Princess Celestia's best student, Sunset Shimmer loves to read books. She thinks of friends as a waste of time. She tells Celestia exactly that when the Princess Of The Sun tells her to make some friends.
Princess Celestia's best student, Sunset Shimmer loves to read books. She thinks of friends as a waste of time. She tells Celestia exactly that when the Princess Of The Sun tells her to make some friends.
She says she's already got a friend and that's enough for her....
KingSombraTheTyrantRuler aka yours truly sat down for another round of typing, deciding to finally update The Fall of Sunset Shimmer.
However, before his fingers could even touch the keyboard a certain pink pony with a darker pink mane appeared out of nowhere, causing him to back away from the keyboard.
The momentary panic subsided as he looked at the pastel pony, "Pinkie Pie?" He rubbed his eyes, "Am I imagining things or what?"
"No, you're not imagining things," she reassured the surprised author. "As you know I control the multiverse, and-"
"I thought Discord controlled it?"
"A common misconception," she sighed and then continued. "As I was saying, before you interrupted me" she made no effort to hide her glare "I control the multiverse, and it includes all these universes you bronies create. From time to time I decide to check on the fanfiction because they are interesting, and your one grabbed my interest. But when I started reading it, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement,
"You're not even putting in any real effort: all you're doing is just copy and pasting the original episodes and editing them."
She held a hoof up to indicate she was not done talking. "Come on man, put in some effort. Change the way things turn out! Show that you've got some creativity! I'm sure that if you put in a little more effort you'd be more capable of getting the motivation to write chapters for it!"
"...Okay..."
"Here's what I want you to do. Delete all the old chapters because they're simply terrible- I mean all that not edited punctuation marks, and other stuff... But make sure to post this chapter first, okay?"
"Okay. I've got a question though."
"Shoot."
"Should I start by putting in- I mean, how should I start it?"
"Try giving the readers a view into Sunset's backstory first, how she came to become Princess Celestia's student and maybe a little information on Sombra too. You could also have him be the Princesses' student if you want- I mean if they're gonna have some sort of relationship like you're planning for it would be best to have them be a little familiar with each other. They could have a tragic background- I mean you're gonna have to explain how Sombra ended up in Canterlot instead of staying in the Crystal Empire plus all those time differences..."
"Aha..."
"What I'm trying to say is- show the difference between Sunset being Celestia's student as opposed to Twilight being in her normal role, And yes, you can put in some time magic stuff if it helps you."
Yours truly jumps off his chair and grins, picking Pinkie Pie up and hugging her. "You're the best Pinkie- I can tell that this edited version will be a lot better."
"No probs," she also grinned. "I need to go now, do you have anymore questions to ask?"
He looked a little hesitant. "C-can I- you know... S-"
"Ya wanna feel my cute pony ears? Sure. By the way, I'm gonna leave you a special magical pony coffee so you can get some energy."
The Fall of Sunset Shimmer
Chapter One
Prologue
An orange coated unicorn filly with a red and yellow striped mane paced nervously, while a unicorn with a grey coat and black mane mirrored her actions.
These two were Sunset Shimmer and Sombra.
They used to live in the Crystal Empire, but due to certain events they were now in Equestria.
Amore had been a good ruler, until the invasion of the changelings, when the Changeling Queen otherwise known as Queen Chrysalis had taken her only daughter- Princess MiAmore Cadenza and as her love for her daughter was so much, and she wanted nothing more than to obliterate the entire Changeling race for killing her daughter (for that was what she had been let to believe by Chrysalis) she had turned to any means possible to get her revenge.
All possible means had failed and she was forced to accept that Dark Magic was the only magic that could defeat the changelings.
Not even her love magic or the Crystal Heart were able to do anything... So she started using Dark Magic, practising it so she could get stronger...
As day by day went by, the Dark Magic began to form a mind of its own and began to corrupt her pure soul.
Once having eliminated the changelings, she would have stopped her usage of it, but upon learning that the Queen had escaped and was still alive, she decided that she would first destroy the one she hated and then stop using the Dark Magic.
The time that it took for her to track down the Queen and kill her was more than enough time for her soul to be fully corrupted, and thus the Princess had fallen into the dark abyss of corruption.
Soon after that event she began to become infuriated over the simplest things, and realised that she needed to protect her Empire from further threats.
She didn't want anything else to happen...
If one were to take the Crystal Heart which she had worked on for years and release the Umbrums, she knew that nothing would be safe.
So she mind controlled her subjects, forcing them to shield and guard the Empire day and night.
Shortly after she had taken over their minds, the Two Sisters- Princess Celestia of the sun and Princess Luna of the moon had arrived upon learning of this and had tried to help her get out of it.
But the dark magic had taken over Amore's mind too strongly, and its grip was too firm... The once pure ruler was now consumed by the pain that had come with the loss of her daughter and her mind was filled with a lust for revenge.
The Two Sisters had left and returned with an army, and the war lasted a few years before they finally managed to defeat the Princess, but that was at the cost of Luna using dark magic.
Naturally, Celestia had persuaded her sister not to, but the younger mare wanted to prove that she was capable of doing things, and her soul had been corrupted too.
Celestia sensed something was not right after banishing Amore- encasing her in ice for a thousand years... and then they saw that the Empire was beginning to vanish.
The citizens, now freed of their mind control, started panicking, and The Two Sisters teleported as many as they could outside the Empire before it completely vanished, and about half of the Empire's population remained trapped as it vanished...
The guilt haunted Celestia for years.
She had tried to keep herself occupied by getting homes built for the Crystal Ponies, but her mind always wandered to the ones left behind.
Thankfully the Princess didn't lose her sister to the clutches of dark magic, though, Luna had been spending more time alone and sounded bitter and resentful at times...
The two were nervous for their tests. What would it be like? Would they be able to pass?
Princess Celestia, now disguised as 'Sunny Skies' flew out of the Everfree Castle, using an invisibility spell to avoid being detected by the guards.
Once she was out of the 'danger zone' she removed the invisibility spell and landed at her destination.
Once in a while, the Princess of the Sun would disguise herself and take a walk around the city of Everfree which was also known as the capital of Equestria.
She would observe her subjects- see how they were doing and hear what they were talking about so that if they had any complaints they were scared to say to her she would be able to fix what was wrong.
Usually she would be alone, as her sister- Princess Luna would refuse to accompany her, instead choosing to sulk in her room.
However, today Luna had decided to come along, saying that she wanted to breathe in some fresh air.
As they were Princesses of Equestria, they could not be absent from the castle for long, and thus Celestia had decided to visit one place every day.
Today they were visiting the part in which the Crystal Ponies lived to check on how they were doing.
The ponies had made that part look almost beautiful as their old home, and the duo smiled at the sight.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" The older Princess said to her sister.
"Yes, it is. Now We art curious. Hath thou been visiting places like this in thine other adventures?"
Celestia chuckled. "We have been trying to visit every part of this city and then maybe some others, but though We have only visited a mere fraction of the parts, this one remains the most beautiful."
"We wonder what it would look like in the night..." Luna pondered aloud.
Her sister paid no attention to that remark of hers as she was too busy watching two unicorn foals chasing each other.
"Sombra, give it back!"
"Never, Sunset!" the colt laughed as the filly tried to catch him with her magic but was unable to get a grip on him. "Catch me first, and then I'll give it!"
The object that the filly desired was a book which the colt levitated over his head.
The colt soon ran into the disguised Princesses, and stuttered out an apology.
"It's okay," Celestia reassured him. "What's your name?"
"I'm Sombra," he smiled at her with a smile so cute that it nearly bursted Celestia's heart. "Over there" he pointed to the filly "is my friend, Sunset who's way too slow to catch me" he said the last part loud enough that Sunset could hear it from where she was. "Who's your friend?" He pointed to Luna.
"Our name is Moonlight," Luna replied.
"Your mane looks very nice Miss Moonlight."
Luna smiled genuinely. "Thank you."
Sombra was about to say more when Sunset caught up to him and tugged the book from his hooves. "Hah! I've finally got it!"
"Huh? Sunset?!"
"Now you try and catch me!"
She was about to run off when she saw the two adults there.
"Who are they?" she whispered to Sombra.
"The one with the mane that looks like stars is Miss Moonlight and I don't think her friend told me her name..."
"Hello dear, I'm Sunny Skies," Celestia said, hearing their not so quiet whispers.
"It's nice to meet you Miss Skies."
"It's nice to meet you too. Where are your parents?"
Sunset looked away, letting her mane cover her face a little while Sombra looked at his hooves and said, "We've never had parents. The two of us have been orphans for our whole lives."
This caught Celestia's heart and she hugged the foals.
Luna, who had been watching the interaction decided to speak up. "Where do you live?"
"In an alley?"
She got an idea and looked at her sister before saying, "How would you two like to live with us? We could be the parents you never had?"
"We'd love that!"
"Though, we've got a secret to show you first," Celestia said before the foals squeezed her sister to death. "Just promise you'll be totally fine?"
"Well, as long as it's not anything bad..."
Seeing as it was almost sunset and no ponies around Celestia decided it would be best if they went back to the castle.
"I'll show you at our house, but before we go, are there any things you'd like to get?"
They shook their heads. "We don't really have anything."
In a flash of light they were now in the Everfree Castle, and in a concealed room that nopony knew of.
Celestia shed her disguise with Luna following suit and despite what she had originally thought, the foals did not run off.
"So, you two, are the Princesses of Equestria?" Sombra asked in amazement.
"Wow..." was all Sunset said.
The two began to bow in respect but Celestia stopped them them with a wave of her hoof. "There's no need to bow."
"Now, since we're Princesses, we have no idea what the ponies would think if we both suddenly adopted a foal each, so We think it would be best if We took you on as students."
"A-as students?" the awestruck pair asked.
"Yes, as students," confirmed Luna. "If you want. You can also choose, by the way."
Sombra smiled. He did love the night... "I wanna be your student, Princess Luna!"
"And I'd like to be yours, Princess Celestia!"
"Okay, but you'll have to have tests first..."
And that was why they were currently here, pacing in worry.
The Princesses had been kind enough to let the two study and read all the books in the Castle Library, so they weren't going in blind. That being said, they didn't know what was going to be given in the exam as that would be cheating.
Sunset and Sombra were both called in after a while of pacing and looked around the room which was painted white and had two desks in opposite corners of the room so that the two could not talk to each other.
Their examiners were a blue coated mare with a silver mane and glasses, and a dark green coated stallion who had a light green mane.
Nervously, the foals looked around again before going to their seats and beginning the exam.
They were told the rules first and that they had practical exams after this one.
"You have two hours to complete the exam. Your time starts...now!" The mare announced.
Once they finished the exam, they were led to another room where they were to do the practical exam.
"Sunset Shimmer, you will try to hatch this egg" the stallion from before pointed to an egg "and you Sombra, will turn this lump of clay" he pointed to a huge lump of clay "into a realistic looking sculpture of Princess Luna. No mistakes will be allowed- it must look perfect."
Their tasks were equally hard, for even though it is hard to hatch a 'rock' it is also hard to make a realistic looking sculpture of the Princess of the Night.
Especially if it was to be 'picture perfect'.
"You may begin. Half an hour is the time slot you have. And one more thing. Make sure to do well in this exam for it will decide your fate. Thousands have failed..."
Sunset stared at the egg, letting her horn glow. It shouldn't really be that hard to hatch an egg.
However, as her magic surrounded it, and she cast the spell to speed up the hatching of an egg without damaging it, something odd occurred.
It didn't hatch. It didn't really look like a normal egg to be honest, but who was she to say that, seeing that she had never seen a dragon egg before?
While Sunset was sweating and panting with the force required to hatch it, Sombra was closing his eyes and going into deep concentration.
He recalled exactly how Luna looked, the way the moonlight captured her glowing mane, and her eyes.
His horn began to glow and surround the clay as he ordered his magic to create an exact replica of the Princess.
He dared not open his eyes for fear of breaking his concentration, but knew something was off with the clay as it didn't feel like it was budging at all.
As they struggled and began to lose hope in succeeding, in Cloudsdale, a pegasus filly by the name of Rainbow Dash was preparing herself for her race.
She shot like a bullet as soon as the whistle was blown and went fast enough to create a Sonic Rainboom...
Back in Everfree, the unicorns were still struggling, when out of the corner of their eyes they saw a rainbow, and their magical power increased.
Sunset made the painted rock into many things- a plant, a plant pot, a tree, a bird, etc, before finally turning it into a baby dragon.
Sombra managed to turn the crystals disguised as clay in front of him into a perfect sculpture of Princess Luna- it was life sized and one could mistake it for the real pony.
A while had passed since their test, a few years in fact, and the foals had matured.
Previously, they used to spend a lot of time with each other, but now? They were rarely seen together and hardly talked.
That may be due to their schedules, with Sombra having to remain awake at night and Sunset at the day, but true friends would always find a way to be together.
Princess Celestia started pacing in the throne room, worried for her student.
Sunset Shimmer had proved to be very efficient in magic but her power caused her to treat others as below her.
In others words her student was arrogant and believed herself as better than everyone.
She was not given peace for long as the throne room doors opened and a very familiar unicorn entered.
"Princess Celestia-"
"No."
"You didn't even know what I was going to ask!" Sunset whined.
"Sunset Shimmer," the mare stiffened as she knew the Princess only used her full name when she was in trouble. "We are not going to make you a Princess now. You are not ready."
"Why? I know more than enough things to become a Princess- I'm ready!"
Celestia sighed and took a sip of her cold cup of tea. "Sunset. When the time comes, We'll tell you. A good Princess should be efficient in magic, but they also have to know how to socialize with other ponies. They have to show that they're a good pony so ponies will support them."
"So, what do I have to do to complete that last step?" Sunset dragged her hoof down her face.
"We want you to go and make some friends."
"Ugh, friends? Really Princess? I could be doing so many more-"
"You know, We think you're actually afraid of friendship. Are you? There's no other reason that could explain why you refuse to talk to any pony beside Us. Are you scared of interacting with other ponies?"
"Sunset," the Princess commanded. "Look at me. Did something...happen in your foalhood?"
Sunset turned her face towards her mentor but refused to meet her gaze, with her mane hiding her face so Celestia could not see her expression. Her answer was barely louder than a whisper. "Yes."
"Do you want to talk about it? Wait, not here." A flash of light and they were in Celestia's chambers. The Princess sat on a beanbag and Sunset sat next to her. "Now?"
Sunset opened her mouth to speak but was hesitant.
"Come on, you can trust Us. We won't tell anypony."
Sunset sighed before saying, "Remember how on the first day we met, while you and Princess Luna were disguised, you asked where our parents where?"
"Yes. And Sombra told me that you two were orphans."
"Well... Sombra never knew his parents, but I knew mine for a few years. Until the Empire disappeared, that was."
A long pause followed this statement, as if Sunset couldn't decide whether to continue or not.
She put her head in the Alicorn's lap, and Celestia stroked her student's mane, offering some comfort.
"My mother died while giving birth to me, so I lived with my father... But he loved my mom so much that when she died, he used alcohol as a coping method. He would go out every night and come back drunk. It was like that until I was seven. Then he started to bring his drinks home and I did my best to stay out of his way as he would shout at me and blame me for my mom's death, saying that she died because of me... And one day-"
Here Sunset broke down, as the memories of what had happened flooded her head.
However, Celestia already guessed what happened. "You don't need to continue, Sunset."
"No, I-I need to get this out. I've held it in for so long... I need to get it out." Sunset took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "One day he came to my room and said I looked exactly like my mother. Then he began...touching me in places that nopony should touch anypony, and he did things that no father should do to their foal. He- he took my innocence away...." Sunset collapsed into her mentors lap and was unable to stop the tears.
"You know, it was really hard for me to even talk to Sombra. But he helped me. I never told him all this, but he understood that something happened to me and he stood up for me, he helped me so much... And what have I done for him? I've done nothing... I've repaid his kindness by not even bothering to talk to him..."
"Don't worry... We'll make sure that stallion gets the punishment he deserves once the Empire returns..."
She was horrified. What sort of parents would do that to their own foals? Perhaps it was for the best that she had failed to rescue some of the ponies from the Empire or Sunset still would've been going through the abuse...
After a while Sunset calmed down and wiped her eyes, after which she moved her mane out of her face.
"I try to act better than everypony so they wouldn't talk to me... I act cold so they wouldn't approach me... And I stay with my books for most of the day because it gives me an excuse to not go anywhere and I don't have to be with ponies...because I fear that they might treat me like he did."
Sunset sat up and Celestia offered her a tissue. "We're so sorry... We never knew... You know what? You don't have to make friends if you don't want to. All this time We've been putting so much pressure on you..." Tears of her own began to fall.
"When you offered to let Sombra and I live with you, I was scared you might do the same thing... But I saw something in your eyes- a sparkle that told me you wouldn't hurt me. For some reason, I trusted you straight away...
Though..."
"Though?"
"Never mind. It was a silly thought anyways..."
"We won't laugh at you."
"Would you... Well, could we... Perhaps we could have a day out? Like, you could put your Sunny Skies disguise on and I could disguise myself too?"
"A day out?" Looking at Sunset's hopeful eyes, which were still a little red from crying, she made her decision. "Sure; why not?"
After spending a day out with Princess Celestia, Sunset felt a lot better and was smiling.
She was about to go to bed, as she was tired from the day's events, but then remembered about Sombra.
"Aren't you going to sleep, Sunset?" Princess Celestia asked upon seeing that her student was not heading to her room, rather she was going to the other part of the castle.
"I would love to, Princess, but I think I'd like to talk to Sombra first."
Celestia gave an encouraging nod and Sunset walked away...
"I wish I had made a map of the Castle... Who could've known that it would've been so easy to get lost in here?" Sunset cursed under her breath as she tried to find her way out of the maze she had somehow gotten into (it wasn't really a maze, that's just how it felt to Sunset) and bumped into a figure.
Her horn glowed brighter and she stood back in a fighting stance, only to gaze at the pony and pause. There were some differences as it had been years since she had last seen him... But there was no mistaking his green eyes. "Sombra? I-is it you?"
The stallion looked up from his map and dropped it immediately. "Sunset? What a surprise..."
He put his saddlebags down carefully and then approached her. "It's been years since I last saw you. What made you stop by here today?" His voice had a little hurt in it. "I thought you forgot about me..."
The pain in his voice and eyes hurt Sunset, but she was determined to make up for it. "I'm sorry for not even bothering to see you... I guess I was too absorbed into my studies..."
"I would've tried to visit you, but I guess I never really got around to it. You know how I am, always thinking of one thing only to forget it the next second. But to be honest I hoped that you'd be coming since I figured you had a lot of free time."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Princess Celestia would obviously be a lot easier on her students, and thus would give them less work."
"And what makes you think that?"
Sombra shrugged. "She just has that sort of an aura around her."
Sunset frowned. "So wait, if Princess Celestia is supposed to be 'soft', does that mean Princess Luna kills you with work?"
The grey unicorn chuckled. "Heheh, you're actually not far from the truth. She's having me memorise the constellations by heart... Every single fact about the moon... All these spells... She had me learn a couple of spell books, and way more things. Anyways, that's enough about my work; what does your Princess give you?"
"She teaches me spells, duh."
"Only spells? Hah, your Princess does give you less work."
"And I have to read the entire library, plus learn all the information."
"Now, is that work Princess Celestia gave you or work that you gave yourself?"
Sunset blushed and looked away. "Hey! Don't tease me like that..."
"It's fun to see you blush. You look way too cute~ Do it for me more often?"
"S-sombra!"
Sombra placed a hoof on his forehead and another on his chest, falling back onto his saddlebags in a dramatic pose which befitted a mare in trouble more than a stallion, and said, "So, it's settled. Princess Luna will kill me at a young age by overworking me while you'll get to live your life to the fullest and enjoy the world around you."
Sunset was about to reply, but fell silent as she heard the sound of somepony approaching. Sombra, also hearing the hoof steps, began to look around.
The mare's eyes widened as Princess Luna revealed herself. "Now, what was that about somepony dying due to being overworked to death by their mentor? We couldn't even enjoy our midnight walk as all We could hear was the complaining and whining of this somepony, whose voice was loud enough to drown out the sounds of the night!"
"P-p-princess L-luna?!" Sombra jumped up in shock, stuttering from the fear he felt upon knowing that what he had said as a joke was heard by the Princess of the Night.
"We're really offended. To think that Our first and only student would be saying such things behind Our back..."
"P-princess! I swear, I only said it as a joke!"
Luna turned her face away. "Hmph. And here We were, thinking you were a polite stallion." She turned to face him with a serious glint in her eyes, and a glare that could send the bravest of ponies running. "Do know that you will be punished for this. If you think that what We're giving to you now is called too much work, you'll learn the true definition of that tonight."
Sombra turned even paler at this. "Princess! Please, I'll do anything! Don't punish me..."
Sunset laughed quietly at this.
Princess Luna put her hoof to her chin, as if in deep thought. "Hmm... Let Us think... Maybe We can reduce your punishment, but only if..."
"I-if?"
"If you promise to never talk of your Princesses like that again! Personally, We have no objection if you joke about Celestia, but that's beside the point." Luna suddenly laughed, making Sombra also force out a nervous chuckle.
"Heheh..."
"You do not get to laugh! We were going to let you spend time with your friend, but because of what you did, you only have half an hour! And though We are amused by this, We. Are. Serious!"
With that the Princess disappeared, and the duo looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
If it were to be told accurately, then it was actually Sunset who began laughing and it was the hilarious sight of her rolling about in laughter that caused Sombra to start laughing.
Once they had calmed down and were catching their breath, Sombra broke the silence by commenting, "I never knew Her Highness would be so offended by a simple joke."
Sunset shrugged. "Some ponies are, some ponies aren't. I think she just wanted to have some fun."
"You think she's not actually angry?"
"Unlike you, who was cowering in fear and turning pale, I paid attention to Princess Luna's face and she was actually struggling not to smile the whole time."
"Now, when did you become so good at reading expressions?"
"Ever since Princess Celestia began teaching me."
"Huh... I'm gonna be back, just need to go to the bathroom real quick," Sombra said, leaving.
"Okay..."
While waiting for her friend to return, Sunset decided to look around the room as she didn't really have a chance.
She willed her horn to glow brighter, and her horn light revealed that the room was devoid of any furniture.
However, it had paintings on the walls, all of which depicted Princess Luna, the starry night sky and the moon.
Each of these paintings were different, but there was one recurring theme Sunset had noticed.
In each of them, the Lunar Princess was always alone, and had a sad expression on her face.
The artist had done such a good job at capturing the emotions that Sunset felt the loneliness.
"Sunset, I'm back. Is everything okay?" A voice cut her out of her thoughts and she turned her gaze away from the paintings to see Sombra.
"Huh? Yeah, everything's fine. I was just looking at these paintings. The artist did a really good job on them..."
"You think they're good?"
"Yeah."
"Heh, what would you expect when the master of paintings drew them?"
"What?"
"Yeah, I'm like, the master of paintings. Didn't you know? I mean, it would be obvious if you saw my cutie mark."
Sunset looked at Sombra's cutie mark to see that it was of three building blocks. "Your cutie mark's creating things. Heh, that shouldn't really surprise me seeing how good you were at making things when we were foals."
Sombra winked and draped a hoof around Sunset's neck. "And your cutie mark's magic, I guess?"
"Yeah, I turned out to be pretty good at casting spells made by Princess Celestia, so surprise surprise, my cutie mark's a sun."
Sombra suddenly smiled. "Hey, Sunset... Have you seen Princess Luna's guards?"
"No, why?"
The grey unicorn smiled deviously, and feigned sudden terror, gesturing a hoof at something behind Sunset while leaping away to 'safety'. "Ahh, there's something behind you!"
Sunset looked behind herself and was met with one of the biggest shocks of her life as she saw a pony with heir fangs bared, seemingly ready to sink them deep into her and suck all her blood out.
She had read about batponies before but had never expected to see one in her life so of course her reaction was to scream and nearly jump out of the window.
"AAAHHHH!!" screams Sunset, leaping five feet into the air with her horn flaring up in panic, causing her to teleport around the room.
Sombra nearly pissed himself by laughing. "Ahahah, hahaha, oh my God, that was so funny! Hahaha!"
Sunset wasn't amused by this, and the batpony emerged out of the shadows, laughing insanely.
She observes him. He has light brown/kind of gold fur with a darker shade of brown as his mane's color, and his eyes are dark blue.
Sunset watches, unamused, as the two stallions laugh, seemingly with no intention of stopping and gets an idea. "Ahhh," she makes sure to raise her voice as she points out of the door "I think I see Princess Luna coming!"
"Princess Luna?" The batpony and Sombra stand in the pose of a statue after getting up.
"Just kidding. I needed to do something to stop you two laughing like insane ponies. Just so you know, I'm not happy with your prank Sombra. It wasn't funny. Anyways, who's he?"
"Him? That's Shadowlance, my bodyguard."
"Huh... How did he sneak up on me so easily?"
"Batponies are masters at stealth," Shadowlance grins proudly.
Sunset was a little uncomfortable with the knowledge that batponies could sneak up on her... But that was due to her past...
However, she didn't want to offend the batpony by saying that so instead she said, "Really?" When he nodded she said "That's so cool!"
"I know," he said, smirking and puffing out his chest.
Sombra rolled his eyes at this.
Sunset laughed a little.
"Anyways, Sombra, your time's up."
"So quickly...?"
"To be honest it was already up when you told me of this prank, but I decided that doing a prank first would be a lot more better."
"Thanks for being that kind... But" Sombra grew a horrified expression on his face and levitated both his saddlebags and his map. "We'll have to explain to Princess Luna why I'm God knows how late!"
Shadowlance was also horrified and the two rushed out of the room.
Sunset laughed again. "In that case, I'll come around next week or something," she called behind them, before deciding to leave.
She then face hooved. "Oh shit, I forgot to ask for directions..."
Princess Celestia tosses and turns in her sleep, disturbed by images that her mind conjures up.
She knew she shouldn't have expected a good night's sleep after hearing Sunset's story, but was foolish enough to attempt to sleep.
Now she's got mentally disturbing images that will be hard to erase from her mind.
"Come now, Sunslut. Let's have some...fun, shall we?" The figure gave an evil chuckle and pinned the filly down… "You look just like your mother…"
The Princess of the Sun gasped as she jolted awake, sitting up and looking around.
"That was just a dream," she tells herself. "Calm... Calm..."
" I don't think I can get any more sleep tonight, " she ponders. "Perhaps a midnight walk will help."
" Poor Sunset, " she says. "No wonder she looks tired most of the time. The poor dear must be unable to sleep…"
Sighing, Princess Celestia leaves her chambers to take a walk.
"Sunset?" Celestia asks upon reaching the gardens. "What are you doing here?"
"Fancy seeing you here, Princess," she replies. "I couldn't sleep."
" What a coincidence. I was also unable to sleep, " says Celestia. After a few seconds, she asks, "Do you do this every night?"
" No. "
Her answers are blunt and straight to the point, as always, but they're shorter than usual.
Perhaps she's not in much of a talking mood.
"Well, I'll be returning to my walk," Celestia says awkwardly , and moves on after realising that Sunset won't reply.
Sunset turns her head as the sound of an approaching pony's hoofsteps reaches her ears. She lights her horn, only to see Sombra, who smiles and increases his pace.
“Hello Sunset,” he greets. “Let me guess, you were waiting here for me.”
She smiles. “Don't flatter yourself so much,” she teases. “I only came here because I couldn't sleep, and the thought of tossing and turning around in bed all night doesn't sound very appealing.”
Sombra puts a hoof over his heart, and says dramatically, "Oh, how you wound me!"
Sunset rolls her eyes. "Your heart is on the left side of your chest, not the right."
He blushes in embarrassment and desperately tries to change the subject. "A-anyways, what do you think of going somewhere on Saturday? This Saturday? "
"I thought Princess Luna kept you as busy a-"
"She may or may not have decided to let me take weekends off after I joked around about her overworking me, so I'm free. So, do you want to go anywhere? " As he repeats his question, he looks at the orange unicorn nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his forehoof.
He looks so hot doing that… Sunset shakes her head to clear the thoughts that are forming, and smiles. "I'd love to."
Sombra barely manages to contain his joy and settles for expressing it through the biggest grin he can manage. "Ok, I've got to go now, bye, " he exclaims and disappears in a flash of crimson light, leaving Sunset slightly confused from his sudden departure.
She chuckles quietly to herself and gets up, deciding to return to her bedroom.
Saturday comes faster than she expects, and before she knows it, Sombra's taken her to the Castle Grounds. It's the evening, just the time where ponies would be getting ready for bed.
"So, where are we going? " Sunset can't help but ask.
Sombra merely winks. "It's a surprise. For now, just relax and enjoy the scenery. Not to mention, my handsome face. As well as my incredibly styled mane. "
Sunset resists the urge to roll her eyes and just sighs. "You and your ego…"
However, she does look around and wishes that she'd brought some parchment and a quill so she could draw the surroundings. Drawing is a hobby of hers, and she's gotten quite good at it. While she doesn't feel comfortable socialising, she does like to watch ponies interact from afar.
They walk in silence for a while until Sombra asks, "Have you gone out of the Castle before?"
" Not really, " she admits. "I don't like the crowds, and most of the ponies here are...rude."
"I don't like the ponies here either. There are a few nice ones here and there, but others act like everyone is inferior to them and they rule everything."
"I dread the Nobles. From how Princess Celestia describes them, it's better to stay in than to risk running into them."
Sombra nods and Sunset asks, " How close are we now? "
He chuckles. "Getting impatient, huh?"
Sunset blushes, and upon receiving no reply, the grey unicorn says, "We're pretty close. I'd say around ten minutes. "
"...How often do you leave the Castle?"
"When I'm able to convince Princess Luna to let me, which is about once or twice every week. As I go out at night, not only do I get to enjoy the scenery which is ten times more beautiful, but I also don't have to deal with any ponies. For some reason, they're afraid of it. "
"I guess Princess Luna doesn't let you go out that much because she's worried?"
"Yeah, especially since ponies are scared of those who think and behave differently than them, and even though she knows I can handle myself thanks to the spells she taught me, as well as the bodyguard she provided, I guess she has a right to be overprotective."
" Speaking of your bodyguard...Is he here with us? "
"No, I asked him to stay back since it'd feel weird knowing he's watching us, but knowing him, he's probably following me, ready to dash forward if I get in danger."
Sunset's about to say something, but then out of the corner of her eyes, she sees a huge library. It's bigger than the one in the Castle, and she's awed by the sight of it.
"Is this…"
" The biggest library in Canterlot? " finishes Sombra with a smirk. "Yes, it is. I know how much you love books, so I decided to take you here. It claims to have books that even the Royal Library doesn't have, and-"
He notices that Sunset is no longer standing beside him, but rather, at the door of the library. Holding back laughter, he joins her.
