Sunset's Second Round of Childhood

by fmriver

A teacher's worry, A mother's relief

Princess Luna sighed. The princess of the night watched as her regal sister, usually as unflappable as the mountains, paced back and forth, jittery with worry.

Celestia's face kept going through a cycle, displaying her thoughts for all to see. She cycled through a frown of regret, anger, self-recrimination, then worry. Thankfully only her sister accompanied her at the moment, but they would need to go to the mirror room soon.

As the mistress of dreams, Luna could probably write word for word her sister's thoughts. Regret for how far her wayward student has fallen, anger at the actions she took, self-recrimination on how she failed one student and endangered the other, and worry for both. She was spending more of her time looking worried the closer the deadline for the portal approached.

Luna did not share as much of her sibling's worry. Luna was certain that Twilight understood that while the loss of the crown, and therefore the use of the Elements of Harmony, would be a setback, it would pale against the loss of its bearer. Even if one were to be purely pragmatic, the newest alicorn was a much more useful tool for Equestria. It was her ability to figure out solutions, research, befriend enemies, and create lasting bonds that mattered. She had already provided so many more solutions to threats against Equestria than an overpowered magical beam of friendship did. Without the crown they would lose a weapon, but without Twilight they would lose something more.

"Tia, calm yourself. Twilight will come back, have faith. She has never failed us, and I do not foresee this occasion ending any differently," Luna gently crooned to her sister.

"Oh Luna, I try to tell myself that. I can't help it. This time she isn't fighting an old enemy though, this time she's going against somepony quite dear to my heart. The thought of either of them being hurt fills me with sorrow, yet there is no other choice." Celestia's eyes filled with tears. "I trust my faithful student, but for Twilight to succeed, my Sunset must be stricken down, harmed in some manner. I must now hope one of my students bests the other, and my heart weeps, Luna. My-my-" Celestia let out a small sob, covering her face with a foreleg.

Luna approached her sister and used her wing to hug the larger alicorn. "There, there Sister. You know Twilight would not deal any blow harder than necessary, nor does she believe in smiting her enemies like in the olden days. Perhaps it will all turn out for the better, eh? Look at me, aren't I proof enough that one may fall much farther than simple theft, and yet return to you?"

Princess Celestia looked at her younger sibling, tears in her eyes looking heartbroken. "The selfish part of me just asks, why? She had a chance to come home, why couldn't she just come h-home?"

They stayed like that for a long time, one sister giving comfort to the other.

---

The mirror was being attended to by the Princess of Love, the remaining element bearers, and a few guards, by the time the ancient alicorns joined them.

Rainbow Dash walked back and forth in front of the portal, while Rarity and Pinkie Pie both laid down looking despondent. Applejack and Princess Cadance were quietly speaking to each other, while Fluttershy seemed to be trying out some breathing exercises to calm herself. The decision not to let the other bearers follow Twilight into the mirror weighed heavily on each of them. There was less than an hour left for the portal to remain open.

Suddenly, the mirror began to ripple and emit a glow, before the lavender alicorn stepped through, oddly enough on her two back legs for some reason. Her friends all crowded to her.

"You're back!"

"You've got your crown!"

Rainbow Dash and Rarity exclaimed, speaking over one another.

"I knew you could do it!" Pinkie said, grinning while giving Twilight a big hug.

Applejack seemed to be wiping tears of relief from her eyes. "Oh, we were so worried".

For a moment, Twilight just enjoyed being surrounded by her friends, safe in the her sister-in-law's castle. However, she knew that she could only indulge for a moment. There was a lot to go over and precious little time to do so.

"Sunset Shimmer, is she alright?" Celestia asked, stepping forward. Twilight looked at her mentor, who looked at that moment like nothing more than a worried parent. The emotion in that question, and the fact that it was the first thing she asked, made it clear that Twilight had underestimated the closeness shared between the princess and her previous student. This was good in a way, given the current issue, though the next few moments would be difficult and awkward.

"She's um... fine? Heehee... um, actually, I don't have much time, since I left her in front of the mirror with Spike while I updated you on a couple things. She's been... affected by magic and seems to have reverted in age to foalhood, along with her memories. The last thing she remembers is being 7 years old..." Twilight finally looked away from her teacher’s watering eyes.

"She looks even younger, from what the natives on the other side told me, though that may be a function of the transformation magic on the mirror. Either way, right now she's effectively a child, and with the lack of magic on the other end it would be impossible for them to treat her if any complications arose from this transformation. We need to bring her back."

Twilight paused, waiting for her ruler's reaction. After a moment, seeing her seemingly struck numb, she turned towards the others in the room. "I wanted to make sure everyone will be able to keep their reactions to her down, okay?" She looked at everyone, getting a nod from each in turn.

Celestia seemed to be mute, her sister stepping up beside her and looking at Twilight. "We agree, please bring her back forthwith," Luna stated

"Alright, be right back!" Twilight jumped back into the portal. Less than a minute went by before it lit up once again, spitting out Twilight, Spike, and finally a little foal, looking barely old enough to have a cutie mark, walking all wobbly on her legs.

"Wow, th-that was a doozy of a trip. At least I look normal again! Miss Twilight, are we-" Sunset stopped as she looked up from studying her hooves, realizing the room in front of her was filled with strangers just staring at her. Though she only had a second to take it in, as she was suddenly yanked up in the air and engulfed in a sea of white feathers. "Blegh! I got a feather in my mouth! Princess, glad to see you too but you're squishing meeee!" she whined as Celestia nuzzled her, hugging her to her chest.

"Oh my darling little Sunset, y-you ha-had me so very worried!" A hitch in her throat made Celestia stumble on her words. Sunset blushed as looked at her face, finally recognizing the tear tracks marking her mentor’s fur, with wide eyes. Suddenly she was hugging her back as hard as she could. For some reason seeing her so distraught frightened the filly.

The rest of the ponies in the room looked on at the heartwarming scene, giving them a moment. "Sister, perhaps we can take the young filly to our rooms for a bit and allow Twilight some time with her friends?" Luna piped up once it seemed her sister and the filly had calmed down a bit.

Said filly looked up with a scrunched up face, "Sister? ... ohmygoshyou'reanalicornandtwilightisanalicornandtheresapinkalicornwhat-?!?!" Her ramblings seemed to snap Celestia out of it, and she chuckled,

"My dear little sunbeam, I'll tell you all about it in our rooms, but Luna is right, let's take this away from here. Ladies, if you don't mind, I believe we will retire for the evening. It's a bit past this one's bedtime, anyway," Celestia chuckled.

"Hey!" Sunset piped up, frowning at her princess embarrassing her in front of so many adults.

Celestia ignored Sunset's glower as she shifted her onto her back between her wings, and began trotting off to her room, Luna following behind. Later she would worry about the effects, and go over everything that happened with Twilight, but right now she was floating from the relief bursting through her heart.

Her little Sunset was home.

Author's Note:

Updated 3/18/18 - spelling / grammar fixes.

Little Sunset is reunited with Celestia. At the moment they're both just feeling relief.

Comments

[Pinkie Pie Sweets]

I like where the story is. Can’t wait to see what Sunset’s new life will be.

[Thebaconpiggybank]

Hehe, I ended up writing something similar at one point. It's nice to see it executed in such a manner though. It's different. Nicely done my friend!

[fmriver]

Oh my gosh, thanks for the positive feedback! This is the first thing I've published, and getting your comments has made my week! I'm going to go ahead and keep on writing. Hopefully it will continue to please :)

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Getting some serious Momlestia vibes here.

[SeventhBrony]

"wow, th-that was a doozy of a trip. At least I look normal again! Miss Twilight, are we-" Sunset stopped as she looked up from studying her hooves, realizing the room in front of her was filled with strangers just staring at her. Though she only had a second to take it in, as she was suddenly yanked up in the air and engulfed in a sea of wight feathers.

Most of the time I don't care about these little things but this throws such a hit to the sentence it threw even me off.

Good story. Fave and follow

[Eruantalon]

Interesting story; I'm looking forward to seeing where a young Sunset will take things through Season Four!

Watch for typos, though - I noticed a "Lina" and a "dsplaying," as well as a "Pinkie pie."

[BoredAuthor817]

Certainly off to an interesting start.

We'll see where it goes.

[Litqin]

I actually wanted Twilight to act as a mother to Sunset, but whatever, this one is good too.

[Fullmetal Prime]

This should be an interesting AU looking forward how kid Sunset interacts with everyone

[DarkOuroboros]

This looks interesting. Can't wait for more chapters.

[BoredAuthor817]

8784956
I don't think Twilight being a mother figure to Sunset would work in this scenario since Sunset already has a relationship with Princess Celestia. I see Twilight being more as an aunt in this story.

I think the author is also trying to go for a redemption arc for Celestia. If Celestia felt she failed Sunset the first time, she would jump at this opportunity to make it right.

That's just what I'm reading so far.

[Vansho-Lakon]

8784956
She'll just be Sunset B.S.B.F.F
Big Sister Best Friend Forever

[LucidDreamer]

Okay, this is just cute.

[Dusk Star Shine]

As Rainbow Dash would say, This Story is 20% more AWESOME!

"Hey don't go stealing my lines!"

Dash don't break the fourth wall, that's Pinkie's shtick!

"Hey's right Dashie, don't go stealing MY shtick!"

[Error Sans]

Cool Story

[fmriver]

8784785
Thanks for pointing that out!

[XIII]

Alright you caught my attention let's see where this goes

[Kalizecora]

a Good start, please keep it going.

[Unity Bringer]

Definitely needs an editor, but I do like the concept. I'd also volunteer to help give it a run through, as the story itself is quite interesting, though I find the little errors a bit of a hindrance while reading currently.

[titanhades70]

What they are doing is not a good idea. By hiding the truth from Sunset, it's only going to come back and bite them later on.

[Avatar Sprite]

8785949
They might tell her when she is calm, but you try telling an already scared 5-7 year old that they did something like what Sunset did. They would be lucky if she had a Twilight style meltdown about banishment and Magic Kindergarten.

[BoredAuthor817]

8785949
8786089

That is if she even understands.

Yeah, it will bite the ass when she finds out. But, what can you really do with someone who has almost been wiped clean? That's like telling someone they're the reincarnation of someone, but that they'll have no memory of their previous life.

[MLai]

"Tia, calm yourself. Twilight will come back, have faith. She has never failed us, and I do not foresee this occasion ending any differently" Luna gently crooned to her sister.

Oh thank god, someone else who doesn't call her "Celly". I've never understood that shorthand name choice for Celestia: It's confusing to pronounce, nonsensical to the ear, and doesn't convey the elegance of the owner. Am I supposed to say "Sally"? "Selly?" "Chelly"? "Chilli?" 🤷

8784477
Ok, my extrapolations of canon.

• Contrary to what many think, Celestia doesn't have a long list of past dead students. Despite having lived over a millennia, she has never had any students except 2.
• After all, now that Twilight has graduated, you don't see Celestia promptly finding and nurturing another personal student, do you? No, she's done.
• The only reason she suddenly decided to get students, 1 after the other, was out of a very pragmatic concern: She needed a Bearer of Magic to counter the imminent revival of Nightmare Moon.
• Sunset was her 1st choice, and you can tell she was selected with intentional good timing. She would be a mature mare in her prime, maybe a Princess, at the stage that Twilight is now at the end of season 7, when NMM returned. Why would Celestia want an immature newly-graduated apprentice to take on NMM, gathering her band of Bearers at the last possible second while on the trek to NMM's evil lair? That makes absolutely no sense.
• The reason Twilight is so immature, with no fellow Bearers, scraping by with a victory by the skin of her teeth... is because she is the emergency substitute to Sunset.
• Another hint that Celestia is not an old hoof at teaching personal students, is how she behaved when sending Twilight off to Ponyville. Someone who has taught dozens of students previously, would not be having separation anxiety as if she's doing this for the 1st time.
• That leads to another hint on how/ why she messed up with Sunset. Sunset is her first, and she got too close. Her emotions clouded her judgement, and Celestia acted irrationally. Does it seem in-character for Celestia, of all ponies, to banish a pony because she committed a forgivable crime and yelled back at her? Even Starlight didn't get that treatment. A normal Celestia would never lash out that way. Celestia only did that because Sunset managed to wound her to the heart, and because of the stress Celestia was under regarding her extreme expectations and hopes for Sunset against NMM. We can see her underlying regret about all that, in EQG1. Does her behavior in EQG1 square up with that of a Celestia coldly banishing Sunset, in the comics?
• We can also see her massively revising her ways for Twilight. Despite Twilight's adoration of her, Celestia keeps her Faithful Student at a Goldilocks zone: Not too cold, but not too hot. This can be seen all the way through the 1st 3 seasons. She doesn't give Twilight a chance to become spoiled, and she doesn't give herself a chance to spoil Twilight. Choosing someone who already has a close-knit family is another bulwark against that temptation to indulge in selfish love. That's how Celestia saw it... but it did lead to some of Twilight insecurities, as Twilight continually tried to live up to what she thinks are her princess' expectations.
• It's not how Celestia would actually act, if she was allowed to. In private, she frets about her Twilight like a mother hen. But she never shows it in front of Twilight. Based on her warm-but-controlled reaction to Sunset in Forgotten Friendship, we can see that extends to Sunset as well, now. Everything Celestia seems to want to release in EQG1, she doesn't mention at all when Sunset is finally there in person.

[Magnus Orion]

All Sunset needs is a second chance. This is it.

[Magnus Orion]

8786441
Discord just does it to piss her off.

[MorpheustheDream]

Such a cute story. I love it already!

[titanhades70]

8786089
They are going to have to do it soon anyway. The fact she has missed 15+ years is going to be hard to hide. As well as explaineing why there are 4 new alicorns. And why everypony she knows is either older or gone.

[Raistlin]

8785528

There is a certain fridge horror in the fact the Elements erased most of Sunset's memories and adult personality traits. One could even say they "killed" Sunset (Death of Personality as in Babylon 5).

[Satto Kez]

Alright, this is Looking good!

I’m lookkng forward to updates.

[DragonFireRider]

The exotic butters does say: Cute.

[fmriver]

8787009
I know right?! While this fic is not one I am taking into a heavy philosophical direction (at least for now), I definitely am going to call that out. Particularly since we know that Equestrians put a similar value to memories, with how adamant Clover the Clever pursued the memory stealing witch that originally had the memory stone in 'Forgotten Friendship'.

I personally have always had an extreme fear of memory loss, and Flowers for Algernon is like one of the saddest scariest movies ever. Now with the premise that a person = the sum of their memories, think of the morality of a mother accepting to see the you of today 'dead' in order to keep a version of you that didn't 'turn out wrong'. That would be horribly selfish. Even for the younger version, if they found out, how could they trust her? If the opportunity arises again would she do it?

But then what if by erasing the last 10 years of your life, saves 'you' from life in prison, or a terminal disease, or from corrupting your soul with dark magic? What then?

[fmriver]

8786441
Thanks for the really well thought out bullet points.

In my mind, I do see her having had 'students' before, however none as close as Sunset or Twilight. Basically, they would have been graduating ponies from her school, awarded patronage in the form of some of her time, some access to the palace private library, due to interesting research.

As for the timing of Sunset and Twilight in relation to Nightmare Moon? I totally agree with you. I think however that this may be a stronger possible cause for her failure with Sunset, more than inexperience teaching. No other student in the last 1000 years mattered as much, than this one which she tried to groom into a proxy for reactivating the elements. She cut Sunset at the latest possible moment to have enough time for the replacement to be ready for NmM.

However I also believe that there is a good argument that there could have been at least rumors of what happened to Sunset reached Twilight's ears. This is the cause for her extreme anxiety in failing any test from the princess, and fear of being banished or 'disappeared' into the dungeons, even though on screen there is nothing that hints Celestia ever even showing disappointment in Twilight beyond the wedding, but at that point she doesn't have to discipline her student harshly. Luna is redeemed already, crisis time is done.

[Dragonwaz]

8786441
It's pronounced S-el-E. Exactly like a foal Luna would say Celestia if she was having pronunciation problems with the lestia part.

[Rixec]

Heh, Sunset's reaction to so many alicorns was priceless. And it is really adorable to hear her refer to Twilight as "Miss."

[TheGreatEater]

princess of the night >> Princess of the Night

mistress of dreams >> Mistress of Dreams

element bearers >> Element Bearers
______________

In Sunset's reaction to all the Alicorns. You need to fix the spacing (not the jumbled up rush, but prior to that the words have massive amounts of spacing between them.).
________________

So far, it's a cute little fic.

[Pinklestia]

8802980

Yeah, and to think she has not meet the baby alicorn yet.

[The Real McCoy]

Her little Sunset was home.

Let's see how long it takes Luna to totally screw this happy reunion up, shall we?
We shall

[MuffinPonyPoser]

9260643
Who says it's gotta be loony McLuna?

[BeardedRider]

Luna did not share as much of her sibling's worry. Luna was certain that Twilight understood that while the loss of the crown, and therefore the use of the Elements of Harmony, would be a setback, it would pale against the loss of its bearer. Even if one were to be purely pragmatic, the newest alicorn was a much more useful tool for Equestria. It was her ability to figure out solutions, research, befriend enemies, and create lasting bonds that mattered. She had already provided so many more solutions to threats against Equestria than an overpowered magical beam of friendship did. Without the crown they would lose a weapon, but without Twilight they would lose something more.

Yeah, you'd lose your first line of defense, as well as an idiotic liar. horribe, ain't it?

Princess Celestia looked at her younger sibling, tears in her eyes looking heartbroken. "The selfish part of me just asks, why? She had a chance to come home, why couldn't she just come h-home?"

The answer is simple- she wanted no more of your BS.

[WifeOfSunsetShimmer]

"Oh my darling little Sunset, y-you ha-had me so very worried!" A hitch in her throat made Celestia stumble on her words. Sunset blushed as looked at her face, finally recognizing the tear tracks marking her mentor’s fur, with wide eyes. Suddenly she was hugging her back as hard as she could. For some reason seeing her so distraught frightened the filly.

Im tearing up, thank you author

IT'S SO GOOD WTH ITS TOO GOOD