Book one of "Who We Become".
Sunset always knew that she was destined for greatness, but she never dreamed of how great she could become. Not until she had seen it - the mirror had shown her as an alicorn. Ignoring Celestia's warnings, Sunset goes l...
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A sharp pounding brought Sunset into consciousness. "Sunset, it's time for school."
Sunset groaned in response. She rolled over and covered her face with a pillow. Why was it so bright? It was uncalled for, really. The sun could light the world without being so bright. All she needed was a little more sleep. If they'd just leave her be, she would be perfectly fine. So of course, that was out of the question.
The banging returned, and Rose Petal called louder. "Sunset? Are you awake?"
"I feel sick..." she grumbled.
"What was that?"
"I'm sick!" she called louder, making her head hurt worse.
"Hold on, I'm coming in." Rose waited a moment before opening the door. She found Sunset still half covering her face with a pillow, and it could not have made for a pretty sight. "What happened? You seemed fine yesterday."
"I don't know..." Sunset pulled the pillow over the rest of her face. "Can I just stay home today?"
Although Sunset couldn't see Rose's expression, at least her voice seemed neutral. "Hold on, I'll go get the thermometer."
Sunset groaned again as Rose left. The thermometer wouldn't help her case at all; she wasn't sick, she was hungover. But even if she could think of some way to make herself look ill, she probably couldn't have brought herself to do anything about it. The best she could manage was to haphazardly look around her for any sign of evidence, and thankfully she found nothing. At least she'd had the foresight to hide the bottle, even if she didn't remember where exactly she'd hidden it.
Rose returned with the thermometer, so Sunset dutifully stuck it in her mouth and waited for the beep. "Temperature is normal," Rose reported. "What's bothering you?"
"My head's killing me, and I think I'm going to throw up."
"You stayed in your room all day yesterday, you probably just didn't get enough to drink." Rose picked up the soda bottle off the floor. "Or maybe too much of the wrong thing to drink. I'll bring you some water and we'll get you feeling better in no time."
Unaware of exactly how right she was, Rose once again left the room. Sunset ran through her options. If she actually vomited it would probably be enough to convince Rose to let her stay home, and she wouldn't have to deal with the dilemma from yesterday about how it would be spent – the entire day would be spent in glorious sleep. But Sunset wasn't terribly good at vomiting on command. It felt likely if she just ate something it would come back up, but if she didn't throw up, the food was just going to wind up making her feel more sick than she did already.
But aside from that? Sunset already knew she was out of luck. She barely even offered any resistance when Rose came back with a glass of water and ibuprofen. If nothing else, the water helped rinse her mouth of the foul flavor lingering in it.
