• Published 29th Sep 2015
  • 40,703 Views, 4,054 Comments

Sunset Reset - LordBrony2040



After the Friendship Games, Sunset Shimmer decided it's time to return home. It's just that she comes back a bit earlier than expected.

  • ...
193
 4,054
 40,703

Chapter 4: Enter the Nerd

Sunset Shimmer slowly awoke with a strange sense of loss, coupled with confusion. The dream she had just awoken from had been…disconcerting. It had been one that Sunset had dreamed in the past, a dream of coming home as an alicorn. Although instead of rubbing her success in Celestia’s face, she had confessed all she had done and accepted her punishment, only to have Celestia say none of it mattered. Then the alicorn had embraced Sunset like a daughter, something Sunset had given up on hoping for even before she left Equestria.

For some reason, that made the dream hurt even worse than the usual kind where Celestia had Sunset executed for her crimes.

She let out a long breath and closed her eyes to roll around onto her back before her stupid boobs could start to hurt again as she closed her eyes to try and get back to sleep. Although the stupid things had been good at distracting the males of the human species and a nice status symbol, her status as the biggest chest in CHS (despite being pretty normal in comparison to those women she’d seen on television) was just a personal hindrance. She was trying to be a good person now! Not some kind of slut.

An odd feeling in her back made Sunset open her eyes…and frown. The ceiling above her wasn’t the one for the room Principal Celestia had set aside for her. It was…the one she remembered from before coming to Earth.

The realization hit her like a bolt of lightning along with the other memories from the day before and-THWAP!

A second later, Sunset sighed and picked herself up from the ground with a groan. After waiting for a second to see if another alicorn would suddenly come bursting into the room like the pair of princesses had done the day before when she had thought herself alone, she looked back at the offending appendages when nothing happened. “Ugh, why exactly did I want the two of you again?” she asked her wings with a frown.

Now fully awake and mostly alert, Sunset found herself wondering what she was supposed to do. Years of being in a human world, or at least thinking that she was if Celestia’s theory was true, had left Sunset a little lost when it came to the last thing she had been working on. She had been a mostly independent-study student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, with the princess giving her most of her lessons for several years. Which meant that Sunset had no idea what she was supposed to be working on, and just walking into a classroom to ask for instructions was out of the question.

The odd thought made her stop and shake her head at the idiocy of it all. The hell with whatever she had been doing before! Sunset wasn’t about to just try and pick up where she had left off as if nothing was different from when she was last in Equestria. She was going to get cleaned up, find the classroom where Twilight Sparkle was studying, and drag her back to Celestia to rub the fact she was right in the face of the alicorn!

Then Twilight could be trained for princesshood, and Sunset…

Actually...Sunset didn’t know what she would be doing after that. With Twilight needing a teacher, Sunset would need to step back so Celestia would have time for her. It was ironic really, after being driven into a maddening rage upon first learning about Twilight, Sunset was now giving everything Twilight had ‘taken’ from her the first time around.

Although…would that be enough?

Maybe…for things to play out the way they needed to, Sunset had to get even more out of the way than simply moving down the hall.

It was quite possible that she would need to go through the portal again to make sure that Twilight got the attention she needed with Celestia.

For some reason, the thought made feel Sunset uneasy.

But thinking about such things was for the future. Right now, she needed to find Twilight.

Okay, right now now, she needed to get off the floor and get dressed, get some coffee, and have breakfast.

Then she could go and find Twilight.

Sunset picked herself up and took a moment to look around the room for her closet before making her way over and opening it up to find three gowns meant for formal parties and a more casual dress to be worn around town. She was actually a little surprised by how few there actually were.

Oh! Right…pony, Sunset reminded herself. Unlike humans, most ponies didn’t wear much in the way of clothes all the time. Those that did go trotting around in silk and wool all day did it more to say ‘I have money’ as if that somehow made them important.

Not that Sunset didn’t see herself as the same as them, just in a different way. She went nude simply because she didn’t need to buy her ego boost. She had magic.

For a moment the pony simply stood there, unsure to put on the dress or not. It wasn’t as if alicorns needed any extra decoration to stand out and say they were above others. The horn and wings were more than enough to work as a sign that said ‘BOW TO ME LITTLE PONIES’.

For a few seconds, Sunset held her closet in her magic again, just enjoying the slight mental hum that came from her horn after years of silence with all the intentions of slamming the doors closed while swearing off clothing forever. But then the sound of gusting wind came through her bedroom’s open window, and Sunset felt the moving air rush under her tail as it…brushed up against a certain part of her female anatomy that hadn’t felt such cold sensations in years.

A freezing tingle ran through the alicorn’s body, and Sunset quickly snatched her overly expensive casual dress off of the rack to unbutton everything before she planted her butt on the floor in the hopes of putting it on.

Hopes that were dashed when she moved the dress around her torso and found that it didn’t reach the buttons. In fact, the ends of the fabric didn’t even touch. Not to mention the sleeves were extremely tight on her pony-arms, and…Sunset stood to look back to see what the neglected nerves of her tail were telling her about the dress not going down nearly enough to properly conceal her rump.

“What the hay?” the alicorn mumbled before fighting her way out of the too tiny dress that she left on the floor to glare at for a few seconds before looking down at herself.

Had she gained weight since coming back to Equestria?

The possibility didn’t seem very likely. A budget made of what money Sunset could squeeze from students through extortion and ever-shrinking Equestrian wealth didn’t lend itself well to overeating.

Sunset shook her head and walked over to the mirror to take a look at herself. Just the sight of her old body made the alicorn blink. Thanks to all the craziness that was the day before, she hadn’t really taken a good look at herself in some time. Not even when she came back to snatch Twilight’s crown.

Was she…bigger?

The startlement that came from the possibility made Sunset look around her room for an old picture before she snatched it up in her magic and brought it floating to her. On it, Sunset stood in one of her more immaculate dresses next to Princess Celestia with a small smile on her face. Even though the memory the picture had brought up was a little dimmed, she could still remember the party Princess Celestia had thrown for her seventeenth birthday.

Although it hadn’t really been that big a deal to her at the time, what with the guests just being there as a courtesy to Princess Celestia, Sunset did remember that her happiness shown in the picture had been genuine.

It’s a celebration of you being born Sunset, a reason I find very happy to make a big fuss over.”

Looking back with what she knew now, Sunset could also see what else it had been. Celestia had been trying to get her to make friends with other ponies. Unfortunately, all Sunset had seen was their inherited titles and the attitudes that went with them. All just par for the course in the then-unicorn’s life.

Still, the picture did give her a nice frame of reference.

A quick trip to her closet to put the little dress up and grab her party gown later, and Sunset was standing back in front of the mirror with a frown on her face. Although she had some suspicions before, the actual physical evidence in front of her made things clear.

She was bigger.

Much bigger.

And in more ways that one.

Judging by how the small it was in comparison to her body now, Sunset estimated that she had increased in height by at least a head. But instead of becoming some tall and lanky alicorn, Sunset found her body was just as filled out as ever before, if not more.

She flexed and tensed her muscles to see bulges that would never have appeared on a studious unicorn, or even a human bully for that matter. Still, in the mirror she looked…not exactly buff, nor super athlete fit, but…Sunset was pretty sure that she was now among the top ten strongest ponies in Canterlot.

Her wings were equally big and bulky. But that might have been the norm for alicorns, considering Twilight and Celestia. She would need to make observations on Cadance to make sure though.

And lastly there was…her ass.

Sunset turned and let out an irritated sigh as she gave her rear a shake that left her booty jiggling just a bit. Great, she thought with a frown while glaring at her newly expanded ass. On earth it was boobs, in Equestria it’s my butt. While not ridiculously large in proportion to her size, the alicorn could already guess that the part of the mare the males wanted the most was about as big as a pony could achieve naturally. With her newly acquired height…Sunset had a sinking feeling that most guys would consider her voluptuous supermodel material.

The only thing Sunset could take comfort in was that she was at least still overshadowed by Princess Celestia. If she ever ended up matching her mentor in height…

A knock at her bedroom door drew Sunset’s daydreams out of a giant alicorn constantly hitting her head on doorframes and tripping over little ponies that got underfoot before falling hard enough to cause earthquakes with her oversized ass.

“Coming!” Sunset called out before she trotted over. Her hoof stopped halfway to the doorknob, and she rolled her eyes before concentrating through her horn to surround it with magic. Without a pounding headache distracting her, Sunset had to admire the feeling of magic running through her horn again.

Once she finally got around to opening the door, Sunset blinked at Cadance, noting how the other mare barely came up to her nose. Although, she did have a ‘Canterlot length’ horn that several mares in the city took magical steps to develop. “Oh Cadance,” she said before making a point to look the mare in the eyes. “Something wrong?”

The other alicorn gave her an odd look. “Uh…no,” Cadance said as she smiled. “I thought I’d come and check on you. Do you want to walk to breakfast together?”

Sunset looked back at the discarded things in her room for a few seconds. It was enough time for Cadance to peer in and take a peek for herself. “What’s with the clothes?”

“Uh…” Sunset blushed in embarrassment and stepped forward, using her newfound girth to push the other pony back. “Sorry, I was just trying on some of my old stuff,” she said before slamming the door behind her. “Well, trying to try on, I should say. Speaking of, I wonder if I should even bother buy new ones, or just wait to see if there’s another growth spurt.”

As Sunset moved out into her apartment’s living room, she noticed Cadance giving her a confused look. “What?”

Cadance’s expression turned to a skeptical frown. “You just now noticed you were bigger?” she asked before raising an eyebrow. “You do remember how I had to look down to meet your eyes just two days ago, right?”

Guilt and embarrassment flooded Sunset’s mind. “Um…well…you see…” As a pony that had a stick up her ass most of the time, Sunset had perfected the Canterlot way of looking at lesser ponies. A way that involved pointing one’s nose to the sky. It helped a lot to not notice certain things.

Plus, there was the fact that Sunset did her best to forget all of her run-ins with Cadance. Not to mention how the pink alicorn tended to hunch down whenever she was in Sunset’s presence.

“Did you forget?” Cadance asked with what sounded like genuine concern. With her, it probably was. “Celestia told me how you got a ton of experiences because of the mirror, I can imagine that did a real number on your memory.”

Sunset tensed. “She…told you about all of that?”

Giving the other alicorn a regretful look, Cadance nodded. “Sorry if you think that violates your privacy, but…” She paused, her expression becoming worried. “She’s worried for you Sunset. Really worried. She even told me to…well…keep an eye on you and try to be your friend. Not that I wasn’t planning on doing that anyway.”

The smile Cadance gave her made Sunset’s mouth perk up a little bit. Although, she wasn’t really sure how she was supposed to respond to something like that. Could you force someone to be friends? “Um…thank you?”

Cadance giggled, and followed Sunset out of her apartment as they began to head towards the dinning hall. “Well, like I said, I was going to do it anyway. Although,” she said, drawing the word out before briefly pausing. “How much time did you spend there? Celestia wasn’t all that specific.”

“I thought she said it was all just a dream,” Sunset replied, a little confused. Was the princess telling Sunset one thing and Cadance another? It didn’t exactly seem like her style of manipulation.

The other alicorn shrugged just a bit. “Well, if you felt it was real, then who am I to say otherwise?” Cadance asked.

“It was about three years,” Sunset replied with a frown. Cadance’s last words, now those had sounded like they had come from Celestia.

Cadance let out a thoughtful ‘hmm’. “So that means you’re…what? Twenty now? Mentally at least. Even if you didn’t age a day, you still got older where it counts.”

The mention of her age got a groan from Sunset. One of the more annoying things about being turned human was that she hadn’t a clue about her biology and just ended up as a freshman in high school, despite being the same age as one of their seniors. And that wasn’t even taking into account the possibility of the mirror altering her age somehow. “Twenty-one,” Sunset corrected her. Not that she thought Celestia would be allowing her cider outside of special occasions.

“So…meet any cute guys while you were there?” Cadance asked with a cheeky grin.

For her part, Sunset stumbled forward, and just barely avoided planting her face into the hallway’s fancy carpet. “C-Cadance!” Sunset shouted as she spun around in anger at the idiocy of the question, not to mention all the other emotions that came up at the thought. “They weren’t even ponies!” Or real, a possibility that Sunset’s self-worth clinged to. One of the only reasons she actually hoped Celestia was right about everything. Because if everything had been real…she didn’t want to be the kind of pony that slept with everything on four legs.

Cadance winced. “Sorry if I struck a nerve there.”

The reaction the other pony had to Sunset’s anger made the amber alicorn take in a sharp breath. “N-No. That’s okay,” she assured Cadance. Getting angry at a pony that had been afraid of her really wasn’t the way to go. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

“Well, anger is your thing,” the pink alicorn went on with a little smile. “And I like that you’ve got a lot of passion Sunset.”

Sunset snorted at the attempt to turn her biggest flaw into an admirable trait. “No, I shouldn’t-”

Before she could say anything more, Cadance flapped up a wing to cut the amber alicorn off. As Sunset backed up a step, the smaller alicorn turned around and frowned. “Look Sunset, don’t apologize to me for who you are. It’s not like you’ve ever really let it go out of control.”

The words Cadance spoke made Sunset wince once again. “Oh yeah? What about everything I’ve done to you since you got here?” There was also everything that happened in the days to come and on the other side of the mirror, but it wasn’t as if Cadance knew much about that.

“I call those the actions of a frightened mare who was terrified of the idea that there was a pony Celestia loved more than her, a pony that was afraid I was going to take Celestia’s love away from her,” Cadance said with a sympathetic look in her eyes. “I know from personal experience that love can make you do crazy things. It’s the most powerful force in Equestria, and when starved of it, a pony can do so many things that go against her true self. And despite all of this, I also know that a pony who was starved for love and afraid what little trickle of it she had was going to be taken away from her never actually hurt me.”

Then the pink alicorn broke out into a little smile. “So go ahead and growl, and shout, and rage, and all that other stuff. Because I know that’s all it’s ever going to be,” she told Sunset. “But if you just bottle it up and try to act all meek, then it will explode in the worst possible way.”

Sunset gave Cadance a hesitant look. “I’m not sure you know what you’re asking here.”

“I’m asking you to be yourself, Sunset,” she replied.

The amber alicorn frowned back at her. “Well in that case. I think I should tell you that you’re wrong about love being the most powerful force in Equestria,” she said. If anything, love magic was unpredictable and dangerous, not to mention pretty creepy. The last opinion Sunset knew was thanks to her time among a culture that treated freedom of choice more akin to a religious ideal than anything that went on in their churches. “Friendship is.”

Cadance smiled back at her. “Well, I’m glad you agree with me.”

“Um…” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Is something wrong with your ears? I said friendship, you said love.”

The smile on Cadance’s face became a full-on grin. “Sunset, what is friendship, but platonic love?”

Sunset’s expression turned half lidded. “Let’s just get to breakfast,” she said before picking up her pace.

Cadance quickly caught up to her. “Uh Sunset? Why are you tucking your tail between your cheeks like that?”

The question got a stumble from Sunset, followed by a frown at her own ass, and then Cadance’s face. “Cultural differences.”


Once she had gotten to breakfast, Sunset had come to a very important decision: she was going to invent underwear.

Although she had been a little put off by the things after first transforming into a human, a few days of going commando in jeans had made Sunset change her mind. Now a pony again, having her private parts semi-exposed for anyone who bothered looking to see actually felt alien. It was disturbing to think how a basic facet of life had changed for her in just a few years.

Then came everything Sunset should have seen coming. Once Princess Celestia showed up, the amber alicorn had to get her nervousness under control. Thankfully, the ruler of Equestria didn’t talk about putting a crown on Sunset’s head.

However, what they did talk about was even worse thanks to Cadance’s question leading up to the dining hall. The topic of choice for that morning was humanity, or at least what Sunset had observed when she was ‘seemingly’ among them. Celestia had managed to steer the conversation away from anything personal, and made sure they just focused on the alien civilization that Sunset had been a part of.

The reactions were mixed…

“So, let me get this straight,” Celestia said as she finished the food on her plate. “The entire society basically has an infinite magical library that anypony can access with little difficulty either from their home or a uh, well…a normal library, and get all the knowledge they want in seconds with almost no effort. Yet the majority of the entire race decides to squander this information in the pursuit of personal gain and short-term pleasure, such as instructions on how to beat a video game?”

Sunset sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, it was an entire race of creatures just like me, wanting easy access to power and a shortcut to fame and glory. I get the irony, Princess.”

Celestia. It’s just Celestia now, Sunset,” the big princess corrected her before a hesitant smile appeared on her face. “Although…if you want, I wouldn’t be adverse to you, calling me…” After a brief pause, Celestia looked over to the pink princess. “Ahem, so Cadance, what do you think about Sunset’s story of the hugh-manes?”

The third alicorn at the table had her head tilted. “So…these dating uh…websites, they only match you according to twenty-nine dimensions of compatibility?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “How in the hay can anypony form such a shallow romantic relationship?”

In response, Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” Her own relationships with humans were based off way less than that. Usually, it boiled down to ‘she’s a bitch but damn are those some big tits’ or ‘Sunset puts out like there’s no tomorrow’. “I tell you about an alien civilization, and that’s what you focus on?”

“An imaginary civilization, Sunset,” Celestia told her sternly. “The whole purpose of which I think was to help you learn a lesson. Think about it, these creatures had all the knowledge of their world at their fingertips, but it was useless without the wisdom to use it properly. To be honest, it sounds a bit like-”

“How I used to be,” Sunset interrupted her before Celestia could use the present tense to describe her. That might have actually hurt. “Look, I’ll admit I used to only view magic as a means to gaining power and helping to boost my ego, because I saw myself as the source for that power. But now I know that real magic comes from kindness, generosity, laughter, loyalty, and honesty.”

Celestia’s mouth dropped, and Sunset had to fight to keep from breaking out into a grin. Although she knew it was a little bad for her to do so, the smaller alicorn had just loved leaving her mentor speechless.

But for that to really happen, she needed to get the hell out of dodge before the big pony recovered. “Welp, time to get going, I need to head to the school as soon as possible. Don’t want the office to have a backlog of stuff when I come around,” she said before jumping off her seat and hitting the ground.

Cadance nodded. “I should get going too. Thanks for breakfast Auntie. It was as amazing as ever.”

“Um…I’ll pass on your compliments to-wait!” Celestia said as she shook herself out of her stupor and stood up. “What do you mean school? You can’t go to school! You just became an alicorn. You still need your rest.”

The tone Celestia used made Sunset groan in annoyance as she remembered a bipedal Celestia lecturing her about the proper way to act at school. “Princess, I’m fine! I may have been a little sore yesterday, but now I feel like I could run a lap around Canterlot without breaking a sweat.” And considering the earth pony that was now in her, Sunset had a feeling she wasn’t bluffing.

Still, the bigger alicorn didn’t budge. “Just because you feel fine doesn’t mean that’s the way things are,” she told Sunset before her expression softened. “At least let me get you an examination by a doctor. Your ascension being so different than most ponies might have caused some problems that might just now be developing.”

It was the worry in Celestia’s tone that made Sunset drop her head in defeat. Authority she could buck to the side. Anger could be ignored. But when Celestia worried about her…Sunset didn’t know how to fight that. “Fine. We’ll…go to a doctor or something first. But I still need to go talk to the office of your magic school, okay?”


It was nearly three-o’clock by the time Sunset walked into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, still a little uneasy from all the poking and prodding the three tribal specialists had done at Celestia’s insistence. Still, the triple pony physical had at least proved to everyone Sunset was in full working order. Hell, they had actually called her the fittest specimen they had seen in Canterlot; and that was coming from ponies who examined royal guards!

The magic she had taken from her friends, that had to be the cause. Both Applejack and Rainbow had been great athletes, and considering one of them had wings in pony-form while the other was a farmer, it wasn’t a large leap in logic to figure out what type of Equestrians they would be.

“H-Holy hay! Is that Sunset Shimmer?”

The words of the colt down the hall standing together with his friends made Sunset look over to him in confusion. The assembled ponies quickly scurried away, which made her even more confused. In Equestria, she had been a pretty big jerk, sure…but that seemed more like a Canterlot High reaction to Sunset than a CSGU one.

“She’s an alicorn? How in the hay did that happen?” a mare from another group of students spoke up. They actually froze up when Sunset turned her head toward them.

“Y-You mean, the rumors about her being Celestia’s foal are true?” one of the teachers actually said to another one. Their reaction was the worst of all. Unlike the rest of the students, they actually went into a bow.

And with them, the rest of the assembled student body.

Sunset froze as she quietly watched all the ponies around her prostrate themselves before her. Just a year ago, she knew she would have enjoyed such a reaction. She would have even had the fools show their fealty by kissing her hoof. But now, the sight of ponies bowing before her made Sunset feel…uneasy.

Ashamed.

Unworthy.

And if these unicorns were doing such a thing…

A purple unicorn with a stripe in her mane placed her nose to the ground in front of Sunset as a sign of absolute obedience and submission. I am yours to command, Princess Sunset.”

The amber alicorn closed her eyes for a second to banish the phantom Twilight Sparkle from her path. That was NOT how she wanted Twilight to behave around her.

In order to get away from the display of fidelity, Sunset pushed through the cobwebs of her memory, and ran as fast as she could to the school’s office. Once inside, the alicorn slammed the door shut behind her and looked to the teal unicorn mare with glasses sitting behind her desk.

As the pony’s eyes widened, Sunset frowned and opened her mouth to speak before the secretary could begin. “Yeah, alicorn,” she said while spreading her wings. Thankfully, they actually did what they were supposed to do. “I need you to check through the rolls and tell me where Twilight Sparkle is.”

The mare blinked. “Um…yes, one moment Your um, Your Majesty,” she said before turning to look through a nearby filing cabinet.

Not wanting to put any more pressure on the pony, Sunset took a moment to look around the room for a place to sit down. Despite the prodigiousness of the school, the front office was rather small. There was enough room for perhaps three ponies to stand shoulder to shoulder in front of the desk, another door leading to the offices of the ponies that ran the place a bit off to the right behind the desk, and an area with a few chairs to the right of the front door for anypony that was sent to see the principal was to wait.

Like the young filly with the blue coat and silvery mane that looked oddly familiar next to the pink filly with the purplish hair that actually bore a disturbing resemblance to Aria Blaze who were sitting there now. They both looked to be just short of their teen years, or maybe just going into them.

Sunset walked deeper into the office and sat down across from them with a smile on her face before asking what every person that had been called to the principal would when they saw a fellow problem child. “So, what’re you two in for?”

The pink pony raised her head up high in what Sunset could only be called pride. “I caught this pony sneaking into Professor Snap’s classroom, trying to change her alchemy grade. But I stopped her!”

“Yeah, because you were already changing everypony’s grade in the gradebook!” the blue filly accused the other in a strangely familiar voice.

“That’s because everypony deserves to be equal!” Pink Filly argued back. “It’s not fair that some ponies get As and Bs and some ponies only get Cs and Ds. Everypony should have the same grade!”

Blue Filly let out an indignant sniff. “That’s a load of horse apples! Nopony is ever equal. And I’ll be the bestest of them all! I’m going to be the greatest, most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria when I grow up!”

All of a sudden, the blue filly’s declaration of her future caused a light to click on in Sunset’s mind, connecting the dots between the little filly in front of her, and another braggart she knew as a human. Sunset’s mouth just dropped in shock, but upon recovery she managed to find some words. “Wait a second…Trixie?! Is that you?”

The little unicorn in question sat up even straighter than the other pony and tilted her head of proudly. “See? Even royalty knows my name! That proves I’m destined for greatness!”

Sunset continued to look on in shock as she stared at the little unicorn filly. The memory of Principal Celestia floated through her mind, reminding her that some ponies had human counterparts on the other side of the mirror, but…such a thing was hardly one for one. After all, Princess Celestia sure as hell didn’t have a spunky little sister like Principal Celestia did, and Sunset had never come across her own counterpart either.

For a moment, Sunset thought about snatching up the filly and presenting her to Celestia as proof that the past three years hadn’t been a magical hallucination. Two things stopped her. The first was the fact that kidnapping was wrong. The second was a bit more complicated, and took a few seconds for her mind to process. It was the fact that just because there was a Trixie in the other world didn’t mean anything. Hell, it could just as easily disprove the idea that the mirror had sent her back in time with the bipedal Trixie just being based off an encounter with the foal that Sunset only remembered on a subconscious level.

After all, this Trixie didn’t seem to be speaking in third person, and was a hell of a lot younger than the one she had met.

And the Aria Blaze unicorn filly…that didn’t make a lick of sense. The sirens were supposed to have existed in Equestria’s past as sea-pony monsters, not unicorn delinquents.

Sunset’s mental workings were ended when she heard a pony come in from the door leading to the personal offices of the school staff. When the stallion with the gray coat and black hair saw her, Sunset quickly decided to cut any of the ‘Oh my Celestia, an alicorn!’ crap off before it could start and talk before she could. “Don’t worry Headmaster,” she said with a little wave of her hoof thanks to the fact she had no idea what the stallion’s name was. “I’m just here for a little paperwork. You can go ahead with those two. No need to bother yourself with me.”

The stallion shook off his shock and cleared his throat. “Yes…I…see,” he said before scowling at the fillies. “Trixie Lulamoon, Starlight Glimmer, my office. Now.”

As the two little fillies hopped down from their seats to follow the stallion Sunset founds herself wondering if she should check up on the fillies later. But…kids weren’t really her thing. Even during her evil days at CHS, the teenager had stayed away from the freshmen once the age gap between her and them came into being. So, the idea of looking in on Trixie was thrown away about as quickly as it had formed. Even if they had the same basic personality, it didn’t mean they were the same person/pony.

After all, Sunset doubted Princess Twilight just went mad and haphazardly threw magic around to endanger a group of fillies, much less an entire town like the human Twilight did to make a teacher happy.

“Princess Sunset?”

The title attached to her name made an odd shiver run up the alicorn’s spine. Sunset knew she should correct the mare, but…she also doubted that anypony would just give her access to files without that assumed royal authority.

“Yes?” she asked after picking herself up and walking over to the school secretary. “Did you find the mare I asked about?” She wondered if it would it have been better to say filly? Twilight had to be…what? Fifteen? Sunset seriously doubted that they were the same age.

The pony on the other side of the desk nervously messed with her glasses. “Yes…about that. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to find a Twilight Sparkle in any of our rolls.”


Half-an-hour of having the secretary check again, followed by her own search through the school’s records, and several more minutes of watching the departing students to pick out a certain purple, smart unicorn ended with zero clues as to the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle.

The failure to find Twilight, which lead to Sunset questioning whether the last three years of her life really had just been all in her head, left the newfound alicorn feeling confused and more than a little bit afraid. She didn’t want the friends she had so quickly grown to love to be fake. She didn’t want the pony she had come to look up to as an example of what she should have been to just be a figment of her imagination.

It…it just wasn’t right!

With no Twilight to be found, Sunset didn’t feel like going back to the castle. Instead, she did something else that she had been wanting to do since her banishment to the human world: she took a walk around Canterlot. There was no real destination in mind. She simply wandered from street to street, trying to recall the various places around town and learning of the new ones. Strangely enough, the pony Canterlot looked nothing like the one in the human world.

And an hour into her travels, Sunset found herself…kind of lost.

Not that she was 100% lost. Anypony in Canterlot could see Celestia’s Palace gleaming in the sun. But…Sunset had no intentions of returning to that place until she had managed to work herself out of the funk she found herself in. If she didn’t, Cadance and Princess Celestia would get involved, and while Sunset could stand Cadance’s attentions, worrying Princess Celestia was like getting kicked in the gut.

But on the other hand…she still had no idea where she was. Nor where there was a fun place to hang out. Most likely a side effect of being a stuck-up snob that didn’t think she needed anything outside of what her own magic and Celestia provided for her.

And…she might have been getting a little hungry.

Buck, what I wouldn’t do for Yelp right now…or at least a map program, Sunset thought to herself. Stupid humans and their addictive technology that she had grown to hate in so many ways thanks to the Anon-A-Miss incident.

Needing to get off her feet, Sunset parked her rump on a bench, and slid down until her hooves were touching the ground while ignoring all of the surprised stares the other ponies were making in the direction of the unicorn with wings. Sunset told herself the looks were because of her human sitting posture, not the semi-divine status alicorns held.

It didn’t work very well.

But what was worse was thanks to the fact she had stopped wandering around town, Sunset’s idle mind went back to her thoughts. She managed not to think about Twilight, thankfully, but what did come to mind was something about as equally as depressing. It was the fact that she had lived in Canterlot nearly all her life, even counting her time at CHS, and didn’t know a damn thing about the place. And her friends in town totaled a whopping one mare, and one that had decided to give her a second chance as of yesterday at that.

All that time…wasted.

Make some friends, Sunset.”

The memory of Princess Celestia’s made the alicorn close her eyes. “Why didn’t I listen to you?” she asked in a whisper.

Sure, the nobles and their kids had been jerks, but that didn’t mean other ponies around Canterlot weren’t friendly. If Sunset had made an effort, maybe volunteered at an animal shelter, or done something other than obsess over her studies, then she would have had somepony waiting for her.

“Hey guys, look what we got here!”

The influx of ‘macho noise’ in Sunset’s ear made the alicorn pull herself up and look around on instinct. Living the life she had in the human world had put a few survival mechanisms in her head when it came to certain things. One of those things being phrases that just screamed ‘incoming rape attempt’.

“Think I didn’t see you go in that store and try to sneak out the back?”

Although, a quick look around to only see the usual crowd of ponies gawking at the alicorn and making amazed comments made Sunset frown in confusion. Then came the realization of the absolute foolishness of her reaction. Nopony was stupid enough to mess with the second most powerful being on the planet.

“Give that back, Buck!”

Sunset frowned, and turned to look down the alleyway directly behind her, where three earth ponies in jackets were glaring at a unicorn stallion with a white coat and blue mane that was dressed in the ‘traditional’ pony birthday suit.

Not that the earth ponies had anything to cover their important parts either.

Her casual glance also gave enough for her brain to put two and two together to identify the named pony of the stallion trio since the large one with the blonde mane and light purple coat was holding a long box with ‘Oubliettes and Ogres’ scrawled on the side.

Said pony then proceeded to drop the box, and step on it before looking away from the other colt and up into the sky with a smirk. “Ooops. Guess I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“H-Hey! I just got that!”

The frown Sunset was wearing turned to a glare, and she made a snorting sound that hadn’t been possible in the past several years thanks to her human anatomy before pushing off the bench to put her front hooves hack on the ground. The guilt that had been chipping away at Sunset’s heart and calling her an idiot promptly shut up, and stepped aside to let anger take a turn at the controls. Anger that wasn’t focused on her own mistakes for once.

“Look Shiny,” the bigger stallion said as he looked down at the smaller unicorn. “I thought we had an arrangement going. You do my homework, make sure I get it back in time to copy the answers down so the teachers don’t find out you’re helping me, and I don’t break your face.”

Said face became a sneer for a fraction of a second, but then this ‘Shiny’s’ posture became submissive as he lowered himself down. “And I did that, I gave you your math homework at first period today!”

From her place at the edge of the alleyway, Sunset’s eyes narrowed as she considered for a moment how to deal with the situation. While just strolling up to them with her wings extended and demanding to know what was going on was defiantly an option…it wouldn’t settle the feelings Sunset was experiencing at the moment. To take care of what was burning inside her at the moment, Sunset needed something a bit more…personal.

“Yeah, but there’s a new rule now.” Back in the alleyway, Buck reached forward with one leg and swiped it under Shiny’s front two. The unicorn’s front went crashing down onto the ground, or at least the box where his board game was, mangling it even further.

Then the earth pony bent down just a bit. “You know that new pony that’s been coming to the Academy the past couple of weeks? The alicorn? I got my eyes on her, and I saw how you were talking to her this morning. I don’t want the best filly in Canterlot to get some nerd stink on her before I make her my mare.”

The fact that the sleaze in front of her was going to be coming on to Cadance settled it for Sunset. Physical violence may of not been her go to solution for problems, but it was hardly foreign to her.

But…a day of being an alicorn had proven to her that she couldn’t simply walk up and beat the crap out of three stallions. They’d all probably just go to their knees at the first opportunity or something. So instead, Sunset summoned up a bit of energy in a way she had during her first trip back to Equestria and molded it around her in the form of a conjuration spell. A second later, a dark brown cloak covered her back, hiding the alicorn’s wings. Although, unlike the first time, there was no hood.

“I’m not trying to hit on her! I just needed somepony to watch my little sister this weekend when my friends come over!” Shiny said from his spot on the floor.

Buck snorted. “Yeah right. I invented the fake little sister routine to get girls into my house,” he said before poking Shiny in the nose with a hoof. “Get this straight. You hit on Cadance, and I hit you.”

That was when Sunset through it was a good a time as any to make her presence known. Preferably, one of the stallions would have offered her a good lead-in for a witty one-liner, but…that would have meant the white stallion would have probably feared for his face all the longer. “Okay, back away from the nerd,” Sunset said. “And I’ll hurt you.”

The three stallions looked up from Shiny, and over to Sunset with surprised looks on their faces. Not that she didn’t blame them. Most ponies tended to avoid conflict, some going so far as to ignore what was going under their noses altogether.

Sunset wasn’t one of them.

But, the big stallion did do as she commanded, going so far as to give her a little smirk as he walked closer. “Hey filly, this is just-whoa,” the earth pony said as he got within striking distance. “Sorry lady, but you’re way too pudgy for my taste. Come back when you’ve lost a couple of tons.”

Blue eyes went wide before a snort of pure rage came from Sunset’s nostrils. Just because she put on a few pounds thanks to her alicorn transformation, that was no reason to call her fat! “THAT’S MUSCLE YOU JERK!” the alicorn shouted as she felt her wings shoot out in aggravation a second before she swung her hoof into the side of Buck’s head.

A second later, the stallion was no longer in front of the alicorn. The blow had sent him flying into the side of the building to their right hard enough to leave Buck stuck in the wall, barely conscious.

Barely aware of her revealed status, Sunset blinked at the miniature impact crater, and then looked down at her hoof as she brought it in under her nose. “Wow. I’ve got more earth pony in me than I thought,” she said before looking forward towards the remaining stallions and bringing her hoof down onto the ground as hard as she could.

Beneath her, the paving stones cracked. “Either of you two want a go?” Sunset asked after recovering from the shock that came from her display of strength. Just how much earth pony-ness had Applejack and Pinkie Pie been holding?

“N-No ma’am!” the stallion with the orange coat and fiery mane said.

“W-We weren’t gonna do nothin’ Princess,” the other stallion added.

Sunset frowned. “That’s a double negative, idiot,” she said before lighting up her horn and grabbing the two stallions with her magic, then snatched up the third while he was still seeing birds dance around his head.

For a moment, she considered what to do with the three. While there was some destruction of property involved, the guards would probably just laugh it off as one of those boys being boys things before walking away. Of course that also meant her assault would be construed as such.

Hell, even using magic on Equestrian citizens that didn’t have horns was considered illegal (despite the fact such a handicap made pegasi and earth ponies vastly superior in the physical threats department) and might get her in trouble. Well, if alicorns weren’t above the law that is. Sunset was pretty sure the rulers of the nation could throw such things to the side when they needed to. Especially in the defense of other ponies.

“W-What’re you gonna do to us?” the orange pony asked right as their ringleader was coming out of his daze.

Sunset blinked, actually unsure for a moment. After the bully had made her see red with the weight comment, she hadn’t really gotten all that far beyond making him pay. But inspiration didn’t wait long to strike the time traveling pony, causing her to smirk. “Oh, I think I’ll just send you boys where you belong!”

There was a flash of light as reality tore open and closed a second later. And the three bullies were safely on their way to the Canterlot compost heap.

With that taken care of, Sunset used a moment to return her cloak to the magic it had been crafted from, and then walked up to where the stallion was still laying on the ground. Although she tried to look as approachable as possible, her stupid wings just wouldn’t go down. Still, at the very least she tried to sound nice.

“Hey, are you alright?” Sunset asked in a gentle voice as she reached out for the young stallion’s hoof.

Said stallion just looked up at her in shock. “Gaaaaaaaa.”

Sunset giggled at the reaction. For some reason, seeing the dumfounded expression on the colt’s face was just too damn priceless. “It’s alright, take your time,” she told him with a little smile.

After at least a minute, Shiny finally reached out for her hoof, and Sunset slowly pulled him to his feet as carefully as she could. With what happened to Buck, she didn’t want to accidentally toss the guy she just saved over a building or something.

Standing at his full height, Sunset was a little surprised at how short he was compared to her. Although she probably would have been the one looking up at him before her transformation, Shiny’s eyes were at an equal height with her chin.

“Are you okay?” she asked gently. While she didn’t actually see the other pony hurt him, the trip attack might have caused some damage.

Still…the guy didn’t really look alright. He had some strange expression on his face that seemed somewhere between astonishment and fear. “D…Derp?”

Or maybe he had some brain damage.

Concern overriding caution, Sunset drew in close until she could put her horn on top of his head. “Hold still,” she said while doing her best to avoid the stallion’s muzzle that was now inches from her own. “I saw so many doctors perform this spell today that I’ve got it down pat.”

One quick medical scan told her that all that was wrong with the stallion was a sore jaw, increased heart rate, and a great deal of nervousness. The last part was something Sunset had needed to work out for herself from the mix of several signals. And when she did, it made her smile in both appreciation and understanding.

As for Shiny…well…maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t been around a stallion in three years, but…the little guy was kind of cute. In that dorky way.

Sunset shook herself out of her analysis before she found herself doing something stupid, like checking out the guys package. Instead, she went for the mannered route. “By the way, my name’s Sunset Shimmer, what’s yours?”

“Sha…Shine…Sh-Sh-Shinning Armor,” he managed after a few tries.

Glad she hadn’t just gone with the insulting nickname Buck had been using, Sunset nodded her head towards him in a show of respect. “Pleasure to meet you Shining Armor,” she said before channeling some energy through her horn and looking back at her wings with a frown. Now that the action was over, they would stay put away when she pushed them down.

After Sunset had taken care of her plumage, she leaned in close. “By the way, thanks for not making a big deal about the Princess thing,” the alicorn said to cut Shining off before that crap could start. “I prefer for ponies to know me and not a stupid title.”

Since it seemed Shining had gone back into ‘duuuurrr’ mode at her closeness, Sunset backed up and looked down at the box Buck had stepped on. Aside from the strange name, there was a picture of a pony with extremely long ears and a wizard’s staff fighting a black dragon.

A little curious she picked the thing up in her magic, and then opened it to peer inside. The miniatures, map tiles, and character sheets were explanation enough. Sunset looked back up and smiled. “So this is like…Dungeons and Dragons?”

With the box opened, Shining was shook out of his daze. “W-What?”

“This thing,” Sunset said before spotting a broken miniature and taking it into her magic to fix the damage. “It’s a…” It took her a second to remember the terminology. “A table-top role-playing game?”

Shining’s eyes went wide. “Wait! You mean, you play O&O?”

Sunset gave a little chuckle and looked away as a bit of heat built in her cheeks. “I kind of dabble,” she half-lied. In truth, she had come across it during her first year in the human world while searching for real magic and found the whole thing slightly amusing.

Although…a magical creature that was interested in playing a fantasy game? That also made her want to laugh. But Sunset managed to keep it down to a smile. She didn’t want to embarrass the guy. Nerds had a hard enough time with their self-esteem.

After fixing a few more things, Sunset restored the O&O box to its original condition, and quickly did the same to the wall that Buck had been knocked into. Then she smiled at the stallion and motioned to the street. “So, want me to walk you home? To be honest, I really need something to keep me from going back to the castle too soon and you’re about the most interesting thing I’ve run into today.”

“O-Okay,” Shining Armor managed to say as nervousness crept onto his face again.

Sunset waited for him to walk by, and…her curiosity got the best of her. Hmmm, maybe no pants is a good way to go after all, she thought with a smile after getting a peek under Shining’s tail. His ‘sword’ was still sheathed, but if the other half of his male anatomy was anything to go by…the boy certainly had some potential.

However, it was when she trotted to catch up to him that caused the moment that made Sunset nearly fall in shock. She had been checking out his cute shiny hiney when she noticed the stallion’s cutie mark. It was a shield with three stars above it, and a slightly mangled Element of Magic for the crest.

WHAT THE HELL? Sunset asked herself before looking over to the stallion and asking what was probably the most over-used icebreaker in pony history. “So…uh, how’d you get your cutie mark?”

“Hm?” he asked before looking back to his flank for a second before turning his attention back to Sunset. “Oh that. Well, my family was vacationing near Smoky Mountain when there was this rockslide and I made a shield to keep this boulder from crushing us.” Then a blush covered his cheeks. “I’ve been studying to be in the royal guard ever since, but…I haven’t been able to cast a protection spell nearly as good a the one I did that day, and that was five years ago!”

Sunset studied Shining’s cutie mark for a few more seconds, and then put the question about the Element of Magic to the side for the moment. It wasn’t as if Equestria’s greatest super weapon was common knowledge, so just asking him why it was there probably wouldn’t give her any answers.

Instead, she focused on his problem. “Well, maybe it’s a focus problem,” she said. “Or maybe you just don’t have the energy for it yet. Shield spells do take a lot of juice, did you pass out or anything later?”

Shining’s cheeks colored and he looked away. “Well…”

The half-an-hour walk to Shining Armor’s house turned out to be an enjoyable affair. Once the stallion had learned to talk to her, she found he was a pretty sweet guy, if a little on the dorky side. Which…actually intrigued Sunset a bit. Most of the humans she had dated were popular, meaning they could either do one little thing and looked hot to other humans like her last boyfriend, or pretended to be warriors on a football field.

Shining Armor was…different. He didn’t have an ego or incessant need to talk about how cool he was. And a few minutes into their walk he talked about his dream to be in the royal guard, explaining it better than just a job to do that matched his talent. Plus, there were several moments when he would get cold hooves and go all meek on her. It upped his cuteness factor, and Sunset found she liked a guy with a bit of humility.

By the time they reached his house, Sunset Shimmer had made up her mind about the white pony with the blue mane.

Maybe it was her lack of any attractive males in three years.

Maybe it was the fact that Sunset knew she would be the one wearing the pants in the relationship.

Or maybe it was the fact that Shining Armor was a genuinely nice guy with a brain between his ears who knew what he wanted in life.

Whatever the reason, Sunset wanted the stallion. She wanted him bad.

“Well…this is it,” Shining Armor said as they came to a nice house in Canterlot’s eastern residential district. It was a simple two-story. Nothing grand, but…Sunset found it beautify quaint. It was the perfect little place to grow up in.

Sunset found herself smiling at the picturesque house. “It’s beautiful Shining,” she said before stopping herself from leaning over on the other pony. She quickly shook such thoughts off of her. They had just walked together for a few minutes, it wasn’t a date or anything!

“Th-Thanks,” Shining Armor replied nervously. “Um…so…you’re uh…coming over for the game this Saturday?”

A smile broke out onto Sunset’s face. “Sure. I’ll have a character all made and ready to go,” she said before becoming a little hesitant. “Although…uh, you sure your friends aren’t going to mind me just skipping ahead with my level?”

Shining Armor snorted. “You’re a mare. You could come with a level twenty alicorn sorceress with a fully developed bloodline and they wouldn’t care.”

A giggle came from Sunset’s mouth. “Okay, see you then. And I’ll make sure Cadance hears about the job offer,” she said before turning around and…decided to indulge a bit in her darker side by lifting her tail just a little and letting her hips sway from side to side.

Shiny! What‘re you doing out there?” A little filly’s voice called out from behind Sunset. “Come on inside! Mom’s almost got dinner ready!”

The alicorn refused to turn around and catch Shining Armor staring at her ass. The poor guy would have probably died from embarrassment. But she did turn her ears to listen to the squeak in his voice.

“Oh-Ok Twily! I-I’m coming!”