Screaming echoed in her ears. Frustration and anger boiling beneath her fur. Hatred. Unending hatred and fury. The world was dark bar a soft golden light filtering through the gloom, and it angered her. Echoes. Pain. The air itself felt ready to tear her apart, scratching at her sides and burrowing into shallow, nonexistent cuts. The shadows watched, prodded. Turned her over, pushed and examined. They wanted something from her. No. They wanted her.

Screaming. Familiar voices. Echoes. Pain. She whimpered. A weakness. She couldn't stop herself. She was scared. The shadows exploited, pressing in around her thoughts. Ears. Her ears flattened, and the screaming quietened, the pressure on her thoughts easing. Eyes, the light. Follow the light. The gold was dim, distant. But it was there. Shadows flitted through it, but never stayed. Legs. Her legs churned in nothing, the thick and sticky black slowing her down despite the lack of anything there.

Screaming. Louder, despite her flattened ears. Another cut at her side, another shove away from the light. Moving, keep moving. A shadow lurched, deep inside her. She didn't want to be the shadow. Horn. Magic curled around her, and the darkness stilled as she pushed onwards. The light growing gradually brighter. Close, almost out.

A darkness in the shadows. Distant, but close. Close, but distant. It was darting straight for her, at impossible speed. But she was too far, and simultaneously too close. It wouldn't reach her, until it would. The light, right there. She reached out, touched-

Sunset Shimmer awoke gasping for breath, her heart pounding in her ears. Her eyes flew open, examining every corner of the room as her ears folded back to block out the - the something. She couldn't remember what. She shivered, and as she began to calm, the pounding of her heart was replaced with the pounding of her head and she fell back onto the pillow with a groan. She reached out for the glass of water on her table, pushing it towards herself with one hoof before grasping it in her shivering front hooves and lifting it to her mouth to drink, deciding against using magic for the sake of her head.

Once the glass was drained, Sunset sat up once more, slowly this time, trying to gauge where and when she was. The curtains were pulled shut, but an orange glow filtered through the white fabric, indicating the morning had arrived. In terms of the former, she was in a hotel. Probably. Hopefully. Though she didn't remember returning to the room after the previous night, she couldn't say she was surprised considering she couldn't remember much of the night itself. A shaky breath signalled her stabilising heart, and Sunset deepened the motion, feeling a soft wave of calm flowing over her slowly.

Mouth dry once more, Sunset slowly slipped out of the bed, clutching the glass in her magic despite the pressure it placed on her head and made her way to the bathroom attached to the bedroom, quickly slipping the glass under one tap as she stuck her hooves under the other, feeling the cold water run over them before she pressed them into her face, feeling the cool water held to her hooves by her magic release and rush down, back to the sink. Turning off the taps, she lifted the glass again to her lips, staring silently into the mirror.

Her mane was a mess, plagued by fuzzy or slightly out-of-place hairs that would be sure to send any designer into a fit. Her eyes seemed dark, and they carried the tell-tale bags of exhaustion despite the nights rest. There was a shadow over her-

Sunset span in place, horn charging as she searched in vain for the cause of the shadow. There was nothing. Slowly, she turned back to the mirror, but now there was no shadow.

I must be going crazy.

She blinked a few times, wearing the tiredness out of her eyes before finally turning to leave the bathroom, glass in magic. Sighing, she rested it on the table before picking up the newspaper that had been slid under her door and skimming through it, though she was interrupted by a groan from the bedroom. She blinked, raising her head, for a moment unsure.

Am I actually crazy?

She was answered a moment later as Radiant Hope trotted into the room, eyes unfocused and mane fuzzied from sleep.

'Hope?'

'Sunset?'

A pause.

'H- How much did we drink last night?'

'I have no idea. I mean, you drank more than me.'

'And how much did you drink?'

'Too much.'

'Oh.'

Pause.

'Did you bring me here?'

'Yeah, then you asked me to stay here for the night with you, because of the dark.'

'Oh, right. That makes sense.'

'Why are you still here anyway?'

'What do you mean?'

'You have a lesson with Celestia in the Manehattan Centr-'

Sunset's eyes widened, and she was up in a shot, hangover forgotten, pulling her saddlebags and textbooks to her as her horn channeled the magic flowing through her body, forming in a bright teal light at the tip before pushing forth in a large orb that formed around both Sunset and Hope, the latter watching happily as Sunset rapidly spun the calendar spell around, searching for the current day.

'Saturday, Saturday, Saturday - ooh! Severyana!'

She didn't have any attachments to Severyana; but the old harmonic political system there had been extremely unique before their integration into Equestria, followed by the Stalliongrad Revolution in Princessyn, and the rumours of a surviving Princess -

Never a dull lesson about Severyana.

Sunset let go of the calendar, and the motes of light that had formed it either fizzled out or drifted steadily to the ground, with Hope batting playfully at one. With that done, she quickly swapped her textbooks for the lesson, and then took another look at Hope, who was staring at her with a smile on her muzzle.

'What's the time?'

'Uhh- half pas-'

Sunset squeaked before disappearing in a flash of teal. Hope blinked before picking up a croissant and a cup of coffee that she'd set before she left the bedroom, waiting in place. Sunset reappeared.

'Hope, I-'

'Croissant. Coffee. Go.'

Sunset's eyes lit up, and she bounded forward, giving Hope a quick nuzzle as she grabbed the offered items in her own magic.

'Honestly, Hope. You're a lifesaver.'

'Don't I know it, Sunset.'

Sunset smiled again, wrapping her hooves around Hope for a brief hug before releasing and using her magic to brush a stray strand of Hope's mane back into place, then stepped back and disappeared once more, leaving a mildly blushing Hope with a large smile on her face. After a moment, she shook her head, turning to get another cup of coffee.

Reappearing once more in the lobby, Sunset took a bite out of the croissant as she exited, wincing slightly as the light assaulted her eyes, and looked around at the morning crowds. To her left was a group gathered around a street performer of some kind, while to her right was a large queue for the taxi carriages that were always busy in the city. Sunset sighed slightly before deciding against trying to muscle to the front, instead electing to enjoy a brisk walk to the library. There was a chance she'd be a little bit late for her lesson, but given that Celestia didn't have day court to hold in Manehattan, she figured it would be fine either way.

The Manehattan Central Library was a grand building on a bad day; so on a good day such as it was, it was equal parts awe-inspiring and humbling, and an even better reminder that Earth Ponies brought just as much to Equestria as Pegasi or Unicorns. Standing out in a sea of grey, the front face of the building, containing the main entrance, was guarded by two large statues depicting the guardians of Tartarus and Elysium; Cerberus, the three headed dog, and Kronos, the first of the phoenixes.

The main entrance of the building was mostly made of a warm red brick combined with terracotta, with marble pillars holding up the large overhang that was part of the second floor. Sunset heard muttering before she could enter, and, looking around, saw ponies looking up, which was promptly followed by a familiar call.

Sunset smiled and sat back, raising a hoof for Princess Celestia's pet phoenix, and Sunset's favourite animal, Philomena, to land on. She ignored the turning heads as the phoenix landed on her outstretched hoof with a purring warble, and she reached her other hoof to scratch under the firebirds chin, rewarding herself with a happy chirp and a nuzzle. Raising Philomena to her shoulder, Sunset dropped back onto all four hooves as the bird hopped around to lay on top of her head.

'Come on, ya goofball. We've gotta find the princess.'

Three trills.

'Third floor? Thank you!'

Sunset felt the vibrations of the purr in her mane, and her smile widened further as she pushed open the library doors with her magic.

Inside the library was just as grand, with the main entrance opening to a large desk area where several librarians were on standby, which further housed a large fireplace in the centre, though it was enchanted to not burn, only heat. The building had a fuzzy grey carpet, that, though thoroughly trodden, still felt nice underhoof, and most notably were the rows and rows of floor to ceiling mahogany bookshelves filled with the brightly and faded colours of countless books. Scattered around were various staircases leading to the second floor, and the centre of the room had no roof, allowing you to see up to the third floor of the library.

Sunset let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and Philomena took off from Sunset's head, leaving a golden trail as she swooped up to hover between the first and second floor, looking back at Sunset with a tilted head. She smirked.

'It is on, fireball.'

Sunset wasted no time, quickly teleporting into the air to tap a surprised Philomena before teleporting again, landing on a staircase headed to the third floor in front of a pair of Pegasi who looked back at her in surprise. Sunset quickly hopped past them using the staircase banister as a launching board, and then rushing up to the top, where she quickly searched for the Royal Guards - a surefire sign of Celestia's presence. Philomena appeared next to her, shooting her a dirty look before speeding off towards the guards on the far side of the room. Sunset took a quick judge of distance before making a running leap, floating for a moment over the open space in the centre of the library as her magic charged, and then she was across, tumbling forward in a roll past the guards, and coming to a stop lying flat on her belly at the same time as Philomena landed next to her.

'It seems to me you two tied again.'

'Aw come on, really?! I could've sworn I was faster this time!'

Philomena protested Sunset's judgement, at least as much as a phoenix can, and then hopped up onto Celestia's back as the Princess chuckled lightly.

'Now then, I believe we have a lesson to get to? Severyana?'

Sunset, despite herself, let out a small squee, tippy-tapping in place with a smile.

Author's Note

holy shit a chapter?!??! IM NOT DEAD?!?!
No no, I know, I know, I'm terrible at updates. Well. I'm not as bad as some works out there, but I feel like I need to write a lot more than I actually do, and it has an effect on me. It's partially why the Daily Ticket has been on hold recently, just me trying to both mentally recover and recover my writing groove, as it were.
I might keep TDT on hold for a while still, but I'm writing down the words so I do intend to catch up eventually.
In other news! I'm planning on posting a link to the Spotify playlist which contains all the songs inspiring a posted fic, which will probably end up in this authors notes at some point. Fic wise, I've got so many little ones planned and resisting the urge to write them is mildly maddening, but the worst part is is that there's several that I actually have no idea how to write and it PAINS ME URGH
anyway, Thanks for reading as always, I hope you enjoyed, please consider checking out some of my other works.
I LOVE YOU ALL GOODNIGHT<3