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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The new semester of school brought about mixed feelings for Sunset. It was a welcome relief, because if she had thought that winter break had given her too much to think about before, that was nothing compared to the final week of it. During the events at the lake, Sunset had been forced to relive some of her false memories while under the ice, and it was hard to try and shove them back down. School would provide a much needed distraction, especially since she still resolved to actually put forth some effort into her grades.
On the other hand, there was a lot she wasn't looking forward to. The stitches in her hand had been removed, which was good. But that was just about the only thing positive about Sunset's appearance. At least she could wear gloves to cover the blisters on her knuckles. Her face was another story.
Once the initial redness turned to bruising on the day after the fight, Sunset made an emergency trip back to the mall. Although Sunset had never cared for makeup, she needed something to cover the evidence of the fight. She managed to grab a few shades of concealer and some other stuff to experiment with without being seen, but she wasn't too confident in her efforts. True, none of the bruising was showing up, but she was worried the makeup itself would stand out too much, or that it would fail to hold up for the day.
She counted it as a victory when no one at the orphanage commented on the makeup. They probably just assumed it was normal for a girl her age to care about crap like that, or maybe they just didn't pay enough attention to her. Either way was fine with Sunset, since she didn't want to have to explain why she had the sudden interest in looking pretty. Other kids could be far more critical, but there was nothing to do but handle that if it came up. That was a concern, but it wasn't really the problem.
The problem, of course, was Applejack. In the week after the fight, Sunset had been left with plenty of time to think about what had happened, and about what would happen when they inevitably saw each other again. She'd changed her mind about what she thought would be best at least a dozen times, and was trying her best to find the certainty that she'd had when she pushed Applejack away. A friendship between the two of them would never work out.
But no matter how much she reminded herself of that, it didn't seem to help. As she walked along the crowded hallway towards her first-period class, she was surrounded by kids catching up with friends and sharing their winter break experiences. Any other year, this would have been a prime time to catch up with some rumors she could exploit. But instead, all the words from the other kids seemed to elude her, becoming nothing but background noise against the much louder words in her head.
"Well then, I'm Applejack. What's your name?"
"I don't think you're pathetic."
"So what's the plan, partner?"
"What d'ya say we just put all that behind us and start over?"
"Now, now, there ain't no reason to be like that. Here, I'll help."
