Alternate Beginnings: Year Three

by Doug Graves

8 Breach

April 8th, 995

Sunset Shimmer scowls as she trots down the hallway leading to the Canterlot Archives. It is almost as if Princess Celestia knows what she is up to, and deliberately gives her these assignments to waste her time. She smirks to herself; maybe she should just take up residence in the library itself. It will make it easier to cut that time sink known as 'making friends', no matter how much Princess Celestia insists that it is important.

Sunset nods to the guard pony on duty outside the library, receiving a curt nod in reply. She nods to the librarian at the front desk; if the moon outside is any indication her shift is almost up and she is ready to go to bed. Perfect. She walks up to the librarian, "Oh, hey, I was going to do a little late night research. I'll be in the Star Swirl wing!"

The librarian yawns, waving her purple hoof and returning to the scroll she is perusing. Sunset walks past, doing a quick check to see if any other ponies are in the area. Seeing none, she moves over to the clearly labeled 'Restricted' section. She glances around before her horn lights up and her eyes glow. She makes her way into the Dark Magic area, slipping past the sleeping librarian.

The web of enchantments protecting the spells are child's play for Sunset, the amber unicorn slipping through. She quickly locates the spellbook in question, containing some of the darker magics known to ponykind. Sunset takes a deep breath and mentally focuses, knowing that the course ahead for her is a dangerous one, no doubt about that. The knowledge contained in this spellbook will earn her a place in the history books, though as a villain or a genius will depend on how well she can manipulate the spell in question. She takes another look at the book in her hoof, quickly paging through until she comes to the section on centaur magic. She makes a few notes on her papers before copying the spell, slipping the papers into her saddlebags.

Once she has completed this research, and shown Princess Celestia what her power is capable of, the Princess is sure to acquiesce to her demand to become a Princess. Then, with the full abilities of an alicorn, she will be able to show the true meaning of power as she twists these dark spells to their true purpose.

She sighs; Princess Celestia really needs to put better safeguards on these areas. Though, once her research is complete, and she has earned her place among the Princesses, there will be no need to guard them. She replaces the spellbook, slipping back out through the web of spells before removing any trace of her presence. As she walks past the empty desk she gathers a few other books, to disguise her true intentions, and makes her way back out of the library.

Sunset Shimmer nods to the guard, the librarian's replacement waving goodbye to her, as she leaves the library. She takes a few steps outside before coming to a stop; walking down the hallway is Princess Celestia herself. She quickly bows her head, saying, "Hello, Princess Celestia, what brings you to the library tonight?"

Princess Celestia looks at Sunset Shimmer, a frown initially on her face. It turns to a smile as she says, "Good evening, Sunset Shimmer. I was curious what the library had to do with my latest assignment, but I can see you have other activities on your mind." Sunset gulps before glancing to the titles of the books she is openly carrying; 'The Manners of Minotaurs', 'Recent Earth Pony Settlements', and 'Farming for Non-Earth Ponies'. Princess Celestia continues, "So, how have your visits to Ponyville been going? Well, I trust?"

Sunset mentally rolls her eyes; of course Princess Celestia would make a connection between the random books she is carrying and her activities in Ponyville. She stammers, "Oh, Princess, they have gone... very well! I do believe I'm learning a lot about friendship!"

Princess Celestia laughs, "Well, don't go learning about friendship too quickly, understand? Some things need to grow and bloom in their own time. But, it doesn't hurt to get a little bit of a head start in our studies, hmm?"

Sunset laughs nervously, forcing a smile to her face, "Oh, um, okay! I'll be sure to keep it, you know, slow. No need to rush anything!"

Princess Celestia nods, winking at Sunset. The alicorn turns, walking down the hallway. Once she is out of sight a smile creeps over Sunset's face. Now, where would be a good place to start her research? And not just on the spell, there is a mirror that will serve as an excellent back up plan, should Tirek's spell go haywire. Sunset Shimmer teleports herself to her study, removing her notes from her saddlebags. She will need to disguise these, to keep any probing eyes from discovering what she intends.

Celestia sighs to herself as she turns the corner. She doesn't need her ability to sense connections between ponies, even if it isn't as strong as Cadance's, to tell there is nothing going on between Sunset and Doug, her student's woeful attempt at appearing in love giving away her deception. The books she has taken from the library come from the path to the restricted section, Celestia's subtly buried spell alerting her and making the librarian's warning superfluous but still appreciated. What will it take to get Sunset Shimmer to keep from straying from the path? Maybe another attempt at getting Sunset to acknowledge the importance of friendship; maybe if she has another student offer their aid? Or should she attempt to push Doug and Sunset together?

She shakes her head; Doug won't go for it. The human could be frustratingly stubborn in his ways, and she doesn't feel like she has a perfect read on him. Well, he might go for it if Sunset initiates, but there is as much a chance of that happening as Sunset sincerely completing one of her assignments on friendship. Well, there is little to do now but wait and see what Sunset Shimmer intends to do with the magic located in the restricted section.

Celestia continues back to the throne room, making sure that everything else is proceeding normally. She needs to prepare for another slow session of the Night Court, the nobles still not acquiescing to her request to desegregate the Day Court and Night Court. No, the nobles, the governors, the lawmakers, they just have to have their precious time in the sun to themselves, and make the other 'common' ponies stand in line during the night. No matter; she likes the Night Court more anyway, at least the ponies that come have real problems that she can help with.

Comments

[Heidao]

Well, things aren't gonna go well...

So she's aware of the mirror and it's already her go to contingency of escape. Really Celestia, Doug is now your emergency anchor if Sunset continues to rebel? Yeesh

[Snow]

I mean, I know how this ends even without reading ahead since the story is loosely fitting canon, and the flash-fowards show foals without normal levels of magic so she obviously fails, but I do want to point out that, theoretically, the idea has merit.

Even if one can't take only a portion of magic, she could siphon from low-magic targets that she doesn't need to care about. Insects, or even animals if she's ruthless enough. Of course there's the question of how that would work, but Tirek seemed well enough able to use magic from different sources not indigenous to his own species. Of course, I'm not sure how she plans on using the spell to imbue somepony else instead of just herself.

[Doug Graves]

9579052
Certainly! I wanted to give Sunset a legitimate reason for tooling around with forbidden magic. Later chapters delve a little more into the 'specifics' of how it would or would not work.

[Jack-Pony]

Despite ruling for 1,000+ years, Celestia seems surprisingly ignorant of her student's true intentions. IDK, maybe I'm just expecting more from a seasoned ruler of that age...

[f0st3r21]

I’d like to see this characterization of Celestia explored more. The inner workings of her cunning is fascinating.

[MurderP0n7]

10259273
Maybe Celestia does know that Sunset is doing things wrong, but she hasn’t realized how far she’s going because she appreciates her so much because she’s one of her students