//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Friendship is Duplicitous // Story: Sunset Reset // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Thankfully, Princess Celestia didn’t decide she needed to intrude on Cadance’s morning two times in a row. So the pink pony princess wasn’t treated to another mother-daughter bonding battle in which the two of them got into it yet again. But, that probably would have required Sunset to have another incident in their shared bed. Something that did not occur a second time. It was something that Cadance still didn’t know how she should feel sad, happy, or worried about. After all, in the week that she and Sunset had slept together, Shining Armor certainly hadn’t inspired the amber alicorn’s imagination like Cadance had, highlighting the fact that the physical attraction the amber alicorn felt towards Cadance was the greater of the two. But on the other hoof, his future relationship with Sunset wasn’t destined to turn out as horrible as what was in store for the two princesses should they hook up. If anything, Shiny seemed an almost perfect pick for Cadance. The dilemma kept the pink princess’s mind too occupied for her to really enjoy bathing with her best friend and continued to distract her all the way to the dining hall, where Princess Celestia was waiting for them like usual. Even after sitting down, her thoughts kept Cadance just going through the motions until her ‘aunt’ addressed her directly. “So, Cadance, what are your plans for the day?” Celestia asked casually as she she levitated a banana in her magic to begin peeling it. With the actual need to engage in conversation, the pink princess put her spoon of oats down and looked to the pony sitting across from her. “I wanted to do a little shopping this morning to beat the crowds, and afterwards I’m going over to Shining Armor’s house to-um…” Cadance replied before she found herself stopping. It was minor, but there was a slight ruffling of Celestia’s feathers at the mention of the colt’s name. Then Sunset came stomping into the conversation with all the grace of a minotaur. “She’s going to be playing this stupid game where Shiny and his friends pretend they’re heroes and go on adventures or something.” Cadance found herself looking over to the other alicorn with a frown on her face. “Says the sorceress,” she mumbled before thinking of the character Sunset had helped her make. Despite the silliness of it all, Cadance actually found herself wondering what it’d be like to play her fantasy-self. A strong and independent alicorn that relied more on the physical strength given to her via passion than her horn. “And what will you be doing today, Sunset?” Celestia asked her daughter. The other alicorn gave the big white pony a hesitant look, then dropped her shoulders in a sigh. “Mostly, I’ll be redecorating. That new bed you got me means I need to rearrange some things in my quarters.” Celestia frowned ever so slightly. “I thought you said you had plans.” Under her mother’s gaze, Sunset let out a frustrated groan. “Yeah, well when someone goes and moves this giant piece of furniture around without telling anyone, plans change!” “Sunset, you could easily have the palace staff draw up a plan for redesigning your room. There’s no need to cancel your plans to…” Celestia paused for a moment before her expression became curious. “Say, what exactly were you going to be doing today before this started?” The amber alicorn rolled her eyes. “I was just going to hang out with some friends, obviously.” When Sunset didn’t continue, Celestia brought up a hoof and moved it around as if to coax the words out. “Who are?” “What does it matter now?” she said. “I have to redesign my room.” As she had seen where these kinds of conversations between mother and daughter went ten times too many, Cadance cleared her throat and scooted her empty plate forward. “Oh that was good! My compliments to the chef. Sunset,” she said after looking over to the amber alicorn. “Can you help me pack? My magic is still a little wobbly, and I don’t want to damage any of my character sheets or sourcebooks.” After a few seconds of giving her a blank stare that was broken by a few blinks, Sunset nodded. “Um...okay,” she agreed before getting down from her chair and following Cadance out into the hallway. Once the amber alicorn had closed the door behind them, Cadance spun around to glare at Sunset. “What the buck was that?” Sunset frowned. “What was what?” “So now you’re not coming to spend time with Shiny?” Cadance demanded. The question got a sigh from Sunset before she slunk back a bit. “Look, I’ve got...things to do here.” Cadance gave the mare an even expression at the obvious lie. “Redecorating your room?” she asked. “Sunset, I’d be mad at you for lying to me if it wasn’t for the fact that you believing I’d actually be stupid enough to buy that wasn’t a huge insult to my intelligence. Besides, we’ve got plenty of time to shop for decor before going to Shiny’s house.” Sunset looked away from the pink princess. “Okay fine. You’re right,” she relented before looking back to Cadance with a frown. “But I do have something to do.” “Yes,” Cadance agreed with a nod. “You’re coming with me to Shiny’s house.” It took a second, but Sunset’s reluctance made way for anger. Not much, all she could manage was an annoyed frown. “No. I have something else to do.” Cadance let out a tired sigh as she watched the amber alicorn get ready to dig her hooves in. “Sunset, don’t make me actually have to force you to come with me.” She didn’t want to do it, but there was no way that Cadance was going to let Sunset ruin her plans to get Shining Armor and the amber alicorn together so they could rekindle their passions before the day was done. The threat got out an amused snort from Cadance’s best friend and love interest. “Make me?” she asked with an expression that Sunset though the idea was so impossible she didn’t know whether to laugh, or just be insulted. “You are going to make me?” Another snort came from Sunset’s nostrils before she actually lowered herself just a bit and tilted her horn at Cadance in preparation for what she thought was coming. “Take your best shot, Princess.” For a second, Cadance found herself back in the past, when Sunset was still just a unicorn...and more than willing to use her superior control of magic to frighten Cadance into submission. The fact said former-unicorn was also taller than her and much more powerful than she had been as a bully wasn’t lost on the pink princess either. Not to mention Sunset was several times stronger than the stallion who had knocked Cadance to the ground. If Sunset wanted to, she could easily turn Cadance into pressed pony meat. But the fear lasted only for a second. Just long enough for a rear leg to take a single step back. Then Cadance remembered to whom she was talking to. And really hoped Sunset hadn’t noticed her fear before she frowned back at the amber alicorn. The last thing Cadance wanted was to upset her best friend with the guilt trip she would put herself on. “If you don’t come to Shiny’s house, you’re going to make Twilight Sparkle cry.” For what seemed like the millionth time since Sunset had changed species, Celestia found herself unsure of what to do in regards to her daughter. Sunset and Cadance… Part of her wanted to sigh in relief at the fact her niece was moving in to steal her daughter’s coltfriend. Celestia knew it wasn’t nearly that simple and her meeting with Shining Armor told Celestia that it was Sunset who actually pushed the two of them together for some reason she could not yet fathom. But whatever the cause, it meant that Sunset would be avoiding the same kind of pain Celestia had endured as a young immortal. Something she was glad for. But, much to Celestia’s shame, she found a much larger part of herself wanting for Sunset to find some shortlived happiness with the little colt, however brief it was. Celestia wanted her daughter to experience love. She wanted to watch Sunset blush about being teased when it came to Shining Armor, watch her nuzzle him good night outside the palace gates. With all the months of Sunset’s ever increasing isolation, followed by her sudden near-suicidal depression, the chance of seeing the smaller alicorn truly happy, if even just for a short moment, was a desire that burned almost as strongly as seeing Luna again. You selfish old nag, the ancient alicorn thought as she looked down at her half eaten breakfast. You want to see Sunset happy for a mere decade, just so she can be miserable forever more? All so you can feel better? As much as it pained her personally, Celestia knew what needed to be done. She needed to get rid of Shining Armor. Celestia didn’t even need to talk to Sunset about it. The colt had said how he wanted to join the royal guard when he was older. She could offer him placement in their officer training program, a guaranteed position of his pick away from Canterlot, and money to relocate to a home that was an upgrade to whatever it was he currently had. Sunset would avoid an endless lifetime of heartache, there would be no animosity between the two younger alicorns over the colt, and Shining Armor would get what he wanted. It was a win-win. All she had to do was...get rid of the colt Sunset was falling in love with. An oncoming migraine made Celestia sigh and reach up to rub her forehead. Then the headache became a bit worse when she heard the door being wrenched open. Sunset poked her head in with the type of scowl Celestia had seen plenty of times whenever her daughter was forced to do something. “I’m going to hang out with my friends. Don’t get a decorator for my room, I’ll do it myself.” Before Celestia could agree, or even wonder what had happened to bring Sunset’s sudden change on, the door slammed shut and hooves strong enough to make the reinforced stone hallways of the palace tremble stomped off. It didn’t take Celestia long to realize just what had happened, or where Cadance was managing to drag Sunset off to. The shopping trip Cadance had blackmailed her into turned out to be a great distraction to keep Sunset from thinking about the possibilities when it came to what Celestia had done with the portal and when she needed to reschedule her time to poke around the castle in search of it. Not because shopping was some ultimate cure-all to a girl thinking about her problems. Although working out the details of what was a massive overhaul to what would be her living quarters for the next week did provide something for Sunset to concentrate on, the pony she went shopping with added something else to think about during their time together. Much to Sunset’s annoyance, Cadance’s conversation topics during their trip seemed less about discussing room decor, and more about other aesthetically pleasing things. Like Shining Armor’s horn. “And I swear, judging by the tip of his horn, it doesn’t look like he’s quite finished growing.” His coat. “I think it’s actually pure white. A natural, pure white stallion, Not like those stallions Celestia uses for her personal escorts. That’s all magic armor.” And his physique. “Yeah, he’s a little scrawny now compared to somepony I know, but just wait until he hits twenty-one. Definitely royal guard material.” Not to mention...other things. “Then there’s how nice his butt is. And it is. Perfectly proportioned with the rest of his body. That’s one of the hints how I know he’s going to be amazing in just a few more years.” The last one actually made Sunset turn and face Cadance as they made their way back from Canterlot’s shopping district, her magic full of drapes, matching sheets, and everything else needed to give her palace apartments a much needed makeover. “Butt? You’re speaking human now?” the amber alicorn asked, as actually acknowledging Cadance’s one pony conversations about Shiny would have been falling for the bait. Cadance blinked before she set the boxes held in her magic without rattling them too much and giggled. “I dunno, I kind of like it more than plot,” she said before she began trotting around Sunset with just enough extra oomph in her step to give her ass some wiggle. “I mean, you can have a big butt, a bouncy but like Celestia, a bubbly butt. Oh! Or a bodacious butt!” Then she turned around and gave Sunset a full view of her gorgeous rear. “What kind do you think I’ve got?” As a good amount of her vision was filled with heart-flank that was just aching to be grabbed, Sunset felt her cheeks heat up to match the color of the ones presented to her and quickly backed away while doing her best to maintain her composure. “C-come on Cadance! I don’t spend all hours of the day trying to classify ponies' rears like you apparently do!” Cadance looked back at the other mare for a second before her eyes went a little wider and she cleared her throat before turning around. “Oh, um...right. Sorry. Got a bit carried away there,” the pink princess said before her magic resumed carrying the properly protected packages. “So...um...yeah. Maybe you should just pop us back to our room so we can have the staff get to work.” A little confused by Cadance’s sudden change in mood, Sunset summoned up her magic and got closer to Cadance in order to make moving the two of them through the spacelessness between a little bit easier. Although, she wasn’t about to let Cadance throw her off so easily. “By the way. If you really want to know, I’d have to go with beautiful,” she said, getting a bit of awkward silence from the other pony. Then Sunset used the opening she made to strike. “It’s no wonder Shining Armor can’t keep his eyes off it.” “Shiny! We’re here!” Shining Armor heard Cadance’s voice call out from the floor above him as he finished setting up the gaming table in his parents’ basement. He also felt a bit of annoyed worry over the fact that the pink princess definitely sounded like she was in the house, not waiting outside it. Which meant Sunset had just casually gone and picked the lock again. But, since there was no real malice behind their actions, he put such thoughts aside and trotted upstairs to continue his preparations. When the the girls didn’t show up on their own accord, Shining Armor looked away from the food he was preparing and towards the den. “I’m in the kitchen.” A minute later, Cadance trotted in. The pink alicorn looked around at the assorted food. “Hey! This all looks pretty good Shiny. Everything ready to go?” The appearance of the pink princess made Shining Armor’s mind flash back to the end of their date. Despite all the time that had passed between then and now, he could still remember the feeling of her lips on his, how Cadance’s tongue had gently caressed the insides of his mouth her forelegs held him close. Just thinking about it made… ...Shining Armor want to slap himself. No! Bad pony! The thing with Cadance shouldn’t have gone that far. Shining Armor didn’t even know if...well, Sunset had said Cadance liked him, but...she was obviously a pretty biased source! Besides, he was still with Sunset! ...wasn’t he? After taking a long breath through his nose, the unicorn tried to put his mind back on task. Even if it took a second to remember just what that task was. “Yeah, everything’s just about done,” Shining Armor finally replied as he turned back and dug into the cantaloupe to scoop some of it out before placing it on the tray. “The cheese squares and celery are ready, and I'm almost done with the melons.” Cadance got closer and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, so you scoop them out and get get all round like that, huh? Can I try one?” she asked as her hoof stretched out. The close proximity of the other pony as she leaned over made Shining Armor gulp as his nose picked up her strawberry scent. It was the same as the day they met, when Cadance dragged him away to the gym for a private conversation. “S-Sure!” Shining Armor replied before taking one of them into his magic and passing over to the princess. Thankfully, putting it right in front of her made Cadance back up before she snatched it out of the air with her mouth. “Mmmmm! That’s really good!” Then the pink princess looked back to the living room as the amber alicorn came trotting into view. “Hey Sunset, you have got to try Shiny’s balls. They’re really juicy.” For some reason, Shining Armor saw Sunset flinch before she locked her legs in place. “Urk!” As for Shining Armor, Sunset’s sudden appearance and the feeling’s Cadance’s proximity were bringing up made him recall the first time the bigger princess had kissed him… Shining Armor could feel the physical power radiating from the amber alicorn as Sunset held him in her forelegs while standing on her other two. She looked every inch the goddess that some ponies considered Celestia to be as the dead dragon landed behind her to be consumed by a pyrotechnic spell’s conflagration strong enough to completely incinerate a creature who could have swam in lava. The onrush of wind caused by the explosion made Sunset’s mane whip about wildly while her wings shielded Shining Armor from the scorching winds. “And this is a French kiss,” she said before pulling Shining Armor up to touch her lips with his. A second later, Sunset’s tongue was in Shining Armor’s mouth. It went up to slither around the roof before coming down to run along his teeth and wrap around Shiny’s tongue to pull it back into Sunset’s verbal orifice. As Sunset continued to massage his tongue and the fire from the dragon’s death seemed to give the amber alicorn holding him a golden shine, Shining Armor realized that Sunset Shimmer was the most awesome mare in the world. “Shiny?” The sound of his name pulled Shining Armor out of his daydream, and he found himself being muzzle to muzzle with Cadance. “Sorry! Just...um...thinking, Princess.” Shaking off the oddity, Shining Armor looked back to Cadance. “Although, you kind of wasted those Princess. The best way to eat them is to suck on the balls for a little bit so you can enjoy the flavor.” Whoomph! Shining Armor blinked at the feeling of rushing air that knocked his mane around and looked back to see Sunset had spread her wings. A sly grin appeared on Cadance's face before she took the cheese platter along with the one loaded with vegetables in her wobbly magic. “Well, I’m going to go tell Twilight we’re here and get things set up in the basement,” she said as she trotted past the amber alicorn, making sure to duck to get past her wings. Then she looked back to the larger princess. “Sunset, be a friend and help Shiny with his balls.” Sunset’s head spun to look at Cadance, hiding her expression from Shining Armor. But her voice came out pretty agitated. “You’re doing this on purpose!” In response, Cadance stuck out her tongue just a little bit, then went on to practically skip away from the amber alicorn that made her plot seem extremely perky with the way it bounced ever so slightly. “No idea what you mean!” the pink princess sang as she made her exit. With the distraction of Cadance’s derriere departed and Sunset keeping her distance, Shining Armor managed to look back to the task of finishing up with creating the melon balls. After picking up the various fruit balls in his magic, Shining Armor turned around and nearly ran into the amber alicorn with the spread wings and closed eyes as she took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled via her mouth. Although he didn’t quite understand why Sunset was going through a relaxation exercise, he did recognize the actions of one thanks to living with Twilight. So, rather than risk interrupting the princess, Shining Armor stood there patiently while he waited for her to finish. A minute later, Shining’s mind started to wander. Did I say something to upset her? He asked himself as he listened to to the made in front of him take in another breath through the nostrils that were level with his eyes. Shining Armor couldn’t think of anything he said that might have hurt Sunset’s feelings or get her overly worried. Not that Sunset seemed to worry about much. In fact, the only thing that he had really seen Sunset be worried about was when they were in the park and she told him about how if they were to have sex, her female anatomy would probably crush Shining Armor’s lower horn into paste. Wait a second, Shining said to himself before he looked over to Sunset’s spread wings. Although he was not a pegasus, Shining Armor had been around Eight-Bit long enough to know that a pegasus with stiff wings meant… It meant… Shining Armor frowned. He couldn’t really remember the specifics, but whenever he asked Eight-Bit about it when they were younger, the pegasus would always get really flustered and tell him to mind his own business in an angry tone. Which meant...Sunset was angry. Probably with him. And Shining didn’t need to think very long to figure out why that was. Sure, Sunset hadn’t been angry the night Shining and Princess Cadence kissed, but that had been a day ago. Which was plenty of time for a mare to change her opinion on anything. According to his mother at least. And his little sister. And...pretty much every other mare Shining Armor had ever met. Even Princess Celestia had seemed kind of wishy-washy when they talked the day before. As Sunset continued to breathe in the way that allowed her to resist her obvious urges to smash Shining Armor into a white pancake, Shining Armor’s mind raced to figure out a way out of his situation. The irony of the whole was that even though Cadence was a better kisser and much hotter than Sunset, the amber alicorn was still the mare he wanted to be around more out of the two. She was definitely the less bossy of the two alicorns, and friendlier, and it wasn’t as if Sunset wasn’t attractive. The amber alicorn had a plot Shiny could really sink his hooves into and a horn surpassed only by Celestia’s. It was just… The night before last, after Shining Armor had saved Princess Cadance from Buck and gone home to lay in his bed, the unicorn had felt a kind of pride in himself he never had before. For the first time in recent memory, Shining Armor felt like he had after saving Twily during that camping trip so long ago when he earned his Cutie Mark. It was the way he imagined a brave paladin would feel after rescuing the princess from the dragon. Being with Sunset, Shining Armor had never felt anything close to that. When he was supposed to save her from the dragon, Sunset had bucked the door to her cell open and snapped the thing’s neck. She caused localized earthquakes with her hooves and could just casually throw the laws of time and space out the window if she wanted to take a nap before class. Then there was her physical presence. Sunset was the second biggest mare in all of Equestria, taller than Shining Armor himself, with the promise of more height to come if her mother was any indication. Just being around such an amazing pony like Princess Sunset made Shining Armor see how inadequate he was in comparison. She...made him feel small. In both the literal and physical sense of the word. But, that was no reason for him to be backing away from her. Right? Sunset was an alicorn. A pony trained by Princess Celestia Herself. The Solar Princess’s own adopted daughter for pony’s sake! Sunset was supposed to be so far beyond Shining Armor that comparing the two of them on any level would be like matching a blue whale up to a flea. Shining Armor pushed such thoughts from his mind. Just because Sunset was bigger than him, and stronger than him...and significantly more powerful than he could ever dream of becoming, that was no reason for Shining Armor to reject her. Especially because everything he said about Sunset while under that curse that made him run his mouth was true. He did like being around her more than Cadance! She was smart and kind, funny and brave, understanding and respectful. All Cadance had going for her was that she was hot. Not to mention a perky plot. And she had helped Shining Armor get Sunset instead of shoving him away. Plus, she was the Alicorn of Love, which probably also extended to the physical side of things. Like kissing. A kiss Sunset could probably match with enough practice. Something Shining Armor was more than happy to help her with. In fact, if Sunset was mad at him because he kissed Cadance, Shining Armor had the perfect idea to show the amber alicorn that she was the only pony for him. He stepped forward and planted his lips on Sunset’s. Sunset hated the emotions raging through her mind as she tried to calm them down. The saying that absence made the heart grow fonder was beyond true in the amber alicorn’s opinion. Even before Cadance started egging her on, the unobstructed view of Shiny’s rear had filled Sunset’s mind with so many thoughts and desires that she was afraid her wings would never come down. Telling herself Shiny and Cadance were supposed to be together didn’t help. Reminding herself that Shining Armor was Twilight Sparkle’s older brother didn’t help. No amount of logic was able to stop Sunset from admitting to herself that she wanted the little stallion in front of her. So, she was forced to use more drastic measures... Think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts, Sunset told herself over and over again as she pictured Flash Sentry’s bare ass, that time she went into the bathroom at Principal Celestia’s house too early and saw the dripping wet woman just as she exited the shower, Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the middle of their water balloon fight the day they wore white shirts and no bras, Fluttershy’s voluptuous body in just her underwear during a sleepover, Rarity’s nude body in the sauna, and of course, the various male human genitals that Sunset had seen over the years with their oddly shaped ends. Unfortunately, all of Sunset’s hard work to make herself gag and get her wings under control was undone when she felt someone’s lips press against her own. The contact had Sunset throw open her eyes and stare at the young stallion kissing her before backing away in shock. Which was a good thing, because a second later, Sunset felt a little tingle pass through her body before it began to practically scream for Shiny’s attentions. It demanded that she take him in her forelegs and shove her tongue down his throat before teleporting up to his room and embark on a research project to find out just how juicy his balls really were. But, Sunset wouldn’t let herself be ruled by such thoughts. Especially since going through with the would just hurt her little stallion in the long run. So even though the amber alicorn couldn’t bring herself to give Shining Armor one of her dreadful glares, she was able to deliver a...minor verbal lashing. “S-Shiny! What’re you doing? You and Cadance-” “It was one date!” Shiny shot back in an equally confused tone as Sunset as he advanced on her. “It wasn’t even supposed to be that! It was just supposed to be two friends seeing a replay with a bunch of other friends. We weren’t supposed to-well, she kissed me!” Then, the white unicorn’s checks took on a red hue as he broke eye contact. “And, um...well, e-even if Cadance is a better kisser, we could, um….j-just practice until you get...as...good?” Despite the fact that his come on faltered at the end, Sunset had to smile at the fact Shiny had tried such a move at all. Because of that and the way his adorable blush put her off guard, the amber alicorn didn’t respond in time to stop Shining Armor from kissing her again. It was sloppy, full of hesitation, and the little stallion trembled at her touch. But that didn't make it any less glorious for her. Sunset found herself unable to resist her urges. She opened her lips and joined her tongue to Shiny’s before sliding across it and diving into his mouth. The lingering taste of cantaloupe tickled Sunset’s taste buds as she advanced, pushing Shining Armor back until she heard his rear impact the kitchen’s sink area. A second later, Sunset led Shiny in rearing up before she pressed him up against the setup for drying dishes behind them and placed her pony-arms under his to make Shining Armor straighten up all the more. Then Sunset used the minor amount of motion still available to her wings and wrapped them around the smaller pony. The duel of tongues continued as Shining Armor flailed his forelegs around for a moment in an obvious attempt to get them low enough to grab Sunset's cutie mark. But with Sunset’s uncompromising pony-arms in the way, he ended up reaching forward to place his fetlocks on her wings and rubbing them as he fought to maintain his upright stance. Something that Sunset’s body found extremely agreeable. When the kiss broke and Shining Armor sucked in a breath, Sunset licked her lips as she brought her head up a little to whisper in her little stallion’s ear. “Mmmm Shiny, you taste good,” the lustful amber alicorn said before she extended her tongue to run it along the outer edge of Shining Armor’s ear. Sunset's wings picked up a minute shudder in Shiny’s body from the action, which only spurred on to hold her little stallion closer and go in for another round of tongue wrestling. After locking lips, Sunset dominated her Shiny’s mouth, barely able to hold herself back from barreling forward with the amount of force that would have caused injury to her little pony. Once again, the idea of teleporting away to a bed appeared in Sunset’s mind. She could pop them up to Shiny’s room as they were and pin him to the bed. There would be another kiss, and then Sunset would run her tongue up Shiny's horn to really get him in the mood before she introduced Equestria to the cowgirl position. Part of her tried to protest, but it was quickly shut down by the reality of the situation. Sunset was giving up everything for Twilight. She was going to spend the next three years in a magicless hell, and she had saved whole realities on two separate occasions. For that, she deserved some fucking horse cock! And Sunset would claim what was hers, consequences be damned! “Princess Sunset?” a light female foal’s voice cut in, kicking the amber alicorn’s train of thought off its tracks and turning it into an unsalvageable wreck. “What’re you and Shiny doing?” The fire in her veins turned to ice, and Sunset broke her embrace with Shining Armor to turn around and see a tiny purple unicorn standing behind her. “T-Twilight!” the demigoddess that could create hurricanes with ease stuttered in fear as the tiny horse barely capable of using magic looked up at her in curiosity. “I um, that’s…” Then, Sunset noticed something even more horrifying than the lavender unicorn. Standing next to Twilight was a pink pretty pony princess wearing the biggest shit-eating grin that Sunset had ever seen her with. “She’s just helping Shiny clean his teeth, Twilight,” Cadance replied. Sunset winced as the reality of the situation hit her. She had been kissing Shining Armor, a stallion she sure as hell didn’t deserve and who in turn deserved better than her. Idiot. You’re supposed to be giving him to Cadance! Twilight’s ears dropped a little. “Oh, I was hoping they were making out,” she said before her eyes widened as they fell on the floor. “Hey, what happened to the snacks?” Grateful for the distraction, Sunset looked down to the floor and suppressed a wince. The two plates Shiny had been holding earlier were on the ground in pieces, their cargo as well. When did that happen? “Great,” Shining Armor mumbled before he sighed before looking back at the gutted fruit and up at the nearest clock. “Well, there’s still time for me to make more before the guys show up.” Cadance’s victory smirk disappeared, to be replaced by a look of concern. “Sunset, can you do anything?” “Well, fixing the plates is easy. But the fruit is organic, so cleansing spells are out,” she said before beginning to even consider the problem. Even Sunset’s telekinesis wasn’t fine enough to remove all the microbes that covered the pieces of juicy fruit that had fallen to the floor. In fact, the only thing she could even think of that might solve the problem was…completely undoing the accident. Which was stupid. To fix the problem in front of her, Sunset would have to actually rewind time within a localized field so it wouldn’t affect the rest of Equestria. The very idea was a major misuse of magic. Not to mention extremely reckless. And it would be… Well… It would...also be something Twilight Sparkle had never been able to do. Sunset looked over to the little filly glancing up at her before turning a disappointing eye towards the melon balls. Even though she had become an alicorn, the way it came about constantly remind Sunset that she was nowhere near what Twilight Sparkle would become, and never would be. Celestia had cast her out as a failure and hadn’t bothered to send a single message to the lost pony even after Twilight got her hooves on the journal in all the time the lines of communication had been open to them. It more than told Sunset what Celestia, what her Celestia thought of the exiled mare. That Sunset wasn’t even worth the time to write a letter. That all the time she spent learning magic was a waste. That she had never been worth anything. That she was trash. Sunset grit her teeth as she glared at that Celestia in her mind. The Celestia who hadn’t bothered to come to the human world herself. The Celestia that didn’t care she reformed. The Celestia that probably never would have been able to figure out how to survive on her own in the human world for years, not to mention figure out how to harness a completely new type of magic that worked on a completely different set of rules! The Celestia who had told her the limits of time manipulation magic. The Celestia that Sunset would put in her fucking place! Sunset pushed down the nervousness in the back of her mind and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Hey Shiny, come over here real quick,” the amber alicorn asked her not-coltfriend that was supposed to be getting together with her best friend as she walked over to the other two mares in the room and took a moment to look back at the little unicorn filly. “Okay,” he replied before following through. Once out of the area of danger, Shining Armor looked over to Sunset. “Now what?” The amber alicorn took her eyes off the lavender unicorn and silenced the growing doubts in her mind. If she managed to do what couldn’t be done in front of Twilight Sparkle, it would just encourage the filly to try all the more when she became Celestia’s student. Not to mention it would answer a nagging question about how Sunset ended up in Equestria’s past. And finally show that damn old oversized nag with her giant posterior that Sunset Shimmer was a better student than she ever thought possible! A bit of pride made Sunset stand up that much taller than everypony else in the room as she smirked at her own genius solution. “Simple, I’m going to rewind time in a localized area until the accident is undone.” While the two less than omega-level intellect ponies gave Sunset looks of wide-eyed wonder, Twilight’s response was more skeptical. “Wait a second. Doesn’t Starswirl’s third law of temporal magics state that once an event has been done, it can’t be undone?” Sunset raised an eyebrow at Twilight's response to her declaration. “Just how in the hell does a mare of your age know the laws of temporal magics? “Because it's Starswirl,” Twilight replied simply with a blank expression, as if the question itself was ludicrous. Instead of continuing the argument, Sunset made a mental note to bring Twilight some real children’s books for the next time she visited and lit up her horn. “Yeah well Twilight, I’m gonna teach you something more important than that,” she said before looking away from the filly and giving the task at hand a serious frown. “Rules are meant to be broken.” Her being in Equestria as an alicorn was proof of that. Sunset started off with a basic temporal stasis field, freezing the area where she and Shiny had been standing in time while everything else around them continued on like normal. Then, the amber alicorn ran through a quick test of fast forwarding the time bubble, followed by rewinding it to the beginning of its creation. “Okay,” Shining Armor said. “Now what?” The question got a sap of a reply from Sunset. “Quiet, Shiny! I've got to concentrate.” After ignoring the other pony’s apology, Sunset looked back to the problem before thinking back to her second week in Equestria. After seeing Twilight, Sunset had dived deep into research on temporal magic to try and figure out how she had traveled back in time. Of course, the only explanation she could come up with didn’t make much sense, and was quickly thrown aside. Sunset knew there was no way the temporal axis of the dimension could be reversed. The amount of power it would take for something like that would have been more than all the ponies in Equestria could manage even if all their magic was poured into a single being with a pair of extra alicorns as powerful as Celestia thrown in. But, hers was a different problem. Sunset already knew she could affect a temporal field as small as the one in front of her. The problem Sunset was facing was reversing the effects of time inside of a temporal field before it existed. That was the impossibility. Then again, I do the impossible at least three times a day, Sunset told herself. Sure, that was according to human standards. But it was good enough for a creature that had lived with them for years. Sunset reached out with her magic and grabbed the temporal bubble. Holding the thing in her power, Sunset decided her first attempt would be the most basic of ideas. She would try and brute force her way through until either time turned back more than it was supposed to, or the bubble popped from the strain. But first, Sunset thought to herself before she wove a tapestry of protection spells around herself and the others as well as a teleportation safeguard that would send the three other ponies to the other side of Griffonstone if the wards were breached before she could stop whatever went wrong. For a brief second, Sunset found a bit of doubt and worry rising in her mind. But she did a quick shake of her head to clear it away. Nah, it’ll be fine. At the most, the house would be destroyed. If that happened, Sunset could leave Twilight with a mansion and enough money that her family was set for life to compensate for the emotional trauma of losing their home. Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Sunset sent more magic into the bubble to help reinforce it before turning the small space back on its temporal axis. The .000001 second that had passed inside the bubble since Sunset started the process was undone, and she felt the bubble lurch as it resisted her commands. “Oh no you don’t,” Sunset told her creation before she drew on more of her magical energies and threw them into forcing that section of reality to obey her demands. But, with reality being a giant bitch goddess that cared little for the desires of a single pony, the temporal field continued to resist her magic. It groaned and moaned and made various other strained sounds, forcing Sunset to pour more magic into the bubble to keep it from popping before she set herself back to the task of rewinding time. “Uh...S-Sunset?” Cadance spoke up nervously. For the first time since becoming an alicorn, Sunset pushed as much power as she could into her horn, more than when she was teaching, relearning her magic the weeks prior, or even when she was being examined by the doctors under Celestia and told to use the full extent of her magic. The feeling of mystical strain began to creep in, but Sunset pushed forward while reinforcing the field to make sure it wouldn’t break. “Sweet Celestia!” Shining Armor’s said from what sounded like a distance. A minute later, Sunset felt the familiar strain of horn stress as she hit what was the limit of her alicorn magic. Even then, the winged pony pushed forward and...winced when the backlash surge ignited a fire in her brain. Oh come on! Sunset shouted at herself. This can’t be all I can do! Sure it's just a stupid dessert, but everyone's watching me. It’s just like the games, when everyone worked so hard and then I took over and screwed up at the end. I’m not going to stumble and fall flat on my face in front of my friends again! Despite the pain, Sunset looked within herself to try and find something, a hidden reserve to draw on. Her legs wobbled, her wings sagged, and her head hurt as she put everything she was into her horn while still searching for else she could use. And then...she found it. Sunset felt a major flow of energy separate from the three major areas of pony magic within her. The surprise of the find nearly made her lose her concentration and caused another flare in her migraine, but Sunset powered through the pain. After that, tracking whatever it was back to its source was easy. Location-wise, Sunset felt a warm glow coming from within her, somewhere in her chest area. The magic felt familiar, and yet foreign at the same time, an outside force that she had encountered before had naturalized inside of her. It didn’t take long for Sunset to recognize what the magic was. It was the power that had been left inside of her after wearing Twilight’s crown. The power she had taken from her friends. Although the discovery of its existence made her frown. The amount of energy in the mana pool was enormous in the extreme. Shock ran through the alicorn's mind at the discovery, so much so she nearly lost hold on her magic altogether. Although Sunset understood that the problems with her wings and strength came from the extra magic within her since first seeing Twilight and feeling it respond to her, the amount of power that it really was made a terrifying shiver run down her spine. This much magic...if I had been drawing on it at max from the time I woke up, I…. Sunset banished the thought from her mind before it could finish. But...I know about it now, and…I… Sunset hesitated and looked at the temporal field in front of her that was barely holding itself together. For the first time since her experiment began, the amber alicorn took note of just how much magical energy was floating around in a spell that looked ready to fall apart at the drop of a hat. If she stopped the experiment now, there would definitely be a magical backlash that would level Twilight’s home. ...and more. Much more. But I can just...buy her a new one, Sunset thought with none of the blind confidence she felt earlier when she began her attempt to… Show off. Face it girl, you were showing off. Twilight said you couldn’t do something, and you just charged right in to show her how powerful you were. Idiot, the uncrowned pony told herself. This is why you’ll never be a real princess. You get a little bit of power, and throw it around like the idiot you are. You belong on Earth, where you can’t do this kind of crap ever again! Sunset would have continued to berate herself, but she felt her dangerous experiment become even more unstable and refocused her attention on it. Okay stupid, time to clean up your mess. Give yourself just enough energy to reinforce the field and then… The amber alicorn took a second to run through some advanced calculations in her head. Alright, so…if I can manage to reverse time that should burn up the energy and I can safely bleed the magic in the field off into the air. The little bit of irony that the only way to avoid causing a disaster was by finishing the job she had started did occur to Sunset, but she didn’t bother rolling her eyes at the idiocy of the universe before she reached out and turned the trickle of magic flowing from the power she stole from her friends into a small stream. A small grunt escaped Sunset’s lips as she felt a surge of energy flow through her. Then there was a brief image of the mountain they were all on shattering that flashed through her mind, and Sunset locked her legs to keep from taking a single step and making it come true as she tried to wrap her mind around just how much power was rushing through her body. “So pretty,” Sunset absently heard Twilight mumble in awe. This...is is the magic Twilight had in her crown? Sunset asked herself. It made the magic she held as an alicorn look like nothing! And the fact she was only tapping into a part of it had the amber alicorn’s wings twitching like mad. Is this what it's like for Princess Celestia? Sunset knew that her mother was more powerful than the average alicorn, and that power came from an outside source. Plus, she couldn’t really imagine her mother allowing a pony to be more powerful than her. As much as she loved her mother, Sunset had to admit Celesta was a bit of a control freak that demanded absolute obedience and would throw out even the pony she called daughter over something as stupid having a book thrown at her! Aaaaaaand I'm getting distracted, the overloading alicorn told herself before she focused her attention back on what was important and ordered time to rewind again. This time, when the nature of reality pushed back and started to complain, Sunset gave it the metaphorical slap to the face to make it shut fuck up and do as she told it to before forcing her will upon the magic and making it obey. A feeling of vertigo passed over Sunset that nearly caused her to fall over, but she held her ground and pushed forward. Inside the bubble, colors inverted and a feeling of nausea passed through Sunset. Despite the fact she was succeeding, the amber alicorn felt no joy as she watched the plates become surrounded by Shining Armor’s magic despite him not being there and float back up into the air. This… Sunset thought as she resisted the urge to throw up as the magic she was holding twisted in response to what she was making it do. This is wrong. I shouldn't have done this. I've got to...to… Before the idea to quit could get done passing through her head, Sunset took a look at the mystical energies involved in her spell. The energy that had been building up because of the spell’s inability to move forward had been drained off. So all I need to do is-gah! The amber alicorn’s thoughts were cut off when her vision insured by her hair suddenly flying in front of her face right as some idiot pulled back some curtains or something, because Sunset was nearly blinded despite her mane covering her eyes. If anything, all her locks did was give the light yellow and red hues. The combined phenomena also made Sunset lose hold of the spell holding everything together. “Oh no! Nonononono!” A second later, Sunset let out as gasp as she felt her horn wink out and threw her head to the left sharply to see how much destruction would be caused by the crumbling of her temporal field. Only to watch the area under the effects of her magic become surrounded in a transparent crystal that quickly crumbled into nothingness. But there was no explosion, black hole, or other reality-ending event that Sunset's mind had feared would come in the last few moments of her experiment. On top of which, Shining Armor’s magic from the rewind that held the platters lasted long enough for Sunset to stare absently for a full second before fading away. It was enough to grab the plates the with her magic though. Then the amber alicorn began to turn around, and tensed before taking a single step. Oh, right...earthquake hooves are still on, She told herself before reaching back inside of herself and putting a proverbial cork on the unnatural power source she had stolen from her friends and Twilight. It didn’t completely stop the flow of magic, but the small stream was once again reduced to a trickle. “Okay...that was...um…” Some unseen light in the room dimmed, and Sunset felt her mane no longer blow in the breeze. Before Sunset could get out the words really stupid, Twilight let out an excited squeal. “That was amazing! Princess Sunset how did-” Said pony winced. “No, Twilight. It was-” “That was more magic than I've ever felt in my life! Even Princess Celestia didn't show that much at the Summer Sun Celebration!” “She’s just...better at controlling it,” Sunset informed her in an unsure tone. The explanation did nothing to stop the assault of questions coming from the lavender unicorn, if she even heard them. “And how did you do that with your mane? It was just like-” “Twilight,” Sunset grumbled before reaching up to her head, but stopped herself from making the pain worse with her hooves. When Sunset looked back down at the lavender unicorn, Twilight was attentively gazing up at her with a look of almost worshipful attention. “You guys got something for a headache?” The filly began to gallop off before she began to speak. “I’ll get you something right away Princess!” As soon as Twilight disappeared from her sight, Sunset turned around and…blinked at the two other ponies just staring at her in states of shock. After closing Shiny’s mouth with her hoof, the amber alicorn let out another little groan and slumped down both from the exhaustion of using so much magic and the weight of what she had done. “Yeah, I know that was a stupid idea. No need to tell me. I…need to go lie down for a few. Wake me when the guys get here.” It took Cadance a full minute to move after Sunset jumped onto the couch and snuggled up to one of the larger pillows. Any other time she probably would have made a comment about how cute the normally abrasive alicorn was to needle her just a little and help relieve some of the feelings in her own heart that just needed to be said, but the pink princess thought it better to let sleeping gods lie. “That was um...that...uh...yeah, that…” Cadance nodded with Shining Armor in agreement. “I know,” she said before glancing down at the unicorn’s trembling hooves. Although she could understand his awe of Sunset’s power, that little sign of fear made Cadance frown. Sure, the pink princess had slid back into such a reaction when it came to Sunset plenty of times, but Shining Armor had never known her as a bully. So the other half of Shiny’s reaction killed some of the sympathy she felt for the colt. “Alright now, come on. We’ve got to finish setting things up.” When Shining Armor didn’t move, Cadance let out a tiny sigh and reached out to put a comforting wing across his back, then moved it more towards his rear to start guiding the other pony towards the kitchen. Thankfully, Shiny did what he was supposed to do and grabbed the food in his magic despite what Cadance could only call a shell shocked expression still being in place on his face. After getting him down into the basement and setting down the food, Cadance let out a little sigh and looked over to the other pony. “Oh come on, was it really that surprising?” “Yes!” Shining Armor exclaimed as his spun and met Cadance eye to eye. “That was just-I mean, I knew you alicorns were powerful, but...that was, I thought Sunset had already shown everything she could do she the two of you had that argument! But that was nothing compared to-” Cadance put a hoof on Shiny’s mouth to stop him from talking. “Okay, yes. What Sunset just did was kinda...unnerving,” the pink princess admitted to Shining Armor while forcing herself to keep a steady tone. If Sunset had shown that kind of power two weeks ago right or after Cadance had gotten her horn and learned to sense magic, even Princess Celestia wouldn’t have been able to coax Cadance out from underneath her bed. “But let's be honest. Does what you just saw change anything other than the fact Sunset can use even more magic than you thought she could before?” “Well...um...no,” Shiny admitted, albeit reluctantly. Cadance nodded. “Good. Now, you finish setting things up. I’ll go pull Twilight away from Sunset so she can get some rest.” After seeing the way that little filly had looked at the bigger alicorn, Cadance knew she’d be wanting to talk Sunset’s head off. Or make her go off, Cadance thought to herself with a bit of dread. While Sunset had improved, she still had one hay of a temper when pushed to the limit. The thought made Cadance go up the stares that much quicker. By the time she got back to the living room, Cadance saw that her worries were already beginning to come true. Sunset was laying on the couch with her face towards the back of the cushy seat while Twilight, completely misreading the mood, sounded like she was in the middle of a barrage of questions. “-and how do you do that with your mane? It looked just like-” “Twilight,” Cadance said to the excited filly loud enough to get her to stop talking, but hopefully soft enough to keep from making Sunset’s headache worse. “Do you have everything you need to start the game?” The lavender unicorn stopped talking and turned around to look up at Cadance. “Well...no. You and Princess Sunset showed up early and I got knocked off schedule.” Seeing Twilight with an almost guilty expression made Cadance soften her tone. “Alright then Twilight. How about you go and get ready, okay?” Although it was obvious from her body language she didn’t want to, Twilight nodded and turned to leave. “Okay.” Once the filly was out of sight, Cadance looked back down to Sunset after hearing the amber alicorn groan. “Are you okay?” “Well, my head is pounding and every part of my body hurts. Plus, my stomach won't stop doing backflips,” Sunset replied in a pitiful voice. “Remind me to never do anything like that again.” After giving Sunset a few words of reassurance and using a wing to rub her back in a comforting way, Cadance’s curiosity got the better of her. “Uh, Sunset...just what happened back there?” Cadance felt Sunset tense under her touch. “I...messed up,” she replied in a depressed whisper as she continued to face the back of the couch where Cadance couldn’t see her face. “What do you mean?” The pink princess asked cautiously. Although part of her wanted to leave it at that and ignore the amount of magic Sunset set had been giving off, she couldn’t bring herself to just let it go. “And for that matter, what was up with all that power? You’re strong Sunset, but that was….” Terrifying. “...something else.” The question made Sunset draw in on herself. “It...Cadance, remember how I told you about stealing magic from a bunch of my friends back on Earth?” Cadance winced at the mention of the other world. Whenever Sunset brought it up, she usually slipped into a minor depression. “Yes.” “That was it.” After letting that bit of information run through her mind for a moment, Cadance frown in confusion. “But, I don’t understand. I thought you said their magic is the reason you turned into an alicorn and why you're so powerful.” “It is,” Sunset replied. Cadance frowned at Sunset. “But you never showed anywhere near that amount of magic before.” There were a few seconds of silence before Sunset set let out a loud sigh. “That’s because...well, it's mostly...sealed away.” “Mostly?” Cadance asked. Once again, Sunset set took a few seconds before answering. “Yeah,” she replied before volunteering some more information after a brief pause. “Normally, I just access a tiny bit of that power. But this time…” “You used all of it,” Cadance finished for her. “Well, more like a fourth of it, but yeah,” Sunset replied. A...fourth, Cadance thought as she worked to wrap her mind around what the goddess in front of her just said. “Well, that’s...um…” “Stupid,” Sunset said before Cadance could come up with something nice to say. “It was really stupid. I overtaxed my magic pathways and put all of you in danger just so I could show off. Not to mention how I twisted that magic and used it for a purpose it was never meant for.” Seeing her best friend slip deeper down into her pity party, Cadance steeled herself and stepped forward to give Sunset a hug. “Stop it,” the pink princess gently commanded. “If you made a mistake, then the best thing to do is not repeat it. You are a wonderful pony Sunset. I'm not going to let you beat yourself up for something like this when all you did was break some stupid magical rule I don't even understand.” Sunset moved to pull away from Cadance. “But-” The pink princess rolled Sunset onto her back, which had the unfortunate side effect of making her fall off the couch. Cadance ignored that as she moved to stand directly over Sunset and glared down at the amber alicorn. “Okay fine, you want to be like this, we’ll do it this way then,” Cadance told her in an assertive tone. “Since I'm the only real alicorn princess in the room, that means you do what I say, when I say it. And I am bucking ordering you to stop feeling sorry for yourself! You are a good pony, a wonderful friend, and as of two minutes ago, the most amazing magic user in all of Equestria! So you are going to get back on that couch. You are going to have a good rest. And when it comes game time, you are going to come downstairs and show everypony else how amazing you are, got it?” Sunset looked up at Cadance with wide eyes, and gulped. “Y-Yes ma’am.” Although she lay on the couch for the better part of an hour after Shiny’s friends came over and everypony got everything set up, Sunset didn’t get much rest. While the pills Twilight provided took care of her headache and Sunset’s earth pony magic handled the majority of her exhaustion, Sunset couldn’t clear her mind of distracting thoughts. The guilt Sunset had been feeling was easy enough to deal with. She had long since found a way to make it annoying feeling in the back of her mind that only caused a constant mild discomfort but allowed her to continue to function while wearing a mask of serenity like Celestia had taught her. However, Celestia had never given Sunset instructions on how to ignore thoughts about the most beautiful pony alive getting right in her face and acting hotter than she ever had before. While Sunset had gone much further with Cadance in her dreams, the dream construct of the pink princess had been little more than a submissive wet dream, encouraging Sunset to do things the amber alicorn wouldn’t have asked her best friend to go through with since leaving Equestria. In contrast, the real Cadance had acted...hot. And not for the first time, either. Whereas Sunset’s memories of the Cadance from the previous timeline had been that of a milksop that didn’t deserve the horn that been added or the title to go with it, the Cadance she had gotten to know in the past two weeks was a very different pony. While the pink princess was soft on the outside and projected a gentle nature, it hid a will as hard as steel that Sunset couldn’t help but respect and admire. If the two of them really did end up having sex, Sunset knew that Cadance would be giving as good as she got. Which actually excited her even more than a Cadance that would present herself on command and do even the trickiest of things. Although...if Cadance was both enthusiastic and willing to do the more out there acts… Sunset’s body shivered in pleasure at just considering the possibilities. So, while Sunset’s mind was preoccupied with considering just how a night of passion with Cadance would go, she didn’t notice the other pony until she felt a hoof touch her shoulder. “Princess Sunset? We’re um...ready to start now.” The amber alicorn turned her head and blinked as she found Shining Armor standing behind her. The sudden appearance of the white unicorn came along with a guilty realization. Just moments ago, she had been kissing Shining Armor like he was her personal riding pony, and minutes later, the amber alicorn had switched to fantasizing about Cadance like what she and the stallion shared was nothing. “Oh, Shiny. Um… g-give me a second,” Sunset told him before taking a deep breath and doing her best to clear her head. The last thing she needed was to go downstairs with thoughts of Cadance being sexy on her mind. “Princess...about earlier….” Dammit, not now, Sunset thought to herself. But, since she didn’t want to just blow him off, the amber alicorn forced herself to remain steady. “Yes Shiny?” “I…I really do like you.” Sunset took a deep breath. “And Cadance?” she asked while her mind swirled with a mix of worry and possible feelings on top of heartache. “The two of you did kiss. And let's be honest Shiny, she’s got a lot more than that going for her when it comes to relationships. You two would be great together.” “I...I know.” Before Shining Armor could continue, Sunset rolled around to force him back as she stood up. “Look, let's just put that on hold for now, okay?” she asked as she looked down at him. “This really isn’t the time for relationship drama.” A strangely confused look on Shiny’s face as she looked up at the taller pony disappeared as he nodded. “Okay,” he agreed before leveling off his gaze and looked forward at Sunset’s throat. “That’s...yeah. That’s a good idea.” Thankful he agreed, because Sunset doubted she could stop him if Shiny pressed the issue, the amber alicorn trotted past her little unicorn and headed towards the basement while considering just how in the hell she was supposed to deal with this. You’ve got one week left, Sunset told herself. You have got to get the two of them together! She forced herself to conjure an image of Shining Armor and Cadance making out. This time, the idea of Shiny with the pink pony didn’t ignite the possessive feelings that it had before when she had her tongue down the young stallion’s throat. Instead, it just made Sunset depressed. The thought of the two of them going out to dinner got a similar response. It did make Sunset jealous. But not in the way that made her want to bash Cadance over the head. All she could do was feel bad about not being there. Then came the next mental image in the natural progression. In Sunset’s mind, Cadance lay on Shiny's bed with her tail raised before the white unicorn came up from behind and reared up before mounting the pink princess and… Oh...oh, that’s… hot, Sunset thought as she continued to imagine Shining Armor and Cadance having sex. The amber alicorn gulped as the scene continued to play on in her head, making her heart...heated. But not in the vengeful way. Unlike before, there was no feeling of loss or jealousy. If anything, imagining the two of them together in such a way just made Sunset want to see it happen in real life. And after getting Cadance to neigh in climax while the sweat from the effort made Shining Armor’s coat glisten in a way it could only in her head, the reality of the situation crashed into Sunset and brought her to a dead stop at the bottom of the stairs. Oh, pony! the amber alicorn thought with wide eyes as she realized what was going on. I’m a fucking voyeur. “Princess Sunset?” A shiver of terror ran through Sunset’s mind at the mention of her name and she looked forward to see the rest of the nerd herd along with the little purple pony giving her odd looks. “Yes?” The amber alicorn asked while a dreaded thought ran through her mind. Oh buck, don’t tell me I said that last part out loud. “Did...you do something different with your mane?” Gaffer asked cautiously. Huh? Years of lying to humans at the drop of a hat gave Sunset more than what she needed to keep the confusion from sowing on her face. “Uh...no,” she said before trotting over to the table. She looked over to where Twilight was fixing to sit down, and then to the empty space beside it. “What brought that on?” Gaffer gave out a nervous chuckle. “I dunno, you just look a little different is all,” he said. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.” “Princess, come sit here!” the lavender unicorn called out. Obeying Twilight’s command, Sunset trotted forward, and blinked when she found Cadance moving for the same spot. “Oh, Cadance! Did you want to sit...here?” she managed to ask as the pink princess went through the motions of examining the amber alicorn with a little frown on her face. “What is it?” The question startled Cadance out of her inspection. “Nothing, it’s just...never mind,” Cadance replied before she shook of the confusion. “Sorry, thought Twily was asking me.” “What?” Twilight cried out in alarm as her head swerved back and forth between the two princess. “I’m sorry Princess Cadance. Do you want to sit by me too? Um, that’s...uh-I-um…” Sunset sighed at Twilight’s panic and stepped forward. “How about this?” she said before grabbing Twilight up in her magic and sitting down at the table where the filly’s stuff was. Then Sunset levitated Twilight into her lap and wrapped her pony-arms around the filly. “Cadance on the left, Shiny on the right. How’s that Twily?” In response, the little unicorn leaned in and nuzzled Sunset’s chest. “Perfect!” Twilight said before she apparently recalled something and gave a start before looking up at the biggest pony in the room. “Princess Sunset, can you come with me and Shiny later today to watch Solar Battles? I know you saw it the other night, but…” Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry Twilight. But there’s an errand I have to run when we’re done here,” she said. “So you...can’t go watch the replay with me and Shiny, then?” the little purple unicorn asked before her head drooped down. As the personification of adorableness on four legs finished plunging her dagger of guilt into Sunset’s heart, the amber alicorn closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry Twilight, but there’s something I need to do later today.” Twilight let out a disappointed sigh. “Okay.” “Okay everypony, get your character information out and hold it up to be scanned,” Gaffer announced. “Today, we’re finally going to be raiding the Tower of Misery.” When the feeling of vertigo from being forced into a realized dreamstate subsided, Sunset opened her eyes to see the scenery around her had greatly improved. Not the surrounding area. That had changed from Shining Armor’s homey basement to a desolate wasteland of red sand and sparse vegetation that had had a rather menacing black tower rising in the distance. What had changed was the company. They were still the same ponies, but...older, and they looked as if they had done something other than sit around and read books all their life. Poindexter had changed the least, but that wasn’t much of a shock since bards weren’t all that physical according to the instruction book. Eight-Bit looked to be some kind of ranger or woodsmare class with his bow and green tunic. As for Shining Armor… Oh sweet Celestia, Sunset thought to herself as she focused on the pony in the golden armor, and gulped to keep her tongue from escaping her mouth. “Sunset?” Cadance had said Shiny was going to grow up to be a total hottie, and if he ended up being half as attractive as his paladin fantasy-self standing in front of Sunset, the amber alicorn was pretty sure she wouldn’t be leaving Equestria. The unicorn in front of her was still a bit shorter than Sunset, but not nearly as much as Shiny normally was. On top of which, his physique definitely put him in the beefcake category. And while the royal guards had never done much for her, seeing Shiny in his golden armor made Sunset finally understand why so many ponies said mares love a stallion in uniform. Plus, it did nothing at all to cover his rear. Which meant Sunset would be getting a full, unobstructed few of Shiny's deliciously fit flanks all the way to their destination. “PRINCESS SUNSET!” The sound of her name made the amber alicorn jump to attention, only to see Shining Armor giving her a worried look. “What?” Shiny looked her up and down. “Uh, aren’t you supposed to look...different?” he asked with a hint of caution in his voice. Then the other two dorks joined in. “I thought your character was suppose to have an archmagus robe.” “And aren’t you supposed to be...um...leaner?” Shining Armor looked up to the sky. “Hey Gaffer, what’s going on? Did Sunset’s character not load right again?” Yeah...there seems to be a problem with that. “Which is?” Sunset asked as she felt a bit of annoyance. If something happened to ruin this game for Twilight, she was going to smash that stupid tablet. Well, um...you see...since this is a fantasy game, it won't let you play a character that’s not as powerful as you are in real life. So the game made a character that’s as equal to what Sunset is in real life, or as close to it as it could using the game rules, anyway. Shining Armor blinked, then frowned in confusion. “But...Sunset’s character’s a level twenty sorceress!” ...Yeah... Curiosity getting the best of her, Sunset concentrated for a minute and brought up the character ‘options menu’ to view her character information. Name: Sunset Shimmer Race: Deity Path: Arch Mage (10th tier) Class: Sorceress (20), Mage (20), Arcanist (20), Mind Blade (20), Fighter (10) Str: Incalculable Int: 30 Dex: 24 Con: Incalculable Wis: 16 Cha: 14 Sunset shut down the character screen and looked up while keeping her mask of calm. Internally, she was a mix of confusion and worry. Incalculable? What the buck does that mean? Nothing’s incalculable. Although, she had to wonder how much of it was right. Not an hour before, Sunset had used the magic within her to do what should have been impossible with sheer force. There had been no magical work around, no ingenious mystical formula, Sunset had simply brute forced her way through a law of magic. Not to mention that she had fallen from Canterlot without suffering even a slight bruise, and when Celestia had made the amber alicorn take all of those tests afterwards… “Alright, Prin-ahem, Lady Shimmer,” the earth pony doctor said as he caught himself before making the same mistake as the other tribal specialists, then nodded to the large punching machine beside the two of them. “If you would just kick this with your rear right hoof, please.” Sunset rolled her eyes and turned around to raise her leg while doing her best to hold down her annoyance. She had fallen and caused out of control winds, she didn't need to be looked at by an earth pony. Still, she did as instructed and threw her hind leg back until it struck the padded surface. The sound of metal crying out in pain filled Sunset's ears and when she looked back behind her, she blinked as the mess of ruined metal that had been the strength measuring machine crashed into the wall. Sunset pulled herself out of the memory and did her best not to shudder. The real worrisome thing was that she hadn’t even been kicking it seriously when she completely ruined a machine designed to take punishment from a hard working earth pony. “Princess?” Shining Armor asked. “Is everything okay?” After taking another breath, Sunset nodded. “Yeah I'm good,” she said. The amber alicorn looked down at her hooves and with the utmost caution and took an even more gentle step than she did while walking around Canterlot. When the planet didn’t shatter into a million pieces, Sunset let out a relieved sigh, and trotted forward. “Now come on and let's get going.” It only took ten minutes to reach what Gaffer had dubbed The Tower of Misery, despite the fact that the trip was supposed to take much longer. While walking, Sunset got a crash course on how the game was supposed to make a bunch of nerds who knew nothing about high-level magic or combat into adventurers between getting glances at Shining Armor's butt. All the commands were verbal, meaning that each spell or move had to be called out beforehand, and the game would take care of the rest. Which made sense, considering some of the abilities Sunset possessed would have been too much of a pain to use in real life, like her psi-swords. Because while she could use a physical force manifestation that was the basis for shield spells and mold it into a sharp blade, it would take several minutes to craft while a simple force blast powerful enough to incapacitate anything short of a T-Rex could be fired in a second. When the party reached the tower, Sunset raised an eyebrow at the shattered remains of bipedal statues that littered the ground. From the looks of the debris, there had to have been at least six of the things. “Did somepony start without us?” “Hey, no OOC moments,” Poindexter complained before clearing his throat and stepping forward past Sunset. “Destroyed guardian golems? Have we been beaten to the treasures within?” A second later, 'Shining Justice' came up and joined him. “Neigh my friend. The entrance has yet to be breached,” he said before looking around, and then up. “Look! Newcomers approach.” Following Shiny’s lead, Sunset glanced up at the sky and had to squint when the sun caught her eye. Still, she made out the form of two ponies descending from the sky. Although it wasn’t until they landed that Sunset got a good look at the two alicorns. Which they were. Cadance looked like she had stopped on the way to the tower to spend six months at a gym. While still insanely hot, it was an athletic hot. The pink pony had a slender but toned body that looked like it belonged more on a Wonderbolt than a princess while two pairs of extra heavy horse shoes with spikes covered her hooves. It really showed the twenty points that had been put into her STR stat. As for Twilight, she had definitely changed the most. Although Sunset had known she would get an adult’s body once inside the game, she hadn’t been expecting it to be so...adult. It looked like Twilight had used Celestia for a model, because the purple alicorn stood six feet tall, with her horn putting her over seven. On top of which, the pseudo-corn was filled out in all the right places, with an extra few inches in the rear to give her plenty of cushioning for when it came time to sit down. Oh...oh fuck, Sunset thought to herself as she looked at the voluptuous supermodel that Twilight had become. If it wasn’t for the fact the amber alicorn could absently feel the little cutie’s sleeping body in her arms back in the real world, she might have… “Dude, your little sister is bucking hot,” Eight-Bit said before Shiny smacked him upside the head. Then the fake paladin moved forward and cleared his throat. “Greetings fair ladies, I am Shining Justice, and these are my companions, Green Arrow, Master Minstrel, and Princess Glorious Morning. Who might you be?” Twilight raised a hoof. “Uh, wait a second. Shouldn’t Princess Sunset look...different?” she asked. “Don’t ask,” said princess replied with a little frown. The two mares shared a look of uncertainty before Cadance stepped forward. “Hello Shining,” the athletic alicorn replied. “I am the leader of the Legion of Valorous Equines, Hot Pink, and this is my protege, the arcanus Purple Smart. We came here after hearing the pony War Lock used this tower as his base of operations.” Sunset had to fight to hold in the groan. Seriously? A second after Cadance finished talking, Twilight stepped forward. “We attempted to find a way inside, but there doesn’t seem to be an entrance.” The non-problem got a snort from Sunset. “Then you make one,” she said before trotting towards the tower. Sunset got three steps before Twilight cried out in alarm. “Princess look out!” And Sunset found her vision obscured by a wall of purple before both of them tumbled over onto the ground. A second later, a bolt of evil magic impacted the area where Sunset had been standing. Then, some of the black metal that composed the tower folded in on itself to reveal a door, and a dull tan pony in a raggedy brown robe with a long bread and one eye that was nothing but white stepped out. “Hold!” the old pony said. “Hold adventurers! Only the worthy may enter the Tower of Misery!” A second later, Sunset felt the weight come off of her as Twilight scrambled to get off of the smaller fake alicorn. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry Princess! I didn’t mean to! It’s just that these legs are so long, I tripped over myself! Please don’t banish me from Equestria!” The amber alicorn and looked up at Twilight in bewilderment. It was more than a little odd to see the more-than-adult alicorn acting like… “I don’t know what to do,” the human teenager said to herself as her finds fought amongst themselves and Sunset looked on, watching as the magic within them was slowly pulled up to where the Sirens were singing. “How could I not know what to do?” Sunset let out a little sigh, and smiled at the oversized foal before reaching up to put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she said in a calming voice, channeling as much as her mother’s presence as she could before she took a second to give Twilight another examination with her eyes. “Uh...what’s up with the height, anyway?” “Oh, well...um,” Twilight replied as she sank in on herself, becoming more and more nervous by the second. “W-Well, I always wanted to be just like Princess Celestia-not that you’re not just as amazing, Princess Sunset! And you’re taller than a normal pony too! In fact, you’ll probably just as tall as Princess Celestia in a few more years!” The prospect didn’t sit well with Sunset. “Actually Twilight, the little boost of height I got after turning into an alicorn is all I’m gonna get.” Twilight’s face scrunched up in her usual way when she ran into something confusing, but Sunset didn’t think it was half as cute on the fake adult’s face. “But, today you g-” “Twilight,” Sunset said before the foal in the adult’s body could get them even more off track. “Your height. I’m pretty sure six feet falls outside the normal parameters.” With the filly being reminded about their original topic, Twilight blinked and took a second to begin talking again. “Well, I decided that I’d make a unification unicorn with the pegasus and antean bloodlines.” The odd name made Sunset frown as it blew the cobwebs off some of her earlier memories. When she had been a filly, the little unicorn had asked her adoptive mother why she was so tall. Celestia had just giggled and told the gullible child that her father had been an antean. As that was all the answer Celestial give, Sunset had to spend two days in the library reaching old legends as well as information regarding the validity of such tales. Although she had found plenty of foal fables about the race of giant ponies that acted like everyone’s big brother, all the factual evidence Sunset found said such a species never existed. She also took it as a lesson that not everything Celestia said should be believed. So when Sunset asked the old nag why her mane sparkled and blew around the way it did, she just rolled her eyes after Celestia claimed her aunt was a ghost pony. “So how come you didn’t go for the spectral tribe and get the mane as well?” Sunset asked the oversized foal. Twilight looked down and poked the ground with her hoof. “Well I would have, but you can only have two extra traits,” she said before barely raising her head just a bit and giving Sunset a cautious look. “You’re not mad, are you Princess? I-I would have chosen earth pony, but they’re just so useless!” “Hey!” Poindexter whined as he stood between his two friends. “Earth ponies are vital to the survival of the equine species! We grow all the food, and we’re the best at preparing it too!” Shining Armor got a confused frown on his face halfway through Poindexter's defense of his tribe. “But...You don’t do either of those things.” “HEY!” the elderly pony standing at the entrance to the tower shouted. “Are you going to take the test of worthiness, or not?” Huh...I forgot he was there, Sunset thought to herself before she came up with a much more agreeable response. “Yeah well, I really think that nipping Twilight’s tribalism in the bud is more important than dealing with a pony that’s just going to stand there and wait until we’re done.” “How is saying earth ponies add nothing useful to an alicorn's abilities tribalist?” Twilight asked in a voice that sounded much too innocent. Sunset sighed and reached up to rub her forehead. “Because it’s not true Twilight. Me having some earth poniness in me is what makes me so strong.” “But your deity level magic more than dwarfs that incentive,” Twilight pointed out. “Plus, with all the seismic activity you cause, I think the supernatural strength is more detrimental than it is positive.” With the adult filly countering her argument so easily, Sunset found herself floundering. “Okay, but there’s also an earth pony’s...Um...Uh…” Unable to come up with anything else, Sunset looked over to the evil NPC that was still waiting on them. “Look, we should probably get going so….yeah. Bring on those worthiness tests!” The entry villain blinked. “Uh...Okay,” he said before clearing his throat and standing up a little straighter. “Very well! Bring forth the first to be tested in the trial of questions?” Sunset nodded before calling up her magic. There was an odd feeling in the back of her mind that made her think, natural telekinesis spell, before Poindexter was lifted into the air and flung forward to meet the NPC . “This one's your's nerd.” With her luck, Gaffer had programed the thing with stupid trivia that Sunset had long since forgotten or just never bothered learning. Plus, she needed to see an earth pony that didn’t shove her big brother’s head in a toilet get a little glory if their previous conversation was any indication. After the earth pony musician landed in front of the NPC on his stomach, Poindexter stood up and brushed himself off. “Okay, hit me,” the nerd said. With was then followed by a wide-eyed expression of terror. “Which is just an expression indicating my desire to be asked a question, not a request for actual violence!” Either unaware of the pony’s unease or just uncaring, the old stallion spoke again. “What is your...favorite color?” Sunset blinked at the absurdity of the question. Are you kidding me? In front of her, she watched the earth pony get a little nervous. “It’s um... mulberry.” “What is your quest?” “To defeat the evil unicorn War Lock.” “What is the number between one and three?” Poindexter cocked his head to the side. “Two?” The NPC snorted and stepped aside. “You may pass,” he said before looking to the others “Now, who shall be the next to attempt my trial?” Sunset rolled her eyes. “I can see where this is going,” she said before stepping forward to within a foot of the NPC. “Okay, let's get this over with.” “What is your-” was all the pony managed to say before Sunset struck him in the face with her hoof from the side and sent the old pony flying off into the distance and beyond their sight. With that obstacle out of the way, Sunset turned around and smiled at Twilight. “See Twilight? If I had used my horn, then he would of seen the attack coming. Earth pony power. Now let's get going.” Eight-Bit cleared is throat. “Um Princess, I don’t think we were supposed to do things that way.” “Yeah well, royalty makes its own rules,” Sunset replied before she trotted forward into the tower. The interior to the Tower of Misery looked about as evil bad guy bland as the outside. A long hallway of black stone that went on for far too long to be housed in the tower they had just entered led them to a room that was barren of any furniture aside from the torches on the wall. Aside from that, the only other thing Sunset found worthy of note was the three alcoves, one on each wall, with a strange symbol drawn in the middle of each one. “What’re those supposed to-” (Arcane knowledge check succeeded) Sunset blinked as a text box appeared above the symbols, explaining what they did. “Oh, so they’re teleportation circles.” All of a sudden, a dark mist creeped up from the center of the room to coalesce into the shape of a familiar looking elderly pony. “Hold adventurers!” The specter spoke as he floated in midair. “Uh, didn’t I just kill you?” Sunset asked. The ghost turned to glare at Sunset. “Something as simple as death can not stop a guardian from fulfilling his appointed duty!” From her place between Sunset and Twilight, Cadance sat down to knock her hooves together in a showing of an idea coming to light. “Oh! So you’re like some kind of NPC guide for the players then?” Cadance asked. When the ghost just gave them a look of confusion, Twilight leaned down to whisper in the pink alicorn’s ear. “Princess Cadance, no OOC!” “I am the-” was all the ghost said as Sunset pulled up her character information sheet and scanned through her extremely long list of spells and abilities. Although she did hear him mention that each teleportation circle would only take two ponies. When she found the feat she was looking for, Sunset conjured a pair of force weapons. “But be warned! For War Lock is ready to summon the-GAaaah!” The ghost screamed as Sunset plunged her force sword into his chest, and then silenced the dead creature by swinging the battle-axe she had created from pure magic to chop off its head. “Princess Sunset!” Eight-Bit said as the ghost faded from view. “What was that for?” The amber alicorn looked back to the pegasus. “What? That was completely in character.” Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “How is destroying the helpful ghost in character?” “What are you talking about? That was the ghost of a guy who controlled the evil security system that nearly zapped me. If anything, he was trying to make us walk into a trap,” Sunset said before she stood up a little taller. “So, I just saved our lives.” When none of the ponies brought an objection to her point and only looked around at each other nervously, it was Cadance who broke the silence. “Okay, but now what do we do? It’s not like we have a lot of options here, Sunset.” The amber alicorn rolled her eyes. “We blast through the ceiling and skip straight to the top floor,” she explained. “Probably even take out the bad guy in the process, if not disrupt his summoning circle.” Twilight began poking the ground with her hoof. “Um, t-that’s a good plan Princess, but...Um, well…” Sunset sighed before she looked over to the big purple pony. “You want to go into a teleportation circle and have an adventure together?” After taking another second to look at the ground, Twilight looked back to Sunset with a hopeful look in her eyes and nodded. “Great!” Cadance exclaimed. “So you Twilight and Shiny-” Seeing where this was going, Sunset quickly activated her telekinetic abilities and grabbed both Cadance and Shining Armor in her magic. “No, it’d be better if we split things up evenly,” Sunset said. Then, before Cadance could object or say she was going with anyone except the white unicorn, Sunset sent them over to the teleporter on the left. “Have fun you two!” With Cadance and Shiny shipped off to who knew where, Sunset turned to Twilight and smiled. “Okay Twily, you ready for an adventure?” The powerful blood arcanist Purple Smart stumbled forward as the teleportation circle deposited her in a hallway so dark she couldn’t even see the end of her muzzle. “Activate Light spell,” she cried out loud enough for her voice to reverberate through the dark halls. Her magic obeyed her command and sent ancient arcane magics through her horn to creating a soft glow of equal color to her name. With the new light, she saw that the place that she and the amazing Princess… Princess... “Uh, Princess Sunset? What’s your character’s name again?” Sunset stopped frowning at her own horn, then looked over to Twilight with a blank expression for several seconds before she replied. “Well I was supposed to be called Glorious Morning,” she said before looking back to her horn and frowning. “But my character didn’t want to load and now I can’t get my magic to work. Stupid horn.” “Princess?” Twilight spoke up again. “You need to say the command phrase. So if you’re trying to get your horn to glow, it’s activate light spell.” A second later, Princess Sunset said the phrase, and was rewarded with a soft blue glow coming from her horn. Then she looked around and frowned. “So, what? It’s a straight path down a dark corridor. This just screams trap.” Seeing that Princess Glorious Morning was a little worried despite Purple’s presence, the mistress of arcane arts stepped forward to place herself between the amber alicorn and whatever danger awaited them. “Don’t worry Princess Morning! I’ll protect you from whatever villains are hiding in the darkness!” “Um...Twilight?” Sunset asked as she ducked under the (currently) bigger pony’s wing to trot to the front, shattering the mindset the big purple pony had. “Yes Princess Sunset?” Twilight replied. “Is that how you want to play this?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?” To which Sunset paused for a moment before replying. “If you want to, we can be Princess Morning and, uh...Purple Smart, and go explore this dungeon like you and Cadance did at your house when I was pretending to be a dragon,” she offered. “Or we can be Sunset Shimmer, and her friend Twilight Sparkle, who haven’t been able to spend time together because Sunset’s had a real busy schedule.” “Hmmm,” Twilight hmmed before she sat down and tapped her chin in thought. After a few seconds, the choice became obvious. “Let’s be Princess Sunset and Twilight!” Sunset smiled back as she looked up at the bigger alicorn. “Okay Twily, now follow me.” A minute of walking brought the two alicorns to a large empty chamber that extended on all sides beyond what the light of their horns provided. With a big empty chamber just screaming at her that there was some kind of big trap in the center of the room that Sunset couldn’t see, the amber alicorn turned and plotted a course around it. As Sunset led them along the right wall to see what she could make of the place, the amber alicorn occasionally looked back and up towards her companion before breaking the silence. “So Twilight, do you play this game with your brother often?” “Not really,” she replied. “I mostly just like reading the source books and memorizing the bestiaries.” Sunset frowned and stopped her half-hearted inspection to look back at Twilight. “Wait, he doesn’t play with you?” The question made Twilight’s eyes widen for a second before she fell back on her plot and held up her hooves to wave them around in front of her wildly while oddly enough, her fake wings stayed down. “Nonononono! Shiny’s a great brother,” she said before becoming a little sad and looking away. “It’s just...he is nearly ten years older than me, and a colt. But he still helps me out lots! He taught me how to fly a kite and-” Sunset held up her own hooves and let out a little laugh at Twilight’s panic. “Okay, okay I surrender and admit that Shining Armor is the best big brother a little sister could ever ask for,” she said before turning back around and put more of her attention on following the wall as it turned. “Princess, what’s that?” The question made Sunset stop and look back to Twilight, then to the floor ahead where she was pointing. Up ahead, there was a series of tiles with lettering on them, extending out into the darkness. She had seen the gimmick enough in human movies to know where this was going. “Oh, it’s one of those puzzles where you have to step on the right panels to get through. There’s probably some sort of trap or spell that will trigger if we don’t hit the correct sequence.” Twilight’s expression became worried as she walked up to the edge of the lettered floor. “But, without being able to see all of the letters, how can we figure out which panels are safe and which ones will set off the trap? This isn’t fair! How can we figure out the solution when half of the problem can’t even be seen?” “Uh...Twilight?” Sunset said to get the overgrown foal’s attention before she extended her wings. “We can fly.” Red colored Twilight’s cheeks as she looked over to the side of her own body, and then tentatively extended her own wings. “Oh...um...right.” Cadance frowned at the looming darkness stretched out to keep them from seeing any further than a few feet despite the fact she had a light spell centered on the point of her horn that gave everything a blueish color. Then she turned her head towards her partner as he got to his feet and sighed. “Really should have seen this one backfiring on me,” she grumbled before letting out a sigh. In hindsight, it was disturbingly obvious. With Twilight coming along, Sunset would have done everything possible to pair up with the not so little filly. Even if Shiny had gone along with them, the chances of romance blossoming any further was slim to none thanks to the presence of the little sister. As she watched Shining Armor get to his hooves, doubt clawed its way up from the back of Cadance’s mind. Even though she knew the two of them would be great together… Am I trying too hard with this? Cadance asked herself. When she worked on getting a couple together in the past, the pink princess would set up a ‘chance’ meeting that had a few things happen in their favor as if by magic, and the next thing she knew, they were getting hitched. But with Shining Armor and Sunset, Cadance was getting so deeply involved that she had ended up being a relationship option when it came to both of the ponies in question. “Saw what, Princess?” Shining asked as he got up. Cadance stiffened at the question. She thought about just telling him to ignore it, but...Shiny deserved an explanation. “I’m sorry Shining Armor,” the pink princess replied. “I had planned for you and Sunset to get separated from the rest of the group. Then, a combination of adrenaline brought on by life-threatening danger and your really hot paladin body would have had the two of you kissing by the end of the adventure at the least. That would have stirred up and focused your passion for each other, which is all over the place right now thanks to me.” With the explanation done, Shining Armor blinked as he clearly took a second to process the information. Which made him seem all that more adorable thanks to his new body and its defined muscles. “Oh,” he said before stepping forward. “Um...are you...okay?” The question made Cadance snort out her displeasure. “Yes, I’m trapped with my best friend’s love interest, whom Sunset is now trying to push onto me, despite the fact I bucking know she has the hots for you! I’m just miserably failing the thing my entire life is supposed to revolve around! WHY WOULDN’T I BE FINE?” she demanded...before blinking at how close Shiny’s muzzle was to hers. Which in turn made Cadance back away. “S-Sorry.” Instead of getting angry, Shiny showed why he was the perfect stallion for ponies like Sunset by just just giving her a smile. “It’s fine. You are a bloodrager after all.” Cadance blinked at the reply. It almost sounded like Shiny thought the game was messing with her head. Which...Cadance couldn’t completely dismiss. They were dealing with some kind of dream realm magic after all. The pink princess had experienced plenty of dreams in which she did things she never would have done in real life and did them as if they were natural. “Right,” Cadance replied cautiously before she filed her worries away for later to focus on the here and now. They were in a dark hallway that had a strange mural carved into both of the walls that made little sense. Various diamond dogs were depicted with a variety of weapons as if they were some kind of army soldier, but the carvings only showed one of the creatures each time, not several rows of them matching in a formation that stretched out into the distance to give a real show of numbers. Still, Cadance had to admire the complexity of what she was seeing. If they had been playing on a tabletop, the scene before her probably wouldn’t have gotten but a sentence or two. But in the dream, the things in front of her were wonderful crafted pieces of art. She stopped to look at one of the carvings...and let out a startled shriek when it suddenly turned its head to look at her. “Shining! That diamond dog, it just moved!” Cadance cried out in surprise as she quickly got a little closer to her companion. As she scraping of rock alerted her to more movement, Cadance looked around to see several of the creatures pulling themselves out of the walls. Although, unlike real diamond dogs, the ones in front of her looked to actually be made of stone. “Yeah,” Shining Armor said as he unlatched his warhammer and held it up in his magic. “It’s the old hide the artistic golem in the wall trick. I’ll deal with the ones in front of us, you take the ones that come from behind.” Cadance looked back at the monsters emerging from the way they came with worry. “Wait a second. My character has spells. I’m a caster class. Doesn’t that mean I’m supposed to stand behind and support you?” “No, you’re a hybrid class,” Shiny told her with a little heat in his voice. “Didn’t you read the description of your character when you made her?” “Of course I did!” Cadance replied. “Bloodragers are passionate warriors that use their magic and martial skills at the same time to defend those that they love with all the fire in their hearts! It sounded perfect for me!” Shining Armor looked back at her with panic in his eyes. “But you didn’t read the instructions on how to use your abilities?” Cadance winced in embarrassment. “Um...no?” “Ugh...okay fine. It’s okay, just activate your rage, and go crazy,” he told her. Nodding at the instructions, Cadance look back to the oncoming group of stone opponents and gulped. For a second, she thought to ask Shining Armor for a reminder about how she was supposed to do that, but Twilight had given her enough instructions while they had been waiting for the rest of the group to show up when they were outside of the tower. The pink princess gulped as she steadied herself for what was to come. “Uh...Activate Rage?” Cadance’s eyes widened as she felt herself be filled with an electrifying energy while her body expanded a bit in response to the command. She didn’t get as big as Twilight’s dream body, Cadance theorized the half a foot she put on would have allowed her to be just a little bit taller than Sunset, with an even better physique that showed off an extremely athletic musculature. Unfortunately, that was all the time she had to examine herself before one of the golems that came out of the wall charged towards her. The sudden attack made Cadance let out a cry of surprise before she reared up in defense and blindly flailed her hooves forward in a poor defense. Only, instead of feeling her spiked horseshoes hit nothing but air, there was a slight tug that directed her attack towards the target, and Cadance’s hooves struck the stone creature right in its face to smash the thing’s head into little pieces. With her opponent defeated, Cadance put all four legs back on the ground and blinked. Although the danger had passed, her heart continued to thunder in her chest. “That...that was kind of...cool,” she mumbled before noticing another golem moving towards her at a slow speed. I wonder if I can… Cadance let the thought trail off, and just went with the feeling telling her to go bash another enemy. She galloped forward faster than she ever had in the real world and leaped into the air with a cry to slam one hoof right after the other into the stone creature. Unlike the first, it didn’t go down immediately and swung back. As the large creature attacked, Cadance remembered the feeling of another pony’s hoof on her cheek, and terror of being hurt like that again filled the pink princess’s mind before the impact sent her tumbling end over end and into the nearby wall. Although, despite the fact she was laying on her shoulders with her back up against the wall and her head resting on the floor, Cadance blinked at the lack of a pounding headache. “I...I barely felt that,” she mumbled to herself before she got back up and looked over to the golem with the cracks in it. A part of her wondered if it was just that her character was really tough, or if it was just some game mechanics that dulled the pain, but Cadance didn’t waste much of her time with such thoughts, she just attacked again. Like the first time, she moved faster than she ever had in her life. But unlike the first time, she saw the golem’s attack coming and slid under the swipe before coming to a stop behind the creature and raising her hind legs to deliver a buck to its back. The enemy broke in two a second later. Then, Cadance was onto another. It fell just as easily. This is amazing, the pink princess thought as she attacked a fourth golem. Golem five fell to the magic Cadance had access to as she called out the names of the spells, but doing such things didn’t give her nearly as much rush as using her spiked hooves. So she moved in and engaged golem number six with melee. Is this what it’s like to be Sunset? Cadance asked herself before engaging a pair of opponents at the same time. They got some hits in, but Cadance simply laughed them off as she shattered the fake creatures with the help of the game to guide her kicks. Now I get why she’s always so physical. I feel incredible! Invincible even! As the battle went on, Cadance laughed with glee while taking damage and dishing it out. And when she broke the ten golems that were supposed to be hers, she saw Shining Armor was a little bit behind with his half, so she moved to shatter two of them while the paladin took care of the third by jumping up in the air and coming down hard on the first one with multiple blows to the head before she pointed her horn at the other and released a lighting bolt that blew it to pieces. The shower of pebbles made Cadance raise a wing to shield her eyes and take a second to catch her breath while she heard Shiny’s warhammer continue to pound away. The pink princess’s heart pounded in her chest, and the muscles in her legs began to ache as something at the edge of her awareness told Cadance the time limit on her ability was almost out. With her rage nearly completely spent, Cadance lowered her wings and looked back as Shiny finished slaying the last of the golems, and...she froze. When Cadance had first seen Shining Armor in the game, it had taken more than a little effort to keep her eyes off of him. But what she saw was even worse than when Shining Armor had come trotting along outside the tower. The unicorn was using his hammer to smash the head of his opponent, but it wasn’t the weapon that had Cadance’s attention, it was the pony wielding it. A tiny layer of sweat covered his delicious flanks that weren’t protected by Shiny’s armor at all. His legs were tense, showing off every inch of his muscles. And the foot-long horn that glowed with a blue light gave the Princess of Love so many ideas on how to use it. Cadance approached the smaller stallion after he finished with the golem. Just in time for Shiny to turn around and look up at her in surprise. “Oh, uh hey Cadance. What's, um….” Whatever the stallion said was drowned out by Cadance's other senses telling her what else was going on with Shiny. He hadn’t been hurt in the fighting. In fact, the young stallion’s standing had only improved in the alicorn's eyes thanks to the thin layer of sweat covering his body. The smell filled Cadance’s nostrils with just the right amount to attract her subconscious’s interest without becoming too repugnant. On top of which, Shiny was showing all the signs of attraction with the way he was standing, the sudden stop in speech, and the look in his eyes that was just drinking Cadance in like a mare that had been dying of thirst. There was also probably the fact that Cadance’s added height thanks to her raging transformation reminded him of Sunset, but that was only a minor part of the greater whole. The fact was that Shining Armor wanted Cadance, he wanted her bad. It was only natural. He had just experienced a physical workout that left his body wanting more, while giving his mind something to really celebrate. Even the incident with Buck hadn’t been able to take him that far due to the lack of a physical warm-up beforehoof. Added to that was the level of physical attraction she felt for the war horse standing in front of her was even greater than the night Shiny had saved her from that nasty stallion. Everything she knew about Shining Armor, the future they could have together, his current level of physical attractiveness, and Cadance’s special talent were all screaming at her that she needed to make a move on him. “Shiny? Cadance said as she took another step closer. At the same time, Shining Armor took a step back. “Y-Yeah?” he asked between breaths. Cadance leaned down a bit so their muzzles were inches apart. “Do you want to kiss me?” “Y-” Shining Armor gulped. “Yeah.” So...she did. Thanks to her enhanced speed, size and strength, it didn’t even look like Shining Armor was aware Cadance moved until she pressed her lips up against his and lifted him up in her forelegs to press the smaller stallion against the wall. Cadance relished the feeling of her larger body dominating his in every possible way. On top of which, Shiny tasted glorious. So Cadance took the time to savor the feeling on her tongue before bringing her stallion to the ground to lay on top of him. Dozens of ideas ran through the mind of the pink princess as she looked down on her stallion. Although the armor would make things...kinky, Cadance knew she could work it all in easily enough. She went in for another kiss and- “WAIT!” -froze a millimeter before reaching her target. Frustration made her limbs shake, but Cadance kept it out of her voice as she spoke. “Yes, Shiny?” “W-Wha-What about Sunset?” Shining Armor asked between needful breaths. Sunset? Cadance thought to herself with a frown. SUNSET IS THE ONE WHO THREW US IN HERE! It was obvious that the amber alicorn knew something was going to happen. But, she grit her teeth and pushed down the anger. “What about her?” “Me and Sunset made out in the kitchen before we came downstairs,” Shining Armor told her quickly. Cadance opened her mouth to shout some expletives that would have made Twilight’s ears bleed. But before she could, the Princess of Love’s talent told her what such an action meant and stole the wind from her sails. As the realization began to calm her down, Cadance felt as if Shining Armor began to grow a little beneath her, then noticed it was her own body decreasing in mass. It looked as if her character’s rage ability had finally worn off. “I...see,” she said before sighing and laying her head on Shining Armor’s barrel. The two of them stayed like that for a minute before Shiny spoke again. “You know, my life was so much simpler a month ago. Now I’ve got three alicorns poking their horns into everything I do.” Cadance rolled her eyes and snorted at the statement. “Oh please Shiny, I got involved because Sunset...wait a second,” the pink princess said before she raised her head up and gave Shining Armor a cautious look. “What do you mean three alicorns?” “Um, well...the day after our date, Princess Celestia summoned me to the castle and…” “And how exactly do you know what it’s like to kiss my daughter?” the extremely powerful pony that was twice Shining Armor’s size asked as she towered over him with an irritated expression. Shining Armor gulped right before he felt his mouth begin to move in response to Celestia’s question on its own accord. “Because we’ve done it before. We’ve done it a lot, actually,” he told the goddess with the ever narrowing eyes. “The first time was when she saved me from this dragon, which really wasn’t a dragon because we were just dreaming as part of this magical game. So, the first time we really kissed was when Sunset brought me home after this pony named Buck attacked me at school. She carried me into my bed and got on top of me and we started m-making out.” The heat of the room jumped nearly ten degrees at Shining Armor’s admission, and the smaller stallion sank closer to the floor, turning Celestia into an even more imposing figure than she had been before Shiny told her he had kissed Sunset. “And is that all you did?” “I-I’m not sure what you mean,” he squeaked. Celestia snorted, and Shining Armor thought he saw steam come out from her nose. “Did you have sex with my daughter?” The demand made Shining Armor’s eyes go wide in fear. “N-No Princess Celestia. I didn’t. All we ever did was sleep together in the park,” he explained. Which got a little growl from the goddess before Shining Armor could add enough details to save himself. “We just slept together! Sunset was real tired and upset that morning, so she teleported us to an empty corner of the park and put up a spell to make time go by faster inside this bubble she made and cuddled up with me to take a nap! I swear!” Then, as the air in the room became less heavy, Shining Armor had to open his big mouth one more time. “Even though she was really wanting to bang me that time.” “WHAT?” Celestia cried out before her wings went wide. Shining Armor winced. “I’m sorry,” he apologized for letting that slip before moving on to saying something more important. “But, it’s true. And she didn’t go through with it in the end. She changed her mind. Sunset just...did what she always does.” “More kissing?” Celestia asked. Even though Shining Armor didn’t feel as if his life was in danger anymore, he found himself becoming even more upset than he was a minute ago. It was a depressed kind of upset that made him lower his voice in sadness. “No. She started beating herself up,” he explained. “I’ve noticed that everytime somepony compliments Sunset, or she starts to get excited, she does whatever she can to stop it. I-It’s like...she’s not letting herself be happy, or something.” Shining Armor’s ears twitched as the show of the giant pony standing over him slowly withdrew. When he looked back up, Celestia was giving the colt an uneasy look. “What’re you talking about?” “I don’t really understand it myself, Your Majesty,” Shining Armor told her. “At first, Cadance just explained it to me as Sunset being afraid she might hurt me if we had sex, and I totally understand that. I’ve seen her cause miniature earthquakes! But the other day when my little sister and mom started complimenting her, she acted like it was a bad thing and she didn’t deserve being praised. And now I feel like she’s trying to push me off on Princess Cadance, but not because she doesn’t want to date me, it’s because she doesn’t...want to...not...date?” Shining Armor frowned at his answer and shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t really get it myself.” There was a loud whumping sound as Princess Celestia sat down on the carpet before looking to the ground. She was silent for several minutes before she looked back to the younger pony. “And you...make her happy?” Shining Armor gulped. “Well, I-I like to think that I do....Princess,” he replied before sitting up, only to look down at the floor. “I really like Princess Sunset, and I want to be with her. But I’m also worried that me being close to her is just too hard for her right now, and so she’s pushing me away, or...something. Mares are really hard to understand.” “And if she does want you away from her for now?” Celestia asked. The possibility ran itself through his head, and Shining Armor found himself sinking just a little bit towards the floor. “Then...I’ll back off,” he told her. “But...well, even if it works out that way. I hope the two of us can stay friends.” When it seemed Shiny wasn’t going to continue on his own, Cadance turned her head and looked over to him from the space she had rolled off of him to lay herself down on the floor. “And then what happened?” Shining Armor sighed. “We talked about the other night,” he said before a blush appeared on his cheeks and he looked away from the pink alicorn. “About...you and me, and how I, um...feel.” The admission made Cadence’s heart begin to seize up. She didn’t want it to. Shining Armor was supposed to be for Sunset, but after their date and what had just happened, Cadance couldn’t deny she wanted the young stallion as well. Shining Armor was sweet, and kind, and driven and brave...when he needed to be. When it really counted. If not for the fact that Sunset had dibs, Cadance probably would have been all over him. That is...if she had even noticed him before. Which she knew never would have happened without Sunset. But that didn’t mean Shining Armor liked her! If he didn’t, then the whole relationship mess could be sorted out easily enough, and Cadance could let the pony she loved and the pony she had an infatuation with go at it like rabbits while leaving her out in the cold to suffer a life of lonely misery! So she didn’t need to be getting all worried about foolishly stealing her beloved’s sort-of-coltfriend. “And that is...how, exactly?” Cadance asked. “Your feelings for me, I mean.” A second passed by. Which grew to became an agonizing two seconds. The third had her eye twitching ever so slightly. The fourth… “I...don’t know,” Shining Armor finally replied. All of the muscles in Cadance’s body locked up for a second at the declaration. “You...don’t know?” Shining Armor gulped and looked to his stomach. “Well, yeah. It’s just you and Sun-” Instead of letting Shiny finish whatever insane idea that was forming in his head, Cadance rolled away from him and got to her hooves. “How can you not know?” she demanded before a thought crossed her mind. “You know what? Buck it! You’re a guy, guys don’t know how to feel about mares unless somepony tells them!” “Um...actually Princess, that’s-” The pink bloodrager stomped her hoof to cut Shiny off. “Exactly! Princess! Princess of Love!” Cadance exclaimed. “So listen to what I’m telling you! You don’t love me. I’m the pushy and hot friend that you have a few sexual fantasies about but don’t really date because you’ve got a real mare out there who’s meant for you.” “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Shining Armor yelled as he got to his hooves to glare at Cadance. A glare that slowly turned to panic as she continued to speak. “Ever since this-whatever this is started, I’ve had you shouting at me that I love Sunset. Then I’ve got Sunset going on about how you like me before we kiss. Then you and me go on a date because she makes us, and we kiss. But two days later, Sunset’s shoving her tongue down my throat right before the two of us just did...that! And-and I don’t even know what to think anymore!” Cadance took a step back as she was forced to give ground to the verbal assault. “Shiny-” “And what’s really weird is that I do like you,” Shining Armor went on. “You’re pushy and everything, but you’re the most beautiful mare in the world and probably the nicest too when you’re not doing your romance thing! On top of which, you actually had faith in me. Me! Some stupid little nopony in Canterlot that has delusions of being in the royal guard when he’s the local bully’s favorite kicking bag! You could have told Sunset she could get somepony better, but you tried to set things up so that she could see more value in me! You...you make me a better pony. I like that.” He sighed and lowered his head. “And I don’t get that from Sunset.” With Shining Armor apparently done, Cadance sat down on the ground. “Oh...well, that’s um…” She took a moment to think. “And speaking of Sunset, just how in the hay can you even see us working out?” he went on to ask in a tone that was almost pleading. “Yeah, she’s amazing, but...when it comes down to it, I’m not. So how can you think that me and her have a hope of belonging together?” Cadance sighed and slumped. “You know,when this whole thing started, Sunset asked for my help to try and hook up with you,” she said before she looked back up to him. “I’ll admit, I didn’t really understand why. I can’t argue with what you’re saying. If anything, the pony Sunset was before becoming an alicorn wouldn’t of even taken a second look at you.” Or worse, helped Buck to beat Shining Armor down. The pink princess thought it best to keep that little fact a secret though. “I didn’t question it, I just jumped in and did my best to make sure the two of you could craft a lasting relationship,” Cadance went on. “I was so consumed with my own stupid guilt, I rushed in and tried my best to make sure the two of you were a good fit that I just ignored if I should just let the pieces fall where they may and pick them up when it didn’t work out so the two of you would be ready for different relationships down the line.” The look on Shining Armor’s face became confused. “Wait, you’re saying...what? That maybe it’d be better if me and Sunset had gone out and broken up?” Cadance let out a little laugh. “Sometimes ponies need to have bad relationships Shiny. It prepares them for the better ones down the line,” she explained before becoming downcast again. “But with Sunset...I just couldn’t let that happen to her. She’s fragile, Shiny. I know all you see is her power and strength, but she needs a pony like you.” “No I’ve seen her-” Cadance went on without letting him finish. “But, I never once considered if you needed a pony like her,” she said as a humorless laugh came out of her mouth again. “Buck, I’m pathetic. I ignore the needs of one pony in a relationship because I’m in love with the other one.” “Well that’s-” Shining Armor got out before he froze mid word for a second. “-wait, you’re in love with Sunset?” Cadance’s eye twitched. I can’t believe I just said that! But since there was no use hiding it, she let out a sigh and nodded her head. “Trust me Shiny, nopony is more surprised about it than me. But yes, I’m in love with Sunset Shimmer.” “Oh yeah,” Shining Armor replied. “You’ve told me about half a dozen times before. Sorry, it’s just hearing it with everything else we’re talking about made it slip my mind.” The response to her declaration had Cadance reviewing all of her previous conversations with Shining Armor over the past week. While she had admitting to liking Sunset both as a friend and being physically attracted to her, there was a distinct lack of the L-Word in their conversations. And being in love with a pony was a lot different than just being friends with sexual urges. The mistake on Shining Armor’s part put Cadance into a sour mood. “Hmm, you just got a lot less sexy.” A silence appeared between the two ponies at Cadance’s declaration that stretched on for several second before Shining Armor finally broke it. “So...now what?” Cadance smirked back at him as she threw off the lingering anger from Shiny’s misinformation. He was a stallion after all. They were stupid when it came to those sorts of things. “Well, if you need some time to figure some things out for yourself, we got to make sure Sunset gives it to you as well.” Despite the fact that she was neither a human nor a guy, Sunset felt an extreme level of trepidation when she teleported into their new location of the tower's roof and met up with the others. It wasn’t the green slime that the rest of Shiny's nerd herd was covered in or the evil pony in the red robe performing what Sunset's arcane knowledge skill said was the summoning ritual of ultimate destruction that had her nervous. It was the pink princess and her paladin that put her off kilter with words Sunset couldn’t help but repeat. “What do you mean, we need to talk?” “MUHAHAHA!” War Lock yelled as he stood behind his alter at the top of a wide flight of stairs. “Foolish heroes, you’ll never be able to stop me from summoning my master’s greatest servant!” Eight-Bit looked over to the trio and frowned. “Is this really the best time for you guys to have one of your conversations?” “Yes!” Cadance snapped back. “Matters of the heart always take precedence! You guys can go on ahead, this will only take a moment.” With the choice of combating an evil unicorn mage or making the pink pretty pony princess even angrier, Eight-Bit turned towards the equine calling on the dark powers of the abyss. “Let's go everypony!” he said before glancing back towards the romantically tangled trio. “Except for you all, I mean.” As the group of heroes charged towards the final boss of the tower, Sunset looked back to the princess and the paladin. “Okay so, what's going on?” “Shiny?” Cadance said, prompting the other pony to step forward. “You will not stop me! COME FORTH MY MINIONS!” War Lock cried out in the background. Sunset resisted the urge to turn around and kept her eyes on Shining Armor as he approached her. “Listen...Sunset,” he said as the sound of battle carried on behind them. “I um... I…” Sweat trickled down Shiny’s forehead and he gulped before he closed his eyes and bowed his head in surrender. “I kissed Cadance when we were alone a few minutes ago!” As the pink princess in question groaned and mumbled to Shiny that wasn’t what they were supposed to be discussing, Sunset felt a weird mix of emotions run through her heart at Shiny’s rushed declaration. For starters, there was the sliver of jealousy that she was familiar with, followed by a bit of annoyance and anger because Shining Armor had been making out with her just an hour prior, then relief once she remembered the attraction Cadance and Shiny shared meant the two of them could lean on each other after Sunset was gone. “That’s...that’s great Shiny.” “AAaargh!” Cadance cut in before she stepped in between the two and forced them both back. “That’s not what we’re supposed to be talking about!” she said before pausing for a moment and letting out a sigh. “Although, we do need to be up front about it, and kissing was as far as it went Sunset! But what we need to talk about is something else.” “We’re not going to make it in time!” Twilight cried out from behind them. The amber alicorn raised a hoof and rolled it around to prompt Cadance to continue. “Which is?” After taking a deep breath to steel himself, Shining Armor spoke up. “We need to take a break.” Sunset blinked in confusion. “Um...come again?” “Not from seeing each other!” Cadance quickly said. “We just need to stop...throwing each other at Shining.” Before Sunset could ask for clarification again, Shining Armor took up the conversation. “Look, I like you, I really do. I like being around you, and I like the kind of pony your are,” he said. “But lately...with how you and Cadance have been pushing me onto the other... I...I can’t even think straight!” “Shiny-” Sunset said. Shining Armor just kept on going right on top of her. “And I like Cadance too! The two of you, we’ve only known each other a couple of weeks and you're both just about the best friends I’ve ever had. Maybe even more. But...when the two of you start doing all your matchmaking stuff, it just... I just... I don’t like it!” An emotional weight came down on Sunset's back, forcing her down a bit and pressed her ears against her head. “Oh Shiny, I'm sorry! I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable,” the amber alicorn told him. “I know,” he replied miserably. “And I get it, you want what’s best for me. It’s just, well...what’s best for me right now is...the two of you, as friends. For right now I mean. Totally not um, friendzoning anypony! I just, um...need some time to think about...us. The three of us. And the um...two of us?” “MUHAHAHA YOUR TIME IS UP FOOLS!” Although a big part of her didn’t want to, Sunset let out a sigh and nodded. “I understand,” she told him. Which she did. While a big part of the amber alicorn wanted to set things up so her sudden departure come Friday night did the least amount of emotional damage to her friends, Sunset didn’t think that causing them pain in the here and now was the way to achieve that. “And, I’m sorry if I ever made you feel uncomfortable Shiny. The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you.” “Hey you didn’t hurt any-” Shining Armor stopped talking as the group of three standing on top of Misery Tower suddenly found themselves covered by a huge shadow. The paladin's eyes went wide, and he craned his neck upward to look up with a fearful expression. “But, that looks like it might do some damage.” Sunset blinked and turned around to see what had caught Shiny’s attention. Out past the edge of the roof, a colossal monster was glaring down at them. Despite the fact that the building they were standing on stood some two-hundred feet tall, the creature towered over them enough to loom thanks to the fact they were only eye-level with its chest. Its skin was a dull brown, and numerous spines came out from various points of its body while a mouth full of teeth twice as big as Sunset sat in a cavernous mouth big enough to swallow them all in one gulp. “The Tarrasque? You’re seriously putting us up against the Tarrasque, Gaffer?” Shining Armor demanded as he looked up at the sky in a panic. Hey, don’t look at me. You guys were supposed to stop it from being summoned. The creature in question let out a roar that Sunset could feel shake her teeth. After the ability to hear returned to her ears, she rolled her eyes and looked over to Shining Armor with a frown. “Oh come on, it’s just a game Shiny. It’s not that big a dea-” Sunset cut herself off when something big and purple attracted her attention out from the corner of her eye. A second later, Twilight landed right in front of her, panic written all over the big girl’s face. “S-Save us Princess Sunset!” the filly in the mare’s body cried out before she scrambled forward, then stopped for a second as her horn began to glow. “Cast reduce self.” A second later, Sunset blinked as Twilight went from a six foot mare to one of three feet. The surprise stunned Sunset long enough that Twilight was able to scramble around behind Sunset before cowering in fear. "I don't wanna learn what a monster's intestinal tract look like!" Two seconds of watching the little filly whimper in terror were more than enough for Sunset. Like Shiny, she looked up into the sky and frowned. “Okay Gaffer, game’s gone on long enough. Time to shut it down.” Um...yeah, about that. I...um, can’t. Sunset's eyes narrowed. “What?” Well, the system isn’t meant to stop in the middle of combat. I can’t shut it off until the monsters beaten, or all your characters are, um...dead. “Killer GM!” Twilight shouted as she pointed an accusing hoof at the sky. Hey! I haven’t killed anypo- “Gak!” “Ack!” After hearing a pair of thuds behind her, Sunset looked back in the direction of the monster to see Eight-Bit and Poindexter's bloodless corpses laying in front of her with a pair of javelin-sized spines sticking out of them. Twilight let out a terrorized squeak and went back to curling into a ball while Sunset looked over to Cadance. “Okay. You take care of her, I’ll deal with that thing,” she said as she gestured to the Tarasque. “Shiny…pull out a resurrection scroll and get them back up.” Not even waiting a second, Cadance reached forward and took Twilight into her pony-arms, then sat down to wrap the small adult filly in a hug with her wings as well. “Shhhhh. It’ll be okay soon Twilight. Sunset will take care of that nasty monster.” Shiny looked away from the monster again and over to Sunset. “Um, not that I’m questioning you or anything, Princess,” he said. “But the Tarrasque is immune to magic. So...what exactly are you going to do?” Sunset gave Shining Armor an even look. “I’m going to punch it.” “Seriously?” Sunset snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yes. I’m going to punch it. Seriously.” Ignoring Shining Armor’s look of disbelief, Sunset spun around and made a low-powered jump that rocketed her to the top of the stairs where the NPC War Lock was laughing maniacally. There was a small crunching sound as Sunset came down on his head. She kept her wings at her side as she made another inhuman leap into the sky, straight towards the Tarrasque. The Tarrasque leaned forward with its mouth open wide and Sunset unfurled her wings but resisted the urge to really flap them so she didn’t shoot up into space or something. Just as she had hoped, her wings merely caught the updraft caused by the monster’s hot breath, and amber alicorn’s altitude increased just enough to fly above the Tarrasque’s mouth put her on a crash course with its nose. As she approached her target and pulled her hoof back, Sunset blinked as she realized something. You know...I really should say something cool and heroic, the amber alicorn told herself. … … … Damnit, this is harder than television makes it look, Sunset told herself as she ran out of time to think and simply threw everything she had into smacking the creature with all of her strength. Although, at least this way I kind find out what a full force strike from me would do to- BOOM! Sunset’s eyes went wide as the titanic monster exploded in an oddly goreless mess that had her staring in confusion while the shock wave from her blow pushed the clouds away for miles all around and left the tower behind her trembling from the shockwave. “Well, that’s um...interesting.” Cadance fought off the odd feeling of vertigo as she found herself sitting in Shiny’s basement once again next to her friends. As the rest of the ponies slowly started to pull themselves out of the dream reality, she caught Gaffer giving the tablet a less than pleased frown. “Okay guys, that settles it,” he said. “Next game, we’re going back to quill and scroll.” “Hey!” Sunset complained before she stuck her nose up into the air and smirked. “It’s not my fault I’m too OP to nerf.” As the rest of the nerds slowly came to, Cadance just let them talk in their odd dialect over the plates of food before she chipped in to help clean things up and took the empty platters away. After coming back from the first trip, she saw Twilight still had a disturbed look on her face and decided to get the youngest unicorn out from underhoof while the rest of the guys cleaned up, not to mention get her mind on something else. “So Twilight, what dress are you going to wear to the replay?” Cadance asked as she left, forcing the little filly to follow her and give an answer. “Dress?” Twilight asked as she trotted up the stairs behind Cadance. After putting the food trays down without causing any structural damage to the countertop, an action that she was quite proud of as it proved her growing experience with her magic, Cadance looked back to Twilight with a smile on her face. “Well, you are wearing a dress to the replay when Shiny takes you later today, aren't you?” “Ummmmm-” Cadance snatched the filly up in her hooves before she could answer, and put Twilight on her back before the pink princess clamped down with her wings so she wouldn’t fall off. “Come on, let's see what you’ve got in your closet.” Pegasus speed carried the two of them upstairs before Twilight could protest, and together they went down the familiar path to her room. Once inside, she did a quick search through the closet. The results were rather extreme. While Twilight had the normal level of clothes Cadance had come to expect from a Canterlot mare, they all either fell into the super formal category, or the bare bones casual one. Although she thought that one pink dress with white frills and flowery designs on the skirt would have looked absolutely adorable on Twilight, Cadance saw the look of horror on the filly’s face when she was examining the thing and brought out a simple white sun dress instead. “Princess Cadance?” Twilight said as she did a little circle in her dress at Cadance’s insistence to show it off. “Did Princess Sunset get bigger?” The question from out of the blue got a raised eyebrow from Cadance. “Say what? You think she’s gained a pound or two since you last saw her?” Twilight stopped her twirling and looked up into Cadance’s eyes. “Not fatter. Plus, her proportions haven't changed. So it’s not from a height increasing potion like a lot of noble mares use to imitate Princess Celestia, they get gain height without and equal amount of mass and end up getting really skinny. But Sunset’s just bigger.” “I haven’t noticed,” Cadance replied cautiously, unsure of how to respond to the filly’s question. But to keep from getting sidetracked, she quickly put a smile back on her face and looked around the room. “Now, do you have anything to go with your dress, Twilight?” By the time they were done and back downstairs, the guys had already taken care of the cleanup, and Shiny was waiting on Twilight so they could leave for the replay. As soon as Cadance handed the little filly off, Sunset took the pink princess aside. “Is she okay?” “Twilight?” Cadance asked, then continued on without waiting for confirmation. “Why wouldn’t she be?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Because she was cowering in fear a minute before the game ended?” After giving the amber alicorn a little smile, Cadance waved off her fears. “Don’t worry, I kept her mind preoccupied.” A second later, Cadance was once again thankful for her coat, as Sunset pulled her into a deep hug with one of her wings. With as close as they were and the level of force the amber alicorn used, the pink princess couldn’t help but lean in to put her ear up against the side of Sunset’s neck in a affectionate near-nuzzle. Part of her just wanted to stay under Sunset’s wing forever. Which was why Cadance let out an indignant squawk when Sunset started trotting forward not two seconds later, the pink princess helpless in her grip. “Great! Now come on, it’s just past eleven and we’ve got to go get the girls so we can take them back to the palace.” “The girls?” Cadance asked as she tried to think of just whom Sunset meant by that, or what she wanted to hang out with them for. Despite being the same gender, Cadance found the boys more to her liking sociably than Fleur and her friends. “Why do we need to bring them back to the palace?” “To cover up my growing web of lies, obviously!” Like everyplace in the palace, the private audience room had enough decoration for three houses in Canterlot. Green carpet that made freshly watered grass look dull covered the floor, while a trio of paintings showing the glory of Celestia decorated each of the walls. On the far wall, an extra large couch sat just below the painting showing Celestia flying away from Canterlot at dawn, while a trio of floor cushions stood unused by any of the other ponies in the room. Mostly because the three non-alicorns in the room were too busy staring at the giant white pony currently lounging on the fancy sofa that somehow looked as comfortable as it was immaculate. Sunset grinned as she stood behind the pair of tall unicorns and the much shorter earth pony as the three of them were locked in various states of shock and awe. “Mom, I want you to meet my three best high school friends,” the amber alicorn said before she cupped Sassy’s rump with her left wing and pushed the blue unicorn forward. “Sassy Saddles.” “Fleur de Lis,” Sunset went on before repeating the action with the prettier white mare. “Y-Your Majesty!” the more cultured mare replied before going into a low bow. Then Sunset put her hoof on the back of the mulberry earth pony’s back side. “And the short stack here is Cheerilee. She’s the one we told you about a few days ago, after my first day of school.” “Humina-bugala-bu-Oh!” the littlest horse in the room said before she quickly went into a bow, copying Fleur as best she could. “Y-Your Highness.” Completely ignoring the discomfort of the three mares, Sunset made her way through them and looked up at her mother before putting on her best high society imitation. “We decided to have lunch together, and when the topic of where to eat came up, well... I said they just had to try the palace chef’s cooking.” On the other side of the room, Sunset noticed that her mother was wearing one of the calm masks that the amber alicorn was familiar with, which meant that Celestia had probably guessed that she had gone with Cadance to see Shining Armor and was surprised at the evidence that told her that wasn’t the case. “And we met Cadance on our way back to the palace,” Sunset added with a nod to the pink pony. The look Cadance gave her made Sunset silently beg her not to contradict the story, which was technically true. After hearing what she had planned, Cadance had decided to head back to the palace on her own. Teleportation and the authority to just order the girls to come with her for lunch enabled Sunset to round them up and get back to the palace at about the same time as the flying pony. “I...see,” Celestia replied before she looked to the dark gray pony standing behind her. “Raven, have the servants prepare some extra places for lunch. We’ll entertain our guests here until everything is ready.” Then, as the secretary nodded, Celestia turned her attention back to the young mares in front of her. “What would you all care to eat today? I assure you, the palace can cook anything you desire.” Ten minutes later, when the girls had finally overcome their nervousness and made their orders, Celestia began the business of getting them to open up a little. It was an odd experience for Sunset, as she hadn’t really seen her mother interact with common ponies who were meeting her for the first time. In private at least. While she had sat in on several days of Solar Court activity, petitioners usually had an hour to prepare themselves upon seeing Celestia until they made it to the front of the line, and matters of that sort usually had some level of rehearsal. One thing that Sunset noticed was that Celestia didn’t poke at their nervousness as she tended to do with most other things, and only gave an understanding smile when one of the girls garbled words or said a sentence backwards from being so flustered. The other thing she noticed was a tightness around her mother’s eyes that just wouldn’t disappear. It was so distracting that Sunset missed most of the conversation until Sassy said something that made Cadance chime in. “That’s it!” the pink princess cried out with a level of exuberance that included her wings going wide. “Sassy, you’re a dressmaker!” The blue unicorn blinked and looked over to Cadance with wide-eyed confusion. “Y-Yes, Princess Cadance,” she replied. “Sewing is my talent. I can do more than just dresses though.” Cadance didn’t seem to notice the correction before she rushed over to the slightly smaller mare. “You’ve got to make me a dress for the Fall Formal!” Somehow, Sassy’s eyes managed to get even wider at the friendly command. “W-What?” she asked as her head turned to Sunset, and then Princess Celestia for a second before she focused her gaze back on Cadance. “But, Princess...surely you could afford a professional seamstress, one with a great deal more experience than I to make you something far more befitting of royalty than me. I’m still in school after all.” “Yes, I could get some professional pony I don’t even know to craft me an elegant gown that will be the envy of every mare at the Formal,” Cadance replied as she rolled her eyes at the idea. “A pony I don’t know, who will only be able to put her passion in the work without any feelings towards me beyond a title in a dress. Or I can pick you, one of my friends, who will be able to make me something that connects to my inner self as well as my outer beauty.” Sassy didn’t seem convinced as she continued to hesitate. “Well, as much as I would be honored to help you, Princess...I just don’t have the materials, not to mention the tools that I would need to craft something worthy of of royalty.” As Cadance’s smile started to wane, Sunset saw Celestia shift on her couch out of the corner of her eye and turned her attention towards the biggest pony in the room. The calm mask that Celestia usually wore slipped into a troubled look that matched her eyes for a moment, but it was gone a second later when Celestia cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Then we will have to provide you with the tools and materials you will need. As well as a fee for your work of course. Friend or not, a pony needs to be paid for her efforts,” she said. “Is there anything else you might require?” Seeing another thing Sassy could bring up to try and worry her way out of the job, Sunset stepped forward. “And, I can help you with your homework so you’ll have more than enough time to do the work after school,” she offered before putting on a concerned look to get to the bottom of Sassy’s hesitation. “Unless, there’s some other reason you don’t want to do it?” Verbally cornered, Sassy looked around at the three alicorns in the room. “Umm...well…” “Alright,” Celestia spoke up gently before she sighed and shook her head, then looked back to the blue unicorn with a tired expression. “That’s enough. Sassy, do you not want to make the dress because Cadance is a princess?” Sassy gulped and looked down at the floor. “I-It’s not that, Your Highness. I just don’t think I could make something good enough for her.” Behind the blue pony, Cadance frowned in confusion. “Sassy, I’ve seen the pictures of the dress you made for Fleur. You’re more than good enough.” “Princess Cadance,” Sassy replied in a worried tone as she looked back to the pink pony. Before the young mare could continue, Celestia cleared her throat again. Her face lost its mask of serenity and just gave the unicorn an even look. “And if Cadance were to ask you a year ago when she was still a pegasus, would she still have been too good for your work?” Sassy gave Celestia an uncertain look. “Um...well, I-I can’t really say, Your Highness,” she replied. “I didn’t know Prin-” “Cadance,” Celestia said before Sassy could finish. “There’s no need for such formalities between friends during a private audience, my little pony. And you are friends, are you not?” As Sassy froze under Celestia’s gaze, Cheerilee took a step forward. “Well, Princess,” the earth pony. “We certainly are friends with both of your, um-descendants...but...there are certain priorities that need to be followed when dealing with royalty.” Celestia looked down at the mulberry mare for another minute, causing her to gulp, before she let out another sigh. “Alright then, let’s try this,” she said more to herself than anyone else, then looked back to the girls. “Do you know why I hate being a princess so much?” The entire room sat silent for a full minute before Sunset broker herself out of the stupor Celestia put the amber alicorn in with her statement. “What?” “Please Sunset, you have to of noticed by now, I don’t exactly like many aspects of the job,” the bigger alicorn replied. “And while there are several things I do find joy in, like watching my little ponies succeed. I hate that I must always watch them from a distance.” When Celestia looked back to Fleur and Sassy, they both winced. “I can’t fault any of you for it. After all, I have been around since before any of your great-grandfathers drew their first breaths and I will be here long after you are gone. I raise the sun, rule this land, and command more magic than anypony alive. The very idea of anypony connected on a personal level with something like me is probably so alien none of you had even considered it possible,” she said before giving them both a sympathetic look. “It is something Sunset has prepared herself for, much to my grief. But please, do not visit the same burden on Cadance.” “Um, can I say something about this?” Cadance asked as she raised her right hoof and looked up at Celestia. The white pony blinked at the question, but nodded a second later. After taking a deep breath, Cadance stepped forward and spread her wings aggressively as she frowned at Celestia. “Stop putting them on the spot like this!” the pink princess yelled at the big alicorn, which had the effect of making Celestia reel back in surprise. “You think I don’t know they haven’t gotten used to my royal status yet? We’ve only known each other a few weeks for crying out loud! I know it’s going to take time! Hay, Shining Armor still calls me Princess, AND I’VE SHOVED MY TONGUE DOWN HIS THROAT! If he can still be formal, then so can they! I don’t mind. They’re my friends, and I’m more than willing to make concessions to keep them comfortable! “And Sassy,” Cadance went on in the same tone as she turned her attention towards the unicorn. “If you don’t feel comfortable making me a dress, that’s perfectly okay! I get it! I’m totally fine with you having your limitations. So don’t let anypony else bully you into helping me out!” Sunset smirked as the blue unicorn continued to stand frozen in front of Cadance despite being let off the hook. “That probably would have gone a bit better if you didn’t shout it at her.” Which caused the pink princess to turn around and glare at Sunset. “Oh don’t you start!” Cadance said before poking the amber alicorn in the chest. “I only got this way because I want to be more like you!” Unsure of how to respond to that, Sunset backed down. “Um...Princess Cadance?” “WHA-ahem!” Cadance said after rounding on Sassy, then putting her sweet facade back in place. “Yes Sassy? And don’t worry, if you don’t want to make a dress for me, it’s fine.” The blue unicorn took in a deep breath, and stood up to her full height. “Actually, Cadance...Princess Celestia is right. We’ve known each other long enough that I shouldn’t let something like this get in the way of helping a friend,” she told the pink princess, gaining confidence as she went on. “And, you are my friend. My really amazing friend, that I’m more than happy to help.” Cadance gave Sassy a friendly smile. “Only if you want to.” “I do,” she replied before looking over to the amber alicorn. “And you too Princess Sunset! A dress-I mean, if you want me to make you one, that is. It make look a bit like Cadance’s since I’ll only have a few days, but...if you-” Midway through Sassy’s speech, Sunset felt a tiny fluttering in her heart at the offer. She hated to admit it to herself, but she hadn’t really done much to develop her friendship with Fleur and the others since meeting them beyond activities at school. While Sunset liked to think it was because she would be gone come Friday night, it seemed a poor excuse to turn down their kindness now that Sassy was making an effort. So, she smiled at the smaller pony much in the way her mother would. “I would be honored.” Then, a much more devious side of her brain spoke up, adding to the escape plan that was still forming in her head. “And tell you what? I’ll even take you to Manehattan tomorrow, so you can get everything you need.” As one of Equestria’s major industry centers and the fashion capital of the country, it would have a wider range of textiles and the latest technological tools to help Sassy with her task. Not to mention other clothing manufacturers outside of Canterlot that Sunset could hire for a few custom rush orders. “Sound good?” Sassy smiled back at the offer. “Most definitely!” It was nearly ten o’clock by the time Cadance dragged her weary body into Sunset’s bedroom, too tired for a bath. After lunch, Celestia had left her and Sunset to deal with the Griffonstone ambassador, which meant the girls spent the day playing around and observing other mare bonding activities. With the Fall Formal still being on everypony’s mind, they spent most of their time looking at magazines with the latest stylized manes, helping Cheerilee decide if she even wanted to go to the thing, and then grilling Sassy Saddles about her mysterious date that she claimed to have while showing all the signs of an empty love life. Which in turn led to a pillow fight, a bit of running around the palace, and some other shenanigans before Sunset tried to talk the girls into pulling some pranks on a few of the guards, leaving Cadance to talk them all out of it before things got out of control. She didn’t quite understand why Sunset was so grouchy when it came to the captain of the guard. Although, the pink princess understood that the older unicorn’s attitude certainly didn’t help matters. In the end, Sunset just gave the girls an all access tour of the palace, showing them things Cadance hadn’t even seen before. It was a little too thorough for the pink princess’s taste, but she didn’t see the harm in letting Sunset show off her authority every once and awhile by getting the girls into normally restricted sections of the palace, like the armory and arcane repository, where Celestia kept a slew of magical artifacts. When the marathon of a tour ended, the girls had dinner with the princesses again and headed home in carriages provided by the palace after it was all done. Then came the usual magical lessons Cadance received under Sunset, which were followed by a more practical magic program the amber alicorn seemed to have designed on the fly in which she had Cadance run around the gardens while conjuring as much crystal as she could in response to the small pebbles Sunset chucked at her. It gave Cadance enough of a continuing distraction not to tell Sunset about Celestia meeting with Shining Armor. At least, not until she figured out how Sunset would take it. The last thing the pink princess wanted was to add any more strain on their already unsteady relationship. It also made her wonder something… “Sunset,” Cadance asked as she pulled the sheets on their bed back with her hoof. “What’s with the sudden physical side to the magic training?” She looked back just in time to see Sunset’s wings fidget a bit at the uncomfortable question. “Well...you know...we can’t sleep in the same bed forever,” she said while doing her best not to meet Cadance’s eyes. “You need to learn to defend yourself eventually, right? Learning how to cast and move is part of that.” The idea of not sleeping with Sunset anymore made Cadance’s ears droop. “Oh,” she said before looking back towards the bed to hide her disappointment of no longer sharing sheets with the pony she was in love with. “Right.” Then, after crawling into bed and hearing Sunset do the same, Cadance slowly unfurled one of her wings to find Sunset was getting comfortable nearly half a foot away from her. “Um...Sunset?” “Yeah?” the amber alicorn replied. “I know we’ve got a bigger bed now,” Cadance said cautiously. “But...um...could you...hold me? It...makes me feel...safer.” When there was no answer, and the pink princess worried for a moment that she would get called on her lie. But then, Cadance heard Sunset scoot closer before the pink princess also worked to close the gap and found herself in the amber alicorn’s embrace. Despite the duplicitous nature of the request, Cadance reached up to touch Sunset’s hooves as she snuggled into the bigger mare’s warmth. For a moment, she found herself pretending the reason for their contact was different than a friend offering comfort to another. Cadance imagined Sunset was holding her out of love. Not for a friend, but for a wife. She felt Sunset’s heart beating against her spine, and smiled as her own slowly began to match its pace. The fantasy continued as Cadance brought Sunset’s foreleg up to rest her cheek against, telling herself that it was Sunset caressing her before they both fell asleep. Then, like every night they slept together, Cadance mentally took stock of the amber alicorn’s entire form that was wrapped around her. She felt the layer of hard muscle underneath the deceptive bit of fat that kept Sunset from appearing too athletic, her wonderful wings and their impossibly soft feathers, the feeling of Sunset;s powerful heart as it beat against Cadance’s back. It was...off. Wonderful, but off. The pink princess’s eyes shot open in surprise at the familiar, and yet strange feeling of Sunset’s body pressed up against her own. Wait a second. Careful not to rouse the sleeping pony around her, Cadance slowly took stock of Sunset as she continued to slumber, feeling out every bit of the big spoon in their sleeping arrangement before frowning to herself. It was barely noticeable, but… She is bigger.