Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, I'm really new to this whole friendship thing, and I could use your help? Your Faithful Student, Sunset Shimmer
Sunset begins to correspond with Twilight though the Princesses' book, and she's gonna need a lot advice to get through the scary but strangely satisfying experience called Friendship.
I know you don’t want me calling you that, but to me, that’s all you’ve ever been. Since I first learned about you its, all I could ever think about
And well… How I wasn't
Celestia wrote to me once a year on each of my birthdays. I hated her for it. For four years she never mentioned you. I would ask you not to go back and read them… they’re… well I don’t think you want to see what I wrote to her.
She wrote me one final time before the thirty moons were up. She…. I think she was hoping I’d come home. She told me all about your accomplishments, about how you rescued Luna, and defeated Discord. She wrote about all of your adventures with your friends, and how you became a princess.
Princess Twilight Sparkle…
How I hated that name. Ha. Now I can’t say it enough. You are deserving of the title. I think that I’ve begun to understand what Celestia always wanted from me, and what she sees in you.
I can’t say that I really understand everything about friendship but I do feel like I’m learning. For the past two weeks, Rainbow had an old friend visiting from out of town. Seemed nice enough, if a little rough. Rainbow started hanging out with Gilda and canceling everything else. I didn’t think much of it, neither did AJ or Rarity. Rainbow wasn’t going to be able to have much time with Gilda before she left. I'd done the same if some of my old friends had visited, that is if I had any.
Turns out Pinkie Pie wasn’t so keen on being pushed aside, so she invited herself to hang out with them. Not that I was complaining, it gave me more time to work on my homework and run the library. Oh! I never told you that did I? Well, its not like I actually own the library, but as part of my community service, Principal Celestia said I could be an assistant to Ivory Scroll. Ivory Scroll is college student who’s getting her degree in Politics. One of her classes requires her to be involved in the community, and evidently running a High School’s library counts.
She’s always running back and forth between the campus and here, so I run the library between her classes.
But that’s not what I need to tell you about right now. Pinkie came to me after she, Gilda and Dash went to the mall. She kept saying how Gilda was a mean meanie pants who kept trying to hog Rainbow all to herself. I couldn’t help but think she was jealous, and she was, but there was something more too it. Pinkie kept going on about how Gilda kept showing off all of her new stuff she got at all these different shops. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I began to think that maybe Gilda wasn’t just trying to hog all of Dash’s time.
Turned out I was right and I feel just awful now. My digging... well... it ended up getting Gilda and Dash into trouble. Gilda had swiped a few items from a few of the shops, and had tried to get Dash to grab some things too. Dash had refused, but hadn’t reported it either. Now I have both Gilda and Dash in jail and mad at me and I don’t know what to do. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong, but rumors are flying around about how I got my own friend suspended for something she didn't do.
I could really use your advice. I’m not sure what to do now. I did what I thought was right but my friends are mad at me. I don't know if what I did was correct, or what I can do to fix the situation. I'm so lost, but you're a princess, and one of friendship at that. What would you do?
Sunset walked through the school that she already owned. The people here were even easier to manipulate than the ponies of Equestria. It had been pathetically easy to gain some political sway.
On top of school, Sunset managed to get her hands on her first piece of technology this world had to offer, her own personal laptop. While not the latest and the greatest, at least according to Diamond Tiara, this device would not only allow her to explore this world’s magic, but was the first item that Sunset had ever bought herself. She gave a little squee at her accomplishment. It felt good to finally do something on her own, no pony ordering her around or insisting that they help. It even had her cutie mark engraved on the back. It was her own personal piece of Elysium.
Placing her precious laptop in her locker, she reached to grab her history book. Panic erupted in her brain when a piece of her past began to glow and vibrate. Sunset mentally fell apart her mind running a marathon of emotions and fear as she tore through the contents of her locker to get to the vibrating book. She snapped the book open, then slammed it shut.
Sunset’s heart beat within in her chest, every thump pulsing through her ears, a whinny from a life past. Her mind reeled with all the implications. Was she coming after her? Was she going to be punished. Should Sunset have figured out a way of town and gotten as far from the portal as possible?
In truth though, it didn’t matter. Holding the book close to her chest Shimmer collapsed on the floor. No amount of distance could hide her from Celestia. An entire universe away and she couldn’t let go, didn’t want to let go, “of all that useless garbage just dragging me down! I’m better than her! I don’t need her! I don't want her! I can do this! I'll show her! I'm better then her! I never needed her!" Sunset began to sob, each statement more desperate to be true then the last.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there on her knees cradling the book. She was vaguely aware of the bell ringing, the wide berth students gave her, and the yellow body that gathered up her belongings into a pile.
A hand laid gently on her shoulder. Shimmer turned her head, eyes red, tears streaked down her cheeks into the face of a compassionate Luna. “It’s okay Shimmer. It’ll all be okay.” Luna said, stroking her hair and holding her close.
My Dearest Sunset,
I don’t know if you’ll read this, but I can only hope for your health. I know I should have wrote sooner, but I didn’t want to worry you. I know a simple letter is not exactly what most would call a birthday present, so I’m sending you the numbers to several bank accounts I own over in that world. I pray that they’ll be enough for you.
Shimmer, I just want you to know that you were right. Failing you was one of the greatest mistakes of my life, I hope you can forgive me. I should have seen how I was pushing you, isolating you. I should have helped you to understand the most important things. Friends, family and caring for others. Thinking about others is my nature and I often forget that not everyone has learned to care as deeply for their fellow creature as much as I have. There are many things I had yet to teach you, that I should have taught you. I failed to properly guide you, to nurture you. Now you can succeed where I failed. You have a great opportunity now Sunset. Learn the lessons I never taught you, the one's I failed to teach you. You have this opportunity to become greater than anything you could have been while at my side...
Live, learn. Be everything I saw in you Shimmer. I do miss your inquisitive mind always by my side, that desire to learn, to grow, to appreciate. I know you don't like me bringing it up, but I always did enjoy calling you my little Sunset. I sometimes stare at the sun after it has set and remember all the times when you were little when I'd hold you up and say what a beautiful sunset it was and then I’d lower you, giggling the whole time, with the sun [illegible] and [illegible] the moon . Its been hard without you Sunset. I miss you, my student. I wish things could have been different. I love you Shimmer.
I know that you must hate me for what I’ve done for you, but would you accept an old stupid mare’s blessing. One of health and wisdom, of courage and power, of friendship and love. Let all that I’ve taught you guide you, and let your heart lead you.
Oh how I’ve always wanted to say that… do you think Princess Celestia swoons every time she says it too? Oh, this is so exciting, not your situation that is. Ponies just don’t tend to come to me for advice too often, unless its about friendship. They are always coming to me for that… which is what you’re doing. Oh great, I just walked myself into a corner didn’t I?
Not physically walked you know…. Right. Library, you have your own library, sort of. That’s great. You’ll be able to study all sorts of things! You should check out what they have on friendship. We can compare notes with my own findings! It would be interesting to see how friendships there compare to ones here and if humans and ponies have different ways in approaching magic of friendship. Hmmm, I'd like base case study but I guess that would be kind of difficult to put together.
I know! You haven’t had much experience making friends, but this Ivory Scroll would be a great place to start. In fact, as your first assignment in your official role as royal student of friendship, I want you to befriend her and report to me on her likes and dislikes and anything else interesting about her. What kind of classes is she taking? Do they even have normal classes in that world? Don't forget to take extensive notes after every encounter with her, even the slightest detail could be important to the understanding of how friendship differs there!
Ugh, I’m a horrible Princess of Friendship. Here I am trying to get you to make another friend and avoiding finishing this letter because I don’t know how to deal with your situation with Gilda and Rainbow. We had a similar situation over here except it ended with Pinkie trying to cheer up Gilda by throwing her a party. Gilda got mad at Pinkie because she thought she kept playing pranks on her. It was actually Rainbow Dash who had pulled the pranks and she stood up for her friends against Gilda. It turned out that Gilda had been really mean to both Pinkie and Fluttershy, and only recently have they made up. I’ve never really had to deal with a situation like yours. I’m sorry I can’t be of help.
I can help with Pinkie though, and don’t worry, its not that you’re not patient enough with her. You could wait a hundred years and she’d still have enough energy to annoy you for another six millenniums. Pinkie can be strange, wild, bizarre and frankly, downright troublesome. Despite all that, she is and has always been one of the best friends one could ask for. When dealing with Pinkie, you need to give her an objective, something to do, and when she messes up, teach her. You’ll find an amazing mind behind all that energy, one that catches things you’d miss. Subtle things, and she’ll never let you down when things get rough, she’ll always have something to put a smile on your face. She also has an imagination more active than most young fillies and colts, so put it to good use and you’ll never go wrong.
She also has a penchant for heart songs like no other pony I’ve ever seen, so don’t be surprised if you wind up with the entire town singing with her. Do try to keep her away from Fluttershy when she’s feeling embarrassed,though. While I’m fairly confident that Pinkie’s been embarrassed….. once…. and not when she was stealing the Princess Celestia’s food… or turning Princess Luna into a terrifying monster for a bunch of foals and fillies, or when she’s the only one able to understand anything about her sister and doesn’t explain anything letting all her friends feel like idiots around her.
Scratch that, I’ve seen her embarrassed once, and I’m not even sure that was embarrassment. Because of this seemingly inability to be embarrassed, she has a really hard sympathizing with Fluttershy when the poor mare wants to do nothing but hide in log deep in the everfree forest. In these events, keep Pinkie as far away from Fluttershy as possible! SHE WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE!
I hope everything goes okay between you and Dash. Just remember that even if she is mad at you now, she’ll “never leave you hangin” as she’s always reminds me. That phrase does not mean she won’t stand you up, help out without question or put you second on her priority list. It does however mean that’ll she’ll be there when you need it most, even if you don’t realize it. Its weird okay, she’s never there when you want her to be, only when you need her to be. It would be an interesting thing to study whether or not your Rainbow Dash suffers from the “Cloudsdale effect”.
Would you be willing to have tea with me sometime? In this world? I’ll make sure no one else except Spike knows you’re here. I know that’s your world and its kind of stupid, but I want to meet the mare that Celestia saw so much in. You don’t have too, but it would be uhh… informative on the nature of the mirror how quickly one can become accustomed to a body they haven’t been in for over thirty moons…. and I would enjoy sitting down and getting to know you better.
It obviously slipped your mind to mention how important hosting parties was to Pinkie. Not that it was an important thing to tell me or anything. No, not at all.
Ugh. I’m sorry, its just been a stressful weekend and I wish I could have done things differently. I came up with this great ‘bright’ idea to give Gilda and Dash an I’m Sorry I Got You in Trouble Party. Didn’t have the party and almost ended my friendship with the friendliest girl in the universe. Ughhh…. I swear I’ll take being hit with Elements of Harmony again over what happened.
Dash and Gilda weren’t really mad at me it turns out, even though they lashed out pretty hard initially. They had just both been really frustrated with situation. Gilda was annoyed that she got caught and Dash was playing the blame game to avoid feeling like she screwed up. She blamed herself for giving into Gilda, Gilda for stealing, me for getting them in trouble and herself again for being angry at me. Neither were punished too horribly, Dash got off with just a mark on her record and her dad grounded her for a couple of weeks. (By the way. COOLEST DAD EVER!) Gilda’s parent didn’t care, but she does have to serve a substantial amount of community service.
Turns out I could have just left the situation alone and it would have turned out just fine, but I had to go and stick my horn where it wasn’t needed. Mmmmmm… You have no idea how good it is to say that. I’ve been stuck watching every idiom for the past few years just so I don’t sound like some sort of freak… not that that matters anymore after the whole demon thing.
So I wanted to plan this party for Dash and Gilda and went about doing everything I thought I would need to do. Word of advice, never say no to Pinkie helping you with a party. She’s pretty sensitive about being thee party planner, and didn’t exactly handle being told I wanted to plan one without her very well. I didn’t mean to be rude, I just wanted to do this on my own. I got Dash and Gilda in trouble, so I wanted to show them that I had messed up and was trying to fix it.
Okay, you got me. I also refused because I wanted to prove that I could do this friendship thing without others help. That I was just as good of friends as everyone else. Ugh… I can just see how ironic that statement is just writing it. Yeah, I screwed up.
I’m worried for Pinkie. She’s as obsessed with parties as I am with showing that I’m a good friend. She might be afraid that someone else will steal her destiny. She became so lost when I told her she couldn’t help with the party. She was more than a just a little hurt when she learned I was throwing a party and didn’t want her help, something changed inside of her. I hurt her bad and I wish I could do something to make it up.
I should probably tell you exactly what happened. After I told her I wanted to do it on my own, none of the girls saw her over the weekend. We were more than a little worried on Monday when none of us even received so much as a text from her. During lunch, we took a trip to SugerCube Corner. The Cakes were really worried about her and were relieved when the saw us. We went up to her room… it was bizarre to say the least.
Pinkie’s hair lay flat against her head and she had a party set up with a bunch of stuff toys, a bag of flower and a pile of rocks. Pinkie seemed so out of it, so lost. A banner was hanging in her room with “WE’RE SORRY WE GOT YOU IN TROUBLE!” written on it. When we talked to her, she responded by talking through the flour, rocks and other ‘party guests.’ It… well… I deserved everything she said.
Rarity and Applejack were somehow able to get through to her and I said I was sorry. I had no idea that she cared so much about planning all of her friends parties. Her hair perked up a little and she seemed happier, (at least, she wasn’t talking to us through Madame La Flour, you were right about her having an imagination). I feel so horrible, I don’t even know if Pinkie still wants to be my friend anymore.
I’m just one big giant screw up. First I run away, I make everyone hate me, turn myself into a demon, then try and take over the world. When I finally do make some friends, I let them down, get them in trouble and hurt them in the worst ways possible. It might just be better if I come home and face Princess Celestia’s wrath. Banished to the sun doesn’t sound too bad right now.
UGH! Just listening to myself wants to make me throw up. I don’t really want that Twilight, but this friendship thing is just harder than I expected it to be. So far I’ve done nothing but fail everyone. Any advice for your failing student would be great.
Shimmer used to love cake. Its sweet goodness would just melt in her mouth in a rush of soothing flavor. Mornings would often have coffee cake, late night snacks were snuck in before bed and a light fluffy white cake was dessert to an already scrumptious meal.
Now cake was the taste of a teacher who denied her her destiny. A teacher who refused to acknowledge her potential and value. A teacher who only saw her as benefactor for the kingdom and could never look up to her as the pony she truly was.
“Did I do something wrong with the cake?” Luna asked worriedly from across the table in her small little apartment. “I know I’m not my sister, but I think its quite good,” The vice-principal stuffed another piece into her mouth. “Yes, I’m quite sure even Celestia would enjoy this cake.”
‘Of course she would, or if she didn’t she would pretend like she did. She never told me anything, never let me be anything! She’s wrong. I’ll be the best, better than her by a thousand times.’ Shimmer’s internal monologue raged.
Luna studied Shimmer’s face. It was one that she had seen a few times before, the anger, the hate and pain towards her previous teacher, Princess Celestia. Luna remembered last year when the Princess wrote Sunset, she remembered the pain, the fear. The horrifying grip Shimmer held her in, as if she let go everything would disappear. She had hoped that this private birthday party would get the girl’s mind off her previous home, and could somehow ease Shimmer’s pain.
“I’m afraid I didn’t think this through. I should have known that your mentor liked cake as much as my sister.” Luna grasped Shimmer’s hand, pulling her out of her trance. Luna looked Sunset in the eyes with understanding and desire to help.
“I…” Sunset stuttered. “It’s not your fault.” Shimmer’s eyes furrowed angrily, looking away. “It’s hers.”
“Sunset. I know my sister, and from the times I’ve met the Princess, I’m sure she’d be willing to talk with you, to come to an understanding. You don’t have to hang on to this anger. It does you no good.”
“You don’t know that!” Shimmer said, heading drooped down, unable to look at Luna any longer. “She can’t be trusted. Everything she tells ponies is a lie. All she does is lie and the angrier I am with her, the less chance I have I’ll ever fall for one of her lies again!”
“I know she lies. My sister does too, but you can’t forever hold it against her.”
“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” Shimmer yelled, startling Luna. She grabbed a breath before small sobs escaped her. “When you have magic, you always have power…” Shimer began to shake, “... and its the most terrifying thing to lose it. She wasn’t training me! She needed make sure that those who might be able to replace her didn’t exist! She only showed me my potential so she could know if she had to… so that she could kill me!”
“I’m not sure that’s the––”
“She,Killed, HER,OWN,SISTER!” Each word burned in Shimmer’s throat, every emphasis terrified of what she was saying. “She buried every record about her and then created a holiday in a propaganda scheme to make everyone hate you! Don’t you feel anything! She killed and defamed you so she could be the sole ruler of Equestria for all of her moon damned immortal LIFE!” Shimmer latched onto Luna, her whole body shivering and her eyes bawling. “I don’t want that to happen again. I hate her! I hate everything she’s done! She’s the worst pony of all time!”
Luna wasn’t sure what to say. She held Sunset tight, to let her know that she was there, that she wasn’t going to leave. “I’m here Shimmer. I’m here.”
The red and gold haired girl couldn’t reply except by squeezing and bawling harder into Luna.
Back in Sunsets apartment, a book rested on the table. A bottle of ink and a quill lay spilled beside it. The floor littered with crumpled papers smeared in ink and words. The book lay open, the page blank.
Slowly, it began to fill.
My Dearest Student,
I do hope that I have the time difference right and this is indeed your birthday. Forgive an old mare doing complex time dilation equations in her head if I happen to be off a little bit. Life, I’m afraid has gotten a little bit duller without your bright attitude to cheer up my life. One of the Zebrican diplomats even asked where the little mare who could go hoof to hoof with me in verbal combat was. (I think he was a little bit jealous. Don’t worry, your secret that I was going easy on you is safe with me.)
Holidays as well haven’t been quite the same without you either. I remember one year when for Nightmare Night you organized a Bite or Fright route through the castle and opened it up to the public. You dressed up as me and sat on my throne to hand out candy to all the fillies and colts. Then whenever someone you thought was too old came looking for candy from the princess, you demanded that the guards throw them in the dungeon! Quite the dungeon it was, with fruit punch, music, and Princess Cadence in a cell. Her punishment? Princess’s weren’t allowed to have coltfriends. I think you were just mad that she stole yours. That was such a funny night, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my royal guard be so happy to be on duty on Nightmare Night and not a single one complained about having an open castle. You did very well in planning and organizing that night.
I did take on a new student. She is unbearably shy though and doesn’t like to interact without many ponies outside her family. She does have your appetite for books, but doesn’t quite know how to use that knowledge like you do. You always could put what you just learned into practice rather quickly. You also had a great eye for ponies and who they were. It was always fun when we’d guess about different characteristics of ponies that were petitioning the court. Every once in awhile, you always managed to notice something that I had missed.
Your parents miss you Shimmer, and so do I. Stay safe, work hard, and remember, I will always watch over you.
