Sunset Shimmer never really had a childhood or someone to teach her what she needs to know. So, after the fall formal, Sunset is faced with changes she is not yet ready for: friends and family who are willing to show her just what she's been missing. Will she accept accept this newfound solace or will her fears and insecurities get the better of her? Will she even have a choice?

Current cover done by MichaelNight

Sunset Shimmer wants to become an alicorn more than anything - it's the entire reason why she's Princess Celestia's student. But she's run out of ways to research it and Princess Celestia has blocked her at every turn.

Fortunately for her, there's a new Princess on the block - Cadance. One who's already ascended. One who knows personally and intimately how she did it.

To get her to talk, Sunset will do anything. Even if it means pretending to like - really like - the Pink Pony Of Passion.

Cover art by daOtterGuy.

Featured 8/28/2021-08/30/2021! (And basically every update date after that.)

Now with a TVTropes page thanks to ZanarNaryon!

With the memory stone crisis behind her, it's time for Sunset to deal with an even bigger challenge:

A caring Princess Celestia interested in seeing how Sunset lives on Earth.

* Takes place right after Forgotten Friendship, Teen for some tame Sun x Sci-Twi Romance Fluff
* Helps to have seen the two minute short Rarity's Display of Affection
* Cover From a Picture by akainu7
* Editing help by Clancrusher
* Featured on Equestria Daily's 2018 Sunset Day 50 Fic list!
* Translated into Chinese on Fimtale by Cyber Poison

Recommended - PresentPerfect

It has been eight long years since Principal Celestia lost her only child. Eight years of self blame and sadness. When a young woman stumbled into her office, begging to be enrolled she thought that it was just a cruel joke. Especially when that girl turned out to be a tormented villain from another universe. But could Celestia’s mistake be another girls salvation?

Overwhelmed by her new duties as a princess, a newly-crowned Twilight Sparkle seeks solace within the quiet confines of Canterlot Castle's royal archives, where she discovers a book she'd never seen before. Within its pages was a story about both Princess Celestia and Starswirl the Bearded, as well as a mare that Twilight had never heard of.

Details of their lives, their history, and their relationships puzzle, intrigue, and even worry Twilight. The more she read, the more curious she became and the more questions that arose. But there was only one question to which she truly sought the answer:

Who was Sunset Shimmer?

If there was one thing Twilight Sparkle had learned since ascending to alicornhood and becoming a princess, it was that ponies talked. Then, quite suddenly, they were talking about her.

And then they were talking about her love life since she was a single princess, unmarried and approachable.

She was still getting used to that part.

She was especially getting used to talking about it with Sunset.

5/14/2018: Now with cover art designed by the very generous Novel-Idea! Thank you so much!

Sunset is accused of spreading everyone’s secrets on a Mystable page calling itself Anon-a-Miss, losing all of her friends and reputation in the process.

But it seems the school forgot one thing.

Sunset Shimmer isn't one to be easily broken.

A story dearly inspired by wanting something different out of the Anon-a-Miss 'Genre' of fics. Many are wonderful stories, but at the end of the day, most tend to fall into the same couple of tropes with slight alterations, and many of those tropes are ones I'm not terribly fond of.

So with my ever present desire to take a well trod genre and flip it on its head, I present my own take on this story, and one I have not personally seen. So I hope I deliver on giving you something different from the others!

Pre-Read by the Wonderful and Loveable baes: Uria, the Sacred Beast and Sunny Days

After putting on the Element of Magic, Sunset Shimmer was shown just how much of a monster she really is. But that wasn't all the Elements did to her.

Sunset has now been forced to serve penance by answering any question truthfully and by doing anything asked of her, whether she wants to or not.

And she really doesn't want to.

Until all of the hatred in her heart is gone, Sunset is at the whim of her peers, unbeknownst to them of course. Can her new "friends" help her down the road to redemption?

If not, there's always that other Twilight Sparkle she keeps running into.

Current editor: Nomad_Sigma
Guest editors: Cerulean Voice, Flint Sparks, Starlight Nova, and Sholan
Extra thanks to Icarus_Gizmo, JustAnotherTimeLord, and HenryAnthonyCourtler

Cover art customized by Amber Spark!

Now with it's own TV Tropes page!
Posted on EQD June 25, 2014
Wanna read it in French?
Or, read the E-Pub version here or the online version here
Now available in print format!

After seeking refuge in Equestria during the Anon-A-Miss fiasco, Sunset Shimmer is stranded in Equestria. Convinced that she's just not cut out for friendship, Sunset throws herself back into her studies. Unfortunately for her, all the magic around CHS has attracted the attention of a certain spectacled scientist. When her device accidentally pulls the mysterious energy from the statue in front of the school, she is shocked when an amber unicorn was pulled out with it. With the portal not working, the two must work together to gather the energy needed to send Sunset home from the only magical source left to tap: Sunset's former friends, all while dealing with the overbearing principal of Crystal Prep as the Friendship Games approach.

Anon-A-Miss, a mysterious internet user who corrupted Canterlot High School. Everyone have accused Sunset Shimmer of this betrayal, even her friends have abandoned her.
Now Sunset is alone, as she once was, and depends only on herself to start again, among shadows ... New faces, and not so new ones, will come to her life.
Will Sunset be happy again? Canterlot will ever know the truth? What will happen to the magic of friendship?

- "dark" label due to psychological conflicts and a certain degree of physical aggression -

- All chapters have been editing and correcting by icecreammac-