Summer Vacation in Equestria

by Scout Charger

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Human, Alternate Universe
Length: 17092

With the Sirens taken care of and a lot of free time at her hands, Sunset Shimmer got an intresting suggestion to spend her vacation.

At Canterlot High everything is back to normal. The Sirens are gone, the exams have been written and Sunset Shimmer doesn't get the evil eye from everyone who passes by anymore.

In Ponyville everything is as normal as it gets and life goes it's usual ways. With her castle properly furnished and only the everyday business of royalty to attend to, Twilight thought it was time to arrange something special.

And so, when she least expected it, Sunset Shimmer got an official invitation from Princess Twilight Sparkle to visit her in Ponyville for a well deserved vacation.

A huge thank you goes to Basic Information for proofreading and errorhunting, thanks man. For all of you who don't know him yet, chek him out, he has some realy awesome stories up. :ajsmug:

Also a huge thanks to Crimson Ink, who helped me out as a test audience, you should chek her out too, her stories great and she is one of the cutest things to ever be on fimfiction. :twilightsmile:

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-19 10:25:51 UTC

Returning Home

The girl stood at the base of the great statue in front of her school’s entrance, staring blankly into the reflection of her own eyes. She breathed, blinked and thought slowly, almost cautiously about what to do. Even her surroundings seemed to get quieter every second she stood there. It was as if even the slightest disturbance could destroy everything.

It should have been a normal afternoon, the first afternoon of summer break to be exact.  Even though it was almost time for dinner the sun still stood high in the sky, heating up the air to an almost uncomfortable degree.

The sky was as beautiful as it would get in this world, a bright blue image of endless freedom, bare of any clouds. No pegasus could have done a better job at preparing it.

The wind had died down completely, as if time itself was frozen. For the people of this world this would have been a perfect moment they could enjoy to its fullest. For Sunset this very perfection was adjacent to psychological terror.

Slight waves rippled across the portals surface, almost as if it was made of water instead of marble. But despite that noticeable unrest, her reflection stared back at her, unwavering. It felt like she was about to ask herself at any moment what she was waiting for.

Her hand slowly reached for one lock of her hair and she slightly pulled it in front of her eyes. It was red, vibrant red hair with bright yellow stripes in it, just like her mane and tale once were. She locked eyes with her reflection and shook her head vigorously. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

An irritated grunt from behind her made Sunset turn her head. “Oh come on! You stood there for like forever and now you just chicken out?” Rainbow Dash almost screamed in frustration.

Rarity cleared her throat and tried to reason. “Rainbow Darling, we really appreciate your ... effort to encourage Sunset, but would you at least reconsider your wording?”

But when Rainbow was going on a rant simple reasoning wasn’t going to stop her. “Why? She just stared at that thing for how long? An hour? Two? And now she just decides to back off. I wasted all that time to see her off and now...”

A light orange hand covered Rainbow Dash’s mouth and effectively silenced her. “You’re exaggerating, we came here about five minutes ago, not two hours. And secondly, I would really appreciate it if you just accepted that I don’t think I should go through that portal. Neither my departure from Equestria nor my last visit there went all that well, if you recall.” Sunset deadpanned.

“Ah reckon that ya should go anyway. Ya did some mighty crazy stuff around fall formal, but Twilight forgave ya. And we showed those fancy-shmancy sirens that they bit more than they could chew when they tried to do their magical music mind control thing at CHS.” Applejack had crossed her arms in front of her chest and tried to give off an aura of confidence.

“Girls, it’s just ...” Sunset heaved a heavy sigh. “Ok, I get that ‘friends tell each other embarrassing things’ part and to avoid any further discussion, let’s stick with that.” The former unicorn folded her arms around her shoulders and looked at her feet. “I’m simply afraid of what will happen. Will I be put on trial for what I did to Equestria? Will those I’ve hurt try to get some redemption? And I have no idea what Princess Luna will do with the knowledge of what I did. I’ve only heard about her, since she was still banished when I left. But if I take our vice-principal for standard, then I don’t want to end up on her bad side.”

The group was encompassed in an uncomfortable silence, when Fluttershy’s soft voice brought all attention onto her. When suddenly all eyes were locked on her, she took a few deep breaths and forced the words out. “Wouldn’t it be possible to, maybe, ask Twilight to take care of those charges? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind to help you out, you are friends with her after all. And she is a Princess.“

Sunset’s eyes darted around, processing the new idea before the corners of her mouth dropped and she shook her head. “We’re talking about assault on multiple officers of the Canterlot royal guard, violation of various royal decrees, high treason, theft against royalty and, to top it all off, attempted murder on said royalty.“

Applejack’s confidence was blown away by the short recital of Sunset’s crimes like leaves in from her apple trees in autumn. She took of her Stetson and scratched the back of her head. “Well ah think ya concerns might have something to them after all.”

Rarity looked at her friends with a serious expression and held true to her point from earlier. “It doesn’t actually matter if we think Sunset’s reasons are sound or not, as her friends we have to accept her decision. Besides, it would not be very ladylike to tie her down and throw her through the portal.” She pointed at the statue to emphasize her point and made a rather unladylike grunt to show her disapproval.

Sunset was about to thank her friends when a sudden pink blur shot past her and she felt two arms wrapping around her waist. She tried her best to shake her attacker off, but the struggle was in vain, she never stood a chance.

Pinkie’s technique was flawless, the speed with which she moved seemed beyond anything a human should be capable of and her grip was so powerful, it felt as if her arms were made of steel.

“PINKIE SUPLEX!”

Before any of the girls could even try to stop her, Pinkie started her display of an outstanding wrestling move. Fortunately, she didn’t smash Sunset head first to the ground when she bent backwards. Instead she loosened her grip around Sunset halfway through her move and hurled her helpless victim at the portal in one fluid motion.

Shortly after she let go of Sunset, Pinkie’s head connected with the ground. But instead of the crash that one would expect, there was only a light thud and the unexpected noise of a spring to be heard. The other girls just watched in awe as Pinkie’s hair seemed to simply absorb her impact and bounced her back up shortly after.

She wore a grin as wide as her face could support. “Ok, what are we doing next?” She almost bounced in excitement, her whole expression as cheerful as ever, just like nothing happened.

“Ahm, Pinkie, if ah’ve seen that right, ya just threw Sunset Shimmer into that portal. What ah don’t understand is why ya did that.” Applejack deadpanned.

Rarity shook her head and was visibly shocked, so shocked in fact that she even forgot to resort to her usual over dramatic reaction. “And I might add that you did this against her will Darling.”

“It was very, very rude to do that, even if you meant good.” Fluttershy spoke in an almost normal volume and was as close to furious as she could get, at least without dark magic tempering with her mind.

Rainbow’s face was a mixture of shock and admiration. “Fluttershy is right. I’m all for saving us time, but that was a little extreme. Even though I have to admit, that move was really sweet, you got awesome technique.” A sly smile creeped onto her face as she recalled Pinkie’s exact movements.

Pinkie just smiled and waved her friends comments of. “Oh come on girls. You all know that she wanted to go. She was just afraid. Everything will be fine. Twilight will wait for her at the other side and she will see have a welcome back party and all our pony selves will be there and Spike and ...”

“But what will ya’ll do if she gets hurt by that wrestling move of yours?” Applejack interjected with more than a slight tinge of worry in her voice.

“No need to worry, she will land on a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig trampoline.” Pinkie stretched her arms as wide as she could to emphasize her point that the trampoline was really big and a slight shadow of envy crossed her face.

Rarity raised an eyebrow and asked doubtfully. “Pinkie dear, how do you know that?”

Pinkie simply shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

Twilight stood in the room with the mirror that led to Canterlot High and stared at Pinkie Pie with her muzzle hanging open. The Pinkie had practically kicked in the door to the palace and now dragged a trampoline in as if it was the most normal thing ever. Within a few minutes she had positioned it in front of the mirror, taking short breaks from time to time before altering the position of said trampoline.

Finally, Twilight shook her head violently. “Pinkie? Why are you here and why are you bringing a trampoline?”

Pinkie only rolled her eyes. “Well duh, I bring a trampoline because we need a trampoline.”

Twilight deadpanned. “I honestly hoped for that, but for what do we need it?”

“So your friend won’t get hurt.” Pinkie simply stated as if it was obvious.

“How do you know Sunset is coming to Equestria?” Twilight had taken a step back and stared at Pinkie in shock. She hadn’t told anypony about it.

Pinkie suddenly got excited and grinned at Twilight. “Uhhh, it’s Sunset Shimmer? We already asked ourselves who you would keep secret from us. Rarity was sure it was your coltfriend.”

Twilight blushed vigorously and was almost yelling all of a sudden. “That’s not it!”

“Yeah, I was pretty sure about that, Flash isn’t popular enough to appear around here.” Pinkie shrugged and ignored Twilights the shouting.

A few deep breaths and a quick count from one to ten later, Twilight felt like she got her thoughts back on track. “Ok Pinkie, would you pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase explain to me how much you know about her visit and why you know it?”

Pinkie sighed and turned to Twilight. “Well, first I got up this morning and then I had a really strange Pinkie Sense combo. It was all like ‘back knee twitch, left ear flop, itchy nose, eye flutter’ and, oh boy, I had to think really really really really hard to remember that this meant that I needed a one pony trampoline. Then I started to search all over Ponyville for one and got more combos and was really confused about all that. When Rarity, Fluttershy and I had lunch together I got one that said somepony new would come to town. Then I got one that said it was someone famous and Rarity got all excited and started fantasizing about who it could be. Later there was one that said it would be a really really reeeeeaaaaally powerful unicorn and finally, just a few minutes ago I got the one that said I needed to go to a mirror. So I went to a mirror, but the combo came again and again and again and so I tried all the mirrors I could find and then I got this incredible intense one that meant that I had to be at the castle. So I came here, brought my trampoline and here I am, ready to greet a new friend.”

Twilight’s left eye twitched and she had to fight the urge to once again scrutinize that Celestiadamn Pinkie Sense. Especially since all those combos that Pinkie described really set a new standard for the absurdity of her predictions. But there was nothing a few deep breaths and doing a ten count couldn’t solve. Although, in this particular case she didn’t exactly count to ten. She was at two thousand seven hundred and thirty eight when her heartbeat finally had dropped down to an acceptable level.

Pinkie Pie however had checked her trampoline while Twilight was calming her nerves and approved of her setup with a bright smile and a series of quick nods.

Twilight glanced at the clock on one of her reading tables and looked at Pinkie. “Ok, you can stay here for now, but please don’t tell the others about her visit and don’t do anything to scare her off. Sunset wasn’t all too excited when I invited her to Equestria. I want to give her a few days to calm down and make herself comfortable.”

Pinkie’s hair instantaneously deflated and she gave Twilight the most begging pair of puppydogeyes she would ever see. “But I wanted to throw her a party. She is new in Ponyville and she doesn’t have friends here and if she doesn’t have friends she will be sad and if she is sad I want to make her happy again and to make her happy I have to throw a party for her so she can make friends. But without her welcoming party she will be alone and sad and everypony else will not know her and everypony will be sad and that makes me sad and...”

Twilight shoved a hoof into Pinkie mouth and made puppydogeyes herself. “Please Pinkie, just a few days, then we can throw her the biggest party ever.”

Pinkie’s expression turned from sulky to serious in the blink of an eye. “One day.”

Twilight too dropped her begging face and stared at her friend with a steely gaze. “Three.”

“One and a half and only our closest two hundred friends.”

“Give me two and you can invite everypony you want.”

Pinkie’s hair puffed back up and, with a huge smile plastered on her face, she extended one hoof towards Twilight. “Deal!”

Twilight grinned and smashed her hoof against Pinkie’s. “Deal!”

While they had haggled over the date and size of Sunset’s welcoming party, the said girl floated through the chaotic realm between dimensions and cursed herself for not expecting something like this from Pinkie Pie. She knew her unpredictability for three years now, she should have been more cautious. Even back in the evil old days she always had to be aware of Pinkie, otherwise every plan she made was in constant danger to be ruined by her sheer randomness.

Although, was it truly randomness? Strangely enough, more often than not the random event Pinkie Pie triggered led to the best possible outcome of a certain situation. She was either a complete maniac or one of the most intelligent beings imaginable. Having said this, which of those was the scarier possibility was something Sunset simply refused to think about. Besides, if her sense of time and her memory of her last journey were on track, her crash landing in Equestria was imminent.

Fortunately, Sunset’s guess was nearly spot on and shortly after she prepared herself to pass the second mirror, she felt the familiar sensation of passing through an incredible thin, yet extremely cold, waterfall. Her hands turned into hooves, she felt her face changing its proportions and her whole body was shrinking down in size. What really blew her mind however was when suddenly her horn had reappeared and magic was simply everywhere. She could feel it inside her body, as well as all around her and she could feel the indescribable sensation of her mind being able to change the very shape of reality. For Sunset, being a unicorn again was like drowning in a sea of bliss.

But, like all good things in life this too came to an end. In Sunset’s case, the great feeling of being a pony once again simply subdued to the fact that she had no contact to the ground and was traveling at a not negligible speed. Since she would need a few minutes to bring her magic back to use, her options were rather narrow. Truth be told, she could only clench her teeth, prepare for impact and hope for the best.

A sudden noise got Twilights attention back to the mirror where she could see a flying Sunset Shimmer coming through. Before anypony could react, the orange unicorn hit the trampoline and was shot straight up, into the air. By a combination of good luck and a high ceiling Sunset didn’t crash into the roof, but seemed rather surprised by the ongoing events. She looked down and fell back towards the trampoline, bouncing of it once again.

All three ponies watched as the apexes of Sunset’s jumps grew smaller every time she bounced of the trampoline. Twilight's mouth was hanging wide open and her head bobbed up and down, following Sunset’s jumps. The only just transformed unicorn herself however, was frozen in shock and didn’t do much beside staring down at her bouncy lifesaver.

Pinkie Pie, all the while, simply grinned as broad as she could and accompanied every rise and fall of Sunset with a strangely appropriate “Woo-ooo”

All in all, it took barely twenty seconds for Sunset’s jumps to die down. When she simply stood on the trampoline, not moving a muscle, Pinkie sprang into action. From a point outside everypony’s field of view a confetti cannon unleashed its load in the air and Pinkie screamed with her typical grin. “Welcome back to Equestria Sunset. Had a nice trip?”

A blank stare was all the answer the pink party pony was going to get.

Twilight nudged Sunset and looked at her worried. “Are you ok? You aren’t hurt are you?”

Suddenly Sunset Shimmer shook her head vigorously and stared at the two ponies in front of her. “Ooh, ahh ... yes, sorry. I was just ... startled by this ... chain of events.” She pointed at Pinkie. “Let me guess, you are this world's Pinkie Pie?”

Pinkie stared shocked at Sunset. “Are you psychic?”

Sunset rolled her eyes in mild annoyance. “No, but we have a Pinkie Pie of our own at Canterlot High and you resemble her in more than just mane style and color.”

Pinkie’s face took on a look of pure horror. “There are other mes?” Her head darted around to catch Twilights gaze. “We didn’t get all the mirror pool Pinkies!”

Twilight shook her head and smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous Pinkie. Sunset lives in another world, a world filled with beings, called humans, which are, in large part, equivalents of ourselves. I may have not explained it in all the details, but these girls at Canterlot High that I told you about, they are not just friends of mine, they are very similar to you, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Rarity. It’s almost as if they are created in our image, just another species.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Or we were created in their image.”

Pinkie looked at the two other ponies and cocked her head. “I think I’m going back to Sugarcube Corner, I’d like to bake some muffins.” She shrugged as she noticed that Twilight and Sunset were already ignoring her over their conversation. “And you guys are barely two minutes in one room and you are already talking sciency stuff that goes riiiiiiiight over my head.”

While Twilight and Sunset argued about the possibility that one of their worlds actually created the other, Pinkie grinned and bounced out of Twilight’s Castle.

It took Twilight a whole of fifteen minutes to register that Pinkie was gone. And when she looked at Sunset with a questioning look, the first thing she got was a giggle. “Multitasking is clearly not your thing isn’t it? Pinkie left shortly after we started to theorize about multiverses, interdimensional connections and bilateral influences of two of those on each other.”

Twilight raised one eyebrow. “You picked that up while we were discussing interdimensional physics?”

Sunset nodded and puffed out her chest. “It’s quite a useful skill to pick up multiple conversations all around you while having one of your own. Especially if you try to manipulate and control a complete school.”

To her own surprise, Twilight had to admit that Sunset was right. “That ... actually makes sense.”

Sunset giggled. “I may have been more than a little bit power-crazy, but I was no idiot. I knew exactly how to get the other students to do what I want and what skills I needed to do so.”

“Well, your plan to take over Equestria wasn’t that great. I don’t think you would be able to overpower either the princesses or the royal guard.” Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes.

Other than Twilight, Sunset got dead serious. “As strange as it sounds, I don’t exactly know what I was thinking at the Fall Formal. Especially after I put on your element. My memories of these days are a little blurred and it gets worse and worse the closer it comes to the actual Fall Formal. It almost is as if my darker emotions got more and more control over me over time until there was finally nothing else than hatred and the longing for revenge”

Twilight stopped smiling and put a hoof to her chin. “That might actually be possible. The element of magic only appears when all the other five elements are present, which would imply that it has a deep connection to the other elements and their respective virtues. If we assume that you had one or two of the opposites of the element’s virtues inside you, they might have seeped into the element of magic. When you stole the crown you might have accidentally started it’s corruption, which in turn amplified your negative emotions until there was nothing else. And when you finally placed the crown on your head, the corruption took form, which then enabled me and the others to use the magic of friendship to cleanse you and the element itself.”

Sunset rubbed the bridge of her nose. “So, you’re saying that it was a good thing that I got my hands on the crown in the end?”

“It might have been, yes. I don’t know what a corrupted element of harmony would have done to my mind with enough time.” Twilight nodded.

Sunset shrugged. “Sounds solid, but we lack the ability to test your theory. All we have are assumptions, there are no real evidence to back it up. And I’m not really keen on being a test subject again. Getting blasted with friendship-magic once is more than enough for me.” A slight smile creeped onto her lips.

Twilight waved Sunset over and snickered slightly. “Then get down from that trampoline and let’s start your vacation in Ponyville!”

After an extensive tour around Twilight’s castle, including various lectures and stories about nearly everything, Sunset and Twilight reached the throne room with the huge crystalline map of Equestria and the roots of the Golden Oaks Library in it.

Sunsets hooves ached and she silently thanked Celestia for the opportunity to sit down. It was strange to walk on four legs again and the human habit to sit down whenever you can had lead to her legs being sore after merely two hours of walking around.

Twilight on the other hoof was only getting started. When Sunset sat down on a cushion, she walked all around the room and explained her plan for the next day, emphasizing everything she had to say with her wild gesturing hooves. “First thing will be breakfast of course, I already booked a table in the trefoil, Ponyville’s best cafe. They have the best daffodil and daisy sandwiches I ever had. After that we will take a short shopping trip at the hardware store, Mr. Lugnut will surely make us some good prices and then we can ...”

Sunset raised a hoof to interject and looked puzzled. “Hey there, calm down Twilight. What do we do in a hardware store? I thought we would have some fun and have a good time together. Not exactly the first things I think of if you talk about a hardware store.”

At Sunset’s last statement Twilight giggled knowingly. “Oh believe me, you’re going to love it. We will just grab a few supplies and then we can head off to the greatest thing you’ve ever seen.” Twilight rubbed her hooves and her grin got slightly more sinister. “Ponyville lies right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, you see?”

Sunset gave Twilight a look of pure and utmost indifference. “I already knew that, besides, the Everfree isn’t exactly first choice for a picnic or something.”

Despite her friends growing confusion, Twilight giggled further. “Yeah, there are nicer places for that, but do you know what is right in the center of it?”

“Right in the center of the ...” Sunset’s jaw dropped. “No way?!”

A smile normally only spotted on Pinkie Pie’s muzzle appeared in Twilight’s. “Yes way! Yes all the way!” She yelled.

Sunset shook her head and stared at Twilight with eyes as wide as dinner plates. “We’re really going to see the castle of the two sisters? I read in a book I got from Celestia that it once stood in the midst of what is now the Everfree Forest, but at the time, nopony knew exactly where it was.”

Twilight tapped her hooves in excitement and anticipation. “We found it when Nightmare Moon returned and we searched for the Elements of Harmony. But Zecora might have already known its location back then, unfortunately nopony ever bothered talking to her at the time. Anyway, we will grab a few things from Mr. Lugnut and then head for the castle.”

Sunset had asked Twilight for an alarm and set it almost an hour before Celestia would raise the sun. She wanted to see it, for the first time in almost three years, she wanted to see Celestia raise the sun. She showered, groomed her coat and mane, made herself a peanut butter jelly sandwich and headed for the castle’s highest balcony.

She sat on her haunches and watched the moon sink in the western sky. Finally, shortly before it touched the horizon, the faint glow of the dark blue magic associated with princess Luna seized control over it and gently started to guide it to it’s rest. At this moment, Sunset turned her head to the east and waited with glistening eyes.

It took only minutes before the horizon started to turn orange, glowing brighter and brighter every second. When the first ray of sunlight hit her, Sunset’s eyes went wide.

Suddenly, time was a nonexistent concept to her, there was only Celestia’s sunrise.

On earth, the sunrise was beautiful as well, but what she saw right now was something entirely different. What she witnessed was nothing less than the manifestation of all that Celestia was admired for. Most ponies might not feel it to the same extend as Sunset did at the time, but whenever ponies looked at the sunrise, they could feel her love. This sunrise, her sunrise, was full so of care, compassion, gentleness and love. Sunset’s eyes became wet and a few stray tears rolled down her cheeks. “I didn’t know how much I missed that.”

“I thought you’d be here.” Twilight spoke softly as she stood at the entrance of the balcony, smiling at her friend.

Sunset didn’t look at her, it was like she was under a spell. All she could watch at was the most beautiful sunrise she had ever seen. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out, I mean I even asked for an alarm. But you didn’t need to come look after me, I’m fine.”

Slowly, Twilight walked up to sunset and set down next to her, also admiring the sunrise. “What exactly did you mean when you said you didn’t know how much you missed it?”

Without even blinking Sunset answered a question with a question. “Have you ever seen the sun rising when you were on earth?”

With a soft sigh, Twilight shook her head. “Not really. On my first visit I was rather busy and on the second one we had only one night. And between Pinkie’s slumber party and my all nighter I wasn’t really in the mood to be an early riser.”

Sadness overshadowed Sunset’s face. “When you come over next time, we can look at one together, I think you will understand me when you see it. But I can tell you, it feels wrong.”

Twilight was puzzled and looked to the rising sun. “How can a sunrise feel wrong?”

Sunset explained with ever growing sadness in her eyes. “It’s feels sort of cold, emotionless if you will. After I’ve seen a few of them on earth, I grabbed some books on the sun and nearly had a mental breakdown when I learned that they have no one guiding it.”

A humorless giggle escaped Twilight’s throat. “Yeah, I know how that feels. It was kind of hard to swallow when the girls told me that their Celestia and Luna didn’t guide their sun and moon.”

Sunset nodded. “Even though on earth, the sunrise is beautiful too, it feels sort of mechanical. Well, it happens sort of on its own anyway.” In the blink of an eye all the sadness seemed to vanish from Sunset’s expression and a genuine smile appeared on her muzzle. “Here however, you almost feel how much Celestia loves each and every one of us. It’s the difference between the sun warming your coat and your heart, I think.”

Twilight nodded, but didn’t say anything else. The sunrise was almost over and she wanted to let Sunset enjoy it as much as she could.

When the sun had taken its spot in the sky and Celestia’s life giving rays finally kissed all of Equestria awake. Sunset slowly rose and turned towards her friend. “Wanna grab something for breakfast?” A few tears of joy still ran down her face, but her smile shone as bright as the sun she admired a few moments ago.

Twilight and Sunset headed for the kitchen to prepare a light snack instead of a full fledged breakfast, mostly because they still had their table reserved at the trefoil cafe later on.

Sunset headed for a pot, filled it with water and started to prepare tea when she noticed that Twilight was heading for a device that looked like a mad scientist’s attempt to combine a mill and a steam engine. It even had a few wooden pistons sticking out the sides. She turned around and looked at the strange machine with a certain amount of unease. “Twilight? What is that?”

Before she turned around Twilight pushed a button and the probable doomsday device came to life. “Hmm? It’s a coffee machine. I’m pretty sure earth has them too.” Twilight seemed to blissfully ignore the rumbling sounds and clouds of steam emitted by the machine behind her.

With an audible gulp Sunset pointed at the, so called, coffee machine. “Those that exist on earth aren’t quite like that one.” The machine made a loud shrieking noise and jumped nearly one foot into the air. “And they don’t do stuff like that.”

Twilight turned her head and looked at the machine with an oblivious gaze. “It always does that.” She turned her head back towards Sunset and smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”

It wasn’t all that soothing for Sunset when a presumably immortal being with almost godlike powers was saying that they weren’t in danger. She doubted that they had the same definition of danger in the first place. But, since there was no other option, she condoned her fate and hoped her scepsis on behalf of Equestria’s technology was unfounded. Besides, she wouldn’t want to make Twilight think she didn’t trust her.

After five minutes, Twilight’s coffee and Sunset’s tea were done and the two of them settled down at the kitchen table. Sunset gave the coffee a suspicious look and couldn’t help but to address the elephant in the room. “Why coffee and not tea?”

Twilight gave first Sunset, then her cup, a puzzled look. “I simply prefer coffee to start my day. I’d like a good cup of tea to calm down, but to get my brain going in the morning coffee simply does a better job.”

Sunset’s magic enveloped her cup in a light cyan glow, levitated it slowly up to her and she took a cautious sip to not burn her tongue. “It’s just, well, I was Celestia’s student too and if I observe myself I have to notice that I adopted many of her habits.” She stated matter-of-factly as she levitated her teacup in front of her face. “Drinking tea for example.”

Twilight tilted her head and gave Sunset a slightly cocky grin. “Are you searching for familiarities between us?”

Sunset chuckled and nodded. “Who wouldn’t like to have a few things in common with a princess?”

With a deep groan and a throwaway gesture Twilight replied. “You tell me. You have no idea how many ponies seem to think that now that I’m a princess everything I do is cool and trendy and what not. I’m surprised they didn’t already make themselves look like me.” Many of Twilight’s subjects might have been offended by her snarky tone and her clear disapproval of their behavior, but Sunset simply giggled. The sight of an alicorn princess being just a little moody in the morning, like so many other ponies were, was just too funny.

She took another sip of her tea before she leaned back and sighed in content when, all of a sudden, an unexpected rumbling noise came from under the table and Twilight’s eyes grew wide. Sunset perked up her ears and looked puzzled. “Twilight? That sounded like the vibrating alert of a cell phone. You don’t have cell phones have you?”

The grinding of teeth was all that could be heard when Twilight looked down at her flank, specifically her cutie mark. To her, quite visible, dismay her cutie mark was glowing, as well as giving off slight vibrations and a corresponding sound. Twilight grabbed her coffee mug with her magic, gulped down the steaming content and rose from her seat.

Her curiosity won over her caution. “Mind to explain the sudden mood swing?” Sunset pointed a hoof at Twilight’s cutie mark. “Oh and maybe why your flank glows and vibrates.”

“I just got work.” Twilight grunted.

A Guided Tour

Sunset stood in front of a stallion she never met before. Both ponies looked curiously at each other and seemed to expect the other to do or say something stupid.

He was an earth pony with a grey-blue coat, dark blue mane and tail, with cyan highlights in them. He was only slightly taller than she was herself, but had a rather bulky frame. He wore a beige-colored vest with lots and lots of pockets, all of them filled with seemingly random junk. Around his neck he had a thin silvery necklace without any markings or pendants of any sort.

The main problem Sunset had with him however was the fact that she had no idea who he was. Normally it was quite easy to spot parallels between students of Canterlot High and their pony equivalents in Equestria, but this colt rang no bell in her mind.

She gave Twilight a suspicious look. “Ok, I have to admit, when you and the girls started to banter about this whole friendship map thing, I sort of tuned out.” She heaved a heavy sigh. “Without any context or background intel, you could just as well have spoken a foreign language. So, what exactly is going on here?”

Twilight rubbed the back of her head and grinned sheepishly. “Ah yeah, sorry about that. I simply forgot that you were there and got carried away.” She cleared her throat and straightened her pose. “The map that is situated in the throneroom of this castle is magically linked to me and my friends, the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Whenever there is a ‘friendship problem’ that needs to be fixed, it summons some of us to deal with the situation. And right now it summoned all of us, therefore I must go too.”

After getting this brief explanation of what was going on, Sunset looked at Twilight and couldn’t help but give herself a silent translation. “So, essentially she is going onto some magical friendship adventure for a day or two.”

Her train of thought was cut off when Twilight pointed a hoof at the stallion, who stood in front of them, still waiting and watching silently. “And this is Scout.” He bowed deeply before the two mares, but didn’t interrupt Twilight’s explanation. “He moved to Ponyville a while ago and works as a mapmaker pony. He is, aside from me and the girls, the only pony who frequently enters the Everfree Forest.”

“Haven’t you told me about somepony called Zecora that even lives in there?” Sunset interjected with a puzzled look.

Twilight held her mouth agape for a moment before she giggled. “Well, technically she is a zebra, not a pony. Sooooo, my point still stands.”

With a raised eyebrow and a deadpanned expression Sunset decided to press the subject. “You forgot about her for a moment didn’t you?”

“Only for a second or two.” Twilight muttered under her breath.

Rather unexpected to the two mares, Scout cleared his throat. “Your highness, would you please tell me why Spike nearly busted down my door, insisting that I had to come to the castle immediately?” He asked while giving them a suspicious look.

Sunset had almost forgotten him and made a step back when his voice suddenly interjected their conversation. She looked at the stallion with wide eyes for a moment and seemed ready to fight-or-flight. Scout however only tilted his head and watched her with bewilderment. “Did I say something wrong?”

Twilight waved a hoof and tried to get the conversation back on track. “Scout, how often did I tell you that you don’t need to address me like this. I’m still the same Twilight Sparkle you borrowed all those fantasy and sci-fi novels from.”

“With all due respect your highness, you are a princess now. I’ve seen what you did when those black vines overgrew all of Ponyville. I was present when you and the other princesses blasted the trapped ponies out of the crystallized town hall. And, all of Equestria heard about what you did to Tirek.” Scout had managed to keep his face and voice as calm and collected as possible while he recounted some of Twilight’s latest deeds. If Sunset’s memory didn’t betray her, his composure rivaled that of a royal guard.

Twilight however only deadpanned at him. “Tirek doesn’t count, the other princesses gave me their magic before I fought him.”

He stared blankly at the princess in front of him and held his ground. “That doesn’t make the fact that you are now a princess as well as an alicorn any less significant. Besides, it isn’t easy to wrap your mind around the idea that a friend of yours essentially ascended to godhood.”

With a stomp of her hoof and an angry growl Twilight decided to end this argument. “I am no goddess and I am still the same pony I ever was.” An evil smirk creeped onto Twilight’s muzzle. “But since I’m a princess, I can give you orders, can I?”

An audible gulp and a quick nod was all the answer Scout had for Twilight’s last question, but it was obvious that he didn’t like the sudden turn in this conversation. Twilight herself simply continued to grin. “Then I order you to call me Twilight and that we will have a long talk about my title and position.”

Sunset cleared her throat and nudged Twilight. “You are getting slightly off track here Twilight.” She calmly stated.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide and she remembered why she originally send for Scout. “Oh, you’re right. I was about to explain why I send for Scout didn’t I?” Both, Scout and Sunset, nodded. “Ok, back to topic it is then.” With a hoof pointed at Sunset, Twilight continued. “Scout, this is my friend Sunset Shimmer and she is in Ponyville for vacation. I originally intended to show her the castle of the two sisters, but ...” She glanced angrily at her flank. “... other things need my immediate attention and I can’t go with her. So, I wanted to ask you if you’d be able to accompany her through the Everfree Forest and show her the ruins of the castle.”

An uncomfortable silence befell the room as Scout examined Sunset. His eyes darted from her horn, to her mane, to her legs and back to her horn. Finally, he nodded towards both Twilight and Sunset before he smiled for the first time since he entered Sunset’s field of vision. “Then, let’s get things official.” He bowed in salutation towards Sunset. “Miss Shimmer, I am Scout Charger and I will be your tour guide around the Everfree Forest and the infamous Castle of the Two Sisters. You can simply call me Scout if that is alright with you.”

Sunset was taken aback by the sudden smile and the unexpectedly formal attitude towards her. “Ahm, Scout? You aren’t going to do this the whole day aren’t you? You sound like one of those noble Canterlot ass-kissers.”

He chuckled slightly. “No Miss Shimmer, I didn’t exactly plan to kiss your flank more than strictly necessary.”

A short look at her flank and a firm shake of her head later Sunset giggled. “I think I’m fine without any kissing to indecent places, thank you. Oh, and you can call me Sunset instead of ‘Miss Shimmer’. I always feel like my mane is about to turn grey and my face is getting all wrinkly when somepony calls me that.”

Twilight couldn’t help but to snicker when those two started to banter. “I think you two will be fine.” With a content smile she charged her horn and vanished in a lavender flash of light.

Surprised by Twilight’s sudden disappearance Scout and Sunset stared at the spot where she only just stood. “I’ll never get used to you guys doing that.” Scout commented with a baffled expression. Sunset however simply shrugged it off and started to walk towards the door. “Teleportation is not that big a deal. You simply need to know your target location, create a massless tunnel through spacetime and off you go. It’s mainly a question of accurate target coordinates and energy consumption.”

He cleared his throat and pointed at his head. “Ahm, your telling a pony who walks to wherever he wants to be that simply zapping yourself around in the blink of an eye is no big deal?”

Sunset turned her head and smiled awkwardly. “Whoops. Sorry.”

He waved dismissively and laughed. “No need to apologize, your friends with the princess and a unicorn yourself. I see why this must seem normal to you.” He started to walk up to her and pointed at the door. “Let’s get moving, the castle surely won’t come to us.”

Sunset looked at Scout when he simply ignored Mr. Lugnut’s hardware store in favor of the market. She trotted up to him and cleared her throat to get his attention. “Ahm, Scout? Twilight said something about shopping at that hardware store over there. Don’t we need any equipment?”

He shook his head and his eyes seemed to search for something specific among the booths. “No, not really. We need some food supplies however.”

Sunset grew a little worried about his rather casual tone regarding the Everfree. “Are you sure? No rope or tools or something like that?”

Scout stopped and looked at her with a questioning look. “What might we need something like that for?”

Since she had no idea why Twilight planned to buy stuff like that she could merely shrug. “I have no idea, I’m just riding on what Twilight told me.”

With a sigh of defeat he turned towards Sunset and started his little lecture on the basics of how to travel in the Everfree Forest. “Ok, first, all we take in the forest has to be carried. It weighs us down and makes us slow, especially if we need to outrun something. The forest itself is rather easy to traverse and we most likely won’t face any obstacles that can’t be evaded or overcome by normal means. And as far as I know, the castle itself was largely cleared of rubble in the past few months. Furthermore, even though it may look like a ruin, its structural integrity is perfectly fine, this thing was build to last.”

Sunset looked at him with wide eyes. “You’ve been there quite a few times haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I tend to spend the night there if I lose track of time and don’t make it out of the forest before nightfall. The creatures of the forest avoid the castle at any cost and you are safe from the rain.” He explained calmly before a slight smile crept onto his face. “Oh, and the view from the throne room is quite the sight.”

His comment about the view from inside the throne room sparked Sunset’s curiosity and she grinned. “Then let’s get going, grab some food and off we go. I want to see the castle for myself already.”

After a quick purchase at the Apple family booth as well as Carrot Top’s, the two ponies headed towards the forest and reached its edge within not even half an hour.

Before either of them could enter, Scout looked seriously at Sunset. “There are things in that forest that will try to eat us if they can. Please follow my instructions when I give you some, I don’t want to be at fault if you’re injured ... or worse.”

Sunset simply nodded and they slowly entered the forest.

It took not even ten minutes for the canopy of leaves to grow thick enough to block out almost all sunlight and plunge the ground into the eternal gloom that was ever-present in the Everfree Forest.

Even though Sunset never was in this forest before, she knew it from the drawings of the books Celestia gave her once. She instantly recognized a few of the bushes, that were draped over and over with deliciously looking berries, were poisonous enough to kill a pony within minutes. But far worse than the thought that a single berry could kill her was the silence of the whole place. The entire forest seemed absolutely quiet. Where normally birds chirped in the trees and small animals rustled in the underbrush, here was nothing, only this deafening silence. The whole place had this aura of danger to it. Sunset felt her stomach twist in a mixture of nervousness and abstract fear.

Scout on the other hoof was calm. His head was constantly darting around, his ears perked up to pick up even the slightest sound that might give away a predator whom Sunset never even heard of. But at the same time his face was neutral, no fear was in his eyes or features, only stoic composure brought forth by continuous trips into that very forest.

The two ponies continued their way into the forest for about an hour through trees and brushes, never following a clear path or direction. Sunset thought her guide was acting simply on his whims since she couldn’t make out any pattern in his behaviour or even reasons why he sometimes switched directions or went back the way they came from for a few minutes.

Trying to guess the time of day based on the sun was nearly impossible, only her stomach and the so called lunch break gave Sunset a rough idea how long their trip already took. The apples Scout had bought from Equestria’s version of Big Macintosh were definitely among the best things she had in ages. It was strange but on earth, apples were never as juicy and tasty as these. Even though the Apple family she knew had more than just a few years of experience under their belt, nothing Applejack had ever given to her could hold a candle to these red shining beauties. She was curious if this was because she was a pony again and that this body simply perceived things different or if nature itself was more natural, so to speak. Or was this some sort of magic too? Could it be that the magic which ran through the veins of Equestria was making everything better, including their foods?

Another bite from one of those delicious apples, a green one with a more sour taste this time, made her forget her questions. Why would one care for the explanation of such great food if they could eat it instead of theorizing about it? She snickered when she thought about how Twilight might react on the thought to choose food over studies.

Scout suddenly put a hoof to his muzzle and shushed. His ears stood upright and he seemed to try to track down a sound she missed. “What’s wrong?” Sunset whispered.

With his ears still scanning for that dubious sound, Scout turned towards her and whispered back. “I don’t know yet but I’ve heard...”

With a blood freezing howl a Timberwolf broke out of a nearby brush and pounced at Scout. His eyes went wide as he realized that he wouldn’t get away, not unscathed at least. A pegasus could have flown out of the creatures range of attack and unicorns could have used magic to defend themselves. But Scout, like most earth ponies, would simply take the blow head on and not yield. He braced himself for the attack when suddenly a turquoise glow enveloped the Timberwolf and he was flung into a nearby tree, shattering its wooden body.

Sunset too was on her hooves and the same turquoise glow that had grabbed the Timberwolf was just fading from her horn. “I think we should get moving.” She stated with an angry glare at the creature, which was already in the process of piecing itself back together.

A small smile darted over Scouts muzzle and he nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Both ponies bolted into the bushes and made haste to get away from the next soul shattering howl that announced the presence of at least three more es. They dashed across the uneven ground and more than once one of them tripped on an unseen root that might as well not have been there a second before. Though the quadruped nature of ponies helped them not actually tumbling to ground.

While they ran past a few particularly stunted trees Scout glanced at Sunset and panted. “Thanks for the save just now.” He grunted as a branch he hadn’t seen slapped across his face. “Your magic was surprisingly fast.”

Sunset, like every unicorn who ever studied magic, smiled at the compliment for her arts. “Well, I’m a former...” She had to draw some heavy breaths and felt her lungs burning at the attempt to speak. “...former student of Celestia.” She shook her head and panted. “Can ... we stop? ... I’m not ... not really used to ... running that fast.”

Under his breath Scout mumbled a curse that would been worthy of a lumberjack who just chopped off his own leg. He looked back over his shoulder, only to see at least one Timberwolf still hard on their heels. With an exasperated grunt he bellowed. “Stop!”

He turned himself around and charged at the first Timberwolf that came in sight. When the creature lifted one paw to slash at its supposed pray, Scout lunged forward and threw his body against the small stick that held its head in place. The stick broke and the headless body abruptly crumbled down to a pile of firewood. Before the creatures companions arrived he turned his head and yelled at Sunset. “Ready yourself, we are fighting them off. Incinerate them if you can, otherwise just shred them to pieces.”

At one point in their live, every colt takes in interest in stories about knights, heroes and monsters, Scout was no exception to that. He read books about those, but not only the fictional ones that told heroic tales of heroically heroic heroes, he also read the more factual ones about tactics and fighting styles.

The standard military tactic in the unified nation of Equestria was to use earth ponies as frontline infantry, supported by unicorn battle mages and pegasus surgical strikes against high priority targets, after air superiority was achieved. Even though they had no pegasus at hoof, this principle was still the most promising in the given situation. So, Scout positioned himself in front of Sunset, lowered his head and waited for the attack of the predatory es.

Sunset smiled as she charged her horn with the pure magic that she knew from her past. Her whole body was tingling and small sparks of magic radiated off her horn. She wanted to see if she still had it in her, see if her spells were still as powerful and precise as a few years ago. And what spell would be a better test than the fateful whose first cast earned her a cutiemark and a spot as celestias personal student.

The es had taken their time to coordinated their next attack and now six of them leaped at the ponies. They had paired up and now came in from all sides, two from the left, two from the right and two directly from the front. Before Scout could react Sunset unleashed her spell with a tremendous roar.

The two ponies suddenly stood in the middle of a bubble that seemed to be made of yellow, orange and red liquids that flowed around one another. Within the blink of an eye, the sphere formed six tendrils that reached out in all directions and simply grabbed the es. The wooden creatures stood no chance, since in the instant they touched the tendrils, they were set ablaze. Within seconds the whole pack was nothing more than a few piles of ash scattered in the wind.

Scout looked in awe at the magical sphere that surrounded him and couldn’t help but reach out a hoof to touch it. “I’d recommend to keep your hooves away from the surface if you are emotionally attached to them.” Sunset groaned with a strained expression.

After a suspicious look at the sphere, Scout decided that a unicorn giving him the advice to stay clear of one of her spells was definitely worth listening to and retreated back to Sunsets side. “Did we got rid of them? I wouldn’t mind to drop the spell as soon as possible.” Sunset asked asked through clenched teeth.

With a pat on the back Scout smiled at her and nodded. “es may be largely made of plants, but they aren’t dumb. Even if there are any left, after that display of power, they will go search for easier prey.”

Even before Scout’s sentence was complete, Sunset dropped her spell. She took deep breaths and shook her head to clear it of the elation that came with the magic. It may have been the most straining experience in years, she felt herself sweat and her vision was slightly blurry from the effort. But she felt better and more alive than ever. With the strain of the spell gone from her mind, a smile formed and she sat down on her haunches. “I still got it in me.” She happily proclaimed.

Since most earth ponies had no understanding of unicorn magic and weren’t exactly able to read thoughts Scout looked at Sunet with a puzzled look. “Mind to explain what you still have in you?”

Sunset her temples with her hooves and smiled sheepishly. “Well, to keep it simple, I live in a place where magic doesn’t work, for the most part. Which means that I didn’t cast a single spell for the majority of the last three and a half years.”

The stallion sat down opposite of Sunset and looked at her with an annoyed stare. “So you essentially betted our lives on a spell without even knowing you were still able to cast it?”

If she didn’t knew better Sunset would have sworn a comically large drop of sweat suddenly appeared on her forehead. “If you put it like that you make me sound like I’m some sort of adrenalin junkie.“ Her face turned from slightly embarrassed to utterly proud in-between two words. “But I’m a former student of princess Celestia herself and even with a few years without practice I’m pretty sure that I’m still good at magic.”

Scout couldn’t help but nod at her statement. Their surroundings and the burned remains of half a dozen es emphasized her point quite nicely. He turned his head back towards Sunset and cleared his throat. “You might have a point there. But what sort of spell was that anyway? Did the princess teach it to you?”

It seemed as if Sunsets chest was swelling with pride at Scouts assumption that the spell she had cast was one of Celestia’s. “No, I came up with that one. I call it Sunset’s sunrise. It is based on a spell I tried when I got examined to get permission to attend Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. At the time, I thought I would be allowed to enter when I showed them how powerful I already were and so I tried to create a miniature sun.” Scout’s jaw simply dropped and he stared at Sunset with eyes as wide as dinnerplates. Sunset herself couldn’t help but giggle at the memory before she continued. “I condensed the air into a tight ball, separated the hydrogen from the oxygen and then continued to compress the hydrogen further and further. Finally, when I had a ball of pure hydrogen almost as big a full grown mare, I initiated the atomic fusion with a burst of magic and it started to burn.”

After a few moments of silence Scout raised an eyebrow and gave Sunset a questioning look. “So you want me to believe that you created a miniature sun at the age of what, seven maybe eight?”

Sunsets cheeks turned slightly red and she coughed suspiciously. “I was seven, but I didn’t exactly create a mini sun, it turned out to be more of a bomb, a hydrogen bomb.” Scout interjected with a raised hoof. “What’s a hydrogen bomb?” With sigh Sunset started to explain. “It’s a bomb that draws it’s power from the fusion of hydrogen into heavier elements. It releases a tremendous amount of energy and would be able to level a city if the reaction goes critical.”

With an audible gulp Scout was about to ask the obvious question when Sunset suddenly continued, anticipating what had to come next. “I had no control of the reaction and it was self sustaining within less than a second. Before I could scream, my little sun had already grown to triple it original size. But suddenly a bright flash of white light blinded everypony in the room and the heat that radiated off of my creation was dimmed down to little more than the gentle warmth of spring. Celestia stood in the middle of the room, her magic wrapped around the fireball, slowly extinguishing it’s nuclear flames. Her face was stern and she looked at all present ponies, except me. She nearly yelled at them and demanded to know who did this extremely dangerous spell in the middle of Canterlot. When one of the inspectors of her school pointed at me she looked me in the eyes, stunned with amazement. Suddenly, she started to smile at me, gone was all the tension and the anger from seconds before. She asked me if I wanted to attend her School for gifted unicorns. I nodded and tried to stammer a yes. She stroke my cheek with her hoof and smiled. Then she asked if I wanted to attend as her personal student and she, rather casually, pointed out that I got a cutie mark in the form of the sun on my flank.”

With a firm shake of his head, Scout forced his amazed mind back to work. “Sounds a lot like Twili... princess Twilight’s cutie mark story. though your’s has less dragons. But I still have no idea what you did to the es.”

Sunset had to recollect their conversation to check if she skipped anything important that would have made the matter difficult to understand. After a few seconds she shook her head firmly. “Isn’t it obvious? I essentially did what I described in my story, only with much more control over the reaction. I started an atomic fusion in the air, contained it within a magic barrier and controlled the form of the barrier to adjust shape and size of the construct. Essentially, the es got burned by a atomic fire of a few million degrees, a few thousand give or take. Only the sun itself, or Celestia if she’s angry, can match up to that.”

Even though the given explanation was rather elaborate and thorough, Scout could only tilt his head and look at Sunset like she had suddenly grown a second head that immediately started singing one of Pinkie Pie’s random songs. “I understand that your trick was hot and was some sort of miniature sun.” He deadpanned.

With a slight smile and a barely detectable twitch of an eye Sunset rose to her feat. “I think we should get going, otherwise we will not make it back today.” Her voice dropped to a whisper while she gritted her teeth. “And I might lose my mind if I further try to explain magic to you.”

The remainder of the trip towards the Castle of the Two Sisters was uneventful, not to say almost boring. It seemed like the entirety of creatures living in the Everfree Forest took notice of Sunsets extraordinary display of magic and decided to hunt for some less dangerous prey, maybe an ursa minor or something like that.

The only negative effects of their confrontation with the es were the fact that they needed much more time to actually reach the castle. Firstly, they had strayed quite a bit from Scout’s intended path, then there was the time the battle itself consumed and finally the fact that both ponies were more or less exhausted after it and therefore had to take it slower than originally planned.

But they arrived at the castle eventually, although only one hour or two before sundown. When they finally stood in front of the main gate Sunset froze and looked at the huge arch. “This is it.” She stated with a face shifting between a dozen different emotions, showing all and none of them at the same time.

Scout took position next to the door like royal guards would do, opened it and bid Sunset to enter. “Would her highness like to enter the castle? We are terribly sorry for it’s not completed yet, but a tour is very much possible.” Scout addressed his companion with a cocky grin.

Unlike what he had expected however, Sunset flinched at his words. She took a few steps back and looked at her front hooves. Scout couldn’t see her face, because he mane had fallen over her eyes, but he couldn’t help but feel like he had stepped on an entire social mine field at once. “Did I say something wrong Sunset?” He asked with honest concern in his voice.

Sunset looked up and shook her head. “No, it’s just ... Say did Twilight ever talk about her trip to another world?” Her voice was calm and collected, almost like a teacher when a rather serious subject comes up.

It took Scout a short moment to switch from intended comforting and apologizing to Sunset to answering her question. “Yeah, she wrote some sort of report on her trip to a realm full of ... ahm, how did she call those ...” “Humans?” Sunset interjected his chain of thoughts, earning herself a puzzled expression. “Yeah ... I think that’s it. She stored it in the Golden Oaks Library before Tirek blasted it to bits and I stumbled across it when I was searching for a good sci-fi story once. It was a really strange read, no names and many of her descriptions were rather vague.”

Sunset sighed with relief and mumbled an inaudible thanks towards her princess friend. She then smiled towards Scout and nodded. “Good, that means I don’t have to retell you the whole thing. I presume you remember the villain girl?”

Scout nodded and shrugged at the same time, obviously he didn’t see where Sunset was going with this. She took a few deep breaths to fight down the rising panic inside her. “Well ... I’m that villain. I was the girl that tried to steal Twilights crown, sabotaged her efforts to get it back and tried to kill her in the end.” Sunset had closed her eyes after the words were out and waited for the inevitable yelling to start.

When, even a few moments later, no such sound reached her ears, she opened her eyes, just to find Scout staring at her. He was biting his bottom lip and doing his best to hold back a laugh. Sunset tilted her head and wanted to ask the obvious question when he suddenly burst into laughter and rolled around on his back. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.” Scout wrapped his forelegs around his stomach to keep it from bursting with laughter. “You’re a pony, no whumaen or something. And even if I would believe you, what do you expect that to change.”

Sunset was baffled. She had thought ponies would demand her head on a stick when she told about what she did, at least imprisonment had to be inevitable hadn’t it? She only decided to tell Scout because he seemed trustworthy and they were alone, she could easily flee or fight him off if he tried to take her into custody. But all he did was laughing and asking a stupid question.

With a stomp of her hoof Sunset grabbed his attention and stared at him angrily. “That’s no joke so stop laughing!”

Scout tried to fight down more laughter when he saw Sunset making an angry face like a little filly who’s newest world-changing discovery only got her snickering laughs from her parents. But the struggle was pointless, she was just too cute.

Finally, after at least another two outburst of Sunset, and a rather detailed threat to neuter him if he didn’t stop laughing at her, Scout stood back up and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Ah, come on Sunset. In all honesty, would you believe me if I told you such a story?” He asked chuckling.

Sunset looked dumbfounded, all her anger suddenly vanished. “No.” She deadpanned and subsequently face hoofed.

Allthewhile Scout snickered and nodded. “Good, now that we established that...” He cleared his throat and switched to his serious mode. “Even if you are the ... ahm I think Twilight used the term girl. Yeah, even if you are the girl from that report, what should that change? As far as Equestria knows Princess Twilight retrieved her Element of Harmony from a thief, nothing more. End of story. And even the few of us who read her report have no idea who that thief was and she even stated that she, in the end, made friends with said thief. So, essentially, Princess Twilight says you’re a good pony and her friend. And now tell me, who am I supposed to trust in the choice of her friends if not the princess of friendship herself? Doubting her in that matter would be like telling Princess Celestia she’s raising the sun wrong.”

Even though she would have liked to argue, Scout clearly had a point. Twilight was the highest authority when it came to friends and friendship. Ponies always had the habit of almost blindly accepting everything a princess said. So, if Twilight said Sunset was a friend then she was a friend, end of story, as Scout put it. She smiled, fell on her haunches and started to laugh loud. “Scout, are you sure your cutie mark isn’t about philosophy or something?”

Scout gave Sunset a mysterious smile and shrugged. “Well, it’s a map with a moon over it. Maybe it means that I’m good at finding and showing ways to ponies who wander through the darkness.” Sunset wanted to say something, but Scout continued before she could. “Or it just means that I’m really good at finding my way around, even at night.” He smiled and shrugged again. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Ready to start your tour around the infamous, and possibly haunted, Castle of the Two Sisters?”

Sunset nodded vigorously and stood back up. “We should hurry, we don’t want to miss it, do we?” She smiled and walked through the gate.

It was strange, the moment Sunset walked through the door Scout had lead her to, she was standing in the middle of the throne room. The roof had quite a few similarities with a slice of swiss cheese, most likely from the titanic battle once fought in these halls and the time the Everfree Forest had to chip away at it.

Scout looked around and walked up to a hallway at the side of the room and waved Sunset over to join him. “Let’s start with this one, it leads to the old gardens and you surely want to see them with the sun still up.” He suggested with a happy grin.

With a nod and a few quick trots Sunset followed her guide into the dark and towards the old gardens. She was asking herself if those were as beautiful as those that Celestia had build in Canterlot and what the roundabout thousand years of disuse did to them.

Long, straight hallways connected the back of the throne room to the personal living quarters that once belonged to the princesses. To Sunset, who was accustomed to Canterlot Castle and it's mostly consistent architecture, it felt strange to see a clear distinction between the themes of sun and moon. It was obvious that this was build in a time were the princesses didn’t exactly rule as equals, instead each of them seemed to have sole rule over one part of the day. She could imagine that this might have alienated them from one another. Maybe because of that Celestia had build Canterlot the way it was, with sun and moon shown as equals, none overpowering the other, both an integral part in the creation of harmony for everypony.

Scout lead her down a corridor that clearly belonged to Celestia’s former wing of the castle, everything was bright and the stylized sun was everywhere to be seen. The floor was polished marble, still smooth enough so she could see her own reflection on the floor, even after over one thousand years.

A few minutes later she could see a gate at the end of the hallway. Sunlight poured through the opening onto the white marble, making it shine like the sun itself, effectively blinding Sunset. Scout also had to squint his eyes while he continued towards the gateway seemingly made of light.

When the two of them finally walked through the door and their eyes adapted to the overwhelming brightness they just walked into, a truly stunning sight greeted them. Two huge orange trees greeted them near their entry, their roots overgrown with hundreds upon hundreds of small flowers she never saw before, each of them seemingly having a different color than the others, none of them alike. Behind the trees were long rows of bushes that offered the visitor a selection of dozens different blossoms and berries. The ground was covered in grass that felt almost too green, too lush and too perfect to be true, even by equestrian standards. Wide marble benches were scattered all across the garden so that there was no point where one had to walk more than twenty steps to sit down and admire the beauty of the place. Or munch on some of the really delicious fruits and vegetables that grew everywhere. Sunsets stomach growled, demanding immediate attention and reminding everypony present that this garden looked not just beautiful but also rather delicious.

Scout rummaged through his saddle bags and presented one of the apples he had left to Sunset. “Seem’s you’re hungry.” He laughed.

With a short giggle Sunset enveloped the apple in her magic and took a bite. When it was gone for good she looked at Scout with a questioning look. “Why don’t we just eat what’s growing here? Like that we would have our own food left for when we head back and, in all honesty, this garden looks really tempting and tasty.”

He looked around and shook his head. “I don’t trust this one. This garden is about one thousand years old. A millennium without care and it still looks like it might have in its best days. There has to be some sort of magic involved and I don’t want to jeopardize my health if I can avoid it.”

Sunset’s horn sparked a faint magic glow and the levitated one of the oranges, from the trees at the entrance, towards them. When the fruit was in front of her, the glow intensified and her face took on a serious expression.

After almost one minute of silence, she opened her eyes, peeled the orange with her telekinesis and plopped a slice into her mouth. Scout raised an eyebrow and seemed to wait for her to drop dead.

She levitated a slice over to him and smiled. “I ran every analysis spell I knew over that thing and am absolutely sure that this is an orange of the highest quality you can come up with. It had traces of Celestia’s magic all over it, but they dissolve within as few moments after you pick them. It seems she has cast a conservation spell of some sort over this place, effectively making it stay like it was the moment she cast it.” She pointed her hoof at the tree from which she had picked the orange. “Look!” her magic plucked another orange and Scout couldn’t believe his eyes. Mere seconds after Sunset had took the fruit of the tree, a new one had grown in it’s place.

Scout sniffed sceptical at the slice of orange Sunset still levitated in front of his face. when his nose seemed to be pleased with what he smelled, he opened his mouth and cautiously nibbled on his target. His eyes instantly grew wide and he swallowed the slice whole without hesitation. “This stuff is great!” He stated while he trotted over to the tree.

While Sunset ate her own two oranges, Scout turned his back towards the tree and looked over his shoulder. He closed one eyes, aimed for a few moments and finally gave the tree a solid kick that would have made Applejack and Big Mac proud. His only problem was that he didn’t know where to aim. A shudder ran through his whole body as his hooves connected with the tree and all his effort was only rewarded with half a dozen fruits.

He limped picked up the fallen oranges and a few of the berries that grew on the nearest bushes to store them away in his saddle bags. Then he slowly limped back to Sunset, clearly regretting to kick the tree.

Sunset however had to suppress a giggle. “You never actually did that before didn’t you?”

Scout merely shook his head and grumbled. “I sometimes help Mac and AJ out on their farm, but I’m not really that great at apple bucking, though I managed to not hurt myself on apple trees anymore. Most of the time my job is simply to pull the full carts back to their barn”

With a smile and a burst of magic Sunset picked herself another orange and happily munched away on it. “I think you should keep it that way.” She giggled mockingly.

After they had completed their lunch Scout stated that he wanted to show Sunset something less delicious but more beautiful next, though he didn’t say what he was referring to.

She wasn’t paying attention while they walked through dark corridors, heading deeper and deeper into the dungeon under the castle. And so Sunset was rightfully startled when she suddenly felt somepony touching her flank. She instinctively squealed, jumped back half a ponies length and attempted to slap the would-be molester across the cheek. “Hand’s off of my ...” Sudden dull pain and a loud ringing noise silenced Sunset. She pulled her hoof close to her chest while in front of her an old, but well preserved suit of pegasus battle armor crashed to the floor, knocked off two similar suits and filled her ears with the sound of clanking metal.

Since Scout didn’t pay attention to what Sunset did, he nearly hit his head at the ceiling when the sudden metallic noise behind him made him jump and scared him out of his wits. While the second and third suit or armor were still collapsing, he looked at Sunset with accusing eyes. “What was that?”

Sunset shrugged and gave him her best I-didn’t-do-it smile. “Nothing, I was just deep in thought and walked into that thing.” She tilted her head slightly and tried her best to maintain her suspiciously unsuspicious smile.

Scout simply stared at Sunset with a deadpanned expression for a few moments, then just shrugged and mumbled something that should never be repeated in the presence of a filly.  He had such a colorful repertoire of profanities that if Sunset had a swear box Scout would have filled it right then and there with enough bits to pay college fees for herself and her friends back at CHS. But even though he used a few phrases she barely had heard in the human world before and would have never believed to hear from a fellow pony, he seemed to have accepted her made up excuse, much to Sunset’s relief.

While Scout lead the way through dark more corridors Sunsets thoughts drifted back to her slapping of the old armor. Back at earth, everypony was much more concerned with personal space and the defence of said space. Granted, touching another pony’s flank was highly inappropriate even by equestrian standards, but her reflex to slap the would be toucher would never come to anypony’s mind. But this wasn’t everything, the interactions between mares and stallions was substantially different than those between boys and girls. She remembered that Equestria had an average mare to stallion ratio of five to one. If she remembered correctly big cities like Canterlot and Manehatten managed to draw in enough young stallions to reach almost a two to one ratio. Small settlements like Ponyville on the other hand had to deal with up to ten mares per stallion, which could sometimes lead to rather violent seasons of heat.

But much more disturbing than thoughts about equestrian gender structure was the fact that no stallion had tried to hit on her since she arrived. She thought that, at the market, a few had taken a look at her, but none acted on it. Sure, she didn’t want to get herself a coltfriend, especially not because of the distance between their supposed residences, but her pride would have liked to be asked out or get a few compliments for her looks. Now that she thought about it, Scout too hadn’t made a move on her, he seemed almost indifferent about her. Maybe he wasn’t interested in mares? Was he a coltcuddler?

Sunset was about to formulate other, more bold, hypotheses about Scout’s sexual preferences, when he all of a sudden turned around and their muzzles nearly touched. “Close your eyes!” He stated with a broad grin on his face.

Thankfully the darkness concealed Sunset’s blush and while she obeyed his order, she mentally scolded herself. “There! That’s what you get for thinking about getting hit on by a stallion. You damn silly filly, have you ever heard of karma? Yeah, karma’s a bitch! What will you do now? You can’t go out with a stallion from Equestria, you live on earth now. I think the term *long distance relationship* might not even qualify here anymore. Well either that or you definitely get an entry in the guinness book of records.” Sunset’s thoughts suddenly came to an end when she felt a hoof on her shoulders.

Instead of kissing her, Scout pushed her forward. “Keep your eyes closed until I tell you otherwise.” He simply stated and Sunset had the slight feeling that she might have interpreted too much into his action, which lead to her blush only intensifying. “Silly filly might be an understatement.” She noted mentally.

After roughly twenty steps, Scout stopped Sunset, patted her on the shoulder and proclaimed, with an almost audible grin. “You might open your eyes now!” Sunset was curious what he had intended and followed in suggestion instantly.

Before her eyes was a beautiful, yet strange view. There was a huge lake in front of the, yet the dark blue waters showed not the slightest indication of movement. Above them was not just any night sky, it was simply the perfect night sky. The stars twinkled in a silent concerto, highlighting the constellations one after another for everypony to see. At the shores of the lake grew pony-sized mushrooms that glowed with a multitude of colors, but none bright enough to illuminate more than its immediate surroundings. In the middle of it all was a small island, on its top were the biggest and most beautiful flowers Sunset had ever laid eyes on. They too seemed to glow, one of them shining it’s warm light down on a rather modest bed, only slightly larger than a full grown pony. And framing it all in a seemingly infinite sea of stars was a second sky, even though merely a reflection of its celestial counterpart it was still perfection in and off itself.

Sunset’s jaw dropped and turned around herself one time to take it all in. But no matter how long she stared at it, she didn’t understand any of what lay in front of her. After a few minutes she turned towards Scout, who wore a huge grin, and asked him. “What’s this? We aren’t here long enough for the moon to rise already.”

He shook his head and made an all encompassing gesture. “This is a spell. Princess Twilight explained to me that this is some sort of magical projection. She said she once tried to replicate it, but it was far too powerful for even her and even small changes are corrected immediately and automatically.”

Sunset closed her eyes and, with an almost transparent light blue glow, her horn flared to life. The light of her magic began to creep over her head, then encompassed her body and finally started to flow into the ground. She could feel the strands of power that formed the groundwork of the spell. Those thing was ancient, she guessed at least fifteen hundred years, most likely more, but despite its age, the spell was in perfect condition. There was no sign of degradation, every detail was as fresh as if it was casted just a few hours earlier. But honestly, what else was to expect from one of the princesses? Unicorn enchantments happened to degrade over time, due to the fact that their source of power was limited. Alicorn magic however was not only magnitudes more powerful than anything a unicorn could hope to achieve, but the source of their power was, theoretically, infinite. Of course this theory was never put to the test, since the princesses utterly avoided involvement in matters like that. But an ancient spell, most likely cast by one of the princesses, showing no sign of degradation whatsoever, clearly supported the theory of alicorn magic being in fact infinite.

Out of pure curiosity Sunset tucked at a few of the more delicate magic-strings that were weaved into the spell to see what happened.

A sudden yelp next to her broke her concentration and she found a surprised Scout entangled in a flower similar to those that grew on the island in the middle of the lake. He hung upside down, his forelegs crossed in front of his chest and stared at Sunset with a reproachful look.

She grinned sheepish and scratched the back of her head. “Sorry, I just had to try something, the spell should restore...” The flower which held Scout above the ground suddenly vanished  with a barely audible pop sound, followed by a clearly audible cursing earth pony hitting the ground. Sunset once again wished she had a swear box.

After a rather lengthy explanation about alicorn magic and its numerous differences in contrast to unicorn, pegasi and even earth pony magic, Scout agreed to let Sunset play around with the spell, though he insisted to take cover back in the hallway.

Within minutes Sunset’s curiosity made her tuck at over a dozen different magic strands that were woven into the spell matrix, just because she wanted to see what each one did. She quickly had identified a few that managed the flowers, the two that were responsible for moon and stars as well as a few ones that created the water. But when she finally was about to start and try to combine the effects of different strands, she felt a hoof touching her shoulder. With an expression that was a mixture of annoyance, surprise and a child having fun sunset turned towards Scout. “Hmm? Anything wrong? I didn’t do anything to you again did I?”

He chuckled slightly and pointed towards the exit. “We have to get back to the throne room if you want to see the real show.”

Sunset tilted her head in confusion. “You’re telling me that the really awesome stuff is still coming? After we’ve seen this?”

“Well, what I’m about to show you was always the best part of being here, at least if you ask me.” Scout explained with a sheepish smile. It was obvious that he started to doubt his own statement in relation to Sunset and her interests.

Sunset’s gaze darted around between the hallway Scout was pointing at and the chamber she was in. She was curious what he wanted to show her, but this spell was most likely unique in all of Equestria. Who knew when she might get another chance of studying something even remotely similar.

After a few seconds she finally sighed and walked towards the hallway. “Well, I might just give it a try. I can still return to this spell after we finished the tour.”

The Sky was clear, no cloud disturbing the dark-blue; almost black canvas it was so shortly after Celestia put the sun to rest. There were a few minutes the world was plunged into darkness, allowing birds and other wild animals to fall asleep. In ancient times, long forgotten even before Nightmare Moon was banished, this was the time when the princesses switched places, Celestia stepped down, handed Luna the royal insignia of power before sat down on the throne to rule the night. It was the same before the sun came up in the morning, just a few minutes where the princesses acknowledged each other's work and quietly switched places. Sunset didn’t know if Celestia had reinstalled that tradition when Luna returned or if it was just an old habit that died hard, but essentially it didn’t matter. What mattered was what happened after this short time that was neither day nor night.

The polestar was always the brightest star in Equestria’s sky and therefore was ignited first. In the darkness it seemed even brighter and more beautiful than it was and, like a waking call, it’s appearance brought forth it brothers and sisters. One by one, the first stars flared to life, creating the constellations. Some seemed to move like they actually were the creatures they were named after. Sunset could swear that Orion had drawn an arrow from his quiver before he froze in the sky.

After a few seconds, the speed in which the stars lighted up increased and within a few heartbeats, the whole sky was dotted with small specks of light.

Scout bend over to Sunset and whispered. “Look out the hole blasted in the wall above the thrones.” She could almost hear the smile on his muzzle and would quite likely teased him, or any other pony for that matter, for that childish excitement, if it weren’t for the fact that she was completely enraptured by the beauty that Luna put on display.

A faint glow of silver started to light up the horizon. The stars touched by it seemed to dim their light in respect for their elder. Without haste and a grace that neither Celestia nor her sunrise could ever hope to rival, the moon rose over the horizon. It’s ascension to the sky was slow and purposeful, like it knew that nothing could stand in it’s way.

Sunset felt like princess Luna herself was watching her, an unrelenting gaze, looking into the shadows, penetrating darkness and cutting through the void itself. She knew everything! No question for why the night princess had a reputation as a guardian rather than a leader. Strangely enough, after a few seconds the initial fear of retribution faded into nothing and the night felt less cold than the moment before. Sunset didn’t knew, but if she had to write it down she would have described it as Luna watching in her soul, assessing her sins and deeds and passing royal judgement onto the pony that was Sunset Shimmer. Obviously the princess would have found her change of heart to be a genuine one and deemed her worthy to find protection in her night. “Oh Celestia know’s how much I hate that sappy kind of story.” She thought to herself with a small giggle before she turned to Scout. “We aren’t going back in the dark are we?”

He shook his head and sat down on his haunches. “We could if you want, but I wouldn’t bother to find our way through the forest at night. It may be not that dangerous since everything that lives in here probably accepts that you’re at the top of the food chain now. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Sunset nodded. “I think you’re right. We still have plenty of food, the castle provides enough protection from the weather and the air is easily warm enough to sleep outside.” She slowly lowered herself on her stomach and tucked her hooves under her chest. “So? Before we hit the hay, do you wanna answer a few questions of mine?”

The fact that Sunset wanted to ask him questions threw Scout slightly off and he couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow. “What exactly do you hope to learn from me?”

“Well, certainly not advanced magical theory.” Sunset giggled. “I actually wanted to ask you a few things about you, Ponyville and Equestria.”

Scout’s eyebrow didn’t return to its usual spot, instead its twin joined it on Scout’s forehead. “Ok, but if you ask me creepy things or private stuff I have the right to refuse to answer.”

Sunset deadpanned. “I can sleep in another room if you think I will molest you or something.”

Scout blushed and raised his front hooves over his head in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry, it’s just that last heat-season still gives me nightmares.”

“Ok, like that we already have our first question. What happened last heat-season?” Sunset gave Scout an evil glare. “And before you say anything I just want to let you know, I want now details of any physical intercourse between any mare or stallion. Are we clear?”

Scout nodded vigorously. “Crystal clear.” Like Sunset, he lowered himself on the ground and tucked his hooves under his chest. Then he cleared his throat and began to tell of his personal spring time nightmare. “It wasn’t that long after I came to Ponyville. It was at the end of cider season, only a few weeks before Hearts and Hooves Day. I only ever heard of the absurd mare to stallion ratio in small towns like this. In Baltimare, where I’m from, it was never like that bad. Anyway, one day, when I walked over to Sweet Apple Acres to help out Mac and AJ with plowing all i saw was them barricading the house. When I yelled and came nearer, AJ explained that the were preparing and that she would lock Mac away in the cellar for the next few days. My puzzled look might have gave her the hint that I had no clue what was going on so she explained to me. Her cousin Braeburn once had one of his legs broken when the really crazy mares once got a hold of him.Carrot Top’s marefriend was regularly charged with a few instances of personal injury after heat, mainly because she tends to pummel the mares that come near her colt. And one time, even princess Cadance and Shining Armor combined could barely manifest a barrier strong enough to hold the herd of desperate mares off.”

Sunset gulped audibly her eyes as wide as dinnerplates. “And what did you do?”

He sighed and pointed at the door that lead out into the forest. “I hid myself in the forest for almost a week. To be honest, I don’t know what happened in Ponyville in the meantime, but I heard stories of stallions with broken hips and worse. It was the worst week of my life. I was barely one hour in the forest when a cragadile nearly got me. I encountered a pack of es, two manticores, a cockatrice and a bunch of plants that seemed to have serious problems holding gas ... and it didn’t get any better the second day. When I returned to Ponyville, everything was over and I think I slept for three days straight.”

Banishing the images her mind created with a firm shake of her head, Sunset tried to smile. “Well, that might explain why no stallion seemed to hit on me. Some of them might be traumatized.”

“Why should a stallion try to hit you?” Scout interjected with a puzzled expression.

Sunset waved a hoof in a dismissive gesture. “Oh, just a figure of speech. I was just wondering why no stallion tried to ask me out since I’m here. Over at my place The b ... stallions almost always have to make the first move when they have interest in a mare.”

Scout couldn’t help but snicker a little. “Well, If you want to grab yourself a coltfriend out here you have to be the one making a move. It’s just a thing of supply and demand. And let’s face it, Ponyville has much more demand for stallions than there is supply.”

An evil smirk crept onto Sunset’s face and she asked the question that was originally more Rarity’s style. “Since you hid in the Everfree Forest I conclude that you don’t have a marefriend. But, what intrigues me more is: Do you have set your eyes on a certain pony yourself?”

At first Scout deadpanned and needed to reasses the question addressed at him a few times over, then he suddenly burst into laughter, while Sunset smiled awkwardly, not having any idea what he was actually laughing at. After almost half a minute he had calmed down enough to actually answer. “Oh Celestia, that one came out of the blue.” Scout giggled once again and shook his head vigorously. “But to answer your question, yes, I might just have a crush on one mare in particular.”

Sunset inched forward, curious about what he would say next, but when he remained silent and kept smiling serenely at her, she rolled her eyes and giggled. “Oh come on, you know how much a mare enjoys a little gossip.”

“You sound a lot like Rarity.” Scout simply stated, earning him a small death glare from his opposite.

He thought about it for a moment but finally came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t hurt anypony to tell her in secret. “I’ll tell you if you promise to keep it secret ... from everypony, even princess Twilight and certainly the mare in question. Understood?” Sunset simply nodded and her face turned back into one of anticipation, while Scout took a deep breath. “It’s AJ.”

Sunset’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. She hadn’t seen Equestria’s version of Applejack and she could attest that her human friend was all but unattractive, but she was baffled nonetheless. With a firm shake of her head, Sunset brought her brain back up running. “Well, I didn’t see that one coming. Mind to tell me why?”

Scout couldn’t help but snicker at that question, he smiled at Sunset like she was a schoolfilly that just asked the most obvious of questions. “I even have to explain despite you obviously knowing her?” he shook his head in amused disbelief. “Ok, first she practically is honesty incarnate. Personally I can’t stand when a pony is lying to me, so it should be easy to see why I adore her for not doing exactly that. Second is how she deals with her family. I’m pretty sure she would kick your flank from Sweet Apple Acres to Canterlot and back if you tried to do anything to her family and then there is this incredible deep bond all Apples seem to have. My family and I were close, yeah, but they are way beyond that, if you ask me, she would probably kill and die for her family and friends. Then there’s the fact that she’s a hard working and determined mare. Furthermore she is one of Equestrias greatest heroes, so yeah, a little bit of worship and glorification might be involved too. And finally, her mane is beautiful, her green gorgeous eyes and come on, have you ever seen the flank? Well, she sure isn’t an apple by name only.”

Sunset deadpanned and stated in a monotone voice. “Well, all males are the same at some point.”

Scout rolled his eyes and waved dismissively. “Pffft, sue me for finding her attractive. You wanted an answer and you got one.”

With a heavy sigh, Sunset rolled on her back and looked through one of the holes in the roof. “Yeah, you’re right. So, is there anything going on between you and AJ?”

Scout mirrored Sunset’s behavior and also rolled on his back to watch the stars. “Nah, I’ve never could muster enough courage to actually make a move, besides, I don’t think she has any interest in me. All she ever does is working for her family and spending time with her friends. I can’t really picture any stallion fitting into this.”

Silence fell on the two of them and Sunset seemed to have fallen asleep, when she suddenly turned her head towards Scout. “I still think you should at least give it a shot, but it’s ultimately up to you.” She smiled and gave him a wink. “And if nothing else works, there is still liquid courage to fall back to.”

A simultaneous yawn of both ponies brought Sunset’s argument to an end and made her giggle slightly. “I think I will put examining Luna’s old spell up for another day, time to hit the hay for good.”

Scout thought about Sunset’s suggestion in regards to Applejack, but was ultimately too tired to continue the discussion about his love life. So he nodded, but still managed to give Sunset a disapproving look. “Goodnight.” He folded his front legs behind his head, remained on his back and counted stars, until he fell asleep a few minutes later.

When Sunset took notice that Scout was fast asleep, she couldn’t help but giggle a little and gave him an evil grin. “I can’t wait to get back to earth to ask Applejack if she knows someone like him and then all I have to do is to let Rarity loose.” While already making plans to assist one of her friends to maybe get a real relationship going, Sunset turned around and drifted off into the realm of dreams.

The next morning was rather uneventful. Scout was still a little miffed about Sunset’s relationship advice and Sunset didn’t want to spoil the mood any further. So the two ponies said nothing to each other and silently made their way back to Ponyville.

The way itself was similarly boring. Sunset had made rather clear that she was no pony to be trifled with when she incinerated the timberwolves the day before. Therefore neither the flora nor the fauna of the Everfree wanted to deal with her.

Finally, around noon, they arrived at Twilight’s castle and Scout wanted to take his leave. But before he could say something or walk away, Sunset sighed and looked at him apologetically. “Sorry for what I said yesterday, about Applejack and all. I had no intention of poking my nose into your personal affairs.”

Scout couldn’t help but smile a little. “Ah, it’s fine ... I think. I’m not really good at taking advice, but I’m very good at being stubborn instead.” He pointed a hoof towards Sunset and with a broad grin smashed her hoof into his. Though she underestimated her own strength a little and cringed slightly when her leg and shoulder suddenly hurt a little. With the traditional brohoof of reconciliation performed, Scout took his leave and Sunset entered the castle.

What Scout didn’t see however was that Sunset smiled devilish as she closed the door behind herself. Sure, she wouldn’t attempt to do anything to this world’s Scout, but she was still determined to see if she could do something for earth’s Applejack. Even though Twilight and her friends have shown her that friendship was something great, she still had fun in manipulating others lives, only for good purposes of course. But what better purpose could she have than bringing love to her friend? “Rarity will love this.”