The Phoenix Tear

by CartoonNerd12

Chapter 6

The skies started to get cloudy and Twilight took this to notice, Uh-oh. I forgot from the pegasus' weather schedule that it was suppose to rain today! Better seek shelter. I'm too far from the castle! But Donut Joe's shop is not far from here. I bet I could stay there until the shower stops.

She immediately rushed over.

"Oh, no!" Rainbow shouted when she and Soarin' met with the search party that was still looking for Twilight. "We have to get inside! The weather ponies have gathered the rain clouds to pour!"

"But we can't just give up the search!" protested Rarity. "Twilight is in distress!"

"We won't be able to help her if we got rained on!" Applejack proclaimed. "We'll just have to wait until the rain stops and then we can go look for her again!"

"Oh, I hope she's okay…" said Fluttershy.

Flash went up to her, "You and me both…"

They quickly went back to the castle.

Donut Joe looked up in the sky and declared, "Well, time to bring these in." He took his tray and started heading inside. He saw Sunset was still standing there and asked, "Aren't you coming in?"

"Not to sound rude, but why?"

He pointed up to the clouds gathering, "Why? So you don't get rained on."

"Oh, in that case…" she followed after him, looked around his shop, and decided to take a seat at the counter.

Donut Joe had to bring in his stand of the free donuts he was giving away. When a cloaked figure approached him, he recognized who it was, "Oh, Your High-" He was shushed by her hoof. He gave a confused look.

She explained, "I don't want to be noticed at the moment, so please, Joe… Treat me as you would any customer." she removed her hoof.

"Okay, but I should let you know that I treat my customers as if they were royalty."

"That's very good." She went inside with Joe closing the door behind them.

She took a seat at the counter while sitting next to another mare wearing a blue cloak that matched hers.

Joe told them, "I could take your cloaks for you, ladies."

Twilight frantically shook her head.

"No thanks." spoke the mare.

Joe just shrugged and asked, "Can I get you girls a hot chocolate then?"

"That's fine." said Twilight. "Thank you."

"Sure, thank you."

"Two hot chocolates coming up!" he went to the back and the sound of the hot chocolate pouring from the machine could be heard. He came back carrying the two hot cocoas with his magic and placed them before the girls. "There you are."

Sunset looked at her hot chocolate to see the plain whipped cream spread on top, "Um, if it's not too much trouble, but do you think I can have cinnamon on my whipped cream?"

Twilight looked at her with wide eyes and said, "You like cinnamon on your hot chocolate?"

"Yeah…? Is that bad?" Sunset was afraid to ask.

"No! In fact, I like cinnamon on my hot chocolate, too!"

"Really?!"

Twilight nodded her head.

Donut Joe knew then that was his cue to sprinkle cinnamon on the girls' drinks. They took a sip and they both said, "Ah…"

Twilight pointed out, "I don't know why most ponies don't like cinnamon on their cocoa. It's really tasty."

"I know, just like my peanut butter and daisy sandwiches. My friends never touch it."

"You're kidding… I eat peanut butter and daisy sandwiches, too!"

"No way!"

"It's true! My sisters refuse to eat it with me!"

Soon, the two mares got up in a conversation about other different food combos that ponies wouldn't consider eating. That topic led up to talking about knowledge from studying magic.

"…Everypony seems to forget just how important Star Swirl the Bearded really was." Twilight mentioned.

"I know. I've read everything about him in Obscure Unicorn History. He created more than two hundred spells, was the father of the amniomorphic spell, and was the most important conjuror of the pre-classical era."

"Thank you! Yes! Exactly!" Then she asked, "How long have you studied magic?"

"Around when I was five and starting to learn to read. My… guardian would educate me and leave me in the library to read books I picked for myself."

"You must have a large library for you to be so knowledgeable of magic spells and incantations."

"We do. I grew up in a manor where my guardian lives. It's nearby the woods where she found me…"

"Found you?"

"I was abandoned," she stated while taking a sip from her cocoa and set the mug down with a clang.

Twilight hung her head, "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I never knew my parents, so it's no biggie."

"Still… I would think it would be hard for any parent to give their child up…" she thought of her own children and how she could never bear the idea of giving them up. "Being a mother myself, I couldn't do that…"

"But… what if you had no choice, and that you find that you couldn't take care of them?" Sunset questioned, "What would you do then?"

"Well… I would try to find my children a good place to live in. A place where they would be well-taken cared of… I would give them their best chance."

"The problem with me is that I don't know if my parents were giving me the best chance I could get or the actual fact that they really did abandon me in those woods…"

Twilight touched Sunset's shoulder in comfort, to which Sunset gave a small smile in return and said, "Look at us: here I am opening up about my past and I don't even know your name."

"Oh," Twilight went pink, "it's not important."

"At least let me introduce myself. I'm Sunset Shimmer." she held out her hoof.

"I'm…" Twilight extended her hoof to shake and quickly looked around to see if they were completely alone, with the exception of Donut Joe. "Twilight Sparkle."

"Twilight Sparkle…? Wait… that's the same name as the princess! But that would mean…" her eyes widened and quickly bowed her head, "Your Highness! Forgive me for not-"

Twilight waved her hooves, trying to reassure her, "It's okay! It's okay! I'm undercover anyway! So please, none of that and I want you to call me Twilight."

"Twilight? Are you sure?"

"Very sure. I believe I can confide in you, Sunset Shimmer. We can become good friends."

"Friends?"

She smiled and took Sunset's hooves, "Friends…"

Soon afterwards, it was like they resumed the conversation they were having before knowing each other's names. Twilight had finished telling Sunset about her worries back at the palace.

"…And I can't tell them how I feel because they'll just reassure me that I'll be a good ruler no matter what and that doesn't help at all!"

"Whoa…"

Twilight sighed and took a sip from her coca before it met the counter with a clink.

Donut Joe gave an uncertain look and saw through the see-through glass door. He quickly went from the counter and exclaimed, "Oh, would you look at that! The rain stopped! Looks like I can set up my stand again to give rid of these extra donuts!" he awkwardly told them and nervously chuckled when he went out.

"Well," Sunset got up, "I better find a hotel to stay in."

"How long are you staying?" Twilight asked with hope in her eyes.

"Three days," she replied. "Although I already spent a day here, I'll be here for a couple more days."

"Hmm…" Twilight thought deeply and with a wide grin spread across her face, she said, "Hey, why don't you stay me at the castle?"

"What?!" Sunset gasped. "The castle? Are you serious?!"

Twilight beamed, "Very serious." Then, she had a serious face on, "Please, Sunset… I feel you're the only one I can talk to at this moment… Between queen lessons and hanging out with my family, I'm being constantly reminded of what a great honor I was given and how I deserved it. You're the only pony I've known who's treated me like any other pony, with the exception of you bowing once you found out who I really was. But before that, you just thought of me as any pony and it was so refreshing from what I'm used to hearing all the time. So, please, won't you come back to the castle with me?" she pleaded with big eyes.

Sunset gave a smile, "Well… when you put it that way, how can I say 'no'?" The next thing she knew, Twilight wrapped her hooves around her into a hug.

The both of them suddenly had a strange feeling, as if they felt it once before. They slowly parted from each other and looked at each other oddly. But then they shook out of it, figuring it was probably nothing for them to be concerned about.

Twilight put her hood up, "Let's go."

Sunset did the same thing and followed after her.

Comments

[Ugly-Duckling123]

Oooo.... i can't wait to see how Celestia and Sombra (and technically everyone else) are going to react when they meet Sunset

Now that's got me wondering... What if, instead of celabrating Twilight's birthday, the lanterns are released to show / lure Sunset back home?

Humm...

[SageBrony07]

This great. I can't wait to read the next chapter. Good luck with the next part. Thanks for the update.

[Stardom Freedom]

I have a feeling that Twilight and Sunset are sisters and that Celestia and Sombra abandoned her! I can't wait to see their reaction!

(I put my comment in the spoiler tags because I don't know if I'm right or not)

[iluvderpymuffins]

So many once upon a time references. Cinnamon cocoa and best chances? Classic!