As Sunset embraced her former mentor, she felt nostalgia for the way Celestia had comforted her in the past creep into her heart, and she found that she didn't want to let go. She felt the wetness in her eyes slide down her cheeks but didn't care to stop it; after everything she'd been through with 'Anon-a-miss' and all the stress she'd been under recently, she was just so glad to be there and to be forgiven. Just like old times.
Eventually, Princess Celestia took a step back, and Sunset reluctantly did the same. The princess gazed down at her with a loving and gentle expression on her face.
"Twilight's told me much about the progress you've been making in the human world," she said, "and about how your friends there have been teaching you what I could not."
Sunset averted her gaze upon hearing the statement, thinking about her 'friends' in the other world and the accusatory expression that had been on their faces as she'd left the café.
"However, she's also informed me about the troubles that you've been having as of recent," Celestia continued, "and I understand your reason for coming back. Hopefully some time away will help you, and perhaps everything will be sorted out in the human world by the time you're ready to return."
"I hope so, too." Sunset sighed. "Twilight and her friends have been so welcoming since I got here, and it's the most at-home that I've felt in, well, a while. I honestly don't know what I'd do without them." No doubt it would be a lot worse than what 'Anon-a-miss' is doing, though, she thought.
"They are something special, indeed, and I have no doubt that some time with them will help you feel better in no time." Celestia grinned, lifting Sunset's chin with her hoof so that their eyes met. "I'm glad to have you back, Sunset; no matter what mistakes you make, you will always be my student, and they will always be forgiven. I hope you understand that."
Sunset's eyes almost welled with tears again as a relieved smile made its way onto her face. "I...thank you."
At that moment, the two of them heard the creak of the large door behind Sunset opening slightly. They turned their heads just in time to see Twilight fall sideways to the floor with a short squeal. Anxiously, she jumped to her hooves with wide eyes and a sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt!"
"Were you listening in on us...?" Sunset asked.
Twilight shook her head quickly. "No, no, no, of course not!" She hesitated with a glance to the side. "Uhhh, maybe."
"It's quite alright, Twilight. We were just about finished," Celestia reassured her. "I'm assuming that you'd like to catch the train back to Ponyville with Twilight now; it's Hearth's Warming Eve, after all." Her gaze was once again on Sunset.
"Um, actually, I'd like to spend some more time with you. If you don't mind, of course! It's just that I haven't seen you in so long, and..."
"I suppose I could spare some time in my oh-so-busy schedule for my former prized pupil," Princess Celestia joked. "A lot has changed since you were last here if you're interested in a tour of the castle."
A wide smile split across Sunset's face, and she nodded eagerly. Judging from the messages Twilight had sent her on occasion via the magical books, a lot of interesting things had happened since she was in the other world, and she was curious to hear about them and to see how much her old home had changed. She turned to Twilight and asked, "Is that okay with you, Twilight? I know you wanted to do some decorating once we got back, but..."
"Oh no, that's totally fine!" Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. "Don't worry about the decorating or anything; it was just an idea, and we can get to it later. I know how important this is to you."
Sunset blushed lightly, a tad embarrassed. "Thanks, Twi."
"I guess I'll see you back at the castle, then," Twilight said, and Sunset nodded in return. The purple alicorn glanced up at Princess Celestia with a grin before enveloping herself in a pink aura and teleporting out of the room.
With Twilight gone, it was once again just Princess Celestia and Sunset alone in the room. The taller of the two rested a hoof on the shorter's shoulder, causing her to jump a little in surprise. "Is there anywhere you'd like to start in particular, Sunset Shimmer?"
"I don't really mind, I guess," she replied, turning back to the princess while thinking back to her time in Canterlot Castle as Princess Celestia's personal student. It felt like it had been an eternity since she'd last been there - it had been quite a while ago, now that Sunset thought about it, ignoring a pang of guilt that accompanied the thought - but not nearly long enough to make her forget about all of the memories she'd made here. Practicing her magic sometimes in the garden and sometimes in the throne room with her mentor, studying late into the night in the castle library, occasionally pranking party guests when balls were held in the castle's ballroom...of course, not all of them were fond memories, though. She remembered poring over the books in the library's 'Dark Magic' section, searching for answers to her questions about the Crystal Mirror; that had been one of the last places she'd been before leaving Equestria...
Sunset shook the memory from her mind and perked up as Celestia said, "How about your old room?"
"Yeah, sure!"
Princess Celestia smiled and strode gracefully to the doors, opening them with her magic as Sunset trotted up to walk beside her.
"I have to be honest with you," Celestia began as the two of them walked down the hall. "Since I was unsure when, or even if, you were ever coming back, I cleared out your room after you left. I hope you don't mind. Most of your stuff is in storage, though, so there wouldn't be a problem if you needed anything back."
Sunset attempted to shrug but realized that it was quite difficult to do as a pony, especially while walking, so the gesture became a little more awkward than she'd meant for it to be. "Eh, it's alright. Most of it wasn't important anyway." Although some of it had been; she'd ask about getting it back later.
"In your absence, I had also allowed Twilight to stay in your room, back when she was my student." Celestia paused. "You both have a lot in common, you know. Both of you were always so eager to learn more and so determined to do well. She spent so much of her time studying in the library, just like you had. However, although you both were excellent with your magic and exceptional students, you also let your studies take priority over friendship and had trouble getting along with others. And that's where the differences begin, I suppose..."
Sunset looked to the side, flinching a bit at the route their conversation had taken, and said, "...Because I was selfish and too ambitious for my own good."
The statement warranted a sigh from the princess. "That may have been true, but you mustn't blame everything on yourself," Celestia replied, turning to her student with a look of concern. "I should have encouraged you to interact with your peers more. I should have known that your life was going down a dangerous path and helped you to see that there's more to life than knowledge and power. If anyone was at fault for your mistakes, it would have been me for not being as good of a teacher to you as I should have been."
There was a pause as Sunset considered what Princess Celestia had said, the only noise coming from the pair's hooves against the floors of the castle's halls. Multicolored light streamed in through stained glass windows that lined the halls; it was a remarkably peaceful morning, and Sunset wouldn't have wanted to spend it anywhere else. Hearing Celestia's words almost felt like a weight, one that she hadn't even noticed was there, being lifted from her shoulders. She hadn't known just how much she'd needed to hear that and although it was a bit selfish, the fact that she didn't have to carry the blame alone felt so much better. A small smile made its way onto her face as she raised her head a little.
"...Thanks." She sighed. "I know that I've said it already, but I really am sorry for all of the things I did and all of the trouble I caused you. It was horrible of me to just...leave like that and try to take control of a world that I knew nothing about."
"I forgave you for all of that a long time ago, Sunset. All that matters is that you were able to right your wrongs in the end and realize your mistakes. I couldn't be more proud of my prized pupil." Celestia wrapped her wing around Sunset again as they walked.
The rest of the day went by smoothly for Sunset as Celestia caught her up on what had been happening in the castle and in Equestria while she was gone. Most of it she had heard already from Twilight thanks to the magical books, but she did get to meet Princess Luna in pony for the first time during their tour of the castle. The encounter had been fairly awkward for the both of them, as Sunset was hesitant around the Princess of the Moon at first, but it didn't take too long before they were finally comfortable around each other. Sunset had received a few greetings from ponies who remembered her as Celestia's student during her tour, but she'd also received some angry glances and scowls from ponies who remembered how stuck-up she had been. Although it had bothered her a little bit, she'd ignored them as best as she could.
After the long tour had come to a close, Celestia gave Sunset another hug, and the two said their goodbyes. Sunset took the train back to Ponyville alone, reflecting on the day's events happily as she gazed out the train windows and watched ponies finish up their decorating and celebrating to retreat inside their homes and get ready for bed with the setting sun. It was a relief for Sunset to finally be heading home after such a long day, and she couldn't have been happier to see Twilight's castle coming into view over the horizon. The castle was strung with a multitude of lights, ornaments, and other types of decorations, causing it to glow against the darkening sky. Twilight must have went ahead and done the decorations, Sunset concluded.
Inside, Twilight and her friends were working on decorating the inside of the tree castle just as intensely as the outside, stringing lights in every empty space. The reflective walls and floors glittered. Amazed, Sunset looked around with wide eyes as she walked in.
"Wow, guys. You really went all out," she marveled. Upon hearing her voice, Twilight turned to greet her, and Pinkie Pie sped up to her to give her a tight hug.
"Sunset's back!"
"Heh heh, thanks, Pinkie," Sunset said, awkwardly accepting the embrace.
"How was your day with Princess Celestia?" Fluttershy asked softly.
"Oh, it was great! And it was really nice to be able to talk to her again. I mean, I was worried that she wouldn't even want to see me again after what I did..." The fiery-maned unicorn cleared her throat. "Anyway, it looks like you guys spent a lot of time putting all of these decorations up. They look great."
"It definitely took a lot of time," Twilight giggled, "but it's been fun. There's still some things to do if you'd like to help us finish it up."
Sunset began to nod her head, but Spike, panting, came rushing in just at that moment. "The...book..." he breathed, leaning over to rest his claws on his knees. "The book...is glowing...Twilight"
Twilight raised an eyebrow, and Sunset tilted her head in curiosity before the two of them shared a look. "That's strange...I'm pretty sure that I forgot my book back in the other world. Who would be trying to get a message to you?"
"Someone else must have found it. Did you leave it out in the open?" Twilight replied.
"Oh, shoot. Probably. It was in my bag when I went through the portal, so it had to have fallen out somewhere close to the school."
Twilight turned to her friends and said, "You guys can continue with the decorating; we won't be gone too long."
"Awe, come on, Twi!" complained Rainbow Dash exasperatedly. "We want to hear about whatever's going on in the other world, too!"
"I'm sure it's nothing too exciting, Rainbow. But we'll let you know if it is."
Rainbow's wings drooped, but she muttered a "fineee..."
With one last gentle grin in the pegasus's direction, Twilight left with Sunset and Spike to the room where the mirror portal and the book that kept it open were residing. Sure enough, the book was glowing and vibrating on its stand above the mirror. Twilight levitated it down so that both she and Sunset could see it and flipped through the pages until she came to the one that contained new messages.
Twilight! We need help! The book's acting really strange!
The handwriting was messy and inconsistent, and Sunset immediately recognized it as Rainbow Dash's. A scowl began to darken her face. Twilight turned to her with a frown.
"That's our friends in the other world, isn't it?"
"Your friends," Sunset replied through clenched teeth. "As if the fact that they've accused me of something I didn't do wasn't enough, now they've stolen my book, too. I'd ignore it, Twilight."
"Sunset, if they really are in trouble, we have to help them no matter how they're treating you."
"Well, I don't want any part of it."
Twilight, with a concerned look on her face, used her magic to levitate a quill over to the book and jotted down her reply.
What's wrong with the book?
The next words began to appear on the page almost instantly.
We're not really sure, but it started flying around out of nowhere and completely DESTROYED AJ's barn! There were vines everywhere and they were after Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, too! Sorry, Pinkie took the pen.
"Huh, that is kind of odd." Twilight glanced over at Sunset, who glanced quickly away from the book to pretend she wasn't interested. "Did anything like this ever happen with the book for you?"
"No. They could just be tricking you."
"I don't think that's something they'd do..."
I'm not sure why something like that would happen, and Sunset says that it never happened to her. Did you do anything to it? Where did you find it, anyway?
Fluttershy said she found it in front of the portal. But we didn Hold on, AJ wants the pen. Did you say Sunset was with you?
Yes, why?
"Twilight, don't let them know I'm here!" Sunset exclaimed.
"Why not?"
She groaned exasperatedly. "Doesn't matter now." New words appeared on the page.
We just need her to know that we're sorry. Turns out she wasn't Anon-a-miss after all - our little sisters were. Sunset, darling, we truly are sorry. It was wrong of us to jump to conclusions the way we did.
"It's a little too late for that," Sunset muttered, expression unchanging.
You guys really hurt her. She doesn't seem too keen on forgiving you right now.
There was a pause.
We don't expect her to. Just wanted to let her know we feel horrible about how we treated her. So, are you gonna help us with the magic stuff, Twilight? Oh, uh, I'm sorry too, Sunset.
I guess I could come over there to see what's
Sunset grabbed the quill from Twilight with her own magic.
Neither of us are going to help you. Just because something strange happens one time doesn't mean you have to call for Twilight's help just like that. It's probably nothing and if you really are that concerned about it, figure it out yourselves.
"Sunset, stop!"
Sunset dropped the quill angrily. "You can't expect me to forgive them just because they say they're sorry! They're just trying to convince you to help them!"
"Well, don't take your anger out on them! If you don't want to help, just let me handle it for now, alright?"
Sunset threw an angry glare at the alicorn before turning to leave the room silently. Twilight watched her go before sighing and picking the quill back up off the ground.
I'm sorry, girls. She just needs some more time to calm down. Let me know if anything else happens, and I'll do my best to help.
It's alright, Twilight. We'll let you know of anything else that happens. Merry Christmas! Or, uh, it would be Happy Hearth's Warming in your world, right?
Yeah. Merry Christmas to you all, as well! Good luck with the book.
With that, Twilight closed the book and set it back on its stand. She would do some research on the book later and maybe ask Princess Celestia if she knew anything about what was going on. She had given the book to Sunset, after all.
Sunset seemed to be having a lot harder of a time with this than Twilight had thought. Her outbursts were surprising; it wasn't like her. Twilight just hoped that her friend could forgive them eventually and that whatever was going on in the human world wasn't too big of a deal after all. Glancing at the mirror portal and the book one last time, the lavender alicorn left the room, pushing the worry and concern from her mind. It would be Hearth's Warming tomorrow, and she would try her best to help Sunset enjoy it.