//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Sense of Distance // Story: Sunset Shimmer & The Temporal Rift // by Lunaria //------------------------------// Chapter 1 Sense of Distance Sunset was not a morning person; That's not to say that she couldn't go up early, after all school generally started fairly early in the morning. But if she was given the choice of sleeping in or getting up with the sun, the former one was always the one she'd pick. So with that in mind, it was not terribly surprising that this early in the morning her head shot up from the bed at the sound of very loud banging nearby. "Aaaah!" With her eyes still trying to adjust to being awake she struggled to located where it was coming from... or even where she was. The room seemed fairly familiar to her but she could just not place it. It was a fairly small apartment like room with two doors, occupying most walls of the room were bookshelves. In one corner of the room was a working area in the form of a desk and chair, there was also the bed she was currently occupying. The banging on what was clearly the door did, however, not relent. So Sunset did the rational thing and got up from bed to answer it... only to immediately fall over onto the floor and hit her head. "Owwww, fuck." Landing face first on the floor hurt something fierce. "I'll be there in just a minute, okay!?" She yelled, hopefully whoever it was that needed her at this ungodly hour would give it a rest. "Very well" Someone replied from beyond the door. Giving out a sigh of relief Sunset took stock of situation. Head? Hurt like crap from the fall but otherwise fine. Legs? Seem to work from what she could tell, if a bit unresponsive. That was probably the reason she had fallen over, she figured. Okay, what about hands? Sunset glanced at her hands, or rather, at the lack thereof and her mind went blank. There were very obviously two hooves at the end of her front limbs. 'Okay, so I'm a pony again, this means I'm back in Equestria? I'm really not used to being back here if I forget as much when I sleep.' Knowing what was the problem she re-asserted herself and got up on all four hooves. It figures it would be easier to do that when you had a better sense of where the center of your gravity was. Trotting over to the door she pulled it open with her hoof only to come face to face with what was clearly a castle servant of some description. "Uh, right so, how can I help you?" She offered. "I'm just here to wake you up at this hour as you yourself specified. Seeing as you're up and about now I'll take my leave, unless there's anything else you need?" "Oh, um, no that would be all. Thank you." As she watched the castle maid nod and trot off down the hallway Sunset was thoroughly confused. Looking around this was clearly Canterlot castle, not Twilight's castle in Ponyville. 'Okay, rain check, I'm back in Canterlot, and I very much do not recall going back here. Sure Celestia and I are on better terms after the whole memory stone incident, but I rarely come over for a visit.' Sunset closed the door and glanced around the room she found herself in again. 'And this is clearly my old room I had back when I was studying here under her.' A sickening sensation was starting to settle in her stomach. But surely, Celestia only kept the room the same on account of the possibility that she might one day come back, right? She shook her entire body to get rid of the anxiety that was building up. The best way to solve any mystery was to gather more information, so that's what she would do. After all, when your room is a miniature library finding some answers shouldn't be that hard, right? Sunset groaned, she wasn't sure how long she had been at it but the tomes that littered her room were quite unhelpful in figuring out when in time she was located. In fact, outside of the very rare novel the majority of books were on magic or magic research. The easiest way to get an answer was obviously just to ask somepony, the problem with that idea was that if the anxious idea in her head was right... there could be consequences. Still there was clearly nothing here that would be helpful... She was interrupted from her thoughts by her door knocking again. Walking over and opening it she was once again faced with the maid from earlier. Their coat was a dark brown while their mane was gray. Their eyes were sharp and in the shade of orange. "Yes?" "Lady Shimmer I have come to remind you that breakfast will be served in ten minutes in the small dining hall." She took a light bow and got ready to head off. "Ah, wait, um." The maid stopped in her movement. "Was there something else?" That was the big question for Sunset. She could *easily* just ask what year it was, they would probably not think much of it. And yet... "Could you have today's newspaper delivered to me?" She asked with what she hopped was a smile on her face. This was a better idea, the paper would say what printing day it was, for archiving reasons if nothing else! "Very well." They nodded. "Which paper would you like?" Crap, she had not thought that far ahead. "Oh um, it doesn't matter, just one of the big name ones, right?" "I shall have it delivered to you shortly, if you have left by the time I get back here I'll have it sent to the dining hall." She nodded before heading off. Sunset let out a sigh of relief as she closed the door. Why was social situations giving her issues? She should have gotten over this stuff already. 'I suppose that while having friends I'm used to being around is quite different from interacting with people ponies that were payed to be at your whims.' If anything she was more used to being in that position herself what with working in a restaurant. Takings stock of her room, it was now a mess with books everywhere but cleaning that up would have to wait till after breakfast. Which, now when she thought about it, almost certainly involved seeing Celestia again. She gulped, she was absolutely not ready for this. Trotting over to the bathroom attached to her room she grabbed the brush on the sink and started to try and fix her obvious case of bedmane. She swore a bit as she caught another knot. "Oh yeah, go back to Equestria Sunset, it will be great! Except now you have to brush your darn hair with your hooves!" She glared at the offending instrument in her right hoof. It didn't even have an easy way to grasp it! She sighed and kept at it for a bit more before eventually giving up, it would just have to do. Just as she was about to head out the door, she was once again interrupted by knocks on it. At least this time she knew what she was expecting when she opened it. "Here's today's edition of The Daily Sun lady Shimmer." The earlier maid offered as Sunset accepted the held out newspaper. "Thank you." Sunset said as she picked up the paper in her hooves and put it on the floor so she could turn and read it for show. 'New opera in Manehattan finally open for public? Bleh, who cares?' She turned the page with her hoof before she got the sensation that she was being watched. She looked up and sure enough the maid was still there, looking at her oddly. "Er, is there a problem?" "...I was considering asking you that, to be honest." They tilt their head before continuing. "Since you're not using your magic, I mean. Pardon me if I'm being rude." Sunset's eyes widened before she promptly put her hoof to her forehead. Magic, how could she have forgotten that? She didn't come to Equestria that often these days, but she really should be more on the ball about this. Which, speaking of, she now needed an excuse, crap. "Oh, um... I was... up late practising magic?" She got a nod in return. "So I'm a bit drained and still recovering, I don't want to over exert myself." That made sense, right? It made sense in her head anyway. "Ah, of course. That would explain your troubled start earlier too." She offered a smiled before nodding. "Don't forget to head down for breakfast though, you're expected." Sunset nodded back before returning to the newspaper. 'Let's see, the daily news can wait, the important part is figuring out what day today is.' Now where was the date? She folded back to the front page and looked around in the corners, eventually finding it. It was not a number she wanted to see, not a number she wanted to see at all. Somehow she was back in time before she first left Equestria. "Crap." No wonder she didn't remember coming here. The question was, what the hell would she do now? Celestia was having a good morning. She had awoken to a sense of calmness she rarely observed these days, and her morning duties went smoother than usual. Now all she had to do was attend breakfast and then get started with day court. Her mood lessened somewhat, it had been a good morning she reasoned. Most good mornings rarely survived breakfast these days, even less so when she had some bad news. Today was going to be more busy than she had initially planned so she would need to cancel her lesson with Cadance. The younger mare would surely understand, but they would be disappointed none-the-less. She trotted into the dining room and took her seat at the head of the table. The small dining hall existed for her own personal use with friends and family, as such it saw no use in state official endeavours and was sized accordingly. It could seat six or so ponies with great comfort, or potentially up to ten if the need would require it. So far that need had not existed on account of her lack of a social life. Celestia groaned, no need to get herself in a tizzy before today's eventual fight started. She glanced over to the smaller alicorn to her right, Cadance had already been seated before she arrived, but there was yet any sight of Sunset Shimmer. This, she realized, was a blessing. It meant she could solve one problem without causing another. "So, my dear niece, how are you doing this morning?" She offered. Cadance glanced up at her. "I'm doing fairly well, I think. There's..." She had a look on her face like she would rather not say what she was thinking. "I don't mind whatever it is you have to say my dear, we are family now, after all." "Well, it's just that most days are quite dull. I still get up as early as usual but there is no weather I need to manage, and most ponies I get to know here are..." Cadance's face scrunched up. "Either can't look past my new title, or only want to be around me because of my title." She groaned. "It makes it hard to socialize, you know?" Celestia nodded. "Yes, I'm quite familiar with how hard it can be to get close to others when in our situation." When was the last time she had a friend, a real friend that wanted to spend time with her because who she was as a pony, not because of her title or position? She was honestly struggling to recall. "At least we'll have some time together later today to practice magic, so that's something, right?" Cadance offered with a small smile trying to steer the conversation towards more positive matters. "...about that." She sighed. "Looking over the scheduled meetings after day court it has come to my attention that I will be disposed for most of the evening." "Meaning?" Cadance's smile was crumbling by the second. "Meaning I'll have to cancel this weeks lesson I'm afraid. I'm sorry." She offered what she hoped was a sympathetic smile. "I- well, I guess I understand. You have a country to run after all." Cadance had a dejected expression on her face. Celestia groaned internally, she did not enjoy having to cancel on Cadance. Spending time with her niece and her student was some of the only fun occasions for her these days... Spending time with them each separately she mentally corrected. She should make it clear to Cadance that she was just as unhappy about this as she was. "I do not take joy-" That's when the door to the dining hall slammed open with a loud bang. "Oh crap!" A voice exclaimed from the same direction. Celestia groaned and looked over to her side. Over by the east entrance a very flustered Sunset Shimmer stood with the doors in her magical grasp. She closed them with much less force than what she had used when opening. At least she looked apologetic about it, this time. "We can talk more about this later" She whispered to Cadance whom nodded in return. Talking about Cadance's magic education was a surefire way of setting off the amber unicorn, after all. Glancing over to her student she looked like she was in the process of lifting a news paper from the floor and arranging it in front of her face before walking over to the dining table. She then proceeded to miss the dining table by walking into a chair. "Aaaa" Sunset exclaimed as she almost fell over. Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly. It would seem her student was sleep deprived once again, probably up late studying some complex spells. She let out a sigh, this was become a bit too much the norm. "Are you doing well my student?" Sunset glanced between Celestia and the newspaper before eventually folding it up to the front page and putting it on the table, all while having an awkward expression on her face. "Ummm, good morning?" She offered. Celestia tried to not sigh yet again, she failed spectacularly. Doing quick scan over Sunset confirmed her fears, she was absolutely covered in magical residue. Today's flavour seemed to be temporal, which wasn't too surprising. "Up late studying again?" She offered in return. "Yeah, something like that." Sunset said as she got seated at the table. Before looking between her and Cadance. "While you do know I greatly respect that you take your magic studies quite seriously, you should also strive to take care of your body too Sunset." At this Sunset visibly deflated. "Er, I'll try my best?" she offered weakly in return. Celestia shook her head, same song and dance as usual it would seem. At least she hadn't exploded in her face today. She considered trying to hammer the point in harder but the waitress had come to take their order. "I'll take my usual fare." She said, getting a nod in return from the waitress. Sunset had gone back to reading her paper, quickly turning between pages and occasionally giving a snort at something. "I'll have a fried egg on toast, some hay on the side, and a glass of orange juice." Cadance provided after some consideration. Cadance had come from a rather small community with mostly earth ponies, so her taste in food reflected a more simple diet than the sophisticated circles in Canterlot held. Personally Celestia found it rather refreshing, it was hard to get away from the fancy when it came to the big city. The waitress glanced at Sunset, and when the mare offered no signs of taking note offered a polite cough. When this also did not get a response from the mare buried in her news paper she spoke up. "Lady Shimmer, what would you like for breakfast?" "Huh, what?" Sunset said looking up and seeing everyone looking at her expectantly. "Oh er, can you get me two ha-" She stopped herself seemingly realizing something before continuing. "Two hay burgers, if that's possible?" Celestia had to stop herself from giggling at the waitress's shocked expression. Though that is not to say she herself wasn't surprised. Hay burgers were hardly breakfast food to begin with, let alone something the castle staff would usually cater. Seemingly at least a bit self aware Sunset shrunk back in her seat. "er, right um. I guess that's not possible. Just get me whatever she is getting." She said while gesturing at Cadance while going back to reading her newspaper. Now it was her and Cadance's turn to be shocked. Sunset usually would not be caught dead being the same as Cadance or doing the same thing as her, nor having the same food as her. Sure, it was all superficial, Celestia knew that, but it was still something the two of them knew was a sticking point for the unicorn. "So... finding anything interesting in the news my dear student?" Celestia prodded. Come to think of it, she could not remember the last time Sunset cared to read the news. And indeed, she got an expected snort in return. "Not really, most of it is just the rumour mill as usual, followed with the occasional bit of social important information. But even then that is usually drowned in dull commentary." Sunset shook her head before folding the newspaper together and putting it away. Cadance scuffed "Well, that's pretty par for the course for The Daily Sun if you ask me..." before scrunching up, immediately realizing her mistake of not only opening her mouth, but also attempting to have a polite discussion with the mare across from her. "Yeah, probably." Sunset return while nodding, having a somewhat odd look on her face, as if she was about to speak but could not find the words. This was probably a good time for Celestia to interject if she didn't want another fight to break out at breakfast. "Sooo, what magic were you experimenting with yesterday anyway?" That was not nearly as smooth as she would have wanted, but it would have to do. Better than having Sunset yell at her niece for daring to speak up. "er..." Sunset suddenly seemed very interested in looking anywhere but at her. "Well?" "...I don't remember." She eventually offered. "You... don't remember?" Celestia prodded. Sunset nodded in return. This was... weird to say the least. Usually Sunset could go on for quite a while about about whatever she was currently trying to learn or experiment with, especially if she thought it would impress Celestia. She was clearly deflecting to try and avoid the conversation, but why? A sudden look of realization appeared on Sunset's face and she lit her horn, running a scanning spell on herself. After which she seemed quite relieved. "It seems... that I was doing something with, uh, temporal logistics." Sunset looked up at Celestia. "But I do not remember exactly what I was doing." "Hmm, that is a bit disconcerting. You really do need to start taking your health more seriously." Sunset let out a groan. 'So she really can't remember? Odd.' She couldn't think of any temporal magic that would cause memory loss, at least not any that hadn't been banned and burned centuries ago. Then again, sleep deprivation could cause memory loss. When faced with the unknown, the simplest answer is usually the correct one, after all. "Actually, could you run a magical scan on me and write down your return values, I could use some data that isn't contaminated by me doing the scan. I really need to figure out what I was messing with." She looked quite hopefully towards Celestia. Celestia made a show of scanning her before starting to writing down the discerned numbers and figures on a loose scroll. Obviously she still recalled what she had gotten in return from earlier when she did her first scan, but it was better if Sunset didn't know of that. The staff took this opportunity to serve their breakfast and all three of them dug in. It was hard to tell who was struggling the most with levitating the utensils between the two of her companions. 'The sleep deprived sorceress or the inexperienced alicorn, truly the competition for the ages.' She thought while snickering. Finishing the complex diagrams she floated over the scroll to Sunset before taking a sip of her morning tea, Cadance decided at this time to interject. "Isn't that dangerous and illegal?" What was she talking about? This was pretty standard spell-fare, Celestia was about to question what she meant but she got beaten to the punch by her student. "What do you mean?" "Well, you said temporal magic, right? From my understanding time travel and such is highly illegal." Cadance seemed to get less sure of herself now that Sunset responded. "Oh, I see the mistake. Okay so, you're actually right in that regard. But a lot of time related magic is actually perfectly legal. In fact, one could argue that without temporal magic as a whole a lot of spell-work just would not be accessible to us." Admittedly, at this point Celestia wasn't quite sure what to say or how to act. This was the longest conversation Sunset and Cadance have had in months, that didn't also involve either of them getting hurt or angry. Clearly, the best thing to do is just stay out of it and see how it would resolve. "Okay, but... how?" Admittedly, Cadance's magic education was not as far along as she would have wanted. Sunset seemed to ponder how to respond, and she didn't blame her here. Celestia knew that her student absolutely despised having to explain simple magic concepts, especially to ponies who should really be old enough to know them themselves. "Okay so... how to put it. Temporal logistics is the sub-field of temporal magic that deals with... well, the logistics of how time moves, to put it simply." Cadance only seemed more confused now than before, and Sunset was clearly struggling to figure out how to put it in a simple manner so the alicorn could understand her. Celestia was trying to come up with a good way to interject to explain this to Cadance, after all, this could maybe provide a bit of a magic lesson to make up for the one they would miss today. A good idea could be to start with a time piec- "Okay so you have a clock right?" Sunset proclaimed. "Yeah?" "Right so most clocks are mechanical in nature, just gears moving and it will advance the arms showing the time." Sunset looked over to see if Cadance was still following. "If you want to replicate that with magic, you'll need a way to keep track of time. Temporal logistics is all about keeping track of time and when in time something is. So if you wanted to say, have an enchanted crystal that told you the time, it would require it to be enchanted with temporal magic to do so!" "I- I think I get it?" Cadance did not seem too sure of herself. "Well, if not there are some good books on the subject, I would recommend 'Wave Catcher's Guide to Tidal Fluxations', don't let the title fool you, it's all about temporal magic and it should be quite easy to understand." To say that Celestia was flabbergasted would be an understatement. Not at the explanation but at the fact that one was given at all by Sunset. It was as if she had somehow woke up on the wrong side, or the right side if you will, and was doing the opposite of what she usually did. 'Maybe I should strike while the iron is hot, the question is, do I dare?' "Cadance... why don't you ask if Sunset wants to fill in today?" Celestia offered her best possible smile as she addressed her niece. Said niece immediately grew tense as she understood what she meant. "Fill in for what?" Sunset asked, clearly not at all interested in staying in the dark about this. Cadance just wearily looked between the two of them while stuffing food in her mouth so she didn't have to respond. It was a pretty surefire way to tell that she was nervous and was trying to think of a way out of this, and Celestia couldn't blame her exactly. Sunset just kept staring at her expectantly however, so after swallowing she finally replied. "So, um, official business came up so..." Cadance was sweating bullets at this point. "Celestia is too pre-occupied to teach me magic this week." "Right, that makes sense it can get quite busy around here at times. So?" "'So?'" "Well, what does that have to do with me?" 'I swear, for as smart of a head that was on my student's shoulders, she could be quite dense.' Cadance looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here right now, still, this interaction would be good for the two of them even if nothing else came from it. Celestia took the opportunity to sip some more of her tea. "...Well, what Celestia was suggesting earlier was that... you would fill in for her in teaching me?" Sunset's face got very blank once she realised what was being asked of her, before looking at Celestia with a scared expression. "Are you sure that's a good idea, your highness?" Oh she was sure that this was possibly one of her worst ideas in recent times, the fact that everyone at the table could see it would not dissuade her, however. Cadance was very much behind when it came to magic and Sunset absolutely could not control herself when it came to having her face plastered to books all day. Putting the two together would in a vacuum help both, but when considering their personalities and insecurities it was a wildfire just waiting for kindling. Still, did it hurt hope that things could improve between them? "While I know the two of you have some... difficulties getting along." She watched both of them cringe as she said this. "Cadance really needs a helping hoof with her magic education and I have come to realize I simply do not have as much time as I would want to dedicated to this." Celestia made a show of letting out a big sigh. "For what it's worth, you'd be doing me a big favour Sunset." And there, she wrapped it up by stroking Sunset's ego a bit. She was always extremely dedicated to trying to please her, however misguided that might be. This seemed to have had the opposite effect than expected however, as Sunset looked at her aghast. "I..." Sunset glances over at Cadance, seemingly struggling for words. "Okay, sure, I'll do it." Cadance seemed to be at loss for words at this outcome, Celestia herself was a bit taken aback too, if she was being honest. She hadn't actually expected Sunset to accept, but rather to decline and say that she was too busy with her own studies. "But" Sunset continued with a frown while fixating her gaze at Celestia. "Please refrain from doing things like that in the future." She did not elaborate on what she was referring to, but it was quite clear that she had picked up on her somewhat underhoofed attempts at convincing her. She provided a nod back which seems to satisfy her student. The day just kept getting stranger and stranger. Still, she had managed to convince the two mares to spend some time together, somehow. She'd have to see this as a win, and had to hope that she hadn't just lit a spark that would set the entire castle on fire.