The Fall of Sunset Shimmer
Chapter Two
After spending a day out with Princess Celestia, Sunset felt a lot better and was smiling.
She was about to go to bed, as she was tired from the day's events, but then remembered about Sombra.
"Aren't you going to sleep, Sunset?" Princess Celestia asked upon seeing that her student was not heading to her room, rather she was going to the other part of the castle.
"I would love to, Princess, but I think I'd like to talk to Sombra first."
Celestia gave an encouraging nod and Sunset walked away...
"I wish I had made a map of the Castle... Who could've known that it would've been so easy to get lost in here?" Sunset cursed under her breath as she tried to find her way out of the maze she had somehow gotten into (it wasn't really a maze, that's just how it felt to Sunset) and bumped into a figure.
Her horn glowed brighter and she stood back in a fighting stance, only to gaze at the pony and pause. There were some differences as it had been years since she had last seen him... But there was no mistaking his green eyes. "Sombra? I-is it you?"
The stallion looked up from his map and dropped it immediately. "Sunset? What a surprise..."
He put his saddlebags down carefully and then approached her. "It's been years since I last saw you. What made you stop by here today?" His voice had a little hurt in it. "I thought you forgot about me..."
The pain in his voice and eyes hurt Sunset, but she was determined to make up for it. "I'm sorry for not even bothering to see you... I guess I was too absorbed into my studies..."
"I would've tried to visit you, but I guess I never really got around to it. You know how I am, always thinking of one thing only to forget it the next second. But to be honest I hoped that you'd be coming since I figured you had a lot of free time."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Princess Celestia would obviously be a lot easier on her students, and thus would give them less work."
"And what makes you think that?"
Sombra shrugged. "She just has that sort of an aura around her."
Sunset frowned. "So wait, if Princess Celestia is supposed to be 'soft', does that mean Princess Luna kills you with work?"
The grey unicorn chuckled. "Heheh, you're actually not far from the truth. She's having me memorise the constellations by heart... Every single fact about the moon... All these spells... She had me learn a couple of spell books, and way more things. Anyways, that's enough about my work; what does your Princess give you?"
"She teaches me spells, duh."
"Only spells? Hah, your Princess does give you less work."
"And I have to read the entire library, plus learn all the information."
"Now, is that work Princess Celestia gave you or work that you gave yourself?"
Sunset blushed and looked away. "Hey! Don't tease me like that..."
"It's fun to see you blush. You look way too cute~ Do it for me more often?"
"S-sombra!"
Sombra placed a hoof on his forehead and another on his chest, falling back onto his saddlebags in a dramatic pose which befitted a mare in trouble more than a stallion, and said, "So, it's settled. Princess Luna will kill me at a young age by overworking me while you'll get to live your life to the fullest and enjoy the world around you."
Sunset was about to reply, but fell silent as she heard the sound of somepony approaching. Sombra, also hearing the hoof steps, began to look around.
The mare's eyes widened as Princess Luna revealed herself. "Now, what was that about somepony dying due to being overworked to death by their mentor? We couldn't even enjoy our midnight walk as all We could hear was the complaining and whining of this somepony, whose voice was loud enough to drown out the sounds of the night!"
"P-p-princess L-luna?!" Sombra jumped up in shock, stuttering from the fear he felt upon knowing that what he had said as a joke was heard by the Princess of the Night.
"We're really offended. To think that Our first and only student would be saying such things behind Our back..."
"P-princess! I swear, I only said it as a joke!"
Luna turned her face away. "Hmph. And here We were, thinking you were a polite stallion." She turned to face him with a serious glint in her eyes, and a glare that could send the bravest of ponies running. "Do know that you will be punished for this. If you think that what We're giving to you now is called too much work, you'll learn the true definition of that tonight."
Sombra turned even paler at this. "Princess! Please, I'll do anything! Don't punish me..."
Sunset laughed quietly at this.
Princess Luna put her hoof to her chin, as if in deep thought. "Hmm... Let Us think... Maybe We can reduce your punishment, but only if..."
"I-if?"
"If you promise to never talk of your Princesses like that again! Personally, We have no objection if you joke about Celestia, but that's beside the point." Luna suddenly laughed, making Sombra also force out a nervous chuckle.
"Heheh..."
"You do not get to laugh! We were going to let you spend time with your friend, but because of what you did, you only have half an hour! And though We are amused by this, We. Are. Serious!"
With that the Princess disappeared, and the duo looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
If it were to be told accurately, then it was actually Sunset who began laughing and it was the hilarious sight of her rolling about in laughter that caused Sombra to start laughing.
Once they had calmed down and were catching their breath, Sombra broke the silence by commenting, "I never knew Her Highness would be so offended by a simple joke."
Sunset shrugged. "Some ponies are, some ponies aren't. I think she just wanted to have some fun."
"You think she's not actually angry?"
"Unlike you, who was cowering in fear and turning pale, I paid attention to Princess Luna's face and she was actually struggling not to smile the whole time."
"Now, when did you become so good at reading expressions?"
"Ever since Princess Celestia began teaching me."
"Huh... I'm gonna be back, just need to go to the bathroom real quick," Sombra said, leaving.
"Okay..."
While waiting for her friend to return, Sunset decided to look around the room as she didn't really have a chance.
She willed her horn to glow brighter, and her horn light revealed that the room was devoid of any furniture.
However, it had paintings on the walls, all of which depicted Princess Luna, the starry night sky and the moon.
Each of these paintings were different, but there was one recurring theme Sunset had noticed.
In each of them, the Lunar Princess was always alone, and had a sad expression on her face.
The artist had done such a good job at capturing the emotions that Sunset felt the loneliness.
"Sunset, I'm back. Is everything okay?" A voice cut her out of her thoughts and she turned her gaze away from the paintings to see Sombra.
"Huh? Yeah, everything's fine. I was just looking at these paintings. The artist did a really good job on them..."
"You think they're good?"
"Yeah."
"Heh, what would you expect when the master of paintings drew them?"
"What?"
"Yeah, I'm like, the master of paintings. Didn't you know? I mean, it would be obvious if you saw my cutie mark."
Sunset looked at Sombra's cutie mark to see that it was of three building blocks. "Your cutie mark's creating things. Heh, that shouldn't really surprise me seeing how good you were at making things when we were foals."
Sombra winked and draped a hoof around Sunset's neck. "And your cutie mark's magic, I guess?"
"Yeah, I turned out to be pretty good at casting spells made by Princess Celestia, so surprise surprise, my cutie mark's a sun."
Sombra suddenly smiled. "Hey, Sunset... Have you seen Princess Luna's guards?"
"No, why?"
The grey unicorn smiled deviously, and feigned sudden terror, gesturing a hoof at something behind Sunset while leaping away to 'safety'. "Ahh, there's something behind you!"
Sunset looked behind herself and was met with one of the biggest shocks of her life as she saw a pony with heir fangs bared, seemingly ready to sink them deep into her and suck all her blood out.
She had read about batponies before but had never expected to see one in her life so of course her reaction was to scream and nearly jump out of the window.
"AAAHHHH!!" screams Sunset, leaping five feet into the air with her horn flaring up in panic, causing her to teleport around the room.
Sombra nearly pissed himself by laughing. "Ahahah, hahaha, oh my God, that was so funny! Hahaha!"
Sunset wasn't amused by this, and the batpony emerged out of the shadows, laughing insanely.
She observes him. He has light brown/kind of gold fur with a darker shade of brown as his mane's color, and his eyes are dark blue.
Sunset watches, unamused, as the two stallions laugh, seemingly with no intention of stopping and gets an idea. "Ahhh," she makes sure to raise her voice as she points out of the door "I think I see Princess Luna coming!"
"Princess Luna?" The batpony and Sombra stand in the pose of a statue after getting up.
"Just kidding. I needed to do something to stop you two laughing like insane ponies. Just so you know, I'm not happy with your prank Sombra. It wasn't funny. Anyways, who's he?"
"Him? That's Shadowlance, my bodyguard."
"Huh... How did he sneak up on me so easily?"
"Batponies are masters at stealth," Shadowlance grins proudly.
Sunset was a little uncomfortable with the knowledge that batponies could sneak up on her... But that was due to her past...
However, she didn't want to offend the batpony by saying that so instead she said, "Really?" When he nodded she said "That's so cool!"
"I know," he said, smirking and puffing out his chest.
Sombra rolled his eyes at this.
Sunset laughed a little.
"Anyways, Sombra, your time's up."
"So quickly...?"
"To be honest it was already up when you told me of this prank, but I decided that doing a prank first would be a lot more better."
"Thanks for being that kind... But" Sombra grew a horrified expression on his face and levitated both his saddlebags and his map. "We'll have to explain to Princess Luna why I'm God knows how late!"
Shadowlance was also horrified and the two rushed out of the room.
Sunset laughed again. "In that case, I'll come around next week or something," she called behind them, before deciding to leave.
She then face hooved. "Oh shit, I forgot to ask for directions..."
She sighed. It was going to be a long night.