The morning was going by quickly as Sunset joined Stella for breakfast, for once not wondering if she would actually get any with how everything has been for her recently. It was really good even though she wasn’t too sure what everything was, which continued last night’s trend of dinner and a snack raid. If she had anything to complain about, it was being woken up from the best night of sleep she has had in the room next to her new sister in the most comfortable bed she had ever experienced since Equestria.

Speaking of new sister, and father figure for that matter, Sunset couldn’t help looking at the credit card given by King Radius with the explanation that it would be her allowance. To be fair, she was the ward of the current king of Solaria and it would look bad if she was dressed in what the nobles would consider rags.

“Don’t overthink things, Sunset. Daddy said to make sure you get several outfits as well as have a good time today. You deserve this.” Stella said with a smile, turning to walk backwards in front of Sunset playfully.

“That’s the thing though, why do I deserve this?” Sunset asked as she stashed the card in her bag. “What did I actually do to deserve this?”

“Think of it as karma for all of the stuff that you have been through at that horrid school of yours.” Stella chirped out, her voice a little flippant yet worry shone in her eyes for her new sister and friend. Not that Sunset trusted Stella yet, the princess knew that and expected it would take a little time for the fiery haired girl to open up. She would do everything in her power to get Sunset to trust again and believe in friendship and family.

Thinking that made Stella want to facepalm as she realized how much she just sounded like Flora in her own head. The thought of sounding like Flora wasn’t so bad, but she hadn’t decided if she wanted to maintain her front of being a spoiled princess. Well, she would always be daddy’s little spoiled princess, but that was beside the point as she was so much more than she portrayed to others around her. Giving an encouraging smile, she continued. “Besides, look at it as payment for helping protect those ungrateful brats.”

“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” Sunset asked with trepidation, her mood changing as she saw Stella walk backwards right into Musa who was giving the new girl a friendly smirk. Making an exaggerated expression of pain, the dark haired girl bemoaned being run over by a truck.

“I am not a truck!” Stella squealed, crossing her arms and stomping a foot as Tecna and an unfamiliar girl walked up on either side of the now giggling Musa. “How dare you compare one as dainty and perfect as myself to a car!?”

“Technically, I believe the term she used was truck.” Tecna stated, making the unfamiliar girl let out a soft giggle while covering her mouth.

“I’m sorry about them, they get like this a lot but don’t mean anything by it.” The girl explained, “My name is Flora by the way. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sunset I assume?”

“Heh, yeah, I’m Sunset.” Sunset said, unable to get the feeling of looking at Fluttershy out of her mind.

“Well, let’s get this party started!” Musa called out, pumping a fist into the air as the other giggled a little and agreed. Sunset had to admit to herself that she missed this level of friendship and camaraderie.

The next two hours started with dread when Sunset learned they were all there specifically for her, to help her get some clothes and things to personalize her room. It quickly changed into Sunset actually letting her doubts go and enjoying herself. Even when she was shocked to find that the king and Headmistress must have been at least somewhat wrong as somebody obviously knew enough about Equestria to make an entire cartoon series based off of it as well as countless books for an audience ranging from kids all the way up to young adults.

It was mind blowing to see all the merchandise at one of the stores with posters and little knick knacks, including a small plush clip of Twilight Sparkle as just a unicorn that she hung off her new bag. The second thing that surprised her is her shirt that she got for one of her everyday outfits as it has a stylized picture of what she learned was Celestia as Daybreaker, a creation this person came up with to counter Nightmare Moon. She really wasn’t sure why she bought the shirt, but she knew why she bought the Twilight plush. It reminded her of her first real friend, one that she still had faith in despite wanting to avoid her right now. She did not want Twilight getting involved in whatever was going on as it was obviously Sunset and Stella’s problem.

This is Sunset's new outfit minus the cutie mark pendant and blue in her hair as she is keeping her classic fire themed hair. Saw this on Deviant art and thought it would be perfect.

As much fun as she was having, she knew all good things had to come to an end as they were finishing up their meal in the outside dining area at a nice restaurant that was obviously not fast food. “So, who all is excited to start our first year at Alfea?” Musa asked while stirring her drink with the straw in it.

“Technically, this is Stella’s second year even if she will be in our classes.” Tecna said, hiding a bit of a grin which made Stella proud of the girl. Once again she was showing more than just her formal technology obsessed side and showed actual emotion…even if it was used to tease her.

“Hey, I was just trying to create a new shade of pink in the lab!” Stella defended herself with her normal claim of what happened.

“I still don’t believe that.” Musa snorted.

“I concur, we know you can be a bit vapid at times, but never to that extent.” Tecna said.

“Fine, don’t believe me.” Stella huffed.

“I’m more worried about the rumor I heard my parents talking about before I left.” Flora said, seeming nervous to bring whatever it was up. “It scares me a little.”

“You don’t have to be scared, all of us would protect you.” Sunset said, even if she couldn’t really trust them, she was having fun and would never stand by and let someone get hurt if she could help it. If only Celestia could see her now.

“You don’t understand, my mom has ties to Alfea’s admissions system and she said there were a few new students registered this morning. One of them is a dark fairy.” Flora said, shaking a little as she looked around her as if to make sure nothing was coming for her.

“What’s wrong with that?” Sunset asked, freezing momentarily as her eyes narrowed. The other girls were motioning for Flora to shut up, but the girl was genuinely disturbed over the fact.

“Dark fairies are monsters, Sunset! They lure you in then steal your soul and magic!” Flora gasped out in fright, “My mother always told horrid stories about them as I grew up.”

“You know girls, I think I want to explore a bit by myself for a bit.” Sunset said, standing up a little faster than she meant shaking the table a little as her eyes misted over. “I’ll meet you back by that bookstore we passed in a couple hours.”

“Sunset, wait, she doesn’t know!” Stella said as she jumped up to follow the fiery haired girl who stopped her.

“I’ll be okay, Stella. I just need some time alone.” Sunset said stiffly, turning to walk away at a sedate pace while fighting the urge to storm off angrily. She had to keep reminding herself that the girl was nice, just confused. It didn’t help the hurt though.

“What happened?” Flora asked, confused looking from one crestfallen expression to the next.

“Flora, girl, that dark fairy is Sunset.” Musa said, shaking her head in disappointment.

“She acted so nice though.” Flora said, crumbling a napkin in her fist in shock.

“She is nice, Flora. She’s my sister now and you know daddy wouldn’t let someone who would hurt me around me.” Stella said, Flora shaking her head in denial.

“Flora, statistically speaking, even witches can be good despite their reputation.” Tecna offered, but it looked like the timid girl was having problems accepting the fact that Sunset was a dark fairy and was genuinely nice.

“Look miss, the training simulator is only for specialist cadets. I can’t let you use it.” The frustrated teen boy behind the arcade counter said. Sunset had accidentally stumbled upon the arcade not long after she left the group of girls. When she recognized the name of the specialist, she asked about the simulator and was told it was a holographic training simulator that was several generations old that some of the specialists would come use to hone their skills when they didn’t want to wait for the state of the art ones at Red Fountain to become available. “No weapon, no entry.”

“Did you say weapon?” Sunset asked, pulling out the hilt that Brandon had told her to keep and activated it. “Like this?”

“Y-Y-Yes, l-l-like th-th-that.” The boy stuttered, leaning away from the girl as sweat began to form on his brow. For the next hour and a half, Sunset spent time in the simulator after being told it was locked on level one. It meant that she would face resistance from opponents when blocking attacks, but the most she would suffer from getting hit was a bit of a sting, letting her know that she was tagged. At first Sunset couldn’t last more than a few minutes, but she started getting used to patterns and followed advice from the holographic trainer to the point that by the time she was halfway through her session, she was managing to hold her own. She supposed that she had all the brick hauling to thank back at CHS after the formal for the muscles she built up and the self defense classes Flash’s dad insisted she took for the basics on fighting that got her score to reach mid point when finished.

“Never seen a girl specialist before.” A pink haired girl commented, blowing a bubble with her gum as the boy from earlier gave Sunset a shocked look.

“How did you get mid rank?” The boy asked, looking as if his world just turned upside down.

“With style.” Sunset grinned, walking out of the arcade feeling a bit better. The physical workout had helped immensely in getting rid of some of her frustrations and sadness. She could understand where the girl was coming from, Flora had said she was told horror stories of dark fairies growing up. Anyone in the girl’s shoes would act the same toward Sunset upon the discovery of being a dark fairy. Sunset just couldn’t figure out why the rejection hurt so much. Why it frustrated her so much.

Seeing the overgrown minion, or ogre as she was told, walking down the street, Sunset decided to follow. It was ridiculously easy to tail the large creature that did give the girl pause. She had to wonder if maybe this was a trap, yet it was maybe the best chance to see what was going on and why those things were after Stella and herself. It didn’t take too long for him to stop in an out of the way alley where the only cover Sunset could hide behind was a few crates that were far enough away to hear what was being said between the creature and three girls that looked around her age.

She couldn’t get a good look at the girls though as the large oaf kept blocking her view, making Sunset growl silently before being thrown forward through the crates to land hard on the ground at the feet of the three girls.

“So, did you like our little joke?” the girl with an I emblem on her outfit said as the darker haired one with a D emblem vanished.

“Surprise!” A voice laughed behind her, “Turn around!”

Sunset turned over to look up at the girl who disappeared and walked up to her laughing evilly. Sunset glared as the girl walked around her to join the others. She wasn’t stupid, these three were planning to attack her or intimidate her. That was something she wasn’t going to put up with as she threw her hand out and claimed to be a fairy, her concentration slipping momentarily as she heard someone calling her name. The result causes her spell to fall apart and glitter to shoot out at the three and fall to the ground before even touching them.

“You call that magic? I’ll show you magic!” The one with the I laughed, creating ice crystals that Sunset jumped away from just as they turned into ice spears.

“And that is magic!” The one with the D said as she thrust out her hand, creating a dark energy that shattered the crystals and threw Sunset back. The fiery haired girl was starting to get pissed when the girl with an S stepped forward with a laugh.

“And this is magic!” the girl with the S said, throwing up her arms and making a tornado that lifted Sunset from the ground until she grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled herself from the whirlwind to fall back to the ground with a curse.

“Get down here!” The one with the I snarled as Sunset fell, stepping forward laughing. “And now the final touch.”

She didn’t even have a moment to prepare for a comeback as she was encased in ice just as Stella and the others rushed to her rescue. They changed into their fairy forms and worked together, stopping the ogre which filled Sunset with pride seeing how well they worked together to take the thing down. The ice blocked any sounds from reaching her though, but she could still see as the fairies moved toward the trio only to be knocked back by the one with the D with the same attack that knocked Sunset back a few minutes earlier. The one with the I stalked toward Flora who fell away from the others while they gathered behind a shield Tecna created as lightning from the one with the S advanced on them. Sunset didn’t need to hear what was going on to see the fear in Flora’s face.

With anger flooding her, Sunset transformed and shattered the ice and blocked the girl with the I emblem’s advance on Flora, making all three girls with emblems stare in shock. “I think you need to leave my friend alone.”

“So you are a dark fairy? Pathetic.” The girl with the I snorted, wincing in pain as Sunset clamped her hand on the girl’s wrist.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Sunset hissed, bringing her other hand up to the girl's stomach and shot a fireball at point blank range throwing the girl through the air with a pained cry.

“We are the Trix! You think you can stop us?” The one with the S screamed in rage.

“I would be intimidated.” Sunset said, narrowing her eyes at the curly haired girl before smirking. “Pffft, if you were intimidating. Thank you girls for the lesson on how to be weak, wannabe magic users. Let me show you what the flames of the sun can really do!”

“Sisters, I think we need to go.” The one with the D gasped out as flames whipped around Sunset before the fiery haired girl threw them at the three. Just before they hit, the three vanished along with the ogre.

“That was awesome, Sunset!” Musa cheered, lunging forward to hug the girl.

“We better get out of here ourselves.” Stella said as sirens could be heard approaching. Taking her staff, she swung it outward in an arc, teleporting the girls out of the alley and near the restaurant where they were eating earlier. It looked as if everyone was rushing to where they just came from to see what was going on. Sunset couldn’t help muse that even in a world of magic, people were too curious for their own good at times.

“I’m so sorry!” Flora sobbed out as she launched at a now detransformed Sunset, everyone dropping theirs as they appeared. The fiery haired girl awkwardly hugged the girl in a comforting manner as she sobbed out apology after apology as well as thanking her again and again for saving her from that witch making Sunset realize what she was facing. She didn’t think those three were a threat as there magic was a joke compared to her. Still, she would keep an eye out.

“I think we need to find another way to get the princess’s ring.” Stormy groaned as the three landed in their dorm at Cloud Tower. She couldn’t believe they just got beat by a fairy, dark or not. It wasn’t possible!

“No, we’re fine.” Icy smirked as she stood up, patting her stomach. “That so-called dark fairy is weak.”

“Sister, she didn’t seem weak to me!” Darcy gasped in shock. How could her sister claim that thing was weak?

“She didn’t aim to really hurt me or I’d be in the nurse’s station.” Icy grinned, “That was a weak concussive blast and I bet that fire was a scare tactic.”

“Icy, she almost cooked us!” Stormy growled out.

“No, she didn’t. She may have power, but she’s too weak to actually use it. I know her weaknesses! She doesn’t want to actually hurt somebody and she cares too much about her friends. With the right planning we can easily get around her or even manipulate her.”

“You think so?” Darcy asked, grinning a little herself as she realized that Icy may be onto something.

“Believe me sisters, I know so.” Icy grinned.

Author's Note

A big thanks to Sunny Scriber for editing this chapter.