Getting Acquainted
After my folks had packed all of my stuff and brought me back to the castle, I gave them a big hug goodbye as Celestia stood by my side. We all had tears in our eyes and I remember Celestia hugging them as well and reassuring my parents that I would be in good hooves. I remember as they headed home and Celestia led Inferno and I upstairs to where my bedroom was I whispered to myself, "Mom, dad, I will make you proud. I will fulfill my destiny."
When I saw my new bedroom I was amazed by how big it was. I crawled up on my bed and wow, it was so comfy! I sank into it and sighed in delight. Celestia gave me a smile and asked, "I take it you like it?"
I smiled and replied, "Thank you your Majesty, I love it! This bed is so comfy!"
Inferno too had his own place to sleep, a well cushioned pet bed. I asked Celestia why he only got a small pet bed and she told me that is how things have been done ever since she had a school. I was happy though that Inferno found his bed comfortable. After getting settled into my room Celestia led me into the study tower that I will be sharing with her other protege. This other unicorn had a tan coat and had a red and yellow mane, basically identical to the colors of my new assistant. I was kind of nervous but I decided I would initiate the conversation. "Hello." I said to her.
Celestia addressed her, "Sunset Shimmer, this is Starlight Glimmer. I want you to know that she is my new protege."
This did not sit well with her. I still remember how she yelled, "What? I have to share you now? But you said that you would help me fulfill my destiny."
I could tell by the behavior and tone of voice that Sunset was using that her and I probably would not get along. I know that as a filly I probably should not have been thinking this but my first thought about her was, "What a witch!"
Celestia could tell that Sunset was not happy so she had to calm her down, "Sunset, just because I have a second protege does not mean that I am diminishing your role. I still have the same plans for you that I have for Starlight."
The princess could tell that Sunset was going to have trouble adjusting to me being around. To reassure me she whispered in my ear, "Don't worry Starlight, she'll come around and if she treats you poorly, just let me know." She then stood tall and continued, "Well I'll let you two get acquainted."
As she left the study tower I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. I wasn't dealing with a bunch of morons who barely knew how to wipe their asses, I had to co-exist with a unicorn whose magic rivals my own and obviously thinks highly of herself. I decided to again try to initiate conversation with her. "Hi Sunset, how is your day going?"
I don't know what crawled up her ass and died but she replied, "Look Starlight, you address me as SUNSET SHIMMER, not just Sunset. I have been here for a while and even though you are a bit older than me, I still hold rank over you."
Even though she was being a total bitch I wanted to get to know her better. I knew that acting like her would get me nowhere, so I tried to be as polite as possible. I asked, "So Sunset Shimmer, you said you have been here for a while. How did you get in here at such a young age?"
Starlight replied, "Hmmph....Why should I tell you? Why should I tell the child of paupers anything?" She stood there playing with her mane and continued, "So, how does a pony from such a low class get into Celestia's school? It is only supposed to be for ponies who come from wealthy families like me."
I decided that perhaps if I am nice to her, she will become more friendly. I replied, "Well I was placed in the public school system which was way too easy for me. I was able to show off my magic when the schoolmaster yelled at me. He threatened to expel me if my parents kept standing up for me so I took his cutie mark off of him. That is what caused Celestia to be notified of how powerful my magic was."
Sunset scoffed, "That is a lie. You can't take away cutie marks! You made that up, loser."
Unfortunately there were no jars to put a cutie mark in but I decided I would remove her mark for a moment anyway. I fired some energy at her, had her held in my aura and proceeded to remove her mark. She whimpered in pain as it was ripped off of her. As I levitated it to myself, a black equals sign appeared on her flank. It was at that moment that she knew not to mess with me.
I decided to play around with her a bit. While I didn't have anything to put it in, I did hold on to her mark and started moving it around the room. The way she was grunting and frantically running around the room made me laugh. I felt like I was playing with a cat, having it chase a string. Eventually I decided to let her have her mark back. When I let it go it flew back to her flank and replaced the equals sign that had been there earlier.
I could tell by the look on her face that she didn't even know what to think. She asked, "H-how did you do that?"
I replied, "I honestly don't know, when I did this to the schoolmaster it just happened. Perhaps it is a special form of magic that ONLY I have. Just like time lords and time ladies are the only ones who can manipulate time, perhaps I'm the only pony who can take marks."
Sunset, despite seeing what I am capable of, was still being her arrogant self. She mocked, "Oh yeah, look at me! I can take cutie marks! I'm the best thing in the world!" She pointed her hoof at me and snarled, "But you have no way to keep them! So even if you do take my mark again, you will never have it forever, LOSER."
Rather than blowing up at her I decided to try to deescalate the situation. After all, I did not want to draw any unwanted attention to this situation. I did not want Celestia to kick me out of her school the same day I was accepted. I asked, "So Sunset, would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?"
Sunset sighed as she did not wish to tell me anything given that I came from a working class family. She finally broke down and started to tell me about herself after holding her in my aura again. I am guessing she didn't want to lose her mark again.
She boasted, "Well I come from one of the most wealthy families here in Canterlot. My father is a high level unicorn guard for Celestia and my mother works as an accountant so I have never had to deal with economic hardships the way losers like you do."
I asked, "So Sunset, how did you get into this school at such a young age?"
She again boasted, "Well since my father works for the guard, all I had to do was show the princess a few fancy tricks and she let me in. I didn't even have to take that stupid entrance exam!"
I laughed, "So I take it you don't have an assistant since you never hatched a dragon's egg?"
Sunset replied, "Well when you are as good as I am, you don't need some dragon to hack up messages for you. Celestia trusts me completely so I don't need her babysitting me through communicating through a scroll hacking pet."
I couldn't help but sigh. Personally I thought having an assistant was really cool and knew it made communicating with the princess easier. I replied, "Look at this way Sunset, I can more easily communicate with the princess. If she needs me for something or I need to communicate with her, I can simply have Inferno send her a message to her while you actually have to go to her or relay a message through a guard." I began to snicker a bit, "Timeliness is a virtue Sunset, and that is something I can utilize much better than you."
Sunset decided to continue making snide comments and this time she targeted my cutie mark. She sneered, "So Starlight, what does your cutie mark mean? Does it mean that you can swirl ribbons to make them look like a T?" She began to laugh further and continued, "What a worthless talent!"
I wanted to keep my composure but it was getting tough. I replied, "I'll be honest, I honestly don't know what it represents. My family thinks it represents a talent with advanced magic." I took a look at her cutie mark and asked, "So Sunset, what does your mark represent? I doubt it actually has anything to do with the sun because Princess Celestia is the only one who can move the sun."
Sunset puffed her chest out and replied, "It means that I shine like the sun! It means that I am really smart!"
Good grief. I felt like cutting her tail off and strangling her with it. I sighed, "I guess we have one thing in common, neither one of us know for sure what our marks truly represent."
Sunset grunted, "Well I am out of here. It is time for supper. I hope you like vegetarian meals because that is what we eat here. Unlike you lower class paupers, we don't go eating meat."
I followed her to the dining hall and realized that the only time I would probably get to eat meat was when mom and dad would send me care packages and when we were on break. If I can finally fulfill my destiny, whatever that might be, I figured that eating vegeterian meals will be worth it.
Fierce Competition
Several months had passed since I entered Celestia's school and while I was a bit behind Sunset in where I was in my studies, I was quickly catching up to her. At first even the material taught in the special school seemed easy for me. I did know though that I just couldn't stare out the window and not pay attention here. I remember one day both Sunset and I were in the tower studying when Celestia came up to the tower.
She addressed us together, "Starlight, Sunset, as you know the semester will be coming to a close very soon. Both of you are excelling in your studies and I have decided to give you two full weeks off. You can do whatever you like during this time but remember to be back by the end of the 13th day so you will be ready for the new semester."
My eyes lit up immediately as I happily shouted, "I can't wait to go spend some time with mom and dad! Oh I miss mom's cooking so much!"
Sunset rolled her eyes and said, "Hmmph.....me go and spend time with other ponies? I think not, I think I will stay here and study."
She changed the topic entirely and tried to turn the princess against me. She glared at me and sneered, "I know you've been cheating just so you can catch up with me."
Celestia glared at me and asked, "Starlight, is this true? Have you been cheating to catch up to her?"
I replied, "Cheat? I don't even know how one would cheat to get ahead here. I do my schoolwork and I do all the extra credit that my teachers, including you, give me. I made a promise to my parents that I would make them proud and I am not going to let them down."
Sunset sneered, "You mad a promise to your parents to make them proud? How pathetic. I don't care what my parents think, what matters is that I succeed." She sighed and continued, "Well what can you expect out of low class pauper kids, they feel obligated to impress their precious parents."
Celestia gave me a smile as she knew that this was not a matter of me cheating, it was a matter of Sunset simply being jealous. She scolded Sunset over her belittling rant and left the room. Once Celestia was out of earshot, Sunset began to belittle me and called me a "teacher's pet." What a petty thing to say to a fellow student.
While since I had been a filly I always wanted everypony to be equal, I knew that I had to put her in her place. I knew I had to prove to Celestia that I was the better student. So while I was hoping to spend a couple of weeks at home, I decided to spend the whole time up here and study hard. I made a vow to myself that by the end of the next semester, that I would be ahead of her in our studies. Given her attitude and distance from her family, I knew that Sunset would do the same thing. I decided that with the way she had treated me throughout the semester, that the best route to take would be to view her as my enemy, an enemy that I must crush.
During this break Celestia decided to take a week off and go to Las Pegasus, right after the Hearth's Warming pageant. While she was gone both Sunset and I would intensify our studies. While she continued to study history and some spells to manipulate things, I went further back into the archives and studied magic that was considered "too advanced" for either one of us. I began to study teleportation and the thought process that was involved in it. It took me a few days to master it, even at a short distance but eventually I was able to do it. I knew that I would simply need to put more thought into teleporting greater distances.
I also managed to learn how to unlock doors, which is something that I probably shouldn't have done because that would be classified as cheating. That was something that Celestia had planned on teaching us together so that one of us could not simply get into the most advanced parts of the archives while the other couldn't. I knew that I could not simply go around unlocking doors until Celestia taught us this, nor could I do any of the other advanced magic that I learned from studying behind locked doors. Oh boy, Sunset will be surprised once we do start being taught this advanced stuff and I master it so easily!
Finally Celestia returns from Las Pegasus and comes up to see if we are back. She gave us a smile when she saw that we were both studying diligently. Sunset turned around with an indifferent look on her face and said, "Oh hi Princess. How was your trip."
I was a bit more enthusiastic in my greeting. I teleported myself over to her and gave her a hug. I asked, "Hi Princess Celestia! How was your trip?"
Celestia was stunned to see me teleport. She asked, "Starlight, how did you learn to teleport? That lesson is still a few months away."
I replied, "Well I did some studying in the archives and found a book on it. I knew the subject would be coming up during the semester so I decided that to be ready, I would teach myself at least basic teleportation. It never hurts to be ready."
Sunset went into a rage screaming and yelling about how I cheated. She went on and on about how the archives are off limits for students until they have been in the school for quite a while. This caused Celestia to roll her eyes and tell her that with the exception of the Starswirl the Bearded wing, that the archives are open to all her students, even the ones that aren't in the most advanced part of the school.
Sunset's jaw dropped open and I gave her a half-smile. I had a feeling that soon she would begin to cheat and would easily get caught by Celestia. Of course the penalty for cheating is expulsion so I figured that I had nothing to worry about. Yes I have learned how to unlock doors but unlike her, I plan things out very well and can easily avoid being caught.
As the semester progressed and the time for Winter Wrap Up approached, I looked on our schedule. Celestia was actually going to have changing the season as part of our classwork! This is when I knew I could put Sunset in her place. I remember a couple of days before Spring was to arrive Celestia led us into the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the archives and placed the material we needed to study to figure out the spell. Thankfully there were two copies of the spell and explanations on the types of energy we would need to use to successfully do this. I don't think I could stand to sit right next to her for that long.
Given that we were in an exclusive wing of the archives, Celestia stood there and watched us study the whole time. I could tell this irritated my enemy greatly but it did not bother me any. I figured that she was doing this to prevent us from accessing material that we were not supposed to look at. After our study session I asked, "Princess, who will get to try this first, me or Sunset?"
Celestia replied, "Well since she has been here longer, Sunset will go first."
I asked, "But if she succeeds, how will I be able to prove myself?"
Celestia replied, "Well if that is the case you will get the chance to change spring to summer."
I replied, "Ok." I was not happy because wrapping up winter is by far the most difficult season change while changing spring into summer is basically effortless. All I could do was hope that Sunset would fail. On the day before we were to wrap up winter I went to my family's house for supper. I knew that I would need a real meal to do my best.
I was talking with my family and they were happy that I at least had a chance to show up Sunset. I remember mom asking what would happen if I was the one to succeed and Sunset failed. I laughed, "Well I'm not sure but I do know that she will likely throw a temper tantrum."
After supper I got ready to head back to the palace when my mom stopped me. She asked, "Starlight honey, do you want to take some leftovers with you? I'm sure these sausage patties will make for a great snack before the ceremony."
I replied, "They will. I will just have to eat them in my room before I head down for breakfast. I can't have anypony knowing I will have the advantage of a full stomach!"
I hugged my parents goodbye and headed back to my room in the castle. I placed my sausage in a drawer so it would not so easily be discovered. That night, while I was a bit nervous, it was relatively easy to get to sleep since I had a good, filling supper. The following morning I woke up a bit early and quickly devoured my sausage. As I headed down to the dining hall for breakfast, Celestia was waiting for me. She said, "Starlight, today might be a very big day in your studies. Are you ready?"
I replied, "You bet I am princess. If I get the chance, I won't let you down."
Celestia gave me a smile which quickly turned into a frown as Sunset rushed into the dining hall a little bit late. She asked, "Sunset, why are you late?"
Sunset replied, "Well I was just nervous and couldn't sleep much last night."
Celestia rolled her eyes and warned her that such tardiness would not be allowed on such an important day. We ate our breakfast and headed out to the balcony where a huge crowd was waiting. Sunset was on Celestia's left while I was on her right. I still remember Celestia's address to the crowd. "Fillies and gentlecolts, thank you for attending this year's Winter Wrap Up. This year it will be extra special as one of my proteges, either Sunset Shimmer or Starlight Glimmer will be cleaning up winter!"
As soon as she said this I could hear my parents down in the crowd cheering for me. Sunset gave me a nasty look as she had no pony there who even cared about her. I remember Celestia continued, "Since she has been in my school longer, Sunset Shimmer will get to try first."
I still remember that pompous look on my enemy's face as she stood up on the platform and began to focus on the task at hand. She stood up on the edges of her hooves and sparks began to fly out of her horn. It wasn't long until she fell forward and nearly hit her head on the railing. While I kept a neutral look on my face, deep down I was giddy. I knew I had studied harder than her and I knew that my magic was more powerful.
Celestia motioned for me to step up to the platform. While normally most fillies would be incredibly nervous in this situation, I headed up to the platform calm and collected. Once I got up on the platform I began to focus deeply. I could hardly believe it when I felt myself being lifted off of the platform. Suddenly I remember just seeing white as my eyes began to shine white and I fired a powerful bolt of energy from my horn, which spread in all directions. As the energy spread outwards, it cleared the skies, it woke up the hibernating animals, it melted the snow and it increased the temperature to where it was nice and warm. Of course the one thing I could not do was bring the birds back home, that was still a job that only the pegasus ponies could do.
As I lowered down to the platform and I could see normally again, I saw that I had wrapped up winter and brought spring. I saw the crowd was cheering loudly and I could hear my parents yelling over them. My dad shouted, "Way to go Starlight!" and my mom shouted, "We're so proud of you sweetie!"
I smiled and waved at the crowd. I remember Celestia walking up onto the platform with me and announcing me as her "most gifted student." I was so shocked I almost fainted when I heard this. While I knew that I had plenty more to learn in school and that I would have to do much more than just wrapping up winter to truly put Sunset in her place, I felt like a champion. I felt like I had leveled the playing field for fillies and colts who are not wealthy.
Celestia asked me if I would like for my parents to join us for lunch and of course I enthusiastically said yes. While a couple of guards went to bring my parents up to the dining hall, Celestia and I turned around and saw an infuriated Sunset. Sunset shouted, "She cheated your Majesty, she cheated!"
Celestia scowled at her and replied, "She did not cheat Sunset. I saw you two study and it is just a matter of you being jealous that her magic is stronger." Celestia gave me a smile and motioned for me to follow her to the dining hall.
I still remember how Sunset followed us back into the castle, stomping as loud as she could. While the princess and I headed towards the dining hall, Sunset headed up to her room and began to scream and yell. I looked up at Celestia nervously and asked, "Your Majesty, don't you think you should see if she is ok?"
Celestia smiled as she thought that I cared about my enemy when in all reality she could have jumped out of the tower and went splat on the ground and I wouldn't have cared. She replied, "Don't worry about her Starlight, she'll get over it."