My name is Feather Duster. It is Solar Year 985 and I am finally beginning the job I have worked towards for as long as I can remember.
My mother, and my mother’s mother, and a whole line of ponies stretching back beyond easy memory, had all worked as maids. My earliest memories were of how elegant she was, always patient and unflappable in the face of any obstacle.
Maids are often looked down upon, as are all those who work for a living. Those who do so generally do not understand the work, nor do they understand working as a concept except as something other ponies do.
Canterlot Castle was the very peak of where a life of service could take you. Even a short time spent among the staff would give one such prestige that they would be able to pick their postings for the rest of their lives. The pay was, of course, also enough that many of the maids were independently wealthy in their own right. I wonder how the nobility would react if they knew that the ponies bringing them tea and biscuits were better off than they were?
It was not my first day in the castle, but it was my first day out of training, and I was understandably nervous. For a month, I had been shadowing other maids, learning how things were done, the processes they used, getting to know the ponies I would be working with. It was a time spent getting the worst of the jitters out of my system and making sure I would be able to fit with the team.
Each of us had a somewhat permanent assignment, aside from when large events were taking place in the castle. I was looking forward to my new assignment, as caretaker and personal maid for the Princess’ personal student, Sunset Shimmer. Apparently, her prior maid had (rather abruptly) moved on to another position in the country.
My first duty would be to wake the young scholar and see what she wanted for breakfast. I was looking forward to meeting her. As the Princess’ personal student, it was like serving the Crown itself, though as she was a foal I believed she would be easy to manage. I have never in my life made a more incorrect assumption.
I knocked on her chamber door.
“Lady Shimmer, it’s time to wake up,” I said, just loudly enough to be heard through the door.
There was no reply for several minutes. I wondered if she hadn’t heard me.
Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t yet know Sunset Shimmer well. Some of the ponies I’d worked with would want to be woken up even if it meant rolling them out of bed by hoof. Others hated being forced out of bed in the morning. I was going to have to figure out what kind of pony she was.
If I had to guess, though, she would probably want to be woken up. She was the Princess’ student, after all, so there was little doubt she was a punctual, enthusiastic mare.
“I’m coming in,” I said, politely, as I opened the door. I’d never actually seen the inside of her room or met her before. I was expecting it to be much like the other guest rooms in the castle, perhaps with a bit more paperwork and a more scholarly selection of books on the shelves.
Instead, it was a dark, cavernous room, stacks of books growing from the floor like stalagmites of knowledge, some almost reaching the ceiling and teetering perilously from the haphazard piling. A few had fallen over already, lying in drifts on the floor. I could smell the musty, sickly smell of rotting food from somewhere within.
“Hello?” I asked, nose scrunching at the smell.
I was starting to wonder if I was even in the right place. Had I found some forgotten corner of the castle? It certainly didn’t seem like maids had been here in quite a while.
“Is anypony here?” I asked. My wing brushed against one of the tall columns of books, and the texts began to teeter, the stack rocking from side to side before finally collapsing entirely, toppling over towards me. I squeaked in alarm, knowing there was no way I could avoid it.
As the books fell to bury me, they suddenly stopped in mid-air, surrounded by a cyan glow.
“What are you doing in here?” Demanded an angry voice. I slowly got out from under the suspended books as they rapidly stacked themselves again. A foal was walking towards me, her horn glowing as she finished putting the books back in place.
“Y-you must be Sunset Shimmer,” I said, forcing a smile. I was still shaken up by almost being buried alive by nonfiction. The filly was wearing a black leather jacket that was a size too small for her and starting to wear heavily around the edges, and glared at me from behind a tangled mane of red and yellow. "My name is--"
“I don’t care what your name is, and you can call me 'the pony who didn't invite you in!',” she snapped. “I don't need some dumb maid coming in without being asked!”
“I-I was just making sure you were awake,” I said, taking a step back. “I apologize if you didn’t wish to be disturbed.”
“Well, I don’t!” Sunset Shimmer yelled. I found myself being lifted up. She threw me through the doorway, and I landed heavily in the hallway. With the way I landed, I was lucky I didn’t break anything.
The door slammed shut behind me.
That was the first time I met Sunset Shimmer.
Five years passed, as they have a way of doing. I remained Sunset Shimmer’s personal maid that whole time. At first, it was because I was the newest maid. Later, it was because I was the only maid who had lasted long enough to learn how to keep her from getting violent. I was also the only one who managed to clean her room without her getting too upset.
Sometimes.
“I was using that book!” Sunset yelled, throwing a plate at me. It was a hundred years old, a gift from a nation that didn’t even exist now. It shattered as it hit the wall behind me.
“I’m sorry, Lady Shimmer,” I said, backing away. “I can go and get it from the castle library if you still need it.”
“It doesn’t even matter!” Sunset yelled. “I’ll take care of it myself since I’m the only one who I can trust around here! Why don’t you go and have fun with Cadance, since everypony else likes her better, too!”
Her horn was glowing, and the temperature in her room was rapidly rising. Last time she’d gotten this out of control, the Canterlot Fire Brigade had paid a visit to the castle and even Sunset Shimmer hadn’t been able to avoid being admonished by the Princess. In all fairness, Prince Blueblood probably deserved most of the blame. He had an astonishing ability to make a poor first impression.
“Lady Shimmer, I was just trying to help,” I said, lowering my head submissively. She took a deep breath and started to calm down, the heat bleeding off.
“I know,” She said. “I know.” She started pacing. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to leave yet. I was about to start making my way to the library when she suddenly turned to address me again. “Do you hear about what Celestia did?”
I shook my head mutely.
“She's been jerking me around for weeks! Do you know what I’ve always wanted more than anything?”
I glanced at the wall over the desk. Scrolls and pieces of parchment had been pinned in a messy collage over it, showing rough sketches of Sunset Shimmer with wings. A few, half-hidden under calculations, showed her standing alongside Princess Celestia.
“To become an alicorn?” I guessed, already knowing the answer. Which made it a fairly secure guess.
“That’s right!” Sunset yelled. “To become her equal! So she’d start respecting me the way I deserve!” She threw a stool into the wall, the wood shattering. I flinched at the force. “She brought me to the mirror and I saw it! I saw myself as a Princess! I had wings, I had a crown, I was just like her, and I was-- I was just like her!” She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes.
I felt awkward. She had never, ever wanted to be touched, but she looked like she could really use a hug.
“Lady Shimmer, I’m sorry…” I trailed off.
“You’re sorry?” She laughed. “Don’t be. At least you mean well. I bet Celestia likes you! Always following orders, always polite, never failing!” Sunset scoffed. “I tried that. All she ever told me was that I had to keep waiting, that I wasn’t ready yet.”
“Lady Shimmer, I know it isn’t my place, but may I say something?” I looked up at her, my ears folded back.
“You might as well,” Sunset mumbled. “It’s not like you can make things worse.”
“I don’t know what she has planned for you,” I started. “But I know that Princess Celestia has always seemed like the kind of mare who makes very long, detailed plans. And I’ve never known her to take advantage of anypony. Whatever she’s doing, perhaps it’s for the best for you.”
“For the best for me?!” She snapped, lifting me in her magic. “That’s what she always says! I’m not a bucking foal! I’m the strongest unicorn in Equestria! I should--” She looked down, and her grip on me faltered. “I should get a say in it. Why doesn’t she trust me?”
I landed softly as the magic around me faded. Sunset had quieted, just staring at her hooves. I bit my lip, then girded my loins and made a decision. Despite how awful she’d been over the years, it was still my duty to try and help her.
I put a hoof on her shoulder gingerly. Since I wasn’t flung across the room or set on fire, apparently she didn’t mind.
“You haven’t had anything to eat all day, and I know you’ve been frustrated lately. Let me get you something to eat and drink, I’ll get that book for you, and we can turn this day around.” I smiled gently at her.
“The book wouldn’t help anyway,” Sunset muttered.
“The food will still make you feel a little better,” I said.
“...That book would have been a dead-end anyway,” Sunset muttered. “She thinks I’m not ready, and she let me borrow that from her personal library.” She looked up. She didn’t even see me now. I knew that look. She was looking through everything, unfocused as she thought about herself. “So the information has to be somewhere she wouldn’t let me look. And the only place she won’t let me look is…”
I started to get a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach. The feeling that Sunset Shimmer was about to do something ill-advised. “L-Lady Shimmer--”
She shook her head, my words breaking her out of the trance she’d gone into. “Um. Right. Go and get some lunch and tea. Take your time. I’m going to make a quick stop at the library and come back.”
She walked past me, muttering to herself. I was sure she was going to end up getting into trouble, but I’d been dismissed, and there wasn’t that much trouble she could get into at the library. I was wrong about that. If I’d stopped her or tried talking her out of it, maybe things would have turned out differently.
But that was the last time I saw Sunset Shimmer. Or so I thought.
It was the day after the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. I adjusted my uniform, looking at the door to the Princess’ study. I wasn’t in any real state to see her. After the panic and rioting had stopped, we’d been trying to get the castle into a fit state to receive the Princess. We’d managed to brush things under the rug well enough to make it presentable, but now we were trying to actually clean, and it was going to take days of concentrated effort.
When the guard had come to tell me Celestia wanted to see me, I was knee-deep in scrubbing a floor where Blueblood had almost drowned himself in wine. I wasn’t sure if he had been trying to drink the cask or just bathe in it, because either way half of it had ended up staining the stone tiles.
My knees still had faint traces of pink from where I’d been kneeling. I knocked on the door and hoped the Princess would be understanding.
“Enter,” she said, with an odd lilt to her voice. She sounded happier than I’d heard her in years. I pushed the door open. Celestia was going over thick reams of paperwork, making notes and signing forms. She looked up at me, and her quill paused.
“I hope I am not disturbing you, Princess,” I said. “I was told you wanted to see me?” I couldn’t help but be nervous. She was easily twice my height, infinitely wise and powerful, and the absolute ruler of Equestria.
“I did,” Celestia said. “Please, sit. I wanted to discuss a special assignment with you.”
I sat on the cushion in front of her desk. She put her paperwork aside and focused on me. It was something I noticed she did with everypony, no matter how important or humble they were - she would put things aside while she was speaking to them, to let them know that she was focused on what they were saying.
“You’re one of my best maids, and more importantly, you already have experience with this.” Celestia pulled out one form she’d set aside. “I want to reassign you from the general staff.”
“You want me to be a personal maid again?” I asked, carefully. Personal maids were treated very differently from the general staff. Personal maids were attached to important ponies and were expected to learn their habits and anticipate their desires. “Is this for the new Princess? I heard rumors that you were putting together staff for her.”
“Not quite,” Celestia said. “Luna will need staff, but I wanted to assign you to a pony you already know quite well, though she’s changed a lot since you last saw her.”
“Who do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia said. I managed to keep my jaw from dropping.
“I thought she was dead,” I blurted out, surprised.
“Thankfully not,” Celestia replied, smiling. “You were her personal maid before, and I want you to reprise that role. She’s changed quite a bit, and I think something familiar might help her adjust.”
“Of course, Princess,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to think. It had been a long time since I’d seen Sunset Shimmer. I still remembered those days, and not fondly. Unlike some less lucky ponies, I at least didn’t have any burn scars as more permanent souvenirs.
“Just... try and make her happy,” Celestia said. “I want to avoid the mistakes I made in the past. I would appreciate it if you would meet with me from time to time so we can discuss her needs, as well.”
I bowed. “Yes, Princess.”
“Excellent,” Celestia said. “She should be settling into her old quarters. Why don’t you go let her know the good news?”
Good news. I wasn’t sure if I’d call it that. I’d gone almost a decade without being blown up, except for one accident involving Twilight Sparkle. When Sunset Shimmer had been around, it had been a weekly occurrence. Perhaps I am being unkind - in truth, both of them had roughly the same number of accidents, but Twilight Sparkle was kind enough to plan them in advance.
I turned the corner to where Sunset’s room was, and found myself confronted with a corridor filled with boxes.
“What are these?” I asked, wondering if some of the mess we’d shoved under the rug had found its way here. If so, it was the worst possible timing. Sunset had never been tolerant of dealing with other ponies problems. I was lucky it wasn’t all on fire already.
I opened up one of the boxes. Inside were candlesticks and a wall hanging. Resting against the box was a mirror. The other boxes were similar, full of the small things we’d put around a room to make it more comfortable.
“I’m moving all of this into storage,” said a voice behind me. “I’m sorry about the mess.” I turned to see a pony in a black cloak. She pulled the hood back, and I realized it was Sunset herself, several inches taller than I remembered and bearing more scars and a few wrinkles. Wherever she'd been, it clearly hadn't been easy on her.
“I’ll have some of the staff come to get this for you, Lady Shimmer,” I said, bowing slightly.
“Don’t bow!” Sunset snapped. “I’m not some... “ She took a deep breath. “I’m not a Princess and I don’t want to be treated like one. I’m just a normal pony.”
She didn’t look like a normal pony. I decided that I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.
“I’m sorry, Lady Shimmer.”
“And don’t call me Lady Shimmer,” Sunset said. “Look, I appreciate that you’re just doing your job. You’re probably really great at it.” She stopped and frowned. “Wait, are you the maid who…” she trailed off.
“I was your personal maid, yes,” I said, trying to keep smiling. “Princess Celestia has asked me to continue serving you since we’re already familiar with each other.”
“I thought you looked familiar,” Sunset muttered. “I… probably owe you an apology. A lot of apologies. I was pretty awful as a filly. Sorry.”
“You weren’t that bad,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
“Compared to Tirek the Conqueror, maybe.” She snorted. “Look, I’m just getting rid of all this stuff I don’t need. I can manage it myself. Do you have like a storage room or something I can put it in?”
“The nearest storage is down the hallway,” I said. A public building like the castle needed a lot of storage. We had rooms full of chairs and tables for large dinners, a loft stuffed with Heath’s Warming Eve decorations, and hidden galleries of paintings and tapestries that had fallen out of style or that we simply had no room for.
“Thanks,” Sunset said, the boxes lifting into the air. There had to be two dozen of them, and she didn’t even look like she was straining herself. I’d forgotten just how strong she was compared to the castle’s usual guests.
“I’ll walk you there,” I said, going ahead of her. I wanted to make sure nopony got in the way. Sunset didn’t comment as we walked into the shelf-lined room, just putting the boxes down and looking around. After a moment, she stacked them with the rest of the aging, dusty cardboard.
“Is it okay if I leave them here?” Sunset asked.
“It’s fine,” I said. “We do an inventory once a month and reorganize storage rooms. Until then, we won’t have anywhere better.”
Sunset nodded and walked out. I followed close on her heels, shutting the door behind us.
“I could get you something to eat,” I suggested. “Do you still like almond butter and banana sandwiches?” She glanced back at me as we walked back down the hallway.
“Just… go find something better to do,” Sunset said. She pulled the door to her room open, and I could see that she’d taken almost everything out, leaving bare stone and a bed with a single blanket. Before I could say anything, she closed the door, leaving me alone in the hallway.
“She has… definitely changed, your highness,” I said. A week had gone by, and I could count on my hooves how many times Sunset had actually left her room.
“Thank you for continuing to try and help her,” Celestia said. “Sunset has always had a problem with accepting help from others.”
“It’s not just help,” I said. “She won’t let me do anything.”
“She’s growing up,” Celestia noted. She smiled. “I didn’t think she was so humble.”
“It’s not humility,” I said. “She’s punishing herself. Every time I try and do something for her, she just says she doesn’t deserve it and refuses to accept it.”
“Please, just do what you can,” Celestia said. “I want her to be happy.”
I had no idea how to make Sunset happy. She’d changed so much since I’d seen her that if she’d dyed her coat and mane I would have easily believed it was a completely different pony.
But I did know where I could start trying. I made a stop at the library and picked out a half-dozen books, most of them on magic. She’d always loved reading, much more than she’d liked other ponies.
“Sunset?” I asked as I knocked on her door. “Can I come in?"
I pushed the door open with a wing and stepped inside, balancing the books carefully, when she didn’t answer, intending to leave the books in her room and go. Her room was as empty as a dungeon cell. It was a little creepy, compared to the cavern of books it had been before.
“I brought you something to read,” I said, putting the books down on her bed for lack of anywhere else for them to go. No Sunset, no furnishings. I stepped back outside and looked up and down the hallway, just to confirm I was in the right place. Even ponies who knew the castle well sometimes got lost. It was like the corridors would sometimes change when you weren’t looking.
I bit my lip and walked down the corridor to where I knew a guard would be waiting.
“Excuse me,” I said, waving to get his attention. “Have you seen Lady Shimmer? She isn’t in her room.”
“Sunset Shimmer left several hours ago,” the guard replied. “I think she was leaving the castle.”
“Leaving the--” I blinked. “Do you know where she would have gone?”
I tried not to hyperventilate as I walked through the streets. Canterlot didn’t have a bad part of town in the same sense that Manehattan or Liveryburg did, where there were whole neighborhoods that law-abiding ponies simply wouldn’t go near. Even so, there were parts of town that were less proper, places that the nobility avoided. Places where a pony could manage to get into trouble, even if they were under Celestia’s protection.
Unfortunately, it was exactly that sort of place where Sunset seemed to have gone to. I’d considered asking the guards to help me find her, but the last time guards had tried to keep tabs on her in Canterlot, it hadn’t gone well for anypony involved.
I was going to have to do this alone. Of course, I had no idea where to go, or what to do when I found Sunset. It wasn’t like she was breaking any laws.
I heard the concussion of a nearby explosion and quickly revised my mental statement. She wasn’t breaking any laws by leaving the castle. There were plenty of other laws she could be breaking instead.
I turned the corner to see a tavern with broken windows and stallions fleeing through the doorway. There wasn’t a lot of smoke, so the building didn’t seem to be on fire. Yet. Of course, I couldn’t be sure that Sunset was actually involved--
“Quake with fear!” A fireball exploded in the street behind them.
It seemed she was going to make it a simple matter to locate her. I ran up to the tavern, looking inside. Tables were overturned, and there were blackened scorch marks along the walls and floor. All of the burns radiated from one place, where two cloaked ponies sat at the bar. The rest of the patrons had fled, leaving the two alone.
“Don’t you think that was a little excessive?” The larger one sighed.
“They tried to steal my bits,” the smaller one said, pushing back her hood and revealing a fiery mane. Sunset Shimmer.
“It was still too much force. You could have killed them.” The larger mare removed her own hood, and I gasped in surprise.
“Princess Cadance?!” I said, shocked. The two were within striking distance of each other but Sunset Shimmer hadn’t yet attacked her. Perhaps I still had time to prevent tragedy. Sunset turned and saw me looking in the doorway and waved.
“Oh, hey,” Sunset said. “I didn’t think you’d show up. This place doesn’t really seem like your jam.”
“Y-you were gone from your room and nopony knew where you went, and I was afraid…” I trailed off.
“Sunset!” Cadance glared at her. “You didn’t tell the guards where we were going?”
“Of course not,” Sunset snorted. “I’m not a prisoner. Besides, the last time I was here the guards were more interested in kicking me out of the palace.”
“You really need to tell ponies where you’re going,” Cadance chastised. “What if something happened to you?”
“The Princess would be able to find me pretty easily, since most of Canterlot would be on fire,” Sunset snorted. “Not you, I mean. Or Luna. I meant Celestia. I guess you’d be able to find me too, though.”
Cadance shook her head. I stepped closer, looking around the tavern. Ponies were staring at the two and keeping a wide distance.
“You two came here… together?” I asked, confused.
“Why are you here?” Sunset asked, frowning at me. “Shouldn’t you be… I don’t know. Something more important than just chasing me around?”
“It’s my job, Lady Shimmer,” I sighed. “I was worried that you would have…” I trailed off.
“Would have what?” Sunset asked. “Tried to take over Equestria? Stolen artifacts of dark power to assume a perfect, immortal form?”
“I was worried that you would have left again,” I sighed. “Lady Shimmer, you can’t just vanish like that. You have responsibilities-”
“No, I don’t,” Sunset said, cutting me off. “I don’t have responsibilities. I’m not a Lady. I’m just me.”
“That doesn’t sound like the pony that grew up telling me she’d be ten times the princess I was,” Cadance laughed.
“When I was a foal, I wanted to be a princess, sure,” Sunset admitted, shrugging. “But that’s just not for me. I had to learn that lesson the hard way. Being a witch has definitely worked out, though. Better hours, less paperwork, all sorts of perks. Besides, I’ll settle for being ten times the spellcaster. I know you’ve been slacking off on your studies!”
“You do have responsibilities,” I put in, starting to feel angry. “You’re responsible to Princess Celestia as her daughter--” She looked distinctly uncomfortable when I said that. “--and you’re responsible to all the ponies in the castle because even if you don’t like it, we all look up to you. The new staff members see you as Celestia’s long-lost daughter. The old staff members remember that you were her faithful student. Half of the castle is convinced you’re going to end up wearing a crown by the end of the year! You told me you want to prove you’ve changed. You have to act like it and not just… just refuse to be a part of castle life and blow up bars when you get bored!”
It had all come out in a big, angry rush. Princess Cadance and Sunset Shimmer stared at me. I felt heat rise to my cheeks. I’d badly overstepped my station.
“I…” Sunset shifted in her seat. “Sorry.” She glanced at Cadance, then back to me.
“An apology is a good start,” Cadance said. “I remember how hard it was getting used to having ponies defer to me. I’m still not really used to it, but I know I have to try and live up to their expectations of me.”
“It was a lot easier when I could just let them fear me,” Sunset mumbled.
“Sis, they were never all that scared of you,” Cadance giggled. Sunset shot her a glare.
“Don’t call me Sis! It’s bad enough trying to get used to Celestia. I’m putting my hoof down on that one right now.”
I sighed and walked up to the bar, collapsing into an unused barstool. “Can we please go back to the castle? The last time you went missing, it caused an international incident.”
Sunset nodded. “Cadance, can you--”
“I’ll take care of things here,” Princess Cadance assured her. Sunset sighed and left, pulling her hood back up as she stepped out. The bar immediately started to come back to life, conversation emerging from hiding and filling the room now that the patrons weren’t cowering in fear.
I started to get up to follow Sunset and ensure she returned safely, but a wing touched my back.
“Please wait a moment,” Princess Cadance said.
“Of course, Your Highness.” I bowed slightly, as much as a pony could when they were seated. Cadance offered me a smile and motioned to the bartender, a drink appearing at my hooves as if by magic. Or royal order, in this case.
“Thank you for taking care of Sunset,” Cadance said. “I know she’s not easy to get along with. When she gets depressed, she… tends to fall back into bad habits.”
I took a sip of the drink I’d been offered to steady myself before talking to the Princess. It wasn’t really a maid’s place to be familiar with royalty, but she’d been the one to give me the glass and it would be rude to refuse. “She’s not nearly as bad as she used to be,” I ventured.
“You’re right,” Cadance agreed. “But now that she’s back in Canterlot all she sees are reminders of that pony she used to be. And because she’s not nearly as bad, she feels guilty. Sunset hasn’t exactly said it, but she feels a need to distance herself from the filly that terrorized the nobility.”
“That must be why she got rid of all her old things,” I said. The drink was starting to loosen my tongue. Under most circumstances, I would never have revealed anything about Sunset’s private business to another pony.
“I didn’t know she did that,” Cadance sighed. “I should have guessed. She’s probably trying to punish herself because of some dumb guilt complex.”
“I am not sure what I can do. I’ve tried helping her, but she refuses to allow me to even clean her room.” It felt like confessing my sins, telling Cadance about how little I’d actually done since I’d been reassigned. It was at the same time my easiest and most difficult assignment - hours spent trying to find something to do.
“Maybe… there is one thing,” Cadance said, slowly. “If you’re willing to do it.”
I knocked on the door.
“Yes?” Sunset asked, her voice muffled.
“May I come inside?” I asked. “I brought you some books from the library.”
“I guess.” The door glowed for a moment and swung open. Sunset was sitting at a window, the cloak she’d been wearing thrown on the floor. I picked it up and folded it without being asked, and without giving her a chance to tell me not to do so, putting it on the bed alongside a few books from the castle library that I thought she might enjoy.
“I apologize,” I said. “I spoke with Princess Cadance and she pointed out something obvious that I have neglected since your arrival.”
“No, no,” Sunset sighed. “You’ve been too nice. Whatever you’re thinking about doing, I don’t need it. I can take care of myself, and I don’t want ponies worrying about me or doting on me or--”
“When you were a filly, you were difficult to deal with,” I interrupted. “If I am to be overly charitable I might say you were dedicated to your studies at the expense of all else, but in truth, you were rude and dismissive of others. It was not an assignment I often enjoyed, but I persevered because I also take pride in my work. That is something we have in common.”
Sunset looked back from the window at me, obviously surprised that I was being so frank.
“I want you to know that there are no hard feelings between us,” I continued. “Whatever wrongs you think you committed towards me, I forgive you.”
Sunset looked away. “That means a lot,” she said. Her voice was unsteady, but I saw some tension leave her shoulders like I’d removed some portion of whatever burden she was carrying. “There are only about a thousand more ponies that I have to fix things with.”
“What were you looking at?” I asked. I walked over to stand next to her. The garden was outside, dotted with statues. She was looking past them, down the mountain to the valley and fields below.
“You can just barely see Ponyville from here,” Sunset sighed. “I was just... thinking.”
“About what?” I pressed.
“Nothing important,” Sunset said.
“Tell me,” I said, smiling. “Was it about some cute colt you left behind?”
Sunset snorted at that. “You’re almost as bad as Cadance! She tried to set me up with everypony who wasn’t already married in Ponyville. And a few who were. Those were especially awkward. Lyra and Bon-Bon still can’t look me in the eye.”
“Ponyville?” I asked. “I have family there.”
“You do?” Sunset turned to look more closely at me.
“My cousin, Ditzy Doo. Her sister… well, her sister is all over the place.” I laughed a little. “Ditzy is one of the town mailmares.”
“I know her,” Sunset nodded. “She’s… almost as accident-prone as I am.” She snorted. “Her kids are cute, though. I gave them a few lessons. With a pegasus mother and earth pony teacher in school, they didn’t have much of a chance to learn the theory behind magic.”
“That explains the house fires,” I noted.
“What can I say? Sparkler is a natural.” Sunset laughed a little. It was the first sign of anything besides depression that I’d heard since she’d come back.
“You miss Ponyville a lot, don’t you?” I asked.
“My friends are still there,” Sunset said. “I get why Twilight wanted me to come back here. She wants me to… try and fix things with Celestia. It’s just not easy, you know?” She turned away from the window to look at me. “I went through a lot, and I saw the way other ponies really thought of me, and I didn’t like it. I thought I changed.”
“You did,” I affirmed. “But that doesn’t mean you need to punish yourself.”
“I’m not--” Sunset sighed. “When I came back, Celestia tried to make everything exactly how it used to be. She even put me in the same room with the same maid.” She gestured to me. “When I was a foal, I hadn’t earned any of that. I was just a spoiled little brat who didn’t appreciate it.”
I would have said she hadn’t been a spoiled brat, but I would have been lying and both of us would have known.
“If she’s treating me the same way, does it mean I didn’t do anything important? Does it mean she doesn’t think I really changed, and that I’m still that same foal I used to be?”
“Maybe she just thinks that you’ve earned the things she freely gave you as a foal,” I suggested. “That you grew into the mare she always thought you could be.”
“Maybe,” Sunset said, though she didn’t sound sure.
“Is there anything else I can get you?” I asked, hoping she was starting to feel more comfortable.
“No. Thank you for the books, though. I don’t feel comfortable going to the library myself after…” she trailed off. “I’m pretty certain it’s the same librarian who told Celestia I broke into the dark arts section. Maybe if I saw her for more than two seconds before she tries to hide I’d know for sure.”
“I understand,” I said. “If you need anything, just let me know. The bell by the side of your bed--”
“Will alert you, I know,” Sunset said. “I remember how it worked.”
I bowed and backed out politely, letting her have her distance. I already had an idea of what I could try next. I just needed to speak to Princess Celestia and send a few letters.
“What is all this?” Sunset asked. I looked up from the box I was pushing towards her room. She was returning from lunch a few minutes earlier than I’d expected. “I told you I don’t want any of that stuff in my room. It’s not who I am anymore.”
“These aren’t the boxes from storage,” I said.
“Then what are they?” Sunset opened the box. Confetti sprayed into her face, making her sputter in surprise before it almost instantly burned to ashes. “That was a confetti cannon. Why was there a confetti cannon in the box?”
“After we spoke, I realized the real problem.” I opened her door and pushed the box inside. “It’s not that you feel like you haven’t changed, it’s that you have changed, and what was here isn’t really yours anymore.”
Sunset took the box when she saw me struggling with it, effortlessly lifting it with her magic. She almost dropped it when she looked inside her room.
Carved masks and faded tapestries adorned the walls. A bookcase was filled with tomes both old and new, some a thousand years old and others borrowed from a small library. A cauldron (which had been quite difficult to transport, even with the help of a half-dozen off-duty guards) sat near the fireplace.
“These are…” Sunset whispered, walking over to where a weathered statue had been set on the floor. “These are all from the old castle.”
“I asked Princess Celestia to write to your friends,” I explained. “They packed up a lot of your things from the castle to make you feel more at home here in Canterlot.”
Sunset opened the box she had carried in, putting the spent confetti cannon to the side. Within were layers of hoof-stitched blankets, some homey and smelling like apples, others made of the finest materials and embroidered with delicate patterns. Protected by the padding, framed pictures were revealed one by one as she picked her way through the box.
There were almost a dozen in total, all of Sunset’s friends. I watched as she carefully set them on the bed, folding the blankets and putting them on the side. Sunset sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, facing away from me.
“Thanks,” she said, after composing herself. “I mean, it’s silly, you know? They’re not that far away. I can practically see Ponyville from here. Even if the train wasn’t running I could teleport there in a few hops.”
“It can feel a lot further away when you feel like you don’t belong,” I said. “I used to move around a lot. I had a few things I always put up, and a place didn’t feel like home without them.”
“It does seem more like home now,” Sunset admitted, smiling. “Can you help me hang some of these pictures?”
“I’d be happy to,” I said, returning the grin.
“She’s settling in now, your Highness,” I said. It seemed that weekly meetings with the Princess were going to become the norm again. When Sunset had been a foal it had mostly been to make sure she wasn’t mistreating me and that she wasn’t developing bad habits.
Now, Celestia wanted to be sure that her former student was happy.
“That was a brilliant idea,” Celestia said. “I should have thought of it myself. Her friends know what kind of pony she’s become, and the things that make her happy now. I thought that trying to put things back the way they had been would make Sunset comfortable, but… if she had been happy as a filly, none of this would have happened in the first place.”
“Very few ponies are really happy at that point in their lives,” I said. “She was growing into a young mare, and a lot of things were changing for her. She needed to find herself, and from what I’ve seen, she did.”
“I put so much pressure on her, back then,” Celestia said. “You remember what it was like, Feather Duster? Pushing her with assignments and homework and seeing what her limits were.”
“You were trying to help her grow, your Highness.”
“A farmer helps her crops grow, but it’s no less cruel when it becomes time to harvest them,” Celestia said, her voice quiet. “I pushed too hard, too fast, because I wanted results. I did love her, but in some ways it was… secondary to what I needed her to do.”
“I’m not sure I understand, your Highness,” I said, watching her expression. She shook her head.
“It’s not important. Things worked out. Perhaps they would have worked no matter what I did. Prophesy and Harmony are subtle forces in the world, but as inevitable as gravity.” She looked to the window, where the sky was starting to turn to shades of orange and purple. “If you’ll excuse me, I have my duties to take care of.”
“Of course, Your Highness. Thank you for your time.”
“No, thank you. You’ve gone above and beyond what I could have possibly expected of you. I am in your debt. Now if I can just encourage my sister to begin undertaking her duties, perhaps I can get a small break from time to time.” She sighed, leaving the room to stand on the balcony.
I walked out, knowing she would expect me to be gone by the time she returned. I did have other duties to attend to, after all.