Sunset Reset

by LordBrony2040


Chapter 11: By Daze End

Cadance wished that she had enough confidence in her control of her horn to just pick up Shining Armor and carry him behind her while she followed Sunset's trail through the hallway as she dragged the white stallion behind her with her fetlock holding tightly on to his. Although she didn't have Sunset's rather freakish super strength, there was still enough earth pony in her to move a nerdy stallion that wasn't putting up much of a fight.

“Come on Shiny, you’re going to lose her at this rate!” Cadance told him as the pair of them made their way through the halls, making their way through the student body.

There was a light tug from behind Cadance as Shining put up a token resistance. “But shouldn't we just let her be?”

“No!”

“Then can't you just fly up and catch her?” Shining asked as he looked up to the high ceiling that allowed more than enough room for Cadance to get airborne and maneuver indoors. “She’s not even going that fast.”

Cadance was glad Shining Armor couldn't see her face as she rolled her eyes at the stallion’s stupid question. “We’re not supposed to catch her Shiny, we’re supposed to chase her!”

Once again, their pace slowed as the stallion obviously diverted some of his attention to thinking. “But, why’re we chasing Sunset if we aren't supposed to catch her?”

Her patience wearing thin at being asked such basic relationship questions that had such obvious answers, Cadance couldn't stop herself from letting out an annoyed groan. “So that she can see us chasing her obviously!” What was so hard to understand about that?

Halfway down the hallway ahead, the amber alicorn turned and went in a door. As soon as the two ponies got to the doorway, Shining Armor's resistance to Cadance pulling him along multiplied by tenfold, enough to make the pink princess come to a stop before she could continue the chase. “Okay, um...sorry Princess, but...I draw the line at going into the girl's bathroom.”

Cadance looked at the angular silhouette of a pony’s face on the outside of the white door. “You know, we really should put up something to better to signify genders,” she said before turning back to face the colt behind her. “Okay. You wait here for Sunset to come out, and ask her if she’s okay as soon as she does.”

With Shining’s task assigned, Cadance walked into the bathroom and peeked around the corner of the turn that kept any of those weird colts from trying to sneak a peek at the place where a mare conducted her private business. “Sunset, are you okay?” she asked cautiously before listening for anything out of the ordinary.

What she heard was...nothing. Which was quite disturbing in and of itself. When Sunset had just up and run off some reason that Cadance couldn’t fathom, the pink princess had thought the amber alicorn had been in some sort of distress. Instead, once she walked all the way around to get the bathroom in full view, Cadance found the mare just standing in front of the faucets and looking at her reflection in the wall-length mirror behind them.

Sunset was…perhaps a little uneasy, but not enough that she should have been seeking asylum. “Please tell me Shining Armor didn’t come with you,” she asked without force behind the plea.

Cadance shook her head. “No. But I’m betting he’s plenty worried,” she replied. “Why did you just up and leave like that in the middle of the conversation?”

An even look was what greeted Cadance when Sunset turned her head away from the mirror. “You mean, why did I leave after implying that Shining Armor mounted and rode me so much I passed out from the pleasure?” she asked in a frigid tone before the lack of emotion changed to a small frown. “Or maybe it was the fact that I started picturing him doing just that and thought I’d better get my mind on something else before I left a creamy spot on the floor?”

The implications of what Sunset was talking about were obvious, and left Cadance slightly flustered. “Oh...well, that’s...a little fast,” she said while trying to think of something nice to say about Sunset’s increasing desires for sex. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it in your position! You said in the mirror, you, uh…”

Just what Sunset had told Cadance about her sex life came to mind, and the pink princess was glad her coat was good at hiding embarrassed blushes. It wasn’t that the thought of sex unnerved her. Being with a special somepony at the heights of ecstasy was one of the most important moments in a relationship. But Sunset reminding Cadance of the amber alicorn’s previous encounters with human males and what she had to do with so many creatures that she didn’t love...Cadance didn’t like thinking about it.

“Got banged more than three times a week,” Sunset told Cadance, much to the pink princess’s embarrassment. She had been trying to forget that little fact of Sunset’s life. “But this is different! The other times were just for putting myself in the right position. Hel-ugh, hay human girls don’t even really need guys to get off when it comes down to it. The only thing guys really bring to the table is the whole oral thing, and no way in hell was I ever going to suck a monkey’s cock.”

With Sunset just putting out nonsensical babbling and the images that it brought to mind, Cadance couldn’t help but ask for clarification. “What does sucking a chicken have to do with sex?”

Sunset gave Cadance a blank look, followed by a blink, and then her horn lit up to surround them in a semi-translucent blue bubble before her expression became serious. “Okay, if we’re seriously going to talk about this, I’m making sure nobody can hear us,” she said before sitting on the ground. “And...well…the phrase is a euphemism for…um...”

When Sunset was done explaining, Cadance nodded in understanding. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t very well versed in the technical theory of alternate sexual pleasures beyond a mare that lifted her tail for a stallion to stick his ‘rooster’ in. Although, it was gratifying to see that Sunset was a little squeamish when it came to at least some forms of intercourse.

“But like I was saying,” Sunset went on, her verbal pace quickening as she continued to speak. “I don’t want to be that kind of girl with him. At least not right away! And then there’s the fact that I don’t even know if I can be with him like that without it messing everything up in half-a-dozen different ways!”

Seeing a problem she had an answer for, Cadance spoke up. “Oh come on Sunset. Even if you’re going to be a princess and Shining Armor isn’t even a noble, nopony’s going to do anything about it.” If they did, Cadance was pretty sure Sunset would make it a very costly mistake.

Sunset glared at Cadance and snorted. “That’s not what I’m talking about at all!” the amber alicorn snapped back at the pink princess. “I cause earthquakes with my hooves Cadance! And it’s not just my legs that have super mare levels of strength! Hay, I don’t even know how much I can lift with my mouth! What happens when we finally do end up in bed together and I end up hurting Shining because I hug him too much, or I kick when I’m so out of it I can’t hold back, or...buck! What if he puts his penis in me and I end up crushing it when I hit orgasm?”

“You’ve uh...really thought about this, haven’t you?” Cadance replied as she tried to counter Sunset’s panicky ramblings.

The amber alicorn shook her head. “No. I just...there’s just so many problems I can see once I get going, it’s easy to pick,” she said before sighing and taking a few deep breaths. The tactic worked to visibly calm her down, but it was obvious she was a long way from good. “Hay! I don’t even know if it’s a good idea to try and go that far with Shining Armor. He’s the first nice pony guy I’ve met in three years. What if after a little while the novelty of it wears off, and I just take what I want and then...totally lose interest? A guy like that, getting used and thrown away would crush him. And that’s not even considering everything else it might do to his social life!”

With the opening Sunset’s pause provided, Cadance stepped up to look at the sad mare close enough so Sunset couldn’t just turn away from her so easily. “Okay first off, we slept together last night, right?” When Sunset nodded in response to the question, the pink princess continued. “You wrapped your whole body around me and went to sleep. And I’ll admit your hug was a little tighter and much more firm than I’m used to, but it was a long way from hurting me. So don’t even think about stuff like that. When you and Shining Armor do make love to each other, it will be the same. You’ll probably be a bit more than a stallion like him can handle from the get go, but that’s a long way from hurting him.

“Secondly, if you were just wanting to...bang him, Sunset, you wouldn’t be worried about his feelings. I don’t need my talent to see you care for him very much,” Cadance said as she smiled at her best friend. “So don’t start thinking that you’ll just stop one day out of boredom.”

And although it halfway went against what Sunset was needing, Cadance decided to throw her pride a bone. “And I’ll have you know I’m a good judge of both looks and body development in stallions,” she revealed to the other alicorn. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Shining Armor is a little cutie right now, but as soon as he gets in the guard like he says he wants to and puts some muscle on, he’ll be a total hottie.”

The declaration made Sunset give Cadance a carefully measuring look that had the pink princess wondering if she had overstepped her bounds for a few seconds before the amber alicorn spoke. “Well…” she said tentatively. “That’s...good, I guess.”

Cadance frowned at Sunset’s rather...lame response. “You guess?” she asked before letting out a sigh. It was like Sunset had just woken up again. “Sunset, what’s going on? It’s almost like you’re trying to find a reason to back away from Shining Armor.”

“Well…” Sunset became hesitant, and Cadance’s mouth dropped open at what was quickly becoming obvious. “I wouldn’t put it that way exactly, but...remember what I told you last night?”

A groan escaped from Cadance’s mouth. She didn’t like the fact that Sunset was bringing that mess up again, or that the amber alicorn had asked her not to talk to Princess Celestia about her changing mirror theory. But if Sunset needed to figure things out on her own, Cadence was willing to grant her that for the time being. “Yes, I’m going to be a princess in a big crystal castle.”

It still sounded a little too silly to be true.

But still worth investigating when she got the chance. She could at least see for herself if Sunset’s words held any weight by finding out if this Crystal Empire place actually existed.

Sunset smirked at her just a little. “And here I thought you would have liked something like that,” she said before shaking her head a little bit as her somber mood returned. “But that’s not what I’m talking about right now. The problem is...I’m not supposed to be here.”

Although she could tell Sunset had stopped talking to bait her into an obvious question, Cadance decided to fall for it anyway. “Well then where are you supposed to be?”

“Back in the palace, studying, arguing with Celestia, and turning my nose up at you,” Sunset replied sadly. “At least, that was the way things were before. I never met Shining Armor before I left the first time. When I believed what Celestia had told me, that everything I experienced was all just a dream, I could put it all behind me and just move forward. But now that I know it’s not… How can I get together with Shining Armor when I’m not supposed to be with him?”

Despite a growing curiosity about just what was it the other day that had Sunset suddenly deciding to change her opinion about the effects of the mirror, Cadance kept her mind on task. “What are you talking about?”

Sunset groaned and looked at the ceiling for a second before turning her attention back to Cadance. “Look, I told you that when I came  back through the mirror, it sent me back here instead of to the time it should have. Hell, it didn’t even send me back to when I was gone! Everything I do here, it...it has the potential to mess everything up, and no matter what I do to mitigate the damage I’ve already done...I just…”

“Sunset,” Cadance said to get the amber alicorn to focus on the pink princess before she could un-jumble her thoughts into a more coherent panic. “When you were talking about those human creatures, you said that they don’t have cutie marks, right?”

The amber alicorn nodded. “Yeah. They have a thing for symbolism, but it’s...only that to them, a symbol,” she said before looking back to the red and gold sun on her flank.

“So that stands to reason they also don’t have destinies, right?” Cadance asked before she continued right on into another question. “And if you turned into one, wouldn’t it mean that your destiny was also...undone?” It was a rather horrifying thought. Cadance couldn’t see why she was so fixated on the idea.

All of a sudden, Sunset’s guilt-filled confusing panic disappeared. In its place, Cadance was surprised to find that the amber alicorn glaring at her. “Oh no! I am not going down that road!” she insisted with a frown. “I did that once and-”

Cadance didn’t let the amber alicorn finish, and met Sunset glare for glare. “Well what else do you think is going on? You say that you shouldn’t be here, but everything I know says that you should!” she told her best friend fiercely. “So what if you had some sort of...temporal detour! This is your chance to set right what once went wrong. But that’s only going to happen if you pony up and stop acting like some little filly at flight camp that can’t even jump off a cloud!”

With her tirade done, Cadance let off a loud sigh and looked away from Sunset in embarrassment at her angry outburst. “Sorry I-” the princess stopped herself when she saw another pony silently stumble into the restroom and slam into the wall to the right of the entrance.


Buck Withers walked down the hallway with two of his teammates, Three-D, and Crunch. Although he didn't get why Three-D wore those things with the red and blue lenses, the tall gray stallion did as he was told when Buck told him to. As for Crunch, the short but bulky stallion was very good at taking out anything in front of him if he had a good running start.

Like most days after he got done eating, Buck had planned to hit the weight room for the last ten minutes of the lunch period. But thanks to the chatter that was going on in the hall around him as he made his way there, the stallion was more focused on what he was hearing than where he was going. What he heard was putting him in a bad mood.

“Can you believe how tall she is?”

A very bad mood.

“And that mane!”

A...whatever was bigger than very, bad mood.

One of the mares that was walking behind Buck and his two friends from the polo team laughed. “Oh that was just the lighting,” she said. “But what about those legs? Did you see how thick they were for a pony of her height? I bet she almost as strong as Buck!”

The polo star spun around to glare at the two mares and tell them how wrong they were as images of him getting planted in the wall by that stupid alicorn played out in his mind. “NO SHE’S NOT!”

The hall went quiet at Buck’s shout, and he glared at the half a dozen or so ponies that were giving him startled looks.

“Uh, actually Buck, I heard from Touchdown how she-”

Buck spun back around to glare at Crunch before he could finish. “Shut it!” the earth pony stallion ordered before he spun around to head back down the hallway and turned the corner to head to the gym. That was when he found something much more important to take care of than a few barbells, more relaxing too. Further down the hall, a familiar white stallion with a blue mane was standing outside the girls’ restroom.

Shining Armor, Buck had heard from his buddies how that guy had been getting with his mare during the week his father had kept Buck from coming to school.

YOU USELESS TWIT, YOU SAID SHE WAS A VIOLENT MANIAC!” the voice of Buck’s father repeated in his head as he remembered coming home the day before to find his dad all worked up about something involving that fat princess.

But Buck didn't really care about his old man at the moment. With that stupid nerd just standing next to the filly’s room, all the earth pony cared about was putting Shining Armor back in his place. For a guy that was supposed to be king of the nerds, he seemed to need a lot of reminding when it came to where he belonged on the social ladder.

With his new task in mind, Buck stomped over to the door and came face to face with the white stallion when Shining turned around in surprise. “Armor!” the sports star yelled before he grabbed the colt and pushed up against the wall with his forelegs. “What did I tell you about going near my filly?”

Shining struggled like the pathetic little horny twerp that he was. “Buck? W-What’re you-”

“Shut it!” Buck ordered. He didn't want to hear any of Shining’s whining. He didn’t care what the dweeb’s excuse was. He had seen him RIGHT NEXT TO HER AT LUNCH! It was clear that the colt was only going to learn to stay away from the pink alicorn by spending a few days at the hospital. “I saw you! If you can't stay away from Cadance, then I'm just gonna have to smash your face in!”

With Buck on the warpath, the few students that were stupid enough to still be sticking around scurried away like rats. As soon as the last of them disappeared from his view, Buck dropped the colt in his grip so he had a hoof free to swing.

The cracking sound of hoof hitting face echoed throughout the hallway as the horseapple of a unicorn stumbled to the side and into the girl’s bathroom before Buck followed him in and slammed him up against the wall right in front of the door. “Hey Armor, I think you got something on your face,” Buck told him before looking back to his friends. “What do you say guys? Want us to help him get it off?”

“Great idea Buck,” the shorter stallion agreed.

“I don’t see nothin’ on his face,” Three-D mumbled.

When Shining started to struggle some more, Buck took a moment to plant another hoof on the bottom of his barrel. “What’re you talking about? There’s something right here!” he said before smacking Armor on the snout. When he drew his hoof away a second time, blood dripped from the stupid colt’s nose.

“Oh, now you got that red stuff on your coat,” he told the moaning little colt. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you wash it off.” Buck shoved Shining Armor past the wall that was supposed to keep ponies from looking in while the girls put powder on their nose for some stupid reason, then followed him to smack the pony again and knock him to the ground.

And when he followed Shining into the main part of the bathroom, Buck stopped when he saw a pair of mares standing in the middle of the the nearly empty room. Both of them were alicorns, one pink, one amber. The pink one let out a gasp before Shining Armor was dragged over to the two of them by a blue glow and she crouched down to look him over. As for the amber one, Buck was almost certain he saw a fire blazing in her eyes.


Years of living among humans had forced Sunset to make certain adjustments to how she lived her life. One of which was the forced removal of an extremely common response when a pony became angry, one she no longer had to consciously repress. Snorting air out through her nose was an interesting experience for Sunset after having to force herself not do it for so many years.

It was also the furthest thing from her mind at the sight of her Shining Armor laying on the ground with what looked like a bloody nose and an eye that was quickly swelling shut. Sunset sucked in one more breath before she undid the spell that kept sound from going in or out of her immediate vicinity. She wanted the idiots in front of her to know just how screwed they were before their existence ended in a mass of fire and pain. “Congratulations on stumbling into the last ten seconds of your lives!”

The alicorn’s angry charge was cut short when she stepped forward and felt a little drag on her left foreleg that was accompanied by Cadance screaming into her ear. “SUNSET, WAIT!”

Get off me!” she yelled back before she got ready to fling the other alicorn away so she could dislocate all of of the earth pony’s legs. But, Cadance looking back at her with a glare made Sunset stop from tossing her best friend through the nearest wall for daring to get in her way.

At that point, the three stallions seemed to finally get over their shock. “Run for it!” the shortest one yelled before the three stallions turned tail and escaped for Sunset’s line of sight before she could turn their collective asses to ash.

The amber alicorn sucked in a deep breath to keep herself from doing anything rash and physically damaging to the pink princess holding onto her leg with a death grip. “Cadance, I am going to give you two seconds to let go. If you don’t, I’m going to teleport you half a mile away from Canterlot.”

Cadance didn’t budge. “And then what? Run after that trio of bullies so you can cause another front-page news story while Shining Armor is left half-conscious on the ground?” she demanded with a frown. “What is that going to do other than just cause more trouble?”

Two seconds later, Sunset let the magic slip from her horn. Then she looked over to the young stallion as Shining Armor let out a little moan. “Okay,” the amber alicorn whispered before she let out a long breath to help slow down her pounding heart. “You can let me go now.”

As soon as Cadance did, Sunset was over next to Shining Armor. Healing magic might not have been her forte, but she had experienced a diagnostic spell enough times to know how it was cast. From her place behind Sunset, Cadance spoke up in worry. “Is he alright?”

“No broken bones,” Sunset told her as she absorbed the information. Shining’s underside did seem pretty sore though, and he had taken a bad hit to the head on top of the bloody nose. The amount of damage did seem a bit much for just a high school bully to do. But then, Sunset supposed that creatures with hooves would have hit a lot harder than humans.

The stallion beneath her stirred. “Ugh...Sunset?”

Upon hearing her name, Sunset didn’t know whether to be happy that Shining Armor was coming out of his daze, or worried that his speech sounded a little garbled. “Shiny?” she asked in concern. She had to wonder if he had a concussion. Can unicorns even get concussions? Sunset remembered that the horned pony’s skull was a great deal tougher than most gave them credit for, but...what she could call up from her old Equestrian anatomy lessons didn’t give any specifics.

A second later, Sunset felt Cadance crowd her. “Shining Armor, are you okay?” she asked before putting up one of her legs. “How many hooves am I holding up?”

“Uh…” the stallion looked up at the two alicorns, and blinked several times. “One?”

The completely asinine test over, Cadance let out a sigh of relief and stood back up. “Okay. Sunset, you should go and take Shining Armor to the nurse’s office,” the pink princess told her. “I’ll go and see Principal Cinch. After something like this, there’s no way she’s going to let Buck keep going to school here.”

Expulsion?” Sunset spat in response to Cadance’s words as she looked back towards the other alicorn. “You think I care about him being kicked out of school after he did something like this?” She was going to find that stallion and break him in two! Crush every bone in his body before using a few of the darker spells from the forbidden section of Celestia's library to rip out the boy’s soul and put it in an iron pot so she could cook it herself and listen to his screams!

Another pony’s fetlock touched her foreleg, and Sunset’s visions of creating her own personal Hell for Buck were shattered when Shining Armor called out to her. “Sunset? Are you okay?”

The question made Sunset look back down to Shining Armor. “AM I Oh…” she got out before realizing she was yelling at the colt who was still laying on the floor. It made Sunset’s ears droop in shame. Shining Armor was hurt, and all she was worried about was getting some stupid revenge. “I-I’m fine Shining. You’re the one we need to be concentrating on. Come on, let’s get you to the nurse’s office.”

“What’s wrong?”

Sunset winced at the question before she helped the stallion get back on his hooves. “What’s wrong?” she said as she repeated Shining Armor’s words as he wobbled around. “You got hurt!” And I wasn’t even twenty feet away, too concerned with myself to notice. “C-Can you walk?”

“Yeah,” Shining Armor replied before he took a step, and then winced. “Ah!” But before Sunset could rush over and...do something to try and support him despite the challenge being a pony presented when it came to that problem, Shining Armor held up a hoof. “No. I’m okay. Don’t worry, stuff like this happens all the time.”

Despite the little laugh Shining gave the mares, Sunset found herself sharing a worried look with Cadance. ‘All the time?’ the amber alicorn mouthed to her pink counterpart.


Cadance had to fight the unease she felt as she walked into Principal Cinch’s office. The somber tone and lack of light made the room one of the more foreboding places she had seen in her lifetime. Although, Cadance knew the fact that she was actually experiencing unease because of the room was silly. Principal Cinch was a perfectly nice pony, if a little...elitist.

The mare in question was laying down on a long chair that was parked in front of her desk, looking over a few papers that were being held in her magic. Cadance felt a twinge of envy at the sight. Her own magic was coming along, but...it would be some time before she could hold something steady enough to read it according to Sunset.

As the pink alicorn got up to the desk, Cinch dropped her papers and adjusted her glasses before smiling at the mare. “Ah, Princess Cadance. To what do I owe the honor of your company this fine afternoon?” she asked. “Is there something wrong? An unfair teacher you need me to...have a word with?”

Cadance nodded her head to the principal in a polite manner. “Actually, it concerns a student,” she told the older mare. “One of my friends was just attacked inside the mare’s bathroom.”

The principal let out a little gasp. “Oh my word! Well, tell me what happened and I will take care of it at once! Who was this student, and her assailant?”

“It was a colt, actually,” Cadance corrected Cinch. “Shining Armor was being bullied by Buck Withers and two of his friends. I’m not sure of their names, but I could pick their faces out of the yearbook. I’m sure they’re all on the polo team. Ponies like that, they need to be expelled!”

After the announcement was made, the principal stared at the princess for several seconds, and then nodded to herself. “I...see,” Cinch said slowly before she used her magic to put away the glasses that were resting on her muzzle. “Well...that’s going to be a bit difficult then, I’m afraid.”

Cadance frowned at the mare’s reaction, or lack thereof. “Excuse me?” she asked evenly. “One of the senior students, an earth pony no less, attacked a younger student and probably would have done more to Shining if we hadn’t been there! And from what I understand, this is a normal occurrence! He and his friends need to be kicked out of school. How in any way is that difficult?”

“Princess,” Cinch began as she raised her hooves in a calming gesture. “I ask that you...consider this: Buck Withers is a very important pony at this school. He is the captain of the polo team, and participates in many other sports as well. I dare say that the reason that our school is doing so well this year in sports is due to all of his hard work. In contrast, this Shining Armor colt you speak of is...well, not nearly as valuable to the school. Plus, they are young stallions. A little horseplay is expected from time to time.”

Even though she hadn’t had nearly as much court experience as Sunset, Cadance knew plenty about reading between the lines. “Are you telling me that you’re just going to-no,” she mumbled when something else occurred to her. This was not the first time Buck’s actions had been brought to Cinch’s attention. “You’ve been letting something like this happen right under your bucking nose!?”

The principal cleared her throat as Cadance fought to keep her temper reined in. It wouldn’t have been right for a princess to just go off on the mare sitting in front of her. There were other ways of handling things. She didn’t need to jump straight to physical violence the way Sunset seemed more than willing to do.

Despite how much she wanted to.

Which was a lot.

“Princess Cadance,” Cinch continued. “I ask you, think what would happen if I were to...remove Buck Withers and his friends from the academy. The year is just beginning, and our polo team has a real shot at winning the national championship. Should I dash all the hopes of every single pony counting on attending those games, of getting scholarships, of cheering their friends and family on simply because one little colt got a little roughed up?”

Cadance let out a disgruntled snort. “Principal Cinch,” she said in a growl. “When I first came here, I said that I didn’t want to be treated different than any other pony. But we both know that was just me trying to be friendly, and doesn’t change the fact that I am a Princess of Equestria! I do not think I need to remind you just how much authority that actually gives me, or the company I keep!”

For a second, the threat had the principal's eyes go wide. Then, after Cinch calmed down, she opened her desk drawer. “Princess...while I do understand your feelings on this issue. I must ask you not to make any...political moves,” she said before a newspaper came out to land in front of Cadance.

The picture alone told Cadance what the thing was about. Sunset’s ‘trial’ had been headline news for every paper in Equestria. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Buck Withers is the son of Councilman Strong Withers,” Cinch explained. “I’m not sure if the public would react favorably to Princess Sunset’s friend going after the son of the stallion who wrongfully accused her of being a changeling so soon after that little incident when the stallion himself was merely a victim of being too overly cautious. And if you use your political authority to make me go after him, well...you know how inquisitive reporters can be. I’m afraid that such information will turn up in the newspapers, despite my best efforts.”

Cadance’s mouth dropped at the news, and she snatched the paper up in one of her hooves to glare at the picture of Sunset standing in the Sun Court before she looked back at the unicorn sitting across the desk. “Are you bucking KIDDING ME!?”

In response to Cadance’s anger, Cinch shook her head. “Princess, please understand that I’m on your side here. I don’t want to see anything happen that might tarnish your good name, or that of Princess Sunset’s. Shining Armor is just some nopony. Let Buck have his plaything. It’ll be better for everypony in the long run. Do we have an...understanding?”

The room was silent as Cadance glared at the...reprehensible mare in front of her. “Yes Principal,” she said in an even tone. “I think I understand you quite well, now.”


Most of the carriage ride to Shining Armor’s house was a quiet affair after he got done protesting about having to leave school and the transport Sunset provided at her own cost. The young stallion may have said he was fine, but Sunset knew that healing magic took more out of a pony than they ever liked to admit. She also knew there was no way that he would have made it to his next period without falling asleep. As for her own absence. Sunset was a fucking Princess-of-Equestria-to-be, and could go wherever she damn well pleased.

Shining Armor fidgeted in his seat, and Sunset found herself wishing that they could have sat human style rather than laying on their stomachs in the seats across from each other like a pair of ponies. “Are you alright Shining?”

The young stallion blushed at the attention. “I’m...good.”

The carriage hit a bump, and Shining Armor winced. Guilt welled up in the pit of Sunset’s stomach at the sight. “I’m sorry,” she apologized.

“Huh?” he replied.

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “If I hadn’t of gotten so flustered in the cafeteria, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” she said. Not that Buck was any less to blame. But, the only pony in range of Sunset’s anger at the moment was herself.

“This wasn’t your fault,” Shining told her. “And uh, why did you run off so fast anyway?”

Thankfully, Sunset found herself not needing to answer the question as the carriage came to a halt. With an excuse to escape embarrassment, she quickly opened the door. “Just a minute, Shining. Let me pay the driver, and then I’ll help you out.”

“I can-” Shining Armor managed to say before Sunset made her way out of the carriage and pulled her purse out from under her wings to get some bits. Using them to hide her money was about the only use the amber alicorn had found for the feathered appendages since becoming a winged pony.

The door on the carriage opened again, and Sunset trotted back up to the door. “Shining-”

Shining Armor held up a hoof to hold the alicorn off. “I’ve got it,” he told her before walking down the steps and onto the street. Once he was there, the stallion looked over to his house. “So...um, here we are.”

“Yep,” Sunset agreed before she trotted over to the front door. “Now come on, let’s get you to bed. I’ll tell your mom what happened, and she can cook you something to eat. I know you don’t feel it now, but healing magic makes you really hungry after it’s been used. Once your body gets ready for digestion, you’ll probably need to scarf down about as much as I do for a meal or two.”

As Shining Armor walked to catch up while making some weak protest, Sunset took a second to study the glowing crystal gem in the door and under the knob. The design of the locking spell didn’t look half as complicated as the ones Celestia put on the restricted section of the library.

“Just a second, I’ll-”

Sunset pointed her horn at the gem and sent a tiny pulse of magic into the jewel. “I got it,” she told him before the lock clicked open, and Sunset turned the knob to open the door with her magic.

Only a trot behind her, Shining Armor sighed as Sunset walked into the house before motioning for him to come in with a hoof. “Uh...Mom? Dad? Are you here?” he called out before walking through the door to look around at the empty living room. “Twily?”

“Hmm, shouldn’t they still be at work, or something?” Sunset asked. It was barely past one o’clock. Even if the other Twilight and her husband worked part-time, the wouldn’t be home for a couple of hours.

Shining Armor looked over to the amber alicorn. “My parents work mostly at night. It’s the only time they can see the stars,” he explained before closing the door behind him. “They probably went out for a late lunch or something. Half the time, the only way we can get Twilight to take a nap is to stuff her so full she can barely move.”

The image of her best friend as a chubby little filly made Sunset giggle. But, the laughter was short-lived as she turned her attention back to Shining Armor while he shut the door behind them. “Okay, let’s hurry and get you in bed. Then I’ll try and find something for you to eat, and stick around until your parents come home.”

For some reason, Shining Armor seemed a little put off by the idea. “Uh, Sunset-”

“Shining Armor!” Sunset said forcefully before he could even begin to argue. She wasn’t about to have the pony that had just had a mass of bruises healed away collapsing when the magic’s side-effects kicked in. “You are either going to go upstairs while I find something to make for you to eat, or I am going to carry you up to your bed, pin you down on it, and…” Sunset gulped as the mental image of just what that could entail if she didn’t have the use of her magic formed in her head. “Um….”

The young stallion rolled his eyes at the mare’s broken request. “Okay, if it’ll make you happy, I’ll go lay down.”

As Shining Armor began to make his way up the stairs, Sunset found her eyes trailing him. That had been...much too easy. Still, the amber alicorn wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She let out a sigh of relief, and blinked at her her own tiredness hit her like a hammer.

It wasn’t that surprising. There had been that rush of adrenaline when she had been ready to clobber the stallion who hurt Shining Armor, followed by half an hour of worry that left her mentally exhausted. On top of which, the giant meal she had eaten at lunch was adding to Sunset’s lethargic demands.

Him first, then me, she told herself after Shining Armor disappeared around a corner into the upstairs hallway. But...one look into Twilight Velvet’s kitchen made Sunset realize two important things. The first of which was that she had no idea what Shining Armor liked to eat. The second being that she had just dragged the poor stallion into his own home and sent him to his room.

Okay...really need to apologize for that, Sunset told herself as she looked around Twilight’s home. Good reason or no, Sunset supposed that it had been pretty rude of her.

The amber alicorn sighed began trudging her way up the stairs. With only four rooms to choose from at the top, it wasn’t hard to find the one Shining Armor used. “Hey Shiny?” she asked timidly before opening the door and looking inside.

Shining Armor’s room was just about what Sunset had come to expect from a man cave of a guy who still had to live with his parents. There were pictures of bulky stallions on the wall with emblems behind them that just screamed wrestler, a dresser in the corner was decorated by Power Pony figurines, and there were more ‘action figures’ on a small bookshelf across from Shining’s bed, which took up the majority of the space with how it was just placed in the middle of everything. A small chest in the corner opposite of Shining’s dresser was open, and Sunset blinked when she saw him holding a magazine in his magic that had been taken from the green container.

“Uh...Sunset,” he said. Something wrong?”

Sunset’s ears wilted at the question. She knew he didn’t mean it to be be...accusing, but the amber alicorn couldn’t help but feel that he was just waiting for another demand from Princess Control Bitch. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting since we left school,” she told him. “I just got so angry, and then worried, and…” She sighed and shook her head. “I know that’s no excuse, but...when things happen that upset me-”

“You want to try and fix them,” he finished for her before smiling in the cutest way. “It’s okay. It’s one of the things I like about you. I mean, it was the reason we met, right? Everypony else was just willing to look the other way when I was in trouble, but you stepped in and helped me.”

The undeserving praise made Sunset blush. In truth, she had been more concerned with beating down a bully than helping the stallion Buck had been harassing at the time. Of course, the amber alicorn eventually became concerned with Shining after everything was done, but...not initially.

Twilight would have been more concerned about the stallion that was being picked on.

Then, Shining blushed and looked over to his bed. “And...I guess I am feeling kind of tired,” he said before moving over to get on the mattress. Once there he flipped around to lay on his back before he scooted up to rest against the headboard of his bed. “But, I’m not really that hungry. I mean, we did just eat.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, that is a good point,” she agreed. If the stallion’s body had some food in it before the healing had been performed, Sunset could see how that would have helped offset the side effects. “But, you’re still going to need to eat plenty tonight,” she said before trotting up to look Shining in the eyes to make sure she got her point across.

Although, the effect was soon ruined when Sunset opened her mouth to yawn.

Shining Armor snickered. “Are you sure I should be the only one getting ready to take a nap?”

“Hey! I just watched my boyfriend get laid out on the bathroom floor! I’m entitled to be a little tired from all this worrying!” Sunset shot back. The fact that the guy who she was worrying about was the one making fun of her for it made it all the more aggravating.

The tiny smile on Shining Armor’s face died, and he scooted over to the other end of his bed. “Sorry, I just, um...boyfriend?”

Sunset tensed at the question for a second. “Uh...well...um…” she stammered for a few seconds before shaking off her hesitation. “Sorry, that just sort of came out. I mean...I really do like you Shining. But...you know…”

“I’m not really princess coltfriend material, right?” he asked.

The stallion’s question left Sunset frozen for a second as she saw Shining Armor look down at himself. Almost as if he was accepting that...idiotic opinion about himself. “WHAT?” the amber alicorn shouted, the exhaustion she had been feeling washed away by a wave of anger. “What kind of moron told you something like that? You’re the best guy I’ve met in years, and if it wasn’t for all this other junk going on in my life, I’d be all over you right now!”

As Sunset finished her declaration, Shining Armor winced. “W-Well, I didn’t mean-”

Sunset reared up on the stallion’s bed before he could offer some lame excuse for thinking he wasn’t all that. “Literally all over you,” she said before getting her hind legs up on the mattress to tower over him completely. “Right. Now.”

“You mean like you are...right now?” he asked nervously.

The stupid question made Sunset blink, and she looked around to realize what she had just done, and that she was straddling the stallion. Who also happened to be as naked as she was.

Too tired to even blush, Sunset let out a groan and just fell over onto the other side of Shining Armor’s bed after extending her wings to make sure they didn’t catapult her off of it. Removed from the position of sexual dominance, Sunset sighed. “Sorry.”

Shining Armor reached around to put a foreleg under the bigger alicorn, but only ended up pulling himself closer to Sunset rather that the other way around as he tried to draw her into a hug. “I-It’s okay,” he told her. A small blush appeared on his cheeks as he tried to comfort the mare.

The logical part of Sunset’s mind knew what she was doing was a bad idea. She was in bed with an almost impossibly innocent stallion, and her human sensibilities that no longer applied but wouldn’t just clear out said they were both completely naked. Despite her exhaustion, everything about the situation said that it was time for her to mount the stallion like a cowgirl and ride off into the sunset.

And what made it even worse was that Sunset knew he deserved to get laid!

Being pulled into a hug by the stallion and resting her head right under his wasn’t making things any easier either. Sunset didn’t know if it was some kind of cologne, or maybe her nose was just that much better as a pony, but Shining Armor smelled good. It wasn’t the exact smell that humans had used on Sunset while she had been at CHS to cause certain chemicals to trigger in her mind in an attempt to make them seem more appealing; something Sunset had never really fallen for that much in the first place. The stallion’s scent was making the earth pony part of Sunset’s anatomy remind her that it was quick to recover from physical exhaustion and was almost ready to go a few rounds with the guy she really wanted to be with.

No, not yet, Sunset told herself as her body snuggled up closer to her white stallion until she was holding him with all four of her legs instead of Shining just cradling her head. This was the second time she had really been alone with the guy. While that had been plenty of time...before, trying to jump Shining Armor’s bones now would just prove that Sunset was only after one thing.

She needed to focus on something other than the urges to kiss him on the neck as she worked her way up to his sweet lips before diving into his mouth with her tongue in an attempt to clean his teeth like last time. Because that would lead to the alicorn pinning her prize down on the bed, and there was no way even Shining Armor’s libido would stay silent with Sunset’s sexual prodding. Then she would take her stallion and…

Wait, Sunset thought to herself as her mind encountered a problem with the fantasy threatening to dominate her thoughts. Can I even be on top anymore? The position of pony private parts didn’t really seem to lend itself well to anything other than traditional mounting.

With something of a thinking problem to focus on, Sunset managed to push away some of the lusty haze that threatened to fill her mind. Right...we’re in the wrong position, the alicorn told herself. Can’t have sex if he can’t...ugh, aim it properly.

Needing to get off that particular topic, Sunset focused on another problem that stood in the way when it came to being intimate with Shining Armor. And don’t forget the earth pony strength, Sunset went on. While Cadance had given Sunset her two bits on the matter, what the hell did the former pegasus really know? She was a moron! You’re a scientist Sunset, you find things out for yourself through experimentation!

And there...were ways she could check to see if the movement of her...female muscles during an intense moment of pleasure would actually cause enough force to do bodily harm to another pony. Extremely vulgar ways that promised to cause no end of embarrassment if someone should catch her, but...it was something Sunset had to do before she could bang her sort-of boyfriend.

No matter how much she wanted to!

Which...Sunset realized wasn’t that much anymore. The fury of thoughts had managed to switch the track her mind had been going on before it reached the point of no return.

Instead, she just lay next to the young stallion quietly for a few minutes and found herself just enjoying being with Shining Armor as they laid in bed together. His presence was still filling her mind, but...it had changed from what it was a moment ago. Everything just seemed...calmer.

It was nice.

And new. Even the time with her friends hadn’t given Sunset a real moment of soothing peace she found herself wrapped up in at the moment.

Her human friends at any rate. Sleeping with Cadance the night before had been pretty peaceful as well. Sunset had just wrapped the other alicorn up in almost the same way she was currently holding Shining Armor and...drifted off into sleep.

“Sunset?”

Shining saying her name made the mare loosen her grip and scoot away as far as she could on the colt’s bed so she could look her little pony in the eyes. “Yes Shining?”

He blinked. “Are you okay? You....stopped talking.”

A complementary lie came to Sunset’s mind to distract the stallion from probing any deeper. “Just thinking about how nice it is to get some alone time with you again,” she said with a smile. Although, Sunset supposed it wasn’t that much of a lie. She did like just being with Shining Armor, holding him in her forelegs and enjoying his presence.

Now that she had managed to beat her libido back at any rate.

“Oh,” he said before another blush returned to his face. “Yeah it...feels nice.”

Sunset found herself unable to resist the last embers of her naughtier thoughts. Shining was just looking so cute, and there was something that the amber alicorn needed to take care of in regards to what may easily turn out to be a relationship if her stupid princesshood didn’t become too much of a problem...on top of other things that she didn’t want to think about. But those were worries for another time. At the moment, Sunset had a solution to one of her problems, and she wasn’t about to let the other ones get in the way of solving it.

“You know Shining, there is something we should take care of since we’re alone right now,” she said in a soothing tone. But not too soothing, Sunset didn’t want to take things too far. She had just barely avoided jumping the poor guy’s bones.

Shining Armor scooted to the other side of the bed, which didn’t really put that much room between them, and blinked. “Um...w-what’s that?”

Sunset smiled as he just seemed to get even more adorable. “Our first kiss.”

The nervous confusion on Shining Armor’s face became less nervous and more confused. “But...we’ve already had our first kiss.”

“That was a dream, Shining,” Sunset told him after she rolled her eyes before she scooted closer so their muzzles were only inches apart. When the amber alicorn spoke again, her voice was in a whisper. “I want to kiss you for real. I mean, if...you want to, that is.”

All of a sudden, nervousness completely replaced confusion on Shining Armor’s face thanks to Sunset’s clarification. “Oh! Uh...well, that’s um...oh-okay.”

Using all the strength of will at her disposal, Sunset kept herself from leaping onto the stallion. Instead, she lightly touched his lips with hers, letting him melt into the kiss before pulling Shining Armor back into her embrace. Her tongue ran along the outside edge of the stallion’s lips like a guest knocking on a door for permission to enter. When the unicorn let her in, Sunset made her way past his teeth to embrace his tongue before rolling the two of them on the bed so that she was on top.

Although the stallion was giving permission, Sunset wasn’t about to let Shining think that she wasn’t going to be the one in charge. Her wings came down to envelop him like a second hug as the alicorn lost herself in the unicorn’s mouth.

He tasted of semi-expensive lunchroom food mixed with soda and the remnants of sugary bubblegum. It wasn’t as magnificent as Sunset had been hoping, but...the alicorn found the experience a long way from unpleasant. Then, after a good eight seconds of dominating her stallion’s mouth, Sunset broke the kiss and pulled herself up to straddle Shining Armor’s lower barrel and smile down at her little pony. It was a bit more difficult than as a human, but still manageable. “So, how was that?”

“W-Wow,” Shining Armor managed between pants.

Sunset giggled just a bit, at least until she felt his hooves slowly come up to touch her ass. The alicorn’s eyes widened at the action, but she found it more funny than rude or sexual. After all, Sunset was the one in charge, and Shining wasn’t going to get any until she decreed he would.

While that might have been a bit of the old her clawing its way to the surface, Sunset figured it was a small price to pay to keep from ruining what she had with the guy. Although...she did like the idea of Shining Armor enjoying her body. It didn’t make her feel especially sexy. Sunset already knew she looked good. But...it did feel...nice.

“Okay Shiny,” she told him with a smile before wrapping the hooves that were feeling her butt up in magic and gently moving them away. “Let’s slow down a bit before we get a little too crazy.” Me in particular. A little kiss and some cuddling was one thing, but if Shining Armor started to explore her body, Sunset didn’t know just how in control of herself she could remain.

The expression on Shining’s face went from clouded joy to awakened, wide-eyed surprise almost instantly. “Oh! Oh buck! Uh, Sunset, I’m sorry, I just-urmpth!” he said before her magic also covered his mouth.

“Shiny, I’m not angry,” Sunset told him before she lowered herself back on top of him so she could fill his vision. “I just think we should wait a little while before I let you play with my plot.” She smiled at her stallion. “We did just have our first real kiss after all.”

When she released her magic, the stallion went back to blushing. “Oh, um...okay,” he squeaked out.

Before he could get too nervous, Sunset gave the boy a peck on the nose. “So how about another kiss?” she offered. “I’ll let you try feeling me out this time.”

After the colt nodded, Sunset locked their lips again, and slowly coaxed Shining Armor’s tongue into her mouth. His motions were timid and he darted around a bit, but the alicorn did her best to make her stallion feel at ease as she guided him in the dance.

Although, a part of Sunset hoped that Shining would find a way to eventually get over his timidness. While she supposed stopping his ass grab might have made the colt shy away from being too bold, the alicorn didn’t want the entirety of her experience with him to be her having to drag Armor around all the time.

I’m being too hard on him, Sunset told herself as second later. After all, he had barely been able to speak to her when they first met, and had been going on about the nerdiest of things by the time he got home. If he had that much of a problem just talking to a mare, anything even close to intercourse related was going to take some time to get used to.

And it wasn’t like Sunset wanted a guy who was chomping at the bit to ride her like a horse. The stallion’s hesitation was one of Shining’s most endearing qualities!

The kiss dragged on, and Sunset wondered if she would need to pull her head back to break it as Shining Armor continued to just roam around her mouth. However, that decision was taken from her when her ears with their pegasus hearing picked up the sound of a door opening, and the clopping of tiny hooves on wood.

Sunset pulled her head away from Shining Armor and fought to get off the bed, nearly falling over in the process. “Crap! Your parents are home,” she said before looking over to a small clock on the nightstand next to Shining Armor’s bed to see it was past two-fifteen.

They had been cuddling for a lot longer than she had thought.

“...and?” Shining asked with a blank face.

Not in the mood for beating around the bush, Sunset decided to just go out and say it. “Shining, if we come walking out of your bedroom, they’re going to think we had sex!” While it hadn’t been much of an issue when Sunset was a human because she didn’t much give a damn what others thought about her and her boytoys, she did very much care what Shining’s parents thought of both her and their son’s moral integrity.

As her stallion suddenly froze up at the mention of the s-word, Sunset looked around for an escape. She had seen a few movies with Rarity where the two star-crossed lovers needed to avoid discovery by their family, and...she also realized that none of those accounts told of a girl who had a magical horn sprouting from her head.

Sunset grabbed Shining Armor in her magic and yanked him close to her, making sure to turn him hooves-down so he could stand on the floor before throwing a wing around his back and pulling him in close. Unfortunately, Sunset could only take a second to enjoy how unusually nice it felt to hold Shining against her body before she looked out the window in his room and fixed a destination for her teleport in her mind.

“S-Sunset? What’re you doing?” the stallion asked in a worried tone.

The amber alicorn took one more second to encase them in a bubble of silence to block the sound of displacement, and then tore open a hole in reality.

The next thing she knew, Sunset was standing on the street, half a block away from Twilight’s house.

Not wasting any time, Sunset let her stallion go and stepped forward a couple of times before she turned around and looked him in the eye. “Okay, now we need to get our story straight,” she began.


“And I couldn’t just let him walk home on his own, so I decided to accompany Shiny,” Princess Sunset Shimmer said as she finished telling Twilight Velvet why her son was back from school nearly an hour early.

The family matron nodded her head. “I’m not exactly sure if we deserve it, but thank you for troubling yourself with my son’s well-being, Your Majesty,” Velvet said respectfully. While the young goddess might have been a bit averse to another pony bowing to her, there was a limit to how much the elder Twilight was willing to go in removal of decorum when it came to one of the overseers of Equestria. “And sorry for the trouble. Shining just has the oddest problem with stairs when he’s not at home.”

For some reason, the princess looked past Velvet and to her foals sitting on the living room couch with the tiniest bit of a frown. “You wouldn’t believe my surprise when I heard what apparently happened,” she said in an oddly displeased tone before looking back to the mare with a calmer face. “But, it did give me an excuse to get out of class, and I needed to talk to you anyway.”

Velvet’s mind tried to think what somepony like Sunset Shimmer would want with her. “Talk to me? About what?”

“Umm…” Sunset looked back to the ponies laying on the couch. “Hey Shining, can you go play with Twilight for a little while?”

The purple unicorn didn’t like that request one bit. Twilight looked over to Sunset with her big eyes practically glistening. “But I want to stay here with you!”

Despite the foal’s gaze of mental domination via her cuteness, Sunset put on an amused smile. “Don’t you have a nap to go take?”

Utterance of the N-word made Velvet wince. Twilight Sparkle might have been the smartest filly in the world and a joy nine-tenths of the time, but like nearly all foals her age, she absolutely hated stopping for just a few hours a day in order to let her body get some much needed rest. Not to mention the break it gave Velvet.

As for Twilight, she was quick to counter with the most logical argument available to her. “But I don’t need a nap!”

“Okay,” Sunset said before thinking for a few seconds. “You like reading, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah,” she said cautiously.

“Then, you go up to your room and find a book, and when I’m done talking to your mother, I’ll come read it with you,” Sunset offered her. “That sound fun?”

Twilight disappeared so quickly that Velvet had to wonder if she had been spontaneously moved by magic.

“And you still need to get some rest too Shining,” Sunset went on.

The colt in question gave the princess a little smile. “You going to read me a story too?”

A tiny frown appeared on Sunset’s face. “Once upon a time, there was a very powerful alicorn with anger control issues,” she said evenly. “And what set her off most was young stallions who didn’t follow the nurse’s instructions.”

“Okay, okay! I’m going!” Shining Armor quickly relented before getting off the couch and trotting upstairs.

Velvet quickly lowered her head in apology at her son’s actions. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

The confused frown Sunset gave Velvet in response made the unicorn blink before the amber alicorn spoke. “About what?” she asked, and then immediately held up a hoof. “Never mind. Look, did Twilight tell you an offer I made her the other day?”

“Offer?” Velvet repeated as she tried to think of Twilight mentioning anything of the like. “Well, she mentioned something about you letting her attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Not that Velvet understood much of what the girl had been going on about, Twilight had been so hyper when talking about it at the time. That was when experience told the mare she needed to just smile and nod at the girl’s words until she was done.

Sunset nodded to herself. “Okay,” she said before looking the other mare in the eyes. “I’m willing to give Twilight a full free-ride scholarship to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. All of her books, her food, lab equipment, even room and board if it comes to that, I will be willing to pay for.”

The sudden offer made made Velvet’s legs shake and nearly fall out from under her.

“I’m also willing to come by two or three nights a week to give her magical tutoring here at your house, if you’ll let me,” the princess continued before smiling a little bit. “I don’t really think she needs it, but you know how confidence and magic go, uh...hoof and hoof.”

Velvet couldn’t take it anymore, and her plot hit the carpet beneath her as she sat down on the floor in surprise. What the princess was offering...it made the mare nearly go short of breath! She had known Twilight was smart and deserved the best, but her inability to give the filly that had always made Velvet feel like a failure as a mother.

Although Night Light had always tried to keep a positive spin on things and they might end up with a few extra bits come next year when that book her old academy friend Yearling asked Velvet to help with the editing for went to print, the unicorn didn’t believe for a second they wouldn’t have been able to get Twilight in Celestia’s school without making major sacrifices.

But...the princess in front of Velvet was offering more than she ever dared hope for.

“W-Why?” the unicorn whispered before she could stop herself.

For the barest fraction of a second, it looked as if the princess’s eyes held a bit of...regret(?), but it was gone an instant later as she smiled down at the older mare. “I know your daughter is very special, and deserves the best this world has to offer,” Princess Sunset told Velvet. “And I will make sure that she gets it.”

Twilight Velvet stared at the mare in front of her, doing everything she could not to collapse at the princess’s hooves in thanks in order to maintain proper decorum. With what Princess Sunset Shimmer was offering, Velvet had more reason than ever to give her the respect she deserved. “I...um...t-thank you,” she said in an awed and grateful whisper.

All of a sudden, Princess Sunset broke eye contact, and sat down before she looked away from the unicorn, then reached over to rub her foreleg with another. “Um...yeah, so...how about I come by tomorrow when your husband is also here, and we can figure out some kind of schedule for me to come over and see Twilight?”

“Well, if you’re willing to wait for about half-an-hour, I’m sure he’ll be home by then,” the mare told her. “He had to run some paperwork to the observatory when we finished eating.”

Before the princess could respond, a voice called out from the stairwell. “Princess Sunset, are you still there? I found a book and I’m waiting. And Mr. Smarty Pants is ready to take notes.”

Sunset looked over to Velvet with a confused frown. “Smarty Pants?”

“A doll Shining Armor got for her at the beginning of the year,” Velvet explained. “She pretends its her, um...study buddy.”

The amber alicorn let out a tiny giggle. “That’s just adorable,” she said before looking up towards the stairs. “Well I certainly can’t keep Mr. Smarty Pants waiting.” Sunset nodded towards the unicorn, and turned to head upstairs.

After a minute, Velvet’s ears twitched when she hear the princess’s voice again. “Uh...Twilight, isn’t this book a little...advanced? Even for you?”

“But you said any book!” the purple unicorn whined in response.

“Okay,” Sunset relied before Velvet heard the springs of Twilight’s mattress struggle under the weight of a mare that was probably a bit too big for it. “Come here, yeah right under the wing. Now, the first law of mystical energy states that the essence of magic can not be created nor destroyed. However, amplification and nullification is possible by using several methods, see chapter five for more information...do you want me to just skip over the parentheticals?”

Velvet smiled and walked away from the stairwell to find a book of her own to read.

When Night Light came home twenty minutes later, and the two parents went to discuss things with the princess, Velvet found both of the mares asleep. Princess Sunset was holding Twilight and the filly’s doll in her forelegs, sheltering the purple unicorn with her wings.


The restricted section of the Canterlot Castle Library was a dark foreboding place. Most of the lamps hadn’t been replaced, and the premium of space meant that the bookshelves were several feet higher than regulation dictated. On top of which, the necessary absence of the cleaning staff meant that the place was overrun with cobwebs and covered in dust, which only added to the ominous room’s uneasy presence.

Even with her newly mastered light spell to help give some extra illumination should she need it, Cadance felt uneasy just standing next to the special librarian, next to the forbidden wing’s entrance. “Excuse me, um...Crossword, was it?” she asked rhetorically. “I’m looking for some books.”

“Eh?” the old unicorn mare said as she looked up from the book on her desk and adjusted her thick glasses as she looked to the empty space to Cadance’s left. “What was that dear?”

The pink alicorn cleared her throat to get the old mare’s attention. “I’m Princess Cadance. I’m here to look for a book concerning Equestria’s hidden history,” she said while thinking back to what Sunset had talked about the night before. “It’s um...well, it has to do with crystals. Maybe a...crystal castle?”

Crossword nodded her head. “Alright,” she said before taking off her glasses and stepping away from her desk. “Let me just fire up my old divining spell. The word was, crystal you said? Topic or title?”

“Um...let’s go with title,” Cadance said in response to the odd question before she looked over to the mare’s glasses that she was leaving behind. “Excuse me, but won’t you be needing your glasses?”

“Eh?” the old mare replied as she addressed the marble column Cadance was standing next to. “Whatever for?”

Glad the old bat couldn’t actually see her, Cadance rolled her eyes at the question. “So you can read the titles of the books I need to find.”

“Eh? Hahahaha,” the old mare laughed. “Oh girly, I’m not allowed to read the books. I just find them!” Then, the light above her horn increased in intensity and she started walking slowly into the dark room. “Come along then!”

Cadance blinked at the old mare, and wondered if her placement was due to Princess Celestia’s inability to let the palace staff go, or just some weird joke the young alicorn couldn’t quite understand. But, she followed Crossword into the room, creating her own light as she did so. Despite the foolishness of the endeavor, the princess wasn’t about to just let an old blind mare wander around in such a dangerous place. Cadance could simply guide her through the aisles, and look for what she needed on her own.

As she walked through the room, the pink princess couldn’t help but look at some of the titles as she tried to find some organization to a rather chaotic mess of books and manuscripts. Some of which were even laying against the racks with their front covers on display.

The Book of Counted Shadows, she read to herself.

Glue Production, and You...Okay, ew.

How to Summon the Dreaded...Bushwoolie? What’s that?

Then, Cadance saw a rather disturbing book that looked to be made of a pony’s coat placed so that all could see what looked like a screaming face on the cover.

“Ah! There it is!” the old mare cried out. “Hmmm, seems there’s two books that met your requirements.”

Cadance frowned. “There’s only two books in the whole library with crystals in the title?”

The old mare turned around and looked at the bookshelf to Cadance’s right. “Crystals? I thought you said Crystal! The es changes everything!”

“Oh,” Cadance replied before looking over to the books the librarian had pulled out. The History of the Crystal Empire, she read to herself before moving to the next one. The Magic of the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart. While the crystal palace depicted on the first one drew Cadance’s attention, it was the heart-shaped crystal on the cover of the second that made the alicorn draw a short breath. The object depicted looked almost exactly like her cutie mark.

“On second thought, these are what I’m looking for,” Cadance said before taking the old tomes in her hooves and placing each one under a different wing. “Thank you very much.”

After leading the old mare back to her desk, Cadance checked the clock at the main entrance to the library to see it was almost time for her magic lesson from Celestia.

Although, Cadance doubted they would get very far with all the questions that were just waiting to be asked. While she knew she needed to let Sunset tell her mother about the mirror herself when she was ready, the pink princess’s curiosity had been sparked when Sunset talked about a place that wasn’t mentioned in any reading material that the school had or known by the academy’s history department head either.

Of course, there was also the matter of that odious mare Cinch that Cadance was hoping to at least get some advice about, if not an outright removal of once she explained to her adoptive aunt what was going on at the school. Just thinking about how that mare was letting Shiny get bullied because the one doing the bullying was an athlete made Cadance furious!

Once she got to the entrance to Celestia’s private chambers, with the sun emblazed door, Cadance forced herself to calm down and knocked on the entrance with her hoof.

“Come in,” Celestia called from behind the closed doors.

As had been the case for the past couple of days, the main room of Celestia’s apartment was covered in mail from numerous important ponies from all over Equestria, maps of the palace that detailed a new security arrangement, and plans for an upcoming banquet. All of which revolved around Sunset Shimmer’s upcoming coronation. Although most of it was very familiar, the extra security precautions were something she hadn’t seen when the planning for her her own ceremony took place.

At the center of the organized chaos, Princess Celestia looked up from the large and somewhat out of place table that stood on a thick golden rug that was stylized with a solar cutie mark. “Ah Cadance, is it time for your magic lessons already?”

“I may be a little early,” the pink alicorn said as she looked up at the clock to see that she was right on time. But, there was no need to point out that Celestia had gotten wrapped up in her plans for Sunset...again. “Um...Auntie, wouldn’t your office be a better place to handle this sort of thing?” She gestured to the mass of letter, maps, and various other written plans Celestia was going over.

The white alicorn shook her head. “Unfortunately no. I have an open door policy when it comes to my office, so anypony with an emergency can come to me for help if the situation demands it,” she explained. “But by time spent in here is my time. So nopony is just going to be able to stroll in and glance at things I’d rather keep under wraps for the moment.”

A second later, Celestia’s horn lit up and her magic gathered all of the clutter before folding up the maps and putting everything away in a blue trunk next to the fireplace before the princess placed a seal on the square chest. Then, she turned back to face Cadance. “Now, did you look over those enchantments I assigned you the day before?”

“Actually Auntie, I found something in the library that caught my attention,” the pink alicorn said before she approached Celestia’s table and set down the pair of books she had procured from the library just moments ago.

Celestia’s demeanor changed from warm and nurturing to cautious in an instant. “Those are from the library’s restricted section,” she said before looking over to Cadance with an even expression. “How did you even know to look for them?”

The fact that it felt as if she were a foal being talked to by a somewhat disturbed mother made Cadance slightly uneasy. “Sunset mentioned something about a crystal palace in one of her stories, and I just wanted to see if there was anything like what she mentioned in Equestria.”

And the fact that this Crystal Empire place did exist...somewhere added a bit of weight to Sunset’s story about her traveling through time. Something Cadance had been hoping to disprove to put her at ease. But now, she was starting to think that it was Sunset that had the right idea about the way things were.

“Cadance,” Celestia said with a sigh before looking up to fix a little glare on the smaller alicorn. “I thought I told you to stop talking about such things with her. Sunset needs to concentrate on Equestria not some other world with those...hugh-mane creatures. She has responsibilities here that require her full attention.”

“What responsibilities?” Cadance asked before she could stop herself. Sunset wouldn’t even be crowned until the end of the month at the least. How could she have royal responsibilities before getting her crown?

After looking at the smaller alicorn for a moment, Princess Celestia’s horn lit up before her magic fetched a letter off the top of a nearby bookshelf. “Griffinstone is sending a new ambassador, a Mr. Gruff along with his granddaughter to Equestria in order to discuss the city-state’s continued presence in the Equestrian Games,” she explained before putting the letter back where it had been and continuing on in a private grumble. “Which is apparently going to be held in Cloudsdale this year. And my critics wonder why I have to micromanage Equestria so much.”

Cadance frowned at that bit of news. “Wait...how is that happening?” she asked. “Two-thirds of the population won't even be able to attend!”

“Apparently, the council that decided the location thought it was time to finally give Cloudsdale the honor of hosting the Games without even thinking of the attendance problems,” Celestia explained. “I would have stopped it, but I became a bit...preoccupied with Sunset’s condition. By the time everything had settled down and I checked up on the work that had piled up, everything was already stamped. Although I could step in and put a halt to the preparations, doing so now would be...problematic. Instead, I suppose we shall just have to make do. Perhaps build an colosseum on the ground that Cloudsdale could use, or have the events in another city with the proper facilities while Cloudsdale flies overhead.”

While the latter suggestion seemed like a bit of a cop-out, Cadance nodded in agreement. It wouldn’t be right for Celestia to swoop in and take away the honor of hosting the Equestria Games after everything had been set up.

It was only then that the pink alicorn noticed that she had been completely side-tracked. “Hey wait a second! You still haven’t told me about this Crystal Empire!” Cadance said to her adoptive aunt.

Celestia looked back to the pair of books Cadance had brought with her, and sighed. “Very well,” she said. “The reason you haven’t heard about the Crystal Empire is because it vanished nearly one-thousand years ago thanks to the actions of a self-obsessed child that decided to murder its ruler and enslave an entire sub-tribe of ponies in an attempt to free one of the greatest darknesses that this world has ever known! My sister and I stopped him, but a contingency he put in place removed the Empire from Equestria as well.”

The anger on Celestia’s face made Cadance lower her head. She understood the emotional outburst. It must have been hard for the princess to talk about something like that. The pink alicorn couldn’t help but wonder how many of those ponies had been friends of Celestia.

But, she could offer Celestia some hope. The pink alicorn looked back up to her mentor. “But...Sunset said that when she came back, she was in the Crystal Empire,” Cadance told her. “If she really has traveled through time, then that means all those ponies will return one day!”

“I am well aware of Sunset’s stories,” Celestia told Cadance evenly. “And the Empire was banished, not destroyed. Something banished does not stay gone forever. But that does not mean what she saw was real, or even destined to happen.”

Cadance pointed to the book depicting the Crystal Heart, her anger at Celestia’s refusal to even consider another possibility despite the ample evidence growing by the second. “Then why does this thing have my cutie mark on its cover?” she demanded harshly. “Sunset said I was the ruler of the Crystal Empire when she returned to Equestria! If that wasn’t the future, then why is the symbol for an entire nation on my flank?”

For a second, Celestia just stared at Cadance, and the pink alicorn thought she might have overstepped her bounds. However, her fears were quickly quashed a second later when the bigger alicorn let out a tiny laugh. “Well, it looks like your new friend is rubbing off on you a bit,” she replied before giving Cadance an understanding smile. “And your cutie mark could be explained by a number of ways. It could be that you are a descendant of the Crystal Empire’s royalty, the name Amore was one they liked to pass down through their family. But if you’d like another explanation, perhaps your talents lay in crystal magic. Something that I haven’t had much success with aside from of their more basic love spells apart from using the emotion as a focus for my magic. Spells I have been teaching you.”

Both were perfectly logical explanations, Cadance had to admit. Even if she did feel like acknowledging them was a betrayal of Sunset’s trust in her. “I suppose...that makes more sense than some ancient empire that I’m destined to rule over and protect in the next three years despite having no political or magical experience.”

Celestia's expression became somewhat uneasy. “Of course, there is the possibility that the Crystal Empire will return in three years, and you will be its ruler,” she said without meeting Cadance’s eyes.

“Wait,” Cadance said as she frowned. “I thought said you didn’t believe her.”

The question seemed to make Celestia even more uneasy, and she glanced towards her bedroom door for a second as if looking for a way out before looking back at Cadance. “Tell me something Cadance. If you had to decide between a reality where the pony you love the most in this world suffered a crippling injury, three years worth of guilt for actions born of pain and loneliness, and the thought that you cast her out followed by her having to abandon her best friends, or a reality where everything that happened was merely a bad dream….which of the two would you pick?” the princess told Cadance before her voice hardened. “You saw what Sunset was like when she awoke, the pain she carried in her heart. I will not let my daughter drown in a sea of regret for something that was not her fault. So, what she experienced was a bad dream, and nothing more. And I will hear no more arguments on the subject!”

Cadance lowered her ears at the...finality in Celestia’s voice. “Yes, Princess Celestia.”

“Now,” the bigger alicorn said before she took a deep breath and let out a long exhale. “Let us put this behind us, and continue with your lessons. Although, considering that picture on your plot, perhaps we should explore more than just the basics of emotional magic.”

Still a little uneasy over their last topic, Cadence approached the book with the Crystal Heart on the cover cautiously. “What’s the difference?” she  asked. If what Celestia was trying to teach her was made with the Crystal Empire’s magic as the source, then Cadance didn’t see how the less-evolved magic would be better.

Princess Celestia became thoughtful for a few moments. “Well, the Crystal Empire’s magic is a bit more broad. They have spells to bring out love and project it like I was going to show you, but there are also several magics relating to the production and manipulation of crystals as well,” she explained. “But I don’t see what good that would do you unless you want to throw around sharp objects made of shiny rocks with mystical energy channeling properties.”

Cadance blinked as her mind conjured up a pair of images.

In one, she thought of her future if she were to just learn about love magic…
“Take this changeling!” Cadance shouted before firing a pink energy beam at the bug-pony that had come to devour her, only to have the monster open it’s mouth before gulping the magic down, growing fat on her power before countering with a spell that encased Cadance in a cocoon.

In the other, she thought of her future if she were to learn about the magic Celestia had mentioned…
“Take this changeling!” Cadance shouted before performing an amazing act of prestidigitation and using her magic to created a giant multi-colored fly swatter that promptly crushed the bug-pony that had come to eat her.

With the two paths before her properly considered, Cadance gave the bigger princess a look of determination. “I’ll take the shiny rock magic.” Being able to hand out love like it was candy and bring ponies happiness might have been tempting, but with such a threat to Equestria waiting in the winds, Cadance needed to be able to protect herself and her friends.

It was only in the final minutes of her lesson that the pink princess realized that she had forgot to ask her mentor for her intervention in the matter regarding Principal Cinch. But, Cadance consoled herself with the fact that it was probably better if she waited until dinner to bring that issue up. Sunset would probably want to hear about it as well.

And it would be good if Princess Celestia was there to help hold her down when the amber alicorn blew her top.