Book four of "Who We Become".
After discovering the magic of friendship, Sunset Shimmer's senior year was one of the happiest times of her life. But it's been almost two years since graduation; all her friends have moved on to studying abroad, to pr...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sunset felt like hell. Her head was throbbing, her stomach felt like it was trying to eat itself, and a flavor she could only describe as 'roadkill' was covering her mouth. She had yet to open her eyes, but the light was already painful. She pulled her covers over her head and was vaguely curious if she'd fallen off her bed and slept on the floor, considering how uncomfortable she was.
The safest thing to do seemed to be to go back to sleep. If nothing else, surely the aching in her head would simply go away if she willed it to hard enough.
Unfortunately, in practice it wound up being the most difficult thing she could imagine. Giving up, she finally opened one eye, which immediately felt like a mistake. She forced the other one open and felt around her surroundings. It was too soft to be the floor, but didn't quite feel like her bed either. She seemed to have made a wall of pillows or something, because it was soft both underneath her and off to one side. She didn't remember having that many pillows, but also wasn't really sure how many pillows she was supposed to have anyway. The question seemed entirely too taxing, so she decided it was unimportant for the time being.
If she wasn't going back to sleep then there was only one thing she could do. 'Get water.' Rehydrating herself was the best thing she could do in the circumstance, and might help rid her mouth of the taste of death. But this meant taking off the covers and that was just not something she was willing to do.
Unable to go back to sleep and unwilling to face the day, she did the only reasonable thing left for her to do. In the hopes somepony might hear and take pity on her, she asked for help in the form of a miserable groan.
There was a moment that she thought she'd have to take care of herself after all, but thankfully Fluttershy answered. "Sunset? Are you awake?"
It was good that Fluttershy was the one who answered, since her soft voice actually didn't make Sunset's head feel any worse, even if she sounded much closer than Sunset had expected. She wondered slightly why Fluttershy was in her room, but was too relieved to question it.
"Can you get me some water?" Sunset asked. The whole thing came out as sort of half words and half groan, but it was the best she could manage. Feeling guilty already for the state Fluttershy was going to see her in, she added, "Please?"
"There's water and aspirin on the table," Fluttershy said.
"Have I ever told you that you're the best?" Sunset almost didn't think about why Fluttershy would already have those ready for her, but was slowly realizing how many things she was letting go unquestioned. She was starting to feel like there was something important she wasn't realizing, and trying to think of what it was made her realize she couldn't remember much at all of the night before.
She at least had the foresight to make sure she was wearing clothes before throwing off the blanket, since she normally didn't wear them to bed. Finding that she was still dressed, however, didn't make her feel much better, since it was another sign whatever happened the night before couldn't have been good.
