//------------------------------//
// Education 
// Story: The Fading World 
// by Neon Czolgosz 
//------------------------------//

It was ten in the morning, and Sunset Shimmer’s patience was already wearing thin.

A particularly insufferable student—now ex-student—had seen her as she walked across campus, and had been pestering Sunset to reinstate her. She had already told her that reinstatement was quite impossible, that another student had already been assigned her lodgings, that no funds remained to hire on new students let alone allow her back, and that she did not warrant the exceptional circumstances to reverse her expulsion.

“—but you can’t just kick me out!” cried the blue mare, her eyes wet with crocodile tears. “I’ve done nothing to deserve expulsion! I haven’t broken the honor code, I’ve attended all of my lectures, and I’ve passed all of my exams. It’s utterly groundless!”

Sunset Shimmer sighed. She could already feel a tight, constricting pain throbbing between her eyeballs, and she hadn’t even had breakfast yet. “And as I’ve explained to you several times before, attendance, behaviour and grades are the minimum requirements to continue study at the Canterlot Academy. We only keep the best, and you have not made the cut. Most do not.”

“B-but I have! I’ve worked so hard and I’ve learned so much here!”

“Yes, you have taken more from the Academy than you are ever capable of giving back, this is true. It is good that you have not wasted both your and our time during your studies here, but that alone is not enough to continue your stay here. And speaking of wasting time...”

“My family won’t take me back, I’ll have nowhere to go!” The mare’s voice felt like broken glass in Sunset’s ears. They had reached her office, and the mare slipped through the door before Sunset could shut it in her face.

“That is not my concern,” said Sunset, turning to face her. “I will tell you one last time: your absurd focus on jumped-up parlor tricks and magical sleight-of-hoof is an unacceptable vice in a student of your caliber, and your brash attitude is a distraction to other staff and students. Your tutors told you this, but you refused to change. Your expulsion is a natural consequence of your ignorance. Now, leave my office before I do something rash.”

Sunset Shimmer turned away, but felt something grip her leg. Her head snapped round to look. The blue unicorn was belly down on the floor, holding on to her hind hoof.

“P-please...” sobbed the mare. “It’s winter, I won’t survive, I’m begging you...”

That was it.

It brought her no pleasure to do what she was about to do, but such ignorant petitioners required a swift rebuke. Sunset lifted the mare in a magical field and pinned her against the stone wall of her office. With a thought, an enchantment seeped into the stones, and they held the mare with their own telekinetic energies. The mare screamed, and Sunset conjured a large bit and bridle over her head.

"You seem to have forgotten some basic magical knowledge, so allow me to give a final lecture," said Sunset, her voice dangerously low. "For centuries, less than one in ten unicorns have been born with enough power to cast anything more than feeble telekinesis, and half of all unicorns born have no magic whatsoever. Even when a 'powerful' unicorn is born, only a mixture of good breeding, careful training, and the ritual ensoulment of family magic can true magic be used. Each time the ensoulment ritual is used, its power drops, so a firstborn foal will inherit twice the power of the second-born, and four times the power of the third-born. I trust that you're keeping up, despite your rudimentary intellect."

Sunset walked over to her desk, leaving the terrified mare to squirm against invisible bonds. She rummaged around her desk drawers, and pulled out a pin crest. She held it aloft for the mare to see. "This is the Sunblaze crest, my family's crest. I come from a nine-generation line of mages--all firstborns, of course--and from many second and third children before that. It has been more than two centuries since our family blood was soiled with a non-mage." She smiled mirthlessly, and then tucked the pin away. "You come from a two-generation, eh, 'line' of mages, born from a medley of second and third foals. Your great-grandmother was not even a unicorn. Your power barely registers to my senses. You have literally nothing of any magical worth to offer the Academy. Nothing. Your sole purpose in life is to preserve your family magic in the hope of one day making a true mage from your bloodline. We allow unicorns like you to study at the academy so you might make a better class of servant or broodmare for a true mage. Your delusions of competence make you unsuitable even for that, and so we will not waste and further time or funds on you."

Sunset closed her eyes and brought a small, cherry red ball of flame into being. She floated it over to the trapped mare's face until the mare squeaked and tried to shimmy away from the heat. "But, I am not an unfair mage," said Sunset. "I will allow you this chance: I will take this ball of elemental fire, a mere speck of my true magical potential, and force it down your throat. If your puffed-up collection of card tricks can repel my power before your blood boils inside you, I will reinstate you with a full scholarship."

She held the mare's head straight with her telekinesis and forced her jaw open with an idle thought. She yanked the mare's tongue down until it almost touched her chin, and then moved the ball of fire until it was inches from her open mouth. "Or, you can simply leave. Shake your head if you want to do that."

The mare desperately shook her head, tears streaming down her face. Her bindings disappeared and the fire dissipated, dumping her unceremoniously on the floor. She scrambled to her feet and bolted from the room, sobbing hysterically.

Sunset's shoulders slumped, the rage draining away, and her nose wrinkled as she saw the small puddle by the wall. The mare had wet herself. Sunset shut her door, turned towards her desk, and jumped a foot in the air when she saw Twilight Sparkle sat up in her reading chair. Sunset had tutored the ex-Guard back when she could barely conjure a magelight. Seeing her combine effortless invisibility spells with her considerable knowledge of spycraft and infiltration took some getting used to.

Twilight glanced between Sunset and the door, and Sunset suddenly blushed at her outburst. She cleared her throat and said, "That was, ah, regretful but necessary." She didn't know why she looked embarrassed in front of Twilight Sparkle, she might as well feel guilty at a housecat. "She had been bothering me for several days now, and we simply can't afford unnecessary distractions this close to the start."

"I see," said Twilight. "You wanted to talk?"

Sunset moved behind her desk, sat, and swiveled the chair to face her. "Yes, I did. It's not urgent, if you have duties to take care of."

Twilight shook her head. "My schedule is clear for the next hour. I have already given Spike his breakfast, his morning studies, and an eight-second hug."

"...You still time your hugs."

"It fosters consistency."

Sunset stared for a moment, and then said, "Right. Well then, I'd like to talk about the Servant summoning."

"Oh?" said Twilight, listening intently. Sunset assumed she was listening intently, at least. It was difficult to tell Twilight's expressions apart at the best of times.

"Our research on the artifacts is complete. We will have the most powerful Archer and Caster types it is possible to acquire, even if a pre-apotheosis version of Archer is summoned. I sent out a team of archivists to remove any information relating to Nightmare Moon as a precaution, and the only extant artifacts of hers are safely in my posession. Our strategy remains the same. You will pair with Caster, and between his raw power and your guile you will be able to lure our enemies into inescapable traps. Archer and I will then provide the power for a killing blow."

Twilight stared at the wall as if considering this, and then nodded. "Understood. Is the transference matrix working?"

"Yes. It's still very taxing," said Sunset, "but now all nine archmages of the Council are in an extended trance, funneling their full magical potential toward me. They are sealed away in safety and concealed from attack. My spellcasting abilities nearly approach those of a Servant. Between my spells and Caster's, our two teams should be able to out-cast any other pair."

"Good," said Twilight. She looked at Sunset's desk. "Hmm. It's ten in the morning and you have a file in your in-tray. Your morning paperwork is usually done before nine. Something important?"

Sunset Shimmer laughed. “Yes, indeed. It’s a file I wanted you to see, actually. A report on the third Master, a mare called Applejack Apple.”

Twilight’s ears twitched. “The bounty hunter?”

“Oh, her exploits finally reached the walls of the Royal Guard at some point, then?” she asked, with a wry grin. “The last I heard, the Guard denied that any such bounty hunter existed.”

“The Guard would deny this morning’s sunrise if they thought it would be in the interest of public safety to do so,” replied Twilight, flatly. “The Watchtower was well aware of her existence. She has been implicated in several murders, and there was—and presumably still is—a quiet warrant for her arrest and interrogation.”

Sunset considered this and nodded. “Interesting. What do you know of her?”

“Not much. Extremely dangerous, do not approach, inform the Seer Council of any sighting. Her case information was need-to-know.”

Sunset tapped the folder. “Well, I believe I have that case information and then some. She’s a bounty hunter, yes, and you’re not wrong about her being extremely dangerous. She specialises in killing and capturing mages—not unlike your former vocations, now I mention it—but you and I would consider her tactics highly unorthodox... not to mention uncivilised. She plans every assault to minimize the role that magic can play, and then uses her considerable physical skills to win the confrontation. She can crush a mare’s head with a single hoof. Her operational methods are entirely alien to any good mage, and she uses this to her advantage.”

Twilight opened up the folder and began to leaf through it. At the front was a photograph, a portrait of a mare. A handsome face, green eyes, freckles marred by a thick scar over the left cheek. “May I borrow this file?”

“Of course. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some final academic housekeeping to attend to before we begin the summoning.”

Twilight barely noticed the door shut behind her. She was already engrossed in the file.