//------------------------------//
// A Day In Ponyville-Twilight Sparkle 
// Story: A Sparkling Sunset 
// by Ferhog 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight happened to be the owner of one of the largest dining halls known to ponydom.

The hall itself was about the size of the apple family's barn. The walls were shiny blue crystal, much like that of the library, and littered with yellow glass windows. Under the blue ceiling hung a giant white crystal chandelier that lit up the room with a light similar to that of the morning sun. The oval table that Twilight was eating on was about as long as the average living room, with twenty white crystal chairs set up around it. The alicorn sat at the end of the table, on a chair that looked similar to a throne, and in front of her was a plate of delicious waffles.

She was about half way through her waffles when Sunset walked into the hall. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was a mess, giving her a sleepy look. Twilight had to admit, it made her look absolutely adorable.

'Stop it Twilight. You are straight. Straight I tell you!'

"So, what's for breakfast?" asked the unicorn.

Twilight pointed at the larger plate in the middle of the table, which held a large number of both waffles and pancakes. Rushing out of the kitchen came Spike, with a little chefs hat on his head along with a small plate and some cutlery in his right hand. He ran to the chair where Sunset had decided to sit and quickly placed the plate in front of her before setting a knife and fork at one side. As soon as he was done, he ran straight back into the kitchen, likely to wash some dishes.

"Wow..." Sunset's eyes were wide with near amazement. "Some service you got here."

Twilight laughed a little. "Yeah. Spike is quite the chef. And waiter. And... pretty much everything else."

"So he's a collar short of being a slave?"

The lavender mare raised her hooves in innocence. "No, no, of course not. He actually enjoys it."

"Well, if this is the kind of service he gives everyday, he needs some serious paying."

"Oh come on, he's more or less family. He doesn't need to get paid for it. By living in this castle he pretty much already does."

"What ever you say, master." The unicorn said before digging into her syrup covered pancakes.


***


The Ponyville market was bustling with just as much activity as a town the size of Ponyville could produce. Each stall had at least one person haggling with its merchant, and the space that the stalls surrounded was filled with dozens of people looking for things to buy. This left the two mares unaware of what to do.

Sunset stared at the scene with eyes of wonder. "Wow. I never thought Ponyville was capable of something like this."

"Well it is coming close to winter. People will be wanting to stock up on food, along with gifts for the various upcoming holidays. But even besides that, this is a pretty surprising site. Hearths Warming Eve won't be for another two months."

The yellow mare raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Are you sure you'll be able to get your stuff in this chaos?"

"Hello. Princess of Equestria."

"Right."

The title of princess seemed to have lost its value recently, as that did little to protect them from the onslaught of waiting, haggling,  and dodging the occasional crazy shopper running towards another stall. 

The first stall the duo went to happened to be non other than Fracture's, who turned emerald green with tears in his eyes as his mother forced him to sell Twilight his copy of Alchemy For Idiots. She took pity on the poor stallion and paid a whopping one hundred and thirty bits for it, which was a lot more than it honestly should have cost. Next was getting a few quills and paper from the sofa clerk, and they had to wait a surprisingly long ten minute queue. This wasn't really a bother to the two mares, who were happy to see so many ponies desiring to write. Afterwards, Twilight remembered a recommendation from Rarity to get some flowers to spice up certain rooms in her castle, particularly the dining hall. They went over to Rose's stall to find a less surprising twenty minute queue, which rewardingly paid off with them getting a hold of some Lavenders, Fuchsias, Bluebells, and a large variety of other flowers and bouquets.

A lucky break came for the two when word got out that there was apparently a goof off going on downtown which happened to be a three way between Pinkie Pie, Discord, and Cheese Sandwich himself. While most ponies flocked like a stampede to the scene, the rest went the smart route and used this distracting opportunity to get their shopping done without the chaos to stall them. Among these ponies were Twilight and Sunset, as the princess had experienced enough of Pinkie Pie to not see this event as once in a lifetime, and frankly the idea of a goof off between those three sounded almost scary.

It only took about another ten minutes to get everything else Twilight needed. A couple of books, clothes, and food was all that they had come for, and they left with this and more. The two mares decided to go over to the Ponyville café for some lunch before heading back to Twilights castle.

But a few minutes into the walk, there was a sight that caught Twilight's eye. A sight that caused her to stop walking, turn around, and take in the full view.

While most of the building's remains had been removed by the Ponyville construction team, there was one thing that they had been unable to get rid of. And this was the black, smouldered stump of what had once been a great oak tree.

That black stump used to be Twilight's library, and her home for several years. It was originally just the place where she was staying temporarily during her visit to Ponyville, but after the defeat of Nightmare Moon and her decision to live in Ponyville, it became her permanent home as a gift from Mayor Mare to thank her for what she'd done. 

But, along with most of her personal possessions, it had been destroyed during her battle with lord Tirek.

The red door with the welcoming decoration of a lit candle, the upper balcony with the telescope that she would often use to stargaze, the ground floor with the shelves of precious books and the desk that she had spent whole nights studying on. In one explosive energy ball it had all been burnt to a crisp.

Several months had passed since then, but she still hadn't gotten over it. Even though she had gotten used to her new castle, and settled in comfortably, it didn't change the fact that her furniture, her clothes, her books, her home, were now little more than ashes.

Sunset just stood close by and watched her. Though she had never seen Twilight's old library before, the alicorn had told her enough about it for her to recognize the sight. Possibly to pay respect, she spent several moments standing next to Twilight and looking at the ruins in silence.

Twilight may have been staring at it a bit too long, since Sunset did eventually turn her head towards her.

"Are you okay?"

Twilight sighed a sad and heavy sigh, not looking back at the unicorn. "Its just..." 

She could feel her voice cracking. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that this was my home for so many years, and now... its just... gone."

Sunset lowered her head and stared at the ground. "Every home I've lost was because of my own decisions. Having a home just taken from you, I honestly don't know how to deal with that, or how to help someone else deal with that."

The two mares continued to stare at the black stump in silence, before Sunset stretched her front hoof out and placed it around Twilight's back, gently pulling her close.

"It'll be alright. You have a new home now. And its...kind of a castle. That's a bit of an upgrade if you ask me."

Twilight sighed again. She didn't really expect someone who had lived most of their life in an orphanage to understand the emotional value of a real home, but she was glad to have a friend who was willing to put her hoof around her and try to be comforting.

She rested her head against Sunset's neck, and shed a small tear, hoping that the moment when they would have to separate wouldn't come for a long time.


***


"Are you sure you want to eat? I mean, after that incident with the tree, I wouldn't expect you to feel that hungry."

Twilight continued reading her book. "I'm fine. I was just...having a little moment that's all."

"Suite yourself." Said Sunset, who went back to reading her book.

Twilight tried to read her own book, but her mind was too distracted to really concentrate on it. The distraction in particular was the moment she had with Sunset near the tree. 'First that embrace last week, now this.' She thought to herself. 'You got a bit too intimate with Sunset there, Twilight. It has to stop. Are you trying to throw the monarchy into chaos?'

She looked over at the amber unicorn, who was busy reading Spells You Will Probably Never Learn. The look of her facial expression during reading, combined with her hair swaying in the slight breeze, caused a noticeable thumping in Twilight's chest.

'I said stop it, me!'

A distraction from her inner dilemma came when Savoir Fare arrived with their food. In front of Sunset he placed a grain and hay sandwich, and in front of Twilight he placed a bowl of tomato soup.

Sunset put down her book. "Thanks, this looks delicious."

"Enjoy your meal." Replied the stallion, before he walked off to another table to receive more orders.

While Twilight was taking some time to blow off her spoonfuls of soup into cooling, before sipping them dry, Sunset had her sandwich finished in about three minutes. But rather than continue reading her book, she instead started to talk to Twilight about it, which the alicorn found to be a much better option for her.

"So Twilight, have you ever heard of an M.A.?"

Twilight sipped another spoonful. "No, I don't think I have."

"Well, the M.A. stands for magical alteration, and it comes in four types. The most common type is an M.A. Trowson, which turns an equine into another type of equine. Then there's an M.A. Coalson, which is much harder to accomplish, but expands to non equine species as well. Then there's an M.A. Mieson, which turns one type of pony into another type. And finally, this is the one I think you'll find the most interesting, the rarest type of M.A. is the M.A. Larson, which turns an average pony into an alicorn."

This made both of Twilights eyebrows rise. "You mean like...what Celestia did to me?"

Sunset replied with a smile and a nod. "The book almost described your situation exactly."

"So this is like, a spell, that anyone can learn?"

"No, it says that only a major alicorn like Celestia or Luna has enough power to succeed at the spell, anyone else would pretty much disintegrate if they managed to get at least halfway through the spell."

"I see," replied Twilight, who suddenly came to a realization. "You know, I'd expect that you would already have known the spell that creates an alicorn if you went so far as to demand the title of princess from Celestia."

Any sign of happiness was suddenly sapped off Sunset's face, as she stared at her empty plate in silence.

'You idiot! What were you thinking?! You can't just remind her of that day and expect her to take it with a pinch of salt! Why don't you just bring up the subject of her parents while your at it!'

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring that up! I was just..."

"Twilight, its fine. It doesn't exactly give me the best memories, but I'm sure you meant nothing by it." Sunset had a look on her face that spoke more of shame than sadness. "So I guess Celestia told you everything?"

"Not much more than that you were an ambitious student, you demanded alicornhood, and she renounced you as her student."

"Yeah..." She looked back at her plate. "I think you already know how I feel about my past."

There was a round of awkward silence shared between the two mares.

'Think Twilight! Think! Change the subject before your friendship dies!'

"Soooooooo..." Stuttered Twilight, desperate to break the silence. "I don't really know all the details about your home...except for the fact that its an orphanage...and...stuff."

Sunset looked as ready to kill the awkward atmosphere as Twilight did. "Well, after I ended up in the human world, I had nowhere to go. So I took the obvious option and slept on the streets. It sounds bad I know, but I had the...well...evil determination to endure it. After a failed attempt at theft, I ended up at the local police station. Of course, they couldn't find any evidence of my very existence, so with no other ideas they shipped me off to the local orphanage. I'm no expert on law enforcement, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the smartest cops around."

Twilight giggled, not only at that last statement, but also because she was happy to see Sunset with a bit of enthusiasm again. She was also genuinely intrigued by Sunset's story. "So is there any detail about this orphanage that you'd care to tell me about."

Sunset started to smile. "Well, its run by this nice woman named Miss Peachbottom..."

"Miss Peachbottom?" Twilight was suddenly reminded of the day when she confused a country mare from Mustangia for the Equestria games instructor.

"Yeah?"

"Nothing. Continue."

"Yeah well, Peachbottom, really nice woman. She got me settled in the orphanage in no time, and is pretty much the closest thing I have to a mother. And its not just her, the entire orphanage is more or less my family. Caramel, Sweetcream, Rainbowshine, they're all like siblings to me." Her smile faded a bit. "I've tried to be more like a sister to them recently, but even they were sometimes victimized by my past actions. They've all forgiven me by now, but it doesn't change what I've done."

Twilight leaned over the table and stroked the unicorn's shoulder supportingly. "Sunset, how many times do I have to tell you to just move on. I mean, if I've forgiven you after you tried to kill me, than I don't think there's any reason to be so regretful."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Well that's a good thing to bring up, that one time I tried to permanently end your very life. But I see where your coming from. Thanks, Twi."

Twilight beamed at the amber mare. "Anytime, Sunset."

Their little moment was interrupted by the return of Savoir Fare. 

"Zat will be all I presume?" He asked.

"Thanks, could we have the bill please?"


***


Once the two mares got back to the castle, they found the place in a much better state than it had been when they had left, with the dishes cleaned, some more decor put up, and even some of the crystal furniture polished. This was all courtesy of Spike, who also went on to put away all the shopping that they had brought.

'Wow.' Thought Twilight. 'I guess Sunset was right. Spike does deserve a bit more reward than he gets. I should put something together for him when I have the time.'

Twilight had already made up in her mind that today wasn't really a work day, so the duo spent the afternoon doing activities that would be considered 'a bit more fun' than sorting out a library or researching old magic. This included critiquing books together, discussions about their various idols, and having a go at a game of chess. It had honestly been a long time since Twilight had experienced a fun afternoon like this, since she had been doing a lot of work and studying after the Tirek incident. But as with the last week, the sun began to set, and this ironically meant that she had to say goodbye to Sunset.

The mirror was glowing pink with energy, ready for transportation, as Sunset packed her bag with the last of her things. It was a Sunday afternoon, and that meant school tomorrow for the unicorn, much to the Twilight's dismay.

"You got everything?"

In the aqua glow of Sunset's telekinesis, the bag was on her pack. "Yep, pretty much."

"Remember Sunset Shimmer, I'll be expecting a friendship report on my desk by Monday afternoon."

The two mares laughed at the statement, and held each other in a friendly hug.

"You know..." Uttered Sunset. "Just because I have school doesn't mean I can't still visit you."

Twilight parted from the hug and looked the yellow mare in the eye. "Its fine, Sunset, I'd love to see more of you, but you should never put your education in slight jeopardy just to visit me. Lets just keep it to the weekends."

Though Twilight meant what she said, it didn't mean she liked what she said. She wanted to see more of Sunset. Even though it only meant a gap of five days, there was something about it that made it feel so much longer.

"Whatever you say, Twilight," responded Sunset, who slowly walked in front of the mirror, before turning around and smiling at the lavender mare. "Bye."

And with that, Sunset Shimmer was gone.

Twilight stared at the pink glow of the mirrors glass for longer than was probably needed. The book than became encased in Twilight's magenta aura and was levitated off the pedestal, shutting the portal down.

The princess let a feeling of sadness fill her, before she was struck by a sudden thought.

'Just because you don't have time to visit me, it doesn't mean that I don't have time to visit you.'