"Spike! Where are you?" Twilight Sparkle shouted, slamming open the door of her combination dorm room/library as she looked about for her number one assistant. She was getting rapidly more annoyed as he failed to appear. "Spiiiike, where are you?"
"Twilight. The door. Again." came an exasperated voice up on the balcony. Looking up Twilight saw it was Sunset Shimmer, the other personal protege of Princess Celestia. "Really, you need to stop doing that. I know dragons are tough, but yikes. I almost think you're doing this on purpose."
"I would never...oh my goodness Spike!" Quickly closing the door with a burst of her telekinetic magic, Spike flopped onto the floor in front of her, a ruined present in hand. Ignoring his muttering about Moondancer's party, she started pacing around. "Sorry Spike, but we have no time to lose. I need you to send a letter to the Princess right away! I just discovered that all of Equestria is in terrible danger!" Twilight shouted, flailing her hooves a bit dramatically.
"This isn't like last time with the griffon ambassador is it?" Sunset asked, perfectly calm as she read her book, practically ignoring Twilight's latest panic attack. The poor mare had a tendency to let her imagination run away with her and go to dark and frightening places. She really needed to work on that before she wound up in real trouble someday. In Sunset's opinion, Twilight was beyond lucky that Gregorious was so understanding about the filly's elaborate plan that, naturally, blew up in all their faces. She winced a little at the memory. It had taken a whole week for her mane and coat to grow back in enough that she could go outside again.
"No, it's nothing like that!" Twilight fumed. Like it was her fault Gregorious had exhibited all the classic behavioral markers of a spy making her suspect him.
"Or what about the time with the zebra scholar you thought was just a pony in disguise?" Spike asked.
"No!"
Spike frowned. "This isn't going to be like that time with that humming monkey thing is it?"
"Human! And I know what I saw, even if I can't figure out where it went. Lyra believes me!"
"Heartstrings believes in sea ponies and the Rainbow of Light." Sunset quipped back. "This isn't another 'shape shifter' incident is it?"
"Shape shifters are real!" her counterpart insisted, which while technically true didn't do much to support her assertions.
"So it is about that again." Shimmer replied, face hoofing lightly at the implications.
"No, it's not shapeshifters! It's something completely different! Nightmare Moon is going to escape at the Summer Sun Celebration and cover the world in eternal darkness!" Twilight cried out in desperation. The rest of the room just stared at her. "What?"
Sunset closed her book with a sigh. There was no way she was completing the tome today it seemed. "Nightmare Moon. The evil spirit from Nightmare Night. The one foals leave candy for or else they'll be 'gobbled up'. That Nightmare Moon?"
"Yes!" Twilight replied, excited that somepony was finally listening to her.
"Nightmare Moon is going to escape her prison soon,"
"Yes!"
"Somehow defeat Celestia,"
"Not if we can help it!"
"And cover the world in eternal darkness?"
"That's the situation yes." Twilight said, having apparently found a quill, ink, and parchment and was now composing a letter in haste.
Sunset meanwhile was just staring at her fellow student, jaw just hanging open in shock and dumbfounded disbelief. "And you honestly think this is going to happen why?"
"I read it in a prophesy in a book." she explained, as if that was the be all end all of any argument. "Spike, send this at once! It is very urgent." The dragon quickly complied with a salute, igniting the offered scroll and sending it off magically to Celestia.
Sunset nearly sighed and waited for the inevitable rejection letter for whatever Twilight had proposed. She might have been a brilliant spellcaster, but she had the annoying tendency to overreact to anything not being "perfect", a trait Sunset always found so agrivating, that and the anxiety attacks make made dealing with Twilight almost as difficult as...as....okay she didn't have an analogy at the ready, but still!
'Maybe this will be the final straw, and Celestia will throw the crazy mare out into some clinic so I never have to see her again, and then I'l have Celetia all to myself again. She's probably been holding me back this entire time anyway.' a tretcherous little voice in the back of her mind suggested. She quickly ignored the notion, and did her best to feel bad about the thought. She wasn't a bad pony anymore, Celestia had shown her that she had the ability to be a good pony, not a monster.
She sometimes wondered if Twilight wasn't just picked because of whatever had happened during her entrance exam, an event both the Princess and Twilight had refused to comment on, but because she would also be a great test of how much Sunset had reformed. 'Or a punishment for how I used to be.' "No, bad, lalala I'm not thinking that!" 'Or maybe my replacement if I ever do go bad like I almost did.' "LALALA I'M NOT LISTENING!" Sometimes she wished that when Clestia had checked out the "voice in her head" it had turned out to be some lingering side effect of her brief fling with dark magic, or even just garden variety insanity. But there had been no dark energy, no simple disorder, she was just her. And apparently, she was just naturally a jerk who didn't like anypony else but herself. She was getting better though! "Aargh! Why does redemption have to be so hard?"
Not for the first time, Sunset wondered how many voices were in Twilight's head and debated whether or not it was a horrible thing that her answer was 'more than me', or if she was just being honest. However, any further musings on their mutually unstable mental states was interrupted by Spike belching out the Princess's reply. Twilight eagerly accepted the scroll, reading through it, her enthusiasm slowly dieing as she read through, eventually replaced with...annoyance and frustration. With a mumble, she floated it off to Sunset. "Here, it's for you too. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go pack."
Stunned that Celestia had apparently actually dismissed Twilgiht ('Yes!' "No, bad! Feel sorry for her!") Sunset quickly picked up the scroll and began reading.
To Twilight Sparkle, my Faithful Student, Sunset twitched a little at the feeling of a slight barb against her own character, even as she reminded herself that Celestia was too nice to ever do such a thing on purpose. Taking a breath, she continued...
I am most pleased to see that you take the idea of independant study so seriously, delving deep into Equestrian lore and legend. However, your worries about Nightmare Moon are greatly exaggerated. I know you enjoy studying, but there is such a thing as studying too much.
You spend way to much time with your muzzle buried in dusty old tomes, when you need to spend more time with other ponies. I know you spend time with your brother, Sunset, Spike and myself, but that's hardly a healthy social life. In fact, thinking about it, Sunset isn't any better off with her own social situation. She winced again. It was hard making friends when you used to be an insufferable jerk to everypony you every met out of a sense of entitlement. There was probably nopony in Canterlot who would be friends with her.
Thinking about it now, I have the perfect solution to help the both of you! "What?" A change of scenery might be just the thing! This year the lottery has selected the nearby town of Ponyville to host the Summer Sun Celebration. I want you and Shimmer to go to the town and check up on the preparations and make sure nothing goes wrong. And while you're there, you two can also meet new ponies and make some friends! Pack your bags, you'll be leaving this afternoon!
Yours,
Princess Celestia Astros of Equestria
P.S. Oh yeah, be sure to tell Sunset about all this.
Having finished reading the letter, and then rereading it again to make sure she hadn't made a mistake, Sunset looked up to see a grumpy and fully packed Twilight staring back at her. "We're going WHERE?"