"Man, this bites!" Rainbow Dash complained, tossing her history test into the air in frustration.
Sunset Shimmer snatched it out of the air and looked at the bright red grade mark at the top of the page, wincing. "Ouch. That's gonna pull down your average."
"Don't fret too much about it, Rainbow," Applejack said boredly, looking over her own test. "Ah barely got a C-."
"Solid B here," Pinkie said cheerfully.
The others looked at each other with trepidation. "On three?" Sunset suggested. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight smiled nervously. Sunset counted, and the four girls laid their papers down. None of them had scored less than an A. Twilight and Sunset had gotten perfect scores.
Rainbow threw her hands up in the air. "That's just not fair!" she cried. "How the hell?"
"Umm...we studied?" Fluttershy offered meekly.
"Yeah, Rainbow, all you gotta do is pay attention in class and study," Twilight said.
"It really isn't that difficult, darling," Rarity added.
Rainbow groaned, covering her head with her hands as she pressed her chin against the table. "Easy for you to say," she muttered. She glared at Sunset. "And how the hell did you ace a history test? You're not even from this world!"
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Gee, I wonder," she said. "What would an alien trying to blend in with a completely unfamiliar culture and a completely unfamiliar body have to do to not only convince everybody she was one of them and belonged here, but also dominate the school by becoming the most popular, and then the most feared, girl on campus?" She shot Rainbow an annoyed glare. "After I got myself set up here and starving to death wasn't an issue anymore, I spent sixteen hours a day studying everything I could about this world, including history and current affairs, just so I could keep up."
Jaws dropped around the table. "Sixteen hours?!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Wow," Twilight said. "Even by my standards that's excessive." At the incredulous looks this drew, she blushed and fiddled with her collar. "Umm...I stop at twelve? Fourteen tops?"
"But darling, that would mean you only stopped studying to sleep, eat, and one would assume bathe," Rarity said. "You...you did nothing else with your time? At all?"
Sunset shrugged. "Having a social life would've gotten in the way of everything I was trying to do, except for when I was dating Flash to get noticed. Even then, most of our 'dates' were just study sessions. I'd go home from school, then from four to eleven I'd study everything I could get hold of. Not just history, but pop culture—TV, music, anything that it seemed it'd be useful to know."
"And all of it to carry out your evil plans," Rarity said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, well..." Sunset sighed. "Bad intentions aside, the end result is I crammed a lifetime's worth of information into my head in a couple of years, and now I'm..." She gestured vaguely. "Well, let's just say it paid off in the end."
"So, umm...you weren't like that before, right?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "I mean, back where you came from?"
Sunset tilted her head in thought, then grimaced. "Actually...yyyyeah, I kinda was," she admitted. "For totally different reasons, mind, but...if I wasn't studying magic, practicing magic, or trying to learn things Princess Celestia didn't want me learning, I...pretty much wasn't doing anything." She sighed. "Wow. I wasted a lot of my life." She shook her head with a rueful chuckle. "Wonder how much differently I'd have turned out if I'd bothered to make just one friend in that whole school..."
"Things'd sure be a lot different around here if you had," Applejack said. "Ah mean, we wouldn't'a had all th' magic shenanigans an' whut not, but...we'd also never'a met either Twilight, an'..." She frowned. "Huh. Well, Ah dunno whut else'd be different, honestly." She shook her head. "But Ah think we're better off with you here, an' Twilight, an'...an' all th' crazy stuff we done been through together."
"Well, maybe not all of it, darling," Rarity drawled, "but the sort of drama we've been through together has unquestionably forged strong friendships that...that might not have been as strong otherwise." She grimaced. "I mean, look at us. How different we are. If we hadn't shared such adventures together, I suspect we might have drifted apart by now."
"It's probably best not to think about things like that," Pinkie Pie said. "That kind of thing can turn into a real downer really fast."
"Pinkie Pie's right," Twilight said. "Don't worry about what might have been or what could've happened if things were different. Just...let's just all be happy we're all here together and that we'll always be best friends." She paused, shuffling her hands self-consciously. "Umm...right? Is that...is that right?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Sunset said with a warm smile.
Equestria, an alternate timeline...
"So it turns out becoming a princess just...isn't my destiny," Sunset Shimmer said.
"I thought that seemed rather far-fetched."
"It does seem like something that isn't...possible."
"Actually, it's not impossible. I mean, Princess Cadance wasn't born an alicorn princess. Unfortunately, no scholars in the history of Equestria have ever been able to study the phenomenon of how a pony becomes an alicorn, since...well, since it's only happened once in the history of Equestria."
"But still...I thought you said Princess Celestia told you you were going to be a princess one day? Her equal? Why would she tell you something like that, get your hopes up, and then dash them?"
Sunset looked around the table at her three friends, shrugged, then kicked up her hooves. "I asked her about that, actually," she said. "Thing is, you know the legend of the Mare in the Moon?" At her friends' nods, she continued, "Well, it's not so much a legend as it is historical fact. The Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon, is her sister Princess Luna."
"Anypony who's read the annotated journals of Starswirl the Bearded knows that," the lone stallion at the table said.
"Yeah, well, most ponies haven't," Sunset said. "Anyway, there's this prophecy tied into Nightmare Moon's return that a powerful young unicorn will appear shortly before the thousand years have passed, and that unicorn will have the power to resurrect the Elements of Harmony. The prophecy says that unicorn will become a princess and change Equestria forever."
"And Princess Celestia thought it was you?" one of the two mares asked.
"Yeah, at first," Sunset said. "But...thing is, and she was so sad and so sorry when she told me this that I just couldn't stay mad at her...she forgot about the third Cutie Mark on the trunk of the Tree of Harmony."
"The Tree of Harmony?" the other mare present scoffed. "Now you're just making stuff up."
"No, it's real," Sunset said. "She showed it to me." She chuckled. "Big glowy tree in a cave in the Everfree Forest, has three Cutie Marks on the trunk. Hers, one she says belongs to Princess Luna, and a third. A six-pointed star." Sunset blew on her bangs. "Last I checked, I don't have a star on my flank."
"A six-pointed star," the stallion said thoughtfully. "I know a pony like that. A filly, just started going here a few months ago."
"Yeah," Sunset said. "That's her. Twilight Sparkle. She's the one who's supposed to be a princess...if she can learn everything Celestia wants her to learn."
"And you're not upset about this at all?" one of the mares asked. "That you've effectively been tossed aside like an old dress, replaced?"
"Nah," Sunset said. "I mean, okay, yeah, it's kind of a bummer I won't be a princess, but...I don't exactly envy Twilight Sparkle having to face down Nightmare Moon one day, you know?" She shrugged. "Besides, now that I know what's going on, I can relax, kinda ease up a little on my studies. Spend more time with you guys."
"Well, we'll certainly be happy for that."
"Yeah, maybe you can help me with that transfiguration spell I keep having trouble with."
"Oh! We could take a trip to my old village! That penpal I've been telling you about? I bet she'd love to meet you all! After all, it's thanks to your advice that I kept in touch with her."
Sunset smiled. "I'd like that." Her stomach rumbled. "But you know what I'd really like right now? A hayburger. C'mon, guys, let's go get some food. Sassy, it's your turn to treat."
"Sequins and sashes, I hope I have enough bits..."
Sunset Shimmer, Sunburst, Sassy Saddles, and Trixie Lulamoon left the student commons of the School for Gifted Unicorns, trotting through the streets of Canterlot. Sunset looked over her group of friends and smiled.
Life in Canterlot was perfect. Become a princess? Who needed it!