Prologue

Two Years, 1 Week before Today

It was a blustery day at the city of Prance. A majority of the citizens were snuggled up in their beds, with no weakness from the cold.

Further down the suburbs, the Barn and Bailey Circus was beginning to pack up for their next city stop. Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Horses, even Merpony and Sleipnir were hard at work to get everything together.

One of the Horses stopped and turned towards what was the entrance. Two middle aged Earth Ponies, one a chartreuse mare with red hair and a hula hoop cutie mark and another a brown stallion with blue hair and a lion taming cutie mark, were walking towards him. Noticing the sad looks on their faces, the large stallion gave a deep hug to the mare.

After letting her go, the Horse lead the middle aged couple to a tent adorned with a cutie mark of two stars in a tango. When they entered the tent, they widened their eyes in shock. There was nopony there, the only evidence a pony was here was the hoofprints that scattered around the floor. One hoof print had a deeper mark than the others along with the imprint of a tummy.

“Dear Celestia…” - Loopty Hoop tried to hold back her tears- “Keep him safe…”

The Summer Before the Fall Formal

A more recent and much more warmer time, it is now a more civilized area with cars and trucks, buildings of brick, wood and iron. Among them is a school, one of the most respected of the town. Suddenly, the school bell rang, allowing the school students to leave. However, a group of them were grouped around one student.

“You better not spread your little disease, or I’ll be coming for you!” one shouted.

The name calling continued as a pair of black boots walked toward the group.

“Hey!”

The bullies turned around before jumping back a few feet. This was Sunset Shimmer, who was well known in these parts. The red and yellow haired girl obviously meant business.

“Every other hair you pick from him and you’ll be answering from me!”

The group ran as fast as they could, leaving behind a boy with yellow and purple hair. His body was bruised but in no way too badly wounded. The taller student walked up to him.

“You all right, kid?”

The boy strained himself into an upright position, “I, think so…” The boy stretched out his hand, revealing the source of the bullying; he had ectrodactyly, a condition commonly called “crab hands.” “Thank you…”

Sunset eyed the other way, then turned her back to him.

“Well, be careful next time.” She walked away, not aware that the boy gave her a “what-was-that-all-about” look.

Chapter 1: An Early Morning

It was Nine O’clock on a very cool morning in Ponyville. Cosgrove awoke from his evening slumber. He stretched his mouth as he let out a yawn.

“It’s time for school again…” he murmured as he stretched his hooves and dewclaws one by one, each with their own little pops. He hopped out of his bed with his left hoof reaching for his saddlebag when he suddenly flopped over to his right side, his right hind leg was still “asleep” from sleeping in an improper position. Shaking it awake, the colt made his way out the door when he heard a crunch under his hooves. He looked down at a new roll of newspaper. Stuffing it in his saddle bag, Cosgrove walked to school.

Never the first student to arrive, Cosgrove weaved through his crowding classmates as they said their daily departing from their older relatives. Rumble, after saying goodbye to Thunderlane, caught up to Cosgrove and the two responded with a bro-hoof.

The students sat in their chairs and began pulling items out of their saddlebags. Button Mash couldn’t bring his handheld consoles this time though at his mother’s discretion. Cosgrove again began sketching a costume.

Once the lunch bell rang, all the fillies and colts ran out of the building. Sitting in their preferred benches, they unpacked their lunches and began to eat.

Cosgrove unpacked his lunch just when the paper he received this morning dropped out of his saddlebag and revealed the front cover article. Lifting up the paper, the colt began reading. His eyes widened as he looked at the article.

“Aw sweet! The Circus is back in town.” Rumble rejoiced.

A few hours has passed before the end of the school bell rang. The students packed up their belongings and began walking out the door.

“Cosgrove, can I have a minute with you?”

The colt looked back at the source of the voice, none other than Ms. Cheerilee. After giving a brief bro-hoof to Rumble, Cosgrove walked over to the teacher.

“Yes Ms. Cheerilee?”

“You came from the Barn and Bailey Circus, is that correct?”

“Yes, mam. They are just coming back to town.”

“I usually don’t ask this, but would you give the class a tour of the Circus?” Those last few words, Cosgrove drew his ears back and eyed away from the teacher. Cheerilee knelt down, “I know that is asking much for someone-”

“No, no! I am honored. Really I am...” Cosgrove noticed Cheerilee giving a worried look before warming back up, “When are we going?”

Chapter 2: The Name's Cosgrove

Not much has happened since the Fall Formal. With help from the Mane Five, what would’ve taken a few years to repair the front foyer and the front courtyard was repaired in a few weeks. Snips and Snails have cut their ties with Sunset and have constantly begged Trixie to bring them back. But wounds still persist.

The bad moments Sunset has caused in the past have still been known throughout the school. Everywhere she walked, students either moved away in a huff or even said bad things about her out of earshot.

Such actions among the student body continued on at lunch. As Sunset approached the the tray cabinet, a student cut in line, took the tray and moved on. She took out a small serving of fruits and vegetables and sat with her new friends. There was an awkward silence between them.

“So, Sunset,” Rarity broke the silence, “How has your day been?”

Sunset stopped eating, then slouched forward, laying her head on her arms.

“Like any other…” She moaned, “I said I’m not the same anymore, why doesn’t anybody-”

She stopped to notice Pinkie Pie holding a dry erase board tallying each good and bad day since the Fall Formal. So far, the score wasn’t in her favor. The pink haired girl placed it back into her hair before giving an embarrassed grin. Sunset slumped her head again. Applejack moved to the other side of the table and wrapped her arm around Sunset.

“Sunset, let me tell you something my Granny told me,” Applejack began looking around the cafeteria, “Even if you pull out the bad nails in an old fence post, the damage will still be there. But you can always put better fence posts to make up the bad ones.”

“And the point of that is?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

Applejack scowled at Rainbow. “My point is, no one will care about you unless you prove yourself.”

Sunset raised her head up, “For the entire school?”

The rest of her friends became silent in their train of thought.

“Uhm… Maybe start small.” Fluttershy whispered.

Sunset raised herself back up on the table and watched as the Mane Five gave a reassuring smile before she returned a smile as well.

It was ten minutes before three in the afternoon when the school bell rang. The students began walking out of their classes and to their lockers. Again, the routine of “Shun the Sunset” carried on. The former inhabitant of Equestria eyed around as she walked down the hall.

“Start small, start small…” Sunset repeated herself as she walked by several groups of students. “With groups this big, what could be considered-” Suddenly she was bumped into causing textbooks to scatter the hallway floor. “Oh, I am sorry-” When she knelt down to pick them up, Sunset noticed something familiar about the clothes. Slowly she tilted her head up, revealing herself a familiar yellow skinned boy with purple hair on his head and lower jaw.

“Uhm… Hi?” The boy raised his hand, revealing a familiar condition.

Sunset snapped back into focus as she picked up the fallen books and stood up, towering him by half his body height.

“Sorry I bumped into you.” Sunset handed the books back.

The boy furrowed his brow. “Well, be careful next time.”

The snide remark struck her again. Sunset watched as the boy moved around her to his locker.

Upon reaching his locker, he placed the books he didn’t need and packed the ones he did need into his backpack. A thorough scan of the the locker later, he closed the locker, jumping in fright and falling flat on the floor at Sunset just standing behind the door.

“Do you remember me?” She crouched down to his height.

The boy, glaring at her, answered, “Well, let’s see, your face is one the wall three times in a row, you became some crazed bat lady, oh and let’s not forget how you just turned away after I said, “thank you” for saving my hide, so the better question is: do you know me?”

Sunset scratched her hair nervously, then lowered her head in defeat.

“No…” Sunset, her eyes still closed, slowly stretched out her hand “But I want to…”

The boy looked at her hand then at her face before grabbing her hand with his three-digit manus.

“Cosgrove.” Sunset’s opened wide at the sound of that name, “Name’s Cosgrove.”

Sunset pulled him up to his feet.

“Do you still want to talk?” Sunset asked of him

Cosgrove flipped out one of Sunset’s notebooks and wrote:

1988 Great Valley Avenue,
Estes Park, Colorado, 01954

“5 PM.” Cosgrove walked out of the building towards home.

Sunset’s face drew a big smile.

“Yes!” Sunset said excitedly as she did a win pose in front of everyone else. She blushed as they stared at her.

A few minutes before Five PM, Sunset arrived by bus to a suburban part of town. Compared to the houses in the neighborhood, Cosgrove’s house was much larger, with a massive set of windows in front, though the backward had a lot of dead trees. She walked up the door and gave it a few taps. She rocked back and forth on her boots before hearing the sounds of heavy footsteps approaching the door.

In front of her was an elderly man, around his 60’s, skin red with grey hair in as similar pattern to Cosgrove. His large height had Sunset feel intimidated.

The aged man fidgeted his glasses, “Can I help you?”

Sunset snapped back to reality again, “Uhm, yes, is Cosgrove home?”

“You must be the person he was talking about at school,” He stepped aside and motioned his arm towards the stairs, “Make yourself at home.”

Sunset walked up the carpeted stairs and stood at the windows in the family room. The way the sun began to set behind the tree line intrigued her. Everywhere else, it doesn’t become dark at the until well into 7 PM.

She furrowed her eyebrow as she felt something on her boots. Sunset looked down and yelped onto the violet-red chair. It was a monitor lizard with similar colorations to the elderly man, but with lighter stripes on it’s back. The animal flicked it’s tongue, detecting the unusual heat signature Sunset is displaying despite being in a human form.

“I see you’ve met Schnookums.” Sunset looked and found Cosgrove leaning on the wall, arms crossed, before walking over to the monitor lizard and lifted him up. Sunset cowered back as Schnookums’ face was at her level. “Don’t worry, he only eats the mice in the house.” He placed the reptile down on the carpet and nudge him away. He pointed one of his fingers to the kitchen before walking into said room.

Sunset sat at the table before taking a sniff. She turned her attention to two crockpots hard at work to heat up whatever the scent belongs to.

“Whatever you’re cooking is gonna be good.” Sunset smiled at the thought before turning to Cosgrove. “What are you making?”

Cosgrove was just about to open a lid when he turned his head to her, “Kale and bison stew.”

The fire haired girl shot her eyes open. There are after all bison in Equestria, and the irony of it all, the majority of the duplicates in this world also eat flesh. She just stared into the horizon, one of her eyes twitching at the thought when a steaming green bowl was placed in front of her.

“Which is why I made a meatless batch.” Cosgrove added before walking to his side of the table and sat down.

“So, have you lived here all your life?” Sunset asked curiously while fiddling a fork in the bowl.

“Actually, I was born in Ashley Valley, Utah. But my family moved here to get away from the heat.” Cosgrove lifted the meat-chunked fork, took a bite, then raked it clean off the utensil.

Sunset paid close attention to his hands; The amazing ability to still hold a fork and write with three fingers on each hand amazes her. But remembering when she first found the freshman student being beaten up, Sunset curled back.

“Have you ever thought of… getting those operated?”

Cosgrove stopped his hand and looked at his older peer. A silence made Sunset uneasy. That didn’t last long when a sound rang in his pockets. Cosgrove took out a relatively archaic cell phone for this day and age, flipped up the cover and answered it.

“Thunderfoot Residence,” A moment of silence “Well… Is Dad going to come over soon? ...Oh… I see… No, no… I’ll be fine. ...I love you too. Bye.” Cosgrove hung up the phone and continued to eat.

Sunset cocked her head, “You’re alone aren’t you?”

“Well, my parents are police officers.”

The former unicorn widened her eyes.

“P-police officers?” Cosgrove nodded. “But shouldn’t one of them be at home with you?”

“Yes. But you see, my dad was a former SWAT officer. But always placed his own safety below that of the mission. When they removed him from the force, he became a cop instead and always took on cases lasting several weeks.” Cosgrove placed the fork down. “Mom would try to be at home here and there, but duty calls her.”

Sunset moved her index finger back and forth on the table, an uneasy look on her face.

“Do you ever worry that they might… you know…” She notices the boy furrowing his eyebrow at his bowl of stew. She rises up out of the table. “I’m sorry-”

“No,” Cosgrove raised a hand. “No, I know what you mean, but you’re not alone on that thought.” He looks at the windows as the city is swallowed in night. “It is late, better to come home before it gets too cold.”

Sunset stood up and began walking towards the staircase before turning around. “See you tomorrow?”

Cosgrove approved with a nod. As soon as she left his house, Cosgrove took out his phone again and began texting.

“But not by myself this time.” He added.