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Goodnight Sunset, Good Morning Sunrise

by Twilight Nightmare

Chapter 1: Rock Bottom-Part 1 Sunset's Week

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‘I hate my life…’ Was the prevalent thought coursing through Sunset Shimmer’s mind as she took one painful step after another. She no longer had anything but the clothes on her back consisting of a dirty black skirt with several rips along the bottom hemline and an old tee, one of her oldest shirts that was white with her cutie mark printed across the front proudly reminding her where she came from though now she wished she was still there. Her boots was actually in better condition that her clothing and kept her lower legs warmed, but she couldn’t help wishing for anything such as tights, stockings or even hose to provide even a little warmth in the chill night air. At least her now mostly ruined leather jacket provided some warmth for her upper body, even if she was still hugging herself trying to warm herself.

The weather wasn’t the reason she was chilling so much, it was the fact that she had finally hit rock bottom and knew it. She had no other choices but accept the offer that some sleezeball offered her earlier in the week. It was something she had never dreamed she would be forced into and it was killing her on the inside. She had nowhere else to turn though as not one person wanted her around after what she had done…and she couldn’t blame them. If she was honest with herself then she didn’t really want herself around either.

Painfully taking one step after another, she forced herself to cross the road in the worse section of Canterlot. It was on the outskirts of town where drug sellers and prostitutes could be found on almost every other corner. It was also the location of where she would possibly be working from now on as neon lights washed over her illuminating some of the darkness.

For what seemed like the thousandth time over the last week she found herself crying as she looked up at the vulgar looking signs. Neon lights glowed brightly, taking the shape of a woman’s body reminding Sunset once again just what he place was. It was what some people called a gentleman’s club…but it was much worse than that. It was a strip joint that catered to the darker side of things with rumors of drugs and the exchange of money for favors running rampant throughout the area…yet nobody stopped it.

There was no one to stop the things that went on inside of the building…and no one to stop her from being forced by circumstances to come here seeking the owner who promised her a job. A job that he promised would only be stripping, but no matter how much she told herself that she could believe him…a small voice inside of her cried out that it was a lie…that if she set foot inside that door things would spin faster out of control than she could handle and she would be trapped.

Not that she wasn’t already trapped…

Once again she tried to think of a reason not to kill herself, but she couldn’t really find anything…just a voice that seemed to beg her not to give up hope just yet…

6 DAYS AGO…FRIDAY…

Sunset crawled from the deep crater in the ground she found herself in, the pain every movement caused as well as the confusion sweeping through her entire being make tears flow as if they were twin rivers.

“You will never rule in Equestria.” Twilight had said advancing on Sunset who looked up in fear, knowing who this person…who this pony was though to her it was more like a dream. She could see everything going on, knew everything that she did, yet to her it was as if someone else was doing it. It was like she didn’t have control of her body until…now. It felt like she was being punished for the sins of someone else…yet she knew they were her sins. “And any power that you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight you’ve shown everyone who you really are. You’ve shown them all what is in your heart.”

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…I didn’t know there was another way!” Sunset sobbed out, meaning every word since she didn’t. For so long all that was inside of her was hate and anger, something that fueled everything she did even if she wanted to deny she did it. She wanted to claim that it wasn’t her…yet it was…wasn’t it? She had did it…every single, hateful and hurtful thing…she was a monster…

“The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria…it’s everywhere.” Twilight had said waving her hand behind her where the only thing Sunset saw was the mistrust and nervous shuffling of the girls that helped stop her. Only Fluttershy looked down at her in pity for her, a spark of something in the shy girl’s eyes. Twilight never noticed any of this though as she continued, “You can seek it our or you can forever be alone…the choice is yours.”

“But all I’ve done since I’ve been here is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship!” Sunset sobbed out, shaking as Twilight gave her an encouraging smile while helping her to her feet.

“Then I’m sure the girls would be happy to help teach you.” Twilight said, giving an encouraging smile while the girls surrounding her all seemed to shake their heads once again being missed by Twilight. The only person who wasn’t looking at Sunset as if she was a monster was the one who probably had the most reason to see her as one, Fluttershy…

Sunset watched as Celestia approached drawing all of them except Sunset away from the now ruined main entrance of the school. Watching everyone move away from her, most of them shooting hateful glares her way, Sunset couldn’t help feeling more alone than she had ever been in her life. Sure she felt alone before now, but the dark negative emotions filling her being until now filled that void. Now there was a huge voice inside of her that felt as if it would swallow her up at any moment.

“I hope you know how to use one of these.” A very angry sounding vice-principal Luna growled out, Snips and Snails following the older woman with venom filled glares for Sunset. It reminded Sunset that she may not have been alone as she thought as she had the boys, but seeing the look in their eyes made her swallow nervously. She had lost any chance of salvaging her relationship with her cronies who she should have treated as friends instead of lapdogs.

“I…you can’t be serious…” Sunset sputtered out. Did this woman actually expect a teenager, a teenage girl to know how to do construction work?

“I am very serious Miss Shimmer. You and your friends will be cleaning this up the rest of the night until the dance ends.” Luna snarled, getting into Sunset’s face scaring the girl a little. She had never seen the vice-principal this angry before…then again angry didn’t even begin to describe the levels of rage the woman was feeling if the angry flush and hate filled eyes was any indication.

“And then?” Sunset asked, feeling afraid of this woman for some reason.

“And then you better watch your step.” Luna snapped before spinning around and stomping off. Sunset couldn’t help watching in shock until Snips stomped on her foot as the two boys walked by pushing a wheel barrel making her cry out in pain.

“Oops, sorry about the Sunset.” Snails laughed out, the sneer on his face saying he didn’t mean it one bit.

“Look guys, I’m sorry for…everything…” Sunset sighed, looking hopefully at the two boys who only glared back.

“Save it, we don’t want to hear it.” Snips growled out shocking Sunset. Not to be mean to them, but just when did they grow a spine? For as long as she knew them they had done everything in their power to please her, but now that she had fallen from grace they were rejecting her. She couldn’t help wonder if they ever cared about her or if they only cared about being powerful as Sunset’s attack dogs.

Sighing, Sunset stared at the oddly looking tool that looked almost like a long triangle made of metal with a handle. It truth she didn’t really have any idea what to do with it so she dropped it on the ground and with a heavy heart started picking up the mess she created.

4 DAYS AGO…MONDAY…

The morning, as usual on Monday’s, was a pain to Sunset as she went about her morning routine getting ready for school. After showering and washing some clothes off in the bathroom sink, she hung them up around the room with most of it draping off the shower rod. The apartment was pretty small, an efficiency really that had the most basic of essentials. There was only one room and a bathroom, though a small fridge and microwave was provided. Not that she had any food anyways, you need a job to have money to buy food after all when not bullying others.

After pulling on a skirt and shirt that had seen better days, she looked at her jacket regretfully again. It was damaged beyond repair which was a shame since the air was a little crisp out, but she wanted to get to school early. If she was going to be expected to work on the stupid school entrance that she wrecked, she wanted to make sure to get breakfast first. Once again she was happy that the school provided free breakfast and lunch to the less fortunate students.

After making sure the door was locked behind her, Sunset stuffed the key in her purse before heading down to the bus stop. She was debating taking some of the money from her savings to just buy something to eat and avoid the cafeteria, but she only had enough for rent this month and the landlord would not allow any late or partial payments. It was the last of her money from stockpiling stolen lunch money and gifts from the few guys wanting to date her after breaking up with Flash. Now that she was trying to turn over a new leaf, which a part of her wondered why she should even bother. She needed to save the money though and intended to look for a job, keeping the money hidden under her mattress until she needed it.

“Hello, Miss Shimmer.” The bus driver said, his voice cold as he looked down from his perch in the driver seat as Sunset pulled herself up into the city bus. Looking at him she couldn’t help regretting the pain she caused him by blackmailing him for free rides. Not that he made it difficult to get blackmail material after he cheated on his wife, but now that Sunset was trying to understand what exactly was wrong with herself, she just couldn’t bring herself to keep doing so.

“Hi Mister Fastlane.” Sunset said softly, pulling an envelope from her purse and handed it to him.

“More blackmail?” Mister Fastlane snarled as he took the package making Sunset shake her head.

“No…I mean it is blackmail material. All of it actually.” Sunset said as she avoided looking into his eyes. “I won’t be blackmailing you again…I’m really sorry I did it to begin with. If you please drop me off by the school as usual I promise I’ll pay you as soon as I can. I’m going to the mall tonight to try and get a job.”

“Are you serious?” Mister Fastlane asked, his face turning red in anger as he breathed heavily while studying Sunset. Eventually he finally let out a long, drawn out sigh. “Fine, just take a seat. Don’t worry about paying me anything.”

“Thank you.” Sunset said as she hurried down the mostly empty bus, ignoring the strange looks the few people there was giving her. She recognized some of the faces though she didn’t really know them. They were mostly the regulars on the bus at this time of day before the bus started getting packed.

Dropping into an empty bench like seat she hugged her bag to herself and watched out the window. The cool glass felt good against the bare skin of her cheek as she leaned up against it. She was dreading going to school today since she was sure most, if not all, of the student body would be against her. She intended to apologize to all of them, just as she had apologized to the bus driver after thinking about it all weekend. She wasn’t sure how it got out of control…well that wasn’t entirely true. She remembered when she had found those books on dark magic. They promised her a way to contact the only other alicorn that she knew of, besides from Cadence and Celestia.

The spell was laughably simple to pull off for a unicorn as powerful as she was, only it didn’t just open a line of communication to Nightmare Moon. Something had happened, a dark shadow was pulled from the magic circle she created and seduced her with promises of power if she let the thing feed off her emotions. She wasn’t stupid, but she couldn’t really see how that could have been bad really. How could letting something feed off your emotions actually hurt you?

It did hurt her though, it flowed into her eyes and mouth, choking her and making her cry. It somehow possessed her, filling her with so many negative emotions such as jealousy, hatred, resentment and finally a sense of entitlement beyond that of even that fool Blueblood. She did try going to Celestia once just after it happened, but something prevented her from telling her mentor. Something was telling her so many things, such as being shunned if she told any pony, as well as somehow asserting some kind of power blocking her from seeking help.

Since then her anger and hatred for every pony and everyone around her grew. It was little things at first, but at time went on it grew worse and worse. Up until the time she ran to this world and took over the school using blackmail and fear. She was slowly drowning in the darkness until Twilight Sparkle had saved her. She hated the princess so much for what she had done, yet she also loved her so much for giving her this second chance. She thought it was undeserved though.

“Hey kid, this is your stop.” The bus driver called back as the bus jerked to a stop. She kind of hated that, hated the way the vehicle had practically no suspension. Every turn it made caused her to slide back and forth on the cheap vinyl seats. Every single bump was felt by everyone on board, making her bounce some…making parts of her antimony to bounce a little despite wearing a bra, which drew some people’s attention.

In some ways she was proud of her body, back in Equestria she was known as both smart and beautiful. Here it the human world, she was still smart, though some classes she had trouble with because she mixed Equestria’s closely related subject matter up with the humans. She was still beautiful by human standards, heck she was downright sexy which helped her control the hormone fueled boys.

It was also sometimes a pain in the neck as she sometimes got a lot more attention than she wanted at times. There was also the fact that some idiots seemed to have the belief that the bigger the bra size, the lower the IQ. What kind of human came up with that she had no idea, but if she ever got a hold of them she would make them regret it. It was these times she hated her body, sometimes actually feeling a little ashamed when teachers or some of the braver, or dumber, students implied that something was beyond her grasp. It…hurt to be honest. It hurt to be disregarded just because she was naturally gifted in more ways than one.

“Thanks.” Sunset said, giving the driver a smile as she got up from the bench seat and walked by him. She sopped though when he grabbed her hand, making her look back questioningly.

“Thank you, for giving me this stuff. I don’t know what’s going on, I can see something is, but I’m not really the best person to talk to.” The driver said giving her a sympathetic look. “Your school is supposed to have a very good counselor, maybe you should go speak to them.”

“I might do that.” Sunset said softly, actually meaning it as she smiled in gratitude to the man. It felt weird to be able to do so after so long, to actually mean being nice and not acting. With the hate and anger gone from her system, with that dark spirit gone, she felt almost like a new person.

“Good, you do that. And if you need a ride home, I’ll give you a lift for free.” The driver said making Sunset nod as he let go of her. The look he gave her made her feel so good as she disembarked the bus, it made her feel hopeful for things to come. If he accepted her apology, then maybe everyone else might actually give her a chance.

It didn’t take too long to make her way across the school’s campus, coming close to statue that housed the portal in front of the main entrance. Several men were working on laying brick, repairing the damage she had caused. A very upset looking Vice-Principal Luna stomped towards Sunset making the girl’s hoped fall, a look of worry crossing her face.

“You! Do you know how much this is going to cost the school?” Luna demanded, shoving Sunset’s shoulder, making the girl gasp in surprise that the woman would do something like that. It didn’t look like the woman slept well though as she glared at the teen.

“I’m sorry.” Sunset said softly, almost resembling Fluttershy as she tried to hide behind her long hair.

“Not yet you aren’t, I doubt you ever will be!” Luna snarled, so much anger filling her as she stared down at Sunset. “You are very lucky young woman that my sister is covering for you. I would rather have called the cops and sent you to jail, but in her never ending quest to let little delinquents like you take advantage of her, my sister deemed to give you another chance. She wouldn’t let me expel you, but I am suspending you for the week.”

“No…please, don’t.” Sunset begged, seeing her only real source for food vanishing into thin air. If she was suspended and not allowed on campus, she couldn’t get her free breakfast and lunch.

“Get away from me, and if I see you on school property this week at all, I will call the cops no matter how my sister feels about it!” Luna yelled at her making Sunset take a step back before spinning on her heel and running as fast as she could, without falling, away from the enraged woman.

She didn’t stop until she was a couple blocks away from the school, standing in front of Sugarcube Corner. She wanted to cry at being chased away like that, feeling so defeated as she looked up at the garishly pink building decorated like some demented witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel. She hadn’t really had any real food since Friday night, looking forward to getting her breakfast this morning. Now she had no way to not only get breakfast now, she had no way to get lunch either, or either one for a whole week. She would have to dip into her savings at this rate, but she needed that for rent.

“Hello dearie, shouldn’t you be at school?” Mrs. Cake asked as she carried a sidewalk sign out advertising the shops daily specials.

“I kind of got suspended.” Sunset explained, looking up at the woman. She was a little shocked that this woman was being nice to her after what happened with Luna, then remembered that while she knew the woman’s name, neither of them knew the other. Sunset often avoided the place since Pinkie Pie worked there and it was a popular hangout for many of the students.

“Whatever for dearie.” Mrs. Cake asked in shock, looking the girl over.

“Because I messed up big time, but…I want to fix it. I guess I can’t now until next week, but…I need a job. I don’t suppose…are you hiring by chance?” Sunset asked, pleading the woman for anything with her eyes.

“Well, we could use a little extra help I suppose, but we can’t pay much.” Mrs. Cake said, giving the girl a sympathetic look. “We can offer minimum wage, tips and free meals for a few hours during the lunch rush while you are suspended. Then we can talk about your work schedule when you can go back to school if your parents are okay with it. What’s your name dearie, I’m Mrs. Cake.”

“Sunset, my name’s Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset said softly, flinching as an angry look crossed the woman’s face.

“The same Sunset Shimmer that has tormented my niece for the last year?” Mrs. Cake growled out.

“Y-Yes Ma’am.” Sunset whimpered out as she took a step back.

“Forget it, I’m not giving a job to you. Is this some kind of sick joke? What are you planning to do to my poor niece now?” Mrs. Cake demanded, “Actually, just go! I don’t want you on our property!”

“I…I’m sorry!” Sunset cried as she turned and ran again, not noticing the shocked look on the older woman’s face. She didn’t hear the woman’s cries for her to come back either as she fled the angry woman who had every right to hate Sunset.

For the next hour Sunset wandered aimlessly around, not really paying attention to where she was going. After trying to decide what to do, while trying to fight off the hunger that was only growing, she decided to not let the first failure get her down. Instead she headed the few blocks to the mall after realizing just how close she had ended up to it. Surely there was a place in there to find work, she would do anything.

Anything turned out to be a bigger problem than she thought several hours later. Actually she wasn’t too sure how long it had been, but seeing students start to filter into the mall made her realize it was a lot longer than she expected. It didn’t matter now though, every place she went to turned her away. Some told her to get out as soon as she entered being friends or family of people Sunset had blackmailed or hurt. Others had heard only bad things about her through mall gossip of teens and when they heard her name they also turned her away. Not one place would give her a chance, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

Milling through the crowd, heading towards the exit through the foodcourt, Sunset spotted the group of girls who were supposed to be giving her a chance. The girls who were supposedly tp teach Sunset how to be a good friend and how to turn away from her destructive path of power. The way they were arguing though made her wonder how a group of friends that were arguing so much actually teach her to be a better friend? Slowly Sunset made her way over to where the group was sitting, overhearing their conversation the closer she got.

“I’m telling you girls that she is different!” Fluttershy said, her voice louder than Sunset would have imagined with her shy attitude.

“Well, I sure as heck am not going to just believe that girl can turn over a new leaf so easily.” Applejack said, eating a soft pretzel that made Sunset’s mouth water.

“I agree with AJ, Sunset is more trouble that she’s worth.” Rainbow Dash agreed.

“While I must agree to some extent darling, it isn’t lady like to at least give her the benefit of the doubt.” Rarity said, “Still, I don’t want to give her a chance to stab me in the back either.”

“Maybe she just needs a party!” Pinkie Pie cheered making the other girls, minus Fluttershy, all roll their eyes at the suggestion.

Sunset didn’t care though, she had heard enough. The only one from the group that seemed to want to give her a chance was Fluttershy…and maybe Pinkie Pie. The others wanted nothing to do with her apparently, so Sunset once again found herself running, tears falling the entire way out of the mall.

She didn’t stop running until she was several blocks away from the mall, unsure of why it hurt her so much. Sure she wanted to be friends with them, but she wasn’t sure if she really completely expected it. She tore their friendship apart, there was no denying that, which meant that she may not even deserve another chance anyways. Just because Princess Twilight Sparkle said they would help her didn’t mean that they would.

It was dark by the time she walked home, her feet killing her from the long trek. She could have headed to the bus stop by the school, but she just didn’t feel like being around anyone right now. She just wanted to get home and just sleep the rest of the night away in hopes for a better tomorrow. What she didn’t expect to find was ‘monster,’ ‘demon whore,’ and ‘bully trash’ spray painted across her broken door and her landlord and his bodyguard waiting for her.

“I want the rent now, Shimmer.” The landlord demanded, handing his hand out expecting her to just hand it over. She had plenty of time though to pay it, so she wasn’t sure why he was pushing for it to be paid now. The balding, overweight man watched her waiting for something.

“What happened to my place?” Sunset asked, feeling a little intimidated by the way the big man, the landlord’s bodyguard, was letting his eyes roam over her body while grinning.

“My place was broken into and vandalized by a bunch of snot nosed punks. Since you are renting it, you are responsible for it and the rent. I want double your rent right now to repair the place, or you can get out.” The landlord sneered, the greed clear in his eyes.

“What? You can’t do that!” Sunset gasped out, she barely had enough for the rent, but there was no way she could get double.

“Well then sweet cheeks, you have ten minutes to get your stuff and get out.” The gruff, muscular man snorted. His bald head seemed to glean from the little bit of light coming from the security light. The way his shirt fit, it looked like it would rip any second with the way it stretched around his muscles. Sunset had to smack his hand away when he reached out to caress her cheek with the back of his hand. “Unless you want to make other arrangements. You know, I have been feeling a little lonely.”

“Not in a million years, pig!” Sunset snapped out at the jerk who was now openly leering at her.

“Fine then girlie, if you don’t want to play, then you have five minutes. Get what you want and get out!” The big guy chuckled, seeming assured that her would get Sunset to do whatever he wanted.

“I’ll be out in three!” Sunset snapped shocking the man and stomping into her apartment. She refused to let these creeps see her tears, not that she had many left after the long day she had. Seeing the devastation upon entering the splintered door almost made her lose all resolve. She had some decent clothes, gifts from Flash and a few others she actually had been close to at one time or another. Almost everything was scattered across the floor, cut up with a knife by the looks of it. Not even her shoes escaped the devastation, not that she had that many to begin with.

“Two minutes left, girlie, unless you want to rethink my offer.” The gruff bodyguard said. Refusing to even dignify that with a response, Sunset grabbed her duffel bag which thankfully escaped the devastation. Digging through her clothes she finally found a couple clean sets of underwear and a couple changes of clothing. Stuffing them into the bag, she went to her mattress, just now noticing how it wasn’t even with the box spring anymore. Fear gripped her heart as she kneeled down beside it and pushed up enough to look under it. The money was gone.

“Where is my money?” Sunset demanded as she turned to look at the hulking form of the bodyguard standing over her.

“Don’t even pull that with me, girlie.” The bodyguard growled, grabbing Sunset’s bag and purse in one hand, yanking her up by her upper arm with the other. She struggled to get lose, but even with her higher than average strength, the steroid freak dragged her roughly from the apartment. She was already feeling shocked at everything, but she wasn’t prepared to be thrown down on the ground and her bags tossed at her. “Go on, get out of here.”

“What about my money?” Sunset whimpered as she pulled her bags to her, looking up with teary eyes at the man glaring down at her.

“If you had any money, it would be where you put it. I see trash like you all the time come through here, thinking they can claim they have money with no proof. If you used a bank like a normal person, then you idiots wouldn’t have to worry about it.” The man said, pulling a knife from his back pocket and idly pointed at Sunset.

“I hope you trip on your stupid knife!” Sunset sobbed as she grabbed her bags and jumped to her feet to run off. Her feet were killing her, but she was too scared to stay there any longer. That man looked like he wanted to hurt her, and he didn’t care how he did it.

It was already late though, and with no money other than maybe a few dollars in her purse, she didn’t have anything she could do. No way to get a room for the night at even the cheapest hotel, and nobody to turn to to beg a couch to crash on. She was alone, completely and utterly alone in the world.

As she cut through the park she noticed that the hiking trail had a lot of trees and no signs of anyone going back through the bushes. It was warm enough out tonight that she supposed it couldn’t hurt. Slowly she made her way back through the bushes, walking around several dozen trees until she could no longer see the trail. Finding a spot with a good patch of grass, Sunset sat down on the ground. Using the duffel bag as a pillow, she laid down and hugged her purse to her. After a few minutes she couldn’t hold it back any longer as one sob after another racked her body. The last thought before she could get to sleep was, “How much worse can things get?”

Next Chapter: Rock Bottom-Part 2 Sunset's Week Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 35 Minutes
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