Sunset Reset

by LordBrony2040


Chapter 6: The Predictable Plans of Pretty Pony Princesses & Pony Politicians

Thanks in part to the conversation he had just had with his friends, Shining Armor was starting to doubt the validity past twenty-four hours of his life. It was only a small doubt, but...just what were the chances that a new princess would just appear out of nowhere to save him from Buck? Not to mention Princess Cadance just showing up and dragging him to the gym that was currently empty before she was...doing whatever she was doing as she slowly circled around the colt with eyes that seemed to look right through his coat.

His brain just couldn’t make sense of it. Cadance was without a doubt the most popular filly in school. Everywhere she went, both the students and teachers looked at the princess with both awe and jealousy in mixed amounts. Everypony wanted to know her, and nopony was stupid enough to mess with her in the way school ponies usually did to Shining Armor and his friends.

So the fact that she had just shown up in the middle of the hallway to grab Shining Armor and take him to the gym was just…impossible!

But, Shining Armor saw the pink princess in front of him as she did yet another circuit. He felt her hoof taking measuring pokes at his body every now and then. He could smell the scent of strawberry shampoo still in her coat as she walked by. Not that he bent down to sniff Cadance’s body or anything! She just had a pretty strong shampoo. But with the various stimuli assaulting his brain, Shining Armor managed to push the much more logical explanation of events from his mind.

Sure, the reality of things were probably that Buck had beaten him into such a state that everything going on in front of him was really just a coma fantasy and the alicorn Sunset Shimmer was just a figment of Shining Armor’s imagination that happened to be the perfect mare in all respects. But the problem with that theory was that instead of dragging him under the bleachers to begin making out like some of those mystical dating adventure games Shining had only heard about would have done to introduce Princess Cadance as a second love interest, the pink pony had just dragged him into the center of the basketball court to study him with a frown on her face.

Despite the strangeness of it all. The stallion did as instructed by the princess, standing tall as if he was with a drill instructor. Shining Armor watched as Princess Cadance slowly circled him, her eyes inspecting every inch of his body. As the alicorn began her third circuit, Shining’s curiosity finally got the better of him. “Uh…Princess, is this about the foalsitting request?”

Princess Cadance stopped her examination and looked at the young stallion in the eyes. “Foalsitting?”

“I thought Sunset would have told you,” Shining went on. “I need somepony to watch my little sister this Saturday. I’ve got...stuff to do. Sunset’s supposed to be coming over and-”

Before he could finish, the princess’s face brightened. “And you can’t do your thing with Sunset if there’s nopony to watch her, right?” Princess Cadance asked with a friendly smile. “Sure, I’d love to help! And um...don’t be mad at Sunset for forgetting to mention it to me. Once she talked about you I might have gotten her a little distracted.”

As the princess went back to examining him, Shining Armor went rigid. Nervousness built in his stomach as the alicorn crossed his vision again. “W-What’d she say about me?”

“Good things, but also kind of vague,” Princess Cadance explained. “General personality stuff. I had to get the rest from the ponies around the school before I could even start to profile you.”

Shining Armor didn’t know what made him more nervous: that another princess had taken an interest in him, or...the thing she was doing now. The young stallion half-expected her to sprout canines and take a bite with the way she was looking at him.

Mustering up his courage, Shining looked around until the alicorn got into his vision again. “Uh, Princess Cadance? What are you doing?”

“Would you mind dropping the title, Shining Armor? As for what I’m doing. I’m examining your physical attractiveness,” Cadance told him absently before stopping behind him. She let out a considering groan, and then began walking again. “Well, you’re kind of lanky. Above average height, not that much muscle, but...your build promises for some major improvements in a few years if you work at it...hmmmmm….”

Cadance let out a sigh and trotted around until she was in front of Shining Armor again. “Okay, how to put this?” she mumbled before pausing for a moment to think before looking at him. “I’m pretty sure Sunset managed to get across the other day that she’s interested in you, right?”

Still confused about what was going on, Shining Armor could only nod.

“Well, she told me about it. So like I said, I went around the last few periods asking about you, picking up all the information I could,” she said before unfolding her wings with the feathers bent inwards the way Eight-Bit did when he was about do a list of points. And as Cadance spoke, feathers folded back out one by one. “You tutor other students in math on Wednesdays, you walk Zestfully Clean’s little brother home after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays when his parents can’t come get him, you have near perfect attendance with a good grade point average, and you don’t smoke. Plus, after careful examination, I can upgrade your looks from just adorable to a rank of cute. Kind of cute to be specific, in that coltish sort of way.”

Shining Armor blushed at the praise and slunk in on himself a little bit at Princess Cadance’s severely intrusive attention. Although he still had to wonder, WHAT THE BUCK WAS GOING ON? “Um…thank you?”

“But as things stand, you dating Sunset Shimmer is a very bad idea,” she went on, frowning as she stressed the final words.

All of a sudden, the warm a fuzzy feeling mixed with his guy pride shattered into a million pieces and brought Shining Armor back to reality, and away from the picturesque one that had him standing next to Princess Sunset in full plate mail while she wore a hot pink princess dress. “I-wait, what?”

Cadance snorted at the confused outburst and rolled her eyes before she started circling him again. “Look, you’re a nice colt. You’re kind and gentle, and that’s great,” the princess complimented Shining. “Most mares would be content with a young stallion like you.” Then, as the alicorn came up on him again, she looked directly into his eyes. “But you know what the problem is?”

“N-No?” Shining Armor stuttered under Cadance’s glare.

“Just content isn’t Sunset Shimmer!” the princess shouted, making Shining back up in surprise. “Sunset’s a princess. She wants it all in excess and more! You’re nice, but if that’s all you’ve got going for you…”

She didn’t finish the sentence before Shining Armor spoke up in his own defense. “Wait a second, I thought nice was good!”

The princess raised an eyebrow, and then went back to a sitting position right in front of him. “It is...but you don’t land the major catches if bait is all you have Armor,” Cadance explained as she poked him in the chest. “You need something to reel her in too. Right now, all I can see is that you’re nice. But you know what else Sunset told me about you? She says you’re a wimp! And what’s worse is that Sunset knows it, and she still wants to give you and her a...a try!”

After falling on his plot from Cadance yelling at him again, Shining Armor reviewed what she just said and tilted his head in confusion. “Uh…how is that a bad thing?” he asked. No matter how he thought about it, if Sunset knew something negative about him and still wanted to hang out, all the better.

Cadance practically growled at Shining for a few seconds before she got up began circling him again like some kind of predatory beast. “Because Sunset Shimmer is a blazing inferno of passion that I doubt many ponies in this world could hope to handle,” she said with a frown, stopping right in Shining’s face to punctuate the last point up close and personal. “Do you know what that means?”

“Um…no?” he asked cautiously while bringing a hoof up nervously as Cadance got nearly muzzle to muzzle with Shining Armor.

The breath from the alicorn tickled Shining Armor’s nose. “It means Sunset will tone things down and hold herself back when she’s around you. She’ll put on a public face,” Cadance told him before backing off to sit down a little more than a foot away this time. A frown still on her face. “At first, it will seem like a good thing. But it isn’t. You don’t put on a public face with the pony you spend your private time with. That never ends well in romantic situations. In a worse case scenario, you’ll get a few weeks before she just gets so frustrated from holding herself back all the time that she dumps you for a different stallion who she can be passionate with. And in the other worse case scenario, Sunset will just see you as a nice colt who’s not coltfriend material because she has to hold back all the time. That’ll put you into the friend zone.”

All of a sudden, Cadance got back into Shining’s face. “You don’t want to be in the friend zone Shiny. It’s a dark abyss of a black hole from which there is no escape,” she said before backing off a bit, her eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. “That isn’t what you want, right? You’re interested in Sunset for romantic reasons, aren't you?”

Shining Armor nodded slowly as he backed away. Despite the…strangeness of it all, he thought he understood what Cadance was telling him. And...he did want to make Sunset his fillyfriend, if she would let him that is. “So, next time I see Princess Sunset, I should…uh, tell her I can take the heat?”

Just giving up on getting together with the mare didn’t really seem like an option either. Even if Sunset was really some kind of walking bonfire or…something. She had seemed nice, and funny, and…everything else. It just didn’t seem right to Shining Armor for him to turn tail and run when another pony came in talking…well…not bad about her, but…not exactly good either.

Which had Shining wondering if he should stand up for Sunset. Even if it was to another princess.

“Seriously?” Cadance said with her eyes half-closed. “I spend all that time trying to get you riled up, and that’s the best you can give me? I thought you liked this mare.”

Shining Armor blinked at Cadance’s sudden and confusing change in attitude. “I do?”

A silence stretched on after Shining’s response. After a few seconds, Cadance spoke again. “Why?”

The question had Shining Armor thinking back to the day before when he had first met Sunset, with her standing there in the sunlight, looking...amazing. But it wasn’t just her looks Shining remembered…

“Well...she’s strong, and confident, and nice,” Shining told Cadance, his voice picking up as he went on telling the princess in front of him how he felt. “Sure she’s beautiful. But...it’s not just that. Princess Sunset, she...well...when I was in trouble, she just trotted over and...stood up for me.” Shining Armor blushed at the fact he was telling somepony else this, but...something about Cadance just made it easier.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Princess, but...I’m kind of on the bottom of the ladder here in Canterlot Academy,” he went on. “That makes me and my friends easy targets for certain ponies, and everypony else just looks away, or worse, laughs at what happens.

“But Sunset...she didn’t just help me up after everything was over like some ponies do,” Shining Armor went on. “She didn’t ignore it when everything was happening. She stepped in and stopped it. And then when we walked home, we talked about all this stuff, but not like most girls do when they’re around guys like me, you know? She actually listened, even to the stuff most ponies wouldn’t.”

Cadance lifted a hoof and rubbed it under her chin. “Huh...I think I’ve been going about this all wrong.”

“What?” Shining Armor asked.

To which Cadance sighed and and lowered her head a little. “I’m sorry Shining Armor,” she said before looking back up to him. “I came in here expecting just some colt with an attraction that was mostly based on infatuation. And yeah, you’ve got the hots for Sunset, but more than that...you admire her, don’t you?”

The blush returned to Shining’s cheeks. “Well...she is really cool.”

“Okay,” Cadance said into her hoof as Shining Armor got the feeling she was speaking more to herself than to him before she finally dropped her foreleg back to the ground. “I’m going to help you out, Shining.”

With the princess seeming to make that decision just now, Shining Armor raised an eyebrow cautiously. “Uh...isn’t that what you brought me in here to do from the get go?”

Cadance laughed and raised a hoof as if to shoo away the question. “Oh not at all! I was going to scare you away from Sunset and completely destroy your confidence in your feelings for her,” she said in a tone that was much too happy for Shining Armor to just let bounce off his coat.

But before he could get indignant about it, Cadance took on a much more serious look. “Sunset’s in a bit of a...confused place right now Shining,” she told him. “I’m not about to let somepony near her that could stop her from stabilizing. But, I can tell you’re not some colt who just wants to date the newest princess. But if you do want to go through with this, you’re going to follow my instructions, understand? I’m not going to help you start some stupid fling that’s going to fall apart when Sunset finally gets herself figured out, got it?”

Shining nodded, although confusion still covered his face. “Well…yeah.” He wasn’t about to just turn away from another pony like her because of…whatever the princess in front of him was talking about.

“Good!” Cadance told him with what was definitely a smile. A smile that lasted all of two seconds before her grin became almost frightening. “Then all you have to do to is prove to Sunset you can handle dating her,” Cadance said before nodding. “Don’t worry though, I’ll help you out with that.”

A strange feeling made it’s way down Shining Armor’s spine. It was a little like when Buck came around to mess with him, but...different. Almost scarier. “Um...thanks?” he replied. “But, what do you mean by help?”

“Well, like I said before, you’re a nice colt,” Cadance told him as the strange...aura of mania that seemed to be filling the room slowly dispersed. “But...Sunset doesn’t need a nice colt, at least not right now. She needs a strong colt. Somepony she doesn’t need to be afraid of being herself with like she’s trying to do with everypony else around her right now. So, I’m going to help her see you in that way, so your relationship isn’t doomed to fail in four weeks and three days when she stops needing just a strong colt and needs a patient, loving, and kind special somepony...like you.”

Shining Armor blinked at the rather...spot on timetable. “Okaaaaay,” he said in a drawl, stretching out the word. “But, you still haven’t answered my question.”

“Oh, well...I’m going to help you set something up to convince Sunset you’re the pony for her. You have to do something. Something grand!” she said while throwing her hooves and wings out out before Cadance looked back towards him.

A thought entered Shining Armor’s mind. It was something he didn’t want to think about. Especially with a pink alicorn just showing up out of the blue to help him win the hottest pony he had ever seen. But, it was a thought he had to voice. “Yeah but...am I?”

The question made Cadance frown. “Huh?”

“Am I the pony for her?” Shining clarified before lowering his head. “I mean, you’re talking about this like it’s serious. Super serious, with...you know….far-reaching...for life special somepony implications, and now I’m wondering...what if I really not good enough for Sunset?”

When he didn’t get an immediate answer, Shining Armor looked back up at Cadence, who was giving him a careful look. “The Princess of Love just shows up, tells you she’s going to help you get the mare of your dreams, and you’re worried you might not be good enough for her?” the alicorn asked as she looked at Shining Armor as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Shining Armor looked away from the alicorn and back to the gym floor before gulping. “Well...I mean, she is a princess. I’m just...some stallion from the suburbs. There’s probably a million ponies that would be better for her than me.”

“You are a stallion that cares more for a mare’s happiness than your own,” Cadence told him in a no-nonsense tone, making Shining look back up at her face. Instead of the hard expression that Cadence had on when she dragged him away, the one she wore now seemed more...serious. “That is the foundation of all love, Shining Armor. So to answer your question. No. There is nopony better than you for the pony you have feelings for.”

A second after she was done, Cadance took a deep breath, and extended her hoof as she breathed out. All of a sudden, she was back to the perfectly beautiful filly with the impossibly happy smile on her face. “Now, we just need to figure out a way for you to show Sunset you’re the stallion for her.”

Shining Armor half-nodded, and then stopped as something occurred to him. “But…what if I end up looking stupid?” He could kind of understand where Cadance was going with all of this, but...that didn’t mean it was going to work out in the end.

The question made Cadance frown. “Shining Armor,” she said before approaching him with a look that made all of her previous scowls look like nothing. Somehow, the sweet alicorn that was the color of cotton candy had been replaced by a demon from the pits of Tartarus. The creature that seemed twice as large as she usually did scowled down at him as he cowered on the floor, pressed down to the ground by her menacing aura. “Anypony that’s afraid of looking stupid doesn’t deserve to be in love!”

A second later, the demon was gone, replaced by the pretty pink pony princess with the tiny smile once again. “So, let’s work on a plan to impress Sunset and show her you're enough of a stallion to handle dating her, okay?”

Shining Armor gulped to help fight the terror that threatened to completely overwhelm his mind. “Okay,” he squeaked right before the bell for the next period rang.


Sunset didn’t know how long she spent in Celestia’s wonderful embrace, listening to the big pony’s heartbeat as she laid her head against the princess’s-no, her mother’s chest. A hundred childhood fantasies ran through her mind, all of a moment just like this. She found them paling in comparison to the real thing.

The feeling of her mother’s coat, the feathers resting across Sunset’s body, the sound of Celestia’s breath. It was all so...perfect.

But…such moments were not to last.

Not because of some interruption by outside forces. In fact, if someone were to have barged in at that moment, Sunset would have called upon the full might of her alicorn magic to teleport that pony as far away as possible. Then she would have surrounded the room with the most powerful force field her horn could make. But even that wouldn’t have stopped the questions that appeared in her mind.

Questions that had to be asked.

“So...what happens now?” she asked softly. A part of her wanted her mother not to hear it, and Sunset would have just nuzzled herself in closer to see if she could go to sleep against her old favorite pillow.

But, Celestia picked her head up in response to Sunset’s hesitant question, and Sunset looked up at her mother as she spoke in the most beautiful voice known to ponykind. “Well, what do you want to happen, my little sun?”

After thinking about it for a few moments, Sunset fidgeted around on the bed and crawled forward to look at Celestia’s cutie mark. The fact they both had suns had always been a symbol of joy for Sunset, proof that they shared a special connection for all to see. Although looking at it now, all Celestia’s bright sun did was remind the smaller alicorn how much further she still had to go.

Sunset let out a sigh, and rested her head on Celestia’s flank. It was as cushy as she remembered. “I suppose we’ll have to plan my coronation, and…I think I might as well learn to use these things,” she said before lifting her wings up. The tip of them touched her mother’s feathers.

Truthfully, flying had never really been high on her list of desires for wanting to turn into an alicorn. That had all been about the power and status that came with the wings…and Sunset still had no idea what the deal was with her freakish super strength. Maybe she had been an earth pony in a past life or something.

“You misunderstand Sunset,” Celestia told her, still using a soft voice that was just so…motherly. Sunset loved it. She could listen to her mom talk for hours on end about anything, as long as she spoke with that voice. “I asked you, what do you want to do.”

Confusion entered into Sunset’s mind and showed on her face. “Uh…I thought you wanted me to-”

“Yes well,” Celestia said before Sunset could finish. “Maybe I’ve had just about all I can stand of those kind of wants. This is about you. If you don’t want a coronation, then I will hold it off until you are ready to wear a crown. So I’ll ask you again, what do you want to do?”

A blush covered Sunset’s cheeks as a rather embarrassing thought entered her mind. “Well for starters, I’d like to get these things under control,” she said before pointing to her wings with her horn. “I may be a unicorn, but I’ve heard the jokes about what happens when a pegasus is around a hot guy.” After a three year dry spell, any stallion she came across would have them popping up.

Celestia giggled. “Yes, a newly ascended unicorn is worse than a teenage pegasus stallion in that regard,” she said with a smile. “I suppose you’ll also want to learn to fly while you’re at it.”

The thought made Sunset hesitate just a bit. Just because she lived in Canterlot for most of her life didn’t mean she liked heights all that much. Although, the logical side of her mind said that was all the more reason to learn how to give gravity the finger. “Uh…you’re not going to do me like you did with Cadance, and send me to flight camp or something, are you?” An instructor for kids teaching an adult just didn’t seem to work in Sunset’s mind.

“I don’t know,” Celestia said with a smile. “I think you’d be great with a foals. To be honest, one of my plans to teach you a little responsibility was to have you work with some fillies and colts. Not that it looks like you need to anymore.”

When Sunset frowned back at her, the bigger alicorn giggled again. “Or perhaps you could join something like the Junior Speedsters! I’d just love to hear you recite that little rhyme of theirs for me. Oh! I could even cast an age spell so you don’t stand out as much! You’d be so cute!”

Sunset’s expression became half-lidded. “Now you’re really pushing it.”

“Well, can you blame a mom for wanting to see her daughter be adorable?” Celestia asked innocently. But when Sunset didn’t give up with her expression after a few blinks of Celestia’s eyes, the goddess rolled them instead. “Oh very well, ruin my fun. But in all seriousness, is that it? You just want to learn to use your wings? That’s...pretty restrained for you.”

There was something else, but Sunset focused on a more important question. “What do you mean? Now that I’m an alicorn isn’t there a whole new curriculum you have for me?” Her ascension probably meant there were mountains of things left to learn!

“Honestly?” Celestia replied with her eyes a little wider. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re done Sunset.”

Sunset frowned in confusion and lifted her head. “What? What do you mean? I thought I had to learn about stuff like black magic and…everything else!” Sunset distinctly remembered Celestia saying something along those lines!

Instead of answering immediately, Celestia’s eyes became a little sad and she shifted around on the bed until she backed off of it completely to sit on the floor. “True, but…do you remember your last few lessons I gave you?”

Much to her regret, Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry Princess, I-”

Celestia cleared her throat, and Sunset tensed as the bigger alicorn’s demeanor changed in an instant. All of a sudden, Celestia became...something else…something large and intimidating with a large wall of blazing fire behind her that had Sunset’s joints all locked up in terror. “Now let me make one thing perfectly clear,” she commanded while throwing out a hoof straight to the tip of Sunset’s muzzle. “You are no longer allowed to use that title Sunset! From now on, it’s Mom, Mommy, or Momma! Although, if we are in a public setting and you absolutely must be respectful, then Mother will have to do. But that better not be what you call me in private!”

Okay…I know we don’t have anime in Equestria…but that was WAY too Japanese for my taste, Sunset thought before shaking off the weirdness. “Alright...Mom,” the amber alicorn stressed. There was no way in hell she was going to be calling Celestia mommy. Even she didn’t rate that! “And to answer your question, no I don’t remember. Even if it was all fake, I’ve been gone for three years.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Celestia replied pensively before she gave Sunset a little smile to banish the lingering awkwardness of her last command. “While nopony can ever really stop learning Sunset, your normal magical studies under me were finished a little while ago. All that was left to teach you was what you needed to ascend. And that was all morals. Now that you have wings, there’s really nothing left for me to teach you directly. I trust you to continue your studies on your own, no matter how dark the subject matter.”

For some reason, Sunset found herself a little saddened at that prospect. It was odd. She had finally achieved her objective of getting wings, and even gained the thing she wanted more than the status of an alicorn. Only…Celestia had just told Sunset that despite the fact that she was finally willing to shower her unofficial adopted daughter with affection, they wouldn’t be spending as much time together. Less than before even. “…Oh,” she said, summing up her opinion on the subject.

Celestia’s ears twitched at Sunset’s reply. “Is something wrong?” she asked in concern.

After taking a deep breath, Sunset let out a long sigh and shook her head. “No, it’s just…not what I was expecting,” she said before looking back to her wings. “It’s funny. I got the thing I’ve been wanting for such a long time, but…it’s not really made me happy at all. Instead, I think I want…” Sunset stopped before she said too much.

“What?” Celestia prompted.

Embarrassment made Sunset’s cheeks look more like her mane. “Well…uh…it’s just…I guess I’m still adjusting to being a pony again.”

The bigger alicorn laughed. “I can tell.”

Sunset blinked. “What do you mean?”

“For one, ever since you got back, you haven’t used any pony-centric speech,” Celestia told her.

Once again, Sunset blinked at the statement, and groaned before shaking her head. “Yeah that’s…kind of a weird story,” she said before blocking a mental image from entering her head. It wasn’t her fault that the crazy society Sunset had sort of been a member of for the past three years had been so odd. Although, if the worlds were to suddenly merge one day, she had no doubt there would be a little human child running around shouting ‘THAT’S RACIST!’ every time an equine said somepony or anypony.

And now I’m thinking about that world like it was real again, Sunset realized before resting her head back down on the bed. It wasn’t as comfortable as her mom though. She wanted her alicorn pillow back. “Let’s just say I still have some adjusting to do.”

Celestia nodded. “Well, I’ll be more than happy to give you all the time you need Sunset,” she assured the smaller alicorn. “And if you want anything else, just name it.”

The offer made a thought Sunset had pushed out appear in her mind again. While not an old thought, it was one she had thrown to the side because…it was just too stupid to ask for.

But…she couldn’t deny that she wanted it either.

And…it could very well help her adjust to being back in Canterlot again.

“Um…now that you mention it, there is something that might help me get my feet wet with being around ponies again,” she admitted thanks to Celestia’s coaxing.

“Yes?”

Sunset took a deep breath to help steel herself. “When I was in the mirror, the world I was in…it was…kind of structured like Canterlot Academy,” she admitted reluctantly as the oddity of her coming request started to make her hesitate. “I know it may sound weird, but that place was my life for nearly three years and...I just think I’d feel more comfortable being someplace like it. And since you said I’d already learned everything I needed to about magic…I was kind of wondering…if I could…finish out my final year of studies...over there?”

After several long seconds of silence, Celestia blinked. “Sunset, your studies under me are completed. Whatever you want to do, that’s up to you. If you want to changes schools for some reason, I may have some concerns, but…I’m not going to stop you if you feel this is important,” she said before giving her unofficial daughter a little smile. “But could at least tell me the full reason? There must be more to it than just some sort of backwards homesickness.”

The way Celestia had picked up on the reluctance surrounding her other reason made Sunset feel oddly...happy. She couldn’t get anything past her mom.

But, that happiness was sort-lived. A deep buried pain came to the forefront of Sunset’s mind as she remembered another incident involving her human experience, as well as what had happened yesterday. “When I was in the mirror, there was this one incident after I had finally thought I turned things around for myself. People starting waving to me in the hallway and smiling when I was around,” she the amber alicorn said before sighing. “And then, this trio of students started causing trouble and framed me for it. And everything that was making me feel good about myself, the students…my friends, they turned on me in an instant. They were all just waiting for me to become a problem again, and since I wasn’t the monster I had been, each and every one of them took shots at me without fearing would have stopped them before.”

Sunset let out a snort as something occurred to her about the whole Anon-a-Miss problem. “Hell, looking at it like that...you could even say that they knew I had changed. But it didn’t really matter at all once they had an excuse to hate me again,” she grumbled. “Putting your own past behind you is one thing…but when everyone else decides to follow you around and remind you of it, it’s like they’re trying to force you back into it because…I don’t know.” It was one question Sunset had never been able to answer for herself, and when the Anon-a-Miss incident was done, she had thrown everything that happened to the side so that she could have her friends back.

But...had those girls every really been her friends?

Then, Sunset realized that she was thinking about them as if they were real again, and shook her head at the foolishness of it all.

“Your school,” she went on before looking away from Celestia. “I know I wasn’t as bad there as I was in the mirror, more of an antisocial jerk than a bully…but when I went there the other day…” Sunset shuddered at the memory of how the students reacted to her, not to mention the teachers. “Cadance goes to Canterlot Academy. They should be used to an alicorn running around there by now, right? And the students there, I can talk to them without my wings getting in the way, and maybe…um…”

When Sunset found herself unable to articulate what she wanted without it sounding childish and stupid, Celestia put a hoof under the little alicorn’s chin to guide her back to a face to face conversation. Then, she rolled her eyes with a smiled on her face. “Sunset, you could just say you want to make some new friends outside of court.”

Sunset blushed at the silliness of it all. “So…um…what now?” she asked cautiously.

The question got a smile from Celestia. “Well, I just got done canceling court all of my meetings for the day,” she said. “How about, for my last act as your teacher before you canter out on me, I give you a little flying lesson?”

Sunset looked back to her wings. “Flying?”

“Well...we’ll start with a gentle glide for now,” Celestia told her. “You’ll need to get used to being up that high without anything under you before we can really do some teaching.”


Instead of going straight to the castle that was her home these days when the final bell rang, Cadance found herself waiting behind the academy for Shining Armor to appear. Since she didn’t know how long it would take him to say goodbye to his friends and come around, the princess’s mind wandered back to her first few days at Canterlot Academy to pass the time.

It had certainly been quite the change, going from a little middle of nowhere earth pony village to the Equestrian capital. At first, everything had been exciting and new. Princess Celestia had been so wonderful to her, if a little distant, and Sunset…

Well, now that she understood the root of the problem, Cadance didn’t see the need to dwell on Sunset’s past actions. Although, with the other alicorn starting to feel her own upheaval, Cadance was pretty certain she understood why thoughts of the past were cropping up.

The pink princess remembered that as the sparkling newness of Canterlot started to fade, Cadance realized that she was alone in a foreign city that might as well of had a completely different culture to her home village. Everything in Canterlot was so fast-paced and...socially regimented compared to her home. What made it even worse was that her attempts to make friends in this new place had been met with…limited success. Everypony was perfectly polite and respectful to Princess Cadance, but that decorum also created a gulf between her and the rest of the ponies in Canterlot.

And the ponies that tried to cross that gap were the wrong ones. The ones that thought they deserved to be friends with her. But all of those ponies just wanted to be close to the pink princess rather than the former pegasus that was Cadance. Ponies who wanted political favor, who thought she was too inexperienced to see them for what they really were. Ponies she stayed as far away from as she could.

As things stood, it would probably be months before she would be able to find a way to bridge that societal gap with just a couple of ponies who didn’t want to gain political favor. In fact, the only pony around that she could safely say didn’t want to curry favor was the terrifying unicorn that had turned into an alicorn recently. The alicorn who had been the one to work on their friendship first.

Wait a second, Cadance thought to herself as a rather terrifying realization made itself known. Does that mean Sunset Shimmer is my best friend in Canterlot?

The disbelief in her mind only lasted a moment before rational thought said Sunset was only a best friend thanks to Cadance’s lack of current friends. The title would probably be taken by another pony once the pink princess managed to make a real friend that…

Cadance forced herself to let that train of thought fade into oblivion before it could reach the end of the line. She was letting her past experiences taint her current opinion of the other alicorn without giving her a fair chance. What Sunset had done in the past didn’t matter. She had decided to change, and the fact she was an alicorn now told Cadance that turnabout was genuine. The pink princess didn’t need to dwell on the amber alicorn’s past if Sunset had left it behind.

“Uh, Princess Cadance?”

The new voice made Cadance’s back go rigid as her wings poofed out on instinct, ready to take flight and avoid any danger. But, she quelled such thoughts and looked back to see the pony she had been waiting so long her thoughts had managed to get away from her. So far away they had pulled Cadance away from reality, and she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings.

“Shining Armor!” Cadance greeted the colt with a smile before she trotted up the sidewalk and…found herself hesitant to do anything more. Her usual greeting of a quick hug would have been a bit out of place with the unicorn being Sunset’s pick. Cadance didn’t want him getting any ideas.

Not that he wasn’t cute. Sunset did have pretty good taste in stallions. But it would take more than just cute for Cadance to chase after anypony. Looks were only good for looking at. She wanted a coltfriend with some substance to him.

...like the young stallion Sunset had her eyes on...

All of a sudden, Cadance realized she was just standing in front of the nervous colt. She shook herself out of the stunned silence she had embarrassed herself into, and went back to giving him a friendly smile. Not too much curl to indicate lust, and no teeth like with their first meeting. She wasn’t trying to see if he frightened easily this time around.

 “So, ready to get started?”

Shining nodded. “Yes,” he replied before becoming hesitant again in that adorable way all young lovers were prone to experiencing. “But, um…start what? You didn’t tell me what we were doing before you had to leave for class.”

The question made Cadance roll her eyes. It was obvious Shining’s parents had never given him a romance novel to read. “We’re going to be planning out your date with Sunset this weekend, obviously,” she said before the young stallion in front of her opened his mouth.

For some reason, Shining Armor’s eyes widened in surprise at the explanation. Probably because he was nervous. It would pass once things got going. “Y-Yes Princess,” he stammered.

“Good!” Cadance beamed to help boost his confidence. “Now, what are your ideas? Remember though, first dates are important. Since you already have her attention, you really need to have something to wow her. Something to show Sunset how amazing you are.”

The attitude was apparently infectious, as Shining Armor’s stance changed to show a bit more certainty as he brightened up. “Oh! This’ll be easy then. I’ve got something planned that’ll let me do just that. We’ll be playing an Oubliettes and Ogres game!”

Although the stallion in front of her sounded excited at the prospect, Cadance couldn’t found herself unable to share in his joy. Mostly because…she had no idea what he was talking about. “A what?” she asked.

One hour of trotting on top of a rather long explanation about the fictitious world of Everglow later, Cadance found herself inside The Golem’s Dungeon and Hoofball Card Shop. The dimly lit store was filled to the brim with odd merchandise and figures of cute little critters that a foal might take interest in, as well as comics, and several books detailing the things that Shining Armor had talked about all the way to the shop with a passion that was kind of enchanting. Even if it wasn’t her cup of tea, Cadance could see how it might seem…nice to be somepony else for awhile.

She also met the shop’s owner, a rather pudgy stallion with a yellow coat by the name of Comic Book. He was a little too sarcastic for Cadance’s taste.

“So let me get this straight. Your plan to impress Sunset Shimmer is to play a game where you’re a knight-”

“Paladin,” Shining Armor corrected her for about the third time.

“-and you sit around a table with all of your guy friends, rolling dice and coming up with solutions to problems that another one of your friends gives you?” she finished while using all of her manners to keep a straight face. It was important to Shining Armor, laughing at the complete idiocy of the idea would be rude.

Their first date however…Cadance could tell it was going to be a disaster. A disaster of epic proportions. A disaster that would end with Shining Armor losing his shot at Sunset Shimmer forever. And if hanging out in his parent’s basement with three other guys was his idea of a good first date where he needed to impress a mare…Cadance was starting to think that he might be beyond her abilities to help.

Completely oblivious to Cadance’s unspoken opinion, Shining Armor gave her a little smile as he showed her the information about his character in the book held in his magic. “So, what do you think?”

“Well…” Cadance racked her brain to think of something nice to say. “It certainly shows Sunset the inner you.” Which was a good thing, she supposed. But showing somepony something like that really needed to wait until their third anniversary! It was one of those secrets husbands only told their wives after they were married and too old to find another stallion.

“Buuuuut,” she said while trying to come up with something that didn’t make the most terrible date idea ever sound like...what it was. “I think you’re trotting down the wrong trail here Shiny.”

After cocking his head to the side, the stallion blinked. “What do you mean?”

Well for starters, you just invited the mare you want to go out with to a...friendship activity, Cadance thought to herself as she started working up a nice explanation of why Shining Armor inviting Sunset to something like that was a bad idea. 

But, she also didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Okay,” Cadance said as she tried to order her thoughts to form an explanation that didn’t include words like moronic. “Um…” Thoughts that needed more time to form. Several hours at least. “So…about O&O…how does everypony know where everything is at if it's just a bunch of books?”

Although a legitimate question, Cadance had only asked it to buy herself some time to think of a way to avert the coming disaster. Because nothing she could see would salvage a relationship that started in a basement over some books and dice.

“There’s plenty of ways, although my friends use miniatures-”

“Oh miniatures, that’s so impressive,” the pudgy unicorn behind the counter said before he took a bite of the burrito floating in his magic. “I’m sure that’ll really hook this mare you’ve been going on about for the past five minutes instead of buying something.”

For once, Cadance wished the pony on the other side of the room had ignored her order not to bow and act natural around her. What was it with jerky stallions and acting like…well, jerks?

But just to pull the rug out from under him, Cadence smiled and looked over at the big pony. “Oh, and what would your suggestion be, hmmm?” she asked as nicely as she could.

The question only made the stallion pause for a second, and then he looked up to a shelf behind the counter to float down a large black box with a small stylized silver X on the front. “This!” he said before opening the box to reveal a magical stone tablet with several gems embedded in it with lines of gold set between them in the shape of a pentangle. “Behold! The Tablet of Live Action Role Playing!”

Shining Armor groaned. “You know I don’t have the money for one of those.”

Ignoring his protest, Cadance stepped forward and looked at the item. Even though her knowledge of spellcraft was nonexistent, the princess could feel a slight tingle in her horn at its presence. “What does it do?” she asked cautiously.

Comic Book raised an eyebrow. “What? The name isn’t a big enough clue for you?” he replied.

Which made Cadance frown at him.

“Ugh…fine!” he went on. “This tablet contains a spell that’s similar to linked dream magic. Up to seven ponies can enter a near-sleeping state to act out a scenario created beforehoof by the GM. Everything looks, sounds, and feels real, but since it’s all a dream, there’s no actual danger.”

After hearing the explanation how the enchantment worked, Cadance had to force herself to keep from licking her lips. The possibilities that were forming in her head were...workable. From the way that guy Comic Book explained the whole thing, the artifact in front of her was the perfect solution to save Shining Armor’s chances with Sunset! While not all that romantic, it would at least keep Sunset interested in him enough for a second chance in a better setting!

A devious smile appeared on Cadance’s face, and she clasped her hooves before rubbing them together while a plan formed in her mind. “Shining Armor…there may be hope for you yet!”


Although soft, Sunset wished that she had taken up Celestia’s offer to make a cloud bed as she laid her belly down on the mattress, making the princess's body scream in protest. Getting flying lessons from Celestia had been…painful. Both to her pride, and her body.

“Crashing builds character my fuzzy pony butt,” Sunset grumbled before she looked up at her wings to frown at the traitorous appendages. “Why can’t you work like the ones in the mirror did? Or Rainbow Dash’s? Rainbow Dash didn’t have any problems flying around! And she hasn’t even had wings as long as I have!”

A second after Sunset said her comment, she groaned and looked down at her sheets. “Because she wasn’t real. None of them where,” she sadly reminded herself. It hurt, but…Sunset needed to accept that act and deal with it if she was to move on.

Even if they had been the best friends she’d ever known.

Sunset let out a loud sigh, and groaned. Why was it that letting go of a bunch of stupid memories about a magical delusion was so hard?

Maybe it had only been a day, but...princesses were supposed to be better than that! It had only taken Twilight a few tries to take her hand when they met the second time, and she had only reminded Sunset about her demonic transformation once!

In contrast, Sunset...couldn’t compare herself to Twilight, because the purple alicorn WASN’T REAL!

“I need something to take my mind off this,” Sunset told herself before she looked around her room. The books on magical theory on the shelf across from her bed were…tempting, but Sunset was more of a hands on type of girl, and causing magical explosions so close to dinner time was probably a bad idea.

She thought about playing her guitar, but then Sunset realized that she didn’t actually own one anymore. Not that it had ever been real in the first place. Which made her wonder… So…does that mean everything I know about music is also fake?

Tomorrow, there would be some experiments she could try. Since the transfer to Canterlot Academy wouldn’t happen for a few days, Sunset needed to keep herself busy.

But that didn’t solve her current boredom. Something which was becoming a real problem for her human-contaminated mind. Sunset was pretty sure that was the reason why she came up with the idea to go watch the guards go through their evening drills. The studly guard that was comprised almost entirely of stallions. Stallions without pants or underwear. Stallions that would do anything she ordered them to.

“Gah!” the alicorn screamed as images of a much hunkier version of Shining Armor fulfilling his princess’s needs filled Sunset’s mind. “Stupid brain! Why is it when I don’t want to have sex, you finally turn my libido on?”

Not that Sunset ever wanted to have sex while in the mirror in the first place! It had just been a means to an end! And something you learned to enjoy out of repetition didn’t really count!

“Okay,” Sunset said to herself. “Fuck this, I’m going to practice some magic.” An ice spell sounded like a good idea. She could make a block or two, and then sit on it with her tail raised. If her newfound alicorn body wanted to turn against her like this, then Sunset wasn’t going down easy.

It was at that moment that the doors to Sunset’s bedroom burst open, and she found Princess Cadance striding into the room with a large stack of books resting on her back. “Sunset? Good, you’re here. Come on now, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said before reaching behind her to toss all of the books on her back onto Sunset’s bed before pulling out a bag that rattled from under her wing and dumping out a load of dice. “So, are you down for a caster, a melee class, or something in-between?”

Sunset blinked at Cadance’s odd behavior. “Uh…” She looked down at the books in front of her to try and understand what in the hell the pink princess was talking about. A quick glance at the O&O titles told the alicorn everything she needed to know about why the pink alicorn was speaking so strangely. For the rest, she actually needed to ask Cadance. “What’s all this for?”

“For your date,” Cadance told her before her eyes narrowed and she took on a commanding tone. “Now…caster. Melee. Or something in-between?”

Sunset blinked. What date?


“But Daddy, isn’t there something you can do? She used magic on me! Unicorns aren’t supposed to do that!”

Strong Withers frowned as he heard his son’s rather...whine of a request when he and his family sat down to dinner at the dining room table. The immature colt’s words made the old stallion repress a groan, a skill he had picked up early in his political career when it came to dealing with his constituents and their foolish requests.

At least the day of bathing had managed to get the smell of manure out of the young stallion's coat. Strong took solace in that. “But alicorns can,” he said. “And you’ll be going back to school tomorrow.”

“Well, did you at least find somepony to do my homework?” Buck asked.

The absurdity of the question broke through Strong Wither’s political defenses. His face slipped into a glower. “I thought you had some colt doing it all for you.”

Buck slunk under his father’s gaze. “I did! But now that Armor’s friends with that other mare…can’t you do something about her Daddy?”

When his son couldn’t even complete the excuse for his own incompetence, Strong reached over to take a glass of brandy from the table and swish it around while he look at the four-legged disappointment that was his son. Despite good breeding and a fine physique, when it came to anything he couldn’t solve by hitting his hoof against it, Buck just threw a tantrum.

He was such a wasted investment.

Still, the request did raise a question in the Council Member's mind. Just what was to be done about this new princess? Strong was already well aware of the great secret concerning alicorn transformation that the public would never be privy to as not to cause a huge scandal. Apparently, Princess Celestia had presented herself to a stallion some thousand years ago or so to foal some long dead pony. Every now and then, one of her descendants would become an alicorn upon adulthood. None of them had her immortality though. That was Celestia’s alone.

The pink one, while unexpected, wasn’t much of a problem for Strong Withers and the rest of his supporters to sideline. Cadance was stupid and completely lacking experience in politics. She would be easy to deal with.

But Sunset Shimmer had been Celestia’s personal student for years. The princess had personally molded her practically from the day the brat could speak. Strong Withers doubted very much that all of those lessons had to do with magic alone.

The threat she represented to the political status quo would need to be...minimized.

Strong Withers look back to his son again, and an idea came to him. Perhaps the boy did have one last use after all. “Son,” he said. “Tell me again how this horrible mare so brutally assaulted you and your friends.”