruit cup. She means what she says. “I wasn't really upset at you specifically, I'm just… I've just been homesick."
A look of sympathetic understanding crosses her friend's faces, making Sunset twist her fingers nervously underneath the table. She hates speaking on how she feels, but if she didn't tell them then Fluttershy would have as soon as Sunset was out of earshot. Not that Sunset blames her, she probably would have done the same thing had their roles been reversed, but... Fluttershy tends to catastrophize, which would in turn lead Twilight to spiral, and so on and so forth until by the end of the week it will have been massively blown out of proportion, and all of them would either be in detention for whatever magical catastrophe they had been caught in the middle of, or writing about the friendship lessons they had learned to Princess Twilight.
Sunset's life events feel strangely repetitive now that she thinks about it.

"We understand completely, darling.” Rarity says kindly, reaching out to lay a pale, finely manicured hand on top of Sunset's own and pulling her from her thoughts.
"Well, we don't understand," Twilight corrects, pushing up her glasses with a shy smile. "But we're here to support you anyway!"
Sunset can't the smile that stretches across her face, grinning widely enough that it pushes up the corners of her eyes., blurring her vision. And if her eyes sting a little from unshed tears then that's no one's business but her own.
"Thank you, girls." Sunset says, ducking her head to hide her no doubt sappy expression. "Honestly, I'd really just like to keep my mind off of things, if that's all right with you guys."
“Totally!" Pinkie Pie bursts out excitedly. "We'll be the best ‘keep Sunset Shimmer’s mind off of her old life in Equestria squad’ ever!"
"Ah’ think we'd be the only uh… whatever she said squad ever." Applejack points out dryly.
"That makes us win by default!" Pinkie says, beaming.
"Oh! That's my favorite way to win." Fluttershy interjects, smiling.
"Of course that would be your favorite way to win!" Rainbow groans good-naturedly, making Sunset laugh behind her hand.

Finally, her friends are back to their usual lunchtime antics, far, far away from the subject of the world- of the life that Sunset had left behind. Her friends do a pretty good job of distracting her for the remainder of their half-hour break, but when they go their separate ways the end of lunch and head off to their respective classes, Sunset once again finds her mind filled with longing. With sorrow. With memories of her old life.

There is no distraction from it now.

Author's Note

thanks for reading! im really happy with the response so far, considering this is my first fic on this site i wasn't sure of what the environment would be, but pretty much everyone's been super sweet!!!
if you enjoyed this chapter, consider liking and leaving a comment telling me what you thought!
edit- made some pretty big edits to the second chapter ALSO. updates will be spotty next week cause I'm on vaycay

Hallway Hearsay

The week proceeded relatively normally after the rather disastrous Monday that Sunset Shimmer had suffered through. Her friends kept their word about distracting her from thoughts of Equestria, and if Sunset wracked her brains, she’d say that this past week had contained less horse talk than usual.
‘Yep… all things considered,’ Sunset thinks to herself cheerfully as she walks into school on Friday morning, eager to meet up with her friends before the warning bell rings. ‘Things have been going pretty well for me!’
“Sunset Shimmer!”

Holy shit.

Sunset holds back a groan as she turns to face Trixie, apparently attempting to challenge the leather-clad teenager for her spot as top dog, despite the fact that the ‘top dog’ spot has laid empty for over a year.
“What do you want Trixie?” Sunset sighs, adjusting the straps on her backpack as she waits for Trixie to start monologuing.
“I want to inform Canterlot High School of the truth!” Trixie announces, snagging the attention of several passing students, who form a small crowd around them. Sunset furrows her brow, confused at the magician's angle. Trixie doesn't usually go the conspiracy route.
“Sunset Shimmer is not of this world!”
Sunset expects someone to laugh. To point out how that's impossible, to sweep all the suspicious things that Sunset has done under the rug with the tidy explanations of ‘magic isn't real’.
But these are her peers. They saw her using magic. They saw her being consumed by it.
Trixie’s claim is not an outlandish one anymore.
The hall is quiet.
Sunset’s mouth tastes like static. How the fuck did she find out? Only her friends and Principal Celestia know about Equestria. Sure, it could be a shot in the dark but with everything that’s happened this week-
“Through careful observations, the Great and Powerful Trixie has discovered the truth! Sunset Shimmer hails from the same world as that purple girl with the wings- the fall formal princess, her name escapes me at the moment…OH! And the Dazzlings!”
The crowd ripples with murmurs. Shock. Judgment. Fear.

One part of Trxies claims stands out against the rest. Careful observations…
“You stalked me!” Sunset snarls, swelling to her full height in an instinctive challenge, shoving Trxie backward, stumbling into the crowd, who pushes her back to her feet. The students surrounding them shift uncomfortably, sensing the tension raise, unsure of whether to egg the two of them on or go get a teacher to break them up. Someone jeers loudly, and a few more join in. To Sunset’s further annoyance, Trixie looks shocked at Sunset’s anger, as if she could have ever been in the right.
“You slimy little creep,” Sunset spits, rage burning in the corners of her eyes, turning her vision a hazy red. “I should- I-”
Sunset bares her teeth, holding back a furious shriek of frustration. She isn't going to throw away all the work that she and her friends have put into making her a model student just so she can beat Trixie’s face into the linoleum, no matter how badly she wants to.

“What are you gonna do?” Trixie taunts, apparently unaware of how close she is coming to being dragged down the hall by a fistful of her pale hair. “You can't hit me or you’ll be thrown out of school! And they all deserve to know the truth, Sunset! You're not really a human! So tell us, how does it work? Are you wearing some sort of costume?”
Trixie leans in close, as if to check her skin for hidden seams or zippers, and Sunset shoves her back, snarling.
“Show us your real form!” Someone from the crowd shouts, making Sunset jump. Fuck. Fuck, fuck. This is not good.
The crowd starts to jeer in agreement, pushing forward in an attempt to get a better look at this otherworldly creature. At Sunset.
“What is she then?”
“You saw her at the Formal, that must be what she really is.”
“That makes sense.”
“Weird…”
“Why are you doing this?” Sunset snaps at Trixie over the mumbling crowd,unable to stop tears from spilling down her cheeks. Trixie’s smug smile sinks into an unsure frown when her eyes meet Sunset’s. The biker scrubs her face dry and bares her teeth, trying to hide the quivering to her lip.
“You're such a bitch, Trixie!” Sunset chokes out, sounding much less fierce than she had meant to, before shoving her way out of the crowd and taking off through the back doors of Canterlot High.

She runs for a while, cutting across the dew-soaked grass of the back lawns. Fog hangs low and thick over the grounds, the air moist and cool. The sun is barely peeking over the horizon, a grey light rising up the sky like pale smoke. Sunset doesn't appreciate any of this beauty as she sprints across the grounds, her eyes blurring with tears.
She runs until she reaches the baseball field and collapses onto a cool metal bench, hiding her face in her hands as she sobs.
Once she feels she’s cried herself dry, she lifts her head and wipes her eyes. First hour must be started already. Sunset hoists her bag further up her shoulder, sniffling miserably. She should be getting back to school soon so she can suffer through endless questions about her false humanity. Great.

Just as she turns back to face the school, a flash of light catches her eye, the barest glint of a silvery white glow, just on the edge of the small forest bordering the school.
Sunset squints, watching the treeline, waiting for it to reappear. She watches for several seconds, her vision straining as she stares. She blinks a couple of times, rubbing her weary eyes and cursing herself for her superstition.
Then she sees it again.
‘Just someone with a flashlight,’ Her mind says too late, she's already tearing across the field full force, her boots leaving deep gouges in the soft earth. Her human half says stay. Her human half says go back to school and ignore it. Her human half will settle.
Oh, but the unicorn in her longs.

She pushes her way through the vines and brambles that choke this small forest with life, following the flashes of light that she glimpses in between the trees. The more her palms sting with the pain of ripping her way through thorn bushes, the more out of breath she becomes, the more twigs that catch in her hair the more sure she is that the thing that she’s chasing is magic.
The further she runs, the more she can feel it in the air. Buzzing, vibrating at a frequency unheard by human ears.

Sunset’s foot catches on an upturned root, sending her sprawling forward, thankfully onto soft grass, and not face-first into a tree. She pushes herself up, panting, seeking. Her hair is wild and her clothes are torn she’s sure. She doesn't care. She has to find out what it is.
When she lifts her head, she finds herself in a clearing. There is an almost perfect ring of trees surrounding her, and when she looks up she finds that the canopies seem to be abiding by that same rule, carving out a natural skylight, beaming milky dawn light onto the clearing.
Sunset is trembling.
The magic here is potent. The air is thick and heavy and smells strongly of ozone. Like lightning had just struck. The clearing buzzes with it. The grass and leaves all seem to stand at attention, waiting for Sunset to make a move. The morning birds are all hushed, no squirrels chitter overhead. The world is silent. Patient.
And in the center of it all there floats a ball of white light, floating untethered a few feet off the ground. It doesn't move when Sunset looks at it. It doesn't move when she stands.

Sunset steps closer to the magic. She feels its power, the vibrations she has learned to recognize as magic roll over her all the more fiercely. This is not just energy. This is not just magic. Whatever this thing is has intention. Has a purpose.
Sunset, burdened with the weight of it since third grade, thinks of her destiny.
She reaches out.

Twilight Sparkle twirls her pencil between her fingers, frowning at the clock, glancing between the offending timepiece and Sunset’s empty desk. The ex-bad-girl hadn't shown up for their regular meetings before the warning bell, which was unusual, but nothing to be concerned about. All of them had missed their pre-school catchup for one reason or another, but she hadn't shown up for AP Lit at all. The class is half over and there is no sign of her friend. Sunset rarely ever missed a class. Sunset loves school and would rather suffer through being sick than risk missing out on potential lessons, as Twilight and her friends had learned when Sunset got the flu. It had been a week of constant surveillance to assure tht Sunset didn't sneak off to work on her missing assignments.

Twilight waited as patiently as she was able, which admittedly included a lot of anxious squirming in her seat, for Mr. Doodle-Donkey to release them to begin their group assignments, which Twilight thankfully already has with Rainbow and Applejack.
“Do either of you know where Sunset is?” Twilight asks as soon as she sits down.
“No,” Rainbow says with a frown. “We were just about to ask you. Me and AJ have been trying to text her all morning. She isn't responding.”
“AJ and I.” Twilight corrects absentmindedly, making Rainbow roll her eyes. “Do you guys think… something happened to her?”
“You guys haven't heard?” Lyra Heartstrings asks from a desk over
“Hear what?” Applejack asks, sitting up a little straighter, her expression becoming slightly more severe.
“She went running out of school crying this morning.” Lyra says with a sympathetic frown.
“WHAT!?” Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow all shout in chorus.
“Oh wow...” Lyra says, blinking owlishly in shock. “You guys really didn't know.”
“What happened?” Twilight asks, still reeling from the fact that their usually unshakable friend had been sent running out of the school in tears. Rainbow is typing frantically into her phone, likely informing the rest of their friend group of the situation.
“Here, someone filmed part of it.” Lyra says, taking her phone out of her skirt pocket and passing it over to the three of them, all of whom lean closer to the phone screen anxiously.

The video starts at the tail end of Sunset shoving Trxie, sending the magician stumbling backward into the crowd that has surrounded the two girls. A crowd that is jeering through the tinny speakers of Lyras's phone, egging them on. Urging them to fight. Twilight feels anger bubble up in her stomach, not just towards Trixie for upsetting Sunset enough to lash out, and the crowd for encouraging it. Haven't they all borne first-hand witness to the disasters that occur every time Canterlot High School is divided? Twilight takes a breath and steadies herself. She needs to focus on her friend.
“You slimy little creep,” Sunset snarls through the speakers. “I should-I”
For a moment, Twilight thinks that Sunset is going to hit her. She doesn't. Twilight watches her fist shake as she lowers it, and breathes a sigh of relief for her friend. With Sunset’s record, she doesn't have a lot of second chances left to use up.
“What are you gonna do?” Trixie taunts, surprising Twilight with her boldness. “You can't hit me or you’ll be thrown out of the school! And they all deserve to know the truth, Sunset! You're not really a human!-”
The rest of her sentence is cut off by the blood roaring in Twilight’s ears. She had said it in front of a crowd, loud enough for everyone to hear. Twilight’s hand is over her mouth. Rainbow had gasped so hard that it cracked in her throat. AJ is silent, but the hand holding Lyra’s phone is shaking.

Trixie leans into Sunset’s space, and the redhead shoves her back. The crowd, spurred on by the rising tension, start to shout to the girls. Demanding for Sunset to show them her ‘true form’, theorizing on what she really is.
Sunset whips around to shout something at Trixie, going unheard over the din of the crowd. Twilight’s heart clenches when she sees the tears tracking down her friend’s face. Sunset wipes her face clean of tears even as new ones well in her eyes. She shoots one last barb at Trixie before elbowing her way through the crowd and running out the back doors of the school.

“Thanks.” Applejack says as she hands Lyra’s phone back to her, her voice flat in its anger. Lyra takes it back with an awkward frown, turning back to her work.
“That snake!” Rainbow snarls, her fists trembling with how hard she’s clenching them. “We’ll teach her a lesson-”
“There’s no need for violence, Dash.” Applejack says firmly, putting a hand on the athlete’s shoulder. “Let’s make our first priority making sure that Sunset is okay.”
Rainbow huffs, settling with a nod of agreement, though Twilight can still easily see the hard lines of anger in her frame.
“I’ll go talk to Mr. DD.” Applejack says, standing from her desk.
“That’s not gonna go well.” Rainbow mutters as AJ walks up to the front of the room.
“I don't know… Mr. Doodle-Donkey likes Applejack.” Twilight responds, watching as AJ talks to their teacher, occasionally gesturing back to the two of them.
“He doesn't like anyone.” Rainbow mutters.
“He likes Pinkie Pie.” Twilight points out.
“Only because Pinkie Pie would rather perform miracles than have someone not like her.” Rainbow huffs. “She tracked down his long-lost lover, who he’s now married to.”
“Seriously-?”Twilight starts, though she is not able to get any more pieces of the story before Applejack is reapproaching them.
“We’re cleared to go a’ searchin’.” Applejack says, already heading for the door, waving for Rainbow and Twilight to follow her. “Let’s round up the girls and try to figure out where she mighta’ gone. She’s bound to be pretty upset what with everything.”
“I’ve texted them, they’re going to meet us at the front of the school.” Rainbow says, pocketing her phone.
“Alright,” Applejack says, adjusting her Stetson determinedly. “Let’s go find us a pony.”

Author's Note

hey y'all, if you liked this, leave a comment telling me what you thought! That and likes are the easiest way to get more writing faster (wink)
the next chapter will finally have unicorn sunset
peace and love