Twilight's Student

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

Prologue

Twilight Sparkle

The coronation had to be one of the most beautiful ones I had ever seen, not that I had actually seen that many.

There were a lot of things that I liked about it. All of my friends are here with me, that’s something that is always good to know. When I got hit with the rainbow, and turned into an Alicorn, that was something that I had wondered about. If I was going to be a princess, that might have had some effect on my friendships. I was really glad they were here, I didn’t think that I could really be here without them.

That was meant in more ways than one.

Not only wouldn’t I have been there in terms of not being an Alicorn, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be there in the first place. I knew that this sort of thing, being a princess, was always the dream of so many mares. That sort of thing that had never been my dream, though. I had been content to simply be a unicorn, to simply be the student to one of the most powerful mares in the history of Equestria. Even as I stood there, knowing that my future was tied to my new royal status, I still didn’t want to be a princess.

Applejack could see that I was having trouble, and she was soon standing beside me.

“It’s gonna be alright Twi.” I hear the voice that I had heard plenty of times today, saying the same thing that I had heard her say several times today. “It ain’t like this is yer first time leading. Every time we had to save Equestria, you’ve been there. And when we had to get winter wrapped up on time.” I felt her nudge me with her hoof. “You were there, makin’ sure that everything ran the way it needed to.”

I could barely count how many times she had come over today, trying to make sure that I didn’t freak out. Not out of some inability to count to eighteen, but out of the fact that keeping track of that wasn’t exactly my highest priority at this point. I was standing at a precipice. I didn’t want to run away, that would have upset Princess Celestia. I also didn’t want to think of all of the things that could go wrong with me being a princess.

Yet bringing it up made me vocalize it.

“But this is so much worse.” I looked at her, and she gave me an incredulous look. “What if I go back to Canterlot, and I end up insulting a gryphon ambassador?” I begin to think of all the things that could happen because of such a seemingly small mistake. “Imagine if they declared war. They’d attack us, and then we’d have to fight back. Hundreds would, no, thousands would die. It would be all my fault.” I didn’t know if any of that would happen, but the simple fact that it was possible was enough to make me not want to be a princess.

That, and a lot of other reasons.

“I’m sure that ain’t gonna happen, Sugarcube.” I couldn’t believe that she didn’t understand how easily gryphons were offended. The simple act of sneezing in the direction of one once caused a war between the Pegasi under Command Hurricane and the Gryphon Empire. “There’s gonna be more than just you. I’m sure Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are gonna be there, prolly with diplomats who are gonna deal with the ambassadors.” I had really gotten used to Applejack being a pillar of calm, even if I didn’t tell her that often. She was always there for me, to make sure that I didn’t lose the remaining sanity I had left.

It would have been nice if she could join me in Canterlot, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Then again, with any luck I would be able to stay here.

“Okay, you’re probably right about that.” I hadn’t thought about the fact that there were ambassadors that were trained for that very thing. It probably had something to do with the fact that even a sneeze was enough to start a war in the past. “But what if I have to have a court and settle the problems of large groups of ponies?” I almost shrank back, just the thought of being forced to deal with a large crowd that would likely have gotten unruly was enough of a reason to want to try to get out of it. I hadn’t even done it a single time, but I knew that it was a bad idea.

There were some things that a pony didn’t have to try to know they were bad.

Part of me hoped that Applejack would come up with something. I knew that this was something that I was going to have to deal with, Princess Celestia seemed to really like the idea that I be a princess. At least, I think she liked it. The more that I thought about it, the more I figured I would need to find a way to make sure that I had Applejack there with me. She would be my Smart Cookie. Well, I didn’t think I was quite as bad as Puddinghead, but the idea still stood.

As I continued to wait for something, I noticed that she bowed. I quickly turned to see Princess Celestia standing there. The worst part was that I didn’t know how long she had been standing there. Maybe she had been waiting for a long time. I really needed to apologize. “There’s no need for you two to bow, not today. This is your day, Twilight. Or should I say Princess Twilight?” As the two of us rose to our hooves, Celestia looked out into the crowd.

“I used to have that same problem, by the way.” I wondered what she was talking about. Princess Celestia didn’t have problems. Well, she didn’t have many. “I used to get so nervous around the large crowds. Each of them had a different need, a different want, and it was all up to me to make sure that everything went alright.” This seemed like something I would have though t she would have told me before. “Not only that, but there were times when ponies would have conflicting problems. Airing them together, that was a quick way for an argument to start. It didn’t take long before I came up with a solution, something I think might help you as well.”

I was going to get wisdom, straight from Princess Celestia.

“For a while, I cut down the amount of ponies I saw at once. I wasn’t ready to deal with it all at once, like I said. Dealing with them on at a time, it gave me some focus. It allowed me to think through every problem. And it made the ponies all feel calmer, not to mention the focus ensured that they knew their problem was being taken care of.” I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t thought of that. It seemed so simple when Celestia said it, it made so much sense. I generally did the same thing when I could, I focused on problems as much as I was allowed, yet I hadn’t thought of doing that with this problem. “But that isn’t the only reason why I came over, unfortunately.” I noticed that she turned to Applejack, the serene smile on her face.

“I’m going to need to talk to Twilight about something. Don’t worry, I’m sure that she’s going to tell you all eventually. For now, however, I’d like for this to be something between the two of us.” Applejack just looked at her, then to me, and then quietly walked away. Whatever it was, I figured it was probably really important. Of course, it wasn’t so important that I couldn’t tell them later. I wondered what it could have been. Then she said them, simple words that I hadn’t exactly been looking forward to hearing.

“We’re going to have to talk about what is going to happen from here on out. After all, you’re a princess. That changes a lot of things, and I would much rather talk to you about them than have them thrown at you at the last second.”

Many months later

Sunset Shimmer

Things were going better than I could have expected, or at least better than I would have expected. It was true that I wasn’t a princess, that the entire school wasn’t under my control anymore. It was true that everything wasn’t really going my way. I didn’t get everything I wanted simply because I wanted it. All of that had changed when Princess Twilight had shown up, and had made sure that my plans hadn’t succeeded.

There were times when I wondered what might have been if I had won. I wouldn’t have some of the best friends I had ever met. I’ve never actually been sure if the plan would have succeeded when I was back in Equestria. Things would have been a lot different, though. I have always known, ever since it failed, that it was a good thing that the plan didn’t succeed. At the same time, though, there isn’t a single person, or pony, that doesn’t dream about being royalty.

I may have changed, but I never pretended to be perfect.

I had to keep trying to improve, though.

Right now, I was staring at my reasons for changing. Each of them had helped me out in some way. There was Applejack, the most honest and dependable of people. Fluttershy was always there with a kind smile and a warm hug. I doubted that Rainbow Dash would ever leave her friends in trouble, or maybe anyone else who needed her. Rarity was always there, trying to give much more than I thought anyone had the ability to give. Finally, there was Pinkie. She was always the weirdest of all my friends, always the one who did her best to make sure that everybody had a smile and a cupcake. They have always been there for me, and I doubted that would ever change.

Well, unless I went through with this plan I was thinking about.

A couple of tears started to form, and I quickly wiped them off. Rainbow had always told me that cool girls didn’t cry. I turned for a moment, to look at the statue that had the portal on it. I thought to all of the ponies that I had left behind. There weren’t that many friends, I actually couldn’t think of a single one. I did have family on that side, though, even if I hadn’t been able to find a single one of them on this side. My family probably misses me a lot, though, since I just sort of disappeared quite a few years back.

“Are you sure you have to do this? I would love it if you’d stay, we all would, if you’d like to that is…”

If any of them had to change, and I hoped they didn’t, I really hoped that Fluttershy could stay the same. The world needed more of that. “I’d love to stay here.” Those words made them all look happy. That made these next words especially difficult. “But I can’t. I can’t just stay here anymore, not without knowing about my family back home. I haven’t thought about them for so long, but I can’t ignore them anymore.” There had to be something that I could say, something that would have brought a smile back to their faces. “Maybe I can convince them to come back here. It shouldn’t take too long to find them, and then we can all have some fun here.” I winked at Pinkie Pie as I looked at her. “And I’m sure they’d like one of your parties.”

That likely wasn’t going to be enough to convince them that I had to go. I had to, though. A couple of seconds later, I turned and almost charged through the portal. According to my calendar, this should have been the first day that portal opened. That meant that I only had a short time before I had to come back here and go through the mirror. It won’t take that long to find my family, I was sure of that. Then I was going to come back, and we were all going to have a party.

I was going to stick with what I said.

As I went through the portal, one thought shot through my mind. This was going to be just fine. Everything was going to go the way I needed it to. It wasn’t like I was trying to take over or anything, not this time.

Twilight Sparkle

Today was going to be a great day, I just knew it.

There was plenty of time for me to get everything that I wanted. Not only that, but this was going to be a rare opportunity. Prince Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza were both available to see me today. Well, I usually just called them Shiny and Cadance, but sometimes formal titles like that were always interesting. Part of me wondered how Cadance had gotten her longer name, but I had never actually bothered to ask her. Maybe I would eventually. Maybe I could get to ask her today. This was going to be the first time in a few months that I had been able to see my brother or sister-in-law.

I blamed the nobles.

It had happened shortly after the coronation. There had been calls for me to come back to Canterlot, to hold court. There had been one insistent unicorn, Blueblood, who had tried to tell me that it was destiny for us to get married. I was quick to turn down each of those, especially the last one. That hadn’t been something that ended quickly, though, with there being a lot of arguments from the very ponies that would have likely hated it if she was there in the first place.

It was a good thing Princes Celestia was there, and that she had been willing to actually listen to me.

In the end, my titles were sorted out and everything worked out so far. I was Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Magic and Friendship, as well as the Caretaker of Ponyville. It didn’t seem to be something that affected Mayor Mare, or at least I was told not to worry about it. That didn’t help out at first, but I knew to trust that Princes Celestia knew what she was doing. It didn’t hurt that I really liked the idea.

I really didn’t get along with nobles.

That was actually part of the reason why I was here. I was going to enjoy some time with my brother and former foalsitter. It was going to be nice to sit back, relax, and maybe get a little advice. The two of them seemed to know what they were doing, after all. Cadance seemed to know what she was doing what it came to the nobility, she could probably have given me advice for how to deal with some of the more vocal ones.

That would come after…

What’s that noise?

I heard a loud crash, followed by the sight of some guards running. Something wasn’t right about any of that, obviously. I couldn’t think of a single thing that might have attacked the Empire. My worst fears were that it had something to do with my brother or Cadance. If somepony was there to hurt them, that would be terrible. There was no way that I was going to figure out what was happening by standing there, though, I had to go to the source.

It was probably being dealt with. I somehow knew that my worries were going to be for nothing. After all, my brother used to be a guard captain. There were a lot of things wrong, but his ability to train troops wasn’t one of them.

Sunset Shimmer

I didn’t expect this type of greeting.

Actually, I wasn’t sure what type of greeting I expected. It would have been nice if it had been a little nicer, but that hadn’t been likely. The thing that I didn’t expect was what happened within a few seconds of me coming through the mirror. There were quite a large number of guards. I didn’t have any clue how they could have known I was coming, or even why they would care if I came back through to try to go to Equestria. This sort of thing didn’t happen the last time I came through, there were almost no guards that I had needed to get past.

That was it.

I really should have thought this one through. There was no way they would welcome somebo-pony like me back here so easily. Those sharp pointy weapons, they were definitely something that I needed to get away from. The only thing I could think to do was try to get out of there, though a few seconds after I tried to power up my horn I only saw sparks.

That wasn’t the worst part.

Imagine a guard in armor landing on you. The armor is meant to be able to help if something hits a guard, so logically it’s thick metal. Thick metal is heavy, and the pony who is carrying it is likely to get strong. Add all of that together, and the fact that I was tackled by more than one guard meant that things weren’t exactly pleasant.

With me being in the dungeon, though, the worst part of it was over. Things started off bad, but they couldn’t get much worse for me from here.

Author's Note

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Chapter 1

Sunset Shimmer

I probably should have seen this coming. I’m not exactly the most popular pony around here. I tried to steal the crown … well, I did steal the crown. Then I used it to try to get an army to take over Equestria. Not that the plan would have likely worked, thinking back on it I don’t know why I thought that brainwashed kids were going to be able to take down two ponies strong enough to move the sun and moon. Obviously I should just put that one down to poor planning, I really wasn’t thinking clearly near the end.

The only successful part of that was stealing the crown.

I turned to look to the two ponies, presumably guards, standing outside of my cell. They looked the same, mostly. The two of them were white Earth Ponies with a blonde mane and the same set of armor. I wondered if this was anything like the guard of Canterlot, where they rigidly enforced that. I remembered looking, and asking Celestia how they could all have looked the same. She said something about the armor being enchanted, making it to where everypony in the guard looked the same to ensure … I couldn’t remember what it was that she said it was to enforce.

That wasn’t actually all that important right now.

“I’m guessing I don’t get a phone call or anything?” As those words left my mouth, I instantly realized just how stupid it was. There weren’t phones here, there had never even been the need for anything like that. Equestria, and likely this kingdom as well, stuck with what was known as a letter. It was a much slower, less efficient, form of communication that I had gotten out of the habit of using.

From the looks I was being given, though, I knew I would have to get used to the habit of talking about letters again. Either that, or just not talk about either of them.

“I don’t suppose I can speak to somepony in charge of this place, could I?” That was something that I knew would get me a much better reply. One of the guards looked to the other, then back to me.

“The Prince will be here soon. You may speak with him at that point in time, criminal.”

There was at least one good piece of information from that. Actually, there were two. One of them was the fact that I was going to be able to speak to whoever this Prince was. The thing that I liked more, though, was something that I wouldn’t have liked even a few months prior. Neither of these guards seemed to know that I was anything more than a simple prisoner. I knew things would have been a lot worse if they had known my name, and my previous crimes.

That moved onto something that I just realized was weird.

Why was the Prince coming to talk to me? I wasn’t important enough to warrant this, unless they knew who I was. If they knew who I was, they likely wouldn’t have been as nice so far as they have been. I knew what happened to ponies who trespassed the crown, and it wasn’t anything as simple as jail time. Royalty didn’t often speak with normal criminals to my knowledge, though Celestia had often tried to see a few of them from time to time. Maybe that had been something that had changed since I had last known.

My reconnaissance has time had been primarily focused on my mission, after all. The way things worked for criminals wasn’t going to be necessary information if I had won.

All of that aside, all I can do now is wait. The pony who was going to come to see me, and likely question me, was royalty. From my experience, even with Celestia, that meant that the wait could be a while. There was a lot on the plate of some, and others simply wanted to make themselves feel as though they were important enough to make everypone else wait for their arrival.

A name came to mind at that thought, and that name was Fancy Pants.

Then I heard a knock on the door, which promptly pushed that name to the dustbin of not important. I was sure that the minor noble would have probably disappeared anyway. Right now I had to focus on the Prince. I knew it was him, as there was a gasp. Either it was the Prince or it was somepony else of major importance. Maybe I could have gotten lucky and it might have been another criminal. If there were the two of us, maybe the focus on me would be less.

No, no, I knew that was a bad thought to have.

If they knew who I was, which I was really starting to think on the basis that the Prince was coming to talk to me, whoever else had to do something horrible. Probably something that hurt somebo-pony. I had to really try to keep with the good lessons I had learned. If only the Elements of Harmony were able to flip some light switch as make it to where being good was easy. Things would have just been a lot better if that were the case.

I shook my head as the door opened.

If this really was the Prince, that was good. Executions didn’t happen often, though my crimes were definitely bad enough to warrant it. There was also the chance that this would have ended in a jail sentence, or maybe a full pardon and I was just about to be let out. One of those things, jail time, would have been acceptable, the other terrible, and I didn’t even bother throwing the third into a category. There was absolutely no chance I was being let out of here. I did wish that the news came soon enough, though, because the wait was the worst part.

There was something about waiting that made everything seem worse than it was.

Then I realized it wasn’t the Prince. I was still seeing royalty, just not the one that I had expected. The lavender pony princess in front of me was unmistakable. I saw it in her face, in those eyes that looked at me with a shocked expression. Even though I hadn’t seen her much on this side, I would have known Twilight Sparkle anywhere. The real question was why she was here, though. I had been told that the Prince was going to be here to see me.

Of course, there was a chance that they had meant the Princess.

There was always the chance that this was the Princess of the realm. I had thought that it was some pony named Cadance, but maybe I had been wrong. It wouldn’t be the first mistake I had ever made, and most certainly wouldn’t be the last. It even made sense that Princess Twilight would have wanted to be the one that handed out judgment. The old me, the one who still poked its dirty little head every now and again, would have loved to do that sort of thing. While Princess Twilight was a good friend to some, I still couldn’t say what she was going to do in this situation.

I knew what would have happened if my old self had seen Twilight Sparkle in a cell, though, all that time ago.

I couldn’t help it, though, when I moved my gaze from her eyes. There was something different about her. Obviously I knew the wings would have appeared, and grown. I had actually gotten a look at the wings initially. They looked stronger, though. Her horn had also changed, growing in size. I wondered if that had something to do with her magic. Her entire body seemed to have grown, actually. That was something that I hadn’t anticipated, though Celestia’s size should have likely been a key in figuring out that it would have happened.

The only thing I didn’t like was what seeing her automatically did to me.

I could have sworn that I had gotten over it. I had friends on the other side of that mirror. Pinkie Pie Rarity, Fluttershy, they were there for me when I needed them. They likely would have been the first to tell me that being a princess didn’t matter. At the same time, though, part of me wants that to be me. Part of me really wants that. “Have you come here to sentence me, Princess Sparkle, or just gloat?” As those words left my mouth, I once again knew that they weren’t the right words to be said.

Twilight Sparkle

Sentence or gloat?

Neither of those made any sense.

I hadn’t even known that she was here before now. I still didn’t know what she was being charged with, if anything. Even if that was the case, I wasn’t the pony in charge here. If anypony was going to sentence her for anything, it would have been either my brother or Cadance. That wasn’t something that she likely knew, though, so I understood that one being a question.

Gloat, though, made very little sense.

I was sure that I hadn’t done anything that could have made her think I was a gloaty pony when I had gone to Canterlot High. I looked up for a few moments, I tried to think of anything. There had to be something, maybe, that would have come me. Maybe she had a real reason to assume that she was either going to be punished by me or bragged to be .. me. Either way, I had to make sure that I set the record straight.

“I didn’t even know you were here until I got here. I just heard the noise, and I was curious.” I hoped that a chuckle would help out, it always helped out according to the speech book I read shortly after becoming a princess. “And even if I had, there’s nothing for me to gloat about. Being a princess doesn’t make me better than anypony.” My mind moved back to the idea of punishment, though, and decided to ask the most basic question. “What exactly did you do to get locked up anyway?”

The look I got definitely wasn’t one that believed what I had just asked. Either that, or she was just trying to taunt me. I knew to believe the best in everypony, but sometimes ponies seemed to think that taunting was acceptable. Also, she didn’t really seem to like me all that much. It did seem like she was going to respond to me, though, which was progress. “I didn’t do anything, really. Well, nothing this time.” As I looked at her face, I kind of wished that Applejack was here. She would have been able to tell me if this mare was lying. In the end, though, all I had was my own judgment. “I guess they didn’t like that I just showed up through the mirror. It’s not my fault that it’s here, though.”

I wanted to believe her.

There were a lot of good points. If she had done anything too terrible, there would likely have been more than two guards here. Another point was that any pony would have assumed that they would have moved the mirror. I still don’t know why it was still where it was. If she was telling the truth, though, there was something that I needed to know. I had left her in the care of good friends. If she was here, something bad could have happened.

Maybe they needed my help.

Maybe the land had been devastated by a war, something that Sunset Shimmer needed our help with.

Maybe I just needed to ask, to make sure.

“So …is there something happening on the other side?” The confused look I got told me that I had to continue. “Well, I kind of didn’t expect to see you again.” Those words earned me a sneer, and I knew they were the wrong way of putting it. “Not that I’m upset that you’re back, I just thought you liked it over on the other side. And I want to make sure my friends on the other side haven’t gotten into any trouble while I’ve been gone.”

That seemed to make her a little less angry.

“They’re just fine.” I let out a breath that I hadn’t even known I was holding in. “I just have to do some things around here. It’s been years since I have shown my face around here, after all.” Part of me wanted to as for more details, but something stopped me. “I have a family, after all, I’m sure they’re worried about me.” I had to wonder if that detail had slipped out, or if she had wanted me to know part of what she was going to do.

“I’m going to go talk to my brother and see if I can’t help you out of here. I know you’re not a bad pony, and I’m going to make sure that he knows that as well.” With that, I turned and left. I had a job to do, and I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. Nopony liked being in a jail cell. Not to mention that this was all one big misunderstanding.

Chapter 2

Twilight Sparkle

It really didn’t take long for me to find my brother, and obviously Princess Cadance alone with him. From what I could tell, they were already talking about a prisoner. If I was lucky, it might have been the prisoner that I would have wanted to talk to them about. I wanted to get this done as quickly as I could, it was never something good to keep somepony in a jail cell for longer than they needed to be.

There was something off about Shiny, though. I have seen him angry before, but normally when there was something that warranted it. If they were really talking about Sunset Shimmer, I doubt he would have been this angry. Then there was Cadance. She didn’t seem to have the same look in her eyes, or the same angry expression, that my brother had.

“This pony, Sunset Shimmer, is a threat to both our kingdom and Equestria!” I didn’t know exactly what to make of that claim. There was a chance that I didn’t know something that he did, it wasn’t unthinkable. I actually hadn’t seen Sunset Shimmer for a while, and there was the chance that my brother knew more about the situation than I did. This would be one of those times when I knew I had to just wait, to figure out what it was that he knew that I didn’t. The old me would have rushed in and said something by now, but that wasn’t the type of Princess that I wanted to be. I just had to stand here, wait for anything to be said. The two of them likely knew more about it than I did, I just knew it.

Of course, the confused look from Cadance didn’t give me much hope that she knew what he was talking about. But that was why Shining Armor was head of the Royal Guard, he likely knew how to gauge threats in a way that I didn’t.

“She tried to depose a princess.” That was something I obviously knew about, likely better than either of them ponies here. I had been the one who she had tried to depose. Cadance had known about this already, I knew that I had told her. “But that isn’t even the end of the diabolical plans.” I didn’t know if I would have ever referred to it as diabolical. “She was planning on trying to use the Element of Magic, which she stole from the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle, to mind control a group to try to form an army to take over Equestria.” Okay, that did sound a little diabolical. I guess he might have had a point when he said that.

“Not that she would have needed to take over. Merely taking the Element of Magic would have been enough to cause terrible things to happen. They are a great defense against many things that our guards just can’t fight against.” I thought back to everything that we had done. There had been Nightmare Moon and Discord, two of the greatest threats in my time. My brother did have a point, there was no possible way to defend Equestria without having the Elements of Harmony.

But that had been in the past. Celestia had forgiven Nightmare Moon, and had pardoned Discord. I was sure that she would have forgiven Sunset Shimmer for what she had done. Of course, Celestia wasn’t here. I was going to have to convince my BBBFF and my former foal-sitter that she wasn’t a threat. That led me to the next big question, one that would likely have a lot of influence on how difficult it was going to be to get this done.

What was Cadance thinking?

That was something that I couldn’t tell. Cadance simply nodded as he coontinued, little expression showing beyond the fact that it was obvious she was thinking. She seemed to be taking in everything that Shining said, who looked as angry about Sunset as he liked had been when I had told him what happened. Then there was me. I was standing there, simply trying to not be noticed yet. I wished, at that point, that I could have seen anything that would have given me some indication of the types of things that had gone through Cadance’s head.

The next question would be who would have decided her fate anyway.

I knew that Equestria had a diarchy, everypony did. There were minor problems that were able to be settled in Day Court, and some that were settled in Night Court. Neither Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, however, wanted to make any large decisions on their own. I assumed it had to do with the balance of power, neither wanting to make it seem as though they were stepping on the other’s hooves or that the other wasn’t needed. I wasn’t all that well-versed on the politics of the Crystal Empire. beyond the fact that I knew Sombra had made every decision when he had ruled.

“What do you think, Twilight?” That question, Cadance’s voice, snapped me out of those thoughts. It had been silly of me to think that I actually hadn’t been noticed, it was going to happen eventually anyway. When I moved to look at Shining’s expression, though, it was obvious that he hadn’t noticed me. I let out a laugh, this situation was the type of thing that I didn’t do that well in, and started to back up.

I was going to get out of here quickly.

“I don’t see why it matters what I think. I mean, this is your kingdom after all. I’ll just get goi-” It was about this time that I ended up knocking against the wall. It seemed as though my quick retreat wasn’t really going to happen.

“That may be true.” Cadance looked to theme with a smirk on her face. I normally liked it when ponies smiled, but this was something different. If I hadn’t already been a little nervous, this would have done the trick. “But I don’t think it really matters if this is your kingdom or not. You’re a very bright mare, Twilight, and having your insight in this would be great.” I looked over to Shining for a second, and wondered what he might have said. Not only that, but it would have been nice if he could have gotten the focus off of me.

The expression that I got back told me it wasn’t going to happen.

“Besides, we need to know more about her. You know more about her than anyone here. Surely you have something to say before we decide what’s going to happen to her.” The fact was that everything she just said made perfect sense to me. I knew more about her than anypony else here. That was the type of thing that could have helped to make sure that nothing too harsh happened.

There was another problem, though

Everything was up to me. I had to say something. Or maybe I could have used this as an opportunity to let them know what I think. Well, it was a little bit of both. I really didn't like the idea of somepony’s life being in my hooves, though. What if I said the wrong thing? That would have made her punishment worse, and she would have known to blame me for it. I couldn’t let them know what I’m thinking, though, I had to force some smile.

“Sure thing, Cadance.” I closed my eyes for a moment, and tried to think back. The best idea was to start back to the very first pieces of information that I had gotten about her. These were, obviously, from before the incident. “Sunset Shimmer was a mare that caused a lot of trouble. Before I was Princess Celestia’s student, she was. Her goal, when she came back to this side of the mirror, was to steal the Element of Magic, create a small army of mind controlled humans, and then have them invade this side of the mirror.

That was not a well thought out plan.

Aside from the fact that I doubt she would have been able to get back to Equestria, and more important Canterlot from here? I remember my first day over there, and it was terrible. I didn’t know how to use my hands, the right way to walk, or anything. There wouldn’t have been a single one who knew how to do anything on this side.” I opened my eyes back up, and took a threat. It would have been nice to know what the two of them were thinking. Shining Armor still looked rather upset, though there was a look of shock as well.

Still, I wasn’t done.

“But I don’t think that’s the same mare as I see in the cell, or saw in the cell, today.” From the sudden change, I knew what Shining Armor had been expecting. It was painfully obvious, a phrase I’d never understood, that he had expected me to agree with him. I couldn’t do that, though, because I didn’t agree with how he had said things were. Then again, there was always the chance that they knew something I didn’t.

“How can you say that, Twiley? She hurt yo- I mean, she hurt one of the Princesses. Your report states that she tried to kill you. Surely that should be taken into consideration.”

We finally got to the heart of the matter, another phrase I have never understood. This was only partially about what she had done, and mostly about who she had done it too. Shining Armor wanted to protect me from her, and he wanted to get revenge on Sunset Shimmer for the fact that she had tried to hurt me. “Well, actually, she was hit by the Elements of Harmony. Afterwards, she seemed remorseful about what she had done. I doubt that this is something that she would fake, or even could. I left her with the friends I had met.” They had been great to know, even if it hadn’t lasted long.

“Alright.” Cadance said. “I think I’ve heard enough evidence, and now we can end up discussing what the best course of action is.” As I looked over to my brother, I couldn’t help but feel a little bad. There was something about the fact that he was still there to protect me that was refreshing. Also, I never liked seeing him upset like this. “I suggest that she gets left in prison for no less than three years, at which time we will talk it over again to see if it looks like she’s a threat.”

That wasn’t going to work. Well, technically it would. I didn’t want it to happen. This was a lot better than what my brother likely wanted to do, but still seemed to be a bit much for what was essentially breaking and entering.

“I disagree that a prison sentence is a good idea.” The fact that my brother was the one that said that was a good sign. Maybe I had been able to sway him. Maybe he had seen that the revenge that he had wanted wasn’t the type of thing that justice was made of. “It doesn’t seem as though it would do much to help the prisoner, or our worries that she is still a threat.”I didn’t know what to think of that. The wording seemed to suggest that he still saw her as a threat. There was no chance that my BBBFF was going to suggest anything too outrageous, though. He might have gotten hot-headed at times, but my brother was reasonable in the end. “I suggest that she be released immediately, with her ability to use magic being permanently removed. The suggested method is the removal of her horn.”

There went the idea of my brother being reasonable about this.

“You can’t do that!” I hadn’t even realized that I hadn’t been thinking that. The fact that I had yelled it was made obvious by the fact that the two of them were staring at me. There was a look of confusion on their faces. I couldn’t blame them. My initial reaction had been to try to stay out, but I was how pushing my thoughts as things of fact. There was also the fact that I didn’t have a single reason why this couldn’t be done, aside from the fact that I saw it as cruel.

I had to come up with something, though. There had to be a reason why Sunset Shimmer needed her horn. There also had to be a reason why she had to leave today. Those two reasons likely needed to not contradict each other. Even if not today, I knew that three years wasn’t something I could have just walked away from. “Part of the reason why I came here was to get a student, and before I came up here I asked Sunset if she wanted to be just that. As her teacher, I have to look out for her well-being.” I couldn’t believe that I had just lied to my BBBFF and former foalsitter.

I also couldn’t believe I had just said that, it wasn’t even remotely relevant. Being a student wouldn't have gotten her out of either punishment, and least not that I was aware of.

The looks that I got were definitely ones of confusion. Maybe they were trying to figure out when I had gotten a student. I figured that having a student was something a princess just did, so that had been the first thing that had come to mind. Maybe I would have eventually gotten a student of my own, when I was finally ready.

Of course, that time wasn’t now.

“We’re going to have to give this matter some more thought.” Cadance was the first to say something. “This sort of thing has never come up before.”I barely noticed that she was looking at me, my gaze firmly planted on the floor. “We will come up with a decision tomorrow, but it’s about time for dinner.” My gaze moved from the floor to meet Cadance’s. I didn’t know really what to say. “And don’t worry, Sunset will be getting the same meal. After all, I’d like to see her for myself, have a conversation with her.”

This was not how I thought it would be. I knew they were going to figure out that the was a lie.

Sunset

I looked at the wall across from my cell. Time really seemed to go extremely slowly when it came down to this sort of thing. I wondered how long it would have taken for others to lose hope in a cell like this. I had something working for me that kept my spirits up, and that was the subtle feeling that everything was going to get better soon. I couldn’t explain it, but there was something that told me that I hadn’t been forgotten yet. Twilight Sparkle just didn’t seem like the type that ran out when she said she was going to do something.

Then the guards showed up, opening the door.

“Follow us. You are going to be taken to see the Princess Cadance and Prince Armor.”

I was sure that there wasn’t anything good that could have come out of this. “A royal invitation? I’m sure their just going to tell me that this was all a giant mistake, that I’m allowed to leave.” That had been almost equal parts sarcasm and hope, with maybe a little heavy on sarcasm. That was what my tone would have suggested anyway. I knew this was going to go terribly. The fact that Shining Armor was Twilight’s brother didn’t give me much confidence on their being impartiality.

Chapter 3

Sunset Shimmer

This had a fairly good chance of not ending well, yet I wasn’t as worried as I probably should have been. It was true that I had my questions. I didn’t know where I was going, aside from the fact that I was going to be around royalty. I didn’t really know why I was being taken wherever it was that I was going. Part of me wanted to think that this might have been one giant misunderstanding, and that I was going to be told that I was going to be released today with an apology. That was simply the most optimistic part of me trying to get its say on things.

Then again, I had been told that optimism was important.

Most of my mind was more rational about this, though. I knew that simply wishing things didn’t make them come true. If wishes made things true, I would have been a princess and likely would have defeated Twilight Sparkle. It wasn’t like she wished harder or anything. I certainly wouldn't have been thrown in a jail cell, not if wishing did much. That was something that had happened, though, and it was likely better for me to try to figure out the situation at hoof.

That started with figuring out where I was being taken to.

“So … I’m guessing you’re under strict orders to not tell me about where you’re taking me? I mean, it’s probably the throne room for sentencing. You don’t have to tell me, just cough really loud if I’m right.” There was obviously a very real chance that they wouldn’t say anything at all. I couldn't think of a single reason why they wouldn’t, except if they had actually been told to keep it some sort of secret.

I really didn’t know what to think of my two guards.

It looked as though the two of them had likely taken some sort of drugs, even the biggest Earth Ponies I had seen weren't as muscular as these two. Either that, or it coud have been something about the Crystal Empire. I really didn’t know a lot about the place. Even if there had been a lot of information about the place, which there wasn’t, it hadn't seemed important at the time. When I thought about it, though, it seemed strange that there wasn’t much about it even in Celestia’s library.

My thoughts were snapped back to the present when I heard something.

“We were told to bring you to the dining room to enjoy a delicious meal with their majesties, and possibly some light conversation. I can only assume the last part.” I didn’t know what I had done to warrant the sarcasm. I mean, I knew that I was going to be sentenced to something. I knew that it was probably going to be jail time, that seemed like the most likely thing given the circumstances. It might have even been a lot of jail time, at least if the brother of Princess Twilight had anything to say about it. The last thing that I thought would happen was me heading for a meal. I was the one who stole the Element of Magic, had a plan to take over a kingdom or two. At this point I was an infiltrator, one who had been taught by Celestia herself.

That wasn’t the set of circumstances that led to somepony being taken to a meal.

“Oh haha.” There weren’t many other ways to respond. If they were being sarcastic, I was going to have some fun with this one. “Sure, taking a prisoner to a meal. And then she’ll let me go, give me a stipend, and I can become a cello player.” As soon as I said it, I wanted to smack myself. Not only did that joke make no sense, but being sarcastic was the last thing I wanted to in the presence of the guards. Then again, they were really getting into this. I could have sworn that one of the rooms we passed along the way was the throne room. If I wasn’t going to the throne room, I had no idea where I was going.

I still knew it wasn't the dining room.

“I don’t know what Princess Cadance has in store for you. We were simply told to bring you to the dining room, and that we were to stay nearby. Like I said, I don’t know what’s going on beyond taking you to the dining room.” The more he said it, the less it sounded like a joke. None of this made any sense, though. I’m a prisoner, and prisoners didn't get to eat with royalty. “I’m sure you’d make an excellent cello player, though.” The only thing that made this even slightly plausible was that Princess Twilight had said she was going to talk to the royalty about me. If that’s the reason I was not in a cell, I was going to have to thank her later.

That still didn’t make the idea of me being taken to a dining room make any more sense.

Yet here we were.

The dining room looked rather nice, all things considered. The table was large enough for there to be at least ten ponies, maybe more. This was probably meant for some sort of party, likely political in nature. There was a pink alicorn mare, Princess Cadance, at the head of the table. On one side of her was the white unicorn stallion Prince Shining Armor. The other side held my personal savior, at least I assumed she was my savior, Princess Twilight Sparkle. When I looked between the three of them, I could already tell that there was something going on. While Princess Twilight looked nervous, Cadance looked like she was actually as welcoming as Celestia normally did.

Then there was Shining Armor. If looks killed, I would have likely disintegrated completely.

Now if only I knew what they were thinking.

Twilight Sparkle

Oh my gosh, this wasn’t going to go right. I knew that Cadance and Shiny both knew that I lied. But I couldn’t have just let her lose her horn. There’s no way she’s still a threat to the kingdom, or to anypony. I saw that she was reformed, that she felt bad about everything that she’s done. But I shouldn’t have said she’s my student when she wasn’t. That’s what the Elements of Harmony did, at least most of the time. And why was it that Cadance looked happy?

I could have understood if she had been angry, Shiny certainly was, but she was happy. It was like the expression that I always saw on Celestia’s face, or at least almost always saw. There was something about the smile. Was she happy that I had lied to help a friend? She had to know that I had lied to her, she just had to. That had to be why Shiny was so angry, too. Not only had I lied to him, but it was about one of the few ponies that he seemed adamantly against.

Oh my gosh, this was even worse than them knowing. One of them is going to tell Princess Celestia that I lied. Then the Princess is going to tell me that she didn't want to see my anymore, or maybe she was going to take away my princesshood away and make me go back to Magic Kindergarten. Even if she didn't do that, she was obviously not going to just let this thing go away without some sort of punishment. I might even have had to serve some prison time with Sunset Shimmer, because I was now an accomplice. It wasn’t even like I could have blamed Sunset for this, it was all my fault.

I didn’t know what I would have done if I was forced to spend time in jail. Everything would have been ruined by the time that I got out. Spike would have been devastated, I was his caretaker. Then there was the issue of my friends. I was going to have to serve hard time, they likely wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I probably wouldn't even have anything in common with them anymore when it was done. That meant that the Elements of Harmony wouldn't work, and I had doomed Equestria.

All of this was because of my lie. If I hadn’t told them that Sunset Shimmer was my student when she wasn’t, they wouldn't be forced to send me to sever hard time. It took everything I had to not hyperventilate. That wasn’t a fun experience, I had done it a few times. It was certainly more fun, however, than the jail time that I had brought onto myself with my lie. Maybe if I admitted what was lying, Equestria wouldn't be doomed.

Shining Armor

How can she have done that? I knew that Twilight was forgiving, but this is too far. If it were up to me, well, her horn would have been gone already. I would have told Twily that she couldn’t take such a threat as a student. There was no way that she knew what she’ was getting into. My little sister has always tried to see the best in ponies, but this might just hurt her. Sunset Shimmer was a huge threat than she thought. I wish the two of them understood that I knew I had a good reason for wanting her horn cut off.

Heck, it might even been better if we just sent her back.

If we sent her back, there would be no way she can hurt Twily again. I glanced over to my sister, I knew that I had to protect her. It felt kind of weird, I was my sister’s opposition at this point. She looked so worried, and I knew it was about her student. Of course, I would have worried too if I had a student that was as much of a threat as Sunset Shimmer. That’s why I had to get her horn taken off, or at the very least she had to be shipped back to the other side of the mirror. Either of those seemed to be good options.

Neither of those two were listening to reason, though.

I knew that she was a threat, my time as Captain of the Royal Guard had seen to that. Of course, I had to go with whatever Cadance said. She was the one with the authority in this kingdom. The only thing I could have hoped for was the ability to reason with her. I had to protect my sister from that vile fiend. I really hoped that Cadance ended up seeing reason.

She looked like she was really deep in thought. The smile could have been a cover for something else.

Cadance

I am really proud of Twilight. She’s able to forgive somepony that wronged her. Not only that, but she’s really worried about the wellbeing of her student. As I looked over at Twilight, I did my best to smile. She looked so worried. That was something that I really loved about her most of the time, but today wasn’t one of those days. I didn’t think there would have been a reason to remove her horn. Or maybe I was wrong, and there was plenty of reason. Shining Armor was a part of the guard at one point, the Captain even. He likely saw threats that I didn’t.

I couldn’t help but wonder how much of this had to do with his sister, though. I loved Twilight, she was a sister to me. There was a part of me that knew that I had to separate myself from this, though, if I was going to make the right decision. Then again, there was always the chance that I was going to be too lenient. I had to keep my smile, though, as I try to figure out the heart of the matter.

This wasn’t going to be easy, not in the slightest. I had to weigh her crimes with what Twilight had said. I had to figure out a way to make sure that everypony was happy. If I didn't punish her at all, Shining Armor was going to be mad. If I punished her too much … well, that wouldn’t even be fair even if Twilight wasn’t here. I guess it all comes down to what she said when I actually talked with her.

Sunset Shimmer

“So, Sunset Shimmer.” I was snapped back to attention by the voice of Princess Cadance, a few blinks as I tried to figure out what she was going to say. “I suppose the first question should be simple one.” I suppose I should have known that there would be a lot of questions, or at least I thought there will be. At least the first one was simple enough… or… errr…. she said it would be. Why would you come back here? You’ve been gone for years, it doesn’t seem like something that would just come to mind.”

It turned out she was right, this was a simple question.

“Well, really, it’s because I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. This place is my home a lot more than the other Equestria was. This is where I was raised, where my family is.” I didn’t even have to think about it. It just came to me, and I said it. “Don’t get me wrong. After Twilight left, I had a lot of good friends. If it wasn’t for Twilight, then that likely wouldn’t be true at all.” At the same time, the old me would have been okay with that. Somehow, this whole spiel about friendship had seemed significantly less important prior to when she showed up.

As I finished, I caught the glance of Prince Shining Armor. His expression wasn’t the anger that I had seen before, it had been replaced for a moment with surprise. I had to wonder what the surprise was about. From what I saw, there was a chance that Princess Twilight was friends with everypony. She just seemed like that type, though I didn’t have much experience with her. There was just something about her, the kind and outgoing princess, that just screamed that she was friends with a lot of ponies. Or maybe the shock had come at the idea that she would have taught me about friendship.
 Either way, I wasn’t shocked. It just seemed like her, at least from the small amount I knew about her. 
“So I take it that’s why she asked you to be her student, and why you agreed?”

Wait … what?

I could have sworn that I had heard something about being a student again. There wasn’t much doubt that I had heard it. It took a couple of moments for that to register. At least I knew how she had saved me, though. Princess Twilight had lied, to her brother and Princess Cadance. That explained the worried expression, she didn’t seem like all that good of a liar. That was another thing that I just thought when I saw her.

There was no way that I was going to contradict what she said, though. It would have gotten me thrown back into the cell. It didn’t matter that I didn’t like the idea of being taught again. Princess Celestia had been a good enough teacher, mostly. Of course, I knew that she had simply lied to get me out of this mess. There was no way that she was going to try to teach me anything.

“Well, it has to do with more than that … but that’s definitely part of it.” It was a good thing that one of us was a good liar. I was able to take the lie in stride, and then expand on it. This whole thing was going to be believable enough, I was going to make sure of that. “When Twilight asked if I wanted to be her student, I thought back to what had happened when I met her. Aside from her being a kind and caring pony, she’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.” Part of that was purely to build up why I had supposed agreed, and part of it was something a little negative.

Even though this was all fake, I wanted to tell them that Celestia wasn’t the best teacher. That was what she got for the fact that she had quickly gotten a new student after I was no longer around.

So far, everything had gone great. Princess Cadance nodded at my answer, and even Prince Shining Armor looked somewhat happier. Actually, that second one was the one that was the bigger relief. Then there was Princes Twilight, who seemed to have relaxed a little. That was a good sign.

“What do you expect to learn from Twilight?” My eyes moved over to Prince Shining Armor as he asked the question. Part of me wondered that myself. “You were taught by Princess Celestia. My sister is an amazing teacher, but I have to wonder what you really expect to learn.” I was going to have to think this one through. It didn’t have a simple answer like the others did.

Or maybe it did.

“I was hoping that I would learn a little about friendship, for starters.” I was really going to start with that? That likely wasn’t going to be believed. “No only that, but I was hoping she’d obviously teach me more about magic. There’s something wrong with my horn at this point, for example, and I don’t know what.” That was true enough. I needed to figure out what was wrong with my horn, and it would have been great to get it fixed. “Then again, it isn’t up to me alone. Princess Twilight will have much more say about my lessons than me.”

Finally, there came the question that I had hoped wouldn’t be asked.

“Why should we trust you?”

That was a really good question. Why should they trust me? All three of them had a reason to believe the worst in me. Princess Twilight, had the biggest reason. But I suppose that was also why the others should have forgiven me as well. Maybe I should use that. Yeah, that made perfect sense. I was going to bring up the fact that Princess Twilight forgave me to try to make sure that her brother did as well. “To be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure how to answer that question. I mean, I thought that Princess Twilight would have been the most angry.

But she isn’t.

Instead, she’s the one who went down there to make sure I was okay. She spoke with me, saw how I was doing, and she’s the one who asked for me to be her student.” One of those wasn’t true, and it was the part that was saving me. “I can say that I’ve seen the error of my ways, and that’s true, but you can’t know what for certain. I just hope that you trust her as much as she obviously trusts me.” She did trust me to help with her lie, after all. Oh, and I wonder why she didn’t spring this whole student thing onto me before now. I really wasn’t ready for that. I was able to go with it, though, which was definitely good.

“You’ve given us a lot to think about, Miss Shimmer.” Princess Cadance said, finally breaking the tension. “But for now, let’s enjoy our meals.”

It was a shame that after the meal, which was excellent in my opinion, I was taken back to the cell. I knew that it made sense. Even if I was going to be let out tomorrow, I needed to be held here tonight. Tomorrow, that was when the decision was going to be made. Princess Twilight seemed to have some sway here, but even she likely couldn’t make them trust me to not try to escape if given the chance.

Chapter 4

Twilight Sparkle

At least things didn’t go so bad last night. I was able to get Sunset to go along with my … my lie. It was a surprise how quickly she went into it, and how easily she continued with it. Then again, she probably would have said anything it helped to make sure that she wasn't being sent to jail. A lot of ponies would have said anything to ensure that they didn't go to jail. Regardless, the best part was that it sounded so natural. It sounded like the truth. I don’t think either Cadance or Shiny figured it out. I might have gotten away with it. Either that, or they knew the entire time and were waiting for me to have told them.

For the life of me, I couldn't stop staring at the ceiling. It wasn't the bed, this was the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in. I just couldn't get the idea out of my mind. Something told me that they knew, that they were going to come in here at any point and tell me that they knew. I looked over at a few bookcases, a small fraction of what was in the giant library outside of the palace, and yet I hadn't even gone there at all.

I had a few thoughts on my mind, and they were focused on the fact that I was still worried about the lie that I had told. It wasn't just the idea that I was probably going to get caught that stayed in my head, though. The fact that I had lied at all, that was bad. I lied to them, two of the most important ponies in my life.. I knew that I did it for the right reason, but that didn't change the fact that I lied to them. If my brother ever figures out, he’ll be mad at me. If Cadance finds out, she’ll never want to see me again. And then they’ll tell Celestia, and she’ll be disappointed in me.

Part of me knew that worrying wasn't going to help me at all, though. “I need to go talk to Cadance, to see if they’ve decided anything.” I said to nopony, and quickly made my way toward the two ponies that had a huge decision to make regarding Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset Shimmer

“Well, this hasn't been quite as bad as I thought it would have been. I mean, worse than I had hoped with the whole cell thing, but ...” I looked out at the guards, and instantly noticed that they were new guards. Well, I doubted that they were new to the guard. It was possible, but I doubted it. No, the thing that I knew was true was that these weren't the guards that I had seen yesterday. These two seemed to be just as chatty as the other two, though, which meant that there wasn't going to me much conversation.

Not that I was really in much of a mood to talk anyway, I was busy trying to figure out what was going to happen. The two of them, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, had been more hospitable than I thought they would have been to a prisoner. It made a little sense that they were nicer to the pony that they thought was Princess Twilight's new student, but the meal had been something that just seemed extraordinary.

I doubted I had ever eaten things as delicious as some of them. Crystal berries, those were the things I likely was going to miss. If I was kept in jail, I wasn't likely going to get such a unique treat. If I was let go, I was likely not going to be around here anymore. Then again, I was going to have to come back when I needed to get to the mirror.

There was one thing that had been bothering me the whole night, though, and it wasn't the food.

Why had I been asked those questions? It seemed like they had been things that anypony with an ounce of sense could have answered. They certainly didn't seem like the type of questions that would have been asked if they had thought that I was a huge threat to anypony. If that was the case, that left the question of why they had been asked at all. Those types of questions had always confused me, even when Celestia had asked them while I had been her student. Why did ponies ask questions like that?

I didn't even know what I should have expected, really. I didn't know a lot about Princess Cadance, or Prince Shining Armor. I knew that the Prince was Twilight’s brother. I knew that I expected a lot worse than what happened, though. I got fed good food, really good food, and I got told that they have a lot to think about. This hasn’t been so bad, it could have been a lot worse. The only potential bad was coming today, when I was going to be sentenced to whatever it was that they felt I deserved.

What was that going to be, though?

I was going to get punished, that much was more than obvious to me. The first possibility that I thought of, the one that I had been focused on the entire time, was jail time. For all I knew, it might have even been this jail cell right here. On a scale of one to ten, where ten was the best thing that could have happened, I'd have placed that as a six. It would have sucked, but there were worse punishments. Beyond that, though, it was impossible to know. I had heard, once, that a pony had gotten their horn chopped off for a magic related crime. That didn't seem likely, though. I didn't think I had done anything that bad.

And that certainly meant that execution, which hadn't been done for a long time, was completely out of the question.

Twilight Sparkle

It didn't seem to take much time at all, and I was standing outside of the room where my former foalsitter was. She was in the throne room, where she spent time to ensure that the crystal ponies were all heard. Actually, that was something that I was likely going to have to eventually do. I knew it wouldn't be with the crystal ponies, but there would likely have been ponies in Equestria that needed something from their newest princess.

My eyes moved around to try to find Shiny, he wasn't here.

Oh, right, the guard.

Many ponies assumed that a prince wouldn't be the one that helped train the guard, but this was different. Shiny was always a guard at heart, I just knew it. Not only that, but I knew that he was good at it. He was going to be able to teach them things that he had learned over the years working for Celestia. Part of me wanted to go check on him, it might have been good to learn something about how he was teaching his guards.

Of course, that wasn't a good idea, I was here for a reason.

It would have been nice if I had been able to put off asking. I knew that I was there to ask here, but the closer I got the more worried I got. The worst part was that there wasn't a pony there for me to use to take the focus off of me. The room was amazingly empty for day court, though I definitely had no idea if this was something normal for day court in the Crystal Empire.

“It’s good to see you, Twilight.” I noticed that Cadance's smile seemed to melt away as she looked at me. I had seen that look before, it was worry. She was worrying about me. There was only one thing that I had to wonder about, and that was why. Mane brushed? Check. Smile on my face? Check. Eyes weren't bulged out, or bloodshot, when I had looked in the mirror? Check. I didn't know a single reason that she might have been worried.

“Is something wrong, Twilight?”

That was not a question I wanted to answer honestly.

“Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Everything's just fine. In fact, it's better than fine. It's perfectly fine, good even.” There was something about the look, though, that told me she wasn't convinced. That only meant one thing. She knew. Shew knew I was worrying about the lie. That meant that she knew about the lie. She was probably just waiting for me to have told her. Then again, I couldn't tell her. Everything had gone so well the night before. They looked as though they had bought it, like everything was going to end perfectly.

Now it won't.

I knew she wasn't an idiot. Cadance knew that I had lied to her, and she was going to make sure that I felt guilty until I told her.

“Is this about Sunset Shimmer?” Cadance let out a sigh. “I was going to wait until Shiny came in here, but I can’t just let you worry like this.” I was sure that she had known, though this could have still been part of the test. Cadance stood up from the throne, and cleared her throat. “On behalf of the Crystal Empire, I hereby outlaw Sunset Shimmer from ever stepping foot within the Crystal Empire ever again. She will be allowed to stay within the world of Equis on a single condition.” I noticed that she started to smile, which was definitely a good sign. I had to wonder what the condition was, though.

There weren't a lot of things that I thought Cadance would make Sunset Shimmer do. It couldn't be that bad. Maybe she has to get Princess Celestia’s forgiveness. That wouldn’t be so hard, her highness was really forgiving. My smile widened as I thought about that punishment.

“She is to stay within Ponyville, only to leave if she is accompanied by Princess Twilight Sparkle. Twilight will also be held responsible for her actions, as well as ensuring that she is able to integrate back into society.” That seemed strange. It wasn’t like Sunset will have that hard of a ti- Wait, wait, wait. She was under my care? She was my responsibility? I … I … I … didn't know what to say. It had been a lie that she was my student. I wasn't even sure what lessons I was supposed to be teaching her. I knew it supposedly had to do with her integrating back into society, but I doubted that was going to hard,“And, of course, I’d love to hear about how Sunset’s lessons are going every once in a while. That isn’t part of her punishment, though.” Words could not describe how confused I was by all of this. It was only after Cadance stepped over to me that I got a piece of information that made it all make sense.

“I know you didn’t offer to make her your student.” Twilight heard whispered into her ear. “But I figured the best thing to do was to make it true. After all, Sunset Shimmer seemed to go along with it. And I’m sure you’ll make a great teacher.” All of that worry had been for nothing. Cadance had known all along, but she wasn't going to do anything with that knowledge. Well, she had given me my first student. That was technically something big, considering the fact that I hadn't even thought about the idea of having a student for a few years.

“Thank you, Cadance. I won’t let you down.” I had to wonder, though, what it would have meant to let her down anyway. Regardless, I had to go tell Sunset about the good-ish news. I didn't know how she was going to take it. As I left the room, I thought I heard the words '” know you won't”, but there was no way to be sure. Maybe she hadn't said anything at all, my focus had primarily been around the fact that I was going to get my new student out of the cell. She probably didn't want to be there any longer.

Those words, though, still hit me.

It was true that I hadn't actually chosen Sunset Shimmer as student, it was more of a forced arrangement. That didn't mean that this was going to be bad, though. It was always something that liked to do, teaching. I even tried to teach my friends, though sometimes I wondered if they really wanted to learn. I knew they did their best, but there were times when their focus seemed to be a little lacking. This was going to be different, though. I was going to have a student, and she was going to be forced to listen. The fact that she was going to have to stay with me at first, that just added to the potential lesson-time.

It also added names to a list, those that needed to be told. So far, there was Spike and Mayor Mare. I needed to let the others, my best friends, know as well. Then, since she likely wasn't going to stay with me forever, we needed to work on a place that she could stay at. I was sure that wouldn’t be too much trouble. If the worst happened, I was sure that I had some bits saved up to let her borrow.

Or maybe there was some sort of princess thing that I could have done. It wasn't that I liked taking advantage of a title, but that was a potential last-ditch effort.

Sunset Shimmer

Princess Twilight was in front of me with a huge smile on her face. Well, it looked like Princess Twilight, the giggle somewhat sounded like her, and the guards didn’t stop her. Logic dictated that this was, obviously, Princess Twilight. The fact that there was a smile obviously meant she wasn’t going to be forced to stay here for too long. That was my hope, anyway. Even if it was a jail sentence, maybe she had been able to talk it down to something a little shorter.

“Somepony looks happy.”

“Yes I am. Soon enough, you will be too.” To me, that sounded like a bad line from a sale pitch. The next few words were likely going to be about how all I needed to do was send one payment of twenty bits, or maybe even a few installments of ten or fifteen. Well, that was what would have been said if she was a bad salespony. I honestly doubted that she was, so I simply waited for the good news.“You’re not going to be spending any more time in that cell. In fact, you’re not allowed to ever be in this cell, or the Crystal Empire, ever again. You've been banished.”

Worse things had happened to me before. At this point, no downside was coming to mind. “Great, that means that I can go see my parents.” I thought about chalking this up as a win, but that didn't seem strong enough. I was reminded of this thing that I had heard a few days before I had came back here. I thought about it for a moment, and the words had been 'super mega win'. I wondered why anyone would have said those words out loud, at least together. Even when I thought about those words, it made me cringe.

“However, that doesn’t mean you can go see your parents.” That quickly deflated that idea. “I’m afraid I’m going to be fairly busy in Ponyville for the next few weeks, and you’re going to be stuck there as my student. That’s … that’s the weirdest part of your punishment, I have to admit.” A couple of blinks later, I still didn’t know what had just happened. I wasn’t going to stay in jail, I wasn’t going to be allowed to come back to the Empire, and I wasn’t going to be allowed to venture on her own anymore. Seriously, I had no clue what to make of this.

Who punished people by forcing them to be a student? Wasn’t that illegal? It was probably not illegal, but it was still the weirdest thing I think I had ever heard of. “Well, I suppose there’s no use sitting around here. I hope your friends are as forgiving as you are … teacher.”

Chapter 5

Twilight Sparkle

For some reason, I really liked hearing those words. When I had come to the Crystal Empire, I hadn't even thought of the idea that I would have left with a student. Yet here I was, with a student. I had somepony who I was going to teach, who was going to need me to make sure that they were able to interact with the world around them. The fact that I didn’t know what I was going to teach, at least not at this point, was slightly less relevant at this point. I just wanted to be happy that I was going to have Sunset Shimmer as a student, and that my lie hadn’t hurt anypony at all.

Then there was the fact that my student was Sunset Shimmer.

My new student, something that I had to hold back a squeal of joy when I thought, was correct. There was no use sitting around there. The other thing she said, about my friends forgiving her, wasn’t something I was worried about. She didn’t know my friends like I did. So, in a way, she was right about the fact that my friends were going to be as forgiving of her as I was. After all, there was no reason for any of them to hold a grudge.

Yep, everything was coming up right.

“We’ll head right to the train station as soon as I get a couple of books from the library.” I noticed a slight change in her expression, though I didn’t think too much about it. From her perspective, this was likely just a little bit longer that she had to stay somewhere that she was banished from. If it were me, I knew that I wouldn’t have wanted to be there any longer than I had to be. “There is one book that I need to borrow, and another one that I think might help me figure out a few things about my new position as your teacher.”

The first book was also about teaching, but I didn’t want to let her know that yet.

Before she could have responded, I quickly moved to get the key from the guard. The sooner she was out of here, the sooner I was going to get that book. I had a lot of reading to do. That was actually something else that made this whole thing exciting. I was going to be doing something for the first time. There was nothing more exciting than when a pony expanded their knowledge, and that was exactly what I was going to do. Words couldn’t describe how happy I was, even if I still felt terrible for the fact that this was all built on a lie.

Within a couple of seconds, I had unlocked the door and opened it. “It won’t take long, I promise.” I didn’t know why I said that. It was only two books, but I had no idea where these books were in the library. I also didn’t know if there were any other books that I might have wanted to borrow. There were far too many possibilities for me to have said that with any real accuracy. At the same time, I knew that I probably had to try to ensure that this took as little time as possible.

“No problem, take your time. You’re the one that saved my flank back there, after all.”

Approximately twenty minutes later, at the library

Twilight Sparkle

While it had taken practically no time to get here, it was taking forever to get the books that I needed. The first title was simple. Learn to Teach: A Simple Way to Get Your Ideas Across was in the self-help section. It was one of those things that I knew I would need. It was next to another book that I had wanted, and had actually snatched before Sunset had looked over. Slumber 201: More Things You Need to Know was a very hard book to get ahold of. I was actually kind of surprised that this library had been able to get it when I hadn’t.

Maybe it would have helped if the librarian hadn’t used some strange system

No, no, there was no reason to blame the librarian. She used what worked for her, and for the ponies that were here. I was going to have to find the other book that I had come here to get. Maybe if I simply asked Sunset to help me, we would both have been out of here quicker.

Actually, I was going to do that right now.

“Sunset, could you help me find a book called The Anatomy of Magic: How the Horn Works? It should be around here somewhere.” I looked over to see that my new student was reading a book, a rather large book actually. This was one of those moments that I was kind of proud. When she looked up at me, with a smirk on her face, I thought that maybe she had discovered something while she had been reading. Instead, the thing that I got was something even better.

She soon closed the book, which was titled The Anatomy of Magic: How the Horn Works. She had been reading the exact book that I had been looking for. “If you had asked sooner, I probably could have saved you at least ten minutes.” I felt a blush come to my cheeks, my expression a slightly embarrassed smile. I should have known that asking was the best idea. A nervous cough came next, and then I tried to pick the book up from the table.

“Thank you. And now we can get these borrowed, and we can head back to Ponyville.” I stopped for a moment, and realized she had never been there. “Well, I can go back. It’s obviously going to be your first time there.” A nervous chuckle escaped. It seemed that the more I spoke, the more I said something wrong. Maybe I just needed to get the two of us out of here, and maybe I just needed to try to calm down a little.

I shook my head, made sure I wrote down which books I was borrowing, and then we were both soon heading to the train station. As we walked, I could have sworn that I heard Sunset mutter something under her breath. It sounded like “about time”, but when I asked her she denied it. It didn’t seem like something important enough to start an argument over, though, so I simply let it slide. Even if I had heard it right, it didn’t matter.

Sunset Shimmer

I didn’t know what to think of all of this.

I knew what the old me would have said. The old me would have thought that this was a waste of time, and I wouldn’t have been referring to the time in the library. There was something about the old me, the arrogant and rude me, that was just so easy to almost slide back into. There was also something about it that was just simple to understand. Right now, though, I was walking alongside a pony that I had actually tried to kill. Not only that, but this was the one pony who had actually just saved me from a long jail sentence, and she did it through a lie that she told her brother.

Part of me still wondered why.

This whole thing just brought about a lot of questions. I had been the student of Celestia, and now I was the student of her student. I didn’t know what I was going to learn, or how she was going to teach me. Celestia had been a fan of a more hooves-off approach. She let me just go the library, and every once in a while she made sure that my lessons were progressing in a certain way. Maybe those were things that Princess Twilight was thinking about as well. I was going to be her student, it likely wasn’t something that she had put a lot of thought into.

Maybe that was why we weren’t talking right now, the two of us trapped in our own minds while we walked to the train station.

“So, what did you actually come here for, if you don’t mind me asking?” I had to know. It was obvious that she hadn't come there for me. She hadn't even known that I was there. There had to have been something that she had wanted to do. Part of me hoped that she had been able to get whatever it was done. I looked over to her, she was looking up at the sky with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“I was hoping to get some advice from Cadance and Shiny. They’ve both been royalty a lot longer than I have, they know more about it.”

“What did you learn?” I had to admit, I was kind of curious. There had been some time when she could have asked. Actually, I didn’t know how long she had been there. For all I knew, she had just shown up a little before I did. I wanted to assume that she had been there for longer, though, because the idea that she just showed up seemed a little farfetched.

“The most important lesson I learned was that it’s important to do whatever you can to help out your subjects.” That sounded like a good lesson to learn. It seemed like something a pony of her stature would have likely already known, though. “I also learned a few other things, though. Cadance mostly taught me about when it was right to do certain things, especially when dealing with crimes within the kingdom.” I was actually starting to think that she hadn't learned much from her friend or her brother, it seemed just too coincidental. Any of those things could have been tied to the fact that she had to deal with me.

“Be honest with me, Princess Twilight. Did you really get any advice, or are you just making flowery comments about how she was lenient on me?” I noticed a scowl appear, then heard a humph. It seemed like I had hit the nail on the head. Then again, that meant that she hadn't actually been given much useful advice when it came to ruling. “If you want, we could have back and you could take the day talking to them. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind too much if I was with you.”

“No, no, it’s alright.” I was sure that I could have gotten Princess Twilight to change her mind, if I had enough time. “We’re at the train station, I’m going to go get a couple of tickets.” As she started to talk away, she turned back to me. “Also, you can just call me Twilight. It still feels weird to be called “Princess”.” As she walked away, I heard “wait right there”.

When she got the tickets, we were soon aboard the train and headed for Ponyville.

Twilight Sparkle

I had actually learned a lot from that past day I had been there, but this wasn’t something to argue about. The fact that I had been caught in the lie by Cadance, but she had let it slide anyway, was a lesson unto itself. Then there was the fact that she went through with what she had. I still didn’t know the importance of the banishment, or the fact that she wanted to know how well Sunset was doing as a student, but there had to be something. Cadance had been taught politics by my mentor, and Celestia had picked up a lot over the years.

A private room on the train, that’s where we eventually ended up. I figured that it was best if we had some privacy for the time back. After all, I had a few questions that I had to ask her. I wondered if there were any other reasons for her to be here, what she thought about the idea of being my student, and a lot of other things. I was actually hoping that she was going to open up on the train ride about her family. It would be nice if I knew a little bit more about my student’s life.

“I was wondering if we could talk about a few things. I’m just so curious about you.”

The look that I got from that was one of confusion. “Sure thing, I guess. Actually, there are a few things I want to ask you as well. Maybe we can trade questions?” That didn’t sound like a bad idea. I was going to get information from her, she was going to sate her need for knowledge. Everypony was a winner in this little game. It wasn’t as if she was likely to ask anything major, and I wasn’t going to say anything that I wasn’t supposed to.

“That sounds wonderful. I’ll go first, though.” I wondered what question I needed to lead off with. Obviously the most important one was about her family. If that was the reason why she was here, and it was obviously part of it, then I needed to make sure that I knew about them. “What’s your family like? How long has it been since you’ve seen them?” That was technically two questions, but I was sure she’d answer both of them anyway.

“Going for the big ones first, eh?” I wasn’t sure how those were big questions, at least to her. Those were the ones that I had considered the most important, sure, but I had doubted that she considered the same. Then again, it was definitely good that she considered that question to be a big one. “Well, my family was just like any other the last time I remember seeing them. It had to be about seven or so years ago.” I looked at her as she closed her eyes, seemingly she was remembering something. “Mom always told me that I was going to be something big, somepony to look up to. My dad worked his hardest to make sure that the family had enough to live on, not a single handout from Celestia was taken.” That seemed to be a pride issue, at least in my opinion. Her eyes opened, and she looked at me. “I suppose it’s my turn.”

I had to wonder what her first question was going to be.

“Your brother didn’t seem to like me back there.” I supposed that was one way of putting it. “Thinking back, I’m starting to think he didn’t want me to be thrown in jail. What was he going to do if he had his way? Send me back to the other Equestria?”

That was not a question I wanted to answer. “Well, the only thing he knew was that you had hurt me. He’s a fairly protective brother.” I tried to think of any possible way to tell her the truth, but it just wasn’t coming to mind. I didn't want to lie to her, though. I had already lied enough in the past couple of days to last a lifetime. The only other thing I thought I could do was avoid the question completely. If I let her know that I didn’t want to answer it, I knew she wouldn’t push. “We have better things to think about than the punishment, though. We should stick to more positive things.” I tried to give my most convincing smile, I hoped that it was enough.

“Come on, I need to know.” I really didn't want to let her know. “If you won’t say it, it obviously wasn’t being sent back. That only leaves a couple of things. He didn’t want to trap me as a statue, did he?” I was going to just stay quiet, I was going to. “No, obviously not.” I didn’t know if I was giving some sort of sign that she hadn't been right. “Well, the fact that you don’t want to tell me says that it’s something horrible.” She was right, it had been a horrible idea. “He wanted to get me executed, didn’t he? Maybe a good old-fashioned hanging?”

I couldn’t stop myself at that point. She thought that my brother wanted her to hang? “He wanted your horn removed.” I really wished that I hadn't said that. Sunset had just pushed me, she had really wanted to know. I didn't know whether I should have been angry at her for prying that knowledge from me, the fact that she had thought that my brother would have done that, or worried about the fact that my student thought that executions were going to be brought back.

I shook my head.

I had to move the conversation forward.

“I’d like to hear more about why you chose now to come back, and your plans.” That sounded like a nicer way to put it. I knew it was best to trust what she said, but there was time for her to tell me more about it. There was no reason for her to lie about the idea of seeing her family. There was no reason for her to lie about the idea that this place was somewhere she belonged more. I had to wonder if there was anything else to it, though, that she just hadn’t told me yet.

“Why now? That’s a pretty good question.” I waited, and hoped that she was going to say more. “Really, it’s just sort of coincidence. It takes a while for the portal to open, and I was having a lot of fun with my new friends. It wasn’t until I went to a few of Pinkie’s parties that the idea even started to come to my head.” I had to mark that in my head as a question for later. “As for why, I didn’t lie at all. The things I told you about are why I came back. No big, mysterious, motive. Not much planning at all, really.” That seemed like a foreign idea, somepony actually just rushing in without thinking.

Well, it seemed like something Rainbow would do. It didn’t seem like something that a former student of Celestia would do.

“My turn.” I was already worried. The last question hadn’t been something that I had wanted to answer, and it had been her first one. Part of me worried that it had been a sign of what was to come. “Why did you really lie to your brother? I’m glad that you did, it just seems strange that you did that for me.” I blinked a few times. This wasn’t the horrible question that I had assumed was coming. This was actually one of the simplest things to answer.

“I don’t know, really.” She looked flabbergasted, but I had more to say. “All I knew, at the time, was that Shiny had just said something about cutting off your horn. That just seemed so … cruel. If I had just let him cut off your horn, I couldn’t have lived with myself. I just sort of said the first thing that came to mind.” That wasn't that hard to admit, actually. I had been spontaneous, and it had turned out alright. “So, there was one thing that I’ve been wondering … well, one of many things. How did you change from Celestia’s student to a student at that school?”

Sunset Shimmer

I had really hoped that she wouldn’t ask that, that nopony would. It was one of those things that I knew I wouldn't ever be able to escape, something that was going to continue to be with me forever. It was also something that I wasn’t proud of. That was the old me, that was the me that I was going to make sure didn't show up again.

Part of me thought about trying to get out of answering.

I wondered how she would have reacted if I had told her that I didn’t feel like answering. There was a chance that she would have just moved on, that she would have accepted that it was something that didn't need to be brought up. That was the old me, it was irrelevant right now. Princess Twilight seemed to be the type that wouldn’t have pushed too much, at least not if I was right about her. If I was wrong, she’d have made me say what it was that happened. All I needed to do was see, to tell her that I didn’t want to talk about it.

Yet I knew that wasn’t an option.

As easy as it would have been to say that, I knew I owed her. She had given me an answer that she didn’t want to give, to a question that she had likely hoped I wouldn't have asked. I knew that I owed her an answer, even if I didn’t want to give it. Sometimes, it was hard to do the right thing. Well, this wasn’t hard in the normal sense of the word. I just had to tell her exactly what had happened to me back then.

I closed my eyes and thought about it.

“It all started when I saw that mirror.” That much was probably obvious, or at least it should have been. “The thing that I saw was me, but different.” That likely made no sense. It barely made sense to me, and I was the one who had said it. “I wasn’t a unicorn, I was like you are now. And I was wearing a crown. I was a princess, just like I had known I deserved.” My expression, as I thought about what happened back then, certainly wasn't a smile.

Who like remembering their greatest failure?

“I knew I deserved it. I knew that Celestia was just holding me back.” I didn’t want to open my eyes, not sure what Princess Twilight was reacting to what I had just said. “I confronted her about it. I was so mad. When she told me that I was wrong, I couldn’t take it.” This was going to be the part where she started to dislike me. “I’m not proud to say that I attacked her, so sure that she was doing it on purpose. Obviously I failed, the only thing that stopped me from being thrown in jail was a fortunate accident, when I tripped into the mirror.”

That sounded even worse than I thought. It made me sound like I had been a giant klutz. The real thing had been that I hadn’t anticipated that Celestia would have looked so mad. Around that time, a question came to my mind. “Actually, I have question about that. Why was the mirror in the Crystal Empire to begin with? I could have sworn that it had been in Canterlot when I had last seen it.”

As I opened my eyes to look at Princess Twilight, I was greeted by a shocked expression. Apparently, she hadn't been told about the day that I had left. Well, that made sense. If she had known, there was no chance that she would have asked me. There also would have been no chance that she would have asked if I wanted to be her student. Part of me had to wonder, though, if she was going to ship me back to the Crystal Empire and let her brother have his way. That certainly would have been the easiest way that she could have gotten revenge for what I had done to her mentor.

Not that the attack had done much anyway.

“Equestria to Princess Twilight.”

“Huh?” It seemed that I had gotten her attention. “What had you asked, again?” I gave her a look. Has she really not been paying attention? “Oh, right, the mirror. I really don’t know anything about that. Really, I didn't even know the mirror existed until you came through it, and escaped.” I had to wonder why that was the case. “For all I know, she wanted to get rid of it because of bad memories.” That didn't seem like a good reason to me, but that was the only one that I had gotten.

That did bring up a question, though, that only Celestia herself could have answered. Why was it that she seemed to want her subjects to know as little as possible? I knew there were several things that she had kept from the others, some things she had hoped to keep from me. It hadn't worked, obviously, but that didn’t mean that she hadn't tried to ensure that there were subjects that I didn’t know about. I doubted she let anypony know about her past, for example.

“Equestria to Sunset. Are you listening?”

That snapped me from my thoughts. “Wha? I’m sorry, I got lost in a thought.” That wasn’t a lie.

“I was just asking about your favorite food.” That seemed like one of the weirdest questions to ask. It seemed like she understood what I was thinking, as she quickly added. “I figured that it would be a good idea to make something you like, or at least see about figuring out how to make it.” I didn't even notice that I had started smiling again. There was just something about her positivity that made me want to be happy.

“I’ll eat anything, it’s been a while since I’ve been around here. It might be best of we just try things until something sticks.” I didn't want to say anything meat related, I knew this world was different. Griffons ate fish, but ponies only ate different kinds of plants and baked goods. I was going to have to get used to that, I just knew it. It probably wouldn't take too long, really, it was just a diet.

“This isn’t a question that’s going to matter much now.” At this point, I was just saying what came to mind. Right now, I felt like paying back her kindness. “But I was thinking that eventually, I’d take you over to the other side again and show you what I ate over there. I promise, you’re going to love it.” The wonder that was steak, it was something that couldn't be matched anywhere. I knew she’d agree.

Before she had an opportunity to answer, though, I heard the whistle.

We were here.

Chapter 6

Sunset Shimmer

What a unique here it was.

As we started to move for the exit, I looked outside to see the types of buildings that were going to be my temporary home. The surprise came when I saw what comprised most of the buildings that I saw. They all looked roughly the same, at least from what I saw. There were a lot of stone buildings, a lot of which looked as though the roof wasn’t exactly the sturdiest material. The thing that came to mind was that I had to wonder about the safety of this place. Then again, the buildings likely reflected the types of things that happened around this place.

There was probably very little in the way of danger.

As soon as he got off of the train, and a majority of the ponies had moved away, we were greeted by the sound of a pony trying to get our attention. The fact that she yelled out the name Twilight was the big giveaway, as well as the “hey there” vein the key that told me she was trying to get her attention. I didn’t know if she expected me with her, though she didn’t look shocked.

I recognized who she had to be, or at least I thought I did, but I knew it was a better idea to let her say who she was. After all, assuming made a donkey out of me.

“Hey Rarity, it’s nice that you shoed up to greet us at the train station.” I knew it! That hair, or mane, had given it away. It also helped that there were very few plain white people on the other side of the mirror that I was aware of. There could have been more, obviously, but I had no way of knowing. “I just wished some of the others had shown up.”

“Oh, you know the others.” I heard the accent, the somewhat snooty sounding accent that was just like the other one. “Pinkie Pie’s always busy with the twins, Fluttershy is dealing with her animals.” I had no reason to be curious about either of these two, yet I was listening. “Applejack had to deal with something apple related. Then we have Rainbow, always trying her latest stunts.” All of those names fit with ones that I knew from the other side, but that made perfect sense.

I had taken over for Sunset Shimmer from the other side, after all.

“What about Spike?” That was a name that I couldn’t quite place. It was right there, though, at the tip of my memory. Obviously he was an important pony, though, given the fact that Princess Twilight sounded disappointed. I knew I had to figure out who this was.

“He’s off helping Rainbow with her stunts. Those two are almost inseparable these days, you know that.”

That’s when the silence kicked in for a few minutes.

Normally, silence was one of my favorite things. It allowed me to get my plans together, and it was just plain good for dealing with headaches that were normally brought about by Snips and Snails. For the life of me, though, Princess Twilight’s silence seemed more sad than contemplative, and Rarity’s seemed to be more along the lines of being nervous and disliking a topic.

“So…” That wasn't my best attempt at getting somepony to talk, but it was the only thing that came to mind. It wasn’t like I could say anything about a single pony that was mentioned. Rarity seemed to look the same, and the others likely did as well, but that said little. I was going to try to assume that these weren't the same ones as my friends on the other side, only with different appearances.

It was better to just figure it out as I went.

Then again, I had come here as a short visit and was extending it slightly. I was going to be back with my real friends at some point soon.

Rarity glanced over to me, then back to Princess Twilight. “Darling, I was thinking that I might fix the two of you an amazing meal.” That seemed to come out of nowhere, though there was the chance that she said something while I had been zoned out. “After all, a good first date is essential. And while I doubt that this is your first date, it most certainly will be your first one in Ponyville.”

Wait, what?

Before I had any opportunity to talk, Princess Twilight tried. “It isn’t , I mean there’s nothing wrong with her, but I … that is to say …” I had to admit, a flustered Princess Twilight was kind of adorable. It was more in a kitten playing with a ball of yarn adorable, though. It was also interesting to see that her blush came out as more of a pink than I thought was possible. Or was magenta a better way to describe it?

Better question was if it mattered.

“I was only kidding darling.” I hoped she was, though the half disappointed look didn’t help me believe that she had been. “The offer to make you two a meal, though, was completely real.” I had to wonder if there was a catch to this, as there generally was in these situations. After all, she didn’t know me. Then again, the people on the other side of the mirror hadn't known me and they had eventually become my best friends.

I needed to be more positive.

Right now, I was only positive that the idea of a meal sounded good.

“That would be great, Rarity.” I decided to answer, since Princess Twilight seemed to be off in her own little world. I wondered what it was about, but knew better than to ask. If she wanted to tell me later, she would. If she didn't want to tell me, there was likely a good reason. “It might be nice to see whatever Her Highness calls her home. I didn't see anything that looked like a place a Princess would stay when we got into town…” For the life of me, I couldn’t remember if she had told me anything about where she was staying.

“Oh, I know exactly what you mean darling.” She did? I started to worry a little. “I’ve been telling Twilight that a Princess should live in a place that fits her station, but she doesn’t seem to agree at all.” My curiosity started to rise. If she wasn’t staying anywhere that ‘fit her station’ as Rarity had put it, where was she staying?

I was going to find out soon enough, hopefully.

Both of us looked at Twilight as she snapped back to the real world. “I’ve lived there for years, Rarity. I couldn't possibly move.” With that, she started to walk. “Besides, the library is more than big enough. And it has all of my books.”

I really had to wonder if I had heard that correctly.

If I had heard that correctly, that meant that she lived in a library. It didn’t seem completely impossible, I remembered hearing that it was where she had stayed when she had been on the other side of the mirror. Of course, the difference was that she had been homeless then. The idea that a pony would have chosen to live in a library seemed weird enough, but the idea that a princess chose to was something that just felt weird to me.

“I’m sorry, library?”

Twilight looked at me confused. “I was sure that I had told you at some point.” She looked away from me, and it was obvious that she was trying to figure out if she had. “Regardless, you’re going to see when we head back there. You’ll find it’s a really nice place when you give it a chance.” I still didn’t know what to think of the idea that a princess lived in a library. Part of my mind pushed for the idea that it was just full of books, a large building that acted like a library because of all of the books.

But I was starting to think that this was simply something of a wish.

“You’re going to have to tell me all about your trip to the Crystal Empire on our way back. Things have been slightly less interesting while you’ve been away.” It was probably better if I didn’t listen in. These two had a lot to talk about, and frankly I didn’t really care all that much. I had a lot of things I needed to think through, and a lot of plans that I needed to make. Some of these involved Twilight, most of them did actually. Not a single one of them involved Twilight’s friends, who happened to be a lot like my friends on the other side.

I had to focus on what this was, a somewhat lengthen trip to go visit my parents.

Part of me was still back in the Crystal Empire. I had to figure out what everypony’s angle in this was. Cadance seemed nice enough, but she didn’t know me. There wasn’t much reason for her to do what she had done. Even Twilight had more of a reason to do what she did, she had been the one that had opened my eyes to the idea of having friends in the first place. Even that didn’t account for the fact that she had lied to her brother. I knew I would have lied to family, friends, or anyone else … well, not so much anymore, but I would have at one point. The point was that my more rational side knew there had to be an angle.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the only one who was acting rationally was Prince Shining Armor.

Or maybe I was just not thinking right. Sometimes, the old ways of thinking seemed to come back to me so easily. It was just as easily thrown out, but it always came back eventually.

Maybe eventually that would stop.

“And here we are.” I heard Twilight say, with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice.

The place that we were at was a giant tree. Well, it wasn’t giant. It was rather big for a tree, that much was true. I couldn’t stop myself, though, as I fell over laughing. There was no way that she lived in a tree. This had to be some sort of prank, some sort of joke. Or maybe this was some sort of thing that led to a portal that led to the real place where she actually lived.

And … now they were both staring at me.

“Oh, so this is really where you live.” I said.

I noticed Rarity shake her head and go to open the door, where we were all suddenly greeted with a large group of ponies.

Had they really thrown her a party?

Welcome Back Twilight and her New Friend.

Huh?

New friends? I supposed that was me, but the least they could have done was actually put my name on there. It wasn’t that long of a name. Maybe if I figured out which one of them did it, or one of the ponies that had helped, that mistake could be remedied. I looked around at the gather ponies, trying to discover any of them that could have possibly reminded me of someone I knew from the other side.

Well, I saw all of my friends. I saw ponies that looked like them, at least. They all seemed to be close together, which made this easier. I assumed that if Princess Twilight was friends with them, one of them might have done it.
I decided on the one that looked like my friend Pinkie Pie. I just had this feeling that she had some idea who might have thrown the party, or maybe it was just me wishing that they were like the friends that I had across the dimensions.

“Hey Pinkie, I think there may have been a problem with the banner. My name isn’t ‘New Friend’, it’s ‘Sunset Shimmer’.” It was a small thing, but at least this was a way to get my name out there. After all, it was going to be incredibly awkward if ponies around here just called me “Princess Twilight’s friend” or even just “Twilight’s friend”.

Short after I said this, I heard a low sound. I wasn’t sure what it was. All I knew was that I turned, and soon saw yellow hooves smack against my face. I wasn’t a wimp or anything, whoever it was that hit me must have been quite the fighter, but everything quickly faded.

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay.

I will ill.

Still am, really, but you guys deserve a chapter for ... errr ... waiting?

Chapter 7

Twilight Sparkle

To say that I was shocked would have been an understatement. I knew that my friends didn't like Sunset Shimmer. They had made that clear through their expressions, and some choice words, when I had told them about her upon my return. Each of them had reacted, at the time, in way that had made sense. If I had thought that any of them would have been violent, I would have thought twice about the idea that Sunset be brought here. Even with the idea that any of them would have been violent, though, there was a certain list.

Fluttershy wasn’t one the small list of ponies that I thought might have gotten physically violent. I also wouldn’t have thought that she would have been able to take down Sunset Shimmer in a single hit.

It seemed there were some things that I didn’t know about our local animal caretaker.

I wasn’t the only one that was shocked by all of this. Pinkie Pie had a horrified look on her face, and she was just looking at Fluttershy. Applejack seemed to be looking between the two, Fluttershy and the fallen Sunset, with a confused look on her face. Rainbow was over at my new student’s side, poking her as if to question if this had really happened. Rarity had fainted, the only thing that had happened today that actually made any sense to me.

Nopony seemed to know what to say for a while.

“Holy-moley.” Pinkie finally said. “You’ve got a really good kick there, Fluttershy. Remind me not to make you mad.”

Fluttershy, upon hearing this, blinked a few times. It almost seemed like she didn’t know what she had done. At least, that was what I was told I looked like when I got confused about something that I had done. The look of confusion on her face quickly changed to one that seemed to be a panicked expression. That was one that I had seen on her a lot, one that meant that I needed to go over there and give her a hug.

Everypony else got the same idea, and soon enough we were hugging a silently crying Fluttershy.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. It’s going to be fine.” Pinkie Pie said as we hugged our yellow friend. I didn’t know whether or not to say anything. Part of me wanted to comfort her, which was the right thing to do. I knew, though, that her reaction hadn’t been one that could be described as alright. This was my friend, true, but I had always been taught that physical violence was something that you do your best to avoid.

There was only one thing that I could do.

“What happened, Fluttershy? This doesn’t seem like you.” I had to know what had caused her to be violent. There was the incident with Iron Will, but that had passed. Fluttershy had learned that she couldn’t be that form of assertive, and we all had learned that we needed to treat Fluttershy better. Everypony involved had learned something. At least that was how I thought it had ended.

Had I been wrong?

Fluttershy looked at me, her sad eyes still overflowing with tears. “I don’t k-k-k-knowwwwww.” She cried out as we started to nuzzle into her. “I just, I just, I heard what she did to those animals on the other side, and how she was so mean to my friends. I just … I couldn’t stop myself.” That answer made sense, yet at the same time I didn't know what to say about it. If Fluttershy was willing to become physically violent, what did that say about the others?

I took a couple of steps back and looked down.

“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring her back as my student without letting any of you know.” If they had known, maybe they could have prepared. Maybe this could have all been avoided if I had just sent a letter to them. Fluttershy would have prepared to run into a pony she obviously didn't like, at the very least. I still didn’t know how the others were going to react. Each of them one after another, turned to look at me.

The others remained shocked, and it seemed as though Fluttershy was feeling even worse than ever.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Rainbow was the first to say something. “Please tell me I heard you wrong.” This was actually something that I hadn’t anticipated. I hadn’t thought that my friends were going to be so put off by the idea that I was going to take Sunset Shimmer as a student. “You’re taking that mare as a student? She’s good at magic, she had to be to be Celestia’s student, but still…”

“I think what Rainbow is trying to say, darling.” Rarity was awake, that was good. I had meant to go over and check on her. My floor was made of wood, after all, and there was always the chance of a concussion. “There are plenty of students around Ponyville that could use a more direct hoof to guide them.” That was definitely true, there were plenty of unicorns around here that would have made excellent students. “Like Sweetie Belle.”

At the mention of the white filly, everypony looked up. I started to think about what would have happened if I had chosen Sweetie Belle instead of Sunset Shimmer.

The town was burning.

The town was a disaster area unto itself, but something made this different. The fire was greener, reminiscent of what it looked like when a changeling transformed. Ponies ran around, their bodies covered in fire and blood. I entered town, having come back from a very important meeting with my former mentor. Everything had gone perfectly there, I had even spent some time with Luna.

The thing I had asked her to do, before I had taken the six hour trip, was work on her telekinesis.

How had this happened?

“Ah known Sweetie Belle will do just fine without Twilight teachin’ her.” Applejack cut in. “And ta be honest, I don't see what the big deal is.” I looked back at Applejack, a smile on my face. It seemed as though I might have gotten some support here. “Don’t get me wrong, ah don’t like Sunset Shimmer from what ah heard of ‘er. She sounds like a mean spirited pony who knows nothin’ about friendship.” The more she said, the more I was starting to worry. If she was going to be my support, she could have at least said something good.

“But Twilight knows what she’s doing.”

That worked.

“This wouldn't be the first time we’ve helped fix some big baddie.” Applejack turned to look at Fluttershy, who was looking down at her own hooves. “Heck, you were the one that said that we should give Discord a chance.” Discord turned out to be her friend, and a decent friend at that. I hadn’t actually thought of that fact, but maybe I should have. “Maybe we should give ‘er a chance. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? Twilight’s a princess. She could always just banish ‘er.”

Fluttershy looked up, a conflicted look on her face. “You’re right, Applejack. I shouldn’t have just kicked her like that.” Suddenly, she turned to me. “I’m sorry I kicked your student, Twilight. I’ll understand if you’re mad at me and want me to go.” She started to move from the hug, and it seemed as though she was going to try to leave. It didn’t even take a second for me to know that I shouldn’t be mad at her for this.

She made a mistake, but I knew it wasn’t a malicious mistake.

“No, Fluttershy.” I moved back in and nuzzled her cheek. “You didn’t do it to be mean. You thought that you were doing something that would help us.” Admittedly, I still didn’t know why she thought that violence was going to solve it. The best case scenario was that I would have agreed that it was a bad idea to have Sunset be my student after the others said something about it. I couldn’t think of a way that violence would have gotten rid of her. “And I’m sure that Sunset will agree with me when she wakes up, and you apologize to her.”

“But can we trust her, Applejack?” I heard Rainbow finally say something again. “I trust Twilight with my life, but I’m worried about her new student.” As she said the words new student, I heard something that sounded like disdain. I didn’t know what it was that was causing this. It was true that Sunset caused a lot of trouble last time, but it was also true that she had been reformed by the Elements of Harmony. I had seen it myself, I had left her with the others from that side.

I had told my friends about this, I was sure.

There had to be a quick way to make sure that they understood that.

“It could be worse, she could have gotten Trixie as her student.” Pinkie joined in the discussion. I didn’t know what to think about that idea. Trixie did have a lot of things that would have stopped her from being a good student, or at least she seemed to. Then again, Sunset didn’t seem like the best student either. At least she didn’t seem like she was going to be if I was going primarily off of what I had seen at that school.

“You’re just mad that she used that amulet on you and removed your mouth.” Rainbow replied. “I’d rather have Trixie here than a pony who turned into a giant demon and tried to kill Twilight. Even at her worst, Trixie didn’t try to kill anypony. Rule over, humiliate, cause pain to, but she didn’t seem to want to kill any of us.” That wasn’t a good justification for wanting somepony to be my student.

“And to think that you all seem to be against Sweetie Belle being her student. She may be a hooffull, but she hasn’t done any of that.” I gazed over at Rarity, who once again seemed to be pushing the idea that her sister would have been the perfect student. If my mental image was any indication, or even close to the truth, that wasn’t the case. “With my sister as her student, I’m sure that everything would fall in line. Twilight could teach her responsibility, and she could help Sweetie get her Cutie Mark.”

“Ahm gettin’ the feelin’ that ya just want Twilight ta watch yer sister for ya.” Applejack smirked as she turned to face Rarity. That is what it was starting to sound like, but that didn’t seem like… actually, it seemed very much like something that Rarity would have done. At the same time, though, it was always possible that she just wanted the best for her sister. Rarity did have a really high opinion of what I was capable of, even more than I did.

“I would never do that.” Rarity didn’t look like she had convinced herself, let alone anypony else in the room. She looked to all of us, stopping with me. “I just feel as though this is a better opportunity for a pony who hasn’t had a lot of opportunities in their lives. Sunset is magically gifted, true, and Trixie might be as well. But Sweetie is more in the unknown potential category.” My jaw dropped as I thought about everything that she had said.

It made sense, really.

“And then she won’t be around to mess up your dresses, Rarity.” Pinkie cut in. That piece of information seemed to bring a wider smile to Rarity’s face, once again causing me to wonder what her reasoning behind pushing her sister into this was. It was more likely that her talent was going to be something related to music than something related to magic, we all knew that she was excellent at singing. “I think I should be Twilight’s student.”

“Pinkie, you’re not able to use magic…” I couldn’t believe that I had to remind her of that.

“Oh yeah.” My right front hoof met my face. Did she really forget that she was incapable of using magic? Actually, a better way of putting it was that she couldn’t actively use magic that I was able to define. I knew there had to be something that helped her do some of the things that she was obviously capable of doing. “Then I have no problem with Sunset Shimmer being your student. You have my approval.” She said as she pulled out a giant green felt check mark out of nowhere.

“Errr … thanks Pinkie.”

“Ummmm …. Girls?” Fluttershy sounded about as loud as she was capable of getting. All of us looked over to her, wondering what it was that she wanted to say. “Sunset Shimmer kind of woke up and left. She seemed kind of afraid of me.” She looked down at her hooves again, obviously sad at the idea that she was feared. There was really only one thing that I had to ask, though.

“When did this happen?”

“It was around the time that Applejack started to talk. I wanted to get everypony’s attention, but you all seemed so busy. I just didn’t want to interrupt.” Fluttershy had gone from violent to sad to her old self within the span of the small amount of time we had been here. That was something I was going to have to figure out, but later after I found where Sunset Shimmer had run off to. “I’m sorry, I’ll try to make sure I speak up if something like this ever happens again.”

“And I say good riddance!”

That was a surprising statement from Rainbow. I knew that she didn’t trust Sunset, but this seemed to be taking it a little too far. I wasn’t the only one that thought this way, though, as an unexpected voice was heard. “I am ashamed of you, Rainbow. What if she gets hurt? What if she gets lost? She doesn’t know her way around here, so many horrible things could happen to her. I know that you don’t like her, but I can’t imagine you actually want her to get hurt.”

“Says the pony that actually knocked her out.” As soon as she said it, Rainbow seemed to realize that she had said something incredibly hurtful. “I’m sorry, ‘Shy. I didn’t mean for that to come out. Today’s just been a bit of a bombshell. I mean, the pony who tried to kill Twilight is now supposedly her student.” Rainbow looked away, seemingly ashamed of what she had just said to her friend. “I’ll try to support whatever you guys think we should do. I still don’t trust Sunset Shimmer, though.”

I had a bad feeling about everything. Sunset had run off, and I had no idea where. Ponyville only looked peaceful, there were a lot more dangers than one would think.

“Alright, we’re going to have to all work together on this one.” I looked around at everypony gathered. “I’m going to need Fluttershy to go talk to her animal friends. If one of them saw her, maybe they can help.” Another reason was that I didn’t know if Sunset might eventually come back. If she did, I wanted to be able to talk to her before she saw Fluttershy. If Sunset ran from everypony’s favorite animal caretaker, I needed to make sure that she was given a second chance.

“Rainbow, I’m going to need you to find some pegasi to help search from the skies.” That seemed like the best idea, several ponies would do a lot better in the skies than a single pony searching. It also made sense to user her flight. The final thing was about my ability to fly, and how it barely existed. That was something I was going to have to figure out the answer to on another day, though.

“Rarity, Applejack, and I will go through town and see if anypony has seen her.” I looked over to try to tell Pinkie and Spike that I wanted the two of them to stay here, but then it hit me like a load of bricks. I saw Pinkie. I didn’t see Spike anywhere, though. I decided that it was in my best interest to finish with how we were all going to find her before I asked Rainbow why he wasn’t here.

“Which leaves Pinkie to stay here in case she comes back.”

I looked to my friends, and then nodded my head. “Everypony else head out, I need to ask Rainbow something.” I had this feeling that I might have been worrying over nothing. There was always the chance that he just hadn’t shown up. At the same time, though, I was worried that there was a big reason why he hadn’t. Either he was mad at me again or there was something wrong with his health.

Either of those two made me worry,

As every other pony left, aside from Pinkie who just moved to another room, Rainbow looked at me with a nervous look on her face. “I can’t explain why I don’t trust Sunset Shimmer, if that’s what you’re going to ask.” That … wasn’t what I was going to ask. I needed to remember to actually ask that in the future, though.

“Actually, I was wondering why Spike isn’t here. Is he alright?” I really hoped he was alright, though if he was that meant he was mad at me. “Or is it something I said the last time I saw him? Is he mad at me? Does he hate me? I’m so-“ It was around this time that I got a good taste of a blue hoof, as it was actually shoved into my mouth.

Rainbow’s hoof didn’t taste good.

“Don’t worry so much, he just has a stomachache from eating too much ice cream.” I always told him to eat less of the stuff, but apparently he wasn’t going to ever learn. “Last I saw, he was sleeping with the occasional muttering about how he was ‘Future Spike’ or something. I didn’t understand.”

“At least he’s alright.” I was relieved, and soon enough I was heading out the door. “Rainbow, I know if you give her a chance, you’ll be surprised.”

Sunset Shimmer

It was a good thing that they had been arguing about me, something that I definitely didn’t imagine I would ever think.

When I had come back around, the five of them seemed to have different opinions about me. Twilight seemed to be the most useless teacher I had ever had, at least at this point. Celestia certainly had been able to talk to her subjects better, and she certainly wouldn’t have had to justify what she did. She would have just done something, and then likely everypony would have formed their own reasoning without her having said or done anything to help them reach whatever conclusion they had reached.

Twilight didn’t seem to be anything like that.

That wasn’t even my biggest concern, though. When I came back to the realm of the conscious, I look around. I had to know who it was that had been the vicious warrior that had assaulted me. Okay, that was probably a bit too far. Whoever it was, though, I had to know. I knew that it was a pair of yellow hooves, so that really slimmed it down. The simple fact that yellow was also the color of my friend Fluttershy made me think that these ponies weren’t going to be like the friends that I had on the other side of the mirror.

Fluttershy would have never kicked me in the face.

This Fluttershy, however, turned out to be the culprit. This Fluttershy looked as though she was getting comforted by her friends for having assaulted me. That was something that didn’t bode well for me staying here peacefully.

At this point, it didn’t matter if my sentence was …

…

Wow, I had really been stupid. Princess Cadance didn’t have authority outside of the Crystal Empire. There was no way she had the authority to force me to learn from Twilight. There was no way she had the authority to stop me from going off on my own. There was no way that she was going to figure any of it out even if she was somehow the true ruler of Equestria somehow, since I was going to sneak out of here before any of them figured out I was even gone.

It really was amazing how none of them noticed that I had left. They didn’t even notice when the door had been opened. Well, one of them noticed.

Fluttershy noticed.

I knew she noticed because she was watching me most of the time. I didn’t know why she didn’t say anything, aside from the idea that she might have wanted just this. If she kicked me to get rid of me, with the hopes that I was going to leave, then she had actually gotten her wish. As soon as I left the library, I looked around to figure out which direction would have been the best direction for my grand escape.

The forest seemed nice.

I could have sworn that I had heard something about the forest, this specific forest, but it wasn’t coming to me. That meant that it didn’t matter, at least from my perspective. I was going to go into the forest, I was going to stay there, and there was no way that I was going to be found by anypony. Within a couple weeks, I planned on moving on.

After all, I was not going to be killed by that vicious psychopath.

I had to admit that my mind had maybe exaggerated what this Fluttershy might have done. Maybe it was the fact that Twilight had already admitted that one pony close to her wanted to maim me. Maybe it was the fact that I had a head wound that still stung, one that had bled a little and was unprovoked. Maybe it was … no, those two were the only things that came to mind when I tried to figure out my own fears.

The forest came into view, and it actually looked quite nice. It was something different from what I had seen at school, and even different from what I had seen when I had looked down on it from Mount Canterlot. Maybe there was something about the fact that I was actually able to see more than a mass of green that helped with the second comparison. I took one more look behind me, I had thought that I had seen something orange move for a moment, and then I walked into the forest.

45 minutes later

Still Sunset Shimmer

Well, the forest was boring.

Also, I had gotten lost fairly quickly. It had only taken about ten minutes for that to have happened. As much as I had loved the trees initially, there was something about them that made it quite easy for me to have gotten lost. It was the fact that everything looked to be the same, as if whoever created everything just copied and repeated indefinitely for this forest. The trees were of the same height, and the same width, with little variation.

It also didn’t help that around eight minutes in I heard something behind me that had caused me to try to find a place to hide. 
None of this was my fault, though. I had come here because I had been tricked by that pink princess, Cadance. Then it was that yellow pony, Fluttershy, who had made me run away. Maybe if I thought about it really hard, I could have come up with a way for this to be Princess Twilight’s fault as well. Or maybe if I really stretched logic, it was somehow going to be all Princess Celestia’s fault.

Maybe I was just being angry, though.

Technically, I had chosen to come back. I had chosen to run away from the vicious assailant. I had chosen that this forest was the best place to be. Finally, I had chosen that all of that wasn’t enough to make sure that I went back. If nothing else, I was going to find the other side of the forest and I was going to figure out a way to get to where I needed to be. I had thought that being a student again might have been nice for a while, but this wasn’t going to cut it.

All of this was because I had forgotten my bigger goal. If I had just told the royal couple that I just wanted to see my parents and then head back, none of this would have likely happened. I would have seen my mom and dad, as well as the others, and I would have been able to head back to see my friends. Everything would have gone so perfectly, but I had made mistake after mistake.

The snarling that I heard nearby pointed to the idea that this mistake was going to turn out to be much bigger than I had thought it was going to be. The thing that I saw looked to be incredibly dangerous. It wasn’t the fact that this was a wolf that was made out of twigs, that didn’t seem to be dangerous at all. The teeth, or more accurately fangs, were the things that actually made me start to back away before I turned to try to run.

Another one blocked my path that way.

Even if I wasn’t able to use my magic as well as I used to, my horn still provided me with something to ram through it with as I charged off away from the beast. As I heard the blood curdling howl, followed by others, I only hoped that I was going the right direction. If I went back to town, even with the vicious Fluttershy, I knew I was going to be safer than if I stayed in the forest with those monsters.

This would have been so much easier if my magic hadn’t abandoned me recently. I would have just teleported up a tree, or maybe pulled a twig away and snapped it. Maybe I would have caught it on fire and watched it burn to death. To my knowledge, I had been Celestia’s greatest pupil for over a hundred years. And yes, I would have burnt that thing to death if it meant that it wasn’t going to try to eat me.

I felt that I had good priorities. It was going to try to kill me, after all, so I was sure that nopony would have judged me.

Maybe it was better to just try to think of things that were actually possible, though. I had to get somewhere out of the forest, before something happened. I had to do it soon, too. Maybe there was something about the mirror that added weight, or maybe my slightly bloody head wound had affected me more than I thought, but I had already started to slow down a little.

Either that, or they had started to speed up.

Twilight Sparkle

I had to find her, I just had to.

Princess Cadance had told me that she was my student now, something that I was going to take seriously. Even if she wasn’t a princess, I probably would have listened to her idea about me getting a student. The fact that she was just made it something that I would have been rude to say no to. There was also the fact that it was Sunset’s punishment, which I thought was probably similar to parole with me as the officer.

I lost her, though.

Oh, this was not going to turn out well. If she remained lost, or something happened to her, I didn’t think I was going to be able to forgive myself. My negligence was going to be the thing that led to the death of a pony. Or at least, that was the likely thing if I didn’t find her. The bad thing was that I didn’t have any leads, nor did I have any idea if I was going to get any leads in the near or foreseeable future.

It had been about half an hour since we had been told that she had run off, and nopony that we asked had seen anything.

“Twilight! Ah think ah found somepony who might where she went.” Applejack showed up just in time to save the day. Okay, that wasn’t true. She showed up at a perfect time, though. Behind her was one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo. “Tell ‘er what ya saw, Scootaloo.” Applejack didn’t look happy at all, which definitely worried me. If Scootaloo had seen her at a shop or something, Applejack wouldn’t have looked like that.

“That pony Applejack said you were looking for went into the Everfree. I had been watching her, hoping that I was going to get my Cutie Mark for being a private investigator.” Scootaloo looked down, obviously saddened by her lack of a Cutie Mark. “But I knew better tan to go into the forest without one of you with me. I don’t want to get turned to stone, after all.”

I remember that, it was not an experience that anypony would have wanted to go through.

“Alright. Applejack, let’s round up the girls and -“ It was around this time that I heard a howl. That was definitely something that warranted me to rush. I knew that Sunset had gone into the Everfree, and I knew that the sound I had heard came from a Timberwolf. Either it was nothing, in which case I was putting myself into immense danger for no reason, or I was one of a few that was capable of saving Sunset’s life. “On second thought. Applejack, let’s go. Scootaloo, you go tell the others that we’re in the Everfree searching for Sunset.”

“Ah don’t thin-“ I probably should have asked Applejack what she thought about this, but I was more worried about the idea of a pony actually being killed by those beasts. A purple light enveloped my horn as I quickly transported the two of us to the edge of the forest. There was no time for any of us to waste, we had to get in there and follow the sound of the wolves.

Somepony’s life probably depended on it.

As soon as I could, I charged into the forest. I knew Applejack was behind me, she was the most dependable pony I had with me. She was the most dependable pony I could have had with me, actually. And I knew that when we found Sunset, Applejack was going to be the pony that helped to make sure that we got out of there in one piece.

The only downside was that I only had one sound to go by. It wasn’t as if I had put a tracker on Sunset, which would have made this whole thing a lot more simple. It wasn’t even as though I knew of a way to hone in on her magic. All I had was the direction where the howling was going and the speed that it was going at. Even that was mostly being calculated by shoddy equations. For all I knew, I was going to end up saving a deer.

I ran regardless. Part of me hoped that it wasn't Sunset that was being chased, but part of me knew that if it wasn’t that I was putting myself in danger for nothing. Either way, actually, it was likely something bad in the end.

Then the howling seemed to die down. I was getting closer to the source, but it had died down. Part of me thought that I had been wrong. It was possible that I had just chased down a group of timberwolves for nothing, that they had just been howling just to howl. It was possible that Sunset had found a safe way through, or maybe had ended up at Zecora’s.

Maybe she had found her way to the Castle of the Pony Sisters.

Then I saw it.

I knew that timberwolves ate meat. It wasn’t something that I had ever seen before, nor was it something that I had really put too much thought into. It was just a scientific fact. Griffins ate meat. Some birds ate meat. The sight that I saw, though, was something that made my blood boil. I saw that there was a pony that looked like it was about to be eaten by what looked to be a pack leader.

Sunset Shimmer was about to be eaten by a timberwolf.

I charged up as much energy in my horn as I could, as quickly as I could. Then I shot it at the would-be predator. Upon impact, it shattered into tiny pieces. That wasn’t going to be enough, though. I knew that these creatures came back to life, and I knew that they were faster than I was when it came to running.

It was fortunate that I knew how to teleport.

The distance was spanned in a few moments, and soon enough I was back on the outskirts of the forest with Sunset and Applejack. That was the good news of our little encounter, and it was the only good news. Sunset was bleeding, and she likely had lost a lot of blood. The fact that I had teleported so quickly, and with passengers, was incredibly draining. That, coupled with the fact that I had shot a giant beam of pure magic at the creature meant that I was going to be useless for a while.

At least Scootaloo had gotten my friends.

Now I just needed to let them know what had happ-

Maybe I had pushed myself just a little too far. I didn’t even take a single step before my face met the ground.

Sunset Shimmer

I was going to die.

It hadn’t been something big that had ended my run. It actually hadn't even been the fact that I was more out of shape than I thought I was. The thing that had ended my escape was a root, something that would have never stopped me before. I just wasn’t the clumsy type, but apparently that had changed.

This didn’t mean that I was going to go down without a fight.

The fact that I got slammed into a tree by one of those horrible monsters, when they charged into me, meant that I was going to go down without too much of a fight. Two head wounds in a single day, followed by the fact that I was going to get eaten by one of those monsters. The idea that this all could have been avoided if I had just taken the idea of having my horn removed, that actually went through my mind as I drifted off into the realm of the unconscious.

Well, that and the question of what Tartarus was like. I mean, I knew I was going there after all. If I had studied harder, I likely would have already had the answer to that final question.

An undisclosed amount of time later

Sunset Shimmer

Why was there beeping in Tartarus?

Why was the bed soft, too?

I had two options. The first option was to lay there, with my eyes closed, and continue to question this confusing afterlife. The other option, and the one I soon did, was to open my eyes. Seriously, this was one of the easiest choices I had ever made.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the white walls of a hospital.

There was more to my observation than simply white walls. The castle in Canterlot had white walls, at least some of them were white. Random houses on any given street likely had white walls. There was something that hospitals had that no house had, or at least none of them that I had been to ever seemed to have. Whenever I had ever gone to a hospital, I had been forced to deal with something that I despised more than I probable should have.

This smelled horrible.

That wasn’t something that I had ever heard any other pony say. It was just something about the extremely sterile smell of a hospital that … offended seemed like a weird word for it. That didn’t stop it from being the right word, but it still seemed like a weird concept for a nose to be offended. It just smelled so strong, that was probably the best way that I could have described it to anypony. It was strong, it was foreign, and it was horrible.

Of course, I didn’t have much option except to continue to lay here. Whenever I tried to move, and I did several times, I felt a nice sharp pain in my side.

Oh, and I felt bandages on my side.

I wondered what had happened. There had been a blow to the head, and then I had ran away. Then I had gone to that forest, which had only been the start of the horrible things that had continued to go on throughout that little adventure. I had gotten lost, yep I remembered that. Then I had run into those monsters, and they had chased me down. One of them had rammed me into a tree, and then I had woken up here.

Obviously something happened with the ramming that had hurt my side.

Maybe I needed to just read over the chart that was probably nearby. I moved a little, the sharp pain came back with a vengeance, and then I moved back to the comfortable position. There was actually only one comfortable position, and that was my back. Maybe it I had more pain medicine running through my system, I might have been able to move more than a couple of inches before being forced to recoil in pain.

That obviously meant that my escape plans were going to have to be put on hold. If it wasn’t the pain, and it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t even know where I actually was beyond ‘in a hospital’, my stomach growled and told me that I hadn’t eaten in a while either. If there was anything else that could have gone wrong, it was likely just about to. That meant that I was going to run into Fluttershy again, or more accurately her hooves were going to run into me again, or maybe another of Princess Twilight’s friends were going to get in on the act.

Or maybe Celestia was going to come over here and have her take on revenge.

“I have to get out of here ASAP.” I proclaimed to nopony.

“Well, I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen.” A mare’s voice was heard before the door opened, the nurse’s cap giving me an indication of why she was here at least. “You won’t be leaving here for at least another three or four days, we have to make sure those side injuries of yours don’t cause you any major complications.” That all sounded well and good, but the worst thing that could have happened was a cut.

It was probably broken ribs, though that could have caused internal bleeding at some point.

“How many ribs did that tree break?” There was no better way to know than that. The fact that she gave me that look, a confused look, told me that I had been completely wrong. Had I been pierced by part of the tree? Had it really been something that related to internal bleeding? Beyond that, I had no clue what it might have been. I had no idea what could have happened out there that would have ended with me being here.

After all, if he had eaten me I’d be dead.

“You really don’t know, do you?” That was always one of the worst questions, If a pony knew, they weren’t going to act like they didn’t. Sometimes they would, to be honest, but this didn’t seem like one of those times. I certainly wasn’t the type that would have done something like this when I was in a hospital. That just seemed like a horrible idea.

“Know what?” I tried to keep my anger in check. Part of me knew that she just didn’t know this about me, that she likely assumed I was like any other pony here. “If there’s something that I need to know, you should probably just tell me.” If it was horrible news, I needed to know it anyway. After all, the sooner I knew the soon I could process it. Somehow, I knew that the longer I waited the worse it was going to seem.

“You almost died.”

Huh.

I guess I had known that, really. The fact that she told me said something about how bad it had been. I wondered what it was that had almost killed me. If it was a head wound, I was going to blame Fluttershy for it. Of course, that didn’t have anything to do with my sides, so it was likely something else. “I know about how terrible two head wounds are. That doesn’t say anything about my sides, though. So spill it.”

That was likely more rude than I should have been.

“When you were brought in here, by Applejack, you had several bleeding wounds on both of your sides.” I had been pierced by the tree in several places? That didn’t make sense at all. “And almost every one of your ribs had been cracked by the force of a timberwolf bite.” That made a lot more sense, really. I hadn’t been pierced in multiple placed by a tree, I had just been almost eaten by a timberwolf.

…

“What?!” That was about the time that it hit me. “You mean I was … going tom be eaten by a timberwolf?” The nurse gave me a sad nod. “But … are you saying that Applejack found me, found off the wolf, got out of the forest, and ran me here before I died?” My eyes had twitched, I had felt it. Applejack had saved me in a way that sounded impossible. There was no way she was that strong, or that fast.

There was no way she could have found me.

Well, okay, the last one was obviously false. The only way it could have been the truth was if I was dead, which I was fairly certain I wasn’t. “No, no, she apparently didn’t do it on her own. Along with you, there was a passed out Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash told me that she had passed out shortly after saving you from the forest. She said something about how her friend was, and I quote, ‘so awesome’. I wasn’t able to get much of the story from her, and her highness didn’t seem to want to tell me either.”

I needed to piece this together in my mind.

I ran away from Fluttershy, which any reasonable pony would have done, and ended up in the forest. I had ended up getting lost. Then I had been assaulted by timberwolves, only to be saved by Princes Twilight and her friend Applejack. The effort of whatever she had done caused her to pass out, and her friend Rainbow Dash had brought her here while Applejack brought me here and saved my life.

Okay, that seemed to be at least somewhat logical … aside from one fact.

“Why?” I questioned, only to get a confused look from the nurse. “I caused her trouble the last time we saw each other, I ran into the forest that is apparently dangerous, and I was being chased by those … timberwolves, you called them.” That name did sound vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it. “And yet, even with all that, she came in there and put her life at risk to make up for my mistake? Are you sure I didn’t die?”

I got a shrug in response.

“Why don’t you ask her that when she comes to visit? It shouldn’t be too long before she comes by. Every day at the same time, in about five minutes when we start passing out lunches for the ponies.” My eyes moved over to the clock, and a question came to mind. I wondered how many days that had been. There was only one way that I was going to be able to figure that one out.

“And just how many days would that be?”

“I lost count at twenty-four.”

That was not the news I wanted to hear. I had wanted to hear that it had been one, maybe four at most. The idea that I had been out for over three weeks, that was something that I hadn’t even considered.

“I hope you enjoy your food, you look like you could use it …”

I probably did. That didn't mean that I wanted her to say that, though. But before I had the time to even come up with a witty retort, the door opened and a lavender princess made her way through the door. A deeply worried look was on her face as she looked at the bed, though the fact that I tried to move to see her better seemed to bring about something that looked like a smile to me.

It also brought pain, but that was from the movement.

“You’re going to have to watch how you move.” That was an understatement. I still hadn't come up with a way that I was going to be able to move. Everything hurt when I moved, regardless of how I moved. It radiated from my sides, if that made any sense at all.

Actually, it did. I had been chewed on at least a little.

“Sure, sure. Just get me some good food … or some mediocre food, please?” I figured the word please was enough, especial since I wasn’t insulting her cooking or anything. Also, I might have been a little grouchier than I should have been. The sound of my stomach, which actually sounded like a monster itself, likely gave the reason for my sudden lack of levity.

I was hungrier than I had thought.

The nurse simply gave me a frown, and then went out to get my plate. I knew they weren’t going to give me more than a plate, even if I knew I was able to eat way more than a single plate of food. I could have eaten my body weight in food, and maybe Princess Twilight’s as well. The latter of which was standing in front of me with a disappointed look on her face. It was like she expected me to sound happy while I was this hungry.

She wasn’t going to get that, unfortunately for her.

“So, I heard you came here every day.” I had to get a couple of things out. She simply nodded, and I continued. “I also heard that you saved me from an untimely demise, that I was being eaten by that timberwolf.” I really hoped to never have to say that again, since being eaten was clearly on the top ten list of things that I never wanted to happen to me.

It hadn’t been before, actually, due to the fact that I hadn’t even thought about it.

It was now.

Another nod from Twilight, to which I nodded in response. There would have been no reason for her to lie, after all. “There are two things that I have to say to you right now.” I took a deep breath and looked up. “The first thing I have to say to you is thank you. I mean, I could have died. You could have just left me to die. I heard that whatever you did caused you to pass out, and you were obviously in danger the entire time.”

“Oh, it was nothing, I-“

I put my hoof up. Surprisingly, I had found a way to move that didn’t hurt. “I have one more thing to say, and I’m not sure you’re going to want to hear this.” It wasn’t exactly the more positive thing that I had to say. “But were you out of your mind?! You could have died out there? And for what? It’s not like you’re forced to be my teacher. There’s no way that she has that much authority. And it isn’t like you wanted me to be your student before that, so that pretty much means you risked your life for a pony that you don’t have to care about.”

Maybe that wasn’t the nicest way of putting it. I blamed the near-death experience. I also blamed the fact that I knew her life was more important than mine. If she had died, or gotten horribly injured, more ponies would have cared. Aside from my parents, I couldn't think of a single ponies whose life would have been negatively affected by my death. It was a harsh truth, but I had to come to grips with it.

Before Twilight could say anything, three plates of food were brought in.

“You might not want to be in here while I eat, your highness.” I said as I pointed to the door. “You have a lot to think about, I’m sure, and this isn’t going to be pretty in the slightest.”

I looked at Twilight, kind of glared really, until she left the room. I really didn’t know what else needed to be said about the matter. The thing I did know, though, was that I didn’t want her to see me eat. I hadn’t lied to her, about anything really, this wasn’t going to be pretty in the slightest. It certainly wasn’t going to have anything close to the etiquette that Celestia had tried to teach me years ago.

Twilight Sparkle

Why had she said those things?

I had gone out there to save her, and I had. I didn’t expect thanks, though it had been nice when I had heard it. When she had said everything that had happened, she hadn’t even known all of it. There was no way that she could have known all of it, she had been close to dying for at least a small portion. Through all of that, though, she felt the need to tell me how I had obviously been out of my mind when I had saved her.

Then she moved on to how I didn’t have to care about her, how Cadance couldn’t have forced me to take a student. That wasn’t even something that I had considered. I hadn't even thought about the fact that there was the chance that Sunset Shimmer couldn’t be forced to be my student. It had just been something that had been said by Cadance, that she was going to be my student, and I acted accordingly.

Even if that was true, I just didn’t get it.

Had Sunset Shimmer really been that alone? Was she still in the mindset that a pony only cared about another if there was something that forced them? I knew that she had friends, I knew that they cared for one another. Well, I didn’t really know. If they were anything like my friends, though, they cared. Or maybe there just hadn’t been this sort of thing that happened to her, so she was going back onto past experiences.

Either way, it made no sense to me.

Even if I had never been told that Sunset Shimmer was going to be my student, there was a chance that I would have helped out if I had known. She wasn’t my best friend or anything, but that didn’t mean that I would have just let her die. There was no reason for me to let anypony die when I had the power to change it.

Maybe this was something that I needed to get more information about. There was only one pony that I knew that could help me. There was only one pony who knew enough about Sunset Shimmer, other than Sunset Shimmer herself, that I could have asked. If I asked the pony herself, she wasn’t likely going to answer. That meant that I had to go the other source, and a quick letter was the best way to do it.

I had to write a letter to Princess Celestia.

As soon as I got back to the library, I quickly got a piece of paper ready. This letter had to be long enough to get all of the required information, but not too long. It wasn’t like this was a friendship letter or anything, which was something that I had to make sure she knew. There was only one way to open, though. I also didn’t want it to seem as though I was being too short with her.

Then there was the fact that I hadn’t written her in a little.

Dear Princess Celestia,

There are events in everypony’s life that change them

That letter was a complete dud. It started off as though this was something bigger than it was. It also started off as something that I could have sworn I had already used at another point. I threw that piece of paper into the trash, and moved to another one. This wasn’t the most difficult letter to write, so I was sure that this was going to the time that I got it right.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I know that it has been a long time since I’ve written you, and I apologize for that. Things have just been really busy lately, and I wasn’t sure what I should write. Something has come up lately, though, that requires knowledge that only you possess.

That seemed like a good enough start. It wasn’t too long, it wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t something that was slightly cliche. If I kept up this one, there wouldn’t be a third attempt. This might have been the one that got sent.

I recently discovered a former student of yours, Sunset Shimmer, in a cell. The only way that I was able to get her freed with her horn was to take her on as my student. There was an incident, though, that brought something to my attention.

Sunset Shimmer doesn’t seem to trust anypony. She questioned why I risked my life to save hers when I didn’t have to.

As her former mentor, I was hoping that you might have some knowledge as to why that is. Anything that you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

Always your student,

Twilight Sparkle

I looked over the contents again. It was short enough to be read quickly, yet at the same time it had all of the information needed. I made sure that there weren’t any giant errors in the letter, and then I sent it on its way to the solar diarch. I didn’t know when I was going to get a response, or if I was going to get one any time soon, so I started to think about what I needed to do for the rest of the day.

I didn’t know what I needed to do for the rest of the day.

I normally made planners for the entire month, but those had been thrown out the window recently. I planned to be in a teacher position, and the drama around Fluttershy happened. I planned for her to be out of the hospital soon, and it had been over three weeks. Then there was the fact that it seemed as though she didn’t want to be my student anymore, which meant that I was stuck back at what I was doing before.

And none of this took into account the fact that I didn’t have many duties as a princess. Ponyville pretty much ran itself, really. Maybe I needed to go make sure that there wasn't anything that I needed to do.

That meant I needed to go see the mayor.

An uneventful hour later

Twilight Sparkle

That was a waste.

It had taken a while to get to see the mayor, even with my royal status. Then she had simply told me that everything was running as it was supposed to. The town had a budget surplus, there weren't any homeless. There weren’t any ponies without jobs, other than the ones who had retired. Crime rates were low, practically nonexistent. The only things that happened around here were things that couldn’t be foreseen.

This was no Canterlot.

In Canterlot, I would have never had the time to sit and wait for anything. There would have been a dozen or so ponies every hour, each of which wanted to talk to either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. In Ponyville, there wasn’t a court even if I did want to listen to the problems of the few ponies in Ponyville that probably would have shown up at some point to get me to address something wrong.

Wait, why hadn't I set that up yet?

That was what I needed to do.

A couple of hours later

Twilight Sparkle

Everything was perfect. I had plans for how I was going to be able run some sort of court for a few hours every day. There were probably a few problems out there, and there were likely to be a few ponies that just showed up from somewhere around Ponyville. If I was going to stay out of Canterlot, and I really wanted to, I knew that I had to do something that made my new royal status make sense.

As I put the letter in my mailbox, that’s when a letter appeared over my head.

Dear Princess Twilight,

That seemed like a weird enough start. I couldn’t think of a single time when I had been referred to as ‘Princess Twilight’ in one of these letters.

I’m afraid that I have some bad news. This is not your mentor, Celestia. This is Princess Luna. I’m also afraid that you will not be receiving a letter from her any time soon. This does not come from something being wrong with my sister, though, so fear not.

Something in your letter made her less-than-agreeable. As soon as she got done reading your letter, she flew off toward the Crystal Empire. Her eyes were like the fires of the sun itself. I have to admit that I was more than a little afraid, I definitely do not want to be on the receiving end of whatever she’s going to do.

I don’t envy Cadance, either.

With that out of the way, I will give you my opinion. The best, though not the easiest, thing to do would be to show her that she can trust you. If my sister’s former student has issues where she believes the worst about ponies, give her a reason to believe the best. You did that for me, Twilight, and I have a lot of happiness to attribute to that.

Of nothing else works, then you can always offer to do some sort of trust exercise. I have seen the guards do them before, and it very rarely led to a pony being put in intensive care. I’m sure that it will work for you as well.

Forever your friend,

Princess Luna

PS: Did you like how I’ve adapted to modern Equestrian? Not once did I use the royal ‘We’. I think I’m making progress!

I thought about her advice, and it wasn’t bad. There was still the wish that I knew more about my new friend. The idea that ponies didn’t do anything when they didn’t have to, there had to be something that had created that idea. All of the modern psychology books that I had read, and I had read a lot, said that these developments often happened during one’s youth.

Surely Celestia had seen it, or had heard about it.

Oh, another letter.

Dearest Sister-in-Law,

Hi, this is Cadance. How is everything going over there? I know that everything in Ponyville can be really difficult. There seems to be a disaster every week, or at least it seems that way from some of the letters I’ve read. Normally, I’d say that I really couldn’t tell you how glad I am that everything is going as perfect as is does in the Crystal Empire lately.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case.

Why?

Well, really, this is partially my fault. I should have known that something bad was going to happen when it came to Celestia’s former student. Part of me wishes I had just let her stay in that prison, maybe at least for a year or two. I wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, the one that is standing outside of my bedroom waiting for me to finish my ‘nap’.

Oh, I didn’t tell you did I?

Celestia is here.

I love Aunty Tia to bits, I really do. And I can’t think of much that would actually stop, or even lessen, the love that I have for her. She seems like she’s willing to put in the effort to try to see if there is anything that she could do, though. It wasn’t even forty minutes ago that she showed up, at least according to my loving husband, with the intent on coming to see me. I made the mistake of actually complying with the request. It didn’t make any sense not to, after all. She’s my aunt, I love her so much.

I didn't know she hated Sunset Shimmer so much.

I have to say that I actually feel bad for Shiny. He has to feel horrible, split as to what he should actually do. Obviously he’s loyal to me, but he’s still loyal to Celestia. Oh, and there’s the fact that he kind-of agrees with Celestia. I say kind of because our benevolent ruler seems to think that the best idea is to actually have an execution for the crimes that she committed against the crown.

I’m really starting to be worried about her, both hers actually (Sunset and Tia).

Wish you could do something about this.

Your loving former foal sitter,

Princess Cadance

I shuddered as I thought about what was probably happening at this point in the Crystal Empire. I also wondered what it was that caused Celestia to hate Sunset so much.

Chapter 8

Sunset Shimmer

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The meal had been pretty good, especially considering the fact that I knew that hospital food was barely above edible, and there had been enough to where I wasn’t that hungry by the end of it. That was another thing that I hadn’t expected when I had been told that I had been out for the better part of a month. Of course, there was the chance that they had fed me somehow. That had to be the case, otherwise I would definitely have lost weight over the time.

That aside, I was now bored.

I didn’t have any books to read. There wasn’t a single pony here that seemed to want to have a conversion. Princess Twilight probably would have spoken with me, but I wasn’t an idiot. She would have likely pretended that she still cared, or that she wanted me to be her student even without some fake punishment that had started this whole thing. I knew that she wasn't a bad pony, she probably would have believed it at first herself.

That wouldn't have lasted forever, though.

I had seen her on the other side. She had made quick friends with the others. She had even made it to where I made quick friends with the others. All that added up to the idea that she might have wanted to be my friend, maybe even best friend. That didn't add up to being a teacher, something that was the most difficult thing a pony could do.

It was a good thing that I had sent her off with those words.

It wasn’t even like she had much to teach me anyway.

I needed to get my mind off of that. It was good to have some time for introspection, but this was getting to be too much. Maybe the time would have passed quicker if I got some sleep. That didn’t do anything about the next few days, but it definitely did something about the current situation. And, really, that was the most important thing. Tomorrow was a problem for … well, tomorrow. There was no reason why I needed to worry about it today.

And so I went to sleep. The bed was surprisingly comfortable, it didn’t take that much effort beyond closing my eyes.

I was in the castle, Canterlot Castle.

This wasn’t right.

It wasn’t just the fact that I was in the castle that was wrong, but something else. I saw myself, and not just in one of the many mirrors that Princess Celestia seemed to have all over the place. I, literally, saw a younger version of myself. It was back when I had been her student, when I had been learning from the Princess of the Sun. Things had been so much different back then. Some things were better, and some things were worse.

“Come on, Princess Celestia. I already know basic levitation. I can lift a dozen books and juggle them.” I had been so arrogant back then. It was a good thing that I had grown out of that. “And I can do that while moving the bookshelf that they’d be sitting in.” It had only taken something as simple as that to make me proud of myself back then. “Of course I can lift myself.”

I remembered this.

“Oh?” Princess Celestia’s tone was questioning, as if she had wanted to see me do it. “If you can do it, that would prove you’re stronger than even I thought you’d be at this point. But if anyone can prove me wrong, Sunset, it’s you.” Back then, she had sounded so sure of me. She had really thought so highly of me. Even though she had known that it was difficult to do, impossible for a pony that was just learning the basics, she had seemed to genuinely believe in me.

Or maybe I had been naive.

I knew how this ended, so I started to walk away. As soon as I left the room, the entire castle seemed to change before my eyes. I wasn’t in the hall that was in front of the room I had been in. This was the room that I had gone into later, when I had failed. This was the room where I didn’t exactly deal with my failure in a way that I should have handled it.

“It’s not fair.” I watched as the younger me started to kick some of the things in her room. “I bet Celestia could have taught me how to lift myself. All I needed to know was the basics.” I had never been one that had dealt with failure well. Normally, it only meant that I was going to go to sleep for the night. This time, it had meant that I was kicking stuff around in my room.

Actually, if I remembered right it was also one of the last times that I had done that sort of thing. This had been my last tantrum about some small failure.

“You have the potential to do so many things, Sunset.” Princess Celestia called from within the doorway. “You’re the greatest student that I’ve ever had. I doubt I will ever get another student with your potential.” That word haunted me to this day. If she had been right, and I was her greatest student, then a lot of the things that happened wouldn’t have happened. Of course, not even Princess Celestia knew everything. “With the way you pick up on things, I doubt it'll take a month before you’re able to lift yourself.”

“But why can’t I now?” The question had seemed to important at the time. Everything else seemed kind of insignificant next to the question of how I was going to lift myself.

“Because your magic is working against you.”

The younger me looked up at her. It hadn’t made any sense at the time. My magic was what caused me to be able to lift things. I just hadn’t thought of any possible way that my magic was going to make it more difficult to lift something. “What do you mean, Princess? I thought my magic would be the thing that helped me lift, not hindered.”

The initial response had been a chuckle. “It’s because the magic within you is inherently resisting your attempt. Even though it’s your magic that’s trying to do the lifting, it still resists.” I still didn’t like the fact that it did that. I had since figured out how to stop it from resisting me, but it still took more effort than it should have. “You just have to figure out how to make sure that it doesn’t fight you. I know you’ll come up with something, my shining student.”

The younger me had walked up to her, nuzzling her as the lesson reached a good conclusion.

Then I felt myself get shaken.

Eyes opened up to see that I was in the company of Prince Shining Armor. I also noticed that I was chained to the bed. It turned out that I had been dreaming, which in hindsight should have been obvious. It also turned out that I hadn’t woken up before I had been chained down. I barely had much room to move.

This was terrible.

“Twiley told me that you told her to leave. Told me that you didn’t want to be her student.” I looked up at him with a worried look on my face. He wasn’t exactly my best friend, or even my friend at all. I knew that this was going to end poorly for somepony, and I had a strong feeling that it was going to be ending poorly for me. “That means you broke the terms of your release. Cadance was disappointed, but I couldn’t be happier. It means that I get to make sure that you’re no longer a threat to anypony.”

As he moved, a couple of guards moved around me. One of them did something to my horn, it felt terrible. The other had something that looked like a surgical saw. I knew what was going to happen now. Princes Twilight had told me that her brother had wanted my horn removed, and now he was going to get exactly what he had wanted.

There wasn’t much I could do about it.

I closed my eyes and got ready for the pain to start.

Suddenly, the room filled with a bright light. There was a dark blue mare, slightly smaller than Celestia. She actually looked a little like the Old Mare’s Tale of Nightmare Moon, but only a little. It took a second, in my panic, to realize that this was Princess Luna. “Worry not, my child. This isn’t real.” I assumed that she meant that in a general way. It would have been amazing to learn that I was the daughter of some sort of royal, though.

Wait, this had been part of the dream as well?

I honestly didn’t know how to respond at this point.

“I don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick.” At least this wasn’t going to be too long. “You have nothing to fear when it comes to your horn. I have seen that your magic will rise far, and you will change the destiny of all unicorn.” I … I didn’t know what to make of that. That was certainly a bit of an ego boost, really. I was going to change the destiny of all unicorn. “Farewell, Sunset Shimmer. And be careful when you run into my sister…” With that, she faded from the room and the entire room faded with her.

Almost immediately, I opened my eyes and shot up. There was still that same, nice, pain from the before. The funny thing was that it should have been a lot more obvious that it had all been a dream.

Darn it, Luna.

That was something you should have led with. I didn’t even know anything about this supposed meeting with the Princess of the Sun. I knew that I was starting to wonder if I even wanted the meeting to take place. It wasn’t just the fact that Princess Luna had warned me about her, though that certainly didn’t help, but there was something about the way that we had parted company that didn’t lend itself to a good reunion for either of us.

I wondered who it was going to be worse for. If she had her way about it, going from what Princess Luna had told me, it was definitely going to turn out worse for me. Of course, that was going on the notion that there was even anything for her to confront me about. Princess Twilight likely would have told her everything already, everything about what had happened on the other side at least. I honestly didn’t know what it was that she would have hated me for.

Of course, there was also another possibility.

This could have all been just a dream. Obviously it had been mostly, but there was the idea that Princess Luna was just a construct of a mind that was trying to exert control over the dream. The idea that Luna was going through the dreams of others just felt weird. It just seemed like she likely had so much more that she needed to do, as the Princess of the Night. That title had been the only thing that had made it seem plausible for it to be true in the first place.

I needed to just not think it through, it wasn’t important.

Twilight Sparkle

I looked up at the ceiling, a thousand or so thoughts filled my head. There was something going on here, something that I had to fix. None of my friends liked Sunset Shimmer. The closest I got was that Applejack didn’t hate her completely. I also didn’t know what it was that Pinkie Pie thought about her. I normally assumed that she liked almost everypony, aside from Trixie, but I would have assumed that Fluttershy would have forgiven her as I did.

It was obvious that she wasn’t exactly in the forgiving mood.

That was something that I was going to have to have to do something about. There was no way that I was going to be able to teach Sunset Shimmer if all of my friends disliked her. They came by a lot, and we spent a lot of time together. It would have been nice if they had instantly hit it off, and then they could have become best friends. I could have taught her magic, and she could have gotten more friends than she had before.

Of course, that thought brought about questions of its own

What was I going to teach her? If she had been a new student with no knowledge, or little knowledge, it would have been easier. Sweetie Belle was the example that came to mind. She didn’t have any instruction beforehand. That made it easy to know what she knew, which made it easier for me to come up with a lesson plan. I didn’t know the extent of Sunset’s former lessons, beyond the fact that she had obviously learned from Celestia.

There was also the fact that she had known more about what the Elements of Harmony could do than I had.

The other question was if I was going to be able to teach her anyway. She didn’t seem to want me to teach her. No, no, there was something else that I wasn’t aware of. There was something that told her that I didn’t actually want to teach her. But that didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t think of a single thing that I had done that would have made her think that. When I had last seen her, I had introduced her to ponies … errrr, people who seemed like they were going too be her friends.

She even seemed to react to my friends as if they were their counterparts from Mirror-Equestria.

Maybe I needed to focus. If I focused on each problem until I fixed them, then moved on to the next, things wouldn't be too terribly bad. I just had to start thinking of my problems, then I had to give them an order of importance. They also had to be given an order of difficulty. After that, it was possible that I would have been able to choose the order in which I was going to deal with them. All of this relied, heavily, on something that I was amazing at.

This relied on a list.

List of problems and explanations
None of my friends like Sunset Shimmer. Most of them tried to talk me out of making her my student. Fluttershy knocked her out (something I need to figure out how she did). This could be fixed if I spoke with them, and helped them work through whatever it is that they dislike about her.
I don’t know what Sunset Shimmer has been taught. That makes a lesson plan impossible. I don’t know, as of now, how to deal with that.
Sunset doesn’t seem to want to be my student, and doesn’t seem to think I want her to be my student. I need to figure out why, and I need to fix whatever it is that’s causing her to think like this. The only pony who can help me out with this is Princess Celestia.
Princess Celestia wants Sunset Shimmer dead. I need to figure out why, and then I need to talk her out of the idea. I don’t know how I’m actually going to do the second part, though the first is easily figured out if I talk to her.

I had the four big things out on paper. There were likely more things that would come up as I went along, and some of them were bigger than a single number would have led ponies to believe, but they were the main things. The next step was to figure out which ones were going to have to be done first and which ones were going to have to be done last. That meant I had to figure out which ones were more important to me, as well as which ones were more difficult.

Alright, I had to think.

The first thing I needed to do was probably talking to my friends. They were my friends, I was worried about all of them. I also wanted to know why they all felt the ways they did. It was also likely the easiest of the four. I knew that my friends weren’t the types that would hide things from me. Once we had everything out, I knew that I was going to be able to do something about it. My friends weren’t completely unreasonable, after all, even if they had reached poorly to the idea that she was going to be my student.

What was I going to do second?

The second thing was likely something to do with Celestia. I needed to talk to her about Sunset Shimmer. That was something that would actually fix two problems at once. I needed to figure out what she had against Sunset first, though. If Princess Celestia was going to try to kill her, or at the very least wanted her dead, the idea that she was going to help me figure out the problem was significantly diminished. This one was going to be the most difficult, as it involved me trying to convince Princess Celestia that her strong feelings were wrong.

The third was obviously to figure out what Sunset’s problems were. I needed to get those out, it was the only way I could have dealt with them. If that didn’t happen, there was no way that she was actually going to be convinced to be my student. After I knew what it was, that was when I was going to be able to plan this one out more. I didn’t like the idea that I wasn’t able to completely plan this one out, but it was impossible. I didn’t have the information needed, which was something that I needed to get from Princess Celestia.

The last one depended on her being my student. I had enough time to plan out how to sole it, but I wanted to come up with something right now. I wanted to be able to have these things planned out if she said yes. The only ideas I came up with seemed like mediocre ones. The first idea that I came up with was to simply ask her. It was based on the obviously true idea that she knew whitish had been taught.

That idea was also one that was likely to take a long time.

My other idea was to test her. This idea was based around the idea that I had learned for many years and knew a lot about magic. I was capable of coming up with something of a written test. It was going to have to be difficult, obviously, if I wanted it to be sufficient to test her. It also had to be extensive if I wanted it to mean anything. The downside was that there was a chance that she was just bad at tests, and that this would have simply provided me with the knowledge that she was bad at tests.

That was something that I was going to have to put more thought into.

I really didn’t like the fact that I didn’t have enough information to come up with a plan for half of these problems. I also didn’t like the fact that I was sure I was missing problems. Then again, the list was sure to grow as I went through the ones that I did have written down. Right now I just had to come up with a plan for tomorrow. My entire month’s plans had been ruined already, and I hadn’t made them as extensive as I had wanted to on the notion that Sunset might have woken up at any point.

I hated not being able to plan out my month.

Twilight’s Daily Schedule
Wake up at sunrise, comment on how beautiful it is.
Go downstairs, try to make breakfast for myself
Likely fail, hopefully not by setting fire to my cereal again
Head down to Sugarcube Corner, get something for breakfast
Try to get Pinkie Pie’s attention for a conversation (remember to bring something shiny in bad, or maybe some balloons)
Figure out Pinkie’s opinion of Sunset and find a way to make it more positive if necessary.
Find Rainbow Dash (this one could take the longest)
Talk Rainbow into liking Sunset if possible
Stop by Sweet Apple Acres to talk to Applejack
Talk to her about Sunset Shimmer
Head over to Fluttershy’s cottage.
Talk to her about Sunset Shimmer, console her about why she had kicked her.
Head over to Carousel Boutique.
Talk to Rarity about Sunset Shimmer
Worry about stomach rumbling, as I liked haven’t eaten all day
Get dinner at Sugarcube Corner
Talk to Pinkie Pie about what I needed to do to fix the problems
Head back to the library as it’s probably dark
Write out tomorrow’s schedule
Let Owlyscious in
Comment about how I wished Spike was around
Ponder writing a letter to Rainbow and Spike
Write a letter to Rainbow and Spike
Go to bed

I looked that it, and quickly realized that it was more of a list and less of a schedule. I needed to work on it a little more before I went to sleep.

Twilight’s actual schedule
6:00 to 6:05- Wake up, comment on how beautiful the morning sky is.
6:05 to 6:15- Get ready for the coming day. This involves brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, checking to see if I’m out of quills or parchment, and then heading down for breakfast.
6:15 to 6:30- Attempt to make breakfast, likely ending in failure. Congratulate myself for not setting cereal on fire again, if relevant. Put out fire if one occurs.
6:30 to 6:35- Lament the fact that I can’t cook without Spike around, and wish he was around.
6:35 to 7:00- Head down to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast. Act as though I’m going to try something new, but get a bagel with creme cheese as normal. Give a tip, likely as much as what the meal itself cost.
7:00 to 7:05- Convince Mister Cake that the shop deserves a tip the size of the bagel.
7:05 to 7:10- Convince Pinkie Pie to talk to me.
7:10 to 8:00- Get Pinkie’s opinion on Sunset Shimmer, figure out a way that she could become friends with her.
8:00 to 11:00- Find Rainbow Dash, and talk to her about Sunset Shimmer. Figure out what the biggest problem is and come up with a way to fix it.
11:00 to 2:00- Head over to Sweet Apple Acres to talk to Applejack. We will likely talk through lunch, which I will happily join her. If she doesn’t ask, ask her if I can join her.
2:00 to 4:00- Head over to Fluttershy’s cottage and talk to her. Figure out what I can do to help her overcome her problems with Sunset Shimmer.
4:00 to 7:00- Head over to Carousel Boutique. Figure out how to help Sunset Shimmer and Rarity become friends. Ask Rarity why she wanted me to teach Sweetie Belle and think about teaching her as well.
7:00 to 7:30- Head back to Sugarcube Corner for dinner. Eat said dinner.
7:30 to 8:00- Tell Pinkie Pie about everything and how I had gotten every one of our friends to give Sunset Shimmer a chance.
8:00 to 8:10- Head back to the library.
8:10 to 8:30- Write out tomorrow’s schedule.
8:30 to 8:32- Let Owlyscious in
8:32 to 8:35- Lament, again, about how Spike isn’t around
8:35 to 8:45- Contemplate writing a letter to Rainbow and Spike
8:45 to 9:15- Write the letter anyway
9:15 to 9:17- Choose a random book from the non-fiction section to read in bed before I go to sleep.
9:17 to 11:00- Read a little of the book and make some notes on what I learned.

I was proud of myself for using the daily word, which I used to keep my vocabulary up, twice in the schedule. There never seemed to be good times to use the word ‘lament’.

That seemed like a good enough schedule for the day. I had left plenty of time for me to talk to each of my friends, after taking into account their personalities. It also left me with enough time to get plenty of sleep for the next day. I didn’t have anything big to study, so the past few days had ended at roughly the same time as tomorrow seemed scheduled to. My only problem with it was that I was starting to feel as though I wasn’t getting enough done. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for fixing problems, but before that it hadn’t been as big.

Maybe after tomorrow I needed to put some exercise time in. Or maybe after tomorrow I needed to come up with something big to study.

Right now, though, my main focus was on trying to go to sleep. Tomorrow was a big day, I needed to be ready for it.

Sunset Shimmer

Roughly Midnight

Maybe that nap hadn’t been the best idea. Either that, or I was really just bored. It wasn’t as if there were a lot of things that I could have done while I waited those four days.

Well, it was three at this point.

There were plenty of games here. None of them were games that I could have played by myself. Even if I hadn’t told Princess Twilight to leave, she would have gone home by now. There was also the fact that they all seemed like games that a small child would have enjoyed. The worst of the lot was Battle Clouds. There wasn’t any strategy to it, there was simply luck that decided if a pony was able to hit any of them.

Of course, there were also books.

Contrary to popular belief, as ponies seemed to have some weird idea of what a student of Celestia did and liked to do, I didn’t enjoy reading. I did it when I had to, when it came to something that was going to help me with what I was doing. I had never done it for leisure, something that I was almost being forced to do out of boredom. It was either that or stare at the ceiling, and I had already counted the tiles a dozen times. I had even counted dots on each tile, which had taken very little time.

Then the nurse had come by and put a book that she had called her favorite down on the table. It was something called ‘Daring Do’, which was a series that I had heard about before. From what I had heard, it was a series that was intended to get young ponies to like reading. It didn’t seem like something that a grown mare would have enjoyed. I was more than a little skeptical about the idea that I might have liked it at all.

Unfortunately, they didn't have any books about horn-related problems that they were going to let me see. The best they offered was to do a scan on my horn, and that was only able to be done when there was a trained doctor around. Apparently he had gone home for the day, something about the fact that he needed sleep.

So I was stuck with this book, and so I opened the cover and got to reading.

I just hoped that it wasn’t as awful as the cover at, and the initial few paragraphs, led me to believe. If it was, then I was going to have a bad time. It wasn’t like the nurse with the books was likely going to come around until morning. That meant that I was either going to have to read it or I needed to find a way to force myself back to sleep.

My bets were on the idea that I was going to have to force myself to go to sleep.

Twilight Sparkle

The Next Morning

As soon as the sun was up, I was up.

I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t woken up with the sun. It had started even before I had become Princess Celestia’s student, and it hadn’t changed afterward. After all, Celestia was obviously up when the sun rose. I doubted she ever really slept, or even if she did if it was for any large length of time. Maybe that was something that I needed to ask her, since I had never actually gotten around to doing it before.

I shook my head, this wasn’t the time to let my mind wander. Today was going to be a long day, and it was going to be a rather full one. As I turned to look at the sunrise, I couldn’t help but marvel at how it looked. There was something about the colors, or possibly how one moved into the next, that I didn’t think I would ever grow bored of. “Even after all this time, every day is just so beautiful.” I would have said that even if it hadn’t been scheduled.

The fact that it was scheduled only meant that I had designated some time for it.

Actually, I didn’t know why I had put five minutes for it. I was awake, I had looked at the sunrise, and I had thought about how beautiful it was. That had only taken two minutes out of the five, although that was because I had woken up fairly quickly. Maybe I had been looking forward to getting up, and getting all of this done. It was important that I did it, after all. I wasn’t just affecting my life, or my friends lives, but I was affecting Sunset’s life as well.

As I continued to think about this, I put the toothpaste on the toothbrush.

As I continued to brush my teeth, I pulled the schedule over to me. The first thing was quickly marked off the list, and the second was going on quickly. I had just finished brushing my teeth, and the hairbrush was moving over to my hair. There weren’t that many knots. Maybe it had something to do with my change in diet. I had looked over my nutrient intake, and I had done some research on the things that helped with hair growth and health. Either that, or maybe I just hadn’t rolled around as much last night as I had before.

Next on the list was to check on my supplies.

I walked out of the bathroom, and over to the desk. It looked as though I had a stack of parchment, enough for the next few days, and a stack of quills. I seemed to be going through fewer of them recently, for whatever reason. I probably needed to figure out what it was that was causing that. It was a good thing, the fact that I still had enough supplies to last a few days, but it was still something that was outside of what could be considered normal.

Now I just had to do downstairs and figure out what I was going to eat for breakfast. Cereal made the most sense.

About ten minutes later

I needed to figure out how to cook.

Today was a gold star day on the ‘set cereal on fire’ front. I didn’t even know how I had done that last time. The toast had turned out to be mush, and the orange juice had been burnt. Another possible answer to this was for me to come up with a spell. If I was able to make breakfast appear with magic, there was a lot less chance that I was going to be forced to go to Sugarcube Corner every day like I seemed to be.

“Things would be so much easier if Spike were still here.” He had tried to teach me how to cook once, and only once. It had ended with him somehow being covered in green fire. Normally, that was only reserved for his dragon fire, but somehow I had created it while trying to create an apple pie. I had thought about asking Applejack to teach me how to do that, but Spike had told me that it was something of a lost cause.

I was starting to think that he was right.

I was already on the fifth item of the list and I was already about ten minutes ahead of schedule. That was something great, but I didn’t know if it was going to last. With everything working as it had, I might not have placed enough time on the schedule to talk to Rainbow Dash. Then again, there was always the chance that things were going to be easier with somepony else, and that it would have freed some time to talk to Rainbow Dash.

That was the bad thing about this schedule, it relied on far too many unknowns.

It was really a good thing that everything was becoming a pattern. I was able to do my thinking while I went through a lot of it. Even the walk to Sugarcube Corner was something that was being built into muscle memory, though that probably wasn’t something that could be considered a good thing by most ponies. I also needed to pay attention to the fact that there were other ponies, and they likely had something to say to me.

That thought still weirded me out

A shake of my head as I looked at the shop-slash-house that was the best bakery in town. Inside, there was my normal breakfast, there was Pinkie Pie that I was going to be able to talk to. Four of the day’s items were going to be able to be done from here, more than that if I was to count the few items that I needed to come back here later to do. A deep breath, and I walked through the door and into Sugarcube Corner.

There was a bagel with creme cheese being finished as I walked in, and it was on the counter by the time that I walked up to it.

“Here you go, Princess Twilight.”

It was good to have a pattern. They had gotten it ready for me, they had known that I was going to be here around this time. For the life of me, though, I had to ask. “But what if I had ordered something different? I could have tried a donut, or maybe a slice of pie or cake.” None of that was true, but it could have been. There were plenty of items on the list, eventually I was going to try one or two of them for breakfast.

Not today, but some day!

Mr Cake just looked at me. “You haven’t ordered anything different since the day you came to Ponyville more than three years ago, your highness.” That was a good point, but it might not have been true today. It was, but maybe it wasn’t going to be the same tomorrow.

“You’re right. That’ll be three bits, right?” With that, I pulled out six bits and placed them on the counter. “That’s three for the meal, and three for a tip.” I was ready for the rebuttal. I knew it was coming, he was going to tell me how the tip wasn’t warranted. Then I was going to point out why it was, and five minutes or so later he was going to cave in. My schedule might have been changed by him earlier, but I was sure that this wasn’t going to change.

“Thanks for the tip, your highness.”

My eye actually twitched, I felt it.

This entire day was being thrown off schedule. There was the fact that I had done everything at the house quicker, that I had gotten my bagel quicker, that he wasn’t arguing about the tip. “Are you sure you don’t want to argue with me a little?” That sounded far more pathetic than I meant it. Everything was just falling apart on the schedule. It wasn’t even 6:45, and I was already at the item that was shortly after 7:00.

“I guess I can get Pinkie for you to argue with, your highness. I’ve just given up on it.”

I did have to talk to Pinkie anyway. This was probably a good thing anyway. I was freeing up time for when one of my friends needed to talk with me longer. Whether it was Rainbow Dash or Applejack, or one of my other friends, one of them was likely to take longer than scheduled. An additional fifteen or so minutes was going to make a dent on the change. “That would be great, Mr Cake. I’ll just be over there eating breakfast.” I pointed over to one of the tables, and started to talk over to it.

I took a bite of the bagel, it was as delicious as it always was.

By the time that I had taken the last bite of the bagel, Pinkie had shown up. “Sooooooo.” Pinkie started, obviously not completely sure why she was there. “I’m told you wanted to argue with me about something? That didn’t make any sense, we’re friends and friends rarely argue. They certainly don’t go to the person’s house just to argue.” Obviously Mr Cake hadn’t told her a lot about it, or maybe he had been confused as well.

When I thought about what I had said, it hadn’t made much sense.

“Actually, Pinkie, forget about arguing.”

“Yay, no arguing. This calls for a ‘Twilight didn’t argue with me’ party!” I shook my head, a smirk on my face. “Oh, we can have some balloons, some cake, some ice cream, and some cake.” I knew better than to point out that she had said cake twice. I had once, and she had pointed out that she always fixed two cakes in case one of us didn’t feel like eating the other flavor. They were always varied flavors, too, so there was actually the chance that eventually she would have chosen something that one of our friends didn’t like.

“Actually, Pinkie, I was hoping to talk to you about Sunset Shimmer. I was hoping you could tell me what you thought about her from the short meeting yesterday.”

“Well… she seemed nice enough. She didn’t seem anything like the pony you told us about, which meant that she must have changed. And that’s all because you taught her!” I couldn’t help it, I blushed at the comment. The idea that I had such a great effect on her life wasn’t something that I had actually put in that light. It wasn’t something that I was going to take much credit for. “And that’s probably why you wanted her to be your student. I mean, you already taught her about friendship, so there’s that.”

“Wait, so you’re alright with her being my student?”

“Well, yeah.” This was turning out to be even easier than I had thought it was going to be. “I mean, everypony deserves a second chance.” I was almost tempted to ask if this extended to Trixie, but I knew better than that. Everypony had somepony that they didn’t get along with, and it seemed that Trixie was going to be that pony for Pinkie. “There was actually something that I wanted to ask you about that had to do with Sunset Shimmer.”

I was curious, even though I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

“What type of cake does she want at her party?” That wasn’t the exact question I had thought she would have asked, but it was in the same ballpark. “When you had come back, I had made a cake that I had known you would like. I didn’t have any clue who it was that was coming with you, and I definitely didn’t know what type of cake she likes.” That was actually a question I didn’t think I could answer. I didn’t even know if she wanted a party in the first place.

“I’ll ask her when I see her.” Pinkie’s smile widened, something that I wasn’t sure was even possible. “There was something else, though.” I wondered why she had been so easy to talk to about this subject. “Everypony else seems to dislike Sunset Shimmer, and for good reason. I guess I just kind of expected that if Fluttershy was capable of kicking Sunset that you might have been mad as well.”

Pinkie’s expression changed for a second, but quickly went back to the smile. “Well, you told us that she changed. If she changed, then we need to see her for the new her. I mean, imagine if we all assumed that Discord was still a big meanie.” That was something that most of us did, but I didn’t want to bring that up. “If we did that, he might think there’s no point in changing. I mean, imagine it. If you don’t have friends to help you, how will you make it through the bad times?”

That … was surprisingly insightful.

“Well, Twilight, I hate to rush off but I had to.” It was probably work related. “I have to get the twins ready for their nap. That can take a while.” Or I was wrong, and it was related to the fact that Pinkie really loved those two foals. “Maybe later we can talk again about the party. There are so many things that I think you can help me with, since she’s your student and all.” With that, she walked towards and stairs and the two foals that waited for their Aunt Pinkie.

I should have told her that Sunset didn’t want to be my student.

While we had been talking, it hadn't even come to my mind. I had just been focused on what she thought about Sunset, and why she thought that way. It hadn’t been until the last few moments, when she had said something about how I knew more because she was my student, that it had hit me. Not only was that not true on the basis that I didn’t know a lot about her.

I still needed to convince her to be my student.

A shake of my head, and I moved for the door. I needed to find Rainbow Dash, and then I needed to talk to her about Sunset Shimmer. This one was probably going to be the one that took the longest. Not only did I have to find her, which was a feat unto itself, but I had to talk her into forgiving a pony that she seemed adamant about not forgiving.

As I left the building, I was greeted by a voice.

“Spike was right. I didn’t even have to wait any time, you’re right here when he said you were going to be.” How had Spike been able to predict my schedule when I hadn’t? That didn’t make much sense. “Well, okay, I had to wait a few minutes … but it was totally worth it for me to say something that I should have already said.” I braced myself for what I knew was coming. Rainbow was a good friend, but she was also a pony who said exactly what she felt.

She was also a pony who disliked those that hurt her friends.

“I’m sorry for how I acted about Sunset yesterday. That was not cool.”

Wait.

What?

Chapter 9

Twilight Sparkle

Those words, they didn’t seem like something that Rainbow would have said. It wasn’t that she never apologized, it was more that she rarely apologized. Part of me, though, quickly chastised the other part of me that had thought that. I should have expected the best of my friend, and knew that she was going to rise to the occasion. The simple fact was, though, that there was a reason why I had placed the talk with her as something that had three hours to do.

Well, three hours were on the schedule to have her found and the conversation completed.

The thing was, though, that I knew almost every other conversation was going to take less time. The closest was Applejack, and that was because we were likely going to have lunch while we had the conversation. Then there had been Rarity, and the conversation there was going to have to do with the possibility of Sweetie Belle being taught by me as well. Fluttershy’s conversation was going to likely have a lot of time when she apologized, and it was obvious that she had been more angry than anypony else there.

Maybe I had just not thought about what it was that Rainbow had thought. Maybe I had been a bit harsh, the thought that Rainbow was just being Rainbow was at least a little harsh. There was a chance that I needed to apologize to her. Then again, there was also the chance that she was likely to tell me that there wasn’t a problem for me to apologize for. I really didn’t know what it was that I was supposed to do in this situation. I had formed a completely negative conclusion about one of the most loyal friends that a pony could have ever had.

That made me feel as though I as a bad friend.

“Equestria to Twilight.” I saw a blue hoof in front of my face, likely waved a few times before she actually said anything. “Did I break you or something? You’ve just sort of been standing there with your mouth open for the past ten minutes.” That couldn’t possibly have been the truth. Well, no, it could have been the truth. I didn’t want it to be the truth, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t. “I think I broke Twilight. Oh boy. That’s something that I don’t want to have to tell Princess Celestia.”

At that point, I shook my head.

“I guess I just didn't expect that, Rainbow.” I quickly pulled out my schedule, and then pointed to the entry that had to do with her. “As you can see, I had eight to eleven put on the schedule to find and talk to you about Sunset Shimmer. I hadn’t thought that you wanted to find me.” It likely wasn’t in my best interest to admit this second part. “And I thought you really didn’t like Sunset Shimmer, so an apology at this point seemed to be little more than a pipe dream.”

That sounded even more negative than I had initially thought it was.

“Well, I really wasn’t going to apologize.” I had to wonder what had changed her mind. “It wasn’t until I got home, and talked to Spike about what happened, that I started to think that I might have overreacted.” That seemed all too normal. I remembered times when I had been freaking out, when I had thought that the worst was going to happen, and Spike had been there for me to make sure that I didn’t completely overreact. That was something he had done for me, and it seemed completely obvious that he was going to continue this trend.

Of course, her overreactions were different than mine.

“See, I didn’t think about a lot of the things we’ve been through. We gave Trixie another chance, and we gave Discord … well, Fluttershy gave Discord another chance. I still don’t know if I trust him or not.” That was a sentiment that I shared, though Fluttershy was definitely having an effect on me. If Discord stayed good, I was definitely not going to hold a grudge. That still didn’t tell me why she had apologized. “Spike also pointed out that she wasn’t the same as before. I mean, she got hit with the elements. After that happened, we totally forgave Luna for the whole Nightmare Moon thing. And she had tried to kill Princess Celestia.”

I simply nodded.

“And then he pointed out that you’ve rarely led us astray.” I blushed a little at that comment. If any of them had a reason to not say that, it was Spike. Then again, he was always the most reasonable out of all of us. It still hurt to think that he wasn’t ready to see me yet, even if he was ready to heap praise on me. Maybe it was because of that, the idea that he said good things about me and still didn’t seem to want to see me, that made it worse.

“And so I decided to find you, apologize, and try to figure some things out for myself.” I hadn’t even gotten a sentence in edge-wise, she had been doing a good job of keeping my attention. I hadn’t even asked her what her problem had been, so I hadn’t been able to try to come up with a solution. Yet, at the same time, I knew better than to try to hijack her conversation. Even though I had intended for it to be my conversation, it most certainly was hers.

Weird.

“I guess I was simply wondering why.” That was something vague. “Why did you choose Sunset Shimmer to be your student? What’s it about her that’s so special?” There were a lot of possible things that I could have said that made her special. “If I’m gonna get behind this, I need to know more about Sunset. ‘Cause the last things that I heard weren’t exactly the most flattering.” I couldn’t help when I snickered. That was certainly one way that it could have been worded.

Another way was that the only things she had heard about Sunset Shimmer were that she had tried to kill me after stealing my crown and had formed a mind controlled army of teenagers with the intent of ruling Equestria and the Crystal Empire. The way that Rainbow had put it was definitely less wordy, though.

“That’s a really big set of questions, so you might want to sit down.” I pointed over to one of the outside tables that Sugarcube Corner had. As soon as the two of us had sat down, I looked up at the sky. “I don’t really think I’m going to be able to ask them in the way you asked. The easiest one would have to be the second one. I believe the way you asked it was ‘what about her is so special.” I took a breath, and let out a sigh.

“She’s kind of like me, really. Well, the old me. At the same time, she’s like a mirror of me.” I stole a glance at Rainbow, who simply looked back at me confused. “There’s something about her that just pulls away from ponies, doesn’t trust them. At the same time, she let her lessons get to her. There’s a strong pride in her. I really get the feeling that there has to be a reason for that.” I wasn’t likely making much sense. “I guess I just see that what she was is something that I could have easily been, and I just want to help make sure she doesn’t go back to being that.”

I wondered if that made any real sense.

“As for why I had chosen her to be my student … well, you’re not going to like this.” That was likely the understatement of the century. “Initially, I hadn’t. I mean, I told my brother and Cadance that I had, but it had been a lie.”

“Wait, you lied to your brother?” The sound of her voice told me that she was as shocked as I had been when I had done it. “But he’s your BBBFF. You sang a song about it, and you were mad when he had even forgotten to tell you about his wedding. Doesn’t that feel a little hypochronrial?”

“Hypocritical. Yes it is. I’m not proud of it either. When I heard that he wanted to remove her horn, something just pushed me to do it.” I had a feeling that she was going to say something about that. “I just thought about what it would have been like for me. Magic is something hat every unicorn has, it’s something that helps us identify who we are. I imagine it’d be like being a pegasus who has prided themselves on their flying getting their wings removed. It just felt wrong.” That was the only way I knew to put it. Sunset had been Princess Celestia’s student, after all, and she had a cutie mark that had been based on magic.

Sunset Shimmer really was a lot like me, as well as a lot different.

“I can understand that.” I noticed a shudder from Rainbow. “I don’t know what I’d do if I heard a pegasus was going to lose their wings at all. Even if they barely use them, like Fluttershy, it’d still be something terrible.” I didn’t know what else Rainbow had wanted to know, though. “So, you see yourself in her and you want to help her out. What else can you tell me about her? Like why she even came back in the first place.”

“She said she came back to visit here family, before heading back.” There was something that had come to mind recently that I hadn’t shared with Sunset. Cadance wouldn't have been able to make me teach her, much like Sunset had said, but there was something that she hadn’t thought about. “Though that’s going to be really difficult. Part of the punishment that Cadance had give her was that she is banished from the Crystal Empire for good.”

Rainbow gave me a confused look. “Yeah, so? She doesn’t want to go back to the Empire, she wants to go through the mirror.”

“A mirror that is inside the Crystal Empire, in the castle, where she isn’t allowed to go.” I said as I looked as a particularly interesting looking cloud. “That means that she’s not going to be able to do anything beyond stay here.” I didn't know if I wanted to say the last part, where Sunset had said a few things that weren’t exactly the most positive. “And if I were to be completely honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do after she gets out of the hospital. She’s convinced that I only want her as my student because Princess Cadance said that I had to watch over her as part of the punishment.”

“She can do that?” It took Rainbow far less time to question it than it had taken me, and I hadn’t even done it until Sunset had pointed it out to me.

“No, but I didn’t think about that.” It had only started off because of that, though, and I had to let Rainbow know. “Not that any of that matters. I thought about how great it would be to have a student. Not only that, but Sunset would make an amazing student. I thought that it was going to work out in the end.” Maybe I had been hoping that one of my friends were capable of helping me out through this problem. “What would you do if you were me?”

“You really want Sunset to be your student, don’t you?”

That was a silly question. “I really do, Rainbow. She might not be the easiest to get along with sometimes, but she is a good pony with a lot of potential. I know I can help her.” A single tear escaped as I thought about the fact that I wasn’t likely going to be able to help her out. This was a failure on my part, I knew it.

“Chin up, Twi.” I felt a hoof wipe the tear away. “Everything will work out in the end, I just know it.” That was incredibly vague. It also didn't answer question about what she would have done. “I don’t know what I’d do if I were you, but it doesn’t matter much anyway. You’ll come up with an answer. I know it.” I wished that I had that sort of optimism about me, At least I had finally gotten an answer to the question, though, even if it wasn’t going to help me much. Rainbow started to hover. “Well, I got what I wanted to say out of the way. Time for me to go take a nap, maybe get bust some clouds up. Today’s going to be a pretty slow weather day.”

Before I had any time to say anything else, she started to speed away.

Sunset Shimmer

I wondered if this was what prison was like for more than a day.

The meals I ate were brought in, just like I imagined normal prison was like. I was restrained to a single room, just as I imagined a jail cell was. There was no way for me to move in that room, much as if I had been chained to the wall. I wasn’t able to use magic, though that was through nopony’s fault here. That was just a huge fluke. There was one other thing that made me think this was similar to some sort of prison sentence.

I was bored out of my mind.

I had read the first two chapters of that book, a charitable name for that filth. It wasn’t like I was some sort of art critic, or book critic, or even a big reader. For all I knew, there was something complex about the story that I was missing. In the end, though, I found it to be one of the most boring things I had ever encountered. Not only that, but the characters seemed shallow, the plot points were things that I had no difficulty predicting, and it seemed to rely on brutish action as opposed to a well crafted story that was capable of taking me in.

I wanted a story that had a central idea to it. I was willing to throw the action away, or at least put it to the side. If I was going to read during my time, and consider it an enjoyable experience, it had to have deep characters. They needed to have personalities that couldn't be described in a single sentence. These characters needed to be able to say they had growth as characters, as ponies. These shallow characters of Daring Do were just some of the least interesting characters I had ever had the misfortune of reading.

Wow, I became a snob after reading a couple of chapters of this book.

I ... I was staying away from recreational reading. I couldn’t remember if I was ever like this before, but it didn’t matter much. I was certainly like this now, and I liked it better when I hadn’t really read all that much.

I really needed to find something else to do.

Twilight Sparkle

I had scheduled the conversation, which was supposed to be preceded by a search, at three hours. I should have been glad that it wasn’t even 9:00 yet, and part of me was. I guess the better way was that I should have been more glad that this wasn’t taking as long as I had scheduled it to. If everything was able to be cut shorter, that meant that I was able to plan out the next day sooner. It also meant that I was able to go see Sunset Shimmer today, something that I hadn’t thought was going to happen.

Next on my list was to head to Sweet Apple Acres.

This was another conversation that I thought might have been difficult. Applejack had worked so hard to be less stubborn, but she was still more stubborn than I thought she would have been. At the same time, it was also good to know that she trusted my judgment in terms of a student. Maybe this was going to be another time when my perceptions of my friends turned out to be something that actually held me back from being able to see them for the amazing ponies that they were.

I had to wonder why my recent fears led to the idea that I was a bad friend.

Maybe that was something that I needed to talk to all of my friends about at once. There was always those incidents with Spike and Rainbow, they definitely didn’t help me in that area. I was a bad friend to them, though. I had to wonder if that was the only thing that was shaping the way that I thought about everything. These past couple days had been more difficult on me than expected, at least from a mental perspective.

Everything was so much easier before I had gone to the Crystal Empire.

As I continued to walk down the road, the scenery changed to apple trees. These weren't just any trees, though, these were Sweet Apple Acres trees. These apples made some of the best cider around, at least the best that I had ever drank. These were also the trees that ere almost completely bare. It made sense, Applebucking Season had just ended a while back. There were likely some trees further in that hadn’t been completely harvested yet. I remembered they said something about how the trees were set up to grow in stages.

I had the notes written down back at the library.

With the way that the weather teams worked, it was possible to have certain trees grow their fruits faster. It was also likely something to do with Earth Pony magic, a field that I wasn’t as well-versed in as I wanted to be. That was another topic that I needed to talk to Applejack about. There was a chance that she could have helped me figure out more about it. I knew that the connection to nature was magical, that it was what helped the Earth Ponies grow food in such large quantities, but I didn’t know much more about it beyond that.

It was about this time that I felt an apple smack against my head. That snapped me from my thoughts, and focused my attention on the young filly that was standing there in front of me. Applebloom was standing there with her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I had to think a moment about why they weren’t in school. It wasn’t the weekend, it wasn’t a holiday that I knew of, and it wasn’t late enough for them to be out of school.

When all else failed, the best source was the children themselves.

“Shouldn’t you guys be in school?” That was far more blunt than I probably should have been.

“We were.” Sweetie Belle started. “We were in school, learning about the myths surrounding Nightmare Moon.” I remembered how they had taught it. They had been wrong, of course. Every book I had read, ones that were Elementary School Level, all mentioned that it was a legend that was passed down to scare foals. Bad foals would have been told that they were going to have to behave if they didn’t want to face down Nightmare Moon. Not a single book at their level even considered the idea that she might have been based on a real figure.

It also didn’t think of the possibility that the use of her as a scare tactic was something that came long afterwards. When I had learned more about it myself, from sources that were more thorough, I had been tempted to go back and tell them how wrong they had been. I had been so tempted that I had actually argued my point to one of the many teachers that had taught me through the first few years of my schooling, one who I actually respected a great deal.

Of course, it hadn’t ended with either of us being in a good mood.

That had little relevance on the discussion at hand, though. I was also sure that they didn't care about how inaccurate the lessons were. In fact, I guessed that Scootaloo probably hadn't even been paying attention to most of the lesson. She seemed to be a lot like Rainbow Dash in that way.

“Scootaloo was asleep, of course.” My hypothesis had turned out to be correct. “I was taking some notes about the history of using Nightmare Moon as a tale to scare foals, when Ditzy ended up coming in through the window.” Sweetie Belle didn’t look happy about that. Then again, she had always seemed to be the most studious of the group. “Apparently, she had been trying to catch something that had fallen out of a moving wagon, and missed.” That did sound plausible. “We never were able to find the thing that she was supposedly trying to catch.”

That also sounded plausible.

“It was about that time that Cheerilee told us to take the rest of the day off. Apparently, she was afraid we’d get hurt.” Everything was lining up nicely. Ditzy seemed likely to break a window, with herself obviously, and Cheerilee seemed like the type that would have sent her students home to make sure that they didn’t get hurt. “She just said we need to write a small essay about what we feel about the myths surrounding Nightmare Moon.”

I almost wanted to see if they wanted my help, but I had a lot of things I needed to do for the day. Then again, this was a chance for me to help these young students, these three open minds. Maybe if I got everything else done quicker, I could have helped them out with their problems. 
“So, whatcha here for?” Applebloom cut in, pulling my attention away from the possibility of an impromptu reschedule. “Not that ah don’t want ya here, ya normally just don’t show up without a reason.” Each of the crusaders had something that I liked, usually multiple things, and this was one of them. Applebloom really reminded me of her sister right now, which pulled me back to why I was here in the first place.

“Actually, I was hoping to talk to your sister. She’s not too busy, is she?” I hoped the answer was no, and that she pointed me to the right orchard. “I’ll only take a little bit of her time.”

“Sorry, ya got here a little late.” My jaw dropped. I had only been a little late? I had hoped that my unannounced visit wasn’t going to be a problem. “Rainbow Dash just shows up a little bit ago. She said she had somethin’ important ta say to mah sister. I heard some yellin’ just a bit ago, too. I wasn’t tryin’ to overhear, but it was somethin’ that had to do with a Sunbowl Shingle.”

“No, it was Sunset Shimmer.” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“How would you know? You were busy telling me that antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest word in Equestrian.” Scootaloo sighed. “And then I asked what it meant, and you so proved you’re a dictionary in disguise.”

“You’re just mad that I know big words, and that you’re just a chicken in disguise.” Sweetie shot back. “Besides, I heard Rarity say something about Sunset Shimmer under her breath when we were eating.” I had to wonder what that was. Actually, I didn’t have to wonder. This was a perfect time to stop an argument that was forming, this one between the crusaders at least, and figure out more information about what my friends thought.

“What exactly did she say?” I queried.

“I couldn’t understand much of it, to be honest.” Sweetie Belle blushed as she responded. “I just know that when I asked her about it, Rarity told me that it was something she would tell me about later.” It would have been easier if she had just told her sister, but that didn’t seem to be the way things worked for me. Well, no, that wasn’t even remotely close to true. The conversation I had just had with Rainbow Dash had been easy enough.

Where was this negativity springing from?

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat … but I think I should go help stop whatever had caused those two to yell at each other.”

Applebloom stepped in front of me. “Actually, ah can’t allow that. Ah was asked to make sure that nopony interrupts the discussion by Applejack.” That was adorable, but I had things I needed to do. I wasn’t going to be stopped, certainly not if I was needed to go mediate an argument.

“And I was asked by Rainbow to do the same thing.” Scootaloo stepped beside her friend.

This was actually a good friendship letter in the making, if I still actually wrote those. These two were standing up to a pony who was stronger than them. They were doing this because of the bonds that they had with their sisters, in Scootaloo’s case more of an adoptive sister than a blood sister. “I’m sorry, but I really need to-“ It was around this time that I felt some dust hit my face, and my vision started to fade a little.

“Ah learned how to make that from Zecora.” I tried to focus, to get my vision to come back, but it wasn’t happening. My head became heavier, and soon I felt my legs start to shake. This wasn’t the first time I had been hit with a sleeping powder, but it was the first time that I had been hit with one from a filly Applebloom’s age. This said something about her abilities in this field, something that I needed to let her know as soon as possible.

As soon as possible wasn’t right now, though, since I was passing out.

Sunset Shimmer

This room had a ceiling that was comprised of twenty three tiles.

That was something that I had counted before, but it was always good to be sure. I had also counted approximately forty-seven small dots on each of those tiles. There were a couple with forty-nine, but it wasn’t all that important to the overall count. The total number of small dots on the ceiling was … too darn high. I had discovered that scientific fact shortly after they had fed me the thing that they called lunch.

It hadn’t been horrible, but it wasn’t all that great,

My meal had consisted of apple juice, which I was told was given by Sweet Apple Acres, as the drink. The sandwiches had been daffodil with some daisies. There had been two of them. Desert had been a muffin, poppy seed was more exact. It had all been good, the apple juice was actually the best part of the meal. Maybe it was because the rest of the meal had been kind of dry, the apple juice had helped to clear the last bits of muffin from my throat.

And then they left a couple of books.

I had told myself that I wasn’t going to read any of them, lest my snob-side return. At the same time, the description of one of them pulled my attention.

Bella Swan is a student, just wanting to get through her classes. She has recently transferred from Manehattan to a small town school. What she doesn’t expect, though, is what is about to unfold. She might not have been looking for love, but sometimes it happens when we least expect it.

I had never read a romance novel before, and this one seemed to have a lot of awards. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to read this one. It didn’t hurt that it looked as though one of the ponies on the cover was a vampire. I always loved those sorts of ideas. The question about how they were going to have something as amazing as vampires with romance, that was the thing that finally got me to open up the cover.

The title had seemed a little weird, though.

Twilight Sparkle

I was awoken by the sound of laughter. I knew the voice, it was Rainbow Dash. I slowly opened up my eyes, and glanced to see that two of my friends seemed to be having a good time. At least I didn’t need to stop Applejack and Rainbow Dash from fighting, since they seemed to be standing right here in front of me with wide smiles on their faces.

“What’s so funny?” Something did feel weird, but I couldn’t quite place a hoof on it. Well, no, a couple of things felt weird. One of them was the fact that I was apparently tied to a tree. The last time this had happened, it had been because I and tried to stop a larger Spike from wrecking the town. Those had been interesting days, but …

Wait, I was tied to the tree?

“And how did I get tied to this tree?” That was likely the question I should have led with.

“Ah don’t rightly know, Twi. If ah had to guess, though, it was those Cutie Mark Crusaders. They seemed to be pretty pleased with themselves that they stopped anypony from interruptin’ us.” It was about that time that it all came back to me, at least a lot of it did. I had come here to talk to Applejack, and then they had stopped me. Applebloom had hit me in the face with some sleeping powder, some pretty potent powder to be honest, and then they had apparently tied me up.

“And that’s not the best part.” Rainbow moved over, and snatched something from on top of my horn. “They left you something to eat, too. Apparently, they thought this was going to stop you from getting out.” Their method of stopping an alicorn from casting was to place an apple on the horn. That wasn’t actually the worst idea, even if I was sure it wasn’t something that would have actually worked for more than a couple of seconds.

“I have to ask, though, how they even stopped you.” Rainbow continued. “I mean, couldn’t you just have teleported away?”

That was actually a good question, and it deserved a real response. “Well, yes, I could have theoretically teleported out if they hadn’t surprised me. I didn’t have any idea that Applebloom was able to create sleeping powder, let alone something as strong as she was able to make.” I let out a sigh. “Even if I had known, I didn’t think that they would have used something like that.” I looked up to see the two of them staring at me. “I really underestimated them, didn’t I?”

“Eeeeyup.” Applejack responded.

I thought about asking them to help me down, but I knew I could do it myself. The apple wouldn’t have stopped me for long, but now there wasn’t even that. The ropes were soon untied, and they were laying down on the ground. I hadn’t anticipated gravity, though, so I was soon laying on the floor near where the rope had fallen to. A shake of my head, and then I stood back up. There was something that I needed to say, and it was to Applejack.

“So, I hear ya wanted to talk ta me about somethin’ important?” Applejack started, right as I was going to mention it. Then again, it might have been a good idea for me to take a little time and gather together my thoughts. There was no way that I was going to get a second chance. Then again, I had been wrong about how the talk with Rainbow was going to go. Maybe this was another thing that I was, inevitably, wrong about. “Ah also heard it has ta do with Sunset Shimmer, so ah think that ah wanna say some things first.”

That wasn’t expected.

“What do ya think of Trixie?” She asked. That didn’t seem very relevant to the discussion at hoof, but I was going to answer it anyway.

“Trixie is a mare who has made a lot of bad choices, but she isn’t without hope.” I smiled as I looked at my two friends. “I have to wonder what it would be like if she had friends. She reminds me a lot of what I could have been if I had let my position get to my head.” That was true. It was also something that ponies had expected of me, that I was eventually going to snap and get a giant head about everything that had happened to me.

“If she were ta come here right now, would ya be her friend?”

That wasn’t even a difficult question. “Of course. We all deserve friendship.”

“And what do ya think of Discord?”

That was also an easy question. “I think he’s a being of pure chaos, a creature whose existence is focused around destroying harmony.” That was what had happened the time when he had escaped. He had turned my friends against me, much as Chrysalis had. The only difference between those two was that one forced it and the other just tricked everypony.

“Alright. Would ya be his friend if he asked ya?”

That was something that I had to put some thought into. There wasn’t much chance of that happening, I knew. Discord didn’t like me, and I didn’t like him. It was likely because I valued organization, order, and he despised everything about that. Fluttershy had done a lot of good work with him, though, and the two of them seemed to be good friends. If that was possible, then there must have been some good in him all along.

Maybe the answer should have been an easy yes. At the same time, though, I couldn’t forget what he had done. I couldn’t forget, and it seemed as though I hadn’t completely forgiven him yet. Every time I looked at him, or at least a lot of the times that I did, I saw what my friends had done. I saw the creature that had taken our friendship and tried to destroy it.

That was why my answer wasn’t yes.

“No chance of that.” I answered.

“And why not?” The quick question had likely been because she had known what I was going to say. I didn’t know of a single pony, beyond Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, that had forgiven him for what he had done. Fluttershy had forgiven him because that was her way, and the same was true of Pinkie Pie. The two of them were the most likely to forgive anypony really, or at least almost anypony when it came down to it.

“Because he hurt my friends.” I had never felt so right to say something in my life. This was a perfectly good reason in my book.

“That’s true.” Applejack nodded. Maybe that was why she didn’t seem to have forgiven him either. Maybe she had just as much against him. Maybe she had more, actually, there was really no way for me to know. “Are ya gonna push for him to be sent back to stone?”

That was a thought. I had to wonder if that was even a good idea. I didn’t like him, but that didn’t mean that he had done anything wrong. I just wasn’t going to have him as a friend. My personal feelings were just that. I was going to have to deal with them in my own time. For now, though, I just had to put my faith in Fluttershy. She trusted him, she liked him, and so I was going to believe in her. “Of course not. Just because I don’t like him, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be unfair to him.”

That was when it hit me like a brick.

“And now ya understand what ah’m goin’ through.” That had been her point with all of this, obviously. “Ah don’t like Sunset Shimmer. When I look at her, I see a pony who tried to kill my friend. I see a pony that was gonna try ta take over Equestria. I see a lot of things wrong with her.” As much as I wanted to argue that she shouldn’t have seen those, I couldn’t. “At the same time, though, I trust you. I believe in you. If you say she’s not the same pony as before, ah believe ya.”

“If you know she isn’t the same pony, then why don’t you like her?” As soon as I said those words, I realized it was silly. I was being the same way with Discord at times. This wasn’t going to end with me apologizing to the former Lord of Chaos, but it still was something that I had done.

“Do you think that Discord is the same as he was before?” If I was able to say yes, then everything would have been so much easier. That wasn’t something that I was capable of doing, though, so I simply shook my head. “But we’re ponies, we have memories. And a bad reputation ain’t somethin’ that can just disappear overnight. It’s somethin’ that ya gotta work on, somethin’ that needs to be seen. The same can be said about Sunset Shimmer."

"Wow.” That was all I was able to say initially. It wasn’t that I thought that Applejack was an idiot. This was just the second time when I had been proven wrong in my assumption. I had thought that it was going to take a long time to get Applejack to change her mind, and that I was even going to be able to get her to. I had thought that I was going to be able to get her to like Sunset Shimmer. The thing that had happened was less like that, though, and more about how I now understood more about why Applejack thought the way she did.

“Wow what?” Rainbow responded.

“I came here, thinking I could get Applejack to like Sunset.” I started. “I never actually thought about whether or not she had a good reason for disliking her. I just thought that, well, everypony would quickly forgive her and I’d write a letter about it.” That last part was more of a joke, I actually hadn’t written many letters lately. “And now I feel like I should apologize to you, Applejack. I guess I got so used to just fixing problems, I didn’t even think about whether or not this is a problem or if it needs to be just fixed.”

“There’s nothin’ for ya to apologize fer.” Applejack was quick to retort. “Ah know ya, it wasn’t malicious or nothin’. Ya just have had to fix so many problems, sometimes ya just go into autopilot.” That was probably the closest to the truth. “It’s like when ah applebuck. Sometimes, ah just do it. Ah don’t think about it, ah just do it.” Of course, the difference was that Applejack didn’t buck a tree that wasn’t ready, or think that something was a tree that was really something else.

But I understood what she was trying to say.

“Actually, ah was thinkin’ you could tell me more about her. After all, we’re prolly gonna get to see a lot more of her these next few weeks.”

I looked down, the realization that it wasn’t set in stone anymore coming to my mind.

“Actually, that might not be true.” I realized that I had to tell them now. Maybe, if I was lucky, they knew a way to help. Either way, they were my friends. It just felt wrong to not tell them about what had happened. Part of me wanted to put it off, though, because there was the chance that I was going to have to tell the same story to the others.

Then again, there was no reason to not tell Applejack right now.

Author's Note

I decided to split the chapter up, it helps all of us out more.

Chapter 10 Author's Note

I apologize about this horrible chapter. That being said, the next chapter should be significantly better as this went to lay down the foundation for the conflict that I had in my head. And yes, I was purposely vague as to who it is ... but meh.

Chapter 10

Twilight Sparkle

“What do you mean by that?” Rainbow was the first to ask. It was pretty obvious, at least to me, that she had just asked before Applejack had been able to. The question made perfect sense, though. It wasn’t even a month since I had told them, and it was already in question. Of course, a lot had happened in that last month that they obviously didn’t know.

Both of them looked at me.

Both of them needed the answer.

“Well, it has to do with the way this whole thing started.” I looked up at the sky. “When Sunset came back, she was put in a jail cell. It was only because I told Princess Cadanc’e and Shiny that she was my student that I was able to make sure that she didn’t have her horn removed.” I looked back into Applejack’s eyes. If anypony was going to have a problem with the lie, it was going to be Applejack. “It wasn’t exactly true at that point. I hadn’t even talked to Sunset about it, really. It was just the first thing that I thought of.”

“And so ya lied to yer brother about somethin’ that big.” Applejack glared at me, and I moved my gaze from hers. I knew that she didn’t condone lying at all. “Ya know Ah don’t condone lyin’ of any sort, Twi.” I sincerely hoped that there was a but in there somewhere. “But it ain’t like ya had much of a choice there. Ah mean, imagine if they had wanted to cut the wings from a Pegasus… you unicorn seem pretty attached to those horns ya have.”

That was definitely true.

“So Ah’m guessin that Princess Cadance is gonna be takin her back?” That seemed like the logical end to this little story. I didn’t actually know why I had told her that part of it. Maybe I had wanted to make sure that they didn’t hate me for it. I shook my head in response to her question.

“No, it’s what came next.” I continued. “Princess Cadance caught onto my little lie, and she came up with a punishment around it.” I thought about the exact way it had been worded. Cadance had told me that she was to be taught by me and that she couldn't leave the town without me. That was how I remembered it being worded. “Essentially, I’m supposed to keep her in line. She was sentenced to be my student, and to not leave town without me. And she can never go to the Crystal Empire again.”

“That don’t sound like a bad punishment ta me.” Applejack quickly responded. “Ah didn’t figure Princess Cadance had that sort of power, though. Well, banishment from the Empire maybe.” She seemed to be thinking about how to word the next part. Ah wasn’t aware she could force ya to be her teacher, though, if ya didn’t wanna be.”

“That’s where the problem starts.”

“Ah don’t think Ah follow ya.” I figured that line probably wouldn't have made sense on its own.

“Well, Sunset figured it out before I had. She had actually confirmed what I hadn't given much thought.” I looked at Applejack again. “She thinks that I don’t really want her as my student, that I just went with what Cadance had told me I had to do.” She had actually been more than a little rude about it, actually.That wasn’t something that I was going to mention, though. “If she doesn’t want to be my student, I can’t force her to be.”

“Well, Ah suppose Ah can only ask one question.” Applejack’s expression softened. “Is what she said true?”

“What do you mean?” There were two parts. It was possible that I both wanted her as a student and that I was doing as I was told. In my mind, those two weren’t directly incompatible.

“Do ya just want her as yer student because you were told to?”

That was a somewhat tough question.

“Well, when I first left the Crystal Empire… that had been exactly why.” I tried to think about what it was that had changed my mind. “But the more I thought, the better the idea became. I mean, the idea of teaching a pony is something that just sounds amazing.” If I was able to pass on what I had learned, both about magic and about friendship, it was imperative that I did so.

“Why Sunset, though?” Applejack’s question cut through. “There’re plenty of unicorn around here. Heck, ya could teach Sweetie Belle.”

I shuddered as I thought of it.

“Well, I planned on teaching more than just magic.” I started. “Sunset needs to learn about friendship as well. And I feel like I can really help her out.” Also, it was probably for the best that I didn’t teach a single spell to Sweetie Belle. I wasn’t sure that the results would have been something that even the six of us would have been equipped to deal with.

“But what if she don’t wanna be yer student?” Another question that I hadn’t anticipated. This was something that I really should have prepared for more. If this wasn’t something so big, and so sudden, I probably would have written out possible questions and good answers. That didn’t happen, though, so I needed to be able to think on my hooves.

“I was actually going to ask you girls to help me out with that, once I was able to convince you that she wasn’t evil.” I gave my best, most convincing smile. At least, I think it was my best and most convincing. “Well, the big thing was how she said no. She said, after I rescued her from the timberwolves, that I had … risked my life for some pony that I didn’t have to care about.” Those words seemed weird even as I said them.

“What did she mean by have to?” Rainbow cut in.

“She thinks that Twi here didn’t wanna have her as student, just that she was ordered to.” Applejack answered for me. “Of course, that just proves she don’t know Twi at all.” She turned from Rainbow to look at me. “Is there anything else? Anything that comes ta mind?”

I tried to think of anything. There was one thing that came to mind, actually, that I hadn’t put much thought into. “Well, this entire time she’s seemed to have this idea that being a princess automatically makes your life worth more … or maybe I’m just overthinking things.” That was something that I was told that I did. “She seemed to have gotten past that until this whole … timberwolf thing, though.” It was either that or she didn’t think that her life had much value left.

“Well, we’ve got a lot on our plate, sugarcube.” That was the understatement of the century. “Ah figure Ah still don’t like her. But it seems ta be important to ya, so Ah figure Ah’ll do whatever Ah can do ta help out.” That was a relief.

That meant three down and two more to go.

“Thanks Applejack.” I was ahead of schedule, and by now it wasn’t something that I was thinking about. On the other hand, the extra time meant that I had some time to spend with my friends that didn’t have anything to do with Sunset Shimmer. Time was a resource of limited quantity, especially when it came to my friends, and I hadn’t been using it properly. “With that out of the way, though, I was wondering if there’s anything around here I might be able to help you with?”

A smile overtook Applejack’s face, and something told me she knew of something.

Sunset Shimmer

I actually liked my newest guest.

Part of me had wished that I hadn’t kicked Princess Twilight out. The last book I had read had been awful. There had been a few more in the series, but I had barely stopped myself from causing irreversible damage to the first one. The characters had been bland, there had been no sense of pace, the plot didn’t make sense, and the world itself seemed to be drawn from the imagination of a pony who just wanted to put herself into her dream world. It hadn’t been fantasy enough that the holes in logic were able to be ignored.

If more books had been like this, I would have been destined to a few more days of complete boredom.

Then my newest guest arrived.

I actually hadn’t known what to think. Apparently, they had ended up talking to one of Twilight’s friends the night that I had run off. When they had first come through the door, though, I hadn’t known what to think of them. I didn’t know what to think of anything that had to do with this town, to be honest. The inhabitants, short of the six that I knew by name, were all a complete mystery to me. For all I knew, this was one of those legendary gossips. I doubted it as I spoke to them, but it was something that was completely possible.

Well, I had thought about it until we really got to talking.

The first subject had been the princesses. I thought that my perspective was unique, but I had been wrong. Apparently, there were ponies out there that hadn’t exactly had the best of times. My guest had a few jokes to tell about the royalty, and I barely kept my laughter from spilling out. None of it seemed completely malicious, it just seemed funny.

When we finally got onto the subject of me, I just started talking. This wasn’t something that I was used to, really. I wasn’t used to the idea that I didn’t have to keep my problems to myself. I normally didn’t tell them to anything or anyone, except maybe a diary. Yet here I was, pouring my problem out. The best part about it came when it seemed as though they understood completely. It seemed strange to believe them, I had just met them after all, but there was just something in the back of my mind that told me to.

“You’re going to come see me tomorrow, right?”

“My dear, I’ll probably visit you again before the night is over.” Those words seemed strange. They only knew me for a few hours, but it seemed that I had a guest that seemed to care. That was a comforting thought. Either that, or maybe I was still feeling the pain medicine. Either way, I was likely to see this guest a few more times before I was let out of the hospital.

I just had this feeling.

Everything was finally going to start turning around for me. Maybe when I got out, I could talk to Twilight. There had been something that my guest had said, something about giving her a chance. If my guest was wrong, then it still wouldn’t have set me back too much. If I had been wrong, then it was possible that I had done something incredibly horrible.

Twilight Sparkle

A couple of hours later

It was a good thing that she had offered lunch after we had worked. Applejack had learned the value of help during harvest, and she had asked me to help with the apple trees. I had been happy to help, Big Mac had hurt himself again. I had really wore myself out, though, with the effort. I kind of hoped that the rest of the day was going to be simple, that neither of my other friends were going to need my help in some magical endeavor.

”You might want to head to the hospital.” A somewhat panicked voice sounded through my head. It sounded like my voice, kind of. Of course, I didn’t know why I would have thought that. ”Sunset Shimmer is about to have a guest that I doubt you’re going to be happy about.” The voice changed from my own to a voice that I was all too familiar with. That didn’t make any sense, though, there was definitely nopony that I thought of that would have been a poor guest for Sunset.

Either way, part of me knew that I needed to check it out.

Chapter 11

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