Early summer days are a glorious thing. The spring rains have finally given up trying to drown everypony, the grass is a lovely, soft, ‘roll-on-me’ green, and the full heat of late summer hasn’t quite reached its zenith. Beyond that, many spring blossoms are still out, and the beginnings of the summer blooms are just starting to appear in preparation for what is frequently delicious fruit later on. In short, it was a lovely afternoon for anything outdoors, and tomorrow was promising to be even better.
All of this was utterly ignored by a small, young, amber coated unicorn filly with a two-toned red on yellow mane that looked like it could spontaneously combust at any moment. Sunset was certainly peeved enough for it. She was even smouldering a bit.
“Guh why won’t those old fogies let Celestia have a life?!” screeched Sunset Shimmer as she mercilessly kicked the heavy wooden door to her opulent suite shut. Hairline fractures spread out around the indent her horseshoes left. "I mean seriously, I’ve never seen her have a day off, never even heard about it! And yet these aristocratic lemon lickers insist that she’s ‘a servant to the people, and as such has several duties to uphold.’ " Sunset’s lips pulled back in a sneer as she lifted her bags from her back and tossed the heavy books inside onto her bed in a careless gesture.
“Give me a break they wouldn’t know ‘duty’ if it painted itself neon green and gave them a swift kick in the -” A quick series of knocks cut the furious filly off. Oh, right. She usually set up a silence bubble whenever she ranted about the bourgeoisie; she was going to be hearing from Dutchess Blueblood tomorrow for sure. Isn’t that just grand. Skinamarinky dinky dink, skinamarinky do, I. Hate. You.
“Yes?” A manticore would sound more welcoming.
“Young Miss Sunset? You may want to tone down the yelling about four scoaches. Drill Sergeant Nasty just came up from the barracks and asked if you would be willing to rip into a few of the new recruits. I think that means he’s impressed. I’ve never seen that before.” There was a note of awe in the guard’s deep baritone at the proclamation. “Just the same, though, if he could hear you, that means that a fair chunk of the castle could as well. And you know how the nobles have been vying for just about any reason to get the Princess to get rid of you.” Sunset rolled her eyes before she opened her door and poked her head out to talk to the guard posted down the hall directly.
“Sorry Mister Bulwark, I forgot to cast the silencing bubble around myself. It won’t happen again.” baring her teeth in what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but likely came off closer to a predatory grimace. The amber coated filly once again closed the door behind herself and very carefully set up her strongest shield before howling in anger and moving toward her homework for the week. At her current level of focus, she could get it done in an hour. Tops.
Flipping open her booklet, Sunset started to scan her homework before scoffing at the second page.
Summoning spells? Seriously? I’ve been able to summon whatever I wanted since my first year here! Aether damn it all, that mare needs a day off if she’s giving me First Year homework. Either that or she’s going senile. Faust, I hope not. The societal ramifications alone would be a nightmare.
The homework called for her to successfully summon a living creature, Sunset calmed down a fair amount at that piece of information. It was well known that summoning a living creature was a standard building block toward learning true teleportation. Which was a bit more advanced. Sunset just needed to figure out what she wanted to summon.
If only I could summon something to get those damned nobles off of Celestia’s back for an afternoon. Unfortunately, most of the creatures out there that would silence a noble would do so rather permanently-
Sunset’s inner monologue was abruptly cut off by a plan. A terrible, probably evil, wonderful plan. She chuckled manically to herself while rubbing her hooves together as an unsettling grin spread across her face. She levitated her book of Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them by F.K Howling and started to draw out her summoning circle.
(ಠ_ಠ)>⌐■-■ ( ͡⌐■_-■)
It was barely nine in the morning and Princess Celestia; ruler of Equestria and Stewardess of the Sun and Moon was having a long and terrible day; the Ambassador of Yakyakistan and his posse had utterly annihilated their dining quarters in what appeared to be the worst ceremonial send off there is. The nobility had thus decided that it was prudent to break out the riding crops because they were miffed at the amount of damage that the Yaks had accumulated over the course of their three-day peace meeting. And Duchess Blueblood was getting her tail in a kink over something Sunset Shimmer had apparently bellowed from the belfry yesterday afternoon. Due to this bedlam, the resident Alicorn was desperately counting down the minutes until she could have tea and cake. All of the cake. Like, forty cakes.
Of course, none of this showed outwardly. Her face was a porcelain mask of matronly concern while she listened to the cataphonic echo of the massed gentry all desperately attempting to make their whining seem more pressing than their peers'. Just as she was about to break out the Royal Canterlot Voice to quiet the din, a scroll bearing the insignia of her personal student appeared in front of her snout. Deciding that only something pressing would cause Sunset Shimmer of all ponies to interrupt court, Celestia broke the seal and read the extremely short and mildly alarming text.
You might want to close your eyes, but I’ve got a few de-petrification vials ready in any case.
S.S
Celestia barely had time to close her eyes and throw a wing over her scribe before she felt the *pop* of displaced air, smelled ozone and heard the unmistakeable irritated squawking of a cockatrice rend through the din. No doubt the poor beast was summoned directly in the middle of the throng of the Canterlot Elite. Surprisingly, there were only one or two screams that rang out before her entire courtroom was eerily silent save for her and Raven’s breathing and the still angry clucking of the displaced cockatrice. Daring to peek an eye open, Celestia spotted the creature puffing its feathered chest out in a threat display at one of the petrified nobles, mercifully facing away from her. The white alicorn sighed deeply and cast a quick summoning spell to return it back to the Everfree where it no doubt made its home.
“It’s alright Raven; you can open your eyes now.” Celestia’s voice, usually soothing and quiet, echoed oddly around the stone garden that was once her nobility. Her pale coated scribe looked dispassionately at the group and then up to her ruler before speaking in a flat monotone.
“Sunset?”
“Yes. I’m beginning to worry my student might have some evil tendencies.” the monarch’s voice was a bit chagrined, she didn’t know whether to laugh at her fortune or be infuriated that her amber coated apprentice had the gall.
“Ya THINK?!” Realising that screaming at her ruler was what most would consider a poor decision, Raven took a few deep breaths. “Permission to speak freely, Your Majesty?”
“Granted, Raven, you know that.” The fact that she felt the need to ask at all was worrying, truth told. Raven rarely stood on ceremony, that was why the monarch liked her so much.
“Is there a direct correlation between being a highly powerful mage and being bucking insane? Because it’s really starting to look that way.” Apparently, her scribe was taking exception to nearly being a lawn ornament. Celestia never knew Raven had an upper limit on ‘crazy’ before. Good to know. Mind you She thought absently, it has been a long, bizarre week.
“No, my dear, there is no direct, documented correlation between power in unicorns and mental instability.” Celestia’s voice had no small hint of humour in it. Almost as if she was amused by the mere thought of such a thing.
“Has a study ever been conducted to completion?” Was the scribe's sharp rebuke.
There was a long, awkward beat of silence. Taking that for her answer, Raven nudged her horn-rimmed glasses up her snout before changing the subject. “Thank you for stopping me from being turned to stone Princess. I’m assuming that since you’re so calm, there’s a cure?” Celestia merely gave a brisk nod.
“Indeed, it is a little bit time consuming, but Apothic Serum should be able to brew up enough to have them back in our manes in short order.”
“Just how long is ‘no time’ princess, I’m starting to like the quiet.” Raven’s lips curled upward in the barest hint of a smile as she stared wistfully at the amassed, blissfully silent gentry. The sight of the Blueblood matriarch affixed mid bellow was going to be burned in her memory for years.
“Oh, about six hours.” Came the dispassionate reply. “Fortunately enough, they won’t remember the petrification itself, once they are re-animated, many of them will likely continue their conversations like they had never been interrupted at all. We essentially get a small hiatus.”
“There’s quite a few of them; maybe it’ll take a while longer for him to brew that much of it than that.” Was there hope in the secretary’s voice?
Celestia chuckled a little bit before moving toward the door.
“I’ll ask him to work slowly. Take the rest of the day off Raven; I think all of today’s itinerary was in this room.” The regal mare suddenly sighed and sagged her shoulders. Her wings unfurled just enough to brush the ground. “Now, I need to go have what will likely be a long and involved conversation with my alarmingly gifted student about the ethics of turning ponies to stone.” By the time she had gathered herself, she felt a hoof on her shoulder and glanced down to see Raven looking at her with a small, wry grin.
“I’ll talk to Apothic. Go chat with your student, but given what I heard about her rant yesterday, I think she’ll want you to take the rest of the day for yourself.” Her piece said the Royal Scribe walked off at a brisk pace to get her remaining duties done with. She suddenly needed a drink.
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Sunset was pacing in her room. She knew damn well that Celestia would not exactly like her idea of forcing a day off via silencing the hypotenuse of the equation, but she probably wouldn’t be too mad since there was a cure right? Right? Sunset liked the castle, all of her books were here!
Before she could work herself up into a full tizzy, she heard two quiet knocks on her door preceded by her mentor’s stern voice. “Sunset Shimmer? May I come in?” Not bothering to wait for the reply, Celestia opened the door just enough to flow into the room with her customary grace. Not customary, however, was her mildly disappointed frown and weary eyes. Well, sort of. Sunset had indeed been seeing that expression more than most ponies do of late. It made her heart hurt.
She was pretty sure that was on purpose.
“I’d like an explanation if you would.”
Sunset gave a pained attempt at her customary grin and babbled, “Well, your homework for me was to summon a living creature.-” Her beginning of an explanation caught in her throat as Celestia’s frown went from ‘mildly’ to ‘very’ disappointed. Edging toward angry. The amber coated prodigy sighed before giving up on levity. “You need a break. When was the last time you even took a half day off?”
“And you think the best way to go about this is to encase the gentry in stone?” The disbelief was palpable. Sunset scoffed and looked away before beginning to pace the length of her room again.
“Of course not! I’m not an imbecile Princess. Every time I try to get you to take a break, one or more of the nobles step in and start bellowing that you are a civil servant and going on and on about ‘Noblesse Oblige’ and all that malarkey. I’ve never seen you have longer than an hour or two to yourself if you weren’t sleeping, and I’ve lived here for six years now!” Pausing before she went off on a tangent regarding the nobles in specific that would inevitably get her in trouble, Sunset gathered her thoughts before continuing in a much calmer tone. “You’re not supposed to be chained to the throne, Princess. You should be able to have a life just as fulfilling as the one you work so desperately to allow the rest of us to have.” Stopping her pace to look her teacher in the eye, Sunset was surprised to see that Celestia was smiling faintly.
“Alright, the potion to re-animate them is going to take a while to cook up, it seems I’ve got little choice in the matter. I do however expect you to help Apothic with the brewing process-”
“Oh, that’s done.” Sunset interrupted her monarch briskly. The white Alicorn blinked twice before levelling a hard look at her student.
“What?”
“I spent the afternoon yesterday with Apothic.” Her student continued, “You didn’t really think I’d go through with something like this without knowing for damn sure that we could undo it did'ja?” Sunset tossed her mane and leveled a cheeky grin at the white alicorn that would make a shark run for cover.
“For clarity’s sake, he thought the idea was great fun and eagerly said he’d help me. He laughed for a solid five minutes at the thought of turning Blueblood into a birdbath. We both wanted the serum to be ready tout-suite in case you were furious and didn’t appreciate the humour.” The red-on-yellow maned genius shrugged her shoulders. “As much as I want you to relax before you have a coronary, I can’t exactly force you to, now can I?”
Celestia was gobsmacked. It wasn’t often that she was surprised anymore. She was ancient after all, but hearing the sheer absurdity that not one, but two of her subjects were willing to go through for her to do something as simple as relax struck her as funny. Her laugh started as her customary quiet titter and very quickly turned into the sort of full belly guffaw that made her have to sit down before her legs gave out on her.
“Alright, you win, they’ll keep for a few hours." The white coated mare gasped out before gaining control of herself. "How do you feel about some cake and ice cream before we find a good spot for a picnic? I haven’t been on one in ages.”
Celestia gracefully got back to her hooves and began to make her way toward the door.
“Sounds great Princess.” Sunset’s smile was uncharacteristically soft. “Oh, before I forget, there’s one more thing.”
“What might that be, my little pony?” Celestia turned her head toward her student just as she felt two forelegs wrap around her neck in a sudden hug.
“Happy Birthday Mom,” Sunset mumbled into her shoulder as she felt a pair of great white wings close around her.
