=/// Somewhere in Austaillia \\\=
In the south-western part of Equestria, a place in the Poecianic region, it is one of the most dangerous areas in Equestria. This place is called the Province of Austaillia. From reports from visitors and inhabitants alike, it is the deadliest province in Equestria. There are many deadly creatures living here, ranging from the ever terrifying giant spiders, decapod cockroaches (no idea how such a thing is possible, it's terrifying), and to the infamous hoof sized scorpions.
In the past, colonization of the province usually ended in failure or sometimes in the death of entire colonists in the most gruesome way possible. All of this started when the Austaillian provincial government declared war on the Emu birds. When their expedition team arrived at Emu hotspots, they immediately charged towards the birds with their swords, spears, and bows. Unfortunately, despite the Emus not being sentient, these blasted birds managed to repel each and every attack.
(No, I didn't make this stuff up)
Though, just recently, a miracle happened. The ponies are now able to colonize this Tartarus of a region in peace. The ponies never knew what caused this sudden change of environment in the Poecianic region, but they didn't complain, they got more space to colonize. Of course, there were some who were suspicious of the sudden change, but despite their investigations into the matter, they found nothing. As a result, they concluded that it was just magic at the works again. They weren't entirely wrong...
Yes, there was magic, but it was from somepony instead of passive magic. The result of the miracle was of one of the Princesses of Equestria. Everycreature has been taught that there were two Princesses of Equestria: Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. Yet, there was another, the secret Alicorn, the adopted daughter of the Solar Goddess herself. Her body is almost as tall as Cadance, an orange coat and yellow mane with a red streak can be observed. To the humans, her mane looks like perfectly cooked bacon.
Her name is Sunset Shimmer, former student of Celestia, adopted daughter of the Solar princess. She was formerly a battle mage for the Equestrian Special Magic Corp and now she's the commander of the 501st Equestrian Legion.
If anypony hasn't known yet (which they shouldn't), she's an Alicorn, an alicorn kept in secret. If Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship, Sunset Shimmer is the Princess of Defense. She is considered one of Equestria's secret weapons if the other Alicorn princess and the government staff are decapitated. She fought in the shadow of the sun, saved Equestria from enemies of great, and has done countless things for the sake of Equestria's safety.
As of now, she's relaxing in her seat while enjoying coffee. After all of the things she has done, she truly deserved the break. She glances towards one her walls, a look of satisfaction can be observed on her face. On it, the wall is covered with pictures of her achievements and some skulls of her defeated enemies. It may seem crazy, but to her, it was a trophy. It was all of the results of her hard work in trying to prove to Celestia that she deserves to be an Alicorn, and huzzah, she got what she rightfully deserved.
(Something like this)
It was a really painful journey for her, despite her talents and dedication to her goal. At the same time, it was the most precious time she had ever experienced in her life. This made her think, 'how did this all happen?'. The fact that 24 years ago, she was just nothing more than an orphan trapped in an orphanage, but now she is one of the most important ponies in Equestria. It was almost amusing to her, really. A 'zero-to-hero' moment she can say.
She spends almost all of her time and effort just to make sure she is worthy of her Alicornhood to the point where she has no plans on what to do once she becomes an Alicorn.
Well, that's why she's here, to carry out mass extermination of the blasted Emus so they stop attacking and massacring the inhabitants of this province. She's taken a lot of them out, probably almost to extinction, but there's still pockets of Emus out there. Though, in every battle and skirmish she fought, why does victory feel like ash?
She didn't know how and probably would never would, but at the very least she could recap on how everything had started...
=///24 years ago, 1983 CLD, Canterlot\\\=
On the bustling street of Canterlot, the city where the place is filled with self-centered, egotistical, brat nobles, there is a pegasus. Her coat is snow white and her mane is a bright pink, though a tad bit wet due to the rain occurring above the city. Her Cutie Mark resembles that of the sun with a cloud on the side. With her, she carried a saddle bag and inside were her identification papers and a great deal of bits.
For ponies, I mean normal ponies and not those uptight nobles, she is known by the name 'Sunny Sky', by which she is remembered as to being one of the loyal customers of Donut Joe's. At first glance, she may seem to be a regular pegasus minding her own business, but if one were to look closely at the details, she closely resembles a certain Alicorn, specifically the Sun Alicorn.
Why would she disguise herself as a pegasus you may ask? Well, she just wanted to see how the daily life of her subjects are and simply enjoy her life as an ordinary pony, far from the politics and her kingdom's bureaucracy. Just because she's an immortal alicorn, that doesn't mean she doesn't need a break and vacation.
Anyways, she was walking on the streets of Canterlot heading to Donut Joe's restaurant to enjoy her favorite donuts. It was rainy, but she didn't mind. Oh, don't get her wrong, she loves her sun, but sometimes the heat was unbearable at times, so the rain being brought by weather ponies was an absolute wonderful thing. As she was halfway through the rainy sidewalk towards Donut Joe's restaurant, she suddenly felt a sudden magical burst engulf half of the entire district, almost all the ponies in the place started screaming frantically as their bodies were enveloped in a red magical aura and started to float into the air. Even Celestia was caught off guard by the overwhelming amount of magic.
She saw ponies around her starting to turn into household objects such as vases, trash cans, brooms and other items you would see in a house. She saw that the situation was getting out of hoof so before it got even worse, she decided to cancel her magic disguise spell and turn back to her normal self to try and fight against the sudden magical burst. She casted a spell that cancelled every form of magic in a small radius, and with that, the magical burst stopped, and everything returned to normal.
All the ponies that turned into household items were returned back to their original form. They were of course confused about what had happened to them. Some of them noticed Princess Celestia and they immediately bowed to her, causing a domino effect of ponies bowing towards their princess. Princess Celestia noticed this, and she raised her hoof up as a way to stop them from bowing before speaking to her subjects.
"My beloved subjects, there is no need to bow, I was just here to investigate the sudden magical burst that happened in this area." she addressed. The ponies, though a bit hesitantly, raised their heads to stop bowing. One of the ponies near her walked up to her with a look of concern.
"M-Must we evacuate the city, Your Highness?" he asked. Princess Celestia turned towards him before smiling.
"There is no need, my little pony, whatever sort of magic that happened here, it wasn't anything dangerous." she assured.
He sighed in relief before thanking Celestia for her actions, so did the other ponies. While the ponies were getting back to their personal lives, Celestia looked around and casted yet another spell. This spell was something she herself created in her earlier years, a spell to track any magical source. After a while, she finally detected the origin of the magical burst and to her surprise, it apparently came from an orphanage not far from her position.
Out of curiosity, she decided to visit the orphanage. It was a bit of a travel, but nothing much that would bother her. After a while, she arrived at the orphanage. It was decent looking; it was clear that it was taken care of as it should. She decided to return back to her Sunny Sky disguise as to not draw any attention. As she entered, she was greeted by one of the orphanage staff.
"Ah! Hello miss, my name is Velvet Harmony, what can I do for you?"
The staff at the front desk was a unicorn mare with a red coat and snow-white mane. Her Cutie mark was a white cross and from her accent, it appeared that she was from the Sweetzerland province.
"Good evening, Velvet Harmony. A few minutes ago, there was a sudden strong magical burst somewhere near here. I'm curious, did it come from here?" Celestia asked. Cherry Harmony looked a bit hesitant before answering.
"Erm... yes, one of our foals suddenly lost control with her magic. We are truly sorry for the disturbance it has caused." Velvet Harmony apologized.
"It's fine, Velvet Harmony. If possible, may I see who this foal?" Velvet Harmony looked at her before shaking her head.
"O-Oh, I'm terribly sorry, but unfortunately, she's off limits for anypony at the moment. She has strong magical energy, but she is unable to control it. Until she manages to control her magic, she cannot be adopted by anypony and only qualified mages or other specialized ponies are allowed to see her." Velvet Harmony says.
Celestia stood there, a tad bit irritated, but kind of understood why. Whoever this foal was, she was a bit dangerous if she's unable to control her magical powers. Though, that wasn't an excuse to prevent anypony from seeing this foal. She spent millions of Equestrian taxpayer bits to pay for an orphanage so the orphans could find new families, to find a better life out there. They should be taken cared of with love and compassion by caring ponies.
Whatever it is, she wasn't going to let Velvet Harmony stand in her way, despite the fact that she's just doing her job. She must investigate this incident and if possible, talk to the foal in question. In the back of her mind, she also noted to make sure whoever issued this order to get a stern talking by herself.
In order to get passage, Celestia decided to drop her disguise spell. The pegasus that should be named Sunny Sky was suddenly enveloped in a blinding white light. Celestia felt her body grow in size, her hair turned ethereal, and her horn are visible once again.
"Does this make me qualified now?" Celestia smirked.
Velvet Harmony and all the ponies in the room were stunned by what they saw. Their jaws dropped (not literally), and their expressions were of awe. Though, not Velvet Harmony's, she was nervous wreck. She thought that she would be thrown into a dungeon for her actions. She didn't know that the former pegasus was actually Princess Celestia. How would anypony know?
"I-I-I'm SORRY, Your Highness! I-I didn't know it was you! P-Please forgive me!" Velvet Harmony was near tears as she apologized profusely.
Princess Celestia looked at Velvet Harmony as she kept apologizing at an impossible rate. She didn't know that she would react this badly. She felt bad for the mare, she was only doing her job.
Princess Celestia cleared her throat, "It's alright, Velvet Harmony," -she smiled softly at the mare- "you were only doing your job. There is no need to apologize."
Velvet Harmony, after some seconds of calming herself, looked up towards Princess Celestia with a hopeful expression.
"R-Really?" a smile was beginning to creep up on her face as she awaited for Celestia's answer.
Princess Celestia chuckled lightly, "Of course! I wouldn't be the well-known benevolent princess if I were harsh, would I?"
Velvet Harmony chuckled as well, "I guess so, Your Highness." -she took a deep breath- "I'm guessing you'd still want to meet the foal?"
"You are correct in your assumption, Velvet Harmony."
"Well then, follow me."
Velvet Harmony took a clipboard before looking at it momentarily. She sets it back on her desk before motioning towards the princess to follow, prompting Princess Celestia to follow her.
"Is there anything else I need to know about this foal, Velvet Harmony?" Princess Celestia asked.
Velvet Harmony shook her head before turning towards the princess, "Well, besides the obvious, the foal is similar to every other foal in the orphanage." -she turned slightly in front of her to make sure she didn't bump into anything- "If it weren't for the magic, everypony would assume she's like every other foal in the orphanage."
Princess Celestia nodded, "How interesting..."
As both ponies made their way to the foal, everypony else who wasn't at the lobby were surprised at the sight of Princess Celestia: the orphans, the staff, and the visiting ponies alike. Even though she didn't show it, Celestia was actually laughing internally. Seeing her subjects reactions when she suddenly visits their areas really made her happy. Despite being almost two millennia old, a sight like this never gets boring.
Doctor Heinz Guderianeigh was really angry. His test subject released a burst of magical energy without warning and made a mess of his portable lab and damaging his equipment. Luckily for the doctor, the magic was abruptly cut off. It raised some suspicions from the doctor, but not enough to investigate as to why such a thing happened. He assumed that his test subject's young age was the cause.
His test subject was a young filly. Though, she was no ordinary filly, she was a rare type of unicorn called a 'Flare'. It was an extremely rare type of Unicorn that had a enormous magical energy core that almost matched that of an Alicorn.
Only a few Unicorn Flares had ever existed in Equestria's recorded history. Individuals like Star Swirl and Sombra are among the rare Unicorn Flares that have ever existed before the Reneighssance Era. Of course, with this sort of rarity, it is thought to be a myth, but the doctor knew better. Flares like Star Swirl and Sombra were only born once every millennium.
For almost his entire life, he studied Flares and other rare types of ponies. He always wanted to meet these types of rare ponies and study them, and here he his with a Flare. He never imagined himself that he would be in the same room as the Flare. He knew that this was the chance of a lifetime to research what is possibly one of the most powerful magical creatures in Equus besides the Alicorn.
He had been experimenting on her for almost a month now in secret, always getting past the orphanage staff by keeping the identity of being the foal's personal doctor. Though, despite the long time, this young filly keeps refusing to cooperate and continued to rebel against him. He didn't blame her though, he did some... questionable tests that would, if discovered, keep him locked up for a long time. She had also lost both her parents from an airship crash accident. She survived because her parents gave her to one of the pegasi passengers before the airship crashed to the ground because its Hydrogen gas got ignited.
He also intends to 're-educate' her as a Germane nationalist. It's his duty to bring back the pride and dignity of Germane. The Germane he was born into was weak and pitiful, not the one he learned about in his history class. After he finishes 're-educating' her, he would train her so she could control her magic. If she succeeded in controlling her magic, she would help him re-establish the Neighzi party and bring Germane to its former greatness. He could envision it now, him along with the Flare taking on the entirety of Equestria and winning.
Unfortunately for Heinz, his dream of reviving the Germane Third Reich would never come true...
....
*Knock* *Knock*
"Scheiße..." Heinz quietly cursed to himself as the knock was heard.
"What is it? I already told everpony that I don't want to be disturbed!" he says aloud with a heavy Germane accent.
"I'm sorry, Doctor Heinz, but there is somepony who wants to meet you."
Doctor Heinz got off his seat and started walking to the door. He rolled his eyes, who would possibly want to meet him at this time? He arrived at the door before turning towards the cage, the Flare still in its cage with its four legs chained and its horn now locked with an anti-magic ring.
He turned away from the foal before opening the door. He carefully poked his head out of the door since he didn't want other ponies to see what was really going on in the room. He of course lied to them and if they were to find out his true intentions, it was about to get messy.
"Who is i-"
Heinz's jaw dropped (not literally), it was the last pony he wished to ever visit him. Right in front of him in all her majestic glory was the one and only Princess Celestia. The sense of dread began to grow within him, cold sweat going down his face as he tried to put out a forced smile to greet the princess.
"G-Good a-afternoon, Your Highness. Is... erm... there anything I-I can do for y-you?"
Celestia put on a friendly smile towards Heinz before speaking, "Good afternoon to you to, doctor. I visited this orphanage because a few minutes ago, there was a sudden magical burst. I'm here to check its origin and I heard from the staff that this magic burst came from one of the foals that this orphanage houses."
Panic began to overtake Heinz. He inwardly cursed the unicorn flare that released the magical burst which ended with Celestia visiting him. He also cursed the receptionist pony for disobeying an order.
"My apologies, Y-Your Highness, but sadly she's uh... off limits for now. She's really... dangerous because of how much magic energy she has." he says in an attempt to dissuade the princess from investigating further.
Celestia started to smell something fishy about him because of his expression by the time she saw her. At first, she thought that it was nervousness which was understandable, most ponies she met were like this. Though, during her years alive, she was sort of able to tell between 'sus' and 'not sus'. She grew even more suspicious because of his replies which were questionble at best. Despite that, she decided to keep a neutral face and try to carry on the dialogue.
(Please make it stop, i can't take it anymore!!!)
"I'm aware of that, doctor, that's why I'm here to check on her. I myself am a teacher, maybe I can try and help her control her magic so that the sudden magical burst doesn't happen again?" she suggested. With her suggestion, Heinz was getting desperate, he needed her to leave.
"I'm t-terribly sorry, Your Highness, but she's, you know, veeeery tired because of her magic outburst and she's currently resting. Uh, h-how about doing it tomorrow?" he sheepishly smiled. There was no way he was getting out of this now.
Celestia's neutral expression vanished and was replaced with a frown. By this time, she already knew that he was hiding something, denying her to enter the room and telling her to just come back tomorrow was the most conspicuous. She had lived too long not to fall for his pathetic attempt of hiding something. She lit her horns and forcibly opened the door. Heinz desperately tried to hold the door, but was unable to because she was an Alicorn.
"Wait! No! Hold on!" Heinz cried out, but it fell on deaf ears.
By the time the door opened, both Velvet Harmony and Celestia gasped at the sight that layed beyond the door. Celestia had expected something bad, but this was beyond bad, it was downright horrendous. The room was absolutely dirty to the point where the chambers of Reddit moderators can be consider clean. On the table were dozens of tools of which the designs seemed to disregard every form of ethical means necessary.
Though, what was most shocking of all was in the middle of the room. In the center of the room, there is a cage and within its confines was an orange unicorn filly, chains bounded to her hooves and her mouth was covered with duct tape. From the looks of it, she seemed to be only 3-4 years old. Celestia can identify dozens of wound marks on her body and could also see that the filly was suffering from malnutrition. As she looked closer, she reeled back in horror, there were signs of possible sexual abuse.
The last time Celestia had seen this level of cruelty was almost a millennium ago during the Europonean war era, but even that wasn't specifically targeted at innocent foals.
Celestia stared at the filly before turning towards the doctor. He seemed to be backing away in fear, good... that's what she needed. Celestia slowly walked towards Heinz with a sort of snarl on her face, her mind beginning to cloud with anger.
"You... You did this, didn't you?" she growled towards him.
"I-It's not what you think! She's dangerous! She HAD to be locked into that cage!" he tried to reason, but to no avail.
Celestia simply looked at the doctor with disgust. Was he seriously trying to justify his actions? At the door, Velvet Harmony could only watch in apprehension as Celestia continued walking towards Heinz, each step was heavy and was closing the distance.
"I don't want to hear your petty excuses, doctor..."
Doctor Heinz was backed into a corner, he couldn't move anywhere as he was surrounded. He gulped one last time before trying his luck once more.
"W-wait! Just hear me ou-" he was cut off as Celestia, a princess known for her benevolent and calm demeanor, yelled at him.
"ENOUGH! I HAD HEARD ENOUGH! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES DEARLY, DOCTOR!"
Before Heinz could react, she quickly used her telekinesis to lift Heinz into the air. He yelped in surprise, trying to squirm in Celestia's magic grasp, but without any success. Celestia slammed him against the wall of the room several times, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious.
Celestia stared at the unconscious pony doctor with satisfaction. She then turned towards the filly in the cage before quickly opening the cage where the foal was in. Celestia hastily removed all the chains and duct tape from her mouth, though carefully since the foal was in awful shape. She also removed the anti-magic rings attached to her horn.
She did a quick scan of the filly to get better details of the wound she was suffering in. Once the scan was complete, Celestia cast the best healing magic spell she knew, quickly removing all of the wounds the filly suffered from. The unicorn filly stared on as her wounds quickly vanished from her body. The unicorn filly turned her attention towards Celestia with teary eyes. Celestia slowly went down towards the unicorn filly to calm her down and assure her.
"There, there... you're safe from that awful pony..." she assured softly.
Celestia gave the filly a warm hug with her wings, signaling the traumatized filly that her nightmare was over, that she was safe from all harm. After that, she then turned to face Velvet Harmony who escorted her to this room. From what Celestia could observe, she was still in a state of shock. The fact that all of these things happened under their noses without them knowing and the fact that Celestia, once believed to be benevolent and calm, attacked the false doctor with a rage not seen before in the princess.
"Did you know anything about this?" Celestia asked coldly.
She still stood there, the combination of shock and fear freezing her train of thought. Celestia then decided to use a more gentle method. She put on a neutral face and asked her again but slowly.
"Velvet Harmony, did you know anything about this?"
"N-No, Your Highness, I swear in the name of Faust's that I did not know anything about this!" Celestia looked at Velvet Harmony and it seemed that she was telling the truth. Celestia's guard lowered and she sighed.
"Alright then. Miss Velvet Harmony, could you go inform this to the the nearest Royal Guard post? I want this madpony arrested immediately."
"O-of course, Your Highness." Velvet Harmony replied.
Velvet Harmony quickly left the room. Celestia was able to hear that she informed the nearby orphanage staff about what she just saw and asked for their assistance to find the nearest Royal Guard.
Celestia then turned her gaze back to the filly unicorn. The filly hadn't uttered a single word or sound ever since she was released. It was most likely because she was mentally traumatized. Celestia turned to face a pile of papers on the office desk in the room. She then took out the several paper files with her telekinesis to find out what the madpony was doing.
After searching through several paper files, she finally found something interesting.
Subject Test : Sunset Shimmer
Gender : Female
Age : 3 Years and 7 months old
Race: Unicorn
Type: Flare (Extraordinary Rare)
Parental Status: Deceased
Cause of Parental Death: Airship crash accident
Note: The test subject always to put up a heavy resistance during the experiment. Subject must be confined 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A sudden magical burst can be dangerous without heavy use of anesthetics and anti-magic ring.
Celestia was shocked by what she saw. She turned towards the filly by her side who was now taking a rest. She quickly did a more detailed and in-depth scan of the filly to determine whether or not she was a Flare type. After several minutes of scanning, it was confirmed that she was indeed a Flare type Unicorn.
'That explains a lot...' Celestia thought.
It explained why the previous magical burst and also explained why this madpony did this horrible experiments to this innocent filly. Because of this, she couldn't be adopted by normal families. Flare-type Unicorns require special treatments so they can control their magic. There was also a high chance that somepony or some group would target her and try to foalnap her due to the rarity of Flare-type Unicorns. Celestia just so happened to interfere with one of these someponies.
Celestia was in deep though, she does not know on what to do with her. She can not be adopted by ordinary families and at the same time, she certainly wouldn't let this filly remain stuck in the orphanage for the rest of her life. After some deep thinking, she came up with a solution, a solution entirely new to her.
She couldn't believe that she was about to do this, but this innocent filly needed her, needed somepony to take care of her. She couldn't allow her to be left alone after all of the pain she has gone through.
Celestia turned towards the sleeping filly beside her and mutters, "Don't worry, little one, I will take you away from this place and I will teach you on how to control your powers. I promise to take care of you as if you were mine own daughter..." Celestia said softly.
The filly of course didn't say anything. She was probably still very weak from malnutrition and possibly dehydration, tired from all of the abuse against her. Celestia decided to get out of the room with the sleeping filly being carried out with her telekenesis. She placed the sleeping filly on her back softly as she continued down the halls. She also had to fill out her adoption papers so she could officially adopt her.
As she went down the halls, a squad of Royal guards came from the hallway towards her, the guards being accompanied by Velvet Harmony. Celestia then approached the group and then explained to the guards what happened and ordered them to heal the unconscious doctor before bringing him to a dungeon. The doctor had to answer for his crimes, and when he is brought to Equestria's National Court, she will happily bestow upon him the most awful sentence imaginable.
The guards immediately went to work while Velvet Harmony stayed behind with the princess. Celestia looked at Velvet Harmony with a smile before talking to her.
"Long day, huh?"
Velvet Harmony was surprised with Celestia talking to her before she responded, "Y-Yeah, long day..."
Velvet Harmony looked at the filly on Celestia's back, disappointment beginning to grow within her. She was supposed to care for the colts and fillies of the orphanage, to provide them with all of the necessities to have fun and live their lives. She was supposed to protect them from the dangers, and here she was, failing her job as a caretaker. Being tricked so badly that one filly under her care was abused for such a long time. She began to turn her head away from the princess before tearing up. Celestia saw this and went towards the pony caretaker with concern for her subject.
"Are you alright, Velvet Harmony?" she asked. Velvet Harmony turned slowly towards the princess, tears still falling from her eyes.
"I... I failed my job, Your Highness. I was supposed to care for them, to protect them," -she looked at the sleeping filly on Celestia's back- "yet she was harmed for such a long time under our noses..." Celestia looked at Velvet Harmony as she continued on.
"H-How can I possibly call myself a caretaker for foals if I let this happen? How can I possibly live with myself knowing now of the horrors she has gone through?" she says through tears.
Celestia looked at Velvet Harmony with a look of empathy. She can relate to her pain in many ways. She looked around herself before lifting the sleeping filly off her back onto a convenient table nearby. She turned her attention to the sobbing mare before walking towards her and putting a wing around her to comfort the caretaker.
"You didn't fail your job, Velvet Harmony, you never did. I can tell that you're a pony who cares for the foals and will do anything to protect them. It wasn't your fault that the filly was hurt. The doctor was a fraud, a pony of deception to get what he wants. Please, for your sake and mine, don't beat yourself up over this." she assured, wing still draped over the caretaker. Velvet Harmony looked up towards the princess, tears still falling, but it was considerably less than before.
She drew a shaky breath before speaking, "B-But Your Highness, he's been at this for some time now. Each week, he's been visiting the orphanage for this filly. I should've suspected something the moment he said that the filly must not be visited under any circumstances, but he was firm and... threatened us with some sort of punishment." -she turned her attention towards the filly on the table- "She's so young, so innocent, I should've disregarded his threats and barged into the room she was kept in, but I didn't, I was too afraid to see whatever punishment he had in mind."
Celestia sighed before talking, "Yes, you could have barged in, but you weren't aware of the punishments he had. Seeing his works and his... past, the punishments could only be what I assume would've been awful. You were concerned for the well-being of everypony around you. Though, all of that is in the past now, you can't do much to the past. You can only do stuff in the present and hope for the best in the future."
"I guess you're right..." -she sighed- "I just wish I had done something."
"And you did. Despite me investigating the magical burst on my own accord, you brought me towards the madpony. You also brought in the guards so that said madpony would be trialed for. Don't think that you did nothing, Velvet Harmony, because you did do something." Celestia assured. Celestia retreated her wing that was over Velvet Harmony before turning towards the sleeping filly. A smile creeped up Celestia's face as she looked on.
"Look at her, she seems so at peace. This was probably the first time she'd ever been like this in her life. We both can rest easy knowing that the pony that caused her harm is behind bars and we prevented this from going any further." she said with a soft smile.
Velvet Harmony looked along with Celestia and she was right, the filly did indeed look at peace. Her breathing had rythmn instead of it being erratic like the first time she saw.
"Yeah... I guess we did do that, didn't we?"
Celestia smiled at her, "Of course we did. She's safe now and it's because of both our actions and the doctor's nervousness."
Celestia picked up the sleeping filly with her telekenesis before placing her on her back. She turned towards Velvet Harmony with a calm expression.
"Velvet Harmony, I plan to adopt this filly and take her under my wing. Do you know where I could sign the adoption papers?"
This surprised Velvet Harmony as she heard the words leave Celestia's mouth.
"You're planning to adopt her, Your Highness?" she asked.
Celestia nodded before speaking, "Mhm. I plan to adopt this filly so she can have a nice life and I would be able to train her. It's a good idea and besides, she needs this."
"Alright, Your Highness, just follow me and I'll take you to the papers." Velvet Harmony responded.
As they both walked down the hallway towards the papers, Velvet Harmony smiled. Despite the recent events that happened way too fast, she knew that the filly who had been under such abuse for a long time would finally be in good hooves. She always enjoyed foals finding new and loving families in the orphanage, and this was no different. She chuckled to herself as she thought back at the past events, it had been a long day...
=///15 years later, February 10th 1998 CLD, Canterlot\\\=
It had been more than fifteen years after Celestia decided to adopt Sunset Shimmer, the unicorn flare. She managed to train her to control her magical powers. She taught her various kinds of defensive and offensive magic such as the 'Buck You Blast' and the 'Ain't No Way You Getting Past This Shield'. This made Sunset Shimmer, the new daughter of Princess Celestia, one of the strongest battle mages in Equestria.
Though, there was something that kept bugging her. Namely, she desired to continue to consume even more knowledge and power. It starts was like a black hole that kept consuming matter and keeps growing stronger as the time goes by. Not only that, she also continues to grow distant to the ponies around her, especially Cadence. Celestia tries to instruct her to make some friends, but she kept refusing. She kept saying that she didn't need friends and she could do everything alone.
Things got worse when she heard that her mother took a new unicorn as a personal student from the school of gifted unicorns a few years ago. She began to get more and more jealous because their time together got reduced. She was starting act like Luna.
Speaking of Luna, she's started acting weird lately as well. She began to lengthen the night time on purpose. At first, Celestia thought that this was because she wanted to give astronomers extra time to study the night sky. Though, after further investigation by Celestia, she found out that Luna was under the influence of a terrorist organization called 'Children of the Night', where they persuaded Luna to start a coup d'état and establish a new nation they called the 'New Lunar Empire'. How on Equis they managed to influence her, Celestia didn't know at the time.
Everytime they met, Celestia began to detect the spectrum of dark magic radiating from Luna's body. Even though she had been struck by the Elements of Harmony, the existence of the Nightmare Moon still remained in her body.
So, just as a precaution, she had to start drawing up plans to fight the Nightmare Moon again. Her best chance was to use the Elements of Harmony again, but after using the Elements of Harmony a thousand years ago, five of the six elements turned into stone. She needed somepony who could reactivate the Elements of Harmony, somepony who mastered magic of friendship.
Cadance was too weak and she had barely had any friends. Sunset was worse, she was too hungry for power and has no friends at all. The best candidate she has is her newest student, Twilight Sparkle. She has the same great magical potential as Sunset, but unlike her, she is not hungry for power and at the very least, she has some friends like Lyra, Moon Dancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine.
All she had to do was help her refine her magic and help her find suitable companions to the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
This leaves one thing unanswered, how about Sunset? She definitely wouldn't be happy with Twilight becoming a Harmony Element bearer. Tartarus, she still remembers when she was still seven years old and cutely said that she wanted to be an Alicorn princess like her so she can live forever and be the eternal protector of Equestria just like her.
As much as Celestia also wanted that to happen so she could live forever with her, she was unfit to receieve the title yet. She had to do something, something that would qualify her for Alicornhood. Celestia placed her hoof under her chin and started spending several minutes on what she had to do to make Sunset worthy of being an Alicorn. Friendship was not the only path to assertion after all.
Celestia had to think of something, something Sunset would like, something that would match her talents. She then remember Sunset's side job. Just like Cadance where she took a side job as a baby sitter, Sunset Shimmer took a side job as a battle mage.
'That's it! She will like being in the military. It had become her dream to become a great warrior after I gave her a book about Jenghis Khaneigh. Maybe she will find her true destiny there.' Celestia said in her mind.
With that, Celestia starts planning. She will conscript her into the Equestrian military and then she will send her away from Canterlot so she won't be involved with the inevitable Lunar schism. Despite Sunset's magical powers, Celestia knew that her daughter wouldn't be able to take on Luna. Besides, she would love the military.
She would send her on missions and gave her special tasks where she would slowly prove herself that she was worthy of being an Alicorn. All she had to do was come up with a good reason and convince Sunset to agree to join the military.
=///Sunset's bedroom, Canterlot\\\=
It was 9 PM and Sunset Shimmer layed upon her bed whilst reading a book about the ancient tactics of the Equestrian military. She was preparing herself for a lesson with her mother tomorrow where she said that she wanted to show her an ancient magical mirror artifact created by Star Swirl a millennia ago.
She really couldn't wait to see how the mirror looked like, how it worked, and whether she would gain access to new magical powers if she managed to re-activate the magical mirror. Her train of thought suddenly stopped when somepony knocked on her bedroom door.
*Knock* *Knock*
"Uhm, who's there?" Sunset asked.
"It's me, can we talk for a minute?" The voice replied.
Sunset was confused. Why would her mother want to talk to her at this time of night. Usually at this time, she was sleeping in her bed. She never expected to speak to anypony other than Aunt Luna this night.
"Oh! Of course, mom, come on in." Sunset said.
The door to her room then opened and revealed the Alicorn that took her in those years ago. Celestia then walked slowly towards her and then sat beside Sunset on her bed in a catloaf position.
"What is it, mom?"
"My dear, don't be offended by this, but I want to inform you that I have to cancel your lesson tomorrow."
"What?! B-B-But why?! Did I do something wrong?"
Celestia chuckled at her reaction, "Of course not, my dear. It's just that for some time, I'll be busy and I don't think I'll have enough time to teach you."
Sunset wanted to directly ask her why she suddenly didn't have time to teach her. Then, it struck her like a freight train, it was probably because of that purple unicorn filly her mother took in, wasn't it? Sunset then start to feel her anger beginning to rise for that blasted filly. Each and most of every time, when there would have been a chance to spend time with her mother, that purple unicorn filly somehow always prevented that. How dare that filly take her mother from her (most of the time).
Sunset wanted to start crying, but her mother placed a hoof on her shoulder before speaking a soft tone, "Don't worry, my dear, just because I can no longer teach you personally, doesn't mean your magical lesson is over." Celestia assured. That caught Sunset off-guard.
"R-Really?" she said with a hopeful tone.
"Mhm" Celestia smiled.
"So... what should I do now?" Sunset asked, unsure of what to do.
Celestia looked up, as if in thought, before looking back, "I will send you to the Royal Military Cadets. You have already shown your potential as one of the best battle mages in Equestria. I think you will be very successful there, and don't worry, every week I will always send you a letter for your studies and lessons that you will learn while you are there training."
"Every week?"
"Mhm, I will send you a book and other important lessons, and or missions, that you must fulfill so that you can continue your studies. Who knows, perhaps there you will finally achieve to prove your worth and fulfill your destiny."
Sunset's eyes widened and her face was filled with excitement. She knows what Celestia meant by her destiny. She still remebered back when she was still a filly, her mother said that she was destined for great things.
"I promise not to disappoint you, I will prove my worth and I will become as great as you!" Sunset said excitedly. Celestia grinned at her daughter's reaction.
"That's my filly! I know that you will not disappoint me. Though, for now you have to sleep. Tomorrow, you will pack your things up and prepare yourself for your journey." Sunset was about to respond back that she was not tired, but an unexpected yawn came up.
"Oh, I guess I do have to sleep." -she smiled at her mother- "Good night, mom. I love you." she says as she puts the book aside and lays on her bed. Celestia leaned down and kissed Sunset's forehead
"I love you too, Sunset, don't ever forget that..."
Celestia then stood up and started to leave the room and closed the door behind her. She turned towards the bedside lamp that was still on and turned it off with her magic. After some minutes had passed, she began to fall into a deep sleep. Sunset Shimmer was sleeping soundly in her bed, Luna's magical sky twinkling above. Her journey to fulfill her destiny was soon about to begin...