29 Hearts, Ace of Spades

She was sitting in the window seat of the fastest train she had ever been on, watching with a growing amazement in her eyes as the scenery gradually faded from the plains of the inner Equestrian lowlands to the mountain pines of the Canter mountain ridge. And she wasn’t the only younger filly piled around the train’s rather small, blurry windows. Even if they were still winding their way through wilderness, everypony knew they were close to Canterlot now. Close to what would perhaps be the biggest stepping stone of their lives. Though she was pretty sure she was the only one thinking about it that way. Everypony else on the train was raising her voice, shouting about this tree or that river and other bits of scenery that didn’t fly by in a flash.

But she didn’t join in with them, mostly because she didn’t want to cause a scene of gaggling ‘admirers’. And she hadn’t really lost her little tinge of a Nottingham accent. She had a good feeling the colts would ogle her a bit more if they heard it come out strong in one phrase or another. She really had too much on her plate at the moment, what with the small, well read letter in her lap and the changing scenery to gaze at. The Royal Isles had hilly bits, sure. Even sheer cliff faces that dropped hundreds of feet into the ocean. But there was nothing quite like this back near her old little small town schoolhouse. A steep drop through a gangly pine forest to a rushing river on one side and a solid granite incline on the other was awe inspiring, and a little intimidating.

But like all the changes in scenery she’d experienced on the trip, the building mountains eventually ceased to capture all her interest. She faced back to the front, and tried her best not to read that little letter for the upteenth time. But she couldn’t help it, and it was floating up to her eyes in sky blue magic with but a wisp of thought.

Dear Student,

No, that was the wrong sheet of parchment. The one everypony on this train had received at some point or another. She shuffled through the various pages of that first letter, and eventually extracted her prize. It was more valuable to her than anything else she’d ever owned, even the bag of brand new magical theory and spell books tucked beneath her set. More than the express train ticket that was now up front with the conductor. She really did compare it to the doll her mother had hoof stitched for her, Ms. Smarty Pants, who was currently stowed in her small travel bag. She brought the parchment to eye level, again admiring how clean and elegant the hornwriting was…

Dearest Sunset Shimmer,

I know you have never met me in person, especially living in such a faraway place from Canterlot as the Royal Isles, but I want you to know that ever since you started your extra magic classes in preparation for your new school, I have been taking a special interest in your reports and those of your tutor. They intrigued me so, the way your wrote and the things you observed, and I shall admit I was quite tickled reading some of them. You, Sunset Shimmer, have an aptitude for magic that I am always on the lookout for, and your desire to change the world for the better through magic, what with all your small suggestions, is something I more than look for. I admire ponies with that mindset. So, it is with great enthusiasm and anticipation that I invite you to become my personal student while you are at school. It is my sincere wish you will accept and will be as eager to learn all that I have teach as I am eager to teach it to ears which will gladly listen.

Your’s in Harmony.

Princess Celestia Aegis

A slight, excited giggle escaped her lips as she swung her hind legs in place and brought the letter closer to her chest. Becoming the princess’s personal student? Little her? From what amounted to no-where land? It wasn’t even something she’d dreamed or wished it was so far fetched. And yet there the letter was, really inviting her to be that special pony so many other fillies and colts living closer to Canterlot wished they could be. What had she written, or better yet, what had Madam Dove Light written to the princess that had intrigued her so? Perhaps it wasn’t anything in particular, just her enthusiasm. She’d made sure to have that, even if the subject had been as boring as listening to her mother describe how to cook. Of course, there had been times when she could barely contain her excitement, and it was probably those reports the princess had liked.

She shook her head with a small sigh. She really couldn’t rationalize or figure out why she was particularly special to the princess. She watched all the fillies and colts still clambering around the windows, some of them beginning to argue over what the clouds looked like today. Maybe it would all come out in the classroom. She tried just leaning back and relaxing, maybe take a nap, but it was silly to imagine that would happen when she was so close to the school, and she’d not been able to do it the whole trip.

Still, leaning her head back and closing her eyes did seem to help to calm her anxiety a little. “You from around here? The mountains don’t seem to fascinate you like everypony else.” Sunset jolted up, eyes wide and looking for the pony that had managed to sneak up on her like that. But when she looked to the seats around her, there seemed to be nopony around. Her brows furrowed, already disliking this pony’s idea of a joke until… “Up here you.” Sunset whipped her head back and sure enough, there the source of the voice was, curled up and looking rather comfortable in the baggage rack. “There ya go,” she said once Sunset had fixed her blue eyes on her. “Well? You from around here?”

“No,” Sunset said, and immediately looked away and clamped her hoof over her mouth. Her accent wasn’t that strong was it?

“Ooooo! You’re all the way from Trottingham?! That’s so neat!” the filly above her said.

“Not when all it gets you is stares from everypony,” Sunset mumbled and ended up sighing. Yes, it seemed her voice really was pretty strong on the Royal Isles side.

“I think your voice is kinda pretty,” the filly said. “Oh! Forgot to introduce myself…” Sunset darted her eyes back up at the sound of magic, but the filly above her had already teleported off the rack and… ! Sunset winced and looked back to the end of the end of the car where she was plastered against the door. “Heh heh heh…” she muttered, falling back to the floor. “Forgot about the train’s speed…”

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked when she had wandered back over to Sunset’s spot and taken the spare seat next to her.

“Oh, that’s not the worst I’ve done,” the filly smiled, and now that Sunset could see her properly, the smile was a perfect match for her. She was a royal pink, with a deeper pink mane with white stripes running through it. It was long and rather bubbly and her eyes totally clashed with everything else in bold forest green. “I’m Flora von Arts, by the way, but I’d like it if everypony just called me Arty. What about you, Trottingham filly? What’s your name?”

“Royal family huh?” Sunset asked, reaching out with hoof to shake the one offered. “I’m Sunset. Sunset Shimmer.”

“Oh, not anymore!” Arty sputtered in amusement. “A long, long, long time ago, yeah, but I’m just from a family of unicorn sculptors. No good at it myself to be honest.” Arty sighed expressively, probably reminiscing. “What about you?” she asked. “I don’t know jack squat about the Isles. What’s it like there? What’d your family do?”

“Oh…” Sunset said, trying to figure the best way to avoid the latter part of the question. “Um… it’s rainy, kinda dreary, but there’s always something of a sea breeze, so that’s nice. The Isles aren’t really as great as everypony makes them out to be.”

“Awww,” Arty whined, seemingly to be genuinely disappointed. “Well, I just wanted to be sure you were alright over here by yourself Sunset. You looked kinda lonely and stressed out.”

“Just a lot on my mind. It’s no big deal, honest,” Sunset found herself smiling. This filly was a lot like Dad that way.

“Well, don’t lose that cool voice you’ve got, being around all us mainlanders,” Arty said, standing up and looking back at Sunset as she meandered back the crowd of others. “We’ll actually have something unique about our class if we’re in the same one!” And she skipped away, cheerful as ever and leaving Sunset with a nice ghost of a smile on her lips. Things might not be so hard to get used to with ponies like her around, but Sunset idly wondered if she was the only one who had read most of her textbooks beforehoof if Arty was any indication of the type of filly and colt she was going to run into at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

* * *

“Corrugan! Oh, for the love of…! Could you at least try to look like a professional?”

“I am a professional, Ocean,” Corrugan replied drearily, refusing to not nibble on the arm of his glasses as he looked over the roster and also not look a bit more than relaxed in his chair. “Just not your kind of professional.”

“You are an absolute terror to the School, Corrugan,” Ocean Sky said, indignant, like she did every semester when a new class of students arrived. Well, not every semester. Just the semesters when he was to get a new class.

“Keep saying it, and maybe one day the princess will believe you,” Corrugan said absently. After three years teaching at the school, this was pretty much routine. “Hmm, make a note of the colt named… Inch. Let’s see… yes, Star Inch. From the same place in Baltimare as Incense from last year.”

“Noted,” Ocean answered briskly. A brief silence endured between them, and Corrugan continued shuffling through the roster’s many finite details, his yellow eyes never leaving the sheets of paper. On some levels, he considered this part of his job to be close to the most important. There were things he would be teaching these fillies and colts… he couldn’t take chances with them. “You seem more melancholy this semester,” Ocean spoke up, surprising Corrugan enough with the sincerity in her voice to bring his attention away from the roster. “Something bothering you?”

“Not in particular,” Corrugan answered, turning back to the papers. “Honestly, everypony would like for their classes to finish with less than a sixty percent attrition rate.”

“I thought you liked it when you completed a class run with the best in the school?” Ocean smirked. “Or are you finally becoming normal like the rest of us?”

“Don’t patronize me Ocean,” Corrugan nearly growled from behind the glasses he had returned to his face. “If you’re just trying to remind me of Spoke from my last class right before I get a new group, that’s a new low even for you.” She humphed and looked away. Good, he’d disarmed her for the moment. Kept her from leading him on. He really didn’t need to be thinking about Spoke right before the train arrived. He had been a unique case, and the liklihood… Whatever. He wouldn’t think about it.

And thankfully, a certain somepony chose that moment to at last show up on the train station platform, yanking him out of the downward spiral that vindictive bitch Ocean had sent him into. “Princess!” Ocean reacted immediately, while Corrugan’s own eyes only further half lidded against the backdrop of the roster. Of all things he had earned over the years, an ease in Celestia’s presence was perhaps the most relaxing, especially when other ponies didn’t have it. Ocean gave a courteous bow before turning to watch for the coming train again.

“Evening Ocean,” Princess Celestia responded with that soothing serenity that seemed to make the whole world more quiet. “Are they still on schedule?” Corrugan’s eyes flicked up momentarily when Ocean’s horn lit in its pearly magic, but returned to the papers almost immediately.

“Ahead of, actually,” she reported. “Anything else you require, Princess?”

“Time with Corrugan and the new students,” Celestia answered, just as Corrugan flicked his roster closed and brought the stack of paper into his lap. “You can head on back to your office and be sure the rooms are all in order again if you like, but if you want to go home for the day, Corrugan and I can sort out any mishaps that come up.”

“I’ll do a final check,” Ocean said with another bow before trotting off. Silence. The princess strode up to the bench where he sat and watched the tracks as calmly as he did. He still couldn’t be sure if he had picked up it up from her or if her look had changed being around him. Still, he was glad she understood when silence was better than words, encouraging or not. They simply watched together, waiting.

But, as peaceful as he would like it to stay, he had a new class of bright and eager unicorns soon to be arriving, and there were still some questions he needed answered. “You gave me yours again,” he said, coughing a bit from the odd way his voice seemed to sound after having not said anything for a good couple hour. “Is there anything special about her that I should know about?”

“That’s all you want to talk about? My new student?” Princess Celestia asked, a note of surprise and concern in her tone. “I’d have thought -”

“I don’t let it bother me by not bringing it up,” Corrugan cut her off. “I understand where both he and I went wrong, and that’s all there is to it.”

“But you still haven’t forgiven yourself,” she observed, appearing as all-knowing as always.

“I don’t think I can, nevermind whether or not I should,” Corrugan said. “It won’t happen again. I know the signs now. Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

“No,” she smiled at him. “Are you ready for this round? I hear the foals get roudier with each generation.”

“Heh, you would know, having taught me, wouldn’t you?” he chuckled back. “Yes,” he sighed, “I suppose I am ready to get back to teaching. I’ve missed it really. Things’ll be better this semester.”

“That’s the Corrugan I know,” she said softly, and he felt a great deal of his tension drain with the touch of her feathery wing embrace. “You’ll be okay. She’ll take a shine to you I think, having read her reports.”

“One can only hope,” he smiled. “Ah… The roster checks out by the way. No hiccups, besides needing to watch a few based on their hometowns, but only one needs actual official watch. I can keep an eye on the rest.”

“Good to know,” Celestia said.

“So… other than that, we just have to wait for the train to get here,” Corrugan nodded, and he sidled out from beneath his old mentor’s wing. “And I think it might be best if they met you inside, instead of on the platform.” He grinned. “Awe-inspired paralysis isn’t a great way to start the semester after all.”

“Cheeky,” Celestia answered and returned his grin. “But true. Don’t scare them too much.”

Corrugan removed his glasses with a hoof and twiddled on of the arms in his mouth and winked. “Of course not. Have to save that for the classroom.”

* * *

“There it is!” somepony shouted, and Sunset found her eyes opening with a bleary slowness. They fluttered a bit before she loosed a massive yawn and lifted her head off the train car’s window sill. “There’s the school!” the same somepony shouted again, and any sense of waking aches and stretches vanished from her body. She nearly threw her face at the window, peering out into the inky darkness that was midnight on a mountain road. And sure enough, there were pinpricks of light winking from up ahead. They weren’t close enough to form a visible outline just yet, but whatever the shape, it was definitely large. And the way those lights could be seen from so far away, they were too.

Sunset wasted no time, her magic lighting up her horn and everything around her. Suitcases came off the rack, letters were refolded and stowed, her blanket was tightened back up into a neat bundle, and she arranged it all in a compact stack in the seat next to her. It was all ready to go to get off the train when they got there, and… everything was also oddly still. She turned her head away from her stack, and there was everypony else in the car, quite literally staring at her. Some had open mouths, but most were just wide-eyed. “Um… Hi?” She laughed nervously. Everypony just blinked, and she tried nodding to them but it felt like it ended up weird.

Instead, she ended just back in her window seat, luggage stacked neatly beside her while everypony else on the train slowly broke out into conversation again. She huffed and closed her eyes, forehooves in her lap. That had been a close one. Levitation wasn’t all that hard, but… yeah, maybe she shouldn’t have done everything all at once. Luckily, everypony was content to just point and mutter at her, which she preferred over attention, either good or bad. But despite being on that verge of ponies trying to talk to her just because she was good at magic or had an accent, the glimmer of the lights from the school kept her mood up. There were teachers there, books there, and everything that had just plain been out of reach in a little earth pony village like Trottingham. And of course, Princess Celestia herself was there.

She eventually ended up pulling her book on the history of magic out when the school ended up being quite a bit farther away than anypony had anticipated. So while the other foals were bored out their minds and complaining almost constantly, Sunset continued on from where she had left off in the book, coming to a fascinating little bit on griffons discovering magic and ways they could use it. The chitter-chatter from them that would have driven her crazy back home eventually joined the drone of the train on the tracks, a rhythm good for reading. So good in fact that she was almost startled up when the squealing of the brakes announced their arrival.

For once, she was just like all the rest of them. Clambering and nervous and trying to be sure she hadn’t forgotten anything in her seat. They all filed out with their luggage, levitating it out with a rainbow of magical auras. She had been told every car held a full class, and when she stepped out onto the platform, looking left and right in wonder at how regal everything looked even the flickering light of massive fire bowls, she wasn’t surprised. Hundreds of colts and fillies from all over Equestria were taking their first steps onto the school’s grounds and the noise level felt appropriate. Sunset wandered through the mass, trying to get to the front to see if the princess was there to greet them all. But it seemed she wasn’t alone in that desire, and the flood of shoulders eventually sent her into the pavement.

It stung, but wasn’t terrible, and at least it hadn’t been on purpose. And she’d held onto her levitation field, so that was a plus. She winced and fought back the tears of the throbbing she could feel in her nose and took a deep breath. This was just to be expected. Once she got to her room, once she started classes, it would all be so much better than Trottingham had been. She shook her head to clear it and continued to attempt to make her way up closer to the front. But she and everypony else was stopped when a massive blast of magic sounded across the platform, a pulsing, brilliant yellow amalgam of shapes glowing directly before the entrance to the path leading to the school proper. Not a few fillies (and colts, she thought) screamed and even more stacks of luggage could be heard collapsing on the ground. Otherwise, everypony had quieted.

And it disappeared as soon as it had flickered there for a while. But standing behind where it had been was a stallion, a deep grey with what Sunset thought was more appropriately a gorgeous mare’s mane. “So!” he called out. “Now that you’ve all shut your traps and decided to pay attention to something other than being someplace new… we can begin.” He paused and walked to one side of the path’s entrance. “My name is Corrugan, and I am one of the instructors here at the Princess’s School. For every train full of young minds that come through these gates, an instructor meets them here. Most greet them, let them know how welcome they are, and on, an’ on, an’ on and so forth.” He took a deep breath and paced to the other side. “I do say welcome, and I want to wish every one of you good luck in choosing to take on this challenge so young. However… I want you to know that before you step with me onto these ground… the things you will practice and learn here are not to be taken lightly! You will be taught techniques that some of the greatest, blood-thirsty mages used at the height of their power! This course in life is not only exclusive for the talented, but exclusive for the strong willed. So with that warning of what you will encounter, you will all follow me in rows of six up to the school proper.”

And without any further acknowledgement, he turned and began walking, leaving many of the ponies in the front scrambling to organize the way he had instructed. Oh yes! Sunset just shuffled along with the crowd, her mind flying through thought after thought with little effort. This was the home of the greats! The place where so many ponies had learned the basics before going on to improve upon the world. And if she had anything to say about, Sunset was determined to follow faithfully in their hoofsteps. And really, she couldn’t imagine anypony better than Princess Celestia herself to show her how walk that road.

* * *

Sunset had been expecting grandeur of the kind that was spoken about of Canterlot Castle, not the complete mind bend of this school’s main hall. Rather than be constructed like a hall, it was more like a tower, and she and the other new students were now crowded inside the central portion. White, gold, and violet decorated everything, with windows adorned with sill flower beds letting in the cool summer air and sound of crickets and frogs. Ahead of them, a single massive spiral staricase ascended, with branching stone catwalks extending off from it at every floor. This was going to be home for almost a year. She found herself absently shaking her head in disbelief and didn’t bother correcting herself.

Murmuring conversations were breaking out from the foals who had managed to stick together now, and the instructor, Corrugan, wasn’t anywhere to be seen. At least, she couldn’t see him. She milled about for a while, but it seemed that general uncertainty had settled over the entire crowd. Well, until Corrugan seemed to just appear again. Sunset cocked her eyebrow in curiosity. Was he really that quiet or was there some kind of teleportation magic that was designed to be silent? She’d ask him once she’d gotten settled in. “Everypony, listen up!” Corrugan shouted, and just like when he had flashed the emblem in the air outside, they all let their voices die down. “These are going to be your teachers for the next year,” he motioned to a stern, serene group of mares and stallions descending the main staircase, and continued, “They have the names for the ponies who will be in their class, as do I. But before we split up and take you to your rooms, there is a certain somepony who wants to speak to all of you…” His voice went from commanding to fond for only the briefest moment, but Sunset caught it. She’d heard the same thing back home often enough.

But any thoughts of well, anything, floated away when she stepped into the main well. Princess Celestia. She almost seemed to cast her own white glow against the darkness of the night, as if the fires dimmed to her superior light. She was tall, regal, and far more imposing in person than Sunset had ever thought possible in a pony. And quite suddenly, she found herself wondering if being under the tutelage of somepony so beyond her was the blessing of a lifetime or something else entirely. But then she spoke, and Sunset saw her eyes, and that worry melted. “Is everypony tired or just nervous?” she asked, an almost foalish glee entering into her smile.

“Nervous, Princess,” the general consensus made it’s way from the mouths of the few braver ones.

“Well, nothing will help nerves like a good night’s sleep in a soft bed,” the princess replied. “I just wanted to see you all at least once before everything really started, and you were all too tired to be excited. So, I imagine Corrugan here gave you some dire warning about the education you will receive here…” Sunset’s eyes darted to the stallion, who seemed to smirk in appreciation of her jab, “and I want to add to that. While you are here, and even after when you are among the world’s most skilled mages, be the pony that would make me, Equestria, and the world proud to know you.” She smiled at them all, and Sunset could have sworn she winked directly at her, though she could have known who or even where she was seemed absurd. “Get a good night’s rest. I’ve been told you new students get put through quite the wheelhouse the first week.” A little laugh escaped her lips before she whispered something to Corrugan and returned back up the stairs, taking her beautiful glow with her.

“A’right!” the stallion brought everypony out of the awe from seeing the princess so close. “I’m calling out my class first, and want you to make your way to me so I can show the wing for our class! These other guys’ll take over for their classes all down the line. Now! First on the roster!

“Shimmer, Sunset!”