After making sure everyone had left the school, calling up the security agency for a last minute night guard, have yellow tape to make sure no one decided to play around the crumbling school entrance, get an appointment for the damage to be inspected by an engineer, and closing up the school as best she could, Celestia finally had a moment to herself as she walked to her car.
Celestia watched as Luna had taken Sunset Shimmer with her. Truthfully it was probably best for the younger sister to do so, but Celestia couldn’t help the shiver of unease that travelled down her back. As she got in, she finally allowed her mind to begin to wander.
She had learned to take a hands off approach, and trust her sister to be capable. There had been a time when Celestia would have tried to micromanage everything, but years of estrangement, therapy, and experience as an educator and administrator had taught her to let things be. They truly did complement each other, and the students at Canterlot High had flourished under their combined oversight. Tonight she had to remind herself of that multiple times during this crisis however.
Celestia had always had an odd relationship with the Shimmer girl. On paper she was a model student, a true leader and overachiever, however the girl had always been slightly standoffish whenever they spoke to each other. It was clear over the years that she preferred going to Luna when she needed to speak with the school administration. Celestia knew that it stood out in her mind simply because it was unusual for anyone to take a disagreeable stance against her for apparently no reason. Celestia’s hesitance in stepping on Luna’s toes had stopped her from digging any further.
Luna and Celestia had previously worked out an unspoken agreement on how they managed the students, and while Celestia took the much larger piece of the pie, Luna took those that often required a more nuanced approach. Frankly, while folks thought Celestia the more personable of the two, Luna was actually much more able to read others. She had a gift for intuiting secret hopes and dreams of otherwise problematic students, and help them heal and get back on track towards fulfilling those dreams. Honestly there was never anything related to Sunset Shimmer that had required the principal's personal attention, at least till now. Celestia was afraid that even Luna’s talent would not be a match for the unique circumstances surrounding Sunset Shimmer.
Celestia’s hands shook as she sat in her car as her mind went over her own actions during the last few hours. Had she really spontaneously gone through a crowning ceremony for a magic princess in front of the blown out remains of her school lawn? Celestia had taken seminars on dealing with crisis situations ranging from earthquakes to active shooter situations, and always thought that she knew how she would react. Clearly she didn’t know herself as well as she had thought.
Celestia let her students continue to party for hours in an unsafe, bombed out school. Someone could have gotten hurt or died tonight, and she her reaction was to go along with some odd pageantry as if this was an 80’s coming of age movie instead of getting everyone to safety.
At this point, all she could hope was that no one from the school district looked too closely. A lot depended on them believing the story she had committed herself to, that the damage was related to a gas leak. Thank goodness there had already been a sizable capital allocation for building improvements in this year’s budget thanks to the affluence of the neighborhoods within the school district.
Celestia forced herself to drive home. Reaching her house, she parked her car diagonally in the car port, and walked inside in a daze. After changing into her pajamas, she prepared some tea to calm her nerves while continuing to try to make sense of it all. There would be no sleep for her tonight.
She clearly remembered that she believed that her actions made sense at the time, but honestly her thought process jarred with the rest of her mind. Now that she noticed it, Celestia could see clearly tell when her mental dissonance ended as well. The sensation was similar to the few times she woke up the morning after having overindulged with alcohol, remembering dumb decisions that made perfect sense the night before. However, there was a question she couldn’t answer to herself, and made it impossible to sleep.
Why did she still feel the need to give Sunset Shimmer a second chance to redeem herself at her school beyond all logic and what little protocol may be somewhat relevant? What was compelling her, and would it wear off?
The guest room at Luna's home was the only one that didn't follow the decor of the rest of her house. While she preferred winter colors elsewhere, in the southern facing room, she had opted for warmer tones, colors such as beige and pink with hints of green here and there.
It actually mirrored her sister's decor at her house, where Celestia had a guest room that clashed, with heavy black out curtains and painted in muted blues and purples. They had painted them a while back when they had found themselves back in each other's lives after years of estrangement. While they kept their own separate lives, they routinely stayed over often enough that it felt right to personalize their respective guest rooms.
Luna was happy that her sister had not opted to visit tonight, as she drove to her own home. While she would speak with her come morning, she was too tired to get into a deeper conversation this evening. Once inside, Sunset had taken a quick shower and was in bed in less than 15 minutes, though from the sound of it, her sleep was anything but restful.
Luna lay thinking on the living room couch. Dark thoughts should be mulled over in the dark hours of the night she supposed. She had known Sunset for almost 3 years. Actually, she had been the first student she'd spoken to after getting her new position as vice principal.
The girl had previously always been charming, but enigmatic. It would be a lie to say that she hadn't had a soft spot for Sunset, as the girl was one of the few students that seemed to prefer going to her rather than directly to Celestia for any problems. Luna came off as a bit of a disciplinarian as CHS, she knew, so students that weren't afraid of her were few and far between.
Luna had prided herself in being able to read the children that came into her office. It stemmed from her past as a guidance counselor. She'd seen a young woman with such potential in Sunset, perhaps with a bit of chip on her shoulder, not unlike Luna herself at that age. Luna never saw a hint of this coming, however. Her professional pride was bruised thanks to that. However there was something else that had begun to worry her more and more in the dark hours before dawn.
As she ran over the facts of the evening, she could see the incongruousness of everyone's actions during and after the fiasco. Tia's actions in crowning Twilight and continuing the dance after a 15 foot crater had been drilled in the front lawn of their school, Luna's own actions in having Sunset work around a potentially unsafe area to remove debris, and finally, promising to look after Sunset as she discovers 'friendship'. Luna knew this wasn't how she would have reacted normally, and the options that came to mind to explain it were ominous.
Were they all simply suggestible due to lingering effects of the mind control? Or did princesses in Equestria use magic to make sure their decrees were followed? Why was Princess Twilight so adamant that Sunset needed assistance and care, after battling her moments before?
She knew she would have difficult questions to ask her sister and the girl in her guest room come morning, and she felt the answers would change everything for quite a few people. There was one question that seemed to somehow become more and more urgent however.
What did the magic do to Sunset Shimmer, and was it permanent?
All across the Canterlot High school district, teens set to bed after their memorable evening. For most of them, their memories of the evening focused on the friendships and young romances, each the protagonist of their life. The odd events that interrupted their personal stories were labeled unimportant by their subconscious. Only those directly part of the events such as Twilight's friends, and those with particularly focused minds were able to maintain a sense of perspective around the relative importance of events for the evening.
So it came to pass that most students would simply have a sense of deep disapproval for Sunset rather than run to the media about the existence of magic, and talking dogs. The very few that were not deterred by the subtle after effects of the magic used were also disinclined to make any overt mentions either.
For the practitioner of human magic, Trixie Lulamoon, this was a vindication of her beliefs, something deeply personal. She already expounded on the existence of real magic with her every breath and no one believed her, so why would this change anything?
Lyra Heartstrings had a conspiracy theorist's heart, and she would post it on tor servers, in the darkest corners of the web, where others spoke of big foot and the Loch Ness monster, not realizing that the validity of her evidence would be orders of magnitude easier to prove if she had approached more mainstream media.
Flash Sentry would take very soft steps around Sunset until he could confirm her lack of remaining magic, for his own personal safety. A part of him knew that an objective third party would not blame Sunset for coming after him after what happened between them. That situation had ended up resolving itself and he had thought he had dodged a bullet with her when he finally broke up with her a few weeks ago, but seeing what she was willing to do made him wary. It's like his cousin always told him though, it's always the crazy ones.
Pinkie had woken up feeling pretty weird, with a belly as queasy as that time she found year old Halloween candy stashed in the basement, and ate some. Last night was crazy!
The sun was barely beginning to brighten the sky, the birds were chirping, and she had to get ready for her weekend job at the bakery soon. She sprung up from bed clear to the door, before cartwheeling down the hallway to the bathroom.
“Gooooood Morning Pinkie! Time to get ready for a new day!” She shouted at her reflection as she slapped her cheeks to wake herself up. Pinkie was not going to let a slightly upset stomach beat her, no sirree!
It took a bit longer than usual to go through her morning routine, as she had some caked on makeup to get off her face, as well as wash her hair due to yesterday’s festivities, but she was still making good time as she hurried downstairs to eat some Loopy Fruities cereal for breakfast.
“MMmmmmm…. Breakfast of champs! Says so right here on the front!” She exclaimed to the empty room. It was fun to be silly on your own sometimes. It was also fun to be silly around others too she supposed.
Pinkie quickly rinsed out the bowl and grabbed her phone before skipping outside. She glanced at it to see her messages, noting that she had a few from last night, but those were from her friends sharing their selfies between each other. Besides that, the group chat she’d opened was pretty empty at the moment. Oh well, the other girls were likely sleeping in this morning.
Speaking of friends… She went down her extensive contact list, until she got to a number she had rarely, if ever used. Pinkie prided herself in knowing the whole school's birthday calendar and phone numbers. It made party planning a breeze. Today however, it made it harder to convince herself that she couldn’t fulfill Twilight’s request just yet.
Good thing she had her friends though! She could just share the decision with the group and let everyone vote on what to do together!
Pinkie began to quickly enter her thoughts as a text, and sent them to the other girls. The little icon showed that everyone received them. She got a reply a minute later from Applejack, which made sense as farm living meant she would be awake already.
The rest of her friends answered in the next few hours. It ended up being a 3-2 split on either reaching out to Sunset immediately or just waiting until Monday. Thankfully, Rarity went ahead and volunteered to do the initial leg work around noon, so Pinkie could go back to focusing on what she needed to do today.