Sunset stirred awake in her bed and stretched her limbs a little, feeling her muscles wake up, allowing her to move. Looking outside the window, she saw the despicable winter waiting patiently for her to get out of her warm home to torture her with its icy touch.
But despite that, she smiled.
Winter Wrap Up would begin in just a week, and this damned season would finally end.

She got out of bed and quickly went to make herself some pancakes for breakfast while thinking about all she had done during the month in Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie almost passed out from excitement when she told her she wanted a party, and she gave her seven: A “Welcome to Ponyville!” party, a “Sorry for making you mad” party, a “Thank you for the second chance” party, a “Happy new sister!” party, a “Congratulations for conquering your fears” party, a “Compensation for the waiting for so long to have a party” party, and a “Party just to party” party.

And she wasn’t done yet, she was already planning parties for the next several years, and Sunset was smart enough to not ask what exactly she would be celebrating in those apparently random days.

Once the pancakes were done, she made some coffee and sat down to eat, her mind still going over the events of the month.

Granny Smith had invited her over for lunch at the farm several times, and even asked her to help with the cooking, teaching her a few apple recipes to add to her repertoire.

Applebloom and her friends had asked for her help in the search for their cutie marks, which involved the most random, dangerous, and sometimes destructive shenanigans she had ever witnessed. And just like with Pinkie Pie, she stopped asking herself why all those activities ended with her having to clean tree sap off their coats.

She had a few more encounters with Gilda, who seemed to be visiting Rainbow a lot recently, that always started some sort of competition between the two. Be it snow ball fights, flight challenges, and sometimes even ‘reluctantly’ participating in some of the Crusaders activities.

Finishing her breakfast, Sunset left her home, braving the cold wind, and marched towards Rarity’s house.

She had spent a lot of time with the fashionista. Helping her with some designs, learning to tailor, and making the dresses and suits she wanted to give as gifts.

She was one of the Element bearers Sunset got along with best next to Rainbow, Pinkie being a far third. She really enjoyed spending time with Rarity. Mostly because she helped her let her creative drive loose and taught her an admittedly difficult craft.

She knocked on the door of the boutique, and she was instantly let in by Rarity, who was smiling with irrepressible excitement.

“I’m glad you finally arrived; I have a surprise for you darling.” The seamstress said, walking up to a paper panel she was using to hide her gift.

“Really? What is it?” Sunset asked.
She still wasn’t accustomed to receiving gifts. She always earned everything that she got and felt proud of it. But gifts were something completely different, and she was still unsure of how she felt about them.

“I’m sure you will love it.” Rarity grabbed the panel with her magic. “I know we agreed that you would do the sewing for your own dress, but I really wanted to surprise you with it.” She practically threw the panel away, showing off Sunset’s dress.

It had tall orange metallic boots for her hindlegs, and light blue hoof-open gloves for the forelegs, all fof them with a little metal piece in the shape and color of Sunset’s cutie mark on the sides. The rest of the dress seemed like the kind of garment a princess or an angel might wear, in a combination of pink, very light yellow, and light blue colors. And on top of that, either because of Rarity’s amazing skill or some sort of magic, the dress itself seemed to radiate sunlight, that made it seem even more like something designed for an angelical princess.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Rarity exclaimed with unbridled enthusiasm. “I inspired myself with everything that you’ve learned about my friends, and whatever I could pry off Twilight and Spike. I even sent a few letters to Cadence to ask some questions. Would you believe even Luna sent me a letter with recommendations? I call it Daydre-”

Rarity’s excited rant died when she turned to look at Sunset’s reaction.

She was completely still, almost frozen in shock, her mouth slightly open, looking like it wanted to express some words but couldn’t find them.
But what caught Rarity’s attention were the tears running down her face as she stared at the dress with wide eyes.

“Sunset? Is there a problem?” Rarity asked, worried. She certainly wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction.

Sunset’s mouth started moving, slowly managing to say a few understandable words. “Is… is that… is that really for me?”

Rarity managed to smile despite her confusion and concern. “It is darling. Made specifically for you.”

Sunset slowly took a step forward, and then another, and another, until she finally reached the dress.

She pressed her hoof against it, feeling the softness of the silk, and it seemed like Rarity had even added some cinnamon fragrance to it before she arrived.

Tears still running down her cheeks, she turned towards the seamstress and asked in the tone of a puppy-eyed foal; “Can… Can I try it on?”

“Of course darling.” Rarity was about to lift a panel for her to change in private, but Sunset simply teleported the dress onto her body.
The seamstress almost recoiled when she saw the instant reaction it had on Sunset; her eyes widened and she let out a soft sob while the tears fell more heavily.

Sunset looked at Rarity, the emotions running behind her eyes confusing the fashionista even more. “I… I need a mirror,” she said with a hint of desperation in her voice.

Rarity instantly moved a large mirror in front of Sunset, making the unicorn freeze in place, her sobbing now more noticeable.

“What do you think of it?” Rarity asked, trying to understand the reaction she was having.

“It’s… It’s just…” Sunset tried to come up with a response, but every word her mind offered seemed unable to properly describe what she was feeling about the image in the mirror. “I… I can’t…”

“Is it beautiful?” Rarity guessed.

“More than beautiful. It looks… I look…” Once again, Sunset couldn’t come up with the correct word to say.

Rarity gave her a soft smile. “Darling, has anypony ever said; ‘You are beautiful?’”

“I don’t think the word ’beautiful’ has ever been used to describe any part of me.”

The response hurt Rarity’s heart, and that pain only doubled when she was suddenly trapped in Sunset’s desperate hug, feeling her tears falling on her coat. “Thank you… Thank you so much.”

Rarity hugged her back, stroking her hair like she always did when Sweetie Belle had a bad day. “You don’t have to thank me darling.”

Sunset continued sobbing on her shoulder, trying to calm herself down. “Why can’t I stop crying?”

Rarity moved her head a little so she could look her in the eyes. “I believe that you spent so much time trying to seem perfect for others, you never had time to feel things like beauty for yourself.”

Sunset sobbed a little more, and then tried to dry her tears. “Thank you, Rarity. I promise I will make it up to you. To all of you who made this.”

Rarity smiled. “You don’t have to. It’s a gift, you don’t need to repay a gift.”

Sunset looked confused. “That’s nonsense.”

“No darling. That’s friendship.” The word seemed to cause a different kind of shock in Sunset. Brief, but equally powerful. “Think about it. It may help you in the future.”

Sunset shook her head a little, finally clearing her head, and gave her a wide smile. “I will. Thank you for everything.”

“Anytime, dear.” She gave one last look to the dress. “Do you want to take it with you, or do you want me to store it with the rest of the dresses for the Gala?”

Sunset looked at her dress one more time and, looking like it pained her, teleported it back to the mannequin. “You know how to take care of it. But I can’t wait to wear it.”

“Are you going to come with us to the Gala?” Rarity asked with little stars in her eyes.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Since apparently none of you have any idea how the Gala works, I will guide you to prevent you from doing something embarrassing.” She sighed and looked at the rest of the clothing she still had to finish. “Sorry but, I think I've had too many emotions for today.”

“You still feel like you want to cry?” Rarity asked with a comforting smile. "We can talk about it if you want. The girls said that always helped you a lot."

Sunset looked away from her. “Thank you, but I'm okay. It’s just a little embarrassing being seen like this.”

Rairty nodded her head. “I can understand. If you need some time, we can continue at a later date. I’m glad that you liked your dress so much.”

“I loved it. Thank you.”

“You’ve said that enough.” Rarity opened the door of her boutique, and Sunset quickly got out, giving her a quick wave before galloping off to her house.

Rarity closed the door and looked at Sunset’s dress.

She felt happy that she could make the unicorn experience such raw emotions for the first time, but it still left her very concerned about what it implied.

According to Pinkie’s weird ritual that let her know how old ponies were so she could make accurate birthday cakes, Sunset was thirty-four years old. Thirty-four years in which nopony had ever told her she was beautiful or made her feel like she was.

That didn’t make sense to her.

“One would think that at least her mother would have told her she was pretty or try and dress her up to look beautiful. In fact, if Sunset has gone to galas, surely she had to have put on a dress and be courted by ponies. Unless the gala really is as bad as she paints it.”

Rarity’s thoughts went back to Sunset’s mother figure.

“Now that I think about it. How exactly did she become Celestia’s pupil? At what age was she taken to the castle? Was she an orphan?” That last question shook Rarity a little. She certainly didn’t want something like that haunting one of her friends.

“And her new family… Twilight could be oblivious enough to not care about how Sunset felt about herself at the time, but Celestia and Cadence? They should be first in line to pamper her and make her feel special.”

Rarity could tell something was wrong here. But what could she do to help her?
She didn’t know her past, and Sunset had been almost an adult when Twilight met her. So, the only way of knowing about her foalhood was from either Sunset herself or… Celestia.

“I don’t think I will be able to get an appointment with Equestria’s monarch, so I guess my only option is asking Sunset directly.”

Something about that made her feel uneasy, like she was about to play with fire. Quite literally in Sunset’s particular case.

She debated if she should go and tell the rest of the girls about it. They all were able to help Sunset with her problems in their own way, but this may be a bit more complicated and personal. And she was mostly worried about how Twilight would take it. She was already feeling guilty about neglecting Sunset’s problems, and this would only add more wood to that fire.

“What should I do?”

Sunset walked through the streets of Ponyville, resisting the cold air while her mind drifted.

She had never broken down so badly for something that in retrospect seemed so simple.

The question of if she was attractive or not had never registered in her mind, nor had she really cared if it did. Just like Rarity said, she just wanted to prove that she was the best. That she could be somepony of importance in the world. That she had worth.

But now things had changed. A lot.

Not only was she now conscious of her own looks past the ‘powerful mage’ image she had worked to maintain over the years, but she also wondered what other emotions she had bottled up, and how she would discover them.

Her thoughts broke off when she came across three familiar fillies, who seemed like they weren’t having a very good day.

Sunset quickly approached them and called out; “Hey, why the long faces?”

The three fillies tried their best to smile at her, but they still looked pretty downcast.
“We have been trying to talk with Diamond Tiara, but she keeps shrugging us off or insulting us before leaving with Silver Spoon,” Applebloom explained.

“We can’t find her problem if she keeps avoiding us,” Sweetie exclaimed, a bit frustrated. They were really trying to reach out to the filly, but it was proving too difficult for them.

“I see.” Sunset took some time to think of a new strategy.

‘If she’s avoiding them, I’m guessing she is hiding something, otherwise she would just either play along or confront them about it without fear. So, what they need to do is find a way to stop her from fleeing.'

An idea popped into Sunset’s head, and she smiled devilishly. “I know what you need to do.”

The Crusaders looked at each other. “Uh, what is it? We can give it a try,” Scootaloo asked.

“Diamond Tiara,” Spoiled Rich said, her mere voice filling the filly with dread at her next words. “I’ve been hearing this rumor that you’ve been fraternizing with a bunch of blank flanks in school. Is this true?”

The filly turned around to face her, but kept her head low in a show of submission to her mother. “It is not true. The Crusaders are just annoying me constantly.”

Her mother lifted her eyebrow a few centimeters, raising Tiara’s heartrate along with her stress. “Crusaders? That’s too lofty a word to call those lowlifes.”

Diamond shut her eyes tightly. “I’m sorry mother. It’s just a bad habit.”

“Then make sure you erase it from your head!” Her mother spat like the words were venom coming from a spider. “Maybe a few days of isolation will help.”

Diamond opened her eyes wide and looked at her mother in the face, which was a big mistake. “Please mother it won’t be neces-”

“Don’t question me Diamond!” Spoiled screamed, making the filly almost shrink into a ball. “Now go to your room and remain in silence.”

Diamond just nodded and obeyed her command without a word, leaving Spoiled alone in the dining room.

“I swear, that filly must be doing it on purpose.” She made a disapproving huff, raising her nose like she tended to do. “She will soon see just how bad that will go for her.”

She was suddenly interrupted by her butler entering the room. “Mrs. Spoiled, a group of fillies are requesting to see Miss Diamond.”

Spoiled gave him a side glance just to show her disapproval of his actions. “And why haven’t you kicked them off of my property yet?”

The butler, accustomed to it’s mistresses acidic personality, remained indifferent. “I tried, but then you were specifically requested to see them.”

Spoiled rolled her eyes. “Very well, I shall do it myself. But consider all of your work this day officially out of this month’s payment.”

The Butler struggled to hide his anger, and simply gave her space to pass the doorway and go to the main entrance to the house.
Spoiled opened the door looking down, finding the three fillies that Diamond wrongly referred to as ‘The Crusaders’.

One of them was about to talk, but she interrupted her by pointing to the exit.
“I will give you to the count of three to-” In that moment, she noticed something behind them, and her frown turned into a nervous smile. “-to enter my house! You’re all welcome.”
She swallowed a lump in her throat. “Excuse me for a moment.”

She almost ran inside, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Margarita! Get your fat ass moving and take out the good silverware and tea set!”

Sunset had a big, smug grin. “I told you she would let us in.”

Author's Notes:

Chapter recently editied by My Little Pastafarian!
I'm really thankful for their help

I'm really tempted to try and draw Sunset in her dress, but then I would probably have to draw all the dresses Sunset made for her family and acquaintances.
Which honestly would be easier than describing them in words (I would struggle even if I did it in spanish)

Have a nice existence.

I will be watching you.