The Reform of Sunset Shimmer

Sunset felt deja vu. She stood in front of the school entrance again, unable to find the strength to go inside.

She felt nauseous from the stress of this building and the people inside. It is also possible that the nausea is a result of yesterday's incident, even after an hour of scrubbing she could still smell the stench.

When the girls walked her home, they went their separate ways, promising to meet at the school entrance tomorrow, ten minutes before the bell. So Sunset Shimmer has been standing there for twenty minutes, waiting for the five girls to arrive.

She didn't pay attention to it before, but she has several lessons with at least one of Princess Twilight's friends. Before she started her reform, she was not interested in anyone but herself, the same with her feelings, she could trash anyone and pass by a crying student without blinking an eye, but when she was going through her crisis, which she would not admit to anyone, everyone had to jump to around her, trying to improve her mood so that she wouldn't turn their lives into hell for today. Now she sees her mistakes, and understanding this was helped by feeling the same pain and sadness that she felt for many of her peers.

As for her peers, many students ran past her indifferently and inside. Only a few stopped to take a look at her.

Even though she deserved yesterday's incident, she hoped she would only get a few insults today. She didn't have the strength to fight the laughter of the whole school again, she was afraid that the former Sunset Shimmer would take over and all her one day's work would be wasted.

The time spent feeling sorry for himself was interrupted by a gentle blow to the back of the head. Sunset turned around but no one was there. There was no one in the world fast enough to run out of sight in a second, she must have been hit by something. So her eyes went to the ground, where she should have dug that hole yesterday, and she saw a paper ball.

One? I expected at least ten.

She picked up the paper and unfolded it, it read "DEMON" in big red letters. All vital body functions stopped, including breathing. There was nothing she could do. Swallow the saliva gathering in her mouth, blink, or at least draw the much-needed oxygen into her lungs.

Started. After yesterday's incident, the fear that held the entire school in check is gone. They are braver, you can see it in the note and it probably won't end there. She's not even sure what they'll go to to humiliate her. Between all the insults available, they had to use this one. After all, she knows who she has become or who she was from the very beginning.

A single salty drop dripped onto a piece of paper, leaving a wet trace on it. In less than two days, he cries more than in his entire life. For her, tears were always a sign of weakness, lack of control over such insignificant emotions.

"What do you have there?"

The question didn't even have time to digest in her brain, and the piece of paper was snatched from her grasp by the ever-cheerful Pinkie Pie. As if by a magic wand, the body began to live again. She took a shaky breath of oxygen into her empty lungs as tears leaked from her eyes.

"It's not yours," she tried to muster an authoritative voice that came out more like a squeak.

"Girls..."

Without being aware of it beforehand, the five girls arrived almost on time. As soon as they heard the serious tone of Pinkie's voice, the calm conversation between the rest of the girls ended almost immediately. Seriousness replaced calm.

Once they were within arm's reach of Sunset, Pinkie passed the note into Rarity's waiting hands. The designer read the text loudly enough so that the other three girls knew what was happening but so that Sunset wouldn't have to hear them again, but even without that, the words echoed in her head.

A demon, a monster, a flaw in the world. This was how others saw her, and slowly she began to see herself this way too.

The rustle of paper brought her back to reality. Applejack crumpled the paper back to its former appearance and threw it as far as you could throw a paper ball on a windy day. Pure rage reigned on her face and her green eyes blazed. She had only seen her like this once in her life, the day she destroyed the friendship between her and Rainbow Dash. She had to admit to herself that this side of Applejack made her a little uneasy, and also a little attracted to her. This doesn't even surprise her in the slightest, she's always had a weakness for strength and power. And that bothered her a lot, that was the old Sunset Shimmer. The new and changed Sunset shouldn't fall under the spell of power, even if she was as attractive as Applejack.

The girls exchanged a mental message with each other. How they did it was beyond her. Even after all the time they spent apart, they still had that unique bond.

Rainbow Dash rested her elbow on the former tyrant's shoulder and put on a surprisingly genuine smile.

"You don't have to worry about what some piece of trash thinks about you."

"Not just one. The whole school hates me."

"They don't hate you at all, honey."

"You're right," Sunset replied and put on her sweetest smile she could muster, "They despise my life."

"They don't despise you. They want to punish you for making their lives hell."

"Pinkie, how is this going to make her feel better?" Rarity put her hands on her hips. She looked like a mother disciplining her child.

"Um, girls...

"We're supposed to make her feel better?

"Girls...

"Ugh! We discussed this yesterday, don't you remember?" Dash joined the discussion.

"Girls, can I...

"The first thing on our list was to go to Celestia to change our lesson plans, and then cheer ourselves up by throwing a party at my house!"

"Do you remember that now?"

It was funny to watch the girls agree on a secret plan among themselves, which was probably not intended to reach her ears, but what was more funny was that throughout the entire exchange between them, poor Fluttershy was trying to get their attention. Unfortunately, she spoke much too quietly and they were too busy with their plan.

"I think I want to say something, Fluttershy," Sunset spoke up on behalf of the shy girl.

"Thank you, Sunset. I wanted to say that the bell has already rung and…"

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Rarity dramatically ran to the school, leaving her friends behind.

"I tried, but you didn't listen to me," the animal lover said to herself and followed the designer.

"We should go too," AJ replied.

The cowgirl placed her hand on Sunset's lower back, gently pushing her towards the school.

*

When the six of them entered Principal Celesti's office, she didn't seem to care, and neither did Vice Principal Luna. Even though the shorter woman didn't like truant, she just looked at it and went back to her papers.

It was then that Sunset realized that some strange plan had been put into motion that she had no idea about.

"Hello girls, you're probably here about the lesson plan," Princess Twilight's friends nodded. The principal pulled out a piece of paper from her binder. "As you asked, I made a new lesson plan to make sure that at least one of you will have the same classes as Sunset."

What, sorry?

"Thank you very much, ma'am," Rarity admitted and accepted the card extended to her.

Fashionista showed her friend the new plan, the girls nodded in agreement. Sunset, on the other hand, watched it all from the sidelines as if she were a ghost or at least invisible. She felt it was about her, especially when Principal Celestia said she had changed the lesson plan so that one of them would be in class with her. Application? They were afraid. They were afraid that the students' revenge would go so far that they would even go as far as mutilating her.

Maintaining silence, they left the office. The first lesson of the day, and her favorite, was mathematics. The girls separated right at the music room door to their rooms. Pinkie Pie walked with Sunset to math, her bouncy steps distracting her from today's commotion caused by the note. She didn't really think about who the recipient could be, there were too many suspects. Even if she knew who it was, what would she do about it? Revenge? Row? It was that Sunset, she solved every right hand that way. To this day, she still cannot understand how it could have happened like this. The desire to become an alicorn and gain unimaginable power blinded her. She was so immersed in it that she pursued it at all costs. She considered every human and pony inferior to her, to be despised and used to build her reputation. Out of all the students, not counting the princess' friends, she felt sorry for Flash the most. She toyed with his feelings for a very long time, and when their "relationship" served its purpose in her plan, she threw Flash away like an old toy. He is perfectly aware that regaining his trust will be extremely difficult. She doesn't want forgiveness because I don't deserve it, she just wants to show that she is sorry for everything she has done on Earth and in Equestri. It will be a very long road but she is ready to walk it.

He and Pinkie entered the room. The teacher stopped while explaining the pattern written on the board, and the students, after recognizing who had entered the classroom, changed their bored expressions to disgust at the sight of her. Before Sunset could look at the ground, Pinkie stood in front of her, ready to defend her in front of the entire class at any moment. She had to admit that it was funny to see their faces after this action.

"Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, please take your seats for these last twenty minutes of class," the dissatisfaction in his voice was palpable.

The girls sat in the front row and unpacked their books.

A few minutes passed after they entered, and Sunset felt herself hit in the back of the head with a paper ball. She turned towards the ever-happy girl to see her looking around the entire class, looking for the culprit. They all had smiles on their faces and finding the one who did it was extremely difficult.

She knew perfectly well to ignore the paper ball at her feet. She knew perfectly well that it would hurt her, but she was probably a masochist. She picked up the ball and unfolded it. There was written "DEMON" in bold blue letters. Tears involuntarily came to her eyes, but she wasn't going to cry twice today because of some insult, and she had heard worse things about her anyway. A gentle squeeze of her arm showed the support she received from Pinkie Pie. She was glad she was here with her.

*

Her second lesson of the day was art, another one of her favorite lessons. This time it was Rarity who accompanied her and no wonder, the girl had a huge talent. Sunset also had some skills and could confidently say that she could paint.

Today's topic was peace. Something Sunset would give all her money for. After the math was finished, the insults and laughter began, most of them caused by yesterday's incident. Words like "trash" and "dirty" echoed in her head.

Pinkie helped her through the crowd and handed her into Rarity's hand. The fashionista gave a cheer to all the students mocking her.

After entering the art room, the teacher gave the topic of the work and busied herself.

Sunset entered her creative zone and the whole world stopped existing for her. All that mattered was her and the canvas in front of her. When she was given the topic, an idea appeared before her eyes that couldn't wait.

For her, peace was associated with two things, sunflowers and the sun, so she spent forty minutes implementing her idea.

"Beautiful, darling," Rarity's voice whispered in her ear.

She didn't know what the purple haired girl saw in it. They weren't as realistic as she wanted, and the sun didn't reflect his glory the way she wanted. For her, the Sun was the most important thing, it was a haven of peace. She always felt safer in its glow.

"Thanks, although it didn't turn out the way I wanted.

"And what was it supposed to look like? I feel like I was there, I can actually feel the sound of sunflowers in the wind and the pleasant warm glow of the sun. You have talent, Sunset.

Shimmer looked at Rarity's canvas. The painting showed a wardrobe filled with various clothes.

"You have talent too.

Rarity smiled at this comment.

Two boys approached the girls. They looked at the painting with feigned curiosity. Rarity watched them carefully, waiting for their first move. Neither of them expected that the third boy would pierce Sunset's canvas with the wooden part of the brush, tearing it, creating a large hole and destroying her work.

Sunset heard Rarity screaming something but she couldn't understand what, the sound of flowing blood drowned out everything. No one, and no one, has the right to touch her works, let alone destroy them. She felt the rage boiling inside wanting to express itself, but she didn't give up. She wouldn't let old Sunset Shimmer take over the body, no matter how much she wanted to smash the three boys' faces against the wall.

At some point, a teacher approached them. Rarity pointed at her, then at the canvas, and finally at the culprits. The teacher was saying something but she couldn't hear anything.

She grabbed her bag and ran out of the room.