The Letter
Sunset waved to her friends as they left their last class of the day. Her locker was on the other side of the school, so she told them she'd meet up with them again in a few minutes.
When she got there, she found someone she'd never thought she'd see for a while leaning against her locker in a purple hoodie.
Confused, Sunset ran up to her. "Twilight? What are you doing here?" She asked, alarmed. "Did something happen in Equestria?! Are you hurt?!" She said, lifting up the purple haired girl's arms and checking her face for bruises.
Twilight chuckled. "No, no! Everything's fine for once!" She said, smiling brightly. "I said I would come back, remember?" She reminded the other girl.
"Yeah but...it's been six months. What have you been up to? And why the sudden visit? I would have thought you would have sent me a message in the book before coming like this. I couldn't help but assume the worst." Sunset's eyebrows furrowed. "Why the surprise?"
Twilight smile grew brighter. "Well...In order for you to find out, you have to meet me at Sugarcube Corner at eight." She told her cryptically. “And sorry for such short notice, it kind of just happened so unexpectedly.”
"Oh, alright! I'll go tell the girls!" Sunset gushed, throwing her books down and turning around to fetch the rest of the humane six. "They won't belie-"
"A-Actually..." Twilight cut her off sheepishly.
Sunset turned on her heel and looked back at her questioningly.
"I'd prefer if it was just us." The Princess confessed. "You know, Equestrian to Equestrian.”
Sunset was still a little perplexed, but agreed. “Alright. I’ll see you then.” She said, opening her locker and getting her bag out. By the time she had closed it again, Twilight was gone. Shrugging, Sunset slung her back on her shoulder and walked down the hall.
Realizing she left her friends waiting for her, she ran out the front doors to find them all leaning against the statue at the front entrance. She quickly strode up to them. “Sorry, sorry!” She pleaded. “I had to....uh, talk to someone, and I completely forgot we were walking home together!”
“Took ya long enough! I was almost done convincing Applejack that we should leave you!” Rainbow Dash said, bouncing her soccer ball on her knees.
Applejack smacked her in the back of her head. “Yeah, that’s really loyal considerin’ yer supposed to be the Element of Loyalty.” She ducked as the soccer ball came flying at her head. “Hey! Watch where yer aimin’ that thing!” She yelled at the athlete.
“Who was it that you had to talk to, dear?” Rarity asked. “I hope it wasn’t any of the other students giving you trouble.” She worried. Even though she and the rest of the girls had practically saved the world, a lot of people’s opinions about Sunset hadn’t changed. The dirty looks she got did lessen, but the hostile atmosphere she received when she entered a room was still there.
Sunset shook her head. “No, actually, it was someone I was glad to see. Twilight was leaning against my locker and she told me she wanted me to meet her at Sugarcube Corner tonight.”
“Twilight’s here?!” Pinkie bubbled, shoving herself between Sunset and Rarity. “Where?! Where?! Oooh! We have to throw her a welcome back sleepover party!” She exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash smirked. “Aw yeah, count me in! You ready for a rematch, Applejack?” She asked the farm girl, bouncing the soccer ball in her hands off the other girl’s forehead, and laughing when it left a red angry mark on her orange skin.
“Why you little-” Applejack said, as she began to chase the rainbow haired girl around the statue.
“Actually, she kind of said she wants this visit to be a one on one thing. Equestrian to Equestrian. As she put it.” Sunset said, putting a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder to calm her down.
“Really? Why do you think she said that?” Fluttershy asked.
Sunset shrugged, for once not knowing the answer. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out later.” She looked down in discomfort. “Maybe I can ask her why exactly I grew ears and a tail like you guys. Especially since I don’t have a specific element.”
“Yeah, we've been wonderin’ that for some time now too.” Applejack agreed. “Maybe that’s what she came to talk to you about. Probably why she came unannounced too. She might just have an untested theory or something.”
“Thanks Applejack.” Sunset said, smiling at her friend as they began their walk home. Her words reassured her. Though Sunset’s stomach started to do somersaults. She couldn’t wait to see what Twilight had for her.
That night, Sunset shrugged on a hoodie and rode her bike over to Sugarcube Corner. It wasn’t a long ride, since her apartment wasn’t that far, but it felt like forever as her worries got to her. Not having any idea what Twilight wanted to talk to her about was an uneasy feeling, especially considering that the other unicorn turned girl was a Princess.
Her nerves eased a bit when she stepped through the door and she saw Twilight sitting at a booth with a cup of tea. She quickly claimed the seat across from the girl. “Hey,” She spoke, rubbing her hands together. It was an especially chilly night and she had forgotten her gloves at home because of all her fretting.
“I ordered you a cup of tea. I knew you’d be kind of nervous and forget your gloves.” Twilight said, nodding towards Sunset’s shaking hands. She watched as the older girl clamped her hands around the cup and sighed as the warmth engulfed her.
“Thank you,” Sunset breathed. She definitely needed that. “So what is it you needed to talk to me about?” She said after taking a long sip. She noticed Twilight had her hands shoved deep inside her hoodie pockets.
“First, how has everyone been? I’m sorry I haven’t been able to write to you guys in a while. Being a princess has taken up a lot of my time, and finding time to write to you guys is kind of hard. I hope you guys didn’t think I forgot about you all.” Twilight gave Sunset an apologetic look.
Sunset waved off her apology. “Nah, it’s fine Twi. We all understand. A lot has been happening on our end too. Pinkie and Rarity planned the biggest Fall Formal CHS has ever seen, and surprisingly I was nominated Princess. And I won.” She let out a laugh of disbelief.
“Really? You won?!” Twilight asked, leaning over the table. She couldn’t believe it either.
“Yeah, somehow Pinkie had gotten everyone to vote for me. I cried like a total dork. It felt weird too, since the past three times were...you know...” The older girl trailed.
Twilight took her hand and rubbed it comfortingly. “You’ve changed. It’s a good thing.” She assured her.
Sunset smiled back. “Right. Also Pinkie kept begging me to write to you to tell you to come over the summer.”
She sighed happily. “The summer was when we all really bonded. We spent almost every night at Pinkie’s house eating pizza, playing video games and just...talking. It was really fun.”
Twilight couldn’t help but smile. She knew she had came back at the right time. The envelope in her pocket was just itching to come out, and she knew that now was a better time than ever to give Sunset what she had been sent to give her. “Um, Sunset?” She asked, drawing the girl out of her reverie.
“Yeah?” She asked.
“The reason why I told you to meet me tonight was because I have something for you. Something from Princess Celestia.”
Sunset’s eyes bulged. “F-From Princess Celestia?!” She nearly shouted.
Twilight nodded and took it out of her pocket. She slid the crisp, slim, envelope with Celestia’s cutie mark on it across the table to Sunset.
The older of the two tentatively picked it up, as if it were the rarest piece of gold in the world. Tears swelled in her eyes. “Um, is it okay if I open it now?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Twilight fought back tears of her own. “Of course.” She granted.
Sunset carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter inside. As she began to read, tears fell down her face.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
If you are reading this, then that means Twilight saw that you were redeemed enough to receive it. And I’m proud of you. You’ve shown yourself to be a true Element bearer, or at least, from what Twilight has told me. And although we aren’t quite sure what exactly your element is yet, the fact that you have one is proof enough that you have redeemed yourself.
Your time with me has not been forgotten, and you have been completely forgiven for what had transpired between us so long ago. Do not beat yourself up. Twilight has told me of your frustrations, of how others perceive you.
Remember this Sunset: It does not matter how others perceive you. What matters is how you perceive you. Do not hold the opinions of others so highly. You will end up trying to please everyone but yourself.
Twilight has not seen what I have written in this letter, and I would like to keep it that way. Her relationship with me and your relationship with me are completely different.
Since Twilight is now in possession of the book, from now on you are to write to her of all your social endeavours. She is the Princess of Friendship after all, and I’ve decided that she can teach you further on what I couldn’t.
You are always welcomed back in Equestria.
Love, Princess Celestia.
Sunset looked up at Twilight bleary eyed. “S-She really wrote this? She really wrote this for me?” She squeaked, wiping away her tears with her sleeve and sniffling.
Twilight solemnly nodded.
Sunset smiled at her. “She said that I should write to you about all my friendship lessons. Like how you did with her.” She hiccuped. “I hope you’re fine with having me as a student.
Twilight hugged the older girl, her own eyes filled with tears. “Sunset, I’d be glad to teach you about the magic of friendship.”
As the two embraced each other again, a huge six pointed star with six little stars around it shined brightly. And then, a seventh little star flicked into place.
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* transpired
Other'n that, great short.
5181621 thank you. I fixed it. :)
That was fast, wow. I'll definitely have a read this evening after work.
(Artist here who made the cover image :) Fringe on reddit pointed me here - happy to see it.
http://fav.me/d83xy6x for the full-size of the pic, if anyone's interested.
5182105 oh I forgot to put your source, im sorry. Dx
5182113 Ah, no prob. =) I really want to read this now, but docs for the doc-god at work here.
...Is it bad that I shed tears when I was reading this?
Cute, but who's Sunlight?
I dunno.
I want to like this. The cover art provided a pretty fantastic concept to work with. And you provided some nice followup and background for the concept.
But...
For starters, your dialogue punctuation is pretty miserable. On that note, I'd recommend grabbing an editor and giving this story a clean sweep to fix the fairly numerous grammatical errors.
The second issue is that the story felt lacking. It seemed like you were telling us more than you were showing us. And in a story like this, showing has much more impact than telling.
So while I liked where you took the concept and such, the execution wasn't quite there. There's plenty of potential, though.
5182207 its the ship name for Twilight and Sunset. Haha
Element of Trust or Integrity maybe?
so, many, d'aaaawwwwwwsssss!!!!!!
Nice, but at the end, I'd have emphasized the white star behind the pink one in he design, showing the seven stars that were already there, just that one was hard to see. But that said, nice fic, and I'm glad you took the time to put a story to the picture. Not for nothing, but I enjoy those types of stories greatly!
5182792 more like the element of Redemption
5182950 Either Redemption or Forgiveness. But yeah, definitely one of those two.
5182138 Not at all man.
And then suddenly EQG Twilight bursts in through the doors wondering why somebody who looks exactly like her is hugging on someone who looks exactly like her rival EQG Shimmer...
5183119 pffft.
I wish this would become canon!
5183251 Doooo iiiiit, you know you want to......
It kind of looks like Sunset is eating her own hand in the cover art until zoomed in. Anyways good story
5183389 Agreed, yeah. What's even funnier was when my daughter (8) was looking over my shoulder and asking me to turn various layers on/off in Inkscape just to see how it'd affect things. At one point I turned off the left arm, so it was just the cuff in front of her face - that was some serious nightmarefuel, as it looked like some horror movie face, heh.
5183693
Also, I've finally found a good opportunity to read this, and it is indeed very heartwarming. =) I like the invitation at the end, leaving it up to future work here or by the show's staff on whether or how she acts on it. I've toyed with the idea of whether Sunny should actually get an "element". In my mind it would revolve around just how much stake the Tree had/has in the whole system and how flexible its characteristics are.
Not sure if the version I'm reading now incorporates any of csquared's feedback, but I think it flows nicely and does a fair job of setting the scene - but I'm by no means well versed in writing and such. Regardless - hope you take his notes there as critique vs criticism, as it all looks like good advice. ;)
5182950
I'm not buying the mysterious new element thing. It doesn't really make any sense. I get that it's AU, but that would imply that there's always been a 7th element which is confusing. It all breaks down if you new "elements" show up arbitrarily.
The story feels a bit short and abrupt and it seems kind of weird for Celestia to be letting Twilight make determinations about when to give Sunset a letter.
5184033 well how else would have Sunset been able to fight along side them of she didnt have an element? Also Twilight is the princess of friendship. Celestia feels like this sort of thing is int Twilight's jurisdiction, not hers.
Lovely. Really captured the same feeling from the fanart, in my opinion. Thanks for writing this
5184728
To be honest, the whole 'princess of friendship' thing strikes me as kid show BS. It feels to shallow to have much validity as well as a bit like a last minute slap on label. Especially since, unlike Cadence, Twilight doesn't appear have any special "friendship magic".
I guess there's a clash between the message the show is trying to push and the apparent reality that friendship != magic. Neither Tirek, Discord, Sombra, or Trixie needed friendship to make their magic work. My best guess is the elements of harmony require, well, harmony. Sunset is somehow providing/generating harmony or at least acting as a conduit for it in a moment when the others have become disharmonious. You don't need an element to have harmony. The bearers seem to be tied to the elements, but they can't use them if they are personally disharmonious.
5189383 yep.
5182950
hmm that doesn't fell like it fits with the others .Maybe The element of Faith?
This was a great little story. I loved it!
This was a very good friendshipping fic.
Also nothing wrong with more Sunlight. It is a wonderfully fun ship with lots of possibilities to it.
5182950 I'm not sure if that would be Sunset's element, but it could be anything. I hope it isn't the element of Redemption because the element applies to a part of the bearer's personality that is usually there in some way. If she was the element of redemption that would be rather depressing. it would mean she was always trying to redeem herself and thus she would never forgive herself and this would limit her growth with the others eventually. Redemption is different from learning from one's mistakes. Maybe instead she could be the element of experience, wisdom, insight or something. Again I'm not sure.
Personally I think of Sunset as the EQG Element of magic. She just has to learn a lot from the Equestrian element of magic first. I mean there are separate elements for the EQG world. The beaers just happen to be the human versions of Twilight's friends. Sunset would make for a great EQG element of Magic I think. Especially since I highly doubt EQG Twilight could ever be the element of magic. She is way too scientific it seems from the brief shot we had of her after the credits. She would never be able to fully grasp the concept of magic as anything other than fairy tale, even if she saw it used right in front of her. We might find out differently in the third movie or if they ever do make an animated series out of EQG.
Awh!
This was lovely. Great short story. The potential for another few chapters is there.
Maybe you could? Pwease? For your readers? :)
5205515
Concur. Sequel or continuation time!
5186032
Friendship = magic in no way means that ONLY friendship = magic. There are other things that do, but in the end friendship is the best way. Thats what. As for the "New Element" thing, I'll agree, not a big fan.
But if it was to be a thing, I do like the Integrity option put forth by 5182792
5207587
No. Just no. Friendship != magic, it might be "magical" in a qualitative sense but it is not in and of itself magic in the sense of actual power over the universe.
5186032
Interesting. Especially when you consider Sunset's cutie mark resembles the Tao symbol.
Her element is probably the element of forgiveness or something. But now that there are seven elements, what happens when equestria is attacked again and one of them is still on earth?
I would imagine she would be forgiven now. I wonder if this will be addressed in any canon episode or movie yet to come?
5221761 Yeah, they better do something like that in the show.
I wasn't sure about this story right up until Celestia's letter. When I heard Nichole Oliver's voice as I read it, I knew that you were onto something when it comes to characterisation. Well done on this!
Very cute :)
i have a mighty need for more sunset shimmer!
The seventh star that appears here could also be the seventh star that appeared around Twilight's Cutie Mark in Magical Mystery Cure, right?
5399998 yep. foreshadowing
One issue I feel is wording. I can't feel Celestia saying "beat yourself up". I'm sure there's a more elegant way to put that, even for being private and casual.
Everyone must have seconds changes...No matter how evil theiy are
OHMYGOSH! So AWESOME! *Sniffle* 'Scuse me while I go let out tears of joy!
Unghh...
My feels have been chrushed and my heart is hurting from all the feels
Story was just so good
Her element should be the Element of Forgiveness.
Imagine at the finale of one season, we take a shot of Twilight's castle. She enters the Mirror Room and rubs the wonderful machine, hopeing to hear from Sunset. As she touches the machine, some dust rises and causes Twilight to sneeze. Right as she does, you hear Sunset going 'bless you' from the library nearby, scaring the wits out of Twily
So Awesome, Awesome story you made!!
