I stared briefly at the moon high in sky, a trowel gripped firmly in my hand before staring miserably at the half destroyed wall in front of me.
“You know, it won’t build itself if you just stare at it.”
I jumped slightly and twisted my body to look behind me. Rainbow Dash leaned against the pillar of our school with her arms crossed across her chest with an unreadable expression.
“I know,” I grunted and laid down another brick. “What do you want? To gloat?”
“Nah. If I wanted to gloat, I’d be doing so,” Rainbow commented casually and I resisted the urge to snort. She dropped her hands down to her side and strode over to me and I froze in fear.
“Please don’t hurt me!” I cried and Rainbow stopped, holding up her hands.
“I’m not gonna hurt ya,” Rainbow scoffed and inched closer as she slowly lowered her hands to her side and she picked up another trowel.
“Snips, Snails, leave us,” I order after a moment and the two look at each other.
“But-” Snips started and I held up a hand.
“You guys followed orders to help me. Leave while you can. I can build this stupid wall on my own.”
The two freshman locked eyes with each other and grudgingly nodded as they stood up and walked away.
“Interesting,” Rainbow grunted and dropped down next to me. “You do realize that made it harder on you, right?”
“I’m well aware. Those two are here because of my dumb ass. They don’t deserve to be punished,” I answered with a whimper and shifted so my torn leather jacket didn’t rub where my cuts on my back are.
“Hm. Do you even know construction?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow as I shot her an incredulous look.
“Do I? Do you?” I shot back with a scowl.
“Not one fucking bit,” Rainbow admitted with a chuckle and held out a plastic red cup and a plate with a fork and cake on it. “I brought you this, at least. Peace offering.”
I eyed the offered items suspiciously as she set them down next to me. I didn’t entirely trust her simply for the fact this stuff could be poisoned to get rid of me. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past some of these people here. With everyone seeing me get taken down multiple pegs, there’s gonna be the inevitable power grab to fill my shoes.
“Thanks,” I said simply and hastily started eating as Rainbow watched. For how much I had thought she was annoying, Pinkie can really bake well. “Shouldn’t you be inside celebrating inside of being stuck out here with the she demon, former alpha bitch?”
If Rainbow was affected by anything I said, she sure as hell didn’t show it. She just sat there with that same hard to read face and I used to pride myself on how well I could read ponies and people.
“Got too loud for me,” Rainbow said finally and spread out some mortar on my wall half heartedly. “I know, weird coming from me. I’m a loud, brash motherfucker. But even I got my limits.”
I chuckled dryly and washed down the cake with some punch before wiping my mouth off with my jacket sleeve. Normally, I’d never do that with my jacket but this thing is trashed so I don’t really give a damn anymore.
“I can imagine.”
I fell into a silence as we awkwardly worked, my eyes occasionally glancing at her as we kept working. I didn’t entirely know why she was here if she wasn’t to gloat. And the whole peace offering thing was weird too. I sure as hell wouldn’t give someone a peace offering if they just almost murdered me.
“It was Pinkie and Applejacks idea. They thought you might be hungry.”
I jumped and glanced at her magenta eyes as she set down her trowel and leaned back with a content sigh as her phone buzzed and she frowned down at it.
“Come on. Apparently Principal Celestia wants to see you,” Rainbow brushed her hands off on her dress and shot me a look. “Do not tell Rarity I did that or she will absolutely kill me.”
I gave a chuckle and nodded as I stood up with a pained grunt. Thank the lord Rainbow didn’t hear that. Last thing I need is sympathy. I bit back a curse as I took a step inside our school. Or well, about to be her school.
Let’s be real, we all know I’m about to get expelled. Or handed off to the police. Either or are very real possibilities that can happen. I was a bit grateful the hallways were empty as we walked to the office as Rainbows eyes burned holes in my back.
I stepped inside with Rainbow behind me where Vice Principal Luna was waiting with her arms crossed similarly to how Rainbow Dash was a few moments again.
“Miss Dash. We asked for Sunset only. You’re free to go back to go the gym,” VP Luna said and Rainbow shook her head.
“Not a chance. You get both of us or neither of us. Pick,” Rainbow answered with a defiant frown. Luna frowned and the two stared each other down before Luna sighed in defeat.
“Alright, fine. Come on then you two.”
Rainbow smirked slightly at me and I rolled my eyes. She always was egotistical. And here I thought I was bad. Okay, I was bad but that’s a conversation for another time. Definitely not now of all times.
Principle Celestia sat in her chair and glanced up as we entered, multiple emotions playing across hers and Luna’s faces. The most prevalent one was concern, surprisingly enough as I shut the door softly behind us.
“Sunset. Sit please,” Celestia gestured to a chair and I complied as she glanced at Rainbow. A ghost of a smile played across her face. “And you too Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow sat down and leaned back in her chair, kicking her legs up as she crossed them over each other. Luna coughed and glared unapprovingly at Rainbow as she sheepishly moved her legs off Celestia’s desk and sat the chair down on all fours.
“What can I do for you, Principal Celestia?” I asked and she clasped her hands together.
“My sister and I have a few questions about ah, the events that transpired tonight. We’re pretty curious about everything that happened,” Celestia said and Rainbow nodded slowly.
“Me too actually. I’ve never seen anything like what happened tonight. Me and the girls briefly talked about it. We were awesome! I had wings!” Rainbow gushed with a large grin, pausing as she looked at me looking away in shame. “Right, too soon.”
“I’d concur on that,” Luna muttered and cracked her neck. “So care to tell us exactly what an Element of Harmony is? And what’s with the Wondercolt statue being a portal, was it?”
“Yes,” I answered simply and inhaled, mentally preparing myself for this conversation. “Before we have this conversation, you’re gonna have to accept you won’t fully understand everything I’m about to tell you. Alright?”
The three glanced at each other and nodded.
“So yes, the statue is a portal to another world. My world. Over there isn’t occupied by humans, but rather by ponies. The three tribes are unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. I’m a unicorn over there,” I explained and the two adults went slack jawed and I couldn’t resist a snicker. “Yeah. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rule all of Equestria.”
”Princess Celestia?” Celestia echoed and I snickered again.
“Yeah. Princess Celestia raises the sun whereas Princess Luna raises the moon. I didn’t know Princess Luna. She was still banished to the moon for a thousand years when I fled to this world.”
They looked even more confused as Luna opened her jaw to speak before closing it and shaking her head as Rainbow raised a hand.
“But Twilight was a princess too, she said,” Rainbow pointed out with a confused expression. “Right?”
“Yeah, she is. She, Celestia and Luna are what we call alicorns. A mix of all three tribes. Princess Cadence is an alicorn too and rules the Crystal Empire. She’s the Princess of Love or some bullshit,” I scoffed and waved a hand around in the air dismissively.
“Language Miss Shimmer,” Luna said sternly and I gulped as I paled slightly.
“After tonight, I think we can let it slide,” Celestia conceded and I sighed in relief. “Carry on, Sunset.”
“Right. So while Twilight is a princess, she’s likely a lesser one. Just like how Cadence isn’t a natural born alicorn. She was a pegasus when I left. Twilight was a simple unicorn. Being born as a alicorn is super rare. You have to perform a task worthy of ascension,” I explained and they all nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t necessarily know what Twilight did, but it must of been something big.”
Rainbow cleared her throat and examined me up and down as I watched her in confusion as she pointed at my skirt. More precisely, a shimmering sun on the edge.
“So what the heck is up with that design? You have it on all your clothes.”
I should have seen this topic of cutie marks coming up. I had noticed myself most people here had designs similar to what I suspected their cutie marks were on the pony counterparts.
“That’s my cutie mark,” I answered simply and received confused looks. I let out a groan and facepalmed. “Right, humans don’t get them. For us, a cutie mark is a sign of our destiny telling us what we’re going to do with our lives. It’s like going through puberty for ponies. It appears on your flanks. Like mine-” I tapped on the design with a pointer figure. “The gold represents the sun, meaning my relationship with Celestia. The red represents my ambition to anything I do.”
“Like the rest of your life?” Luna asked I’m confusion and I nodded. “So once you get this cutie mark, you can’t do anything else?”
“I mean, you can but most don’t. Learning new skills outside of their cutie mark is usually fairly difficult. Most spend the rest of their lives doing the thing they got their mark in. I’m fairly lucky because my talent is related to my ambition so I can learn skills more easily then other ponies can,” I answered and shifted, wincing in pain as the chair brushed against my injuried back.
It thankfully went unnoticed as they all absorbed my words.
“Why did you come here?” Rainbow asked the question I knew was coming. I glanced at Celestia before speaking.
“In Equestria, I was Celestia’s daughter,” I said and Rainbow eye’s widened as did Luna’s. Curiously enough, Celestia didn’t react and remained still with her curious expression. “And her personal student before Twilight took my spot. Friendship wasn’t something I cared about. Being her daughter, ponies only really got close to me to get close to Celestia and get favors. Friendship just wasn’t in the cards for me. It wasn’t then and it isn’t now.”
Celestia and Rainbow both gave me regretful looks as Luna sighed. I despised the looks of pity I was receiving and I pushed down the anger I felt rising in my chest.
“Sunset, where do you live?” Celestia asked.
I was slightly taken aback by that as I thought of my small tent I had hidden in the woods behind the school. I had a small fridge full of food I’d stolen from the school cafeteria. On my days off, I did homework and counted the money I had gotten off people at school.
“I have places,” I lied and Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly at me. God, she was just like her ponyself. I could get nothing by Celestia back home. She always sorta knew when I was lying. And apparently this Celestia had that same skill unfortunately. “Ugh, I hate how you know when I’m lying. I uh, live in the woods behind the school. Got me a tent I may or may not have obtained through less than savory means.”
“You’re homeless?” Rainbow blurted in shock and Celestia gave her a disapproving look. “Shutting up now.”
I bit back a snarky response as Celestia relaxed her glare, glancing at Luna. The two seemed to share a conversation that Rainbow and I didn’t follow as Luna nodded at Celestia.
“Sunset, would you like to live with us?” Celestia asked and my jaw felt heavy as I stared with wide eyes.
“I can take care of myself, thanks,” I decided after picking my jaw off the floor. “I’ve done it well enough for almost the six years I’ve been stuck in this world.”
“You see, you told your principals you’re technically homeless. Legally, we are required to report that to CPS,” Luna said casually with a smirk and I shifted my stunned glance at her.
Am I being blackmailed by one of my principals?
“You drive a hard bargain,” I said finally and glanced at the two.
“I take it that is a yes?” Celestia asked with a smirk.
I inhaled before nodding.
