Pony POV Series: Sunset Shimmer's Cutie Mark

by Alex Warlorn

Rating: everyone
Tags: Tragedy, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance
Length: 5973

Princess Celestia briefly recounts the rise and fall of her brightest and most powerful student to Twilight Sparkle.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series: Sunset Shimmer's Cutie Mark
By Alex Warlorn

"I was proud of you, too proud, to see what you were becoming, to see . . . what I was turning you into."

Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Nightmare-World-Spike-The-Dragon-473977886

Next Chapter:

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries (SERIOUSLY need to be kept up to date, every little bit helps!).

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic And All Related Character Copyright Of Hasbro

Cover art by Fox Moonglow. http://fox-moonglow.deviantart.com/art/Sunset-s-Fall-1-The-Faithful-Student-382137378

PLEASE check out the ton of recursive fanfics of this fanfiction series. A lot of heart went into them! They also answer a lot of unaswered questions. http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/ For heaven sake they rock! Kendell2 and Oracle Mask and Richforce and Ardashir and Jawmax and Persona22 and Dragon of Twilight and ItsFromPeople and all the rest!!!

Alternate title:
"Enantiodromia"

Takes place after 'A Canterlot Wedding' Pony POV Series style.

Published 2014-08-15 05:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-15 05:00:06 UTC

Episode 210: Equestria's second sun

My dear Twilight Sparkle, I remember with crystal clarity when I first laid eyes upon her. A filly you must know about when the time comes.

The bravest filly I've ever known. Ready to take on the world, and with the strength to do it.

The battle against the Shadow Queen's army was brief, but intense. The previous siege had cost my friend Ink Well the use of one eye.

Ink Well is many things, including the second oldest mortal pony in Equestria. Many ponies alive today forget all she's done simply because it happened before their birth. I have heard she contributed to your rebel army's battle with the changelings.

We stood on the gates of Canterlot itself as the dark-things came, determined to drown the world in shadow to make all a world for themselves, and to feed their Queen's desire to live forever.

I still remember the damage I suffered, I healed, but I failed to realize at the time I had been infected by sickness. It would not last long, but it would last long enough.

We had lured them in away from the protection of their Queen's native darkness, and I rose the sun, or I tried to, for the first time in hundreds of years, perhaps thousands, I was struck by a powerful feeling of illness. Normally this alone wouldn't have been enough to prevent my rising the sun. But something unexpected had happened.

The Shadow Queen was one of the many threats to this land, and no less powerful than others. Like Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and several other ancient evils, her powers were immense. Even I don't know if she was a visitor from another domain, or she was a thief of power beyond her, or what she had been before she became the immaterial death-fearing creature she was.

And she had somehow become aware of my illness. I am unsure if she was the one who arranged it in some ways or simply if the Queen of the Shadows sensed the disease lurking in the shadows of my body, but she came to that battle herself. Using her black magic, she covered the sky in a veil shadows, herself, that disrupted my connection with this planet's sun, myself. Combined with my illness, I was unable to rise the sun. Our own trap had been turned against us.

My loyal ponies protected the one who should have been protecting them, I loved them for their trust in me, and all I felt was anger and disgust at my critical moment of weakness.

The Shadow Queen laughed, proclaiming that the city would be covered in shadow, and singing a song of how she'd snuff out the sun and that she would live forever ruling over a cold, still, lightless world. No. She wasn't a devote of Discord's mother. The dread goddess of heat-death would not approve of somepony cheating their end.

I didn't care. I'd raise the sun. I was done failing my ponies. They had put all their faith in me, and I'd die before failing them. Even if I had to shatter my horn to do it.

I heard a guard shout.

"What are you doing here filly?! GET AWAY!"

That's when I noticed her.

She said later she had come because she had wanted to know what the big deal was. They were only shadows. She had one, everypony had one, everything had one. What was supposed to be scary about shadows? They were just glorified absence of light to her. Everypony else had been hiding in safety, none had been there to stop her from reaching the gates from the inside.

The little blank flank looked curiously at the dark monsters.

She looked curiously at me.

There was still no fear in her eyes.

She beheld things composed completely of black magic and knew no fear.

She saw her goddess struggling to do the one thing she was obliged to do, and wasn't afraid.

But I did as the dark-things closed in on what seemed to be an easier target of a foal. Seeing ponies I knew could defend themselves in harms way during a battle I accepted as reality. A small, fragile little filly was another matter.

I felt my magic surge in reaction to my fear for this small child on a battlefield.

If I couldn't raise the sun, I'd have to do the next best thing.

There is something you need to understand one day, Twilight. The sun isn't just what I control, I AM the Sun.

I took to the air, and summoned all my power into myself. "Everypony! Cover your eyes!"

My subjects did so and my form exploded, transforming into a mass of solar plasma and radiating sunlight in all directions. Turning night into day as I became a miniature sun manifested in the sky.

And the battle was over in moments. Her army destroyed, the Queen was sent screaming into the shadows as my light burned away at her form. She'd met her own end later when a brave unicorn was trapped in her ruins and inspired her own shadowy slaves to turn upon her.

Meanwhile I fell to the ground, my sick body spent from both my spell and from the effort of containing the heat and radiation to keep my friends safe. I could hardly move as my form reverted to its original shape.

My friends and the guard rushed to my side. While there was much celebration, there was also the matter the sun had no one able to rise it. I was now even weaker than I had been, even with the queen's veil of shadows destroyed I didn't have the strength...and then, I noticed the foal.

Her eyes remained focused on my horn, she had seen the spell I was trying to cast before erupting into a living sun. And I saw in her eyes a look I hadn't seen in any unicorn's eyes in thousands of years. I saw understanding. My spell reflected in her eyes.

With understanding I had never seen in a foal before, Sunset looked around.

She took in a deep breath, and her horn glowed.

And the sun rose.

But not through any will of mine.

The filly fainted, falling on her side, her tiny body having expended all the mana it held.

Her flank sparkled.

And the symbol of a fiery sun appeared. So much like and not like my own.

Yes Twilight Sparkle, she earned her cutie mark when she raised my sun with her own magic, a feat that an entire group of unicorns told themselves they were responsible for in the three tribes era. As a filly. It should not surprise you, you performed a near impossible for high level adult unicorn mages Age-Spell on Spike at her age when you earned you Cutie Mark at the same time you performed random magic on everything in the room.

The doctors worked with her all day, and all night, before she awoke the next morning.

I did not try to hide who had raised the sun that day.

I was there at her side when she finally awoke.

No fear. Still no fear. She looked into the eyes of her goddess, and she wasn't cowed. She had seen me assume a form that had I not restrained myself could have destroyed an entire army.

"What happened?" She asked calmly.

I nuzzled her gently. "You brought the day, when I was too weak to."

Then she told me she knew she wouldn't be in a hospital bed if she hadn't been in danger after what she had done. She was the most perceptive of fillies.

"What is your name brave little filly?"

"...Sunset Shimmer."

As I looked into those fearless eyes, I had never been so sure of anything before or since, that this was the foal I wished to impart all of my magical knowledge to, this was the filly I wished to offer the chance to become my student.

And yes Twilight, my faithful student, I also took one look at her, and knew, she could brave Nightmare Moon herself and not know fear, and she would be the one to save Luna from herself. And that one day, if Sunset's heart lead her there, that she'd ascend, she'd become an Alicorn, no, she'd become the concept of Magic itself, she'd become the Major Arcana of the Magician.

I could see it Twilight. She was my savior, she was Luna's savior, I could barely resist the urge to kneel before HER and give HER praise and say my life was hers. That all of Equestria would be hers one day if she wished it.

Understand one truth Twilight Sparkle, this truth if nothing else. I never saw her as a tool. I never saw her as a means to an end. When she'd save Luna, I wouldn't cast her aside, whether she ascended or did not, I would not be 'done with her.'

She had a gift Twilight Sparkle, a gift that I was the only pony alive who could help her understand, it was my responsibility as well as my honor to be her teacher. Just as you have been.

She never feared me Twilight, she never cowered before me, she never once drove herself half-mad with the possibility of disappointing me, she never once prostrated herself before me. And I loved her for it. She knew the power I held better than any, and she never once feared me. I loved her so dearly. She spoke her mind freely to me. She never once told me what I wanted to hear opposed to her true feelings. She was the example I wanted my ponies to follow.

She never showed fear, and in return Equestria never feared her. She was praised left and right Twilight, she was heralded as a filly who would grow up to be a great great mare.

There were even a few rumors that flew about of her being my own foal who I had found a way to informally adopt at last.

And if there was any foal I truly loved as my own child before you Twilight, it was her. She had no pony else.

Back there in that hospital, she had taken one look at her flanks, and unlike some foals who are ecstatic, or stunned, there was only mild surprise. I wonder if she was truly not surprised or simply never had anypony to tell her how special earning your Cutie Mark actually is. She took one look at her flank, then at mine, then at her own again. I saw everything click in her mind. She remembered what she had done.

"My special talent . . . it's the same as yours?" She whispered.

I only hesitated for a moment. "Yes . . . yes it is . . . " I nuzzled her, this did greatly surprise her, but the she slowly nuzzled back. "I have much to teach you my little pony."

Yes, she had a cuteceañera, a big one. Not only had sure earned her Cutie mark, she had gotten herself quite the following with how she earned it. She was completely surprised by this, and stunned. She had never had anything like this. I told her to enjoy it, this was her day. She did.

Ponies loved her Twilight. She was the chosen one of Equestria's Princess.

Some unwittingly joked I intended to crown her a Princess of Equestria as well.

I did plan to. I'm not like many petty tyrants who desire ever lasting rule. I desire to rule until someone truly better for the job comes.

Never before or since have I seen such will and drive. She reached for the stars, and I was more than happy to help.

I knew it was my responsibility to teach her, to nurture her till she ascended and surpassed me and became Equestria's new Princess.

That is one trait Chrysalis and I shared my faithful student, we both recognized our responsibility to be the means to which the one who'd follow us would rise above us. Chrysalis was a plague, but she understood what it meant to be a teacher.

I had felt more alive than I had in centuries with her by my side.

I took her into the castle, she dined with me, she was my little sun. Ponies said how there were now two suns in Equestria, the smaller one orbiting the big one. Sunset loved being compared to me.

There were never scary monsters in her closet, her foal sitters joked happily that monsters were scared of her, I almost wish there had been so I could have guarded her from them.

She overjoyed when I carried her on my back and flew her above the clouds, letting her see all of Equestria.

She loved stories about might heroes and powerful wizards smiting the forces of darkness and evil dragons.

Her face filled with joy whenever I praised her for a new spell well done. When she passed a test, be it magic, politics, science, or social dynamics, her first act was to always look to me for my smile and nod of approval.

When the time came that she insisted she join me for the Grand Galloping Gala, she managed to keep a straight face and a calm attitude when she spent half the evening shaking hooves of guests with me and listen to elite pile on empty platitudes and the bland music musicians were forced to play. Heheh. That she did not chose to set fire to the Gala, is the greatest show of self-control I have ever seen. I don't know if I could have resisted the temptation at her age.

And I loved it that she had no qualms telling me how boring it was and how me being there was the only reason she was there.

I even let her sit in with me at Equestria's yearly swap-meet, I think she might have helped keep its flawless track record of no disagreements of unfair trades intact.

She did not even fear Tiamat when she beheld her on one trip I took her on to see some of the outside world, she only politely asking questions about how having five heads, all of them Tiamat, worked. I'd never seen a pony since have such a long, polite conversation with the dragon queen besides my family.

There was also the time three diamond dogs tried to kidnap her for ransom, instead she set their tails on fire.

Of course, slowly but surely, I also let her practice her special talent. I praised her for her beautiful sun rises. And her body slowly building up storage levels of mana that would be scary if most ponies had known about them, if it had been any other pony. For her instead, all it meant was that Equestria's 'Little Sun' was growing.

Her birthdays were divided into public ones celebrated by Canterlot and private ones between just the two of us. We even had the same taste in birthday cake.

And she remembered MY birthday (mortal birthday, my actual birthday predates the concept of time). I know to you, Twilight, that's something you could never miss, but for most ponies, the idea I was BORN is alien. The most commonly held belief is I came into being when Equestria's sun began to burn. Sunset, you, and Pinkie Pie are the only mortals since I became Princess of Equestria to have ever asked...I know it sounds strange an immortal would think birthdays matter, to a degree they don't, but the act of being ASKED my birthdate by someone who genuinely cares...it meant the world to me after thousands of years without it. Sunset never forgot to remind me to tell the chief to make me a birthday cake.

She was an inspiration to all of Canterlot, all of Equestria, a nameless little blank flank filly with no family was now the little sun of Princess Celestia, if she could do it, so could anypony.

She absorbed everything I taught her like a dry sponge, and she was always thirsty for more. And that was the forerunner Twilight, she was never satisfied.

Her progress would have put even yours to shame Twilight, but it was never enough. She wanted to grow faster.

The praise I have heaped on her? That was my failure. I tell you this praise not to make you feel lesser than her (you are not, no more than my sister was lesser than me), but to show you how I saw her then. I saw a perfect pony. I saw the Heavens giving me what I'd waited centuries for as the celestial clock ticked down to the return of my sister. I was drunk on happiness. On the feeling of having my sister's savior, somepony who did not fear me, and a daughter all in one. Drunk at suddenly having everything I could want in another pony. I was so intoxicated on these feelings like a new mother when she has her first foal, or a young mare's first love.

Fear had always been my enemy. So the concept of somecreature without it made me giddy. She was not foolish, she did not go trotting blindly into danger, what use did she have to be afraid?

I loved her with all my heart...and because I let that love blind me...I saw a perfect idealized pony instead of one flawed like everypony else has. And sadly, so did she.

She had gone from nothing to the savior of all Equestria in a day, she had gone from a foal nopony would even look at to the one who everypony knew and loved. I should have known what would happen next.

Sunset spent all her time studying, practicing. Sunset did not trot around Canterlot in fancy clothes, demanding free food from restaurants and being rude to the waiter, I did not spoil her rotten. What I did was worse. I filled her head with the grand destiny that awaited her. The ponies saying her name and praising her accomplishments like she had no flaw. Like how ponies think of me.

She went to social events when they accomplished something for her, not to be with other ponies.

I realized all she had were fair weather friends, or those she made friends with because it advantageous, like a good political pony, but I was her only real friend, her only real family.

She was the 'chosen one', what use did she have for others?

She and Blueblood went on one date, since they were not related by blood. She felt it practical, and fit with how Blueblood at the time saw how royalty were supposed to act...Blueblood was the one to break up with her.

I taught her right from wrong, good from bad, and the sublimates and hard decisions that come with being a ruler. I was no fool in that regard. I'd seen from Discord what a ruler with NO moral compass can be. And I'd never yet been a mother, but I had two mothers to at least teach me the importance of that fact. But Sunset took my lessons on gray decisions, and took them as proof that as Equestria's 'hero' what she did would be the greater 'good', and would out-weight any 'bad' she caused.

I almost wonder if she connected that I had power, with me being right, and that by being more powerful, she'd become 'more' right.

I decided it was time for her most important lessons, of the greatest of magics.

But friendship wasn't something she could create with her horn, she couldn't figure out the magical formula, it was not part of any of the schools of magic, she listened to my lessons on friendship, but it was empty words to her. And she it made no secret. She never had secrets from me. I was determined, but so was she.

She brute forced her way through every lesson or test that was meant to show her that friends were often needed. I then spelled it out for her to her face and she only gave me a blank expression in return, for the first time in her life, I did not see that innate understanding I had been so proud of.

She was confused and angry, she thought I was punishing her when I suggested there were many things she could learn from her 'lessers'. She couldn't see that friendship was the next step in her studies. She thought I was joking, teasing, that it was one of my pranks, or that I had a lesson inside the lesson, there was no way that friendship could be her true lesson even as I told her to her face.

Friendship, was the one form of magic the Element of Magic could not copy from simple observation.

That's something you must understand Twilight Sparkle. Please understand this, Sunset didn't start out the way she was. She didn't grow up lording over smaller children and have a gang of toadies and thugs at her beck and call. She certainly never formed one, not even once. That wasn't who she was.

She did not become what she'd become in a day.

I watched her Twilight, I watch her become cold and cruel. To me, and to the ponies around her.

It only worsened when Cadence was born and I HAD to divide my attentions between them...while Cadence's birth is a memory I will never allow to be tainted, it only increased my perceptions all was well. I had my messiah AND my sister back. And while I was busy feeling on top of the world from my good fortune, I didn't notice Sunset's growing anxiety that she was being replaced, her budding jealous whenever I spent time with Cadence.

I believe proving herself superior to Cadence was another driving force in her fall.

Yes, I exempted little Sunset when describing Cadence's birth to you, I hope one day you can forgive me.

I tried teaching her and Cadence together in hopes having a fellow student on her own level would humble her a little bit...that backfired horribly. It merely made Sunset's jealousy of Cadence clear to me and likely made it much, much worse. Let's just say after that session, our study room had to be repaired from a small scuffle between a young Alicorn still learning to keep her powers in check and one of the strongest mortal ponies of a generation that Cadence hadn't started. Sunset was grinning when Blue Song refused to let me ever teach the two at the same time again. My reproaches did nothing to her but stroke the flames.

I knew if she kept down this path, then someday...instead of saving Equestria from a Nightmare, she might become one herself.

I...I...forgive me my faithful student, these times are not as easy for me to remember and write down as those where the two of us were happy, much like Luna's own fall from grace.

Her ambition became an obsession, and that obsession became an illness.

Sunset wasn't afraid of letting me down, she didn't comprehend failure, she knew she'd pass my test ultimately. But she was angry and frustrated that she was grinding to a halt on this course of study.

So she calmed down, thought about it, and chose to approach things from a scientific and analytical point of view: in short, she chose the worst method of learning about friendship.

Looking for answers, any answers, she began study in the Canterlot library's restricted wing of dark magic. She was not exactly forbidden there, after all, she was destine to be all magic some day. But those spells were dangerous, and she was not supposed to be studying them without my supervision.

I know you aren't thinking it Twilight, destroying any book no matter what it contains is beyond you, but for many, there comes the question as to why those books are kept there in Canterlot 'for safe keeping', instead of being simply destroyed.

I must share with you Twilight Sparkle, dark magic is not inherently evil, but the emotions that its users must draw upon and master in order to command it: anger, hate, greed...fear, are emotions that ponies have always looked down on as 'wrong' to feel. Ponies are emotional by nature, and most emotions for dark magic are uncommon and not felt regularly by everypony, so when they are felt, they aren't known for being properly dealt with. And so when it's called upon, the results are seen as ponies losing control of themselves and being a danger to all around them.

Dark magic has no inherent evil intent of its own, it is merely dangerous, like many tools of misused, but it was not without its worth.

Trixie's mother, Morgan, radiates dark magic, but you know she's not evil. My sister is quite adapt at what you would consider 'dark magic'.

Ironically, dark magic requiring the fear of the user, proved just as frustrating to Sunset. But she found what she thought she was looking for.

Sunset convinced two ponies who were best friends into being her test subjects for a series of dark magic spells intended for her to try and deconstruct how friendship worked. After all, it was a duty requested of them from Princess Celestia's personal student, how could it possibly be wrong? It was for the greater good of Equestria.

I ended her 'experiments' the moment I learned of them, and did my absolute hardest to repair the damage Sunset had done to them. Cadence would have to finish the job when she finished mastering her powers.

"Don't worry," Sunset smiled at me with no malice in her tone. "They signed wavers." They were airtight.

I made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that I was very disappointed in her. That her actions were not excusable, and she was never to carry out research in such a manner ever again.

That combination of words 'disappointed in you', it was like I had spoken a distant alien language from the farthest reaches of the other side of existence where Discord's cousins dwelled.

She didn't know fear, but Sunset certainly experienced pain from within.

She lay inside her tower for days, yes that tower that you lived in, I calmly explained to her why what she had done was wrong. She felt like it had dumped new rules on her in the middle of the test. That I had cheated.

There was when I noticed fear on Sunset's face Twilight: When I told her that this was not how I expected a student of mine to act.

Remember what I said about not being able to handle unfamiliar emotions my faithful student?

I told her she needed time to reflect, to think about things would go if situations had been reversed, and the responsibility she had to others, not just myself.

I made sure Sunset would not get back into the dark magic archive.

I told her that I still loved her, I told she had done something horrible, that she had to make amends, not just for those she had wronged, but also herself, that she was still my student and always would be.

I also made sure she had a pair of guards with her. She was hurt by that Twilight, 'I don't trust you, after all the years I've been with you' is what she heard.

I...I showed her a possibility of what lay down her road if she didn't change it...Her response...wasn't I expected...

Then the worst came...I...it was...

For the first time ever, I underestimated Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset's surprisingly good at getting to places she wanted to be. I had been so focused on the black magic wing I hadn't considered other locations. Her guards came to me at once when she said they had lost her. But by then it was too late.

She...replicated a high level spell that she not quite ready for...She snuck out and observed it from another mage... She cast it...

Or rather TRIED to cast it...for the first time ever, Sunset Shimmer had stepped beyond her current realm of spell techniques, it was a spell that required experiences she did not have. Her response was to pour more power into it.

Thank My Parents, there were no fatalities...

Now you know why I was so upset with you after the Smartypants Incident.

The grin on her face when I found her, she looked at me, sparkles in her eyes even as she was covered in soot and bruises from her misfired spell. I'd… rather not say what spell she cast. It's one you know well.

"Did you see Momjesty?! I did it! I really did it! I'm still a great magician!" She said. She was confused when I didn't smile and nod like I always did when she cast a new spell.

Instead of making my sister's savior, I'd made her opposite. Instead of somepony consumed by jealousy, she was some pony consumed by pride.

I can't repeat what I said Twilight, I just can't.

I...I said words to her that while right, I will never be happy that I said to her. He eyes only getting wider and wider in confusion and shock as I spoke to her. She shuddered as I spoke, trying to make herself smaller, before finally lashing back out at me.

"I DID IT ALL FOR YOU!" She snarled.

She was crying.

I tried to hug her with my wings, just to whisper to her how sorry I was that had failed her, that it was my fault she had become this, that I'd do everything I could to help her. That I'd make it right somehow. She pushed me away before I could get a word in.

"You never loved me! It was always about YOU WANTED!" Her words were...I was...I fell to my knees like I had been run through by a spear. I was crying now. "You saw I could become greater than you, but you could never have that, you can't be all powerful if there's somepony greater than you, so you wanted to CONTROL ME!"

"I never wanted you lesser than me...I wanted the opposite. Not just in power, but in principle and moral!"

"Liar! You can't bear there being anypony stronger than you! That's why you got rid of your sister right?!"

"Sunset...please, you're ill, you need help."

"I've never been more sane in my life! I'm done being your minion!"

And then, she...she left.

And ponies quietly buried records of her and their memories of her so deep it was like all had forgotten she had ever existed rather than face Celestia's chosen had fallen from grace. Speaking of her became an unspoken taboo. At times, I felt like I was the only pony who even remembered her.

She was my light in the darkness Twilight, and I raised her up, and she fell.

And yes...yes, Twilight, Sunset's actions are why ponies asked to cut off or seal your horn...they feared you because Sunset had shown them what somepony that young with that much power could be. And it was because of my mistakes. I'm so sorry, Twilight. From the bottom of my heart I'm sorry.

Twilight...now you know why I was harsh with you at the wedding. Why I let you take care of Spike. Why I did everything I could to keep you humble. Why...Why I acted as I did when that monster wearing my niece's face deceived me at your brother's wedding. Because I didn't want to lose you too. I could not bare to lose a second student so dear to my heart.

For all the praise I said about Sunset...do not think yourself lesser than her. Or that she's the 'favorite' and I 'settled' for you. Neither of you were my favorite. I love you both. And in the end...you were the one who realized what Sunset did not. You were the one who saw the magic of friendship and passed the hurdle she could not...and I'm proud of you for that.

And...I am proud of you for teaching me something else. Sunset was brave...but she was too 'brave'. She knew no fear. And...she forced me to realize that fear is a double sided coin like all things. Yes, it can be a mind crusher, but it can also be the force that prevents us from making rash and foolish choices. It also makes us listen to the warnings of those wiser than us. Sunset having no fear...was not the virtue I believed it to be. It had a negative side I was a fool to not see.

While I wish you feared me less, Twilight...I'm glad you feared me as a teacher enough to listen to my warnings and not become a monster. I am proud of your for that.

I thank you for what you told me after the wedding. You have been a wonderful student, it does not undo my mistakes I made with Sunset, but you have let me know that at least I was able to help you learn what I failed to teach her. You've helped me, no, you've healed me incomprehensibly. I'm so proud of you. Thank you my little pony.

When my sister returned and we could reopen the Truth? I saw another timeline...one where you and Sunset were BOTH my faithful students. Where you taught each other friendship and were close as sisters...And yes, there are timelines were I never took you as my student, but I'd be lying if I said I don't envy the me that has you both more...

...I simply miss that which I've lost. Just as I missed my dear lost sister when I was forced to banish her...I'm just an old mare mourning the loss of her first child.

But please, I ask you too, do not neglect your parents for my sake, they love you, and raised you into the foal who'd be worthy to be my student. Starlight Sparkle is a wonderful mare, be proud that she's your mother. Listen to her feelings, respect what she has to say, and know she always has your best interests at heart, even if you...you think she is holding you back, she isn't, she is supporting you, and will support you no matter what. Because she loves you, even if you say you hate her, even if you turn your back on her, even if you leave her, even if she has another foal...she'll...she'll still completely love you.

++++

I put down quill, dried the ink with a thought, and folded the letter and placed it within an envelope.

"Luna, if anything ever happens to me again, please give her this letter, it contains truths I may not be here to tell when she's ready."

"We'll put it next to the other prepared letters telling her how much thou love her."

"Thank you Luna."

Princess Celestia looked at the mirror, right now just lifeless glass, how many years had passed or hadn't passed on Sunset's side?

Princess Celestia gently rested her forehead and horn against the perfectly smooth surface. She placed a hoof on the mirror, imagining a bright yellow, almost orange hoof on the other side touching hers.

No pony saw the sun cry.

"Please my little sun, come home, all is forgiven."

~Fin

Author's Note

20140909: Added a small BUT VERY IMPORTANT SCENE involving Sunset Shimmer noticing her cutie mark for the first time. I can't believe I missed it before.