In the face of anon-a-miss, Sunsets runs away to Equestria to get a break and finds a welcome relief in her old life as a pony. Cultures clash as her CHS friends, determined to win her back, discover just how little they know about Sunset.
Anon-a-miss, the mysterious gossiper, plagues CHS. Caught as the perfect scapegoat, Sunset finds herself more shunned than ever before. While determined to clear her name, Sunset decides that first she needs a break. From everything. Back in the place she used to call home.
But as soon as Sunset leaves, her friends at CHS realize the depth of their mistake. Not just in accusing Sunset, but also in forgetting Sunset is not like any other human. As they try with all their might to earn back their friend's trust, they quickly come to learn that they know very little about Sunset and the world she hails from.
And worse for the girls, as Sunset begins to pick up the shards of her old life in Equestria, she begins to wonder whether she really wants to stay at CHS at all.
Sunset flinched at the memory as she walked down the halls of CHS. They were empty at this hour, all students having long left bar perhaps a few finishing practice or doing detention.
Nobody to yell at her, nobody to accuse her.
It hadn't turned physical. Not yet, at any rate. She thanked Celestia and every deity the people here worshipped that CHS wasn't that kind of school, even at its worst. But you don’t need violence to hurt people. Words have plenty power of their own.
“You’re not the person we thought you were!”
The betrayal was the worst. She could understand a lingering resentment from the other people in the school. It’s a big school after all, can’t ask everyone for their forgiveness. But these girls, they said they had forgiven her, so why? Why did they turn on her? Why didn’t they believe her?
Why did they abandon her?
And if they had, did she even have anyone left?
By now she had reached the front door of the school. Still nobody. Beyond that door was the Wondercolt statue, and inside that statue, the portal to Equestria.
Equestria. Home to maybe her final two friends. She hadn’t dared write Twilight again. Twilight had trusted the girls to look after her, but Sunset couldn’t follow in Twilight’s trust. Not when it came to those girls. Not after the accusations, not after the glares, not after what seemed like the whole school decided that she, Sunset Shimmer, was Anon-a-Miss.
She was angry, she was scared, and she was tired. So very, very tired. She just wanted a friend.
“Stay strong, remember who you are, and find your family.” Those were the last words Twilight had written to her this evening. She couldn’t really stay strong anymore, but she could find her family. Even if it was a family of only two.
The door slid open with barely a sound. Sunset picked up her pace as the Wondercolt statue drew closer. She’d have to explain herself to Twilight, but maybe Twilight could give her one night’s rest? She was so very tired.
One step, another step, the portal was now meters away-
“So you’re leaving?”
Sunset froze in her steps as Flash Sentry’s voice called out to her. She slowly turned around to face her ex-boyfriend. He just stood there, hands in his jacket’s pockets.
“...Hey Flash” she managed to say.
“Hey Sunset” he answered “you look terrible.”
A wry smile formed as she lowered her head. “I feel terrible.”
“I can imagine” Flash said, then frowned. “No, wait, no I can’t. I just-” Sunset watched as Flash did that ‘scratch the back of his head’ thing he always did when he stuffed his foot in his mouth. Eventually he sighed. “So, yeah, I can’t really imagine. What I’m trying to say is- I understand. You wanting to leave, I mean.”
Sunset lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Flash snorted “wanting a break from all of this? I told you, I understand. You got an entire school’s worth of crap dumped on your lap. Anyone would want a break from that.”
“But it feels like I’m running away” Sunset said.
“And?" Flash countered, raising his eyebrow as he tilted his head. "Look, Sunset, I know you and I know you hate running. You stand your ground whenever you can, and even in times you can’t, but sometimes it’s not a bad idea to take a step back for a bit.” Flash paused for a moment before adding “besides, I know you and the girls had something planned, but I’m pretty sure that’s down the drains right now and you’ll be alone for the holidays. Nobody should be alone for the holidays.”
Another wave of hurt racked Sunset. She hadn’t really thought about her holiday plans ever since the invitation to celebrate Christmas with everyone at Sweet Apple Acres, but now that she did she realized how much she had been looking forward to it. Her face must have shown the pain, because Flash’s hand was back behind his head again.
“Ah crap. Do you- uhm , have Christmas over there?” he asked.
Sunset's mind flashed back to her earlier years in Equestria. Carols in the snow, a decorated tree, warm family around a table... “Kind of. It’s not something religious like here, but it is dear to us. It celebrates the founding of our nation, and a time where friendship triumphed over hatred and petty grievances.”
“Sounds exactly like the kind of celebration you need right now.” Flash said.
And maybe it was. If she had anyone to celebrate it with. Her list of friends and family in Equestria was almost shorter than the one she had here. Those that would celebrate Hearth’s Warming with her even shorter.
Flash spoke again. “Look, you’ve poured more effort in fixing this school than anyone else, and I'm including Twilight in that list. If anyone deserves an early Christmas break, it’s you. Don’t worry about the teachers, I’ll talk to them and explain what happened. I’ll even tell them this was my idea.”
Sunset opened her mouth to protest, but Flash put his hands on her shoulders.
“Sunset, just go. Let us deal with our own problems for a change.”
Sunset turned around and took the last remaining steps to the portal. She raised a hand to touch the statue’s base, and to her relief the surface shimmered. The portal was open. She almost leaned into it, if not for remembering one more thing.
“Flash, a book- in my locker there is a book. I use it to stay in touch with Twilight. I just- I mean if something really important happens-”
“Book in your locker, got it” Flash smiled. “Now go, and happy early holidays.”
A ghost of a smile made its way to her lips, and Sunset leaned through the portal’s surface, ripples in the surface and a flash of light marking her disappearance from earth and back to Equestria.
As the ripples of the portal slowly receded, Flash sighed. This had been a harder conversation than he had expected. At first, he had just planned on throwing Sunset a lifeline by telling her he believed in her, giving the girl a bit of a pep talk so she could face her friends while they sorted this mess out. But after he saw her making a beeline for the portal, he’d decided to let her go home. Sunset had looked on the verge of breaking, and he’d be damned before he gave Anon-a-Miss the satisfaction of seeing that happen.
“What a mess” he muttered as he pocketed his hands again. He’d heard about Sunset collapsing into the hallway in tears, which had stunned him. Even with the payback after the Fall Formal Sunset had always faced her adversity head on.
Flash turned away from the portal and began his own walk home. He’d tell the principal about Sunset’s leave of absence first thing tomorrow. And after that, he would start his own little inquisition.
He would get to the bottom of this anon-a-mess, one way or another.
The moment she stepped through the portal, Sunset’s sense of time and space were warped beyond recognition. For both a moment and an eternity, time seemed to stretch and take her along with it. Then everything shrunk back just as quickly as she was spat out of the other end of the portal.
"Oof!" Air was pushed from her lungs as she hit the floor with an audible thud, landing flat on her stomach. She drew in a deep breath as she opened her eyes, not to much good as the entire room spun. She rapidly blinked until the three rooms became one again.
"Sunset?" Oh hey, a new blur. Sunset blinked again until the purple blur turned into a very worried looking purple alicorn.
"Hey Twilight" Sunset rasped.
Purple feathers fluffed as Twilight took stock of Sunset's dishevelled state, uncertainty danced across her face as she raised a hoof to step forward. "Is everything alright? Why did you come through the portal?"
"You told me, right?" Sunset said as she rose to wobbly stand on her hooves. For a moment she lifted her front hooves out of pure reflex, trying to stand on her hind legs as she had done for years on the other end of that mirror, but exhaustion and her pony body dragged them down on the crystal floor with an audible clack. A small frown made its way to her face, but exhausted as she was she was content to let her body run on auto-pilot for now.
"Told you what?" Twilight asked as she stepped forward until she was right in front of Sunset.
"To remember who I am, and find my family."
Twilight tilted her head, worry mixed with confusion. "Yes?"
Sunset waved a hoof in her direction. "Found it."
The alicorn princess's mouth opened and closed a few times, and Sunset could practically see the gears turning behind those purple eyes. If their talks through her book were any indication, Sunset suspected Twilight was flitting through a thousand questions, trying to figure out what happened. But just as Twilight opened her mouth to fire of her first question, an amber hoof rose up to cover it. Its owner gave Twilight a tired smile. "As comforting as seeing a friend trying to figure things out for me for a change is, I am way too tired to handle the thousand questions you're about to bombard me with."
Purple ears folded back on her scalp as Twilight gave a piteous whine from behind Sunset's hoof. Sunset couldn't help but smile a little brighter. "Yes, I know you're worried. And you have no idea how much that means to me, especially right now. But I've had a really, really rough couple of days and I'm about to fall asleep on my hooves right here and now. I promise I'll explain everything tomorrow, but right now I really need some sleep."
The worry in her eyes never abated, but Twilight nonetheless nodded her assent. "Right" Sunset continued "so where can I find an inn here? We talked about Ponyville a lot over our journals, but I'm not really familiar with where-"
As if she had flicked a switch, Twilight's demeanour changed. Her eyes hardened and wings flared and a purple hoof firmly lowered the yellow one covering her mouth. "Oh no you don't!"
Sunset took a step back at the sudden change, her eyes widened in surprise. "Twilight?"
Twilight stomped a hoof and leaned forward until their noses almost touched. "No. You don't get to come here looking like you just finished a three day Running of the Leaves, brush off my concern and calmly canter off towards an inn. You-" she poked Sunset in the chest with a hoof "are staying right here. In my castle."
Sunset felt her ears splaying back as she quailed beneath that stern gaze. This wasn't Twilight Sparkle, friend and fellow student of magic. This was Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. Who clearly took slights against her friendship very seriously. "I'm sorry, princess." Sunset meekly apologized, lowering her head.
Twilight blinked, her eyes softening as she reached out with a wing. Sunset felt a tingle across her spine as feathers drew over her withers in a gentle hug. "Hey, none of that now." Twilight said gently. "We're friends. I may be a princess, and Celestia knows everypony can't stop reminding me about it" Twilight rolled her eyes "but I'm the Princess of Friendship. The last thing I want is for my friends to bow to me."
Sunset felt a warmth she hadn't felt for the last couple of days spread through her chest. She raised her head and smiled. "Thanks, Twilight."
Twilight returned the smile. "Don't worry about it, now let's get you to a room. Luckily I always keep a couple of guest rooms ready, in case someone needs to sleep over."
"Doesn't almost everyone you know live in Ponyville?" Sunset noted, raising an eyebrow.
Twilight stuck out her tongue in reply and bumped her shoulder against Sunset's. "It helps you now, doesn't it?"
The next few moments passed in silence, and were mostly as a blur to Sunset as she began to doze off. Twilight steered her out of the room she had landed in with her wings, and down hallways until she stopped in front of a door. As Twilight opened it with her magic revealed a room with the basic necessities: A closet, a desk, a vanity table and a bed.
A big, fluffy, luxurious bed.
"This is your room" Twilight explained. "If you need anything -and I mean anything- my room is two doors down the hallway."
"Right, thanks Twilight" Sunset murmured as she wobbled towards the bed. Placing her hooves on the edge she tried to raise herself on to the bed, but momentarily switched to trying to stand as a human and nearly toppled over. Before she could hit the ground, a purple glow caught her and lifted her up to the bed, laying her down and drawing the cover up to her neck.
"Sorry for being such a hassle." Sunset apologized, but Twilight merely shook her head with a smile.
"Don't be sorry. Just promise to talk to me about this tomorrow, okay?"
Sunset smiled. "I will."
Twilight nodded, satisfied with the promise. "Good night, Sunset."
"Good night, Twilight."
As Twilight closed the door behind her, Sunset shifted in her bed, digging her head into the soft pillow and drawing the blankets closer. There was something oddly comforting about everything. The bed, the air, the sounds coming from the outside, everything just made her feel calmer and more secure than she had felt in a long time. It wasn't until she started to drift of to sleep that she realized why. "I'm back home. Back in Equestria." It made her feel safe, as if she was back in her own house. She just hoped that her dreams would be just as comfortable being home as she was.
Outside the window of her room, the moon flashed as if it had heard the unspoken plea.
Sunset blinked, and looked around. The scenery was familiar enough, Canterlot High's cafeteria. She was sitting at the same table she and her friends had unofficially claimed as their own.
The only difference was that all of her friends were glaring at her.
"Well?" Applejack demanded, making Sunset jump in her seat.
"I'm not- I wasn't-" Sunset shook her head. Hadn't she gone back to Equestria? How had she ended up back in CHS?
Rarity scoffed. "Oh really, if you can't even answer a simple question don't even bother talking at all." An eyebrow raised critically. "In fact, that would be preferable to your lies."
"I'm not a liar!" Sunset shouted.
"Quit lyin' Sunset!" Applejack shouted back, slamming a phone on the table, the Anon-a-Miss Mystable page open, proudly displaying every article that talked about her friends.
"I didn't write those! I don't know how they got those photos, but I didn't write those!" Sunset shouted again.
"What a shock, another lie." Rainbow Dash drawled. "But then, we really shouldn't have been surprised. You've been lying to us ever since you set a foot through that mirror. Even now you're still pretending as if you're one of us!"
Before Sunset could ask what she meant, she blinked again. Suddenly all the girls were taller. Much taller. And not just them, the entire cafeteria seemed to have grown. Sunset looked down at her hands, but her eyes found only hooves.
She was a pony again, a pony in a human world.
Now Fluttershy advanced on Sunset. Sunset paled and scooted back as she noticed that in her hands, Fluttershy held a bridle. "Animals need to be leashed." Fluttershy growled.
Applejack snorted. "Might put you to the field. Some honest work befitting an animal."
Sunset tried scrambling back further, but as if it appeared out of nowhere a wall blocked her path. "I'm not an animal!" she protested.
"You're a horse, Sunset. That makes you an animal." Fluttershy replied as she crouched down and lifted the bridle over her head.
"But I'm not a normal horse!" Sunset protested, struggling against the bridle. "I'm a pony!" She twisted her head as Fluttershy tried to force the bit in her mouth. "A unicorn!"
To her surprise, Fluttershy stopped. Sunset sighed in relief, but the moment she looked up to thank Fluttershy the words became ash in her throat. Everyone, the entire cafeteria, was glaring at her.
"If you aren't either human or an animal..." Rainbow Dash began.
"Then you don't belong here!" Fluttershy finished, and pushed Sunset away. The wall that had stopped her retreat before seemed to melt, and the world began to spin again as if she had gone through the portal.
Whatever she had passed through, it spat her out on the other end. Sunset scrambled to her hooves and yanked the bridle of her head, flinging the offending tool across the room. She was breathing heavily and it took several seconds of deep breaths before she felt herself calm down. But only a single good look at the room she was in and she felt her heartbeat skyrocket again.
Celestia's throne room.
"The wayward student returns."
Sunset flinched at the voice, a block of ice settling in her stomach. If it weren't for CHS having its own version of Celestia, she probably would have jumped at hearing that voice again after so long. Instead she whirled around and took several steps back. Celestia glared down at her imperiously, eyes set in that same damned glare of disappointment she had given her that last day.
"I believe I told you you were no longer welcome here." Celestia's voice was cold and unyielding.
"I didn't exactly choose to land here!" Sunset snapped. She blinked and took a step back in surprise as she realized with just how much venom in her voice she had said that.
Celestia gave no indication this was unexpected though. She calmly observed Sunset and replied, bitter disappointment tingeing her voice. "You chose every step of your path, Sunset Shimmer. When you pursued the mirror even when I forbade it, when you fled through the mirror to avoid your punishment, when you returned to steal the crown rightfully Twilight's and when you returned here."
Sunset stomped a hoof. A fire she had thought long gone began to burn in her chest, heating over the cold block of ice in her stomach. "I also chose to better myself! I'm making amends!" Passion began to turn to rage as her mind drifted back to all her attempts to make up for her misdeeds, and further back to her studies under Celestia. "I just want my attempts to be accepted! Here! There! Anywhere!"
"You have no place here."
Sunset frowned, not being accepted was something she had dreaded, but expected. Fire in her chest was mixing with the ice in her stomach as rage and fear warred for dominance. "Then where am I supposed to go! They don't want me in the human world, you don't want me here! Where do I belong?!"
Again, the cold disappointment of Celestia's eyes never wavered, but Sunset noticed they did narrow. "If you are wanted nowhere" Celestia lowered her head until she was at Sunset's eye level "then maybe you belong nowhere!"
Sunset drew back as if struck. She had feared Celestia's punishments of fire or stone, but instead those words felt like a lance to the heart. Sunset stumbled back and lost her balance, falling on her haunches. Her breathing quickened as she tried to clutch at her chest with a hoof. Where did a pony who ran from Equestria belong? The room seemed to darken, Sunset glanced around swiftly as the walls seemed to close in. Her breathing kept quickening, everything seemed to vanish in the dark. Celestia began to fade, colours drained and even sound became like he muffled noise behind a wall, becoming empty. A nowhere.
Then, a new voice rang out.
"Think not too deeply on the words of a nightmare's ghost, Sunset Shimmer."
The new voice was like a beacon in the dark and Sunset's head whipped around to its origin. There, in one of the fading walls was a stained glass window. Its colours were still bright, as if untouched by the growing darkness. It was one Sunset was well familiar with, the stained glass window depicting Celestia's banishment of Nightmare Moon.
The figure of the darker alicorn glowed and then just seemed to peel off the window. As it drifted to the ground, the edges of the stained glass smoothed, the coat colour lightened from a near black to a dark shade of blue and the blue mane turned ethereal, like the night's sky with all its stars. Blue wings spread and the new alicorn slowly touched down on the floor, a gentle smile on her face.
"Greetings, Sunset Shimmer. At last we meet."
It was only when the alicorn spoke again that Sunset realized she recognized the voice. "Vice-Principal Luna!?" she blurted out, then quickly sucked her lips in, feeling a flame burning her cheeks.
The alicorn raised an eyebrow, though the smile tugging at the corners of her lips hinted that no offence was taken. "I have had many titles over the long years, but Vice-Principal is a new one."
"I'm sorry, it's not- I just-" Sunset blabbered, but a raised hoof silenced any further ramblings.
"Peace, Sunset Shimmer. I am aware of my double on the other end of the mirror" Luna -Princess Luna- smiled. "In truth, I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time."
"Me?" Sunset blinked.
Princess Luna nodded. "Indeed." She made as if to continue the conversation, but turned her head towards the still darkening room and the fading Celestia, still glaring coldly at Sunset. "But let us move this conversation to somewhere more comfortable, shall we?" A blue horn lit up, and in a flash the throneroom was once more as it was. Though now Celestia sat on her throne, a calm smile on her face as she shifted through paperwork, a white coated unicorn with a brown mane at her side. Luna nodded in satisfaction. "A much more accurate depiction of my sister in court."
Sunset gaped. "How did you-"
Princess Luna raised her head proudly. "I am the Princess of the Night, surely Twilight has mentioned thus and my duty, has she not?"
Why yes, Twilight had talked about Princess Luna. At great length, as the two unicorns had compared the two principals and their royal counterparts before. Princess Luna was Princess of the Night, raising the moon and-
Realization struck Sunset like thunder and with a groan she raised a hoof to her face. "Of course. This is a dream, isn't it?" Luna nodded, and Sunset buried head head in her hooves. "Aaaugh, I should have known! There's no way Fluttershy would try to muzzle me. She doesn't even leash her own pets!"
"Dreams blur the line between reality and fantasy, and catch us when our minds are at rest." Luna lectured. "That is why they are so believable, moreso when they are a nightmare brought by your fears, and perhaps something more."
Sunset peeked from under her hooves with a frown. That sounded ominous, and she really didn't want to deal with ominous right now. Instead, she rose to her haunches again and switched to another thing the princess had said that had piqued her curiosity. "You said you have been looking forward to meeting me?" At a nod from the princess, Sunset couldn't help but ask "why?"
"This night is far from the first time I have heard your cry for help." Luna said, her wings drooped somewhat as she talked. "But I fear my powers do not fully stretch beyond the mirror. I could hear you, and I have tried to reach out to you, but it was akin to standing in an endless forest and hearing a cry echoing from somewhere within the woods. No matter how far I ran, I could never reach you." She scowled, though not at Sunset "'tis a failure of my duty, but one I aim to make amends for."
That was a surprise. Sunset had had plenty of nightmares in her lifetime, most of them after the Fall Formal, but it wasn't as if she was expecting Princess Luna's help, so she wasn't really concerned with why Princess Luna wouldn't come for her. Rather the main thing she was wondering was... "but why did you want to meet me?"
Luna's eyes perked up in surprise. "Is it truly that surprising? So very few ponies I know can relate to what we have been through."
Sunset raised herself back into a sitting position, tilting her head in confusion. "I'm sorry, what we have been through?"
Luna tilted her own head, but amusement rather than confusion danced in the alicorn's eyes. "How many other ponies that you know of have rebelled against Celestia, ended up exiled for their efforts, returning after years apart to claim what we perceived to be our rightful due in vengeance only to be blasted by the Elements by Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and set on a path of redemption?"
Sunset's mouth had opened to raise a rebuttal, but none came. "That... is a ridiculously similar experience" she conceded. "Minus of course the part where everything you did was a bit grander. And cleverer." Sunset groaned, resisting the urge to cover her face with her hooves again. "I mean, really, taking over Canterlot with an army of hypnotized high schoolers? What was I thinking!"
"You were not" Luna snorted. "You were intoxicated by the raw power of a magic that was never intended to be yours, and it clouded your mind as to the more rational courses of action. I believe ponies these days call it 'a power trip.'"
Sunset frowned. "You make it sound as if I wasn't in control of my actions."
"Oh you were" Luna admonished. "Let me dispel the notion that this is in any form an excuse. You were not 'controlled' by the power you wielded. Being completely overwhelmed by magic requires those afflicted to be entirely inexperienced with it, which is not an excuse one of my sister's personal students can claim. No, all that happened is that you felt you could do anything and so you took the shortest route to achieve it, even if it was not the smartest one."
Sunset felt a bitter smile make its way to her face and her ears flapped down until they were halfway to her head. Luna took notice, as she raised a critical eyebrow. "You had hoped for this." It was not a question.
Sunset ducked her head, tendrils of shame creeping through her chest. "It's just- when the sirens manipulated everyone in the school, everyone just so easily brushed off all the things they had said and done to one another, no matter how nasty they were. They just went 'oh you were just controlled by magic, don't worry about it' and shrugged it off. It feels so easy to think I too could be able to just point at something and say 'That! It made me do it!'" She looked back up at Luna. "But I can't, can I? Because even if the magic was responsible for that last disaster at the Fall Formal, that doesn't excuse what I did before."
"And that brings us full round to your nightmare." The Princess of the Night gave her an encouraging smile as Sunset winced. "Yes, we do have to come back to that. You fear that you have not been forgiven. You fear that they still hate you and that even the slightest slip would see them cast you out, yes?"
A shiver made Sunset twitch her tail as she remembered her last conversation with her friends. "...I'm not sure that's just a fear any longer."
Luna frowned at that. "We shall have to speak more about this later. For now though, I would tell you that there is one important factor that has made these fears as bad as they are."
Sunset's ears perked up. "What is that?"
A silver shoed hoof pushed into her chest. "You" Luna said, gently but firmly. "Ponies often forget that forgiveness has two sides. The ones you have wronged, and the ones who have done the wronging. Guilt is a powerful force, it guides us to realize our mistakes and improve ourselves. But if you let it rampage inside you, it can consume you just as easily as envy or hatred." For a moment, Luna looked to the side, trouble clouding her eyes as if reminiscing on a mistake. "I myself had to be reminded of this not too long ago, and it nearly destroyed me and those I held dear all over again."
Sunset opened her mouth to press for answers, but a raised hoof forestalled all questions. "A story for another time" Luna continued. "For now, let us focus on you. Your guilt is powerful, and it has kept you from returning to the pony you were. But at the same time, it chains you. It prevents you from truly settling things and moving on as who you are."
"But I am me." Sunset protested.
"Oh? And yet when confronted with a nightmare Celestia, I saw a fire that was entirely absent when confronted with your nightmare friends."
"That was different." Another protest, though a sliver of doubt made its way in her voice.
"Yes, slightly" Luna agreed. "You feel you have no right to be angry with them. That is the guilt talking. Only when backed into a corner by Celestia did you push back."
"But I'm not angry with Celestia either!" More protests, and the doubt grew.
Luna clearly disagreed, as she let out a large, barely dignified snort. "Not angry? Do not try to fool me in this place, Sunset Shimmer. As dreams blur the lines between reality and fantasy, so too do they blur our emotional barriers. Your outburst against Celestia shows that you still carry a spark of anger towards my sister." Luna leaned closer, until their noses were almost touching. "What is it that angers you towards my sister? Is it perhaps how she kept secrets from you? Her demeanour of calm no matter the situation? How she banished you from her sight? How she replaced you with Twilight?"
"That is none of your business!" Sunset roared. Her voice thundered through the dream, the throneroom shaking as if struck by an earthquake. As the tremors receded, Sunset's eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she realized just who and on who's territory she had shouted against.
Luna on the other hoof did not flinch, instead she drew back slowly, and smiled. "Ahh, there she is. I had wondered how deeply you had buried her."
"W-what?" Sunset said, half out of fear half out of confusion, a front leg raised as if to take a step back.
"Just as you and Twilight talked about me through your journal, so have I spoken to Twilight and my sister about you. And they told me you were a wilful pony. Strong, determined, passionate. A mind as sharp as your wit. And I do think I finally saw a glimpse of that pony."
Sunset tried to shrink in on herself. "I don't want to be that pony anymore" she muttered.
"You are that pony, Sunset Shimmer." Luna objected. "You merely need to temper your wilful nature with the lessons you have learned. You are a pony who would face an approaching storm without flinching. Be that pony, do not let guilt chain you down. Forgive yourself, Sunset Shimmer, and then move on to work for the forgiveness of others. Take it from somepony who has been where you are now, you must take the first step. Others will not do it for you. They may help you, but the step is yours to take."
Sunset chewed on the Princesses words. It was true, she certainly had been holding back a lot lately. Any time someone said something she disagreed with, she stayed quiet. Every time someone said something that upset her, she deflected. She was always afraid getting angry would break her friendships, or worse, that she'd slide back to who she used to be. "You make it sound so easy." Sunset grumbled.
"It is not, but that is why we have friends to help us" Luna smiled. "But for that, you will have to ask Twilight. I can sense her worry for you through the dream realm, not only as a princess, but as a friend. Let her help you. Friendship is her domain after all, and I would no more intrude on it than she would my night." Luna reached down and cupped Sunset's chin "have courage, Sunset Shimmer. You have friends here, and regardless of the troubles you have sealed inside you, we will stand by you."
Sunset hesitated. Could she do that? Was it really that simple? No, Princess Luna just said it wouldn't be. It would be hard.
She blinked, and frowned. Hard? When had she ever shied away from things that were hard? She was Sunset Shimmer! Breaker of academic records! Former protégé of Celestia! The mare that had schemed to conquer the throne of Equestria! Hard? Sunset Shimmer did not settle for easy, she relished hard!
Luna's smile widened even more as she watched the emotional storm play across Sunset's face. "At last, she sees."
"Yes, I think I do. I'm going to find a way to solve this situation, one way or another."
Luna nodded. "Hold on to that feeling, Sunset Shimmer. It may only be a dream's courage that will fade like your anger and fear once you wake, but it is also proof that it is still there, waiting for you to awaken once more."
"I will. Thank you, Princess Luna." Sunset answered, and bowed.
"Then I believe our meeting is at an end. I shall depart, but perhaps not before a parting gift."
There was a flash of light from Luna's horn and after it had vanished, so had the throneroom. Instead, Sunset looked around to see Canterlot Park. Not the human one, but the actual Equestrian one. A huge park at the end of the city limits, overlooking Equestria proper. It was night, and lights shone from the houses of the cities in the distance. And the stars- oh the stars. Sunset could not remember having ever seen a night's sky like this, and the moon! So clear, so bright without the Mare in the Moon.
"'Tis but a reflection, but I believe it does justice to my night." Luna said proudly. "Consider it a welcome home present, Sunset Shimmer. And worry not, as long as you remain in Equestria, your dreams are under my protection. No nightmares shall plague your slumber. Should you ever feel the need to talk, you need but call for me." And with that, Luna took wing, slowly flying backwards to the moon in the sky. "Until we meet in the waking world, my friend."
"We will!" Sunset promised. She watched as Luna seemed to phase through the moon as if it was a window, and vanished from her dream. She laid down on the grass, smiling contently at the dream-like feeling of grass tickling her through her fur. She knew this was only a dream, and none of her actual problems back in the waking world had been addressed, but still, her first night in Equestria and she had already made a new friend.
Day came, as it always does, with the rising of the sun, its first beams poking through the curtains and finding Sunset's slumbering eyes with unerring accuracy. The unicorn grumbled and shifted in her bed, trying to dodge the rays of sunshine, but even turning around met with little success, the light bouncing off... something on the walls of her bedroom straight back into her slowly waking eyes. "I swear you're doing this on purpose" Sunset growled drowsily at the offending star.
"Not something I'd put past the Princess" a voice agreed.
Sunset's mind flared from 'slowly waking up' to 'rushed awake' at hearing an unknown voice in her room. She whirled around on her bed, stumbling as her hand failed to find purchase on the mattress. Her eyes scanned the room- and stopped.
Rushed awake is a funny state to be in. Technically awake, but still a bit slow when trying to process things. Scanning the room Sunset found a complete absence of her normal one-room apartment, instead she was in a bedroom made out off... crystal? It was a pretty big room, about the size of her apartment if not as high. It was pretty bare, containing only a bed (and a luxurious one at that, way more comfortable than her mattress), a closet, a nightstand with lamp and a rug. There were also two doors, one -she assumed- leading to a bathroom and the other...
The other had a small purple scaled and green finned dragon standing in its opening, with a wide grin on its face.
"Morning Sunset" the dragon said, and now that she was somewhat more awake she could finally place the voice.
"Spike?" she asked.
Spike's grin grew wider. "In the scales! Now 100% less dog and 100% more pure awesome dragon!" Sunset couldn't help but grin herself as the tiny dragon flexed like a superhero from a comic. "Anyway" Spike said as he puffed out and relaxed his stance, "Twilight told me to wake you up for breakfast."
Sunset blinked. "Twilight is making breakfast?"
"No, I'm making breakfast. Twilight told me you popped in for a visit last evening and went straight to bed, so we figured we'd let you sleep in for a spell. But breakfast is called breakfast for a reason, soooo..." Spike trailed off as he stepped to the side and waved at the door.
"Right, right, on my way oh mighty dragon lord" Sunset said with a grin and a roll of her eyes. She slipped her feet of the bed and got up- "Whu-whoa!" Sunset yelped as she struggled to maintain her balance, she almost tipped forward until she threw back her head and found some balance. She still felt like she could topple forward any moment, but at least she was standing.
"Uhh, Sunset?" Spike prodded, hesitation thick in his voice.
"Ye-whoa! Yeah?" Sunset asked, nearly losing her balance again as she turned to Spike.
"Not that I don't understand the pleasure of standing on two legs, but isn't four more comfortable?"
Sunset blinked and looked down at her arms- or rather, her legs. Legs with hooves, rather than hands. She blinked and slowly lowered them to the ground again, hitting the crystal tiles with a subdued clop. Now that her mind was no longer running on exhausted auto-pilot, she took a moment to just feel standing on four legs again. Everything suddenly felt taller as she halved her own height.
"That long ago, huh?" Spike's voice called from the doorway, dragging her back to reality.
"Yeah, I guess. It's like.. I don't know, slipping back into old shoes after wearing new ones for a while?"
"I'll take your word for it." Spike said as he wriggled the shoe-less claws of his feet.
"Right, one more thing to get used to again" Sunset remarked dryly as she looked back at her own unclad form. Human clothing had taken surprisingly little time to get used to. Ponies generally didn't feel naked because of their coats, but any pony who had lost some of their coat, in an accident or because of a surgery, would try to cover it up. Humans didn't have coats at all, so being clothed at all times felt... logical.
Now though? Sunset drew a deep breath and stretched, enjoying the feel of her coat rippling through the motion. It felt good.. Right in a way her human clothing never did. Well, except maybe her jacket. She did really like that one. Even after Rarity insisted on an 'image change', she refused to give up her jacket. "Going to have to look into getting one over here" she murmured.
"Did you say something?" Spike asked, still standing in the doorway.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing, just wondering if I could get a jacket over here" Sunset smiled and walked past the dragon. "Anyway, breakfast, right? Which way do we go?"
"This way, the dining hall is a few corridors down." Spike pointed as he ran up to walk by the mare's side and the two walked down the corridor.
Clip-clop clip-clop clip-clop.
Sunset's ear twitched at the familiar sound. Those were hooves, her hooves. She'd heard it on occasion, back when she visited Applejack's farm, but this was the first time in a long time that she could actually feel the beats as the keratin of her hooves made contact with the crystal floor.
"I have hooves again."
Sunset couldn't repress the grin making its way on her face, nor did she stop her legs as she moved from a slow trot into a canter.
Clipetyclop clipetyclop clipetyclop
"Wait! Sunset!"
A screech sounded from the crystal floor as Sunset ground to a halt, turning back her head to see Spike hurrying across the floor to catch up with her on his two little legs.
"Oh." Sunset said as she realized there was no way he was going to keep up with her. She smiled apologetically at the little dragon. "Sorry about that Spike."
"Yeesh, you're *huff* almost like a cooped up pegasus finally being let out" Spike grumbled.
Sunset reached up to scratch the back of her head awkwardly. "Sorry" she said again "I just felt like cutting loose a bit. It's been a long time since I had hooves."
Spike shook his head "no no, it's fine, just let me climb up first."
Sunset blinked and opened her mouth to ask what Spike meant, but her words dissolved into a yelp as tiny claws scampered across her flank and a small weight settled on her back. Sunset turned her neck back and levelled the dragon with a critical eyebrow. "Getting comfortable?" she asked archly.
Spiked crossed his arms and returned her raised eyebrow with one of his own. "Hey, if you don't want to wait for breakfast either slow down or take me along. Your choice."
Sunset snorted. "Alright, but don't blame me if you fall off."
"Oh don't worry" Spike replied. "Twilight's carried me around since I hatched, I'm used to this."
Sunset hummed. That made sense, it really wasn't that different from carrying a foal around. Not that she'd ever done that herself, she'd quite firmly set herself 'above' such 'mundane' things back when she was Princess Celestia's student.
"Well then, Sir Spike, hang on and show me where to go. We have a breakfast to catch, and we're going to do it fast!" Sunset reared and dashed off, skipping the trot and going straight for a full gallop. Spike remained expertly strapped to her back, holding bits of her mane in a gentle but firm grip and leaning in with her as he called out directions. Sunset felt elated, the sound of hooves on solid ground and the rush of wind through her mane brought back feelings of joy she hadn't even known she had missed. A sharp turn left, a fast sprint through a straight corridor, a flick of magic to throw open the doors, Sunset let out a cheer as she noticed a large table on the other side, dashing through the door and skidding to a halt. She drew several deep breaths as she stood there, a grin from ear to ear on her face.
"Well somepony is certainly feeling a lot better today" the amused voice of Princess Twilight sounded, making her ears flick as she turned towards one of the seats at the table. It was the first time, Sunset realized, that she actually got a good look at Princess Twilight Sparkle. The small chase in what she had later learned was the Crystal Palace hadn't given her a lot of time, and the rest was with Twilight's human form.
Twilight was calmly sitting on one of six low seats around a circular table, a purple coat with a blazing starburst cutie mark on her flank and a purple mane and tail that were not all that different from her human form's hair. Sunset's eyes trailed from the horn she knew Twilight was born with down to the wings Twilight had earned. The sign of a Princess of Equestria.
"So what got you two racing through the castle?" Twilight asked.
"Sunset wanted to see if her legs still worked" Spike said joyfully as he jumped of her back. "I didn't want to be left behind, so I hitched a ride."
There was a slight narrowing of Twilight's eyes, even though the smile never left her face. "Spike, what did I tell you about being a kitchen dictator with guests?" The tone was light, as if this was hardly the first time Twilight had told the young drake this, and knew full well it wouldn't be the last.
"Sunset's a friend, and friends don't count." Spike shot back, sticking out his tongue. He then turned to Sunset. "So what do you want for breakfast?"
Sunset paused. "Uhm, what do you have? I'm kind of out of practice with Equestrian breakfasts."
"Well, I could make an alfalfa salad, get some oats to cook or eggs and baked hay, maybe pancakes" Spike started counting the dishes on his claws, pausing for a moment and trying very badly to suppress a grin as he continued. "Or I could make some haycakes."
Sunset's ears sprang up and her eyes widened. "You have haycakes?"
Spike's grin threatened to split his face apart. "Great! Haycakes it is. And that means..." he trailed off as he took a glance at Twilight, who rolled her eyes in reply.
"Yes, that means amethyst cakes for you. Now get going you cheeky drake."
"I'll get started right away!" Spike said as he waddled of to the kitchen.
Sunset watched Spike waddle into the kitchen as Twilight chuckled. "He's always looking for excuses to sneak in amethyst cakes."
"Amethyst cakes?"
Twilight nodded as she waved Sunset over to one of the chairs next to her. "You know how dragons can eat minerals? Turns out they're a delicacy to dragons. Spike's perfectly capable of eating omnivorous meals, but gems? Gems get him drooling. So the first time I left him alone in the kitchen, he decided to start making gem pancakes and came up with the amethyst cake. But I didn't want him to stuff his face with only amethyst pancakes, so we made a deal: whenever we eat haycakes, he gets to make amethyst pancakes."
Sunset chuckled. "You sound like his mother."
"Oh no" Twilight said, shaking her head with a chuckle. "My parents are his legal guardians. I mean, I was only nine when I hatched him."
"Wait, you hatched him?" Sunset interrupted.
Twilight nodded. "Yes, that was my entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
Sunset's eyes widened "The dragon egg hatching? They gave you the dragon egg hatching test? And you passed it? That test wasn't even designed to be passed!"
Twilight nodded. "Oh yes, that was a doozy. Got my cutie mark when I did it too. I'll tell you all about it later, but first" Twilight leaned on the table, letting her cheek rest on her hooves and her eyes focused on Sunset "I think we should talk about your story. You did promise me answers last night."
Sunset sighed as she made herself comfortable in her chair. It took a bit of fiddling to find the right sitting posture again, but eventually her body found itself a nice position. "Yeah, I did promise that" she said, flicking her tail. "I just... don't know where to start."
"How about from where we left off?" Twilight suggested gently. "You've already told me most of what happened with Anon-a-Miss, how someone was using this 'internet' to make everyone think you were spilling secrets, and last night you told me you had 'found your family' when you came through the portal."
Sunset chewed in the inside of her cheek for a moment as she considered her reply. "After my friends told me they wanted nothing to do with me anymore, I felt... alone. Like I felt that night after the fall formal when I was at the bottom of that crater, only a dozen times worse. I mean, I always knew I wouldn't just get away with what I've done. I was an absolute tyrant for years in CHS, and the evidence -especially the photo's from my phone- were pretty damning. But... I wanted to change, I really, really wanted to change. And when I finally got friends, it felt like the best thing in the world."
"I know the feeling" Twilight mused.
"And when they turned their backs on me..." Sunset trailed off, her eyes moving from Twilight to the silverware on the table.
"Yeah, I know that feeling too."
Sunset's eyes perked and her head jerked to Twilight. She could practically taste the bitterness when Twilight said that. "You? but how-"
Twilight ruffled her wings and sighed. "I'll tell you later. They're not exactly the happiest memories for me either, but suffice to say I know a little bit about feeling like you lost all your friends." She levelled Sunset with a determined gaze. "But I also know a lot about getting them back."
Sunset felt her ears wilt slightly at the gaze, but shook her head. "I don't know, Twilight. Even when I swore that I had nothing to do with it, nobody believed me."
"Was there really nopo-nobody who took your side? Who listened to you?"
A memory popped to the front of Sunset's mind. Blue hair and a jacket, a worried face and an awkward hand scratching the back of his head. "...There was one." she murmered. "Flash found me right before I went through the portal."
"Flash Sentry?" Twilight's ears went ramrod straight as Twilight's eyes sparkled, but then dimmed as a questioning look passed her face. It held for a moment before she shook her head. "So did he try to stop you?"
Sunset shook her head with a smile. "No, he actually told me I was being too stubborn trying to stay and fix everything myself and told me to take a break."
"But he believed you. Believed that it wasn't you." Twilight noted.
"Yeah, he did." Sunset agreed. "He didn't say it in those exact words, but he did."
"And what about principal Celestia? Or vice-principal Luna?" Twilight pressed, sitting up straight in her chair and letting a slow smile spread across her face.
Sunset frowned at Twilight's newfound optimism. "Why would they even believe me? In all the years I've gone to them, it was always to frame someone else for something I cooked up. This would be exactly that, only this time they'd have plenty of 'proof' to believe it was me."
"But did you try?"
"Well, no, but-"
Twilight's hooves met the table with a clack as she reared up on her hind legs, wings unfurling in full and a smile on her face. "Then we should do that first! We'll talk to principal Celestia and vice-principal Luna, tell them your side of the story and-"
"NO!"
Sunset saw Twilight flinch at her voice, but her mind was elsewhere. Back in the hallway of Canterlot High, surrounded by glaring, accusing students. She shook her head to clear the memory, but even though it retreated the feeling of dread stubbornly remained.
"I don't want to go back Twilight. Not yet. I just- I just want to get away from all this, just for a little while." She could feel her ears droop again and her eyes started to get blurry. She wasn't sure whether it was because she was a pony again, or because she was with a true friend, or maybe even the conversation with Luna, but she felt a lot of the walls she had built up crack.
Sunset startled as two furry legs and a pair of wings wrapped around her. She could feel Twilight's head on her neck as the princess drew her into a hug. "T-Twilight?"
"I'm sorry" Twilight's voice tickled her ear, "I... get wrapped up in things sometimes, especially when it comes to friendship since it's kind of my duty now. I won't do anything if you're not comfortable with it. But... I just want to help. Not just because I'm the Princess of Friendship, but because you're my friend."
Sunset raised her own arms and returned the hug. "I know Twilight, and thanks. I just need a little bit of time, that's all. Like Flash said, just an early holiday."
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you like" Twilight said, pulling back from the hug to look Sunset in the eyes with a smile.
Sunset smiled back. "Thanks, Twilight."
The two friends just smiled for a moment, before a cough from the kitchen drew their attention.
"Well, now that the friendship moment is over, how about we start breakfast?" Spike said as he walked to the table, two plates with stacks of the most delicious looking brown hay filled pancakes in each of his hand and a third with a stack of pancakes with a purple glitter on his head. "Here you go Sunset" the dragon noted as he put one of the two plates in front of Sunset.
Sunset Shimmer felt the drool building up in her mouth and drip down, and she did nothing to stop it. Propriety be damned, stupid human body hadn't let her enjoy proper Equestrian food in years. Not even bothering with the syrup or silverware, Sunset let instinct and old memories take over and chomped down into the stack. She closed her eyes as the fluffy taste of pancakes and the firmer taste of hay hit her tongue and happily hummed as she chewed.
A double giggle drew her away from the slices of heaven on her plate as she turned to look at Twilight and Spike, who had taken a seat on Twilight's other side. Both of them were giving her cheshire grins. "I don't think I need to ask whether the haycakes are good" Spike quipped.
Sunset rolled her eyes, and rather than dignify the dragon's quip with a quip of her own, swallowed and took another bite out of the stack.
That was as good an answer as any, she thought.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, another breakfast was taking place. This one of considerably more propriety, as one would expect of a breakfast at Celestia's table.
Celestia herself had not yet started her breakfast, despite the many bowls of fruit on the table, waiting as she was for her sister to whom this would probably count as dinner. She had always found it amusing that she was the first of the two to rise, even though Luna had technically yet to go to sleep. But her sister took her duties as Princess of the Night seriously, and would not abandon her watch as long as ponies were still sleeping.
Even if those ponies were just trying to dodge Celestia's day.
Eventually Celestia could hear the clopping of silver shoed hooves approaching. Her ear flicked as she noticed a certain bounce in the steps. Somepony was in a good mood. The doors were opened calmly by the guard, and as Luna entered Celestia called out. "Good morning sister, had a good night?"
"Invigorating!" Luna called back. "t'has been a long time since we had the opportunity to help somepony so surprisingly close to us."
Oh? Now this sounded interesting. Celestia always enjoyed a good gossip or two, but her sister finding a pony close to her? Now that was just a juicy apple being dangled in front of her. "Really Luna?" Celestia purred as she steepled her hooves. "Anypony I know, by chance?"
Luna stopped and her ears waggled. This gave Celestia pause, as long years with her sister taught her to recognise Luna's signature 'I know something but I'm not sure I should tell Celestia' tick.
"Luna?" Celestia called. "Is everything alright?"
Celestia noted Luna chewing on her lip for a moment more before sighing. "Oh fie, you would discover swiftly anyway." Luna took her place at the other end of the table and started. "Last night I had the pleasure to help a most interesting young mare with her nightmares" she noted, picking a few choice pieces of the many fruits of the bowls for an impromptu salad. "As it turns, your former student, Sunset Shimmer, has chosen to temporarily return to Equestria."
Celestia started, her wings ruffling out almost to their full length and she all but leapt from her chair. "Sunset is back?"
"Indeed, she is at Twilight Sparkle's castle right now. Though before you jump out the window to join your former students, know that Sunset's return is not entirely of her volition."
"She was banished?" Celestia asked shocked.
"No" Luna replied bluntly, but paused. "And yes. She is facing trouble in the world beyond the mirror and felt she needed to retreat to Equestria for a while."
Celestia's eyes widened. "She's in trouble? I have to go! I have to help!" the Princess turned around to the nearest window, the one leading to the open balcony, but before she could even take a single step she could feel a firm tug on her mane.
"Calm thyself sister." Luna said as she poured herself a glass of juice. "The problems Sunset Shimmer is facing are those of friendship. She is already in the right hooves for the situation."
"But-" Celestia protested, but Luna did not give her a chance to finish.
"You would waltz into Twilight's domain?" Luna noted archly. "Do we not remember what happened the last time one of us tried to press into another Princess's domain?" Luna shook her head. "No, sister, leave this to Twilight. There are many pains, both old and new, that haunt your former students. And lest we forget, you yourself are part of those pains."
Celestia flinched as if struck. "I just want to help her..." she muttered.
"I know, Celestia. But I have seen her dreams. Sunset will need time to tackle her current problem, and she cannot do so if she has to tackle you at the same time."
Celestia sighed. "Can you at least tell me what dreams plague her? If you were there they must have been nightmares."
Luna shook her head. "You know I cannot. The dreams of our subjects are their own. And while it is my duty to enter their dreams to guard and guide, it is also my duty to keep those dreams private." Luna rose from the table and made her way to her sister, sitting down next to the mare and pulling her into a hug with her wing. "Have faith in your students, Celestia. Twilight will never give up helping Sunset, and Sunset herself has taken the first step in returning home. But both will need time."
Celestia nodded and leaned into Luna's embrace. They weren't words she wanted to hear, but Celestia knew they were words she needed to hear. Celestia remembered with crystal clarity the events that led up to Sunset's self imposed exile and she knew full well the part she had played in it. If there was any bad blood remaining on Sunset's side, pushing her would only lead to disaster.
Celestia turned to stare at the sun she had just raised, the fiery orb reminding her of a certain student's mane and tail.
The atmosphere at CHS, Rarity concluded as she walked down the hallway, had seen better days. The hallways of the school was still filled with teenagers buzzing around lockers, but where just a few days ago those teenagers where smiling and laughing, now quite a few were arguing. And those who weren't were not smiling the same way anymore.
Rarity didn't have to ask what they were smiling about. The smartphones in their hands were plenty proof of exactly what the source of their entertainment was. The few glances in her direction, followed by snickers merely topped it off. Either a new post by Anon-a-Miss or scrolling through some of the older posts. Perhaps the ones mocking some of her failed projects, or the embarrassing photo's of their sleepover.
"You holdin' up there, Rarity?" a Southern voice drawled from behind.
"Somewhat, Applejack." Rarity said, turning to face her friend. "I haven't had any direct comments on my fashion sense today, but with all the glances at phones before the laughter starts they didn't really need to. It has grown beyond tiresome. How have you been fairing?"
Applejack grunted, a frown on her face as she matched Rarity's pace. "I got oinked at three times just gettin' to my locker. Ya'd think they'd have found something new to laugh at by now."
"Tempting as that might be, I really do not think we would wish for another to suffer Anon-a-Miss's ungentle care." Rarity scolded lightly.
"So says one of the gossip queens of CHS?" Applejack countered with a raised eyebrow.
Rarity scoffed in reply, resting a fist on her hip. "There is a line between gossip and slander, Applejack. I do take care not to cross it."
"...You're right" Applejack sighed. "Sorry 'bout that" she apologized, lightly tipping her hat.
Rarity accepted the apology with a smile and a shake of her head. "No apologies needed Applejack. We are all rather on the edge lately, this whole situation is hitting a bit too close to home for all of us."
Applejack snorted. "I'll say, it's like Twilight was never here and we're back to where we were before the Fall Formal."
"Yes" Rarity agreed icily. "Sunset has even gone back to pretending to be the innocent little princess, just as she did in those years before the last."
Applejack opened her mouth to add her own retort, but then something caught her eye. "Say, ain't that Flash Sentry talkin' to Vice-Principal Luna?"
Rarity leaned forward to peek past the farmgirl. Sure enough, there in front of Principal Celestia's office was Flash Sentry, a concerned look on his face as he spoke to the Vice-Principal, whose eyes had turned rather stern as she listened with her arms crossed. "Why, yes it is. What ever would the spotless record holder of CHS have to discuss with the Vice-Principal?"
"Maybe Sunset got to him with somethin' serious this time and he's lookin' to see what can be done about her?"
Rarity shuddered. "Oh dear, I hope not. Considering those two had been dating for quite some time I dread to think what kind of dirt she has on him. That little 'I spotted Flash at the bar' was hardly the most mind boggling, but if the gloves are off..."
As they passed the office, Applejack tossed a concerned look over her shoulder. "You think he'll be okay?"
"He's a big boy, darling. He can handle himself." The words were confident, but Rarity paused for a moment before adding "of course, it wouldn't hurt to keep a spot at our table free. Just in case."
Applejack grinned "well ain't you a generous soul."
Rarity tossed her hair with a smile and half lidded eyes. "I do try my best."
"-and that's when she finally went through the portal." Flash finished. "I decided I'd let you know first thing in the morning and headed home afterwards."
Vice-Principal Luna nodded, her eyes still stern as she stared at the young student. "And it took you convincing her that this was for the best before she finally considered going through the portal?"
Flash shuffled on his feet "well, not too much convincing, but-"
"Flash Sentry" Luna interrupted "your chivalry does you credit, but has anyone ever told you you are a terrible liar?" As Flash dipped his head in shame, Luna sighed. "Twisting the truth is not going to help here, Flash Sentry. Not if we want to stop this."
"I'm sorry Vice-Principal. All I wanted to do was give her a little pep-talk, but she was devastated when I found her there. I just didn't want to take the risk of her doing anything... rash."
Luna nodded. "We'll take that into consideration. Did she tell you of a way to reach her?"
Flash brightened up. "Yeah, she said something about a book in her locker? It's what she uses to get into contact with Twilight."
"I see. Thank you for informing us Flash Sentry, we'll take it from here." As if waiting on a cue, he school bell rang and students began to drown the hallway. "You'd better run along to class now" Luna noted.
"Right. Uhm, I'll be going then!" Flash finished, before turning and dashing down the hallway.
Luna sighed as she watched the blue haired boy disappear in the crowd before she backed into the office and closed the door behind her. "So, what do you think?"
Seated behind her desk, Principal Celestia folded her hands. "I think that this puts the final nail into the coffin of the ridiculous idea that Sunset Shimmer is responsible for all of this."
"This would not be the first time for Sunset Shimmer to be an apparent 'victim' to throw off suspicion." Luna countered.
"Is that what you really think, Luna?" Celestia said, tilting her head "that this is just one more trick of Sunset Shimmer? That everything we've seen of her over the past months was just deception? That she fled to another world as part of a scheme?"
Luna shook her head. "Alright, alright, calm down. No need to go all "High Principal" on me." Luna walked over to Celestia's desk and pulled up another chair, leaning on the other end of the desk and folding her hands under her chin. "I'm not saying this out of malice toward Sunset Shimmer. Like you, I believe she really is trying to change. But you have to remember: We teachers have seen a very different Sunset Shimmer over the years than our students have. She was always very careful to avoid involving the teachers in her tricks."
Celestia frowned. "I know that many things happened under our nose that we should have acted on, but that doesn't mean-"
"Sister, you have no idea what has been happening here since the years Sunset Shimmer has been among us" Luna interrupted. "The few accusations we had heard and dismissed over the years are only the tip of the iceberg. I have been talking to the students, and now that they have gathered some courage after seeing Sunset fall I have heard stories that chill me to the bone. Sunset Shimmer wasn't just a top bully in our school, she ruled this school. Right under our noses."
Celestia leaned back in her chair and reached up to rub her forehead with the palm of her hand. "What are you trying to say, Luna?"
"I'm trying to say that our students are carrying grudges that go back years. Grudges that aren't just washed away with a few nice words and a magical rainbow explosion. If we want to prove Sunset is innocent, we can't just up and say 'we know she's innocent' and expect that to be the end of it. The students have had years of us telling them that, and we were wrong every single time back then. If we want to end this, we will need clear, undeniable proof."
Celestia let out a long sigh and brought her other hand to her forehead, covering her face with both hands. When she spoke, her voice was tinged with sadness. "I hoped so much we could all just move forward after the Fall Formal, and especially the Battle of the Bands. I thought Sunset proved to the entire school how much she changed and that this school was welcoming her."
"It just goes to show how deep the scars run" Luna said sadly. But then her eyes hardened. "But this isn't over yet. If we play our cards right, we can still turn this around and use this to poke at the scars so they can heal properly."
Seconds of silence passed, but when Celestia lowered her hands her eyes shared Luna's determination. "You're right. Sunset left us her journal, which means she hasn't given up on us, and I do not plan to give up on her that easily. Luna, go to Sunset's locker and get that journal Flash Sentry talked about. I want it safe in either your office or mine."
"Do you think someone is planning to try vandalizing Sunsets stuff?" Luna asked warily.
"No, but I don't want to take any risks. That book is the only contact with Sunset we have." Celestia smiled. "Plus, we have to let her know what she missed this week somehow, don't we? Simply letting her grades slip wouldn't be proper for us teachers."
Luna's smile mirrored her sister's. "I will get the journal and let Princess Twilight know she and Sunset can use it to contact us. Hopefully letting Sunset know we are on her side will help calm her down. What will you do?"
"I'm going to call for a faculty meeting" Celestia said. "We are no longer going to take half measures on this 'Anon-a-Miss' nonsense." Her eyes hardened again, seemingly at nothing in particular, but Luna knew her sister well enough that she was reflecting on the past, and she did not like what she was seeing. "If what you just told me is true, Sunset has ruled our school for years, and now her ghost seems to be taking up the reigns. I think it's high time we take our school back."
As morning class ended, the lunch room quickly filled up with hungry students and the Rainbooms gathered at their usual table.
"What happened here?" Rainbow Dash asked as she wiped the remains of a sandwich from the table and chair it was spread over.
"An argument broke out between the boys of the computer club and the film club. Food went flying." Pinkie Pie answered dejectedly. "What a waste" she murmured. The normally bright and energy-filled girl was sitting slumped in her seat, a cheek resting on her hand as she poked at her food with dull eyes that completely lacked her usual boundless sparkle.
"Is everything alright, Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked, more softly than usual.
"Don't tell me all the teasing got to you too?" Rarity asked.
A ghost of a smile made its way on Pinkie Pie's face. "No, people didn't find me dancing in funny outfits that strange, and I'm used to people laughing at me." The smile disappeared as Pinkie pushed away her plate and propped her other arm on the table as well, leaning on both of them. "I just don't like the way people are laughing. I mean, when something silly happens to someone, you can both laugh at it. It's fun. But this laughing? It's laughing at someone, not with someone. There's nothing fun about it."
"But that's not all that's bothering you, is it?" Rarity pushed.
Pinkie seemed to deflate even worse at Rarity's pushing, lowering her eyes to stare at the table. "...No" she agreed quietly.
"Is it about Sunset?"
Pinkie looked back up, meeting Rarity's eyes. "I just don't understand. We were friends, weren't we? We had fun! We laughed together! We partied together! How did we go from that to... this?"
"Good question" a new voice spoke up. "A better question would be 'do you really believe Sunset Shimmer is Anon-a-Miss?'"
"Flash!" Applejack called out to the blue haired guitarist as she turned to face him. "Good seein' you, we saw you at the Principal's office. Everythin' alright?"
"Yes, do take a seat darling." Rarity pitched in, waving her hand towards an empty spot at the table. "We kept a spot for you in case you wanted to talk about it"
As Flash pulled up a chair, Pinkie Pie turned to him, a small light returning to her eyes. "Whadaya mean, Flash?"
Flash blinked. "Huh?"
"The whole" Pinkie jumped up and shoved her hands in her skirt's pockets, mimicking Flash's pose "A better question would be 'do you really believe Sunset Shimmer is Anon-a-Miss?'" she mimicked, then jumped back on her seat, dropping her head back on her hands as if nothing happened. "That thing."
"I meant just that. You girls looked like you'd grown so close together. You partied, you hung out, hell you even saved the whole damned school together. How did you go from that to believing she is Anon-a-Miss?"
"Uhh, because she posted our secrets?" Rainbow Dash retorted.
"And how do you know it was her?" Flash shot back.
Applejack sighed. "Sugarcube, it's not as if we want to believe it's Sunset. Dangit I thought we'd grown closer than the seeds of an apple core. But the day after Sunset learned of that nickname that's now ghostin' around these hallways, the account appeared and posted it for the school to see. That weren't exactly a nickname the family shares with just about anyone."
"And those embarrassing pictures and movies of us at the next slumber party that were uploaded later that week came from Sunset's very own phone. Without any of the photos of Sunset herself." Rarity added.
"Someone could have stolen her phone, though" Flash pointed out.
Rainbow Dash grunted. "Yeah, but why? They'd have to know those pictures were on that phone in the first place, and the only ones who knew that outside of us was Sunset."
"Plus we did ask if Sunset had lost her phone lately, because we didn't want to believe it either" Pinkie piped up. "But Sunset told us she never lost her phone, so who else could have done so?"
Flash frowned, and the girls felt a spark of sympathy. Even though they didn't want to admit it themselves, it was pretty damning evidence. Circumstantial maybe, but feelings weren't exactly a court case.
"But why on earth would Sunset do this? Why would she abandon the very friendships she built just to mess with you girls?" the young student pressed.
Silence reigned at the table as his answer. If Flash was hoping he was getting through to them, the atmosphere at the table was trying hard to prove him wrong. It had gotten even more frosty, if anything.
"Because she's done so before" came the answer.
Even as quiet as the voice was and as noisy as the cafeteria was, it was like a pin dropped in a silent room, and the whole table turned to the source of the voice. Fluttershy's eyes were caught between both a sad tearing up and a glare. "I'm not sure if you remember Flash, but Sunset did that friendship documentary a few years back. She got very close to all of us, learned everything there was to know about us and our friendships and then used that to tear us all apart."
Rarity grimaced at the memory, but straightened her face as she turned to Flash. "You should know yourself how she was, Flash Sentry. She used you even worse than she did us. She pretended to actually love you just to raise her own status, abusing even your own feelings for her, just as a stepping stone for her own popularity."
That got a much sharper reaction from the blue haired guitarist, and the look of hurt actually caused a stab of guilt to lance through Rarity's chest. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder as she continued. "We have all been tricked by Sunset before, and while I would love to believe she is innocent, the evidence and her past do not speak in her favour. She has pretended to be innocent before, and it cost us dearly. Once bitten twice shy and such, and we have already been bitten twice now. I think we would rather cut contact altogether than face yet another betrayal."
Flash sighed. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about that for a while."
The girls looked at each other in confusion. "What do you mean 'we don't have to worry about that for a while?'" Rainbow Dash asked.
Flash levelled his gaze with Applejack and Rarity. "You two remember that talk I had with Vice-Principal Luna in front of Principal Celestia's office?" At a nod from the two, he continued. "That was me explaining to them that Sunset has gone home for the time being."
"Huh. That explains why I didn't see her at science class today" Rainbow Dash said.
"Is she alright?" Fluttershy asked.
"Does it matter?" Flash answered sharply, but as Fluttershy winced and tried to hide behind her pink hair, he sighed and scratched his head. "Sorry, that was uncalled for. But you did just say you wanted to cut off contact with her."
"We don't want to be involved with whatever she's planning" Rainbow Dash shot back as she crossed her arms. "That doesn't mean we want anything to happen to her. So what's up? She got sick?"
"She's fine, physically" Flash answered "but she's been under a lot of stress since this whole anon-a-mess started."
A snort came from Pinkie's corner of the table and the group turned to see a small smile back on the pink-haired girl, which in turn made all the others at the table perk up a little as well.
"Anyway" Flash continued "last evening I wanted to talk to her, just to let her know she has someone on her side."
"Wait wait wait" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "You're on her side? You? The guy who broke up with Sunset Shimmer and lived?"
Flash blinked. "Wait, you think I broke up with Sunset?"
"That is what the running story in the school is, darling" Rarity confirmed. "Why, before Twilight arrived many here thought you would be the one to pick up the torch against Sunset."
Flash sighed, reaching up with a hand to slowly rub his face. "Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, but I wasn't the one to break up with Sunset. She broke up with me. I mean I wish I had the kind of guts to do that, but she had me pinned so badly I might as well have worn a collar. I know I got a pretty good reputation here, but even I have secrets that would make me want to dig the deepest hole I can and never get out."
"So why did Sunset break up with you?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Not for some sort of maniacal purpose" Flash answered "I was just too much work at that point. She'd gotten more popular by hanging out with me, but there was nothing more to gain from dating me. We were starting to become old news, and the Sunset back then didn't care for putting effort in things that didn't help her."
"So she dated you until you had no use, an' then she dumped you like a half-eaten apple core when you weren't." Applejack summarized, crossing her arms and letting her left leg rest on her right. "So how's that tie in to you bein' on Sunset's side now?"
Flash sighed. "I'd like to think that I know her. I mean I've dated her for the better part of a year before she broke up, and at the end of it she started sharing things with me. It started with me seeing the real Sunset, the one you girls didn't get to see until last year when she went full tyrant mode. Then she started talking about her motivations, her plans. I think she wanted to recruit me, or something. Convince me to help her. It didn't take, and when she broke up with me she made sure I knew what kind of Sword of Damocles she had dangling over my head should I think about moving against her."
"And so you didn't" Rarity said.
"And so I didn't" Flash sighed. "It wasn't until Twilight that I worked up that kind of courage. But anyway, I know the kind of tricks the old Sunset used to play. If this really was her, she would have made sure I would never even think of looking to Twilight for help. Instead, she ran straight to Twilight."
"Hold on there!" Applejack interrupted. "You're saying Sunset ran off to Equestria?"
Flash blinked "Uh, yes? I did say she went home, didn't I?"
"We figured you meant she went back to her apartment! Why in tarnation would she go back to Equestria?"
"Because she truly started believing she had nothing left here! All she got in this place was glares, accusations and dismissal. If I hadn't damn near shoved her through that portal, who knows what would have happened!"
Rainbow Dash slammed her palm on the table. "You could have sent her to us! If we'd know things were this bad we could have- I don't know, done something!"
"She went to you before, remember? You sent her away."
A silence settled over the table as everyone let Flash's words sink in. Applejack drummed a beat on the table with her fingers, Dash one on the floor with her foot. Pinkie Pie's smile had vanished again and Fluttershy was now completely hidden behind her hair.
It was Rarity who first broke the silence with gentle cough. "Forgive me for playing devil's advocate, but should Sunset's return to Equestria not be more concerning? The last time Sunset went to Equestria she did so to steal Twilight's crown."
Flash shook his head. "Yeah, but I doubt that's the case now."
"How so?"
"I haven't talked with Sunset much after we broke up. Even after the Fall Formal talking with her was just awkward. But I did talk to her about Equestria once or twice when asking about Twilight."
Rarity almost reared back in shock. "You asked your ex about your current crush? Flash Sentry!"
"I know! I know!" Flash said, waving his arms in front of him as if it could ward of the fashionista's glare. "I don't exactly have a lot of options when it comes to asking about Twilight, okay? The point is, I talked to her about Equestria, and she was always nervous when I asked about the idea of going back. "
"Why would she be nervous about her own home?" Fluttershy asked.
"She never told me. Maybe it has to do wit the whole 'trying to invade with a zombie army', but that's just guessing. Whatever it is, it has her scared."
"But now she feels abandoned enough here to risk whatever she's afraid off there." Pinkie's voice started to crack as she finished her last words.
"Yeah" Flash sighed, before getting up from his seat and pocketing his hands. "Well, that's what I came here to say. I'm not going to claim you guys don't have good reason to suspect Sunset, but from where I'm standing there is no way she would have done this, then ran back to either the one girl that still cares for and would be royally pissed at her for doing this, or the thing that's made her too afraid to return earlier. Goodbye girls."
As Flash walked off, the Rainbooms were left with their thoughts. All of them had already felt uncertainty gnaw at them over the supposed guilt of Sunset, but Flash's story had blown those uncertainties wide open. Now the girls had to face the distinct possibility that they had led old grudges blind them to the truth.
And it may have cost them a friend.
Meanwhile, a few tables down the cafeteria, a trio of kids huddled close to one another.
"Did you hear that?" Apple Bloom whispered. "Sunset's gone!"
"That's good, isn't it?" Scootaloo whispered back. "I mean, wasn't that the entire reason we started this in the first place?"
"Yes, but, did we really have to take it this far?" came Sweetie Belle's nervous whisper.
Scootaloo bit her lip. "Maybe not, but it worked, right? Sunset's back in Equ-whatsit place and can't steal our sisters from us anymore."
"Yeah..." Apple Bloom replied, but her heart wasn't really in the answer.
"So, what do we do with Anon-a-Miss?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Well, mission accomplished. We really don't need it anymore." Apple Bloom replied.
"And posting now would just alert our sisters that Sunset had nothing to do with it" Scootaloo added.
The girls looked at each other, silently communication through their bond as childhood friends.
As the school day ended and students filed out into the hallway to the exit, Celestia made her way to Canterlot High's conference room. A circular table stood in the middle of the room, where most of the teachers were seated already. Celestia made her way to her own preferred seat, watching as the last teachers arrived, Cranky Doodle making up the rear and closing the door behind him.
"Thank you all for coming" Celestia began after Cranky took his seat. "Especially on such short notice. I know you all have plans, but Luna and I feel that this problem needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later."
"Is this about this Anon-a-Miss?" Cheerilee asked.
Celestia nodded "It is."
"Not that I'm complaining about finally doing something about this, but why so suddenly?" Cranky asked.
"Because Sunset Shimmer has left CHS because of it."
That got a reaction. Every teacher at the table bolted upright, various signs of shock or concerns on their faces.
"What happened?" Cheerilee asked.
"She has gone back to Equestria for the time being. According to Flash Sentry, the pressure of being falsely accused of being Anon-a-Miss became too much for her" Celestia answered.
"So it wasn't her after all" Cranky grumbled through a sigh, though Celestia knew him long enough to hear the relief in it.
Miss Harshwhinny tapped a finger on the table. "Are we sure about that? While I hate to be the devil's advocate, this girl had all of us fooled for at least four years. Which is impressive in its own way, she has a flair with words and a presence that's hard to deny." Miss Harshwinny sighed and shook her head. "I swear, if that young lady ever goes into politics I weep for her opposition."
Celestia shook her head as well, even though she smiled at the compliment. "According to Flash Sentry she was sneaking away in the late evening, when all students should have been gone. There was no public spectacle, just a girl who wanted to get away from her problems."
Miss Harshwhinny didn't respond, but nodded, seemingly satisfied with the explanation.
Cheerilee fidgeted in her seat, worry dancing in her eyes. "Do we know if she plans to come back? Even after the Fall Formal revealed her identity Sunset Shimmer has never gone back to her home before."
Celestia smiled at the worried teacher. "Flash Sentry told her to consider this an early holiday, so I'm hoping we'll see her back by the new year."
"That's a big 'maybe'" the PE teacher, Mr. Longstride, noted.
"It is" Celestia agreed. "Which is why we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. We've already failed our students by letting things go this far already. First things first, how bad has the tension among the students gotten?"
"Eeehh, dem students have been causin' a mighty big ruckus in the cafeteria 'n the hallways, but it's all been peacocks 'n hissin' cats. Ain't none of them decided to introduce the other to a knuckle sandwich yet" the elderly voice of Granny Smith answered, and the table chorused with sighs of relief. With Granny not a teacher and charge of the cafeteria, students often let their guard down around Granny. Not to mention the old lady had a hawk's eyes for trouble. If the Apple family matriarch hadn't seen anything escalate yet, they were safe. At least for the moment.
"That at least is something we can be proud of our students about" Celestia noted, a small smile tugging on her lips despite the situation. She had heard plenty of horror stories of bullying gone terribly wrong from her colleagues, and knowing that her students still restrained themselves despite their obvious grudges and ire was definitely a relief. "And what about the Anon-a-Miss account itself? What do we know about that so far?"
"Little, I'm afraid" miss Harshwhinny spoke up with a harumph. "It was created on the same day as the first post about miss Applejack and the e-mail linked to the account it is not one we know linked to any of our students."
"And what about the reaction of Mystable itself?" Luna asked, but miss Harshwhinny shook her head.
"We've attempted to contact MyStable, but their response was disappointing at best." The brown woman sniffed. "Apparently they're of the opinion that a couple of posts revealing embarrassing but otherwise harmless secrets is at worst just average gossip. Unless there is an actual physical threat to someone's health or one particular student gets targeted repeatedly, they don't believe it qualifies as cyberbullying. At best we can report the individual posts as breaches of privacy and get them removed, maybe get the account banned."
"Which will solve nothing" Luna added. "Once something is posted on the internet, someone somewhere is going to have it archived and ready to put it back up again. All removing it does is make the original poster more credible."
"But if we can at least get the account banned-" Cheerilee began, but was cut off by, surprisingly, Cranky.
"That'll be even worse for Sunset Shimmer" the cranky teacher rumbled as he tapped a finger on the desk. "I may not know a lot about these newfangled social media things those kids are using, but I do know frustrated kids. If something popular but controversial disappears right at the same time as its author? The kids are going to put things together and conclude that the one who disappeared has to be the one responsible."
"So you're saying we have to let Anon-a-Miss continue to rule this school?" Celestia countered archly.
Cranky grunted in disapproval. "No, but unless we want to throw Sunset Shimmer under the bus we can't just shut it down. Angry teenagers will latch on to a conclusion like that because it's all they can get. They're already out there looking for answers. They just want one, doesn't really matter which. The kids will see the account shutting down and Sunset Shimmer disappearing as connected, and celebrate that they chased her off."
"And there is no way we can get MyStable to give up the account data?" Celestia pressed to miss Harshwhinny.
"We've tried, but all we got was a long multi-page legal letter that was filled to the brim with legal language but could be summed up as 'no, do your own jobs.' The only way we might get access to the data is if we take it to court." Miss Harshwhinny folded her hands, her face stern but unyielding. "And I don't believe that is much of an option."
Celestia grimaced. No, it wasn't much of an option at all. Taking this to court meant the account's main suspect and victim would be central in the court procedure. While Sunset had to this day played how she had wormed her way into human society close to her chest, Celestia was sure part of the reason it had worked was a lack of scrutiny. But a court case would mean a lot of scrutiny would focus on Sunset Shimmer. Celestia groaned and reached up to rub her temples. "So what can we do so far?"
"At the very least we are keeping a close look on the account itself" Luna said, leaning back into her seat. "We might not be able to get the information from MyStable directly, but we can see who is posting reactions to the page, and every student who has been posting on the Anon-a-Miss page has done so with their own account. We will be able to make a list of which students are enjoying the spectacle, which students are criticizing it and which students aren't posting at all."
Celestia blinked in confusion. "How does the last one matter?"
The question was aimed at Luna, but miss Harshwhinny was the one who answered. "The only students who wouldn't respond to posts on the Anon-a-Miss page are either those who have no interest in Anon-a-Miss, or are the ones who put up the post in the first place."
"It's not a fool-proof plan" Luna admitted. "There are plenty of students who don't post on the page, and Anon-a-Miss could just make a few replies with his or her real account to cover up, but it's a start. Maybe in combination with the posts themselves we can figure out which of our students could manage to get a hold of so many secrets."
Not for the first time today Celestia sighed. "Alright, let's do that for now. But in the meantime, I want ideas on how we can stem the influence of Anon-a-Miss."
Hesitantly, Luna spoke up. "This... may sound like a roundabout method, since we're once again having someone else solve a problem for us, but what if we asked Princess Twilight for help?"
"We can't, Luna." Celestia shook her head. "I'm pretty sure that a Princess, even one as young as her, has enough on her mind to leave much to worry about a little high school on a different world."
"She almost single-handedly united our school the last time she was here," Luna reminded her. "And this time we don't even need that much. We just need her to calm the students enough that we can get a word in between their squabbling."
“Wait wait wait" Cranky waved his hands wildly in front of him as he interrupted the arguing Principals, "you mean Twilight is actually royalty?”
"Oh yes" Luna nodded. "And part of an actually ruling monarchy as well, according to Sunset Shimmer."
"And I've been treating her like an average high school student" Celestia groaned as she let her head sink into her hands.
"At least you just treated her like a student" Luna remarked dryly. "I almost kicked her out of the Fall Formal over a badly doctored picture."
The obvious self jab brought a smile back to Celestia's face and she leaned onto one of her palms as she turned to face her sister. "I do keep telling you you keep your office too dark."
"I like dark," Luna said defensively "and we should probably get back to topic."
Her smile grew at the obvious dodge, but she yielded. "Yes, at any rate I'm not sure if we should bother Princess Twilight over this. Not unless it becomes truly necessary for Sunset's safety."
"Agreed" the teachers voiced, almost as one.
"We should still contact her" Luna pressed. "Even if it's only to keep her in the loop on what we've found here. According to Sunset she is the only friend in Equestria she has, so she is going to find out Sunset has returned one way or another. It would probably be best if we let her know that we are on Sunset's side and are working on a solution."
"Alright, alright!" Celestia groaned and let her head fall into her hands again. "We'll let Princess Twilight know what happened, but only to let her know what happened. No sneaky requests for help."
Luna's grin made Celestia realize who won the argument today. It wasn't as if they'd need to ask the girl who jumped at the chance to help their school the moment she set foot in it for her help directly. From what little Celestia had seen of the otherworldy Princess, she just was the kind of girl who would do all she could to help someone when she noticed they needed it.
Cranky cleared his throat, catching the sister's attention back to the table. "Not that I disagree with either of you, but how are we going to keep contact with Sunset Shimmer, much less Princess Twilight? I'll be the first to say that I don't know much about magical worlds beyond portals, but that doesn't exactly scream 'working cellphone reception.'"
Celestia nodded. "Oh, yes. The girls informed me that after Princess Twilight visited last time around she has found a way to open the portal whenever she wants. Though if we want to stay in contact in the mean time..." she trailed of and glanced at Luna.
“We do have this” Luna said as she produced Sunset’s diary and put it on the table. “Sunset Shimmer has apparently been in regular contact with Princess Twilight ever since the Fall Formal.”
“With a book?” Cranky asked incredulously.
“A magical book” Luna emphasized. “It seems to work like a smartphone, except in book form. If you write something in this book, it appears on the pages of another book that Princess Twilight has”
“It certainly looks like a magical book right out of a fairy tale” Cheerilee said, observing the thick brown hardcovered tome.
Miss Harshwhinny hummed. “At the risk of intruding on a student’s privacy, do their conversations have any chance of helping us solve this mess?”
“Well…” Luna hesitated, but flipped the journal open and turned it to face the other teachers.
The teachers cautiously leaned forward, curiosity battling with an urge to respect their student's privacy.
"...What is that?" one of the teachers asked.
"It looks like... symbols? Is this some sort of code?" Cheerilee observed.
"We believe that it is the language of Sunset's home" Luna explained. Then added dryly "we might have gotten a bit too used to Sunset's near-perfect English."
"So this is... an alien language?" the pink haired teacher asked and sat back as her eyes widened. "Wow, I... don't think it really has really sank in just what we are dealing with here. This is an entirely new language, from another world."
"A logographic writing system." Miss Harshwhinny's eyes almost seemed to twinkle as the language teacher's eyes scanned the page "The language of an entirely different world... To think that it can be so similar vocally but be so different in writing..."
"And we have no idea what either is saying" Celestia sighed in disappointment. Of course, finding a simple solution in a magic diary didn't happen. That would have been too easy.
Cranky grumbled "Well it's not as if a book that belonged to Sunset Shimmer would have been convincing evidence anyway. Anyone could just claim she forged the whole thing."
"One problem at a time, people. How are we going to talk to Princess Twilight if we don't know how to write in her language?" Celestia asked.
Cheerilee was undeterred. "Well, we might not know how to read or write theirs, but Sunset knows how to read and write ours. Even if we can't reach Princess Twilight directly, she can always translate for us." The teacher shrugged sheepishly. "Which is probably for the best, given how we shouldn't be trying to talk to Princess Twilight behind her back."
"Better to address the both of them then" Luna agreed as she grabbed a pen and clicked it ready, she hovered the pen over an open page and looked at the teachers around the table. "So what do we tell her?"
"Start with a greeting, we'll figure out the rest as we write" Celestia said.
"Talking to a magical student living in an entirely different universe by writing in a magic book in the hopes of contacting a Princess of said universe, and we're winging our first talk." Cranky sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Do any of us even know what we're getting into?"
"We'll worry about that bridge when we get to it." Luna said as she put the pen to paper, and the entire table edged closer to the Vice Principal as the pen's trail was followed by a multi-coloured trail of light.
To her Royal Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer,
Twilight fought to keep a wide grin off her face, trying her hardest to keep a Celestia-like gentle smile in place instead. Spike was trying as well, but judging by how the dragon was stuffing his claws in his mouth in an effort to contain his laughter he was having an even harder time of it than she was. It couldn't be helped though, the sight before her was just too adorable.
Her library was transformed into an aviary of paper, books flying left and right in red magical auras as they danced across the room, some flipping open to riffle a few pages, others stacking and unstacking like a flock of birds looking for a branch to settle. And in the middle of this storm of paper sat a sun coloured mare with a mane of flame, her head dashing to and fro as her eyes tracked the books she made fly through the library.
It had started with a tour of her castle. Not that there was much in it yet, aside from the handful of rooms they actually used, but it was still a big place and some of the amenities were a bit spread out. They'd gone up to the balconies, the observatory and the pool on the roof before going back down again where she'd gone through the living areas, the kitchen the dining area and her library.
And that's where they encountered a little snag. Sunset was immediately fascinated by the device Twilight had constructed around the portal, and while she had guessed most of the operating functions on seeing them there were a couple of details where Sunset had scratched her head. As it turned out, magic hadn't been sitting idly in the decade Sunset was away and Twilight, always ready to talk science, had immediately fished the books with the relevant information of the shelves and hoofed them over to Sunset. Or tried to, as Sunset reached out to the books with a hoof and promptly let them drop to the floor. It took a moment before Spike had not so subtly coughed and poked Twilight's horns from his position on her back, and Sunset's eyes went from confusion to lighting up like Luna's starlit sky, right alongside her horn.
Fast forward to the present and the dragon and Princess observing their guest with amusement. Several minutes later.
A sharp snort followed by a chuckle signalled the end of Spike's control over his mirth. A yellow ear flicked and Sunset's head turned to the duo. "What?" Twilight couldn't help it, the look off oblivious confusion on Sunset's face as she tilted her head was just too much and a small giggle escaped from her as well. It didn't help when Sunset frowned as confusion mixed with a small amount of indignation. "What's so funny?"
"Sorry Sunset" Twilight replied, no longer bothering to hide her smile. "You just looked so adorable weaving your magic around like that. Like a foal who just mastered their first spell."
Sunset spluttered, her ears folding back as a blush crept on her cheeks, her eyes darting across the room. "Yeah, well, you try living without magic for ten years and try not to be excited."
Twilight felt her ears droop halfway as well. "Oh, that's right, we've got no magic on the other side of the mirror."
"Well, I know we've still got it, we just don't have any real way to access or channel it without our horns."
Twilight nodded. She never did get around to going back and forth and seeing how far the mirror's transformation restricted their magic, but they'd had no problems channelling the magic of the Elements of Harmony during the Fall Formal battle, and the Battle of the Bands showed that there definitely was a way for humans to channel magic. "So how does it feel to have it back again?"
Sunset beamed. "Amazing. It's like I just got back a limb that had been cut of and I'd almost forgotten about. I've had brief flashes of magic while playing music, but it was like drinking through a leaky straw. I just feel so much more... complete like this."
"That's no surprise, given your cutie mark" Twilight noted, nodding her head at Sunset's flank where a two toned sun was proudly displayed. "Magic is a part of who you are, I can't imagine giving up mine for so long for anything, really."
"It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. Sometimes just knowing that as long as I'd stay there I wouldn't have magic was almost enough to make me go back." Sunset sighed. "Too bad I had my head too far up my own rump to act on it."
"You really went without magic for ten years?" Spike asked, to which Sunset nodded.
"Except for the few times I snuck back, yeah. The first couple of years were the roughest, but once I got the hang of the whole hands thing things got easier."
"They are pretty awesome" Spike agreed, flexing his claws. "I'm glad I was raised by ponies, I honestly don't think I would have coped that well as a dog without my claws if I hadn't grown up alongside Twilight under mom and dad's care."
"So he says, but dad was happy when you finally outgrew your bitey phase." Twilight teased with a grin. Spike stuck out his tongue and just like they did when they were younger Twilight responded in kind. They slowly leaned forward to one another in a chicken race to see who would back out first, but before they could get close Twilight caught Sunset staring at a book in her magic field. "Sunset? Are you alright?"
The unicorn blinked and turned to Twilight "Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm just.. wondering."
"Wondering what?" Twilight pressed.
"Have you... ever heard of magic auras changing colour?"
There was a slight note of worry in Sunset's voice, which made Twilight move next to her friend. She looked at the book held firmly in a red magic field. The field itself seemed to be a perfectly healthy red magical field. She shifted her gaze from the book to Sunset's horn, but found nothing immediately out of the norm there either.
"You mean your field wasn't always red?" she asked.
Sunset shook her head as she turned to Twilight. "No, it used to be cyan. Remember the castle when I stole your crown?"
"Well I was a bit too pre-occupied with somepony stealing my crown and one of the Elements of Harmony to really pay attention to what the colour of her magic was" Twilight responded dryly.
Sunset had the grace to cough and look away embarrassed. "Ah, well, it was. And now it's red."
Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. "Hmm, well it's not entirely unknown for a magic field to be a different colour when casting more specialized spells. My own changed to a purple-black-greenish mix when using dark magic once."
Sunset's jaw dropped. "You? Miss Princess of Friendship? Using dark magic?"
"I didn't have much of a choice at the time. It was when we had to save the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, he'd hidden a secret entrance behind a dark magic lock. Anyway, how long has it been red?"
"Uhm, I only realized just now. This is the first time I've used actual unicorn magic since that day we first met." Sunset admitted.
"It was red during the fight with the Sirens."
The two ponies turned to the young dragon, who shrugged with a smile. "I kind of had a front-row seat. When you ponied up and joined the other girls, you all shot beams of magic that turned into that huge rainbow into the sky. Sunset's beam was red."
Twilight hummed. "Well, that gives us a narrow frame of reference. That means the change took place between Sunset stealing my crown and the battle with the sirens. Did anything happen in that time?"
"Yeah." Sunset gave an awkward smile. "I turned into a raging she-demon and you and the girls blasted me into the dirt."
Twilight hummed to herself for a moment before lighting up her own horn. The scattered books once again took to the air, flying to their assorted shelves. Once they were all settled, Twilight plucked one back from the shelves. "I recall reading something about this in 'Sunseeker's Exposition on Personal Magic.' Let's see, magic, horns, thaumatic pathways, mana cores, magic fields, magic colour... Aha! "While it is rare, there are ponies, often unicorns, who have seen colour of their magic change. A pony's magic is, at its core, the reflection of that pony's soul, and as such this colour can change with a pony. The most common example of this is through possession or corruption, where the magic of another being or artefact overwrites the magic of the pony. Another, less common example comes from ponies going trough or healing from significant trauma. Ponies going through such hardships can sometimes find that the colour of their magic changes to reflect their own changes within." It then goes on to list a couple of... questionably historical examples."
Spike perked up. "Hey! That reminds me, didn't Trixie's magic turn red when she was using the Alicorn Amulet?"
Twilight nodded. "Yes, and it turned back the moment she took it off. That must be the corruption type the book was talking about. Sunset, I'm willing to bet that yours is a sign that you're healing, changing as you work to be a better pony."
"You mean getting blasted by the power of the Elements of Harmony changed my magic?"
Twilight snapped the book shut and returned it to its shelf. "No and yes. The Elements never actually changed you. I've talked about this with Luna and you know this from actually going through it, but the Elements can only help you to find harmony, they can't just 'make you good.' If they could, we wouldn't have gone through all that trouble we did with Discord and Tirek. But at the same time, because the Elements helped you find harmony, you had a chance to change who you are. It's that change that's changing your magic colour."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "So because I went from power hungry mare to good girl, my magic went from cyan to red?"
"Pretty much."
"...Magic needs better colour coding."
Twilight snorted. "My brother is in the guard, and his magic colour is pink. Trust me, I've been there."
"Ouch" Sunset winced. "That must be rough on him. That's not something the armour enchants can hide."
"Oh don't worry about Shining," Spike scoffed with a grin. "He's done pretty well for himself in the guard."
Twilight noticed Sunset giving Spike a rather sceptical look, and she barely suppressed a grin of her own. 'Done pretty well' indeed, that guardpony turned captain turned Prince consort brother of hers. She shook her head in amusement and turned back to Sunset. "So beyond the change in colour, is your magic feeling alright?"
"It's... kinda stiff, like I've sat on my tail for a couple of hours and trying to move it again. Which feels doubly weird saying after not having a tail for so long" she said as she gave her tail a swish.
Twilight smiled and stretched out a wing to wrap around Sunset's withers. "I remember being so confused in that human body, but I can imagine that to you it's probably the other way round, after being in a human body for so long."
Sunset leaned into the hug and hummed her agreement. "It does feel weird, but the right kind of weird. I've been a human for so long that I started to grow used to thinking as one. But now that I'm back, I keep finding all these things I'd almost forgotten, and I begin to realize how much I missed them."
"You know there is a reason I left the portal open beyond just making it easier to visit you, right?"
Sunset sighed. "I know. I just.. wasn't ready to return. I'm amazed I even did at all, really. In all honesty, it was a coin toss between this or confronting the girls again."
"Do you think things would have turned out differently if you had?"
"Maybe," Sunset admitted. "I was thinking of showing them my conversations with you, thinking that if I couldn't convince them, maybe their trust in you would."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Would these be the same conversations we've been writing down in horn writing?"
"...Okay, so maybe there was more than a bit of leap-of-faith involved" Sunset admitted glancing away. "That's probably why I went for coming back, even if I wasn't sure what I'd find on the other side of the mirror this time around. Like I said, coin toss between two uncertainties."
"Well for what it's worth, Spike and I are happy to have you. Right Spike?" she called to the dragon, who had been staring off to the side. At the mention of his name he jumped and turned to the two mares.
"Huh? Uh, yeah, sure but uh, Twilight?" he said, pointing to the portal. Twilight and Sunset both followed his gaze to the top of the portal, where the journal was glowing and buzzing in its frame.
"Did you give your journal to anyone?" Twilight asked.
"No, but I told Flash where to find it. It was in my locker though, so maybe he told one of the teachers?" Sunset said as a red hue enveloped her horn and the journal, lifting it of the stand to hover in front of her. The book opened and pages quickly riffled to the first empty page. Twilight squinted as new text started flooding the pages.
"This is the language of the other world, isn't it?"
"English, yeah. One of many." Sunset nodded. "Not Flash though, this neat writing is Vice Principal Luna's. Looks like he did tell them where to find the journal."
"What is she saying?" Spike asked.
"Hold on, she's writing a lot. Let me find the beginning." Sunset flipped a page back and cleared her throat.
To her Royal Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer, from the teachers of Canterlot High.
Forgive the impropriety of writing in a language of our world, for we do not have the ability to write in yours. If you are reading this, you have doubtlessly encountered Sunset Shimmer as she returned to her home. We hope she has opened up to you over her troubles, but if she has not we feel it is our duty as teachers to inform you as to why she has chosen to return.
A little over a week ago, someone whom we have yet to identify has chosen to begin to slander many of the students here at Canterlot High and implicate Sunset Shimmer as the cause. Many of the students seem to unfortunately believe Sunset is involved in this and the pressure has driven her to head home.
We would like to formally inform you that the teaching staff at Canterlot High does not share this unfortunate belief. While we are still working on a solution, rest assured we will do everything we can to uncover the true culprit of this incident and see this matter settled.
Until then, we would respectfully request Sunset Shimmer be looked after in her homeland. It is the staff's opinion that Sunset's decision, while hasty, was not without merit and that rest in her homeland may be what she needs most. Rest assured she will not be considered unduly absent, and we may, with your permission, seek the use of this journal in the future to discuss how she might catch up with her studies when she returns.
To Sunset Shimmer if she is reading this: We're sorry.
Regards, Yours faithfu With greatest respe With sincere thanks, The teaching staff of Canterlot High.
Twilight's smile continued to grow as Sunset read the message. Not just because of what it said, but because of what it did to Sunset. The fiery maned mare had begun to tear up halfway through and let several drops fall on the floor when she reached that last line. Twilight draped her wing around her friend again even as Spike hopped in for a hug on the other end. "See?" she whispered to her friend. "You're not alone."
More tears hit the floor as Sunset smiled. "They believe me. They're actually helping..."
"Do you want to go back and join in?" Spike moved over and punched a fist in his palm. "Tracking down the bad guys, superhero style!"
Sunset let out a bark of laughter and wiped her eyes. "I doubt they're going to do any superheroing over there, Spike. But no. It's good to know that there are people over there beyond Flash who care about me, but I like being here right now. So I'm going to be taking up your invitation and stay for a while."
Twilight chuckled. "Well, you're more than welcome." The princess let her eyes scan the unfamiliar script of the still open journal. "Still, I know she seemed rather strict when I met her, but I didn't know Vice Principal Luna was this... stuffy."
"Ah, that might be my fault" Sunset admitted. "I may have told her and Principal Celestia that your title as Princess of Friendship is not as symbolic as they thought it was."
"They didn't think my title as Princess of Friendship meant something?" Twilight felt a frown settle on her muzzle. Maybe it was because off all the trouble she had gone through to get it, or all the trouble since, but for all that trouble and as odd as the title still felt to her at times, for some reason hearing it dismissed as symbolic irked her.
Sunset chuckled, a small grin on her muzzle. "Twilight, they thought you were just a high school girl playing pretend princess. Royalty normally doesn't go chasing after lost crowns alone over there."
"Well, this one does!" Twilight huffed.
"Hey!"
Twilight rolled her eyes and leaned over to nuzzle Spike. "Okay, maybe not alone, but I did come over myself to try and fix the problem." She was complaining, but between Sunset's grin and Spike's huffy protest she could already feel her frustration fading. As she turned back to Sunset she decided to switch the subject. "So Vice Principal Luna is really stuffy?"
Sunset nodded. "Sometimes, really only when she has to do official things." She scrunched up her nose. "I don't think I've ever seen it this bad, though. I guess she's trying to be formal to compensate for her lack of formality when you first visited, and is now overcompensating? There's a lot of words, but not a lot said in there."
Twilight snorted. "If you think this is bad you should try and sit in on Princess Celestia's day court sessions. Some of those dignitaries can talk for hours without actually saying anything."
Sunset groaned. "I have sat in on some of those, actually. Trying to afterwards convince Princess Celestia to install a trap door that opens after a certain time has passed to eject those hobnobs who take too long was a far more productive way to spend the time." Sunset's grimace turned to a smirk as her mind wandered off at the memory.
Twilight, on the other hand, felt her jaw drop to the floor. "You did what!?"
Sunset's smirk morphed into a full blown grin. "It would greatly cut down on court time, force dignitaries to keep their points simple and concise and give us something to laugh at for those who can't." She turned to Twilight and raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you never had ideas like that?"
"I did not!" Twilight huffed. "Sure, those sessions could be boring, but that was the perfect time to check and double check the lessons of the day."
"I tried that once, but the nobles got huffy when I started practising magic while they were going on." Sunset tapped her chin. "Of course, that could have been because the teleportation misfired."
Twilight winced. "Oooh, had that happen once. Landed a guard right into the fountain next to the throne."
"Good aim." And there was that grin again.
Twilight jumped up and leaned into Sunset's nose. "No! Bad aim!"
Sunset laughed. It was a hearty laugh, a laugh Twilight had grown fond off. It was the kind of laugh shared between friends having a good time, and it felt good hearing it from Sunset.
"You look like you feel even better than this morning."
Sunset smiled and stretched, getting back on four legs. "Yeah, I guess I do."
Twilight smiled, a little sparkle in her eyes. "Well, that's good. Because I have an errand for you."
Sunset blinked. "Me?"
Twilight nodded, the smile still on her muzzle. "Yup, you. Here is a bag of bits." Twilight lifted over a decently wallet sized bag of bits. "Your errand is to find the Ponyville spa and have a good time."
A single eyebrow arched upwards. "Your errand is for me to go to the spa."
"Just staying cooped into the castle isn't going to be good for you. Besides, when was the last time you went to a spa? From what you told me, spas on the other side are pricey and you didn't exactly make loads of money."
Sunset winced "Not since I first ran away."
"Exactly, it's been over ten years." Twilight noted.
"Twilight Sparkle," Sunset growled, pushing against the purple alicorn's nose as she narrowed her eyes. "Are you implying I smell?"
Not the slightest bit intimidated, Twilight just kept smiling. "I'm implying that you deserve an hour or so of pampering. Don't worry about finding it, I'll get you there myself."
"Meaning what?" Sunset asked, leaning back with eyes this time narrowed in suspicion. Almost as if in answer, Twilight's horn began to glow. Twilight's eyes sparkled like her namesake as she watched Sunset's eyes widen in realization. "Wait, Twilight Sparkle don't you dare-!"
"Have fun!"
With a flash of purple light, Sunset Shimmer vanished from the castle library. Twilight took a moment to confirm the teleport's destination and nodded, her lips curled into a smirk. "'good aim', huh?" she muttered, before straightening her neck and turning around. "Spike?"
"Right here!" the dragon called. Her number one assistant stood ready with parchment and quill in hand and gave her a nod.
"Let's make everything perfect!" Twilight said, returning the nod.
Aloe sat patiently at the reception of the Ponyville Spa entrance. It was a slow day as everypony had gotten this year's Hearth's Warming rush out of their system earlier than usual. Apparently, some of the more prominent ponies had decided to head out to faraway family for this year's Hearth's Warming and Ponyville being Ponyville this had sparked a trend. In the end, almost the entire town had rushed their spa the previous week to get their personal touches in for the holidays.
For Aloe and her sister Lotus, this was like a gift from Celestia herself. Normally the spa would run crazy hours getting everypony done up in time, but now they might actually be able to close the spa early and spend some quality time with their own family. But not today, today she had been asked by royal request to make ready for a personal guest.
Well, royal request was an exaggeration. In truth Princess Twilight has simply tried to make a reservation like any other pony would. Despite being royalty. Princess Twilight never had taken to ruling over what -by right of station- was her kingdom. If anything, Princess Twilight seemed to shy away from the rights that came with the crown, all but insisting that everypony still treat her as the same old Twilight.
Well so be it. If Ponyville had to help their Princess adjust to her new station, then by Celestia they would do so! And today, that help had been accepting what had to have been Princess Twilight's first royal request, even if the Princess didn't voice it that way.
Aloe craned her neck over the counter, throwing one more glance around the lobby. Still nothing. That was okay. Princess Twilight never really specified when her guest would show up, but they would be ready whenever-
A loud yelp and a big splash startled Aloe out of her thoughts. That was weird. It sounded like it came from the baths, but there weren't any clients in right now. She bit her lip as she pondered checking it out or waiting for the royal guest for a moment. No, that was dumb. Royal guest or no, somepony made a slip and her pride in her service demanded she make sure everything was alright.
Aloe made her way to the baths just in time to see an unfamiliar unicorn with an amber coat and a mane of red and yellow climb out of the bath. Aloe could not recall having seen this unicorn enter her establishment, but that the mare was grumbling something her breath made it clear that she had not intended to dive into the bath.
"Are you alright miss?" Aloe asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," the mare answered. "Just didn't expect to speed-start my spa visit like this."
"We do have a door..." Aloe cautiously probed, eliciting a snort from the amber mare.
"I'll be sure to let Twilight know the next time she plans to send me here via teleport express."
On a first name basis with Princess Twilight? This had to be the royal guest. "You are the royal guest we were told to expect then?"
The mare smiled weakly. "I guess? Sunset Shimmer, pleased to meet you. I'm staying with Princess Twilight for a bit for... personal reasons."
Aloe smiled brightly. "It is a pleasure to have you. Welcome to Ponyville Spa. My name is Aloe, and I will be your attendant this visit. Please, this way." Aloe led Sunset Shimmer to one of the smaller baths. The big bath was nice for a communal soak, but many ponies preferred their own sets of shampoos, and that was better done in the smaller baths. "Do you have any preferences?" she asked.
Sunset Shimmer hummed for a moment before shrugging. "I've been out of the loop for a while. Surprise me with something new."
Aloe nodded and moved over to the cabinet. With practised ease she hoofed a bottle of pine shampoo on her head, a favourite of the season. As she moved back to the tub with the bottle balancing on her head, she noticed that Sunset Shimmer had already lowered herself into the tub with a contented hum. Aloe took the opportunity to glance over the status of her customer's mane and coat. The mare's mane had the look of casual care taking. Healthy, but not particularly special. The amber coat and fiery tail on the other hoof gave Aloe pause. It wasn't that they looked terrible, but they appeared and particularly smelled to be somehow... dull. Not messy as if she'd been running around and forgot to take care of it, but just dull. Like a dress that had been hanging in the back of a closet for years. But how a pony could do absolutely nothing with her own mane and tail for years mystified Aloe.
Aloe pushed the question to the back of her mind. The how didn't really matter, the taking care of it did. That was what miss Shimmer was in her spa for, after all. With a quick bob of her head the bottle tipped off, allowing Aloe to snatch it out of the air with her mouth. Leaning over Sunset she squeezed several thick dollops on Sunset's mane, coat and tail and began spreading the shampoo around, running her hooves through the mare's mane, over her coat and through her tail.
Sunset let out a soft, appreciative hum as the shampoo was spread all over her coat. Twilight was right, it had been way too long since she had gotten some good quality spa pampering. She fought the urge to sink into the tub as her attendant continued her ministrations, waiting for the mare to finish her work. The feeling of shampoo sinking into her coat caused her eyes to flutter close.
"You can lie down now, miss Shimmer," Aloe said, and Sunset gratefully sank down into the warm water, content to just enjoy relaxing in the tub. A smile tugged on her lips as she felt Aloe rinse out her mane, being careful to avoid the soaped waters from getting into her eyes before moving away to let Sunset enjoy her soak.
A few minutes of comfortable soaking later she heard Aloe return and call to her. "Miss Shimmer? If you could follow me please?"
With some resistance, Sunset got up and climbed out of the warm, comfortable bath. Aloe was waiting for her with a batch of towels, deftly wrapping them around her. The towels were thick and fluffy, much more so than the ones she had gotten used to back at CHS. All the better to soak up the water from her mane and coat, which Sunset realized had been pooling onto the floor. She had forgotten just how much water a pony's coat could hold compared to furless skin.
As Aloe finished wrapping Sunset up in towels, the amber mare couldn't help but be impressed by how quickly and expertly the earth pony mare had so expertly wrapped her up in these thick towels without either horn or fingers. Her ears perked up as Aloe led her to a table Sunset recognized as a massage table.
"What kind of massage would you like?" Aloe asked as Sunset laid down on the table, resting her chin on a pillow in front of her and wrapping her hooves around it.
Sunset thought about it. Even putting aside that she hadn't used her pony muscles in years, she'd been under a lot of stress with not a lot of time to relax lately. "Something that's relaxing, but gets rid of some rather stubborn tension in the muscles."
Sunset felt Aloe's hooves on her back, probing the muscles to feel out spots of tension. Sunset smiled sheepishly as she could practically hear the spa pony's frown as her hooves encountered knot after knot. Not her fault she hadn't had much in the way of time or funds to get a spa treatment on the other side of the mirror. After a few moments of probing, Aloe apparently thought she had a clear enough picture of what Sunset needed.
Aloe's hooves began pushing into Sunset's back, rolling up before moving down and pushing outwards as they reached her neck and Sunset hissed as Aloe hit one of the first of the many tense points. "Please try to relax, miss Shimmer. There are a lot of stiff points in your muscles and I will need a bit of time to get through them all. But once I do, it will feel much better."
Sunset nodded into her pillow, muffling another hiss as Aloe continued to work. She hadn't realized she'd neglected her body that much. Maybe when all this was over she could see if she could arrange something with Twilight to let her come back for another visit or two. For now though, she'd just have to grit her teeth and remember that it would be worth it soon.
It was worth it.
Sunset hummed in content bliss as Aloe's hooves danced over her back, kneading and tugging into muscles and rolling over her skin. It had been a pain to sit through the initial harsh moments, but now that Aloe had gotten most of the tension out of her back all Sunset could feel was bliss as the attendant's hooves worked their magic. Every push forward electing a hum and every roll backwards making her sigh.
Oh was it worth it.
"I have got to find a way to thank Twilight for this," Sunset mumbled.
"She has never turned down a tasty bouquet of lavenders before," Aloe commented.
Sunset snorted in amusement. "Purple flowers for the purple pony. Figures."
There was a short pause, the kind Sunset had learned to recognise as one from someone who wanted to ask a question but wasn't quite sure if they'd offend with the question, but Aloe voiced it regardless, if nervously.
"If you don't mind me noticing, you seem to be very familiar with the Princess."
It wasn't voiced as a question, but the actual question itself was rather obvious. It wasn't one Sunset was about to answer casually though. "How do you figure?"
Again there was a pause before Aloe answered, but Sunset noticed it was shorter this time and Aloe sounded less nervous. "You have only called her Princess Twilight once throughout your stay here."
"Ah. That." Sunset thought. "Well, Twilight was rather insistent I didn't."
A chuckle came from Aloe and what little tension remained seemed to drain form the mare. "Yes, she is like that with those she holds dear to her. She would have all of us refer to her casually, but we've been rather stubborn about it."
"Really? Why?" Sunset asked.
Aloe hummed. "Well, to us here in Ponyville, we've known Twilight for years before she became a Princess. I believe she always had some status in Canterlot as Celestia's pupil, but here in Ponyville she was just 'Twilight the new librarian.' Granted, she had immediately become a national hero by rounding up a couple of Ponyvilians and defeating the freshly returned Nightmare Moon, but aside from her occasional heroics the now Princess Twilight had always been just been one more mare with her quirks like any other pony in Ponyville. A bookish, quirky, unicorn mare."
"..So she was just another pony among ponies? She didn't bandy around her status as Celestia's pupil?"
"Not as such, no." Aloe said. "Oh sure, she was proud of it, but Princess Twilight has never been much of a braggart. Her Highness could actually be a bit too humble at times, but we've been working on that."
"So how did she go from 'just Twilight' to 'Princess Twilight'?" Sunset asked. Throughout their journal exchanges, Sunset and Twilight had never really discussed Twilight's ascension before, given how all the trouble she'd gone through ultimately started with that. But somehow the relaxing massage and friendly tone of Aloe were making things easier to talk about, and the academician in Sunset was thrilled at hearing a second perspective of her friend.
"No pony knows the full details aside from the Princesses and the Elements, but it was one of the weird days in Ponyville. All the Element Bearers except for then still just Twilight were acting really strange and had somehow gotten their cutie marks swapped. Princess Twilight apparently created a new magic to solve the problem, and got her wings as a result."
"The magic of friendship," Sunset murmured.
"So we heard." Aloe said, and giggled. "To say it was a bit of a shock was an understatement, but at the same time Princess Twilight has fought for Ponyville the moment she set hoof in our little town. I realize that to most it might seem that a town full of supposed friends and neighbours suddenly calling one of their friends 'Princess' is just trying to curry favour with the new royal, but any true Ponyville pony knows that we don't give a hoot about that sort of thing. To us, Princess Twilight had already earned those wings long before she actually got them."
"So you're just treating her as a Princess as a formality?"
Aloe nodded. "In a way. If nopony is going to call her Princess she'll never get used to it, so aside from a small group of her closest friends we're doing what we can to ease her in."
"Which brings us back to me," Sunset finished with a grunt as Aloe untied a particularly stubborn knot in her left hind leg.
Aloe smiled. "Yes. If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to know the Princess? We usually know everypony in Ponyville. Even the new arrivals, Pinkie Pie makes sure of that."
A small jolt went through Sunset's legs at the mention of her friend's name, but Sunset fought down the feelings the name summoned, but Aloe seemed to have noticed her moment of stress.
"I'm sorry, is this a sensitive topic?" the pink mare asked.
Sunset chewed the inside of her cheek. On one hoof, Aloe had been nothing but kind, but on the other... "I'm sorry, it's... complicated."
"Then I won't press," Aloe said calmly as she continued her massage on Sunset's hind legs. "Given you're on a no title basis with her it clearly doesn't matter to Princess Twilight anyway."
"Thank you," Sunset replied.
"Though I do wonder, you said Princess Twilight teleported you here?"
Sunset nodded. "Straight from the castle library into the bath," she confirmed.
"Strange, it is rare for her teleports to be so far off target."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure this was exactly on target." Sunset grumbled.
Sunset's ears flicked at a poorly suppressed chuckle from Aloe. "May I assume that a bit of verbal sparring was involved?" the pink mare asked.
Sunset rolled her eyes with a grin. "What gave it away?"
Aloe moved over to work on Sunset's other leg. "Raising an at times cheeky little dragon and spending several years with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie has sharpened her sense of poetic retribution. They're all quite proud of it, last I heard."
Sunset snorted, but she felt a grin tugging on her lips. "Well, it was a well aimed teleport..."
Aloe chuckled behind her and Sunset felt herself join in. As Aloe moved her ministrations to Sunset's lower back, the conversation petered out and Sunset closed her eyes in contentment. She felt like jelly in the skilled spa pony's hooves. As she felt herself drift off, Sunset began mulling over the conversation she had just had.
It hadn't escaped her notice just how different she and Twilight were under Celestia's tutelage. Whereas Sunset had been openly proud, Twilight's pride was more subdued. Where Sunset strutted around proudly showing off her status as Celestia's student, Twilight only brought it up when relevant. While Sunset was using her knowledge and prestige to increase her status, Twilight was content with what she had.
Was that why Twilight had become Princess Celestia's student after she left? Because she was the complete opposite of what Sunset was? Sunset felt a block of ice settling in her barrel. The idea that Celestia had rejected her so completely, yet accepted the opposite of her filled her with dread.
In her drowsy state, Sunset vaguely registered two pillows being gently placed under her hooves, but the interruption managed to shift her thoughts away from the dark trail they had been following. A moment later Aloe appeared back in her eyes, a file between her teeth, and began Sunset's hooficure. With any decent conversation blocked by the file in Aloe's mouth as it expertly danced across Sunset's hooves, Sunset once more found her mind wandering. This time it wandered to what she now realized was her greatest mistake ever made.
Her belief that Celestia had held the power to turn her into an alicorn.
Ever since that vision in the mirror, Sunset had been obsessed with the reflection of herself she had seen. A proud horn and a pair of wings, with hooves carrying the strength of the earth. It had become an obsession, and when Sunset learned that this gift had been given to her replacement, it had sparked a rage that had led to the final bad decision in a long chain of bad decisions.
But Sunset's becoming an alicorn was not something Celestia could just give any random pony. Becoming an alicorn was something a pony needed to earn. To be a Princess meant embodying a concept, a pillar that would help keep Equestria standing. As Celestia embodied the day, Luna embodied the night and while the origins of the two sisters were lost to time, there were two other alicorns who showed just what it took to become a Princess.
Cadenza, who despite being a pegasus managed to reverse a love stealing spell, saving Equestria from strife, ascended to become the Princess of Love.
And Twilight, who embodied the magic of friendship, who had held fast against threats Sunset only knew from legends, the mare who had saved and reached out to herself when she was at her lowest, a hand reaching out in friendship despite how she had done nothing to earn it, became the Princess of Friendship.
Many ponies have dreams and ambitions. Pegasus fillies dreaming of the Wonderbolts, or unicorn colts trying to become the next Starswirl the Bearded. A lot of those ponies realize over time that those dreams and ambitions are out of their league. Now Sunset felt what all those colts and fillies must have at that moment of realization, and to her own surprise it made her guts sink. Somewhere, even as she was working too become a better pony, that dream of being a Princess had still been alive. But now she had learned what it took to become a Princess, and no amount of hard work, intimidation, theft or pleading could ever get her closer to it.
"Miss Shimmer?"
Sunset blinked as Aloe's voice brought her back to the present, then blinked again when she noticed the corners of her eyes were blurring up. A third blink cleared most of the blur and Sunset saw Aloe standing in front of her, her ears half folded and a worried look on her face. Sunset drew in and let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I'm just... going through a rough patch here."
"Do you wish for a different treatment? Sauna? Perhaps a mud bath?"
"No, no" Sunset protested. "It wasn't anything you did. Well, kind of. I usually keep myself busy to distract myself from the things that bother me. I haven't been this relaxed in forever and it just made my mind wander."
"Is there anything I can do to keep your mind from wandering?" Oh stars above, now she'd made the poor earth pony worried.
"Maybe a horn filing? That always keeps me focused" Sunset suggested, smiling as Aloe's worried frown bloomed into a smile and the mare reached for the file again. Sunset closed her eyes and focused on her horn as the file gently scraped away chips and rough edges, each stroke sending a small tingle through her horn. She was surprised by how delicately Aloe filed down the edges and even reached into the spiral groove of her horn, all while leaving a very pleasant sensation. Unicorn horns could be surprisingly delicate, and to feel such tender care from an earth pony showed just how dedicated Aloe was to her job.
All too quickly, Aloe was done, putting away the file before turning back to Sunset. "Anything else, miss Shimmer?"
Sunset pondered the question for a moment. Her mane and coat felt cleaner than she could remember, her body lighter than it had in months and her hooves and horn were filed and polished to a mirror shine. She could go for one of the many other treatments, but that would just leave her mind to wander again. "No, I think I'll keep it to this for now" she answered.
Aloe smiled and nodded. "As you wish, this way then please" Aloe turned as she led Sunset back to the spa's entrance.
When they reached the entrance, Sunset smiled back at the pink earth pony. "Thanks for everything miss Aloe, I feel better than I have in... well, a long time." Sunset's smile became slightly more strained and she reached up with a hoof to scratch the back of her head. "So, uhm, how much do I owe you? It's been a long time since I've been to a spa..."
"Oh don't worry about that. This was a 'royal request' after all." Aloe laughed, making air quotes with her hoof.
Sunset smiled and readied a quip of her own, but the jingling of the doorbell interrupted her. She turned around out of curiosity to see who entered.
"So sorry for being so late Aloe darling, can I still come in for the usual?"
Seconds passed, but Sunset remained frozen. Alabaster coat instead of alabaster skin, a coiffed purple mane instead of hair. There was absolutely no mistaking it, even before Aloe dashed towards the new pony and embraced her.
"Rarity! I was beginning to wonder if you had not already left."
The unicorn returned the hug as waved of the other mare's concern with a huff. "Oh don't be ridiculous darling, as if I would make the trip without a good long pampering. One must always look presentable, especially at festivities like these."
Absolutely no mistaking it. Not just the name, but that voice-
"Oh my apologies, did I interrupt you while you were busy?" The unicorn's voice snapped Sunset back as she noticed blue eyes hand landed on her.
"Miss Shimmer and I were just about to say goodbye, don't worry about it."
A spark of recognition flashed through though blue eyes and Sunset could feel her heart beating faster. "Miss Shimmer? Sunset Shimmer?"
Her heart leapt to her throat. Sunset lit up her horn, conjuring in her mind one of the few recently familiar places in Equestria, and in a flash of red light and a pop, Sunset vanished from the Ponyville spa.
Silence reigned in the spa's lobby until an utterly confused Rarity turned to an equally confused Aloe. "Was it something I said?"
There were few recent places in Equestria Sunset was familiar with. That she had travelled to the Ponyville Spa by teleport hadn't helped with that, though it had been helpful in giving her a trace to return to. From the few places she was familiar with, she could count the ones that made her feel safe on her hoof. By all logic it made perfect sense she ended up where she did.
Not that it made her current predicament any less embarrassing.
"This is stupid." Sunset grumbled from underneath the blankets of her bed. So much for getting back into gear. Luna had warned her that the motivation she'd felt in her dream was just that, but for her to be terrified by a single pony? 'Dream's courage' indeed.
With the benefit of hindsight and a few moments to calm down and piece things together, Sunset realized just how much of an idiot she'd made of herself. Of course this world had its own Rarity. Of course she lived in Ponyville. Twilight had only told her about her adventures with Rarity and the other Equetrian counterparts of her classmates a hundred times. And yet the moment this Rarity had shown up, all Sunset had done was clam up, panic, and teleport under the cover of her bed like a scared little filly.
With a growl, Sunset shrugged of the cover. Twilight would probably get worried when news of her little stunt got back to her. Best to just apologize and put it behind her.
Without Spike or Twilight to guide her, it took a while for Sunset to get her bearings in the castle. In Canterlot she would have walked up to a guard or maid by now, but she hadn't spotted any staff on her way so far. No maids cleaning the halls or rooms, not even a single guard patrolling the hallways.
As she trotted down the hallways, Sunset's ears twitched as the sound of voices reached her ears. Following the voices led her to a half opened door, but before she could push it open the voices became clear and Sunset swallowed as she recognized one of them. Silently sneaking forward, she glanced through the half opened door.
A round room with a big crystal table surrounded by six and a half crystal... thrones? A pair of square rimmed glasses and Twilight's twin of her journal lying on a throne with Twilight's cutie mark, while Twilight herself stood next to it alongside this world's Rarity, concern on both their faces.
"I am so sorry Twilight, I never meant to startle the poor dear," Rarity said.
Twilight shook her head. "It's not your fault Rarity, Sunset is just... going through a rough patch right now. I can't say too much behind her back, but she's had a bit of an argument with her friends and she's here to cool off a bit."
Rarity's ears perked at the word friends. "A friendship problem, then?"
This managed to conjure a smile on Twilight's face. "Yes, I suppose so. The map might not have sent me out, but I'm not going to leave a friend alone like that."
Rarity smiled back and leaned forward for a quick nuzzle. "You wouldn't be you if you would, darling," she replied before leaning back. "Do give Sunset my apologies, would you? I'd hate to have ruined her stay here."
"I will. And you get back to Aloe and Lotus. Sweetie Belle isn't going to survive the trip to your family if you don't get your beauty touches in."
Rarity huffed as she raised her nose into the air. "I will have you know that I am a perfect lady at all times."
Twilight hid a chuckle behind her hooves. "And I'm sure you'd be very lady-like in letting Sweetie know how much you need another spa treatment for the long trip."
The mock glare and exaggerated sigh from the alabaster unicorn did nothing to hide to sarcasm in Rarity's voice. "Oh fine" she sighed, then turned her glare into a smile again. "You really should join me again one of these days Twilight, Lotus misses working with your mane."
"Tell her to put me down for tomorrow," Twilight replied. "They deserve an explanation for putting up with my sudden request anyway."
Rarity waved a hoof in dismissal. "Oh pish posh darling, you know those two enjoy coddling their customers, regardless of their status."
"I wish that was all it was," Twilight sighed, turning away from Rarity until a white hoof stopped her and turned her head back to meet Rarity's eyes.
"You know they do this because they care for you, don't you?" Rarity questioned. "Even if they coat it with fancy words like Princess and your Highness, everyone in Ponyville loves you for who you are, not the crown on your head." Rarity sighed blissfully. "An absolutely stunning crown, even more magnificent than your first. Elegant, yet humble, why if I had such a crown-"
"-You'd never take it off, and would even sleep with it," Twilight finished, the roll of her eyes softened by her smile. "Alright, alright. Now get going before they end up closing shop," Twilight said, giving Rarity a light nudge with her shoulder that send the unicorn moving with a chuckle.
"And Rarity?" Twilight called after her friend, causing the unicorn to pause. "Thank you."
"Any time Twilight," Rarity replied with a smile.
As Rarity left the throne room, Twilight gave another sight. A happy one though, one filled with gratitude for friends that looked after her. In the back of the room, Sunset nudged the door open and one of Twilight's ears flicking at the soft creek of the frame.
"Rarity came to apologize for startling you," she called over her shoulder.
"I know," Sunset muttered. "I heard."
"So what happened?" Twilight asked.
"Didn't Rarity tell you?"
"I got Rarity's side of the story, but I'd like to hear yours too. According to Rarity, you took one look at her and teleported out of the spa like you were being chased by Tirek."
"That about sums up what happened, yeah." Sunset muttered.
"Even though she's not the Rarity you know?"
Sunset winced. "I know that, Twilight. I mean, I know that intellectually, but the moment I saw her, the moment I recognized her and she recognized me, I just panicked and ran away."
Twilight eyes shone with concern. "Sunset, this is not a good sign. If you can't even look at the mirror versions of your friends, how are you going to face yours?"
"Well maybe I don't want to," Sunset muttered.
"You don't mean that Sunset. I know you don't." Twilight not so much said as stated, sheer conviction rolling of her voice.
Sunset sighed. "Look, for what it's worth, I'm sorry too. I know I overreacted, but things finally felt like they were going somewhere nice and all of a sudden I got slapped in the face with the very people I'm trying to avoid. Or I thought I did, anyway." She turned her head to the door Rarity left through. "I should... probably apologize personally."
"Later," Twilight said.
Sunset blinked and turned back to Twilight. "But I-"
"Later. Trust me, I know Rarity. If you were to chase after Rarity, you'd apologize, then she'd apologize and you both would get stuck in an apology loop until Rarity decides she has to do something right here and now to show just how sorry she is."
Despite her dropped mood, Sunset couldn't help but let loose a snort of amusement. "What, does she think apologies are a competition?"
"I blame my Applejack and Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied dryly.
"So are you sure I shouldn't..."
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm pretty sure that right now she's going to the spa and take her mind of things, then she's going to join her her sister on the train and head off to see her family for Hearth's Warming."
"So you're not upset at my freakout over this?"
Twilight snorted. "Sunset, I'm the last pony in Equestria to scold others on freaking out at unexpected things."
"What, you? But you're... well..." Sunset gestured aimlessly at Twilight, as if trying to point at something specific but unable to find it. "You."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I'm 'me?'"
Sunset nodded. "Yeah, you know, Princess of Friendship, saviour of Equestria who stood up against multiple threats without flinching, myself included. I mean, you saved me when I turned into a raging she-demon, and then stood up to the sirens even without your magic with nothing but a song."
Twilight smiled warmly at Sunset, but shook her head. "Sunset, you've seen me at some of my better moments, and we've talked a little bit since we found the journals, but I'm not Celestia. I have enough test anxiety that I sing entire freakout arias over them."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What, really?"
Twilight nodded. "I've been told they're quite good. But that's nothing compared to the time I freaked out over not being able to send a Friendship Report to Celestia and decided to create my own friendship problem by casting a Want It, Need It spell on Miss Smarty Pants."
Sunset's mouth had dropped wide open as she gaped at Twilight. "You- you did what?"
"Cast a Want It, Need It spell on my doll, then tossed it at the ponies here in town." Twilight repeated, her smile growing more strained and a blush appearing on her cheeks.
"So you just-"
"Eeyup."
"Did you at least imprint it to the people you wanted to catch?"
"I didn't even know that was possible until after the fact."
Sunset winced "So the entire town..."
Twilight nodded, no longer smiling but instead feeling her head sink lower and lower. "Princess Celestia had to break up the resulting fight herself."
"Wow," Sunset let the world out in a breath of air as she flopped down on her haunches. "I never would have thought the Princess of Friendship would ever do something crazy like that for a report."
Twilight raised her head again, her smile returning. "Well I wasn't a Princess at the time, just her student, but I made a mistake that day and I learned from it. One of the many lessons I learned, but a very important one: Sometimes friends make mistakes." She glanced at the giant table. "I still make mistakes even now. Friendship isn't something you can study like an exam, I'm always learning new things about friendship, one friend at a time."
Sunset let Twilights words roll round in her head for a moment. Even Twilight freaked out and made mistakes.
"So... how did you fix it?" Sunset asked.
"We sat down and talked," Twilight answered. "We explained what went wrong and apologized, we learned our lessons and we moved on."
Sunset chewed the inside of her cheek. She realized she might have placed Twilight on a pedestal, like everypony did with Celestia, but if Twilight could make mistakes like these and still remain close with her friends, maybe... maybe she could-
Sunset stubbornly shook her head. This was the exact opposite of why she came here. She looked at Twilight and saw a concerned look cross the alicorn's face. Averting her own eyes, she glanced at the journal on the table and the reading glasses next to them.
"... Since when do you need reading glasses?" Sunset asked.
"Huh?" Twilight blinked, confused by the sudden shift in topic. She followed Sunset's gaze and her eyes widened in realization, a wide smile made its way on hr muzzle as her ears perked up in enthusiasm. "Oh! I don't need reading glasses, I've just been trying to enchant these glasses to read the human writing."
"English." Sunset corrected automatically, and lifted the glasses in her magic, peeking through one of the lenses. "So how does it work?"
"Well, you know how when the portal transforms us it also casts Starswirl's Comprehensive Comprehension on us?"
"Found that out when I first tried to read something after just having finished a conversation," Sunset confirmed.
Twilight nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly! Starswirl's Comprehensive Comprehension works by translating what a person wants to convey rather than trying to hammer out a complete grammar and syntax from words alone. But texts don't have a thinking mind behind them, so the spell has nothing to work with. But then I remembered Haycartes' technique and how going in a book lets you understand the author's intent and started thinking: can I apply a variation of that spell to a pony or object to allow that pony to understand the written work?"
Sunset's eyes focused on the glasses as old memories rose back to the surface. Spell equations and evocations that she hadn't used in close to a decade rose back to her mind. "That- yeah, that could work. But you're running into the problem that Haycartes' method, last I checked, relies on being inside the book to experience the feelings of the author."
"That is what I'm running into as well," Twilight agreed. "I've got the translation matrix, and I've got Haycartes' spell, but I can't get the two to work together. As long as Haycartes' spell doesn't let me get understanding out, the translation matrix has nothing to work with."
Sunset narrowed her eyes at the glasses hovering in her magic, humming as she ran down her memory, thinking of and discarding hundreds of spells she had learned over the years.
"Have you tried a clairvoyance spell yet?"
Twilight blinked. "Clairvoyance?"
"Yeah," Sunset said. "Like for example a See Through You spell, that lets you see through another pony or solid object."
"That wouldn't really be going inside the book though," Twilight started to point out, but then her eyes widened and her ears perked. "But by almost all factors we would be looking inside the book, almost as if we were inside."
"Which might be enough to trick Haycartes' spell to spill its understanding," Sunset continued.
"Which even if it's not the full emotional understanding could be enough to feed the translation matrix!" Twilight finished, a look of pure wonder making her way across her face. "Sunset, you're a genius!" A small frown interrupted the wonder. "Now we just need to find a way to cast three spells and have them work together in something as small and fragile as a pair of glasses.
Sunset blew out a breath in a puff. "Yeah, okay, that's... a tall order. How far did you get?"
"I got Haycartes' spell and the translation matrix on the glasses, just not working together."
Sunset raised an eyebrow "You got those two on a pair of glasses in such short order? Impressive."
Twilight huffed and buffed a hoof to her chest. "Well I was your successor as Celestia's prized pupil and the Element of Magic," Twilight smirked as she tilted her nose in the air, glancing down at Sunset from the corner of her eye.
Sunset blinked. Was Twilight... bragging? After that entire humility speech? She opened her mouth to ask, but then she caught it. A glint, quick as a whip, in the corner of Twilight's eye.
Oh.
Oooooh.
Sunset grinned. "Oh it is on your royal worshipfulness. Give me those glasses, I'll show you how you properly mix a translation matrix with See Through You and Haycartes' spell."
Twilight laughed as she floated the glasses over to Sunset and the two made their way back to the library.
For the moment, Sunset wasn't going to worry about her friends at CHS just yet. Right now, her friend right here had taken the unwise risk of challenging Sunset in a contest of magic. And Sunset wasn't planning to back out.
It was late afternoon at CHS, with most classes ended the teachers retreated to their offices while students were finally free to go home or spend time with their various clubs. In one of the music classrooms, the band known as the Rainbooms were trying to do just that.
Trying being the keyword.
"Ugh! That was terrible!" Rainbow dash growled as she unslung her guitar.
"Crude, but I can't say you're wrong, unfortunately" Rarity sighed as she stared wistfully at her keytar. "We've been out of our 'groove' all day."
"I just don't understand why it's all going wrong all of a sudden," Fluttershy mumbled as she slouched over.
Applejack sighed in Frustration. "Well, I can take a guess, but I ain't sure y'all are going to like the answer."
"We're missing a band member and even though we're all really upset with her we're also confused and kind off miss her?" Pinkie piped up from behind her drums.
"Got it in one, Pinkie," Applejack agreed, a sour smile on her lips. "For better or worse, Sunset never lost that leadership spark of hers. No offence to you, Rainbow, but while you might pull off some rivetin' solos, it was Sunset's lead we were always following after she joined."
Rainbow gave a roll of her eyes at the claim, but made no attempt to deny it.
"She does have that certain pull about her, doesn't she?" Rarity said as she laid her keytar on the nearby table. "I still remember how meek and submissive she was those first few months after the Fall Formal. Such a difference from the strong and frankly frightening girl that reigned over our school for years. Even the smallest glare was enough to make her shrink in on herself."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash grunted. "And then came the Battle of the Bands. She pulled us together not once, but twice against the Sirens. Suddenly she got her confidence back, and she became a kickass girl who rocked on a guitar."
"So how did she go from that to the girl who betrayed our trust again?" Fluttershy wondered.
Applejack sighed and sat down on the stairs leading to the classroom's stage. "I wish I knew, sugarcube. I thought we were gettin' along like apples in a bushel. I gave her the benefit of the doubt when that danged nickname spread like wildfire. Not like the family ever kept that a big secret 'n all, but those photo's don't leave much room for doubt. We were the only ones who even knew Sunset had made those photos to begin with."
"Maybe someone swiped her phone without knowing and got lucky?" Rainbow Dash offered.
"Mighty convenient, that," Applejack countered.
"I know! It's just... Argh! Sunset's gone back to Equestria, why on earth would she do that if this was all part of some plan to break us all up again?"
"Maybe it's just one last shot at revenge." Fluttershy muttered, a frown on her face.
"Fluttershy?" Rarity walked over and leaned a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you alright? You almost seem more upset with this than Applejack."
Fluttershy's frown faded, only for several more emotions to flash across her face. Anger, sadness and pain crossed her face before settling on fear as Fluttershy sat down on the stage stairs next to Applejack. Rarity sat down on the other side, her hands never leaving the shy girl's shoulders, and worry written across her face.
"... The past few weeks have been horrible. Not just because of the teasing, but because they made me remember."
"Remember what, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
"The years before the Fall Formal," Fluttershy answered, as she reached down to hug her knees. She remained silent for a moment as Applejack and Rarity shared a concerned look over her back. When the moment passed, Fluttershy continued.
"I know Sunset was mean to everyone, and-and I really don't want to say nobody else can complain, but whenever Sunset needed to make a point, whenever she wanted to make everyone afraid, she went after the weakest in our school. " Fluttershy looked up, fear having made way for the pain of recalling bad memories. "She went after me."
"I'm sorry we weren't there for you, darling," Rarity apologized.
"I'm not blaming you for that, Rarity" Fluttershy countered. "Sunset... she was never violent. Never physical. But she didn't need to, not with me. I would back up if she so much as looked at me, I would shrink if she so much as advanced on me. And for years she terrorized me to make sure everyone else backed away from her."
"And we all did," Applejack continued.
"And all she needed to get us there were a few well placed words and a handful of secrets," Rarity finished. "Exactly what's happening here."
"Yeah, except Sunset isn't here to lord it over us anymore," Rainbow Dash countered.
"You don't think she was just tryin' to give us one final kick while our backs were turned?" Applejack asked.
Pinkie leaned back on her stool behind the drums and looked up. "Flash didn't seem to think so."
At the mention of Flash all the other girls sighed and either sunk their heads to the ground or turned to stare at the ceiling. They had already begun wavering in their convictions that Sunset had been doing this at lunch, and hearing Flash Sentry, the one person who had reason to hate Sunset the most in school, defend her had driven a wedge in those cracks.
The news that Sunset had gone back -no, fled back- to Equestria had hammered that wedge in even deeper.
Rarity was the first to break the silence. "Girls, we may have to admit that we were wrong." She looked at the others, but when nobody made any move to speak she continued. "What are we doing here, really, except trying to find reasons to keep believing Sunset is Anon-a-Miss?"
"We still don't have any way of explainin' how those secrets got out there," Applejack pointed out.
"No, we don't," Rarity agreed. "But can you honestly tell me that you still believe it was Sunset who spread them?"
Applejack frowned at the jab at her honesty, but tugged at her hat with a sigh. "No, I don't reckon I can."
"Rainbow Dash?" she asked, turning towards the rainbow haired guitarist.
"I did," the girl grumbled. "I mean, who else could have gotten all of our secrets? But now that she's run off to Equestria... yeah, no, the old Sunset wouldn't have done that. And if it's not the old Sunset..."
"Then that means we made a friend cry," Pinkie finished, still staring up at the ceiling.
Rarity turned to the pink bundle of hair hiding the last of the group next to her. "Fluttershy?"
The pink bundle was quiet for a moment before she raised her head from her knees. "I really want to believe it isn't Sunset," the girl whispered. "But if it isn't her, why is everything pointing to it being Sunset?"
"I think, deep down, we all know the answer to that question," Rarity answered.
Rainbow scrunched her face in distaste. "Don't tell me all of this was just for revenge?"
Rarity shrugged sadly, "Why wouldn't it be? Sunset terrorized the entire school for years. And let's face it, she got off with barely a slap on the wrist. She had to help the work crews in cleaning up the mess she made at the Fall Formal, but after that? I honestly can't recall any other punishment she was given. Certainly not enough to make up for three years worth of grudges."
"But who would have done this?" Fluttershy asked.
"Who wouldn't?" Rarity countered, raising her head. Sadness once again shone through her eyes. "Sunset had no shortage of enemies after the Fall Formal. Even we hadn't truly forgiven her, as it turns out, given how quickly we bought into the idea that Sunset went back to her old tricks. Revenge is, I'm afraid, a good motive for the majority of this school. Including us."
"Whoa whoa whoa, back up here, are you suggesting one of us is Anon-a-Miss?" Rainbow Dash protested.
"I'm saying it could be. It would be poetic justice to break up Sunset's friendships with us the same way she broke apart ours." Rarity waved her hand behind her, as if throwing away an invisible paper. "But I think we've done enough suspecting our friends of something they never did. I say it's time we take action."
"So what do we do next?" Rainbow Dash asked. The sportive girl was tired of moping around, and eager to start doing something. Rarity smiled and was about to reply, but was interrupted by Applejack.
"Wait," the cowgirl called with a raised hand. The other girls stopped and turned towards her. "Are y'all sure about this? Goin' on a wild goose chase for whoever done this?"
"Well yeah!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Or what, we're just supposed to leave this alone?"
"I'm not talkin' about that, I mean are we just goin' to pretend the past few days and us turnin' our backs to Sunset never happened?"
"...No," Pinkie spoke up from behind the drum. "We can't. We can't pretend we never thought the things we did, or said the things we did. We were wrong, and we hurt Sunset. We're going to have to give Sunsets the biggest, hugest apology when we see her again. But before that, we need to make sure Anon-a-Miss isn't here to trick us and hurt her again!"
"If it's gonna be that easy," Applejack muttered.
"Well we do have a couple hundred potential suspects, but I never said it would be easy," Rarity said.
"Not what I meant Rares," Applejack sighed, before shaking her head and getting up. "So how're we goin' to do this?"
Rarity got up as well and started pacing. "I was thinking we should keep our 'ears to the ground,' as it were. See and listen just not to what people are saying, but whom they're saying it to and how they're responding."
"So we want to keep Sunset bein' gone a secret for now?" Applejack asked.
"Yyyyeah, about that," Pinkie pinched her thumb and forefinger together until they were almost touching and peered through the tiny space between them. "We might be an eensie teensie bit late for that."
Rainbow Dash blinked, "whadaya mean, too late? Did some guys find out already?"
"Rainbow Dash, darling, Flash Sentry told us about Sunset's departure in the middle of a crowded cafeteria," Rarity said, resting her hands on her hips with a sigh. "I will be shocked if the entire school doesn't know by now."
"The entire school?" Celestia repeated.
Luna nodded. "Give or take a few students who will hear of it by the end of the day. Or read about it. I've already seen a few 'ding dong, the witch is gone!' posts on the Anon-a-Miss profile."
"How?" Celestia asked.
"It would seem that Flash Sentry decided to confront Sunset's friends with the news of her departure, and he chose a crowded cafeteria to do so.
Celestia let her head sink into her hands. "And Anon-a-Miss?"
"Gone silent, as would be expected."
"So we're back to square one. Without Anon-a-Miss posting, we can't track him or her down."
"Not necessarily," Luna answered. "It's true that more posts by Anon-a-Miss would be very helpful in tracking down the poster, but the comments are still being flooded so we can still narrow down our errand little cyber bully by taking the care at looking who is commenting and how. Cranky said that the explosion of posts following the news that Sunset went back to Equestria has already made him put a lot of students higher or lower on the lists."
"And what about the students? How have they been reacting?" It was a question Celestia dreaded to ask, given how much the hatred for Sunset had been rising these past few days even with the girl still present. Cranky had predicted shutting down the account would cause the students to leap to conclude it was Sunset, but if the account simply stopped posting...
"Well, that's where it gets interesting."
... That was not the reaction she was expecting. "Interesting?" Celestia parroted? "Interesting how?"
"Take a look," Luna said as she handed Celestia her tablet. The Anon-a-Miss page was on the front, with every post's comments set to Read All. Celestia began swiping through the comments.
[Diamonds4Ever]: Hahaha! Just heard Anon-a-Miss is gone!
[MelodyStrings]: Wait, why would Shimmer run? Is this an hoax?
[DJPoN3]: No Hoax, Flash Saw And Told. Was There.
[BonBons]: Where'd she go?
[DJPoN3]: Back To Magic Land.
[BonBons]: Seriously? Why? She was owning this place again!
[StringsOfLyre]: Who cares? She's gone!
[Firebrand]: Yeah, she should've gone back ages ago!
[MelodyStrings]: Perhaps we should reconsider who Anon-a-Miss actually is...
[Ivotower]: u crazy? Its obvious and shes gone!
[BonBons]: Mel, I'll PM you.
Celestia looked up from the tablet. "How are the students taking it in the hallways?"
"It varies. Most are happy Sunset Shimmer is gone, most because they still believe she is Anon-a-Miss, though a small portion seems to have started questioning things."
Celestia smiled. A more genuine smile than she'd had in days. She drummed her fingers on her desk for a moment before leaning back in her chair. It was a start, yes. A small one, but a start. If even a few students more would start to openly question who Anon-a-Miss truly was, then Sunset would have a chance.
"What about her friends?" she asked.
"From what I've heard from the teachers, they've been very distracted throughout classes today. I'd say Flash Sentry's words struck a nerve, and they've been doing a lot of thinking."
"Good," Celestia sighed. The loss of her friends was probably the greatest blow Sunset had suffered. If they could be convinced they were wrong, that would be a big step in healing Sunset's wounds.
"You're making your mentoring face again," Luna noted with an impish smile.
Celestia scowled playfully at her sister. "I am not! I'm just thinking about how we are going to make a friendlier environment for Sunset to return to. This won't blow over overnight, and Sunset is going to need the support of friends when she returns."
"If she returns," Luna countered.
Celestia blinked. There was a tone in Luna's voice that worried her. "...Luna? What are you thinking?"
Luna blinked, then sighed. "I have been thinking that I -no, we- may have been going about counselling Sunset the wrong way."
"How so? We've been pretty lenient on her, in hindsight more than we should have, at Twilight's request, but other than that we've treated her as any other student."
"That's just it Tia, we've treated her like any other student. Any other human student. We've gotten so used to Sunset being around that we completely ignored that she is a unicorn from a magical land, with its own customs and practices."
Celestia's eyes widened as the implications. "Oh... Oh goodness, do you think that might have been why she left?"
Luna shook her head. "I don't know, and it's exactly because I don't know that I'm going to ask Princess Twilight for help."
"Of course, you have the journal?"
"Yes, I've already sent Princess Twilight a message."
"Do you think it will be easy to have a back and forth with a journal to discuss something so complicated?"
"Oh I'm not planning to use the journal for this talk."
"... you're not?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm planning to go there and have a talk with Princess Twilight face to face."
Celestia's jaw dropped open as she stared at her sister. It took a moment and a shake of her head to recover.
"Please tell me you're joking."
Luna crossed her arms. "Not at all. As you say, we can't have a discussion on something that complicated over a journal. Plus, some of this talk will mean having to talk about Sunset, and it might tread on subjects Sunset Shimmer would rather not talk about. That would be best done in a conversation with person."
"Luna, you're talking about crossing that mirror into an alien realm!" Celestia protested.
"And Twilight did the same for us on two occasions," Luna countered. "Don't forget, our world must be as alien to Twilight and Sunset as theirs is to us. And after Twilight left Sunset in our care, which we failed at, I owe it at the very least to not inconvenience a Princess by asking her to come over to our alien world to fix our problems."
"You really think she is an actual Princess?"
Luna raised an eyebrow. "You don't? I noticed you've been calling her 'Twilight' for a while now."
Celestia tilted her head. "Did I...? I guess I did. It's just all a bit hard to believe that such a young, normal looking girl would be a Princess. I still see her walking awkwardly around school and I just can't think of her as anything but another student."
"Sunset Shimmer wholeheartedly believes she is a Princess," Luna countered.
Celestia sighed in defeat. "Allright, I'll leave that up to you then. Just... be careful, okay? Between the old Sunset, a crown that turns students into mind controlling demons and mind controlling sirens, most of the things we've seen from Equestria haven't exactly been pleasant."
"All the more reason for me to go and see the brighter side," Luna replied with a grin.
Celestia merely rolled her eyes in response. "Have you heard anything from Twilight and Sunset?"
"Not yet. They seem to be busy."
"I hope they're busy with something fun."
"That. Was. So much fun!" Sunset cheered as she flopped on to the couch in the castle's living room, landing on her back and rubbing herself into the pillows.
"It was!" Twilight laughed as she jumped up on her favourite reading chair. "I haven't done any dual casting in years, not since I got sent here to Ponyville."
"And we only went through three glasses," Sunset smiled.
"It would have been two if you had taken the time to read up on the spells like I told you to," Twilight admonished.
"I got it quicker with actual practice," Sunset retorted. "You don't get over magical lethargy by reading."
"At least you put the 'charm' in 'third time's the charm'," Twilight sniped back, sticking out her tongue.
"Of course, the Wendigo is in the details," Sunset quipped.
"Does it work?" Twilight finished.
Sunset jumped off the couch and cantered to her saddle bags. "Let's go get my journal so we can see... huh."
"What? What's wrong?" Twilight turned over in her chair to look at Sunset, who held a vibrating journal in her magic.
"Looks like one of the Principals wants to talk to us," Sunset said, then floated the journal over with a grin. "With perfect timing, too. Let's test those glasses, Twilight!"
Twilight rolled her eyes as she accepted the journal in her own magic and floated the now enchanted glasses on her muzzle. With a flick of her magic the book opened and riffled through the pages. Finding the last page, Twilight began to read out loud.
"To her Royal Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer,
"There she goes again," Sunset muttered, sticking out her tongue as Twilight shot her a light glare.
I hope this message finds you both in good health. Only a day has gone by and already I have had several teachers note how much they miss you, Sunset Shimmer. We have started our search for Anon-a-Miss, but I am afraid the task in front of us will not be solved easily. If at all possible, I would advice you to stay in Equestria and relax.
That being said, as teachers we cannot in good conscience wish for you to fall behind on your studies, and if your performance in class was any indication, neither do you. As such, I would like to formally request Princess Twilight for permission to visit Equestria, so that we may discuss this in person.
With great respect, Vice-Principal Luna.
Twilight looked up from the journal to Sunset, whose jaw was making a pretty good attempt at trying to reach the floor.
"Vice-Principal Luna... is coming here?" she squeaked.
"Looks like it."
"Are you... sure that's a good idea?" Sunset asked hesitantly. But the wide, toothy and shining smile told her everything before the words even left Twilight's mouth.
"Good? I think it's a brilliant idea! I'd been wondering how to make sure you could continue your education while you were here, and now Vice-Principal Luna is coming here to walk us through it!" Twilight reared up and clopped her hooves together in giddy excitement. "Oooh! This is so exciting! I never got to look into the curriculum of Canterlot High. I wonder what courses they teach without magic classes?"
"Shouldn't you write her back before you have your little geek-out?" Sunset interrupted with a small smirk.
"Oh, right." Twilight picked up a quill to put to paper, but paused as her eyes fell on the stuffy text of Luna's message. "...Sunset?"
"Yes, Twilight?"
"How often do people talk to Vice-Principal Luna casually?"
Sunset hummed. "Depends on whether she is wearing her 'professional face.' She's really approachable once she drops that stern attitude."
"So what she's writing here is pretty unusual?"
"Well, I wouldn't say unusual, but it's something she usually reserves for things like official speeches, superiors or board meetings. Why are y-" Sunset's eyes narrowed. "What are you thinking, Twilight?"
Twilight smiled in reply. "Oh, just that I should remind a Vice-Principal that I'm the Princess of Friendship."
Luna marched towards the statue at the school's entrance. Her mind was on the portal she was about to travel through, and the discussion she was about to have with royalty from another world. She kept her mind firmly focused on those things.
It helped block out the memory of Celestia's roaring laughter.
Luna sighed. Nope, it wasn't working. Her memory was already slipping back to her sister doubling over, clutching her stomach and pleading for mercy as Luna had finished reading Princess Twilight's reply out loud.
"Dear Vice-Principal Luna,
Of course you are welcome in Equestria! I would never refuse a friend. I will have the portal open in a few minutes so I can set us some tea, do you have any preferences? I always like to keep the best around for my friends.
Your friend, Twilight Sparkle."
She'd been had. By a pony Princess. No denying there. Best to just move on.
Luna stopped in front of the statue. A few minutes had passed, so the portal had to be open. She carefully placed her hand on the side of the statue's plinth, jerking it back as the marble surface rippled like it was water. The portal was open.
Luna pondered on how to cross it. She remembered a scene from one of her books, one about a boy attending a wizard school who had to go through a portal in the wall to get to the train station. The advice given there sounded like as good an idea as any.
"Best do it with a bit of a run," Luna murmured, as she took a few steps back and dashed through the portal.
Fun fact about the magic portal: You need a bit of practice to control your inertia. The first time you go through it practically spits you out the other end even if you just walk through it. Twilight, Spike and Sunset had all found this out the hard way.
So it came with some surprise to Twilight and Sunset that Vice-Principal Luna wasn't so much spat as shot out of the portal, careening through the library and into the merciless cushion of thousands of stacks of bound paper that made up a huge pile of books. Which promptly fell over and buried Luna.
"Oh no, Vice-Principal Luna! Are you alright?" Twilight called as she galloped over to the pile and began lifting off the books.
"Did she run through the portal? Why would anyone run through a portal!" Sunset asked as she joined Twilight in lifting books off the poor Vice-Principal.
Six more books flew through the air back to shelves until the duo reached the schoolteacher.
And then they stopped.
A groan told them that Vice-Principal Luna was alive and well, but Twilight's jaw fell open in a recognition any pony in Ponyville would have, while Sunset could only tilt her head in confusion at the pony they dug up from underneath the books.
"That's... shorter than the Luna I remember," Sunset said.
Vice-Principal Luna. You're shorter than I expected.
The moment Luna passed through the statue's portal, her vision turned into a swirling whirlpool of colours and her body felt like it was stuck in a hurricane without up or down. She felt her body change, hands, feet, even her face, but the assault on her senses made it impossible to tell how everything was changing.
Then, in the same instance it all started, it ended, and Luna found herself shot out of the other end of the portal. She barely had time to realize she was out of the portal at all, certainly no time to scream. Luna hurled through the air straight into a giant tower of something that immediately collapsed on top of her.
The sweet embrace of darkness was almost welcome after that, if it wasn't accompanied by being buried under something rather heavy. Or many somethings. As her senses slowly returned to her she could hear muffled voices on the other end of the somethings that smelled like... Books, I'm buried under a pile of books. She groaned, more in confusion at her situation than knowing what happened, and pushed against the books. In the back of her mind she somewhat groggily registered that her hands weren't doing what they were supposed to, but what little of her senses had returned demanded she get the pile of books she had somehow buried herself under off her first.
Luna vaguely registered the sound of voices on the other end of the bound paper barrier, but still couldn't really register what they were saying. What she was clear enough to register though, was the books beginning to glow purple and red, before flying off her. She winced as the sudden light blinded her, and vaguely heard a familiar voice talking about... height?
She groaned and slowly opened her eyes, trying to do so slow enough that the light wouldn't just blind them again. She still only saw blurs, a purple one the other an orange and red one. With a few more blinks, the blurs started to solidify into something recognizable. For a given meaning of recognizable.
Two ponies were staring down at her with the biggest, most adorable eyes she had ever seen. Those same remarkably expressive eyes seemed to be filled with concern. Was that for her?
"Vice-Principal Luna? Are you alright?" the one with the fire coloured hair -mane?- asked, with a voice Luna recognized and cleared the last of the haze in her mind.
"Sunset Shimmer?" She asked the pony.
"It's me. How many fing- okay, yeah, that's not going to work. How many hooves am I holding up?"
"One, since you're standing on the other three."
The corners of Sunset's mouth... -Snout? Muzzle?- curled upwards. "Okay, I think she's back with us. "
Luna made an effort to sit upright, only to feel her back refusing to respond like she expected it to and fell right back. Her eyes crossed as they caught something blue in front of her face, beyond where her nose usually was. She raised her hand to try and touch the strange new thing, only for her eyes to widen in surprise at the hoof in its place."
"...Sunset Shimmer?" she asked, her voice strangely calm given the turmoil her mind was in.
"Yes, Vice-Principal Luna?"
"Why am I a pony?"
"Same reason either of us turns into a human on the school's end. We're not entirely sure whether it's an effect of the mirror portal itself, or a more primal aspect of crossing planar boundaries, but long complicated magical theory cut short: on the other side, we're human, on this end, you're a pony," Sunset answered. Then, almost as a afterthought, she added "welcome to Equestria, by the way."
Short though it was, the simple explanation did a lot to calm Luna down. All I have to do is walk through the portal and I'm back to normal again, she reminded herself.
"Can you stand?" Sunset asked.
Luna tried to raise herself into a sitting position again, but just like last time her back just wouldn't respond as it would have when she was human and she slumped back again. She turned to Sunset in exasperation. "Maybe? With a bit of advice?"
The eyes of the purple pony widened in panic, but Sunset merely smiled.
"Yeah, don't try to sit just yet. Just roll over on your stomach for now."
Luna did so, working her way around her backpack -that had mysteriously migrated to her side somehow- and laid down on her stomach. To her surprise, the position was significantly more comfortable than it would have been as a human, as she could easily raise her head without her neck feeling like it was straining to keep it up.
"Okay, now push your legs up, front legs first, then your back legs." Sunset Shimmer said.
Luna did so, and found herself standing on four wobbly hooves. She had figured standing like a pony would be like being on hands and knees, but was nothing like that. Standing on four equal level legs felt... alien. She wobbled again as she tried to take a tentative step and slipped, tipping forward and barely managing to steady herself, her face an inch from the floor.
"Ooooh, I remember being on two legs for the first time. Try to take it easy, Vice-Principal Luna, you'll be shaky for the first few hours at least," the purple pony spoke for the first time, and Luna's eyes widened as she recognized the voice.
"Your Highness," she said. She tried to bow, but only managed to sweep her front hooves from underneath her and land in an ungraceful pile of pony.
Sunset and Twilight shared a glance. "So much for easy," Twilight muttered, as a light purple glow enveloped her horn. Luna felt her body being pulled in what could be described as a weirdly comfortable blanket hug before being lifted into the air. Her eyes widened, but before she so much as found her voice to yelp she was placed back onto her legs and the glow and strange sensation stopped.
Blinking at what just happened, Luna opened her mouth to ask but noticed Sunset Shimmer had started pacing around her.
"I have to say, you're shorter than I expected," Sunset said.
"...Pardon?" Luna replied, utterly confused.
"Sorry, it's just that I met this world's Princess Luna last night, sort off, and you look a lot different."
"Princess?"
"That must be because Vice-Principal Luna never ascended to become an alicorn," Twilight spoke up. "I remember seeing Princess Luna like this shortly after we used the Elements of Harmony to heal her. Well, plus a horn and wings." Twilight's eyes lit up. "Oooh! Does that mean Princess Luna used to be an earth pony before she ascended?"
Sunset stopped her pacing and stared at Luna's rear. "No cutie mark either."
"Wait, what, really?" Twilight rushed to Luna's other side and studied her flank. "Huh, you're right." She raised her head to look at Sunset over the Vice-Principal. "But humans don't get cutie marks, do they?"
Sunset shook her head. "No pony, no cutie mark. I guess that doesn't transfer no matter how similar our other selves are to us?"
Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "I wonder if humans who become ponies can get their cutie marks on this side of the mirror."
"Only one way to find out," Sunset said with a grin.
"Please don't let the Crusaders hear that," Twilight sighed in response.
The two magic students, still on an experiment high, likely would have gone on for hours. It was at this point though that Luna's frustration caught up with her confusion.
"Excuse me!" Luna's voice thundered. While no Royal Canterlot Voice, the Vice-Principal had years of practice making herself heard over crowds of students. The effect was immediate as both ponies jumped back. With the immediate Pony Inquisition out of the way. Luna took a deep breath and continued in a much calmer voice, "I would greatly appreciate it if I could be included in this conversation about my body."
Princess Twilight looked half away and laughed awkwardly, a gesture that reminded Luna much of the girl she so briefly got to know during the Fall Formal. "Sorry Vice-Principal," Twilight spoke up.
"Yeah, sorry. Bit of a geek-out moment there," Sunset added with that awkwardly embarrassed grin Luna had become so familiar with since the girl turned around her life.
"Over me?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah. You're the first human to cross the mirror. We... kinda don't have a lot of reference," Sunset answered, still sporting that awkwardly embarrassed grin.
Princess Twilight on the other hand -hoof?-, seemed to have recovered and was almost bouncing on her hooves. "And it's so exiting! Already you've thrown half the theories I'd made about how our worlds mirror one another in the bin, while reinforcing several others. Ooh! This is so exciting! I have so many questions!"
"Easy, Twilight. " Sunset said as she put a hoof on Princess Twilight's shoulder. "Why don't we go have that tea first?"
Princess Twilight put a hoof to her chest and took a deep breath, before pushing her hoof out while slowly breathing out, a move that oddly reminded Luna of something a colleague working at Crystal Prep, Cadance, tended to use to deal with stressful situations.
"Right, tea, let's do that," a now much calmer Princess Twilight said. "Do you think you can walk? The tea is right over there," she continued, and pointed to a low table, surrounded with cushions and with an elegant tray with a kettle and three cups. "I figured it would be easier to keep things close together. Less stumbling that way," she added with a sheepish smile.
Luna hummed in acknowledgement as she stared down at her new legs where her arms used to be. Would this be like crawling all the time? Legs didn't move like arms though, since arms didn't have the elbow facing forward like the knee does. She cautiously lifted her right foreleg and set it back down a bit forward. She blinked as the strange, new sensation registered and raised the leg again, this time she brought it closer to her face and bend it around in various angles. Luna was baffled by how flexible the leg was, even able to turn it around to stare at the frog of her new hoof, something she was pretty sure no pony on her world would be able too.
It took a bit of practice, and no small amount of tripping and stumbling (it was definitely nothing like crawling) but eventually Luna made her way over to one of the large cushions and sat down. Studying the table she noticed an impressively classic tea set, and several plates with all kinds of treats. As she looked at the cups though, Luna tilted her head in confusion.
Luna blinked, and looked back to Sunset. "No, I'm just wonder why this cup here has a holder," she said as she pointed to the cup resting on its place right on front of her, a little handle on its side that would have fit a finger just fine, but was impossibly small for the hooves she had now.
Sunset raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to answer, but blinked and between the cup and her hooves in confusion, and shut her mouth back with an audible clack. "That's... a good question. Twilight, why do our cups have handles?"
Twilight hummed and raised her head to look at the ceiling in thought. "If I recall, the first modern tea sets didn't appear in Equestria until we had established trade with the minotaurs. Drinking tea with your clients, especially when discussing big business ventures, was tradition among minotaurs back then, so it became commonplace for the wealthy to drink tea from minotaur tea sets. Then the popularity exploded as Princess Celestia was gifted a very expensive set a few hundred years back, after which they became desirable by the rest of the population the very next day. They've been a common sight in pony homes all across Equestria ever since.
Luna nodded in acknowledgement. This was remarkably similar to how tea sets had arrived from the east back in her own world. She stared down at the teacup, then at her hooves, then back at the cup. She reached for the cup with both hooves and gently clamped it between the two surprisingly flexibly hooves, carefully and with some wobbling, raising it up to her now far longer mouth and took a small sip. She glanced at her hosts, who had been looking at her with smiles on their faces.
Luna could feel her ears flopping down on her head. "Don't laugh", she muttered.
Sunset snorted, and Princess Twilight chuckled. "Don't worry, Vice-Principal Luna", the Princess said. "You're with the two ponies in Equestria who completely understand what you're going through."
At Luna's confused tilt of her head, Sunset added "remember the Fall Formal and the movie clip discrediting Twilight?"
Her eyes widened as she remembered the rather embarrassing video. "I'd thought Sunset Shimmer had caught you just having fun playing with your dog..."
"Nnnno that was all real", Princess Twilight said and chuckled awkwardly. "Hands aren't as easy as they look at first glance. Not to mention walking on two legs. I got the hang of them, though. Eventually. Sort of."
Luna turned to Sunset, who shook her head with a bitter smile. "I wasn't much better. I just have about a decade more practice than Twilight."
"So what was with the smiles?"
Princess Twilight and Sunset shared a look. "Well, when you look like a younger version of our thousand-plus year old Princess of the Night drinking tea for the first time, you can't help but smile," Sunset said.
Luna choked on a sip of tea, and sputtered between coughs. "A thousand year old what!?"
"Princess of the Night and Guardian of Dreams. The you in this world raises the moon every night." Princess Twilight tilted her head, levelling an accusing stare at Sunset Shimmer. "Didn't Sunset tell you this?"
"Hey, in my defence I only really met Princess Luna last night," Sunset Shimmer shrugged. Princess Twilight rolled her eyes in reply, but with a smile on her lips.
"Move the moon..." Luna murmured in a daze, swaying on her cushion. "My pony self moves the moon..."
"And watches over the dreams of her subjects," Twilight added.
"Of course she does. How much more fantasy will this get..." Luna murmured, trying to piece together this bombshell. Trying to make sense of it, she blinked as she found a piece that didn't fit. "Wait a minute, how can I be a thousand years old over here? I'm barely 36!"
Sunset scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "Yyyyeah, we haven't really figured out how that worked yet. Sometimes your world mirrors Equestria to a frightening degree, such as our... friends both here and there, at other times it's almost completely different. We've tried to make sense of it, but it just doesn't seem to make any."
"There has got to be a logic to it though," Princess Twilight said. "Maybe a parallel influence? But the timelines just don't match. Something with the phases of the moon perhaps? Oooh, if only the events on your world had been documented here for longer, we-"
"Easy Twilight," Sunset interrupted with a gentle nudge. "Guest first, unravelling the mysteries of alternate realities later."
The Princess's ears drooped and a blush coloured her fur. The small part of Luna's mind that wasn't crooning at how adorable it looked wondered how exactly blushing fur worked.
"Sorry," the Princess said, before clearing her throat to change the subject. "So! You mentioned in your message that you wanted to talk about Sunset's education?"
"Ah, yes, the teachers were generous enough to made copies of the lessons they've had planned for the week, as well as a schedule for their homework. We didn't know how long your hiatus would take, but these should keep you on the track at least until the holidays. They're in my bag, let me just..." Luna reached for one of the bags on her side with a hoof and pawed at the strap for a moment. "uhm..." she turned a helpless look at her hosts.
Sunset Shimmer smiled. "Here, let me get that for you" she said, and Luna gaped as the unicorn's horn lit up with a red glow. At the same time, her bag started glowing and the strap unbuckled by itself, the bag opening and all the paperwork started flying out, surrounded by the same red glow as they hovered in front of Sunset.
"... Convenient," Luna managed.
"I know~" Sunset crooned, flipping through the notes and books as they hovered in front of her. "I can't believe how I never realized how much I missed this."
Luna Shook off her surprise -and with considerably more effort her bouncing curiosity- at seeing real, actual magic on display in a not-deadly situation for a change. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any of your schoolbooks or notes in your locker."
Sunset's smile faltered. "Ah, no you wouldn't. I left those in my apartment."
"I see. Would you like for me to get them?"
Sunset Shimmer bit her lip and seriously seemed to consider the offer, but after a moment she shook her head. "No, I think I can get them myself."
"Are you sure, Sunset? You didn't seem to be very comfortable with the idea of returning this morning." Princess Twilight asked.
Sunset Shimmer gave the Princess a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's just a quick trip to get my school stuff. In and out, with a bit of luck nobody will notice."
It was obvious to Luna that Princess Twilight wasn't really comfortable letting Sunset Shimmer go, but she didn't stop her either.
"You're going now?"
"Might as well get it over with," Sunset answered with a shrug as she made her way over to the portal. The fiery coloured mare seemed to pause at the mirror, taking one deep breath and letting it out before jumping through.
Luna watched the ripples on the mirror recede until Princess Twilight spoke.
"I hope she doesn't land into more problems before we can start to fix the current ones."
"I think you've already started fixing them, your Highness," Luna returned. The Princess hummed an unsure agreement.
"This does give me the chance to broach a subject that would have been a bit more embarrassing if Sunset was still here, though," Luna said.
"What is it?"
"I- that is, my sister and I, may not have given Sunset Shimmer the kind of attention a girl like her needs."
Princess Twilight tilted her head. "Meaning?"
"Well, we are human, and she is a unicorn. Not to mention she is from Equestria, a world with its own culture, and we really have no idea how much this difference matters."
Princess Twilight tilted her head. "I thought we were pretty similar. Sure, there are so many things in your world is so much different, and so many things I want to ask questions about, like those smart phones or cars or how a world without magic can even function..." the young Princess let her eyes roam for a moment as she imagined how that might work. "But, when I first got to your world I also found how much we had in common. Our worlds may be different, but I don't think we are."
Luna couldn't help but smile at the conviction radiating from the purple pony in front of. She hoped the Princess would not lose that optimism as she grew up. "Thank you for your confidence, your Highness, but all the same I would hope to learn more about your people, if only to make sure Sunset gets all the help she needs."
Princess Twilight beamed a smile of pride and gratitude. "Let me see what I can do."
The Princess closed her eyes, but remained seated. Before Luna could ask what was going on, her horn lit up in a magenta glow, and books started floating off the shelves rounding the library and circled around their table. Princess Twilight opened her eyes and scanned the books.
"Hmm, Ancient Equestria goes into history but doesn't have enough on modern culture... The Three Tribes and Their Skills is more about practical use of abilities... Hearth's Warming Tale fits the season but isn't much for culture studies... Oh, here we go, 'A Guide to Equestria: Customs and Traditions.' A popular book for tourists, I hear it's been selling really well in the Crystal Empire after its return.
Luna nodded politely at the unfamiliar name as the book in question hovered towards her in a magenta field of energy. It kept hovering in front of her and Luna hesitantly reached out with her hooves, only to yank them back right before a ripple in the field could hit them.
Princess Twilight chuckled behind a hoof. "Don't worry, it's just a magic field. It won't harm you."
Luna blushed and felt her ears go flat against her head. She reached out with her hooves again, this time with less hesitation, and clamped the book between her two forehooves. The field surrounding it vanished and the weight of the book dropped in her hooves. She lowered the book to the table and carefully wedged the cover open with a hoof, and stared at the unfamiliar characters.
"Uhm, Princess? I... might have forgotten about a little problem that I really shouldn't have."
"Hmm?" The Princess glanced over at Luna's lightly sheepish face, and her eyes widened and ears twitched in realization. "Oh! That's right, and just after Sunset and I had the same problem. Don't worry though! You've actually come right on time." A pair of glasses floated over to Luna, and settled on her muzzle. "Sunset and I just finished enchanting these just before you came. Try it now."
Luna blinked to adjust to the glasses, noticing the lack of a prescription strength. She turned back to the book... and read.
She couldn't explain how, the writing was still alien to her, but somehow she understood what it said. There was no knowledge of the letters, the grammar or syntax pumped into her head, she just... understood what she was reading as if someone was translating the text in her brain. She lifted the glasses up and the understanding vanished. She still remembered what she had read before, but could no longer connect the words she remembered to the text she had read. The moment she lowered her glasses back to her muzzle, the understanding returned.
"Is it working?" the Princess asked, almost bouncing in her seat.
"I- I can read this. I don't know the language, but I can read it." She looked back up to Princess Twilight. "How?"
The Princess sat up straight and proud. "It's a variant on a translation spell we have. The glasses translate the understanding of the intent behind the writing, so you're not technically reading the text, you're reading what the author tried to convey through the text."
"...Would it work on any language?" Luna asked. Princess Twilight tilted her head.
"It should. Why do you ask?"
Luna worked her jaw for a moment wondering how to reply to that. The Princess had just given her professors of many a field's dream. Even if the glasses didn't translate text directly, just being able to understand what was written would make translating a language infinitely easier. "I... can't quite express what an academic gift these are. Do you think the Queen would approve of you just giving this to me?"
"Uhm... I guess? We just created these today, but the spells used for them aren't restricted so I don't see a problem?" Princess Twilight answered in confusion. "What Queen, though?"
Luna returned the confusion with a blink. "The Queen of Equestria? This Kingdom's ruling monarch?"
Princess Twilight brightened in understanding, and she chuckled. "Oh! Oh, don't worry. We don't have a Queen."
"Really? But Sunset always made it sound like Equestria was a Kingdom."
Princess Twilight nodded. "It is. Well, Principality might be a better description. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna never adopted higher titles when they ascended the dual throne. Neither did Cadance, even though she could technically call herself an Empress nowadays, what with her being the ruler of the Crystal Empire and all."
Luna felt an icy chill creeping up her spine. "Wait, so a Princess in Equestria holds the same amount of power a King or Queen would in another nation?"
The Princess tilted her head. "Well... yes? I mean, there's still the more symbolic use of the title. Prince Blueblood comes to mind. But generally, alicorn Princesses rule Equestria."
"Alicorns?" Luna asked, the chill creeping up a bit more.
"Ponies with both a horn and wings." Princess Twilight answered.
"Your Highness..." Luna carefully ventured "...you have both a horn and wings."
"Aaahh," the Princess said, turning and raising one of her wings to take a look at it. "Would you believe I'd had these only for a few days when I first visited you?"
"But you just said that ponies with both horns and wings rule Equestria."
"Well, the actual balance of power and influence is a teeny bit more complicated than that -Celestia has a lot more practical influence than any of us after having ruled Equestria for the last thousand years- but on paper all four of us share an equal amount of authority." Princess Twilight wrinkled her nose. "Which still sounds incredibly weird to say."
Luna took a deep breath to calm her mind. "I apologize for flying off the handle like that, your Highness. It's just that as a teacher it feels incredibly..." she paused a moment as she tried to choose her words carefully "...premature to put so much responsibility on the shoulders of someone your age."
Princess Twilight raised her head up high, her face turning into a look of confusion mixed with... indignation? Luna bit her tongue inside her mouth, praying she hadn't stepped on a diplomatic landline by questioning royalty.
"I know I am the youngest Princess right now, but Cadance was barely into her teens when she ascended."
"... Teens?" Luna parroted, as a few more puzzle pieces started sliding into place.
"Hmm-hmm, I was still deep in my studies at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns back then. I wouldn't have had the time for Princess duties, much less the knowledge of friendship!"
"So you've finished your schooling, then?" Luna asked as she put the book she was holding away. The pieces were starting to form a picture that she wasn't quite sure she believed.
Princess Twilight nodded. "Oh yes, top marks. I was considering a further field study into Starswirl's magical theorems, but then Predictions and Prophesies distracted me, I got sent to Ponyville and everything just sort of tumbled on from there until I got these," she spread her wings and pointed at them, "as well as this," she said as she waved her hoof around in a wide arc, and Luna realized she meant the palace.
Luna swallowed, momentarily hesitating on whether or not this was a polite question to ask of alien royalty, but if her hunch was right then she and her sister might have misunderstood Sunset's predicament even more than they'd thought.
"Princess Twilight..." Luna began hesitantly. "Forgive me for asking a potentially rude question, but... how old are you?"
"Huh?" Princess Twilight lowered her wings and hooves and looked at Luna in confusion. "I turned 24 this year. Why?"
"And Sunset Shimmer?"
Princess Twilight seemed to ponder that question for a moment. "I never really asked her about her age before, but given that she was Princess Celestia's student before me, and from what I gathered she disappeared before she'd finished her studies... I'm going to say in her early 30's."
The last pieces fell into place, and Luna let her head hit the table with a loud thunk as she groaned. "So she's almost as old as me? If not just as old?"
"I guess? Is... that a bad thing?" Princess Twilight asked, shifting around on her pillow as she started to realize something might have been misunderstood.
"Your Highness, Canterlot High is a high school, both junior and senior. Our students run between 12 to 17 years old, and Sunset Shimmer herself is listed as 15, around the same age as her friends and classmates."
When she saw Princess Twilight's eyes go wide and jaw drop, Luna realized that the Princess hadn't realized this , nor had Sunset shared it, so she decided not to push the Princess on it. This did help answer a few questions though, like how a supposed teenager had ran circles around the faculty for years, but at the same time it raised others as well.
"Do you have any idea how this happened?" she asked.
That seemed to snap the Princess out of her shock. It only took a moment of pondering, during which the Princess's eyes narrowed in thought and her ears lowered, before they perked back up again and Princess Twilight's eyes had taken on a scholarly seriousness. "Likely the portal's transformation spell. It applies a transformation that is intended to blend into the crowd, so with the entrance close to a school's worth of teenagers, a teenager would best blend into the closest crowd." The Princess groaned and rubbed her temples with her hooves. "I didn't spend a lot of time with the other teachers, and you and Princess Celestia are taller than the average pony over here as well, so I just assumed the length and build of the bodies was the norm for people on the other side of the mirror."
"Fooled by your own camouflage?" Luna jabbed lightly, and smiled when the Princess chuckled.
"I guess," she giggled, then groaned. "Ooooh, this is going to be so embarrassing next time I meet the girls on the other side. I've been treating them like they were of the same age as their counterparts over here."
"Is that also why you left Sunset Shimmer in their care?" Luna asked.
"Yes, it's not the first time we've had a reformed villain in our midst over here so I thought they'd be up to the challenge to take care of a..." she twirled her hoof in the air "...misguided mare."
"If I may, I think you might have jumped to a conclusion there."
The Princess laid her chin on the table and groaned again. "You're right. I was just so caught up in the uncanniness of your world," she said, and let out a deep sigh. "We need to get the girls around a table, all of them, and talk things over. Even if we don't catch Anon-a-Miss yet, we can't leave this fighting and arguing lying around to fester."
"Do you think Sunset is up for that?" Luna asked.
Princess Twilight sat upright again, and for some reason her posture was just a bit more regal, her eyes hardening just a tinge. Not with anger, but with strength and determination. "No, she isn't. Not after her reaction to this world's Rarity this morning. Nothing bad!" she quickly added as Luna's eyes had widened and ears had unwittingly perked in alarm. "She just had a bit of a panic moment and teleported back to the castle from the local spa. But it does show me that she needs a bit more time to calm down."
"Yes, my sister and I agree on that. I know we've asked this before, but please take care of her. At least for the holidays."
The Princess smiled. "Don't worry, I will. Though I will admit I'm also doing this out of selfishness as well. At least a bit." Princess Twilight looked down at her hooves for a moment before she continued. "I hadn't really seen Sunset since the Battle of the Bands. We talked over the journal, and sometimes I popped over for a quick visit now that the portal is stable, but it was always just short visits, and always there. I've asked her to come visit me a few times, but she's always refused. Now that she's here... I want to use this opportunity to let Sunset reconnect with her homeworld." She chuckled. "Just this morning Sunset realized she had her magic again. She was so fascinated by it, it was like she was a filly who learned her first spell. And it's selfish, no matter how many other reasons I have, but to a unicorn our magic is like your hands are to you, and it felt so strange to see her so excited about something that should be natural to her.
The Princess sighed. "Not to mention the reason she hasn't accepted my invitations is that she is still running away from the things that made her leave. I'm hoping that by letting her reconnect to Equestria, she can take another step to move on from the past. Maybe not now, but I'm hoping to at least give her a little nudge in the right direction."
Luna nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea. I have noticed Sunset spends a lot of time writing to you in her journal, so perhaps spending some time in her homelands is just what she needs. It also gives Sunset an alternative, should the worst happen and we can't clear her name."
"Please don't say that," the Princess said, reaching out to lay a comforting hoof on Luna's own. "I know things are rough now, but true friendship is a strong thing that can't be destroyed by deception so easily. We'll make things right, I promise on my title as Princess of Friendship."
"you're really set on helping her through all this, aren't you?" Luna asked.
Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled in return. "I'm the Princess of Friendship, and Sunset is my friend. It's what I do."
Luna felt the warm hoof of the Princess on her own, the alicorn's eyes reflecting confidence and kindness. It was... uplifting. Looking into those eyes Luna could almost feel some of that confidence pouring into her, stoking the embers of her own confidence in Sunset Shimmer.
Perhaps there was something more special to this alicorn Princess thing than Luna first thought.
The portal at the base of Canterlot High's statue shimmered, and Sunset jumped out. She was prepared for the disorientation this time, and only stumbled a little bit. Quickly glancing around the school's front yard, she sighed in relief when she saw nobody in the area.
One worry less, at least.
Not wanting to push her luck, Sunset quickly set off in the direction of her apartment. It was a chilly winter evening, and getting close to dinnertime, so few people were on the street. That suited Sunset just fine, she was in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it by running into anyone with a problem with her.
Sunset's apartment was not that far from school, just little over half an hour walk. That always made it easy to dodge public transportation fees. Her path took her past the shopping street. She quickened her pace as she passed the café where she usually got her breakfast. She didn't see anyone she knew inside at a glance, but it was a rather popular café. For a good reason, she remembered. Their coffee was one of the few actual coffees in town, which always helped her get through those early morning slogs, and the owner was always kind enough to keep a fresh bagel behind the counter for her.
She would have to let him know she wouldn't be visiting for a bit.
She pushed on, marching past store windows as fast as she could without running, until she reached the front door of a tall one room apartment building. Sunset fumbled in one of the pockets of her jacket, pulling out a door key and opening the door. A small hallway greeted her, with only one door to her right. Opening that door as well, Sunset took a deep breath.
It was a familiar scent. The kind of scent you get so used to you don't realize it's there until you leave and come back after being gone for a bit.
The smell of home.
The couch, TV and console combo she had spend so long saving up for greeted her first, being straight ahead into her room as they were, and as she glanced to her left she saw the fridge and microwave, her only cooking appliances, behind which she knew was her desk with her PC. On the far left were the stairs that would lead up to her loft where she kept her books next to her bed.
An unexpected wave of nostalgia hit Sunset as she remembered the times spend in this apartment. The joy at making a barely legal deal to stay here with her landlady, the years she had spent in this room learning everything she could about humans and scheming in frustration to become the social queen of the school, all the while keeping her eventual goal of claiming her 'rightful due' and becoming a true Princess and show Princess Celestia just how wrong she had been.
Then she remembered the days following her defeat at Twilight's hands. The days where even getting out of bed seemed like a mountainous task, her mind racked both with the stinging sense of failure at accomplishing any of her objectives and a sudden mountain of guilt over her actions she had previously barely experienced.
But slowly those days had gotten better. The girls had kept their promise to Twilight and had dragged Sunset along with them on their events, keeping her mind from her guilt. Most of the time anyway. She still remembered the first time the girls had invited themselves to walk home with Sunset, which turned into the first time she invited friends in her home. Rainbow Dash had claimed the couch and a controller before she could blink, and challenged Sunset to one of her games. It was the first time she'd ever done split-screen multiplayer. It had been a riot.
So many firsts, even just in these four walls. Some of them were terrible. A lot of them, really, as most were just stepping stones to her ambition.
But not all of them.
There were... good memories here. She could almost see the girls. Rarity snooping through her wardrobe, Applejack complaining about Sunset's lack of kitchen appliances, Pinkie Pie dangling from the edge of her loft, Rainbow Dash on her couch trying to beat one of her games and Fluttershy on the ground in front of her, content to just watch.
Sunset blinked, and her friends were gone. She sighed. They were good memories, which made their abandonment hurt all the more.
Maybe she could invite Twilight over someday and show her what this world's video games had to offer. She chuckled to herself as she tried to imagine Twilight on her couch, her tongue sticking out, eyes scrunched in concentration, flicking between the screen and the controller in her hand as she tried to figure out how to match what she had to do with her hands to what she wanted the character on the screen to do. And yet... Almost unbidden, Rainbow Dash appeared next to the couch, shouting instructions that were as useless as they were enthusiastic. Fluttershy was still on the floor, calmly watching the screen with Spike in her lap. Rarity and Applejack hung off the back of the couch while Pinkie was dancing around with pom poms in the background.
And then she saw herself on the couch next to Twilight, controller in hands and a steely look of determination in her eyes as she guided her character across the screen, but all with a smile on her lips as she was having fun. Not just with playing the game, but playing the game surrounded by her friends.
With a grunt, Sunset shook her head, dispelling the images. This wasn't what she came here for, she was here to get what she needed so she could be away from thinking about this. Grumbling to herself, Sunset marched up to her desk and grabbed all her schoolbooks and notes, stuffing them in her backpack until it was fit to bursting. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she marched out the door. She paused, just for a moment, to take one more glance at the couch, but it remained empty. With a sigh she stepped back outside, closing the door behind her.
Back in Ponyville, a glassed Luna was nosing her way through the book she had been loaned. Literally nosing, given the lack of hands and fingers.
"Are you sure it's all right for me to stick my nose in a book like this?" she asked, and Twilight looked back from the shelves she was stacking books with her magic with a giggle.
"Of course! Not every pony is a unicorn. In fact earth ponies like yourself make up the majority of Equestria's population. It would be odd if nopony except unicorns were allowed to read books."
"But won't this damage the books?"
Twilight shook her head, another giggle escaping her lips. "Of course not. Trust me, I nosed my way through a lot of books, starting as as a filly when I didn't have enough magic, but even nowadays I still do it. There's just something relaxing about finding a nice place to lie down, relax, and nose through a book."
"All right," Luna nodded in acceptance. If a bibliophile like Twilight was confident enough that it wouldn't harm any books, Luna saw no reason to doubt her. If there was one new thing Luna had learned about Twilight, it's that the Princess loved her books. Books everywhere were neatly organized, even the seemingly scattered books being used for research had a system to them, or so she'd found out when Twilight had started rearranging the pile of books she had knocked over in her speedy arrival here.
She carefully nosed another page over, skimming the text. Her eyes fell on a particular line, and she frowned lightly. "Say, Twilight?" she asked. That was another thing she noticed: It became easier and easier to think of Princess Twilight as 'just' Twilight. Perhaps it was something in her nature as Princess of Friendship, or perhaps just because the girl -no, mare- wasn't used to her status yet, but Twilight was so approachable and friendly that, baring a few slips, it quickly became easier to slip out of a high decorum around her.
The Princess's repeated requests to leave them out also helped.
She felt hear ears twitch as the clip-clop of Twilight's hooves against the crystal floor approached. "Yes?" the lavender pony asked.
"This 'Hearth's Warming' holiday, the text seems to suggest that it's an actual historical event. Is it religious in nature?"
Twilight tilted her head. "No? It's just actual history. It celebrates the founding of our nation, and finding friendship in the midst of ages old hatreds."
"Are you sure? This sounds like the kind of history that got embellished over time."
"Pretty sure," Twilight responded with half lidded eyes and a grin. "After all, your counterpart here in Equestria lived through it."
Luna smiled sheepishly, her ears unwittingly lowering. "Ah yes, the thousand year old Princess. Sorry, I'm still having a bit of trouble separating fact from fiction. In my world, anything as fanciful as fighting off evil frost demons with powerful magic would be labelled as the stuff of fantasy."
Twilight put a hoof to her mouth to hide a chuckle. "Don't worry about it. I can't even imagine how confusing it is to see a world of magic after living in a world without it your whole life. Hay, I've visited your world and I still gawk at every new thing the girls show me. Like those 'smartfones' that everyone carries. I could barely understand what I was doing when Rarity showed me hers."
Luna let out a chuckle herself as she remembered seeing Twilight fumble with a smartphone, before turning back to the book. There were a lot of similarities between Hearth's Warming and Christmas that she could see. A decorated pine tree, gifts for friends and family, and a theme of getting together. Though the underlying history was where it started to diverge.
"So Hearth's Warming is a way to celebrate the forming of your nation?"
"Hmm hmm" Twilight hummed with a nod. "But more importantly, it celebrates the day we began putting our difference behind us and work together to create a better life for everypony. And some ponies say that celebrating Hearth's Warming is all that keeps the windigos away."
Luna felt her ears flick up in alarm. "Is that true?"
Twilight shrugged. "Nopony knows. There are several stories about the windigos returning if Hearth's Warming stops, the most famous being 'A Hearth's Warming Tale', where a pony named Snowfall Frost uses magic to make Hearth's Warming disappear, but nopony has seen much of a reason to actually try it outside of stories."
"No Hearth's Warming means no presents, after all," Spike remarked dryly as he walked into the library with a tray of cookies. "Aaaand the whole 'turning the world in a frozen wasteland of strife' part. But mostly the presents."
Twilight gave the little dragon an admonishing glare that lost all its power because of the smile on her face. Spike responded with a toothy grin as he deposited the plate of cookies on the table.
Luna smiled at the exchange, but even as she picked up a cookie with her teeth her mind was pondering on what else the story of Hearth's Warming was telling her. The threat of an eternal winter would explain why Equestria had such a peaceful history. And it also implied a lot of things in regards to Twilight's 'punishment' of Sunset stealing her crown and planning to invade her kingdom, as well as Sunset's expectations on how she would be treated afterwards.
But best not to rush to conclusions. Luna was more strongly than ever convinced that this was part of how they got into this situation in the first place. She needed time to properly get her facts together. And perhaps a good talk with everyone involved soon.
Swallowing the last of her cookie, Luna turned back to Twilight. "So Hearth's Warming, is it coming up soon?"
"We're almost there, actually, why?" Twilight answered.
"I was thinking, the holidays are starting back home soon, but maybe we should try and get everyone together and talk this over. You, Sunset, and her friends."
"Uhh, is... that really a good idea? Sunset's still kinda upset right now." Spike hesitantly said.
Twilight drew in a deep breath. "I agree. Just this morning Sunset ran into this world's Rarity and her first reaction was to teleport all the way from the spa back to the castle. I hate to say it, but Sunset needs more time to calm down."
Luna nodded. "I understand, and I did not mean right this moment. But perhaps after the holidays are over?"
"I'll ask her, but I'm leaving the final decision up to Sunset. Don't get me wrong!" Twilight said, raising her hoof as Luna opened her mouth to protest. "I want nothing more than to settle this fight between Sunset and her friends. Believe me, as Princess of Friendship -and more importantly, as Sunset's friend- seeing her and her friends fight hurts me, but I know from experience that you can't force a conversation like that. Not with tensions so high, and something like Anon-a-Miss still looming over all of them."
Twilight's ears drooped and she turned her head away slightly. "I tried that once, and it went... badly. We fixed it, eventually, but if I can avoid that happening to Sunset, I will."
"What do you suggest, Twilight?" Luna asked.
"We keep going as we have been for now. Sunset will stay here for a while, back in the home of her birth. I noticed that it's doing Sunset a world of good in a lot of ways, even many that don't have anything to do with her problems in your world. Meanwhile you guys try to find out who this Anon-a-Miss is and why she is doing all this. We'll stay in touch using the journal. I assume you and Principal Celestia have it now?"
Luna nodded. "Yes, we took it out of her locker to keep it safe from any potential vandals. We don't think anyone would destroy the journal, but better safe than sorry."
Twilight nodded. "Good, keep it safe. It's the anchor that is keeping the portal stable. If either is destroyed, the portal will go back to using the lunar cycles as their anchor, and it will be a long time before we will see each other again."
"... Did you know about the journal when your first returned home?" Luna asked.
Twilight shook her head and chuckled. "No, the idea to use the books came from Pinkie Pie, of all ponies. I'd thought the portal was completely closed until she pointed out that if the book could send messages, it obviously wasn't entirely closed. After that, it was just a simple matter of getting the proper equipment, constructing an artificial dolmen gate, then stabilize the portal matrix using the books on both sides to anchor the planar coordinates."
"Yeeeess. Simple." Luna glanced at Spike, who simply gave her a 'don't look at me' shrug. She shook her head, feeling her light blue mane bounce around, as she returned to the question she wanted to ask.
"But in that case, and I apologize if I come of as being rude here, if you knew the portal would be closed for a long period of time... why did you leave Sunset with us?"
Twilight set down the cup of tea she had been levitating in her magic, and looked at Luna with some concern in her eyes.
"Because I believed, and still believe, that Canterlot High is an important place for Sunset to learn about friendship. An important part of friendship means apologizing for what you did wrong, and making it up to those you wronged. If I had dragged Sunset to Equestria, all she would have had when she got here was the guilt of what she did wrong without the lessons of what to do right. I know I wasn't there to guide her, but... I had hoped that the girls would have been the ones to guide her. I was so happy when I had to come over for the Battle of the Bands, because even if she was struggling, I saw Sunset make new friends there. She was learning. Smiling." Twilight slumped, her wings drooping at her sides.
"I just don't know where it all went wrong."
Luna nibbled on another cookie as she let Twilight's words run around in her head. Her suspicion as to where things had gone wrong was growing. "I think that when next we meet, we should talk about that. About where it went wrong. I think it will help us to prevent it from happening again, now and in the future."
Twilight nodded, a small smile on her muzzle. "I'd like that."
Luna sighed and shook her head. "Would that we could have prevented this from happening in the first place."
"Hey, you're here now, that matters a lot," Spike piped up, earning him a warm smile from Twilight.
"Spike is right. You're here for Sunset now. And since we can't do much about Anon-a-Miss from here, I will leave that in your capable hands."
"And we will leave Sunset in your capable hooves." Luna answered in return.
"See? We got this," Twilight smiled, and Luna couldn't help but smile in return. There was something encouraging about that smile. Like the Princess was telling her that they could do anything they set their minds to, as long as they did it together.
She took a deep breath, and let it out. "Well, I had best get to work then, shouldn't I?"
Luna hopped down from the low seat, Twilight and Spike quickly following suit. Twilight floated the glasses and book into Luna's saddlebag, and floated them over to her back. Luna marvelled at how odd, yet right it felt to have a double backpack on her sides instead of on her back.
"This is going to feel strange when I go back, isn't it?" she asked as she walked back to the mirror.
Spike and Twilight chuckled as they followed her. "A bit, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it," Twilight said. "Just try not to run this time", she added with a wink.
Cheeky Princess.
Luna smiled as the group reached the mirror. "Well then, I'm off. We'll be in contact, but happy holidays in advance."
"You too, Luna. It was good seeing you again. Give my regards to Principal Celestia."
Luna nodded, before turning to the mirror and slowly pushing herself through. That proved to be enough, as the moment the majority of her body had passed through the mirror she felt the rest being pulled through as well. Once again she felt herself pulled through a world of rainbow light, barely registering as her body shifted shape before reaching a bright light on the other end.
The portal didn't spit her out this time, it felt more like a push. As she blinked away the last of the lights, she noticed that she was on her hands and knees behind the Canterlot High statue, the saddlebags on her side having returned to her usual bag.
"Vice-Principal Luna?" a familiar voice spoke up, and Luna looked up to see Sunset Shimmer, human again.
"Here, let me help you," the unicorn-turned-human said as she reached out with a hand. Luna gratefully took it and let Sunset help her back to her feet. She wobbled a bit, but she found her balance again faster than she had on the other side.
"Yeah, returning is easier than the first crossover you make. At least as long as you don't stay on one side too long," Sunset said, a bit of sheepishness creeping into her voice as she grinned.
Luna took a moment to study the girl. With her leather jacket, high heeled boots and a backpack bulging with schoolbooks and homework, Sunset looked every bit the teenage high-schooler. Luna found it hard to imagine that this young looking girl was around her age.
"Vice-Principal Luna?"
Luna shook her head. "Sorry, Sunset Shimmer. Just need a moment to adjust back to being bigger again."
Sunset snorted. "Don't worry, the you back there is also bigger than me." The girl's eyes fell on her own bag. "...Are those the translation glasses we enchanted?"
Luna reached back and took them out, pleasantly surprised that they seemed just the right size for a human head. "Yes, they are. Twilight lent them to me along with a book on Equestrian culture. I hope that's not a problem?"
Sunset shook her head with a smile. "No big deal, it'll just give me a chance to practice some more. I'm terribly out of shape magically."
"And what about you? Did you find what you needed?" Luna asked.
Sunset's smile fell, just for a moment, before it was back and the girl slung the backpack of her back. "Everything I could find. I might need to jump through before it bursts, though."
"I recommend against jumping," Luna responded dryly, but with a smirk tugging at her lips. She and Sunset exchanged a glance and chuckled.
"Sunset Shimmer," Luna spoke up, and placed a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "I know you have been through a lot this past year. But every since the Fall Formal, the entire faculty has been keeping a close eye on you, and we are all proud of the girl you are shaping up to be. You still have some rough spots, but that you are working on them just makes us even more proud. You should know that we all consider it nonsense to expel someone who is trying so hard to make up for her mistakes, regardless of what, or who, the hallways accuse you of being."
Sunset's mouth opened and closed as if she was looking for a response, and Luna lowered herself to Sunset's eye level.
"Leave Anon-a-Miss to us. Go home to study and rest in peace. And when you get back, we'll be here to help you pick back up where you left off."
Sunset's mouth opened and closed a few more times before the girl drew in a deep breath. Luna could see a bit of moisture in the corners of those aqua eyes as Sunset smiled.
"Thank you... and I'll be back."
Luna smiled back and stepped aside, letting Sunset walk to the portal. Sunset took one look at her, the smile still on her lips, as she walked through the portal back to her homeland.
The Vice-Principal let out a soft sigh of satisfaction, before gripping her bag and marching towards the school and her sister. Seeing Sunset smile again had felt like a victory, but she had a lot of work to do still before this job was done. Beginning with a long talk with her sister, and then some lengthy reading.
