"Doesn't look too bad, but I've seen worse." Sunset said as she wrote yet another thing of her ever longer getting list of things that need to be either repaired in one way or the other or completely replaced. In case of the sinks the pipes connecting them, a replacement seemed to be the best solution, but she would leave that to the construction ponies.
"You have?" Caring Heart asked surprised, for pretty obvious reasons.
"You wouldn't belief me anyway." Sunset said, only half paying attention, as she skipped over the list she made one last time. "Okay, I think I have a good overview of what needs to be done." The princess said, as she and the former owner left the bathrooms.
"Thank you...for everything."
"That's probably the hundredth time you said that." Sunset smiled.
The two finally arrived at the first floor again, after spending half an hour taking a quick look over the place. Sunset didn't want to think about how long the list would have been, if she would have paid the same attention, she did with the places she lived in the human world.
"I think I better go back to the castle. I have...a bit of explaining to do." the princess rubbed the back of the head uncomfortably.
"Should I maybe come with you, your highness?"
"Nah, it's cool." Sunset waved off. "I know I said otherwise earlier, but I bet you have a ton of stuff to do right now. I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back later today for-"
A gasp coming from the other side of the hall caught the attention of the two. Turning around they found a filly unicorn in light green color, yellow eyes and dark green mane looking at them with excitement. She was standing at the bottom of another staircase, from where quickly more fillies and colts came running downstairs, some still equipped with their school bags.
"Oh right, it's lunchtime..." Caring murmured to herself.
"Look everypony!" the first unicorn who came down shouted and pointed at Sunset Shimmer "it's a princess!" The effect was immediate, as every single one of the foals ran up to her, amazed simply by her being there.
"What are you doing here?"
"Is it true that your bathtub is made of gold?"
"Are you adopting one of us?"
"Hey, I want to see her too!"
The narrow hallway was quickly filled with an overwhelming number of ponies. Caring Heart having experience with those kind situations and when she raised her voice, everyone immediately quieted down.
"Please children, calm down. I know this is a surprise for us all, but Princess Sunset Shimmer is a busy pony. She was about to leave us, anyway."
"Awwww........." came from the entire crowd of small ponies. Seeing everypony so disappointed made Sunset feel really guilty.
"Oh well, I think I can spare some more time." Sunset said. Again there was an immediate reaction, this time cheering from everypony. She gave a quick smile to Caring Heart, who returned the smile, only a little bit unsure.
"Okay everypony. Let's get into the cafeteria." Caring said, immediately causing the ponies to rush down the hallway. The grown ups almost got carried away in the stream.
"I'm sorry, your highness."
Sunset just kept smiling. "Kids will be kids. Considering I just bought this whole place, I should interact with them at least a little, shouldn't I?" she asked in a little sarcastic matter. On another note, she silently hoped she would be able to get a slice of pizza.
As they entered the cafeteria, Sunset remembered that she neither took a look at this room or the kitchen. Bad memories started resurfacing, when she remembered that one time she needed to go to the hospital thanks to...yeah. It was...NOT NICE.
The cafeteria itself contained a lot of rundown tables, along with even more rundown chairs. None of them looked comfortable at all. The walls looked like they could use some new paint on them. On one end of the room were some larger tables, where obviously the food was being picked up, along with plates and some old silverware.
Two unicorn cooks just brought in the pizza. Upon seeing the crown princess in the room, they almost lost the large plates from their magic grips. "Y-your highness?!" one of them exclaimed. Both tried to bow awkwardly, while still holding the plates.
"No need to bow, really. I'm not here for long anyway." she explained. "All right kids, I'll answer a few questions for now. And don't worry about the food." Sunset activated her magic and lifted up a piece of pizza, put it on a plate and finally levitated the plate over to a colt, who in return smiled gratefully. She repeated the whole process, only faster and carrying more and more pieces.
Soon enough everyone had a slice of pizza in front of them. Half of the kids cheered, while the other half was already eating. The older ones, granted there were only a few teenagers, looked with a mixture of skeptic and disbelief. Sunset even recognized a few, although the names just wouldn't come to her mind.
"Now" Sunset spoke up "as I already said, I can answer a few questions before I really need to go and no, my bathtub is not made of pure gold." There were a few chuckles from the older ones and grown ups.
Surprisingly the first question came from one of the older orphans. "Why are you here? Not to be rude or anything, but...doesn't a princess have something better to do?"
Sunset thought about the answer for a second. "Actually, it was just coincidence I met Caring Heart today. I think it's no secret this orphanage could need some help, so I decided to help."
"But why?"
"Why not?" Sunset countered. "What's wrong with wishing that you have at least a nice place to stay?"
That silenced the mare. It took a few seconds before another colt raised his leg. "Yes?"
"Are you going to adopt m-...one of us?"
"Sorry" Sunset looked apologetic "I can't really do that. But I can visit you from time to time, I'm sure." Of course being adopted was the best thing that could happen to an orphan. The second best was becoming her student. Sunset Shimmer silently commented the colt on his courage on daring to ask the question.
The next question came from the unicorn who discovered Sunset first. "Can you take me on a flight?" More than a few snorted at this question. The princess however froze up for a second. It would lead to at least some uncomfortable situations.
"E-e-err....maybe another time. L-look at the time, I need to go now. I'll see you then." Sunset gave Caring a signal to follow her outside. The children were shouting after her, but Sunset ignored them for now. Almost ignored them. "Sorry, I really need to go now. Oh, almost forgot." She quickly levitated a piece of pizza over to herself. "Apparently it's uncouth for a princess to enjoy fast food, so...you won't tell anypony if I bring you chocolate next time, will you?" she winked at the kids, who cheered in return.
Outside, the princess quickly devoured the pizza, before Caring Heart appeared next to her. "Sorry about the abrupt leave here, but I really better get back now." she explained.
"I understand, your highness. I will tell the rest of the staff today what happened. Everypony was confused about your "help" you did to us. To be honest...I didn't even tell anypony else how bad it was looking for us." she admitted, looking down on the floor. "Though I'm sure they suspected something. Haha, it's funny. It all worked out in the end."
"You should have told them." Sunset stated flatly. "They would have helped you. And even if not, they would be prepared to lose their job and already start looking for alternatives. As cold as it sounds, losing your job just like this from one minute to another is a nightmare."
Caring Heart only nodded, her head still hanging low. The alicorn lost her stern face and put a hoof on the other mare's shoulder. "Hey, now you know better." Caring looked up again.
"I'll bring this up to Celestia right when I'm back. I'll probably get one heck of a talking, but it'll be worth it."
"Thank you. I...just can't thank you enough." Caring replied, barely holding back her tears.
"Explains a lot." Sunset smiled. "I'll see if I can make it today. If not, definitely tomorrow. I'll see you around. Oh and you better close your eyes."
In a bright flash Sunset teleported out.
XIII
"Gotta love my new teleportation range." Sunset said, after reappearing in her room. "I wonder where my limits are now that I'm an alicorn?"
Sunset walked out of her room and just turned towards the way to the dining hall, when she ran into her "mother".
"Ah there you're." Celestia said. Sunset had a hard time not to appear nervous. "I was wondering where you went. You're feeling better now, aren't you?"
"Y-yeah, I'm better." Sunset said.
"Are you sure? Twilight said, your magic was at least halved this morning." Celestia came a little closer.
"I-I'm fine, really." Sunset tried to argue.
"If you say so." Celestia wasn't convinced at all, but dropped the subject. "Let's not let the others wait any longer."
"Wait!" Sunset called out. "There's something...something happened today."
"Oh?" Celestia turned around again. "What is it?"
"Well" Sunset was literally sweating bullets by now. How in tartarus am I going to explain this?! Straightforward? Beating around the bush?
"Sunset?"
The fiery maned mare gulped and took a deep breath. "So....ummm......I....there was this mare who needed help...she runs an orphanage...." she trailed of.
"Go on." Celestia didn't show any emotion, which was actually more terrifying than her being angry or disappointed.
"There was this stallion....she owed him money....it was legit and there was now way for her of paying back. He wanted the money, so..."
"So you decided to pay for her." Celestia smiled, hiding her surprise, but at the same time let out a sigh.
"Yeah..." Sunset scratched her head.
"So you realized your own mistake already?" The larger princess said.
"Actually it was Caring Heart who pointed it out. She's the mare who owns the orphanage." Sunset explained to Celestia's confused face. "Or rather 'owned'."
"Owned?" Celestia asked intrigued.
"Yes. She wanted to sell the place to someone who could possibly get it out of the jam. She had a contract prepared and everything. I had a chance to read it thoroughly and...yeah. It got me and the orphanage out of the jam.
I-I did it for the children! You can't expect from me to just look and see foals and fillies get thrown out on the street."
Celestia looked down at Sunset Shimmer with an analytically gaze. Sunset wished she would just disappear. She would be able to do that, but then again: if she would run away this time, Celestia would probably send the royal guard to find her.
What came next surprised Sunset (but none of my readers I hope) as she was pulled into a hug by the sun alicorn.
"C-Celestia?!"
"I'm so proud of you, my daughter."
"Pr-proud?! But I-"
"You thought I would be angry at you?" Celestia interrupted. "For helping those in need? For ignoring your status as a princess and simply being generous?" Celestia laughed amused. "No Sunset. You made me really proud today." the larger alicorn pulled back, but kept her daughter in her embrace.
"I hope you're ready for the responsibilities you loaded onto your shoulders. But you have my full support on this."
Sunset was stunned for until she realized she shouldn't be stunned at all. This was Celestia after all.
"Tell you what, after lunch we all go to your orphanage. I'm sure I'll be able to help you with the bureaucracy."
"A-are you sure? Don't you have day court to hold?" Sunset asked.
"Oh day court fell a little short today and honestly, it's been far too long since we spent time as an actual family. It will do Twilight some good to get her nuzzle away from those dusty old books."
Phew the yellow alicorn thought that went better than expected. She and Celestia walked down the hall together, Celestia still having that smile on her face, perfectly hiding the puzzled thoughts that were going through her head.
Spike was right. Sunset is acting a little strange.