"It started in my Canterlot Elementary days... fourth grade, to be precise," said Sunset.
"The Summer Sun Celebration was nigh. The days seemed to get longer as summer passed by. Everypony in that city was incredibly excited, except for one pony. That's right-- yours truly."
"Hey, Sunset Shimmer! You going to Celestia's celebration?" one little filly asked a young Sunset Shimmer.
"Oh, please," young Sunset churlishly replied. "I have much better things to do than celebrate something... natural. The Princess probably doesn't care much, but some ponies seem to."
"Huh, I thought maybe you'd enjoy yourself sometime, Sunset," the filly replied serenely, careful not to make Sunset blow a fuse.
"I do enjoy myself. I enjoy reading books. The books that help shape me who I am. That's why I'm so smart. Because reading books help your future. Everypony should just read books instead of this solstice crud that everypony is buzzing about."
"Maybe you should burn those books sometime," the filly muttered and walked off.
"Yeah, that's right. Walk away! Ugh, I can't believe I just wasted my time socializing." Sunset kicked a rock at the ground. The Summer Sun Celebration was gonna take place that very night, and ponies talking about it constantly was enough. But imagine how crowded the streets of Canterlot would be. Sunset decided that she needed to stay in her house during the event while her father, mother and younger brother went. And speaking of her family...
"Hey, kiddo! There you are," said a Unicorn stallion named Glint Gleam, carrying a small Unicorn colt on his back. "I was hoping to see you while you were walking home so I could take you to town. The decoration committee for the Celebration needed some volunteers, and..."
"Come on, Daddy! You know I don't have time for this sort of sunrise celebration business." Glint Gleam sighed. "And can't Mom do the decorations? She gets paid to do these sort of designer things." Glint pushed Sunset to the left direction, toward where they needed to get started. They started walking.
"Your mom is in Saddle Arabia for a business trip and will be back in time for the Celebration. She'll meet us at the event. And besides, you know your mom doesn't design for celebrations." It was true; Sunrise Twinkle was indeed not a designer of events, but rather a designer of jewelry.
"I can't wait to see the princess in person!" exclaimed the young colt on Glint's back named Summer Shimmer. "I've only seen her in pictures. What do you think she's like?"
"Well, you both appear to have something in common!" Glint said.
"That's a first," Sunset said. "I already said that I'm not the type of pony who's excited for this sort of thing!"
"I wasn't talking about the Princess," Glint said, "as I seriously doubt that you're willing to meet anypony new. But neither of you have seen the Princess in real life. Maybe you've heard about her in stories or seen some drawings of her, but you need to consider yourselves lucky to see her so early in life, especially when some ponies don't stay in public longer than they have to." He chuckled. "Unless they're reading a book the whole time."
"Books are an efficient way to lucubrate and build your vocabulary."
"I get that, but Sunset..." Glint stopped and looked into Sunset's eyes, so she knew that this was important to him. "There is more to life than books. There are different methods of learning. It's great that somepony is interested in learning, but if there isn't anything else there, then you can't be quite as happy as you think you are."
"I'm happy! I'm very happy! I'm actually reading this fictional novel about a stallion who works at a peanut butter factory--"
"Sunset, this isn't a joke. You never go outside unless you have to."
"But why would I need to?"
"Because it's common for a pony your age to make some friends! Socialize a little bit!" Glint paused. "Tell you what. You come with me to the Summer Sun Festival and I'll..." He thought for a bit before continuing. "...I'll get you that expensive series of books you want with the pirates."
"They're not pirates, Dad! They're warriors! On a boat!"
"Whatever you say, Sunset. Is it a deal or not?"
"Um..." Sunset thought for a moment and sighed. She really wanted to save up her allowance for that box set, but it was gonna take a while to get enough bits for it unless she went with her family to this one little event. She felt as though she might regret it later, but she just went with the plan. "Okay... it's a deal."
She looked down at the ground as she followed her dad. She eventually heard the excited chatter, and at the corner of her eye, saw some boxes full of streamers. This was the place. Full of ponies. And not even close to how many would even be at the event.
"Where's the Princess? Where's the Princess?!" little colt Summer said.
"She's in the castle," Glint replied, "getting ready for the festival, I presume. Her niece Cadence is helping out though. She's a Princess too."
"All right!" exclaimed Summer. "I get to see another Princess!" Summer looked at the castle. "I wonder if Princess Celestia has any siblings?"
"She did," Sunset said in response. "But she was banished to the moon."
"Why?"
"I guess her sister got jealous and turned into some villain who brought with her eternal night. Celestia defeated her with--"
"Well, you two can talk," said Glint, "while you're putting up the flowers." He levitated a few boxes of flower necklaces and strings in front of them. "You can just put them on the windows and rooftops. I know you both aren't very familiar with magic, so you can't levitate, but you can use the boxes to stand on while you wrap the flowers around everything."
"Okay. Fine," said Sunset.
"I'll be over by the gardens if you need me."
"Yep." Sunset watched him and waited until he was out of site. Maybe she could ditch this place. But then her younger brother would see her and tell her father exactly what happened. If she could just distract him... or maybe get him to tag along...
"Hey, Summer!"
"Huh?" the colt said, nearly toppling over the boxes he was standing on. Sunset caught him before he hit the ground.
"Summer, you're supposed to put the biggest box underneath the other boxes..." Sunset waited for him to get on his hooves again. "But that's beside the point. Come with me." She dragged him in the direction of the exit.
"Uh, sis?" Summer followed her hesitantly. "Where are we going?"
"Home. We're bailing from this place. I can just save up my allowance for the dumb box set. Nothing is worth going to this lousy six-hour celebration."
"But I thought it was five hours!"
"Whatever! Do you think that watching the moon go down and the sun go up is gonna benefit you?"
"But isn't Daddy gonna notice that we're gone?"
"Eventually. He'll figure out where we went, though." Summer sweat anxiously.
"You can go... I'll stay here." Summer walked the other direction, only to bump into their father.
"Miss Sunset Shimmer!" Glint bellowed. "Do you have no respect for the Princess?" Sunset looked guiltily at her father. Then gave a loud hmph!
"Dad, I have tried and tried again to tell you that I don't want to go to this thing! What is the point? Who actually wants to watch some Alicorn make... the moon go down and the sun go up!"
"It's magic!" Sunset stopped. "You know-- the magic that you can learn to do anything you want. The type that you learn... in books."
Sunset chucked. "Anything?"
"Yes!"
Sunset looked up at the sky. "Okay. I'll go to this thing. As long as right after she raises the sun, we'll go home."
Glint rolled his eyes. "Sure."
Later...
Everypony crowded in the streets of Canterlot, waiting for Princess Celestia to raise the sun. Sunset's mother Sunrise Twinkle joined the family. When the Princess came into view, Sunset couldn't stop looking at her. The ruler of Equestria... was Sunset really seeing her in person? Maybe this going to this thing wasn't such a bad idea.
What's this? The Princess' horn was lighting up in a yellow and orange aura. Little swirls and specks of light rotated around her horn as a bright glow, similar to lightning, shot up from Celestia's horn to the sky. The moon slowly lowered from the sky, and the sky turned a hot-pink color as a very bright glow slowly rose up. An eclipse occured while the sun and moon crossed over each other. The crowd oohed and ahhed while the Princess smiled. But something felt new to Sunset. She could see her reflection in the magical field that engulfed the sun and moon, but no one else saw it.
She had to admit, this whole magic thing was actually... fascinating. But why? And thus... this revealed her nice and thoughtful side. She felt a spark in her, like deep down she felt that maybe how her attitude about things was just not cool, and that she shouldn't judge a book by the cover.
The sun slowly continued moving up while the moon disappeared from sight as it went down. A loud, roaring cheer blasted out of the crowd. Even Sunset seemed proud of what the Princess could do. The family walked out of the crowd, but Sunset's parents stopped in awe.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, why are you looking at her like that?" Summer asked.
Sunrise Twinkle pointed at Sunset's flank. Once Sunset saw a symbol, a red and yellow sun evenly split, she knew exactly what that spark she felt in her meant... she'd earned her Cutie Mark.
"But... what does it mean?" Glint asked. But Sunset had a pretty good idea of what it meant.
Sunset had displayed two sides of her personality, one kind and thoughtful, and the other needlessly selfish and rude. She'd discovered something sapient... that for something to thrive, you can't have the good without the bad.
Present time...
"But that didn't show my special talent!" Sunset said. "I think it's pretty clear that I was interested in magic, just like Twilight. So why did I get my Cutie Mark as this instead?"
"We don't know, dear," Rarity said. "What if this mark is related to your destiny? You said you haven't found yourself yet... is that correct?"
"I don't know what I'm meant to be," said Sunset. "Maybe it could be. Maybe if the magic of Cutie Marks saw my future waaaay before I did?"
"If it's a mystery to solve, I know that you can't solve it alone," said Princess Twilight, smiling.