Twilight Sparkle got up from her throne. “Sunset Shimmer?” she asked.
Sunset looked at the alicorn who stood before her. “I- uh. I decided to come back home.”
“THIS is Sunset Shimmer?!” Rainbow shouted. “The one who blew up a school, and then saved all of you from the Sirens? This is Sunset Shimmer?”
Sunset looked towards the ground. “I can’t say that I wasn’t the one who did that. Because I did. I moved on from that time. That was almost four years ago. It’s all in the past. But I came here for a different reason than to tell you what I’ve done,” Sunset commented.
Twilight stepped forward. “What are you here for then?” she asked.
“I want to go see Princess Celestia. I wish to apologise to her for what I did before I left.”
Twilight smiled. “I was hoping you would say that,” Twilight turned around and walked over to Spike. “Spike, take a letter please,” Twilight asserted.
Spike grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill. “Ready!” he beamed.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am proud to say that your former student, Sunset Shimmer has returned home. She is requesting a meeting with you to talk about her past. With your permission, I would be glad to bring her to Canterlot for you. Please respond as soon as you can. If a meeting is allowed, I will bring her in tomorrow morning.
Your Royal Highness,
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Spike rolled up the letter and sent it flying in a cloud of fire to Princess Celestia.
“Now we wait for a response,” Twilight said.
Sunset stared at the ground. “What if she doesn’t want to talk to me? What if she doesn’t forgive me for what I did to her all those years ago?” Sunset worried. A tear fell from her eyes.
Before Twilight could comfort Sunset, Spike burped and a piece of parchment fell from the fire. Sunset lit up her horn and levitated the scroll over to herself.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, please bring Sunset Shimmer to the castle gardens tomorrow morning. Your Royal Highness, Princess Celestia,” Sunset moved the letter over to a nearby table.
“See? She wants to talk to you. So we will catch the train tomorrow morning and meet up with Celestia in the morning,” Twilight spoke.
“Yeah. I think I’m going to take a walk around Ponyville. I never traveled here and I want to see what this town is like,” Sunset said. She turned around and walked out of the castle.
Walking into the town, she noticed that even though the sun was going down, the ponies were still walking around, like the time of the day didn’t stop them from doing shopping and hanging out with their friends.
When she walked through the middle of the town, she noticed a building. A very peculiar building at that. It was a tree. Sunset walked up to the charred tree and tried to figure out what this used to be. It couldn’t have just been a tree. It was hollowed out.
“That used to be where Twilight lived,” a voice said.
Turning around, Sunset finally got a good look at the pony version of Rarity. “Oh. Rarity. What brings you here?”
“I was on my way home, and noticed you standing here. Twilight used to live here. This used to be a library,” Rarity mentioned.
“Sounds like Twilight to live in a library,” Sunset laughed turning back to the tree.
“Well, it’s time I be getting back home. My sister is probably waiting for me. Have a nice night, Sunset,” Rarity said as she walked home.
Sunset Shimmer turned away from the burnt library and began to make her way back to the castle where she would be staying tonight.
When she got back, she was surprised to see streamers and balloons strewn all around the castle. “What’s this?” Sunset asked, turning to Twilight. Streamers were covering almost everything that was at least two feet off the ground. Balloons were tied to anything that a balloon string could wrap around without it slipping off.
“It’s a party. Pinkie Pie throws one whenever someone new comes to town. Just be glad I was able to talk her out of inviting everypony in town here. Because that’s what she did for me and it was the worst thing ever,” Twilight commented.
“Oh. Well, okay then,” Sunset said.
“WELCOME BACK SUNSET SHIMMER!!” Pinkie Pie shouted from the ceiling. Balloons were tied around her and she was stuck on the ceiling. “Do you think you could get me down?”
Sunset grabbed Pinkie with her magic and pulled her back down to the floor.
“Thanks, Sunset!” Pinkie beamed. She grabbed a piece of cake and handed it to Sunset.
“Oh, no thank you. I don’t like sweets. Thank you though,” Sunset said.
“Okay then!” Pinkie threw the piece into the air and caught it in her mouth, and abruptly ate it.
A few hours later, Sunset Shimmer retired to a bedroom to get some sleep. She would have to wake up early to make it to Canterlot on time to meet up with Princess Celestia. As she laid down, thoughts swirled around her mind. She was terrified that she would be banished back to the human world. She knew this was irrational, because she didn’t do anything ‘wrong’ per say, but she still did something to warrant something happening to her.
An hour later, Sunset Shimmer managed to fall asleep. When she woke, the moon was slowly lowering in the sky. “I wonder how Princess Celestia manages to stay up all the time to raise and lower both the sun and the moon,” she wondered aloud.
“She doesn’t. Well, at least not anymore. You left before her sister returned here,” Spike said as he walked into Sunsets room. He was sent to go wake her up so they could all eat breakfast and make their way to the castle on time.
“You mean, Princess Luna returned?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah. How did you know about Luna? Even Twilight didn’t know about her. She barely even knew about Nightmare Moon,” Spike questioned.
“I was really interested in Old Pony Tales. When I asked Princess Celestia about Nightmare Moon, she scooted around my question for about a year. After a while, she finally told me that she had banished her sister to the moon with the Elements of Harmony after she had turned into Nightmare Moon. I was really surprised when I crossed into the human world and Celestia and Luna were perfectly fine and they were working together,” Sunset explained.
“Oh, well it’s time to get eat breakfast. After that, you and Twilight are going up to Canterlot to meet up with Princess Celestia,” Spike said as he left the room.
Sunset got out of bed and ate her breakfast. The way to the train station was silent. The train ride consisted of a “Are you ready?” from Twilight, and a short response of “I’ll never be ready,” from Sunset.
Two hours later, Twilight and Sunset stepped off of the train and began to make their way to the castle.
Walking up to the gardens, Twilight bid Sunset farewell for now, and Sunset walked into the gardens, looking for her former teacher.
Turning a corner, she noticed Princess Celestia talking to one of the Royal Guards. Sunset slowly approached, trying to keep her anxiety level down.
Princess Celestia turned around and looked at her former student. “Hello, Sunset Shimmer.”