Twilight happened to be the owner of one of the largest dining halls known to ponydom.
The hall itself was about the size of the apple family's barn. The walls were shiny blue crystal, much like that of the library, and littered with yellow glass windows. Under the blue ceiling hung a giant white crystal chandelier that lit up the room with a light similar to that of the morning sun. The oval table that Twilight was eating on was about as long as the average living room, with twenty white crystal chairs set up around it. The alicorn sat at the end of the table, on a chair that looked similar to a throne, and in front of her was a plate of delicious waffles.
She was about half way through her waffles when Sunset walked into the hall. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was a mess, giving her a sleepy look. Twilight had to admit, it made her look absolutely adorable.
'Stop it Twilight. You are straight. Straight I tell you!'
"So, what's for breakfast?" asked the unicorn.
Twilight pointed at the larger plate in the middle of the table, which held a large number of both waffles and pancakes. Rushing out of the kitchen came Spike, with a little chefs hat on his head along with a small plate and some cutlery in his right hand. He ran to the chair where Sunset had decided to sit and quickly placed the plate in front of her before setting a knife and fork at one side. As soon as he was done, he ran straight back into the kitchen, likely to wash some dishes.
"Wow..." Sunset's eyes were wide with near amazement. "Some service you got here."
Twilight laughed a little. "Yeah. Spike is quite the chef. And waiter. And... pretty much everything else."
"So he's a collar short of being a slave?"
The lavender mare raised her hooves in innocence. "No, no, of course not. He actually enjoys it."
"Well, if this is the kind of service he gives everyday, he needs some serious paying."
"Oh come on, he's more or less family. He doesn't need to get paid for it. By living in this castle he pretty much already does."
"What ever you say, master." The unicorn said before digging into her syrup covered pancakes.
***
The Ponyville market was bustling with just as much activity as a town the size of Ponyville could produce. Each stall had at least one person haggling with its merchant, and the space that the stalls surrounded was filled with dozens of people looking for things to buy. This left the two mares unaware of what to do.
Sunset stared at the scene with eyes of wonder. "Wow. I never thought Ponyville was capable of something like this."
"Well it is coming close to winter. People will be wanting to stock up on food, along with gifts for the various upcoming holidays. But even besides that, this is a pretty surprising site. Hearths Warming Eve won't be for another two months."
The yellow mare raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Are you sure you'll be able to get your stuff in this chaos?"
"Hello. Princess of Equestria."
"Right."
The title of princess seemed to have lost its value recently, as that did little to protect them from the onslaught of waiting, haggling, and dodging the occasional crazy shopper running towards another stall.
The first stall the duo went to happened to be non other than Fracture's, who turned emerald green with tears in his eyes as his mother forced him to sell Twilight his copy of Alchemy For Idiots. She took pity on the poor stallion and paid a whopping one hundred and thirty bits for it, which was a lot more than it honestly should have cost. Next was getting a few quills and paper from the sofa clerk, and they had to wait a surprisingly long ten minute queue. This wasn't really a bother to the two mares, who were happy to see so many ponies desiring to write. Afterwards, Twilight remembered a recommendation from Rarity to get some flowers to spice up certain rooms in her castle, particularly the dining hall. They went over to Rose's stall to find a less surprising twenty minute queue, which rewardingly paid off with them getting a hold of some Lavenders, Fuchsias, Bluebells, and a large variety of other flowers and bouquets.
A lucky break came for the two when word got out that there was apparently a goof off going on downtown which happened to be a three way between Pinkie Pie, Discord, and Cheese Sandwich himself. While most ponies flocked like a stampede to the scene, the rest went the smart route and used this distracting opportunity to get their shopping done without the chaos to stall them. Among these ponies were Twilight and Sunset, as the princess had experienced enough of Pinkie Pie to not see this event as once in a lifetime, and frankly the idea of a goof off between those three sounded almost scary.
It only took about another ten minutes to get everything else Twilight needed. A couple of books, clothes, and food was all that they had come for, and they left with this and more. The two mares decided to go over to the Ponyville café for some lunch before heading back to Twilights castle.
But a few minutes into the walk, there was a sight that caught Twilight's eye. A sight that caused her to stop walking, turn around, and take in the full view.
While most of the building's remains had been removed by the Ponyville construction team, there was one thing that they had been unable to get rid of. And this was the black, smouldered stump of what had once been a great oak tree.
That black stump used to be Twilight's library, and her home for several years. It was originally just the place where she was staying temporarily during her visit to Ponyville, but after the defeat of Nightmare Moon and her decision to live in Ponyville, it became her permanent home as a gift from Mayor Mare to thank her for what she'd done.
But, along with most of her personal possessions, it had been destroyed during her battle with lord Tirek.
The red door with the welcoming decoration of a lit candle, the upper balcony with the telescope that she would often use to stargaze, the ground floor with the shelves of precious books and the desk that she had spent whole nights studying on. In one explosive energy ball it had all been burnt to a crisp.
Several months had passed since then, but she still hadn't gotten over it. Even though she had gotten used to her new castle, and settled in comfortably, it didn't change the fact that her furniture, her clothes, her books, her home, were now little more than ashes.
Sunset just stood close by and watched her. Though she had never seen Twilight's old library before, the alicorn had told her enough about it for her to recognize the sight. Possibly to pay respect, she spent several moments standing next to Twilight and looking at the ruins in silence.
Twilight may have been staring at it a bit too long, since Sunset did eventually turn her head towards her.
"Are you okay?"
Twilight sighed a sad and heavy sigh, not looking back at the unicorn. "Its just..."
She could feel her voice cracking. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that this was my home for so many years, and now... its just... gone."
Sunset lowered her head and stared at the ground. "Every home I've lost was because of my own decisions. Having a home just taken from you, I honestly don't know how to deal with that, or how to help someone else deal with that."
The two mares continued to stare at the black stump in silence, before Sunset stretched her front hoof out and placed it around Twilight's back, gently pulling her close.
"It'll be alright. You have a new home now. And its...kind of a castle. That's a bit of an upgrade if you ask me."
Twilight sighed again. She didn't really expect someone who had lived most of their life in an orphanage to understand the emotional value of a real home, but she was glad to have a friend who was willing to put her hoof around her and try to be comforting.
She rested her head against Sunset's neck, and shed a small tear, hoping that the moment when they would have to separate wouldn't come for a long time.
***
"Are you sure you want to eat? I mean, after that incident with the tree, I wouldn't expect you to feel that hungry."
Twilight continued reading her book. "I'm fine. I was just...having a little moment that's all."
"Suite yourself." Said Sunset, who went back to reading her book.
Twilight tried to read her own book, but her mind was too distracted to really concentrate on it. The distraction in particular was the moment she had with Sunset near the tree. 'First that embrace last week, now this.' She thought to herself. 'You got a bit too intimate with Sunset there, Twilight. It has to stop. Are you trying to throw the monarchy into chaos?'
She looked over at the amber unicorn, who was busy reading Spells You Will Probably Never Learn. The look of her facial expression during reading, combined with her hair swaying in the slight breeze, caused a noticeable thumping in Twilight's chest.
'I said stop it, me!'
A distraction from her inner dilemma came when Savoir Fare arrived with their food. In front of Sunset he placed a grain and hay sandwich, and in front of Twilight he placed a bowl of tomato soup.
Sunset put down her book. "Thanks, this looks delicious."
"Enjoy your meal." Replied the stallion, before he walked off to another table to receive more orders.
While Twilight was taking some time to blow off her spoonfuls of soup into cooling, before sipping them dry, Sunset had her sandwich finished in about three minutes. But rather than continue reading her book, she instead started to talk to Twilight about it, which the alicorn found to be a much better option for her.
"So Twilight, have you ever heard of an M.A.?"
Twilight sipped another spoonful. "No, I don't think I have."
"Well, the M.A. stands for magical alteration, and it comes in four types. The most common type is an M.A. Trowson, which turns an equine into another type of equine. Then there's an M.A. Coalson, which is much harder to accomplish, but expands to non equine species as well. Then there's an M.A. Mieson, which turns one type of pony into another type. And finally, this is the one I think you'll find the most interesting, the rarest type of M.A. is the M.A. Larson, which turns an average pony into an alicorn."
This made both of Twilights eyebrows rise. "You mean like...what Celestia did to me?"
Sunset replied with a smile and a nod. "The book almost described your situation exactly."
"So this is like, a spell, that anyone can learn?"
"No, it says that only a major alicorn like Celestia or Luna has enough power to succeed at the spell, anyone else would pretty much disintegrate if they managed to get at least halfway through the spell."
"I see," replied Twilight, who suddenly came to a realization. "You know, I'd expect that you would already have known the spell that creates an alicorn if you went so far as to demand the title of princess from Celestia."
Any sign of happiness was suddenly sapped off Sunset's face, as she stared at her empty plate in silence.
'You idiot! What were you thinking?! You can't just remind her of that day and expect her to take it with a pinch of salt! Why don't you just bring up the subject of her parents while your at it!'
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring that up! I was just..."
"Twilight, its fine. It doesn't exactly give me the best memories, but I'm sure you meant nothing by it." Sunset had a look on her face that spoke more of shame than sadness. "So I guess Celestia told you everything?"
"Not much more than that you were an ambitious student, you demanded alicornhood, and she renounced you as her student."
"Yeah..." She looked back at her plate. "I think you already know how I feel about my past."
There was a round of awkward silence shared between the two mares.
'Think Twilight! Think! Change the subject before your friendship dies!'
"Soooooooo..." Stuttered Twilight, desperate to break the silence. "I don't really know all the details about your home...except for the fact that its an orphanage...and...stuff."
Sunset looked as ready to kill the awkward atmosphere as Twilight did. "Well, after I ended up in the human world, I had nowhere to go. So I took the obvious option and slept on the streets. It sounds bad I know, but I had the...well...evil determination to endure it. After a failed attempt at theft, I ended up at the local police station. Of course, they couldn't find any evidence of my very existence, so with no other ideas they shipped me off to the local orphanage. I'm no expert on law enforcement, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the smartest cops around."
Twilight giggled, not only at that last statement, but also because she was happy to see Sunset with a bit of enthusiasm again. She was also genuinely intrigued by Sunset's story. "So is there any detail about this orphanage that you'd care to tell me about."
Sunset started to smile. "Well, its run by this nice woman named Miss Peachbottom..."
"Miss Peachbottom?" Twilight was suddenly reminded of the day when she confused a country mare from Mustangia for the Equestria games instructor.
"Yeah?"
"Nothing. Continue."
"Yeah well, Peachbottom, really nice woman. She got me settled in the orphanage in no time, and is pretty much the closest thing I have to a mother. And its not just her, the entire orphanage is more or less my family. Caramel, Sweetcream, Rainbowshine, they're all like siblings to me." Her smile faded a bit. "I've tried to be more like a sister to them recently, but even they were sometimes victimized by my past actions. They've all forgiven me by now, but it doesn't change what I've done."
Twilight leaned over the table and stroked the unicorn's shoulder supportingly. "Sunset, how many times do I have to tell you to just move on. I mean, if I've forgiven you after you tried to kill me, than I don't think there's any reason to be so regretful."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Well that's a good thing to bring up, that one time I tried to permanently end your very life. But I see where your coming from. Thanks, Twi."
Twilight beamed at the amber mare. "Anytime, Sunset."
Their little moment was interrupted by the return of Savoir Fare.
"Zat will be all I presume?" He asked.
"Thanks, could we have the bill please?"
***
Once the two mares got back to the castle, they found the place in a much better state than it had been when they had left, with the dishes cleaned, some more decor put up, and even some of the crystal furniture polished. This was all courtesy of Spike, who also went on to put away all the shopping that they had brought.
'Wow.' Thought Twilight. 'I guess Sunset was right. Spike does deserve a bit more reward than he gets. I should put something together for him when I have the time.'
Twilight had already made up in her mind that today wasn't really a work day, so the duo spent the afternoon doing activities that would be considered 'a bit more fun' than sorting out a library or researching old magic. This included critiquing books together, discussions about their various idols, and having a go at a game of chess. It had honestly been a long time since Twilight had experienced a fun afternoon like this, since she had been doing a lot of work and studying after the Tirek incident. But as with the last week, the sun began to set, and this ironically meant that she had to say goodbye to Sunset.
The mirror was glowing pink with energy, ready for transportation, as Sunset packed her bag with the last of her things. It was a Sunday afternoon, and that meant school tomorrow for the unicorn, much to the Twilight's dismay.
"You got everything?"
In the aqua glow of Sunset's telekinesis, the bag was on her pack. "Yep, pretty much."
"Remember Sunset Shimmer, I'll be expecting a friendship report on my desk by Monday afternoon."
The two mares laughed at the statement, and held each other in a friendly hug.
"You know..." Uttered Sunset. "Just because I have school doesn't mean I can't still visit you."
Twilight parted from the hug and looked the yellow mare in the eye. "Its fine, Sunset, I'd love to see more of you, but you should never put your education in slight jeopardy just to visit me. Lets just keep it to the weekends."
Though Twilight meant what she said, it didn't mean she liked what she said. She wanted to see more of Sunset. Even though it only meant a gap of five days, there was something about it that made it feel so much longer.
"Whatever you say, Twilight," responded Sunset, who slowly walked in front of the mirror, before turning around and smiling at the lavender mare. "Bye."
And with that, Sunset Shimmer was gone.
Twilight stared at the pink glow of the mirrors glass for longer than was probably needed. The book than became encased in Twilight's magenta aura and was levitated off the pedestal, shutting the portal down.
The princess let a feeling of sadness fill her, before she was struck by a sudden thought.
'Just because you don't have time to visit me, it doesn't mean that I don't have time to visit you.'
5386607
An extract from a bulsh**t pony archive that I will pretend exists:
...T'was no more than sixty moons of advanced magic and the gruelling labour of countless pony peasants before Starswirl the Bearded completed one of his finest acheivements. Twenty stories high it stood, glistening white with every brick of vannila pastry cemented between whipped cream. High above the ground lay roof tiles of blue icing, that refelected the sunlight to shine like a star. Within those vannila walls lay a great hall of chocolate cake, that welcomed ponies with a carpet of red frosting. Etched into the inner walls were mosaics comprised of chocolate from the finest diary, which told stories of great battles and hardships of many pony legends. The great hall had several staircases that led to many rooms. Lemon flavored living qauters, blueberry balconies, and rasberry restrooms. Starswirl wished for the furniture to also be of cake, but his advisers sayeth 'Nay Starswirl, cake funiture is really damn uncomfortable.' so he went with beds and chairs made from solid chocolate, with mattreses and cushions like that of your average pony castle. The great sorcery used to construct the palace allowed the cake to never falter for many a thousand years, and regenerate the wounds of those who would eat it, 'because what was the point of a cake palace if it isn't edible!' sayeth Starswirl. Alas, many years after the death of the great wizard, the palace was destroyed during the rebellion of the griffon lord Kumbertish, who unleashed a plauge of parasprites to wipe out the pony food supplies. While this threat was vanquished, the palace was gone forever...
5377848
Yeah I've heard of that theory before. There are those who believe that when Starswirl tried to use the spell from Magical Mystery Cure, it had much worse effects on him since he wasn't connected to the elements of harmony like the mane six were. In this case the effect was that he became Discord, and some fans support this with evidence such as Celestia's seeming hatred towards him in Return Of Harmony, which would make sense if it was hr corrupted mentor.
I myself referenced this theory in chapter 2, when Discord says that Starswirl "passed from our mortal realm" before he was born, which can be interpretated as Starswirl died before Discord was born, or a weird way of saying that Starswirl became Discord.
5388795
Well it depends on the starswirl, there's basicially three usages.
The first two times Nightmare Night and Hearths Warming Eve, he's an obscure figure from unicorn history from the pre-classical era(to note in real history pre-classical would be Sumeria or Babylon so olllddddd like 3-5k BC) best known for a pottery spell and who happened to mentor one of Equestria's founders/The Elements creators. (You can almost hear twilight adding the line that he had mentored clover and it wasn't in the script.)
The second usage we have in the middle section of his characterization which is twilight done wrong, that is a unicorn with vast potential but squandered it seeking only knowledge never wisdom and never forming bonds with others, ie turning his back on harmony entirely. Considering his grand works wording and the effects of the perfected spell(transforming twilight into an alicorn), this interpretation becoming discord does make sense.
This is probably the most USEFUL characterization outside being a one note joke of twilight being a nerd. (Which was fine in itself, but hey they needed a name.)
The third is We needed sum guy who did sum thing in the past. This characterization is terrible.
And anything to do with him and the princesses we've got at least a 500-1000 year period after Clover/Pansy/Smart Cookie found equestria and the Princesses are even born/become alicorns, and there needs to actually be a classical era. (We know the princesses weren't around because the dinural cycle was controlled by unicorns then.)
You live in equestria, the male to female ratio is like 20/80.
Stop fooling yourself.
Sunset's a senior, once summer is over her little pony brain will implode at the concept of college and the human world will have nothing for her.
Then you can have her alllll to yourself twilight.
Question begs of where the first alicorn comes from go here.
Also just go find gen4 grogar, chrysalis, discord, or use the elements, or shit a dozen unicorns can raise the sun browbeat a dozen unicorns into casting it together for you.
Your sunset, you have a goal, your special talent is overachieving those goals.
Also it's pretty clear becoming an Alicorn is not just a "Spell", it's an extension of both enlightenment of self(mastery of special talent) and enlightenment in harmony(hence why you get all three races)....and that does seem to be all it does is make you all three races. Twilight has utterly plateud with unicorn magic since becoming an Alicorn, and doesn't use the earth pony/pegasus magic she has access too(This may be why infact.)
5389291
I do see where you're coming from, but the way I see it, it is still a spell. Even after Twilight acheived her enlightenment and stuff, Celsetia still seems to have something to do with the transformation. Even if it is the result of a mastery of self, or elightenment in harmony, in my perspective Celestia has to kick off the transformation process.
As for what you say about how Celestia and Luna became alicorns if an M.A. Larson (chuckle) can only be accomplished by another alicorn, the answer to that is pretty simple. We can see that those two are a different kind of alicorn because of their larger size and flowing manes. Theres also the subject of their immortality (or at least long life). Megan Mcgarthy posted a tweet (or something like that) saying that Twilight will not be outliving her friends. Even if you don't trust that, we clearly see in A Canterlot Wedding that Cadance has aged since being Twilight's foal sitter, so it safe to assume that they have normal lifespans. Theres also the fact the Lauren Faust herself likes to think that Celestia and Luna were born as alicorns. All of suggests that it is likely that Celsetia and Luna are a different kind of alicorn, and thats how they could of become one without the help of previous alicorns.
Also, I really wanted to use that M.A. Larson joke.
5389353
How long did starswirl live? Longer than granny smith an earth pony. I always thought of pony lifespans as a function of magic power with a multiplier for earth ponies(since they have regenerative magic their magic further protects their body from age, and you know clearly/canonically the longest lived.)
And yes cadence has aged, and is now bigger than most mares. Approaching Luna height, and to bring back episode 1 a thousand years ago there Celestia was Luna height and had pink mane instead of celestial mane. (And begs the question why luna is so much smaller than her sister if not for 'i didn't age for a thousand years'.)
Also as for twilight outliving her friends, considering the shows view on immortality/extremely long life as seen through celestia's eyes. That every moment is MORE precious because how few those around you have. And Twilight is the princess of friendship, she learns about friendship, when is she going to learn the most important lesson of friendship? That they end and that them ending isn't something to get worked up over because it's just a fact of life.
I always said early on the group splitting apart is the best ending, but twilight outliving everyone and getting new friends works just as well.
Appendium: The season 4 ending involved the main six sacrificing tokens of friendship without any hesitation.
Lauren faust also wanted the show to be a lot more of the weaker adventure stuff than the stronger slice of life stuff, that stuff HAS gotten stale but that's because of the lack of change up in group dynamics.
Born alicorns feels empty tbh, And hypocritical with what she says to sunset. After all going on about it being earned when one didn't earn it...
It also means Celestia trying to push the idea she is equal to Twilight is her straight up mean spiritedly mocking her, which well, makes Celestia a huge asshat.
A damn fine reason.
5391193
I prefer to think of Twilight as mortal. If she lives to the extent of Celestia's lifetime, she would have gone through like, 10 sets of friends, and while Im not an expert of friendship, I imagine their lives would have become meaningless to her, and their relationships forgotten, since she would have gone through so many friendships. I might be wrong there, but if that was the case, it seems to negate the purpose of being 'the princess of friendship'.
As Celestia qouteth:
"But who is the princess of friendship, without her friends?"
Yeah that qoute can be debunked as support for my opinions due to the argument that she can always make new friends, but I just made an argument for that up there. Also, the idea of Twilight outliving her fiends is a pretty tragic ending. And call me a pussy or whatever, but i'm fond of those. I'm fine with how you like the idea of them splitting up in the end, but if Twilight lives centuries after they've died, and has gone through countless other friends, it just feels wrong to me.
5393534
So only 50, over millennial. I've gone gone through, well far more than that in 28 years.
More than i can count, more than i can remember.
Every moment more precious for the knowledge that you have so few.
If one does not accept change, one cannot appreciate what one has.
Who is the princess of friendship who has fewer friends right now than some douche on the internet who overanalyzes a show for little girls :D Much less over their lifespan.
Though if i go any further on this topic i start going away from your fanfic into "The issues facing mlp in general." territory.
Tragedy is self inflicted.
Inevitable change is not self inflicted ergo not tragic.
I'd highly recommend you getting an editor. There are a lot of mistakes, that could've been easily avoided. For example:
Libraries - more than one library
Library's - belonging to the library.
Library's (also) - library is (in a serious mess)
Also words ending with -in instead of -ing. While it's fine in common talk (even then, there should be an apostrophe at the end, since a letter is bein' skipped), it's not fine in literature.
And other misspellings like "courtosy" or "experiance" (should be "courtesy" and "experience")
But you get a bit more of my trust, since it's SunLight. Very rare, yet my favourite ship
5396749
How do I get an editor?
5394344
Two things!
1: Wait...did you say you're twenty eight? Sweet Celestia, that means this whole time there's been a fifteen year old boy and a twenty eight year old man spending the last two weeks arguing about their opinions on a show of cartoon ponies learning about friendship.
Life is hilarious when it wants to be.
2: Im sorry if I don't know the definition of tragedy. The only way I can define it is that whenever william shakespeare wrote a story and about 80% of the cast died, it was labelled as a tragedy. I apologise for (literally) getting a D in english. SHAME ON ME!
5396796 There are a few groups that can help you with that. Usually you just get a list of people willing to be editors and you pick the one you feel will help you the most.
Putting something like "looking for an editor" in the description can also be a way.
5396805
Life is beautiful and wonderful in all it's absurdity.
Nah few people know the actual definition of tragedy, i'm just a big pedantic stick in the mud about it because i really enjoy true tragedies and very few of them get written in the modern era. If bad things happen it's some cynical "Life sucks and there's nothing you can do about it" vs. Classical Tragedies "Your life sucks because you had flaws that caused you to make dumb choices.", it's their own agency that brings about their downfall.
Example- Celestia's personal life is tragic, she's a good ruler but fucks up every important personal relationship to herself. Luna, Sunset, In the IDW comics Alt Sombra. Never is the universe stripping her of agency rather it's her own flaws that bring about her problems.
Good example of a modern tragedy in general- Breaking bad
5398063
Seriously, why have you not written a story yet. You're like some fact spitting phylosophical (or whatever the word is) genius.
Straight I'm Italian therefore I am straight
whoever gets that reference I love u
Well done, i really enjoyed this story and can't wait to read more. I do however want to express my dissatisfaction for the uncertainty in a certain area of your writing,
As the writer, I assume you know of the exact actions that you intend your characters to partake in. Your characters themselves may be unsure of planned events, as in real life there is always a certain level of uncertainty, but a writer has full control of the situation. The use of the word likely in that sentence implies uncertainty, if this was a quote from a character it would be fully understandable, but as a quote from the narrator I cannot ignore it. I would have preferred "As soon as he was done, he ran straight back into the kitchen to wash some dishes," as it does not show uncertainty in the writer's plan. But, I digress as this is not of great importance and would have likely gone unnoticed for every other reader.
5398063
Agreed, I enjoyed Breaking Bad and the ending was worthy of such a great story.
Kudos for that M.A. Larson joke.
Uyyy eso eso completamente romántico! I love itt.
También me encanta la historia de trasfondo, lo hace muuy interesante. Graciaas!