“Sunset, I need you to take over detention this afternoon.”
Sunset turned in surprise at hearing Celestia’s voice in the hallway. “Sure, who’s in?” Overseeing detention wasn’t her favorite job in the world, but she was grateful that Celestia still seemed to trust her enough to delegate work to her.
“Starscout, Trailblazer, Cloverleaf, Moonbow, Petals, Storm and the Brightdawn girl.”
Sunset was aghast. “What!? That’s the entirety of 2-A! What did they do?”
“Nothing, as far as I know,” Celestia answered with a perfectly straight face. “I stuck them in room L203 and told them to think about what they did until you arrive. I’m sure they’re all busy coming up with one or two things they did wrong right about now.”
“Why?”
Celestia sighed. “Because … I realize that those kids need you to guide them right now. The last thing I want is for them to be on their own like you and your friends were. And don’t even pretend like you’re not thinking the same thing. If you’re gonna give them some lessons in Magic 101, I’d prefer it if you did it in a classroom.”
“… Alright. I actually was thinking that I owe them some answers. Thanks, Principal.”
Celestia nodded. “Good, then we’re agreed. I’m giving you plenty of rope to handle this as you see fit, in the hopes that you don’t hang yourself with it. Keep me in the loop, but you’re the expert. I trust you.”
After having made a couple steps down the hall, Sunset couldn’t help but turn around and add: “You didn’t have to give them detention, you know. They didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Sunset, when all you have to work with is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” Celestia pointed out. “That counterpart of mine you like to compare me to runs a magic school. I do not. I’m a high school principal, so I get a lot of mileage out of the word detention. It solves a lot of my problems.”
“It can’t possibly solve all your problems.”
“Not all, but you’d be surprised. I know every coffee shop in the city that employs a former student of mine as a barista,” Celestia said cooly. “When I walk in the door, my order is ready to pick up before I’ve even made it up to the counter.”
Sunset paused in front of room L203. She could hear the voices of her students on the other side already. It felt a little like she was reliving her first day. Here we go again, she thought and opened the door. “Good afternoon, everyone.”
As she entered, the chatter stopped, and everyone sat at attention in their accustomed spots. “Uhm, we’re sorry, Ms. Sunset,” Sunny began haltingly, “we didn’t mean to make any trouble.”
What? Oh, right, the detention thing. “Be at ease, everyone,” Sunset said reassuringly. “I’m not about to hand out trowels and mortar and tell you to start laying bricks.”
Everyone looked a little confused at the specificity of that statement. “Okay. So why are we here?”
Sunset put her bag down and leaned against the teacher’s desk in her favorite position when addressing a class. “You’re here because you all tapped into something incredible, but also something incredibly dangerous. No doubt there’s people who would be better suited to teach you about it, but I’m all you’ve got. So you’re stuck with me, unfortunately. You’ve got nobody but yourselves to blame, really, seeing as you so recklessly charged in and saved my life.”
A chuckle went around the classroom at that. Good, Sunset thought, relieved. I was afraid they would resent me even more. Sunny tentatively raised her hand. “Will you really teach us about magic? You were against it before.”
“I still am, somewhat,” Sunset admitted. “But it’s not up to me. The magic is here, and it’s here to stay if past experience is any indication. Not teaching you and leaving you to figure it all out on your own would be far more irresponsible. I’ll teach you how to control your new powers, at least enough to make sure you don’t hurt yourselves or others. I’m sure Sunny gave you the broad strokes of what happened by now, but I also know you must have tons of other questions. So for today, fire away.”
“I have a question!” Interestingly, it was Pipp’s hand that shot up first in the back. She held up her phone and tapped it to start a video playing. The clip was titled ‘Can you see it?’ It showed her moving the camera around from a selfie perspective, showing off her pony ears and wings. “How come my followers are making a mockery of my new glow-up?”
Zipp looked back at her. “I thought that video went viral, sis.”
“I mean, yeah, it did. But everyone in the comments is just talking about whether the stupid dress is green or blue! They think I’m posting old memes when I have flippin’ wings!”
“You posted that!?” Sunny face-palmed immediately. “I told you to keep this among us until we talked to Ms. Sunset. Sorry, Ms. Sunset.”
“It’s alright, Sunny,” Sunset murmured, “I doubt it did much damage except maybe to Pipp’s sub count. Most people will just see a normal Pipp in that clip.”
“But why?” Pipp demanded. “This gorgeousness needs to be shared with the world.”
Sunset scratched her cheek. “Rather than explaining it, maybe it’s best if I just show you. Do you all have a group chat?” she asked as she took out her phone and began typing some keywords into the search engine.
“I can add you,” Izzy said happily. “Invite sent!”
Sunset accepted the invite and found the Share button. “I’m posting two Youtube links, one is a concert of my old band, the Rainbooms, the other is a news report from a couple years back. I’d like you all to watch them very carefully.”
Rather than reviewing the videos herself, she looked around the classroom to see the reactions play out. For most of them, it didn’t take long for the shocked gasps and wide eyes to set in. Sunny barely reacted, neither did Misty except for a look of apprehension, interestingly enough.
While the others were watching the videos in stunned awe, Sunset approached Sunny. There was something she couldn’t help but notice. “Hey, this hasn’t gone away yet?” she asked, pointing.
Sunny’s hand went up to the rainbow-colored streak in her hair where Sunset had touched her during the fight. “Uh, no. Everything else did, but not this. I washed my hair three times this morning, but it’s not coming out. Is that bad?”
Sunset pondered that for a moment. “It … shouldn’t be. It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
Shaking her head, Sunny replied: “No, not at all. In fact, I kinda like it.”
“Well, as long as you’re fine with it.” Sunset nonetheless made a mental note to look into it.
After that exchange, Hitch turned over towards his oldest friend for confirmation. “Hey, Sunny. This has got to be fake, right? This didn’t happen.” He showed her his phone.
The screen showed the news report from a local news station three years ago, with a massive shadow creature they all recognized from not long ago rising out of the harbor of Maretime Bay and engaging in battle with seven magical girls. “The earthquake left some structural damage to the buildings near the epicenter, but thankfully only minor injuries have been reported for the most part. The only reported fatality was a local archaeology professor based out of Canterlot U who was unable to vacate his house in time.” The reporter droned on in a dispassionate voice, not acknowledging the magic spectacle in the slightest, while the camera moved across the harbor as if it was the most ordinary panning shot in the world.
“But it did, Hitch,” Sunny informed him gravely. “It happened just like that. I was there. I’ve got that same news report taped back at my house if you don’t believe me.”
Izzy was nodding her head along with the music while watching the Rainbooms video, all the girls in their fully ponied up form. “This rocks! You got any more of that, Ms. Sunset?”
“Sure, but later,” Sunset said with a smile before addressing the class as a whole again. “This was always in the footage. The reason you couldn’t see it before and are seeing it now is because you’ve been exposed to actual magic. Photons don’t lie, so the images are physically on the film. My friend and I did a lot of looking into this phenomenon back in the day. Our best guess by the end was that humans don’t have the receptors to see into the magical wavelength by default, but direct exposure will cause some of the rods in the eye to change so they can perceive it. In the absence of seeing it first-hand, the human mind will just come up with a way to explain away the physical effects they’re seeing, like an earthquake for example.”
“Feh,” Zipp chuckled into her fist. “Is that why Principal Celestia fed our parents that line about a gas leak that made everyone hallucinate?”
Did she, now? You are one sneaky bitch when you want to be, Celestia. “I would assume so. Best to stick to that story. Humans, who don’t see it with their own eyes, don’t accept the existence of magic so easily.”
“Why do you keep stressing the word humans so much, teach?” Zipp asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Right, most of you don’t know this yet.” Sunset sighed, then raised her head with a bright smile. “Hi, my name is Sunset Shimmer, and I was born as a magical pony in another world!”
In the stunned silence that ensued from anyone but Sunny, Sprout’s mutter to himself was just a touch too loud. “Wait, does that make me a furry?” When every set of eyes present turned towards him, he blushed, cleared his throat and went on: “You were saying something about another world, Ms. Sunset?”
“Alright, let’s take this from the beginning, one more time.” She gave Sunny an apologetic look. “Sorry, Sunny. This is gonna be a boring lesson for you.”
“I don’t mind,” Sunny said, propping her elbows on the table and putting her chin in her hands with a bright smile. “I love that story. I can’t wait to hear it again.”
Sunset nodded, closed her eyes to collect her thoughts and began: “Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived two royal sisters …”
After her story had concluded, and Sunset had fielded as many follow-up questions as she could, she decided to let the class out for the day.
As everyone filed out of the classroom, chatting excitedly, Sunset felt almost as if things had gone back to the way they used to be during that second week. Almost. She caught a glance between Sunny and Hitch who was in the process of getting up from his seat. But she gave him a look and a jerk of the head in Sunset’s direction before leaving.
Hitch sat back down slowly and began staring out the window until everyone had left and it was just him and Sunset remaining.
Sensing that it was on her to break the silence, Sunset spoke up: “Was there something else you wanted to talk about, Hitch?”
He kept his eyes on the drifting clouds outside while answering. “Grandma Figgy says I should apologize to you. Sunny told me the same thing.”
“Hmm.” Sunset nodded slowly. “And what do you want to do?”
“I … I wanna apologize, but I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive you yet, Ms. Sunset.”
“Good.”
Now his head turned, and he met her eyes.
“You shouldn’t forgive me yet, not before I’ve had a chance to give you my own apology.”
“Your apology?” He looked confused as he took in the unexpected words.
“That’s right,” Sunset said, crossing her arms in front of her. “I’ve had it ready for weeks, but you didn’t seem ready to listen to it. Do you feel like you’re ready to listen now?”
He gulped and nodded silently.
Sunset stood up and slowly approached his desk, almost as if he was a skittish animal. Sitting down on the edge of his desk, she interlocked her fingers over her knee and looked at him. “First off, I do believe truly and deeply that living with your grandmother is the best thing for you, and I’d work toward that end again if I had to do it all over.”
“That’s a weird way to start off an apology,” he said with a small frown.
“Hear me out,” she replied. “What I am sorry for is the way I went about it. That’s what I’d do differently if I could go back in time and do it again. I’d talk to you for starters, rather than hitting you out of the blue. I had the best intentions, but I went behind your back and broke your trust. For that you deserve an apology.”
He said nothing, but he was still listening.
“I’m glad you didn’t seem to hold it against Sunny or Zipp.”
“Wasn’t their fault,” he said with a shrug.
“No, it wasn’t. It was mine. I should have known you were mature enough to handle it if I’d just talked to you directly.”
Hitch shifted his shoulders a little uncomfortably. “I’m not sure about that. I feel like I acted very childish towards you over the last couple weeks.”
“A bit,” Sunset said with a shrug. “But you’ve got a good excuse. You are a child. And you are mature. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. And if you’re feeling silly for giving me the cold shoulder for a while, you could have done so much worse.”
“Like what?”
“Like, for example you could have told Celestia about our little excursion to the animal clinic and gotten me in real trouble. Or you could have sabotaged the play. You kept my trust, even though I broke yours.”
“What!? No!” The very notion seemed to offend him. “That would have been just wrong!”
Sunset couldn’t help but let out a throaty chuckle. “See? This is what I mean. The fact that you can’t even comprehend such petty acts of revenge shows that you’re much more mature than I was at fifteen. But you know, real maturity isn’t about shutting others out and dealing with all your troubles on your own. It’s about letting others in.” Sunset grimaced in a moment of self-reflection. “I would know. I sometimes forget that lesson myself, even to this day.”
“Being an adult is not that easy, huh?”
“No,” Sunset replied, “which is why you should allow yourself to be a child while there’s still some of your childhood left. Adulthood comes for us all eventually, whether we like it or not. I don’t want you to stop trusting the people in your life who love you because of me. So will you accept my apology, and allow me to earn back your trust?”
Hitch took a deep breath to collect himself and slowly let it back out. “I … always trusted that you did what you did because you were only looking out for me, so … apology accepted, and … I’m sorry, too.”
With a gentle smile, Sunset placed her hand on Hitch’s shoulder. “Thank you, and I accept your apology.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Sunset affirmed and stood up. “Now, get out of here.”
Hitch grabbed his backpack and began to walk towards the door. He paused. “Hey, Ms. Sunset?”
“Yes?”
“I … uh … Grandma Figgy doesn’t want me working during school days, but she says it’s okay if I continue my dog-sitting on weekends. So, if you wanted to bring Sparky by the park again sometime …”
“I’ll see you Sunday, Hitch,” Sunset replied with a smile.
He smiled back, nodded and left.