//------------------------------// // Another First Day of School // Story: The Other Sunset Shimmer // by Jerec the Ascendant //------------------------------// Sunset awoke before the sun the next morning - she was far too anxious for the day ahead of her. She would finally be starting her schooling with the Princess, learning all sorts of magical spells. Getting out of bed, she decided to get ready. She wandered through her suite, suddenly missing her old things. Her bass guitar, her leather jacket, cell phone, shoes, parents... everything. It had only been a week since her arrival here, and she still felt the pangs of homesickness. She never had even imagined that someone could steal her very life from her and force her to live a completely new one. So completely new it even came with a new body, one that belonged to something she would have considered a pet back home. "What’s that old saying,” Sunset muttered to herself. “If you sneeze three times in a row it's because someone, somewhere, said they hate you. Well, other me. I hate you!" She knew no one could hear her, but she screamed those words out anyway. Her chest felt lighter; she watched the sun appear above the horizon. "I hope her sneezing woke her from a good dream." She grinned mischievously to herself, rubbing her forehooves together as she continued to wish ill upon her counterpart. Suddenly losing balance, though, she found herself flat on the ground with her muzzle in the carpet. "Curse this pony body..." she moaned into the floor. Standing up again and looking around, she realized how empty her new home was. She thought about how nice it would be to redecorate her suite, and what a better use of time it would be than moping on the floor. This way she could be distracted from what she lost, and all the things she now had a hard time doing, like getting up off the floor. Her new body was still taking some getting used too, and what made it harder was that her forelimbs were apparently capable of a range of movement far beyond that of any normal pony. "They really do resemble noodles,” she pondered aloud, looking at her hooves. “Are there even bones in them? Maybe I’ll learn in class." Eventually time passed and there was a knock at her door. She opened it to find a pegasus in a maid outfit. The maid curtsied and handed her some folded parchment, then continued on with her duties. "Must be the note," Sunset said as she unfolded it. Good morning Sunset Shimmer, I hope you were able to sleep well. As for your first lesson, we will be having it in my throne room before I open it for the day court. A servant will be by to bring you breakfast. Be here by eight o'clock. Included with the note was a map of the castle, and it wasn't too long before Sunset Shimmer found herself wandering the halls, her nose in the map, trying to find Celestia's throne room. Every couple of steps, though, something would break her concentration, and soon she was compiling a list of everything she found to be a tad weird. For instance, the fact that all the guards she saw stood stiff as a board, moving only for the extremely occasional blink. Or that aside from them and the scattered maid or servant, the halls were devoid of life. Finally she found the long hall that led to the throne room. Sets of stained glass windows adorned the walls here, and the morning sun was painting the room with its light. Sunset found herself staring into the windows - one specifically interested her. It seemed to depict Celestia with another, darker alicorn. "I'll just add that to the 'things I need to ask Celestia about later' list." She continued down the hallway and found herself standing in front of the large set of double doors leading into the throne room. Two guards stood posted on either side of her. They seemed to stare right through her, and she felt her knees knocking. How am I supposed to do this? Do I open it? Will one of them? Should I just wait for Celestia to open it? She turned to one of the guards and opened her mouth, but he spoke over her. "You the new kid?” She shrieked and jumped away from the deep, unexpected voice. “Y-yes, I suppose I am,” she replied, trying to gather as much composure as she could. The guards cast their magic over the door handles and swung the doors open. "Go on in then,” the one said. “Best not to be late on your first day." Do they know? Sunset worried. She supposed they could be on the list of ponies to inform. How long is that list? "Thank you," she whimpered as she walked through the doorway. Stepping into the the throne room, she suddenly wondered what Celestia would be like as a teacher. Will she be strict? Playful? Obnoxious? Prankish? It probably won’t be any different from learning basic magic from her at the hospital, she reasoned. "Good morning Sunset Shimmer,” the Princess greeted, from high up on her throne. “I’m glad to see you managed to find your way here." She extended her wings and flew from the throne, landing gracefully in front of her new student. "Now, for your first week, I think we will stick to learning basic magic and getting you more accustomed to your new body." As she guided Sunset toward the middle of her throne room, Sunset noticed that Celestia seemed to have a little extra spring in her step. "You seem pretty happy. Did you get good news?" Sunset asked. "Oh no, it's just this situation. As sad as the predicament may be, it's also quite exciting for me to be teaching somepony who in truth isn't a pony at all!" Celestia said, hints of excitement behind each word. Yet, the Princess maintained her composure, and Sunset couldn't help but wish that she could hide her emotions as well as her. "Now then, our first class will begin. First I want to experiment with your knowledge of the basics. I want to see your limits, how much you can lift with telekinesis, your precision with it, and so on," Celestia said as she started teleporting in a variety of different objects, from marked weights to a simple thread and a set of differently sized needles. "Now let's begin with finding your weight limit." For the next hour or so Sunset was put to the test. She lifted weights as a strength test. She threaded needles to test her precision. She even made several different sandwiches at the same time to test her capacity for multitasking. She found out that, quite strangely enough, for a complete and utter stranger to the use of magic, she was a natural. At least with telekinesis. Sunset actually felt proud of herself; her abilities here were improving and she was actually considerably more potent at it than most natural born unicorns, which was shocking to her. At then end of the hour, it was time for the court to be opened, and so Sunset was sent back to her suite with a list of different spell books to read for the next day. It seemed they would be moving on to other magic spells, still basic, but not just telekinesis anymore. She could hardly wait, though she still longed for her normal life back home, she was starting to enjoy herself a bit here. Celestia watched Sunset leave the courtroom. She'd been going through quite the case of déja vu - she remembered when the first Sunset Shimmer had been going through these tests. She also saw, however, that just as they were the same physically, they were also the same emotionally and psychologically. Behind Sunset’s back, Celestia gritted her teeth. She hoped she'd be able to find out what went wrong the first time, so that she could prevent it from reoccurring.