“Please take care of Twilight Sparkle as her Senior, Sunset Shimmer. You are my treasured students together, from this day forth.”
Celestia’s eyes were liquid light, far above little Twilight’s head. Her voice was warm gold; High Queen, Best-beloved Schoolteacher. And she had hoof-picked a plain, bookish filly, from all the world–her protégé, at Equestria’s paramount school for unicorns! Twilight had loved her at first sight, and rejoiced.
When Sunset Shimmer trotted onto the carpet before Celestia’s throne, she loved her and despaired.
“Um…” Twilight fiddled with her spectacles, “Hello, Miss Shimmer.”
“Call me Sunset.” Her grin flashed, too bright, “I hear you’re quite the grade-skipping wunderkind. Some competition will be most refreshing.”
Sunset Shimmer had three years on Twilight; she was beautiful. From her stunning mane, through the unquenchably cocksure curve of her lip, to the royal sun sat proud on her flank, she appeared flawless. Heroine of her life’s adventure story. All a Princess’s protégé should be.
Feeling drab and misplaced as she was certain she seemed, Twilight trembled. Until the Princess laid a hoof on her shoulder and her horn on Sunset’s.
“My little ponies, I see sparks of greatness in you both. I expect you to support each other in your studies. And I truly hope that you will grow
to be friends.”
“As you say, Princess,” Sunset murmured, with lowered eyes, “I will take care of Twilight Sparkle. And protect her, as best I can.” Celestia raised an eyebrow. Sunset’s voice was smooth as chocolate, “I’m sure you’re aware, Highness–the position of royal student can attract the ugliest jealousy.”
Merely entering the School for Gifted Unicorns had terrified Twilight, despite her nights of labour to that end. Being named student to the Sun Princess, rival to Sunset Shimmer, might have paralysed her. But her fears fled from Celestia’s smile like shadows at dawn, and all her dreams revived.
This was the place to attain spectacular powers, and knowledge. The place she was meant to be. She had never missed a meal in her life, except to read, but she had thirsted for truth since opening eyes upon the world.
And someday, sure as summer solstice sunrise, her knowledge would help other ponies. She might never have inspiring charisma, or beauty, or friends, but she would do some good in the world. Her Princess had chosen her.
-0-
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Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns was dispersed between the west annex of the palace, and several buildings in the grounds. Golden spires shone white in the sunshine, while gentle streams wound between gardens and fresh-smelling lawns. The Canterlot Observatory and the science labs were both state-of-the-art and worn by constant use. The library and national archives (Twilight stifled an ecstatic gibber) were about as big as the rest of the school. It staggered her to imagine how many brilliant unicorns, from Starswirl down, had set hoof on the very paths where she and Sunset walked now.
Unicorn students were out with their lunches, ambling around the astrologically ornamented fountains. As Sunset trotted past and over a delicate bridge, tail swishing like a glamour model, heads turned and notice was taken. Twilight followed slightly behind, hugging a book with her foreleg.
“You’ll have a day's weekly lesson with the Princess,” Sunset was telling her, “The same as me, and we’ll share a weekly meeting. She has other calls on her time, you understand, like running the greatest kingdom in the world. But so long as dragons haven't raided the Griffon Lands or something, she never misses a week. You’ll need two more days to complete Celestia’s assignments, leaving five days for normal lessons with the herd.”
“Um, that’s an eight day week.”
“That’s what royal students need, Missy. Will you room in the dorms? You should. I mean to get to know you, and ponies might think you, ah, less than committed if you didn’t board. Capisce?” Confused by Sunset's aggressively pleasant tone, Twilight hadn’t the breath in her throat to reply. Condescendingly, Sunset flicked her tail, “I suppose all this has rather overwhelmed you. The Princess is quite something, isn’t she?”
Twilight nodded hard; amazed at Sunset’s insight, missing the slight edge in her voice.
“Mmm, she’s astounding! The greatest pony in Equestria! At my first Summer Sun Celebration, when saw Princess Celestia raise the sun, that was the moment I knew I wanted–”
“–to be a Princess?”
Sunset’s voice was quite light, much like the rush of heat from a furnace. The few students passing in earshot fell silent. Their bearing was respectful towards Sunset, Twilight realised, but not comfortable. Almost fearful–the same chill in every eye–but what for?
“Ah, oh no! I’m terrible at dealing with ponies, I could never be so great…I just want to learn the most amazing techniques that I can, Miss Sunset.”
Sunset finally threw back her magnificent head to look directly at Twilight. The little filly had read about coal veins that took fire, and burnt with eternal flame. But she had never seen eyes that burnt with the single passion of a heart.
“Is that so? When I first came to this school, Celestia’s one and only pupil, I wanted more. To be more than any Pony alive; all I could be, and more than that. I’ve taken my knocks, since then–” In Sunset’s eyes, a shadow flickered. “–worse knocks than seeing a bright little filly standing in my old horseshoes. And I will not give up my destiny, while this Mark stands on my skin.”
“W-what destiny?” Twilight stared at the blazing sun on her Senior’s shapely rump, “You want to…stand with Celestia? Even–?” Sunset tapped Twilight’s chin with her polished hoof.
“You didn’t think our marvellous ruler was training students for fun, did you? I will be a Princess. I’m sure you were the smartest pony in your old school, Twilight Sparkle. But you will not be the smartest here. I will support you, all you need–and you will need it–but you must never hold me back. And never give up on your destiny, if you mean to study at my side.”
Twilight gazed into Sunset’s eyes; the burning world where fear and failure could not be. A thousand visions of disgrace and disappointment beset her, for the thousandth time.
The greatest school in Equestria; the toughest course, the highest mountain. She had a gift, but there would be no limit to its testing. And if a pony so loved, taught and nurtured as she had been failed at last, how worthless would that pony be!
Twilight held Sunset’s gaze like a liferope. When she spoke, her voice was small and firm.
“I don’t know about destiny, and I can’t imagine being a Princess. All I can do right now is study. But I will study as Princess Celestia’s student, with all my heart!”
“Perhaps we should have a study date sometime, Twilight Sparkle,” Sunset’s smile was hard to define, “Perhaps we will get on after all.”
-0-
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That evening, Twilight Sparkle parted with tears from her parents, brother and Smarty Pants doll, to move into the dorms. With four-posters and weighty red drapes, they were probably the most extravagant dormitories in Equestria. But the bigger girls lounging about like sleeping lions did not leave her long unmolested.
“Hi there! Are you Twilight Sparkle? Celestia’s new student?” Green unicorn. Bouncing, grinning, lyre Cutie Mark–
“Do your parents really publish the Daring Doo books?” Yellow filly, mane cerulean. Hearts on flank, heart on sleeve–
“How did you hatch that dragon egg?” Blue, stripes. Responsible, smiling, hourglass–
“Could you tell the Princess–?”
“Can you help me meet A.K. Yearling?”
“Can we be friends–?”
A single new pony could swamp Twilight’s analytical mind with data. Facing a crowd of unrestrained fillies, she lasted under a minute.
As Twilight backed into the hallway and made for the stairs, a barrage of power chords burst through another door. With a little shriek, she almost took the stairs rump-first.
“Are you okay?” Lyra, the green unicorn, had followed her, “That’s just Sunset Shimmer. Seniors get their own rooms, you know, and, well, she plays guitar. She has top grades in everything, and loads of sports trophies. The perfect student, apart from last year, and that thing with the mirror.”
"What's that?"
"Well, she vanished for six months, and there was this rumour about a magic mirror. Nopony knows what it means, but she must’ve clashed with the Princess, or done something wrong. She can be a bit 'out there', you know, but she’s an amazing pony..."
Twilight didn't tarry longer. The only thing that frustrated her more than scheduling conflicts was insubstantial gossip. Sunset’s guitar disturbed her as well; it was technically superb, but sounded more like savage battle than a song.
Twilight was still flustered when she reached the library. It took hours of rememorizing The Gift Explained, History of Unicorns and Basic Techniques of the Gift (textbooks she had memorised weeks before her entry exam), before she recalled that she was a personal student of Princess Celestia at PCSGU. Everything was going to be fine.
With a short bedtime prayer to Lualus, the Divine Alicorn (which she wouldn’t have dared to say in front of the dormitory), she laid her head down on the desk. Tired enough to sleep anywhere. Too tired to worry longer about studies, other ponies, or Sunset Shimmer.
-0-
-0-
Twilight woke, with a book nudging her foreleg. She shook her head, squinted through the darkness. The book was floating; more volumes sailed off the library’s towering shelves as she watched. With a little chuckle, she opened one, and found she had lost the ability to read.
Pages covered in letters–words in Equestrian–but it might as well have been Yakistani. Her brain could not produce a single meaning, strain as she might. She started to groan, then to scream. Now the book flew from her desk–another thrust against her face, but she couldn’t read a single one. And from the world outside what had been her safe-haven of solitude, somepony was laughing.
Panting sour air, Twilight flailed with both hooves for a book. Any book. Then the book clamping its jaws on her neck. She fought like an animal to tear it away. A mindless, worthless animal, as blue smoke poured in around her, and Sunset Shimmer's laughter rang in her ears…
-0-
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“Twilight! Twilight? It’s okay.”
Twilight woke up gasping–it was scary, but at last her breaths slowed. Once she had replaced her glasses she found herself staring at Sunset, who very nearly looked shaken.
“How..ugh…why?”
“Everypony in school stays up until midnight, first night back. I heard you’d gone out, guessed you’d be here; thought I’d mention sleeping on a desk is bad for the skin and the brain. I didn’t expect to find you thrashing about like a colic case.”
“It was a nightmare. Excuse me.” Twilight tried to rise. Sunset held her, "Please, let me go!"
"Take a minute. You should be careful. And if you have Nightsickness, you should get help."
Nightsickness. An uncommon disorder, endemic to Equestria. The lightest cases might go unnoticed. Chronic patients eked out their days between leaden insomnia and the terrors of sleep, generally without leaving their homes again. Apart from drugs scarcely less debilitating than the sickness, no cure had been found in almost a thousand years.
“N-no, I don't!" Twilight stammered, "I mean, I’ve never had nightmares like that before! I’m going to put my heart into my studies with the Princess. I told you that already!”
"It sounds like you will be alright," Sunset smiled and stepped away, "Just tell somepony if it happens again. And please sleep in the dorms. The Princess did tell me to look after you."
At first Twilight had flinched from Sunset's eyes, but now she looked. They weren’t like big brother’s kind eyes, for her scrapes and cuts, that made her cosy inside and safe. Sunset’s eyes were unyielding and strong, with a heart that shared its strength. Twilight’s fears vanished, as at Celestia’s touch, as Sunset’s smile stirred her heart. She couldn’t imagine a fear that wouldn’t.
Before Twilight walked back to the dorms with Sunset, her nightmare terror had vanished. But she was still pondering, a week later; why had she dreamt of Sunset laughing at her? Was she so weak she deserved that?
For the next few weeks, she made no move to spend time with Sunset. She wondered if she were nervous of such strength. She knew she was not at school to explore the terra incognita of Other Ponies, but to work. Into the small hours, every night in the library, because she wished never to see that nightmare again.
And she wished that her throat would stop aching so.
-0-
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After escorting Twilight to her bed, Sunset went straight to Celestia. The Princess who moved Sun, Moon and stars needed but little sleep. She was seated on a veranda outside her throne room, silently gazing towards the Moon. Her mane floated like an aurora on the cold night air.
In the formal, punctilious manner that Sunset often assumed when alone with Celestia, she sat and told what had occurred.
“…I can’t believe it was an ordinary nightmare, Princess. She recovered fast enough, but I thought for a minute she’d lost her mind.”
“And our little Twilight has no history of Nightsickness.” Celestia nodded solemnly, “I will ensure that all is well with her. Thank you, Sunset, for voicing such concern.”
"Forgive me, Princess…but I am concerned. I hear Twilight Sparkle dangerously Surged in her entrance exam. Then she ends up in this state, before term even starts! Are you sure about her?”
Only a shadow of latent power touched Celestia’s voice, but it pinned Sunset’s ears against her head.
“Twilight Sparkle is the student I chose. She means no less to me than you, Sunset Shimmer. And both you and she still have much to learn.”
“I don’t doubt it, Princess. I know she’s smart as anything, and, ah, touchingly keen. But under this pressure, are you sure she’ll survive? I know…I didn’t.”
Now Celestia shut her eyes, as her crowned head fell to her chest. Her voice was low, golden and insistent.
“You survived, Sunset. You stand before me, with every wrong you have done consigned to the past. Twilight Sparkle will survive, because you will be with her. Be strong, wherever her strength may fail. And if you continue to do right, from an earnest, humble heart, you will attain a most wonderful destiny.”
Sunset raised her head, earnest to the edge of defiance.
“I understand, Princess. I will. While I am still your student, I will do all you ask.”
“Sunset! You are my treasured student…I had hoped you simply came here to view the Moon beside me. It is most clear tonight. Would you care to stay?”
“Thank you, Princess, but sorry. I don’t feel I can sit still, right now.”
“I understand. Goodnight, Sunset.”
Celestia watched Sunset walk away. Then her gaze turned back to the sky, and the shadowy face stretched over the moon.
Nightmare Moon. The black Alicorn had power over dreams, even across the gulf of space. She had quickly found it impossible to poison Equestria’s ponies against their beloved Princess through nightmares. Love was stronger than fear, in the end. So she had nursed her malice through the years of exile, by torturing the weakest ponies at their weakest spots through her nightmare plague.
“Did you hurt Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon?” Celestia’s whisper was a bolt to pierce the heavens, “She is too strong for you, just like Sunset. You will not harm my students. And soon, my sister, soon…two dear friends will take up the Elements again. As we saved all Equestria, they will truly save you.”