//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Royal Conversations // Story: Sunset Reset // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Sunset stared at the bigger pony for a minute in shock. Not from the question. The possibility of Celestia knowing who Twilight Sparkle was before Sunset left and she got the right pony for the princess position was pretty pathetic as far as percentages went. What Sunset had a problem with was… “Gah! I can’t believe I just did that!” she shouted while reaching up to clutch her empty head and its non-existent brain. All that time worrying about causing a temporal problem, and she had just blurted out what could have been the most important bit of future information that she knew! It was a mistake meant for children, not someone who had gotten so used to manipulating an entire school to do her bidding so well she didn’t need to resort to violence. “Well, you are still tired. I can’t imagine that your body has adjusted well to all the magic that is flowing through it right now. Ascension tends to be very hard on non-earth ponies,” Celestia said in her usual voice before she placed the tray of burgers and fries under Sunset’s nose, making her stomach demand to be filled. “And very hungry as well from the sound of it. So the first thing you're going to do is eat.” Despite the demands of her digestive system, Sunset gaped at her former mentor for a moment before the familiar feeling of anger rose up to replace the shock and hold the other emotions at bay. Confusion and shock may have been paralyzing, but anger? Anger was her go to feeling when things weren’t going her way. Sunset could work with anger. Unless it failed of course. Then it was time to panic. She frowned at the way Celestia was so casually dismissing her confessions. “Didn’t you listen to a word I just said?” the smaller alicorn demanded with a frown as her wings shot up again in a show of displeasure. Celestia looked up from Sunset’s face to frown at the appendages on her back. “I heard you just fine Sunset, and I can see you too,” she said before looking back down to her face. “Now stop wasting your energy on your little tantrum and eat your food. If you don’t, I will force feed you the meal.” After glaring at the stubborn alicorn for a few more seconds, Sunset eventually looked back down at the pair of scorched hayburgers her human-gained logic said should have been impossible to make. But yet another grumble from her stomach made Sunset snatch the hay burger up in her hooves to take a large bite out of it. As soon as the cooked hay touched her mouth, taste buds Sunset had forgotten she had cried out in joy. It had just been so long since she had tasted real pony food that even the most basic of foods felt like nirvana. And the smell! She had been too distracted by Celestia’s words of praise in the dining room to notice, but holding the hay up to her nose, Sunset was reminded just how muted everything had smelled as a human. It was like she had been living with a stuffy nose for years! But even that didn’t stop her from quickly chopping down on the food again, tearing off as much as she could fit into her mouth before crunching it up as fast as she could to swallow. After a third bite, barely half the burger remained.  “Sunset, is something wrong?” Celestia asked, daring to cut into the little alicorn’s glorious return to a proper equine diet. “Huh?” Sunset replied with a mouth full of food, shooting a little bit of the tasty food from her maw. Celestia raised an eyebrow and floated the bit of pizza she had in her magic away from her mouth. “You’re not using your horn,” she said in a worried tone. “You didn’t overexert yourself teaching Cadance so soon after awakening, did you? I love that you’ve decided to mend fences with her, but there’s no need to tax yourself so soon after your transformation. Rest should be your top priority.” Whatever Celestia said next was lost, as Sunset's mind registered not just Celestia’s words, but the meaning behind them. Sunset was eating using her hooves. While such an action was looked down on in Canterlot Society, Sunset didn’t give much of a damn how much her out of place earth pony mannerism looked to Celestia. She had just eaten something with her hooves. Hooves that had just been on the floor of her room. Hooves that had been walking all around the palace just a few seconds ago. She might as well have been eating with her feet! Worse, her shoes! At least human feet were kept inside socks to keep them a little clean. Relatively speaking of course. Sunset let out a shriek before tossing the burger that was no doubt infested with all sorts of germs onto her bed, away from the rest of her clean food. “Oh gross! Gross! Gross! Gross, gross, gross!” “Sunset,” Celestia chided her. “I know that most unicorns see eating with hooves as beneath them, but-” “I don’t care about that!” Sunset yelled in anger at the situation before she fell back on her butt and shoved one of the appendages into Celestia’s face to give her a better view. “Do you have any idea how dirty these things are? How unsanitary using them to eat actually is? Considering how many ponies just scarf down as much as they can without washing first, it’s a wonder all of Equestria doesn’t have hoof & mouth disease by now!” Celestia blinked at Sunset’s words, then looked down at her hooves for a few more moments, followed by another glance at her student. “Well, it’s not as if you’ve been running through the mud or anything.” The casual response made Sunset frown, and then push her food away with a grimace. She might as well of just been licking the floor! “I’ve lost my appetite.” “Are you certain?” she asked. “And don’t just tell me you didn’t like it, I saw that smile on your face when you tasted that hay.” Sunset looked back at her burger, and couldn’t help but think of just how Celestia’s lack of concern for where her hooves had been made the unsanitary possibilities of the Canterlot kitchens skyrocket. While not a television junkie, the alicorn had seen a few programs that made it their business to look into eating establishments to showcase how filthy everything was. And if a species that actually knew to wash its hands before dinner could infect people with a million deadly disease, Sunset didn’t even want to know what a civilization that was ignorant of such things would be like. From now on, she would just have to do her own cooking. Again. And buy some brand new implements to do it with. There was no way Sunset was trusting a species that still used rusty tins to know what was sanitary. “Yeah,” she finally said before coming up with a reason to make sure Celestia wouldn’t get worried about her sanity. “I probably just need more sleep before I start on that appetite thing.” Celestia nodded hesitantly, giving Sunset a measuring gaze as she did. “Very well,” she relented before taking the commoner food away. “So, as to my earlier question, just who in the hay is Twilight Sparkle? And for that matter, what has gotten into you my little Sunset? How did you know the mirror was a portal? And how could your wings possibly be stolen?” The mentioning of Twilight’s name brought back everything Sunset had managed to push away with the help of hunger. But now that the need for food had abandoned her like so many other things, she found herself freezing up again despite Celestia’s gentle questioning. Anger. Why couldn't she just stay angry? Instead, there came shame over her actions before Twilight, grief over what had happened afterwards, and fear of what might come when she told Celestia the truth. And she would be telling her the truth. The thought of lying to her mentor now was…not even a consideration worth a fraction of a second. So Sunset let out a long sigh, and took one last look at a Celestia that would care about her. It was a strange thing, seeing Celestia before her, looking like she had before Sunset had ran away. As much as she had been able to put the past behind her, seeing Celestia again had made it all come rushing back. “It’s…complicated,” Sunset said as she tried to organize her story into something that resembled a sensical tale. The new alicorn did her best to remember everything she had done wrong while in Equestria her last couple of weeks before she left. It was so easy that it was almost eerie, as if her most damning crimes were just waiting to be confessed as opposed to all the bullying she did as a human, which was harder to remember. But then, maybe it was because it was her human past, and not her pony one. Sunset had managed to put her human past behind her and fool herself into thinking that she had nothing to feel guilty about. Her pony past however, the thing that held all her true crimes was something that had literally caught up to her, and now she was going to pay for them all. “I know the mirror is a portal because I’ve gone through it before,” Sunset told her softly to keep from just letting it all come out in a rush. “When the moon aligns again to open the portal, I’ll…uh, or I did go through it. The first time, I mean.” She sighed and shook her head as Sunset realized she skipped over her most damning of actions. “Sorry, it’s just…there’s time travel involved.” Celestia nodded solemnly at the pathetic excuse. “Take your time.” A bit of gratitude ran through Sunset’s body, and she found herself taking a little extra time to cherish it. More than likely, it would be the only good feeling she would have to associate with Celestia for a very long time. Because soon, it would be nothing but dungeon walls and the removal of her wings, and most likely her horn as well. Sunset knew monsters like her couldn’t be trusted. “Okay so…at least in the way things happened from…before,” Sunset began again, glad Celestia wasn’t interrupting. “When I looked into the mirror, I saw myself…as an alicorn.” When Celestia smiled down at her, Sunset quickly shook her head. “No, no! It wasn’t…I didn’t look like this,” she said as she tapped a wing with her hoof. “I was the same size I always was, and my wings were made of light, and I had this big…long…horn.” Holy fuck, Sunset thought to herself as she realized something that sent chills down her spine. The reflection she had seen in the mirror, it had bore a striking resemblance to the form she had taken in the human world with the magic of all her friends flowing through her. If they could even be called that anymore. “Sunset, is that it then?” Celestia cut in. The little alicorn shook her head. “No,” she said before going on slowly. Despite the impossibility, it felt as if the words themselves weight something as she dragged them out “I became obsessed with the mirror, asking you about it day after day, week after week, for almost a month I completely ignored anything you tried to teach me, and just kept asking about that stupid mirror.” “It was created by Starswirl the Bearded hundreds of years ago, based on one of his earlier works,” Celestia told her as soon as Sunset finished talking. Sunset rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know-wait,” she suddenly said as she frowned at the larger mare. “Why would you just go and tell me that?” In response to the question, Celestia gave a minute shrug. “Well, you did ask.” The casual response left Sunset baffled. “But-but I asked you about the mirror for weeks before-” “And I obviously told you about it since you know now,” Celestia told Sunset before she could finish. “Although…maybe I should just let you tell me the whole story before I comment on it.” Sunset let out a long sigh to try and find some relief from the pressure building in her chest. Now came the hard part, the confession of how it all started. She relaxed her breathing, did her best to steady herself, and cast away any hopes for ever gaining Celestia’s acceptance. “When you didn’t tell me what the mirror did, the first time I mean, I went looking for answers in the forbidden section of the library,” she said, carefully studying Celestia’s expression for any hint of her emotions. There were none. “I found reference to the mirror in the history of Canterlot Castle,” she confessed before tensing. “But I didn’t stop there. I read books on black magic, and even the history that you had sealed away, the books detailing alicorn ascension.” Tears formed in Sunset’s eyes as she came to the next memory. “And that’s when you found me,” she said as she struggled for breath. “And then I demanded that you turned me into an alicorn…and then…and then you…" She took in a breath again and made herself go on. "You kicked me out!” Sunset felt her heart tear as she mentally relived that night in her mind. She remembered the anger on Celestia’s face, her own selfish demands, thinking that she deserved to be a princess of all things! The only thing she deserved was to be thrown away in the darkest dungeon and have just enough food given to her to survive! And when she looked at Celestia again, Sunset knew that was exactly what was going to happen to her. She saw the anger simmering beneath Celestia’s mask of calm, and Sunset knew that if she could see it, then there were no apologies for what had happened. Somehow, that actually made continuing easier. “But I wasn’t about to just leave quietly,” she went on, managing to sound a bit calmer than before. “After the guards escorted me to my room to pack my bags, I knocked them out with my magic and ran for the mirror. By luck, the portal happened to be open that night. So I went through it.” Sunset took in another deep breath, and went on. “The world on the other side of the portal was more different than anyone could ever imagine. The inhabitants are a bunch of magicless…monkeys without enough hair to make it through the cold, so they have to skin other animals to survive in most places,” she said with a grimace. “I just thank Cel-um...I was just lucky those yahoos valued gems so much, or I would have been in real trouble when it came to a lot of things.” Not that the few gems that had been in her bag for enchanting purposes had lasted all that long since she traded all but one for only ten times their Equestrian value in cash. Then had come a few bribes to a corrupt apartment super that was willing not to ask questions of the little girl who just casually tossed a diamond at him for a place to live. Thankfully, the smelly ape had figured that anyone who threw around stuff like that either had some very mean friends, or knew how to take care of herself in the hidden knife up her sleeve way. Sunset was actually grateful when Principal Celestia found her and demanded the girl come stay at her apartment, despite how bossy the woman was. “After I got there, I spent too much time looking for a way to make what I saw in the mirror happen, and the portal closed,” she said in anger at her own stupidity for looking for magic in a world without it. “So then I spent the next two-and-a-half years wallowing in my own anger, and doing my best to spread it around to anybody that looked like a good target, and oh did I find plenty of those. “Everyone I came across, I made it my mission to make their lives miserable,” she grumbled before coming to a point that made her want to throw up. “Unless I wanted something from them. Then I…I found out that humans, which is what they call themselves, they have these um…uncontrollable sex drives. And with me apparently being what they would consider attractive, I managed to manipulate anyone I wanted by just spreading my legs. Even some of the girls.” At least until Sunset could find some blackmail info on her paramour and use that instead to control them. In front of her, Sunset watched as Celestia’s mouth pressed into a thin line, and all the telltale signs of a clenched jaw were shown. As the alicorn looked down on her, shame made itself known n Sunset’s heart again, and she found herself looking down at the bed. “I went on like that for two-and-a-half years. And when the portal opened up again, I ran through it as fast as I could.” Taking another deep breath to steel herself for what was coming, Sunset went on. “But when I got back to Equestria, things were different. The mirror wasn’t in Canterlot. You had moved it to this weird city made of crystal that Cadance apparently ruled,” she said before pausing when she heard Celestia suddenly gag. Concern overtook shame, and Sunset looked up to her former-teacher as Celestia’s wings settled down and she beat a hoof against her chest. A second later, the alicorn was back to her nearly-stoic, displeased old self that glared down at Sunset with a half-lidded expression. “Continue.” “But what was-” “I said, continue,” Celestia ordered in a tone that brooked no nonsense. Sunset swallowed, and went on. “I…I came back. But, to be honest…I wasn’t sure why,” she said softly. “I knew I wanted to see you again, but…I didn’t know if I was going to apologize, or rub my ass in your face over the fact I had gotten along just fine without you for years.” Her words describing how well she had done came as a curse. “And that’s when I heard of…Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the little alicorn mumbled in shame. “According to a newspaper, she was at the Crystal Palace for a princess summit with you, Cadance  and…um…another alicorn. I’m not really sure what the other princess was called. All I cared about was…w-was the mare you replaced me with!” Tears began to form in Sunset’s eyes, and she heard Celestia’s wings fidget as she tried to get herself under control. But, even after all this time, it still hurt. Sunset had been with Celestia since she could remember. Her parents were only shadows and distant voices that she couldn’t even picture without a photograph. Celestia was...she was the pony who had raised her. And in return, Sunset had turned against her. “Two years…two years and you just took some other unicorn and…” Sunset took in a deep breath to calm herself. It wasn’t Twilight’s fault she was so much better than Sunset, or Celestia’s. Still, to have another pony just come in and accomplish in two years what Sunset had been unable to do without cheating her way to it…as much at it hurt, it was just more proof to Sunset that she was nothing but a waste of Celestia’s time. “And then I found out about her crown,” the mare went on, forcing herself to keep an even voice. It was void of emotion, but…it would do. “It was a magical artifact she had used multiple times to save Equestria, and all of a sudden, I concocted a plan. I would take the crown back through the portal to break its connection to her. If it was its own source of magic, then it should have been able to work even in a mystically dead world. The journal I brought with me did.” Sunset closed her eyes and cursed her faulty memory for not mentioning that sooner. But…she supposed it was hardly relevant. All she could mention to Celestia was how the older mare had sent message after message for the first week, asking Sunset if she was alright, begging her to write back if she was alive. Since the message had stopped not long after those first seven days, she was certain that Celestia had given her up for dead. The memory that was proof of Celestia still caring for her after the flight from Canterlot. It warmed Sunset’s heart, and made her want to throw up in self-revulsion when she recalled how she had laughed and just stuffed the thing in her locker where all her other books went. “And then I put on the crown when I was in the other world and…” Sunset sighed. “Princess Celestia, you said that I wasn’t ready to become an alicorn, and you were right. Before I put that crown on, all I had wanted to do was go home with its power and…I don’t know…show you up, maybe humiliate you in some way. Make you say I was the better princess, that you were wrong to make me leave. But I certainly didn’t want to kill anybody like I tried to do to Twilight after she followed me through!” The memories of what it had been like under the influence of the crown made Sunset cringe. She hadn’t just wanted to hurt people after putting it on, she had enjoyed the thought of killing! “It turned me into a real monster. The one you knew I would become if I ever got real wings from you.” “And then Twilight managed to defeat me, and…she saved me, purified me of the dark magic,” Sunset told her mentor as tears threatened to come again. “And instead of-of doing what she should have done, instead of giving me what I deserved…she just…forgave me. Just like that.” Sunset gulped. “And then, when the sirens that had been banished there attacked my friends because of the residual magic Twilight’s crown had left inside of them and me…she came to lead us against them and save us all again.” “And then…later…when this other…well…this human started taking the magic inside my friends and it went out of control and it was my turn to save everyone…all I could do was take the magic that was inside the girls I called my friends and run back to Equestria with it!” Sunset confessed in a cry of anguish. “But instead of coming out where I was supposed to, in Twilight’s Castle, I ended up here and I just…a-and I looked like this!” The wings that Sunset had managed to curl down during her confession extended once again to their fullest. “And that’s what I meant when I said I cheated and stole these wings. Me being an alicorn, it’s just a stupid side effect of going back through the portal with so much magic inside of me.” Finally finished, Sunset lowered her head and awaited Celestia’s judgment. Not that she didn’t know what was coming. Theft of magic, theft of a magical artifact, assault on the royal guards, each one of those carried stiff penalties, coupled to what her reckless actions had almost caused…there was only one sentence that could be levied against her. Seconds ticked by…literally. The agonizing tick of a clock hung on her wall made Sunset painfully aware of the passage of time. Tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock… After half a minute, she cautiously looked back up at her former mentor, who was still looking down at her with a frown. “P-Princess Celestia?” The larger alicorn’s expression didn’t waver. “Yes?” she asked in a tone that told Sunset there was a forming tempest of pure rage beneath the alicorn’s surface. Sunset gulped and looked back down at her bed. “I’m ready.” “For…what?” she demanded in an almost disgusted tone. The question made Sunset look back up at the alicorn, the fear at what was about to come spilling over into her voice, driving her heart rate up. “For my punishment!” she exclaimed. “Weren’t you listening? After everything I did…I-I deserve…I deserve to be locked away and never see the light of day! I should have my horn cut off and wings clipped!” And yet somehow, that didn’t seem like enough. Once again, she lowered her head, unable to look at the anger in Celestia’s eyes much longer. Even without her magic or the ability to fly, Sunset had caused such pain for all of the people at Canterlot High. Even if she was locked away, Sunset would be a drain on society, a black mark on the pony name, and a potential threat if she ever returned to her old ways. In truth, there was only one thing that should have been done about her. “After everything I’ve done, I-I deserve to DIE!” Sunset cried out at the top of her lungs. And that was when she felt the heat. “That’s…enough,” Princesses Celestia growled through gritted teeth. Sunset flinched and glanced back to where the princess was. The sight did nothing to calm her nerves. Few ponies had ever seen Celestia truly angry. Sunset had though. It was during a trial she was overseeing due to lack of physical evidence involving a family that had just lost their foal. The details were lost to Sunset’s memory, but she did remember how Celestia looked when a spell was used to divine the identity of the pony responsible. When Celestia saw the mare’s face, the air around her had come unbearably hot, and Sunset had needed to retreat before her coat went up in flames. While Celestia wasn’t that hot just yet…Sunset had a feeling she wouldn’t be needing to reheat her burger. Celestia took in a deep breath through her nose, and let it out through her mouth. Then she did it again, and again. And slowly, the temperature around the room returned to normal. Once it had, Celestia fixed Sunset in place with a frown. “Sunset…” The little alicorn gulped, but didn’t look away. At the very least, she would meet her punishment…now that she couldn’t run from it anymore. But seeing Celestia just standing there, making her wait for what she knew was coming…it slowly ate at the screen of anger and self-hatred that she had used to keep a conversation with the alicorn going. Slowly Celestia’s features went from angry, to stern, and finally softened to one of…sadness? “Sunset…how could you possibly believe any of that was real?” she asked in a hurt whisper. Sunset frowned at Celestia in confusion. “What are you talking about?” The larger alicorn hesitated, uncertainty showing clearly on her face. “Sunset…as…interesting as your story is, I could tell from the very beginning that what you were saying…it just couldn’t have been real.” After repeating Celestia’s words in her mind to work through them, Sunset scoffed at the suggestion. Not real? Celestia thought…what? That everything Sunset had just said was all some kind of delusion? All of her crimes… All of her suffering… “No!” she shouted back at the other alicorn as she stood up on her hooves to actually look Celestia in the eyes from a slightly higher vantage point. “No…that…that’s not possible!” What she had experienced had been real. She knew it was! “Everything that happened to me wasn’t just some stupid fantasy!” Celestia took another breath, and resumed her usual benevolent calm. “What sounds more reasonable? That you did everything you said and somehow traveled back in time? Or that you’ve stumbled on some kind of new effect the mirror has. Something that lets a pony come into the destiny it shows early,” she told the smaller mare. “Or at least sets them on the path to it.” The suggestion was tempting for Sunset to accept. If she did, it meant Celestia wouldn’t have actually thrown her away. It meant she hadn’t just picked up a new student, a student that learned so fast Sunset was left looking like the dunce she was. It meant… It meant that none of her friends were ever really there. “What made me like this was the magic I stole!” Sunset insisted. “I didn’t earn these wings!” Celestia slowly shook her head. “You say that, but…I just can’t believe what you’re telling me is the whole story,” she said before locking eyes with Sunset once again. “For instance…why do you think you stole magic from these…hugh-manes, you called them?” The mangling of her former species’ name made Sunset groan. “I did it because…I was too stupid to figure out another way to keep them out of trouble,” she grumbled. After all, the Dazzlings would have never bothered Canterlot High if they hadn’t been attracted by the Equestrian magic Sunset brought there. Without Sunset, everything would just go back to normal. “So you were protecting them the only way you could, then?” Celestia asked. “Even though doing so meant losing them forever? Even if it meant doing a little wrong for something more important? Even if it meant facing a harsh punishment from me?” The fact that Celestia sounded almost proud during those last few words were what hurt most of all. “You realize that you couldn’t solve everything perfectly, weighed the consequence of not doing anything against what you could, and then confessed everything to me with the full intention of taking responsibility for your actions.” A smile crossed the face of the goddess. “I have seen ponies be made leaders for far less.” Sunset frowned at Celestia, her anger building as the princess continued to try  and prop the fake alicorn up on a pedal. “Stop doing that! Twilight Sparkle is the real princess!” The name made Celestia frown. "And this again. Twilight Sparkle. You make her out to be some kind of perfect pony, but...to me, she sounds rather cruel and selfish," Celestia said in an even tone. Sunset gaped at her. "What do you mean? She was nice, and kind. She forgave me and-" "She abandoned you to an alien world when I was supposedly waiting for you here," Celestia cut in sternly. "Separated from you for so long, that would have killed me Sunset. And yet you list time after time when she apparently came back to this other world and left you there." The words from her former-teacher made Sunset cringe. "T-That wasn't her," Sunset admitted. Although, she couldn't really recall Twilight inviting her back... "That was me. I-I didn't belong in Equestria after what I did, and-and if I came back, then I knew that you would have to do something horrible to me. It was never Twilight. She...she's perfect. Just go to your school and find her and you'll see!" If being shouted at in the face affected Celestia at all, she gave no outward sign. She simply shook her head before she began talking again. “Sunset, ever since I founded the School for Gifted Unicorns, I have made it a point to lean the name of every single pony that goes there,” she said. “And I have never once heard of this Twilight Sparkle.” “Well-” Sunset cut herself off before she could suggest that Twilight might have been a transfer, or became an alicorn like Cadance. She was pretty sure a pegasus would never have received any magic training from the school beforehand. But...she was certain the paper she read in the Crystal Empire mentioned her being Celestia's student. “And then there is the other impossibility you mentioned,” Celestia said, not even giving Sunset time to ask before she revealed it. But, as her lips parted, emotional pain blossomed on her face. “Sunset, how could you possibly believe for an instant that I would ever give up on you?” Sunset hesitated. “Because I…I studied dark magic and the forbidden histories in the restricted section of the archives!” The confession had Celestia shook her head. “Sunset, if you don’t think I want at least a few ponies knowing about what is in those books, then why do you think I still have them around?” she asked before smirking. “After all, I sure as hay don’t require history lessons on Equestria. You however, you will be studying both.” “YOU WANT ME TO LEARN BLACK MAGIC?” the other alicorn shouted in a mix of disbelief and fear. Mostly fear. Sunset had learned more than enough thanks to her first encounter with it. “I want you to learn about black magic,” Celestia corrected her sternly. “Part of the duties of an alicorn is protecting Equestria. And ignorance makes for a poor defense. I have planned for you to learn about it from day one. If anything, I would have been fearful if I had caught you reading such books before I knew I could trust you with the knowledge within, not angry. And I surely wouldn’t have let you wander out of my sight with such a temptation in your head.” Despite her fearful protest and personal promise that she would be doing no such thing, Sunset had to admit that Celestia had a point. Still, Sunset knew all she needed to in order to deal with books of black magic. They needed to be thrown into a fire. A big fire. “And then there is the third hole in your story. There is no other you,” Celestia went on. Sunset frowned, completely lost. “Other me?” The other alicorn looked around for a few seconds, and then back to Sunset. “I’ve used temporal magic before Sunset, I’ve even met myself that came from a week in the future,” she explained. “If you are from some horrible future where you had to endure years of isolation without your magic on a strange world and in a body I doubted you understood, then where is the Sunset Shimmer of the present that still has to do all of that?” That one Sunset had an answer for. It was a theory and unproven, but still an answer. “Well, what if the old me was wiped away when I came back to avoid some kind of meeting yourself…wait…never mind,” she said when Celestia raised her eyebrow. The big alicorn had just said she met herself after all. So, that couldn’t have been it. Unless the magic Sunset used to go back was somehow different. But…wouldn’t Celestia know that? And then there was the thing that made Sunset’s heart ache. Something that she had been afraid to consider before, even if she did acknowledge the possibility. “But…all the people I met…my friends…they weren’t…real?” Celestia’s face shifted to one of hesitation, and she let out a long sigh. “They were real to you,” she told Sunset before putting some confidence back in her words. “So take the happiness you gained and the lessons you learned from them and cherish it. But everything else, all the wrongs you think you did, those never happened. So take this yoke of guilt around your neck and throw it away. Not a single pony was hurt by your actions, so there is no need for it.” Then the princess moved in close to kiss Sunset on the forehead and fill the little alicorn’s vision with her kind eyes. “Sunset, what happened to you must have been horrible, and…I can’t do more than be here for you for most of it. But what I can do is this,” she said before bringing Sunset in for another hug and whispering in her ear. “I will never cast you aside, and even should you need to go somewhere else, no matter what you do, no matter what should happen, I will always love you with all of my heart until the day I die. Never doubt that. Never forget it. You are everything to me.” Sunset found herself torn at Celestia’s words. She wanted to deny them. She didn’t deserve them, or Celestia’s forgiveness, or her faith, or anything! Even if Celestia was right about everything, even if nobody had been hurt by her actions, every choice Sunset had made was still hers to take responsibility for. Wasn’t that what really mattered? But…she was an alicorn. She was in Celestia’s embrace. She had her forgiveness. She had her love. She had everything she ever wanted along with a way to finally be free from her past. All she needed to do was take it! “Sunset…is something wrong?” Celestia asked, still holding onto her. The smaller alicorn realized that she had tensed up again. But instead of relaxing, she pulled away from her teacher’s embrace. Although it was Celestia releasing her that freed the smaller alicorn. “I’m sorry Princess…I just…I can’t,” Sunset told her. “I can’t just toss everything that happened to me away like that. Even the bad things.” Celestia studied her for a moment, and then nodded. “I understand. Guilt can be a powerful thing,” she told Sunset before reaching out with a wing to touch the tips of Sunset’s plumage. “It can serve as a powerful reminder to avoid wrongdoings. But do not let it pull you down into its depths my little Sunset. If you ever feel yourself sinking, come and talk to me about it, and I think Cadance would be more than willing to help you as well.” “Okay,” Sunset replied softly. The conversation had burnt out her anger. With that, Celestia levitated the plate of food up to the other pony’s face. Once again, Sunset was assaulted by the impossibly wonderful smell of perfectly cooked hay burger and fries, which made her stomach clamor for more. “Now, how about you finish your lunch so there’s something more than just half a burger inside you. For me?” After she was done eating and Celestia had left, Sunset focused something to keep her mind busy. Namely: Twilight Sparkle and her human friends. Despite what Celestia said, she just couldn’t believe that the purple princess and all those people were just some kind of invention of Sunset’s own mind. Sunset knew her mind, and it was far too flawed to come up with something as perfect as Twilight Sparkle. But if Celestia didn’t know about her, then where was she? While investigating the existence of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie was an impossibility since they were on the other side of the mirror, Sunset could look for Twilight. “And if I can’t find her, then what?” Sunset asked herself. Accept Celestia’s explanation of things? Just go on like the past three years never happened? It just seemed like another cheat. Sunset shook her head to help clear her thoughts and worries. The first thing to do was find Twilight…or not find her. After that, she could figure out what to do next. Planning out every little possible thing was for dorks. Celestia let out a long burst of air as soon as she let Sunset’s quarters and motioned to the guards standing watch that they were dismissed. The time with her…more-than-student had been an emotional rollercoaster that the white pony hadn’t experienced in several centuries. Even now, she still felt the twinges of anger and pain from what Sunset had said. Real or not, the fact that Sunset had suffered on her own for years from her perspective with a disability that made most unicorns give up on living made Celestia furious with the mirror’s creator. But what really made Celestia nearly lose control of herself was the fact that Sunset had believed such an obvious lie so easily. Did the amber pony really have so little faith in her that she thought Celestia would ever cast her out? It just didn’t make sense! Everypony knew she was one for giving second chances, thirds and fourths even! And Sunset’s infractions were just so…minor compared to what Celestia had seen over the years from other creatures! Not to mention wrong. If Sunset had delved into black magic on her own, Celestia would have taken steps to make sure she knew the dangers of such magic, not cast her out with a head full of it! Yet…Celestia could tell that Sunset still believed on some level that everything she experienced had actually happened, despite all the years Celestia had spent with Sunset to show her otherwise. It was just like with Luna. There had been years of being together, of seeing her grow, hay growing up alongside her. Yet in what seemed like no time at all, their relationship shattered and Luna had become Nightmare Moon. “Well I’m not going to let that happen again,” Celestia promised herself in a harsh whisper. If Sunset believed that Celestia would do such things as cast her out, then she would just have to show her otherwise. There might even be time for it. Now that she was an alicorn, Sunset had technically completed her training under Celestia. The hour they spent together could be used for relaxation rather than instruction. It was something Celestia found herself looking forward to greatly. The sound of approaching hooves made Celestia look up, and she noticed Cadance walking down the hall with her wings extended along her side for some reason. Glad for the other mare’s presence, the alicorn waited for her to finish approaching as Celestia convinced herself to talk to the younger alicorn about what had just transpired. While infinitely younger, Cadance was an alicorn and fellow princess. Other ponies could only ever see their perfect princess and protector, Cadance was allowed to see the truth about the big alicorn. Celestia was just another pony, albeit taller and older. A pony that needed to lean on others every now and again. “Auntie,” Cadance spoke as she finished walking up to the door before she looked past Celestia for a brief second with curious eyes before addressing the bigger alicorn again. “Is Sunset already asleep?” Celestia gave the door a worried look for a moment, and then over to Cadance. “I hope so,” she admitted. “Was there something you needed Cadance?” The pink princess gave the white alicorn a confused look for a second, as if the answer wasn’t obvious, and then her back straightened ever so slightly. “Oh right!” she said before dropping one of her wings and turning to reveal a tray of water glasses on her back. “You and Sunset left so suddenly, you didn’t take anything to drink with you and…um…Celestia?” “Yes?” Cadance’s voice became hesitant. “Uh…I know this may be a stupid question, but…how do unicorn’s balance things on their heads? I dropped three trays trying to get them to stay up there and my horn just kept throwing everything off balance.” Glad for the distraction, Celestia smiled at Cadance before levitating the liquid burden away from her adopted niece. “Magic.” The answer got a frown and a deadpan reply from Cadance. “Should have seen that one coming,” she said before her tone lightened up a bit. “But…how is Sunset?” What little bit of levity she got from her joke faded, and the invisible weight on Celestia’s back pressed back down. “It’s…complicated,” she said before surrounding them both in a privacy screen. “Walk with me Cadance, I’ll explain on the way.” “The way to where?” the other alicorn asked as she fell into step with Celestia, just a trot behind the bigger mare. Instead of answering, Celestia told Cadance was had just transpired in Sunset's room. She tried to be as brief as possible to spare Sunset the exposure of the private moment, but…a correct explanation required details. So in the end, Celestia ended up telling Cadance everything. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have told her about it all being some kind of implanted experience if not for what Sunset said at the end of her explanation of what happened,” Celestia finished as she shook her head as the memory played out in her mind. Seeing Sunset's expression when she realized all of her friends had been fictitious. “I deserve to die!” “How could she say such things?” the larger alicorn went on as she took another breath sharply. The look on the little alicorn’s face when she cried out those words as if in pain…it had just been too much to bear. Beside Celestia, Cadance looked on with a scowl that she had been wearing since the larger alicorn’s story had been half-finished. When Celestia asked her question, she suddenly stopped, and the bigger alicorn had a feeling that Cadance’s scowl wasn’t directed at the situation, but towards Celestia herself. “I think the real question is, how could you not?” she asked in a disbelieving whisper. Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Could I not what?” she asked, unsure of to what Cadance was referring. She hoped it wasn’t the little bit about Sunset being expelled because of her actions in the visions the other alicorn had experienced. If that was Cadance’s position on things pertaining to Sunset, then Celestia knew there would be a wedge driven between her and the pink alicorn. For a few seconds, Cadance simply stared at Celestia as if she was seeing a completely unbelievable event that defied explanation. Then, her frown returned. “You know, when I first met Sunset, I just couldn’t understand why she was so aggressive towards me,” Cadance told Celestia evenly. “You may have called me your niece, but it was just a meaningless title. Especially compared to what I saw she meant to you five minutes into seeing you together. “But now I get it,” she went on. “Now, I understand why she was so afraid of me, and why she turned it to anger to try and drive me away. It was because of you.” Celestia frowned at the accusation from the bewildered alicorn. “Excuse me?” “All this time you’ve been with her, and just now…only just now have you ever told Sunset that you love her,” Cadance said before she looked down at the floor and shook her head. “I can’t even…how could you do something like that to her?” The accusing question made Celestia more than a little uncomfortable, but it was her displeasure at being asked such a thing in the first place that showed on her face. “There are boundaries that a teacher can not cross.” “And there are responsibilities that every parent has to fulfill!” Cadance shouted back as her wings went up in an aggressive posture. Celestia frowned down at the smaller alicorn. “Cadance, just because I…” She stopped unable to complete her argument about how Sunset wasn’t her daughter, about how much more important it was that she be ready to rule Equestria than…waste time doing…family things. She tried to form the words, but they just wouldn’t come. Every time Celestia thought up what to say in regards to the parental status of her in regards to Sunset, a part of her screamed ‘LIAR’ at the top of its lungs, stopping her from talking. Because...Celestia knew that Cadance was right. Even before this conversation, she knew Cadance was right. She had thought of Sunset as her daughter for some time now. It was just...decorum demanded she say otherwise. “The day you accepted the responsibility of raising Sunset yourself is the day you accepted the task of loving her as only a parent could! And don’t you dare tell me about how you are not her mother! A pair of earth ponies raised me to be the mare that I am, and we may have not shared a drop of blood, but they were my parents through bonds of love stronger than any stupid biology can make!” Cadance nearly shouted at Celestia, her voice only a level below headache-inducing. Then the pink alicorn drew back and shook her head. “I just don’t get it.” As Cadance fell into a confused silence, Celestia found herself silently justifying her actions. While Celestia had allowed Sunset to cling to her as a foal, as the little filly got older and more into her studies, there just hadn’t been time for Celestia to be with Sunset all that much. While Cadance might have though the two of them were practically inseparable, the fact was that Celestia barely had an hour to spend with Sunset a day. She just didn’t have time to do everything needed to run a kingdom and give the now amber alicorn that much attention in the past. “I just didn’t have the time,” Celestia explained in a low voice that sounded as weak as her explanation felt. “It was why I told her to make friends.” “With who?” Cadance asked with a snort. “Nobles like that snot-nosed brat Blueblood? I’ve been here three weeks and he still calls me peasant.” It was news that made Celestia raise an eyebrow. That was the first she had ever heard of such things. “The unicorns in your school?” she went on with a roll of her eyes. “There’s a few nice ponies there, but have you seen what the teachers are like to the students? Each and every one of them were constantly pushing us along as fast as we could go. Every day I went there I got reminded how we were Celestia’s chosen, the cream of the crop. Equestria was counting on us to learn everything we could and lead it into the next age. No time for friends, no time for fun. Just study, study, study! I can only imagine what it must be like for a pony who actually is your student. Why do you think I asked to be transferred to the normal academy that takes all three tribes?” The pink mare shuddered at what was obviously a bad memory. “If you want Sunset to make friends, the best thing you could probably do is send her away from Canterlot,” Cadance said. “Well, before today I mean. At least as a unicorn she would have had to depend on somepony else for help, and help other ponies in return for it. But an alicorn? She could just tell ponies what to do and they would…not that I think she needs to learn how to empathize with other ponies after I spent some time with her today. But a week ago? Yeah, she needed to get out and find ponies to help her learn what it means to care about others.” When she noticed Cadance had stopped talking, Celestia drew herself out of the stupor that had overcome her halfway through Cadance’s explanation. Best thing I could do, she repeated in her mind before looking to Cadance, with her eyes on the little alicorn’s cutie mark. Celestia hadn’t really thought of it before, but…the image did bear a striking resemblance to the Crystal Heart. “Um…Auntie?” Cadance said in an unsure voice. “I’m sorry if I upset you, it’s just…today’s been pretty…trying.” Celestia replied first with a little smile for the pink alicorn before she continued walking through the castle. “No Cadance, what you said today…they were things that needed to be said,” she told her new niece. Things that probably wouldn’t have been said if it were anypony else. “And I want to thank you for saying them. Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. If anything, it just means I’m less likely to see them when I do.” They walked on in silence for a bit more, something Celestia quickly tired of. “So, since I didn’t get a chance to ask you at dinner, is anything interesting going on in your life Cadance?” “You mean besides this new pushy friend I made that’s going to need flying lessons soon?” she asked with a little smile for some reason Celestia couldn’t discern. “Well…there is something I want to ask you about.” Glad for something good to talk about for a change, Celestia smiled at the shorter mare. “Cadance, I think we’ve already shown you can ask and tell me anything.” Cadance blushed a little at the reminder of a few minutes ago, although Celestia took it as encouraging. She needed the other alicorn not to think of her as perfect, but as an equal. “Well…I’ve been having a little trouble meeting other ponies even at the academy,” she began, making Celestia’s concern rise a little. She didn’t want the other mare to experience the same problems that Sunset apparently had because of her status. “And I was thinking…I could…well…offer my services as a foalsitter.” The completely unexpected request caught Celestia off guard. “Pardon?” Cadance held up her hooves, and switched to her wings to keep going on. “It’s not that I don’t need some extra money,” she assured Celestia. “I just…look…I’m an alicorn. I’m sure you know what that means a lot of ponies are hesitant to approach me. But foals…not so much. And if a big brother or sister should see me with their little brother or sister, well…it’s a good icebreaker.” “And if big brother or sister should happen to be cute, it wouldn’t hurt to hear all about what he or she likes from the little one, right?” Celestia asked with a grin. After blushing from being caught for a second, Cadance looked away and cleared her throat. “You said it, not me.” Celestia giggled. “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she said before something else occurred to her. “And…see if you can talk Sunset into helping you. At least until you can use your horn well enough. Young unicorns tend to have magical outbursts that most other ponies might find troublesome.” From the way she raised her eyebrow, Celestia could tell Cadance had already seen though the ploy. “Sure,” she said before a rather mischievous smile appeared on her face. “Just don’t blame me if she happens to bring somepony special to her home one day to meet you.” Celestia rolled her eyes at the Alicorn of Love as they finally came to their destination. To the observer not in the know, it looked like just any other door in the castle, with a small difference. Celestia opened the door marked with a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign to peer within. Cadance looked past her and frowned. “Wait…is that the mirror that you said Sunset-” “Yes,” Celestia growled before she could stop herself. It was the mirror she was angry at, and its creator. She just hoped that Cadance didn’t think Celestia was upset at her personally. But it seemed that she did manage to put the other alicorn on edge. Cadance quickly backed away from the door, and Celestia saw a look of fear in her eyes. “Oh buck no! No way am I going near that thing!” When she saw Cadance was simply afraid of the object, Celestia gave her a smile. “Don’t worry, I have no intentions of anypony ever going near this thing again,” Celestia said before settling her eyes back on the mirror and summoning up all the magic she could. “Close the door behind me, would you? I want to keep the noise contained as best I can.”