Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine

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  A Sneak Peek of Equestria Girls: Through the Mirror

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  For Leah and Joanna—my first and bestest pony fans

  A Ray of Sunshine…Not

  The hallways of Canterlot High were bustling with students on their way to class. Kids were calling out to their friends, scribbling down last-minute answers on their homework, and grabbing their books from their lockers. The first-period bell was just about to ring.

  “Howdy, gals!” Applejack called out, bounding over to her friends as they headed to chemistry class. “Ready for the big test?”

  “I’m nervous,” admitted Fluttershy, biting her lip.

  Rainbow Dash gave her an encouraging smile. “Just remember what we studied together and you’ll do great! It’s all about practice, after all. That’s what counts. We’ve done the drills and we’re ready for the game. Right?”

  “That’s right,” agreed Pinkie Pie. “It’s just like cooking. A bit of this, a bit of that, and, boom, cupcakes!” She giggled.

  “Slow down, partner,” said Applejack. “We don’t want any explosions if we can help it, but you’ve got the basic idea, that’s true. You throw a lot of things together and all of a sudden you have somethin’ brand-new, just like magic.”

  Fluttershy took a deep breath.

  “Besides,” said Rarity, reassuringly putting her arm through her friend’s, “if we can make real magic happen when we play music together in our band, how hard can a school test be?”

  Fluttershy smiled. “Maybe we can start singing together and pony up during the exam!”

  “Whoa!” said Applejack. “That’s only for special occasions. We all know that.”

  The girls nodded, suddenly serious. Whenever they played music together in their band, the Sonic Rainbooms, they would grow cute ears, flowing manes, and long, flouncing tails. It had all started when Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, visited their high school from Equestria and left behind a bit of enchantment from the world of magical ponies.

  “Time for class! Time for class!” Vice Principal Luna was striding down the hallway, clapping her hands.

  “Okay, this is it.” Fluttershy gulped.

  Flash Sentry raced past the girls into the chemistry classroom, his face buried in his notes. DJ Pon-3 turned off her music and took off her earphones. Trixie flounced past and took a seat in a front-row desk.

  “Hey, where’s Sunset Shimmer?” asked Rainbow Dash, looking around.

  “She’s going to be late,” said Applejack.

  “There she is!” Rarity pointed down the hallway, where a girl was slipping through the main doors of the school just before they closed. As if she didn’t have a care in the world, Sunset Shimmer strolled to her locker, gave her pretty red-gold hair a quick brush, and grabbed a single sharp pencil. Her friends were all waiting for her outside the classroom.

  “We missed you last night at our study session,” said Applejack.

  “Are you worried about the test?” whispered Fluttershy to her friend.

  “No,” answered Sunset Shimmer honestly. “You just have to memorize the formulas and the reactions and the periodic table and all the elements, and be able to predict reactions, and check your answers, and do all the math without making a mistake. That’s all.”

  The girls’ eyes widened. Rarity gulped.

  “We did so many practice problems together last night,” said Rainbow Dash reassuringly.

  “Chemistry isn’t very hard for me,” apologized Sunset Shimmer when she realized she had scared her friends. “Not after studying magic in Equestria.”

  “We made cookies, too, last night!” announced Pinkie Pie, changing the subject. “After all, what’s a study session without a little baking?”

  Sunset Shimmer’s face fell. “You made cookies?”

  The girls nodded together.

  “We saved you some,” said Fluttershy. “Next time you should come. I know you don’t need any help with schoolwork, but we love hanging out with you.”

  “And, honestly, we could use a little help,” said Applejack with a wink.

  The bell rang, and the last stragglers scurried past the girls to class. The girls slipped into their seats, and Sunset Shimmer took her place in the last row. Rarity noticed that she was frowning.

  “Don’t worry about the test,” she said. “You’re so smart. You always do great.”

  But it wasn’t chemistry that Sunset Shimmer was worried about. When she’d been invited to the study session, she hadn’t seen any reason to bother going. But she’d only been thinking about herself. She hadn’t realized that maybe she could help the others practice, that maybe they would have fun together in the midst of the studying and she could be part of it. She sighed. Another day as a human girl at Canterlot High was about to begin and already she had made a mistake about friendship.

  Storm on the Horizon

  Sunset Shimmer put down her pencil. She was done. Before anyone else in the class. As usual. She handed in her test and went back to her desk.

  When she first came to Canterlot High, she had been determined to succeed as a human girl, and she kind of had. In a matter of weeks, she had become the most popular girl in the whole school. She’d gotten herself elected as the princess of the Fall Formal, and the handsome Flash Sentry had been her boyfriend. Of course, she’d also stolen a magic crown from Equestria and turned herself into a world-conquering she-demon, but after Twilight Sparkle defeated her, everyone somehow forgave her. And when the evil Sirens tried to sow disharmony at Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer took the opportunity to show everyone that she could be part of the team. Still, the day-to-day challenges of being an ordinary friend were sometimes harder than anything she had ever done before.

  Her classes were a breeze. No student had been better than her in Equestria, except for Twilight Sparkle. Mastering magic was a lot more complicated than math and science and social studies and English—that was for sure. She twirled her hair around her pencil and looked around the room. Everyone was hunched over the test, working hard.

  Sunset Shimmer took a notebook filled with numbers and symbols from her backpack. She was trying to figure out a formula to explain how the magic of this world worked. If you took five girls—six girls, including her—and they could each play seven different notes, how did that add up to magic? Of course, each girl played a different instrument and they sang lots of different songs and you probably had to factor in the words of those songs, and the girls’ movements, and possibly even what they were wearing.… It was such a complicated problem. Six plus seven plus who-knows-what equaled everyone ponying up! If only someone could help her think about this. She looked around the classroom.

  Fluttershy was nervously biting her lip. Rainbow Dash was erasing an answer. Rarity was meticulously checking over the questions. Pinkie Pie was staring out the window and humming before she remembered the test and furiously scribbled again. The girls seemed so, well, ordinary, and yet when they played music together, the magic happened. How did it work?

  If only Twilight Sparkle were here to help her solve this magic puzzle. That’s when Sunset Shimmer remembered her special journal that let her send messages back and forth to her pon
y friend in Equestria. She took out her journal and dashed off a note to Twilight Sparkle.

  Dear Twilight Sparkle, she wrote. Sometimes I’m a little jealous that you get to come to Canterlot High for magical adventures and I have to be here every day figuring out how to be a real girl and a real friend. When I was studying conjuring and spells with Princess Celestia, I always understood my purpose, but now I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t really know why I’m here.

  Sunset Shimmer closed the cover of the journal. She never knew when Twilight Sparkle would write her back, but at some point, she’d open the magic book and find a letter from her friend on one of the pages.

  She glanced at the clock. Class was almost over, and kids were scrambling to complete the test.

  “That’s it. Time’s up,” announced the teacher.

  The bell rang.

  “That wasn’t as hard as I thought!” said Fluttershy when the girls were out in the hall.

  “That’s because you practiced!” said Rainbow Dash.

  “We did it! We did it! We did it!” Pinkie Pie gushed. “I say we celebrate with a sleepover party at my house tonight.”

  “Yay!” shouted all the girls together.

  “Yay,” said Sunset Shimmer. She was so happy to have a chance to join her friends, especially after missing out on the study session.

  “Shall we come over right after school?” she asked eagerly.

  “Can’t miss soccer practice,” said Rainbow Dash. “But I’ll see you afterward.”

  “Me too,” added Rarity. “I’m working on some costumes for the school play with the drama club, but I can be there for dinner.”

  “I’ve got to write up some stories for the newspaper before I’m free,” said Applejack.

  “I’ve got to drop in at the animal shelter,” Fluttershy said. “For a little while anyway.”

  “And I’ve got the yearbook and student council and glee club and”—Pinkie Pie took a big breath—“I’ve got to decorate for our party tonight and order the pizza. What are you doing this afternoon, Sunset Shimmer?”

  The girls were busy with so many activities, but Sunset Shimmer wasn’t yet a part of any club or team at Canterlot High. What she wanted to do more than anything when school was over was study magic. She thought of the books of spells and diagrams and formulas waiting for her at home. Where did magic come from? How did it work? That’s what she wanted to know. But that wasn’t something she was talented at the way Rainbow Dash was good at sports or Rarity excelled at fashion.

  The girls were looking at her expectantly.

  Sunset Shimmer brushed a curl off her forehead. “I have to… um… study magic,” she admitted to her friends, worried they might make fun of her.

  The girls’ eyes widened.

  “Of course.”

  “Yes, yes.”

  “Tell Twilight Sparkle we said hello if you talk to her.”

  “Twilight Sparkle?” Flash Sentry was passing by them in the hallway and had overheard them. “Is she coming back to Canterlot High?”

  “Not for a long time,” sighed Sunset Shimmer, who missed her, too.

  Flash Sentry’s shoulders slumped as he headed to his next class.

  “He really misses her,” said Rarity.

  “We all do,” said Applejack. “She’s one fine filly. If it hadn’t been for her, who knows what those Sirens would have done?”

  “I helped, too,” said Sunset Shimmer, wanting to remind her friends about her moment of glory. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew she’d hit the wrong note. It sounded like she was bragging.

  “Of course you helped,” said Rainbow Dash. “It was teamwork all the way!”

  The girls chattered cheerfully on their way to math class, but Sunset Shimmer hung back. They would all be busy this afternoon. She wished there was a club for magic at the school. She wished there was someone who wanted to learn about it with her. The only problem with studying all the time was that it could be lonely. She glanced in her journal to see if there was any word from Twilight Sparkle. Nothing yet.

  With her nose in her book, she nearly bumped into Trixie.

  “Watch where you are going! The Great and Powerful Trixie does not like to have her feet stepped on!” Trixie stomped off, her nose in the air.

  Sunset Shimmer tucked the journal into her bag. Back to the problem at hand. How did the magic in this world work? There had to be a formula, and she was going to figure it out. She just needed to think about all the different things that went into it—the notes, the music, the instruments. She sighed, thinking about the long afternoon alone ahead. She hoped she’d hear from Twilight Sparkle soon. She really needed her—not just to help figure out magic but because she needed her friendship.

  Lightning Strikes

  After glee club, Pinkie Pie skipped home to get ready for the slumber party. There were snacks to prepare and pizzas to order and balloons to blow up. She’d bought special little pillows that she decorated with ribbons and decals for each of her friends. Rainbow Dash’s had a soccer ball and Fluttershy’s a bunny and Applejack’s a lasso and Rarity’s a high-heeled shoe, but she hadn’t known what to put on Sunset Shimmer’s. What was it Sunset Shimmer liked to do most of all? In the end, she chose a beautiful decal of a setting sun with its rays spreading up toward the clouds—shimmering.

  “There,” she squealed, looking around her bedroom. “Almost ready.”

  Applejack was the first to arrive. “Looks mighty pretty in here!”

  Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down with excitement. “I know! I know!”

  “I brought us a jug of cider and some apple muffins,” said Applejack. “We had them left over when we finished up at the newspaper.”

  “That’s perfect!” Pinkie Pie skipped downstairs to answer the door. Fluttershy and Rarity were there.

  “Hello!”

  “Hello!”

  “Hello!” Rarity had brought her keytar so the girls could jam together later on in the night, as well as a case of different-colored nail polishes.

  “I want my toes to be pink!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, and all the girls laughed together.

  The girls loved their pillows. How did Pinkie Pie do it? She always had a special surprise waiting for her friends when they came over. It was so much fun to have a sleepover at her house.

  When Sunset Shimmer arrived, she was thrilled with the pillow Pinkie Pie had made for her—until she saw the designs on the other girls’. They each had something that made them special. But what made her special other than her name? She didn’t know. While the other girls painted one another’s toes and fingers, she took her journal from her overnight bag to see if she’d heard anything from Twilight Sparkle. Nothing. She sighed.

  “What color do you want to paint your toes?” asked Pinkie Pie.

  “I want to paint my toes pink like you,” Sunset Shimmer answered, and then immediately regretted her answer. Was she just copying? Wasn’t there anything original about her at all?

  But Pinkie Pie took it as a compliment. “Pink’s always perfect!”

  “You have such style, Sunset Shimmer,” said Rarity.

  Rainbow Dash arrived at the same time as the pizzas and brought the boxes up to the girls. But she wasn’t hungry. She threw herself down on Pinkie Pie’s bed in a huff.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Fluttershy, sitting beside her.

  The other girls crowded around, concerned.

  “It’s our team uniforms,” said Rainbow Dash. “It shouldn’t matter, but they are old and faded. We’re going to look so scrappy on the field compared to the other teams in the championship. We have to win this year to boost morale. Everyone is getting nervous about next year’s Friendship Games.”

  “Why don’t you buy new ones?” Sunset Shimmer asked without looking up from painting her toes.

  “We can’t afford that right now,” sighed Rainbow Dash.

  The other girls nodded in agreement.

  “It’s
not what you wear—it’s how you play,” Applejack said reassuringly.

  “And our team practices so hard.” Fluttershy touched her friend’s hand.

  “Uniforms don’t matter that much,” said Rarity, but tears welled up in her eyes. She hated to think of her friends having to look anything but their best.

  “It’s about morale,” explained Rainbow Dash. “Sometimes it just gives the team that extra edge.”

  “Why don’t we do some kind of fund-raiser?” Sunset Shimmer screwed the top back on the nail polish and realized that all the girls were staring at her, their eyes wide. “We could do a bake sale or a car wash or a show and charge for tickets. It wouldn’t be that hard.” She took out her notebook. “If we take the number of kids in the school and multiply that by a reasonable ticket price and add in a little extra from a bake sale, subtracting, of course, what decorations would cost…”

  The girls watched with amazement as she scribbled a line of numbers across the page.

  “You’re right!” Rarity clapped her hands.

  “That’s a brilliant idea, Sunset Shimmer! You are so smart!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

  “Wow!” A huge smile lit up Fluttershy’s face.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” squealed Pinkie Pie. “A fund-raiser! We can make posters and flyers and tickets and invite everyone we know and it will be a huge success and this year we’ll win the championship for sure!”

  “Now, how come I didn’t think of that?” asked Rainbow Dash.

  Sunset Shimmer was thoughtful. “But we are going to have to decide exactly what kind of fund-raiser we want to do.” She paused for a moment, her mind racing with possibilities. What was the best option? The girls were leaning in expectantly.

  “I’ve got it!” she said at last. “A fashion show. And not just any kind of fashion show, but a way to show off designs for the new uniforms.” Rarity’s eyes lit up. “I can create sample designs for new uniforms to show everyone.…”

  “And the kids on the teams can model them! They’ll love that.” Rainbow Dash was very pleased.