//------------------------------// // Wu-wha-eh-what de fu*********?! // Story: Confusing Reality // by CrossRedstone //------------------------------// For Sunset Shimmer it was pretty normal to wake up, when the sun was going up for obvious reasons. During the summer she also normally woke up before her alarm clock started to ring. And since it was summer, she didn't thought much, when she woke up groggily with her vision blurring. "Urrgh, just one more test today..." she groaned. She was really looking forward to summer vacation this year, because she and her friends were going to spend it in Ponyville. Unfortunately they first had to overcome the last tests of the year. For Sunset they were nothing more but unnecessary work for her hands. Sunset threw the blanket away from her body and let out a yawn, sitting up on the edge of her bed. Her vision was still a little blurry. This must have been because her head had been buried inside her pillow with the eyes in the front. Planning on washing them out in the bathroom, she jumped off her bed... ...and collapsed to the ground. "Ow. Day's starting good." she muttered, getting up on her hooves. Wait, what hooves? "H-hooves?" she asked groggily. Am I still dreaming? she wondered to herself. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that she was lucid dreaming about her home. Only normally they would turn out to be nightmares. "This still feels damn real for a dream. Too real..." she mused. Looking around she found out that the room looked similar to the chambers of the castle in Canterlot. Spacious, a balcony, curtains in her mane colors and the furniture just looked pretty expensive. "Oh buck, this is bound to go to tartarus." A dream of either her being royal or from the time she was still Celestia's prized student. Luckily Principal Luna of all people had taught Sunset how to deal with various dreams and nightmares. That was after she got shot into the ground from the Elements of Harmony. She had been getting a lot of nightmares for quite some time afterwards. One trick that worked with Sunset was inflicting on herself pain. A little pinch was normally enough to wake her up. "Ow." It hurt. Sometimes she felt the pain on the body part she pinched herself and sometimes she even pinched herself in her sleep. Today it was neither of the two. Sunset was still in the over-expensive room, was a pony and had no idea where she was. "What the-?! The hell? Okay, cool down Sunset. There's gotta be some kind of a more or less logical explanation for this. Obviously you're in Equestria again. Let's see...expensive room...uhh..." She walked towards the window and looked outside. "Canterlot. Room decoration...must be a coincidence it matches my colors. So concluding all this.... Something must have happened back at home....and the girls brought me here for some reason. Well my apartment is closer to the school than the hospital. ... It's the only thing that makes sense. But why Canterlot? Why not stay in Ponyville? I guess it would be best to ask, than to continue thinking about it and not get anywhere on my own." Satisfied with her answer, well more or less, Sunset started walking towards the door. She was still confused of course, but tried to cheer herself up with the fact that she didn't have to take the test. Before she arrived at the door, her body forced her to use the bathroom. As expected it was pretty much like a bathroom in an expensive Dubai hotel. Except from the electricity. Afterwards, Sunset splashed some water on her face and after rubbing her face, she decided to do a little more self-encouraging. It was something she had been training with Fluttershy to get over her stage fright and it did wonders. Now Sunset herself could use some encouragement. "You can do this Sunset. It's not like you woke up in a prison cell. You have done a lot of work in order to make up for your past mistakes and you still are working on it. Most likely the princess will be more interested about your own studies about friendship. So get your ass...ehh...flank moving and....? What is this?" She noticed something odd about her body. The mirror was pretty large, so she could see a part of her own body and that's when she noticed something strange on her side. She decided to check it out. If it was the remnants of an injury, she might be able to figure out what happened. She thought along the lines of a fire leaving a scar and it somehow appeared as a burn mark on her fur, when she got her old body back. She still didn't know how the mirror worked after all. However what she found made her question her eyesight and rub her eyes. Nope, they were still there. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! What the...?! That's...?! W-w-w-WINGS?!" she shouted and cringed, surprised as to how loud her voice became at the end of the statement. However, her loud booming voice was the least of her concerns, as she was now here standing with additional limbs on her back. Being aware of them, she awkwardly started using them. It was like having arms again on a pony body. Just sometimes instead of moving a wing, she accidentally used one of her forelegs, as those actually replaced arms. "WHAT THE ACTUAL-?! Again Sunset cringed at the volume of her own voice. Perhaps this was a dream after all. No this felt too real to be a dream. If she would have paid closer attention, she would have noticed that she caused quite the disarray in the room. Someone or most likely somepony knocked at the door. "Sunset Shimmer? Are you alright, dear?" Said called mare froze up for a second, before taking a deep breath. "I hope she has an explanation for this. If this is a joke, it's not a funny one." Shaking her head, Celestia would never make such a cruel joke, Sunset opened the door. "P-princess Celestia." Sunset greeted the sun deity as formerly as possible, but couldn't help the little stutter. She almost forgot to bow, but did it at least. "Sunset, what are you doing?" the question and the confusion in Celestia's voice made the fiery maned mare look up. She even looked confused for some reason. "Umm...bowing? You ARE a princess after all. And...after everything I've done..." Sunset looked to the side. "What are you talking about? What have you done? And you certainly don't need to bow to me because I'm princess." She now sounded amused. "After all, you're one too, are you not?" "W-whaaaaaaaat?!" Sunset couldn't help herself. She shook her head again. "No, you'd never make a joke like this. I have to be dreaming." Celestia blinked a few times. "Are you feeling alright? Did you possibly hit your head?" "Nah, it must be whatever was in that cupcake yesterday. That's it, no more of Pinkie Pie's cupcakes before going to sleep. Whatever she puts in those things, it can't be good for my sleep." "Pinkie Pie? I didn't know you made a friend." "Huh?...Okay, this is just getting weird. Maybe if I hit my head just a little harder I will finally wake up." No one said it is easy to accept the truth. If you would suddenly wake up as a pony prince/ss, would you belief it, despite the fact you already experienced pain inside the dream? Sunset looked for something hard, but not too hard to hit herself with. However Celestia stepped in with her magic before Sunset could use her magic to levitate things around. The taller pony used her leg in order to check Sunset for high temperature, but showed obvious signs of relief. "Is it you who is making a joke my mischievous daughter?" ... Sunset's brain needed to take a double take after hearing those words. "D-did you just call me...? No, come on Sunset, snap out of it." She hit herself with her hoof on the cheeks. Again pain and she didn't wake up. "You gotta be kidding me." she whispered, realizing (again) that this was definitely not a dream. "Sunset?" Celestia stepped closer and wrapped her foreleg around the shocked/frozen uni-(sorry, wrong script) alicorn. "You're acting really strange today. Are you sure you're alright? Did something happen?" "Twilight." Sunset breathed out. "I need to talk to Twilight. I'm sure she can make some sense out of all of this." "Twilight?" Celestia asked, thinking a little bit. She nodded satisfied. "Okay, let's wake up your sister. The servants told me she read all night again." Celestia chuckled. She started walking out of the room, but Sunset didn't follow. Her brain was having difficulty processing the new Information. This is just a dream. None of this makes any sense. Twilight...my sister? Celestia...my mother? I...am a princess?! No, this gotta be a dream! Nothing else makes any sense!! Stupid sub-consciousness! Wake up! I don't want to be a princess! I....I....ARRRGH