Sunset spent most of her days off catching up on sleep. She hadn’t realized how the stress of the whole situation had hit her until she was able to sleep nearly twenty four hours. It was a bit worrying but she had to admit she hadn’t felt so relaxed in ages.

The only thing niggling in the back of her mind was the journal. She wanted to use it. But at the same time she wondered what Twilight would tell her. There was no use convincing her otherwise the deal was already done. Honestly, Sunset didn’t want to be convinced otherwise either. She wanted to believe she made the right choice for her.

So she shoved the journal out of her thoughts.

Christmas was spent alone. She left one little gift for the people who were letting her stay. She was grateful to them for being so lenient on her pay. She just had to scrounge together some money at the first of the month. Before this she had lived at a homeless shelter. At the time, Sunset had considered it embarrassing, and she tried not to be seen.

Now, she didn’t think she’d mind it as much. It was a place to live. The people had been nice to her even if she didn’t seem to notice as she became more crazed by her pursuit of power.

A few days after Christmas, she got a call from Principal Celestia.

“Hello Sunset, I hope you had a nice holiday.”

“I did, thanks. I hope yours was nice.”

‘It was. I’ve got a school for you. It’s a bit of a ways away, I wanted to give you a fresh start. Is distance going to be a problem?”

“I don’t think so. It’s in the same state, right?”

“Yes. On the other side of the city though.”

“Oh…well. that’s no problem.” She would have to make arrangements for where she would live again.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, what’s the school called?”

“James Jasper Junior Senior High” Hm, she had read about James Jasper in a history book Supposedly a guy who created a town where ‘witches’ fled during the times they were under suspicion. “I noticed your file says your name is Sarah Summers” Sunset flinched. When she first got into the school, one of the first things she did was figure out how to give herself file information. Sarah Summers was the name that she put on a lot of her official papers, whether here or under her lease agreement.

“Yeah, that was an official name I’ve been using for, uh, official things.” That was redundant sounding.

“I see.” Celestia sounded very amused. “Well then. I imagine you don’t mind that I forwarded that file.”

“That’s fine.”

“Is this school alright with you?”

“It sounds great. Thanks again.” When they hung up, Sunset got out her phone and looked up James Jasper High. Just as Celestia said, it was in a town on the other side of the city called ‘Witchaven’. It didn’t look too bad, she was expecting a smaller town. It even had a private college or two nearby.

The Christmas party was awkward from the start, the girls hadn’t even been sure if they were going to go through with it. The whole thing was originally supposed to be for Sunset, that only made things worse. The last thing they had heard on it was that Sunset switched schools after being hit in the head and nearly fainting.

Rainbow Dash was the most intent on not talking about it, insistent that Sunset was guilty and was leaving to escape it. The others weren’t sure. Applejack wanted to know the truth , Fluttershy just didn’t want to talk about it. Pinkie wanted to keep everything fun, from the time the girls arrived she was doing everything she could think of to keep people entertained and hopefully not talking about ‘you know what’.

Rarity sat at a table doing her nails and sipping cocoa while making conversation with Mrs. Cake. Rainbow Dash was enjoying all the food and occasionally playing games with Pinkie and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Man, where are Fluttershy and Applejack?” She asked biting into a red velvet cupcake with a mountain of green icing.

“Christmas Eve service, darling.” Rarity said, painting Sweetie Belle’s nails in shades of red and green.

“Oh yeah, their church thing.” Rainbow blew a strand of hair out of her face. “It’s not going to take long is it?”

“Just an hour, dear”

“An hour? C’mon! How long does it take to read a little bit of words and then pray? I mean I know I can read slowly but it doesn’t take me an hour to read a paragraph.” Rainbow looked around at everyone staring at her. “What?”

Most of the people in the room just shook their heads. “Don’t say that in front of them”

They continued waiting until the door opened and a familiar pair came in, Applejack and Fluttershy, with Apple Bloom trailing behind.

“Sorry” Applejack said “Service ran a bit long.” As soon as Applebloom met Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo’s eyes she met up with the two of them and they took off, probably for some big scheme of theirs.

“Did we miss anything?”

“Not really.”

“The party was just getting started!” Pinkie pulled out a santa hat and jammed it on Fluttershy’s head.

“...thanks” The two of them set their presents under the small tree.

“Can we open them now?” Rainbow Dash was eyeing them excitedly scoping out which were hers.

“Maybe not…”

“Why not?” Applejack said quickly. “There’s presents under there for everyone “ Everyone looked a little surprised, after all Applejack had been the most insistent on waiting to open presents to begin with. Everyone got up and grabbed their presents. They took turns opening them until everyone had opened all their presents. Thanks and hugs were shared between everyone.

“....hey what are those?” Pinkie asked, pointing at the remaining gifts.

“Uh…..well those…”

“They’re for Sunset” Fluttershy admitted, “They’ve been laying around in my closet for so long, and I just felt so guilty. Then ….then we talked about..f-forgiveness in sunday school last sunday...and…”

Rainbow groaned and rolled her eyes. “Is that why you got her like, four things?”

Fluttershy looked surprised. “I only got her one thing, and that was before all this. Everyone else who got her gifts gave them to me. I was going to drop them off by the place she’s staying but…”

“Yeah we know, you felt guilty.”

“Raina! There ain’t anything wrong with her feelin’ guilty. To be honest….I kinda feel guilty too” That got Rainbow Dash’s attention. Her friends only ever called her by her full name when they were really mad at her.

“Why? I thought we all agreed Sunset was Anon-a-miss. She knows what she did and that’s why she left schools!”

“Oh yes.” Rarity said, “I’m sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with being hit in the head with a basketball!”

“It was an accident!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Really? Is that what he told ya?” Applejack asked. Rainbow Dash gave her a sharp glare but had nothing to say. “The fact is she didn’t feel safe at Canterlot High. And we were the first to give her up!”

“Yeah well….you even said it yourself AJ, the evidence was obvious.”

“It looked obvious” Applejack admitted.

“Maybe we should have a least let her tell her side of the story” Fluttershy said.

“She had the chance! When we confronted her!” Rainbow Dash said. “Look you guys, it’s obvious. Sunset betrayed us. We did all that helping her, and she repaid us by spreading our secrets around for a cheap laugh. We were generous to her, and she threw it back in our face” She looked over to Rarity for backup.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why would she sacrifice everythin’ she’s been working for for a cheap laugh at the expense of the only close friends she has?”

Rainbow Dash faltered, “Because…...because…...because she’s gone back to her old ways”

“Why?”

“Because she just did. She did all that stuff before, and she decided friendship wasn’t worth it, I guess” She said, tossing her hands up in the air.

“After she had just won back the respect of the whole school, had friends, and became a student to Twilight?”

“.......” To this Rainbow Dash had nothing. She stood biting her lip , trying to think of a way out of it. “It’s the only thing that made sense okay?”

“It was the easy answer. Sunset was the most easy pick. But when you actually think beyond that, nothin’ about it makes sense. Not to mention, with the Battle of the Bands, everyone at this school proved that they had the potential to be just as nasty as Sunset was.”

“But they weren’t at the sleepover, were they?” Rainbow Dash said. The other girls all looked at each other. That was a good point.

“Well no one except our sisters and brothers, and we know Maud took Limey and Marble out for dinner and movies, so they weren’t even there.” Pinkie said.

“Big Mac was out with his friends.” Applejack said.

“My brother doesn’t live at home anymore’ Fluttershy shrugged, “and he’s been out with his friends a lot lately.” Fluttershy broke a piece off a cookie.

“That only leaves Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash said, “you think they are Anon-a-Miss?”

“I do think Sweetie Belle has better manners than that.” Rarity said.

“Well they did really want to get in on our sleepovers.” Pinkie pointed out, “And they seemed reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly upset they couldn’t.” Everyone stared at her with expressions of disbelief and bewilderment. “Just sayin’”

“...the first person to tell me it might be Sunset was Apple Bloom” Applejack said, in horrified realization. “and when we all didn’t get along, they were mad about havin’ to sneak out to meet because we wouldn’t talk to each other.” All of the girls looked from one to another in horror.

“Weren’t they here earlier?” Rainbow asked. “I know Scoot and Sweetie Belle were here before”

“They went off when Applebloom showed up”

“SUSAN MARIE BELLE!”

“BLOSSOM APPLEFIELD, Y’ALL BETTER GET YOUR HIND IN HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE!”

“LUCY SCOTT, YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE BEFORE I FIND YOU!”

It was a bit sad to leave her current landlords, Sunset had really grown to appreciate them since she had been here. There was a time when she had felt like , after the Fall Formal they were the only ones who cared. She explained the situation to them, once she gathered her things together. .

“I’ll really miss you. Thanks so much for all your help.”

“It was no problem , of all the people we rented out space to, you were the most dependable. We just hope wherever you’re going you’ll be happy.”

“I hope so.” She left them with a gift card from the money she had gotten from her jobs, that she hadn’t used to save for school supplies.. She took a bus across the city, leaving Canterlot and all around behind her. She still had Twilight’s book but due to many anxieties about explaining everything that happened she had put it off, and off and off. She should get around to it soon, lest Twilight think she was mad at her.

She watched out the window, as the city of Chicago passed by. She wanted to be excited about getting a new start, but in the back of her mind she still felt a little guilty. She could imagine the demon’s voice telling she was just giving up, like a coward.

‘No” she thought, There were other things she could have done if she were giving up. She was getting a new start somewhere else, leaving all her baggage behind.

Finally the bus stopped at a stop in Witchaven , and the noise it made snapped Sunset out of her thoughts. She got up, gathered her things and stepped down into downtown Witchaven. There were many blocks to the shelter, with a number of small businesses and stores along the way. Making herself a place at the shelter wasn’t hard She had brought the papers from the part time jobs she had. They seemed very willing to help a homeless teenager find a place to stay.

It was back on the bus again after that, with a folder full of report cards she had saved and a map to James Jasper High. Along the way, they passed a much larger private school along the way.

‘Royale Prep, Academy of the Fine Arts’, according to the pamphlet. Sunset distantly remembered Royale from the list of schools that participated in a four way competition that happened every few years , along with Crystal Prep and Canterlot.

They stopped at a fairly large high school, near a very elite neighborhood located between Royale Prep and James Jasper High.

The school’s campus was sprawling and fairly large. The main part of the school was probably two stories at most. One side of the school had rows of trailers, and a square shaped building nearby the trailers and the sports fields. The front building wasn’t nearly as tall as Canterlot High’s front hall. Instead of an impressive statue, there was a large rock painted with the school colors standing out at the front of the entrance to the school. .

Sunset made her way to the front office. She had a meeting with her new principal and teachers.

“Are you Sarah Summers?” A man with curly brown hair, and a very teacher like sweater vest stood in front of her. He held a hand out. “Jacob Jasper, I’m the Principal of JJ Junior Senior High.” Behind him was a woman with brown hair and blonde highlights. “This is -”

“Jennifer Jasper. Vice Principal “ The two looked like they could be related, and Sunset had to guess that running the school was a family business for the Jasper family. Understandable considering it was named after their ancestor.

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. I’ve been told by Celestia Solas that you’re a very good student.” There was something she never imagined a teacher would say about her, of all things. Not that she didn’t know she made good grades, but to her it felt like there were a lot of things that overshadowed that.

“I’m glad, I mean I try.” She handed him the folder she had., “I wasn’t sure if you needed this.”

“Well, the papers are already filled out, but this will certainly help in setting up your schedule. “ He took it and handed it to the vice principal. “We just about have it finished and now we can have it done by the time you finish the tour.”

“Tour?”

“Of the school? I’m sorry it’s something we like to do with transfer students so they’re not lost on their first day of school.” He led her into the office. “Your guide is on his way.”

Not long after, the office door opened and a dark haired man, looking around his early to mid twenties at most, came in. Sunset noted that he dressed very well. ‘Rarity would be impressed’ She pushed that thought away, as the pain of the last few days followed.

“Hi there, are you Sarah Summers” Sunset hoped she didn’t look like she was forcing a smile.

“Yeah.”

“Nice to meet you” He offered his hand and she took it, “I’m Mercury Stage, I teach 11th grade English, Creative Writing, Improv and Drama. With a name like mine, I suppose you can’t really not teach anything theatre related.” He chuckled, looking a bit sheepish. “Anyway, I’ll be showing you around. Since this fall, I’ve been the new teacher myself.”

“Thanks.” He led her out of the front office towards the cafeteria. “Did you have a nice Christmas?”

“Yeah. I caught up on sleep.” She noticed him looking concerned. Oh, right...parents.

“Well, I’m an only child and my parents are usually out of town. Or always.”

“...I see.” Sunset knew that tone, for a moment she thought he might be angry at her. ‘You haven’t done anything’ she reasoned to herself, ‘except fib a little.’ It’s a good thing for her parents that they were all the way in Equestria, because it seemed like her teacher already had some words for them. “So this is the cafeteria. We have rotating lunch periods, you’ll usually either get first lunch or second lunch. If you prefer not to eat in the cafeteria there’s a lot of teachers that will let you eat in their room. Just not the science classrooms.”

Sunset chuckled. “Yeah that doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d want to eat.”

“And if you follow me this way , there’s a hallway that separates the Junior High students from the Senior High. We’re Senior High so we’re going this way.” He led her to the right.

“So, what’s the school like?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific. I’d say we’re like any school..but then I don’t know that much about public schools. I went to private school until I graduated, my dad is the headmaster of Royale.”

“Oh wow….” Her first reaction was ‘that sucks’, but she had no way of knowing what kind of a school Royale was like. Mr. Stage gave a once over at her expression.

“Yeah, you’ve about got it” he said with a wry grin. “I’ve heard it before, sucks to be me.”

“So...how does it compare to private school?” Sunset asked , curious.

“It has it’s ups and downs. Don’t tell the Jaspers I said this but it’s a lot more lax and freewheeling than what I was used to,”

“Oh I’m sure nobody has to tell them that.” a voice from a doorway said. An older man, probably around his forties or older stood in a doorway. He had short graying black hair,glasses, and a goatee on his chin. Mr. Stage addressed him cooly.

“Hello Frederick.”

“Have a nice holiday, Mercury?” The man’s tone was pleasant enough but it was obvious there was some bad blood between these two.

“It was decent. Nice and quiet, you know, just how Jette prefers it.”

“Who’s this?” ‘Frederick’ was looking at Sunset with interest, and there was something about the way he looked over her that was giving her a serious case of the skeeves. Mr. Stage hesitated. “Well?”

“This is Sarah Summers, our new transfer from Canterlot High.” Mr. Stage said stiffly, “Sarah, this is Mr.-”

“Doctor!”

“Dr. Levine. Sorry about that Frederick , I tend to forget.” As nice as he made it sound, Sunset could tell it was a passive aggressive dig. So could Dr. Levine, it seemed.

“Mhm. I see. Well, I am the student counselor, if you have any trouble adjusting, dear, don’t be afraid to pop by my office and talk.”

“Sure” Sunset gave him what probably looked like a very pained smile.

“I’m sure Merc here has told you all about me. A lot of teachers tend to hold grudges. Funny how the teachers seem to act just like the students, isn’t it? Well I have things to do and a thesis to write. I’ll see you when school starts.” He smirked and gave Mr. Stage a wave before disappearing behind a shut door.

“C’mon, let’s go.” Mr. Stage said, trying very hard to sound friendly.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not a lot of students visit him?”

“Yeah, but unfortunately he still manages to snag the younger and newer students. I would watch out for him, he was essentially forced on us by the school board. Money talks.”

“Noted.” Things warmed up quite a bit as they went by the other teachers who were much friendlier. Mr. Stage seemed to be on good terms with a lot of them, if not almost all of them. Not bad for a new guy.

“And this is where the 11th grade English room is. You’ll probably be seeing me here on Monday.”

“Can I ask a weird question?” Sunset asked.

“Sure, I’ve probably heard weirder.”

“Are there any students I should probably watch out for? I had some trouble at my last school” Mr. Stage nodded knowingly.

“Well, I like to think most of our crowd is pretty decent. But there have been a few who can be nastier than the rest.” He scratched his head,and looked through a sheet on his desk.

“Offhand I’d say Temp Foster. I don’t like to write off kids, but he’s caused a bunch of trouble and from what I see he doesn’t seem to feel sorry for any of it. There was some big game last year and he did, something and got everyone all worked up. “

The first thought that came to Sunset’s mind was ‘the Dazzlings’. They had already been beat, but what if there was someone with the same power that Twilight didn’t even know about. She might just need to look into that a bit.

“I’ll definitely steer clear of him then. “

“Any other questions” He asked.

“No that will about do it. Thanks for showing me around Mr. Stage. I look forward to seeing you when school starts.” For the first time in what seemed like a while she could say that with complete honesty.

“Same here. Don’t forget to stop by the office on your way out, they should have your schedule by now.” She made her way back to the office, and sure enough they did have her schedule printed out for her. She waited until she was on the bus to take it out and look over it.

Summers, Sara

Period Course Instructor Time
1 Trigonometry Edwards, Phoebe 8: 00 AM
2 English Stage, Mercury 9:10 AM
3 Chemistry Faulk, Jasper 10:15 AM
------------------------- First Lunch -------------------------
4 Journalism Dawnchase, Nova 12:10 PM
5 Sociology Devon, Iris 1:45 PM
6 US History Stafford, Neal 2: 50 PM

Sunset did a doubletake at the fourth name on that list. It looked like a pony name, or the type of nicknames she and her friends had. She was relieved to get Mr. Stage, she liked him so far. She’d just have to see how the other ones were. But at the very least they had no idea who she was and she could finally start fresh.

It had been an hour, Twilight looked back at the journal. Surely something must have happened by now. She looked back at it to check.

Still nothing.

The more time it had been since they last talked, the more she was gradually driven insane by anxiety. She knew something was up. This wasn’t normal. But she also knew that if something wasn’t up and she came barreling through on a suspicion, it would make her look insane, and worse- make Sunset feel like she wasn’t trusted by her own teacher.

She paced around the room trying to take up time, and read through her books even though she wasn’t paying attention. Her attempts to keep herself occupied weren’t working. Minutes felt like half-hours.

“Twilight….if you’re that worried why don’t you just go and find her?” Spike poked his head in the door.

“I don’t know, maybe it’ll turn out that she’s just really busy and I’ll end up looking over-worried and insane and ridiculous…”

“You really think that they’ll be upset at you for coming to visit them?” Spike raised an eyebrow. “They love seeing you.”

“Yeah but...I don’t want to give Sunset a reason to believe that I don’t trust her.” Twilight flipped a page in her book.

“Do you really think she’ll think that?” Spike asked.

“She might!” Twilight said. She would go and visit and to Sunset it would look like Twilight didn’t trust her, or thought she was up to something. Then Sunset would get mad, or worse, feel bad that even her teacher didn’t trust her.

“Look Twilight, I think that if you explain it, she’ll understand that you’re worried about her.” Spike said.

“But if she doesn’t get that impression-”

“Look Twilight...for your sake, just go visit her. You’ve faced much worse, and most of your problems right now are just in your imagination. Even if she gets the wrong impression, you can talk it out.”

Twilight sighed and looked back at her book. Spike was right, at least the reasonable part of her knew that. She couldn’t keep waiting for a message and going crazy when she didn’t get one. She got up and pushed all the panic in her mind to the side while she set up the device to open the mirror. She couldn’t afford to let it get out of control and let something like the infamous Friendship Letter Incident happen again. It was at least somewhat understandable when she was the student, but she was a teacher.

To be entirely honest, the position still felt strange to her, much like the title of Princess did. When she was a child she looked up to Princess Celestia as a second mother and a kind of idol. Based on some of her conversations with her student, she got the feeling that Sunset viewed her as a kind of savior, an angel who came to save her even when she felt she didn’t deserve it.

She didn’t want to let Sunset down, but the truth was, she was just a pony, or as they would say a person.

A pony- person , whatever, who was prone to anxiety and imperfection and underneath her title was just as ordinary as anyone else.

As she put the final part into place, she watched the mirror come alive.

“Are we ready to go through?” Spike asked.

“Just a minute.” She searched for a pen and scrawled a note for any of her friends who might find her.

‘Went through the mirror for a visit, will be back soon’

That should do it. She signed her name and left it in a place she was sure would be in plain view. Honestly she could have left it on a door. Perhaps she was just putting it off more.

Finally it was time to go through. She let Spike hop on her back and then, at the count of three raced through the portal.

Twilight braced herself for the transformation, but this time she hardly felt as much disorientation as last time. She pulled herself up, and shook her head. Winter had certainly hit Canterlot High. Piles of snow lay all over the place, no longer pure and white but tainted by dirt and bus exhaust. Students everywhere were dressed in hats and scarves.

She picked up Spike and walked in, noticing that while she still got friendly greetings, a few people seemed to avoid her gaze. She walked down the hallway looking around.

“Something feels off, Spike.” She whispered.

“Yeah, normally everyone is rushing to say hi to you.” He noted, scratching his ear.

“Well maybe we should find the girls and ask-”

“Twilight, what brings you here?” She looked up to find the Princess’s counterpart, Principal Celestia, poking outside her door.

“I just came to check up on things.” She said, “Maybe a little holiday visit. Did I miss anything?” A very strange look , almost looking like dread, crossed the principal’s face.

“Come on in my office, I can fill you in.” Maybe it was just the air conditioning or her imagination, but Twilight felt a chill go through her. She made her way into the office and shut the door behind her.

“What’s going on? I feel like everyone looks a little nervous to see me.” She asked. Celestia signed but crossed over to the seat behind her desk and closed the blinds

“This probably isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, Twilight, but we’ve had some problems lately. There was a cyber-bully, a student at this school who’s been spreading photos and cruel rumors. At first it was about your friends, but lately it’s exploded all over school.”

“What?” Twilight asked. “Who would do something like that?”

“Well, the school….seemed to think it was Sunset.” Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“No way!” she said, once she composed herself. “Sunset’s made a lot of bad choices, but she really wants to change. There’s no way she’d sacrifice everything she’s gained since the Battle of the Bands.”

“I know, and when she came into my office she said the exact same thing. The school has been less than forgiving of her..” The last time Twilight heard such disappointment from Celestia it had been aimed at her, and she flinched instinctively.

“What about the girls? I mean they stood up for her…...didn’t they” She already knew , as soon as she said it that she wouldn’t like the answer to that.

“I believe that they were the first to turn.”

“Where is she! Maybe I can set this right.” Twilight said.

“It’s too late. She’s gone now.” For a moment all of the worst possibilities went through Twilight’s mind. She shook her head, tears forming.

“No… no Twilight, she’s okay.” Celestia seemed to have caught herself. “She transferred to another school.”
Twilight felt, only a little relief come back to her. She was alive, okay….just miles away and not answering the journal. “I see…”

“I’m so sorry about this. I hated to see her go, but I didn’t want to keep her in an environment that was unsafe.” Unsafe. Sunset had been unsafe at her school? There was a sting of hurt. Why hadn’t she talked to Twilight about it? But then again, if her friends had just turned on her and the entire school was hostile towards her, Twilight could only imagine how betrayed she must have felt. “Thank you” She forced the word out. “Thank you for looking out for her.”

“It’s no problem. I try to look out for all my students.”

“I need to have a few words with the girls.” She said, pulling herself up. She felt like crying, feeling as if she had personally failed Sunset. She had trusted her friends’ counterparts to look out for and help her. Twilight held back her tears, and clutched Spike tightly to her chest. Beneath it all there was a burning hot rage simmering. She would have words all right.

The night before classes started, Sunset organized all of her school things and cleared out her binders. She had bought some packs of paper and new notebooks but for the most part recycled the ones she had left over from her first semester. The organizing was relaxing and gave her time to think.

As she sorted her things, her mind eventually drifted to the journal. Should she write in it?

It hadn’t gone off in some time so she just left it. It was something she really didn’t want to think about at the moment, falling into the chain of worry again.

Sunset told herself she’d write to Twilight about her first day and she explain everything then. She wanted to have her head clear for the first day of school. The worry sat inside her most of the night. Even when she tried to push it away it came back. She dreamed that night that she came back to visit Canterlot, and got a lecture from Twilight about why she just left.

Ugh. So much for being worry-free before school. She got a halfway decent night of sleep at least.

It didn’t take long to get out the door, her organizing last night meant that her bag was already prepared to go. The last thing she deliberated on was where to put the journal so no one saw it. The rules of the shelter she was at granted people their own small space for the most part, the only worry was if someone heard it vibrating and decided to pick it up.

She hid it in a bag and stuck it under the bed, then put up an ‘away’ sign on her door. That should keep people out.

She already knew the way to school from the shelter and what buses to take. It was a nicer ride than taking a school bus she had to admit. Most everyone just minded their own business, while on a school bus there were kids talking loudly, tossing things and bugging each other out of boredom. She could certainly get used to this.

As the bus drove up to the stop, she got a good look at the school during operating hours. Buses pulling in, the carpool was all filled out. As she walked into the school one student noticed her and turned to her friend.

“Who’s that?”

“I dunno, some new kid.” One of them shrugged. Sunset felt a wave of relief. She had a nasty feeling that the video of her demon self had gone around the internet but perhaps.

She gave a smile and a friendly wave. Two of them waved back.

“Hey, wait. Weren’t you in that video shot up at Canterlot High” Oh no, oh no, abort mission. She forced a smile, not sure what to say. “Nice makeup job! The acting was a little over the top, but it was fun”

Acting...yes. She could live with that.

“Thanks!” They saw the video but they thought it was all an act. She wasn’t sure what she made of Fluttershy and AJ’s beliefs, but she might have just called that a miracle.

She continued her way into the school following the crowd of students who looked around her age. She recognized the familiar pathways from the tour she got on in her meeting. She went out of her way to avoid Dr. Levine from noticing her , and avoided eye contact. She did not want to have to talk to him again and she wanted to make sure he knew he couldn’t pull her in because she was new.

As Sunset made her way down the halls she noticed a few people crowding around the bulletins around the school. She assumed it was some kind of team or play, and stopped a moment to take a look. Maybe she could find something to participate in. She approached a bulletin board that didn’t seem too crowded to get a glance at the paper. She immediately got a sinking feeling when she saw what was on it.

Ambrose Lasko-11th Grade- The mysterious and incorrigible bad boy of JJ High. He’s always up to something or in detention, and he loves to play hard to get. Well, we’re up to the challenge, tough guy.

Helen Phoenix- 12th Grade- Our Pharaoh, who finally freed us from more of Morty’s ineffective rule as dictator- er-President of the Student Council. Keep on rockin’ Helen!

Giada Saroyan- 10th grade- A new teen queen is on the rise! After transferring from Royale she proved her spunk by standing up to Kagami and making her own way to popularity on her own merits.

Vasya Volkova- 12th Grade- A girl tough enough to walk away from ex dictator Morty and stand her ground when the going got ugly is a girl to be feared.

Morty Riggs- 12th Grade- For the last three years he’s been pushing his way to the top, standing on the shoulders of his parents’ reputation. But last year we saw just what Morty was all about. Blustering bullies who cling to their daddy aren’t attractive, Mort.

Kagami Toyaka - 11th Grade- Little Miss Daddy’s Girl has gotten her way for a long time now, but people are starting to see her for what pathetic bitch she really is. Go easy on the makeup and try eating a salad once in awhile, you might lose some weight , Princess.

Ralph Levine- 10th Grade- Sleaze Jr. finally decided to leave his fancy school to come join us commoners. We really should take it easy on him though, his dad punished him already with a name like that.

Siriana Hodge - 9th Grade- Someone needs to tell this girl that being the self proclaimed leader of a Special Ed class isn’t anything to brag about. Siriana’s been loud, in your face and annoying since she got here. Go blab to your internet friends, they’re the only ones you’re going to have. Sunset groaned. Her hope and excitement for this school was evaporating on the spot. She had only just left one shark tank for another slightly less infested one. At least she wasn’t a target- not yet anyway.

Author's Notes:

Sorry that took awhile!

Here's chapter 2.

The main 5 and CMC will be big players in this, as they try to make things right and make up with Sunset The whole "hot list" is gonna be part of an overreaching plot connected to the bully hunter who's going to target Sunset.

Also I've started some minor setup for the sequel to this, which is going to cover a set of events paralleling Friendship Games, and it will involve both Twilight and Sunset's human counterparts, with Canterlot, Crystal Prep, JJ High, and Royale all competing against one another.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Sorry for the formatting derp!