Sunset leaned up against a locker and silently watched as her boyfriend at the time, Flash Sentry talked to a group of guys about various subjects. Checking the time, she had noticed it had been going on for a good eight minutes, and she merely stood to the side in silence, unable and unwilling to participate in the conversations being partaken.

Flash Sentry was a pretty sociable guy, a far stretch from his rather introverted girlfriend, Sunset Shimmer. Few even knew they were dating she remained so quiet about the fact. Their relationship hadn’t exactly gone too far yet either, due to Sunset’s inability to get close to people, it made it so even holding his hand was a challenge for her. Underneath her quiet and standoffish demeanor was a girl who was difficult to approach for most. Flash somehow bridged the gap and managed to get through to her when others would have given up.

Standing there, Sunset studied Flash, he was a handsome boy, albeit a bit tall for his age. While he was far from an athlete, he was in excellent shape. His exercise routine at home must have been impressive, that or he simply had a great diet, Sunset didn’t pay enough attention to figure out which. She did see a treadmill and weight set in his garage when his band practiced, but that could have been his dad’s; Sunset never bothered asking.

His fashion sense while not terrible screamed 90s, but Sunset found herself okay with it, she wasn’t exactly the most fashion conscious for her age either.

The conversation of her being a magic unicorn from another dimension hadn’t exactly happened yet, and part of her knew that it was going to be a challenge for this relationship to go much further until he was made aware of what she really was. The problem though was how to inform him of such. It wasn’t the type of topic that you could just spring on anyone, and if any amount of study of this human world was evidence, humans likely would freak out over something like that.

The truth was, this world was boring to Sunset. There wasn’t any magic here, and that meant the one thing she was truly good at was worthless here. She would have to rely on her other talents if she knew what any of those were.

As she watched her boyfriend laugh and chuckle with his friends, she wondered why a guy like him even put up with someone as boring and bland as she was. Sure, she had been told she was good to look at, but she was far from interesting to talk to. Most guys saw her as nothing more than eye candy, but a weirdo beyond that.

She avoided public speaking and tried her best to simply blend in with the background. One thing she learned back at school in Equestria was the best solution for a girl like her was to make yourself invisible, don’t do anything to stand out or draw attention to yourself.

Flash laughed and smiled at his friends in a way that almost made Sunset smile just seeing him. She loved it when his face lit up like that when you could see compassion in his expression, and joy in his eyes. Flash had an amazing smile, one that Sunset was somewhat envious of, on top of other qualities, such as being good with people.

While Sunset had gotten better at asserting herself, she still was very poor at making friends. She managed to get crowned as the Fall Formal Princess with a few well places threats and rigging the system, but truthfully she was still a very shy girl. Most of her worst deeds were kept under wraps or just rumors spoke in passing.

For as long as Sunset could remember she was exceptionally bad at communicating with others, even Princess Celestia was a challenge to talk to sometimes.

As she remembered the Princess, her mind turned to thoughts of what she must be doing right now, or if she missed Sunset. It had been some time since she left Equestria, was it possible that the Princess sent a search party to find her here in the human world? No, that wasn’t a possibility, the mirror portal only opened once in a great while, that meant that following her here would have to wait quite a long while. She was completely on her own now.

The redhead wondered if she’d ever even see Equestria again. It hadn’t really occurred to her too deeply that this may be a one-way trip. Sure, she realized that possibility at the time of jumping through the portal, but the gravity of it all didn’t really hit her until far later when she was already through that she may indefinitely be stuck in this new strange world.

Being a human was a lot different than being a pony, you had to use your hands to pick things up, there was no magic, and humans relied on complicated technology to fill the hole left by magic. Humans had tons of strange customs to make up for lacking magic, actually. Being a human sucked.

Flash gave a wave to his small entourage of friends as they all split off and made their way down the hall in the opposite direction of Sunset and him. She watched as her boyfriend came back over and smiled at her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to take so long.” He grinned.

Sunset shrugged. “It’s alright…”

“You know, you didn’t have to wait over here, you could have come over and joined us, I’m sure the guys wouldn’t have minded,” Flash pointed out.

Sunset bit her lip and glanced away for a second. “I… Uh… That’s okay…”

His smile quickly converted to a frown at her words. “Sunset, you’re not going to make friends if you don’t talk to people…”

“Maybe I don’t want to make friends…” Sunset replied, avoiding eye contact.

He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Sunset… What’s wrong? Be honest with me.”

She found herself unable to look away, and when her eyes met his, she felt her fortitude crack just a tad as she decided to tell him the truth. “I… I’m afraid of opening up to people…”

He nodded. “That’s evident, but why though?”

“It’s complicated… The short version is I have a long history of people judging me unfairly… I just… I’ve just learned to avoid the situation all together now…” Sunset explained.

Flash sighed once more and leaned down to be closer to Sunset’s eye level. At this point in her life, Sunset wasn’t very tall, nor was she finished growing, so Flash had a significant height difference over her. “Sunset, if you’re afraid to open up, you’re never going to be happy…”

Sunset winced internally at that comment which brought back memories of Celestia telling her something similar time and time again. So often under her mentor’s tutelage, she would be told such a thing, but she always tuned it out. At that moment she could see it all replay in her head.

A majestic looking alicorn standing beside her as she had her head buried in yet another dusty old tome, absorbing knowledge of the past only for the Princess to levitate the book away from her.

She’d look up and stare at the Princess of Equestria standing there smiling at her young student. She’d flip through the pages of the book and then look back at Sunset and tell her to take a break and go try and have some fun with the other children. Sunset, of course, would make up a myriad of excuses until the Princess gave up on trying and would hand her book back to her with a disappointed sigh.

That sigh was perhaps the single most painful sound that Sunset had heard in her entire life up to that point. That sigh that acknowledged that she was letting the pony she looked up to the most down.

That same sigh was now coming out of the mouth of Flash Sentry.

“I… I…” Sunset stuttered, a bit stunned by that memory coming back to her.

“I can’t force you, but you really should make a bigger effort…” Flash instructed.

“I… I can’t…” Sunset looked away.

“Why not?” Flash asked.

“I’m… I’m afraid… That’s all…” Sunset closed her eyes, trying her best not to start crying, even though all the painful memories of being picked on started to resurface.

“Afraid? Afraid of what?” Flash raised a brow curiously.

“Of being hurt… Or of hurting other people… I don’t exactly have a great history with this kind of thing… I never really told you this before but… At my old school… I got picked on all the time… Hell, I’m pretty sure that you’re the only friend I’ve ever made…” Sunset admitted.

His frown turned a bit more into a smile as he heard those words. “Well it’s an honor to be your first friend, and boyfriend at that, however, this should show you that people aren’t all bad and that you can trust people… I mean, I’m you’re friend and you took a chance on me… I haven’t hurt you, have I?”

“Maybe this is one of those scenarios where I end up hurting you?” Sunset proposed.

He chuckled and rubbed her hair lightly in a playful manner. “You have an over-active imagination sometimes. You worry too much about things that are uncertain… You need to just live and let things happen, you know?”

Wiser words had never been spoken to her up to that point.

Locked away in her private study at Crystal Prep Academy, an overworked and sleepless Twilight Sparkle clacked away at a keyboard as she buried herself in schoolwork. The science fair had come and gone and naturally, she had once again taken home first place, and she was already beginning work on what she was going to do for her next year’s project. It was never too early to begin getting a head start, that was Twilight’s motto.

Her faithful canine companion napped at her feet after a good few hours of running around in circles and occasionally being thrown a ball from Twilight in between fierce typing sessions. She had stopped only once in her eight hour stint to use the bathroom, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten something, though she vaguely believed it was a granola bar sometime around breakfast, however, she may have been remembering another day.

While most students went home on a Friday where the school was closed (unless they lived in the dormitories), Twilight was given exclusive access to her private research room due to her outstanding academic performance. Principal Cinch wasn’t exactly the nicest or most generous person out there, but she did recognize brilliance when she saw it and went out of her way to accommodate those who were overachievers. If there was one thing Cinch loved, it was those who made her look good; and Twilight made her look great.

The girl was on top of every class, she had the best grades on every test, and her entrance exam for the academy went down in history as one of the highest scores ever. Twilight didn’t even need to be reminded of how brilliant she was, every day was a constant reminder when she walked past the trophy cabinet and saw a plethora of trophies given to the school because of her achievements.

These achievements, of course, afforded her certain luxuries that other students could not get, though they came with a caveat of students not exactly liking Twilight that much. They saw her as a know-it-all and a show-off, even though she always tried to downplay her genius when others were around. Twilight wasn’t one for bragging, and her social awkwardness helped in that regard. Bragging meant the attention of others after all.

Sadly the students at Crystal Prep cared not, in their mind, Twilight Sparkle was a good-for-nothing over-achiever that made anyone near her look bad. It was rough at Crystal Prep for sure, but the classes made up for it.

Twilight came from a family with a decent amount of money, that meant going to a private school like this was something they could make happen with relative ease. While they were far from rich, they were comfortably upper middle class. Some of the students at Crystal Prep came from millionaire families, but there were few that were actually poor, maybe less than 8% of the student population by Twilight’s calculations.

The only poor student that Twilight was familiar with was ironically someone who was just under her in academics. She had gone up from eighth to third in her class in only a single semester. Her name was Moondancer and she was quickly starting a lot of buzz from her attendance at Crystal Prep.

The rumor mill had it that she came from poverty, her mother was a waitress, and she managed to get into Crystal Prep on some kind of scholarship. She took the public bus to get to school and she lived in the poorer section of the city. Supposedly she was some kind of child prodigy, similar to Twilight, however, most just focused on the fact that she didn’t have money and thus “didn’t belong” at Crystal Prep.

Twilight had heard her fair share of negative comments in the hallways as she passed by about the girl.

What’s someone like her doing here? This isn’t a place for commoners.

I wonder if her mom had to blow the school board to get that scholarship.

What a total loser. I heard she spends all her free time in the library because she has no friends.

That last one resonated with Twilight, she could relate. Teenagers were cruel.

She had never met the girl, but she had seen her in the hallway from time to time. She was a rather slovenly girl with messy hair that looked like it was seldom brushed. She kept it out of her face by means of a hair clip.

Her face was cute, dotted with freckles and light skin, though she was far from the most feminine person Twilight had ever seen. While she had a girly face, she lacked much of a girly figure. Perhaps she hadn’t filled out yet, but she was nearly flat chested and built sort of like a beanpole. She hid it by ordering her uniform a size larger so it was somewhat baggy on her.

She wasn’t the most talkative person that Twilight had ever met, then again, Twilight wasn’t either.

Still, she felt sorry for the girl and wondered what she was doing at this moment.

It was her sophomore year, and tonight at this very moment there was a school dance happening at the gymnasium, and no doubt Twilight and Moondancer both shared the same fate: they weren’t going.

Instead, Twilight had buried herself in her work, she had opted to keep herself occupied and avoided listening to the gentle echo and vibration of music coming from the gym. She hated gym class anyway, so any reason to avoid that room was a good one in her mind.

Her work was going well, she was making rapid progress, confident that she’d win the science fair again next year with the results she was producing. Her goal was to win all four years that she was in high school there at Crystal Prep.

A tap on the door went unheard by Twilight until it was followed with the sounds of the lock on the door being undone and then opened. She blinked and looked over the back of her office chair at the figure entering the room. She sighed as she noticed the vibrant hair that was made up of a mixture of purple, pink and beige. “Oh… Dean Cadence… Hello.” Twilight waved before returning her eyes to her screen.

Walking in awkwardly, Cadence nodded as she placed her hands in front of herself, afraid to touch anything in the room for fear that it was connected to another one of Twilight’s many ongoing scientific experiments. She had been given strict orders by Principal Cinch not to interfere with Twilight’s work whenever possible.

While the principal was far from the most likable person, she did have a way of motivating students.

“I uh… Came to check up on you…” Cadence said.

Twilight nodded but didn’t even bother to turn and face the older woman.

“Twilight… Why aren’t you at the dance?” Cadence asked curiously.

Blinking, Twilight realized she hadn’t come up with a rational excuse for not attending. She just assumed that no one would ask and thus needing some kind of explanation seemed like a waste of time.

“Oh… Well… You know how it is… A scientist’s work is never done… How can I be going to some pointless dance when there is work to do? The universe is not going to simply reveal its secrets to all of us, someone has to be ready to explore and do the research to find the answers!” Twilight explained, believing that her justification seemed more than sufficient.

Cadence sighed and shook her head. “Twilight, you can’t spend all of your time working… Maybe you should go get changed and go. There’s still a few hours of it left if you hurry you can make it home in time to-“

“I’m not going!” Twilight barked.

Flinched at the sudden outburst, Cadence took a step closer. “Twilight, why not?”

“There’s no point in going… I don’t like dances…” Twilight retorted, starting to get a bit defensive.

“You could do with some time out of this room, aren’t you lonely in here?” Cadence asked.

“No…” Twilight lied.

“Twilight…” Cadence reached forward and placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The moment that hand touched her, Twilight could feel her defenses starting to peel away. Cadence had allowed her the ability to be open.

“Okay… Yeah… A little, I guess…” Twilight admitted.

“Then why not go? You’ll have a good time…” Cadence suggested as she turned the chair around so that Twilight was facing her.

“Why bother?” Twilight asked.

“What do you mean?” Cadence raised a brow.

“I don’t have anyone to go with…”

Cadence nodded and sighed as she stepped closer, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Twilight… It’s okay to be lonely, we all get that way sometimes. It’s a natural part of being human…”

“I just… I guess it just kind of hurt enough that I didn’t even get invited by anyone that the thought of not going didn’t bother me so much at first because I figured no one really wanted me to go, but… It did kind of sting a little to know that no one wanted to take me…” Twilight admitted. “That’s why I decided it was better to bury myself in work rather than sit there and feel bad for myself…”

Pulling the teen into a hug, Cadence spoke in a soft soothing voice as Twilight wrapped her arms around the dean and allowed her to stroke her hair gently and deliver calming words.

“Don’t think for a minute that this means you’re unwanted, Twilight Sparkle…” Cadence said softly.

“Yeah, my family enjoys me, right?” Twilight replied sarcastically as she pre-preemptively rolled her eyes while she tried to predict the woman’s response.

Cadence laughed and shook her head as she held the girl away from her at an arm’s length but kept both of her hands planted on Twilight’s shoulder’s. “I wasn’t going to say that… Look, I know being a teenager sucks, I was one too…”

“Yeah, but you were popular… Everyone loved you… I bet you got asked to tons of dances…” Twilight held up a finger as she pointed it out.

Shaking her head once more Cadence smiled at Twilight as she spoke. “Not quite… While it’s true that I was popular and a lot of people showed affection toward me… I actually rarely got asked out or even to dances.”

“How come?” Twilight blinked in disbelief.

“A lot of people thought because I was so attractive and popular that I always already had a date, or they were far too nervous to even ask me. So I ended up going alone a lot of the time… Even some of the school superstars and jocks didn’t have the guts to ask me to a dance… I went up to my junior year without anyone asking me to go to a single dance…” Cadence explained.

“That’s… Sad… I’m sorry, Dean Cadence…” Twilight frowned, feeling bad for complaining now.

Cadence reached forward and tapped Twilight’s chin to force her to look up at the older woman, who surprisingly, despite the nature of her story was still wearing a smile. “Then… On the day of my junior prom… I got asked by someone… The least likely person… He was a total nerd… Captain of the chess team and a proud member of the Dungeons and Dragons club… Shining Armor…”

There was a slight bit of awe in Cadence’s voice as she recollected of a time long past.

“My brother…” Twilight giggled.

Cadence nodded. “And let me tell you… That dance nearly killed him. He couldn’t dance at all, but he spent weeks practicing hoping to impress me. He also tripped on virtually everything and landed face first in the punch bowl. Despite all of that though… It was the most special date I ever had, because he had the courage to go so far to impress me…”

“That is a nice story…” Twilight nodded contently.

Reaching back down, Cadence leaned to be more at Twilight’s height. “My point is… Some day someone will go through those kinds of lengths for you, Twilight. And when that happens… You’ll realize that all those missed dances and times you didn’t get asked out… They won’t mean anything to you anymore because you’ll have that person…”

“I hope they’re half as good as Shining… Though less dorky…” Twilight grinned.

“I’m sure they will be… And probably even dorkier.” Cadence winked.

Moondancer had been helping Sunset understand the technology of the human world for some time now, and that meant many late night sessions going over how various things worked. Tonight was no exception, Sunset leaned back in her chair and stretched as she felt her joints pop and crack, content that she had completed so much in such a short time.

“Wow… We’ve really made some rapid progress…” Sunset commented as she checked the clock, noting that it was after 2 AM.

Sipping from a cup of coffee, Moondancer nodded at her with half closed eyes. “Yes, you’re really getting the hang of this stuff quickly. I’m amazed at how quickly you’ve picked up computers in general.”

“Once I have my head wrapped around the basics, the rest starts falling into place… I was always a fast learner back home in Equestria…” Sunset shrugged.

“A regular prodigy…” Moondancer nodded approvingly.

Awkwardly, Sunset rubbed her neck, not sure how to take the praise. “Thanks… Though I’m nowhere as smart as you, Moondancer…”

“Admittedly, I seldom meet people who can talk with me on the same intellectual level… Except for Shimmer of course… She was a genius...” Moondancer sighed.

Realizing that she had reminded her of an awkward subject, Sunset was tempted to change the topic of conversation but ultimately didn’t. “So… You might know more than me… How smart was Shimmer? I mean we seldom talked science…”

“Shimmer?” Moondancer perked up and adjusted herself to sit up straight. “She was brilliant… Probably would have a Nobel Prize by now if she were still around…”

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Realizing that she’s been gone for a few years now…?” Sunset asked.

Moondancer nodded and looked back at her cup, taking a peek at the brown liquid inside, focusing on it. If she looked hard enough she could see her former lover’s silhouette in the coffee smiling back at her. She shook her head though to clear her mind of the obvious fantasy.

“I guess… I miss her… And it still hurts sometimes, but I’ve more or less moved on…” Moondancer replied.

“I still struggle with it myself… So you’re not alone…” Sunset smiled reassuringly.

Moondancer nodded as she tried to act strong. “Thank you, Sunset… That means a lot…”

Sunset nodded and slid her hoodie off, tossing it aside. “Would it be cool if I crashed here? It’s late and I’m probably way too tired to drive…”

Moondancer shrugged. “I guess… I think I have an air mattress in the closet…” The bookworm pointed to an untidy closet door.

Making her way over, Sunset lifted a bra off of the handle and held it up with a raised brow as she looked at Moondancer. “Always leaving your unmentionables for the world to see?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t exactly been scoring nightly since Shimmer’s death… I have nothing to hide because no one comes here but you…” Moondancer rolled her eyes.

Sunset admitted that was true, but grinned as she undid the top two buttons of her shirt showing her lacy black bra. “Mine’s cuter anyway…”

Moondancer couldn’t help but stare at the girl’s impressive cleavage, her mind going blank as she watched Sunset move and dig through the closet retrieving the air mattress. Watching her attractive rear move was making thoughts race through Moondancer’s head. She could see in her mind, Sunset turning back around, undoing a few more of those buttons and then-

She paused and stopped herself and shook her head when she realized what she was doing. For the brief moment, she had mistaken this girl who looked identical to her for Shimmer. She saw a pair of glasses on Sunset’s face and let the two of them become one entity in her mind for a moment, something she swore she would never allow.

“Actually… Sunset… Could you please button back up?” Moondancer asked.

Blinking Sunset looked down to her blouse and nodded before redoing her buttons.

“And… Maybe it’s better you don’t stay over…” Moondancer frowned.

Sunset blinked and looked down at herself and then back to Moondancer. Within a few seconds, it had clicked what was going on. “Shit… I made it weird didn’t I?”

Moondancer looked away blushing. “K-kind of… Sorry… It’s just…”

“No… I get it… I forgot that we sort of need boundaries in this relationship we have… I look just like her…” Sunset frowned and looked down, a bit ashamed of herself.

“Yeah… And I’m trying to not see you as merely a replacement for her, so I have to constantly remind myself that you’re a different person…” Moondancer stated.

“I understand, Moondancer… Trust me, I do… I didn’t mean to…” Sunset couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Turning to face Sunset, Moondancer kept a serious face. “Look… It’s not your fault. You can’t help how you look, and you’re just being yourself… This is my problem. I know Shimmer’s dead, I know she isn’t coming back, but when I look at you… I don’t know, I get confused sometimes, but I always come back to reality.”

“We're still friends then?” Sunset blinked.

“Definitely.” Moondancer smiled. “She would have wanted it that way. She also wouldn’t have wanted me avoiding you just because I’m having a difficult time separating the two of you… It was much easier when you both were alive… I knew that no one was like Shimmer… Now that she’s gone though… I guess my brain is trying to cling to the one who at least looks like her… To maintain some semblance of her being here… Pretty stupid…”

Sunset shook her head and approached the girl, placing a hand on her shoulder, causing Moondancer to look up at Sunset with a raised brow.

“It’s not stupid… You miss her… I do too… Trust me, having Shimmer around made me feel like… I had a family here, like I mattered so much to someone, but then… When Adagio killed her… I was crushed, like a part of me died…” Sunset explained.

Moondancer nodded. “I guess neither of us realized how much we relied on her…”

“I guess not, but at least that means she isn’t going to be forgotten…” Sunset smiled.

Moondancer shot her a similar smile. “Not in a million years.”

"And we'll both get better at this friendship between us, I'm sure," Sunset added.

"Seems like we already are..." Moondancer replied.

A young filly Sunset Shimmer stood in front of a mirror adjusting herself. She had opted to play a red ribbon clip in her mane and a simple light blue dress over her form that she had bought with some of the money her parents sent her to live off of while she was attending school. For as long as Sunset could remember she was forced to pay for things and budget herself, which on the plus side made her exceptional with money and living cheap.

Her parents had some money but were far from millionaires. They spent so much time at work though that Sunset rarely saw them. Instead, she had learned to cook, clean, and pay for things all by herself. A typical night at home was checking the counter for a bag of bits and a note that rattled off how they “cared very deeply” for her and that they would be home late and to order some food if she needed it. Once in a great while, there would be leftovers in the fridge for her to heat up.

Sunset had reached the point where she didn’t even really read the notes anymore, she just assumed they were the same old nonsense, she wouldn’t be surprised if they just copied the same message every single time at this point.

Still, being at school at least made her feel a little better, she didn’t have to deal with that when she lived at the dorms during the school year, and that meant she could focus on something she actually loved doing: reading. When she wasn’t studying, Sunset was reading for fun. Most of her nights were spent alone in her dorm with a dimly lit room only illuminated by a bedside lamp with a book in her hooves and a smile on her face as she lost herself in the magic of the written word. At one point in her life, she considered being an author even.

Tonight, however, was something different, something magical. She actually was going to the school dance. She had been invited via a letter left in her locker, telling her that they thought she was one of the most beautiful girls in school.

The young unicorn wasn’t used to hearing compliments about herself, hell she seldom got complimented at all, so she was elated to find out that someone felt so fondly of her.

That was why she was going through so much effort to look her best for this dance. She wanted the image of herself to be that which her admirer had envisioned. She needed to present the best version of herself so they wouldn’t be disappointed. A part of her wondered if it was a boy or a girl. Given the hoofwriting, she wagered it was a boy, it had that sloppy kind of writing you’d expect from an eleven to twelve-year-old boy.

She wondered what he looked like, though she hoped he was cute. A smile crept up on her face as she found herself fantasizing about how her night would go. Would she kiss him? She didn’t know. She felt she’d be far too nervous to do something like that, but she might peck him on the cheek if he was sweet enough, that shouldn’t be too hard, right?

As she checked herself over once more she frowned realizing her face was rather plain. Sunset didn’t know a thing about applying makeup, and thus she didn’t own any. She was kicking herself over that fact, realizing that some makeup might make her face stand out a bit more.

Shrugging, she decided she simply would have to allow herself to impress him via other means. She hoped he enjoyed reading, as it was one of the few subjects she was actually competent to talk about.

This date had to go perfect, she wanted to potentially get a boyfriend. She felt as though maybe the other kids would stop giving her such a hard time if they saw that she had someone in her life that cared about her. That or he would become the subject of their ridicule by her side. Still, so long as she wasn’t in it alone, she felt it was a little more bearable.

Making the final adjustments on her dress, she took a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror before speaking to herself. “Alright, Sunset… You can do this… No big deal… Just go meet him… Say hello, and act casual…”

She closed her eyes as she let her self motivational speech sink in. She knew she could do this, she knew she had the ability, she just needed to keep her confidence up.

Opening her eyes, she tried her best to maintain a neutral expression but found a smile coming to her face as she exited her dorm room and locked it behind herself.

She sighed contently as she made her way down the hallway of the dormitory and headed toward the gymnasium where the dance was being held. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she trotted along happily toward the event. Her heart felt like it was skipping beat after beat, but she carried on until she arrived outside and then eventually at the entrance to the gym.

Taking a breath, Sunset tried to calm herself and then lifted her head up high as she opened the door entering a room full of younger ponies chatting, dancing and enjoying a refreshment or two on the side. Along them were a few adults supervising the entire event, making sure things didn’t get too out of hoof, but overall it looked as though every soul in the room was enjoying themselves. It was a sight to behold.

Sunset had never attended a dance before, so she didn’t exactly know what to expect or what to do. Standing there awkwardly at the entrance it had occurred to her that she never bothered to know what her date looked like. He could be anypony in the crowd before her, and she didn’t even know where to begin looking.

Blinking, she felt a bit overwhelmed with this many ponies in the room.

Awkwardly shuffling in place, she began to look about frantically for her date. Where could he be? Who could he be? All questions she wanted answered, but didn’t see anything that would do so for her nearby.

Finally, she noted a boy approaching her. At first, she thought that maybe he was simply heading in her direction and she was being overly hopeful, but when he came closer and his eyes remained facing her, Sunset took a few breaths and composed herself. With a proud trot forward she bowed her head and smiled at the boy. “A-are you the one who sent me that note?”

She scolded herself internally for not having something suaver to say.

He nodded and gestured silently with his head to follow him. Her heart was racing, he wanted to dance, with her no less! She did her best to keep her cool as she followed him across the dance floor, oddly not stopping until they were standing in front of another group of boys who began snickering. “I can’t believe she actually fell for it…” One of them managed to get out between trying to contain his fit of giggles.

“Fell for… What?” Sunset blinked.

One of the other boys grinned and stepped forward. “That fake note… Did you actually think that anypony would want to go to the dance with you?”

“But I…” Sunset was at a loss for words. Could it be true? Was this entire night that she had gotten so excited for just a clever trick being played upon her.

“Why though?” She asked trying to fight back tears.

“You’re a freak! A weirdo! No one likes you, why would you ever think differently? I can’t believe you were dumb enough to show up… Maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are…” He mocked.

Sunset shook her head. “Shut up!”

“Why don’t you go back to your room and cry? Freak.” He smirked.

She wanted to push him, she wanted to hit him with all the magic she could muster, she wanted to hear him cry in agony because of her, but instead, she found what she actually ended up doing to betray what she wanted.

Turning toward the door, she ran, tears streaking down her face as she could hear the group of boys laughing at her expense.

How could she be so stupid? To actually believe that someone would have invited her? To believe that someone actually liked her? She was so desperate to be wanted by someone she walked right into an obvious trick and made a fool of herself.

As much as it pained her to allow those boys to be right, she did exactly what they predicted she would do. She ran all the way back to her dorm room and slammed the door behind herself.

As expected, tears continued to run down her face, she bawled until she couldn’t anymore. The young unicorn laid on her bed, face down in a pillow until she could only hear herself whimper. Then when it was finally over, she turned to her side and thought. She thought about how this always happened when she gave ponies a chance when she allowed herself to open up, all ponies ever did was take advantage of it and use it as another way to kick her when she was done.

No more. She told herself. She’d never trust another for as long as she lived. She’d stick true to that for years to come, until that fateful day where she met six girls who would change her life and her perspective on everything.

Adagio Dazzle spent some time at the beach with her stunning young girlfriend, Shimmer. A stunning young girlfriend who only looked more stunning in her attractive black bikini with little dog bone prints on it. She found herself practically drooling as she ogled Shimmer’s impressive breasts concealed by only a tiny bit of fabric. If they weren’t afraid of someone driving by and seeing them, she’d have offered to have her way with her right there and then.

Shimmer stepped out of the ocean water and flicked her wet hair out of her face. She smiled at Adagio who was sitting in the sand on a towel soaking up some sun as she smiled at Shimmer from behind her designer sunglasses.

Approaching, Shimmer leaned down so that her cleavage line was right in Adagio’s line of sight. “Whatcha’ doin’ cutie?”

Adagio tilted her glasses down as her eyes focused on the exposed area. “Right now? Staring at some nice tits.”

Shimmer rolled her eyes. “And you say that I’m the horn dog?”

“To be fair, they’re right in my field of view, it’s sort of hard to ignore them, plus they're awesome so...” Adagio defended.

“You must have been a man in another life…” Shimmer rolled her eyes.

“Maybe I’m one in this life?” Adagio grinned.

“Yeah… Okay…” Shimmer giggled as she sat down next to her girlfriend.

“You didn’t notice the dick the entire time we were fucking the other day?” Adagio smirked.

Shimmer rolled her eyes once more. “That was a strap on.”

“Or so you believe…” Adagio winked.

“I’d still love you even if you were a guy…” Shimmer leaned in and pecked the girl on the cheek.

“Thanks… I think… I guess being a guy would be kind of cool… Pee standing up, plus I’d stand out with my hair as a guy…” Adagio contemplated the thought for a moment.

“You’d definitely be just as viral…” Shimmer reached over and ran a finger along the girl’s stomach playfully.

“Either way, I guess it doesn’t matter, so long as I have you,” Adagio replied as she took Shimmer’s hand in her own.

Shimmer giggled once more and crawled closer, resting her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you not trying to be ‘cool’ for a change and just saying how you feel…”

“I spent a lot of my life not telling anyone how I feel…” Adagio admitted.

“You’ve had such a rough life it sounds like…” Shimmer replied.

That was an understatement. There was so much that Shimmer didn’t know, so much that she would have to know if they planned to continue this relationship. Adagio knew that she couldn’t keep all of these secrets forever. One day she would have to tell Shimmer everything, she would have to tell her that she was a siren, that her life started in an alternate universe and that their romance was technically forbidden by her kind.

She wondered which part she would take the worst, though it hardly seemed to matter, given that telling her any of that all seemed like a bad idea. She didn’t want to admit that Aria was right, but the truth was, she was; Adagio was scared to tell Shimmer the truth. She was half sure that the girl would abandon her the moment she became aware of what she was. The only thought that was worse than that was the possibility that she would turn Adagio over to the government for research or something.

There was so much risk involved. To be completely honest with Shimmer, and thus keep their romance going, Adagio would need to risk everything. She loved this girl, and she trusted her, but did she trust her enough to risk her safety and freedom with her? Adagio made it a point to never put her well being in the hands of others, but was she willing to break that mentality for this one girl? Was love a powerful enough force to get her to do the unthinkable?

She had already broken so many of the ways she knew were in place to protect her, but would she break this final one? This last rule that she had put up as a barrier to protect her from mortals? It was difficult enough to deal with citizens of Equestria when they found out what she was, but in this world, it was eight times more extreme. Being discovered here could mean a fate far worse than being chased out of town or even death.

The only thing that pushed her in a different direction was the reality of realizing that eventually there was the chance that the other Sunset could find out the two were dating. Shimmer had a lot of money and it was only a matter of time before Sunset noticed there was another version of herself in Canterlot. If Sunset told Shimmer before Adagio could, it would look bad. It would appear as though Adagio was deceiving the girl. The thought certainly forced Adagio’s hand.

It was clear, she had to tell her and soon.

“You know Adagio… We’re both kind of different aren’t we?” Shimmer said.

Blinking, Adagio turned to face her girlfriend and got out of her thoughts. “What do you mean?”

“The two of us… We’re kind of different from normal people aren’t we?” Shimmer smiled.

“Yeah… I guess…” Adagio replied trying to see where she was going with this line of questioning.

“So like I said before… We should get married…” Shimmer glanced over at her with a serious face, it was obvious that she wasn’t trying to rile Adagio up, but actually expected a serious reply. Adagio had agreed to it before, but it was always in a joking sort of way, while she had already agreed to it, she had never shown any signs of true commitment.

“Sunset… I…” Adagio closed her eyes for a moment but then nodded. “Yeah… You’re right… And I agreed before, but I guess I haven’t really shown I’m serious yet have I?”

“Not really, no…” Shimmer replied honestly.

Looking over at her girlfriend and placing a hand on her thigh, Adagio locked eyes with her. “There’s some stuff I have to take care of first… Over the next few days, and once that’s said and done… I’m going to tell you a lot of stuff… Some stuff that I’ve been keeping to myself… If you really want to get married there’s a lot about me you’re going to have to know…”

Shimmer blinked but nodded. “I understand… We should start such a relationship based upon honesty, right?”

Adagio nodded. “I want to be completely open and honest with someone for the first time in my life… Especially if I’m going to spend my life with that someone…”

Shimmer smiled and nodded. “It’s an honor to be that person…”

“I wouldn’t have anyone else…” Adagio spoke before she leaned in and planted a kiss on the girl’s lips.

For that moment, all was fine, even if she knew that the future might hold some hard conversations between the two.

Yeah, Shimmer and Adagio wanted to get married... Too bad that never happened!