"Hey Twi!" Sunset slammed Twilight's door open and entered the room. She heard a strange noise coming from behind the door and on a whim, decided to check.
"Woops. Sorry Spike." Sunset helped the little dragon up, picking up some papers along the way.
"Sunset? What are you doing here?" Twilight got up from her desk and walked over to her sister. "What are you doing here?"
"Little change of plans. They say they can fix the house in a month and a half, but only if the kids and everypony else are out."
"Don't tell me you want them to stay here?" Twilight asked.
"Nah, don't wanna know what kind of stories would appear if I did that." Sunset shook her head. "No I got an idea, but I want to check it out first." she showed Twilight the flyer, who picked it up with her magic.
"Are you sure about this?" Twilight asked.
"I checked. Whitetail is in the other direction of Ponyville. I actually hope to get there today, but I gotta talk to Celestia first."
"Today? You could simply go tomorrow, you know." Twilight pointed out.
"I could, but I have not really much to do here. Besides, I might be able to find something out in Ponyville about the Elements. Besides, if this really works out then I'm going to travel between Canterlot and Ponyville a few more times, so I might as well get started today."
"Do you really have to?" Twilight asked, her ears lying on her head. "This comes a little out of the blue."
"A little?" Spike asked. "It's practically coming out of nowhere! The ponies won't even know that you're coming! Imagine how they're going to react!" the dragon exclaimed, throwing his tiny arms up.
"Oh, come on." Sunset rolled her eyes. "What are they going to do? Go into a stampeding panic?"
Surprisingly, Celestia had no objections towards Sunset's plans. In fact she even praised her daughter for being so dedicated towards her new responsibilities. So now she was sitting in the royal chariot, Caring Heart couldn't come along, and watching the Equestrian landscape from above. She never actually had the chance to see any landscape from above. After all, Sunset never had a reason to enter a plane. Besides, she didn't trust those things.
Sunset sighed, thinking of the human world again. When she woke up today, she hoped it had all been just a dream, but as it turned out it wasn't, meaning her friends didn't remember her at all. Sure it was a good opportunity to start over and not be a bitch, but still, Sunset needed to find out what the hell was going on. Even if it meant that her friends were probably living a better life right now...
"Woah."
"Sorry, your highness!" One of the pegasi called back. "But we're here!" The guards had started going down, throwing Sunset off balance a little. Luckily she didn't fall off or else things would have gotten nasty. The chariot landed a little outside of the center of the town, in order to not draw too much attention.
Sunset got off the chariot. "Thanks for the ride."
"Any time your majesty." the guards took off.
Sunset took in a deep breath and looked around. "So, this is Ponyville?" So far she only saw a few small houses and a little shop called Quills and Sofas. There weren't many ponies around and so far none of them seemed to have noticed her, either chatting with each other or going after their daily lives.
Sunset decided to walk off. She had to go to the town hall, but that wasn't her only destination for today. Her mind was absolutely settled on bringing the foals here, it was only a matter of formalities. Once she had done that, she could finally look for the other five Element Bearers.
The town hall was actually hard to miss, since it seemed to be the tallest building in town. In order to get there, Sunset had to walk down the "Mane Street." Sometimes she wanted to jump off a cliff, because of the amount of horse puns in Equestria. Fun fact of the week, she didn't even notice those until she lived for a month on Earth.
Of course a princess just casually walking down the streets of Ponyville wouldn't go unnoticed for very long. Gasps and whispers echoed throughout the street, as the alicorn just continued on her way, trying to ignore the other ponies around her. That wasn't of course an option anymore, when ponies started bowing to her. Sighing Sunset turned towards the townsponies.
"H-hey..." Oh mare, this is embarrassing. "...look. There's no need to bow or anything. I'm just here for a little visit.
...
Please, just go on with whatever you were going to do. It'll be easier for all of us."
The ponies seemed still unsure and Sunset added practicing speeches to her mental list of things she had to learn. She walked inside the town hall, hoping the locals would just go away once she was out of sight. Inside the Town Hall consisted of nothing more than, well, a huge hall and in the back was the actual office of the mayor. Sunset knocked at the door and waited for a response.
An older looking mare opened the door from the inside. Her eyes looked like they were about to fall out, when she noticed the crown princess standing in front of her office.
"P-P-Princess!!" the mayor exclaimed, bowing immediately, resulting in her head hitting only the half opened door. Sunset suppressed a laugh to the best of her abilities.
"Are you alright?" she asked amused none the less.
"Y-y-yes, your highness. Not a problem at all." the mayor replied hastily. "P-please come in. I-I'm sorry for no proper welcome-"
"It's alright and calm down, please." Sunset interrupted the mayor. "It's no problem, really. I didn't plan on coming here until a few hours ago." she placed herself on the chair in front of the mayor's desk and said mayor got back to her place, almost being like a stick standing upright on a chair. The princess frowned inwardly.
"Seriously, calm down." she couldn't help but say, only causing in the mayor to flinch. Sighing, the alicorn went straight to business, figuring the faster the better. "You see, I've recently acquired an orphanage."
"Y-yes, it was in the newspaper."
"Really?" Sunset ears flickered. "I missed that one out. You'd think there're more important things to report...anyway. The building itself seriously needs renovation however. It'll go faster if it's done without the kids inside. There's just a problem. Finding a place in Canterlot for so many kids, assuring that their education is still on par with others...eh...good luck." Sunset didn't even need to check. Back when she was young, she overheard the adults talking about the situation of orphanages in Canterlot. She considered transferring, but that was out of the question, once she gathered that information and actually asked a few of the adults.
"I-I see." the mayor nodded. "Although, I don't think we have the necessary means to house that many children. A full orphanage..."
"Actually, I don't plan on keeping them in a house per say" Sunset brought up the summer camp flyer. "Your town offers Summer Camp for the time of the Summer Sun Celebration in the Whitetail Woods. I would need to request for the camp to be extended for a few weeks. I heard the entire renovations will take one month and a half."
The mayor looked at the flyer and then at the princess. "Y-yes, I think we could manage that. Well, normally. If we would have the funds..."
"I swear, I'm going to empty my bank account at this rate."
The mayor looked up at the princess. "So, you're going to..."
"Yeah." This is gonna hurt my purse, but if I hold back next month I should make up for a good portion of what I spent already. Getting paid just for being royal, sure has its advantages. "It's no problem. It's for the kids after all. So, you said you can manage it?"
"Well, we'll have to add a few more tents. And some volunteers to look after the children." the mayor commented.
"The staff from the orphanage can do this. A few teachers are under them as well. Outdoor teaching may not be as efficient, but, better than no teaching I guess." Sunset shrugged.
"Actually princess, we might use the town hall for this. It is rarely used anyway."
"Thanks mayor. That'll help significantly.
Hmmm....I think that's all for now. I'll see to it that you'll receive the funds soon and next time I'll be bringing the manager of the orphanage along in order to clear out the details. Aside from that, do you have anything to add?"
"A couple of things, but...yes, I think we should talk about them later. Are you going back to Canterlot now?"
"No, I still wanted to take a look around town. My chariot only comes in the evening. Oh yeah." Sunset facehoofed. "We should decide now when we're going to discuss everything."
"Oh yes, certainly. Let me take a quick look in my schedule...I am free the day after tomorrow."
Sunset nodded. "Yes, that works out. I'll be off then. Maybe we run into each other today? Goodbye Mayor."
"Goodbye princess." the mayor bowed.
"Oh yes, one last thing. Could you point me the way towards Carousel Boutique?"
"Huh, doesn't look all that much different from Rarity's other place." Sunset commented. The best way to really deal with onlookers was to ignore them entirely. Using that strategy, Sunset found herself in front of Carousel Boutique about ten minutes later.
After getting a good look at the building, Sunset stepped inside, a little bell signaling her entrance. Looking around there was no sign of Rarity. A few pony mannequins were standing around, wearing dresses Rarity designed. They looked awesome, but weren't really what the alicorn was looking for.
The sound of hoofsteps drew Sunset's attention away from the ponyquins.
"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is- is. is- PRINCESS SUNSET SHIMMER?!" the unicorn Rarity exclaimed and bowed immediately, yet still gracefully. "Welcome to my humble shop, Princess. Please tell me, what can I do for you, your highness?"
Sunset noted that Rarity was handling the stress of meeting a princess way better than anypony else so far. She was nervous, but there was also an exciting glimmer in her eyes. Pinkie would probably say that Rarity was nervousxited.
"Well obviously I'm here to do some shopping." Sunset smiled. "I've heard of your skills you see and decided, why not check it out? I mean, seriously, everything I've seen in Canterlot looks like it's been copied almost ten times." Canterlot City that is.
"To be a little more precise, I have actually two requests. Do you have a pencil and paper by any chance?"
"Certainly, your highness. May I ask what you need them for?"
"You'll see."
Rarity quickly fetched a pencil and levitated it over to Sunset Shimmer. "I'm not really an artist..." she mumbled as she drew a black jacket on the paper. At certain points she made an arrow, pointing towards the word "button".
"It's..." Rarity couldn't find the words.
"Simplistic? Uncouth for a princess? Disastrous?" Sunset offered with a chuckle. Rarity wasn't inclined to answer to this one. "It's my personal style and I'm not going to let it be dictated by what others think is "in" or "out"."
"I...see." Rarity replied. "Well, this shouldn't be a problem at all. You had a second request?"
"Yes and this one should be more to your liking. You see," Sunset stepped forward "I want you to design a dress for me by using your imagination."
"P-pardon?" Rarity stuttered
"I'll leave the design of the dress and everything included to you. Surprise me."
Maybe Sunset should have brought the news over in a more sensitive way, because Rarity looked like her brain looked like it just shut down. Sunset got a little concerned, until Rarity finally snapped back to reality. "Of course! Don't worry Princess! The dress shall be done to your liking!" she said determined. "Now please, if you would step up to the podium, so I may be able to take your measurements." Rarity levitated over a measuring tape.
Sunset stepped onto the podium, as Rarity said and waited patiently for the fashionista to take all needed measurements from the princess. The alicorn had the feeling the unicorn was taking her time. The Rarity from the human world would be done within 2 to 5 minutes, plus the additional chit chat. Here Rarity was taking her sweet time and was not even talking. Something new for Sunset was that Rarity also needed to take her wingspan, although it only made sense.
"There, we're finished here princess."
"Thanks. I would love to stay for a little longer, but I have some more things to do today. Though, I'll come back here the next few days, so maybe we'll run into each other again. How long will it take you to finish these orders?"
"Oh well...it's a little early to say, but...I assume..."
"Rarity"
"Y-yes?"
"Take your time." Sunset advised. "And please, don't stress yourself out just because I'm a princess. Well then, goodbye for now."
Sunset left Rarity at her boutique. Now all alone the first thing that came to the unicorn's mind was freaking out, nut then something else shoved itself in front of her thoughts. "I never told her my name."