Sunset Reset

by LordBrony2040

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Cadance, Comedy, Romance, Shining Armor, Sex, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 391988

After the Friendship Games, Sunset Shimmer decided it's time to return home. It's just that she comes back a bit earlier than expected.

After the Friendship Games, Sunset feels it's time to return home.

Only when she gets there, Twilight's castle is nowhere to be found, Cadance just got her horn, and Princess Celestia is still calling the bacon-haired pony her prized student rather than a failed one. And just reliving her past isn't on the table thanks to a pair of wings Sunset seems to have sprouted upon her return to Equestria.

With Sunset being back before she's supposed to, will the world stay as harmonious and on track, or will everything go down in flames as Sunset has to deal with allegations that she's really a changeling in disguise, a nerdy stallion with blue hair that wants to be her coltfriend, a pretty pink princess in need of remedial magic lessons, and an annoying purple pre-teen pony that will absolutely not go to bed without first being read Starswirl's Complete Mystical Mysteries Compendium?

Only time will tell

Published 2015-09-29 21:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-12-09 00:32:10 UTC

Chapter 1: The Past Is Today

“Well, after a careful examination, I’d have to say she’s got a nasty bump on the noggin, and is suffering from a severe case of magical exhaustion,” the brown unicorn doctor with the short curly mane doctor as he carefully looked over the unconscious alicorn. As Sunset continued to lay in her bed, the stallion turned back to the much larger white pony standing over him. “Bed rest is all she needs, Princess.”

Celestia nodded her thanks before dismissing the medical pony and ordering the guards outside Sunset's apartment to escort him out of the castle. With that taken care of, she trotted back in and turned her full attention to the sleeping pony in the bed. The doctor’s prognosis had mirrored Celestia’s own, despite the fact she had been much more through in her examination of her student. All either of them could find aside from the minor physical damage was that Sunset’s mana pathways had been overtaxed, and she’d be asleep for the better part of the next twenty-four hours.

As the smaller alicorn fidgeted in her sleep, Celestia used her magic to readjust the sheets so they wouldn’t cause too much trouble with Sunset’s new wings. Then, the Princess sighed and sat down on the floor to think about the situation.

Running mystical scans on the mirror had proved as fruitless as they had been when Starswirl first showed her the blasted thing. That mirror would be magically inert for the better part of a month. All it would be able to do until then is reflect a glimpse of a pony’s destiny with a little help from Celestia. But even when it was working as it was supposed to, it had certainly never been the cause of magical energy releases that turned ponies into alicorns!

Celestia pushed the mystery of the mirror out of her head for the moment. Such a thing could be dealt with in due time. As long as she kept ponies away from it, there wouldn’t be a problem.

What concerned her now was Sunset Shimmer. While not a bad pony, Celestia had to admit that her student had become overly prideful, aloof, and even a little mean in recent years. Her transformation into an alicorn promised to either increase those problems, or make them irreversible. Perhaps even both.

She had hoped that meeting Cadance after the pink alicorn’s ascension would have taught Sunset a little humility simply from the fact there was somepony else around with a higher magic potential than her. But...things hadn’t quite worked out the way Celestia had planned. In fact, it had only made Sunset's situation worse.

Nowadays, the two avoided each other, if not outright pretended the other didn’t exist for most of the time. It was a solution Celestia was willing to accept for the moment, at least until she could correct Sunset’s ways. Once she had been set on the right track, the princess fully intended for her adopted niece and student to settle their differences. There was just so much the two of them could teach each other.

But now that she had a pair of wings and an increased mana pool of her own…Celestia wasn’t quite sure what Sunset would do. While she certainly wasn’t dangerous to other ponies, her attitude was definitely going to suffer from the change in species. Not to mention her ethical studies, which Sunset barely heeded at all as of late, even when they came from Celestia herself.

For a moment, Celestia wished things could be as they used to be between the two of them. She lost herself in the memories of the past, when Sunset hadn’t been quite such a headache. She remembered back when the little filly had been found wandering the halls of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She hadn’t actually been an applicant at the time. Her parents had simply been applying for a job at the institution and lost track of the curious little filly. A little filly who had wandered into the entrance exam room as Celestia and the professors were preparing to leave, and completed an exercise that every other applicant had failed to achieve so quickly the adults in the room barely had time to notice her before it was done.

While her parents hadn’t gained a place at Celestia’s school, the Princess was more than willing to let Sunset in as her personal student thanks to the display, which took the financial burden of enrollment off the two older ponies.

Celestia remembered how frightened the little filly had been at first, alone in Canterlot without any relatives around to offer her emotional support. The Princess had spent the first week with her student, simply guiding Sunset around and showing her there was nothing to be afraid of while the little filly stuck to Celestia like an extra cutie mark. After that, she had finally managed to coax Sunset into her own palace apartment instead of the one Celestia used. The fact that it was only two doors down from her own probably helped the little filly accept it.

The second memory that cropped up was a painful one. Not three weeks after Sunset had settled in Canterlot, there had been an incident involving her parents. A bugbear had attacked the village they had settled in upon finding work and caused a great deal of damage, not to mention casualties. Both of Sunset’s parents had been among the ponies lost that day.

The Sun Princess shook off the memories of the memorial service and the mental image of the crying filly being held in Celestia’s forelegs that followed. She had promised the deceased ponies that she would always watch over their child and provide the best for her, no matter what may come. A promise that Celestia admitted to herself had kept Sunset in her tutelage despite the former unicorn’s turn for the worst and the thoughts that she might benefit from a different teacher.

A cleansing sigh made its way from Celestia’s lips as she pulled herself away from her memories, and took a moment to nuzzle the sleeping filly. Sunset fidgeted in her sleep in response, and might have rolled around if not for the pair of extended wings on her back that forced the little alicorn to sleep on her side.

“Sleep well, my little Sunset,” Celestia told her gently. “We’ll…figure things out when you come to.”

With her goodbyes said, Celestia made her way out into the main room of Sunset’s apartment and then into the main hallway where her guards were waiting. She also found another pony that she hadn’t been expecting out on the other end of the hallway. “Cadance.”

The young pink alicorn with her mane tied back in a ponytail looked up at Celestia upon hearing her name. Although she had gotten better at hiding her nervousness around the older pony, it was still evident to somepony of Celestia's experience. “I was going to your room for my lesson today, and the guards said you were taking care of Sunset,” she explained before pausing for a moment, unease giving way to caution. “Did something happen?”

Celestia blinked and found herself foolishly looking for a clock before realizing none would be found in the hallway where she was standing. Was I really in there with Sunset for that long? the goddess thought before clearing her head and looking down again to address her adopted niece’s concerns. “There was an incident with Sunset a few hours ago. I’m sorry for letting the hours slip away, things were just so hectic since then that I didn’t have time to send a messenger saying I needed to cancel our meeting for today.”

Disappointment and a bit of agitation appeared on the teenager’s face before she looked away and gave an annoyed sigh. “I understand Prin-Auntie.”

The response made Celestia have to work from keeping her shoulders from drooping. She knew Cadance didn’t like the fact that the majority of the older alicorn’s time was spent teaching Sunset, but there really wasn’t much she could do about it. Cadance was already ascended, the lessons she needed to learn could be provided by any unicorn school teacher.

When it came down to it, Sunset simply needed Celestia more than Cadance did, and that was that.

Still, a complete lack of attention wasn’t fair to the pink princess.

“Walk with me a moment, would you?” Celestia asked. At the very least, she could spare a few minutes to let Cadance air some of her aggravation. Plus, if Sunset wasn’t going to be conscious for a day, she could give Cadance back her lost teaching time with interest.

Before leaving, she looked back at her escort. “Silver Wing, Shining Knight, I want the two of you to remain here in case Sunset recovers faster than expected.” It was a possibility considering her new species. But not likely. Still, it was best to plan for the unexpected, or if Sunset took a turn for the worst. “I’ll have the next shift relieve you in a couple of hours.”

As Celestia trotted away, Cadance actually stood motionless at the door for a few seconds before she rushed to catch up. “Wait! What do you mean recovers?” she asked in a worried tone that reminded Celestia just why Cadance had been chosen to receive a horn and crown. Despite their troubles, the pink alicorn was still worked up at the thought of the other pony being injured. “Sunset’s hurt?”

The larger alicorn hesitated with her answer, and looked back to her student’s door as she contemplated just what to tell Cadance. “Not…exactly.”

Sunset Shimmer awoke to the unpleasant sensation of a pounding hammer in her skull. Although, the rest of her nerves weren't as mean. The rest of her body simply experienced a dull ache. She groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, only to have them assaulted by a bright light coming through a horribly placed window that managed to bombard the discombobulated girl with an excess of light.

Almost on reflex, Sunset closed her eyes and reached down to grab the covers in her hand and…blinked when she noticed something was wrong.

My fingers, the girl thought to herself as she attempted to wiggle the missing digits. I can’t feel my fingers!

The thought brutally annihilated the final remnants of sleep clinging to Sunset’s mind in a wave of sudden panic. She rolled on her back, after a great deal of effort to shove something out of the way, and brought up what she expected to be her hands. Only, she found a pair of hooves filling her vision instead of palms. Wait a second.

Memories from the day before filled Sunset’s head as she recalled what had happened. The Friendship Games. Her friend’s uncaring attitudes about their own safety. Principal Bitch of CP coaxing the human Twilight to release all that stored magic, and then not giving a damn about nearly destroying the whole world shortly afterwards. Her anger at the whole situation, at her friends, at Twilight…and at herself for causing the whole mess by bringing the crown back with her in the first place. It all came flooding back to her, along with the girl's decision to simply take the magic with her as she left for Equestria.

Then there was that strange magical energy signature, and...she woke up here.

For a moment, Sunset found herself wondering if she was in Twilight’s castle. The design looked more reminiscent of Canterlot, rather than whatever crystal palace she had ended up at upon her first return to Equestria. Although, she supposed that a mare raised in Canterlot would want a home of the same style. Anything else would probably be alien and unwelcoming.

Hell, the place even bore a similarity to the old apartment she had back at Canterlot Castle. Even the bookcases were in the same place, on the far end of the room so she could get just the tome she needed while staying in bed if she wanted to spend a lazy day reading.

The oddity made Sunset wonder what would have happened if things had just been a little bit different upon her first return to Equestria. If she hadn’t let her anger and pride get the better after finding out about Princess Twilight. If she hadn’t taken the crown through the portal to break its connection to its rightful owner and just gone on about her life.

Would Princess Celestia have taken her back?

Sunset knew the possibility was non-existent now. She would be lucky not to get a real banishment handed down by Celestia rather than the one that had been placed upon her by simply staying at Canterlot High rather than returning home to face justice as she should have done.

The thought of her old jail cell made the mare shift her thoughts to her friends. Were they angry with her? Upset? Disappointed? While Sunset had done what she did to protect them, could any of them really even understand that?

Maybe I should have stayed, Sunset told herself. If she had been the one to contain all the magic, then there wouldn’t have been a problem. Except from maybe Rainbow, she tended to pony-up as much as possible. Which was one of Sunset’s primary reasons for leaving the human world. That girl was going to get herself in serious trouble with the way she constantly tried to show off her magic.

Just thinking about it made the former-human’s anger start to build up and-THWAP!

“Gaah!” Sunset let out a cry as she suddenly found herself catapulted forward through the air, over the end of her bed and onto the floor in front of it before she hit the ground with a loud THUMP that threatened to knock the wind out of her. What the fuck was that?

The mare groaned from the impact, and thought she heard movement coming from the other side of the door to her left. After living in a world with soft-stepping monkeys, it seemed even hooves on a carpeted surface stood out to her ears. “Umm…hello? Is anybody…”

Sunset cut herself off when she noticed something blurry on the edge of her vision after she turned her head towards the door. She looked back…and blinked at the large appendages. The large feathery appendages. The large feathery appendages that she noticed were apparently attached to her back.

Disbelief filling her mind, Sunset attempted to manipulate some of her rarely-used back muscles in an attempt to move the wings. Wings that were apparently hers. Because as Sunset squirmed around on the floor, she not only managed to make one of the wings move, she actually felt it.

Surprise replaced disbelief as her brain accepted the signals confirming movement of Sunset’s wings, and the unicorn that had just learned she had apparently been turned into an alicorn let out a shriek of surprise. “GAAAAAH!” A few decibels louder than when she had just landed on the floor.

The door to her left slowly opened with a light creek, and Sunset looked over as a pink pony with a long horn on her head looked in. “Sunset? Are you alright? I heard screaming and…um…I wanted to see if you were okay.”

The pink pony’s face stirred something in Sunset’s memory, of a young alicorn that had appeared in Canterlot one day that Celestia had called her niece. Of course, Sunset had found those claims to be false when she read a history book from the restricted section of the library detailing alicorn ascension. The little alicorn had neither been born Celestia’s niece, nor an alicorn. It had just been a lie that Celestia had concocted to hide the fact she could turn ponies into alicorns.

But, she did recognize the pony, all the same.

“Princess Cadance?” she asked in bewilderment. “What’re you doing here?”

A confused look appeared on Cadance’s face as she slowly swung the door open all the way to reveal a potted plant with a card in it held close to her body with one of her wings. “I was…um…bringing you a get well present,” she said before gulping and looking over to the empty nightstand by the bed Sunset had been in a moment before her impromptu flight, and then to the other alicorn. “I-I’ll just leave it out in your sitting room.”

“Um…thank you Princess,” Sunset said as confusion wracked her brain.

What in the hell was Princess Cadance doing in…wherever the hell they were?

And…why was she… “Uh, Princess Cadance? Is something wrong?” Sunset asked as she found her way to her feet, or hooves as the case was, once again. “You’re looking at me like I’m-oh, it’s the wings, isn’t it?”

The question made Cadance blink, and then shake herself out of whatever stupor she was in. “No. It’s um…actually, it’s the fact you just called me princess for the fourth time since we met. Aun-er, Princess Celestia already told me about the wings you got after your…accident.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and tried to count the times she had addressed Cadance by her title just then, but threw that aside in favor of the more important topic. “My accident?”

“With the mirror?” Cadance reminded her, although it sounded more like a hesitant question than a statement.

All of a sudden, a spike of fear ran through Sunset’s mind. The questions that came with her wings like ’why?’ and ’what happens now?’ got pushed back in the que for more important things. “The Crystal Mirror? What do you mean accident? Did something happen to the mirror?” she asked before galloping up to Cadance with only a tiny stumble and looked down at the shorter alicorn to meet her face to face. “Princess, you gotta tell me! What happened?” The worst possible possibility appeared in her mind. “Did it...break?”

A second later, Sunset realized the foolishness of her questions. She needed to stay in this world to keep her friends safe. But…having the option of returning when the portal opened naturally taken away had sent her into a small panic.

The pink alicorn’s eyes widened, and she backed away from Sunset as she talked. “N-No. The mirror’s just fine. But, Celestia said that when she brought you to look at it, there was a strange surge of magic that blinded her, and when her eyes cleared, you were laying on the other side of the room and um...you had wings.”

Sunset frowned at Cadance’s odd reply. Princess Celestia hadn’t shown her anything. She had come through the mirror, not looked at it. In fact, what Cadance was describing sounded like something that had happened years ago. Nearly a month before Celestia had expelled her and… A rather disturbing possibility ran through Sunset’s mind as she remember her encounter with the temporal energies on her way back to Equestria. “Cadance…do you remember the last time we talked?”

“Um…” the other mare said before she went around Sunset to put the potted plant down next to the empty bed. “Maybe…two weeks ago? We saw each other in the hallway, and you gave me that look you get whenever you know I’m around. Although, I guess that doesn’t really count as talking.”

As she walked around the room, Sunset took note of the other alicorn’s hesitant stride, the way she kept glancing back at Sunset, and a slight twitch in her wings. Although she hadn’t been a pony again for very long, the newfound alicorn could equate such things with the way humans moved, and like Sunset's wings, the mystery of why Cadance thinking she had only been gone for a few weeks was sidelined for something more important. “Cadance, am I making you nervous?”

The question got a stumble from the pink princess. It was minor, but still noticeable before she corrected herself and looked over to Sunset. “Nervous? Why would I be nervous? Eh-hehehe.”

Sunset’s eyes widened as her bully senses, honed after two years of getting the human students that surrounded her for two years to do whatever she wanted, confirmed Cadance’s unease with the fake laugh and uneasy smile she gave. The light amber alicorn’s head drooped when she came to a realization. Cadance was nervous about being around her.

Now that she thought about it, Sunset really couldn’t ever remember treating Cadance with the respect she deserved. Another pony had simply shown up in Princess Celestia’s life, and Sunset had done everything she could to show the friendly young mare just who was top dog around Canterlot.

While there had been a whole five seconds when Sunset was nervous about the presence of another alicorn, that had faded after she saw Cadance’s rather pathetic attempt at magic during their first meeting over dinner. Sunset had demanded why a pony with a horn was using her hooves to eat. Then she went a bit further with the insult by lifting everything she could in the room and spinning several pounds of tables, chairs, silverware, plates, food, and maybe even the waiter around the room a few times just to prove her superiority after Cadance explained she wasn't good at levitation, or any magic really.

The whole thing had ended before Celestia had shown up, delayed by some meeting or other event like raising the moon like she always was, but the intimidation had worked. And if not, Sunset had taken many other opportunities to show off in the most terrifying way possible to the alicorn what a real horn could do.

Cadance wasn’t just nervous, she was terrified of the other pony.

The realization made Sunset gulp. “Because up until now, the only thing I’ve done is bully you,” she said sadly before lowering her head. “And the monster that’s done everything she can to make you afraid just got a magical upgrade. I think that’s a pretty good reason for you to feel afraid.”

The pink princess stared at Sunset for a few seconds, shock evident on her face. “Well…I wouldn’t really call you a monster,” Cadance’s voice cut in before Sunset’s guilt could run wild. “I mean, you never actually did anything to me. Just…um, kind of…showed me you could.”

She looked back to the other alicorn that was giving her a little smile. “H-How about a brat then?” Sunset suggested.

Cadance blinked at the question, and actually giggled a little bit. “Okay…I can see that,” she said before a frown appeared on her face. “Sunset…what happened to you?”

Sunset looked back to the wings on her back.

“Not those,” the other alicorn said, making Sunset look back at her. “Okay well, yeah, I kind of want to know about the wings too, but first…you’ve never acted like this to me before. I almost hate to ask but…are you feeling okay?”

The question made Sunset wince. She acted civil, and her very first target as a bully asked the mare if something was wrong with her. As if Sunset being nice to another pony was something so abnormal there must be something going on with her. It made Sunset realize just how pathetic she had been even before her departure from Equestria.

It also made her wonder just what the hell she was supposed to say.

Cadance’s words had helped give formation to a theory, but she didn’t want to say anything until she was absolutely sure about what was going on. For that, she needed to look around first. If not…well…Cadance was already looking at her like she was partially insane, there was no need to confirm her craziness to the princess.

So, she needed a lie.

A good lie.

A lie that was good enough to be accepted, but vague enough so that no one could poke any holes in the details. Ugh…why couldn’t I have just appeared after Celestia expelled me? Then it would have been easy to just say what happened on the other side of that mirror and…wait…the mirror!

Sunset looked Cadance in the eyes. “Let’s just say that when I looked at myself in that mirror Celestia showed me…I didn’t really like what I saw,” she said. The next words came much easier from her mouth, even though they weighed her heart down. “I was mean…selfish…and even cruel. And I…I don’t want to be like that anymore!”

By the end of her unintentional put down, Sunset held her eyes closed fiercely to keep the tears of shame and anger from coming out. So the first kind of warning she had to Cadance’s movements were a few light taps on the floor from the princess’s hooves, followed by the sensation of a wing touching her neck.

Sunset looked up, and saw the other pony smiling down at her as she tried to sink even deeper into the floor. “I think you’re being a little too hard on yourself, but if it makes you feel any better, then I forgive you,” Cadance said before her expression became a little dour. “And let’s be honest, me just showing up out of the blue to take away Celestia’s attention from you…it must have been pretty hard. I knew you felt threatened, and lashed out at me for it. But instead of getting control of my fear and reaching out to you, I…backed off.”

With Cadance putting herself down, Sunset fiercely shook her head as she stood back up. “No, that’s not it. You can’t…you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah,” the pink pony princess agreed softly. “But it doesn’t mean I did anything right either. Celestia told me over and over again how she wanted me to help you, and I just…ran away.”

The comment made Sunset gesture to the plant Cadance had brought with her. “What’s that then?”

Cadance looked over to the greenery and let out a little chuckle. “Oh…well…after I heard you were hurt. Princess Celestia told me that maybe this was my chance to close the gap between us with a present,” she said before looking back to Sunset with a smile. “Then you go and show me up again with all this apologizing.”

Seeing that the mare was joking, Sunset put on a smirk and tried to stand up a little taller. “Well, I have it on good authority that I am pretty awesome. Plus you know, alicorn. Gotta be all friendshippy now.”

The comment made Cadance stare wide-eyed at Sunset, and then a small snicker escaped from her nose that was followed quickly by full-on laughter. “Friendshippy?” she said before giggling again.

Taken by the moment, Sunset joined her. However, it only was a moment. A few seconds later, Cadance got herself under control, and demanded Sunset’s attention again. “Seriously though, what’s up with the wings?”

Every little bit of laughter quickly abandoned Sunset as she looked back to Cadance. “I um…” she said before looking back at the extended appendages. Didn’t those things ever retract? “I have no idea.” Which was a complete and total lie.

The truth was…Sunset did have idea, although a vague one. When she had stepped back through the portal, she had been holding magic from a group of humans holding magic that consisted of at least one of every single tribe in Equestria, plus her own unicorn magic. So when her body was once again transformed back into a pony, it reflected the magic she now held.

Or maybe the magic she had been holding needed the body of an alicorn to contain it properly. So when she stepped back through the portal, that was what she was.

Either way, the wings on her back were proof that there had been a serious change.

And Sunset really didn’t want to talk any more on the subject, so she looked around the room to see if there was another topic that could be brought up. Cadance wouldn’t be interested in the magical tomes laying in her old bookshelves, if this really was the past and not something else that is, she hadn't actually read any of the titles yet. Then her eyes fell on the plant, and the envelope and she looked back to Cadance with a smile. “So, what does the card say?”

The other mare’s expression turned a little embarrassed. “Just, you know, the usual. I wrote about how much Celestia talks about you and that we probably got off on the wrong hoof, then said how sorry I was to hear that you were hurt, and how if you wanted to, we could try and start over.”

The irony of Cadance’s statement nearly floored the other pony. “Uh…okay,” she said in an empty tone. Although the recovery was quick. She stepped forward, and held out a hoof. “Hi there. I’m Sunset Shimmer. I’m into magic and some other stuff. I should warn you though, ponies say I have a bit of a temper, and let it get away from me sometimes.”

Cadance giggled, and took the other mare’s leg by the fetlock. “Hello Sunset. My name is Mi Amore Cadenza, but my friends call me Cadance,” she said with a smile. “I like romance novels and pony watching. And although I’ve got a horn, I’m not very good with magic.”

“You want me to help you with that?” Sunset asked almost automatically. Then, she quickly added a smirk as they separated their forelegs. “I’m pretty good with that magic stuff, you know.”

The offer made the smile on Cadance’s face turn much warmer. “That sounds nice. When would be a good time to-”

Sunset didn’t let her finish. “How about now?”

Cadance blinked, her smile gone in an instant. “Now?”

“Well, do you have anything better to do?” she asked a little harsher than she meant to. Sunset made a mental note to work on that. “Sorry.”

The apology got a shake of her head from Cadance. “It’s okay. And you’re right, I really don’t have anything planned that could stack up against getting a personal magic lesson from the Sunset Shimmer.”

This time it was Sunset’s turn to roll her eyes. “Okay, okay. I’ve got a bit of an ego too,” she admitted in a snarky tone. “Now go into the main room. I’ll join you in a minute.”

Cadance’s eyes narrowed, and she gave Sunset look that just screamed to the other pony that Cadance suspected her of something. “What’re you going to be doing?”

In response, Sunset frowned. “Cadance, I just woke up. I’ve got to pee.”

The reply had the desired effect, and Cadance quickly made herself scarce.

Not lying to the pink alicorn for once, Sunset quickly made her way to a door on the other side of the room, and then looked around for the bathroom a little bit longer when she realized the door she had opened was in fact to her old closet. She realized would need to watch things like that in the future if she wanted to have any hopes of not spilling the beans about the portal before the time was right. A walk around the castle grounds would probably do her memory good.

Although, after finishing up in the bathroom, finding it weird to need to go as a pony again, Sunset found herself wondering if she should tell anyone about what had happened to her while she ran water over her hooves.

And then there was the question of, what had happened to the her past self?

Had that Sunset been sucked into the portal when the Sunset that was washing her hooves came out?

Had she been replaced by the Sunset that was staring her back in the mirror somehow to avoid some sort of weird temporal paradox?

What did her being back here now mean for Canterlot High? While she knew the school would be better of if it had never known Sunset Shimmer, there was still the question of the Dazzlings. Would they need to be stopped again? On the other hand, no Equestrian magic meant their power was sorely limited. So, could she just ignore them?

And then there was Celestia…

Sunset shut off the water and looked back at her reflection. Celestia wouldn’t just shrug off a non-explanation like Cadance did. She wasn’t that stupid. She would demand an answer for the wings, not to mention Sunset’s change in demeanor.

And Twilight…where did she fit in?

If the purple mare had become an alicorn in the time that Sunset had been gone, then she must have met Celestia very shortly after Sunset ran away. She had to have been elevated from within the princess’s personal school just days after Sunset’s departure. That was the only way Sunset could explain not seeing a mare just a year younger than herself gaining such recognition.

If Sunset stayed Celestia’s student, did that mean Twilight would never get her chance to become a princess? The thought of taking something like that from the pony who deserved it so much more than her made Sunset’s blood run cold. It wasn’t fair that Twilight would lose her rightful crown just because that stupid mirror had dumped her out at the wrong time!

The alicorn looked back to her wings and frowned. From the looks of things, her spontaneous alicornhood was starting to become very costly. At least to the more important ponies than her later on down the road.

“Okay Sunset, calm down,” she told her reflection before she took a deep breath. “You’ve got time…you can think of a way to fix this.”

Even if she had no idea how.

“You’ve just got to…” What? Turn back into a bitch and make sure Celestia kicks me out? I don’t think I could pull that off if I tried.

Tell Celestia the truth? Sunset asked herself before images of a prison sentence and wing amputations assaulted her imagination until she squelched that idea with all her mental prowess. Yeah, screw that.

With no answer immediately forthcoming, Sunset let out a sigh. What she needed was more information. Maybe there was a spell or something she could use to leap forward a couple years to make sure Twilight made it through everything alright.

“Sunset? Are you okay in there?” Cadance called out, ending the shimmer-corn’s planning session.

The question had Sunset step away from the mirror and put all her hooves on the ground. “Okay, table that shit for right now I’ve got a friend to help. Friendship problem first, timeline destroying disaster…later,” she told herself before raising her voice to address Cadance. “Yeah yeah…keep your panties on!”

After a brief silence, Sunset heard Cadance yell out again. “What are panties?”

Halfway to the door in her bedroom, Sunset paused to reach up and smack herself in the face. “OW!” the alicorn shouted as she rubbed her nose. The impact did a lot more damage than she had been expecting. “Right…hooves. Harder than palms. Gotta remember that.”

As Sunset rubbed her muzzle, the door opened again, and Cadance stuck her head in. “Are you okay? I thought I heard you cry out again.”

Sunset waved the younger alicorn off even with her throbbing ~~nose~~ muzzle. “I’m fine. Now come on, let me show you how to use that horn of yours.”

Chapter 2: Truth and Lies

A concerned curiosity filled Celestia’s mind as she exited her quarters, intent on finding just where Cadance had run off to. With Sunset indisposed until at least…well… sunset, the Princess had set aside some time to address Cadance’s budding feelings surrounding the crazy belief that she was unwanted in Canterlot by Celestia. Just a pony to be put aside, as if being inducted into the royal line wasn’t proof enough for her.

But after switching out the time she usually spent in private instruction to Sunset for her other student, the little pink princess was nowhere to be seen. The idea that Cadance had forgotten to come after Celestia had made sure to keep the hour clear might have miffed her a bit, but the alicorn was quick to remind herself that ponies were creatures of habit. It was entirely possible that Cadance had simply trotted off to her usual lessons with Shooting Star, because that was what she always did.

“Okay, okay! Just balance out the mana application,” Sunset’s voice sounded from the other side of the door, making Celestia freeze in mid-trot. “Good, good, good! Now just guide it through. Careful...come on, you’ve got it…come on…you-more underneath! More underneath!”

“I’m trying!” Cadance’s voice came through the door in an exasperated tone.

Surprise flooded Celestia, and she did her best to remember what the clock in her room had said about the time. Even if her memory of the hour was off, Sunset shouldn’t have been up for several hours yet. On top of which, she and Cadance were talking and…neither of them was shouting at the other.

Something was going on.

Not wanting to interrupt the moment, Celestia gently pushed open the door to the room and wrapped herself in a minor misdirection spell. While not true invisibility, it would allow her to remain hidden as long as she didn’t draw too much attention to herself by talking, or moving, or doing much beyond breathing. But she could still watch.

And the sight before her filled the ancient alicorn with surprise.

Inside the room, three hoops big enough to fit around a pony’s head floated in Sunset’s magic as a balled up piece of parchment wrapped in Cadance’s barely controlled magical aura uneasily zipped around as Cadance tried to guide it through the stationary hoops.

It was an ancient exercise meant to help teach control and horn-eye coordination to foals. Although, there was a minor difference to the usual displays and what Celestia was seeing play out before her. The amount of magic Cadance was using to hold her paper was beyond what even most adult ponies could accomplish. There had to be at least a tons of pressure crushing down on the giant spit wad from all directions.

The raw display of power might have been a little intimidating, if the alicorn holding onto the magic didn’t have her tongue stuck out just a little in concentration.

“No,” Sunset seemingly lectured Cadance as she sat down on the floor with a straightened back and voice that sounded more reserved than Celestia had ever her student use when faced with failure. “No try. You either do, or you do not. There is no try.”

As Cadance’s piece of paper barely zipped through the middle ring, she looked back up to Sunset with a frown. “What the hay does that mean? How can I do something if I don’t try to do it?”

Sunset’s instructive stance broke, then she gave Cadance a little giggle and smiled back. “Yeah, it took me awhile to figure that one out too,” she said before her face became more stern. “But what it boils down to is, when you only give something a try, that means you don’t truly believe you can succeed. You either succeed, or you fail.”

A second later, the compacted ball of paper Cadance was floating around zipped up in a blur and impacted the ceiling, becoming stuck in a hole it created. She looked up at the ceiling, and then lowered her head in a sigh. “Well, looks like that’s failure number twenty-seven.”

“What’re you talking about?” Sunset asked before she tore another page from an old notebook and crumpled it up in her magic. Then, she tossed the paper towards Cadance. It landed on the table, and the pink alicorn frowned at it for a few seconds while sparks began shooting from her horn.

While the pink alicorn concentrated, the amber one spoke. “You only fail if you give up. All of that stuff up there? That’s what you call setbacks.”

Celestia found herself studying Sunset as she walked around the room, coaching and instructing Cadance.

“Forget what that old mare’s been telling you. You’re not a foal. Don’t worry about how much magic you put into it. You’re not going to get tired. Just focus on the balance right now. You’ve got enough magic to lift half the castle,” Sunset reminded Cadance as she trotted up behind the alicorn to give her a reassuring smile. “We’ll get to fine tuning later. Right now, just move the paper.”

When it came to her body, Sunset seemed…almost too perfect. Usually, when a pony ascended, there was always one tribal trait that didn’t quite get the boost the others did. But Sunset didn’t have such a flaw. The amber alicorn with the fiery mane had the fit physique of an earth pony showing through her coat, with newly developed muscles that were the equal to any pony who had seen hard farm work for her whole life. Her wings were thick and looked strong enough to carry several ponies through the air, not a feather was out of place. And the magic of her horn sung with a power and grace Celestia had never felt from her student before.

She had gotten taller too. Whereas before Sunset had been on the short side for a mare, her alicorn body stood the equal of any stallion in height. A fully grown mortal alicorn.

But what made Celestia’s heart swell with pride wasn’t how Sunset looked.

Cadance’s paper ball of destruction slammed into the table beneath the rings hard enough to put a hole in the wood and carpeted floor. “I…I did it!” Cadance said in a breathless whisper before Sunset nearly tackled her from behind in a hug.

“And it only took you twenty-seven tries!” she said as her wings poofed up in what any pegasus would consider an embarrassing display.

A snicker came from Cadance. “I thought you said there are no tries.”

Sunset backed away from the alicorn and stood on her hind legs for a few seconds more before she dropped and rolled her eyes. “Yeah well…just…shut up and help me with my wings,” she ordered Cadance in a heatless grumble.

“I don’t know. Looks like you’re just trying to keep those things down,” the pink alicorn teased as she reached over and began helping Sunset get her new appendages under control.

The groan that came from Sunset was indicative of her quickly dying good mood. “You know, I had a good mentor line thing going, and you just had to ruin it, didn’t you?”

Cadance giggled. “Well…I try.”

As Cadance continued to poke Sunset right in her patience, the amber alicorn rolled her eyes and then smirked. “And if you’re trying to get a rise out of me, then all you’ve done is fail.”

Back in the doorway, Celestia watched the two girls give each other verbal jabs before Sunset rolled her eyes and pulled the physically weaker alicorn into a hug as soon as her wings were set down. The display of love, friendship, support and guidance Sunset had given Cadance made Celestia feel prouder than any pair of wings on a unicorn's back ever could. It all showed that Sunset didn’t just look like an alicorn. She acted like one too.

It was a realization that made Celestia put her rump on the floor for the added balance before she raised her hooves up to offer a slow applause while her student hugged Cadance for another time to show her there weren’t any hard feelings. Whatever had happened to Sunset, it seemed to have washed away all the unhealthy ambition to succeed and pressure that came with it, as well as her growing anger to reveal the pony Celestia had lost track of not too long ago.

“Auntie!” Cadance cried out in surprise a second before Sunset’s wings unfurled once again in what had to be a rush of blood and adrenaline. “What’re you-ugh! Uh…Sunset? That’s a little tight. C-Can you let me go? Um…I’m sorry about the Auntie thing, I know you don’t like it when I call Princess Celestia that.”

News Celestia found interesting, if confusing. Why would Sunset be angry at Cadance over something so minor as that? She loved them both just as…well…no. If she was going to be honest with herself, she did love one of them more than the other. No matter how unfair such an emotion was, Celestia couldn’t deny it to herself.

“Sunset? You there? Umm Princess Celestia, little help here?” Cadance asked, drawing Celestia out of her introspection.

She looked up and sighed at the alicorn that still had Cadance in a hug and her back to Celestia. So, she began walking over to the pair of smaller ponies. “Sunset, as happy as I am to see the two of you getting along, I think you really should let go of Cadance.”

Although the amber alicorn did as instructed, the moment she let go of Cadance and turned around, Sunset curled in on herself, and even her wings folded down as if to shield the pony as if she were in mortal danger. The sight of Sunset cowering as a frightened filly might before a predator made the warmth in Celestia’s heart turn to a cold dread. “Sunset?”

The little alicorn sank deeper into her protective huddle and looked up to the larger pony with tears in her eyes. “I...I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry Princess! I’m sorry for everything!”

The verbal assault of apologies combined with the pain on Sunset’s face made Celestia retreat a step in surprise “W-What?” she asked before catching herself and trotting up to stand over her student, who broke from her crouch to actually scamper away a few steps.

The fearful response froze Celestia in her tracks. “Sunset, what’s wrong? Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m a bad student!” she blubbered on as tears began to form in her eyes.

“Sunset, you’re not-”

“Oh not again,” Cadance mumbled.

“You tried to show me the right way, but I didn’t listen!” she continued on so quickly Celestia was certain the mare hadn’t heard a word she said as water formed in her eyes. “I was selfish, and jealous, and cruel…a-and I…I’M A HORRIBLE PONY!” And then, the dam broke. A waterfall of tears fell from Sunset’s eyes while her words became nothing more than incoherent sobs.

As the young mare in front of her began crying in earnest, Celestia surged forward and grabbed her student up in her forelegs to pull Sunset close for a nuzzle as the giant alicorn’s wings completely cocooned the smaller in a hug. “No, no Sunset, you are nothing of the kind,” Celestia assured her while she searched for more than basic platitudes to give the distraught alicorn.

But as she held her student, Celestia registered something else that was very wrong with Sunset. Her legs trembled, her wings twitched, her heart raced against Celestia’s coat, and her breathing was much too fast and shallow. All of these things quickly added together in Celestia’s mind to come to an extremely disturbing conclusion.

Sunset Shimmer, the mare Celestia loved like no other, she was afraid of the princess.

The realization of such a fact had the alicorn at a complete loss. Celestia wracked her brain, but she couldn’t understand how such a thing was possible.

She raised her head to look at Cadance, and found the other alicorn looked even more confused at the situation than Celestia was herself.

“Sunset, talk to me,” Celestia asked before she took a step back and bent the mare’s face up to meet her eyes with a hoof. “Tell me what’s wrong. What has gotten into you?”

The little alicorn winced. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly before the volume drastically increased. “L-LOOK AT ME!” Her wings spread wide. “This is what’s wrong! I-I don’t deserve this! It-it’s a cheat! I didn’t earn these wings! I didn’t-I didn’t-”

Seeing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere being gentle, Celestia summoned a bit of her magic and clamped Sunset’s mouth shut before standing to her full height. “Now you listen to me my little pony,” she told the mare sternly. “I may not know the reason that you have undergone an ascension, but the fact that you stand before me as an alicorn is proof that you deserve it!”

Although it went against years of personal training to follow rules older than any living pony, Celestia found herself speaking long forgotten knowledge, if just to quiet the fears of the child in front of her. “When I first met you long ago, I felt that you had the potential to become an alicorn,” she told the pony that now looked up at her with wide eyes. “I had hoped to guide you along this path until you were ready. Now, I will admit that over these past few months, I have feared you had turned down a path that was more selfish than selfless. But if there was any darkness within your heart, then whatever magic that ignited your transformation would have turned you into a monster the likes of which Equestria has only seen twice before in its history.

“I do not know what happened to cause this, and at the moment I do not care,” she went on before releasing Sunset’s muzzle. “Seeing you before me like this, I am just so…proud of you, my little Sunset.”

It seemed that those were the magic words. Sunset quieted down, and simply stared at the other alicorn. A thought that made Celestia nearly grin with pure joy. Sunset Shimmer, the alicorn. The coronation colors would be ruby and gold, and she could finally tell Sunset of her destiny!

Grlargh!

A strange sound interrupted her thoughts, and all the ponies in the room looked down to the amber alicorn’s stomach.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Cadance said as she trotted up to the two other alicorns. “Celestia knows I’m pretty scatterbrained before breakfast, and you’ve been out for nearly twelve hours. Come on, let’s get you something to eat.” She looked over to the bigger alicorn. “Maybe some tea to calm your nerves.”

“F-Food…right,” Sunset said in an emotionless tone. “Sounds…prou-g-good! That...that sounds...good.”

“I’m just so proud of you, Sunset.”

For maybe the fortieth time, the words Celestia had spoken only moments ago ran through Sunset’s head, keeping her in the daze that she had entered since they were spoken. The first time she had ever heard such words from the white alicorn.

It was foolish.

Stupid.

Illogical.

But…

“I’m just so proud of you, Sunset.”

…something about those words made it impossible for Sunset to think of anything else. She couldn’t concentrate on the present, the past, or the horrible future that threatened to come about thanks to her interference. All she could think of was…

“I’m just so proud of you-”

“Sunset, aren’t you going to sit down?”

The question snapped the new alicorn out of her daze, and she looked over at the empty chair. Then she turned her head to face Celestia and Cadance, who had already sat down across from her on the long dining table big enough for forty odd ponies. “Oh…right,” she said before climbing up into her chair and sitting down. It was a little higher than she was used to, but in Canterlot Palace everybody made adjustments for Celestia’s height, not the other way around.

After getting situated, she set her pony-arms up on the table. It helped with the balance. For some reason, sitting in the chair just felt strange. It was putting pressure in all the wrong places.

“Sunset?” Cadance asked. “Why are you sitting like that?”

“What’re you talking about-ahh!” she replied when her precariously balanced butt slipped off the edge of her chair and sent her sliding down until only her head was on the cushioned seat. It did give her a view of their hooves though. Oh, right…ponies sit doggy style.

Grumbling at her idiocy, Sunset slowly pulled herself back up and sat in the correct style, carefully adjusting her tail as not to do something to mess that up as well. After not having the rear appendage for so long, it felt more than a little weird to have it back for more than five minutes.

You idiot, she berated herself. You’re a human for just short of three years and your forgot everything you used to know? Why don’t you just go and blab to Celestia about everything and create a time paradox that destroys all of existence!

Although a few seconds of consideration made Sunset uncertain such a thing was possible. After all, the Starswirl Wing had some time travels spells in it, and reality was still around. Sunset wasn’t foolish enough to think there hadn’t been another unicorn that tried to mess with the flow of time already.

Perhaps that really was why her past self was nowhere to be found. Time had some kind of failsafe to prevent a pony from meeting herself. So on top of betraying her friends, stealing from royalty, attempted regicide while under the influence of dark magic, and magical theft, she was also a murder/suicide. The list of crimes just kept on growing.

“Sunset?”

“What?” she snapped at the idiot that had drawn her attention in a moment of anger. Then, Sunset realized that she had just yelled at Princess Celestia. Her eyes went wide, and she tensed.

Across the dining table, Celestia let out a reserved chuckle. “Now there’s the Sunset I remember from yesterday,” she said with a smile. “I was afraid something might have happened to you because of your transformation, but it looks like you’ve just been a little shaken up. By the way, the chef is waiting for your order.”

The amber alicorn looked back at the stallion with a sandy mane and dark brown coat standing behind her in his palace livery and blushed. She hadn’t even heard him approach, or speak. “Oh…um…” Sunset paused, unsure of what to order. It had been so long since she had been in the palace, reduced to eating fast food and whatever the parents of whatever boyfriend she had for the month cooked. “I’ll have a ham-ay! Burger. I’ll just have a hay burger,” she said before looking away and blushing at her own idiocy.

She couldn’t keep screwing up like that!

“A…hayburger…” the royal chef said after a view moments. “You want me to make you a…”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Celestia cut in, her tone a little unnerving to Sunset. It lacked some of her usual…motherliness. “I thought you told me once that you could cook anything in Equestria Chief Ram See.”

The pony taking their orders flinched. “Of course, Your Majesty. Pardon me for questioning…uh…Princess Shimmer's wish to… be adventurous and… go slumming with her palate.”

“A little early with the title,” Celestia said. “And she’ll be having two burgers with some fries on the side.” With the order placed, Celestia turned to Sunset, who couldn’t help but tense under Celestia’s gaze. “You’ll find that your appetite has increased greatly as an alicorn. Especially in these first few weeks.”

Cadance cleared her throat. “Oh garcon, I think I’ll have four carrot dogs, if you don’t mind,” she said before looking over to Sunset. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve had any real food since I came here.”

With the other two alicorns done ordering, Princess Celestia took on a thoughtful look. “Well then…I guess I shall have a pizza. Oats, mushrooms, and artichoke if you would my good stallion,” she said before smiling. “Sorry, but they got the commoner classics already.”

As the stallion made his way out of the dining hall, making rude comments under his breath all the way about the insult to his skills all of that was, Sunset fought the urge to sigh in relief. They had only thought her slip was some odd desire to slum it, thank Faust. She needed to be more careful to make sure she wasn’t caught…doing...what?

Sunset looked down at the table with a frown as her thought process went off the tracks.

She knew that what she knew needed to be kept a secret. If Celestia were to find out everything about her, how Sunset had spent years mentally torturing children, taken Twilight’s crown, nearly killed a Princess of Equestria, betrayed her friends, stolen their magic to protect them, and everything she had done…her punishment would be severe.

But Celestia not finding out meant…

“I’m just so proud of you Sunset.”

…Sunset shook her head fiercely to get rid of that thought.

Celestia wasn’t proud of her, not really. She was proud of a lie. And that lie was going to keep lying to Celestia because she needed to protect…herself. Not the future, not the world. Sunset knew she was too cowardly for that. She would lie to Celestia out of a need to protect herself.

“So,” Celestia spoke up, making Sunset raise her head. “We need to plan your coronation and design your crown. I was thinking something gold and rubies, or would that be too much with your mane? Maybe something blue to go with your eyes? Perhaps something green when it comes to the dress.”

“Coronation?” Sunset asked. “What’re you talking about? I…I don’t deserve to be a princess!”

After a few seconds of silence, Celestia shook her head a little before talking. “Sunset, while I am glad you’ve finally decided to show me you actually listened to my lectures on modesty, there is something I should tell you. There is a time and place for everything, and too much of a good thing is bad. This is not the time for you to be modest, nor should you be after ascending. Part of being a princess is showing Equestria how amazing a pony can be to give them hope for a brighter future.”

If Sunset could have sunk in her chair without falling out of it, she would have.

“Is this about what you saw in the mirror?” Cadance suddenly asked.

Celestia looked away from Sunset, and over to the mare sitting next to her. “Saw in the mirror?”

The question made Cadance give Sunset an uneasy look before she turned her head to face Celestia all the way. “Well it’s just…after I accidentally woke Sunset up when I was dropping off some flowers and a get well card, she told me that when she looked into it…well,” she looked back to the other alicorn in the room. “Tell her Sunset.”

With both of the alicorns looking at her again, Sunset tensed. “Right…the mirror…” she said as her brain tried to piece together the lie she had told Cadance.

A lie she now needed to tell Celestia.

Just one more little lie.

All she had to do was lie to Celestia, and she would be safe.

At least until she needed to lie again.

But she lied to me too…right? Sunset told herself as she tried to work up the reasoning to commit the deed. Celestia had lied about the mirror. She had held Sunset back, she had lied about Cadance’s origins. The pink alicorn was about as much Celestia’s niece as Sunset was.

But then…Sunset knew she had deserved it. Celestia had lied to her because she couldn’t handle the truth. Sunset had lied to Celestia because…she was afraid for herself.

You’re such a coward, the newly risen alicorn told herself before she looked back up at the real princesses in the room. “Can I go back to my quarters? I’m not feeling very good.”

That at least was the truth.

“Well, you are up much earlier than I thought you would be,” Celestia said in concern. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay for lunch? You really should get something to eat Sunset.”

The mention of food made her stomach ache. The last thing the alicorn could remember eating was breakfast, and a small piece of Pinkie’s masterpiece the girl had snuck all her friends after the baking competition. But an ache wasn’t a rumble, and so her deception wasn’t endangered. “Just have the servants send it back to my rooms, if you would.”

“Of course,” Celestia told her softly. “Get your rest, I’ll see you when you’re ready.”

As soon as Sunset left the dining hall, Cadance found herself under the bigger alicorn’s frowning gaze. All of sudden, she thought she understood Sunset’s onset of terror when Princess Celestia came into her living room. Having Celestia frown at you was really unnerving.

“What did Sunset see when she looked in the mirror?” Celestia asked evenly.

Cadance had to remind herself that the pony she was seeing now was the same one that had welcomed her with open wings and hooves just a few short weeks ago. “Well…shouldn’t you ask Sunset about that?”

After a few more seconds under Celestia’s intimidating gaze, the alicorn sighed and looked towards the door. “I did,” she said before looking back at Cadance with a much less scary expression. “You saw her Cadance. Whatever has happened to her has shaken my little pony to her core. And I want to help her, but I also want to make sure that I do not hurt her while trying to do so. If Sunset told you anything that can give me a little bit of insight to what is bothering her, please tell me.”

The request made Cadance’s conscience fight with itself. She understood that Celestia wanted to help Sunset, but talking about the other alicorn behind her back concerning such a sensitive subject just seemed…wrong. Especially since Sunset had run away rather than speak to Celestia about it. But not doing something to help her was…exactly what Cadance had confessed to Sunset was her own flaw in their relationship just a short time ago.

Should she try and help Sunset, even if it was at the expense of the other pony’s trust?

“Um…just what is this mirror she was talking about?” Cadance asked to buy herself some time to think.

Celestia slumped a tiny bit at the mention of the thing that had hurt her student, but she recovered quickly enough. “The mirror was created by Starswirl the Bearded many centuries ago, and serves two purposes. The first of which is that it acts as a portal to an alternate reality, much like another mirror he built earlier. But this one has certain…additions that allows the pony who goes through it to adapt to whatever was on the other side of the portal. And before you ask, I’m not sure what it's like. Starswirl went through it once, and then returned fifteen minutes later. He warned me that no pony should ever venture through it again.

“Its other use was something I found much later, when I had one of my earlier students examine it,” Celestia went on. “Apparently, the mirror also has a tiny bit of temporal magic in it so it can align itself with the world Starswirl connected it to. But when the connection is disabled, the magic is altered, and the mirror reflects the future of the pony who looks into it. I had thought it would give Sunset something to strive for, to let her see how much further she had to go to help counter her growing arrogance.”

The information didn’t help Cadance understand the situation. If anything, it only made her more confused. But, it did help her make a decision. At the very least, Celestia would have a little more information.

“All Sunset told me was that when she looked into the mirror, she didn’t like what she saw. Then she started beating herself up for how she acted towards me these past couple of weeks,” Cadance explained hesitantly. Seeing Sunset do that to herself was not a thing that brought Cadance any joy. If anything, it only reminded the princess just how much she had failed her new friend by not continuing to reach out. “It was a little like how she acted around you, just…not as bad.”

From the way Celestia had explained things, and what Cadance had heard from the new alicorn, it didn’t seem as if Sunset saw her future at all. Unless, what she saw was so horrible it made her reevaluate her life to try and avoid it. But…if the mirror really showed the pony that looked into it her future, then would anything Sunset do really matter? Wasn’t she meant to end up there anyway?

A headache that threatened to form on her made Cadance want to groan. Things were so much simpler when she was a glorified matchmaker for her home village.

When Celestia didn’t continue to conversation, Cadance shook off her hesitation. “So…what did she see?” she asked the alicorn. Celestia had been there with Sunset after all, she had to have seen what was reflected as well.

“Only Sunset would know the answer to that,” Celestia replied before hesitation made her tense. She looked back down at the table. “But…I will admit to having plans for her, and…if she were to have seen them in the wrong context, it could very well cause her to break. Even questioning her self worth wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.”

As she felt herself heading into uneasy territory, Cadance wondered if talking about this with Celestia was such a good idea. While she was an alicorn, the pink princess knew that she didn’t have the skills necessary for dealing with any real problems just yet. She was still going to Canterlot Academy and taking remedial magic lessons for pony’s sake!

But not trying to understand the pony next to her…it just felt like running away again. “What do you mean?” Cadance asked.

Celestia looked over to Cadance with sad eyes. “How much do you know about the legend of Nightmare Moon?”

The question caught Cadance off guard, but not unprepared. She had entertained plenty of colts and fillies on Nightmare Night, and knew the story well enough. “She’s another alicorn, like you, only…evil,” the smaller princess replied as she saw a little flash of pain in Celestia’s eyes. “The legends say she’s locked away in the moon, and comes down once a night to gobble up little foals, but will leave them alone for a tribute of candy.” A smile crossed the alicorn’s face at the ridiculousness of it all. “But that’s just a story.”

“Nightmare Moon is real,” Celestia told Cadance, making the younger alicorn’s eyes go wide in surprise, and a tiny bit of fear. Before Cadance could start asking question, Celestia went on talking. “And the truth is a little different than the stories. Even at her darkest, I do not think that she would have ever eaten another pony. However, she is far from gentle or harmless. Even imprisoned, Nightmare Moon has the ability to reach into the dreams of ponies. For most, she is only able to fill their nights with terror and make their sleep offer no rest. But every now and then, a pony is born that is closer to the dream than others, a pony that can still trot while sleeping. These, she can dominate and play with like puppets.” The bigger princess paused for a moment to shake her head. “But as I said, they are rare. In over nine-hundred years, there have been less than one-hundred such ponies that I have found and dealt with.”

A cold chill ran down Cadance’s spine. “Why are you telling me this, Princess?”

Celestia gave her a little smile. “Don’t be afraid Cadance. You need have no fear of Nightmare Moon while near me. While I am nowhere near her equal in dream magic, but these past thousand years have enabled me to at least construct a defense. Nopony that lives in Canterlot need to fear her power thanks to my presence,” she said before her face became sad again. “And I am telling you this because things will not be this way for much longer. Even though her agents were few, Nightmare Moon was able to put a plan into motion centuries ago that will free her in just a few short years.”

The goddess took a deep breath, and Cadance watched as she steadied herself before continuing. “The first time we battled, I used six artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony to seal her on the moon. However, such an action is no longer an option. When she breaks free, I will not have any weapons or artifacts capable of locking her up again.”

“So, that’s what me and Sunset are for?” Cadance asked nervously. “To help you fight Nightmare Moon?” The prospect didn’t sit well with her at all. Sunset…Cadance could see the other pony as a warrior. She had certainly demonstrated her ability to put Cadance in traction several times before with her mastery of magic, even if the mare never went through with the threats. “You want it to be three alicorns versus one?”

Celestia shook her head. “No,” she said gently. “You were meant to bring joy to the lives of other ponies, and while I have taught Sunset the skills to defend herself and Equestria, I would never endanger her life in such a way. Even if I did, the battle would take its toll on the two of you. The both of you could even die. Nightmare Moon is not a normal alicorn. Like me, the heavens give her more power and an increased lifespan, and…she has something within her that I do not. Using the two of you like weapons against her is something I would never do.”

Although the fact she wouldn’t be placed in danger gave Cadance a little relief, the concern for her own life soon turned to worry about Celestia’s. “But what about you?”

“I will die, but not without taking Nightmare Moon with me into whatever comes after this life,” Celestia explained in an even tone that was obviously forced. “And Sunset Shimmer will be given the duty of raising the sun, and rule over Equestria in my stead.”

As Cadance stared at Celestia, frozen in shock from the announcement, there was a slight realization in the back of her mind. Hearing the sorrow in the alicorn’s voice, seeing her act the way she did, listening to her talking about her death along Nightmare Moon’s not with fear, but with relief…it all came together to illuminate a fact as clear as day. “Nightmare Moon…you love her.”

“She wasn’t always the mare she is now,” Celestia replied in a soft voice as she visibly wilted. “She used to be so kind and gentle, so full of life and joy. And I…I crushed her with my foolish self-righteousness and pride. Always telling her what to do, always thinking I knew what was best for everypony. I pushed her into a life of isolation and pain with words like duty, always thinking I knew better than her because so many more ponies came to me for advice, because I was the elder, because…b-because…” The goddess cut herself off with a sob before her entire body trembled.

The sight before her made Cadance freeze. Seeing Celestia in such a state was something that the younger alicorn hadn’t even thought was possible. A large part of her wanted to give the big alicorn a show of emotional support and a physical presence with a hoof to the shoulder, or perhaps a wing but…

This was Celestia! The idea of trying to comfort the being that had existed before Cadance’s great-grandparents were in diapers gave her pause. Would she appreciate the sentiment, or be insulted that a pony who was less than a foal in comparison to her in wisdom and age actually thought she could offer some relief?

Cadance’s head spun. I am way out of my depth here, she told herself.

“Majesties, lunch is served!” Ram See’s voice from the doorway that led to the kitchen called out a second before they opened and the stallion came in with three trays wrapped in his magic.

Worry crept over Cadance at the thought of another pony seeing Celestia in such a fragile state. She looked back to the goddess for some inspiration for an explanation and…found one wasn’t needed. In the second Cadance had looked away, Celestia had returned to looking as cool as she always did.

“But-”

“The first lesson in being a princess, my little niece, is how to hide yourself in front of everypony else,” she said before looking over to the food. Celestia eyed the plate of hay burgers for a few seconds as the tray was set down, and Cadance caught just a flash of worry in her eyes that she could only recognize thanks to what had happened moments ago.

The pink alicorn frowned. “If you don’t take that food to her, then I will…and they’d probably be hay balls wrapped in silver by the time my magic’s done with them,” she threatened before looking down at her carrot dogs. They were certainly the most dressed up carrots she had ever seen. Still, Cadance was willing to ignore the fancy if it made the cook happy. At least on the condition that they tasted normal.

“Thank you for understanding,” Celestia told her with a nod.

As Celestia quickly left to chase after Sunset, Cadance rolled her eyes. Something told the little princess that she understood things better than even Celestia did on the subject of Sunset Shimmer.

COWARD! Sunset berated herself as she laid on her bed, trying to get used to doing so as a pony again. As a human, sleeping on her back was the usual option thanks to the misplaced mammaries the human species possessed. But now that wasn’t an option because of her unfairly acquired wings!

So now she was back to sleeping on her belly. Her empty belly that felt even worse with all the pressure on it.

Then there was everything else that was wrong that she couldn’t help but mentally shout about. You’re such a fucking coward! Celestia just shows up and you crack like an egg!

The alicorn shook her head in disgust at herself. She’s not proud of you. She was NEVER proud of you! YOU’VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING FOR HER TO BE PROUD OF YOU FAKE!

Memories of Sunset’s past time with Celestia came to the forefront of her mind. Not the happy early years that she knew had been ruined forever. What she remembered were her final months with the princess. Every lesson that Celestia had taught had been tossed aside, and by the time she had found something she wanted to learn…Sunset remembered the real alicorn’s expressions as she asked for information that she wasn’t ready for. The frowns. The eye rolls. And the look of anger on her face the final night that they saw each other…nearly a month from now.

The memory of that night cooled her anger, but not her guilt. You were so horrible, even Princess Celestia couldn’t stand to be around you, Sunset told herself.

“You are no longer welcome in this castle!” Celestia’s voice rang out in her head as she remembered the alicorn telling Sunset to pack her bags and get out.

“I’m just so proud of you-”

“NO!” Sunset shouted at the memory of the phantom Celestia as she shook her head to try and dislodge it. “That’s a lie. You were never proud of me!”

“Yes I am.”

Despite the softness of the voice, Celestia’s words rang clearly in Sunset’s ears, and she looked up in surprise to see the princess standing in her bedroom’s doorway. A pair of platters were floating in her magic, and her face looked as if it was about to break. “Since the day I met you, I have watched you pass every test beyond all expectations, seen you read a book of the most advanced theories just once and still assimilate the information in its entirety, wield magic at a level I have not seen since Starswirl, and continue on despite all of the difficulties you have faced since you were a foal,” she as she approached the mare to look down on her. “Oh my little pony, how could you possibly think that I did not feel pride in you every single day?”

Sunset looked up at the other pony, although not as much as usual thanks to being on her bed.

Still, even with her brain telling her Celestia should have looked a little smaller, Sunset still saw the towering titan from her memories. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if there was anything to say. “You…”

“I’m sorry,” Celestia apologized, completely stopping Sunset from talking in shock at hearing such words from the goddess. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you again. I just…after Cadance said you woke up just from her walking into your sitting room, I wasn’t sure if the same thing wouldn’t happen with me. I do weigh a lot more than her.”

Sunset continued to stare at the bigger alicorn in shock as Celestia gave a hesitant smile at her poor joke. When the smaller alicorn didn’t smile, the larger became downcast again. “And I am sorry if I ever made you feel unappreciated, Sunset. As if I wasn’t proud of you.”

The second apology had Sunset shaking her head. Guilt welled up in her heart. Celestia shouldn’t be the one apologizing to her. “N-No! I just read books and slung spells! That’s not-I didn’t-it’s…you don’t need to tell me that!”

Especially since none of it was true. Not that Sunset didn’t believe Celestia was just humoring her, but…what she was truly proud of was nothing but a lie. If she learned the truth, then Sunset knew that Celestia would be ashamed of her. Disgusted with her. She would throw the Alicorn of Stolen Magic into the deepest pit Tartarus had.

“You’re right,” Celestia told her, still with an air of sadness about her. “There is something that I think you need to hear from me so much more right now. Something I should have told you years ago. Something I should have told you since the day you became my responsibility after your parents passed away. Something that I should have told you every day since then, and I will do so every day beyond this one.”

Celestia moved.

Sunset tensed, and she found herself in a world of white as the larger alicorn enveloped her in legs and wings once again. A breath of warm air tickled her ear, and Sunset gulped a second before Celestia spoke. “I love you, Sunset Shimmer.”

Time froze as Sunset heard Celestia whisper those words into her ears. “What…?” the smaller alicorn whispered as she pulled in on herself. What she had heard, it couldn’t have been real.

“Shhhhh,” Celestia hushed her. “It’s alright.”

Words that she had wanted to hear since before she could even remember.

Words that made everything seem to stop.

Words that were…

“N-No,” Sunset went on as she tried to find what she wanted to say, tried to pin down the swirling emotions in her heart.

“Have I truly neglected your heart so much that you find it impossible that I love you?” Celestia asked in a dreadful whisper.

Sunset shook her head as shame came to the forefront of her mind once again. “Stop,” she managed to get out in a tiny breath of a voice.

“Oh my little pony, I am so sorry,” Celestia apologized again, driving another dagger in Sunset’s heart at how meaningless it all was.

Because…it was all just an illusion.

Celestia’s pride, her love, it was all based on a lie. If Celestia knew the truth, none of those words would have never passed from her lips. If she knew the truth, she would have been disgusted with Sunset.

“I love you so much.”

“Please stop,” Sunset begged in a whining whisper that Celestia didn‘t seem to hear.

“And while you may be my student on paper, the truth is that in my heart...”

NO, Sunset’s mind screamed in-between the seconds as it formulated what was coming next. Not this! Anything but this.

“…I think of you as my-”

Sunset couldn’t let Celestia complete what she knew was coming. It worse than anything that came before. A wish she had possessed since before she could remember, now a weight she knew would crush her under the weight of guilt. The amber alicorn closed her eyes, and cast the same spell Celestia had used on her minutes ago, clamping the princess’s mouth shut.

The action made Celestia step back, and Sunset looked into eyes that were full of surprise, with eyes full of guilt and shame. Emotions that she couldn’t bear to carry anymore, no matter what Celestia did to her. “I went through the portal,” she said without emotion while Celestia’s eyes widened. “And found a world a lot like this one. And there, I cheated, and lied, and spread misery wherever I went. Then one day, a real princess came by, because I stole magic that belonged to her, wanting to use it for my own selfish desires. And then I stole more, this time from my best friends, who accepted me despite everything I had done, and I…and then I...came home, and you were there in front of me, and you said y-you were p-proud…”

Sunset’s void of emotion cracked, and she looked back down onto her bed to let out a shuttering sniffle. “You said you were proud of me!” she yelled before sobbing. “But there’s nothing to be proud of! I’m a thief, and a cheat!” She spread her wings wide. “These are stolen!” And then she looked up at Celestia with a frown. “And Twilight Sparkle is the real princess!”

With everything finally out in the open, Sunset cowered down on the bed, ready, if afraid to be roasted alive as Celestia passed her judgement. Although the logical part of her mind said that Tartarus would be a much more likely punishment, with its mystical draining properties that would leave her a withered, magicless husk for the rest of her short life.

But, as the seconds, and then minutes passed with no punishment coming, Sunset opened her eyes, and slowly looked up to Celestia. The alicorn’s face wasn’t twisted in anger or disappointment, or even covered in one of her emotional masks that Sunset had learned to see past years go.

She didn’t even look disappointed.

Instead, Princess Celestia looked down at Sunset with nothing but confusion covering her features. “Sunset,” Celestia spoke with a confused frown. “Who in the hay is Twilight Sparkle?”

Chapter 3: Royal Conversations

Sunset stared at the bigger pony for a minute in shock. Not from the question. The possibility of Celestia knowing who Twilight Sparkle was before Sunset left and she got the right pony for the princess position was pretty pathetic as far as percentages went. What Sunset had a problem with was… “Gah! I can’t believe I just did that!” she shouted while reaching up to clutch her empty head and its non-existent brain.

All that time worrying about causing a temporal problem, and she had just blurted out what could have been the most important bit of future information that she knew! It was a mistake meant for children, not someone who had gotten so used to manipulating an entire school to do her bidding so well she didn’t need to resort to violence.

“Well, you are still tired. I can’t imagine that your body has adjusted well to all the magic that is flowing through it right now. Ascension tends to be very hard on non-earth ponies,” Celestia said in her usual voice before she placed the tray of burgers and fries under Sunset’s nose, making her stomach demand to be filled. “And very hungry as well from the sound of it. So the first thing you're going to do is eat.”

Despite the demands of her digestive system, Sunset gaped at her former mentor for a moment before the familiar feeling of anger rose up to replace the shock and hold the other emotions at bay. Confusion and shock may have been paralyzing, but anger? Anger was her go to feeling when things weren’t going her way. Sunset could work with anger.

Unless it failed of course. Then it was time to panic.

She frowned at the way Celestia was so casually dismissing her confessions. “Didn’t you listen to a word I just said?” the smaller alicorn demanded with a frown as her wings shot up again in a show of displeasure.

Celestia looked up from Sunset’s face to frown at the appendages on her back. “I heard you just fine Sunset, and I can see you too,” she said before looking back down to her face. “Now stop wasting your energy on your little tantrum and eat your food. If you don’t, I will force feed you the meal.”

After glaring at the stubborn alicorn for a few more seconds, Sunset eventually looked back down at the pair of scorched hayburgers her human-gained logic said should have been impossible to make. But yet another grumble from her stomach made Sunset snatch the hay burger up in her hooves to take a large bite out of it.

As soon as the cooked hay touched her mouth, taste buds Sunset had forgotten she had cried out in joy. It had just been so long since she had tasted real pony food that even the most basic of foods felt like nirvana.

And the smell!

She had been too distracted by Celestia’s words of praise in the dining room to notice, but holding the hay up to her nose, Sunset was reminded just how muted everything had smelled as a human. It was like she had been living with a stuffy nose for years!

But even that didn’t stop her from quickly chopping down on the food again, tearing off as much as she could fit into her mouth before crunching it up as fast as she could to swallow. After a third bite, barely half the burger remained.

“Sunset, is something wrong?” Celestia asked, daring to cut into the little alicorn’s glorious return to a proper equine diet.

“Huh?” Sunset replied with a mouth full of food, shooting a little bit of the tasty food from her maw.

Celestia raised an eyebrow and floated the bit of pizza she had in her magic away from her mouth. “You’re not using your horn,” she said in a worried tone. “You didn’t overexert yourself teaching Cadance so soon after awakening, did you? I love that you’ve decided to mend fences with her, but there’s no need to tax yourself so soon after your transformation. Rest should be your top priority.”

Whatever Celestia said next was lost, as Sunset's mind registered not just Celestia’s words, but the meaning behind them. Sunset was eating using her hooves. While such an action was looked down on in Canterlot Society, Sunset didn’t give much of a damn how much her out of place earth pony mannerism looked to Celestia.

She had just eaten something with her hooves. Hooves that had just been on the floor of her room. Hooves that had been walking all around the palace just a few seconds ago. She might as well have been eating with her feet!

Worse, her shoes! At least human feet were kept inside socks to keep them a little clean. Relatively speaking of course.

Sunset let out a shriek before tossing the burger that was no doubt infested with all sorts of germs onto her bed, away from the rest of her clean food. “Oh gross! Gross! Gross! Gross, gross, gross!”

“Sunset,” Celestia chided her. “I know that most unicorns see eating with hooves as beneath them, but-”

“I don’t care about that!” Sunset yelled in anger at the situation before she fell back on her butt and shoved one of the appendages into Celestia’s face to give her a better view. “Do you have any idea how dirty these things are? How unsanitary using them to eat actually is? Considering how many ponies just scarf down as much as they can without washing first, it’s a wonder all of Equestria doesn’t have hoof & mouth disease by now!”

Celestia blinked at Sunset’s words, then looked down at her hooves for a few more moments, followed by another glance at her student. “Well, it’s not as if you’ve been running through the mud or anything.”

The casual response made Sunset frown, and then push her food away with a grimace. She might as well of just been licking the floor! “I’ve lost my appetite.”

“Are you certain?” she asked. “And don’t just tell me you didn’t like it, I saw that smile on your face when you tasted that hay.”

Sunset looked back at her burger, and couldn’t help but think of just how Celestia’s lack of concern for where her hooves had been made the unsanitary possibilities of the Canterlot kitchens skyrocket. While not a television junkie, the alicorn had seen a few programs that made it their business to look into eating establishments to showcase how filthy everything was. And if a species that actually knew to wash its hands before dinner could infect people with a million deadly disease, Sunset didn’t even want to know what a civilization that was ignorant of such things would be like.

From now on, she would just have to do her own cooking. Again.

And buy some brand new implements to do it with. There was no way Sunset was trusting a species that still used rusty tins to know what was sanitary.

“Yeah,” she finally said before coming up with a reason to make sure Celestia wouldn’t get worried about her sanity. “I probably just need more sleep before I start on that appetite thing.”

Celestia nodded hesitantly, giving Sunset a measuring gaze as she did. “Very well,” she relented before taking the commoner food away. “So, as to my earlier question, just who in the hay is Twilight Sparkle? And for that matter, what has gotten into you my little Sunset? How did you know the mirror was a portal? And how could your wings possibly be stolen?”

The mentioning of Twilight’s name brought back everything Sunset had managed to push away with the help of hunger. But now that the need for food had abandoned her like so many other things, she found herself freezing up again despite Celestia’s gentle questioning.

Anger. Why couldn't she just stay angry?

Instead, there came shame over her actions before Twilight, grief over what had happened afterwards, and fear of what might come when she told Celestia the truth. And she would be telling her the truth. The thought of lying to her mentor now was…not even a consideration worth a fraction of a second. So Sunset let out a long sigh, and took one last look at a Celestia that would care about her.

It was a strange thing, seeing Celestia before her, looking like she had before Sunset had ran away. As much as she had been able to put the past behind her, seeing Celestia again had made it all come rushing back.

“It’s…complicated,” Sunset said as she tried to organize her story into something that resembled a sensical tale. The new alicorn did her best to remember everything she had done wrong while in Equestria her last couple of weeks before she left. It was so easy that it was almost eerie, as if her most damning crimes were just waiting to be confessed as opposed to all the bullying she did as a human, which was harder to remember.

But then, maybe it was because it was her human past, and not her pony one. Sunset had managed to put her human past behind her and fool herself into thinking that she had nothing to feel guilty about. Her pony past however, the thing that held all her true crimes was something that had literally caught up to her, and now she was going to pay for them all.

“I know the mirror is a portal because I’ve gone through it before,” Sunset told her softly to keep from just letting it all come out in a rush. “When the moon aligns again to open the portal, I’ll…uh, or I did go through it. The first time, I mean.” She sighed and shook her head as Sunset realized she skipped over her most damning of actions. “Sorry, it’s just…there’s time travel involved.”

Celestia nodded solemnly at the pathetic excuse. “Take your time.”

A bit of gratitude ran through Sunset’s body, and she found herself taking a little extra time to cherish it. More than likely, it would be the only good feeling she would have to associate with Celestia for a very long time. Because soon, it would be nothing but dungeon walls and the removal of her wings, and most likely her horn as well. Sunset knew monsters like her couldn’t be trusted.

“Okay so…at least in the way things happened from…before,” Sunset began again, glad Celestia wasn’t interrupting. “When I looked into the mirror, I saw myself…as an alicorn.”

When Celestia smiled down at her, Sunset quickly shook her head. “No, no! It wasn’t…I didn’t look like this,” she said as she tapped a wing with her hoof. “I was the same size I always was, and my wings were made of light, and I had this big…long…horn.”

Holy fuck, Sunset thought to herself as she realized something that sent chills down her spine. The reflection she had seen in the mirror, it had bore a striking resemblance to the form she had taken in the human world with the magic of all her friends flowing through her.

If they could even be called that anymore.

“Sunset, is that it then?” Celestia cut in.

The little alicorn shook her head. “No,” she said before going on slowly. Despite the impossibility, it felt as if the words themselves weight something as she dragged them out “I became obsessed with the mirror, asking you about it day after day, week after week, for almost a month I completely ignored anything you tried to teach me, and just kept asking about that stupid mirror.”

“It was created by Starswirl the Bearded hundreds of years ago, based on one of his earlier works,” Celestia told her as soon as Sunset finished talking.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know-wait,” she suddenly said as she frowned at the larger mare. “Why would you just go and tell me that?”

In response to the question, Celestia gave a minute shrug. “Well, you did ask.”

The casual response left Sunset baffled. “But-but I asked you about the mirror for weeks before-”

“And I obviously told you about it since you know now,” Celestia told Sunset before she could finish. “Although…maybe I should just let you tell me the whole story before I comment on it.”

Sunset let out a long sigh to try and find some relief from the pressure building in her chest. Now came the hard part, the confession of how it all started. She relaxed her breathing, did her best to steady herself, and cast away any hopes for ever gaining Celestia’s acceptance. “When you didn’t tell me what the mirror did, the first time I mean, I went looking for answers in the forbidden section of the library,” she said, carefully studying Celestia’s expression for any hint of her emotions.

There were none.

“I found reference to the mirror in the history of Canterlot Castle,” she confessed before tensing. “But I didn’t stop there. I read books on black magic, and even the history that you had sealed away, the books detailing alicorn ascension.”

Tears formed in Sunset’s eyes as she came to the next memory. “And that’s when you found me,” she said as she struggled for breath. “And then I demanded that you turned me into an alicorn…and then…and then you…" She took in a breath again and made herself go on. "You kicked me out!”

Sunset felt her heart tear as she mentally relived that night in her mind. She remembered the anger on Celestia’s face, her own selfish demands, thinking that she deserved to be a princess of all things! The only thing she deserved was to be thrown away in the darkest dungeon and have just enough food given to her to survive!

And when she looked at Celestia again, Sunset knew that was exactly what was going to happen to her. She saw the anger simmering beneath Celestia’s mask of calm, and Sunset knew that if she could see it, then there were no apologies for what had happened.

Somehow, that actually made continuing easier.

“But I wasn’t about to just leave quietly,” she went on, managing to sound a bit calmer than before. “After the guards escorted me to my room to pack my bags, I knocked them out with my magic and ran for the mirror. By luck, the portal happened to be open that night. So I went through it.”

Sunset took in another deep breath, and went on. “The world on the other side of the portal was more different than anyone could ever imagine. The inhabitants are a bunch of magicless…monkeys without enough hair to make it through the cold, so they have to skin other animals to survive in most places,” she said with a grimace. “I just thank Cel-um...I was just lucky those yahoos valued gems so much, or I would have been in real trouble when it came to a lot of things.”

Not that the few gems that had been in her bag for enchanting purposes had lasted all that long since she traded all but one for only ten times their Equestrian value in cash. Then had come a few bribes to a corrupt apartment super that was willing not to ask questions of the little girl who just casually tossed a diamond at him for a place to live. Thankfully, the smelly ape had figured that anyone who threw around stuff like that either had some very mean friends, or knew how to take care of herself in the hidden knife up her sleeve way.

Sunset was actually grateful when Principal Celestia found her and demanded the girl come stay at her apartment, despite how bossy the woman was.

“After I got there, I spent too much time looking for a way to make what I saw in the mirror happen, and the portal closed,” she said in anger at her own stupidity for looking for magic in a world without it. “So then I spent the next two-and-a-half years wallowing in my own anger, and doing my best to spread it around to anybody that looked like a good target, and oh did I find plenty of those.

“Everyone I came across, I made it my mission to make their lives miserable,” she grumbled before coming to a point that made her want to throw up. “Unless I wanted something from them. Then I…I found out that humans, which is what they call themselves, they have these um…uncontrollable sex drives. And with me apparently being what they would consider attractive, I managed to manipulate anyone I wanted by just spreading my legs. Even some of the girls.” At least until Sunset could find some blackmail info on her paramour and use that instead to control them.

In front of her, Sunset watched as Celestia’s mouth pressed into a thin line, and all the telltale signs of a clenched jaw were shown. As the alicorn looked down on her, shame made itself known n Sunset’s heart again, and she found herself looking down at the bed. “I went on like that for two-and-a-half years. And when the portal opened up again, I ran through it as fast as I could.”

Taking another deep breath to steel herself for what was coming, Sunset went on. “But when I got back to Equestria, things were different. The mirror wasn’t in Canterlot. You had moved it to this weird city made of crystal that Cadance apparently ruled,” she said before pausing when she heard Celestia suddenly gag.

Concern overtook shame, and Sunset looked up to her former-teacher as Celestia’s wings settled down and she beat a hoof against her chest. A second later, the alicorn was back to her nearly-stoic, displeased old self that glared down at Sunset with a half-lidded expression. “Continue.”

“But what was-”

“I said, continue,” Celestia ordered in a tone that brooked no nonsense.

Sunset swallowed, and went on. “I…I came back. But, to be honest…I wasn’t sure why,” she said softly. “I knew I wanted to see you again, but…I didn’t know if I was going to apologize, or rub my ass in your face over the fact I had gotten along just fine without you for years.” Her words describing how well she had done came as a curse.

“And that’s when I heard of…Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the little alicorn mumbled in shame. “According to a newspaper, she was at the Crystal Palace for a princess summit with you, Cadance and…um…another alicorn. I’m not really sure what the other princess was called. All I cared about was…w-was the mare you replaced me with!”

Tears began to form in Sunset’s eyes, and she heard Celestia’s wings fidget as she tried to get herself under control. But, even after all this time, it still hurt. Sunset had been with Celestia since she could remember. Her parents were only shadows and distant voices that she couldn’t even picture without a photograph. Celestia was...she was the pony who had raised her.

And in return, Sunset had turned against her.

“Two years…two years and you just took some other unicorn and…”

Sunset took in a deep breath to calm herself. It wasn’t Twilight’s fault she was so much better than Sunset, or Celestia’s.

Still, to have another pony just come in and accomplish in two years what Sunset had been unable to do without cheating her way to it…as much at it hurt, it was just more proof to Sunset that she was nothing but a waste of Celestia’s time.

“And then I found out about her crown,” the mare went on, forcing herself to keep an even voice. It was void of emotion, but…it would do. “It was a magical artifact she had used multiple times to save Equestria, and all of a sudden, I concocted a plan. I would take the crown back through the portal to break its connection to her. If it was its own source of magic, then it should have been able to work even in a mystically dead world. The journal I brought with me did.”

Sunset closed her eyes and cursed her faulty memory for not mentioning that sooner. But…she supposed it was hardly relevant. All she could mention to Celestia was how the older mare had sent message after message for the first week, asking Sunset if she was alright, begging her to write back if she was alive. Since the message had stopped not long after those first seven days, she was certain that Celestia had given her up for dead.

The memory that was proof of Celestia still caring for her after the flight from Canterlot. It warmed Sunset’s heart, and made her want to throw up in self-revulsion when she recalled how she had laughed and just stuffed the thing in her locker where all her other books went.

“And then I put on the crown when I was in the other world and…” Sunset sighed. “Princess Celestia, you said that I wasn’t ready to become an alicorn, and you were right. Before I put that crown on, all I had wanted to do was go home with its power and…I don’t know…show you up, maybe humiliate you in some way. Make you say I was the better princess, that you were wrong to make me leave. But I certainly didn’t want to kill anybody like I tried to do to Twilight after she followed me through!”

The memories of what it had been like under the influence of the crown made Sunset cringe. She hadn’t just wanted to hurt people after putting it on, she had enjoyed the thought of killing! “It turned me into a real monster. The one you knew I would become if I ever got real wings from you.”

“And then Twilight managed to defeat me, and…she saved me, purified me of the dark magic,” Sunset told her mentor as tears threatened to come again. “And instead of-of doing what she should have done, instead of giving me what I deserved…she just…forgave me. Just like that.”

Sunset gulped. “And then, when the sirens that had been banished there attacked my friends because of the residual magic Twilight’s crown had left inside of them and me…she came to lead us against them and save us all again.”

“And then…later…when this other…well…this human started taking the magic inside my friends and it went out of control and it was my turn to save everyone…all I could do was take the magic that was inside the girls I called my friends and run back to Equestria with it!” Sunset confessed in a cry of anguish. “But instead of coming out where I was supposed to, in Twilight’s Castle, I ended up here and I just…a-and I looked like this!”

The wings that Sunset had managed to curl down during her confession extended once again to their fullest. “And that’s what I meant when I said I cheated and stole these wings. Me being an alicorn, it’s just a stupid side effect of going back through the portal with so much magic inside of me.”

Finally finished, Sunset lowered her head and awaited Celestia’s judgment. Not that she didn’t know what was coming. Theft of magic, theft of a magical artifact, assault on the royal guards, each one of those carried stiff penalties, coupled to what her reckless actions had almost caused…there was only one sentence that could be levied against her.

Seconds ticked by…literally. The agonizing tick of a clock hung on her wall made Sunset painfully aware of the passage of time.

Tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…

After half a minute, she cautiously looked back up at her former mentor, who was still looking down at her with a frown. “P-Princess Celestia?”

The larger alicorn’s expression didn’t waver. “Yes?” she asked in a tone that told Sunset there was a forming tempest of pure rage beneath the alicorn’s surface.

Sunset gulped and looked back down at her bed. “I’m ready.”

“For…what?” she demanded in an almost disgusted tone.

The question made Sunset look back up at the alicorn, the fear at what was about to come spilling over into her voice, driving her heart rate up. “For my punishment!” she exclaimed. “Weren’t you listening? After everything I did…I-I deserve…I deserve to be locked away and never see the light of day! I should have my horn cut off and wings clipped!” And yet somehow, that didn’t seem like enough. Once again, she lowered her head, unable to look at the anger in Celestia’s eyes much longer.

Even without her magic or the ability to fly, Sunset had caused such pain for all of the people at Canterlot High. Even if she was locked away, Sunset would be a drain on society, a black mark on the pony name, and a potential threat if she ever returned to her old ways.

In truth, there was only one thing that should have been done about her.

“After everything I’ve done, I-I deserve to DIE!” Sunset cried out at the top of her lungs.

And that was when she felt the heat.

“That’s…enough,” Princesses Celestia growled through gritted teeth.

Sunset flinched and glanced back to where the princess was. The sight did nothing to calm her nerves.

Few ponies had ever seen Celestia truly angry. Sunset had though. It was during a trial she was overseeing due to lack of physical evidence involving a family that had just lost their foal. The details were lost to Sunset’s memory, but she did remember how Celestia looked when a spell was used to divine the identity of the pony responsible. When Celestia saw the mare’s face, the air around her had come unbearably hot, and Sunset had needed to retreat before her coat went up in flames.

While Celestia wasn’t that hot just yet…Sunset had a feeling she wouldn’t be needing to reheat her burger.

Celestia took in a deep breath through her nose, and let it out through her mouth. Then she did it again, and again. And slowly, the temperature around the room returned to normal. Once it had, Celestia fixed Sunset in place with a frown. “Sunset…”

The little alicorn gulped, but didn’t look away. At the very least, she would meet her punishment…now that she couldn’t run from it anymore. But seeing Celestia just standing there, making her wait for what she knew was coming…it slowly ate at the screen of anger and self-hatred that she had used to keep a conversation with the alicorn going.

Slowly Celestia’s features went from angry, to stern, and finally softened to one of…sadness? “Sunset…how could you possibly believe any of that was real?” she asked in a hurt whisper.

Sunset frowned at Celestia in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

The larger alicorn hesitated, uncertainty showing clearly on her face. “Sunset…as…interesting as your story is, I could tell from the very beginning that what you were saying…it just couldn’t have been real.”

After repeating Celestia’s words in her mind to work through them, Sunset scoffed at the suggestion. Not real? Celestia thought…what? That everything Sunset had just said was all some kind of delusion?

All of her crimes…

All of her suffering…

“No!” she shouted back at the other alicorn as she stood up on her hooves to actually look Celestia in the eyes from a slightly higher vantage point. “No…that…that’s not possible!” What she had experienced had been real. She knew it was! “Everything that happened to me wasn’t just some stupid fantasy!”

Celestia took another breath, and resumed her usual benevolent calm. “What sounds more reasonable? That you did everything you said and somehow traveled back in time? Or that you’ve stumbled on some kind of new effect the mirror has. Something that lets a pony come into the destiny it shows early,” she told the smaller mare. “Or at least sets them on the path to it.”

The suggestion was tempting for Sunset to accept. If she did, it meant Celestia wouldn’t have actually thrown her away. It meant she hadn’t just picked up a new student, a student that learned so fast Sunset was left looking like the dunce she was. It meant…

It meant that none of her friends were ever really there.

“What made me like this was the magic I stole!” Sunset insisted. “I didn’t earn these wings!”

Celestia slowly shook her head. “You say that, but…I just can’t believe what you’re telling me is the whole story,” she said before locking eyes with Sunset once again. “For instance…why do you think you stole magic from these…hugh-manes, you called them?”

The mangling of her former species’ name made Sunset groan. “I did it because…I was too stupid to figure out another way to keep them out of trouble,” she grumbled. After all, the Dazzlings would have never bothered Canterlot High if they hadn’t been attracted by the Equestrian magic Sunset brought there.

Without Sunset, everything would just go back to normal.

“So you were protecting them the only way you could, then?” Celestia asked. “Even though doing so meant losing them forever? Even if it meant doing a little wrong for something more important? Even if it meant facing a harsh punishment from me?” The fact that Celestia sounded almost proud during those last few words were what hurt most of all. “You realize that you couldn’t solve everything perfectly, weighed the consequence of not doing anything against what you could, and then confessed everything to me with the full intention of taking responsibility for your actions.” A smile crossed the face of the goddess. “I have seen ponies be made leaders for far less.”

Sunset frowned at Celestia, her anger building as the princess continued to try and prop the fake alicorn up on a pedal. “Stop doing that! Twilight Sparkle is the real princess!”

The name made Celestia frown. "And this again. Twilight Sparkle. You make her out to be some kind of perfect pony, but...to me, she sounds rather cruel and selfish," Celestia said in an even tone.

Sunset gaped at her. "What do you mean? She was nice, and kind. She forgave me and-"

"She abandoned you to an alien world when I was supposedly waiting for you here," Celestia cut in sternly. "Separated from you for so long, that would have killed me Sunset. And yet you list time after time when she apparently came back to this other world and left you there."

The words from her former-teacher made Sunset cringe. "T-That wasn't her," Sunset admitted. Although, she couldn't really recall Twilight inviting her back... "That was me. I-I didn't belong in Equestria after what I did, and-and if I came back, then I knew that you would have to do something horrible to me. It was never Twilight. She...she's perfect. Just go to your school and find her and you'll see!"

If being shouted at in the face affected Celestia at all, she gave no outward sign. She simply shook her head before she began talking again. “Sunset, ever since I founded the School for Gifted Unicorns, I have made it a point to lean the name of every single pony that goes there,” she said. “And I have never once heard of this Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well-” Sunset cut herself off before she could suggest that Twilight might have been a transfer, or became an alicorn like Cadance. She was pretty sure a pegasus would never have received any magic training from the school beforehand. But...she was certain the paper she read in the Crystal Empire mentioned her being Celestia's student.

“And then there is the other impossibility you mentioned,” Celestia said, not even giving Sunset time to ask before she revealed it. But, as her lips parted, emotional pain blossomed on her face. “Sunset, how could you possibly believe for an instant that I would ever give up on you?”

Sunset hesitated. “Because I…I studied dark magic and the forbidden histories in the restricted section of the archives!”

The confession had Celestia shook her head. “Sunset, if you don’t think I want at least a few ponies knowing about what is in those books, then why do you think I still have them around?” she asked before smirking. “After all, I sure as hay don’t require history lessons on Equestria. You however, you will be studying both.”

“YOU WANT ME TO LEARN BLACK MAGIC?” the other alicorn shouted in a mix of disbelief and fear. Mostly fear. Sunset had learned more than enough thanks to her first encounter with it.

“I want you to learn about black magic,” Celestia corrected her sternly. “Part of the duties of an alicorn is protecting Equestria. And ignorance makes for a poor defense. I have planned for you to learn about it from day one. If anything, I would have been fearful if I had caught you reading such books before I knew I could trust you with the knowledge within, not angry. And I surely wouldn’t have let you wander out of my sight with such a temptation in your head.”

Despite her fearful protest and personal promise that she would be doing no such thing, Sunset had to admit that Celestia had a point. Still, Sunset knew all she needed to in order to deal with books of black magic. They needed to be thrown into a fire. A big fire.

“And then there is the third hole in your story. There is no other you,” Celestia went on.

Sunset frowned, completely lost. “Other me?”

The other alicorn looked around for a few seconds, and then back to Sunset. “I’ve used temporal magic before Sunset, I’ve even met myself that came from a week in the future,” she explained. “If you are from some horrible future where you had to endure years of isolation without your magic on a strange world and in a body I doubted you understood, then where is the Sunset Shimmer of the present that still has to do all of that?”

That one Sunset had an answer for. It was a theory and unproven, but still an answer. “Well, what if the old me was wiped away when I came back to avoid some kind of meeting yourself…wait…never mind,” she said when Celestia raised her eyebrow. The big alicorn had just said she met herself after all. So, that couldn’t have been it.

Unless the magic Sunset used to go back was somehow different.

But…wouldn’t Celestia know that?

And then there was the thing that made Sunset’s heart ache. Something that she had been afraid to consider before, even if she did acknowledge the possibility. “But…all the people I met…my friends…they weren’t…real?”

Celestia’s face shifted to one of hesitation, and she let out a long sigh. “They were real to you,” she told Sunset before putting some confidence back in her words. “So take the happiness you gained and the lessons you learned from them and cherish it. But everything else, all the wrongs you think you did, those never happened. So take this yoke of guilt around your neck and throw it away. Not a single pony was hurt by your actions, so there is no need for it.”

Then the princess moved in close to kiss Sunset on the forehead and fill the little alicorn’s vision with her kind eyes. “Sunset, what happened to you must have been horrible, and…I can’t do more than be here for you for most of it. But what I can do is this,” she said before bringing Sunset in for another hug and whispering in her ear. “I will never cast you aside, and even should you need to go somewhere else, no matter what you do, no matter what should happen, I will always love you with all of my heart until the day I die. Never doubt that. Never forget it. You are everything to me.”

Sunset found herself torn at Celestia’s words. She wanted to deny them. She didn’t deserve them, or Celestia’s forgiveness, or her faith, or anything! Even if Celestia was right about everything, even if nobody had been hurt by her actions, every choice Sunset had made was still hers to take responsibility for. Wasn’t that what really mattered?

But…she was an alicorn. She was in Celestia’s embrace. She had her forgiveness. She had her love. She had everything she ever wanted along with a way to finally be free from her past. All she needed to do was take it!

“Sunset…is something wrong?” Celestia asked, still holding onto her.

The smaller alicorn realized that she had tensed up again. But instead of relaxing, she pulled away from her teacher’s embrace. Although it was Celestia releasing her that freed the smaller alicorn. “I’m sorry Princess…I just…I can’t,” Sunset told her. “I can’t just toss everything that happened to me away like that. Even the bad things.”

Celestia studied her for a moment, and then nodded. “I understand. Guilt can be a powerful thing,” she told Sunset before reaching out with a wing to touch the tips of Sunset’s plumage. “It can serve as a powerful reminder to avoid wrongdoings. But do not let it pull you down into its depths my little Sunset. If you ever feel yourself sinking, come and talk to me about it, and I think Cadance would be more than willing to help you as well.”

“Okay,” Sunset replied softly. The conversation had burnt out her anger.

With that, Celestia levitated the plate of food up to the other pony’s face. Once again, Sunset was assaulted by the impossibly wonderful smell of perfectly cooked hay burger and fries, which made her stomach clamor for more. “Now, how about you finish your lunch so there’s something more than just half a burger inside you. For me?”

After she was done eating and Celestia had left, Sunset focused something to keep her mind busy. Namely: Twilight Sparkle and her human friends.

Despite what Celestia said, she just couldn’t believe that the purple princess and all those people were just some kind of invention of Sunset’s own mind. Sunset knew her mind, and it was far too flawed to come up with something as perfect as Twilight Sparkle.

But if Celestia didn’t know about her, then where was she?

While investigating the existence of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie was an impossibility since they were on the other side of the mirror, Sunset could look for Twilight.

“And if I can’t find her, then what?” Sunset asked herself. Accept Celestia’s explanation of things? Just go on like the past three years never happened? It just seemed like another cheat.

Sunset shook her head to help clear her thoughts and worries. The first thing to do was find Twilight…or not find her. After that, she could figure out what to do next. Planning out every little possible thing was for dorks.

Celestia let out a long burst of air as soon as she let Sunset’s quarters and motioned to the guards standing watch that they were dismissed. The time with her…more-than-student had been an emotional rollercoaster that the white pony hadn’t experienced in several centuries.

Even now, she still felt the twinges of anger and pain from what Sunset had said. Real or not, the fact that Sunset had suffered on her own for years from her perspective with a disability that made most unicorns give up on living made Celestia furious with the mirror’s creator. But what really made Celestia nearly lose control of herself was the fact that Sunset had believed such an obvious lie so easily. Did the amber pony really have so little faith in her that she thought Celestia would ever cast her out?

It just didn’t make sense!

Everypony knew she was one for giving second chances, thirds and fourths even! And Sunset’s infractions were just so…minor compared to what Celestia had seen over the years from other creatures! Not to mention wrong. If Sunset had delved into black magic on her own, Celestia would have taken steps to make sure she knew the dangers of such magic, not cast her out with a head full of it!

Yet…Celestia could tell that Sunset still believed on some level that everything she experienced had actually happened, despite all the years Celestia had spent with Sunset to show her otherwise.

It was just like with Luna. There had been years of being together, of seeing her grow, hay growing up alongside her. Yet in what seemed like no time at all, their relationship shattered and Luna had become Nightmare Moon.

“Well I’m not going to let that happen again,” Celestia promised herself in a harsh whisper. If Sunset believed that Celestia would do such things as cast her out, then she would just have to show her otherwise. There might even be time for it. Now that she was an alicorn, Sunset had technically completed her training under Celestia. The hour they spent together could be used for relaxation rather than instruction. It was something Celestia found herself looking forward to greatly.

The sound of approaching hooves made Celestia look up, and she noticed Cadance walking down the hall with her wings extended along her side for some reason. Glad for the other mare’s presence, the alicorn waited for her to finish approaching as Celestia convinced herself to talk to the younger alicorn about what had just transpired.

While infinitely younger, Cadance was an alicorn and fellow princess. Other ponies could only ever see their perfect princess and protector, Cadance was allowed to see the truth about the big alicorn. Celestia was just another pony, albeit taller and older. A pony that needed to lean on others every now and again.

“Auntie,” Cadance spoke as she finished walking up to the door before she looked past Celestia for a brief second with curious eyes before addressing the bigger alicorn again. “Is Sunset already asleep?”

Celestia gave the door a worried look for a moment, and then over to Cadance. “I hope so,” she admitted. “Was there something you needed Cadance?”

The pink princess gave the white alicorn a confused look for a second, as if the answer wasn’t obvious, and then her back straightened ever so slightly. “Oh right!” she said before dropping one of her wings and turning to reveal a tray of water glasses on her back. “You and Sunset left so suddenly, you didn’t take anything to drink with you and…um…Celestia?”

“Yes?”

Cadance’s voice became hesitant. “Uh…I know this may be a stupid question, but…how do unicorn’s balance things on their heads? I dropped three trays trying to get them to stay up there and my horn just kept throwing everything off balance.”

Glad for the distraction, Celestia smiled at Cadance before levitating the liquid burden away from her adopted niece. “Magic.”

The answer got a frown and a deadpan reply from Cadance. “Should have seen that one coming,” she said before her tone lightened up a bit. “But…how is Sunset?”

What little bit of levity she got from her joke faded, and the invisible weight on Celestia’s back pressed back down. “It’s…complicated,” she said before surrounding them both in a privacy screen. “Walk with me Cadance, I’ll explain on the way.”

“The way to where?” the other alicorn asked as she fell into step with Celestia, just a trot behind the bigger mare.

Instead of answering, Celestia told Cadance was had just transpired in Sunset's room. She tried to be as brief as possible to spare Sunset the exposure of the private moment, but…a correct explanation required details. So in the end, Celestia ended up telling Cadance everything.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have told her about it all being some kind of implanted experience if not for what Sunset said at the end of her explanation of what happened,” Celestia finished as she shook her head as the memory played out in her mind. Seeing Sunset's expression when she realized all of her friends had been fictitious.

“I deserve to die!”

“How could she say such things?” the larger alicorn went on as she took another breath sharply. The look on the little alicorn’s face when she cried out those words as if in pain…it had just been too much to bear.

Beside Celestia, Cadance looked on with a scowl that she had been wearing since the larger alicorn’s story had been half-finished. When Celestia asked her question, she suddenly stopped, and the bigger alicorn had a feeling that Cadance’s scowl wasn’t directed at the situation, but towards Celestia herself.

“I think the real question is, how could you not?” she asked in a disbelieving whisper.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Could I not what?” she asked, unsure of to what Cadance was referring. She hoped it wasn’t the little bit about Sunset being expelled because of her actions in the visions the other alicorn had experienced. If that was Cadance’s position on things pertaining to Sunset, then Celestia knew there would be a wedge driven between her and the pink alicorn.

For a few seconds, Cadance simply stared at Celestia as if she was seeing a completely unbelievable event that defied explanation. Then, her frown returned. “You know, when I first met Sunset, I just couldn’t understand why she was so aggressive towards me,” Cadance told Celestia evenly. “You may have called me your niece, but it was just a meaningless title. Especially compared to what I saw she meant to you five minutes into seeing you together.

“But now I get it,” she went on. “Now, I understand why she was so afraid of me, and why she turned it to anger to try and drive me away. It was because of you.”

Celestia frowned at the accusation from the bewildered alicorn. “Excuse me?”

“All this time you’ve been with her, and just now…only just now have you ever told Sunset that you love her,” Cadance said before she looked down at the floor and shook her head. “I can’t even…how could you do something like that to her?”

The accusing question made Celestia more than a little uncomfortable, but it was her displeasure at being asked such a thing in the first place that showed on her face. “There are boundaries that a teacher can not cross.”

“And there are responsibilities that every parent has to fulfill!” Cadance shouted back as her wings went up in an aggressive posture.

Celestia frowned down at the smaller alicorn. “Cadance, just because I…” She stopped unable to complete her argument about how Sunset wasn’t her daughter, about how much more important it was that she be ready to rule Equestria than…waste time doing…family things. She tried to form the words, but they just wouldn’t come. Every time Celestia thought up what to say in regards to the parental status of her in regards to Sunset, a part of her screamed ‘LIAR’ at the top of its lungs, stopping her from talking.

Because...Celestia knew that Cadance was right. Even before this conversation, she knew Cadance was right. She had thought of Sunset as her daughter for some time now. It was just...decorum demanded she say otherwise.

“The day you accepted the responsibility of raising Sunset yourself is the day you accepted the task of loving her as only a parent could! And don’t you dare tell me about how you are not her mother! A pair of earth ponies raised me to be the mare that I am, and we may have not shared a drop of blood, but they were my parents through bonds of love stronger than any stupid biology can make!” Cadance nearly shouted at Celestia, her voice only a level below headache-inducing. Then the pink alicorn drew back and shook her head. “I just don’t get it.”

As Cadance fell into a confused silence, Celestia found herself silently justifying her actions. While Celestia had allowed Sunset to cling to her as a foal, as the little filly got older and more into her studies, there just hadn’t been time for Celestia to be with Sunset all that much. While Cadance might have though the two of them were practically inseparable, the fact was that Celestia barely had an hour to spend with Sunset a day. She just didn’t have time to do everything needed to run a kingdom and give the now amber alicorn that much attention in the past.

“I just didn’t have the time,” Celestia explained in a low voice that sounded as weak as her explanation felt. “It was why I told her to make friends.”

“With who?” Cadance asked with a snort. “Nobles like that snot-nosed brat Blueblood? I’ve been here three weeks and he still calls me peasant.”

It was news that made Celestia raise an eyebrow. That was the first she had ever heard of such things.

“The unicorns in your school?” she went on with a roll of her eyes. “There’s a few nice ponies there, but have you seen what the teachers are like to the students? Each and every one of them were constantly pushing us along as fast as we could go. Every day I went there I got reminded how we were Celestia’s chosen, the cream of the crop. Equestria was counting on us to learn everything we could and lead it into the next age. No time for friends, no time for fun. Just study, study, study! I can only imagine what it must be like for a pony who actually is your student. Why do you think I asked to be transferred to the normal academy that takes all three tribes?”

The pink mare shuddered at what was obviously a bad memory. “If you want Sunset to make friends, the best thing you could probably do is send her away from Canterlot,” Cadance said. “Well, before today I mean. At least as a unicorn she would have had to depend on somepony else for help, and help other ponies in return for it. But an alicorn? She could just tell ponies what to do and they would…not that I think she needs to learn how to empathize with other ponies after I spent some time with her today. But a week ago? Yeah, she needed to get out and find ponies to help her learn what it means to care about others.”

When she noticed Cadance had stopped talking, Celestia drew herself out of the stupor that had overcome her halfway through Cadance’s explanation. Best thing I could do, she repeated in her mind before looking to Cadance, with her eyes on the little alicorn’s cutie mark. Celestia hadn’t really thought of it before, but…the image did bear a striking resemblance to the Crystal Heart.

“Um…Auntie?” Cadance said in an unsure voice. “I’m sorry if I upset you, it’s just…today’s been pretty…trying.”

Celestia replied first with a little smile for the pink alicorn before she continued walking through the castle. “No Cadance, what you said today…they were things that needed to be said,” she told her new niece. Things that probably wouldn’t have been said if it were anypony else. “And I want to thank you for saying them. Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. If anything, it just means I’m less likely to see them when I do.”

They walked on in silence for a bit more, something Celestia quickly tired of. “So, since I didn’t get a chance to ask you at dinner, is anything interesting going on in your life Cadance?”

“You mean besides this new pushy friend I made that’s going to need flying lessons soon?” she asked with a little smile for some reason Celestia couldn’t discern. “Well…there is something I want to ask you about.”

Glad for something good to talk about for a change, Celestia smiled at the shorter mare. “Cadance, I think we’ve already shown you can ask and tell me anything.”

Cadance blushed a little at the reminder of a few minutes ago, although Celestia took it as encouraging. She needed the other alicorn not to think of her as perfect, but as an equal.

“Well…I’ve been having a little trouble meeting other ponies even at the academy,” she began, making Celestia’s concern rise a little. She didn’t want the other mare to experience the same problems that Sunset apparently had because of her status. “And I was thinking…I could…well…offer my services as a foalsitter.”

The completely unexpected request caught Celestia off guard. “Pardon?”

Cadance held up her hooves, and switched to her wings to keep going on. “It’s not that I don’t need some extra money,” she assured Celestia. “I just…look…I’m an alicorn. I’m sure you know what that means a lot of ponies are hesitant to approach me. But foals…not so much. And if a big brother or sister should see me with their little brother or sister, well…it’s a good icebreaker.”

“And if big brother or sister should happen to be cute, it wouldn’t hurt to hear all about what he or she likes from the little one, right?” Celestia asked with a grin.

After blushing from being caught for a second, Cadance looked away and cleared her throat. “You said it, not me.”

Celestia giggled. “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she said before something else occurred to her. “And…see if you can talk Sunset into helping you. At least until you can use your horn well enough. Young unicorns tend to have magical outbursts that most other ponies might find troublesome.”

From the way she raised her eyebrow, Celestia could tell Cadance had already seen though the ploy. “Sure,” she said before a rather mischievous smile appeared on her face. “Just don’t blame me if she happens to bring somepony special to her home one day to meet you.”

Celestia rolled her eyes at the Alicorn of Love as they finally came to their destination. To the observer not in the know, it looked like just any other door in the castle, with a small difference. Celestia opened the door marked with a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign to peer within. Cadance looked past her and frowned. “Wait…is that the mirror that you said Sunset-”

“Yes,” Celestia growled before she could stop herself. It was the mirror she was angry at, and its creator. She just hoped that Cadance didn’t think Celestia was upset at her personally.

But it seemed that she did manage to put the other alicorn on edge. Cadance quickly backed away from the door, and Celestia saw a look of fear in her eyes. “Oh buck no! No way am I going near that thing!”

When she saw Cadance was simply afraid of the object, Celestia gave her a smile. “Don’t worry, I have no intentions of anypony ever going near this thing again,” Celestia said before settling her eyes back on the mirror and summoning up all the magic she could. “Close the door behind me, would you? I want to keep the noise contained as best I can.”

Chapter 4: Enter the Nerd

Sunset Shimmer slowly awoke with a strange sense of loss, coupled with confusion. The dream she had just awoken from had been…disconcerting. It had been one that Sunset had dreamed in the past, a dream of coming home as an alicorn. Although instead of rubbing her success in Celestia’s face, she had confessed all she had done and accepted her punishment, only to have Celestia say none of it mattered. Then the alicorn had embraced Sunset like a daughter, something Sunset had given up on hoping for even before she left Equestria.

For some reason, that made the dream hurt even worse than the usual kind where Celestia had Sunset executed for her crimes.

She let out a long breath and closed her eyes to roll around onto her back before her stupid boobs could start to hurt again as she closed her eyes to try and get back to sleep. Although the stupid things had been good at distracting the males of the human species and a nice status symbol, her status as the biggest chest in CHS (despite being pretty normal in comparison to those women she’d seen on television) was just a personal hindrance. She was trying to be a good person now! Not some kind of slut.

An odd feeling in her back made Sunset open her eyes…and frown. The ceiling above her wasn’t the one for the room Principal Celestia had set aside for her. It was…the one she remembered from before coming to Earth.

The realization hit her like a bolt of lightning along with the other memories from the day before and-THWAP!

A second later, Sunset sighed and picked herself up from the ground with a groan. After waiting for a second to see if another alicorn would suddenly come bursting into the room like the pair of princesses had done the day before when she had thought herself alone, she looked back at the offending appendages when nothing happened. “Ugh, why exactly did I want the two of you again?” she asked her wings with a frown.

Now fully awake and mostly alert, Sunset found herself wondering what she was supposed to do. Years of being in a human world, or at least thinking that she was if Celestia’s theory was true, had left Sunset a little lost when it came to the last thing she had been working on. She had been a mostly independent-study student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, with the princess giving her most of her lessons for several years. Which meant that Sunset had no idea what she was supposed to be working on, and just walking into a classroom to ask for instructions was out of the question.

The odd thought made her stop and shake her head at the idiocy of it all. The hell with whatever she had been doing before! Sunset wasn’t about to just try and pick up where she had left off as if nothing was different from when she was last in Equestria. She was going to get cleaned up, find the classroom where Twilight Sparkle was studying, and drag her back to Celestia to rub the fact she was right in the face of the alicorn!

Then Twilight could be trained for princesshood, and Sunset…

Actually...Sunset didn’t know what she would be doing after that. With Twilight needing a teacher, Sunset would need to step back so Celestia would have time for her. It was ironic really, after being driven into a maddening rage upon first learning about Twilight, Sunset was now giving everything Twilight had ‘taken’ from her the first time around.

Although…would that be enough?

Maybe…for things to play out the way they needed to, Sunset had to get even more out of the way than simply moving down the hall.

It was quite possible that she would need to go through the portal again to make sure that Twilight got the attention she needed with Celestia.

For some reason, the thought made feel Sunset uneasy.

But thinking about such things was for the future. Right now, she needed to find Twilight.

Okay, right now now, she needed to get off the floor and get dressed, get some coffee, and have breakfast.

Then she could go and find Twilight.

Sunset picked herself up and took a moment to look around the room for her closet before making her way over and opening it up to find three gowns meant for formal parties and a more casual dress to be worn around town. She was actually a little surprised by how few there actually were.

Oh! Right…pony, Sunset reminded herself. Unlike humans, most ponies didn’t wear much in the way of clothes all the time. Those that did go trotting around in silk and wool all day did it more to say ‘I have money’ as if that somehow made them important.

Not that Sunset didn’t see herself as the same as them, just in a different way. She went nude simply because she didn’t need to buy her ego boost. She had magic.

For a moment the pony simply stood there, unsure to put on the dress or not. It wasn’t as if alicorns needed any extra decoration to stand out and say they were above others. The horn and wings were more than enough to work as a sign that said ‘BOW TO ME LITTLE PONIES’.

For a few seconds, Sunset held her closet in her magic again, just enjoying the slight mental hum that came from her horn after years of silence with all the intentions of slamming the doors closed while swearing off clothing forever. But then the sound of gusting wind came through her bedroom’s open window, and Sunset felt the moving air rush under her tail as it…brushed up against a certain part of her female anatomy that hadn’t felt such cold sensations in years.

A freezing tingle ran through the alicorn’s body, and Sunset quickly snatched her overly expensive casual dress off of the rack to unbutton everything before she planted her butt on the floor in the hopes of putting it on.

Hopes that were dashed when she moved the dress around her torso and found that it didn’t reach the buttons. In fact, the ends of the fabric didn’t even touch. Not to mention the sleeves were extremely tight on her pony-arms, and…Sunset stood to look back to see what the neglected nerves of her tail were telling her about the dress not going down nearly enough to properly conceal her rump.

“What the hay?” the alicorn mumbled before fighting her way out of the too tiny dress that she left on the floor to glare at for a few seconds before looking down at herself.

Had she gained weight since coming back to Equestria?

The possibility didn’t seem very likely. A budget made of what money Sunset could squeeze from students through extortion and ever-shrinking Equestrian wealth didn’t lend itself well to overeating.

Sunset shook her head and walked over to the mirror to take a look at herself. Just the sight of her old body made the alicorn blink. Thanks to all the craziness that was the day before, she hadn’t really taken a good look at herself in some time. Not even when she came back to snatch Twilight’s crown.

Was she…bigger?

The startlement that came from the possibility made Sunset look around her room for an old picture before she snatched it up in her magic and brought it floating to her. On it, Sunset stood in one of her more immaculate dresses next to Princess Celestia with a small smile on her face. Even though the memory the picture had brought up was a little dimmed, she could still remember the party Princess Celestia had thrown for her seventeenth birthday.

Although it hadn’t really been that big a deal to her at the time, what with the guests just being there as a courtesy to Princess Celestia, Sunset did remember that her happiness shown in the picture had been genuine.

“It’s a celebration of you being born Sunset, a reason I find very happy to make a big fuss over.”

Looking back with what she knew now, Sunset could also see what else it had been. Celestia had been trying to get her to make friends with other ponies. Unfortunately, all Sunset had seen was their inherited titles and the attitudes that went with them. All just par for the course in the then-unicorn’s life.

Still, the picture did give her a nice frame of reference.

A quick trip to her closet to put the little dress up and grab her party gown later, and Sunset was standing back in front of the mirror with a frown on her face. Although she had some suspicions before, the actual physical evidence in front of her made things clear.

She was bigger.

Much bigger.

And in more ways that one.

Judging by how the small it was in comparison to her body now, Sunset estimated that she had increased in height by at least a head. But instead of becoming some tall and lanky alicorn, Sunset found her body was just as filled out as ever before, if not more.

She flexed and tensed her muscles to see bulges that would never have appeared on a studious unicorn, or even a human bully for that matter. Still, in the mirror she looked…not exactly buff, nor super athlete fit, but…Sunset was pretty sure that she was now among the top ten strongest ponies in Canterlot.

Her wings were equally big and bulky. But that might have been the norm for alicorns, considering Twilight and Celestia. She would need to make observations on Cadance to make sure though.

And lastly there was…her ass.

Sunset turned and let out an irritated sigh as she gave her rear a shake that left her booty jiggling just a bit. Great, she thought with a frown while glaring at her newly expanded ass. On earth it was boobs, in Equestria it’s my butt. While not ridiculously large in proportion to her size, the alicorn could already guess that the part of the mare the males wanted the most was about as big as a pony could achieve naturally. With her newly acquired height…Sunset had a sinking feeling that most guys would consider her voluptuous supermodel material.

The only thing Sunset could take comfort in was that she was at least still overshadowed by Princess Celestia. If she ever ended up matching her mentor in height…

A knock at her bedroom door drew Sunset’s daydreams out of a giant alicorn constantly hitting her head on doorframes and tripping over little ponies that got underfoot before falling hard enough to cause earthquakes with her oversized ass.

“Coming!” Sunset called out before she trotted over. Her hoof stopped halfway to the doorknob, and she rolled her eyes before concentrating through her horn to surround it with magic. Without a pounding headache distracting her, Sunset had to admire the feeling of magic running through her horn again.

Once she finally got around to opening the door, Sunset blinked at Cadance, noting how the other mare barely came up to her nose. Although, she did have a ‘Canterlot length’ horn that several mares in the city took magical steps to develop. “Oh Cadance,” she said before making a point to look the mare in the eyes. “Something wrong?”

The other alicorn gave her an odd look. “Uh…no,” Cadance said as she smiled. “I thought I’d come and check on you. Do you want to walk to breakfast together?”

Sunset looked back at the discarded things in her room for a few seconds. It was enough time for Cadance to peer in and take a peek for herself. “What’s with the clothes?”

“Uh…” Sunset blushed in embarrassment and stepped forward, using her newfound girth to push the other pony back. “Sorry, I was just trying on some of my old stuff,” she said before slamming the door behind her. “Well, trying to try on, I should say. Speaking of, I wonder if I should even bother buy new ones, or just wait to see if there’s another growth spurt.”

As Sunset moved out into her apartment’s living room, she noticed Cadance giving her a confused look. “What?”

Cadance’s expression turned to a skeptical frown. “You just now noticed you were bigger?” she asked before raising an eyebrow. “You do remember how I had to look down to meet your eyes just two days ago, right?”

Guilt and embarrassment flooded Sunset’s mind. “Um…well…you see…” As a pony that had a stick up her ass most of the time, Sunset had perfected the Canterlot way of looking at lesser ponies. A way that involved pointing one’s nose to the sky. It helped a lot to not notice certain things.

Plus, there was the fact that Sunset did her best to forget all of her run-ins with Cadance. Not to mention how the pink alicorn tended to hunch down whenever she was in Sunset’s presence.

“Did you forget?” Cadance asked with what sounded like genuine concern. With her, it probably was. “Celestia told me how you got a ton of experiences because of the mirror, I can imagine that did a real number on your memory.”

Sunset tensed. “She…told you about all of that?”

Giving the other alicorn a regretful look, Cadance nodded. “Sorry if you think that violates your privacy, but…” She paused, her expression becoming worried. “She’s worried for you Sunset. Really worried. She even told me to…well…keep an eye on you and try to be your friend. Not that I wasn’t planning on doing that anyway.”

The smile Cadance gave her made Sunset’s mouth perk up a little bit. Although, she wasn’t really sure how she was supposed to respond to something like that. Could you force someone to be friends? “Um…thank you?”

Cadance giggled, and followed Sunset out of her apartment as they began to head towards the dinning hall. “Well, like I said, I was going to do it anyway. Although,” she said, drawing the word out before briefly pausing. “How much time did you spend there? Celestia wasn’t all that specific.”

“I thought she said it was all just a dream,” Sunset replied, a little confused. Was the princess telling Sunset one thing and Cadance another? It didn’t exactly seem like her style of manipulation.

The other alicorn shrugged just a bit. “Well, if you felt it was real, then who am I to say otherwise?” Cadance asked.

“It was about three years,” Sunset replied with a frown. Cadance’s last words, now those had sounded like they had come from Celestia.

Cadance let out a thoughtful ‘hmm’. “So that means you’re…what? Twenty now? Mentally at least. Even if you didn’t age a day, you still got older where it counts.”

The mention of her age got a groan from Sunset. One of the more annoying things about being turned human was that she hadn’t a clue about her biology and just ended up as a freshman in high school, despite being the same age as one of their seniors. And that wasn’t even taking into account the possibility of the mirror altering her age somehow. “Twenty-one,” Sunset corrected her. Not that she thought Celestia would be allowing her cider outside of special occasions.

“So…meet any cute guys while you were there?” Cadance asked with a cheeky grin.

For her part, Sunset stumbled forward, and just barely avoided planting her face into the hallway’s fancy carpet. “C-Cadance!” Sunset shouted as she spun around in anger at the idiocy of the question, not to mention all the other emotions that came up at the thought. “They weren’t even ponies!” Or real, a possibility that Sunset’s self-worth clinged to. One of the only reasons she actually hoped Celestia was right about everything. Because if everything had been real…she didn’t want to be the kind of pony that slept with everything on four legs.

Cadance winced. “Sorry if I struck a nerve there.”

The reaction the other pony had to Sunset’s anger made the amber alicorn take in a sharp breath. “N-No. That’s okay,” she assured Cadance. Getting angry at a pony that had been afraid of her really wasn’t the way to go. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

“Well, anger is your thing,” the pink alicorn went on with a little smile. “And I like that you’ve got a lot of passion Sunset.”

Sunset snorted at the attempt to turn her biggest flaw into an admirable trait. “No, I shouldn’t-”

Before she could say anything more, Cadance flapped up a wing to cut the amber alicorn off. As Sunset backed up a step, the smaller alicorn turned around and frowned. “Look Sunset, don’t apologize to me for who you are. It’s not like you’ve ever really let it go out of control.”

The words Cadance spoke made Sunset wince once again. “Oh yeah? What about everything I’ve done to you since you got here?” There was also everything that happened in the days to come and on the other side of the mirror, but it wasn’t as if Cadance knew much about that.

“I call those the actions of a frightened mare who was terrified of the idea that there was a pony Celestia loved more than her, a pony that was afraid I was going to take Celestia’s love away from her,” Cadance said with a sympathetic look in her eyes. “I know from personal experience that love can make you do crazy things. It’s the most powerful force in Equestria, and when starved of it, a pony can do so many things that go against her true self. And despite all of this, I also know that a pony who was starved for love and afraid what little trickle of it she had was going to be taken away from her never actually hurt me.”

Then the pink alicorn broke out into a little smile. “So go ahead and growl, and shout, and rage, and all that other stuff. Because I know that’s all it’s ever going to be,” she told Sunset. “But if you just bottle it up and try to act all meek, then it will explode in the worst possible way.”

Sunset gave Cadance a hesitant look. “I’m not sure you know what you’re asking here.”

“I’m asking you to be yourself, Sunset,” she replied.

The amber alicorn frowned back at her. “Well in that case. I think I should tell you that you’re wrong about love being the most powerful force in Equestria,” she said. If anything, love magic was unpredictable and dangerous, not to mention pretty creepy. The last opinion Sunset knew was thanks to her time among a culture that treated freedom of choice more akin to a religious ideal than anything that went on in their churches. “Friendship is.”

Cadance smiled back at her. “Well, I’m glad you agree with me.”

“Um…” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Is something wrong with your ears? I said friendship, you said love.”

The smile on Cadance’s face became a full-on grin. “Sunset, what is friendship, but platonic love?”

Sunset’s expression turned half lidded. “Let’s just get to breakfast,” she said before picking up her pace.

Cadance quickly caught up to her. “Uh Sunset? Why are you tucking your tail between your cheeks like that?”

The question got a stumble from Sunset, followed by a frown at her own ass, and then Cadance’s face. “Cultural differences.”

Once she had gotten to breakfast, Sunset had come to a very important decision: she was going to invent underwear.

Although she had been a little put off by the things after first transforming into a human, a few days of going commando in jeans had made Sunset change her mind. Now a pony again, having her private parts semi-exposed for anyone who bothered looking to see actually felt alien. It was disturbing to think how a basic facet of life had changed for her in just a few years.

Then came everything Sunset should have seen coming. Once Princess Celestia showed up, the amber alicorn had to get her nervousness under control. Thankfully, the ruler of Equestria didn’t talk about putting a crown on Sunset’s head.

However, what they did talk about was even worse thanks to Cadance’s question leading up to the dining hall. The topic of choice for that morning was humanity, or at least what Sunset had observed when she was ‘seemingly’ among them. Celestia had managed to steer the conversation away from anything personal, and made sure they just focused on the alien civilization that Sunset had been a part of.

The reactions were mixed…

“So, let me get this straight,” Celestia said as she finished the food on her plate. “The entire society basically has an infinite magical library that anypony can access with little difficulty either from their home or a uh, well…a normal library, and get all the knowledge they want in seconds with almost no effort. Yet the majority of the entire race decides to squander this information in the pursuit of personal gain and short-term pleasure, such as instructions on how to beat a video game?”

Sunset sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, it was an entire race of creatures just like me, wanting easy access to power and a shortcut to fame and glory. I get the irony, Princess.”

“Celestia. It’s just Celestia now, Sunset,” the big princess corrected her before a hesitant smile appeared on her face. “Although…if you want, I wouldn’t be adverse to you, calling me…” After a brief pause, Celestia looked over to the pink princess. “Ahem, so Cadance, what do you think about Sunset’s story of the hugh-manes?”

The third alicorn at the table had her head tilted. “So…these dating uh…websites, they only match you according to twenty-nine dimensions of compatibility?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “How in the hay can anypony form such a shallow romantic relationship?”

In response, Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” Her own relationships with humans were based off way less than that. Usually, it boiled down to ‘she’s a bitch but damn are those some big tits’ or ‘Sunset puts out like there’s no tomorrow’. “I tell you about an alien civilization, and that’s what you focus on?”

“An imaginary civilization, Sunset,” Celestia told her sternly. “The whole purpose of which I think was to help you learn a lesson. Think about it, these creatures had all the knowledge of their world at their fingertips, but it was useless without the wisdom to use it properly. To be honest, it sounds a bit like-”

“How I used to be,” Sunset interrupted her before Celestia could use the present tense to describe her. That might have actually hurt. “Look, I’ll admit I used to only view magic as a means to gaining power and helping to boost my ego, because I saw myself as the source for that power. But now I know that real magic comes from kindness, generosity, laughter, loyalty, and honesty.”

Celestia’s mouth dropped, and Sunset had to fight to keep from breaking out into a grin. Although she knew it was a little bad for her to do so, the smaller alicorn had just loved leaving her mentor speechless.

But for that to really happen, she needed to get the hell out of dodge before the big pony recovered. “Welp, time to get going, I need to head to the school as soon as possible. Don’t want the office to have a backlog of stuff when I come around,” she said before jumping off her seat and hitting the ground.

Cadance nodded. “I should get going too. Thanks for breakfast Auntie. It was as amazing as ever.”

“Um…I’ll pass on your compliments to-wait!” Celestia said as she shook herself out of her stupor and stood up. “What do you mean school? You can’t go to school! You just became an alicorn. You still need your rest.”

The tone Celestia used made Sunset groan in annoyance as she remembered a bipedal Celestia lecturing her about the proper way to act at school. “Princess, I’m fine! I may have been a little sore yesterday, but now I feel like I could run a lap around Canterlot without breaking a sweat.” And considering the earth pony that was now in her, Sunset had a feeling she wasn’t bluffing.

Still, the bigger alicorn didn’t budge. “Just because you feel fine doesn’t mean that’s the way things are,” she told Sunset before her expression softened. “At least let me get you an examination by a doctor. Your ascension being so different than most ponies might have caused some problems that might just now be developing.”

It was the worry in Celestia’s tone that made Sunset drop her head in defeat. Authority she could buck to the side. Anger could be ignored. But when Celestia worried about her…Sunset didn’t know how to fight that. “Fine. We’ll…go to a doctor or something first. But I still need to go talk to the office of your magic school, okay?”

It was nearly three-o’clock by the time Sunset walked into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, still a little uneasy from all the poking and prodding the three tribal specialists had done at Celestia’s insistence. Still, the triple pony physical had at least proved to everyone Sunset was in full working order. Hell, they had actually called her the fittest specimen they had seen in Canterlot; and that was coming from ponies who examined royal guards!

The magic she had taken from her friends, that had to be the cause. Both Applejack and Rainbow had been great athletes, and considering one of them had wings in pony-form while the other was a farmer, it wasn’t a large leap in logic to figure out what type of Equestrians they would be.

“H-Holy hay! Is that Sunset Shimmer?”

The words of the colt down the hall standing together with his friends made Sunset look over to him in confusion. The assembled ponies quickly scurried away, which made her even more confused. In Equestria, she had been a pretty big jerk, sure…but that seemed more like a Canterlot High reaction to Sunset than a CSGU one.

“She’s an alicorn? How in the hay did that happen?” a mare from another group of students spoke up. They actually froze up when Sunset turned her head toward them.

“Y-You mean, the rumors about her being Celestia’s foal are true?” one of the teachers actually said to another one. Their reaction was the worst of all. Unlike the rest of the students, they actually went into a bow.

And with them, the rest of the assembled student body.

Sunset froze as she quietly watched all the ponies around her prostrate themselves before her. Just a year ago, she knew she would have enjoyed such a reaction. She would have even had the fools show their fealty by kissing her hoof. But now, the sight of ponies bowing before her made Sunset feel…uneasy.

Ashamed.

Unworthy.

And if these unicorns were doing such a thing…

A purple unicorn with a stripe in her mane placed her nose to the ground in front of Sunset as a sign of absolute obedience and submission. “I am yours to command, Princess Sunset.”

The amber alicorn closed her eyes for a second to banish the phantom Twilight Sparkle from her path. That was NOT how she wanted Twilight to behave around her.

In order to get away from the display of fidelity, Sunset pushed through the cobwebs of her memory, and ran as fast as she could to the school’s office. Once inside, the alicorn slammed the door shut behind her and looked to the teal unicorn mare with glasses sitting behind her desk.

As the pony’s eyes widened, Sunset frowned and opened her mouth to speak before the secretary could begin. “Yeah, alicorn,” she said while spreading her wings. Thankfully, they actually did what they were supposed to do. “I need you to check through the rolls and tell me where Twilight Sparkle is.”

The mare blinked. “Um…yes, one moment Your um, Your Majesty,” she said before turning to look through a nearby filing cabinet.

Not wanting to put any more pressure on the pony, Sunset took a moment to look around the room for a place to sit down. Despite the prodigiousness of the school, the front office was rather small. There was enough room for perhaps three ponies to stand shoulder to shoulder in front of the desk, another door leading to the offices of the ponies that ran the place a bit off to the right behind the desk, and an area with a few chairs to the right of the front door for anypony that was sent to see the principal was to wait.

Like the young filly with the blue coat and silvery mane that looked oddly familiar next to the pink filly with the purplish hair that actually bore a disturbing resemblance to Aria Blaze who were sitting there now. They both looked to be just short of their teen years, or maybe just going into them.

Sunset walked deeper into the office and sat down across from them with a smile on her face before asking what every person that had been called to the principal would when they saw a fellow problem child. “So, what’re you two in for?”

The pink pony raised her head up high in what Sunset could only be called pride. “I caught this pony sneaking into Professor Snap’s classroom, trying to change her alchemy grade. But I stopped her!”

“Yeah, because you were already changing everypony’s grade in the gradebook!” the blue filly accused the other in a strangely familiar voice.

“That’s because everypony deserves to be equal!” Pink Filly argued back. “It’s not fair that some ponies get As and Bs and some ponies only get Cs and Ds. Everypony should have the same grade!”

Blue Filly let out an indignant sniff. “That’s a load of horse apples! Nopony is ever equal. And I’ll be the bestest of them all! I’m going to be the greatest, most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria when I grow up!”

All of a sudden, the blue filly’s declaration of her future caused a light to click on in Sunset’s mind, connecting the dots between the little filly in front of her, and another braggart she knew as a human. Sunset’s mouth just dropped in shock, but upon recovery she managed to find some words. “Wait a second…Trixie?! Is that you?”

The little unicorn in question sat up even straighter than the other pony and tilted her head of proudly. “See? Even royalty knows my name! That proves I’m destined for greatness!”

Sunset continued to look on in shock as she stared at the little unicorn filly. The memory of Principal Celestia floated through her mind, reminding her that some ponies had human counterparts on the other side of the mirror, but…such a thing was hardly one for one. After all, Princess Celestia sure as hell didn’t have a spunky little sister like Principal Celestia did, and Sunset had never come across her own counterpart either.

For a moment, Sunset thought about snatching up the filly and presenting her to Celestia as proof that the past three years hadn’t been a magical hallucination. Two things stopped her. The first was the fact that kidnapping was wrong. The second was a bit more complicated, and took a few seconds for her mind to process. It was the fact that just because there was a Trixie in the other world didn’t mean anything. Hell, it could just as easily disprove the idea that the mirror had sent her back in time with the bipedal Trixie just being based off an encounter with the foal that Sunset only remembered on a subconscious level.

After all, this Trixie didn’t seem to be speaking in third person, and was a hell of a lot younger than the one she had met.

And the Aria Blaze unicorn filly…that didn’t make a lick of sense. The sirens were supposed to have existed in Equestria’s past as sea-pony monsters, not unicorn delinquents.

Sunset’s mental workings were ended when she heard a pony come in from the door leading to the personal offices of the school staff. When the stallion with the gray coat and black hair saw her, Sunset quickly decided to cut any of the ‘Oh my Celestia, an alicorn!’ crap off before it could start and talk before she could. “Don’t worry Headmaster,” she said with a little wave of her hoof thanks to the fact she had no idea what the stallion’s name was. “I’m just here for a little paperwork. You can go ahead with those two. No need to bother yourself with me.”

The stallion shook off his shock and cleared his throat. “Yes…I…see,” he said before scowling at the fillies. “Trixie Lulamoon, Starlight Glimmer, my office. Now.”

As the two little fillies hopped down from their seats to follow the stallion Sunset founds herself wondering if she should check up on the fillies later. But…kids weren’t really her thing. Even during her evil days at CHS, the teenager had stayed away from the freshmen once the age gap between her and them came into being. So, the idea of looking in on Trixie was thrown away about as quickly as it had formed. Even if they had the same basic personality, it didn’t mean they were the same person/pony.

After all, Sunset doubted Princess Twilight just went mad and haphazardly threw magic around to endanger a group of fillies, much less an entire town like the human Twilight did to make a teacher happy.

“Princess Sunset?”

The title attached to her name made an odd shiver run up the alicorn’s spine. Sunset knew she should correct the mare, but…she also doubted that anypony would just give her access to files without that assumed royal authority.

“Yes?” she asked after picking herself up and walking over to the school secretary. “Did you find the mare I asked about?” She wondered if it would it have been better to say filly? Twilight had to be…what? Fifteen? Sunset seriously doubted that they were the same age.

The pony on the other side of the desk nervously messed with her glasses. “Yes…about that. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to find a Twilight Sparkle in any of our rolls.”

Half-an-hour of having the secretary check again, followed by her own search through the school’s records, and several more minutes of watching the departing students to pick out a certain purple, smart unicorn ended with zero clues as to the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle.

The failure to find Twilight, which lead to Sunset questioning whether the last three years of her life really had just been all in her head, left the newfound alicorn feeling confused and more than a little bit afraid. She didn’t want the friends she had so quickly grown to love to be fake. She didn’t want the pony she had come to look up to as an example of what she should have been to just be a figment of her imagination.

It…it just wasn’t right!

With no Twilight to be found, Sunset didn’t feel like going back to the castle. Instead, she did something else that she had been wanting to do since her banishment to the human world: she took a walk around Canterlot. There was no real destination in mind. She simply wandered from street to street, trying to recall the various places around town and learning of the new ones. Strangely enough, the pony Canterlot looked nothing like the one in the human world.

And an hour into her travels, Sunset found herself…kind of lost.

Not that she was 100% lost. Anypony in Canterlot could see Celestia’s Palace gleaming in the sun. But…Sunset had no intentions of returning to that place until she had managed to work herself out of the funk she found herself in. If she didn’t, Cadance and Princess Celestia would get involved, and while Sunset could stand Cadance’s attentions, worrying Princess Celestia was like getting kicked in the gut.

But on the other hand…she still had no idea where she was. Nor where there was a fun place to hang out. Most likely a side effect of being a stuck-up snob that didn’t think she needed anything outside of what her own magic and Celestia provided for her.

And…she might have been getting a little hungry.

Buck, what I wouldn’t do for Yelp right now…or at least a map program, Sunset thought to herself. Stupid humans and their addictive technology that she had grown to hate in so many ways thanks to the Anon-A-Miss incident.

Needing to get off her feet, Sunset parked her rump on a bench, and slid down until her hooves were touching the ground while ignoring all of the surprised stares the other ponies were making in the direction of the unicorn with wings. Sunset told herself the looks were because of her human sitting posture, not the semi-divine status alicorns held.

It didn’t work very well.

But what was worse was thanks to the fact she had stopped wandering around town, Sunset’s idle mind went back to her thoughts. She managed not to think about Twilight, thankfully, but what did come to mind was something about as equally as depressing. It was the fact that she had lived in Canterlot nearly all her life, even counting her time at CHS, and didn’t know a damn thing about the place. And her friends in town totaled a whopping one mare, and one that had decided to give her a second chance as of yesterday at that.

All that time…wasted.

“Make some friends, Sunset.”

The memory of Princess Celestia’s made the alicorn close her eyes. “Why didn’t I listen to you?” she asked in a whisper.

Sure, the nobles and their kids had been jerks, but that didn’t mean other ponies around Canterlot weren’t friendly. If Sunset had made an effort, maybe volunteered at an animal shelter, or done something other than obsess over her studies, then she would have had somepony waiting for her.

“Hey guys, look what we got here!”

The influx of ‘macho noise’ in Sunset’s ear made the alicorn pull herself up and look around on instinct. Living the life she had in the human world had put a few survival mechanisms in her head when it came to certain things. One of those things being phrases that just screamed ‘incoming rape attempt’.

“Think I didn’t see you go in that store and try to sneak out the back?”

Although, a quick look around to only see the usual crowd of ponies gawking at the alicorn and making amazed comments made Sunset frown in confusion. Then came the realization of the absolute foolishness of her reaction. Nopony was stupid enough to mess with the second most powerful being on the planet.

“Give that back, Buck!”

Sunset frowned, and turned to look down the alleyway directly behind her, where three earth ponies in jackets were glaring at a unicorn stallion with a white coat and blue mane that was dressed in the ‘traditional’ pony birthday suit.

Not that the earth ponies had anything to cover their important parts either.

Her casual glance also gave enough for her brain to put two and two together to identify the named pony of the stallion trio since the large one with the blonde mane and light purple coat was holding a long box with ‘Oubliettes and Ogres’ scrawled on the side.

Said pony then proceeded to drop the box, and step on it before looking away from the other colt and up into the sky with a smirk. “Ooops. Guess I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“H-Hey! I just got that!”

The frown Sunset was wearing turned to a glare, and she made a snorting sound that hadn’t been possible in the past several years thanks to her human anatomy before pushing off the bench to put her front hooves hack on the ground. The guilt that had been chipping away at Sunset’s heart and calling her an idiot promptly shut up, and stepped aside to let anger take a turn at the controls. Anger that wasn’t focused on her own mistakes for once.

“Look Shiny,” the bigger stallion said as he looked down at the smaller unicorn. “I thought we had an arrangement going. You do my homework, make sure I get it back in time to copy the answers down so the teachers don’t find out you’re helping me, and I don’t break your face.”

Said face became a sneer for a fraction of a second, but then this ‘Shiny’s’ posture became submissive as he lowered himself down. “And I did that, I gave you your math homework at first period today!”

From her place at the edge of the alleyway, Sunset’s eyes narrowed as she considered for a moment how to deal with the situation. While just strolling up to them with her wings extended and demanding to know what was going on was defiantly an option…it wouldn’t settle the feelings Sunset was experiencing at the moment. To take care of what was burning inside her at the moment, Sunset needed something a bit more…personal.

“Yeah, but there’s a new rule now.” Back in the alleyway, Buck reached forward with one leg and swiped it under Shiny’s front two. The unicorn’s front went crashing down onto the ground, or at least the box where his board game was, mangling it even further.

Then the earth pony bent down just a bit. “You know that new pony that’s been coming to the Academy the past couple of weeks? The alicorn? I got my eyes on her, and I saw how you were talking to her this morning. I don’t want the best filly in Canterlot to get some nerd stink on her before I make her my mare.”

The fact that the sleaze in front of her was going to be coming on to Cadance settled it for Sunset. Physical violence may of not been her go to solution for problems, but it was hardly foreign to her.

But…a day of being an alicorn had proven to her that she couldn’t simply walk up and beat the crap out of three stallions. They’d all probably just go to their knees at the first opportunity or something. So instead, Sunset summoned up a bit of energy in a way she had during her first trip back to Equestria and molded it around her in the form of a conjuration spell. A second later, a dark brown cloak covered her back, hiding the alicorn’s wings. Although, unlike the first time, there was no hood.

“I’m not trying to hit on her! I just needed somepony to watch my little sister this weekend when my friends come over!” Shiny said from his spot on the floor.

Buck snorted. “Yeah right. I invented the fake little sister routine to get girls into my house,” he said before poking Shiny in the nose with a hoof. “Get this straight. You hit on Cadance, and I hit you.”

That was when Sunset through it was a good a time as any to make her presence known. Preferably, one of the stallions would have offered her a good lead-in for a witty one-liner, but…that would have meant the white stallion would have probably feared for his face all the longer. “Okay, back away from the nerd,” Sunset said. “And I’ll hurt you.”

The three stallions looked up from Shiny, and over to Sunset with surprised looks on their faces. Not that she didn’t blame them. Most ponies tended to avoid conflict, some going so far as to ignore what was going under their noses altogether.

Sunset wasn’t one of them.

But, the big stallion did do as she commanded, going so far as to give her a little smirk as he walked closer. “Hey filly, this is just-whoa,” the earth pony said as he got within striking distance. “Sorry lady, but you’re way too pudgy for my taste. Come back when you’ve lost a couple of tons.”

Blue eyes went wide before a snort of pure rage came from Sunset’s nostrils. Just because she put on a few pounds thanks to her alicorn transformation, that was no reason to call her fat! “THAT’S MUSCLE YOU JERK!” the alicorn shouted as she felt her wings shoot out in aggravation a second before she swung her hoof into the side of Buck’s head.

A second later, the stallion was no longer in front of the alicorn. The blow had sent him flying into the side of the building to their right hard enough to leave Buck stuck in the wall, barely conscious.

Barely aware of her revealed status, Sunset blinked at the miniature impact crater, and then looked down at her hoof as she brought it in under her nose. “Wow. I’ve got more earth pony in me than I thought,” she said before looking forward towards the remaining stallions and bringing her hoof down onto the ground as hard as she could.

Beneath her, the paving stones cracked. “Either of you two want a go?” Sunset asked after recovering from the shock that came from her display of strength. Just how much earth pony-ness had Applejack and Pinkie Pie been holding?

“N-No ma’am!” the stallion with the orange coat and fiery mane said.

“W-We weren’t gonna do nothin’ Princess,” the other stallion added.

Sunset frowned. “That’s a double negative, idiot,” she said before lighting up her horn and grabbing the two stallions with her magic, then snatched up the third while he was still seeing birds dance around his head.

For a moment, she considered what to do with the three. While there was some destruction of property involved, the guards would probably just laugh it off as one of those boys being boys things before walking away. Of course that also meant her assault would be construed as such.

Hell, even using magic on Equestrian citizens that didn’t have horns was considered illegal (despite the fact such a handicap made pegasi and earth ponies vastly superior in the physical threats department) and might get her in trouble. Well, if alicorns weren’t above the law that is. Sunset was pretty sure the rulers of the nation could throw such things to the side when they needed to. Especially in the defense of other ponies.

“W-What’re you gonna do to us?” the orange pony asked right as their ringleader was coming out of his daze.

Sunset blinked, actually unsure for a moment. After the bully had made her see red with the weight comment, she hadn’t really gotten all that far beyond making him pay. But inspiration didn’t wait long to strike the time traveling pony, causing her to smirk. “Oh, I think I’ll just send you boys where you belong!”

There was a flash of light as reality tore open and closed a second later. And the three bullies were safely on their way to the Canterlot compost heap.

With that taken care of, Sunset used a moment to return her cloak to the magic it had been crafted from, and then walked up to where the stallion was still laying on the ground. Although she tried to look as approachable as possible, her stupid wings just wouldn’t go down. Still, at the very least she tried to sound nice.

“Hey, are you alright?” Sunset asked in a gentle voice as she reached out for the young stallion’s hoof.

Said stallion just looked up at her in shock. “Gaaaaaaaa.”

Sunset giggled at the reaction. For some reason, seeing the dumfounded expression on the colt’s face was just too damn priceless. “It’s alright, take your time,” she told him with a little smile.

After at least a minute, Shiny finally reached out for her hoof, and Sunset slowly pulled him to his feet as carefully as she could. With what happened to Buck, she didn’t want to accidentally toss the guy she just saved over a building or something.

Standing at his full height, Sunset was a little surprised at how short he was compared to her. Although she probably would have been the one looking up at him before her transformation, Shiny’s eyes were at an equal height with her chin.

“Are you okay?” she asked gently. While she didn’t actually see the other pony hurt him, the trip attack might have caused some damage.

Still…the guy didn’t really look alright. He had some strange expression on his face that seemed somewhere between astonishment and fear. “D…Derp?”

Or maybe he had some brain damage.

Concern overriding caution, Sunset drew in close until she could put her horn on top of his head. “Hold still,” she said while doing her best to avoid the stallion’s muzzle that was now inches from her own. “I saw so many doctors perform this spell today that I’ve got it down pat.”

One quick medical scan told her that all that was wrong with the stallion was a sore jaw, increased heart rate, and a great deal of nervousness. The last part was something Sunset had needed to work out for herself from the mix of several signals. And when she did, it made her smile in both appreciation and understanding.

As for Shiny…well…maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t been around a stallion in three years, but…the little guy was kind of cute. In that dorky way.

Sunset shook herself out of her analysis before she found herself doing something stupid, like checking out the guys package. Instead, she went for the mannered route. “By the way, my name’s Sunset Shimmer, what’s yours?”

“Sha…Shine…Sh-Sh-Shinning Armor,” he managed after a few tries.

Glad she hadn’t just gone with the insulting nickname Buck had been using, Sunset nodded her head towards him in a show of respect. “Pleasure to meet you Shining Armor,” she said before channeling some energy through her horn and looking back at her wings with a frown. Now that the action was over, they would stay put away when she pushed them down.

After Sunset had taken care of her plumage, she leaned in close. “By the way, thanks for not making a big deal about the Princess thing,” the alicorn said to cut Shining off before that crap could start. “I prefer for ponies to know me and not a stupid title.”

Since it seemed Shining had gone back into ‘duuuurrr’ mode at her closeness, Sunset backed up and looked down at the box Buck had stepped on. Aside from the strange name, there was a picture of a pony with extremely long ears and a wizard’s staff fighting a black dragon.

A little curious she picked the thing up in her magic, and then opened it to peer inside. The miniatures, map tiles, and character sheets were explanation enough. Sunset looked back up and smiled. “So this is like…Dungeons and Dragons?”

With the box opened, Shining was shook out of his daze. “W-What?”

“This thing,” Sunset said before spotting a broken miniature and taking it into her magic to fix the damage. “It’s a…” It took her a second to remember the terminology. “A table-top role-playing game?”

Shining’s eyes went wide. “Wait! You mean, you play O&O?”

Sunset gave a little chuckle and looked away as a bit of heat built in her cheeks. “I kind of dabble,” she half-lied. In truth, she had come across it during her first year in the human world while searching for real magic and found the whole thing slightly amusing.

Although…a magical creature that was interested in playing a fantasy game? That also made her want to laugh. But Sunset managed to keep it down to a smile. She didn’t want to embarrass the guy. Nerds had a hard enough time with their self-esteem.

After fixing a few more things, Sunset restored the O&O box to its original condition, and quickly did the same to the wall that Buck had been knocked into. Then she smiled at the stallion and motioned to the street. “So, want me to walk you home? To be honest, I really need something to keep me from going back to the castle too soon and you’re about the most interesting thing I’ve run into today.”

“O-Okay,” Shining Armor managed to say as nervousness crept onto his face again.

Sunset waited for him to walk by, and…her curiosity got the best of her. Hmmm, maybe no pants is a good way to go after all, she thought with a smile after getting a peek under Shining’s tail. His ‘sword’ was still sheathed, but if the other half of his male anatomy was anything to go by…the boy certainly had some potential.

However, it was when she trotted to catch up to him that caused the moment that made Sunset nearly fall in shock. She had been checking out his cute shiny hiney when she noticed the stallion’s cutie mark. It was a shield with three stars above it, and a slightly mangled Element of Magic for the crest.

WHAT THE HELL? Sunset asked herself before looking over to the stallion and asking what was probably the most over-used icebreaker in pony history. “So…uh, how’d you get your cutie mark?”

“Hm?” he asked before looking back to his flank for a second before turning his attention back to Sunset. “Oh that. Well, my family was vacationing near Smoky Mountain when there was this rockslide and I made a shield to keep this boulder from crushing us.” Then a blush covered his cheeks. “I’ve been studying to be in the royal guard ever since, but…I haven’t been able to cast a protection spell nearly as good a the one I did that day, and that was five years ago!”

Sunset studied Shining’s cutie mark for a few more seconds, and then put the question about the Element of Magic to the side for the moment. It wasn’t as if Equestria’s greatest super weapon was common knowledge, so just asking him why it was there probably wouldn’t give her any answers.

Instead, she focused on his problem. “Well, maybe it’s a focus problem,” she said. “Or maybe you just don’t have the energy for it yet. Shield spells do take a lot of juice, did you pass out or anything later?”

Shining’s cheeks colored and he looked away. “Well…”

The half-an-hour walk to Shining Armor’s house turned out to be an enjoyable affair. Once the stallion had learned to talk to her, she found he was a pretty sweet guy, if a little on the dorky side. Which…actually intrigued Sunset a bit. Most of the humans she had dated were popular, meaning they could either do one little thing and looked hot to other humans like her last boyfriend, or pretended to be warriors on a football field.

Shining Armor was…different. He didn’t have an ego or incessant need to talk about how cool he was. And a few minutes into their walk he talked about his dream to be in the royal guard, explaining it better than just a job to do that matched his talent. Plus, there were several moments when he would get cold hooves and go all meek on her. It upped his cuteness factor, and Sunset found she liked a guy with a bit of humility.

By the time they reached his house, Sunset Shimmer had made up her mind about the white pony with the blue mane.

Maybe it was her lack of any attractive males in three years.

Maybe it was the fact that Sunset knew she would be the one wearing the pants in the relationship.

Or maybe it was the fact that Shining Armor was a genuinely nice guy with a brain between his ears who knew what he wanted in life.

Whatever the reason, Sunset wanted the stallion. She wanted him bad.

“Well…this is it,” Shining Armor said as they came to a nice house in Canterlot’s eastern residential district. It was a simple two-story. Nothing grand, but…Sunset found it beautify quaint. It was the perfect little place to grow up in.

Sunset found herself smiling at the picturesque house. “It’s beautiful Shining,” she said before stopping herself from leaning over on the other pony. She quickly shook such thoughts off of her. They had just walked together for a few minutes, it wasn’t a date or anything!

“Th-Thanks,” Shining Armor replied nervously. “Um…so…you’re uh…coming over for the game this Saturday?”

A smile broke out onto Sunset’s face. “Sure. I’ll have a character all made and ready to go,” she said before becoming a little hesitant. “Although…uh, you sure your friends aren’t going to mind me just skipping ahead with my level?”

Shining Armor snorted. “You’re a mare. You could come with a level twenty alicorn sorceress with a fully developed bloodline and they wouldn’t care.”

A giggle came from Sunset’s mouth. “Okay, see you then. And I’ll make sure Cadance hears about the job offer,” she said before turning around and…decided to indulge a bit in her darker side by lifting her tail just a little and letting her hips sway from side to side.

“Shiny! What‘re you doing out there?” A little filly’s voice called out from behind Sunset. “Come on inside! Mom’s almost got dinner ready!”

The alicorn refused to turn around and catch Shining Armor staring at her ass. The poor guy would have probably died from embarrassment. But she did turn her ears to listen to the squeak in his voice.

“Oh-Ok Twily! I-I’m coming!”

Chapter 5: The Interference of a Pretty Pink Pony Princess

Shining Armor found himself with his face on the ground again. And just like all of the times before, it was the fault of one Buck Withers, senior class president…two years running. A position that Shining Armor felt Buck would continue to possess when Shining and his friends started their senior year at Canterlot Academy.

Despite his multiple trips around the academic block, Buck had all the mares chasing after him, was captain of three sports teams, and was part of a rich family. Hay, the guy’s dad was even a member of the Canterlot House of Commons!

Shining didn’t really know why Buck had chosen him to be the target of another year of free range torture. Although, he had heard a dozen different explanations. They ranged from jealousy, to some sadistic need to just hurt other ponies for pleasure.

Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. The why didn’t change the fact that Buck had followed Shining through the hobby store and out the back for the sole purpose of making even Shining’s free time an open-air Tartarus.

And then…Buck was gone, planted in a nearby building by some mystery mare that also teleported him and his goons to Celestia only knew where.

An alicorn stepped into Shining’s line of vision. Her head perfectly eclipsed the sun above them both in a way that made her mane catch the light just right to let little bits of it shine through as her mane blew in the breeze, creating a shimmering effect. But it wasn’t as if she needed the help. Everything about the princess standing above Shining Armor was absolutely amazing.

She wasn’t like the lithe and sweet alicorn Shining Armor had barely been able to talk to when she was handing out fliers for her foal sitting service. In fact, Shining was pretty sure that mare hadn’t even been aware of his presence at all. There had been an awful lot of ponies trying to get a copy of her flier.

This alicorn had thicker legs and a wider barrel. Although Shining hardly considered her fat like that idiot Buck had before she had clobbered him for insulting royalty. In fact, she didn’t look fat at all. If anything, her body type looked like a shorter version of Celestia’s, a ton of physical power packed into a package so tightly that it could barely be contained. She was strong, but graceful. Built, but beautiful. Firm, but still possessing an expression that spoke of gentleness.

She was…perfection.

Then, the goddess reached down to Shining and offer him her hoof before saying in a voice that was much too high, “MOOOOOOOOOM! SHINY’S REPLACING HIS PHYSICAL REALITY WITH HIS OWN MENTAL CONSTRUCT AT THE TABLE AGAIN!”

Shining Armor’s daydream popped like a soap bubble as his chin slid off of his hoof and nearly crashed onto the table thanks to the little filly shouting in his ear. After he recovered, the stallion looked over to his little sister.

At the age of five, Twilight Sparkle was already shaping up to be a S+ class nerd. She was reading an academy level, and channeling magic through her horn when most ponies needed to be in the double digit ages before even attempting such a thing. While the maximum output of her power was only enough to turn the pages in a book, it was still quite impressive.

Their parents were even looking into a way to get Twilight enrolled in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, despite the enormous tuition costs. Thankfully, that was still a good year away.

So at the moment, Shining focused less on her genius IQ, and more on her annoying lack of common sense. He gave her a tired frown, and set the filly back down on the floor. “Twily, how many times have I told you not to yell in my ear?”

“I’m not really sure,” she said before plopping her plot down on the ground to tap her chin with a hoof. “I know it’s more than one, but less than enough.”

Shining Armor took a playful swipe at the cute little unicorn as she ran around to sit on the other side of the table right before their parents came walking in from separate rooms. Dad from behind with the morning paper, and Mom from the kitchen with four plates full of breakfast.

As Mom set the plate full of eggs, hay bacon, and toast down in front of him while taking her own seat, she gave her son one of those smiles that just screamed Shining wasn’t going to like what was going to come out. “So, what were you thinking about this time dear?”

Although not as bad as he thought it was going to be, Shining Armor found himself studying his plate, unable to meet his mother’s eyes. “Oh uh…just…this mare I met yesterday. Sunset uh…we sort of just…um…ran into each other,” he kind of lied to his parents. Telling his mom and old stallion about a bullying problem was definitely not cool. “And kind of started talking, and uh…she walked me home.”

It was only after he was done that Shining Armor realized his last four words could have been used to find out Sunset had saved him from something.

Not that there was anything wrong with that! Sunset was an alicorn and…well…freakishly strong in both hoof and horn. So…it caused almost no damage to Shining’s already mangled pride as a stallion whatsoever.

“A mare? Oh Shiny, why didn’t you bring her inside so I could meet her?” the creature that Shining Armor was going to keep as far away from the princess for as long as possible asked.

“Well it’s about time!” the other creature Shining Armor had no intention of ever leaving Sunset Shimmer alone with added. “So what’s she like, colt?”

Before Shining Armor could just give some vague mumblings about said mare, Twilight apparently decided to make it so that his parents would never leave him alone. “You mean that big amber alicorn I saw you with outside the house with yesterday?”

Shining slumped and sighed while his parents straightened up a lot at the use of the a-word. “Her name is Sunset Shimmer,” he explained in defeat. “She’s Princess Celestia’s personal student and-”

“PRINCESS CELESTIA HAS PERSONAL STUDENTS?!” the filly across the table said with an excited smile twice as big as her face.

As was fast becoming her usual routine, Princess Cadance found herself escorting her fellow alicorn through the halls of Canterlot Castle on their way to breakfast. It was something that she had found herself enjoying more than she thought she would, having Sunset Shimmer of all ponies as a friend. Although, the mare didn't seem like her usual self for some reason. So Cadance stopped on her way to the dining hall to turn and look back to the amber alicorn behind her. “Something wrong, Sunset?”

After a quick shake of her head, Sunset pulled her tail in and kept going. “Just had a weird chill run down my spine. Guess I’m still getting used to being naked all the time.”

The explanation got a smirk from Cadance. More stories about Sunset’s time as a biped had certainly been an interesting distraction while she guided the other mare through her levitation practice. The pink princess still couldn’t believe half the things she heard about that humanity race. She wondered if it would be possible to see one some day. If they really weren't figments of Sunset's imagination, that is. Cadance still hadn't been able to work out if that was the case.

Unfortunately, Sunset’s recovery was not to last. As they got closer and closer to the dining hall, the amber alicorn began to slow her pace more and more. So Cadance decided to say something before she brought them both to a complete stop. “Trying to avoid Celestia again?”

Sunset cringed. “I’m not…avoiding her.”

“Really?” Cadance asked with a raised eyebrow. “So, it’s just a coincidence that you decided to have dinner in your room instead of with us last night?”

The other alicorn turned her head to look at a painting on the wall. “I just wanted some privacy.”

“And how come you didn’t come back for lunch before that?” the pink pony princess went on as she circled around Sunset. “Celestia mentioned it at dinner.”

Sunset groaned and looked away from Cadance again as the smaller mare tried to walk into her field of vision. “So I wanted to eat out for a change! I’m allowed to do that, right?”

With Sunset’s anger growing, Cadance could tell she was on the right track. And to slip past it, she put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder and gave her a concerned look while taking the least challenging stance that she could. “Sunset, please tell me what’s wrong.”

Sunset pulled away from Cadance and went back to heading for the door. “Nothing's wrong! I’m perfectly fine!” she said while storming towards the dining hall’s double doors. “Look, I’m going to eat breakfast with her right now!”

As she watched the mare stomp away in a huff, the pink alicorn lowered her hoof and shook it slowly. “Make your only friend in town even more upset,” Cadance mumbled to herself. “Good job Princess.”

After making her way to the dining hall, Cadance found Celestia waiting for them in her usual seat. The big mare watched as Sunset came in, left a few cracks in the ground from her stomping as she got to her seat, and then raised an eyebrow at Cadance when the pink alicorn sat next to Sunset rather than on the other side of the table with Celestia like usual.

“Is something wrong?” the High Princess of Equestria asked in genuine confusion and concern.

“NO!” Sunset snapped…before she apparently realized just where she was, and who she was shouting at. Then, the amber alicorn’s eyes went wide, and she looked away from the big princess. “I’m just…having one of those mornings.”

Celestia nodded. “Ah…I’m sorry to hear that Sunset,” she said before taking a sip of her coffee and giving the newest alicorn a concerned look. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Although physically impossible, it seemed as if Sunset tried to look away from Celestia even more when asked. “No…I just…need to cool down,” she said, her voice dropping as she spoke. “Sorry, Princess.”

After a few seconds of silence, Princess Celestia nodded. “Accepted, but unneeded. I understand you’re going through a hard time right now. And…there’s something I need to talk to you about this morning as well.”

Sunset didn’t prompt her, and Cadance kept mum on the subject as the chef came walking in to take their orders personally. After a few minutes of hearing what was fresh in the kitchens and descriptions of a few dishes that she had never heard of, Cadance made her order, followed by Celestia, while Sunset…

“Look, it’s scrambled eggs, cheese, fried potato cuttings, and gravy wrapped in a tortilla and cooked a second time for a few seconds to crisp the outer layer,” she instructed while using her magic to provide an example with projections of light that looked almost solid. “It’s not that hard!”

Ram See cleared his throat to hide what was probably a sound of disdain. “Yes Princess, I shall attempt to create this um…crunchy wrap as per your specifications.”

As he began to leave, the amber alicorn pointed a hoof towards the chef. “And make sure you use that cleansing spell I showed you yesterday on the kitchen before you start cooking!” she shouted before settling back down in her seat to find both Cadance and Princess Celestia giving her odd looks. “Hey! If the two of you had lived my life for the past three years, you’d be a germaphobe too!”

Celestia didn’t press the issue, and Cadance decided silence was best as they waited for their food. The quiet seemed to do Sunset good. Apparently, she actually didn’t let her anger simmer without something external to focus on, and actually calmed down a little.

After some of the palace staff brought in breakfast and left, Celestia apparently took that as a sign to start up the conversation again. “Sunset, I know you’re not feeling very good this morning, but I do need to talk to you about princess business.”

The smaller alicorn looked at her condensed breakfast, and gathered it up in her magic to take a bite as she looked away from Celestia. “Don’t see why. I’m not going to be a princess.”

“You will be once I bring you into the royal family,” Celestia told Sunset.

When the amber alicorn heard those words, she tensed. “Why?” she whispered before looking back to Celestia with a frown and increasing the volume of her voice. “Why now? Because of THESE?”

Her wings unfolded as far as they would go. “YEARS! I’ve been your student for YEARS! AND YOU NEVER SAY ANYTHING I WANTED TO HEAR!”

Tears began to form in her eyes. “And now, I’m back for one day a-and, and you’re all,” she got out before needing to take in air through a runny nose. “You say…you tell me…w-why now? Why didn’t you t-tell m-me that stuff beforeeeeee.”

Cadance was on the other mare in an instant. She hopped down from her chair and quickly pulled the bigger alicorn into a comforting embrace as best she could, wrapping her forelegs and wings around Sunset before covering her face with pink wings to hide her friend’s tears. Then, she turned and looked to Celestia.

This is my fault, Cadance thought to herself. If she hadn’t been a coward and stayed away from Sunset, it would have been easy to see the pain and terror that filled the other mare’s life after her arrival.

As for Celestia, she sat on her miniature throne of a chair with her head slowly lowering as Sunset cried herself out.

Once Sunset was finished, Celestia finally spoke. “I’ve been asking myself that since yesterday,” the old alicorn said in a voice that made Celestia sound her age. “Do you know the trick to surviving eternity Sunset? It’s not an easy thing to do.

“You make up rules for yourself. Rules that you always follow. Rules to…keep your heart safe. Don’t get too close to ponies, for example. And as time goes on, you add onto those rules. Not because you want to keep yourself safe, but because…it just becomes…natural. Like…make sure to teach your students humility. Don’t feed their egos.

“And then, when you follow those rules for so long, they become a habit. And after that, you get into a routine,” Celestia sadly went on in her tired voice. “And then you start cutting down on the routine. Tell a pony to make friends instead of showing them how. Give the same opportunities you gave to a hundred others because…well, that’s what you do. What you've always done. Always the same, from one pony to the next until…even they might as well be the same to you. A hundred ponies that might as well have been cardboard cutouts as far as I was concerned.”

Princess Celestia stopped for a second to take in a breath, and Cadance could hear that Sunset Shimmer wasn’t the only pony in the room with something in her nose. “And then, you came along,” she said with glistening eyes. “And you were different. Every other pony I had ever taught, they could go home to their parents and receive what I could never give them from others, because there was a line a teacher just didn’t cross. But you only had me. And like the stupid mare that I was, I just…followed the rules and did the routine.

“But as the years passed, and I watched you grow up…something…happened,” Celestia told her hesitantly before shaking her head. “I’m not sure when it happened, maybe it was when I saw you show me your first A-plus with that adorable grin on your face, or maybe it was when you caught that cold and I canceled my diplomatic trip to Griffonstone to get updates on your condition every ten minutes, or maybe it was that first night you spent in the palace after your parents died…when you cried yourself to sleep in my forelegs and I sang to you all night to help ward off nightmares. Whenever it was, I found myself loving you as more than just my student, Sunset.

“And…it frightened me. For the first time in hundreds of years, I cared about another little pony so much that my world revolved around her. And I didn’t know what to do, other than double down on my routine, and make sure to ignore the feelings in my heart. Because...that’s what all my useless experience said I was supposed to do.

“So I nurtured your mind, and neglected your heart because…it wasn’t in the lesson plan,” Celestia went on with a sneer directed at herself before looking back to Sunset with pain in her eyes. “And because of that, you…gave up on things that a stupid old fool like me was too blind and full of herself to see that you needed.”

Celestia paused for a moment again, and blinked away tears. “Sunset…I listen to you say what a horrible pony you are,” she said. “But...every failing you see in yourself is my failing as a teacher, and as a pony, and most importantly…as a parent.”

There was a ruffling of feathers as Sunset moved Cadance’s wing out of the way. “Princess, you…”

“I was a coward,” Celestia said in a tired voice before Sunset could go on. “And this crown and offer to be inducted into the royal family…it’s not some token admittance into the royal household with a title attached so that you share the burden of ruling Equestria. If you would give me another chance to do what I should have done the day your parents died, I am offering to officially adopt you as my daughter, and make you my heir.”

Silence permeated the room, giving Cadance time to think.

Celestia’s speech…the pink alicorn had to wondered how long the older pony had worked on it in her head. It had all the hallmarks of something that had been prepared beforehoof. But that didn’t make it a bad thing. The emotion behind it all was genuine. It was a love letter from a mother to her daughter, asking for forgiveness.

She looked back over to the biggest alicorn in the room, and blinked. Celestia’s body was slumped over, her ears were pulled back, and her wings twitched. The ruler of Equestria looked more like a nervous nelly that wanted to bolt than the immortal goddess she actually was. But it was understandable.The big pony had laid everything bare to the pony she loved most.

“I…” Sunset said after a few minutes. “I have to go.”

Cadance found herself pushed off the amber alicorn with enough force to make her stumble back before Sunset turned and galloped out of the dining hall as fast as her legs would move. Back on the other side of the table, Celestia raised a hoof as if to stop Sunset. As the other alicorn went through the door, her face lost the tiny spark of hope and excitement that had been waiting for Sunset to turn it into a blaze.

When the big pony looked back down at the table in defeat, Cadance took in a deep breath. “I’ll go talk to her,” she promised Celestia before turning and running out the door after Sunset.

Thankfully, Sunset hadn’t gotten very far. Some directions from the guards, followed by one corridor and two turns later, Cadance managed to find the amber alicorn standing next to a pillar just outside the palace’s main hallway entrance. Cadance cautiously approached as Sunset took in wild breaths that probably came more from emotional exhaustion than anything physical.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Cadance asked her as she came up behind the other alicorn.

Sunset went silent at the question. “Why?” she asked after a few seconds of getting herself under control. “You’ll just take her side. Everybody takes her side. I’m the one that’s always wrong.”

After getting front of the mare, Cadance parked her plot on the carpet. She wasn't quite sure what Sunset was getting at, but...she couldn't just stop the conversation there. “What makes you say that?”

“Because I AM the one that’s wrong!” she yelled back before her breathing sped up again. "Here Celestia is…here she is reaching out to me, telling me…telling me all that. AND ALL I WANT TO DO IS YELL AT HER!” Sunset choked back a sob and shook her head, as if trying to fling the tears from her eyes before they could fall.

Cadance nervously licked her lips. “I thought that was what you wanted.” Everything she knew about Sunset said that was what she wanted, for Celestia to finally take her place as the amber alicorn’s parent. Had her instincts been so far off the mark?

A frown appeared on Sunset’s face, and she looked away from the pink alicorn. “Maybe when I was seven, and my parents had just died, or when I was ten and all the other ponies at school were telling me how much I didn’t deserve to be Celestia’s student, or when I was thirteen, and she just had a maid come and take care of me when I had the pony pox instead of checking up on me just once! But when she didn’t do any those things, I got the message. Celestia didn’t give a damn about me! Hell, she might as well have said so herself just now!”

Content and tone was more than enough for Cadance to understand what Sunset meant with her strange human cursing. “You know that’s not true Sunset,” she told the mare sadly. After everything Celestia had just said, she had to at least know that.

“Yeah?” she demanded in anger. “Well guess what? I don’t want her to be my mom! I gave up on that stupid dream years ago! Oh, but now that she says she’s sorry, and that she loves me and-and… I’m just supposed to come running to give her a hug and dry her tears? WELL WHERE THE HELL WAS SHE WHEN I WAS THE ONE CRYING? I CRIED FOR YEARS! SO IF SHE DIDN’T COME TO ME? THEN WHY SHOULD I GO TO HER?”

Because the both of you have been hurting for some time, and I think the only way to stop it is to get it out in the open and work through it together, Cadance said in her head. But she kept silent because…it didn’t look like Sunset wanted to hear that just yet. She just needed to vent and cool down. “Okay then,” the pink pony said with a shrug. “You’re right. You don’t need to give Celestia what she wants. She’s a big pony. Buck forgiveness. Let her cry and suffer like you did for her past mistakes.”

Sunset flinched at the last bit, and looked back down the hallway that turned towards the dining room. “Um…”

“Come on,” Cadance urged as she walked up to the amber alicorn and turned around so they were both facing the same direction before she threw a wing across Sunset’s back. “You need some fresh air. Walk me to class?” The distance would do her good. Nopony could not think about Celestia in a castle that had next to nothing but white and gold decorations.

With Cadance’s wing guiding Sunset, the other alicorn reluctantly agreed, and they began trotting down the hallway again before exiting the palace.

The open air of Canterlot was chilly, despite the fact Equestria was still in the tail end of Summer. But as a former pegasus, Cadance knew that the higher somepony climbed the colder it got. And Canterlot was on a mountain. It was probably why the majority of Canterlot ponies started wearing clothes.

She took some time to admire the various ponies running to work as Sunset walked down the street beside her, the two princesses together attracting a lot of attention. Still a little uneasy with all the ponies looking at her, Cadance’s wings twitched with a need to fly like she usually did to avoid the crowds. But she managed to fight off the urge after seeing Sunset trot down the street without even batting an eye at all the attention.

For all her faults, Cadance could see that Sunset had a better public presence than the pink princess ever would.

After they had gotten halfway to the academy, Sunset slowed her pace and glanced over to the pink alicorn. “Hey Cadance…relationships are your thing. Right?”

Eager to strike up a conversation to help put the last thing they talked about in the past, Cadance nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Although I’m really more into the romantic stuff than anything else. The platonic and familiar kinds are still great but…” She put on a mischievous smile. “The ones that make babies are my favorite.”

Sunset’s eyes went wide for a moment, making Cadance feel a little satisfied. It was nice to show the other alicorn that she wasn’t the only ‘bad girl’ around town.

“Well…I met this…uh…stallion yesterday while I was out roaming around Canterlot,” Sunset admitted very cautiously.

The smell of romance in the air sent a spark running through Cadance’s body as she heard the news and got closer to Sunset to help make the discussion a bit more private. “Really? What was he like?” she asked in excitement as Sunset backed away from her for some odd reason.

Cadance just followed the other alicorn off the street until Sunset ran out of room to retreat. Then Sunset got the tiniest of blush on her cheeks, and looked away while she cleared her throat. “The guy. He’s...um, kind of a dork, and a wimp,” she said before facing Cadance again with a little smile on her face. “But once I got him talking, I found I kind of liked him. He’s really sweet and funny. Smart too, he’s hoping to join the Royal Guard as a member of the shield corps. And well, he’s…maybe a little cute too. But, you know, it’s been three years since I saw a stallion...sort of. So…I’m not that picky when it comes to looks.”

“Okay,” Cadance drawled out, unsure of where this was going. “I’m not exactly sure what you need me for though Sunset. You’re a strong, confident and beautiful mare. About the only advice I can offer you is to be yourself.”

When Sunset began to shake her head and turned to get away, Cadance quickly galloped up in front of the mare and gave her a level look. “No, seriously, be yourself,” she said again to make sure the mare got the point. “If you act like some shy little wallflower to try and make yourself look cute, or do anything that makes you seem…not who you really are, whatever you build together will fall apart in a few weeks. If you really want whatever you feel for this guy to work out in a way that makes it last, you need to show him everything that you are." She gave her friend a reassuring smile. "I’m sure he’ll love it.”

Unlike the way her usual ‘be yourself’ pep talks went, Sunset slunk away from Cadance as a worried expression crossed her face. “Yeah well…no offense to your advice about a stallion you’ve never met, but something tells me Shining Armor isn’t going to like dating the real me,” Sunset grumbled.

Shining Armor huh? Cadance didn't recognize the name, but filed it away for later and focused on her friend. “Sunset, I’m sure you're just overreacting to-”

“Okay, considering the fact that all of my dating experience happened when I was inside that mirror, don’t act like you know how I treated every guy I went out with,” she said in an angry tone before Cadance could finish. “I was the worst possible thing you could imagine. I was worse than a whore. I would spread my legs to lure guys in and take whatever I wanted from them in exchange. And when they were vulnerable, I got something else from them to hold over their heads. Then, when I didn’t need to have sex with them anymore to get what I wanted, I threw them away like trash and made sure everyone around me knew that I was the one who came out on top in the relationship by thoroughly humiliating the guy that was stupid enough to think he was the one for me.”

The look of anger on Sunset’s face, that was inches from Cadance’s own made the pink princess gulp.

But internally, she was crying out in anger. Physical intercourse was supposed to be between two ponies that loved each other more than anything! There may have been some ponies that just…banged, and while not Cadance’s cup of tea, as long as it was between two adults wanting to have fun that at least cared about each other on some level, there wasn’t anything too wrong she could find with it beyond how empty the sex was compared to what it should have been. But it sure as hay wasn’t a tool or a weapon! Hearing Sunset talk that way about what was supposed to be the ultimate act of love, it was just…abhorrent!

“Well…I’m sure…I mean…you had some pretty extenuating circumstances, and…” Try as she might, Cadance just couldn’t find the words to excuse Sunset’s actions. No matter how desperate, there were some lines that just weren’t crossed.

“And I know it all happened in that dream or in the future that hasn’t really happened, or….argh!” the amber alicorn cried out before shaking her head and sighing. When she had calmed herself back down, Sunset looked back at Cadance. “Look, whatever it was, as far as I know for the past three years of my life, I pretty much used guys like toilet paper." She sighed and lowered her head. "And I don’t want to hurt Shining Armor like that. I don't want to hurt anypony.”

Cadance nodded, taking solace in the fact that Sunset had at least acknowledge what she did, or what she thought she did, was wrong. The pink alicorn still didn’t know what to think about that whole mirror thing even with Celestia’s input. “Okay then, I’ll…give you a hoof.”

As the amber alicorn began to brighten, the pink one sucked in a sharp breath to brace for the coming impact from what Sunset would do when she added her stipulation. “If you talk to Celestia.”

The relief on Sunset’s face turned to a glower. “Cadance…I…” She unfurled her wings and snarled. “No. I don’t care what she said this morning! Celestia wouldn’t even look at me until I had these!”

Cadance shook her head and placed a hoof on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sunset, it’s not your ascension that’s making her say those things,” the pink alicorn admitted in a sympathetic tone to try and calm Sunset down before she could get going again. “It’s…me.”

Sunset’s frown lessened, becoming more curious than anything. “What?”

“Look, after you and Celestia…talked in your room the day you first woke up,” Cadance began hesitantly. “She and I had some words, and when you…avoided us last night during dinner too. Mostly, it was me yelling at her for being such a bad mother. And she is your mom, Sunset. I know you have some reservations about all of this, you should. Celestia is nowhere near the perfect pony in this, but…I can also see you’re hurting too. Please, don’t punish yourself like you’ve been doing these past few days. The two of you are the closest ponies in my life right now, and to see you both like this…it’s misery.”

When Sunset opened her mouth, Cadance held up a hoof. “I’m not saying you should just forgive her for what happened, but…don’t let it keep you from moving forward either,” she told the amber alicorn. “Don’t focus on what she did, but...try and see the mare she’s trying to be now. Like how I’m doing with you. Please?”

Much to Cadance’s relief, Sunset sighed and lowered her head rather than set the pink alicorn’s wings on fire. “Okay,” she agreed. “You got a point there.”

A moment of silence passed and Cadance started to relax, then Sunset smirked. “You know, you can play pretty dirty when you want to.”

Cadance shrugged. “Well you know what they say…all’s fair in love,” she said before her smile turned devious. “And love covers a lot of things.”

After giggling a bit, Sunset began trotting towards the street. “You know, pink really doesn’t lend itself well to trying to look vicious Cadance. Stick with the cute and innocent stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied while catching up to the other alicorn. “So…about this Shining Armor. You said he was cute, but what does he look like, exactly?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You really going to help me hook up with him?”

A similar expression appeared on Cadance’s face. “You going to try and work something out with your mother?”

“The things I do to get a guy,” Sunset grumbled before they turned the street that put the academy in sight. It made the amber alicorn go quiet as they approached. “Huh…you know…this place reminds me a lot of Canterlot High.”

It was easy for Cadance to detect the wistfulness in Sunset’s voice. “You sound sad.”

Sunset smirked and shook her head. “It’s weird. I hated that place. I hated everything about it for three years. But…before I left…I was…happy. I didn’t have my magic, family, or a good place to live…but…I was happy, with nothing except five friends that…weren’t even real.”

There was more to it than that, Cadance could tell. But…she just didn’t have time before classes started to get any more details beyond one little thing. “You should talk to Celestia about it Sunset. She’s probably got plenty of things to help deal with loss.”

“You mean like shutting down and not caring about anything at all?” the amber alicorn deadpanned.

Cadance winced, her wings partly extending in reflex. “Okay, good point,” she admitted before glancing up at the large clock on the front of the school’s tower. She would need to hurry things up if she didn’t want to be tardy. “So…um…getting back on track, about Shining Armor…”

“And there’s the Lord of Trottingham that-”

“Cancel it.”

“Um…very well, but there’s also the committee for the Equestria Games. They say there’s a problem with Cloudsdale being the venue for the Games this year because-”

“Well then tell them that’s too bad. I’m sure there’s a way to figure out a way around any problems that crop up.”

“But Prin-”

Princess Celestia looked up from her place on her bed and glared at the stallion standing near her door. Kibitz may have been a bit new, but even he should have known when to try and keep the High Princess of the Realm on schedule, and when not to bother her. As this was one of the later, she frowned at the young stallion and clamped his mouth shut with her magic. “Cancel everything for today! I do not have the strength to suffer any fools that think I must be there to wipe their plots every five minutes!” she ordered her aide before levitating him out of the room and slamming the door shut.

Alone again, Celestia let her head fall back onto her pillow in sorrow.

Even after Celestia’s confession and admittance of guilt for the way things were, Sunset didn’t want anything to do with her.

And why would she? The filly Celestia had known had grown up to become a strong and wonderful mare. Sunset…didn’t need her anymore. She hadn’t needed Celestia for years. The truth of it was…Celestia was the one that needed her.

Sunset was the last chance she had for a bit of happiness and love in what would be her final years. And she had messed it all up. Because…well...hay, Celestia didn’t even know anymore!

All of her rules had been to keep getting too close to other ponies because she didn’t want to be crushed under the weight of their loss when she outlived them. But Celestia wasn’t going to outlive Sunset. She wasn’t going to outlive anypony that could make it for the next few years. Come the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration that was due in just less than two short decades, everypony else would be the ones outliving her.

The sound of a door’s creaking hinges pulled Celestia from her introspection, and made the white pony promise herself that whichever guard was about to come inside her room was going to be put on Crystal Empire Watch duty for a few weeks for disobeying her order to be left alone. She looked up to frown at whatever foolish stallion was about to walk within her view.

Only to find an amber alicorn with a gold and red mane carefully walking through the doorway instead. “Um…Princess Celestia?” Sunset asked cautiously. “Are you…okay?”

“Sunset?” Celestia asked in disbelieving surprise. “What’re you doing here?”

The smaller alicorn cautiously walked into the room, shutting the door behind her as she looked around the room full of bookshelves that held both books and other keepsakes from Celestia’s life. The most recent parts of it at any rate. The castle would have been full of junk if Celestia had held onto every memento she collected over the years for as long as she had been alive.

“It’s…I wanted to talk to you,” she said before moving up to the bed. “And…apologize about breakfast.”

Celestia rolled over on her bed until she was resting on her barrel, and reached over to put her fetlock on the back of Sunset’s neck. “Oh no my little pony,” she whispered to the uncrowned alicorn. “I’m the one that should apologize, and for much more than just a single day.”

Sunset didn’t rebuke Celestia’s confession as she moved to nuzzle the larger alicorn. “I just…you…I’ve always wanted…” she said between gasps for air.

With Sunset close enough, Celestia pulled her onto the bed with her forelegs and draped a wing across Sunset’s back to comfort her. “Yes, you had a want for so long…because of my foolishness. And I am sorry for being such stupid nag about so much for so long.”

The smaller alicorn paused, and smiled. “You know, one of the things that I learned when I was over…I mean, because of that vision the mirror gave me was that if you spend your whole life apologizing, you spend all your time thinking about your mistakes and can never move forward,” Sunset told her softly as she shuffled over to lay against Celestia. “So…let’s just say we both did bad, and go forward together, okay?”

Celestia looked down on the pony beside her with a smile. “When did you become so wise?”

Sunset gave a minute shrug. “Not sure. I mean…I wasn’t really gone for three years, but…I felt like I was. It’s just…confusing.”

“Wait,” Celestia said as she studied the pony next to her for a few seconds. After what she had just said, Sunset’s expression took a downturn. She looked…almost depressed. “You mean you agree with my theory about what happened to you now? What brought this on?” Celestia had thought she would need to fight with Sunset over it for much longer than that to get the amber alicorn to swallow her story about the portal.

The little alicorn dropped her head down on Celestia’s bed. “I didn’t find Twilight Sparkle at your school’s campus,” she replied. “It looks like you were right. She was just a figment of my imagination. Her…and everyone else I met on the other side of the mirror.”

Celestia reached around to hold Sunset with her forelegs as tightly as she could without hurting the smaller alicorn. “Oh Sunset, I don’t know what to say. I know she was important to you. Phantom or not.”

“Thanks,” she replied halfheartedly.

“But I’m also glad,” Celestia went on, making Sunset look up at her with a curious frown. “Because that means all of the things that you’re angry at yourself for…they didn’t really happen. All that guilt you’re carrying around. You can be free of it and move on into the future with a clear conscience.”

Sunset nodded, but sighed and lowered her head back down a second later, still in her funk. “Yeah…lucky me.”

As the conversation gave way to a pregnant pause, Celestia glanced back down to Sunset, unsure of how to proceed. She knew the little alicorn came here for more than just what they had just talked about, but…did she dare risk bringing up the subject that had sent her running just two hours before?

A moment of consideration had Celestia making a decision. There was no delaying the inevitable after all. “Sunset…about what I said earlier,” she began to get the amber alicorn’s attention. “About your…adoption into the royal family.”

Sunset put her head against Celestia again. “For what it’s worth. I…I think I’d like…to be your kid.”

Celestia found her heartbeat increasing as her vision blurred. The world seemed to tilt for the smallest of moments as that fact settled down in the big pony’s heart, making Celestia glad she was laying down next to Sunset. “So…what do you want to do now?”

“Well…I’ve had a pretty hectic morning,” Sunset said as she leaned back into Celestia. “Can we just…stay like this for awhile?”

Celestia smiled and rested her head on Sunset’s back in an embrace that she hoped lasted for several hours. “Of course,” she told her…daughter.

“Thanks…Mom.”

In the great brotherhood of stallions, there existed a certain code by which every member of the fraternity lived by: to brag when something impossibly awesome happens to one’s fellow brothers. Such was the case when Shining Armor arrived at Canterlot Academy to talk to his fellow male equines about the impossibility of Princess Sunset Shimmer over the course of a few morning classes.

Said number of the stallions were three. There was the pegasus with the brown coat called Eight-Bit, a white earth pony with large glasses that went by the moniker Poindexter, and a tan unicorn named Gaffer. The four of them quested together many a time…in the basement of Shining Armor’s house as they played O&O on an old table his mother left down there because it didn’t match the house decor.

As for the topic of his epic tale…

“Look, I’m telling you guys, there’s a princess that wants to come over to my house this weekend and play a session with us,” he explained for what felt like the twelfth time…even though his memory said it was only the eighth. “What’s so hard to believe about that?”

Eight-bit raised an eyebrow as they made it to their lockers. “The part where you were saved from Buck by a warrior princess with a mane that blazed like the sun?”

“Or how she wants to come over and hang out with us, not to mention even knows what O&O is?” Gaffer added while he took a moment to put his books up and get the ones he needed for his next class.

The final member of their group shook his head, and then adjusted his glasses. “I’m sorry Shining Armor, but you can’t expect us to believe that an alicorn princess just walked up and actually acted interested in you.”

Shining Armor sighed at the reactions of his friends. Weren’t his best friends supposed to believe him? The story didn’t sound that outlandish! All he did was get saved by the newest princess of the nation before walking with her around town and brought her home. What was so unbelievable about that?

“Hello? Shining Armor, right?”

The unicorn blinked and turned his head as he closed his locker to come muzzle to muzzle with...pink perfection.

She was taller than most mares, as tall as Shining was in fact. Her mane was pulled back into a ponytail, and her actual tail nearly hung down low enough to drag on the ground. Legs, barrel, neck…everything else about her was slender without being too thin. She made even the old queen of the school Fleur De Lis look normal. But then…Cadance was a princess.

“Cadance!” Shining Armor said. Thanks to his previous experience with royalty, it only came out as an awkward speak. “I mean! Princess Cadance! It’s uh…you!”

He had to wonder why she was there though. Was it something Sunset had said? Or… Oh wait, Shining realized. She probably just wanted to talk to him about the foalsitting job that Sunset said she would get Cadance to do. That made sense.

The pink alicorn smiled giggled. “Wow! Sunset was right, you are just adorable!” she said, completely demolishing Shining’s train of thought before reaching over to grab his foreleg. “Could you follow me into the gym for a minute so we can get some privacy? There’s something I really need you to help me take care of.”

“Uhhhhh…okay,” the young stallion managed to get out as Cadance dragged him off while his three friends looked on with gaping mouths.

Finally, the other unicorn of their foursome raised a trembling hoof and pointed to Shining Armor as he was whisked to a private location by the Alicorn of Love. “T-THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE!”

Chapter 7: To Find a Pony

Sunset looked over the edge of Canterlot and to the mass of clouds below her nervously. A day of gliding practice where she spent more time on the ground than in the air did not seem like enough preparation for actual wing-flapping flight. “Uh…are you sure about this?” she asked as she turned to look at Celestia. “What about Cadance? Doesn’t she need some kind of magical training you need to do?”

From her place off to the left of the amber alicorn’s flank, Celestia looked back towards the castle with a worried expression. “I offered, but she said she had something more important to do today, and told me to help you out instead. I wonder what’s attracted that mare’s attention.”

A groan escaped from Sunset’s lips, and she barely stopped from sending herself to the hospital with a face palm. “It’s some Princess of Love thing,” she said before realizing something. “Wait…just what am I going to be the princess of anyway, Mom?”

Celestia’s eyes widened a tiny fraction, and Sunset felt the bigger alicorn begin to shove her forward. “No time to talk, the breeze is coming to a stop!” the Princess of the Sun said almost too fast for the amber alicorn to follow before the ground ran out in front of her and Sunset fell off of the cliff that was the edge of Canterlot.

She protested this action in the most logical manner: by screaming her lungs raw. “AAAAAAAAH!”

Up on the ledge, Celestia looked down and a light from her horn touched her throat. “FLAP YOUR WINGS TO MAKE YOUR OWN LIFT! YOU’VE GOT TO REALLY FLAP THEM HARD!”

Her mother’s voice, combined with the safety net of the clouds below her and a hungering vengeance for this scare gave Sunset what she needed to focus and cut through the fear. The alicorn spread her wings, and once they helped her level off, she flapped them. Just like Celestia said, she flapped them hard.

All of a sudden, Sunset understood what it was like to be Applejack at a rodeo. The alicorn’s new appendages yanked her upward while the rest of her body lurched to follow suit. The second beat of her wings didn’t make her feel any better. The third made Sunset careen around in half of an aerial back flip that misaligned her entire body for flying, but worked pretty well when it came to falling.

Panic threatened to overtake Sunset’s mind as gravity laughed at her attempts to fly. Calm down Shimmer, the clouds below will-she managed to tell herself before an impossibly strong gust of wind from an odd angle rammed into her safety net of soft, fluffy clouds, completely scattering it to the four winds.

A second later, all logical thought fled from Sunset’s mind before her wings seized up, and her mind went into panic mode. OH shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT! she thought while letting out what little air was left in her lungs.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Sunset didn’t know for how long she fell. Although, it felt like much too long as she ran out of breath and spun around in the air like a rolling barrel. Too long to keep screaming. Too long to even keep falling when there was supposed to be an alicorn up in the sky with her to prevent such things. The oddity of the situation made Sunset open her eyes.

But instead of seeing the world tinted in a golden glow like anything in Celestia’s magic should have been, all Sunset noticed was a mass of green grass before she impacted the ground hard enough to find herself belly up in a pony-sized hole.

The reality of the moment took a little bit to sink in. I’m not…dead?

“Sunset! Sunset are you alright?” the panicked voice of the amber alicorn’s mother figure called to her as she saw Celestia come down from on high. “I’m sorry, I got distracted when Kibitz came up with an urgent message from Mare-”

A surge of anger-fueled strength got Sunset back on her hooves as she flipped forward to land on her front legs. “I JUST FELL FROM CANTERLOT!” she shouted at the bigger alicorn before stomping her hooves, and nearly making Celestia lose her footing thanks to the ensuing impact. “DO I LOOK ALRIGHT TO YOU?”

Celestia backed away from her daughter as Sunset forced herself to calm down. Because…as far as she could tell… “Actually,” she mumbled before looking herself over. Other than some displaced feathers and a ruined mane, she couldn’t feel anything wrong with her body. “I…am okay. I-Is that normal?”

“The magic of a pegasus increases with the speed they are flying, protecting them from impacts,” Celestia told her before letting out a long sigh. “I’m so glad you're okay.”

After hearing her mom’s explanation, Sunset couldn’t help but notice the gaping hole in it. “But…I wasn’t flying. I was just falling.”

Silence permeated the area for several seconds as the two alicorns stood there with worried looks on their faces. Despite the fact it meant her survival, Sunset was a little frightened about what coming out of her crash unharmed actually meant. Was there something wrong with her?

“We need to take you back to the doctors,” Celestia finally said.

Sunset rolled her eyes at the suggestion. “You mean despite the fact that every single one of the five physicians I’ve seen so far say I’m the picture of health?”

“THEN WE FIND SOMEPONY THAT KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT!” Celestia shouted back. It was the terror in her mother’s eyes that kept Sunset from continuing the argument.

The rest of the week passed at an agonizingly slow pace for Sunset Shimmer.

Between the four doctors visits with the three most acomplished pony tribe doctors in Equestria, the final of which being with all of them on top of Celestia as they worked to reach a consensus about her condition, Sunset found herself incredibly bored. She practiced magical spells that her horn hadn’t used in years while waiting for Cadance to come home and get her daily magic lesson, and reviewed the books the pink princess had bought for the ‘date’ that would come on Saturday.

It seemed a little egotistical that there actually was an alicorn-ascension capable class in the game, but…Sunset rolled herself up a sorceress like Shining had suggested. She didn’t see why Cadance had told her to use a different name for her fictitious pony persona, but after a few days to craft a back-story, Princess Glorious Morning was born.

Aside from that, Sunset did her best to rediscover her pony life, and put her human one behind her.

Despite the difficulties and temptations…

For the third time in nearly a week, Sunset stood outside King Toot’s music shop, looking through the window at the electric guitar with its thousand bit price tag as it hung there, mocking her. But unlike most ponies, it wasn’t the fact that she couldn’t afford the instrument that had her down. With her wings came access to a royal expense account that no sane pony could ever empty.

Still…those bits came from somewhere. Like from the taxes of the tea shop across the street where she was supposed to meet Princess Cadance once the other mare got out of school. Picking the pockets of the working class just to see if a stupid theory worked out seemed wrong.

And what are you supposed to do after you get it? Sunset asked herself. It wasn’t as if there was anyone else she could play with. The thought of practicing music on her own was just…depressing.

So, future-Princess Sunset Shimmer turned from the music shops window to make her way across the street and sit down at what was quickly becoming known as the royal table at Cinnamon Chives Tea Shop. It was a nice little place Sunset had found while wandering around the city one day, and had become her meet up point with Cadance. While the castle probably made better tea, she needed to be seen out and about by the populace at large.

And three years of living in a high school had taught Sunset that only losers went straight home from school on a Friday. Even Cadance’s alicorn status wouldn’t protect her forever if the Academy was anything like Canterlot High. Sunset needed to start helping to cultivate a reputation for that girl.

As if on cue, the pink alicorn rounded the corner a second after Sunset’s thoughts turned to her, and she smiled as she trotted down the lane before coming to take a seat at the open air dining area. Like always, Cadance had a smile on her face as she accepted the menu from the waiter with a grateful thank you.

Several days worth of practice with her horn under Sunset’s instruction let her hold the menu in a magical glow. She was still putting way too much power into it, but the paper was no longer being crushed. It was a little progress at least.

After placing her order and dropping the menu so the waiter could take it away, Cadance looked over to Sunset. Her expression went from excited to worried. “Uh oh.”

Sunset frowned. “What?”

“You’ve got that look on your face,” she told the amber alicorn before glancing over to King Toot’s. “You’ve been punishing yourself with musical window shopping again, haven’t you?”

The fact that Cadance could guess what was going on with just one try helped agitate Sunset’s nerves. “I’m not punishing myself!” she countered. “I’m just…not sure if I want one or not. It’s a lot of money you know.” Money she never really earned.

Cadance sighed and shook her head. “I’m not getting into this again,” she said a second before their tea arrived. After taking a sip, her face brightened a bit, giving the only clue Sunset needed to tell what Cadance’s next topic was going to be. “So…are you ready for tomorrow?”

“I don’t see why you insist on calling this a date,” Sunset deadpanned. “You know there’s going to be four other guys there, right?”

The reality of the situation didn’t seem to deter Cadance’s mood in the slightest. She just smiled and said, “Oh, I’m sure they won’t be a problem for long.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Cadance, I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I’d really like to get to know the guy a little better first before we…you know…try anything,” she said while images of her and the young stallion began to form her mind.

In her imagination, they looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, and then embraced in a passionate kiss before Sunset pushed Shining Armor back on the bed behind them to-STOP THAT, Sunset ordered her libido. Bad imagination! I’m not that kind of girl anymore…and falling back on a bed as a pony is impossible without standing upright!

“Well, then maybe you should stop thinking about Shining Armor in a way that makes you blush so much,” Cadance said with a grin that was far too wide. “But since you can’t, it’s my duty as your friend to see that you take that first step. While passion cooling late in a relationship is expected, starting one when it’s already lukewarm is never a good idea. You gotta strike while the iron’s hot.”

After she managed to finally remove the mental image of her and the colt from her mind, Sunset glared at Cadance. “Let’s talk about something else.”

Visibly thinking things over for a few seconds as she tapped a hoof to her chin, Cadance’s face brightened. “Oh! What did the doctors say?” she asked. “I know it was a few days ago, but since Auntie doesn’t have that nervous look on her face anymore, I take it there was good news.”

Not seeing a reason to keep it from her, Sunset decided to tell the pink pony what was what. Although, she didn’t really think of the news as all that good. “Sort of. After being poked and prodded all over, all those MDs and Mom have some to the conclusion that I’m the perfect alicorn.”

Cadence frowned. “I thought you were supposed to be working on that ego problem.”

“Their words, not mine,” Sunset told her. “And believe me, there’s nothing all that great about it.”

When Cadance just arched an eyebrow, Sunset sighed and went on with an explanation. “Okay well…you know how unicorns have conscious control of all their magic, while pegasi and earth ponies are more subconscious in the way theirs works? Sure, pegasi have got to flap their wings to fly and all, but you don’t really need to think if you need to walk on clouds, right? Your body just goes ‘oh I don’t want to destroy this bit of floating water I’m standing on and I just want to fly instead of creating a fucking tornado when I flap my wings’ unless you will it to happen. Right?”

Uncertainty showed on Cadance’s face as she nodded. “Okay.”

“Well, that’s not the way it works with me apparently,” Sunset deadpanned. “My subconscious and conscious magic is all messed up, or well…it’s not messed up it’s actually too in synch,” the amber alicorn said. “It probably wouldn’t be a problem if I was born an earth pony or a pegasus, but since unicorns don’t have any magic that works without us willing it to…I have no idea how to regulate it.”

Cadance nodded. “Okay, but…that doesn’t sound so bad.”

Seeing that Cadance wasn’t getting it, Sunset groaned. “Cadance, how strong would you say I was as a unicorn?”

Despite not being able to read minds, that spell being on the forbidden magic list for reasons obvious to her now, Sunset could almost see the numerous times she had bulled Cadance in the past before the alicorn got her answer. “Um…well, if I had to take a guess…you were probably one of the most powerful unicorns alive.”

“And my alicorn transformation multiplied that several fold, like yours,” Sunset went on. “But while your magic is a bit stifled and more controllable because you’re more unicorn and pegasus than you are earth pony, mine flows freely, even the kind of stuff that’s supposed to be regulated subconsciously. So when I beat my wings, my pegasus magic also wants to make a hurricane, and my earth pony side wants to shatter anything I stomp my hooves on.”

It was more than a little terrifying for Sunset, knowing that she had that level of power with so little control over it. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. But her ‘perfectly harmonious’ body didn’t want to hear it. Every step wanted to cause an earthquake, every wingbeat a tornado.

As far as Sunset was concerned, she would rather be a unicorn again than hurt another pony.

Cadance shrugged. “Okay. So you just need to get a handle on it then. You’re no stranger to hard work, right? How’s your flying coming along?”

More than a dozen memories of landing face first on the ground immediately assaulted Sunset’s mind, then came reminders of all the times she hit the clouds above her…and a few ceilings, followed by a dozen more of her attempts to use pegasus magic for wind generation and other weather-related magic. “I’m still putting too much power into my wings when I flap them.” Which made hovering an impossibility, flying more like riding a raging bull, and any breeze she tried to make with her wings ended up being something akin to hurricane force winds.

“Don’t feel embarrassed. It’s like me and my horn. I’m sure you’ll figure it out with some time,” the pink alicorn said before glancing down at her tea cup. After a few seconds of staring at it, a small glow surrounded Cadance’s horn before her magic enveloped the cup. It floated up into the air, and-

Crack!

-leaked a good deal of brown liquid over the table as Cadance’s magic made it change from a single piece into many. “Oops.”

Sunset gently smiled, and gathered the bits of the shattered cup in her magic to work a mending spell on them. Then, she collected the spilt tea and teleported the drink as far away as her horn would allow. “Well, you’re getting better at least,” she said before a thought crossed her mind to sour her face. “Just uh…don’t pick up anything alive just yet.”

After the spell had done it’s work, Cadance signaled for a refill. “So…what do you think your foals will be like?”

With the conversation back on that particular track, Sunset started to give Cadance a tired glare. “I thought we agreed to talk about something other than Shining Armor and me hooking up.”

“I am. I’m not asking you about your future relationship with Shining Armor. I’m asking you your theories about the product of said relationship,” Cadance corrected her. “Completely different topic!”

Sunset groaned. “Cadance.”

Across from her, the pink pony princess sighed. “Sunset, for the past five days, I’ve come home to watch you be all…I don’t even know what to call it! Auntie Celestia says you’re reviewing old magic lessons when I’m not there, you haven’t even gotten a flight instructor to show you how to use those new wings of yours. You don’t even want to buy a cheap guitar to take up a hobby for pony’s sake! You’re just…lounging around in limbo.”

“Well excuse me for being a little wishy-washy after just changing species twice in one day!” Sunset exclaimed as her wings unfurled. “I would have thought you of all ponies would have some understanding when it comes to stuff like that!”

Cadance sighed, and nodded her head once. “Yes, the changes were confusing. But by focusing on them and everything negative, I didn’t let myself see things that should have been obvious to me. Like my fiery cousin that needed my help.”

Thanks to Cadance getting all…loving again, Sunset gave up the fight and slumped forward in her chair. A second later, she had to smirk at the absurdity of the situation. She was probably the only pony in Equestria that had a mare more concerned with how her romantic life was going than Sunset was herself. “Okay fine, you win. Date advise away.”

“Okay, there’s carrots and pretzels for snacks, honey dew to drink, table is all set up downstairs, and Mom and Dad are almost ready to get going to avoid parental embarrassment as per the specifications,” Shining Armor heard as he watched his little sister pace back and forth on the floor while she worked to keep balance on just three legs. “Wow, this checklist is really good.”

The little mare’s older brother groaned when his little sister finished scrutinizing Cadance’s instructions.

Ever since Twilight had found out that Sunset Shimmer was coming over, she had taken a disturbing interest in the amber alicorn. Unfortunately, the single conversation Shining had with Sunset over what amounted to just a friendly chat didn’t provide enough information for the filly, so she had dived into several volumes of ‘research material’.

It would have been cute if Twilight hadn’t left some of it on his bed as homework on mare interests. While he was grateful none of it had been too…risqué, Shining Armor didn’t like the fact that he now knew more about mane care products than most stallions should. And then there was the example the little purple mare had given him for a primer on mare and stallion interactions…

Shining Armor didn’t care if that book was the top rated romance novel of his generation. He just didn’t get it. How was a bat pony that snuck into a mare’s room to just stare at her while she was sleeping considered romantic?

The only way to describe it in any rational pony’s mind was creepy!

But, soon the need to humor her would be over.

“Okay Twilight,” the big brother said to his little sibling with a smile. “Thanks for the help. You’re a great assistant. Now, do you have something planned for when your sitter shows up? She should be here soon.”

A look of horror appeared on Twilight’s face, making Shining wonder what he had done wrong. “What?” she asked in a terrified voice. “I thought I was going to play with you guys. I’ve go my character ready to go and everything! What if something goes wrong? Something can’t go wrong Shiny! I NEED YOU TO MAKE THIS WORK!”

Seeing his little sister nearly break down in front of his spurred Shining Armor to action. He reached down and took her in his hooves, letting the list she was carrying drop to the floor before he put a hoof to her back for the reassuring physical contact. “Hey, whoa, calm down Twily. It’s okay. Everything’s okay,” he said gently. “Come on now, like the doctor said, nice and slow, steady breaths.”

As Twilight followed his instructions, Shining Armor smiled down at her. “And what’s up with all this panicking?” he asked. “You’re more nervous than I am.”

Twilight looked back to her big brother with a guilty expression. “Well…it’s just…Princess Sunset is my in.”

“Huh?” Shining Armor replied in the classic male vernacular.

“Princess Celestia’s school,” Twilight went on sadly. “When I heard about Princess Sunset, I looked at it a little to try and do some research about her to help you out and…what if I can’t get in? The fancy ponies and nobles that go there probably have all sorts of resources and tutors before they even started just to get past the entrance exam. I don’t have anything. What if the only way for me to attend is if I have somepony like her to help me?”

Sometimes, Shining Armor really wished Twilight wasn’t some kind of child prodigy. Although she had the intelligence to look at the world in a more in-depth way than ponies more than twice her age, she lacked the experience to deal with that information properly.

Instead of going Mom and Dad’s route of just saying she was much too young to be worrying about that sort of thing, Shining kept making sure her breathing was steady and that Twilight had reached the burn-out phase of her panic attack. “First off, you are the smartest little filly I’ve ever seen. There’s no way your brain isn’t going to get you into that school,” he assured her with a quick boop to her horn. “But if you really do want to meet her…how about when we’re all relaxing after the session, you can wander downstairs to introduce yourself, okay?”

As Twilight opened her mouth with a twinkle in her eye that said she was going to agree, there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it!” the recharged filly exclaimed before she zoomed off the couch to gallop to the front door and jump up to get the handle. “Hello Princess-huh?”

Shining Armor groaned before looking back to where the door was. In front of the stunned purple unicorn a tall pink pony with wings and a horn stood with a satchel on her left side. She smiled down at the little filly, and then couched so they were eye to eye. “You must Shining Armor’s little sister, Twily, right?”

“Uh….it’s Twilight Sparkle,” the confused pony in question replied thanks to manners their mother had drilled into her over the years.

For a fraction of a second, a tiny frown appeared on Cadance’s face when Twilight introduced herself, but it was gone so fast Shining Armor figured he had imagined it. “Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Twilight! I’m Mi Amore Cadenza,” she said with a smile. “But my friends call me Cadance. You want to be friend?”

Twilight didn’t respond, so Shining Armor rolled off the couch. “Oh Cadance, you’re here,” she said before he went to the door and looked at the clock. “I think you’re a little early though.”

The alicorn gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but I wanted to make sure everything was ready,” she told the two ponies in front of her before she looked over to Twilight. “Plus, hearing you go on and on about your adorable little sister all week just made it impossible for me to wait a second longer.”

Down on the floor, Twilight finally snapped back to reality and turned her attention to Shining Armor in confusion. “You…wait…princess,” she got out before taking a deep breath. “YOU KNOW ANOTHER PRINCESS?”

“Cadance and I go to the same school Twilight,” Shining Armor told her in a dull tone. “I asked if she wanted to be your sitter for today, and she agreed.”

A roll of the eyes from the alicorn said what she thought of that explanation. Although Shining wouldn’t really call them friends, she had been a bit more noticing of him recently. That was the only explanation Shining could come up with for the complete lack of interference by Buck and his crew for the past week.

Because if Cadance saw Buck make a move against him...well...Sunset had already shown the stallion what an angry princess was capable of.

Before Cadance could say anything, Shining Armor eyed the perfect thing to keep the conversation away from anything too embarrassing. “So, what’s in the bag?” he asked.

“The tablet,” Cadance told him before she walked into the house, Twilight trailing behind her as the expression on the little unicorn’s face told Shining she was trying to figure out some great mystery. “Oh, and some papers I need your parents to sign before I can watch after Twilight. It’s all a bunch of legal junk, but Auntie’s lawyers insist that if I’m going to do this, then I need documentation saying all the responsibility for the foal is mine and not the crown’s and yadda, yadda, yadda. They’ve got a notary enchantment to make everything official.”

Shining Armor watched as Cadance slid the carrying case off of her and opened it with her wings, all the while hoping Twilight didn’t ask the alicorn she was still staring at why Cadance wasn’t using her magic. He had made the mistake of doing that once and…seeing the embarrassed depression it caused in the mare wasn’t pretty.

“Sure, let me just go get my Dad. Be right back.”

Once Cadance found herself alone with the little unicorn, she found the purple pony looking over her with a quizzical eye. “You’re an alicorn too? How many of you ponies are there?”

“Four,” Cadance replied automatically before suddenly realizing her penchant for honesty towards little ones had nearly made her drop a state secret. “Well…if you count the Mare in the Moon that is. So, you’re Twilight?”

She had heard about Shining Armor’s genius little sister over the course of the week, but Cadance hadn’t expected her to be so…adorable! Her muzzle was all scrunched up in a disbelieving way as she looked up at Cadance with a pair of big purple eyes that looked cute even with a frown on her face. It was all Cadance could do not to just snatch her up right then and there to give her a hug.

“The Mare in the Moon is just an ancient legend to explain the silhouette of the pony on it’s surface,” the filly said in a way that almost sounded like she was lecturing Cadance. The fact she had sat down with her back straightened out only added weight to the comparison. “Are you one of Princess Celestia’s personal students too?”

“Well-” was all Cadance could get out before Twilight let out a horrified gasp. “Oh no! If you and Sunset are Princess Celestia’s students, does that mean she only teaches other alicorns?”

Cadance blinked. “Uh-”

“But-but that means that she’ll never teach me!” the little unicorn went on in a panic. “Everything I’ve done all week, all that research, all my plans! The path that I was supposed to take! MY LIFE IS OVER!”

As Twilight started to turn on the waterworks and make her mouth double as flood siren, Cadance quickly reached over and grabbed the filly’s tiny forelegs and forced them down, making Twilight look up at her. “Twilight, calm down and breathe,” the princess said with a frown to help get her point across. “In and out…slowly.”

When the little filly started to do as she was told, Cadance gave her a few seconds, and then began instructing her again. “Now close your eyes, and I want you to imagine all those bad thoughts in your head as a big, dark cloud.”

“But thought’s don’t have physical form. They-”

“Twilight-”

“Okay, big black cloud,” the unicorn filly went on.

Now you're going to take that nasty cloud, with all your doubts, dark thoughts and fears, and just breathe it out, and push it away,” Cadance told her. “And once they’re outside, you’re not going to let them back in.”

A second later, Cadance dropped her hooves to let Twilight do as she was told. When the purple unicorn was finished, the alicorn nodded her head. “Better?”

Twilight let out a little sound of affirmation as she nodded her head too.

“Good,” Cadance replied before she leaned down closer to Twilight. “And just between us? Princess Celestia is teaching me magic, but I’ll be done in about a year. Which means she’ll have an opening, and it isn’t just alicorns that she gives lessons to. So there’s going to be an opening and…hey, when will you be old enough to attend school?”

Twilight’s face broke into a wide, open mouthed smile as her eyes began to sparkle with a light that made Cadance giggle before the unicorn filly spoke again. “Y-You mean…Princess Celestia still might teach me personally?” she asked with a voice that was an octave several times higher than it had been a moment ago.

A deep chuckle came from above her, and Cadance looked up to see a light blue stallion with a dark blue mane and a yellow moon cutie mark make his way downstairs with Shining Armor trailing behind him. “Now Twilight, I think it’s a bit early for the Princess to make any promises,” the stallion said before looking over to the pink alicorn.

Then, the stallion that was old enough to be her father did something that put Cadance off. He bowed to her deeply. “Princess Cadance. Thank you for helping my daughter,” he said before looking up at her. “I ran out as soon as I heard Twilight having one of her episodes. Most sitters panic and run away when she starts…doing that.”

“Please stand up,” Cadance told the stallion. “I’m the one serving you today, not the other way round. Aheh, if you still want me to, I mean.”

“After what I just saw? I’m tempted to offer you a retainer,” the stallion asked with a smirk. “Although…are you sure this contract of yours is correct when it comes to payment?”

Cadance giggled. “Well, your daughter’s so adorable that I may end of taking you up on that,” she said. “And yes, it’s one bit per night. Payment due up front please.” The pink pony offered her hoof, and tucked the single coin that was placed it in under her wings a minute later.

As she took the contract in her mouth, the stallion let out a sigh. “Oh where are my manners? My name is Night Light, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess.”

With the paper in her mouth, Cadance found herself unable to tell him to just use her regular name before she put it back in her sack. But by then, the stallion was gone back upstairs, leaving Cadance alone with Shining and his little sister.

“So…uh…here we are,” the young stallion said nervously.

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Oh please Shiny, it’s not like I’m going to bite your head off,” she said before reaching into her satchel with her hoof to pull out the tablet and offer it to the big colt.

A squeal erupted from the purple unicorn as she did. “Ohmygosh! Is that a LARPT? You have a LARPT! Wait…why are you giving Shiny a LARPT?”

“Live Action Role-Playing Tablet,” Shining Armor supplied when Cadance looked down at the confused filly.

Cadance patted the girl on her head. “Oh, it’s just a little something to make sure everything goes off well,” she told Twilight before turning to her brother. “The scenario’s already been written in, just activate it, and everything should go just fine on its own.”

After taking the tablet in his magic, Shining Armor looked away from it and over to Cadance with a frown. “Wait, I thought Gaffer would just run the game like normal, and it would be more realistic with the help of this thing’s magic.”

With the male subject of her perfect romantic plan being resistant, Cadance’s eyes narrowed to help get across just how dangerous trying to stop a princess from practicing her talent could be. “Gaffer can run the game after this one. But if you want Sunset to have a good intro quest and put some plot into your campaign, this is the scenario you will run. Got. It?”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” Shining Armor agreed in a oddly squeaky voice.

The threat to Sunset’s future happiness dealt with, Cadance shot the colt a smile. “Great!” she said before giving him another once-over. “And are you okay Shiny? It’s not cold, but you’re shivering.”

“I’m good!” he immediately replied before standing to his full height. “Fine! Great even! Eh-hehe!

Cadance blinked in confusion at the stallion’s odd demeanor. She had thought Shiny was over his nervousness around other mares. It might have been cute at first, but…the impediment it was being to just trying to hold normal conversations with the stallion was getting annoying.

Thankfully, Sunset hadn’t had too much exposure to it, and would probably still find Shiny’s stammering and derping as adorable as a newborn puppy.

Deciding to switch topics, Cadance turned to look at her purple charge. “So Twilight,” she said with a bright smile. “How about you show me your room?” From her experience, foals loved it when adults took an interest in their things.

It was with a great deal of trepidation that Sunset Shimmer approached the house Shining Armor called home with all the books Cadance had got for her in a pair of bags laying across her back. Memories of her time at CHS didn’t help to calm her nerves at all. Not because of the illegitimacy of her time there, but…Sunset couldn’t actually remember making any friends aside from the girls Twilight had left in charge of her.

In fact, meeting up with Shining and his group would be her first real attempt at forging an actual friendship with anybody. Although Sunset supposed she could count Cadance as her first real friend, that had been more because the other alicorn was trying to mend some fences.

“Okay, remember Sunset,” she told herself. “No stupid humanisms, keep the temper under wraps, no breaking things.” At least she had learned how to keep her wings down. Although that consolidation did bring up another point. “And no flying.”

With that, Sunset walked forward to the door to establish her first real friend in Equestria…and blinked when the door suddenly opened to reveal a light blue unicorn in a tie and combed mane. “Twilight, would you hurry up? We’re going to be late!”

The mention of her best friend’s name made Sunset’s whole body seize up. The exception of which was her heart, was missed a beat before doubling its tempo. Memories of the girl with the purple mane ran through Sunset’s mind, and Sunset half-expected to see the human step through the doorway.

“I’m coming Nighty, I’m coming,” an almost-familiar voice called out from inside the house.

Instead of what Sunset was expecting, there came a pony. A light-gray pony with a cluster of purple stars for her cutie mark and a mane that while similar, looked so different from that of the girl with the purple hair. “I‘m only one minute behind schedule dear,” she said. “Honestly, no wonder our girl is such a stickler for time tables. Picking up your bad-oh my!”

Sunset fought to keep her wings down when the unicorn turned her attention towards the alicorn and dropped her mouth. “Um, hello…Ms…” the princess-to-be said in an unsure voice.

“Princess Sunset!” the oddly-colored Twilight said before she went into a bow, quickly followed by her husband.

The action made the alicorn’s eyes widened, and she put up her hooves to wave them in a stopping motion. “What? No, no, no!” Sunset pleaded with them. “Please don’t bow. I’m not really…worth it.”

“Oh my, so modest,” the gray Twilight said before she walked over and gave Sunset a once-over. “And…big! Shining Armor was right, you really are almost like another Celestia.”

The stallion sighed and came forward to lower his head just a little. “Please forgive my wife Princess,” he said. “My name is Night Light, and this is Twilight Velvet.”

Twilight Velvet, the alicorn repeated as she fought off the remnants of the daze the mare’s appearance and reaction to Sunset had put the alicorn in. But still…just looking at the mare, Sunset couldn’t help but be reminded of the star on top of Twilight’s crown that also adorned Shining Armor’s cutie mark for some reason. But…it wasn’t as if there was something connecting both of these things to the Twilight that Sunset had seen.

She wasn’t even real.

Sunset pushed the thoughts from her mind and smiled. “Well, it’s nice to meet you both. Is Shining Armor inside?”

“With his friends,” Twilight Velvet said.

The fact she had kept the unicorn waiting made Sunset tense. Not even their first meeting, and she had already made a bad impression!

“Oh! Um…thank you Ma’am! It was a pleasure to meet you both,” she said before quickly nodding at the two ponies and rushing past them into the house. “Shining Armor? Shining? I’m sorry I’m late! Did you guys start without me?”

What would that mean? Could she even join in on the game if she came late? What about the other ponies? They probably wouldn’t like having to make concessions for a newbie.

Sunset looked around the empty living room in confusion. For a second she was actually afraid she had misheard the gray Twilight and that Shining Armor was out with his friends. But then, a door that was placed on the side of the stairs opened up to reveal the young stallion.

He was…just like she remembered him. Just as tall, with the half-combed mane, and widened eyes that made him seem just a bit more adorable. If anything, he was a little better-looking than before. But then, Sunset supposed he would have looked a little better since Shining hadn’t been on his belly in the street for Generic Old Deity knew for hold long.

“S-Sunset,” he stumbled verbally. “Um…you’re here.”

The hesitation in his voice made her wince. “I’m sorry Shining,” she apologized. “I must have misheard the time Cadance gave me. Am I very late?”

Shining Armor looked across the room to a clock, and then back to the alicorn. “No you’re a little early. It’s just…” he let out a sigh, and brought a little plastic bag up with the telltale bulge of empty soda cans. “It’s just everypony else keeps coming earlier and earlier because they don’t want to miss out on the snacks and…well, you get the idea.”

Relief flooded through her body, and Sunset couldn’t help but smile as a solution came to mind. “Maybe we should start holding these things at my place,” she said with a little smile. “I can tell the guards not to let anypony in until the right time…not that we’d run out of food.” And then Sunset realized she was bragging and throwing her crown around.

Ponies didn’t like that, right?

“Well, it sure beats my parents’ basement,” Shining Armor said with a laugh that sounded more than a bit nervous before he walked past her. “But uh, I managed to save you some crisp hay cubes, and there’s more honey dew in the fridge.”

As he walked over to the fridge in the kitchen, Sunset’s eyes followed him. But when he passed her, she wished she hadn’t. Her gazed lowered from his head to… Don’t try and look at his package, don’t try and look at his package, don’t try and look at his package, YOU ARE A GOOD GIRL NOW, AND THAT MEANS YOU DO NOT PEEK AT A PONY’S PRIVATE PARTS!

So, using a level of control that Sunset felt should have given her another set of wings, the alicorn found something else to study about Shining Armor. She focused on the way he moved. The stiff way he held himself. How he glanced at her every few seconds but quickly darted his head away when he saw she was watching, and…

“Wait a second,” Sunset deadpanned as everything began to add up for her. “Shining Armor, am I making you nervous?”

“Uh…” he replied with a six pack of honey dew in his magical grasp.

Quickly translating that as a yes, Sunset let out a sigh and found herself a place to sit on the couch. Thanks to her new control of her wings, she was even able to sit at a slouch without fear of being ejected from her seat. “I’m sorry,” she apologized before looking back up at the stallion with trepidation. “If it helps, I’m…pretty nervous too.”

“But…you’re a princess,” he said before trotting over in front of her and setting the drinks down on the little coffee table. “And…really cool.”

How that stallion could say something that made her feel so good after saying something that made Sunset want to cringe and groan made her wonder if the males of all species were equally clueless. But instead of correcting him on what her life as a princess was like, she just gave the colt a smile and found a nice empty space on the wall to look at. “Doesn’t mean I’m not terrified.”

More movement from Shining Armor made Sunset look back to his confused face. “What? But you’re-”

“A princess?” she said before he could finish. Sunset shook her head. “It’s not that simple. Sure, I’m surrounded by ponies that all look up to the cool princess, but…you’re the only pony I’ve met since I came back that wants to talk to me, you know? About the only other pony I can be friendly with is Cadance, and she’s been kind of…”

Shining gave her a nervous grin. “Terrifying? Overly interested in your romantic life?”

The semi-insult to royalty made Sunset giggle before she broke out into a smile. “I know she means well, but…she’s…”

“Way too enthusiastic?” Shining Armor asked with a cautious smile before he laid down on the remaining two-thirds of the couch. “She’s been doing nothing but bugging me to make sure I’m ready for this date we’re supposed to be on today.”

Sunset smirked as she rolled her eyes. “She’s doing it to you too, huh?” she asked before looking back over to the young stallion. “Sorry if it’s been rough.”

“Actually…” Shining Armor began hesitantly. “It’s been kind of nice. I mean, sure there’s bad moments, but…I think the past few days have been great. I think some of the more popular ponies are noticing me, and Buck hasn’t bothered me once since you uh…Sunset? Are you okay?”

Sunset realized she was frowning and then shook it off. “Fine,” she said before looking around for something to distract him. A picture on the wall of a much younger colt with blue hair behing flanked by the ponies she saw leaving with a flugel horn in his magic caught her attention. “Is that you back in the day? You look so cute!”

“Yeah,” he said before directing her attention away from the embarrassing photograph with his hoof. “The one next to it is my little sister.”

For a second Sunset thought she should just gush about how adorable the little Shiny looked in his little tie that matched his mane, but decided not to poke fun at the poor colt, and glanced over at the purple unicorn next to the family photo.

Sunset blinked. “That’s your…little…sister?”

“Well, she’s older now,” Shining Armor told her with a little annoyance creeping into his tone. “Don’t know why Mom and Dad keep that baby picture up. It’s five years old.”

A nervous dread crept over Sunset Shimmer, although she couldn’t understand why. Maybe it was the fact that she had just met a Twilight a minute ago, and now she was staring at a picture of a newborn purple unicorn in swaddling. The reminder the combination of the two separate events served to create caused a pain in Sunset’s heart.

Even a week after she had thought the matter dealt with, Sunset found herself wishing for that magical book she could use to talk to her closest friend. I miss her, the alicorn thought to herself.

Twilight Sparkle was the pony she could rely on to hear all of her thoughts and fears, and make them go away, or at least seem less. Not even Celestia could do that, and Cadance was more something to write Twilight about than use for a replacement. Sunset knew it was foolish to feel that way about some…imaginary example, but…that was the way it was.

“Sunset, are you okay?”

The question drew the alicorn out of her thoughts, and she looked over to Shining Armor. He was giving her a worried look again. “Sorry,” she apologized before smiling at him. He really was a sweet stallion to worry about her so much. Most guys she had dated would have been thinking about just coping a feel or something while Sunset was zoned out. “Okay, I think I’ve kept your friends waiting long enough. Let’s get going downstairs, shall we my knight?”

A blush appeared on Shining Armor’s cheeks as Sunset switched to a more formal tone, and the alicorn had to stop herself from smiling with glee. That colt really was adorable when he got flustered. “I’m a p-paladin.”

To avoid any more unwanted reminders of a purple alicorn, Sunset kept her eyes focused on the door Shining Armor had appeared out of and walked to it at a brisk pace, with Shining Armor quickly following after he grabbed the drinks.

Okay you know what? Sunset told herself as she got to the doorway. Fuck what Cadance said. She’d go downstairs, meet Shining’s friend, have a good time and…if he really was as fun and sweet as the time she walked him home, Sunset could take him to dinner when they were done. There was time enough in the day for that.

“Hey guys, this is Sunset Shimmer,” Shining said as he trotted past her to offer introductions.

Sunset was a little surprised by the appearance of Shining’s friends. Only one of them fit the stereotypical nerd mold, an earth pony with glasses and a polka dotted bow tie. The pegasus and the unicorn looked mostly…normal. Not cute like Shining. Just…normal. Although, Sunset was pretty sure the other unicorn had a bit of mustang in him based on his coat’s color pattern.

The reactions to her entrance were…mixed.

“It’s a g-g-g-girl!” the earth pony stuttered.

“She does exist!” the pegasus added.

The other unicorn brought up his hoof to cover his face. “Ugh! Guys, we’ve been watching Shining Armor get snatched up by Princess Cadance for the past four days at lunch. Him knowing another alicorn princess isn’t all that out of the realm of possibility anymore.”

Sunset made a mental note to ask Shiny just what him and Cadance had been doing during those lunch hours, and walked down to meet his friends. “Well, I’m not really a princess yet.”

Introductions were made, and Sunset did her best to file the three ponies’ names away in her memory before the tablet was brought out. The magic around it made Sunset blink in surprise. She had to wonder how Shining Armor’s parents could afford such a complex piece of spellcraft.

“Okay so,” the unicorn that introduced himself as Gaffer said. “We’ve got two scenarios to run today. The first is going to be Sunset’s introduction game, which shouldn’t take all that long, and then I can feed the real scenario I had planned to continue with our adventures. Sunset, you got your character sheet with you?”

The question had Sunset open her saddlebags and take it out. “Right here,” she said, levitating sheets of paper up for all to see. “It’s okay I skipped ahead in my levels, right?”

“No problem!” Gaffer said just a bit too quickly for Sunset not to get a little worried.

Just what had Cadance been saying to these boys?

The GM cleared his throat. “Okay so…Sunset. The scenario is a clasic princess rescue. You’ll start off in a tower, and we’ll come and get you out. It’s just something basic for everypony to get their hooves wet. Now, according to the instructions…everypony needs to hold their character sheets out in front of one of the gems so the magic can scan it, and then we can get started.”

As all the assembled ponies followed the instructions, several beams of light shot out from the gems on the tablets, one for each pony. But rather than be distracted by the spectacle, Sunset frowned when she detected the trace of another magical spell being activated, a spell connected to something several feet above her head. “Hey guys what’s the other spell this thing’s connected-”

FLASH!

“-to?” Sunset finished.

Although, she doubted anyone had heard the last word she said. Mostly because Sunset was standing in a room made of black marble. The furniture was barely spartan, with only a bed and a mirror available to her. Although the fact she also had access to a balcony made the alicorn wonder what was stopping her from just jumping out and gliding to safety.

“Figures, it’s another one of those stupid save the princess stores where the mare is trapped in something she could easily get out of,” Sunset mumbled before she looked at herself in the mirror and blinked.

As per Cadance’s instructions, Sun Burst the princess had a completely different description than Sunset Shimmer. When coming up for the looks for the fictitious princess, Sunset had decided to use Celestia for her example. Sun Burst was a huge pony that stood nearly six feet tall, seven counting the horn, with a well-developed body that had as much physical power as it did magical, and hair that sparkled in the sun.

That was not the pony Sunset’s reflection said was standing in front of the mirror. The pony Sunset Shimmer saw…was Sunset Shimmer.

Cadance had to wonder how a filly as young as Twilight could be so interested in math. Not only that, but she actually thought working equations was fun. It didn’t make her any less adorable in the alicorn’s opinion, but…the poor girl might have a hard time connecting with other ponies when it came time for a play date and she brought a trigonometry book to share.

All of a sudden, Cadance’s mathematical fun time was ended when she heard a chime from her bag. “Oh! They must have started,” she said before she got up to grab the satchel that was laying on the floor a foot away to pull out a yellow gem barely small enough to he held with a single hoof. “Twilight, I know you’re a little disappointed about not being able to join in on the game with your brother and the others. But…do you want to watch?”

The purple unicorn looked up from her book with a confused expression on her face. “Watch what?”

“I call this, Operation Sunshine,” she said before setting the gem on the floor and tapping the top of it with her hoof.

A second later, the picture of a vast desert wasteland was shown in the middle of the air, and Twilight trotted over, enthralled by the display. “Ohmygosh! Is that a seventh circle visual projection with audio?”

Cadance smiled at the little unicorn’s description. “Yep. I had a unicorn in Canterlot link this to the mindscape that the tablet Shining Armor is using downstairs,” she said before the image changed, centering on the pony whose name she mentioned.

“Wait a second,” Twilight mumbled as she got an adorable frown on her face. “Isn’t Shiny’s character supposed to be wearing the Golden Barding of Good with a +2 Will save bonus? And where’s everypony else?”

The questions got a knowing chuckle from Cadance. “Oh, I also had the unicorn do a little reprogramming to how the tablet works too,” she explained. “Now, let’s see if your brother really has what it takes to court Sunset Shimmer.”

All of a sudden, the picture on the screen changed to show an amber alicorn reading a piece of paper than Cadance had made sure to include in the scenario. Once she was done, Sunset crumpled the parchment up and made it disappear in a ball of fire. “So I really am supposed to just wait around here to be rescued. Well that’s just great.”

From her spot beside Cadance, Twilight blinked. “So that’s what Sunset looks like.”

The pink princess looked down at the filly. “I thought you two had already met.”

“Not really,” Twilight told Cadance. “I saw her outside my house, but it was pretty dark.”

That made a lot of sense. It was no wonder Twilight was so intent on meeting the other alicorn. She had gotten Sunset waved in front of her face, and that would have just left the poor foal with a burning desire to be introduced.

“Well as soon as they’re done, we’ll go let you see her okay?” Cadance told the filly. “I’m sure Sunset would love to meet Shining Armor’s little sister.”

Once again, the image changed to show the white stallion as he looked around in confusion. “Uh…guys? Hello? Is anypony there?” he yelled to the empty land. “Gaffer? Eight-Bit, Poindexter? WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?”

After his calls went unanswered by his friends, the winds picked up, blowing sand around and making Shining Armor have to cover his eyes. When the effect was over, a new figure stood in front of him. It was an old unicorn dressed in a blue robe and wearing a matching tall hat that marked him as one of those old-time wizards.

“User Shining Armor,” the NPC spoke in a clearly artificial voice. “An error has occurred with the tablet. The magic is not functioning within the normal parameters, and has put you at risk for serious mental injury. Please exit through the door behind you, so that the tablet may reset in ten minutes. Remaining in the tablet when deactivation occurs may result in permanent loss of mental functions.”

Seeing Twilight start to tense up, Cadance quickly leaned down to talk to her. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine. I just made that NPC say that to add a bit of realism,” she told the filly. “Shining Armor is perfectly safe.”

The unicorn looked up to Cadance with wide eyes. “But why would you do something like that?”

“You’ll see,” she said with a smile.

Back on the screen, Shining looked at the white door that appeared behind him, and then back to the unicorn wizard. “So, everypony else is already gone?”

“The only users are currently Shining Armor, and Sunset Shimmer. All others have been automatically ejected from the scenario.”

Shining Armor flinched. “WHAT? Why is Sunset still here? Didn’t you give her a door too?”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Of course not. How would you be able to save her then?”

“Sunset Shimmer is the end point of the scenario, the emergency exit is logically placed at the start point,” the mage replied.

Shining Armor gulped. “What’ll happen if she doesn’t get out?”

“Nothing,” Cadance said.

“She will never wake up,” the NPC told him.

Shining Armor’s eyes widened. “Then we have to help her!”

“I am just the emergency warning system, I have no actual stats,” the mage told him evenly. “That said, I should also warn you that the character reader has malfunctioned. Instead of your character, the pony persona generated is equal to your normal self in every way. Also, verbal spell triggers have also been disabled, and equipment failed to be created upon entrance to the scenario. Although, the guardian NPC spawned successfully. You now have nine minutes to exit the scenario, or suffer mental damage that will leave you unconscious for the rest of your life.”

The news left Shining Armor stunned, and he looked back to the exit with a look of trepidation on his face.

From her place in Twilight’s room, Cadance crossed her forelegs and frowned. “Don’t you dare.”

“He won’t,” Twilight said, making Cadance look down at her in surprise.

The alicorn smiled at the look on the filly’s face. It was nearly emotionless, as if she was just stating a simple fact rather than clinging to some emotionally based opinion. “You have a lot of faith in your big brother, don’t you Twilight.”

“Three months ago, Shining Armor took me to the store to buy a new doll. On our way out, this mean stallion and his friends showed up, and took it from him,” she said in a sad tone. “When Shiny tried to get it back, they beat him up and started to walk away with the doll. And then he got up again to try and get it back before they could leave. And again.”

Despite her best efforts, Cadance couldn’t keep the image of a traumatized little filly watching her brother being attacked. And to hear her talk about with a voice that was so…empty, it broke Cadance’s heart. “Oh Twilight, I’m so sorry.”

When Cadance moved to give the filly a hug, Twilight pointed to a doll on the other side of the room. It was a simple thing. A plush horse with a gray coat and buttons for eyes. “That’s the Mr Smarty Pants doll,” she went on. “They left it in a trashcan after the third time, but my brother never gave up on getting it back. Just like he’s not giving up on Princess Sunset.”

The princess broke the hug and looked back on the screen, and blinked when she saw Shining Armor had crossed the bridge and was standing at the entrance to Sunset’s prison: the Tower of Misery.

But with five minutes left on the clock, Cadance knew he wouldn’t have time to run back, even with Sunset’s wings. They’d have to end the adventure the proper way.

After wasting a good ten seconds looking up at the three hundred foot tower of darkness, Shining Armor gulped, and then slowly opened the giant door with his magic just enough to slip inside.

The black dragon that was about ten times larger than a pony curled up in the middle of the floor cost him another ten seconds as he held in a startled scream.

“A dragon?” Twilight yelled in surprise.

Cadance shrugged. “Well what else is going to be defending a princess in a big spooky tower?”

Although, Cadance thought that she might have made things a bit too easy for Shining Armor. After all, the dragon was asleep.

On the screen, the unicorn took a single step forward, and winced when the sound of his hoof hitting stone echoed throughout the entire chamber. The dragon’s ears twitched, and Shining Armor looked up a spiraling staircase that led up to Sunset’s door that stood just a few feet below a large iron candelabra. A distance far too long for him to tiptoe.

Shining Armor gulped, and looked back over to the dragon, then up to the door again. “Well…buck it,” he mumbled. And then, he started to gallop up the stairs.

Five steps in, the dragon looked up from his nap.

Eight steps, and it turned its head to face Shining Armor.

Ten steps gave the dragon enough time to take a deep breath.

Twelve steps after Shining started climbing, the black dragon spit a gout of acid at the unicorn.

Thirteen steps, and Shining Armor was looked back at the melting stairs right behind him.

Shining screamed.

The dragon roared.

Sunset said, “What is going on out there?”

And Shining was racing up the stairs at a pace that was twice as fast as before. Another blast of acid landed behind him, a third made him duck to avoid getting his face melted, the fourth landed in front of him, making the stallion jump over the hole in the stairwell it created.

“I don’t think acid melts through stone that fast,” Twilight commented.

Cadance rolled her eyes at the filly’s words, and went back to watching the show as the dragon flapped its wings to begin ascending into the air.

But it didn’t catch up to the unicorn in time. He reached Sunset’s door, and began to pound on it. “Sunset! Sunset open the door! HURRY!” Shining shouted in a panic.

On the other side of the iron door, Sunset Shimmer looked through the face-sized hole with a raised eyebrow. “Huh, for a guy who takes his role-playing pretty seriously, you kind of miss some of the finer points,” she said. “Isn’t opening the door to my cell your job?”

As she finished talking, the dragon ascended to a height that its head was even with Shining Armor. Cadance knew there was no way it was going to miss at such close range. “Well, he gets an A for effort I guess,” the pink pony princess mumbled as the dragon took a deep breath. “But…so much for impressing the pony of his dreams with his heroism.”

Although, there was a certain admirable thing about knowingly biting off more than he could chew. Cadance could acknowledge that.

The dragon breathed its acid.

Shining screamed and kind of shut his eyes as he drew in on himself.

The acid…hit a pinkish barrier?

Cadance blinked. “What the?”

“A shield spell?” Twilight said. “But he hasn’t been able to do one of those in years! Not since we went on that trip to the mountains when I was just a little foal.”

Second later, Shining Armor looked up at his spell, and it flickered out of existence. Behind him, cracks began to appear in the wall, and Sunset opened her door…by ripping it out from the wall and pulling it inside her cell’s room. “Okay, WHAT IS GOING ON OUT HERE?”

Shining looked back to the alicorn. “Sunset! We need to kiss!”

The alicorn blinked, and a red coloring appeared on her cheeks. “W-What?”

“We need to kiss to end the scenario, NOW!” he screamed in a panic.

Sunset’s eyes got a little wider. “You mean like a French, or just-”

“A what?” Shining Armor said right before the dragon flew up just a little higher and struck out with his claws. It grabbed Shiny’s tail and yanked hard, pulling them both down the stairwell.

Sunset looked over the ledge as Shining screamed from what would be their impending demise, and frowned. “Okay, screw this, the princess is saving herself,” the alicorn said before she looked back up at the iron chandelier.

The alicorn without a title jumped up and grab the large iron object with both her hooves, then yanked down on it hard. At the bottom of the tower, the chain that it was attached to broke free, and Sunset rode the heavy object downward at an incredible speed, easily catching up to the winged lizard. “This is for you!” Sunset yelled before she slammed the iron chandelier on the dragon's head to serve as a collar before continuing down to slap the wrist of the dragon’s claw that was holding Shining Armor. “And he’s for me!”

Then the alicorn unfurled her wings to glide towards the chandelier’s chain and grab onto it. The action had the two ponies being pulled up as the dazed dragon continued to fall.

“Sunset, we’ve got to-”

“One second Shiny,” the alicorn said before he could finish. She flipped around so that her back was towards the ground, and carefully positioned her wings for a strong flap. “I’ll catch you in a minute.”

Shining Armor was unable to say anything as Sunset released her grip on him to grab the chain with both hooves and let loose with a beat of her wings. The resulting wind pushed Shining Armor back into the air, and sent Sunset speeding towards the ground.

The dragon was suddenly pulled upward, and Cadance winced at the resounding snap that accompanied the motion.

When Sunset crashed into the ground on her hooves a second later, she let go of the chain right as the dead dragon’s head hit the ceiling. Her horn lit up with an intense glow, and pumped out a great deal of magic to create a magic spell in the shape of a circle on the floor. “Ignition spell to get rid of the corpse,” she mumbled before standing on her hind legs with her front two outstretched to look up in the air. “Aaaaaaaaaand, boyfriend!”

Shining Armor fell into the pony’s forelegs a second later. Sunset stumbled forward a little, but managed to remain erect. “Sunset, we’ve got to-”

“Shh!” she said before turning her back on the magic circle and smiling down at the stallion in her arms. “Wait for it.”

The dragon’s unblemished corpse landed on the floor behind her, and a giant column of magic fire erupted, consuming the creature’s body. The force the spell created sent Sunset’s mane lashing about widely in the wind, and the flames lit up the whole of the black marble tower in a golden light.

Back in her room, Twilight managed to regain control of her hanging mouth. “That…is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“And this is a French kiss,” the amber alicorn said before she leaned down and brought her stallion’s head up to lock lips before her eyes slowly closed. “Mphmmmm!”

Is she...putting her tongue in his mouth? Cadance’s whole body twitched as her wings unfurled behind her of their own accord.

A second later, the picture faded to black as the scenario ended.

Sunset blinked as she found herself sitting in the basement of Shining’s house, the memory of their kiss still on her lips. It had been a moment of passion caused by the anger and adrenaline of seeing her friend in trouble. Sunset had felt strong, powerful…in control of everything, with nothing out of her reach. So she took what she had wanted.

And…Sunset had to admit that she wouldn’t mind doing it with the stallion again.

Across from her, Shining Armor’s face looked redder than most of her mane. It was something that made Sunset smile before she licked her lips. The missing taste of the stallion only half-killed her buzz. A part of the alicorn wanted to just take him up in her magic and get that taste back, but…she was surrounded by his friends at the moment.

Friends that were giving them annoyed expressions.

“Uh…something wrong?” she asked when Shining Armor continued to just stand there with a goofy look on his face.

The other unicorn let out an annoyed sigh. “Other than we just had to wait around in an empty room with instructions from Princess Cadance for nearly ten minutes for you two to finish your two-pony game? No,” he said before looking over to Shining Armor. “Oh, I’m supposed to tell you that none of that warning stuff was real.”

Gaffer’s words shook Shiny out of his shock. “W-What?”

“Yeah, that ten minutes till death thing if you don’t complete the scenario?” the unicorn went on. “It was all just something Cadance set up. Neither of you were in any danger.”

Sunset frowned. “What’s he talking about?”

After taking a few seconds to get himself under control, Shining Armor explained how he had been under the impression that both of their lives had been in mortal danger for the last ten minutes. When she was done listening, Sunset had two very different thoughts about the matter.

I’m going to kill Cadance for this, she said to herself before the second thought occurred. One she had to speak aloud to confirm it. “Wait, you thought you were in danger, and you could have just walked away…but you decided to fight a dragon…for me?” Not the character he played, but Shining Armor, the high school student.

“Well…I couldn’t just leave you there,” he admitted with a blush.

Sunset got an odd feeling in her chest, and her mouth started to curl upwards on its own. At least before she stopped it. “I…I think I need to get some water,” she said before turning around to head up the stairs.

“So…was your adventure more fun than the room of nothingness that we were trapped in?” Eight-bit asked a second before Sunset heard Shining Armor follow after her.

As soon as she got to the living room, the amber alicorn closed her eye and steadied her breathing to help focus her thoughts. Oh…fuck! I do not need this right now, Sunset thought. Why in the world did she have to go and blab to the freaking Alicorn of LOVE that she thought she might be into a guy?

Sunset had a species change, some kind of…thing going on with Celestia she was afraid was too good to be true, new magic that she needed to master before she ended up hurting someone, and a friendship with Cadance that she needed to repair. She did not need to be feeling the way she was feeling about a guy on top of all of that!

Sexual attraction was one thing, Sunset knew she could deal with that. But the feeling she just felt for Shining Armor on top of it? That was NOT supposed to be happening until she had some time to sort the rest of it out!

“Sunset?” Shining Armor said as he came up from downstairs. “Do you need somepony to show you where the glasses are?”

The clueless question made her want to slap him across the face, and pull the stallion over to the couch so they could finish what Sunset had started with her kiss.

But…she knew where that would lead.

Oh please, if there is any justice in this world, please give me an out, Sunset begged in the human tradition to whatever was out there to listen to her thoughts. Or maybe just a distraction, something to buy her a little time to get her thoughts and raging emotions under control.

“Princess Sunset!” a squeaky, yet oddly familiar voice from the stairs above her. “That was amazing. That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! That I’ve even read about even!”

Sunset looked up at the face on top of the stairs looking down at her…and froze.

The little purple unicorn quickly scampered down the stairs, her every movement being followed by the alicorn’s eyes. She reached the bottom of the stairs a few seconds later. “Did you learn how to do that from Princess Celestia’s School? Did you learn it from Princess Celestia herself? Can I learn it from you?”

“Sorry it had to be this way…Princess!” Sunset’s memory of the last time she had been in Equestria said.

The pony in front of her, it had been dark, but she had been close enough to make out the dark purple mane with the stripe in her hair and lighter coat of the same color. Although age had changed her, Sunset could tell that mare was the same filly that stood before her, minus the wings.

Instead of declining from the pace action filled experience and romantic revelation that had just occurred set, Sunset felt her heart speed up as she looked down on the little filly, and tried to speak. “T…T-Twi…”

“Twilight!” Shining Armor said as he walked up to stand beside Sunset. The way she was forcing air into her lungs through her nose because her mouth refused to function didn’t help things at all with how she picked up so much of Shining’s scent. “What did we say? When we were done, then you could see her.”

The little unicorn that had the first name of Twilight looked down at the ground. “Sorry Big Brother,” she apologized.

After letting out a sigh, Shining Armor looked over to Sunset with an apologetic smile. “Sorry for making promises like that, but…I didn’t think you’d mind,” he told her. “This is my little sister, Twilight Sparkle.”

For a fraction of a second, Sunset’s mind tried to protect itself, but…

“I made a shield to keep the rocks from crushing us…” Shining Armor said as she remembered him explaining how he got his cutie mark. An ‘us’ he had never fully explained.

“I’m going to be the greatest, most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria when I grow up!” a little blue unicorn sitting outside the principal’s office proclaimed.

Sunset scoured her mind for an explanation as her heart rate increased along with her breathing.

A coincidence! It had to be some kind of coincidence!

There was no way that the filly standing in front of Sunset could be her!

Sunset must have seen the foal at some time somewhere around Canterlot, and the mirror had incorporated her into the mirror’s fake world. She had just come from something like that for crying out loud!

“Princess Sunset?” Twilight asked before she reached out and touched the alicorn’s foreleg.

Deep inside of her, Sunset felt something powerful take notice of the little filly’s hoof. A tiny spark of it ran through her body, making Sunset’s breathing come to an abrupt halt. The Magic of Friendship that Sunset had taken from her friends. The magic that was still inside of her.

It recognized Twilight Sparkle.

It…it’s…it really is...her… the alicorn thought before darkness came.

If there was one thing Princess Celestia absolutely loathed, it was meeting with other ponies of power in the government. The ones that had been there longer than the chairs they used to sit in anyway. The newer ones weren’t so bad…as long as they were replaced quickly enough.

But the stallion that was coming before her at this time was one of the old guard council members. Strong Withers was one of the reasons that Celestia was fearful that democratic experiment she had implemented some two-hundred years ago to allow some new ideas in government turned out to be a failure.

Although he talked a good bit about advancing the good of Equestria and increasing its prosperity, she wasn’t certain he had done anything more than shift some of the taxes around in his district so it at least looked like the ponies under him were paying less. End of the year statements would disagree with his campaign promises though.

“Councilmen Withers, to what reason do you approach me this afternoon?” Celestia asked as he walked up to the throne. She preferred to meet with such ponies out in the open for all to see. It tended to lead to fewer problems later on.

Even if it did make them all a bit long-winded.

“Your Highness, as you and all of the ponies assembled here know, I have always had the best interest of Equestria at heart,” he began, failing to mention how many times the best interest of Equestria tended to help increase his holdings as well. “As such, I come to you today on a matter of grave importance.”

Celestia nodded. It was playing to his…spectacle, but would make all of this go by quicker. “Which is?” she asked.

“Why, the safety of the realm, of course!” he went on loudly. “And over the past week, many ponies close to me have noticed an…oddity that I feel must be brought to your attention, Your Majesty.”

Her patience took a hit, as it seemed the wind bag was still going on with his introduction. “And that is?”

“Your student, Sunset Shimmer, Your Highness,” he told her.

Although she had endured much longer posturing over her long life, Celestia found her patience for the stallion in front of her gone in an instant. “In what way is my…student something you should be bringing up in this manner,” she said before frowning. “And I would like to remind all the ponies here that Sunset Shimmer has recently been revealed as one of my bloodline.” A lie, but one that Celestia had found useful over the years. “As such, she will be taken into my immediate family and be crowned a Princess of Equestria. So I would urge you to chose your words carefully when speaking of my future adopted daughter.”

There was a murmur from the crowd of ponies that had gathered to attend her court. For once, they had good reason to gossip. Although Celestia had brought in several alicorns into the royal family over the long history of Equestria, not a single one had been given such a close tie as the one Sunset had been offered.

“But…she isn’t your daughter, Your Majesty.”

Celestia had to keep from letting the magic inside of her from raging out of control at the comment. Her eyes widened a bit, and the air around her shimmered from the heat her body began to give off. “What did you just say? My little pony?”

“Please, hear me out Your Majesty,” Strong Withers begged her for a moment. “Over the past week, I’ve been hearing strange rumors surrounding your-ahm, Sunset Shimmer. The castle staff tells me that she’s been acting…oddly, and several maids have witnessed her practicing spells that are below her level. She tells the chefs to cook strange food, or even goes so far as to do it herself. She spends a great deal of time with Princess Cadance, despite everypony knowing that neither of them ever got along so well before, and…I am led to believe that she’s been displaying several other odd quirks that are…not natural for a pony.”

Seeing where this was all leading, it took everything Celestia had not to toss the stallion in front of her off of the edge of Canterlot. “If you are insinuating that there is something wrong with my daughter’s mental state Mister Withers, I think it is you that should have your head examined.”

“Princess, I beg of you to listen to me! If not, then the real Sunset Shimmer, the mare you feel so strongly for may spend the rest of her life in suffering!” the stallion exclaimed.

The oddity of the plea made Celestia stop from following through with her mental threat. “What?”

“Think about it Your Highness!” the little pony pleaded. “Everypony knows how much you care for your students, her especially. Whereas before, nopony could stand to be around Sunset Shimmer, now she is full of goodwill and cheer, and the Princess of Love is her best friend! You yourself have just claimed her as your own! You love her like a mother, the strongest kind of love there is.

“And what type of creature do we know of that would be unable to resist such strong feelings of love?”

More murmurs followed, whispers of fear, of doubt and panic spread throughout the court like a wildfire.

Celestia frowned, and took in a deep breath.

“ENOUGH!”

When the crowd quieted down, she looked back to the stallion with a stern expression. “I left Chrysalis and her children broken and sealed them away in a volcano!” Celestia announced as she stood. “The changeling threat to Equestria was ended years ago, and you have nothing to fear from those creatures anymore. Such speculation only leads to disharmony, and I will hear no more of it! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”

Every pony under Celestia’s gaze quieted down and looked to the floor. The last thing Equestria needed was another changling hunt. And the fact that idiot would dare suggest such a thing made Celestia snort with rage.

“Court is ended for the day,” she said. Not even bothering to wait for everypony to leave, Celestia channeled magic through her horn, and the world disappeared in a flash.

When she landed in her living room a moment later, the sight of a photograph caught her attention. It wasn’t one of her best, a picture taken at the Grand Galloping Gala by some reporter. She had kept it because of the little scowl on Sunset’s face that she had been wearing while standing next to her. It had looked so cute at the time.

A look Sunset hadn’t been wearing as of late.

Not as often as she should have, at any rate.

Celestia tried to shake such thoughts away, but…she couldn’t stop them from coming.

Sunset was different. She wasn’t just the kind and wondrous little filly Celestia had remembered raising. She was…better. She was everything Celestia had ever hoped for in a daughter.

Terror seized at Celestia’s heart at just the possibility that she might be wrong. That her old foe and returned, and managed to take the place of the one pony Celestia cared about more than any other.

There had been a moment when she had lost sight of her child, back when everything had begun and Sunset came rolling along the floor with a pair of wings. Had that all been a moment of planned distraction to abduct Sunset from right under Celestia’s nose?

Was she Sunset, or was she something else?

An alicorn, or an evil monster whose ego wouldn’t allow her to go for an extended period of time without the ability of flight?

“Is that really you under there Chrysalis?” the alicorn asked the picture of Sunset. “Have you just been playing me for a fool all this time? Laughing at me while my-while Sunset wastes away in one of your…feeding chambers?”

Celestia took a deep breath to try and clear her mind.

She didn’t want it to be true.

But…she couldn’t afford to see if it wasn’t, either.

Chapter 8: The Sun Sets at Twilight

The world returned in a flash of light, and Celestia found herself standing at the foot of a mountain that she would have rather avoided. The place reeked of sulfur, and even that was nothing compared to the vileness that permeated the area. She knew it was all in her head of course. But still...

It had been nearly thirty years since the changelings last appeared Equestria and brought with them another era of fear and suspicion.

Although not as big a threat as they had been upon their discovery, Celestia still found the harmony of her lands disrupted every few centuries when a group of them that hadn’t been captured during the siege of the great walled city of Trot cropped up here and there.

While their methods always differed, one thing remained the same. The changeling cells would always attempt to free their queen in the end, whom Celestia had locked away over eight-hundred years ago inside the volcano where she now stood. Whenever such problems reared up, Celestia could eventually ferret out the creatures behind it by coming to their leader’s prison. Either they would already be working to free her from the lonely mountain, or she could leave a spell to summon her when a horde did approach en mass.

It wasn’t their military strength that Celestia feared, and even the results of their indirect action were minor in the grand scheme of things. It was the damage that came about in the interim of their activities that Celestia hated the most. Every time something like the changelings would crop up to threaten Equestria in the past, paranoia and fear ran rampant. Ponies turned on each other over the smallest of oddities, such as a friend drinking something different for breakfast, taking a different route to work, or taking interest in a new hobby. Anything that was out of the ordinary was a reason for suspicion to fester.

And the methods for ‘proving the innocence’ of a pony during those times were equally as terrible as the disease. With their magic of deception, powerful changelings were impossible to tell from the original by simple observation, and their blood was close enough to a pony’s that simply drawing it from the imposter produced no evidence either way.

At first, mane follicles and feather samples were taken to test a pony’s identity, but changeling magic evolved over the centuries to create perfect replicas of a pony’s body that could have its feathers, hair, and coat removed without effect on the faux pony parts for several days. And the very nature of their magic made it impossible to tell from a normal pony’s.

So as the threats continued to crop up over the years, larger genetic samples were taken to insure a pony’s identity. But when ponies started resisting having their ears clipped, their hooves shaved to the flesh, magical markings placed on their faces, and far more invasive procedures, hundreds of ponies were interred under the suspicion of being not what they were while a better solution was sought after.

Equestria had never felt the loss of Luna as greatly as it had during those dark periods. It would have been simple for her to enter the mind of another pony and ferret out the truth. Celestia’s attempts to try and fill her sister’s horseshoes proved futile. The only test she had been able to devise for Equestria on her own was a physical one, and was based of the fact that a changeling couldn’t hold its form when subjected to extreme amounts of disruptive magical energies, the kind that would severely harm a pony’s magical pathways as well if the test came back negative.

In truth, she almost preferred the old days when the changelings had acted as one gigantic army. But that was no longer the case. After the loss of Timbucktu, Celestia had acted faster than safety demanded when the changelings were attacking Trot, and confronted Chrylysis herself before any of her guard could ready themselves for battle. The resulting fight had left the changeling queen a broken remnant of her former self, and Celestia had locked the creature away inside a fiery mountain.

The same volcano that she looked upon now.

Celestia steeled herself and took to the air. Erring on the side of caution, she took a moment to examine the area around the base of the volcano, using her magic to search for any traps or hidden passage that the changelings might have dug to escape despite the fact that Celestia’s wards to prevent such things from happening were still in place. So she climbed higher, breaking through the cloud bank that surrounded the volcano’s top.

The sight made her nearly drop from the sky in shock. Somehow, the cap on the volcano's top had been removed.

“No,” Celestia mumbled as she approached the edge of the volcano's mouth. “That’s impossible.” Chrysalis had no source of love to feed off of, and I made sure that this volcano could never erupt again! So how could she have gotten free?

And...just how long ago had she gotten out?

With all of her other duties, Celestia only afforded time to check on the changelings when it was time to renew the seals on their prison every ten years, give or take two or three. She couldn’t trust the job to other ponies, guards stationed nearby had proven a foolish gesture in the past when other members of the hive came to try and free their queen.

A tiny disruption of the rocks near the mouth of the volcano drew Celestia’s attention. Not a second later, the alicorn dived down to land and look around. Her horn ignited, and she banished the smoke around her so she could search for the source of whatever it was she had seen easier.

After a few seconds of finding nothing, Celestia frowned at her foolishness. Of course there’s nothing here. If Chrysalis had escaped, leaving anything behind would be just plain foolish.

Although, a second after she finished her though, Celestia saw the ground in front of her shift, and a second later, it erupted in a spew of green goo as a changeling cocoon hidden beneath a floor of dirt burst from its confines to gasp for air.

A second later, the creature looked up at her. “Hey! You’re here a lot earlier than the Queen thought you’d be.”

The strange voice sent a jolt of ice up Celestia’s spine, and she leaped up into the air to fire a disabling spell at the source of the voice without even thinking. When the alicorn’s conscious mind caught up with her actions, she frowned at the lone changeling floating helplessly in her magic.

The kneejerk demands on the tip of Celestia’s tongue were pushed down. Instead, she stood to her full height, and slowly walked up to the bug-pony frozen in mid-air. “How long ago did Chrysalis escape?”

If one of her drones had lagged behind, then there was a good chance that Celestia would be able to catch the monster queen before she could find a place to hide in the populace. The last thing Equestria needed was another panic over changelings.

“Umm...I’m not sure...maybe...four or...five...seasons?” the drone replied. “I uh...kinda lost count. It’s hard to keep track when you need to keep going into hibernation to keep from eating. So it could probably be longer ”

Celestia stood motionless for several moments as her rational mind wrestled with the improbability of the drone’s news. “What? No, that’s impossible! Chrysalis would have struck at Equestria if she had been free for that long! And even if she has been gone for as long as you say, THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?”

The drone blinked it’s odd eyes. “Oh, right!” it exclaimed in far too happy a tone for the alicorn’s liking. “She left me behind to give you a message if you checked on her ahead of schedule this decade.”

“Go on,” Celestia growled as she forced herself not to bring her hoof fown on the monster.

After taking a deep breath, the changeling drone cleared its throat. “Princess Celestia, if you’re talking to this drone, then that means you’ve learned I got out of that little sauna you put me in.”

Celestia blinked at the change in drone’s voice. Instead of hearing the same one that all of the bug-ponies used, it was Chrysalis’s, it even had her tone and pitch mimicked perfectly.

“Don’t worry, I have no intention to attack Equestria any time soon,” it went on. “Instead, I’m going to spend the next few years biding my time, just waiting for the right moment. Because you see, I really didn’t like that beating you gave me, and this awful place you trapped me in was worse than being turned to stone. You will pay for what I suffered through.

“So I will hurt you for this. A day will come when you think you are safe and happy, and you will watch your joy turn to ashes in your mouth. And you will know the debt is paid.”

The alicorn’s eyes widened at the threat, and the changeling threw it’s head back to laugh.

At least until Celestia’s vision turned red, and she raised her hoof to crush the creature’s skull.

Shining Armor held his little sister close as he did his best to let his reassuring presence keep the little unicorn pressed up against him calm despite the fact that one of the Princess of Equestria had just suddenly collapsed in front of them. Behind him, he saw Gaffer and the others looking at the unconscious alicorn with worried expressions.

“Uh Twilight...where’s Princess Cadance?” Eight-Bit asked nervously.

The little unicorn slowly looked over to the pegasus. “In the bathroom,” she said. “I snuck away while she was busy.”

Gaffer stepped forward and looked down at Sunset’s body. “Okay, that means we’ve got a good twenty minutes to bury the evidence, tell Princess Cadance Princess Sunset just went home when she comes out, and then put together some fake IDs before we hop the train to Griffinstone so we can avoid the regicide charges and start our new lives under some new identities. Just to let you all know, I call the name Drunken Disorderly. It’ll make the tough griffins think twice before messing with me.”

A tense silence fell over the group at the announcement, and Shining Armor looked down at the princess with a worried expression. He bent down further to get a closer look, and frowned.

“You know, my dad always said that the ultimate test of friendship was when it came time to help hide a body you didn’t make,” Poindexter added. “I never really understood what he meant until now.”

Shining Armor groaned as he saw the alicorn’s chest rise and fall. “It’s fine you idiots, she just fainted,” he deadpanned before looking down at his terrified little sister. When he saw that Twilight had started to calm down, he looked back at them with a scowl. “You’re scaring Twily. So stop talking like that and help me get Sunset on the couch.”

Sunset Shimmer was in heaven. A white, fluffy heaven that had her wrapped in a pair of forelegs and two angelic white wings as a larger alicorn nuzzled her gently.

“I’m so proud of you Sunset.”

Her mother’s words made Sunset swell with pride, and she felt tears of joy form on her face. This was...what she had always wanted.

A second later, the world around her changed. Instead of being held by her mom, Sunset found herself standing next to Celestia as they stood in a hallway filled with important ponies, dressed in a gown of red and black with a bit of dark green. A crown appeared on her head, adorned with rubies.

“Announcing my daughter, Princess Sunset Shimmer!”

All the ponies around Sunset cheered as she walked down the red carpet that had been unrolled before her. Confetti and streamers fell all around her as she reached the double doors of Celestia’s throne room and she opened them. Inside, a new throne stood next to Celestia’s golden one, decorated with Sunset’s cutie mark.

It was everything she had ever wanted, the life she was supposed to have.

Sunset took a step into the-no, into her throne room. Her’s, and her mother’s. They would rule Equestria side by side.

“But what about me?”

The amber alicorn stopped in the middle of her second step, and looked back behind her. There was nothing there. No floor, ceiling, or walls. Except for the tiny purple unicorn looking up at her with sad eyes.

The dream was torn apart as Sunset bolted upright in a gasp. She sucked in as much air as she could and...looked around in confusion at her surroundings. A small picture on the mantle of the fireplace depicting a family of unicorns made her pause. “T-Twilight?” she whispered as her mind focused on the little purple unicorn depicted in the center of the family.

“I’m sorry!” a squeaky little voice called out from below Sunset, making her look down to see the little purple unicorn in the picture staring up at her with a worried expression from her place between the couch and the coffee table. “Please don’t banish me Princess! Or throw me in a dungeon, or throw me in a dungeon to wherever you banish me to!”

Despite the confusion over the situation and the little purple filly’s ramblings, Sunset managed to plow through it all when she saw the panic on the child’s face and roll onto her stomach in an attempt to sit up. “Twilight Sparkle?”

The little unicorn flinched at the name, as if Sunset was going to bring down a hammer on top of her head. But after a few seconds, she tilted her head up and opened one eye. “Y-Yes?”

Although she didn’t understand what was going on, Sunset remembered the last time she had seen Twilight frazzled to such a degree. They had been trapped underneath a stage with no way out, and the princess had been curled up into a ball over near the wall. Seeing that level of panic in a filly made Sunset throw away all the questions about what was going on to the side and search for the fastest possible way to calm her down.

She could deal with her own problems and the mounting confusion later. Right now, Twilight needed help.

“Oh, did I faint again?” Sunset asked softly before she reached down and took the purple unicorn in her hooves to lift her up. Then she pushed herself around into a more human sitting position, and laid Twilight down next to her pony style. “I’m sorry for scaring you so much Twilight. Celestia’s been telling me I haven’t been eating enough, and...like an idiot, I haven’t been listening to her.”

As the little filly started to calm down, Sunset fought to keep her face frozen in an imitation of her mother’s usual caring looks. However, her thoughts were anything but.

WHAT THE HELL? Twilight Sparkle. HOW IN THE HELL IS TWILIGHT SPARKLE SITTING IN FRONT OF ME RIGHT NOW?

The tingling in the back of her mind told Sunset that the little filly in front of her wasn’t some strange look alike or magical construct/clone. The Twilight sitting in front of her was the same one that she had met from before.

She was real.

Which meant that everything that happened on the other side of the mirror was real.

But...HOW? Sunset mentally screamed.

How could she be real? How could she be here? How could she be so...young?

Even if she was real, Twilight Sparkle should have been two, maybe three years younger than Sunset was. Not some pre-school filly with baby fat still on her cheeks!

Sunset closed her eyes and performed a calming technique that Celestia had shown her many years ago when she was just a filly. The alicorn took all the questions in her mind, all the screaming thoughts and everything weighing her down, and pushed them away. They would come back eventually, but at the moment, Sunset could focus on what was really important.

Once she was calmed down, Sunset looked back to the little unicorn. “Are you okay? You looked pretty worried when I woke up.”

“I...I thought I...did something wrong?” Twilight mumbled, looking away from the alicorn as she did.

Sunset did her best to copy her mother’s laugh. “Well I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re wrong. Being overly adorable is not a crime,” she said, making Twilight blink at her in confusion before a thought occurred to Sunset. “And uh...where’s Shining Armor?”

With Twilight as panic stricken as she was, Sunset wonder what the hell that idiot was thinking, living the poor girl alone with an unconscious alicorn. Hell, leaving her alone at all seemed like a crime in and of itself!

“Well...um...I’m not really sure,” Twilight said hesitantly. “Princess Cadance started calling for me to get my brother while she was in the bathroom and-”

“Nevermind,” Sunset cut her off before the amount of coincidence could build up to the point of mind boggling. The stallion she had met apparently being Twilight’s OLDER BROTHER was bad enough.

Which made Sunset’s thought’s shift back to wondering how Twilight could be so young. She had seen the princess as an adult, and it hadn’t been some hallucination. Otherwise, the power sleeping within the alicorn wouldn’t have done what it did, or even exist in all likelihood. The Magic of Friendship that had laid dormant since her arrival had reacted to the filly.

Ugh, I’m going to start chasing my tail if this keeps up, Sunset told herself.

Thankfully, the sound of a door opening and hooves racing down the stairs to her right stopped any further thoughts. “Sunset! Sunset are you alright? Shining Armor said-” Cadance yelled as she ran into the room in a panic, a worried expression on her face. She stopped when she came into the room, and let out a loud sigh of relief.

As much as Sunset would have loved to blame her fainting spell on Cadance’s tampering with the magical object Shining’s friends had used, she needed to keep up the story she made up to stop Twilight’s panic attack. So, the amber alicorn just sighed at the pink one’s worry before speaking. “I’m fine Cadance, I just...haven’t been eating enough, apparently.”

“You’ve been skipping meals?” Cadance asked a second before the worry on her face turned to a frown. “Sunset! You know what Princess Celestia said! An alicorn needs nearly three times the food a regular pony does!”

Despite the fact that her mother had been hovering around Sunset and practically shoving food down her throat at lunchtime, the amber alicorn managed to keep from snarking Cadance’s concern into its proper place. It took a great deal of biting the inside of her cheek to keep her mouth from opening, but Sunset forced herself to stay silent in front of the little unicorn.

The last thing she wanted was to blow up and scare Twilight again. The poor little filly had been frightened enough for one day.

Once she had herself under control, Sunset took in a deep breath and glanced at the clock on the wall to see that it was a few minutes before eleven. “So let’s go get something to eat,” she said before looking around and noticed the missing ponies that weren’t just out of her field of vision. Shining was at the top of the stairs, but all the others were just gone. “Uh, what happened to the rest of the nerd herd?”

As Shining Armor made his way downstairs, Twilight answered the question. “Shiny’s friends ran away as fast as they could when you fainted because they thought that you had died and didn’t want to get in trouble.”

Sunset looked over to her stallion and...blinked as she remembered him outside her cell, hopelessly outmatched but still willing to attempt a rescue. Then came the feel of his body in her pony-arms, and...the kiss.

While Sunset had definitely experienced better kissers in her life, kissing Shining Armor was...different, somehow. More enjoyable. He had turned to putty in her hooves, and it had felt wonderful.

But, Sunset wasn’t about to let herself become one of those… “Flash Sentry was asking about me?!” Twilight said with far too much enthusiasm for a pony turned human asking about naturally-born naked ape.

After a quick glance to the child laying next to her, Sunset moved her focus back to Shining Armor and masked her attraction with a deadpan expression. “Real loyal bunch of friends you got there Shiny.” Abandoning friends when the going gets tough was looking to be a habit of high schoolers, no matter their world.

“Yeah...sorry about that,” he apologized for them with a lowered head. “I even had to put you on the couch by myself.”

“From the way he was straining, you’re a lot heavier than you look,” Twilight added.

Behind the stallion, Cadance smirked and looked over to Twilight. “It’s all that hidden muscle of hers.”

Sunset winced. She hadn’t meant to make Shining feel bad! Which probably meant...she was going to have to just brush off those three running out on her like it was no big deal.

Which...she supposed it wasn’t. It wasn’t as if the three of them were any friends of hers.

Although, it did piss her off that they left Shining to clean up the mess. The poor guy really needed someone with some backbone to look after him. The fact that Sunset fit that role perfectly was just a bonus to top off his personality and attractiveness.

A giggle escaped from Cadance’s mouth. “Well, as somepony who’s been on the wrong end of Sunset having a bad day, I can sympathize them wanting to get the heck of out Dodge Junction,” she said before looking around. “So um...are we eating lunch here? Twilight Velvet and Night Light said I only had to look after Twilight until you guys were done downstairs, and that was only supposed to be until twelve-thirty. One at the latest.But you’re done now, so...”

Sunset rolled her eyes and glanced at Twilight for a second, wondering how in the hell had someone thought the pink princess was qualified to look after someone as important as the purple unicorn. Cadance was a nice friend, but...Sunset wasn’t about to trust her with the future of Equestria.

“Shiny, where are your parents anyway?” she asked. It wasn’t what Sunset would call usual for adults to just up and leave in the middle of the day.

“Astronomer’s guild meeting. They work at night, so all the paperwork has to be done when the sun’s up,” the white unicorn said before he looked around at the three mares. “But, uh...Mom did give me some money to get some food for Twily.”

The unspoken question made Sunset snort and roll her eyes. She wasn’t about to let some guy pay for her food like a human girl. “Oh please, as if you could afford the bill Cadance and I would run up,” she said with a smirk. “Now come on, we’ll take you guys to lunch.”

It took all of Cadance’s self control not to grin as she observed Shining Armor walking down the street a pace ahead of her, and a foot behind the other alicorn as Sunset carried the little purple filly on her back while the two of them talked about an obvious topic in hushed whispers. As for the male under Cadance’s observation, Shining Armor hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Sunset’s plot since she and Twilight moved in front of them.

Not that Cadance could blame the stallion. Sunset did have a nice rear. While not the perfect match of plumpness and muscle, it definitely got the job done in the looks department. And the way she seemed to be waving it around subconsciously drew the attention of anypony behind her. As long as that pony was into bigger mares.

Luckily for Sunset, it seemed Shining Armor was one of those ponies. Not only that, he had the proper amount of submissiveness to accept Sunset as the pony holding the reigns in the relationship. The position that Sunset’s dominating personality would demand she have for any relationship to work.

Cadance just hoped that her little stunt had also proven to Sunset that Shining Armor wasn’t some doormat, and made the alicorn respect the smaller unicorn a little bit more. If it had managed to do that, then her little ploy would have at least accomplished something in the ballpark of what she had intended.

But it wouldn’t matter much if Shining Armor didn’t seize on the opportunity in a few days. Not at the moment though, Cadance didn’t want to ruin Twilight’s endorsement of her older brother to Sunset. Which she hoped the little filly would get around to after she stopped fangasming over what Sunset had done.

Something Cadance had to admit, was pretty impressive considering the spell would have made everything be like the real world. And that kiss afterwards had been…

Cadance kicked that train of thought off the tracks before it could go anywhere. The last thing she needed was to have her wings pop out in the middle of the street.

Even if Shining had looked so adorable in Sunset’s forelegs that any mare would have squealed with delight…

Even if Sunset had been the perfect picture of a strong, heroic princess that would make anypony desire her...

Cadance blinked, and shook her head to try and get the image of Sunset shoving Shining to the ground before she moved in to kiss the stallion and… Cadance closed her eyes, and took a breath. She needed to focus on something else before her thoughts got too wild.

“Math tutoring,” the pink princess said. She could come to Shiny's house under the guise of needing to be tutored, and coach him for the next phase of wooing Sunset Shimmer.

When no response came, she looked over to Shining Armor, and frowned just a little. His eyes were still stuck on Sunset’s swaying tail.

So, since that seemed to be the only thing on his mind at the moment…

“She’s got a nice plot, huh?” Cadance asked as she did her best to keep her mind on task.

Shining Armor nodded absently. “Yeah.”

With no other response, Cadance decided she needed to up the dosage on the socially unacceptable part of the discussion. “Bet you just want to bury your hooves between those cheeks, or grab into it with your hooves until you can feel it in your frog.”

“Mmmmhmm,” the dazed stallion replied.

“I don’t really think it’s a cushy as it seems tough,” Cadance told him. “I mean, just look at the rest of her. Big wings, thick legs, long horn. So there’s probably a good deal of muscle in her haunches, with a thin layer of fat that’s just enough to cover it up and make it seem like her rear could be a pillow. Not like mine, perfect mix of what a pony needs in her rump, right here.”

Finally, something seemed to get through to the stallion. He actually turned away from Sunset’s plot. “Well that’s just your opin-” Shining said when he turned to see just whom he was talking to, and froze.

Cadance stopped as well, and smiled. “Relax Shiny, I’m well aware of the fact that physical beauty and lust are part of the whole ‘falling in love’ thing,” she assured the stallion. “And I’m well aware you have more on your mind than my best friend’s plot. Why do you think I worked so hard to set the two of you up?”

“Um...t-thanks,” he said before looking down at the street with a face that was quickly pinking. Once again, Cadance had to stop herself from squealing. Shining Armor really was just too cute sometimes.

After taking a second to see that Sunset and Twilight were getting further ahead, she decided to get a little bit more relationship advice in. “Okay so, bad news is, the O&O plan didn’t quite go off without a hitch,” she told him. “Although...it wasn’t a complete failure either. Sunset likes you, and she knows you’re willing to at least try to be heroic for her. And a guy willing to bite off more than he can chew for his girl, that’s pretty fall-forable.”

“Uh, is that even a word?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cadence gave the stallion a half-lidded look. “It is if a princess says it is.”

The less-than-patient tone did its work, and Shining Armor nodded. “Good point.”

“Now,” Cadance went on. “It’s a bit early, but it looks like we’re going to be moving onto the second phase of my three-trot program: the endorsement.”

Shining Armor blinked in confusion. “Uh...so now I have to advertise something?”

Once she had restrained the urge to both slap Shining Armor and daww at the stallion’s adorable cluelessness, Cadance took a deep breath. “No. This is about somepony endorsing you. And since your three friends are...less than reliable sources of girl talk, that is your only hope,” she said before pointing to said hope.

“Um-”

“I’m pointing at your sister,” Cadence told him before Shining Armor could make some other clueless-yet-cute comment about how her hoof was in the general direction of Sunset’s posterior. “Baby siblings know everything about their older brothers, and they will not shut up about them given half the chance. So just shut up and let her talk.”

Shining Armor looked back to his little sister with worry. “But uh...what if she says something embarrassing and makes me look stupid?”

A deep seeded anger buried miles within the depths of Cadance’s soul crawled its way to the surface and made itself known on the Alicorn of Love’s face when Shining Armor spoke his worries. “Shining, so you remember our little talk the day we started this little journey together?”

Despite some of the odd looks she was getting from the other ponies as Sunset walked down the street with the filly on her back, Twilight was enjoying herself immensely. The amber princess was everything that the purple filly had expected from royalty. Smart and funny, gentle and kind, powerful and strong, and yet she didn’t seem to be as intimidating as anypony in such a position should have been.

She was nice! Really nice. She didn’t just half-way listen to Twilight the way most adults who weren’t her parents tended to, and actually talked back to her directly. Not to mention she was a powerful magic user that easily fit within the ninth circle of magic, the outermost level a pony could achieve! It was almost like having another Shining Armor, only...a mare...who actually knew magic.

“So you want to go to Celestia’s school, huh?” Sunset asked as they continued down the street while Twilight looked over the alicorn's shoulder.

The little unicorn nodded vigorously at the mention of her dream, another things Sunset apparently took seriously instead of just patting Twilight on the head and saying such an ideal was cute. “Yes,” she said before the reality of the situation came crashing down on her and the impossibility of it all made Twilight sad. “But...I don't think that I'll get in.”

All of a sudden, the easy ride she had been experiencing came to an abrupt end. The whole world seemed to lurch as Sunset stopped her smooth trotting in an instant and halfway spun around to face Twilight with wide eyes. “SAY WHAT?”

Twilight winced from Sunset shouting in her ears. “W-Well, I heard it’s really hard to get into, and even if I could, there’s also a big tuition and I don't know if Mom and Dad would be able to afford it!” They might have been well-off, but that was a long way from the level of rich the Canterlot elite were. Although she didn’t knew the exact numbers, Twilight’s investigation into Celestia’s School had shown that only a few non-Canterlot unicorns were allowed in thanks to a special level of talent with magic.

And although Shining said Twilight was coming into her magic a lot earlier than most fillies, that didn’t mean she was good enough attend the most prestigious school in Equestria. Fast didn’t necessarily mean better after all.

“Which Celestia would have taken care of,” Sunset mumbled for some reason Twilight didn't understand.

The little unicorn blinked when she felt an aura of magic surround her and Twilight floated around until she was face to face with the alicorn. It looked like Sunset was trying to figure something out as she studied Twilight like the unicorn was some kind of laboratory specimen. Then, her face evened out as Sunset came to a decision. “You don't need to be worrying about stuff like that,” the princess told her.

As Sunset put her on the ground, after saying exactly what Twilight's parents always did, the purple unicorn sighed and hung her head as the alicorn turned to walk away. “I know that means I'm not going to get in and there's nothing I can do about it.”

Once again, Sunset looked back at Twilight and seemed to weigh a really important decision for about three seconds before replying. “Because there’s nothing for you to worry about,” she said. “Even if, by some freakish anti-miracle, Celestia doesn't take you as her student, then...I’ll pay for you to get in.”

The world seemed to stop for a second. Twilight’s mouth dropped at hearing the news. Even as young as she was, Twilight knew that the amount of bits Sunset was talking about was astronomical! But, she was willing to just hoof them over, just like that.

Then, Sunset’s mouth curved upwards into a little smile. “Of course, that means you're going to have to pass the entrance exam.”

With that, Twilight’s dreams of academia came crashing down. The entrance exam! She had been so caught up in getting over the first hurdle to her dreams that she had completely forgotten about the second one!

How was she supposed to get past that? Even if Sunset paid for everything, it wouldn't matter if Twilight couldn’t get in!

“What's wrong now?” Sunset asked in an irritated tone that made Twilight tense up.

Then, the lavender unicorn sighed and hung her head. “Thankyou for the offer Princess Sunset, but it looks like you won't need to waste your bits on me,” Twilight said. “Even if you did, I don't think I could get in. It probably takes a special type of unicorn to pass the exam.”

Sunset gave Twilight a half-lidded expression. “You know Twilight, there really is some as being too modest,” she said before sighing and reaching up to rub the space between her eyes with a hoof. “But if you're going to freak out over that stupid test...I suppose I can tutor you or something.”

The offer from the generous alicorn had Twilight gazing up at her in awe. “You’d do that for me?”

Sunset shrugged and looked back to where Shiny and Princess Cadance were still walking up to where the two mares were waiting for them. “Well, you wouldn't be the worst pony I've tutored.”

“Why’re you looking at me like that?” Cadance asked as she approached the pair of magical geniuses.

Five minutes after she had made the offer to tutor Twilight, the amber alicorn was starting to wonder if that had been the smartest decision. Sunset still had no idea what the hell was going on, or how fix it. If there was even anything broken, that is.

Which of course there had to be!

Twilight was just a filly for crying out loud! How could there not be anything wrong if a basic fact of the universe was so messed up?

By being her tutor Sunset would have an excuse to be near the purple unicorn and figure out what was going on. Not that stopping the poor kid from crying hadn't been her main motivation for making the offer to Twilight. Sunset hated the fact that foals could make her rationality just get up and walk away so easily.

“Uh, are you sure this is the right place?”

Shining Armor’s question killed Sunset’s introspection, and made her look up to see that they had arrived at the intended destination. Although, she supposed that the colt’s nervousness was understandable. The place did look pretty impressive from the outside with its top-notch architecture.

The Gilded Truffle was the premiere restaurant in Canterlot. So exclusive that it actually boasted about refusing to seat Prince Blueblood some odd number of years ago. Unfortunately, the way Sunset had learned about it was when the brat had come to complain to Celestia and demand that all of the staff be tried and banished for high treason.

Ever since then, she had wanted to try it out. But the life of a deity’s student was hard, and she never really found the time.

“Wait a second, I know this place,” Cadance spoke up. “Sunset, we don't have a reservation.”

The amber alicorn looked away from the marble building with its golden dome of a roof, designed in the classic pegasi style and made with the most white marble around. “So?”

After the pink alicorn give her a raised eyebrow, Sunset rolled her eyes and headed to the doors. “Just follow my lead.”

She walked past the bushes guarding the walkway up to the entrance and went through the golden doors to where the host was standing behind his stand with the book showing which seats were taken. Most of which Sunset knew were empty. The Gilded Truffle took pride in the fact that they never had a full house and could still afford to turn customers away. “I’d like a table for four please.”

He was a light brown stallion with a slick black mane. “Name of the reservation?” the pony asked with one of those snooty accents that also said ‘I’m better than you’. Not Canterlot, something from Prance...maybe.

Sunset took a moment to look at the purple filly standing next to her left hand leg, and smirked before she turned her attention back to the stallion. “Oh! I’m afraid I don't have a reservation,” she said in a slightly distressed voice.

“Then you do not have a table,” the stallion replied without even looking up at her.

Sunset cleared her throat. “Sir,” she said again to make the stallion look up at her. When he did, the alicorn dropped the fake sweetness in her voice and spread her wings out quickly enough to make a short-lived, wind whipping breeze that ruined the stallion’s combed mane. “Do you have a table for us now?”

Two minutes later, Sunset followed the stallion through the main dining area, towards the small table in the center of it all along with her party. From the corner of her eye, Sunset watched the other ponies of Canterlot’s social elite look at her with a bit of surprise, and her ears picked up whispers of ‘are those the new princesses I’ve heard about?’ and the like.

As soon as they sat down, Cadance gave the other alicorn a glare from the seat across from her. “I’m pretty sure that this constitutes an abuse of power.”

“Are you kidding me?” Sunset replied with a deadpan expression. She looked over to the rest of the ponies at her table. “I’m just trying to get us a meal at a nice restaurant. Shiny, Twily, what do you two think? Back me up here.”

After he stopped glancing around at everypony else in the room, dressed in some of the finest clothes Canterlot had to offer, Shining Armor looked back to Sunset. “I think we’re a little underdressed.”

The comment had Sunset glancing all around at all the ponies looking at her out of the corner of their eyes while trying to go unnoticed. Even though there wasn’t a dress code for the restaurant, because Sunset doubted ponies had ever heard of such a thing, each and every mare had on a fancy dress or gown of some sort, while the miles wore a tie at the very least. In contrast, her entire group was butt naked.

Yeah well...one of the greatest ways to show political power is by flaunting the fact that you don’t have to follow the same rules as everybody else, Sunset told herself. And the upper crust of Canterlot did need to see for themselves there was a new alicorn in town. Just walking around on the street wouldn’t really do that. So, it was a win all around as far as Sunset was concerned.

Twilight looked down at the extremely thick menu in front of her, flipping through a chapter's worth of pages. “I think we should have gone somewhere that had food I can pronounce without having to resort to my phonetic lessons.”

With her support quickly diminishing, Sunset found herself in a sour mood. She rolled her eyes at the whole thing and let out a breath of aggravated air to keep from exploding at the deserters. “Try to do something nice, and this is the thanks I get.”

“Don't you mean try to show off?” Cadence asked with a little smile that the old Sunset would have removed with a fireball. One that the pink alicorn would have been able to duck at least.

Sunset snorted. “Says the girl that probably scared Shining Armor half to death.”

The stallion in question looked up from his menu. “Actually, I was too worried about you to be scared for myself.”

A second later, Sunset felt her cheeks heat up and she grabbed the menu in her magic to hide her blush. It didn't help that her mind betrayed her and called up the memory of her lips locking with Shining Armor’s again, the taste of his mouth, the feel of his tongue rubbing against hers, how she had held him in her forelegs. Oh how she wanted to experience all of that again, and take it much further.

Even though Sunset knew her increased attraction to Shining had a lot more to do with the fact that the adrenaline rush to her body mixed with the fear for her friend and stress it produced to create an increased short-term attraction than anything else, the alicorn still couldn’t deny the fact that she wanted the unicorn now more than ever. Although, it hadn’t hurt that he had been willing to risk life and limb for her. If anything, those two things combined just made Sunset sure that her desires for Shining Armor weren’t just the product of a lonely alicorn that had lost all of her friends and was finally about to get some nookie the way her species had originally been intended to bang.

Really need to stop thinking about this crap before I start wishing I had worn some pants, Sunset thought as she shifted her plot around on the little pillow that served as a chair. Following her own advice, the amber alicorn began to read through the menu and see what she wanted to eat.

The pages in front of her were a mishmash of multicultural cuisine. Thanks to keeping and freshness spells, any restaurant that could hire a unicorn skilled in such things allowed them to keep any number of exotic foods without the worry that their taste would degrade thanks to prolonged storage in a freezer. Because of that, the Gilded Truffle could boast the ability to serve any food no matter how exotic, and do so without serving meals that suffered from severe freezer burn and loss of taste.

So, Sunset wasn't worried about the fact the menu in front of her was nearly equal in size to a human phonebook. Although, finding a pony substitute to some of the things she had gotten used to eating over the past three years turned out to be harder than she had originally intended. It seemed Equestria was completely without steak, or any kind of steak stand-in.

Once she had gotten used to the idea of eating meat thanks to the fact it had been the cheapest thing on most menus for the amount of nutritional value it provided, Sunset had found she rather enjoyed it. Oat burgers were close, but...they just didn’t have the same amount of fatty goodness.

But, sitting around with the filly version of her best friend was not the time to get all weepy about the loss of her omnivore status. She needed to do the nerd thing and observe the unknown. “Hey Twilight, what looks good to you?” the amber alicorn asked as she looked up from the food dictionary.

The little unicorn replied without tearing her attention away from the menu. “After a brief study of the ingredients, prices, and visual aids...I think I’m going to try the quesadilla,” she said.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the odd choice, but decided not to say anything before going back to her menu to find something she liked to eat these days. After a week, the alicorn was finding out that primates and ponies had some very different taste buds, and nothing tasted like it should. Which was something she should have expected after three years of getting contaminated data from a primate tongue, but that still didn’t mean Sunset couldn’t be sore about how some of the foods that were the same on both worlds were now unappealing to her when she had gobbled them down before.

Then came the pink alicorn’s order. “I’ll have the fettuccini alfredo, a cooked potato, two garden salads, an order of steamed carrots, and maybe a chocolate mousse for desert,” Cadance said after considering things for a bit.

When Shining Armor looked over to Cadence with wide eyes, Sunset let out a sigh before taking a look at the page Twilight was reading on her menu. No need to let Shining think Cadance was the only pony at the table with an impossible appetite. “Hmm, think I’ll have the bean salad, a hay wrap, a quesadilla of my own, an order of fried okra on the side, and….oh, the bread pudding sounds good,” she said before leaning over to Twilight. “We can share if you want.”

After Twilight smiled back at her, Sunset glanced back at Cadance to see the other alicorn was giving her an odd look. It was the kind of look that a pony gave to something they couldn’t quite figure out, and was going to explode at any moment. “I thought you didn’t do foals.”

The question brought an embarrassed blush to Sunset’s face, and she quickly looked over in Twilight’s direction for a fraction of a second before turning her attention back to Cadance. “Yeah...well, I guess Twilight’s just special.”

“Sunset said she’d tutor me in magic Shiny!” Twilight suddenly announced, making the other unicorn look up from his menu.

“W-What?”

The expression on Cadance’s face grew from a smile to a knowing-grin. “Oh, so you’ll be going over to Shining’s house to tutor his sister, huh?”

Easily reading what the pink alicorn was really saying with that comment, Sunset groaned and frowned just a bit at Shining Armor. “Hurry up and pick out your order! The waiter is coming.”

A minute later, the waiter came and left with their drink orders and a long list of food filling his ticket. Shining Armor ended up ordering some rice dish with fruit on top.

As the lull that came with needing to wait for their food, Cadance actually struck up a conversation with Twilight about her brother for some stupid reason that Sunset couldn’t figure out. Although she only followed it halfheartedly, the amber alicorn was glad to know that Twilight practically idolized Shining Armor.

If she hadn’t...well...it would have been a real shame if Sunset had needed to leave him laying in a ditch somewhere.

Capable of crawling out on his own of course.

Eventually.

Even if it would have been a crime to mess up his cute face with its adorable smile.

The sound of Cadance and Twilight sharing a laugh as the purple unicorn finished some silly story made Sunset look over at the two. But instead of comment on it, Sunset found her thoughts slowly drifting back to the need to make sense of the situation.

So she quickly crammed them back down and looked over to Shining Armor. “Hey Shiny, here’s something I don’t get. How come you didn’t apply for entry into Celestia’s school?”

Shining took a second to look over at Twilight, and then back to the princess-to-be. “Not enough money,” he told her when his little sister went back to talking with Cadance. “But, my parents have been saving up and a friend of my Mom’s hired her as an editor for some books she’s getting published, so Twilight will be fine.”

“Fine about what?” the little unicorn asked, making Shining Armor freeze in his seat.

Fortunately for the stallion, their waiter chose that moment to arrive with their food. All of their food. Getting salad with the main course may have been normal for Equestrians, but Sunset found it just another one of the quirks she was having to adjust to. Not nearly as bad as the fact nearly every male on the planet went about with their junk almost on display, or how a stiff breeze could remind Sunset of her own nudity, but it was still something that the past three years of her life said were wrong.

And it was my life, Sunset told herself as she fixed her gaze on Twilight. The purple pony proved what the alicorn had experienced really happened.

After their plates were levitated in front of them, with the winged ponies orders taking up most of the table, Sunset looked back up to Cadance with a little smile. She was already planning to stiff the pink alicorn with the check since her own royal expense account would only come into being after she actually became royalty, but her best friend still deserved a little bit of revenge for the way she scared Shining Armor like she did at the start of this whole mess. “Okay Cadance, remember. No hooves or wings when eating.”

Cadance frowned at Sunset for a second, but rolled her eyes and picked up a fork with her magic before she dug into her salad and began shoveling the greens into her mouth. The other alicorn’s technique was a little iffy, but she was improving. The utensil only shook with as much force as a 7.0 earthquake would have caused.

Once she had taken a bite of her own salad, something Sunset was happy to find tasted much better as a pony than as a human, the amber alicorn looked over to Twilight and found her glaring at the cheesy thing on her plate. Her whole body looked tense, and Sunset found herself dreading the announcement that Twilight had pulled something.

“Do you need some help, Twilight?” Sunset asked cautiously. If the purple unicorn was anything like Cadance, the fact she was having problems moving things with her horn was probably a massive embarrassment.

Twilight’s whole body shook, and a tiny spark made its way out of her horn. “N-No. I’ve almost...GOT IT!”

As she spoke, a purple glow surrounded Twilight’s food, and sent the quesadilla flying off her plate to collide with the little unicorn a second later. The resulting impact knocked Twilight off of her pillow, and sent her rolling around on the floor in a panic. “EEEEK! SHINY HELP! IT’S TRYING TO EAT ME!”

The walk back to the palace was made in silence for the most part. Although Cadance tried to start a few conversations with the other alicorn, Sunset’s mind was too busy with trying to understand what was going on. So, comments that her friend made involving Twilight’s level of adorableness or Shiny’s attractiveness were only halfway listened to.

After all that time spent with her, the only thing Sunset was sure of was that the purple unicorn was Twilight Sparkle. She was bright. She was overly critical of herself. She was a genuinely good pony. Even though her age was different than what it should have been, and she had a few odd quirks thanks to that, every cell in Sunset’s body along with the Magic of Friendship that had once again resumed full dormancy told her that the little filly was indeed her best friend.

As for how such a thing could have been possible, Sunset had to admit her preliminary theories were...lacking. Her first idea to explain the discrepancy in Twilight’s age was that Sunset’s trip through the mirror must have been one through time as well. A two second trip that ended up taking nearly ten years to finish.

But...there were just too many holes in that theory as well. If going from the pony world to the human one ended up taking ten years, then why hadn't Sunset arrived much too late for the Fall Formal when she came through with Twilight's crown? Why didn't Twilight? Then there was the journal. Her correspondence with Twilight aside, Sunset remembered Celestia writing to her for days after crossing over, and the amber alicorn didn't think that even her mother would have done that for ten years straight.

Then there was the real problem with the whole mess Sunset had found herself in. The why was just a distraction that ate up her concentration. It didn't matter much compared to the implications of Twilight being the age she was.

Those, Sunset had started thinking of on the walk home, and they were terrifying.

“What about me?”

Sunset didn’t even try to push the memory of her dream-turned-nightmare out of her head. Just what would happen to Twilight’s future if the amber alicorn was around? Would she receive the attention she needed from Celestia? Would having Sunset around hurt her in some way? Sunset knew she was hardly the best role model.

Damn it all, why in the hell does this have to be so complicated? Sunset asked herself. Life in Equestria was supposed to be simple!

And then there was the other world… Sunset gulped as she thought about that place, and the obvious solution to Twilight’s problems came to mind. If Sunset left, then all of the obstacles to the future Twilight was supposed to have would disappear.

“Sunset Shimmer, you are to accompany us to the Day Court at once,” a gruff voice announced, ending the alicorn’s thoughts.

“Princess Cadance, excuse us and wait in your quarters until summoned by Princess Celestia.”

The amber alicorn looked up and blinked in confusion at what she saw standing in the palace gates just behind the drawbridge to the palace. Four pegasi guards in golden armor with bright white coats surrounded a dark blue unicorn with a square-cut brown beard. While the four flying guards liked much the same as the rest of the useless equines that stood around in the hallways, Sunset recognized the odd pony out as somepony of moderate importance.

Hard Line was the captain of the guard. A lifetime military man from a family of proud military men in the lower ranks of the nobility. He was barely important when it came to the social ladder in Canterlot, but he still did his best to act like a big stallion when it came to interacting with his lessers.

Sunset had rubbed the him the wrong way more than once over the fact that she had come from a pair of nobodies and had Princess Celestia’s ear. The fact that she had also become an alicorn a week ago must have really given the old bastard a fit. Which was probably why she hadn’t seen him around the palace since her transformation. He didn’t want to kiss her hoof like a good little toy soldier that he was.

But it wasn’t as if Sunset had any less contempt for the old stallion, or any of his ilk. Born to privilege with only a modicum of talent, the unicorn had managed to waltz his way into the most useless position of prestige available to him. As if Celestia had ever actually needed other ponies to protect her. The whole existence of an Equestrian Princess was based on the alicorns guarding the lives of the other ponies, not the other way around. At best, he was a glorified door opener, alarm sounder, and cannon fodder.

“Can I help you, Captain Line?” Sunset asked as sweetly as she could. Years at CHS had taught her that the best way to piss an authority figure off was to act as innocently as possible when they wanted nothing more than to put her in detention. From what she could tell, he was the same type of creature. Just with four legs instead of two.

“You heard me monster!” Hard Line spat. “In the middle of our circle, NOW!”

Sunset stumbled backwards from the venomous tone the stallion spat at her. Literally spat! The shock of such an act combined with the spittle that flew through the air made the amber alicorn completely lose her train of thought and list thinly veiled insults she had been working on since the conversation had begun.

Cadance was quick to come to Sunset’s defense. She stomped up to the group of ponies and glared at them. “How dare you speak that way to her!”

“Stallions,” Hard Line called out to the gate guards standing at the entrance to the palace, near the drawbridge cranks. “Escort the pink pony back to her room and hold her there until told otherwise by myself, or the Princess Herself! You, come with me. Now.”

The glower Sunset gave the other pony was just a bit short of setting his coat and mane of fire. Although her memories of the nobody were certainly foggy, the idiot had never been so brazen with his dislike of her before. “I hope you enjoyed your cushy job private,” the alicorn spat as she fell in line. “Because after I do meet with my Mother, you can expect to be reassigned to the frozen north to watch water freeze!”

Hard Line gave a disgusted snort at Sunset’s threat. “After today, I’ll be given a raise.”

On the way to Celestia’s throne room, Sunset had to fight no to stomp cracks in the ground as she was pushed from behind all the way through the hallways by the guard behind her. But it wasn’t to hurry her, any attempt to increase her speed was met by another bump to her front as Hard Line demanded she slow down.

Just keep calm Sunset. After this, you can have them all dishonorably discharged, the future princess told herself. Even though Sunset knew it was mostly a vindictive thought, she didn’t care. Anypony that treated another pony in such a way didn’t deserve to wear the uniform of a guard.

And the fact that Shining Armor wanted to join the ranks of such...bullies, made Sunset clench her teeth. The poor colt deserved so much better than to spend the rest of his life as a member of the loser patrol. Although...the idea of him having to do anything she told him to was certainly appealing to Sunset.

“Warm my sheets soldier,” Sunset mentally ordered as she saw herself back in her bed with Shining Armor standing beside her. “And then, you can earn that title of first class private.”

Another bump to her butt killed the fantasy before it could get steamy, and Sunset forced herself to once again focus on something that wasn’t trying to push itself into her rear. She looked around for some of the palace staff, or perhaps even the maid who cleaned her own rooms to give a friendly wave to.

Only, while looking at the ponies she passed, Sunset noticed it wasn’t just the guards that were acting oddly. Maids would freeze upon seeing the procession, and quickly scamper away. Sunset had to wonder what was going on with that until she took a little time to examine a few of the later ones faces, and saw them fill with fear. That bit of information only left her confused.

“What’s going on?” she asked in genuine concern.

Hard Line spun around, and Sunset was almost certain she saw one of his hooves twitch as he put conscious effort into stopping it from doing something even he knew was a very stupid idea. “I said quiet! Open your mouth one more time and I’ll shove a bridle on it so tight your teeth will hurt!”

After restraining her urge to break the stallion’s face, Sunset lowered her ears in a show of submission. For the rest of the walk, the alicorn kept her mouth shut.

It was a lot harder when the doors to the throne room opened and her jaw wanted to fall open.

Inside, nearly fifty ponies from several sections of Canterlot's governing classes were assembled. As Sunset walked down the carpet to where her mom was sitting on her throne with a tight expression, she noticed that it wasn’t just nobles that were in attendance either. Elected officials and several of the more outspoken ponies when it came to certain things in government. There were also a great deal more guards than there should have been stationed between her and the crowd. On top of which, over two dozen pegasi hoved in the air above her head and perhaps just as many unicorns lined the carpet she walked on up to Celestia’s throne.

Each and every one of them looked at her with either fear, or outright hostility, and Sunset found herself having flashbacks to what happened at CHS both after the Fall Formal, and when the school had turned on her during the incident involving what happened on MyStable. The oddity of the situation made the unicorn look up to her mother with worry. “What’s going on?”

Although being summoned to stand before Celestia wasn’t something new for Sunset, it was never so public as what she stood in now.

“Sunset Shimmer, evidence has been presented to me that you are in fact a changeling spy,” Princess Celestia announced loudly enough for all the room to hear. “As such, you are to offer irrefutable proof of your identity, or measures will be taken to ensure the threat you pose to Equestria is neutralized. As per the edicts enacted after the third changeling war, you are hereby given five minutes to offer proof of your identity, or tell us where the real Sunset Shimmer is in exchange for leniency. Starting now."

In the middle of the throne room, surrounded by guards and over fifty important ponies, Sunset found herself frozen in shock. "W-What?"

Chapter 9: The Trial and Tribulation of Sunset Shimmer

Hushed murmurs spread amongst the crowd, and Sunset’s mouth dropped as if her jaw were made of lead. To accuse another pony of being a changeling was just about the most life-destroying thing that one pony could do to another! Even those that were able to show that they were indeed ponies became emotionally scarred by the experience in ways Sunset had only heard about.

While nobody wanted to talk about it, Sunset knew that there had been more than one pony in the history of Equestria that used such an accusation to remove a political rival. But the fact that someone had dared to try something as stupid as that with her quickly brought Sunset’s emotions to a boil. When she found out the idiot responsible, she was going to roast him alive in front of all of his little friends!

And the fact that Celestia was leading the charge it was...just...wrong!

Really, wrong.

So wrong in fact that it made the alicorn stop for a moment and frown. Okay Sunset, calm down a second, she told herself as both scowled at and scanned the crowd. This...isn’t right. Take a look around. Think for a second and figure out what this is all about.

Somepony accusing her of being a changeling, Sunset might be able to understand. She didn’t exactly have many friends in the Canterlot political arena, and such an accusation was death to such ponies. So...some idiot using such a tactic against her wasn’t completely out of the question.

But Celestia going along with it? That idea was so absolutely preposterous that it made Sunset want to laugh, which also helped to get what was left of her anger under control. So instead of lashing out, she looked around for clues to help her see what was really going on.

Although she had been away from Equestria for several years, Sunset's memory had a few names to go with the faces she could pick out in the crowd of important ponies. However, other than the fact that both members from the house of nobles and commoners were present along with at least three stallions with some military history in their family, Sunset couldn’t see anything else connecting them besides the fact they were all ponies of high political rank or influence.

Celestia looked...unreadable. Which Sunset supposed was a clue in and of itself. Usually, Celesta wore her heart on her sleeve and was genuine to a fault. She wasn't a pony that didn’t let others who knew her know exactly what she was thinking at a glance. It was how Sunset could remember her displeasure so clearly despite all the time they had spent apart. The fact that she wasn’t outright telling Sunset she also bought into this foolishness with a glare, or was treating this whole spectacle like the idiocy that it was with a little smile told the amber alicorn that there was something else going on when it came to her mother.

Then there was Sunset herself. Even though she was surrounded by guards, her horn was still free to cast magic. A dangerous pony like her should have had her horn disabled and her wings bound. But she was still completely free and mobile.

So, a bunch of important ponies and a stupid accusation they can’t really prove, Mom acting all semi-tyrannical, and me being...antagonized without being restrained, Sunset told herself as she remembered the trip to the throne room. Although she couldn’t really see the point to such a farce, Sunset decided to play along for the moment while she worked out what was going on in her head.

The first thing she needed to do was meet with her accuser. That could very well provide another clue. At the very least, she would know who to go after in revenge later on down the road. “Who says that I'm a changeling?” the alicorn demanded with a lot less force than she had meant to. With most of her attention on the crowd as she tried to read it, Sunset had to admit that she wasn’t putting her all into the performance. “If somepony is going to accuse me, then I have a right to know who they are!”

Although the second half of her performance sounded better, Sunset felt there was still something missing. Next time, maybe she needed to add an indignant stomp of her hooves. Making a small earthquake to shake the room and rattle some of the ponies around her would serve them right for all the glares they were giving her.

Unless, all of this really was a test on Celestia's part, and keeping her cool was what Sunset really needed to do to pass it. Ugh, I really hate playing mind games like this.

Above her on the throne, Sunset saw Celestia blink as her expression wavered for a second before she spoke. Although if she tried to form smile, or a frown, Sunset couldn’t tell. “Several ponies have reported strange behavior since you...grew wings,” the princess told her, making Sunset frown on that last part. “In the past week, Dust Bunny, the maid that cleans your room says that you’ve been picking up after yourself much more than usual, and have offered to assist her on multiple occasions when she found you still inside. Numerous guards and outdoor staff reported that you have been practicing lower level spells in the gardens that are well below your skill level for entertainment instead of passing the time reading high level spellbooks as you usually do. Even I have noticed certain…oddities in your behavior over the past several days, such as your fast friendship with my niece, the Princess of Love.”

As the reasons behind all the accusations mounted, Sunset found her sense of self-control slipping bit by bit, until….

“Hehehe Ah hahahaha!” she laughed uncontrollably as ponies around her reacted with nothing but fear and worry.

“She’s laughing!” a noble mare cried out in horror.

“That means we’ve fallen into her insidious trap!” some heavyset stallion to Sunset’s left shouted.

“Guards quickly! STOP HER BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!” another stallion Sunset couldn’t see yelled from the back of the crowd.

The sound of a heavily shoed hoof shifting around on the floor brought Sunset back under control as she looked to see that some of the pegasi around her were actually taking the bystander’s panicked shout as an order! But before she could even move to defend herself, Hard Line let out a shout. “Calm down you idiots! If anypony makes a move towards the accused without my order, you’ll be cleaning the barracks bathroom for the next year!”

“Wha-What the-” Sunset stuttered as she stumbled around, her wings twitched, telling the alicorn to somehow get away from the danger that was all around her. It also allowed the mare to realise something. Whatever was going on, it wasn't some kind of test, or a really bad joke that Celestia was playing on her.

All of the ponies in the hall, they really thought she was a fucking metamorphic bug!

“On you have got to be kidding me!” she shouted at all of the ponies around her. “You think I'm a changeling because I've been NICE FOR A FEW DAYS? ARE YOU ALL COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MINDS?”

A second later, the crowd erupted into a mass of responses.

“The real Sunset Shimmer would never act the way you’ve been!”

“We know what you really are changeling!

“Don't try and confuse us with your words monster!”

Sunset did her best to ignore the taunts. Her time at CHS had been much worse than the crowd of self-important ponies glaring at her across the line of guards. Back in the human world, those had been her friends and other people Sunset had wanted to accept her. The ponies in front of her now, she didn't much care what they thought.

Except for one.

Sunset looked up at her mother. “And you?”

“Pardon?” Celestia replied evenly, her mask still in place.

The fact that she had spoken so...coldly started to make a worry churn in Sunset's gut. “Do you actually think I’m a changeling?” she asked, her voice betraying her and showing the mare’s unease. “After everything that’s happened? You’re supposed to be the one judging all this, right? That’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Well I’ve been with you and Cadance every day for the past week! All you have to do is say not guilty and end this stupid farce!”

“My personal beliefs have no bearing on your burden of proof,” Celestia said evenly before her wings fidgeted, and she moved her eyes ever so slightly away from the smaller alicon without turning her head. “And your time is down to two minutes. So I would suggest you show us something that no changeling can do.”

The big alicorn’s body language told Sunset all she needed to know.

Not wasting a second, the amber alicorn set her mind back on task. Okay so...a crowd of politically important ponies. Sunset may not have known just what connected them all, or their exact reason for being in the throne room, but it was obvious that the show being put on was for them in some way.

No restraints on my magic, she went on as she looked up at her horn. It was another oddity that stood out. Even if Celestia was sitting right in front of her, Sunset knew that her mother would have never allowed something as dangerous as a changeling to walk around unbound. If our magical restraints would even work on one of them. Sunset shook her head to clear out the stray thought. She needed to keep her mind focused.

And a time limit, she finished.

It was the time limit that made Sunset certain about what was going on.

It was a test. Sunset was sure of that. It wasn't the usual kind of test that Celestia tended to administer, but it was a test nonetheless. She didn’t know why, but Sunset could see that clearly. Only...the guards and the crowd were real as far as she could tell. And they weren’t acting.

BUT A TEST OVER WHAT? Sunset mentally yelled. Was she really supposed to prove to them that she wasn’t a changeling? Or was there some deeper purpose? Did Sunset need to refuse to play their game at all? Tell them all how stupid this all was?

“Time's up,” Celestia said.

Sunset's anger boiled over at her mother’s words. “Oh give me a second here!” she shouted before rearing up and stomping her hooves for effect. The room shook from the impact, and became little more than a mass of chaos as the ponies reacted to her outburst. The pegasi surrounding Sunset took to the skies before she heard Hard Line shout in surprise as he fell.

Then, with a cry of “SHE’S ATTACKING!” everypony in the room that wasn’t a member of the military screamed in panic before stampeding towards the direction of the double doors.

As for the guards, the unicorns that had lined the carpet on found themselves trampled by the more important ponies that didn't want to wait for them them to get out of the way. Above, the pegasi were a mess as a few flying officials tried to make their escape into the air like their instincts told them to.

On the ground, Sunset found herself frozen by the reaction her outburst had caused. Despite the fact they had just finished calling for her proverbial head, Sunset winced. Well...that could have gone better.

“ENOUGH!”

Celestia's earsplitting shout that Sunset could feel in her teeth was accompanied by a blinding flash that left every pony in the room surrounded by the golden glow of the white alicorn’s magic. All of them, except for the amber alicorn standing at the center that was surrounded by a gaggle of pegasi in mid-flap.

Then the Princess of Equestria looked down at the other alicorn. “Interesting defense daughter, if a little overboard,” she said before looking up at the rest of the ponies, and frowning. “And as for all of you, I agreed to let you all into this room because as the ponies that help to run this country, I thought you could conduct yourselves in a manner befitting of your station!” she said sternly. Although Celestia’s voice no longer had a deafening level of sound to it, all the ponies in the room could obviously hear her speak. “Instead, you panic over an angry mare putting her hoof down.”

Up on her oversized throne, Celestia sighed. “Sunset, I am sorry that this is what has become of what I thought would be a simple matter to end,” she said sadly before raising her voice. “Now that you have all had a chance to settle down, I would like to direct your attention to something.”

Everypony in the room aside from Sunset were pulled closer to the amber alicorn, thanks to the glow of Celestia’s magic. Most didn’t seem to like it. In fact, several ponies screamed in terror as she did.

“EEEEEEEK!”

“We’re all going to die!”

“Princess Celestia is a changeling too! EQUESTRIA IS DOOMED!”

“I SAID FOR YOU TO BE QUIET!”

Once again, Celestia’s impossibly loud voice made all the ponies in the room shut their mouths, and the princess glared at them while her chair smoldered. “When one of you came to me with your evidence of Sunset Shimmer being a changeling, I was willing to indulge your fears, because simply burying our heads in the sand from such a threat that had existed since Equestria was founded is nothing but foolishness!” she said with a frown. “But what I see before me now makes me wonder if the solution to the threat you all rally against is not nearly as bad as the problem!

“You accuse Sunset of being some kind of monster, the newest princess of Equestria, for what reasons? Because she has become a better pony? Or is it that a single one of you accused her for foolish reasons, and the rest simply followed suit out of fear and more selfish reasons?

“And for those of you that truly think becoming a better pony is reason for suspicion, then I fear for the future of our world, because if any of you should try and act like the ponies you're supposed to be instead of a fearful mob, then anypony who brings himself out of your ranks and decides to think differently must be a changeling in disguise according to your own logic!”

“But-but she was attacking us Princess!” a female voice from the crowd shouted.

Sunset winced and looked down at the spiderweb of cracks in the stone that originated from where she was standing.

A stallion’s voice let out a rough cough, and Sunset looked back to see Hard Line getting back up. “Actually Councilmare Bridle, it appears to me that she was doing exactly what you all wanted her to do,” he said.

Thankfully, all of the ponies remained silent as Celestia paused to make them all face Sunset with her magic. “Thank you Captain. Now, I know you are all quite aware considering your...political company, a changeling may be able to mimic the magic of a unicorn and abilities of a pegasus to some extent, but the strength of a changeling is nothing compared to that of a normal earth pony. Hence why they usually take one of those forms instead of the stronger tribe,” she told all of the assembled equines. “And from the broken floor beneath her, I think that it is obvious that Sunset is far stronger than an average earth pony! Proving that she is not a changeling.”

Even with her name cleared, albeit accidentally, Sunset didn’t feel any better. Once again, there was no vindication of the fact she had proved herself innocent of a crime that she didn’t even commit. It anything, the fact that Celestia was pointing out proof that only appeared because of her anger made the amber alicorn feel...heavy. It was as if the princesses words had placed a weight on Sunset’s back that the strength she had gained since her ascension had no effect on. “Great, I’m not a changeling,” she grumbled. “Can I go now?”

Celestia looked down at her for a moment. “Yes, now that we have ended this little farce. Go to my quarters and wait for me to get done here. There are some things that I need to discuss with you, my daughter.”

It was nearly an hour after Sunset had left that Celestia finished with the last of the assembled ponies she had been needing to have a few extra words with in regards to Strong Withers and his rather inane accusation. Although foolish, Celestia had managed to turn it into something Sunset would find advantageous in the coming years.

Although, the reaction of the ponies to just the perceived threat of a changeling infiltrator disturbed her. Thirty years, and her little ponies were still willing to take up pitchforks and torches at even the hint of the creatures. If the fact that Chrysalis was free became public knowledge, the panic it would create would make what Celestia just witnessed look like nothing.

Thankfully, she knew that Equestria wasn’t the changelings' target this time. They didn't intend to cause chaos or disrupt the daily lives of her ponies. Chrysalis was after Celestia herself. So she could afford a modicum of secrecy. Although, some ponies in the military would need to be informed. Ones far more discreet than the ponies that come before her today. Celestia wasn't about to simply pretend the greatest threat to her nation didn’t exist after all.

The princess sighed at the mess of a situation she had found herself in as she got down off her throne and walked across the red carpet to make her way through the doors of her throne room where her escort was waiting. She took a second to look at Hard Line, and frowned. “Walk with me Captain. The others are dismissed.”

As the pegasi saluted and the stallion fell in line just a head short of Celestia's position, the princess continued to speak. “I understand that you interacted with the ponies that gathered information on my daughter’s recent activities for Councillor Withers, Captain.”

Hard Line nodded. “Yes Princess Celestia,” he said.

“Did you know this was going to happen?” she asked bluntly as she looked back to frown at him. She knew that the stallion had...issues with her daughter. If such thoughts had made him act out against Sunset...

The old guard flinched. “N-No Your Highness. I thought that it was just another personality probe, much in the same line as when Princess Cadance first appeared,” he said. “I apologize for allowing this mess Sunset Shimmer has stirred up with her antagonistic actions to cause you such trouble.”

Celestia looked away from the old stallion to hide her displeasure from him. Cause you such trouble, she repeated in her head. Although the stallion did his job without letting his personal feelings get in the way most of the time, he always had a problem of talking about them to her in private when it was best to keep his mouth shut.

It was just another thing to take care of on the long list of things Celestia had to do to make way for her daughter’s eventual takeover of Equestria. If Sunset was going to carry on in Celestia’s place one day, Hard Line would need to be replaced.

“I remind you that I was the one that had allowed it to go that far and keep Princess Cadance away from the proceedings,” she told the stallion. Testimony from her would have had the crowd turning on its head inside a few minutes, and Sunset needed to learn to stand up for herself without exploding at whatever pony cheesed her off.

Letting it all happen was something Celestia had regretted doing, but...Sunset would benefit from it in the long run, and Celestia was afraid she didn’t have time to teach her how to be a princess properly with as little time as they had left together, waiting for real trouble to make its way to Equestria. A few minor political problems that Celestia could control in case things turned bad would have to do as lessons in experience.

They turned a corner, and the stallion nodded. “Yes, Princess.”

“Did you ever talk with Strong Withers directly?” she asked.

The guard nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. Shortly before the...audience, he came to me and asked if I might help him expose Sunset for what she really was.”

Celestia looked back at the stallion with a raised eyebrow. “You mean he actually believes what he’s saying then?” That came as a bit of a surprise. Celestia didn’t think that the stallion would have been such a pony...even if most of the political support from the more outspoken council members that had been demanding an increased vigilance against the changeling threat for years.

Hard Line took a second, and then shook his head. “He’s an elected politician Highness. What he believes changes more often than the direction of the wind out of the Everfree,” the stallion told her. “And their vision for the future doesn’t go further than the end of their current term. In my opinion they’re all petty, short-sighted fools.”

Being reminded of her guard’s stance on non-noble members of government brought another frown to Celestia’s face. “Yes, I am well aware of your personal beliefs Hard Line,” she told him as they reached her door and she turned around. “What I’m asking you is if you think he really believes that my daughter is actually a changeling, or is it all a poor means of hiding his wishing her gone?”

Put on the spot as he was, the stallion tried to appear as if he was looking at her while his eyes shifted just a tiny bit to the right. It was an old trick for not meeting a superior’s eyes, or looking past something you didn’t want to pay attention to. “In all honesty, Your Highness? I’m not sure. The way he talked about Sunset Shimmer was emotional, but...in a detached way, I suppose. It sounded rehearsed, like a speech.”

“I suppose that makes sense. You are dismissed,” Celestia told him. Then, as the stallion turned to walk away, she called out to him again. “Oh, and Captain, I know that my daughter’s coronation is still a bit off, but you had best get used to calling her Princess Sunset Shimmer, don’t you think? I would hate for a breach of etiquette to further the rift between the two of you.”

The stallion tensed, but looked back to Celestia and nodded. “As you command, Your Highness.”

Once Hard Line was down the hall and around the corner, Celestia looked to her for with trepidation. After an hour of being left alone, Sunset had either calmed down a bit...or had worked herself into a boil.

“Well, no use putting it off any longer,” Celestia told herself before she opened her door and stepped inside her quarters.

As always, the entry room to Princess Celestia’s apartments helped relieve the stress that had been building up after a day of running Equestria, even though there was a good four hours left in it. Even after being alive for so long, the soothing atmosphere of her white walls and paintings that had hung in her room longer than most ponies had been around still made her feel better by being in their presence.

Flames danced in the fireplace on the far wall as the magic in its bricks removed the smoke without a chimney. A few books were strewn out on the floor by the white couch to the right of the fireplace, placed there haphazardly by the amber alicorn currently reading from one of them as she lay down on her belly.

When Celestia shut the door behind her, Sunset looked up from the book she was reading with a frown. It was a Treatise on Ancient Equestrian History, unless Celestia missed her guess. “Oh, you’re here,” the amber alicorn said in a grouchy tone with a half-lidded eyes. “Finally remember I was waiting for you?”

Although not a boil, it seemed as if Sunset’s anger was still simmering. Not that Celestia could blame her. “I had to deal with a few of the more excitable ponies you left in the throne room,” Celestia told her gently.

“Well if you’re looking for an apology-”

“No,” Celestia told Sunset before her daughter could get started on some tirade. “But I’m afraid you won't be getting one from me either.”

Sunset outright frowned at her, and Celestia sighed. “Although...I am willing to give an explanation,” she said before tilting her head just a tad. “Providing you actually need me to explain to you what was going on.”

After getting nothing but a few seconds of silence, Sunset let out an angry growl of a sigh. “So, it was some kind of stupid test after all.”

“Are you sure that’s all it was?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sunset snorted. “What else could it possibly be?” she demanded. “You were sitting there on your throne. You knew I wasn’t a changeling, you sent Cadance away, and you had your stupid guards poke me all the way to the throne room to piss me off so I’d be off guard! To what? See how’d I react? See if I’d go off on you in the middle of a crowd?”

Part of Sunset’s explanation made Celestia frown. “I didn't tell Hard Line to antagonize you like that,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, like your little toy soldier would be stupid enough to pull something like that without you telling him to!” Sunset shot back at her. “Whatever happened to me not being your student anymore, huh?”

Celestia’s mask of serenity broke at the question, and she gave her daughter a pained expression. “Sunset, I…” The Alicorn of the Sun took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She couldn’t let herself get emotional. “Alright. What happened in the throneroom served three purposes. It was a test for you, a test for the leaders of Equestria, and a trap for your enemies.”

Although Sunset continued to scowl at her, the anger in her eyes lessened just a bit. “What do you mean a trap?”

“It has been a week since you’ve become an alicorn Sunset, and ponies in positions of power are taking notice,” she told her daughter before looking around the room for a second and began to return the books Sunset had tossed onto the ground back to their shelves behind the white alicorn. “While you’ve been busy spreading your wings, other ponies have been forming opinions about you. Some apparently didn’t like what they saw, and decided to get rid of you before you started to take an interest in politics.”

Sunset shot to her hooves on the couch. “Then why didn’t you stop them!” she exclaimed. “I remember you saying plenty about Princess Cadance when she first showed up and ponies started asking questions about if a nobody from the sticks was fit to help rule Equestria! Why did you defend her and not me?!”

Oddly, Celestia found that she was glad the anger in Sunset’s tone had increased. Although she supposed because it was good that her daughter had become furious instead of emotionally hurt. “Because Cadance’s anonymity helps protect her from the more...foolish Equestrian politicians. Nopony wants to pick on the poor pink princess that very well may be in over her head,” Celestia explained. “But Sunset Shimmer? She’s been making ponies involved in politics angry since she discovered it.”

The amber alicorn drew in on herself just a tiny bit, and a little sneer appeared on her face. “If this is going to turn into a speech about how I should have been making friends-”

Celestia let out a sniff. “Oh, those fools, I don’t blame you for not wanting to know,” she said. If Sunset had made headway into that crowd, Celestia was certain she would have only gotten worse. At least her daughter had only been hungry for personal power that she could channel through her horn. “But snubbing them completely did give them a reason to distrust and fear you. Thus, they acted against you.”

Some of them, at any rate. Celestia knew that a good many of them had also been reeled into the mob by simple fear of the possibility of a threat to Equestria. But sorting through those would be her job, not Sunset’s. Celestia could at least do that for her daughter.

“In a way you could have stopped,” Sunset added in a loud grumble.

After taking a second to see if Sunset had anything else to say, Celestia nodded. “Yes. But would that have truly helped you in the long run, for ponies who so openly and foolishly call out for your removal to cause you to hide between your mother’s legs?” she asked. “I know throwing you into that mess was harsh Sunset, but the area of Equestrian politics is not as harmonious as the rest of the land it governs. That is something you need to learn if you are to rule over it one day.”

Sunset let out a snort. “Says the princess that’s really going to be running things!” she shouted before jumping down to the floor. “Give me a break Celestia! You talk about all of that crap like it's going to be all beneficial to me, but it’s all just a bunch of stupid nonsense! You’ll still be around long after I’m dead and gone! So why the hay should I get thrown to the wolves and learn to stand on my own four hooves, if all I’m ever going to do is pick up your slack?”

With the conversation taking a dangerous turn, Celestia licked her lips. Part of her wanted to be honest with Sunset on the coming danger of Nightmare Moon’s return, but...Cadance had hardly reacted to the news well, and she wasn’t even Celestia’s heir. “You are my equal Sunset, not my underling,” she said while fighting to keep her voice steady. “You will make your own decrees, and you will stand on your own four hooves.

“But...you’re right in saying that it will not be today,” Celestia told her. “I will deal with the ponies that attempted to manipulate matters in a poor attempt to banish you from Equestria for a time.”

Sunset’s frowned lightened a bit more, becoming one of confusion. “Banish me? I thought changeling suspects had to go through a lot worse than that.”

The question made Celestia raise an eyebrow. “What? You didn’t think that Strong Withers and the rest of his ilk were calling for...physical proof, did you?” she asked. “I would have thrown them off the edge of Canterlot myself for suggesting such a thing. What they called for was your removal from Equestria for five years in order to prove your...intent not to do anypony any harm. Although I’m sure if you had accepted the request, they would have known they could trot all over you when you came back, or simply attempted the same trick again at a later date.

“So when Strong Withers approached me for a second time today with all of his supporters in tow, I decided to give them enough rope to hang themselves,” Celestia told her daughter. “And...I needed to see how the the ponies that thought he spoke the truth would react to the threat of the changeling’s return to Equestria.”

“But why-”

Celestia didn’t let Sunset finish. “Because shortly after my first meeting with the councilor, I visited the place where I imprisoned the changeling queen, and found that she has been free for over a year now.”

The statement stopped whatever Sunset was going to say for a few seconds, if not made her replace it completely. “WHAT?” she shouted, her anger swallowed up by surprise. “You mean those idiots were actually right about something?”

“Yes,” Celestia told her daughter before she sighed and lowered her head to shake it sadly. “And after what I have just seen, such knowledge must be kept from the general public. If word were to get out that Chrysalis is once again free, the panic it would cause would be a disaster unto itself. So, I must ask you to keep this information hidden for the moment.”

Sunset’s expression shifted around as she mulled what Celestia said over. A few seconds after she started, the amber alicorn raised an eyebrow. “You ask me to keep it quiet?”

“I told you that you were my equal Sunset,” Celestia said with a little smile. “If you don’t think my actions are right, then you can always tell me so...not that you ever needed a pair of wings to do that before, mind you. And if you truly don’t think that my actions are for the best, you are well within your authority to act against them. You and Cadance could even outvote me if it came to it.”

“Then why not tell everypony what’s going on?” Sunset demanded. “Panic or not...I mean, not everypony is like that crowd of idiots that wanted to kick me out of the country! And if there is a boogeyman out there somewhere, don’t you think other ponies need to know if their lives are in danger?”

Celestia sighed and nodded her head. “All good arguments.” At least she thought they were if this boogeyman creature was a replacement for changelings. “But at the moment...the only advantage we have over the changelings are twofold. The first of which is that because of this foolishness, I now know that Chrysalis is free much sooner than she expected me to. Perhaps she isn't even aware that I know of it.” Ponies had theorized that the changelings shared a mindscape, but...Celestia knew of no definitive proof of such a thing.

“The second is that I know Chrysalis plans to come after me personally. Knowing that, I can predict her movements and make preparations to counter her actions,” she explained. “And I do not believe that Equestria is in as much danger as you think. If the changelings were to move en mass, they would easily be discovered, disguises or no. I have heard of no such thing as a mass migration in the past year. More than likely, Chrysalis has placed herself outside our borders somewhere, waiting for the perfect moment to strike as she slowly gathers her strength.” The bug was just as long-lived as Celestia after all. What was five, ten or even fifty years to a creature such as her?

Although...she didn’t have time to wait for the changelings to strike if they intended to wait for over a decade. Celestia did not want to leave her daughter an Equestria that was still under the threat of a hostile force. She needed to find them, and quickly.

A thought occurred to the ancient alicorn as she thought of possible hiding places. “Perhaps they have even infiltrated some other country. While I do not know if changelings can mimic griffons, zebras are very much like ponies in appearance,” Celestia said more to herself than to Sunset. She had never known the parasites to trouble other lands, but...that didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility. Perhaps Celestia needed to meet with some of their tribal leaders to see if they had been experiencing the problems changelings tended to bring.

“Ugh,” Sunset grunted before she fell down on her plot with a frown. “So now you’re saying I’ve got evil bugs to worry about on top a bunch of stupid ponies chomping at the bit to get rid of me, plus...you know I start high school on Monday, right?” she demanded as she looked up to Celestia with a frown.

The other alicorn smiled down at her student. “Oh Sunset, nopony ever said being an alicorn was easy,” Celestia told her. “And life isn’t some silly story where all the problems you’re supposed to face just line up and wait their turn. Half a dozen come at you all at once, while another five are always waiting in the wind. But your friends and family will always help you bear your burdens for as long as you need them to.”

Sunset groaned. “Speaking of which, does Cadance know about all of this...stuff?”

“Not yet,” Celestia said with a shake of her head. “I was thinking the two of us could break the news to her together.”

After taking a moment to rub her head with a hoof, Sunset stood back up and slowly walked to the door Celestia was standing in front of. As she came next to the bigger alicorn, Sunset looked back up to her mother. “One question though...did you ever...believe I was a changeling, like they said?”

The question of such a sensitive topic made Celestia fight to hold her composure. She looked and saw the fear in her daughter’s eyes, and took a moment to steel herself before looking back to the fire dancing in its place. “Fear is a powerful thing Sunset. More ponies than you can ever imagine will believe a lie out of the fear that it is true. It dulls the mind and causes brash action the likes of which you have not seen,” she said before giving her daughter a guilty look. “And when faced with the fear that I might have lost you...yes, I did allow my fear to dictate my perception of reality. It was only for a few short minutes after I found Chrysalis's cage to be empty, but it I did let it cloud my faith that you could be you, Sunset. For that, I am sorry.”

Sunset’s face scrunched up for a few seconds, and Celestia watched as the anger, pain, hurt, and a dozen other emotions played out in her daughter’s eyes. Then she closed them, and let out a sigh before dropping her head. “You really know how to take the fight out of me, don’t you?” she asked rhetorically. “It’s okay Mom...we all do stupid things sometimes. And...I guess I can let the stupid throneroom thing slide too...long as that’s the last time you try and use me as bait.”

Celestia nervously licked her lips, and gulped. “Of course, Sunset,” she told her daughter before hiding her nervousness behind a smile. “Now let’s go see Cadance, shall we? I’ll probably need some help with her though. Something tells me she’s not going to be as forgiving as you.”

“Uh...you know you’re talking about Cadance, right?” Sunset asked in confusion. “Pink pretty pony princess that’s practically made of candy?”

The memory of the pink princess shouting at her for being a poor mother came to the forefront of Celestia’s mind, and the ancient alicorn winced. “Oh, you have no idea.”

Chapter 10: School Daze

Cadance went over the magical formula for the spell in the magic book that Celestia had given her the day before as she sat on the gray couch in the apartment’s living room. Although love may have been her talent, the former pegasus was starting to think that she was in over her head when it came to the magical variety of the emotion.

Sure, Cadance had told the princess that she was ready for something more difficult than simple levitation and light spells, but what was in front of seemed a little too advanced. Not to mention dangerous. The other love magic she had practiced under Celestia’s instruction seemed to invoke something more along the lines of uncontrollable obsession to gain possession of something than actual love.

And the ‘true’ love spell Cadence was currently looking at didn't seem to make much sense no matter how much she looked at it.

Of course, it didn't help that the immaculate and stylish couch of white with gold decorations on the end that she was laying on was more for looks than comfort. Lumps under her belly were making it hard to concentrate. The thing was obviously not made for serious studying on.

After going over the formula again and only getting more confused, Cadance let out a groan and pushed it to the other end of the sofa with her hooves. “Ugh, where are you when I need you, Sunset?” she mumbled before laying her chin down on the hard cushion.

The other alicorn had been sent on an errand by Celestia shortly after breakfast, and Cadance hadn't seen her since. Unfortunately, the pink alicorn was feeling her absence like never before thanks to what the mother-daughter duo revealed to her the night before.

While not a pony to overly indulge in fearful thoughts, Cadance had to admit that the possibility of a changeling invasion happening in secret didn’t agree with the pink princess’s nerves. Her dreams hadn't been very pleasant either. What few dreams she had anyway. Fear and sweaty sheets hadn’t made for a restful night.

Then, the door to the hall flew open and Cadance’s wings shot up in response to the sudden intrusion. She watched as the amber alicorn came trotting in with a deep frown on her face that told Cadance Sunset was currently a peeved. After spying somepony else in the room, she quickly turned her head towards Cadance, and blinked. “What’re you doing here?”

Cadance took a second to properly gauge Sunset's mood beyond what a glance and facial expression could tell her. From the looks of the amber alicorn’s twitching wings, she was slightly agitated. But nothing major. “Just waiting for you,” the pink princess finally said. She decided not to say the amount of time she had been in the other alicorn’s room was over two hours. “Where were you anyway?”

The curiosity on Sunset’s face as once again replaced by annoyance as she let out a groan and walked over to the middle of her room to collapse on a plush circular rug decorated by her cutie mark. “Mom decided that after yesterday, I should take a few interviews with the papers to let the ponies know the real me,” she grumbled.

“Right after breakfast?” Cadance asked before she glanced at the clock hanging on Sunset’s mantle. The time read nine PM. “What happened after that?”

Sunset looked up and frowned at Cadance. “I came here, asked what you were doing on my couch, and collapsed on the floor.”

“But-”

“Twenty-seven interviews, straight!” Sunset went on with a frown. “I didn’t even know we had that many newspapers in Equestria!”

Cadance blinked. “Um...well, that must have been...fun?” she asked nervously. Like Sunset, Cadance had her own experience with the Canterlot Times, and the mare that had talked with the pink princess shortly after her arrival in the capital. “I mean, I enjoyed it when I got interviewed.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Cadance knew she had said the wrong thing. Sunset’s expression became a scowl, and her lips curled back to expose her teeth. “Oh yeah, that thing. I still remember the hard hitting questions you had to answer,” she spat before sitting up to put on an overly-innocent look and talk in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Oh Princess Cadance, do you like puppies? Princess Cadance, what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Princess Cadance, do you have a special somepony?

“Meanwhile I get crap like, Sunset Shimmer, what’s your opinion on the continuous loss of bits that Equestria sends to Griffinstone every year?” the amber alicorn ranted on in a less pleasant tone. “Now that you’ve experienced the horrors of being called a changeling, will you be seeking to oust Strong Withers from his position? Do you think that changelings actually could be hiding in the government? Is the Equestrian school system in need of reform? One little...thing, and suddenly, everybody’s all over me! I wanted to be an alicorn for the phenomenal cosmic power, not...endless press coverage!”

As Sunset paused to take a breath, Cadence interrupted her friend. “Well...at least they’re taking you seriously,” she said while hiding the tiny bit of anger that swelled up in her heat. It was just like with Celestia, Sunset got all the attention. In fact, there were times when Cadance wasn’t even sure if ponies knew she was even there.

Sunset snorted. “Trust me Cadance, the quiet life you’ve got is much better than what I’ve been cursed with,” she said before standing up and trotting over to where the pink alicorn was laying down. “So what did you want to see me about anyway?”

As the amber alicorn looked over to her book, Cadance turned her head back to the fire to hide her expression. “Well...I came here for a little help on learning some magic.”

“Ugh,” Sunset grunted as Cadance’s spellbook was taken up in her magic. “Yeah...I’m not really good with this emotional junk. About the only love magic I was ever able to cast was the Want It Need It spell. Hahaha, good times.”

Cadance winced at the memory of her own experience with that particular piece of spellcraft just a few hours ago. If Celestia hadn’t been there to undo it, Cadance was afraid she would have caused a riot amongst the palace staff over a simple orange. Although, the way Sunset talked about it… No, she’s a different pony now, and I don’t even want to know.

“Actually Sunset,” she said carefully. “I was hoping you could help me with a different type of magic.”

The other alicorn frowned. “Cadance, you just moved from learning basic levitation to exploring your talent today. Anything outside of that is going to take weeks to learn even the basics. I’ll help you if you want, but...you really need to get an understanding of the magic you’re born to be good at first. It’ll lay a nice groundwork for the rest of what you can learn.”

“But we don’t have weeks!” Cadence blutered out before she could stop herself.

Sunset’s expression turned cautious as she raised an eyebrow. “Um...what?”

With three seconds of internal debate over whether to simply change the subject and pretend her blub never happened, Cadance sighed and drooped her eyes. “Look...I know Celestia probably has a plan to do something about the changelings, but...I’m scared! Okay?” she admitted. “I mean...I’m the Alicorn of Love! Changelings feed on love! THAT MEANS THERE'S AN ENTIRE RACE OF MONSTERS OUT THERE THAT WANTS TO EAT ME! I’m like their number one target!”

“Well,” Sunset replied, obviously a little put off by the pink alicorn’s panic. “Actually, from what Mom said, I’m pretty sure that they’re going to be coming after me. At least, that’s what I’d do if I wanted to hurt Celestia as much as possible.” She frowned at the ground. “Kind of disturbing how easy it is for me to think about that.”

Cadance rolled her eyes at the obvious statement. “Yeah, and how are they going to come after you? Are they going to go straight for the big bad alicorn, or are they going to replace her best friend with somepony else to stab her in the back the second she drops her guard?” the pink princess asked as the scenario played out in her mind and helped elevate her fears even more. “I’m supposed to be a guardian of Equestria, but I’m not like you or Celestia, Sunset! You’ve had years of magical study and could kick my plot all over the palace before you became a princess! I’m just a pony from the country that got a horn slapped on her head four weeks ago and can barely make stuff float!”

An odd feeling in her foreleg made Cadance to look down. She noticed she was trembling, and sighed before dropping her head in embarrassment. Some princess I turned out to be.

“Wow,” Sunset breathed before reaching up to touch Cadance’s hoof with her own. “You’re really worried about this stuff.”

After nodding in response, Cadance looked up at the other alicorn in shame. “That’s me. Always afraid to do the right thing.”

Sunset shook her head. “Hey, this isn’t some punk unicorn with a chip on her shoulder,” she said before sighing. A second later, the amber alicorn’s face became utterly serious. “But still, there’s nothing to worry about. You’re...well...you’re my best friend. I would crush anything that ever tried to hurt you.”

As much as she would have liked to take comfort in Sunset’s words, Cadance found herself finding the hole in the alicorn’s logic. “And when you’re not around?”

“Then we’ll just have to hang out all the time from now on,” she said with a cocky smile. “So...you want to have a sleepover?”

Cadance hesitated. Although she knew Sunset meant it to be reassuring, the pink princess couldn’t help but feel like a little filly that was too afraid to sleep in her own room because of the monster under her bed. Even though she knew the monster was really outside her door, with the face of anypony it wanted to wear, just waiting to gobble up a loving pony. Which...didn’t make her feel all that much better.

So, she nodded her head. “Okay.”

Sunset lit up her horn before she doused the flames dancing in the fireplace with her magic and pulled Cadance off the couch to lead the way into her bedroom and used her magic to tidy up a bit and pull back the green sheets on her bed. Then, she stepped back and usured Cadance under the covers with a teasing bow. “Your Highness.”

“Why thank you, Your Highness,” Cadance replied with a little giggle before she slipped underneath the sheets and got got comfortable.

Not long after the smaller alicorn worked herself under the covers and rolled onto her side, she felt the bigger alicorn press up against her back. Wings came up over her and worked their way under the former pink pegasus along with Sunset’s forelegs as she enveloped Cadance in a full-body hug. “Uh...sorry for the close contact, but my bed really isn’t big enough for two alicorns to not uh...get really close if we don’t want to fall out.”

Cadance reached up to wrap her fetlock around the back of Sunset’s to keep the bigger alicorn from pulling away before the pink pony did her best to wiggle even deeper into her best friend’s embrace. “No,” she said while tilting her head down and putting it under Sunset’s chin. “This is perfect.”

Safe in her best friend’s forelegs, Cadance closed her eyes and listened to the sound of Sunset’s heartbeat. It was a strong, calming sound that reminded her how much had changed in such a short amount of time with Sunset going from something that Cadance had been afraid of, to the mare that was sheltering her from the real monsters.

For her part, Sunset hugged the smaller alicorn that much tighter, and Cadance found herself enjoying the reassuring contact even more. Although...she could feel from a slight twitch in Sunset’s muscles that the amber alicorn had something else on her mind.

Still, it was probably best not to press her so late at night.

“Hey...Cadance…” Sunset said hesitantly after a few moments of silence.

The pink princess opened her eyes. “Yes, Sunset?”

“Look,” Sunset replied with a little bit of unease. “You don’t need to be worried about the changelings. I can guarantee you’ll make it through this. And I know you’ll be an amazing princess.”

Cadance smiled at the gesture. Even with her friend’s assurances, the pink princess knew it would take years for her to catch up to the pony Princess Celestia had groomed to take over the rule of Equestria one day. “Thanks for the vote of con-”

“No,” the other alicorn cut her off. “I’m not just being reassuring here. I know you’re going to be a great princess...because I’ve seen you do it.”

With Sunset stopping her explanation there, all Cadance found was confusion. That...hadn’t been what she had expected to hear. “What do you mean?”

The sound of Sunset gulping made its way to Cadance’s ear. “Okay...look, you remember when I told you about me going through the mirror?” she asked, sounding like it took a force of monumental effort to get out every word.

“Um...you mean that hallucination you had?” Cadance asked hesitantly. From what she knew, Sunset only talked about it when asked, and never volunteered much in the way of personal information about her experience.

The bottom of Sunset’s chin rubbed against the top of Cadance’s head as she felt the other pony nod. “MmmHmm. Yeah...about that...I’m starting to believe that we might have been wrong about it being all in my head. I don’t know everything yet, but...ugh, that’s not the important part,” she said before letting out a loud sigh. “What is important is that I did go back to Equestria at one point...or technically twice since I came home, then went back to Earth a few minutes later to steal the fake crown that I could switch for-okay, getting sidetracked. Look, point is, I came back to Equestria, and ending up in this place called the Crystal Empire.”

Cadance shifted her head just a bit to look back at her friend out of the corner of her eye. “Um...okay.” She didn’t much like the idea that Sunset had found some way to stumble through time. The whole thing just seemed too dangerous, no matter who was doing the time traveling.

“The empire you ruled,” Sunset said with a smile. “So, I know you’re going to survive the changelings, and I know you’re going to be a magnificent princess. Don’t give yourself such a hard time because a mare that’s older than dirt and the violent brat she trained for over ten years before you showed up can wave their horns around better than some-ah, pony that’s been at it only a few weeks, okay?”

As much as she would have liked to take the assurance and feel better, the pink princess focused on the change in her friend’s story. “What’re you talking about? You don’t think it was in your head anymore?” Cadance asked with a frown as she gave Sunset a measuring glance.

Sunset sighed. “Okay, look...I’m not one-hundred percent sure about how it all fits together yet. But...whatever happened to me the second time around on the other side of that mirror, I know it really happened. That much, I’m sure of...including the future knowledge stuff I told you about with the Crystal Empire.”

Turning her head back away from Sunset, Cadance let out a loud breath. She...wasn’t really sure what to think about Sunset’s latest confession. The whole thing had always gone over Cadance’s head when Sunset tried to explain all the time travel nonsense. And...she wasn’t even sure if it made that big a difference in the end.

Memory, or magical portal through time, what did it matter?

It didn’t change the fact that she was in the forelegs of her best friend, feeling safer than she had all last night.

“Well, when you do figure it out, dumb it down for me, okay?” the pink princess asked. “Really don’t want to go into some kind of quantum theory explanation again like the first time. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.”

Sunset giggled. “Sure thing.”

“Goodnight Sunset.”

“Night Cady.”

After a morning breakfast that she found herself needing to scarf down as much as possible when Cadance decided to suddenly remember Sunset couldn’t do more than glide without causing weather pattern problems, the amber alicorn rushed out of the palace as fast as her four legs would carry her with saddlebags full of the books her mother had thankfully precured for her on Sunday while she had been running the tabloid endurance test from Hell. She ducked, dodged, bobbed and weaved her way through the streets of Canterlot for a good fifteen minutes, all the while making sure not to crash into anypony and cursing herself for not visiting the school the day before and marking the place with a teleportation beacon.

Three near-collisions and one broken wagon full of cabbages that Sunset promised to reimburse the owner for later, and she finally made it to the gates of the pony high school only five minutes after the bell had been scheduled to ring. Although a little short of breath, she didn’t feel that winded or sore thanks to the earth pony endurance that had come along with the wings on her back. So, as she took a few seconds to breathe, Sunset also looked at the scenery.

Canterlot Academy looked...freakishly similar to Canterlot High. Like her old home, it was a three story building with horse decor and a modern castle motif. The only real difference between the two that Sunset could see was that Equestrians weren’t afraid to take the castle theme as far as possible with a gym that could have doubled as a keep off to the right of the building, and the large clock tower built into the front of the school. Sunset found the place soothingly familiar. The perfect place to get away from the Equestria that was quickly becoming a massive migraine, and back to the simple life of high school shortsightedness and cliques that considered themselves the be-all and end-all of everything.

Okay so...Cadance said to meet her at the principal’s office, Sunset thought to herself as she trotted forward at a brisk pace.

Once she made her way up the stairs and opened the door with her horn to go inside, the alicorn looked around and...frowned when she didn’t see anything resembling an office. “Oh...great,” she mumbled before walking through the main open area in front of her that split off into three different halls. “Celestia forbid someb-pony puts the place where you’re supposed to check in near an entrance!”

The familiar sound of metal slamming against metal echoed through the empty building and drew Sunset’s attention down the hall to the left with a large A painted on the wall above it. So, she walked down the hallway as quickly as possible, and found a magenta earth pony mare with some smiling flowers on her butt that had managed to crawl halfway into her locker. “Oooooh, where is it?”

“Excuse me?” Sunset asked in a polite tone. “But, can I get your help with something?”

The sounds of rummaging coming from the locker stopped, and the teenage mare pulled herself out of her book storage area to sit on her plot and look up at Sunset. She gave the alicorn a startled once-over, and then blinked. “Um...yes?”

Sunset’s eyes widened as she heard the mare’s voice. The hair was...different, really different, and the braces she had were new, but...the mare in front of her looked an awful lot like the picture of a teacher at Canterlot High had on her screensaver program that showed off photographs she had of herself through the years. “M-Ms Cheerilee?”

The mare in question blinked again. “Yes. Do I know you Ms…” She paused for a second and her eyes widened. “Y-You’re an alicorn!”

“Yes, glad you could see that,” Sunset said in a dull tone before she forced herself to shake off her sarcasm. Bad first impressions were bad, and needed to be avoided.

Still, finding a teenage pony version of a teacher she had met at Canterlot High had been unexpected. Although...it seemed to match up with the appearance of Trixie and Twilight. It was just that instead of a young adult that got reduced to a little filly, an older adult had a mare that was close to Sunset’s age as her double.

And...it was Ms Cheerilee, one of the few teachers that Sunset had halfway liked even before being rainbow blasted. The woman that doubled as a part-time librarian always had a smile on her face whenever Sunset saw her instead of an expression that just screamed ‘Oh great, here comes trouble’ like many of the other teachers at CHS.

“Look,” Sunset went on. “I’m afraid I’m a little lost. Could you show me where the principal's office is at? I’m supposed to be enrolled today and...I have no idea where to go.”

Cherilee got to her hooves, and after looking at her locker for another second spoke to Sunset. “Um, sure. If you could just give me a second to find a paper that’s due next period that I, um...still have to finish.”

The familiar case of black hole locker syndrome made Sunset smile. Oh, how she had missed such problems. Especially now that she had magic. “Here,” the alicorn told the earth pony before she moved Cherilee out of the way to look inside her rat’s nest of a storage area and lit up her horn. A second later, every book, pencil, paper, and thingamajig had been pulled out by Sunset’s magic and separated to float in midair for easy perusal. “So, which one is it?”

After looking around for a few seconds, Cherilee grabbed one of the floating notebooks in her teeth, and put it down on the ground to flip through it. Once she had apparently found what she was looking for, the mare happily nodded and Sunset put everything back in her locker as neatly as she could. Then, Cherilee motioned for her to follow. “This way.”

Once the magenta mare led them out of the A hall, she trotted across the large open area and into the hall marked C. It wasn’t a journey made in silence though. Cherilee started talking about five steps in. “So...you’re Princess Sunset Shimmer, right?”

Figures that I’d run into the one teenager that reads the papers, the not-princess thought to herself before putting on a little smile. “It’s still just Sunset. I haven’t actually been crowned yet,” she explained. “And I won’t be until the end of the month.” Although it had been scheduled for an earlier date, the big princess had decided to give her a little more time of normality.

At least, that was what the amber alicorn had thought before she was asked twenty questions over twenty times in one day. Now...it could have been for anything from the need for Sunset to repair her political image to Celestia wanting to narrow down the guest list to friendly ponies only.

“Oh,” Cherilee replied before her face became a little curious. “So, what’re you doing here?”

That question, Sunset was happy to answer. “Truthfully?” she asked with a little smile. “I’m enrolling here to get away from it all. After what happened Saturday, I need someplace that isn’t going to care about me being a princess and is filled with the least politically-minded ponies in Equestria.”

Although, after meeting Cheerilee and Trixie, Sunset had to wonder how many other aged-down ponies were running around with human doppelgangers on that she had met at what felt a lifetime ago. The alicorn’s heart immediately made her consider the possibility that her human friends were out there somewhere as ponies, but...then Sunset realized that they would just be Equestrian versions of the people she had known, not the people she had grown so attached to.

If they aren’t little fillies too, she thought as she followed the teenage mare down a turn in the hallway. From the direction they were headed, Sunset guessed they were heading in the direction of the gym.

But on the other hand, that didn’t mean everything she knew from CHS was worthless. If the adults had pony doppelgangers that were a lot younger now...Sunset actually found herself wondering if she’d run into any other teenage teachers like old man Cranky, the gym teacher Bulk Biceps, or...well, she knew Principal Celestia had been an oddity in the whole human to pony matchup, what with one just being a human principal and the other one being an immortal ruler of a country that also happened to run a school named after her. So...Sunset had to wonder about the human Celestia’s sister and other cosmic hiccup that didn’t fit the mold: Vice-Principal Luna. Since Celestia didn’t really have a sister in Equestria, was there some teenage pony with something approaching the vice-principal’s personality running around Equestria somewhere? Or was she the exception to the rules in other ways? Perhaps here and now, she was the principal of Canterlot Academy, the less prestigious school in pony-Canterlot.

“Here we are,” Cheerilee said as she came to an office door that was on the opposite end of the building than the main entrance, and only a dozen feet or so away from the double doors leading to the gym.

Sunset nodded. “Thanks Cheerilee,” she replied. Then, as the mare started to leave, Sunset held up a wing to block her. “Hey uh...look, I’m new here and don’t really know that many ponies so...do you want to hang out come lunch?”

The offer had the earth pony looking at the alicorn as if Sunset had just grown a second horn. “You want to...eat lunch...with...me?” she got out...eventually.

“Sure,” Sunset said with a shrug, ignoring the odd reaction from the mare. Going by her human world experience, the fact the mare had a brace-face in pony high school probably wasn’t all that good for her social standing. But Sunset didn’t much give a damn about that.

Her other lessons at CHS had taught her the higher a girl’s popularity, the bigger bitch she was. Since Shining Armor seemed to fit that mold on the guy side of things with his lack of popularity matching his niceness, it was a safe bet that it was the same way here. Sunset found it a little comforting that no matter the dimension, the rules of high school never changed.

“Okay!” the magenta mare replied with a bright smile. “I’ll see you then Prin-uh, Sunset!”

As Cheerilee quickly trotted away to wherever her class was, Sunset walked into the school office and found Cadance laying on a couch right next to the door, and a pony sitting behind a desk on the other end of the room, with another doorway leading to what was probably the private offices of the school’s higher-ranking staff. The place looked like a carbon copy of the office at Celestia’s school.

“There you are!” Candace exclaimed with a frown. “What took you so long?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Walking, and then I actually had to find this place since someb-pony decided to just fly off and leave me,” she snarked back. Then, a smirk appeared on her face as she prepared to take a little of the wind out of Cadance’s sails. “Why didn’t you wait on me? More afraid of a tardy than a changeling is going to jump out and grab you?”

As Cadance’s eyes widened in fear, Sunset winced. That had been way too mean.

“Sorry,” they both said at the same time. Followed by a surprised glance at the other, and then a little giggle.

Sunset cleared her throat, and looked around the office. “Okay so...um, what do I need to do to finish my enrollment?”

“Oh don’t worry,” Cadance said, apparently putting Sunset’s remarks behind her as she stood up and smiled back. “Auntie Celestia’s already taken care of the paperwork. Principal Cinch just needs to meet with you for a bit, and then I can show you to your second period class after the assembly. So let’s...uh, Sunset? Is there something wrong with your eye?”

A deep rage built within the pits of Sunset’s stomach, but thankfully, the amber alicorn was able to hold in.

DAMNIT! MOTHER...CELESTIA... FUCKING DAMNIT….GAAAAAAAAAH!

“And...what’s with the growling?”

Mostly.

Although not an expert on human ages, Sunset thought that Abacus Cinch looked younger than the biped she had met on the other side of the mirror despite the fact that Cinch was still an adult. Of course, since it was only a ten year difference in age for everyone but her mother, it was possible that Cinch also fit into the same category as everyone else, and that she was just one of those people who had been in her position for longer than a decade.

But, as the amber alicorn stood on the small stage in the auditorium and waited for the snobby unicorn with the light blueish coat and cutie mark in the shape of a constellation that if Sunset connected the dots right actually formed something resembling a raised middle finger to finish talking, she came to a conclusion. The mare in front of her was indeed the same type of creature as the other Cinch, whom had forced a poor human girl to nearly destroy two different dimensions. Sunset took an immediate disliking to her.

“Students of Canterlot Academy,” she said into the microphone with that same odious voice that made the alicorn force herself not to cringe. “It has been said that my school is merely a home for the castoffs and failures that Celestia’s school didn’t accept, and more common ponies that are denied entrance because they had the unfortunate fate of being born without a horn.”

From her place behind Cinch’s right flank Sunset looked over to Cadance on the odious unicorn’s left with a raised eyebrow and spoke in the language of faction expressions. ‘Are you kidding me?’

However, when the other alicorn looked back and just shrugged, Sunset looked back out to the crowd to see if she could find any other pony counterparts to the humans she had known. While she couldn’t make out any, she did notice something from all the silhouettes. From the makeup of the crowd, it seemed that she had found the one place in Canterlot that didn’t actually favor unicorns so heavily it created a three-to-one ratio against every other kind of pony. In fact, the tribes looked just about even in numbers.

“However!” the principal went on. “When I arrived here two years ago and began working diligently on our reputation, increasing grades across the board by helping to gain the latest educational materials and aides, and finding ways to turn our polo team into something recognizable across all of Equestria, even the royalty took notice and chose to send the newest of the alicorn to me rather than her own school!

“Some called this a fluke! Some kind of error in paperwork, and Princess Cadance would be transferred out by the end of the week,” Cinch told them. “Well to them I say...HA!”

The unicorn threw out one of her forelegs towards Sunset, and a spotlight clicked on to illuminate the amber alicorn. “Princess Celestia’s personal student and second descendent to show herself this year, the top student at her academy has come here after deciding that the school for the gifted just wasn’t good enough for her!”

Was the human one this obnoxious? Sunset asked herself, and then blinked when the mare turned back towards her.

“Princess Sunset Shimmer,” Principal Cinch spoke with a tone that seemed a weird mix of smug and...reverence, maybe? If the mare was obsessed with her reputation so much, a pair of alicorns would seem to be the perfect meal ticket. “Would you say a few words?”

Doing everything she could to hide her unease, Sunset walked up as the thing she had come to this school to avoid shined down on her. Did Cadance have to go through with all of this? she wondered before bringing the microphone up with her magic to adjust for the difference in height between Sunset and the unicorn that was more than a head shorter than her. “Hello everypony,” Sunset said as she quickly tried to think of what to say next.

Should she try to dissuade the students from using her title on the technicality that she was uncrowned and send a message to Cinch at the same that that she wasn’t some feather in the snooty unicorn’s cap? Outright tell them all that she didn’t want to be treated differently than anypony else? Laugh maniacally and try to recreate her reign at CHS in its entirely, this time for the full support of a government behind her?

Sunset blinked at the last option that came to her mind. Ugh...I think I hurt my brain.

“You know, a lot of ponies seem to be making a big deal out of the fact that a pony with a horn got a pair of these,” she said before looking back at her wings as she slowly spread them for all to see, and then turning back to the crowd. “And I’ve already seen how some can feel threatened by it.”

The amber alicorn help back a sigh. She didn’t want to bring any of the baggage from the outside world into the high school bubble. “But I don’t really see that much of a difference between all of you and me of right now,” Sunset told them. “Sure I’ve got a Princess in front of my name, but at the moment the only orders I can give revolve around what I want for breakfast, lunch and dinner.” That got a little laugh from the students. “And while I’m not going to be stupid enough to think I won’t be thought of any differently than everypony else here, I will say that I didn’t come to this school to be fawned over.”

Sunset’s tone lightened, and she found the words coming more freely than before. It was as if a light inside her just...turned on. “I came because I saw something special in it. But not in it’s curriculum, or sports team, or any kind of fancy equipment. I came because of its students. I came here because of all of you. I wanted to see you, to meet you all, and so...let’s all be good friends!”

A part of her knew it all sounded cheesy, stupid, and was just about the corniest thing outside of an actual farm that raised the stuff, but...something about it just felt so...right.

And it made her feel better than she had since before the weekend began.

“Ooooooooh! Aaaaaaaah!”

Sunset blinked in confusion as the crowd looked up at her in awe for a few seconds before they started applauding by stomping their hooves or clopping their hooves together, and then she backed up when the principal came forward to dismiss the assembly for third period.

There was a bit of a smirk on Cadance’s face as she walked up to the amber alicorn. “Showoff,” she said without any bite to it.

Completely confused, Sunset just stared at her with a lost expression as she tried to find the words to eloquently state her discombobulation. “Huh?”

“That shimmer in your hair at the end of your speech,” Cadance said with a smirk. “It was a nice touch. Almost made you look like Celestia for a few seconds.”

In response, Sunset could only blink.

All in all, Sunset found Canterlot Academy...pretty boring. The two classes she attended before the lunch bell rang seemed almost remedial compared to the lessons she only half-remembered from her time in Equestria and what she took on Earth. And although the history class that was scheduled after lunch was hopefully somewhere on the same level of challenge that Celestia’s school offered, Sunset didn’t much feel like learning something that Celestia herself had said was so edited that it might as well have been a fairy tale.

Although, as she started to head down the hallway towards the giant dining area, Sunset did encounter something actually made her feel a bit more at ease about going to the school.

“Princess Sunset! What clubs are you going to join?”

“Do you want to be on the cheerleading squad Princess?”

“...the magic club!”

“......swim team!”

“.........quidditch!...with uh, you know pegasi.”

As dozens of other offers came in Sunset found herself actually blushing at the attention instead of putting on the mask of her old self and just letting her sponge of an ego simply absorb it all to increase in size. But whenever a small mob managed to corner her, the amber alicorn smiled and waved the offer off. “Well I’m still pretty new here, so how about you all just give me some time to look around, and I’ll give your offers some thought. Okay?”

Then, she blinked when she come up on a group of three unicorn mares standing next to the entrance to the cafeteria. Even though there wasn’t any magic in use, Sunset could see their in-school social standing had created a kind of force field all its own that kept the other students from coming too close.

The leader of the group was an exceptionally tall mare, although nowhere near equal to Sunset’s alicorn height. Still, the white mare with the long pink mane was obvious a product of good breeding and probably a few alchemical beauty treatments to get as tall as she was with such a long horn in imitation of some early paintings that showed Princess Celestia with such a coloration. The second was only a little shorter, with a blue coat and somewhat...rainbow-ish coloration to her mane, while the third member of the trio was considerably shorter than the other two and had a mane of light bluish-purple and a yellow coat.

“Greetings, Princess Sunset,” the lead pony said with the hint of an accent before all three dipped into a short bow that made Sunset have to stop herself from cringing. Maybe one day she would get used to ponies bowing to her, but for the moment, it still made the alicorn uneasy to have others planting ther faces on the floor in front of her for a pair of wings she didn’t earn. “My name is Fleur de Lis, Your Highness. And these are my compatriots, Sassy Saddles, and Upper Crust. As the...ahem, Princess of Canterlot Academy, allow me to welcome you to our school. If you may, might the four of us speak in private?”

Sunset glanced at the cafeteria, and then back to the other ponies. Despite the high social rank, they didn’t seem all that bad. “Well...I suppose,” she agreed. “Although, I do need to eat. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t take the whole lunch period.”

Another bow. “Of course Your Highness,” Fleur said before motioning to a spot down the hall and away from the crowd of ponies. “If you would?”

Not seeing the point in arguing, Sunset followed the trio until they led her to a small nook in the hallway that one of the school’s larger windows created. Although not really that private, the extra bit of room and the group’s status allowed ponies to give them a wide berth and thus, plenty of room to talk.

“Do not worry about being last in line for lunch Your Highness,” Sassy quickly told Sunset.

“Yes, the ponies here know not to stand in the way of their betters,” Upper Crust added.

With the yellow mare’s comment, Sunset found her patience quickly running short. “Look, just say what you need to say and let’s get this over with,” she said evenly before deciding to add a bit of an explanation as not to appear completely hostile to the three divas. “I’m hungry.”

Fleur nodded. “Of course Highness. Although growing up here in Canterlot, you many not require them as much, but we wish to offer you the same services that we give to Princess Cadance.”

“That poor mare,” Upper Crust added as she shook her head sadly. “Princess Celestia’s niece she may be, but she just carries on without a modicum of social navigation skills. Why, I’ve even heard she’s consorting with the lowest of the low these days!”

Sassy giggled. “Well, everypony knows that ponies such as her should be the most charitable.”

“Still, there are limits!” Crust went on. “I thought that polo captain was supposed to be keeping the bottom feeders away from the Princess.”

Stopping her friends from continuing on as she cleared her throat, Fleur looked back to Sunset, who was fighting the urge not to kick the yellow pony through the window. An internal battle she might have been losing. “Yes...well, if you wish, we can show you around the social circles, Princess. But if you wish to simply be left to your own devices as Princess Cadance does, then we will put the word out that other ponies should stay clear of you.”

Sunset was about to tell the three girls they could take their offer for help and shove it up their asses when another mare came trotting over to the group. “Oh, Sunset, there you are!”

Right as Cheerilee entered Sunset’s field of vision, Sassy and Upper Crust moved moved to intercept her, with the taller pony intervening first. “Cheerilee dear, I’m afraid that the princess is much too busy to see you at the moment.”

“What my friend here is too nice to say is that a pony such as yourself is not meant to converse with the likes of Princess Sunset Shimmer!” Upper Crust added with a sniff that made the earth pony actually back up a trot in fear. “Now, stop taking up so much of our air and...go plant a tree or something. That is what your kind of ponies do, correct?”

Sunset’s eye twitched as she watched Cheerilee's expression turn to one of hurt and disappointment at being just tossed aside by proxy. “Okay first off,” she said before forcing herself between the two mares by walking in between them and lightly nudging the girls out of the way so they only stumbled about a foot before regaining their footing. “You two don’t speak for me, or anypony else.”

She turned around to glare at the two, then the ring leader. “And Fleur, I’m sure in your super aristocratic, I-just-love-looking-down-on-everypony-else mind, you think you’re doing me a kindness,” Sunset went on with a little frown while giving her voice halfway-civil, half-disgusted tone. “So I’m going to let this one pass. But if you try to get between me and anypony that wants to talk to me from now on, I’ll contort that slim body of yours, shove you in a locker, and place a sealing spell on it that nopony short of my Mother could remove!”

The threat made the classy mare’s eyes widen, and she instinctively backed away as Sunset threw out a wing to grab Cheerilee and pull her close. “Do we have an understanding?”

“Y-Yes Princess,” all three of the girls spoke at the same time.

Sunset gave them a curt nod. “Good! Now,” she said before looking over to the magenta mare in her wing’s grip. “Cheerilee, let’s get something to eat, and I’ll introduce you to the guys and Cadance.”

Obviously overwhelmed by the attention, Cheerilee nodded dumbly for a few seconds before finding her voice. “T-Thank you, Princess”

“It’s Sunset,” Sunset corrected her as she led the mare back towards the cafeteria. “So, what’s good to eat here, because I am starving!”

It was a sign of the end times.

Somewhere out there, an ancient prophecy probably spoke of it in some long forgotten place of Equestria. And it said something like ‘And there shall came a day when the topsy shall turn turvy, the pretty shall sit to dine with the nerdy, and all things will be undone!’ Because at the moment, Shining Armor’s world was currently turned on its head.

As he sat in the school cafeteria, he felt as if every single stallion in the school was giving him a death glare because of the two mares flanking him as they sat at the long table meant for sitting about one-hundred-plus students. Even the three stallions sitting across from him seemed to be angry at the impossibility of the situation. And on top of all the guys, some of the more gender picky mares seemed to be calling for the unicorn’s head with their eyes.

On his left sat a pony that could most definitely be called the prettiest mare in school, and probably ranked in the top five female ponies of all Equestria. It didn’t help that she was as nice as she was beautiful...most of the time. Although a small part of Shining had to wonder if the outbursts Cadance displayed meant something a bit more...wild lay beneath the princess’s surface.

Then there was the newest alicorn in the school: Sunset Shimmer. Although not the textbook definition of beauty that Cadance was, she seemed to be every bit as friendly and much cooler than her pink counterpart in an action oriented kind of way that left Shining Armor a little more in awe of her abilities than he was gaga for Cadance’s looks.

“Is something wrong Shining?” Cadance asked as she finished the second salad on her tray. From what Shining remembered of their meal at the fancy restaurant, both she and Sunset were eating light.

His whole body had a tiny little spasm at the question, and the unicorn quickly looked over to Cadance to give her a forced smile. “Oh! It’s uh...nothing, Cadance,” Shining said. Then he looked back to his plate. “But uh...just out of curiosity, why are you eating with us? Don’t you usually eat by yourself on the roof, Princess?”

Cadance got a strange regretful look in her eyes. “Sorry if I’m intruding.”

“Because I dragged her over here,” Sunset said right as Cadance finished. She she looked back to the pink alicorn. “And the roof? Seriously Cadance? I know you can use those wings, but...that’s a little cliche, don’t you think?”

Instead of drawing in on herself even more, the pink alicorn smirked back at the amber one. “Says the power-hungry shut-in of a nerd. Remind me, how many friends did you have two weeks ago?”

Sunset snickered. “Point taken.”

With the light verbal spar completed, the section of the table the seven ponies were occupying became a little quiet. Then, in what was an obvious attempt to keep the talking going, the earth pony with the bow tie looked over to the other member of his tribe sitting next to Sunset. “So, uh...Cheerilee, right? How do you know Princess Sunset?”

“Well...I don’t,” she admitted a little uneasily. “The Princess just came across me in the hall and asked for directions to the principal’s office, then invited me to eat lunch with her. How did all of you meet her...Poindexter, right?”

The stallion looked a little proud that girl had actually managed to remember his name for a second before Sunset suddenly cut in with a forced even tone. “I met them and Shining’s house on Saturday, when they left me unconscious on the floor after Shining and I got done fooling around.”

Shining Armor’s face turned red as his unfortunate stallion mind realized how that could very well be taken. It almost sounded like Sunset wanted other ponies to think they had…

“Sunset!” Cadance scolded the other demigoddess.

Much to Shining’s surprise, Sunset’s eyes went wide, and she shrunk in on herself. “Sorry. Sorry everyb-pony,” she apologized before looking over to the white stallion. “Sorry Shiny. I just, um...have a problem with letting the wrong words out sometimes.”

The unicorn nodded, hoping that Sunset didn’t see his blush. “It’s...okay.”

It’s not that he didn’t want to...well...take a ride on Sunset Shimmer. Anypony in their right mind would have sold their front legs just for a chance to get that close to royalty. But...he also couldn’t help but remember what Princess Cadance had told him about Sunset, and the things Shining had already witnessed when it came to the impossibly amazing pony.

And then there was how she had just gushed at Twilight the other day. While Cadance had said that their time together in the restaurant had gone off perfectly, Shining felt a little confused at the fact that the mare that came over for a game of O&O suddenly became obsessed with Shining’s little sister on the same day. So...more than a little part of the stallion had to wonder if he was just going to be completely cast aside when Sunset found somepony more interesting than Shining Armor to hang out with.

Of which he knew there were plenty.

Twilight Sparkle had been enough to pull her away from him for crying out loud!

“I’m sorry, I…” Sunset let out a long sigh and looked down to her empty tray. “You know, I should probably go check out some of those clubs. See you on the walk home, Shining?”

Shining Armor blinked in confusion. “Walk home? What for?”

The question made Sunset roll her eyes, as if the answer was obvious. The smile on her face kept it from behind too mean-looking though. “Well, I do need to meet with your parents to see if they’ll let me tutor Twilight in magic,” she said before standing up and backing away from the table with her try held in midair. “I’ll see you after school by the front gate, okay?”

Without even waiting for an answer from Shining, the amber alicorn turned and quickly trotted away from the six ponies. So, a little lost, he turned to the relationship councilor who had been kidnapping him for the past week of school to give tips on what to do...most of which involved opening his mouth and making the sound he wanted to come out be right when around an alicorn.

“Uh...did I do something wrong?”

Cadance looked away from the retreating princess and over to Shining Armor with a sympathetic smile. “No, it’s just...Sunset has a little bit of relationship baggage that she’s having some problems with,” she said before backing up and grabbing her tray in enough magic that made Shinning Armor’s horn feel a tenth as long as it really was. “Come on, let’s go show her everything’s okay.”

Not wanting to argue with a princess, Shining Armor quickly finished the last of his lunch and followed her down the aisle.

But not quickly enough that he didn’t pick up the murmurs of his friends though.

“I can’t believe I used to be jealous of him for all of that,” Eight-Bit said.

“The word you're looking for is envious,” Gaffer corrected him. “Right Poindexter?”

The other stallion smiled at the magenta mare sitting across from him in a goofy way, completely oblivious to the other two stallions. “So...braces, huh?”

Chapter 11: By Daze End

Cadance wished that she had enough confidence in her control of her horn to just pick up Shining Armor and carry him behind her while she followed Sunset's trail through the hallway as she dragged the white stallion behind her with her fetlock holding tightly on to his. Although she didn't have Sunset's rather freakish super strength, there was still enough earth pony in her to move a nerdy stallion that wasn't putting up much of a fight.

“Come on Shiny, you’re going to lose her at this rate!” Cadance told him as the pair of them made their way through the halls, making their way through the student body.

There was a light tug from behind Cadance as Shining put up a token resistance. “But shouldn't we just let her be?”

“No!”

“Then can't you just fly up and catch her?” Shining asked as he looked up to the high ceiling that allowed more than enough room for Cadance to get airborne and maneuver indoors. “She’s not even going that fast.”

Cadance was glad Shining Armor couldn't see her face as she rolled her eyes at the stallion’s stupid question. “We’re not supposed to catch her Shiny, we’re supposed to chase her!”

Once again, their pace slowed as the stallion obviously diverted some of his attention to thinking. “But, why’re we chasing Sunset if we aren't supposed to catch her?”

Her patience wearing thin at being asked such basic relationship questions that had such obvious answers, Cadance couldn't stop herself from letting out an annoyed groan. “So that she can see us chasing her obviously!” What was so hard to understand about that?

Halfway down the hallway ahead, the amber alicorn turned and went in a door. As soon as the two ponies got to the doorway, Shining Armor's resistance to Cadance pulling him along multiplied by tenfold, enough to make the pink princess come to a stop before she could continue the chase. “Okay, um...sorry Princess, but...I draw the line at going into the girl's bathroom.”

Cadance looked at the angular silhouette of a pony’s face on the outside of the white door. “You know, we really should put up something to better to signify genders,” she said before turning back to face the colt behind her. “Okay. You wait here for Sunset to come out, and ask her if she’s okay as soon as she does.”

With Shining’s task assigned, Cadance walked into the bathroom and peeked around the corner of the turn that kept any of those weird colts from trying to sneak a peek at the place where a mare conducted her private business. “Sunset, are you okay?” she asked cautiously before listening for anything out of the ordinary.

What she heard was...nothing. Which was quite disturbing in and of itself. When Sunset had just up and run off some reason that Cadance couldn’t fathom, the pink princess had thought the amber alicorn had been in some sort of distress. Instead, once she walked all the way around to get the bathroom in full view, Cadance found the mare just standing in front of the faucets and looking at her reflection in the wall-length mirror behind them.

Sunset was…perhaps a little uneasy, but not enough that she should have been seeking asylum. “Please tell me Shining Armor didn’t come with you,” she asked without force behind the plea.

Cadance shook her head. “No. But I’m betting he’s plenty worried,” she replied. “Why did you just up and leave like that in the middle of the conversation?”

An even look was what greeted Cadance when Sunset turned her head away from the mirror. “You mean, why did I leave after implying that Shining Armor mounted and rode me so much I passed out from the pleasure?” she asked in a frigid tone before the lack of emotion changed to a small frown. “Or maybe it was the fact that I started picturing him doing just that and thought I’d better get my mind on something else before I left a creamy spot on the floor?”

The implications of what Sunset was talking about were obvious, and left Cadance slightly flustered. “Oh...well, that’s...a little fast,” she said while trying to think of something nice to say about Sunset’s increasing desires for sex. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it in your position! You said in the mirror, you, uh…”

Just what Sunset had told Cadance about her sex life came to mind, and the pink princess was glad her coat was good at hiding embarrassed blushes. It wasn’t that the thought of sex unnerved her. Being with a special somepony at the heights of ecstasy was one of the most important moments in a relationship. But Sunset reminding Cadance of the amber alicorn’s previous encounters with human males and what she had to do with so many creatures that she didn’t love...Cadance didn’t like thinking about it.

“Got banged more than three times a week,” Sunset told Cadance, much to the pink princess’s embarrassment. She had been trying to forget that little fact of Sunset’s life. “But this is different! The other times were just for putting myself in the right position. Hel-ugh, hay human girls don’t even really need guys to get off when it comes down to it. The only thing guys really bring to the table is the whole oral thing, and no way in hell was I ever going to suck a monkey’s cock.”

With Sunset just putting out nonsensical babbling and the images that it brought to mind, Cadance couldn’t help but ask for clarification. “What does sucking a chicken have to do with sex?”

Sunset gave Cadance a blank look, followed by a blink, and then her horn lit up to surround them in a semi-translucent blue bubble before her expression became serious. “Okay, if we’re seriously going to talk about this, I’m making sure nobody can hear us,” she said before sitting on the ground. “And...well…the phrase is a euphemism for…um...”

When Sunset was done explaining, Cadance nodded in understanding. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t very well versed in the technical theory of alternate sexual pleasures beyond a mare that lifted her tail for a stallion to stick his ‘rooster’ in. Although, it was gratifying to see that Sunset was a little squeamish when it came to at least some forms of intercourse.

“But like I was saying,” Sunset went on, her verbal pace quickening as she continued to speak. “I don’t want to be that kind of girl with him. At least not right away! And then there’s the fact that I don’t even know if I can be with him like that without it messing everything up in half-a-dozen different ways!”

Seeing a problem she had an answer for, Cadance spoke up. “Oh come on Sunset. Even if you’re going to be a princess and Shining Armor isn’t even a noble, nopony’s going to do anything about it.” If they did, Cadance was pretty sure Sunset would make it a very costly mistake.

Sunset glared at Cadance and snorted. “That’s not what I’m talking about at all!” the amber alicorn snapped back at the pink princess. “I cause earthquakes with my hooves Cadance! And it’s not just my legs that have super mare levels of strength! Hay, I don’t even know how much I can lift with my mouth! What happens when we finally do end up in bed together and I end up hurting Shining because I hug him too much, or I kick when I’m so out of it I can’t hold back, or...buck! What if he puts his penis in me and I end up crushing it when I hit orgasm?”

“You’ve uh...really thought about this, haven’t you?” Cadance replied as she tried to counter Sunset’s panicky ramblings.

The amber alicorn shook her head. “No. I just...there’s just so many problems I can see once I get going, it’s easy to pick,” she said before sighing and taking a few deep breaths. The tactic worked to visibly calm her down, but it was obvious she was a long way from good. “Hay! I don’t even know if it’s a good idea to try and go that far with Shining Armor. He’s the first nice pony guy I’ve met in three years. What if after a little while the novelty of it wears off, and I just take what I want and then...totally lose interest? A guy like that, getting used and thrown away would crush him. And that’s not even considering everything else it might do to his social life!”

With the opening Sunset’s pause provided, Cadance stepped up to look at the sad mare close enough so Sunset couldn’t just turn away from her so easily. “Okay first off, we slept together last night, right?” When Sunset nodded in response to the question, the pink princess continued. “You wrapped your whole body around me and went to sleep. And I’ll admit your hug was a little tighter and much more firm than I’m used to, but it was a long way from hurting me. So don’t even think about stuff like that. When you and Shining Armor do make love to each other, it will be the same. You’ll probably be a bit more than a stallion like him can handle from the get go, but that’s a long way from hurting him.

“Secondly, if you were just wanting to...bang him, Sunset, you wouldn’t be worried about his feelings. I don’t need my talent to see you care for him very much,” Cadance said as she smiled at her best friend. “So don’t start thinking that you’ll just stop one day out of boredom.”

And although it halfway went against what Sunset was needing, Cadance decided to throw her pride a bone. “And I’ll have you know I’m a good judge of both looks and body development in stallions,” she revealed to the other alicorn. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Shining Armor is a little cutie right now, but as soon as he gets in the guard like he says he wants to and puts some muscle on, he’ll be a total hottie.”

The declaration made Sunset give Cadance a carefully measuring look that had the pink princess wondering if she had overstepped her bounds for a few seconds before the amber alicorn spoke. “Well…” she said tentatively. “That’s...good, I guess.”

Cadance frowned at Sunset’s rather...lame response. “You guess?” she asked before letting out a sigh. It was like Sunset had just woken up again. “Sunset, what’s going on? It’s almost like you’re trying to find a reason to back away from Shining Armor.”

“Well…” Sunset became hesitant, and Cadance’s mouth dropped open at what was quickly becoming obvious. “I wouldn’t put it that way exactly, but...remember what I told you last night?”

A groan escaped from Cadance’s mouth. She didn’t like the fact that Sunset was bringing that mess up again, or that the amber alicorn had asked her not to talk to Princess Celestia about her changing mirror theory. But if Sunset needed to figure things out on her own, Cadence was willing to grant her that for the time being. “Yes, I’m going to be a princess in a big crystal castle.”

It still sounded a little too silly to be true.

But still worth investigating when she got the chance. She could at least see for herself if Sunset’s words held any weight by finding out if this Crystal Empire place actually existed.

Sunset smirked at her just a little. “And here I thought you would have liked something like that,” she said before shaking her head a little bit as her somber mood returned. “But that’s not what I’m talking about right now. The problem is...I’m not supposed to be here.”

Although she could tell Sunset had stopped talking to bait her into an obvious question, Cadance decided to fall for it anyway. “Well then where are you supposed to be?”

“Back in the palace, studying, arguing with Celestia, and turning my nose up at you,” Sunset replied sadly. “At least, that was the way things were before. I never met Shining Armor before I left the first time. When I believed what Celestia had told me, that everything I experienced was all just a dream, I could put it all behind me and just move forward. But now that I know it’s not… How can I get together with Shining Armor when I’m not supposed to be with him?”

Despite a growing curiosity about just what was it the other day that had Sunset suddenly deciding to change her opinion about the effects of the mirror, Cadance kept her mind on task. “What are you talking about?”

Sunset groaned and looked at the ceiling for a second before turning her attention back to Cadance. “Look, I told you that when I came back through the mirror, it sent me back here instead of to the time it should have. Hell, it didn’t even send me back to when I was gone! Everything I do here, it...it has the potential to mess everything up, and no matter what I do to mitigate the damage I’ve already done...I just…”

“Sunset,” Cadance said to get the amber alicorn to focus on the pink princess before she could un-jumble her thoughts into a more coherent panic. “When you were talking about those human creatures, you said that they don’t have cutie marks, right?”

The amber alicorn nodded. “Yeah. They have a thing for symbolism, but it’s...only that to them, a symbol,” she said before looking back to the red and gold sun on her flank.

“So that stands to reason they also don’t have destinies, right?” Cadance asked before she continued right on into another question. “And if you turned into one, wouldn’t it mean that your destiny was also...undone?” It was a rather horrifying thought. Cadance couldn’t see why she was so fixated on the idea.

All of a sudden, Sunset’s guilt-filled confusing panic disappeared. In its place, Cadance was surprised to find that the amber alicorn glaring at her. “Oh no! I am not going down that road!” she insisted with a frown. “I did that once and-”

Cadance didn’t let the amber alicorn finish, and met Sunset glare for glare. “Well what else do you think is going on? You say that you shouldn’t be here, but everything I know says that you should!” she told her best friend fiercely. “So what if you had some sort of...temporal detour! This is your chance to set right what once went wrong. But that’s only going to happen if you pony up and stop acting like some little filly at flight camp that can’t even jump off a cloud!”

With her tirade done, Cadance let off a loud sigh and looked away from Sunset in embarrassment at her angry outburst. “Sorry I-” the princess stopped herself when she saw another pony silently stumble into the restroom and slam into the wall to the right of the entrance.

Buck Withers walked down the hallway with two of his teammates, Three-D, and Crunch. Although he didn't get why Three-D wore those things with the red and blue lenses, the tall gray stallion did as he was told when Buck told him to. As for Crunch, the short but bulky stallion was very good at taking out anything in front of him if he had a good running start.

Like most days after he got done eating, Buck had planned to hit the weight room for the last ten minutes of the lunch period. But thanks to the chatter that was going on in the hall around him as he made his way there, the stallion was more focused on what he was hearing than where he was going. What he heard was putting him in a bad mood.

“Can you believe how tall she is?”

A very bad mood.

“And that mane!”

A...whatever was bigger than very, bad mood.

One of the mares that was walking behind Buck and his two friends from the polo team laughed. “Oh that was just the lighting,” she said. “But what about those legs? Did you see how thick they were for a pony of her height? I bet she almost as strong as Buck!”

The polo star spun around to glare at the two mares and tell them how wrong they were as images of him getting planted in the wall by that stupid alicorn played out in his mind. “NO SHE’S NOT!”

The hall went quiet at Buck’s shout, and he glared at the half a dozen or so ponies that were giving him startled looks.

“Uh, actually Buck, I heard from Touchdown how she-”

Buck spun back around to glare at Crunch before he could finish. “Shut it!” the earth pony stallion ordered before he spun around to head back down the hallway and turned the corner to head to the gym. That was when he found something much more important to take care of than a few barbells, more relaxing too. Further down the hall, a familiar white stallion with a blue mane was standing outside the girls’ restroom.

Shining Armor, Buck had heard from his buddies how that guy had been getting with his mare during the week his father had kept Buck from coming to school.

“YOU USELESS TWIT, YOU SAID SHE WAS A VIOLENT MANIAC!” the voice of Buck’s father repeated in his head as he remembered coming home the day before to find his dad all worked up about something involving that fat princess.

But Buck didn't really care about his old man at the moment. With that stupid nerd just standing next to the filly’s room, all the earth pony cared about was putting Shining Armor back in his place. For a guy that was supposed to be king of the nerds, he seemed to need a lot of reminding when it came to where he belonged on the social ladder.

With his new task in mind, Buck stomped over to the door and came face to face with the white stallion when Shining turned around in surprise. “Armor!” the sports star yelled before he grabbed the colt and pushed up against the wall with his forelegs. “What did I tell you about going near my filly?”

Shining struggled like the pathetic little horny twerp that he was. “Buck? W-What’re you-”

“Shut it!” Buck ordered. He didn't want to hear any of Shining’s whining. He didn’t care what the dweeb’s excuse was. He had seen him RIGHT NEXT TO HER AT LUNCH! It was clear that the colt was only going to learn to stay away from the pink alicorn by spending a few days at the hospital. “I saw you! If you can't stay away from Cadance, then I'm just gonna have to smash your face in!”

With Buck on the warpath, the few students that were stupid enough to still be sticking around scurried away like rats. As soon as the last of them disappeared from his view, Buck dropped the colt in his grip so he had a hoof free to swing.

The cracking sound of hoof hitting face echoed throughout the hallway as the horseapple of a unicorn stumbled to the side and into the girl’s bathroom before Buck followed him in and slammed him up against the wall right in front of the door. “Hey Armor, I think you got something on your face,” Buck told him before looking back to his friends. “What do you say guys? Want us to help him get it off?”

“Great idea Buck,” the shorter stallion agreed.

“I don’t see nothin’ on his face,” Three-D mumbled.

When Shining started to struggle some more, Buck took a moment to plant another hoof on the bottom of his barrel. “What’re you talking about? There’s something right here!” he said before smacking Armor on the snout. When he drew his hoof away a second time, blood dripped from the stupid colt’s nose.

“Oh, now you got that red stuff on your coat,” he told the moaning little colt. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you wash it off.” Buck shoved Shining Armor past the wall that was supposed to keep ponies from looking in while the girls put powder on their nose for some stupid reason, then followed him to smack the pony again and knock him to the ground.

And when he followed Shining into the main part of the bathroom, Buck stopped when he saw a pair of mares standing in the middle of the the nearly empty room. Both of them were alicorns, one pink, one amber. The pink one let out a gasp before Shining Armor was dragged over to the two of them by a blue glow and she crouched down to look him over. As for the amber one, Buck was almost certain he saw a fire blazing in her eyes.

Years of living among humans had forced Sunset to make certain adjustments to how she lived her life. One of which was the forced removal of an extremely common response when a pony became angry, one she no longer had to consciously repress. Snorting air out through her nose was an interesting experience for Sunset after having to force herself not do it for so many years.

It was also the furthest thing from her mind at the sight of her Shining Armor laying on the ground with what looked like a bloody nose and an eye that was quickly swelling shut. Sunset sucked in one more breath before she undid the spell that kept sound from going in or out of her immediate vicinity. She wanted the idiots in front of her to know just how screwed they were before their existence ended in a mass of fire and pain. “Congratulations on stumbling into the last ten seconds of your lives!”

The alicorn’s angry charge was cut short when she stepped forward and felt a little drag on her left foreleg that was accompanied by Cadance screaming into her ear. “SUNSET, WAIT!”

“Get off me!” she yelled back before she got ready to fling the other alicorn away so she could dislocate all of of the earth pony’s legs. But, Cadance looking back at her with a glare made Sunset stop from tossing her best friend through the nearest wall for daring to get in her way.

At that point, the three stallions seemed to finally get over their shock. “Run for it!” the shortest one yelled before the three stallions turned tail and escaped for Sunset’s line of sight before she could turn their collective asses to ash.

The amber alicorn sucked in a deep breath to keep herself from doing anything rash and physically damaging to the pink princess holding onto her leg with a death grip. “Cadance, I am going to give you two seconds to let go. If you don’t, I’m going to teleport you half a mile away from Canterlot.”

Cadance didn’t budge. “And then what? Run after that trio of bullies so you can cause another front-page news story while Shining Armor is left half-conscious on the ground?” she demanded with a frown. “What is that going to do other than just cause more trouble?”

Two seconds later, Sunset let the magic slip from her horn. Then she looked over to the young stallion as Shining Armor let out a little moan. “Okay,” the amber alicorn whispered before she let out a long breath to help slow down her pounding heart. “You can let me go now.”

As soon as Cadance did, Sunset was over next to Shining Armor. Healing magic might not have been her forte, but she had experienced a diagnostic spell enough times to know how it was cast. From her place behind Sunset, Cadance spoke up in worry. “Is he alright?”

“No broken bones,” Sunset told her as she absorbed the information. Shining’s underside did seem pretty sore though, and he had taken a bad hit to the head on top of the bloody nose. The amount of damage did seem a bit much for just a high school bully to do. But then, Sunset supposed that creatures with hooves would have hit a lot harder than humans.

The stallion beneath her stirred. “Ugh...Sunset?”

Upon hearing her name, Sunset didn’t know whether to be happy that Shining Armor was coming out of his daze, or worried that his speech sounded a little garbled. “Shiny?” she asked in concern. She had to wonder if he had a concussion. Can unicorns even get concussions? Sunset remembered that the horned pony’s skull was a great deal tougher than most gave them credit for, but...what she could call up from her old Equestrian anatomy lessons didn’t give any specifics.

A second later, Sunset felt Cadance crowd her. “Shining Armor, are you okay?” she asked before putting up one of her legs. “How many hooves am I holding up?”

“Uh…” the stallion looked up at the two alicorns, and blinked several times. “One?”

The completely asinine test over, Cadance let out a sigh of relief and stood back up. “Okay. Sunset, you should go and take Shining Armor to the nurse’s office,” the pink princess told her. “I’ll go and see Principal Cinch. After something like this, there’s no way she’s going to let Buck keep going to school here.”

“Expulsion?” Sunset spat in response to Cadance’s words as she looked back towards the other alicorn. “You think I care about him being kicked out of school after he did something like this?” She was going to find that stallion and break him in two! Crush every bone in his body before using a few of the darker spells from the forbidden section of Celestia's library to rip out the boy’s soul and put it in an iron pot so she could cook it herself and listen to his screams!

Another pony’s fetlock touched her foreleg, and Sunset’s visions of creating her own personal Hell for Buck were shattered when Shining Armor called out to her. “Sunset? Are you okay?”

The question made Sunset look back down to Shining Armor. “AM I Oh…” she got out before realizing she was yelling at the colt who was still laying on the floor. It made Sunset’s ears droop in shame. Shining Armor was hurt, and all she was worried about was getting some stupid revenge. “I-I’m fine Shining. You’re the one we need to be concentrating on. Come on, let’s get you to the nurse’s office.”

“What’s wrong?”

Sunset winced at the question before she helped the stallion get back on his hooves. “What’s wrong?” she said as she repeated Shining Armor’s words as he wobbled around. “You got hurt!” And I wasn’t even twenty feet away, too concerned with myself to notice. “C-Can you walk?”

“Yeah,” Shining Armor replied before he took a step, and then winced. “Ah!” But before Sunset could rush over and...do something to try and support him despite the challenge being a pony presented when it came to that problem, Shining Armor held up a hoof. “No. I’m okay. Don’t worry, stuff like this happens all the time.”

Despite the little laugh Shining gave the mares, Sunset found herself sharing a worried look with Cadance. ‘All the time?’ the amber alicorn mouthed to her pink counterpart.

Cadance had to fight the unease she felt as she walked into Principal Cinch’s office. The somber tone and lack of light made the room one of the more foreboding places she had seen in her lifetime. Although, Cadance knew the fact that she was actually experiencing unease because of the room was silly. Principal Cinch was a perfectly nice pony, if a little...elitist.

The mare in question was laying down on a long chair that was parked in front of her desk, looking over a few papers that were being held in her magic. Cadance felt a twinge of envy at the sight. Her own magic was coming along, but...it would be some time before she could hold something steady enough to read it according to Sunset.

As the pink alicorn got up to the desk, Cinch dropped her papers and adjusted her glasses before smiling at the mare. “Ah, Princess Cadance. To what do I owe the honor of your company this fine afternoon?” she asked. “Is there something wrong? An unfair teacher you need me to...have a word with?”

Cadance nodded her head to the principal in a polite manner. “Actually, it concerns a student,” she told the older mare. “One of my friends was just attacked inside the mare’s bathroom.”

The principal let out a little gasp. “Oh my word! Well, tell me what happened and I will take care of it at once! Who was this student, and her assailant?”

“It was a colt, actually,” Cadance corrected Cinch. “Shining Armor was being bullied by Buck Withers and two of his friends. I’m not sure of their names, but I could pick their faces out of the yearbook. I’m sure they’re all on the polo team. Ponies like that, they need to be expelled!”

After the announcement was made, the principal stared at the princess for several seconds, and then nodded to herself. “I...see,” Cinch said slowly before she used her magic to put away the glasses that were resting on her muzzle. “Well...that’s going to be a bit difficult then, I’m afraid.”

Cadance frowned at the mare’s reaction, or lack thereof. “Excuse me?” she asked evenly. “One of the senior students, an earth pony no less, attacked a younger student and probably would have done more to Shining if we hadn’t been there! And from what I understand, this is a normal occurrence! He and his friends need to be kicked out of school. How in any way is that difficult?”

“Princess,” Cinch began as she raised her hooves in a calming gesture. “I ask that you...consider this: Buck Withers is a very important pony at this school. He is the captain of the polo team, and participates in many other sports as well. I dare say that the reason that our school is doing so well this year in sports is due to all of his hard work. In contrast, this Shining Armor colt you speak of is...well, not nearly as valuable to the school. Plus, they are young stallions. A little horseplay is expected from time to time.”

Even though she hadn’t had nearly as much court experience as Sunset, Cadance knew plenty about reading between the lines. “Are you telling me that you’re just going to-no,” she mumbled when something else occurred to her. This was not the first time Buck’s actions had been brought to Cinch’s attention. “You’ve been letting something like this happen right under your bucking nose!?”

The principal cleared her throat as Cadance fought to keep her temper reined in. It wouldn’t have been right for a princess to just go off on the mare sitting in front of her. There were other ways of handling things. She didn’t need to jump straight to physical violence the way Sunset seemed more than willing to do.

Despite how much she wanted to.

Which was a lot.

“Princess Cadance,” Cinch continued. “I ask you, think what would happen if I were to...remove Buck Withers and his friends from the academy. The year is just beginning, and our polo team has a real shot at winning the national championship. Should I dash all the hopes of every single pony counting on attending those games, of getting scholarships, of cheering their friends and family on simply because one little colt got a little roughed up?”

Cadance let out a disgruntled snort. “Principal Cinch,” she said in a growl. “When I first came here, I said that I didn’t want to be treated different than any other pony. But we both know that was just me trying to be friendly, and doesn’t change the fact that I am a Princess of Equestria! I do not think I need to remind you just how much authority that actually gives me, or the company I keep!”

For a second, the threat had the principal's eyes go wide. Then, after Cinch calmed down, she opened her desk drawer. “Princess...while I do understand your feelings on this issue. I must ask you not to make any...political moves,” she said before a newspaper came out to land in front of Cadance.

The picture alone told Cadance what the thing was about. Sunset’s ‘trial’ had been headline news for every paper in Equestria. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Buck Withers is the son of Councilman Strong Withers,” Cinch explained. “I’m not sure if the public would react favorably to Princess Sunset’s friend going after the son of the stallion who wrongfully accused her of being a changeling so soon after that little incident when the stallion himself was merely a victim of being too overly cautious. And if you use your political authority to make me go after him, well...you know how inquisitive reporters can be. I’m afraid that such information will turn up in the newspapers, despite my best efforts.”

Cadance’s mouth dropped at the news, and she snatched the paper up in one of her hooves to glare at the picture of Sunset standing in the Sun Court before she looked back at the unicorn sitting across the desk. “Are you bucking KIDDING ME!?”

In response to Cadance’s anger, Cinch shook her head. “Princess, please understand that I’m on your side here. I don’t want to see anything happen that might tarnish your good name, or that of Princess Sunset’s. Shining Armor is just some nopony. Let Buck have his plaything. It’ll be better for everypony in the long run. Do we have an...understanding?”

The room was silent as Cadance glared at the...reprehensible mare in front of her. “Yes Principal,” she said in an even tone. “I think I understand you quite well, now.”

Most of the carriage ride to Shining Armor’s house was a quiet affair after he got done protesting about having to leave school and the transport Sunset provided at her own cost. The young stallion may have said he was fine, but Sunset knew that healing magic took more out of a pony than they ever liked to admit. She also knew there was no way that he would have made it to his next period without falling asleep. As for her own absence. Sunset was a fucking Princess-of-Equestria-to-be, and could go wherever she damn well pleased.

Shining Armor fidgeted in his seat, and Sunset found herself wishing that they could have sat human style rather than laying on their stomachs in the seats across from each other like a pair of ponies. “Are you alright Shining?”

The young stallion blushed at the attention. “I’m...good.”

The carriage hit a bump, and Shining Armor winced. Guilt welled up in the pit of Sunset’s stomach at the sight. “I’m sorry,” she apologized.

“Huh?” he replied.

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “If I hadn’t of gotten so flustered in the cafeteria, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” she said. Not that Buck was any less to blame. But, the only pony in range of Sunset’s anger at the moment was herself.

“This wasn’t your fault,” Shining told her. “And uh, why did you run off so fast anyway?”

Thankfully, Sunset found herself not needing to answer the question as the carriage came to a halt. With an excuse to escape embarrassment, she quickly opened the door. “Just a minute, Shining. Let me pay the driver, and then I’ll help you out.”

“I can-” Shining Armor managed to say before Sunset made her way out of the carriage and pulled her purse out from under her wings to get some bits. Using them to hide her money was about the only use the amber alicorn had found for the feathered appendages since becoming a winged pony.

The door on the carriage opened again, and Sunset trotted back up to the door. “Shining-”

Shining Armor held up a hoof to hold the alicorn off. “I’ve got it,” he told her before walking down the steps and onto the street. Once he was there, the stallion looked over to his house. “So...um, here we are.”

“Yep,” Sunset agreed before she trotted over to the front door. “Now come on, let’s get you to bed. I’ll tell your mom what happened, and she can cook you something to eat. I know you don’t feel it now, but healing magic makes you really hungry after it’s been used. Once your body gets ready for digestion, you’ll probably need to scarf down about as much as I do for a meal or two.”

As Shining Armor walked to catch up while making some weak protest, Sunset took a second to study the glowing crystal gem in the door and under the knob. The design of the locking spell didn’t look half as complicated as the ones Celestia put on the restricted section of the library.

“Just a second, I’ll-”

Sunset pointed her horn at the gem and sent a tiny pulse of magic into the jewel. “I got it,” she told him before the lock clicked open, and Sunset turned the knob to open the door with her magic.

Only a trot behind her, Shining Armor sighed as Sunset walked into the house before motioning for him to come in with a hoof. “Uh...Mom? Dad? Are you here?” he called out before walking through the door to look around at the empty living room. “Twily?”

“Hmm, shouldn’t they still be at work, or something?” Sunset asked. It was barely past one o’clock. Even if the other Twilight and her husband worked part-time, the wouldn’t be home for a couple of hours.

Shining Armor looked over to the amber alicorn. “My parents work mostly at night. It’s the only time they can see the stars,” he explained before closing the door behind him. “They probably went out for a late lunch or something. Half the time, the only way we can get Twilight to take a nap is to stuff her so full she can barely move.”

The image of her best friend as a chubby little filly made Sunset giggle. But, the laughter was short-lived as she turned her attention back to Shining Armor while he shut the door behind them. “Okay, let’s hurry and get you in bed. Then I’ll try and find something for you to eat, and stick around until your parents come home.”

For some reason, Shining Armor seemed a little put off by the idea. “Uh, Sunset-”

“Shining Armor!” Sunset said forcefully before he could even begin to argue. She wasn’t about to have the pony that had just had a mass of bruises healed away collapsing when the magic’s side-effects kicked in. “You are either going to go upstairs while I find something to make for you to eat, or I am going to carry you up to your bed, pin you down on it, and…” Sunset gulped as the mental image of just what that could entail if she didn’t have the use of her magic formed in her head. “Um….”

The young stallion rolled his eyes at the mare’s broken request. “Okay, if it’ll make you happy, I’ll go lay down.”

As Shining Armor began to make his way up the stairs, Sunset found her eyes trailing him. That had been...much too easy. Still, the amber alicorn wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She let out a sigh of relief, and blinked at her her own tiredness hit her like a hammer.

It wasn’t that surprising. There had been that rush of adrenaline when she had been ready to clobber the stallion who hurt Shining Armor, followed by half an hour of worry that left her mentally exhausted. On top of which, the giant meal she had eaten at lunch was adding to Sunset’s lethargic demands.

Him first, then me, she told herself after Shining Armor disappeared around a corner into the upstairs hallway. But...one look into Twilight Velvet’s kitchen made Sunset realize two important things. The first of which was that she had no idea what Shining Armor liked to eat. The second being that she had just dragged the poor stallion into his own home and sent him to his room.

Okay...really need to apologize for that, Sunset told herself as she looked around Twilight’s home. Good reason or no, Sunset supposed that it had been pretty rude of her.

The amber alicorn sighed began trudging her way up the stairs. With only four rooms to choose from at the top, it wasn’t hard to find the one Shining Armor used. “Hey Shiny?” she asked timidly before opening the door and looking inside.

Shining Armor’s room was just about what Sunset had come to expect from a man cave of a guy who still had to live with his parents. There were pictures of bulky stallions on the wall with emblems behind them that just screamed wrestler, a dresser in the corner was decorated by Power Pony figurines, and there were more ‘action figures’ on a small bookshelf across from Shining’s bed, which took up the majority of the space with how it was just placed in the middle of everything. A small chest in the corner opposite of Shining’s dresser was open, and Sunset blinked when she saw him holding a magazine in his magic that had been taken from the green container.

“Uh...Sunset,” he said. Something wrong?”

Sunset’s ears wilted at the question. She knew he didn’t mean it to be be...accusing, but the amber alicorn couldn’t help but feel that he was just waiting for another demand from Princess Control Bitch. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting since we left school,” she told him. “I just got so angry, and then worried, and…” She sighed and shook her head. “I know that’s no excuse, but...when things happen that upset me-”

“You want to try and fix them,” he finished for her before smiling in the cutest way. “It’s okay. It’s one of the things I like about you. I mean, it was the reason we met, right? Everypony else was just willing to look the other way when I was in trouble, but you stepped in and helped me.”

The undeserving praise made Sunset blush. In truth, she had been more concerned with beating down a bully than helping the stallion Buck had been harassing at the time. Of course, the amber alicorn eventually became concerned with Shining after everything was done, but...not initially.

Twilight would have been more concerned about the stallion that was being picked on.

Then, Shining blushed and looked over to his bed. “And...I guess I am feeling kind of tired,” he said before moving over to get on the mattress. Once there he flipped around to lay on his back before he scooted up to rest against the headboard of his bed. “But, I’m not really that hungry. I mean, we did just eat.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, that is a good point,” she agreed. If the stallion’s body had some food in it before the healing had been performed, Sunset could see how that would have helped offset the side effects. “But, you’re still going to need to eat plenty tonight,” she said before trotting up to look Shining in the eyes to make sure she got her point across.

Although, the effect was soon ruined when Sunset opened her mouth to yawn.

Shining Armor snickered. “Are you sure I should be the only one getting ready to take a nap?”

“Hey! I just watched my boyfriend get laid out on the bathroom floor! I’m entitled to be a little tired from all this worrying!” Sunset shot back. The fact that the guy who she was worrying about was the one making fun of her for it made it all the more aggravating.

The tiny smile on Shining Armor’s face died, and he scooted over to the other end of his bed. “Sorry, I just, um...boyfriend?”

Sunset tensed at the question for a second. “Uh...well...um…” she stammered for a few seconds before shaking off her hesitation. “Sorry, that just sort of came out. I mean...I really do like you Shining. But...you know…”

“I’m not really princess coltfriend material, right?” he asked.

The stallion’s question left Sunset frozen for a second as she saw Shining Armor look down at himself. Almost as if he was accepting that...idiotic opinion about himself. “WHAT?” the amber alicorn shouted, the exhaustion she had been feeling washed away by a wave of anger. “What kind of moron told you something like that? You’re the best guy I’ve met in years, and if it wasn’t for all this other junk going on in my life, I’d be all over you right now!”

As Sunset finished her declaration, Shining Armor winced. “W-Well, I didn’t mean-”

Sunset reared up on the stallion’s bed before he could offer some lame excuse for thinking he wasn’t all that. “Literally all over you,” she said before getting her hind legs up on the mattress to tower over him completely. “Right. Now.”

“You mean like you are...right now?” he asked nervously.

The stupid question made Sunset blink, and she looked around to realize what she had just done, and that she was straddling the stallion. Who also happened to be as naked as she was.

Too tired to even blush, Sunset let out a groan and just fell over onto the other side of Shining Armor’s bed after extending her wings to make sure they didn’t catapult her off of it. Removed from the position of sexual dominance, Sunset sighed. “Sorry.”

Shining Armor reached around to put a foreleg under the bigger alicorn, but only ended up pulling himself closer to Sunset rather that the other way around as he tried to draw her into a hug. “I-It’s okay,” he told her. A small blush appeared on his cheeks as he tried to comfort the mare.

The logical part of Sunset’s mind knew what she was doing was a bad idea. She was in bed with an almost impossibly innocent stallion, and her human sensibilities that no longer applied but wouldn’t just clear out said they were both completely naked. Despite her exhaustion, everything about the situation said that it was time for her to mount the stallion like a cowgirl and ride off into the sunset.

And what made it even worse was that Sunset knew he deserved to get laid!

Being pulled into a hug by the stallion and resting her head right under his wasn’t making things any easier either. Sunset didn’t know if it was some kind of cologne, or maybe her nose was just that much better as a pony, but Shining Armor smelled good. It wasn’t the exact smell that humans had used on Sunset while she had been at CHS to cause certain chemicals to trigger in her mind in an attempt to make them seem more appealing; something Sunset had never really fallen for that much in the first place. The stallion’s scent was making the earth pony part of Sunset’s anatomy remind her that it was quick to recover from physical exhaustion and was almost ready to go a few rounds with the guy she really wanted to be with.

No, not yet, Sunset told herself as her body snuggled up closer to her white stallion until she was holding him with all four of her legs instead of Shining just cradling her head. This was the second time she had really been alone with the guy. While that had been plenty of time...before, trying to jump Shining Armor’s bones now would just prove that Sunset was only after one thing.

She needed to focus on something other than the urges to kiss him on the neck as she worked her way up to his sweet lips before diving into his mouth with her tongue in an attempt to clean his teeth like last time. Because that would lead to the alicorn pinning her prize down on the bed, and there was no way even Shining Armor’s libido would stay silent with Sunset’s sexual prodding. Then she would take her stallion and…

Wait, Sunset thought to herself as her mind encountered a problem with the fantasy threatening to dominate her thoughts. Can I even be on top anymore? The position of pony private parts didn’t really seem to lend itself well to anything other than traditional mounting.

With something of a thinking problem to focus on, Sunset managed to push away some of the lusty haze that threatened to fill her mind. Right...we’re in the wrong position, the alicorn told herself. Can’t have sex if he can’t...ugh, aim it properly.

Needing to get off that particular topic, Sunset focused on another problem that stood in the way when it came to being intimate with Shining Armor. And don’t forget the earth pony strength, Sunset went on. While Cadance had given Sunset her two bits on the matter, what the hell did the former pegasus really know? She was a moron! You’re a scientist Sunset, you find things out for yourself through experimentation!

And there...were ways she could check to see if the movement of her...female muscles during an intense moment of pleasure would actually cause enough force to do bodily harm to another pony. Extremely vulgar ways that promised to cause no end of embarrassment if someone should catch her, but...it was something Sunset had to do before she could bang her sort-of boyfriend.

No matter how much she wanted to!

Which...Sunset realized wasn’t that much anymore. The fury of thoughts had managed to switch the track her mind had been going on before it reached the point of no return.

Instead, she just lay next to the young stallion quietly for a few minutes and found herself just enjoying being with Shining Armor as they laid in bed together. His presence was still filling her mind, but...it had changed from what it was a moment ago. Everything just seemed...calmer.

It was nice.

And new. Even the time with her friends hadn’t given Sunset a real moment of soothing peace she found herself wrapped up in at the moment.

Her human friends at any rate. Sleeping with Cadance the night before had been pretty peaceful as well. Sunset had just wrapped the other alicorn up in almost the same way she was currently holding Shining Armor and...drifted off into sleep.

“Sunset?”

Shining saying her name made the mare loosen her grip and scoot away as far as she could on the colt’s bed so she could look her little pony in the eyes. “Yes Shining?”

He blinked. “Are you okay? You....stopped talking.”

A complementary lie came to Sunset’s mind to distract the stallion from probing any deeper. “Just thinking about how nice it is to get some alone time with you again,” she said with a smile. Although, Sunset supposed it wasn’t that much of a lie. She did like just being with Shining Armor, holding him in her forelegs and enjoying his presence.

Now that she had managed to beat her libido back at any rate.

“Oh,” he said before another blush returned to his face. “Yeah it...feels nice.”

Sunset found herself unable to resist the last embers of her naughtier thoughts. Shining was just looking so cute, and there was something that the amber alicorn needed to take care of in regards to what may easily turn out to be a relationship if her stupid princesshood didn’t become too much of a problem...on top of other things that she didn’t want to think about. But those were worries for another time. At the moment, Sunset had a solution to one of her problems, and she wasn’t about to let the other ones get in the way of solving it.

“You know Shining, there is something we should take care of since we’re alone right now,” she said in a soothing tone. But not too soothing, Sunset didn’t want to take things too far. She had just barely avoided jumping the poor guy’s bones.

Shining Armor scooted to the other side of the bed, which didn’t really put that much room between them, and blinked. “Um...w-what’s that?”

Sunset smiled as he just seemed to get even more adorable. “Our first kiss.”

The nervous confusion on Shining Armor’s face became less nervous and more confused. “But...we’ve already had our first kiss.”

“That was a dream, Shining,” Sunset told him after she rolled her eyes before she scooted closer so their muzzles were only inches apart. When the amber alicorn spoke again, her voice was in a whisper. “I want to kiss you for real. I mean, if...you want to, that is.”

All of a sudden, nervousness completely replaced confusion on Shining Armor’s face thanks to Sunset’s clarification. “Oh! Uh...well, that’s um...oh-okay.”

Using all the strength of will at her disposal, Sunset kept herself from leaping onto the stallion. Instead, she lightly touched his lips with hers, letting him melt into the kiss before pulling Shining Armor back into her embrace. Her tongue ran along the outside edge of the stallion’s lips like a guest knocking on a door for permission to enter. When the unicorn let her in, Sunset made her way past his teeth to embrace his tongue before rolling the two of them on the bed so that she was on top.

Although the stallion was giving permission, Sunset wasn’t about to let Shining think that she wasn’t going to be the one in charge. Her wings came down to envelop him like a second hug as the alicorn lost herself in the unicorn’s mouth.

He tasted of semi-expensive lunchroom food mixed with soda and the remnants of sugary bubblegum. It wasn’t as magnificent as Sunset had been hoping, but...the alicorn found the experience a long way from unpleasant. Then, after a good eight seconds of dominating her stallion’s mouth, Sunset broke the kiss and pulled herself up to straddle Shining Armor’s lower barrel and smile down at her little pony. It was a bit more difficult than as a human, but still manageable. “So, how was that?”

“W-Wow,” Shining Armor managed between pants.

Sunset giggled just a bit, at least until she felt his hooves slowly come up to touch her ass. The alicorn’s eyes widened at the action, but she found it more funny than rude or sexual. After all, Sunset was the one in charge, and Shining wasn’t going to get any until she decreed he would.

While that might have been a bit of the old her clawing its way to the surface, Sunset figured it was a small price to pay to keep from ruining what she had with the guy. Although...she did like the idea of Shining Armor enjoying her body. It didn’t make her feel especially sexy. Sunset already knew she looked good. But...it did feel...nice.

“Okay Shiny,” she told him with a smile before wrapping the hooves that were feeling her butt up in magic and gently moving them away. “Let’s slow down a bit before we get a little too crazy.” Me in particular. A little kiss and some cuddling was one thing, but if Shining Armor started to explore her body, Sunset didn’t know just how in control of herself she could remain.

The expression on Shining’s face went from clouded joy to awakened, wide-eyed surprise almost instantly. “Oh! Oh buck! Uh, Sunset, I’m sorry, I just-urmpth!” he said before her magic also covered his mouth.

“Shiny, I’m not angry,” Sunset told him before she lowered herself back on top of him so she could fill his vision. “I just think we should wait a little while before I let you play with my plot.” She smiled at her stallion. “We did just have our first real kiss after all.”

When she released her magic, the stallion went back to blushing. “Oh, um...okay,” he squeaked out.

Before he could get too nervous, Sunset gave the boy a peck on the nose. “So how about another kiss?” she offered. “I’ll let you try feeling me out this time.”

After the colt nodded, Sunset locked their lips again, and slowly coaxed Shining Armor’s tongue into her mouth. His motions were timid and he darted around a bit, but the alicorn did her best to make her stallion feel at ease as she guided him in the dance.

Although, a part of Sunset hoped that Shining would find a way to eventually get over his timidness. While she supposed stopping his ass grab might have made the colt shy away from being too bold, the alicorn didn’t want the entirety of her experience with him to be her having to drag Armor around all the time.

I’m being too hard on him, Sunset told herself as second later. After all, he had barely been able to speak to her when they first met, and had been going on about the nerdiest of things by the time he got home. If he had that much of a problem just talking to a mare, anything even close to intercourse related was going to take some time to get used to.

And it wasn’t like Sunset wanted a guy who was chomping at the bit to ride her like a horse. The stallion’s hesitation was one of Shining’s most endearing qualities!

The kiss dragged on, and Sunset wondered if she would need to pull her head back to break it as Shining Armor continued to just roam around her mouth. However, that decision was taken from her when her ears with their pegasus hearing picked up the sound of a door opening, and the clopping of tiny hooves on wood.

Sunset pulled her head away from Shining Armor and fought to get off the bed, nearly falling over in the process. “Crap! Your parents are home,” she said before looking over to a small clock on the nightstand next to Shining Armor’s bed to see it was past two-fifteen.

They had been cuddling for a lot longer than she had thought.

“...and?” Shining asked with a blank face.

Not in the mood for beating around the bush, Sunset decided to just go out and say it. “Shining, if we come walking out of your bedroom, they’re going to think we had sex!” While it hadn’t been much of an issue when Sunset was a human because she didn’t much give a damn what others thought about her and her boytoys, she did very much care what Shining’s parents thought of both her and their son’s moral integrity.

As her stallion suddenly froze up at the mention of the s-word, Sunset looked around for an escape. She had seen a few movies with Rarity where the two star-crossed lovers needed to avoid discovery by their family, and...she also realized that none of those accounts told of a girl who had a magical horn sprouting from her head.

Sunset grabbed Shining Armor in her magic and yanked him close to her, making sure to turn him hooves-down so he could stand on the floor before throwing a wing around his back and pulling him in close. Unfortunately, Sunset could only take a second to enjoy how unusually nice it felt to hold Shining against her body before she looked out the window in his room and fixed a destination for her teleport in her mind.

“S-Sunset? What’re you doing?” the stallion asked in a worried tone.

The amber alicorn took one more second to encase them in a bubble of silence to block the sound of displacement, and then tore open a hole in reality.

The next thing she knew, Sunset was standing on the street, half a block away from Twilight’s house.

Not wasting any time, Sunset let her stallion go and stepped forward a couple of times before she turned around and looked him in the eye. “Okay, now we need to get our story straight,” she began.

“And I couldn’t just let him walk home on his own, so I decided to accompany Shiny,” Princess Sunset Shimmer said as she finished telling Twilight Velvet why her son was back from school nearly an hour early.

The family matron nodded her head. “I’m not exactly sure if we deserve it, but thank you for troubling yourself with my son’s well-being, Your Majesty,” Velvet said respectfully. While the young goddess might have been a bit averse to another pony bowing to her, there was a limit to how much the elder Twilight was willing to go in removal of decorum when it came to one of the overseers of Equestria. “And sorry for the trouble. Shining just has the oddest problem with stairs when he’s not at home.”

For some reason, the princess looked past Velvet and to her foals sitting on the living room couch with the tiniest bit of a frown. “You wouldn’t believe my surprise when I heard what apparently happened,” she said in an oddly displeased tone before looking back to the mare with a calmer face. “But, it did give me an excuse to get out of class, and I needed to talk to you anyway.”

Velvet’s mind tried to think what somepony like Sunset Shimmer would want with her. “Talk to me? About what?”

“Umm…” Sunset looked back to the ponies laying on the couch. “Hey Shining, can you go play with Twilight for a little while?”

The purple unicorn didn’t like that request one bit. Twilight looked over to Sunset with her big eyes practically glistening. “But I want to stay here with you!”

Despite the foal’s gaze of mental domination via her cuteness, Sunset put on an amused smile. “Don’t you have a nap to go take?”

Utterance of the N-word made Velvet wince. Twilight Sparkle might have been the smartest filly in the world and a joy nine-tenths of the time, but like nearly all foals her age, she absolutely hated stopping for just a few hours a day in order to let her body get some much needed rest. Not to mention the break it gave Velvet.

As for Twilight, she was quick to counter with the most logical argument available to her. “But I don’t need a nap!”

“Okay,” Sunset said before thinking for a few seconds. “You like reading, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah,” she said cautiously.

“Then, you go up to your room and find a book, and when I’m done talking to your mother, I’ll come read it with you,” Sunset offered her. “That sound fun?”

Twilight disappeared so quickly that Velvet had to wonder if she had been spontaneously moved by magic.

“And you still need to get some rest too Shining,” Sunset went on.

The colt in question gave the princess a little smile. “You going to read me a story too?”

A tiny frown appeared on Sunset’s face. “Once upon a time, there was a very powerful alicorn with anger control issues,” she said evenly. “And what set her off most was young stallions who didn’t follow the nurse’s instructions.”

“Okay, okay! I’m going!” Shining Armor quickly relented before getting off the couch and trotting upstairs.

Velvet quickly lowered her head in apology at her son’s actions. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

The confused frown Sunset gave Velvet in response made the unicorn blink before the amber alicorn spoke. “About what?” she asked, and then immediately held up a hoof. “Never mind. Look, did Twilight tell you an offer I made her the other day?”

“Offer?” Velvet repeated as she tried to think of Twilight mentioning anything of the like. “Well, she mentioned something about you letting her attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Not that Velvet understood much of what the girl had been going on about, Twilight had been so hyper when talking about it at the time. That was when experience told the mare she needed to just smile and nod at the girl’s words until she was done.

Sunset nodded to herself. “Okay,” she said before looking the other mare in the eyes. “I’m willing to give Twilight a full free-ride scholarship to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. All of her books, her food, lab equipment, even room and board if it comes to that, I will be willing to pay for.”

The sudden offer made made Velvet’s legs shake and nearly fall out from under her.

“I’m also willing to come by two or three nights a week to give her magical tutoring here at your house, if you’ll let me,” the princess continued before smiling a little bit. “I don’t really think she needs it, but you know how confidence and magic go, uh...hoof and hoof.”

Velvet couldn’t take it anymore, and her plot hit the carpet beneath her as she sat down on the floor in surprise. What the princess was offering...it made the mare nearly go short of breath! She had known Twilight was smart and deserved the best, but her inability to give the filly that had always made Velvet feel like a failure as a mother.

Although Night Light had always tried to keep a positive spin on things and they might end up with a few extra bits come next year when that book her old academy friend Yearling asked Velvet to help with the editing for went to print, the unicorn didn’t believe for a second they wouldn’t have been able to get Twilight in Celestia’s school without making major sacrifices.

But...the princess in front of Velvet was offering more than she ever dared hope for.

“W-Why?” the unicorn whispered before she could stop herself.

For the barest fraction of a second, it looked as if the princess’s eyes held a bit of...regret(?), but it was gone an instant later as she smiled down at the older mare. “I know your daughter is very special, and deserves the best this world has to offer,” Princess Sunset told Velvet. “And I will make sure that she gets it.”

Twilight Velvet stared at the mare in front of her, doing everything she could not to collapse at the princess’s hooves in thanks in order to maintain proper decorum. With what Princess Sunset Shimmer was offering, Velvet had more reason than ever to give her the respect she deserved. “I...um...t-thank you,” she said in an awed and grateful whisper.

All of a sudden, Princess Sunset broke eye contact, and sat down before she looked away from the unicorn, then reached over to rub her foreleg with another. “Um...yeah, so...how about I come by tomorrow when your husband is also here, and we can figure out some kind of schedule for me to come over and see Twilight?”

“Well, if you’re willing to wait for about half-an-hour, I’m sure he’ll be home by then,” the mare told her. “He had to run some paperwork to the observatory when we finished eating.”

Before the princess could respond, a voice called out from the stairwell. “Princess Sunset, are you still there? I found a book and I’m waiting. And Mr. Smarty Pants is ready to take notes.”

Sunset looked over to Velvet with a confused frown. “Smarty Pants?”

“A doll Shining Armor got for her at the beginning of the year,” Velvet explained. “She pretends its her, um...study buddy.”

The amber alicorn let out a tiny giggle. “That’s just adorable,” she said before looking up towards the stairs. “Well I certainly can’t keep Mr. Smarty Pants waiting.” Sunset nodded towards the unicorn, and turned to head upstairs.

After a minute, Velvet’s ears twitched when she hear the princess’s voice again. “Uh...Twilight, isn’t this book a little...advanced? Even for you?”

“But you said any book!” the purple unicorn whined in response.

“Okay,” Sunset relied before Velvet heard the springs of Twilight’s mattress struggle under the weight of a mare that was probably a bit too big for it. “Come here, yeah right under the wing. Now, the first law of mystical energy states that the essence of magic can not be created nor destroyed. However, amplification and nullification is possible by using several methods, see chapter five for more information...do you want me to just skip over the parentheticals?”

Velvet smiled and walked away from the stairwell to find a book of her own to read.

When Night Light came home twenty minutes later, and the two parents went to discuss things with the princess, Velvet found both of the mares asleep. Princess Sunset was holding Twilight and the filly’s doll in her forelegs, sheltering the purple unicorn with her wings.

The restricted section of the Canterlot Castle Library was a dark foreboding place. Most of the lamps hadn’t been replaced, and the premium of space meant that the bookshelves were several feet higher than regulation dictated. On top of which, the necessary absence of the cleaning staff meant that the place was overrun with cobwebs and covered in dust, which only added to the ominous room’s uneasy presence.

Even with her newly mastered light spell to help give some extra illumination should she need it, Cadance felt uneasy just standing next to the special librarian, next to the forbidden wing’s entrance. “Excuse me, um...Crossword, was it?” she asked rhetorically. “I’m looking for some books.”

“Eh?” the old unicorn mare said as she looked up from the book on her desk and adjusted her thick glasses as she looked to the empty space to Cadance’s left. “What was that dear?”

The pink alicorn cleared her throat to get the old mare’s attention. “I’m Princess Cadance. I’m here to look for a book concerning Equestria’s hidden history,” she said while thinking back to what Sunset had talked about the night before. “It’s um...well, it has to do with crystals. Maybe a...crystal castle?”

Crossword nodded her head. “Alright,” she said before taking off her glasses and stepping away from her desk. “Let me just fire up my old divining spell. The word was, crystal you said? Topic or title?”

“Um...let’s go with title,” Cadance said in response to the odd question before she looked over to the mare’s glasses that she was leaving behind. “Excuse me, but won’t you be needing your glasses?”

“Eh?” the old mare replied as she addressed the marble column Cadance was standing next to. “Whatever for?”

Glad the old bat couldn’t actually see her, Cadance rolled her eyes at the question. “So you can read the titles of the books I need to find.”

“Eh? Hahahaha,” the old mare laughed. “Oh girly, I’m not allowed to read the books. I just find them!” Then, the light above her horn increased in intensity and she started walking slowly into the dark room. “Come along then!”

Cadance blinked at the old mare, and wondered if her placement was due to Princess Celestia’s inability to let the palace staff go, or just some weird joke the young alicorn couldn’t quite understand. But, she followed Crossword into the room, creating her own light as she did so. Despite the foolishness of the endeavor, the princess wasn’t about to just let an old blind mare wander around in such a dangerous place. Cadance could simply guide her through the aisles, and look for what she needed on her own.

As she walked through the room, the pink princess couldn’t help but look at some of the titles as she tried to find some organization to a rather chaotic mess of books and manuscripts. Some of which were even laying against the racks with their front covers on display.

The Book of Counted Shadows, she read to herself.

Glue Production, and You...Okay, ew.

How to Summon the Dreaded...Bushwoolie? What’s that?

Then, Cadance saw a rather disturbing book that looked to be made of a pony’s coat placed so that all could see what looked like a screaming face on the cover.

“Ah! There it is!” the old mare cried out. “Hmmm, seems there’s two books that met your requirements.”

Cadance frowned. “There’s only two books in the whole library with crystals in the title?”

The old mare turned around and looked at the bookshelf to Cadance’s right. “Crystals? I thought you said Crystal! The es changes everything!”

“Oh,” Cadance replied before looking over to the books the librarian had pulled out. The History of the Crystal Empire, she read to herself before moving to the next one. The Magic of the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart. While the crystal palace depicted on the first one drew Cadance’s attention, it was the heart-shaped crystal on the cover of the second that made the alicorn draw a short breath. The object depicted looked almost exactly like her cutie mark.

“On second thought, these are what I’m looking for,” Cadance said before taking the old tomes in her hooves and placing each one under a different wing. “Thank you very much.”

After leading the old mare back to her desk, Cadance checked the clock at the main entrance to the library to see it was almost time for her magic lesson from Celestia.

Although, Cadance doubted they would get very far with all the questions that were just waiting to be asked. While she knew she needed to let Sunset tell her mother about the mirror herself when she was ready, the pink princess’s curiosity had been sparked when Sunset talked about a place that wasn’t mentioned in any reading material that the school had or known by the academy’s history department head either.

Of course, there was also the matter of that odious mare Cinch that Cadance was hoping to at least get some advice about, if not an outright removal of once she explained to her adoptive aunt what was going on at the school. Just thinking about how that mare was letting Shiny get bullied because the one doing the bullying was an athlete made Cadance furious!

Once she got to the entrance to Celestia’s private chambers, with the sun emblazed door, Cadance forced herself to calm down and knocked on the entrance with her hoof.

“Come in,” Celestia called from behind the closed doors.

As had been the case for the past couple of days, the main room of Celestia’s apartment was covered in mail from numerous important ponies from all over Equestria, maps of the palace that detailed a new security arrangement, and plans for an upcoming banquet. All of which revolved around Sunset Shimmer’s upcoming coronation. Although most of it was very familiar, the extra security precautions were something she hadn’t seen when the planning for her her own ceremony took place.

At the center of the organized chaos, Princess Celestia looked up from the large and somewhat out of place table that stood on a thick golden rug that was stylized with a solar cutie mark. “Ah Cadance, is it time for your magic lessons already?”

“I may be a little early,” the pink alicorn said as she looked up at the clock to see that she was right on time. But, there was no need to point out that Celestia had gotten wrapped up in her plans for Sunset...again. “Um...Auntie, wouldn’t your office be a better place to handle this sort of thing?” She gestured to the mass of letter, maps, and various other written plans Celestia was going over.

The white alicorn shook her head. “Unfortunately no. I have an open door policy when it comes to my office, so anypony with an emergency can come to me for help if the situation demands it,” she explained. “But by time spent in here is my time. So nopony is just going to be able to stroll in and glance at things I’d rather keep under wraps for the moment.”

A second later, Celestia’s horn lit up and her magic gathered all of the clutter before folding up the maps and putting everything away in a blue trunk next to the fireplace before the princess placed a seal on the square chest. Then, she turned back to face Cadance. “Now, did you look over those enchantments I assigned you the day before?”

“Actually Auntie, I found something in the library that caught my attention,” the pink alicorn said before she approached Celestia’s table and set down the pair of books she had procured from the library just moments ago.

Celestia’s demeanor changed from warm and nurturing to cautious in an instant. “Those are from the library’s restricted section,” she said before looking over to Cadance with an even expression. “How did you even know to look for them?”

The fact that it felt as if she were a foal being talked to by a somewhat disturbed mother made Cadance slightly uneasy. “Sunset mentioned something about a crystal palace in one of her stories, and I just wanted to see if there was anything like what she mentioned in Equestria.”

And the fact that this Crystal Empire place did exist...somewhere added a bit of weight to Sunset’s story about her traveling through time. Something Cadance had been hoping to disprove to put her at ease. But now, she was starting to think that it was Sunset that had the right idea about the way things were.

“Cadance,” Celestia said with a sigh before looking up to fix a little glare on the smaller alicorn. “I thought I told you to stop talking about such things with her. Sunset needs to concentrate on Equestria not some other world with those...hugh-mane creatures. She has responsibilities here that require her full attention.”

“What responsibilities?” Cadance asked before she could stop herself. Sunset wouldn’t even be crowned until the end of the month at the least. How could she have royal responsibilities before getting her crown?

After looking at the smaller alicorn for a moment, Princess Celestia’s horn lit up before her magic fetched a letter off the top of a nearby bookshelf. “Griffinstone is sending a new ambassador, a Mr. Gruff along with his granddaughter to Equestria in order to discuss the city-state’s continued presence in the Equestrian Games,” she explained before putting the letter back where it had been and continuing on in a private grumble. “Which is apparently going to be held in Cloudsdale this year. And my critics wonder why I have to micromanage Equestria so much.”

Cadance frowned at that bit of news. “Wait...how is that happening?” she asked. “Two-thirds of the population won't even be able to attend!”

“Apparently, the council that decided the location thought it was time to finally give Cloudsdale the honor of hosting the Games without even thinking of the attendance problems,” Celestia explained. “I would have stopped it, but I became a bit...preoccupied with Sunset’s condition. By the time everything had settled down and I checked up on the work that had piled up, everything was already stamped. Although I could step in and put a halt to the preparations, doing so now would be...problematic. Instead, I suppose we shall just have to make do. Perhaps build an colosseum on the ground that Cloudsdale could use, or have the events in another city with the proper facilities while Cloudsdale flies overhead.”

While the latter suggestion seemed like a bit of a cop-out, Cadance nodded in agreement. It wouldn’t be right for Celestia to swoop in and take away the honor of hosting the Equestria Games after everything had been set up.

It was only then that the pink alicorn noticed that she had been completely side-tracked. “Hey wait a second! You still haven’t told me about this Crystal Empire!” Cadance said to her adoptive aunt.

Celestia looked back to the pair of books Cadance had brought with her, and sighed. “Very well,” she said. “The reason you haven’t heard about the Crystal Empire is because it vanished nearly one-thousand years ago thanks to the actions of a self-obsessed child that decided to murder its ruler and enslave an entire sub-tribe of ponies in an attempt to free one of the greatest darknesses that this world has ever known! My sister and I stopped him, but a contingency he put in place removed the Empire from Equestria as well.”

The anger on Celestia’s face made Cadance lower her head. She understood the emotional outburst. It must have been hard for the princess to talk about something like that. The pink alicorn couldn’t help but wonder how many of those ponies had been friends of Celestia.

But, she could offer Celestia some hope. The pink alicorn looked back up to her mentor. “But...Sunset said that when she came back, she was in the Crystal Empire,” Cadance told her. “If she really has traveled through time, then that means all those ponies will return one day!”

“I am well aware of Sunset’s stories,” Celestia told Cadance evenly. “And the Empire was banished, not destroyed. Something banished does not stay gone forever. But that does not mean what she saw was real, or even destined to happen.”

Cadance pointed to the book depicting the Crystal Heart, her anger at Celestia’s refusal to even consider another possibility despite the ample evidence growing by the second. “Then why does this thing have my cutie mark on its cover?” she demanded harshly. “Sunset said I was the ruler of the Crystal Empire when she returned to Equestria! If that wasn’t the future, then why is the symbol for an entire nation on my flank?”

For a second, Celestia just stared at Cadance, and the pink alicorn thought she might have overstepped her bounds. However, her fears were quickly quashed a second later when the bigger alicorn let out a tiny laugh. “Well, it looks like your new friend is rubbing off on you a bit,” she replied before giving Cadance an understanding smile. “And your cutie mark could be explained by a number of ways. It could be that you are a descendant of the Crystal Empire’s royalty, the name Amore was one they liked to pass down through their family. But if you’d like another explanation, perhaps your talents lay in crystal magic. Something that I haven’t had much success with aside from of their more basic love spells apart from using the emotion as a focus for my magic. Spells I have been teaching you.”

Both were perfectly logical explanations, Cadance had to admit. Even if she did feel like acknowledging them was a betrayal of Sunset’s trust in her. “I suppose...that makes more sense than some ancient empire that I’m destined to rule over and protect in the next three years despite having no political or magical experience.”

Celestia's expression became somewhat uneasy. “Of course, there is the possibility that the Crystal Empire will return in three years, and you will be its ruler,” she said without meeting Cadance’s eyes.

“Wait,” Cadance said as she frowned. “I thought said you didn’t believe her.”

The question seemed to make Celestia even more uneasy, and she glanced towards her bedroom door for a second as if looking for a way out before looking back at Cadance. “Tell me something Cadance. If you had to decide between a reality where the pony you love the most in this world suffered a crippling injury, three years worth of guilt for actions born of pain and loneliness, and the thought that you cast her out followed by her having to abandon her best friends, or a reality where everything that happened was merely a bad dream….which of the two would you pick?” the princess told Cadance before her voice hardened. “You saw what Sunset was like when she awoke, the pain she carried in her heart. I will not let my daughter drown in a sea of regret for something that was not her fault. So, what she experienced was a bad dream, and nothing more. And I will hear no more arguments on the subject!”

Cadance lowered her ears at the...finality in Celestia’s voice. “Yes, Princess Celestia.”

“Now,” the bigger alicorn said before she took a deep breath and let out a long exhale. “Let us put this behind us, and continue with your lessons. Although, considering that picture on your plot, perhaps we should explore more than just the basics of emotional magic.”

Still a little uneasy over their last topic, Cadence approached the book with the Crystal Heart on the cover cautiously. “What’s the difference?” she asked. If what Celestia was trying to teach her was made with the Crystal Empire’s magic as the source, then Cadance didn’t see how the less-evolved magic would be better.

Princess Celestia became thoughtful for a few moments. “Well, the Crystal Empire’s magic is a bit more broad. They have spells to bring out love and project it like I was going to show you, but there are also several magics relating to the production and manipulation of crystals as well,” she explained. “But I don’t see what good that would do you unless you want to throw around sharp objects made of shiny rocks with mystical energy channeling properties.”

Cadance blinked as her mind conjured up a pair of images.

In one, she thought of her future if she were to just learn about love magic…

“Take this changeling!” Cadance shouted before firing a pink energy beam at the bug-pony that had come to devour her, only to have the monster open it’s mouth before gulping the magic down, growing fat on her power before countering with a spell that encased Cadance in a cocoon.

In the other, she thought of her future if she were to learn about the magic Celestia had mentioned…

“Take this changeling!” Cadance shouted before performing an amazing act of prestidigitation and using her magic to created a giant multi-colored fly swatter that promptly crushed the bug-pony that had come to eat her.

With the two paths before her properly considered, Cadance gave the bigger princess a look of determination. “I’ll take the shiny rock magic.” Being able to hand out love like it was candy and bring ponies happiness might have been tempting, but with such a threat to Equestria waiting in the winds, Cadance needed to be able to protect herself and her friends.

It was only in the final minutes of her lesson that the pink princess realized that she had forgot to ask her mentor for her intervention in the matter regarding Principal Cinch. But, Cadance consoled herself with the fact that it was probably better if she waited until dinner to bring that issue up. Sunset would probably want to hear about it as well.

And it would be good if Princess Celestia was there to help hold her down when the amber alicorn blew her top.

Chapter 12: Wrong Romantic Revelations

Celestia looked across the overly large and immaculate table as Sunset came into the dining hall to sit across from her, but next to Cadance. While her tardiness to dinner was an oddity, Celestia thought it better not to pry about such matters. Especially since Cadance would eventually get around to doing it for her via friendly conversation over their meal. Although, the way that the pink princess was looking at the amber alicorn with a worried expression did cause Celestia some concern.

Had something happened between the girls?

She hoped those two hadn’t gone back to fighting. The past several days had been a wonderful change from the norm, and Celestia could see that both Sunset and Cadance were better off for the experience. Even if it seemed the pink alicorn might have picked up a little of Sunset’s temper and a bit of her more aggressive tendencies. Her reasoning behind wanting to learn crystal creation and manipulation magic being the latest example of that trend.

But, that’s hardly a bad thing, Celestia told herself. The alicorns were the guardians of ponykind. Fighting was in the job description, and Cadance needed to be able to adjust to the rigors of her new species.

As soon as Sunset hopped up onto her seat, all of Celestia’s worries about something coming between the two younger alicorns disappeared and were replaced by something completely new thanks to a concerned question that came from Cadance’s mouth. “Is Shining Armor okay?”

Curiosity bloomed in Celestia’s mind, but she held back the urge to ask about just who this Shining Armor was in the most embarrassing way she could think of in favor of continued observance of the situation. One thing that Celestia had learned from several hundred years of life the hard way was that a princess didn’t act until she could predict what the outcome would be. Unpredicted outcomes could be even worse than foreseeable disasters.

Sunset stiffened at the question. She tried to hide it, and if the mare hadn’t been an alicorn she might have been able to do just that, but Celestia saw her hotheaded daughter’s wings become flustered. She also saw they looked a little disheveled, and made a mental note to teach the newest member of the royal family a little something about wing-care in the near future before the griffons came at the end of the week. If Sunset was going to be dealing with them, she needed to look her best.

“He’s fine,” the alicorn with the flaming mane replied just a little too quickly before she looked over to the kitchen doors. “Has the chef already taken your orders?”

With Sunset attempting to lead the conversation towards the less interesting topic by far, Celestia decided that she needed to intervene. “Well, thanks to your insistence on perfect cleanliness, the staff now cleans the kitchen half an hour before dinner, and I’m afraid they were a bit sluggish at it tonight,” the Alicorn of the Sun said before she gave Sunset a large and predatory smile to let her know what was coming. “Now, about this Shining Armor. That’s a colt’s name, if I’m not mistaken.”

If the situation was everything it appeared to be at first glance, Celestia didn’t see a reason not to have a little fun with it. At least, until she had to put her hoof down on the matter.

For some reason, Cadance became a little disturbed at the mention of the mystery pony, while Sunset’s mood darkened. Perhaps Cadance’s demeanor was because of Sunset’s mood. One did not shake off weeks of edginess just like that.

“He’s just some stupid pony we met at school a few days ago,” Sunset replied as she waved a hoof in Celestia’s direction as if to shoo the question away. The whole thing couldn’t have screamed ‘KEEP PESTERING ME ABOUT IT’ any louder unless Sunset’s magic had created a sign of neon lights above her head.

Cadance, on the other hoof, gave the amber alicorn a somewhat shocked expression as Sunset looked back towards the kitchens as if to will the chef into existence. “Did something happen on the way back to his house?”

Once again, Sunset’s body tensed as she stopped herself from physically acting out at the question. “No. Everything was fine.”

“Alright,” Celestia spoke up, her tone telling both of the girls she had gone from playful to serious. If her daughter was going to run out of patience that quickly, then she needed to get to the bottom of things just as fast. “What’s going on?”

Sunset let out a loud groan right as Celestia saw Cadance open her mouth to offer an explanation, and then began speaking before the pink princess could get a word in. “Shining Armor is just some stupid colt that Cadance met because of her babysitting job a few days ago. And yesterday, we found him being picked on by this stupid piece of trash that thinks he’s something special, who really roughed the poor guy up,” the amber alicorn explained in an unpleasant tone that got angrier by the second.

Then, Sunset paused in her story to suck in a deep breath and let it out. The action made Celestia blink in surprise. It was the second time she had seen her daughter really work to control her temper, another major change that had come about with the new pair of wings Sunset had been granted.

“I used my magic to check his injuries and take him to the nurse. Cadance went to the principal to get that idiot Buck expelled,” she replied with a roll of her eyes that said what she thought of that solution. “Then I got a coach, took him home, and told his parents what happened. That’s why I was late coming back. Had to deal with all the questions and bowing, and...other...junk.”

Celestia blinked at the explanation, unsure if she should be proud of Sunset helping another pony, however reluctant that help apparently was, or disappointed in the amber alicorn’s attitude towards such action. In the end, Celestia went with pride. Especially if Sunset had been so reluctant to follow through with doing the right thing. “Sunset, I’m proud of you for going out of your way to help another pony,” she told her daughter. Perhaps a little praise would change the young mare’s attitude towards it in time.

A blush covered the amber alicorn’s face, which quickly disappeared when Sunset frowned and looked back to the kitchen door. “No...you shouldn’t pat me on the head of this kind of stuff.”

Concerned about the way Sunset was not soaking up the what years with the girl said she should be, Celestia gave her daughter a worried look. “What?” she asked softly before her instincts had Celestia leaning over the table despite the impossibility of pulling the smaller alicorn into a hug in their current situation. “Sunset, why would you say something something like that?”

One of Sunset’s hooves shook with barely restrained anger and she let out a minute growl that told Celestia she obviously didn’t want to continue the conversation. “Can we talk about something else besides my crappy achievement of walking a boy home after he got pummeled?”

Although she didn’t want to just leave the conversation at that, Celestia decided that it would probably be best to give Sunset a minute to cool down. Still, just getting away from the subject altogether was impossible. So, Celestia went with a happier sub-topic. “Well then, Cadance,” she said. “Tell us about this colt friend of yours.”

Cadance blinked in confusion at the question as she turned towards Celestia. “What? But he’s-”

“Yeah Cadance,” Sunset said in a practical growl. “Tell Princess Celestia about your coltfriend.”

Even more confusion showed on Cadance’s face as she looked between the angry amber alicorn and the bigger one that grinned at her like a cat would at a mouse. While Celestia knew she shouldn’t have put the pink princess on the spot like she did, the poor girl had been asking for it with the way she had started talking about a boy.

Sunset’s mood about it was odd, though. Celestia knew it wasn’t envy. She had seen Sunset when she was envious towards Cadance, and what the amber alicorn was displaying didn’t come anywhere near the fit Sunset threw when she was like that. But, she was definitely flustered about something.

Perhaps that preening lesson should be tonight, Celestia told herself as Cadance finally tore her face away from Sunset, still a bit bewildered.

“Well...okay,” the pink princess began hesitantly before giving one last confused glance towards Sunset, who was starting to calm down as she studied her counterpart. “Shining Armor is a colt at the academy and in the same grade as me. He’s um...kind of a nerd and more that a little shy, but still a good pony. He helps other ponies that are falling behind in math and walks another student’s little brother home when she has practice after school.”

As Sunset started to become more relaxed, the other alicorn across the table from Celestia picked up some steam in her explaining. “But that’s more about what he does that who he is,” Cadance said before stopping to think for a second. “Hmm, well...I’d say Shining Armor is very caring and sweet. And responsible, and brave. I mean, Sunset was the one who did all the work, but-”

“AHEM!” The amber alicorn cut in with a cough before clearing her though. “Sorry,” she said evenly. “My throat’s a little dry. Now, you were talking about Shining Armor.”

Celestia recognized the insistence for Cadance to keep on track, another thing she would have to bring up with her daughter after dinner. Although...as Cadance went back to talking, the white alicorn saw a tiny bit of worry crop up in Sunset’s eyes.

“Well,” Cadance continued hesitantly, more out of the fact that she was putting some thought into her next few words rather than any fear of Sunset. “Aside from his one little flaw, I’d say he’s almost the perfect stallion.”

As the summarization of the colt’s character came to an end, Sunset frowned at Cadance in a strangely annoyed way. “What do you mean, flaw?”

Cadance looked back to Sunset with an innocent expression. “Well, he is pretty hesitant.”

“Hey!” Sunset exclaimed as she straightened up a little in defense of...Cadance’s interest. “You would be too if you were just some nopony having to deal with a bucking alicorn!”

With Sunset’s final statement and its defensive tone, Celestia’s theory about the situation fell apart, and a much more troubling one came in to replace it. Whereas before, she had surmised that Cadance had attracted the attentions of a colt, and Sunset was feeling guilty over some event that happened the other day...which was still a possibility. But the larger picture looked much more troubling.

Cadance had obviously managed to break through the social barriers and found a friend among the male population of Canterlot, who she was hoping would become more than that. Then, Sunset had come into the picture and was once again wanting what Cadance had. While it had been bad enough when the pink princess had been prancing around as an alicorn, Celestia had let it go in the hopes that getting over her envy on her own would have enabled to let Sunset make a giant leap towards her own moment of Harmony that preceded an ascension.

But now that she had wings of her own, there was no need to wait for Sunset to have any great moments of self-discovery. And Celestia was not about to let something like feelings for a colt that was still in school destroy the friendship Sunset would be needing more than anything when it came time for her to rule Equestria while her bond with Cadance was still in its infancy.

“Okay, that’s enough. I won’t have the two of you fighting over some foolish colt,” Celestia said in a stern voice. “Sunset, you don’t need to be envious of Cadance because she’s found a coltfriend.”

While Sunset turned to give Celestia a look of utter disbelief, Cadance studied the amber alicorn’s expression for a moment before she looked back to the largest pony in the room. “Oh, this isn’t jealousy. If Sunset was feeling jealous, there’d be more fire,” the pink princess explained before a hint of anger crossed Cadance’s features and she mumbled something that Celestia could barely pick up. “Not that she has anything to be jealous about.”

The angry grumble made Sunset look over to Cadance in confused concern. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Cadance’s body jerked a bit, and she seemed to have internal debate for a few second before looking back at Sunset with a tiny frown. “Oh come on! Out of the two of us, you’re the pony with full control of her magic!” she said, her volume rising as she continued. “You’re the pony that all the papers want to interview! You’re the pony who can just show up at school and have a new friend before first period while I’ve been without any for weeks! And you’re the pony everypony else takes seriously while I’m the one that EVEN A BUCKING PRINCIPAL CAN JUST SHOVE TO THE SIDE AND IGNORE!”

Both of the solar alicorns sat mute as Cadance finally ran out of breath from her shouting, and froze. She blinked away a few small tears that were threatening to appear in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I just-”

“Cadance,” Sunset mumbled softly as she reached out to her friend, making the pink princess wince.

“I’m sorry, I um...I think I need some air,” the former pegasus said before she flapped her wings to get into the air. She got a whole three flaps before being surrounded by a light blue light that stopped her from moving.

As Celestia debated on whether or not to intervene, Sunset pulled the other alicorn back over to her and held Cadance in the air for a moment. “Yeah, if you think I’m just letting you go after that, you’ve got another thing coming,” she said as she wrapped her forelegs around the pink princess and held her close. “I’m sorry if I ever-”

Cadance looked back to Sunset before the amber alicorn could finish. “Don’t apologize!” she practically pleaded before going limp in Sunset’s hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Once she had allowed the two girls to have their moment, Celestia spoke up. “Alright, what’s going on?” she asked as her daughter’s embrace of Cadance became less constructing and more comforting. Although a silent cheer erupted in Celestia’s heart at Sunset’s supportive actions, she kept her mind on task.

“Ummm, I’m not really sure,” Sunset spoke up before hesitating a few seconds. She glanced back over to Cadance for a moment, and then locked eyes with Celestia, a sad expression on her face. “But, earlier today...there was this problem at school. This friend of...ours got hurt by a bully. I checked him over, and then walked him home while Cadance went to to principal so she could tell Cinch what happened and get Buck expelled for it.”

Celestia studied her daughter for a moment. For some reason, a sense that Celestia had developed over the centuries was telling the white alicorn she wasn’t hearing the full story. Sunset was oddly hesitant to explain what had happened.

A tiny groan came from the pink princess that had her head resting on Sunset’s shoulder. “Sorry for blowing up like that.”

Sunset’s reply began with a snort. “That wasn’t blowing up. That was a hissy fit,” she said before her face became a little downcast. “And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel...like that.”

“What?” Cadance asked, her head jerking back up to look Sunset in the eyes. “No. You shouldn’t apologize! You didn’t do anything wrong.”

A ghost of a smile appeared on Sunset’s face. “It doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything right, either. I should have seen something was wrong and helped you with it,” she told Cadance gently. “Like I know you would have have done in my position.”

Cadance sighed, and went back to resting her head on the larger alicorn’s shoulder. “I think you’re giving me too much credit. And you are helping me with the magic.”

In response, Sunset shook her head, and drew her wings around the pink princess. “No, you’re just being too hard on yourself, and overlooking all of my faults,” she told her softly. “Without you...I don’t even want to think how badly today would have ended. And I may have better control of my magic, but you’re in way more control of yourself.”

When Cadance stayed silent and simple nuzzled the amber alicorn in acceptance of her words, Celestia took it as a sign that the two of them were done. So she decided to let herself back into the conversation. “Cadance, what do you mean nopony takes you seriously?” she asked in concern while hoping that it wasn’t her that the pink princess had been talking about. The white alicorn had to admit that she had been giving Sunset’s needs more attention than Cadance’s as of late. And even though there was a good reason for that, Celestia knew that such explanations were often of little comfort to the ones being neglected.

The two ponies looked back up to Celestia in surprise, as if they just remembered that she was still in the room. Cadance cleared her throat. “Uh, Sunset? You can let me up now.”

“Are you going to try and fly away?” the amber alicorn asked evenly.

Only after Cadance shook her head did Sunset let go so the pink princess could drop back to the ground. As soon as she did, Celestia pressed her with the question again. “And what do you mean nopony takes you seriously?”

Cadance sighed, and looked back to Sunset for a moment. “Well...after Sunset took Shining Armor home, I went to talk to Principal Cinch about what happened and report the stallion who attacked Shining,” said before becoming angry. “But the principal just laughed it off and told me to let Buck use him like a kicking bag and that everything was fine! That it was normal!”

A sense honed after hundreds of years of watching over Equestria told Celestia that she needed to investigate the colt in the wrong a bit more, but her sensibilities overruled it in favor of the mare in front of her. It didn’t even take much effort thanks to the revelation of the headmaster’s dereliction of duty. “Why would she do something like that?”

“Because Cinch is a short-sighted piece of crap that only cares about herself and her own reputation,” Sunset grumbled as she seethed more than breathed. “And Buck Withers is a big strong athlete that can help with that reputation, while just having Princess Cadance at CA is enough to boost the old bat’s social standing.”

The oddly astute observation made Celestia wonder had come to her conclusion so quickly. Although after considering everything she knew about her daughter, Celestia could see how the amber alicorn could done it. But rather than complimenting Sunset on her reasoning, Celestia kept her attention on Cadance while reminding herself that she would have time for praising Sunset later. At the moment, Cadance was the priority.

Especially considering the opportunity this little problem presented for the pink princess.

“So then Cadance, what do you intend to do about it?” Celestia asked as she began to mentally put all of the pieces of a plan together.

Cadance frowned at the question. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I’m doing something about it right now. I’m telling you, so you can take care of her!”

Before Celestia could reply, Sunset let out an aggravated groan that might as well have been a growl that was directed towards Celestia. “Oh you can’t be serious!” the amber alicorn exclaimed. “You just heard that that piece of...whatever is just letting somepony abuse my-Shining Armor, and you want to turn this into another stupid TEST?”

The angry demand made Celestia see that she had made a minor miscalculation. Although a few years of past experiences meant it was a little hard to predict the actions of a Sunset Shimmer that actually cared about other ponies besides herself. Which, made the white alicorn only feel worse for her slipup. “Well what can I do then?” she asked her daughter evenly. “Simply trot into your school and demand Cinch’s resignation?”

“Yes!” Cadance said as she stepped in, her voice thankfully sounding reasonable as opposed to Sunset’s anger. “That would be just perfect.”

Sunset looked over to Cadance with a hesitant expression. “No. That really wouldn’t be the best move either.”

Across the table from Celestia, Cadance frowned and looked over to Sunset. “What? Why?”

The two alicorns with sun cutie marks shared a look, and Celestia nodded to Sunset so she would be the one doing the explaining. “Because Mom is Princess Celestia,” the amber alicorn said to the confused pink pony, which didn’t explain anything at all.

“Okay, could you please try explaining that again while pretending I can’t read minds?” Cadance asked with a half-lidded expression.

Sunset rolled her eyes at the response, but took in a deep breath. “Yes, Mom has the authority to literally do anything she wants. It’s part of the whole absolute monarchy thing Equestria has. While she has delegated responsibilities to the nobles and commoners over the years, she hasn’t been stupid enough to give up any real power as the final say in all matters. But, that doesn’t mean that everypony else doesn’t go about their daily lives thinking all she does is sit around in the castle all day, just signing a few papers and making a few minor corrections when Equestria gets a little off track,” she explained. “But if Princess Celestia, the ruler of our entire nation were to leave her ivory castle to come and weigh in on some nothing little issue like a school bully and a corrupt principal directly? Everypony everywhere would look at her and expect her to jump in and solve their little nothing problem instead of doing it themselves, and that’s one of the better outcomes that might happen.”

With the explanation done, Cadance looked back to Celestia for confirmation, who nodded at Sunset’s prediction of events. While lacking a bit, it did get the main point across. “Of course, that does not mean I can’t do anything to help,” the white alicorn told her adopted niece to help with the anger showing on Cadance’s face. “The most official thing for me to do would be to pass it down the ladder, so to speak, to the Minister of Education. He could then send it further and further down until an official investigation could be launched into the matter about...oh, four or five months from now.”

The news didn’t sit well with Cadance. She glared at Celestia. “Four or five months?” she demanded before looking over to Sunset. “And how can you be so...calm about this!”

“Believe me,” Sunset grumbled as her eyes narrowed. “There’s nothing more I’d like to do now than toss that blasted nag out of a third story window and watch until she stopped twitching on the ground.”

Sunset’s declaration made Celestia gasp in horror. “Sunset!”

“Oh for crying out loud! Fantasizing doesn’t mean I’m gonna actually do it!” she snapped back before snorting at Celestia. “Yeah, I’m angry, but I’m not stupid! And it’s not as bad as what you’re doing!”

Cadance glanced over towards the white alicorn, then back to Sunset. “What’s she doing?”

“Let me guess,” Sunset said. “You’re about to say that if Cadance wants something to be done about Cinch that isn’t going to take forever, then she needs to be the pony to do it. Just like how you could have easily gotten rid of that stupid changeling accusation by pulling out the the strength tests that were part of my medical exam you probably had hidden under your plot!”

After giving Sunset a few moments to simmer, Celestia smirked at the amber alicorn’s almost-correct assumptions. “They were under my wing, actually.” If her daughter had been unable to do anything in the time Celestia had allotted her, the larger alicorn would have simply let the papers slip as if by accident and had Strong Withers read it for her after calling him out in front of the assembled ponies to end his political career via humiliation for attacking Sunset in such a way.

“And although Sunset is right about what is going on Cadance,” Celestia continued. “If you want to be taken seriously as a princess, then perhaps you should do something about it yourself. After all, you are my equal in the government.” On paper at least, what was true in the mind of little ponies was another matter. All the power in the world meant nothing if Cadance wasn’t willing to wield it with certainty.

Instead of rising to the challenge, Cadance became hesitant at Celestia’s suggestion. So the older alicorn gave her a little more prodding. “While me interfering would make far too many waves, a relatively new princess could do so with little problem beyond some minor grumblings. In fact, I could say it’s almost expected of you to start small. I could set up a meeting with Minister Board if you want him to help you get the ball rolling.”

Cadance sighed, but nodded before answering in a dejected tone. “Thank you. I suppose that’ll have to do.”

While not exactly the response she had hoped for, Celestia knew that the young mare would figure things out soon enough. There was nothing really stopping Cadance from using her authority to oust Cinch first thing in the morning. Although, the white alicorn hoped that the girl would be able to see what a bad idea that was and not do anything until she had the principal’s replacement ready to go.

So with one issue dealt with, Celestia looked over to the amber alicorn and all of the new problems that Sunset brought to the table.

Now that she had been given a few moments to think about it, Celestia honestly didn’t like the way Sunset was taking Cadance’s attraction to a stallion. At first she had thought it was simple jealousy over some colt. But after seeing the way Sunset had held her friend, Celestia wasn’t quite as sure. Was possible that her daughter had feelings for Cadance beyond the platonic kind?

Although...Sunset’s defense of the shortcomings of Cadance’s coltfriend did confuse Celestia a bit. If Sunset wanted Cadance for herself, then she wouldn’t she have jumped on the flaws this Shining Armor colt had in an attempt to turn Cadance off of him? While Sunset had grown by leaps and bounds as a pony since her experience with the mirror, Celestia didn’t think the girl was so selfless as to defend a potential rival.

The possibility that Sunset had also developed some kind of crush on the mystery stallion entered Celestia’s mind, and she had to stop herself from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. From her actions in the castle and some of those stories she told about the human world’s male population, it was obvious Sunset held no love for the opposite gender.

About the only creature Sunset seemed to have any kind of feelings for at all was Cadance.

Not that Celestia believed any sort of romantic relationship between the two younger alicorns was a good idea by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, Sunset falling for another pony at such a young age, before she became aware of just how terrible it would be for her later on in life would be disastrous. Celestia knew from personal experience that the old adage about it being better to love and lose than to never love at all was in fact false. It was in fact better for ponies such as Celestia, and eventually Sunset, to never form such connections than to allow time to strip them away.

But in the end, whether Sunset was jealous of the attentions this Shining Armor colt was getting from Cadance, or the extremely unlikely event that she fancied him for herself was in fact the case didn’t matter. Neither of the two could be allowed to happen if Sunset was to take her rightful place as the future ruler of Equestria.

Dinner was delicious, as always. Despite the fact that the cook still cursed and raved loud enough to be heard from the kitchens about having to prepare commoner cuisine to sate Sunset’s devolved pallet, Ram See still did so with the skill of a master chef. It was something that had Sunset wondering what normal food would taste like to her if she went out on the town for a night.

As for the conversation, it was...thankfully non-intrusive when it came to the subject that Sunset would rather have avoided. Instead, Celestia asked about this friend that Cadance of all ponies was jealous about. Something Sunset felt guilty, and yet...oddly happy about.

It was the first time that anypony had felt that way towards her.

Anypony that she cared about at least.

“She’s just some filly I helped out when I was looking for Cinch’s office,” Sunset explained before telling her mother what little she knew about Cheerilee, which wasn’t all that much. She did manage not to mention the other version of the pony that had been a naked ape though. There was no need to bring that up in front of her mother.

Cadance looked over to the other alicorn as she finished off her desert. “So...wait. You just came along, helped her out, made her show you where the office was, then told her to meet you at lunch?” the pink princess asked before the little frown on her face turned into a tiny smile. “I can’t believe it. You bullied somepony into being your friend!”

Even though she knew it was a joke, Sunset bristled at the comment. “Yeah well maybe if you’d have taken a look around, you would have seen why nobody is trying to hang out with the most popular mare in school,” she grumbled.

The emotion in Sunset’s voice killed Cadance’s laughter. “Sunset, did I say something wrong?”

“I’m not a bully,” she mumbled more to herself than Cadance. She had worked hard to change who she was, and...Sunset realized that she was probably being a little too hard on the other alicorn, and reigned in her emotions. “Sorry, guess I’m still a little raw over this whole Cinch thing.”

Not that she was too surprised about it. The other Cinch had practically forced Twilight to open her locket despite the obvious dangers just to win a stupid little contest. If their personalities were the same, it wasn’t that much of a leap for the pony Cinch to be willing to allow a student that could win contests to do whatever the hell he wanted. Sunset had heard about such things all the time back on the other side of the mirror.

Celestia cleared her throat just loud enough to be heard, and Sunset found herself looking back at her mother, as well as actually remembering she was still in the room. The realization of which made Sunset feel a little guilty about. For years she had wanted Celestia to reach out to her before giving up on that hope, but when the white alicorn finally did, it was Sunset that was pulling back.

Which she had plenty of good reasons for of course!

On top of which, becoming obsessed with Celestia’s love was dangerous. Just being praised during her first day back had put Sunset in a daze! The tightrope the amber alicorn had found herself walking since Twilight’s appearance meant she couldn’t afford any such distractions or...temptations.

“Sunset,” her mother spoke up. “Have you been taking care of your wings?”

The odd question made the amber alicorn look at her useless appendages for a second before turning her attention back to Celestia. “Yeah,” she replied in a guarded way as countless memories reminded Sunset that her mom never just asked a yes or no question without it either being very important or the lead-in to a bigger conversation.

“I didn’t want to be that mare, but ...they do look a little...scruffy,” Cadance added.

Sunset frowned at her friend and her perfect looks. “Well excuse me for not being the ponification of beauty like you!” she shot back at Cadance before wincing at her own outburst. “Sorry.”

Thankfully for Sunset’s conscience, Cadance didn’t even make the first move to cower at the amber alicorn’s verbal assault. She just blinked a few times. “Beautiful? You’re talking about me?”

Disbelief at Cadance’s response forced Sunset into a tiny slump as she continued to stare at the mare. What made the whole thing worse was that Sunset had seen Cadance get ready for school just this morning. There was no primping, no special amount of combing on her coat or hair, she just had natural good looks that simply appeared after a basic wash. “You’re kidding, right?”

Cadance looked away as if she was blushing, which Sunset wasn’t even sure of thanks to her stupid coat, and cleared her throat. “Yes, well...you’re the one with...um, all the colts’ attention.”

Seeing through the poor attempt to boost her confidence, Sunset snorted. “That’s just me projecting the right presence,” she said before noticing the conversation had just taken a dangerous turn towards a subject Sunset knew was better to be avoided around Celestia. She needed to get things back on track. “But uh...yeah, wings. I guess they are pretty scruffy-looking.”

“You um...haven’t been preening them, have you?” Celestia cut in with an oddly absent tone.

Alarm bells began going off in Sunset’s head at her mother’s words. She knew that when Celestia talked like that, she was forcing herself to follow a script that wasn’t quite matching the reality of the situation. Which meant the white alicorn was plotting something. The wings were just her excuse to lead Sunset into it.

Keeping her face steady, Sunset thought back to her old pony anatomy classes about pegasi and their wings while she quickly surmised a way through Celestia’s little trap. “Ugh, preening. I can’t believe I forgot something so basic,” she said before looking over to Cadance. The other mare had worked on her feathers just this morning when she was getting ready, so… “Hey Cadance, can you show me how to uh...take care of these things?”

Sunset saw the smile on Celestia’s face fall just a tiny bit when the pink princess nodded. “Well...okay,” she agreed before breaking out into a small grin. “I was raised by earth ponies. So, trust me when I tell you, learning how to take care of your feathers on your own is no fun at all.”

“Oh,” Celestia spoke up, her mood lightening just a bit after hearing Cadance talk about her past. “Yes, well...if you want me to Sunset, I could show you.”

Pain erupted in Sunset’s chest as she realized what Celestia was also asking for: time alone with her daughter. A part of her wanted to say yes, if just to live out the childhood fantasies that Sunset had when she was younger the right way since the debacle that was her flight instruction had been...less than perfect. And the longing in her mother’s eyes that she wasn’t even bothering to hide made holding to her decision to go with Cadance all the more hard.

But...Sunset knew she couldn’t spend time alone with Celestia again just yet. Not until she had figured out what needed to be done with the Twilight situation. Something that threatened to push it way into her worries and make her run screaming to Celestia for help with. Although tempting, Sunset had to be sure going to Celestia for help wouldn’t end up making the situation worse.

Plus, she and Cadance had to talk. The pink princess undoubtedly had questions as to why Sunset had made her mother think Shining Armor was with Cadance instead of Sunset. She deserved an explanation as soon as possible.

I’m sorry Mom...I’ll make this up to you...if I can, Sunset promised, the last bit thought in reluctance. “N-No, I’m good. I mean, I help Cadance with magic. She can help me with my wings. Even trade, right?”

Cadance’s looked back and forth between the two alicorns, and Sunset felt like a complete jackass for putting her between the two of them like that. There was no way that she didn’t see what was going on between mother and daughter, but more than likely missed the hidden maneuverings between mentor and protege. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes!” Sunset said, a little more forcefully than she meant to.

As for Celestia, she put on one of her usual smiles and nodded her head. “It’s alright Cadance. You two go on. I’ve got some work that needs doing anyway.”

Although the lack of insistence on Celestia’s part was...odd, Sunset wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth and quickly led Cadance back to her room. As soon as the door slammed shut and Sunset took a minute to ignite the logs in the fireplace on top of empowering the smoke consuming enchantment in the chimney with her magic for a good four hours to get rid of the autumn chill, she turned around to find the pink mare giving her a glare.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Cadance demanded evenly. “Why did you make Celestia think that I’m the one dating Shining Armor.”

Sunset sighed at the question. It was a good thing she had thought ahead. “First off, really sorry about that, and thank you for having my back.”

The apology made Cadance roll her eyes up to the ceiling and sigh. “Hey, you are my best friend,” she replied before looking back to Sunset and fixing her frown in place again. “And that’s not an explanation!”

“Well…” Sunset said as she worked out the perfect way to explain things to Cadance. “I just don’t want Mom poking her nose into things until...I can...make everybody ready for her.” The half-lie made her tense, and she found herself having to compromise with her own conscience. “I mean, look… Shining Armor and his family, they’re just normal ponies. I’m a princess, I want to ease him into this whole princess thing and…”

Cadance blinked in confusion while Sunset’s churning gut made her pause.

“And what?” the pink princess asked. “She’s not going to be asking about this colt when I’m the one dating him instead of you?”

The idea of forcing Shining to also go through with the lie got another cringe out of Sunset. Cadance was one thing, but Shining Armor as well just doubled the weight of her guilt. “It’s not Shining Armor I’m worried about. It’s...I...I...don’t think it would be the best idea for her to meet Twilight Sparkle,” Sunset relented before looking away from her friend and down to the ground. That was the problem with having friends. Using them like tools was next to impossible.

There was the sound of hooves clopping on the ground, and then hoof touched her shoulder, and Sunset looked up to see Cadance standing in front of her. “Sunset, what’s wrong?”

The amber alicorn sighed and hung her head even lower a her guilt scored another critical hit thanks to the concern in the pink princess’s voice. Even knowing that Sunset had been lying, her friend was still worried about her. “Cadance...I’m sorry. I’ve been keeping something from you,” she confessed before meeting the other pony’s eyes. “I may have not of met Shining Armor before I went back in time, but I did meet Twilight Sparkle.”

“That…” Cadance paused, and blinked.

Sunset lowered herself down onto the floor as she waited for her friend’s wrath to impact her face after Cadance found out that Sunset had been lying to her practically since her fantasy adventure with Shining Armor.

When nothing came, she looked back over to Cadance, who was still apparently thinking the matter over. Although, she didn’t have an angry look on her face. It looked more...curious?

“...makes a lot of sense, actually,” the pink princess finished in a mumble.

With no blow incoming, Sunset got out of her crouch and tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?”

“Well, when I told you about my plans to be foal-sitter, you said that you don’t like young ponies,” Cadance began to explain. “But when Twilight saw you, well...after you fainted and woke up-”

“Hey!” Sunset snapped back as she thought up a much better way of explaining her lapse of consciousness that didn’t involve the word Magic with a capital M. Some secrets just weren’t hers to tell. “I...passed out from...marely hunger.”

Cadance let out a snicker and gave Sunset an amused smile. “Okay, after you passed out from hunger that just happened to coincide seeing Twilight Sparkle, you doted on that filly more than a grandmother who was meeting her children’s foals for the first time and you’re willing to pay for her education just on the fact that she likes to read and can use her horn a few years earlier than most foals,” she said before becoming serious. “I may be a sucker for love Sunset, but even I know there’s a limit to how far you go to impress a guy.”

Once the pink princess had finished, Sunset found herself staring at Cadance for a good ten seconds before finally getting her thoughts unjumbled at the fact that the pony in front of her wasn’t some scatter-brained moron. “But...it...you...if you knew something was going on, then why didn’t you say something?” she demanded in a confused panic.

“Because I respect your privacy and I trust you,” Cadance replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world and was confused as to why Sunset couldn’t understand that.

Sunset hung her head again in shame for her actions. “Yeah well...something tells me I may need your help figuring this one out,” she admitted before dropping to lay herself on the thick rug with her cutie mark on it. “I know I think way too much with my head most of the time.”

A little laugh came from Cadence as she walked behind the other alicorn before getting Sunset to spread her wings for inspection. “Well, except for when somepony bucks your Shiny’s cute little hiney,” she said. “That anger of yours looked pretty heartfelt to me.”

Because Sunset didn’t know if Cadance was trying to compliment or take a stab at her foolishness, she did her best to ignore the comment and the image of her colt laying on the floor with that idiot standing over him grinning with pride at his actions. Even if she knew it hadn’t really happened that way, it sure as hell felt like it did to the amber alicorn.

“So, about this Twilight Sparkle filly,” Cadance said, cutting into Sunset’s thought’s as the amber alicorn watched her examine Sunset’s wings.

Sunset sighed, and took a moment to clear her mind. Then, she began piecing together the best way to explain it to Cadance while the other alicorn went around Sunset’s back, messing with her feathers but not doing much else than a slight adjustment here and tug there. “Okay so, remember how I said I ran away? Well, while I was gone, Celestia went and got another student. That was Twilight Sparkle,” she began. “I’m not sure when it’s supposed to happen though, maybe this year...or the next. I was gone for that part. But when I got back, well...this is where things...stop making sense.”

“What do you mean?” Cadance asked as she looked over Sunset’s wings.

Deciding to just get it out, Sunset took in a deep breath and just let it out. “When I came back in the, uh, future...well, I didn’t look at the date on the newspaper, but judging by Twilight’s age now, at least ten years had gone by from when I left,” she explained before dropping to a thoughtful mumble. “Probably a little bit more, to be honest. Maybe...twelve? Thirteen? I showed up during a princess summit, and Twilight was one of the alicorns in attendance,” the amber alicorn explained. “Maybe a year younger than I was.”

“But you said you were only gone three years!” Cadance exclaimed.

“Like I said, stopped making sense!”

Sunset felt Cadance’s stiffen in mid-grab of a wing, and looked back to her. The pink princess was frowning, but the look on her face said she wasn’t looking at a problem on the amber alicorn’s back. “Sunset,” she said before looking back to her friend with a worried expression. “Are you sure you didn’t see the date?”

The stupid question made Sunset roll her eyes. “I just said that, didn’t I?”

“Okay so...in about...um, the reason for this summit, in...uh, say...the thousandth year of the Celestia Era?” Cadance replied. “It probably would have been held then, right? All the princesses getting together for...something important like that?”

“I didn’t bother to find out,” Sunset grumbled in response. “I just took Twilight’s magic crown back to Earth with me to break its connection to her so I could try and take it’s power for myself, and...she still managed to beat me and take it home with her. But it...left some magic behind in me and some other humans it touched. To be honest, that’s probably why I’m an alicorn right now. Because I took that power and ran back through the portal with it after forcing it open.”

The confession of her forced ascension didn’t seem to bother Cadance in the slightest. At least, she didn’t get any more disturbed. “Okay...so…” She sighed and shook her head.

Sunset groaned and stood up to turn around so her front was towards the pink princess. “Hey! I just told you my transformation into an alicorn was because of a bunch of stupid outside magic that, oh yeah, I STOLE, and don’t deserve on top of the fact me being here could ruin Twilight Sparkle’s whole future!” she yelled at Cadance. “SAY SOMETHING!”

“Sunset…” Cadance mumbled before her worried frown deepened with what looked like anger. “What do you want me to condemn you over? Your ascension? If I did, then I’d be in the same boat. To be honest, you handle the weight of your wings a lot better than this horn that weighs me down. And if you honestly want me to tell you that I think you being in Twilight Sparkle’s life is a bad thing despite all the love you have for that filly, then you’re talking to the wrong pony.”

Disbelief flooded Sunset’s mind at Cadance’s lack of response to her crimes. “But...but I…”

A hoof reached out and touched her shoulder. “Sunset, please don’t tell me you’ve been beating yourself up over becoming an alicorn all this time,” Cadance said.

Sunset withdrew into herself a little. “Well…” she mumbled before looking away. She hadn’t...ever since Celestia had told Sunset her theory about the mirror just imparting all that experience as some sort of vision. But now that she knew that it wasn’t...Sunset had found the week-old doubts resurfacing.

“Does Celestia know?” the pink princess went on.

Sunset sighed, and nodded. “About the stolen ascension...yeah,” she mumbled. She hadn’t dared to hide that crime from her mother.

“And what does she say about it?” Cadance asked as she continued her line of questioning.

As the exoneration of her crimes came to the forefront of her mind, Sunset lowered her head in defeat. “She says that if I had been infused with magic in such a way and had any darkness in my heart, I would have been transformed into a monster,” the amber alicorn told Cadance rather reluctantly. She hated bringing up any mention of that one incident. “So...Mom says I deserve it after all. Even if the magic is stolen. F-For a good reason this time, at least.”

Cadance closed her eyes and nodded slightly, more to herself than to Sunset. When she was looking back at the other alicorn again, the pink princess’s mouth was curved into a little smile. “Well there you have it,” she said softly. “Just because you took a different road doesn’t mean you don’t deserve what awaits at the end of the journey if you’re worthy of it. Hay, I didn’t even get this thing on my head on my own. Celestia was there to get me through my transformation. So don’t think just because something gave you an extra push rather than somepony it’s any less valid. And stop beating yourself up over this junk, okay?”

“When the hell did you get all wisdomy?” the amber alicorn asked.

Cadance snickered. “Isn’t the word supposed to be wise?”

Sunset snorted and sat on her fuzzy butt so she could cross her pony-arms. “Not if the all-powerful pony princess says it isn’t!”

In response, Cadance reached out to pull herself over to Sunset in a hug, bringing an end to their conversation. Although she felt like there was more to be said, Sunset couldn’t bring herself to pull away and melted into Cadance’s warm embrace. She buried her nose in the pink alicorn’s soft coat, and just sat for a few moment’s enjoying the calming effect Cadance’s presence had on her.

Tension Sunset had barely been aware she had been holding and a lump in her throat that had come up when the conversation began disappeared, and she wrapped Cadance in her scruffy amber wings so the pink pony couldn’t just up and disappear, as friends of the pink persuasion were known to do.

They stayed in the embrace for Sunset didn’t know how long as she let Cadance take away the weight of guilt for her crimes and lies. She didn’t cry or let out any other big emotional explosion. The Amber alicorn just...sat, and relaxed. “Thank you...Cadance.” It was a thank-you covering too much to put into words. The acceptance of Sunset’s crimes, her lies, the truth about the mirror, and so much more that had been covered since they had met upon Sunset’s return.

The pink princess nuzzled Sunset on the neck. “I love you too, Sunset.”

“...now you’re just getting sappy,” the amber alicorn mumbled as she debated on breaking the hug.

Cadance pulled back a bit so they were face to face but still embraced, and gave Sunset a superior smile. “Sorry, but that’s just the way I soar. So nah!” she said before sticking her tongue out at the other alicorn.

Not to be outdone in a contest of words, Sunset gave Cadance a feral grin. “Hey now, you know what I like to use tongues for, right?”

The empty threat had its desired effect. Cadance’s eyes went wide, and she quickly withdrew her mouth muscle before fighting her way out of of Sunset’s embrace. “Uh, yes...well...ahem!” the flustered pink pony said. “We’re here to preen. Now get back down on the floor and spread ‘em so I can sink my teeth into you!”

Sunset blinked once…

...twice…

......and thrice.

“Okay,” she relented to the confused pony that just tilted her head at Sunset’s blushing face. “You win.”

Being preened was certainly one of the more interesting experiences of Sunset’s life. By the time it was over, she could see why it was done in private, and why her mom had a plenty good reason for wanting to use it as an excuse to talk to her. While flying in the air, the magic around a pony’s wing had the opposite effect it had on a horn, forming a protective layer of energy. But without an excess amount of magic flowing through it, those things were sensitive!

Not that Sunset had felt bad at all during the experience. If anything, the time had been very...pleasurable. Although, Sunset hadn’t let Cadance in on the...extremely awkward comfort that her friend had caused. And following her preening with a nice, freezing cold shower allowed Sunset to hide the fact that her friend’s hooves managed to be almost as stimulating as human fingers that touched all the right spots.

Once she was back to normal, the two girls settled into their new nightly routine of magical studies, followed by bedtime. The former of which Sunset found herself somewhat lacking thanks to Cadance’s interest in Crystal Empire magic, especially with the pink princess skipping over the emotional stuff and going straight to the hard crystal constructs.

Although, Sunset was able to at least break down the complex explanations into things the girl could understand. If Cadance mastered the magic, it would be because of Sunset’s sorcery for dummies instruction, not her own talents. So the amber alicorn’s pride survived.

Sunset tried to also talk to Cadance about Cinch. Years of making sure teachers didn’t take action against her meant that Sunset had plenty of tactics to dig up dirt on adults, and that was before she knew magic. But Cadance would hear of it and said they would talk about it later if things came to that.

As for the later of their two big nightly activities, Sunset found herself repeating what had happened the night before and allowing Cadance into her bed before joining the pink princess to become the bigger spoon.

“Sunset...if this makes you uncomfortable…” Cadance began before trailing off as Sunset used her magic to lift the pink alicorn up and get a wing under her to set up her full body-to-wing embrace.

Before Cadance could continue, Sunset pulled the pink princess in close and rested her horn against the amber alicorn’s chin. “I’m good Cadance,” she told her best friend that was sharing her pillow. “Just a little...distracted.” And...cuddling up to another pony felt...nice.

The pink pony tried to shift around in Sunset’s grip, but the bed proved too small for anything major. “What about?”

“Twilight, remember?” Sunset reminded her as she decided to stick to the safer subjects. “And her brother.”

Cadance sighed. “Sunset, I know you’re worried what you might accidentally do to Twilight,” she said. “But I don’t see how you could possibly mess her life up. You’re not Celestia’s student. You’re helping to build her confidence. The only thing your presence in her life could possibly do is help. So stop worrying about it. Everything will work out.”

“Actually...I wanted to talk to you more about Shining Armor,” she went on hesitantly.

At first, a sigh was Cadance’s only response. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep up the charade in front of Celestia for a little while if that’s what you want,” she finally said after several agonizing seconds. “But you’re going to have to tell her eventually.”

The two ponies lay together for a few more minutes, with Sunset making minor adjustments to make Cadance more comfortable. She knew that sleeping up against a rock-hard earth pony probably wasn’t very good for a relaxing sleep. However, every time Sunset made an adjustment, Cadance would also move just a bit to undo her work and keep them as close as possible. Finally, Sunset relented and just let Cadance snuggle into her bigger frame as much as she could.

Unfortunately, when Sunset stopped concentrating on the other girl’s position, her mind got to work on more pressing things.

Like how she was going to ruin Twilight Sparkle’s life.

She remembered dreaming, seeing her mother reveal a throne right next to her own, and then Twilight standing behind her. “What about me?”

Sunset closed her eyes and forced the image away. No...Cadance is right. I...I can help her, the amber alicorn told herself.

She already had plans to ensure Twilight’s placement in Celestia’s school. From there, she could find out just when the purple unicorn would take her entrance exam and ensure that Celestia would be there to see it. After that Sunset could…

...influence her…

...corrupt her…

...show her the exact opposite of what she should be…

Sunset closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. The scent of Cadance’s strawberry shampoo assaulted her senses, and Sunset focused on the smell with every ounce of concentration she could muster. It was sweet and inviting, reminding Sunset of one spring when she was eight and her mother had taken the two of them to the town of Berry’s Grove to oversee a juice festival. Back then, she had been truly happy, with Celestia being more of a parent than teacher, and the weight of her false-alicorn-hood not weighing her down in the slightest.

“Sunset?”

The calling of her name drew the amber alicorn out of her past, and she looked down to Cadance. “Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” the pink princess asked softly.

Even though she knew the smaller alicorn wouldn’t be able to see it, Sunset shot her a frown. “Nothing’s-”

Cadance didn’t let her get more than a word in. “Sunset, you’re all around me. I can feel every muscle in your body tense and relax, and every breath you take,” she said before her foreleg came up to wrap a fetlock around one of Sunset’s pony-arms in a show of support. “At first I thought you were nervous, but now you seem...I dunno, limp. Anything wrong?”

Despite her attempt to fight it, Sunset stiffened up again. She didn’t want to get into another debate with Cadance about Twilight. Telling the mare had already been hard enough, even if being friends with the pink pony kind of made it impossible not to use her as a confidant. Cadance would just offer the same reassurances.

So instead, she focused on a more immediate problem that she could talk about if pressed into it. “Just thinking about Shining Armor.”

Cadance giggled. “Oh, that I can understand. He is pretty cute in a goofy sort of way, and nice. And well, I probably don’t need to tell you that-”

All thought’s of the problem that was Twilight Sparkle were pushed to the side as Sunset listened to Cadance talk. She heard the happiness in the other mare’s voice and laugh, and had the strangest feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was...not exactly a bad feeling, but at the same time...terrifying.

“Cadance,” Sunset said before the pink pony could get into singing the young stallion’s praises for the second time that night. “Do you...like Shining Armor?”

Chapter 13: Troubling Realizations

The classroom that Sunset sat in was just about as featureless as such a room could be. The only desk was the one she sat in, an annoying thing with the desk and chair that was all part of the same piece rather than something she could just pull out and make the proper length for writing. But, she sat still with her hands resting on the wood as the teacher trotted into the room.

She was a pink alicorn pony in a green sweater and plaid skirt combination that didn’t quite cover her crystal heart cutie mark. It went well with the pair of white glasses on her face. As soon as she got to the middle of the board, Cadance picked up a pointer in her magic with perfect skill, and slapped the center of the chalkboard that depicted a pair of pictures that showed two ponies each, separated by a chalk drawing of a large heart. “Class, today we will be discussing how falling in love works. There will be a test afterwards, so note-taking in your journals is recommended.”

Sunset nodded, and looked down to the backpack next to her feet. She reached in, and dug around until her fingers found the book with her cutie mark before placing it on her desk. After which, the girl unzipped the back of her pack to grab a pen and clicked it to get ready for the writing.

“Now, while there are hundreds of ways to fall in love, they all boil down to two different categories,” Cadance began. “Both of which revolve around the ignition of a spark of burning passion, if you will, and its ability to light a continuous flame.”

Cadance slapped her pointer on the board where the first picture was located. It showed a big strong unicorn standing atop a dragon that has Xs for eyes, with a princess on his back. “The first is what as known as the moment,” the pink alicorn teacher said. “In this scenario, the stallion performs an impressive, brave, heroic, or some other attention-grabbing feat that the mare finds so endearing her heart practically leaps out of her chest. This causes the spark to ignite, and starts the period knowing as ‘the falling’. During this period, the mare then learns everything she can about the stallion in an attempt to keep the spark going, usually going on dates to spend time with the guy in the hopes of finding enough kindling to turn the spark into a raging fire that can weather the bad moments and eventually become a warm flame in a pony’s heart that will continue to burn for the rest of her life. However, if enough fuel cannot be found during this time, or the stallion turns out to be a total douchebag, the spark quickly dies.”

Then, the teacher pointed over to the other picture, one of two ponies sitting on a bench and holding fetlocks. “The second method is usually between two ponies that have known each other for awhile and thus already have all the information they need to fuel their love, but lack the spark until something happens. This is usually the case with the childhood friends hitting puberty, and noticing certain things.”

Sunset raised her hand. “Excuse me, Professor Cadance?”

“Doctor,” Cadance corrected her.

Sunset nodded. “Um, what about if you meet this stallion on the street and just...know. Like, love at first sight?”

After putting down her pointer, Cadance turned her attention back to Sunset. “That is what we in the love doctor profession call bullshit!” she explained with an angry shout at the end before going back to a polite, but detached tone. “You don’t really love Shining Armor. He’s just the first nice stallion you met now that you’re back in Equestria, and you’re just a whore that wants him to stick that thing between his legs into your privates because that’s the closest thing to male companionship you’ve ever really known.”

Sunset looked down to her notes and began to write. “I’m just a whore.”

When she looked back up, Sunset saw Shining Armor standing next to the other pony. “Yeah, Cadance really would be better for me,” he told her. “She’s nicer, more compassionate, understanding, loving, and about ten times more beautiful than you could ever hope to be. Plus, she’s not a thief like you.”

“Yeah, you really don’t deserve him.”

The new voice coming from behind her made Sunset twist around to get the third pony in the room in sight. Standing just a foot behind and off to the side of her desk was Princess Twilight Sparkle the alicorn in her royal regalia. The disapproving frown on her face made Sunset flinch. “But...Twilight…”

“Don’t try and give me excuses!” she shouted at the human sitting in front of her before pointing a hoof a Sunset. “Just look at yourself! You know where you REALLY belong!”

A pair of double doors at the back of the room slammed open revealing another nearly bare room. Its only decoration was a single, free-standing mirror that looked to be made of crystal. The sight of which made Sunset recoil in horror. “N-No.”

She couldn’t go back there, not after experiencing Equestria again for so long. She had a mother. She had a friend. She had her magic back after all this time. Even if she didn’t deserve any of it, the idea of having to give it up and become human again filled Sunset with terror.

Twilight snorted as only a pony could. “Every day you’re here is another nail in the coffin of my future! So get out! GET OUT BEFORE YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!”

Another pair of hooves walking on the wooden floor drew Sunset’s attention to her left, where Princess Celestia stood. “All these lies you’ve been telling. You know I’m going to find out, and when I do, I’ll just throw you away like I did the first time. The least you can do is leave before I get dissapointed in you again.”

“It really would be better for everyone if you left Sunset,” Shining Armor added as Cadance kissed her way up his neck.

Cadance threw her wing around the white stallion’s back and pulled him in close enough to get her hooves on him. “I’ll take care of Shiny better than you ever could.”

“Leave,” Twilight commanded her.

“Get going now,” Candace encouraged her.

“You don’t want to disappoint me, do you?” Celestia asked her.

“I’ll be fine!” Shining Armor assured her.

Sunset looked around at the four most important ponies in her new life. She put away her notes, and slid out of her seat. Then, she slowly to walked into the other room with the four pairs of eyes that followed her. As she got to the edge of the mirror, Sunset looked back.

The four ponies in the room looked back to the human as she spoke. “But...isn’t there any way for me to stay?”

All four looks on the pony’s face turned to a frown. “No!”

Sunset’s eyes shot open and she let out a gasp as her nightmare ended and a light burst of air tickled her nose.

The alicorn sucked in a deep breath as her eyesight adjusted to the darkness better than it ever could have as a human, or even a unicorn in all likelihood. It seemed a pair of wings wasn't the only part of her body with a pegasus’s nature. She also had their higher senses.

After a minute, the muted shapes and colors of the night came into view, and Sunset’s vision was filled with the image of Cadance's sleeping face as the pink princess snored lightly. Ugh, she even looks perfect when she’s asleep, Sunset told herself with a jealous frown before letting go of the petty thought with a sigh as her mind slowly shifted back to her nightmare.

It had been...disturbing, and not just because Cadance had been in a sexy school teacher outfit that looked like something a human from Crystal Prep would have worn. The real bad part had been when all of her friends and family offering reasons for Sunset to return to the human world.

The words the representation of Celesta had spoken made Sunset's heart ache, but it was what Princess Twilight said that stuck with her the most. The purple alicorn had espoused a truth that Sunset had done her best to deny to herself since returning home: No matter what she did to try and keep things on track, Sunset being in Equestria would affect Twilight's life, and not for the better.

And Cadance...Sunset sighed at the memory of her friend’s love lecture that her dream had taken inspiration from in the most disturbing way by turning the pretty pink pony into a hot teacher sex object, and the assurances that followed them.

“So you see Sunset, while I do like Shining Armor’s personality and can’t deny he’s cute as hay, until he does something like sing me a love song in front of the entire student body, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Sunset’s memory of the smiling mare said as she remembered how Cadance had looked her in the eyes before smiling just a little. “And even if he did, there’s no way I’d do anything about it unless you two didn’t work out.”

And as much as it galled Sunset, she couldn’t bring herself to be upset at the thought of Cadance falling for Shining Armor, or at even be simply miffed about it. After all, how could Sunset be angry at the pink princess for doing the same thing the amber alicorn had done herself?

She might even be better for him than me, Sunset told herself reluctantly.

Even reformed, Sunset knew she wasn’t the best pony. She was bossy, and had a short fuse combined with a penchant for violence that no decent pony possessed. In contrast, Cadance was kind, gentle, loving, amazingly supportive...and practically perfect in every way. If the two of them actually had a princess contest, there was no doubt in Sunset’s mind who would win.

After everything Cadance had said, Sunset had to wonder if something had in fact developed between her and Shining Armor the first time around. The pink princess had more than enough of an attraction towards the young stallion to justify going out...with…

Okay, yeah...maybe that’s going a bit much, Sunset told herself before her thoughts could get too far away from her. While adorable and sweet, Shining Armor wasn’t exactly the type of stallion that got noticed by girls like Cadance. He just didn’t stand out enough, and didn’t have the balls to take that dreadful leap out of anonymity. Mostly likely, the guy would just have ended up Princess Twilight Sparkle’s nerdy older brother that she didn’t really talk about all that much.

But that didn’t mean Sunset had to deny him the best possible future for him now, did it?

As Sunset tried to figure out what kind of change having Cadance around Twilight at such a young age might do to the filly, she found herself just ending up with a headache since every question she asked herself eventually ran into the same problem: there just wasn’t enough data to form a good theory. Plus, even if Sunset managed to cut all ties with Shining Armor that very instant, she knew that Cadance considered him a friend. The pink princess would definitely continue to see him no matter what happened to the amber alicorn.

Sunset let out a groan. Looking back at things, the amber alicorn felt as if she had stepped in manure nearly a week ago and was just now noticing she left a mess anywhere she went. A mess that was already all over the place.

“Well, this sucks,” she mumbled to her fellow alicorn.

In response, Cadance let out a sleepy moan and scooted just a little closer, nearly touching her muzzle with Sunset’s.

The amber alicorn turned her head to look at the ceiling before Cadance could get close enough for a slumbering nuzzle or a-Sunset blinked when she felt the pink princess latch onto one of Sunset’s ears and begin to chew it with her lips. “Okay...yeah...I think I’m gonna need a drink,” she told her unconscious friend before casting a spell to make sure Cadance stayed asleep, then levitating her into the air so Sunset could make her escape.

Once her hooves had touched the floor, Sunset looked back to Cadance with a frown. “We are so going back to spooning next time,” she told the alicorn that was either eating or making out with their pillow. Then, after surrounding the bed in a weak shield that would trigger an alarm if anything popped it, Sunset headed out into the hallway and towards the kitchens.

Thankfully, the palace was only slightly darker at night than it was in the day. Sunset nodded to several of the cleaning staff that we busy doing the work that was best done when the nobles wouldn’t be getting in their way. Most of them bowed to her, which put Sunset’s mood back to feeling uneasy.

When she got to the kitchens, Sunset’s mood worsened at the sight of what waited for her. Standing in the center of the operation that fed the entire castle, Princess Celestia was pouring a cup of coffee as more than half a dozen cooks ran around, preparing the morning meals for both the staff and the guard that would be coming off duty with the dawn.

The sight of her mother made Sunset’s legs lock. “M-Mom?”

“Sunset?" Celestia asked as she held what most ponies would consider an oversized mug in her magic. “What are you doing here? You’re not usually up before the sunrise.”

“Me? What’re you doing here it’s-oh,” Sunset mumbled as she looked over to a clock that hung high on a wall and found it to be just five minutes past six in the morning. “I...just woke up a little early is all.”

Celestia nodded before a smaller cup floated over to where she was standing, held aloft by a golden glow, and she poured a normal-sized cup of coffee. “Well, it looks like we’re in luck then,” she said before motioning towards the dinning room door. “I can make up for the time we lost last night. Now, come with me.”

Although she said it gently, Sunset understood the command and nodded her head before following her mother out the door. Well, this isn’t as bad as it would have been last night, the amber alicorn reassured herself. Cadance’s preening lesson had been over an hour long. Celestia wouldn’t probably have less than half that time to ferret out any of Sunset’s hidden truths.

Sunset could lie to the pony that took her in and raised her as if Sunset was her own flesh and blood for that long at least.

“I see your wings are looking better,” Celestia told her after a brief examination when Sunset caught up with her. “You know, traditionally, it’s the mother’s responsibility to show her foal how to take care of her wings.”

Sunset winced. Even though Celestia hadn’t sounded hurt when she spoke, the amber alicorn couldn’t help but feeling bad for her mother. The mare had been reaching out to Sunset, and her stupid daughter had just thought about her own mess of secrets instead of Celestia’s feelings. “I...I’m sorry,” she apologized pathetically.

The white alicorn slowly shook her head before smiling at her daughter. “It’s fine Sunset. I can’t just expect a bond I neglected for years to suddenly dominate your decision making when I’ve been going on about friendship for weeks,” Celestia said before her expression became a little guarded.

When her mother didn't keep talking as they walked through the halls of the palace, Sunset quickly made an effort to distract herself from her growing guilt of hurting Celestia’s feelings. “So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about last night?” At the very least, Sunset could make up some ground on that front.

A guilty look crossed Celestia's face for a fraction of a second before she shook it off as they continued to walk down the hallway alone. “Oh that,” the sun goddess replied as if it were an unimportant matter. “The new griffon ambassador will arrive in Canterlot at the end of the week. I want you to be with me when I meet with him.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the rather reasonable, if a little nonsensical request. “Uh, don't you usually meet with foreign officials by yourself?”

One of the benefits about having an immortal ruler rather than someone who was replaced every four years or a royal that got old and picked up all the problems that came with an advanced age before dying so he didn’t have to live with the problems his decisions caused was that deals made with Celestia tended to last longer than the creatures she made them with. And to cut down on any communication problems, the white alicorn met with all representatives of a nation whether that creature was the leader or just the mouthpiece of whatever was in charge rather than using another pony. So the fact that her mother was wanting to sit in on a meeting with a foreign power’s speaker didn’t make sense to Sunset.

“Yes, well...you won’t actually be doing any of the negotiations, but it’s important for you to be there to greet foreign dignitaries,” Celestia explained.

So...she just wants me there to...what? Smile and wave? Sunset asked herself. While she could understand that it was important for her to be there as a Princess of Equestria, part of her didn’t see the point of it since she would just be glorified eye-candy.

A thought occurred to her. “What about Cadance?”

“She’ll be there for the greeting, but you and I will be the only ones dealing with the ambassador directly,” Celestia explained.

Sunset didn't know what rubbed her the wrong way more: that Cadance didn't have to be at the meeting Celestia was making Sunset attend, or that Celestia was shoving the pink princess to the side again despite the fact that Sunset’s friend was the only real princess out of the two of them. Even if she knew her mother wasn’t trying to be cruel to Cadance, the thought still irked her.

“Is something wrong?” Celestia asked with a little bit of worry.

After thinking about it for a second, Sunset couldn't stop herself from asking the begging question. “Why isn’t Cadance attending the meeting too?”

Celestia finished another sip of her coffee and looked down to her daughter. “While Cadance is a wonderful pony, she lacks the political experience you do and...well, I have to admit that her personality isn't the best type when it comes to dealing with griffons.”

The two mares walked out onto the Dawn Balcony, and Celestia hesitated instead of walking up to the edge of what was her usual spot for raising the sun. Instead, she looked back to Sunset for a few more seconds. “Sunset, are you...angry at me?”

Sunset shook her head. “No. What makes you say that?”

“Maybe I’m just reading too much into one incident,” the white alicorn replied before she let out a tiny sigh. “But...after what happened with the nobles, and I know you didn’t appreciate having to deal with all the reporters either...I was just worried that you might be holding a little grudge against me for putting you through all of that.”

There was a small temptation to agree with Celestia, if just to help hide her guilt about not coming clean to her mother about Twilight and everything else, but Sunset simply shook her head. She couldn’t do that to her mom. “No.”

“I just...well...I always thought I would have been the pony to show you how to take care of your wings when you got them,” Celestia went on before giving her a guilty smile. “I know it’s selfish of me to think that way, but...I am a mom now. Wanting to spend a little personal time with my daughter is allowed, right?”

With the conversation once again getting into something Sunset would rather not talk about, she found her mind sliding back in the direction of its usual defenses. If you wanted me to be an alicorn so badly, THEN WHY DID YOU KICK ME OUT? Sunset mentally yelled before countering that thought with how she had acted like a spoiled brat and worse when she was a human at CHS. “Sorry,” she apologized.

Celestia shook her head. “No, Sunset. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who should apologize for dumping all of this guilt on you,” she told her daughter before bending down to nuzzle her. “I’m sorry.”

For her part, Sunset pushed her thoughts of guilt to the side and simply basked in the physical contact of her mother. It was a wonderful thing. Something she hadn’t known how much she had needed until Celestia met with her upon her return. “I love you Mom,” she said to Celestia to try and cheer the bigger pony up. At the very least, Sunset could give her that.

As soon as Celestia stepped away, much too soon for Sunset’s taste, the amber alicorn thought back to her dream, and the moral dilemma it demanded be addressed. Sunset couldn’t talk about it with Cadance, she had already heard her best friend’s answer on that particular topic and it just seemed too...incorrect.

But talking about the root of what was weighing her down would be impossible with Celestia.

Unless of course, it was done in a very vague way…

“Mom, can I ask you something?” Sunset spoke up after thinking about how she was going to once again hide the truth from the pony that loved her more than anything.

Celestia turned away from the eastern sky. “Of course, Sunset.”

After a few seconds of thinking, Sunset spoke. “It’s just...well, Cadance wasn’t the only pony who...became aware of a problem that needs dealing with recently,” she said. “A-And I know what I need to do to solve it, but...I don’t think it’ll be a pleasant experience for any of the ponies involved. Me included.” Just the thought of becoming a human and going back to CHS again made Sunset feel sick.

“And that’s all you’re going to tell me about it?” Celestia asked, to which Sunset could only give a little nod. She was more than a little ashamed for not opening up more to her mother, but Celestia still gave her an answer. “Well, since it seems you already have your solution and just need some encouragement. The best advice I can give you is that if you’re sure what you’re doing is right, then do it. Even if it is the harder choice to go through with. But once you begin, you need to remember to be steady and follow through with your solution.”

Feelings of panic that Sunset had been hoping would dissipate with Celestia’s encouragement only increased as her mother finished speaking. “Yeah,” Sunset agreed softly as her mother turned to begin the daily process of raising the sun. The light of the dawn made her eyes water. “Thanks...Mom.”

Breakfast at the household of Twilight Velvet wasn’t what Shining Armor called a relaxing affair. Although his father was busy reading the paper and his mother was content to hide in the kitchen, his little sister was...currently in the middle of an energetic high that the new cereal called Sugar Bombs their mother had bought the day before put her in.

“Hey Shiny, when’s your next flugelhorn recital?” the little purple filly asked as she trotted in place.

The mention of that infernal instrument his grandfather had left the family and Dad insisted he learn to play only continued to lower Shining Armor’s mood. “No idea,” he mumbled before Twilight actually climbed up onto his back to look over his shoulder at the oats on his plate. “And why do you want to know? The last time Mom and Dad dragged you to one, you said your ears were in danger of bleeding and they had to take you home.”

“Because they said that they’d hire a foalsitter for me next time, and that means Princess Sunset will come and see me again!” Twilight said in an excited tone.

After using his magic to set her back down on the ground, Shining Armor swallowed the oats in his mouth and looked down to her. “Okay first off, she’s already going to be coming over to tutor you at least twice a week,” he reminded her. “And two, it was Cadance that came to foalsit you.”

“True,” she agreed before holding up a hoof as if she were fixing to lecture Shining Armor about his own...whatever Sunset was to him. “But if Cadance comes, then there’s also a high probability that Princess Sunset will accompany her...and solve mysteries.” Then Twilight frowned so hard her face became extremely scrunched up. “Although, I'm doubtful about my research material's accuracy on that last part.”

Shining Armor couldn't help but smile at his little sister and reached down to ruffle her mane. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to wait until Sunset shows up with Cadance to ask her.”

A second after Twilight calmed down, Shining Armor heard a loud popping sound from outside the front door that sounded far too much like a mystical relocation for his liking.

“Wait,” Cadance's voice sounded from the outside. “What’re we doing at Shiny’s house?”

“What? I can’t pop in to check on our favorite guy?” Sunset’s voice replied before the door magically opened, despite it being locked, and an amber alicorn popped her head in on a rather surprised family of unicorns. “Hey everypony, mind if we come in?”

As Night Light recovered from his morning coffee going down the wrong way and Twilight Velvet quickly moved to bow to the royals, Shining Armor could only watch as Twilight dashed forward with a squeal of delight. “Princess Sunset!”

“O-Of course Your Majesties! My home is always open to royalty!” Twilight Velvet assured them as she spoke into the carpet.

However it didn’t look like either of the alicorns noticed the older Twilight as the younger mare with the same first name practically collided with her idol. Then, as Twilight Sparkle hugged the foreleg of the tallest mare in the room, Sunset put on an almost motherly, but somehow wistful smile before she reached down to stroke the purple filly’s mane with her fetlock. “Hello Twilight,” the princess with the sun on her flank said softly. “How are you this morning?”

As the filly began rambling off about this new cereal and its ‘immense sugar component that was causing an increased level of energy’ Shining Armor blinked while Sunset Shimmer conversed with the little filly. Although he had seen the older mare talk to Twilight before, something had changed Sunset from a pony that seemed to soak up Twilight’s awe like a sponge to...something almost Celestia-ish in the way she interacted with his little sister.

It was...Shining Armor didn’t know what to think of it, really.

Sunset Shimmer was the embodiment of an action novel’s main character. She was both bigger and stronger than Shining, without an ounce of hesitation and massive amounts of confidence. Intimidating only began to describe what it was like to be in the presence of the demi-goddess. But as Shining Armor saw her speak with Twilight Sparkle, it was like he was seeing a completely different side to the warrior alicorn that had pinned Shining Armor to his bed just yesterday evening and...done more with him than he had ever expected to do with a girl.

“Too much energy, huh?” Cadance suddenly said as she broke into the conversation before walking between the purple filly and the amber mare to grin mischievously at Twilight. “Well, I know the cure for that.”

A second later, Twilight’s back was on the ground and the pink princess assaulted her with an onslaught of feathers that left the little filly crying out in laughter as Cadance brushed her feathered appendages across Twilight’s stomach. “P-Princess Cadance! That tickles!”

Sunset rolled her eyes at the exchange, and then looked over to the breakfast table to finally notice the rest of the family. Although Shining Armor gulped nervously when her gaze fell on him, Sunset didn’t look at him very long before she fixated the mare that was still touching her muzzle to the floor and became concerned. “Oh no, Missus Velvet please!” she said before quickly trotting over to the prostrating mare and offering her a hoof. “Y-You don’t need to that! I-I’m a guest in your home.”

After the amber alicorn had managed to yank Shining’s mother back to her hooves, the older mare blushed and lowered her head. “Your Highness, I would never disrespect you or Princess Cadance!” Velvet assured Sunset before looking to the floor instead of meeting the royal eye-to-eye. “Especially with what you have given my family.”

“N-No...Twilight....she deserves it,” Sunset replied before looking back to where the pink princess was accepting Twilight’s surrender with a hug and a kiss to the top of her head.

The older stallion in the room cleared his throat, and then lowered his head when the amber alicorn’s attention focused on him. “Pardon Your Highness, but what do we owe the honor of your visit?”

Sunset became uneasy again as she looked over to Shining’s father, and Cadance ended up answering the question. “Isn’t it obvious? Ms Shimmer here just wanted to trot to school with her Shiny in tow.”

“Hey!” Sunset snapped at the pink princess, her head spinning around to face Cadence as the amber alicorn went from uneasy to annoyed. “I just want to go to school with my two best friends! I zapped you over here too, didn’t I?”

As Cadance rolled her eyes, Sunset looked back to Shining Armor and took a moment to put the frown on her face away. “So, uh...Shiny,” she said a little nervously. “You ready to go?”

Ten minutes later, Shining Armor managed to finish his breakfast thanks to Sunset and Cadance keeping Twilight busy with a few fancy-looking spells that created different colored fires and restraining moves disguised as hugs from Cadance. The three ponies started making their way down the street, with Shining and Cadance flanking the taller pony. A minute into the journey, Sunset slowed down and repositioned herself so that Shining Armor was the pony in the middle. Then she looked down at the stallion. “So Shiny, what’re your plans for this weekend?”

Shining Armor nearly tripped over his own hooves from hearing Sunset’s question. He gave her a once-over and decided she was being serious. “Are you kidding me? This Friday’s when Solar Battles Episode Five is due in Canterlot! Me and the guys are gonna go see it as soon as we get out of class!” he said before getting an idea.

Unfortunately, that idea also came with a hefty amount of uncertainty. While the very definition of cool, Sunset didn’t really seem the sci-fi type. Most magic scholars didn’t really like the lack of real science that went with the series, like how any unicorn that was actually able to make their horn produce a contained energy projection capable of melting through metal would boil their brains in less than a second. Plus, there was the slight curl of her lip and frown on her face that tipped Shining off to her opinion of the whole genre.

But still, Shining Armor had sort of faced a dragon to fight for his princess, and Sunset had pretty much thrown him onto a bed before doing a hay of a lot more than any mare before her. So...he couldn’t not ask her… “So uh...Sunset,” he said before pushing down his hesitation with a gulp. “I-If, you...uh...I mean, if you don’t really have anything else to...you know...do. I uh...I wouldn’t...you know...mind you...um...tagging...along?”

An odd chill ran down Shining Armor’s spine, and he looked to his left to see Cadance giving him a judging glare. The prettiest pony alive arched an eyebrow at the stallion. “Seriously? That’s how you’re asking her out on a group date?”

On the other side of Shining Armor, Sunset spoke in a slightly less angry tone. “What was wrong with that?” she asked before looking back to the stallion with a smile. “And I’d be happy to see a movie with you and your friends Shiny.”

The strange word in Sunset’s response threw Shining’s attention off track. What’s a movie?

“Don’t you dare say yes to that!” Cadance exclaimed sharply before she trotted ahead of them a bit and suddenly spun around to face the other two horned ponies with the frown still on her face. “Okay, first off...Shining, while I do think going to see the latest installment of Solar Battles is a much better date setting than your O&O game, I’m afraid I can’t let Sunset accept such a lackluster invitation.”

Sunset gave Cadance a half-lidded frown. “You can’t allow it?”

After sticking her muzzle up into the air a bit and closing her eyes, Cadance nodded in a regal manner. “Princess of Love,” she said before looking up to meet Sunset’s eyes. “Means I can do that sort of stuff.”

“Okay Cadance, I think you’re missing something here,” Sunset said before she threw out her wings, stopped slouching to show off her full height, and stepped forward with enough strength in her step that it actually made the ground shake to look down at the pink princess, leaving Shining Armor to stand in her shadow as her horn lit up. “Alicorn. Big and intimidating, with enough magic to lay waste to pretty much all of Canterlot in ten seconds flat. The fact that Shiny can ask me out at all is pretty fucking impressive.”

As the tiny tremor caused by Sunset’s outburst subsided, Shining Armor glanced around at the other ponies that were making themselves scarce. Not that he blamed them. The amount of magic that Sunset’s horn displayed made Shining’s magical centers feel pushed down upon by the sheer weight of her presence. While the fiery alicorn’s physical strength had been...impressive, the level of mystical power she was putting made that look like almost nothing!

And in response to Sunset Shimmer’s overwhelming power, Cadance merely rolled her eyes. “If he can face certain death, then he can at least ask you out without stuttering. And cut that out! You’re scaring everypony,” the pink princess said before she reached up and smacked Sunset’s horn with a light bop that left Shining Armor wincing.

But the despite the amount of magical power running through her head pointer, Sunset barely seemed to notice the touch as her magic disappeared in a flash of energy that dissipated into the air harmlessly. “Oh,” the solar alicorn said before slouching even more than she did normally and looking around at the nearly empty street. “Sorry...everypony.”

If any of the fleeing crowd heard the princess’s apology, they gave no sign.

“Now Shining Armor,” Cadance spoke up, making the white stallion look over to the pink pony as she gestured to Sunset. “Don’t you have something to ask Sunset?” She moved closer to mumble in his ear. “And go through it in your head first before you spit it out your mouth. That, and knowing she’s going to say yes will make it easier.”

The two ponies that were having to follow Cadance’s commands met each other's eyes, and Sunset smirked before rolling hers. “Okay fine. Hey Shiny, you doing anything this weekend?”

“Um…” he said before Cadance’s encouraging smile turned into an encouraging glare at the pause. “M-Me and my friends were going to see the new Solar Battles, if you want to come along…” Shining Armor gulped as Cadance’s frown intensified. “That’d be...nice?”

Sunset actually giggled. “Yeah, it would, wouldn’t it?” she agreed. “Okay, and I’ll bring Cadance and Cheerilee too. The more the merrier, right?”

Off to the side, Cadance let out a sigh and hung her head before shaking it in disappointment. “Well, it wasn’t the best, but I suppose it’ll have to do,” she said after focusing back on the couple. Then she stuck her hoof out. “Now kiss!”

Once again, Shining Armor found all of his joints locking up as hesitation overpowered his mind. “W-Whjugeba?”

Sunset swung her head around to frown at the pink princess standing beside her. “Cadance!”

But the other alicorn was unmoved by the angry shout. She stuck her muzzle up in the air again and held up a hoof before going on in a lecturing tone. “After a date has been arranged between two ponies that already know each other, it’s best if the asker kisses the pony he asked on the cheek to seal the agreement,” Cadance explained. “It shows that he’s still interested in her physically, but not to the point where he can’t control his lusts.”

“...You know, if that didn’t make so much sense from a scientific viewpoint, I’d probably be a lot angrier with you right now,” Sunset told her with an annoyed frown.

Thanks to the silence beforehand, Shining managed to muster up his courage, and seeing an opening as the amber alicorn looked down at the pink princess, he quickly trotted forward to steps to reach up a little bit and touch his lips to Sunset’s cheek for about half a second before withdrawing them and taking a step away.

Sunset froze, her eyes wide. A tiny bit of red appeared on her cheeks, and she looked over to Shining Armor. “Y-You actually kissed me.”

“I um,” Shining got out before Sunset looked back to Cadance.

She let out a sigh. “Okay fine...you win,” she said to Cadance before her horn lit up and both ponies were snatched up into the air by Sunset’s magic. “Now, no more barking orders,” Sunset added before she dropped the two smaller ponies beside her and used her wings to hold them both close. “And thanks to that stunt we’re going to have to teleport if we want to make it to class on time. First timers always have trouble, so just lean into me.”

Cadance struggled in Sunset’s grip. “Wait Sunset! Don’t-!”

The world disappeared in a bright flash of light that blinded him for a few seconds. The next thing Shining Armor knew, he was standing in front of the school. Several of the ponies that hung out before the start of the day on the steps were there, seemingly waiting for them. On top of which, every last one of them was looking at the trio, most likely thanks to their rather flashy entrance.

On the other side of the amber alicorn, Cadance struggled to get Sunset’s wing off of her with the pair she owned. “S-Sunset! Would you let me go already?!” she demanded.

“Okay,” she mumbled in a confused tone before releasing the flustered alicorn and doing the same to Shining Armor. “Hey, I’m going to walk Shining to class. I’ll talk to you about Cinch at lunch, okay?”

“R-Right!” Cadance agreed as she quickly galloped away from the pair.

Cadance was never more glad that she was a pony with a pink coat. Thanks to that, nopony was able to see the blush that felt like it covered her entire body. So at least it would be sometime during second period that the whole school would know that Sunset had put Cadance under her wing.

Just thinking about it made the pink princess groan as she sat down on the cushion in front of her assigned desk and pulled the alchemy book for her first period class out of her saddlebag. And...as embarrassing as letting everypony see them like that was, Cadance couldn’t exactly be angry with Sunset over it. Even the Alicorn of Love had been ignorant of pegasus dating customs thanks to being found and raised in an earth pony village. It hadn’t been until she had gotten interested in each particular tribe’s mating rituals that Cadance learned the importance of such an action.

Back before the Unification, the pegasus tribe had been the warriors of ponykind. Even though they were generally antagonistic towards each other, they still defended the territories held by all the three tribes. As such, they created a very defensive subculture that taught its foals to always be on guard and never let another creature in close. For a pegasus to put another pony under his or her wing was the ultimate sign of trust.

But since the all the ponies had come under one flag and opened up, the primary showing of trust among pegasi had changed over the years. Unlike before, it was no longer a sign of trust or guardianship. Instead, being placed under another pony’s wing of near equal age was the Pegasus Tribe’s strongest physical declaration of love. A declaration that Sunset had literally made in front of the whole school!

Already, Cadance could imagine the rumors…

“My dad works at the palace, and he says they sleep together!”

“The two princesses are doing it?”

As if something of the like could ever happen between the two of them...in a romantic way, at least. And since casual sex wasn’t something Cadance went for, then it couldn’t happen that way either!

But when it came to their practical sleeping arrangements, Cadance actually found sharing a bed with the bigger alicorn quite pleasurable. Sunset was the perfect mix of muscle, coat and fat, with legs that looked like a normal pony’s even though they were nearly a fourth longer instead of the thin things that most of the mares who underwent alchemical beauty treatments ended up getting, like Fleur. Not to mention how gentle the amber alicorn was whenever the two of them cuddled. On top of that, the firm grip she held Cadance in for the past few nights also let the pink alicorn know she was safe.

But, that didn’t mean anything! Just that Sunset was thoughtful enough to share her bed, and strong…and kind. Not to mention powerful. The amber alicorn wouldn’t have offered herself to Cadance in such a way if Sunset didn't think she couldn’t stop Chrysalis’s spawn from abducting the pink princess.

Which of course means she’s also intelligent, Cadance told herself. A given for anypony who could sling spells with Sunset’s level of skill. Although, her academical magic skills were actually surpassed by her pony/people skills if she was right about the mirror and how she kept an entire school under her power without an ounce of magic.

Not that she would do anything like that again! Cadance knew Sunset had become a better pony than she had been a few weeks ago. It was something the pink princess was not only glad of, but admired the amber alicorn for a great deal. Turning one's life around wasn’t the easiest thing to do when it required a shift in a mare’s outlook on life.

“Princess Cadenza!”

Cadance shot her head around to look at the old unicorn stallion that was at the front of the class. “Yes Professor Slughorn?” she asked before realizing that he was simply calling roll. “Oh! I’m here.”

Glad that class was finally beginning, Cadance put the thoughts of her best friend out of her mind with the help of the somewhat easy but lengthy process of balancing alchemical equations. Even if the math involved was simple, it kept her from thinking about anything else.

That is, until the bell rang to signal the end of class and she trotted out into the hall.

Nopony said anything while she was in earshot of course. All the ponies she saw were much too polite to even gossip in her presence, or give Cadance the judgemental glares she so richly deserved for what they all ‘knew’ to be true. But...the pink princess could still feel them, the entire student body, looking at her from behind her back.

So, Cadance quickly dashed into her next class and sought the sanctuary of her desk as she worked on that other problem that had been dancing on the edge of her consciousness all throughout her first period class: the growing admiration she had for Sunset Shimmer.

The problem was, Cadance couldn’t exactly stop admiring her best friend. Especially considering the fact that Sunset was pretty admirable, and for good reasons.

But...the Princess of Love could see where such thoughts would eventually lead. Admiration was one thing, a good thing even. It was one of the things that let friends improve upon themselves in each other's presence. But it could also quickly lead to feeling of affection that were not of the friendly kind with the addition of certain sensations…

Cadance blinked as she felt the larger pony crawl into bed behind her. Using the gentlest touch of magic and control that the pink princess could only wish she had a fraction of, Sunset lifted Cadance an inch off of the mattress to slide one of her giant wings underneath the pink alicorn before a wall of the softest coat ever touched Cadance’s back. A pair of strong and powerful forelegs wrapped around Cadance’s barrel, and held her tight as Sunset leaned in close to completely cover the back of Cadance’s neck.

Breaths from the amber alicorn’s muzzle skated across Cadance’s mane as one of the pink princess’s ears positioned close to Sunset’s neck could feel the rush of blood flowing through the amber alicorn’s body with every strong beat of her heart. At the same time, with Sunset pressed up against her, Cadance could feel the firmness in her body that laid just an inch below a layer of skin, fur and a tiny bit of fat that allowed the bigger pony to keep her girlish figure.

Being held in such a way by Sunset, Cadance felt something she hadn’t since Celestia’s announcement about the invisible threat that lay just outside the pink princess’s range of vision. She felt safe, protected, and calm.

It was...wonderful.

Cadance took a moment to reduce the air intake that she was pulling in through her nose as her heart hammered away in her chest thanks to the memory of the first time she slept with Sunset Shimmer. No...it wasn’t like that, she tried to tell herself.

There had been that feeling of safety, of course. Cadance wouldn’t have been able to get to sleep without that. But it hadn’t been wonderful, just...safe.

Safe and comfortable.

And that was all.

Cadance knew she had no business thinking it was anything else and developing something for Sunset beyond some basic, friendly admiration.

After all, Sunset was interested in an admirable colt of her own.

Even if they weren’t exactly the best match for each other.

Cadance’s mental train went off the tracks at her last thought, and she stopped in the middle of retrieving her book, that little realization causing all of her motor functions to freeze. Say what? the alicorn asked herself with a frown before thinking back to the pair of ponies.

Thanks to the week of training sessions before Sunset and Shining’s first date, Cadance knew Shining Armor rather well. Not the trivial things about his life, but the more important things involving the type of pony he was. And...Shining Armor was a nice, gentle and loving colt. He was an all around wonderful catch for anypony lucky enough to scoop him up.

On the other side of the equation, Sunset Shimmer was an exceptional pony. Out of all the ponies in Equestria, she was the one that Princess Celestia had chose to be her successor. A pony of boisterous fury and fiery passion with a beautifully endearing vulnerable side that she had shown to Cadance the night before, when Sunset had asked her if she liked Shining Armor in the romantic kind of way.

Cadance shook her head at the comparison, or rather, the fact that she was making such a comparison at all. Love wasn't something that could be determined by just listing such thing as personality traits in her head.

To figure out if Shining Armor and Sunset would do well together, Cadance would need to make a full spreadsheet.

So, the pink alicorn put the thoughts away to concentrate on something less important, but more pressing: school.

But then the class ended, and luckily, Cadance’s third period class was the type that only did work when the teacher was in the mood for it, which she found out wasn’t today as she came in and saw him hiding behind his desk with a book in his magic. So, as the other ponies talked and goofed around, Cadance dug through her saddlebags for some paper and-“Princess Cadance?” a refined mare’s voice said from behind her.

The pink princess pulled out her paper to set it down on her desk, then looked over to the pony standing behind her. The colorful mane and long sharp horn combined with her height jogged Cadance’s memory more than the blue coat or sewing cutie mark. “Sassy Saddles?” she asked. “You’re one of Fleur's friends, right?”

Although they had met when Cadance had come to the academy and shared a class, the tall unicorn had more or less kept her distance from the alicorn after their initial meeting. So it took some effort to recall the pony even with her odd mane helping the princess.

“Ah, yes Your Majesty,” she said, making Cadance want to sigh. The pink princess didn’t like it when the other students referred to her by her title. “She and I would like to talk to talk to you, if that’s alright.”

A quick glance at the teacher told Cadance that he didn't care, so she followed Sassy out into the hall to find Fleur de Lis standing there and...although Cadance couldn't put a feather on it, something seemed off with the tall white unicorn with the pink mane.

As soon as their eyes met, the Princess of Canterlot Academy became panicked and fell to the ground. Not in respect with a prostration like most ponies did, Fleur hit the ground in an outright grovel. “I’m sorry Princess! I’m sorry,” she said as tears started to appear in her eyes.

Cadance blinked. “W-What?” She asked. “Fleur, what’s-”

“I didn’t mean to make you upset!” Fleur said before adopting a begging position with her hooves clasped together. “Please don’t let Princess Sunset turn me into a mule! My family would disown me, and my future as a model would be ruined!”

Cadance looked up to Sassy. “Um...what’s going on?”

The other unicorn bowed her head after meeting Cadance’s aze for a second. “Well Princess Sunset and Fleur share some of the same classes. And last period, I’m afraid Her Majesty was a bit...aggravated at something we...might have said in regards to the two of you after hearing a rather false bit of gossip that said she had gotten tired of that toy colt Armor...and...well...Princess Sunset had a word with Fleur and myself when the bell rang before ordering us to appologize for a minor...problem that we might have caused you in the past,” Sassy admitted. “Or she’d use her magic and turn us both into donkeys.”

If it wasn’t for the fear on Fleur's face and her own confusion, Cadance would have laughed. Sunset might have had made the threat, but the pink princess knew the amber alicorn was just bluffing.

Well, Cadance was pretty sure Sunset was bluffing. Although the amber alicorn hadn’t ever done anything to hurt the pink princess during the time they had known each other, there was no doubt in her mind that Sunset would have destroyed Buck the day before if Cadance hadn't stopped her. So, actually hurting another pony wasn't completely impossible for Sunset to do.

But instead of getting into an internal debate about Sunset's…bullying nature, Cadance focused more on what had set her off. She looked down at Fleur and offered her a hoof with a smile on her face. “Fleur, what is she talking about? What problem?”

The pony with the nearly-impossible good looks took Cadance’s hoof and stood back up, but stooped just a bit so that Cadance was still looking down at her; much in the way Sunset had been doing recently to try and hide her unnatural height. “Um...well...you see…”

Cadance blinked as Fleur explained to the pink princess that she and her group of friends had been acting as social bodyguards to the royal alicorn ever since Cadance had come to Canterlot Academy. “We thought we were doing you a favor Princess!” the pony quickly said as Cadance frowned at her. “You weren’t from Canterlot and we thought that it would be best if you had some help when it came to dealing with some of the more common ponies that ended up at this school.”

“But you didn’t really want to socialize with us either,” Sassy Saddles quickly added before also putting on a half-pout that also showed her guilt. “So we decided to respect your privacy rather than trying to...ahem, stick our muzzles up your plot and pucker up, as it were.”

After waiting a few more seconds to make sure that Fleur and Sassy were done, Cadance quickly voiced her thoughts. “So you're the reason that nopony wants to talk to me.”

When both of the ponies cringed, the pink princess let out a sigh. And after what happened last night, Sunset decided to fix it, she thought while remembering her outburst at dinner. And as much as she tried to be mad at Sunset over terrifying the poor unicorn senior in front of her, Cadance couldn’t help but feel...strangely warm.

Once again, the creature of her nightmares had rushed to the pink princess’s rescue to defend Cadance’s honor. It wasn’t exactly a one-hit-kill on a dragon followed by a lustful shoving of a tongue down another pony’s throat, or shouting at a goddess in anger, but...it did give Cadance a warmer feeling in her cheeks.

“It’s alright Fleur,” Cadance finally told her, making the white unicorn sigh in relief. “I’m not mad. But, if you want to get on my good side again, there is something I could use some advice on. Could you and your friends meet me and Sunset on the roof during lunch so we could have a talk away from prying eyes?”

She would also need to have a word with Sunset about frightening ponies just because they ticked her off. It was odd that one of the things the amber alicorn felt so bad for when it came to Cadance was also her first line of defense when it came to dealing with anypony who had messed with the pink princess. She had to wonder how Sunset dealt with the guilt.

At least, Cadance hoped she felt guilty over frightening Fleur and Sassy.

The news that she wasn’t going to be transmogrified into a mule, something Cadance wasn’t entirely sure Sunset could actually do, cheered the diva up immensely. She looked at the pink princes with wide, hopeful eyes, and nodded gratefully. “Of course Princess. Of course! I’ll bring Sassy and Upper Crust with me. Thank you Princess. Thank you very much!”

After the two unicorns departed, Cadance made her way back to class and looked down at the sheet of blank paper in front of her. Thanks to the...distraction that Fleur and Sassy had provided, it actually took a moment before Cadance remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

Right...compatibility ratings, she thought before getting out a pencil to do the math.

To anypony who was looking on, it would have seemed like nonsense. Even Cadance would have thought that being able to predict the future of a pony’s romance was impossible before her epiphany that led to her enlightenment. But from the perspective of an alicorn that had found her calling, being able to tell which ponies belonged together was almost...easy.

At least in comparison to when she had been a village matchmaker back home.

So, Cadance put pencil to paper as she got to work. She matched Shining Armor’s willingness to help others to Sunset’s self-appreciation, and the amber alicorn’s defensive drives to the unicorn’s current vulnerability. Her dominating personality to his submissive one. His attractiveness to her lack of contact with another pony for three years and so on until the page was filled with every fact Cadance knew about both of the ponies that would allow them to bond, or push them apart.

And...Cadance didn’t much like the results.

Although the interactions between the two had gone well, and would continue to be mostly compatible, Sunset would continue to overshadow Shining Armor in every way as the years went by. While Cadance knew this was to be expected with the future goddess of Equestria, she also knew that Sunset’s protectiveness of her friends would mean that there was a 86.3673% chance that Shining Armor would forever remain...stunted in his growth as a stallion, and thus never obtain the self-confidence he would need to show Sunset she could love him with all of her passionate heart.

Then, after a few seconds of studying the spot where their relationship would begin to take a turn for the worse, the Alicorn of Love watched the projected timeline of events as Sunset buried herself in work to avoid Shining Armor’s increasing melancholy over his lack of self-worth, followed by a sharp decline in his health as opposed to what would be Sunset’s eternal lifespan. Sunset would then see what being with her had done to him over the years, and put up barriers around her heart shortly after Shining’s passing, which would in turn bring about an eternity of loneliness for the amber alicorn as she would think it better to not get involved with another pony since her love would ultimately end up hurting Sunset’s important other in her eyes.

The finale of the love ballad of Shining Armor and Sunset Shimmer made the pink princess cringe. While it wasn’t projected to end badly, per se, the long-term side effects of their union were...rather horrifying to Cadance.

So much so that it made her want to rip the paper to shreds.

But...

Maybe I’m wrong about this, Cadance told herself as she looked at the information again while keeping down her bile. It had only been a few weeks since she had met Sunset, and the drastic change in the amber alicorn’s personality could have been influencing Cadance’s read on her love life. Plus, there was the rest of Shiny’s family to consider when it came to their relationship. After learning about Twilight Sparkle and her strange connection to Sunset...Cadance understood that any connection between her friend and the white colt would be affected by the filly.

A factor she hadn’t bothered to include in her latest prediction of the couple.

Plus, there was Princess Celestia’s effects on their relationship, and Sunset’s unwillingness to admit to the goddess that she had a coltfriend.

Cadance couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed by the fact that Sunset believed her romantic life would have been trampled all over by the biggest pony, but if the Alicorn of Love were to get a boyfriend, then Auntie Celestia wouldn’t have been interested in him it at all.

Even if it was kind of expected when it came to the Alicorn of Love.

In fact, Celestia probably didn’t think it was worth getting involved in because Cadance obviously knew what she was doing, whereas Sunset was...well...Sunset Shimmer.

Not that Celestia’s trust didn’t stop the pink princess from feeling annoyed about the whole thing.

Although...if the big princess did take a look at the colt, Cadance had to wonder what she would see. A pony as old as Celestia had to know all the ends and out of personal relationships too. What if she looked at the fake couple and saw right through the lie?

Cadance...didn’t really know how she felt about that.

On one hoof, it would force Sunset to tell her mother the truth, and hopefully work through some of the lingering fear and animosity she held towards the bigger alicorn. But on the other hoof, if Celestia were to look at the paring of Shining Armor and Cadance to see it was a horrible idea, then Cadance’s reputation as the Princess of Love would be completely destroyed and Celestia might never trust her again!

Oh...that’s...not good, the pink princess told herself as her eyes widened at the realization.

But what could she do to avoid it?

Making Sunset talk to Celestia about Shining would mean Cadance would have to go back on her word to give the amber alicorn some time to get things straight in her life. Plus, Cadance really didn’t want to have Sunset be angry with her again. The fear of losing Sunset as a friend was even worse than what she had experienced under the amber alicorn’s anger back when Sunset had just been a unicorn.

Of course, that was all assuming that Celestia would see that Cadance and Shining Armor weren’t meant to be together…

Cadance looked down at her relationship figures with a frown. Even though she may have used some of the wrong figures for Sunset, Shining Armor was an exceptionally straight forward colt. The pink princess knew she hadn’t gone wrong with any of his information.

So… she thought before reaching out with a free hoof to turn the paper in front of her over so she could work on another completely theoretical couple that had no real chance of ever ending up together for any plausible reason. Thanks to the fact that it was her own information, Cadance finished with the outline of such a relationship’s destiny a few seconds before the bell rang.

The results were...troubling.

Perhaps even more so than Shining and Sunset’s failed, and probably flawed, love prediction.

After all, Shining Armor was Sunset’s stallion.

He didn’t have any business being, according to Cadance’s predictions, the stallion that had a 98.7859% chance to grant the pink princess eternal happiness as they spent the rest of their blissful lives together in a crystal palace.

“Well…” Cadance mumbled as she frowned at the perfect relationship that could never be, printed on the back of the uncertain love that could only end badly. “...that’s just great.”

Chapter 14: Pretty Pony Princesses Like Shiny Things

Sunset blinked in confusion as Cadance galloped away into the school. Then, she looked over to the young stallion under her wing in confusion. “Did she seem a little...odd just then?” If anything, Cadance had seemed almost afraid of something. Not to the level when Sunset tormented her, but...still afraid. Sunset hated seeing Cadance like that.

After taking a second to recover from the teleport, Shining Armor looked up to the bigger pony. “Uh...maybe she needed to go to the bathroom?”

The rather...guy explanation of Cadance’s sudden departure made Sunset roll her eyes. It was things like that which just screamed the fact Shining Armor had never had a girlfriend before in Sunset's face. And his kissing. Shiny really needed to work on his kissing.

Although...it had been nice to feel his lips on her cheek…

And Sunset didn’t even have to pin him to a bed, press her lips up against his, and practically drag his tongue into her mouth to get it. While she didn’t exactly like the fact that Cadance had pointed out to Shining his invite had been rather pathetic, Sunset couldn’t really argue with the results either.

In fact, she felt like Shiny needed a reward for his efforts. It was a brave move for Shining to have taken a little initiative. Not to mention the fact he put the moves on a princess in such a public place. Double-bravery like that needed to be rewarded, and with more than just a little peck on the cheek from his princess.

It needed full lip contact. It deserved her tongue in his mouth, her hooves on his hindquarters while his were allowed to touch hers, her body pressed up against his without a single stitch of clothing between them. It… She wanted to have her stallion in her embrace as they shared a moment of full-throttle passion while she put her scent all over the little pony.

The mental images that soon followed, with Sunset and Shining Armor getting into more and risque positions every second had the amber alicorn feeling...full of desires.

Desires that demanded to be met.

And...it wasn’t as if Sunset could say no when her stallion deserved a reward.

“Hey Shiny, you wanna skip first period?” she asked softly into his ear as she leaned down to whisper into it. “I’ve got some equine anatomy lessons I need to review with you.”

The question, or maybe the fact that it was whispered into his ear in a way that included a rather seductive caress of her breath made Shining Armor tense. “Um...S-Sunset…” he mumbled while blushing. “We’re in the middle of the schoolyard.”

As if something as silly as that would be able to stop her. Sunset didn’t care if all the ponies in Canterlot were looking at her as she stood together with her stallion. If anything, she wanted them to see. She wanted to pin his body to the side of the school in front of everyone, and show them just how much he meant to her. Shining Armor got the most powerful, the most popular, and the most desirable girl in school. Not the cool kids, or the jocks, but the adorable little nerd.

But...his unease stopped her an inch before she could bite down on his ear. So, Sunset came up with a quick compromise. They still had time left before class, and she could teleport.

Sunset smiled before channeling magic into her horn and locking onto one of the several beacons she had placed around Canterlot nearly a week ago, when she had gotten lost and met the wonderful stallion that was currently wrapped in her wing. With a destination set in her mind, she teleported them away from the building.

Not even a second later, Sunset could feel the grass under her hooves, and the buildings of Canterlot could barely be seen for all the trees surrounding the couple that appeared in the shade they offered. While the Canterlot City Park was pretty pathetic in size compared to the human version, the bipeds hadn’t decided to build their less important municipality in the side of a mountain. Still, gave her nice scenery and seclusion thanks to the early morning hours, so it was more than enough for Sunset’s needs.

Right after they landed, Sunset let Shining go from her wing-grip and smiled at him. It was a telling, hungry smile. “And now we’re in the middle of the city park,” she explained before her fantasies altered to reflect the new environment. Grass really would be better for what they were about to do rather than something like the roof of a building or empty classroom.

Although...personal experience said having sex on top of a teacher’s desk did add a bit of excitement to the act. Even danger. It had been something that was kind of...lacking when she had been going out with bipeds. Not that she needed help getting excited around her stallion of course.

The alicorn advanced on the naked unicorn. “All alone again, just you and me,” she said with a smile that left no doubts about her intentions. “Problem solved.”

“S-Sunset!” Shining Armor exclaimed in a half-panicked tone that almost sounded cute. Soon though, she’s make him really squeal. “You...you, how did you…”

The amber alicorn licked her lips in preparation. They’d have about fifteen minutes of kissing, and after Shining begged her not to stop, she’d move on to something a bit more...adult. Her body needed something more adult. It screamed for adult.

And what Sunset Shimmer needed, she took.

...no matter what the guy said on the matter.

All of a sudden, cuteness of the moment faded, and Sunset found herself feeling guilty as she realized what she was doing. Taking control of the situation while showing the guy that he had absolutely no power in the relationship, that was what the old her had liked to do. While she hadn’t done it through physical strength and magical power before...the two new angles of domination had just made it all that much worse.

She let out a sigh and hung her head in shame. “S-Sorry,” Sunset apologized. “I just...no…” There wasn’t really any way to explain how she had wanted to...what? Prove to Shining that she was still in charge? Force herself on him?

How had what Sunset wanted to do go from rewarding her stallion to...that?

“I’m sorry Shiny,” she repeated in an ashamed whisper. “I’ll take us back. I’m sorry, I...I almost…” She fiercely shook her head. “W-We should go.” I wasn’t really going to, the alicorn told herself with much more strength than she had a moment ago.

Even the old her wouldn’t have gone that far. She had been willing to use deceit, enticement, manipulation, and maybe a bit of intimidation to get what she wanted, but Sunset had always had her moral limits even back when she was in CHS. And using physical strength to force herself on another person or pony was the line she wasn’t even about to go near.

Shining Armor’s expression went from annoyed to concerned in an instant. “Sunset, what’s wrong?”

Although she opened her mouth to tell the colt that everything was okay, Sunset found herself unable to actually speak the lie. What she had been tempted to do made Sunset feel physically ill. Shining Armor had been perfect, and in return Sunset had let her lusts run wild, and almost did something that was unforgivable.

No, I wasn’t going to... Sunset told herself as she mustered her defense. There had been that one time when they had been together before. She had stopped herself then, and she had stopped herself just now. She wasn’t some out of control monster that still took what she wanted no matter the consequences.

The amber alicorn stood there for a moment, looking at Shining Armor. As much as Sunset wanted to just sweep her near miss under the rug...part of her rebelled against the thought. Even if nothing had actually happened, even if she had stopped herself, Sunset couldn’t just push such a thing to the side and keep on going like everything was fine. So...she shoved her teeth back together before letting out a sigh and giving her stallion a hopeless look. “Shiny, can we talk?”

“Um...well...we do have a few minutes,” he mumbled with uncertainty.

Hearing his reply made Sunset just feel worse for some reason.

“But...you...you’re more important to me than a perfect attendance score,” Shining went on before trotting up to Sunset and giving her a nuzzle that made Sunset look up at him in surprise. “But...um...can you make it fast? As you can...I mean? We can just be counted late if we’re only ten minutes behind the bell and-”

The amber alicorn stopped listening to Shining’s worried ramblings, and barely kept herself from knocking herself out with her own strength as she resisted the urge to facepalm at his childish worries in the wake of what Sunset had almost done.

Almost!

As in: didn’t.

She didn’t even attempt to try!

Sunset sucked in a breath and bit the inside of her lip.

A problem…

She needed to focus on a problem.

Shining’s problem...that didn’t involve the big alicorn that was willing to jump his bones. He didn’t want to be late. Because time kept ticking even though their positions had moved and more important things than high school were going on in their lives at the moment and he wanted her to hurry up, but sound and conscious thought processes only traveled so fast without extenuating...circumstances…

Sunset blinked. Extenuating circumstances she could make!

“Actually, I can do that,” she said before measuring out the space for the spell bubble and sending the magic through her horn after making sure there was nothing living that would cross the barrier that was about to be formed.

After she was done weaving the spell and threw it out, Sunset looked around to make sure the effects had taken root, and then turned her attention back to Shining Armor, who was just staring at her confused. “I’m sorry...what?”

The science that popped into her head at the question made Sunset feel a little better. Science was pure, free of dark and lustful emotions.

“Oh, well since you didn’t want to get in trouble for being late, I created a localized temporal dilation bubble around us at the increased pace of ten-thousand,” she explained before looking around for something to help with her explanation in the way of a visual. Although there were plenty of trees, she needed something a little more obvious than still branches.

Shining blinked. “Uh...could you say that in Equish?”

Although it galled her to dumb the explanation down to the point where it was misleading, Sunset decided it was better than having to give the real long explanation of what her spell did. “I stopped time,” she told him evenly before pointing to a bird that was still in mid-flap outside the bubble.

Following her foreleg, Shining Armor saw the robin seemingly frozen in mid-air, and blinked before he looked back to her with a disturbing amount of...Sunset didn’t really know if it was fear, or awe.

It made Sunset...uncomfortable. Shiny didn’t need to be looking at her like that.

“Y-You can do that?”

Despite the fact that the topic of their conversation had switched to Sunset’s favorite subject of herself, the amber alicorn didn’t feel very happy. “Well...not until recently,” she confessed before sitting down on the cool grass. The study of temporal magic had garnered Sunset’s interest after her return to Equestria, and she hadn’t really had much to do during the week when she had been waiting for her transfer to Canerot Academy to go through. “Just uh...don’t try and step outside the bubble. It’s really dangerous.” To help him see the edge of the temporal field, Sunset channeled a little bit of magic and marked the fifty-foot circle the bubble created around them. “The deadly kind of dangerous.”

“G-Gotcha,” Shining replied before stepping closer to the amber alicorn, closer to the center of their warm island in the frozen sea of time. “So um...what did you want to talk about?”

The innocent question destroyed the little bit of protection the distraction of having to create the temporal bubble gave Sunset’s thoughts, and brought her mind to the problem at hand. The multiple problems, actually. She honestly didn’t know where to begin.

There was just so much to talk about. Cadance, Sunset’s desires to stay, her need to leave, Twilight, and...the reason she had brought Shining Armor away from prying eyes to begin with. A stupid, spur of the moment decision that had been so much of the old Sunset’s train of thought that it left the alicorn wondering if she hadn’t really changed at all by the time she managed to bring that particular locomotive to a halt.

Because talking had been the last thing on Sunset’s mind when she brought Shining Armor to a secluded little area of the park with less than pure intentions.

And he deserved to know that.

“Can you guess why I brought you here?” she finally asked.

Shining Armor gave Sunset a curious frown. “To...talk?”

At first, the amber alicorn was going to just say that she had decided to reward Shiny with a little makeout session for his bravery in kissing her on the cheek. Either that, or show him how it was really done. And Sunset didn’t do kisses on the cheek.

But...Sunset knew that even that was a lie of omission. The close contact would lead to more, and she could feel her body already getting excited at the prospect of pinning Shining Armor to the grass and making a man out of him. The idea of a stuttering Shining may have been cute, but the idea of Armor actually getting his act together and being even the least bit assertive actually made Sunset...hungry.

So, she decided to be honest with him.

It was what she deserved too.

And then he could finally see what kind of pony she really was. After that, Shining would get disgusted with her, and that would be that. Shiny would leave her, and tell Cadance, and that would end their friendship, and then Celestia would finally cast Sunset out again, and…

Sunset sucked in breath after breath to keep her heart from going crazy as her mental simulation world crashed down around her before she finally managed to speak.

“I brought us here to have sex,” she explained, making the stallion tense and actually step away from her in surprise. The reaction got a snort of a laugh from Sunset. Already, he was starting to dislike her. “We would have started with some kissing, and then maybe a little rump rubbing...but by the time I was done, I would have had you rutting me.”

Even if she hadn’t just pinned Shining to the ground and taken it, but used enticement instead, Sunset knew it boiled down to the same thing. The carrot or the stick, it didn’t matter, they both made the horse do what Sunset wanted.

Shining Armor gulped, his face bright red. “S-Sunset?” It was there in his eyes, the surprise that would soon turn to disgust. At least it would when Sunset got done telling Shiny just the type of mare she really was.

A sigh escaped from the amber alicorn’s mouth, and she felt her body proclaim that it was more than willing to still follow through with the plan despite the destroyed mood and other problems with engaging in intercourse with the little pony. “And you know what the most awful thing about all this is?” she asked rhetorically. “I still want to go through with it. Despite everything I know that says I shouldn’t do this, even though it puts you in physical danger, I can’t stop thinking about how much I want to have sex with you right now!” She looked up into the seemingly-frozen sky and focused on a pegasus pushing a cloud. “Buck, I’m pathetic.”

“What?” Shining Armor whispered before Sunset felt his nose touch her neck in a nuzzle. When she looked back down to him in confusion, the stallion stepped back. “Sunset, why’re you talking like this? You...you’re not pathetic. You’re the most amazing pony I’ve ever known!”

The idiotic assessment made Sunset glare at the stallion. Here she was trying to save him, and he just kept coming! It was infuriating! “Well then you obviously don’t know me very well, do you?” she shot back as she got to her hooves to give him a scowl. “We’ve known each other barely more than a week! Do you know what I was like before we met? I was a monster! I ruined lives and I took whatever I wanted from whomever I wanted and-and I just used guys because it was fun! And now, here I am again, ready to just...oh...fuck!”

Sunset let her butt fall back down onto the grass that was still damp from morning dew, and flicked her tail out of the way before rubbing her ass on the ground. Then, she realized what she was really doing, and cringed.

The windless air floated silently between them for a few moments until the stallion finally spoke. “You never answered my question,” Shining Armor suddenly said, making Sunset look back in front of herself to find him staring at her with caring eyes that made her heart flutter. After everything she had confessed to, he still cared for her. Even though she didn’t deserve it. “What’s wrong? Why’re you saying these things?”

When Sunset glared at Shining and he didn’t retreat, she looked down at the ground in defeat. He wasn’t going to just run away no matter how hostile she became, and Sunset wasn’t willing to do anything other than use her words to try and make him leave her alone.

So, she found herself thinking about the question. Why was she just spilling the truth about herself? To get Shining Armor to break up with her? If Sunset wanted something like that to happen, she would have done it herself. Guilt over tricking the amazing stallion in front of her to going out with her in the first place? Or was it all just some last ditch effort by the part of her that knew Sunset’s more biologically driven urges couldn’t be allowed to have their wish?

She just didn’t know.

“I-I’m sorry,” Sunset told him before she poured some magic into her horn as the world became blurry. If she couldn’t frighten him off and he wouldn’t leave on his own, she could at least use magic to get rid of him for a little while. “This isn’t… I’ll send you back to school.”

And then, she’d see him at lunch, and Cadance would see her, and they’d have to start this whole stupid thing over again. Except that Cadance would be there, and she would try and fix it, because that was what friends did.

But...Sunset...she didn’t...want…

No, Sunset told herself as she blinked away her tears. I do want him. I want him with all my heart. I want him as a friend. I want him as a lover. I want him as an everything! the amber alicorn told herself. Even if she was going to lose Shiny, she could at least be honest with herself about how much he meant to her.

Before Sunset’s turmoiled mind could finish the spell to send Shiny away since it was taking a bit longer than usual, something crashed into her and grabbed onto the big alicorn to actually pull her to the ground. A fetlock wrapped around her horn just hard enough to disrupt Sunset’s magic, and she blinked when she noticed that Shining Armor was holding the bigger mare against his chest, or...barrel, as he was a pony. “No,” he told her evenly with a whisper that went into Sunset’s ear. “Don’t you dare just pop me away when you’re like this. I’m here. I’m here, and everything’s okay. Everything’s okay. So there’s no need for you to be upset. I’m here.”

The certainty in his voice and the way he cradled Sunset’s head in his forelegs sent a shiver through her body. Shining ran a fetlock along the back of her neck as the stallion continued to whisper into her ear in a way that told the amber alicorn that he had to have done something like this before. Like the last time they had been so close, the scent of the stallion filled her thoughts, and Sunset found herself just wanting to stay in his embrace forever.

Even though...Sunset knew it was all destined to end.

And not just her budding relationship with Shining Armor, but her mother’s love, her best friend, her magic, her sense of purpose...it was all going to go away in less than a month!

Because it had to. If everything was to go the way it was supposed to for Twilight, then Sunset had to lose everything she had ever wanted.

Sunset blinked at the thought. And upon examining it, was filled with an overwhelming amount of despair. Her vision became blurry again, and she sniffled through her nose more than breathed before letting out a wail of anguish. Tears streamed down her face. Shining Armor drew her in close, and Sunset cried into his shoulder.

She cried at the unfairness of it all, the sick joke that her happiness had become, and the fact that it was all going to be replaced by a twisted version of the world she was supposed to be living in. She cried about the coming loss of her mother, her friends...Shiny, and they would be traded for...what?

A low-class empty apartment? A bunch of monkeys that cared more about a bunch of games than the fabric of their own reality? A stupid crown made of tin? I don’t wanna go back, Sunset mentally wailed.

And throughout it all, Shining Armor continued to hold Sunset, and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

Even though it wasn’t.

The alicorn both hated and loved it at the same time. She wanted to shout at him that it wasn’t okay, that things would never be okay, and yet...Sunset couldn’t help but hold the unicorn as tightly as she dared as he whispered those sweet and caring words into her ear. Because they just sounded too wonderful not to listen to.

Several minutes, or hours later, Sunset finally ran out of tears to cry into Shiny’s damp coat. Even then, Shining Armor continued to stroke her mane, hold her, and offer the alicorn his reassuring presence. But when her breathing increased in strength, Shining’s body shifted, and he spoke into her ear. “Do you feel better now?”

Sunset closed her eyes at the question and took another moment to just enjoy being in Shining Armor’s presence. She listened to his wonderful heart as it beat against his chest. “A little,” she told him before nuzzling the stallion’s damp coat.

Although, the question of how Shining had reacted so...perfectly made Sunset look up to him. “Shiny, how did you...uh…do that?” she got out. “No offense, it’s just, you doing this...um…”

“My little sister has panic attacks and freakouts about twice a week,” he told her in a soft, calming tone. “The doctor told us to show her we’re there, and that we support her whenever we see her getting really upset at something. Sorry it took me so long to realize all of the signs in you.”

Sunset sighed, and laid back on Shiny’s coat. Even wet, it felt nice. But...Shining didn’t need to be apologizing to her. “No. I should apologize for being such an idiot,” she mumbled.

A jolt of surprise ran through Sunset as Shining Armor bent down to kiss her on the nose, and she felt her cheeks heat at the stallion’s kindness. “Sunset, what was all that about?” he asked her.

This time around, the amber alicorn actually had an answer for her stallion. It was what she had just spent a good deal crying over after all. But it was an answer she didn’t dare give him. If anypony were to find out what she planned to do, Sunset didn’t think she could ignore their pleas for her to stay. “I’m sorry Shiny, it’s...princess only stuff.”

Shining Armor fell silent at that, and drew himself in close to her again. Sunset simply enjoyed his presence. Crying had drained her emotionally, making her too tired to think of sex. She just wanted to be close to her stallion for as long as she could.

“By the way,” Shining Armor spoke softly. “About that stuff you were saying before. I don’t care what type of pony you were a few weeks ago. The Sunset Shimmer I know helped me out when nopony else would, puts up with my annoying little sister and gives her the world on a silver platter, and treats my mom with more respect than anypony I’ve ever seen.”

The stallion paused, and gulped. “And uh...if you want to...lift your tail around me...well...you’re not the only pony here that wants to do that kind of stuff,” Shining finally finished before he blinked. “Huh, Cadance was right, it really is easier if I rehearse it in my head first.”

“S-So if you want me...like that,” he went on before gulping. “Then you should know...I um...want you...too. Hay, there are times when I can’t even stop thinking about you...you know...like that.”

Thankfully, Sunset’s libido was too tired to rise to the invitation. The emotional turmoil she had just went to combined with the pre-dawn awakening had seen to that. Plus… “It’s not that simple, Shiny,” she said to him after getting her own thoughts in order. A process that took a bit longer than usual. Being the pony that was being held rather than the one doing the holding felt...nice.

Pent-up tension that Sunset had been unable to get rid of since waking just seemed to ooze out of her when Shiny was comforting her.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Sunset sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Please don’t be afraid of me after this, she begged him. Even if it would make their separation easier, Sunset didn’t want to leave Shining Armor with lingering thoughts of fear when it came to her memory. “You’ve seen how strong I am, right?”

There was a little laugh from Shining Armor. “Yeah.”

“Well, from some of the tests that were performed on me right after I became an alicorn, what you’ve seen so far, what I’ve used to break the sidewalk this morning and cause a tiny earthquake with, that’s only about a quarter of my full strength,” she explained. “Something’s wrong with the way my magic is being channeled through my body. So when I get overly emotional, I lose control of my magic’s more physical aspects. When I get angry, too much power flows through my hooves and...boom. When I’m in the air I get excited and nervous about flying, and...well, weather patterns get disrupted if I flap my wings.”

Shining Armor’s body didn’t react when she finished telling him a simple sneeze from her had the possibility of ending his life. There was no tensing of his muscles, or a quickening of his heartbeat that Sunset could hear as plain as day as she rested her head on his chest.

“It’s like I live in a world of cardboard,” she mumbled.

A fetlock stroked Sunset’s mane. “You’re being too hard on yourself. You’ve never hurt me, or Twilight,” he told her before smiling. “Tch, even Buck only got knocked around when you punched him that one time.”

Despite the attempted reassurance, Sunset didn’t feel any better. “That’s because I was in control. Even when I saw you the first time, I was in control. But, if we were to...do it, I’d lose myself to my passion. And if it works like my anger does, I’d hurt you Shiny, badly. Even if I just stayed completely still and let you mount me, I’m not even sure if the parts of you that were um...male, wouldn’t be...crushed.”

That made Shining Armor tense up.

And Sunset didn’t that feel bad about it either.

She understood that some things, a stallion should be afraid of.

“Oh…” Shining Armor said in an uneasy tone as he paused in his comfort stroking. Sunset felt that the news even made his anatomy retreat deeper into its protection, despite the topic of their conversation and closeness of Sunset’s body. “But um...you don’t know for sure...right?”

Sunset giggled as the question brought up one of her more crazy ideas. “No,” she said before smiling at the silliness of her coming words. “And if you can believe it, I was going to head out after school today, buy some materials to perform a stress test and see if you being inside me would actually be damaging when I hit climax.”

She looked up at Shining’s face to see the young stallion had gone back to looking at her with wide eyes. “Oh...that’s um...a good idea, then.”

With Shiny actually agreeing to Sunset’s insanity instead of being weirded out and repulsed by it, the amber alicorn blinked. “Huh?”

“You…” Shining stopped, took in a deep breath, and let it out. “You doing that. That’s actually a good idea, if...you know...you want to...uh...sex...with...me.”

Sunset giggled at the blushing stallion as his cheeks turned the cutest shade of red. “Hmm, looks like Cadance’s advice about thinking before speaking doesn’t quite work when it comes to certain subjects, huh?” she asked with a little grin as Shining’s blush deepened.

But just the thought of Cadance quickly killed Sunset’s mood as her mind switched from Shining Armor to the other alicorn for a moment. And...what it would mean for the three of them once Sunset was gone back to where she was supposed to be. It was a bittersweet thought, leaving them alone.

But...there might have been a way to...mitigate the damage...

“She really likes you, you know,” the amber alicorn mumbled.

“W-Who?” Shining asked, verbally stumbling from the sudden change in topics.

“Cadance,” Sunset clarified.

The look Shining Armor gave Sunset told her all she needed to know before he even spoke. “Cadance?”

“What?”

“You think Cadance likes me?” Shiny repeated as he put on a weird little frown with half-lidded eyes. “You remember what happened like...two minutes ago, right? When she was yelling at us?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh no, a bossy alicorn. Like you haven’t met one of those before,” she said before smirking. “Cadance does that because she’s trying to toughen you up a little.” Not that Sunset thought that Shining Armor needed any adjustments...besides maybe a little more confidence. “Plus, I don’t think you’re going to make it through basic guard training if you can’t take somepony barking orders at you all day.”

“Okay...point taken,” he said before mumbling. “Still, wish she wouldn’t be so...wait…” His eyes widened a bit. “You mean likes me, likes me? L-Like you...like me?”

Hesitation made Sunset pause as she opened her mouth to answer with an affirmative.

Even though she knew what she had to do, the amber alicorn found herself unable to talk.

Because, once she started down this path, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

And… You’re going to be manipulating people again, Sunset told herself. You’re going to prove everything everyone’s ever said about you being a waste of space completely true.

But...if Sunset left...someone would need to be there for Shining Armor. Someone who was caring, and kind, and patient, but wouldn’t just let Shining Armor slack off and give him a good kick to the butt when he needed it.

So, Sunset pushed away her hesitation, and spoke. “I think she likes you even more than I do.”

After breaking up who knew how many relationships, Sunset was pretty sure she could maneuver one into blossoming.

“Hey,” she added before grinning at him again. “Maybe some of that bossiness of hers that you were talking about is just Cadance’s way of showing some sexual frustration. If I want to have a roll in the hay with you, odds are, she does too.”

Shining Armor’s hold on the alicorn tightened. “But...I’m with you.”

“I know,” Sunset replied softly as she forced herself to stay calm. "It’s just...sometimes I think you and her would go so much better together than you and me, you know? Cadance is so much prettier, and nicer than me. I wouldn’t blame you if...after today, if you went for the better mare.”

Even though Shining continued to hold her tightly, Sunset could tell the seed had been planted with the way his eyes became a little unfocused. “You’re a much more awesome princess than she is.”

Sunset sighed at the untrue compliment. Part of her wanted to offer a rebuttal, but...she was just too tired. So tired in fact, the amber alicorn let out a loud yawn and went back to laying on her Shiny pillow. “Shiny? Could we...stay here for a bit? I’m kinda tired.”

“Uh...how much time to we still have?” he asked.

A little smirk formed on Sunset’s lips. “Before the bell rings?” Although tired, Sunset quickly did the basic math in her head as she snuggled close to Shining Armor. “About two months,” she said before channeling some magic into the ground.

Working with plants since she had picked up some earth pony was weird. Nothing had really changed as far as the composition of the magic went, and yet...Sunset somehow felt her magic flow into the ground to turn the area of grass and dirt beneath them into something softer than the most expensive bed with a level of expertise and precision she wouldn’t have been able to do before alicornhood.

“Then take all the time you need,” he told her gently.

Sunset snuggled deeper into the unicorn’s chest and stopped fighting the urge to close her eyes. Even though she knew it couldn’t last, the princess that was never supposed to be couldn’t help indulging herself in her stallion’s presence one last time before it was time to start making preparations for her inevitable departure.

The bell announcing the end of second period rang, and Fleur De Lis put the textbooks away in her saddlebag with her magic before she moved to join her friends at the front of the classroom. Third would be their last period together before Upper Crust headed to that dreadfully boring business class she had to attend and Sassy went off to indulge in her more...socially risque career pursuits.

Even with the oddity of Sassy’s cutie mark, the white unicorn would never understand what drove her friend to indulge in such a common practice as sewing. While the fashion industry held one of Canterlot’s most refined social circles, a model was a very different creature than a seamstress.

But...Fleur had to admit that the idea of their futures being so intertwined was rather comforting. While Upper Crust would one day go off on her own path, Fleur and Sassy would be able to walk in step with each other. One pony designing the dresses that the other would wear, and both of them helping each other to stardom. PFFFs in the truest sense.

Fleur smirked at the old memories that came with the Pony Filly Friends Forever title. Like most other female ponies, she and Sassy had experimented a few years back, but...found they were just more comfortable as friends. Plus, Fleur's parents expected her to marry into one of the more elite families in Canterlot and she couldn’t just tell them to forget any arrangements like that. They were to be made for the betterment of her future.

“Something wrong, Fleur?” the blue unicorn asked when the leader of the group approached, knocking the school princess out of her musing.

Shooting her friend a smile to banish the worried expression on Sassy’s face, Fleur let out a breath of a laugh. “Sorry Sassy, just remembering the good old days,” she said before looking around to find the third member of their trio had gone missing. “Wait, what happened to Crusty?”

Sassy rolled her eyes. “You know how that mare is with gossip. Apparently, there’s some new rumor going around involving the newest princess and she just has to hear all of it,” she said. “She’ll meet us in Third.”

The mention of Princess Sunset Shimmer sent a chill down Fleur’s spine. The day before had been unnerving, and what she had heard of Sunset Shimmer since then had been downright terrifying. The head pony of Celestia’s school, Sunset had cowed both students and teachers with displays of near mythical levels of power before her connection to Celestia Herself was known! Like Fleur, she had ruled from the top spot of Canterlot’s most prestigious institution, but done so with shows of force and an iron horn rather than the social networking route that Fleur used.

Because she didn’t need it. That went double now after having become one of the top three ponies in the world.

What was even more terrifying than her mystical might was the social power Sunset could wield as a princess. A single sentence, or even just a word spoken to the right pony could completely remake the political landscape. Fleur's father had mentioned over breakfast that thanks to some of Sunset’s interviews with the newspapers, several ponies were already calling for a renegotiating to the trade deals with Griffonstone that Equestria was using to prop up their failing economy since their king Guto had gone into seclusion a few years ago. If Fleur angered the alicorn, all Sunset would have to do was mention to a designer that she didn’t like the way the white unicorn looked, walked, talked, or did...anything really, and Fleur’s dreams for what she was supposed to do for the rest of her life would go up in smoke.

So after their initial meeting, Fleur had decided to trot softly around the new princess, lest Sunset Shimmer squash her with the ease most ponies might use on a bug.

Pushing the rather disturbing mental image that created, with a thirty foot amber alicorn literally stepping on Fleur as if she were a cockroach, the diva put a smile on for the sake of her friend. “Well, no time to waste just standing around here.”

The pair of high-class ponies trotted out into the hallway and headed to their next class. They got nearly halfway there before Sassy broke the silence with a question. “Do you think she would like a dress?”

Fleur looked over to the blue pony in confusion. “What?”

“Princess Sunset,” Sassy told her, which nearly made Fleur trip on the smooth floor of the hallway. A glow of magic from her friend’s horn kept Fleur from making a fool of herself though. “You honestly didn’t think I didn’t notice the way you reacted when I mentioned her name, did you? If you’re that worried about the mare, then a peace offering might help smooth things over with her.”

Instinct and habit stopped Fleur from agreeing with Sassy’s suggestion right off the bat. Such an act would proclaim to everypony who heard that the unicorn was bowing in submission to the alicorn. But...Fleur thought about the foolishness of outright challenging a pony who many in the highest tiers of society were calling Princess Celestia’s daughter, and giggled at the idea to keep from shaking at the very thought of drawing Sunset’s ire. “That sounds like a rather wonderful idea.”

The two ponies walked into the advanced alchemy class and found Princess Sunset sitting in the back right corner of the room’s desks. The position made perfect sense to Fleur. It was away from everypony else and let her keep an eye on the whole room. While far away from the board, the unicorn seriously doubted that even the best classes the academy could match the training of Celestia’s school, so there probably wasn’t much of a need to pay attention.

After sharing a nervous look with her friend, Fleur approached the demigoddess, followed by Sassy. “Ahem, Princess, we would like to talk to you about...”

Fleur found herself trailing off as Sunset turned her head around and frowned at the two ponies before standing up glaring down at them while she turned around all of the way. “Oh, it’s you two,” she grumbled with disdain. “Where’s the third stooge?”

Standing in the presence of the princess made Fleur suddenly realize that actually speaking to Her Royal Highness was in fact a very bad idea. Just looking at her displeasure was enough to make the white unicorn close in on herself, which only made Sunset seem that much more intimidating. Thanks to some very expensive alchemical treatments, Fleur was one of the tallest ponies in school, mare or stallion, but Princess Sunset Shimmer made even her feel puny by just being near the unicorn.

“T-Third stooge, your highness?” Fleur squeaked.

Princess Sunset frowned. “You know, the fat one.”

From her place on the ground beside Fleur, Sassy gulped. “Upper Crust is a bit of a gossip, Your Highness. I’m afraid she may be late for class if whatever she’s found is juicy enough.”

An annoyed sigh came from the princess, and both of the unicorns flinched before she started speaking. “Fine. The two of you will have to do then,” she said evenly.

“Do...what, Your Majesty?” Fleur asked cautiously as her eyes drifted to the clock on the wall to her right. At two minutes to the bell, they probably weren’t going to be seeing much of the teacher for awhile. He was getting a bit up there in his years.

Princess Sunset’s lips became a sneer. “Do you two idiots have any idea just how upset Cadance is over that crap you pulled with your stupid social defense junk?” she grumbled. “And the two of you, with your little pea-sized brains, you actually thought you had any right or even half the intelligence needed to decide who Princess Cadance gets to talk to!”

Fleur gulped and looked up to the goddess in wide-eyed fear. “W-We were only trying to help, Your Highness.” If not for Fleur and her friends, Princess Cadance would have been trampled by a mob of uncouth admirers on the first day at the school!

“Yeah,” Princess Sunset snorted. “By keeping everypony else but yourselves away from her so you’d be her only social connections thus, and easy to manipulate! Do you think I’m stupid? I know how ponies like you think. Buck I used to be you.”

The demigoddess met Fleur’s eyes, and the unicorn felt as if her coat was going to burst into flames right then and there. At least until Princess Sunset let out a long sigh, and grit her teeth. “Which, unfortunately, means I also know there’s still some hope for you idiots,” she said in a less...damning voice. “So I’m going to give you two a choice. You can go and beg for an apology from Cadance, or I can make the ugliness inside the two of you match the outside.”

With the princess done with her ultimatum Sassy actually had the gall to raise herself up just a tiny bit to look at the demigoddess and speak. “Um, Princess...what do you mean, make our insides match our outsides?”

“Think of the most ugly, horrifying, socially inept thing you can,” Princess Sunset said before being down to nearly meet Sassy and Fleur muzzle to muzzle as the light blue unicorn cowered back on to the ground. “Because if Cadance doesn’t accept your apology, that’s going to be what I turn the two of you into.”

Fleur’s eyes widened in horror as said creature came to mind.

A mule?

If Princess Cadance didn’t accept their apology, then Princess Sunset was going to turn Fleur and Sassy into a pair of dirty, smelly, stinky mules? The very definition of ugly when it came to all of ponykind?

Both of the mares cried out in horror, and quickly galloped out of the room, intent on finding their salvation in the wings of the pink princess.

Lunch came much too slowly for Cadance’s liking. But as it was her newfound favorite time of day, the pretty pink princess supposed that all the anticipation had caused her to get too caught up in the waiting. Especially since Cadance came to the disturbing realization that she wouldn’t be eating with her new friends, but talking with Fleur’s instead.

But before she could even do that, Cadance had to get the one other pony that needed to be included in the coming discussion for several reasons. So, she found herself waiting outside the cafeteria for the final member of a newly formed cabal.

It wasn’t hard to find her. Most of the students rushed to get out of her way, and she stood head, neck, and sometimes even shoulders above every other pony in the hallway. “Sunset, over here!”

The amber alicorn looked over to the pink princess that was standing on the other side of the hallway from the lunch room’s entrance and trotted over to meet her. “Hey Cadance, what’s up?”

“Um...you said you wanted to talk, remember? But...can we do it somewhere in private?” she asked hesitantly. “Like...on the roof?” Cadance didn’t think Sunset would want any other ponies around for what was coming.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, but then shrugged and lit up her horn before she walked over to grab Cadance with her wing again. The touch made Cadance freeze up and blush. It wasn’t a bedroom snuggle, but the pink princess still recognized Sunset’s actions as a sign of great affection. Even if the amber alicorn didn’t.

“Okay give me a second.”

One mystical translocation later, and Cadance found herself enjoying the cool high altitude air of Canterlot as opposed to the smells of food coming from the cafeteria. While her alicorn-level hunger didn’t appreciate having to miss out on a meal, the pink princess promised her rumbling belly that they would find time to get some food, and going later allowed them to skip out on the line...that she never had to bother with in the first place.

Then she stumbled a little when Sunset released her grip, making the mare remember another thing she needed to talk to her friend about. Cadance turned to face Sunset, and...blinked at the pony standing in front of her as she stood on the roof with her mane blowing in the wind and her wings displayed at a full spread that showed off a level of strength that was impossible for a normal pegasus to achieve.

While she wasn’t one of those ponies that went gaga over appearances, even Cadance had to admit that Sunset looked impressive. So much so that… OH NO YOU DON’T, the pink pony princess mentally shouted at the growing flutter in her chest.

She admired Sunset, and that was it. Cadance wasn’t about to let that admiration turn into infatuation. She was the Alicorn of Love, not some empty-headed school filly!

The last thing she was about to do was start crushing on her best friend!

Especially since that best friend was in a relationship with a colt that also happened to be a friend of Cadance’s.

Sunset and Shining Armor were a couple, a couple that Cadance had helped make! So despite the fact that the stallion in question would be much happier with Cadance while the amber alicorn needed somepony who could stand up and help temper her more explosive passions in public while also being able to let her run wild with them in private, she was not about to end what little chance for happiness the two of them had! She was going to help build Shining Armor’s confidence, and let Sunset use her as an outlet until the two of them were ready to go at it on their own.

End of story.

And it would be a happy ending.

She would MAKE it a happy ending!

After abandoning her friend to the fears of losing her mother’s love, Cadance owed it to Sunset to make sure the amber alicorn’s life was full of ponies that gave her that emotion in spades, and in all the different flavors. Celestia would give her the love of a mother, Cadance’s duty was to give her the love of a completely platonic friend that had Sunset’s best interest at heart, and Shining Armor would give her the love of a husband...once Cadance got him to pony up and act like the stallion Sunset needed.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Sunset asked.

Cadance crammed the frustration she was feeling over the friend she was physically attracted to just standing on the roof while the stallion Sunset had that was just perfect for the pink princess was still sitting down below them somewhere, eating all by himself.

Well, as long as she didn’t count all his other friends, anyway.

“It’s about Cinch,” she told Sunset.

The slightly curious and kind of worried expression on Sunset’s face died as a scowl utterly crushed it and she sat down to cross her forelegs. “Look Cadance. I know Celestia told you to take care of it yourself, but...let me handle that bitch for you, alright?” she she before letting out an angry sigh. “I’ll even give you my word not to lay a hoof or use physically damaging magic on her if you want me to. But ponies as sweet as you don’t need to get near filth like her. The scum she leaves tends to cling to your hooves.”

As Sunset finished her promise, an uneasy feeling settled in Cadance’s stomach. “That sounds a lot like something I expected to hear from the old you.”

“Yeah, well maybe the old me is what’s needed to solve this stupid problem,” Sunset said in a heated tone before exhaling a sigh that sounded half like a growl. “And don’t worry, I wasn’t going to do anything bad. I was just going to stop by the Minister of Education’s office since I had a few errands to run in town, and demand he fire Cinch, or I’ll have him removed.”

Panic spiked in Cadance’s mind at Sunset’s planned course of action. “Wait, you can’t!”

Sunset gaped at the pink princess’s statement for a second before recovering and scowling back at her. “I’m going to get her FIRED! What’s the problem with that?!”

“Because if we move against her as princesses, then she’ll use her connections to drag our names through the mud by making us seem mean and petty. She’ll say we were planning to use her to attack Buck Withers!” Cadance explained before something occurred to her. She hadn’t actually explained to either Sunset or Celestia about the little threat Cinch made to her the day before when she told her to expel the stallion.

She took in a deep breath to calm down a bit. “He’s Strong Withers’s son. You remember, the pony that tried to make you leave Equestria by crying changeling?” she asked softly. “If you make trouble for Cinch, she’ll say it’s because we tried to make her expel the son of the pony who gave you such a headache for...trumped up charges. After all, me you and Shiny are the only ones who actually saw Buck marehandle Shining Armor aside from his goons, and we can’t force them to testify without it looking like either extortion or bribery.”

The frown that appeared on Sunset’s face even before Cadance told her about Cinch only deeped. “Okay first off, I am petty and mean. And if you don’t want the political backlash, that’s fine. I’ll leave you out of it,” the amber alicorn told the pink princess before slowly walking up to her to look down at Cadance in a rather imposing manner. “But if you actually think that I’m just going to let somepony toss you to the side like that and let a brute hurt my favorite stallion just because I’ll look like a jerk for doing the right thing, then you obviously don’t know me very well!”

Cadance gulped as Sunset glared down at her and the pink princess's heart...tried to skip a beat, but she managed to keep her mind on track despite Sunset taking a political bullet to the heart in order to do what was right. And aside from the near-miss Sunset action had caused Cadance’s emotions to create, it also made the pink princess realize something: she was letting two ponies get away with something terrible just to make her life a little easier.

Seeing things in such a way, it made the princess feel...ashamed.

Looking up at her friend also made Cadance notice something else: Sunset was mad, and she had been that way even before bringing Cadance up to the roof.

Despite the rages the amber alicorn tended to fly into, Cadance had learned that Sunset’s anger only had a genuine reason for existing about one time out of four. Usually, she just got angry to cover up for some other emotional problem she was having, like the fear of having Celestia taken away from her. It made Cadance turn her concerns from the principal to Sunset herself.

“Sunset...what’s wrong?” she asked.

The larger alicorn frowned at her, but it didn’t hold the anger Sunset had shown when talking about Shiny, Buck and Cinch like she had a second ago. “What do you mean? You just told me what’s wrong!”

Cadance shook her head. “I’m not talking about that. You’ve been on edge since I saw you down below,” the pink princess explained. “Sunset, what happened?” Cadance quickly went through the small list of things she knew could get under Sunset’s coat so completely and went with the best option. “Is it something to do with Shiny?”

As soon as Sunset tensed up, Cadance knew that she had hit the bullseye. “No,” the bigger pony lied. “I just...there’s just some stuff going on right now.”

“Okay,” Cadance replied, deciding not to push the issue. She reached up and hugged her taller friend. Going for the full embrace that needed both of her forelegs, Cadance pulled herself up and wrapped as much as she could of herself around Sunset’s neck. “Whenever you’re ready for some help, or just want to talk to me about it, I’ll be here for you.”

While Sunset reached around Cadance to hug her back with one of her legs, the pink pony picked up a new scent in Sunset’s hair. For some reason, she smelled like a spring meadow. Which was odd, because they shared a bathroom and Cadance knew that scent wasn’t in there.

But despite the curiosity, Cadance liked the smell, and she sunk deeper into her friend’s forelegs to both breathe it in and enjoy Sunset’s presence while reassuring the other pony with her own. Although it wasn’t the same as when they were in bed, being in Sunset’s embrace still felt so blissfully wonderful that Cadance didn’t want it to end.

Then, the door to the stairwell burst open to allow three new mares to intrude on Sunset and Cadance’s private moment. The shortest pony of the trio with the yellow coat pointed at the two alicorns locked in an embrace with a superior smile. “AH-HA! I told you! Princess Cadance and Princess Sunset are a couple!” she said before putting on a smug smile of satisfaction. “That Shining Armor colt is just some toy Princess Sunset keeps around to take care of needs a vivacious mare like her has because Princess Cadance is much too delicate to keep up!”

The soft and warm embrace Cadance had enjoyed for the past few seconds turned hard and almost suffocating. “And what are you three doing here?” Sunset asked evenly, causing the three to hit the ground in a bow.

“I asked them to come here,” the pink princess explained, making Sunset back off enough to look her in the face with a dumbfounded expression.

Once she was over the surprise, Sunset went back to her usual scowl as she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Why the hell would you do something like that?”

Cadance hardened her own face and looked Sunset in the eyes while reminding herself that the amber alicorn didn’t toss fireballs at her anymore, something her hind legs had a little trouble remembering as the bigger pony glared at the smaller alicorn. “Because you need to apologize to Sassy and Fleur!” Cadance told her before she softened her expression. “I know you were trying to help me Sunset, but frightening them like that, even if you were just bluffing, that was wrong, and you need to apologize.”

“Are you kidding me?” she grumbled through gritted teeth. “After what they did to you?”

After putting her hoof up to touch her friend’s shoulder, Cadance sighed. She could understand Sunset’s anger. Being left alone was one of that pony's worst fears that she had to endure for much too long. “And I’ve forgiven them,” she said before getting back to the more important subject. “Now apologize for bullying them!”

Sunset grit her teeth for a few seconds let out a long sigh and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said before looking over to the trio. “Fleur...Sassy, I’m sorry for frightening you.” Then, she let out another sigh, and slunk a little bit. “If it makes you feel any better...I actually do feel bad about it...now.”

“N-No, Princess. We were the one’s at fault,” Fleur said from her place on the ground. “We...we didn’t-”

“Yeah, you were idiots that did something selfish and stupid! But I was wrong too!” she she admitted in a snap before looking away from the other girls. “To be honest, I took my anger over something else out on you girls. So...sorry.”

Then, as soon as the two mare’s nodded in acceptance of Sunset’s apology, the amber alicorn glared at the third one. “Now where in the hay did you hear that junk about me and Cadance being a couple?”

By the time the shortest mare on the building was done going on about the rumors that she had heard, and most likely contributed to unless Sunset missed her guess, it took a great deal of restraint not to knock Upper Crust off from the top of the roof. After all, she had seen what out of control gossip could do personally.

The fact that some of the ponies thought that she would treat Shiny like that made Sunset sick. So much so she didn’t feel all that bad about being away from the lunchroom despite her alicorn body’s need for nutrition. There was anger too, but it was more over how a lot of ponies thought Shiny didn’t have enough self respect to not be some kind of...boy toy.

Something she had barely managed to avoid only a few hours ago, much to Sunset's regret.

While Cadance had been mostly confused about the whole thing, once Sunset had explained things to the mare, she had become livid. Apparently, there were a few things in Equestria that got under Cadance’s skin, and ponies thinking she was some kind of pony that used colts for physical pleasure was one of them.

It actually made Sunset wonder what Cadance thought about her own past. Something the pink pony hadn’t really commented on since they had bonded. In fact, the only thing Cadance had said about it that Sunset could remember through the anger was how good it was the amber alicorn had turned her life around.

“Let me make something perfectly clear,” Sunset told the yellow mare evenly. “Shining Armor and I are seeing each other. I enjoy his company, I enjoy being around him, and I adore his personality. He is not somepony I keep around for...physical pleasure!” Just thinking that some ponies believed that was all he was to her made Sunset want to scream in anger. “We have barely known each other more than a week, and even if things do go far enough to get that physical then I will be giving him the respect that comes along with it! Understand?”

Even though she knew that wouldn’t be happening, which only made Sunset even angrier. Which meant that even if Sunset left, Shining Armor would carry around the social stigma of being a princess’s throw-away!

For once, Cadance didn’t step in and pull on the proverbial reins. The pink princess actually stood beside the amber alicorn and glared at the two mares. If anything, she looked almost as pissed at the rumor as Sunset felt. “And just because Sunset is a little overly friendly doesn’t mean we’re dating,” she added in a much gentler tone than the alicorn beside her was using. “I hope you girls will help us correct this little rumor.”

Sunset snorted her agreement with that. Even though she knew some of the blame fell on her shoulders, the fact that some of the student body now thought that she and Cadance were together was complete idiocy. Cadance was a pure and gentle soul that always knew what the right thing was to do and followed through with it, unlike Sunset. The thought that she would have any kind of romantic feelings for the amber alicorn was almost laughable.

“Y-Yes Princess Cadance,” Upper Crust stuttered. “It’s just...it made so much sense-”

The anger that Sunset was barely keeping contained boiled over again. “That I would use a pony like that?” she demanded.

“That I would let something like that happen?” Cadance said right on top of the amber alicorn. “Shining Armor is my friend! Even if that...impossibility was happening, I wouldn’t just stand by and let another pony demean him in such a way!”

After the yellow pony retreated a few inches, Cadance nodded her head to the mare. “Very well. I accept your apology,” she said before making a face as if a bad taste had entered her mouth.

Which it probably had. Sunset felt like brushing her teeth at any rate. But...it was something they needed to move past. “Well, you got your apology,” Sunset told them. The fact that she didn’t have to make a spectacle out of it also made the amber alicorn thankful to the pink princess. “So, let’s go get something to eat.”

Before she could take a step, Cadance cleared her throat. “Actually, there is one other reason I wanted to talk to you girls,” she said. “You three, you’re the top gossips at this school and practically the head of the student body. So, I’m hoping you’ll be able to tell me something. Has Principal Cinch ever been...overly favorable to anypony that you know of?”

The three mares shared an uneasy look, and then turned their attentions back to Cadance.

“You mean the way she lets anypony on the sports teams pass their exams if they win the game before the test?” Fleur asked.

“Or that she gives out answers to the advanced class tests if your parents donate some money to the school and recommend that her salary be increased?” Sassy Saddles added.

“From what I understand, she also has several private meetings with certain members of the school board at her house,” Upper Crust told them in an uneasy manner.

Sunset frowned. While she could believe the first two, the third was a little...much. “How in the hay would you know something like that?”

“Upper Crust’s parents are on the school board, Your Majesty,” Fleur explained for her friend as the yellow pony backed away from Sunset.

Cadance fiercely shook her head. “Okay that’s...interesting,” she went on before clearing her throat. “And tell me, how do you feel about Principal Cinch?”

Once again the three girls shared an uneasy look, and Fleur was the one to speak. “Well...as much as I’m ashamed to say it...we...didn’t really care, Your Highness. We’re part of the group she gives special privileges to after all. I know I wouldn’t have gotten into my advanced classes, or receive the grades I make in many of my others if I didn’t get some of the special study guides.”

Ashamed… Sunset could recognize the nervous lie for what it was. In reality, they wouldn’t have given a damn about Cinch if Sunset and Cadance hadn’t been staring at them. More than likely, more than one of them got to coast through their classes because of special favors paid to them by the principal as she attempted to suck up to their parents. “So you know what she’s doing is wrong, that she’s letting things like some meathead hurt other ponies just happen, and you’re just sitting there?”

“But we’re just students in school Princess,” Sassy complained in her own defense as she flinched at the mention of what was going with Shining, and probably other ponies getting beaten up, or at least exploited with impunity. “Our parents are the ones with all the influence, not us!”

After giving Sunset a withering look, Cadance smiled down at the girls. “But I can see not everything with this situation is to your liking. So...I don’t suppose any of you would be willing to help us in ousting Principal Cinch, would you?”

As the three mares shared a look of unease, Sunset frowned at her friend. “I thought I said I would take care of her, Cadance.”

“I know,” Cadance agreed. “But I’m not letting you do this alone. And even though we could just order the Minister to kick Cinch out, having some actual proof of her actions, or even just more than the two of us throwing accusations at her would be better than the first option, Sunset. Even if she does try and make this look like the two of us taking revenge on somepony else instead of what it really is, I can always wash off the mud that comes from it by showing Equestria who I really am.”

Although Sunset didn’t like it, she could see that there wasn’t going to be any arguing with the pink mare. Cadance had an odd way of becoming insistent in the most foolish of things. And...having some other ponies to help point the proverbial finger at Cinch really was a better idea than some fiery princess just walking up and royal decreeing her way to a solution.

“Fine,” she agreed, although Sunset did make sure her displeasure with the idea was plain on her face. “Now, can we go and get something to eat? We’ve got fifteen minutes left, and after what happened at lunch yesterday, I need to make sure that idiot stallion doesn’t come within ten feet of Shiny without getting four broken legs.”

Shining Armor’s day was...confusing.

In the extreme.

After spending two hours with Princess Sunset, most of which consisted of her napping on the stallion’s barrel and making little moans of displeasure and other nonsensical sounds while she dreamed, he just couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than the goddess that had broken down crying in his hooves.

Both for the near-sexual encounter, and what had happened afterwards. When Shining didn’t find himself fantasizing about the big pony rubbing up against him, cradling him in her forelegs as her tongue cleaned out his mouth, he thought about the look of utter despair that had been on her face. More often than not, it was the latter of the two.

She just...looked so sad, Shining Armor thought to himself.

And the confusing thing about it was, Princess Sunset hadn’t seemed anything other than her normal self when she was talking with Twilight, or when they had been trotting to school. But once they were alone, her smile had slipped away to be replaced by something Shining Armor never wanted to see on Princess Sunset’s face again.

“So...are the princesses not coming?”

When Shining realized the question had been addressed to him, he looked up and blinked. “Why’re you asking me?”

Gaffer snorted. “Because none of us just appeared at school with them this morning. Both of them, I might add.”

“Guys, I told you, nothing’s going on,” Shining reminded his friends as they all looked over to him. Which was the truth. Sunset hadn’t even kissed him when they were away. Not the fun pecking kind of kisses, or...what she and Shining did on his bed that one time.

Something he really needed to avoid thinking about in school...or in public...or near any other ponies.

“Sunset and Cadance are probably just talking about princess stuff,” he said, throwing them a bone. “I think Sunset had something on her mind this morning, but couldn’t talk about it with me there.”

Although, after learning Sunset could just stop time...in a way, Shining did think it odd that she didn’t just get done with anything like that ten seconds after the bell and come to lunch.

“Or they heard how they’re supposed to be doing it while Sunset’s riding you on the side and decided to distance themselves from us rather than get their names dragged through the mud,” Eight-Bit pointed out as his feathers ruffled with the suggestion.

“That would seem to be the most logical conclusion,” Poindexter agreed while adjusting his bowtie.

Shining Armor give them both a deadpan look. “Then how come none of you guys are sitting next to me?”

“Because even though it seems the natural order of the universe has been restored,” Gaffer began. “None of us are stupid enough to tempt fate and risk getting either of the ponies that could toss us off Canterlot with a flick of their horns mad for taking up the seats next to their stallion.”

Shining Armor groaned and slumped over. “I’m not their stallion!”

“Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that buddy,” Eight-Bit encouraged him dryly.

Across the empty seat to his left, one of the newer members of their group, the earth pony Cheerilee chimed in. “Well you have to admit Shining, it does seem a little odd that Princess Cadance grabbed you out of every lunch for a week before Princess Sunset came here.”

A second later, all the other ponies around him nodded in agreement.

Shining Armor groaned. “Cadance is just my...dating coach,” he said after finally finding the right term. “She just uh, walked me through what to do for when I was with Princess Sunset.” Most of which Shining Armor would never use, but there was no need to tell them that.

“Because that doesn’t sound suspicious at all,” Gaffer deadpanned.

Another groan came from the stallion under question. Of course it didn’t help his mood that Sunset told Shining Cadance was actually interested in him too despite the fact him and Sunset were...together?

At least, he thought they were.

It was kind of confusing, honestly.

Gaffer glanced over to the new female member of their group that was sitting on the other side of Cheerilee than Shining. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It is a bit of a mouthful,” the tan earth pony with the hot pink mane said with a smile. “Most ponies just call me Mare for short. One for each letter in my full name.”

The explanation got a nod from the pegasus of the group. “Well, I guess that’s better than-”

And then the world went back to being upside down as a pair of alicorns exited the room in front of the table Shining and the others were sitting at, where the cafeteria line was kept separate from the dining hall, then proceeded to take the empty seats next to Shining Armor; which none of his friends had been stupid enough to occupy out of fear of the two demigods returning and wanting their...whatever in Tartarus Shining Armor was when it came to those two back.

Something Shiny wasn’t even all that sure of after his friends’ line of questioning.

“Sorry we’re late,” Princess Sunset told them before becoming a little hesitant. “We had some...things to take care of.”

Shining Armor gave the mare a little smile. “It’s okay.”

After studying her for a second, Shining Armor thought that Sunset had managed to perk up a bit since this morning. But as soon as she looked at him, her face fell just a little bit, and the white unicorn quickly looked down to his nearly empty food tray before he upset her even more. I guess she’s not better after all.

Then, the sound of another tray hitting the lunch table beside Gaffer made all of the nerd herd look to what had been the empty spot to his left and…blink at the light blue unicorn with the colorful mane that moved to sit down beside him. “This seat isn’t taken, is it?”

Once Sassy Saddles got the head shake from Gaffer, she looked back to Cheerilee. “Oh, Cheerilee, I feel I should apologize about what happened the other day. I’m afraid I was a bit...no, there was no bit or little or anything like that about what I did. I was mean to you, and I talked down to you, and made you feel like you didn’t matter to another pony that was your friend. For that, I am sorry.”

As the normal ponies stood gaping at the impossibility in front of them, the hottest unicorn in school came to sit next to Sassy and add to the insanity. Once she had gotten adjusted, Fleur nodded towards the other mare. “Yes...it’s been made clear to me that I’ve also overstepped my bounds as well,” she added. “Sorry Cheerilee. For everything.”

Upper Crust appeared next, more disgruntled than apologetic as she took a seat next to Fleur. “Ugh. Sorry,” she said before looking over to the two princesses. “Do we really have to stay here for the rest of lunch?”

“Yes!” Both alicorns replied at the same time with stern gazes.

As the five mares began eating, while Shining and his friends along with the other two new girls looked on uncertainly at the sight of the most popular ponies in school suddenly deciding to dine with the nerd herd, Sassy looked over to the stallions sitting next to her. “So, are any of you going Fall Formal this year?”

Any answer that Shining’s friends were about to give, which would have been a chorus of the ponies saying no, was stopped when Princess Sunset’s drink went down the wrong pipe and she started coughing. Both Shining Armor and Cadance patted her on the back to help clear things up. When she had finally gotten whatever it was unclogged, the alicorn looked back to Sassy Saddles in disbelief. “F-Fall Formal?”

Fleur nodded. “It’s a little dance right after the first big polo game of the year. Unlike prom, anypony can come,” she said before becoming a little melancholy. “But other than that, it’s pretty much the same thing. We even elect a prince and princess.”

“We used to call it the Fall Ball,” Upper Crust explained in a disapproving tone. “But we had to change it recently because of some complaints from the male population. Apparently, stallions in Canterlot don’t have balls.”

Sunset stood up and gave the three newcomers sitting across from her and Shining Armor an intense look. “When is it?”

“Oh you still have two weeks,” Sassy Saddles told the princess. “I’m sure that’s more than enough time for a pony like you to prepare, Princess.”

There was a loud thud as Sunset parked her plot back on the pillow behind her. “Two weeks,” she mumbled while frowning down at the table and speaking in a voice Shining could barely hear. “I...thought I’d have more time.”

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur for Sunset.

She spotted Buck on her way out of the lunchroom, sitting with the rest of the jocks, and made sure to give him a stare that would have probably stopped his heart in fear if he had been paying attention. Although it did give her the chance to place a minor alarm spell on the pony that she linked to another one Sunset secretly put on Shining Armor as well. If the thug came within five feet of the unicorn, Sunset would know about it immediately on top of being informed of their location.

Classes were either uninteresting, or childishly simple. What subjects hadn’t been harder in Celestia’s school, Sunset had been exposed to back in CHS on a much more intense level. Between the science-heavy education she received as a biped, and what had been taught to her while she cantered about on four legs, Sunset was pretty sure she could have tested out of Canterlot Academy in a week if she had wanted to.

The one thing the school was really good for was checking the lunar calendar. She found that the Friday after next did have a full moon scheduled to be placed in the sky, something Sunset remembering being there when Twilight Sparkle landed on Earth. Although...the night of her departure was too distant to recall if that had been the case, she made a mental note to do the math in private to double check to see if the timelines matched up.

Which she had to admit might be challenging considering the oddity in Twilight's age.

After the last bell rang, Sunset and Cadance met with Shining Armor one last time and introduced themselves to the little colt he walked home on Tuesdays. Then they left school to take care of some of Sunset’s departure preparations. Unfortunately, Cadance had to follow her along on that as well, pulling out the book she had on crystal magic and asking Sunset to explain some of the more complicated theories as they trotted down the street.

But it wasn’t as if the pink princess was entirely unwanted, even if the first stop on their journey turned out to be a bit of a bust. Minister Board was out of his office when they arrived to begin the process of removing Cinch. Apparently, he had been called away for some important reason, and wouldn’t be back before the office closed. So, Sunset and Cadance set up an appointment with him the next day.

Then came Sunset’s trip to the First Bank of Canterlot. She left Cadance in the dark as to why she needed to go there of all places. But with her coronation more than two weeks away, Sunset knew she had to take steps to make sure Twilight got the money she needed to attend Celestia’s school and continued tutelage in magic after Sunset was gone. That meant she needed to take some of the money from her royal account and put it aside with instructions on how it was to be used.

They also had to stop by the theater to purchase some tickets for the upcoming…

“Re-play?” Sunset asked as she looked at the poster that showed a pegasus in a black vest, a blonde unicorn, and a yak with a crossbow on the cover while the big black helmet of the main villain took up most of the background. “I thought we were going to see a...oh...wait...nevermind,” she said as the word triggered some of her memories concerning Equestria.

Thanks to magic, Equestria had never bothered to create anything more advanced than a simple black and white projector. Instead, several unicorns talented in illusion spells would sit around during a play’s premiere, using their magic to record it. Then, they would head out from where the plays were originally shown and display them across Equestria.

While probably more inefficient than what she had become accustomed to, Sunset doubted that anything would change things in her lifetime. Even if a pony came along with knowledge of a better system, every pony whose life revolved around the current way of doing things would have been put out of work.

Huh, the alicorn thought as Cadance got their tickets from the mare at the front. I wonder if that’s why we’re so technologically different than humans. It wasn’t as if Equestrian science and mathematics were that much further behind than the monkeys, as Sunset could attest to with her grades at CHS, but...the different avenues of doing things combined with the problem with adaptability that came with cutie marks probably did have a huge effect on progress.

After thinking about it for a few more seconds, Sunset tossed the thought away. Not my concern anymore. If Equestria needed a technological revolution, then Twilight could give them one after Sunset saw her in the human world for the first/next time.

“Something wrong Sunset?” Cadance asked as she trotted back to the amber alicorn.

She shook her head at the pink princess’s question. “Nah. Now come on, there’s some...school supplies I need to get,” she lied as Cadance pulled her book on crystal magic back out to read some more of it.

“Okay but...can you help me with this?” she asked while pointing to one of the basic steps to crafting crystals from nothing.

Unfortunately, Sunset also ended up buying the materials for her...anatomy experiment. Cadance had needed a dumbed down explanation of how a crafted crystal matrix fit together, and Sunset had been mostly on auto-pilot when she walked into the alchemical crafts store to pick up her more lewd supplies, and a few other things that would be useful back on Earth when she had to go there. Thankfully, Cadance had believed everything Sunset bought to be for class, and the amber alicorn wasn’t about to dissuade her of that notion.

By the time they made it back to the castle, Celestia had already set the sun, and was waiting for them in the dining hall. Nothing had been served, but the fact the chef was standing by the big pony meant that they wouldn’t have to wait to put in their orders.

“Ah Cadance. I’m afraid you just missed Minister Board,” the princess told the two alicorns as they walked in, making them both blink in confusion. “You did remember I said I would set up a meeting between the two of you, correct?”

“Oh…” she replied as she took her seat. “Um...actually, we went to his office on the way home to...aheh...I can’t believe that slipped my mind.”

Celestia nodded. “Well, I suppose this is more my fault than yours. I didn’t think you’d take the initiative in such a way when I suggested you taking care of this principal of yours by yourself.”

As the conversation continued on, Sunset found her mind wandering to more important topics than the goings on in Equestria that she soon wouldn’t be around for.

While Twilight’s needs had been easy to meet, Shining Armor was a bit more...complicated. After the events of this morning, Sunset knew that she had to hand him over to Cadance so she could take care of him when Sunset was gone, but...two weeks didn’t seem like much time to do it in.

And there was always the possibility of having the pink pony in her life via a relationship with her brother might do something bad to Twilight. Sunset didn’t want to think of what might happen to the mare she owed everything to if her past was too screwed up by the amber alicorn’s interference. A few minor temporal bumps like some magic tutoring by some nameless unicorn might get smoothed over in time, but an alicorn that ending up being an unofficial big sister? There was no way such a thing wouldn’t have a major impact on Twilight’s life.

“We did make some new friends,” Cadance said, bringing Sunset out of her thoughts.

Sunset knew that Celestia would want her input into such matters, so she did her best to make it as brief as possible. “Three unicorns. I suppose two of them are okay, but one is just too...snobbish for my taste,” she said before remembering the third mare they had met at lunch. “Oh, and there was that earth pony mare we met at lunch but...I didn’t catch her name.”

As Sunset had predicted, Celestia gave her a warm look and congratulations on the achievement of finally warming up to friendship, which put a damper on Sunset’s mood. After all, it was Twilight Sparkle that had turned Sunset around. The amber alicorn didn’t deserve any praise for just...following along on another pony’s breakthrough.

“I wonder if they’ll want to come with us to the re-play this Friday,” Cadance mused.

Sunset rolled her eyes at the pink pony’s optimism. “Cadance, they were only there to apologize to our real friends for being bitches to them,” she told her older best friend. “I doubt they’ll want anything to do with us tomorrow.”

Before the conversation could devolve into an argument, a path Sunset was certain of when she saw Cadance’s disbelieving frown, Celestia spoke up. “Wait. This Friday?” she said before looking over to her daughter. “Sunset, that is when the ambassador from Griffinstone will be arriving!”

“WHAT?” Cadance shouted in surprise, making Sunset jump back a bit. “But...but you said it was this weekend! As in Saturday and Sunday, not Friday!”

Celestia sighed at the outburst and held up a hoof. “Do not worry Cadance, you’ll not have to attend the actual meeting. I’m sure that you can still meet up with your friends after the ambassador arrives at five and we finish greeting him,” she said before smiling a little bit. “Friends who will also include a certain colt, I take it?”

As Cadance began to sputter her response, Sunset found herself both relieved, and yet sad at the same time. Not being able to see Shiny outside of school was a little depressing, despite what had to eventually happen, Sunset had been looking forward to at least making one last memory together. But...she needed to start cutting ties with him, and Celestia had just given her the perfect excuse to blow him off, and maybe speed the process up a bit.

“But what about Sunset?” Cadance demanded with a frown.

“She will be attending the meeting with me to observe how to deal with foreign dignitaries,” Celestia explained. “I know it seems like I’m leaving you out in the cold again, but Sunset has observed me in court for many years now, and knows how to talk with the more...connected creatures of Equestria. And I thought we agreed to keep you out of the political scene until you graduated?”

“No, that’s not what I-”

Sunset cut Cadance off and nodded to the white alicorn before the irritation she was feeing and her friend’s actions made Sunset stand up to join in her complaining about the meeting with the ambassador of a country that was probably only in Equestria to beg for more gold. “I understand, Mom.”

“But...Sunset…” Cadance mumbled before she looked at the biggest princess in the room. “Auntie, can’t you...delay the meeting? Most of the time I’ve been here, I’ve heard you go on and on to Sunset about the importance of friendship, and now that she’s made some friends you’re saying there’s no time for any of them anymore?!”

Sunset sighed. The last thing she wanted was for Cadance and her mom to get into a fight. “Cadance, it’s fine,” she assured the pony. Even though...Sunset didn’t really feel that way. Celestia springing that on her in the middle of dinner after hearing they had plans did kind of suck.

Even if meeting with foreign dignitaries was more important than going to the magical movies.

“I am overjoyed that Sunset has learned that lesson,” Celestia told her. “But some things take precedence.”

“But that’s not fair!” the pink princess shot back.

Celestia broke the gaze of the smallest alicorn in the room, and looked down at the table as the chef brought in their food. “Few things in the life of a princess are, I’m afraid,” she told them before taking her salad form in her golden magic. “Now, let’s put this discussion to and end, shall we? Arguing about it won’t change what needs to be done.”

By the time dinner was over, Sunset felt the day’s exhaustion weighing heavily on her. Having to keep up appearances in front of her mother while figuring out the next step in her plans to ensure everything happened the way it was supposed to had hit a bit of a snag.

The problem was, just how in the hell was she supposed to leave Shining Armor with Cadance without turning her off to him? Not many girls dated the guy their best friend just dumped after all. Even if she did like him now, once Sunset was done with the guy, the pink princess might just decide he wasn’t worth it or even feel like moving in would be like poaching Sunset’s stallion.

Such were the thoughts on Sunset’s mind as she found herself standing on the edge of her Celestia-sized bathtub that her apartment's bathroom was equipped with, with her front legs resting on the floor the thing was built into while the warm water helped with the tension in her muscles. A tub big enough to nearly swim in back when she had been a regular unicorn was about the only bit of opulence that Sunset was glad she had gotten back in the day. Her high-end couch had been bad before she had become too fat to lay on it, and now it was completely useless.

The door to her living room opened, and Sunset looked up at Cadance as she trotted in with a smile. “Room for one more?”

The usual question of sharing the bath got a smirk from Sunset. “More like five,” she replied before motioning for her friend to come in with a wing. It was a shame she would never be able to see if they could be used as replacement hands. While magic was mostly superior, fingers had their uses.

As Cadance trotted around to slowly head down the stairs into the miniature swimming pool filled with warm water, Sunset found her eyes glued to the pink pony’s coat as it descended into the clear liquid. Although there wasn’t that much of a change between the looks of a wet pony and a dry one, adding a bit of dampness to her coat made Cadance’s musculature much more visible.

Visible enough to make Sunset gulp.

Seeing every detail of the physical perfection that was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was enough to make even the new Sunset green with envy. Although Sunset’s alicorn body had gotten all of the power and a bit of an athletic-style looks upgrade, Sunset had to admit that Cadance’s ascended form was far superior in the looks department by a factor of ten.

“Wing job?” the pink princess asked.

Sunset blinked. “Huh?”

“I’ll brush your wings, you brush mine?” the pink alicorn asked before she gave Sunset a little smile. “Like we talked about last night? I know you can do it easy with your horn, but mine’s…”

The amber alicorn didn’t need to wait for Cadance to finish. The pink princess was still pretty wobbly when it came to her control. So she gave her friend a little smile, and nodded. “Sure.”

After Cadance walked to the edge of their little indoor pond to prop herself up on the edge like Sunset was doing, the other alicorn backed up and picked up Cadance’s feather brush in her magic from where it lay next to the sink. Like Cadance had shown her, Sunset gently ran the gentle brush over the back of the alicorn’s wings to help get off the bits of dirt and dust she had accumulated over the course of the day.

As she worked, the silence stretching out between them demanded to be filled by more than the odd moan of pleasure from the pink princess. Moans Sunset really hoped were from the warm relaxing water and not what she was doing to Cadance’s wings. The things were pretty sensitive.

“Mmmm that feels good.”

But ponies couldn’t...get excited from having them touched.

“Oh yeah, there...right there.”

...she hoped.

“Hey Cadance,” Sunset said as the unease crept into her mind. She needed to talk about something. Anything. As long as it kept Sunset from thinking about the possibility that she was...stroking Cadance’s pleasure centers.

Because being in the middle of a hot bath with her extremely sexy and naked friend as Cadance moaned in pleasure really wasn’t a good place to be for a mare of Sunset’s human values. The whole naked=sex thing her subconscious still seemed to be stuck on had nearly gotten her in trouble once today, she didn’t want another close call.

So...she focused on a problem. More of a social problem than a mystical or mathematical one, but still a problem. Which was just how in the hell was Sunset supposed to tell her best friend she wanted Cadance to sleep with her...proto-boyfriend? “Remember last night, when you told me you...liked Shining Armor?”

“Hmmhmm,” the other alicorn replied as she sunk a little lower in the water and stepped back a bit, bumping her cute little butt into the front of Sunset’s barrel.

Sunset gulped down her unease and took a deep breath to steel herself. With just two weeks left, she didn’t have time to be too subtle. “So...what do you think about going out with him on a date this Friday instead of me?”

“Mmmm I-wait!” the pink princess exclaimed before her wings knocked away the brush Sunset was using to clean them and she spun around to look at Sunset face to face. “What do you mean go out with him? He’s your coltfriend Sunset! A-And besides, like I said, there’s no spark between him and me!”

The panicked onslaught of questions, reasons, and other things made Sunset take a step back. But her retreat was a small one, as her rear ran into the edge of the tub one step in. “Well, yeah, but...isn’t that what dating a guy is supposed to be about?” she asked. “Figuring out if the two of you work?

“And it’s not like me and Shiny are mutually exclusive,” Sunset went on, sounding much less sure than she meant to. “We’ve gone on one real date, and I’ve known him for a total of about nine days Cadance. Buck, you’ve actually spent way more time when him than I have, and we haven’t done more than kiss!”

Cadance let out an angry snort. “I don’t care!” she exclaimed. “The two of you...it...I’m not just going to canter in and steal your guy!”

Sunset sucked in a breath. “He’s not my guy!” the amber alicorn shot back as her wings extended before she reigned in her anger and nervousness started to set in. Cadance wasn’t supposed to be putting up this much of a fight over a stallion she was supposed to have the hots for! “Look...I just...I don’t think he’s right for me, okay? I mean...you remember what I said when I asked for you help, right? Well, I don’t want him getting hurt. And that’s what will happen if we keep going like we are.”

The frown on Cadance’s face lessened. “What? No! Sunset, I’ll admit you have a few issues, but you’re a good pony. You and Shiny...the two of you…why would you-”

“BECAUSE IT’S BETTER FOR HIM OKAY?” Sunset roared, which actually made Cadance flinched in fear...and Sunset deflate in shame for scaring the pink princess like she did.

“Look…” she began again after calming down. “Cadance...you don’t understand. You remember what I said about humans and clothes, right?”

Cadance blinked and become thoughtful for a moment before looking back to Sunset. “How they always wore them-”

“Except when they were fixing to have sex!” Sunset cut in urgently. “And I’m...my brain is still stuck on that! I mean...I can go around the palace because everyone here either has on armor or uniforms, or is one of those stupid nobles that just drapes themselves in clothes, and nearly all the guys in Canterlot also wear junk, EXCEPT WHERE I SPEND MOST OF MY DAY!

“And what gets me, what really, really gets me is Shiny!” she rambled on. “He was hurt yesterday, and what did I do? I take him to his house, put him in bed, and them jump on him! If I had been there for more than five minutes alone with him, I would have been riding that little pony! And when you left, I teleported us to the park this morning so we could, so we could grab a quickie Cadance!”

The other alicorn blanched. “You mean you and Shining-”

Sunset’s eyes widened and she shouted, “NO!” before freezing at her own outburst, and then began slowly shaking her head. “No, I...I stopped myself before I could…”

She let out a long sigh. “He makes me happy,” she told her friend before whining in need at the memory of his body pressed against hers. So vulnerable, so kind, so warm, so...perfect. “But this isn’t about what I want, it about what Shining Armor deserves, and that’s a better pony than me...a pony like you.”

“Okay,” Cadance whispered in a tiny voice before she licked her lips. “Sunset, I want you to look at me for a second.”

As Sunset did, Cadance brought up a hoof to touch her friend’s shoulder. “First off, you need to stop guilting yourself over this,” she told her friend. “And I want you to think about what you just said, and then tell me why you’d say something like that.”

Aggravation began to build in Sunset’s mind at the resistance she was getting. Cadance had said she liked him! What was so hard about just picking the guy up now that Sunset...well, it wasn’t that she didn’t want him anymore, but she couldn’t stay with him either!

At that reminder, anger doused, and Sunset hung her head. “Cadance...please,” she begged as the tiredness set in. “Don’t just...not even consider him because of me.”

“Sunset,” Cadance replied in an equally tired tone. “You said it yourself. You’ve only been on one real date, that I was there for. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, if it’s cold hooves or...some kind of freaky relapse from those first few days when you arrived in Equestria, but...I can’t let you run away from a relationship because you're afraid.”

“Well, maybe I just don’t like Shining Armor anymore!” Sunset exclaimed. “Maybe I decided I got bored with him! Maybe I decided I like the kind of guys I used to date!”

The deadpan look Cadance gave her told Sunset she bought absolutely none of that. Then she shook her head. “And now you’re getting angry again.”

Sunset let out a sigh. “Sorry.”

“No,” the pink princess replied. “You being angry, it shows me how much you care about this. So just calm down for a second, and tell me something.”

Although confused, and more than a little worried, Sunset nodded. “Okay,” mumbled.

Cadance was silent for a moment. She closed her eyes to take in a deep breath, and let it out between a pair of puckered lips before looking at Sunset again. “Do you think I’m sexy?”

The completely unexpected question stunned Sunset to the point she nearly choked on an empty windpipe. It took her a second to even talk. “W-What?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Do you think I’m sexy?” she asked gently again before changing her stance ever so slightly to tense certain muscles in her body that made everything just stand out more in all the right ways.

And...Sunset couldn’t stop herself from looking Cadance over once again. The pink mare really was beautiful, especially with he the way her went mane hung limp and her coat clung to her body. Each and every inch of her physique was on display for Sunset to admire, and the amber alicorn felt her heart rate increase.

She gulped. “Y-Yes.”

“Then why aren’t you trying to pin me to the bed and have your way with me?” Cadance asked much too calmly for the type of conversation they were partaking in.

Sunset frowned at the question. “I’d never do something like that to you!”

The heated reply broke through Cadance’s calm for a moment, and made the pink pony pull her head back for a second before she got the slip back under control. “Why not?” she asked, a little...less evenly than before. “I’m just as naked as Shining Armor, and we’ve been in bed together way more than the two of you have. So why are you trying to ride him, and not me?”

If it wasn’t for the fact that Cadance was talking so...evenly to her, Sunset was pretty sure she would have been gaping at the mare. But, with the pink princess being so...blase, Sunset just answered. “Because I’m your monster.”

The emotionless expression on Cadance’s face shattered. “W-What?” she stuttered.

“Cadance,” Sunset went on in concerned surprise. “Don’t act like I still don’t scare you from time to time. Yes, I think you’re sexy and I’ll admit to having...urges, but I know what I am to you...or at least part of you, and I would never put you in a position where you had to...be with the pony that terrified you ever since you came to Canterlot!”

Cadance stared at Sunset in wide-eyed shock for a minute, and then gulped before she fiercely shook her head. “So...I’m sexy...and you’re attracted to me...but you don’t want to...buck me, because you think it would frighten me?” she asked hesitantly as her eyes darted away from Sunset’s face for a fraction of a second. “So...what’s different between me and Shiny, then?”

“You’re supposed to ride your boyfriend, Cadance,” Sunset replied evenly. She would have thought the so-called Alicorn of Love would be able to figure that one out.

“And so if he’s not your coltfriend anymore, you won’t be tempted?” the pink pink asked softly before raising an eyebrow at the simple logic.

Sunset growled at the foolishness of the question. “Well...not as tempted!” she shot back as she got an inch from Cadance’s muzzle and felt the pink alicorn’s breath flow into her nose before realizing they were way too close again and drew her head back. “And they’ll be new boundaries, and...stuff. Like with you.”

It might have sounded lame, but Sunset didn’t sneak peeks at Shining Armor’s friends, and they were just as naked and nerdy and...everything else as he was! It was a mental categorization...thing. He was fuckable, and they were off limits because he was hers and they were...not.

If he wasn’t hers and somebody else’s instead, then Sunset could put him in the same category as Cadance: look, but no touch.

The silence between them stretched on for over a minute, and Sunset found herself wondering if Cadance had actually fallen asleep for a few seconds until she moved. “...okay,” the pink princess finally agreed with a little nod. “I’ll...try with Shining Armor, on one condition.”

Alarm bells started to sound in Sunset’s head. “What condition?” she cautiously asked.

“Friday, we’re all going to go see that...Solar Battles thing, right?” Cadance asked. “Well, except for you. Ugh, Celestia! Why did she have to go and do something like that this weekend of all times?”

After Sunset nodded, Cadance took another deep breath through her nose. “It’s a group date. So I’ll...toss him some romantic overtures. If he wants to be with me more than you after we’ve all spent some time together in a social setting, then I’ll...pursue him in that way.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed as she examined the argument for any loophole the other alicorn might exploit, but found none. Unless of course Cadance was just outright lying to her. Something Sunset really didn’t think the candy-colored pony could do. “Okay.”

“Alright,” she agreed cautiously before frowning. “But! If he doesn’t want anything to do with me, you will get your...sit together. You will figure out how to get over this whole nudity thing, and you give yourself another chance with him! Understand?”

Sunset blinked. “Uh...I think the word you're looking for is shit.”

“Whatever!” Cadance exclaimed as she closed on Sunset. “Just get it together! Because if he still wants you after this weekend, I am going to lock the two of you in a room so you can get this whole fear of nudity thing you have over with! Because I do like Shiny too, and for all your talk about everything being for him, you seem to be doing it more because of your own fears than anything else!”

As Cadance finished with her verbal assault, Sunset found that the pink pony had backed her up to the edge of the small pool again and actually made her rear up on her hind legs in an attempt to add more retreating room. A foolish idea, as Cadance had followed her, and was pressed barrel to barrel with the other alicorn, her wings fully unfurled and filling Sunset vision.

The sight of the normally passive pink princess being so...dominating, made Sunset gulp...and not from the intimidation. Angry Cadance, a Cadance that could stand up to Sunset with no problem, was...actually kind of hot. “G-Gotcha.”

“Now finish washing my wings,” she ordered before dropping down to turn around and giving Sunset a perfect view of her butt.

Which...bared examining for a few seconds before she got back to work on Cadance’s wings.

Stupid Sexy Cadance, the amber alicorn thought with a frown.

Cadance found herself laying on a blanket of pure bliss as the mare entered her bedroom.

The second biggest pony in all of Equesria, Sunset Shimmer was everything Cadance wished she could be herself. She was strong, powerful, confident, knowledgeable, intelligent, and knew exactly what she wanted at all times. But would never go too far or hurt anypony to achieve it, and was always willing to forsake her own happiness for the sake of others.

And she was there for Cadance.

The pink princess rolled onto her back and waited at the head of their bed as Sunset came up to the far end, then slowly climbed aboard, Like some kind of sexy predator, the amber alicorn slowly made her way up until she was right on top of the pink princess. They shared a long, passionate kiss, and gazed into each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever after breaking it.

“I love you Cadance.”

“I love you too, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Hey,” Shining Armor complained from where he was sitting over in the corner of Cadance’s old bedroom. “What about me?”

The two mares shared a look, and then turned their attention back to the stallion. “Uh…” Cadance said to her perfect mate as the painting of their love equation hung in heart-shaped golden frame lined with rubies behind him.

Then Cadance looked back to the mare laying on top of her, her best friend, guardian and...hopeful lover?

Even when Shining Armor was the pony all of her instincts were telling her she should be with?

“That’s a good question.”

The Princess of Love slowly opened her eyes, and let out a moan more from annoyance than passion as she felt the object of her desire press up against her back even more, softly mumbling as she had her own dream as Cadance’s heart pounded in her chest at the other mare’s actual touch.

“Well...so much for avoiding the infatuation stage,” she mumbled before turning her head to look back at the real Sunset Shimmer and sighing as the...complication that was her dream returned to the forefront of her mind. “Ugh...what am I going to do with the two of you?”

Author's Note

And after about three re-do's for two of the sections and some cuts for length (that's right it was longer), it's done.

Added Sex tag for innuendos and close calls and...naked ponies, all those naked ponies.

Next time: Shiny Cadance, and about five other ponies go with them on a date as... The Farce Awakens!

Chapter 15: A Day in Canterlot

Despite her best attempts, Cadance found herself unable to go back to sleep nearly an hour after she opened her eyes to a room unlit by Celestia’s sun while a larger alicorn held her so close she could feel the bigger princess’s heartbeat against her back.

Sunset wasn't to blame for the bout of insomnia. Even with the occasional distressed murmur from the amber alicorn that spoke of troubling dreams, Cadance was more than comfortable enough to fall asleep in Sunset’s wonderfully warm and protective embrace. If anything, being snuggled by her crush helped offset some of her mental distress.

But, despite Sunset’s comforting cuddle, Cadance’s mind just wouldn’t settle down enough to let sleep come. The problem that Sunset’s physical attraction to Cadance brought up was something Cadance just couldn't stop thinking about. If it even was a problem.

Which...Cadance had to admit was the case. She didn’t like to think of Sunset's carnal desires as being a problem, but the amber alicorn’s situation was quite unique.

Sunset was already dealing with those strange nudity customs that were causing her already overly active sex drive to turn it up a notch. If the pink princess were to complicate matters even more by admitting her own attraction to the other alicorn...she knew Sunset would only become more stressed.

The last thing Cadance wanted to do was increase her best friend’s burden.

But...what kind of love princess would she be if she ignored her own heart? A rather large part of Cadance just wanted to roll around and kiss the amber alicorn on the lips, repeating what Sunset had done with Shining Armor after that dragon had been slain and more. She wanted to take Sunset in her forelegs and show her how an alicorn was supposed to act when it came time to share a bed with her special somepony.

It was selfish, and shortsighted, and about a dozen other things that Cadance knew came from the darker, more possessive side of love. But she couldn’t deny having them.

Then there was Shining Armor. Although Cadance didn’t feel a nearly overwhelming physical desire that she felt towards Sunset when it came to the white unicorn, the pink princess had to admit to herself that if she had met the colt first, she would have pursued him with intensity. His friendship with the two alicorns had shown Cadance that while he only ranked as cute on the looks department, the young stallion’s personality was of the level that any mare that ended up with him needed to slap a ring on his horn as fast as possible.

Well, I’d have chased him if he had managed to get my attention, Cadance corrected herself. Which...probably wouldn’t have been very likely. The guy was sweet, but that alone didn’t really turn heads.

But now that Shiny had gotten her attention and Sunset was out of the picture…

No, Cadance told herself before she could consider the possibility that Sunset didn’t want to be with Shining Armor anymore. Sunset was just a little confused and frightened. From what the amber alicorn had said of both her time as a human and before, Cadance knew that Sunset had never experienced anything remotely like the level of attraction she had towards Shining Armor. Her sexual advances, while somewhat disturbing to the pink princess, were the only thing Sunset had ever experienced that came close to creating an emotional bond with another creature.

It was another problem Cadance could chalk up to the lousy parenting Sunset received at the hooves of her mother. But...she couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

And there’s her nudity thing too, Cadance reminded herself. It was something she would have to keep in mind. Although, she didn't see how just walking around without any clothes could be tied to sex. Plenty of ponies got ridden with their clothes on. Some even preferred it.

But...Cadance couldn’t just toss the possibility of her being with Shining Armor to the side. The projections she made promised her and Shiny lifelong happiness in the Crystal Empire while Sunset and Shiny…didn’t have much of a chance of anything beyond a mediocre love that would leave Celestia’s daughter scarred for the rest of time.

So, didn’t that make it Cadance’s duty as the Princess of Love to intervene?

To give all the ponies involved the best possible romance there was?

Princesses were the ponies that made those hard choices all the time.

But, a basic ethical rule stopped her from continuing to consider the possibility. Friends didn’t poach each other’s coltfriends.

Unless...they have permission, Cadance reminded herself.

Which was given at a time when Sunset obviously wasn’t in her right mind.

And who was to say that Shining Armor would even want Cadance?

Not to mention Sunset…

Cadance blinked at that incomplete line of thought as the amber alicorn shifted a bit in her sleep and tightened her grip on the pink princess as she rubbed her belly up against Cadance’s back in addition to letting out a breath of hot air that tickled the back of both of her ears. And for an instant, Cadance found herself fantasizing about what it would be like to be with the volatile mare…

Cadance would take the lead in their relationship and be more assertive in their private life, but it would be a gentle kind of assertive. She would guide and suggest, not command like her wife would do. Sunset would be the princess that made all the government decisions and held the reins when other ponies were around. Cadance would support and advise the bigger princess in public, and offer her comfort in private while handling as many of their marital burdens as she could to allow her future wife some rest when she wasn’t wearing the crown. She had seen that Sunset would need such assistance.

And in the bedroom...Cadance couldn’t help but smile at the thought of being with her wife. Sunset would definitely be the more forceful of the two, but it would be the pink princess who claimed dominance under the sheets with her superior skill and knowledge of love.

The sudden appearance of the sun as it crested the horizon brought Cadance out of her musing daydream, and caused the mare holding her to groan in protest as the bright light came flooding through the bedroom windows to wake Sunset up with all the grace of a pregnant yak.

She rolled over onto her belly, taking Cadance with her as she pinned the pink princess to the mattress and let out a loud yawn that made Sunset’s jaw conk Cadance on the top on her head, all the while making Cadance think that Sunset was belting out a bovine mating call with all of the ‘mawing’ sounds that were coming from her mouth.

Then, the amber alicorn finally opened her eyes as she smacked her lips and made to sit up as she scratched under one of her forelegs with a hoof before addressing Cadance. “Hey Cady, you have a good night?”

From her place beneath Sunset, Cadance let out an annoyed sigh. If they were going to get married, the first thing Cadance was going to do was pound some bedroom grace into her future wife. “More or less.”

Breakfast was as immaculate as ever in the castle’s dining hall, with enough fruits and greens to make three different types of salads, oats of the highest quality, and oatmeal flavored with a healthy amount of cinnamon. All of which Sunset scarfed down with reckless abandon thanks to her alicorn-level appetite that allowed her to devour three times what she normally ate without gaining a pound.

Although, part of her did feel a little odd, eating as much as she was.

Back on Earth, apart from the rare meal with Applejack’s family, Sunset ate light thanks to her rather limited budget. Eating out was done for appearances rather than anything else when her friends were around, and none of the food that touched her lips ever came close to what Ram Say prepared. It was something she was going to have to get used to again when she went back.

A realization that made both her heart and stomach ache.

When the topic of conversation fell on the subject of what Sunset was going to do now that she had twelve days or less to prepare for her departure from Equestria, a question Celestia asked in a rather roundabout way by simply inquiring about her plans for the day, the other alicorn at the table gasped after hearing her answer.

“What do you mean you’re not going to school today?”

Sunset did her best to hide her grimace at Cadance's question. “Okay first off, remember the whole thing we talked about last night?” she asked rhetorically before immediately moving on to the official explanation for the sake of the big white alicorn sitting across from them. “Plus, with the ambassador from Griffonstone coming, I need to brush up on my knowledge of their history, customs, and any intelligence we have regarding Gruff himself.”

The question left Sunset wondering, do we even have an intelligence agency in Equestria? It was something she had never bothered wondering about before. But...her mom did seem to know a little too much about what was going on sometimes for her not to have a spy agency that secretly monitored everything everypony did at all hours of the day.

Celestia cleared her throat, drawing her daughter’s attention back to her. “Sunset, while I’m glad you’re taking this meeting so seriously, all you’ll be doing is observing my discussions with Gruff. There’s no need for such preparations. Go be with your friends,” she ordered her daughter gently.

The amber alicorn glared at the first obstacle to her plans for putting Twilight's future back on track. It seemed that even when Sunset was trying to do what was right, Celestia would be there to stand in her way. And on top of that little irksome development, there was her mother’s approach to the diplomatic meeting. “So I’m not supposed to have any context about the griffons beforehand? I’m just supposed to sit there, nodding my head like an idiot while you talk about junk I have only a basic understanding of, and yet still be able to learn something when I’m completely lost after this Gruff guy starts going on about whatever old trade agreements you guys made half-a-hundred years ago? I mean, it’s not like he’s coming to visit because of me and what I said in the papers, right?”

Sunset watched as the sheer weight of the sarcasm that slammed into Celestia and forced the alicorn to tense her muscles to keep her footing. “This meeting was arranged before your introduction to the press and the...opinions you expressed. However, it’s more than likely that he will be a bit put off by how you referred to the aid we send to Griffonstone. Although I’m sure that once you apologize and offer recompense for your words, things will be smoothed over well enough.”

Sunset’s felt her eye twitch at her mother’s command as the real purpose of her presence was made clear. “So that’s what this is really about!” the amber alicorn declared as she slid off of her seat and onto the floor, knocking her chair back as she did so. “You don’t want me to learn anything! You just want me to bow and scrape and kiss the rear of some self-important jackass!”

The expression on Celestia’s face tightened to a frown. “First of all, we’re meeting with the griffon ambassador, not a donkey,” she replied, confusing Sunset long enough to make it to her second point. “And you do need to apologize.”

“Actually, Sunset said one of those human words that has another meaning,” Cadance quickly explained. “I think it means...jerk.”

“Which is what I call a guy that shows up demanding money from us because his Empire is fracturing,” Sunset added before she looked over to Cadance with a little frown for the pink princess putting her two cents in on a family debate. “And shouldn't you be heading out to meet your boyfriend?”

As Cadance blinked in confusion at the question, or maybe the bit harsh emphasis that had been put on her fake relationship with Shiny, Sunset prepped her teleportation spell. “Why would I-” she got out before disappearing in a flash of light.

“-do that?” Cadance finished before she blinked away the soreness in her eyes from the bright flash that had covered her vision and fought to keep standing. Once the princess was certain she wouldn’t tip over and the soreness faded, Cadance opened her eyes and slowly looked around.

Instead of the pristine white floor and columns with the occasional golden decoration that Canterlot Castle was decked out in, the pink pony found herself standing in a nearly empty suburban street, with a row of houses both in front of and behind her, along with a green pegasus mailmare that quickly dove out of the sky to bow to the princess.

Despite the awkward feeling it still gave Cadance to see other ponies do that to her, she managed to keep a straight face and nodded to the mare in recognition of her manners, then trotted up to the door to hit it lightly with her hoof a few times.

There was a strange grunt on the other end, and then a squeak. Cadance raised an eyebrow as a few garbled words came from the other side of the door that she couldn’t make out before it opened to reveal Twilight Velvet’s smiling face for just a moment before her eyes widened and she went into a bow.

Which allowed the other Twilight standing a little behind the bigger one to dash past her not even a second later. “Princess Sun-oh,” the little purple filly said as Cadance watched the excitement on her face wilt into disappointment not a second later, complete with fallen ears. “It’s just you, Princess Cadance.”

Once again, Princess Celestia’s lessons on how to maintain her composure came in handy as Cadance forced herself to smile down at Twilight as her pride healed from the sting of Twilight’s reaction. Although, Cadance supposed she couldn’t really be angry with the little filly for being disappointed her hero wasn’t at the front door.

Plus, Sunset had told the filly they would be coming by every day. So, it was Sunset’s fault for just popping Cadance over to kick her out of what promised to be one hay of an argument between herself and Princess Celestia. Cadance had no reason to be miffed at the unintentional slight whatsoever.

Inside the room, Twilight Velvet got to her hooves and replaced the worry on her face with a mask showing some displeasure. “Twilight Sparkle!” she said from behind the filly in an authoritative tone that made the little unicorn stand up just a little too straight. “You will apologize to the princess this instant for your disrespect! Why, if Princess Sunset had come and heard you speak in such a manner to her friend, I doubt she would want to come back and donate her valuable time to helping you learn magic!”

The little Twilight’s eyes went wide in horror at her mother’s words before she spun around to face the bigger pony. “W-What?” she whimpered before her hooves began to shake. “N-No! She…but she...”

Unshed tears glistened in Twilight’s eyes to no effect on Velvet. “Now go to your room young lady!” the light gray unicorn commanded as she pointed a hoof towards the stairs. “And I don’t want to see you reading, or doing any math equations when I get up there!”

Twilight Sparkle cringed at her mother’s words, and bowed her head before she turned around and totted away.

“Princess,” Velvet went on before going back to her bow. “I am ashamed of my daughter’s actions. Please, I beg that you accept my apology for this whole affair.”

As Cadance looked down at the mare in front of her, and then to the little filly climbing the stairs to the second floor, another feeling of unease came over her. Unlike with the mailmare, Cadance found herself unable to just shake it off. The pegasus had simply been showing respect to Cadance’s presumed title. Twilight Velvet’s actions were born from an intense fear of it.

“Ms Velvet, she’s just a foal,” the pink princess said a little too melancholy than she had intended while doing her best to chose her next words carefully. “And, while I do not believe it is my place to tell you how your children should be disciplined, it is my opinion that saying such a thing to her was much too harsh.”

Velvet cringed at the words, making the princess think she had perhaps been a bit too harsh on the mare. “But Princess, she disrespected you!”

A sigh escaped from Cadance’s lips, and she sadly lowered her head. “Mrs. Velvet, may I come in and speak to your daughter?”

“Of course Your Highness,” she agreed before quickly stepping back and gulping. “D-Do you wish me to accompany you?”

Cadance paused, unsure of what to do with that. While she did think that Velvet owed an apology to her daughter, dragging the mare up in front of the little filly in her current state and making her do it was definitely not the way to go. Plus, foals did need to learn to be polite. “No,” she finally decided. “I’ll go cheer her up a bit, but you need to go later and fix this.”

Was that too much? Cadance asked herself. After seeing Princess Celestia’s relationship with Sunset, the pink alicorn couldn’t just stand by and see another family destroy itself. But dealing with the Twilights like that left a bad feeling in her gut.

After giving a quick hello to Shining Armor and telling him she would explain Sunset’s absence on the way to school, Cadance trotted upstairs to where Twilight was.

Like the first time she had seen Twilight’s room, Cadance was amazed at how clean and orderly everything was. The somewhat spacious filly’s bedroom with the dark blue walls decorated like the night sky, complete with perfect representations of the constellations, did not look like the bedrooms of the children she had sat with in her home village. Three bookshelves of filly height were placed against the wall to Cadance’s right, opposite of the bed, and filled with books that were far beyond what somepony of Twilight’s age should have been reading. In fact, the only two things that marked the space as a filly’s room were the toy chest stored in front of the bed that looked mostly unused, and the Smarty Pants doll the tenant of the room was currently clutching in her forelegs as she breathed in a sniffle of a breath through her nose.

Since it didn't seem as if the purple filly would notice Cadance on her own anytime soon, the pink princess spoke up. “Twilight, can I come in?”

Her voice made the little unicorn look up with a sudden jerk of her head, and the alicorn winced when she saw the unshed tears. “P-Princess Cadance?” Twilight asked in a fearful voice. “What’re you doing here?”

“I wanted to make sure you were alright,” Cadance told her while she resisted the urge to gallop in and hug the filly. “Now, can I come in?”

Twilight gave Cadance a confused look, probably a little bewildered over the fact a princess was asking for a filly’s permission. “Ummm….it’s may I come in,” she corrected the bigger pony a second before her eyes widened and she clutched her doll even harder. “I-I mean, yes. Y-Yes. You’re a princess, you can do and say anything you want!”

After crossing the threshold, Cadance slowly walked up to Twilight and extended a wing to wipe away the little unicorn’s tears that had leaked out before she spoke to the fearful girl in a soft voice. “Oh Twilight, why’re you so upset?”

Cadance knew what she was asking was an extremely loaded question. If Twilight started going on about her mother, Cadance didn’t know how much she could say without eroding the other mare’s authority. But if Twilight was going to start going on about what Cadance had a sneaking suspicion she was going to say…

“Please don’t tell Princess Sunset I disrespected you!” Twilight begged in a panic. “I didn’t mean to!”

Before Twilight could really get into the begging, or maybe start singing Cadance’s praises as a foalsitter for the one time they had been together, the pink princess held up a hoof. “Twilight, why’re you so worried about something as silly as that?”

The comforting laugh Cadance added at the end to show the little filly her worries were unwarranted were apparently lost on Twilight as she looked up at Cadance in a panic. “Because she’ll stop tutoring me in magic! Then, she’ll dump Shiny, and Mom will be fired from her job, a-and Daddy will have to sell our house because we’ll be ostracized from the community and we’ll all be forced to move to another country!”

Cadance didn’t know whether to laugh at Twilight’s estimation of future events, or be horrified at them. What in Equestria could make this filly think such a thing? she asked herself.

“Oh sweetie,” the pink princess said as she concentrated and lifted Twilight up in her magic very carefully before getting on the bed. Then Cadance rolled onto her back and set the little filly down on her stomach before she wrapped Twilight up in a hug. “Sunset Shimmer would never do something like that to you.”

The purple filly blinked some of the moistness out of her eyes. “You think so?”

As Twilight looked down at her, Cadance took a second to nuzzle the unicorn’s nose to get a little laugh from her. Although it was a bit early, Cadance could see how the little filly could grow into a mare that Sunset held in such high regard. Something Cadance still found a little bit strange since it was the purple filly that was looking up to the amber mare now.

Twilight was...overly genuine. Her expressions, her thought process that appeared on her face more often than not, her obvious brilliance, all of it added up to an extremely honest and loving mare that anypony would love to call friend.

A pony that still needed some reassurance, judging by the worried question she had just asked.

“Twilight,” Cadance began as she looked into the purple filly’s eyes. “I can say with absolute certainty that Sunset Shimmer loves you. She would do anything for you, and nothing you could ever possibly do will ever change that.” To emphasize her point, Cadance pulled the purple unicorn closer, and kissed her on the cheek. “So stop worrying so much about such silly things, okay?”

In response to the affectionate physical contact, Twilight laid her body out across Cadance’s barrel and nuzzled her fiercely. “I will Princess Cadance,” she promised before becoming a little hesitant. “And um...I think you’re a great princess too.”

Cadance giggled and hugged Twilight a little tighter. “Thanks,” she said before ruffling the filly’s mane. “But I know Sunset's your favorite. And...I think she may be mine too.”

“Cadance, I’m done with breakfast. Are you ready?”

Shiny’s words drew the pink princess out of her little moment, and made Cadance decide to hurry things up to end things quickly. “So don’t you worry about Sunset not wanting to teach you anymore. In fact, I’ll even send her here after school so you two can work on your magic together. Okay?”

Once Twilight had been reassured, Cadance made her way back downstairs. Thankfully, Shiny had hurried through his breakfast, so they still had plenty of time. With the quick trip Sunset had sent the pink princes on Cadance found herself needing to borrow an extra pair of saddlebags and a few other supplies for the day.

“I think she likes you even more than I do.”

Shining Armor gulped as Sunset's words ran through his mind for about the millionth time since he had heard them the day before. Such was the reason that he wasn’t walking shoulder to shoulder with the princess, opting to just follow her instead of trotting in a formation that allowed for conversation.

Of course, that had its own set of problems. The saddlebags with his mother’s cutie mark were a little tight for the princess, making her constantly fidget as she trotted down the road. Which had the unintended consequence of Cadance shaking her rump at the stallion every few seconds. So, it was perfectly understandable that Shining Armor couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful body and perfect plot that made even the hottest unicorn in school green with envy. A body that had Shining Armor wondering what it would be like to be with Cadance the way Sunset had been with him in Shining's bedroom.

She would probably be a lot more gentle, and less physically dominating, and Cadance was the Princess of Love. So she not only looked the part, but she probably also did certain things much better than the other royal pony when it came to that private couples stuff.

Not that Sunset wasn’t hot!

It was just...in a different way.

The amber alicorn managed to be athletic without being bulky, with plenty of padding left in her rear to admire despite the firmness that hid beneath. It was just that Sunset was so...big! Not in a super body builder way, or how Fleur and Sassy were taller than most mares, but exceptionally thin. Sunset had both the height, and the muscle mass to look like a normally fit mare...that was also a head taller than most stallions.

Which made her unbelievably dominating. It wasn’t really bad. After all, when Shining didn’t adjust for the proportions of her body, Sunset had the second-biggest plot of anypony in Canterlot. But…despite what had happened the day before, Shining had a feeling it was Sunset that would be doing all the holding come cuddle time.

And sure, it made sense. She was bigger, stronger, more powerful, and a Princess on top of it all! Shining Armor knew that Sunset was the pony that would be holding the reins in their relationship.

Still...even though the amber alicorn was so far above the unicorn, Shining would have liked to have been the paladin who slayed the dragon, rather than the pony who was saved by the princess.

In contrast, Cadance was…

Well, Shining had to admit that the pink princess was pretty bucking scary. Cadance had an intensity in her that Sunset lacked. Not to mention she was kind of pushy. But despite that, Shining Armor understood everything Cadance had done had been to help the unicorn with building himself up. He was pretty sure their first lunch date together would have been nothing but Shining trying rather unsuccessfully to talk to Sunset if Cadance hadn’t spent a week with him at lunch going over dating rules.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

The even-toned question coming from the pony in front of Shining Armor pulled him out of his thoughts and made him look up to Cadance as she gave him a half-lidded stare in return. “Huh?”

The pink princess sighed. “Well first off, whenever I match your pace, you slow down even more,” Cadance told him before smirking. “Plus, you’ve been doing nothing but stare at my plot for the past five minutes.”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened and he gulped as he found himself adrift in a sea of unease, unable to think. “Uh…”

Cadance did away with the even stare and giggled before trotted over to put her hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m not exactly mad for the attention Shiny,” she told him before a frown appeared on her face. “But I’m sure Sunset wouldn't like you looking at another mare’s rear when you haven’t even asked about why she’s not here today.”

Although Cadance didn’t say it with any malice, Shining Armor couldn’t help but wince. “Sorry,” he apologized as the guilt from his mishap lightened a little. “Um…so what is going on with her? She seemed fine yesterday.” He had to wonder if alicorns could even get sick.

There was a brief pause as Cadance gave Shining Armor a measuring look. “Well...that’s kind of...complicated,” she admitted. “Officially, she’s getting ready to receive the griffon ambassador this weekend. But, the truth is...um, Shiny…” The look on the alicorn’s face became hesitant. “I take it you’ve noticed Sunset acts a little...differently than other ponies. Right?”

Shining Armor blushed as he remembered being pinned to the park floor the day before and how he and Sunset… “Um...what do you mean by differently?”

The look on Cadance’s face became half-lidded. “Like how she’s constantly having to fight the urge to have sex with you,” she said in an annoyed tone.

“Y-you know about that?!” Shining Armor yelled in a panic.

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Oh please, we’re mares and best friends Shiny. We share everything.”

That little revelation made him blink. “Okay so...what is going on with Sunset?”

Once again, Cadance became very hesitant and looked around at the empty street for a bit before answering. Even then, she stepped closer to Shining Armor, until he could feel her breath on his muzzle. “Alright look, what I’m about to tell you, not many ponies outside of the palace know. First… you are aware me and Sunset weren’t born alicorns, right?” She asked in a whisper while looking around to steer anypony that came too close away from them with an even look that quickly sent the odd curious mare or stallion trotting to the other side of the street.

The question got a nod from Shining Armor. He remembered that for a week after Cadance’s coronation, the history teacher had spent time going on and on about ascended princesses, and how they were Princess Celestia’s several time great-grand foals that had inherited enough of her divinity to become alicorns themselves upon hitting a kind of second puberty. “Yes,” he replied before thinking things over for a bit. “You were a pegasus, and Sunset was a unicorn, right?”

“Well, other than the wings, horn, or a little height, there’s also some less obvious changes,” Cadance told him before breaking eye contact and clearing her throat. “And in Sunset’s case...those changes happen to include an extremely enhanced sex drive that she hasn’t really learned to control yet.”

Once again, Shining Armor found himself lost in the memories that involved the unicorn laying on his back while the amber alicorn worked her lips on his mouth. “O-Oh!” He replied as something rather terrible occurred to him. The first time the met, Sunset had purposefully raised her tail at him. Had everything that happened between them just been...hormones? “C-Cadance, does that mean...is Sunset only wanting to be around me because of…that?”

“Wellll,” she drawled out in an uneasy manner. “I wouldn't go that far. But...that is probably why you caught her eye in the first place, yeah.”

The admission made Shining Armor feel as if somepony had hit his barrel with a hammer from the inside. “Then…” he managed while trying to figure out just how bad things were. “When Sunset gets herself...under control...does that mean she’s going to...dump me?”

Cadance’s jaw dropped. “What?” She cried out in shock before frowning at the stallion. “NO! Of course not! How could you even go from Sunset saving herself for when everything is perfect to...to THAT?”

Shining Armor backed away from the angry alicorn. With her usually sweet demeanor and more inviting physique, it was sometimes hard to remember that Cadance was the more intimidating princess between her and Sunset. “But you just said Sunset's really into sex right now, but we haven’t done anything but kiss and do some full body nuzzles!”

“That’s because it's barely been a week since you met each other, you moron!” Cadance yelled at him before she let it a hiss of a sigh through her teeth. “I swear, it’s horse apples like this that makes me wonder why I’m still trying to keep the two of you together instead of chasing after Sunset myself!”

As soon as the words left her muzzle, Cadance’s eyes went wide. A silence stretched out between the two of them, and then the pink alicorn groaned before she covered her face with her hooves. “Uuuuuugh, I can't believe I just said that!” she exclaimed before frowning at Shining Armor and moving to poke him in the chest with her hoof. “And if you so much as utter a word of that to her...well...okay, I’m not as good with threats as Sunset, but I will do something to you if you tell her, understand?”

Shining Armor quickly nodded. Then as soon as Cadance backed away, the white unicorn’s mind pointed out a strange error in the information that he had just been given. “But wait, Sunset said you um...liked me too. M-More than her even,” he said.

“She-ugh, I can't believe she…” Cadance stopped talking and looked over to the young stallion. “Okay, look Shiny, don't take this the wrong way,” she told him before hold up a hoof. “Yes, I think you're both great company and cute. But I’m not the type of mare that just grabs up the first guy she sees and lifts her tail.” The words ‘like Sunset’ were left unsaid.

“Oh,” Shining Armor replied, unsure if he should be disappointed that Cadance didn’t see him in such a way, or relieved that Cadance wasn’t after him like that. “But...uh Sunset…”

Cadance smiled just a bit as Shining trailed off. “You don't have to worry about me swooping in and taking Sunset from you,” she assured him before her face was covered in a thoughtful frown. “Hay, if anything I'd be more worried about Sunset trying to shove us together because of this...sex drive problem of hers. You know that’s what she’s trying to do, right?”

The world felt like it shifted as Cadance’s words made their way through Shining Armor's brain. “W-What?” he stuttered. “Why is Sunset doing something like that?”

Sunset wasn't trying to pawn him off to another princess, was she?

“Same reason she refuses to pick up on some of the signals I've probably been subconsciously sending out since last night,” Cadance replied. “Sunset's got some stupid guilt motivating her to do some pretty moronic things, like how I'm supposed to take you to that re-play because she’ll be having to deal with the griffin ambassador this weekend. We’ll go have some fun, and that’ll be it. I’m not going to try and steal you from Sunset. I’m not that selfish and you’re not that hot.”

Shining Armor blinked at that bit of information. He really didn’t know how to take that. “Oh...uh...thanks?” he asked before another piece of the conversation demanded his attention. “And what’s this about griffons?”

Sunset groaned in exhaustion as she collapsed on her bed. While her earth pony-ness may have let her body go on nearly forever and recover with a few minutes of rest, mental exhaustion was another matter entirely. After the shouting match she just had with her mother in regards to Equestria’s foreign policy that had the castle shaking both from Sunset putting her hoof down and Celestia proving she still had the bigger mouth, the amber alicorn felt as if she could sleep for a week.

But, as the human saying went, there was no rest for the wicked.

So, Sunset looked over to the writing desk tucked away in her bedroom’s right corner and grabbed some paper along with a quill from the top drawer using her magic. Then, after bringing the two objects over to her, she frowned at the ancient writing device that didn’t come with its own ammo and opened the bottom drawer in her desk to pull out the enchanted bottle that kept the ink inside fresh before levitating it over to her bed as well.

After uncorking the bottle, Sunset dipped her quill in took it out, tapped on the edge to remove the excess ink, waited for it to finally release the final drop, then brought it to the paper before glancing down at her pristine sheets with a frown.

One minute later, Sunset had added modern pens to underwear and the internet in her short mental list of technological revolutions she would bring upon her return to Equestria as she sat down on the cushion in front of her desk.

While Sunset knew she was mostly a hands on kind of pony that adapted according to the moment, the amber alicorn had to admit that hadn’t gone so well when it came to her more complicated plans. Even her post-return actions hadn’t been very wise when they really counted. So, actually planning things out in a way she could see everything would probably be the best way to avoid any mishaps.

Like what happened with the filly Twilight Sparkle.

Sunset still felt like hitting herself for the mess she had gotten herself into with the lavender unicorn. Happiness over being right combined with their future friendship had led Sunset to trying to first adjust things so that she being in Equestria didn’t have any effect on Twilight's future. A path she admitted to herself was impossible, and a result of her inability to face the truth about what really needed to be done in order to preserve Twilight’s destiny.

So, like with her first mistake, Sunset knew that her first order of business was making sure her absence didn’t cause as much damage to Twilight as her presence did.

After thinking of what she needed to do in order to fix things, Sunset took out another piece of paper and began to write. Dear Twilight, she thought to herself as she put quill to paper with a little smile.

By the time you read this, I will have left Equestria. I’m sorry, but there is important work that needs to be done, and despite how much I wish I could stay and watch you grow into the amazing mare I know you’re going to be, I have to go. Although I don’t know exactly how long I’ll be gone, I do know that it will be several years before I am able to return.

Please don’t be sad. You still have so many ponies that will love and watch over you like your parents, your brother, and Cadance. And I know that everything will certainly be fine.

Sunset signed the paper, and rolled it into a scroll before grabbing some wax and a ribbon to tie it closed. With that taken care of, she heated the wax and shaped it into a seal resembling her cutie mark to make everything look all princessy.

As soon as she did, Sunset felt a weight settle down on her, and she had to stop herself from ripping open the letter and adding a few more lines. But that wouldn’t do any good. Whatever Sunset wrote, she knew it wouldn’t change anything as far as how Twilight would feel because of the amber alicorn's departure.

It would hurt her. Maybe even crush her.

No, that’s not… Sunset thought as she tried to unsuccessfully tell herself that Twilight wouldn’t be that affected by her just up and leaving. Even though it hadn’t been that long, the purple unicorn looked up at Sunset in the exact same way that little human kid Scootaloo had looked up at Rainbow Dash.

Sunset leaving would hurt her, and hurt her dearly in the short term…

But… It’ll be better for everyone in the long run, Sunset assured herself. And another three years of having to suffer from the crippling loss of her magic would be a fine penance for making the purple filly cry.

A shiver passed down Sunset’s spine at that thought. For three more years, she would have to give up her magic again. It had almost driven her insane that first time, and the alicorn had to admit that more than a little bit of her ever-present anger and need to make sure every human around her felt as miserable as she did came from that.

But…things might be different this time around. Knowing what she did about humans, Sunset could make changes to her actions in the human world. A better house, smarter choices for her fake identity, actually putting her real age of eighteen down rather than fifteen so she didn’t have to attend school.

The last change would probably be the hardest, but it was one that needed to be made. Even though Sunset shared more happy memories than bad ones with her human friends, she didn’t think it was a good idea to get mixed up with them again. Sunset would just get a nice place in a good neighborhood, and wait out the two-point-five years it took for the mirror to open again before coming back home with a quick side-trip to knock three gem-wearing assholes upside their empty heads with a baseball bat.

Yeah, Sunset thought to herself as she finished out her plans to pass the time in the human world and deal with the Sirens while keeping the growing feelings of depression at bay. Just thirty moons all by myself. I can handle that. I used to be alone all the time. I...love...being alone.

After taking a deep breath and letting out a cleansing sigh, Sunset went back to her planning.

Thankfully, making a list of the rest of the things she needed to get in order to make her transition to the human world easier didn’t weigh as heavy on her heart as the necessities involving Twilight and Sunset’s approaching isolation did. Bits and gems would be easy enough to procure. Plus, this time around, Sunset could use her magic to remove the Equestrian identifying marks from the gold and replace them with some French or English symbols. A horse’s face on the last gold coins she had exchanged had raised some questions when Sunset had traded in her pocket change the last time she visited a bank.

A fake ID showing her actual age would be another thing Sunset could get a lot easier in Equestria than on Earth. Thanks to some practice the week before, the amber alicorn had shaken off most of the cobwebs when it came to her horn’s dexterity, and was confident in her ability to create a reasonable representation of her human face using magic to guide a pen. Then she could combine her artistic skills and magic to make a fake driver’s license.

Clothes were next on the list of things she would need to procure. Although, Sunset decided to hold off on getting something human to wear until after she went through the portal. Inability to get some proper measurements aside, considering the mass she had gained in Equestria, Sunset had to wonder….

Will I look different this time? she asked herself as she looked down to her body. Even though she had been taller as a biped, her five-plus foot frame equated to something around six-and-a-half, if not an even seven as a human. An athletic seven.

The idea of what that would be like made the alicorn smirk when she thought of doing something like playing basketball with Rainbow Dash…

“Come on shorty, I thought you were supposed to be some big athlete in your old school,” Sunset said as she held the ball as high as she could and smirked as the girl with the rainbow hair jumped up over and over again to try and get it away from her.

And if her physical strength as a pony was indication…

Sunset smirked as she carried four crates full of cider as Applejack struggled to keep up with the larger girl while only lugging around one. “Don’t worry AJ, I’m sure with enough work and plenty of cider, you’ll be half as tough as me one day.”

Although, Sunset knew she wouldn't be able to stomach making her friends feel inadequate for very long, and would be helping them out more than not…

“I-I’m sorry Fluttershy,” the bully Sunset had ran off shortly after her arrival in Canterlot High, one Gilda Griffon, stuttered as she nursed the black eye while Sunset stood behind the animal lover with her arms crossed and a promise that the bully would be getting a lot worse if she ever tried anything else ever again.

Sunset blinked as the last scenario faded from her mind, and she realized both of her errors for thinking of things in such a way. For starters, Sunset wouldn’t be messing with her human friends this time. And just because she skirted Saddle Arabian size as a pony didn’t mean she was going to be some kind of tan She-Hulk with red and golden hair. If humans and ponies were perfect reflections of each other, then Principal Celestia would have been somewhere around nine feet tall.

So...the clothes could wait until she was on the other side of the mirror. It wasn’t as if she could find somepony to make them without raising a lot of questions either.

A knock at her bedroom door brought Sunset out of her musing. “Sunset, are you there? I’d like to speak to you.”

The sound of her mother’s voice made Sunset feel like a bolt of lightning ran down her spine. If Celestia saw the list Sunset had made...it wouldn't be too incriminating, but Sunset knew it would raise questions she didn’t want to answer. “J-Just a second Mom!”

Sunset opened a desk drawer and shoved the list of materials she would be needing to get by in Human Land into one of the drawers before resealing the inkwell and using her magic to clean her quill of the leftover ink with a fine disintegration spell. Then, once the evidence of her plot to escape Equestria was hidden from view, Sunset called out to her mother in a crisp voice to hide her panic. “Come in.”

As the door opened, Sunset winced at the expression on Celestia’s face before the white alicorn walked in with half-a-dozen books floating in her magic. Since they weren’t in public, it seemed Celestia had gone back to showing her emotions to anyone who knew her well enough, and Sunset could see the hesitation covering the white alicorn’s every action as clear as day.

It made Sunset feel both guilty and worried. Kind, loving, sure of herself, even self-righteous more often than not, those were the traits that Sunset would have used to describe her mother before coming back through the mirror. But throughout it all, the descriptor that Sunset had always accompanied Celestia was confident, sure of herself, never...hesitant.

And now that she thought about it, this wasn't the first time Sunset had seen her mom in a state that was less than confident since coming back through the mirror. It both frightened and angered her. The fact that Celestia was acting a little less like the all-perfect being she carried herself as was pretty off-putting, but the fact that it was coming only after Sunset had sprouted a pair of wings for herself made the amber alicorn’s ire grumble in the back of her mind.

Ever since she had realized the truth of things thanks to Twilight’s appearance, and her mom’s actions since, it seemed more and more that ascension was the only thing that made Sunset worth caring about in Celestia’s eyes.

No, Sunset told herself before stomping her hoof down on such thoughts. She had been the horrible student that abused her mother’s faith by squandering it. Sunset was the one that had been the bad pony, not Celestia.

And...Sunset needed to focus on the other alicorn in the room, not her returning resentment now that she knew Celestia's throwing her daughter away like trash wasn’t some vision given to Sunset by the mirror to straighten her up just because she wouldn’t be a good little yes-mare and obediently nod her head at every stupid thing her mother said.

“Is everything alright?” the amber alicorn asked in a barely civil tone as Celestia closed the door behind her. Then, Sunset frowned at herself. Cut it out, you don’t want to fight with her anymore.

The question made Celestia stop for a second before she set the books down. “I brought you all the materials we have on our past relations with the griffons since the Unification,” she said before looking back to her daughter. “Sunset...I’m sorry for...letting things get out of control between us after breakfast.”

If Sunset had been sitting in a normal chair rather than her cushion, she was pretty certain that she would have been unable to keep in her seat. Even though it wasn't the first apology Celestia had given her, getting them from her at all was still a shocker.

But Sunset was back to normal a second later. “Yeah, well…” the amber alicorn mumbled before her memory brought her back to just what they had been fighting about. “I’m the one who lost her cool first,” she finally admitted.

Celestia sighed again. “Still, you’re not my student anymore,” she replied. “I shouldn’t expect you to just nod your head and agree with everything I say right away.”

But you still expect me to in the end, huh? Sunset thought with a frown as she fought to keep her opinion to herself. Although, it was a little comforting to at least get that much from her mom.

“Sunset,” Celestia said in a tired voice as she looked down at her daughter. “I don’t want to fight with you about this again. I understand where you're coming from, but as a princess, you need to adopt a wider view of the world. One that is even bigger than just Equestria.”

“What’s the point?” Sunset grumbled with a frown before she could stop herself.

Celestia blinked and tilted her head. “Sunset?”

Although she was able to reel herself back in before exploding even more, Sunset supposed that it was already too late to stop from going down this particular path again. But...she found herself able to at least stay a bit more civil. “You say you want me to sit in on this meeting,” she began while wondering just why Celestia was letting her look into a part of Equestria’s workings the big alicorn had dealt with almost completely on her own even before Sunset’s great-grandparents were in diapers. “But you don’t want to hear any of my opinions on the matter when they disagree with yours! Hell, even if I do become some kind of ambassador to another country or something, if I don’t do things the way you want, you’ll just shove me to the side and do it your own way without me! Why am I even getting a crown if the only thing I’m going to do is carry out your orders instead of deciding anything for myself?”

And as Celestia pulled her head back, Sunset was struck by the sheer pointlessness of arguing with the big alicorn over this yet again. She would be gone in two weeks, so what did it matter if she disagreed with Celestia’s decisions on how to run her country? Even if Sunset wanted to change things, she wasn’t going to be around long enough to do anything about it.

Fighting about such things now would only make her last two weeks in Equestria a basic repeat of how she had left things the first time. Something Sunset didn't want to take with her as the last memory of her mother for the next thirty moons.

It was only after she had wallowed in that thought for a few seconds that Sunset realized Celestia hadn’t spoken for some time. When she looked back up to the only pony in Equestria taller than her to see the sadness in the white pony’s eyes, Celestia finally broke the silence. “I do value your opinion of things Sunset,” she said in a voice that matched her expression. “It’s just...I’ve played this game for so much longer than you and...I just don’t want you making the same mistakes I did when I was your age. Those mistakes were both plenty, and painful. If I can spare you that while still letting you learn the lessons you need to be a proper princess, I will.”

While Celestia’s words did make her feel a little better, Sunset also found herself unable to ditch the bile her mother’s lack of confidence and feelings of how pointless being an alicorn was with the big pony around. “Yeah. A proper princess,” Sunset grumbled. Carbon copy would have been a better way to say it.

For some reason, the comment got a droop of ears from the Sun Princess. “Sunset...”

“Can we please stop talking about this?” Sunset asked as her mind became steeped in the past again, when they had their last big fight. “It’s your way, or the highway. I get it.”

Celestia sighed and hung her head. “Do I truly appear so...tyrannical to you?”

With her mother acting the way she was, Sunset found herself feeling more a little guilty for causing such a response. “Well, it’s not like you don't have a right to be,” she admitted. “I mean, you usually are the one that's right most of the time. Other ponies should just do what you tell them to no matter what they think.”

“No, that’s not…” Celestia paused for a moment, and shook her head. “That doesn’t mean I don't value your input Sunset, or that I’m always right either,” she added a few seconds later. “And I’ll admit, being the sole ruler of Equestria for as long as I have has affected how I do things. Sharing authority doesn’t come easy to me, even now.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the odd comment at the end, but put it out of her mind a second later. “Well...um...thanks for the books,” she said to try and get the subject turned towards something else. At the very least, it showed Sunset that Celestia was at least trying to let her grow as a princess.

Not that she was going to be around long enough to enjoy it, but...Sunset calmed herself down with the fact that it was the thought that counted.

When she noticed the bigger pony wasn’t leaving after the books became gathered up in her magic, Sunset began to feel a little uneasy. “Did you want something else?”

“Just to say that I love you,” Celestia told her before she bent down to kiss Sunset on the forehead.

The contact with her mother made the anger Sunset had been feeling towards the bigger alicorn melt away in a wave of embarrassed heat. “I love you too Mom,” she said after a few seconds. “And...I’m sorry for...being so difficult.”

Celestia giggled and smiled down at her. “Oh my little pony, you wouldn’t be worth loving so much if you weren’t,” she said before an oddly mischievous smile crossed her face. “Although...before you get started on that research, do you want to run a few errands with me? I could use the company.”

With her mother giving Sunset that weird half-smile she tended to use from time to time, the amber alicorn found herself becoming nervous. “Doing what?”

“Well, I need to see some ponies at your old school,” she explained. “I thought you might like the chance to say goodbye to the old place. Something tells me your last trip there didn’t go so well.”

Despite the work in her desk that was still calling to Sunset for her to finish it, she didn’t see the harm in one little side trip. At very least, she could spend some time with her mom in a way that didn’t end with them yelling at each other.

The thought of which made her smile. Even with everything that had passed between them, Sunset still wanted to share her time with her mother. “Okay...if we can get some ice cream on the way back.” Some of her best memories as a filly had been born from Celestia’s sweet tooth trips. If Sunset was going to be leaving Equestria, and she had to relive her past in more ways than one, then she was going to at least run through a few of the happier memories.

Celestia giggled at the amber alicorn’s words. “I think that’s a given.”

Once she parted ways with Shining Armor at the beginning of school, Cadance found herself thinking about her relationship problem again.

A problem every fiber of her morality screamed wasn't even hers!

Shining Armor and Sunset were a couple. Just because the odds were against them didn’t mean Cadance had any right to swoop in and snatch one of them up! Plenty of couples beat the odds and found their happily ever after. If anything, Cadance should have been helping them find their happiness by planning out their next big date, not running the odds of her future with Shining Armor while she was dreaming about sleeping with Sunset Shimmer.

Not the platonic kind of sleeping, the kind that had the amber alicorn pinning Cadance to the bed before she locked lips with the pink princess with a predatory level of ferocity. Sunset’s tongue would dominate Cadance's mouth as they kissed, putting the lesser alicorn in her place as she brought her forelegs up behind Cadance’s back and wrapped her powerful wings around the pink princess’s whole body. But, despite her masterful handling of the smaller pony, every move Sunset would make would be gentle as it was firm.

Then, after asserting her dominance and getting Cadance warmed up, Sunset would move down below to claim her sweet prize with the same amount of power and care she had taken her lover to bed with. It would be…

A sudden screech in her ears jolted Cadance out of her fantasy, and she looked up to see the clock was signaling it was time for students to get to class. After regaining her composure, the pink princess quickly galloped down the hall to beat the rush of students to her first class.

But even after class began and the teacher started lecturing, Cadance’s thoughts drifted back to Sunset and her powerful legs, her thick wings, her masterful presence…

OH COME ON! Cadance mentally yelled at herself. She might have just fallen into the infatuation stage, but she was the Alicorn of Love! Controlling her desires should have been simple!

Okay, she thought while the stallion in front of the class droned on. Let’s think about this logically. Logic was the bane of out of control emotions. If Cadance took a look at things from a logical standpoint, then she should have an easy time of distancing herself from Sunset emotionally.

From a logical standpoint it...made sense that Cadance was attracted to Sunset. Physical beauty aside, Sunset had gone from being her tormentor to somepony Cadance both pitied in regards to her relationship with Celestia, and admired when it came to her talents and restraint. Plus, the new role she had taken as Cadance’s protector made the pink princess feel that much warmer when it came to the amber alicorn.

It was perfectly logical that the pink princess should lust after the amber alicorn both from physical desire, and emotional attraction.

But...would it even work out between us? Cadance wondered.

Fantasizing about physical pleasure was...mostly fine, but it was just a tease without something substantial to go with it. Despite how they got along since her ascension and how Sunset deferred to Cadance at times despite her forceful personality, which told the pink princess Sunset respected her a great deal…

Ugh, I’m trying to talk myself out of a relationship here, not list reasons that it’s a good idea, the pink princess thought with a frown. But, instead of getting back on track, all she could think about was her growing list of reasons as to why Sunset would be such a great wife.

Cadance frowned at her mental analysis, and then reached into her saddlebags to grab a pen and paper. Since it seemed that she couldn’t stop herself from contemplating a future with Sunset, then it was best to go ahead and plot it out. But if she was going to test her compatibility with Sunset, she was going to do it right!

Twenty minutes, three prices of paper and six colored pencils later, Princess Cadance and completed her romantic compatibility and future happiness assessment for her best friend.

Like with Shining Armor, the results weren’t quite what she had been expecting.

The honeymoon period looked to be everything Cadance had found herself fantasizing about earlier. Sunset would be a loving wife that acted as an amplifier to Cadance’s destiny as Cadance supported and comforted Sunset from behind the scenes, turning them both into the best ponies they could possibly be.

But...from what Cadance could see, things would take a turn for the worst after Celestia was due to die. The death of her mother would shatter Sunset. She would withdraw from the world for weeks, if not months, only coming out after a severe amount of coaxing from Cadance.

Then, once the amber alicorn was onto the road to recovery with the pink princess guiding the way, tragedy would strike again.

Cadance didn’t know exactly what would happen, but her heart told her that she and Sunset would be separated, and the High Princess of Equestria would not react well to the loss of her wife.

Instead of withdrawing from the world again, Sunset would become cold and hard. She would turn into something that was ten times worse than the bully Cadance had met upon her arrival in Canterlot. An unrelenting harshness that came into being after Cadance disappeared from the prediction would eventually turn to cruelty, and Equestria would find itself under the hoof of an uncaring monster.

As Cadance's imagination provided a picture of a gigantic alicorn with a blood-red coat and eyes that radiated darkness as well as a pair of red leather wings that cast the whole world into shadow, she had to suppress a shiver. Then, the pink princess quickly crammed the sheet of paper prophesying the destruction of Equestria under Sunset’s tyrannical rule into her borrowed saddlebag.

No, Cadance told her prediction. While she may have been a little temperamental, Sunset would never become the monster Cadance’s prediction had said she would under any circumstances. At her very worst, she was a brat. The pink princess knew from personal experience that Sunset wouldn't actually hurt anypony.

There had to be some kind of mistake in her calculations, something she missed. While Cadance knew that the loss of a loved one could change a pony in many ways, several of them less than ideal, their true selves would always shine through when given the chance.

But Cadance’s attempts to reexamine the path of their relationship for where she added the numbers together wrong or didn’t cross a T were cut short as the teacher finished talking, signaling an end to the notes and beginning of individual work. So, the pink princess had to put her personal problems on the back burner and get to work on other things.

Still, she found herself going back to the dilemma Sunset’s future represented whenever her thoughts wandered away from the paper in front of her. A mistake, the pink alicorn told herself. I had to have made a mistake somewhere. I’ll look over everything again next period.

As first period came to an end, and Cadance made her way to her alchemy class, she went back to thinking about Sunset with all of her attention. It turned out the time she had allowed herself to focus on something else had been a good thing. After getting a fresh start on the destiny of Sunset’s heart, the pink princess knew where she had gone wrong during her initial prognostication.

I’m being too narrow in my predictions, Cadance thought to herself. Sunset wouldn't take the loss of loved ones very well, so much so that she would be unable to climb out of the despair without a great deal of help. But the Alicorn of Love knew there was more than just the romantic kind of love that she was focusing on when it came to Sunset.

There was also the fact that a good deal of Sunset’s future actions were based off both the bratty way she acted towards Cadance as a unicorn, and what she had told the pink alicorn in regards to her actions on the other side of the mirror. Actions Cadance was starting to think weren't as bad as Sunset was making them out to be.

By the time she got to her second period classroom, Cadance had already mapped out a new relationship web in her head that included a great deal more than just two little ponies. She included Shining’s friends, Cheerilee and the other earth pony, even Fleur and her group were warming up to Sunset enough to be considered a long-time influence on the amber alicorn’s heart. Then, she added Twilight Sparkle as Sunset’s…

Cadance frowned at the last pony in the mental lineup as she came to her desk near the back of the room and sat. Although the pink princess knew the amber alicorn would want the lavender unicorn in her life, she wasn’t quite sure what form a relationship between Sunset and Twilight would take if the next ruler of Equestria had a falling out with Shining Armor because Cadance snatched Sunset up.

While Sunset would most definitely pursue a platonic, if not outright familiar relationship with Twilight thanks to previous experiences, the purple unicorn’s love for her jilted brother would certainly bring an end to the hero worship the amber alicorn was getting and then some. Judging by how much Sunset loved the younger pony, it was something that would haunt Sunset for the rest of her many days.

So, with the latest revelation given to her in regards to the complicated love life of Sunset Shimmer, Cadance let out a growling sigh, and put her royal plot down on the pillow in front of her desk as she focused her mind on the newest little problem to crop up.

No matter who she ended up with, Sunset breaking things off with Shining Armor would hamper her relationship with Twilight. But Cadance could see that Sunset and Shiny wouldn’t get much of a happily ever after, even if the unicorn managed to show himself capable of withstanding Sunset’s less than friendly moments. He would die, and she would pine after her lost love for...well, ever.

But Sunset can't be without anypony, Cadance told herself. Even if the amber alicorn had been misrepresenting herself when it came to her time on the other side of the mirror, the pink princess had seen the difference between a Sunset that was alone in contrast to a Sunset surrounded by friends and family. She needed other ponies in her life, or the pain that came from being alone would make Sunset eventually turn it outwards and towards those that were happy.

The whole mess made Cadance’s head ache. Stupid sexy Sunset and her bucking lack of a previous loving environment that made her so unstable. Why couldn’t I have just gotten one of those tough mares that thought she was too cool to be in love?

The halls of Celestia's school were much like they had been when Sunset last walked them a week ago. Everything was as pristine as it could be, numerous trophies for academic events were displayed near the entrance to show off the school’s top position in the magical competition community, and every pony Sunset saw in the hallway put their noses to the floor as she passed.

But, unlike last time, the ponies looking at the floor had a better reason than her to be prostrating themselves. It’s just Celestia they’re bowing to, not me, Sunset tried to tell herself as they passed the third stallion who should have been in class instead of in the hallway with his nose to the ground.

It didn’t make the undeserving alicorn feel any better about her position.

After a brief stop at the headmaster’s office to bask in his pleasantries, Sunset pulled the pony’s puckered muzzle out of Celestia's ass and followed her to the classroom of the stallion the big princess really wanted to see with the other pony in tow.

As they approached the door, Sunset's ears twitched when she picked up the unicorn stallion’s dry voice snaking its way through the glass window that allowed ponies to peek into the room the door led to. “Once again, I remind you class, there will be no horns glowing or reagents levitating in potion making. Since you need to have some help remembering this, Ms. Ginger Weasley, I have a special hat you can wear to help you with it.”

Sunset opened the door to see a tall unicorn with a rather bulbous muzzle and a long black mane that went with his gray coat grab a long suppression cone with the word DUNCE spelled out in large letters on the side. Then he placed it on the head of a young ginger mare maybe two years younger than Sunset’s supposed age.

The ridicule the poor girl faced from the act made Sunset frown, but as a former student of the alchemy teacher, she did at least see a point behind it. Some of the ingredients in the advanced alchemy class were dangerous when exposed to mystical energies. So unicorns were forced to use their hooves, despite the obvious problems it caused several of the teenaged ponies.

“Professor Snap,” Celestia called out from the doorway. “Do you have a moment?”

Right as all the colts and fillies turned to face the doorway, Sunset tensed.

“Princess Celestia!”

“Oh my gosh, what’s she doing here?”

A few seconds later, the giant alicorn glided into the room while Sunset waited in the doorway. “Oh hello little ones,” Celestia said as she looked around the room with a smile. “It’s does my heart glad to see so many of my little ponies taking an interest in alchemy. Remember to study hard, talent alone doesn’t make one a success.”

“Princess Celestia,” the stallion she and Sunset had come to see said as he bowed to her. “To what do I owe the...pleasure of your interruption?”

Despite the dour reply Sunset remembered that Snap was known for, Celestia politely nodded her head towards the stallion in greeting. “I wish to discuss something with you, if you have the time. I trust the headmaster will be able to teach the class in your absence?”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the potion maker replied with a bow.

A few minutes later, Sunset found herself sitting in the rather cramped teacher’s lounge, with the long rectangular table that took up most of the room fighting with Celestia for territory as the big alicorn put a pair of floor cushions together to rest her rear on. As she was adjusting herself, the dark unicorn turned his attention on the smaller alicorn in the room.

“Ms. Sunset, I must say that it is good to see you again,” he greeted with a nod. “I heard this rather odious rumor that you were attending Canterlot Academy of all places.”

Sunset frowned at the stallion’s attitude towards her new school. While its academics were sub-par compared to Celestia’s School, the atmosphere was much friendlier. “I’ve found that it has a great many lessons of more importance to teach me than this place ever did.”

Obviously picking up on Sunset’s hostility, Snap cocked his head to the side. “Is there something wrong Ms...ah, pardon me, it’s Princess Sunset Shimmer now, isn’t it?” he replied. “My apologies, and congratulations for fulfilling your potential. I always knew there was a reason you stood head and shoulders above your peers.” He looked the taller pony up and down for a moment. “Metaphorically, I mean.”

Sunset had to fight off her urge to give a curt reply. She wanted to tell him that if anything, the praise he had given her so many years ago was one of the things that only pushed her away from alicornhood, and Celestia as well. The last of which made Sunset’s hoof shake as she restrained herself from also giving a physical reply to Snap’s politeness.

“Yes well, Sunset has not been crowned just yet,” Celestia cut in, “and we are not here to talk about such things. Rather, I came to ask you about your knowledge regarding Zebra potions, Professor Snap. Your resume did mention you spent a year abroad in their tribal territories. I take it you studied such things?”

After giving the goddess a brief nod, the dry stallion went into a lengthier answer. “Yes. But I must say that zebra alchemy is much more...coarse than the fine art we ponies practice, Princess. The only thing I find interesting about it is the rather exotic list of ingredients it uses that are hard to come by in Equestria,” he told her. “Why the sudden interest, if I may ask?”

Celestia let out a little laugh. “Oh I’d hardly call my interest sudden,” she replied with a smile. “I’ve dabbled in alchemy for the past eight-hundred years or so, Professor. But I must admit that I am not familiar with some of the more exotic ingredients found outside Equestria. So I was wondering if you could take a look at a list I have and answer a few questions I have regarding what’s on it.”

A second later, the goddess's horn lit up, and a roll of parchment appeared in midair, then unrolled as it floated down for the stallion to read. “Hmmm...interesting to be sure. None of these seem too hard to come by for a pony with friends in the right places, but...what is it you are wanting to know about these herbs?”

“For starters, are any of them toxic to ponies?” she asked. “If ingested, I mean.”

As he sat down to lunch, Shining Armor couldn’t help but notice the distressed look on the face of the alicorn he was kind of forced to sit next to despite there being plenty of room in the growing corner of the cafeteria that had been set aside for the nerd herd. Which had grown to include a pair of mares that were also social outcasts, and...the five most popular girls in school. A fact that was still hard for Shining to wrap his head around.

It wasn’t Sunset and Cadance’s membership in their group that made Shiny’s brain wonder if he wasn’t in some kind of coma dream, their being around at least made some kind of sense. It was the three new mares that made him question if what Shining was currently experiencing was really reality. Fleur De Lis, Upper Crust, and Sassy Saddles were the top three mares in the school, if the alicorns that were also in the group of social misfits weren’t counted that is.

Which...really made Shining Armor wonder if his group of outcasts and nerds now qualified as the cool colts.

But, any real attempt at considering the change in Shining’s social standing was put on hold when he noticed Cadance’s expression had changed from distressed to lackluster depression as she munched on an apple piece. Seeing the usually...emotional princess so down, Shining Armor could help but ask about it. “Princess Cadance, is something wrong?”

The question made Cadance pick her head up from where she was just nibbling at the small mountain of food on her tray, and look over to Shining Armor before she put on a little smile. “It’s...um, nothing you need to worry about Shiny,” she assured him in a rather unconvincing way before she looked back towards her food. “I’ve just been making some...bad predictions.”

A second later, everypony in their group was looking at the princess in confusion while Shining Armor felt a worry in the back of his mind. Because of their talks and some later information from Sunset on top of what else he could figure out, Shining Armor understood that Cadance’s matchmaking talents went beyond just putting ponies who liked the same things together. While he didn’t want to go so far as to call them prophetic, her being an alicorn said there had to be something special about them.

“Bad...predictions, Princess?” Fleur asked. “I’m not sure I follow.”

Cadance looked up at the other pony and smiled a bit. “It’s a bit hard to explain, but...I can tell if a pair of ponies will be able to work out,” she said. “Or the basic path a single pony’s lovelife is going to take.”

“Really?” the unicorn with the pink mane asked as her eyes brightened. “Because my parents are pushing for me to meet with this young stallion from some noble family. It’s not an outright engagement, but...I must admit I am a little worried about being sent to the Fall Formal with a total stranger. If you could tell me something about this Fancy Pants colt they’re going on about…”

Cadance shook her head. “Sorry, but it doesn’t really work like that,” she said before giving the other horned pony a tiny smile. “My abilities aren’t some kind of magic spell that just calls up an answer out of the blue. I need to know at least a few things about at least one of the ponies that I’m making a prediction about. And even then, the answer I receive might be a false positive or negative if a future event slated to happen falls through. We haven’t really spent that much time with each other yet Fleur.”

Despite being turned down by the princess, the head unicorn mare in Canterlot High nodded and gave her a half-smile. “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Before the subject could change, Sassy Saddles spoke up in an excited tone. “Oh! But could you do it for somepony else that’s sitting at this table?”

As all the eyes but the pair belonging to Cadance shifted around to settle on Shining Armor, the pink princess let out a snort. “Let’s go with something a little more difficult than predicting the future of my best friend’s love interest, shall we?” she said before looking around at the assembled stallions. “So...you three, any of you want to know how your love lives are going to go?”

Gaffer snorted. “Oh please. I already know any prediction you make for me is going to be so bleak it’ll bring tears to your eyes.”

From his place beside the unicorn, Eight-Bit chuckled. “No thanks. I’m keeping my dream of losing my virginity at the age of forty alive and well, thank you.”

“Uh..” Poindexter replied as he adjusted his bowtie and gave a nervous look to his two friends. “Okay, why not? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

As everypony at their table focused on either Cadance or the nerdy earth pony with the light coat, the pink princess gave Poindexter a calculating stare. “Let’s see…” she mumbled. “Well, you’re definitely going to fall for somepony. In fact, you might already have your eye on the mare. But...I don’t think you’ll pony-up enough to ask her, and settle for loving her from afar. And while that’s all well and good if you don’t have the courage, there’s something a little more...oh, that’s...kind of disturbing.”

Nervousness crept onto Poindexter’s face, and his eyes darted around for a moment as if there was some danger just about to jump out at him. “What? What is it?”

“Welllll,” Cadance drawled on as she tilted her head to the right ever so slightly as she continued to examine the earth pony sitting across from her as a faint glow surrounded her horn. “Even though you’re never going to ask her to go out with you, you’ll actually leave Canterlot after she graduates and moves away. But you still won't ask her out, and because of that, she’s going to fall for some local earthy pony with a...rather limited dialect. Because of this, you’ll get really dejected to the point where any female complimenting you will have a profound impact, even to the point of a young hot mare being able to charm her way into making you give up the last bundle of asparagus you just bought.”

Gaffer raised an eyebrow. “That seems a little specific for something that’s supposed to be very generalized.”

A tiny smirk appeared on Cadance’s face. “Well, I do get a few flashes of intuition when taking a look at where a pony’s lovelife is going to lead,” she told them with a tiny shrug before her face turned serious. “But I only get them when it comes to romantic relationships. The love between family and friends is a whole different creature.” Her face became a little downcast a second later. “Especially family.”

All of a sudden, Shining Armor got a sinking feeling. “So...wait, all that stuff you said about Sunset-”

Cadance didn’t let the stallion finish before she looked over to him. “I’ll admit, I may have taken things a bit too quickly when it came to the two of you, but...at the same time,” she sighed and shook her head. “Maybe I was picking up on Sunset’s...desires, but...there’s a strange feeling of...urgency, I guess you could call it, whenever I think about the two of you.”

With Cadance’s explanation only making him more confused, Shining Armor cocked his head to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

For a few seconds, Cadance looked back to the rest of the ponies at their table, and then she turned to face Shining again. “I’ll tell you after school.”

For the first time since becoming an alicorn, Sunset didn’t much mind the ponies around her bowing for no reason other than that she had both wings and a horn as she walked down the school hallway by herself. It was by far preferable to having lunch with the school staff along with Celestia. All of those ponies congratulating Sunset for fulfilling her potential in the same snide way the potions master had done, it would have been enough to drive her insane if she had been around them for more than a few minutes.

So she had made some excuses, and trotted out when Sunset’s mother finally finished talking about zebra potion reagents. A topic the amber alicorn still didn’t understand why Celestia was so interested in. Hobby or not.

If she got back to the castle early enough, Sunset supposed that she could even manage to get some actual research done on the griffons. Even if it wouldn't matter in the long run, Sunset needed to at least do what she said she was going to do. If only to make use of the books Celestia had taken the trouble to bring in.

“Would you leave me alone already!” an unfamiliar colt’s voice sounded from around the corner. “I said I don't want to hang out with you anymore Starlight.”

Sunset blinked at the disturbance and peered around the turn to see what was going on. A bit further down the hall, she spotted the filly she had mistaken for a siren glaring at some colt with a golden coat Sunset didn’t recognize at all.

“But Sunburst,” the filly cried out. “The only reason I even came to this school was to find you.”

The colt looked back and frowned at Starlight. “Yeah well, the only reason I came here was to get away from you!” he said before turning his head back around and walking away.

Sunset blinked at the little pony’s words. Ouch...that was harsh.

“H-Hey! You can’t just trot away from me!” the pink filly went on before she began to build up power in her horn at a surprising speed. “You're my friend! I OWN YOU!”

Before the little filly could unleash her magic in a wild blast that would have either sent the colt to the nurse’s office or a hospital, Sunset focused her own magic and clamped down on the little filly’s horn with a sealing spell.

“W-What?” Starlight stuttered when her magic suddenly failed, something any unicorn would have found traumatic, even if she had been old enough to detect the enchantment on her horn.

With that done, Sunset stepped out from her corner and frowned at Starlight. “And just what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded in an even tone.

The little filly’s back went straight, and turned around just as Sunset finished walking up to the little pony. Judging by the wide-eyed look of fear, the amber alicorn guessed that she must have looked quite intimidating to Starlight. “P-Princess Sunset Shimmer.”

“I asked you a question, little filly,” Sunset said as she continued to use the voice Princess Celestia had employed during the final month of Sunset’s instruction before kicking her out.

Starlight gulped. “I...I was…”

“Trying to hurt that colt,” Sunset finished for her.

Slowly, Starlight’s demeanor changed from one of fear to anger. “Y-Yeah, well...he shouldn’t have trotted away from me! He was my friend! MINE! He can't do that to me!”

As the angry little filly finished, Sunset blinked at the malice in her expression. Was I ever as bad as this kid? the amber alicorn asked herself before she shook off the unwanted comparison and gathered the little brat up in her magic.

“H-Hey! Let me go!” Starlight shouted as she waved her legs around in the air in a fruitless attempt to escape.

Sunset snorted. “I will when I get done escorting you to the office and tell them what you did.”

Thankfully, it was a process that didn’t take too long. While most of the staff was out to lunch so they could take their turns kissing Celestia's big fat butt, a secretary was able to take hold of the magicless filly as Sunset put down what she saw in writing before she took her leave of the brat that Sunset couldn’t help but compare to herself for reasons beyond her comprehension.

She spent most of the walk home replying what had happened and shaking her head. No, Sunset told herself. I was never that bad...at least, not at her age.

A bit too curious and emotionally dependent on Celestia, but not some raging little hellion that worked to hurt other ponies at the drop of a hat. Although, later on in life...Sunset had to admit she had just been a single step away from that. A step Twilight’s crown made me take.

After she put it on willingly. Sunset might have been able to slink away from the guilt that came with trying to murder her friends in the form of a raging she-demon on that technicality, but it didn't make her blameless for the monster’s actions either.

Although, Sunset had to wonder...if she had remained in Equestria, would she have ended up even worse than the Sunset Shimmer of Canterlot High? As she had just been reminded, a unicorn with a horn was much more dangerous than a human bully.

As Sunset began to frown at the strange possibility that her being kicked out by Celestia might have actually been a good thing in the long run, an excited screech equal to any boy band crazed girl assaulted her ears, and the amber alicorn barely had time to look up before she was set upon by a little purple beast.

“Princess Sunset!” Twilight Sparkle cried out in joy as she rammed into the much bigger pony with a level of enthusiasm only a child could have. “Ohmygosh you’re here! What’re you doing here? Are you going shopping too?”

Sunset opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off as Twilight let out an excited gasp and voiced the idea that was probably giving light to her bright expression. “Do you want to go shopping with us?”

Once Sunset finished catching her mind up with Twilight's words, she found herself unable to talk yet again thanks to the efforts of another, much bigger Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle! What do you think you are doing, just galloping off on your own like that? You know the rules while we’re in town. You are to remain in my sight at all times!” she scolded the filly before looking to the alicorn and bowing deeply. “My deepest apologies for the interruption, Princess Sunset Shimmer.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” she told the shorter pony before waving off Velvet’s groveling and looking down at Twilight. Seeing her as a little filly still made Sunset feel a little strange.

But it was a good kind of strange.

Twilight was Sunset’s reminder. The reason she was planning to leave Equestria. All of the doubts she had managed to push to the side in lieu of what had happened at the school returned, and were quickly crushed as Sunset looked into Twilight's big purple eyes.

A world without magic, drilling loneliness for three years, giving up on Shining Armor and letting her mother down. All of it was worth it if Sunset could give Twilight back her rightful future.

“And you should listen to your mother,” the amber alicorn went on with a little frown as she did her best to look only slightly displeased to avoid upsetting the filly too much.

“But I had to get your attention,” Twilight replied.

Behind the little filly, the larger Twilight gave her daughter a disapproving frown. “Don't talk back to the princess,” she said before looking up to the bigger pony. “I beg your forgiveness, Princess. For both my daughter’s interruption of your day and the disrespect she has shown you.”

The reprimand made Twilight Sparkle go rigid. “Oh no! I-I didn't… Princess Sunset, I didn't mean to disrespect you too! I’m sorry, it was an accident! Please don't stop tutoring me!”

Sunset’s eyes widened at the little filly’s reaction, and glanced over to the mare prostrating herself on the street. She sucked in a breath, and did her best to hold in her anger towards the mare responsible for Twilight being in such a state.

But, something told Sunset that if she roasted Twilight's mother right in front of the poor girl, it wouldn’t do anything to improve her mental well-being. So instead of going off on the mare, Sunset sat down and picked the little purple filly up in her pony-arms to hold her close. “Oh Twilight, you don’t have to worry yourself over something like that. I would never abandon you.”

“Y-You promise?” she asked with hopeful trepidation.

Sunset smiled down at her gently as the perfect way to both reassure Twilight and cheer her up just popped into her head. “Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Rocks.

Rocks surrounded her.

There were rocks everywhere on her farm.

A rock farm.

It made her happy.

Because Maud loved rocks.

Sometimes, she wished she could even be a rock.

But, actually becoming one would have to wait until she died and her body was properly placed in an area that allowed for the proper amount of pressure to be applied, eventually leading to fossilization after several years.

Maud knew from personal experience that she couldn’t just will it to happen.

She had tried.

A lot.

Which was why when she saw her baby sister just standing in a field staring off towards the horizon, Maud decided to tell her that. “Pinkie-”

“I feel a strange disturbing force,” the pink pony replied. “As if something were being made, and yet broken at the same time.”

Maud blinked.

She went back to work.

Her sister was weird.

As the two mares approached Twilight Velvet’s home, Sunset had to remind herself that the annoying purple thing that was both drooling on the back of her neck and snoring in her ear was the bestest friend she would ever have. The minor inconvenience was worth what had happened earlier. Seeing Twilight so happy and as energetic as Pinkie over something as simple as shopping had made the amber alicorn’s day.

When they got to the house, Sunset let her mind wander as Velvet worked the lock with her magic.

“What's your favorite fruit Princess Sunset? I like grapes,” the little filly said as they looked over the vast amount of choices given to them at the Wall Market. “But not because they’re purple! The correlation of color between myself and my food has nothing to do with my dietary desires.”

“I’ve been working on my levitation Princess. I’m up to being able to reliably lift five pounds for a whole minute,” Twilight proudly declared as Sunset turned down the offer of a cart and gathered all of Velvet’s groceries up in her magic.

“Mommy I’m tired, can you carry me?” the lavender filly asked with eyes that looked about twenty-percent bigger than they had been a moment ago.

The sound of a door being opened made Sunset pull herself back to the present, and she followed Velvet into the house while carrying both the mare’s groceries and her daughter.

Once she was inside, Sunset couldn't help but see the worried look on the mare’s face, one she had been wearing since Twilight had started drooling on the amber alicorn’s coat. But while Twilight could be excused for her actions because...well, she was Twilight Sparkle, the light gray mare lacked the proper last name that would excuse her from any wrongdoing in Sunset’s mind.

“Honey, we’re home!” Velvet called out after she walked to the stairs near the front door. Then she looked back to the bigger pony carrying her daughter for a second with trepidation. “And bring a towel, a damp towel!”

Sunset sighed through her teeth after seeing Velvet’s fearful glance. Just what the buck is her problem with me? the amber alicorn wondered. As far as Sunset could remember, she had been nothing but cordial with Twilight's mom.

Another snore sounded from the purple pony on Sunset's back, and the amber alicorn looked over to Twilight-classic. “I’m going to go put her to bed,” she said.

“I’m sorry for my daughter causing you such discomfort Princess,” the mare next to Sunset apologized for the thirty-third time since they bumped into one another. Something that was getting more annoying than the foal snoring and drooling on her back.

Sunset let out a disgruntled breath. “It’s fine,” she grumbled loud enough to be heard before trotting upstairs.

Right as she got to the top of the stairs, Sunset stopped as a stallion with a dark blue coat stepped out of the second floor family bathroom with a small hand towel in his magic.

Although it wasn’t the first time she had seen Twilight’s father, with their first meeting being on a dark street and their second having several sheets of newspaper between them, Sunset realized that this was the first time she had gotten a good look at Twilight’s dad.

Looking at the stallion really made Sunset wonder where Cadance got the idea that Shiny was supposed to grow up into a hottie. Nightlight was everything Sunset expected to see from an adult nerd that didn’t get to drive to work everyday. He was kind of fit, but nowhere near what the palace guards were.

Which, come to think of it, might have spoiled me when it comes to stallions, Sunset realized. Either that, or filled her life with so much muscle that the idea of dating a pony associated with Captain Hard Line was a subconscious turn-off for her.

“Princess Sunset Shimmer,” the stallion said before putting himself into a bow.

For her part, Sunset managed to acknowledge the gesture without being too off putting. All she had to do was remind herself that Night Light wasn’t Twilight’s mom and deserved a bit more patience than the mare Sunset had spent the day with. “Hello Sir. Let me just put Twilight down for her nap, and then I’ll speak with you and your wife.”

With that, she took the towel and headed into Twilight's room to grab the little filly in her magic and flip Twilight around before pulling back the sheets to set her down on the bed and tuck her in.

Unfortunately, as soon as Sunset pulled the sheets back over the purple pony, Twilight let out a tiny, almost disappointed moan and slowly opened her eyes.

“Wha?” the lavender unicorn mumbled mumbled as she crawled her way back to consciousness. “Princess Sunset? What’s...going on?”

Sunset smiled down at the little filly and used a wing to brush a lock of hair away from Twilight’s eyes. With the way her strength tended to act up, a hoof would have probably been too...fatal. “Hey there girl. Sorry if I woke you. But, you're home, safe and sound,” she said before smiling down at the little pony. “Feeling okay?”

After getting stared at by some half-lidded eyes for a few seconds, Sunset had to fight the urge to just snatch the little filly up in a hug as Twilight let out a yawn big enough to let Sunset see her uvula. “Tired.”

“Well, you did have a pretty big day today,” Sunset replied in a soft voice before she took a second to look around the room and found the little gray doll Twilight had introduced her to. She took it up in her magic, and brought the toy over to its owner. “Do you want to hold him?”

Twilight nodded and held out her forelegs. “Smarty Pants,” she mumbled before grabbing the doll that was barely smaller than she was before letting out a yawn. “Princess, can I see you again tomorrow too?”

Although she certainly had better things to do, Sunset disregarded that fact in favor of not upsetting the little unicorn. “I’ll give you some more magic lessons, and you can show off that horn of yours, okay?”

“Okay,” Twilight agreed after finishing another yawn. “Thank you for tutoring me Princess Sunset. I love you.”

The declaration of affection from Twilight was followed by a crushing weight on Sunset’s heart. What she was doing, it was nothing she deserved thanks for, and especially not in the way Twilight had put it. In fact, if the little unicorn had known the truth about Sunset's there was no doubt in the alicorn’s mind that she would hate and fear the older pony.

The amber alicorn quickly shoved such thoughts to the back of her mind. Twilight wouldn’t learn the truth about Sunset for years. So for now, the fake alicorn decided to concentrate on the present.

To help the filly get back to sleep, Sunset quickly threw a gentle slumbering spell from her horn and into Twilight's face. A second later, the purple filly’s eyes shut again and her grip on the doll relaxed.

And of course, no snoring this time, Sunset noted with a mild frown that quickly faded as she watched Twilight sleep.

Once Sunset was certain Twilight really was asleep and not just faking, since it had been some time since Sunset had needed to put a pony to sleep with magic, she trotted out of the room and headed downstairs.

Which had become a bit of an annoyance since becoming a pony again. Despite the inferior magical abilities and looks, Sunset had to admit that humans did stairs better than quadrupeds. But, thanks to her slow going, which also helped to lighten the sound of hooves on the carpeted stairs, Sunset’s improved hearing was able to make out the voices of the two other ponies in the house long before they detected her approach.

“Oh Nighty, this is even worse than what happened with Spangled Star!” Sunset heard Velvet complain to her husband.

“Now hold on there Twilight, maybe you’re-”

“I am not jumping to conclusions Night Light!” Velvet replied in an emotional voice. “You didn’t see her with Twilight! You know how old Princess Celestia is! She must have taught that mare to pick them while they’re young too, so when Shiny wears out, the princess will have a replacement ready to go. We’re going to lose both our son and our daughter!”

With her confusion and the anger towards original-Twilight’s fear Sunset had managed to push to the side thanks to Twilight-purple’s presence getting the best of her now that the lavender unicorn was no longer present, the amber alicorn stomped downstairs and turned the corner to stand in the living room’s entryway.

Both of the unicorns jumped at her presence, and Sunset made no effort to hide her displeasure as she frowned at Twilight’s parents while looking down at them from her full newfound height. “Just what the buck are you two idiots going on about?” she demanded after marching into the room.

The two ponies were laying on their couch as ponies were supposed to, which meant they were barely above eye level with the cushions, and being glared at by an alicorn that could look down on most full grown stallions.

“P-Princess Sunset!” the mare of the pair exclaimed.

Her husband was a bit more controlled. “Please, Your Highness, my wife has a bit of an overactive imagination when it comes to her worries, and she tends to say the most peculiar things because of it.”

Sunset marched towards the two terrified ponies, and for once, didn’t bother to hide her displeasure at seeing them cower before her for no good reason as she got into a position to completely loom over them. “I asked you a question,” she said in an unamused tone. “Who is Spangled Star, and what are you talking about with this losing Twilight and Shiny junk?”

Twilight Velvet gulped and crawled closer to her husband.

Night Light placed his fetlock on the fetlock of his wife, and looked up at the amber alicorn. “W-Well Princess...in regards to your question...Spangled Star was the daughter of one of our coworkers that...got herself...into trouble.”

“It was all that Lord Affluence’s fault!” Velvet suddenly snapped at her husband with a scowl. Then, her eyes widened and she looked over to Sunset with wide eyes. “I...I mean-”

The amber alicorn raised a hoof, cutting the unicorn off, and took a deep breath. If there was some kind of disassociation going on, which Sunset had a feeling that there was thanks to Velvet’s odd comment, she could...kind of forgive Twilight’s mom for her baseless fear.

If that was what it was, of course.

“Alright,” Sunset said after taking a deep breath to help calm herself down. Then she forced herself to look the part as well. “Let's start with that then. Who’s this Spangled Star, and what happened to her?”

When she got her answer, it came from the light gray mare. “It all started about a year ago. Spangled Star was the daughter of Midnight Watch, my former supervisor,” Velvet began. “She got accepted into the School for Gifted Unicorns, and even received a scholarship because of her magical aptitude.”

Sunset blinked at that little fact, and managed to hide her wince as her memory came into play. Although the amber alicorn had known Celestia gave out assistance with entrance fees, Sunset had always considered it just another ego boost that even though her mother had felt a few dregs of society deserved a helping hand, the fact that none of them had been able to outright replace Sunset herself was just more proof of her superiority.

“During her third year at the school, Star met another pony by the name of Affluence,” the unicorn went on. “He hadn’t inherited his father’s title at the time, but...um…”

Since she could guess the reason for Velvet’s sudden hesitation, Sunset decided to throw her a bone. “You can say whatever you want about the nobility in front of me Ms Velvet,” Sunset assured her in as kind a voice as she could manage. “Before I got my wings, the social standing I had by birth was even less than yours. I may be an alicorn now, and Princess Celestia may be adopting me next month as soon as I’m crowned, but the fact remains that I came from even more simpler beginnings than this.” And she gave the smaller mare a little smile. “And just between you and me, I don’t have any liking for the nobility either.”

After staring at the bigger pony for a few seconds, Velvet closed the little ‘O’ her mouth had formed, and gave the tiniest of grateful smiles before her face became sad again. “Well, at first...everything I heard made it seem like one of those storybook romances. A worldly noble takes an interest in a smart young mare and they fall in love before living happily ever after,” she said before hanging her head. “But a year after they started dating…”

“Let me guess,” Sunset went on softly since it didn’t seem like Velvet was going to continue the story anytime soon. She looked far too distraught for that. “Star got thrown away, or something worse.”

Night Light nodded. “One night, Star told her father that she went to the Affluence home and found another mare nuzzling the colt’s neck...among other things,” he explained. “From what I understand, she tried to get back together with the guy even after that. And it even seemed like it might work out when he finally decided to talk to her again. Only...from what I understand, when Star came back from their meeting, she was so heartbroken, that poor filly couldn’t keep her grades up during her final year and flunked out of Celestia’s School and it just...she just...it ruined her future.”

At that, Velvet finally picked herself up. “And that...that plot hole, he didn’t even care! After he had his fun with her, he just threw her away. She was-she was just a toy to him!”

As Night Light moved to embrace his wife and comfort her again, Sunset felt her anger begin to flare up again. Not over the actions of the noble stallion, the amber alicorn had been certain whatever story the unicorns had been needing to tell her would end badly. What had started the process of stirring Sunset’s anger was that the ponies in front of her were thinking she was just like this stallion that they had heard about.

Just like the students at school.

They thought that she was just using Shining Armor for...fun!

It was almost enough to make the amber alicorn raise her hoof and smack the hell out of the mare in front of her.

All afternoon, Sunset had walked beside Twilight's mother. She had talked to the mare, played with her daughter, and carried her junk. In no way had she ever shown herself to be some egotistical asshole that thought of the other pony as anything less than a creature deserving of both her respect and friendship.

But despite that, Twilight Velvet was still a terrified little pony around the big bad alicorn.

Just like everyone back at that stupid school!

When she hadn’t even done anything to merit that sort of fear this time!

And...despite all of that…

...Sunset couldn’t blame her for being afraid.

The biggest pony in the room took in a deep breath, and let out a long sigh. She looked over to the dark stallion. “I take it that this guy was never held responsible for her...breakdown?”Sunset was certain that there had to be more to it than that. A pony didn’t become a wreck just because somebody else up and walked out on them. It seemed almost foolish that a pony that was at least seventeen years of age would have that kind of reaction to the loss of her boyfriend.

More than likely, she had been counting on the Noble’s connections to help provide for her future, and gave up when that assistance disappeared. That combined with her heartache might have crushed her spirit.

Although...the more...human way of thinking Sunset had gained presented another theory. Everything she knew about the situation was secondhand. It was more than possible that Star had given a ride to the colt, and ended up baking something for him. Something he hadn’t wanted to deal with after finding out about it.

Not...my problem, Sunset told herself.

It was probably just heartbreak. That happened to ponies. Lots of ponies.

Just because it was a stupid reason to throw away her future didn’t mean this mystery mare had an illegitimate foal growing in her belly with connections to a noble house that would be shamed in the eyes of the nobility if the higher ups of Canterlot ever found out about it didn’t mean there was anything else going on other than an overly emotional pony who didn’t know how to handle a breakup.

Mental note, Sunset told herself. Summon mare over to castle later this week, give her a checkup spell, and...fix problem if it really is a pregnancy. And if it wasn’t...Celestia would probably let the girl back in school to graduate a year late if Sunset asked her to.

Nightlight sighed and shook his head. “Technically, nothing he did was against the law,” the stallion told her sadly, making Sunset focus on the matter at hand.

When her husband finished talking, Velvet took in a sniffling breath, and Sunset...realized that towering over the two ponies wasn’t helping her to calm down any. So she backed away and sat down on the carpet. But the idea of laying down completely was tossed away because Sunset wanted the two ponies in front of her to see how serious she was.

As she waited for Velvet to calm down some more, Sunset found her mind wandering to the side topic of what both this conversation, and the next one would be about.

Toys. Pretties. Accessories. Nobles had dozens of names for them, but they all boiled down to the same thing: lesser-off ponies that had something a richer pony wanted, from looks and sexual skills, to brains and magical talent, but without enough common sense to see that they were being bought by the rich pony seducing them.

Okay well, I suppose some do, Sunset corrected herself. She had been to a few high-class parties thanks to her status as Celestia’s student, parties where some of the arm candy pretty much knew what they were, and rolled with it. When it came down to it, Sunset didn’t know if she respected those particular ponies a bit more for actually using the nobles in turn, or lost all respect for them since they were outright whores.

But before she could come to a decision on the matter, Sunset noticed that Velvet had settled down, and needed to be set straight. “Alright, I know you’re afraid for your son. So I’ll forget the insulting way that you’ve been thinking of me practically since we first met,” she told them evenly. “Now, let me just say right out that I love your son, and your daughter.”

When Velvet tensed at the declaration, Sunset had to stop herself from shouting ‘OH COME ON!’ at the mare, and simply went on in a controlled voice. “I adore Twilight Sparkle, and I will give her the world on a silver platter while wanting nothing more in turn from her than a thank you and a promise not to let my hopes in her down.” Although, Sunset had to admit to herself that the way the little purple filly looked up the amber alicorn like she was the one that raised the sun and moved the moon instead of Celestia did make Sunset stand up a little straighter. She liked showing off in front of Twilight.

“As for Shining Armor...I’ll be honest with the two of you. I’m not certain what the love I feel towards him is,” she told them. “He is one of my best friends, a pony I both respect and admire. I will admit that I am physically attracted to him, but I have too much respect for your son to turn him into some kind of...sex toy that I show off at parties. And if he wants to pursue a relationship with me, and if I...figure things out in that way…” Sunset took a second to restore her faltering image. “Then I will treat him as a special somepony deserves to be treated. Just as you treat your husband, Mrs. Velvet.”

And, as Sunset took in another breath, she thought of one last thing to stay to help calm their nerves. Not that it really mattered since she was due to depart soon. “If the two of you will let me, that is.”

The uneasy request made Velvet’s ears perk up. “What?”

Sunset blinked, unsure where that last bit had come from. She took a second to lick her lips and buy some more time to gather her thoughts. “Look, I said I was concerned about Shiny’s happiness. But he can’t be happy with me, or whatever pony he does want to be with if the two of you don’t approve of the relationship, whether he chooses me or Cadance,” she explained. “So...if you want me to...I’ll back away. Shiny doesn’t even have to know. I’ll stay his friend, but that’s it.”

Both of the ponies on the couch took a whole minute to stare at Sunset before they shared a baffled look with each other, and then looked back to the amber alicorn.

“Wait,” Nightlight spoke up. “What does Princess Cadance have to do with any of this?”

After the bell rang and signaled the end of the school day, Cadance packed up her saddlebags and made a beeline for the front of the school’s main entrance. Once she achieved her freedom from the academic prison, the pink alicorn flew off to the side to avoid the rest of the stampede, and found a seat under a tree to wait in the shade for her best male friend.

Unfortunately, that ended up taking a little while since Shiny lacked enough strength to muscle his way through the crowd, wings to fly over it, or enough social standing to just make everypony get out of his way.

So, Cadance found herself alone with her thoughts. Something that she was finding was not a good thing as of late. Because then the pink princess didn’t have anything to distract her from the fact that her best friend’s love life was a doomed mess of a disaster that threatened to bring about the end of the world!

If Sunset hooked up with Shiny, she would spend her eternity wallowing in misery, with her only hope for some joy coming through some vicarious path, like being somepony else’s pen pal!

But Cadance's future with the amber alicorn promised something even worse! Every time Cadance tried to plot out their future together, a shadow enveloped their path shortly after Celestia was due to die, and Sunset emerged from the darkness alone.

It was both depressing and infuriating. She was the Princess of Love, the alicorn whose destiny it was to give couples happiness for the rest of their lives. She had done it all the time back in her home village. So how the hay is it that I can’t even find a happy romance for my best friend? Cadance demanded.

What really irked her was that it didn’t seem to matter who Sunset ended up with. Shiny’s friends, Fleur, Cadance had even tried plotting out a relationship between Buck Withers and the overgrown alicorn! Although, there was some light at the end of that particular tunnel. The fact that the last prediction ended with Sunset decking the muscle head five minutes into their first date only confirmed Cadance’s abilities were still working just fine.

“Well hey there baby, nice to see you waiting for me.”

The deep voice caused Cadance's train of thought to derail, and she looked up from the spot on the grass she had been frowning at to see the larger than average earth pony standing over her with his letter jacket still on his back.

“Hello Buck,” Cadance replied, forcing herself to keep an even tone since she was a princess and had to act with a certain amount of decorum in public. Internally, the pink princess was retching and kicking herself in the gut. Speak of the centaur, and one shall appear.

Completely missing the signs Cadance was shouting at him with her neutral expression, tone, and flicking tail that moved as if to shoo away a fly, Buck smirked down at her. “So hey listen, I’m not one of those nerds or anything, but I’ve got some tickets to this big replay opening on Friday, and I decided to let you go with me.”

The love expert in Cadance wanted to cover her face with a hoof. With the sheer amount of arrogance Buck was displaying, the only kind of mare that he could ever hope to land was one of those shallow fillies that only cared about big muscles and game scores.

But the princess that had been hanging out with Sunset for the past several days wanted to cover Buck’s face with her hoof...hard, and multiple times. The fact that idiot thought he could just waltz up to her after what he had done to one of her best friends infuriated Cadance on so many levels. It made her seriously think about taking a page out of Sunset's book and practicing a crystal conjuration spell so she could smash the stallion’s head in with something big and hard.

Something like a hammer.

A big crystal hammer.

After seriously considering option two for a few seconds, Cadance blinked she saw another path open up for her that was a bit more her style, although still pretty Sunset. Completely ignoring the big colt next to her, the pink princess bolted up and stepped forward to wave a foreleg at the young white stallion that had just walked out of the school. “Shiny! Over here,” Cadance called out excitedly before moving past the earth pony as if she had completely forgotten about Buck the moment the blue-maned unicorn appeared.

Shining Armor trotted over with a little smile on his face before he got into the shade and noticed the pony with her. “Hey Cadance what’s...Buck doing here?” he asked in worry as the pink alicorn went around behind his back to stand beside the stallion.

For a tenth of a half of a second, Cadance found herself hesitating. What she was about to do would probably start a whole new batch of rumors involving herself and Shining Armor. But it would also, as Sunset would say, put Buck Withers in his proper place.

So she threw her wing around Shining Armor's back and pulled the stallion close until their sides were touching in the classical pegasi declination of love that told every other pony that was bothering to look in Cadance’s general direction that Shiny was her stallion. Then, to add insult to injury, Cadance leaned in close to nuzzle the white unicorn as she spoke. “Oh Shiny, Buck was just inviting me to go see a play with him this weekend,” she said before moving her cheek off of Shining’s neck to look at Buck. “And I was just about to tell him that I was already going there on a date with you.”

Then Cadance’s instincts took over, and she completed the little lovey-dovey scene with a kiss on the unicorn’s cheek. It wasn’t just a peck either. Lips to coat contact lasted a good three seconds, and enough suction was achieved to pull Shiny’s head a few inches when Cadance disconnected her mouth from his face.

After that, she used her wing to guide the stunned stallion away from Buck, and trotted away from the overgrown colt with the tiniest bit of sway in her hips to show off her perfect plot that he would never have. A plot Cadance had just shouted to the whole school was Shining Armor’s personal plaything.

Not Buck’s.

Unfortunately, after they had gotten two blocks away from the school, with Shining Armor still in Cadance’s embrace, the pink princess’s more rational mind took over, and she looked over to the young stallion next to her.

The young stallion that was still under her wing.

The young stallion that all of the school now knew she was dating.

The young stallion she had just kissed.

Cadance blinked. She withdrew her wing. And stepped to the side before falling on her plot and covering her face with her hooves to let out a loud groan. “Ugh! I can’t believe I just did that!” the pink princess exclaimed before she looked over to the blushing stallion and tried to think of just how she was supposed to apologize for that.

“C-Cadance? What was-”

“Oh Shiny, I’m so sorry!” she began before deciding on the explanation route to keep her stallion in the loop. “I just-Buck just cantered on up to me and was acting all smug, and I just wanted to put him in his place and show him what a real stallion was like, and you were there and I just…” Cadance stopped her rant and let out a loud sigh. “I...I just wanted to hurt him, and I ended up… I’m sorry Shiny. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.” Cadance dropped her head in shame.

A fetlock fell on the princess’s shoulder, and she looked up to see Shining Armor smiling at her. “It’s okay,” he said.

Cadance shook her head. “No it’s not!” she told him before meeting the stallion's beautiful blue eyes. “And it’s not just this either! Ever since I heard that Sunset likes you, and you were up for giving her a try, I’ve been shoving the two of you together as fast as I could.

“Real love doesn't work like that!” Cadance went on as her guilt over her actions began to compound. “Sure, the passionate stuff does, but real, lasting love needs time to grow and take root. And I’ve been treating the hookup phase of your relationship with Sunset like it was some quick fling all because I’m getting some stupid feeling that if you and Sunset don't cement your relationship by the end of next week, then it’ll ruin any chance you have of ever getting together!”

Shiny’s eyes widened in obvious panic at the problem. “W-What?”

Cadance sighed and shook her head at her own foolish exaggeration. “Okay, it’s not that bad,” she admitted. “But even if you do there’s also…” In her mind’s eye, Cadance saw a Sunset as big as Celestia crying over the wrinkled corpse of Shining Armor before she locked away her heart for the rest of her days.

“There’s also what?” Shiny asked.

Since Shining really didn’t need any more on his plate, Cadance decided to give him at least a little reassurance. “Look, if you can get Sunset to love you by the end of next week, then she will love you until the day you die.”

Only, Cadance didn’t know if that was such a good idea anymore, even with every single instinct the alicorn had screaming at her that the two of them would be nearly perfect together. And not just in their own little world either, Cadance would mesh perfectly with Shining Armor’s family. She didn’t even need to examine things to see that after meeting Twilight and hearing Sunset’s stories about the purple pony.

“But what about you?”

Shiny’s question made Cadance’s mind drift to her own potential future with Sunset after the bigger alicorn went full-on High Princess of Equestria and took Celestia’s place. There would be so much passionate heat in their relationship that Cadance would find herself unable to keep up despite love being her talent.

And then...they would be torn apart…

The thought of such a thing happening made Cadance hang her head. “Yes, I carry a torch for Sunset so hot I could sweat in the middle of Winter,” she admitted. “But she won't even begin to look at me like that.”

“Right, you...said something about that this morning,” replied in an uneasy tone. The poor guy had probably been hoping that it had all been a fluke since he failed to bring it up at lunch.

An uncomfortable silence descends on the two ponies, and the slowly stood up to begin trotting down the street. Cadance got only three steps before Shining Armor spoke again. “That must be hard for you.”

The princess nearly stumbled, and looked back to the young stallion standing behind her. “Huh?”

“You liking Sunset,” he clarified. “I mean, you two spend so much time together, with you having feelings for her, and Sunset not even knowing about it.”

Cadance blinked once. And then twice. Followed by a third time. The guy in front of her had just heard that the only real competition for Sunset’s affections wasn’t even a factor, and instead of feeling good about it, he was trying to comfort her.

It was...more than a little sweet.

Noble.

And...

The reminder as to why Sunset liked the stallion so much put a little smile on Cadance’s face as she waited until Shiny caught up to her so she could give him a thankful nuzzle before the pink princess swung herself around to lean on the unicorn just a little bit. If he wanted to offer her some support, Cadance wasn’t about to deny it.

It would make him feel less guilty.

“Thanks Shiny.”

They continued on at a matching pace for a little while longer before Shining spoke again. “So...why don’t you tell her?”

Cadance found herself assaulted by a vision of a gigantic Sunset Shimmer with fiery hair and bat-like wings standing over an enslaved Equestria. But instead of just giving him the answer, the pink princess decided on the long route to knowledge that Princess Celestia seemed to favor. “Do you remember the first thing I taught you about love?”

A few seconds later, Shining Armor frowned as he replied to the question. “That it’s more confusing than anything else in the world and makes you really scary?”

Cadance didn’t appreciate the joke. “It’s about caring for somepony else more than you care for yourself,” she reminded him with a frown and a sideways glance before her own future with Sunset made the pink pony slump a little. “She doesn’t need the distraction of my affections right now, and you’d make her happier than I ever could.”

So, she couldn’t be selfish. Shining Armor and Sunset would be happy until the end of the stallion’s days. Sunset needed his love. And Shining Armor…

“W-What about you though? And um...me,” he added uneasily a second later.

Cadance picked her head off of the place it had been laying on Shiny’s neck, and failed to hide her trepidation as the answer came to mind. She didn’t want to tell him, but at the same time, the stallion deserved to know. “We’ll live happily ever after for the rest of our lives in a crystal palace, with a few foals. Although the first one will cause a bit of an uproar…don’t know why though.”

They turned the street corner, and Cadance absently noted that Shining was following her lead rather than separating and heading home. She didn’t question it though. At the moment, she needed a friend to lean on and a reason to hold herself together. Shiny gave her both.

“It’s not right.”

Cadance blinked, and stopped walking before she shifted her weight off of the stallion to look at him. “What do you mean, Shiny?”

The unicorn shook his head. “I mean you and Sunset!” he exclaimed. “You’ve known her for longer, and then I just-”

Seeing where Shining’s rant was going, Cadance placed a hoof over his lips to stop him from saying anything else a she gave a little laugh at the ignorant stallion’s attitude. “That’s not the way love works Shiny.”

It was sweet though, and admirable. Cadance couldn’t deny that. Another reason on the long list of traits that made him such a good friend and perfect coltfriend material. He was just so supportive, and fair-minded, and… Okay really need to kill this line of thought before it can go anywhere else, Cadance told herself as she took in a deep breath to help still her beating heart.

To keep her mind off Shiny’s kind acts and words, Cadance focused on the upcoming meeting with Minister Board. Since it would probably go over better if she took a more diplomatic route than something Sunset would do, like just ordering the older pony to get rid of Cinch, Cadance found herself studying Shining Armor for reasons other than his less than impressive physique. Like how he knew firsthoof how slanted the disciplinary action of Canterlot Academy was.

“Shiny, I have a meeting with the Minister of Education today over some things that have been going on in school. Would you mind coming with me?” Cadance asked. “He’s probably want to hear from a student that’s attended the school for more than four weeks.”

By the time Shining and Cadance made it to the place the pink alicorn needed to go, the unicorn’s head was spinning as it tried to make sense of everything Cadance had been going on about at the start of their half-hour trip. He was dimly aware of the mare in the front office telling the pink princess where to find the stallion Cadance was looking for before they were off again.

Of course Cadance didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and Shining couldn’t really blame her. She had probably had a thing for Sunset since she came to Canterlot, and Shining had just galloped in and snatched her away from the pink princess.

Thinking about it like that… No wonder Cadance’s been so aggressive towards me, Shining realized. In that light, the fact that she was helping him to try and get Sunset at all was pretty amazing.

And then there was that whole thing where Sunset told him Cadance liked Shining too, which Cadance herself had admitted to. The whole idea had seemed crazy to Shining Armor when the pink princess had told him on the trot to school, but after that meeting with Buck, and that kiss…

Shining blushed at the memory of Cadance’s lips on his cheek, her silky soft coat pressed up against his own, her beautiful wing thrown across his back, with some of her feathers curling around the base of his tail as she gently pushed him away from the threatening earth pony.

But she also liked Sunset. Something that made so much more sense in the stallion’s head. Yet it was also so confusing, because for some reason, Sunset didn’t like Cadance back!

Is that what she meant by the friend zone? Shining asked himself as he kept pace with the pink mare moving through the halls ahead of him. No wonder she was so...that when she talked about it.

“So, let me get this straight,” Shining said to get Cadance’s attention after they stopped at another door with the words Minister Board written on the nameplate. “Sunset said you like me, and you sort of do, but you also don’t because I haven’t really done anything super cool like Sunset, who you also like because she’s um...really amazing, which is why you say I like her, but the reason she likes me is because I’m well...not amazing, which is a bad thing, and the reason she won’t like you back is because she’s your friend.”

“Wait, you’re still going on about…” Cadance looked up at the ceiling and sighed before she turned her attention back to Shining Armor. “No, the thing with me and Sunset not being a romantic issue is because of Sunset’s guilt,” the pink princess grumbled as she rolled her eyes. “That stupid mare is still hung up on a bunch of junk that’s done and over with. It’s stupid, and annoying, and...ugh!”

As Cadance made her annoyed/disgusted grunt, Shining Armor lowered his ears. The idea that the other alicorn might throw her crown into the ring for Sunset’s attention made Shining feel weird. On one hoof, he was unbelievably thankful he didn’t have to compete with the Princess of Love for Sunset's affections. But on the other…Princess Cadance was the better pony. If Sunset deserved to be with anypony, it was Cadance.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Shining Armor blinked and looked back to Cadance to see the scary alicorn glaring at him. “Huh?” the confused stallion asked. What’d I do?

A hoof poked Shining in the chest hard enough to make him step back. “Don’t you put that look on your face! I know that look,” Cadance told him before she got in inch from his muzzle. “That's the same look Sunset had when she got that stupid idea about how you and I would make a better couple, and decided to make us go on a date! So you are not about to try and jump ship just because you got this crazy idea in your head about me and Sunset!”

Shiny gulped from his place under Cadance’s glare. “Y-Yes Princess!”

Then, the gaze that Cadance was giving Shining Armor abruptly vanished before she fell back on her plot and sighed. “I’m sorry Shiny,” she apologized. “It’s just been a real stressful day for me.”

“It’s okay,” he assured her before putting his hoof on her shoulder, something Shining was actually becoming a little used to with a the panicky ponies that were filling his life.

Cadance shook her head. “No, I….ugh,” she said before sighing. “And now I’m the one guilt tripping herself.”

After taking a deep breath, Cadance let out a long sigh as she reached out with a hoof to touch Shining Armor’s shoulder. “Thank you for accepting my apology Shiny,” she said before moving in close to nuzzle the stallion and talk some more. “Let’s just move past this and focus on-”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened as an amber alicorn came around the corner. “S-SUNSET!”

“Right!” Cadance said as she pulled her head away from the stallion. Then she frowned when she saw Shining’s face. “What?”

With her presence still unknown to Cadance, Sunset put on a smile and trotted up behind her until she was less than a foreleg’s reach away. “Awwww, don’t stop now, the two of you look so cute together.”

The pink princess’s back went rigid as she got up and spun around so quickly Shining Armor narrowly avoided getting smacked in the face by her flank. “S-Sunset! We were just-”

“About to kiss?” the amber alicorn cut in before she sat down and waved them on with one of her hooves. “Well don’t let me stop you. Go on now. You got to watch me do it with Shiny when we were in that dream tower. Turnabout's fair play and all that.”

Shining Armor blinked as his lips and tonsils tingled at the memory of his first kiss thanks to Sunset’s words.

“We already did that!” Cadance quickly replied with a frown...that quickly turned into wide-eyed panic. “I mean-”

Since he didn’t want Cadance to dig him in any deeper, Shining Armor quickly interjected the factual events of the pink princess’s lips on his body. “It was on the cheek!”

Cadance nodded. “Right, the cheek!” She agreed, making the spot where she touched Shining’s body tingle as he remembered that particular interaction between the two of them. It had been a nice kiss.

The smile on Sunset’s face turned into a grin, and Shining Armor blinked at the blizzard occurrence of Sunset acting like the matchmaker while Cadance was the one on the defensive. “So what else did the two of you do?”

“Well, after Cadance got rid of Buck-”

Sunset’s smile disappeared in a instant. “What?” she demanded before dashing over go get right in front of the white unicorn to look him over as she continued to talk. “Buck tried to mess with you again? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Her face twisted into one of rage. “If he hurt you, I’ll-”

Before Sunset could finish, Cadance put a hoof on her shoulder from behind. “It’s okay,” she assured the amber alicorn. “He wanted to ask me to the play this Friday. That’s also why I kissed Shiny. I told Buck the two of us were going to the play instead, and made it sound like a private date instead of a group outing.”

Shining Armor blinked as Sunset visibly relaxed, and then lead forward to nuzzle her neck with his cheek. “Well, nice to know you still care,” the unicorn told the amber alicorn a second before he felt one of her big wings fall across his back and pull him into a hug.

Then he blinked when she pushed Shining back and held him at foreleg-length. “What are you-of course I care about you Shiny!” Sunset said before her expression turned to one of pain. “Why would you think I didn’t?”

With Sunset playing the hurt victim, Shining Armor couldn’t help but frown in annoyance. “Well I don’t know, maybe because you’re trying to shove me onto Cadance,” he said in a slightly disgruntled tone.

And only then did Shining Armor realize what he had said.

To an alicorn...that he had seen take out a dragon with casual ease.

Then, the alicorn that could make the whole city shake with a stomp of her hoof lowered her horn that could channel more magic than Shining Armor could comprehend, and sighed pathetically as her ears drooped along with her expression. “But...Cadance would be a much better fillyfriend to you than I could ever be.”

Behind him, Cadance made a noise of agreement so clear Shining could practically see her head nodding. “Yeah, can’t really argue with that one,” she said before her voice dropped so low the unicorn could just barely make it out. “Unfortunately.”

Shiny Armor slumped his shoulders. “Thanks for the backup Cadance.”

“Just calling them like I’ve see them,” the princess replied as Shining Armor looked back at her with a frown. “Although…short term, Sunset is definitely the better pick.”

After hearing the compliment, Sunset’s eyes widened in horror for a second before she glared at Cadance. “No I’m not! I’m manipulative, intimidating, and sexually predatory!” she insisted before she glanced back to Shining for a second and turned her full attention towards him. “And what the hay are you doing here anyway? We’re supposed to be meeting with the Minister.”

“I thought Shiny could tell him about everything that Cinch has let slide during her time as principal,” Cadance replied. “And when it comes to how I’ve been acting in Shining’s case, I’ve been far too judgmental, overbearing, and controlling.”

Sunset snorted hard enough to displace the air around her nose. “Please, that just means you care about him and want everything to be perfect for us. I’m the one who just hooked up with him because he’s got a penis!”

It was a comment that made Shining Armor blush and look down at himself. He really wasn’t all that impressive in the lower horn department. Maybe a bit bigger than the average unicorn, but earth ponies were the ones with the best...equipment below the barrel.

“Can we please just go meet with this Board guy now?” Shining Armor asked before the girls could really get into which of them was the worse fillyfriend. An argument Shining knew would have a bad ending in his case no matter which mare won.

Both of the alicorns turned their attention to the unicorn...and let out deflating sighs.

“Okay,” Sunset agreed.

“Sure thing Shiny,” Cadance added a moment later.

Sunset fought the urge to stomp a hoof through the floor as Shining Armor finished listing the rather large amount of humiliations and injuries that had been inflicted on him and his friends by the head bully of Canterlot Academy and all of Buck’s underlings. While the amber alicorn had a rather extensive list of crimes attributed to her own name, the more physical pains that brute had put her stallion through made Sunset’s blood boil.

“Oh Shiny,” Cadance said sympathetically before she reached out and took his fetlock in hers.

The action put things into perspective for Sunset, and she slowly breathed through her nose to try and calm down. After a few breaths, the lesser solar alicorn threw out a wing and laid it across Shiny’s back. Supporting her stallion was more important than vengeance right now.

Across from the table in front of them, a heavyset brown stallion with a dark blue mane and thick glasses nodded at Shining Armor’s story. He had been unnaturally calm during the exchange in Sunset’s opinion, for a pony anyway.

“So then Princess Cadance, what exactly is it that you want done about Principal Cinch?” Board asked with his hooves joined together in front of him.

Sunset didn’t let the other alicorn answer. “We want her fired, disbarred, and imprisoned!”

On the other side of his desk, Board looked over to Sunset. “Princess Sunset, while I can certainly get the ball rolling on the first two, I would suggest consulting the captain of your guard for the third,” he told her.

Sunset’s eye twitched at the thought of going to that poor excuse of an elitist stallion for anything as the bureaucrat continued to talk. “And I feel a need to remind you of what will happen after Cinch is removed from her position.”

“You mean how the entire sports team of the Academy will be locked up for what they did to Shiny?” the amber alicorn asked with a deadpan expression and voice.

The minister shook his head. “Princess, while Cinch’s claims that the public will turn against the two of you should she be removed are little more than embellishment on her part, it really would look better if you at least have some kind of evidence. The two of you acting like minotaurs on the birth of your political careers will cause more than one headache as the years go by.”

While Sunset snorted at the stallion’s suggestion as only a creature with hooves could, she refrained from yelling at the idiot when she saw Cadance giving her a look out of the corner of her eye. Instead of co running the debate, Sunset stepped back and let her friend take the lead.

“But that’s what I brought Shining Armor for,” the pink princess said. “He told you what happened to him, and Cinch did nothing when I reported it! How is that not proof?”

Minister Board nodded. “Under normal circumstances, that would be enough to have an investigation done. And while your involvement in this matter makes such things moot, I would prefer that there be some sort of physical evidence if we are going to skip straight to Cinch’s removal. You gathering it would also give me time to have a proper replacement for the mare found.”

Once again, Sunset had to stop herself from putting the government employee in his place. Cadance...this is Cadance’s thing. You let her take the lead. You’re a good friend, you don’t steal the spotlight and constantly remind someone of a stupid mistake that happened months ago over and over again, even after everyone has long since forgiven you, the amber alicorn told herself before she reached up to rub a spot under her horn.

Okay so...if I do come out the other side of the mirror as some super athletic amazon, I’ll take a few minutes to humble Dash when she comes to school next year, and that’ll make us even, Sunset compromised with the irritation she felt towards the rainbow-haired human.

Her pettiness satisfied, she turned her attention back to the prettier princess right as she finished considering something. “But where am I supposed to get something like that?” Cadance demanded.

At that, Sunset couldn’t help but raise a hoof. “Well, I can get something like that easily enough tomorrow,” she said as the skeleton of a plan formed in her mind. She turned her head back to the Minister. “That enough time to find a replacement?”

Although most of the day after Cadance had concluded her meeting with Minister Board went well enough, with Shining saying his goodbyes and Sunset informing Cadance she had already been to Twilight’s house to both cheer the filly up and get to the bottom of Velvet’s odd behavior, the amber alicorn was disturbingly cryptic whenever the pink princess asked her to divulge her plan for getting rid of Cinch.

All Cadance knew after an hour of questioning Sunset was that it would make Celestia proud of the pink princess, and they would need to leave early tomorrow morning to get everything ready.

Unfortunately the distraction of Sunset being all mysterious, which Cadance was pretty certain was just her friend doing something to get under the pink alicorn’s coat was a major distraction when it came to her magical training. Much to the pretty princess’s annoyance. Which in turn just made learning the ancient form of magic all the harder.

Like all good Equestrian magic, the mystical formula for crystalmancy involved an emotional component. However, unlike most of the magic unicorns wielded in modern Equestria, emotion was the fuel for the Crystal Empire’s magic, not the focusing element. A pony simply couldn’t think of her friends as she cast a spell fueled by her love for them. She had to let it wash over her, let it drive her, guide her and help focus the magic as much as her horn did.

And the distracting thoughts meant that Cadance couldn’t focus on the emotional requirement for crystal magic clearly enough to properly form a proper construct. Something Sunset said she needed to learn to do, as nobody was going to give her time to think about pink hearts and butterflies in the middle of combat.

A problem Sunset gave her a very lewd solution to when the amber alicorn followed the pink princess into the giant bathtub Celestia’s daughter had installed in the floor.

“Just think of what it would be like to have Shiny over your back, with your barrel on the bed,” Sunset suggested as she sank into the water and let out a moan that came off as much too sexual for Cadance’s liking. “I can even give you his approximate measurements if it will help.”

Cadance gave her friend a level look. “First off, there is a big difference between love and lust. And why would I need his measure-” Seeing Sunset’s smirk, the pretty princess’s eyes eyes went wide. “OH SWEET CELESTIA! H-How do you...that...you mean you...and Shiny…”

A sudden force surrounded Cadance, and she found herself pulled close to the bigger mare before Sunset threw out a wing to wrap around her back and pull the pink pony in close as she forced Cadance to sit down in the small pool. “Relax Cadance. It’s an approximation.”

Being put under Sunset’s wing again made Cadance’s heart skip a beat, and she leaned in close to enjoy the physical contact. “Oh…” she mumbled before nuzzling her friend. “Sorry for thinking...um…”

“Okay, okay,” Sunset told Cadance before she pushed the smaller alicorn away from the wonderful feeling of her touch. “You feel plenty relaxed, so let’s get back to work, alright? Calm your mind, draw the magic into your horn, and then focus on your...uh...loved ones.”

It wasn’t what the book had told her to do, but Cadance didn’t bother to correct Sunset as she went through the proper motions for creating a crystal construct. She closed her eyes to eliminate the distractions, and didn’t draw on anything as she let her mind wander to thoughts of her...~~parents~~...loved one.

The image of Sunset appeared in Cadance’s mind, followed by the sensation that came with being held by the amber alicorn. Although the physical desire was there, it was a far second to the warmth the pink princess felt build in her chest at the thought of Sunset Shimmer. Her protector. Her teacher. Her friend.

Her...beloved…

A sound of glass breaking made Cadance open her eyes before a wall of amber feathers swung around to nearly block all of the pink pony’s sight. She didn’t need to ask what happened. “Instability again?”

“Yeah,” Cadance said before she let out a dejected sigh and went back to leaning on Sunset.

The other alicorn added a foreleg to the wing she had across Cadance’s back. “Sorry, I was hoping the warm water would have helped you relax.”

After hearing that Sunset blamed herself for Cadance’s failure, the pink princess let out a tiny breath through her nose and pulled away from the other alicorn. “No you’re…” Cadance blinked at the sight of her crush.

The bath water and moisture it put in the air had done its work. Even the parts of Sunset’s coat that hadn’t been submerged clung to her body to show off just how amazingly athletic the amber alicorn’s ascension had made Sunset. Every curve that a pony’s coat usually hid was laid bare to Cadance’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but like what she saw.

I should tell her how I feel, Cadance thought before she could stop herself.

She had seen how things were going to go between her and Sunset. Even if the amber alicorn wasn’t going to turn into some kind of mare-demon, the future of the two princess didn’t look all that bright.

“Cadance?”

Hearing her name snapped the pink princess out of her daze. “Wha-oh! Sorry Sunset, I just...blanked out for a second there.”

Sunset frowned at Cadance and stood up to lean in close until the pink princess could feel the breath coming from her muzzle. She gulped at how close the amber alicorn was as Sunset’s horn lit up, and how much she wanted her to just move a step closer and press her lips against Cadance’s coat, wrap her wonderful wings around the smaller alicorn’s body, and sink her hooves into the heart on the pink pony’s plot.

The air became even heavier as Cadance forced oxygen into her lungs while her desire went to war with her better nature. No...that’s not...Sunset needs me as a friend right now. She...I nearly ruined everything between her and Celestia because I didn’t see what I was doing to her. SO STOP THINKING ABOUT HER LIKE THAT! Cadance shouted at the mental image of Sunset ravishing the pink princess in all the right ways.

“Increased heart-rate, shortness of breath, loss of attention,” the amber alicorn said before she stepped back and the glow around her horn went out. Sunset’s frown became a concerned look as she sat back down on the other end of the tub. “Has anything else weird been going on with you?”

Cadance blinked at the question. With the added distance, Cadance found herself calming down a little. “Huh?”

After her lack of response, Sunset’s eyebrows went back to frowning. “Side effects! What other side effects have you been experiencing?” she demanded. But before Cadance could answer, Sunset let out a groan and shook her head. “Ugh, never mind. I should have known there was a reason Celestia put the book on crystal magic in her forbidden library.”

The odd diagnosis of Sunset’s close proximity to Cadance made the pink princess give her crush an even look. For a pony whose life revolved around love, the amber alicorn’s obliviousness of it was a little off-putting. Seriously? I get all hot and bothered from being next to you, and you think it’s a magical side effect?

“I’m going to go see if Mom knows anything about this,” she mumbled before stepping out of the bath. Halfway to the door, Sunset’s horn lit up and the water still clinging to her coat simply disappeared.

Cadance frowned at the departing pony. “Isn’t it a bit late to go running to Princess Celestia?” The sun had long since set, and that was before they had started practicing with magic.

The question made Sunset stop at the door and look back. “I’m just going to send her a text message.”

With the answer that didn’t really explain everything given, Sunset headed out the door, and Cadance’s curiosity made her move to follow. Unfortunately, Sunset had yet to teach Cadance any instantaneous drying spells, so she had to work a water scrape and towel across her body while she listened to Sunset talk to herself.

“It should be right…”

“Okay...not in the desk…”

Then there was a loud thumping sound, and Cadance looked out into Sunset’s bedroom to see the sheets of her bed rustling before the amber alicorn spoke again. “Not under there either?”

With her coat mostly dry, the pink princess stepped forward. “Sunset, is something wrong?”

The bigger alicorn turned to face Cadance. “You haven’t seen a big thick brown book with my cutie mark on the cover, have you?”

“No,” Cadance said almost automatically before a memory tingled the edge of her consciousness. With a second to think about it, she did remember seeing something like Sunset described. “Wait...I think I might have. It was in Princess Celestia’s room, I think. But that was weeks ago.”

Sunset shook her head. “No, she has one of her own.”

Hearing that she couldn’t help her friend, Cadance’s mood dipped a little. “Oh. Sorry.”

The apology got a hesitant look from Sunset before the alicorn shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said before she looked back over to her desk for a few seconds. “It’s...not like I really need it.”

“What is it?” Cadance asked.

Sunset looked away from her desk and took in a deep breath before letting out a long sigh. “It’s just this thing Mom came up with so we could talk whenever she was...too busy for me,” she said before relaxing just a bit. “It’s not a simple transcription spell. The books are a copy of...each other, really. Whatever happens to one, happens to the other.”

Although Sunset probably saw the mystic books as something good, Cadance frowned at the idea of such things. Just writing to each other when they literally lived a few trots away seemed wrong to her. Parents made time for their children, even if it was only just to talk.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to tell her about your reaction to the magic I guess,” Sunset said before she moved over to her mattress and pulled back the sheets with her magic. “Ready to hit the hay?”

Cadance’s eyes widened as she considered what would happen when Princess Celestia learned of her ‘reaction’ to using the new form of magic. Sunset might have been as blind as a bat when it came to matters of the heart, but her mother wasn’t that dull. “Um, you know...maybe we should wait, before telling Celestia, I mean,” she suggested as Sunset’s eyes narrowed into a scowl. “I um...well, the bath was a little hotter than normal, so I got a little light headed. It would be pretty embarrassing for two grown alicorns to go running to Celestia over something like that, right? Eh-Hehe.”

While it didn’t look like Sunset bought the fake laugh, she eventually nodded. “Okay, I guess I can agree with you on that point,” she said before motioning to the bed with her head. “Now come on. Let’s get some sleep.”

Thankful she had dodged that arrow, Cadance crawled into bed. A second later, Sunset joined her, and the pink princess snuggled deeper into the amber alicorn’s embrace.

Once she had gotten comfortable, Sunset shifted around just a tiny bit, and Cadance could feel the bigger alicorn’s breath on her ear. “So Cadance, now that we’re alone, how was it with Shiny?”

Chapter 16: Operation Female Dog Removal

Sunset carefully knocked on the modest home’s door as not to break anything while she did her best to control the nervous feeling in the back of her head that said everything was going to go wrong today because she was the one walking Shining Armor to school while Cadance was out rounding up the ponies they would be needing later in the day. Although Sunset had offered to do it for her, Cadance had been the one to insist on getting the girls.

And since the pink princess was supposed to be the one taking care of the Cinch problem, according to Celestia at any rate, Sunset let Cadance decide who went where, even if she didn’t know the whole plan as of yet. Which was how Sunset ended up standing outside Twilight’s house as she waited for one of the unicorns inside to open the door.

As soon as it did, Sunset found herself looking down at the light-gray mare that was Twilight Sparkle’s mother. “Um...Mrs. Velvet.”

“Prince-ah...S-Sunset Shimmer,” the other mare repled at almost the exact same time before they both paused for a few moments. Long enough for the unicorn to look past the alicorn and notice the obvious absence of the other pony that should have been there. “Where’s Princess Cadance?”

Well, at least she dropped the title when it comes to me, the amber alicorn told herself while she concentrated on the good part of what Velvet had said to keep a smile on her face. “Cadance is...running some errands before school starts,” Sunset explained as she carefully edged her way around the whole truth. “So I got bored at the palace and decided to come over here a bit earlier than usual. Is that okay?”

The unicorn blinked at the question and put on a smile that Sunset didn’t need years of hobnobbing with the Canterlot elite to see was fake. “Why yes, of-”

“Mrs. Velvet,” Sunset said a little more forcefully to stop the older pony before she could finish. Sunset took a look inside the house and noticed the distinct lack of ponies around the breakfast table, then turned her attention back to the smaller unicorn. “Really, is it okay for me to come in? I know I’m a bit earlier than usual. If you’re too busy for me, I can go do something to keep myself busy for a few minutes.”

After the amber alicorn finished talking, Twilight Velvet gave a tentative glance back into her house. “Well, Night Light and I just got back from work, and I’m about to get started on breakfast.”

Sunset leapt on the opportunity to make herself look a bit more friendly. “Oh! I can help with that!” she exclaimed before remembering she needed to keep herself reeled in and gave a nervous grin as she slinked back down a bit to her less than towering height to help keep the frightful mother from freaking out. “If...you want help, I mean. Um...before becoming an alicorn, I cooked for myself all the time! I even helped one of my friends out at a bakery every now...and...then.” It took some effort to keep the sadness from her face as memories of Pinkie Pie played through Sunset’s head. “S-Sorry...after yesterday, I’m just a little...nervous around you.”

Thankfully, Twilight Velvet didn’t call attention to it, or seem to mind the declaration of invasion into what some mothers considered their sacred ground. The admittance of Sunset’s feelings, although only half-true, made the other pony brighten up just a bit. “Well, of course you can help me dear. Please, come on in!”

Even with the invite, Sunset still felt unsure about the offer. While Velvet had taken her initial offer to help out rather well, Sunset couldn’t shake her unease. After the other pony’s reaction the day before, it seemed a little fast for her to be accepting Sunset into her house again. She gave the mare a worried look. “Are you sure? Mrs. Velvet, the last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable in your own home.”

The comment got a sigh from Twilight Velvet as she looked away from the amber alicorn. “Dear, I’ll admit I was very nervous about your interest in our family. But, I’ve always been a little...worrisome,” she said after taking a minute to search for the right word. Velvet looked back up into Sunset’s eyes with an apologetic expression. “All you’ve ever done is be kind to my foals, and I’ve repaid that with nothing but suspicion and fear because of what happened to somepony else. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you.”

Sunset held up a hoof. “Okay first off, considering how most of the nobility treat the ponies outside their little pampered social circle, I can more than understand you being worried when the highest ranking member of the snob club started taking an interest in your dorky son,” she told the other mare before putting on a little frown. “But can we please stop talking about it? Moving past something is next to impossible when everyone keeps bringing it up every fifteen minutes. And I don’t think we have time to be tripping over each other's apologies when breakfast still needs to be cooked.”

There was a short pause as Velvet seemed to digest the information, and then smiled in a way that made Sunset think of her own mother. “Yes. I suppose you have a point there,” she said before stepping aside. “Alright then...Ms. Shimmer, would you like to give me a horn in the kitchen?”

A smile broke out on the alicorn’s face. “I’d love to!” Sunet replied before she trotted in and headed into the family cooking room. Although, once she arrived in the food preparation area, Sunset’s too human hygienic sensibilities kicked in and made the alicorn look back at the unicorn with a bit of nervousness. “Uh...out of curiosity, you do use your horn for handling all the pans, right?”

Velvet giggled a bit as she moved past Sunset. “Well of course. I’m not going to handle something as hot as a frying pan with my hooves.”

Grateful that she wouldn’t have to explain what would have probably been an odd comment for a pony to ask another, Sunset let Velvet list what needed to be done in short order. The amber alicorn looked around and got out the tomatoes, carrots, onion, and other vegetables that were part of an omelet as well as a melon that would be chopped up to serve as dessert. Thanks to her size, and the fact that the island in the middle of the kitchen would turn Sunset into a road block for the mare that was probably more used to moving around the room freely no matter where the amber alicorn placed herself, Sunset decided to stand in the doorway and handle her carving knife from there.

Halfway through the preparation for the ingredients, Sunset frowned when she noticed something wrong. Whenever she had come to Twilight’s house before, the purple unicorn’s family had eaten much simpler dishes than the omelets with the half a dozen ingredients she was in the middle of slicing. The fact that Velvet was also getting two mixing bowls of batter ready only heightened Sunset’s suspicions.

“Umm...Mrs. Velvet, is there something special going on today?” she asked as Velvet brought out a tin for baking muffins. It isn’t Shiny’s birthday, is it? The possibility was...a less than pleasant complication considering everything else that was going on in Sunset’s life at the moment.

The light-gray unicorn turned back to look at the alicorn. “No. Why do you ask dear?”

Sunset let her expression drop into a half-lidded one as she used a wing to wave at all the food. “Because we’re making omelets, pancakes, muffins, and you’ve got a package of hay-bacon out to fry when the fanciest thing I’ve ever seen Shiny eat for breakfast when I come over is some chopped fruit and oatmeal,” she explained to Twilight’s mom before letting out a sigh. “Please tell me you’re not going through all this because I’m here.”

After a moment’s hesitation, which gave Sunset all the answer she needed, Twilight Velvet cleared her throat and actually held her head up a little bit at the accusation. “Ms Shimmer. If I want to put my best hoof forward for a guest, then it is because I think she is a wonderful young mare that deserves a bit of an apology, then I will do it.”

With Velvet standing up to her, Sunset found herself stunned for a few seconds, before her pegasus-hearing caught something coming from the upstairs.

“Dad, did you use up all the hot water again?”

Sunset’s mind provided the image of a soaking wet Shining Armor, with his coat clinging to his skin as his shivered a bit from the cold water, just begging for a mare with a pair of big, strong wings to warm him up. Then, the shower fantasy was quickly shoved to the side before Sunset’s body could tell everypony what she was thinking about with a grunt, and Sunset focused on something that wasn’t nearly as sexy as her adorable little unicorn snuggling up to her to get warm.

“Okay, well...uh...stuff like muffins take time to bake, time ah...that, you know, we probably don’t have with all the time I wasted talking in the show-doorway! So...let me help you with that,” Sunset said before she barged her way into the cramped kitchen and gently moved Velvet out of her way to stick the tray of muffins into the oven.

Off to the side, Velvet just blinked at the oddity before she turned on the oven and got to work on removing the hay-bacon from its packaging. As she prepared yet another pan to cook the food, Sunset heard the muffled clip clops of something small coming down the stairs. At least until Twilight scampered back up to yell at her father. “What was that, Daddy?”

Velvet sighed and looked out towards the living room that promised to be filled with ponies in the very near future. “Great, they’re already up.”

“Sorry,” Sunset apologized as Velvet looked at the last of the pans she had just finished buttering to cook pancakes in, and the other three pans that were currently cooking eggs and taking up most of the stove. “If I hadn’t come-”

“No,” Velvet said with a shake of her head. “I was the one who stood around like an embarrassed little foal instead of just letting you in, and I was the one who decided to make enough to feed half a dozen ponies when we only needed three-quarters as much. I mean, I’m baking muffins for crying out loud! I haven’t made muffins for breakfast in ages. And I’m going to have to clean all of this up before I get to bed, or it’ll just be harder when noon comes around and it’s all stuck to the pan.”

Sunset licked her lips. “Well then, it’s a good thing that you’re letting me help out,” she said before focusing her attention on the problem at hand.

The eggs for the omelets were nearly done cooking, so the amber alicorn levitated them over to Velvet so the unicorn could add the omelet ingredients the different members of her family prefered while Sunset put a minor heating spell on the pans to make sure they would continue to cook. The free burners were then put to work on heating up the three pancake pans, which Sunset looked away from on check on the muffins that Velvet had put in the oven.

“Well, this is certainly a useful spell,” the unicorn in the corner said as she studied the tiny spots of heat beneath the pans for a few moments before she looked over to Sunset. “Although, unless you want to char broil the muffins, I’m afraid they’re not going to be ready in time.”

The amber alicorn smirked at Velvet’s words as the other pony went to work on chopping up a cantaloupe. “Oh please, I don’t let something a stupid as time stop me from getting what I want,” Sunset said softly before focusing her magic and weaving a small temporal field inside the oven, centered around the tin of baked goods. She kept the amount of power to a minimum, increasing the temporal flow in that one tiny space to only ten times the speed of the world around it.

Then, Sunset simply let a minute pass while Velvet continued her work on the rest of the food, and cut power to the spell shortly afterwards to open up the oven. The blast of heat that came from inside the cooking device was more intense than Sunset had thought it was going to be, but it was nothing too bad. And the food looked fine.

“But-it...you, how did-they should have been in there at least another fifteen minutes,” Velvet mumbled before she hesitantly frowned at the bigger pony. “Princess, I know you probably have more magical ability than half the ponies in Canterlot combined, but please tell me you didn’t just conjure some muffins.”

Sunset winced at the question. It had been over ten years since Princess Celestia had tricked the then little unicorn into eating something willed into existence purely from her magic, and the amber alicorn still felt like throwing up at the mention of it. “Uh...no,” she said while keeping her gag reflex under control. “I just manipulated the flow of time inside the oven to go ten times faster than the world around it. Kind of like an age spell, but centered on a place instead of a pony.”

An astounded blink was all Twilight Velvet could manage for a few seconds, and then she got an expression Sunset could read so well that she didn’t even have to wait for the obvious question when Velvet opened her mouth again. “And before you ask, no. I can’t use the spell to travel through time. Although the nature of the magic would allow me to theoretically manipulate the flow of time into reversing itself within the given area, any thing or pony outside the bubble wouldn’t be affected by the reversal, and thus not exist when time is rewound to the point when they should be in said area, creating a paradox since the matter comprising their existence wasn’t in the temporal bubble to be repositioned as time reversed to go through the motions it isn’t there for. Not to mention the rest of the planet would continue on at its normal pace. And that’s even if the pony manipulating the temporal flow isn’t inside her own bubble, which would rewind her along with everything else and create a kind of infinite time loop since she would continue to try and rewind time whenever she reached the point in her progression that she decided to go back through time in the first place!”

Velvet blinked again as Sunset finished her rant. “Um...that’s very interesting dear. Now, can you pass me the cheese?”

“Um…” Sunset got out as she looked over to her right and grabbed the plastic bag full of shredded cheddar in her magic. “Sorry, it’s just...something I might have looked into and...uh...nevermind.”

Doing her best to hide an embarrassed blush, Sunset turned around and looked at the unpoured batter. She grabbed the beater to whip it up a bit more before Velvet spoke again. “Something on your mind, dear?”

The question got a sigh from Sunset as she pushed the mystery of her current position in the time stream and lack of a past self to the back of her mind. “Sorry it’s just this...question I’ve had some trouble answering as of late,” she said before looking back at the other pony. “I don’t like it when I run into a question with answers that don’t make sense.”

Velvet smiled. “It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with a like pony that. You and Twilight are a lot alike in that way.”

Before Sunset could repudiate the comparison, a quad of hooves came down the stairs so fast that the amber alicorn wondered if somebody had fallen. A second after she heard them hit wood, a little purple pony appeared from around the corner and looked up a Sunset with wide eyes.

As for the amber alicorn, she had to resist the urge to suck in a sharp breath at seeing the filly form of Twilight Sparkle again as a mix of emotions assaulted her only halfway calm mind. Guilt, love, shame, pride, and nearly overwhelming urge to just snatch the little filly up in a hug all demanded Sunset perform a different action before she got herself under control and simply smiled down at the tiny unicorn. Twilight didn’t need a oversized alicorn freaking out or ‘daawing’ at her presence.

“Princess Sunset, what’re you doing here so-oh no!” The little Twilight exclaimed before she started stomping her hooves on the ground in a panic. “Is Shiny late for school? Did we sleep in too much? Mom, why didn’t you wake us up when you got home? If Shiny is counted absent, then his perfect attendance will be ruined and Princess Sunset will break up with-brugh!”

With the little filly quieted down for the moment, Sunset waited until Twilight took a bite of the muffin blocking any further speech. Then she pulled it back as the little lavender unicorn fell back on her butt. “Mmmm, ish good,” she said through her mush-filled mouth.

Sunset rolled her eyes at the little pony, then bent down to get on eye level with the girl. She had always hated it as a filly when adults talked down to her in the physical sense. “Everything’s fine Twilight,” she assured her friend in a gentle voice. “I just showed up a bit early because Cadance had some princess business to do and I got bored lying around the palace by myself. Now…”

She took a moment to gently wrap Twilight up in her magic, and then turned around before sitting the little filly down on her back. After clamping down on the purple unicorn’s rear legs with her wings to make sure the tiny pony wouldn’t fall off, Sunset moved back to the stove and looked back to Twilight Sparkle with a smile. “Now, how many pieces of bacon and pancakes do you want?”

Before the fill could answer, the other Twilight in the room spoke up. “Well, since you seem to have everything well in horn. I’ll go set the table. Celestia knows that if Twilight’s here, the rest of them will be stampeding in soon enough.”

Right after the mother mare took her leave, Sunset found Twilight looking back up at the clock with a scrunched up face. “Something wrong Twilight?”

“I’m trying to calculate the maximum amount of edible food we can prepare in the time allotted based on the average cooking time of a pancake, as opposed to the more time consuming slice of hay-bacon to ensure the meal reaches its full nutritional potential,” she said before the clock on the wall ticked away a minute. “Gaaah! Stop throwing off my calculations!”

Sunset couldn’t help but giggle at the sight. “Relax Twilight. I’ve got-”

“I can’t relax!” Twilight exclaimed. “This is breakfast! The most important meal of the day! If Shiny doesn’t get a proper breakfast, then his grades will suffer! But hay-bancon, despite its increased calorie value, takes several times the amount of time to cook than a pancake! And we can’t put too many pancakes into Shiny to make up for the difference because too much will make him lethargic!”

Once again, Sunset stuffed her muffin into Twilight’s mouth for the little unicorn to chew on. “Relax Twilight. I happen to know a way around this,” she said before taking some slices of hay-bacon in her magic to rip them into little pieces and throw them into a waiting pan.

Shining Armor froze halfway down the stairs as an odd sound reached his ears to accompany the smell of cooked food that had been coaxing him since he got out of the shower.

Makin’ pancakes
Makin’ bacon pancakes
Take some bacon
And put it in a pancake
Bacon pancakes
That’s what we’re gonna make
Bacon pan~caaaaakes

Is that...Sunset? Shining Armor asked himself before he looked at the clock and frowned when it said the time was at least half an hour too early for her to be in his house. But, when he reached the first floor and found his mom away from the stove, the unicorn peeked into the kitchen to find that the cool alicorn really was in his house, and...cooking breakfast with Twilight sitting on her back before she took up their little song.

Makin’ pancakes
Makin’ bacon pancakes
Take some bacon and-ugh!

The bright glow around the little filly’s horn intensified for a few seconds as the hay-bacon in her magical grip shook before the unicorn’s magic winked out completely. The slice of hay-bacon fell an inch before Sunset’s blue glow kept it from hitting the floor, and Twilight gave the amber alicorn she was riding a pitiful look. “I can’t get it.”

“It’s okay Twilight,” Sunset told her number one fan before the bacon in her magic was ripped apart into little bits that the amber alicorn placed in a pan before pouring some pancake batter on top of them. “The fact you can use magic at all at your age is plenty amazing. If you were any more awesome, I might be jealous.”

Twilight blushed at the praise before Sunset came in to rub their noses together, which got a laugh from the little filly before Sunset flipped the pancakes over and looked over at the only stallion on the floor. “Hey Shiny. You want bacon bits in your pancakes, or just the regular kind?”

Twilight’s horn lit up to grab one of the trio laying on a plate near the stove, and she took a bite out of the pancake. “They’re good!” she said with a mouth full of food before gulping. “Both fluffy and crunchy.”

“I am making some more regular ones in case that’s not your thing,” Sunset said before levitating a trio of normal pancakes out of a pan that was on the back burner. “But your mom called dibs on the ones already done for your dad, so there’s only three right now.”

The sight of an alicorn princess just standing there in the middle of his mother’s kitchen made Shining Armor’s brain freeze. The weirdest thing was that he couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t because of Twilight, Sunset doted on her every time she came over. The domestic chore she was involved in didn’t make her seem that out of place or stunning. If anything, from the way Sunset handled herself, she was a complete natural in a kitchen. It was like she belonged there.

In his house.

Cooking breakfast.

For him.

“Well, I am hungry, but not for pancakes,” Shining replied in a seductive tone before he wrapped Sunset up in his magic and pulled her onto the island counter before licking his lips.

The mare in the apron that said ‘best princess’ blushed and looked away. “Oh, Sir Armor! I was waiting for this. There’s something special for you to try in my...personal oven,” the princess told him with a raised tail before she wiggled her plot.

The next thing he knew, the big alicorn’s face was filling Shining Armor’s vision and looking down at him in worry. “Shiny? Are you okay?”

The question made Shining Armor react with a tiny jerk as Sunset pulled him back to reality, and he looked up to meet her concerned gaze. “Oh! I’m fine, just uh...little...um, distracted.”

Twilight let out a gasp from where she was still sitting on Sunset’s back and looked over the amber alicorn’s shoulder. “You were daydreaming again, weren’t you?” She asked with a little frown before glancing back to the pony she was riding and letting out an excited gasp. “Were you thinking about how you were going to get together with Princess Sunset? What you were going to do after you were together? Oh! Were you planning your wedding so that Princess Sunset could be my big sister for real?”

With Twilight’s line of questioning moving from cute and into uncomfortable territory, both Sunset and Shining Armor gave each other a nervous look before Sunset cleared her throat. “Oh c-come on Twilight, you don’t want a pony like me as your big sister.”

“Yes I do!” Twilight told Sunset as the bigger pony looked back to the stove to levitate the last of the bacon pancakes out of their fiery nest and onto a plate. “You’re smart, and strong, and super magical and-” she said as Sunset rushed out into the dining room to try and get away from the purple unicorn. An exercise in futility, as Twilight was on her back.

Luckily for Sunset, Velvet came to the alicorn’s rescue when she took Twilight to get her washed up and reminded her daughter about the rules when it came to eating in the kitchen.

Of course, Twilight Sparkle had a counterargument. “But Mom, I had to try at least three of them to know if I wanted any more. Everypony knows you need at least three samples when examining a new edible substance to see if you like it, make sure the first taste test wasn’t a fluke, and then confirm the results with the third pancake.”

As the bigger Twilight led her daughter into the downstairs bathroom, Sunset gave Shining Armor a darting glance. “Foals...am I right?”

Shining Armor blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

“Y-You know. The whole...you and me...thing,” she said before let out a nervous laugh.

“Oh! Yeah,” Shining Armor replied before doing his best to copy Sunset’s laugh. While he didn’t see why Sunset had gotten so out of sorts from Twilight’s foalish comment, the stallion figured it was best not to press the issue and roll with Sunset’s weird reaction before moving on as fast as possible.

Which meant a change of topic was in order. “So uh...where’s Princess Cadance?”

Sunset visibly backed away from the edge she had been on and rolled her eyes. “Shiny, just because Twilight’s stuck in her hero-worship phase doesn’t mean you need to start throwing around the titles when we’re in the same room,” she said before scooting out a seat at the table with her magic and offering it to him. “And she’s busy with princess stuff, so I got bored and came over early. We’ll see her at school.”

Without much choice, Shining Armor took the seat Sunset was offering, and then watched as she floated some normal pancakes, a muffin, and an omelet over to him. “Wait...do you have one of those...everypony has to be at the table before the eating begins families?”

“Not for breakfast,” he told her. There wouldn’t be enough time to eat in the mornings if they waited that long.

Sunset nodded. “Okay,” she said before taking a second to look around for something before turning her attention back on him. “Oh! What do you want to drink?”

Despite the oddity of an alicorn princess acting as a waitress, the rest of breakfast went by pretty normally. Shining’s parents came back to the dining room shortly after Sunset returned with a pitcher of orange juice and another of milk, and levitated everypony’s food to them before taking a seat herself to devour what was in front of her and half of the omelet that Twilight couldn’t finish with the same amount of ferocity Shining had seen the alicorn use in the cafeteria.

The other stallion in the house was a bit put off by Sunset’s waitress act at first, but he put his unease to the side quicker than Shining Armor would have expected him to as breakfast went on. The only other oddity of the morning was something Sunset said to Shining’s parents he didn’t quite follow.

“About that thing we talked about yesterday. Just tell her dad to have Star come by the castle tomorrow after school and I’ll get to the bottom of everything, and see what we need to do to get it all set right.”

Since it sounded like what was going on was none of his business, Shining Armor decided not to pry. He had other things on his mind thanks to Twilight’s little marriage comment. Not in the way of him and Sunset getting married, despite how images of the amber alcorn in a white and gold dress pranced across his mindscape. But what concerned Shining Armor did involve the future of Sunset Shimmer’s relationship...with Cadance.

Although the two of them meeting up before skipping away to leave Shining Armor out in the cold didn’t quite agree with the stallion, he couldn’t shake the oddity of how a pony like Sunset Shimmer, who had taken Shining Armor further than any mare ever had been around before wasn’t doing anything with Cadance. Explanations as to why that was did come to mind as he remembered what the pink alicorn said the other day, but asking for clarification when it came to Sunset’s side of things in the middle of breakfast just didn’t seem to be a good idea.

So, after Sunset and Shining left for school, the stallion looked over to the bigger alicorn trotting down the street next to him. “Hey uh...Sunset, you mind if I ask you something, well...personal?”

“Sure,” she said as she looked over to him with a little smile. “You can always ask me anything Shiny.”

Deciding to just go the band aid instant removal route, Shining Armor took a deep breath and let it rip. “Are you not into mares?”

Sunset stumbled forward and barely stopped from hitting the ground with her muzzle as her wings unfurled. She looked back up at Shining Armor with wide eyes, then slowly stood back up, ending a couple inches higher than she had been before. “Say what?”

As the alicorn came back up to her full height and made Shining Armor inch his eyes upward to meet her frowning gaze, the carefully crafted speech he had thought up over the breakfast table quickly vanished from his mind, leaving behind a total blank that had Shining Armor mentally grasping at straws as Sunset Shimmer looked at the colt as if he had just grown a second horn. “I mean, it just...you know...m-mares...like you, with the um….” Unable to remember what he was supposed to say, the stallion just gulped.

“If this is your way of asking if I’m bi-er-I mean, fully harmonious,” Sunset said before she smirked just a little bit and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ve gotten plenty hot over a mare’s plot, just like your hiney Shiny.” The aforementioned organs then slowly drifted to focus on Shining Armor’s cutie mark, then narrowed into a look that almost seemed predatory.

Shining Armor blushed as he remembered how Sunset had fondled his plot when they were alone in his room. Not that he didn’t...mind the attention, but...it had been a little...intense.

“Then how come you and Cadance aren’t together?” he went on to ask before Sunset could get another word in, blowing through what was probably ten pages of forgotten dialogue that would have definitely been able to ferret out the truth behind Sunset and Cadance’s lack of a relationship without the amber alicorn ever suspecting Shining Armor was digging into their private past.

Sunset’s attention snapped back to Shining’s face before she raised an eyebrow at him in a way that only increased the unicorn’s unease. “Come again?”

Spurred on by the question, Shining Armor barely managed to realize what his mouth was putting out before his brain could register the question. “Well, it’s just you’re going on and on about how great Cadance is, and how she’d make a better fillyfriend than you, and now you’re kind of shoving the two of us together after she does the same to you and me, but if you think she’s so great and she thinks you’re so amazing, then how come the two of you haven’t...done...anything?” he finished, finally managing to slow down at the end from breakneck gallop to a verbal crawl.

Once again, Sunset’s face became impassive, then dipped ever so slightly into sadness before she put on an obviously forced smile that even Shining Armor could tell was fake. “What makes you ask something silly like that?”

“Sunset,” Shining Armor began before the alicorn let out a sigh and and shook her head.

“Never mind, rhetorical question. Look, it’s not that I don’t like Cadence, it’s just...” the amber alicorn said before she stopped and got a thoughtful look for a few seconds. “Me and Cadance, we've got...baggage, okay?”

The expression on Sunset’s face plummeted, and she lowered her gaze to the ground. “I wasn’t really very nice to her when we first met, and even though we’re around each other all the time, well...ponies may forgive, but forgetting is a whole other deal that never really happens no matter what anyone tells you. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about there.”

She sighed again, but didn’t look back up. “So...between you and me Shiny, yeah...I like Cadance. She’s kind, forgiving, and incredibly beautiful. But...there’s just too much there for us to ever be anything more than friends. I messed up the possibility of us ever doing anything together a long time ago.”

Through with her conversation, Sunset dropped her shoulders more than she usually did when walking around, and Shining Armor was left with a uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach before he trotted up next to the bigger pony and gave her a little nuzzle to try and defuse the situation. The affectionate touch seemed to pick Sunset up a little bit, and Shining Armor quickly found himself talking again. “S-Sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you, I just-”

A wing being thrown around his back that pulled the stallion in close shut Shining Armor up.

“It’s okay Shiny,” Sunset said. She rubbed her cheek on his for a second before she pulled back and frowned. “Oh buck it.” Her lips touched where she had been nuzzling, and Shining Armor found himself becoming a little flustered as Sunset continued talking moments after the kiss. “And it’s not Cadance with the problem. She’s perfect. It’s why I think you and her need to give each other a shot. I don’t want to...well, let you...not have the best mare possible.”

Although Sunset’s explanation made no sense to the stallion, Shining Armor decided not to press the issue. He was pretty sure Sunset was still having issues with her libido, and if he started asking the big mare why she thought she wasn’t the best pick, Shining knew where the conversation would eventually lead.

Not that Shining Armor would have minded a mare that wanted to get together in a special somepony kind of way, but...Sunset’s warning involving the amber alicorn’s insane strength and how she could accidentally crush Shining Armor like a grape if they were to have sex replayed in his mind. That was the one big obstacle to being with Sunset that he couldn’t logic his way around when it came to the good reasons as to why he and Sunset needed to keep from hooking up.

And as much as Shining wanted to find out if Sunset had found a way around that little problem, he didn’t want to keep reminding Sunset of her fears and reasons she didn’t want to go out with him when she was obviously still conflicted about it.

“You need to play the field,” Sunset suddenly added. “See how you get along with all the girls who are interested in you, not just the first one that uh...you know...showed interest.”

Despite how Sunset’s argument had broken down at the end, Shining Armor found himself unable to actually argue with the bigger pony’s words. “Okay, okay,” he relented before something else came to mind. “But uh...that means you’ll be free Sunday, right? Because Gaffer’s hoping to make up for that session we lost and he should have figured out how to use that tablet by then, so...um...do you want to play O&O...this...Sunday?”

Shining Armor felt his heart rate increase as the amber alicorn stopped in her tracks. She stood there for a few second, not looking back. The lack of an immediate response made Shining Armor start to worry. He needed something else to sweeten the deal. “Twilight will be there too,” the unicorn quickly added as he remembered how Sunset acted around the little purple filly. “And um...she’d be really, ah...disappointed if you couldn’t make it.”

“Twilight’s going to be there?” Sunset asked as she turned around and gave Shining Armor a measuring look. “Isn’t she a little...young to be hanging out with your friends?”

“No!” Shining Armor quickly answered with all the confidence he could muster to help hide the lie. “She plays with us all the time. We just, you know, thought we’d wait until the second session until we sicced her on you. F-For...obvious reasons.”

Sunset stood there for a moment, torturing Shining Armor with her silence. Then, after what seemed like an hour, a small smirk appeared on her face. “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint Twilight,” she said before motioning with her horn. “Now come on, we’re going to be late to class.”

Deciding not to press his luck, Shining Armor kept silent for the rest of the trip to school, and was pleasantly surprised when he arrived to find the majority of the student body still waiting outside the building to be let in for the start of the day. Both Cadance and Fleur were standing apart from the crowd, with the tall unicorn’s entourage standing not too far off on the grass.

What surprised Shining Armor was the fact that Fleur was wearing a light blue sweater. Even with it being Fall, the temperature was still warm enough not to require clothes, and students at Canterlot Academy didn’t usually wear anything aside from the letterman jacket ponies involved in sports or the band sported unless it started snowing.

As soon as Cadance noticed the pair of ponies, she took a second to raise her hoof in a little wave to Fleur, and then took off in a wing-assisted leap to land a few trots from where Shining and Sunset were before making up the difference between them on the ground.

“Showoff,” Sunset half-heartedly grumbled with a little smirk as Cadance finished working off the excess motion from her landing.

The pink princess giggled and before rolling her eyes. “Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Cadance said in an amused tone before looking over to the other member of their trio. “Good morning Shiny.”

A quick nuzzle to the side of the unicorn’s neck followed the greeting, and Shining Armor blushed at the attention. “M-Morning. So um...what were you and Fleur talking about?” he asked.

“Just making sure everything was ready for-oh! There’s Cheerilee now,” Cadance replied, looking past the young stallion before she waved. “Hey Cheerilee!”

Shining Armor turned around and blinked when he saw the mulberry mare doing her best to trot up to the school with only three legs as she held a plastic cup in her fourth fetlock. He still couldn’t understand how earth ponies could walk with one of their appendages so occupied like the mare with the mouth full of braces was doing with hers.

“G-Good morning Princesses,” Cheerilee replied nervously.

Behind Cadance, Sunset groaned at the greeting while the pink princess smiled back. “Good morning Cheerilee,” the smaller alicorn replied before moving in so close to the other mare Shining Armor could barely hear her speak. “Everything ready?”

Cheerilee quickly nodded once. “Yes,” she said, then nervously licked her lips before she started looking around. “Where’s-oh, never mind, I see her.” The pony took in a deep breath through her mouth and blew it out through her nose. “Well, wish me luck.”

The mare quickly trotted away from the three horned ponies. leaving Shining Armor blinking in confusion. “Okay,” he mumbled before looking over to Cadance. “What was all that about?” It had sounded a lot like Cheerilee was wanting to ask one of the diva trio out on a date, or something.

Both of the alicorns shared a look. While Cadance became a little uneasy, Sunset just shrugged nonchalantly.

“I-It’s nothing...important,” the pink alicorn mumbled.

“Just sit back and watch the show, Shiny,” the big mare on campus told him.

Shining Armor blinked and stood there for a moment before he looked back to see Cheerilee trotting up to the three most popular unicorns in school as they conversed among themselves. “Fleur, do you mind if I-GAAAAH!” the earth pony cried out as she fell forward, launching a mass of dark liquid into the air...and straight onto the piece of clothing that Fleur was wearing.

As if driven by some unknown force, everypony in the courtyard suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the scene that was just beginning to play out in front of them. Both Sassy and and Upper Crust switched back and forth between looking at the wet sweater and the cause of what was quickly becoming an unremovable stain. Meanwhile, the head diva simply stood frozen, with what was either cold coffee, or not so hot cocoa dripping from her clothes.

After a few seconds had passed, Sassy’s attention finally settled on the pony lying face down on the grass, and trotted over to her. “Are you alright?”

“Alright?” Upper Crust asked at a volume that was barely short of a yell. “Of course she’s not alright! Just look at what that idiot did to Fleur’s new sweater!”

Crust’s shout got a jolt of a reaction from the mare in the middle of the diva trio, and Fleur let out a loud, long gasp before she looked up and covered her eyes with a foreleg to strike a dramatic pose. “Oh no! My CLOTHES! My incredibly expensive designer sweater! It’s ruined! Absolutely, positively, irreparably RUINED! Whatever am I to tell my parents?”

A choking sound came from beside Shining Armor, and he turned his head to see Sunset dry heaving on the ground. “S-Sunset?”

Cadence gave the other alicorn an even look. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry,” Sunset said as she suddenly stood back up. “I tend to gag when somepony asks me to swallow something that terrible.”

“Huh?” Shining Armor mumbled.

Before any explanation could be given, Cadance quickly shushed Sunset, then looked back towards the dramatic display as Sassy started speaking again. “Well, I’m sure that there’s something that can be done Fleur,” she consoled her friend before she looked back down to Cheerilee. “More importantly, are you okay Cheerilee? That looked like a nasty fall.”

The mulberry mare lay on the ground, motionless for a few seconds before she looked up to Sassy. “Um...I-I’m not sure...we didn’t plan for-"

“Who cares about her?” Upper Crust suddenly cut in as she glared as Sassy Saddles for a moment before turning her attention down towards Cheerilee. “You clumsy idiot! HOW are you going to pay for this?”

“W-What?” Cheerilee stuttered.

Behind the round mare, a frown appeared on Fleur’s face. “Um, Crusty.”

Either ignoring her friend, or simply not hearing her, Upper Crust snorted and stepped forward, taking a position that would have made it appear to Cheerilee that she towered over the other pony. “What? Is there too much dirt in your ears? I asked how you were going to pay for this? That sweater costs more than your dirty parents probably make in a year!”

Fleur De Lis cleared her throat. “Well then if that’s the case, perhaps we should work to salvage it while we can,” she said in a disgruntled tone as a frown pressed down on her face. “Bathroom. You too Sassy.”

The last member of the trio watched as the other two trotted away. The rest of the crowd gathered outside the main school building giving them a wide berth. “I’ll...be right with you,” Sassy said before she reached down to help Cheerilee up and speak with the uneasy mare too softly for Shining Armor to hear before she turned and galloped towards the door.

With everything apparently over, Shining Armor looked back at the two alicorns next to him. “Uh...shouldn’t you two have...done something about that?”

Sunset snorted. “There are limits to what even I can do Shiny,” she said before looking over to Cadance. “And I know Fleur was horrible, but don’t you think Crust was laying it on a little thick? There’s such a thing as overcompensating, ya know.”

“I’d better talk to Cheerilee,” Cadance said before she quickly trotted off towards the mulberry mare.

“And I’d better go rendezvous with the girls,” Sunset added before she looked back to the stallion of their trio. “See you at lunch, Shiny.”

As Sunset cantered away and headed into the school, Shining Armor found himself alone and confused once again. He almost couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Another pony, one of Shining Armor’s friends, had been harassed by another mare and Sunset hadn’t bucked the chubby pony performing the verbal assault to the moon. She hadn’t even gotten upset about it.

Unless...she was on her way to…

Shining Armor took a moment to watch as Sunset disappeared inside the building, but decided not to chase her down. After what he had just watched, he didn’t think those three overgrown fillies deserved the young stallion putting himself between their endangered bodies and an enraged Sunset Shimmer.

Instead, he quickly made his way to where Cadance was helping the other mare up, and all the other ponies were quickly giving the princess more than enough space. “Cheerilee, are you alright?”

The earth pony looked over to the unicorn and smiled just a bit. “Don’t worry Shining, I made sure to fall on the grass.”

“Uh...oh-kay?” Shining Armor replied before shaking off the odd response and frowning at the building. “But what they said-”

“I know!” Cheerilee agreed before the unicorn could finish. “Fleur was just awful!”

Shining Armor tried to figure out how the pony who had her sweater ruined had behaved badly, and found himself completely lost as he tried to follow Cheerilee’s logic. “Uh...but...Upper Crust...” He didn’t know what to say on the subject. That mare had some serious issues.

“It’s a good thing Princess Cadance had her help out too,” Cheerilee said with a nod.

Once again, the earth pony managed to completely derail Shining Armor’s train of thought, and he cocked his head to the side. “Wha-huh?”

Off to the side, the look on Cadance’s face suddenly became very nervous. “Um...r-right,” she said before the bell rang, cutting off any further conversation as Shining Armor found himself needing to get to class.

Despite the fact that everything was going as planned, Fleur felt as if her stomach was doing more backflips than a pegasus at a Wonderbolts show while she walked into the mare’s bathroom. Once inside, the unicorn went up to the faucets in front of the wall-length mirror with Sassy and Crusty on her tail to turn on the water and look ahead.

For a second, Fleur saw everypony that had been outside being reflected along with her own face. All of them, just...looking at her. All of them with their passive expressions. All of them, completely unsurprised by the way she had acted. As if caring about a cheap sweater that had been glamoured to look expensive was more important than the wellbeing of another pony wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for Fleur De Lis.

She turned back to look at her other friends. Sassy was wearing a deep scowl and had her lips puckered in irritation, while Crusty was still going on like she had been in front of the school. “And another thing, what was she even coming near us for? It wasn’t time for lunch! If she thinks that just because the Princesses have taken pity on her because they have to have an earth pony around for appearances that she has the right to talk to us-”

Sassy looked down at the pudgy mare as her lip curled into a snarl. “Well, I’m certain whatever she was going to say would be more pleasant than what is coming out of your mouth right now Upper Crust!”

“Yes Crusty,” Fleur agreed as she took off her sweater and set it to the side in case they would need evidence to initiate phase two of Cadance’s plan. “We’re not in public anymore. You can turn it off.”

The shortest member of the trio looked over to Fleur was a strangely confused expression. “Turn what off?”

Before Fleur could scream ‘THE INTENSE TRIBALISM!’ the unicorn heard the restroom door bang open and looked over to see a large amber alicorn stomp her way around the corner with a frown on her face that made the future supermodel worry that the young goddess was angry over the fact Fleur had been in the way of Cheerilee’s hot cocoa when the earth pony spilled it. “P-Princess Sunset!”

“I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING!” Sassy screamed before she scooted away from Upper Crust until her backside ran into the door of a stall.

For a second, the amber alicorn’s eyes widened, and Fleur thought she saw pain flash through Sunset’s eyes before the confusion set in and she looked around the room with a half-frown. “Oh-kay,” she mumbled before settling her gaze on Fleur. “So, are you...ready for phase two?”

Upper Crust broke from whatever strange prey instinct that had her playing statue to blink at the question. “Phase...two?”

With something to focus on that wasn’t as confusing as her friends, Fleur nodded to the princess. “Yes, the illusion the princess told me you cast on the sweater is holding up wonderfully,” she said. “But, I’m afraid that Princess Cadance took off before she divulged any more of the plan, aside from how Cheerilee would ruin my clothes this morning that is. She said you would explain things after that.”

“What...Oh!” Upper Crust exclaimed. “Yes...right! The plan, that...Princess Cadance talked about, when she...came by...this morning. With Cheerilee, and all that!”

Sunset frowned at the yellow pony. “Yeah. You and me are going to have words about that later.”

Upper Crust gulped so loud that Fleur could see the bulge travel down her throat.

“Okay so, phase two,” Sunset said before she looked at each of the three girls in turn. “Well, I can’t hide behind Fleur’s since she’s going to be the one talking to so...Sassy, come here.”

The tall blue unicorn sunk in on herself. “Um...what for, Princess?”

Sunset sighed and drooped her eyes to half-lidded. “Because I need your help to create a situation in which I can gather evidence so we have documentation of Cinch’s immoral behavior when we fire her at the end of the day and thus avoid a media backlash that might try and paint me and Cadance as going mad with power.”

As soon as the explanation finished, Sassy’s expression turned into a happy smile. “Ah! Well why didn’t you just say so Princess!” Sassy said before she trotted up to the larger pony. “So, what do you need me to do?”

“Don’t move your head around too much.”

Sassy blinked and her smile disappeared amidst the confusion that appeared on her face. “Huh?”

Everything was perfect.

Doubly perfect.

Cinch double-checked all her preparations for the major upcoming school events to ensure it was so and found everything to her liking. The Canterlot Dragons would be a shoo-in to win the homecoming polo game next Friday thanks to the center for the Fillydelphia Fliers varsity team being arrested. The first major step in their path to the playoff, the championship, and another feather in Cinch’s cap.

Cinch chuckled as she read the Filly Free Press news story about what Straight Shooter said as the police were hauling him away. That poor little colt. Everypony uses that ‘I don’t know how that bag got in my locker’ defense. Of course for him, the fact that it was actually true wouldn’t matter until he went to trial in a few weeks and was forced to testify inside a Circle of Truth that he was innocent of both possession and dealing illegal substances. But by then, the game would be over, and Cinch didn’t much care about what happened to him after that.

As for the pony that placed the drugs, the internship that he would receive from one of Cinch’s former students that she had helped through academia in return for such favors had already been agreed upon. Although his future would suddenly look quite bleak should he have a sudden loss of self-interest and confess to his part in everything. And if he did...well, it wasn’t as if he had seen Cinch in pony. No names were mentioned in the letters that they had communicated through either, aside from mentioning the internship was with Hasburro, which employed thousands of ponies.

Then there was the other thing. Recent events had put a bit of a kink in her plans for the upcoming dance. When Sunset Shimmer had joined the school, Cinch had intended to have her be elected Fall Formal princess as a nod of respect towards the demigoddess. Anypony who was anypony knew that Sunset was Celestia’s ward, and rumors mentioned that the amber alicorn would soon to be outright adopted by the princess. Anything Cinch could do to endear herself to the heir of Equestria’s throne, no matter how redundant the title, was well worth the cost.

But after Princess Cadance had barely been deflected from taking action on behalf of some nopony, the unicorn principal needed something to keep the pink princess happy, or at least distracted. Making sure the Fall Formal crown went to her instead of Princess Sunset seemed like a logical first step to show the country princess being Cinch’s friend had certain benefits.

Benefits that couldn’t even compare to the power Cadance already wielded.

Cinch sighed as that little conundrum entered her mind again. Her ability to control her students hinged on the fact that she was more powerful than they were while they still went to her Academy, and the dirt she could get on them before they left. But all the connections and school power Cinch had built over the years were nothing compared to a pony whose word was literally the law.

Of course with two princesses attending Canterlot Academy, there was the option of Cinch playing the two of them against each other. In that way, Cinch could use Princess Sunset’s authority to protect herself from Cadance. But that was a game with the added danger of drawing attention from Celestia Herself. While Cinch was confident in her ability to manipulate a couple of teenagers, she had no doubt that the immortal ruler of Equestria would see through her sweet talk and misdirections in an instant. And with one of them being the next best thing to Celestia’s daughter…

Cinch shivered at the thought of what an irritated mother with centuries of experience, the total authority of the government, and the magical power of an alicorn could do should she become enraged.

Thankfully, the waking nightmares of Celestia flailing Cinch’s soul over the fires of the sun were quickly ended when the door to her office was knocked open by a pair of unicorn’s that stormed their way in.

The sudden appearance of Fleur De Lis and Sassy Saddles made Cinch blink in confusion. It was odd to see the third member of their trio absent. While the blue unicorn moved about in an unnaturally stuff manner, the white one with the pink mane stormed up to Cinch’s desk with a stained sweater in her magic to slam both it and her hooves on the desk.

Cinch kept her expression passive, even if she was quite annoyed with the little filly’s actions. Despite the advantages of having a supermodel in her saddlebag would bring, the ponies that actually made it in such an industry were few and far in-between. So Cinch didn’t put much beyond a token effort to keep the head of that little threesome happy.

It was the fat one that would be of guaranteed use in the future, and Cinch already had ties to Upper Crust’s family.

Still, a token effort was easily doable. So Cinch put her forelegs up on her desk and kept her face passive at the brat that had just dropped a wet rag on the expensive wood. “Yes, Ms Fleur? What seems to be the trouble?”

Fleur turned to the side so Cinch could see her profile, and then let out an exaggerated ‘humph’. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of this...this travesty!” she said before pointing to her sweater.

“Hmm?” Cinch asked before she looked at the article of clothing and frowned. The light blue sweater hummed with a minor enchantment she didn’t recognize, but other than that, it didn’t seem that special. Any value it once held was stripped away by the chocolate stain covering most of the front. “I’m afraid you have me at a loss Ms Fleur. Please enlighten me as to the cause of your...mood.”

After letting out an exaggerated sigh, the unicorn shook her head. “This...slovenly earth pony assaulted me this morning and ruined my brand new, one of a kind expensive sweater!”

“I saw the whole thing ma’am,” Sassy added before nodding, then freezing solid with wide eyes. “S-Sorry! I didn’t mean to...uh, interrupt you, Fleur!”

The other unicorn blinked with wide-eyes at Sassy’s comment, and then recovered with a grumble before she looked back. “Yes. Now, as I was saying. This...earth pony by the name of Cheerilee, threw hot cocoa on me this morning, and I want her punished!”

Despite the fact the filly was an earth pony, Cinch recognized the name Fleur mentioned. One couldn’t run an academy without knowing something about the students. It helped separate the wheat from the chaff. From what Cinch recalled off the top of her head, Cheerilee was a purple-ish earth pony with smiling flowers on her flank. Considering her tribe and cutie mark, the little filly would probably end up working on a farm, or maybe a flower stand for the rest of her life. In short, she was not a pony worth bothering with.

“I...see,” Cinch mumbled as she considered what she could do to a student that...as far as she knew, had no extracurricular activities tied to the school.

Then, Fleur went off again. “No! Not just punished! I want her,” she said before thrusting a hoof towards the ceiling. “EXPELLED!”

Cinch blinked at the odd behavior. “...yes,” she mumbled before looking down to the stained clothing and worked the situation through in her mind. “Well, that’s...understandable. I can see how the presence of such a student would be...detrimental to your educational experience. Don’t worry my dear, I’ll have this taken care of for you as soon as possible.”

Bathrooms were not a good place for waiting on the results of a covert operation. Aside from the fact that a lecture from Sunset on good hygiene had been very detailed on just what she was trotting through, Cadance had to greet the several students that needed to make way for breakfast in their digestive tract during first period. So, aside from the fact that ponies who had just finished clearing their plots with paper that was far too thin to prevent at least some seepage before they walked across the floor, there was also a less than enjoyable smell that somepony would come in and add to when the aroma began to wane.

Ugh...why couldn’t I have just waited until lunch? Cadance asked herself as she made sure to keep her tail from touching the floor and resisted the urge to sit down.

First period had begun several minutes ago, and Cadance had asked to be excused ten minutes in because not knowing how things went would have been even more detrimental to her education than listening to the stallion at the front of the classroom for the whole class.

The sound of the door opening followed by at least two sets of hooves made Cadance look around to the wall that kept other ponies from looking in. This time, her faith was rewarded when she saw both Fleur and Sassy trot in. Not wanting to waste another second, the pink princess stepped forward. “So how’d it-wait, why isn’t Sunset with you?” she asked in confusion.

Although the amber alicorn hadn’t given much in the way of explanation as to how she was going to get Cinch to incriminate herself, Sunset had told Cadance she was planning on using a simple recording spell to gather the evidence like ponies used to copy the events of a replay before distribution. The fact the amber alicorn was missing did nothing to fill the pink princess with confidence.

Sassy looked up at the horn on her head that was nearly covered by her mane. “Umm, well…”

“Ugh, give me a second! I had to use something to help me stay put since somepony’s never been to stupid stuck-up mare school and learned to trot properly!”

Cadance blinked at the...squeak that came from Sassy’s mane. “Uh...what was that?”

“I’m sorry Princess! I-” Sassy said before she was cut off.

“STOP TALKING!”

A second later, a little orange-ish...something popped out of Sassy’s maane to jump down and land on the blue unicorn’s nose, making Sassy’s eyes cross as she looked at it.

“I mean jeez, do you have any idea just how many vibrations talking causes? It’s like I had to suffer through an earthquake every time you opened your mouth.”

Cadance’s mouth dropped as her eyes finally focused on the little thing and turned it from a bug-sized blob into a bug-sized amber alicorn. It took her a second to talk again. “S-SUNSET?” she asked before getting nearly muzzle to muzzle with Sassy to have a better view. “But...you...what happened to you?”

Sunset was...tiny. Almost ridiculously so. In fact, if the amber alicorn had been crouching down on the ground, Cadance was certain that she could have tried stepping on the mare and miss her completely if Sunset aligned her body with the pink princess’s frog.

The other alicorn turned back around and frowned at Cadance while her horn glowed a dim blue. For some reason, the pink princess found the scowl on her usually intimidating friend unbelievably cute at her current size. It took all of Cadance’s willpower and the fear of crushing Sunset not to snatch her up and nuzzle the mare to death.

“I lost a few pounds. And I swear, if you make ONE Ant-Mare joke…”

Cadance giggled at the unfinished threat as Sunset pointed her little hoof at the much bigger pink alicorn. “Yeah, you might actually want to be able to look me in the eye before you start making promises like that again,” she said before looking over to Fleur. “But seriously, what happened to...uh…”

“Turn Princess Sunset into an adorable little breezie with alicorn wings?” the white unicorn said with a little smile.

“GAAAAH! For the last time! I AM NOT A BREEZIE!”

Laughter filled the bathroom as the other three horned ponies giggled at the mini-mare’s anger. After it ended, the pink princess did think she needed to set things right. “Sunset’s right. I’ve seen breezies, and they’re about a quarter bigger than she is now.”

The comment got Fleur’s attention, and her eyes lit with interest. “Really Princess Cadance? You’ve seen breezies? How? Where? When?”

“Their last migration had them collecting pollen a mile from my village,” she explained while secretly hoping that they wouldn’t ask any more questions. While cute, the little things were a hoofful for the ponies assigned to take care of them during their collection operations. And after an incident with a lamp that nearly killed half their flock, Cadance’s matchmaking expertise had her wondering if they were in fact sexually attracted to fire.

“Well now that we’ve gotten all the little mare jokes out of the way…”

Cadance looked back to Sunset as the tiny alicorn leapt off of Sassy’s nose to begin gliding down to the floor. Halfway there, she was enveloped in a bright light, and the pink princess found herself needing to back away to make way for Sunset’s fit five-foot-plus frame. “Ugh,” she said before clutching her stomach. “Compression magic always does a number on the stomach. And...sorry for being so snappy, Sassy.”

There was a brief moment of disappointment as Cadance realized she had missed her chance to play with a little Sunset, but the task at hoof quickly got her back on track. “Okay, now would somepony please explain to me what that was all about?” the pink princess asked with a small frown. “Why were you…” the ridiculousness of the coming statement made Cadance take a break to keep from giggling. “Hiding in Sassy’s mane? Not to mention the whole breezie-”

An amber hoof raised up, cutting Cadance off. “I used a compression spell, whole different thing than a species swap,” Sunset explained. “And I needed to since a camouflage cloak might not have given me enough time to slip into Cinch’s office before the door closed so I could record everything.”

Cadance blinked at the explanation, focusing more on the fact that Sunset had done what they had set out to do rather than her need to correct spell terminology. “Fine,” she said. “So, now we just take it to Minister Board, and everything will be ready.”

The good news made Cadance smile. It may have taken them a bit longer than she had originally wanted, but Canterlot Academy would finally begin its long trek back to becoming a place that deserved the respect it was getting. “Great!” she said before looking back to the three horned ponies in front of her. “Say, why isn’t Upper Crust with you three?”

“She said she had to get to class,” Sunset explained with a shrug before looking over to Cadance. “Although the next time we pull something like this. She needs to be our fake bitch-pony. No offense Fleur, but...you should really just stick with modeling.”

Fleur sighed and moved her eyes away from Sunset when the amber alicorn looked over to her. “Yes well...if Princess Cadance had given us a little more time to prepare, I could have put on a better performance. Improv is...not my thing.”

The blue member of the group let out a little snort. “Well I would have appreciated knowing what was going on ahead of time.”

“Sorry,” Cadance apologized. “I only had time to visit Fleur and Cheerilee’s house before school started.”

A frown appeared on Sunset’s face. “Say what?”

“News flash! I can’t teleport willy-nilly around the city like you Sunset!” she replied before grumbling. “You’d think a pony who just got her own pair of appendages would know how hard it is mastering them. Especially considering you’re the one who’s teaching me magic.”

Sunset’s frown disappeared under Cadance’s ire. “No, that’s not…” She sighed and shook her head. “Never mind. Let’s just hurry on and get to class.”

As the others nodded in agreement and got moving, Cadance saw the amber alicorn stop the white unicorn from leaving the bathroom and turned her head back as Sunset asked Fleur a question. “Say, what were you girls talking about this morning after Cadance came to see me and Shiny?”

“Just my sweater,” Fleur answered. “Why?”

Sunset shrugged. “No reason. Although...do you know what class Upper Crust has this period?”

As lunch came around, Shining Armor found himself sitting next to Cadance with the seat to his right completely empty of a certain amber alicorn. Compounding the oddity was the presence of the yellow unicorn sitting across the table and three seats to the left of Shining. At least Upper Crust being stupid enough to show her face was confusing until Fleur finished her explanation about what had happened outside school between her second and third apologies.

“So I just wanted to apologize again Cheerilee. I know it was just acting, but I just feel awful about it.”

“Y-yes, acting!” Upper Crust added nervously while her eyes darted around. “We were just acting! Don’t feel uncomfortable, it was all pretend! I’m sure we’ll laugh about it in a few years. By the way, in a completely unrelated topic, h-have any of you seen Princess Sunset?”

Shining saw Cadance frown at the yellow unicorn a bit before she answered Upper Crust’s question. “There isn’t anything in the way of royal business that she had to deal with, as far as I know.”

Gaffer cleared his throat. “Okay so, now that we’ve all gotten that out of the way. Let’s move onto the business of this weekend. Final check to make sure everypony’s got their tickets for the replay.”

“Oh, about that,” Cadance cut in. “I don’t remember if we told all of you or not, but Sunset won’t be able to attend the premiere because of diplomatic business. So, it’ll just be me, and I have an extra ticket if you know anypony else that wants to go.”

“Thank you for the offer Princess,” Fleur said with a nod of her head. “But we had our parents buy ours when the first went on sale to make sure we could get the best possible ones next to each other. First balcony level, third row, stage right.”

A groan came from the other unicorn of the nerd herd before Gaffer reached up to rub on the side of his head with a hoof. “Please don’t show off your seating like that. It’s bad enough I’m going to have to bring an oxygen tank to survive sitting sitting through the play and binoculars just to turn the specks into blurry blobs.”

Cadance blinked in confusion at the comment. “Um...what?”

Eight-bit rolled his eyes. “Don’t mind him, Princess Cadance. Gaffer’s just being a drama queen because the only seats we could get on our budget were in the nosebleed section. It’s no big deal, really.”

“Says the pony with the eagle vision,” Gaffer grumbled.

The confusion on Cadance’s face only mounted. “Wait, they have assigned seats at the theaters in Canterlot?”

“For the more important ones anyway,” Sassy told her. “Like the Grand Globe Theatre, which is getting the play a day before any of the others.”

Cadance’s face twisted with worry. “Oh dear. Does that mean we’re not going to be able to sit together?”

Shining Armor thought about it for a second, but he didn’t see any way around it. “Well, you didn’t get your seats until later, so...no. Not unless you’re really lucky anyway,” he told her before becoming curious. “What seat do you have anyway? Do you remember?”

“Alicorns have great memories.” Cadance looked up at the ceiling for a moment before she made eye contact with Shining again. “It was that set of numbers and letters on the side of the ticket, right?”

After Shining Armor nodded, Cadance gave a worried smile. “FLCSR1S49,” she announced. “Sunset’s is the same, but it ends with a 50.”

The world seemed to tilt, and Shining Armor had to lock his forelegs to keep from falling out off of the cushion beneath him. Thankfully, he didn’t look too out of place since all the other stallions also had their mouths hanging open. Even the rich prissy mares looked impressed at the declaration.

Gaffer’s jaw slammed shut and opened again as he found the will to speak. “Y-you mean to tell me that you have two floor level, front row center-stage tickets to the most anticipated play of the year?” he asked without his usual mask of monotone and uncaring hiding his amazement.

Cadance squirmed around under the looks of the other ponies for a few seconds before she answered. “...yes?”

The worried declaration made Shining Armor’s head spin as he tried to figure out how in Tartarus Sunset and Cadance could have gotten tickets. The floor level was only for very important ponies like producers, actors, writers, world leaders and… Oh, right...princesses, he reminded himself.

Silence permeated the table for a few more seconds before Gaffer glared at Shining Armor with a look that could have killed most other stallions. If the white and light-brown stallion ever actually learned to cast Eyes of Blazing Death, that is.

After nearly half a minute, Gaffer finally, and with great difficulty, spoke. “H-How?”

“Huh?” Shining Armor replied in confusion.

The earth pony Poindexter cleared his throat before adjusting his bowtie. “I believe what our dungeon master is referring to is your newfound talent to just waltz into good fortune, such as how you just cantered into a meeting with Princess Sunset Shimmer, got whisked away by Princess Cadance, made out with Princess Sunset after a rather spectacular dragon slaying in which she only used her bare hooves,” the nerdiest of the herd said, making the three divas look over to Poindexter with a trio of expressions that ranged from surprised to outright terrified in Crust’s case.

“S-she did what to a dragon now?” the mare asked.

The question went unanswered. Shining Armor’s mind focused on what was wrong with Poindexter’s final statement. “Wait a second, how in the hay do you know about that?” he demanded as he pointed a hoof at the glasses-wearing earth pony. “You weren’t there.”

Gaffer chuckled nervously. “Uh...yeah, but that magic tablet we used? It kind of has this reviewing feature that lets the DM see what happened during the last sessions and-”

“You used it to watch Sunset stick her tongue down my throat,” Shining Armor deadpanned.

Cheerilee raised a hoof. “Um, excuse me but...what are you all talking about?” she asked with a little frown as her voice lost its usual cheerfulness. “Because it almost sounds like Shining Armor got foalnapped by a dragon.”

The giggle that came from Cadance’s mouth told Shining Armor that he was about to lose what bit of stallion pride he had recovered since then. “Oh it’s a sweet story, really. You see I used this magic spell to transport Shining Armor and Sunset to an alternate dimension where he thought she was in danger and galloped off to certain death in an attempt to save her,” she explained before giving Shining a little smile. “Of course it all backfired when Sunset broke out of the cell she was supposed to be trapped in and snapped the dragon’s neck with her bare hooves before immolating its corpse, but I think the important thing is that Shiny tried to rescue her.”

When Cadance finished her story, the reactions of the other mares at the table were a bit...mixed. Cheeriliee and her pink-maned mare friend blinked in a shared stunned silence. Fleur and Sassy gave the stallion smirks that matched Cadance's, as if to agree with the alicorn’s assessment of things. Upper Crust on the other hoof, she...looked to be a nervous wreck.

“A-A dragon, with her...hooves,” the shaking yellow unicorn said before she glanced around nervously and excused herself before bolting. “I need to go to the bathroom, bye!”

All of the other ponies at the table blinked as Crust galloped away from the cafeteria. And then Gaffer went back to frowning at Shining. “And now, you're getting front row center-stage tickets to the play of the year with your other fillyfriend!”

Shining Armor frowned back at the other unicorn. “H-Hey, Cadance isn’t my fillyfriend!”

“Neither is Sunset...yet anyway,” the pink princess added in a grumble towards the end before she brightened up just a bit. “But Shining Armor needs to be around other young mares in order for him to make a well-informed decision regarding the future of his relationship. It will allow him to put his bond with Sunset into perspective, and help create a measuring stick for future interactions. Although, I will admit that this is turning out to be a little more intimate than I had originally planned for a group date.”

The unicorn across the table gave Cadance a flat look. “So to help give Shining Armor some perspective, he’ll be dating the hottest filly in school instead of the coolest,” he said, making Cadance a little embarrassed at the compliment before looking over to Fleur. “Uh, no offense.”

A sigh escaped from Fleur's mouth before she put on a little melancholy smile at the mention of both her former positions. “None taken.”

Cadance shrugged and gave Gaffer one of those looks that said she was above the comment, but it annoyed her at the same time. “I don’t see what that has to do with-oh,” the pink princess said before the look on her face darkened into a frown. “What’s she doing here?”

The odd shift in demeanor made Shining Armor follow Cadance’s gaze to a door on the far side of the cafeteria. He saw an older unicorn mare with a light blue coat in a business dress standing in the center of the far wall with her head slowly moving back and forth as she scanned the crowd.

Cinch looked around the room for a few seconds before her horn lit up and a spark of magic went from her horn to her throat. “Cheerilee of class 2-B, come to the front of the cafeteria. Now.”

Shining Armor looked over to the mulberry mare in confusion. “What’s going on?”

When Cheerilee only gave him an apologetic look before trotting off, Shining Armor turned to Cadance for an explanation. Then he felt the amount of less-than-friendly magic that pulsed from her horn and reminded Shining that despite how she rarely showed it, the pink pony could flatten the school in an instant. So he decided to just keep his mouth shut on the subject and watch.

“Students of Canterlot Academy,” Cinch announced with her volume increasing spell as Cheerilee reached the principal. “It has come to my attention that this less-than-reputable member of our prestigious academy has assaulted one of your fellow students in a most heinous manner.”

As everypony in the cafeteria began to whisper among themselves, Cheerilee’s expression became a bit concerned. At the same time, Cadance started grumbling to herself in that scary tone she used whenever talking about love. “Oh you have got to be kidding me. She can’t possibly be doing this in front of the entire school!”

“Such actions against your fellow students will NOT be tolerated!” Cinch went on as Cheerilee looked around nervously.

“Unless it’s against ponies like us,” Shining Armor mumbled. To which the rest of his friends nodded.

Cadance let out an angry snort.

“And to ensure that this will not happen again, I want you all to take a good long look at your FORMER classmate!” Cinch shouted before throwing out a hoof towards Cheerilee, who cowered from the motion as if the older unicorn had been about to hit her. “This pathetic excuse for a pony-”

Cadance let out a cry of rage and reared up on her hind legs to slam her front ones down on the table.

“Oh shut up you old nag!”

The booming voice coming from the princess knocked Shining on his back. By the time he looked back up, Cadance had already flown across the room and touched down with a loud thump before she glared down at the stunned Cinch. “How DARE you talk about her like that!” she shouted at the unicorn, knocking her on her rump.

“P-Princess…” Cinch stuttered.

“You, calling her pathetic?” Cadance asked. “YOU?”

Back at the table, Sassy Saddles leaned over to Fleur. “Um, wasn’t the whole point of this for Cheerilee to be expelled?”

Fleur nodded. “Yes. Although, it would appear that Princess Cadance has decided to alter the plan.”

The brief silence from across the room gave Cinch the time she needed to recover her composure. “Young lady, I feel I must remind you that I am the principal of this school, and-”

“AND I AM A PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA!” Cadance fired back in Cinch’s face, cowing the older pony once again. “And as such I feel that I must remind you that as a princess, it is my sworn duty to come to the defense of a pony being attacked! A pony, that anypony else here will tell you tripped and fell this morning on her way to school!”

“But-”

“BUT WHAT?” Cadance yelled from her place standing over Cinch. “She’s not one of your in crowd? Not one of your special favor ponies? NOT WORTH CARING ABOUT? Is that why she isn’t allowed to spill something on another pony? Why she has to work for her passing grades instead of just having them hoofed over? Why she isn’t allowed to just beat up other ponies and send them home with bruised bones yet not received a lick of punishment? Well? IS IT?”

Cinch cowered under the alicorn’s enraged gaze. “I...um….I-I-I-”

Cadance stomped her hoof onto the floor, stopping Cinch before she could even really begin. “You are NOT going to be expelling anypony today! Instead, you are going to trot back to your office and stay there, and you are not going to leave until I come and get you!” the pink pony princess said before she lowered her head to put her muzzle to muzzle with Cinch. “Understand?”

“Y-Yes Princess. Of course Princess! T-Thank you very much, Princess!” Cinch said as she slowly backed away from the enraged pink pony and turned to gallop out the door when she had gotten more and one body-length distance between them.

As the door slammed shut behind her, a heavy silence permeated the the room.

Then, there was the sound of a hoof hitting the floor.

Followed by another.

And another.

And soon, nearly everypony in the room was clopping to Princess Cadance.

There was a stupid look of embarrassment on the princess’s face as she took that brace-face filly and led her back to the royal table to the cheers of the lunchroom. But, unlike all the other tables, Buck Withers made sure that none of the polo or hoofball team gave a single stomp.

He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Like everypony else in school, he had seen what had happened before classes started. That stupid nopony had gone and ruined Fleur’s clothes. But instead of getting what she deserved, Princess Cadance had let her get away clean.

And that other stuff she had talked about…

Buck nervously looked over at the beautiful white pony as she spoke to the less than nothing mulberry mare and actually bowed her head to the lesser filly.

The sight made the all-star stallion grit his teeth. First that one alicorn had stepped up for that Shining punk, and now it was looking like Princess Cadance was making the hottest unicorn in school happy-flower flank’s fetch pony.

Something was wrong.

Really wrong.

Buck was the biggest, strongest, and oldest stallion on campus. Both of the alicorns should have been raising their tails for him! But instead, everypony was saying that Shining Armor was banging both of them.

The fat princess was probably a lost cause, but Princess Cadance...Buck knew that if he could just get that hot mare away from Shining Armor long enough to show her what he had, the earth pony knew there was no way in Tartarus that she’d go trotting back to that nerd.

He’s make her moan like nopony else and then…

A tap to the shoulder pulled Buck out of his plans to make Cadance his, and he looked over to Three-D with a frown. “What?”

“Hey Buck, does this mean we can't be smacking around on nerds no more?”

He snorted and looked back over to the stupid unicorn that was the cause of all his problems. “Shut up.”

Chapter 17: Twilight's Time

“Well, that was certainly…interesting,” Minister Board said as Sunset’s replay of Fleur’s time in Cinch’s office finished. As the magical projection disappeared to make way for the room’s drab ceiling, he looked down at the mountain of papers that Sunset had summoned shortly after coming into the stallion’s office with Cadance. “And these are?”

Sunset took a step forward. “Magical duplicates of every document in Cinch’s office that I could find,” she explained before her stomach rumbled and a redness appeared on her cheeks. “I might have skipped lunch to sneak into her office and copy them. Most of it is probably junk, but I didn’t have time to search through everything to find what was incriminating and what wasn’t. So I just used a duplication spell on every piece of paper I saw.”

The old pony behind the desk bowed his head. “I’m sure we will be able to find something of use, Princess. In fact, with your approval, I’ll send a squad of civic guards along with some ponies from this department to go through her school office now.”

After making their final preparations and signing some papers, the pair of princesses said their goodbyes to the minister and made their way back onto the street. While Cadance was content to simply enjoy the silent company of the larger alicorn, she soon found herself unable to keep quiet as she noticed the path Sunset was taking them down didn’t lead to Canterlot Castle.

“Sunset, where are we going?”

The amber alicorn looked back towards Cadance, but didn’t stop trotting. “I’ve got to give both you and Twilight magic lessons tonight so...I figure two birds, one stone,” she explained. “I mean, you both pretty much are on the same level.”

Although the bird and stone comment made little sense, Cadance found herself frowning at the amber alicorn rather than asking for clarification. “Gee, glad to know your expert opinion puts my magical ability on the same level as a foal that can barely use her horn.”

Sunset gave Cadance a cheeky grin, and the pink princess found herself emotionally bracing for what was coming. “Hey you should feel proud of catching up to Twilight as fast as you did.”

Okay, I was going to wait till later to give her the bad news but…buck it. “By the way, there’s something I should tell you about this Friday,” Cadance said to switch subjects before Sunset could get a rise out of her. “Since you’re not going to the replay, Shining Armor will be taking your seat so he can sit next to me. Away from everypony else.”

It wasn’t anyway near what Sunset had agreed to in regards to Cadance’s date with Shining Armor. But...backing out of it after telling the young stallion where he’d be sitting during the replay seemed almost equally bad. He had tried to hide it, but the Princess of Love could tell when a stallion was really excited.

Instead of getting even the least bit possessive or jealous, Sunset smiled back at her. “Great! That’s way better than trying to hook up with Shiny when you’re surrounded by the nerd herd!” she exclaimed before back trotting a bit to get close to Cadance and whisper in her ear. “Just remember, it’s not a good date without any tongue.”

The wings on Cadance’s back tried to fly up as that comment brought Sunset’s ‘frenching’ demonstration to mind. “Uh, Sunset….”

“Yeah, I know it’s the guy that’s supposed to make the move, but it’s Shiny. He needs the help.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow at the other alicorn as her need to help mend relationships took precedence over her own embarrassment. “You know, letting him decided to make moves like that on his own might help with that problem in the long run.”

Either unable or unwilling to continue the argument, Sunset spun back around and went back to leading them through the streets. Once they got halfway to Shiny’s house, Sunset suddenly stopped and looked to a collection of restaurants across the street. “So, what do you feel like?”

Cadance followed Sunset’s gaze and frowned at the four small bistros promising a variety of different foods. “We’re not eating at Shiny’s house?” she asked after looking to the bigger alicorn. While Cadance knew they hadn’t been outright invited, Sunset Shimmer coming to train Twilight Sparkle in magic definitely implied the filly’s parents would at least offer her a meal.

“I…don’t feel right taking food from their pantry when we don’t need to,” Sunset admitted.

After a few seconds of watching the amber alicorn sulk about...something she couldn’t quite follow, Cadance took another quick glance at the restaurants, and then looked back to Sunset. “Why don’t you just pop us back to the castle then?”

Sunset drew in on herself a bit. “Um…”

Cadance frowned at the major increase in the other alicorn’s reluctance. “Are you avoiding Celestia again?”

The question got Sunset to jump back up to her full height. “No!”

“Then what is it?” Cadance asked in concern before she stepped towards the bigger alicorn and looked up into her eyes. “If there’s something going on between the two of you-”

“There’s nothing wrong!” Sunset told Cadance before she could finish. Then, the amber alicorn charged up her horn for a spell. “Look, I’m taking us there right now. See?”

Despite her assurances to Cadance, Sunset couldn’t help but feel there was something antagonistic forming between her and Celestia again. It wasn’t anything concrete, but...Sunset just couldn’t help but get a disagreeable feeling in her stomach whenever she looked at the bigger alicorn while Cadance finished explaining what had happened with Cinch.

“Well, it’s certainly a bit more direct than I would have handled things,” said Celestia, the pony whose own mishandling of her then-student made Sunset turn away from the world before becoming a power-hungry filly that spent nearly three years as a cripple thanks to the big alicorn throwing her out. “But I can’t fault you for standing up for a friend. Good job, Cadance.”

Although the pink princess probably blushed at the praise under her pink coat, Cadance waved off Celestia’s words modestly. “Oh, I never could have done it without Sunset’s help.”

“Yes,” Celestia agreed before she looked over to her daughter and smiled. “I’m so happy to see the two ponies I love most in this world working so well together.”

Although Sunset knew the comment was a complement in regards to how she had mended fences with Cadance, a part of her couldn’t help but compare the time the two of them had spent around Celestia. The fiery unicorn had been with her for years, and yet an alicorn with less than half a year under her belt was already tied for first place.

It made Sunset wonder how quickly Cadance would outpace her in Celestia’s eyes once the amber alicorn was gone.

“Sunset?” Celestia spoke up, cutting into the smaller mare’s thoughts. She looked back to her mother, and saw the white pony’s face full of concern. “Is something wrong? You’ve got this…look on your face.”

The question gave time for Sunset to ball up her emotions and exhale them using an exercise Sunset’s mother had taught her when she was little. “No I’m just…” she thought for a second to try and come up with something other than demanding to know why Celestia hadn’t called her daughter before she became an alicorn. “Just hearing Cinch’s name makes me angry.”

It wasn’t even a lie per-se. The mention of the unicorn bitch did make Sunset feel like somebody was poking her with a stick when she thought about how Cinch let that idiot Buck get away with bullying other students.

“Well, do not let it pull on you too much my child,” Celestia told her with a somewhat sad smile. “It is in the past. Finished. Such things should not be allowed to destroy the happiness of your present.”

Sunset felt her heart lurch after hearing Celestia’s words. She knew her mom wasn’t talking about her present situation, but...Sunset couldn’t help but think about them along those lines.

And for some reason, they made her feel uncomfortable.

Ugh, Sunset thought. What’s wrong with me? She knew that being angry at Celestia was wrong, and comparing herself to Cadance was an old trap that the amber alicorn had no intention of falling into again.

But that meant...what? Resigning herself to be Celestia’s second favorite after she came back from earth? Third, counting Twilight...and whatever alicorn came after the purple pony in the ascension order, if not before. Sunset knew there was another pony out there somewhere that would have wings and a horn by the time Sunset was due to return from Earth. So that meant she would be number four in her mother’s heart.

Sunset managed to keep the jealousy that wanted to accompany that fact away, but it left an empty feeling in her gut.

“Sunset, is something else troubling you?”

The amber alicorn looked up at her mother and gave Celestia a frown that she really couldn’t put her heart into. “I…” she stopped unable to assure the bigger alicorn that everything was fine. “Sorry. I’m just...distracted.”

Cadance looked back and forth between the two alicorns and then stretched her wings. “Oh pony! I’m stuffed. It was a lovely meal as always Auntie. But, we’d better head out to Shiny’s house. They’ll probably be wondering where Sunset and me are if we don’t get there soon.”

Extremely thankful for any excuse to get the hell out of Dodge, Sunset jumped out of her seat at the chance to escape Celestia’s questioning look. “Yes! Shiny’s house. The place we need to get going to. Now.”

But, before Sunset could port them away, a small frown appeared on Celestia’s face. “Wait. Why is Sunset going to see Shining Armor?”

While Sunset found herself freezing like deer in the headlights, Cadance giggled. “Oh, we’re not going to see Shiny. He has cutest little sister that Sunset is tutoring in magic, and...well, we’re kind of at the same level in magical skill, so…”

Confusion turned to interest, and Celestial leaned closer to the two younger alicorns. “Oh? That’s wonderful Sunset!” she said with a bright smile that had a bit of mischievous to it. “What’s her name?”

…

…

…

FUCK, Sunsetmentallyscreamed.

Next to the stunned amber alicorn, the pink numbskull opened her mouth. “It’s Tw-”

“PURPLE,” Sunset shouted as she said the first word that entered her head alongside a picture of Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn. “Uh...Smart.”

Internally, Sunset was kicking herself. MORON. “Her name’s...Purple Smart.”

Celestia’s expression faltered for a second. “Oh...well,” she said before recovering. “If she’s good enough to attract your attention Sunset, perhaps we’ll have a new student in my school next term.”

“M-Maybe,” she stuttered before motioning to Cadance that it was definitely time to leave. “Now come on.”

After Cadance caught up with Sunset outside the dining hall, the pink princess gave the amber alicorn a raised eyebrow. “Purple Smart?” she asked with a tiny smirk. “What made you come up with that?”

Sunset frowned back at the other alicorn. “It’s better than spilling everything like you were about to do!” she shot back before forcing herself to calm down. A moment of stupidity didn’t mean Cadance had attempted to betray Sunset to Celestia and blow the lid off the whole time travel thing before Sunset was ready for the secret to come out. “And color-plus-trait is a good way to create nickname.”

“Sorry,” Cadance apologized as they moved a few steps away from the door, and then stopped. A cautious but playful look appeared on her face, and she smirked at her best friend. “Well then Angry Amber, what name you do you think would fit me?”

The question made Sunset roll her eyes before she reached out and pulled Cadance in as close as she could. “Oh please. It’s so obvious I would have thought even a pony like you could have figured it out. “You’re Hot Pink,” she said in a grumble before quickly focusing her magic for a teleport spell.

Cadance’s eyes went wide for a second, and she looked down at the ground. “Th-Thank you,” she mumbled in what almost sounded like embarrassment to Sunset’s distracted mind.

With Cadance’s behavior causing a delay in her escape from Princess Celestia, Sunset let out a humph before she yanked Cadence into teleport range. “Whatever.”

Two seconds after the light blinding her eyes cleared, Cadance found herself standing outside Shining’s house. She broke away from the alicorn and turned to face her friend to give Sunset an even look. “Okay, what’s got you so upset?”

The wings on the amber alicorn fidgeted a bit at the question as Sunset put them back in their restful position. “What do you mean upset? I’m not upset! I’m...mildly agitated.”

“Oh please,” Cadance replied in a non-pleading way as she rolled her eyes, and then softened her expression a bit. Just because she was a little annoyed by the bigger pony’s avoidance didn’t mean she didn't care. “I’ve been around you long enough to read your moods, Sunset. You’re not angry angry, you’re upset angry. And if there’s something bothering you, I want to help.” The pink princess completed the offer by putting her hoof on the other pony’s shoulder.

Sunset tensed from the contact, and then drooped down with a sigh. “It’s...not that simple Cadance,” she said before looking up to give the house in front of her a glance. “To be honest, I’m not even sure what’s got me...like this.”

“Is it something I did?” Cadance asked. Back before Sunset’s turnaround, the pink princess knew she had usually been at the center of the amber alicorn’s perpetual bad moods. “Or didn’t do? I’m sorry that Celestia spent all that time patting me on the back and you were the one who came up with the plan to catch Cinch. We could go tell her what really happened if you-”

“No! The whole point of that plan was to make her give you a pat on the back,” Sunset replied without much fire in her voice. “And that’s not it. It’s just...well...ugh, forget it, it’s stupid.”

As Sunset tried to trot away from her, Cadance threw out a wing to stop her from leaving. “No!”

The amber alicorn stopped in midstep, and looked over to the pink princess. “Uh...say what?”

Cadance reached up and poked Sunset in the chest. “Okay first off, we are going to Shiny’s house, so you are not taking this dark cloud in there with you,” she told the bigger alicorn before her anger at Sunset’s earlier words started to seep into her voice. “And if whatever is on your mind is bothering you, is hurting you, then it is not stupid.

“Sunset, you are one of the most important ponies in the world to me. You’re my best friend and I love you,” Cadance half-lied as she wrestled her real feelings on the subject down in favor of helping the amber alicorn deal with her problem. “So I don’t care if it's something as simple as a splinter in your frog. I want to help you with it.”

As Cadance finished her speech, she locked eyes with Sunset in a half-pleading, half-angry glare that froze the bigger alicorn for a few seconds before Sunset sighed in defeat and dropped her head. “It’s...Mom.”

“Celestia?” Cadance mimicked in surprise, although once she considered Sunset’s actions before dinner, the pink princess couldn’t say that she was all that shocked. “What about her? Did she do something wrong? Again?” Or surprised that Celestia had bungled something. For a pony as old as she was, the High Princess of Equestria was terrible at interpersonal relations.

“No!” Sunset exclaimed, almost in a panic before she drew back on herself again. “Tonight was...she was...perfect.”

Cadance saw a tiny frown appear on Sunset’s face before she looked away and mumbled to herself. If not for the pegasus-level hearing that allowed flying ponies to hear each other over high-altitude winds, then Cadance doubted she would have caught it. “I’m the one that’s the problem.”

The words put an uneasy feeling in Cadance’s gut. Has she gone back to kicking herself again? The pink princess had thought Sunset managed to move past her mistakes from the other timeline. The amber alicorn had cried out her problems, talked to both Cadance and Celestia, and moved on.

Although...Cadance had to admit that in the past week, she had seen Sunset acting a little down from time to time. The morning Sunset woke up with a wet muzzle from crying in her sleep also came to mind. Cadance had thought that it was just caused by some lingering doubts, but… What if she never really recovered? the pink pony princess asked herself.

If that was the case, Cadance needed to talk to Celestia, and they both needed to talk to Sunset together. Not a how was your day talk, or a cute stallion talk, the kind where Celestia would need to magically hold Sunset down while both of the crowned princesses dragged whatever was really bothering Sunset out into the light of day and dealt with it.

Which wasn’t the kind of talk you had with your crush while in front of the house of the colt that you were trying to set her up with while at the same time doing your best to not develop feelings for said pony despite his adorableness because you were already falling for the mare.

Cadance frowned as the situation ran through her head. You know, when Auntie said my life was going to get a lot more interesting, I don’t think this is what she had in mind.

“Sunset-”

“Look! I don’t know what’s wrong, okay?” she snapped with a tightness around her eyes that had nothing to do with anger. “I… We’re friends. Celestia, my mom, loves me! And, oh yeah!” Sunset unfurled her wings and spread them wide. “I’m a fucking alicorn with more power and strength than I could have ever imagined on top of a pair of wings! Everything’s PERFECT!”

With a little effort, Cadance managed to stop herself from saying Celestia had always loved Sunset, and sighed. Then why do I see so much sadness in your eyes when you say that?

Before Cadance could ask her question, she heard a door open behind her and looked back to see Twilight Velvet step through. “Is everything alright Your-um, girls?”

By the time Cadance looked back at Sunset the sadness she had seen was nowhere to be found and she had put on a small smile. If not for how Sunset had been acting a moment ago, Cadance wasn’t even sure if she would have been able to tell it was fake. “Everything’s fine Mrs. Velvet!” the amber alicorn said as she stepped forward and turned the pink princess around with a wing before Sunset’s unnaturally strong appendage clamped down in a hug that shouted to anypony looking they were dating. “Cadance was just freaking out about nothing and I had to calm her down.”

The intimate touch of the other alicorn blew through the immunity Cadance had developed to being around her crush, and she found herself unable to not notice the softness of Sunset’s coat, her perfect musculature, the strong beat of her heart. Everything about the amber alicorn made the pink princess need to fight to keep from melting into her feathered embrace.

But, Cadance was the Alicorn of Love. She decided when she would get weak in the knees, not the amazing pony next to her. So she mustered up all the aggravation she felt at Sunset avoiding the question, and turned to look at her bed partner. “Really?” the pink princess asked with an even expression.

The light gray unicorn smiled. “Oh, I know how that is,” she said before stepping back and motioning them into her home. “Well, come on in. Night Light and I still have a few minutes. I’ll make you some tea, Highness.”

Sunset let out what at least sounded like a lighthearted giggle. “We’re coming in now ma’am,” she said before trotting forward, taking the pink princess along for the ride. Cadance knew better than to try and stop the impossibly strong alicorn from pulling her along. So she did her best to trot in step with Sunset before they got to the door and the amber alicorn leaned over to whisper in Cadance’s ear. “Brace for impact.”

“Huh?” Cadance managed to say before another voice rang in her ears.

“PRINCESS SUNSET!”

A little purple ball of adorableness latched onto the biggest pony in the room with a speed that had Cadance wondering if Twilight was part pegasus. After watching the little unicorn nuzzle Sunset’s leg so hard it seemed like she was trying to remove her coat for a few seconds, Cadance bent down to meet her youngest friend eye to eye. “Hello Twilight.”

In response to her name, Twilight Sparkle looked over to the pink alicorn. She hesitated for a moment, and then let go of Sunset to nuzzle Cadance muzzle to muzzle. “Hello Princess Cadance,” she said before sitting down and giving her a curious look. “Um, what’re you doing here?”

“Well, you don’t think you’re the only pony Sunset is helping with her magic, are you?” Cadance replied with a smile before she looked up and around the living room. Not seeing the target of her search, Cadance looked over to Twilight Velvet. “Where’s Shiny?”

The unicorn that could have passed for a grown version of her daughter with a dye job smiled back at the princess. “He is over at a friend’s house, working on some school project that’s due Monday. He said they wanted to get some work in on it tonight because tomorrow is...well, you know.”

Cadance smiled in response. “Yes, I’ll be sitting next to him during the re-play.”

Twilight let out a little moan. “I’ve got to wait until Saturday and see it at noon because of my bedtime,” she lamented. Then, after Cadance gave Twilight a sympathetic smile, the little unicorn looked over to Sunset. “Unless…Princess Sunset? Can you ask Princess Celestia to keep the sun up an extra hour tomorrow so I don’t have to go to sleep until after Solar Battles is over?”

After giggling at the question, Sunset opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by Twilight. “Wait! Can you keep the sun up for an extra hour for me tomorrow, pleeeeease?”

Despite the big purple eyes looking up at her, Sunset shook her head before reaching down to gently ruffle Twilight’s mane. “Sorry Twilight, but the sun isn’t really my thing.”

The lavender unicorn blinked and tilted her head. “But,” she said as she pointed to Sunset’s rear. “The sun’s your cutie mark! How come you can’t move the sun if it’s on your flank like Princess Celestia?”

Tightness appeared around Sunset’s eyes again as she looked back to her flank too quickly for Twilight to catch the expression. “Probably that I’m only a half-assed Celestia,” she mumbled.

“Huh?”

Sunset’s eyes widened for a moment, and then she looked back to Twilight with the smile of a pony who knew she had done something wrong but was somehow getting away with it. “Oh, um...I’m just saying I….uh….I’m not even...half as good as Celestia,” she said before becoming a little sad. “And that’s being generous.”

Yeah, Cadance told herself. Definitely need to get Sunset in for a talk with Celestia about what’s bothering her.

Down below the princesses, Twilight let out a horrified gasp, and leaped up to put her front hooves on Sunset’s chest. “That’s not true! You’re the best princess in Equestria! You’re smart, and strong, and kind! You helped Shiny when nopony else would, and-and…”

As Twilight’s argument began to run out of steam, her mother cut into the conversation. “And you’re taking the time to help the daughter of my friend, who nopony else has bothered to even notice,” Velvet told the amber alicorn in a motherly voice. “Although Princess, I think you may be a bit young to be comparing yourself to a pony that’s been around long enough to see the founding of Equestria. You’ve only been a princess for, what? Two weeks this Friday?”

“More or less,” Sunset replied uneasily.

“Definitely too young,” Velvet told her with a smile. “So dear, how about you stop worrying about all that behind Princess Celestia has, all the ground you need to cover if you want to catch up to her, and take things at the pace you’re meant to?”

Sunset let out a little snort when Velvet mentioned Princess Celestia, and then smiled back at her. “Where’d you think of something like that?”

The unicorn blew a tiny snort of her own and smirked. “I live in a house where my oldest has to deal with my youngest being an apparent magical prodigy skilled enough to attract the attention of royalty before she’s ten, and my youngest has been constantly comparing herself to a princess that’s been trained by Celestia Herself all week.”

Wanting to end Sunset’s pity party on that note, Cadance moved forward, trying to drag the amber alicorn with her. “Okay! Time for magic training!” she exclaimed before she reached down to grab Twilight in her mouth and flip the little filly onto her back.

Thankfully, having to focus on something besides herself and her foolish shortcomings seemed to be just what Sunset needed to get out of her funk for the time being. After they got done with homework from school, Sunset put Cadance to work on trying to form crystals of a specific shape that was different than the clumps of matter she had graduated to since her last major breakthrough in spellcraft.

So once again, Cadance found herself muddling through the magic of a forgotten empire and falling short of her goal.

Then came Twilight’s instruction…

“Okay Twilight, you’ve got levitation down, and to be honest, your mom and brother can show you how to light up your horn, so…is there anything specific you want to learn?”

The little lavender pony’s face became thoughtful for a few seconds before she broke out into an excited smile. “Teach me your dragon wrestling spell!”

A little pop sounded as Cadance’s concentration broke, causing a deformed geometric shape of pale pink rock to fall out of the air that looked even more pathetic than the other half-dozen of her setbacks. She looked towards Twilight with wide eyes as she tried to think of a way to mitigate the coming damage to Twilight’s mood when Sunset denied her request.

The other alicorn looked at her for a few seconds and blinked. “Wrestle…dragons,” she repeated.

“Mmmmhmmm!” Twilight replied as she nodded eagerly. “Like you did when you saved Shiny!”

Sunset continued to stare at Twilight, letting Cadance take the problem in her experienced hooves. “Twilight, I think spells for fighting dragons might be a little advanced for a pony as young as you.”

As the unicorn looked over to the pink princess, Sunset stepped forward. A grin began to form on her face. “Yeah, there’s plenty of things you need to learn before I teach you anything like that. Like not to take your eye off the dragon!” the amber alicorn said before she pounced at Twilight. “Rwwwwaaar!”

Twilight let out a scream that was soon ruined by her giggles as Sunset pinned her to the ground with her belly exposed and went in for the ‘kill’. “Oh no! The dragon’s got me!”

“Muhahaha! Silly little morsel, nopony can save you now!” Sunset told her prey before she touched Twilight’s belly with her mouth and blew a blast of air that left the lavender unicorn giggling like mad.

“Hehehe P-Princess Cadance,” Twilight said as Sunset stopped to take a breath. “Hehehe, help!”

Years of dealing with foals allowed Cadance’s Imagination Land instincts to kick in quickly and override the part of her brain that said what she was about to do would be like running muzzle first into a brick wall. “I’m coming Twilight!” she ‘yelled’ using an inside voice before leaping towards Sunset.

Instead of crashing into the impossibly strong pony and shattering her bones on Sunset’s unbreakable coat, she actually took the other pony down and made Sunset roll onto her back. Cadance paused as she stared at her friend for a few seconds, and then got back into character. “Ah ha! Now that my loyal knight has freed me from my prison, you’re in big trouble dragon!”

And then she waited for Sunset to turn the tables on her.

And waited…

And…

Cadance leaned in closer to whisper to her friend. “Throw me off.”

“Huh?” Sunset replied with a confused frown, her inexperience in dealing with foals showing as bright as day.

“Say something that disables me, then throw me off,” Cadance whispered back. “Twilight has to be the one to beat you.”

Sunset’s expression changed to understanding a second before she smiled. “Oh, right!” she whispered before resuming her role. “Muhahaha! Foolish princess, just because you’ve escaped from your cell doesn’t mean you’ve won. This entire dungeon is inside an anti-magic zone!”

After letting out a dramatic gasp, Cadance backed off of Sunset and reached up to touch her horn with both hooves while she spread her wings to help her stay up. “She’s right! My horn can’t release any power!”

Twilight gasped. “Oh no! Quick Princess Cadance, we have to get out of here!”

“Hold on a second. We need to fix something real quick.”

Both of the ponies looked over to Sunset as she raised a hoof, making Twilight speak. “Princess Sunset, if you want to pause the game, you have to say time out.”

“Oh, okay then. Time out.”

“What is it?” Cadance asked before she looked around the room to see if they had broken or knocked anything over. But Twilight’s room was as immaculate as ever, save for the several pebble-sized crystals Cadance had left on the floor.

Sunset focused her gaze on Cadance. “Sorry, it’s just that the whole scale is messing with my ‘I’m supposed to be a dragon’ mental imagery. I mean, if I’m the dragon, then aren’t you a little big to be a pony, Cadance?”

“Well, yeah but…” An uneasy thought formed in the back of Cadance’s mind as Sunset’s horn lit up. Oh buck.

“Don’t worry, I can fix it.”

A wave of panic passed through Cadance as she felt herself being surrounded by Sunset’s magic. The world seemed to lurch and spin around, making the pink princess readjust her footing before she closed her eyes to help with the vertigo. Then, when everything stopped moving, Cadance looked at her surroundings in amazement.

Everything was...bigger. Not to the point where she felt like a breezie, but the bed that had seemed extremely small to her before now held enough room for a whole family of ponies, and the normal-sized bookshelves towered over her like monoliths dedicated to reading. Then there was-“Ohmygosh! Princess Cadance! You’re my size!”

Cadance took a step back from the excited unicorn, that she could was definitely not the same size as the pink alicorn when Twilight got within the personal space of the smaller pony. Aside from the two or three inches Twilight had on her, the foals proportions made Twilight about twenty-percent bulkier. “Um…”

Then looked over to Sunset...and stiffened.

Instead of the big alicorn she was used to, the Sunset Shimmer that stood in front of Cadance was massive enough for Celestia to walk underneath her body with little trouble. Thick legs equal to tree trunks that Cadance wasn’t sure she could wrap her own legs around held up a body the size of a rowboat, that was in turn surrounded by a pair of wings large enough to serve as a blanket for a pony of Cadance’s size.

And then there were the oddities that Cadance noticed. She didn’t know if it was because she just didn’t know enough to notice such thing when she was Twilight’s age, or if it was the re-sizing of her eyes, but Cadance could see every tiny scruff and flaw in Sunset’s coat, and even a slightly out of place feather on her wings.

Before she could comment on the oddity, Cadance found herself floating in the air, grabbed by a smirking Sunset and lifted until they saw eye to eye, with Sunset’s big head nearly filling her whole vision. “Awww! Look at the cute widdle foal,” she said with a smirk.

“This is for the breezie thing, isn’t it?” Cadance asked her best friend with a little smile.

“Yeah,” Sunset said before her face became serious and she pulled Cadance in close. “By the way, I also put a feather light spell on you so you’ll weigh about as much as Twilight. But even at that size you’re still going to be more than three times stronger than her, even with some weakening spell thrown in. So be careful, okay?”

The humor faded from Cadance’s mind, and she nodded. “Got it,” the pink princess replied too quietly for anypony other than the giant in front of her to hear. “Anything else?”

Sunset shook her head. “Not as far as Twilight goes. But you might want to lay off on the flying since your wings will be too strong for your weight.”

“Okay,” said before her wings shot out and gently brushed the area beneath Sunset’s nostrils.

The touch of Cadance’s feathers made Sunset’s face twist and twitch as she had the usual reaction to a pegasus feather touching a muzzle. “Ah! Ah! Ah!”

“Time in!” Cadance chirped before the ‘dragon’ attacked.

“AH-CHOO!”

Magus Twilight Sparkle, guardian of The Library and princess-in-training cheered as Princess Cadance outsmarted the dragon of the raging sun to free herself from its evil clutches before she used the wind created from its fire breath to glide away and land next to her protector. “Come on Princess! We need to escape the dragon’s anti-magic zone!”

“Lead the way...uh…”

“Magus,” Twilight supplied. She didn’t mind the little pink princess forgetting her title. She was probably still a little jarred from her imprisonment.

“Oh you little-”

Twilight grabbed her princess’s hoof in her fetlock. “Run for it princess!”

Behind them, the dragon was taking another deep breath and let out a roar before a gout of flame flew towards the pair of escaping ponies and Princess Cadance screamed in terror.

“HOLY Bu-er, FUCKING HELL!”

Twilight and Cadance barely made it out the door and turn into the hall before Sunset’s fire blast shot out behind them to impact the wall. Shortly thereafter, Sunset, who was making a great deal more noise than she usually did while galloping, ran out after them. Not wanting to die, Cadance raised her forelegs and made a T. “T-TIMEOUT! TIMEOUT!”

Sunset froze and put on a worried look as Cadance glared at her. “What? What is it? Is Twilight hurt?”

“You’re shooting FIRE at us!” Cadance shouted before she pointed at the wall that…had no burn damage at all?

An oversized hoof on her shoulder drew Cadance’s after attention away from the horrified alicorn who had just tried to fry them up like fish, and made her look at Twilight. “Um, you know that was just an illusion, right Princess Cadance?”

While the question calmed Cadance down, Sunset seemed to become even more distressed. “Oh fu-uuudge,” the gigantic amber alicorn said as she caught sight of Twilight looking up at her before lowering herself to eye level with the miniature princess. “I’m sorry Cadance, I forgot! I didn’t mean to scare you. I just-”

“Sunset-”

“I just caught so caught up and-”

“SUNSET!” Cadance shouted in her face to make the bigger pony stop talking. When she did, the smaller alicorn sighed and sat down. “It’s fine. I’m hardly fire-phobic-”

“Pyrophobic.” Twilight corrected her before she could stop herself. Memories of the few times she had gone to magic pre-school came back, and she drew in on herself. Other ponies didn’t like it when Twilight did those kinds of things. Especially the bigger ones.

Which means Princess Cadance won’t like me now either! Twilight told herself. And if Princess Cadance doesn’t like me, then Princess Sunset will HATE me, and-Princess Cadance looked up and Twilight and smiled. “Right. That,” she said before nodding to the foal. “Thank you for the help, Twilight.”

The oddity completely destroyed Twilight’s train of thought, and she looked back as the two other ponies continued to talk. However, she barely heard a word of what they were saying over the revelation that Cadance hadn’t reprimanded the purple pony, even with every legal right to. She was a princess after all, changing the Equestrian dictionary to suit her needs was well within Cadance’s authority.

“Okay so,” Sunset said loud enough to break Twilight’s dazed awe over Cadance’s kindness. “Now that the itty-bitty pony princess has been shown I’m not going to burn down the house or blow up Canterlot. Time In.”

“Twilight, even though this place prevents me from crafting spells, I can still lend you my power!” Princess Cadance said before giving her champion the energy she needed to fuel several attacks.

Magus Twilight fired off a barrage of spells to slow the giant beast down as she led the princess towards the stairs of the sun dragon’s tower. The air hummed with her power as she launched missile after missile of magical energy.

“Pew pew! Pew pew pew!” Twilight said as she hurled little crystal after little crystal that Cadance crafted for her.

Although the tiny pebbles did no damage, Sunset looked around in irritation as the two ponies ran away from her. “You guys are gonna be the ones cleaning this up!” she told them with a frown.

Cadance looked back and laughed. “Only if you catch us!” she yelled before sticking her tongue out and razzing the amber alicorn. Then she grabbed Twilight, and jumped into the air at the top of the stairs to begin gliding her way down.

Twilight wasn’t scared when Princess Cadance took them both into the air to avoid the trap-filled staircase the magus had barely made it up on her way into the dragon’s lair. The feeling of flying was amazing, unlike anything she had experienced in all her years of adventuring.

And being the brave and experienced adventure that she was, Magus Twilight Sparkle was definitely not afraid of Princess Cadance dropping her onto the staircase below. It was just...a little worrying that the pink pony holding her up hadn’t flapped her wings once. Not to mention when they almost crashed into the front door, and the wall...and Twilight wasn’t sure if Princess Cadance meant to land them on the dragon’s Great Sofa of Relaxation +3, but...she had to admit that it was pretty fun.

Now that it was over anyway.

Back at the stairs, Twilight could hear the dragon begin her loud descent. So with time running out, she sought guidance from Princess Cadance. “What now Princess? Do we try for the door?” she asked.

The pink alicorn looked over to the exit with a frown. “No. The uh...dragon has most likely warded it to prevent our escape. We’ll have to defeat her first if we want to get out,” she explained while turning away from the sealed portcullis and giving her attention to Twilight. “So my champion, how are we going to defeat the dragon?”

Twilight blinked as she felt the weight of such a grave responsibility settle on her shoulders. “What? I have to be the one to come up with the plan?” Despite her many adventures, Twilight had to admit that she had never once faced a foe as powerful as the fiery sun dragon.

“Don’t worry Magus Twilight, I have something that may be of use to us,” she said before grabbing the blanket covering the dragon’s couch and pulling over the two of them as the monstrous beast came ever closer. Then she looked out towards the dark form that could be seen even through the sheet. “This is my magical cloak of invisibility! I hid it here when the dragon was taking me to my cell. As long as we’re under it, she won’t be able to see or hear us.”

Although she had faith in Princess Cadance, Twilight still found herself a little worried as the dragon was practically standing right on top of them. “Bwa? Where Princess and pony go? Me just saw them sitting here,” the dragon said. “But me apparently too stupid to figure out they just hiding?”

“Okay time out,” Cadance said before she threw back the dust cover Velvet had left covering the furniture and looked over at Sunset with half-lidded eyes. Thanks to the couch, they could actually look each other in the eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You mean other than my character’s complete lack of intelligence?”

A snort escaped for Cadance’s nostrils. “Hey, you’re the one who decided to start this game out of the blue.”

Before Princess Sunset could give her counter argument, Twilight couldn’t help but speak. “You really should have made a plan Princess Sunset.”

Faced with the filly’s irrefutable argument, Sunset sighed. “Okay fine, the dragon will conduct search for her escaped prisoners,” she said before focusing on Princess Cadance. “But being such a stupid creature, I’m sure she’ll give up after making one round around the dungeon and come back to park her big butt on her nice comfy couch.”

Cadance looked over to the alicorn’s rear end and gulped. “Gotcha.”

As the dragon began testing the air for traces of their scent, Twilight leaned in close. “Don’t worry Princess Cadance, I visited every room in this dungeon before finding you. If the dragon tries to follow me by my scent, then she’ll have to look through every single room in the tower!”

“And since I’ve been here for so long, she probably smells me everywhere too,” Cadance added.

Above the intrepid heroes, the dragon let out an annoyed groan. “Little ponies not hide from dragon for long.”

Despite the fact that the nervousness wasn’t showing on her face, Twilight let out a breath of relief when the dragon stormed off towards the place where it kept...whatever it was dragons ate.

So, the two heroes huddled up and began figuring out how they were going to defeat the raging sun dragon. Although Princess Cadance wasn’t much for tactics, she did have a wide array of knowledge when it came to the weak points of dragons, their strengths, and means of drawing them into a confrontation. Twilight was just glad that Cadance’s cloak also dampened their voices, or the dragon would have been able to hear everything the two ponies had said as she searched the lower floor of her tower.

When they were ready, Cadance smiled at her rescuer. “Okay then Twilight, as soon as the dragon doubles back to search the upper floors, we’ll have enough time to set up our trap!”

The dragon let out a loud sigh groaning sigh. “Dragon is feeling lazy and tired. Thinks she needs to rest on couch.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in fear as the dragon that talked to itself way too much looked over to their hiding place.

“A smart dragon would check to see if her prey had doubled back on her,” Cadance told Twilight.

The dragon let out a snort. “Or maybe dragon should just do real smart thing and go wait by the only exit to her dungeon.”

Completely ignoring the dragon, Princess Cadance turned to her rescuer. “And if she tries to block the exit, we can just wait for her go to sleep, then take care of her,” Cadance went on. “Time is our ally here Twilight, not hers.”

After a few seconds of silence, the dragon sighed. “Better go check upstairs.”

Once the dragon was gone, Princess Cadance empowered Twilight with her magic once again to give the magus the power she needed to cast a trap spell strong enough for dealing with a dragon. Then, they placed the princess’s Cloak of Invisibility (with the sound muffling feature) over the trap before Cadance laid in the center to act as bait.

But before they put their plan into motion, the princess reached out and took Twilight’s hooves. “Twilight. If things go bad, you need to let the dragon take me back and make your escape.”

“No!” Twilight cried out as she looked at her princess in the eyes. “I’ll never abandon you Princess!”

Cadance sighed and looked away from her champion in shame. “My wings are too injured to fly, and the last of my magic was spent preparing for the sun dragon. Even if we escape, I won’t be able to protect Equestria anymore. That duty is yours now, Magus Twilight Sparkle.”

The declaration made Twilight let out a gasp. Slowly, she backed away from her princess in shock.

Protect Equestria?

Could she, a mere unicorn, carry on where even a princess had failed?

Before the unicorn could even begin to answer the question, the dragon stormed down the stairs. “AH-HA! There you are my little ponies!” she said before slowly walking forward. Her wings extended, causing the entire room to darken under the presence of the massive lizard’s shadow. “I’ve got you right where I want you now!”

Princess Cadance gasped in fright. “Twilight, run!”

Despite the oaths she had sworn to always obey the princess, Twilight Sparkle found herself unable to do as she was told. Instead, she took her rightful place: between Princess Cadance and the monster that threatened her. “No! I’ll protect you and Equestria Princess Cadance, no matter what type of dangers you face!” she said before looking back to the dragon. “So come get some!”

The dragon stood motionless for a moment with an odd look of surprise on her face before her mouth curved into a smile. “Daaaw! It really is cute when little girls try to act tough,” she said.

Twilight blushed. But...not with embarrassment!

Taking a cue from the animal kingdom, she puffed out her cheek and chest in an attempt to appear larger. But then Twilight had to release her breath in order to continue to discussion how how not adorable she was. “I’m not cute! I’m ferocious!” she said before rearing up on her hind legs in an intimidating display.

In response, the dragon snickered. “I’ll give you ferocious!” she said before charging.

Right into the trap Twilight had laid out for her. There was the sound of crunching crystal, signaling the unicorn magus that the dragon had stepped on one of the magical mines she had covered with Cadance’s Cloak of Invisibility. As soon as Twilight’s ears picked up the vibrations, she let out a victorious cry. “HA! Now that you’ve stepped on our paralysis mine, you won’t be able to move your foreleg!”

The dragon looked down at what she thought was an empty floor. “Wait, that’s that you were-”

Cadance got to her hooves. “Now Twilight, while she’s off balance!”

“CHARGE!” the purple pony shouted before both Twilight and the pink princess galloped forward to crash into the dragon, sending her down onto at least half a dozen paralysis mines and exposing the monster’s weak point.

“Now Twilight! Attack her weak points with everything you’ve got!” Princess Cadance cried as she struck out with both hooves.

“Hey what’re you two-hehe ah-hahaha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” the amber alicorn laughed as both Twilight and the pink princess went after the ticklish spots Cadance had become privy to thanks to all the time she has spent sleeping and bathing with the bigger pony. “N-No fair!”

Sunset rolled onto her back, and Twilight leaped up to continue the assault while Cadance found herself trotting back to just watch the two girls go at it, crushing the little bits of fragile crystal she had created to serve as ‘spells’ so Twilight could pretend to blast Sunset with her magic.

Eventually, Sunset’s horn lit up, and she countered Twilight’s assault by lifting her into the air with her magic. The purple unicorn cried out how that wasn’t fair, but the imagination game was quickly forgotten in lieu of an impromptu wrestling match that had both the girls causing the others to laugh uncontrollably.

Throughout it all, Cadance sat back and watched the strongest creature in Equestria as she gently played with the foal in her care. Sometimes Sunset would tickle Twilight, and then she allowed the unicorn to somehow regain the upperhoof for a time before reversing their positions. Eventually, Twilight turned the grapple into a chase, and the two ran around the room for a bit in a circle, but it was only a short break in a contest that had no rules, and two winners.

Towards the end, when Sunset snatched Twilight up in her hooves to hold the purple pony close to her chest in a hug, Cadance found herself staring at the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. While the pink princess had seen her best friend be terrifying, friendly, admirable, pitiable, humorous, and even desirable, Cadance realized that as she watched Sunset be with Twilight, it was the first time she had really seen the amber alicorn be so kind and gentle.

Beautiful was the only word Cadance could think to describe Sunset at that moment, and even that seemed to convey only a part of what she was seeing. The love Sunset had for Twilight Sparkle wasn’t born of some physical desire or emotional need for acceptance the way romantic or familial and platonic love tended to be. It was a pure, unconditional want to bring happiness to a little filly without anything gained.

As the two ponies continued to play, the pink princess felt her heartbeat actually show down as she gazed at Sunset’s beautiful face.

Time even seemed to stop at one point.

And just like that...I’m in love with her, Cadance realized.

Not a lustful attraction, or emotional infatuation that demanded Sunset’s attention.

Cadance...didn’t care about such things at the moment. She knew she would again...eventually. But at the moment, all she wanted was for Sunset to be happy, no matter what.

…

And then the door opened, shattering the moment into a million pieces that would never be put back together again.

The ruination of her perfect moment made Cadance while around in anger and storm up to the stallion that had daredto cut short that all too brief time of realization where a pony finds the one pony they’d do anything for.

He might have been more than twice her height at the moment.

He might have been staring at her with a level of shock that said anything truly startling would break his mind.

He might have even been so big in comparison that when Cadance looked straight ahead, she was on eye level with the underside of his barrel where the parts stallions tended to keep on full display were completely out of view…

But…

Oh...WOW… the pink princess thought to herself as she saw the proof that her adjusted size made a VERY big difference in how her brain processed measurements. “Uh...humanaja…”

Sunset looked up from the couch as she continued to hold Twilight against her barrel. “Oh, hey Shiny. Your mom said there’s some dinner left in the fridge for you and...uh, something wrong?”

The too big stallion raised his hoof over Cadance’s head and pointed at the tiny princess. “Uh...Sunset? Why is Princess Cadance smaller than Twilight?”

Sunset giggled. “Oh, that. Yeah, I shrunk her so we could have some fun playing with Twilight,” she explained with a wave of her hoof before her face became serious. “But, we really should be getting back to work. Come on girls.”

Back on the floor, Cadance found herself unable to look away from the sight in front of her. “Ummm...right.”

Then the whole world lurched as Cadance was grabbed up by Sunset’s magic and carried upstairs. While she was floating in midair, the pink princess finally managed to process the feelings that were going through her mind at the sight of Shining Armor’s...maleness. Lust...definitely feeling some lust towards him now, she noted.

Several minutes after Cadance had been removed from Shining Armor, including the five it took to get the image of the stallion’s...parts out of her mind to the point where she could focus, Cadance found herself laying on Twilight’s bed next to the filly that was still a great deal larger than her. Sunset had gone off to help Shining Armor with some homework that he had been unable to complete in the company of his friends, leaving the two miniature mares alone together.

Twilight, being her usual helpful self, was reading through the book on crystal magic as she tried to help the pink princess with the spellcraft. Fortunately for Cadance’s pride, she looked about as lost as Cadance was when it came to the subject. After apparently finishing the last of the instructions, Twilight looked over to Cadance. “Why can’t Princess Sunset help you with your magic, Princess Cadance?”

“Because Sunset doesn’t know the magic I’m trying to learn, so she can’t guide me through it like Celestia did with light and the basic love spells I learned from her,” she explained.

The filly looked up from the book and back over to the alicorn. “How does it work?”

Cadance thought about it for a second, and then realized she was actually trying to dumb down an explanation to a pony that knew more about magic than she did herself. “Well, it manifests the love I have for other ponies into a solid physical form that I can shape and use to help them. Most ponies don’t use it these days because they have more reliable magic that is easier to control.”

“Then why’re you trying to learn the old stuff?” Twilight asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

Instead of explaining to Twilight that Cadance was under threat from a race of monsters that could look like anypony, and since crystal magic was a form of love magic that enabled her to defend herself it would be easier to learn quickly rather than something like throwing fire and lightning around, the pink alicorn went with something a little less frightening. “Well, the symbol for the area of Equestria this magic comes from is the same as my cutie mark,” she said. “And just because something’s a little older and more challenging doesn’t mean it’s not just as good as the more modern magics.”

“Maybe I can help!” Twilight said before looking back to the spell book and reading. “Okay so...it says you're supposed to visualize your love and...what does that mean? Love is a concept, not a physical thing. How can you visualize something that doesn’t give a visual?”

Cadance giggled at the little filly and closed her eyes before she learned over and rested herself against the lavender unicorn. The layer of filly fat Twilight still held onto made the purple pony’s coat extra comfortable. “Just start over again from the beginning Twilight,” she instructed before drawing on her magic.

“Okay,” Twilight replied in a dubious tone. “Gather all the magic you can hold and visualize your love…”

As the unicorn continued to read, Cadance cleared her mind of distractions and only paid attention to Twilight’s voice. But even that faded into the background as she continued to read the instructions that Cadance knew by heart.

Visualize your love, Cadance repeated to herself as she set out to do just that.

At first, she pictured her adopted parents. Although they had been a pair of earth ponies that found her abandoned in the woods as a foal, they had given Cadance all the love she had ever wanted as a child. The love she felt for them was a warm thing, built over the several years that they had spent caring for her.

Then she moved onto Princess Celestia. While Cadance hadn’t known her for nearly as long as the earth ponies that raised her, the pink princess was touched the fact that the alicorn had welcomed her to Canterlot with open wings and brought her into the family as a niece...while the pony that should have been called Celestia’s daughter wasn’t given any such gestures of affection by her mother; making such things seem almost empty. Not to mention the annoyance that came with remembering how Celestia had treated the amber pony in regards to emotional neglect.

Which brought her to Sunset. A hundred words ran through her thought as Cadance pictured the amber alicorn thought a window in her mind. Other windows opened, showing the unicorn that had tormented the princess upon her move to Canterlot, but Cadance could no longer see the fiery-maned monster that had given her nightmares. Instead, that unicorn had been replaced by a frightened young mare that had never been given what she needed by the one she loved the most.

As for the alicorn version...Cadance didn’t know whether to be enamored, impressed, intimidated, or just plain in love with Sunset Shimmer. Their time together before her ascension had more than shown the pink princess Sunset’s numerous faults, so she knew the amber alicorn was hardly perfect. Cadance still saw her get too angry at things even after spreading her wings. And yet...Cadance saw that it made Sunset that much more amazing. Anypony could be the perfect little mare as long as things were going good, but Sunset had managed to crawl her way out of the darkness and continued to keep it from consuming her again by shining with a light that not only drew other ponies to her, but illuminated the best in them as well.

A number that Cadance found herself included in. The pink alicorn knew that two weeks ago, she would have never tried pulling anything like what she had done during lunch. Standing up to Celestia on matters of affection was one thing, but dealing with Cinch...Cadance remembered that right before everything started, she had asked herself: What would a brave pony like Sunset Shimmer do?

While such thoughts galloped through her head, Cadance felt her magic she was pushing through her horn surge and flow along unused mana pathways before Twilight let out an excited gasp. “Princess, you did it!”

The little filly’s words made Cadance open her eyes, and she found herself standing in front of Sunset Shimmer.

Or...a very lifelike representation of her that was completely made of crystal, which mimicked her color scheme perfectly stood and about half as tall as Cadance currently was, shining with its own little bit of inner light.

And the details of the crystal statue were exquisite. Despite the spread wings and tiny frown on the face of the crystal statue, Cadance could see that Sunset’s expression was more determined than angry with the way her mouth was drawn in an even line. A nonexistent wind blew back her mane and tail while her hooves stood firmly planted in a way that let her stand even on the surface of Twilight’s cushy bed. The piece of crystal artwork depicted Sunset Shimmer as a determined guardian that would do anything for the ponies she cared about.

The joy of finally getting the spell to work was overshadowed by the revelation it represented. This is how I see her, Cadance thought as she reached out to touch a hoof to touch the statue’s cheek. Both Sunset’s ferocity and kindness combined.

“It’s so...pretty,” Twilight said in a whisper before she frowned in the cute way only foals could, and looked over to Cadance. “But how does this look like love?”

A realization struck Cadance like a bolt of lightning. “That’s it!” she whispered to herself. Crystal magic needed the emotions of a pony that was in love to work. That was why she hadn’t been able to do anything beyond creating the most basic of crystals. Just because Cadance had experienced the love of friends and family didn’t mean she had the emotional requirements to properly mold the magic.

Which was also probably why the magic had been abandoned. Cadance knew how rare to truly be in love with another pony was. And a pony that tried to fall in love just to learn crystal magic would have found the whole thing impossible.

The sound of heavy hooves coming down the hallway broke Cadance out of her thoughts as Twilight let out an excited gasp. “Let’s show Princess Sunset!”

Cadance’s eyes widened in horror as she looked at the statue that seemed to shout ‘CADANCE IS IN LOVE WITH SUNSET SHIMMER!’. She couldn’t tell Sunset about her feelings now! Sunset needed to get together with Shining Armor!

With her mind half in a panic, Cadance quickly moved over to put a hoof on Twilight’s mouth. “Wait!” she ordered before using her magic to levitate the pillows on Twilight’s bed out of the way and flinging the crystal statue there to be covered up by them. “We um...Twilight, you like Princess Sunset, right?”

The little-but-bigger unicorn nodded. “Mmmmhmmm.”

“I’ll let you have the statue if you don’t tell Sunset about it,” Cadance promised her.

Twilight cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Why wouldn’t you want to tell Princess Sunset?”

With the foal being difficult, and Cadance getting desperate, the tiny alicorn stood up to her full height to at least try and look the bigger filly in the eyes. “Twilight. I need you to take this seriously.”

“Okay,” Twilight slowly agreed. “But if Princess Sunset asks, I’ll have to tell her.”

Cadance sucked in a sharp breath. “Nonono! You can’t tell her even if she asks,” the pink princess said. “This is super serious Twilight. So serious…” Cadance thought for a second as she tried to come up with the way to explain just how important it was to the filly. “Twilight, have you been to preschool?”

A nod came before Twilight’s response. “Yes. I was going at the beginning of the year. Until I tested out anyway.”

How do you test out of...oh buck it, Cadance told herself as she kept her super serious face on. “Alright in Twilight. I need you to take the sacred oath not to reveal anything involving this statute to Princess Sunset.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide for a moment before she looked down in thought. “Well, if it’s that important…” The little filly stood up at attention, and raised one of her hooves. “Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake. If I lie and spill the beans, you can make me eat sardines.”

The promise given, Cadance moved to seal the agreement. When Twilight bumped her rump in response, the pink princess turned around and wiped the smile off her face. “Thus is our agreement made. One we shall remind each other of henceforth upon meeting.”

With her own serious face in place, Twilight nodded.

A second later, the enormous amber alicorn came trotting into the room. “Hey girls. What’s up?” Sunset asked before looking around. “Still no luck with the crystal magic, Cadance?”

Cadance gave her a nervous grin as she forced herself to keep from looking back at the pile of pillows at the head of Twilight’s bed. “You could say that,” the pink princess replied. It would be completely wrong, but you could still say it.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually,” Sunset said before she looked over to Twilight and let out a tiny sigh. “And Shining Armor says it’s time for your bath. Then, me and Cadance need to get going.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in horror that had nothing to do with the grammatical error. “What? No!” she cried out. “Y-You can’t leave yet Princess.”

Sunset’s eyes took on a gentle expression that Cadance had seen come from Celestia more than half a dozen times as she looked down and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Come on Twilight, you know I’ve got to get going eventually.”

The beginnings of tears started to form on the edge of Twilight’s eyes. “B-But...you...can’t you stay just a little longer? Please?”

Despite the size difference, Cadance found herself moved by the pleading gaze. “You know, I doubt Twilight Velvet would care that much if we spent the night,” she said.

Using whatever sixth sense foals possessed to get what they needed, Twilight Sparkle found the chink in Sunset’s defense and punished the opening. She let out a cute little gasp and began her verbal assault. “We can have a slumber party! It’ll be my very first one!”

Uncertainty showed on Sunset’s face. “Umm…”

“And if you’re worried about Celestia, you could just pop over and tell her,” Cadance added.

“Please, please, pleaspleasplease, phlaheeeeeeze,” Twilight begged.

Thus was the godlike alicorn brought low by the little purple unicorn’s overly expressive eyes.

Ever so carefully, Celestia tilted the beaker in her magic to unleash the smallest drop of the bubbling blue liquid within and send it tumbling through the air to join with the purple potion waiting below. Held steady in her magic thusly, no more of the additive was allowed to escape from its container and ruin the concoction she had spent the past half hour brewing.

“Okay,” the princess mumbled as she looked down at her latest alchemical mixture. “Try number twenty-seven.”

There was a slight scape at the door, and Celestia looked back in time to see a piece of parchment slide its way into her personal lab before turning up into the air as if guided by some unseen wind, fold itself up into a paper airplane, and fly towards the white alicorn at full speed.

Not wanting to ruin a whole night’s work, Celestia looked back at the lab table and quickly set the additive in her magic down before she looked back towards the incoming note just in time for it to find a place to land...in her nostril.

Celestia let out a tiny sound of displeasure before the reached up and took the paper out to snort her airway clear. Then, she looked around the empty room in relief. Glad nopony was here to see that. The last time a photographer had caught her in an embarrassing position, it hadn’t gone well for anypony involved.

After levitating the paper off the floor, Celestia unfurled it to read the contents.

Mom,

Purple’s parents won’t be back until very late and so Cadance and I are going to stay over at her house to help Shining Armor look after the filly. Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow in plenty of time to greet the griffons.

Sunset

Celestia felt a bit of sadness ass he looked at the signature. No student or loving daughter, just...Sunset. And the title of mother only made the great alicorn feel all the worse for not earning it sooner like she should have.

Speaking of should have dones, Celestia told herself as she turned her attention away from the letter that had been shoved up her muzzle over to the journal she had been reviewing while waiting for the potions she had been cooking to come to a boil. One side showed Sunset’s cutie mark, the other held Celestia’s. She slowly trotted up to it and looked down at one of the more disturbing passages Sunset had penned towards the end of the entries, then over to the letter her daughter had sent via an air mail spell.

“I really should make her a replacement.”

Thankfully, Sunset was able to talk Twilight down from a slumber party to a simple sleepover by the time they got to the bathroom. The difference between the two being that the second actually involved sleep, while Sunset’s Pinkie Pie education on the subject of parties was quite clear that those of the slumber kind did not. It also meant Twilight was unable to utilize her slumber party instruction book, allowing her to dodge a rather deadly bullet in regards to letting the purple pony down.

“Okay, so…” Sunset said as she looked at the tub. It was a bit smaller than she was used to, but then her own bath would be more like a pool for Twilight to swim in. Plus, it’s not as if I’m-“Princess Sunset, do you want to take a bath with us?” Twilight asked with a smile.

Sunset smiled at her friend’s question and laughed just a little bit. “Well, I may be a bit big for-”

“Really?” the miniature pink princess asked as she plopped herself down and crossed her hooves while wearing an irritated scowl. “That excuse doesn’t really hold water anymore, you know.”

Nailed to the wall by Cadance’s argument and gaze, Sunset let out a nervous laugh. “Okay you win. Just let me fill the tub and heat the water.”

After putting everything off for a good five minutes by asking Twilight if she wanted bubbles in her bath and checking to make sure both the purple filly and Cadance didn’t need to pee, which got an eyeroll from the pink alicorn, Sunset found herself preparing a safe reduction spell for herself.

It took some work to keep the annoyance from showing on her face as she worked. Compressing one’s mass was an extremely complicated process that could be very harmful if done incorrectly. Not enough counterbalancing, and Sunset would have found herself falling through the floor of Canterlot because her body was so dense.

As she worked on the spell, Sunset couldn’t help but think back to that stupid movie Rainbow had dragged the other girls to on Earth and the impossibility of it all. A human with their atoms compressed to the point where he was small enough to ride an ant would have put a hole in any other human he tried to stand on without the proper spells protecting the world from the miniature terror. But of course nobody had been willing to listen to little things like facts.

Finally, Sunset released the spell and braced for the vertigo that accompanied a change in perspective while closing her eyes. By the time she felt it was done, the amber alicorn opened her eyes to see Cadance standing in front of her with an odd look on her face while Twilight held an excited grin.

“What?” Sunset asked the perplexed pink princess.

Cadance totted up to her and look Sunset in the eye as she raised a hoof to put on Sunset’s forehead, then brought it over to her own, and back, and then over again. “We’re the same height.”

The question made Sunset raise an eyebrow. “Yeah. So?”

“You…” Cadance replied before frowning. “You spend two weeks being so self-conscious about how you’re bigger than everypony around, and you’re telling me you could have just used a shrinking spell on yourself this whole time?”

Sunset frowned back at her older best friend. “First off, it’s compression, not miniaturization,” she corrected. “And this isn’t just some shrinking spell. Now come on, let’s get to scrubbing.”

Thankfully, the water in the tub was nowhere near high enough to test if Sunset had perfectly balanced everything to allow both her and Cadance to swim with their overly dense bodies. However, they still managed to kick up plenty of water.

The three filly-sized ponies splashed around a bit before Sunset added the bubble bath, then let Cadance comb and play with Twilight’s hair before setting the filly loose on Sunset’s and her own.

But the fun eventually came to an end when Cadance noticed they were getting a little pruney. Even Sunset’s hooves that could cause earthquakes didn’t seem to be immune to the effect, and the girls had to get ready to dry off. So Sunset pulled the plug and let the water drain before waiting for gravity to do its part in the water removal process.

The only problem was…

“There’s only one towel left,” Cadance mumbled as she looked at the cabinet that she had opened with her magic and found it two short.

Twilight stood up in the tub and threw her forelegs over the edge. “Don’t worry Princess, I’ll handle this,” she said before sucking in a deep breath.

“SHINY! WE NEED MORE TOWELS!”

As the world stopped shaking and the ringing in her ears started to die down, the purple pony blushed. “Sorry, I should have been more polite with company around,” she said before taking in a deep breath.

“PLEASE!”

After her ears recovered for a second time, the door burst open and Shining Armor came trotting in with two towels wrapped in his magic. “Okay I’ve got gaaaaa-” the young stallion managed as he walked up to the edge of the tub to see the purple pony flaked by the pair of princesses.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What? You’ve already seen Princess Cadance like this,” she said before looking over to the other alicorn. “Princess Sunset shouldn’t be that surprising.”

Oh geeze, Sunset thought to herself as she was reintroduced to something about pony society the amber alicorn actually considered odd thanks to living among the hairless apes for so long. While the majority of Equestria walked around in the nude and didn’t mind seeing each other when they were soaking wet from the rain, coats that clinged to the body because of bathwater was a little more...intimate.

Thankfully, Cadance took charge of the situation. “Yeah Shiny. There’s no reason to act all strange because your innocent little sister called you in here to hoof over some towels,” she said before climbing out of the bath and turning to the left immediately after landing.

When Sunset landed on the ground, her eyes went wide at the...maleness she caught sight of. Holy fuck! That thing’s got to be as long as my-GAH! No! BAD THOUGHT! Out! Out! Out!

Then Shining Armor crouched down with a blush. “Uh...P-Princess’s Sunset?” he asked. “Is...something wrong?”

Despite the plenty of those things she had seen in her life, albeit of slightly different shape and coloration, Sunset Shimmer found herself blushing from the question. “N-No Shiny. Everything’s big-good!” she said before looked up into the wonderfully sweet stallion’s eyes. “Everything’s...really...good. Thanks for the towels.”

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “Okay, well...um...I should...get going,” he said before rising.

Look away. Look Away. LOOK AWAY! Sunset told herself before she grabbed a towel and began drying off her face. When she finished Shining Armor had thankfully turned around.

Unfortunately, he also had a bit of sway in his step. Which swished his tail out of the way just enough for Sunset to learn… Holy crap! Just one of those things have got to be almost as big as my… “Hey Cadance?” Sunset spoke in a daze.

After a few seconds, the hot pink alicorn found her voice. “Yeah?”

“Scale. Matters.”

“Yeah,” she agreed as the purple unicorn looked back and forth between the two alicorns with a confused look on her face.

Despite the oddity of what had happened in the bathroom, followed by Princess Cadance rushing ahead to prepare the bed without them, as the two princesses snuggled up to Twilight on both sides of the purple pony, she had to conclude that she was currently enjoying what was by far the best day of her life.

While she may of not gotten any magical training from Sunset, Twilight understood that her mommy could show her the basics of lighting up her horn. That was all she really needed to learn before moving on to mana battery increasing exercises.

Although Twilight knew she would need to work extra hard if she wanted to be of use to Princess Sunset in the future. Her magical skills may have been high, but unicorns were behind on everything physical, and Princess Sunset had more than demonstrated physical prowess was just as important as academic ability with both tonight’s exercise and her O&O demonstration.

As per their nightly routine, Shining Armor came in shortly after Twilight tucked both herself and the princesses in and...froze. “So...you’re both sleeping in here?” he asked in surprise.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the stallion. “Are you implying something Shiny?”

“No, it’s just...you two know we have a guest room, right?” he asked.

The other princess giggled. “Relax Shining,” Cadance told him. “Slumber party rules say all the little fillies need to be in the same room.”

Since it was official, Twilight found herself free to act. “Yeah!” she agreed.

With three little ponies assaulting him with their ironclad logic, the BBBFF had no choice but to hang his head in defeat. “Okay, he agreed before looking over to the toy chest on the far side of the room, and then back to Twilight. “Uh, does this mean you don’t want Smarty Pants?”

Twilight blinked at the question. She hadn’t thought about Smarty Pants. She knew he wasn’t really real, but...it didn’t seem right to just leave him over there after so many years of faithful cuddling. “Ummm,” Twilight replied as she thought it over while looking back and forth between the two princess clinging to her body.

Finally, Twilight decided to try and compromise. “Yes please,” she said before holding out her forelegs. But when Shiny brought her the doll, she didn’t tuck in in next to her, and just left it out on top of her blankets instead.

“Okay,” her big brother said. “Goodnight Twily.”

Sunset frowned as Shining Armor started to try and leave. “Wait...that’s it?”

He turned back around and blinked. “Huh?”

“Where’s the story?” she asked.

“Wha?”

“The story,” Sunset repeated to Shiny’s non-question. “Aren’t you supposed to tell her a story to make her go to sleep? I read to her last time I was here.”

Shining Armor’s expression became half-lidded, like the way Momma’s sometimes did when Twilight’s daddy said something wrong. “Isn’t that the foalsitter’s job?”

“I’m not a foalsitter!” Sunset told him before she turned her muzzle up. “I am a highly skilled mystical tutor. There's a difference, we make the foals do all the reading.”

Then Cadance looked over from where she was watching Sunset. “And while I am a foal sitter, your parents didn’t hire me for tonight. And the League of Foalsitters, Tutors, and Yodelers is very strict on its pro bono rules,” she explained. “Sorry, but my hooves are tied.”

Twilight blinked as she thought she heard Shiny mumble something like ‘bucking LoFTY union’ but she was probably wrong. Shiny was a good pony, and good ponies didn’t talk like that.

“So…” Sunset said as she cleared her throat and began throwing her foreleg into the air. “Story! Story! Story!”

Soon, Princess Cadance joined her. “Story! Story! Story!”

As did Twilight. “Story! Story! Story!”

And Smarty Pants. Although he just thrust his hoof into the air along with all the others.

Finally, the gravity of the situation got to Shining Armor, and his head fell in defeat. “Okay, okay you win,” he said before looking over to Princess Sunset with a frown. “Any preferences Your Highness?”

Before the amber alicorn could answer, Twilight spoke up. “Shiny, I know the only good story you know well enough to both tell and answer questions about is Solar Battles Four, A New Horse,” she told him. “So just tell that. I’ve heard it so many times it’ll put me right to sleep. The princesses too, most likely.”

“Actually, I’ve never seen any Solar Battles,” Cadance spoke up before frowning. “So you should probably start with the first one.”

As Twilight gasped in horror at Cadance’s sacrilege, Sunset snorted and rolled her eyes. “One through three were okay, but they really just didn’t have the...um...why’re you guys looking at me like that?”

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “Um...Princess Cadance, Lew Case never made one through three.”

“Um...well...that’s...uh, the scripts!” Princess Sunset exclaimed before giving them all an oversized grin. “I, um...read the scripts...at the palace! Because I’m a princess, and...we have access to all that classified...stuff.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed at the explanation. “So what you’re saying is that you know-”

“What does Solo do to make Java the Hut so angry at him he sent bounty hunters?” Shining suddenly asked.

Not to be outdone by her brother’s question, Twilight quickly asked her own. “Why is Sky Walker’s Uncle Own so afraid of him becoming a magi knight like his father?”

“Do light lances really exist?” Shiny went on.

“Why was Solo bragging about sailing the Kessel run in only eight nautical miles, that’s a measurement of distance, not time!”

Even Princess Cadance had a question. “What are you two talking about?”

All of a sudden, Princess Sunset jumped up to her hooves. “Oh! I just remembered. There’s this big, super-important meeting we’ve got with the griffon ambassador tomorrow!” she said before reaching over to grab Princess Cadance. “We’d better go back to the palace and make sure everything's ready. Really sorry to cancel the sleepover Twi, but uh...princess duty, and...stuff.”

Cadance looked over to the amber alicorn. “Sunset, I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia has everything well in h-ooph!” she said as her fiery friend picked her up.

“Quiet! Or I won’t save you front the nerds,” Sunset whispered to Cadance just loud enough for Twilight to hear before her horn lit up. “Bye Shiny! Bye Twilight! See you Sunday!”

There was a bright flash of light, and then...they were gone.

Twilight blinked a few times to clear her eyes from the lingering blindness, and then sighed before she fell back onto her pillow. “Oh well.”

“Uh...sorry, Twily,” Shiny apologized.

The little unicorn looked up to her BBBFF in confusion. “For what?” It wasn’t his fault that Princess Sunset had to attend to her royal duties. And even though they couldn’t stay, Twilight still considered the time she had spent with the princesses to be the best night ever.

Cadance looked around the bedroom she shared with Sunset as she once again found herself restored to her natural height. “So uh...about us just popping out like that…”

“I was saving them from themselves,” Sunset told her before pulling back the sheets on their bed. “Trust me on this one Cadance, spoilers suck.”

For some reason, Sunset’s eyes became a bit depressed when she said that, causing Cadance to end the argument in light of something else. School gossip was always a good subject, and since Sunset had missed what happened at lunch… “By the way, Upper Crust was acting really strange at lunch today,” she said. “She looked about ready to jump out of her coat.”

Sunset let out a little laugh as she crawled into her bed behind Cadance, and wrapped the smaller alicorn up in both her legs and wings. Cadance took a moment to enjoy the utter bliss of the embrace before the amber alicorn spoke.

“Hehe yeah. I’m not surprised after the talk we had between first and second periods.”

The perfection of being in Sunset’s embrace disappeared, and Cadance frowned. “What did you do?” she asked in a tired tone.

Sunset’s next laugh was a little nervous. “Well, I repressed my first instinct to just kick her out of Canterlot after dragging her into the bathroom. Then I thought to myself, what would Cadance do?” she said more gently. “I told Crust… ‘I used to be exactly like you, you know? Used to think what I had just made me better than everypony around me, and that they just existed to make me feel a little less unhappy. So, that’s why I’m giving you one one last chance. Because if I can turn it around and become this, then there’s still hope for you’.”

“Sunset...that’s…” Cadance couldn’t find the words. On one hoof, it sounded almost like Sunset was sliding back into her bullying ways. But on the other...somepony needed to do something if Upper Crust had been serious with how she spoke to Cheerilee. I had just thought Fleur told her about it before they started.

The amber alicorn snorted. “And if I catch her talking down to another pony the way she was doing to Cheerilee, then I’ll toss her off the edge of Canterlot.”

The indecision on how she should feel in regards to Sunset’s actions was brought to a halt, and Cadance looked back at Sunset with a frown. “Sunset!”

“What? It’s not like I wouldn’t catch her. Although I’ll let Crust find that part out when she crosses the line again,” the amber alicorn added at the end as an obvious afterthought.

Cadance let out a groan. “I don’t think you’re reading me right. You can’t throw a mare off the edge of Canterlot! You’re a Princess for pony’s sake!”

A snort blew air through her mane. “Actually, the Equestrian Charter literally gives us absolute power in perpetuity throughout the universe,” Sunset told her before she tightened her grip on the pink princess. “And I am reading you right, but… Cadance, I know you don’t get this. Honestly, I don’t think you can. You’re the perfect mare that was always the good little girl and did as she was told whenever her mommy and daddy said something. Most ponies are. But every now and then, a pony comes along like Upper Crust, a pony that thinks she’s above and beyond everything. A kind of pony that doesn’t even care when Princess bucking Celestia scowls at her. Just like I was when I stole a crown that turned me from spoiled brat into a real monster that tried to hurt and kill other ponies. Those kinds of ponies, they need to feel the consequences of their actions, because they’ve already stopped listening to everyone else.”

Although she wanted to debate the fact, Cadance had to admit that Sunset did have a certain insight that she lacked. Still, that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

Sunset Shimmer stepped out of the mirror portal, going from biped to quad as she planted her returned hooves back onto Equestrian crystal architecture. “Mom! It’s me Sunset!” she called out as she galloped into a room where four other alicorns were standing around a large square table. “I’m home!”

The fully grown Twilight Sparkle and completely matured Cadance stood up and looked at the new arrival as Celestia turned around while the fourth alicorn, a large shadowy figure with dark features Sunset couldn’t make out sat at the other end of the table.

Twilight and Cadance were completely silent along with the other princess. Celestia was the only one to speak as she gave Sunset an uncaring look. “Why did you come back?”

“Because I missed you Mom!” Sunset said with a smile before she reared up in preparation for their reunion hug. “It hurt so much for me to leave, but I had to. And now that I’m back, we can finally be together again! Isn’t that great?”

Celestia cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Why is it great?”

The confidence and joy Sunset felt after seeing her mother again faltered as she landed back on four hooves. “Because...you...missed me.”

“No I didn’t.”

Sunset blinked at the dismissive tone her mother was using. “But...what?”

“I didn’t miss you,” Celestia told her before smirking as Sunset’s own expression fell. “Hm? Oh! Is that what you’ve been telling yourself all this time? That I missed you? That I loved you? Hehehe, what a joke.”

“Wha-n-no...you…”

Celestia began to approach her, and Sunset found herself in a shadow that seemed to suck all the light and warmth out of the room. “Oh sure, I say that now,” she said. “But let’s be honest Sunset. Back before, after Twilight got my journal and and the two of you started communicating. How many letters did I write to you?”

Sunset’s knees buckled. “Um…”

“How many times did I congratulate you?” Celestia went on.

And Sunset lowered herself onto the floor.

“How many times did I ask you to come home?” she asked with an angry frown of contempt, like the one she had worn during the night Sunset was dismissed as her student.

Tears blurred Sunset’s vision as Celestia continued to glare. “B-But-”

“The truth is,” Celestia said before she leaned down and placed her hooves on Sunset’s shoulders. “You were trash. I was glad that you were gone, just like I will be again. So hurry up and leave!”

With that, Celestia pushed her back, and Sunset screamed as she went flying through the air, back through the mirror.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!”

Chapter 18: Before the Storm

The amber alicorn approached the stallion that was standing in front of the heart-shaped bed with the red sheets on top. Sunset was as perfect as ever. Taller than most stallions, her whole body was a sculpted mass of physical perfection, fit to the point of athletic without the bulging muscles some ponies were known to have.

In contract Shining Armor was...an adorable kind of sexy. Lean and tall, the young stallion was on the cusp of full development that promised to make him one hay of a hunk. But even without that last trot, he possessed a boyish charm that just screamed ‘cute’.

“Hey there,” Sunset said as she reached up to caress the side of Shining’s cheek.

The stallion responded in kind. “Hey yourself.”

“So...we’re here,” Sunset said as she looked over to the bed.

“Yep...here...we are,” Shining replied.

“It’s...been a long road,” Sunset continued.

“But...worth it,” Shining Armor went on.

Then, both of the ponies gave a startled cry as Cadance let out an irritated yell before grabbing them both up in her magic and shoving them on the bed, in the correct positions. “OH JUST GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!” she shouted before sitting back down in a huff to eat some of the popcorn floating beside her.

Sunset Shimmer pulled herself into the bathroom she shared with Cadance with about as much enthusiasm as a man going to his excaution. A mix of nightmares involving Princess Celestia explaining in no uncertain terms why Sunset was a total failure as a pony and the guilt for abandoning Twilight’s sleepover because of her human culture slip had made for a restless night.

It didn’t help that Celestia would be dragging her to meet the griffin ambassador later today. The vague memories of a gruff old cat-bird that she had met while just a filly, combined with the fact that all the research involving the Griffon ‘Empire’ that consisted of little more than a single major city with a few outlying farms and trading villages was coming to Equestria to beg for money while Celestia was going to force Sunset to apologize just because she was telling it like it was, all added up to create some kind of fiendish torture that the amber alicorn would have to endure.

If not for her earth pony constitution, Sunset would have just whipped up something in an alchemy lab to fake a cold and crawled back into bed. Although thanks to being an alicorn, she was no longer sure how much distilled illness her body could take without actually becoming seriously ill, and was in no mood to experiment.

The amber alicorn looked into the mirror and had to stop herself from cringing. The disheveled mane was its normal amount of bedhead, but the blood red eyes looking back at her made Sunset cringe. Just one more week, seven more days, one-hundred and sixty eight hours, she told herself.

Then, Sunset could go back to Earth.

Get cut off from her magic again.

Live in a small studio apartment while she waited for the portal to open up again.

And then… “AND DON’T COME BACK!”

Sunset closed her eyes and looked down a bit before she had to brace herself as a depressing weight settled on her shoulders. She wanted to tell herself that it had just been a stupid dream. She wanted to tell herself that Celestia had more than proven that she cared for the amber alicorn. She wanted to tell herself that...her...mother loved her.

She wanted to, but she couldn’t.

The facts said otherwise.

A wing settled across her back, accompanied by a soft voice full of loving concern. “Sunset, is there anything bothering you that you want to talk about?”

Sunset leaned over to put some weight on Cadance, thankful for the other alicorn’s presence. “Just...tired,” she mumbled. Sunset leaned her head over and took in a deep breath of Cadance’s mane through her nose. Despite the two of them just getting out of bed and the complete lack of haircare products since the night before, it smelled of strawberries.

It took everything Sunset had not to collapse on top of her friend and teleport the two of them back to the bed so she could lose herself in Cadance’s scent and just pretend the day hadn’t begun. Although Sunset knew Cadance would freak out if she did. The mare slept with the biggest monster in her life because she was afraid of the smaller ones, not out of any want for companionship.

And if Sunset were to lose to her base desires… For some reason, Sunset found the idea of Cadance agreeing out of fear even more abhorrent than the idea of her trying to resist.

“You were calling for your mother as you cried in your sleep last night,” Cadance’s voice told Sunset in a soft whisper.

All traces and want for sleep fled from Sunset’s body. She stiffened for a moment and pulled herself upright before looking over to the other pony. “I...um…”

Cadance held a steady gaze. “Now, is there something you want to talk to me about?” she asked before her horn lit up and she turned on the bath water. Her eyes never left Sunset as she began gathering her mouth and hair care supplies.

For the first time since coming to Equestria, Sunset wished she was back in her old human body. Human dreams were chaotic and stupid. Equine dreams, or the equine subconscious at least, was much more orderly. When they were happy, ponies dreamed about what made them happy. When they wanted something, they would usually dream about what fulfilling that want would be like. And when a pony was upset about something, the nightmares came to remind them just what that something was.

Come to think of it, that’s probably why humans are so much better at ignoring shit than we are, Sunset reasoned.

“Sunset!”

Cadance’s cry yanked Sunset back to reality, and the amber alicorn looked down at her friend. “Okay! Okay!” she relented before plopping her butt down on the tiled floor to slump under the weight that returned thanks to her mind focusing on the problem at hand. “I...had a dream last night that I went back to Earth for three years, and when I came back...Celestia...didn’t want me anymore.”

The eyebrow Cadance raised told Sunset all she needed to hear of the pink princess’s opinion when it came to her fear. Cadance thought Sunset’s fears were stupid. “That’s…” she began before pausing to turn off the water running into the bath before it overflowed. “Why would you think that?”

Hearing the question made Sunset grit her teeth in anger. It was obvious she didn’t think the perfect Princess Celestia could never possibly just abandon Sunset in another world where magic didn’t make sense and she had to rely on the kindness of a near-stranger that was some kind of freaky analog to the same pony that threw her out in the first place!

“BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED!” Sunset shouted at her friend pathetically. “Even after the portal closed and trapped me there for what I thought would be another three years, even after I proved that I had changed, even when all my friends turned against me and left me crying in the middle of the floor, not once, not once did she EVER WRITE TO ME!”

Cadance’s ears folded down as her body took on a submissive posture, and Sunset realized that she had gotten back on her feet. She lowered her head and backed away. Good going idiot, you frightened her again.

Once Sunset backed off, the pink princess nervously licked her lips. “You mean with that journal? The one you, um...can’t find?”

Being reminded about how she lost one of the most important things in her life did nothing to lift Sunset’s spirits. “Yeah.”

“Well...I might have an explanation for that,” she said. “But you’re not going to like it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sunset asked with a frown as she picked her head up.

Cadance walked over edge of their bath and stuck a hoof it it before swirling her leg around. “Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking about since we met Twilight. And…” The pink princess’s expression hardened just a bit. “Remember how you told me that Princess Celestia did write to you a few times when you first got to Earth?”

The memory Cadance’s words brought to mind made Sunset cringe. “Yeah,” the amber alicorn admitted. “She...asked if I was there, then asked if I was okay, and then...asked if anything holding the journal knew what happened to its previous owner.” It was obvious to Sunset that Princess Celestia had been terribly worried about her. But much to her shame, all Sunset had felt at the time was the satisfaction of making the big alicorn panic.

“And then you met Twilight Sparkle, and…stuff happened.” Cadance didn’t need to continue. Sunset had been the one to tell her the story after all.

The amber alicorn nodded slowly in response, still unsure where this was going. “Yeah.”

Cadance’s expression darkened. “And then she left you there,” the pink princess said with a frown. “Homeless, crippled, and at the mercy of a group of creatures that you obviously have very little respect for.”

“Oh-kay,” Sunset mumbled slowly as she gave Cadance a wary look. “What’re you getting at Cadance?”

“I think Twilight Sparkle, the adult one you met first,” the pink princess clarified a little too quickly. “I think she was keeping you away from Celestia, as well as keeping Celestia away from you.”

Sunset frowned at the idiocy that had just come out of Cadance’s mouth with more than a little bit of anger. “Say what?”

A pink hoof raised to forestall any arguments. “I said you wouldn’t like it. But, just listen to me for a second before you say anything,” Cadance told her. “After everything that’s happened between us, I’ve been reexamining everything I’ve seen since becoming an alicorn, see?”

“All right,” Sunset replied as she raised her guards, not sure where Cadance was going with...whatever she was doing. Still, if the pink pony needed to get something off her back, the amber alicorn wasn’t about to stop her.

“When I first came to Canterlot, I was enamored with Celestia. I thought she was perfect. The big pony that everypony else looked up to in every sense of the word. I wanted to be just like her. And Celestia, well...I think she liked me being like that. But since we became friends, I’ve taken a step back to take a good look around. The more I’m around her, the more I see that she likes all the other ponies looking up and saying how amazing she is. If anything, she feeds that desire.”

Sunset let out a snort and rolled her eyes. “Yeah. And I suppose all the lectures about humility and junk were just Mom giving lip service.”

“Yes!” Cadance exclaimed before Sunset shot her a glare and killed the pink princess’s happier expression. “And...no. I think Celestia believes what she’s saying, but...well...Celestia may talk a good game, but she doesn’t follow through on it when it comes to her own actions. Years and years of that has turned Canterlot into one giant ego trip full of yes mares that nod their head at whatever she says!”

With more weight being added to the anti-Celestia argument, the amber alicorn found herself needing to put the brakes on Cadance’s train of thought all the more. “Now you’re just rambling,” Sunset mumbled.

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Then take a look at the royal court! Hay, look at anywhere in Equestria for that matter! Where’s the dissenting opinion? Whenever has a pony really argued with her over anything? Where’s the pony that’s supposed to stand behind Celestia and whisper ‘you’re not perfect’ while everypony else is cheering her name?”

As Sunset felt her anger build thanks to the insults Cadance was throwing around about her mother, the pink princess held up a hoof. “Don’t get me wrong Sunset. Celestia is a wonderful pony. Nopony in Equestria could have done half of what Celestia’s accomplished even if they had lived twice as long,” Cadance told her. “But...she has her faults. Her ego being the big one.”

“Okay, fine! She’s a hypocrite,” Sunset grumbled. She was too tired to put up much of a fight. “I kind of figured that out when the most famous and respected pony in Equestria that went to all the parties and had a fucking holiday, school, flower...hell, just about one of everything named after her in some way told me to be humble!” Huh… Looking back, that might of been one of the reasons I stopped listening to her.

But even if Sunset accepted what Cadance was saying, she still didn’t see the point in it. “So what the hell does that have to do with Twilight Sparkle?”

Cadance took a deep breath and walked into the bath water before sinking in it up to her chin. “I’ll admit that I never met the adult Twilight, but I’ve spent plenty of time around the filly. Sunset, I’ve never seen a stronger case of hero worship than she has for you. If she wasn’t so young, I’d say that it borders on obsessive.

“And if you were to put a filly like that under Celestia’s tutelage?” Cadance asked rhetorically before shuddering, despite the warm water she was immersed in. “I don’t even want to imagine the kind of pony it would create.”

Warm water surrounded Sunset as she walked down into the bath to frown some more at Candace. “Twilight was a princess,” the amber alicorn said. “You don’t get wings and a horn if you’ve got a screw loose, Cadance.”

“News flash Sunset, princesses aren't perfect!” the pink pony replied. “Celestia is a repressed egomaniac that has all of Canterlot kissing her plot! I’m a coward that ran away rather than offer you help when you were alone and afraid. Buck! I can’t even sleep a night these days without somepony to hold my hoof. To be honest, your anger issues make you the least problematic princess in a lot of ways!”

Sunset looked away from Cadance, unsure on how to take the assault on Twilight’s character as the pink princess went on. “Trust me on this one Sunset. I’m an expert in love, and that includes the dark obsessive kind that won’t take no for an answer. And if Celestia had nurtured the Twilight you met the same way she did you...there is no doubt in my mind that the sycophant such an action would create would not allow anything to get between her and the top spot in Celestia’s heart. The place your mother reserved for you.”

Instead of telling Cadance how full of shit she was, Sunset kept her opinions to herself.

Princess Twilight....she wasn’t like that.

She had spared Sunset after the then-unicorn-turned-human had given her every reason to end her life.

Except...do we even have a death penalty in Equestria?

She had wanted Sunset to learn about the Magic of Friendship.

After she claimed the Princess of Friendship title, making the best position I could ever hope to be runner-up.

She...left Sunset with a group of humans to be her friends.

Humans that constantly reminded me of my mistakes and thought of me as little more than an extra wheel to be cast off at the first sign of trouble, Sunset told herself as she remembered how the Rainbooms never invited her to play with the group until after the Battle of the Bands, or when they immediately turned against her thanks to the A-non-a-miss incident. Rainbow had even made a giant multi-part poster to remind the school of Sunset’s first major screw-up during the Friendship Games pep rally.

“No,” Sunset told herself in a voice that was barely more than a breath. Those girls had been her friends. They were flawed and unforgiving, but...the amber alicorn knew she still cared about them a great deal. And she knew they had cared for her as well. Second thoughts wouldn’t be allowed to taint the love Sunset had for them.

But Twilight...the Princess of Friendship hadn’t done anything more than send her an encouraging letter when Sunset’s friends turned against her. Which was a lot better than her actions during the Friendship Games. She hadn’t bothered to even write back when Sunset told her lives were in danger!

Cadance cleared her throat, and Sunset looked back up to the pink alicorn with the sympathetic look on her face. “And...there’s something else I’ve been wondering,” she said. “In that other timeline, did Celestia even know you came back?”

“What?” Sunset asked with a confused frown.

“Did she see you? Did you talk to her, or have any kind of meeting before stealing that magic crown?” Cadance asked.

The foolishness of the question got an eyeroll from Sunset. “Do you honestly think I would have been able to get away from Celestia if she had seen me?” All things considered, the big alicorn probably would have locked Sunset in a private room with the greatest comforts Canterlot had to offer before canceling all her appointments for a week to bond with the other mare.

Cadance smirked. “So, run this through your brilliant mind. Princess Celestia finds out you’ve come and gone only after you’ve taken the crown. But instead of chasing after you like she wants to, Twilight Sparkle volunteers because it was her you wronged. Then after everything’s said and done, and you’re...beaten, she thinks back to how Princess Celestia, your mother, reacted to hearing you had come and left without having a chance to save you from yourself. I could tell how much you mean to the pony that calls herself my aunt five minutes after I came to Canterlot. Imagine her as a distraught mare that had just missed her daughter after years of separation.”

No...that’s not… Unable to think straight, Sunset looked back down into the water. “But...t-the journals,” she said. “The ones I told you about...that’re working copies. Celestia never wrote in hers. Even after I changed…”

“You mean the journal that you said Twilight had?” Cadance deadpanned before her face darkened again. “The one thing that might have allowed you to reconcile with your mom despite the dimensional divide and knock Princess Twilight down from favored pony to second-place that she could easily find out about in casual conversation with Celestia considering she probably had her own book? That journal?”

Sunset flinched at the implication.

“Come on Sunset. You’re smarter than me, and I can already think of two ways that other mare could get it from Celestia without arousing an ounce of suspicion,” Cadance told her. “All she would have had to do is ask to study it, or make a copy that wasn’t enchanted and switch it out for the real book.”

Sunset closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what the amber alicorn’s mind needed to analyze the situation and begin to form conclusions. What Cadance said made a kind of sense. Even when Sunset had been a unicorn, Princess Celestia had taken an interest in everything she did, even from an extremely young age. That was what the journal was for after all. A way for Sunset to tell the mare about her day in an organized manner. It was something a young filly needed to help order her chaotic thoughts. It was only as Sunset grew older that she used it for a direct messaging system.

And Celestia not writing to her even after the Battle of the Bands...now that Sunset thought about it with a cooler head...she did think it was extremely odd.

But the idea of the one equine she had been able to rely on, the only friend who stuck with Sunset when all the others abandoned her being a pony that stabbed her in the back so casually…it tied the alicorn’s stomach in knots. “Why’re you saying all of this this?” Sunset mumbled.

“Because I love you Sunset,” Cadance told her in a concerned whisper. “You talked about Celestia with Velvet last night, but I think there’s another mare you’re comparing yourself to as well. A mare you’re comparing Celestia to on top of that. And watching you suffer because of this ideal pony that might as well be a figment of your imagination while you shout at your mother tears me up inside!

“Twilight Sparkle, or...Princess Twilight Sparkle, I should say,” the pink princess said, grumbling out the title as if it were some unclean thing. “She’s not worth a single one of your tears.”

As the pink and amber alicorns trotted out of Sunset’s royal apartment to face the day, Cadance was starting to think she had gone a bit too far in her assault on Princess Twilight’s character. After their talk, Sunset had become extremely withdrawn and gave all the signs of a pony that was in no mood for a conversation about anything. The worst part of it was that they weren’t the usual Sunset Shimmer kind of ‘Buck with me and I’ll turn your mane into a bonfire’ signs.

She was really troubled.

Good job there Cadance, the pink princess told herself. Even though Sunset wasn’t ready to hear it, you just had to go and bring it up because you couldn’t bear being around her when she’s upset. Then she stopped and looked down at herself to frown. Oh great, now I’m the one beating herself up.

Sunset trotted for a few more steps before Cadance wasn’t next to her and looked back. “Something wrong?”

“It’s….” Cadance sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry about just dropping all that on you in there right off the bat,” she said as she caught up with the other pony. “But you need help, Sunset. Help I can only give you if we get all of this out in the open.” Help Cadance couldn’t stand not giving to the pony she was in love with.

For some reason Cadance couldn’t understand, the other mare’s expression turned into a glare. “Would you drop this already?” Sunset demanded before she started trotting faster. “Twilight...what does that even matter? She’s just a little filly now.”

Cadance increased her speed before Sunset could get away. “It matters to you, and you matter to me!” the pink princess told her. “And I don’t hold anything against that little filly. She’s done nothing wrong.”

“Glad we’re clear on that then,” Sunset told her.

“And neither has this Celestia,” Cadance added as they reached the door to the dining hall and she opened it with her magic.

Sunset froze, her mouth half open to fire a retort, but presence of the even bigger alicorn sitting at the long table waiting for them probably stopped her from shouting a reply. Instead, she snapped her mouth shut and put on a fake smile before turning her head in the direction of Princess Celestia. “Hey Mom. Good morning.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Sunset. It’s nice to know you approve of my work,” she replied before nodding at the other alicorn next to the fiery one. “Cadance.”

The pink princess nodded her head and went to her seat. “Auntie.”

“It’s a big day today,” Celestia said as both the girls sat down to an already placed meal that looked a bit fancier than usual. Aside from some extra portions of fruit, pancakes, and a generous helping of oatmeal with whipped cream on top, there was also a trio of champagne glasses filled with sparkling cider.

Cadance had to wonder if Celestia was preparing their palates for what would probably be a more high-class dinner later that evening, or if they were going to be celebrating something as the big mare continued to talk. “I want you both back in the castle by ten. That will give you more than enough time to visit your teachers and pick up any assignments you have for the day. Then we’ll get you both dressed in and have your manes styled.”

Before she could start eating, a bit of curiosity turned Cadance’s attention away from the more important matters of her friend and the griffon delegation. Something Cadance had to admit to herself had slipped her mind in light of more important things like Shining Armor and Sunset’s deteriorating mood. “By the way, have you heard anything from Minister Board about Principal Cinch?”

Celestia let a little smirk show on her face. “About that,” she said before her horn lit up, and a newspaper that had been sitting on a table at the far side of the hall behind the white alicorn flew over to present itself to Cadance.

PRINCIPAL CINCH ARRESTED

Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of School Reform?

Cadance blinked at the title before pushing the paper down on the table with a hoof before skimming through the article on the front page. “Guess Cinch took that go to your room stuff very seriously,” she said before looking back up to the white alicorn. Part of Cadance wanted to feel a little bad for the mare that the paper said had been found cowering in her office until seven o’clock when the Canterlot civic guard knocked down her door and dragged the unicorn out, but...she just couldn’t find the strength to make herself do it.

“There was also a good deal of evidence that the two of you turned in to implicate that mare in a dozen wrongful arrests that coincide with sporting events due to take place involving Canterlot Academy, numerous letters involving blackmail, and several other various crimes that I think would spoil our breakfast,” Celestia supplied before Cadance could turn the page to read the rest of the story.

The chair next to her shuffled around on the floor, and Cadance felt Sunset’s coat brush against her shoulder as she bigger alicorn looked at the paper. “Geeze, and we just thought she was letting athletes beat up on the wimpier students,” she said with a frown.

Celestia took a sip of her tea, and then frowned at the cup in her magic for a few seconds before she looked back up at the two smaller alicorns. Then she took the trio of sparkling cider glasses in her magic to pass them out. “So, to your first act as a Princess, Cadance. Cheers.”

“Cheers,” both of the other alicorns repeated at the same time before Sunset took one of the glasses in her magic as Cadance opted to use her hooves and clinked them together.

With the ritual over, the former pegasus drew back her head as she threw the tiny amount of sparkling cider down her throat and...shot her wings out as her body went through a minor convulsion at the presence of the disgusting liquid in her mouth before Cadance’s gag reflex saved her from swallowing the swill. Instead, she spat it all over the food laying in front of her in a spray before going into a coughing fit that did its best to rid her of the lingering taste.

Sunset wasn’t so lucky.

“GAAAAAH! IT BURNS!”

The amber alicorn tilted back in her seat as she clawed at her throat with her hooves before pitchers of milk, water, juice, and a small bowl containing several sliced peaches floated over to Sunset under the command of her telekinesis to begin pouring down her open mouth. At least until her cheeks puffed out and she promptly bent in the opposite direction of Cadance to throw it all back up. Then she grabbed the pitcher of milk with her hooves to gulp its remaining contents down.

Across the table, Celestia gave them both a worried look. “So...um, I take it neither of you liked the cider?”

Sunset threw away the empty pitcher of milk to shatter it on the floor and glared at her mother. “Cider my ass!” the amber alicorn shouted in anger as her wings spread out before she pointed towards the tiny empty glass that was laying on its side. “What the fuck was that shit?”

After enduring her daughter’s angry stare for several seconds, Celestia looked at her own empty glass and let out a sigh. “I thought something was wrong with my tea this morning,” she said before turning her attention to Sunset. “I put a few drops of a magical potion in your cider before the two of you came in to see if either of you could tell it was there.”

Sunset slammed her hoof onto the table hard enough to crack it, and Cadance scooted out of her way as the amber alicorn shot to her hind legs in anger. “WHY THE BUCK WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?” she demanded before her face twisted a little to include hesitation. She looked down at the discarded glasses, and then up to the white alicorn. “What was that junk you roofied us with?”

“Roofied?” Celestia asked before she shook her head and sighed. “Nevermind. And in response to both your questions, it’s a minor potion based of a zebra salve that disrupts a changeling’s shapeshifting abilities.”

As the amber alicorn got her ‘angry but thoughtful’ look on, Cadance gaped at Princess Celestia. “You thought we were changelings?”

Celestia groaned before she rolled her eyes. “Of course not Cadance,” she said as she focused on the pink princess. “But the two of you are the only ponies in Canterlot that I can trust enough to help me with a project that I am working on. You two spend nearly every waking moment together and share the same bed at night. The two of you protect each other and prevent something from happening even when Sunset’s passive defense magic isn’t active.”

“Pass-the-what-now?” Cadance asked.

Sunset sighed and looked over to the pink princess. “Some basic defensive magic that I keep around almost as an afterthought to protect against things like love potions and...well, let’s just say I don’t have to worry about you revenge-shrinking me while I’m in the bathroom.”

“Chrysalis has been free for what could be years,” Celestia went on with her explanation right as Sunset finished talking. “Which means she has had time to plant her pawns all over Equestria. As Sunset suggested, I reached out to the zebra tribal leaders and found one of them knows the formulae for salve that exposes changelings for what they are. After which, I created a potion that has the same effect. Unfortunately…”

As Celestia probably searched for just the right words to explain her actions, Cadance felt a shiver run down her spine. She hated thinking about the fact that the changelings were out there. Watching. Waiting. Just itching for the perfect moment to strike.

Cadance looked to the door behind her as if it was going to burst open to let a swarm of the insects through and reached out for the pony sitting next to her.

“It tastes like refried horse apples,” Sunset deadpanned before Cadance found her hoof. The other pony blinked at the pink princess’s touch, and linked their fetlocks together with an impossibly strong grip.

Celestia winced. “I had thought I managed to negate the taste last night,” she said before looking down at her tea. “Although, now I believe that was just because most of my taste buds were destroyed thanks to prior tests of the potion.”

“Well you could have at least told us what you were doing!” Cadance said, the fear she was feeling at the C-word helping to fuel her agitation. “Or just left this...stuff as the way the zebras made it?”

There was a slight tug on Cadance’s foreleg as Sunset shifted in her seat and made a sour face. “No, she couldn’t have. It would have destroyed our objectivity,” the amber alicorn mumbled, clearly distressed at her defense of Celestia’s actions.

“And I can’t exactly have everypony walk around Canterlot covered in green goop,” the other solar princess added. “Even if I managed to disguise it as some new kind of makeup, a pony exposed as a changeling in the privacy of their own home does none of us any good.” She sighed and shook her head. “Looks like it’s back to the drawing board.”

A tense silence passed over the three princesses for a moment. Sunset broke it with a grunt. “Yeah, well...I guess it’s a good thing you trust us enough not to spill the beans. Even if your stupid roundabout way crap makes me want to smack you upside the face.”

Celestia gave them both a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry for your discomfort. Making the two of you ill was the last thing I wanted,” she said. “But if it makes either of you feel any better, I probably won’t be having anything but cardboard-tasting cake for the next few days.”

It didn’t. Cadance had never really seen how making somepony else suffer was supposed to make somepony who was already miserable feel better.

“Not really,” Sunset grumbled before she took up a spoon in her magic and looked around at the food that Cadance hadn’t drenched with her drink cautiously. “Is anything else going to make me puke?”

Celestia shook her head before her horn lit up, and Cadence watched the liquid both she and Sunset had expelled be surrounded by a golden glow before it disappeared.

The conversation soon turned back to the preparations for the griffons, and Cadance managed to console herself with the fact that Princess Celestia was indeed doing something to help root out the changelings beyond taking a few extra security precautions at Sunset’s upcoming coronation. Eventually, things got back to what passed for normal between the three alicorns as Celestia reminded them about what was expected when it came to greeting the coming emissary.

As the time passed, Cadance found herself running late when it came to her own plans for that morning. The pink princess briefly considered putting them off for three days, but… Sunset might not survive three more days, she thought before looking around at the feast in front of her and picked out the more mobile foods as Celestia went on about the importance of just letting the griffons get away with...something. Cadance really wasn’t paying that much attention.

“Well Auntie, I think it’s time we should get going.”

Celestia blinked as Cadance got to her hooves and there was a bit of resistance before Sunset let Cadance go so the pink princess could begin trotting away from the table. Not fast enough for the others to notice anything was wrong, but quicker than her normal pace.

“Uh, Cadance? There’s still plenty of time,” Sunset told her before taking a bite of her oats from the spoon held in her magic.

Nervousness filled Cadance’s mind for a brief moment before she steeled herself and put some magic into her horn while taking a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing. “Yes. But you and Princess Celestia really need to talk about the fact something’s been bothering you for the past week to to the point of you crying all night while calling out for your mother in your sleep because you had a nightmare about her throwing you away like trash because you see yourself as replaced with a new princess!” she got out in a rush while grabbing the chosen food from the table and opening the door to make her escape.

As Cadance galloped for her life, her ears rang from Sunset voice right before the pink princess slammed the door shut. “Oh! YOU BITCH!”

And brace for impact, the smallest alicorn thought to herself as she waited for Sunset to smash open the door and unleash her wrath.

When nothing happened, Cadance let out a sigh of relief and sank to the floor to eat the rest of her breakfast.

Sunset glared at the golden field of protective energy surrounding the doors before she turned around to face her mother. The other mare’s face had a frown on it as well, but Sunset could tell the white pony hadn’t made it in anger like the amber alicorn had.

When Celestia had been given proof that Sunset wasn’t going to go through the door in pursuit of Cadance, the glow around her horn stopped. However, Sunset could see the tension in her body as she continued to watch the smaller alicorn. “Sunset? What is Cadance talking about?”

For a moment, Sunset thought about telling the bigger alicorn to mind her own business. But as the look in Celestia’s eyes became more concerned, Sunset lowered her head and gathered her thoughts. She couldn’t tell her mother about her plans, but...the nightmare was another matter. “I had a dream last night that I went back to the human world for three years,” she said, hoping the older pony didn’t pry too deeply into that. “And when I came back…” Once again, Sunset felt the depression she had been able to ignore thanks to her mom’s special cocktail reappear. “When I came back, you...you said you didn’t want me anymore. Th-That you...never...wanted me.”

“What?”

Once again. Celestia’s horn lit up, and the entire dinning table was surrounded in a golden glow before it was lifted up high enough for her to walk straight to Sunset and put herself on the edge of the amber alicorn’s personal space. “What would ever make you think something like that?”

Sunset glared at her mother. The idiocy of the question that had just been asked brought her anger to the surface. “You mean besides EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER DONE?” she shouted before getting her voice back under control. “And everything you didn’t do.”

Celestia flinched as if struck. “Yes,” she said as sadness crept into her eyes. “I admit that I was a horrible mother to you. But I thought we had agreed to move forward.”

The logic of Celestia’s argument and the memory of Sunset’s own words made it impossible for the amber alicorn to deny her mother had a point. Bringing up the past only caused them both pain.

But...she glanced over at what was obviously a celebratory feast for Cadance and her actions in taking down Principal Cinch, and couldn’t help but remember there hadn’t been anything even remotely like that for herself. Sunset couldn’t even remember the last time her mom had done anything for her after Cadance had come around, back when the amber alicorn only had a horn on her head. “Yeah well...maybe I don’t want to. And neither do you, apparently,” she finished with a grumble.

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

Sunset opened her mouth to explain. Only, she...couldn't. “I don’t know,” she mumbled before plopping her plot down on the floor. “I just...well...I look at things like that, and...how come you never threw me an...alicorn banquet, or something? I became an alicorn, and there wasn’t any congratulations! There wasn’t any celebration! It was just, time for the next lesson Sunset!”

After taking a look at the table, that had become a little messier thanks to Celestia’s handling of it, the white pony looked back to her daughter. “Well...that’s what your coronation is for,” Celestia explained. “And...with how you were acting at the time, do you really think you would have enjoyed any kind of big gesture on my part that revolved around celebrating your transformation into an alicorn?”

“Well…” Sunset stopped and looked back to her wings.

Her stolen wings.

It was actually a little disconcerting how quickly she had shoved that little fact to the back of her mind. But with Celestia’s words reminding her of how things were, she couldn’t ignore the fact that her position as a princess had never been earned like Cadance’s. “Okay, but...you…”

“Yes?” Celestia gently prompted when Sunset couldn’t think of what to say next.

I hate this, Sunset thought to herself as she tried to focus on the jumble of emotions running through her mind.

Sunset felt annoyed towards Cadance because of her big mouth.

Ashamed at her alicorn existence because it wasn’t really hers.

Angry at Celestia for...something.

“I...don’t know,” she mumbled before looking down at the ground in defeat as she tried to think of just why she was angry at Celestia, only to come to the conclusion that her mom didn’t deserve it. “I just...whenever I’m around you for any length of time and talk to you, really talk to you, I just… It’s like there’s this anger that just swells up inside of me and makes me feel like I’m going to explode!”

As Sunset took some deep breaths to get the rising emotions under control, Celestia continued to look down at her in concern. “If that’s the case, then tell me what I’ve done and we can work together to make it right.”

“But you haven’t done anything!” Sunset told her mother as she looked back up at the bigger alicorn’s face. “You’re perfect. You encourage me, you congratulate me, you...you do everything the way you used to before…” Sunset stopped, and gulped. “Before you...stopped.” Before Cadance came into the picture. “You do everything right, and all I do is get angry. Mom, what’s wrong with me?”

Celestia sighed and moved forward to put a wing on Sunset’s shoulder. “Oh Sunset. There’s nothing wrong with you. I love you.”

The light touch on her coat that coincided with her mother’s words cleared away all the doubt and confusion in Sunset’s mind. Anger took its place. “Well why now?” the amber alicorn demanded before she spread her wings, knocking Celestia’s away as she stepped forward hard enough to cause the room to shake. “Because of THESE?”

Celestia met the challenging stance with her own. She straightened her neck and tilted her head down towards the smaller alicorn. It was a position her daughter was more than familiar with, one of a teacher preparing to chastise a rebellious teen. “What? No! How could you even think that Sunset? You becoming an alicorn has nothing to do with how I feel about you!”

The lie resounding in her ears only heightened Sunset’s anger. “You say that, but every time I think back, in all the lessons, and everything else since…” Since Cadance came to Canterlot. “All I can remember is you looking down on me with contempt before you rolled your eyes at EVERYTHING I EVER SAID SINCE CADANCE CAME AROUND!”

“Because everything you said was something that came from a mouth of a spoiled brat that should have known better!” the bigger pony countered, her own voice raised. “Yes! I lost my patience with you. I’ll admit that, that was my failing. But even I have my limits Sunset. And after...after a pony that was younger than the pony that I had practically raised achieved ascension while I watched you become…what you were.”

Celestia clamped her mouth shut, closed her eyes, and took a moment to breathe in deeply. “And yes, I was the one that should have been teaching you patience, as well as many more things! I should have been the one to nurture your heart as well as your mind. But now that I am…” Celestia’s posture deteriorated. “It…” She sighed and shook her head. “You still get angry and shout about anything you can think of. It’s like you want to hate me. Why can’t you just let it go?”

“Let it go?” Sunset questioned. “JUST LET IT GO? Translation! You just want me to be some stupid little yes-mare and fall in line, like every other pony you have following you around kissing your fat ass and calling it ice cream!”

The mask of calm on the bigger alicorn’s face broke, and she frowned down at her daughter. “THAT’S NOT IT AT ALL!” Celestia yelled.

“THEN WHAT IS IT?” Sunset demanded.

“IT’S HURTING YOU!” Celestia cried before Sunset saw water glisten around the edge of her eyes. The Alicorn of the Sun let out a sharp breath as droplets of water fell from her eyes. “Being angry all the time, it hurts you, Sunset. Yes, you are right to be angry at me. For...for so much... But...the pain and the weight of my mistakes in your upbringing? That is my burden to bear, not yours.”

Caught off guard by the emotional display, Sunset lost the hold on her anger and slumped back down as Celestia looked down at the ground and silently wept. Part of her wanted to just teleport back to her room and crawl into bed. Or maybe pop over to Shiny’s house and crawl into his bed so he could help her feel better.

But if she did, Sunset knew this would never be dealt with. So she took in a deep breath, and just said the first thing that came into her head when she thought about her mother. “You never wrote to me.”

The anger in the words surprised even Sunset.

But as she ran them through her mind, Sunset felt her whole body tremble with an urge to strike out at the mare that had abandoned her in the human world.

“What?” Celestia asked as she raised her head to look at her daughter.

“When I was...in the mirror,” the amber alicorn said, after pausing a moment to amend what she was going to say. “After I became good, I mean. All those months passed by, and you never...sent me a single message.”

Celestia took in a deep breath and looked down at her daughter with a calculating gaze for a minute. “Alright,” she said before letting it all out. “Although I am not the pony that did these things...if you want me to...theorize as to why what happened to you occurred the way it did, I will say this.”

Sunset watched a sadness appear in her mother's eyes as she began to speak. “If you were to be stranded in an unknown realm and crippled in such a way that your magic was no longer available to you, I imagine the reason I wouldn’t contact you is because of shame, and fear.”

The words reverberated in Sunset’s head, and she looked up at Celestia with wide eyes as what the white pony had said really sunk in. “You...were ashamed of me?”

Celestia froze at the question. “N-No,” she replied after a moment of staring at her daughter in shock. However, the tiniest hint of uncertainty in Celestia’s voice said that the denial was most definitely a lie.

As the fact of how her mother felt about her washed over Sunset, she had to use every bit of strength her earth pony side had to keep from collapsing.

After taking in another breath, Celestia sat down and continued in a tone that matched her expression. “You yell at me now over these things I’ve never done to you, but even though nothing like that has transpired between us, the weight is crushing to me. If such a thing were to happen to you Sunset, after everything was said and done, I know that I would be too ashamed to face you.”

Sunset sucked in breath after breath, and she did her best to focus her anger at Celestia to keep from drowning in the newest revelation. She remembered all the nights she spent alone as a human when she was new to that word, cold, alone and afraid. Of all the times she had spent standing in front of the portal outside Canterlot High after turning her life around, wondering if it would be okay for her to leave the world where magic made no sense and return to the one that did.

She remembered that even after making her friends, how not a single one of them could ever really hope to understand her. How could they? None of them had ever really used magic the way it was supposed to be used. None of them had ever had a cutie mark. None of them had a talent that might as well have been intertwined with their soul, a talent that was next to useless in the human world.

Twilight...couldn’t have understood her. Sunset knew that. If what Cadance said about her was right, the good purple alicorn would have never lost anything approaching what Sunset had. Twilight would have just nodded her head, and done whatever Princess Celestia had told her to do. The amber alicorn didn’t blame her for not digging a little deeper to see if anything was wrong.

But Celestia...she was old, and had experienced over one thousand years of life, living long enough to be part of the founding of Equestria. She would have been able to understand that despite everything that Sunset had gained, the true happiness as only a pony that was doing what she was born to do would have been forever out of reach.

And the despair that was only a breath away would come in time.

Yet...Celestia had done nothing to help her.

“That’s it?” she demanded through gritted teeth. “I was alone, without a single person or pony that had a hope in Hell of understanding me, and the reason the one pony that could have been able to help me didn’t because it would have made her FEEL BAD?”

“And if...if I had,” Celestia went on. “Then what? Look at the two of us now! I would dare not speak to you for fear of making things worse! Even now, whatever I do, it only causes you pain my precious little sun.”

The hoof Sunset slammed into the ground left more cracks. “How the hell would you know something like that?” she demanded. “YOU DIDN’T EVEN TRY!” Although the reasoning behind that was obvious now, Celestia hadn’t wanted to. Sunset running through the portal had just been a convenient way to get rid of the embarrassment!

Celestia let out a tired sigh. “You’re right. I never wrote in your journal when you needed me to be there for you,” she said before looking Sunset in the eyes. “Just like you never went to Earth.”

“You-” Sunset said before the bigger alicorn cut her off.

Eye contact broke as Celestia bowed her head again. “And I do not say these things to give an excuse as to why this...other version of me never reached out to you. I only offer these explanations so that you might have some answers. But...even without your experiences in the mirror, there’s plenty of reasons for you to hate me. I do not want to add to the number. I am so sorry for everything, my little sun. Every doubt. Every judgement. Every foolish thing I ever did in regards to you. I am so sorry.”

The sight of Celestia practically bowing in apology to her made Sunset gape at her mother, derailing her furious train of thought and reminding the amber alicorn of a harsh reality: Celestia had good reason to be ashamed of Sunset. She had given the foolish mare everything she had ever wanted, and all Sunset ever did was increase her demands.

But even worse than that was what Celestia believed Sunset thought in regards to the white pony. “Mom…” the amber alicorn told her mother softly before she stepped forwards. “I don’t hate you!”

When the bigger alicorn looked back up at her, Sunset went on. “I just…” She dropped back onto her butt and sighed. “When I think about things with you, I just get so...angry! But that doesn’t mean I stop loving you! Not even for a second! Even when I was...bad, I never stopped loving you! Everything I did revolved around you.”

Silence descended upon the room as Sunset finished speaking.

Celestia offered Sunset a wing, but the other alicorn looked away in shame.

Hate her. Had her own mother truly thought that?

Had Sunset acted so horribly, she made Celestia think something like that?

Sunset glanced back at her mother, who looked about as bad as the amber alicorn felt. Because of yet another one of Sunset’s foolish actions. Because she was yelling at Celestia for things she hadn’t done.

Yet, Sunset reminded herself. Things she hasn’t done yet.

But Sunset remembered that Celestia had done those things.

She would do them.

And she would...do them again.

...wouldn’t she?

“Tell me what to do.”

The weakly-voiced question pulled Sunset out of her introspection, and she turned her full attention back to Celestia as the bigger pony continued to talk. “What do you want? Just give me the word, and I’ll make it yours,” Celestia told her in desperation as her voice increased in volume. “Tell me what you need to fix this and-”

“THAT’S IT!” A jubilant cry came from the dining hall’s main doors before they slammed open, wrapped in a light blue glow. Cadance quickly skipped in, her face carrying an excited look. “That’s what I was missing!”

Sunset blinked at the mare’s sudden reappearance. “Cadance? Wha...What’re you doing back here?” she asked in a bit of a daze.

A blue light surrounded some of the food on the table, and some slightly crushed fruit that was being held in the pink princess’s too strong magic made its way to Cadance’s mouth. “Oh, I never left,” she said before taking a bite of the cantaloupe slices and strawberries. “I just got out of you and your mother’s way while I listened from the other side of the door. Don’t tell me you actually thought I had abandoned you.”

“Well...yeah,” Sunset replied. Everybody else she had known in her life had at one time or another.

Cadance actually stopped stuffing her face for a second upon hearing Sunset’s reply. The food floating in the air dropped to the ground, and the joyfulness the pink princess had been wrapped in quickly evaporated. “Oh...um...okay...that’s...wow. Sorry that I made you think that,” Cadance apologized before giving Sunset a wincing smile. “But, I might have a bit of insight about why you and Celestia keep going back to...this.”

“And that is?” Celestia prompted.

“You raised her like a teacher would a student,” the pink princess proclaimed with a self-satisfied smile.

The statement made Sunset roll her eyes. “Yes. This, we are both well aware of Cadance. Thank you for finally catching up to the two of us.”

“I believe we have covered how horrible a mother I’ve been more than once,” the white alicorn deadpanned.

Cadance smirked at Sunset’s snark before she looked over to Celestia and frowned. “Yeah, but I don’t think any of us ever realized how badly your terrible parenting affected Sunset.”

Sunset looked back over to the pink pony to put on her own frown. While the amber alicorn was usually the first in line to berate Celestia, anyone else who dared to insult her mother needed Sunset’s approval to do it. “Hey! Just because you might be right about Mom’s ego doesn’t mean you can say things like that about her Cadance! Stop blaming her for my mistakes!”

For her part, Cadance actually frowned at Sunset. “I’ll stop when it actually isn’t her fault!”

“Sunset,” Celestia said before she placed her wing on her daughter’s back to stop Sunset before she went any further. “And what do you mean, how badly it affected her?”

After the amber alicorn calmed down, Cadance took a moment to compose herself. “Well, do you remember what we talked about the day Sunset showed up with wings?”

“Are you referring to how you shouted at me in the hallway about how neglectful a mother I’ve been to her?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cadance nodded without an ounce of shame. “That’s the one!” she said as Sunset’s frown deepened. “I talked about how you neglected the duties of a parent, but I never really understood how Sunset adapted to it until now.”

Tired of Cadance beating around the bush, not to mention how the other two ponies were completely ignoring her, Sunset spoke up. “Okay miss psychoanalyst, what’s wrong with me that Mom is to blame for?”

“Well…” Cadance said cautiously before looking back to the amber alicorn. “You were being truthful when you said you loved your mom, Sunset. And when you were much younger, I think you figured out a way to receive love back from Princess Celestia, even when she wasn’t really showing it to you.”

Sunset rolled her eyes as her impatience grew. “Which was?”

“Even when a parent has to discipline a child or becomes disappointed in them for whatever reason, they never stop making sure that they are loved, even if it’s by just telling them that,” Cadance explained to Sunset. “But Celestia never gave that to you. She never said, I love you, just to make sure that point got across. So instead, you latched onto her actions. Every time she gave you attention, good grades, or a gift, you latched onto it as the proof that your mother loved you. Because you had nothing else.”

Cadance paused for a moment, and blinked. “Which makes me coming around to take some of those things away seem even worse,” she mumbled with unease before she quickly shook her head to clear it. “Sorry, getting off topic.

“The point is,” the pink princess went on. “That’s the way you were raised. And yes, Celestia can say she loves you all she wants, and you can soak it up like a dry sponge that’s needed water for so long it’s as hard as a rock, but...a part of you will always place the importance of her actions over her words. Like when she throws me a banquet for the work you did.”

Cadance looked back up to the biggest princess in the room. “I don’t deserve any thanks for what happened to Cinch,” she told Celestia. “Sunset came up with the plan, directed the actions of our friends, and gathered the proof we needed to show the minister what Cinch had done wrong. All I did was yell at that pony before sending Cinch to her room.”

A little laugh escaped from Sunset’s lips. “Hehe, wish I could have been there to see that.”

“I...see,” Celestia mumbled before she looked back down to her daughter. “I’m sorry for...everything...Sunset.”

The amber alicorn groaned. She wanted to deny the fact that Cadance was right about everything. But after a restless night and her verbal battle with Celestia, Sunset just didn’t have the strength. “It’s...okay, Mom.”

“No it’s not,” Cadance deadpanned, which made both Sunset and Celestia look at her with less than pleasant expressions as the pink princess continued to lock gazes with the white alicorn. “Look, I know you two want to hug and put all these horrible feelings behind you, but this is a part of who your daughter is. It’s not something that you can just trot away from and ignore. You don’t get to just wave your horn and tell Sunset to be more like you, and hope it all just goes away. The time for that came and went years ago, when you should have been building the foundation of who she was going to be. You’re the one that needs to adapt to her needs now, Princess Celestia!”

Sunset frowned at her friend. “Cadance-”

The other alicorn help up a pink hoof. “Look. I know you don’t like me talking bad about ponies you care for Sunset,” she said before the amber alicorn could lay into her. “But after these past two weeks, I will always think of your needs before anypony else’s.”

“Fine,” Sunset agreed as she lit up her horn. “Then get to school. I need my homework.”

Cadance groaned as Sunset let loose with the teleportation spell. “Again?”

With her annoying friend gone, Sunset looked back to her mother. “Mom, don’t pay any attention to what Cadance says, you’re-”

“No,” Celestia said, making Sunset frown as she was cut off for a second time. “Cadance is right. It’s foolish of me to just think that a hug and a few words, as powerful as they are, will solve the mess that I spent years making. I need to accept that you...that my desire to mold you into something that you’re not is far too late, and an insult to the mare that stands before me now.”

Sunset frowned at Celestia’s confusing words. “Say what?”

“Sunset,” the white pony said before looking over to the dining table for a moment. “I can see that you’re tired. Please, go to your quarters and rest. Meeting griffons is always exhausting, and going into a summit as you are now...it wouldn’t be good for any of the parties involved. I...need to think about some things this morning.”

As the amber alicorn looked at the pain in her mother’s eyes, she felt the guilt over being the cause of Celestia’s grief well up inside. “Mom...you were right to be ashamed of me,” she told the mare that had given her everything.

Thankfully, Sunset had acquiesced to Celestia’s request, allowing for the bigger solar alicorn to head to her quarters for some time to think. As soon as she magically sealed the door behind her, the High Princess of Equestria let the invisible weight on her back just drag her down onto the floor.

She hated to admit it. Hated to even think it. But...Cadance was right when it came to the reason for Sunset’s faults. Still, it was the other issue, the one Sunset herself had raised that carried the most weight. Even in the middle of Canterlot, Sunset was feeling lost and alone, abandoned by the one pony that should have been an absolute in her life.

And...she had been abandoned…

Sunset herself had said…

Celestia closed her eyes and crushed the thought before it could form. Stop that, the white pony told herself. That’s not...I won’t let that happen again.

After clearing her mind of such thoughts, Celestia stood back up and looked to the chest containing all of her plans for Sunset’s coronation. While she hadn’t wanted to share too much because of the looming Changeling threat and the way it worried Cadance, having Sunset take a greater part in the planning aside from just her regalia and dress…

Celestia blinked as a sudden realization struck her.

A dress.

With Sunset’s increase in stature, there was no possible way that any of the dresses she owned would fit when it came time to greet the griffons.

“She needs a new dress,” Celestia told herself as she mentally worked through the details. It would have to be magically crafted to be ready in time. Which would be expensive, not to mention the fact that such dresses were always much flimsier than the ones created through proper sewing techniques. But, Celestia didn’t see any reason it wouldn’t hold up for at least one night, even when factoring in Sunset’s level of strength.

And it might even help their strained relationship. Cadance had said Sunset responded more to actions than words. A new dress would help show the amber alicorn that Celestia did care for her, and was willing to prove it in the way Sunset needed her to.

At least...until Sunset saw that the only reason Celestia was getting her a gift was to make her presentable for the griffons. Then, Sunset would have to sit through what would be something that was even worse than humiliating as Celestia forced her to apologize for speaking her mind on Griffonstone-Equestria relations to the newspapers, while Cadance flew off to go enjoy a replay with their friends.

Once again, Sunset would be doing the work, and Cadance would be getting a reward.

Celestia groaned as the realization hit her, and she raised a hoof to her face. “Ugh. You idiot.”

She needed to do something else. Something that not only showed Sunset that she loved the fiery alicorn more than anypony in Equestria, but was also as proud as a mother could be.

Shining Armor blinked as his mother finished talking to take another swig of her coffee. What do you mean I’m not going to school today?”

“Shiny sweetheart,” the tired mare said before taking another sip from her mug. “You’re going on a date with a princess. That requires a full dress suit, not just the tie you wear to flugelhorn recitals.”

Twilight looked up from her cereal. “But Mom, what about Shiny’s perfect attendance? What about his education!?”

The light gray mare looked over to her daughter. “Some things are more important than going to school every single day, Twilight.”

“But...but…” Twilight got out as the world she knew crumbled around her.

As Twilight’s young mind continued it’s failed processing of the new reality in which education was not the be-all-end-all of everything, Shining Armor looked back to his mother. “I thought Sunset finally got you to stop being so nervous about her.”

“But you’re not going on a date with Sunset, you’re going on a date with Princess Cadance! The Princes of Love! Certain expectations have to be met!”

Shining Armor opened his mouth to tell his mother everything would be fine. Only...the first week that the unicorn had spent with Cadance came to mind, stopping his argument before it could even begin.

“So um...bow tie, or neck?” he asked.

Sunset did her best not to let her annoyance show while the dark green unicorn mare wrapped the measuring tape around her midsection. Still, she supposed that getting fitted for a new dress beat moping around in her room because she had lost control and yelled at her mom again. Although, the fact that she was getting a new dress after giving her mother a hard time about what were her own inadequacies when it came to needing reassurance from Celestia didn’t sit all that well with the alicorn who had stolen her wings.

So, Sunset looked back to her mother and kept the frown that wanted to form off her face. “Is this really necessary?”

“None of your old dresses fit,” Celestia reminded the smaller pony.

After taking a moment to raise her wings at the seamstress’s urging, Sunset let out a sigh. “Yeah, but it’s not like the griffons are going to be wearing anything when they come to beg for more bits.”

The look on Celestia’s face became a little downcast. “You used to like it when I took you to be fitted for a new dress.”

A second of panic, followed by immense guilt had Sunset lowering her ears. “Yeah, when I was a selfish brat getting a treat,” she mumbled as the tape measure moved to take the size of her plot. Curiosity had Sunset looking back to see just what the numbers said about her butt as soon as the tape stopped moving around.

Celestia blinked. The tiny smile she had on her face shattered and then the big alicorn hung her head so low her hair brushed around on the floor. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Sunset mumbled in confusion before the realization of what was going on struck her. Celestia was blaming herself for the stupid things Sunset had done again. “Mom no! I don’t care what Cadance says. You…”

A shake of Celestia's head stopped Sunset from continuing. “Sunset, as much as I am gladdened by your defense of my character, it is undeserved. I did raise you like you were nothing more than a student. And that is to blame for everything that went wrong between us.”

While Sunset’s opinion on the matter didn’t come anywhere near Celestia’s, she knew the futility of arguing with her mom about the root cause of all the problems involving her personality. I wanted my last week with her to be full of happy memories, the amber alicorn told herself.

Instead, Sunset was finding herself getting angry at Celestia, hurting the mare that had been like her own mother, getting angry at Cadance, and just resenting her whole situation in general.

It just wasn’t fair that she should be given everything, only to be forced to give it up!

But every time Sunset thought about not doing what was right, she couldn’t help but think of everything bad she had done in her life in comparison to Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia’s words rang in her head. “She sounds rather cruel and selfish.”

“She kept you there,” a memory of Cadance added.

“She abandoned you when I was waiting for you here,” Sunset remembered Celestia saying.

Sunset slammed her eyes shut and shook her head to both argue with the absent pink alicorn and clear her mind. While an outsider might see things involving the real princess in a bad light because of her relationship with Sunset, the amber alicorn knew Twilight wasn’t like that!

And after meeting her as a filly, Sunset knew without a shadow of a doubt that she couldn’t stick around to mess things up. She needed to be the type of mare that Celestia would be proud of, the type that wouldn’t sell out another pony’s future because of her own selfish desires. The kind that...accepted her punishment, and let Twilight have what was hers.

Twilight’s the real princess, Sunset told herself. Twilight’s the pony Celestia was really proud of. Twilight’s the good pony.

But…

Why didn’t she come and help me? the amber alicorn asked herself as she pictured the girl with the purple hair in her head. When everyone had turned against Sunset and after that when the Games had begun, Twilight hadn’t really done anything.

“Sunset?” Celestia asked in a worried tone before the smaller alicorn felt her mother’s hoof touch her cheek. “Is everything alright?”

The amber alicorn took in a deep breath. “Just...thinking, Mom.”

Before Celestia could inquire just what those thoughts were, Sunset was saved by the sound of the seamstress clearing her throat. “Pardon me, Your Highnesses,” she said before backing away a trot to bow her head. “But I must take a moment to intrude. Princess Sunset, which color would you like me to make the dress from?”

Sunset looked over to the more than half a dozen fabrics that were waiting on a nearby shelf the royal tailor had brought with her and licked her lips nervously. Ever color of the rainbow and then some was arranged before her. She kind of liked the pink, and they even had it in the same shade that Cadance was.

“White,” Celestia suddenly spoke up, completely wrecking Sunset’s train of thought. “The same shade as my coat. It will give the griffons a subtle show of solidarity.”

With the decision taken away from her, Sunset put a frown back on and found an interesting wall to stare at as the dressmaker began to talk with Celestia to work out all the minor details about how her daughter’s dress would look like so that it would go with Celestia’s...natural beauty.

Despite the fact that the hours in her school day had been greatly reduced, Cadance felt as if the time she spent in the building was much longer than normal. After Sunset had teleported her directly to the Academy, Cadance found the first class of the day canceled in lieu of introducing the new principal, a dark gray pegasus stallion named Black Board. While the new pony wasn’t much of an interest to the princess, the fact that Shiny’s friends said he never showed up for roll during first period did occupy her mind.

Was he sick?

Hurt?

Nervous about their upcoming intimate date?

What if he was so nervous that he made himself sick, and then stumbled down the stairs in a way that ended with one of his legs being broken?!

Such were the pink princesses thoughts as she made her way back to the palace, her saddlebags full of homework for both her and Sunset.

However, it didn’t take the pink princess long to realize the foolishness of that train of thought.

Okay Cadance, calm down, she told herself as she landed on top of a building not a hundred trots from her new home. It wouldn’t be good if the guards saw her flying around in a fluster. Everything’s just fine. Shiny’s...probably one of those ponies that camps out in front of theater to be the first one inside...or something.

Although the reasoning was rather weak, Cadance grabbed hold of it and refused to let go. Shining Armor had probably been there since last night, leaving only after Sunset ported the two of them out. The pink princess took a moment to imagine Shining Armor sleeping inside a tent, all bundled up in a sleeping bag. It was getting a little chilly at night, so Cadance knew the stallion would have pulled it in on himself, making Shining’s outline easy enough to make out. Especially his pair of big, round…

“GAH!” Cadance cried out before her thoughts involving Shining Armor’s enlarged private parts could become as explicit as the dreams she had experienced the night before.

Which were more the product of Sunset’s distressed moaning than anything else! While Cadance wanted nothing more than her best friend and Shiny to get together, she was not just going to sit in the same room while Shining Armor was riding Sunset Shimmer to cheer them on! What type of pony would even think about something like that?

Thankfully, Cadance hadn’t had any such thoughts in regards to the stallion herself. Shiny was cute, nice, and absolutely adorable. But he was more like a puppy than anything else. A puppy with a nice package that would let him get all the female dogs if he managed to become top dog, but the white unicorn was a long way from claiming such a title.

For starters, he was still much too timid for Cadance’s taste.

So...minor sexual attraction or no, the pink alicorn had no problem putting images of Shining Armor in all his glory aside.

After taking another breath to steady her thoughts, Cadance let out a controlled sigh. So...Shiny’s just waiting for the play to start.

Despite his presence next to the theater making absolutely no sense with the assigned seating.

Shut up common sense, the pink princess told the rational part of her brain. I’m royalty now! That means I don’t need you anymore! She had...whatever type of sense the nobles possessed, only...nobler.

“Okay so…” Cadance mumbled to herself before she focused back to the task at hoof. “Got to get back to Sunset and...Celestia.” A Sunset that had been angry enough to kick her out, and Celestia hadn’t been acting as above it all as she usually did, now that Cadance thought about it.

After making a quick circuit around the palace to check for any foundation cracks made by earthquake-causing hooves and windows that had been shattered from the sheer power of a royal voice, Cadance landed at the front gate and trotted in.

As soon as she set a hoof in the door, a pair of guards came galloping towards her.

“Princess Cadance!”

“Princess Cadance!”

The pace of the pink princess’s heart skyrocketed as the two stallions in golden armor skidded to a stop in front of her. Judging by the looks on their faces, things were bad. Really bad. “Please tell me somepony didn’t get banished to the sun.”

Both the guards gave her an odd look, then each one looked to the other to give a shrug, which was quickly followed by an explanation from the stallion on the left. “Princess, where have you been? The royal mane stylist has been throwing a fit!”

Cadance blinked. “I was just-”

“We need to get you washed, groomed and dressed Princess. This way Your Highness, quickly!” the other guard said before he motioned for the mare to follow him.

Trotting after them to catch up, Cadance was struck by an odd thought. Wait...Celestia has somepony to style her mane?

The brief moment of confusion that such a thought allowed had Cadance following along without complaint and in an empty room before she knew it. In what seemed like no time at all, Cadance’s bags had been removed for storage in Sunset’s room, her coat had been cleaned of the little layer of exertion she had gained from flying back from the school, and she stood before a full-length mirror, clothed in a dress made from white and gold with a little crown resting on her head while golden horseshoes completely covered her hooves.

Cadance examined herself for a moment, and then looked back to the mare with her mane done up in a bun with several pins sticking out of the top. “When did you make this?”

“Last week, Your Highness,” the seamstress replied with a bow. “I still had all your measurements from when I made your coronation dress. Princess Celestia had intended it to be your Fall Formal wear.”

The explanation made Cadance look back in the mirror. While the gown was most definitely one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, it was lacking...something. The pink princess didn’t quite know what was missing but...the idea of wearing such a thing to a dance with all of her friends, it just felt...wrong.

But wearing it to a stuffy meeting with an ornery creature, followed by a not-date with her best friend’s future husband? For that, the dress was perfect.

“Thank you,” she told the mare.

“Of course, I’ll have a new one for both you and Princess Sunset by next week,” the seamstress quickly added. “Something new. A pony of your position just can’t wear the same thing twice. You won’t have to worry about the quality either, Highness. It makes me feel dreadful that I had to wrap Princess Sunset in a rush job. I promise you that when everypony sees the two of you at the Fall Formal, they’ll know that nopony else in Equestria could hope to be clothed in a garment half as radiant!”

Despite the offer, Cadance found herself unable to feel happy about the prospect of wearing an even more magnificent dress than the one she was currently clothed in. While she knew that whatever the dressmaker would come up with next would most definitely be amazing, the pink princess also knew that it would be...just as cold as the one she had on.

Not a physical chilly kind of cold. It was more…

Cadance blinked as she realized why the dress she was in felt so wrong to wear to the Fall Formal. While ascetically perfect, it lacked heart. The kind of heart that only a pony who made something for another pony she knew could put into a dress. Even though the mare that had constructed what Cadance was wearing had been the best in all of Canterlot, it had been crafted for some perfect princess that lived in a castle. The pink princess wanted a dress made for Cadance, not Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

I wonder if Sassy has time to sew me something? Cadance asked herself as she opened the double doors to the throne room where Princess Celestia and Sunset were already waiting.

As soon as she caught sight of the pair, Cadance blinked in surprise. Sunset was clothed in a dress that looked a great deal like Cadance’s minus some stylistic flairs that went with her coloration, and had her mane combed out and straightened to the point that it hung down more than blew like usual. If the thing had been blowing around in an invisible breeze…

“The two of you really are mother and daughter,” Cadance commented as she approached the dais to ask for permission to ascend.

The comment put a warmth in Celestia’s eyes, while Sunset became a little uneasy. “Yeah well...that dress looks great on you.”

Cadance found herself heating up more than she should have at such a simple comment. “Ah...um...thank you,” she said without stuttering. But instead of just keeping her mouth shut like she should have, Cadance found herself wanting to give Sunset a little verbal nudge. “But I suppose anything would look good on Hot Pink.”

“Hey, if you want me to tell you it looks sexy, then you should wear something that hugs your flank a bit better,” the amber alicorn replied as Cadance took her place on Celestia’s left side.

The biggest pony in the room looked back and forth between the other two alicorns. “Alright. What’s going on with the two of you?” she said before turning her head to look at Cadance. “Did I miss something?”

Cadance giggled. “It’s just a little joke between us, Celestia,” she said before breaking out into a explanation. “We make nicknames for ponies based on a coat color and descriptive trait. “I’m Hot Pink, Sunset is Angry Amber, and...um...t-that’s all we have for right now.”

“Oh really?” she asked before looking over to Sunset. “So, what do you think would be a good nickname for me?”

The question made Sunset raise an eyebrow. “Uh...why would you want a nickname?”

Celestia’s head pulled back just a bit. “Well...the other two alicorns in Equestria have nicknames. So I should have one too.”

“Hmmm,” Sunset said as she looked down at Celestia’s cutie mark on the big alicorn’s flank. “Nah...too easy.”

“Well your coat is white,” Cadance mumbled as she spoke her thoughts. “And everypony knows you're the most magical pony around. So...what about...White Power?”

Sunset let out a groan, and Cadance looked around Celestia to see she was holding her head in her hooves.

“Is something wrong, Sunset?” Celestia asked.

The amber alicorn let out a loud sigh, and looked back up to her mother. “Can we please just go with another nickname?”

“What’s wrong with White Power?” As far as Cadance could see, the unofficial title fit Celestia perfectly.

Sunset sighed and slumped a bit. “Nothing that a pony would understand,” she said. “Which, I guess that means there’s nothing...really wrong with it...in Equestria.”

“Very well. We’ll table the subject for now,” Celestia told them.

In the ensuing silence, Cadance looked over to Sunset. Despite the name...thing, she didn’t look too aggravated. Hmm...Aggravated Amber, maybe that should have been her name, the pink princess thought before the double doors opened and the blast of a flugelhorn reverberated throughout the room.

Not a minute later, one of Celestia’s guard pegasi trotted in and cleared his throat. “Announcing the most honorable Ambassador of Griffonstone, Gruff the Griffon, and his granddaughter Gilda...um...also, the Griffon.”

“What?”Sunset said in a low voice that oozed malice.

Celestia looked over to the amber alicorn. “Do you know this griffon, Sunset?”

Before Sunset could answer, Cadance blinked as a stuffy old bird waltzed right into the chamber. Despite his age and...less than impressive physique, the griffon looked around, looking at the princesses and the few guards placed throughout the throne room as if he owned the place. There was also a distinct lack of the second griffon that had been announced.

A fact Cadance felt the need to speak about. “But...there’s just one of-oh!”

Another avian head poked its way out from behind the first cat-bird, and Cadance couldn’t keep the smile from forming on her face as she summed up her opinion of the second griffon. “She’s so cute!”

The announcement was all the little griffon needed to dart back behind her grandfather.

“Uh...n-no, Mother, I...don’t think I’ve ever seen that griffon before,” Sunset said in a bewildered tone after a few seconds.

“GILDA!” the older griffon shouted. “Quit hiding behind me like you're some pony’s prey, and stand next to your grandsire!”

As the little flying feline scampered out from behind her father’s father and did as she was told. Even though her legs shook with nervous abandon. “Um...I-I’m G-Gilda.”

Sunset’s frown went from angry to thoughtful, and she glanced over to the older griffon. “So that’s where she got it from,” the amber alicorn mumbled barely loud enough for Cadance to hear.

The griffon cleared his throat, and began talking as the three alicorns turned their attention back to him. “Celestia! I am here as a representative of the Great King Guldo! To him, you will bequeath one-hundred million bits as a tribute to the superiority of the griffon race’s magnificence, or suffer our wrath!”

A slight grinding sound made it to Cadance’s ears, and she looked over to see Sunset had once again put on her angry face, complete with gnashing teeth sound effects.

“Your turn sweetie,” Gruff said before he stepped back and pushed the griffon hatchling forward.

“A-And we would also l-like a membership to Junior Speedsters Flight Camp,” Gilda added before Gruff gave her a disgruntled clearing of his throat. “Or I-I’ll rip off your heads, a-and bring them all back to Griffonstone on a p-pike.”

Sunset let out a snort, which quickly sent Gilda back behind her grandfather’s hind legs. However, whatever she was going to say was cut off as Celestia began speaking. “Ambassador Gruff,” she said with only a hint of her usual gentleness. “While I would be appy to negotiate the aid I am willing to send to Griffonstone in order to avoid mass starvation and general anarchy, that can wait for tomorrow. In the interest of a continued friendship between our two races, I would like to invite you to the premiere showing of the latest installment in the Solar Battles series of plays.”

“Say wha-”

Before Sunset could even begin to really speak, the little griffon let out an excited gasp, and ran out from behind her elder. “You mean Solar Battles Five?” she asked with a smile on her beak before she spun around. “Can we go Grandpa? Please, please, please, please, please?”

“GILDA!” Gruff roared in agitation, making the little cat-bird scamper a few steps back. “A predator does not demand her due like that!”

For a few seconds, the bigger griffon frowned down at the smaller one, then looked back up at the three alicorns. “Well, as much as I’d loved to see a bunch of ponies prancing around like the idiots you all are, there is still something else that needs to be be discussed,” the griffon said before he reached under a wing to pull out a torn piece of paper that looked as if it had been torn from a newspaper. “On my way here, I read this article stating that this uncrowned princess, Sunset Shimmer, is spreading lies about Griffonstone! I demand as recompense, that she personally come to the shining jewel that is our grand city to personally give unto each griffon that rules over it one-hundred-thousand bits as an apology.”

Sunset frowned back at the griffon. There was no way she was going to spend her last few days in Equestria with those things. “Denied.”

Wow that’s...unbelievably controlled for her, Cadance thought to herself as the griffon Sunset was glaring at continued to not burst into flames.

Although the real surprise was that Celestia’s expression came to match her daughter’s, and continued to focus on the griffon. “Ambassador Gruff,” she spoke in an authoritative tone. “For several years now, I have done nothing but show the griffons of your land the Kindness of Equestria, giving you bits so that some of it may trickle down from the claws of your city’s rulers to fill the bowels of the griffons living in poverty, all the while hoping that one of your leaders would be inspired by my actions and become a true leader among your kind, encouraging trade between our nations and using the bits to grow Griffonstone’s economy so that you could one day sustain yourselfs on the things your nation produces.. Instead, I have seen the incessant greed of your leaders become the standard for your entire species.

“Now, you come to my land and demand my daughter debase herself before you, because she gave nothing but unbridled Honesty in regards to the actions of the griffons,” Celestia went on. “Forcing me to either Loyally stand with the mare that I raised, or side with you to try and...placate an old fool that doesn’t know when to shut his beak.”

Said griffon opened his mouth to speak, only for it to be surrounded by a golden glow and have it snap shut. “I was respectful enough to allow you your say sir griffon. You will give to me the same,” Celestia told him before he could say anything.

Then, Celestia actually did stop talking for a second before she became thoughtful. “Respect,” she said before looking back down at the smaller creature. “You know, we ponies hold the five virtues that make up our ideal of friendship above all else. I had hoped by showing you these things, the griffons would come to join us in friendship. But instead, you rebuke my Generosity with greed, my Kindness with contempt, and my daughter’s Honesty with anger. You test my Loyalty to my own child, and mock my attempt to offer you Joy. All born from a lack of respect. The griffons have fallen far since the time of King Gregor and his son, Prince Grover.”

Sunset snorted. “You mean that idiot king who tried to invade Equestria after it was founded and gave up in return for eclairs?” she asked with a roll of her eyes. “Wake up Mom. He saw that the army he thought he was going to be fighting was three times the size it had been a week before, not to mention you. Considering it was before his little bird managed to find that idol thing and unite the griffons, his little...what? Flock? It would have been completely annihilated.”

“Yes,” Celestia mumbled for a moment. “I suppose that is one way of looking at it. Regardless, the friendship that I had cultivated with the griffon leadership seems to have grown stale and crumbled away from this...lack of respect. So now you come before me like some petty child, so sure of his sense of superiority. So I shall treat you like a child and send you to your room without your supper. And if you have not come to your senses by morning, then I will be sending you back home with an empty coin purse. Guards, escort our guest to his room, and ensure he remains there for the night while I am attending to my business this night.”

As four of Celestia’s royal guard trotted towards the amalgam creature, Celestia finally released him from her magic and allowed the cat-bird to speak. “Y-You! How dare you treat an ambassador this way!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Is this not how the griffons treat one-another? I have simply decided to respect your nation’s choices in how a griffon deals with...how is it you refer to creatures that are weaker, smaller, and slower than you again? As yes, prey. Perhaps by showing you and your ways such respect, you will do the same to me when tomorrow comes and it is time to discuss a relief effort for your people. Or...we can continue to do things the griffon way.”

As the older griffon let out a strangled gasp at Celestia’s offer, that sounded a little too much like a threat to Cadance’s ears, Celestia lightened her gaze. “Very well then, I look forward to having a proper conversation with you tomorrow to discuss the trade between our nations, as well as your granddaughter’s entrance into the...Junior Speedsters, was it?”

For the first time in a long time, Celestia found herself feeling a little hopeful after a meeting with the griffon ambassador. While dealing with the Gruff had always been something she had been willing to endure for the sake of the less fortunate griffons that her aid could reach, playing along with the griffon’s foolish antics in front of Sunset had proven too difficult.

Perhaps it was how Sunset had refused to bend, or Celestia’s own pride had been unable to relent in front of her daughter. Whatever the reason, Celestia found herself reevaluating her method for dealing with other kingdoms as she came to her daughter’s door. While she would always offer a hoof in friendship, there was something to be said of the harsher methods of dealing with the less and pleasant creatures of the world.

Then again, Luna had always been the pony to take care of the negotiations when things went down that road, Celestia thought before she could stop herself. Thinking about her sister was a trap that would bring the big alicorn into a pit of despair that took too long to escape.

She needed to be strong and focused. Stay calm and smile, Celestia reminded herself. Don’t let it out. Don’t show Sunset. She already feels guilty for everything that’s your fault, you stupid old nag.

Celestia took in a deep breath, and pushed out all the dark thoughts in one long breath. “Sunset?” she asked as she raised a hoof in preparation for a knock. “Are you still dressed? I know it’s been a few hours since we met with the griffons and the play doesn’t start for another hour on top of that, but I’m afraid my presence at the theater will cause a bit of a stir. So we need to arrive with enough time to let it burn out.”

The door opened, but the mare Celestia found standing in front of her was not Sunset Shimmer.

Instead of the pony the princess had been expecting, the unicorn on the other side of Sunset’s doorway was a mare of the usual height found outside Canterlot, with a blue coat and mane that was a mix of red and white. Although what grabbed Celestia’s attention, aside from the cluster of tiny stars on her flank and the light dampness around her eyes, was the generously swollen belly that held a foal that was nearly ready to come into the world.

For several seconds, all the mystery pony could do was look up at Celestia with wide eyes. “Pah...Pah-pra,” the pregnant mare managed.

“Princess,” the white alicorn offered.

“P-Princess Celestia!” she exclaimed before she tried to go into a bow, and nearly fell forward onto her face.

Celestia reached out and stopped the mystery mare from crashing into the ground. “Whoa there now, my little pony,” she told the young mother-to-be. “I think we can forgo the bowing for you. I wouldn’t want something to happen to your little pony, after all.” To help defuse the situation, Celestia offered the mare a kind smile and considered striking up a conversation about the most apparent topic that was still sleeping inside her belly.

“Mom,” the voice of the pony Celestia had been expecting to meet said as Sunset came trotting up. The white alicorn noticed her daughter’s lack of dress, but didn’t comment on it. “This is Spangled Star. Spangled Star, Mom.”

The unicorn looked down at the ground. “Y-Your Majesty.”

Celestia let out her best disarming laugh. “Oh, no need to be so formal when we’ve already done away with the bowing. I’m delighted to meet one of Sunset’s friends, Mrs. Star.”

“She’s not,” Sunset cut in with a bit of irritation. When Celestia looked over to Sunset, the other alicorn was looking back at her with a look on her face that matched her voice. “Married, or my friend. She’s just a pony that needs some help. Something I’m going to need to talk to you about tonight, by the way.”

Celestia looked down at the pregnant mare’s swollen belly in confusion. “But...she’s with foal.”

Spangled Star winced at the declaration and sunk in on herself, at least until Sunset lifted her back up. “Hey, none of that now,” she told the mare gently before her voice took on a firmness. “Never be ashamed of your child. You did nothing wrong. And even if it’s the last thing I do here, I will make sure you are given every opportunity to succeed while your little one is provided everything she needs, including you.”

Tears glistened in the mare’s eyes again. “Th-thank you, Princess Sunset.”

“H-Hey! Don’t get all weepy on me again,” she complained. “You need to...save all that liquid and stuff for your baby.”

Spangled Star nodded once, and blinked away her tears. “Yes, Princess. T-Thank you, Princess Sunset.”

Pride drowned the confusion Celestia was experiencing as she saw her daughter’s kindness in full force before Sunset told the young mare to gallop on home to her own mother, or at least as far as the carriage Sunset had arranged to take her home. After watching Star disappear around the corner, Celestia turned back to look at Sunset. “What was all that about?”

“Just something that needed to be done,” the amber alicorn replied.

The cryptic response made Celestia frown. While playing the all-knowing ruler had always been one of her favorite games, she didn’t much enjoy having the horseshoe be on the other hoof. “Sunset.”

Completely ignoring her mother’s irritation, Sunset spoke in an even tone. “By the way, there’s something I need to talk to you about during the play.”

Although it irked her to play along, Celestia raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Education reforms.”

Celestia locked her jaw to keep from sighing as Sunset made her way past the bigger alicorn and trotted down the hall. She fell in behind her daughter and...kept her face neutral. Even if it was obvious that Sunset was planning something that was practically in direct competition with Cadance’s latest accomplishment that Equestria had decided to praise her for in what was obviously an attempt to show the younger princess that had achieved alicorn status first up.

But...Celestia was certain she could keep her daughter from becoming too jealous like what happened at breakfast. She and Sunset would be spending all night together while Cadance was off with her coltfriend. And now that they had managed to take care of the underlying cause of Sunset’s anger, things could finally be put back on track.

It be a perfectly pleasant evening at the theater with her daughter with the both of them in the perfect position to spy on Cadance’s date. As far as Celestia could see, nothing could possibly go wrong.

Chapter 19: The Farce Awakens

Sunset was somewhat unnerved to find that the premiere showing of Solar Battles Five was far too much like she had expected. While the amber alicorn had never actually gone to a big movie premiere before in the human world, Rarity had dragged her in front of the television to watch a show that gave the overly star-obsessed girl all kinds of information in regards to what happened at such events. Aside from any actual information on the movie, that is.

When she and Celestia exited the royal carriage, they walked down a red carpet while a veritable army of ponies with cameras created a wall of flashing lights to flank the two princesses. Like always whenever she showed up at public events, the white alicorn walked with her head held high and wings spread in a way that just screamed ‘I’M BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU!’ before Celestia had them stop for a moment to answer questions outside of the theater, most of which revolved around extremely frivolous things that Sunset had to keep from rolling her eyes at.

The most important pony in Equestria was standing in front of them, and all they could think to ask was, what pony was her favorite character? Sky Trotter, or So Low?

Of course, Sunset also had to answer the same stupid questions. And to humor them, she gave all the ponies her honest answer. “I like Dark Invader.”

It got a gasp of horrified surprise from the crowd and ended the interview prematurely. Which suited Sunset just fine, it allowed her to finally have some alone time with her mother to talk about important things that they hadn’t had any time to do on the chariot ride over.

“So Mom,” Sunset said after they sat down in the princess’s personal balcony seat. The amber alicorn got a bit distracted and took a second to admire the view. While it wasn’t the front row floor seating Cadance had gotten, the area large enough to host Celestia’s plot plus two normal-sized ponies was placed slightly beneath the front of the center stage balcony, giving them a better vantage point to see the play than most ponies. But Sunset wasn’t about to let something like that keep her attention for long. “About that mare you saw in my room.”

Celestia looked away from where the pony on the stage was going over things like the latest news, coming attractions, and announcing several upcoming events that were to be hosted in the theater despite the fact that they weren’t actually plays, or the illusionary recreation of plays at any rate. “Sunset, must we talk about this now? I would like to enjoy our evening together, not watch as you try again to compete with Cadance for my praise.”

After hearing her mother’s words, it took several seconds before Sunset managed to form a coherent thought from the mass of confusion Celestia had turned her mind into. What did helping another mare with her family problems have to do with Cadance?

Still, if Celestia didn’t want to talk, Sunset wasn’t going to force it on her.

“I still think I’d look better in a suit that didn’t need a bowtie,” Shining Armor mumbled.

The young stallion’s mother rolled her eyes as she finished helping her son put on his clothes. “Nonsense sweetie. This is what Princess Cadance expects,” she said before stepping away. “Besides, I have it on good authority that bowties are considered cool.”

Shining Armor frowned back at his mother. “Poindexter is not a pony you want to listen to when it comes to fashion tips, Mom,” he replied before frowning at his own words. He had been hanging around Sassy Saddles for way too long.

Ignoring his mother’s retort, Shining Armor looked back into the mirror. Instead of the usual tie he wore to the more important events, or even a fancy vest that didn’t make it halfway to his flank like most ponies, Shining Armor was dressed in a black coat that went all the way to his hindquarters to cover up his cutie mark, while another dress shirt of purple silk poked it way out in the front. A black bowtie did its best to cut off his oxygen supply.

There was a knock at the door, and Velvet urged her son forward to answer it.

When he opened the door to look at the mare on the other side, Shining Armor froze...and stared at his date.

Princess Cadance had always stood head and haunches above any other pony Shining had even met when it came to looks on just her natural beauty alone. But seeing her standing in front of him wearing light purple eyeshadow and in a dress of the purest white with golden designs that sparkled in the light of the streetlamps made Shining Armor reassess her standing. In the right dress and makeup, nopony could even hope to compare to the pink alicorn that had somehow decided Shining Armor of all ponies was worth her time.

The pink mare looked the stallion up and down, probably finding about a million faults, including that loose thread sticking out of his coat’s left pocket. Then Cadance smiled at him, and Shining Armor had to lock his legs to keep from turning into a pile of mush. “You really are adorable,” she said with a little giggle.

…

…

…

A compliment, Shining Armor managed to think after examining her words. Quick! Say something cool!

“Gaaaah ge ba huh?” he forced out when his mouth didn't respond to his mental demand as soon as it should have.

Cadance blinked in surprise at the nonsense...then smirked. “Uh oh, looks like somepony’s having a relapse,” she said before offering her hoof. “Come on stud. Let’s get you into the carriage while you still have motor function.”

By some miracle, Shining Armor managed to link fetlocks with Cadance, and she led him to the fancy white carriage that was waiting for him outside his family’s house. Once they were inside, the two ponies sat facing each other, and Shining Armor noticed that Cadance was wearing a perfume that smelled like roses instead of her usual strawberries.

Shining Armor also hoped Cadance didn’t smell his...naturally nervous odors that cropped up whenever a stallion was alone with a mare that was so hopelessly out of his league that Celestia Herself would probably throw him in a dark pit from which there was no escape if the High Princess of Equestria should happen to see them together.

“Shiny?”

Cadance calling his name made Shining Armor tense before he tried replying. “Gu ba huh?”

And then he gulped loudly as Cadance gave him a worried look. “You haven’t lost your voice around me in over a week,” she said before drawing in on herself just a bit. “Am I really making you that uncomfortable?”

Shining Armor opened his mouth...but stopped himself before anything stupid could come out.

In the meantime, Cadance put her hooves down on the seat and lowered her head. “I’m sorry,” she went on. “I know this is supposed to be a real special night for you, and I’m messing it up.”

The sad look on Cadance’s face sent a tiny shock down Shining Armor’s spine. And the next thing he knew, his mouth was moving. “W-Wait, what?” the white stallion asked before reaching forward to touch Cadance’s hooves and get her attention. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Shiny, we both know the mare you’d rather be going to the play with,” Cadance told him with a little smile. “And even if Sunset is kind of busy tonight, you and your friends had plans about this for weeks in advance, before you even met me. The view may be better, but the company isn’t going to be nearly as good. Enjoying something with your friends makes a whole lot of difference.”

Shining Armor became hesitant again. Both unsure of what he should say and a little amazed that a mare like Cadance would actually think he didn’t want to spend time with her. “But...” Shining Armor said to her before taking her hooves in his. “Look. I know, I always talk about how Sunset saw me in trouble and saved me the first day we met. But the very next day, you walked right up to me in the middle of school and told this nerdy loser you were going to help him get this awesome mare that was so far out of his league he couldn’t even talk to her instead of taking one look at me and kicking me to the curb.”

For a second, Shining Armor had thought something stupid, because Cadance’s expression turned to one of confusion again as soon as he finished talking. “...Oh,” she finally said.

“What I mean is,” Shining Armor kept going. “You’re my friend too. Just as much as any of the other guys are, or even Sunset.”

Cadance’s mouth turned up into a little smile. "Thanks, Shiny,” she said before some embarrassment showed on her face. “Although...I stand by my assessment. I mean...I never even saw the first play, remember?”

The earth-shattering statement made Shining Armor’s eyes widen. “Oh! Uh...right,” he replied uneasily as he tried to remember when Cadance had told him that. Had it been back when they were in bed with Twilight? The filly-sized alicorns had been kind of distracting.

“So...can you tell me about it?” she asked.

Shining Armor blinked. “Uh...sure!” he replied before settling down into a much more comfortable topic. “Well, it all started a long time ago, in a land that was far, far away…”

Buck Withers frowned at the puny little horn-head ahead of him in line as he and 3D made their way to their seats along with Gut Check. Although he would have liked to have taken a pair of fillies along with him for the night, he had bigger fish to catch. The boys would help for when the play was over and it was time for him get with Princess Cadance.

Plus, any girls probably would have narced on the stallion when it came to the hard cider he was sneaking in under the large dress coat. The guys knew to keep their muzzles shut about it. Just because some new loser was running Canterlot Academy didn’t mean Buck wouldn’t smash their faces in after leaving school when there was nothing he could do about it.

After the trio took their front-row seats on the first balcony, Buck looked around for his mare and the punching bag that had attached himself to her like a leech. “Either of you twits see the Princess?”

3D gave Buck a look that would have gotten the other stallion smacked in the mouth of they were anywhere else. “Uh...she’s right there dude.”

Buck looked over to where his teammate was pointing, and frowned at the giant white pony sitting far to the left and slightly lower than the earth pony was. He hadn’t thought Princess Celestia went to these sorts of things. Although...the more Buck thought about it, the more things seemed to be lining up for him.

He could get rid of that twerp Shining Armor, show Cadance what a real stallion was like, and probably get Princess Celestia to engage the two of them all in one night.

It was one of those destiny things.

Since Shiny didn’t seem the type to brave the red carpet and its vicious paparazzi, Cadance instructed her driver to pull around to the back of the theater where all the service wagons meant to carry the food, drink, and trash were parked. Thanks to the popularity of the play, it looked like the ponies who planned such things had brought an excess of snacks, but there was still space for Cadance's driver to park her carriage before he went off to enjoy the show as well.

By some miracle, Shining Armor had finished with his story about how the first Solar Battles play went right as the stallion pulling their carriage stopped next to one of the theater’s many rear exits. Cadance had to admit that she enjoyed her time with Shiny during their trip. Sunset had been right, the young stallion really was like a whole other pony whenever he talked about something he was passionate about.

He even had the pink princess interested in the play as more than just something a good friend would enjoy. Although, Cadance had to admit that the pony that wrote the thing didn’t know squat about romance. From the sound of things, Sky Trotter and Duchess Leia would make a horrible couple.

But she wasn’t about to tell Shiny that and ruin his silly little theories about how the story should progress.

After making their way into the theater, Cadance was surprised by just how many ponies were in attendance. Since the show hadn’t begun, dozens upon dozens of little conversations all jumbled together to make a nearly deafening mass of sound that came from all directions at the same time while the pony standing on the stage shouted over all of them thanks to him being wrapped in a spell that projected his voice throughout the theater.

Halfway to their seats, Cadance glanced back up towards the royal balcony. “Shiny, how long is this play again?”

Shining Armor gave Cadance a confused look before answering the question. “Well, if it’s anything like the first...two hours, with a twenty minute break in the middle for intermission,” he said. “Why?”

The thought of Sunset and Celestia forced to be next to each other in a little box was a worrisome one. “No way they’re going to be able to last that long,” Cadance mumbled to herself as she saw Sunset give Celestia a slightly perturbed look before sitting down.

“Huh?”

The semi-question had Cadance looking back to Shining Armor for a moment before they continued their walk to their seats. For a moment, the pink princess thought she should just gloss over the little slip. What was going on was between Celestia and Sunset was private and just between them. Cadance only gave the occasional nudge.

But...Shining Armor was practically Sunset’s special somepony. He had a right to know if anything was bothering the amber alicorn.

So, Cadance took a deep breath as they sat down on the foldout seats with their lush red cushions and decided to just let it all out. “It’s just...recently, Princess Celestia has finally acknowledged the fact that she really raised Sunset. And with that, she’s trying to be a good parent to a pony she’s only really ever treated as a student. And Sunset’s...well...I’m not sure,” Cadance admitted. “At first, I just thought she had some increased expectations involving how Celestia should treat her and having them not met made Sunset angry, but...now I’m starting to think that Sunset’s just being angry all the time about...something, and she’s just been lashing out at anything that will give her an excuse.” Celestia was just an easy target.

“Except when she’s sad,” Shining Armor pointed out.

The extra bit of info made Cadance shake her head. “Depression is just anger turned inward,” the pink princess explained before she sighed and looked at the floor. “I’m sorry, Shiny. I’m supposed to be showing you a good time, and all I can seem to do is talk about other mares.”

A foreleg moved up and locked its fetlock with hers. “Hey, Sunset’s my friend too,” he told her before Cadance looked up to catch his concerned expression. “Is it really that bad for her?”

Cadance stopped herself from saying anything else. She felt like kicking herself. Shiny was here to enjoy something he was passionate about, and she was about to ruin it for him by making the poor colt worry about another pony throughout the whole play. “Well...maybe I’m just reading a bit too much into it,” the pink princess half-lied as she tried to put both her own mind at ease and Shining Armor’s. “Sunset and I haven’t been friends for very long after all, and her relationship with Celestia has always been...a little strange.”

Much to Cadance’s relief, Shining Armor took the explanation and backed off of the topic.

A few minutes later, the play started.

While fantasy stories and the like had never been her cup of tea, Celestia found herself drawn in by the story of Sky Trotter and his group of friends as they battled the Imperium with the use of a special magical force that only a very select few ponies could use. Still, the Invader character hit a little too close to Celestia’s heart with the black armor he wore.

It wasn’t the first thing in her life that made Celestia wonder if Equestria would have been better off if she had stricken both Luna and Nightmare Moon’s existence from the records rather than just saving her sister from being thought of as nothing more than a monster by the world at large.

Still, she managed to enjoy herself.

Sunset, on the other hoof, didn’t.

Only the fact that Sunset was new to her wings tipped Celestia off to her mood. Every now and then, they would twitch with irritation, or droop as her mood lowered. What worried Celestia the most was that halfway to intermission, Sunset’s wings fell down and stayed that way until the play came to a stopping point so that all of the ponies in the audience could get more snacks or relieve themselves.

Since Celestia and Sunset required neither, the bigger alicorn surrounded them in a magical field to hide their conversation from the ponies sitting slightly above the royal balcony and looked to her daughter. “Sunset-”

“Why do you always think the worst of me?” the amber alicorn asked in a nearly lifeless tone as she looked down at the seats below them.

The question froze Celestia before she could get another word out. Her mouth hung open for several seconds before she managed to close it. “W-What?”

Sunset turned her head to look back at Celestia with drooping eyes. “It’s not that I blame you,” she mumbled before looking away. “It’s just...you-or...the other you, the human you, I mean...she...even when I was at my worst, when I was much worse than I was with you...she never…”

With the mention of that other world, Celestia had to fight to keep herself from frowning. Once again, all the pain and suffering Sunset was experiencing, it all came back to that horrid place. The princess didn’t let it show, but the mention of what was on the other side of the mirror lit a fire in Celestia as hot as her sun.

Whatever Sunset was going to say never came, and she dropped her head. “I...I’m sorry, I shouldn’t…”

For a brief second, Celestia considered letting Sunset just drop the subject and pretending it never happened. She had come to the play with her daughter to forge some happy memories, to bond and share her presence with the smaller alicorn, not...speak of such things.

But...that would just be another family member Celestia ignored as her loved one slipped into a maddening depression.

I can’t allow something like that to happen again, the solar demigoddess told herself as she reached deep within herself to pull up all the resolve she could muster. Despite the fact that Celestia would rather do anything but address the latest issue that was causing her child to suffer in the hopes that it would just go away, she made herself look ready to speak when in reality the oldest princess would rather to anything but.

It was a technique she had come up with over the years. Sunset had gotten a bit used to it, but even she couldn’t see through the false calm completely. Not yet, anyway. Celestia straightened her back as she slipped into her public persona and became the very image of a strong, resolute mare that could carry the world on her back without an ounce of effort. She was strong, powerful, fearless, and sure of herself; the very definition of a perfect pony. A princess that nopony would dare to question.

And as Celestia turned her gaze towards her daughter, she saw the amber alicorn flinch at the attention.

The action shattered the mask Celestia had several lifetimes perfecting.

Celestia immediately let the worry in her gut show on her face and stepped over to her daughter before lowering herself to look Sunset in the eye. “Daughter,” the larger mare asked as she placed a wing under Sunset’s chin to lift the filly’s head up. “What’s wrong?”

After a few nervous glances back to the stage, Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Never mind,” she said before turning away from Celestia completely.

Her hoof was halfway to Sunset’s shoulder before she could stop herself. But before Celestia could complete the action, she dropped her hoof and lowered her head. Sunset didn't need a princess at the moment, she needed her mom. “Please talk to me,” Celestia begged in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “Whatever I said to make you like this... What do you mean, I only think the worst of you?”

Sunset looked back up at Celestia, and for a fraction of a second, a little frown appeared on her face. “Because you do,” she said before her expression sunk back down to where it had been. “Sorry.”

Panic threatened to set in as Celestia watched Sunset’s mood worsen. You do. The present tense wording had Celestia combing through her recent memories to try and understand what had made Sunset so upset. But when she came up with nothing, Celestia threw away hundreds of years worth of personal experience that shouted at her she should never show her ignorance and spoke to her child. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by I’m thinking the worst of you?”

“I…”

Celestia hung on Sunset’s single syllable for several seconds as she watched the amber alicorn war internally on whether or not she should continue the conversation. The fact that Sunset didn't even think she could talk to Celestia made the bigger alicorn's insides clench. When Sunset began to turn away, Celestia began to speak again. “Please give me another chance,” she begged her daughter, snapping the smaller alicorn’s attention back to her as she lowered herself to eye level with Sunset. “I know I haven’t given you much reason to have faith in me, Sunset. But…”

Once again, years of experience told Celestia that this was the chance to turn the amber alicorn’s position on its head. But if you don’t have faith in me, then how is that any different than me not having any faith in you, the ancient pony’s mind supplied as it gave her a pay to point out the hypocrisy of Sunset’s refusal to put her trust in Celestia.

And yet, the largest alicorn in Equestria went a different route.

“I know I’ve hurt you,” Celestia told her. “I’m a...lousy excuse for a mother." As always, the admission was a hard one. Admitting her faults had never been easy for Celestia. Even the completely understandable ones that a pony could only expect to have in her situation. "I’ve neglected you, and even now, my first instinct is to take an authoritarian stance when you need more compassion and love more than ever. For that, I can only apologize. But...I also know that whatever is troubling you won’t go away unless we address it. So...please, tell me what’s wrong.”

Sunset sighed deeply, but she she didn’t turn around before she began talking. “That mare you met before we came here,” the amber alicorn began. “She was a student at your school before she got pregnant in her final year by a young noble’s son. Shortly after that, he ditched her to avoid a scandal. I was promising to help her complete her education while being able to keep her foal. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Creating some kind of system to help ponies in her situation live up to their potential.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Sunset’s explanation. It all seemed much too simplistic. Plus, there was something about the situation that made the white alicorn feel uneasy. She couldn’t quite place her hoof on it, but Celestia knew when to trust her gut in such matters.

She needed more information. “Why are you so concerned about this?”

The question got another frown from Sunset. One that simmered for several seconds before bearing fruit. "What?"

Celestia sighed. "Sunset, you've never really shown interest in such things before," she explained. "I'm just...curious as to why you picked this instead of the dozens of other things you could work on. Is it because Cadance got credit for what happened at your new school, so you're wanting to launch an initiative at your old one to compete with her?"

“Maybe I have a certain amount of insight of how a little filly is going to feel when she gets old enough to learn that her mom and dad threw her away because it was easier!” Sunset told her adopted mother. “Maybe, I think that just because a stupid kid made one really stupid mistake in her life, the entirety of her future shouldn’t be reduced to the most mundane options just because she wants to do what's right!”

Celestia sighed and shook her head for a moment before looking at her daughter again. “Sunset, if what you’re saying is the case with this young mare, then perhaps it would be better if she were to give her foal up for adoption. She sounds much too young for the responsibility. It isn’t just her future we should be considering, but the foal’s as well. Many ponies have had full and happy lives despite being separated from their...parents,” Celestia’s words trailed off as Sunset let out a growl that sounded like it should have come from a more canine-ish creature.

When the amber alicorn noticed that Celestia wasn’t going to go on, she peeled back her lips and spoke through clenched teeth. “Really? That’s what-okay then. Come on. Tell the orphan how much better a foal’s life could be if she gets thrown away like trash so her parents can get a better job!”

So that’s what this is about, Celestia thought to herself. She had believed Sunset had gotten over the loss of her parents a long time ago. Right before she...turned Celestia into her replacement mother...that rejected her. “Sunset,” the High Princess of Equestria said as she dug in her hooves. Celestia could apologize to her daughter for being a foolish parent all day, but matters of government were another matter. Celestia needed to make Sunset see she was being too emotional about this.

“You know what? Never mind!” she said before her horn started to gather magic. “I’m gonna go get some air before I end up doing something stupid, like trying to smack some sense into you!”

Celestia noticed Sunset’s teleportation spell and took note of the arrival location as an afterthought while she tried to think of something, anything to get her daughter to remain with her long enough to calm down. “W-Wait! You...um..." There wasn’t anything she could do personally to make Sunset stay, so Celestia grasped at the one straw available to her. "You’ll miss the end of the play!”

A cloud of steamy anger shot out of Sunset’s nostrils as she snorted at her mother. “Spoiler alert, Invader is Sky Trotter’s father!” she said before disappearing in a bright flash of light.

Despite the situation, Celestia couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.

But once that was over, she towards the direction that Sunset had teleported and frowned. Despite years of experience, the alicorn found herself at a loss about what to do. If Celestia were to pursue Sunset, the amber alicorn could very well become even more upset over the fact that she wanted to remain alone.

But leaving her to her own thoughts...Celestia remembered the last time a family member had been upset for a long period of time, how she had done nothing, and how it had all ended. That was something she could not let happen again.

Finally, the solar goddess found a compromise with herself. I’ll give her some time, Celestia thought as she tried to put things in a positive light. Sunset didn't explode. She left to calm down. That was a good thing. I know where she went. When the play is over, I’ll go and see her. She will have cooled down, and I… Once again, all of Celestia’s instincts rebelled against the coming thought. She managed to push it through anyway. And I’ll have my apology ready for her by then.

Sunset adjusted her footing and reappeared on the theater’s rooftop and trotted forward in a fit. Stupid Mo-stupid Celestia! she thought with a frown before putting her butt down on the tiles that were serving for her ground and snorting again. Who in the hell did Celestia think she was, bringing up something like that?

Even if...Sunset knew her life really was better since she had been taken in by Celestia before her parents were killed. It hadn’t just provided the alicorn with unlimited opportunities, it might have even saved her life since both Sunset’s parents had died.

Plus, it had been her parents who had thrown her away, not...well, not this Celestia, at any rate.

Not yet anyway.

And...Celestia hadn’t meant to bring it up.

Although she sure as hell hadn’t put enough care into her words to see where they were going to lead either.

Sunset frowned as her mind constantly bounced back and forth between defending her loving mother and rightfully pointing a finger at the damn bitch.

It was just...Celestia should have known better than to bring something like that up!

But...Sunset wasn’t acting much better about it.

She had thrown another tantrum like a stupid child that didn't get her wings by demanding them.

“Ugh! I hate it when I get wishy-washy,” she grumbled before an idea struck her.

Years ago, after Sunset had gotten in real trouble with Celestia for the first time because a doofus unicorn had wrecked a project she had spent months working on for a school magic competition and Sunset had returned the idiocy by laying a curse on him, she had asked Celestia why what she did was wrong. In response, Celestia taught Sunset a spell that ‘always let her listen to that little voice inside of her that would know what to do’ by creating a thought projection to advise her.

Being the self-centered genius that she was, it only took Sunset a week to improve the spell so that the thought avatar it created only said things she wanted to hear. After that, Celestia had told her to never cast the spell again and make up her own mind. Although, Sunset wasn't sure if Celestia knew the spell had been changed or not. She had looked pretty horrified after hearing some of the advice it offered.

And, with it being so long since she had talked to ‘herself’ the amber alicorn wasn’t quite sure which was the spell Celestia had taught her, and which was the spell she had invented.

So, Sunset cast them both at the same time.

Just like when she had been a filly, a small but bright light exited her horn before slipping into two glowing balls of magic of equal size. One was red, the other a bright gold. A second later, the golden glow reformed itself into a miniature version of her old human body with wings and a horn made of light. As for the red light, Sunset frowned and got a little closer as the second magical sphere continued to take its time in coming up with a shape.

All of a sudden, the magic popped inches away from her muzzle, and Sunset found herself staring at another version of her human form with leathery wings and bright red skin that was topped by hair that looked like it was on fire.

“AHHHH!” the amber alicorn screamed as she jumped away, only to fall back on her butt.

The little devil floating the air crossed her arms underneath her breasts and frowned down at her creator. “Good going there idiot.”

“Well, you do look like that.”

Sunset blinked and looked over to the golden version of her human form, then back to the red one. With the moment of surprise gone, she took a closer look at the floating representation of the darkest point of her life and frowned. There was something off about the devil’s body. Very off. “Uh...why do you look like that?”

“Hm?” The devil blinked and looked down at herself. “Well, I guess it’s because of all the guilt you’re feeling towards your past actions, your better understanding of your psyche, and the negative view you have of the version of the spell that constructed me.”

With the obvious explanation done with, Sunset frowned and pointed a hoof at the floating little monster. “Not that! Anybody that’s taken a high school psychology course can figure that out,” she told what was most likely the magical representation of her Id. “I mean, why do you have those?”

Once again, the little devil looked down at herself, this time taking a moment to cup the pair of large breasts she was sporting before she also shook her butt a little bit to show off the other half of her hourglass figure. Then she looked back up to Sunset. “Your sexual desires are the one thing you’re not repressing, and you have to ask me why I look like some teenage boy’s wet dream?”

Rather than dignify that with a response, Sunset turned her attention to the angelic version of her human form with a horn. “So, that makes you my superego then?”

“Why are you asking me a technical question like that?” Goldie replied. “I’m just part of your personality given shape and brought to the surface. I only know what you know about the way the world works. You didn’t call us out to ask those kinds of questions.”

Sunset let out a long sigh. “Okay, fine,” she said before focusing on her shoulder angel. “So, what should I do about Mom?”

“Smack her!”

Sunset frowned and turned her attention over to her shoulder devil. “I’m not going to attack my mom!”

The devil rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying you should put her in the hospital or anything,” Red replied. “But after everything she’s put us though, she needs a little instant physical payback!”

“Give her time,” the angelic member of the duo told Sunset, making the amber alicorn turn her attention back to the good manifestation. “Celestia is still adjusting to our new relationship. You know she didn’t mean anything hurtful by what she said.”

“Except we don’t have any time to give,” the devil went on. “One week, and then she replaces us with Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

The comment made Sunset put her full attention back onto her darker manifestation. “Hey! Don’t talk about her like that. Twilight’s just a little kid right now.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with the little wingless one, even I love that girl,” Red told Sunset. “But the big one that left us stranded and crippled? Yeah, big problem with her. Listen to Mom and the hottie on this one girl, the princess ain’t worth crap.”

“She’s a good pony,” Goldie added before Sunset could jump to Princess Twilight's defense. “She saved us from ourselves-”

“And left us stranded on Earth where we would be forever cut off from out magic,” Red went on right on top of her counterpart. “She didn’t come through the portal to defend us when the rest of those asshats thought we were spreading secrets about everybody else AFTER we saved them all from becoming mindless rage zombies, and she didn’t even fucking bother to reply when our lives were in danger! And YOU!”

Sunset reared back as the demon pointed a finger at her. “You’re just planning to give everything up for her?” Red demanded before she flew right in front of Sunset’s face. “We have our mother’s love and respect, a real friend that actually understands and sticks up for us to Celestia, a cute stallion we actually want to fuck, and YOU’RE JUST GOING TO THROW IT ALL AWAY BECAUSE OF HER? WHY THE FUCK SHOULD WE GIVE UP ANYTHING FOR THAT PIECE OF SHIT?”

Unable to form a retort to the devil’s angry questions, Sunset looked over to the angel with pleading eyes. “W-Well?”

“Because,” she angelic expression of Sunset’s unconscious said before laying it out for her in three simple words.

The play was...disappointing.

Cadance hated to think of it in such a way, especially with Shining Armor so wrapped up in everything about it, but...she couldn’t help but be disappointed. While there had been some action, such things really weren’t Cadance’s cup of tea. Duchess Leia and Sky Trotter were supposed to have kissed in the first play. Yet there was a complete lack of romantic interaction between the two of them. They might as well have been brother and sister! In fact, the closest thing to relationship in the entire play was how the duchess and the smuggler So Low played off one another, and that was almost pure antagonistic! The stupid pegasus with his dark black jacket and sandy mane was a total jerk.

And now Solo’s going to get frozen in crystalite, the pink princess thought as she watched the scene play out in front of her. Good riddance.

“SO LOW!” Leia cried out as the two thunder troopers grabbed the unicorn pony to stop her from galloping forward. “I...I love you!”

Cadance rolled her eyes. Yeah right sister, there’s no way he-And the pegasus looked back to Duchess Leia with a small smile before he nodded. “...I know.”

All of a sudden, the world shifted, and Cadance gasped in shock. Wha...what? All along, he knew...but he was just pushing her away because a pony like him could never be with a noble like her. That… The pink princess blinked as the scene continued and So Low was lowered into the vat where the crystals would grow to encompass his body in seconds.

But of course, Duchess Leia simply stood there while Cadance fumed at her inaction. No...what’re you doing? You’re just standing there. Why’re you just standing there? Save him! He’s your So Low, HURRY UP AND SAVE HIM YOU STUPID HORSE!

But, it was not to be, and Cadance reached over to grab Shiny as her most beloved character in the play was kind-of-but-not-really-sorta-killed. Then, she watched the rest of the play as So Low’s friends attempted to get him back from the griffon bounty hunter...and that Sky Trotter guy had some big confrontation with that jerk in black, who was apparently his father or something. Cadance was too upset over the horrible ending to Leia and So Low’s tragic romance to give much of a buck.

The play ended shortly after that, and Cadance was left in her seat as she waited for the rest of the crowd to head out of the theater. She looked up to Princess Celestia as she waited for the packed rows to thin out and saw the big alicorn disappear in a flash of light not two seconds later.

I really need to learn that spell, the pink princess thought to herself before the ponies blocking off the back exit finally cleared out enough for her and Shining Armor to get through. Without waiting a second to waste her opening, Cadance grabbed her date’s hoof and led him behind the crowd.

“So um...did you like the play, Cadance?” he asked hesitantly.

With Shining Armor being so enthralled by the whole thing, Cadance chose her words carefully. “It was...nice,” she said after several seconds of hesitation. As nice as a performance where the mare’s stallion, a stallion that was much too good for her in Cadance’s opinion, was taken away by an evil griffon to be sold to a giant slug.

They made it into the back area behind the stage, and then out the rear exit to the theater where the various food, soda, supply and waste carts for the play had been parked along with Cadance’s carriage. The pony she had hired to pull them around wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but Cadance had suspected it would take him a bit longer to make his way out of the building since she had provided him with a third floor seat. Until then, she could just spend time talking with Shiny.

“So…” Cadance said to her ‘date’ actually a little unsure of what to do next. She wanted Shining Armor to have a good time. But he was Sunset’s coltfriend!

Best friends didn’t have good times with each other’s coltfriends.

Even if...Cadance and Shining would make a better pairing than the meek unicorn and the fiery alicorn currently were.

For some reason Cadance couldn’t understand, Shining Armor got all tense, and looked around nervously. “Um...well...so...uh...w-what do we do now, P-Princess?”

Cadance giggled at his unease. Shiny really did make it hard for her not to find him impossibly cute sometimes. Just for some fun, she stepped close enough to smell the little bits of melted butter from the popcorn that had gotten in his coat around the lips and gave the young stallion a sensual smile. “Well, we’ve got you...me...and our own private mobile room over there for about another twenty minutes,” she asked in a low voice. “What do you think we should do, Shiny?”

The stallion gulped. “W-Well...um, I-I saw Gaffer and the others during intermission…”

The smile Cadance had on her face grew wider. Even though she was cranking up the seduction, Shining Armor was turning her down. Now, she didn’t have to worry about having seconds thought about the whole thing due to a lack of effort on her part. It was perfect! “I remember. I was there to meet Fleur and her friends.”

Shining Armor’s whole face turned red. “So...I just...I-we thought, you know...we’d...uh…”

“HEY!”

Cadance frowned as the time of adorableness ended, and she looked back so see what monster had put an end to her fun with his rough and slightly slurred speech. When the big stallion bully that had bothered Shining Armor back at the academy came lumbering forward with a slight sway in his trot, the pink princess let out a sound of displeasure. “Ugh. Buck. What’re you doing here?”

As the large pony came out of the shadows with his two cronies behind him, the one that thought 3D glasses needed to be worn all the time and the other earth pony that was unusually short and pudgy. Even from half a parking lot away, Cadance could practically smell the amount of cider coming off him. “Hey you little punk!” Buck yelled while wildly cantering forward. “What’d I tell you about messing with my mare? A princess needs a real stallion, not some stupid little colt like you!”

Shining Armor went stiff at the demand, and Cadance moved in front of the poor stallion to put herself between Shiny and his tormentor. “In case you haven’t realized it yet Buck, I’m not your anything,” the pink princess stressed before she frowned. “And for your information, Shining Armor is ten times the stallion that you are.”

For a moment, Cadance thought about putting her wing over Shiny’s back and completely enveloping his side the way Sunset had done with both of them in front of everypony. But, that probably would have been a bit much. Instead, she just frowned at him. “Get get to trotting Buck. You’re not wanted here. So move along before I call the guards and have you arrested for public intoxication.”

The pony with the red and blue glasses nervously reached over to the earth stallion. “Uh, Buck. Maybe we should-”

“Shut up!” the earth pony demanded before he threw off the other colt hard enough to knock him into one of the wagons storing several casks of juice. The wagon tumbled over, and all the contents fell to the ground hard enough to break open several casks of red, blue, yellow, and purple liquids that ran down the rather steep incline the lot behind the theater had.

As his so-called friend lay on the ground, completely drenched and dazed, Buck stomped forward. “Now you’re coming with me, Princess! And I’m gonna show you a real good time!”

For a moment, Cadance’s attention was divided between Buck, and the pony he had just knocked down. With the bigger stallion barreling down on her, the pink princess had to admit that she was a little worried.

Until Cadance remembered the company she was supposed to be counted among. Princess Celestia had defended Equestria since before Cadance’s great-grandfather had been in diapers. And Sunset...well, the alicorn that actually acted like a guardian of the downtrodden wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at some schoolyard bully.

So...Cadance wouldn’t either.

Right before Buck could reach her, she stepped forward and poked a hoof into his chest. “Get this through your thick skull you bonehead,” she said with a frown, which actually caused the bigger pony to stop. And since she was on a roll, Cadance saw no reason to slow down. “ I. DON’T. LIKE. YOU!”

The pink princess spread her wings to emphasize the point. “You’re just a big jerk with more ego than sense! Even your friends can barely stand to be around you,” Cadance told the stallion, making sure to speak loudly enough to help drive the points home.

As for Buck, he tried to work up a retort, but was only able to stutter a few words. “B-B-But, y-you-”

Cadance poked the other pony in the chest again with her hoof. “Do you know what a real stallion is, you paleolithic pony?” she demanded. “A real stallion knows what he wants out of life. A real stallion builds others up instead of knocking them down like you! You are nothing-”

“-s-shut up,” Buck got out between Cadance’s words.

“-but a pathetic, overgrown-”

“Shut up!” he said, a little bit louder.

“-poor excuse for a-”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Buck screamed before Cadance felt something collide with the side of her head.

Then, for some reason she couldn’t quite understand, the whole world went sideways and she was left looking at Buck’s hooves at the oddest of angles.

Celestia blinked in on the rooftop of the Canterlot Theater, glad for the extra time she had been granted that allowed her to think of what to say to the amber alicorn that was currently just laying down on the roof as if she had not working legs or wings. Thinking of how she would talk to Sunset about the...issue, it had been difficult.

To apologize for hurting her daughter as a mother, Celestia could do. Despite her advanced age, it was a new territory to the ancient alicorn. Both foreign and terrifying. Missteps were to be expected.

But apologizing to another princess when it came to matters of state?

That would be a bit more difficult.

Still, she silently thanked Sunset for not gliding off somewhere after teleporting away and trotted over to the mare. “Sunset-”

“I’m sorry,” the amber alicorn said in an almost lifeless tone before Celestia could get another word out. Sunset slowly stood up and turned to look at her mother with half-lidded eyes that seemed tired more than anything else. “I’m sorry for yelling at you, Mom. You did all this to try and give us a good time together, and I went and screwed things up...again.”

The complete lack of anything that made her daughter so vibrant made Celestia’s heart increase its pace. What in the name of Equestria has she been doing up here? Celestia asked herself before she reached down with a hoof to guide her child around to face the rest of Canterlot. “Sunset, can we talk?”

“Okay,” she said before letting Celestia push her forward with a wing until they were on the edge of the roof, then looked out towards the city.

After she sat Sunset down, Celestia did the same and draped one of her wings across the smaller alicorn’s back. Then Celestia used one of her feathers to guide her daughter’s attention up to the city. “Sunset, tell me what you see.”

The amber alicorn looked around for a second, and then back to Celestia. “This is some sort of test, right?” she asked before looking back to the city and sighing. “Well, since you probably don’t just want me to go Canterlot...I see a pair of guardsponies doing routine air patrols, a dejected young mare that looks like she either tried to sneak into the play and got caught or just got dumped while on a date if her clothes are any indication, an apple vendor that looks like he’s hoping to make a lot of money by parking his wagon near the theater for when it lets out, and-is that Cadance and Shining Armor?”

Celestia blinked, her plan to explain to Sunset their differing views and work in an...explanation for her earlier comment came to a screeching halt. Before she could get things back on track by saying ‘I see Canterlot’, Sunset leaned down and frowned. “W-What’s she doing?”

Joining her daughter in a closer inspection of what was going on, Celestia leaned her head over the edge as well. “Hmm, she appears to be seducing him.”

Sunset’s entire body went rigid at the observation.

With what looked like the beginnings of another one of Sunset’s moments appearing before her eyes, Celestia pulled her daughter back from the edge and looked at the amber alicorn. “Sunset, what’s wrong with you?”

The tension in the other alicorn’s body drained out of her, and she slumped forward. “Everything...apparently.”

Celestia frowned in concern at Sunset’s sudden change in mood. It was obvious to the demigoddess that her daughter was upset over Cadance’s actions with the colt, and after factoring in Sunset’s odd behavior when this Shining Armor boy was first mentioned, the reason became obvious. “You like him, don’t you?”

Sunset flinched and looked away from Celestia. “Um…”

A sigh escaped from Celestia’s lips. A little jealousy over some fame or praise was easy. She could simply tell Sunset to get over it and be proud that her friend was doing so well. But when it came to stallions, things weren’t so cut and dry.

“Do you think she’s right for him?” Celestia asked after a moment of consideration.

Sunset looked back up at Celestia with a frown on her face. “Of course I do! I’m the one that’s shoving them together! I’m the one that’s stepping back, and letting this all happen. I...I’m being the good friend here,” she said as the area around her eyes became moist. “L-Like you...want me to be.”

A tiny part of Celestia cried out in joy at the fact Sunset hadn’t fallen for some colt, but the larger part of the pony felt her heart break at seeing her daughter in tears. She swept up the little pony in a hug and held her tight.

Celestia held the amber alicorn and listened to her take deep even breaths to remain calm. She waited a solid minute before pulling back to look Sunset in the eyes with loving concern. “The last thing I want is for you to be unhappy, my little sun.”

She pulled the smaller alicorn back into a hug, and let out another sigh. She needed to give her daughter something to smile about right now. “You’re right about that mare I met,” Celestia said despite her instincts telling her otherwise. “And I’m sorry for saying...what I said.”

Not how Sunset had interpreted it, like Celestia had planned to say nearly an hour earlier.

“I’m sorry too...Mom,” Sunset mumbled. “I know you didn’t mean it like…like I talked about it.”

Once again, Celestia pulled back, and a nervousness overtook her. They had made up. She could stop now and just let things continue on. But… “Sunset...as wrong as it is for me to think and say this...I am glad that you are with me now.”

Sunset blinked. “I’m-”

“I. DON’T. LIKE. YOU!”

Cadance’s shouting cut Sunset off, and she looked over to the edge of the roof that Celestia had pulled them away from for their private chat. “What the?”

For her part, Celestia blinked. “Well...it sounds like your problem with Cadance and Shining Armor might not be much a problem at all,” she mumbled before a slightly terrifying thought entered into the back of her mind. Of course, you chasing after a mortal colt has its own very large list of problems too.

But...that could be solved in the next decade. She didn’t need to bring it up tonight.

Curiosity getting the best of her, Celestia followed Sunset as she looked down on the lot below to see a scene her ears had not prepared her for. Instead of Shining Armor, Cadance was yelling at some big earth pony that looked somewhat familiar to Celestia while another pair of his tribe looked on. “What’s-”

“SHUT UP!”

The absurdity of what was occuring froze Celestia solid. While she had seen several things in her life, it had been an extremely long time since she had born witness to a pony actually attacking an alicorn. So, the teenage earth pony’s hoof connected with Cadance’s cheek, and sent her sliding into a small river of beverages that were flowing down the artificial hill Canterlot Theater was built on.

“...I’ll kill him!” the amber alicorn growled before she lunged forward almost too quickly for Celestia to react.

Shining Armor’s mouth dropped open as he watched Cadance collapse on the street and slide a good six inches from Buck punching her in the jaw until she was laying in the trail of drinks Buck had spilled earlier. “C-Cadance,” he mumbled in shock.

It was a reaction that the other two stallions that had watched the events transpire shared. “Dude, y-you just...hit a princess,” 3D said.

The bully looked down at the pink mare, then over to his hoof. “I...I…” he mumbled before he looked back to his friends in a panic. “Self defense! You guys saw! She was gonna do something to me!”

Both of the stallions backed away from the scene. “Uh...yeah dude, I don’t think that’s gonna fly,” the smaller one told Buck.

“Hey!” Buck shouted out in anger. “Where you do you guys think you’re going? Hurry up and help me clean this mess up! We just-we just…” He looked back to Cadance. “I know! She got drunk, and then she...she…” Then he looked over to the empty ride Shining and the princess had come to the play in. “And got in her carriage, and…” He turned his head back and forth wildly enough to turn his mane into a mess. “And knocked off the break, and it crashed and that’s what happened!”

Shining Armor blinked. “You can’t be serious,” he mumbled.

Cadance moaned from her place on the ground.

For some reason Shining Armor just couldn’t understand, his mouth just kept moving despite the fact that everything about the situation said that keeping his mouth shut or running away was the much better option. “I’m going to tell Princess Sunset what really happened. Not to mention, Cadance is just dazed, not dead. When she gets up, you’re going to be under arrest for assault, and...whatever else you were planning to do to her.” Did trying to drag her off count as attempted kidnapping? And then there was what Buck implied afterwards...Shining didn’t really want to think about where those thoughts were leading him.

“Not if I smash both of your heads in before I throw you both in the carriage,” Buck said before he stepped forward.

Shining stepped back. “W-What? You can’t do something like that!”

“I’m the captain of three sports teams at school and the son of an important pony! I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!” Buck shouted before he stumbled forward, making Shining Armor back away from the from the sloshed stallion.

This...this is crazy, Shining Armor thought to himself in a panic as he tried to figure a way out of the situation. Buck had always been a jerk, but what he was talking about was just insane! What in the hay had made Buck think like this?

The frightened colt looked around desperately for some kind of help. The last time he was in a situation like this, Sunset had just some swooping down and saved him. But it didn’t look like she was coming this time around. It was just him.

And what could he do?

For the briefest of seconds, Shining Armor thought about running over to Cadance and putting up a shield. If he could do that, and if it held out long enough while Buck beat against it, and if Cadance didn’t have too much of a headache when she recovered from being kicked in the face so she could use her magic...Shining Armor threw his hopes for that plan away before it could get to its fourth if.

“B-Buck, think about this,” Shining pleaded as he tried to buy some time.

“I’m thinking I should have done this a long time ago!” the stallion told him as he continued to trot forward. “Cadance was MINE! THEN YOU AND THAT HORSE OF A PRINCESS RUINED HER!”

Shining Armor had to stop himself from reminding the stallion that Cadance had never been his, and her own words had proven she would have never even considered the two of them for an instant. Now was not the time to make the much bigger, stronger, and faster stallion so mad he stopped talking and just broke Shining Armor’s neck.

“I’m gonna snap off your horn and shove it so far in your plot hole it comes out your mouth!” Buck threatened.

The threat made Shining Armor look up at said appendage.

His horn.

The first law of magic that everypony in Equestria knew with their first steps stated that unicorns were never allowed to use their magic to attack another pony. Those that did soon learned that it was one of the absolute, no second chances kind of laws that had no wiggle room whatsoever. To do so always meant the harshest of punishments that led to said pony never being heard from again.

But… Shining thought to himself before he looked over to the advancing stallion, and then to the barely conscious alicorn on the ground. If I don’t, then he’ll shove Cadance in the carriage and…

A thought entered Shining Armor’s head. It wasn’t really using magic on another pony…

Buck suddenly stopped advancing as Shining Armor lit up his horn. A worried frown appeared on his face. “H-Hey! What’re you doing? Unicorns can’t use magic on other ponies! That’s illegal!”

“Yeah, and like what you’re planning to do is well within the rules,” Shining Armor said before a smirk appeared on his face. “But don’t worry Buck, I won’t do much.”

The comment made the other stallion frown. “Oh Yeah! Well I’ll just mess you up before-” was as far as he got before the trash cart Shining Armor had taken out of park slammed into him from the side at a faster than normal speed thanks to Shining Armor giving it a boost and carried them both off into the street.

With the danger gone, Shining Armor...blinked.

Had he really been frightened by...that?

Dealing with Buck had been...easy.

“Uhhgh.”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened. Cadance! he thought before galloping over to her and crouching down to take her in his forelegs. “Cadance! Cadance, are you okay?” he asked frantically as the pink princess looked up at him with slightly dazed eyes. “Please be okay. I’m sorry I didn’t do anything to help! I...I was afraid, and stupid...and worthless, and-”

A pink hoof reached up to caress his cheek. “Shiny.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“I saw everything,” she told him before moving closer. “And you were wonderful.”

Shining Armor blinked as the pink princess smiled up at him. “I…”

Then the smile became a little goofy, making Shining Armor wonder if Cadance had a concussion as she spoke. “Saved the princess from the dragon,” she said with a little giggle.

The mention of Canterlot Academy’s team name got a roll of eyes from Shining Armor. Well, if she can make jokes, she’s-Shining Armor’s thoughts were cut off as Cadance yanked him down on top of her.

And then...they kissed.

Shining Armor’s eyes went wide as Princess Cadance moved her tongue past his lips, and felt up his own. Some of the juice from before must have gotten into her mouth, because she tasted like a wet fruit salad with extra sugar mixed in. At first the unicorn didn’t quite know what to do, but he soon found himself just going with the flow as their tongues gently danced.

At least until a fiery meteor shook the earth with its impact before an amber pony galloped out of the smoke, while a much bigger alicorn who looked extremely worn out floated down from above made Shining Armor’s eyes go wide and nearly sent him into a bow.

“Are you guys okay?” Sunset asked with fearful concern.

Cadance’s mouth separated from Shining’s with a loud smack as she turned her attention to the new royal pony. “S-Sunset!” she exclaimed before looking back at Shining Armor for a moment, and then to Sunset again. “Oh no.”

Chapter 20: Aftermath

After Celestia had the guards get the full story of what happened from the princesses and Shiny, they dug Buck out of the trash heap the waste removal cart had created when it sent him careening into a building at the bottom of the hill before taking him and his friends away, leaving the three teenagers standing in the back parking lot of the theater while the pony who pulled their carriage hitched himself up.

Throughout it all, Cadance sat on the ground, a wreck of her former self as she sipped some hot cocoa one of the guards had fetched from the theater to help calm her nerves. Shiny was so nervous at the presence of the third princess that he looked like he almost wished Buck had clobbered him. Sunset stood off the the side, away from the other two, with her body losing the fight against gravity as her ears, wings, and neck hung low.

“Well, we should all get going,” Celestia said as she said before looking over to the rest of them. “Cadance, you should be fine for tonight, but I want Sunset to ride with you on the way to Shining Armor’s home if something unexpected happens and you need help.”

Cadance choked on her drink, and went into a coughing fit before she looked up at her adoptive aunt. “What?!” she cried out in a panic before frowning at the insanity of the idea. “You want me, Sunset, and Shining Armor to be alone in a little box for over half-an-hour?”

“Yes. Teleporting with your kind of injury is never a good idea,” Celestia told the pink princess. “Sunset knows enough healing and diagnostic magic to make sure that concussion you got doesn’t worsen, and hopefully the three of you will work your way through his little mess that you’ve managed to stumble your way into. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make sure the castle dungeon is cleaned out, set up a meeting with an extremely irksome pony, and look into just what the penalty is for attempted regicide since nopony has actually tried it in over nine hundred years.”

A second later, Celestia lit up her horn and disappeared in a flash of golden light.

Sunset picked herself up just a bit and slowly made her way towards the carriage. “Come on, let’s just go,” she said as she walked past the two other ponies in formal attire.

The pit Cadance had been feeling in her gut that no amount of warm chocolate milk could fix grew ten feet deeper as she looked up at her best friend. “Sunset wait. Y-You don’t have to-”

“Cadance,” Sunset said. Despite the lifeless tone of her words, the pink princess stopped talking as the amber alicorn looked back at her with a dead expression. “You’ve got concussion. I’m not going to risk some stupid pothole or...something making it worse on the ride back and me not being around to help you. Now come on.”

For some reason, the fact that there was no malice in her words only made what Sunset said that much worse for the pink princess. Feeling about ten inches tall, Cadance picked herself up and made her way to the carriage to take the seat opposite of Sunset. The liquid clinging to her gown soaked into the cushion as she did, only adding to how lousy the Cadance felt at the moment.

Shining came into the carriage last and looked back and forth between the two ponies for permission to sit down.

Sunset picked her head up at the colt’s indecision, then turned her attention to the multi-colored puddle Cadance was sitting in. “Oh, um...just a second Shiny,” the amber alicorn said before she began to channel a spell. The liquid still in Cadance’s dress, seat and coat was drawn out to collect in the middle of the carriage under the direction of Sunset’s magic. Then she threw what had become a ball of brown gunk out the window. “Really should have done that earlier.”

With his choice apparently made for him, the young stallion sat next to the pink princess as the amber alicorn went back to sulking. Something both Shining Armor and Cadance joined her in a moment later.

The carriage was a block away from the theater before anypony said anything.

“I’m sorry.”

Cadance blinked after hearing the other two ponies talk at the same time she did and looked up to Shining Armor and Sunset. “What’re you two apologizing for?” she asked in confusion before looking over to her best friend. “Sunset, I’m the one who kissed Shiny and…didn’t do my job as a princess.”

Shining Armor frowned at the last part. “Hey, I’m the one that decided to go on this date in the first place, and I just stood there when Buck showed up,” he replied before dropping his head back down. “If I had stood up for myself sooner, none of this would have happened.”

“Neither of you did anything wrong!” Sunset told them in a pathetic tone. “Shiny, you and Cadance...you’d be a hundred times better off with her than with me, and Cadance...it never should have even gotten that far. I should have just teleported down and stopped Buck the second he showed up. If I had, maybe then Mom wouldn’t have been able to hold me back.”

With that little bit of information, Cadance couldn’t help but wonder. She had known Sunset had been around during the confrontation based on what Celestia had relayed to the guards. But the amber alicorn taking so long to save the day did have her curious. “Why did she restrain you?”

Sunset sighed. “You want the one that makes her look smart, or the real one?” she asked before sighing. “Doesn’t really matter, she was right either way. She’s always right. Officially, Mom was just giving Shining Armor the chance to stand up for himself so he could grow a little. But...really, she was just making sure I didn’t do something monumentally stupid, like bashing Buck’s head so hard it turned into mush.”

The exaggeration had Cadance rolling her eyes. “Sunset, that’s just ridiculous. You would never really hurt-”

“I’m serious!” the amber alicorn said before lowering her head. “When it comes down to it, I’m not a good pony, Cadance. Tonight proved it. Stop trying to turn things around to make it sound like I am.”

Shining Armor shifted uneasily on the seat, and Cadance gave him a fearful glance. The visual poke made him clear his throat. “Come on Sunset-”

“Don’t,” Sunset told him softly. “Don’t try and defend me. I’m not...what you think I am, Shiny,” she said. “And nothing you say is going to change that.”

Before Cadance could argue, Sunset switched topics on them. “Let’s talk about something else,” she told them in a tone that sounded like a pathetic imitation of cheery as she looked over to Shining Armor. “So Shiny, how much better a kisser is Cadance than me?”

The guilt the pink princess had managed to put aside to try and pull Sunset out of her depressed state came back full force thanks to the comment. Cadance found herself muted by her feelings as Shining Armor stuttered. “Buga-uh-wha-I mean, t-that’s...um…”

When the stallion looked over to Cadance for help, the amber alicorn frowned. “Oh no you don’t,” she said as he horn lit up with a spell. “I’m not letting your cold feet get you out of this one. Now talk!” To punctuate the command, a blast of pale blue energy shot from her horn and into Shining Armor’s mouth.

“What’re feet?” he asked before frowning and looking down at himself. “Hey, I didn’t mean to say that. You did something to me didn’t you? What’d you do to me? I can’t stop talking. Why did you make it so I can’t stop-oh, right the kiss thing. Yeah, Cadance is better at it than you.”

The aforementioned alicorn’s mouth dropped at Shining Armor’s declaration. “Shiny!” Cadance yelled at him. Although she immediately regretted the action when the aching headache that Buck had left her with became a full-on throb.

Which in turn gave Shining Armor the opening he needed to keep talking. “Sorry, but you are! Kissing Sunset is like getting pinned by a bear and hoping it doesn’t crush you in a hug or something. She just barrels right in and you need to be along for the ride or get run over.”

Sunset sank in on herself a little more as Shining Armor took a breath and looked over to her in a panic. “Oh mare, you’re getting sad. But you shouldn’t be! Cadance may be the better kisser, but I like being around you more than her, Sunset. You’re the most amazing pony I’ve ever met, including Princess Cadance! In just one week, you’ve gotten rid of everything that make school miserable and made me feel happier than I ever have in my entire life!

“Although...I really, really like being with Cadance too,” he said. “And the more I think about it, the more I think she might be better off with me than you would be. Sure, she’s a princess and still way out of my league, but you’re like this super impossible mega princess that’s not even in the same sport as I am that belongs with a real paladin rather than some loser that just plays at being one on the weekends.”

The stallion next to Cadance sighed and lowered his head. “The truth is, I’m just terrified of the day when the two of you realize that you’re both attracted to each other and I’m just in the way or some kind of weird way to try and make the other pony jealous so you’ll ask each other out and then you’ll just shove me off to the side-” Oh no, nonononono, BAD SHINING ARMOR! Cadance mentally screamed as she tried to focus her magic to clamp his mouth shut. However, a spike of pain shooting through her brain twice the size of her horn brought an end to any attempted concentration on the pink princess’s part.

Sunset looked up enough to turn her confused face towards Shiny’s way. “Say what?”

While Shining Armor’s eyes were wide with fear, his mouth was still quite functional. “Well I was talking to Cadance awhile ago, and she said that she really-”

“OH LOOK SHINY! IT’S YOUR STOP!” Cadance shouted at the top of her lungs before she felt the world lurch and her head explode in agony.

The pain was worth it. Shining Armor stopped talking to look out the window for a second. “No it’s not. My house is at least three blocks from-ahhhh!” the young stallion yelled as Cadance shoved him out the carriage’s door and onto the street while mentally making a note to do something amazing for him to make up for it.

“I’m really sorry!” the pink princess said to him as loud as she dared.

Sunset groaned. “For crying out loud,” she mumbled before her horn lit up. “If you wanted him gone I could have just done this.”

A brief feeling of stupidity washed over Cadance as she watched Sunset teleport Shining Armor away. Right, Sunset’s got his house marked with a teleportation beacon, the pink princess told herself before she settled herself back in her seat and Sunset had the driver start trotting down the road again.

The road back to the palace was sheer torture in more ways than one. With Shining Armor spilling the beans, Cadance knew what would come next, it was what always happens when a best friend reveals she’s secretly in love with her closest confidant. Sunset would feel hurt and betrayed that the pony she trusted the most had kept something like that from her.

Unless...Cadance could find a way to mitigate the damage.

Despite the fact that it probably made her the worst pony in all of Equestria, Cadance found herself a little glad of Sunset’s depressed silence as the carriage took them back to Canterlot Castle. It gave the pounding in Cadance’s head time to lessen and the pink princess time to think. When they did reach the castle, the amber alicorn took Cadance up in her magic, and the pink princess found herself unable to resist thanks to her own magical abilities being nullified by the mother of all headaches.

It was only after Sunset came to her room that Cadance found herself unable to stay silent. As soon as the amber alicorn floated the pink princess through the living room of her apartment and onto the bed in the adjoining area, Cadance found the courage to speak.

Or lie.

Because that was what she was going to be doing.

“Sunset...about what Shining Armor said,” the pink princess said uneasily as she got ready to explain that Shining Armor was obviously just confused about how Cadance felt towards her best friend and secret crush.

The amber alicorn stopped in the middle of her turn towards the bathroom and looked back to meet Cadance’s eyes. What the pink princess saw stole the words from her mouth and made her heart ache far worse than any head injury ever could.

Sunset looked...dead.

Defeated.

Empty.

“I’m sorry,” Sunset mumbled before lowering her head for a second, that is until her eyes widened a bit and she looked back to Cadance in what the pink princess could only call fear. “That is, I mean-yes! Yes, I think you’re hot, but I never-this changeling thing...I’m not using as an excuse to cop a feel on you or something!”

Cadance blinked. She didn’t really get the expression, but after seeing Sunset’s reaction was enough of a context clue for her to understand what the pony she loved was really saying. “Sunset, I never once thought of our sleeping arrangements like that, even if you are...attracted to me,” she said. Fighting her urge to gulp at the idea took a moment though.

After all, if Sunset did think of her like that, well...wasn’t it Cadance’s duty to allow her to explore those feelings?

Oh hay, duty nothing, you just want to be with her, Cadance told herself. She was the Alicorn of Love. She wasn’t about to lie to herself when it came to that. Sunset was a pony she admired and looked up to, a pony she both had a crush on and loved.

Cadance decided to push that stuff to the side for the moment. She could sort that out later. Sunset needed her reassurances more than the pink princess needed some self-clarification. “Well…I’m not stupid, Sunset. I know how I look, and I wouldn’t be a very good love princess if I hadn’t of picked up on any of it,” she lied.

“W-What?” Sunset before she shrunk away from the other pony. “Then why did you...I mean, you...if you knew, then...why didn’t you just…”

Seeing her attempt to make Sunset a little easier with their situation backfire before her eyes, Cadance quickly wracked her brain on what she needed to say to calm her distraught friend down. “Sunset, I’m flattered you consider me attractive,” the pink princess quickly told the amber alicorn while silently wishing it was more than just some physical lust. “And I can’t really be angry at you for thinking something half the school does as well, right?”

Sunset looked away from Cadance. “Y-Yeah,” she said before looking back to her friend. “But why didn’t you just…”

“What? Tell you?” Cadance asked as Sunset hesitated again. It was strange. Normally, a comment like that would have been a demand instead of something the amber alicorn hadn’t even had the strength of will to ask. Whatever was bothering Sunset must have been one hay of a doozy if it even stopped her from flaring up like she usually did. “Sunset, you’re my best friend. If you didn’t want to tell me, then I wasn’t going to call attention to it. Telling me your feelings is your decision to make, not mine.”

For some reason, Sunset actually perked up a bit at that. “So we can just forget about it?” she asked in a slightly less depressed tone than she had been using all night. “Just...you know, pretend Shiny never said that I...you know.”

Cadance felt her heart lurch. Here they were, alone in Sunset’s bedroom with their mutual attraction out in the open, and the amber alicorn wanted to pretend as if there wasn’t anything they needed to talk about. “I…” The pink princess paused as an odd thought occurred to her. From the way Sunset was talking, it sounded almost as if she hadn’t even heard the part where Shining Armor told her it was a mutual physical attraction!

Which...actually fit Sunset’s current need to make herself less than the pony she really was in her own eyes. And as much as she felt the need to refute the amber alicorn’s attitude that was at the root of the problem, Cadance found herself unable to muster the strength. She was tired and Sunset was emotionally drained. Settling things in the morning would be a much easier task.

“Okay,” the pink princess agreed. Although when the amber alicorn headed back towards the bathroom, Cadance couldn’t help but try to cheer her up a little bit. “But just so you know Sunset, this doesn’t change the way I feel about you. You’re still the most admirable pony I know, the one I look up to the most, and my best friend that I will always support.”

After Sunset came back into the bedroom she shared with Cadance one bath fresher, she set up a few minor triggers on her door and windows that would set off an alarm ward in the center of the room just in case there was some actual weight to Cadance’s changeling fears of her being abducted in the middle of the night. Then she walked over to her bed and...hesitated.

The pink pony was already curled up on her side of their bed, just waiting for Sunset to complete the cuddling. However, Sunset found herself unable to undertake the final motion that would get her under the covers and around Cadance’s smaller frame.

Mostly because...they would be...cuddling.

Sunset gulped at the reality of the situation. Despite all the nights she had spent curled around Cadance before, they had never cuddled, snuggled, bed hugged, or done any of those other intimate words that involved a deeper emotional connection of two bodies touching. She had simply gotten really, really close to Cadance, to the point where their bodies couldn’t help but touch and Sunset’s nose was filled with the scent of strawberries from Cadance’s mane.

But after their little ride home and Shining Armor’s words pulling Sunset’s buried sexual attraction to the surface of her thoughts, the amber alicorn couldn’t help but flush when she thought of how she was going to completely envelop Cadance with her body. Every single part of Sunset’s frame would be caressing Cadance’s very naked form at the same instant.

The sound of shifting sheets brought Sunset out of her considerations about just how sexual sleeping with Cadance’s naked, hot and all too desirable body would be as the pink princess half turned around so she could look over to the amber alicorn. “Sunset, is something wrong?”

Sunset gulped. “No,” she said truthfully after a few seconds.

Truthfully, because having to share a bed with a pony she wanted to kiss in every sensual way and place while not being able to was the perfect penance for Sunset. As a human, Sunset had used her body as a weapon both to get what she wanted and dominate Canterlot High. So it was fitting that she wouldn’t be able to get her hooves on the pony of her physical desire.

Suck it up Sunset, the amber alicorn told herself. You’ve done worse.

Which was probably why the universe had led her to such a situation as the one she was in now.

So, after taking a breath to steel herself, Sunset climbed into the bed she shared with Cadance and got as close as she could while her rock-hard wings stuck out from beneath the sheets and extended over the edge. Cadance wiggled herself in closer to Sunset’s bigger body, and the amber alicorn got a muzzle full of her mane as the nerves of Sunset’s coat covered skin took note of every curve Cadance had, every fluff in her fur, and all the other details that made the mare in Sunset’s pony-arms the hottest piece of plot in Canterlot.

Like usual, she tried to think of something else to get her mind of things. But the feel of Cadance’s smooth coat, the smell of her freshly washed mane, the way she just hugged herself up against Sunset’s body, all of it combined to make the pink princess in the amber alicorn’s pony-arms impossible to ignore.

“You sure?” Cadance asked, this time without turning her head around. “You seem tense.”

Sunset gulped as she tried to get her muscles to relax by force of will. “I uh...um...well, I just have this weird feeling that I’m forgetting something, and it’s really bothering me.”

Sunset Shimmer blinked in confusion as she found herself standing outside a door. The confusing part was that she had no idea how she had gotten there, and that there didn’t seem to be anything else around her but an endless darkness. She touched the ground that wasn’t really there, and looked around at the nothingness before confusion gave way to understanding.

“I’m dreaming,” she said before frowning down at herself. “Wait...how do I know I’m dreaming?”

As of late, Sunset’s dreams had been little more than showing her the unvarnished truth of reality that Celestia and Cadance were too kind to admit to her face. As such, she usually awoke in tears with a small lake forming on a pillow that was too wet to absorb all the water she leaked out overnight after facing her impending future, how the ponies in her life really felt about her, and the fact that her selfish desires would destroy the life of the one pony in Equestria that had truly believed in her.

“Hey!” an indignant shout came from the other side of the door. “I believe in you too you know!”

Sunset blinked in confusion. “Uh...hello?” She moved to open the door, but her hoof stopped halfway to the door.

“Could you come in already? I promise, there isn’t going to be a guilt trip waiting for you this time around,” the mysterious mare’s voice called out again. “And standing there all night is gonna get really boring.”

Giving into the unknown mare’s commands, the amber alicorn sighed and did as she was instructed. She opened the door to find a dimply lit room was a few candles lining the walls that didn’t give enough light to see to the center of the chamber. Nervousness crept up Sunset’s spine as she walked inside and looked down at the plush red carpet under her hooves that was covered in...rose petals?

“W-What the fuck?” Sunset mumbled right before a human song began playing in the background about how some guy with a deep voice couldn’t get enough of somebody’s love.

“What?” the very familiar voice that Sunset recognized now that it wasn’t being distorted by a few inches of wood. “This is exactly the type of setup Cadance would make for when you take her virginity.”

Sunset looked up from the floor to see the pink mare laying on her stomach at the foot of a heart-shaped bed with satin sheets thanks to the room no longer having a dim light problem. The sight had Sunset’s brain shorting out for a second before she managed to process just what the hell she was seeing. “C-CADANCE?! W-What’s going on?!”

“I think it’s obvious,” the pink princess replied before her smile turned lecherous. “You’re having a dream in which you’re gonna take this hot pink mare and do to her all the naughty little things we can think up in the next couple of hours.”

“But-it-you-what-how-th…” As she couldn’t get a full question out without another one jumping in to be answered first and thus spoiling the entire sentence, Sunset switched to simple statements. “THIS ISN’T HOW DREAMS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK!”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “You cast two spells that lets you talk to your subconscious not twenty-four hours ago, and now you’re calling bullshit on a lucid dream? Do I need to point out the problem with that logic?”

The mare that looked like Cadance smirked as Sunset reluctantly found herself starting to agree with her logic. Any spells involving the mind were always a bit iffy, and she had cast two on herself not ten hours ago. And the second she opened her mouth to admit that Cadance had a point, Sunset was seized in the pink mare’s magic before she got dragged along the floor and to the edge of the bed.

“Great!” dream-Cadance said before she spun around to stick her ass in the air and lift her tail to stick her pretty pink princess plot right in the amber alicorn’s face. “Now, how about we get started?”

Sunset took a step back from her best friend’s rear end. Once again, she fought her thoughts of desire by latching onto the thing that didn’t make sense in her dream. This time, it was the black silk underwear that was covering the pink pony’s private parts. “Hey! Hold on a second! Ponies don’t wear panties!”

The indignant cry made the fake Cadance stop shaking her rear before she lowered her tail and dropped her butt to turn around and frown at Sunset. “Seriously?” she asked. “Here I am, a perfect piece of pussy just screaming take me, and you’re still fighting it? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

Sunset flinched at the demand before she remembered something: she wasn’t actually talking to Cadance. The mare in front of her was just some figment of her own imagination, and a rather twisted one at that. So, since she wasn’t actually fighting with the real Cadance, most of her reservations about arguing with the mare in front of her quickly faded. “You’d know that, considering you ARE me!” she shouted back before throwing out her wings in a wild gesture to point at the whole room. “And what the hell am I even doing here? Cadance would never do anything like this!”

The not-Cadance rolled its eyes. “Well duh, it’s a sex fantasy you repressed prude,” she fired back. “You want to fuck Cadance like a two-bit street trotter, and if you do it like this, she doesn’t ever have to find out. You get all of your fun, none of the guilt.”

With everything explained out to her in such a way, Sunset found herself halfway agreeing to it before she was suddenly flung forward by telekinesis. Her body slammed into Cadance, and pinned the pink princess to the bed, under the amber alicorn’s larger frame. Protest ignited in her mind, but the second Sunset opened her mouth to tell the dream-thing to stop, Cadance’s head darted forward to snake her tongue into Sunset’s mouth.

The kiss was...interesting. It was too forceful for Sunset to stop, but had a strange gentleness to it, exactly like Shining Armor had described Cadance’s kiss in great detail. When the pink pony broke it, she moved her head forward and whispered in a heavy voice. “Come on now, Sunset. This is just a dream. Do what you want. Get some release. Make me your mare.”

“I…” the amber alicorn said before she tenses and stopped to close her eyes to help focus. After taking a deep breath, she reopened them with a little more control over herself...or at least the herself that she was, the part of her that had decided to be like a Cadance wet-dream was still looking at Sunset with lust in its eyes. “No.”

It took everything she had to refuse and more. But she managed it...barely.

Cadance didn’t stop. She reached up with her forelegs to wrap them around Sunset’s neck and gently try and coax her down “Why not?”

The soft whisper had Sunset gritting her teeth. “This is just a stupid dream. A temptation. You’re that part of me that wants me to stay in Equestria, and you’re doing this to try and change my mind. Well I won’t. Even if I’m not a real alicorn, I’m at least going to try and act like one. Mom said it herself, a princess does what needs to be done, no matter how much she doesn’t want to.”

“I’m pretty sure Celestia didn’t say it quite like-”

“And I am NOT going to be tempted by some cheap illusion!” Sunset said before Cadance could finish. “I’m going to go to Earth where I belong! Where I won’t have my magic. Where I won’t have any real friends. Where I can just sit back and not have to worry about screwing everything up like I always do!”

Cadance pulled herself up to kiss Sunset on the neck. “But we’re not on Earth right now,” she said as she worked her way up the bigger alicorn’s body. Each touch of the pink princess’s lips sent a shiver through Sunset, and she found it harder and harder to resist as the seconds ticked by. “We’re not even in Equestria. You said it yourself. This isn’t real. It doesn’t count. Nopony will ever know. There’s no need to feel guilty that this is what you want. You don’t have to follow through on it. Just indulge this one time. Admit it to yourself, if no one else.”

“I…” Sunset gulped as she looked at the pink mare in the eyes. It would be a lie to say that she didn’t think Cadance was sexually attractive. And after tonight...Sunset couldn’t just shove that inconvenient fact off to the side. Not only that, Sunset had to admit, she wanted Cadance.

Cadance kissed her right on the muzzle.

Sunset paused to lick her lips as her forelegs trembled. “I…”

The pink princess leaned further upward to run her tongue along the edge of Sunset’s ear before whispering into it. “You don’t have to stay in Equestria. You don’t have to try and make things work out between us or Shining Armor. You just need to admit to yourself what you really want. Just this once. Stop resisting and find what little happiness you can in the time that is left to you.”

And the amber alicorn did.

Shining Armor was in Tartarus.

No.

He was in a place worse than Tartarus.

While the breakfast table wouldn’t usually be considered such a place by most ponies, most ponies weren’t under a curse that made them say whatever was running through their minds. And while the magic that made Shining run his mouth had waned over the night so that he could actually stop talking if he needed to, it still had enough power to make him speak when there was something to focus on. Which also meant that whenever somepony asked Shining Armor a question, he couldn’t help but answer with the full and honest truth.

Added to this problem was an inquisitive little sister.

“So, is wrestling fake?” Twilight asked as both of their parents looked on in amusement.

Shining Armor tensed as he tried to resist the compulsion to talk, but it came out anyway. “Although I want to really say yes and believe it as well, there’s just too many stupid coincidences and really weird plot twists in the presentation of the matches for me not to admit that a good deal of the action is choreographed,” he said before blinking after his mouth stopped moving. “Twilight! Stop doing that!”

The lavender unicorn, something Shining Armor now had to call his sister after the curse made him admit that the shading of her coat was just too dark to be called regular purple, giggled. “But it’s just so much fun!” she said. “I mean, if Princess Sunset is making you answer every question honestly, then I can finally find out the answers that everypony won’t tell me!”

“Dad make her stop!” Shining Armor begged.

In response, the stallion only chuckled before picking up the morning paper. “Now son, if a princess thinks you should be more honest, I’m hardly in a position to disagree with her.”

“You say that now, but what happens when she asks something neither of you want her knowing?” Shining Armor mumbled. “Like how Fluffy didn’t really go to a farm to retire from house life, Santa Hooves isn’t real, and Nightmare Moon isn’t going to come down and gobble her up if she doesn’t stay in the house after dark.”

While everypony else at the table tensed and Night Light put down his paper to give Shining Armor a frown, Twilight rolled her eyes. “I already knew all that,” she said before scrunching her face up a bit. “Although you might be wrong about Nightmare Moon. There are historical documents alluding to her existence, even if there isn’t any actual account of her actions. But I suppose you have a point and I really should ask something important before Mom and Dad put a stop to this whole thing so...where do babies come from?”

Shining Armor quickly clamped his hooves over his mouth to try and fight the compulsion to speak.

“Twilight!” Night Light scolded his daughter.

The lavender unicorn looked back to her father. “What? Whenever I ask you or Mom, you say I’ll find out later. And whenever I ask the public librarian for a book on it, say say it’s in the older mares only section. But I want to know now!”

Despite his best efforts, Shining Armor couldn’t keep himself from talking. The compulsion forced his hooves away and made him give Twilight an answer. “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

Magic surrounded the tiny pony and lifted her up before Velvet also removed herself from her seat with a yawn. “Alright little filly, that’s enough of that. You’ve had your fun. Now, it’s time for your morning bath.”

“Wait, something’s wrong. Shiny didn’t answer my-” A knock at the door cut Twilight off, and Shining Armor jumped out of his seat.

“Oh thank Celestia!” he said before rushing to the door as fast as he could. Not even bothering to use his horn, Shining Armor reached for the doors with his hooves and threw it open, not knowing if he was going to hug his salvation, or give her a good chewing out for putting him in such a situation. “SUNSET you-’re...not Sunset.”

The royal guard pegasus standing on the other end of the door in his golden armor gave the young stallion a frown.

“Oh wow, a royal guard. You guys are so cool. I’m going to join you one day you know,” he told the pegasus in front of him before a sudden dread entered Shining Armor’s mind. “Wait, you’re not here for me, are you? It was just a kiss! And I said I was sorry! I’M TOO YOUNG TO GO TO PRISON!”

Before Shining Armor’s thought’s could get away from him, the guard rolled his eyes and held out a letter. “Shining Armor, the Princess is summoning you to a private audience in her solar at ten o’clock today. A carriage will be by in two hours to fetch you.”

As Shining Armor took the letter, which said the exact same thing as the guard had just told him, the stallion in front of him nodded once, and then departed before looking over to the clock. “Well, I guess I can take a couple more hours of this.”

Although, he had to wonder what Sunset was doing that she couldn't just pop over and see him.

“I am so so so so so so sorry!”

Cadance did her best not to sigh and looked away before she rolled her eyes at the blubbering alicorn that had been the terror of her life not two weeks ago as Sunset bowed in forgiveness for the fourth time this morning at the edge of the bath while Cadance worked to get the gunk out of her tail.

Unfortunately, that gave the pink princess a clear view of the bed that she and Sunset shared. And while she couldn’t actually see the stain Sunset had left, Cadance the image of the amber alicorn’s...joyous nightly secretions soaking the majority of the blankets and mattress was fixed in her mind.

It wasn’t that Cadance was mad about what had happened. Sunset could hardly be faulted for having a wet dream when she was so sexually frustrated and sleeping with a pony she had a crush on. So a few messy nights were more than understandable.

She wasn’t mad.

At all.

However, the pink princess might have had a few frayed nerves thanks to the bigger alicorn keeping her up all night with the way Sunset’s body had reacted to Cadance’s presence as the amber alicorn’s mind indulged itself. Then again, it also might have been some of the things that Sunset said in her sleep. While she was used to hearing a few whimpers and sobs from Sunset during a nightmare, what had come out of the mare’s mouth the other night had been…

“Mmmmm Cadance, you taste so good…”

“...show you how to use a horn….”

“Mnnnth, don’t do back doors…”

“Oh yes! Cadance! Worship my sun!”

...rather odd, Cadance had a pretty good idea what the dream had been about.

The problem was, Sunset just couldn’t be attracted to her. Not that it was impossible, Cadance had more than enough to see that the amber alicorn was definitely drawn to the pink princess. But she had seen where that path led.

So, she had to put a stop to it.

Sunset gulped and continued to look on with a guilty expression. “I’ll do anything to make it up to you, I swear!”

“Okay Sunset,” she said before turning around and letting her tail drop back into the water to soak some more. “I believe you.”

As the bigger alicorn started to look a little bit relieved, Cadance struck hard and fast. She placed her hooves up on the edge of Sunset’s hot tub turned bath and met the pony she had a crush on eye to eye. For the faction of a second, Cadance felt the urge to kiss Sunset, but restrained herself in light of something more important. “So, how big was he?”

Sunset’s face went from worry into confusion. “Uh...what?”

“Shining Armor, how big was he?” Cadance asked with a forced cheerful curiosity as Sunset once again looked on in horror as her wings flooded out and knocked over a good amount of toiletries with the powerful gust her wings created. The pink princess wasn’t about to stop there though. She was going to lay the seeds for some thoughts that would hound Sunset for the majority of their weekend. At least until they all went to play with that LARPing tablet again and she and Shiny just happened to get separated from the rest of the party to have some much needed alone time. Adrenaline combined fact that whatever they did together while under the enchantment had no consequences guaranteed a sexual encounter. “Going by his size, I’m guessing...sixteen inches? Or is it eighteen?”

Not that she really needed to guess. Judging by what she had seen of Shiny so far, she doubted he was bigger than the average size for stallions. But getting Sunset thinking about Shining Armor in such a light again would set her back on the path of the two of them getting together.

Sunset’s cheeks turned redder than her mane. “C-Cadance?”

Once again, Cadance had to force herself to put on an expression she didn’t feel as she rolled her eyes. “Okay, so I know it was a dream, but you’re way too meticulous to let something like a fantasy not be as close to reality as possible,” she said before breaking out into a grin.

“I don’t...that’s not...just mind your own business!” Sunset snapped back as she fought off her blushes.

Cadance giggled. “Sorry, but love is my job, which makes your romance every bit my business,” she said with a smile. “So, was he all masterful, or did you take the reins in bed?”

Sunset groaned in response before she collapsed on her belly. “You’re just lucky I’m not a violent maniac anymore.”

The exaggeration of Sunset’s darker days killed Cadance’s good mood at seeing her friend fidget. She reached over to pull Sunset into an embrace that was more Cadance pulling herself halfway out of the bath than any movement on Sunset’s part. “Stop it,” she whispered into her friend’s ear. “I hate it when you talk about yourself like that. If you were a bad pony, then I was an even worse one for not helping you when I should have.”

Before Sunset could throw the pink princess off and give her rebuttal, Cadance’s ears picked up the sound of a door being opened and the voice of the only other alicorn in Equestria calling out. “Sunset? Cadance? I know the two of you don’t need to go to school today, but I’m afraid I can’t let you sleep-WHAT IN THE WORLD?”

Sunset cringed before her embarrassment and dour mood was slowly consumed by an angry flame. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled before Celestia stuck her head in the bathroom door.

The appearance of her mother seemed to put a fire under the amber alicorn. Sunset leapt to her hooves and gave Celestia a disbelieving look. “Seriously? You’ve got to come in here now?” she demanded without her usual level of anger. But she was still pretty fiery. “You always wait for the two of us to come trotting in every day for breakfast, but the one day when I really don’t want you just showing up in my room, BAM! There you are!”

Celestia actually dropped her ears a little. “Sunset, what-”

“I HAD A WET DREAM, OKAY?” Sunset shouted as she threw her hooves up before stumbling forward at the loss of her front-end support. After she caught herself to give Celestia a little frown. “I’m a girl with needs Mom! It happens!”

Despite the odd outburst, Cadance noticed that Celestia actually looked a little relieved at Sunset’s confession. “Oh, so you and Cadance didn’t-”

Sunset tensed for a fraction of a second before she snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yes Mom, two girls can sleep in the same bed and not have sex!” she said before calming down as her anger cooled. The amber alicorn sat back on the floor and cocked her head to the side just a bit. “What’re you doing here anyway?”

“I’ll have a new bed brought in for you, your old one is much too small of the two of you will be continuing this sleeping arrangement anyway. And as for your question,” Princess Celestia began before the tiny bit of her calm that had been disrupted by Sunset’s outburst was restored. “I’ve just finished preliminary negotiations with the griffons and-”

“But it’s barely past seven in the morning,” Candace spoke up, unable to contain her disbelief.

If Celestia was put off by being interrupted, she didn’t show it as she looked over to the pink princess. “After the griffon’s display the other day, I decided to put them in at a time slot that gave them plenty of time to pack their bags. Gruff became much more agreeable to actually talking when I showed him my willingness to simply dismiss his pleas for assistance as well as a ban from the Equestria Games for the griffon team. As such, I’ve agreed to let his grand daughter attend the Junior Speedsters Academy.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “And you’re telling us this why?”

“Because to show him that there’s no hard feelings, the two of you will be taking her there,” Celestia explained.

While Cadance had to admit that she liked the idea of spending a little bit more time with that adorable cub (or was it hatchling?), sending both princess off to be a babysitter was...pretty much how they had been spending their weekends before now anyway.

“Okay, what’re you up to?” Sunset deadpanned.

This time, it was Celestia who cocked her head just a tad to show confusion. “Up to? Sunset, what do you mean, up to?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Okay, first off, you’ve seen what happens when I flap my wings,” she replied before spreading one of her feathered appendages with all of the outward feathers curled in save for the outermost one. “One wing flap, and there isn’t going to be a Cloudsdale. Secondly, I know you Mom. You don’t do anything without about a bazillion different hidden motives. And thirdly-oh geeze, is this some stupid idea you’ve got to make me be more sympathetic to griffons or something, isn’t it?”

“Pardon?” Celestia asked.

The amber alicorn let out a tired groan. “Please, I make all those comments talking about how the griffons should work to rebuild their own damn economy instead of constantly borrowing from us, and now you’ve got me flying to Cloudsdale, in a sky chariot I hope, with a poor little griffon who can’t even afford to go to flight camp.”

“Junior Speedsters,” Cadance cut in. “Flight camp is for fillies in the double digits. Junior Speedsters is foals seven to nine.” When Sunset looked back at her with a raised eyebrow, Cadance gave a shrug. “Hey, just because I didn’t have a chance to go to either doesn’t mean I didn’t learn about them.”

Sunset sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, whatever,” she said before looking back over to Celestia with a little frown. “But if I do this, you leave me alone come tomorrow.”

The offer made Celestia raise an eyebrow. “Why would you ask something like that?”

“Because I got plans for tomorrow!” Sunset replied. “And the last thing I need is you suddenly deciding I need to make friends with a bunch of changelings or something.”

A shiver passed down Cadance’s spine. “Don’t even joke about something like that Sunset!” Every historical record she had read in regards to changelings to try and get her head around the greatest threat Equestria had ever faced was worse than the last. They were a race of pure evil without a single redeeming quality, just waiting in the shadows to abduct a pony before taking her place and feeding off the love all of her friends and family had for her until they were empty husks.

Sunset winced at Cadance’s tone, which the pink princess had to admit could have been a little less panicked. “Right,” the amber alicorn apologized. “Sorry. Uh, I...um...I’ll go have the guards ready the chariot.”

As the two alicorns that shared the chariot watched the clouds pass down below as they neared the outskirts of the last pegasus-only city in Equestria, the other chariot that carried the griffon they were escorting and her luggage followed several meters behind. While Cadance had wanted to comment on Sunset’s deviation from the spirit of Celestia’s plans, the pink princess had other worries to occupy her mind. Something she had only realized after the trip began.

Something she had yet to figure out how to broach with Sunset, despite the three hour flight.

Cloudsdale was considered by most to be the spiritual home for all the pegasi in Equestria. No matter where they were born, every single feathered pony on the planet made a trip to the great city at least once in their lives...if the city didn’t come to them that is. A city made of clouds could do that.

But when it came to the little village that Cadance had occupied not too long ago, a weather team was enough to bring Winter to them, the whole weather city didn’t need to bother. And with her own parents ground-bound, Cadance had found herself much too nervous to make the trek alone when she was younger.

But now, she was going to Cloudsdale, and as an alicorn no less. Once she went into the city, all eyes would be on her, the pegasus that had become a princess. What would they think of her? Were there any special customs she needed to observe? Secret pegasi wing slaps? None of the books she had been reading on pegasus customs mentioned things like that!

“What’re you so nervous about?”

Cadance’s wings floofed out at Sunset’s sudden question, and she had to grip the chariot for some extra support to keep from being pulled out by the drag her plumage was creating. Which in turn made the whole chariot lurch for a second, and that was followed by the sound of metal crying out in pain before the pink princess could get her wings under control. “Nervous? I’m not nervous. What makes you say I’m nervous?” Cadance asked in a slightly...unnerved tone before looking down to see that Sunset had grabbed the chariot hard enough to crush the enchanted pony carrier as if it was made of tin.

The amber alicorn gave Cadance an eye look. “I’m a bully, remember? We can smell fear.”

“You’re-” Cadance stopped herself from getting into another argument about Sunset’s characterization and looked down at the chariot’s floor. “Okay, I’m a little nervous about going to Cloudsdale.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“Well…” Cadance stopped for a second to gather her thoughts. “When a pegasus goes to Cloudsdale for the first time, it’s supposed to be this really special, life changing experience, and...well...this will be my...first time.”

Sunset blinked. “...Oh…”

Cadance gave her a nervous smirk. “I know. I dreamed of how this day would go for years. And...well, it’s always been a bit of a downer, to be honest,” she said before lowering her head. “Pegasi call it the Homecoming. It’s an event that shared with everypony you love in your life. But...I never had anypony to share it with...until you.”

A lack of an immediate response had Cadance looking back up a second before Sunset did a tiny shrug. “Eh, it’s an okay place I guess.”

Thanks to the impossibility of the information, Cadance took a second to respond. “Wait...you’ve been to Cloudsdale?” she asked. “But...how?”

“Mom knows a spell that gives other ponies wings for three days,” Sunset explained before letting out a dejected sigh and looking back to her new appendages. “Not like these. They’re um...more like a butterfly’s, and pretty flimsy. I tore them after the first day while trying to see how fast I could go.”

Cadance smiled at the idea of spending the day sightseeing with her best friend. “So you could show me around?” she asked happily.

For some reason Cadance couldn’t quite understand, Sunset suddenly tensed and actually drew in on herself a bit. “You mean...like a...date?”

The reality of what her request might have been construed as slammed into the pink princess with all the force of a locomotive. Her eyes widened, and she put up her hooves to bring that train of thought to a crashing halt. “Nonononononono!” she told the best friend she was in love with but forbidden to pursue. “Not a date! Just uh...two friends, that are definitely just friends, just spending some time together. In a new city. Together. As friends.”

“Oh...uh...good,” Sunset said to the pink pony before looking back to the city. “Because...you know...Shining Armor…”

Cadance nodded. “Right...Shining Armor,” she agreed. The last thing she needed to do was get in the way of Sunset and Shining Armor. They were going to get together, and at least give Sunset some happy memories before an eternity of loneliness set in for the pony that was destined to take Celestia’s place.

All of a sudden Sunset’s face turned into a frown, and she looked back down at the floor of the chariot. “Shining Armor...Shining...Armor...why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?”

“Shining Armor, come with us.”

The young stallion in question leaped up from the couch in the room he and the rest of his family that had accompanied him to the castle had been guided to when he had arrived in Canterlot for his meeting with Sunset. “Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!” he said before quickly making his way out of the waiting area while his Twilight Velvet gave him a fierce scowl.

In all honesty, it wasn’t Shining’s fault he said his mom was getting fat. She had asked what he thought about her!

As he made his way down the hall, Shining Armor did his best to keep his mind focused on the topic at hoof while doing his best not to mess with the tight suit his mother had insisted he wear despite using it just the night before. “So um...what’s the princess up to today?” he asked the pair of unicorns leading him through the castle.

“It isn’t our place to spread gossip about royalty,” the guard on the right said.

“And disrespectful,” the one on the left added in a harsher tone.

There was a brief silence as Shining Armor took in a breath, but the relaxation allowed his mouth to get away from him. “Well, you guys don’t know if she’s mad at me, do you?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to kiss Cadance and say that she was a the better kisser than her! She made me, and I was under a lot of stress!”

Both of the guards suddenly stopped, and the left one turned his head to raise an eyebrow. “You kissed...the...princess?”

Shining Armor sighed and dropped his head. “Yeah, I know it’s a little weird because of the size difference and she’s so much more...uh...experienced in this type of stuff,” he said while trying not to make it sound like Sunset just pranced around town. But, there was a definite feeling that she had done this sort of stuff before.

With his explanation done, Shining Armor bit the inside of his cheeks to keep going before he could start talking about the times he and Sunset cuddled in his bed and later in the park.

“But aren’t you...what? Sixteen?” the guard on the right asked.

The left guard cleared his throat and stomped his hoof on the ground. “AHEM! It’s not our place to judge the actions of the princess. And uh...besides, everypony’s going to have an age difference with her,” he said before quickly trotting forward. “Now come on, we gotta get him to the royal apartments.”

While the rest of the trip was made without a word, Shining Armor couldn’t shake the feeling he should be worried when one of the guards quickly trotted ahead to push open a pair of large double doors with his magic.

“Bedroom’s in the back,” the other guard told Shining before the young stallion found himself pushed inside the room a second before the doors slammed shut behind him.

After blinking at the quick dismissal, Shining Armor turned around. The sight before him made the young stallion stare in confusion. The large and somewhat spacious room Shining Armor found himself standing in looked extremely off. It wasn’t weird or anything. In fact, the place looked extremely cozy with the large fireplace and numerous pictures, books, and sitting decor spaced evenly throughout the room. But all the furniture was very oversized. The scale of everything made the young stallion feel as if he was a colt around Twilight’s age again and put him a bit on edge.

Since Sunset was nowhere to be seen even after he called out her name a few times, Shining Armor made his way over to a couch that could have doubled as a bed and jumped atop it to sit down and wait.

Several minutes ticked by, and Shining Armor found himself growing board before he looked around the room for something to do, going so far as to get off of Sunset’s monstrous love seat and take a look around. The room looked like it was made for an even bigger nerd than his little sister with all the books on history and magic.

One in particular caught Shining’s attention. It was a book with Sunset’s cutie mark. Although he knew it might have been in bad taste, the idea of seeing something like pictures of Sunset when she was a foal rather than the huge painting of her standing next to Celestia that was currently hanging up in the room was too much of a temptation. So, Shining Armor snatched the large brown tome from the shelf and opened it up to one of the final pages to see what she had done before they met. Baby pictures would come later.

Instead of pictures, he found words.

Words that he couldn’t help but focus on.

And thus, read.

“Dear Sunset,” Shining Armor said as his eyes scanned the paper. “I’m so sorry to hear what happened to you. It’s never easy to lose good friends. Do you-”

“You know,” a gentle but firm voice said from behind Shining Armor, freezing him in his tracks before he could finish the page. “It’s considered rude to go poking through another pony’s private correspondence.”

Before even turning around, Shining Armor knew that it wasn’t Sunset or Cadance who had spoken to him. Although, the voice did belong to a princess. One in he seen last night in fact. “P-Princess Celestia,” the young stallion managed to say in a voice that was barely above a breath.

All of a sudden, Shining Armor was glad his mother had insisted on him wearing a suit to the castle. If anything, he was a little afraid that Twilight hadn’t gone far enough. This wasn’t an alicorn that went to his school, this was the pony that raised the sun! The pony that had ruled Equestria’s before his grandfather’s grandfather was in diapers!

A golden glow surrounded the book that his magic had lost hold of upon seeing who was behind him, and Shining Armor gulped as the giant pony brought the book up to read with her neutral expression before her look turned to one of irritation and she slammed it closed.

“I didn’t get very far!” Shining Armor assured the goddess as Princess Celestia moved further into the room at a leisurely pace. At the very least, the spell Sunset put him under would allow him to explain himself in full. So, Shining Armor just let the words flow out. “Just those few lines. I’m not even sure what-” Shining Armor blinked as the white mare cantered past him and his teenage mind was drawn to the royal pony’s rear. “Oh wow, she really does have the biggest plot in Canterlot.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Shining Armor froze in a combination of shock and terror before his survival instincts kicked in and he brought his hooves up in a vain attempt to keep from talking.

But, the damage was done. And it was some pretty damning damage indeed. Princess Celestia, the mare that all the stories said was unshakable, unflappable, and pretty much every other un that meant she never lost her composure actually stumbled at the comment before her head whipped back around to face Shining Armor with a frown marring her usually serene face. “EXCUSE ME?”

Shining Armor struggled with himself for a few more seconds, but it was a losing battle. He had already said enough to condemn himself to Tartarus. So, he let his forelegs fall and just went with it. “Your plot, it’s really big, and not just your a big pony big. Even on a normal mare, it would look really good!”

“My little pony-” Celestia said with an even less gentle voice than she had used when she caught Shining Armor reading Sunset’s diary.

But before the Alicorn of the Sun could dole out her judgment for his actions, Shining Armor decided to plead for mercy right then and there. “Princess Celestia I’m sorry but I can’t help it! Princess Sunset put a spell on me last night, and I just can’t stop talking! I say anything and everything that pops into my head. Like how you have this really round rump that probably has more padding than a pillow and now you’re probably going to kill me.”

Silence permeated the room for several seconds before Celestia raised an eyebrow as her mouth curved into a tiny smirk. “Ah, Sunset put a Speak Your Mind spell on you, did she?” the princess asked with a little laugh. “Why would she do a thing like that?”

“Because she wanted to know if Cadance was a better kisser than her,” Shining Armor explained before going on without meaning to. “Which she is. A lot better, really. When Sunset kisses me, it’s like I’m being smothered or something. Cadance, it’s more gentle.”

The tiny smirk on Celestia’s face disappeared. In it’s place, a frown descended that made Shining Armor realize all the better that Princess Celestia was much bigger, stronger, and for more powerful than he could ever hope to be, with the authority to make him disappear from the face of Equestria without any questions asked. “And how exactly do you know what it is like to kiss my daughter?” she demanded in an even tone without any of her gentleness.

Although she did her best not to show it, Sunset Shimmer was nervous. She had a good reason to be nervous. After all, she was standing on a cloud. Clouds were not meant to be used as something to support one’s weight by non-pegasus ponies.

She knew it was illogical. As an alicorn, she had pegasus in her, and could thus stand on clouds. Hell, even as a unicorn, Sunset had enough magic to both levitate herself and knew of a spell that would have allowed her to walk on clouds like a pegasus. Despite all of that, she didn’t like the feeling of standing on a cloud.

So, Sunset focused on the forms in front of her that needed to be filled out before she could dump the future bully off and go show Cadance a good time.

A good time in the way that a friend showed another friend around another city. Not the kind of fun time she had dreamed about the night before, or even the kind of time she had spent with Shining Armor in his bedroom or on the grass of the park, kissing him, snuggling up to him, nuzzling his neck and taking in the young stallion’s scent until it filled her whole world.

Sunset brought the quill away from the parchment before her distracted mind could give the ink time to blot.

What the, the amber alicorn managed to think between memories of feeling her lips enveloping Shining Armor’s. Even though it had been so many days ago, she could still remember his darling little expression as she pinned him to his bed to begin their makeout session, the taste of his lips, the hardness of his-Gaaaaah! Stupid emotional part of my brain! He’s supposed to be with Cadance, Sunset told herself fiercely.

However, Sunset’s mental command to herself wasn’t headed, and she found herself unable to completely banish thoughts of the colt from her mind. So, she did her best to think about her two best friends together, like last night when Cadance and Shining Armor had been on their date. An action they would most likely repeat several times after she was gone. They would be together, and grow closer. Then one day, they would find a place with some privacy and-“Sunset?”

A bolt of lightning ran down the amber alicorn’s spine at the mention of her name, and Sunset’s wings unfurled to their fullest with enough force behind them to create a strong gale. The papers Sunset had been holding along with several others were suddenly knocked into the air and flung in several directions from the blast of air.

Under normal circumstances, Sunset knew that would have probably been the end of things. But as they were in a pegasi-built structure, the amber alicorn watched as the spawn of her involuntary reaction continued forward to completely obliterate the western wall of the cloud building the Junior Speedsters had to house their records, as well as a good piece of the cloud used for the floor.

Sunset’s eyes widened at the destruction for a fraction of second before she leaped into action. “Sorry! Sorry!” she apologized before grabbing as many documents she could in her magic before another gust of errant wind could sweep them all away and turning towards the pair of now terrified stallions behind the desk. “I’m sorry, that was just...sorry.”

To try and make up for her mess and contain the damage, Sunset threw up a shield bubble that extended outside the building around the destroyed area that could easily keep in the rogue papers. Then she looked back at the admittance form for Gilda that had almost been completed. “Here, let me just…” she said before quickly signing her name and thrusting it close enough to one of the stallions before she trotted out towards the center of her destruction to collect the other papers that were trying to escape.

It was an easy task to snatch them out of the air with her magic and pull them back down towards her in an only slightly crumpled state that was probably nowhere near the right order. But, Sunset was at least consoled a little bit by the fact that she had gotten them all. As for the property damage...well…

“Whoa! That was awesome!”

Sunset sighed in an act of sheer reflex as she rolled her eyes and switched to snark mode as she prepared to kill her friend’s enthusiasm with sheer sarcasm. “Yes Dash. I’m sure everybody that just saw the big bad alicorn take out a wall with a kneejerk reaction went ‘Oh wow! That demigoddess who still doesn’t have a handle on her power and could probably destroy half our city by sneezing too hard is sooo-” Sunset turned her head to direct the finish of her comment at the athlete...and blinked as her mind slowly restarted upon seeing just who had to have spoken to her. “...you gotta be kidding me.”

Right in the center of Sunset’s field of vision, a little blue pony with an unmistakable mane that looked even scruffier than the human version beat her tiny wings at about hummingbird speed as she looked at the alicorn with a confused frown and cocked head. “Huh?”

She...she’s… Sunset thought to herself as her brain tried to wrap itself around the fact a little rainbow pegasus was floating in front of her and what it meant. What would happen if they touched? Would it be the same as the time she touched Twilight? It could go very differently, that Twilight had been the original owner of the crown, this pony was just some copy of a human she had known.

“Sunset?” Cadance’s voice rang out before she heard the real princess continue on at an ever increasing volume. “What happened? You rushed out after the papers, and now you’re just-Oh! Hello there little one, what’s your name?”

“I’m Rainbow Dash!” said the overly obnoxious coincidence as she actually did a loop upon the proclamation of her identity. Then, she put a frown back on that scrunched up her muzzle to a great extent and landed on the clouds to walk both closer and off to the side as she studied Cadance for a few seconds. “And-hey, are you a princess too?”

Sunset raised a hoof. “Uh, technically-” as all she was able to get out before Cadance giggled and stepped forward. “That’s right Rainbow. My name’s Cadance.”

“What’re a pair of princess doing here?” she asked.

The pink smiled and giggled a little. “Not much. We’re just dropping off another cadet as a favor to Princess Celestia. Oh! Hold on one second,” Cadance told her before looking back towards the hole Sunset had made in the wall. “Gilda, could you come out here?”

A second later, the little griffon poked her head out from behind the destruction, and then meekly started to make her way over to where Cadance was standing.

“A griffon?” Rainbow Dash mumbled in confusion.

Cadance smiled at the little filly and nodded. “That’s right. Gilda just got here today. I know it’s a bit late, but we’re getting her enrolled in the Junior Speedsters” she said before kneeling down to get on eye level with the blue pegasus. “And to be honest, she’s kind of nervous about the whole thing. Being in a new place without any friendly faces can be pretty scary. Do you think you can show her around and help her out? I’d consider it a personal favor to me.”

The addition of a princess owing her one was all the incentive Rainbow apparently needed, because as soon as Gilda came over with her suitcase, Dash introduced herself and then dragged the bewildered griffon off to go see the cumulus cabins and other camp commodities.

As soon as the two kids zoomed off to do whatever flying children did, Sunset looked over to Cadance to see the pink princess giving her a worried expression. “Are you okay?”

Sunset tensed at the question. “I...um…” She glanced around nervously, looking for something to pin her emotional state on that had nothing to do with the pony version of the human that had been her friend a few weeks prior. “You know, just...the uh...wall,” Sunset finished gestured with her hoof in the destruction’s general direction.

Cadance’s cheeks actually turned the slightest bit pinker, and she cleared her throat before looking down at the ground. “Right. Sorry about that,” she apologized while poking the cloud beneath them with a hoof. “I know you were nervous and you’re still new to your wings. I shouldn’t have tried to ask you something when you were preoccupied with that form.”

With Cadance trying so obviously to take care of her guilt, Sunset decided to just go with it and rolled her eyes. “Look, it’s fine,” she said before her eyes drifted back in the direction that the fillies had flown off to. “I just um...well, it looks like I’m better off not going into Cloudsdale right now.”

“Oh come on Sunset, it’s not...wait,” Cadance told her before she frowned at nothing and began mumbling to herself. “You and me in Cloudsdale alone...carry the two...divide by the crush coefficient and add hero worship and emotional factor…”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh...Cadance?” she asked. “Why’re you talking math?”

When no answer came and Cadance’s mumbling fell to something Sunset couldn’t even hear, Sunset got a little worried and lifted her hoof in preparation to poke her friend in order to try for a response. Only, Cadance looked up at her with a slight frown. “According to my calculations, if we go into Cloudsdale the way things are now, you’ll destroy at least fifteen-percent of the city.”

“Your...calculations?” Sunset asked as she tried to sound skeptical, but only succeeded in sounding confused.

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Princess of Love, remember?” she asked rhetorically. “I can see the patterns and paths that ponies take, and the two of us going into Cloudsdale now ends with you getting spooked, or surprised, or...um...look, it’s just a bad idea of the two of us to go to Cloudsdale right now! Okay?”

Unsure as to how to react to Cadance suddenly becoming irate, Sunset stared at the smaller alicorn for a few seconds before he guilt set in. Cadance had probably been wanting to see Cloudsdale since she was a filly, and Sunset had put a dampener on the situation. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I’ll take these back into the office and get going then.”

“Sunset,” Cadance said before she started walking alongside the amber alicorn. “I just said we can’t go to Cloudsdale until you get your wings under control.”

Sunset looked back at her friend. “Uh yeah. I’m going to drop these papers off and then teleport back to Canterlot.” If she just ported herself home, it shouldn’t be too taxing.

A groan came from Cadance’s mouth. “Can’t we just take the chariot back?” she asked. “If we both take one, the guards will be able to make better time.”

“What do mean both take one?” Sunset asked before she set the papers down on the desk in as neat a pile before offering the clerks her apologies and turning back to Cadance. “I’m not going to Cloudsdale. You just said bad shit would happen if I did.”

For a second, Cadance frowned at Sunset in confusion before the amber alicorn practically saw a lightbulb go off over the pink princess’s head. Then, the smaller pony’s frown turned angry. “Wait a second! You mean you thought I’d try and visit Cloudsdale without you?”

Sunset blinked at the sudden, and extremely confusing, change in demeanor. “Um...yes?”

A hoof poked Sunset in the chest, and she found herself actually backing up as Cadance advanced. “Oh no missy! You promised me a personal tour of Cloudsdale, and I am not setting one hoof inside that city until you’re ready to give it! So we are going home, going to bed, and then you are going back to those flight lessons even if I have to drag you out of the castle and throw you off of Canterlot myself!” the pink princess declared. “Then, when you’re ready, you are going to take me back here and we are going to have the time of our lives and make memories that will last for the rest of yours! UNDERSTAND?”

With the unexpected assault throwing her off balance, Sunset couldn’t help but agree.“Y-Yes ma’am!”

Cadance let out a tiny snort. “Good! Now come along,” she said before turning around and stomping towards the exit. “Honestly, thinking I wasn’t going to share my Homecoming with you! You’ve got some nerve Sunset! Now get in a chariot!”

As Sunset found herself following Cadance to their rides, the amber alicorn could help but wonder about what the hell had just happened. Although she knew the pink princess had some fire in her, Cadance usually wasn’t so...raging.

Or hot.

Sunset blinked at that last thought and then shook her head fiercely to try and dislodge it.

Oh, how I hate you, Princess Celestia thought as she glared at the communication journal floating in front of her while she waited for the guards to bring in her next appointment. Unlike her time with that Shining Armor colt or his family she had met with earlier, Celestia had arranged to meet with her next pony in her royal office. The place where she did most of her paperwork, a place where any pony called before her wouldn’t see the inviting, motherly pony that just wanted to sit and chat. Celestia’s office was for business, and every inch of it let anypony on the other end of her desk know that she was the boss.

But, with the stallion that was her three-thirty not due to be let in for another half-hour while she let him stew in his worry out in the hallway, Celestia found herself focusing on the object that was the biggest proof of her failure to connect with her daughter.

Looking back, she could see how the journal in her magical grip was the root of how Sunset had started to slip away from her.

“Here Sunset,” Celestia said in her memories as she gave the excited little filly a present. “This is a special book, just like one I’ll be taking with me. Whatever you write in yours will appear in mine, and vice versa. From now on, I want you to use it whenever you want to talk to me, and I’ll write you back as soon as I have the time.”

IDIOT, the current solar monarch yelled at her past self as she finished telling a little filly who had just lost her parents that she didn’t have time to take a few measly steps down the hall and talk to her anymore.

That was how it began.

Part of Celestia reminded herself that the journal had been given to Sunset because the monarch had needed to go to Griffonstone and speak with their king about urgent matters. But...it had just been so much easier to read something Sunset wrote at the end of the day rather than listen to her in pony. Letters from her were the final draft, edited and removed of any heat of the moment emotions that a real conversation would of had.

And when she got back to Equestria...Celestia took the easy route.

Instead of a warm voice full of love and concern, Sunset was given scratches on paper to help her with her problems. A cold block of thinly sliced wood replaced a real body that could offer warmth and comfort. A presence that could have seen what was wrong from the second trouble began to form was replaced by...correspondence!

If not for the limitations of Starswirl’s temporal manipulation, Celestia would have traveled back in time again twice in a row to before Sunset had appeared with her wings in order to giver herself a hard kick to the face. She may have stopped listening to you, but you’re the one that stopped talking first, Celestia told herself as she envisioned a past version of herself laying on the ground and nursing a bleeding muzzle.

Even after becoming an alicorn, Sunset still only spoke business with her.

A coltfriend.

Sunset had a coltfriend, or at least the beginnings of a coltfriend.

A coltfriend she thought she had to hide from Celestia for some reason.

Not that Celestia could blame her. She had conditioned Sunset to hide anything personal from her a long time ago.

As for the relationship itself...Celestia hadn’t quite pieced everything together yet, like the rather odd events of the night before with Cadance kissing the colt Sunset had her eyes on, but it was clear that Sunset was galloping down the same path Celestia had traveled centuries before without any desire for guidance.

And it all came back to the magical collection of paper that floated in front of her. If not for the knowledge that lay buried within, Celestia would have lit a match and watched it burn. Not to mention how she could make use of it should things take a turn for the worst with Sunset.

The sudden call of a clockwork bird pulled Celestia out of her musing, and she looked up at one of the first clocks that relied on fowl to call out the time as it declared the hour in four odd chirps.

“Four o’clock?” Celestia asked the cuckoo before it retreated back inside its home. “Has it really been that long?”

She looked back at the journal in her magic, then let out a sigh and put the book inside her desk before she opened the door with her magic to see the pair of guards keeping their eyes trained on something out of her sight. She didn’t blame the little ponies for being irritable, they had all been standing out there for an hour. “You may escort the councilman in now,” she ordered firmly. “And shut the door when you leave. I’ll call you again to escort him out.”

Celestia hoped the guards understood her commands were more to be heard by the pony in front of them than the guards themselves. Giving such orders may give the impression to the pony getting them that she lacked confidence in their abilities to make decisions, but it also showed to anypony else who was in absolute control.

Strong Withers looked nervous as he made his way into the princess’s office. He tried to hide it, but Celestia could see right through him. The atmosphere helped. It was a high-ceiling room built for a pony that stood nearly twice as tall as he did, lined with books in ancient Equestrian that Celestia doubted anypony could read outside of herself and a few archeologists, and a slightly sloping floor that corrected itself an inch from Celestia’s desk to make her seem all the more towering as she looked down on her little pony.

“Hello Mr Withers,” she greeted firmly to hammer in the fact of her displeasure, purposefully leaving out his title. “I take it you have already gone over the report the guard gave you upon arrival outside my office?”

“Princess, I assure you, my son-” Magic clamped down on his mouth to stop whatever lie was going to come out.

When the stallion looked down at his muzzle, Celestia spoke again. “I am not here to listen to whatever excuses you have for me. I am here to speak and you are here to listen. If you are unable to do that, then I will leave your mouth closed and not bother to hear whether you understand me since a nod or shake of your head is all that is required. Is that understood?”

Withers nodded, and Celestia released her magic. “Now, have you read the report?”

After the stallion nodded, Celestia went on. “After your son Buck was placed in the palace dungeons, I had the investigators in the civic guard look into his past. Thanks to the documents procured by Sunset when Cadance put an end to that horrid school mistress, it was rather easy to discover several oddities and more troubling things about your son.

“Several reports filed from numerous staff and students show your son to be a reprehensible stallion that should have been expelled ten times over. Then there is the fact that he is nineteen. A legal adult adult by all accounts, and fully accountable for his actions.”

The pony below her opened his mouth for a second, and then slowly closed it before looking away.

Celestia frowned at him. “Is there something wrong? Some excuse you would like to make for your son’s actions?” she demanded firmly. “If that is the case, I give you permission to speak.”

“Your Highness,” he started with a slight tremor in his voice. “Buck...he managed to procure some cider the night before. The police reports-”

“I am not speaking of last night, Mr Withers,” Celestia told him before he could complete his excuse. “I was speaking of the dozens upon dozens of other reprehensible actions your son has undertaken for the past five years as he walked down a very dark path. A path you have apparently done nothing to correct. If anything, I would say that you have done your best to conceal his actions and thus encouraged them!

“But since you wish to speak of last night, let us move past the mountain of past actions that paint a rather vivid picture of your son’s character, and discuss his latest crime,” Celestia said. “The crime where your son assaulted a Princess of Equestria!”

Withers's controled shell shattered as the stallion visibly gulped. “Y-Your Highness. The guard report clearly states that Buck had a high amount of cider in his system. If not for that, I doubt very much that anything would have happened. Clearly, it was the drink that made him do what he did.”

“Yes, I am certain that whatever mental facilities your son possesses would have allowed him to see the stupidity of his actions had he not been inebriated,” Celestia replied curtly. “But in my thousands of years of life, I have neither seen nor heard of a pony doing something simply because being drunk forced them into it. The desire is always there. Cider simply makes it harder to listen to the little voice in all our heads that says going through with those desires is a stupid idea. Like how for the first time, your power and influence isn’t going to be enough to save your son for his brutal attack on another pony. Attacks that he has been taking pleasure in.”

“Princess Celestia-”

The alicorn cut the stallion off with a glare. “Do you know what the punishment is for attacking an alicorn princess in Equestria, Mr Withers?”

After a second of leaving his mouth hanging open in mid-word, the stallion clamped it shut and considered for a moment. “Well Your Highness, crimes against the royalty are punished by the pony who was wronged, or their surviving kin.”

“No. That law exists for the lesser royalty, ponies in charge of regions under those such as myself,” Celestia began. “When it comes to an attack on alicorn royalty, I actually had to look it up. Because in all my years on the throne, nopony has ever been that stupid. It’s an old law, one that dates back to the founding of our nation, when I was still too young to be little more than a figurehead and glorified weapon.”

Celestia paused for a moment to let the stallion sweat as she took on a more authoritative stance. “Alicorn princesses are the living symbols of Equestria. And any pony who should dare to strike at them shall be struck down themselves, and those who hold blame for the deed shall be banished from Equestria forever,” she told him before frowning at the stallion. “It is one law in our nation that was never amended to have the death penalty removed. A law meant to crush any attempt at separation in a time when unity was the only path to survival.”

It didn’t take the stallion very long to catch on to what Celestia was implying. His eyes widened in fear, and his legs began to shake. “Wait...you can’t mean...I...I’m not responsible for this!”

“Your son is an idiot that was never reined in because you thought yourself the better of everypony around you. His actions are the result of your willingness to allow for such things! So do not tell me that you are blameless for the actions of your son when you not only allow him to continue with his actions, but help to conceal them!” Celestia told him.

“P-Please, Your Highness...this...I...you can’t…”

Celestia snorted. “I am the absolute authority in Equestria,” she told. “It is my right to do whatever I please. Which includes carrying out ancient laws that nopony knows about...or staying my hoof, and telling the public I am holding the stallion that assaulted the darling princess of Canterlot as I decide what to do with him while not mentioning the rest of his family. However, it's all up to you whether I decide to take that effort.”

The stallion beneath her froze. “Princess?”

“A few days ago, you led a coalition of lesser nobles and others against my daughter in a poorly constructed attempt to oust her from Canterlot,” Celestia said. “A coalition that I am certain only showed its most stupid members to the public when it challenged Sunset’s right to be in this city. So I want every single one of their names, as well as as the identity of any pony who so much as thinks Sunset has a bad mane style. Is that understood?”

Withers gulped. “And...if I give you this…”

“Let me make something clear to you Mr Withers,” Celestia said to him. “You are now living on borrowed time. So I would advise you to keep your credit rating good by making prompt payments.”

It was well past the time when the sun had fallen from the sky as Sunset walked into her bedroom with Cadance resting on her back. The pink alicorn had conked out halfway back to Canterlot, and safety concerns had left Sunset needing to make it so the chariot they had to share had enough room to hold both an amber alicorn and a princess that would go splat should she hit the ground. So, Sunset found herself with a foal-sized Cadance that weighed about as much as a full-sized one trying to work a groove in the amber alicorn’s spine as the two of them came into the bedroom they shared. “Alright, we’re here. Ride’s over.”

Cadance groaned in protest as she nuzzled Sunset’s spine. “It’s okay. I’m good right here.”

While every instinct in her body said to just buck Cadance off her back and onto the bed, the need to aim at her landing made Sunset freeze.

Her bed was different.

Very different.

Instead of just swapping out the sheets, it looked like the majordomo had decided a soon to be princess pony needed a princess-sized bed. The thing was big enough for Celestia to sleep in. A pair of Celestias in fact, or a Celestia and a pair of other ponies, or a Celestia and half a dozen foals. The humongous thing took up nearly a fourth of the room and left Sunset slightly annoyed. Great, now I’ve got a princess-sized bed. One more gaudy status symbol she had no desire to keep.

That, combined with the whole pony’s worth of weight pressing down on one point in her back made Sunset grunt at the situation. “Cadance, get off.”

The little alicorn giggled. “Are you coming onto me Sunset?”

Sunset tensed, and then looked back as Cadance wrapped herself in the amber alicorn’s fiery mane like a blanket. “I think those little lungs of yours have had way too little oxygen on the ride over,” she mumbled before teleporting the tiny princess off of her back and into the air above their new bed and undoing the resizing spell to let her drop onto the mattress with a poomf.

After letting out a displeased groan, Cadance pulled herself up and gave her friend a little glare before rolling over so her back was to Sunset. “Fine, I’ll just take the snuggles.”

Despite the fact that Cadance couldn’t see it, Sunset rolled her eyes at the pink princess’s actions. “Cadance, there’s more than enough room so we don’t have to cramp each other.”

Cadance looked back at Sunset with a tiny frown. “Yeah, but where are we going to sleep if you have another accident in the middle of the night this time?”

“Wha-IT WAS A WET DREAM!” Sunset corrected her before blushing in embarrassment at having to bring that up again and the idea of something worse happening. “You know what? Fine. We’ll cuddle.” It wasn’t as if Sunset found the experience unpleasant. She had come to enjoy sleeping with Cadance...in a completely platonic manner!

Sunset crawled into bed and found Cadance scooting back as soon as she did to take the place of the little spoon a few seconds later. Like always, the amber alicorn found the scent of her friend’s strawberry-scented mane filling her nose. She took a deep breath and let the sensation relax her.

The pink princess didn’t say much as soon as the two of them had taken their usual positions, and was letting out little breaths through her nose that weren’t quite snores not long after Sunset wrapped her wings around the smaller alicorn. Huh, she must have been really tired...or I’m more comfortable than I thought, Sunset told herself.

Then again, considering Cadence’s density when she had been shrunk, a rock would have probably felt soft in comparison.

As she continued to lay awake, waiting for sleep to come, Sunset glanced back down at the sleeping face of her beautiful friend. “Sorry I screwed up your Cloudsdale thing,” she apologized in a whisper. Now that she thought about it, that might have been Celestia’s real purpose for sending them both, not some attempt to get her all friendly with a griffon. “I think I really would have enjoyed that, seeing it with you. At least, seeing you seeing it for the first time.”

A feeling of guilt descended on Sunset as she thought about how she was going to crush that little dream of Cadance’s. “I guess...that’s one dream that will never come true for you. I’m sorry,” she apologized. “But I know you’ll find somepony better than me to share it with.”

While Sunset would...not find anyone to replace the three most important ponies in her life on the other side of the mirror. The loss of her magic, of her cutie mark, of...Celestia. Humans just didn’t get what it was like to lose what they never had in the first place.

Like always, a sense of dread crept up from the depths of Sunset’s mind as she found herself faced with the inevitability of returning to Earth. Even the thought of maybe making friends with the girls again didn’t have that much appeal anymore.

Which was odd. Her old friends had always been the one draw the human world had, the one thing that tempted her to return. But for some reason, Sunset didn’t feel as much pull as she usually did.

Sunset frowned as a rather odd thought occurred to her. It isn’t because I saw that other Rainbow Dash, is it? she asked herself with a frown. Replacing a friend with some little pony Twilight’s age seemed pretty shallow. Even if they did have the same level of maturity.

And...the thought of getting her and Twilight together made Sunset smile at the adorableness it would produce. In fact, if the rest of the girls had doubles around Twilight’s age…

Sunset blinked, and then reluctantly pushed the thought away.

Why am I doing this to myself, she thought before trying to find something else to concentrate on. A minute of looking around to only find the sexy slumbering princess in her embrace didn’t give her any better ideas. Cadance was an even bigger temptation to stay in Equestria than any foal, almost as much as Shiny was.

Sunset needed to clear her head away from the temptations that made her just want to smash that damn mirror and spend the rest of her life in the Canterlot where everything went around on four legs.

A simple spell ensured Cadance wasn’t going to be waking up as Sunset slid one of her wings out from under the pink princess. Then, she surrounded the bed in a layer of webs that would trigger an alarm and create a bubble shield should anything disturb them before adding an extra layer of protection to the already warded windows.

After finishing with the protection spell on the door, Sunset made her way down the hallway, unsure of where she was going. She let her body wander along with her thoughts, giving the casual nod to the cleaning staff that did most of its work at night as not to be caught underfoot by the more important ponies.

Which led to Sunset giggling at the mental image of Celestia tripping over a maid that was scrubbing the floors while she was walking down the hall and discussing politic with some nobles during the day. Not like anything of the sort had ever really happened, but it was funny to think about.

It also made the amber alicorn realize she had been turning back towards Celestia’s quarters. She thought about running to her mother’s pony-arms and asking for her advice. It would mean she would need to come clean about everything, but…

Sunset squashed that thought before it could finish. She couldn’t talk to Celestia about what was going on. Ever.

The mistaken course was quickly corrected, and Sunset moved to trot down the lesser used rooms of the castle. She thought of just getting lost in some research at the library for a minute when she passed its doors, but shook her head at the idea and went on.

After nearly an hour of just walking around, Sunset came to a door. There wasn’t anything really special about it, or the room behind it, really. It was just one of the lower rooms in the palace that the princess used to store old junk that she didn’t want any ponies messing with, but things that weren’t dangerous enough to be stored in the castle vault where some of the more dangerous artifacts were kept.

What made Sunset stop in front of this particular door was what was inside the room.

It was the room where Celestia kept the mirror portal.

The mirror that would take her to Earth in less than a week.

Just being in front of the door made Sunset gulp.

She stood in front of the door for a good ten seconds before finally taking a look at herself.

For crying out loud, I’m supposed to be going back there on Friday, and I can’t even get in the same room as that stupid mirror, Sunset thought. And I’m supposed to be the example everyone is supposed to follow?

Despite the nervous pounding of her heart that she could practically hear, Sunset took in a deep breath through her nose to help fortify herself and then channeled the magic through her horn. The locking spell on the entrance was stronger than most, but it gave to her magic in the end. Then, all that stood between her and her destiny was just a few inches of wood.

A door.

An unlocked door that she could easily push open.

So Sunset gulped, and moved the barrier to the end of her happiness with a hoof.

Inside, she saw...nothing.

The pounding in her ears stopped, nervousness and dread gave way to confusion, and Sunset blinked at the lack of anything at all in the room. “Wh...Where’s the portal?” she asked before walking forward while looking around to see if it was just in a corner and out of sight.

When she got inside and saw that wasn’t the case, a new kind of terror filled Sunset.

The portal was gone.

Inexplicably missing.

Vanished.

Panic began to overtake her mind as she realized what that might mean for Twilight’s destiny. What the lack of a real princess would mean for Equestria, and how horrible the future of Sunset’s homeland would be with her being one of the ponies at the helm.

“WHERE’S THE PORTAL?”

Chapter 21: Friendship is Duplicitous

Thankfully, Princess Celestia didn’t decide she needed to intrude on Cadance’s morning two times in a row. So the pink pony princess wasn’t treated to another mother-daughter bonding battle in which the two of them got into it yet again. But, that probably would have required Sunset to have another incident in their shared bed. Something that did not occur a second time.

It was something that Cadance still didn’t know how she should feel sad, happy, or worried about. After all, in the week that she and Sunset had slept together, Shining Armor certainly hadn’t inspired the amber alicorn’s imagination like Cadance had, highlighting the fact that the physical attraction the amber alicorn felt towards Cadance was the greater of the two. But on the other hoof, his future relationship with Sunset wasn’t destined to turn out as horrible as what was in store for the two princesses should they hook up.

If anything, Shiny seemed an almost perfect pick for Cadance.

The dilemma kept the pink princess’s mind too occupied for her to really enjoy bathing with her best friend and continued to distract her all the way to the dining hall, where Princess Celestia was waiting for them like usual. Even after sitting down, her thoughts kept Cadance just going through the motions until her ‘aunt’ addressed her directly.

“So, Cadance, what are your plans for the day?” Celestia asked casually as she she levitated a banana in her magic to begin peeling it.

With the actual need to engage in conversation, the pink princess put her spoon of oats down and looked to the pony sitting across from her. “I wanted to do a little shopping this morning to beat the crowds, and afterwards I’m going over to Shining Armor’s house to-um…” Cadance replied before she found herself stopping. It was minor, but there was a slight ruffling of Celestia’s feathers at the mention of the colt’s name.

Then Sunset came stomping into the conversation with all the grace of a minotaur. “She’s going to be playing this stupid game where Shiny and his friends pretend they’re heroes and go on adventures or something.”

Cadance found herself looking over to the other alicorn with a frown on her face. “Says the sorceress,” she mumbled before thinking of the character Sunset had helped her make. Despite the silliness of it all, Cadance actually found herself wondering what it’d be like to play her fantasy-self. A strong and independent alicorn that relied more on the physical strength given to her via passion than her horn.

“And what will you be doing today, Sunset?” Celestia asked her daughter.

The other alicorn gave the big white pony a hesitant look, then dropped her shoulders in a sigh. “Mostly, I’ll be redecorating. That new bed you got me means I need to rearrange some things in my quarters.”

Celestia frowned ever so slightly. “I thought you said you had plans.”

Under her mother’s gaze, Sunset let out a frustrated groan. “Yeah, well when someone goes and moves this giant piece of furniture around without telling anyone, plans change!”

“Sunset, you could easily have the palace staff draw up a plan for redesigning your room. There’s no need to cancel your plans to…” Celestia paused for a moment before her expression became curious. “Say, what exactly were you going to be doing today before this started?”

The amber alicorn rolled her eyes. “I was just going to hang out with some friends, obviously.”

When Sunset didn’t continue, Celestia brought up a hoof and moved it around as if to coax the words out. “Who are?”

“What does it matter now?” she said. “I have to redesign my room.”

As she had seen where these kinds of conversations between mother and daughter went ten times too many, Cadance cleared her throat and scooted her empty plate forward. “Oh that was good! My compliments to the chef. Sunset,” she said after looking over to the amber alicorn. “Can you help me pack? My magic is still a little wobbly, and I don’t want to damage any of my character sheets or sourcebooks.”

After a few seconds of giving her a blank stare that was broken by a few blinks, Sunset nodded. “Um...okay,” she agreed before getting down from her chair and following Cadance out into the hallway.

Once the amber alicorn had closed the door behind them, Cadance spun around to glare at Sunset. “What the buck was that?”

Sunset frowned. “What was what?”

“So now you’re not coming to spend time with Shiny?” Cadance demanded.

The question got a sigh from Sunset before she slunk back a bit. “Look, I’ve got...things to do here.”

Cadance gave the mare an even expression at the obvious lie. “Redecorating your room?” she asked. “Sunset, I’d be mad at you for lying to me if it wasn’t for the fact that you believing I’d actually be stupid enough to buy that wasn’t a huge insult to my intelligence. Besides, we’ve got plenty of time to shop for decor before going to Shiny’s house.”

Sunset looked away from the pink princess. “Okay fine. You’re right,” she relented before looking back to Cadance with a frown. “But I do have something to do.”

“Yes,” Cadance agreed with a nod. “You’re coming with me to Shiny’s house.”

It took a second, but Sunset’s reluctance made way for anger. Not much, all she could manage was an annoyed frown. “No. I have something else to do.”

Cadance let out a tired sigh as she watched the amber alicorn get ready to dig her hooves in. “Sunset, don’t make me actually have to force you to come with me.” She didn’t want to do it, but there was no way that Cadance was going to let Sunset ruin her plans to get Shining Armor and the amber alicorn together so they could rekindle their passions before the day was done.

The threat got out an amused snort from Cadance’s best friend and love interest. “Make me?” she asked with an expression that Sunset though the idea was so impossible she didn’t know whether to laugh, or just be insulted. “You are going to make me?” Another snort came from Sunset’s nostrils before she actually lowered herself just a bit and tilted her horn at Cadance in preparation for what she thought was coming. “Take your best shot, Princess.”

For a second, Cadance found herself back in the past, when Sunset was still just a unicorn...and more than willing to use her superior control of magic to frighten Cadance into submission. The fact said former-unicorn was also taller than her and much more powerful than she had been as a bully wasn’t lost on the pink princess either. Not to mention Sunset was several times stronger than the stallion who had knocked Cadance to the ground. If Sunset wanted to, she could easily turn Cadance into pressed pony meat.

But the fear lasted only for a second. Just long enough for a rear leg to take a single step back.

Then Cadance remembered to whom she was talking to.

And really hoped Sunset hadn’t noticed her fear before she frowned back at the amber alicorn. The last thing Cadance wanted was to upset her best friend with the guilt trip she would put herself on.

“If you don’t come to Shiny’s house, you’re going to make Twilight Sparkle cry.”

For what seemed like the millionth time since Sunset had changed species, Celestia found herself unsure of what to do in regards to her daughter.

Sunset and Cadance…

Part of her wanted to sigh in relief at the fact her niece was moving in to steal her daughter’s coltfriend. Celestia knew it wasn’t nearly that simple and her meeting with Shining Armor told Celestia that it was Sunset who actually pushed the two of them together for some reason she could not yet fathom. But whatever the cause, it meant that Sunset would be avoiding the same kind of pain Celestia had endured as a young immortal. Something she was glad for.

But, much to Celestia’s shame, she found a much larger part of herself wanting for Sunset to find some shortlived happiness with the little colt, however brief it was. Celestia wanted her daughter to experience love. She wanted to watch Sunset blush about being teased when it came to Shining Armor, watch her nuzzle him good night outside the palace gates. With all the months of Sunset’s ever increasing isolation, followed by her sudden near-suicidal depression, the chance of seeing the smaller alicorn truly happy, if even just for a short moment, was a desire that burned almost as strongly as seeing Luna again.

You selfish old nag, the ancient alicorn thought as she looked down at her half eaten breakfast. You want to see Sunset happy for a mere decade, just so she can be miserable forever more? All so you can feel better?

As much as it pained her personally, Celestia knew what needed to be done.

She needed to get rid of Shining Armor.

Celestia didn’t even need to talk to Sunset about it. The colt had said how he wanted to join the royal guard when he was older. She could offer him placement in their officer training program, a guaranteed position of his pick away from Canterlot, and money to relocate to a home that was an upgrade to whatever it was he currently had.

Sunset would avoid an endless lifetime of heartache, there would be no animosity between the two younger alicorns over the colt, and Shining Armor would get what he wanted. It was a win-win. All she had to do was...get rid of the colt Sunset was falling in love with.

An oncoming migraine made Celestia sigh and reach up to rub her forehead.

Then the headache became a bit worse when she heard the door being wrenched open. Sunset poked her head in with the type of scowl Celestia had seen plenty of times whenever her daughter was forced to do something. “I’m going to hang out with my friends. Don’t get a decorator for my room, I’ll do it myself.”

Before Celestia could agree, or even wonder what had happened to bring Sunset’s sudden change on, the door slammed shut and hooves strong enough to make the reinforced stone hallways of the palace tremble stomped off.

It didn’t take Celestia long to realize just what had happened, or where Cadance was managing to drag Sunset off to.

The shopping trip Cadance had blackmailed her into turned out to be a great distraction to keep Sunset from thinking about the possibilities when it came to what Celestia had done with the portal and when she needed to reschedule her time to poke around the castle in search of it. Not because shopping was some ultimate cure-all to a girl thinking about her problems. Although working out the details of what was a massive overhaul to what would be her living quarters for the next week did provide something for Sunset to concentrate on, the pony she went shopping with added something else to think about during their time together. Much to Sunset’s annoyance, Cadance’s conversation topics during their trip seemed less about discussing room decor, and more about other aesthetically pleasing things.

Like Shining Armor’s horn. “And I swear, judging by the tip of his horn, it doesn’t look like he’s quite finished growing.”

His coat. “I think it’s actually pure white. A natural, pure white stallion, Not like those stallions Celestia uses for her personal escorts. That’s all magic armor.”

And his physique. “Yeah, he’s a little scrawny now compared to somepony I know, but just wait until he hits twenty-one. Definitely royal guard material.”

Not to mention...other things. “Then there’s how nice his butt is. And it is. Perfectly proportioned with the rest of his body. That’s one of the hints how I know he’s going to be amazing in just a few more years.”

The last one actually made Sunset turn and face Cadance as they made their way back from Canterlot’s shopping district, her magic full of drapes, matching sheets, and everything else needed to give her palace apartments a much needed makeover. “Butt? You’re speaking human now?” the amber alicorn asked, as actually acknowledging Cadance’s one pony conversations about Shiny would have been falling for the bait.

Cadance blinked before she set the boxes held in her magic without rattling them too much and giggled. “I dunno, I kind of like it more than plot,” she said before she began trotting around Sunset with just enough extra oomph in her step to give her ass some wiggle. “I mean, you can have a big butt, a bouncy but like Celestia, a bubbly butt. Oh! Or a bodacious butt!”

Then she turned around and gave Sunset a full view of her gorgeous rear. “What kind do you think I’ve got?”

As a good amount of her vision was filled with heart-flank that was just aching to be grabbed, Sunset felt her cheeks heat up to match the color of the ones presented to her and quickly backed away while doing her best to maintain her composure. “C-come on Cadance! I don’t spend all hours of the day trying to classify ponies' rears like you apparently do!”

Cadance looked back at the other mare for a second before her eyes went a little wider and she cleared her throat before turning around. “Oh, um...right. Sorry. Got a bit carried away there,” the pink princess said before her magic resumed carrying the properly protected packages. “So...um...yeah. Maybe you should just pop us back to our room so we can have the staff get to work.”

A little confused by Cadance’s sudden change in mood, Sunset summoned up her magic and got closer to Cadance in order to make moving the two of them through the spacelessness between a little bit easier.

Although, she wasn’t about to let Cadance throw her off so easily. “By the way. If you really want to know, I’d have to go with beautiful,” she said, getting a bit of awkward silence from the other pony. Then Sunset used the opening she made to strike. “It’s no wonder Shining Armor can’t keep his eyes off it.”

“Shiny! We’re here!” Shining Armor heard Cadance’s voice call out from the floor above him as he finished setting up the gaming table in his parents’ basement. He also felt a bit of annoyed worry over the fact that the pink princess definitely sounded like she was in the house, not waiting outside it.

Which meant Sunset had just casually gone and picked the lock again.

But, since there was no real malice behind their actions, he put such thoughts aside and trotted upstairs to continue his preparations. When the the girls didn’t show up on their own accord, Shining Armor looked away from the food he was preparing and towards the den. “I’m in the kitchen.”

A minute later, Cadance trotted in. The pink alicorn looked around at the assorted food. “Hey! This all looks pretty good Shiny. Everything ready to go?”

The appearance of the pink princess made Shining Armor’s mind flash back to the end of their date. Despite all the time that had passed between then and now, he could still remember the feeling of her lips on his, how Cadance’s tongue had gently caressed the insides of his mouth her forelegs held him close. Just thinking about it made…

...Shining Armor want to slap himself.

No! Bad pony! The thing with Cadance shouldn’t have gone that far. Shining Armor didn’t even know if...well, Sunset had said Cadance liked him, but...she was obviously a pretty biased source!

Besides, he was still with Sunset!

...wasn’t he?

After taking a long breath through his nose, the unicorn tried to put his mind back on task.

Even if it took a second to remember just what that task was.

“Yeah, everything’s just about done,” Shining Armor finally replied as he turned back and dug into the cantaloupe to scoop some of it out before placing it on the tray. “The cheese squares and celery are ready, and I'm almost done with the melons.”

Cadance got closer and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, so you scoop them out and get get all round like that, huh? Can I try one?” she asked as her hoof stretched out.

The close proximity of the other pony as she leaned over made Shining Armor gulp as his nose picked up her strawberry scent. It was the same as the day they met, when Cadance dragged him away to the gym for a private conversation. “S-Sure!” Shining Armor replied before taking one of them into his magic and passing over to the princess.

Thankfully, putting it right in front of her made Cadance back up before she snatched it out of the air with her mouth. “Mmmmm! That’s really good!” Then the pink princess looked back to the living room as the amber alicorn came trotting into view. “Hey Sunset, you have got to try Shiny’s balls. They’re really juicy.”

For some reason, Shining Armor saw Sunset flinch before she locked her legs in place. “Urk!”

As for Shining Armor, Sunset’s sudden appearance and the feeling’s Cadance’s proximity were bringing up made him recall the first time the bigger princess had kissed him…

Shining Armor could feel the physical power radiating from the amber alicorn as Sunset held him in her forelegs while standing on her other two. She looked every inch the goddess that some ponies considered Celestia to be as the dead dragon landed behind her to be consumed by a pyrotechnic spell’s conflagration strong enough to completely incinerate a creature who could have swam in lava.

The onrush of wind caused by the explosion made Sunset’s mane whip about wildly while her wings shielded Shining Armor from the scorching winds. “And this is a French kiss,” she said before pulling Shining Armor up to touch her lips with his.

A second later, Sunset’s tongue was in Shining Armor’s mouth. It went up to slither around the roof before coming down to run along his teeth and wrap around Shiny’s tongue to pull it back into Sunset’s verbal orifice.

As Sunset continued to massage his tongue and the fire from the dragon’s death seemed to give the amber alicorn holding him a golden shine, Shining Armor realized that Sunset Shimmer was the most awesome mare in the world.

“Shiny?”

The sound of his name pulled Shining Armor out of his daydream, and he found himself being muzzle to muzzle with Cadance.

“Sorry! Just...um...thinking, Princess.” Shaking off the oddity, Shining Armor looked back to Cadance. “Although, you kind of wasted those Princess. The best way to eat them is to suck on the balls for a little bit so you can enjoy the flavor.”

Whoomph!

Shining Armor blinked at the feeling of rushing air that knocked his mane around and looked back to see Sunset had spread her wings.

A sly grin appeared on Cadance's face before she took the cheese platter along with the one loaded with vegetables in her wobbly magic. “Well, I’m going to go tell Twilight we’re here and get things set up in the basement,” she said as she trotted past the amber alicorn, making sure to duck to get past her wings. Then she looked back to the larger princess. “Sunset, be a friend and help Shiny with his balls.”

Sunset’s head spun to look at Cadance, hiding her expression from Shining Armor. But her voice came out pretty agitated. “You’re doing this on purpose!”

In response, Cadance stuck out her tongue just a little bit, then went on to practically skip away from the amber alicorn that made her plot seem extremely perky with the way it bounced ever so slightly. “No idea what you mean!” the pink princess sang as she made her exit.

With the distraction of Cadance’s derriere departed and Sunset keeping her distance, Shining Armor managed to look back to the task of finishing up with creating the melon balls.

After picking up the various fruit balls in his magic, Shining Armor turned around and nearly ran into the amber alicorn with the spread wings and closed eyes as she took in a deep breath through her nose and exhaled via her mouth. Although he didn’t quite understand why Sunset was going through a relaxation exercise, he did recognize the actions of one thanks to living with Twilight. So, rather than risk interrupting the princess, Shining Armor stood there patiently while he waited for her to finish.

A minute later, Shining’s mind started to wander. Did I say something to upset her? He asked himself as he listened to to the made in front of him take in another breath through the nostrils that were level with his eyes.

Shining Armor couldn’t think of anything he said that might have hurt Sunset’s feelings or get her overly worried. Not that Sunset seemed to worry about much. In fact, the only thing that he had really seen Sunset be worried about was when they were in the park and she told him about how if they were to have sex, her female anatomy would probably crush Shining Armor’s lower horn into paste.

Wait a second, Shining said to himself before he looked over to Sunset’s spread wings.

Although he was not a pegasus, Shining Armor had been around Eight-Bit long enough to know that a pegasus with stiff wings meant…

It meant…

Shining Armor frowned. He couldn’t really remember the specifics, but whenever he asked Eight-Bit about it when they were younger, the pegasus would always get really flustered and tell him to mind his own business in an angry tone.

Which meant...Sunset was angry. Probably with him.

And Shining didn’t need to think very long to figure out why that was.

Sure, Sunset hadn’t been angry the night Shining and Princess Cadence kissed, but that had been a day ago. Which was plenty of time for a mare to change her opinion on anything. According to his mother at least. And his little sister. And...pretty much every other mare Shining Armor had ever met. Even Princess Celestia had seemed kind of wishy-washy when they talked the day before.

As Sunset continued to breathe in the way that allowed her to resist her obvious urges to smash Shining Armor into a white pancake, Shining Armor’s mind raced to figure out a way out of his situation.

The irony of the whole was that even though Cadence was a better kisser and much hotter than Sunset, the amber alicorn was still the mare he wanted to be around more out of the two. She was definitely the less bossy of the two alicorns, and friendlier, and it wasn’t as if Sunset wasn’t attractive. The amber alicorn had a plot Shiny could really sink his hooves into and a horn surpassed only by Celestia’s.

It was just…

The night before last, after Shining Armor had saved Princess Cadance from Buck and gone home to lay in his bed, the unicorn had felt a kind of pride in himself he never had before. For the first time in recent memory, Shining Armor felt like he had after saving Twily during that camping trip so long ago when he earned his Cutie Mark. It was the way he imagined a brave paladin would feel after rescuing the princess from the dragon.

Being with Sunset, Shining Armor had never felt anything close to that. When he was supposed to save her from the dragon, Sunset had bucked the door to her cell open and snapped the thing’s neck. She caused localized earthquakes with her hooves and could just casually throw the laws of time and space out the window if she wanted to take a nap before class. Then there was her physical presence. Sunset was the second biggest mare in all of Equestria, taller than Shining Armor himself, with the promise of more height to come if her mother was any indication.

Just being around such an amazing pony like Princess Sunset made Shining Armor see how inadequate he was in comparison.

She...made him feel small.

In both the literal and physical sense of the word.

But, that was no reason for him to be backing away from her.

Right?

Sunset was an alicorn. A pony trained by Princess Celestia Herself. The Solar Princess’s own adopted daughter for pony’s sake! Sunset was supposed to be so far beyond Shining Armor that comparing the two of them on any level would be like matching a blue whale up to a flea.

Shining Armor pushed such thoughts from his mind. Just because Sunset was bigger than him, and stronger than him...and significantly more powerful than he could ever dream of becoming, that was no reason for Shining Armor to reject her. Especially because everything he said about Sunset while under that curse that made him run his mouth was true. He did like being around her more than Cadance! She was smart and kind, funny and brave, understanding and respectful.

All Cadance had going for her was that she was hot. Not to mention a perky plot. And she had helped Shining Armor get Sunset instead of shoving him away. Plus, she was the Alicorn of Love, which probably also extended to the physical side of things. Like kissing.

A kiss Sunset could probably match with enough practice.

Something Shining Armor was more than happy to help her with.

In fact, if Sunset was mad at him because he kissed Cadance, Shining Armor had the perfect idea to show the amber alicorn that she was the only pony for him.

He stepped forward and planted his lips on Sunset’s.

Sunset hated the emotions raging through her mind as she tried to calm them down. The saying that absence made the heart grow fonder was beyond true in the amber alicorn’s opinion. Even before Cadance started egging her on, the unobstructed view of Shiny’s rear had filled Sunset’s mind with so many thoughts and desires that she was afraid her wings would never come down.

Telling herself Shiny and Cadance were supposed to be together didn’t help.

Reminding herself that Shining Armor was Twilight Sparkle’s older brother didn’t help.

No amount of logic was able to stop Sunset from admitting to herself that she wanted the little stallion in front of her.

So, she was forced to use more drastic measures...

Think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts, Sunset told herself over and over again as she pictured Flash Sentry’s bare ass, that time she went into the bathroom at Principal Celestia’s house too early and saw the dripping wet woman just as she exited the shower, Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the middle of their water balloon fight the day they wore white shirts and no bras, Fluttershy’s voluptuous body in just her underwear during a sleepover, Rarity’s nude body in the sauna, and of course, the various male human genitals that Sunset had seen over the years with their oddly shaped ends.

Unfortunately, all of Sunset’s hard work to make herself gag and get her wings under control was undone when she felt someone’s lips press against her own. The contact had Sunset throw open her eyes and stare at the young stallion kissing her before backing away in shock.

Which was a good thing, because a second later, Sunset felt a little tingle pass through her body before it began to practically scream for Shiny’s attentions. It demanded that she take him in her forelegs and shove her tongue down his throat before teleporting up to his room and embark on a research project to find out just how juicy his balls really were.

But, Sunset wouldn’t let herself be ruled by such thoughts. Especially since going through with the would just hurt her little stallion in the long run. So even though the amber alicorn couldn’t bring herself to give Shining Armor one of her dreadful glares, she was able to deliver a...minor verbal lashing. “S-Shiny! What’re you doing? You and Cadance-”

“It was one date!” Shiny shot back in an equally confused tone as Sunset as he advanced on her. “It wasn’t even supposed to be that! It was just supposed to be two friends seeing a replay with a bunch of other friends. We weren’t supposed to-well, she kissed me!” Then, the white unicorn’s checks took on a red hue as he broke eye contact. “And, um...well, e-even if Cadance is a better kisser, we could, um….j-just practice until you get...as...good?”

Despite the fact that his come on faltered at the end, Sunset had to smile at the fact Shiny had tried such a move at all. Because of that and the way his adorable blush put her off guard, the amber alicorn didn’t respond in time to stop Shining Armor from kissing her again. It was sloppy, full of hesitation, and the little stallion trembled at her touch.

But that didn't make it any less glorious for her. Sunset found herself unable to resist her urges. She opened her lips and joined her tongue to Shiny’s before sliding across it and diving into his mouth. The lingering taste of cantaloupe tickled Sunset’s taste buds as she advanced, pushing Shining Armor back until she heard his rear impact the kitchen’s sink area.

A second later, Sunset led Shiny in rearing up before she pressed him up against the setup for drying dishes behind them and placed her pony-arms under his to make Shining Armor straighten up all the more. Then Sunset used the minor amount of motion still available to her wings and wrapped them around the smaller pony.

The duel of tongues continued as Shining Armor flailed his forelegs around for a moment in an obvious attempt to get them low enough to grab Sunset's cutie mark. But with Sunset’s uncompromising pony-arms in the way, he ended up reaching forward to place his fetlocks on her wings and rubbing them as he fought to maintain his upright stance. Something that Sunset’s body found extremely agreeable.

When the kiss broke and Shining Armor sucked in a breath, Sunset licked her lips as she brought her head up a little to whisper in her little stallion’s ear. “Mmmm Shiny, you taste good,” the lustful amber alicorn said before she extended her tongue to run it along the outer edge of Shining Armor’s ear.

Sunset's wings picked up a minute shudder in Shiny’s body from the action, which only spurred on to hold her little stallion closer and go in for another round of tongue wrestling. After locking lips, Sunset dominated her Shiny’s mouth, barely able to hold herself back from barreling forward with the amount of force that would have caused injury to her little pony.

Once again, the idea of teleporting away to a bed appeared in Sunset’s mind. She could pop them up to Shiny’s room as they were and pin him to the bed. There would be another kiss, and then Sunset would run her tongue up Shiny's horn to really get him in the mood before she introduced Equestria to the cowgirl position.

Part of her tried to protest, but it was quickly shut down by the reality of the situation. Sunset was giving up everything for Twilight. She was going to spend the next three years in a magicless hell, and she had saved whole realities on two separate occasions. For that, she deserved some fucking horse cock!

And Sunset would claim what was hers, consequences be damned!

“Princess Sunset?” a light female foal’s voice cut in, kicking the amber alicorn’s train of thought off its tracks and turning it into an unsalvageable wreck. “What’re you and Shiny doing?”

The fire in her veins turned to ice, and Sunset broke her embrace with Shining Armor to turn around and see a tiny purple unicorn standing behind her. “T-Twilight!” the demigoddess that could create hurricanes with ease stuttered in fear as the tiny horse barely capable of using magic looked up at her in curiosity. “I um, that’s…”

Then, Sunset noticed something even more horrifying than the lavender unicorn. Standing next to Twilight was a pink pretty pony princess wearing the biggest shit-eating grin that Sunset had ever seen her with. “She’s just helping Shiny clean his teeth, Twilight,” Cadance replied.

Sunset winced as the reality of the situation hit her. She had been kissing Shining Armor, a stallion she sure as hell didn’t deserve and who in turn deserved better than her. Idiot. You’re supposed to be giving him to Cadance!

Twilight’s ears dropped a little. “Oh, I was hoping they were making out,” she said before her eyes widened as they fell on the floor. “Hey, what happened to the snacks?”

Grateful for the distraction, Sunset looked down to the floor and suppressed a wince. The two plates Shiny had been holding earlier were on the ground in pieces, their cargo as well. When did that happen?

“Great,” Shining Armor mumbled before he sighed before looking back at the gutted fruit and up at the nearest clock. “Well, there’s still time for me to make more before the guys show up.”

Cadance’s victory smirk disappeared, to be replaced by a look of concern. “Sunset, can you do anything?”

“Well, fixing the plates is easy. But the fruit is organic, so cleansing spells are out,” she said before beginning to even consider the problem. Even Sunset’s telekinesis wasn’t fine enough to remove all the microbes that covered the pieces of juicy fruit that had fallen to the floor. In fact, the only thing she could even think of that might solve the problem was…completely undoing the accident.

Which was stupid.

To fix the problem in front of her, Sunset would have to actually rewind time within a localized field so it wouldn’t affect the rest of Equestria.

The very idea was a major misuse of magic.

Not to mention extremely reckless.

And it would be…

Well…

It would...also be something Twilight Sparkle had never been able to do.

Sunset looked over to the little filly glancing up at her before turning a disappointing eye towards the melon balls. Even though she had become an alicorn, the way it came about constantly remind Sunset that she was nowhere near what Twilight Sparkle would become, and never would be. Celestia had cast her out as a failure and hadn’t bothered to send a single message to the lost pony even after Twilight got her hooves on the journal in all the time the lines of communication had been open to them. It more than told Sunset what Celestia, what her Celestia thought of the exiled mare.

That Sunset wasn’t even worth the time to write a letter.

That all the time she spent learning magic was a waste.

That she had never been worth anything.

That she was trash.

Sunset grit her teeth as she glared at that Celestia in her mind.

The Celestia who hadn’t bothered to come to the human world herself.

The Celestia that didn’t care she reformed.

The Celestia that probably never would have been able to figure out how to survive on her own in the human world for years, not to mention figure out how to harness a completely new type of magic that worked on a completely different set of rules!

The Celestia who had told her the limits of time manipulation magic.

The Celestia that Sunset would put in her fucking place!

Sunset pushed down the nervousness in the back of her mind and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Hey Shiny, come over here real quick,” the amber alicorn asked her not-coltfriend that was supposed to be getting together with her best friend as she walked over to the other two mares in the room and took a moment to look back at the little unicorn filly.

“Okay,” he replied before following through. Once out of the area of danger, Shining Armor looked over to Sunset. “Now what?”

The amber alicorn took her eyes off the lavender unicorn and silenced the growing doubts in her mind. If she managed to do what couldn’t be done in front of Twilight Sparkle, it would just encourage the filly to try all the more when she became Celestia’s student.

Not to mention it would answer a nagging question about how Sunset ended up in Equestria’s past.

And finally show that damn old oversized nag with her giant posterior that Sunset Shimmer was a better student than she ever thought possible!

A bit of pride made Sunset stand up that much taller than everypony else in the room as she smirked at her own genius solution. “Simple, I’m going to rewind time in a localized area until the accident is undone.”

While the two less than omega-level intellect ponies gave Sunset looks of wide-eyed wonder, Twilight’s response was more skeptical. “Wait a second. Doesn’t Starswirl’s third law of temporal magics state that once an event has been done, it can’t be undone?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Twilight's response to her declaration. “Just how in the hell does a mare of your age know the laws of temporal magics?

“Because it's Starswirl,” Twilight replied simply with a blank expression, as if the question itself was ludicrous.

Instead of continuing the argument, Sunset made a mental note to bring Twilight some real children’s books for the next time she visited and lit up her horn. “Yeah well Twilight, I’m gonna teach you something more important than that,” she said before looking away from the filly and giving the task at hand a serious frown. “Rules are meant to be broken.”

Her being in Equestria as an alicorn was proof of that.

Sunset started off with a basic temporal stasis field, freezing the area where she and Shiny had been standing in time while everything else around them continued on like normal. Then, the amber alicorn ran through a quick test of fast forwarding the time bubble, followed by rewinding it to the beginning of its creation.

“Okay,” Shining Armor said. “Now what?”

The question got a sap of a reply from Sunset. “Quiet, Shiny! I've got to concentrate.”

After ignoring the other pony’s apology, Sunset looked back to the problem before thinking back to her second week in Equestria. After seeing Twilight, Sunset had dived deep into research on temporal magic to try and figure out how she had traveled back in time. Of course, the only explanation she could come up with didn’t make much sense, and was quickly thrown aside.

Sunset knew there was no way the temporal axis of the dimension could be reversed. The amount of power it would take for something like that would have been more than all the ponies in Equestria could manage even if all their magic was poured into a single being with a pair of extra alicorns as powerful as Celestia thrown in.

But, hers was a different problem. Sunset already knew she could affect a temporal field as small as the one in front of her. The problem Sunset was facing was reversing the effects of time inside of a temporal field before it existed.

That was the impossibility.

Then again, I do the impossible at least three times a day, Sunset told herself. Sure, that was according to human standards. But it was good enough for a creature that had lived with them for years.

Sunset reached out with her magic and grabbed the temporal bubble. Holding the thing in her power, Sunset decided her first attempt would be the most basic of ideas. She would try and brute force her way through until either time turned back more than it was supposed to, or the bubble popped from the strain.

But first, Sunset thought to herself before she wove a tapestry of protection spells around herself and the others as well as a teleportation safeguard that would send the three other ponies to the other side of Griffonstone if the wards were breached before she could stop whatever went wrong.

For a brief second, Sunset found a bit of doubt and worry rising in her mind. But she did a quick shake of her head to clear it away. Nah, it’ll be fine. At the most, the house would be destroyed. If that happened, Sunset could leave Twilight with a mansion and enough money that her family was set for life to compensate for the emotional trauma of losing their home.

Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Sunset sent more magic into the bubble to help reinforce it before turning the small space back on its temporal axis. The .000001 second that had passed inside the bubble since Sunset started the process was undone, and she felt the bubble lurch as it resisted her commands.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sunset told her creation before she drew on more of her magical energies and threw them into forcing that section of reality to obey her demands.

But, with reality being a giant bitch goddess that cared little for the desires of a single pony, the temporal field continued to resist her magic. It groaned and moaned and made various other strained sounds, forcing Sunset to pour more magic into the bubble to keep it from popping before she set herself back to the task of rewinding time.

“Uh...S-Sunset?” Cadance spoke up nervously.

For the first time since becoming an alicorn, Sunset pushed as much power as she could into her horn, more than when she was teaching, relearning her magic the weeks prior, or even when she was being examined by the doctors under Celestia and told to use the full extent of her magic. The feeling of mystical strain began to creep in, but Sunset pushed forward while reinforcing the field to make sure it wouldn’t break.

“Sweet Celestia!” Shining Armor’s said from what sounded like a distance.

A minute later, Sunset felt the familiar strain of horn stress as she hit what was the limit of her alicorn magic. Even then, the winged pony pushed forward and...winced when the backlash surge ignited a fire in her brain.

Oh come on! Sunset shouted at herself. This can’t be all I can do! Sure it's just a stupid dessert, but everyone's watching me. It’s just like the games, when everyone worked so hard and then I took over and screwed up at the end. I’m not going to stumble and fall flat on my face in front of my friends again!

Despite the pain, Sunset looked within herself to try and find something, a hidden reserve to draw on. Her legs wobbled, her wings sagged, and her head hurt as she put everything she was into her horn while still searching for else she could use.

And then...she found it.

Sunset felt a major flow of energy separate from the three major areas of pony magic within her. The surprise of the find nearly made her lose her concentration and caused another flare in her migraine, but Sunset powered through the pain. After that, tracking whatever it was back to its source was easy.

Location-wise, Sunset felt a warm glow coming from within her, somewhere in her chest area. The magic felt familiar, and yet foreign at the same time, an outside force that she had encountered before had naturalized inside of her. It didn’t take long for Sunset to recognize what the magic was. It was the power that had been left inside of her after wearing Twilight’s crown. The power she had taken from her friends. Although the discovery of its existence made her frown. The amount of energy in the mana pool was enormous in the extreme.

Shock ran through the alicorn's mind at the discovery, so much so she nearly lost hold on her magic altogether. Although Sunset understood that the problems with her wings and strength came from the extra magic within her since first seeing Twilight and feeling it respond to her, the amount of power that it really was made a terrifying shiver run down her spine.

This much magic...if I had been drawing on it at max from the time I woke up, I…. Sunset banished the thought from her mind before it could finish.

But...I know about it now, and…I… Sunset hesitated and looked at the temporal field in front of her that was barely holding itself together. For the first time since her experiment began, the amber alicorn took note of just how much magical energy was floating around in a spell that looked ready to fall apart at the drop of a hat. If she stopped the experiment now, there would definitely be a magical backlash that would level Twilight’s home.

...and more.

Much more.

But I can just...buy her a new one, Sunset thought with none of the blind confidence she felt earlier when she began her attempt to… Show off. Face it girl, you were showing off. Twilight said you couldn’t do something, and you just charged right in to show her how powerful you were.

Idiot, the uncrowned pony told herself. This is why you’ll never be a real princess. You get a little bit of power, and throw it around like the idiot you are. You belong on Earth, where you can’t do this kind of crap ever again!

Sunset would have continued to berate herself, but she felt her dangerous experiment become even more unstable and refocused her attention on it. Okay stupid, time to clean up your mess. Give yourself just enough energy to reinforce the field and then… The amber alicorn took a second to run through some advanced calculations in her head. Alright, so…if I can manage to reverse time that should burn up the energy and I can safely bleed the magic in the field off into the air.

The little bit of irony that the only way to avoid causing a disaster was by finishing the job she had started did occur to Sunset, but she didn’t bother rolling her eyes at the idiocy of the universe before she reached out and turned the trickle of magic flowing from the power she stole from her friends into a small stream.

A small grunt escaped Sunset’s lips as she felt a surge of energy flow through her. Then there was a brief image of the mountain they were all on shattering that flashed through her mind, and Sunset locked her legs to keep from taking a single step and making it come true as she tried to wrap her mind around just how much power was rushing through her body.

“So pretty,” Sunset absently heard Twilight mumble in awe.

This...is is the magic Twilight had in her crown? Sunset asked herself. It made the magic she held as an alicorn look like nothing! And the fact she was only tapping into a part of it had the amber alicorn’s wings twitching like mad.

Is this what it's like for Princess Celestia? Sunset knew that her mother was more powerful than the average alicorn, and that power came from an outside source. Plus, she couldn’t really imagine her mother allowing a pony to be more powerful than her. As much as she loved her mother, Sunset had to admit Celesta was a bit of a control freak that demanded absolute obedience and would throw out even the pony she called daughter over something as stupid having a book thrown at her!

Aaaaaaand I'm getting distracted, the overloading alicorn told herself before she focused her attention back on what was important and ordered time to rewind again.

This time, when the nature of reality pushed back and started to complain, Sunset gave it the metaphorical slap to the face to make it shut fuck up and do as she told it to before forcing her will upon the magic and making it obey. A feeling of vertigo passed over Sunset that nearly caused her to fall over, but she held her ground and pushed forward.

Inside the bubble, colors inverted and a feeling of nausea passed through Sunset. Despite the fact she was succeeding, the amber alicorn felt no joy as she watched the plates become surrounded by Shining Armor’s magic despite him not being there and float back up into the air.

This… Sunset thought as she resisted the urge to throw up as the magic she was holding twisted in response to what she was making it do. This is wrong. I shouldn't have done this. I've got to...to… Before the idea to quit could get done passing through her head, Sunset took a look at the mystical energies involved in her spell. The energy that had been building up because of the spell’s inability to move forward had been drained off. So all I need to do is-gah!

The amber alicorn’s thoughts were cut off when her vision insured by her hair suddenly flying in front of her face right as some idiot pulled back some curtains or something, because Sunset was nearly blinded despite her mane covering her eyes. If anything, all her locks did was give the light yellow and red hues. The combined phenomena also made Sunset lose hold of the spell holding everything together.

“Oh no! Nonononono!”

A second later, Sunset let out as gasp as she felt her horn wink out and threw her head to the left sharply to see how much destruction would be caused by the crumbling of her temporal field. Only to watch the area under the effects of her magic become surrounded in a transparent crystal that quickly crumbled into nothingness.

But there was no explosion, black hole, or other reality-ending event that Sunset's mind had feared would come in the last few moments of her experiment. On top of which, Shining Armor’s magic from the rewind that held the platters lasted long enough for Sunset to stare absently for a full second before fading away. It was enough to grab the plates the with her magic though.

Then the amber alicorn began to turn around, and tensed before taking a single step. Oh, right...earthquake hooves are still on, She told herself before reaching back inside of herself and putting a proverbial cork on the unnatural power source she had stolen from her friends and Twilight. It didn’t completely stop the flow of magic, but the small stream was once again reduced to a trickle. “Okay...that was...um…”

Some unseen light in the room dimmed, and Sunset felt her mane no longer blow in the breeze.

Before Sunset could get out the words really stupid, Twilight let out an excited squeal. “That was amazing! Princess Sunset how did-”

Said pony winced. “No, Twilight. It was-”

“That was more magic than I've ever felt in my life! Even Princess Celestia didn't show that much at the Summer Sun Celebration!”

“She’s just...better at controlling it,” Sunset informed her in an unsure tone.

The explanation did nothing to stop the assault of questions coming from the lavender unicorn, if she even heard them. “And how did you do that with your mane? It was just like-”

“Twilight,” Sunset grumbled before reaching up to her head, but stopped herself from making the pain worse with her hooves. When Sunset looked back down at the lavender unicorn, Twilight was attentively gazing up at her with a look of almost worshipful attention. “You guys got something for a headache?”

The filly began to gallop off before she began to speak. “I’ll get you something right away Princess!”

As soon as Twilight disappeared from her sight, Sunset turned around and…blinked at the two other ponies just staring at her in states of shock. After closing Shiny’s mouth with her hoof, the amber alicorn let out another little groan and slumped down both from the exhaustion of using so much magic and the weight of what she had done. “Yeah, I know that was a stupid idea. No need to tell me. I…need to go lie down for a few. Wake me when the guys get here.”

It took Cadance a full minute to move after Sunset jumped onto the couch and snuggled up to one of the larger pillows. Any other time she probably would have made a comment about how cute the normally abrasive alicorn was to needle her just a little and help relieve some of the feelings in her own heart that just needed to be said, but the pink princess thought it better to let sleeping gods lie.

“That was um...that...uh...yeah, that…”

Cadance nodded with Shining Armor in agreement. “I know,” she said before glancing down at the unicorn’s trembling hooves. Although she could understand his awe of Sunset’s power, that little sign of fear made Cadance frown. Sure, the pink princess had slid back into such a reaction when it came to Sunset plenty of times, but Shining Armor had never known her as a bully. So the other half of Shiny’s reaction killed some of the sympathy she felt for the colt. “Alright now, come on. We’ve got to finish setting things up.”

When Shining Armor didn’t move, Cadance let out a tiny sigh and reached out to put a comforting wing across his back, then moved it more towards his rear to start guiding the other pony towards the kitchen. Thankfully, Shiny did what he was supposed to do and grabbed the food in his magic despite what Cadance could only call a shell shocked expression still being in place on his face.

After getting him down into the basement and setting down the food, Cadance let out a little sigh and looked over to the other pony. “Oh come on, was it really that surprising?”

“Yes!” Shining Armor exclaimed as his spun and met Cadance eye to eye. “That was just-I mean, I knew you alicorns were powerful, but...that was, I thought Sunset had already shown everything she could do she the two of you had that argument! But that was nothing compared to-”

Cadance put a hoof on Shiny’s mouth to stop him from talking. “Okay, yes. What Sunset just did was kinda...unnerving,” the pink princess admitted to Shining Armor while forcing herself to keep a steady tone. If Sunset had shown that kind of power two weeks ago right or after Cadance had gotten her horn and learned to sense magic, even Princess Celestia wouldn’t have been able to coax Cadance out from underneath her bed. “But let's be honest. Does what you just saw change anything other than the fact Sunset can use even more magic than you thought she could before?”

“Well...um...no,” Shiny admitted, albeit reluctantly.

Cadance nodded. “Good. Now, you finish setting things up. I’ll go pull Twilight away from Sunset so she can get some rest.” After seeing the way that little filly had looked at the bigger alicorn, Cadance knew she’d be wanting to talk Sunset’s head off.

Or make her go off, Cadance thought to herself with a bit of dread. While Sunset had improved, she still had one hay of a temper when pushed to the limit. The thought made Cadance go up the stares that much quicker.

By the time she got back to the living room, Cadance saw that her worries were already beginning to come true. Sunset was laying on the couch with her face towards the back of the cushy seat while Twilight, completely misreading the mood, sounded like she was in the middle of a barrage of questions. “-and how do you do that with your mane? It looked just like-”

“Twilight,” Cadance said to the excited filly loud enough to get her to stop talking, but hopefully soft enough to keep from making Sunset’s headache worse. “Do you have everything you need to start the game?”

The lavender unicorn stopped talking and turned around to look up at Cadance. “Well...no. You and Princess Sunset showed up early and I got knocked off schedule.”

Seeing Twilight with an almost guilty expression made Cadance soften her tone. “Alright then Twilight. How about you go and get ready, okay?”

Although it was obvious from her body language she didn’t want to, Twilight nodded and turned to leave. “Okay.”

Once the filly was out of sight, Cadance looked back down to Sunset after hearing the amber alicorn groan. “Are you okay?”

“Well, my head is pounding and every part of my body hurts. Plus, my stomach won't stop doing backflips,” Sunset replied in a pitiful voice. “Remind me to never do anything like that again.”

After giving Sunset a few words of reassurance and using a wing to rub her back in a comforting way, Cadance’s curiosity got the better of her. “Uh, Sunset...just what happened back there?”

Cadance felt Sunset tense under her touch. “I...messed up,” she replied in a depressed whisper as she continued to face the back of the couch where Cadance couldn’t see her face.

“What do you mean?” The pink princess asked cautiously. Although part of her wanted to leave it at that and ignore the amount of magic Sunset set had been giving off, she couldn’t bring herself to just let it go. “And for that matter, what was up with all that power? You’re strong Sunset, but that was….” Terrifying. “...something else.”

The question made Sunset draw in on herself. “It...Cadance, remember how I told you about stealing magic from a bunch of my friends back on Earth?”

Cadance winced at the mention of the other world. Whenever Sunset brought it up, she usually slipped into a minor depression. “Yes.”

“That was it.”

After letting that bit of information run through her mind for a moment, Cadance frown in confusion. “But, I don’t understand. I thought you said their magic is the reason you turned into an alicorn and why you're so powerful.”

“It is,” Sunset replied.

Cadance frowned at Sunset. “But you never showed anywhere near that amount of magic before.”

There were a few seconds of silence before Sunset set let out a loud sigh. “That’s because...well, it's mostly...sealed away.”

“Mostly?” Cadance asked.

Once again, Sunset set took a few seconds before answering. “Yeah,” she replied before volunteering some more information after a brief pause. “Normally, I just access a tiny bit of that power. But this time…”

“You used all of it,” Cadance finished for her.

“Well, more like a fourth of it, but yeah,” Sunset replied.

A...fourth, Cadance thought as she worked to wrap her mind around what the goddess in front of her just said. “Well, that’s...um…”

“Stupid,” Sunset said before Cadance could come up with something nice to say. “It was really stupid. I overtaxed my magic pathways and put all of you in danger just so I could show off. Not to mention how I twisted that magic and used it for a purpose it was never meant for.”

Seeing her best friend slip deeper down into her pity party, Cadance steeled herself and stepped forward to give Sunset a hug. “Stop it,” the pink princess gently commanded. “If you made a mistake, then the best thing to do is not repeat it. You are a wonderful pony Sunset. I'm not going to let you beat yourself up for something like this when all you did was break some stupid magical rule I don't even understand.”

Sunset moved to pull away from Cadance. “But-”

The pink princess rolled Sunset onto her back, which had the unfortunate side effect of making her fall off the couch. Cadance ignored that as she moved to stand directly over Sunset and glared down at the amber alicorn. “Okay fine, you want to be like this, we’ll do it this way then,” Cadance told her in an assertive tone. “Since I'm the only real alicorn princess in the room, that means you do what I say, when I say it. And I am bucking ordering you to stop feeling sorry for yourself! You are a good pony, a wonderful friend, and as of two minutes ago, the most amazing magic user in all of Equestria! So you are going to get back on that couch. You are going to have a good rest. And when it comes game time, you are going to come downstairs and show everypony else how amazing you are, got it?”

Sunset looked up at Cadance with wide eyes, and gulped. “Y-Yes ma’am.”

Although she lay on the couch for the better part of an hour after Shiny’s friends came over and everypony got everything set up, Sunset didn’t get much rest. While the pills Twilight provided took care of her headache and Sunset’s earth pony magic handled the majority of her exhaustion, Sunset couldn’t clear her mind of distracting thoughts.

The guilt Sunset had been feeling was easy enough to deal with. She had long since found a way to make it annoying feeling in the back of her mind that only caused a constant mild discomfort but allowed her to continue to function while wearing a mask of serenity like Celestia had taught her. However, Celestia had never given Sunset instructions on how to ignore thoughts about the most beautiful pony alive getting right in her face and acting hotter than she ever had before.

While Sunset had gone much further with Cadance in her dreams, the dream construct of the pink princess had been little more than a submissive wet dream, encouraging Sunset to do things the amber alicorn wouldn’t have asked her best friend to go through with since leaving Equestria.

In contrast, the real Cadance had acted...hot.

And not for the first time, either.

Whereas Sunset’s memories of the Cadance from the previous timeline had been that of a milksop that didn’t deserve the horn that been added or the title to go with it, the Cadance she had gotten to know in the past two weeks was a very different pony. While the pink princess was soft on the outside and projected a gentle nature, it hid a will as hard as steel that Sunset couldn’t help but respect and admire.

If the two of them really did end up having sex, Sunset knew that Cadance would be giving as good as she got. Which actually excited her even more than a Cadance that would present herself on command and do even the trickiest of things.

Although...if Cadance was both enthusiastic and willing to do the more out there acts… Sunset’s body shivered in pleasure at just considering the possibilities.

So, while Sunset’s mind was preoccupied with considering just how a night of passion with Cadance would go, she didn’t notice the other pony until she felt a hoof touch her shoulder. “Princess Sunset? We’re um...ready to start now.”

The amber alicorn turned her head and blinked as she found Shining Armor standing behind her. The sudden appearance of the white unicorn came along with a guilty realization. Just moments ago, she had been kissing Shining Armor like he was her personal riding pony, and minutes later, the amber alicorn had switched to fantasizing about Cadance like what she and the stallion shared was nothing.

“Oh, Shiny. Um… g-give me a second,” Sunset told him before taking a deep breath and doing her best to clear her head. The last thing she needed was to go downstairs with thoughts of Cadance being sexy on her mind.

“Princess...about earlier….”

Dammit, not now, Sunset thought to herself. But, since she didn’t want to just blow him off, the amber alicorn forced herself to remain steady. “Yes Shiny?”

“I…I really do like you.”

Sunset took a deep breath. “And Cadance?” she asked while her mind swirled with a mix of worry and possible feelings on top of heartache. “The two of you did kiss. And let's be honest Shiny, she’s got a lot more than that going for her when it comes to relationships. You two would be great together.”

“I...I know.”

Before Shining Armor could continue, Sunset rolled around to force him back as she stood up. “Look, let's just put that on hold for now, okay?” she asked as she looked down at him. “This really isn’t the time for relationship drama.”

A strangely confused look on Shiny’s face as she looked up at the taller pony disappeared as he nodded. “Okay,” he agreed before leveling off his gaze and looked forward at Sunset’s throat. “That’s...yeah. That’s a good idea.”

Thankful he agreed, because Sunset doubted she could stop him if Shiny pressed the issue, the amber alicorn trotted past her little unicorn and headed towards the basement while considering just how in the hell she was supposed to deal with this.

You’ve got one week left, Sunset told herself. You have got to get the two of them together!

She forced herself to conjure an image of Shining Armor and Cadance making out. This time, the idea of Shiny with the pink pony didn’t ignite the possessive feelings that it had before when she had her tongue down the young stallion’s throat. Instead, it just made Sunset depressed. The thought of the two of them going out to dinner got a similar response. It did make Sunset jealous. But not in the way that made her want to bash Cadance over the head. All she could do was feel bad about not being there.

Then came the next mental image in the natural progression. In Sunset’s mind, Cadance lay on Shiny's bed with her tail raised before the white unicorn came up from behind and reared up before mounting the pink princess and…

Oh...oh, that’s… hot, Sunset thought as she continued to imagine Shining Armor and Cadance having sex. The amber alicorn gulped as the scene continued to play on in her head, making her heart...heated. But not in the vengeful way. Unlike before, there was no feeling of loss or jealousy. If anything, imagining the two of them together in such a way just made Sunset want to see it happen in real life.

And after getting Cadance to neigh in climax while the sweat from the effort made Shining Armor’s coat glisten in a way it could only in her head, the reality of the situation crashed into Sunset and brought her to a dead stop at the bottom of the stairs. Oh, pony! the amber alicorn thought with wide eyes as she realized what was going on. I’m a fucking voyeur.

“Princess Sunset?”

A shiver of terror ran through Sunset’s mind at the mention of her name and she looked forward to see the rest of the nerd herd along with the little purple pony giving her odd looks. “Yes?” The amber alicorn asked while a dreaded thought ran through her mind. Oh buck, don’t tell me I said that last part out loud.

“Did...you do something different with your mane?” Gaffer asked cautiously.

Huh? Years of lying to humans at the drop of a hat gave Sunset more than what she needed to keep the confusion from sowing on her face. “Uh...no,” she said before trotting over to the table. She looked over to where Twilight was fixing to sit down, and then to the empty space beside it. “What brought that on?”

Gaffer gave out a nervous chuckle. “I dunno, you just look a little different is all,” he said. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

“Princess, come sit here!” the lavender unicorn called out.

Obeying Twilight’s command, Sunset trotted forward, and blinked when she found Cadance moving for the same spot. “Oh, Cadance! Did you want to sit...here?” she managed to ask as the pink princess went through the motions of examining the amber alicorn with a little frown on her face. “What is it?”

The question startled Cadance out of her inspection. “Nothing, it’s just...never mind,” Cadance replied before she shook of the confusion. “Sorry, thought Twily was asking me.”

“What?” Twilight cried out in alarm as her head swerved back and forth between the two princess. “I’m sorry Princess Cadance. Do you want to sit by me too? Um, that’s...uh-I-um…”

Sunset sighed at Twilight’s panic and stepped forward. “How about this?” she said before grabbing Twilight up in her magic and sitting down at the table where the filly’s stuff was. Then Sunset levitated Twilight into her lap and wrapped her pony-arms around the filly. “Cadance on the left, Shiny on the right. How’s that Twily?”

In response, the little unicorn leaned in and nuzzled Sunset’s chest. “Perfect!” Twilight said before she apparently recalled something and gave a start before looking up at the biggest pony in the room. “Princess Sunset, can you come with me and Shiny later today to watch Solar Battles? I know you saw it the other night, but…”

Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry Twilight. But there’s an errand I have to run when we’re done here,” she said.

“So you...can’t go watch the replay with me and Shiny, then?” the little purple unicorn asked before her head drooped down.

As the personification of adorableness on four legs finished plunging her dagger of guilt into Sunset’s heart, the amber alicorn closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry Twilight, but there’s something I need to do later today.”

Twilight let out a disappointed sigh. “Okay.”

“Okay everypony, get your character information out and hold it up to be scanned,” Gaffer announced. “Today, we’re finally going to be raiding the Tower of Misery.”

When the feeling of vertigo from being forced into a realized dreamstate subsided, Sunset opened her eyes to see the scenery around her had greatly improved. Not the surrounding area. That had changed from Shining Armor’s homey basement to a desolate wasteland of red sand and sparse vegetation that had had a rather menacing black tower rising in the distance.

What had changed was the company. They were still the same ponies, but...older, and they looked as if they had done something other than sit around and read books all their life. Poindexter had changed the least, but that wasn’t much of a shock since bards weren’t all that physical according to the instruction book. Eight-Bit looked to be some kind of ranger or woodsmare class with his bow and green tunic. As for Shining Armor…

Oh sweet Celestia, Sunset thought to herself as she focused on the pony in the golden armor, and gulped to keep her tongue from escaping her mouth.

“Sunset?”

Cadance had said Shiny was going to grow up to be a total hottie, and if he ended up being half as attractive as his paladin fantasy-self standing in front of Sunset, the amber alicorn was pretty sure she wouldn’t be leaving Equestria. The unicorn in front of her was still a bit shorter than Sunset, but not nearly as much as Shiny normally was. On top of which, his physique definitely put him in the beefcake category. And while the royal guards had never done much for her, seeing Shiny in his golden armor made Sunset finally understand why so many ponies said mares love a stallion in uniform.

Plus, it did nothing at all to cover his rear. Which meant Sunset would be getting a full, unobstructed few of Shiny's deliciously fit flanks all the way to their destination.

“PRINCESS SUNSET!”

The sound of her name made the amber alicorn jump to attention, only to see Shining Armor giving her a worried look. “What?”

Shiny looked her up and down. “Uh, aren’t you supposed to look...different?” he asked with a hint of caution in his voice.

Then the other two dorks joined in.

“I thought your character was suppose to have an archmagus robe.”

“And aren’t you supposed to be...um...leaner?”

Shining Armor looked up to the sky. “Hey Gaffer, what’s going on? Did Sunset’s character not load right again?”

Yeah...there seems to be a problem with that.

“Which is?” Sunset asked as she felt a bit of annoyance. If something happened to ruin this game for Twilight, she was going to smash that stupid tablet.

Well, um...you see...since this is a fantasy game, it won't let you play a character that’s not as powerful as you are in real life. So the game made a character that’s as equal to what Sunset is in real life, or as close to it as it could using the game rules, anyway.

Shining Armor blinked, then frowned in confusion. “But...Sunset’s character’s a level twenty sorceress!”

...Yeah...

Curiosity getting the best of her, Sunset concentrated for a minute and brought up the character ‘options menu’ to view her character information.

Name: Sunset Shimmer
Race: Deity
Path: Arch Mage (10th tier)
Class: Sorceress (20), Mage (20), Arcanist (20), Mind Blade (20), Fighter (10)
Str: Incalculable
Int: 30
Dex: 24
Con: Incalculable
Wis: 16
Cha: 14

Sunset shut down the character screen and looked up while keeping her mask of calm. Internally, she was a mix of confusion and worry. Incalculable? What the buck does that mean? Nothing’s incalculable. Although, she had to wonder how much of it was right.

Not an hour before, Sunset had used the magic within her to do what should have been impossible with sheer force. There had been no magical work around, no ingenious mystical formula, Sunset had simply brute forced her way through a law of magic. Not to mention that she had fallen from Canterlot without suffering even a slight bruise, and when Celestia had made the amber alicorn take all of those tests afterwards…

“Alright, Prin-ahem, Lady Shimmer,” the earth pony doctor said as he caught himself before making the same mistake as the other tribal specialists, then nodded to the large punching machine beside the two of them. “If you would just kick this with your rear right hoof, please.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and turned around to raise her leg while doing her best to hold down her annoyance. She had fallen and caused out of control winds, she didn't need to be looked at by an earth pony. Still, she did as instructed and threw her hind leg back until it struck the padded surface.

The sound of metal crying out in pain filled Sunset's ears and when she looked back behind her, she blinked as the mess of ruined metal that had been the strength measuring machine crashed into the wall.

Sunset pulled herself out of the memory and did her best not to shudder. The real worrisome thing was that she hadn’t even been kicking it seriously when she completely ruined a machine designed to take punishment from a hard working earth pony.

“Princess?” Shining Armor asked. “Is everything okay?”

After taking another breath, Sunset nodded. “Yeah I'm good,” she said. The amber alicorn looked down at her hooves and with the utmost caution and took an even more gentle step than she did while walking around Canterlot. When the planet didn’t shatter into a million pieces, Sunset let out a relieved sigh, and trotted forward. “Now come on and let's get going.”

It only took ten minutes to reach what Gaffer had dubbed The Tower of Misery, despite the fact that the trip was supposed to take much longer. While walking, Sunset got a crash course on how the game was supposed to make a bunch of nerds who knew nothing about high-level magic or combat into adventurers between getting glances at Shining Armor's butt. All the commands were verbal, meaning that each spell or move had to be called out beforehand, and the game would take care of the rest.

Which made sense, considering some of the abilities Sunset possessed would have been too much of a pain to use in real life, like her psi-swords. Because while she could use a physical force manifestation that was the basis for shield spells and mold it into a sharp blade, it would take several minutes to craft while a simple force blast powerful enough to incapacitate anything short of a T-Rex could be fired in a second.

When the party reached the tower, Sunset raised an eyebrow at the shattered remains of bipedal statues that littered the ground. From the looks of the debris, there had to have been at least six of the things. “Did somepony start without us?”

“Hey, no OOC moments,” Poindexter complained before clearing his throat and stepping forward past Sunset. “Destroyed guardian golems? Have we been beaten to the treasures within?”

A second later, 'Shining Justice' came up and joined him. “Neigh my friend. The entrance has yet to be breached,” he said before looking around, and then up. “Look! Newcomers approach.”

Following Shiny’s lead, Sunset glanced up at the sky and had to squint when the sun caught her eye. Still, she made out the form of two ponies descending from the sky. Although it wasn’t until they landed that Sunset got a good look at the two alicorns.

Which they were.

Cadance looked like she had stopped on the way to the tower to spend six months at a gym. While still insanely hot, it was an athletic hot. The pink pony had a slender but toned body that looked like it belonged more on a Wonderbolt than a princess while two pairs of extra heavy horse shoes with spikes covered her hooves. It really showed the twenty points that had been put into her STR stat.

As for Twilight, she had definitely changed the most. Although Sunset had known she would get an adult’s body once inside the game, she hadn’t been expecting it to be so...adult. It looked like Twilight had used Celestia for a model, because the purple alicorn stood six feet tall, with her horn putting her over seven. On top of which, the pseudo-corn was filled out in all the right places, with an extra few inches in the rear to give her plenty of cushioning for when it came time to sit down.

Oh...oh fuck, Sunset thought to herself as she looked at the voluptuous supermodel that Twilight had become. If it wasn’t for the fact the amber alicorn could absently feel the little cutie’s sleeping body in her arms back in the real world, she might have…

“Dude, your little sister is bucking hot,” Eight-Bit said before Shiny smacked him upside the head.

Then the fake paladin moved forward and cleared his throat. “Greetings fair ladies, I am Shining Justice, and these are my companions, Green Arrow, Master Minstrel, and Princess Glorious Morning. Who might you be?”

Twilight raised a hoof. “Uh, wait a second. Shouldn’t Princess Sunset look...different?” she asked.

“Don’t ask,” said princess replied with a little frown.

The two mares shared a look of uncertainty before Cadance stepped forward. “Hello Shining,” the athletic alicorn replied. “I am the leader of the Legion of Valorous Equines, Hot Pink, and this is my protege, the arcanus Purple Smart. We came here after hearing the pony War Lock used this tower as his base of operations.”

Sunset had to fight to hold in the groan. Seriously?

A second after Cadance finished talking, Twilight stepped forward. “We attempted to find a way inside, but there doesn’t seem to be an entrance.”

The non-problem got a snort from Sunset. “Then you make one,” she said before trotting towards the tower.

Sunset got three steps before Twilight cried out in alarm. “Princess look out!”

And Sunset found her vision obscured by a wall of purple before both of them tumbled over onto the ground. A second later, a bolt of evil magic impacted the area where Sunset had been standing. Then, some of the black metal that composed the tower folded in on itself to reveal a door, and a dull tan pony in a raggedy brown robe with a long bread and one eye that was nothing but white stepped out.

“Hold!” the old pony said. “Hold adventurers! Only the worthy may enter the Tower of Misery!”

A second later, Sunset felt the weight come off of her as Twilight scrambled to get off of the smaller fake alicorn. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry Princess! I didn’t mean to! It’s just that these legs are so long, I tripped over myself! Please don’t banish me from Equestria!”

The amber alicorn and looked up at Twilight in bewilderment. It was more than a little odd to see the more-than-adult alicorn acting like…

“I don’t know what to do,” the human teenager said to herself as her finds fought amongst themselves and Sunset looked on, watching as the magic within them was slowly pulled up to where the Sirens were singing. “How could I not know what to do?”

Sunset let out a little sigh, and smiled at the oversized foal before reaching up to put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she said in a calming voice, channeling as much as her mother’s presence as she could before she took a second to give Twilight another examination with her eyes. “Uh...what’s up with the height, anyway?”

“Oh, well...um,” Twilight replied as she sank in on herself, becoming more and more nervous by the second. “W-Well, I always wanted to be just like Princess Celestia-not that you’re not just as amazing, Princess Sunset! And you’re taller than a normal pony too! In fact, you’ll probably just as tall as Princess Celestia in a few more years!”

The prospect didn’t sit well with Sunset. “Actually Twilight, the little boost of height I got after turning into an alicorn is all I’m gonna get.”

Twilight’s face scrunched up in her usual way when she ran into something confusing, but Sunset didn’t think it was half as cute on the fake adult’s face. “But, today you g-”

“Twilight,” Sunset said before the foal in the adult’s body could get them even more off track. “Your height. I’m pretty sure six feet falls outside the normal parameters.”

With the filly being reminded about their original topic, Twilight blinked and took a second to begin talking again. “Well, I decided that I’d make a unification unicorn with the pegasus and antean bloodlines.”

The odd name made Sunset frown as it blew the cobwebs off some of her earlier memories. When she had been a filly, the little unicorn had asked her adoptive mother why she was so tall. Celestia had just giggled and told the gullible child that her father had been an antean. As that was all the answer Celestial give, Sunset had to spend two days in the library reaching old legends as well as information regarding the validity of such tales.

Although she had found plenty of foal fables about the race of giant ponies that acted like everyone’s big brother, all the factual evidence Sunset found said such a species never existed. She also took it as a lesson that not everything Celestia said should be believed. So when Sunset asked the old nag why her mane sparkled and blew around the way it did, she just rolled her eyes after Celestia claimed her aunt was a ghost pony.

“So how come you didn’t go for the spectral tribe and get the mane as well?” Sunset asked the oversized foal.

Twilight looked down and poked the ground with her hoof. “Well I would have, but you can only have two extra traits,” she said before barely raising her head just a bit and giving Sunset a cautious look. “You’re not mad, are you Princess? I-I would have chosen earth pony, but they’re just so useless!”

“Hey!” Poindexter whined as he stood between his two friends. “Earth ponies are vital to the survival of the equine species! We grow all the food, and we’re the best at preparing it too!”

Shining Armor got a confused frown on his face halfway through Poindexter's defense of his tribe. “But...You don’t do either of those things.”

“HEY!” the elderly pony standing at the entrance to the tower shouted. “Are you going to take the test of worthiness, or not?”

Huh...I forgot he was there, Sunset thought to herself before she came up with a much more agreeable response. “Yeah well, I really think that nipping Twilight’s tribalism in the bud is more important than dealing with a pony that’s just going to stand there and wait until we’re done.”

“How is saying earth ponies add nothing useful to an alicorn's abilities tribalist?” Twilight asked in a voice that sounded much too innocent.

Sunset sighed and reached up to rub her forehead. “Because it’s not true Twilight. Me having some earth poniness in me is what makes me so strong.”

“But your deity level magic more than dwarfs that incentive,” Twilight pointed out. “Plus, with all the seismic activity you cause, I think the supernatural strength is more detrimental than it is positive.”

With the adult filly countering her argument so easily, Sunset found herself floundering. “Okay, but there’s also an earth pony’s...Um...Uh…” Unable to come up with anything else, Sunset looked over to the evil NPC that was still waiting on them. “Look, we should probably get going so….yeah. Bring on those worthiness tests!”

The entry villain blinked. “Uh...Okay,” he said before clearing his throat and standing up a little straighter. “Very well! Bring forth the first to be tested in the trial of questions?”

Sunset nodded before calling up her magic. There was an odd feeling in the back of her mind that made her think, natural telekinesis spell, before Poindexter was lifted into the air and flung forward to meet the NPC . “This one's your's nerd.”

With her luck, Gaffer had programed the thing with stupid trivia that Sunset had long since forgotten or just never bothered learning. Plus, she needed to see an earth pony that didn’t shove her big brother’s head in a toilet get a little glory if their previous conversation was any indication.

After the earth pony musician landed in front of the NPC on his stomach, Poindexter stood up and brushed himself off. “Okay, hit me,” the nerd said. With was then followed by a wide-eyed expression of terror. “Which is just an expression indicating my desire to be asked a question, not a request for actual violence!”

Either unaware of the pony’s unease or just uncaring, the old stallion spoke again. “What is your...favorite color?”

Sunset blinked at the absurdity of the question. Are you kidding me?

In front of her, she watched the earth pony get a little nervous. “It’s um... mulberry.”

“What is your quest?”

“To defeat the evil unicorn War Lock.”

“What is the number between one and three?”

Poindexter cocked his head to the side. “Two?”

The NPC snorted and stepped aside. “You may pass,” he said before looking to the others “Now, who shall be the next to attempt my trial?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “I can see where this is going,” she said before stepping forward to within a foot of the NPC. “Okay, let's get this over with.”

“What is your-” was all the pony managed to say before Sunset struck him in the face with her hoof from the side and sent the old pony flying off into the distance and beyond their sight.

With that obstacle out of the way, Sunset turned around and smiled at Twilight. “See Twilight? If I had used my horn, then he would of seen the attack coming. Earth pony power. Now let's get going.”

Eight-Bit cleared is throat. “Um Princess, I don’t think we were supposed to do things that way.”

“Yeah well, royalty makes its own rules,” Sunset replied before she trotted forward into the tower.

The interior to the Tower of Misery looked about as evil bad guy bland as the outside. A long hallway of black stone that went on for far too long to be housed in the tower they had just entered led them to a room that was barren of any furniture aside from the torches on the wall. Aside from that, the only other thing Sunset found worthy of note was the three alcoves, one on each wall, with a strange symbol drawn in the middle of each one.

“What’re those supposed to-”

(Arcane knowledge check succeeded)

Sunset blinked as a text box appeared above the symbols, explaining what they did. “Oh, so they’re teleportation circles.”

All of a sudden, a dark mist creeped up from the center of the room to coalesce into the shape of a familiar looking elderly pony. “Hold adventurers!” The specter spoke as he floated in midair.

“Uh, didn’t I just kill you?” Sunset asked.

The ghost turned to glare at Sunset. “Something as simple as death can not stop a guardian from fulfilling his appointed duty!”

From her place between Sunset and Twilight, Cadance sat down to knock her hooves together in a showing of an idea coming to light. “Oh! So you’re like some kind of NPC guide for the players then?” Cadance asked.

When the ghost just gave them a look of confusion, Twilight leaned down to whisper in the pink alicorn’s ear. “Princess Cadance, no OOC!”

“I am the-” was all the ghost said as Sunset pulled up her character information sheet and scanned through her extremely long list of spells and abilities. Although she did hear him mention that each teleportation circle would only take two ponies. When she found the feat she was looking for, Sunset conjured a pair of force weapons.

“But be warned! For War Lock is ready to summon the-GAaaah!” The ghost screamed as Sunset plunged her force sword into his chest, and then silenced the dead creature by swinging the battle-axe she had created from pure magic to chop off its head.

“Princess Sunset!” Eight-Bit said as the ghost faded from view. “What was that for?”

The amber alicorn looked back to the pegasus. “What? That was completely in character.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “How is destroying the helpful ghost in character?”

“What are you talking about? That was the ghost of a guy who controlled the evil security system that nearly zapped me. If anything, he was trying to make us walk into a trap,” Sunset said before she stood up a little taller. “So, I just saved our lives.”

When none of the ponies brought an objection to her point and only looked around at each other nervously, it was Cadance who broke the silence. “Okay, but now what do we do? It’s not like we have a lot of options here, Sunset.”

The amber alicorn rolled her eyes. “We blast through the ceiling and skip straight to the top floor,” she explained. “Probably even take out the bad guy in the process, if not disrupt his summoning circle.”

Twilight began poking the ground with her hoof. “Um, t-that’s a good plan Princess, but...Um, well…”

Sunset sighed before she looked over to the big purple pony. “You want to go into a teleportation circle and have an adventure together?”

After taking another second to look at the ground, Twilight looked back to Sunset with a hopeful look in her eyes and nodded.

“Great!” Cadance exclaimed. “So you Twilight and Shiny-”

Seeing where this was going, Sunset quickly activated her telekinetic abilities and grabbed both Cadance and Shining Armor in her magic. “No, it’d be better if we split things up evenly,” Sunset said. Then, before Cadance could object or say she was going with anyone except the white unicorn, Sunset sent them over to the teleporter on the left. “Have fun you two!”

With Cadance and Shiny shipped off to who knew where, Sunset turned to Twilight and smiled. “Okay Twily, you ready for an adventure?”

The powerful blood arcanist Purple Smart stumbled forward as the teleportation circle deposited her in a hallway so dark she couldn’t even see the end of her muzzle. “Activate Light spell,” she cried out loud enough for her voice to reverberate through the dark halls. Her magic obeyed her command and sent ancient arcane magics through her horn to creating a soft glow of equal color to her name.

With the new light, she saw that the place that she and the amazing Princess…

Princess...

“Uh, Princess Sunset? What’s your character’s name again?”

Sunset stopped frowning at her own horn, then looked over to Twilight with a blank expression for several seconds before she replied. “Well I was supposed to be called Glorious Morning,” she said before looking back to her horn and frowning. “But my character didn’t want to load and now I can’t get my magic to work. Stupid horn.”

“Princess?” Twilight spoke up again. “You need to say the command phrase. So if you’re trying to get your horn to glow, it’s activate light spell.”

A second later, Princess Sunset said the phrase, and was rewarded with a soft blue glow coming from her horn. Then she looked around and frowned. “So, what? It’s a straight path down a dark corridor. This just screams trap.”

Seeing that Princess Glorious Morning was a little worried despite Purple’s presence, the mistress of arcane arts stepped forward to place herself between the amber alicorn and whatever danger awaited them. “Don’t worry Princess Morning! I’ll protect you from whatever villains are hiding in the darkness!”

“Um...Twilight?” Sunset asked as she ducked under the (currently) bigger pony’s wing to trot to the front, shattering the mindset the big purple pony had.

“Yes Princess Sunset?” Twilight replied.

“Is that how you want to play this?”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?”

To which Sunset paused for a moment before replying. “If you want to, we can be Princess Morning and, uh...Purple Smart, and go explore this dungeon like you and Cadance did at your house when I was pretending to be a dragon,” she offered. “Or we can be Sunset Shimmer, and her friend Twilight Sparkle, who haven’t been able to spend time together because Sunset’s had a real busy schedule.”

“Hmmm,” Twilight hmmed before she sat down and tapped her chin in thought. After a few seconds, the choice became obvious. “Let’s be Princess Sunset and Twilight!”

Sunset smiled back as she looked up at the bigger alicorn. “Okay Twily, now follow me.”

A minute of walking brought the two alicorns to a large empty chamber that extended on all sides beyond what the light of their horns provided. With a big empty chamber just screaming at her that there was some kind of big trap in the center of the room that Sunset couldn’t see, the amber alicorn turned and plotted a course around it. As Sunset led them along the right wall to see what she could make of the place, the amber alicorn occasionally looked back and up towards her companion before breaking the silence. “So Twilight, do you play this game with your brother often?”

“Not really,” she replied. “I mostly just like reading the source books and memorizing the bestiaries.”

Sunset frowned and stopped her half-hearted inspection to look back at Twilight. “Wait, he doesn’t play with you?”

The question made Twilight’s eyes widen for a second before she fell back on her plot and held up her hooves to wave them around in front of her wildly while oddly enough, her fake wings stayed down. “Nonononono! Shiny’s a great brother,” she said before becoming a little sad and looking away. “It’s just...he is nearly ten years older than me, and a colt. But he still helps me out lots! He taught me how to fly a kite and-”

Sunset held up her own hooves and let out a little laugh at Twilight’s panic. “Okay, okay I surrender and admit that Shining Armor is the best big brother a little sister could ever ask for,” she said before turning back around and put more of her attention on following the wall as it turned.

“Princess, what’s that?”

The question made Sunset stop and look back to Twilight, then to the floor ahead where she was pointing. Up ahead, there was a series of tiles with lettering on them, extending out into the darkness. She had seen the gimmick enough in human movies to know where this was going. “Oh, it’s one of those puzzles where you have to step on the right panels to get through. There’s probably some sort of trap or spell that will trigger if we don’t hit the correct sequence.”

Twilight’s expression became worried as she walked up to the edge of the lettered floor. “But, without being able to see all of the letters, how can we figure out which panels are safe and which ones will set off the trap? This isn’t fair! How can we figure out the solution when half of the problem can’t even be seen?”

“Uh...Twilight?” Sunset said to get the overgrown foal’s attention before she extended her wings. “We can fly.”

Red colored Twilight’s cheeks as she looked over to the side of her own body, and then tentatively extended her own wings. “Oh...um...right.”

Cadance frowned at the looming darkness stretched out to keep them from seeing any further than a few feet despite the fact she had a light spell centered on the point of her horn that gave everything a blueish color. Then she turned her head towards her partner as he got to his feet and sighed. “Really should have seen this one backfiring on me,” she grumbled before letting out a sigh.

In hindsight, it was disturbingly obvious. With Twilight coming along, Sunset would have done everything possible to pair up with the not so little filly. Even if Shiny had gone along with them, the chances of romance blossoming any further was slim to none thanks to the presence of the little sister.

As she watched Shining Armor get to his hooves, doubt clawed its way up from the back of Cadance’s mind. Even though she knew the two of them would be great together… Am I trying too hard with this? Cadance asked herself. When she worked on getting a couple together in the past, the pink princess would set up a ‘chance’ meeting that had a few things happen in their favor as if by magic, and the next thing she knew, they were getting hitched. But with Shining Armor and Sunset, Cadance was getting so deeply involved that she had ended up being a relationship option when it came to both of the ponies in question.

“Saw what, Princess?” Shining asked as he got up.

Cadance stiffened at the question. She thought about just telling him to ignore it, but...Shiny deserved an explanation. “I’m sorry Shining Armor,” the pink princess replied. “I had planned for you and Sunset to get separated from the rest of the group. Then, a combination of adrenaline brought on by life-threatening danger and your really hot paladin body would have had the two of you kissing by the end of the adventure at the least. That would have stirred up and focused your passion for each other, which is all over the place right now thanks to me.”

With the explanation done, Shining Armor blinked as he clearly took a second to process the information. Which made him seem all that more adorable thanks to his new body and its defined muscles. “Oh,” he said before stepping forward. “Um...are you...okay?”

The question made Cadance snort out her displeasure. “Yes, I’m trapped with my best friend’s love interest, whom Sunset is now trying to push onto me, despite the fact I bucking know she has the hots for you! I’m just miserably failing the thing my entire life is supposed to revolve around! WHY WOULDN’T I BE FINE?” she demanded...before blinking at how close Shiny’s muzzle was to hers. Which in turn made Cadance back away. “S-Sorry.”

Instead of getting angry, Shiny showed why he was the perfect stallion for ponies like Sunset by just just giving her a smile. “It’s fine. You are a bloodrager after all.”

Cadance blinked at the reply. It almost sounded like Shiny thought the game was messing with her head.

Which...Cadance couldn’t completely dismiss. They were dealing with some kind of dream realm magic after all. The pink princess had experienced plenty of dreams in which she did things she never would have done in real life and did them as if they were natural.

“Right,” Cadance replied cautiously before she filed her worries away for later to focus on the here and now. They were in a dark hallway that had a strange mural carved into both of the walls that made little sense. Various diamond dogs were depicted with a variety of weapons as if they were some kind of army soldier, but the carvings only showed one of the creatures each time, not several rows of them matching in a formation that stretched out into the distance to give a real show of numbers.

Still, Cadance had to admire the complexity of what she was seeing. If they had been playing on a tabletop, the scene before her probably wouldn’t have gotten but a sentence or two. But in the dream, the things in front of her were wonderful crafted pieces of art. She stopped to look at one of the carvings...and let out a startled shriek when it suddenly turned its head to look at her.

“Shining! That diamond dog, it just moved!” Cadance cried out in surprise as she quickly got a little closer to her companion.

As she scraping of rock alerted her to more movement, Cadance looked around to see several of the creatures pulling themselves out of the walls. Although, unlike real diamond dogs, the ones in front of her looked to actually be made of stone.

“Yeah,” Shining Armor said as he unlatched his warhammer and held it up in his magic. “It’s the old hide the artistic golem in the wall trick. I’ll deal with the ones in front of us, you take the ones that come from behind.”

Cadance looked back at the monsters emerging from the way they came with worry. “Wait a second. My character has spells. I’m a caster class. Doesn’t that mean I’m supposed to stand behind and support you?”

“No, you’re a hybrid class,” Shiny told her with a little heat in his voice. “Didn’t you read the description of your character when you made her?”

“Of course I did!” Cadance replied. “Bloodragers are passionate warriors that use their magic and martial skills at the same time to defend those that they love with all the fire in their hearts! It sounded perfect for me!”

Shining Armor looked back at her with panic in his eyes. “But you didn’t read the instructions on how to use your abilities?”

Cadance winced in embarrassment. “Um...no?”

“Ugh...okay fine. It’s okay, just activate your rage, and go crazy,” he told her.

Nodding at the instructions, Cadance look back to the oncoming group of stone opponents and gulped. For a second, she thought to ask Shining Armor for a reminder about how she was supposed to do that, but Twilight had given her enough instructions while they had been waiting for the rest of the group to show up when they were outside of the tower.

The pink princess gulped as she steadied herself for what was to come. “Uh...Activate Rage?”

Cadance’s eyes widened as she felt herself be filled with an electrifying energy while her body expanded a bit in response to the command. She didn’t get as big as Twilight’s dream body, Cadance theorized the half a foot she put on would have allowed her to be just a little bit taller than Sunset, with an even better physique that showed off an extremely athletic musculature.

Unfortunately, that was all the time she had to examine herself before one of the golems that came out of the wall charged towards her.

The sudden attack made Cadance let out a cry of surprise before she reared up in defense and blindly flailed her hooves forward in a poor defense. Only, instead of feeling her spiked horseshoes hit nothing but air, there was a slight tug that directed her attack towards the target, and Cadance’s hooves struck the stone creature right in its face to smash the thing’s head into little pieces.

With her opponent defeated, Cadance put all four legs back on the ground and blinked. Although the danger had passed, her heart continued to thunder in her chest. “That...that was kind of...cool,” she mumbled before noticing another golem moving towards her at a slow speed.

I wonder if I can… Cadance let the thought trail off, and just went with the feeling telling her to go bash another enemy. She galloped forward faster than she ever had in the real world and leaped into the air with a cry to slam one hoof right after the other into the stone creature.

Unlike the first, it didn’t go down immediately and swung back. As the large creature attacked, Cadance remembered the feeling of another pony’s hoof on her cheek, and terror of being hurt like that again filled the pink princess’s mind before the impact sent her tumbling end over end and into the nearby wall.

Although, despite the fact she was laying on her shoulders with her back up against the wall and her head resting on the floor, Cadance blinked at the lack of a pounding headache. “I...I barely felt that,” she mumbled to herself before she got back up and looked over to the golem with the cracks in it.

A part of her wondered if it was just that her character was really tough, or if it was just some game mechanics that dulled the pain, but Cadance didn’t waste much of her time with such thoughts, she just attacked again. Like the first time, she moved faster than she ever had in her life. But unlike the first time, she saw the golem’s attack coming and slid under the swipe before coming to a stop behind the creature and raising her hind legs to deliver a buck to its back. The enemy broke in two a second later.

Then, Cadance was onto another. It fell just as easily.

This is amazing, the pink princess thought as she attacked a fourth golem.

Golem five fell to the magic Cadance had access to as she called out the names of the spells, but doing such things didn’t give her nearly as much rush as using her spiked hooves. So she moved in and engaged golem number six with melee.

Is this what it’s like to be Sunset? Cadance asked herself before engaging a pair of opponents at the same time. They got some hits in, but Cadance simply laughed them off as she shattered the fake creatures with the help of the game to guide her kicks. Now I get why she’s always so physical. I feel incredible! Invincible even!

As the battle went on, Cadance laughed with glee while taking damage and dishing it out. And when she broke the ten golems that were supposed to be hers, she saw Shining Armor was a little bit behind with his half, so she moved to shatter two of them while the paladin took care of the third by jumping up in the air and coming down hard on the first one with multiple blows to the head before she pointed her horn at the other and released a lighting bolt that blew it to pieces.

The shower of pebbles made Cadance raise a wing to shield her eyes and take a second to catch her breath while she heard Shiny’s warhammer continue to pound away. The pink princess’s heart pounded in her chest, and the muscles in her legs began to ache as something at the edge of her awareness told Cadance the time limit on her ability was almost out.

With her rage nearly completely spent, Cadance lowered her wings and looked back as Shiny finished slaying the last of the golems, and...she froze.

When Cadance had first seen Shining Armor in the game, it had taken more than a little effort to keep her eyes off of him. But what she saw was even worse than when Shining Armor had come trotting along outside the tower. The unicorn was using his hammer to smash the head of his opponent, but it wasn’t the weapon that had Cadance’s attention, it was the pony wielding it.

A tiny layer of sweat covered his delicious flanks that weren’t protected by Shiny’s armor at all. His legs were tense, showing off every inch of his muscles. And the foot-long horn that glowed with a blue light gave the Princess of Love so many ideas on how to use it.

Cadance approached the smaller stallion after he finished with the golem. Just in time for Shiny to turn around and look up at her in surprise. “Oh, uh hey Cadance. What's, um….”

Whatever the stallion said was drowned out by Cadance's other senses telling her what else was going on with Shiny. He hadn’t been hurt in the fighting. In fact, the young stallion’s standing had only improved in the alicorn's eyes thanks to the thin layer of sweat covering his body. The smell filled Cadance’s nostrils with just the right amount to attract her subconscious’s interest without becoming too repugnant.

On top of which, Shiny was showing all the signs of attraction with the way he was standing, the sudden stop in speech, and the look in his eyes that was just drinking Cadance in like a mare that had been dying of thirst. There was also probably the fact that Cadance’s added height thanks to her raging transformation reminded him of Sunset, but that was only a minor part of the greater whole.

The fact was that Shining Armor wanted Cadance, he wanted her bad.

It was only natural. He had just experienced a physical workout that left his body wanting more, while giving his mind something to really celebrate. Even the incident with Buck hadn’t been able to take him that far due to the lack of a physical warm-up beforehoof.

Added to that was the level of physical attraction she felt for the war horse standing in front of her was even greater than the night Shiny had saved her from that nasty stallion. Everything she knew about Shining Armor, the future they could have together, his current level of physical attractiveness, and Cadance’s special talent were all screaming at her that she needed to make a move on him.

“Shiny? Cadance said as she took another step closer.

At the same time, Shining Armor took a step back. “Y-Yeah?” he asked between breaths.

Cadance leaned down a bit so their muzzles were inches apart. “Do you want to kiss me?”

“Y-” Shining Armor gulped. “Yeah.”

So...she did.

Thanks to her enhanced speed, size and strength, it didn’t even look like Shining Armor was aware Cadance moved until she pressed her lips up against his and lifted him up in her forelegs to press the smaller stallion against the wall. Cadance relished the feeling of her larger body dominating his in every possible way. On top of which, Shiny tasted glorious. So Cadance took the time to savor the feeling on her tongue before bringing her stallion to the ground to lay on top of him.

Dozens of ideas ran through the mind of the pink princess as she looked down on her stallion. Although the armor would make things...kinky, Cadance knew she could work it all in easily enough. She went in for another kiss and-

“WAIT!”

-froze a millimeter before reaching her target. Frustration made her limbs shake, but Cadance kept it out of her voice as she spoke. “Yes, Shiny?”

“W-Wha-What about Sunset?” Shining Armor asked between needful breaths.

Sunset? Cadance thought to herself with a frown. SUNSET IS THE ONE WHO THREW US IN HERE! It was obvious that the amber alicorn knew something was going to happen. But, she grit her teeth and pushed down the anger. “What about her?”

“Me and Sunset made out in the kitchen before we came downstairs,” Shining Armor told her quickly.

Cadance opened her mouth to shout some expletives that would have made Twilight’s ears bleed. But before she could, the Princess of Love’s talent told her what such an action meant and stole the wind from her sails. As the realization began to calm her down, Cadance felt as if Shining Armor began to grow a little beneath her, then noticed it was her own body decreasing in mass. It looked as if her character’s rage ability had finally worn off.

“I...see,” she said before sighing and laying her head on Shining Armor’s barrel.

The two of them stayed like that for a minute before Shiny spoke again. “You know, my life was so much simpler a month ago. Now I’ve got three alicorns poking their horns into everything I do.”

Cadance rolled her eyes and snorted at the statement. “Oh please Shiny, I got involved because Sunset...wait a second,” the pink princess said before she raised her head up and gave Shining Armor a cautious look. “What do you mean three alicorns?”

“Um, well...the day after our date, Princess Celestia summoned me to the castle and…”

“And how exactly do you know what it’s like to kiss my daughter?” the extremely powerful pony that was twice Shining Armor’s size asked as she towered over him with an irritated expression.

Shining Armor gulped right before he felt his mouth begin to move in response to Celestia’s question on its own accord. “Because we’ve done it before. We’ve done it a lot, actually,” he told the goddess with the ever narrowing eyes. “The first time was when she saved me from this dragon, which really wasn’t a dragon because we were just dreaming as part of this magical game. So, the first time we really kissed was when Sunset brought me home after this pony named Buck attacked me at school. She carried me into my bed and got on top of me and we started m-making out.”

The heat of the room jumped nearly ten degrees at Shining Armor’s admission, and the smaller stallion sank closer to the floor, turning Celestia into an even more imposing figure than she had been before Shiny told her he had kissed Sunset. “And is that all you did?”

“I-I’m not sure what you mean,” he squeaked.

Celestia snorted, and Shining Armor thought he saw steam come out from her nose. “Did you have sex with my daughter?”

The demand made Shining Armor’s eyes go wide in fear. “N-No Princess Celestia. I didn’t. All we ever did was sleep together in the park,” he explained. Which got a little growl from the goddess before Shining Armor could add enough details to save himself. “We just slept together! Sunset was real tired and upset that morning, so she teleported us to an empty corner of the park and put up a spell to make time go by faster inside this bubble she made and cuddled up with me to take a nap! I swear!”

Then, as the air in the room became less heavy, Shining Armor had to open his big mouth one more time. “Even though she was really wanting to bang me that time.”

“WHAT?” Celestia cried out before her wings went wide.

Shining Armor winced. “I’m sorry,” he apologized for letting that slip before moving on to saying something more important. “But, it’s true. And she didn’t go through with it in the end. She changed her mind. Sunset just...did what she always does.”

“More kissing?” Celestia asked.

Even though Shining Armor didn’t feel as if his life was in danger anymore, he found himself becoming even more upset than he was a minute ago. It was a depressed kind of upset that made him lower his voice in sadness. “No. She started beating herself up,” he explained. “I’ve noticed that everytime somepony compliments Sunset, or she starts to get excited, she does whatever she can to stop it. I-It’s like...she’s not letting herself be happy, or something.”

Shining Armor’s ears twitched as the show of the giant pony standing over him slowly withdrew. When he looked back up, Celestia was giving the colt an uneasy look. “What’re you talking about?”

“I don’t really understand it myself, Your Majesty,” Shining Armor told her. “At first, Cadance just explained it to me as Sunset being afraid she might hurt me if we had sex, and I totally understand that. I’ve seen her cause miniature earthquakes! But the other day when my little sister and mom started complimenting her, she acted like it was a bad thing and she didn’t deserve being praised. And now I feel like she’s trying to push me off on Princess Cadance, but not because she doesn’t want to date me, it’s because she doesn’t...want to...not...date?” Shining Armor frowned at his answer and shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t really get it myself.”

There was a loud whumping sound as Princess Celestia sat down on the carpet before looking to the ground. She was silent for several minutes before she looked back to the younger pony. “And you...make her happy?”

Shining Armor gulped. “Well, I-I like to think that I do....Princess,” he replied before sitting up, only to look down at the floor. “I really like Princess Sunset, and I want to be with her. But I’m also worried that me being close to her is just too hard for her right now, and so she’s pushing me away, or...something. Mares are really hard to understand.”

“And if she does want you away from her for now?” Celestia asked.

The possibility ran itself through his head, and Shining Armor found himself sinking just a little bit towards the floor. “Then...I’ll back off,” he told her. “But...well, even if it works out that way. I hope the two of us can stay friends.”

When it seemed Shiny wasn’t going to continue on his own, Cadance turned her head and looked over to him from the space she had rolled off of him to lay herself down on the floor. “And then what happened?”

Shining Armor sighed. “We talked about the other night,” he said before a blush appeared on his cheeks and he looked away from the pink alicorn. “About...you and me, and how I, um...feel.”

The admission made Cadence’s heart begin to seize up. She didn’t want it to. Shining Armor was supposed to be for Sunset, but after their date and what had just happened, Cadance couldn’t deny she wanted the young stallion as well.

Shining Armor was sweet, and kind, and driven and brave...when he needed to be. When it really counted. If not for the fact that Sunset had dibs, Cadance probably would have been all over him.

That is...if she had even noticed him before.

Which she knew never would have happened without Sunset.

But that didn’t mean Shining Armor liked her! If he didn’t, then the whole relationship mess could be sorted out easily enough, and Cadance could let the pony she loved and the pony she had an infatuation with go at it like rabbits while leaving her out in the cold to suffer a life of lonely misery! So she didn’t need to be getting all worried about foolishly stealing her beloved’s sort-of-coltfriend.

“And that is...how, exactly?” Cadance asked. “Your feelings for me, I mean.”

A second passed by.

Which grew to became an agonizing two seconds.

The third had her eye twitching ever so slightly.

The fourth…

“I...don’t know,” Shining Armor finally replied.

All of the muscles in Cadance’s body locked up for a second at the declaration. “You...don’t know?”

Shining Armor gulped and looked to his stomach. “Well, yeah. It’s just you and Sun-”

Instead of letting Shiny finish whatever insane idea that was forming in his head, Cadance rolled away from him and got to her hooves. “How can you not know?” she demanded before a thought crossed her mind. “You know what? Buck it! You’re a guy, guys don’t know how to feel about mares unless somepony tells them!”

“Um...actually Princess, that’s-”

The pink bloodrager stomped her hoof to cut Shiny off. “Exactly! Princess! Princess of Love!” Cadance exclaimed. “So listen to what I’m telling you! You don’t love me. I’m the pushy and hot friend that you have a few sexual fantasies about but don’t really date because you’ve got a real mare out there who’s meant for you.”

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Shining Armor yelled as he got to his hooves to glare at Cadance. A glare that slowly turned to panic as she continued to speak. “Ever since this-whatever this is started, I’ve had you shouting at me that I love Sunset. Then I’ve got Sunset going on about how you like me before we kiss. Then you and me go on a date because she makes us, and we kiss. But two days later, Sunset’s shoving her tongue down my throat right before the two of us just did...that! And-and I don’t even know what to think anymore!”

Cadance took a step back as she was forced to give ground to the verbal assault. “Shiny-”

“And what’s really weird is that I do like you,” Shining Armor went on. “You’re pushy and everything, but you’re the most beautiful mare in the world and probably the nicest too when you’re not doing your romance thing! On top of which, you actually had faith in me. Me! Some stupid little nopony in Canterlot that has delusions of being in the royal guard when he’s the local bully’s favorite kicking bag! You could have told Sunset she could get somepony better, but you tried to set things up so that she could see more value in me! You...you make me a better pony. I like that.” He sighed and lowered his head. “And I don’t get that from Sunset.”

With Shining Armor apparently done, Cadance sat down on the ground. “Oh...well, that’s um…” She took a moment to think.

“And speaking of Sunset, just how in the hay can you even see us working out?” he went on to ask in a tone that was almost pleading. “Yeah, she’s amazing, but...when it comes down to it, I’m not. So how can you think that me and her have a hope of belonging together?”

Cadance sighed and slumped. “You know,when this whole thing started, Sunset asked for my help to try and hook up with you,” she said before she looked back up to him. “I’ll admit, I didn’t really understand why. I can’t argue with what you’re saying. If anything, the pony Sunset was before becoming an alicorn wouldn’t of even taken a second look at you.” Or worse, helped Buck to beat Shining Armor down. The pink princess thought it best to keep that little fact a secret though.

“I didn’t question it, I just jumped in and did my best to make sure the two of you could craft a lasting relationship,” Cadance went on. “I was so consumed with my own stupid guilt, I rushed in and tried my best to make sure the two of you were a good fit that I just ignored if I should just let the pieces fall where they may and pick them up when it didn’t work out so the two of you would be ready for different relationships down the line.”

The look on Shining Armor’s face became confused. “Wait, you’re saying...what? That maybe it’d be better if me and Sunset had gone out and broken up?”

Cadance let out a little laugh. “Sometimes ponies need to have bad relationships Shiny. It prepares them for the better ones down the line,” she explained before becoming downcast again. “But with Sunset...I just couldn’t let that happen to her. She’s fragile, Shiny. I know all you see is her power and strength, but she needs a pony like you.”

“No I’ve seen her-”

Cadance went on without letting him finish. “But, I never once considered if you needed a pony like her,” she said as a humorless laugh came out of her mouth again. “Buck, I’m pathetic. I ignore the needs of one pony in a relationship because I’m in love with the other one.”

“Well that’s-” Shining Armor got out before he froze mid word for a second. “-wait, you’re in love with Sunset?”

Cadance’s eye twitched. I can’t believe I just said that! But since there was no use hiding it, she let out a sigh and nodded her head. “Trust me Shiny, nopony is more surprised about it than me. But yes, I’m in love with Sunset Shimmer.”

“Oh yeah,” Shining Armor replied. “You’ve told me about half a dozen times before. Sorry, it’s just hearing it with everything else we’re talking about made it slip my mind.”

The response to her declaration had Cadance reviewing all of her previous conversations with Shining Armor over the past week. While she had admitting to liking Sunset both as a friend and being physically attracted to her, there was a distinct lack of the L-Word in their conversations. And being in love with a pony was a lot different than just being friends with sexual urges.

The mistake on Shining Armor’s part put Cadance into a sour mood. “Hmm, you just got a lot less sexy.”

A silence appeared between the two ponies at Cadance’s declaration that stretched on for several second before Shining Armor finally broke it. “So...now what?”

Cadance smirked back at him as she threw off the lingering anger from Shiny’s misinformation. He was a stallion after all. They were stupid when it came to those sorts of things. “Well, if you need some time to figure some things out for yourself, we got to make sure Sunset gives it to you as well.”

Despite the fact that she was neither a human nor a guy, Sunset felt an extreme level of trepidation when she teleported into their new location of the tower's roof and met up with the others. It wasn’t the green slime that the rest of Shiny's nerd herd was covered in or the evil pony in the red robe performing what Sunset's arcane knowledge skill said was the summoning ritual of ultimate destruction that had her nervous. It was the pink princess and her paladin that put her off kilter with words Sunset couldn’t help but repeat.

“What do you mean, we need to talk?”

“MUHAHAHA!” War Lock yelled as he stood behind his alter at the top of a wide flight of stairs. “Foolish heroes, you’ll never be able to stop me from summoning my master’s greatest servant!”

Eight-Bit looked over to the trio and frowned. “Is this really the best time for you guys to have one of your conversations?”

“Yes!” Cadance snapped back. “Matters of the heart always take precedence! You guys can go on ahead, this will only take a moment.”

With the choice of combating an evil unicorn mage or making the pink pretty pony princess even angrier, Eight-Bit turned towards the equine calling on the dark powers of the abyss. “Let's go everypony!” he said before glancing back towards the romantically tangled trio. “Except for you all, I mean.”

As the group of heroes charged towards the final boss of the tower, Sunset looked back to the princess and the paladin. “Okay so, what's going on?”

“Shiny?” Cadance said, prompting the other pony to step forward.

“You will not stop me! COME FORTH MY MINIONS!” War Lock cried out in the background.

Sunset resisted the urge to turn around and kept her eyes on Shining Armor as he approached her. “Listen...Sunset,” he said as the sound of battle carried on behind them. “I um... I…” Sweat trickled down Shiny’s forehead and he gulped before he closed his eyes and bowed his head in surrender. “I kissed Cadance when we were alone a few minutes ago!”

As the pink princess in question groaned and mumbled to Shiny that wasn’t what they were supposed to be discussing, Sunset felt a weird mix of emotions run through her heart at Shiny’s rushed declaration. For starters, there was the sliver of jealousy that she was familiar with, followed by a bit of annoyance and anger because Shining Armor had been making out with her just an hour prior, then relief once she remembered the attraction Cadance and Shiny shared meant the two of them could lean on each other after Sunset was gone. “That’s...that’s great Shiny.”

“AAaargh!” Cadance cut in before she stepped in between the two and forced them both back. “That’s not what we’re supposed to be talking about!” she said before pausing for a moment and letting out a sigh. “Although, we do need to be up front about it, and kissing was as far as it went Sunset! But what we need to talk about is something else.”

“We’re not going to make it in time!” Twilight cried out from behind them.

The amber alicorn raised a hoof and rolled it around to prompt Cadance to continue. “Which is?”

After taking a deep breath to steel himself, Shining Armor spoke up. “We need to take a break.”

Sunset blinked in confusion. “Um...come again?”

“Not from seeing each other!” Cadance quickly said. “We just need to stop...throwing each other at Shining.”

Before Sunset could ask for clarification again, Shining Armor took up the conversation. “Look, I like you, I really do. I like being around you, and I like the kind of pony your are,” he said. “But lately...with how you and Cadance have been pushing me onto the other... I...I can’t even think straight!”

“Shiny-” Sunset said.

Shining Armor just kept on going right on top of her. “And I like Cadance too! The two of you, we’ve only known each other a couple of weeks and you're both just about the best friends I’ve ever had. Maybe even more. But...when the two of you start doing all your matchmaking stuff, it just... I just... I don’t like it!”

An emotional weight came down on Sunset's back, forcing her down a bit and pressed her ears against her head. “Oh Shiny, I'm sorry! I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable,” the amber alicorn told him.

“I know,” he replied miserably. “And I get it, you want what’s best for me. It’s just, well...what’s best for me right now is...the two of you, as friends. For right now I mean. Totally not um, friendzoning anypony! I just, um...need some time to think about...us. The three of us. And the um...two of us?”

“MUHAHAHA YOUR TIME IS UP FOOLS!”

Although a big part of her didn’t want to, Sunset let out a sigh and nodded. “I understand,” she told him. Which she did. While a big part of the amber alicorn wanted to set things up so her sudden departure come Friday night did the least amount of emotional damage to her friends, Sunset didn’t think that causing them pain in the here and now was the way to achieve that. “And, I’m sorry if I ever made you feel uncomfortable Shiny. The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you.”

“Hey you didn’t hurt any-” Shining Armor stopped talking as the group of three standing on top of Misery Tower suddenly found themselves covered by a huge shadow. The paladin's eyes went wide, and he craned his neck upward to look up with a fearful expression. “But, that looks like it might do some damage.”

Sunset blinked and turned around to see what had caught Shiny’s attention.

Out past the edge of the roof, a colossal monster was glaring down at them. Despite the fact that the building they were standing on stood some two-hundred feet tall, the creature towered over them enough to loom thanks to the fact they were only eye-level with its chest. Its skin was a dull brown, and numerous spines came out from various points of its body while a mouth full of teeth twice as big as Sunset sat in a cavernous mouth big enough to swallow them all in one gulp.

“The Tarrasque? You’re seriously putting us up against the Tarrasque, Gaffer?” Shining Armor demanded as he looked up at the sky in a panic.

Hey, don’t look at me. You guys were supposed to stop it from being summoned.

The creature in question let out a roar that Sunset could feel shake her teeth. After the ability to hear returned to her ears, she rolled her eyes and looked over to Shining Armor with a frown. “Oh come on, it’s just a game Shiny. It’s not that big a dea-”

Sunset cut herself off when something big and purple attracted her attention out from the corner of her eye. A second later, Twilight landed right in front of her, panic written all over the big girl’s face. “S-Save us Princess Sunset!” the filly in the mare’s body cried out before she scrambled forward, then stopped for a second as her horn began to glow. “Cast reduce self.”

A second later, Sunset blinked as Twilight went from a six foot mare to one of three feet. The surprise stunned Sunset long enough that Twilight was able to scramble around behind Sunset before cowering in fear. "I don't wanna learn what a monster's intestinal tract look like!"

Two seconds of watching the little filly whimper in terror were more than enough for Sunset. Like Shiny, she looked up into the sky and frowned. “Okay Gaffer, game’s gone on long enough. Time to shut it down.”

Um...yeah, about that. I...um, can’t.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. “What?”

Well, the system isn’t meant to stop in the middle of combat. I can’t shut it off until the monsters beaten, or all your characters are, um...dead.

“Killer GM!” Twilight shouted as she pointed an accusing hoof at the sky.

Hey! I haven’t killed anypo-

“Gak!”

“Ack!”

After hearing a pair of thuds behind her, Sunset looked back in the direction of the monster to see Eight-Bit and Poindexter's bloodless corpses laying in front of her with a pair of javelin-sized spines sticking out of them.

Twilight let out a terrorized squeak and went back to curling into a ball while Sunset looked over to Cadance. “Okay. You take care of her, I’ll deal with that thing,” she said as she gestured to the Tarasque. “Shiny…pull out a resurrection scroll and get them back up.”

Not even waiting a second, Cadance reached forward and took Twilight into her pony-arms, then sat down to wrap the small adult filly in a hug with her wings as well. “Shhhhh. It’ll be okay soon Twilight. Sunset will take care of that nasty monster.”

Shiny looked away from the monster again and over to Sunset. “Um, not that I’m questioning you or anything, Princess,” he said. “But the Tarrasque is immune to magic. So...what exactly are you going to do?”

Sunset gave Shining Armor an even look. “I’m going to punch it.”

“Seriously?”

Sunset snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yes. I’m going to punch it. Seriously.”

Ignoring Shining Armor’s look of disbelief, Sunset spun around and made a low-powered jump that rocketed her to the top of the stairs where the NPC War Lock was laughing maniacally. There was a small crunching sound as Sunset came down on his head. She kept her wings at her side as she made another inhuman leap into the sky, straight towards the Tarrasque.

The Tarrasque leaned forward with its mouth open wide and Sunset unfurled her wings but resisted the urge to really flap them so she didn’t shoot up into space or something. Just as she had hoped, her wings merely caught the updraft caused by the monster’s hot breath, and amber alicorn’s altitude increased just enough to fly above the Tarrasque’s mouth put her on a crash course with its nose.

As she approached her target and pulled her hoof back, Sunset blinked as she realized something. You know...I really should say something cool and heroic, the amber alicorn told herself.

…
…
…

Damnit, this is harder than television makes it look, Sunset told herself as she ran out of time to think and simply threw everything she had into smacking the creature with all of her strength. Although, at least this way I kind find out what a full force strike from me would do to-

BOOM!

Sunset’s eyes went wide as the titanic monster exploded in an oddly goreless mess that had her staring in confusion while the shock wave from her blow pushed the clouds away for miles all around and left the tower behind her trembling from the shockwave.

“Well, that’s um...interesting.”

Cadance fought off the odd feeling of vertigo as she found herself sitting in Shiny’s basement once again next to her friends. As the rest of the ponies slowly started to pull themselves out of the dream reality, she caught Gaffer giving the tablet a less than pleased frown.

“Okay guys, that settles it,” he said. “Next game, we’re going back to quill and scroll.”

“Hey!” Sunset complained before she stuck her nose up into the air and smirked. “It’s not my fault I’m too OP to nerf.”

As the rest of the nerds slowly came to, Cadance just let them talk in their odd dialect over the plates of food before she chipped in to help clean things up and took the empty platters away. After coming back from the first trip, she saw Twilight still had a disturbed look on her face and decided to get the youngest unicorn out from underhoof while the rest of the guys cleaned up, not to mention get her mind on something else. “So Twilight, what dress are you going to wear to the replay?” Cadance asked as she left, forcing the little filly to follow her and give an answer.

“Dress?” Twilight asked as she trotted up the stairs behind Cadance.

After putting the food trays down without causing any structural damage to the countertop, an action that she was quite proud of as it proved her growing experience with her magic, Cadance looked back to Twilight with a smile on her face. “Well, you are wearing a dress to the replay when Shiny takes you later today, aren't you?”

“Ummmmm-”

Cadance snatched the filly up in her hooves before she could answer, and put Twilight on her back before the pink princess clamped down with her wings so she wouldn’t fall off. “Come on, let's see what you’ve got in your closet.”

Pegasus speed carried the two of them upstairs before Twilight could protest, and together they went down the familiar path to her room. Once inside, she did a quick search through the closet. The results were rather extreme.

While Twilight had the normal level of clothes Cadance had come to expect from a Canterlot mare, they all either fell into the super formal category, or the bare bones casual one. Although she thought that one pink dress with white frills and flowery designs on the skirt would have looked absolutely adorable on Twilight, Cadance saw the look of horror on the filly’s face when she was examining the thing and brought out a simple white sun dress instead.

“Princess Cadance?” Twilight said as she did a little circle in her dress at Cadance’s insistence to show it off. “Did Princess Sunset get bigger?”

The question from out of the blue got a raised eyebrow from Cadance. “Say what? You think she’s gained a pound or two since you last saw her?”

Twilight stopped her twirling and looked up into Cadance’s eyes. “Not fatter. Plus, her proportions haven't changed. So it’s not from a height increasing potion like a lot of noble mares use to imitate Princess Celestia, they get gain height without and equal amount of mass and end up getting really skinny. But Sunset’s just bigger.”

“I haven’t noticed,” Cadance replied cautiously, unsure of how to respond to the filly’s question. But to keep from getting sidetracked, she quickly put a smile back on her face and looked around the room. “Now, do you have anything to go with your dress, Twilight?”

By the time they were done and back downstairs, the guys had already taken care of the cleanup, and Shiny was waiting on Twilight so they could leave for the replay. As soon as Cadance handed the little filly off, Sunset took the pink princess aside. “Is she okay?”

“Twilight?” Cadance asked, then continued on without waiting for confirmation. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Because she was cowering in fear a minute before the game ended?”

After giving the amber alicorn a little smile, Cadance waved off her fears. “Don’t worry, I kept her mind preoccupied.”

A second later, Cadance was once again thankful for her coat, as Sunset pulled her into a deep hug with one of her wings. With as close as they were and the level of force the amber alicorn used, the pink princess couldn’t help but lean in to put her ear up against the side of Sunset’s neck in a affectionate near-nuzzle. Part of her just wanted to stay under Sunset’s wing forever.

Which was why Cadance let out an indignant squawk when Sunset started trotting forward not two seconds later, the pink princess helpless in her grip. “Great! Now come on, it’s just past eleven and we’ve got to go get the girls so we can take them back to the palace.”

“The girls?” Cadance asked as she tried to think of just whom Sunset meant by that, or what she wanted to hang out with them for. Despite being the same gender, Cadance found the boys more to her liking sociably than Fleur and her friends. “Why do we need to bring them back to the palace?”

“To cover up my growing web of lies, obviously!”

Like everyplace in the palace, the private audience room had enough decoration for three houses in Canterlot. Green carpet that made freshly watered grass look dull covered the floor, while a trio of paintings showing the glory of Celestia decorated each of the walls. On the far wall, an extra large couch sat just below the painting showing Celestia flying away from Canterlot at dawn, while a trio of floor cushions stood unused by any of the other ponies in the room.

Mostly because the three non-alicorns in the room were too busy staring at the giant white pony currently lounging on the fancy sofa that somehow looked as comfortable as it was immaculate.

Sunset grinned as she stood behind the pair of tall unicorns and the much shorter earth pony as the three of them were locked in various states of shock and awe. “Mom, I want you to meet my three best high school friends,” the amber alicorn said before she cupped Sassy’s rump with her left wing and pushed the blue unicorn forward. “Sassy Saddles.”

“Fleur de Lis,” Sunset went on before repeating the action with the prettier white mare.

“Y-Your Majesty!” the more cultured mare replied before going into a low bow.

Then Sunset put her hoof on the back of the mulberry earth pony’s back side. “And the short stack here is Cheerilee. She’s the one we told you about a few days ago, after my first day of school.”

“Humina-bugala-bu-Oh!” the littlest horse in the room said before she quickly went into a bow, copying Fleur as best she could. “Y-Your Highness.”

Completely ignoring the discomfort of the three mares, Sunset made her way through them and looked up at her mother before putting on her best high society imitation. “We decided to have lunch together, and when the topic of where to eat came up, well... I said they just had to try the palace chef’s cooking.”

On the other side of the room, Sunset noticed that her mother was wearing one of the calm masks that the amber alicorn was familiar with, which meant that Celestia had probably guessed that she had gone with Cadance to see Shining Armor and was surprised at the evidence that told her that wasn’t the case. “And we met Cadance on our way back to the palace,” Sunset added with a nod to the pink pony.

The look Cadance gave her made Sunset silently beg her not to contradict the story, which was technically true. After hearing what she had planned, Cadance had decided to head back to the palace on her own. Teleportation and the authority to just order the girls to come with her for lunch enabled Sunset to round them up and get back to the palace at about the same time as the flying pony.

“I...see,” Celestia replied before she looked to the dark gray pony standing behind her. “Raven, have the servants prepare some extra places for lunch. We’ll entertain our guests here until everything is ready.” Then, as the secretary nodded, Celestia turned her attention back to the young mares in front of her. “What would you all care to eat today? I assure you, the palace can cook anything you desire.”

Ten minutes later, when the girls had finally overcome their nervousness and made their orders, Celestia began the business of getting them to open up a little. It was an odd experience for Sunset, as she hadn’t really seen her mother interact with common ponies who were meeting her for the first time. In private at least. While she had sat in on several days of Solar Court activity, petitioners usually had an hour to prepare themselves upon seeing Celestia until they made it to the front of the line, and matters of that sort usually had some level of rehearsal.

One thing that Sunset noticed was that Celestia didn’t poke at their nervousness as she tended to do with most other things, and only gave an understanding smile when one of the girls garbled words or said a sentence backwards from being so flustered. The other thing she noticed was a tightness around her mother’s eyes that just wouldn’t disappear. It was so distracting that Sunset missed most of the conversation until Sassy said something that made Cadance chime in.

“That’s it!” the pink princess cried out with a level of exuberance that included her wings going wide. “Sassy, you’re a dressmaker!”

The blue unicorn blinked and looked over to Cadance with wide-eyed confusion. “Y-Yes, Princess Cadance,” she replied. “Sewing is my talent. I can do more than just dresses though.”

Cadance didn’t seem to notice the correction before she rushed over to the slightly smaller mare. “You’ve got to make me a dress for the Fall Formal!”

Somehow, Sassy’s eyes managed to get even wider at the friendly command. “W-What?” she asked as her head turned to Sunset, and then Princess Celestia for a second before she focused her gaze back on Cadance. “But, Princess...surely you could afford a professional seamstress, one with a great deal more experience than I to make you something far more befitting of royalty than me. I’m still in school after all.”

“Yes, I could get some professional pony I don’t even know to craft me an elegant gown that will be the envy of every mare at the Formal,” Cadance replied as she rolled her eyes at the idea. “A pony I don’t know, who will only be able to put her passion in the work without any feelings towards me beyond a title in a dress. Or I can pick you, one of my friends, who will be able to make me something that connects to my inner self as well as my outer beauty.”

Sassy didn’t seem convinced as she continued to hesitate. “Well, as much as I would be honored to help you, Princess...I just don’t have the materials, not to mention the tools that I would need to craft something worthy of of royalty.”

As Cadance’s smile started to wane, Sunset saw Celestia shift on her couch out of the corner of her eye and turned her attention towards the biggest pony in the room. The calm mask that Celestia usually wore slipped into a troubled look that matched her eyes for a moment, but it was gone a second later when Celestia cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Then we will have to provide you with the tools and materials you will need. As well as a fee for your work of course. Friend or not, a pony needs to be paid for her efforts,” she said. “Is there anything else you might require?”

Seeing another thing Sassy could bring up to try and worry her way out of the job, Sunset stepped forward. “And, I can help you with your homework so you’ll have more than enough time to do the work after school,” she offered before putting on a concerned look to get to the bottom of Sassy’s hesitation. “Unless, there’s some other reason you don’t want to do it?”

Verbally cornered, Sassy looked around at the three alicorns in the room. “Umm...well…”

“Alright,” Celestia spoke up gently before she sighed and shook her head, then looked back to the blue unicorn with a tired expression. “That’s enough. Sassy, do you not want to make the dress because Cadance is a princess?”

Sassy gulped and looked down at the floor. “I-It’s not that, Your Highness. I just don’t think I could make something good enough for her.”

Behind the blue pony, Cadance frowned in confusion. “Sassy, I’ve seen the pictures of the dress you made for Fleur. You’re more than good enough.”

“Princess Cadance,” Sassy replied in a worried tone as she looked back to the pink pony.

Before the young mare could continue, Celestia cleared her throat again. Her face lost its mask of serenity and just gave the unicorn an even look. “And if Cadance were to ask you a year ago when she was still a pegasus, would she still have been too good for your work?”

Sassy gave Celestia an uncertain look. “Um...well, I-I can’t really say, Your Highness,” she replied. “I didn’t know Prin-”

“Cadance,” Celestia said before Sassy could finish. “There’s no need for such formalities between friends during a private audience, my little pony. And you are friends, are you not?”

As Sassy froze under Celestia’s gaze, Cheerilee took a step forward. “Well, Princess,” the earth pony. “We certainly are friends with both of your, um-descendants...but...there are certain priorities that need to be followed when dealing with royalty.”

Celestia looked down at the mulberry mare for another minute, causing her to gulp, before she let out another sigh. “Alright then, let’s try this,” she said more to herself than anyone else, then looked back to the girls. “Do you know why I hate being a princess so much?”

The entire room sat silent for a full minute before Sunset broker herself out of the stupor Celestia put the amber alicorn in with her statement. “What?”

“Please Sunset, you have to of noticed by now, I don’t exactly like many aspects of the job,” the bigger alicorn replied. “And while there are several things I do find joy in, like watching my little ponies succeed. I hate that I must always watch them from a distance.”

When Celestia looked back to Fleur and Sassy, they both winced. “I can’t fault any of you for it. After all, I have been around since before any of your great-grandfathers drew their first breaths and I will be here long after you are gone. I raise the sun, rule this land, and command more magic than anypony alive. The very idea of anypony connected on a personal level with something like me is probably so alien none of you had even considered it possible,” she said before giving them both a sympathetic look. “It is something Sunset has prepared herself for, much to my grief. But please, do not visit the same burden on Cadance.”

“Um, can I say something about this?” Cadance asked as she raised her right hoof and looked up at Celestia.

The white pony blinked at the question, but nodded a second later.

After taking a deep breath, Cadance stepped forward and spread her wings aggressively as she frowned at Celestia. “Stop putting them on the spot like this!” the pink princess yelled at the big alicorn, which had the effect of making Celestia reel back in surprise. “You think I don’t know they haven’t gotten used to my royal status yet? We’ve only known each other a few weeks for crying out loud! I know it’s going to take time! Hay, Shining Armor still calls me Princess, AND I’VE SHOVED MY TONGUE DOWN HIS THROAT! If he can still be formal, then so can they! I don’t mind. They’re my friends, and I’m more than willing to make concessions to keep them comfortable!

“And Sassy,” Cadance went on in the same tone as she turned her attention towards the unicorn. “If you don’t feel comfortable making me a dress, that’s perfectly okay! I get it! I’m totally fine with you having your limitations. So don’t let anypony else bully you into helping me out!”

Sunset smirked as the blue unicorn continued to stand frozen in front of Cadance despite being let off the hook. “That probably would have gone a bit better if you didn’t shout it at her.”

Which caused the pink princess to turn around and glare at Sunset. “Oh don’t you start!” Cadance said before poking the amber alicorn in the chest. “I only got this way because I want to be more like you!”

Unsure of how to respond to that, Sunset backed down.

“Um...Princess Cadance?”

“WHA-ahem!” Cadance said after rounding on Sassy, then putting her sweet facade back in place. “Yes Sassy? And don’t worry, if you don’t want to make a dress for me, it’s fine.”

The blue unicorn took in a deep breath, and stood up to her full height. “Actually, Cadance...Princess Celestia is right. We’ve known each other long enough that I shouldn’t let something like this get in the way of helping a friend,” she told the pink princess, gaining confidence as she went on. “And, you are my friend. My really amazing friend, that I’m more than happy to help.”

Cadance gave Sassy a friendly smile. “Only if you want to.”

“I do,” she replied before looking over to the amber alicorn. “And you too Princess Sunset! A dress-I mean, if you want me to make you one, that is. It make look a bit like Cadance’s since I’ll only have a few days, but...if you-”

Midway through Sassy’s speech, Sunset felt a tiny fluttering in her heart at the offer. She hated to admit it to herself, but she hadn’t really done much to develop her friendship with Fleur and the others since meeting them beyond activities at school. While Sunset liked to think it was because she would be gone come Friday night, it seemed a poor excuse to turn down their kindness now that Sassy was making an effort. So, she smiled at the smaller pony much in the way her mother would. “I would be honored.”

Then, a much more devious side of her brain spoke up, adding to the escape plan that was still forming in her head. “And tell you what? I’ll even take you to Manehattan tomorrow, so you can get everything you need.” As one of Equestria’s major industry centers and the fashion capital of the country, it would have a wider range of textiles and the latest technological tools to help Sassy with her task. Not to mention other clothing manufacturers outside of Canterlot that Sunset could hire for a few custom rush orders. “Sound good?”

Sassy smiled back at the offer. “Most definitely!”

It was nearly ten o’clock by the time Cadance dragged her weary body into Sunset’s bedroom, too tired for a bath.

After lunch, Celestia had left her and Sunset to deal with the Griffonstone ambassador, which meant the girls spent the day playing around and observing other mare bonding activities. With the Fall Formal still being on everypony’s mind, they spent most of their time looking at magazines with the latest stylized manes, helping Cheerilee decide if she even wanted to go to the thing, and then grilling Sassy Saddles about her mysterious date that she claimed to have while showing all the signs of an empty love life.

Which in turn led to a pillow fight, a bit of running around the palace, and some other shenanigans before Sunset tried to talk the girls into pulling some pranks on a few of the guards, leaving Cadance to talk them all out of it before things got out of control. She didn’t quite understand why Sunset was so grouchy when it came to the captain of the guard. Although, the pink princess understood that the older unicorn’s attitude certainly didn’t help matters.

In the end, Sunset just gave the girls an all access tour of the palace, showing them things Cadance hadn’t even seen before. It was a little too thorough for the pink princess’s taste, but she didn’t see the harm in letting Sunset show off her authority every once and awhile by getting the girls into normally restricted sections of the palace, like the armory and arcane repository, where Celestia kept a slew of magical artifacts.

When the marathon of a tour ended, the girls had dinner with the princesses again and headed home in carriages provided by the palace after it was all done. Then came the usual magical lessons Cadance received under Sunset, which were followed by a more practical magic program the amber alicorn seemed to have designed on the fly in which she had Cadance run around the gardens while conjuring as much crystal as she could in response to the small pebbles Sunset chucked at her. It gave Cadance enough of a continuing distraction not to tell Sunset about Celestia meeting with Shining Armor.

At least, not until she figured out how Sunset would take it. The last thing the pink princess wanted was to add any more strain on their already unsteady relationship.

It also made her wonder something…

“Sunset,” Cadance asked as she pulled the sheets on their bed back with her hoof. “What’s with the sudden physical side to the magic training?”

She looked back just in time to see Sunset’s wings fidget a bit at the uncomfortable question. “Well...you know...we can’t sleep in the same bed forever,” she said while doing her best not to meet Cadance’s eyes. “You need to learn to defend yourself eventually, right? Learning how to cast and move is part of that.”

The idea of not sleeping with Sunset anymore made Cadance’s ears droop. “Oh,” she said before looking back towards the bed to hide her disappointment of no longer sharing sheets with the pony she was in love with. “Right.”

Then, after crawling into bed and hearing Sunset do the same, Cadance slowly unfurled one of her wings to find Sunset was getting comfortable nearly half a foot away from her. “Um...Sunset?”

“Yeah?” the amber alicorn replied.

“I know we’ve got a bigger bed now,” Cadance said cautiously. “But...um...could you...hold me? It...makes me feel...safer.”

When there was no answer, and the pink princess worried for a moment that she would get called on her lie. But then, Cadance heard Sunset scoot closer before the pink princess also worked to close the gap and found herself in the amber alicorn’s embrace. Despite the duplicitous nature of the request, Cadance reached up to touch Sunset’s hooves as she snuggled into the bigger mare’s warmth.

For a moment, she found herself pretending the reason for their contact was different than a friend offering comfort to another. Cadance imagined Sunset was holding her out of love. Not for a friend, but for a wife. She felt Sunset’s heart beating against her spine, and smiled as her own slowly began to match its pace.

The fantasy continued as Cadance brought Sunset’s foreleg up to rest her cheek against, telling herself that it was Sunset caressing her before they both fell asleep. Then, like every night they slept together, Cadance mentally took stock of the amber alicorn’s entire form that was wrapped around her. She felt the layer of hard muscle underneath the deceptive bit of fat that kept Sunset from appearing too athletic, her wonderful wings and their impossibly soft feathers, the feeling of Sunset;s powerful heart as it beat against Cadance’s back.

It was...off.

Wonderful, but off.

The pink princess’s eyes shot open in surprise at the familiar, and yet strange feeling of Sunset’s body pressed up against her own. Wait a second.

Careful not to rouse the sleeping pony around her, Cadance slowly took stock of Sunset as she continued to slumber, feeling out every bit of the big spoon in their sleeping arrangement before frowning to herself.

It was barely noticeable, but…

She is bigger.

Chapter 22: Monday is for Making Plans

For the first time in awhile, Cadance found herself alone in the bathtub as she partook in her morning soak. With Sunset having left for Manehattan hours before dawn with Sassy in tow, the pink princess had plenty of time to let her thoughts simmer. Thoughts on things like her feelings for Sunset, Sunset's feelings for Shiny, Shiny's feelings for her, and...the various other emotional connections the three of them held towards each other.

On top of which, there was the oddity of Sunset’s added height, the fact that Shining Armor had spoken with Celestia, and the fact that Cadance had kept that fact from Sunset. All of which made the pink princess uneasy. Relationship drama, Cadance could deal with. Complicated magic and secrets, that she needed help with.

And...there was only one pony in the castle she could really talk to such things about.

So, Cadance pulled herself out of the water and got ready for breakfast.

An hour later, once her coat was properly combed and her mane gathered in its usual ponytail, Cadance found herself sitting across from Celestia. Although the signs were minor, the pink princess could tell there was something bothering her adoptive aunt. “Something wrong, Princess Celestia?”

The bigger alicorn looked up from her food and gave Cadance an empty smile. “Oh, I was thinking. It’s been some time since the two of us dined alone together, hasn’t it?”

Cadance saw the attempt to create a frivolous topic for what it was, and quickly jumped into something she needed to speak to Celestia about. They didn't have time to beat around the bush, and recent events had left Cadance with little want to spare Celestia any migraines. “So, I heard you talked with Shining Armor the other day.”

“Yes,” Celestia replied before she became unusually calm for a pony who was about to speak about a sensitive topic. “He told me something interesting. Apparently, he and Sunset were a thing before the two of you went on your little date.”

The unspoken accusation got a wince from Cadance. That wasn't what she had been wanting to talk about. “Well, it’s...complicated.”

“Then simplify it for me,” Celestia replied in a firm tone.

It didn’t take long for Cadance to see the conversation they were fixing to get into would put her in a very bad position unless she took command of the situation with the opening Celestia provided. Hmm, if this is the way she used to talk to Sunset, I can see why Shimmer is so confrontational. She had to be in order to have some control over her life.

“Basically, Sunset met Shiny first,” Cadance began. “She asked me to step in and help her try and land the guy. Honestly, that’s what I had intended to do. Originally, I had planned to give Shining Armor a big moment to try and wow Sunset because, well...let’s face it, he’s nowhere near the kind of pony I thought Sunset would like. Of course, that was before I really got to know the new Sunset, so I might have made a few mistakes in my prognostications. But, I spent some time with him too, and...might have noticed some desirable traits. Then, when I accompanied him to the replay, and since somepony kept Sunset from interfering with Shiny's fight against Buck, hormones and danger, and the fact that everything I knew about romance told me that I needed to kiss Shining Armor right then and there, I went with what my cutie mark was telling me. Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t of dragged Sunset off to go play politics!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “That’s what princesses do,” she said. “And speaking of changes, Sunset’s not the only pony that’s undergone a sudden attitude adjustment as of late.”

The lack of retreat on Celestia's part got a frown from Cadance. “I prefer to use the term improvement.”

A silence followed Cadance’s words, and the pink princess took a bite of her fruit salad while Celestia sipped at her tea. When the conversation didn’t start back up right away, the pink princess moved onto another pressing topic since it seemed any mention of Shining Armor would just lead to more of the same. “Auntie, why are you so big?”

“Hm?” Celestia replied before setting down her tea. “What brought that on?”

Cadance shrugged. “Just curious,” she half-lied. “After all, Sunset used to be shorter than me, and you...well, you’re you. Hay, even I’ve grown a bit since I became an alicorn. But, is there some kind of limit?”

“I’m as tall as I am because my mother was a-” Celestia said before pausing abruptly. Her mask slipped off, and Cadance blinked as the big alicorn’s face became one of remorse. “Hmm, I’ve already told you about my sister, so...no reason not to relate this as well, I suppose. Sunset will probably have questions herself in time.”

The big alicorn let out a long sigh and steadied herself as she looked back up at Cadance. “Like my immortality, my size is due to my link to the sun. I’m not entirely sure of the specifics, but when a pony links with an outside power source, our bodies adapt to the change in power. Because alicorns are more in-tune than other ponies, we change the most evenly across the whole physical spectrum. For me and my sister, that meant our manes became infused with magic to the point they would glow on their own and our physical statures increased to better contain the power that was flowing through us,” she said before becoming hesitant. “There’s a...psychological aspect to it as well, but I’m afraid that’s the part of the explanation I couldn’t really follow. All I can say is that despite having a fount of power equal to mine, Luna was barely taller than a regular alicorn. As for Sunset...she’ll probably be around my height.”

Although she could tell it was a touchy subject with Celestia, Cadance continued on. Even if she didn’t get an explanation of what had happened to Sunset, with the amber alicorn to be the pony that moved the heavens one day, Cadance needed to know what she would face. “Did it happen all at once?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, it occurred in spurts, especially in the mornings,” she explained as the unhappiness on her face grew. “I would finish raising the sun to find my nightgown was hugging my flank a bit more than when I had gone to bed, or that I had to look down a little more to meet the eyes of...of another pony I…”

Putting everything together, Cadance finished Celestia’s sentence. “Slept with the night before.”

“Yes,” she admitted in a whisper.

It didn’t take much of a leap of logic for Cadance to see that there was a ton of weight attached to the memory of Celestia’s long lost lover, or that it had ended badly for the Princess. Two weeks ago, Cadance might have backed away out of not wanting to bring up any bad memories for the bigger alicorn. But as of a few days ago, her level of sympathy for such things had gone down. “What about your mane?”

“Originally, it only lit up when I was raising the sun,” Celestia replied after getting herself back under control. “Eventually, my body adapted to the sun’s energies enough that it just stayed that way.”

Cadance thought back to what she had seen the day before and continued eating. But, Sunset’s power source is internal, she thought to herself. So, did that change anything? Wish I knew more about magic.

“Now, would you mind if I ask you a difficult question?” Celestia asked.

When Cadance gave her a nod between bites, the white pony went on with the same level of enthusiasm that she had when talking about the pony she slept with. It took her several seconds to ask her question. “Does Sunset hate me?”

Causing the food that was halfway down Cadance’s to become lodged in her windpipe and give her a bit of a coughing fit. Then, after spitting out the mangled piece of mango, she gave Celestia a disbelieving look. “What in the bucking pit of Tartarus makes you think something as STUPID as that?!”

The question made Celestia pull her head back. “But-I um...she-all she ever seems to do anymore is yell at me,” the surprised princess replied.

“Of course she-that-you! Grrr...” Cadance paused and took a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm herself down. “Okay, that...well…” She took another breath. “Of course she loves you.” YOU IDIOT! “What…” And after a third long breath in which the pink princess exhaled shortly thereafter, she was finally able to speak in a rational manner. “How in the hay could you even ask me something like that about your own foal?”

By the time Cadance was done calming down, she found that Celestia had already resumed her unflappable demeanor and got her reply in the white pony’s calm voice. “Cadance, you weren’t around before Sunset’s...change in demeanor. I’m not referring to the one she underwent after becoming an alicorn, this was...before that. So I don’t expect you to understand completely. But she and I used to be a lot closer,” Celestia said before a wistful smile appeared on her face. “She would hang on my every word and-”

“Was a borderline sycophant?” Cadance deadpanned, making Celestia stop talking and give her a surprised look as the annoyed pink princess continued. “We bathe and sleep together Celestia, do you honestly think the subject of Sunset’s past hasn’t come up more than once when we’re scrubbing each other’s backs? Sunset has told me plenty about the way things were before I came along.”

An uncomfortable look crossed Celestia’s face. “Well...I suppose you have a point there.”

Cadance snorted out some of her rising anger over the topic as she tried to think of the most diplomatic way of continuing on. “And...you might have a valid concern when it comes to how Sunset feels about you,” Cadance admitted before letting Celestia’s heart seize up for a good six seconds thanks to the sour mood she was in by letting the silence drag on. “But not in the way you’re afraid of.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

Deciding to throw the white pony a bone, Cadance started her explanation out on a high note. “Sunset yells and overreacts to everything because she loves you,” the pink princess explained. “And...because she hates you.”

Cadance took a second to think when she heard her explanation and groaned in an irritated way. “Well, not you, not really,” she said while her own anger began to boil over. “Sunset hates that stupid bitch that kicked her out of the palace and ignored her for three years, even after she made a change for the better and saved a whole world from becoming a bunch of mind controlled zombies!”

The table shook as Cadance’s hooves struck the thick wood as she said the last word. She looked down at the furniture for a moment, the sat back down on her seat and broke eye contact with Celestia to let out an irritated sigh. “Sorry. It’s just thinking about what Sunset went through tends to get under my coat.”

“That’s more than understandable,” Celestia replied in a tone that told Cadance they had a shared sentiment on the subject. “But...that wasn’t me, Cadance.”

Cadance sighed and shook her head. “You know that, I know that, and on a very conscious level, so does Sunset,” she replied as the last of her anger finally bled out of her to leave Cadance feeling tired despite the morning hours. “But, on a much deeper level that has nothing to do with logic or conscious thought, she also knows that under the right set of circumstances, you are more than capable of throwing her away like a piece of garbage. It doesn’t matter that those circumstances are impossible now. To her, you’ve already done it.”

For a second, Celestia looked like she was going to argue the point, but she sat back on her cushion and looked down at her food. “I just want things the way they used to be between us.”

“Well, that’s never going to happen,” Cadance told her, which made Celestia sink even lower before the pink princess threw her another bone. “And I think the two of you are better for it.”

Celestia raised her head and gave Cadance a confused frown. “What?”

After taking a bite of her food, more to buy time to think rather than eat, Cadance made her case to Celestia. “Princess, remember what you told Sunset the day she woke up?” she asked rhetorically. “You said you got in a routine, you got used to things happening a certain way, and I don’t think it was just when it came to how you did things. I think you got used to ponies acting towards you a certain way as well. And maybe over time you...came to enjoy ponies kissing your plot and you started lying to yourself, thinking they did it out of love rather than...well, some worshipful need to please you.”

After Cadance finished with the last part, Celestia frowned at her. “Cadance! I may have been like that in the past, but I hate ponies that kiss up to me! I would have thought that the speech I gave your friends the day before was proof of that.”

In the past? Cadance asked herself before she readjusted herself to keep on topic. “Oh, I get that you're lonely,” she replied. “But that’s all yesterday showed me. And every other day, I've seen you trot around with a smile on your face as everypony around you bows so low I swear they're trying to sink into the floor.”

“That’s called showing respect,” Celestia told her evenly.

“There’s a difference between respect and what you’re getting,” Cadance countered.

“I think I've been around long enough to tell the difference, Cadance,” Celestia replied.

The comment killed Cadance’s growing irritation and made her withdraw from her aggressive posturing with a sigh. “And I think you’ve been surrounded by it for so long that you can’t tell the difference anymore.”

Before Celestia could give her counter argument, Cadance continued on. “Princess, when was the last time a pony who wasn’t Sunset yelled at you, or disagreed with you, even?”

The white pony hesitated. “That’s a trick question, it isn’t as if I can allow somepony to question my orders in public. Especially the way Sunset does.”

“And how many ponies tell you that you’re wrong in private?” Cadance asked. “How many laugh at your stupid mistakes, or say when a dress you’re wearing clashes with your mane? Buck, how many at the very least are comfortable enough around you to say when you need to wipe your bucking nose?”

“Well...I'd say there's...maybe...one?” Celestia replied after an uncomfortable silence in which she looked away from Cadance. “Yes, her. An old mare that teaches some classes at my school. And to be honest, I don’t really think she was all there to begin with.”

With most of her annoyance at Celestia’s denial spent, Cadance went back to eating while the white pony just stared down at her food and tea. The rest of breakfast was a quiet affair as Cadance rushed to finish her meal in time to meet with her friends. It was only when she finished her last bite that Celestia spoke up again.

“Cadance,” she said hesitantly. “About that...other Celestia. The one Sunset spoke of. When she...expelled Sunset. Do you think she could have done it for Sunset's own good? To...help her make friends, I mean. She would of had to rely on other ponies to survive, and that would have been good for her, right? You said so yourself, the day...Sunset...came home.”

And the remaining annoyance in Cadance’s mind turned into a cold anger. She knew Celestia had never actually done that, but...after their previous conversation, it didn’t really seem to matter. “Why’re you asking me something like that?”

“Sunset,” Celestia said. “You’ve seen what she’s like. I need to find a way to help her with this.”

For a moment, Cadance moved to assure Celestia that with time the wounds would heal and bring them that much closer. Only, something stopped her. It happened in an instant, an epiphany of sorts. And she realized the real reason Celestia was asking her such a question. “No...that’s not what this is about at all, is it?”

Celestia blinked in confusion. “Excuse me?”

“You say you want to trot in and help her, but...that’s not how you operate,” Cadance went on. “You let ponies solve their own problems, like when Sunset and I were fighting, or when we dealt with Cinch. And I’ll admit, doing things that way may be harder, but makes ponies stronger, more independent. The way you usually do things, you would let Sunset work through this on her own with the occasional 'I love you’ for emotional support, even if it hurt you, because you love her enough to endure her anger while she works everything out.” She frowned at the other pony. “This is about you.”

After taking a deep breath, Celestia met Cadance’s hard stare with one of her own. “Be careful, Cadance. Let’s not say anything we'll regret later.”

Cadance didn’t stop. “I’m the Princess of Love, Celestia. An expert on every different kind of affection a pony can have,” she said. “Including the narcissistic kind in which a pony believes that she can do no wrong, like you. And with Sunset just trotting up and saying you abandoned her in some weird alternate timeline-thingy, you’re trying to find some kind of excuse to justify your actions. But, there’s something I don’t get-”

“That’s enough,” the white pony told her in a stern tone.

“You told me that what Sunset experienced was just some bizarre delusion,” Cadance continued, despite Celestia’s command. “Because a pony like you could never accept the possibility that you could actually do what Sunset said happened. That you could abandon your foal.”

Celestia snorted. “I told you, if Sunset thought it was all just a dream-”

“No!” Cadance said as she banged a hoof on the table, cutting Celestia off. “That’s what you tell yourself now, but back then...no. You’re so full of yourself, you couldn’t even begin to consider the possibility that you could do something so horrible to a pony you love after Sunset’s transformation put the very possibility of losing her into your mind.”

Celestia broke eye contact with the pink princess and turned her head to hide her face behind her mane. “Cadance, you don’t want to do this,” she grumbled.

“But what changed?” Cadance asked herself more than Celestia. “I know the way you are, Auntie. You wouldn’t of even begun to consider this, unless...you found something, didn’t you? Something that proves what Sunset said happened actually happened. That under the right circumstances that aren't very different from where we are right now, you could actually..." She blinked as the other alicorn took in a sharp breath. "Oh Celestia...this must be eating you up inside.”

The other alicorn withdrew into herself further. “Cadance,” Celestia said in a whisper.

Another dot connected to the rest, making an even clearer picture. “And Sunset,” Cadance continued. “They way she contradicts you...I didn’t notice it before but...they way you bow to her demands and adjust your plans like with the griffons...the fact you take stock in her words. You’ve given her the right to judge you, and you’re terrified of what verdict she’s going to announce!”

It was the same with the Nightmare Moon conundrum Celestia had already had her solution for. It was obvious to Cadance that Celestia shouldered some of the blame for whatever happened to her little sister onto herself and that Nightmare Moon’s legendary hatred of Celestia might have actually been justified in the white pony’s self-loathing eyes. That was the real reason she wasn't willing to make any real plans for fighting and living through her victory.

With the picture of what was going on completed in her head, Cadance pulled herself back into the moment and blinked at what she saw. Celestia, the pony that seen so in control of herself, looked on the edge of a nervous breakdown. “Oh...buck.”

“I can’t...I can’t...go through that again,” Celestia said down at the table in front of her with fear clearly showing in her one visible eye with her glistening mane hid the other one.

This is not what I had in mind when I got out of bed this morning, Cadance told herself before she spoke up to get Celestia’s attention. “Auntie? Celestia? Hey! LISTEN TO ME!” she shouted before striking her hoof on the table again.

When the big pony looked up at her, Cadance took in a deep breath and firmed her tone to sound as sure of herself as an equine could. “Your daughter loves you. Right now, you’re having some problems, yeah. Sunset is still trying to reconcile this perfect image she has of you with the reality on top of everything else, and you...you’re still trying to figure out just what having a pony you love like a daughter actually means,” she said before giving Celestia a sympathetic look. “But if you would just talk to her about your fears, confront them together, the love the two of you share for each other will see you through and be all the stronger for it.”

Instead of hearing an agreeing remark from Celestia, Cadance was greeted with silence.

The clock on the wall counted of the seconds with its ticking.

It got to thirty before Celestia finally looked back up at her. “Cadance.”

“Yes, Auntie?”

Celestia stood up, and turned to leave. “You need to get going or you’ll be late for school.”

Shock managed to let Celestia get three steps before Cadance managed to speak. “Hey. HEY!” she shouted at the departing pony. “Don’t you just push this to the side! Sunset’s hurting too you know!”

When that didn’t get a reply, Cadance let out a frustrated whinny before managing to get out a few last words in anger. “ARRRRGH! YOU REALLY ARE SUNSET’S MOM!” she shouted at the departing pony.

But not as encouragement.

Even with the coffee in her system helping to offset the horrendously early departure time, Sassy Saddles still felt half-dead on her hooves as the train she was on made its final approach towards Manehattan. Sleeping on the ride over hadn’t been an option, as she needed to use the time to see what Princess Sunset wanted for her Fall Formal dress and draw up some basic sketches while the princess worked on some program she had planned for a young mare named Spangled. And there were still so many other things to cover!

“So, Prin-”

“Ahem!” the amber alicorn said before Sassy could finish her question as she frowned at the pony sitting across from her.

The blue unicorn took a second to push down her proprietary instincts. “I mean, Sunny.”

Princess Sunset’s glare turned into a friendly smile a second later. “Yes, Sassy?”

“Do you know what type of material you want me to use?” Sassy asked. It was more of a courtesy than anything else. Being a princess, nothing less than the finest silk would do when it came to Princess Sunset’s wardrobe.

The princess thought about it for a second, and then shrugged. “Eh, whatever you think is best.”

Sassy felt another weight settle on her back at the announcement, but kept it from showing in her body language. She had almost become used to the non-decisions Princess Sunset was making in regards to her gown, as all the amber alicorn had done was tell Sassy she wanted the dominant color to be a nice light green.

So with everything else left up to the seamstress, Sassy couldn’t help but be nervous. After all, if Princess Sunset didn’t like the dress, a single word from her could bring Sassy’s hopes for a future in Canterlot’s fashion industry crashing down before she even began. What was worse was that everypony else would be taking note of the dress as well. So even if Princess Sunset liked it, Sassy could still be chased out because-

“You're doing it again.”

Sassy was pulled out of her waking nightmare that was filled with every fashion critic in Equestria standing before her with torches and pitchforks as she was tied to a stake that had all of her designs placed at her feet to be used as kindling to look at the bigger pony across from her. “D-Doing what, Your ahem-Sunny?”

Princess Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Do you honestly think that I don’t see you tensing up and getting all nervous?” she asked before sighing and looking at Sassy with a worried expression. “What’s wrong, Sassy?”

“I…” she said before hesitating. Although Sassy didn’t want to burden the princess with her problems, Sunset was not a pony that could be told no. “I’m just worried, Sunny. I know, you and Cadance don’t like reminders, but the two of you are princesses. Everypony's eyes are going to be on you come Friday night. And...well...what if they see what I make and…don’t like it?”

Princess Sunset studied Sassy for a moment, then leaned back in her chair. “A few years ago, I was attending a dinner with Mom,” she began. “It was the usual thing with a table long enough to sit two hundred ponies in the center of the room, and a dozen or so smaller round tables were littered throughout the rest of the dining hall. Towards the end of the meal, I picked up this weird smell and found it was coming from Celestia. Right after I did, the other pony sitting next to her said how wonderful Mom’s new perfume was, along with about a dozen other ponies. Which was weird because the smell was making me gag. Then, this one noble mare trotted up and asked Mom if she could have the name of the manufacture because she wanted some for herself.

“Mom rolled her eyes and told her that it was homemade, but said that the mare could have some if she wanted it. When the mare agreed, Princess Celestia got up, raised her tail, and farted in the mare's face. It was at that point that all the nobles in the room complimented Mom on the new musical sound she invented,” Sunset finished with a completely straight face.

Sassy sat motionless, unsure as to how she should respond to Princess Sunset’s story. On one hoof, she was pretty sure what the amber alicorn told her never actually happened. But after meeting Princess Celestia and having two meals with her the day before…the unicorn wouldn’t put such an action beyond the immortal ruler. She had worked rather hard to dissuade such notions from Sassy and her friends. “Um...well…. I'm sure….” she sighed and slumped down. “Princess Sunset, please tell me that never really happened.”

After letting her stew for a few seconds, Sunset snorted and rolled her eyes. “Okay, you got me there. But it sounds better than when Celestia tried her hoof at painting and ended up really sucking at it but still had ponies clamoring for her blotchy drawings,” she said. “Point is, as much as it's probably going to hurt you for me to say this, it’s not going to matter what the dresses you make for me and Cadance look like. Hell, you could put us in burlap sacks, and ponies would still call it genius.”

“Then why are you telling me this?” Sassy asked.

Princess Sunset snorted. “Because watching you worry yourself to death over if everypony is going to like something you put on a princess is even worse,” she explained as the train began to slow down and the sound of screeching metal reached Sassy’s ears. “Now come on and let's get going.”

As odd as it was hearing that the quality of her work was moot, Sassy did find some of the pressure she was feeling let up. On top of which, it became harder and harder for Sassy to concentrate on the future as Sunset dragged her from shop to shop, sometimes literally, to look at some of the latest fashions and offer a few suggestions when it came to her own dress. Nothing too difficult or overblown, which Sassy was thankful for, but it did eat up the time.

From time to time, Sassy also caught Sunset speaking to another seamstress with the outline of an odd bipedal creature displayed in her magic. She didn’t question it out loud, but had to wonder what the amber alicorn was having so many ponies make for her piecemeal.

Then, things got even stranger when they reached the sixth store, one Sassy had them go to pick which fabric Princess Sunset wanted for her dress. It wasn’t the fact that Sunset ended up choosing the third most expensive material that stood out. The oddity happened when they were on their way out of the warehouse with the fabric for both Princess Cadance’s order and the amber alicorn’s. When they stopped at the security checkpoint by the door to prove they had bought what they were carrying Sunset looked into the little office the guards had with a frown on her face.

“Who’s the filly?”

“Oh, just some brat we found wandering around the store, Your Highness,” the light brown pegasus stallion replied in a gruff tone. “We catch them from time to time, trying to sneak in and steal this or that. There’s no need to concern yourself with such things, Princess.”

The look on Sunset’s face became one that had Sassy taking a step away from the fiery pony as the amber alicorn let out a snort. “I’ll be the one to decide what I need to be concerned about,” she said before pushing the stallion to the side and marching into the security office.

Sassy followed the Princess in and got her first good look at the pony in question. It was a little unicorn filly with a pearly white coat and a stylized purple mane that had a bit of a curl at the end. Although Sassy wasn't very good when it came to guessing a pony’s age, she had to say that the filly looked to be on the edge of her teen years. As close as she was, wet spots where tears had been running down the poor filly’s face were apparent.

As for Sunset, the amber alicorn underwent a transformation the second she went through the door. The frown disappeared and tension went out of her body as she carefully walked over to the little filly that was looking down at the ground, completely unaware of Sunset’s presence right until the princess knelt down so her face was right in the filly’s field of view. “Hello there little one, what’s your name?”

The filly’s eyes went wide, and she let out a squeak before scooting back in her chair as much as she could.

Sunset’s eyes also widened a bit, but then she reached forward with a wing to touch the white filly’s shoulder. When she did, the princess let out a tiny breath, and the both of them stopped moving a second. Then, Sunset smiled at the filly. “It’s okay little one. And you're right, I should have better manners and introduce myself first,” the amber alicorn went on in a soft tone. “I’m Princess Sunset Shimmer, and this is my friend, Sassy Saddles.”

“Hello,” Sassy added as the little unicorn began to take deeper breaths. She didn’t know if that was a good sign, or a bad one.

“And you are?” Sunset asked softly.

The little filly took a few seconds, but she managed a response. “R-Rarity.”

Sassy blinked as Sunset shot the filly a bright smile she had never seen the princess use before and backed off to the side to better watch the exchange as the amber alicorn addressed the filly. “Rarity. That’s a pretty name! How old are you Rarity?”

“Eleven,” the filly replied, the nervousness in her voice still evident despite Sunset’s friendly demeanor.

“Seems a little young for you to be here by yourself,” Sunset went on. “Where are your parents?”

Sassy watched at the question completely annihilated the filly’s calm, starting with a trembling lip that became an outright bawling seconds later as Rarity fought to answer Sunset’s question. “I-I’m sorry Princess! Papa said not to leave t-the cart, but we were only here to pick up a wagon load of cotton fabric, and I just wanted to see southern-spun silk so badly. I-I didn’t mean t-to wander off! A-And now Papa’s gone a-and...I’M GOING TO JAAAAAAAAAIL!”

Right as the little filly lost control and began to bawl like a baby, Sunset took Rarity in her forehooves and lifted the filly into a hug to as she sat down on the floor. “It’s okay Rarity. You're not in trouble,” Sunset told her as she cradled the filly’s head under her chin. Then, Sunset’s expression darkened Sassy felt a chill run down her spine as she watched the amber alicorn glare at something neither of them could see. “But I would like to have a few words with your father.”

After a few minutes of comforting the filly, Sunset put Rarity down. “Now, are you hungry, Rarity?” When the filly nodded in response, Sunset stood up to her full height. “Okay then. Let’s get you something to snack on, then we’ll find your father.”

Seeing a problem with the princess’s plan, Sassy spoke up. “Pardon me, Princess,” she said. “But, wouldn’t it make more sense to wait for her father to return? Perhaps have some guards search for him?”

“Nah,” Sunset replied as she waved Sassy off with a wing. “I can just extrapolate the father’s genetic markers from Rarity’s DNA and use them as a focus in a tracking spell. As long as her uncle or somepony else closely related doesn’t cross our path, we should be fine.”

Although Sassy didn’t understand a word of Sunset’s solution to their problem, the alicorn's confidence kept her from arguing the course of action and they were outside the store after Princess Sunset glared at the guard hard enough to have him sweat a small lake. After they got to the street, Sunset bought Rarity a carrot dog, followed by an ice cream cone to get her past what had happened.

“Okay now, hold still Rarity,” Sunset told the little unicorn as she lit up her horn. A single strand of Rarity’s mane rose up as Sunset created a pair of glowing blue scissors from her magic to snip it.

When Rarity gave Sunset a worried glance, the amber alicorn smiled back with a slightly guilty expression. “Sorry, but I need one of these to find your dad.”

As Sunset began casting magic so complicated Sassy felt dizzy just from seeing her start to cast it, Sassy pulled Rarity away from the sight to keep her from interrupting the princess. “So Rarity, why did you want to come to work with your father?”

“I wanted to see all the fabrics,” Rarity replied before she looked down at the street with a frown. “We don’t have any high-class materials in Ponyville.”

Sassy grabbed onto the obvious topic. “Ponyville? Is that where you're from?” she asked. When the little nodded, Sassy reached for the next one. “Well, I can’t say that I've never been there myself, but I've seen it many times from the edge of Canterlot. It looks like a lovely place to live.”

All of a sudden, Rarity's eyes lit up as she stared at Sassy with adoration. “Your from Canterlot too?” she asked before going without a pause. “Oh, but you're with the Princess! You must be. Are you her hoofmaiden?”

Sassy giggled and waved off the question. “Oh no. Princess Sunset and I are just friends that go to the same school,” she explained. “We just came to Manehattan to buy some materials so I could make the Princess a dress for our school's formal dance.”

The explanation made Rarity even more enthralled. “You’re a seamstress too?”

“Well,” Sassy replied, a little embarrassed by the filly’s sudden exuberance. “I dabble, and sewing is my special talent. But I need to graduate before I pursue a career.”

The fact that Rarity only heard half of what was said became apparent when she let out a dreamy sigh. “The princess’s personal dressmaker.”

“Okay, done!”

Sassy turned her attention away from the filly and looked up to see Sunset holding a paper airplane in her magic. “Ummm, Princess...what are you doing with that?”

“It’s simple really,” she replied before pointing a hoof at the airplane. “Since just following a tracking spell on the ground would take too long, and me flying through the city would cause untold destruction-”

Say what? Sassy thought.

“-I put a teleportation marker on the paper and threaded the hair through it,” she explained. “So it will carry the paper to Rarity’s dad and ping my horn. Then we can just pop over to him.”

Sassy slowly nodded in understanding as she tried to work out just how many spells Sunset had used in her plan and just ended up with a small headache. “And what will we be doing in the meantime?”

In response, Sunset looked over to Rarity. “So, you like dresses?”

When the little unicorn slowly nodded, Sunset smiled. “Okay then, let’s go look at some. Maybe you can give me a few ideas for when Sassy makes mine.”

Over half an hour later, when the trio was just finishing a round of window shopping that did make Sassy rethink her designs just a bit, Sunset’s horn lit up on its own, drawing the amber alicorn's attention. “Hmm, looks like my spell found your dad,” she said before looking over to Rarity. “Time to go Rares.”

The little unicorn let out a disappointed whine and hung her head “Oh…well…” Rarity mumbled before she looked up at the princess and went into a bow. “Thank you for everything you’ve done today, Your Majesty.”

Sunset smirked at Rarity. “You and your manners,” she mumbled before picking the filly up with her horn and pulling her into a hug. “Goodbye Rarity. I’m glad I ran into you today. Now, Sassy get over here, I'll need to take you with us.”

After taking a second to collect her things, Sassy trotted over so that Sunset could lay a wing across her back. Then, Sunset’s horn lit up again and the world disappeared in a bright blue flash.

Sassy stumbled forward when the ground beneath her changed, and her eyes cleared to reveal that Princess Sunset had put her down on a dirt road somewhere in the country, although she could still make out the highest buildings of Manehattan in the distance. The second thing Sassy noticed was the stunned white stallion hitched to a cart full of fabric in front of them.

“Hey there,” Sunset said before she lifted Rarity up in one hoof. “Did you forget something?”

The stallion’s eyes widened. “Rarity? What-”

Sunset’s horn lit up and the stallion’s mouth clamped shut a moment later, before he could finish talking. “Now,” the amber alicorn said in a voice that sounded a little too sweet to be Sunset’s. “I realize that we ponies are creatures of habit, and that when something happens outside of our normal routine, we can be a little bit forgetful. That’s why I'm not going to throw you in prison for abandoning your filly in the middle of a city and not even realizing it before you got out of said city’s limits.”

Both father and daughter's eyes went wide at Sunset's words as the amber alicorn paused for a moment to let what she said sink in. “That said. If I ever find out that this happens again, I won’t be nearly as amicable. In fact, I'll be very, very, angry,” she explained before the much to happy smile was replaced by an expression Sassy was used to seeing on Sunset’s face. “And you won’t like me when I’m angry. Understand?”

The stallion gulped. “Y-Yes Princess! I’m sorry Princess. I understand!”

With the stallion that looked like he would have been cowering if not for the wagon holding him up agreeing with her, Sunset’s face brightened and she set the little unicorn down. “Sorry for frightening your dad, Rarity,” the amber alicorn said. “But I wanted to make sure I got my point across.”

Once she was released, Rarity scampered back to her father, and Sassy stood by silently as the Princess and the stallion named Magnum had a brief conversation. Apparently, Rarity’s father worked for a shipping company that delivered materials to the more out of the way places in Equestria that weren’t connected to the rail system. He usually bought a doll from wherever he went and took it home for Rarity to play with. Which in turn got her interested in their clothing, so much so she tried making some herself.

After hearing that story, Sunset let out a little giggle and looked over to Rarity. “Well, for helping me with my gown designs today, how about I have some silks shipped down to Ponyville for you, Rarity?”

“Really?” the filly asked with a hopeful expression.

Sunset smiled back at her. “Well, we can’t have your dolls dressed in rags,” she said. “And it’ll be good practice for when you're making the full-sized ones for ponies.”

The filly’s squeal of a thank you lasted a good thirty seconds as she rushed forward to kiss Sunset’s hooves several times. Something that had Sunset looking a little uncomfortable, and made her rush out a goodbye before she sent the father and daughter on their way.

Once they were on their own, Sassy looked over to the amber alicorn. “Forgive me for saying so Princess Sunset. But, I’m surprised.”

“About what?” she asked.

Sassy gave her a little smile. “You’re very good with foals.”

“Why is that such a surprise to everypony?”

The response got a giggle from Sassy. “Now, how about sending us back to Manehattan so we can get home before dark?”

Sunset stared at Sassy for a second before her expression became hesitant. “Um...about that…”

Thanks to her mood, Cadance had thought it best not to walk Shining Armor to school. So, she went through her morning classes with only a few glances of her friends when they were in the hallway. Then, when lunch came, Cadance was torn between just taking it up on the roof of the school like she did before, or seeing Shiny without Sunset around.

She knew from personal experience usually ended with the pink princess’s tongue inside the white stallion’s mouth.

But since her absence would probably end up raising a few eyebrows, and Cadance didn’t think anything would happen in front of the whole school, she decided to suck it up and go away. If Shiny got uncomfortable, then she could always make up some excuse to leave.

Which made Cadance take her triple-portion lunch over to the gang’s usual spot and wait for the others to come trotting over. Fleur and Crust were the first to take their seats, with Upper Crust looking around a moment later in confusion. “Is Princess Sunset not here today?”

Before Cadance could answer, Cheerilee trotted up and set down her tray on the other side of Fleur, where Sassy normally was. “She and Sassy went to Manehattan to buy some fabric for the dresses.”

The look on Upper Crust’s face looked like she had bitten a bad apple. “Dresses? What dresses?” she asked before looking over to Fleur. “What’s she talking about?”

The second most gorgeous pony at the table gave her friend an uneasy look. “Well, yesterday, Sunset came by and invited Sassy, Cheerilee and myself to the palace for lunch.”

“What?” Upper Crust replied in a desperate tone as she looked at Fleur as if she just found out the taller pony had put a knife in her flank. “Why wasn’t I invited? I'm more important than any of you!”

Cadance rolled her eyes. Pretty sure you just answered your own question there. Although she didn’t share Sunset's disdain for the young mare, Upper Crust made it extremely hard to focus on her better qualities.

Instead of getting her question answered, Upper Crust found herself pushed aside as Cheerilee's mare friend and Shiny’s group finally showed up and took their seats, with Sunset’s usual spot remaining empty. Then they had to relate the reason for the amber alicorn's absence again, and by then Cadance was ready to move onto a new topic.

“So, anything interesting happening this week?”

“You mean, other than the big school dance this Friday that those dresses you were talking about are obviously for?” Gaffer deadpanned.

Fleur looked around at the group. “Speaking of the dance, are any of you also going?”

The question had Upper Crust putting her nose into the air. “Jet Set is coming down from Manehattan. We’ve even had Pra Da to make me a new gown!”

“Oh, that sounds amazing,” Cheerilee said. “Do you have a picture, Crust? I’d love to see it.”

Upper Crust looked over to the earth pony. “You’ll have to wait till the formal. Oh, wait, are you even going?”

“Well, I don’t really have anything to wear,” Cheerilee said hesitantly.

A tiny smirk appeared on the yellow unicorn’s face. “Well, it’s probably for the best then. You wouldn’t want to just show up in a pair of stockings and some short skirt.”

Cadance had to stop herself from frowning at the chubby mare, and looked over to the mulberry mare. “If you want to go and need something to wear Cheerilee, I can have the royal tailor make you a dress,” she said before looking over to the other earth pony mare of the group. “And you too, if you want to to go, that is.”

“The...the royal tailor?” Crust asked in a disbelieving near-whisper.

In response to the question, Cadance gave the yellow unicorn a friendly nod of her head. “That’s right. He’s name is Satin Stitches. He’s the pony that makes Princess Celestia’s dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Although both Cheerilee and her pink-maned friend blush at the attention. “Princess, we couldn’t-”

Cadance held up a hoof to dissuade the attempt to turn her down. “Nonsense. He’d love the chance to work on another pony,” she said before giving them a cautious look. “That is, if you actually do want to go. I wouldn’t want to force anypony into something they don’t want to do.”

“Well, we don’t really have dates-”

As Poindexter’s ears perked up at Cheerilee's admission, Gaffer snorted and rolled his eyes. “Cheery, you’re friends with a pair of princesses. Anypony in this or Celestia’s school would put out on command just for the chance to be introduced to one of them.”

The mention of such a way to attract a date had Cadance’s feathers ruffling on their own accord. She frowned at Gaffer. “You better not have done something like that.”

Gaffer raised his hooves in defense and chuckled nervously. “I’m not going, I was just saying, you know, it would be pretty easy for any of us to get a date if we wanted to.”

“Even though the pony you were going with was more there to suck up to me and Sunset rather than be with you?”Cadance deadpanned.

After taking a drink, Eight-Bit chimed in. “Unless, you know, one of us went out with another of us from the group.”

Cheerilee became a little hesitant. “I don’t know, wouldn’t that be a little awkward?”

Seeing the male earth pony of their group droop his head, Cadance gave a little shrug. “Well, you could always go as friends, I suppose.”

“Yes,” Fleur agreed. “The only couple in this group is Shining Armor and...um…” The tall mare’s expression turned into a concerned frown “Shining Armor, are you alright?”

Cadance looked over to the young stallion sitting next to her and blinked in surprise. Judging from the look on his face, Shiny had swallowed something that really disagreed with him. “Shiny? Is everything okay?”

The white unicorn gulped heavily despite the fact that Cadance was certain that he didn’t have anything in his mouth. “The...dance?”

“Yeah,” Gaffer with a frown on his face. “That thing we’ve been talking about for the past ten minutes.”

Shining Armor’s eye twitched as his expression became lost. “I forgot about the dance.”

Fleur let out a tiny giggle. “Well, it’s not as if you have plenty of time still. You stallions don't need as much preparation as a mare does.”

“Well, since Sunset’s not here, I'm sure you don't need to be worried about her finding out about how you forgot about the Formal,” Fleur assured him. “If your ready in time that is.”

Sweat began to appear on Shiny’s forehead.

“Wait,” Cheerilee spoke up. “I thought you and Cadance were together, Shining Armor.”

Ignoring the others, Cadance put her nose on the young stallion’s forehead for a few seconds, then took it away. “Well, you don't have a fever,” she mumbled to herself as the rest of the group finished talking in hushed whispers.

Poindexter looked over to the shining stallion. “Hey Armor. I know we kind of joke about you and the princesses-”

After looking away from Shiny, Cadance glared at the earth pony stallion. “What do you mean joke?” she demanded. “If you guys are making fun of him!” The pink princess theft the rest unsaid, knowing whatever they came up with would be worse than anything she could think of.

“Nonono!” Eight-Bit quickly replied. “We just poke a little fun at Shiny that he’s kind of...dating...both of you.”

Cadance snorted and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. You can’t have two special someponies!” she said with angry convection. “That’s why they call ponies in relationship couples! Yes, me and Shiny went on a date, but that was just to see how compatible we were. Shiny’s going to pick which one of us he wants to be with officially, and take her to the dance. Right, Shiny?”

After looking over to the stallion, Cadance blinked in confusion. Mostly because said pony’s whole body was shivering despite the layer of sweat his coat was drenched in. And the wide-eyed look of hopeless despair. “Umm...Shiny? Maybe you should go see the nurse,” a second before the bell signaling the end of lunch rang.

Shining Armor looked around in confusion as he trotted into the gymnasium and looked around at the odd obsticle course laid out before him. “What the-” The sound of a whip cracking made Shining Armor straighten himself up to stand at attention.

“Very good.”

The familiar voice with a strange accent had Shining Armor looking to his left to see Princess Cadance and some pony with a white coat and blonde mane looking back at him with matching blue eyes. While the mystery pony was naked, Cadance had on an odd black uniform on that was decorated with iron crosses and crooked plus signs like the one decorating the red heart that comprised the white pony’s cutie mark.

“C-Cadance?”

A riding crop appeared out of nowhere and held in Cadance's magic to smack Shining Armor on his rear. “Ow!”

“Ze consort in training vill not address her Highness vithout her proper title!” the white pony announced loudly. To punctuate the point, the riding crop in Cadance’s magic swung around to swat him again.

After he let out another yelp of pain, a black leather bridle appeared and flew over to put itself in place around Shiny’s muzzle while the lead rope glowed with Cadance’s magic tugged him along the obstacle course and the white pony trotted alongside him, lecturing Shining Armor as they went. If he fell even a step behind, which happened a lot, the riding crop in Cadance's magic would encourage him to hurry up.

“Now, ze consort of ze Princess must be a perfect specimen of pony,” the white mare announced as Shiny lagged behind her, getting a swat for his sluggishness. “He must be strong, but gentle.”

Thwack!

“Brave! But considerate.”

Thwack!

“Powerful! But kind.”

Twack!

“Mannered! But sensible.”

Shining Armor didn’t know how long the course went on, forcing him to jump through hoops and walk on water as he tried to live up to Cadance’s expectations of a perfect pony while the white pony with the blonde mane and blue eyes rattled off a pair of traits that were near-contradictions right before Shining Armor paused to consider her words and got a swat for his trouble.

Halfway through the course, Shining Armor reared back. “Wait! Wait, wait!”

Instead of smacking him with the riding crop again, Princess Cadance turned around. Unlike the authoritarian pony, the Princess beautiful face had its usual loving concern. “Yes, Shiny? Is there something wrong?”

“Why’re you making me do all of this?” he asked, pleading for an answer.

Cadance blinked. “Shiny, don’t you remember all the time I had to spend on you before you got that kiss from Sunset? I think that anypony who wants to be with a princess has to be perfect,” she explained before giving the unicorn a loving smile. “Don’t worry, Shiny. I know you can be worthy of me. You just need to become captain of the royal guard, save Equestria a dozen times, and be the most skilled sex partner in the world.”

“Uhhhh…”

The hesitation at the last part got a frown from Cadance. “Shiny, I’m the Princess of Love. I expect my stallion to be as good as I am,” she told him. “Even if my expectations are completely unreasonable and have no chance of ever being met, I still have faith you will exceed them.”

“But...but...but what you expect is impossible!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “You wanted me to fight a dragon to rescue Sunset! Me! Not my character! All the faith in the world doesn’t mean anything if what you want me to do, who you expect me to be is impossible!”

All of a sudden, the floor beneath Shining Armor gave way, and he let out a cry of brave suprse as he plummeted into a black abyss. He closed his eyes to wait for the splat…

...

...only to open them and find himself standing in the entryway in a fancy ballroom that was filled with important ponies. Unlike before, Shiny found himself wearing the uniform of a high-ranking military officer with a dozen medals hanging from his uniform.

Next to the young stallion, a pony held a trumpet to his lips and played a trio of loud notes, making everypony in the room take notice. “Announcing the stallion of the hour, most powerful unicorn in Equestria! The magnificent stallion that saved all of Manehattan without even the use of his horn, commander of the royal guard! Captain Shining Armor!”

All of the ponies in the room stomped their hooves in approval of Equestria’s hero, for whom this celebration was for, made way for Shining Armor as he trotted forward into the crowd. All around him, Shiny picked up the whispered words from the crowd.

“I heard he’s the most powerful unicorn since Starswirl.”

“I heard he repelled a changeling swarm all by himself.”

“His shield can cover all of Canterlot, you know.”

“And it’s completely unbreakable. We don’t have to be worried about anything as long as Captain Shining Armor is here to protect us.”

Every word made him stand up a little straighter as he looked around the hall with the stained glass windows showing Shining Armor saving Equestria dozens of times.

And why shouldn’t he be?

Shining Armor was everything he ever wanted to be. He was strong, powerful, heroic, respected, and had the top-ranked job in the military. There wasn’t anypony in Equestria that came close to-

“Announcing her Royal Highness, Princess Sunset Shimmer!”

The crowd that that been discussing Shining Armor's amazingness a moment before falling into a bow while a hushed silence came over the room. He turned around, and his mouth dropped at the newcomer’s appearance.

Sunset Shimmer was easily as large as Celestia, if not a little bit bigger. A flowing made of red and gold trailed behind her as she stepped into the room, wearing dark obsidian regalia with bright rubies decorating each of her horseshoes and crown while her amazing tail trailed in the air behind her.

Unlike with Shining Armor, nopony spoke as Sunset passed them. Their admiration and respect for the mare kept them silent while she trotted through the crowd. She came right up to Captain Shining Armor and smiled down at him. “Hello Shiny.”

“Princess,” he replied before also going into a bow.

As if his movements were a cue for everypony else, the Canterlot nobility galloped forward to gather around Sunset Shimmer, with each new pony pushing Shining Armor away to try and get closer to the more important pony.

“What the-” he said before a stallion knocked him back to join the herd clamoring for her attention.

“Sunset!” Shining Armor called out.

The Princess looked up from the crowd. “Oh, Shiny! Could you get me some punch. Talking to all these important ponies is thirsty work.”

Although it was beneath a hero of his caliber, Shining Armor nodded before trotting over to the buffet table where the food and drinks were kept.

And blinked when he found Princess Celestia standing there, dressed as a serving maid. “Ah, Shining Armor, how can I help you?”

“Princess Celestia?” Shining Armor asked as he cocked his head in confusion.

The big alicorn giggled. “Oh, I’m not a Princess anymore, silly pony. Ever since Empress Sunset was coordinated, she’s controlled the government, protected Equestria, and handled moving the celestial bodies. What is a pony like you doing here?”

Shining Armor stood up tall and proud. “I because this is my party, for my most recent victory against...um....” The stallion frowned. It was odd that he couldn’t remember just what the party was about.

So, he looked up to the stained glass windows for a reminder.

And blinked at what he saw.

Instead of depictions showing Captain Shining Armor’s heroic accomplishments, each window was an artwork centered around Sunset. In one, she defeated an army of changelings with ease. Another window had her shielding the entire mountain of Canterlot from an attack. A third showed the unicorn Starswirl the Bearded bowing to her superior knowledge and power.

Behind Shining Armor, Celestia leaned in. “Now, what exactly was it that you did that Empress Sunset was too busy to take care of?”

“I…” Shining Armor said as he tried to remember.

Then, the entire room shook, curtains as thick as throw rugs that covered the twenty foot tall windows of the ballroom blew in the wind, and a magical power so mighty that it nearly crushed Shining Armor’s horn from its very presence pushed down on the stallion’s skull.

“Oh, here Sunset comes now,” Celestia said as she focused her gaze upwards. “Empress, what did Shining Armor do that was so special you threw him a celebration?"

Shining Armor turned around to face Sunset...and froze in shock.

Instead of the Sunset Shining Armor had seen before, Empress Sunset was far bigger than anypony alive, large enough for Shining Armor to walk under without even lowering his head. Her eyes shown with a nearly blinding white light while her horn hummed with power and her wings crackled with electricity. She took one more step that shook the room so much it nearly knocked Shining Armor off his hooves, then let out a deep chuckle. “Oh-Hoho! My darling little Shiny doesn’t need a reason for me to throw a party for him,” she said before laying on her belly, then bending her head down to kiss Shining Armor on the cheek with lips that were almost too big for the act. “I do all the important things. He’s just there to make me happy. That’s reason enough for me to have a little get together.”

“W-What?” Shining Armor stuttered out. “N-No. That’s not...I’m a brave hero!”

Celestia giggled. “Oh Shining Armor. What could you ever possibly do that Sunset can’t easily trump?”

The question had Shining Armor wracking his brain for an answer. But, try as he might, he couldn’t think of one. Even as Equestria’s most powerful unicorn, Sunset’s alicorn magic was far superior. She was bigger than him, stronger, faster, smarter...in every single measurable way, Sunset Shimmer was a million times better than the very best pony Shining Armor could ever dream of becoming.

All of a sudden, a scream brought Shining Armor’s mind out of it’s pointless search for superiority on some level to the most amazing pony ever, and he looked up as somepony bucked open the doors to the ballroom and ran inside. “Somepony help! It’s the changeling queen, she’s attacking Canterlot!”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened in hope.

Even if Sunset was better at him than everything, it didn’t mean he still couldn’t do great things!

“Don’t worry everypony!” Shining shouted as he summoned his armor and galloped towards the nearest window. “I’ll protect you all!”

After crashing through the window, Shining Armor landed and charged through the palace’s front gate to meet an enemy even Princess Celestia had trouble with!

The changeling queen was everything that his mother had told him during her bedtime stories and worse. Standing eight feet tall, the monstrous creature looked like some freakish cross between a pony and a cockroach. Six legs held it up while a pair of horns jutted from it head, along with a dozen beady eyes. Chitin thicker than any armor covered every inch of its horrid body.

It would be a tough battle, but Shining Armor knew that in the end, he would prevail. So, he summoned up every drop of his magical power and…

...watched as a giant amber hoof attached to a leg thicker than any tree descended to crush the changeling queen as if she were a cockroach, making Shining Armor fall back on his plot and look up.

The fifty-foot goddess that was Sunset Shimmer rubbed her hoof into the ground a bit to make sure the changeling was dead, then looked over to where Shining Armor was sitting. Every inch of her coat glowed with mystical power that gave off enough light to make it seem like noon to anypony around her, making the white stallion easy to spot.

“Shiny? What’re you doing here?”

“I...wanted to...be a hero.”

Sunset laughed, and all of Canterlot trembled at the sound of her voice.

“Oh. My little Shiny. I’m all the hero Equestria is ever going to need. But don’t worry. I still have a use for you.”

A magic field surrounded Shining Armor and he floated up until he was eye level with the goddess. Then, Sunset’s smile turned seductive.

“They only use I ever had for you.”

“Wha-? Shining Armor asked before he saw Sunset raise the back of her tail up.

Which made Shining Armor’s eyes go wide in horror. “Oh no,” he squeaked out.

“In you go, my little sex toy.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!” Shining Armor screamed as he floated past Sunset’s body at roller coaster speeds and curve right as he passed her flank to be-

“AHHHH!” Shining Armor shrieked as he shot up in his bed.

Not...where he had seen himself heading.

After panting in terror for several seconds, the stallion lit up his horn a looked around. The familiar scenery of his bedroom made the pounding in his heart slowly subside. “Dream. It was...just a dream,” Shining Armor told himself.

A dream that involved a very fascist Cadance with a penchant for...encouragement tools, and an overgrown Sunset who was a bit too affectionate for his taste. But, a dream was all it was.

“Okay...okay, I’m good,” Shining Armor told himself. “Now just, uh...back to sleep.”

The young stallion laid back down in his bed, putting his blankets back up as he did so. Then, he rolled over onto his side.

And found himself, slightly more damp than he had been before.

Not from sweat.

It was a sticky kind of damp.

Near his midsection.

So, the colt blinked at the feeling, bemoaned the mess, and let out a verbal cry of displeasure.

“Oh, come on!”

Chapter 23: Tuesday is for Talking Sex

“...up...come….up…”

“Sun...ke….”

“SUNSET! WAKE UP!”

Hearing an alarm blasting in her ears, the amber alicorn leapt out of bed and flung together a quick trio of fireballs that circled her head, ready for a quick deployment as she looked around the blurry room for whatever danger threatened Cadance.With nothing in her field of vision, Sunset spun around...and barely avoid tripping over herself as she looked for something that wasn’t there.

As the room came into focus and Sunset wiped the drool from her mouth with a wing, she noticed that there was no eldritch abomination to threaten the pink princess’s life. Which had the amber alicorn glaring at Cadance a moment later with eyes that wanted to pull the shutters completely down. “You had better have a good reason for getting me out of bed this early,” she grumbled.

“Sunset, this the same time we always get up,” Cadance replied as she pointed out the window. “If anything, you’re behind schedule. See? Sun was up a good thirty minutes ago. I’ve already had my bath and fixed my mane. Now, you need to get ready.”

After taking a moment to very carefully wipe some of the sleepiness from a single eye with her hoof, Sunset summoned up her magic, intent on shoving the wicked sun back down beneath the horizon and smacking it around a bit to teach the thing a lesson. She even had the fantastic line of “not if I say it isn’t” in her head, ready to be used. But then she realized the foolishness of such an action just in time to stop herself and jumped back on the bed to wrap herself in the covers for protection against the day. “Goodnight.”

A few more hours of sleep, and she could take care of some things that still needed to be done before making her exit from Equestria. The top of the list being: FINDING THE FUCKING EXIT!

Sunset hadn’t been too worried to find the mirror gone, after her initial panic attack that is. Although Celestia hadn’t put it back in storage when everything happened before, it also hadn’t done the alarming thing of spitting out an alicorn. So, it made sense that she would have locked it back up in the palace vault where she kept all of her mystical crap. Only, when Sunset had checked the place out the other day under the pretense of giving her friends an all access tour of the castle, it wasn’t there either. Which meant that either one of two things had happened…

A. Princess Celestia had meant to have it moved into the enchanted artifact repository, but with most of the palace staff being total morons that Celestia probably only kept around because she was too nice a pony to kick any of them out unless they did something as unforgivable as THROWING A FUCKING BOOK AT HER...the mirror was probably in some out of the way storage closet.

B. Princess Celestia had the mirror moved out of the castle.

Sunset was really hoping for the first possibility, as the second would mean hours of searching through numerous documents under the false pretense of looking for a lost packing that got delivered to the wrong pony...or something. She hadn’t really gotten that far into it.

Before she made any real plans, Sunset needed sleep.

The fact that the mirror problem was just the latest in a long list of things that still needed to be done before Friday night was not lost on Sunset. She still needed to talk Celestia or Cadance into approving Spangled Star’s belated education program, find a tutor for Twilight, and make sure Cadance would at least console Shiny after the amber alicorn left.

There was also the matter of her journal, which was still missing. However, Sunset had decided to give up on looking for the damn thing. Talking with her mom after running away again would be much too painful. And there was always the possibility that Celestia could use the mystical connection of the books to force the portal open with proper motivation. Sunset knew that this Celestia wouldn’t just throw the thing away even if she came to think the amber alicorn had died on the other side of the portal. So, the journal was better off lost.

“Sunset, you need to get up,” the intrusive but sexy pink monster told her as Cadance yanked on the sheets.

In response to the lecturing tone coming from the hot pink pony, Sunset let out a extremely agitated groan, then picked up her head and glared at the offender. “Sunset no function sleep well without.”

“Huh?”

Sunset groaned and poked her head out from her blanket-shell, taking a second to remind herself that she was talking to her very good friend Cadance, who didn’t deserve to spend the rest of her life as a cockroach for trying the amber alicorn’s very short patience. “Look, I’m sorry I was so late getting back from Manehattan, missed your magic lessons, and left you alone for most of the night. But I need my sleep. No sleep means cranky Sunset. Cranky Sunset bad.”

“Okay first off, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. Celestia took care of my training and I even managed to learn a few minor passive defensive spells that’ll keep me from being knocked out. But you need to go have breakfast with Princess Celestia,” Cadance told her firmly.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the command. “Why?”

“Because she’s your loving mother who wants to see you as much as possible so she can tell you how much she loves you,” Cadance told her.

The explanation made Sunset blink...and then frown. “That’s just about the stupidest-wait a second,” she said as her brain began to clear as it detected an oddity.

The pink pony tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Yes?”

With the sudden realization of the danger she was in, Sunset’s mind threw off the last bit of sleepiness, putting her at optimal processing speed before the amber alicorn lashed out with a three-pronged spell. The first part of her attack created a shield around the room that would prevent anything from escaping while the second turned half of the carpet into an adhesive and the third grabbed the creature in front of Sunset in a crushing telekinetic hold before she was slammed into the floor belly up, pinning its wings to the ground as well.

“S-Sunset!” the not-Cadance cried out in fear. “What’re you DOING?”

“SHUT UP!” Sunset shouted at the not-Cadance. She jumped off the bed and stormed up to the trapped creature, actually glad that her hoofsteps made the whole castle shake with her anger. “You know, I thought Cadance’s fears were just her being stupid. But I let her in because, she was the only creature I've ever known that gave me a second chance, no strings attached, and no constant reminders of my past. Because she had faith in me." The thought put a distracting flutter in Sunset's heart that she quickly shook away. "And...I'll admit it, I actually liked cuddling with her. Not because I never really thought she was any real danger.

“But then I’m gone for a day, don’t renew the protection wards and what happens?” Sunset asked as she reached the pinned quadruped to get right in her frightened face. “SHE GETS KIDNAPPED BY CHANGELINGS!”

The eyes of the changeling that looked like Cadance widened in fear. “W-What? Sunset, I'm not a changeling!”

Sunset glared down at the lying changeling. “I’ll admit, you’ve got her mannerisms down pretty good. But you made one mistake,” she growled. “One of my biggest fuckups since I came back is that I’m driving a wedge between her and Celestia. There’s no way that the real Cadance would talk like that when my mom was the topic. NOW WHERE IS SHE?”

“Okay, okay,” the changeling said. “You’re right. I was forcing myself to sound happier than I was feeling.”

The lack of a proper answer made Sunset growl. “That’s not a location.”

The changeling gulped. “Sunset, wait!” it pleaded. “Princess Celestia, s-she’s got a magic potion that can reveal a changeling. G-Go get it, and it’ll prove that I’m not a changeling.”

Sunset frowned. “How do you know about that?”

“Because I’m Cadance!” it replied desperately.

“Or…” Sunset began to reason aloud. “You’ve already found out about it and developed a counter. Hell, the fact that you’re the one suggesting I go get it practically proves you’ve already have a way to bypass the detection potion!”

Not-Cadance gave Sunset a disbelieving look. “Seriously?”

As the changeling’s attitude became more relaxed, Sunset’s anger exploded. “You know what? Fuck this! I know you’re a changeling and know you bastards took Cadance,” she said before she reached forward and touched her hoof to the imposter’s leg. “So, I'm going to ask you six more times, and every time you don’t tell me, I'm going to rip off a limb.”

Judging by the wide eyes and way the pink creature froze solid, Sunset guessed that not-Cadance had begun realizing just how fucked she was.

“Now,” Sunset said as she clamped down on a pink leg and grit her teeth. “Where. Is. Cadance?”

“Y-You spent the past three years in another dimension where you were transformed into a hairless bipedal creature called a human!” the captured pony shouted in a panic. “Even though you love your mother dearly, you can’t get past the fact she abandoned you for three years in another timeline! A-AND YOU HAD A WET DREAM ABOUT ME A FEW NIGHTS AGO WHERE I WAS WORSHIPING YOUR SUN!”

Sunset blinked before staring at Cadance with wide eyes.

The real Cadance.

The Cadance that Sunset had just threatened.

A dozen thoughts ran through her mind as Sunset stepped away from Cadance. Although there was a brief moment of shame was quickly overshadowed by the embarrassment of Cadance finding out about her secret. “W-What? You...how do you know that?” the embarrassed mobile alicorn asked as she felt her cheeks heat up.

“Oh please. I’ve known you’ve wanted me physically for-oh, you mean how do I know the specifics of your dream? Well...you talk in your sleep, Sunset. Among other things,” Cadance replied gently. “And don’t be so embarrassed. Fetishes are a natural part of a pony’s sexual individuality. Although...I am kind of curious why you like it when a pony-”

“I’ve never actually done it!” Sunset said before Cadance could finish. Embarrassed in the extreme, Sunset felt her cheeks heat up until her face was redder than her mane. Then, she looked down at the ground, hoping her mane was hiding her blush.

Despite all the hair in her way, Sunset could still see Cadance give the amber alicorn a questioning look. “Okay then, how did you...um...get the idea for-”

Sunset let out a groan. She couldn’t believe that Cadance actually wanted to talk about...that!

But, the amber alicorn had just pinned her to the floor and threatened to rip off her legs and wings, so…she owed it to the pink pony to do whatever Cadance wanted her to do.

“Well, w-when I got to be, you know...that age, the one where you’re old enough to notice a unicorn stallion’s...um...lower horn, I did what any super intelligent filly without enough life experience did. I researched it on my own,” Sunset started. “But I didn’t want just theoretical stuff. So I, um...looked through the palace library for um...factual accounts of...you know. I-I wanted to make sure I, um...got it right on the first try.”

Cadance looked like she tried to nod, but the adhesive stopped her from doing too much. “Well, that’s...mostly normal,” she said. “I’ve recommended plenty of books to ponies that had sexual questions, and even gave some advice to those who weren’t too squeamish to talk about it.”

For some reason, that did make Sunset feel a little more at ease. “Well, um...so...there weren’t any real…you know, step by step studies done of ponies having sex. But there were um...stories based on factual events with illustrations that I read over. And the mare of the pair, she liked to...you know.”

“Okay,” Cadance replied before a sudden frown appeared on her face. “Wait a second. Sunset, I’m pretty into romantic history, but I’ve never heard of a graphic love story involving-”

Sunset went back to blushing. “They were ancient stories! Really ancient. The palace is probably the only place in Equestria that has them anymore thanks to the spells protecting the books from damage due to age,” she said before looking away from Cadance. “And... I um...don’t think the Princess wanted more than one copy floating around.”

“Why’s that?” Cadance asked.

“Because...the main characters were…Commander Hurricane and...Princess Celestia.”

A silence followed Sunset’s declaration, making the amber alicorn look back in time to see Cadance blink in confusion. “Wait a second,” the pink princess mumbled. “You mean to tell me that the main example of romantic interaction you had during your formative years was a porno involving Commander Hurricane and your MOM?”

Cadance stormed down the hallway with a frown on her face and a meek Sunset in tow, much to her displeasure. Of course with the matter of Sunset’s lack of upbringing by Celestia that had a pre-teen filly turn to graphic romance novels put on hold until Cadance could look over said material and see what she was dealing with, Sunset had become an overly-apologetic wreck since she had done the exact bucking thing Celestia had pulled several days earlier!

It really had her wondering if there wasn’t some truth to the story of all the ponies that became alicorns were descended from Celestia in some way. Celestia and Sunset were just too much alike for there to be any other explanation!

“Cadance,” Sunset spoke up in a fearful tone, making the pink princess stop and silently dread what was coming next.

Still, she put on a little smile when it came time to turn her head and look at the pony she loved. “Yes, Sunset?”

Said pony gulped and looked towards Cadance in the way some ponies did when they refused to meet her eyes but didn’t want to insult a princess by not looking directly at her. “D-Do we have to tell Celestia about what happened?” Sunset asked as she slumped down a little more while her wings trembled.

Seeing Sunset cower in fear made Cadance just stare at the pony for several seconds as her mind worked to process the sight. She wanted to rush over and wrap her hooves around the bigger mare to assure her there was nothing to worry about. She wanted to kick Celestia, as the terrified reaction had to be the fault of the white pony since she was the only authority figure in Sunset’s life. She wanted to stand up and outright tell Sunset there was nothing for her to be worried about and she was proud of her friend for doing exactly what she should have done, even if the whole dismemberment threat might have been a little over the top.

Instead, she decided the safe route to let Sunset get her fears under control for the moment. So, Cadance stepped forward and put her hoof on Sunset’s shoulder. “Of course, Sunset. Whatever you want.”

Since assuring to hide Sunset’s quick thinking and commendable heroics seemed to calm the amber alicorn down, Cadance focused her attention to the plan she had concocted the night before. “So, Celestia told me some stories while she was teaching me magic the other day.”

Sunset winced as if she had been struck, making the pink princess hide a frown at the reaction. “W-What about?”

Cadance gave her a fake, if amused, smile. “Well, because I'm trying to learn more combat oriented magic, she told me a few of your mishaps with the stuff,” she explained. “Like the time you cast a dragon’s breath spell and it came out the wrong end.”

A disgruntled moan came from the bigger pony. “It took me a week to regrow my tail. Even with magic,” Sunset replied before looking back at the appendage.

Since reminding her of near-failures was probably a bad idea, Cadance went for one of the more adorable stories. “Then there was the time you turned a guard into a bird and wanted to keep him as a pet,” she said. “Princess Celestia said you looked so adorable when you asked her she almost said yes.”

Sunset sighed and hung her head. “Yep, that was me. Didn’t care about that pony’s job or anything else like his wife and foals. I just wanted a bird as a pet because Princess Celestia had one.”

A thousand warning sirens went off in Cadance’s mind, telling her that it probably wasn’t such a good idea to remind Sunset of her more interesting magical training sessions if she would look at them as failures. Thankfully, the conversation did unearth a topic that Cadance could show a genuine interest in. “Princess Celestia has a pet?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied in a depressed tone. “Philomena. She’s a phoenix. You probably won’t see her until next year. If I remember correctly, this is the year phoenix look for mates and nest. It happens about once a decade.”

Cadance’s eyes widened. “A phoenix! Really? That must be a sight. I’ve never seen one myself.”

“They are pretty rare,” Sunset told her. “A lot of other more magical creatures like to hunt them. So it’s hard to keep their population up.”

Thankful she could end their conversation on a relatively good note, Cadance quickened her pace for the final leg of the trot to the dining room and opened the door with her magic. As usual, Celestia was already seated and drinking her tea. She looked up from the cup and smiled. “Good morning girls,” the white pony said before she looked over to Sunset. “Did you have a nice trip with your friend yesterday?”

Sunset kept her gaze on the table as she nodded while looking down at the furniture. “Yes. Sassy got all the materials that she needed.”

As Celestia’s eyes widened a bit after hearing Sunset’s tone, Cadance gave the white pony a pleading look and slowly shook her head. Please don’t ask what’s wrong. Please don’t ask what’s wrong. Please don’t ask what’s wrong. If they got into that, any attempts to have Sunset and Celestia taking another step on the path to relationship recovery would be a loss.

“Although,” Celestia went on after giving Cadance a worried look that lingered while she slowly turned her attention back to Sunset. “I can’t exactly say I’m happy about you pulling another student out of classes. Even if you don’t need the-”

Sunset didn’t let Celestia finish. “I’M SORRY! OKAY?” she yelled in a desperate tone as she looked up at Celestia, panic written all over her face. “I know, I screwed up. Sassy could have just told me what to buy. And-and now she’s behind in her classes, and there’s already a ton of work she still has to do this week just for the dresses. All because I wanted a stupid memento! Great job Sunset! Everypony else has to suffer because you wanted something cute and pretty.”

Cadance blanched. “Um-”

“And why not?” the amber alicorn went on as she sat up and threw her hooves in the air. “That’s the kind of pony I am, right?”

Across the table, Celestia went from giving Cadance a little frown to focusing her attention on the amber alicorn. “Sunset, that’s-”

“Exactly the type of pony I am!” Sunset cried out. “The type of pony I've always been. Make everyone else suffer just to make myself feel better!”

Celestia gave Cadance a pleading look that screamed at her to fix this mess, and the pink princess reached over to Sunset...only to have her hoof knocked away when the amber alicorn raised her hooves back. “Okay, okay,” she said between panting breaths. “No need to tell me how much I've screwed up, I can fix this. I just need to cancel the dress, and talk to Sassy’s teachers. They’ll give her more time to turn things in in a princess asks them for it. Right?”

Since it didn’t seem like countering her self deprecating rant would do any good, Cadance tried a different approach. “Shouldn’t you have your breakfast first?” After she got a little food in her, was kept away from the coffee, and had some time to calm down, Cadance could pull Sunset out of her downward spiral and set her back on the proper path towards reconciliation with her mother.

“I don’t deserve breakfast!” Sunset replied as her horn lit up.

Cadance’s eyes widened as Sunset started to cast a spell that even the pink princess could recognize despite her inexperience. “No wait!” She managed to say before Sunset disappeared in a flash.

After Cadance’s vision cleared, Celestia let out a sigh. “So tell me. Did your plan to get Sunset talking with me again involve guilting her about her past mistakes so she goes back to the state she was in when she first got here?” she asked with a frown on her face.

The pink princess gulped. “Well, there was an...incident this morning,” she said. But, before Celestia could ask about what happened, Cadance moved onto something she needed to talk about. “It involved...well, Princess Celestia, have you heard of a romance novel called, To Worship the Sun?”

If there was one thing that Shining Armor loved about his parents’ night job, aside from the fact they were home all day, was that both of them wide awake for him to talk to them before school started. So, after waking up a little earlier than usual, he came downstairs in time so see his father come in from picking up the newspaper.

“Dad?” Shining Armor said as the older stallion sat down in his chair.

Night Light looked up at his son. “Yes, boy?”

Shining Armor took in a deep breath. “I...have a problem.”

“Go on.”

“Well, you see…” Shining Armor said as he tried to think of how best to explain things. “The Fall Formal is coming up, and...um...both Princess Sunset and Princess Cadance are going, or have plans to go, and-”

Night Light cleared his throat. “Son,” he said, stopping Shining Armor from speaking any more. “Are you actually going to complain to me that two beautiful ponies that can give both you and Twilight a better future are throwing themselves at you?”

“Umm...well...” he replied.

The older stallion sighed. “Son, have I ever told you how hard it was for me just to get your mother’s attention?” He asked before continuing on immediately after he asked his question. “I tried to use a spell to rearrange the stars in the sky.”

Shining Armor stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He had heard the story so many times before, he could recite it in his sleep. “Nearly blew your horn out trying.”

“Nearly blew my horn out trying to move them!” Night Light went on. “Had to spend a week in the hospital recovering! I was just lucky your mother had a Nightingale complex and felt guilty enough over the whole thing that she visited me every day while I was recovering.”

When Night Light paused to take a breath, Shining Armor managed to get a word in. “I know Dad. You tell me that story every time I tell you I don’t have a date for the weekend.”

The older stallion snorted. “Now, you’ve got a pair, a pair of princesses just throwing themselves at you, and you’re actually complaining about it?” he asked before his horn lit up and the newspaper floated up into the air. “Son, your mother always stopped me from guiding you with a firm hoof, but in this case, I’ve got to take drastic measures.”

Shining Armor blinked as his father rolled up the newspaper in has magic, then clipped the young stallion on the ear. “Ow!”

“Bad pony! Bad pony!” Night Light said as he smacked his son upside the head twice. “Stop. Complaining. About. Having. Too. Much. Royal. Attention!”

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay! Okay!” Shining Armor said before he fled his father’s wrath by galloping i to the kitchen as his mother was cutting the fruit for breakfast. “Mom-”

Velvet looked back at the taller pony. “I heard dear,” she said. “But before I give you a hoof, let me ask you something. Do you want to be with one of them?”

The question made Shining Armor blink at the obvious answer. “Well, yeah. I just...don’t know which one. Yet...anyway.”

“Then perhaps you should go tell them that before they get too invested in this dance,” Velvet said. “Princess Celestia did say we could come back anytime we wanted and the guards would let us in.”

“...right,” Shining Armor replied uneasily as he remembered his meeting with the Princess. She had not been what he expected at all.

Velvet raised an eyebrow at the young stallion. “Well?”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you get going? It’s a bit of a walk to the place, and I’d hate for you to miss breakfast,” she told him. “Which you can ask one of the royals for when you get there.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “You want me to go now?”

The light gray mare let out a sigh. “Shiny, I love you dearly, but I know if you don’t do it now, you’ll come up with a dozen reasons to procrastinate, and by the time school has started you’ll of talked yourself out of it,” Velvet told him. “So do it now. And I’ll be sure to ask Princess Sunset about it later today when she comes to see your sister.”

So, Shining Armor found himself leaving his house just as Celestia brought the sun up into the sky. The trip to the Celestial palace didn’t take as long as it usually did thanks to the streets being nearly empty. However, when he got to the palace and found a crowd standing outside the main gate.

Nearly a dozen pegasi in armor circled the crowd overhead. Occasionally, one or two would call out the time or tell a pony to get back in a line that Shining Armor couldn’t make out. To him, the group of ponies standing, sitting, or even laying around looked more like a half-asleep mob than anything else.

“What's all this?” Shiny asked the nearest pony, an earth mare with a county dress on that had an apple motif that was looking at something on the other side of her Shining Armor couldn’t see.

The pony turned her head towards Shining Armor. “What're ya askin’ a fool question like that? This here’s the line to talk to Princess Celestia!”

Shining Armor looked at the assemblage of various ponies. Most looked to be dressed in their absolute best, which ranged in style wildly from pony to pony. Although, there were a few similarities. Most wore predominantly white clothes, with a little pink, light blue, sunny yellow, or outright gold thrown in. It didn’t take long for Shining Armor to realize they were the colors of Celestia's coat, mane, or regalia.

“Now what’re ya just standin’ there fer?” the earth pony mare asked as she became a little more ‘ornery’ as she would probably put it. “You ain’t one of them cutters, is ya?”

Shining Armor blinked. “What? No, I’m here to see a different princess.”

“Likely story!” the earth pony before she gave Shining Armor a measuring frown. “You...yer tryin’ ta skip the line, ain’t cha?”

“What?” Shining Armor asked the mare he was starting to think was a few apples short of a bushel.

“That is what cher doin’!” she exclaimed before looking up into the sky. “Guards! Guards! We got ourselves a line cutter! Heeeeelp!”

Shining Armor quickly backed away from the crazy old mare. “What? No! That’s not-” A shadow falling across his vision made Shining Armor look up to see half a dozen pegasi coming down towards him at speeds too fast for his comfort.

“This is what we trained for boys!”

“Dive dive dive!”

“If you don't spill his guts, you get no glory!”

A scream escaped Shining Armor’s mouth before the mass of feathered ponies crashed into him, and then...darkness.

“So, we spent the rest of the day cantering back to Manehattan!” Sassy went on as she trotted next to her best friend. “If not for the guards she had fly us home, I'd probably still be on the train.”

Fleur gave her friend a sympathetic look as they continued to go down the street on their way to school.

However, the third member of their trio wasn’t very concerned with Sassy’s discomfort. Upper Crust just let out a loud whine. “I can’t believe you're whining about having to spend time with a princess!” she herself complained. “I wasn’t even invited to the castle. I mean, honestly! If any of us should have been introduced to Princess Celestia, it should have been me! How could that nopony Cheerilee rate an audience while I got nothing?”

“Well,” Fleur began as she tried to think of something to say to try and console her yellow friend.

“Because Princess Sunset doesn’t like you,” Sassy said with a deadpan expression.

Crusty flinched as if struck. “Well, that’s just-”

“Because you yelled at Cheery the other day?”

Both Fleur and Crust gave the third unicorn a measuring look. “Cheery?” the taller pony asked. “Since when are the two of you on a nickname basis?”

Sassy snorted. “Since I’ve been going to my house to get help with my homework,” the blue unicorn told her. “With Cinch gone, nopony’s going to have our grades adjusted, and I intend on graduating this year.”

Fleur raised an eyebrow at the comment. As far as she knew, Cheerilee was a freshmare. So how could she help Sassy with homework?

“Ah!” Crust replied as her expression changed to one of understanding. “So you’re just using her to do your homework. That makes sense. You had me worried for a second Sassy. I thought you were actually becoming friends with that mud-”

The expression on Sassy’s already annoyed face became a frown. “You don’t want to finish that sentence,” Sassy warned Crust before she stepped forward to glare down at the short pudgy unicorn. “You know, I've had to swallow a lot of my objections whenever I wanted to disagree with you because out of the three of us. Your family had the most money, the most influence. I had to put up with you because I knew you were petty enough to sabotage any chances of ever making here in Canterlot.

“But now, things are different,” Sassy went on. “We’ve attracted the attention of princesses, ponies that could topple entire corporate empires with a word...and one of them doesn’t like you all that much.”

The remainder made Crusty gulp.

“And just in case you’re too dull to figure out what that means,” Sassy said before she got muzzle to muzzle with Crusty. “We don’t need you anymore.”

With that, Sassy turned around and began to trot away from the other two unicorns, making Fleur chase after her for a moment. “Sassy, where are you GOING?”

“I’m heading to Cheerilee’s apartment so I can walk to school with her,” she replied. “If you ever feel the need for some pleasant conversation, you’re welcome to join us.”

Fleur almost called back to Sassy to wait, sure that she could talk the other unicorn into staying. But...she could deny the urge to go with her. Upper Crust had always been abrasive, but Fluer and Sassy had always been able to ride out the storms.

“That…” Fleur heard Upper Crust say from behind her. “That...horse! After everything I’ve done for her! Can you believe what she said to me? Me! I…I made that mare! How can-”

Fleur tuned Crusty out as they continued their journey to the school, nodding her head in all the right places whenever Upper Crust made a comment that needed a reply, or mentioned how her parents had introduced Fleur's mother to Fancy Pants’s father.

The last was something that still had Fleur nervous as hay. Although she had seen the older stallion around Canterlot the year before, he had graduated and took his post-secondary education abroad. Now, their parents had decided the two of them were a good match, and she was set to meet him in less than a week. His family had position, while she had... looks and good breeding.

It was a match that promised a roaming eye once Fancy had put a foal in her and Fleur put on some pregnancy pudge.

When they got to the school, Fleur’s worries turned to another matter. Just like every time she came to the academy’s entrance, the white unicorn found herself looking out the corner of her eyes at the other students. They weren’t quite staring at her, but she could see what they thought of her and Crusty.

Although they weren’t feared in the same way Buck and his lackeys were, the female majority gave the two of them a wide berth. It was something Fleur found herself...uneasy about.

While she had never been the most friendly of ponies, Fleur de Lis had never considered herself the type of mare other ponies wanted to avoid. Sociable skills were a requirement for a rich stallion’s horn candy after all. And while she controlled the social circles at Canterlot Academy, it wasn’t because other ponies wanted her to do it like with Princess Cadance.

For some reason Fleur couldn’t quite understand, that bothered her.

“So, we’re agreed then?” Upper Crust asked.

Fleur stopped herself mid-nod, and looked over to the shorter unicorn. “We’re...agreed?”

“Excellent,” the yellow mare replied with a smile that Fleur didn’t like very much. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything. Just back me up, and everything will be fine.”

An uneasy feeling made its way up the back of the taller unicorn’s spine. “Crusty, maybe you should think about-” Fleur said right as the bell rang, cutting her off.

When it was over, Upper Crust talked before Fleur de Lis could get another word in. “I’ll see you at lunch! Just give me your notes for second period!”

And like that, she darted around the nearby corner, disappearing into the quickly-forming sea of ponies before Fleur could stop her.

For the rest of the morning, Fleur’s mind was a mess of worry. She was unable to focus on any of her classes, but managed to get promises from some of the other students to let her borrow and copy their notes later on. Some did it with a fearful edge to their tone while others were hopeful and even went so far as to mention the princesses. Both left a bad taste in the young mare’s mouth that she hoped lunch would fix.

When she came to the table, Sunset and and Cadance were already sitting in their usual spots with veritable twin feats in front of them and a place for Shining Armor empty between them for when the colt came along. Fleur would never say it where the alicorns could overhear for fear of what both of them might do to her, but she liked the young stallion. He was honest, funny, and sweet in his own way that made him kind of cute.

Not enough for her to try anything though. Nothing looked that good. Fleur liked having her horn unbroken and an unobstructed rectum. Something she had a feeling either Sunset or Cadance would change if they caught Fleur making a move on Shiny.

“Your Majesties,” she said before inclining her head towards the pair of royalty before taking her seat. Since they were in public, neither of the girls got angry at the use of their titles. Which in turn had Fleur looking to the piles of food in front of each princess.

While she would never say anything out loud, Fleur was a little put off by how much Sunset and Cadance ate. Both by the fact that they practically gorged themselves at every meal and how neither seemed to gain a single… Fleur’s thought’s stopped as she noticed something.

Several somethings. For starters, Princess Sunset seemed much more subdued in the way she moved than normal. Then, there was something else. Fleur couldn’t quite put her horn on it, but…something was just...different about the amber alicorn.

Not wanting to be rude if Her Highness didn’t want to talk about it, Fleur used the classic way to open discussions on physical appearances. “Princess Sunset?” she asked. “Did you...do something different with your mane?”

Sunset looked up and blinked at Fleur’s question. “Huh?”

Next to the amber alicorn, Cadance finished one of her four milks and turned her attention to the pony with the pink mane. “Alicorns have random growth spurts shortly after ascension that happens across the board based on their magical reserves,” she explained. “Which means you’re probably not going to see much from me for awhile, but Sunset...well, you can already tell the difference.”

Princess Sunset looked over to Cadance with an expression Fleur would have called fearful on another pony. From what she had seen, Princess Sunset didn’t have that emotion. “What are you two talking about?”

“You’re taller Sunset,” the pink princess replied. “Twily noticed it the other day at Shiny’s house. It’s not much, but you’ve definitely gained an inch or two. If you want a better explanation, talk to your mom.”

Any conversation Princess Sunset was going to make on the issue was cut short when Shining Armor’s friends trotted over and took their seats. This was soon followed by Cheerilee, who had apparently added Sassy Saddles to her little group on top of that pink-maned mare. Upper Crust’s absence made Fleur worried as well.

Both of the alicorns immediately took notice of the empty seat between them and looked over to Gaffer. “Where’s Shiny?” Princess Sunset asked.

“He didn’t show up for class today,” Eight-Bit replied after the unicorn next to him shrugged helplessly.

Princess Cadance’s expression became concerned. “Oh. I knew he looked ill yesterday.”

An uncharacteristic level of worry appeared on Princess Sunset’s face. “He’s sick?” she asked before her eyes darted about a bit, showing that she was working something out in her head. “Well, I can mix up a potion after school to boost his immune response and bring it to his house when it’s time to tutor Twilight.

“And that reminds me,” she said before looking over to Sassy. “You’ll need to come too if you want to work out the details of those dresses. Which, I um...also need to talk to you about. I’ll help you with your homework too if you want.”

Feeling a bit left out, Fleur cut in. “Can I come as well, Princess?” she asked before the topic could change. “Sassy and I help each other out with our homework sometimes. And if you’re going to be busy with her and Princess Cadance, I could walk Shining Armor through his assignments.”

Sunset shrugged. “Okay. But if Shiny’s parents want you gone, that’s that,” she told them. “We’ll be there to work, not party, and make sure Shining Armor is okay.”

Just as everypony agreed to the conditions, a yellow unicorn came over with her usual boxed lunch. “Hello everypony,” Upper Crust said before she sat down. “Sorry I’m late. My idiot butler took forever to deliver my lunch today. Did I miss anything?”

Fleur raised an eyebrow at the lie. She knew for a fact Crusty had brought her lunch like always. But, rather than pointing that out and cause a scene in front of the Princesses, she simply ate her lunch as Sunset waved the question away with a nothing answer.

Shining Armor felt miserable.

After getting tackled and turned into the bottom of a pegasus pile, the guards had been rather rough during their brief on the spot interrogation that involved Shining Armor being shouted at, then having his hindquarters raised while the rest of him was kept prone so they could examine his cutie mark in front of everypony in the crowd. And after that, as if being held up by his tail and put on display wasn’t bad enough, one of the guards had the bright idea that his cutie mark might be faked. So, they took a brush and gave him a harsh scrubbing it ended up tearing out and messing up several hairs, turning the star that had been the center of his cutie mark into a rough blob. Then, even after learning he was on the immediate entry list to see the Princess, the guards shoved Shining Armor into a large side room with gigantic furniture that made him feel like five years old again before saying the Princess would be with him as soon as she was able and locking the door with magic that was much too complex for him to hope to undo.

So, Shining Armor sat on the pillow provided in front of the large table, and waited. For four hours, despite the pain in his empty stomach and his aching muscles, Shining Armor waited for Princess Cadance. Even after Cadance should have left for school, Shining Armor waited.

Although admittedly, the last part was because the door was locked.

So, hours later, long after his body was saying he needed medical attention, food, and the ruination of his attendance for the day, Shining Armor heard the door open behind him. “Where in the buck have you-!”

“Hello my little pony, what is it you-” the big white pony with the golden crown atop her flowing multicolored mane said before blinking in surprise. “Shining Armor?”

“P-Princess…Celestia?” Shining Armor squeaked out as he realized just whom he had yelled at. Even worse, who he had cursed at! There had to be some kind of law against cursing in front of a princess. Much less at one.

The Princess blinked several times. “What are you doing here?” she asked before giving him a little frown that was more questioning than angry. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I... I...I…” Shining Armor said as his mouth refused to form any more words.

Then, to make a bad situation even worse, Shining Armor's stomach rumbled. It was a loud rumble, one big enough to seemingly echo throughout the monstrous room. It also made Shining Armor start talking again. “I’m sorry! I haven’t had breakfast! And I needed to talk to Cadance-Princess Cadance! And when I got to the palace some guards attacked me and even after they heard I was on the entry list they-they-they,” he repeated over and over so fast he barely had time to take a breath.

All of a sudden, a furry wall of white appeared in front of him. Two huge forelegs reached down to pull the young stallion forward and lift him off the ground a bit before completely enveloping him in a warm blanket of white.

“Shhhhhh,” a gentle voice that glided on the breeze into his ear said. “It’s okay, my little pony. Everything will be alright. Calm yourself and relax. One breath after another. That’s it. It’s okay, I’m here, everything will be alright now.”

Despite the odd fact Princess Celestia was holding him like a foal, Shining Armor found himself calming down considerably. While part of him was confused at the fact the leader of Equestria had him in a hug, Shining Armor didn’t care. Being held by the Princess felt...good, like when he was just a little colt and his mother comforted him after a bad day.

Then, as his mind cleared, Princess Celestia pulled away and looked down at Shining Armor. “Now what was that about-” she said before Shining Armor’s stomach rumbled again, forcing her to stop. “Hmm, perhaps it would be best if we had lunch brought to us first. Then, you can tell me why you’re here, alright?”

Centuries of experience and the help of the salad she was chewing on masked Celestia's growing fury as Shining Armor finished his story about how he was practically thrown out of his own house, accosted by the guards, then confined to the private audience chamber while Celestia finished hearing cases in the morning court. Such was her anger that she had to adjust the air conditioning enchantment on the room twice to keep the little stallion from noticing the rise in temperature.

“And then, I um…”

Since it looked like the calming potion Celestia had snuck in the colt’s tea was showing its limits, she decided to take over and have some fun at the same time. It would be a good way to settle herself after the horrific morning with Sunset, followed by the tale of Shining Armor’s troubles. “Yelled at me.”

As the colt tensed, Celestia fought the urge to loosen Shining up a bit, and focused on a much more pressing concern she had after hearing his story. “Shining, are your parents pressuring you into a relationship with Sunset?”

“No,” he replied after thinking on it for a moment. “My dad’s just...well, being Dad.”

Celestia nodded. “I see.” According to the books on parenting she had been looking over recently, the deal with it yourself approach to parenting might have seemed a bit harsh, but it did tend to produce more independent ponies that were used to adversity. “And as to your question, why you were brought here instead of being told about Sunset’s departure,” she said before pausing to push down the pain the fresh memory of her daughter becoming a panicky mess brought up. “I’m afraid that’s my fault. I was the one to give you instant access to the palace. So when you showed up needing to see the Princess, the guards probably assumed you meant me.”

The mention of the guards got a sour reaction from the colt as he looked down at the bowl of fruit next to his mineral cubes. “Right, the guards.”

“Yes,” Celestia said, matching her tone to his. “I know that being in Canterlot makes them far too exuberant when it comes time to actually do something, but their treatment of you is inexcusable. I will have them dealt with. Perhaps reassignment to someplace even more dull without any of the comforts Canterlot can offer, like the frozen wastes of the North, will teach them that.”

As Shining Armor's face became more uncomfortable at the declaration, Celestia found her curiosity rising. “You do not approve?” she asked calmly as to invite Shining Armor's honest opinion. “While I do think that punishment in the effort to correct behavior is best saved for foals, I have been meaning to send more ponies up north.”

With the Crystal Empire due to return within the decade, Celestia needed to make sure that Equestria was ready for the other thing that was likely to come with it.

Although, there was a tiny bit of getting back at them as well. “But, the post is pretty useless, which I’m sure they’ll realize as well. And you know what they say, there’s nothing more pathetic than a useless pony.”

“It’s...not that...Your Highness,” Shining Armor replied before looking back at his food.

When it seemed that was all he was going to talk about on the subject, Celestia gave him a smirk and leaned over the table a bit so they were closer to being eye to eye. “Insult me.”

“P-Princess?” Shining Armor asked, clearly both surprised and confused by the request.

Since the colt didn’t do as instructed, Celestia sat back up to her full height and amended her plan a bit. Since she couldn’t get him to get rid of one nervous subject, she would need to focus his attention on something else that would be equally distressing, and then calm him down from there. “Or better yet... What was it you said when we first met, Shining Armor?” She asked, making the colt freeze up again. But before the poor boy could start stammering an apology for something that wasn’t his fault, she kept talking. “Oh that’s right. She really does have the biggest plot in all of Canterlot.”

As the colt began to sweat again, which had nothing to do with the temperature since Celestia had long since cooled off, the white pony went on. “I take it you know the song then?”

Shining Armor sunk into his cushion with a whine while Celestia cleared her throat. “Now how does it go again?” She asked before pausing for a moment and pretending to think. “Ah yes.”

She’s got the biggest plot in Canterlot
It jiggles around with every trot.
Now everypony join in the fun
Let’s all go and worship the sun

By the time Celestia finished, Shining Armor was gaping at her, which got a laugh from the white pony. “I know I shortened it quite a bit, but if I took the time to sing every single verse that tune has gained in the two-thousand years it has been around, we’d be here until your next birthday.”

“P-Princess I-um, I-”

“Shining Armor,” she said before the little colt could give himself an aneurysm. “I am well aware that after hundreds of years of being the ponification of physical beauty, the vast majority of Equestria has at least one or two magazines with magically altered pictures of me with my tail raised, or with some stallion on my back. Why, the richer colts can even afford to have themselves altered in.”

The way Shining Armor looked down at the table in an attempt to hide his blush told Celestia he had at least a few of the cheaper ones back home. Which also gave the big alicorn another opening to put him even more off balance. “You should probably let your friends take possession of them by the way. While I’m sure Sunset would understand you having a few of them during your sexual awakening, I don’t think she’d react well to you getting relief using lewd pictures of her mother.”

Although, after the conversation Celestia and Cadance had after Sunset fled, the amber alicorn might be more understanding than most. The memory of which probably guided her to guide the conversation to where it was now. It was both an annoyance and a relief that Celestia had never seen the book Sunset had become acquainted with herself. Something she would have fix before tonight.

She just hoped it wasn’t too...factual.

Shining Armor let out another squeak and bent down to eat some more of his breakfast while Celestia finished off her tea. Then, once the colt had gotten some time to finish his food, Celestia moved on to the heart of the matter. “Now, what can I help you with today my little colt?”

“Y-You, Princess?” he stuttered.

The continued reluctant made Celestia roll her eyes. “I think after our little discussion involving your earlier activities of my likeness shows that I am more than comfortable in handling even the most awkward relationship conversations involving your relationship with my daughter,” Celestia told him. “Which is why you wanted to speak with Cadance in the first place, correct?”

Shining Armor gulped, but eventually nodded. “Yes, Princess.”

When didn’t immediately continue, Princess Celestia thought she would need to do something to get him going, but after taking in a deep breath, Shining Armor started talking again. “Well, you see Princess…I had these dreams last night…”

The big alicorn listened attentively as Shining Armor went on about his nightmares the night before, letting him take his time as he explained the visions in detail. There were several parts that made Celestia want to laugh, but with the little colt being so uncomfortable already, she held herself back until the very end.

By that point, she couldn’t resist. “So, you want Sunset to stick your whole body in her pus-”

“WHAT?” Shining Armor shrieked, obviously horrified at the impossible idea. “N-No!”

Celestia faked a gasp of surprise. “Her plot hole, then?” She said before grinning and leaning down to smile at the embarrassed stallion. “Oh you dirty little pony. Although, I suppose I’m not one to judge. During my first hundred years I loved to-”

As Shining Armor let out another whine and lowered his head onto the table, Celestia stopped talking. “Hmmm, perhaps that was a bit much,” she said before giving him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry Shining Armor. You being Sunset’s first coltfriend, I'm not sure when to stop with my parental needling. Now, I take it you have an idea of the deeper meaning of these dreams and the fears that gave rise to them?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Yes. Cadance...she wants this impossibly perfect pony that, well...only you can be.”

“My little pony,” Celestia told him, pushing down the conflicting thoughts on his feelings for the pink princess after hearing Shining Armor say her name. But then, she remembered who she was talking to. The pony in front of her wasn’t Sunset or Cadance, she couldn’t get too familiar with him. “Nopony expects you to be me.”

“And um, as far as Sunset goes…” A blush appeared on his face again and he looked back down at the table. “Am I...well, does Sunset...she... I'm afraid...if we, um hook-up, will I just be there to...have sex with her?”

Celestia blinked. It seemed that her earlier topic to shake Shining Armor up had been a good pick after all. If not for her ribbing, it would have taken him an hour to get as far as he just did. “What makes you ask me something like that?”

“I want to be in the royal guard,” Shining Armor told her as he turned his eyes up towards Celestia again. “Even with everything that’s happened today. But Sunset…” Instead of talking about how the amber alicorn was likely to protect him to the point of putting the colt in a box, Shining Armor went an unexpected route. “She doesn’t need a guard! She doesn’t even need an army! Any monster, or griffon, or anything else that tries to attack Equestria, she’ll clobber it in seconds!”

“So, you’re afraid that Sunset’s existence makes your life’s ambition moot,” Celestia said as she found the earlier joviality fading at the unexpected problem. The way Shining Armor had been talking before, Celestia had been expecting him to ask if Sunset respected him. As it was, she was a bit lost when it came to words that would reassure the colt. “Well, I can’t say that your worries are completely unjustified. Just...misdirected.

“Canterlot isn’t the place for guards to distinguish themselves. Just last month, the lack of accolades had me pinning a medal on a guard’s chest for saving a cat from a tree,” Celestia told him. “During the last time the city was truly under threat sixty years ago, I was the pony that dealt with it while a group of unicorns maintained the shield I erected.”

For some reason, Shining Armor brightened up a bit at Celestia’s words as she considered very carefully what to say next. Because she knew her next words could either make or break Sunset’s relationship with the colt. And Celestia had to decide just which path she wanted that relationship to take.

Sunset was never supposed to have a coltfriend. She was supposed to replace Celestia and rule Equestria from atop Canterlot by herself. Cadance would be there to help her in the beginning, but she would eventually fade once Sunset had grown enough to carry the weight by herself. All alone. Forever isolated by her power and position. Time might bring another worthy to raise the moon and rule beside her, but Celestia knew that would be several years after her own life ended. If...ever.

Celestia found the idea of her master plan for Sunset leaving a bad feeling in her gut. It was an oddity, considering how long such thoughts had been in her mind over the decades without a problem. But now, with Sunset finally showing herself worthy to replace Celestia in her duties, the Solar Princess found herself having second thoughts.

But if Sunset became too emotionally invested in another pony that was destined to leave her hurt and alone, not even considering the possibility that the colt in front of her would fail or betray Sunset before then, it would be better to make sure that never had a chance to happen.

“Shining Armor,” Celestia finally said. “I’m afraid you’ve been living under a misconception. Although ponies work to protect Equestria as part of the guard, the truth of things is that aside from law enforcement duties of the civil division that are too numerous for me to deal with personally, the EUP is little more than an early warning system that tells me of any real threats to Equestria and slows them down before I make the time to take care of the problem.”

As the colt’s ears drooped a bit upon hearing the news, Celestia did her best to put a positive light on the situation. “I do not tell you this to be cruel,” she said. “In truth, many ponies enter the guard hoping to make a name for themselves or become heroes of some sort, only to become dismayed and bitter with the reality of their job. So I believe it is best of you know just what you’re getting into before you take that first step.”

Shining Armor was silent as he mulled over Celestia’s words while the big alicorn continued to consider how to handle the colt.

“But, that was before Sunset and Cadance came along,” Celestia went on as a little thought popped into her head. “With three alicorns around, I doubt the EUP will be of any real use at all.”

When school ended, Sunset teleported everypony to Sassy’s apartment to let the unicorn gather her things. After she and Cadance had to sit through being gushed over by the blue unicorns parents, Sunset brought them all back to the room she and Cadance shared in the castle before having one of the maids fetch some snacks for the girls and take their orders for dinner since it would take a little time for the healing potions to brew. Then came the part that made her nervous.

Sunset headed to her mother’s quarters.

Although turning Celestia’s attention in Shiny’s general direction had her worried, Sunset wasn’t confident in her own alchemical skills with them being so out of practice. She would have loved to solve everything with her horn, but natural unicorn magic was only good for healing unnatural damage. Disease was another creature entirely.

A golden glow surrounded the double doors with the sun emblem before they opened to reveal the only pony in Canterlot taller than Sunset. “Sunset,” Celestia said before worry appeared in her eyes. “Are you alright?”

The question made Sunset remember how they had parted, which sent a fresh wave of guilt through the amber alicorn. She had just ran off. Considering the mess she had been at the time, Celestia must have been worried half to death. “I’m sorry!” she blurted out in a rush before looking down at the ground. Sunset took a second to compose herself, but didn’t look up towards her mother. “I shouldn’t have taken off like I did...this morning. You must have been so worried. I should have popped back at lunch or come home early to tell you everything was okay.”

Celestia reached out to place a leg on Sunset’s back before guiding her into the royal apartment with a hoof. Then, a pair of lips touched Sunset’s cheek, and the amber alicorn looked up as her mother began speaking. “Sunset,” she said gently. “I’ve found ever since I had some sense knocked into me that a parent will always worry about her foal. So there is no reason for you to feel bad about this morning. All I care about is if you are feeling better.”

Her words didn’t make Sunset feel any less guilty. Forgiveness didn’t change what she did.

“Now, since I doubt you’ve come just to spend time with me,” Celestia said as she walked around to lay on her couch before looking back to the amber alicorn. “How can I help you, Sunset?”

Even though Sunset knew Celestia hadn’t meant to add a few more miles to her guilt trip, Sunset felt even more awful after hearing her mother’s words. “I-I’m sorry. I really haven’t been spending much time with you lately, have I?”

Celestia let out a mystical laugh. “Hehehe. Oh Sunset! With all the friends you have now, if you spent all your time with an old mare like me then I would worry,” she said before smiling at her daughter. “In fact, seeing you spend time with them instead of me happier than I have been in centuries. Now, let me ask you again, how can I help you? And are you feeling better?”

“Well, I'm a bit tired,” Sunset said before she took in a breath to calm herself. As she waited for her body to get back under control, the amber alicorn took a moment to look around Celestia’s living room. It was a bit cleaner than last time she had seen it, but there were still plans for the coronation she wouldn't be attending sitting on the center table, along with a book on parenting Sunset hadn’t seen before.

The sight of the book made Sunset’s ears droop. Celestia was trying so hard to be what Sunset had needed for so long despite the fact it was the one thing she had no experience with, and Sunset wasn’t making it easy for her.

After blinking a few times to stop herself from crying, Sunset dove into what she needed to do before her mask broke. “One of my friends didn’t come to school today. I think me might be sick. So, I wanted to make him a curative potion, but...it’s been awhile since I did alchemy. Could you...help me, help him?”

Celestia gave Sunset a bright smile. “Of course!”

It didn’t take Celestia long to deduce that the friend Sunset was speaking about was Shining Armor. The question that was on her mind as she and Sunset cantered to the lab was, what to do about it?

There was also Sunset’s physical state to consider. Cadance had mentioned that Sunset had come in late the night before after Sunset had her episode over breakfast. Celestia knew the amber alicorn could get awfully cranky when she didn’t get a full night’s sleep. Judging by how Sunset had reacted to her simply finding out the colt existed, learning that Celestia had spoken to him about his relationship with both the girls wouldn’t go over well. So keeping it secret would be best best action for now.

But once Sunset found out Celestia had been seeing Shining Armor behind her back...she couldn’t get the image of a Sunset erupting with anger out of her head. While she didn’t really fear Sunset’s anger, the fact that when the truth came out it would burn down whatever bridges they made did scare her.

So, she could take the fallout of her actions now, or kick it down the road and face even worse consequences later. But by then, her relationship with Sunset might improve to the point where the blow wouldn’t affect it as much.

Oh...what should I do? Celestia asked herself.

The problem was, she had never faced such a problem with Sunset before! The only thing that even came close was that story Sunset told her about how everything had gone wrong between them after becoming an alicorn…

“I was just so angry,” the Sunset from inside Celestia’s memory said as the solar alicorn thought back to when her daughter came back. “From the moment we met, you’d been keeping things from me. I know now it was for the best, that it was for my benefit, but...even now, it still hurts, just a little.”

The unease Celestia felt tripled as she finished going over what Sunset had said to her that day. “Oh dear.”

“Mom?” Sunset said as they came to the palace’s alchemical laboratory. “Something wrong?”

Thinking it would be better to talk about this in private, Celestia opened the door to the lab and led Sunset inside. After her fiery daughter followed her in, the bigger alicorn shut the door and placed a muffling enchantment around the room to ensure any shouting that ensued. Once she was sure nopony would hear them, Celestia looked back to her daughter. “Sunset, this colt that you’re worried about. Is it Shining Armor?”

The question made Sunset’s wing fidget ever so slightly. But other than that, she showed no sign of unease. “Yeah,” she confessed tensely.

Well, so much for hoping it was some other pony she was helping, Celestia told herself. At least then, she would have had an excuse to back out of telling Sunset at the last second and guide events to ensure that when she did find out, her reaction would be much more controlled.

“In that case, I can assure you that there is nothing to worry about,” Celestia told her daughter as her muscles tensed and an uncomfortable pressure built up in the back of her mind. Then, she opened her mouth and…

Tell her, Celestia ordered herself. Just tell her and get everything over with! She took an a deep breath and used every ounce of willpower to keep her voice from coming out in a panicked rush.“Because Shining Armor was with me for most of the day,” she finished.

Sunset’s reaction was...much less loud than Celestia expected. A lot less animated too. The amber alicorn simply stood there, still as a statue for several seconds. Although she wasn’t using any magic, the bigger pony could practically see Sunset’s mind working it’s way through the situation. Then, after several tense seconds, she spoke. “You talked to...Shiny?”

Sunset’s reaction hadn’t been what Celestia expected. There was no fury, or any other emotion for that matter. She looked like a pony who was just waiting for the other horseshoe to drop. “He...waited to see you in court?”

“No,” Celestia replied before taking a second to brace herself. “I had him put on the list for direct access to the royalty.”

After another second of silence followed as Sunset looked down at the ground. “Oh, that makes sense, I guess.”

While Sunset continued to stare at the nothing on the ground, Celestia found herself considering her options. I could stop right now, she thought. Sunset had obviously formed her own deductions as to why Celestia had given the colt access. She didn’t have to tell Sunset about the earlier meetings.

But...hiding the whole truth from her daughter after Celestia had revealed some of it felt just as bad. “I gave him permission a few days ago, while you were escorting that griffon to Cloudsdale. You see, I called Shining Armor to the palace to speak with him concerning the relationship between the three of you.”

Sunset went tense. “You...that was the reason you sent me away,” she grumbled. Her wings twitched for a few seconds, but the outburst Celestia had been expecting didn’t come. Instead, the amber alicorn mulled something over for a second, before looking Celestia in the eyes. “Just...Shiny?”

“Well, he did bring some of his family along that I had a quick word with,” Celestia admitted. “But I mostly spoke with him, not Twilight-”

“Urk!”

“-Velvet,” Celestia finished before noticing Sunset had become rigid. “Is something wrong?”

The question got a jump out of Sunset before she shook off whatever had been bothering her and gave a nervous laugh. “What? Wrong? Why would anything be wrong? You’re just going behind my back and doing the one thing I really didn’t want you doing! Yep! Nothing wrong there!” she said in an overly happy tone.

Seeing her daughter’s forced reaction got a frown from Celestia. “Sunset, I know you’re upset about this, but I will remind you that while we are now equals in the area of politics, you are still my daughter. Even if I do trust your judgment, you can’t honestly expect me not to wonder about the colt you’re kissing.”

Once again, Sunset went through all the outward signs of an internal struggle. It was obvious that she wanted to shout something, but managed to hold it in. “It’s not like you were ever interested in my personal life before,” she grumbled.

As if you had one to be interested in, Celestia thought. “I recall telling you to make friends several times,” she said aloud before quickly adding, “although, I must admit that my methods were not very good. But Sunset, I can see this is upsetting you so…” Celestia took a deep breath to steel herself. “Lay it on me.”

Sunset gave her a confused frown. “Say what?”

“Sunset,” Celestia said before pausing for a second. “I know you hate me keeping things from you. I can see you’re upset with me. I should have told you about Shining Armor the day after it happened. So, let me have it.”

The amber alicorn’s face became a disbelieving frown. “You actually want me to yell at you?”

“Better that than bottling up your feelings on the subject,” Celestia replied.

After a few seconds of silence that was filled with the two alicorns holding each others’s gazes, Sunset let out a long sigh and slunk down a bit. “Okay, yeah. I’m mad at you for being all sneaky. But...well... I don’t know! What you’re doing...it’s what a mom is supposed to do! And-and as weird as it sounds, I'm actually happy you’re doing mom stuff!”

There was another brief silence before Sunset spoke again, albeit hesitantly. “Um...what did you talk about?”

The tension slowly faded from Celestia began speaking. A smirk even found it way to her face halfway through. “You, mostly. And the two of you kissing.”

Sunset put on a perturbed look as her cheeks puffed up a bit. “Oh please. I’ve gone a lot farther with other guys plenty of times.”

“While you were...in the mirror?” Just thinking about that stupid thing made Celestia’s heart ache. It also made Celestia think of her own forays into the world of romance. None of which ended well.

A groan came from the amber alicorn. “You’re not going to ride me about that, are you?”

Celestia thought about it for a second before shaking her head. “I hardly think that I’m a pony that can give advice on relationships when it comes to princesses,” she said. Then, after a second of internal debate, she added, “after all, you’ve read what happened between Hurricane and myself.”

There was a blush that appeared on Sunset’s cheeks a second later. “Yeah, but...well, it’s not like you really-”

“Sat on another pony's face and made them kiss my plot?” Celestia asked evenly before letting her shoulders slump a bit. She sat down before continuing. “Much to my shame, yes. I did.”

Sunset blinked. Slowly. “Say what?”

Seeing Sunset’s dumbfounded expression just made Celestia feel worse. “From the parts I skimmed over, mostly the beginning and end of the chapters, the book you fond, which Cadance told me about by the way, is very accurate,” she admitted.

“Mom that’s,” Sunset said as her face slowly became one of disgust. “You were a total bitch!”

Despite not knowing the word, Celestia could guess what Sunset was saying from her tone and felt the need to speak up in her defense. “Well, it wasn’t the best time for me you know. I had just started raising the sun. The influx of magical energies triggered a second puberty with an exaggerated growth spurt and Hurricane was very brazen. Somepony needed to knock his ego down a bit. I’m not saying this is an excuse, but alicorn puberty is…hard,” Celestia said as she prepared to speak her preconcocted lie. Although the idea of keeping things from Sunset still perturbed her a bit, Sunset needed this lie. “Something you will find out for yourself soon, I’m afraid.”

Sunset gave Celestia an even look. “Mom, I'm twenty-one years old.”

The number threw Celestia off for a second, but she quickly righted herself and continued on. Arguing about Sunset’s actual age when it wasn’t an issue would just cause trouble. “Nevertheless, your change will bring about a second puberty. I’m sure you’ve already noticed some changes.”

“Pretty sure I’m not going to be abusing my old friends,” Sunset deadpanned.

Celestia found herself taken aback by Sunset’s summarization of her relationship with Hurricane. “It was a different time back then Sunset,” she said. “Hurricane, our relationship was built off of competition. But, when I started getting bigger and stronger than him until he could no longer satisfy me in the traditional way, I...found other forms to get pleasure from him.” It didn’t help that pegasi weren’t generally known for their size.

“Ugh, I didn’t need to hear that,” Sunset grumbled before her look of discomfort became one of curiosity. “Hey, Mom...did you actually, love him?”

The question made Celestia pause and think for a moment. She looked up at the ceiling to keep herself from getting distracted as she thought back to her past. Although the solar alicorn had an excellent memory, she only truly held onto things she made an effort to if the memories were more than a century old. So, while the most embarrassing and precious moments of Luna’s foalhood were as clear as day, memories of her first ex were half-forgotten things that only still existed because of scholars asking her basic questions and stories she read in books regarding the founding.

She remembered how they used to race and wrestle, which turned to more passionate activities in the heat of the moment. She remembered how they argued over everything. She remembered how he had tried to keep his tribe segregated from the others by encouraging them to always live in cloud cities. She remembered how stubborn he was, how unapologetic, how unaccommodating.

In fact, now that it was several years after he had passed on, Celestia couldn’t remember anything pleasant about his personality at all.

That told her all she needed to know.

“No,” she replied unable to keep the sadness from her voice. “Honestly, the only reason I think I even stuck with him for as long as I did was because it made me more popular.”

The odd look Sunset gave her made Celestia feel even more uncomfortable than the memories of Hurricane. She found herself looking away from the other pony. “I know...it wasn’t the right thing to do. There was no real love between us….”

Celestia raised an eyebrow as the amber alicorn’s mouth twitched. “Sunset?”

“Hehe.”

The tiny bit of laughter that came from her daughter made Celestia tense. “What?”

“Hahaha.”

Celestia took a step back from the amber alicorn. “Sunset? What’s so funny?”

“Ah-HAHAHAHA!” Sunset continued before she stepped forward and reared up to wrap her forelegs and Celestia and pull her into a hug. Like every time Sunset displayed her strength, Celestia found herself a little disturbed by just how physically powerful the amber alicorn was. Then, Sunset moved her cheek in close to nuzzle Celestia. “I love you, Mom.”

If there had been a mirror in the room, Celestia was pretty sure she would have seen question marks dancing over her head. “Huh?”

“What?” Sunset asked as she stepped back and smiled up at her, clearly in much higher spirits than she had been a moment ago. It wasn’t a fake happiness put on just for show either, Celestia could tell. “Can’t I say I love you anymore?”

Celestia blinked. “No, it’s not that. It’s,” she paused to gather herself. “You aren’t mad about me seeing your colfriend behind your back?”

“Well,” Sunset drawled out hesitantly for a second. “I thought you meeting him would have been worse than it was. Not that, you know, Shiny actually is my coltfriend.”

Yet, Celestia found herself thinking, but managing to hold back. The reality of the situation began to assert itself, reminding her that anypony Sunset grew close to would eventually leave her one way or another. But that was a worry for another time. So she pushed such thoughts away and focused on her daughter’s happy, if slightly tired smile.

Sunset let out a tiny laugh. “And anyway, isn’t the parent’s job to get angry over the foal keeping secrets instead of the other way around?”

The question nearly killed Celestia’s good mood. “Sunset, I think you’re more than mature enough to judge my actions,” she said as her crown’s position kept her ears from drooping. “And I haven’t been what you’ve needed me to be.”

Sunset’s smile became strained. “Mom that’s...can we just talk about something else, please?”

“Alright,” Celestia agreed. It was obvious from Sunset's reaction that trying to take the blame for her upbringing would only cause the frayed alicorn distress, so she tried a different tactic. “But let me just say that you have become a wonderful mare and I can not wait to see what type of amazing princess you will grow to become.”

After a few seconds of blushing from the praise, she frown a little and looked back up to Celestia. “Uh...yeah, about that,” Sunset said. “Just how big am I going to get?”

Celestia looked her daughter up and down. She had to admit, Sunset’s ascended body was definitely an oddity. The norm was for alicorn’s to slim down as they adjusted to their new forms, resembling something akin to how Luna chose to look. Sunset still looked like a normal pony, only bigger. “Well, it’s hard to say,” she admitted. “An alicorn’s size is mostly determined by the amount of power flowing through her body, followed by her magic potential and personality.” A smirk appeared on Celestia’s face at an image forming in her mind. “By the time you’re finished growing, I may be the one looking up at you.”

Sunset balanced. “What? No, Princess Celestia, I’m not like that anymore!”

“What?” Celestia asked as she saw her daughter’s attitude quickly deteriorated without warning. She didn’t miss the lack of motherly title either. “Sunset, what’re you talking about?”

“I’m a good pony now! A humble one, right?” she asked desperately.

Sunset’s tone sent a wave of panic through Celestia. “Of course you are!” she assured her daughter quickly before calming down a bit. “Sunset, what in the world brought that on?”

The other alicorn hesitated for a second,p before looking down at the floor. “Well, you said that personality determines height, and so I was thinking about my ego.”

“I was talking about your ability,” Celestia told her before she reached down and lifted her daughter’s face back up to meet her eyes. “An ability that should make you proud. I have never seen a unicorn harness her potential as well as you.” Most of which Celestia couldn't take credit for. When Sunset wanted to learn something Celestia was slow in teaching her, she usually looked into it on her own and mastered the subject too quickly for Celestia to learn what she was up to.

Sunset went back to blushing and looked away from Celestia. “I’m nowhere near as good as you.”

The comparison had Celestia smirking. “Sunset, if you were to go back in time and meet me when I was your age, I can guarantee you that I would be green with envy over your talents,” she said before bending down to nuzzle the amber alicorn for a few seconds. “Now, since we don’t need to brew any potions for your friend before you gallop off to meet him, what do you say we go get something to eat? The last thing you want to ge is tired and hungry when you go to visit your coltfriend.”

Sunset groaned. “Mom! Shiny’s not my-wait,” she suddenly said. “What you said earlier has me wondering. Other than Hurricane, did you ever have a real special somepony?”

A bit of pain ran through Celestia’s heart at the memories. “Two,” she replied. “I was separated by the first very early into our relationship due to complications. The other…I met shortly afterwards.”

“Rebound huh?” Sunset asked. “Did that one...end well?”

Celestia sucked in a breath to steady herself. “Eventually, I had to say goodbye to her. But, for the time we were together, we were happy. Unlike Hurricane, she knew her place.”

The amber alicorn turned her head to give Celestia an odd look out of the corner of her eye as they left the alchemical lab and continued down the hall in silence.

Dinner turned out to be a somewhat reserved affair. Aside from her mother’s rather...disturbing comment on her third romance, Fleur and Sassy getting to eat with Celestia again made the dining hall a little tense.

On the plus side, Sunset managed to down enough coffee to guarantee she wouldn’t nod off in the middle of a lesson and just collapse on top of Twilight.

Just thinking of the little purple pony sent a wave of relief flooding through Sunset’s body. She had thought Shiny meeting Celestia would have started off a chain of events that would have completely destroyed the time-space continuum, but the fact Twily wasn’t having tea with the big alicorn meant everything was safe for another day.

Plus, hearing Celestia talk about her time with Hurricane...well, if a pony that spent her young forcing a stallion into her bed and then making him little more than a servant all for the sake of her image could grow up to become Princess Celestia, then maybe there was hope for Sunset as well.

She just needed...a few hundred years to get that way.

It was a realization that quickly extinguished Sunset’s hopes of ever being able to cast off the specter of her past. The amber alicorn would never be able to work her way to the point where she was in a hundred miles of Princess Celestia when it came to her worth as a pony. In fact, Sunset would be lucky to equal the worst scum at the bottom of society if she were to live to one-hundred after all the things she had done.

After dinner, the four friends headed to their new destination via carriage, which Cadance sent back to the palace after it dropped them off.

“So, this is...Shiny’s place,” Sunset said to the assembled mares, which made her a little worried. Not only had she not asked for permission to bring Sassy and Fleur along, but the two ponies in front of her were some of the most judgemental in school. Sure, Shining Armor’s friendship with them would protect him from their outright distaste, but Sunset knew ponies like them would look down on him after seeing his place.

Which made the looks of shock and confusion a little out of place on the two unicorn mares.

“I didn’t know Shining Armor’s family was rich,” Fleur commented, which completely blanked Sunset’s mind. “Hmm, pity. If I had known he was loaded, I would have made a play for him.”

The amber alicorn blinked. “But...he’s-wait,” Sunset said as she completely registered what Fleur just said. A second later, she was standing less than a foot from the thin unicorn and glared down at her. “YOU WANNA POACH MY SHINY?”

For once, Sunset wasn’t put off when Fleur became covered in sweat and began to cower. “What?! No! No, Princess! I said would have. Would have! I would never dream of stealing the pony you have your eyes set on! And my parents have already arranged my future husband,” she told Sunset before giving her a nervous smile. As Sunset calmed down, Fleur thought of another reason such a relationship wasn't going to be. “And besides Princess, even if I tried, I don’t think I have the figure to take Shining Armor’s eyes off yours.”

Despite the admittance of Fleur’s inability to steal Shining Armor from her, the way she said it left Sunset feeling more confused than relieved. “What’s that supposed to mean?” the amber alicorn asked with a raised eyebrow.

A blush appeared on Fleur’s face. “Well, um...Princess...it’s just, I um...noticed that Shining Armor...um, likes...well…your royal...ahem…”

Cadance let a giggle. “What our prim and proper friend is trying to say is that Shiny can’t take his eyes off that big bouncy butt of yours.”

As Sunset’s eyes went wide and a tiny blush appeared on her cheeks, Fleur looked over to Cadance. “Butt?”

“It’s what griffons call a plot,” the pink princess lied with a level of ease that almost seemed eerie to Sunset. “Princess Celestia hosted the ambassador last weekend, and I picked up a few things in the spirit of learning about other cultures.”

The explanation finished, Fleur looked back to Sunset. “Well, yes Princess. Judging by the way Shining Armor watches you whenever you go to get seconds during lunch or passes you in the hallway, he seems to be one of those colts completely enamored by a mare’s...ahem, butt. So, the only pony in Equestria that you have to worry about competing with you for his attention is your mother.”

Sunset looked back to her rear and frowned. While it looked a little more round than the one she had as a unicorn, her ass wasn’t that big. “I-I do not have a big butt!” the amber alicorn protested with a blush before pointing a hoof at the two unicorns in front of her. “You two are just scrawny!”

“Actually Princess Sunset,” Sassy said. “You're the oddity. When a pony usually gains height outside of the harmonious norm, there is a loss in balance between height and weight in favor of height over weight. Making both Fleur and myself tall, but slim. Of course, alicorns such as yourself and Princess Cadance seem to be the exception, as she’s more filled out than either of us, and you...well Princess, your height-to-weight proportions seem to have remained constant.”

Much to Sunset’s embarrassment, Cadance just had to cut in. “Actually, even taking in the mass increase, Sunset’s butt has gotten a bit bigger since her ascension. By about twenty-percent, I’d say.”

The memory of when she examined her own rear in the mirror shortly after waking up ran through Sunset’s mind, coloring her cheeks an even deeper red. Still didn’t think it looked that big.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed Princess Sunset,” Fleur said with a smile before she looked to her own rear for a second and sighed. “Truthfully, I wish my plot had half as much volume as yours.”

Sassy nodded. “Yes. As they say Highness, the more jiggle in the trot, the better the plot.”

Sunset groaned at the age-old rhyme. “I do not have a plump plot! The two of you are terrible judges of size,” she said before pointing to the building behind them. “Case in point, that is not a big house!”

Sassy looked away from Shiny’s house and over towards Sunset. “Princess, Shining Armor’s mansion is almost as big as Crust’s.”

Even more confused after the explanation, Sunset tilted her head to the side. “Huh?”

“Shiny’s family dates back to the settling of Canterlot,” Cadance suddenly explained. “The dam of the family, a Twilight Twinkle brought her husband and foals to Canterlot when it was first established. Housing was cheaper back then. More room.”

At Sunset’s questioning look, Cadance rolled her eyes. “Yes, I did some research into Shiny’s family history. I know that you don’t give a buck about pedigree now, but it was perfectly logical for me to look something like that up the day after you said you wanted him as your coltfriend.”

“Yeah but,” Sunset said as she looked back to the small home. “Guys, it’s not that impressive.”

Sassy snorted. “Says the pony that’s lived in the palace her whole life and attended parties at noble houses.”

The snide comment had Fleur's eyes widen before she looked over to the other unicorn. “Sassy! You can’t speak that way to a princess!

“Fine, whatever,” Sunset said before opening the door to put this whole ‘oh you’ve led such a sheltered life Sunset’ crap behind her before it could start. So what if she didn’t know anything about the Canterlot real estate market? It’s not that big a deal.

Any further consideration on the matter ended a little purple blur came zooming down the stairs. “PRINCESS!”

Sunset smiled a bit and prepared to be glomped, only to blink in confusion when Twily slightly altered her course to stop in front of Cadance, who in turned hopped back a few inches before they both assumed a pouncing position.

“Sunshine! Sunshine! Ladybugs awake!” Twilight sang along with Cadance before they both sat up and knocked their hooves together, singing their actions as they did.

“Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” They declared before both spinning around to stick their asses in the air to wave them around without a care.

It was something that had Sunset blushing furiously, because thanks to Twilight forcing Cadance back a few steps with her sudden appearance, the amber alicorn got a perfect view of the pink princess’s private parts with the way she was waving her butt around hard enough to displace her tail.

Sunset gulped and tried to keep her mind on task. The last she she needed to be thinking about was Cadance’s sex, which would lead to thinking about sex with Cadance. Like that dream where a very aware facsimile of Cadance touched, tweaked, and kissed every inch of Sunset’s body before letting the amber alicorn indulge in all her dark desires of the sexual kind.

The dream, as it turned out, Cadance knew about.

Although feelings of shame for her actions presented themselves in her mind, what Sunset found herself thinking of was the feeling of the pink pony in her forelegs. Cadance’s coat was perfectly soft and so smooth it put silk to shame. Not a single feather on her wings were out of place, and her multicolored mane smelled of such sweet strawberries that Sunset could have breathed it in for the rest of her life and never been unhappy.

“Princess Sunset?”

The alicorn in question found herself ripped out of the forelegs of her dream mare and back to reality. “Huh? Wha-oh!” Sunset said before she looked down at the little lavender unicorn that had spoken. “Yes, Twilight?”

“What’re you going to teach me tonight, Princess?” she asked before looking to Sassy and Fleur. “And who’re they? More students?”

“Buttons and bodkins!” Sassy exclaimed before she zoomed over to pick Twilight up in her forelegs. “You never said Shining Armor’s sister was this adorable!”

A little more reserved, although still on the edge of squeeeing herself, Fleur trotted over to where Sassy was holding Twilight. “We’re friends of your brother’s,” she explained with a smile. “We got a little worried when he didn’t show up for school today, and came to check on him. Is he here?”

Confusion blossomed of Twilight's face at the explanation as Sassy sat her down. “Yes,” she replied. “He’s upstairs.”

“And...your parents?” Sassy asked as she looked around with a little frown.

“They’re at work,” Twilight explained simply.

When it seemed a full explanation wasn’t going to come from the filly, Sunset volunteered one. “Twilight’s parents study the stars,” she explained. “So they’re gone most of the night.”

Fleur gave Sunset an uneasy look. “Hmmm, I’m not sure how comfortable I feel being here without permission.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Cadance told her before a bit of hesitation crossed her face. “Well, as long as we don’t make a mess.” A look over to Sassy’s saddlebags that were full of sewing materials and measuring tools told everyone what she was thinking.

Sunset’s growing unease that appeared after Fleur's words came from a different source. She looked around at the nearly empty room, then down to the tiny unicorn, and finally the two strangers that the unicorn had run to. “Um...Twilight...do you usually answer the door when your parents are gone?”

“Now I do,” she said before standing up straight and proud. “Thanks to your teaching, Princess Sunset, I can unlock and open our door all on my own. Not that, um... I need to with you, of course.”

Fear like she had never known before rand down Sunset’s spine like an agonizing lightning bolt. In her mind she saw the little purple pony proudly opening the door for a dark, shadowy figure that wore a black hood and had glowing eyes. He snatched the little filly up in his forelegs, and Twilight was never seen again.

“Never do that again!”

Twilight jumped away from Sunset, her face a mix of shock, confusion, and fear. “H-Huh? What? Wh-What did I-”

After a less primal level of fear made itself known to Sunset at the sight of Twilight’s forming tears at the edge of her eyes, the amber alicorn quickly stepped forward and gently put a hoof on Twilight’s mouth before lifting the unicorn’s head up to look Sunset in the eye so she could see the terror that resided there. “Twilight, listen to me. I don’t want you ever opening the door to anypony when you’re alone, understood? It’s okay when your parents are around. But from now on, get Shining Armor when it’s just the two of you, okay?”

Clearly confused, Twilight nodded her head. “Um, okay.”

“Twilight,” Sunset went on. “This is serious. I want you to promise me. You will not open the door to anypony unless your parents are in the house and nearby, understand?”

The little unicorn nodded again. “Yes, Princess,” Twilight agreed before becoming somewhat hesitant. “Do you want me to take an oath like Cadance and I did?”

For a moment, Sunset felt like snorting at the ridiculousness of the idea. However, if it helped Twilight understand just how important it was…

“Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea. Twilight repeat after me,” she said. “I promise to never let another pony in my house without my parents being home to give me permission. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

When Twilight finished making her promise, Sunset felt a little better, but…the fear still lingered in the back of her mind like a dark cloud promising trouble in the near future.

Stone soup.

Stone. Another word for rock.

Maud liked rocks.

She ate with a spoon carved from rocks.

She ate out of a bowl made from a rock.

Although, the soup was misnamed.

It had rocks in it, but was mostly comprised of water that had absorbed the nutrients from the numerous vegetables and other things that had been put into the pot along with the minerals from several rocks.

Still, Maud ate it without complaint.

“There it goes again.”

Maud looked up from her .0314159% stone soup and over to her little sister. “What?”

Pinkamena didn’t look away from the window as she answered the question. “I got that weird feeling again.”

“Eat your food Pinkie.”

Maud’s little sister went back to eating her food.

As it turned out, Shining Armor wasn’t sick, he just had something to take care of that was urgent enough for him to miss school over. Which was good, as Sunset seemed to have forgotten to bring the potions from the palace. It didn’t seem as if he wanted to talk about it, so Cadance didn’t push him on the subject and kept Sunset from asking about it as well.

Instead, the amber alicorn was put to work getting everything organized. Since they had brought Fleur along and she was a grade ahead of Shiny, the slender unicorn was able to help the young stallion with his homework with minimal aid from Sunset. Which kept her free to coach Twilight through some levitation exercises while she had Cadance craft more and more intricate crystal constructs before dissipating them between hesitant glances to a sketchbook Sassy had given her that displayed several styles of dresses. All the while, Sassy fussed over the notebook in front her between asking questions to the two princesses and taking some basic measurements that weren’t too intrusive.

Throughout it all, Cadance kept her eyes on the young stallion. Although he watched Sunset a bit closer than normal, there was a tenseness about him that the pink princess slightly nervous. The way Shiny’s eyes followed Sunset didn’t have the usual enamored quality he had most of the time, and Cadance saw his eyes jerk away from her plot more than once when they should have lingered for several seconds.

Especially when she was helping his little sister. The position Sunset had to take to help Twilight out had the amber alicorn lowering her front half ever so slightly, leaving her rear facing Shiny’s front as it stuck up into the air.

“Tell me, Highness,” Sassy said as she jotted down some figures on her notepad. “Do you need there to be a lot of room for the bounce in your step? Or would you prefer something that has some hug and lift?”

The amber alicorn looked up from where she had Twilight doing exercise that involved rolling a pair of dice with her magic and coming up with a predetermined number. Apparently, fixing dice rolls was excellent control practice. “Say what now?”

“The back of your dress,” Sassy said. “Would you like it to be loose enough to allow your plot to move freely, or do you want me to put in a little support for your rear so that it sticks out a bit better?”

Sunset blushed as Sassy continued to give attention to her butt. “Um...that’s…” She looked back to the male in the room. “W-What do you think, Shiny?”

“What?” Shining Armor asked. There was a slight edge to his voice that had Cadance frowning a second later. Shining Armor not following Sunset’s rear was a pretty telling red flag, but the way he just replied was another.

The amber alicorn developed a slight blush. “My dress. Do you think I should go with a tight rear, or a loose one.”

After a few seconds, a frown appeared on Shining Armor’s face. “Why’re you asking me? It’s your dress. It’s not like we're together or anything.”

Red alarms sounded in Cadance’s mind as she watched both Fleur and Sasdy give the colt looks of dissatisfaction. For her part, Sunset looked more surprised and confused than anything. “Shiny?”

“Well girls!” Cadance said as she stood up and let the crystal she was constructing fall apart and turn to dust. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a break! Twilight, could you show Sassy and Fleur where the bathrooms are in case they need to use them.”

The confused little unicorn looked away from Sunset and Shining Armor. “Huh? But they know where they are. We told them when they came in.”

“Princess, I don't need-” Fleur said before Cadance gave both of the mares a look that screamed 'GET THE BUCK OUT!’. “Oh!” Fleur exclaimed as she took the hint. “Um, yes! I do feel the need to use the facilities! Come along Sassy.”

A second later, Cadance grabbed her cup of juice with a hoof and downed threw its contents down her throat before she looked over to Sunset. “Sunset. We need more to drink." Which would get rid of Sunset, but as for the room's other occupant...Cadance didn't even try to think of a good excuse. "And it's dangerous to go alone,” the pink princess said before picking Twilight up and handing her to the amber alicorn. “Take this.”

Taking the hint, Sunset grabbed Twilight in her magic and headed out the door. As soon as she was gone, Cadance spun around to face Shining Armor. Not wanting to get too emotional, she took a deep, calming breath...and then glared at the colt. “What the buck is up with you?”

“Are we good?”

The nervous question hung in the air for several seconds as Sassy stared back at her best friend after exiting the downstairs bathroom. “What?”

Fleur didn’t try to hide how upset she was as the other unicorn made her way into Shining Armor’s living room where Fleur was waiting. “Look, I didn’t get to talk to you at lunch today because of the commotion with Shining Armor's absence, and then Crust came along. But, um..after this morning with Upper Crust... I just wanted to ask, are we good?”

“Is that why you really came here?” Sassy asked before she pressed her lips together in her usual sign of exasperation. “To ask if we’re good?”

The way the question was posed had Fleur pulling in on herself. “Well, school work really isn’t my thing. You know my grades aren't the best, Sassy. I’m lucky I remember enough to even point Shiny in the right direction. And you're upset with Crusty, and I just-”

“Oh, I’m not upset with her,” Sassy said in a heated tone. “Upset implies that she’s let me down in some way. What I am is fed up with her.”

Fleur sucked in a breath at her friend’s sharp tone. “Sassy.”

“Don’t try to defend her Fleur!” the dress designer said. “She has always been petty and over the past three years, she’s taken every chance to remind us that she could end any hope we have of a future in Canterlot so that she can hang with the popular girls. Plus, she’s a tribalist, not just the kind that thinks unicorns are just more special than earth ponies or pegasi. This is Canterlot, that’s to be expected. But there is a difference between thinking that and what is running through her mind!”

Fleur drooped her head. She couldn't argue with what Sassy said. But, at the same time, getting mad at Upper Crust over it seemed wrong as well. The yellow unicorn came from the upper business class of Canterlot. Although such ponies had influence, they lacked a noble name to give them certain protections that existed in society since before Celestia was a princess. The yellow unicorn had to be ruthless if she expected to survive.

“Look, Fleur,” Sassy said. “I’m not mad at you, and...if you don’t want to choose between us, I’m not going to force you to.”

For some reason, that just made the white unicorn feel worse.

“Is she really that bad?”

A bolt of sheer terror ran down Fleur’s spine as her ears picked Princess Sunset’s voice. She turned to see the amber alicorn coming down the stairs with Twily riding her back, clinging to the amber alicorn with a blissful smile. The purple pony’s adorableness did little to deter Fleur’s fear. “P-Princess Sunset! Um...how much did you hear?”

Twily broke her cheek contact with Sunset’s neck to look at the mare. “Well, I heard the part starting with, I’m not upset with her,” she said before becoming thoughtful. “But Princess Sunset’s an alicorn, which means she’s also got a pegasus’s enhanced senses like sight and hearing. Which means she probably heard more.”

Then, the little unicorn perked up a bit more. “Oh! Unless her hearing is abnormally high, like with her earth pony strength. Then, she must hear everything said by everypony in Canterlot!”

The horror of such a possibly had Fleur gulping nervously. After all, she hadn’t been very accepting of some of Sunset’s friends when they first met.

Sunset winced. “No, my hearing’s just normal pegasus level. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep if I heard everything everywhere,” she said before trotting over to the couch and sitting down after levitating Twilight into the air. Then Princess Sunset brought the purple pony back down to sit in her lap, and held the filly close to her barrel with her forelegs. “So...friendship problem, huh?”

Hearing their predicament phrased in such a way made both Fleur and Sassy blink, but the white pony with the pink mane nodded her head a few seconds later. Part of Fleur wanted to tell Princess Sunset that she didn’t need to burden herself with their issues, but...Sunset had asked. “Yes, Highness.”

Sunset sighed and lowered her head towards Twily for a moment, who was nuzzling up to the big alicorn with a look of absolute bliss, then turned her attention back to the older unicorns. “So she’s still being...her, huh?”

Feeling a little uneasy about the conversation, Fleur didn’t make eye contact with the alicorn as she replied. “Yes, Princess.”

“How did you guys get to be friends, anyway?” the Princess asked. “I mean, you're all a little snooty, but Upper Crust takes it to the extreme.”

Fleur smiled at the memory. “Sassy and I used to live in the same apartment complex,” she said. “Next door to each other. She liked clothes and I dreamed of being a high society model before I even got my cutie mark.”

“That’s sweet,” Sunset replied with a smile before it wavered a bit. “And Crust?”

“The second half of our Freshmare year,” Fleur replied. “We ate lunch together after her butler brought too much one day and she shared it with me. She was new to Canterlot back then, so to thank her I took her shopping and pointed out all the best restaurants and places to buy clothes, where she got the three of us matching dresses. Looking back, I know she was buying our friendship, but-”

“Your friendship,” Sassy suddenly cut in, making Fleur look over to her. “Fleur, you’ve been the most popular filly in our class since day one. The only reason she paid me any attention at all was because of you.”

Fleur felt a spike of guilty displeasure run through her mind. “Sassy-”

“It’s been like that with her from the start, Fleur. She helped pay for your alchemical height treatments when you turned fifteen only after we started going to those parties her parents were invited to with ponies like Glamor Shot and her daughter Photo Finish, who told you tall ponies were going to be not just the new thing, but the only thing in a few years. And remember how she was like afterwards? Saying how once you hit it big, you could model and endorse some of the stuff her parents sell. We’re not friends to Crust, we’re investments!”

The white unicorn’s eyes narrowed a bit as she frowned at the hypocrisy staring at her. “That sounds very funny coming from a pony that’s gone on and on about how she’s going to make it in the fashion world with me clothed in her dresses.”

Sassy’s eyes widened a bit and a hurt look crossed her face before she pushed it down with a frown and stomped her hoof. “That’s different, and you know it! Both Princess Sunset and Princess Cadance want me to make them dresses for the Formal. I could dress them in rags, and ponies would hail me as a genius designer. So basically, I don’t need you anymore!” the blue unicorn exclaimed. “But here I am, trying to get through this with you. I have always talked about the two of us working together, not out of some mutual interest, but because you’re my best friend that I love like a sister. We grew up together and I never want that to ever change! I want to spend the rest of my life by your side Fleur. But if you stick with Crust, she’s going to make you like HER!”

Fleur blinked at Sassy’s final shriek of a word, then watched as she slunk down. “You’re a good pony Fleur. Don’t...please, don’t throw that away because Crust gave you a few fancy presents.”

With her friend finally done, Fleur found herself unable to speak. Because, she knew what Sassy said was right. Back when they had just entered the Academy, Fleur had become the proverbial princess of her class not because of her looks, but because she was open and friendly despite how much every colt in class wanted to be with her. Everypony had been her friend back then and the elitist air she had about her these days had only come about over the years of Crust saying things like how their study groups should only be unicorns because the other tribes didn’t have magic practice before she also reasoned more and more ponies away by saying how she didn’t want anypony else feeling bad that Crust only bought her best friends expensive things.

In fact, Fleur suspected that Sassy wouldn’t have been allowed to stick around if not for the fact she and Fleur were so close. But, the yellow unicorn had been with her for so long, being without her seemed...wrong, somehow.

Lost on what action needed to be taken, Fleur looked over to the amber alicorn. “Princess? What do you think I should do?”

Princess Sunset stared at the floor for a few moments before looking back to Fleur. Her expression seemed...heavy. “I’m afraid that decision is yours to make Fleur, not mine,” she said before taking in a deep breath to let it out a second later. “What I can do is offer you some perspective. You see, I knew a pony who was a lot like Crust. She had everything she ever wanted given to her on a silver platter. Although she wasn’t lazy, the ease in which she achieved everything made her conceded and uncaring of others. The one mare she looked up to tried to help her, but the filly never really listened to her for various reasons. Then, one day, the mare that had guided the filly through life got fed up and threw her out, taking away the things the filly thought were most precious to her. On her own, the filly thrived, but not in a good way. She became even more conceded and hateful, and went from not caring about other ponies to actually taking joy in their suffering.”

When Princess Sunset paused for a moment, Twily looked up at the bigger pony. “Then what happened, Princess?”

The amber alicorn smiled and looked down at the purple filly in her forelegs. “Well Twilight. After having so much success despite doing things a different way than how she was told, the filly went home to show the mare how wrong the older pony was, and demand her proper place back. Instead, she found another filly had taken the place she thought was rightfully hers. So, they fought, and the filly that had been kicked out was forced to see the error of her ways and that she should have listened to the mare and tried to be a better pony from then on.”

Then, Princess Sunset looked back up to Fleur, a dark frown on her face. “But, she never forgot how she had been thrown away, either.”

As Princess Sunset finished her story, Fleur thought about it for a good minute before she looked back to the alicorn. “So what you’re saying is, we shouldn’t give up on her.”

“No,” Sunset replied with a shake of her head. “I’m not telling you guys to do anything. Your choices are yours to make. What I’m saying is, be aware of what might happen before you decide anything. Maybe Crust does need to see her friends leaving her to right her ship, or maybe doing that to her will sever the last ties to the only good ponies she knows and let her drift down a much darker path. I can’t say if what she needs is the two of you to give her some time, or a good kick in the rear. But if you do decide to go through with casting her out, there is no taking it back.”

The seriousness in Princess Sunset’s tone put a weight on Fleur’s back that made her tense in response. “I understand, Princess.”

For her part, the amber alicorn let out another long sigh before brightening a bit. “By the way Sassy,” Princess Sunset said as she looked to the blue unicorn. “I want to talk to you about my dress.”

Shining Armor pulled his head back after hearing the harsh question that threw him for a bit of a loop. “Princess Cadance?”

The pink pony took in another deep breath and let it out as she pushed her hoof away from her chest. “Sorry, just a bit mad at you.”

“What for?” Shiny asked cautiously.

Once again, Cadance went through her calming exercise. “This is so much easier when I'm not emotionally involved,” she mumbled before addressing Shining Armor. “Ever since we got here tonight, the looks you’ve been giving Sunset have been more resentful than lustful even though she hasn’t done anything to deserve it. And while I ignore the lustful looks you give her plot, I’m not ignoring this. Not to mention how you nearly exploded just because Sunset asked if you thought her dress should accent her backside. So,what’s going on?”

Shining Armor stared at Cadance for a few seconds, the frustration he had been feeling mulling around in his head. Like the pink princess, Shining Armor took a second to let it out before talking. “It just, seeing Sunset doing...everything, I just...it’s annoying! Okay?”

“Shiny?” Cadance asked as she put on a concerned frown.

Seeing that the royal pony he had nearly yelled at was avoiding her own outburst, Shining Armor put his ears back as he laid back down on his bed. “Sorry,” he groaned. “It just...well, it started last night when I had these dreams…”

Once again, Shining Armor told a princess about his dreams involving the two alicorns.

When he was finished, Cadance hmmmed for a few seconds, then shook her head. “Well Shiny, I’m sorry to say that I'm not going to be able to play out your horse trainer fantasy. I don’t really have anything against domination, but the idea of smacking another pony with a riding crop turns me off, not on.”

Shining Armor groaned. “Princess that’s not-”

“But Princess Sunset might be willing to indulge your other fantasy!” she said with a happy smile.

Cadance’s words made Shining Armor jump to his hooves in fear despite the fact she was still sitting on his bed. “W-What?”

Completely missing the emotion in his voice, Cadence went on with a smile. “Well, maybe not a full insertion, that might actually be dangerous. But considering Sunset’s own sexual kinks and her being a dominant sexual partner, she might be up for something very close to what you want.”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANT AT ALL!” Shining Armor shrieked before she could go on.

Cadance blinked. “Really?” she asked with a cocked head. A second later, she righted her head. “That’s odd, actually. I know big mares turn you on, and you are pretty obsessed with Sunset’s plot. Being with a mare big enough to put you between her cheeks isn’t that much of a leap in-”

Hearing that for the second time today pushed Shining Armor over the edge. “I don't want to do anything like that!” he said before snorting angrily. “What is with you princesses and thinking that way?”

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you’ve already talked to Sunset about this?”

“Celestia...actually,” Shining Armor replied as what they had talked about ran through his head for the millionth time that day. After Celestia took him home and sent another pony to the school so his absence would be excused, Shining Armor had to spend most of the day thinking about what the Princess had said on his own. He couldn’t tell his parents about it. With how his father had reacted this morning, both of them would tell him to just suck it up and carry on.

A second later, Cadance’s expression became an half-lidded stare. “Shiny, please tell me you didn’t go to Celestia for relationship advice,” she said before becoming mildly annoyed. “The only things that mare has under her tail are ghosts and cobwebs!”

The rather...odd picture Cadnce’s statement put in Shining’s head made him blink. Then, he fiercely shook his head to clear it and looked back to the pink princess. “This isn’t about sex! This is...look, my whole life, I've wanted to be in the Royal Guard, of being a hero! But that’s never going to happen with you and Sunset around! It’s just not fair!” Shining Armor went on. “I spent my whole life wanting, dreaming, planning to be in the Royal Guard and then Sunset shows up and makes the whole thing useless!”

And then, he just kept going. “And your dresses! I said I wanted time to think about thing, and the two of of you are already planning to go to the Fall Formal! With me! Both of you!”He didn't even understand how that was supposed to work!

The rather poor attempt to garner sympathy failed and Cadance gave him an even look. “Shiny, just because we’re going to the formal doesn’t mean either of us is going to be escorted there. You wanted some non-romantic time, and that’s what we’re giving you,” she told him. “And as for the guard thing…” The pink princess paused as she drew a blank on what to say about that. “What the hay are you talking about?”

“Sunset!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “She so...her! She does everything so bucking perfectly! What’s the point of having a royal guard around at all if she's going to be a princess?”

The explanation had Cadance dumbfounded for a moment. She stared at Shining Armor with a mouth that refused to close all the way as her mind worked to process the reasoning at the core of his anger. Then, several seconds later, the pink princess finally spoke. “That’s...it?”

Shining Armor frowned at her, more in confusion than anger. “What’s it?”

“That’s what’s at the center of all of this?” Cadance asked as pressed her lips together ever so slightly and frowned. “That’s why you’re so angry? That’s why you nearly blew up on Sunset when she’s barely holding herself together tonight? You’re just jealous?”

Seeing the angry princess in front of him unfurl her wings again before a blast of wind whipped around the room, Shining Armor gulped and backed up a step. “Cadance-”

“Shiny, the Royal Guard is a bunch of useless and inept ponies that couldn’t get a job anywhere else! I'm surprised they even have cutie marks. The most important thing they do is open the door for Celestia when she’s on her way to the bathroom!”

Shining Armor found himself blinking when Cadance went on. “Oh! Except for their captain,” she said before letting out a loud snort. “A classist pig that only got his position because his father and his father’s father had the position before him.” The mare sighed and shook her head. “Why Celestia keeps him around, I will never know."

“But, um...point is, you're better than them!” Cadance told him. “And even if Sunset just disappeared one day, them being worse than the dung won’t change!”

The Princess's words didn’t make Shining Armor feel much better. “Great,” he mumbled before sighing. “My life’s ambition that I’ve spent every day striving towards is just a big joke.”

Cadance sighed and drooped her wings along with her ears. “Sorry. I really should have been more tactful,” she said. “But what I said, I meant. I understand that after years of playing the hero in a game, you want to help ponies the same way in real life. It’s admirable, but there are just so many better things a pony like you could be than a pony in fancy armor who stands around all day to look important.”

With the second princess that day telling him that that being a royal guard was nothing but a waste of his time and talent, Shining Armor’s anger fizzled back into the depression he had been fighting since seeing Princess Celestia. “Look,” he said before groaning. “I know Sunset didn’t do anything wrong. But...it’s just...every time I look at her tonight, all I can think about is how much her being around makes me useless!”

“Then maybe you should try talking to her,” Cadance told Shining Armor evenly before heading to the door. “Now, since it’s almost Twilight’s bedtime, I'm going to go take her to bed, then have Sunset read her some overly complex magical textbook before I say goodbye to the girls. That should give you enough time to calm down and think about what you want to say to her.”

Shining Armor frowned at the confusing command. “You want me to talk to Sunset, tonight?”

“Shiny,” Cadance replied in a tired tone. “Shiny, trust me on this, letting something like this fester will only make it worse. Talk to her, shout if you need to, but get it out there in the open.”

“And so, that’s how Starswirl proved Lord Barlycorn’s third theory of reverse-flying apple dynamics was in fact just an extension of Newt Ton’s fourth law of land attraction,” Sunset finished before looking up to see Twilight fast asleep. A state she herself was close to after reading that mess. Not that she didn't deserve it for forgetting to bring Twilight a real bedtime story.

A quick spell confirmed the little unicorn was really out, so Sunset decided to indulge herself and bent forward to kiss Twilight on the top of her head. However, the pleasantness of the moment died quickly when the reality of the situation returned to the forefront of her mind, followed by the guilt that her actions caused.

“Sunset?” Cadance asked as she opened the door. “The girls are gone. You ready to head out?”

The amber alicorn put the book back on Twilight’s shelf with her magic, then turned to Cadance and gave her a little smile. “Yeah. Just...tired.”

After taking a second to put a dome of silence to keep Twilight from being awoken when her parents came home, Sunset look around the room to see if there was anything else she could do for the filly. Her eyes settled on the crystal statue on Twilight’s nightstand for a moment. She didn’t know when Cadance had made the statue for the filly, but it’s presence was like a knife in Sunset’s gut.

It wasn’t right that Twilight was looking up to her, the reversal was what should have been going on. It wasn’t right that Sunset took joy from impressing her either. The real Twilight wouldn’t feel that way about actions, she knew how pathetic and disgusting Sunset really was. She knew Sunset deserved to be crippled and homeless for the rest of her life, having to beg others for the scraps needed just to survive.

“Yeah, I've been around you long enough to know when you’re talking bullshit,” Cadance replied. “So, do you want to talk about it now, or later?”

Sunset drew in on herself. “Cadance I...I’m sorry.”

A frown crossed the pink princess’s face. “About what? This morning?” Cadance asked before her expression evened out and she stole a glance at the sleeping Twilight. “Sunset, that’s...I already said that you did exactly what you were supposed to do!”

Cadance’s words only made her feel worse. Sunset knew she didn’t deserve forgiveness. Not from Cadance, not for how horrible Sunset had been to her. “And I’m sorry f-for...for…”

She couldn’t even say it before the images of Cadance laying on their bed came to her head. Unlike all the other times, the real times, the one in Sunset’s head was of the pink mare with her tail raised, presenting herself for Sunset’s hunger. Her wings fidgeted, and she trotted towards the door without speaking.

“I...know what you’re thinking,” the Princess of Love said in an uneasy tone.

Fear and unease turned to panic and shame as Sunset made a break for it. She galloped out the door and...found Shining Armor standing in the middle of the hallway. “Hey Sunset, can we-”

The hallway that was too small for a big fat pony like herself to get past him, and much too short for her to stop in time.

The two ponies collided with a collective scream before they tumbled forward and down the stairs. It was more instinct than anything else that had Sunset wrap herself around the smaller pony. The pegasus magic in her absorbed all of the damage from the impact as the ball she and Shiny made rolled down step after step until it went into the living room.

“Mmmmmummmph!”

Sunset’s lips curved up into a little smile at the oddly pleasant feeling of something rubbing up against her butt. Then her eyes widened in realization, and she quickly scrambled off of the young stallion and helped him up with her magic. “Shiny! I didn’t I-I-”

“It’s okay, I’m just a little shaken up,” Shining Armor told her.

A second later, Sunset heard Cadance's clopping comming down the stairs. “Are you two okay?”

While Shining assured her he was fine, Sunset found herself looking back on everything for the past few weeks. Every accident, every mistake and every disaster she had caused. “I…”

Sunset quickly took in a breath as she thought of the ways things should be. “I…”

The fact that Twilight was looking up to her. “I…”

That Cadance, Shining Armor, and the rest of her friends even knew each other at all!

How Fleur and Sassy were considering abandoning Upper Crust.

All because of her!

All because she just stupidly trotted around, being so weak-willed that she couldn’t yell at Cadance like she used to, acted like a snot in front of her mot-in front of Celestia, because she just had to gallop in and save Shining Armor!

Because she was such a weak, stupid, egotistical piece of crap that just had to shove her nose into everyone’s business!

“S-Sunset?” Cadance asked as she came a little closer to the amber alicorn.

“DO I LOOK OKAY?” Sunset shouted back at her as she threw out the wings, sending a powerful wind throughout the room that knocked down pictures, sent old newspapers flying. “Look! Look at me! I’m an alicorn. I don’t deserve to be an alicorn!”

Cadance sighed and got within a foot of the amber alicorn. “Sunset, we’ve been over this-”

“And you!” Sunset went on. “Y-You should hate me!”

“No, Sunset. I never-”

“You shouldn’t even be talking to me!” Sunset said before Cadance could finish. “You should be barely one step away from cowering under a table whenever I pass you in the hallway.”

Cadance sighed and gave Sunset a half lidded stare. “So, we’re going that route, huh?”

The third pony in the room carefully stepped forward. “Um, Princess-”

With the reminder of Shiny’s presence, Sunset conjured up a million more bits of proof of her horribleness. “And Shiny! Look at all the horrible things I’ve done to him!”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Yes, because stopping Buck from putting him in the hospital was so awful.”

“Yes!” Sunset exclaimed as anger at her actions began to give way to panic over what she had done. “I shouldn’t have done anything! How is he supposed to become Captain of the Royal Guard and whip those idiots into shape if some big fat stupid alicorn is always fighting his battles for him?"

The world blurred a bit as tears began to form in Sunset’s eyes. “A-And now,” she said before taking a quick breath through the liquid threatening to pour out her nose. “And now he… Shiny, he…” Sunset remembered the way Shining Armor had frowned at her earlier, the way he had looked at her, and...how awful she really had to be if a wonderful pony like Shining Armor was angry with her. “He’s mad at me, and I...I don’t even know what I did to screw that up!”

“Umm, Sunset,” Shining Armor said. “That’s not-”

Sunset didn’t let him finish. “Even when I try to be a good pony, I just end up making everything, worse! And-”

“OH, WOULD YOU SHUT UP!?” Cadance screamed in Sunset’s face, causing the amber alicorn to freeze. Before she could continue, the pink princess just went on. “Day after day, I hear you say this bucking nonsense! I try to pick you up, but you just want to lay right back down into the muck for the stupidest of reasons! Well I’m tired of it! SO JUST STOP IT ALREADY YOU STUPID IDIOT!”

Sunset slunk down under Cadance’s glare. “Wha-” she stuttered helplessly. “I...I...I’m sorrrrrrryyyyy!” she wailed.

“What? Nonononono! You’re not supposed to-”

Shining Armor trotted around Sunset as she continued to cry and glared at the pink princess. “Cadance! You never yell at somepony that’s in that mindset!”

“No! She was supposed to shout back at me, not…” Cadance’s ears fell back down and she looked over to Sunset.

For his part, Shining Armor gave Sunset a gentle smile. “I’m not mad at you, Princess,” he said uneasily. “I just...had a bad day, I’m sorry.”

Sunset sucked in a breath through her clogged nose. “But-but, I’m being stupid, and showing off, and making you feel inferior, and-”

“Shhh,” Shining Armor said before he pulled Sunset in for a hug. The offer made Sunset rear up on two legs, making Shining Armor follow suit to catch her in an embrace. After steadying her with a grunt of effort, he patted the much heavier pony on the back and offered soothing words. “It’s okay. Uh, Cadance isn’t going to bully you anymore.”

Cadance gasped. “Bully? I’m not a bully! I was just trying to make Sunset get angry and defend herself,” she said. “It’s assertive tough love!”

The pink princess’s words made Sunset blink away some of her tears as several of her interactions with Cadance over the past several weeks replayed in her mind. When Sunset had first become an alicorn, Cadance had been almost shy and extremely non-confrontational, but since the pink princess had started hanging out with Sunset… “I... I turned Cadance into a bully! I...I’M A HORRIBLE PONY!”

“What?” Cadance squawked, her expression lost somewhere between revulsion and confusion. Then, when Sunset broke out into another crying fit, she turned her attention back to the amber alicorn. “No, no! Sunset, I wasn’t really mad. It’s okay, you’re a great pony.”

When Cadance put a hoof on Sunset, the bigger alicorn pulled her into the hug she already had Shining trapped in. “I’m sorry!” the amber alicorn said before crying into Cadance’s coat.

“Shiny, what do we do here?” Cadance asked as Sunset clung to both of them for dear life.

“Never seen her this bad before.”

“Um, she...had a rough morning, and almost no sleep, and...um...c-can we get to the couch? All this earth pony is pretty heavy.”

Sunset felt herself pulled forward. Only, when they moved from the entryway where the stairs came down near the door to the carpeted part of the living room, she was so stupid and clumsy she tripped and pushed both of the ponies trying to help her to the ground and landed on top of them with her big fat body.

When they landed, Sunset gasped and pushed herself up to look them both in the face. “Sorry!” she apologized. “I’m sorry! I-”

“Shhhh,” Cadance said before one of her wings reached up and guided Sunset back into a hug. “It’s okay Sunset.”

New tears appeared in Sunset’s eyes at the comforting words. She didn’t deserve any kindness from Cadance, not after everything she had done to the real princess. She had ruined Cadance. Corrupted her. Planted a seed of evil inside of her that threatened to destroy everything good that she was supposed to do!

The fresh wave of guilt broke the dam once again, and Sunset sobbed into the pink pony’s shoulder.

“S-Sunset, what...Shiny, what do we do?” the amber alicorn heard on the edge of her awareness.

“Why’re you asking me?”

“Because between the two of us, you’re the expert!”

“Oh. Well, just um...hold her and go…there there,” Sunset heard Shining Armor say before a hoof patted her back.

After what seemed an hour of Sunset sobbing non-stop, the noise and water abated to give way to gentle snoring. Unfortunately, when Shining Armor attempted to move the amber alicorn off of him, the mare’s grip tightened to firmly hold him in place.

“Huh, she literally cried herself to sleep,” Cadance said before she let out a grunt, followed by a sigh. “Great.”

Shining Armor looked over to Princess Cadance. “What?”

“It’s Sunset. Usually, she relaxes her grip after falling asleep, but every now and then she gets this death grip snuggle that there’s no breaking out of,” she explained. “Which it appears to be what we’re in now.”

The rather simple problem confused Shining Armor. “Umm, why not wake her up then?”

Cadance gave Shining Armor an even glare. “After the day Sunset's had, she needs at least an hour’s nap before we go home.”

With him needing to sacrifice so little to give Sunset some comfort, Shining Armor looked back up at the ceiling. Ten seconds later, which he took the time to count out in his head, the white unicorn looked back over to Cadance. “Princess, if you don’t mind me asking,” he began before giving Cadance a second to say yes or no. “I know Sunset has...problems, but she’s usually more together than this. Did something happen?”

“No,” Cadance replied. “I mean, yes. Well...it’s complicated.”

Shining Armor looked back over to Cadance. “Come again?”

There was several seconds of silence as Cadance visibly thought over her answer. “I think you’re wrong when you say that Sunset’s usually more together. There are days when she spends the whole day smiling, only to cry in her sleep all night. The truth is, I think she’s always feeling like this, she’s just very good at ignoring these feelings until something reminds her, or she becomes too tired to fake a smile.”

“Princess,” Shining Armor said before he stopped to think. He knew from various talks by his parents over Twilight’s condition that there was never a single cause of such behavior. Still, he couldn’t help but ask. “I know we’ve talked about this stuff before, but...do you know why Princess Sunset is like this?

“I know it’s not just one thing,” he went on. “With Twilight, nothing really bad has ever happened to her. So it’s not the memory of an event that makes her panic. But she’s too smart for her own good and gets into things that she can’t really deal with because she doesn’t have enough personal experience. But Sunset’s too old for that to be the case for her.”

A dark frown appeared on Cadance’s face for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Can we talk about something else?”

Shining Armor blinked. “Like what?”

“Well, I want to give Sunset at least an hour to rest before we go home so…” Cadance paused for a second, then let out an excited gasp. “Oh! You know a lot about Solar Battles, right? Was So Low always a smuggler? What did he do before getting the Eon Hawk?”

“Umm...well…” The surprise over the question had Shining Armor quiet for a second. “Well, there are books that mention he was part of the Imperium’s army.”

Cadance brightened up a bit and continued to talk, getting more and more answers out of Shining Armor. Although the distraction lasted longer than the hour Cadance said Sunset needed to nap, but with it being the first time a mare had shown interest in anything he liked, not counting when Sunset and he talked about O&O, Shining Armor quickly found himself getting lost in the conversation.

So, nearly two hours of discussing the background of So Low and getting into how the Republic had stolen power from Queen Faust, Cadance let out a loud yawn despite her involvement in the subject matter. “Oh, is that the time?” the pink princess asked before she looked away from the clock and to the stallion pinned on the floor next to her. “Hey Shiny. I need to get going.”

“Oh,” Shining Armor replied, his excitement quickly dying after hearing of Princess Cadance’s impending departure. When she wasn’t going on about relationships or putting off enough sexiness to lure Shining Armor into making out with her, Cadance was fun to hang out with. “Okay, so umm...how do you usually wake Sunset up?”

Cadance let out a yawn and nuzzled deeper into the couch cushion they had brought down to give them a little comfort. “I just...need to...rest my eyes for a minute before we leave.”

A minute later, Shining Armor was resting his eyes too.

Chapter 24: Wednesday is for Wacky Antics

Complete consciousness slowly returned to Sunset as her body was assaulted by...the smell of chocolate, fresh coffee and...after taking another sniff with a nose that was much more sensitive than what she had been using for several years, Sunset picked up the scent of...pancakes? At least, she thought they were pancakes. There was quite a bit of difference in the equine olfactory senses when compared to a homo sapien, as well as quite a few odd similarities, like how hot dogs and carrot dogs tasted the exact same thanks to the changes.

Which raised another interesting question. As to how-Okay brain, stop thinking now, Sunset told herself.

Groaning at the unnatural stiffness in her body as she picked her head up and opened her eyes, Sunset suddenly realized a few things. The first was that she wasn’t in her usual sleeping room. In fact, the room she was in wasn’t made for sleeping at all. It was made for living, what with it being a living room. The second that it wasn’t her living room, but Shining Armor’s. The third was that…

“Hnnn, nooooooo Sunset!” the sleeping white pony beside her groaned with a fearful tone as he struggled in his sleep. “I don’t wanna go in your love tunnel.”

...said pony was right next to her, cuddled up to Sunset with a death grip on her coat as another pony with a much more pink body and multi-colored mane snoozed on her other side. Both of them had apparently moved some pillows from the couch to support the heads of all three of them, but were otherwise uncovered by sheets.

“We fell asleep,” Sunset mumbled uneasily as she surmised the obvious cause situation while she tried to remember just what had happened last night to make herself, Shiny and Cadance all in up in what would obviously be considered some type of orgy pile to anyone that happened by. But...it...HOW COULD WE HAVE JUST DONE THAT?

Sunset’s demand went unanswered as she tried to bring up last night’s events, but...the last thing she remembered was crashing into Shining Armor and tumbling down the stairs. She didn’t remember Cadance being a part of the pileup, but then again, being knocked for such a loop might have done a number on her short-term memory and caused a few things to be forgotten.

“Okay...okay! Calm down Sunset!” the amber alicorn ordered herself. “Just calm down. You can fix this. It’s just…” Sunset quickly glanced around the room that was fully lit by the sunlight streaming in through the windows until she found the clock on the wall. “Seven o’clock! Plenty of time to cover everything up before...wait, I’m missing something...”

As Sunset tried to think of what was causing the uneasy sensation in the back of her mind, the sound of hooves clip clopping on a non-carpeted surface caught her attention. She looked up to see Twilight’s mother poke her head into the room from the kitchen. “Princess Sunset, you’re awake,” the adult Twilight said before she slunk in on herself a bit. “The sound of my cooking didn’t wake you, did it?”

Sunset did what any sexual predator would do when caught by the innocent child’s parents, she let out a brief scream of surprise terror.

“Huh? Wha-huh?”

“Hnnn, snuggles!”

Ignoring Shiny and Cadance’s mumbling as Shining Armor's grip lessened, Sunset carefully used her magic to remove the two ponies on top of the pile and set them to the side, then stood up slowly. There was a dull pain in her back and wings, but she ignored it to rush over to where the colt’s mom was standing. “Mrs. Velvet!” the amber alicorn said nervously as her mind rushed to catch up to the situation. “We didn’t-wait…” Sunset stopped herself as she realized something. “You’re here, and...cooking…”

The older Twilight nodded. “Yes, Highness.”

“That means you’ve already seen me and Shiny all…” she looked back to where her not-boyfriend and best friend were still laying on the ground, slowly fighting off the sleepiness. “With Cadance.”

“Yes?” Velvet replied slowly, clearly confused. “We saw you when we came home from work. Honestly, I'm relieved-”

Sunset’s mouth threatened to drop at the pony’s words.

“-that we didn’t wake the three of you,” Velvet finished, stopping Sunset from becoming completely out of whack. “Oh! Where are my manners? Princess, would you like some coffee?”

Does she not… Sunset’s mind managed to think as it once again took stock of the situation. The daughter of one of the ponies Velvet worked with was pregnant with a noble’s illegitimate child, so it wasn’t as if such things were unknown in Equestria, but… She doesn’t think we had sex.

Sunset wasn’t sure how she felt about that as Mrs. Velvet walked off to pour a new beverage. The mare had come home to find her son curled up with a pair of fillies and thought nothing of it despite everything else that was going on in her life. It signified a level of trust that Velvet had in Sunset which Celestia had never shown even after Sunset had sprouted wings.

Still, considering what was going on in the lives of the ponies around her, Sunset knew that Velvet had to be having fears about some pony from the untouchable levels of society coming around to take advantage of her son. So, when the light gray mare came back holding a cup of dark brew in her magic, Sunset nodded to Velvet in thanks as she took it before handing her back some peace of mind. “Ma’am, I just want you to know that I am in no way whatsoever attracted to your son. Not physically or anything. Not even the slightest little bit.”

“Oh…” a distinctly male voice said from behind Sunset, causing her to look back and see Shining Armor standing there with a hurt look on his face. “I...um...uh...morning, Mom. I should go... brush my mane.”

Sunset's mouth dropped in shock and disbelief as her not-coltfriend turned around and trotted off up the stairs. “Are... are you kidding me?”

Living as a human, a creature with such dull senses that Sunset had to wonder how their ancestors had lasted long enough to evolve, and being turned back into a pony had given Sunset a sharper sense of her surroundings. While she didn’t have super hearing, beyond that of a normal pegasus at any rate, Sunset did notice things that she would have missed before. So not picking up Shiny’s hooves on the carpet had her dumbfounded long enough for Shining Armor to move out of sight.

“Princess?”

Sunset looked back to Velvet after hearing the question. “Um…” the amber alicorn replied before spying Cadance still picking herself off the floor. "Here." She handed Velvet the coffee in her magic. “Cadance probably needs it more than me.” Then she galloped up the stairs after her stallion. Crap crap crap crap CRAP!

Shining Armor’s tail disappeared into his room right as she topped the stairs, so Sunset quickly chased after him. She did it so fast that when she got into his room and nearly ran Shiny over, Sunset didn’t think about what to say before her words came out. “Shiny, I’m sorry!”

“Princess, what-”

“I don’t not want to have sex with you!”

“Huh?”

“I was just lying to your mom!” Sunset rambled on.

“Um-”

“I do! What to have sex with you, I mean,” she quickly continued. “Really, I do! Sometimes, it takes just about all my willpower to not just poof us back to the castle and toss you on my bed aaaand...I should probably think before I start talking again.”

Shining Armor blinked. “Oh...kay?” he replied before nervously looking back to his own bed.

“It’s just...look,” Sunset said as the memories of one of her side projects filled her head. “Your parents. Recently, I’ve been having to deal with this daughter of a friend of theirs who got knocked up by this stupid selfish jerk of a noble who just up and left her after he got her pregnant, and I didn’t want them thinking I was like that. So I said some things to keep your mom from worrying the same would happen between us.”

With her explanation done, Sunset waited for Shining Armor’s reply.

For his part, Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “So...you said all of that stuff that to my mom because...you were afraid that she thought you were going to get me pregnant?” he asked with a slightly upward curving mouth.

Sunset blinked before dropping her butt on the ground with a heavy thump. She frowned at the little smirk that was on Shiny’s face as he fought to keep from laughing and crossed her pony-arms. “Well when you put it that way, it just sounds stupid!”

The little snicker that came from Shiny’s mouth brought a blush to Sunset’s cheeks. She looked away to break eye contact, which in turn had her mind working to find a way to turn the tables on the younger pony. Only, her thoughts were interrupted when he cleared his throat. “Uh, Sunset?”

She looked back to the unicorn. “Yes?”

Shining Armor’s face became a little apprehensive. “Um, listen...Sunset,” he said. “Speaking of, you know, that stuff. You're...smart. And I was wondering if I could get your opinion on um...well...I had a pretty odd dream a few days ago.”

“And?” she said when Shining Armor was not forthcoming with a continuation, waving her hoof in a circle with her fetlock to encourage Shiny to keep talking.

It took him another second, but Shiny managed to get going again. “And I talked to Cadance about it, because it was a dream about...well…” he said before taking another deep breath.

Sunset made sure to keep her expression neutral as Shining Armor went into his explanation. The dominatrix Cadance made her a little tingly in all the right places, although Shiny’s story of Sunset getting bigger and bigger until he was little more than a sex toy to her had the amber alicorn feeling uneasy.

After all, having a little pony like Shiny put there of all places...Sunset’s rational mind was quick to point out that even if a tiny Shiny was a cute idea she found more than a little adorable, everything Sunset knew about anatomy said having an extremely tiny pony inside her most private of places was a very bad idea for both of them.

However, Sunset couldn’t keep her face from drooping when she realized the deeper meaning behind the imagery in Shiny’s dream. “So, my being super powerful is still making you feel bad, huh?”

“Wait that’s not-!” Shining Armor said quickly before stopping himself, the look of panic on his face slowly fading. “-what Cadance said when I told her.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

A blush appeared on Shining Armor’s face. “Well...she said, um...how you could probably...you know...um...maybe I shouldn’t-”

“Shiny,” Sunset cut in before her unicorn could embarrass himself to death. “I know you like big mares, but let’s be realistic here. The scenario would probably kill you, and having you stab me with your horn and beat at me with your hooves as I crush you to death isn’t in the least bit appealing to me either. So I really doubt you’re having wet dreams about me putting you under my tail. Sounds to me like the issue is something else.”

After giving Shiny a second to let that sink in, Sunset continued. “A pony that’s so far above you in status and power she doesn’t need anypony else to do anything and makes everypony in the royal guard obsolete? That is a nightmare I can believe a pony like you can have.”

Shining Armor gave Sunset a bit of a wide-eyed look as the amber alicorn’s mind caught onto the perfect way to take advantage of the situation. It was almost cruel how easily she was able to easily bring it up, a remnant of her old self, the Sunset Shimmer that was an expert at tearing others apart appearing at the worst time.

She wanted to tell him she understood his feelings. After learning the truth about Cadance, seeing the pink princess adopted by Celestia, then coming back to Equestria to find Twilight had taken Sunset’s place completely, Sunset knew exactly what Shining Armor was going through. She wanted to wrap herself around him and show him that everything would be okay. She wanted to prove to him that despite their differences in ability, Shining Armor still had so much he could accomplish and Sunset would be there every step of the way to help him along.

But, she couldn’t waste the opportunity what was presenting itself.

Because she wasn't going to be there for him.

So, instead of giving Shiny some much needed reassurance, Sunset quickly took a hammer to the possibility of Shining Armor ever trying to get serious with her.

“And that’s why we can never be together.”

“Huh?” Shiny asked, his expression showing more fear than confusion.

Not wanting to lose the momentum, Sunset grasped hard onto the dark epiphany that would bring an end to any hope of getting together with the young stallion in front of her. “Shiny, I’m sure you’ve got a bright future in the royal guard. But no matter how bright that future is, it pales in comparison to the sun. To my future. So to find fulfillment, to be happy, you can’t be with me. Because I’ll always serve as a reminder of what you can never be. And I could never live with myself if I made you unhappy.”

Shining Armor jolted himself out of his stupor. “But, wait! That’s not-”

“That’s why you should be with Cadance,” Sunset went on. “She’s not like me, Shiny. It’s not just ability with magic. She’s just too...loving to become tough enough to survive on her own. She needs somepony to help support her, protect her, a pony to comfort her.”

Before Shining Armor could protest, Sunset stood back up and looked down at his eyes. “I’m sorry. We said we wouldn’t discuss this relationship stuff,” she said before resisting the urge to give Shiny a peck on the lips that would most definitely become more if allowed to happen and trotted past him. “So...bye. I’ll see myself out.”

“What would you like to eat this morning, Highness?”

Cadance couldn't even consider her order, or even consider ordering something that wouldn’t feed a family of four and thus lighten the burden of Twilight Velvet’s breakfast table, before Sunset came tromping down the stairs. There was a look of displeased depression was written all over her face. “Come on Cadance. Let’s go.”

Thinking it best to have the conversation they needed to about what was bothering Sunset in a more private setting, the pink princess followed her friend out the door without argument and a brief apology to the gray Twilight for their hasty departure. Once outside, Cadance followed Sunset in silence as she tried to get a feel for what was going on in the amber alicorn’s head.

“You feeling okay?” she asked as they trotted down the road in the direction of the palace. Not many ponies were up and about at such an early hour, but she did notice a few doughnut shops with their lights on.

Sunset slowed for a second to unfurl her wings a bit. The action included a telltale wince from the amber alicorn that told Cadance all she needed to know. “Little sore, I guess.”

The announcement made Cadance wince. “Right...sorry about that. I guess sleeping on your back before you set your wings for the night put a cramp in them.”

When Sunset looked over to her with a confused expression, Cadance gave an answer to the unasked question. “Last night, after you fell asleep on top of me and Shiny,” she said. “Well, don’t take this the wrong way Sunset, but...you’re strong, really strong...which is probably why you’re kind of...heavy. We had to roll you over in the middle of the night when you tightened your grip and woke us up.”

Sunset looked at the ground for a moment the way she always did when she became despondent, making Cadance put an end to the conversation and focus on the world around her a bit more. As time passed, the unusually long trek continued for a few more minutes before Cadance had a bit of an idea about what was going on. “So, we’re skipping school again?”

Sunset lifted her head and looked back. “Huh?”

“Well, we’re walking back to the castle instead of teleporting there for breakfast or finding a restaurant,” Cadance began. “So you’re in no hurry to get ready for the day. Plus, considering how you just came back from talking to Shiny, I’m betting you want to avoid him for the rest of the day at least. So, that means no school today. Right?”

As her explanation ended, Cadance watched Sunset slump a little. “Yeah...that...sounds like a good idea,” she mumbled. “See you after school, Cadance.”

Before Sunset could leave her in the dust, Cadance trotted up next to her and pressed the side of her body up against the amber alicorn’s. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Sunset drew in on herself. “But Shiny...he’s, um...probably going to want to talk to you.”

“Shiny has Fleur, Sassy, Mare, Cheerilee, and all his colt friends if he wants to talk,” Cadance replied before she nuzzled Sunset on the side her her neck for support. “You go home, all you’ll have is me.”

“Hey, there’s my Mom-”

Cadance silenced Sunset with a frown as she took a step away from her taller friend. “Please don’t insult my intelligence by making me think you’re going to talk to Celestia about this. I know the two of you love each other deeply, but I barely trust either of you with smalltalk on the best of days. The way you are now, it would go badly. Very badly. So you’ll be talking with me, got it?”

The god-like alicorn that could destroy all of Canterlot with a stomp of her hooves meekly nodded. “Got it.”

With Sunset cowed, Cadance fixed her mind on keeping Sunset from guilting herself some more. “Besides, I’m needing to spend the day in bed too. Sleeping on the floor didn’t give me that much rest, not to mention the number it did on my wings,” she said before glancing down at Sunset’s plumage. “And yours could use some work too.”

“Sorry,” Sunset mumbled before she looked back to spread them a bit. They didn’t get far before she let out a sharp hiss. “Yeah. Something is definitely cramped, or pulled, or...whatever you call it with wings.”

Cadance winced at Sunset’s words. She had set her mind on helping Sunset getting her mind out of its pit, not pushing her down deeper. “It’s not your fault!” she told her bigger mare. “I’m the one who just let you sleep on top of me and Shiny. It’s my fault for letting somepony so heavy be on top of me half the night.”

The comment brought Sunset to a sudden halt. She looked back to the smaller pony with a frown. “You know, it’s one of the biggest insults in human culture to call another female fat.”

Seeing some of that familiar anger in her friend’s face made Cadance smirk. “Oh please Sunset, all your weight is muscle. What little fat you do have is just enough to cover it up and stopping you from looking like a super fit athlete,” she said before looking back to the amber alicorn’s generous rump. “Well, except for one particular part of you. However, I think we can both agree that your big bouncing bountiful butt only makes you look that more attractive.”

Sunset let out a groan and turned her head around before continuing forward. When she noticed Cadance wasn’t following, the amber alicorn looked back and frowned. “What?”

A giggle escaped from Cadance’s mouth before she quickly trotted to catch up. “Just taking a second to enjoy the view.”

Aside from Sunset’s sound of displeasure that followed the reddening of her cheeks, the rest of the trip was made in silence, something she was also glad of. If the two of them had kept talking about Sunset’s looks and other physical aspects, Cadance was sure she would have made a slip and turned Sunset’s perception of the pink pony’s attraction from a friendly appreciation of her body to a loving lust.

When the two princesses arrived at the castle, Cadance sent Sunset back to their room so the amber alicorn could prepare a bath with her magic while the pink pony met Celestia in the hallway to the rear throne room entrance before Court could begin.

She gave her adoptive aunt a quick rundown of last night’s events after they had left the castle and told Celestia both of them needed a day off from the drama that the academy had become thanks to everything that was going on. Then, Cadance remembered her manners and quickly went into an extra formal bow.

The biggest pony in Equestria looked incredibly tense as Cadance rose from the ground. “Princess? Is something wrong?”

“The two of you were gone all night?” Celestia summarized, her tone nothing but troubled shock.

Cadance drew in on herself a little at the way Celestia spoke as she glanced towards the pair of guards and the dark unicorn that served as the white pony’s assistant. Although the pink princess was far from the infallible being she had believed Celestia to be for most of her life, Celestia never let her mask slip whenever non-alicorns were around. “Um...yes. Sorry about that. We should have sent some kind of message.”

There was a brief moment where time seemed to stop as Cadance waited for Celestia to scold her for being so foalish. Then, the big pony closed her eyes, took in a deep breath through her nose, and opened her eyes back up as she let out the breath. “That’s alright, Cadance. You and Sunset are more than old enough to spend a night away from the castle every now and then. Although, I would like to be kept informed of such things.”

When no lecture about how dangerous it was to sleep away from the castle when there were changelings about, just waiting to snatch Cadance away and put in a replacement that would drain Sunset’s love until she was nothing but a shell of her former self before moving on to destroy all of Equestria, the pink princess could only look on in confusion as the big pony moved past her and continued on towards the throne room. The lack of a lecture left Cadance standing alone in the hallway for another five minutes before her mind snapped out of its stupor and she headed back towards the apartment she shared with Sunset. That was...not what I was expecting.

By the time Cadance made it back to the collection of rooms that had become more homey than the ones she had been given upon becoming a princess, she found Sunset had already gotten into the bath without her. The sight of her beloved amber alicorn’s naturally fit body in the water that had Sunset’s coat hugging every inch of her perfect form had Cadance licking her lips a second into the show.

“So, what did Mom say?” Sunset asked with trepidation.

The question pulled Cadance out of her daze before she could become entrenched in lewd thoughts of playing with Sunset’s body. After shaking off the lust, the pink princess made her way down into the water. “About what?” Cadance asked before using her magic to get a brush for her coat coat and begin working some of the dirt and dust out of it like Sunset had already begun doing. Sleeping on a floor had taken its toll.

After Cadance was done, Sunset’s horn glowed and the bath water became less murky as the purifying spell finished its work. “Us not going to class today,” the amber alicorn explained. “She knows I don’t need the education, but a day without social interaction probably has her snorting steam.”

“She actually seemed more upset that we had been gone all night without her noticing more than anything else,” Cadance replied.

The look on Sunset’s face took a turn for the peeved at that. “Par for the course then.”

Cadance decided to give her friend something else to focus on. “Okay, wings. Need to work out those kinks. Lay down till your wings are covered by the water.”

“Alright,” Sunset said before complying.

Once Sunset was almost completely submerged, a pregnant silence permeated the room as Cadance waited for the warm water to do its work and loosen up some of their muscles. Which reminded her that she hadn’t actually told Sunset what they needed to be doing to help with her wing problem. “So, um...after about fifteen minutes, just extend your wings and I’ll rub out the kinks.”

There was a half-nod from the amber alicorn before her eyes suddenly went wide along with her wings, splashing water all over the bathroom. “Wait You’re gonna…” Sunset’s tone took on a nervous quality before continuing, “rub my wings?”

Cadance nodded. “That’s right,” she said. “I know they’re sensitive in some places, but don’t worry. I think I should be able to do it without applying too much pressure.”

“Okay,” Sunset said as she turned around and prepared herself. “It’s just my first time going through something like this, so...be gentle.”

Sunset was laying down on her belly with her wings spread across most of her bed as Cadance finished messing with the last of her feathers. The whole thing didn’t take nearly as long as the first time she preened the amber alicorn. The process was so short that the aftereffects of Cadance working out the cramps in Sunset’s wings still persisted, leaving the uncrowned alicorn feeling all the more relaxed.

“Okay, I’ll admit, I was a little nervous when you said you wanted to give me a wing massage,” Sunset told her lazily. While most of a pegasus’s wing was very sturdy, the amber alicorn had learned from a little experimenting on herself that the joints where wings met back were a very sensitive area. Having hooves touch down around there hadn’t seemed like a good idea. “But now I’m wondering if I should lay on my back more often.”

Cadance looked up before spitting a feather out of her mouth. “Well you’re lucky you’ve got somepony to help you,” she told Sunset without any malice or jealousy in her voice. “Back in my home village, I was the only one with wings. Earth ponies don’t really get gentle, so it was just me that understood where it was okay to be touched. With all the work there was to do moving clouds for the lone pegasus in town, I got tons of knots and had to rub one out all the time.”

The conversation died down as Cadance attended to the needs of her own wings. While she hadn’t experienced the cramping Sunset had, being on the floor with a restless pony on top of her had ruffled the pink princess’s feathers quite a bit.

So without anything to distract her, Sunset found her mind wandering to topics that she admitted to herself that she tried to avoid, like the mirror. With so little time until the Formal and so much left to do, the amber alicorn knew that today was going to be the only day she could really put in the effort for a thorough search for it.

The question was, how was she supposed to ditch Cadance so the pink pony couldn’t let it slip to Celestia about what was going on?

“Hey Sunset,” Cadance spoke up, interrupting the various scenarios running through the other alicorn’s head. “What did you used to look like as a human?”

Sunset frowned at the question and turned her head around to look at Cadance. “Um, didn’t I already tell you that?” she asked before moving onto another question before getting an answer. “And where did that come from?”

“Well, if we’re taking a day off from school, I doubt you want to talk about any educational or social subjects. So the topics are kind of limited,” Cadance told her. “And, what I mean is...well, I can make a statue out of crystal now. Which means I know you can do something better than a verbal description. So can’t you show me what you used to look like as a human?”

A hesitant expression crossed Sunset’s face as her mental library of magic listed a transformation spell that would have been able to turn her into a nearly-hairless biped, but that idea was nixed when Sunset remembered the spell required a full biological scan of the target to alter a pony’s from. The second option that came to mind, a thought projection, was much simpler to do.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Sunset admitted. “But...why?”

Cadance gave Sunset an even look. “Because your explanation of those hand things was, ‘They’re um, like dragon claws or minotaur paws, but not’. Not really picture of words.”

Sunset let out an embarrassed groan. “Well, it’s hard describing something with almost no frame of reference,” she said as she put the image of what she used to look like in her mind and cast the projection spell. Human hands were different from every other fingered species in Equestria after all. They were a lot more dexterous for one thing and required careful upkeep in the nail department.

Three feet away from the bed, a barely opaque image of Sunset as a human appeared the way she used to look, back when she had her jacket.

After the image appeared, Cadance trotted over to circle the magical depiction of old Sunset. “This is very...I thought you said human’s didn’t have coats.”

“That’s clothing, Cadance,” Sunset replied evenly, unamused by the pun.

Cadance snorted. “Then take it off,” she said. “I said I wanted to see what you looked like. Not what you looked like dressed in some weird human uniform.”

The request made Sunset shrink in on herself an inch. While she had explained to Cadance that humans almost always wore clothes, the amber alicorn hadn’t explained to the pink princess what the removal of those garments signified. Which she didn’t need to. Ponies went around naked all the time. Cadance and Shiny went around naked all the time. Not having clothes didn’t bother Sunset...aside from the occasional draft that made it under her tail when she forgot to keep it low enough.

Wrapped in such a mindset, albeit hastily, Sunset nodded to herself. So, Cadance seeing the old me naked...shouldn’t...be an...issue, the amber alicorn thought as she used another spell to alter the image.

Starting from the rear, Cadance began her verbal assessment of Sunset’s naked body. “Say Sunset, do all humans have such puny butts?”

“Well...mostly,” the amber alicorn replied uneasily as Cadance continued to check out Sunset’s former ass with an odd level of interest.

Cadance looked around the image’s backside to frown at the human appendage that ended in phalanges. “Oh, now I get it! They’re like dragon claws, but not because they’re too brittle,” she said before walking around and tilting her head up. “Uh...Sunset, what’re those?”

Once again, Sunset found herself becoming a bit embarrassed at the object of Cadance’s focus. “Um, those are my...well...they were my teats.”

A look of shock covered Cadance’s face as she turned her whole body to look at the alicorn Sunset. “You...you had a foal?”

Confused shock overcame Sunset’s sense of embarrassment from Cadance checking her old body out. “Uh...what?”

“Oh Celestia, that guilt you carry around, it makes so much more sense now!” Cadance said.

“Wha-?” Sunset said as she plowed through the dumbfounded haze that clouded her brain. “What the hell makes you think something like that?!”

Cadance thrust a hoof towards the illusionary human’s chest. “Your teats. They’re huge!”

Although such a remark probably would have had made Sunset stand up a little straighter back on Earth, Cadance simply made Sunset groan. “Cadance, I may have slept around on Earth, but I was smart enough to check their contraceptives first,” the amber alicorn assured her friend. “Breasts of that size are normal for a human. Well, they’re on the larger side of normal, but still normal.”

“Oh,” Cadance replied. “That’s a relief. I don’t know how I would have been able to console you if you’d have lost a child, Sunset.”

With that little misunderstanding averted, Sunset turned back around and laid down, intent on enjoying her morning off before she went in search of the mirror.

“I wonder what it tastes like.”

The rather odd question made Sunset’s ears perk up before she raised her head and looked back to Cadance. “What does what taste like?”

“Human milk,” the pink princess replied, acting as if the question was completely natural.

Sunset moaned and looked back to the head of her bed. I should have gone to class.

Shining Armor sat in a desolate wasteland, separated from all of the other ponies by the pair of infinite chasms left by the two alicorns that hadn’t come to school. Seats that both Cheerilee and Fleur avoided as they sat on either side of Shining Armor, followed by their respective friends. When his friends came over, they took their places across from the white unicorn.

But even worse than the isolation was the feelings running through his head. Although she had been a bit nicer than Cadance about it, Sunset had outright said any relationship with her was doomed to fail because Shining Armor couldn’t get past the fact she was so much more powerful than him. It didn’t help that he had already known being so put off by her abilities wasn’t a good thing. But having both princesses be aware of it just made the feeling worse.

He looked up and across the empty space that was wide enough for Sunset’s alicorn-sized plot to where Fluer was sitting next to Sassy, with Upper Crust on the end as she ate from a lunch her butler had delivered at the start of the short period they were given to eat. Then Shiny turned his head and watched Cheerilee converse with her mare friend for a moment before looking ahead towards his buddies.

“Hey guys,” Shining spoke up, drawing the attention of every other pony on their private section of the lunchroom table. “I was wondering. Do you think I’m...petty?”

While the guys across from him gave Shining Armor a look that had him wondering if he had sprouted a second horn, Cheerilee became thoughtful for a moment the upper classmares each raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well…” Cherilee began without following up.

“I’d say you’re a little whiney,” Fleur told him.

“You could use a bit more of a backbone,” Sassy went on.

Upper Crust was the last of the mares to talk. “When describing you I’d use words like, poor, inadequate, aiming above his station, untalented, common,” she went on, getting a tired look from the rest of the group. “But petty? Hmmm, you accept your station in life without any resentment to your betters. So I’d have to say...no.”

Silence permeated the table as Upper Crust took the last bite of her food and levitated the empty dishes into a saddlebag with special lining meant to help keep things warm. “Now you must excuse me,” she said before levitating the container and trotting off towards the cafeteria exit.

After Crust had left, Gaffer was the one to speak. “No offense to you two, but...why exactly is she your friend again?”

“Social connections,” Fleur replied in a dry tone with half-lidded eyes.

Before the conversation could continue, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. So Shining Armor stood up, then looked to his right when he felt a hoof on his shoulder to see Fleur standing there. “Walk me to my next class.”

Even though talking to the former Princess of Canterlot Academy had become old hat, Shining Armor found himself becoming nervous at the suggestion. “W-What?” he asked before looking over to his empty tray. “But what about-”

“Sassy, would you handle cleanup for us, please?” Fleur asked the other tall mare.

When the blue unicorn nodded her consent, Shining saw his tray and Fleur’s float away in a magical aura, leaving Shiny without an excuse to back out. From what he had gathered after days of talking to the popular girls, Fleur’s next class was theater, and Shining Armor had learned that going to a big empty room with a pretty filly never ended well for him.

“Okay,” he agreed nervously.

So, after a quick stop at both their lockers for books, Shining Armor found himself in the school auditorium. The rest of the class had yet to arrive, leaving him and the beautiful filly alone on the stage amidst a set that resembled an everyday household.

Fleur sat down in a comfortable looking chair while Shining Armor took a seat on a slight out of place bright red couch that had him laying down on his back a moment later. “Shiny, what happened after we left your house last night? Does it have to do with why the princesses are absent today?”

So that’s what it is, Shining Armor thought to himself. Fleur just wanted to gossip. “Uh, they are princesses, you know. They’ve probably got a lot of important government stuff to take care of we could only guess about. All we did after you and Sassy left was sleep together.”

“WHAT?” Fleur cried out in shock. “You and-wait, who with? Was it Princess Sunset, or Princess Cadance?”

As Fleur’s words brought about a massive bout of confusion in Shiny’s mind, he rolled onto his stomach and looked at her with a little frown. “What’re you talking about?”

The unicorn with the pink mane gaped at Shining Armor for a second before frowning back at him. “What do you mean what am I talking about? Which princess did you sleep with?” Fleur demanded a second before drawing back to frown at the ground. “Well, not that I need to bother asking. I know Princess Cadance is the more attractive of the two both physically and mentally, but I doubt half of Canterlot would be here right now if it wasn’t Princess Sunset.”

“Uh, Fleur, it was all three of us, together,” Shining Armor clarified.

Fleur blinked, then her expression became a confused frown. “The three of you...wait, how exactly does that work? You can’t have sex with two mares at once.”

A bolt of lightning ran down Shining Armor’s spine, making him sit up and gape at the other unicorn. “S-SEX? We didn’t have sex! We just slept together! Sunset fell asleep on top of us and we had a problem getting her off! How in the hay does that sound remotely like anything sexual?”

“Um...well, sleeping together is the polite way of saying...ahem, never mind,” she said before bowing her head a bit. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”

Shining Armor fell back to rest his head against the couch again. “Yeah, you and everypony else, them included,” Shining Armor grumbled. “Especially them.”

“Shiny?” Fleur mumbled.

Although he heard her, Shining Armor continued on with his rant. “And do you know what really gets me about this whole thing? Sunset! Everypony except Sunset goes on about how the two of us will be a great couple, and even she’s all about how she likes me, but you know what? It’s...it’s…”

Fleur leaned in closer. “Shining Armor?” she asked hesitantly.

“Look, you’ve seen them together, anypony who’s seen them together can see the two of them obviously have a thing for eachother,” Shining Armor said. “But instead of pursuing it, the two of them just focus on me and which one of them I should be dating instead of throwing me out of the way and getting together like they should!”

A tight ‘hmmmm’ came from Fleur as she leaned back in her chair, causing Shining Armor to follow suit until he was laying down again. “Have you...talked to them about...well, them?”

Shining Armor snorted. “Yeah. They just say it’s not going to happen. Even though I know it will.”

“Um...Shining Armor, quick question,” Fleur said. “Do you...want to be the coltfriend of a princess?”

The absurdity of it all made Shining Armor frown. “Well...yeah,” he replied as if the answer was obvious. “When they’re not playing matchmaker, they’re both...really nice to be around. Sunset is just so intense, and Cadance...well, you know, she’s an awesome kisser. Plus, well...Princess of Love, and she says it’s every sense of the word, so...she’s um...probably really good at...you know.” With all the blood rushing to his cheeks, Shining Armor was afraid he would pass out if he completed that sentence.

“So...to recap. You’re worried that even if you choose to officially date one of the princesses, she will eventually get bored and dump you for the other one even though both of them, one of whom is the Princess of Love, are telling you that Cadance and Sunset will never even try to get together?” Fleur asked.

Even though she probably couldn’t see him doing in, Shining Armor nodded. It was nice that somepony finally understood where he was coming from. “Yeah!”

“If you ask me Shining Armor...you need to believe in yourself,” Fleur told the white unicorn with the blue mane laying on the red couch.

Celestia was unable to put her nervousness to the side as she sat at the empty banquet table, waiting for her daughter and niece to arrive. She knew they were coming, a maid had delivered their orders to the kitchen staff ahead of time to ensure the food would be ready when they arrived. It was something that had become a necessity thanks to Sunset’s newfound hygiene demands that needed to be met while allowing for preparation of a timely meal. Not that she could be angry at her daughter over that. Clean food was important.

But Sunset was only half the reason Celestia felt nervous. The other half of the reason was placed on the table across from her: a pair of glasses filled with the changeling revealing potion she had devised.

Both Sunset and Cadance needed to drink them. They had been out of the castle for a whole night, and the pink princess had explained that Sunset hadn’t set up any wards before going to sleep. The chance was small, almost minuscule that either of them had been replaced by a changeling. But still, for the safety of Equestria, she had to be certain.

Of course, knowing her daughter, the demand that they ingest the potions would cause her to erupt. That would in turn force Celestia to firmly confront her. There would be shouting, probably some thrown food, and then Sunset would storm off in a way that would leave cracks in the ground.

It wasn’t Sunset’s impossible strength Celestia was nervous about, although the memory of nearly having her horn ripped off the one time she needed to hold Sunset back for a fraction of a second did still make her uneasy, she knew the amber alicorn would never actually hurt anypony. What had Celestia worried was that the coming confrontation would destroy all the work she had done to grow closer to Sunset.

This is why I never tried to be the mother Sunset needed, a part of the Princess told herself. A teacher needed to keep a respectful distance from the ponies she taught. Becoming a parent eliminated that distance.

Because you were too much of a lazy coward to do what she so desperately needed, the other part of the big pony thought a second later. Plenty of mother’s taught their daughters life lessons after all. It was practically a requirement of the position.

Celestia took a deep breath and pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. She could beat herself up after Sunset stormed out of the room from Celestia showing the amber alicorn that she didn’t trust Sunset’s word or ability to keep herself and Cadance safe.

So, she decided to focus on the positive. At the very least, Sunset would be in a good mood for the first five seconds of lunch.

“No Cadance!” Sunset’s angry voice came through the huge double doors of the dining hall, causing Celestia to slump. “I am not talking about this again. Go back to reading your stupid crystal history book. Or magic! Ask me something about magic. That I’ll talk about, not...ugh!”

As the doors were wrapped in a light blue glow before they swung open to reveal both of the alicorns, Cadance spoke up. “But why not?”

Sunset actually stopped halfway into the dining hall to look at Cadance with a glare. “Because it’s weird!”

In reply to the comment, Cadance frowned back at Sunset and held out a wing before counting off a list with feathers. “Cows, goats, and the book on the history of the Crystal Empire said we even used to have yaks give us milk. Yaks!” the pink princess said. “So what’s so strange about wanting to know what-”

Before Cadance could finish the question and give Sunset the perfect opening to just go ballistic. Celestia cleared her throat. “Hello ladies. Might I ask what this little argument is about?”

“Cadance wants to suck my teats,” Sunset deadpanned before she pointed over to the pink princess with a wing.

The explanation completely shattered Celestia’s calm exterior to leave a confused jumble of a wide-eyed expression and opened mouth in its wake. For her part, Cadance gasped at her friend before taking a step back in surprise. “Wha-that...that is NOT what I said at all!” she exclaimed. Then, she looked over to Celestia. “Princess, all I wanted to know was-”

“What my milk tasted like,” Sunset finished for her. “Which you would get from my teats.”

“YOU ARE NOT TELLING HER THE WHOLE STORY!” Cadance shouted as her wings flew out from behind her.

As the tiniest of smiles started to appear on Sunset’s face at the outburst, the pink princess looked over to the biggest alicorn in the room with a pleading expression. “Princess Celestia. You need to understand how this all started. You see, Sunset showed me an image of what she looked like as a human,” Cadance began before going into detail about their previous conversation.

Celestia only gave Cadance half of her attention while she found her mind stuck on one thing: Sunset’s human form. Although she had believed what Sunset had told her upon becoming an alicorn had been some type of hallucination caused by the mirror, hard evidence to the contrary had shown Celestia that the events Sunset described had indeed happened.

After seeing her daughter beat herself up upon having to tell her everything that happened on the other side of the mirror, Celestia had thought it best for Sunset to continue believing what she had experienced was nothing more than a product of her imagination to eliminate the guilt of her actions and help her move forward.

The fact that Cadance wasn’t attempting to do the same soured Celestia’s opinion of the pink princess a bit. But at the same time, Celestia also found her curiosity piqued. Sunset had described what she looked like, but Celestia’s decision to avoid bringing up time in the other world had her not going into any personal specifics. A projection spell would have made Sunset’s inability to paint a proper picture with words moot. To actually see what Sunset had looked like for nearly three years was tempting...a temptation Celestia almost gave into.

But instead of asking if she could see the image as well, Celestia cleared her throat as Cadance continued on with her explanation. “Yes, I know I’m a princess now, but I came from a rural village. A rural, earth pony village. Do you know what everypony did there? Farm! We farmed, which meant crops, and livestock. You know what we had for livestock? Cows and goats! So excuse me if I’m a little interested in how the milk a completely new species with GIGANTIC TEATS tastes!”

Celestia frowned. “Cadance.”

“Excuse me for being interested in something other than what the brand on my butt says I’m good at!” she kept going as she flapped her wings angrily.

“CADANCE!” Celestia repeated.

“I’m just-! Oh, yes Princess?”

Celestia sighed. “You’re interested in dairy products, we get it,” she said as she fought to keep her voice understanding. Then, she gestured to the chairs with a hoof. “Now, would the two of you please take a seat?”

With the focus back on lunch, Celestia found her mind focusing on the glasses in front of her, especially when Sunset sat down and took a look at the light golden liquid. “What’s with the drinks?” the amber alicorn asked before she took a closer look and put on a little frown. “Wait a second...these are changeling detection potions.”

Celestia stiffened to brace herself for what was coming as Cadance reached forward with a wing to take hers up. “Are you wanting us to be taste testers again?”

After bringing the glass up to her mouth, Sunset took a sniff, then recoiled from the concoction before looking to Celestia with a frown. “You think we’ve been replaced by changelings because we spent a night away from the palace,” she said in a tone that was a long way from furious, but obviously annoyed.

The fact that Sunset hadn’t thrown a fit already made Celestia hopeful. “Please understand,” Celestia told her, using every inch of her willpower to keep her desperation from entering her expression or voice. “I don’t want to even think that. But Chrysalis, the changeling queen, she is the greatest threat Equestria has ever faced. She’s ancient and devious. She can wait in the shadows for just the right moment and will strike if there is even a fraction of a second when our guard is dropped. And right now, we know she watching, just waiting for that moment to strike from the shadows and get her revenge. So, after the two of you spent a night away from the palace guards, from our wards and protection spells, from me, I have to make sure the two of you are...well, the two of you.”

“How could you say something like that?”

“Do you really have so little faith in me?”

“You’re putting me through this crap again?”

“I don’t see any gunk in front of you! How do we know YOU’RE not a changeling?”

Celestia kicked herself for not anticipating the last response until right then and there. If she had been willing to go through the same level of discomfort as her daughter, it might have cooled her rage. But as things were, Sunset was about to blow up, toss the changeling revealing potion in Celestia’s face and-“Yeah, that makes sense,” Sunset replied before she tossed back the glass of champagne in one gulp before her body shuddered in revulsion and she let out a gagged cough.

The lack of an apocalyptic tantrum had Celestia blinking in confusion. “You aren’t...angry?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Why would I be?” she asked before putting on a tiny smile that was topped by an equally light frown. “It’s not like you hauled me out in front of every single important pony in Canterlot to accuse me of being a shapeshifting monster while sitting on the documents that proved I wasn’t.”

Despite the light barb, Celestia managed a genuine smile of relief. “Technically, they were under my wing,” she said. “And I do apologize for making you drink that stuff. I hope it didn’t ruin your appetites.”

“I’m an alicorn, remember?” Sunset deadpanned, showing that she was far from okay with having to down the swill, but a long way from where Celestia thought she would be. The big pony decided to take what she could get on that front.

“And you...Cadance?” Celestia asked, pausing when she noticed the pink princess sitting in her chair, still holding onto her revealing potion as her whole body trembled and a look of wide-eyed terror showed on her face.

“...oh dear.”

“Good going, Mom.”

There were times when Sunset missed being the old her. The old her wouldn’t have cared that Cadance had become a nervous wreck that looked like she was having a mild spasm as she trembled her way down the hall, giving every pony they passed a wide berth and every shadow a nervous look. The old Sunset would have just told her to grow the fuck up and piss off.

But she wasn’t the old Sunset. She wasn’t even the same species as the old Sunset.

She was the new Sunset.

After lunch, the new Sunset had told the servants to make some calming tea and send it to her room before she headed out with Cadance tucked under her wing as she walked down the hall back towards Sunset’s royal apartments with a forced look of calm understanding firmly in place.

“Sunset, I was thinking,” Cadance spoke as they neared a corner.

Gulping down an annoyed groan, Sunset answered Cadance’s question before he pink princess could ask. “Don’t worry. I’ll put up some wards as soon as we’re back in the apartment.”

Cadance shook her head ever so slightly. “No, not that. Although, you probably should, just in case,” she added after a second of thought. “No, what I was thinking was that we should probably get me an armed escort.”

The idea made Sunset raise an eyebrow. “What for?”

“For school,” Cadance replied. “We don’t have all of the same classes, and there are just so many ponies around me all the time, it would be easy for changelings to sneak up and-”

“Okay,” Sunset said before she stepped away from Cadance and held up a hoof to forestall her. “That’s enough. Cadance, I get you’re frightened of these changelings. Honestly, they are something to be a little afraid of, but this is getting way out of hand. Caution is good, but what you’re doing is living in fear of something somepony like you doesn’t need to worry about.”

Cadance looked up at Sunset with slightly widened eyes a second before her expression turned to a frown. “That’s easy for you to say!” the pink princess exclaimed. “Of course you don’t have to worry about something like changelings. You had more magical energy and skill than me when you we’re still a unicorn and now the sheer amount of power you possess is just insane!”

Then Cadance dipped her head and let out a depressed sigh. “But I’m not like you, Sunset. I’m not strong, or confident or anything a princess should be.”

The pity party Cadance was putting on got a snort from Sunset. “Cadance, you’re plenty brave, and nopony could do what I’ve seen you do without confidence in themselves.”

“Yes!” Cadance said as her head shot back up to look Sunset in the eyes. “What you’ve seen. Meaning you were close to me. When I’m not afraid. I know you’ll protect me, and all this worry and fear disappears. But when you’re not there…”

As Cadance lowered her voice and looked away from Sunset again, the amber alicorn tensed up a bit as the internal debate began. She understood that Cadance’s sudden increase in fear and paranoia was just due to Celestia going on and on about the changelings. Her mind was just racing in an out of control fashion, making her come up with ideas that she never would have otherwise. After some rest and the chance to put her mind on something else, Cadance would see how silly this whole bodyguard idea was.

But for that to happen, Sunset would need to spend the rest of the day practically holding Cadance’s hand. While she was happy to spend time with the other alicorn, it would mean her entire day would be shot. A day she needed to use with the mirror activating soon.

So, maybe I should humor her a bit, Sunset told herself. The idea of passing Cadance off made her feel a little dirty, but...desperate times called for desperate measures.

Plus, if Cadance was still nervous about changelings when it was time to go back to Earth, the amber alicorn didn’t even want to think about how losing her protector would affect her.

“Okay,” Sunset capitulated. It wasn’t as if they could cancel the order by the time Cadance had calmed down at the end of the day, basically making a stack of paperwork Hard Line would have to deal with, and then throw away once Sunset got Cadance to change her mind. “Let’s go see Hard Line and get him started on getting you a personal guard.”

As she led Cadance down the hallways, Sunset began tensing in preparation for her upcoming meeting with the captain of the royal guard. Even though their most recent encounter the better part of a week ago had given Sunset plenty of reason to have Hard Line transferred to the outpost in the Northern Wastes so the piece of anatomy the stallion had based his personality on could freeze off, the amber alicorn had long carried her current opinion of the stallion before that.

Hard Line was the absolute worst example of the Canterlot Elite. He was born to a family that had held political positions for so long that they, their children, and all the ponies around them believed that they deserved the best of everything simply because they had been foaled. But that alone didn’t make him the worst of the lot. There were dozens of ponies that came from such beginnings, Canterlot was the city in which they congregated and the social circle that Sunset lived in since becoming Celestia’s apprentice was the one they all fought to reach.

The reason Hard Line held the position in Sunset’s mind was that Hard Line detested anypony he viewed as inferior to him, looking at them as one would trash that was sure to carry some disgusting bacteria. To be inferior to him, a pony had to be born outside of Canterlot’s top fifty families. It was a criteria that had him sneering at more than ninety-nine percent of Equestria.

But that was a general dislike based on his rather messed up principles. Personally, Hard Line probably hated Sunset Shimmer as much as she despised him, much more than the run of the mill pony. After all, she had been born to a pair of nobodies who hadn’t even resided in Canterlot. To him, Sunset gaining the personal attention of Princess Celestia was probably something akin to the ultimate sacrilege. While the princess had probably gotten a good deal of students from the ‘lower classes’ before, Celestia had picked them from the ponies of Canterlot. They might have been trash to him, but they were trash of the highest quality. The fact Sunset had come from outside that group probably had Hard Line foaming at the mouth most days.

As the two alicorns came to the Royal Guard Commander’s Office, Sunset blinked as a sudden realization hit her. She despised the pony behind the doors that stood in front of her. There was no pity in her heart for the stallion that had given up every opportunity he ever had to become a better pony, no desire to try and help him become a better pony.

She just didn’t like him.

She didn’t want to be around him.

And, a tiny smile came to her face as she thought of how terrible it was for such a stallion to see her as an alicorn. At least one good thing had come from her transformation.

Sunset didn’t bother knocking before she banged the door open and walked into the Captain's office. There was no secretary since pushing papers was the job Hard Line basically did himself. He had no field experience and even Celestia wasn’t willing to put a pony like that in charge of an actual combat situation. Filling out reports and sending documents to more capable guards to do whatever task was needed was all he did, aside from the occasional routine and useless check of the palace grounds.

At the back of the room, two white unicorn guards in the palace’s trademark golden armor stood at attention. Sunset recognized them as the Captian’s gofers, little more than over-trained messengers he used to deliver his orders. Although trained to stand perfectly still unless called upon, both of them gave the amber alicorn very nervous looks.

As soon as Sunset stepped in, Hard Line looked up and scowled. “What’re you doing here?”

The feeling that had been building in the back of Sunset’s mind since she decided to meet with Hard Line doubled from just being in the stallion’s presence. But, instead of giving him what he deserved right then and there, the amber alicorn put on a false smile and forced some cheer into her voice. “Oh Hard Line, you know that isn’t how a lowly little guardspony like you is supposed to greet his betters,” she said as she trotted into the room with Cadance following behind nervously. “But don’t worry, I’m such a generous pony, I’ll give you another chance. Now, let’s try greeting your Princess properly this time.”

Hard Line gave a disgusted snort in response. “A pair of wings doesn’t make you a princess, you little brat.”

After repressing the urge to kick the pony in front of her all the way to Griffonstone, which Sunset believed was an option for her in recent days, she continued to put on a false nicety. Although, she did have to put a good deal more effort to it. “Well you’re technically right, as I haven’t been crowned yet. But Princess Cadance here deserves all the respect and deference you are capable of mustering,” Sunset told him as she lit her horn up. “Here, let me help you.”

Puppeteer magic was easily in the top ten most 'intrusive’ types of spellcraft in Equestria. While not outright mind control, a unicorn, or alicorn in this case, would use her magic to force a subject to move and talk according to the demands of the caster. However, as the target kept his free will, he could attempt to resist physically, which would be akin to wrestling someone inside his own body. Hence why it was considered to be so distasteful.

Sunset supposed that if a pony just went limp that it wouldn't feel too bad. But then, what kind of pony would ever do something like that?

But it was because the spell was so intrusive that Sunset wanted to use it. The idea might have offended her moral side, but as she would be gone before a crown really touched her head, this was probably the only opportunity she would have to put Hard Line in his place. It was petty and would have had Princess Celestia giving Sunset one of the glares she had been so good at the first time around, but Sunset didn't care.

One little step into the not-as-light side wasn't going to turn Sunset evil or anything.

A thin outline of magic peeked out from underneath the other unicorn’s skin and he let out a grunt of discomfort before getting out of his seat cushion and walking forward. The stallion’s legs shook with effort and there was a gagged sound from his closed mouth before he finally presented himself before the alicorns and bowed. “I’m...sorry...Prin...cess Ca-dence,” he said, doing his best to try and keep his mouth shut. “I’m just...a...stupid...tri-bal-ist that was given everything I ever had without...working for it...but...there’s no need to...forgive me...j-just reeeeplace me with somepony competent.”

Wow, Sunset thought to herself as she looked down at the pony who was sweating from the failed efforts to resist her magic. This is a lot more satisfying than I thought it would be. Contrary to what all those human cartoon shows told her, revenge really did make a person feel better.

The presence of a hoof on her shoulder made Sunset look back to see Cadance giving her a worried look. “Sunset, umm...maybe we should forget the bodyguard thing for right now.”

“Oh come on Cadance,” the amber alicorn told the pink princess. “This guy deserves it. Watch.”

Sunset looked back to Hard Line and locked his body in place then concentrated more of the spell’s power in his mouth. “What do you think about Princess Cadance. Be brutally honest.”

“She’s a stupid country hick that doesn’t belong anywhere near Canterlot, just like every other useless cloud pusher in this city,” Hard Line said with some difficulty.

“See?” Sunset asked Cadance happily before reaching over to pat the paralyzed pony on the head as if he was a dog. “And don’t worry about those two. You guys don’t mind me showing your boss how to act towards the Princess, do you boys?”

Both of the stallions gave Sunset nervous looks, then quickly shook their heads.

“Now, do you have something you want to ask our brave Captain?” Sunset asked Cadance.

The uneasy look on Cadance’s face didn’t disappear. “Sunset, I want to go back to the apartment. Please?”

With the little pink pony giving giving her a pleading looking, Sunset let out a defeated groan. “Okay fine,” she agreed before looking back to Hard Line. However, when she opened her mouth to give him a sarcastically polite goodbye, a thought occurred to her.

Hard Line was the head of the Guard. Something as important as the mirror portal would have had some kind of armed escort if it left palace grounds. Even if it was still somewhere inside the structure, then there was a possibility that he had been informed about where it had been moved.

“Say Hard Line,” Sunset began sweetly, “One more thing before I go. Do you know anything about a mirror that was being kept in the third storage room of the palace’s west wing?”

A sharp spasm rocked the stallion’s body as he tried to resist the hold Sunset’s magic had on his body, but the resistance proved futile as his mouth began to move a few seconds later. “It...was transferred...to the secret...magical repository, third level, sub-basement.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, secret repository?”

“A secret repository!”

Cadance had to admit, life has a funny way of changing in the oddest ways.

“I can’t believe Celestia has a secret repository!”

The biggest example being Sunset Shimmer, or at least, how Cadance’s view of the other pony had changed in the past few weeks.

“A secret she kept from me!”

Two weeks ago, the thought of being alone in the same room as a Sunset that was one hundred times more powerful than the unicorn she had known before while she was in the midst of throwing a tantrum would have terrified Cadance.

“Me! Her daughter!”

Now, the angry amber alicorn’s furious stomping that shook the room and the castle along with it was little more than harmless background noise as she read through the instructions on how to cast some of the old Crystal Empire’s spells that didn’t deal with mineral shaping. Although Cadance didn’t quite understand why a book of love-centric spellcraft would include magic that allowed ponies to stay up late into the night or give a male pony extra stamina, she did her best to commit the formula to memory anyway.

“I mean, can you believe her?”

With a question actually asked directly to her, Cadance looked up from her book. “Well,” she said before pausing to think of a way to put her answer gently. “No offense Sunset, but...I wouldn’t want the old you near any potentially dangerous or unstable magical artifacts either.”

Sunset blinked at the response. “Well neither would I,” she said before frowning again. “But that’s beside the point. It’s the principle of the thing!”

Before she could start up again, Cadance let out a sigh. “Sunset, aren’t you reaching a bit on this one?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Honestly Sunny, I’ll usually back you when it comes to an argument between you and your mom, but being angry over her not telling you about where she keeps all her super dangerous magical knickknacks when you agree with the fact it’s better that you didn’t know about them is reaching,” Cadance explained. Then, before Sunset could give a counter argument, the pink princess frowned in thought. “And why did you want to know about the mirror anyway?”

Sunset blanched. “Um...well that’s...uh…” she replied nervously with eyes that darted about instead of meeting Cadance’s straight on. Then, a knock at the door drew both alicorns’ attention. “I’ll get it!”

The amber alicorn galloped away and skid to a stop in front of the door. “Yes?” she asked after throwing the door open.

“Princess Sunset,” an earth pony in palace livery said formally. “There is a Fleur De Lis for you in private audience room three. She says she has schoolwork from your teachers.”

“Oh! Right, I should go get that because, you know, school...learning...it’s important! Be right back Cadance!”

The pink princess opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Sunset darted away with a few parting words, “Don’t worry I’ll ward the door and be back as soon as I can!”

The sound of a loud slam followed her exit, and Cadance was left lying on the bed alone. Despite the fact Sunset wasn’t around, she didn’t feel the fear of a changeling suddenly creeping up behind her to seal her away in a cocoon return.

Maybe I did overreact a bit to Celestia’s description of Chrysalis, Cadance told herself before looking down at the spellbook. Or maybe it was…

Cadance shuddered in fear a little as she remembered the scene from a few moments. The Sunset she had seen back then, that hadn’t been the Sunset she had fallen in love with, that had been the Sunset from before. When faced with a real fear, Cadance’s unease over the unknown boogiemare that Chrysalis was to her helped ground her a bit.

It was like Sunset had said, she had been letting the fear control her.

“Ok, so…” Cadance said to herself before she looked back down at her book. However, she found her thoughts unable to focus on the words in front of her, the pink princess’s mind kept sliding back to Sunset. The Sunset that scared her.

She knew it wasn’t right.

Five minutes of Sunset acting like a diamond dog didn’t mean that she was reverting back to what she had been before. It was probably just...stress...or something, Cadance told herself. Or something else that was bothering her.

Although, the question of just what that something was eluded her.

“Then again, she’s been pretty out of it since this morning when we woke up with Shiny,” the pink pony mumbled. “Shiny…”

Was that it?

Sunset had obviously done something wrong this morning, and Cadance knew how she tended to worry about things, then get mad because she didn’t want to worry about things...which she had obviously tried to do with the revelation about Celestia’s vault.

Had something happened between her and Shiny that she hadn’t told Cadance about?

The pink princess moaned in distress and rolled onto her back, the book of spells forgotten for the moment. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t just fly over to Shining Armor’s place and sort the whole mess out. She had promised the white unicorn she wouldn’t mess with their relationship.

But...doing nothing to fix the situation that obviously getting worse was just asinine!

Even with the promise in place, Cadance knew she needed to do something!

Or… Cadance thought to herself as an idea began to form in her mind. But, before she could finish it, there was another knock on the door. Not sure just what Sunset’s protection spell would do if someone tried to force their way in, the pink pony princess got up from the bed and cantered over to the door to open it.

“Princess Cadance,” the servant pegasus said from the other side of the entrance. “There is a Sassy Saddles here to see you, she says she has your schoolwork for today. She’s in the third sitting room, awaiting your arrival.”

Although it seemed a bit odd for Fleur and Sassy to arrive separately, Cadance shrugged it aside. “Okay,” the princess replied before realizing she had no idea where that was. “Would you mind leading me there?”

Fleur set the Princess’s homework down on the table and took a seat on one of the private waiting room’s plush cushions before taking one of the cucumber sandwiches that had been offered to her upon arrival in her magic and lifting it up to take a bite. Then she did the same with the jasmine tea in front of her.

A moment later, the door opened in Sunset’s familiar magical aura, and the amber alicorn trotted in not long after. “Hey Fleur, good to see you!” she greeted before sitting down right next to the white pony instead of across from her for some odd reason. “You have no idea how much you showing up now pulled my bacon out of the fire.”

The rather odd statement made Fleur blink in confusion. “Um...glad to be of help, Your Majesty.”

“So, anything happen today while I was gone?” Sunset asked.

Fleur became a little nervous as her mind fixated on one particular incident that happened after lunch. “Um...well, Princess Sunset, there was one thing that stood out,” she said before telling her about what happened between herself and Shining Armor.

When she was done, the amber alicorn let out a groan. “Ugh, so he’s…” Sunset said before pausing and letting out a groan. “Maybe what I said to him today worked a bit too well.”

“Princess?” Fleur asked.

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Sorry, it’s nothing,” she replied. “Well, it’s not nothing, it’s just...it looks more and more like Shiny’s not going to ask Cadance to the Fall Formal in time, and the last chance I had to help things along seems like it blew up in my face.”

Although her survival instinct told her it was a bad idea, Fleur asked a question that had been bugging her since the night before. “Princess Sunset, if you don’t mind me asking, why exactly is it that you’re so insistent Shining Armor be with Princess Cadance instead of...some other pony?”

The Princess’s expression darkened a bit. “You mean like you?”

Fleur quickly shook her head. “What?! No! No, Princess...I…” she paused for a moment, unsure how to respond. If she told Sunset just why the amber alicorn had no reason to fear Fleur just galloping in to try and steal her stallion, it could lead to all kinds of trouble. But on the other hoof, if Sunset didn’t believe her...the memory of the fiery princess threatening Canterlot Academy’s top trio replayed itself in Fleur’s mind, sending an icy fear down her spine.

“Princess,” she said, having finally decided. “I mean no offense, but...Shining Armor is too...common...for me.”

The air around Sunset seemed to shimmer as the big alicorn made a sound akin to growling. “Fleur-”

“Please let me explain!” the beautiful unicorn begged fearfully. “It’s my family. My parents, they’re extremely ambitious social climbers. With me being physically attractive and friends with Upper Crust, they were not only allowed access to a higher rank on the social ladder, but a way to make their position stick if I were to catch the eye of a rich young stallion. The colt I told you about, Fancy Pants, his parents are in the top forty families in Canterlot. If I were to abandon my chances with him to go after Shining Armor, they’d probably disown and sue me for all the alchemical beauty treatments and social lessons I’ve been given over the years.”

Sunset’s growing ire quickly vanished at Fleur’s explanation. “Oh...um...that’s...uh...do you want me to try and do something about-”

Seeing where this was going, Fleur held up a hoof. “It’s alright Princess. I have yet to meet the colt after all, so he could be a perfectly pleasant pony. And if not...well, he’s rich. I’ve known I’d be traded off for awhile now and honestly, I think I’d prefer a lip service relationship with financial stability than a loving marriage with an empty wallet.”

Once again, Princess Sunset sat in what Fleur could only call stunned silence as the white pony suddenly thought of something. “Oh! Please don’t tell Princess Cadance. I don’t think I could survive her attempts to fix my situation.”

“Yeah...that’s um...okay, really wasn’t expecting that,” Princess Sunset replied before smiling a bit. “Well, except for the Cadance part. She can be pretty...extreme.”

Fleur shared a laugh with the bigger pony. “Yes, but she means well.”

All of a sudden, Princess Sunset’s expression morphed into a devious smile. “By the way, speaking of Princess Cadance, there’s something she and I need your help with,” she said. “You see…”

Sassy Saddles gave the pink princess sitting across from her a look of wide-eyed astonishment. When she had been told the princesses needed somepony to take their homework to the castle, both she and Fleur volunteered because, well who wouldn’t want an excuse to visit royalty in their own home?

So one took Sunset's assignments, the other carried Cadance’s. Of course, one pony could have gotten the job done, but where was the fun in that? Not to mention it would have meant going to the palace alone.

However, she hadn’t expected Cadance to rope her into her latest...project.

“Let me get this straight,” she said as she broke down everything Cadance had just told her. “You want me, to help you, to get Shining Armor to ask Princess Sunset to the Fall Formal, tomorrow?”

Chapter 25: Thursday is for Total Drama

Cadance was worried.

What she was worried about was mostly caused by the uncertainty of what was going on before her, which was a nervous equine mare as tall as the biggest earth pony stallions nervously prancing in place as Cadance and Sunset stood across the street from Shining Armor’s house. While seeing the amber alicorn ill at ease wasn't as much an oddity as it had been before they became friends, it still was a cause for concern.

“Maybe we should just go on to school,” Sunset said before she let out a nervous whine and looked from the house over to Cadance. “Or home. We should go home. Home would definitely be better. Let's go home, Cadance.”

The pink pony princess gave Sunset an even look. Whatever was bothering her obviously revolved around her desire to avoid Shining Armor. “Just what was it you said to Shiny yesterday, anyway?”

A few seconds under the flat stare Cadance was giving her had Sunset shrinking in on herself. “I...kind of told Shiny that we could never be happy together because I would be a constant reminder of how he would never be able to achieve anything that could hope to compare to a fraction of what I could do, and that you needed somepony around to constantly watch your back and give you emotional support,” the amber alicorn eventually confessed. “And I might have said you’d also make a better girlfriend because you’re prettier...maybe.”

“You...WHAT!?” Candace yelled before she decided to take a page from Sunset’s playbook of angry thought. To help her get in the mood, she focused on all the things Sunset had done in the past few weeks that had really gotten under Cadance’s coat. Not the scary stuff like that disturbing magic she used on the guard captain, but how her infuriating friend did things to ruin what was obviously the best relationship she could have with a stallion! “Okay, that’s it!” Not even bothering to consider if her still unstable levitation magic would end up crushing a living creature, Cadance focused on her horn, snatched Sunset up in her magic before she could respond, and stomped her way across the street.

As she did, Sunset kicked her hooves in the air. “Ow! Little tight Cadance and-wait, did Mom ever teach you to put up a feedback dampener?”

“A what?” Cadance asked with a frown that had nothing to do with confusion as they reached the other side of the street.

Sunset groaned. “It’s this internal shield that keeps your extra appendage from exploding if another unicorn forces your magic back inside your horn,” she explained. “Which I’m gonna guess is no.”

Ignoring Sunset’s explanation, Cadance knocked Shiny’s front door open and stormed her way inside his house. She wasn’t about to let Sunset’s overly technical explanations stop her from getting the pony she was in love with together with the young stallion she had a nice crush on that probably would have fit better with Cadance herself. When Shining Armor wasn’t right in the doorway to greet the angry pony, Cadance took in a deep breath and…

“SHINING ARMOR! YOU GET YOUR CUTE FLANK OUT HERE IN FRONT OF ME, RIGHT NOW!”

While the room was still shaking from Cadance’s royal volume, the young stallion with the white coat and blue mane came trotting out from the back of the living room where the family sat for breakfast, followed by the rest of the ponies that lived in the household. “Y-Yes Princess Cadance?” he asked nervously as he approached.

The fact that he was being timid in front of Sunset, something Cadance had told Shiny numerous times was a bad thing because of the angry alicorn’s uncontrollable temper that tended to make her act in an irrational manner from time to time, only increased Cadance’s ire. “Listen up, and stop cowering when I’m talking to you!” she demanded. “As Princess of Love, I am ordering you to forget all the stupid things Sunset told you yesterday morning! When it comes to relationships, I’m the expert, and she’s an idiot!”

“Hey!” Sunset said.

“And another thing! While I am the ponification of traditional beauty with a perfectly proportioned body, bright colored coat, and multi-colored mane,” Cadance admitted before she spun Sunset around to face the door to add a visual to her explanation. “Sunset’s plot is the envy of every young mare in Canterlot!”

The amber alicorn looked over to the pink princess with a frown. “Cadance, I am seriously considering taking the risk and-”

“Now come here Shiny!” Cadance said right on top of Sunset.

“Eh?” Sunset got out before freezing up.

With a slow and nervous trot, Shining Armor approached the pair of princess. “Uh, Cadance, what’s this abou-whoa!” he exclaimed before a light blue glow around his hooves forced Shining Armor to latch his front legs onto Sunset’s posterior.

“Just feel how those round cheeks are so perfectly soft and squeezable for the first three inches before you hit that wall of fine muscle underneath,” Cadance told him. “Her plot is completely enveloping to a pony of our stature. And her plump rump doesn’t just mean sex appeal, those hips are perfect for bearing foals. Not to mention Sunset’s ample size would also mean she could provide enough milk for twins, or even triplets if it came to that. Which it probably would, considering her libido.”

“Cadance, I swear, if you don’t stop making Shining Armor feel me up, I really will give you an aneurysm,” Sunset told the pink princess through gritted teeth.

“Um, Princess Sunset?” a small voice belonging to a tiny purple pony that was standing next to her parents on the other side of the room with her hoof raised sounded out.

Sunset turned her head back to look at the little foal. “Yes, Twilight?”

“Princess Cadance stopped using her magic on my brother the second his hooves hit your plot,” Twilight told her.

“I...see,” Sunset said a second before Shining Armor withdrew his hooves in a blur of motion.

“By the way, Princess Cadance,” Twilight piped up again.

“Yes?” the pink alicorn asked as her mind started to slow down a bit, letting her common sense catch up with the rest of her.

Twilight tilted her head to the side. “I can understand that her foal bearing abilities is an important draw, but what does the softness and size of Sunset’s plot have to do with why Shiny should go out with her?”

“Uh…” Cadance told her as the more thoughtful portion of her brain finally started working again to let Cadance realize that she had just stormed into Shiny’s home, probably broken the lock on his door, then forced him to grope Sunset in front of his whole family, including a filly that was a bit too young to be wondering about why plots that jiggled when a mare trotted were desirable. “...ponyfeathers.”

Despite being the luckiest stallion in the world that probably wouldn’t be washing his hooves ever again, Shining Armor had to wonder if the option of dying his coat, painting over his cutie mark, changing his name, and moving to another city was an option for a colt his age as he walked down the street between the two princess on the way to school. He could get a nice, quiet job as a crossing guard, or a nighttime security pony, or something that wouldn’t attract the attention of the obviously crazy mares that were flanking him at the moment, cutting off any hope of escape.

“What the buck were you thinking, Cadance?” Sunset demanded.

The pink princess stood up a little taller as she argued with the bigger pony. “I was trying to be assertive, like you!”

“Trying to be like me is not a good thing!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Yes it is,” Shining Armor said without much thought.

Both of the mares stopped, bringing Shining Armor’s trot to a halt as well as they looked over to him. “Say what now?” Sunset asked.

With both mares focused on him, Shining Armor felt a little embarrassed. He had just said that on instinct, not because he wanted to. “Well, not when you get like that, I mean,” he explained. “But...um...I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you’re so assertive, Princess Sunset. If not for you being like that, I probably would have never stood up to Buck, and Princess Cadance might not have dealt with Cinch the way she did. So...um, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you’re...uh...like you.”

Shining Armor saw Sunset’s cheeks turn a bright red. “Yeah...well...um...that’s…” she coughed and looked away from the other two ponies. “Y-You’re just saying that because Cadance made you feel me up.”

With Sunset’s reasoning reminding him of that glorious moment, Shining Armor’s face began to feel a little hot, and he looked down at an interesting crack in the ground. “H-Hey, what happened to not talking about this relationship stuff?”

“Well Sunset got her two bits in yesterday!” Cadance told him defensively. “I had to say something to even it all out! Now that harmony’s been restored, we can all back off of it until you take one of us to the Formal on Friday.”

Off to his left, Sunset became thoughtful for a second and then nodded. “Agreed, truce is back on. We won’t say anything about you taking us to the Formal until you pick which one of us you want.”

The mention of the impending deadline had Shining Armor’s muscles seizing up. With today being Thursday, that meant he had to ask one of the mares out to the dance today. Well...there was Friday too, but...he didn’t think he would survive the day if he didn’t ask one of the girls out.

But as things were… “Well, I’ve been thinking,” he said hesitantly, silently praying Cadance didn’t go off on him for the sacrilege that was about to leave his mouth. “Maybe...it would be better for me not to go to the dance.”

Cadance’s whole body froze, with the exception of an eye that twitched ever so slightly.

“WHAT?” Sunset yelled in surprise before she grabbed Shining Armor by his shoulders with her hooves. “Shiny! You listen to me. You are going to that dance. I don’t even care if you do go with me! If you don’t go to that dance, if you throw away that experience, you’ll regret it. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even next Monday when you’re back in school. But you’ll regret it, and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

“Yes!” Cadance said. “You can even go with me! Don’t worry, I won’t be angry with you for picking me over Sunset! But she’s right, you need to go to that dance, understand?”

With both Princesses teaming up on him, Shining Armor couldn’t help but nod. “Oh-okay,” he stuttered, calming them both down immediately. “Just...can you both give me some time to think about it?”

“Of course,” Sunset agreed.

“Sure thing, Shiny,” Cadance added.

Now, he just needed to figure out a way to avoid being put into another relationship situation until Saturday.

Which the Fall Formal definitely was.

“So…” Sunset said thoughtfully as she fell back into formation. “Are you guys playing another O&O game, Saturday?”

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, you guys?” she asked. “You’re going to be there too, Sunset.”

The amber alicorn’s ears wilted at Cadance’s words. “Oh yeah...right.”

In the hours before school began, Sassy sat with her back up against the entrance to the stairwell on the Academy’s roof, lost in thought. She had skipped heading to school with Cheerilee to be alone with her thoughts, trying to think how she could follow Princess Cadance’s command to get Shining Armor to ask Princess Sunset to the Fall Formal by the end of the day. If she didn’t...well, Sassy wasn’t sure what Princess Cadance would do, but she knew it wouldn’t be good. She had seen the pink pony peeved before, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

It wasn’t that Shining Armor didn’t want to be with Princess Sunset. His eyes were drawn to all the right places when the amber alicorn was around and he hung on her every word, so it wasn’t just a physical attraction. The problem was, Shining Armor was just so hesitant. The only reason he even went out with Princess Cadance that one time was because the two Princesses made him and he hadn’t been able to refuse.

Even with Sassy encouraging him, it would be weeks before the colt ever got around to asking the big princess to the dance. Which would be over by then.

Sassy sighed at the insurmountably of her problem. Without a way for Shining Armor to ask Princess Sunset to the Formal without actually doing anything at all, there was no way that Shiny would be going to the dance with anypony. “So how am I supposed to do this?”

Fleur De Lis sat in her empty first period classroom, considering the problem that had been presented to her the day before. Princess Sunset had ordered her to help the amber alicorn ensure that Shining Armor would take Princess Cadance to the Fall Formal.

As far as she could tell, it was impossible. Not that Princess Cadance would say no if he asked. They had already been on a date, after all. A date that had ended with them kissing, or so Fleur had heard. However, the only reason they had gone on that date was because Princess Sunset had pushed them into it, and they hadn’t done anything since.

So Shining Armor taking the initiative and asking Princess Cadance out was...about as likely as Fleur suddenly sprouting wings and flying.

Fleur needed to find a way to pressure him into it. Not in a mean way though, Princess Sunset would have Fleur’s head if the unicorn did something too underhoofed. She just needed to put Shining Armor in a situation where there was no possible way in Equestria that he would be able not to go to the Formal with Princess Cadance.

The question is, how? Fleur asked herself.

After the walk to school, Sunset found her level of anxiety and depression quickly mounting. Her logical mind said such a thing was only natural, after all, this was her last full day in Equestria. Tomorrow night, after teleporting back to the palace when the Fall Formal was over, she would break into Celestia’s hidden vault and take the mirror back to Earth.

Said anxiety also reminded her that she had yet to examine or even see the Hidden Repository with her own eyes, but Sunset was confident of her ability to blow through any protection Celestia had put up, and she would be gone long before her mother could rush down and stop her from going through the portal.

The thoughts of her not as yet officially adopted mother brought Sunset’s mood down even more. I should have spent more time with her, she told herself before remembering the worst of times from the past few weeks. And why did I have to start all those stupid fights? Damnit, I’m such a fucking idiot. I spent all that time just concentrating on the moment I was in when I should have been thinking about how little time I had left with her. I should have told her I loved her more.

Sunset made a mental note to spend all the time there was left in the day with Celestia when they got back to the palace. The Alicorn of the Sun would need to see how far Cadance had progressed in her training as well, so there was no need to leave her side until it was time to go to bed.

“Princess Sunset?”

The sound of her name brought the amber alicorn out of her planning. She looked up to the rest of the ponies sitting at their unofficial private lunchroom table. “What?” she asked before focusing on the mulberry mare that had called out to her. “Sorry, I’ve just been a little distracted.”

Cheerilee looked a little embarrassed at being the focus of Sunset’s attention. “Well, I was just saying that since we’re all going to the Formal, I thought it might be fun if we...um...go together, as a group. In a private...long carriage.”

“That’s-” Sunset managed to say before Cheerilee continued to talk in a rush. “We’d all chip in to pay for it of course! I don’t want you to think that-”

“Actually,” Sunset said, stopping the other young mare. “That sounds like a wonderful idea Cheerilee.” If it was going to be the last night with her friends, then she wanted it to be one to remember. “And don’t worry about the cost. The crown will take care of everything. Does that sound okay to everypony?”

Fleur spoke up first. “So...we’d all go to each of our houses, together, as a group?” she asked.

“Yes,” Cheerilee said cautiously to the oddly interested mare.

“That sounds great!” the most popular unicorn in school agreed. “Although, I suppose we should plan out the route. Since the Princesses are paying for it, they’d have it brought to the palace. Then, come get Sassy and myself, Cheerilee, you and Mare you both live on Epona street, correct?”

The mare with the pink mane nodded. “That’s right.”

“Which means...wait, are you three going?” Fleur asked the nerd herd sitting across from Sunset.

Gaffer shrugged. “Well, we don’t have dates but-”

“Oh! Well, we don’t either,” Cheerilee said. “we’re just going to be with friends.”

“So...yeah, sure,” the unicorn went on. “Don’t see why we wouldn’t.”

Fleur knocked her hooves together. “Great! So that means...Shiny, we’d pick you up last, then head off to the dance.”

A school dance, it even had the same name as the last one she went to. It also had… Sunset frowned as she drew a blank on the other details of the Formal. “Hey um...this is going to sound a bit weird since the dance is tomorrow and all, but...what’s it all going to be like? Is there a theme, or is it just a bunch of us hanging out somewhere in fancy clothes?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Sassy said. “You came in after all the planning was done. Well, we decided on the theme being, preparing for the future, since it’s just the Fall Formal, and not the Prom. Also, two of our students volunteered to play live music.”

Fleur let out a strained groan. “They do have a basic backup band that we raised money to pay for, but Bill Board and Teddy Bear will be playing lead guitar and backup,” she explained. “They were still cheaper than a professional DJ.”

“Wait,” Sunset said as she just realized somepony was missing from their usual lunch group. The mention of money brought her to mind. “Where’s-”

Before she could speak the mare’s name, Upper Crust came trotting down the with a distressed look on her face. “Princess Sunset, Princess Cadance, I’ve heard some terrible news!” she said in a panic.

Sunset shook off the emotions bogging her down for the moment and focused on the mare in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the rest of the lunchroom had focused on her, more so than usual at any rate. “What is it Upper Crust?”

“I’ve heard a terrible rumor about your dresses!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want to alarm you, but…” she stepped closely and looked around nervously, but didn’t lower the volume of her voice. “I heard that Sassy hired another pony to make them for her!”

Sunset blinked as she forced herself to stay upright after Upper Crusts horrible news turned out to be something so stupid. “Say what?”

“Huh?” Cadance added, also confused by the news, judging by her expression.

Sassy raised an eyebrow. “Crust, I-”

The yellow unicorn turned and pointed a hoof at the blue unicorn with the multi-chromatic mane. “Don’t try to defend yourself you horrible pony! You took advantage of your connections with the Princesses to get them to buy dresses from you, knowing that ponies would take notice! Then when it came time to make them, you hoofed the task off to somepony else, and at a fraction of the price that they were paying you! You Ma’am are an awful back stabber, and no friend of mine! Imagine, lying to royalty!”

Sunset’s ears twitched as she picked up what some of the ponies around them, most of whom were mares, were saying.

“Cheating the princesses!”

“I knew that Sassy Saddles was no good!”

“I heard her cutie mark doesn’t have anything to do with making clothes.”

“I heard all she can do is basic repairs!”

More and more murmurs, very few of them good, made Sunset frown deeply. As a former manipulator, she was an expert at controlling the minds of adolescent youth. The skills she had developed in that field quickly dissected what she was hearing being spread around the lunchroom, connecting the dots. Most of what was said, at least at the start of the rumor chains, what ponies had heard before others started talking about their personal experiences with Sassy. Experiences that were more about how she always sounded so stuck up or full of herself rather than an actual wrong.

But before Sunset could call her on it, Fleur beat her to the punch. “Oh sweet Celestia,” the pale unicorn with the pink mane said. “This is what you were planning to get back at Sassy, Crust?”

“P-Planning?” the other unicorn repeated in nervous surprise. “Fleur what are you talking-”

Fleur completely ignored the other teen and looked over to the blue unicorn. “Sassy, I am so sorry. I knew Upper Crust was wanting to do something to you after you snubbed her company a few days ago, but I thought she had changed her mind when nothing happened. I didn’t think she would try something like this though.”

“But…” Cadance said, “Sassy did give the designs for our dresses to somepony else to make.”

When the entire lunchroom fell silent at Cadance’s information, Sunset cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Sassy wanted to make them herself and see the project through to the end with all the skill she could muster, but Cadance and I knew that would take too much out of her schedule as a student, so we had to talk her into just drawing up the designs and giving them to us so we could hire a professional tailor to finish them,” the amber alicorn said. “But, nopony really knew about that except us.”

Upper Crust began to sweat. “Um, well...you see...my parents…”

“And I can’t help but wonder where all those nasty rumors about Sassy came from, because I’ve seen pictures of Fleur’s dress, and nopony who just replaces buttons on a blouse could make something as beautiful as that,” Sunset lied. She had never lain eyes on a picture of the thing or the actual item. But it wasn’t as if anyone in the lunchroom would know about that. “So, just why is everypony talking so badly about Sassy’s sewing skills?”

Once again, the lunchroom became a sea of mumbling that Sunset knew she could only pick up thanks to pegasus hearing and a former human’s attention to detail.

“Well, I heard it from Upper Crust.”

“...Upper Crust…”

“......that Upper Crust filly.”

With a face covered in perspiration, Upper Crust looked around wildly. “No that’s not-I didn’t-Hey! I paid you to say you heard it from somepony else!”

Cadance locked the yellow unicorn down with a glare. “I think you need to find someplace else to eat your lunch from now on Crust.”

“But-”

Fleur nodded sadly. “Yes, perhaps that would be for the best,” she added before glancing over to Sassy for a second.

“Leave,” Sunset demanded. “Now!”

The yellow unicorn let out a shriek before she turned and scampered away at the full speed her fat body would allow. As she did, Sunset let out a snort of distaste.

It was almost comical, how silly the plans of teenage ponies were so less stable and easy to knock down in comparison to those that human teenagers came up with. Sunset herself had pulled some real doozies that even had principals dancing to her tune. Not like the whole ‘turn into a demon and take over Equestria with an army of human teenagers’ plan. Real schemes that took days to plan out.

Although, Sunset supposed her impromptu plan wasn’t that bad in her original draft. She had never planned on becoming a she-demon. The extra power given to her by Twilight’s crown should have allowed her to transform into an alicorn like Twilight, once the connection to its proper owner had been severed at any rate. Then she had planned to go back to Equestria as the ultimate ‘I told you so’ move to prove to Celestia that Sunset had been right all along.

But...it wasn’t like the whole take over Equestria plan was that bad, Sunset told herself. After all, Celestia wouldn’t have fought back too hard against an army that wasn’t in control of their own actions. In fact, Sunset doubted Celestia would have been able to anything at all when it came to Sunset’s demon form.

So...maybe it was just that Sunset was the tactical genius that could plan out perfect strategies in an instant and-wait, Sunset thought to herself. Am I actually going over how I could have taken over the world if not for Twilight?

Sunset shook herself out of her thoughts and looked over to the rest of her friends. Kicking Upper Crust out of their group left a bad taste in her mouth. “So...um...Gaffer, are you going to finish your pudding?”

At least she didn’t have to deal with any more of these stupid problems that revolved around a bunch of ponies in high school.

The sound of her guards opening the door to her office made Celestia look up to see her noon appointment had arrived. She sat the unsigned release paperwork to the side on her desk and motioned for the large earth pony to come in and sit on the floor in front of her.

Strong Withers’s eyes darted around nervously as the guard closed the door behind him. “Princess,” he greeted before looking more at a space behind Celestia than the big pony herself. The difference was slight, but years of dealing with her subjects had allowed Celestia to pick up on such things.

Not many ponies had the courage to meet her eye to eye when she was in a bad mood.

“Mr. Withers, do you have the list of names that have been plotting behind my daughter’s back?” Celestia asked in a cold tone. It was a little early for him to have gained such information in her opinion, but the stallion had been the one to call this meeting, not her.

A nervous sweat began to form on the stallion’s face. “Yes, Your Highness,” he said before reaching into his business suit and pulling out a thin folder. “After I found the first one, he introduced me to the others. It was...easier than I expected. Probably because I attempted to oust your daughter from the political scene so early on.”

Celestia took the folder in her magic to open it and look at the contents. Many of the names on it didn’t surprise her in the least. With the way Sunset had always acted towards the incompetent nobility, many of them were probably in fear of losing their guaranteed positions if she were to be given any political power. “And do you know anything of their plans against Sunset, yet?” the big pony asked as she looked away from the paper.

“They don’t really have any, Princess,” Strong Withers replied.

Another thing that didn’t surprise Celestia. Most of the ponies Strong Withers had pointed a hoof towards had next to zero motivation. Without a strong and controlling personality to truly drive them, they would sit around and whine about their problems, but little action beyond that would be taken.

Princess Celestia continued to look at the paper for a few more minutes to draw things out before setting the folder aside and looking over to the legal paperwork detailing the conditions of Buck’s release. “I suppose this will do, for now,” she added after a moment. “Now, as for the conditions of your son’s conditional release.”

“Conditional?”

Celestia frowned at the stallion’s tone. “You did not honestly think I would allow a pony like him go without restraints in place, did you?” she asked rhetorically before levitating the documents into the air to read the points off to Strong one by one. “Buck Withers is hereby ordered to remove himself from Canterlot and to be placed within the custody of his family for a period of no less than two years. He will attend a weekly counseling session until it is judged that he is no longer presents a possible danger to the ponies around him. During this time, he will also partake in a community service program assigned by the counselor to ensure better interaction with the community. Failure to comply with any of the following will result in the immediate reinstatement of the original sentence for assault upon a member of the High Royalty.”

“But, you didn’t say anything about conditions!” the stallion complained.

A snort escaped from Celestia’s nose. “I decided to alter the terms of our agreement,” she informed the stallion. Your continued cooperation will ensure that I do not alter it any further.”

Strong Withers drew in on himself under Celestia’s gaze. “What do you mean, my continued cooperation?”

“You gave me a list of names of ponies whose only plans are to sit around and whine about the state of things,” Celestia said. “What I wanted were any actual threats to my daughter’s authority and claim to the throne. What you’ve given me is a nice start, but hardly what was desired. So, you will continue your association with these unhappy nobles, and when somepony who is a real threat to my daughter comes around asking for support to cause problems for Sunset, you will tell me everything there is to know about that pony, or your son can go right back to where he belongs, understood?”

Sassy’s mind was a mess as she made her way to her Equish class. Not only had Upper Crust been plotting behind her back, but Fleur had known about it and done nothing!

Crust, Sassy could forget about. The yellow unicorn had fallen out of favor with the up and coming dressmaker a long time ago, and things were just coming to a head.

But Fleur? They had been friends since they were fillies! Every birthday party, every major event in Sassy’s life, the white unicorn had been there for. But when she had known Crust was up to something, after Sassy had outright told her how evil the stuck up butterball was, she had done nothing to stop it.

The world suddenly became blurry, and Sassy blinked from the moisture in her eyes. Not wanting to cause a scene in the hallway, the blue unicorn darted into the nearby filly’s room and turned on the faucet.

Before she could splash some water on her face, the sound of hooves coming into the bathroom drew Sassy’s attention. “I’m sorry, but could you-” she said before she looked over to see a wall of amber hair filling her field of view. She glanced up to see the second biggest alicorn in Canterlot looking down at her with a concerned face. “Princess Sunset.”

“Are you okay?” the amber alicorn asked. “I saw you rushing in her and...well...is there something bothering you that you want to talk about?”

Sassy gulped down a sob and resisted the urge to just grab onto the big alicorn for support. Instead, she fell back and...found herself floating in the air for a moment. “Huh?”

“Sorry,” Sunset apologized as the horn on her head glowed and more paper tore itself from the dispenser to float down to the ground. There was a bust of smoke, and the sheet of brown tissue the Princess had laid down was replaced by a plush velvet red pillow. “It’s just...sitting on a bathroom floor with a bare but...not very-ugh!” Sunset’s body shivered before she provided a seat for herself. “So what’s got you troubled, Sassy?”

Confusion over the Princess’s odd speech gave way to the depressed anger Sassy had been feeling only moments before, and she voiced what was on her mind to Princess Sunset. “It’s just...Fleur knew, she knew that Crust was up to something, and well...she didn’t help her along and may not have known what Crust had planned, but she knew that something bad was going to happen and she just stood by and did nothing! How am I supposed to deal with something like this?”

Princess Sunset sat silently for several seconds, her face frowning in thought. When she looked back at Sassy, the smaller pony became nervous despite the amber alicorn’s frown disappearing. “Do you mind if I tell you about something that happened at my last school?”

“Okay,” Sassy cautiously replied.

“Before I came here, I was a real monster of a teen,” Princess Sunset began. “I terrorized the students at my old school to the point where I practically ran the place through intimidation and fear. Then, when I decided to give it up and be more like the pony that’s in front of you today, I got a group of five friends that were willing to give me a chance, and I let them into my heart in turn. But one day, somepony started leaving messages that told everypony at school the most embarrassing secrets the other students had on golden paper with red writing. The first time it happened nopony blamed me, but the second time a bunch of embarrassing pictures were spread around, everypony knew I was the culprit.”

Sunset snorted and her lips became a snarl as she began to grumble to herself. “Even though those pictures were saved to the cloud and I had already proven web-security wasn’t all that when I hacked a few emails to end some friendships that pissed me off.”

The dark expression on Princess Sunset’s face made Sassy pull herself away from the amber alicorn. “Princess Sunset?” she asked.

“Hm?” the big pony replied as she looked up, the expression disappearing as she did so. “Oh! Sorry, got a little carried away there.” Princess Sunset cleared her throat and continued on. “So, because they thought I was the one causing trouble, despite the crappy evidence and my pleas to the contrary, my friends abandoned me to the anger of every other pony at school. Honestly, there were a few times when I was afraid some angry mob justice would have ended in a lynching.”

There was a brief pause as Princess Sunset took in a deep breath. “Okay, calming down...not upset at that anymore. Focus Sunset, this isn’t about you,” she said to herself before looking back to Sassy. “Well, long story short, the real culprits behind the whole thing were exposed, and I came running back to my friends. We all rolled our eyes at what had happened and moved on. There was a happy ending all around.”

Sassy tilted her head in confusion. “I’m sorry Princess, but I don’t understand what that has to do with my situation.”

“I’m not with those girls anymore,” Sunset told her. “I left that school, and I haven’t seen them since. And even if I am able to go back there tomorrow, this weekend or whenever, I still wonder if it’s worth taking the time to see them. Do you now why that is, Sassy?”

In response to the question, the blue unicorn with the chromatic mane simply shook her head.

“Because I went running back to them the first time and we all just went on as if nothing had happened,” Sunset told her. “There were no apologies from them or demands for an apology from me when they failed to give me one. I think that was when we lost our respect for one another, or at least my respect for them. And friendship without respect is a pathetic thing that will always be abused and can shatter easier than glass.

“So in the end, what I’m saying is...if Fleur doesn’t offer an apology a real apology, not the one she spat out at lunch, and an explanation for why she didn’t do anything, then demand one,” Sunset told her. “Doing so may strain your relationship and create a few bumps in the near future, but it’s better than letting something like this fester inside of you where it can grow. But, that’s just my advice, what you do is ultimately up to you.”

Sassy blinked as she absorbed the information Princess Sunset had given her, and nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Princess.”

When she left the restroom, Princess Sunset walked Sassy to her classroom to give the teacher a look that kept the blue unicorn from earning a demarate for being tardy while Sassy took her seat next to Fleur. The sad frustration she had been feeling before was still there, but it had been toned down quite a bit as her thoughts focused on what to do about the problem rather than simply letting the feelings associated with it fill her thoughts.

Fleur also had a nervous look on her face and gave Sassy a silently pleading look as she sat down. The blue unicorn hoped that meant she wanted to talk, apologize, and work through things together. She hated to think that in the end, Upper Crust really would cause the end of their friendship.

Plus, there was still the assignment from Princess Cadance. Now more than ever, she agreed with the pink princess’s assessment. Princess Sunset deserved the pony that was right for her. She needed to be with Shining Armor.

The question was, just how was Sassy supposed to get Shining to ask Princess Sunset out?

“Well Ms. Saddles, as I was saying,” the teacher began. “Although I’m sure some of your generation think of them as archaic, since ancient times, writing a letter to another pony has always been the preferred manner of communicating when distance between two ponies proves too great for trading words. On top of which, one can get their full message across without being interrupted-”.

Inspiration suddenly stuck the blue unicorn, and she stood up straight out of her seat.

“That’s it!” two voices said at the same time.

The strange echo that filled the classroom made Sassy look over to see Fleur was also up on her hooves with a look of confusion on her face similar to the one Sassy was wearing.

“Ms Saddles. Ms Les,” the teacher said. “Is there something the two of you would like to share with the class?”

The cheeks of both of the young mares took on a crimson hue as they sat back down on their cushions. “No sir.”

“Good,” the teacher said before addressing the class again. “Now, today we will be writing a letter. The topic can be anything you want. But I want your first draft ready to be turned in by the beginning of tomorrow so we can go over it together.”

The bell rang, and Shining Armor started putting his books into his bag, only to stop when he found the male members of his social circle gathering around him. “Hey guys, what’s up?”

Gaffer gave the other young stallion an even look. “Isn’t that what we should be asking you?” he replied.

“What do you mean?” Shining Armor asked in confusion.

The other unicorn of the group raised an eyebrow. “Okay, since beating around the bush is getting us nowhere, I’ll just go out and ask, which princess are you going with the dance with tomorrow?”

Shining Armor smirked at his genius as he prepared to tell his friends his brilliant plan to avoid making either princess upset and stood up a little straighter with pride. “Neither. In fact, I’m not going to the Fall Formal at all.” It went against what he had told the mares, but...it was the only option he could think of that wouldn’t end in tears.

None of the others looked impressed. “Uh, Shiny. You sure that’s a good idea? Princess Sunset and Princess Cadance might not like being blown off after all the trouble they’ve gone to,” Eight-Bit told him.

“No, listen,” the unicorn with the blue mane said. “Tomorrow, I’ll skip school. When they show up to class and I’m not there, that’ll make them think I’m sick. Then, they won’t even bother to try and take me to the Formal. Nopony’s feelings will be hurt, and I won’t cause an argument between two demi-gods that could destroy half of Equestria with their slap fight!”

For some reason, Shining Armor’s friends just gave him a bunch of even, disbelieving, looks.

Despite being in relatively good shape, Fleur found herself breathing heavily as she met up with Sassy at the senior class lockers. The positioning of their meeting place seemed a bit odd, as Sassy’s locker wasn’t anywhere near where Fleur found her. It took about three seconds for her to figure out what might have been going on. “Are you waiting for Princess Sunset?” she asked.

Sassy tensed ever so slightly for a second, then shook her head. “Well, I did want to deliver a message to her, but...it can wait till we see her next time,” she said before looking directly at Fleur. “What were you doing?”

“Oh! I just wanted to ask Princess Cadance something before she flew back to the palace,” Fleur lied. “But, it can wait too. I...really think talking to you is more important.”

The tension in Sassy’s face became more pronounced. “Yes. About Upper Crust,” Sassy said before she sighed. “Fleur, why didn’t you say something?”

With her friend giving her such a look, the more popular pony put her head down. “I’m sorry. I just...I wanted things to go back to the way they were before! And when Crust didn’t do anything the day before, I thought that she had changed her mind and now she’s…”

“Do you still want to be friends with her?” Sassy demanded as she started to walk away from the lockers and towards one of the school’s side exits. “Why? Why after everything she’s done do you insist on letting her just stomp all over us?”

Fleur followed the other young mare, unsure as to how to respond to the questions. “Well, it’s just...planning isn’t going through with anything, but...now that she has tried something, even if it’s failed miserably, I don’t...I don’t know, okay?” she replied. “It’s just been we’ve always done what Crust wanted, always taken directions from her. Yes, it was mostly out of fear of what she would do when we were older and that was wrong, but...we just did it for so long…”

The sound of her own words and lack of an excuse made Fleur sigh and hang her head. “Sassy, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I should have done something sooner than after she tried her stupid little stunt.”

Sassy stopped walking after hearing Fleur’s apology and hung her head. “Thank you Fleur,” she said. “To be honest...I’m not sure if I would have done anything different if I was in your position.”

The two friends slowly gave each other tentative smiles. “So...um…” Fleur began, unsure of what to say next.

“Do you still want to go get your mane styled with me tomorrow?” Sassy asked. With her best friend apologizing, Sassy needed to due her part to mend the tear in their friendship.

Fleur snorted at the absurdity of not spending the day with her best friend. “There’s nopony I’d rather spend our unofficial day off from school with.”

Sassy smiled back at her as the two of them headed towards their homes. Of course, they’d spend all night staying up mending their fences. After all, no mare worth her salt came to school on the day of a big dance.

Cadance opened her locker and blinked at the letter floating in the middle of the storage container, wrapped in a continuous levitation spell. “What’s this?” she mumbled before taking the correspondence in her magic to bring it out and opened it using her wing-digits.

“Dear Princess Cadance,” she mumbled as she read the letter aloud to herself. “I’d like to start out by saying that you are the most beautiful pony I have ever known. But the reason I like you is more than that. You’re kind, assertive, and you believed in me, even when I was full of doubts about myself.”

The pink princess stopped reading for a moment, then skipped down to the end of the letter. It was rude to do that to a pony who had spent so much time to prepare it, but the anxiety growing within her wouldn’t let Cadance wait. “So, after a great deal of consideration, I think that I should escort you to the Fall Formal. Yours, Shining Armor.”

“-and I’m sorry it took me so long to decide,” Sunset Shimmer read as she reached the end of the letter that had been floating her her locker. She didn’t need to look down at the signature to know who it was from.

“Well...shit,” she mumbled to herself before trying to think how in the hell she was going to get out of this one.

Sunset couldn’t go on a date with Shining Armor.

Well, she could, that that was all it would be, a date. As in singular. Then she would go back to the hell of Earth and the horrors of human high school, thus breaking Shiny’s heart and probably pissing Cadance off for the rest of time because Sunset would have turned her back on true love, or...whatever. So even after she had served her time on Earth, Sunset wouldn’t be able to return to Equestria because Cadance would probably banish her!

Or...she could just forget about leaving, stay and…

Sunset furiously shook her head to get those evil thoughts out of her system. She had to go back to Earth.

Okay Sunset, you can solve this, she told herself. All she had to do was turn the invitation down and Shining Armor that she wasn’t interested in him anymore and…

Except, the letter was Shining Armor accepting her invitation to the Formal. And if Sunset turned him down now, Cadance would probably go berserk and murder her. Not to mention how it would break Shining Armor’s heart. Which was something Sunset just couldn’t do. Not to his face anyway.

Finally, the amber alicorn resigned herself to her fate with a sigh. Well, looks like Shining Armor will be taking me to the dance after all.

“There you are Sunset!” Cadance called out, making the amber alicorn’s wings floop out to send a strong gust of wind down both directions of the hallway. She took a quick look at the letter that was still safely in her magic, then shoved it inside the locker and slammed the door shut.

When the sound of hooves reached her, Sunset turned around and smiled. “Cadance! Um...about Shining Armor, and the dance.”

The pink princess blinked. “Then, you know already?”

Sunset paused for a second in confusion. Had Shining Armor already talked to Cadance about it? That went against what they agreed on, but if it was Shiny starting the conversation, Sunset couldn’t be too mad. There was also the other possibility that he simply told her about his decision and wanted to comfort her. That definitely sounded like the Shinier possibility. “Um...yes?”

“Look, I just want to make sure that there’s no hard feelings or resentment between us. There isn’t, is there?” the pink pony asked tentatively.

Sunset shook her head. “No,” she said. It was true, she was a little upset that Shiny hadn’t chosen Cadance, but that was more because she wanted what was best for him than any desire not to be with the little white stallion.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cadance nodded happily. “Good. We’ll both go to the dance, and have a night of fun, all of us. Together.”

“Agreed,” Sunset replied, feeling a bit better about the whole thing. If Cadance was there to pick up the pieces, maybe things wouldn’t go too badly for Shiny after all.

Since Sunset decided to trot home rather than fly thanks to her crazy idea that she would cause untold damage to the city with a simple flap of her wings, something Cadance needed to find a way to dissuade her of one day, the ink princess had several minutes to wrestle with the thoughts milling about her head.

She was going to the Formal with Shining Armor on an official Sunset-sanctioned date that was in no means just a simple test trial for him to have some private contact with another mare. What’s more was how this marked their third official date. The first being the time she and Sunset took Shiny and Twily to that fancy eatery on Restaurant Row and the second being the opening night of Solar Battles. Third dates were the finalization of a couple's romantic involvement, with the Formal making it even more official.

In other words, third dates meant sex.

While Cadance had no qualms about consummating the relationship between herself and Shining Armor, there was one very big nagging voice in the back of her mind reminding her about a rather inconvenient fact: she was in love with Sunset Shimmer. She might have been infatuated with Shining Armor and loved him as a dear friend as well as had a healthy sexual attraction to him, but what she felt both emotionally and physically towards Shiny paled in comparison to what she felt towards Sunset.

Having sex with another pony, even if it was Shiny, seemed wrong.

Just like not giving him what was expected seemed wrong to Cadance as well.

Cadance could always tell him to wait, but...explaining why Shiny was supposed to wait was because she had deep feelings for Sunset didn’t seem fair, since Cadance would never be able to pursue a relationship with the amber alicorn.

When they got home, Cadance found a messenger waiting for them outside of Sunset’s apartments in official palace garb. The amber alicorn raised an eyebrow at the gray pegasus. “What’s up?”

“Princess Cadance and Sunset Shimmer, Her Majesty would like to meet with you in her quarters as soon as your things are stowed away,” the pony announced formally.

Cadance looked over to Sunset, who gave her an equally confused look before the two of them went inside and dumped their saddlebags. “What do you think your mom wants?”

After snorting out her displeasure and rolling her eyes, Sunset looked back to Cadance. “With the way my day is going, she probably wants to give me another headache.”

Deciding it was best not to admonish Sunset for getting into a mood about Celestia before even going to meet with her, Cadance kept her mouth shut and simply followed the amber alicorn back outside and down the hallway. If it was good news, then she could tell Sunset she needed to start thinking more positively. If not, well...she would be there to soothe her friend’s easily roused temper.

Princess Celestia’s room looked much more structured and clean than it had in the past several days. Maps of the palace and coronation plans had all been put away, leaving a room filled with furniture built for a pony of twice the normal size. Coming inside the room made the pink princess feel as if she were a foal again, or at least under one of Sunset’s spells. Which wasn’t all that different considering their primary purpose was to play with Twilight at mostly-equal stature.

The big mare in question was magically moving a collection of clothes and books into a traveling chest with her magic. It made Cadance blink in surprise. Was Princess Celestia going somewhere?

“Okay Mom, what’s wrong now?” Sunset asked before she jumped up and settled onto the couch.

Princess Celestia looked up from the overgrown suitcase. “I’m afraid an urgent matter with the griffons is going to call me away from the country for the next few days. Truthfully, I should have done something last night, but there was too much to prepare here,” she explained before a very fancy official-looking document flew into the air with Princess Celestia’s signature and the royal seal stamped on it. “So, Sunset, I’m making you the supreme authority in Equestria.”

Sunset’s mouth dropped open and stayed that way for several seconds before she recovered enough to speak. “...say what?”

For her part, Cadance felt an ugly spike of jealousy jab itself into her heart. “Um...Auntie, not to be one of those ponies, but…” she said as she wrestled with whether this was a good idea or not. “But, um...I am the crowned princess and-”

“Wait,” Sunset said as she slowly developed a smile. “Are you getting princess envy?”

Cadance frowned. “Yes, I am well aware of the irony here, Sunset.”

Once the conversation had ended, Celestia put her two cents in. “Yes Cadance, I know that Sunset isn’t technically a princess as of yet,” she said. “But, I raised her here in Canterlot among all the politics and she has attended the Sun Court several times as well as been given several indirect lessons on being a ruler. In short, I have raised her to be a princess while your political training has yet to even begin.”

Part of Cadance wanted to argue that was only because she was still in school and they had agreed to wait until summer vacation to begin such things. But, the envy was only a minor thing that was easily dealt with. “Yes, I suppose you have a point there.”

“But-But, I have stuff to do tomorrow!” Sunset exclaimed.

Celestia smiled back at her. “Yes Sunset, I am well aware of your dance,” she said. “Don’t worry, tomorrow will be a light work day. Simply attend court till noon as I do every day, my aides will handle the rest of what is required.”

After making a distressed groan, Sunset snatched the paper out of the air with a hoof. Her eyes quickly darted back and forth as she read the document, then looked back up to Celestia. “Mom, this...this isn’t some stewardship. This says you’re abdicating the throne and giving full power over Equestria to me!”

“Yes,” Celestia said with a nod. “Believe me, it’s easier than just assigning somepony to preside over most of my duties. Last time I did it a few hundred years ago, all the ponies just wanted to wait till I got back to have their concerns addressed. I will still be raising the sun, of course.”

Sunset stared at her mother, completely dumbfounded as Celestia removed her crown to place it on the couch next to her daughter.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, as if remembering something. “I would appreciate you giving me the crown back when I’m done in Griffonstone. But, I suppose as the highest authority in Equestria, that is completely up to you. Now, if you would please give this lowly peasant some privacy so she could finish-”

“TAKE IT BACK!” Sunset demanded as she stood to her feet.

Both Cadance and Celestia blinked at Sunset’s sudden, fearful demand. “Pardon?” the biggest pony asked.

“You, you’re not supposed to do this!” Sunset exclaimed. “You’re not supposed to put me in charge of Equestria. Take it back!”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Sunset, I can’t. For starters, the decree won’t take effect until after I lower the sun today, and even then, I’m not going to-”

“No!” Sunset whined back at her. “Look, I’m sorry I got angry at you not trusting me. You were right, you were always right. I can’t be trusted to rule Equestria for a weekend. Make Cadance the big princess!”

Before Celestia could even start to consider the possibility, Cadance quickly threw up her hooves and backed away. “Ohhhh no,” she said. “Seeing this, I don’t want to wear the big crown. It’s all yours Sunset.”

“But you’re not supposed to do this!” Sunset exclaimed.

While Cadance frowned at Sunset’s words, Celestia let out a minute shrug. “I know, sending an ambassador would probably be the more regal thing to do, but most of the ponies I have for such duties have gotten so used to giving our foreign partners everything they ask for, I think it would be best for me to go myself if I wish to continue implementing our new foreign policy,” she said. “By the way Sunset, if you do decide to continue ruling Equestria after I return, it would be most appreciated if you hold to the terms I set down with the griffons.”

“But-”

Celestia stopped Sunset with a kiss to the smaller alicorn’s forehead. “Now, I do need to finish packing, so if you would please give me some privacy, I would greatly appreciate it, Your Highness.”

Cadance was pretty sure it was the title that put Sunset into such a shocked state that she was unable to resist Celestia leading her out of the room.

After she finished bringing down the sun and setting up the moon, Celestia double checked the spells set to go off at the end of the night that would cause them to switch places without her direct guidance a grand total of two times. She wished there was a way to craft a magical matrix with a longer life than twenty-four hours, but it had taken all her free time of the past two days just to set up what she had.

Unlike the past two days, she couldn’t afford to drop her guard until Friday night had come and gone. Even the times when her princess duties had taken Celestia away from the Secret Repository for the past two days had been too much of a risk, but ones she had to take because the old pony, in her foolishness, hadn’t considered the option of giving Sunset run of the country until recently.

Celestia made her way back into the castle to fetch her travel trunk. Once acquired, the big pony cast a teleport spell to send both her and her cargo down to the second sub-basement. It was as close to the negative third floor as she could get without setting off alarms that would give her a splitting headache.

After making her way down the last flight of stairs, Celestia made her way past the empty storage rooms, emergency shelters and isolation rooms that were warded to keep out everything from astral beings to possessing entities. All of which had become unnecessary thanks to centuries of work by both Celestia and her sister to ensure Equestria’s future. Then, at the very back of the room, she pressed in a stone until a faint click was heard. A secret passage slowly opened to allow her to trot down a dark hallway that was extremely cramped for a pony of Celestia's stature. After journeying through the passage that that had been made out of the mountain Canterlot stood upon, she came to a great open area. In front of her stood the vault’s entrance, that was more of that was more of an overgrown lock than anything else.

Back before Equestria had been founded, before Celestia had even been born, the Unicornian royal family had stored their most valuable treasures in the space hidden before her. Unable to take them with her when she fled the ice, Princess Platinum had Clover the Clever and her mentor place as many protection spells as they could on the place before abandoning it and Canterlot. When they returned, not a thing had been taken or damaged.

Since then, Celestia had added her own protective enchantments and decided to put the thing to better use. Whenever a dark artifact or unstable magical relic was discovered, she had it brought to her personally. Officially, the artifact was then destroyed and that was that. But in reality, Celestia stored whatever was brought to her in the vault.

Although it would mean a great deal of trouble should something manage to break into the vault, it was safer than simply doing away with whatever dark relic turned up by smashing it. The magic contained within such things didn’t simply disappear the vessel was destroyed, it was released into the world to corrupt the land, find a new object to inhabit, or even possess a pony.

So, within the Secret Repository, a hidden vault known only to four ponies in Equestria, Celestia stored away horrid magics just waiting to be misused like the Cutie Mark Coins, the Blue Scepter of Dragon Control, and the dreaded Orb of Foolish Decisions, a terrible artifact that still managed to affect a few Equestrians every now and then when a spark of it’s magic got out despite being sealed away.

Careful to avoid shining her magic on any of the artifacts for fear of activating one on accident, Celestia set her chest down in the center of the vault where there was a circular open space surrounded by wards in case she ever needed to experiment on a new addition and began unpacking. A little magic trick she had learned in her youth allowed the archaic suitcase to store more than its size would allow, so she was able to bring everything she would need for a day’s stay in the old room such as eight independent light sources, a mattress big enough for her frame, food enough for three meals, and half a dozen cakes. Then she began retrieving the things she didn’t need for basic survival. The first of which was the journal she had that was linked to the one that had vanished upon Sunset’s return. While she had long since memorized every entry, both new and old, reviewing it a time or two might still give her some insight about how best to handle the current situation. She also retrieved the book that Starswirl had written pertaining to his theories on temporal magics, as well as the spells he had finished in the subject. Third was all the research, tests, and theories Celestia had made on the subject of Sunset’s apparent journey through time whenever she could grab a moment to look into it, which wasn’t much.

“Well, at least I’ll have something to keep me occupied,” she mumbled before retrieving an ink and quill from the chest and opening Starswirl’s research journal.

“Sunset, it’s late,” the amber alicorn heard the other pony in the room moan from behind her as she sat at her study desk, drafting out the fifth royal decree of the night. “Come to bed already.”

After finishing the first draft of her latest law that would make the pony responsible for siring a foal financially responsible for her or his well being, Sunset looked up from the paper and dipped her quill back into the inkwell. “Sorry Cadance, too much to do and not enough time,” she said. Then the pony finally turned back to face her bed partner. “And my horn light’s not that bright. Can’t you just close your eyes and go to sleep?”

“Not without you.”

Sunset’s ears twitched as she picked up...something, but wasn’t able to make it out. “What was that?”

“I said,” Cadance started to reply as she rolled over to face Sunset, then looked away for a moment in embarrassment. “I can’t. I’ve gotten...used to...um, sleeping up against you.”

Sunset sighed at the pink princesses response. The two of them had gotten cuddle like crazy these days. And Sunset had to admit, hugging Cadance goodnight was something she was really going to miss when it came time to leave. “Okay, compromise time.”

Focusing magic into her horn, she drew up an advanced transmogrification spell in her mind and targeted the empty pillow next to Cadance. A second after Sunset’s magic was let loose and impacted the target, the pillow disappeared in a puff of smoke. In it’s place sat a plush stuffed animal equal in size to a foal with a bright amber coat and fiery mane. “There. It even has a minor heating enchantment on it to simulate body heat.”

Cadance lit up her own horn and scrutinized the stuffed Sunset for a moment before she looked back to the real one. “No wings?”

“Well...they’re hard to sleep with,” she said uneasily, hoping Cadance didn’t call her on the fact that she simply forgot about them when mentally picturing herself.

Thankfully, the pink princess shrugged and grabbed the plush Sunset with both forelegs to hug it close to her. “You’re not getting your pillow back, by the way.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and turned around to go back to work. Deserving of it or not, being granted temporary rulership of Equestria did have one big advantage. Instead of having to beg Cadance and Celestia to put the programs she wanted in place before she left, Sunset could just sign a few papers and push the legislation through herself before having to go back to Earth.

So even though she was going to leave, Spangled Star would have the support system she needed to carry on in life, Twilight would receive a state-funded tutor to continue her magical education, stallions that thought they could get away with putting a foal in every mare they slept with would be held accountable for their actions, and all the other little things Sunset wanted to check on but didn’t have the ability to would be taken care of.

She could leave Equestria without having to leave so many ponies in the lurch.

It wasn’t much of a comfort, but it was something.

Chapter 26: Friday is for Starting Finales

Sunset stormed into the throne room and down the carpeted walkway with purpose as she approached her seat on the raised dais. A crowd of ponies looked up at the big alicorn in awe of her magnificence. A head taller than Celestia had been with a powerful body and a mane that looked like a living flame flowing out behind her, Sunset Shimmer was the unquestioned ruler of all Equestria and beyond.

“Empress Sunset,” one of the nobles whispered in reverence.

Another was quick to take up the low chant. “Empress Sunset.”

With dozens more quickly following. “Empress Sunset. Empress Sunset. Empress Sunset. Empress Sunset. Empress Sunset. Empress Sunset,” the crowd of nobles and other important ponies said over and over as if they were speaking of a deity.

A strange sense of pride welled up in Sunset as she looked at all the little ponies showing their deference. Just as they always should have.

When She reached her throne, the goddess of the sun, moon and stars turned back round to watch all Her little ponies bow in submission to her perfection. After plopping Her plot down on the throne’s soft pillow, Sunset motioned for the act of deference to end. “Bring them in,” She commanded.

The doors on the far side of them room opened and a group of four guards led in a pair of ponies bound by chains with collars on their neck. Celestia, the first of the pair, looked like a pathetic shadow of her former self. The lush multicolored hair that gave off a soft light and moved on its own as if constantly guided by an ethereal breeze was a dull pink that possessed numerous split ends, and the rest of her looked like she hadn’t eaten in weeks with the way her legs were withered and her ribs were showing. The other pony of the pair was Princess Twilight Sparkle. Like Celestia, the purple pony looked half-starved to death and possessed a mane that had seen better days.

What is this? Sunset thought as the two alicorns were forced to kneel by the guards holding their collars.

The great alicorn was about to order them released and fed, but found herself unable to move. What the? Why can’t I-hey! Somepony get those things off of them!

“Now, the two of you will finally face justice for your crimes.”

Moving on its own accord, Sunset’s body looked over to Cadance. The sight of the other alicorn that was sitting on the floor next to her throne made Sunset want to blink. Although she looked mostly the same, there were some minor differences in the pink princess. The biggest being the red and yellow sun cutie mark earrings that she wore and the bridal that also proclaimed her allegiance to Sunset with the same symbol stamped in the middle of her face.

But it wasn’t just the added jewelry. Something was...off about Cadance. She seemed...darker, somehow. As if some of the light in the room never reached her coat, putting her in shadow.

Celestia looked up at the goddess on the throne. “But...what did I do?” she asked pathetically.

What the hell is going on? Somebody do something already! Sunset cried out in anger.

“You dare ask us something like that?” Cadance said in an appalled tone. “Your very ignorance of your transgression is a crime in and of itself!”

The amber goddess sneered at her mother laying on the floor. “Of course you would ask that question,” She said.

“You didn’t love Her enough!” Cadance shouted.

Celestia flinched, as if Cadance’s words were like a whip that struck her in the face. “But I-I’m sorry, I did my best.”

“Your best,” Cadance spat she said before rearing up to wrap her front legs around Sunset’s neck. “Your best was pathetic. My Goddess should have been what everything you did revolved around. She should have been the first thing you thought about in the morning, and She should have been the last thing you thought about before the end of the day. Every single action you ever took should have been to make Her life better!”

No, Sunset thought. That’s not...yes, I wanted to be the center of Celestia’s world, but that’s a position I don’t deserve! There are more important things in this world than me.

“You should have made Her an alicorn the day she arrived!” Cadance went on as she pulled herself closer to Sunset, hugging her body up against the much larger pony.

Once again, all Sunset could do was watch and not speak her objection to what was happening. That’s something I don’t deserve! Something I’ve never deserved, she tried to say. I only ever wanted the privilege and the power, but I was never worthy of either, nor the responsibility that went with it!

“But that doesn’t mean you don’t still want it,” Cadance whispered into Sunset’s ear in a voice that was almost seductive. “Or this. To be a greater ruler than Celestia ever was, to finally put Twilight Sparkle in her place for taking yours.”

No, Sunset thought. She...Twilight, she couldn’t take something that was never mine.

“Oh come now,” the pink princess continued. “If not for her, Celestia would have welcomed you back with open forelegs. She would have been so grateful for your return, she would have gone through with the adoption and granted you wings on the spot.”

No, that’s not...possible, Sunset thought to herself.

“What?” Cadance whispered. “You don’t actually believe Celestia’s crap about what would happen if you aren’t worthy, do you? We already know that’s just another lie in the long list she’s told you over the course of your life. After all, you’re already an alicorn, but all you’ve said since becoming one is how you don’t deserve it.”

But, that’s just...special circumstances, Sunset thought as she tried to defend the oddity of her wings. Celestia wouldn’t have lied to her the last night they had been together...not without good reason at least. I’m not...I don’t deserve…

“All of this?” Cadance asked as she gestured to the throne room. “Come now, you know it’s what you want. To be an alicorn, more powerful and more respected than that sham of a princess. To show her that you were greater than Celestia ever was!”

For the first time since the dream began, Sunset managed to move her body, if just a bit. She looked over to Cadance. Something was...off about the pink princess. It wasn’t just the lighting. But, Sunset couldn’t tell exactly what that was.

“And you want to give her what she deserves, don’t you?” Cadance asked as her lips became a devilish smile. “You want to give them what they both deserve.”

Once again, Sunset’s body acted without her will as She looked back down to the pair of pathetic-looking alicorns. “For your crimes against Me,” the Amber Goddess spoke in a voice that made the room shake with her sheer power.

No, Sunset told herself.

“I sentence you,” She went on.

Shut up, Sunset told Herself.

“To death,” Empress Sunset concluded.

NO! Sunset yelled in her mind as she struggled to try and stop the vision playing out before her.

The next second had the Empress standing in front of a raised platform in the middle of a square full of the Empress’s worshipers. Both Twilight and Celestia were locked into a pair of guillotines as ponies all around them.

I never wanted this! Even at my most deranged, I would never have hurt Celestia! Sunset screamed as she continued to struggle without any effect.

She tried to move her legs as the blades were raised high. Stop it.

She tried to flap her wings as the headsmare with her black hood got into position. Stop it.

She tried to shout out an order as the ropes were cut to send the blades plummeting down. Stop it.

She focused her horn as-STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT! Sunset screamed with all her might as she demanded as she willed what was being shown in front of her to be undone and-

*CRASH*.

Sunset blinked as the world around her shattered, the faint echo of a scream echoing in her ears.

She stood in a vast nothingness, not darkness. There was no light, but she could see clearly for all around. There just wasn’t anything there to see.

“Wha-?” she mumbled before looking around, then noticing that she could look around at all. Further testing revealed that her legs, wings, and every other part of her body was free. “Hello? Anybody there?”

When nobody answered, Sunset let out a sigh and hung her head. “Really wish I knew what was going on.”

“Um, pretty sure you already know you’re having a dream.”

Sunset blinked, then looked down to where the voice had spoken. Going by the direction it had come from, she had been expecting a foal, not the white unicorn with the blue mane standing in front of her. “Shining Armor,” the amber alicorn mumbled. “Wait, why’re you so small?”

The stallion raised his hoof to point at Sunset. “Well, you’re the one in God Empress of Ponykind mode,” he corrected. “And we both know I’m not Shiny, but a representation of him that is actually an embodiment of your subconscious that you called out to for help in your dream state.”

“...right,” Sunset said after looking down at her regalia. She got on her stomach to look the other pony in the eye. “So um...you’re my...what? Sense of self-worth? My confidence?”

Shining Armor shrugged. “Hey, it’s your dream,” he said. “And if I really am the part of you that’s supposed to tell you how great you are, then...you know all that crap your dream Cadance said was just that, crap.”

The summarization had Sunset shaking her head. “No, what Cadance said was all-”

A sudden weight pressed down on Sunset’s back, and she looked behind her to see Princess Cadance had softly landed on top of her. But unlike the first Cadance, the one that just appeared had no sun emblems or oddities. “Okay, so you’re power hungry and want to be in control,” the pink princess said. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you use that power and authority for a good purpose. How many ponies did you help just last night with a few strokes of a pen?”

Sunset drew in on herself. “That was just...Celestia would have done better if she had to deal with the problem.”

“Maybe she would have,” Shining Armor admitted. “But would she have helped me? Uh, the real Shiny, I mean.”

Sunset rolled her eyes at the question. “No, but Cadance would have.”

On Sunset’s back, the pink pony shifted around to hug the amber alicorn’s neck. “Maybe. We can’t really speculate on that. Especially considering how Cadance didn’t even know Shining Armor existed before you came along.”

“But as far as raw magical power goes, let’s be honest, you love being as powerful as you are,” Shining Armor said. “And once again, that’s not a bad thing. Dragons, changelings, sirens, shadow monsters, eldritch abominations from the great beyond, Equestria has had no end of dangers throughout its history. The power you have now means you can protect everypony without putting any of them in danger. Sure, it may have been in a game reality dream...thingy, but time and time again you’ve proven that all the magic and strength you now possess is nothing but an asset.”

Sunset grit her teeth and closed her eyes as she tried to resist the growing sense of pride. “No. It’s not a good thing. I don’t deserve it.”

“And then, there’s us,” Cadance said before she scooted up, and ran her tongue along the edge of Sunset’s ear, getting a shiver of pleasure from the big amber alicorn.

Shining Armor’s lips touched hers a moment later. “Two ponies who love you very much, the real you. Not some bald ape popularity hound, or some miserable creature those other humans can’t even comprehend is a crippled wreck with nowhere else to go.”

“Although judging by her interest in that projection you made, I think Cadance might actually have a thing for the bipedal you,” the pink princess on Sunset’s back added before she kissed the amber alicorn’s cheek. “Now how about you and I-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Sunset awoke with a jerk of motion and lit up her horn before she shifted around, looking for what had spooked Cadance before the pink princess glomped onto the amber alicorn with a grip that made Sunset grunt despite her newfound durability and strength. “C-Cadance? Cadance, what is it?”

With Cadance as frightened as she was, Sunset prepared several spells that would have leveled a mountain range if cast at their full power. Although, a quick check of her wards didn’t give any clues as to just where the danger was since all of them were up and functioning. Nothing had tripped them to come into the room.

“It was horrible!” the pink pony cried.

Sunset carefully wrapped her pony-arms around the distressed alicorn and pulled her close to soothe Cadance with a comforting presence. “It’s okay, it’s okay Cadance,” she asked before cautiously looking around a few seconds. Seeing nothing, she looked back to the pink princess. “Um...what was horrible?”

“The-the boats,” she whispered.

“Uh...what?” Sunset replied in confusion.

With each breath, Cadance drew in more air and held it longer before she finally calmed down enough to speak again. “I was...having a dream,” she explained. “You, me, and Shiny, we were all sailing these boats. Yours was pink and white, and I had this gold and blue one, and Shiny was in a red and pink boat. And everything was nice, and bright, and we were all having fun until-until our ships collided!”

Sunset blinked as Cadance’s breathing began to quicken again. “Our ships collided, Sunset!”

Although she didn’t really get it, Sunset put one of her wings around the pink princess’s back as she tried to comfort her friend. “There there, it’s okay Cadance,” she told her. “You’ve got wings, remember? I don’t think you need to worry about drowning.”

She sat there for several minutes, comforting the distraught pony for some time as she used her magic to draw a bath for the two of them and called a servant to prepare some calming tea before the sun came up. Thanks to the pink princess getting them up early and freaking-out over nothing, Sunset managed to forget about her own troubles until she walked out in her apartment’s living room to see Celestia’s crown resting on the couch.

The reminder of last night’s events made Sunset’s knees buckle as the gravity of the situation reasserted itself. Celestia had given her absolute authority over Equestria.

It was...everything she ever wanted, aside from the power she already had, that is.

“So, are you going to make a new crown with magic, or just resize that one?” Cadance asked as she walked into the living room behind Sunset to stare at the ceremonial headpiece.

Both options gave Sunset an uneasy feeling in her gut. “I uh...I’m just doing this for today,” she told the pink princess. “I don’t need a crown for that.”

Cadance looked up at her with a frown. “Sunset,” she said in an extremely serious tone. “Celestia put you in charge of Equestria for the weekend. Not one day. Remember?”

“Right,” Sunset said with a flinch. If she made many more mistakes like that...well, Cadance didn’t have the brightest horn in the herd, but she would figure out that something was up if the amber alicorn kept slipping up like that. “I um...the crown can wait. We need to get to the throne room.”

Not letting Cadance give some counterpoint, Sunset quickly trotted out of her quarters, then remembered all of the proclamations that had been made the night before and returned to pick them up before taking one last look at her mother’s crown and running away from it, back into the hallway at top speed.

Cadance kept pace with her as she quickly made her way to the throne room via Celestia’s private back entrance. Once she entered the chamber that was the center of political authority for the Equestrian government, she found the familiar faces of her mother’s scheduling aide Kibitz, and the dark grey unicorn head secretary Raven waiting for her, along with a pegasus with a bright yellow coat Sunset recognized as Sunny Daze, one of Celestia’s errand girls. While the older stallion with the stopwatch cutie mark was dressed in his usual dress outfit, Raven and the pegasus were completely naked.

Actually being in the throne room made the fact really hit home for Sunset: for one day, she would be the absolute ruler of Equestria.

Although a large part of her knew she didn’t deserve to be anywhere near the throne, years upon years of watching Celestia deal with petitioners told her she couldn’t let it show. And Sunset had to admit, a part of her...a very small part, almost infinitesimal even...wanted to sit on that throne. Even if she didn’t deserve it.

She wanted to rule Equestria. She wanted to be the big pony with the crown that made all the important decisions. She wanted everyone to bow and acknowledge her superiority. She wanted to be what her dream had shown her before it had all gone so horribly wrong.

And now that she was...didn’t she have a duty to use that power and authority to its fullest for the good of everypony involved?

So, she took in a deep breath and concentrated on the task at hand. Doubts could come later. Celestia had put her trust into Sunset, and even though she didn’t want to, she would not let her mother down. And if she also showed her mother that it was in no way a good idea to leave Sunset in charge of anything ever again for as long she lived in the event that the amber alicorn returned to Equestria when she was done serving her time back on Earth without hurting anypony, all the better.

“Princess Sunset,” the stallion said before bowing. “I have your itinerary drawn up for your approval. It’s a light workday, with a brief one-hour meeting with the Canterlot Times and Equestria Daily newspapers after you have finished petitions to the Day Court. Then you’ll need to go pick up your dress and have a final fitting to ensure everything is in order before a meeting with the mane stylist for that party of yours tonight.”

Raven continued on the second Kibitz finished. “There’s also the matter of your security detail for the Formal, Your Highness. And-um,” she stopped to look at the various scrolls Sunset levitated over to her. “What’re these?”

“Just some stuff I came up with last night,” she explained. “I’ll want them copied and sent off to be made into law before noon, if you would please.” A slight frown appeared on Sunset’s face at her slip up. If she didn’t want her mother thinking she did too good a job, then Sunset would have to stop with the pleasantries and asking servants to do her bidding.

She was the boss. She needed to tell them what to do.

After looking over the documentation for a few moments, the gray unicorn nodded. “Yes, Your Highness,” she said before taking her own scrolls out and drawing up the orders as well as creating a backup copy for each scroll.

Kibitz cleared his throat. “One other thing, Princess Sunset,” he said before trotting closer to her. “I know it isn’t really my place to offer advice, but I have worked with your mother for some time and I must say...perhaps you should do something about the throne.”

The odd suggestion made Sunset look over to the aforementioned object to see it was as spotless and immaculate as ever, then back to Kibitz. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Sunset,” Kibitz began uneasily. Sunset noticed the lack of the title, but didn’t call him on it. She would only be around for a day, and the older stallion had known her for the majority of the time she had been at the palace. Dressing down the closest thing she ever had to an admonishing uncle didn’t seem right to her. “It’s just...it’s a little big for you. I know I’m just the scheduler, but I’ve worked with your mother for years, and we all know that perception is where a great deal of political power comes from. The fact you you aren’t wearing Celestia’s crown was smart, it’s too big for you, even after your growth spurt. Along those same lines, some ponies may look at the throne that you’ll be occupying and the image it will give is more akin to a foal trying to fill shoes that are much too big.”

Another glance at the throne had Sunset agreeing with the older pony. “Yeah, you got a point,” she said before focusing her magic. For a second her mind was split on what to do, but recent magical activities helped her pick out a solution.

A burst of magic was released from Sunset’s horn that struck Celestia’s throne. The golden seat with the velvet cushions contracted to a little less than three-fourths of its original size, perfect for Sunset’s posterior to fill.

Then she turned around to look at the rest of the room to continue making minor adjustments. Banners decorated with white banners Celestia’s sun cutie mark were replaced by amber ones showing Sunset’s more complex emblem. She kept the windows, but had them framed by red curtains instead of gold.

“Ummm...Sunset, what’re you doing?” Cadance asked hesitantly.

Sunset smirked. “Redecorating.”

An even expression covered Cadance’s face. “You are aware that Celestia only meant for you to be High Princess for the weekend, right?”

“Yeah, about that,” Sunset said as she skipped up the stairs to the throne to casually park her butt on the seat. It really was the most comfortable pillow in all the land. “She gave me power over Equestria, period. Not to rule in her name. Which reminds me, I really think I should change the title of the absolute authority figure. We’ve got a High Princess, and then Princesses, too confusing if you ask me.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “You know as well as I do that’s because Celestia can be overruled by two lesser Princesses. That’s why she keeps titles the same.”

“Yeah, well we need to do something about that,” Sunset replied before making a big show of thinking before an idea popped into her head. “Oh! How about Empress?”

Sunset’s felt like kicking herself for actually saying the name, but she didn’t let it show. While Celestia kept the title of Princess because Queenies were meanies, as the old foal’s explanation went, an Empress would have made her sound even worse without actually having to do anything. It was perfect!

Even if it did make Sunset want to throw up. Just a bit.

The suggestion had Cadance drawing back on herself a bit. “You’re joking,” she said. “Wait, you are joking, right?” When the amber alicorn didn’t answer, the tiny bit of relief on Cadance’s face disappeared. “Please tell me you’re joking!”

Sunset looked over to Raven, who had finished transcribing her orders onto a new set of scrolls. “Give me back the originals and send the copies out to who needs them. Oh and Sunny, open the doors on your way out so the first petitioner can come in,” she said before turning her attention to Cadance. “You want to sit next to me?”

With a look of hesitation that made Sunset want to cringe, the pink princess made her way up the steps and plopped her plot down next to Sunset after the amber alicorn conjured a purple pillow for the pink princess to sit on. “Sunset, please say that you’re just messing with me,” she mumbled through gritted teeth as she tried to keep her mouth from moving.

When she received no assurances from Sunset that everything going on was just some sort of joke, Cadance’s worries only grew. Worries that included the possibility that everything the amber alicorn had done up until now was just a trick for Sunset to gain the throne, that she had already gone mad with power, had several delusions of grandeur, and was quickly returning to the Sunset that Cadance had known before the amber alicorn got her wings. Only as something a hundred times more powerful than before.

Although, Cadance realized that if her worse fears were coming true, there wasn’t much she could do about it until Celestia returned. If she returns, the pink princess told herself as the thoughts in her head tored towards a dark direction, with Sunset orchestrating a plot to remove Celestia from the world completely.

Wait a second, Cadance thought as she suddenly realized where her out of control thoughts were going. The pink princess reached up and rubbed the space below her horn with a hoof as her mind centered on the one moment that had been the cause of her latest fear, when Sunset had used her magic to exert her authority over that other pony the day before.

They hadn’t talked about it, and Cadance had quickly galloped back to the new routine way of treating Sunset when the amber alicorn had thrown her usual fit over Celestia’s actions. She had been quick to dismiss what happened as some one-time fluke and gone back to only thinking as Sunset as the pony she now idolized. Something she now knew was a mistake.

“Oh Celestia, not again.”

Sunset’s surprised mumbling drew Cadance out of her thoughts. She looked up and realized that the first group of petitioners had entered the throne room, with the rest filing in behind them very slowly. They were a group of earth ponies, a family of four unless Cadance missed her guess. The leader of the group was a bright tan stallion, accompanied by a golden yellow mare who had the most curly of manes, along with a bright red colt that looked around Shiny’s age, and young filly with a yellow mane and orange coat, with the exception of the tiny spots on the front of her face.

Behind them, Sunny Daze rushed to catch up after she fell behind because of her need to deliver the letters to a waiting messenger pony standing outside the throne room, then passed them as they reached the end of the carpet to take her place at the foot of the dais where Sunset and Cadance sat in case Sunset needed more things sent off.

“Greetings yer Highness,” the stallion said before bowing along with his family and taking off his stetson hat. After being given leave to rise, he quickly went into introductions. “Mah name is Bright Mac, and this is my wife, Pear Butter. And our children, Big Mac, and Applejack.”

“Of course they are,” Sunset grumbled barely loud enough for Cadance to hear. The next time she spoke, it was a bit louder than needed, and much harsher. “Bright Mac, does this look like a daycare center to you?”

The stallion went a bit rigid at the question. “Um...no, yer Highness.”

A scowl appeared on Sunset’s face. “Then what are foals doing here? Am I to be some sort of amusement for them?”

Every other pony who had brought their foals with them began to look around nervously as Pear Butter took a step forward. “Beg pardon, Your Highness. We were going to leave the little ones in the hotel under my supervision, but after we read in the papers that you would be hosting the court this morning, I thought that it would be nice for them to-”

“IT’S MY FAULT!” Applejack suddenly cried out in a panic before she rushed forward. “Ah caused a fus when Ah heard you was gonna be the princess today, er Princess Sunset. Ah’m sorry, Ah didn’t mean no disrespect, Ah just wanted ta meet ya is all.”

The other three ponies looked on in horror at Applejack, as if she was about to be vaporized on the spot for speaking to the angry alicorn out of turn.

Cadance learned in towards Sunset. “What are you doing?”

Sunset ignored Cadance as she looked down at the frightened little filly standing before her. “Come here, Applejack.”

The orange earth pony gulped before she slowly made her way up the stairs as her family watched on in terror, needing to nearly jump up each step until she came to stand before Sunset’s throne. When the amber alicorn raise a hoof as if to strike the filly down, Applejack huddled in on herself before Sunset’s foreleg came down...to scoop the tiny pony up in her grasp and hold her much akin to a newborn pegasus would have been, cradled in one arm with the parents wing offering support.

“Well, aren’t you an honest little filly,” Sunset told her in a cheerful voice before she bent down to kiss Applejack’s forehead.

Cadance led a collective sigh of relief that included every other pony in the room except for the ones sitting next to her, which got her an even look for Sunset. “You weren’t seriously thinking I was going to hurt her, were you?”

The accusation made Cadance give Sunset a nervous smile. “Well...um...you see…”

“Ugh,” Sunset groaned before she looked back to the crowd, her darker expression quickly returning. “Still, the throne room is no place for fillies and colts unless the business with the crown involves them directly. My mother allowed their presence because she considered babies adorable. I am not my mother. Foals have their place, and it is not in here. So, Raven.”

The unicorn turned to look up at the amber alicorn. “Yes, Highness?”

“Draft an order to have one of the storage chambers in the Western end of the palace converted into a daycare facility so that parents that don’t have the means to leave a foal at home can do it there,” Sunset commanded. “Princess Cadance is good with children, she can oversee the details.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow at the royal order. “Doesn’t the palace already have a daycare facility?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied. “But that’s more for palace staff that need to leave their foals with us for the whole day with regular care. Having new ponies dropped off and picked up throughout the day would be too disruptive. This is more of a three-hour type deal. Plus, I doubt any of these kids like hanging around in line all day.”

With the matter apparently settled, Sunset looked back towards Applejack’s parents while the little foal looked on from Sunset’s forelegs. “Now, what is the business that you bring before the crown today?”

With Sunset apparently not ready to burn the two earth ponies to a crisp, Bright Mac approached the throne again. “Well yer Highness,” he said. “Ya see, my family runs the apple orchard down near Ponyville. Apples are the bumper crop of the town since mah wife’s father moved away. It’s what most of the town lives off of. But we’ve had a bad infestation of apple blight this past season. Half of our orchard needed to be cut down to save what we had left. We...need help, Yer Highness.” Going by the look on the earth pony’s face, he didn’t seem to like asking for it.

“Ponyville,” Sunset mumbled to herself before she looked over to Raven. “That’s the little village you can see from Canterlot, right? Population three-hundred-thirty-three, with lots of traffic from ponies on their way to Canterlot, and it’s labeled as a level 3 hazardous zone, correct?”

The gray unicorn nodded before she adjusted her glasses. “Yes, Your Highness,” she said. “The close proximity to the Everfree Forest causes a multitude of unplanned weather phenomena and a large number of dangerous creatures are said to call the forest home. Some of which have been known to venture outside of their boundaries. I believe the last incident occurred just last month, when a group of parasprites followed a shipment of oats being transported by cart. Luckily, the wagons had stopped at a rock farm by the time all the grain was eaten. Without any major source of food, the bugs were kept under control until a team of experts could be sent to take care of them.”

Cadance blinked at Sunset’s inexplicable knowledge of some middle of nowhere town and looked over to the bigger alicorn. “How do you know so much about Ponyville?”

“Rarity,” Sunset replied, as if that strange word explained everything. “Which reminds me, I should have some cloth shipped to her for encouragement.”

As Cadance just cocked her head in confusion, Sunset looked back down to Bright Mac. “What you're asking me is no simple thing, Bright Mac,” the amber alicorn said. “I understand that your family’s farm is in trouble as well as the food supply of Ponyville as a whole. However, the fault for this tragedy can not be laid at the hooves of the weather patrol, or any other government agency. In fact, the argument could be made that your own negligence in caring for your crop was the cause of this infection growing to the state that it has. The crown does not simply make bits out of thin air Bright Mac, we take it from other Equestrians. Should they have to pay for your mistakes?”

Bright Mac and his wife became more and more uncomfortable as Sunset went on, and the filly in her forelegs looked up at the alicorn in worry. “But on the other hoof, something can be said of the government’s duty to help those ponies who can not help themselves,” she went on. “It is not as if any of you planned on getting apple blight. Plus, you do provide the majority of food for your town. Letting other ponies go hungry through no fault of their own at all leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.”

Sunset reached up and tapped her chin for a few seconds as she considered something, then looked back to the stallion. “Tell me, Bright Mac, does your farm sell every single apple it grows?”

“Well...technically, no Yer Highness,” he said with a shake of his head. “One of our fields is infested with fruit bats. We leave them alone to eat the apples that grow there?”

Kibitz gagged. “You-You ponies are raising vampire fruit bats?” he demanded with an angry snort. “Do you have any idea how destructive those pests are? Allow them to breed and they’ll devour both your crops and the ones belonging to the next town over!”

The accusation put a look of fight on Bright Mac’s face. “What? No! No Sir,” the stallion quickly said. “These are the normal fruit bats, come in all kinds of colors. They don’t eat but the apples of the trees they live in.”

“Until they breed and slowly take over your orchard,” Sunset deadpanned before closing her eyes and letting out a long sigh. When she opened her eyes again, she gave Bright Mac a hard stare. “I will have a group of animal handling experts draw up plans to remove the creatures. The crown will then purchase the apples grown in this part of the orchard at a price ten-percent less than normal market value for a period of three years. In return, I will fund a fresh group of saplings to be sent to your farm to replace the lost trees and have granaries ship in enough food to provide for Ponyville until the next season. I take it the Apple Family’s expertise in growing the fruit they are named after can speed along their development and have the replacements ready by then?”

The stallion below nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, Yer Highness! It’ll take a lot of work and care, but we’ll sure do our best! Thank ye Highness, thank ye kindly.”

“Alright then,” Sunset said before she lifted Applejack up to kiss her on the forehead again. “Now, you be a good filly for your parents.”

As the family turned to leave, Cadance frowned internally as she went over Sunset’s deal with the Ponyville Apple Family in her head. Being raised in an earth pony village, the former pegasus knew more about agriculture than most ponies in Canterlot. While to the average pony, it sounded like Sunset had made the family pay for replacing their orchards by forcing them to sell apples at a slightly reduced price to the crown, the figures Cadance ran through her head said differently.

The usual markup for farm produce was generally fifteen-percent of its actual value once labor was factored in, with the price growing depending on shipping costs. Which, judging by how much the apples had to travel between Ponyville and Canterlot,wouldn’t be all that much if moved in bulk. So, Sunset had just locked the government into a three-year guarantee to buy apples at what would amount to a profit for the farm family that was supposed to be paying for the repairs through this deal.

Sunset wasn’t stupid. The pink princess knew that the amber alicorn had to understand basic Equestrian economics. So...had she just made a big show to anypony watching to make it look like the government would require repayment of any assistance while actually giving the Apple family more help than they asked for?

What was the point of that?

“Next!” Sunset called out, an order than was repeated by the pegasus Sunny Daze.

Being the stern ruler that nopony wanted to invite to a party but everypony could count on was a lot easier than Sunset thought it would be. Her first case had many of the ponies with foals in tow deciding that it would be better to come back on Monday. After that, there was a pony claiming that he had been hit by a guard’s chariot and the crown should pay for his medical bills and living expenses during his long road to recovery. This prompted Sunset to add the stipulation that all cases needed to be presented inside a circle of truth.

Five more petitioners that Sunset could see quickly made themselves scarce. Although, she didn’t know if they would be coming back when Celestia returned, or if they had just thought they could get one over on the less experienced princess. Sunset really hoped it was the later. She didn’t want to think that there were ponies who actually did take advantage of Celestia’s good nature.

The rest of the morning went by smoothly enough after that. A pony would come to ask for a ruling, and Sunset would go on to explain the consequences of each possible judgement from multiple viewpoints before providing a decision. Despite needing to put on an unapproachable air of strict authority, the amber alicorn helped as many ponies as she could.

There were a few simple cases, thankfully. Requests for an increased guard presence due to fears of timber wolves or other such problem were given without as much consideration as other things. Complaints against the actions of nobles or the ruling of the local magistrate had Sunset give an order for an impartial investigator to be sent in order for a complete picture to be gained, one she knew Celestia would act on when proof was put before her. And requests for mining or farming rights were given after Sunset worked out a proper share be given to the crown, with a timeframe added in the case of new farms or orchards to designate when the added crop tax would end.

Such was the way of how things went until the last two petitioners came before Sunset. The pair of nervous unicorns consisted of a pale white stallion that looked like he had a bit too much to eat over the past several years, and a yellow mare that was taller than most, but not quite at the height Sassy or Fleur possessed. Whatever treatments she had gotten had only occurred later in life when they weren’t nearly as effective.

Both of the ponies bowed low to Sunset as Sunny Daze held up a paper to read. “And our last petitioners for the day are one Sterling Silver, and Genuine Copper, Your Majesty,” she announced. “They’ve come to ask the crown for forgiveness for grievances performed against Your Highness.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the statement. “What grievances?” As far as Sunset could remember, she had ever even seen the two ponies in front of her.

The Silver stallion stumbled forward. “Our apologies, Princess! If we had known what our daughter planned, we would have never allowed her out of the house that day.”

“Do not worry, Your Highness, we’ve dealt with her,” the mare quickly added as she rose up a little bit to look at Sunset. “You will not have to worry about her ever troubling you again.”

The pleading ponies only seemed to annoy Sunset, as her frowned deepened. “Okay, first off, what the hay are you two idiots talking about? And just who are you two?”

Raven stepped forward. “Sterling Silver and Genuine Copper are the ponies who own the controlling interest in the Smooth as Silk conglomerate, Your Highness,” she explained. “They supply about a third of the curtains, pillows, and bed sheets to the palace, Equestrian embassies, and guard outposts.”

Which explains why they’re groveling so much, Sunset thought to herself. The amber alicorn had shown herself as a harsh ruler all morning, despite giving out aid to all the ponies she could. But just like human politics, image was everything and actual facts didn’t matter at all. “And what exactly is this grievance?”

The mare of the pair was the one that answered the question. “Our daughter, Upper Crust, Your Highness,” she said. “She told us yesterday how she attempted to drive a wedge between you and your personal dress designer.”

“Do not worry, Your Highness,” Sterling Silver told her. “We’ve already shown her the consequences for committing such acts against the crown.”

With the two of them inside the area affected by Sunset’s truth circle, she knew they couldn’t be lying, but the severity of any punishment thought up by parents who had let their daughter become such a spoiled little terror that controlled her friends, and through them the school she attended, with bribes and threats made Sunset doubt whatever they had done to Upper Crust had been anywhere near what she deserved. “And just what were those consequences?”

Sterling Silver stood up proudly after being asked the question. “We have disowned and cast her out, Your Majesty.”

“The actions of Upper Crust are in no way affiliated with ourselves, or our companies,” Genuine Copper added a second later.

Sunset looked down at the two ponies in absolute shock, her mask of frozen calm cracking as her mouth slowly opened upon hearing the news. As she continued to stare at the ponies that were apparently proud of their actions, a cold rage began to simmer from deep within. “You...cast out...your only daughter?”

The stallion nodded in response. “Yes, Princess.”

The sound of metal crying out in pain filled the room as Sunset’s hooves dug into the armrests of her throne, making all of the ponies around her wince before she pushed herself off of the golden chair and spread her wings out in a furious rage. “GUARDS!” the angry alicorn shouted in a voice that shook the room with its power as she snatched up both the unicorns in front of her with enough force that would have caused bruising to several parts of their bodies. “PUT THESE TWO IN CHAINS AND HAVE THEM THROWN INTO THE DUNGEON!”

For the first time since Sunset had become an alicorn, Cadance found herself a little afraid of the angry pony’s temper tantrum. Sunset’s eyes were alight with power, every step her big friend took as they left the throne room shook the palace, and just standing next to Sunset made Cadance’s horn hurt from the amount of magical pressure the amber alicorn was producing in her angry state. Raven and Kibitz trailed more than ten steps behind them, unable to come any closer.

But, Cadance pushed her nervousness to the back of her mind and focused on what she had to do. “Sunset,” she said as she quickly trotted to get shoulder to shoulder with the bigger pony. “You need to calm down.”

“I am calm,” Cadance felt more than heard Sunset say as the words reverberated in her skull.

The pink princess winced from the pain and took in a deep breath. “Sunset-”

“They threw away their daughter, Cadance,” Sunset said, making Cadance clench her teeth to keep them from rattling. “THEIR DAUGHTER!”

The room shook from Sunset’s voice alone, and stained glass windows over a thousand years old that depicted the history of Equestria shattered, spraying multicolored glass everywhere. Cadance dropped to the floor and covered her head with her wings to avoid anything getting in her eyes. When the danger had past, she looked back up to the bigger pony from her position on the ground. “Sunset, you have to stop.”

“STOP?” Sunset yelled. “I haven’t even begun yet! I’ll cancel their contracts! I’ll seize their holdings! I make them wish-”

Unable to take it anymore, Cadance played her Sunset-control trump card. “SUNSET, YOU’RE HURTING ME!”

All of a sudden, the words coming from the big pony’s mouth disappeared, and Cadance watched as Sunset finally took a look at the hallway around her. The pressure in the air that had built to a point where Cadance found it hard to breathe slowly withdrew, and Sunset’s eyes went from a bright white to their normal color. “Cadance, I...I’m sorry, I-”

Cadance didn’t let Sunset finish before she got back on her hooves and reared up to wrap her friend up in a hug. “Shhh, it’s okay,” the pink princess whispered into the amber alicorn’s ear. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she gently kissed Sunset on the cheek.”It’s over now. It’s okay.”

“I was just so angry,” Sunset whispered before Cadance gave her a little nuzzle to continue showing the amber alicorn that there were no hard feelings. “What they said, they....”

“Shhhh,” Cadance said before she nuzzled Sunset again. “I know. It was just like what happened to you, before.”

Ten seconds passed as Cadance stood there, holding the pony she loved in the deserted hallway that Sunset’s angry display had cleared out. When she felt Sunset’s breathing had become steady, telling her the amber alicorn wasn’t going to have a panic attack over her actions, Cadance took a step back and smiled up at her. “Hey, I don’t suppose you could fix the hallway with your magic, could you?”

Sunset took a look around her with heavy eyes. “Um...yeah, give me a second,” she mumbled before her horn lit up.

Thanks to the experience she had gained with magic after all the hours Sunset put her through practicing, Cadance was able to make out the dozens of spells the amber alicorn casually threw around as she filled in cracks and sent millions of glass pieces flying to rearrange them back into transparent pieces of art before making them whole again. Although the level of power Sunset displayed wasn’t anything special, the way she wove so many of them at the same time remind the pink princess one of the reasons she admired Sunset so much.

When it was finished, Cadance got Sunset’s attention again. “Now, since I know it’s going to be on your mind until you do something to take care of it, I’ll have the guards locate Upper Crust and bring her to the palace so we can take care of this. You need to go have your news meeting and show everypony that fake, I’m an evil overlord exterior.”

Cadance smirked when she saw Sunset pull into herself a bit at being seen to. “Was I that obvious?”

“Not really,” she said with a shake of her head. “Although, I have to wonder why you’re doing this whole act. Trying to get the ponies to wish Princess Celestia was back as soon as possible?”

After hesitating for a moment, Sunset shook her head. “Not really, although, I’ll admit that a small part of it now that I think about it,” she admitted before getting a bit more serious. “Cadance, you were listening right next to me. A few of the ponies that showed up had real problems, but for the most part, they just wanted a princess to wipe their plots for them!”

Cadance winced at Sunset’s words. “I don’t seem to remember anypony asking-”

Sunset gave the other alicorn a half-lidded stare. “It was a metaphor, Cadance.”

“...oh,” the pink princess replied.

“And yeah, I get that some ponies like the Apples need the help,” Sunset went on. “But if everypony starts taking from the pot that we’re all supposed to contribute to for the littlest things or because they think they deserve it, then there’s not enough to help the ponies that really need it. And Celestia’s been letting this go on since...well, apparently for a really long time, judging by how many ponies asked for stupid things.”

Cadance tapped her hoof to her chin. “Or they thought they could get one over on you because you’re new.”

The idea made Sunset let out a snort of agitation. “No. I sat with Mom enough to know those requests were pretty common. And she always at least promised to look into it,” the amber alicorn grumbled. “And even if she eventually decides the crown shouldn’t get involved, the fact ponies go to her for the smallest things in the first place sets a bad precedent! It’s like she’s the mom that never let her foals stop sucking her teats!”

“You’re not going to ever stop with that, are you?” Cadance asked with an unamused expression. Then, when Sunset gave her a sheepish grin, the pink princess rolled her eyes. “Just get going and scare all of the reporters into obeying and welcoming Celestia back with open hooves.” Then, after a moment’s pause, she frowned. “Unless you’re only doing all of this to try and show Celestia that you shouldn’t be put anywhere near a place of power ever again. Which you’re not, right?”

Sunset gave Cadance a nervous look. “Umm...bye!” she said before turning around and quickly galloping off.

Three turns after breaking away from Cadance, Sunset finally slowed down and got her bearings before heading towards the room Celestia usually met with the assembled press. While Cadance hadn’t been quite on the nose with her assessment of Sunset’s style of ruling, the amber alicorn had to admit that the pink princess had a good idea.

At least when it came to dealing with the press, the actual ruling...well...it was hard not to help ponies who really needed it!

But the ponies Sunset was fixing to talk to weren’t the kind who needed help. In fact, they were the kind who needed a good kick in the butt. She remembered some of the headlines that had appeared over the years when Celestia had made a little stumble or was caught on camera with the tiniest of frowns because she was about to sneeze. Then, because the perfect and infallible Princess Celestia, she who raised the sun and moon, disliked something, business and charities would fail overnight. Which in turn put that much more pressure on Sunset’s mother to always smile, always look happy, always be perfect in front of everypony when even a single public eye could be watching her.

Except when she was alone with her daughter.

Sunset stopped in her tracks at the sudden realization. Wait a second, she thought to herself.

All the times Celestia had scowled at her, all the eye rolls, all the snorts of displeasure and sarcastic comments Sunset had been subjected to during the last days of her previous stay in Equestria…had that all been because of them?

Because of those stupid reporters who never gave her mom a second’s peace?

Sunset was of two minds on the subject. On one hand, she actually felt a little closer to her mother because of all the negative interactions they shared the first time around. Celestia had loved Sunset enough to show the amber alicorn the real her, not the perfect princess she had to be in front of the rest of Equestria. And on the other hand, it was because her mother had to be perfect around everyone else that Sunset had received so much of her mother’s disdain, because she couldn’t show it to anyone else.

If not for that, well...Sunset had to admit that she probably would have turned out just as bad as before, but at least she wouldn’t have had as much doubt when it came to Celestia’s affections for her.

So, Sunset went to confront the ponies that had ruined her relationship with her mother.

The sun shown down on Canterlot, reflecting light off the windows and pristine buildings. The birds happily chirped from their places in the trees. The numerous citizens happily went about their business, like the earth pony with a somewhat damaged cart of cabbages trotting down the street, or the unicorn that looked much too young to be out of school receiving a stack of newspapers to hawk.

Of course, there were also ponies without anything to keep them busy.

Ponies like Shining Armor.

The white pony sighed and looked around for something to do. For some reason, the prospect of not going to school while telling his parents that he was had seemed exciting at first, dangerous even. But once he had actually gotten around to it...Shining Armor learned that doing nothing all day was actually rather boring.

“EXTRA! EXTRA! EMPRESS SUNSET INSTITUTES LAWS TO REGULATE NEWSPAPER REPORTING!” the colt across the street shouted out. “INCREASES MILITARY SPENDING FOR SOUTHERN EQUESTRIA DEFENSIVE FORTIFICATIONS!”

Shining Armor blinked at the announcement as his mind was thrown for a loop. “Wait a second,” he mumbled to himself before looking both ways to cross the street and grabbing a paper. “Let me see that!”

One bit to stop the newspony from calling the civic guard later, Shining Armor sat down on the nearby bench to read the full story. Which turned into multiple stories involving information on Sunset’s background and one per proclamation that she made. Half an hour of reading later, and Shining knew about how Sunset, after declaring herself Empress rather than High Princess like Celestia had been, made new laws that fined news sources which caused financial damage to businesses or charities due to misinformation, and put in orders to have several of Equestria’s towns on the southern border evaluated to see if they needed guard posts or any type of defensive fortification.

Halfway through the last article he was reading, the number of ponies in the street tripled, and he could barely concentrate from all the mumbling going on behind the paper. Unable to take more than a few seconds of the distracting sounds, he finally bent the paper down to see just what the hay was so important.

Seeing Empress Sunset Shimmer standing in the middle of the road not five feet away next to Princess Cadance made him blink.

“See Cadance? I told you that was Shiny, sitting there,” she said before trotting more in his direction and standing up a little taller when she reached the bench. “I’d recognize that scruffy blue mane of his anywhere.”

Shining Armor looked around at all the other ponies giving the amber empress astonished, if careful looks, and then noticed something missing: despite her increase in status, Sunset had neither royal carriage or small army of personal guards following her everywhere she went. “Um...Sun-”

“AHEM!” Sunset cleared her throat loud enough that Shining Armor’s head rung. “That’s Empress Sunset. Just because I like you doesn’t mean you don’t have to adhere to the courtesies, Shiny.”

Next to the large alicorn, Princess Cadance gave her a little frown. “Still can’t believe you went through with that,” she mumbled. Then, when Sunset gave a displeased look in her direction, Cadance bowed her head. “Your Magnificent Radiance.”

Sunset brightened up at the show of submission from Cadance. “That’s better, my little princess,” she said before petting Cadance on her head like a dog. Then, she looked back to Shining Armor, whose confusion at the whole display was quickly mounting. “So, Shiny, you here to pick up your tux for the big dance tonight?”

“Um...what?” he asked.

Cadance stepped up next to Sunset. “Your clothes for the dance,” she said cheerfully before her expression became a little less happy. “Don’t tell me you planned on going naked. It’s not that I mind...but, it would be nice to see you in something fancy.”

An amused snort came from the amber empress’s mouth. “Of course he’s not going naked, Cadance,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. A second later, the paper in Shining Armor’s hooves was snatched away in her magic. “He just got a little distracted by my picture in the news. Honestly Shiny, you should probably wait a day or two before getting the whole story on the details surrounding my first few proclamations. By then, all those ponies that like to misrepresent the facts will be put in the Canterlot dungeons where they belong!”

“W-What?!” a brown pegasus pony wearing a hat that had a piece of paper on the side saying ‘PRESS’ said before he dropped from the air.

“YOU HEARD ME!” Sunset shouted back in an angry tone before he expression went from enraged to sweet. “At least I hope you did. Wouldn’t want any of you causing undue panic all across Equestria because you said that I said something your new supreme leader didn’t say. And remember, it’s Sunset Shimmer, two Ms. Spelling is important too. I don’t need to issue an edict that says I have to put you in jail because of a misspelling, do I?”

As several of the ponies took on panicked looks and began asking each other if Shimmer always had two Ms or if it was just Sunset’s particular spelling of it that was different, the big amber alicorn looked back to Shining Armor. “Now that we’ve taken care of those idiots,” she said before pulling Shining Armor to his hooves. “Let’s go see you in your tux.”

Looking at the terrified mob of ponies, Shining Armor thought it better not to contradict Sunset. Instead, he asked the other question on his mind. “Um...Prin-er, Empress Sunset,” he asked hesitantly. “Shouldn’t you have some guards escorting you?”

The big amber alicorn snorted and rolled her eyes. “Those idiots? Shining Armor, the royal guard is-” turning her head to look in the young stallion’s direction, Sunset hesitated for a moment. “-um, put to better use than protecting a pony that has more power than all of them put together and multiplied by a thousand.”

Once again, Cadance gave the bigger alicorn an half-lidded look of displeasure. “That’s not what you said when you left them back at the palace,” she mumbled.

Sunset leaned over to the pink princess. “Not in front of the guard-hopeful, Cadance,” she said quietly through gritted teeth.

After they got to the tailor shop’s doors, Sunset turned around. “Now, I know all of you want to take a look at Cadance and myself in our Fall Formal attire. So, wait here and give us some privacy, and we’ll give you all a few photo ops after the adjustments are made.”

With that, Sunset led Shining Armor into the tailor’s shop that had a closed sign hanging on the door, with Cadance quickly following behind. Once they were inside, the window’s suddenly became opaque, along with the glass in the door. “And that’ll keep anypony from coming in or hearing anything from outside,” she said.

“Ah Princess Cadance! Empress Sunset,” the pony from behind the counter said before he totted up to them with a mile on his face as he looked over to the white stallion. He was much older than anypony else in the room, with wrinkles covering his tan face and bald head. Except for his eyes, which were covered by a pair of thick glasses. “And this is?”

Cadance smiled back at the stallion as Sunset looked impassive. “This is Shining Armor, he’s also here to pick up his clothes for tonight.”

The stallion blinked. “Um...I’m afraid I don’t recall the name, nor the order, Highness.”

Sunset looked over to the smaller pony with a displeased expression. “Are you telling me you don’t have Shiny’s order ready, like you were supposed to?” she asked evenly.

Sweat began to appear on the stallion’s face. “Um, beg your pardon, Majesty. It’s just, with these rush orders, this have been a little hectic. I-I’m sure it’s just somewhere in the back.”

“Then go get it!” Sunset yelled, making the pony tremble for a second before he turned to take off in the direction of a door marked storage.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind the clothes maker, Sunset’s displeased frown disappeared, and she let out a little giggle. “Okay, I know scaring that poor guy was a bit too much, but I’ve got to admit, I’m kind of having fun with this.”

“It is too much,” Cadance told her with a frown. “I thought you wanted to be firm, not oppressive!”

Sunset flinched at the comment. “Well-”

“And what’s this I hear about you wanting to build a wall along our southern border?” Cadance demanded. “I may not know all of our plans for growing the nation, but I know that the south is still open to expansion!”

The amber alicorn blinked at Cadance’s complaint. “Wait they said-ugh!” she groaned. “I said I want to increase the guard’s presence in the south and put walls around the towns that border timber wolf hunting grounds. The place that needs a fence is the Everfree. Have you seen the reports on that area? A better name for it would be the Forest of Death! I swear, if that’s what the papers are saying my plans are, they really do need to be shut up for misreporting!”

“Um, Emp-” Shining Armor managed to say before the big amber alicorn looked in his direction with a little frown.

“Shiny, sweetie,” she said as her expression softened. “I may have had to be a bit rough with you out on the streets just now and shovel a load of horse crap for those idiots to hear, but please don’t take any of that to heart. I just want you call me Sunset.”

Hearing Sunset call him sweetie made Shining Armor’s cheeks heat up a bit. “Oh, well...that’s, um...okay,” he finally managed to agree as he go his voice under control. “So...wait, all that outside, it was just an act?”

“Most of it,” Cadance replied before she looked over to Sunset with a little frown. “Right?”

The Empress of Equestria snorted. “No, Cadance. I really have gone mad with power and become a big evil overlord,” she said in a sarcastic tone before she rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m putting on a show. Well, except when it comes to the newspapers. Somepony has to step in and show that there’s consequences for faulty reporting.”

With the assurances that Sunset wasn’t going to be turning into some kind of tyrant, Shining Armor let out a sigh of relief. Now, he just needed to tell them that there was no way in Equestria that the shop they were in had any clothes for him, and after riding out the disappointment the girls would feel over him taking so long to tell them, he could… Wait a second, he thought to himself. They’re with me now, which means...they know I’m not sick...oh...pony feathers.

As he tried to work up a way of getting out of going to the Formal, the door to the back room suddenly slammed open. “Good news everypony!” the old dressmaker said as he trotted into the room with a tuxedo in hi magic. “I managed to find Shining Armor’s order. It was buried in the back beneath a shipment of fabric I got just this morning!”

“What?” Shining Armor asked in surprise. They weren’t supposed to have any clothes for him! How did they have any clothes for him? Did Sunset and Cadance order something behind his back?

Sunset smiled. “That’s good to hear,” she said. “Although, I am a little upset that my friend’s merchandise has been mistreated. What with all the improper storage.”

“Um...how about a discount, then?” the stallion asked nervously. “Say...thirty percent off?”

After glancing at the nine-hundred bit pricetag on the tuxedo, Shining Armor choked. Even at that price, there was no way he or his family could possibly afford something like that.

“No need for that,” Cadance said. In Shining Armor’s mind, he could see the pink princess taking a knife to the family wallet and slicing open a hole it, causing bits that should have paid for food to feed his family disappear into the void.

“I’ll pay for it,” she went on, ending Shining Armor’s horrified daydream.

The stallion nodded. “Excellent! Now, Empress Sunset, if you would follow me to the private fitting rooms. We can make the last minute alterations that mind be needed for the dress to properly display off your...ahem, imperial countenance.”

“That better mean you’re pushing my plot up in all the right places,” Sunset replied, her air of displeased authority once again in place. “Celestia was the envy of every pony in Equestria when it came to looks, and I’ll be burned if I’m not too!”

“Of course, Your Magnificence!” the stallion quickly agreed before they vanished from sight.

As soon as Sunset and the other pony were gone, Cadance let out another snort of displeasure. “I swear, I think she’s actually enjoying being a total plot hole to everypony again.”

Shining Armor frowned and looked over to Cadance. “Um...out of curiosity, just why is Sunset...doing this?”

“Well...depends on who you ask,” Cadance replied. “Sunset says she needs to act tough to make sure ponies don’t try to take advantage of her. Me, I think she’s just being like this so that when Celestia comes back, she never leaves Sunset in charge of anything ever again.”

“Um, Cadance-”

“Hey Shiny,” the pink princess said, stopping him from talking. “Let’s go and sit down. There’s something I need to say to you.”

Shining Armor blinked, then nodded. “Okay.”

At his signal, Cadance threw a wing around Shining Armor’s back and led him over to the front corner of the shop, where a long pillow was laid out on the ground for customers to wait their turns on. When they sat down, Cadance let out a sigh. “Shiny, I need to apologize over my actions for the past week,” she said before looking down at the ground. “When Sunset mentioned that she liked you so much, I...got a little crazy, and as the Formal kept getting closer, I just got worse and worse from the pressure. I thought I had to get the two of you together because, well...as much as I hate to say it, I owed it to Sunset for not being there when I should have. I didn’t think about what you wanted to the point where you didn’t even feel comfortable talking to me in pony!”

The sudden outpouring made Shining Armor tense. “Well, no offense Princess,” he said, which caused Cadance’s ears to droop even more. Something that made Shining Armor flinch. He should have gone with just Cadance. “But, it is pretty hard to talk to you and Sunset, sometimes. Your alicorns, royalty, leaders of Equestria. You’re supposed to know what to do better than anypony! If you say something should be a certain way, then what right do I have to disagree?”

“Every right!” Cadance told him as she looked up at Shining Armor in a panic. “Shiny, please don’t ever think you ever shouldn’t tell me anything that’s on your mind! I’m sorry I yelled at you that one time over your doubts with Sunset! It was late and I was upset and I know that’s no excuse, but…” she took in a deep, calming breath. “Sorry for freaking out on you a bit there.”

Shining Armor put the tuxedo issue on the back burner for the moment in lieu of something more important. “It’s okay,” he assured her. “I...haven’t really been that accommodating either.”

“You shouldn’t have to be accommodating!” Cadance said before she pulled back a bit. “Okay, well...it does bother me a bit that you might have-wait, Sunset being an unequaled bastion of power isn’t the reason you aren’t going to the dance with her, is it?”

Instead of giving her an instant answer, Shining Armor thought about it for a bit. While what Sunset told him the other morning did bother him, Shining Armor knew that was more on his inability to deal with the reality of Sunset being a goddess than any failing the amber alicorn possessed. But instead of focusing on that, he cleared his mind of Sunset’s abilities to focus on her personality.

“Honestly?” he asked after a moment. “Both you and Sunset, the two of you, you both...well...you just kind of...snatch me up and drag me along. A lot of the stuff we do, yeah I like it, but...I just liked being asked first.”

Cadance looked back at the ground. “Oh,” she mumbled.

“Like...taking me into this place,” Shining Armor said. “The two of you brought me in here to pick up my tux. But Cadance, I never ordered one.”

The statement had Cadance picking her head up a moment later with a curious frown. “Then why did the tailor-oh! Right, evil overlord Sunset said he had one, and...buck. That’s not going to go well when she finds out. Good thing I decided to cover the cost.”

Shining Armor nodded. “Um, and along that line…” He stopped, unsure if he should continue. It was one thing for Cadance to say he could tell her anything. But telling the Princess of Love that he didn’t want to go to the Fall Formal because he couldn’t decide on which of the princesses to take wasn’t so easy. While Cadance said one thing, Shining Armor’s personal experiences with her said another.

“Yes Shiny?” Cadance asked, sounding a little bit hopeful, as if she was asking him to finally stop sounding so depressing.

Before he could say another word, the door to the fitting rooms opened up, revealing Empress Sunset in all her glory. The supreme ruler of Equestria was clothed in a dress of both light and dark greens, with swaths of gold separating the two. A set of five red rubies, with the largest in the center, were sewn into the front of the dress, while diamonds decorated the hemline at the bottom. It hugged all the right places, while giving plenty of room for the areas that would have made her look too athletic had something pressed down too much. And, Shining noticed when she turned her whole body around to talk to the tailor for a moment, the dress pushed her plot up a bit in the back while hugging all the right curves to really emphasize the sheer mass and roundness of Sunset’s rump.

To finish it all up, a web of golden metal so thin Shining Armor could barely see it had been interwoven through Sunset’s wings. From several strands of the web hung tiny decorations of red gems and gold in the shape of her cutie mark.

It was a sight that had Shining Armor’s mouth dropping. “Oh...wow,” he managed.

“Yeah,” Cadance agreed from her seat next to Shining Armor, seemingly just as impressed with the sight as she gulped down an excess of saliva.

On the other side of the room, once Sunset was done speaking to the older stallion, she looked back at her rear and sighed after giving it a shake. “Still think this is a bit much.”

“What?!” Cadance exclaimed. “No, nononono! That dress perfectly points out your plot, right Shiny?”

His eyes still trained on Sunset’s rear end, the white stallion could only get out a single word reply. “Y-Yeah.”

Sunset turned back around, a redness appearing on her cheeks as she did from the attention. “Okay Cadance, you’re up. I’ll, um...wait for you to finish. We should let those idiots outside get pictures of both of us at the same time,” she said before trotting over to the waiting area.

When Cadance got up to head into the back, Sunset took her place. She sat down next to Shining Armor. Several seconds passed, with the bigger pony shifting around ever so slightly in silence before she tentatively reached a hoof over to connect with his, intertwining fetlocks.

As they did, Shining Armor got a reminder of the difference in size and physique between the two of them. Sunset’s hoof was easily fifteen to twenty-percent bigger than his, while her leg had a hardness to it no unicorn in Equestria could ever hope to match.

Shining hated that the fact she was so much more powerful than him was the first thing he noticed. He looked up at Sunset’s cheeks and focused on the redness there. She was nervous, or maybe embarrassed about something. Although what Sunset had to be embarrassed about with a body like her’s, Shining couldn’t comprehend.

“Shiny,” the big alicorn said hesitantly. “About...the other day. When I talked to you in your room, I’m...sorry. What I said that day...it was...I said it to try and push you away from me. And I was wrong for doing it.”

The mention of that particular morning made Shining Armor tense. Of all the times Sunset had been in his bedroom, that had been the worst. But at the same time, he couldn’t really argue with the amber empresses assessment. “Well, I can’t really say that you were wrong.”

Sunset winced, tugging Shining Armor a little closer to her before she looked back at him with desperate eyes. “Yes I was!” the alicorn exclaimed in a slightly panicky fashion. The bust of emotion was short lived, and Sunset drew back into herself as she spoke. “Shiny...I...know what it’s like to be in your position, to be surrounded by the incredibly impossible and have to constantly compare yourself to it. And I know how this sounds coming from the bucking Empress of Equestria, but it’s the truth. I grew up next to Celestia, and Cadance just showed up with a horn and wings out of the blue to throw me for a complete loop.”

“I know,” Shining Armor replied as he sighed and hung his head. “The problem’s with me not being able to deal with your position, not you having it.”

A tiny growl came from Sunset as the grip she had on his foreleg tightened. “Damnit Shiny!” the Empress exclaimed before she got up on all fours and walked forward a bit before turning around to face him. “What you’re feeling isn’t a problem, and I’m not some big fat white alicorn that’s going to give you grief for not kissing the new princess’s plot! So tell me how me being here has ruined your dreams. Tell me how much it galls you that your little sister looks up to a pony she’s known for barely more than a week as much as you. Tell me that you’re only being nice to me because you’re supposed to! TELL ME THAT YOU HATE ME!”

Shining Armor didn’t think, he just reacted to the big pony that shouted at him with her eyes closed as water leaked out and her legs trembled, getting up to pull her into a hug. Sunset didn’t resist and stepped forward pushing them both back until Shining Armor was sitting back on the pillow with the crying alicorn in his forelegs. “Sunset, I don’t hate you.”

“You should!” she replied. “Look at me! I-I’m taking your sister away from you, I’m making you feel inadequate! I’m in charge of Equestria for less than a day, and I’m already bullying everypony I see! And the worst part is, I actually think I enjoy it!”

Although it had been awhile since Sunset’s last freakout turned into a total breakdown, and even longer since Twilight had experienced one, Shining Armor remembered the routine. He moved a leg up to place a fetlock on the back on her neck and slowly stroked the bigger pony’s mane at a slow pace to give her body something slow to sync up with.

As Shining Armor waited for Sunset to calm down so she would be open to listening to what he said, the white unicorn found himself thinking back to their interactions. Although Sunset had given him much the same reasons as to why she was worthless, or a bad pony before, Shining Armor found himself truly considering some of his responses.

The Twilight related response was a no brainer. Shining Armor had known that his sister would find personal heroes outside of his family more in tune with her nerdy leanings from the day she became so interested in Starswirl the Bearded. When she became enamored with Sunset Shimmer, things had only gotten better in his opinion. She helped Twilight look outside of the books she constantly kept to and gave her a real life example to follow as a fellow magical prodigy. On top of which, not once did she ever discourage the purple unicorn, and was taking steps to ensure Twilight would get to live out her young dream of going to Princess Celestia’s school.

Young dream…

Shining Armor blinked as one of this thoughts jumped from one train to another.

Back before he met Sunset, before he even thought of joining the royal guard, the thing Shining Armor had wanted to be was a hero. He wanted to be the pony that broke into the tower and defeated the dragon to save the princess. Becoming a member of the guard was just an evolution of that ideal. But in the end, his dream had stayed true to its core. He wanted to join the royal guard as a way to have adventures, to get the attention of a nobel’s beautiful daughter, to stand in front of Princess Celestia and all of Canterlot as she sung his praises. In the end, he wanted to live his O&O game.

Just like when he was a foal.

“Sunset,” Shining Armor said after holding the bigger pony close enough to feel her heartbeat had slowed down enough to have a conversation for her.

The big alicorn breathed in a wet breath through her nose. “Yes, Shiny?” she replied.

“Being a princess and ruling Equestria, is that what you always wanted?” Shining Armor asked softly as he pushed her back.

Sunset moved back under her own power. “Well...when I found out...yeah,” she admitted before looking away. “I obsessed over it for years when I was on the other side of...yeah.”

“Then, why aren’t you happy?” he asked her gently. “You’re the big princess now, literally.”

The question made Sunset tense. “No, I don’t deserve to be-”

Shining Armor cut her off. “I didn’t ask if you deserved it,” he said in the same soft tone he had been using, which was still enough to keep Sunset from going on. “I asked if you had wanted to be a princess, and if you were happy because you became one.”

Finally, Sunset lowered her head. “No,” she said. “I’m not. To be honest, I have everything I ever wanted as a filly, but it just makes me miserable.”

A sigh escaped from his lips as Shining Armor learned back. “That’s what I think it is that upsets me about you, really. You’re a pony that got everything you ever wanted, but you’re still unhappy with it. Because…” He paused and took in a breath. “Because I’m starting to think that when you got your wings, you found out that they weren’t what you really wanted after all. They were just something you focused on to the exclusion of everything else.

“Like with me, wanting to be a royal guard,” he continued. “I thought I would be happy if I achieved that goal. Then you came along and showed me that even when a pony gets everything she wants, it doesn’t mean she’s going to live happily ever after. And I saw that, and I started to realize that even if I did join the guard, it didn’t mean that I would get what I wanted. And now that I see that, I try and figure out what is it that I really want out of life, and what I need to do to get it. But...well...I don’t know what it is or how to find it. I have one year of school left after this one, and I have no idea what I want to do when I get out.”

Then, before Sunset started to tense and do something stupid, like blaming herself for causing him to lose all direction, Shining Armor quickly added, “and I think that it’s better that I’m able to see that now, when I have a chance to change before I sign up for a tour of duty and get stuck in someplace the Badlands for four years.”

Sunset gave Shining Armor a worried look. “You...want to go to the Badlands?”

“Well,” Shining Armor began before he felt his embarrassment rise. “The thing is...I...kinda...want to be a hero. And...well, that’s where a lot of the action is.”

Much to the young white stallion’s dismay, Sunset gave him a little smile before a tiny laugh through her nose made Shining Armor afraid she was actually snickering at him for a second. “Well you already are one to me,” the Empress of Equestria said before she leaned in and kissed him.

Unlike Sunset’s normal kisses, the one she planted on Shining’s lips in the tailor’s shop wasn’t forceful or invasive. Her tongue ran along the edge of his lips as if to just get a taste of him before the big alicorn let out a low moan before her the hooves that had been down at her side came up to gently caress the white stallion’s flanks.

Then, she slowly pulled away, breaking the kiss that Shining Armor had been so enjoying and went up to run her tongue along the inside of his ear. “I know you want more, Shiny,” Sunset whispered. “But I do have some photographs to pose for, and we should save the best for after the Formal. But when this dance is over and I get you back to the palace, you’ll get all of me, and…” She moved the two of them back until Shining was laying on his back, fully exposed. Then, Sunset moved down his barrel, kissing as she talked. “I’ll...get...all...of...you.”

The last kiss touched Shining Armor’s exposed skin, making the young stallion’s whole body shiver with a wave of expectant pleasure. After he recovered, Shining saw Sunset looking at the space between his rear legs as if she was considering something. He barely had time to blush at Sunset’s scrutinizing of his male anatomy before she apparently made some internal decision smiled again. “All of you,” she said before licking her lips.

Shining Armor’s eyes went wide as he realized what she was saying, with the rest of his body reacting as if tonight had already come.

On the other side of the room, the door began to slowly open, and Sunset was forced to back away as Shining got back on his hooves to hide his male anatomy by laying on his stomach. His confused mind tried to make sense of what Sunset had just said in a way that didn’t involve him mounting her after the dance that he wasn’t going to ended.

Even though...if he was going with Sunset, and doing...that...later, it...didn’t seem too bad to go to the Formal with her after all...as long as Cadance wasn’t put out by it, that is.

Such were Shining Armor’s thoughts when Cadance stepped into view and gave him a sight that did nothing to help settle his anatomy down. The pink princess was dressed in a white gown with gold designs that ran along the length of the dress. Like Sunset, a collection of gems, blue ones, decorated the front of her dress and a web of decorations hung from her wings. Although, the delicate metal meshed with Cadance’s feathers was silver, and a dozen tiny crystal hearts dangled from nearly invisible chains. Unlike Sunset, Cadance managed to pull off the look with a level of gracefulness that the other alicorn lacked. Every inch of the pink princesses body was shown off with the dress.

It left both Sunset and Shining Armor stunned.

“So...what do you think?” she asked after giving them a little trot around to show off all the sides.

“Very...um...wow,” Sunset told her.

It was more than Shining Armor could manage. “Yeah, wow.”

As Cadance smiled and looked away as if she was embarrassed by the attention despite the fact her cheeks were as pink as ever, Sunset nodded to the tailor. “You do good work Stitch’n Time,” she said before looking out to the door. “And now...the vultures must be fed. Really wish I hadn’t locked my escort in that forcefield.”

“Huh?” Shining Armor blinked at the news. Sunset had done what to the guards that were supposed to protect her? He knew that Sunset was more than strong enough to take care of herself, but to just throw away the guards that accompanied Celestia just seemed like too big of a change.

The amber empress looked over to Shining Armor with a defensive expression on her face. “Well if they can’t break an energy dome that I can with a single kick, I don’t see why I need them.”

“Sunset,” Cadance cut in with a half-lidded expression. “I’m pretty sure a pony would have to be strong enough to shatter the moon to break the barrier you put them in.”

In response to Cadance’s words, Sunset’s cheeks heated. “I don’t think I’m that strong.”

Then the big pony cleared her throat. “Now, enough with the talking, got to deal with, ugh, the press. I’ll buy you a few seconds to make sure everything’s in order Cadance.” Sunset opened the door with her magic, then stepped outside to the flash of cameras before the door closed, leaving Cadance and Shining alone.

“Well, I better hurry up before Sunset does something...Sunset,” she said before trotting forward a bit, then stopped and turned back to the white stallion. “Listen, Shiny...about earlier. I know you’re nervous, but I also know things will work out.”

Then, Cadance took another step and touched her lips to his. Like Sunset’s, it was a light kiss without much behind it, promising nothing more than what he was getting. Then she stepped back and smiled. “I’ll see you later tonight for the dance, and afterwards for much, much more,” she promised with a smile before following Sunset out the door.

“-as for the young stallion who went in with us,” Sunset's voice came through the opening before Shining Armor could almost hear her give the assembled ponies a baleful stare. “You will give that colt his privacy, or I will be very displeased.”

When the door closed again, Shining Armor was left stand alone with the tailor, very confused. Had the way of the world changed in the past twenty-four hours in a way he wasn’t aware of? Both of the alicorns acted like they were going to the dance with him.

While the girls going after him themselves made Shining Armor feel a bit better about himself than when they were each trying to push him off on the other, the confusion he was feeling more than made up for it. What the hay is going on?

“Sir, are you ready for your fitting?” the old stallion asked.

One thing Shining Armor did know, he wasn’t going to be getting out of going to the Formal with a sick excuse.

As soon as they were back on palace grounds, with a wall of white ponies in golden armor between Sunset and the reporters that had followed her around Canterlot, Cadance noticed the bigger alicorn visibility relax. “Okay, maybe the guard is useful for a few things,” Sunset admitted.

Cadance smirked as the went from the courtyard to the large building itself. “So, does this mean we're done for the day? Because it looks like somepony needs a nap.”

“I’m fine,” Sunset replied.

The poor attempt to assure Cadance made the pink princess frown. “Sunset, you’ve been tense since you’ve held court this morning,” she said. “I know you don’t like acting like this, and it causing you stress. And before you say anything, I don’t care how much earth pony you have in you, you need to loosen up and relax. If anything comes up, I’ll handle it.”

Sunset stopped after turning into one of the smaller corridors from the palace’s main hallway. “Cadance, I don’t hate acting like this,” she said after coming to a stop and looking down at herself. “And that’s the problem.”

“Okay that’s…” Cadance paused, unsure of what to say next. Sunset acting like a complete plot hole and feeling fine with it was disturbing in the extreme. But with the way Sunset had gone on about her previous actions, the princess knew that she could have been okay threatening ponies all the time. “Are you sure you're not just proud of what you're doing, not how you're doing it?”

The question got a hesitant groan from Sunset. “Well…”

Cadance didn’t let her think up an argument. Ponies thinking about their emotions too much never ended well. “Look, just go do something you don’t need to interact with another pony to do. That way, you can get something done, and not feel bad about it.”

“Well, I do have to...take care of something on my own.”

Although she had a sneaking suspicion as to just what that thing was, Cadance didn’t press her on it. That would come later. She just hoped Sunset stopped at the vault’s entrance. Everything with the dress fitting said Sunset was waiting until tonight to do something stupid. Although, she told herself. Maybe I should take a precaution or two. “Good. Go, I'll take care of anything else that crops up.”

“Empress Sunset! Empress Sunset!”

Cadance looked behind her to see a pegasus pony in the uniform that identified him as a palace messenger right before he landed in front of the two alicorns. “Empress, the guard have successfully apprehended the unicorn Upper Crust, and have escorted her to the guest quarters on the third floor, where she is awaiting your convenience.”

When Cadance saw Sunset suddenly became tense again, she stepped in. “Thank you for the information, sir. The Empress is heading to her quarters to rest after a large lunch,” she said before looking back to Sunset to give an expression that said to do as she was told at an angle nopony else could see. “I’ll be going to meet with Ms Crust.”

After the stallion left, Sunset bent down to whisper to Cadance in an annoyed tone. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t try that dark overlord junk on me, I know the real you,” Cadance told her before looking back at her. “This is way too emotional a subject for you to be dealing with. You threw her parents into the dungeon for pony’s sake!”

Sunset frowned back at her. “They-”

Before the other alicorn could even begin, Cadance held up a hoof. “Yes, they tossed her out. Just like Celestia did you,” she added sympathetically. “I understand this is close to your heart. But your heart has had enough stress. You go lie down, I’ll take care of this.”

Finally, the big alicorn gave way. “Okay,” Sunset sighed as she hung her head. “You probably would be better to take care of this. I need to go...relax.”

Cadance nodded, thankful that Sunset had been so agreeable. It made her a bit more suspicious, as Sunset giving up so easy on something she obviously had strong feelings about almost never happened, but she was still thankful for it. “Okay then,” the pink princess said with a nod before she headed off in the direction of the nearest flight of stairs.

After a little bit of searching and some directions, Cadance opened the door to the three room guest apartment with a view of the royal gardens. It was a space set aside for somewhat important ponies that didn’t have a small army of personal attendants. The decor was nice without being opulent, with a couch in the back of the sitting room with two pillow chairs on opposite sides of the room, a small table and chairs set off to the side, and a little bookshelf set off to the side that stood empty.

Upper Crust sat at the little table with an empty silver platter in front of her that had nothing on it but crumbs.

The yellow pony didn’t look up from the tray when the alicorn entered, so Cadance spoke up first as she closed the door behind her. “I thought it was supposed to be in style to leave some food on your plate.”

“I-” Upper Crust started before the looked up and saw the pink pony standing in the room with her. “Princess Cadance! I-um,” she said before she scrambled to try and get into a bow.

Cadance stopped her with a raise of her hoof, and the yellow pony went back to sitting, lowering her head in deference. “I didn’t have anything to eat last night, Your Highness.”

The expression of despair on Upper Crust’s face got a pang of sympathy from Cadance. “Is that when your parents cast you out?” the pink princess asked as she moved to sit across from the other young mare.

Upper Crust’s eyes began to glisten at the mention of the event. At first, she only nodded in response to the question, speech came a few seconds later. “Yes. When I told them what happened at lunch, about how how I...tried to…”

“When you lied about Sassy’s actions to try and make Sunset and me toss her aside?” Cadance asked, the feelings of sympathy she had for the mare covered by the anger over her actions.

Upper Crust’s expression took on a look of desperation at the other pony’s displeasure. “But she started it! She was trying to take Fleur away from me! I gave that filly everything that made her popular, she couldn’t just leave like that!”

Once again, Cadance found her anger rising, and a look of disgust at the fat unicorn’s world view appeared on her face. “You sound like you’re talking about possessions more than friends.”

“Well if you hate me so much, then why am I here?” she demanded.

Cadance blinked at the ferocity coming from the other pony. As for her question, that took a moment to think about. “Honestly?” she asked rhetorically after recovering and putting on a calm face. “It’s because Sunset sees something of herself in you, or the way she used to be at any rate. She pities you, and probably hopes to do something to alleviate her own guilt over past actions. There’s also the fact she made the decision to bring you here in a blind rage. While I don’t agree with the decision your parents made, I’d also say that it was theirs to make, if made a bit prematurely. And when Sunset calms down, I think you’ll be sent to an Equine Services center, where you’ll be directed to temporary housing and given assistance in finding employment both while you’re in school and afterwards.”

Upper Crust recoiled at the pink princess’s words. “What? But...you...y-you can’t do that! I can’t-I can’t get a job!”

As the pony in front of her began to internally panic, Cadance merely sat back and let the vision of how Crust’s horrible life was going to go play out, with her probably spending the rest of her life working at a coffee house. “Yes,” the pink princess told Upper Crust, making her snap back to reality. “You’ve never actually had to do anything like that for yourself, have you? You’ve always been the one that has everything right from the beginning. You’ve never had to depend on another pony for help, never needed an ounce of kindness from another to get by.

“Instead, everything was based on transactions,” Cadance went on. “You did this, and you got that. You gave somepony bits, they gave you what you wanted. You did something for another pony, and they were expected to do something for you in return. Even if that something was just stand next to you in school.”

Cadance couldn’t help but wonder if that was how Sunset had grown up under Celestia. She did good in school, she got to keep being the Princess’s student. She improved her magical abilities, she got a pat on the head. She did bad, she got scolded.

Despite the animosity that had been growing between them in the recent weeks, Cadance didn’t want to think such a thing was a possibility. She knew that the bigger alicorn had to have had some moments with Sunset that were just Celestia showing the amber filly how much she loved her without actually saying it out loud. Something that created an effect that was less than desired.

“So, I would suggest you get some rest, and think about where you want you life to go from here on out,” Cadance told her before rising to leave.

“WAIT!” Upper Crust cried out as Cadance took her first steps away from the yellow pony. Yellow forelegs wrapped around pink hind ones. “Please, Princess! I’m sorry! You’re right! I’ve been a bad pony! I’m sorry! I’ll change. I promise I will! I’ll be better! I’ll do whatever you want! Just please don’t do this to meeeeeeeeeeee!”

Cadance ignored the other pony’s wailing and shook her leg loose before continuing on. When she reached the door, the pink princess looked back to Upper Crust and frowned. “The only thing I have heard from you is that you are sorry about finally facing the consequences of your actions,” she told Upper Crust. “Something I doubt the Empress will find pitiable.”

When she left the room and closed the door behind her, Cadance let out a long breath and let the tense feeling flow out of her. Saying that to a pony in such dire straits had been hard. The truth of the matter was, Cadance sincerely doubted Sunset would take the unicorn out of the palace. She would probably even do something to get Upper Crust a minor position in the bureaucracy as she finished school.

But unless the filly actually thought something bad was going to happen to her, without a goal to focus on, then she would never really change.

With that mess out of the way, Cadance set about on something else she needed to take care of. While she hated being separated from Sunset for any length of time, it was something she needed to take care of without the amber alicorn around. Mostly because Sunset would stop her from doing what needed to be done.

Or worse, in making the attempt with Sunset around, it would drive her to do the exact thing that Cadance hoped to prevent.

So, she headed to her next location with a bit of nervousness about going down the stairs to a sub-basement that ponies were encouraged to stay away from. After all, the darkness made it the perfect place for something to that was also covered in pitch black chitin to hide in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, something Cadance realized she probably shouldn’t have been thinking about as she took shaky step after shaky step down the stairs. Then, when she did make it to the floor in question, Cadance channeled as much energy as she could into a light spell so her horn could banish the darkness in a bright blue glow.

Shortly after which she had to reduce it to a soft glow to keep from being blinded by her own light.

From there, she went to the back of the room, and found herself frozen with apprehension when she saw that part of the wall had slid back to reveal a hidden passageway. Oh no! Nononono! Cadance thought as she galloped ahead at full speed.

If Sunset had gotten to the vault before her…

If she had already found the mirror…

If she had already left…

Cadance found herself so distracted by stopping the horrible thoughts from running through her head that she almost didn’t notice the light coming from the other end of the hallway, behind the giant door. By the time she did, it was too late to come to a dignified stop, so she dig in her hooves and threw out her wings to go into a skid.

Barely slowing down, the pink princess leaped into the room, taking the fact that there was still light inside the vault as a sign that she still had time to stop the pony she loved from disappearing forever. “SUNSET WAIT! DON’T-huh?” she got out, struck dumb by the sight she saw.

In the middle of an open area, surrounded by shelf after shelf of ancient antiquities that were covered in dust and cobwebs along with a few objects that had little pillars of their own away from everything else, Celestia sat on a large body pillow with papers full of mathematical equations and open books strewn all about while a newspaper with Empress Sunset’s picture on the front floated in her magic.

She looked up from her reading and smiled. “Oh, Cadance. I was wondering if you would locate this place,” Celestia said before she put the paper. “Tell me, did Sunset really change the title of High Princess to Empress in her first ten minutes of ruling?”

“Actually, the idea occurred to her in the first ten minutes, but she waited until there was a press conference to officially-wait a minute!” the pink princess exclaimed before she pointed a hoof at Celestia. “What’re you doing here? You’re supposed to be talking with the griffons about the distribution of the Equestrian relief funds!”

Celestia gave the other pony a little shrug. “Truthfully? That was just an excuse for me to come down here in case Sunset wanted to get to the mirror before the portal closed tonight. If she doesn’t come, I’ll head to Griffonstone tomorrow.”

Still confused, Cadance moved onto the next obvious question. “And...how did you get a paper down here?”

“Raven delivered it to me when Sunset left the palace,” Celestia explained.

“And here is?” the pink princess asked as she looked around the massive room.

Celestia took in a deep breath. “Ah that’s going to take a bit of an explanation,” she said. “As you know, the Great Frost forced the unicorn ponies to abandon the capital of Unicornia until the ice melted, but the royal family couldn’t carry the entire treasury on their backs. So, they had the court wizard construct magic spells to ward off every creature imaginable around the vault, while also taking more mundane steps to keep things safe, life an extra large door. When I had to move the capital of Equestria to Canterlot, which had been renamed since the Founding, I had the vault repurposed to house dangerous artifacts instead of treasure, then hid the entrances from public eye as well as used my magic to strike the existence of the Great Vault from all records. The same spell I used to remove mention of Luna a few days before that, in fact.”

When Cadance continued to stare, Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Surely you must have wondered why there is no mention of my sister in any of the, ahem...ancient literature that Sunset introduced you to?”

Her mind out of reactions, Cadance plopped her plot down on the cold ground as she processed everything that was going on in front of her. Celestia hadn’t left. She was still in Canterlot. She was waiting, just sitting right in front of the thing that could mean the end of Sunset Shimmer being in Equestria.

She still didn’t understand what all the magical text was about, but the scene in front of her made Cadance sigh in relief. “Oh good. You’re here to stop Sunset in case she tries to go through the portal.”

“No. I am not,” Celestia replied calmly.

Once again, Cadance’s brain took a second to process the answer, her relieved smile staying in place for a couple of seconds before shock suddenly replied it. “What?!” she asked in surprise as her wings spread out before frowning at the bigger pony. “WHY THE HAY NOT?”

Celestia sighed, then folded up the paper she was reading and put it off to the side. “Cadance, let me ask you something,” she began. “Would it be right for me to stop Sunset from making a choice on how to live her life?”

“YES!” Cadance roared in response to the unbelievably moronic question. “You’re the mare who raised her! It’s the parent’s duty to stop their foals from making stupid decisions! If you want to be Sunset’s mother, THEN DO YOUR BUCKING JOB!”

Not even seeming to notice the outright fury Cadance was displaying in front of her, Celestia shook her head. “Sunset isn’t a foal anymore Cadance,” she told the other princess. “She’s a fully grown pony, old enough to make her own decisions. I will not stand in her way of something if she truly wants it.”

Cadance snorted out some of her anger before she slowly stomped her way up to Celestia. “Are you out of your bucking mind?” she demanded as she managed to look down on the other pony sitting on her pillow of a bed. “I understand that you’re trying to show Sunset that you trust her after years of being a pathetic mother, but this is not the way to do it! She is in no way near any semblance of a mental state that would allow her to make such a decision rationally! But you’re just going to sit down on your fat plot and do nothing while she walks away from us?”

“Oh, I have no intention of doing nothing,” Celestia replied as she brought her neck up a bit to look at Cadance eye to eye. “I’m just not going to try and stop Sunset by force.”

Hope and doubt began a battle in Cadance’s mind at Celestia’s words. She wanted to believe that the white pony had a plan to stop Sunset from running away from Equestria, but Celestia was just such a bucking screw up when it came to her daughter that Cadance feared anything she did would blow up in their face to the point Sunset would jump through the mirror just to spite her mother.

“Okay,” Cadance asked hesitantly, “what’s your plan?”

Celestia took some of the starch out of her neck before she shared a glance at the paperwork with all the arcane writings on them. “I’m going to give her everything, if she wants it. I was serious about letting her rule Equestria before my death. And if she wants to stay Empress, I would happily be a simple advisor. If she wants to raise the sun, I will give it to her and reduce myself to a little mortal alicorn once again. I would even retire from politics entirely and spend the rest of my life as a maid that does nothing more than fluff her pillows if Sunset wants.”

Cadance felt her eye twitch as Celestia finished her plan. The idea of Sunset ruling Equestria, especially with the way the amber alicorn had been acting as of late was downright horrifying. Her beloved Sunset was killing herself taking on her new persona to make the improvements that she believed that she needed to make.

“You are a complete and utter moron,” Cadance said as she summed up her thought’s on Celestia’s idea before she looked back around at the room of dark and destructive artifacts, slowly trotting in the direction of the exit as if she was on her way out. If what Celestia said was true about the stuff in the room, then there had to be something that would allow Cadance to subdue the bigger pony before shattering Sunset’s means of running away again.

The item Cadance’s eyes settled on wasn’t the hammer with an inscription talking about worthiness, the crown promising mastery over ice at the cost of one’s sanity, the big blue box tucked away in the corner with the words ‘p-o-l-i-c-e’ on it, or the open bag of bits that were emblazoned with cutie marks instead of the usual designs of Celestia’s face and sun. What did made Cadance stop from looking around wasn’t what most ponies would have chosen to smash a glorified piece of glass. It was a simple thing, just floating on a pedestal. A perfect sphere of the deepest red that just drew Cadance to it. Somehow, the pink princess just knew that despite it being little more than a glass ball, it was the perfect weapon of choice for the task at hoof.

So, she reached for it and- “AHHH! DON’T TOUCH THAT!”

The sheer panic in Celestia’s voice made Cadance pause for an instant, and the next thing she knew, a good eight-hundred pounds of white pony was pinning her to the ground.

Sunset had to admit as she finished the cleaning spell that removed all traces of stains on her bed, Cadance had been right. She had needed to relax. And at the moment, Sunset was more relaxed, not to mention relieved, than she ever had been upon entering Equestria. Her muscles felt like jelly, her wings rested limp on her bed, and even her tongue threatened to just loll out of her mouth.

After letting out a long sigh of contentment, Sunset looked to the bag containing her inventions. Before her experience, she had molded them to a better approximation of Shiny’s sexual organ after her encounter earlier today. Then, once she had warded the room with magic that would absorb impacts that kept her from cracking the planet it two, Sunset began her experimentation.

Not only had all three variations of her test models survived the process, the boards holding up the bed hadn’t even cracked. It seemed that the magic empowering her didn’t react the same way during sex as it did when she was angry.

Sunset could spend one last, perfect moment with Shiny before...abandoning him completely at the drop of a hat. While she knew she had to do it for Twilight’s future, that didn’t stop her from feeling bad about it. At the very least, she could take solace in the fact that she would be properly punished for such an awful act by becoming a human again.

Plus, Shiny would be fine. With Sunset gone, Cadance would step in and take care of him. If she didn’t do it herself, then she would find someone he could be happy with. He wouldn’t suffer from her absence. If anything, Shiny would be better off for it.

Sunset’s thoughts of the future were put to a stop as she let out a yawn. She hated to admit it, but Cadance had been right about her getting worn down as well. Being an evil overlord was tiring. With several hours still to go before the homecoming game, and nothing else on her schedule, Sunset followed her drooping eyes suggestion and went to sleep.

Without knowing why, Sunset trotted down the hallways of the palace she called home. She smiled at the servants that quickly moved out of her way, nodded to the government staff that kept the wheels of Equestria turning, and looked around. Something seemed...off.

She wasn’t quite sure what it was, though.

“Sunset?”

The amber alicorn turned around to see Celestia standing a ways across from her in the hallway. A profound sense of joy filled Sunset at seeing the white pony, and she rushed to greet her. “MOM!” Sunset cried out gleefully before she leapt to wrap her pony-arms around her mother and hung onto her tightly.

There was a loud crunching sound in Sunset’s ears before Celestia went completely limp. Startled confusion overtook Sunset, and she pushed her mother away to watch Celestia’s corpse fall onto the floor. Bruising dark enough to show through her coat outlined where Sunset had embraced her mother, as well as crushed her to death.

The horrible sight caused her to yell in fright and back away at a wild pace until she hit the wall of the corridor. The second she did, the impact of Sunset’s rear made the marble stone explode away from her, a sound that was quickly followed by all the screams of ponies who had been hit from the impact’s shrapnel.

Slowly, Sunset turned to see a dozen dead ponies behind her, killed by the destruction she had wrought. The sight made her let out a scream of terror before she turned to run.

After turning around, the first step Sunset took caused the castle to shake and the floor to crumble out from underneath her. On instinct, she took to the air and flapped her wings once in a downward-back direction to get away from the hole. Impossibly strong winds that surpassed that of any hurricane picked up the broken pieces of the palace floor, adding to their already deadly speed as they crashed through several walls, spreading death and destruction in their wake.

At the same time, Sunset went flying through the third floor, the fourth and fifth before crashing through the ceiling of the sixth floor and flying through Canterlot airspace to eventually fall in the middle of the city’s busiest marketplace.

“Oh Sweet Celestia! It’s SUNSET SHIMMER!”

“Run before she kills us all!”

“I don’t want to diiiiiiie!”

Sunset watched as the crowd of ponies stampeded away from here, careless of anything in their path. As the dust settled and the amber alicorn noticed she was alone, Sunset ever so carefully moved her right hoof forward to rest it on the ground beneath her.

And the entire mountain shook from the force of the impact.

“Sunset?” Cadance’s familiar voice announced the pink princess’s presence before she glided into Sunset’s view from above. The beautiful mare gave the amber alicorn a smile before looking around in confusion. “What’s going on? Where did everypony go?”

“Cadance, I-”

The power behind Sunset’s voice blew the lovely pony in front of her to dust before it traveled onward to blast a trench of devastation through the busiests parts of Canterlot and hit the mountain. The Canterhorn cracked and crumbled at the impact.

However, the destruction caused by her voice that was in the process of creating an avalanche big enough to wipe out every single pony in Canterlot was a distant second in her mind to the monstrous action Sunset had just committed. She had just killed her best friend. The sight of Cadance being blasted into atoms and spread across the solar system made the amber alicorn’s mind to become overwhelmed with panic. So, Sunset closed her eyes to hide from the sight, and screamed.

It was only afterwards that she realized what such an action would have caused.

“Well, just look at what you did.”

Sunset opened her eyes to find herself standing on a small bit of stone that floated above a vast wasteland of what had been Equestria. From her vantage point, Sunset could see all the way past the ruins of Vanhoover, to the border of the unknown regions in the West, to the ruined coastline of the East. All if it was nothing but flattened ruin, broken only by fissures in the earth that had spewed forth lava when she destroyed Equestria.

Then, she looked back at the source of the voice to see Princess Twilight Sparkle glaring down at her. But, something was different about her. Her coat seemed...dimmed, and she had a look of anger on her face that Sunset had never seen the girl use before.

When Sunset opened her mouth to defend herself, Twilight sneered at her. “So now you want to kill me too?” she demanded.

Sunset flinched, then curled up in on herself before repressing the urge to apologize.

“So how does it feel to get everything you ever wanted?” Twilight went on. “All the power from the Tree of Harmony, and this is what you do with it.”

Sunset let out the tiniest of whines as she unfurled her wings before drawing them around her body for extra protection from the accusing alicorn.

“But,” Twilight went on as she trotted around Sunset in the tiny bit of extra space they had on their floating rock. “I suppose it can’t be helped. Nopony was ever supposed to have this much power, after all. It’s not like you could have stopped yourself from killing every single living creature on the planet. By the time you got to this point, I mean.”

The fact that Sunset wasn’t being berated by Twilight made the amber alicorn look from under her wing. “Hm?”

Suddenly, the mirror to Earth appeared in the middle of the air, floating just a few inches behind Twilight. The purple pony took one look at it, then turned back to Sunset with a frown on her face. “You know what you have to do, right?”

Sunset tried to draw in on herself again at the suggestion.

“What?” Twilight asked at her hesitation. “You know I’m right. Even if you did everything right, with all that power you have, this is the only outcome. So you have to go away. Go away, and never return.”

The amber alicorn looked back over to the purple princess.

“It really is the best solution,” the princess went on. “Think about it. Cadance will be free to pick up Shining Armor. Celestia will be free to teach me. Why, I bet she’ll even adopt me as her daughter this time around after you guilted her into it with all your pathetic whining and talk about how much you love her. Everypony will be better off if you just went away.”

Sunset flinched at the sarcastic words as Twilight kept going. “As if a monster like you could ever love anypony but yourself,” she said. “All you’ve ever cared about was abusing your power. Just one day in charge of Equestria, and you’re already calling yourself Empress. But even after seeing all of this, you’re still hesitating to do what you need to.”

Twilight stopped speaking as the world shook. She looked up and frowned for a moment, then turned her attention back to Sunset. “Come on now, you can-”

Sunset let out a startled yelp as she opened her eyes to be greeted by darkness. A damp darkness that surrounded her completely. She tried to move, but something restricted her movements beyond a few inches.

“No, wait. Sunset, it's me, Ca-”

Sunset struggled against her bonds and a second later, was rewarded with the sight of her room and a loud ripping sound as she...ripped apart the bedsheets that she had apparently become tangled up in while asleep before she fell off the bed.

A quick look around the room brought the pink alicorn who had spoken earlier into view, making her blink in confusion. “Cadance?”

“Sorry for just rolling you off the bed,” Cadance apologized. “But you were tossing in your sleep and covered in sweat and I couldn’t…” She frowned a little before taking a sniff of the air, then focusing on Sunset’s rear end that was uncovered by the sheets. “Um, that’s not sweat, is it?”

Sunset tensed at the question. While she had used magic to clean the bed after her tests, using cleansing magic on certain parts of the body wasn’t very comfortable, so she omitted those from her cleaning spell. “It’s not what you think!” she assured the pink princess as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

“Sunset, I’m well aware that dreams can cause both fear and arousal,” Cadance replied in a neutral tone. “In fact, Shiny’s had a few that’ve done just-”

“Can we please not talk about Shining Armor’s sexual nightmares?” Sunset deadpanned before she frowned at the other alicorn. She wanted to ask Cadance where she got off telling Shiny that such a thing was okay, but the less spent on that particular subject, the better.

So, she decided to switch to something that would hold Cadance’s interest. “The...sweat’s from a nightmare I was having. Everything is is from an...experiment,” Sunset explained.

Hesitation infused all of Cadance’s body, and she lifted a foreleg as if she was going to bolt. “Do I want to know?”

“No,” Sunset told her. “No you do not.”

With that settled, Sunset got to her hooves and fought off the remaining bedsheets that clung to her coat. “Well, good thing I didn’t take a bath beforehand. What time is it anyway?”

“Four thirty,” Cadance answered right as Sunset looked over to the clock in the room. “By the way, are we going to the homecoming game? I know we never talked about it, but-”

Sunset groaned and barely stopped herself from knocking herself out with one of her own hooves. “Okay so, need to have a messenger tell the guards to set up a light security detail and-no, I’ll just put a selective force field around the field that won't let anypony without a ticket in. Although, I suppose having a dozen or so pegasi patrol the perimeter for show would be for the best,” she said as she headed to the bathroom and turned on the water. “Then we can pop back here, get changed, magic our manes into a popular style, then pick everypony up and-oh! Upper Crust!”

The water felt absolutely heavily on Sunset’s body as she sunk into the bath. She just about fell back to sleep, and probably would have, if Cadance had spoken. “I already met with her, remember?”

“I know, I was just wondering what we were going to do when it came to her dress,” Sunset explained.

Cadance cocked her head to the side. “Her...dress?”

“For the Fall Formal,” Sunset went on. “I mean, sure, we could just break into her parents’ house and take the thing back, but I’m not sure she would want anything to do with something they had a hand in getting. Better to have a clean break so...I guess I can just use some magic to resize one of my old Gala dresses. We’re close enough in coat colors so it won’t clash, and-”

“Wait a second!” Cadance cut in as she gave Sunset a scandalized look. “You’re taking Upper Crust to the Fall Formal?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at the other pony’s reaction. “She was just kicked out by her family and lost the most important thing in the world to her,” the amber alicorn explained, fighting to keep the anger out of her voice that threatened to come about thanks to her own experiences. “She needs something good to happen to her Cadance. By the way, how did the conversation with her go?”

“Um...well, you see…” Cadance began uneasily before she went into a brief recap of what happened between her and the other pony.

When she was done, Sunset looked down at the water and put away the scrub brush she had been using to clean her coat while Cadance had been talking. “Yeah, I tried to scare her straight more than once too,” the amber alicorn mumbled. “Hopefully now that she’s actually facing the consequences of her actions, as twisted as those consequences are, she’ll straighten herself out. Just don’t...ride her too much about it, okay?”

Cadance sighed and dropped her head. “Alright Sunset, we’ll try things your way,” she replied. “Just...don’t see too much of yourself in this mare, okay? You may have changed, but that doesn’t mean she will.”

“Okay,” Sunset agreed reluctantly. “And there’s the matter of her parents.”

The rather complicated subject had Sunset hesitating. Cadance was right, what she had done had been an overly emotional reaction because of her past with Celestia. But on the other hand, Silver and Copper had tossed out their own daughter.A daughter who wasn't even eighteen!

Something...Sunset wasn’t sure was even illegal in Equestria...or Earth, for that matter. A passing interest in the legalities of the human species that revolved around her skirting certain laws had left her with incomplete knowledge on the subject, and years of not being in Equestria had created a similar gap in the knowledge of her homeworld’s laws on child abandonment.

Something Celestia hadn’t cared much about when she threw Sunset out, of course.

“Let them rot and worry for tonight,” Sunset finally decided. Celesta could be the one to deal with them come Monday. She doubted Cadance would do anything after she...left.

Once again, Sunset pushed the unease that came up withe realization that she soon wouldn’t be in Equestria down into the bottom of her gut. She couldn’t get bogged down in fear right now. There was still too much that she needed to do.

“What’s wrong?” Cadance asked, drawing Sunset out of her thoughts as the amber alicorn made her way out of the bath. “Is it about...um...what was your nightmare about?”

Sunset tensed. Although she had spoken about such things with Cadance before, the pink princess had always taken a...less than agreeable stance when it came to the subject matter. But, not telling a friend about the problems she was dealing with didn’t seem right either. “Well,” she said after making the decision to talk about the subject. “I dreamed...that I...killed...you.”

“What?” Cadance whispered before she trotted over to Sunset’s side. “Sunset, that was just a nightmare, I know you would never hurt me.”

The reality of the situation made Cadance’s words completely worthless. “Yes I have!” Sunset exclaimed. “Just this morning! Cadance, you couldn’t even stand next to me! And in my dream, all I did was talk, and-and you-you-died!”

Sunset was barely able to finish her sentence before she felt the bile in her throat rise at the memory of her best friend being blown apart by her uncontrolled power. The world became blurry with her tears, and Sunset let out a sniffle before she felt Cadance wrap her in a hug. “Oh Sunset, no. It’s fine, I’m fine. You could never hurt me.”

“I did this morning!” Sunset told her.

She felt Cadance suddenly go stiff in her grip. “Um...about that,” Cadance replied in a higher than normal pitch. “I might have been...exaggerating a little bit. You gave me a bit of a headache, but um...that was kind of it.”

Sunset froze. She blinked away the tears and frowned before pushing the other pony back while holding the pink princess in her hooves. “Cadance!”

The accusatory tone of Sunset’s voice made Cadance wince. “I’m sorry!” she apologized. “I didn’t know you were going to have nightmares over it! I just...well, You’re hard to talk to when you’re on a rant and you did smash a lot of windows.”

“I…” Sunset sighed and let the smaller alicorn go and dropped her head. “It’s fine, and it’s not like broken glass flying around isn’t dangerous. Maybe she’s right, maybe it would have been better if I had never come back to Equestria.”

When she looked back up at Cadance, the pink princess had gone absolutely rigid. “Who told you that?”

Sunset tensed. “Well, it’s not really a pony, I um...you remember what I told you about Princess Twilight, right? She came around in my dreams and said...Equestria would be better off without me,” she said as she looked away from the pink pony, the weight of the subject brought her head down again.

It was because of that Sunset didn’t see the pink hoof until it was inches from her cheek. The blow barely phased her, but Sunset watched as Cadance winced and shook her hoof for a moment before she moved towards the pink princess. “Cadance! Are you okay?”

“OKAY?” Cadance demanded before she brought her sore hoof down and somehow managed to glare down at Sunset despite the height difference between the two. “OF COURSE I’M NOT OKAY! I have to listen to my best friend, the pony I LOVE, beat herself up again because of Princess Twilight bucking Sparkle!”

Sunset began to raise her hoof. “Cadance-”

“SHUT UP!” the pink princess roared, making Sunset back away a step and lower herself a bit until the pink alicorn really was looking down on the Empress. “I told you, I am NOT LETTING YOU DO THIS AGAIN! You think Equestria would be better off without you?

“Do you remember what I was like before we became friends?” she demanded. “I was a frightened, pathetic little pansy of a princess that Celestia didn’t even want to invest any time in! If not for you, I’d still be trying to just start levitation spells, and I sure as hay wouldn’t have learned anything about crystal magic! I had no friends. None! Do you know how pathetic that is for a Princess of Love not to have a single platonic relationship? Fleur and Sassy wouldn’t have even talked to me without you. And Shiny? I wouldn’t have even known he existed! By every single measure, my life is better because of you! Everypony you’ve come across since coming back to Equestria is better because of you.

“Everything I know says you should be proud and happy. So why? Why do you keep doing this to yourself?” Cadance demanded as tears began to form in her eyes.

Sunset couldn’t meet Cadance’s eyes as she replied to the pink princess’s question. “It’s not just what I’ve done, it’s what might happen if…” she said before realizing where this conversation was going and trailing off. If Cadance found out Sunset was leaving, she didn’t know what the pink pony would do, but it wouldn’t be good.

The silence continued for nearly a minute before Cadance let out a sigh. “Are you hung up on that nightmare?” she asked in a much more empathetic tone than before. “Oh Sunset, I’m so sorry I put that fear into your head, but look at the reality of it all. You’ve slept with me every night for awhile now and I haven’t been hurt once,” she said before smiling a little bit. “You even had a bucking wet dream about me, and all that did was keep me up for an hour before making me take a bath.

“Yes, you’re strong, and the level of magic in your horn is beyond my comprehension, and you’ve had a few minor accidents,” Cadance admitted. “But tell me, when have you ever really hurt me, or anypony? Really hurt, this morning doesn’t count.”

Sunset stopped to think for a moment. “Well…” When nopony immediately came to mind, she thought about all the other problems that had come about and would continue to crop up if she were to stay in Equestria. “It’s not just that, Cadance.”

A pink hoof came up to stop Sunset from talking. “Look, I understand that you’re nervous and you feel guilty over your past actions,” Cadance told her. “I understand that your self worth is fragile right now. And I’m sorry that I lose my temper when you put yourself down. But please, please don’t do anything foolish, Sunset. I...don’t think I could take it if you weren’t with me.”

The relief Sunset had gained from Cadance’s words vanished in an instant upon hearing the pink pony’s last statement. “Cadance you... shouldn't sell yourself short. I know you’re worried about your abilities now, but there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be a better princess than I could ever dream of becoming.”

“Oh, thank you Empress! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Cadance barely paid any attention as Upper Crust continued to kiss Sunset’s hooves, much to the embarrassment of the amber alicorn holding the chubby unicorn’s newly resized dress in her magic. Her mind was focused on the same thing it had been since Sunset hadn’t given her any assurance that she would be there for Cadance in the future.

Sunset was leaving.

Celestia’s efforts to stop it from happening would amount to nothing. After speaking with her, Cadance understood that while Celestia had accepted her role as Sunset’s mother, she still thought of the amber alicorn as the same spoiled little brat Sunset had been a few weeks ago.

Cadance couldn’t be mad at the mare for that. She had spent years with Sunset. It would take some time for the image that had formed in her mind of her daughter’s personality to be replaced by the new Sunset. However, Cadance hadn’t spent that much time with Sunset. So it was easy to throw away the image of the old bully that she would have rather avoided and replace it with the princess she wanted to spend the rest of her life beside.

Cadance knew that Sunset had some major problems. Guilt was constantly assailing her mind to the point that the pink princess had no idea how the amber alicorn got along day by day. At least until she fell asleep, Cadance had given what little comfort her presence could offer during those times.

Originally, her plan had been to slowly bring Sunset out of the state she was in little by little. Surrounded by those she loved and was loved by, the amber alicorn would eventually be able to pull herself out of the darkness she found herself in by regaining her self-worth with the help of everypony around her.

Now, Cadance knew that she didn’t have time for that. From what Celestia had told her about the mirror’s magic, tonight was the last night it would be a portal. Although Sunset hadn’t tried to get to the mirror before now, Cadance knew that Sunset had absolutely no plans for the future after the Fall Formal. It was a very telling clue as to what she intended to do.

The thought of following Celestia’s lead occurred to her, if in a different way. Cadance knew Sunset was attracted to her, extremely attracted. She could offer herself to Sunset. Just raise her tail, kiss her hooves, suck her horn, and use everything she had to drown Sunset in pleasure.

But, such a thing wouldn’t solve Sunset’s underlying problem, wouldn’t stop her suffering. That was what Cadance needed to do. That would allow Sunset to take a look at things without some dark cloud over her head, blocking her from seeing all the good things about herself. Once Cadance did that, she knew that the amber alicorn would stay with her instead of going back to the human world for...whatever twisted reason Sunset had.

There was also the more magical option. The emotional magic of the old Crystal Empire was much more complex than the simple uncontrolled desire of the Want It Need It spell. There was magic that would make Sunset love Cadance completely, becoming nothing more than a lovestruck slave, wanting to do nothing more than what Cadance told her to. She would reverse it the next day of course, but it would mean that Sunset would have lost her chance to go through the mirror before it closed.

And then…

Cadance didn’t know what disturbed her more: how Sunset would think of her from then on out, or how Cadance would feel about herself. She had seen what it looked like when Sunset had used her magic to control the captain of the guard, the way he had struggled against her power. Was it the same for ponies under the mental domination spells?

Was it better?

Was it worse?

There was no doubt in Cadance’s mind that Sunset could have used a spell to completely strip Hard Line of his ability to resist, to make him completely subservient to her, and yet she had chosen to force him to reveal the location of Celestia’s hidden vault.

Cadance cleared her head of such questions. The fact that she was second-guessing herself before even looking into what it would take to do the deed already told Cadance that it was a bad idea.

She would just need to find another way to get Sunset to stick around.

“-think?”

Cadance gave a little jerk as Sunset’s voice pulled her back into reality. “Huh? What?” she asked before she looked around a bit. After seeing Upper Crust in the same dress Sunset had been trying to fit herself into the first day she got back, the pink princess put two and two together. “Oh! That’s...very nice, Sunset.”

“Something wrong?” Sunset asked with a cautiously raised eyebrow.

The question made Cadance back up a step. “Um…”

Sunset’s expression turned hesitant as Cadance didn’t give a real answer. After a second, she let out a sigh and shook her head. “Okay, not going to pressure you,” she said. “If you feel you need help with something, you know I’m here.”

For now, Cadance told herself with a little bit of spite.

For a moment she entertained the possibility that she was wrong. That Celestia had just allowed some irrational fears to creep in and Sunset’s irrational need to hoof Shining Armor over to Cadance was just the overgrown filly’s overblown self-loathing.

But, there was something in the back of her mind that told Cadance what was going on was more than that. She wanted to just chalk it up to Celestia’s own fears, but was unable to put the worry away.

“Um...excuse me, Princesses?” Upper Crust said as she carefully stepped forward. “But, what do you want me to do before the dance? Do you want me to go to the homecoming game?”

Sunset looked away from Cadance and over to the uncertain mare. “That’s a good question,” Sunset said. “I’m going to have to go, show the public my presence and all that. Um...do you know if your friends will be there?”

“Fleur and Sassy?” Upper Crust asked before she looked down at the ground before letting out a sad sniff through her nose. “I don’t think I can call them that, anymore. Honestly, I wonder if they were ever that to begin with.”

Instead of giving the yellow mare some sympathy, Sunset simply continued to look at the mare with an even expression. “Yeah, you were just using them to be more popular,” she told the shorter mare. “More than likely, they’re not going to want anything to do with you. But that’s their choice, and I would suggest respecting it.”

Upper Crust nodded her head. “Yes, Princess.”

“Okay so,” Sunset said as she spun around. “Now all we need to go is pick a non-dick guard officer to command the security details for the Formal and the game so we’re not mobbed by the press like last time.”

Upper Crust sat in her room, looking at a catalog of mane styles as the pony that would be doing her hair sat across from her. Although Princess Cadance and Empress Sunset wouldn’t be coming back until seven, the time restrictions on how long there was between the start of the Fall Formal and the end of the Homecoming game was less than an hour, which meant they didn’t have much time to get ready.

But it also left Upper Crust plenty of time to consider things.

Although the Empress was letting her come to the Formal, Upper Crust hadn’t heard her say anything that went against what Cadance said the future of the puggy yellow mare was going to be. The thought of where her life was going made Upper Crust shiver.

She wasn’t going to be the heiress of a major conglomerate! She wasn’t going to be able to boss around and determine the fates of hundreds of lesser ponies that slaved away in factories all across Equestria.

She wasn’t going to be rich!

The very idea of her living in some commoner hovel of a house made Upper Crust want to wretch.

She had to do something to ensure her continued life of comfort!

With her distress making her unable to concentrate on making her mane as fabulous as possible, Upper Crust’s eyes wandered around. She needed to read something to take her mind off everything that was happening to her. When her eyes fell on the newspaper sporting the Empress’s picture, Upper Crust picked it up with her magic.

“Is there something wrong, Ma’am?” the stylist asked.

Upper Crust looked over to the mare across from her. “Oh, there’s just so much time before the dance, and I don’t want to risk messing up the job you’ll do on my mane before then,” she explained before she looked over to the paper. “So just sit there and wait until I’m ready like a good little pony.”

As the hired help did as she was told, Upper Crust skimmed through the articles. Most of them involved Sunset’s actions this morning with how she announced her title change, interacted with the petitioners, and hoofed out several proclamations that were already in effect.

One in particular caught her interest, making Upper Crust read it several times. From what she understood, it would allow her to keep her lifestyle with...well, there would be some discomfort for a while, but after everything was finished, Upper Crust wouldn’t have to worry about money ever again.

All she needed to do was find an alchemist before the Formal.

“I...need to run an errand. Be back in a bit.”

Fleur fidgeted with her dress as she waited in the street for their carriage to arrive. While the clothing Sassy had made for her certainly looked wonderful, the feel of it on her body showed that the blue unicorn still needed to learn a few things if she wanted to make it in the fashion industry.

Still, it wasn’t going to ruin her night with…her date.

Just thinking of the other pony made Fleur confused.

A week ago, she would have jumped at the chance to hook up with an up and coming noble of any level in Canterlot. It was what she had spent her whole life preparing for. It was…

What if I don’t like him? Fleur asked herself.

What if he’s mean?

What if he’s like Upper Crust?

“Is something wrong?”

Sassy’s question brought Fleur out of her fearful thoughts, making her glad the blue unicorn had agreed the two of them should meet before the rest of their friends came to pick them up. “Oh...it’s just...Sassy, I’m worried.”

The blue unicorn frowned a bit. “About what?”

“About Fancy Pants!” the future-model exclaimed. “What if...well, what if he’s...mean?”

Sassy smirked at the question. “Mean, to one of-ahem, Empress Sunset Shimmer’s friends?” she asked before rolling her eyes. “Fleur, if that pony mistreats you, I’m pretty sure Sunset will having him cowering on the ground in less than half a minute.”

Although she knew she should have been reassured, Fleur didn’t know how to feel about that either. All of the doubts she had about Fancy Pants revolved around him being able to control her with his status and political power. With the horseshoe on the other hoof, Fleur didn’t know if her situation improved at all.

Any further conversation on the subject was quickly ended by the sound of several hooves coming down the street. Fleur blinked and turned her head to the left just in time to catch a dozen white earth ponies in golden armor marching down the street. Above them, six pegasi flew overhead, carrying dark purple banners with Sunset’s cutie mark on them.

“Well,” Sassy said as the group of ponies continued to approach, revealing that there was two columns of earth ponies behind the stallions on the outside of the front line, completely boxing off the street while more than a dozen pegasi flew in the skies overhead. “She certainly knows how to use a procession.”

In the center of the formation, there was a giant carriage that needed the entirety of the street to make its way through Canterlot, pulled by five of the largest earth ponies Fleur had ever seen while four unicorns sat on top of the carriage's roof. The thing was so large it could have doubled as a small house.

When the small army of ponies that had to number well over fifty stopped in front of Fleur, the procession of guards opened up and repositioned themselves to line the path towards the carriage’s front door. It opened to reveal a white unicorn stallion in a full tuxedo with a blue mane that was covered mostly by a top hat. He was a bit bigger than Shining Armor, bulkier too, although it looked like that was due more to his age than any real work on his part.

Fleur blinked at the pony, who was obviously Fancy Pants, levitated a cane out from behind him and made his way down onto the street before he trotted up to her. Then the stallion reached down with his hoof to take one of hers and kiss it. “Ah, dear Fleur De Lis, your beauty is surpassed only by your elegant taste,” he said. “And this must be your friend, Sassy Saddles. My dear, from what I can see of your work with our new Empress and your friend here, I think my family would be smart to invest in any line of clothing that you come up with, perhaps even finance a boutique of your own.”

The offer to her friend helped Fleur relax a bit. Flattery directed towards her was one thing, but offering to help Sassy with her future when it was Fleur that needed to be sucking up to him made her think that there was a chance the stallion was after more than just a sexy pony to ride and plant his seed in.

“Thank you for the compliments, Lord Fancy Pants,” Fleur with a nod of her head.

Fancy Pants gave her a little chuckle. “Now, now Ms Fleur, I’m not a lord yet,” he told her. “And in all honesty, I’m not in any hurry to gain the title, because of the unfortunate events that will necessitate it.”

Embarrassment colored Fleur’s cheeks, and she quietly took Fancy’s offer so that she could lead her back to the house on wheels with Sassy trailing behind them. As soon as she got inside, Fleur blinked at what she saw.

Both Princess Cadance and Empress Sunset were laying on a lavish couch to her right that took up the majority of the front of the carriage. What room wasn’t covered by the seating was taken up by two huge racks that held trays filled with fruits, candies, and every sort of delight Fleur knew of. In front of the shelves of food, large tubs of ice kept several different drinks in bottles cold.

Fleur was so wrapped up by the appearance of the royalty surrounded by so many delicious treats and following Fancy that she didn’t notice the other mare in the carriage that was sitting on her left until Sassy called her out. “Crust?!” the blue mare exclaimed from behind the white unicorn. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh! Um...girls...I…” she looked over to the alicorns sitting across from her. “I...just...wanted to clear the air between the three of us.”

As the fat yellow unicorn looked back over to the alicorns, Fleur took in her appearance. Although her mane was done up just like a picture Crust had shown Sassy weeks ago. However, her dress was most definitely not the one that she should have been wearing. While it was certainly nice enough to be shown at the Fall Formal, the coloring didn’t quite match her coat.

Sassy snorted. “You mean about how you tried to ruin me because I tried to get out from under your hoof? Because that’s quite clear!”

Upper Crust reeled back at Sassy’s assault, then put on a mask and cleared her throat. “Um...yes, about that,” she said. “I know any apologies will fall on deaf ears or come off as insincere because...well, let’s be honest. I was never a friend to either of you, not really.”

The declaration made Fleur blink as she took her seat, with Fancy Pants separating her from the other two mares. While they had never been all that close, Fleur had certainly thought of Crust as a friend. Not as good as Sassy, but still more than just some pony.

“I’m not...proud of that,” Crust continued after a moment. “But...look...what I’m trying to say is....I know there isn’t any salvaging what we had. But, I do want the two of you to know that it is over. Sassy, I’m not going to show up in your life again a few months from now and try and ruin whatever name you’ve made for yourself.

Sassy blinked. “Oh...well...I suppose that’s...something,” she finally said after some obvious internal debate. “Thank you.”

More silence followed as the carriage started up again. Empress Sunset finished off a batch of grapes, then looked up at the smaller mares in the moving room. “That’s it?”

“Yes, Eminence,” the yellow unicorn said as she bowed her head.

Sunset rolled her eyes at the unicorn. “Crusty, your apologies suck,” she said before looking over to Fleur. “By the way, I hope you don’t mind me picking up Fancy. I know that you had planned to meet him at the dance, but I thought it prudent to pick him up so I could…” Sunset looked over to the stallion and frowned. “Lay down some ground rules.”

Fancy gave the big alicorn a polite, if nervous, chuckle. “And what sensible rules they were, Empress.”

“A hat! Do you need a hat? What about a cane? Do stallions still carry canes to important events? I don’t know! WHY DIDN’T I RESEARCH THIS?”

Shining Armor did his best to ignore his little sister as his father trotted in to pick the filly up and comfort her. Which made him very thankful that his parents had taken the night off work to help him get ready. As it was, he was having a hard enough time with his tuxedo’s bowtie. He had asked the stallion at the dress shop for a clip-on after Sunset and Cadance had left, and the old pony had just about thrown Shining out.

Choosing to get ready for the Formal had been more a necessity than a choice after Twilight had seen the tuxedo Shining brought home before she and his mother went out shopping. Even after getting ready and deciding that he probably would end up going, there was a part of his mind that was still hesitant.

Mostly because, he still had no idea what had happened at the dress shop. Had the girls decided to try and date him like girls were supposed to? Were they just messing with him? Had they been replaced by shape-shifting insects?

Part of Shining Armor wanted to just call timeout and demanded an explanation about what was going on. But...that would probably mean the end to being kissed by alicorns, an upset Sunset, a hurt Cadance, all his friends getting angry with him for leading both of the girls on for so long, and turn the entire nation of Equestria against him for daring to refuse the affections of royalty.

“Come here Shiny,” Mom called out before she trotted over to meet him halfway. A second later, he felt her magic begin to move the cloth around his neck. “I’ve had to do this for your father so many times that it’s almost second-nature.”

The young stallion had to repress a nod of thanks, opting to go with his mouth instead. “Thanks, Mom.”

“And don’t forget your corsage,” Velvet said before the aforementioned object floated up into Shining Armor’s field of vision for him to take in his own magic. He set the thing his mother had bought during her day in the city back down on the table by the couch.

When everything was fixed, the gray mare stepped away and smiled at her son. “Oh just look at how handsome you are!” she said before her smile turned a bit less proud and more...questioning. “By the way, Shiny, which one of the girls are you going out with tonight?”

“EMPRESS SUNSET!” Twilight Sparkle cried out from the other side of the living room. “PLEASE TELL ME IT’S EMPRESS SUNSET!”

Twilight Velvet sighed at her daughter's antics. “Maybe an after dinner snack will help calm her down,” she mumbled before heading towards the kitchen.

“Nothing with sugar!” Shiny’s father said as he followed the mare.

Without any other preparations to be made, Shining Armor took a deep breath that...did absolutely nothing to calm his nerves as the front door slammed open to admit Sunset, Cadance, all of his friends, the young mares he had been eating lunch with recently, and some fancy stallion Shining had never seen before.

“Shiny!” both Cadance and Sunset called out as they walked in with the Empress leading them.

“PRINCESS!” Twilight cried before she came rushing out from the kitchen to stop in front of the alicorns. Then she looked up to Sunset and… “I mean, um…”

Cadance stepped up to the little filly. “Hello Twilight!” the pink princess said before she assumed a familiar position.

Recognition dawned on Twilight’s face a second later, and she began the song. “Sunshine! Sunshine! Ladybugs awake!” they both said before continuing on to finish the greeting ritual. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Sunset looked away from Cadance’s plot with a redness to her cheeks and turned her attention on the dark unicorn stallion moving to catch up to her daughter. “Now, Twilight. Let’s let Shiny have some time with the girls, shall we?”

“Aww but daaaaaad,” the little filly whined.

Before he could reach over to take Twilight away, the purple unicorn was lifted up in Sunset’s magic as the big alicorn sat down on the floor to free her forelegs. “I don’t mind,” Sunset said as Twilight came into her grip to be held tightly by the big pony. “Sorry I haven’t been around to teach you much as of late, Twily.”

The little unicorn nodded. “It’s okay,” she said.

A sad look appeared on the Empress’s face as she continued to hold the little filly. Behind her, Gaffer led the rest of them around the alicorns and towards the dinning area. “Knowing Shiny’s parents, they’re gonna want lots of pictures of all of us for posterity, so we’d better make enough room for a group shot.”

“I’d be happy to help you clear away some things, chap!” the fancy unicorn said as he followed Gaffer to float some of the dining chairs out of the way. The rest of the others quickly joined in and began talking among themselves about who should pose for photographs as they made room.

“Empress? Is something wrong?”

Twilight Sparkle’s confused voice brought Shining Armor’s attention back to the big alicorn as she held the little purple pony in her forelegs. The alicorn’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “No it’s just,” she said before breathing in through a wet nose. “Just thinking how things...might have been.”

“Will you come and teach me some magic tomorrow?” Twily asked.

Sunset gulped and sat the little filly down on the ground. “Oh, I wish I could Twilight,” she said before reaching a hoof up into her left wing. “But sometimes a Princess has to do things even though she doesn’t want to. Still, I do have something for you. Don’t open it until tomorrow morning, okay?”

All of the ponies watched as Sunset gave the little unicorn a rolled up scroll she pulled out from under her right wing. “Okay,” Twilight agreed.

Shining Armor looked over to Cadance to try and get some kind of clue as to what was going on, and wished he hadn’t when he caught sight of the horrified expression on her face as Twilight took the note from Sunset.

“Okay, enough of that!” Sunset announced as she stepped away from the purple pony. “On to happier things.”

“One second,” the older Twilight called out as she ran into the room, a bowl of something white, light and fluffy in her magic before she floated it over to Twily and set her up on the sofa. “Here’s your snack, dear.”

It wasn’t until then that he noticed the camera floating in her magic as well. “Oh! Almost forgot sweetie,” she said before removing the corsage from its case and giving it to Shining Armor, who quickly took it up in a levitation spell as his mother prepared to take a picture of him giving it to one of the mares.

Alright Shiny, the stallion told himself. This is it. Got to make a choice. You can do this. Neither one is going to freak out of you don’t pick her or anything like that. Just need to pony up and pick one.

The question was...which one?

As Shining Armor was considering which one to ask, both of the two alicorns standing to his left and right, just enough to be in his field of vision but out of the other’s, raised their hooves. “Okay Shiny, ready to take me to the Formal?” they both asked at the exact...same...time.

All of a sudden, everypony in the room except one froze.

The two alicorns blinked as one, then turned their heads to look at each other in confusion.

And Twilight continued to eat her popcorn as she sat on the couch behind Shining Armor with a full view of everything.

Chapter 27: Friday Nights are for Ending Finales

Twilight just didn’t understand some things about adults. Well, semi-adults that had more authority than any other adult she had met because they were the unquestioned rulers of Equestria. Not that she understood Shining Armor any better, or any of his friends.

The latest thing about adults that she didn’t understand was why everypony just stood there looking at each other oddly when the alicorns asked if Shining Armor was ready to take them to the dance. Even Twilight’s mom looked worried.

“Okay,” Cadance finally said with a sigh before she reached up and put a hoof to her forehead. “Really should have seen this one coming.”

Sunset blinked. “Huh?”

The question had Cadance drop her hoof and look over to the bigger alicorn. “Let me guess, you found a letter from Shiny in your locker, right?”

“Letter?” Shining Armor mumbled.

“Yeah,” Sunset replied cautiously.

Cadance sighed. “Look, Sunset. Shiny’s been having to put up with the two of us pushing him back and forth between us for over a week. Yes, we’ve said how much we adore him, but all we’re trying to do is push him onto somepony else, well...can you blame him for having a backup in case you turned him down?”

“Okay, that makes-wait,” Sunset cut herself off before frowning. “Why do you think you’re the backup plan?”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Because I’m the second pony he dated and you’re the heroic empress with the big bouncy butt,” she explained. “So, you’re the one that’s going to be taking Shiny to the Formal.”

“Um, no,” Sunset replied. “I’m the messed up mare that he tried out before finding something better. Ergo, you’re the one taking Shining Armor to the Formal.”

Shining Armor moaned and slumped on the couch as the two alicorns continued their...debate.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. Unable to come to a conclusion about the confusion growing from the events transpiring herself, and with her parents too busy cowering behind the sofa to answer any questions as Princess Cadance and Empress Sunset began to increase the volume of their argument, Twilight looked over to her brother. “Shiny, I’m confused.”

“About what, Twilight?” Shiny asked in a depressed tone as he watched to the two alicorns go at it.

Twilight looked back to the battle for a moment, then over to her brother. “Well, you look sad. But isn’t it supposed to be a good thing when mares fight over a stallion when you’re the stallion they’re fighting over?”

After watching the two rulers of the country for a few more seconds, Shining Armor looked over to the little purple unicorn. “Well...um…”

“You’re taking Shining Armor to the Formal!” Empress Sunset ordered the pink pony in front of her.

“No! You’re taking Shining Armor to the Formal!” Princess Cadance commanded the amber alicorn.

Shining Armor sighed and hung his head. “I don’t think this is what they had in mind.”

Sunset snorted at the other pony and drew herself up to her full height. “Cadance, I am the Empress of Equestria, and I am ordering you to take Shining Armor to the Formal!”

Unable to match Sunset’s height, Princess Cadance flapped her wings to get into the air so she could look down on Sunset. “And I’m the Princess of Love! And according to the Marena Cartna, paragraph two, subsection D, I’m the one with absolute authority when it comes to my domain! Which means I’m the one that can order you to take Shining Armor to the Fall Formal!”

Then the pink pony landed in a huff. “Which I am. So take him!”

Seeing that this was going to lead to another endless argument loop, Twilight put aside her popcorn and stood up on the couch to better look the bigger ponies in the eye. “Uh, Princesses?”

Both of the ponies stopped for a second and looked at her right as Twilight realized her mistake. “Oh! I mean, um-I’m sorry Empress Sunset! I didn’t mean to call you Princess. I just-”

Sunset held up a hoof. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she assured the little filly.

A response that made Twilight shake her head furiously. “No it’s not!” she exclaimed. “You’re a better supreme ruler than Princess Celestia ever was! You’re stronger, and kinder, and nicer, and innovative, and-”

“Twilight!” Sunset snapped at her before her eyes widened and she drew herself back. “Ahem, what was it you were saying, Twilight?”

After the redirection, Twilight put her mind back on track. “Oh, right! Well, I know that we are a female dominated society and that mares hold the reins in most relationships but it’s stallions that are the ones that begin the courting rituals because in ancient times, before ponies invented potions to ensure the gender of their foals, we had a very female dominated ratio of mares to stallions, so stallions were given the task of looking for mares to avoid conflicts between mares and ensure Harmony-”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Twilight, you had a question in there, somewhere?”

Being cut off made Twilight blink. “Oh, well...since tradition dictates that Shining Armor be the one to ask you out, and you both came here expecting Shiny to take you to the Formal, which one of you did he ask?”

“Me,” both of the alicorns answered in unison.

Then, Sunset let out a hesitant moan. “Well, he didn’t really ask me as such.”

“I got a letter. He left it for me in my locker,” Cadance said.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah same here I got a...wait a second,” the Empress mumbled before she studied the white stallion on the couch for a second, and then looked over at Shiny’s two tall female unicorn friends. “Fleur.”

“Sassy,” Cadance said not a moment later.

Both of the mares tensed and looked at each other. They each asked the other pony something that Twilight couldn’t hear, and then tentatively came forward. The white unicorn with the pink made was the first to speak. “Um...well...Empress you said you wanted help-”

“-and you did too Princess!” Sassy said right on top of her friend. “But, there was no way that Shining Armor was going to ask Empress Sunset out with just one day of encouragement. So-”

“-we might have both came up with the same plan for...each of you,” Fleur finished.

“Without telling the other,” Sassy added.

Sunset groaned and put a hoof to her forehead. “So...Shiny didn’t invite me or Cadance to the Formal,” she said before looking over to the young stallion. “Then what were you doing at the clothing store getting a tux?”

Before Shining Armor could say anything, Cadance let out a nervous laugh. “Um...actually, I don’t think he had any intention of getting a tux there,” she said. “We just saw him on the bench and...assumed he was waiting for the shop to open.”

“Oh…” Sunset responded before wincing a little bit. It was short-lived though. She stood back up to her full height with a questioning frown. “But Stich said he had a tux for you!”

Cadance gave Sunset an even look. “After you said he did.”

“And the corsage?” Sunset asked before looking over to the item that had gone back into its plastic case. “He didn't just stumble into that!”

Twilight Velvet peeked out from behind the couch. “Um, that was me, Your Eminence,” she told the big alicorn hesitantly. “My first date forgot to get me one when I went to my first dance, so I thought better safe than sorry.”

Tension in the room continued to build as Sunset remained silent. Then, after a few seconds, Princess Cadance looked over to Shiny. “So...wait, you didn’t ask either of us out?”

Shining Armor winced. “Well...um...about that...I...um…”

“Shiny, were you actually planning to skip out on the Fall Formal?” the pink princess demanded.

Placed beneath the gaze of the slightly miffed pink alicorn Shining Armor scooted back into the sofa as far as he could go. “Well...um...I...I just…”

When he was unable to form a coherent response, Cadance continued on. “Shiny, I even kissed you and-and what I said to you afterwards...I...and you didn’t say ANYTHING?” she demanded.

Backed up into the couch as far as he could go, it seemed Shiny’s fight or flight response was denied one option, so it switched to another. “Well what am I supposed to say?” he demanded right back, making Cadance blink and step away from him. “You and Sunset...you...the two of you...I...I...first, it’s all about Sunset. Then, the two of you talk me into going on a date with you. And it’s fun and awesome and everything else! Then, you’re both all like, pick the other one, then you’re both kissing me and saying I’m taking you both to the Formal and-and....” Finally spent, Shining Armor didn’t even finish as he fell back into the couch's cushions with a long sigh.

Both the alicorns looked down at the ground sadly, but said nothing.

Twilight just frowned at the silliness of it all. She didn’t see what everypony was getting so worked up and sad about. “So...why don’t you just take both of them?”

“It doesn’t work like that Twilight,” Cadance told her with a sad smile.

Despite the fact that a princess was telling her otherwise, Twilight shook her head. “Yes it does,” she insisted. “I have evidence. You both went to lunch with Shiny that one time. That was a date, right? In fact, if you factor in the importance of the venue, it was even more of a date than what you’re going to now. So why can’t Shiny just be with you both?”

Sunset frowned at the ground in thought for several seconds, then looked up with a little smile on her face. “Okay, that sounds good to me.”

“What?” Cadance said as she looked over to the bigger alicorn. “Sunset, that’s not-”

“Not what?” Sunset asked before the pink princess could finish. “Not what we’re supposed to do? So what? We’re the alicorns, that means we make the rules,” The bigger alicorn turned her whole body to face the smaller one. “Cadance, let’s face it. We screwed up. We put way too much pressure on Shiny, and this is the result. I am not going to mess what is supposed to be a magical night for him up Cadance, and if that means we both be with him, so what? What’s wrong with us both having fun with the stallion we like?”

Cadance gave Sunset a hesitant frown. “And what about what comes after,” she asked before glancing at Twilight for a second.

A sigh escaped from Sunset’s mouth and she gave Cadance a half-lidded look. “Do you have any idea what a mess I would be if I worried about what came next?” she asked before glancing over to Shining Armor. “Let’s just go, hang out, and have fun. No pressuring anypony into kissing or being all lovey-dovey with the other. Just the three of us enjoying eachothers company, together. Afterwards...well...whatever happens, happens.”

Then Empress Sunset looked back over to Shining Armor. “Okay?”

Shining Armor hesitated a moment. “No more fighting?” he asked cautiously.

After sharing another look with the bigger alicorn, Cadance nodded to Shiny. “Only if you want to.”

“Okay so…” Shining Armor looked back to his mother, who was still holding the camera in her magic. “Who am I taking the pictures with, then?”

Nearly ten minutes later, after Fleur and Sassy allowed for photographic evidence that they had gone to the Formal with Shiny’s group to be produced, Cheerilee and her other friend who Twilight couldn’t name got their pictures taken along with Shiny’s friends, all the non-royal fillies got in a photograph, followed by all the colts, on top of Fleur and her fancy date, and everypony took one together, Shiny stood between the Princess and the Empress as they both put their wings around him and smiled for the camera.

As Twilight Velvet loaded in another roll of film, Shining Armor looked back and forth between the two alicorns. “So, are we going to switch off between dances or...what?”

Sunset shrugged. “We switch, call dibs...whatever you want Shiny,” she assured him.

“We’ll figure it out on the way,” Cadance said.

A clicking sound announced that Velvet was ready, and the three ponies leaned their heads in together to help compensate for Sunset’s height. “Say cheese everypony.”

As had become the norm, Shining Armor sat between the two alicorns as the enormous carriage made its way down the street, towards the school. The rest of the girls sat across from him while the guys were on his right. He wasn’t exactly sure why Upper Crust was there, what with her falling out of favor with everypony else in the royal social circle, but he didn’t feel like questioning it.

When everything was said and done, Shining Armor was figuring everything ended up to be the best possible solution. Sunset and Cadance weren’t trying to push him off on the other, or fighting over him, or...anything, really. They were still talking about a few things, but nothing like before. In fact, Shining Armor felt himself looking forward to the Fall Formal for the first time since both of the girls just assumed he would take one of them all those days ago.

“Okay, so...you need to take the first few dances with him, Cadance,” Sunset told the shorter pony.

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “The reason being?”

The question got an embarrassed look from Sunset as she broke eye contact. “Well...um...it’s been awhile since I,” she said before let out a gruff sigh. “Look, I’m really out of practice when it comes to...Equestrian dancing, and I’ve got hooves that shatter stone. Don’t really think I should be dancing with Shiny until I get a few practices in and my muscles remember how they’re supposed to move. So unless we get hit by the Music of Harmony or something and spontaneously break out into a big routine, you get the first couple of dances.”

“...good point,” Cadance admitted. “Okay so...Shiny, you want me to take the first couple of dances, and Sunset gets the last dance?”

Shining Armor thought about it for a second, happy that they were actually consulting him about something for once. “That...sounds good,” he replied. What concerned Shining Armor wasn’t what happened at the Formal, it was what happened after. Both the girls had made it pretty clear what their intentions were.

When it came down to it, the Fall Formal was just another date in the rather short line of dates he had been on with the two young mares. Now that who would be going with whom was settled, the arguing had stopped and they had moved onto the planning stages. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any way for both the alicorns to take part in the post-Formal activities that they both showed interest in.

And Shining Armor knew that ponies couldn’t do that as group.

So, for the first time since he had met Sunset and Cadance, Shining Armor needed to make a choice between the two.

A hoof nearly big enough to envelop his own took Shining Armor’s, making him look up to Sunset. The amber alicorn was giving the smaller stallion a concerned look. “Something wrong, Shiny?”

Cadance joined in on the concern a moment later, taking Shining’s free hoof in both of hers. As for Shining Armor, he looked down at the floor to hide his nervousness as his mind was filled with him being with Sunset in bed, followed by Princess Cadance. “It’s...nothing.” That he wanted to admit, at any rate.

Not that anything would stop the eventuality from occurring. Namely, whatever alicorn that ended up with Shining would eventually dump him and go with the other one. The idea of which put the image of Cadance and Sunset together while in bed inside of the white stallion’s head. Which in turn...only embarrassed him more when his first thought of the image was, Yeah, really wouldn’t mind seeing that happen.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Shiny?” Cadance asked a few seconds later as she leaned down to get a closer look at him. “You look a little red. You don’t have a fever, do you?”

A second later, the pink princess put her muzzle up against the side of Shining Armor’s forehead. Unfortunately, this also put her mouth up against his coat, and her wonderfully hot breath made it through the hair covering his skin to send a shiver throughout his whole body.

“Are you cold?” Sunset asked a second later as she threw one of her wings across his back. Cadance followed suit a second later, covering his lower half that Sunset's wing couldn’t reach. Then, they both moved closer until they were pressed up against him.

Enclosed by the two alicorns almost completely and not wanting things to go further for fear of what his body might do without his permission, Shining Armor looked over to the one pony that might kill the mood and save him from a great deal of embarrassment. “So, uh, Upper Crust...where’s your date?”

“Oh...well, I sent a letter to Jet Set to meet me at the dance,” she said before her eyes darted around nervously for some reason.

Sassy frowned at the other mare. “Wait a second. You’re telling me that your coltfriend, who we all knew is an arranged relationship, is still going out with you tonight?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “Let me guess, he has no idea that you don’t have a single bit to your name anymore, does he?”

From her seat beside the blue unicorn, Fleur looked over to frown at her friend. “Sassy!”

“Oh please,” she replied. “If the situation was reversed, she’d be jumping out the carriage to run ahead and make sure anypony I was meeting knew about what was going on.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “But you aren’t. So Jet...whatever, isn’t going to know until after the dance, right?” the amber alicorn asked evenly.

“Like I said, I’m not Upper Crust,” Sassy replied before she leaned back and crossed her forelegs.

A short silence followed the exchange, which was quickly broken by Fancy Pants. “Will you be meeting your stallion at the dance as well, Sassy?”

Although the snort from Sassy’s nose would have been enough of an answer for most, she looked over to the rich stallion and frowned. “Unlike some ponies, I can’t buy my dates.”

As Fancy Pants blinked at the open hostility, Cadance let out a gasp. “Ohmygosh! Why didn’t I see this before!” she exclaimed before pointing at the two. “Sassy, you! You and Fleur! You two were a couple once!” Then, a confused frown crossed her face. “Wait...but you’re still friends. What happened?”

Displeasure appeared on Sassy’s face and she looked away from the princess as Fleur took up the conversation. “We were a couple until our Sophomore year, Princess,” she said. “Then I found out how desirable I was to...more influential ponies and my parents had a coming out party. After that, Sassy and I decided...it was best if we...were just friends.”

Then, the white unicorn looked to her irritated friend. “Wait! Sassy, don’t tell me you still….”

Sassy sighed and shook her head. “No, that’s not it,” she said before looking over to Fleur. “I’m not a filly anymore Fleur, I know the way things need to be.”

Once again the conversation in the carriage that was taking its sweet time to get to the dance died down. After a few more minutes of being closed in by the royals, who had only pressed into Shining Armor all the more since the change of topics, he looked over to Cheerilee and her friend. “So, um...did you girls ever find somepony to go with?”

Both of the naked mares shared a quick look and then turned their attention back to Shining. “No, we’re just going to have a little fun,” Cheerilee told him.

Poindexter leaned towards them. “So...by fun you mean, hang out with...us?” he asked with a oddly leering expression on his face.

Before the earth pony member of the nerd herd could get his answer, the carriage came to a stop and the door opened to reveal one of the biggest pegasi that Shining Armor had ever seen. He had nearly twice the bulk of a regular pony from his tribe, although his wings looked a bit stunted. “Area is secure, Empress!” the big stallion announced with a great deal of gusto.

“Who’s he?” Shining Armor asked. “The captain of the guard?”

“No. He’s just a lieutenant” Cadance answered. “Hard Line was give a... special assignment.”

Sunset nodded at the. “Good work, Commander Snowflake,” she replied before looking back to the others. “You girls want to go first, or shall Cadance and I lead?”

“Oh, we’ll be happy to head out first, Empress Sunset,” Cheerilee told her before she and her pink-maned friend stood up and trotted out the door.

Shining Armor saw the flash of lights as she exited and heard a rather loud commotion from outside the door. As he wondered what was going on, Sunset let out a growl of irritation before she got off of the seat and trotted forward, motioning for him and Cadance to follow.

When he got outside of the carriage, Shining Armor had to shield his eyes. The flash of cameras from the small army of ponies that were standing just beyond a veritable wall of guards nearly blinded him. Every single one of them was shouting questions, their words mixing tothe point that Shining couldn’t make out a single one of the requests for information clearly.

Then, he saw Sunset suck in a deep breath, and quickly lowered his ears to protect them.

“QUIET!”

The sound of Sunset’s royal voice shattered the wall of sound that the reporters behind her collection of guards were making, leaving them all silent for a time.

Which was long enough for Sunset to speak. “Ugh, I was hoping you all would take the hint from the small army I decided to accompany me with orders to keep you away from tonight’s events so these ponies could enjoy their night together without having every little thing they did put under a microscope,” she said before her frown deepened. “But seeing as how you all don’t have enough common sense to stay away from the building surrounded by soldiers, I’ll just do this.”

Sunset’s horn lit up and a tiny flash was produced from its tip. Then, the flash bulb of every single camera Shining Armor could see exploded in a tiny show of pyrotechnics that didn’t extend beyond an inch as all of the cameras opened up to dump the ashy remains of what had been the film. After that, Sunset looked up to the sky and fired a beam of blue energy that went twice as high as the school's clock tower before it expanded outward to cover the entirety of the school grounds. When it was completed, the dome turned opaque, and Sunset looked over to to the big pegasus. “If any of those glorified paparazzi go past my barrier, I want them arrested. Charge them with...harassment, or something,” she ordered. “Thank Celestia she never actually came up with absolute free press laws.”

From her spot beside Shining Armor, Cadance frowned. “Wait a second, I thought we do have free press laws,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Celestia has a public service that you can get at least one free paper a day if you sign up for it.”

“Human thing,” Sunset replied.

Shining Armor had no idea what Sunset was talking about, but Cadance gave an ‘ah’ of understanding.

“Okay everypony, let’s go,” Sunset called out to the rest of the group. “Don’t worry about the barrier. It’s like a one-way mirror with sound blocking. We can see them, and the sky because you know...romance. But all they can see is a big blue dome.”

The school gymnasium might not have been the most opulent location that Cadance had attended a party at since she had become royalty, but it certainly made up for it with the welcoming atmosphere. All the ponies that had already arrived were chatting amongst themselves in a friendly nature that didn’t involve politics or some type of deal making. For the first time since coming to Canterlot, it looked like she was at a party that ponies were meant to have fun at.

Balloons hung from just about everything they could, some of which were done up in the shape of animals, others in letters that took the place of banners in some places. There were even some without helium that hung upside down from the rafters by strings, showing off various designs.

A buffet of snacks and other treats sat on the far end of the gym. Although after taking a quick look at it, Cadance sent one of the teachers that was acting as a chaperone with a note to have one of the guards outside fetch the things she and Sunset had packed in the carriage. She knew the big alicorn was still being opulent to the point of excess, but there was no reason to waste all those treats.

As she, Sunset and Shiny began to make the rounds to say hello to everypony, Upper Crust broke off to meet with some rich-looking gray stallion that must have been Jet Set.

While the backup band that had been hired was playing a basic song without vocals, the two ponies from the student body were still getting set up, so the rest of the students were making the rounds before casting their votes for Canterlot Academy’s Fall Princess, or going to the ballot box, giving Cadance and Sunset a good look, then moving off to the side where they could see what the alicorns did. When it came time for the two alicorns to head over, everypony came to a stop and watched them stand in front of the box with Shiny.

Cadance took a quill in her magic, proud that it was only slightly shaky thanks to all her practice, then looked pass Shiny and over to Sunset. “We’re voting for Fleur, right?” she asked loud enough for everypony who wanted to listen in to hear.

“What?”

Both of the royals looked behind them to the white unicorn with the pink mane. Sunset was the one to raise her eyebrow. “What do you mean, what?” the amber alicorn asked.

“Fleur,” Cadance went on. “I’ve barely been at your school for more than a month, and Sunset even less so. You’ve been there since the start. Do you really think the two of us would swoop in and snatch this away from you?”

The pony in question blinked. “No, I just...um...well,” she managed before collecting herself to give Cadance a smile. “Thank you, Princess.”

“You’re welcome, Princess,” Cadance replied before putting her little slip of paper into the box and giving her friend a loving nuzzle on the cheek before leading Shiny and Sunset away from the table and over to the buffet to watch their food arrive.

As they did, a small snag in the plan to let Shining Armor consider his options occured to Cadance. “Wait, kissing! I forgot about kissing,” she said before looking over to the other two ponies. “Sunset, what’re we going to do when it comes to kissing Shining Armor?” Nights like tonight were supposed to be a near-constant makeout session, interrupted only by dancing and food.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “We do this,” she said before reaching over to grab Shiny by the bowtie and lift him up before smashing his lips to hers. Cadance watched, fighting the natural reactions of her wings that such a sight provoked as Sunset put her tongue in Shiny’s mouth and let out a low moan of pleasure. A second later, Shining Armor got over his surprise and melted into the action, bringing up his forelegs to support himself as Sunset cleaned his teeth with her tongue.

When it was over, the colt dropped back to the floor and tried to catch his breath. As Shiny was sucking in air, Sunset looked over to Cadance. “Okay, your turn.”

The words knocked Cadance out of her aroused shock. “Wha-What?”

“Now it’s your turn to Shiny,” Sunset said.

Cadance gaped at Sunset. “What? Y-You can’t just do that and expect him and me to-”

“Hey Shiny, you like kissing Cadance, right?” Sunset asked before the pink princess could finish her confused turned on, outraged, somewhat enthusiastic...whatever she was feeling.

Shining Armor jumped a tiny bit at the question, and he looked back to Sunset. “Well...um...yeah,” he answered, giving Cadance a hesitant look, as if saying such a thing would get him in trouble.

“Good,” Sunset said before one of her wings came around to run up against Shiny’s hindquarters. “Now kiss!”

Cadance barely had time to register the fact that Shining was being pushed towards her, his lips open in an attempt to talk, before their mouths met. At first, the pink princess didn’t know what do, puckered up and lips to lips with the white colt. Then Shining Armor let out a covered yelp and took a step closer, making the former pink pegasus’s instincts take over. She drew Shining Armor’s mouth muscle into her waiting orifice and sucked on it for a bit before launching a counterattack that binded the invader. After a minute of pleasurable mouth wrestling, the two ponies broke contact, although a small trail of saliva still connected them for a few more seconds.

“See, no problem there, right?” Sunset asked before she looked over to Shiny and gave a nervous grin. “Um, sorry for the uh...encouragement there, Shiny. But, um...it all worked out, right?”

Before the white stallion could answer, Sunset looked back over to the stage that had been constructed beneath the home team's hoop. “Gonna go see if they need help setting up. Be right back,” she said before quickly cantering away before either of the ponies with her could say anything.

Left alone with Shining Armor, Cadance suddenly realized that every single pony in the gym, including the chaperones, were looking at her and the young white stallion. “Um…” she said before trying to think of what to do.

Both Cadance and Sunset had kissed the same colt. While it wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened, there had barely been any time between the occurrences, and it had been in front of everypony. Although, the more time that passed, Cadance realized that she didn’t really mind that both of them had kissed Shining. What bothered her was that everypony was looking at her for it.

And with her being a princess, they were waiting to see how they should react. So, Cadance knew that either one of two things was going to happen. Either she would shy away from the act and everypony would think what she did was wrong, or she could...Sunset it.

It was the second option that had her realizing just how much she had changed in such a short time. Three weeks ago, Cadance would have just slinked away to a back corner and counted the seconds until the lights went out and the dancing started. But now…

Cadance took a commanding step forward and threw out her wings, making the tiny hearts that hung from her feathers sparkle in the light just a bit. “Yes! We both just kissed the same colt. Sunset and I both like Shining Armor. We’ve both been on dates with Shining Armor. And we’re both here, with Shining Armor. Anypony got a problem with that?” the pink princess demanded.

Everypony in the room quickly looked back to each other and resumed the conversations they were having before the spectacle occurred. As for Cadance, she lowered her wings and took a step backwards to come face to face with Shining Armor. “So, um...sorry about that,” she apologized. “Not the kissing, you! I mean, the um...fact that Sunset...pushed you into it.”

Although, now that she had gotten it out of the way, Cadance didn’t see why they couldn’t keep it up.

“Cadance...that cider in the carriage,” Shining Armor said uneasily. “That...was the foal friendly, kind. Right?”

The question had the pink princess blinking. “Well...it was supposed to be,” Cadance said. Although, anypony saying no to the bucking Empress of Equestria didn’t seem possible. So… “Well, Sunset is a big girl, literally.” She was taller than most stallions with a physique that outclassed them as well. “So...she can probably handle three bottles without any trouble.”

Just then, Sunset came trotting back to the couple with a smile. “Okay, they’re almost ready,” she said before a concerned frown appeared on her face and she looked back at the stage as the pair of pegasus ponies with the blonde and black manes strummed their instruments. “Although, the fact neither of them knew how to set up an amplifier is a bit troubling.”

As the amber alicorn trotted back to the buffet table to levitate a few grapes into her mouth to eat, Cadance looked back at her. She didn’t seem tipsy. “Sunset, are you okay?”

After gulping down a few more bites, the Empress turned around and trotted to the open space between Shining Armor and Cadance to look over at the pink pony. “I’m at a party with my two favorite ponies and no press. Of course I’m okay.”

She looked away for a moment to kiss Shining Armor on the cheek, which was quickly followed by a nibble on his ear. Cadance opened her mouth to comment on the very open act, but was stopped from saying anything by the sudden blaring sound coming from the speaker system. “HEL-LO CANTERLOT A-CAD-DEM-EY!”

Everypony in the room look up to the stage as the lights dimmed while the two colts with guitars gave a quick wave. The pegasus with the black mane was the one to speak. “I AM BILL BOARD, ESQUIRE!”

“AND I AM TEDDY BEAR, LOW GAIN!” the other pegasus on stage shouted into his microphone, causing another bit of feedback. “AND TOGETHER, WE ARE…”

“WILD STALLIONS!” they both cried out before playing a chord on their guitars.

Then, Bill took the lead again. “Hey everypony, hope you’re having a good time so far. So, we’re going to start thing off fast and hard. One, two, one two three!”

What followed was...Cadance wasn’t sure what it was, but it sure as hey wasn’t music. The screeching that came out of the speakers, both on stage and set up around the gym, blasted her ears to the point she covered them with both her wings and hooves.

“AHHHHH! MAKE IT STOP!” Cheerilee screamed as she covered under the buffet table.

“THE PAIN! THE PAAAAAAAAAAAIN!” Eight-Bit yelled as he flapped his wings to try and escape.

“BUTTONS AND BOBKINS MY EEEEEEEARS!” Sassy Saddles cried.

Sunset recovered and frowned at the ponies on stage. “Okay, enough of that!” she yelled before both of the pegasi were enveloped in a blue light and separated from their instruments. There was a flash of light, and then the amber alicorn just appeared on stage. Sunset took a look at the guitars, then looked back to the colts floating in the air. “Don’t tell me you idiots don’t actually know how to play.”

Both of the pegasi shared a look, then turned their heads back to Sunset. “But, like, we thought it would just, ya know, happen. Ponies just sing about anything all the time,” Bill said.

“Yeah, dude-dude-duh...dude-et!” Ted agreed.

Sunset groaned and put a hoof to her forehead. “Ugh! The Music of Harmony only kicks in when ponies need to be super emotional about a subject, and the music comes from their magical aura interacting with the air around them to create the music without the need for instruments,” she explained. “It doesn’t happen on stage to make a pair of colts look cool!”

As both of the colts winced from Sunset dressing them down, Cadance looked around the gym for the member of the faculty that was in charge of the dance. When she found the earth pony that was the head of the history department, Cadance jumped up and flapped her way over to the stallion in the brown suit that was a bit darker than his coat and red bowtie. “Excuse me, Professor…”

“Doctor, actually,” he said. “Doctor Whooves. How can I help you, Princess Cadance?”

After recovering from being corrected, something that didn’t happen very often, what with her being a princess, she remembered what she was going to say. “Please tell me there was a backup plan for a DJ in case one of them got sick or something,” she said before looking back to the stage. “And that we can get her on short notice.”

Doctor Whooves, tapped his chin. “Yes, there is somepony. She lives a few blocks away from the school and agreed to remain at home with her foal in case we needed her,” he said. “Although, we’d need somepony to watch her little one.”

“Just have her bring the little thing with her,” Cadance told the pony. “We can assign a guard to do it, and I’ll personally check in on her to make sure he or she knows what to do.”

After Cadance gave him a few more instructions, the Doctor galloped off, and Cadance flew up to Sunset to explain the situation to her. When she was done, the amber alicorn frowned. “Okay, but that’s going to take...what?”

“If the DJ is ready to go...maybe...ten minutes?” Cadance replied. “I told him to take a few of the pegasi to help them transport and set up the equipment, so it may happen faster.”

Sunset frowned. “So what’s everypony supposed to do until then? Just stand around?”

After looking back to the crowd for a second, Cadance turned her attention to the instruments floating in Sunset’s magic. “Say, can’t you play the guitar?”

“Well yeah. But what does…” Sunset trailed off and looked around, first to the backup band of blue unicorns with dark manes, then to Cadance. “Well...yeah, but...Cadance...I don’t think anypony knows the music I learned to play.”

Cadance took one of the guitars out of the air and floated it over to Sunset. “Then pick something that’s mostly guitar,” she told Sunset. Before the amber alicorn could object, she quickly took off into the air and landed next to Shiny.

Left alone, Sunset quickly tossed the colts she was holding into the air, then stepped up to the microphone as she put on the guitar's strap and set the extra one in its case. After checking the strings, she cleared her throat. “Okay...so...um...I learned this song while I was away from Canterlot for a time,” she said. “It’s an old song, but...well...it’s probably new to you guys so…”

As Sunset looked back to tell the drummer, base, and sax player behind her what key to play in and that they needed to watch her for the changes as well as keep up, Cadance offered a hoof to Shining Armor. “Ready to dance?”

The colt in question stared at Cadance for a few seconds, then looked up to the other alicorn. “Sunset can...play?”

In response to the question, Sunset began to quickly strum her instrument. It was a fast-paced song that Cadance was unfamiliar with like she had warned. So much so that all the ponies stared at the Empress of Equestria as she extended the warm up.

As Sunset played, Cadance took Shiny’s hoof and pulled him out to the dance floor. She let the pace of the music take over as she swayed, bobbed, weaved and moved her body to the faced paced song. Soon, everypony was joining in, or at least tapping their hooves to the sound of the music while they enjoyed they food.

Then, the Empress of Equestria broke into song…

Way down in Lowseana out in Neigh Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
In this little log cabin made of earth and wood
There lived a country colt named Johnny Be Good
Although he never ever learned to read or write so well
He could play the guitar like he was ringing a bell

Go! Go!
Gooo Johnny go go go
Johnny Be Good!

Throughout the song, Cadance watched from the corner of her eye as Sunset played. Aside from the bring smile on her face that just screamed to anypony who looked that Sunset was truly enjoying herself in a way that Cadance had hardly ever seen, there was a slight nimbus of light around the alicorn. Sunset even seemed to float off the ground for a few seconds before hitting the final chord of the song.

But it wasn’t just Sunset under the effects of the music. Cadance could feel...something as she danced. It wasn’t the Music of Harmony, but she still felt some kind of magic flooding the room. Powerful magic, but...nothing oppressive. If anything, it made her feel safe and warm, so much so that Cadance wanted to be wrapped in it like a cozy blanket that she never had to leave.

When the music stopped, Cadance blinked as the magic slowly faded away as well. Still, it left her feeling more comfortable than she had all night after deciding to go to the dance with Shiney and Sunset. There was still the worry about what would happen after it ended, but it was...lessened somehow.

“Okay so,” Sunset’s voice came in over the speakers, drawing Cadance away from her introspection. “I’m going to need some help with the next one. Um...Fleur, Sassy? Can you girls come up here? Cheerilee, you and your friend too, if you please.”

As the mares in question headed towards the stage, Shiny got Cadance’s attention and pointed towards one of the back doors, where a guard was standing next to a white unicorn with auburn hair and a large box of equipment set up on a dolly was holding a little unicorn with a neon blue mane.

Cadance trotted over to the group with Shiny trailing behind her. She quickly introduced herself to the mare, and after getting the DJ’s name in return, looked to the little foal. “Awww, what a little cutie!” she said before looking back over to the mother as the little unicorn buried her head in the pegasus guard’s shoulder. “What’s her name?”

“That’s my little Vinyl Scratch,” the mother said with a broad smile. “She is a bit shy though.”

“So girls,” Sunset said over the speakers. “Like I said, I’m going to need some help with this one, buuuuut, since you don’t know the song...do I have your permission to puppet you?” she asked hesitantly. “Don’t worry, it’ll just be your mouths, you can dance or stand, or whatever you want. Okay?”

Thankfully, they all agreed to the magic and new microphones were brought up as Sunset conjured up a quill and grabbed several sheets of paper to begin scribbling on them. “This one is actually an original from...well, I considered her a friend, even if she was...not so devoted to me in the end,” the amber alicorn said, getting a bit sad before she shook her head quickly as if to clear it.

“Did Sunset just write music for four different instruments at the same time?” Shining Armor asked with a dumbfounded expression.

Judging by the expression on the other pony’s face, Cadance guessed that the feat had been impressive. “I...guess?” she sort of replied. “Well, she doesn’t like to brag, but Sunset is pretty good when it comes to music.”

Shining Armor looked back to Sunset as she apparently finished making the song and giving it to the ponies on stage. “Good is an understatement.”

Not wanting to miss the spectacle of her her friends on stage, Cadance looked around for an excuse not to dance. When her eyes fell on the filly, she reached out with her forelegs. “Here. That armor can’t be comfortable for her to be against. I’ll look after her until you change out of it.”

Cadance took the filly in her forelegs without protest from either of the ponies involved before the guard headed outside to undress. Then she turned around to look at the group and sat back on the table.

Then, the performance began again…

Shake your tail
Shake your taaaaail

This time, Cadance knew what to watch for and paid attention to the feelings going through her mind...after getting over the fact that Sunset and the rest of her friends were literally singing a song about shaking their butts at everypony.

As the glow surrounded Sunset and the feeling of her magic hit Cadance, she swayed her body in rhythm with the beat and tried to figure out just what was going on. The magic that Sunset was using didn’t seem to outright affect her emotions, but at the same time, being exposed to it felt...good.

For some reason, Cadance found herself thinking of all the happy moments she had ever spent with her friends, family, and everypony who had ever been important to her. Her mouth turned up to a smile, and she couldn’t help but let out a happy laugh.

A sudden light out of the corner of her eye drew Cadance’s attention, and she looked down to the filly in her forelegs. Two spots, one on each side of Vinyl's flanks became covered in a bright light right as Sunset reached the final line of her song. When the light faded, a pair of musical notes adorned the filly’s flanks.

Cadance’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my gosh! Vinyl! Did you just get your...cutie...mark?” the pink princess asked as a much brighter light on stage drew her attention. She looked up with wide eyes as Sunset was engulfed completely by a bright light of her own.

The amber alicorn floated up into the air without a single flap of her wings that were spread wide. Then, the bright glow became a blinding flash, and Cadance had to cover her eyes. When she looked back to the stage, Sunset had...changed.

Everypony in the auditorium went deathly silent as the amber alicorn stood on center stage, emitting a soft light. A mane of red and gold blew through the air of its own accord, like Celestia’s did. There was a splash of red on the tips of Sunset’s wings, which looked like they had gotten a big bigger, and tiny suns of red and gold adorned her hooves. But the most startling change was the symbol on her flanks. Her cutie mark was different!

The single sun that had been there before was surrounded six other little silver points of light that had appeared at the end of Sunset’s yellow and solar tips, leaving the top and bottom bare. On top of which, it seemed...brighter, somehow. The mark on Sunset’s flank gleamed as she stood there, her eyes running over the crowd of amazed ponies.

With the crowd still in awe of the transformation, or the sheer amount of power the alicorn in front of them was putting out with absolutely no effort at all. Which was easily more than every single pony in Canterlot combined and multiplied by ten.

Cadance looked over to the white stallion standing next to her, then used one of her wings to close his hanging mouth before she took his hoof and used her wings to keep from falling flat on her face. “Come on Shiny!” the pink princess said before she dragged her colt along as fast as she dared.

“Here’s your newly marked filly, um...muzzle-tov,” Cadance told Vinyl’s mother as she handed the filly over to the stunned unicorn. Then, the pink princess moved onto the stage to speak with the goddess her friend had become. “Sunset, come with me please.”

Right as she took Sunset’s hoof, Cadance levitated a microphone up to her mouth. “Okay, everypony...um...the DJ will be ready in a second. We thank you for your patience. And...have fun! Okay? Bye for now!”

Thankfully, Sunset didn’t resist, as Cadance was pretty sure if the being she was holding onto pulled her foreleg back while the pink princess was leading her out of the gym and into the school’s hallway that she would use enough force to dislocate Cadance’s leg. What with Sunset’s earth pony strength, as insane as had had been, was apparently set at ultra low power!

Even when she had been angry, Sunset hadn’t been anywhere near what she was giving off at the moment. Which...made Cadance a little confused as to why her horn wasn’t being crushed from the pressure of Sunset’s magic. If anything, the power her friend was giving off was...comforting. So much so that despite the fact Sunset could truly claim the title of a goddess, Cadance wasn’t freaking out about it.

Once they got out into the dark hallway, which stopped being dark when the new Alicorn of the Sun came into it, Cadance turned around to look at the stallion of their little group. “On second thought. Shiny, go get some punch.”

Shining Armor looked over to Sunset, who seemed to be just as confused as he was before turning his attention back to Cadance. “Um...why?”

“Because I think Sunset is going to need something to drink in a few seconds,” Cadance told him calmly.

A second later, Shining Armor was quickly heading back into the gym, leaving Cadance alone with the deity in front of her. “Sunset, please don’t freak out, but…” The pink princess took in a deep breath and focused on casting a spell. “When you finished singing that song...um...this happened.”

A mirror made of crystal formed in front of them, showing off Sunset’s form and reflecting the light deeper into the hallway.

Sunset’s eyes went wide as she saw her reflection. “What the-WHAT THE HELL?” she yelled when her eyes drifted to her flank. “What the fuck is up with my cutie mark?”

“It’s not just that,” Cadance told her before point a hoof at Sunset’s mane, which made the amber alicorn gasp. “And um...have you taken stock of your mana output?”

After a second, the amber alicorn blinked, then let out a gasp, and then it became Cadance turn to become confused when she let out a startled yell before dropping to the ground and covering her mouth with her hooves. “Uh...Sunset?”

Sunset looked up at Cadance with a terrified expression that worried Cadance more than the amount of power she was extruding. She didn’t make a sound. Instead, one of the nearby lockers become wrapped in her magic, opened up, and deposited a quill, some ink, and some paper a second later.

Then Sunset jotted something down and floated it for Cadance to read.

The pink princess looked over the words, then moved her head to look past the parchment and frown at the silly goddess cowering on the ground. “What do you mean, you can’t talk.”

Sunset’s eyes widened again, and she quickly scribbled a note before giving Cadance another note for her to read. [If I do, you’ll DIE!]

“What?” Cadance exclaimed before she batted the paper out of her way to frown at Sunset. “What the buck are you going on about now?”

Another note quickly followed. [Cadance, I had a dream! In the dream, my magical power kept growing and growing, destroying everything around me! Every time I stook a step, the ground was destroyed by an earthquake. My wings demolished the castle, and when I talked to you, you exploded from the sound of my voice! Now my dream is coming true!]

Cadance...kept herself from frowning at the silly fear. As stupid as it was, she didn’t want to dismiss Sunset’s fears. Instead, she looked for a better solution. Such as showing Sunset her fears were completely unfounded.

“Okay, so what do you suggest we do?” the pink princess asked.

When Sunset looked down to write another response, Cadance moved to strike. She didn’t care if Sunset had become a deity. It didn’t matter that her friend had more magical power in her horn tip than everything on the planet. She still had wings with feathers.

Which Cadance promptly grasped one of and removed while Sunset was distracted.

“OW!” Sunset yelled as Cadance stepped away with the prize in her mouth.

Right after she cried out, Sunset’s eyes went wide and she froze completely.

Cadance spit out the amber feather and smirked. “Oh look at that! You yelled, and I didn’t get blasted into a million pieces,” she told the bigger pony before sighing. “Sunset, I don’t know where these stupid ideas you got in your head are coming from, but you are not going to destroy every single little thing you touch, or talk to, or look at. Wait, you didn’t have laser eyes in your dream, right?”

After rolling her eyes, Sunset actually risked speaking. “No.”

Despite the levity of their words, Cadance suck in a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds to keep calm. “You are a blessing, not a curse,” she said. “Now, do you know what’s going on with...this?”

When Cadance got done gesturing to all of Sunset with her hooves, the amber goddess got a hesitant look on her face. “Well, that’s the strange thing. I think I know what’s going on but…” Sunset lifted a hoof to look at her little cutie marks, and then turned her attention to the big one on her butt. “When we fought the Daz-the monsters Equestria knows as the Sirens, me and the girls were able to access magic that temporarily turned its users into a somewhat-pony form. But this….this is new. Although, I’m thankful I didn’t grow an extra set of ears and wings….although, my mane looks like it needs a trim.”

“You said temporary,” Cadance said as she caught onto the most important detail. “Can you...change back?”

Sunset looked away from her cutie mark that had pulled her attention again, and back to Cadance. “Oh...um...let me try,” she said before closing her eyes.

A second later, Sunset became enclosed in an orb of light. It’s existence lasted only a moment, and when it was gone, the not-so-old Sunset was standing in the much darker hallway. Then she lit of her horn with a light spell, which Cadance quickly duplicated before taking a step towards her. “Well, that’s one way to get your mane under control.”

Sunset gave Cadance a little smile and an embarrassed laugh through her nose. “Um….listen, Cadance, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Taking in Sunset’s body language, Cadance knew she wasn’t going to like what was coming. She was still nervous, but it wasn’t the kind of nervous that a pony had when she was afraid of accidentally wiping out everypony else in Equestria. Sunset looked to be the kind of nervous Cadance was very familiar with seeing. She was the kind of nervous that occurred when a pony who had feelings for another pony without knowing if the other pony had feelings for the first pony was about to talk to that pony about said feelings.

WHICH WAS SOMETHING SHE SHOULD NOT BE DOING RIGHT NOW!

“Since the day I came back to Equestria,” Sunset said as she moved closer to Cadance and looked down at her face. “You’ve been there for me. When I said I had changed, you believed me. When I wanted to help teach you magic, you allowed me to. You trusted me, and that was...I can’t begin to describe how absolutely wonderful you are to do that.”

Cadance gulped and tried to push down the rising joy that was building up inside of her from hearing Sunset’s words as she took a step backwards. “Sunset, that’s just...what...friends...do.”

Sunset quickly closed the gap and then some as she smiled down at Cadance the way that non-platonic friends did. “Not in my experience,” she said before licking her lips.

After bumping her butt up against the wall, Cadance spared a glance behind her and then focused on Sunset. As the Princess of Love, she knew what was coming. Anypony with half a brain, with the apparent exception of Sunset, knew what was coming.

Sunset’s heart must have been racing from having just scared herself to death. And being close to a pony Cadance knew she was sexually attracted to didn’t help matters any.

Trapped, Cadance understood that she had two options, interrupt Sunset and turn her down or let her continue. Part of her wanted to say something, to hold up a hoof and cut her off. It was the right thing to do. Shiny…

“Cadance,” Sunset said before she broke eye contact for a second. “Listen...I...I’ve liked you...for awhile now, as...you know...um...in the...non-friendship kind of...way.”

The pink princess let out a snort of a laugh as the memory of just when Sunset’s physical attraction to her went from out there to glaringly obvious. “Yes, Sunset. I know you find me attractive. You did hump me for about half-an-hour not too long ago when we were in bed together.”

Sunset’s cheeks went so red that they practically glowed. “Um...yeah,” the amber alicorn said right before she took in a took a step forward, bringing her so close that the breath coming through her nostrils tickled the hairs of Cadance’s muzzle. “About...that…”

Her mouth opened again...and…

I can’t let her do this to Shining Armor, Cadance told herself. The amber alicorn would never forgive herself!

But...she couldn’t say no to Sunset, either.

So, the pink princess took the last step herself, rushing in to meet Sunset’s lips with her own as she reared up a bit. Sunset took the hint and lifted Cadance up on her hind legs before pushing her up against the wall and breaking into Cadance’s mouth with the force of her tongue.

Being kissed by Sunset was everything Cadance had ever dreamed it to be and more. The amber alicorn completely dominated her as Cadance spread her wings and generated a tiny bit of lift before Sunder reached down and sunk her hooves into the pink pony’s perky posterior.

Sunset broke the kiss only long enough for Cadance to take a breath, she she was back inside Cadance’s mouth and pushing her into the wall before her wings encircled the little pony.

When she broke the second kiss, Sunset put her lips up to the rim of Cadance’s ear. For a moment, the pink princess’s world was nothing but Sunset’s heavy panting. Her heart rate sped up from the sound coming out of the bigger pony’s mouth. “I’ve wanted...I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”

“I’ve wanted you to do it too,” Cadance said as Sunset kissed the edge of her right ear.

Cadance heard the door to the gym open as Sunset kissed her way down the pink pony’s neck. “Hey girls, I got...the...punch,” a voice Cadance knew belonged to Shining Armor.

The support that was holding Cadance up quickly disappeared as Sunset lowered her to the ground and looked back to Shining Armor with a bright smile. “Hey, thanks Shiny,” she said before one of the cups was taken by her magic and flew over to Sunset so she could splash it into her mouth. “Probably gonna need a lot of moisture in my mouth before the night is through.”

Cadance...blinked. Out of all the responses Sunset should have had after getting caught making out with another mare by the colt they both liked, that was certainly NOT one of them.

“Wha...WHAT?” Shining Armor shouted before he frowned at Sunset and stormed up to her. “I trot into you two doing...that! And that’s what you say?”

The smaller stallion shouting in her face finally put a look of shock on Sunset’s face, although no shame followed. Before it could, Cadance quickly stepped forward. “Shiny, it’s my fault. I knew this was coming, and I kissed Sunset, and-”

“Okay, okay Shiny,” Sunset said as she held up a hoof. “I should have waited until you showed up to start making out with Cadance.”

Shining Armor stopped half a ways away from speaking, with his mouth open as Sunset finished talking. The angry frown on his face slowly turned to a confused scowl as he tilted his head to the side. “Huh?”

For her part, Cadance was a bit quicker to recover. All thoughts of defending Sunset and taking the blame vanished for her mind and she frowned at the bigger alicorn. “Excuse me?” she asked. “You wanted Shiny to see this?”

Part of Cadance’s mind, the one that desperately wanted to be with the amber alicorn searched in vain for some explanation for what was going on. Even the old Sunset hadn’t been that evil!

“Well, only if he wanted to just stand by and watch,” Sunset told her before giving the young stallion a lecherous smile. “I wanted him to join in on it.”

Cadance’s mind nearly shut down as her mind tried to process the complete nonsense that Sunset had just said. Making out involved two ponies. It was an act of lustful love that involved enjoying the presence of another pony in the moments before sex.

Three ponies...three ponies...just...didn’t…

“Um...huh?” Shining Armor said, clearly not suffering from as much confusion as Cadance. “But...you...um...how? I mean...I’ve only got one mouth.”

Sunset let out a low giggle before she broke into a smile. “Yeah, but mares have two pairs of lips,” she pointed out before leaning down to whisper into Shining Armor’s ear. “And who says I’d be kissing your mouth, my little pony?”

As Shining Armor’s face turned completely red, Sunset frowned a bit and backed up a step. “Wait a second, guys...I get that me and Cadance getting started without Shiny around made him feel left out and pissed him off, but Cadance, why’re you all panicky? We agreed to a threesome before we left Shiny’s house.”

Cadance blinked at the unfamiliar word. “What’s a...threesome?”

A look of slowly building horror started to build on Sunset’s face as her eyes darted back and forth between Shining Armor and Cadance. “Oh… .”

Just then, the doors to the gym banged open to admit Upper Crust, who was pulling her date along with some urgency with a plastic cup in her magic. She stopped after getting them into the hallway and looked at the assembled ponies in front of her with wide eyes. “Your...Majesties…”

The interruption made Sunset shake off her funk before she stepped forward to put a wing on the backs of both Shining Armor and Cadance. “Yeah, probably not the best place to have this kind of conversation, so...brace for teleport.”

When the dizziness from Sunset popping them all through space without actually moving faded, Shining Armor cast a spell to light up his horn and looked around at their new surroundings. They were in a Canterlot Academy classroom that had a wall covered by a pair of chalkboards, which meant...it was Professor Word Smith’s room, the pony who taught Equish.

“Okay,” Sunset said in a worried tone as she trotted away from the other two ponies in the room before spinning around, plopping down, and holding up her hooves. “Okay...just...making sure here. Cadance, you’ve really never heard of a threesome?”

As Cadance shook her head, Shining Armor frowned at the unknown term as well. “No.”

Sunset let out a grunt of annoyance and mumbled something under her breath about some type of mane and...cultural contamination? Then she looked back to the other ponies. “Then what the hay did you both think we were doing, especially when it came time for later tonight?”

“You’re talking about sex, right?” Cadance asked.

A roll of the eyes precluded Sunset’s response. “Yes, Cadance. I’m talking about sex. And just to make sure there is no more confusion, the intercourse kind of sex. The kind where Shining Armor sticks his penis in you while I wrap my mouth around your horn and suck on it until fireworks come out one end and something else comes out the other.”

The mental image Sunset’s words created put a blush back on Shining’s face while Cadance blinked. “Wait, hornjobs are a thing?” she said in surprise. “I thought they were just a rumor, like with the way you can rub a pegasus’s wings and...well...you know.”

“Getting off topic here Cadance!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Oh! Right,” she said before becoming a little hesitant. “I thought we’d go have fun at the dance with Shiny, and then he’d take one of us to his home to ah...sleep with, and then she would return to the castle. Although, now that I think about it-”

Sunset didn’t wait for her to finish. “Shiny? What did you think was going on?”

Put on the spot, Shining Armor looked away from Sunset and over to the door. “Well, I was just...glad the two of you had stopped arguing,” he said. “I don’t like it when you argue about this stuff. And I was glad I didn’t have to-” Shining Armor cut himself off when he heard the angry scratch of chalk on blackboard. “Uh...Cadance? What’re you doing?”

The pink princess was in the air, levitating three pieces of chalk as she quickly filled the board with mathematical equations that made no sense to Shining Armor “Wait,” she said before grabbing an eraser at the base of the board with a hoof, then quickly scribbled a new set of numbers. “Okay, need to be careful to balance that.”

“Cadance,” Sunset deadpanned with half lidded eyes. “What’re you-”

Before Sunset could finish, the pink princess spun around with an angry expression on her face. “QUIET!” she snapped at Sunset, making the amber alicorn stumble back quite a bit. “I am trying to concentrate here!”

The amber alicorn and the white stallion shared a nervous look, but did as they were told as Cadance zipped all around the wall, erasing certain parts of her work before she flew back a bit and squealed. “I’ll have to make sure we make time for each other in the beginning, and there’s the foal problem, but otherwise, it’s perfect!” she exclaimed before flying back down to the floor. “Let’s be a threesome!”

Sunset blinked as Cadance gave them both an excited grin. “That’s...not exactly how that word is supposed to be used.”

“Well it is now!” Cadance told her before focusing all of her attention on Shining Armor. “So, what do you say, Shiny? What to embark on a new and exoric type of close relationship with me and Sunset? It will be a bit bumpy in the beginning as we work out the kinks, but it really does seem to be a good way for the three of us to go as the years pass by and it becomes the norm.”

All of a sudden, Shining Armor knew what it felt like to be cornered. He looked back to Empress Sunset, then realized how foolish it was to expect salvation from her, what with the big pony being the one to come up with the idea. Which left him wondering why he needed saving at all.

“Um…” he said, unable to clearly think with both mares looking at him like...well, they being intense about it or anything, but…with the two of them focused on him specifically… “Can I...um...think about it?”

Both of the royal ponies shared a concerned look, then turned their attention back to Shining Armor. “Oh course,” Sunset said right before Cadance added, “It’s a whole new type of relationship Shiny, hesitation is natural.”

“Great!” Shining Armor told them before quickly turning around and dashing out the door.

It was only when he had galloped a good ten steps away that he realized that running away from the two alicorns might not have been the best idea. What’re you doing you idiot? Shining Armor asked himself.

The Princess of Love had said Sunset’s idea was a good one. That threesome option meant nopony would be left out. He wouldn’t have to disappoint anypony, and the girls weren’t going to just push him to the side in favor of each other because they would already be together. Not to mention that Sunset already had a few ideas as to what the three of them could do after the dance.

But despite all of that, Shiny made his way back towards the gym, passing Upper Crust in the hallway as she levitated a cup of punch in the face of that stallion he had seen her talking with earlier. “Just drink it already!” she demanded as she practically shoved the liquid in the cup down the stallion’s throat.

Shining Armor ignored them as he knocked open the door to the gym. Even then, he didn’t know what he was looking for until he found it standing near the empty punch bowl while the unicorn watched the other ponies dance.

Without wasting another second, Shining Armor galloped over to the other colt. “Gaffer!”

Not even looking at Shining Armor, the unicorn took a drink. “Do you think I have a shot with Sassy?”

Shining Armor blinked. “Um...huh?”

“Sassy Saddles,” Gaffer clarified as he continued to watch the dance floor, where Sassy was out there dancing with Eight-Bit, of all ponies. “She didn’t come with a date, you know. Plus, she’s more than just hot. She’s actually nice. Fleur’s nice too, but you know...rich noble pony like Fancy...guaranteed match-up there.”

The untimely interest Gaffer had developed in the blue pony made Shining Armor look to the sky and groan. “Ugh! Okay, if you like her and you want her and stuff, go after her...later,” he said. “Right now, I need help with something.”

Gaffer sighed and looked over to Shining Armor. “Hey, I got interests too,” he told the other unicorn. “I’m not just some pony whose whole existence revolves around helping you with your lovelife. I’m the DM, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to get the filly sometimes too ya know.”

“Okay, okay!” Shining Armor said as he held his hooves up in defeat. “I get it, need to handle my own problems. Sorry I bothered you.”

As he turned to leave, Gaffer reached out and grabbed the other unicorn’s shoulder with his hoof. “Sorry, just...venting,” he said. “I know I’m the genius common sense leader and you’re apparently the guy with the boyish charm on a level that can attract god-tier hotties. Now-oh, which one did you get peeved at you?”

Shining Armor frowned at the assumption. “It’s not like that!”

“Well, when you do end up having to pick one, go with Sunset,” Gaffer said evenly. “I’m pretty sure she can take Cadance in a fight if it comes to that.”

“It’s not like that either!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “They both want to...be with me.”

After rolling his eyes, Gaffer looked back to Shining Armor with an even expression. “Yes, Shiny, I am well aware that there are a pair of princesses after you.”

Seeing that his friend just wasn’t getting it, Shining Armor did his best to lay things out for him. “Look, I just came from Word Smith’s room, and both of the girls in no uncertain terms said that they were both very enthusiastic about the idea of sleeping with me tonight with each other!”

Gaffer raised an eyebrow. “Wait a second,” he said. “You’re telling me that both the prin-royals are willing to...share you?”

“Yes,” Shining Armor said with a nod of his head.

Graffer frowned. “And that’s why you’re here talking to me, completely in a panic.”

“Yes!” the white unicorn replied.

Then Gaffer reached up to tap his chin. “Okay,” he said before looking around at all of the ponies dancing. “Not the best place for this kind of conversation.”

With that, Gaffer led Shining Armor back out into the hallway, where they passed Upper Crust and that Jet Set pony holed up behind a trophy case while the two unicorn stallions made their way to the bathroom.

“Oh! Oh my Shmoopie Doo, how I love you,” the stallion cooed before he took one of Upper Crusts hooves began kissing his way up her leg.

The yellow mare barely looked interested. “Yeah, yeah...whatever.”

Once they were inside the male-only sanctuary, Gaffer spun around to give Shining Armor a measuring look. “So you’re the one your little sister gets it from.”

Shining Armor blinked. “Huh?”

“That whole worrying about nothing thing,” Gaffer told him. “Which, you being you, I can totally understand, I just wondered where Twilight got it from.”

With the conversation going a completely different way than he expected, Shining Armor frowned. “Gaffer, what’re you talking about?”

The other unicorn gave Shining Armor an even look, then sighed. “Shiny, I think it’s pretty safe to say that your whole life, nothing’s ever come easy for you,” he said. “Hay, a month ago, you couldn’t even trot home from school without getting beaten up half the time. Even when we were all playing O&O, you had to earn your enjoyment of the game by completing the task.

“Then, Princess Sunset, as our great and benevolent Empress, may she shine forever to provide a guiding light to us all, was known at the time, comes along,” Gaffer said, getting an odd look from Shining Armor for his words. “How do you get her attention? You get beaten up. You get your first kiss from her after failing to save her from a dragon. You even get her into your bedroom for the first time because you get knocked into the filly’s bathroom with blood running out of your nose. Everything we know about the way the world works says Empress Sunset should be laughing at you while you’re sitting in the gutter.”

Shining Armor blinked. “Um...what about Cadance?”

“Princess Cadance makes sense,” Gaffer told him as he wavesd the question off with a hoof. “She got attacked by Buck, and you beat him up. She got greatful and one thing led to another. She’s not the problem here. If it was just her, you’d probably be out there on the dance floor right now, wondering if the two of you need to go to her place or yours later tonight.

“No,” the other unicorn went on. “Your problem is Empress Sunset, because even when there is another mare that you have interest in, she is willing to make any kind of compromise to keep you happy. Which makes you wonder what the catch is, what the downside is going to be, what hideous plot is going on behind the scenes to make this pair of mares go so far to be with you when every other experience in your life is telling you that you should have done something amazing just to get the time of day from her.

“And yeah, I’m sure these girls you just met have given you tons of other reasons that are probably contributing factors, but my years of experience with you tell me you’re doing this because it’s all been too easy. So you hesitate. You stutter. You get all indecisive. You do every possible thing you can think of to not commit to anything because you haven’t earned it.”

When Gaffer finished, Shining Armor looked down at the ground and frowned.

Was that it?

Was the reason he wasn’t jumping in with Sunset and Cadance because he didn’t think he had worked hard enough for it?

Shining Armor knew that he was nowhere near either of the girls when it came to the level of accomplishment. Cadance had apparently defeated a witch near her home village even before her alicorn genetics kicked in. As for Sunset, Celestia had picked her out of Celestia only knew how many students when she was just a filly, not to mention the level of skill Sunset showed with her magic that easily trumped any other unicorn in Equestria, nevermind her power.

“So I should...what?” he grumbeled. “Be okay with the girls dating somepony that’s always going to be living in their shadow?”

The question got an eye roll from Gaffer. “Of course they’re looking down from their station for a coltfriend. There’s nopony in the kingdom that’s going to be their equal. Whether it’s okay with you, that’s up to you,” he said. “Just like it’s up to you whether you back there and tell those girls that you’re up for...whatever their idea is, or that you have to turn them down because you don’t think you’re good enough for them.”

“So, Ms Princess of Love, give me your expert opinion. Is our boyfriend coming back, or did we scare him off for good this time by coming on so strong?” Sunset asked as she sat on top of the desk with her forehooves behind her acting as a brace in that strange way she had developed since becoming an alicorn.

Cadance looked up from her latest batch of equations that she had made out on some parchment using a quill Sunset had liberated from the professor’s desk. “Actually, I...hadn’t considered Shiny turning us down,” she said as the words put a bad taste in her mouth. “Do you really think he would?”

A snort came from Sunset’s nostrils before she hopped off the desk. “Well let’s face it,” the amber alicorn grumbeled. “Despite the wings and horn, neither of us is exactly what you would call a prize catch.”

“Hey!” Cadance exclaimed. “What did I say about-”

“Cadance,” Sunset said, cutting the princess off. “I’m about as emotionally damaged that a pony can get, and you...well, no offense...but you can be kind of bossy.”

After giving Sunset a pouty glare for a few seconds, Cadance let out a burst of breath. “Okay, fine. But look at this!” she said before showing the amber alicorn her calculations.

Sunset studied the mathematics for a whole seconds before she looked back to Cadance with a bored expression. “...I have no idea what this means.”

“I wanted a baseline prediction to compare this threesome idea to, so I did my future with Shiny if it was just the two of us. No involvement with you whatsoever,” Cadance explained before pulling the picture back and pointing at the horror with her hoof. “Even if we would have gotten together, it would have taken him ten years just to work up a proposal, and an engagement period of two more years after that! But even after we got married, it’s such a bland mix I almost want to cry. We’re picture perfect happy, living in a crystal castle and ruling over a city state of Equestria. Picture perfect, Sunset!”

The fact that Cadance was complaining about having a perfect marriage got a frown out of the amber alicorn. “Um, isn’t that what everypony is supposed to strive for?”

Cadance threw up her hooves high into the air. “Not since I met you!” she exclaimed before putting her pony-arms back down on her desk. “I don’t want to be the far off princess that just smiles and waves and councils ponies on how to act. Okay, I’ll admit that the changelings make me as nervous as hay, but I do want some excitement in my life! Plus, do you know the kind of sex I was supposed to experience? Basic mounting and insertion, Sunset! Basic! I would have been looking at least another year after we were married before scheduled intercourse would have produced a foal with Shiny!”

Not that the current planned relationship with Sunset and Shiny at the some time would yield offspring any quicker. Although, that was probably best left unknown to her two...partner-hopefuls.

Hesitation entered Sunset’s face and every move that she made spoke in loud volumes of worry. “And uh...if the three of us end up together.”

Although she knew it was a bad idea to seem too excited about the prospect, Cadance couldn’t help herself. She proudly held up another sheet of paper with the list she had been making. “I’m thinking a fetish night every Tuesday, or Thursday. I’ve even got enough suggestions to fill a three month period!”

“Ummm…” Sunset said before she took a look at the list. “Well, I can see the bondage and the...domination?”

Cadance smiled at the question. “Well it’s a bit of roleplay involved with you, ah...taking what you want from me and Shiny with that big, strong and sexy body of yours,” she said before a shiver of excitement passed through Cadance at the idea.

Another second passed as Sunset went back to reading the list. “What’s...wait, seriously Cadance? Humanality? That’s not even a word!”

“It involves ponies having physical relations with humans,” Cadance told her as she crossed her forelegs in a show of finality as she raised her nose in defiance. “I just invented it.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

The sheer obviousness of the answer to Sunset’s question made Cadance give the pony she was in love with a frown. “Are you kidding me? That other you barely has any fur at all. Kissing your whole body would be like kissing another pony’s lips, just about. Plus, those fingers you used to have must have a million uses!” she explained before she got a little more embarrassed by her reasoning. “And...well, all you seem to have is bad memories about your time as a human. I thought I could...give you a few good ones.”

“Cadance, for me to even do something like that, I would need to do a full spectrum scan of a human to get a good baseline for a transformation spell. Which is impossible,” Sunset told her before a light blush appeared on her cheeks as images of just what she could do with Cadance if she had fingers came to mind. “But...um...thanks for the thought.”

With the discussion on intercourse done, Cadance hesitated on what to do next. The last topic had left Sunset open for physical contact. Cadance could easily get up, trot over, and give her a peck on the cheek she could easily turn into something that would end with the two of them ruining their dresses.

But without Shining Armor’s decision on whether she was going to join in or not, that wasn’t an option.

If he came back.

Cadance became more nervous the longer that possibility existed. After a good thirty seconds of considering it, she looked over to Sunset with a worried expression. “What if Shiny doesn’t come back?”

“Wasn’t that what I asked you about five minutes ago?” Sunset deadpanned.

Before Cadance could unload on Sunset for not taking the threat of being abandoned by the stallion they had chosen to embark on a whole new type of relationship with seriously enough, the door creaked open, stopping the pink princess from yelling at the amber alicorn long enough to admit Shining Armor. When the colt walked in the room, Cadance was overcome by a nervous dread. “H-Hi...Shiny.”

Shining Armor gulped and shut the door behind him. “Hey girls.” Nopony spoke for awhile after that, giving rise to a pregnant pause that had Cadance ready to bite her own hooves until she ran into pink coat. But before she could, Shining Armor continued speaking. “Um...sorry about...running out on you like that.”

“It’s fine,” Sunset told him before Cadance could at least feign anger at him. “I’m sorry for making assumptions like I did.” She raised a hoof to rub her temple. “Guess I still got a few holdovers from my human days.”

The young stallion in the room blinked. “Hu-mane? What’s that mean?”

Cadance flinched as Sunset froze. Before the amber alicorn could say anything, Cadance let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry Shiny, but it’s a state sec-”

“I spent about three years in another dimension, where the culture was somewhat similar to ours, but at the same time, drastically different,” Sunset told him. Then she looked over to Cadance. “And don’t you start thinking we’ll be keeping something like that from him if we do this, what with that list of yours.”

A nervous giggle escaped Cadance’s mouth as she looked back to her checklist. “Yeah, I suppose you got a point there,” she admitted before turning back to Shining Armor. “So...I take it by coming back here, you want to…” Cadance stopped there, letting Shining Armor finish for her.

Put on the spot, Shining Armor cleared his throat and broke eye contact. “Well, um...while I was...out, I did some thinking,” he began. “Ever since I met the two of you, my life has been so different from what it was just a month ago. I’ve made new friends, stood up to Buck, and really had to think about my future. All of that was thanks to the two of you.”

Both of the compliments had the mares blushing. “Putting that bully in his place was all you, Shiny,” Cadance told him.

“And throughout this whole thing, I’ll admit, I had doubts,” Shining Armor admitted. “Doubts about how Sunset was so much more powerful than anypony I’ve ever met, and I would constantly feel useless compared to her.”

The amber alicorn winced. “Oooooh, um...Shiny, that’s…”

“And other doubts about how Cadance expected this completely perfect pony that would do everything exactly the way she thought he should,” he went on before Sunset could finish.

Cadance blinked. Well, I suppose I do come off as a demanding perfectionist in my less than stellar moments, she admitted to herself.

“I even thought that no matter what pony I picked, the two of you would eventually get together with each other because...well,” he said with a smile. “The two of you are-”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Shiny, if you call us perfect, I swear that I am going to take that trashcan next to the door, and put it on your head.”

“-a...uh...violent maniac,” Shining Armor said uneasily before looking over to Cadance. “And...unrealistic...um…” He sighed and hung his head. “Sorry Cadance, but coming up with flaws for you on the spot is hard.”

Cadance began to count on her feathers. “I’m weak, have pathetic magic skills, I can’t actually sleep at night without somepony to hold me because I’m afraid Queen Chrysalis is going to foalnap me and replace me with a bug so they can attack Sunset in a moment of vulnerability, not to mention I’m bossy, overbearing, have unrealistic expectations...you two can stop me at any time, you know,” she said with a frown.

“Okay look,” Shining Armor said. “What I’m trying to say is, for the past week and more, all I’ve been doing is focusing on things like how wrong everything felt.”

The white stallion’s words made Cadance wince.

Shining Armor took in a breath. “So even when things were going great, when we were playing O&O together, when you got rid of Cinch, or Sunset did something that Twilight said should have been impossible, all I did was focus on the negative, look for the bad side of things. I thought about how much better the two of you were than me, how much I didn’t even deserve to know either of you, and because of that I...I wasted a whole week that the three of us could have hung out and had fun, together.”

“Shiny, while I’ll admit that what you say is true to a point, and rather distressing if we’re being honest, I don’t want you to stay silent if there’s a problem,” Cadance told him.

“Yeah,” Sunset agreed. “If there’s something you don’t like, tell us.”

Shining Armor gave them a half-lidded expression. “Well I didn’t really like being passed back and forth as you two were fighting over me.”

Both of the mares gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry,” they apologized.

“And if the two of you are done with that, which...I guess you are since we’ll be um...all together...or something,” Shining Armor mumbled. “Then, I guess...I can give this whole...us thing a-”

“Hold it!” Cadance said as she put out a hoof to the young stallions’s lips. A frown crossed her face and her lips puckered in a pensive manner. “Are you about to tell us that you’re going to give our threesome a try?”

Sunset facehooved as she mumbled to herself. “Why did I ever teach her that line?”

Ignoring Sunset, Cadance gave Shining Armor a poke to the chest. “You either do, or you do not. There is no try!” she exclaimed. “Because when you try, it’s like you’re setting yourself up for failure. If you do this, there can be no second thoughts, no hesitation, no going ‘well at least I tried’. You either do, or you do not, Understand?”

From his spot under Cadance’s gaze, Shining Armor nodded. Although unlike when he usually dealt with the pink princess’s intensity, he didn’t back down. “Yeah,” he told her. “And...sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was taking this whole thing lightly. I understand that what’s going on, nopony has ever really done before, and I get that it’s important. And you’re nervous. I am too, to be honest.”

Cadance nodded. “Good. Now let’s try this again,” she said before clearing her throat and standing up straight, as what they were about to forge would change the nature to relationships for centuries to come! “So, Shiny, do you want to do us?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sunset let out another groan. “Seriously?” Cadance’s powerful pegasus hearing heard her mumble.

Shining Armor put on a faint smile. “You know something Cadance, you’re right,” he told her. “Since this whole thing started, I really have only been...trying to date you. Both of you. I’ve been hesitant, squeamish, and even afraid. But if the two of you believe that the three of us can be together like this, then it’s time I stop hesitating and believe in it too. So...yeah, I do want to do-”

Whatever Shiny was going to say was cut off as Sunset hurried past and grabbed them both up in her magic. “Yeah, yeah,” she said before she kicked open the door and went out into the hallway. “Now let’s get back to our date before the sheer cheesiness of this whole thing clogs my arteries completely.”

Twilight looked at would could possibly be the most important piece of parchment in the history of ever as it sat rolled up on her desk with a frown. At least, the most important until Empress Sunset Shimmer, the most amazing, intelligent, kindest alicorn ever wrote her something else.

“Read me, Twilight,” it spoke.

Despite the immense temptation pulling her towards the scroll, Twilight looked away and resisted. “No!”

“But why not?” the scroll whined.

Twilight let out a snort and pointed a hoof at the scroll. “Because you’re just a figment of my imagination, giving voice to my desires to read what Empress Sunset left for me ahead of schedule. You can't get ahead of a schedule! That defeats the whole point of having a schedule!”

“But Empress Sunset made me for you. She wants you to read me,” the scroll told her in verbal form. “Right, Smarty-pants?”

Twilight glared at the scroll. “You leave Smarty-pants alone! He’s a good pony. He wouldn’t read you before its time!”

“But Twilight,” Mr Smarty-pants said from his place on her bed, “wouldn’t reading something ahead of time show Empress Sunset how advanced and ambitious you are?”

Although she wanted to make a counter-argument, Twilight had to admit that Mr. Smarty-pants had a point. “But...what if…” she said while trying to think of a reason why Empress Sunset would give her a letter ahead of the time it should be read. “Oh! What if she and Shiny are setting up a scavenger hunt for me, and they need time to lay the rest of the clues?”

The scroll quickly moved to turn that theory against her. “What if the first clue is really hard and takes hours to solve? You don't want the Empress to think you’re stupid, do you?”

Twilight gasped in fear at the possibility. “But if Empress Sunset thinks I'm stupid, then I won't be worth her time. If doesn't think I'm worth her time, she won't tutor me, and if she doesn't tutor me, I won't get into Celestia's school!”

Twilight quickly pulled the scroll down to the floor to rip the seal off with her mouth. She unrolled the paper with her hooves and quickly skimmed over it.

The letter wasn’t a clue for an impossibly hard scavenger hunt that Twilight could never hope to solve that would make Empress Sunset think she was a stupid pony that wasn’t worth the amber alicorn’s time.

It was worse.

Much worse.

So worse that Twilight was running to her mother with the letter in her magic a second after she finished going over it for a third time.

Break

Eight-Bit stood next to the gym’s exit next to Gaffer, holding his cup of punch in his wing as he watched Sunset and Cadance place the crowns on Fleur and Fancy before giving them hugs. Something that had Eight-Bit wincing in sympathy as Sunset picked Fluer up in her forelegs and squeezed the young mare.

“Still a little surprised that Shining and uh...his mare didn’t win,” the pegasus said as he stumbled over the end of his sentence.

The unicorn looked over to him and shrugged. “Well, it's not like there's a multi-pony slow dance they could use yet,” Gaffer told him as the couple began moving to the music.

Eight-Bit raised an eyebrow. “Multi-pony?”

“Uh...well, you know how Shiny’s been unable to make a choice because he didn't want to hurt anypony or…”

“Didn't want Princess Cadance to curse him with some kind of spell that made him only able to unsheathe around really ugly stallions or Empress Sunset to crush his bones to paste?” Eight-Bit added helpfully before an oddity occurred to him. How could Shiny be with two mares?

Back on the dance floor, the royal dance ended and everypony moved in to begin another slow dance. Sassy and Cheerilee came together while the other two earth ponies of their group got matched up before both of the alicorns put their wings forward to lock feathers. As for Shiny, he trotted over to the other guys to be left out in the cold with them.

“So...gave the two of them the last dance, huh?” Gaffer asked before smirking, “nice move.”

Shining Armor looked away from the show that every other pony in the room was actually stopping to stare at. “Well, they haven’t really had a dance together and...you know.”

Gaffer gave him a sympathetic pat to to the shoulder. “Well, there probably is going to be an adjustment period for you to get used to stuff like this. But...it’s not like they’re going to fly off together, ya know,” he told the colt.

“I know,” Shining Armor said before looking back to the dancers as the song ended.

Empress Sunset moved in closer to Princess Cadance and kissed her on the lips. All around them, the crowd began to whisper among themselves about what was going on. When the liplock ended, the amber alicorn stepped back and looked around all the other ponies with a frown. “Yeah! I’m kissing her with Shining Armor, and she’s doing the same with me and when we go back to the palace, we’re gonna spend the night together,” she announced, getting both confused and startled looks from all the ponies present. “So, goodnight everypony!”

As all of the ponies present began to murmur at that particular piece of peculiar information, Sunset led Cadance across the dance floor to meet up with Shining Armor. “I was thinking we could get in the carriage, but I’ll port us back to the palace so they can follow the empty cart all around the city. You want to say goodbye to anypony?”

Shining Armor took one last look at the dance floor, then shook his head. “No. I’m good.”

“Okay then,” Cadance said before looking over to Gaffer and Eight-Bit. “See you guys for the game this weekend!”

As the...group of three ponies Eight-Bit didn’t know what to call left, Gaffer looked over to the empty space beside him. “Okay Sam, I got them together. Now why haven’t I leaped yet?”

Eight-Bit reached up with his free wing to take the floating drink away from his friend. “Think you may have had a bit too much there man.”

“Hurry Mom! You need to hurry!”

Twilight Velvet let out a long breath to keep herself under control as the little purple unicorn on her back continued to encourage her to go faster physically. “Twily, I am going as fast as I can with you on my back,” she said in an even voice. “I do not need you kicking me in the side.”

“But-”

“And if you do it again, we are turning around and going right back to the house,” she added.

Twily latched onto her mother’s back and lowered her head. “I’ll be good.”

With her daughter successfully cowed, Twilight Velvet resumed her brisk canter towards the royal palace, her mind drifting back to the letter her daughter had received that had caused her such distress.

While she knew it wasn’t her place to pass judgement on the ruler of her nation, something seemed very wrong about this whole mess. Empress Sunset had gone out of her way to help Velvet’s family so many times since coming into contact with them that she had to wonder just what was going on. Although Velvet knew that she wasn’t owed an explanation as to what was going on, it seemed a bit odd that Empress Sunset wasn’t giving them one in pony.

As she continued to travel, the question of just how she was going to get in to see the Empress ran through her mind over and over. They had no real business beyond allaying Twily’s worries. Even though Velvet knew the Empress to come to them in an instant because of that, actually getting the guards to go get her for such a task would be the hard part.

The mother-daughter couple made their way to the palace without any further problems from Twily. But when they got to the main gate, the two guards standing watch moved to block her before half a dozen pegasi floated down from above to cover the gate.

Thanks to her son’s interest in the guard and what she had picked up from him over the years, Velvet could tell that while the earth pony in front didn’t outright level his spear in her direction, he did move it from a resting position to a ready one as he spoke. “Nopony enters the palace after nightfall unless they’re on royal business.”

As Twily let out a worried whine, Velvet considered her options. But without any actual documentation that would allow her entrance, all she could think of to do was to fake her importance.

The gray mare lifted her head up in the same fashion that she had seen the Minister of the Stars do so many times when he came for an inspection of the facilities at the observatory. “Do you know who we are?” she asked in the same hoity toity tone her boss’s boss’s boss used.

The two guard’s shared an uneasy glance. “Um...no. Should we?” the stallion on the right asked.

“I am Twilight Velvet, the mother of Shining Armor,” she said before turning so that the stallions in front of her could see the little purple pony on her back that much easier. “And this is Twilight Sparkle! Princess Celestia Herself summoned us to the castle several days ago to discuss several important issues with my son. On top of which, the glorious Empress Sunset, your new supreme ruler, the one with the explosive temper and short fuse, has taken a personal interest in my entire family. She has been teaching my brilliant daughter magic for weeks now, and my son is a very close and personal friend to both her and Princess Cadance!”

As the two guards shared another look, Velvet took a few steps forward and used her magic to take the letter Empress Sunset had written Twilight. She placed the letter in her fetlock and turned her hoof back to grasp it in a way that covered the Princess part of Empress Sunset’s letter. “This is a summons from her Imperial Majesty, ordering us to come to the palace at once to meet with her!” Velvet practically shouted as she waved the paper around. The placement of her hoof kept Sunset’s signature from flailing around, but the rest of it was no doubt illegible to anypony who tried to read it. “Now, do I need to tell Empress Sunset that we were held up on what is obviously very important business, considering the late hour of the summons, by a bunch of stupid ponies that don’t know how to do their jobs, or are you going to let us through?”

The two guards shared a nervous look.

The one on the right spoke first. “What should we do? Let her through?”

“Maybe we should get somepony to go get the Empress and ask,” the one of the left said.

“But that’ll take time and hold them up,” Left Guard replied. “What if that makes her mad? The captain made her mad, and now he’s scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush in his mouth! A toothbrush, in his mouth!”

Right Guard gulped. “Good point,” he said before looking back to the two Twilights and stepping aside. “Go right ahead Lady Twilight!”

Velvet gulped down the unease in the back of her throat that had crept up after hearing the guard talk about the Empress and trotted across the drawbridge. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

She didn’t want to know what would happen if the Empress decided Twilight Velvet was taking advantage of her connections with the alicorn.

Upper Crust downed her fourth glass of sparkling cider as she sat on the edge of her beau-to-be’s bed, finishing off the bottle she had him buy for her on the way home. Aside from helping to wash the taste out of her mouth, it would help her with the task ahead once it kicked in.

But until then, she would need to keep herself entertained. “Now, be a dear, and clean my hoof,” Upper Crust ordered as she raised a hind leg to the stallion’s face. Then, another thought occurred to her as Jet Set put the bottle on the nearby dresser with his magic. “With your tongue.”

“Of course, Shmoopie Doo!” he said before leaping to obey.

While the way the stallion was constantly fawning over her made the yellow mare want to vomit, Upper Crust absolutely loved how Jet Set would do anything she asked short of putting himself in harm’s way. The feeling of such a rich and powerful stallion debasing himself on her command was positively orgasmic!

Which, was a good thing, considering what she was about to do.

Upper Crust could even see herself continuing such a relationship, if she could figure out a way to keep him under her hoof.

That was the problem with love potions. Aside from the fact that such agreements made under them weren’t legally binding, that is. The effects caused by a magically induced love spell or potion were only temporary. Compounded with that flaw was the immunity that a pony developed to the magical effect over time. And that wasn’t even going into the spells and potions that stopped if the pony affected separated from the object of his affections for more than an hour.

So, barring the ability to turn Jet Set into her permanent servant, or have him give her everything she wanted, Upper Crust would settle for half.

Thinking of Sunset’s new laws pertaining to ill-conceived foals made her both smile and feel a sickness in her stomach. With it she was guaranteed half of the stallion’s income. While merely a quarter of what she truly deserved, what with how she had originally been destined for both her parents’ fortunes and the one from Jet Set’s family, it was better than the pathetic future Cadance had predicted for her.

As the room began to spin just a bit, Upper Crust surmised that the cider was starting to do it’s work, so she needed to get started on hers. It would take several session over the following week, but by the time the love potion had worn off, she would have everything she needed to live a life of comfort.

“Stop,” the yellow unicorn ordered before she rolled around and got into position with her tail down. A second later, she had prepared herself both mentally and physically. “Now, mount me and let’s get this over with.”

What followed had Upper Crust wondering just how anypony could stand to go through with the process of making a foal. There was no pleasure in what she experienced. It was just another pony doing something that was necessary.

Ponies that found pleasure in laying with another were pathetic.

Sunset laid on her back and sighed in contentment as she stared up at the dark ceiling, feeling better than she had in a long, long time. The last hour had been the most sexually enjoyable of her life. Every part of her rear end still tingled from the experience, although Sunset thought that was only because Cadance had been so liberal with her tongue when she had prepared Sunset for the anal intercourse with Shiny.

She had no idea where Cadance had learned the spell that allowed Shining Armor to recuperate from unloading so quickly, but thanks to that he had been able to satisfy both the mares multiple times before the spell’s side effects kicked in and the exhaustion hit him all at once. But the end result had her horn and both entrances tingling.

Although she had fucked more than a handful of guys along with a girl as a human, Sunset felt the previous experience had been better than all of them combined. It wasn’t simply because her body was being mounted the way it was supposed to either, or how he had let Shiny do things to her at Cadance’s insistence that Sunset had never let any other creature even attempt.

What the three of them had done together was just more...meaningful.

Shining Armor was snoring contently beside her, covered in a light layer of sweat from the workout. The poor colt hadn’t guessed that an alicorn’s insane appetite extended to beyond just food. Even though she didn’t need to, Sunset rolled over halfway to press up against his side and buried her nose in his messy mop of hair. She took in a deep whiff of the stallion’s mane and rubbed her body up against his to add to the scent already stuck to her coat. She wanted Shining Armor’s smell to stick to her for the rest of her life.

As for Cadance, she had wrapped both of her pony arms around one of Shiny’s forelegs, bracing for a tug of war that would never come. One of Shiny’s ears was in her mouth, being nibbled and sucked on as she made content sounds.

It was a perfect moment that Sunset wanted to last forever.

But, she knew it couldn’t.

So, she took one last look at what would be her last moment of pure happiness, and rolled off the bed. Neither of the ponies reacted to the movement, making Sunset hesitate for a second before she lit up her horn. Even if it took her awhile to find the hidden vault, her sleep spell would keep both of them on the bed out of it until dawn.

Safe from accidentally waking either of them up, Sunset took in a deep breath and looked to Shining Armor. “When we started dating, I was so afraid of being with you, you know,” she told the unconscious colt. “I hadn’t ever been with a pony before, and all the other boyfriends I had ended up with bad ends. And...as things progressed, I started to worry that I was just with you because you were the first stallion I came across that wanted to talk to me, or I only went after you because I was so lonely, or that I was just so fucking horny I would have slept with anything on four legs.

“But...I love you, Shiny,” she confessed as she took a step towards the bed. “You’re kind, and sweet, and funny, and...you...you’re just perfect. You didn’t run away when I freaked out on you. You didn’t just mount me when I was offering it every second that we were together. And...I...I’m so, so sorry you ended up attracting a pony like me.”

Then, she turned her attention to Cadance. Looking at her sleeping form, knowing that this would be the last time she saw the other pony, Sunset eyes began to water. “Thank you,” Sunset told her female lover as tears began to fall from her eyes. “Thank you for everything. I know I didn’t deserve another chance from you, didn’t deserve your friendship, didn’t deserve anything from you. But you still...you still believed that I should get another chance, and you helped me, even after everything that’s happened between us.

“You...you really are my best friend, Cadance,” she confessed. “More than anyone has ever been before. I love you, and I want to spend every night falling asleep with you in my legs, snuggled up so close to me I can’t help but smell that strawberry soap you like so much. But...I can’t. I know you wouldn’t understand why. You’re too good of a pony to understand. I...I’m sorry.”

The words felt hollow in her ears as she turned away from the pair of ponies that had been nearly everything to her since she came back to Equestria. She went to get her saddlebacks from the closet, full of everything she would need to survive on Earth, minus her journal. Although, perhaps it was a good thing that she never found it.

There was a nearly crippling pain in her heart that actually made Sunset stumble when she took a step towards the door. Every fiber of her being screamed at her. All she had to do was turn around and go back to bed, and everything would continue on in this wonderful way. She would be with Cadance and Shiny. Celestia would love her. Twilight would…

Twilight…

Sunset took a deep breath, and galloped out of the bedroom, heedless of everything else around her. If she didn’t get to the mirror soon, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to go through with what was necessary.

Although she did her best to keep her mind clear as she trotted through the hallways, Sunset’s mind kept switching between two different things.

The first was how she had everything she ever wanted. Celestia loved her and called Sunset her daughter. Cadance and Shiny were both best friends and better lovers than anyone she had ever slept with before. Fleur and Sassy were friends that both liked and respected her. Not to mention the amount of power she possessed dwarfed that of any other pony in Equestria with the exception of Celestia. It was all hers, and all she had to do to keep it was turn around, climb back into bed, and snuggle up to the ponies she loved.

The second thing that kept forcing its was into Sunset’s mind was what would happen after she left. Cadance and Shining Armor would feel nothing but abandonment and betrayal. Celestia...Sunset knew how much faith she had shown the amber alicorn by putting her in charge, disappointing her was almost just as bad as what Sunset was doing to the ponies asleep in her bed. The fact she would cause the three of them such pain made Sunset’s eyes water as she got to the stairwell and lit her horn.

But despite the pain and the growing feelings of self-loathing that she was experiencing, Sunset wiped away her tears and headed down the stairs. What she was doing needed to be done for the sake of the future. As for her lovers and mother...well, Sunset would be paying for her actions towards the three of them soon enough.

When she got to the sub-basement, a strange but fearful hope filled Sunset’s mind. The place looked like a rat’s nest, not somewhere you wanted to hide a bunch of dangerous magical items. Although it would have been difficult for Hard Line to resist Sunset’s magic, it wasn’t within the realm of the impossible. He could have given her a fake location.

The hidden vault could be on another floor entirely!

And searching for it would take much to long to find it before the portal to Earth closed!

Sunset noticed that she was smiling at the possibility of being trapped in Equestria.

Of course you’re smiling,she chided herself. Having to get out of it. Avoiding responsibility! That just proves what a pathetic piece of trash you are. You’ve come this far, you made it so Shiny and Cadance will be together, Twilight has a teacher, Star will be able to take care of her foal, everything’s ready for you to leave, SO JUST GET TO WORK ALREADY!

After setting herself strait, Sunset cast a spell to help detect any oddities in the room. Her magic formed into the shape of a circular pattern, and her human experiences made her make an internal joke about a magic magnifying glass before she used it to make a quick sweep of the room. It didn’t take long for the amber alicorn to notice two things. The first was the hidden doorway on the other side of the room, it was easy to find since the blocks comprising the wall didn’t quite match up with the rest of the structure. The second was the amount of hoof traffic a supposedly secret entrance was getting. Numerous imprints had been made in the dusty floor, many on top of each other, and going both ways. Although Sunset couldn’t tell how many ponies had come and gone, she guessed that it had to be at least three.

Sunset walked up to the wall and felt around with her magic. Although it didn’t give any tactile information, she could still get an idea of the an item’s shape based on the resistance her magic encountered. Once she found the triggering mechanism, Sunset was rewarded with a soft click, and moved into the passageway.

When she reached the vault, the same technique told her that there was no special mechanism to open the large door in front of her. At the same time, the amber alicorn found the metal was one-hundred-percent cold iron. While not outright immune to magic, the metal was extremely resistant to it. In fact, it made Sunset doubt that anypony short of an alicorn would be able to open it.

So the trail from earlier must have been when Celestia stored it in here, Sunset surmised before increasing the amount of power to her horn. She felt a bit of pride after taking the door in her magic determining she would have been able to do it even as a unicorn. But that was quickly ended when she realized that pride was exactly the reason she needed to go back to Earth.

Once she slid the door aside, Sunset stepped inside the vault and froze. The dozens and dozens of magical artifacts distracter her for a second, but it was the big white alicorn laying on an oversized circular pillow that was surrounded by stacks of parchment in front of a full-body oval mirror. “M-MOM?”

Celestia looked up from the paper she was writing something on and set the quill aside before adding the parchment to the stack. “So, you did come,” she said before sighing sadly and looking over to a small clock that was sitting next to her. “Forty-five minutes until the gate closes.”

“Are you here to stop me?” Sunset said before she planted her hooves and...froze before she spread her wings. Wait...what am I supposed to do here? She couldn’t fight her mom!

But...she had to leave!

Sunset’s indecision continued to build until Celestia stood up and stepped off the bed, the sound of her hooves on the stone floor brought the amber alicorn out of her thoughts. The white pony shook her head. “Oh Sunset, I would never try to stop you. Well, physically at any rate,” she said before giving her a small smile. “I don’t think I could, honestly.”

The explanation did nothing to ease Sunset’s fears about Celestia’s presence. “Then...why are you here?” She’s supposed to be in Griffonstone!

Nervousness showed on Celestia’s face at the question. She took in a deep breath, then let it out as she pushed a hoof away from her chest. “Sunset, to say that I won’t let you go through that mirror...it would just be me...not trusting your judgement...again,” she said with some difficulty. “So, if you would give me just half an hour to talk, then I will step aside and...let you go.”

Sunset gulped. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. Celestia had some kind of plan. The amber alicorn knew it. But, she had no idea as to what that plan was. Still, if her mother only wanted thirty minutes...Sunset didn’t have the right to say no. “Okay,” she agreed uneasily.

“Please don’t leave,” Celestia begged as she took a step forward and gave her daughter a pained look. “I know we’re having trouble, I know I’m a horrible parent-”

Sunset didn’t let her finish. “That’s not true!” she told her mother, her anger rising at the words Celestia spoke. Nobody was allowed to insult her mother, not even Celestia herself. “I’m the one that was the horrible stu-”

“STOP BLAMING YOURSELF FOR EVERYTHING THAT WAS NEVER YOUR FAULT!” Celestia shouted back at her. “I was the teacher! I was the one that told you do things without showing you how! I was the one who set the unreasonable expectations! I was the one who needed to be the parent! But instead of giving you the emotional guidance that you needed, all I did was give you a stupid book to write in!”

To top off the emotional explosion, Celestia kicked a journal onto the floor in front of Sunset. The amber alicorn looked down at the thing, a little surprised to see it. “I’ve been looking for-wait,” she said before looking up at her mother. “You had this the whole time?!”

Celestia shook her head. “No, that journal is my copy,” she said before taking in a breath and tensing. “Yours is still on the other side of the mirror.”

Shock kept Sunset silent for several seconds as she digested what Celestia had told her so suddenly. “...what?” she breathed out. “What’re you...talking about?”

“You left it there, remember?” Celestia went on before she looked back to the enormous stack of papers. “I don’t quite understand everything yet, but I believe the reason that you’re here now is because you weren’t in Equestria when time was rewound.”

Sunset felt her butt hit the ground as her hind legs gave out behind her. “What?”

A tiny laugh that didn’t have any real mirth to it came from Celestia’s mouth. “Come now Sunset, do I really need to waste our precious time explaining things to you, do I?”

“Wait,” Sunset said as her mind worked to process what was happening. “You...believe me now?”

Celestia’s face took on a sad expression. “Believe you?” she asked as she looked down at herself for a second before she turned her attention back to Sunset. “Yes, I do. I hate to say it, but I let my own pride stop me from doing that from the beginning when you returned to me. I couldn’t believe that I would abandon you for any reason, or even send you away.”

“No, that’s-”

“In fact, I needed that thing to tell me otherwise,” she said with a sneer as she looked down at her journal.

Sunset blinked and looked back down at the book. “What does your journal have to do with anything?”

In response to the question, Celestia lit up her horn and surrounded the book with her magic. The pages quickly flipped open to somewhere past the halfway point. “Read it,” she commanded.

Sunset rolled her eyes before glancing down at Celestia’s journal. “Dear Princess...Twilight,” she mumbled to herself before quickly skimming through the entry. It was the one she wrote during the Anon-a-Miss incident. She looked up to her mother, who hung her head.

“The magic of the journal allows things to be written, but not erased,” she said. “I don’t know why it took nearly a week to update after your arrival, it should have happened in seconds, but they’re in there. All the correspondence you shared with Princess Twilight Sparkle, including all the entries you made which never got a reply.”

“A week?” Sunset repeated as she processed the information. “That means, all this time, you knew I wasn’t hallucinating, and you didn’t tell me?”

Celestia frowned at Sunset’s demanding tone. “Do you remember what that first week was like, Sunset?” she asked. “You practiced your magic, we ate together in peace, you taught Cadance how to use her horn, you were happy!” The big pony let out a snort. “Then, you learn the truth, and everything turns miserable!”

Just hearing about how she wanted deny how horrible a pony she was so that Sunset wouldn’t ruin their breakfast into a shouting match made her snort in anger. “So you keep lying to me to try and make me easier to be around?” she demanded.

“YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T DESERVE TO LIVE!” Celestia screeched, killing Sunset’s rebuttal before it could gain steam. “Do you have any idea how frightening that was to me? So, yes! I lied and tried to make you believe that there was no reason to feel guilty about anything! If that makes you angry, fine! I am willing to take that anger, so long as you’re around to give it!”

It didn’t take much work to read between the lines of what Celestia was really saying, which...took the last bit of wind out of Sunset's sails. She hunger her head. “Oh...that’s...um...okay, I...might understand why you did, what you did,” the amber alicorn said before she took in a deep breath. “Sorry for getting mad at you about it.”

The clock continued to tick in the background as the two mares stood silent for several seconds. Spurred on by the sound, Celestia looked to her daughter. “Sunset, please don’t go,” she asked quietly. “If you stay, I promise, you will be happy here. If you want, you can even remain the ultimate authority in Equestria. I’ll...I’ll even stop being a princess! You can keep being in charge! I’ll just be a maid.”

“Mom.”

Celestia kept going. “Or something else if you don’t want me to be a pony whose job it is to literally tell you what to do.”

“Mom.”

“Your maid!” Celestia went on. “I’ll be your maid. You can dress me up in a little outfit and I’ll wash your sheets and scrub your toilets, Sunset!”

The amber alicorn winced at the last concession before taking in a deep breath. “MOM!” Sunset shouted. When her mother actually stopped Sunset frowned at her. “Please, have some damn dignity.”

Celestia frowned at her daughter. “No!” she snapped. “My stupid pride, and dignity, and ego is what made me unwilling to compromise with you before, so no! I am going to beg, and plead, and kiss your bucking plot if that what it takes to talk you into staying! Because I will not go through this again!

“So if you want rulership over Equestria? It’s yours!” Celestia declared. “I will step down and even give you the sun itself, if you want.”

Sunset looked away from her mother. “No, that’s not what I want.”

“Is it me, then?”Celestia asked as she took another step forward. “I’m sorry if I did. We can make it right, I promise. I love you, I love you so much. I’m sorry you never got a message from me when you were in that world, but I promise that I will spend the rest of my life telling you how much I love you. And I do, Sunset. I love you so much, more than anypony else on the planet. So please, please just turn around and go back to bed. We can go back to the way things were, and I can make you happy, I know that I can.”

It was the most tempting of the offers presented. One that had Sunset looking past her to the mirror and wondering if she could just...not go.

She knew that everything Celestia saying was true. If Sunset stayed, she would be happy. While the examples of polygamous relationship she had heard about on Earth weren’t the norm, or apparently stable or...legal, those idiots couldn’t even hold half of their marriages together. Ponies were different! The percentage of quadrupedal unions that ended never even reached double digits in Equestria.

At least, that was a case according to a study she remembered reading three years ago, Equestria time.

And aside from her colt and filly friend, there was her mother, Celestia. Sunset knew that the rough patch they were going through would smooth itself out now that all the lies were done away with and everything was out in the open. While it wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows, Sunset knew that it would be a hell of alot better without a destiny of exile hanging over her head.

All she had to do...was turn aside from the mirror and run into her mother’s forelegs.

“I…” Sunset blinked as tears began to cloud her vision. “I can’t!”

Celestia’s legs buckled at the announcement. “Why not?”

“Because…” Sunset paused as she tried to think of what to say. She couldn’t tell her mother the real reason. She couldn’t mention Twilight Sparkle. All she could say was… “Because, it’s something I have to do. Like you said, sometimes a princess has to do something, even when she doesn’t want to.”

The bigger pony began to breath quicker as Sunset started moving forward. If Celestia started crying, then the amber alicorn didn’t know if she would be able to go through with leaving.

“No!” Celestia said as she reared up to stomp her hooves hard enough to crack the stone beneath her and glare as Sunset. “That’s not good enough, not for this! I can see how much you don’t want to go. How much you’re so afraid! How much you want to stay!” the big pony’s voice rang out. “If you’re going to leave me, then at least give me an explanation! Tell me why you insist on spending all your years in a place of misery and suffering!”

Sunset backed up at Celestia’s ferocity. “M-Mom. That’s it, I swear!”

Unwilling to accept the answer, Celestia took another stomp of a step forward. “Tell me why you’re leaving!” she yelled.

“B-Because...I...I have to!” Sunset answered as she retreated.

“Tell me why you’re abandoning me!” Celestia demanded as she attempted to come closer.

“Because I...because it’s the only thing I can do to make things right,” Sunset said with less enthusiasm ass he looked away from her mother.

It didn’t help. Sunset could still imagine Celestia standing over her. And in her mind’s eye, the amber alicorn looked much worse than anything reality could ever show. “Tell me why you’re giving up everything you ever wanted for a life of depression and misery! TELL ME!”

Without anything else to use, Sunset gave her mother the same reason she had given to ‘herself’ up on the playhouse’s roof. “BECAUSE I DESERVE IT!” Sunset yelled back in a pathetic shout.

“I don’t deserve to be a princess! I don’t deserve to be your daughter! I don’t deserve to be like by anyone. I don’t even deserve to be a pony!” she exclaimed as she shook her head furiously. “I deserve to suffer! I deserve to spend the rest of my life as a cripple! No magic. Friendless and alone. Never feeling loved or anything! That’s what should happen to me!”

The hope that Sunset had simply given up on her plans to return to Earth died when Cadance felt the sleeping spell settle on her. Every muscle in her body went numb as it came in contact with a prior spell put in place by the pink princess, and then...she heard Sunset confess her feelings to the slumbering colt before moving on to Cadance.

When Sunset spoke her name, Cadance tried to move, tried to get up and show her beloved that she was awake. Tried to demand an answer as to why Sunset was leaving her. Tried to get up and remove the absolute despair she heard in the other pony’s voice. She tried, and failed.

Although the magic she had cast on herself, the magic she had learned from the spellbook that came from the Crystal Empire, kept her from falling into unconsciousness, it didn’t stop Sunset’s magic from paralyzing her to the point where even her horn wouldn’t light up.

Oh no, Cadance thought as she struggled to move while her pegasus hearing told her that Sunset was heading out the door. Nononono NO!

The pink princess let out a mental scream as she struggled against her body’s unresponsiveness. Move! Move, move, move, MOVE! Cadance shouted at herself. Sunset’s leaving! The love of my life is LEAVING! So move. Get up and help her. Get up and save her! For once since you got to this stupid city, actually prove that you belong to be here, and MOVE!

Cadance didn’t know if she somehow fought off Sunset’s spell with the power of her desperation, or if it simply wasn’t meant to last more than long enough to let her say her goodbyes, but not a second after she finished shouting at herself, her wings unfurled to the point of sending her careening around to land belly to belly with Shining Armor.

The impact got a grunt from them both, waking the young stallion up, and putting feeling back into Cadance’s body again. Whatever the magic was, it apparently wore off when the subject was touched. Which...would explain why she didn’t kiss us goodbye, the pink princess thought.

Shining Armor let out a little whine as he slowly came out of his slumber. “Cadance...I can’t buck you anymore tonight,” he said before yawning. “The spirit is willing, but the body is sore and tired.”

“Sweetie,” Cadance said as she kept her Shiny from rolling away from her as she licked her lips and clenched her hindquarters. “I’m sorry to wake you, and as much as I would love you to mount me again, there’s something more important we need to do. Now wake up and come with me. We have to hurry or Sunset is going to get away!”

Cadance moved to get herself off the bed. When Shiny didn’t follow, she grabbed his fetlock and pulled him along until he slid off the mattress, the blankets that went with him turned the movement more into more of a slide than a fall. “Shiny!” she exclaimed gently at her colt’s inactivity.

In response, Shining Armor groaned and started to get up. Halfway to his hooves, his legs shook for a second before giving out from under him. “Can’t. Too...tired,” he told her.

Well...I suppose we did put him through the ringer, Cadance told herself in an attempt to keep from losing her temper. Although the three of them had an equal amount of sex, mare on mare action wasn’t as physical as an overly enthusiastic stallion doing his best to please two alicorns. Not to mention...Sunset’s big plot probably needed to be plowed twice as hard as another pony’s to compensate for all of that cushioning, and her size meant he needed to work even harder than that to please her as much as he did with me.

But, the size difference between the three of them was a problem for later. First, Cadance had to make sure Sunset actually stayed in Equestria.

“Okay, Shiny. I’ll give you a hoof,” Cadance told him before reaching out with said appendage to lift him up a bit. A combined effort of her forelegs and wings had the young stallion on her back a moment later, his hooves dangling in the air.

Despite Cadance’s less-than-normal earth pony-ness, she could still carry a nearly-adult stallion with only minor difficulty. Then, after making sure Shiny wasn’t going to fall off, she headed towards the basement as fast as she could.

Which...wasn’t that fast with a semi-unconscious pony on her back.

When she did get down to the hidden vault, Shining Armor still seemed pretty out of it, but fears that she had missed Sunset’s departure were dispelled when she heard Celestia’s voice coming from the big chamber’s open orifice.

“TELL ME!”

“BECAUSE I DESERVE IT!” Sunset yelled back in a pathetic shout.

As Cadance came close enough to the entrance to see the amber alicorn lower her head and shake with tears falling from her face, Sunset continued speaking. “I don’t deserve to be a princess! I don’t deserve to be your daughter! I don’t deserve to be liked by anyone. I don’t even deserve to be a pony!” she exclaimed as she shook her head furiously. “I deserve to suffer! I deserve to spend the rest of my life as a cripple! No magic. Friendless and alone. Never feeling loved or anything! That’s what should happen to me!”

The amber alicorn yelling at the top of her lungs made Shining Armor shoot his head up as Cadance stepped through the door, unbalancing the pink princess and causing her to drop the young stallion before she went to the ground in a crash herself.

“C-Cadance, Shiny? What’re you two doing here?” Sunset stuttered as they both picked himself up.

Shiny’s legs shook roll off of her back. When he did, the young stallion’s eyes went wide. “Princess Celestia? What’re you doing here?”

“Shining Armor? I’m-wait,” she said before taking a step towards the stallion. “What is that on your cutie-”

Cadance snorted a point a hoof at the biggest alicorn in the room. “Quiet you!” she yelled at Celestia.

“Cadance. I’m-” the white alicorn said in an annoyed tone.

“NO!” Cadance shouted at her. “You had your chance! You tried your stupid bribery! And, you know what? SHE’S STILL LEAVING! Oh! and you know what else? I just remembered you gave up your bucking crown! So shut your yap, or I’ll send you somewhere for a thousand years!”

Shining Armor blinked. “You’re...leaving? Where?”

As Sunset flinched at the question, Cadance frowned and pointed at the mirror. “Through there,” she explained. “That mirror is a portal to another word. One Sunset has been to before, the one she told you about in the classroom. A place that doesn’t have magic or anything else Equestria does. A place that she’s been having nightmares about for days. A place where she’ll be friendless, homeless, and suffer every day of her life! But she still intends to go there despite not having any real reason to!”

Once she had finished speaking, Cadance panted as her anger at Celestia, the mirror, Sunset’s decision to abandon them, and the world in general continued to simmer. She hadn’t meant to yell like she did, but Sunset leaving them all behind just made her so angry.

Shining Armor frowned in confusion. “Sunset, I don’t understand,” he said. “Why are you punishing yourself?”

All of a sudden, something clicked inside of Cadance’s mind.

The reason behind Sunset’s insistence that she didn’t belong had Cadance believing that it all stemmed from her view of self-worth. She thought that if Sunset was surrounded by friends that told her time and time again how amazing she was, that if she had positive experience after positive experience, then she would be able to dig herself out of the pit that Princess Twilight Sparkle had put her in.

But the truth of it all was something much different.

In fact, Cadance now understood that her plan wouldn’t have worked.

If anything, giving Sunset so much love would have only made her work that much harder to leave Equestria.

The real reason that Sunset was leaving Equestria made Cadance’s hackles rise. It made her see red. It made her want to shove that stupid overgrown, fat, amber alicorn’s plot through the mirror herself!

Cadance seethed with anger before taking in a deep breath. “You...selfish, little HORSE!” Cadance shouted.

Sunset actually took a step back from the pink princess’s tone.

As she retreated, Cadance quickly closed the gap between them. “All this time, I thought you had changed. I thought had become selfless, so selfless that it was being a detriment. I thought you couldn’t accept a compliment, because it would overshadow another’s actions. I thought you were just hurting and needed some love to help you heal.

“But no!” Cadance continued with a stomp. “The truth is that you are the same selfish little brat that you’ve ALWAYS BEEN!”

Sunset cowered under the pink princess’s assault as Celestia stepped forward. “Cadance!”

“And you!” the pink princess went on as she whirled on the big white pony, her fury only growing as she approached Celestia. “You know what? You should feel proud about Sunset. You know why? Because, despite all the-the neglect your pathetic excuse for what you call parenting involved, your little filly grew up to be JUST. LIKE. YOU!”

The pink princess sucked in breath after breath that also came out through her nose in a angry snort. She was so consumed by the situation, she didn’t hear the approach of hooves until they were right next to her, close enough for Shiny to place a hoof on her shoulder. “Cadance, you need to calm down.”

“Wha-” Cadance turned to look at Shining Armor, a good deal of her anger leaving her as she did. With it went the rush of adrenaline that had kept her going since Sunset had left their bedroom, and she stumbled forward to grab onto Shining Armor for physical support. “She…”

Seeing Shiny’s confused and concerned face made Cadance realize that Shining Armor had no idea about the depths of what was going on. Either that, or they hadn’t really hit him yet and he was still half-asleep. “Don’t you get it? She’s leaving, Shiny! Sunset’s leaving Equestria! Leaving us!” Cadance stressed. “All just so that she can feel better about herself!”

“What?” Sunset said as she raised her head and moved towards the pair of ponies that she had spent most of the night with. “No. Cadance, this isn’t about me! It’s about Twi-” The amber alicorn suddenly stopped, and glanced over to her mother. “It’s about...um...you know...that purple-”

Cadance frowned and looked past Shining Armor to glare at the amber alicorn. “Twilight Sparkle?” she growled, making Sunset’s eyes go wide before she looked over to Celestia in a near-panic. “Is that what you were going to say? You’re going to tell me that you’re abandoning everypony that loves you. That you’re leaving Equestria because of TWILIGHT SPARKLE?”

“What?” a tiny voice cried out in alarm, making Cadance, Shiny, and Sunset get wide eyes and freeze on the spot.

The third new voice that came from the vault's door made Sunset’s blood run cold. It was the only doubly familiar voice she knew. Doubly familiar for the fact she had heard a much older version and a younger one. At least, the only doubly familiar voice to still be in Canterlot. She knew that Applejack had left with her parents shortly after their royal hearing.

Which left…

Sunset slowly turned her head, and saw Twilight Sparkle stumble through the vault’s door, something she practically had to jump to get through. The little purple unicorn fell onto the floor when one of her hind hooves got caught, but she quickly picked herself up and rushed towards Sunset.

Then she stopped halfway there, looked a Celestia for a moment in apprehension, then finished galloping over to Sunset. Her final move was another half-leap that had Twilight rearing up and wrapping her forelegs around Sunset’s right one. Twilight looked up at Sunset with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry Empress! Please don’t leave! I’ll be good from now on! I promise I will! Just please, please, please don’t leave me,” she said before burying her teary face in Sunset’s coat.

“...oops.”

Sunset looked up to Cadance, the anger she was feeling over Twilight’s tears disappeared when she saw the pink pony’s ears pulled down, as well as the look of misery on her face. She knew the feeling of letting anger guide her actions until it had burnt itself out. The last thing Cadance needed was a pony yelling at her.

She looked down at Twilight as the pony continued to cry into her foreleg, then over to Shining Armor, which his messed up mane and dropping eyes that said he was barely conscious.

“Sunset, it’s almost time,” Celestia reminded her. “If you’re going to go-”

“Nooooo,” Twilight moaned from her place on Sunset’s leg.

Shining Armor stepped forward. “I don’t understand. Twily, what’re you doing here?” he asked before looking up at the amber alicorn. “Sunset, what’s going on? What does Cadance mean, you’re leaving Equestria? Why?”

Twilight squeezed Sunset’s leg even harder.

Completely surrounded, the weight the presence of the other ponies pressed down on Sunset. She knew that the most effective course of action would be to just teleport out of Twilight’s grip, throw up a force field, then run through the portal right before the stroke of midnight.

But...just taking off like that without answering Shiny’s question or dealing with Twilight, that wasn’t an option. So she looked over to Shining Armor. “Shiny, I...don’t belong here.”

She looked down at Twilight. A minor amnesia spell would wipe her memory of the traumatic sight, not to mention any explanation she gave about the future. Something Sunset quickly realized she couldn’t give Shiny because of his close proximity to Twilight.

“Don’t belong, what do you mean?” he asked.

Before she could continue, Cadance jumped into the conversation. “Lair!” she said as she spread her wings. “You’re not doing this for anypony but yourself!”

Sunset looked over to the pink princess. “No I’m not!” she said defensively. “Cadance, what are you talking about?”

“Your real reason for leaving all of us!” the pink princess exclaimed. “You say that it’s because you don’t want to mess anything up, and maybe on some level you actually believe that, but the real reason you are leaving is just so that you can punish yourself!”

A frown appeared on Sunset’s face. “What?”

Cadance glared at her. “Don’t play stupid, you’re too smart for that!” she told Sunset before sitting down. “Ever since you...changed, you’ve taken every opportunity you could to kick yourself. You berate yourself at the littlest opportunity, and any attempt to compliment you makes you go into a panic.”

“Cadance-”

The pink pony sat down and raised her hooves. “Please, wait until I’m done,” Cadance asked. “If we start trying to talk over each other, that’s going to lead to shouting, and I don’t want to do that to you anymore. I’m sorry I did, but this...it makes me so angry at you, Sunset.”

“But why? I don’t understand, I get that you’re upset with me leaving, and I’m sorry, but I have to go Cadance. Please, understand, I don’t belong here!” Sunset replied.

Cadance shivered with her inner rage for a moment before she closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and looked at the other alicorn with a frown. “The day you...became an alicorn, I had a conversation with Celestia. I told her that she needed to take responsibility for the feelings that she nurtured in you. And now you need to take responsibility for what you’ve nurtured in us!”

With Cadance raising her voice again, Sunset tried to step back in retreat, but stopped when she was reminded of Twilight on her leg. Unable to escape the verbal assault, she could only stand there as the pink pony went on. “Shiny, me, Twilight, we’ve all come to depend on you, Sunset. Do you honestly think that Twily or Shiny would be better if you left? And me, how am I supposed to feel safe without you? Did you even think about any of that?”

Sunset winced at Cadance’s words and lowered her ears. “But I...I made sure that Twilight would have a tutor, and you...you and Shiny...the two of you will be fine without me. You told me that yourself,” she said defensively.

“That was just a romance prediction under the condition that I had never met you!” Cadance snapped at Sunset, making the amber alicorn cower a bit.

As Sunset went down, Cadance took another deep breath, and let out a long sigh. “Okay, let’s try this...come here Twilight,” she said before reaching for the purple unicorn.

“Noooo!” Twilight cried out with outstretched forelegs as Cadance pulled her away from Sunset, then handed her to Shining Armor.

While Twilight struggled in her older brother’s grip, Cadance looked back to Sunset with a frown. “As much as I want to, I know I can’t stop you from leaving. You’re far more powerful than me, and Celestia’s already decided on just standing there and waving goodbye! So I want you to take a second and think about this, actually think about what you’re about to do, and the consequences of your actions!” the pink princess told her before she poked Sunset in the chest with a hoof. “I don’t want to hear some junk about how you deserve to live on Earth, that’s just your bucking lack of self-esteem and guilt talking!” Another poke. “I don’t want to hear about how you want to not mess anything up when you have already become an important part in the lives of me, your mother, Shiny, Twilight, Sassy, Fleur, and countless others!” Another poke. “I want you to take a good look around and tell me how Equestria is going to be so much better off when the pony that Shiny and I love is gone. When the pony that Twilight looks up to the most abandons her. When the pony that Celestia has finally accepted as her child rejects her love and runs away to to cripple herself and suffer untold pains in isolation!” Another poke came, followed by Cadance getting right up in her face. “Tell me why you are going to hurt everypony that loves you just so you can feel better about yourself!”

Sunset stumbled back, getting some breathing room before she looked down at the ground. Feel better about myself? That’s not why I’m doing this, she told herself as confused feelings swirled around in her head.

Is it?

She had to go back to Earth so that Twilight wouldn’t have anypony standing in her way to becoming a princess. If Sunset stayed, she would set a bad example for the filly to follow.

Like...how she was about to run away from the purple unicorn.

But that’s just one bad example, Sunset told herself. If I stay, she’ll get dozens more. Going by the numbers, it would be better to cut the cord now. Twilight was young, she would get over it.

It’s not like she’ll...be extremely resentful over the fact that even after she managed to improve herself and turn things around, the big alicorn in control of Equestria decided she didn’t even have time to write a letter to a pony that might as well have been family, Sunset thought, her mind turning to her own experiences with Celestia and the resentment she felt over being abandoned by her.

Sunset quickly turned her mind to something else. Okay, but Shining Armor’s life would be better! Without me around to constantly overshadow him, he...well, he already doubts if joining the guard is the right move. He needs somepony that can show him all his options and help him get to where he wants to be in life. It was something Cadance could do, of course.

If she isn’t dealing with her own problems, Sunset went on. Which she would. The fear the pink princess had when it came to changelings had bordered on obsessive at one point. While Sunset had seen her get that back under control, that didn’t mean it was gone for good.

Especially since the pony that she used as her security blanket would be gone.

And then there was her mother.

Sunset didn’t doubt that while her departure would hurt, Celestia would be able to continue on as always. But, Cadance’s words played back in her mind. Was she really going back to Earth so she could feel better about herself?

Mom, the amber alicorn thought as she looked over to Celestia. The big pony looked back with tired eyes. There was no judgement, no demands or anything else her mother was silently conveying.

But if she didn’t leave...what did that mean?

The Twilight that she had met, the Twilight that had saved Sunset from becoming a monster, she would be condemning that pony to a fate of non-existence. It wasn’t right for Sunset to have a life of happiness at such a cost.

Even if Princess Twilight had abandoned her as well when Sunset had been facing a major crisis.

“Sunset,” Shining Armor spoke up before he sat Twilight down next to a pedestal with a floating red orb above it and trotted over to the alicorn. The young mare was frozen as he reached down and took a hoof. “I still don’t understand what’s going on, but if going through that mirror...portal...thing is making everypony angry and you so afraid, then just come back to bed with me and Cadance. I’m sure we can work something out tomorrow morning after we’ve gotten some sleep. Come up with a solution that will make everypony happy.”

Sunset slammed her eyes shut and furiously shook her head. She didn’t deserve to be happy!

But if getting what she deserved came at the cost of hurting others, then...what was the point of it?

She didn’t deserve to stay, but leaving would make her an even worse pony than she already was!

I don’t...I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, she mentally screamed.

“Sunset,” Celestia spoke up for the first time in awhile. She came forward and put a wing on the smaller alicorn’s back. “Sunset, it’s almost midnight. If you’re going, you need to do it before the portal closes.”

The amber alicorn gulped and looked up to her mother. “I...I don’t…Mom...what should I do?”

Celestia shook her head in response. “I can’t tell you that, Sunset. Only you can decide the path your life will take. All I can do is say that I will always love and support you, no matter what your decision is.”

The comforting words did little to help with the internal conflict she was feeling.

“Just come back to bed with me and Shiny,” Cadance told her desperately. “If you do, we can put all of this behind us. We can be together, the three of us. And I promise that I will do everything a pony can to make you happy.”

Sunset looked over to the clock sitting next to Celestia’s bed. It read eleven-fifty-nine, and the second hand continued to tick towards the twelve at the top, passing the big ten as it did.

Ten seconds, Sunset told herself as she looked around.

“Come back with me and Shiny,” Cadance begged.

“We can work this out,” Shining Armor added.

Celestia only gave her a reassuring look.

And Twilight…Sunset didn’t even have the courage to look at her.

Because if she left, the filly’s heart would be broken. It would put her through the same kind of pain Sunset went through when she reformed, but Celestia stayed silent.

I have to go, Sunset told herself as her fears swelled and her heart ached at the idea.

But...I...I can’t, she thought. She couldn’t bring herself to even raise her legs as they trembled at the simple possibility of going back to Canterlot High.

She couldn’t leave, not now. The fear that the idea of going back to Earth put into her was part of it, but there was so much more stopping her from moving. Cadance was right. She had tied herself to too many ponies to simply walk away from them because…

Because…

Because she felt guilty over her past actions.

Because she felt that she needed to be punished.

Because she didn’t think she deserved what good fortune had given her.

Because...Cadance was right. If Sunset left, it would be because she wanted to try and feel better about herself by going through some sort of self-imposed atonement. A punishment that would make everyone around her suffer even worse pain than she was experiencing at the moment.

A the clock continued to tick away the second, Sunset looked over to the pink pony standing across from her. “Okay,” she said as nervousness and a sense of self-loathing welled in her chest at the idea of staying in Equestria. “Let’s-” Before she could finish, a grunt of extreme effort came from Twilight, and Sunset blinked as a red blur raced between Cadance and Shining Armor, past Sunset’s head, and through Celestia’s tail, straight towards the mirror. Getting a startled cry from the assembled ponies.

Sunset recovered a moment later. “What in the hell was-” she said before she heard the sound of glass shattering.

Twilight struggled in Shining Armor’s grip as Princess Cadance continued to talk with Empress Sunset. “Shiny, let me go! I need to stop the Empress!”

“Twilight, you need to calm down,” he told her sadly.

“But Empress Sunset is leaving!” Twilight exclaimed.

She didn’t understand the details. She knew that whatever was going on. Even though it had to be important, she didn’t care. Empress Sunset was supposed to teach her magic, she was supposed to get Twilight into Celestia’s school, she was supposed to marry Shining Armor and become Twilight’s big sister!

She couldn’t do any of that if she left!

“Shiny! Please, don’t let her leave! Do something! Tell her I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did something wrong. I’m sorry I made Ms Celestia angry! Tell her I’ll be god from now on, please!” the little purple unicorn begged as the world blurred from the tears in her eyes.

Shining Armor sighed as he looked over to where Princess Cadance had gone back to talking to Sunset in an angry tone. “I’ll try, Twilight,” he said before he looked back to her. “But you need to stay here, okay?”

Twilight trembled with indecision. She wanted to race back and latch onto Empress Sunset’s foreleg. She wanted to make her stay, to make her see how horrible it would be to live without her. But despite all those desires, she knew that it wouldn’t do any good.

Empress Sunset knew Twilight didn’t want her to go, but she was leaving anyway. She had her saddlebags packed and everything! She probably had planned it long ago, judging by the signature on the letter she left.

As Shiny went to talk with Sunset, apparently taking Twilight’s silence as an affirmative that she would stay put, the little unicorn looked around desperately. If she couldn’t keep Empress Sunset around by asking, then she would just have to make her stay somehow!

Although her hammering heart made it hard to hear everything that was going on, Twilight picked up that the mirror on the other side of the cleared space was the only way that Empress Sunset could go to someplace she called Earth. So...if the mirror was destroyed...then the Empress would have to stay in Equestria.

Twilight looked around for something to smash the mirror that would take Empress Sunset from her. Her eyes settled on a hammer on the shelf above her, but before she could use her magic on it, something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

The big red crystal ball floating on the pedestal glowed a bright red that made Twilight’s eyes dart towards it, with her whole head turning in that direction a few seconds later. It might have been fragile as well, but the fact it could float under its own power meant Twilight could probably move it much easier than a big piece of enchanted metal.

She snatched the thing up in her telekinesis, and built up as much power as she could with her immature horn before letting the magical object fly without even looking. Which turned out to be a mistake, as the orb headed right towards a gathering crowd of ponies that was standing between Twilight and the evil mirror.

By some miracle, the crystal ball made it past Princess Cadance, Shiny, Empress Sunset and Celestia to strike the mirror's surface and...shatter.

But, much to Twilight’s horror, the oval mirror that promised to take Empress Sunset away from her remained whole.

Empress Sunset looked over to the mirror as she spoke. “What the hell was-” she said before Celestia let out a startled scream.

“The orb!” she shouted in terror before she looked over to Twilight with an angry frown. All the light in the room seemed to diminish, and Twilight crouched down in fear as the former High Princess gave her an angry glare. “What have you done, you little-”

“Hey!” Empress Sunset shouted before she ran around to stand between Twilight and the big pony. “Don’t yell at her! She-wait.” As the Empress stopped to look past her mother, Twilight quickly ran between the amber alicorn’s legs for protection from the white pony. “Why didn’t it go through?”

“Sunset! Do you have any idea what she’s done? The magic of the Orb of Foolishness has been released! Who knows what might happen because of that!”

Before anypony could properly answer the Empress’s inquiry, a resounding crack filled the room, making all of the ponies present look back towards the mirror. Cracks in the center of the treated crystal spread out from the center of the mirror out to the edges, making Twilight cry out in joy. “Yes! Now Empress Sunset can’t leave the-” The the cracks continued past the mirror’s frame, going into the air, making it appear as if the world around the mirror was breaking. “-uh...Empress Sunset, are broken magic mirrors supposed to do that?”

“Sunset?” Princess Cadance said in an uneasy tone as she stepped closer to the bigger pony. “What’s going on?”

The mirror, the frame, and the space around it fell apart like broken glass, creating a jagged hole in the world. On the other side of the hole, a bunch of strange creatures on two legs stood in a crowd. Some of them were looking at the hole, others at each other, and a few had their attention on thick little bricks with wires that ran to their heads.

“What-what are those thing?” Shiny asked.

“Humans,” Cadance mumbled.

“Those are hugh-manes?” Celestia said.

Twilight stepped out from underneath the Empress to examine the creatures as much as she dared. They looked funny, with the way they didn’t have any coats underneath their clothes and such odd manes. But the weirdest thing about them was something she had to ask the amber alicorn behind her. “Empress Sunset, why aren’t they moving?”

The Empress ignored the question and nearly stepped on Twilight as she moved forward, making the little unicorn dive for cover. “But that’s...Canterlot...High. The games...that can’t be more than a few minutes after I left!” she exclaimed before her horn lit up and a wide beam of light came out to encompass the opening as well as shine through it. A second after Empress Sunset had completed what looked like some type of scanning spell on the breach, she looked back to Celestia. “Mom, what’s going on?”

Celestia’s eyes widened at the question. “Of course!” she said before rushing over to the stacks of paper and pulling out one of them. “That’s why there isn’t another one of you running around! The temporal magic that’s rewound time doesn’t extend to other realities! While our temporal axis has been altered, the other universe is continuing on unaffected. So, you weren’t swept up in the rewind, which means...oh my.” The big pony looked up from her paper and over to the Empress. “Sunset, the fact you came back when you did...if you hadn’t walked through the portal that that exact second...I’m not sure what would have happened.”

“Excuse me?” Sunset asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Celestia sighed and rubbed the space beneath her horn with a hoof. “Sunset, think about it for a moment. The spell that was cast rewound time in Equestria to the point before you left. But since you weren’t here, there was nothing to rewind. What do you think would have happened if you had disappeared before you ran away? Do you have any idea what I would have done if you had just vanished?”

“I...wait, but that’s…” Empress Sunset looked back to the hole in the world with a frown. “How in the hay did somepony cast a time travel spell that took them back ten years? The one I know of barely does seven days.”

When Celestia looked at the tear again, Twilight realized that she didn’t have any cover from the former princess’s gaze, and quickly rushed back to her safe space underneath Empress Sunset before the white alicorn began talking again. “It is quite disturbing. The only thing I know of that would have provided a pony the power to enact such a spell is…” Celestia looked back to Shining Armor with a frown. “Not useable at the moment.”

When it looked like everypony had just forgotten her question, or simply not heard it in the first place, Twilight poked her head out from under Empress Sunset. “But why aren’t they moving?”

Empress Sunset blinked as she looked down at Twilight, then she took a step back and sat on the floor.

With her cover gone, Twilight started to become nervous, until Empress Sunset reached down and picked the purple unicorn up in her forelegs. Twilight dove into the warmth of the Empress’s coat, nuzzling the amber alicorn with her whole body. She was so enveloped by the experience that she almost missed Empress Sunset’s response. “Well, they are moving Twilight. It’s just much, much slower than we are,” she said.

“Hey!” Shining Armor cried out before throwing his hooves out towards the anomaly. “Does nopony seem to care about the big hole in reality over there? Shouldn’t one of you princesses be doing something to seal it up?”

All the assembled ponies blinked.

Celestia sighed again. “And this is why I was mad at Twilight for breaking the Idiot Ball,” she mumbled before looking over to Shining Armor. “And I’m afraid that I don’t have enough-”

“Yeah,” Empress Sunset said as she stepped forward. “I suppose...we should take care of that.”

Cadance frowned at her. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“What am I thinking?” Sunset asked evenly.

“There’s a big gaping hole in reality to a work that you can just walk through and skip the next ten years of us feeling heartbroken at your departure,” Cadance said with a frown. “I know you’ve thought about galloping through it.”

Empress Sunset lowered her ears. “Actually, I...that is-”

The pink princess didn’t let the Empress finish. “And if you do, I’ll be following you through it.”

“Cadance…” Empress Sunset said with enough force to keep the lesser official from talking over her again. “I’m...not...leaving.” She looked down at Twilight for a moment before giving her a smile that didn’t look at all happy, then turned her attention back to Princess Cadance. “You’re right. I have to take responsibility for what I’ve done, here. And...part of that means learning how to deal with the things I’ve done in a way that doesn’t hurt the ponies that I love.”

A hopeful look bloomed on Princess Cadance’s face before she slowly half-looked away from Sunset and gave her a frown born of cautious optimism. “So...you’re staying, then?”

The Empress let out a tiny snicker from her nose and smiled. “Yes. I’m not going anywhere,” she said as she pulled Twilight away from her coat and hoofed her to Shining Armor again before looking back to the anomaly. “But first, let me take care of this little mess.”

“Sunset, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to-”

“Relax Mom, I’ve got this,” she told the bigger alicorn as she stepped forward and took in a deep breath.

Then the Empress threw out her wings, and something magical happened. Just like the time she had broken the laws of magic, her hair became a flowing mass of power. But the display didn’t end there.

Twilight’s view of Empress Sunset became completely obscured for a moment by a bright light, and when it dimmed, the Empress had transformed. Extra little cutie marks adored her body in odd places, and her main one shined a bit brighter, seemed a bit bigger, and had some minor cosmetic changes in the form of six little stars of light at the end of her sun’s pure red and gold flares.

The amount of power Empress Sunset gave off made Twilight’s head swim, but in a good way. It was like being wrapped up in a warm snuggly blanket that told Twilight that everything was going to be okay, that she was loved, and that Empress Sunset would be able to handle any problem presented to her.

“But that-how can she possibly use the magic of Harmony without an Element?” Celestia mumbled.

Not ten seconds later, the rift was gone and Empress Sunset was back to normal, holding the red ball from earlier in a containment field. “While I was at it I also gathered up the stray magic and reformed the Orb,” she said before putting it back on its pedestal. “And containment spell should keep it from messing with any of...us-wait.”

Twilight suddenly got a nervous feeling when the Empress looked down on her. She was frowning, but it wasn’t an angry frown. Still, the little purple unicorn was starting to have seconds thoughts about her decision to run off on her own after hearing from one of the palace janitor’s that Princess Cadance and Shiny had gone down the left wing’s eastern stairwell while her mother was still in the bathroom.

“Twily, what’re you doing here?”

“Oh, thank you! Thank you, Princesses. Or is it Princess and...um...do you have a title...er….Celestia?”

Cadance stifled a giggle as not-Princess Celestia’s mouth twisted in annoyance. It seemed that Sparkle got more than looks from Velvet. “Don’t worry Mrs. Velvet, it’ll be Princess Celestia again soon enough,” she assured the mare that was holding the sleeping filly. “And while I don’t think that something like this needs to be repeated in the future, I’m actually thankful that Twily did show up. Even if Sunset did have to wipe her memory of what happened.”

The gray Twilight cautiously looked over to Celestia, then back to Cadance. “I...see.”

“It was more for her peace of mind than anything else,” Celestia told her. “She’ll wake up tomorrow morning, thinking that she just dozed off in her house before ever reading the letter that my daughter sent for her. If not for that, we’d offer you a room at the palace. But we do have a carriage take you home waiting in the courtyard.”

Velvet bowed her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said to Celestia despite the lack of a title before looking over to Cadance. “And...Shiny?”

“Sunset is taking him back to our quarters and explaining a few things to him. He’ll be be spending the night with us,” Cadance told her before hesitating. Telling Velvet about their relationship in the middle of the night when they were all drop dead tired. But...it wasn’t as if there was a good way to tell a pony with Velvet’s background and already been introduced to about what they were doing. So, the pink princess decided to just dive right into it. “In case you’re wondering what that means, I’ll just go out and say it. We’re making love with your son.”

The mare’s reaction was just what Cadance had thought it would be. She saw the fear at the thought of another pony of position doing whatever they wanted to a family of her class, then came the mental reminder that Sunset and Cadance hardly seemed the types that would take advantage of a pony like that, followed by the confusion of three ponies having sex, together. “Both of you?”

“Please understand!” Cadance begged before the confusion could give way to fear again. “It’s not like we’re passing him back and forth! He’s not like some toy. I love Shiny. We both do. That’s...one of the reasons why it ended up like this. The three of us, we...work together. There’s no better way to put it better than that. There’s no jealousy, there’s no hurt feelings, there’s no guilt. I know, it seems new and scary and you’re probably afraid of us taking advantage of Shining Armor and if you’re still against us being with him like this…”

Cadance paused for an instant, unsure if she should make the offer she was about to. But she went through with it anyway. “And if you want us to...we’ll back off,” she said. Sunset would be a little peeved at the idea, but the pink princess knew that she wouldn’t try to come between the young stallion and his family in such a way.

For her part, Twilight Velvet looked over to her daughter for a moment, then sighed and hung her head. “It’s alright, Princess,” she said. “I know you’re just trying to put me at ease. Not that I don’t have fears...I’ve seen the two of you argue about my son as if he were some kind of doll, sometimes.”

“Yeah...sorry about that,” she apologized. “We just...we both thought that the best thing for Shiny was to be with the other mare. Which is...probably why we can have a threesome. Like I said, no jealousy.”

The gray mare nodded. “Thank you for acknowledging my concerns, Highness,” she said before shaking her head. “But, I’m not going to try and stand between Shining Armor and the two of you. Just...please be careful with my son.”

Cadance trotted up to take Twilight Velvet’s hooves in her own. “The last thing we would ever do is hurt Shiny, ma’am.”

Shortly after, the other mare departed with her daughter. The two alicorns watched her go, then turned back to head into the palace hallways. After making their way to a hall where they were alone, Cadance looked up to Celestia. “Mind if I ask you something?”

“If you would be so kind to honor me with a question to you of my own, Your Majesty,” the bigger alicorn asked with a smirk and bow of her head.

With it being too late to put up with her sort of humor, Cadance gave Celestia a look as she cut right to the heart of the matter. “Why is Twilight Sparkle afraid of you?”

It made no sense to her. As far as she knew, the little purple unicorn was just short of a sun worshiper. Upon meeting Celestia, she should have squealed, jumped for joy, asked for an autograph, not cower in fear of her!

Celestian stopped for a moment, cleared her throat, and looked away from Cadance in that way she did whenever she was embarrassed about something. “That was...probably because our first meeting went so poorly.”

“Oh, that makes-wait,” Cadance said, stopping mid-word and nod finished process just what Celestia had said. “You’ve met here before!? When? How? And...you were mean to her?” That was the only thing Cadance could think of to cause such a reaction in the little unicorn.

The accusation made Celestia’s eyes widen. “What? No! I didn’t-it was after I met with Shining Armor when-here,” she said before her horn lit up. “Let me show you.”

Cadance turned to look at the projection the white pony put on the wall. On it, she saw a moving image like she had seen at the re-play theater.

Celestia and Shining Armor walked together down a hallway. They entered a room, where the gray and purple Twilights were sitting on benches across from each other, enjoying some sweets and tea that had been prepared for them by the palace.

“Oh my gosh! It’s Princess Celestia!” the little Twilight got out as she jumped off and ran towards the big pony, she reared up when she got to Celestia and put her hooves up against the Princess’s forelegs. “Hello, Your Majesty! I’m Twilight Sparkle, your daughter is helping me learn magic, and I want to go to your school when I’m old enough.”

The moment Twilight said her name, the amusement in Celestia’s eyes over the filly’s actions disappeared. In its place was a cold stare that put a chill down Cadance’s spine. All of a sudden, the little filly wasn’t standing next to her idol, she was standing in the shadow of a gigantic alicorn that looked down at her with eyes that would have put the griffons on their rumps in ten seconds or less. “You, are Twilight Sparkle?”

Despite her age, Twilight obviously picked up on the change in Celestia’s demeanor, as she got back on all fours and gulped. “Um...y-yes...Princess Celestia,” Twily replied before she crouched down in fear.

A second later, the gray Twilight was standing behind her daughter in a bow. “I’m sorry for my daughter’s lack of respect, Your Highness. Please, forgive her foolishness,” she begged. “She’s just a little filly.”

“Yes, I supposed she is,” Celestia replied evenly before looking back to Shining Armor for a moment. The colt also had become extremely nervous at the ancient mare’s reaction. “As I was saying to your son, earlier. You will tell no one of this meeting, especially not my daughter. Is that understood?”

The visual ended with all of the ponies agreeing to the royal order.

It made Cadance glare at the bigger alicorn. “What the buck was that?” she demanded.

“Cadance, please understand-”the mare said evenly.

“Understand what?” the pink princess demanded. “You frightened that little filly!”

“That little filly crippled my daughter!” Celestia fired back.

“You can’t-” Cadance began before the irony of the situation hit her. It was just like Sunset’s relationship with Celestia. The younger alicorn had a bone to pick with her mother over something Celestia had never really done thanks to the change in the timeline. “Ugh, Sunset’s mad at you for what you didn’t do, and you’re doing the same thing to Twily. The two of you really are just alike, blaming a pony when what they did is no longer something they can be blamed for.”

Celestia stomped her hoof. “Don’t you think I know that?” she demanded before letting out a snort and frowning down at herself. “I regretted it the moment they left, but seeing the pony that, even in an alternate incarnation, hurt Sunset...I just…”

Pushing past the anger she felt towards Celestia over what she had just seen and shaking off her own ire that wanted to be loosed thanks to the reminder of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Cadance frowned at the bigger alicorn. “Don’t you think I feel the same way towards anypony who would do that to Sunset? And if that other pony ever crosses my path, the fate I will bestow upon her will make her envious of what happens to the creatures in Tartarus,” Cadance said, something she had no doubt Celestia would aid her in. “But that little filly, that is not the princess that left your daughter to fend for herself without a single pony around to help. She is an innocent little filly that worships your daughter and-” Cadance stopped as something suddenly dawned on her.

The second week or so Cadance and Sunset had gone to teach Twilight magic, the little filly had stopped mentioning Celestia. There were no inquires about being her personal student, no requests to meet her, not even a mention of the big pony. Twily’s admiration for the High Princess just suddenly disappeared. Even to the point where she said Sunset was a nicer princess than Celestia.

She hadn’t thought much of it at the time. After all, Twily was a young filly, and Sunset was the pony making time for her, not Celestia. It seemed natural that her hero worship should change to the princess that was paying attention to her rather than the one in the castle she had only seen while part of a crowd.

“You need to apologize to her. You owe her an apology on your belly. An apology, and something to show your sincerity, to make this up to her an push it out of her mind,” she stressed. “Because if Sunset finds out about this...you and her are done.” Twilight meant too much to Sunset. If she became a reason to break the mother and daughter apart, Cadance didn’t know if such a rift would ever close.

Celestia hesitated. “You’re not...going to hell her?”

The thought didn’t even tempt her. “No,” Cadance said with a shake of her head. “I know that she actually said she wasn’t going back to Earth, but...I can also see that Sunset’s got a long road until she’s fully recovered from the wounds that she suffered there. Longer still until she can finally relieve herself of the guilt. For that, she’s going to need you to be there for her.”

Celestia nodded. “Thank you for that.”

The two resumed their walk, which Celestia apparently took as sign that she had the reigns of the conversation. “So tell me, how long has Sunset been able to do...what she did back in the vault?”

Shining Armor laid on the edge of the amber alicorn’s bed as Sunset finished explaining everything to him about the mirror, the other world she visited, the fact that she had been over there so long that ten years had passed since she left, and then got sent back in time when she left that world after absorbing magic that had been misappropriated by a bunch of other of the hugh-mane creatures when another pony had apparently cast a spell that reversed time without affecting Sunset, because she was on another planet at time...or in an alternate dimension, the whole thing was really confusing.

It left Shining Armor with several questions, like… “So...you’re really, like...twenty-eight?”

Sunset made a face. “What? No, Shiny that’s, if I was that old, I would have never done anything like I did with you! That’s just, just-ew! No,” she told him before clearing her throat and calming down. “But...I am twenty-one...physically...maybe. I need to take another look at that physical exam. Legally though, I’m still eighteen so...I’m not getting you any hard cider. In fact, I won’t be buying any even after I’m twenty-one. That stuff’s for idiots. And mentally, hell I started the last three years surrounded by fifteen-year-olds. So...it’s complicated.”

He frowned at the discrepancy. “But, you said that ten years had passed.”

“Like I said, it’s complicated,” Sunset told him. “All I can figure on that is, the temporal axises of the two dimensions are out of sync. Sometimes, the Earth one must spin faster than ours. Except now, because Equestria’s temporal rotation has been sped up thanks to somepony casting a time reversal spell.”

Shining Armor frowned again. “Don’t you mean, time travel?”

Sunset shook her head. “No, that’s a common misconception,” she said. “It’s actually impossible to travel through time more than second by second, and never in reverse. What the spell Celestia thinks caused all of this rewinds time after taking the pony who cast the spell out of the affected area. Kind of like when I undid the damage to your plates back in your house.”

The explanation got a nod from Shining Armor, although in the big scheme of things, he guessed that the technical details of things that he would never really grasp weren’t really that important.

Plus, there were more important things he needed to know. “Um, back when we were in the vault, you said...well, what does my sister have to do with all of this?”

Sunset hesitated and broke eye contact for a minute. “Well...that’s...look, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you it’s just…” she stopped talking and tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “Shiny, like I said, the first time I came back to Equestria, more than ten years had passed since I left. Twily was an adult, and I got into big trouble on the other side of the mirror and...she saved me, Shiny. I can’t begin to explain just how much I owe her and...I was afraid that if I stayed...I would ruin the future I saw for her.” She sighed and looked down at the ground. “Truth is, I’m afraid I already have. And if I tell you anymore about her future, it may throw it off even more. The only thing I can do now is minimize the damage and keep her on course. ”

Which was why Shining Armor couldn’t bring himself to be too upset at Sunset for trying to sneak away. It hurt, it put doubts in his mind about how she felt about what the three of them were doing together, but Shining Armor found himself unable to actually be angry at her for it.

Although he could agree with Cadance about how what she did stemmed from a massive amount of guilt, he knew it was also because of her lack of self-worth. Sunset couldn’t see any solution that didn’t involve her removing herself from Twilight’s life because she saw her own presence as a detriment.

“Okay,” Shining Armor said after some thought. “I get Twilight. I get...why you did, what you did. But Sunset...the way you were trying to push me off on Cadance...and with this...three of us...stuff. Was all this because you were leaving?”

Right as she moved to answer him in a reassuring way, the door to the bedroom opened, admitting Cadance. “That’s not true, is it?” she asked in fear. “You got the idea from Twilight, which also came from humans. It’s not some evil plot you had to leave the two us in a way that assured we would get toget-oh, buck.” Cadance slumped at the truth of situation hit her. “That’s exactly what it was, wasn’t it?”

Sunset looked down for a moment at the floor to sigh, then back up to Cadance. “Back at the school, when I told you how I felt about you, I meant every word,” she said. “When it came time to leave, I was ready to run away from Shiny, but leaving you? It was if I was ripping out my own heart, Cadance. And...I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you, I’m sorry I scared you. I...I’m…”

As tears began to fall down Sunset’s face, Cadance stepped in to hug her in a supportive way, and kissed the water trickling down. “It’s okay. I get it,” she said. “In the end, you still came here. You didn’t leave. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

When the embrace ended, Cadance stepped back and looked at Sunset with a much harder expression. “So I guess the question is, are you ready to really and truly commit to this, then?” he asked. “I already said, the first few months are going to be a bit awkward, and there’s a problem with balancing everything early on, but the three of us can be together if we want to be.”

Sunset broke eye contact with Cadance, and Shining Armor found his own fears beginning to rise. He didn’t want to go back to the way they had been before, with Cadance and Sunset fighting over which mare would get him, even if they would be doing it the proper way a second time around. But...now that he had gotten used to the idea, he didn’t want to just be with Cadance, either. It was selfish and pretty narcissistic, but Shining Armor couldn’t deny that was what he wanted.

Then, when Sunset let out a breath through her nose and looked back at Cadance with a smirk, Shining Armor’s fears were disappointing before she even spoke. “Of course I want the two of you to be with me,” she said. “I’m a greedy narcissist, remember? Why would I want anything less than everything?”

“Well,” Cadance said with a small frown. “At least you’ve made it work for you. Now get in bed, the middle this time. I want the two of us holding you down this time.”

While Sunset did as she was told, Shining Armor found himself wondering what the future held for the three of them. Despite the fact that Sunset was willing to commit herself to them, he couldn’t help but be uncertain about what may come. “So...is this it?” he asked. “No offense girls, but...I’m not really getting a sense of assured closure, here.”

From the other side of the bed, Cadance snorted before she climbed in and latched onto Sunset to snuggle up to her the way a horned pony with plenty of practice could. “We’re just starting our relationship Shiny. Thisn’t an end of anything.”

“Except the arguing and relationship uncertainty,” Sunset said. “We’ve still got plenty to fill our plates like school, planning out future careers, the horrifying thought that I might cause a huge temporal disturbance and completely ruin your sister’s perfect destiny, royal...stuff…”

Since Sunset had hit a wall, Cadance picked up the conversation. “Not to mention you still need to give the crown back to Celestia, unless you want to keep it, that is. But if you don’t , we’ll have to do your coronation next week to officially make you a princess...after you were an empress for a...boy, that’s going to be a little confusing,” she said with a frown. “And it feels like I’m forgetting-Oh! And there’s Upper Crust’s parents! We...really need to do something about them.”

“Yeah, I’ll sign an order to have them released in the morning,” she said.

Shining Armor nodded before scooting closer to Sunset and wrapping his forelegs around one of hers. “I suppose you’ve got a few points there,” he agreed. “And, I was wondering...what with you both being princesses and all, if you could...help me see if joining the guard is really something I want to do.”

“Of course we could,” Sunset said.

“And will,” Cadance added.

“Which,” Sunset continued. “Makes me think cooking up some kind of try-out or apprenticeship program for ponies that are still in highschool and are unsure what path their cutie mark should take them on should have. One second, let me just draw up an outline and-”

Cadance let out a little sigh as Sunset tried to get out of bed. “Sunset, while I’m glad you’ve just proven how well the three of us mesh and work together without even meeting to, we need to get some sleep.”

The word got a yawn out of Shining Armor as his body reminded him of what the mares had put him through all night. “Yeah Sunset. Sleep,” he agreed.

“Okay,” she agreed. Then, Shining Armor was treated to the sound of Sunset and Cadance kissing before his own lips felt the touch of hers. Afterwich he had to complete the process by reaching over to kiss Cadance.

Then, he closed his eyes.

And…

…

...felt a soft light on them he saw coming from Sunset’s horn when he opened his eyes. A quill and parchment floated in her magic, much to the annoyance of Cadance.

“Sunset,” the pink princess warned evenly.

The goddess let out a sign and moved the writing equipment back to the desk on the other side of the room with a sigh. “Okay, okay I’m going to sleep.”

When the light went out again, Shining Armor moved his whole body closer to the amber alicorn’s and smiled as he closed his eyes. It was odd. Since meeting Sunset, his life had been turned on its head. Being with Cadance had made him break out of his normal place of being the dateless nerd and into one he didn’t know he could fulfill. He knew that any future with the two of them in it was bound to be complicated beyond belief.

But he also knew that the three of them would be dealing with it together.

And somehow, that made it seem...not so bad.

Author's Note

Wait...is that the ending?

HOW CAN THAT BE THE ENDING?

Where's the stuff, and the THINGS?

HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN THE THINGS?

Oh, wait, that's right, there's still two more full stories, and a short one involving Sunset's coronation that have all been worked out in my mind. But before I could even start one those, Sunset needed to actually decide to stay in Equestria, and pick who she would be staying with.

When it comes down to it, that's all this story is. But for that to happen, she has to have a reason for it, she has to create an emotional connection with others, make an impact on the world around her, and really think about why she wants to do, what she wants to do.

Will some people be crying foul at the multi-mare relationship? Of course it's a cop out, and far from perfect. We've got a guy with an ever growing inferiority problem, a goddess who went into the whole thing fully intending to jump ship not 24 hours later, and girl that..well, Cadance has her own special reasoning for not fighting about Shining Armor being in the mix, but more on that later...

Until then, enjoy the epilogues

Epilogue 1

Sunset walked into the palace dining room to find that her place had already been set and all of her usual orders were waiting for her, surrounded by a spell to keep it warm. Celestia sat at the table across from her, sipping tea while half a cantaloupe sat in front of her, mostly untouched.

“Morning, Mom,” the amber alicorn said before she sat down across from the bigger pony.

After setting her tea down, Celestia gave Sunset a nod. “Good morning, daughter,” she replied before looking to the door for a few seconds, then back. “Are Cadance and Shining Armor not coming?”

The question got a quick shake of Sunset’s head. “No, she’s taking Shiny back home,” the amber alicorn told her before moving onto the pleasantries as she dispelled the keeping spells around her breakfast. “Sorry I’m late, I was...uh…”

Sunset froze, unsure as to how she should explain her delay to the big pony. Celestia was pretty damn old after all. Older than the oldest of prudes. Considering the fact that Sunset was having sex with two ponies at the same time...

Embarrassment made its way to Sunset’s cheeks, and Celestia’s pleasant smile turned devious. “Giving your special somepony a morning ride?” she asked in her usual sweet tone. “Or was Cadance taking her time in cleaning things up?”

Sunset’s eyes widened in horror. Oh no! Not this, ANYTHING BUT THIS!

She could deal with Celestia disapproving of her actions. That was the white pony’s normal attitude toward everything Sunset did! But...actually...talking about sex with her mother was just...icky!

“A mare and a stallion,” Sunset’s mother went on. “I must say, it should keep things very interesting in the bedroom, not to mention help with the differences in stamina. I’m afraid unicorns always came up short in that regard.”

Sunset looked down at the food in front of her and wondering if she should risk eating any of it. “M-Mom!”

Celestia only seemed to be encouraged by her daughter’s unease. “Oh, have you tried anything risque yet?” she asked. “Or are you just sticking to basic mounting for now?”

“M-Mom! Please!”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” she went on before a tiny look of unease appeared on her face. “Not yet, at any rate. But when you want to branch out, I can give the three of you several helpful suggestions.”

“Would you stop going on about-wait,” Sunset said, stopping when her mother’s last words registered. “What do you mean, not yet?”

The devious joy that Celestia had on her face from nettling Sunset about her sex life quickly declined at the question. She cleared her throat and looked away for a moment. “That’s...probably a topic for another time,” she said before putting on a an expression that was much too cheery. “Let’s go back to talking about your current sex life!”

“MOM!” Sunset yelled before she frowned at her mother. “Either you tell me what all that was about, or I will have you cleaning out the Canterlot septic system by yourself! I’m still Empress until those papers get signed by you, I can still do that stuff, now talk!”

All the joy Celestia had on her face faded, to be replaced by a sad kind of serious. “Very well, if you insist,” she said with a sigh. “My reasons are twofold. I take it you still remember the book, To Worship the Sun?”

Sunset groaned and leaned forward to rest her head on the breakfast table. “Unfortunately,” she grumbeled. It was probably wrong of her to think so, but that stupid book was probably one of the reasons she ended up like she did. “Why do you ask?”

“I...reviewed it between researching Starswirl’s spells,” Celestia said. “The portrayal of Hurricane and myself was...very slanted in deference of me.”

The obviousness of that little fact made Sunset roll her eyes. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out,” she replied before she went over the plot of the novel in her mind.

In the book, Commander Hurricane, being the most powerful and handsome stallion of his time, fell in love with Princess Celestia shortly after Equestria was founded. The pegasus was what anypony would have thought the head warrior of the pegasi would have been at the time, a super macho jock with a very high opinion of himself that might have actually been deserved considering he was the commander of the armies that were responsible for keeping the griffons at bay.

Of course, Princess Celestia decided to indulge his affections, as she was much too kind to do otherwise, despite her considering him only barely adequate. However, as the novel went on, Hurricane became unable to accept his proper place as Celestia’s second. In the end, he tried to rally his lieutenants in a rebellion against Celestia, only to have them all turn on him because the evil, selfish, and Commander Hurricane dared to challenge the rightful ruler of their nation.

However, Sunset could use her knowledge of her mother to read between the lines and figure out the basic truths. More than likely, Celestia had turned out to be an overbearing and controlling bitch of a girlfriend that nobody with a bit of self esteem would touch.

Not to mention the fact that she got a kick out of sitting on his face.

As the silence between the two continued. Celestia actually showed a bit of hesitation and embarrassment. “And I ah...take it that you remember my...favorite activity?”

Sunset lifted her head and cringed. “Yeah,” she said, growing more uncomfortable by the second.

And...curious. “Uh, did you really make him do that in the throne room at one point?”

“Oh...well...yes,” Celestia admitted before she blushed and looked down at her breakfast. “Just the one though! I um...ordered him to...prove to his loyalty to the crown. It was more a show of dominance than anything sexual at the time.”

Sunset took in a deep breath. “Okay, and the reason you’re wanting to talk about this at all?”

There was another brief silence as Celestia took in another deep breath. “What the book doesn’t talk about is the growing sexual frustration because of my increasing size,” she told her daughter. “Which is probably what led to a great many of our...problems. Problems you need to learn to avoid.”

The amber alicorn frowned. “Huh?”

“Sunset, I’m the biggest pony in Equestria, but I didn’t start out at this height,” her mother explained. “I’ve noticed you getting a few inches these past few days yourself.”

“Yeah, but that’s expected. Alicorns are always a little taller than everypony else,” she said.

Celestia nodded her head. “However, I doubt that you have accounted for your external power source.”

As her train of thought was completely derailed, Sunset cocked her head to the side. “Say what now?”

“As you know, the sun provides me with extra energy that gives me a long life and more magic than any other pony in Equestria. I felt the type of magic you used to seal the breach caused by Twilight Sparkle’s panicked actions,” Celestia said. “You’ve already discovered it can have a drastic effect on your body when you access it fully, but that magic will also cause your body to adapt to the extra energy over time.

"When I began raising the sun, I...outgrew Hurricane, literally,” Celestia told her. “He became unable to satisfy me physically, something that you know young alicorns need a lot of. That was what led to the events of that book, along with my own foolish pride.

“I know you’ve changed for the better, Sunset,” her mother continued. “But, I also know that you tend to bottle things up and explode at the drop of a hat. I don’t want what happened with me repeat itself with you. Especially considering how you will most likely outgrow even me in the next few years.”

Once again, Sunset frowned. “What’re you talking about? Your powersource is the bucking sun! Pretty sure that beats everything else in the solar system, Mom!”

Celestia shook her head and smiled. “While I do have a heavenly body to help me, the moon is equally as powerful,” she said. “But can a sun love? Can it give and receive friendship? No, my little pony. What you have flowing through you is the very essence of magic. It trumps my sun by quite the large margin.”

“But...that’s...I mean...I’m going to be more powerful than you?” she asked, a little fearful of the possibility. If she went bad again, who would stop her?

The question got a little smile from Celestia. “You already are.”

Sunset felt an unease settle in her gut. “But...that’s...you’re just being modest,” she said.

“Sunset,” Celestia said as she held up a hoof. “My strength is enough to shatter the castle’s walls and splitter trees with a single kick. I could levitate this mountain we sit upon, and fly fast enough to cause what the ponies mistakenly call a sonic rainboom.”

Even though she knew her mother was only half done, Sunset frowned. “Mistakenly?”

Celestia’s mouth cured into an annoyed smirk. “Yes, well...my mane looks some like an aurora than a rainbow. But that’s not important,” she said. “You on the other hoof, can shatter mountains with your hooves, juggle continents with your horn, and one flap of your wings disrupts the weather systems of an entire county. Which reminds me, we need to teach you how to fly before the week after next so you can give everypony a good show during your coronation. Ah, assuming you don’t want to remain Empress, your glorious and shining Magnificence that eclipses all before her with her power.”

Although Celestia giggled at the title, Sunset found herself cringing.

Ultimate power, more than even Celestia had.

Power that was only going to increase.

The fact didn’t send her into a panic attack like she thought it would have. Perhaps because on some level, Sunset had already realized that she had surpassed her mother, even though her desperate need to be humble kept her from admitting it.

Despite the fact she didn’t deserve it, Sunset stopped herself from whining about it. Such an action would be childish, and would lead to her hiding her power completely. Which would only hurt Equestria.

The better course of action would be to use it for the good of all ponies. With her around, Equestria would never need to worry about an external threat.

But, there was one change to the current status quo she did need to make. “Please, take the crown back,” Sunset told her before she sunk back onto the table. “You’ll probably need months to untangle all the messes I made.”

After taking another sip of tea, Celestia looked down at her daughter. “Actually, I’ve already looked over all of your decisions. I rather approve of them. Admittedly, I tended to rule with a bit softer touch, but a firm hoof and swift kick to the plot is needed every now and then. Perhaps if I had done that with you instead of letting you run wild the first time around, things would never had led to...where they are. I’m sorry for failing you, Sunset.”

“Mom, that’s…” Sunset took in a deep breath. “I need to face the facts. You’re not that pony. That pony died the day I came back. Cadance made sure of that,” she said before smiling at the pony who raised her. “I need to focus on the pony across from me, my mom.”

Feeling better about herself, Sunset moved onto the next topic on her mind. “By the way, what do you mean, week after next? What’s wrong with having my coronation next weekend?” A week was enough time to gather the regional leaders of Equestria so they could present themselves and declare their allegiance.

Celestia frowned. “Sunset, don’t you remember what next week is?”

“Uh,” the amber alicorn replied as she tried to think of what national holiday would conflict with getting made into a princess. In the end, she drew a blank. “Not really.”

The faulty memory got a confused frown from Celestia. “But, it was announced at the start of the month.”

Sunset frowned. “Which was three years ago for me, Mom.”

“Oh...right,” Celestia said. “Well, ahem, it’s also why I decided to discuss your physical relationships so soon. Although, considering the time that’s passed for you, not to mention the species change, I have to wonder if you’re on the same schedule as the rest of Canterlot.”

Starting to become annoyed with the way her mother was just beating around the bush, Sunset let out a snort. “Would you just spit it out already?”

“Next week is when the majority of the mares in Canterlot will go into heat for the final time of the season,” Celestia explained before she smiled a bit. “I doubt bringing in all the important ponies from around Equestria in when the vast majority of the population is raising their tail at the drop of a hat is something a pony that you’re wanting to do, considering your recent laws.”

The reminder of the one thing she hadn’t missed about not being a pony made Sunset blanch. “Oh...yeah...good call on that one.”

Which, considering the fact that Cadance was already looking to be a future sex-crazed pony, made Sunset wonder how much time she would have until she needed to invent contraceptives.

Epilogue 2

Strong Withers sat the desk in his home’s office as he took a swig of burning cider, letting the feeling of it ‘brand’ his throat on the way down. Although it had taken the better part of the day and night to get back to his estate, staying in Canterlot with his son out of jail was simply too risky.

The boy had been caught trying to sneak out of the house. When asked what in Tartarus he was doing, the idiot had actually confessed to wanting to go to that juvenile social outing so that he could ‘teach that idiot Shining Armor and those stupid princesses a lesson about messing with him’.

So Strong Withers had promptly knocked the boy out and demanded the lot of them leave for their home back in Fillydelphia. The cost of the express airship had been astronomical, but nothing he couldn’t get the his personal expense fund to cover.

Now, all Strong Withers wanted to do was sleep. But with his wife at home with him, he couldn’t even do that! Just looking at her made him remember how she had failed when it came to their son. His so-called ultimate legacy.

More like, her ultimate failure.

His own mother was right, he should have never hooked up with the second-born daughter. While the mare’s own father had loaned him the funds Strong Withers needed for his campaign, the mare that had come with the bargain was little more than a pit for bits to fall down now that he had his own sources of revenue.

So, he sat, and drank.

In a room so dark he couldn’t see ten feet beyond his own desk.

And thought about the latest problem he had to deal with.

Princess Celestia had told him that his son would be sent back to prison if he didn’t provide her with information on ponies plotting against her daughter, which he had been one of shortly before their plan did little more than put them into Celestia’s crosshairs.

Even though the big white pony wasn’t a member of the government at the moment, he knew Celestia would be back.

“It must be hard for you,” a deep mare’s voice said. “All your life, you’ve worked yourself up from nothing to become what you are, and now it’s all come crashing down. Your wife is less than useless, your son a criminal, and any hope of a legacy you hoped to create politically was ruined the day you decided to try and oust Sunset Shimmer from power.”

Strong Withers looked up from his drink and searched around for the source of the voice. “Who’s there? How did you get in here?”

“Oh, my poor little pony, it is you who trespasses,” the mare continued as she stepped out of the darkness, making Strong Withers seize up. “You dozed off over your desk, coming into my domain.”

The alicorn that appeared in front of him was as tall as Celestia, with a coat just as black as the darkness behind her. A dark blue helmet adored her head, and an ethereal trail of blue energy followed behind her as she trotted forward. “As for my identity. I am the true Princess of Equestria,” she announced before leaned down to look Strong Withers muzzle to muzzle. “And I have a task for you.”

Epilogue 3

The purple dragon known simply as Spike watched as the ponies carried the amber colt named Sunburst off in celebration of him earning his cutie mark.

“And just like that, Sunburst was gone!” Starlight said. “Our friendship was over, all because he got his cutie mark, and I didn’t! HIS CUTIE MARK TOOK HIM AWAY FROM ME!”

Spike frowned at the explanation. “So...wait, you never saw him again?” he asked with a frown. “Never even sent a letter, or visited him or anything?” It sounded...stupid. “Even if he moved away, you could have at least done something like that.”

As the light purple pony brought her angry glare down on Spike, the dragon was starting to have second thoughts about poking holes in a crazy and violent pony’s messed up logic that made her into a victim to justify her insane revenge plot. “Of course I followed him to the school you idiot!” she exclaimed. “I earned my cutie mark two weeks later, just in time to enroll in Celestia’s special school for elitist jerks!”

A disgusted sneer appeared on Starlight’s face. “But by then, it was too late,” she said. “In the time we were apart, he met this other mare who thought she was so great and powerful, and whose cutie mark let her do so many tricks. So, I had to get rid of him!”

Twilight drew herself back a bit from the ferocity of Starlight’s anger. “Wait...what? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“OF COURSE IT DOES!” Starlight yelled. “LOOK!” The unicorn’s horn lit up before a bright light flashed across Spike’s field of vision, making him close his eyes.

When he opened them, Spike found himself and Twilight standing in the upper hallways of Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. Although, he could still smell and feel the grass beneath his feet, telling him that what he was seeing was merely an illusion.

“You’re coming with me, and we’re going to spend the rest of the day playing board games!”

Spike turned around and saw the two little ponies standing in a hallway he had seen plenty of during his time at CSGU. Starlight was giving Sunburst her patented glare of insane rage, but the colt didn’t seem to be cowering properly. “No Starlight! Ever since we we met, I’ve always had to do what you tell me to. Well now it’s time for me to do what I want, and if you don’t want me to do that, then I don’t want to hang out with you anymore Starlight!”

Being told no had apparently been a new experience for the little light purple filly at the time, because her mouth dropped before Sunburst moved to walk away. “But-but...you have to do what I say!”

“Would you leave me alone already?” Sunburst asked in a demanding tone as he looked back to Starlight with a frown. “I told you, I don’t want to hang out with you anymore, Starlight.”

The little Starlight Glimmer looked hurt. “But Sunburst! The only reason I even came to this school was to find you!”

Sunburst spun around to glare at Starlight. “Yeah, well the only reason I came here was to get away from you!” he said before he turned back around and quickly began trotting away.

“Uh…” Spike said. “His cutie mark isn’t making him walk away, it’s how big of a jerk you were be-”

“H-Hey! You can’t just trot away from me!” the pink filly went on before she began to build up power in her horn at a surprising speed. “You’re my friend! I OWN YOU!”

“Oh no,” Spike mumbled as the little filly unleashed her magic in a wild blast towards the colt.

Twilight let out a startled cry and leaped forward, trying to protect the colt from the oncoming blast of magic. But, it was all just an illusion. The scene played out as if Twilight didn’t exist. The first time everything occurred, there had been no alicorn to save Sunburst from being hit by Starlight’s attack, which struck him full force and sent the little colt flying through the window.

And to his eventual death.

Both Twilight and Spike stood in mute shock as they watched the scene end, returning them to reality of Starlight’s old village. The dragon could barely believe what he had just seen. When she was just a foal of eight, Starlight had...murdered her onetime best friend.

“That was...wait, I remember hearing something about that when I was at Celestia’s School,” the purple princess said, her voice still full of shock. “That was why all the hallways on the higher floors had shatterproof glass. But...I thought it was just because of an accident. You...killed your best friend?”

Spike felt something press down on him in the back of his mind, a harsh realization as he looked at the anger in Starlight’s eyes. Anger, not remorse for her actions. Even watching what she did for...Celestia only knew how many times, the light purple unicorn didn’t seem to care at all.

Instead of using her spell to go back in time and fix her own mistake, Starlight cast it to ruin six other lives.

“So what?” Starlight spat. “Sunburst may have been the first, but I’ve gotten rid of plenty of ponies since then!”

Twilight's mouth dropped at the declaration. “What?”

A frown appeared on Starlight’s face. “Did you even count how many cutie marks I had in my vault?” she asked. “You don’t really think I could have fit that many Equestrians into eight stupid little houses, did you? I had to have the town loop around during the advertisement parade just to make the march last long enough to do the song for pony’s sake!”

“I...I think I’m going to be sick,” Twilight mumbled as she put a hoof to her barrel.

As Twilight fought not to lose her lunch, Starlight’s eyes widened with an idea. “Wait...that’s it!”

Spike also developed a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“The time between the two of us arriving in Cloudsdale is a good five minutes, and I know where everypony’s starting point is now. All I have to do is go back, or forward at this point, to the rainboom, and I can get rid of that stupid little jock of a horse before you even arrive!” Starlight exclaimed before she gave Twilight one last evil grin. “Goodbye Twilight, the next time we see each other, it’ll be accompanied by the sound of me snapping your little friend’s neck like a twig!”

With Twilight frozen in shock, or maybe fighting the urge to lose her lunch, Starlight galloped past her to jump onto the table before casting her spell. She gave out one last manically evil laugh before the magic involved swallowed her up into the time bubble...thingy.

Right as Starlight disappeared, Twilight pulled herself together. “Oh no! Spike, we have to go after her!”

As Twilight started to gallop off, Spike scratched his head. “Uh...do we?”

“WHAT?” Twilight scratched in surprise as she spun around to look at her number one assistant.

Spike scratched his head and broke eye contact with the nervous alicorn. “You heard Starlight, right?” he asked. “If we travel through time to try and stop her, we’ll just end up arriving five minutes after she does. But she left us behind in this time, Twilight, before the rainboom. If we follow Starlight with the table, she’ll arrive five minutes before we do. But if we just wait for her to show up in Cloudsdale now, the normal way, we have years to prepare.”

“And we’ll inflict untold amounts of damage to the timeline in the meantime!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic. “We were both there for each time we went back Spike. It was different every time! Wildly different! That must be because Starlight isn’t sucked back up into the future like we are every time. The one time I pulled her along was it! She stays and keeps changing things! And we’ll do the same thing if we stay here! Now come on!”

Unable to continue the argument, or stop Twilight physically, Spike sighed at the futility of it all as the purple alicorn dragged the dragon along in her magic so that he could get a grip on her coat and ready himself for another bumpy ride. When they reached the table, Twilight cast the spell on the scroll again, and they were sucked up in the temporal bubble.

For the...well, Spike wasn’t sure how many times he had been going back and forth through time, but it felt like forever. The world around them was replaced by a swirling vortex of blue and white.

Years of experience as a magical practitioner’s right and left claws told Spike what was going on. The spell had taken them out of the normal timeframe that Equestria existed in. Although he still didn’t understand how they were moving through time faster than Equestria, or backwards for that matter, Spike did at least grasp that they were no longer in the normal flow of time.

As time passed by, or he passed by time, the dragon looked around to see if he could see any significant events play out when a red and gold streak of color suddenly zoomed past them towards the point in time they had just left. “Whaaa!”

“What?” Twilight asked as she looked around wildly at Spike’s startled cry. “What is it Spike?”

Spike pointed at the edge of the temporal sphere that had gone back to blue and white. “I thought I saw...something?”

“Don’t be silly Spike,” Twilight told him as she looked at where he had pointed. “Nothing could exist in chronospace outside of a protective field.”

A few seconds later, the point became moot as the time travel trip ended and deposited Twilight and Spike in the familiar skies of Cloudsdale. Although after taking a look around, Spike downgraded that assessment to somewhat familiar.

They were definitely on the outskirts of Cloudsdale, but things just seemed a bit...off. Having had to look for Rainbow Dash several times before, Spike had gotten a basic idea of what the flight camp’s layout and… “Twilight, did this place always have cloud statues?” he asked as he looked at the sparsely placed decor.

“I don't have time to think about that Spike. We need to find Rainbow before Starlight...we need to find Rainbow Dash!” Twilight told him before diving into a bunch of clouds for cover.

The twisted feeling in Spike’s returned at hearing the athletic pony’s name. “But, Twilight, remember that one time when we came back and Starlight was already talking to Fluttershy? She gets here before we do and-”

“There she is!” Twilight shouted as she pointed a hoof.

“Huh?” Spike asked before he looked in the direction Twilight indicated. Sure enough, a little Rainbow Dash was flying through the air, but…. “Did she always fly in from that direction?” Dash always came in from behind them, now she was coming in from more of a left angle.

Twilight’s horn lit up. “That’s because we moved, Spike!” she said before Rainbow Dash was surrounded by a purple glow and yanked out of the sky.

As the filly let out a startled cry while she careened towards the temporally displaced pair, Spike looked over to the purple pony. “Twilight! What’re you doing?! I thought we aren’t supposed to interfere!” he said after the filly collided with her chest and Twilight wrapped her forehooves around Dash.

“Twihpghlght?” the obviously confused little pony said as Twilight held her in a crushing grip.

“We can worry about that after we stop Starlight Glimmer from killing Rainbow Dash, Spike!” Twilight exclaimed before she pushed her forelegs away but kept Dash in her fetlocks. “Listen Rainbow, I don’t have time to explain, but your in danger and I’m a princess so-”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Well of course you're a princess-wait!" she said before her eyes widened. “Are you an alicorn?”

An annoyed sigh came from Twilight’s mouth at the repeated response. “Yes, I’m an alicorn. Now, listen-”

“How good a flier are you?” Rainbow immediately asked.

Twilight blinked before she looked away in embarrassment. “Um...not...very.”

“Huh, must run in the family.” Apparently, Twilight had loosened her grip during the conversation, because Rainbow flew free of her a moment later to get a close few of her flank. “And you got your cutie mark!”

With the conversation going into uncharted territory, Twilight hesitated. “Uh...yeah,” she said uneasily. “Listen-”

Then Rainbow flew up to look at Spike. “And you’ve got a dragon!” she said before giving the purple lizard a scrutinizing once-over and she looking back to Twilight with a frown whence she was done. “Is she like, Ember’s little sister, or something?”

“Ember?” Twilight said as she frowned at the unfamiliar name.

Spike raised his hand to get Rainbow’s attention. “Actually, I’m a boy. Name's Spike.”

Rainbow grinned. “Hey Spike, I’m Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow! Would you just stand still for five seconds, I have something important to tell you!” Twilight yelled.

The little pegasus slowed down and lowered herself onto the cloud to sit down. “Okay, okay Twilight, geeze,” Rainbow said with a frown. “Excuse me for getting excited about something.”

Spike tightened his grip on Twilight as the purple alicorn suddenly went rigid. “W-What did you just say?” she asked in a shocked tone.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked as her angry little frown softened to one of concern. “Hey, sparkle-butt, are you okay? I mean, besides the age spell thing. You know your moms are gonna ground you for that, right?”

Twilight continued to stand mute. Her mouth opened, but she just dropped it instead of saying anything.

“Uh,” Rainbow said as she looked up to Spike, who was in a similar state, then back to Twilight, and finally to the open sky. “Hey! What’re you two idiots doing to Fluttershy?!”

As Rainbow found something new to occupy her attention, Twilight finally broke out of the surprised daze that had left her stunned. “Wait a second. You know who I am?!”

Right then, the time travel spell reactivated, pulling Twilight and Spike into the sphere while Dash’s attention was on something else.

Prologue: There's No Place Like Home

“True magic comes from Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, and Kindness!” Sunset Shimmer shouted before activating Twilight's strange device while cursing the unknowable rules of magic on this side of the mirror.

If magic had worked the way it was supposed to, there was no way that a flashy compact would have been able to contain the mystical energies of Equestria no matter how many little light bulbs had been added. But the demonstration over the past few minutes had shown Sunset both how to use the device and that it did indeed contain Equestrian magic. A second later, she threw the object on the ground to both destroy it and release the magic that was stored within.

A torrent of mystical energy washed over Sunset, blocking out the world in a wall of white. After she felt the magic from her friends settle within her, Sunset managed to keep her face even despite the unease that came with all of the power that she felt flowing through her body. The last burst of energy that came from the girls, it was everything they had, the last spark of their magic from which more would have grown in time. If she messed up, there would be no flame inside them that could be rekindled. She had to return them after the battle was over or their magic would be gone forever.

The wings on her back felt too light to be real, but for the first time in years, Sunset felt that little tingle in the temple of her head that said she had a horn again. It felt amazing to have that sensation after such a long time, to be able to channel magic naturally. Even when she had been empowered by Twilight’s crown, that sensation hadn’t been returned to her like it was now.

Okay, no need to get all giddy over the horn Sunset. First thing’s first...gotta make sure reality isn’t torn apart, Sunset told herself before holding out her arms. Despite having the feeling of having her horn back, hands were easier to aim. She quickly sealed the breaches, surprised at the amount of power flowing through her. It was more than she had ever experienced before.

But then, both times before now, Sunset realized she had only wielded a piece of whatever magic Twilight had in her crown. The Princess had been right. Even when she had worn the thing on her head, Sunset had been unable to wield its full power because she didn’t understand it.

Now that she did, now that she accepted that magic from her friends and understood that bond...everything just seemed to work the way it was meant to.

In front of her, Twilight’s corrupted human counterpart looked around wildly as her wanton destruction to the fabric of reality was undone, the confusion and panic evident on her face before she frowned at the other winged biped and charged through the air.

All of a sudden, Sunset had a revelation. That’s right. It’s just like what Twilight said to me back then, only...she doesn't understand the nature of magic. Hell, she doesn’t even know the basic mechanics of spellcraft! the former pony thought to herself as a smirk appeared on her face, and a tingling sensation ran through her horn.

Twilight came in swinging with a fist full of dark magical energy.

Sunset...willed herself out of the way. She didn’t dodge by flying up or down, or anything so mundane. She simply used her horn to change her position in space instantly. And the bright flash that accompanied the teleport probably did a lot to blind Twilight since the horned harpy-girl was right on top of her.

When Sunset reappeared above the confused teenager, Twilight was still looking around wildly. “What? How did she-”

Sunset pointed a hand down at her opponent. “It’s called magic, you idiot,” she said before blasting the poor girl with as much power as she could put into a purification spell. “I AIN’T GOTTA EXPLAIN SHIT!”

Twilight looked up in time to see the attack envelop her, and screamed as she was knocked to the ground while the dark energies within the teenager were washed away.

As the dust cleared, Sunset floated in the air, looking down at the cowering girl. A girl who had nearly destroyed the school, and quite possibly been on her way to ruining not just one, but two worlds. Ablaze with power as she was with a pair of magical wings and a horn, it was understandable to see the little girl trembling beneath her in terror. Especially after their battle that had ended so quickly.

While Sparkle had the upper hand when things started, the human girl had no real understanding of Equestrian magic. It had been simple for Sunset to avoid her attack using a spell cast through her newly manifested horn, pop up behind her, and blast the corrupted human with enough harmonic energy to cleanse her of the dark desires run amok.

Now that everything was over, she floated over the crater that Twilight had been knocked into.

“Please,” the Twilight that was born a human pleaded with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t mean it, I just wanted to find out what was going on around the school!”

Sunset looked down at her. The contrast between where Twilight was now and where Sunset had been was…irrelevant. “Really?” she asked in a tone that sounded much too harsh from the gentle sadness that she was feeling at seeing the poor girl so panicked. “I told you this was dangerous, and even then you still opened that pendant.”

“The principal told me to!” Twilight shouted back rather weakly in her defense.

“But you were the one that did it, even though you knew the danger, didn’t you?” A trembling of the human’s arms at the question made Sunset’s eyes widen, and she descended to touch the frightened girl’s shoulder to stop Twilight from thinking Sunset was about to blast her out of existence.

“Twilight, I’m not going to hurt you,” she promised. Sunset could be angry with Twilight’s stupidity, but even that didn’t mean she was going to do anything but scold the girl. She surrounded the child in her magic to help lift her up and out of the pit before looking around at the destruction.

While the holes in reality had been closed, the grounds were still a mess and the horse statue was just a pile of rubble. It would take weeks to clean up properly.

Still...it didn’t look as bad as when she had turned into a demon, Sunset realized. At least the school was still in once piece. “If anything, I’m as much to blame for this as you are.”

Twilight looked at her with wide eyes. “You? But…y-you tried to stop me before it even got this far,” she said before she sadly hung her head. “And you were right. I-I shouldn’t be messing with something like this. Even if I could someday understand it, if someone were to get hurt along the way I…sometimes, the price to pay for knowledge is just too high.”

The girl’s words and her simplistic view were left alone by Sunset as she focused on what was important. “I’m the one who brought magic to this world,” she explained. “Like you, I probably could have made something to contain it, and maybe even control it properly, but…I didn’t, and it’s time I corrected that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked as Sunset brought the two of them out of the crater that Twilight had been smacked into.

Footsteps told of Sunset’s approaching friends, and she could feel the magic within her starting to be pulled back to the girls where it had rested moments ago. So she grasped onto it will all of her will, and bound it to herself so that it could never escape.

“Wait ta go Sunset!” Applejack cheered.

“You rock,” Fluttershy added with a little woohoo the redhead could barely hear.

“A magnificent display darling,” Rarity said.

“Hey Sunset, like the horn! Uh, does that mean I’m going to have to hold off on the balloons from now on? Because that thing looks extra pointy and-”

Rainbow Dash stepped in front of Pinkie Pie before she could finish. “Can I have my wings back now?”

The last question managed to kill the building apprehension in Sunset’s chest about what was coming, not to mention her smile at all the congratulations her friends were giving her. She gave Rainbow a little frown and said, “No.”

As Dash’s expression turned to one of confusion, Applejack stepped in. “Rainbow! She’s still gotta use them fancy new powers of hers to fix everything Twilight blew up when she was an angry harpy-hellbeast-thing,” the farmer explained as she gestured to the damaged field. “Then we can get on with the Friendship Games!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight wince. Watching another girl be reminded of her darkest moment wasn’t any easier on Sunset than experiencing it herself. So, a little bit more of her patience drained. “Are you kidding me?” she deadpanned to her friends.

The world had nearly ended, and they just wanted to get back to playing in their stupid contest? Sunset had managed to care about their feelings when she found out how important it was to them...but there was a limit to her empathy. And they just long-jumped over it.

“UNACCEPTABLE!” a rather annoying and tedious voice shouted from behind the gathering of frightened Crystal Prep students before that Grinch (or was it Crinch? Bench...maybe? Sunset couldn’t remember) was came storming out with her arms raised. “Principal Celestia! I demand that your school forfeit the Friendship Games, this instant!”

Thus did the last of Sunset’s patience die a horrible death as she watched the head human from the other school yell at the woman that had given her a home for the past few months since the Fall Formal.

She ignored the argument in favor of her friends. “This…is this really all you really give a damn about?” she demanded of the girls. “Winning a stupid game with a bunch of little brats you’re never even going to see again?”

“Well…”

Sunset didn’t let Fluttershy keep going. “I mean seriously! The world, your entire dimension was nearly just destroyed, and none of you seem to give a damn about it!”

“Oh come on Sunset,” Rainbow chimed in with her usual cheer. “It’s not like this sort of stuff hasn’t happened before.”

The alicorn-human let out a cry of indignant rage that made sparks fly as she stomped her foot into the cement, adding to the cracks in the ground. “Which makes this the third time, the third time people have almost gotten hurt because of MAGIC!” she shouted before gesturing to the five girls in front of her with her hands. “And you, all of you! You know how serious this stuff is since we fought the Dazzlings, but you just-you just use it to…to play around with like it’s a fucking toy or something!”

“Well it isn’t really as if we know what we’re doing with the stuff anyway darling,” Rarity chimed in with a concerned voice. “I mean, you’re apparently the only one of us that knows how to um…” she gestured wildly with her hands at Sunset’s energy appendages. “I’m still not even sure how we fought the Dazzlings off.”

Seeing her friends worry, Sunset let out a long sigh as she cemented the decision in her mind. “I know…and that’s why I have to take it back.”

The five girls in front of her gasped, and Sunset used her powers to block the sound coming out of their mouths before any protests could start. If she heard them telling her not to leave...Sunset wasn’t sure she could go through with it.

“Look, this isn’t easy for me, okay?” she told them with a frown as she held onto her anger over the situation to block anything else out. “But the magic that was left behind when Princess Twilight left, it’s a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. What if the next time, someone gets really hurt when something happens? Or we have someone show up that wants to dissect Rainbow and Fluttershy because they grow wings? Not every normal person out there is as stupidly selfish as Crystal Prep’s principal, and I can’t just stand around here waiting for the next dangerous thing to come along because of this magic when I know a way to make sure everyone will be protected from it from now on. I'm going home, and taking all the magic back with me.”

The spell around the mouths of her friends cut off, and Sunset waited for the protests that she feared were coming. If they tried to stop her that way. She had said her peace, and even if it might hurt, her friends deserved to have their say. That was one of the hard things about friendship, giving the people around you so much control.

Strangely, none of them spoke up.

Not immediately anyway.

“Well can you at least leave me my magic?” Rainbow Dash asked after a few seconds. “Those wings are cool.”

After Applejack reached over to slap Rainbow upside the head, Pinkie rushed apart from the crowd to glomp onto Sunset in a tackle the teen knew would have floored her before the mystical infusion of power. Although why she also had increased strength and durability was a mystery.

“I’ll miss you Sunset!” the girl with the pink hair cried into Sunset’s chest.

The girl with the golden wings returned the gesture. “I’ll miss you too Pinkie.”

Which seemed to signal the other four girls that it was alright to try and dog pile her. After the initial squeeze, Sunset took a second to look at the growing battle between the Wondercolts and Shadowbolts as their respective leaders went on and on about the Friendship Games, and who deserved to win.

She pulled away before anyone decided to look away from the growing mob scene and looked over to Twilight. “I’m going to have to take Spike’s ability to talk as well.”

The purple girl nodded. “I figured as much,” she said as she held up the dog.

“Awww,” he whined before she felt for the piece of Fluttershy’s magic that had allowed the canine to communicate with the primates and pulled it into the greater whole that was contained within her. When she was done, the only complaints Spike could make were in the form of actual whines.

Before the girls could start some long goodbyes about how they would miss her, Sunset channeled some magic through her horn and teleported to the statue. A tiny bit of magic that would burn out in less than thirty seconds was added to reestablish her connection to Equestria, and then she stepped through.

The swirling vortex of interdimensional travel overtook her, and the girl gripped her stomach in what she knew was a vain attempt to keep from vomiting. Then, a new sensation overcame her as she interacted with something that hadn’t been a part of her first few trips through the portal. It washed over her almost too fast for Sunset to focus on it and try to understand what was going on.

“What the hell?” she mumbled as her restored magical senses identified the type of magic she had just passed through. “That was temporal magic! What in the hell is time magic doing to the-”

Sunset’s words we brought to an end as she reached the other end of the portal and found herself flying through the air. At least until she hit the ground a few seconds later. Then Sunset rolled forward onto her back, and continued to slide until she crashed into the wall on the far side of the room.

Her ears rang from the experience, or maybe it was from the concussion. The room seemed to be upside down. A quad of marble pillars with a golden base moved towards her, and Sunset could have sworn she heard something.

“-set! Sunset! Are you alright?”

Sunset blinked and looked down when her vision started to just show a bunch of dancing colors that sparkled. The face that greeted her only made the mare even more confused. “Prin-Celestia?" Sunset asked as she rolled up onto he stomach to try and stand up. "What’re you doing in-urk!” She was unable to finish the question of why Celestia was in Twilight’s castle, where the mirror was now stored.

It was at that time that Sunset’s earlier predictions about upchucking came true. A lunch that she was pretty sure contained some kind of meat byproduct despite her instance on the school’s mandated vegetarian alternative came flowing up from her stomach and out her mouth in a gray mess that both clouded her vision, and painted Celestia’s shoes.

Then…darkness.

Celestia didn’t wince as the little pony beneath her threw up on her golden horseshoes. Such things were minor compared to the mare’s health. She quickly took Sunset up in her magic to make sure her airway wasn’t constricted by her leaked lunch and made sure that nothing else was going to come out.

Once she saw the little mare was breathing normally, the Princess of Equestria let out a relieved sigh before addressing the slightly less panic-inducing, but far more confusing conundrum that had been presented to her.

Just moments ago, she had come into the room that housed the crystal mirror with her student to let her see what possibilities it held for Sunset. For a few moments, all the little unicorn did was stare at it, admiring her own reflection until Celestia fed a trickle of magic into the mirror and asked Sunset what she saw.

And that was when everything had gone wrong.

As her prize student looked even deeper into the mirror, there had been a bring flash, followed by an intense wave of magic of every kind that Celestia knew. The expulsion of magic had even been enough to temporarily blind the Alicorn of the Sun for a few seconds.

Once she regained her sight, Celestia had found Sunset on the far side of the room, slightly different than before. Those differences being: a pair of wings that now protruded from her back, and a horn that was slightly longer than the one she had been sporting less than a minute ago. Even her weight and size had increased slightly, unless Celestia missed her guess.

But instead of feeling elation at the sudden changes Sunset had undergone like several of her successful students in the past, Celestia felt only confusion and concern for the child in her grasp. She looked back at the mirror, its magical emissions returned to their normal state, and then down to the newfound alicorn in her grasp. “Oh my little Sunset, what in the world has happened to you?”

Author's Note

What can I say? When I heard Twilight tell everyone her excuse for not showing up to save the day was that she was stuck in a time loop, and the mirror to Earthquestria being inside Twilght's castle, I just had to add yet another fic to my unfinished pile to work on.

And if you're worried/hoping that this fic will be like the other time travel fic with Sunset keeping her future body as opposed to Twilight losing hers, don't be. Sunset is perfectly sane and happy. It will be the events she goes through that will drive her nuts.

Chapter 6: The Predictable Plans of Pretty Pony Princesses & Pony Politicians

Thanks in part to the conversation he had just had with his friends, Shining Armor was starting to doubt the validity past twenty-four hours of his life. It was only a small doubt, but...just what were the chances that a new princess would just appear out of nowhere to save him from Buck? Not to mention Princess Cadance just showing up and dragging him to the gym that was currently empty before she was...doing whatever she was doing as she slowly circled around the colt with eyes that seemed to look right through his coat.

His brain just couldn’t make sense of it. Cadance was without a doubt the most popular filly in school. Everywhere she went, both the students and teachers looked at the princess with both awe and jealousy in mixed amounts. Everypony wanted to know her, and nopony was stupid enough to mess with her in the way school ponies usually did to Shining Armor and his friends.

So the fact that she had just shown up in the middle of the hallway to grab Shining Armor and take him to the gym was just…impossible!

But, Shining Armor saw the pink princess in front of him as she did yet another circuit. He felt her hoof taking measuring pokes at his body every now and then. He could smell the scent of strawberry shampoo still in her coat as she walked by. Not that he bent down to sniff Cadance’s body or anything! She just had a pretty strong shampoo. But with the various stimuli assaulting his brain, Shining Armor managed to push the much more logical explanation of events from his mind.

Sure, the reality of things were probably that Buck had beaten him into such a state that everything going on in front of him was really just a coma fantasy and the alicorn Sunset Shimmer was just a figment of Shining Armor’s imagination that happened to be the perfect mare in all respects. But the problem with that theory was that instead of dragging him under the bleachers to begin making out like some of those mystical dating adventure games Shining had only heard about would have done to introduce Princess Cadance as a second love interest, the pink pony had just dragged him into the center of the basketball court to study him with a frown on her face.

Despite the strangeness of it all. The stallion did as instructed by the princess, standing tall as if he was with a drill instructor. Shining Armor watched as Princess Cadance slowly circled him, her eyes inspecting every inch of his body. As the alicorn began her third circuit, Shining’s curiosity finally got the better of him. “Uh…Princess, is this about the foalsitting request?”

Princess Cadance stopped her examination and looked at the young stallion in the eyes. “Foalsitting?”

“I thought Sunset would have told you,” Shining went on. “I need somepony to watch my little sister this Saturday. I’ve got...stuff to do. Sunset’s supposed to be coming over and-”

Before he could finish, the princess’s face brightened. “And you can’t do your thing with Sunset if there’s nopony to watch her, right?” Princess Cadance asked with a friendly smile. “Sure, I’d love to help! And um...don’t be mad at Sunset for forgetting to mention it to me. Once she talked about you I might have gotten her a little distracted.”

As the princess went back to examining him, Shining Armor went rigid. Nervousness built in his stomach as the alicorn crossed his vision again. “W-What’d she say about me?”

“Good things, but also kind of vague,” Princess Cadance explained. “General personality stuff. I had to get the rest from the ponies around the school before I could even start to profile you.”

Shining Armor didn’t know what made him more nervous: that another princess had taken an interest in him, or...the thing she was doing now. The young stallion half-expected her to sprout canines and take a bite with the way she was looking at him.

Mustering up his courage, Shining looked around until the alicorn got into his vision again. “Uh, Princess Cadance? What are you doing?”

“Would you mind dropping the title, Shining Armor? As for what I’m doing. I’m examining your physical attractiveness,” Cadance told him absently before stopping behind him. She let out a considering groan, and then began walking again. “Well, you’re kind of lanky. Above average height, not that much muscle, but...your build promises for some major improvements in a few years if you work at it...hmmmmm….”

Cadance let out a sigh and trotted around until she was in front of Shining Armor again. “Okay, how to put this?” she mumbled before pausing for a moment to think before looking at him. “I’m pretty sure Sunset managed to get across the other day that she’s interested in you, right?”

Still confused about what was going on, Shining Armor could only nod.

“Well, she told me about it. So like I said, I went around the last few periods asking about you, picking up all the information I could,” she said before unfolding her wings with the feathers bent inwards the way Eight-Bit did when he was about do a list of points. And as Cadance spoke, feathers folded back out one by one. “You tutor other students in math on Wednesdays, you walk Zestfully Clean’s little brother home after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays when his parents can’t come get him, you have near perfect attendance with a good grade point average, and you don’t smoke. Plus, after careful examination, I can upgrade your looks from just adorable to a rank of cute. Kind of cute to be specific, in that coltish sort of way.”

Shining Armor blushed at the praise and slunk in on himself a little bit at Princess Cadance’s severely intrusive attention. Although he still had to wonder, WHAT THE BUCK WAS GOING ON? “Um…thank you?”

“But as things stand, you dating Sunset Shimmer is a very bad idea,” she went on, frowning as she stressed the final words.

All of a sudden, the warm a fuzzy feeling mixed with his guy pride shattered into a million pieces and brought Shining Armor back to reality, and away from the picturesque one that had him standing next to Princess Sunset in full plate mail while she wore a hot pink princess dress. “I-wait, what?”

Cadance snorted at the confused outburst and rolled her eyes before she started circling him again. “Look, you’re a nice colt. You’re kind and gentle, and that’s great,” the princess complimented Shining. “Most mares would be content with a young stallion like you.” Then, as the alicorn came up on him again, she looked directly into his eyes. “But you know what the problem is?”

“N-No?” Shining Armor stuttered under Cadance’s glare.

“Just content isn’t Sunset Shimmer!” the princess shouted, making Shining back up in surprise. “Sunset’s a princess. She wants it all in excess and more! You’re nice, but if that’s all you’ve got going for you…”

She didn’t finish the sentence before Shining Armor spoke up in his own defense. “Wait a second, I thought nice was good!”

The princess raised an eyebrow, and then went back to a sitting position right in front of him. “It is...but you don’t land the major catches if bait is all you have Armor,” Cadance explained as she poked him in the chest. “You need something to reel her in too. Right now, all I can see is that you’re nice. But you know what else Sunset told me about you? She says you’re a wimp! And what’s worse is that Sunset knows it, and she still wants to give you and her a...a try!”

After falling on his plot from Cadance yelling at him again, Shining Armor reviewed what she just said and tilted his head in confusion. “Uh…how is that a bad thing?” he asked. No matter how he thought about it, if Sunset knew something negative about him and still wanted to hang out, all the better.

Cadance practically growled at Shining for a few seconds before she got up began circling him again like some kind of predatory beast. “Because Sunset Shimmer is a blazing inferno of passion that I doubt many ponies in this world could hope to handle,” she said with a frown, stopping right in Shining’s face to punctuate the last point up close and personal. “Do you know what that means?”

“Um…no?” he asked cautiously while bringing a hoof up nervously as Cadance got nearly muzzle to muzzle with Shining Armor.

The breath from the alicorn tickled Shining Armor’s nose. “It means Sunset will tone things down and hold herself back when she’s around you. She’ll put on a public face,” Cadance told him before backing off to sit down a little more than a foot away this time. A frown still on her face. “At first, it will seem like a good thing. But it isn’t. You don’t put on a public face with the pony you spend your private time with. That never ends well in romantic situations. In a worse case scenario, you’ll get a few weeks before she just gets so frustrated from holding herself back all the time that she dumps you for a different stallion who she can be passionate with. And in the other worse case scenario, Sunset will just see you as a nice colt who’s not coltfriend material because she has to hold back all the time. That’ll put you into the friend zone.”

All of a sudden, Cadance got back into Shining’s face. “You don’t want to be in the friend zone Shiny. It’s a dark abyss of a black hole from which there is no escape,” she said before backing off a bit, her eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. “That isn’t what you want, right? You’re interested in Sunset for romantic reasons, aren't you?”

Shining Armor nodded slowly as he backed away. Despite the…strangeness of it all, he thought he understood what Cadance was telling him. And...he did want to make Sunset his fillyfriend, if she would let him that is. “So, next time I see Princess Sunset, I should…uh, tell her I can take the heat?”

Just giving up on getting together with the mare didn’t really seem like an option either. Even if Sunset was really some kind of walking bonfire or…something. She had seemed nice, and funny, and…everything else. It just didn’t seem right to Shining Armor for him to turn tail and run when another pony came in talking…well…not bad about her, but…not exactly good either.

Which had Shining wondering if he should stand up for Sunset. Even if it was to another princess.

“Seriously?” Cadance said with her eyes half-closed. “I spend all that time trying to get you riled up, and that’s the best you can give me? I thought you liked this mare.”

Shining Armor blinked at Cadance’s sudden and confusing change in attitude. “I do?”

A silence stretched on after Shining’s response. After a few seconds, Cadance spoke again. “Why?”

The question had Shining Armor thinking back to the day before when he had first met Sunset, with her standing there in the sunlight, looking...amazing. But it wasn’t just her looks Shining remembered…

“Well...she’s strong, and confident, and nice,” Shining told Cadance, his voice picking up as he went on telling the princess in front of him how he felt. “Sure she’s beautiful. But...it’s not just that. Princess Sunset, she...well...when I was in trouble, she just trotted over and...stood up for me.” Shining Armor blushed at the fact he was telling somepony else this, but...something about Cadance just made it easier.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Princess, but...I’m kind of on the bottom of the ladder here in Canterlot Academy,” he went on. “That makes me and my friends easy targets for certain ponies, and everypony else just looks away, or worse, laughs at what happens.

“But Sunset...she didn’t just help me up after everything was over like some ponies do,” Shining Armor went on. “She didn’t ignore it when everything was happening. She stepped in and stopped it. And then when we walked home, we talked about all this stuff, but not like most girls do when they’re around guys like me, you know? She actually listened, even to the stuff most ponies wouldn’t.”

Cadance lifted a hoof and rubbed it under her chin. “Huh...I think I’ve been going about this all wrong.”

“What?” Shining Armor asked.

To which Cadance sighed and and lowered her head a little. “I’m sorry Shining Armor,” she said before looking back up to him. “I came in here expecting just some colt with an attraction that was mostly based on infatuation. And yeah, you’ve got the hots for Sunset, but more than that...you admire her, don’t you?”

The blush returned to Shining’s cheeks. “Well...she is really cool.”

“Okay,” Cadance said into her hoof as Shining Armor got the feeling she was speaking more to herself than to him before she finally dropped her foreleg back to the ground. “I’m going to help you out, Shining.”

With the princess seeming to make that decision just now, Shining Armor raised an eyebrow cautiously. “Uh...isn’t that what you brought me in here to do from the get go?”

Cadance laughed and raised a hoof as if to shoo away the question. “Oh not at all! I was going to scare you away from Sunset and completely destroy your confidence in your feelings for her,” she said in a tone that was much too happy for Shining Armor to just let bounce off his coat.

But before he could get indignant about it, Cadance took on a much more serious look. “Sunset’s in a bit of a...confused place right now Shining,” she told him. “I’m not about to let somepony near her that could stop her from stabilizing. But, I can tell you’re not some colt who just wants to date the newest princess. But if you do want to go through with this, you’re going to follow my instructions, understand? I’m not going to help you start some stupid fling that’s going to fall apart when Sunset finally gets herself figured out, got it?”

Shining nodded, although confusion still covered his face. “Well…yeah.” He wasn’t about to just turn away from another pony like her because of…whatever the princess in front of him was talking about.

“Good!” Cadance told him with what was definitely a smile. A smile that lasted all of two seconds before her grin became almost frightening. “Then all you have to do to is prove to Sunset you can handle dating her,” Cadance said before nodding. “Don’t worry though, I’ll help you out with that.”

A strange feeling made it’s way down Shining Armor’s spine. It was a little like when Buck came around to mess with him, but...different. Almost scarier. “Um...thanks?” he replied. “But, what do you mean by help?”

“Well, like I said before, you’re a nice colt,” Cadance told him as the strange...aura of mania that seemed to be filling the room slowly dispersed. “But...Sunset doesn’t need a nice colt, at least not right now. She needs a strong colt. Somepony she doesn’t need to be afraid of being herself with like she’s trying to do with everypony else around her right now. So, I’m going to help her see you in that way, so your relationship isn’t doomed to fail in four weeks and three days when she stops needing just a strong colt and needs a patient, loving, and kind special somepony...like you.”

Shining Armor blinked at the rather...spot on timetable. “Okaaaaay,” he said in a drawl, stretching out the word. “But, you still haven’t answered my question.”

“Oh, well...I’m going to help you set something up to convince Sunset you’re the pony for her. You have to do something. Something grand!” she said while throwing her hooves and wings out out before Cadance looked back towards him.

A thought entered Shining Armor’s mind. It was something he didn’t want to think about. Especially with a pink alicorn just showing up out of the blue to help him win the hottest pony he had ever seen. But, it was a thought he had to voice. “Yeah but...am I?”

The question made Cadance frown. “Huh?”

“Am I the pony for her?” Shining clarified before lowering his head. “I mean, you’re talking about this like it’s serious. Super serious, with...you know….far-reaching...for life special somepony implications, and now I’m wondering...what if I really not good enough for Sunset?”

When he didn’t get an immediate answer, Shining Armor looked back up at Cadence, who was giving him a careful look. “The Princess of Love just shows up, tells you she’s going to help you get the mare of your dreams, and you’re worried you might not be good enough for her?” the alicorn asked as she looked at Shining Armor as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Shining Armor looked away from the alicorn and back to the gym floor before gulping. “Well...I mean, she is a princess. I’m just...some stallion from the suburbs. There’s probably a million ponies that would be better for her than me.”

“You are a stallion that cares more for a mare’s happiness than your own,” Cadence told him in a no-nonsense tone, making Shining look back up at her face. Instead of the hard expression that Cadence had on when she dragged him away, the one she wore now seemed more...serious. “That is the foundation of all love, Shining Armor. So to answer your question. No. There is nopony better than you for the pony you have feelings for.”

A second after she was done, Cadance took a deep breath, and extended her hoof as she breathed out. All of a sudden, she was back to the perfectly beautiful filly with the impossibly happy smile on her face. “Now, we just need to figure out a way for you to show Sunset you’re the stallion for her.”

Shining Armor half-nodded, and then stopped as something occurred to him. “But…what if I end up looking stupid?” He could kind of understand where Cadance was going with all of this, but...that didn’t mean it was going to work out in the end.

The question made Cadance frown. “Shining Armor,” she said before approaching him with a look that made all of her previous scowls look like nothing. Somehow, the sweet alicorn that was the color of cotton candy had been replaced by a demon from the pits of Tartarus. The creature that seemed twice as large as she usually did scowled down at him as he cowered on the floor, pressed down to the ground by her menacing aura. “Anypony that’s afraid of looking stupid doesn’t deserve to be in love!”

A second later, the demon was gone, replaced by the pretty pink pony princess with the tiny smile once again. “So, let’s work on a plan to impress Sunset and show her you're enough of a stallion to handle dating her, okay?”

Shining Armor gulped to help fight the terror that threatened to completely overwhelm his mind. “Okay,” he squeaked right before the bell for the next period rang.

Sunset didn’t know how long she spent in Celestia’s wonderful embrace, listening to the big pony’s heartbeat as she laid her head against the princess’s-no, her mother’s chest. A hundred childhood fantasies ran through her mind, all of a moment just like this. She found them paling in comparison to the real thing.

The feeling of her mother’s coat, the feathers resting across Sunset’s body, the sound of Celestia’s breath. It was all so...perfect.

But…such moments were not to last.

Not because of some interruption by outside forces. In fact, if someone were to have barged in at that moment, Sunset would have called upon the full might of her alicorn magic to teleport that pony as far away as possible. Then she would have surrounded the room with the most powerful force field her horn could make. But even that wouldn’t have stopped the questions that appeared in her mind.

Questions that had to be asked.

“So...what happens now?” she asked softly. A part of her wanted her mother not to hear it, and Sunset would have just nuzzled herself in closer to see if she could go to sleep against her old favorite pillow.

But, Celestia picked her head up in response to Sunset’s hesitant question, and Sunset looked up at her mother as she spoke in the most beautiful voice known to ponykind. “Well, what do you want to happen, my little sun?”

After thinking about it for a few moments, Sunset fidgeted around on the bed and crawled forward to look at Celestia’s cutie mark. The fact they both had suns had always been a symbol of joy for Sunset, proof that they shared a special connection for all to see. Although looking at it now, all Celestia’s bright sun did was remind the smaller alicorn how much further she still had to go.

Sunset let out a sigh, and rested her head on Celestia’s flank. It was as cushy as she remembered. “I suppose we’ll have to plan my coronation, and…I think I might as well learn to use these things,” she said before lifting her wings up. The tip of them touched her mother’s feathers.

Truthfully, flying had never really been high on her list of desires for wanting to turn into an alicorn. That had all been about the power and status that came with the wings…and Sunset still had no idea what the deal was with her freakish super strength. Maybe she had been an earth pony in a past life or something.

“You misunderstand Sunset,” Celestia told her, still using a soft voice that was just so…motherly. Sunset loved it. She could listen to her mom talk for hours on end about anything, as long as she spoke with that voice. “I asked you, what do you want to do.”

Confusion entered into Sunset’s mind and showed on her face. “Uh…I thought you wanted me to-”

“Yes well,” Celestia said before Sunset could finish. “Maybe I’ve had just about all I can stand of those kind of wants. This is about you. If you don’t want a coronation, then I will hold it off until you are ready to wear a crown. So I’ll ask you again, what do you want to do?”

A blush covered Sunset’s cheeks as a rather embarrassing thought entered her mind. “Well for starters, I’d like to get these things under control,” she said before pointing to her wings with her horn. “I may be a unicorn, but I’ve heard the jokes about what happens when a pegasus is around a hot guy.” After a three year dry spell, any stallion she came across would have them popping up.

Celestia giggled. “Yes, a newly ascended unicorn is worse than a teenage pegasus stallion in that regard,” she said with a smile. “I suppose you’ll also want to learn to fly while you’re at it.”

The thought made Sunset hesitate just a bit. Just because she lived in Canterlot for most of her life didn’t mean she liked heights all that much. Although, the logical side of her mind said that was all the more reason to learn how to give gravity the finger. “Uh…you’re not going to do me like you did with Cadance, and send me to flight camp or something, are you?” An instructor for kids teaching an adult just didn’t seem to work in Sunset’s mind.

“I don’t know,” Celestia said with a smile. “I think you’d be great with a foals. To be honest, one of my plans to teach you a little responsibility was to have you work with some fillies and colts. Not that it looks like you need to anymore.”

When Sunset frowned back at her, the bigger alicorn giggled again. “Or perhaps you could join something like the Junior Speedsters! I’d just love to hear you recite that little rhyme of theirs for me. Oh! I could even cast an age spell so you don’t stand out as much! You’d be so cute!”

Sunset’s expression became half-lidded. “Now you’re really pushing it.”

“Well, can you blame a mom for wanting to see her daughter be adorable?” Celestia asked innocently. But when Sunset didn’t give up with her expression after a few blinks of Celestia’s eyes, the goddess rolled them instead. “Oh very well, ruin my fun. But in all seriousness, is that it? You just want to learn to use your wings? That’s...pretty restrained for you.”

There was something else, but Sunset focused on a more important question. “What do you mean? Now that I’m an alicorn isn’t there a whole new curriculum you have for me?” Her ascension probably meant there were mountains of things left to learn!

“Honestly?” Celestia replied with her eyes a little wider. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re done Sunset.”

Sunset frowned in confusion and lifted her head. “What? What do you mean? I thought I had to learn about stuff like black magic and…everything else!” Sunset distinctly remembered Celestia saying something along those lines!

Instead of answering immediately, Celestia’s eyes became a little sad and she shifted around on the bed until she backed off of it completely to sit on the floor. “True, but…do you remember your last few lessons I gave you?”

Much to her regret, Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry Princess, I-”

Celestia cleared her throat, and Sunset tensed as the bigger alicorn’s demeanor changed in an instant. All of a sudden, Celestia became...something else…something large and intimidating with a large wall of blazing fire behind her that had Sunset’s joints all locked up in terror. “Now let me make one thing perfectly clear,” she commanded while throwing out a hoof straight to the tip of Sunset’s muzzle. “You are no longer allowed to use that title Sunset! From now on, it’s Mom, Mommy, or Momma! Although, if we are in a public setting and you absolutely must be respectful, then Mother will have to do. But that better not be what you call me in private!”

Okay…I know we don’t have anime in Equestria…but that was WAY too Japanese for my taste, Sunset thought before shaking off the weirdness. “Alright...Mom,” the amber alicorn stressed. There was no way in hell she was going to be calling Celestia mommy. Even she didn’t rate that! “And to answer your question, no I don’t remember. Even if it was all fake, I’ve been gone for three years.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Celestia replied pensively before she gave Sunset a little smile to banish the lingering awkwardness of her last command. “While nopony can ever really stop learning Sunset, your normal magical studies under me were finished a little while ago. All that was left to teach you was what you needed to ascend. And that was all morals. Now that you have wings, there’s really nothing left for me to teach you directly. I trust you to continue your studies on your own, no matter how dark the subject matter.”

For some reason, Sunset found herself a little saddened at that prospect. It was odd. She had finally achieved her objective of getting wings, and even gained the thing she wanted more than the status of an alicorn. Only…Celestia had just told Sunset that despite the fact that she was finally willing to shower her unofficial adopted daughter with affection, they wouldn’t be spending as much time together. Less than before even. “…Oh,” she said, summing up her opinion on the subject.

Celestia’s ears twitched at Sunset’s reply. “Is something wrong?” she asked in concern.

After taking a deep breath, Sunset let out a long sigh and shook her head. “No, it’s just…not what I was expecting,” she said before looking back to her wings. “It’s funny. I got the thing I’ve been wanting for such a long time, but…it’s not really made me happy at all. Instead, I think I want…” Sunset stopped before she said too much.

“What?” Celestia prompted.

Embarrassment made Sunset’s cheeks look more like her mane. “Well…uh…it’s just…I guess I’m still adjusting to being a pony again.”

The bigger alicorn laughed. “I can tell.”

Sunset blinked. “What do you mean?”

“For one, ever since you got back, you haven’t used any pony-centric speech,” Celestia told her.

Once again, Sunset blinked at the statement, and groaned before shaking her head. “Yeah that’s…kind of a weird story,” she said before blocking a mental image from entering her head. It wasn’t her fault that the crazy society Sunset had sort of been a member of for the past three years had been so odd. Although, if the worlds were to suddenly merge one day, she had no doubt there would be a little human child running around shouting ‘THAT’S RACIST!’ every time an equine said somepony or anypony.

And now I’m thinking about that world like it was real again, Sunset realized before resting her head back down on the bed. It wasn’t as comfortable as her mom though. She wanted her alicorn pillow back. “Let’s just say I still have some adjusting to do.”

Celestia nodded. “Well, I’ll be more than happy to give you all the time you need Sunset,” she assured the smaller alicorn. “And if you want anything else, just name it.”

The offer made a thought Sunset had pushed out appear in her mind again. While not an old thought, it was one she had thrown to the side because…it was just too stupid to ask for.

But…she couldn’t deny that she wanted it either.

And…it could very well help her adjust to being back in Canterlot again.

“Um…now that you mention it, there is something that might help me get my feet wet with being around ponies again,” she admitted thanks to Celestia’s coaxing.

“Yes?”

Sunset took a deep breath to help steel herself. “When I was in the mirror, the world I was in…it was…kind of structured like Canterlot Academy,” she admitted reluctantly as the oddity of her coming request started to make her hesitate. “I know it may sound weird, but that place was my life for nearly three years and...I just think I’d feel more comfortable being someplace like it. And since you said I’d already learned everything I needed to about magic…I was kind of wondering…if I could…finish out my final year of studies...over there?”

After several long seconds of silence, Celestia blinked. “Sunset, your studies under me are completed. Whatever you want to do, that’s up to you. If you want to changes schools for some reason, I may have some concerns, but…I’m not going to stop you if you feel this is important,” she said before giving her unofficial daughter a little smile. “But could at least tell me the full reason? There must be more to it than just some sort of backwards homesickness.”

The way Celestia had picked up on the reluctance surrounding her other reason made Sunset feel oddly...happy. She couldn’t get anything past her mom.

But, that happiness was sort-lived. A deep buried pain came to the forefront of Sunset’s mind as she remembered another incident involving her human experience, as well as what had happened yesterday. “When I was in the mirror, there was this one incident after I had finally thought I turned things around for myself. People starting waving to me in the hallway and smiling when I was around,” she the amber alicorn said before sighing. “And then, this trio of students started causing trouble and framed me for it. And everything that was making me feel good about myself, the students…my friends, they turned on me in an instant. They were all just waiting for me to become a problem again, and since I wasn’t the monster I had been, each and every one of them took shots at me without fearing would have stopped them before.”

Sunset let out a snort as something occurred to her about the whole Anon-a-Miss problem. “Hell, looking at it like that...you could even say that they knew I had changed. But it didn’t really matter at all once they had an excuse to hate me again,” she grumbled. “Putting your own past behind you is one thing…but when everyone else decides to follow you around and remind you of it, it’s like they’re trying to force you back into it because…I don’t know.” It was one question Sunset had never been able to answer for herself, and when the Anon-a-Miss incident was done, she had thrown everything that happened to the side so that she could have her friends back.

But...had those girls every really been her friends?

Then, Sunset realized that she was thinking about them as if they were real again, and shook her head at the foolishness of it all.

“Your school,” she went on before looking away from Celestia. “I know I wasn’t as bad there as I was in the mirror, more of an antisocial jerk than a bully…but when I went there the other day…” Sunset shuddered at the memory of how the students reacted to her, not to mention the teachers. “Cadance goes to Canterlot Academy. They should be used to an alicorn running around there by now, right? And the students there, I can talk to them without my wings getting in the way, and maybe…um…”

When Sunset found herself unable to articulate what she wanted without it sounding childish and stupid, Celestia put a hoof under the little alicorn’s chin to guide her back to a face to face conversation. Then, she rolled her eyes with a smiled on her face. “Sunset, you could just say you want to make some new friends outside of court.”

Sunset blushed at the silliness of it all. “So…um…what now?” she asked cautiously.

The question got a smile from Celestia. “Well, I just got done canceling court all of my meetings for the day,” she said. “How about, for my last act as your teacher before you canter out on me, I give you a little flying lesson?”

Sunset looked back to her wings. “Flying?”

“Well...we’ll start with a gentle glide for now,” Celestia told her. “You’ll need to get used to being up that high without anything under you before we can really do some teaching.”

Instead of going straight to the castle that was her home these days when the final bell rang, Cadance found herself waiting behind the academy for Shining Armor to appear. Since she didn’t know how long it would take him to say goodbye to his friends and come around, the princess’s mind wandered back to her first few days at Canterlot Academy to pass the time.

It had certainly been quite the change, going from a little middle of nowhere earth pony village to the Equestrian capital. At first, everything had been exciting and new. Princess Celestia had been so wonderful to her, if a little distant, and Sunset…

Well, now that she understood the root of the problem, Cadance didn’t see the need to dwell on Sunset’s past actions. Although, with the other alicorn starting to feel her own upheaval, Cadance was pretty certain she understood why thoughts of the past were cropping up.

The pink princess remembered that as the sparkling newness of Canterlot started to fade, Cadance realized that she was alone in a foreign city that might as well of had a completely different culture to her home village. Everything in Canterlot was so fast-paced and...socially regimented compared to her home. What made it even worse was that her attempts to make friends in this new place had been met with…limited success. Everypony was perfectly polite and respectful to Princess Cadance, but that decorum also created a gulf between her and the rest of the ponies in Canterlot.

And the ponies that tried to cross that gap were the wrong ones. The ones that thought they deserved to be friends with her. But all of those ponies just wanted to be close to the pink princess rather than the former pegasus that was Cadance. Ponies who wanted political favor, who thought she was too inexperienced to see them for what they really were. Ponies she stayed as far away from as she could.

As things stood, it would probably be months before she would be able to find a way to bridge that societal gap with just a couple of ponies who didn’t want to gain political favor. In fact, the only pony around that she could safely say didn’t want to curry favor was the terrifying unicorn that had turned into an alicorn recently. The alicorn who had been the one to work on their friendship first.

Wait a second, Cadance thought to herself as a rather terrifying realization made itself known. Does that mean Sunset Shimmer is my best friend in Canterlot?

The disbelief in her mind only lasted a moment before rational thought said Sunset was only a best friend thanks to Cadance’s lack of current friends. The title would probably be taken by another pony once the pink princess managed to make a real friend that…

Cadance forced herself to let that train of thought fade into oblivion before it could reach the end of the line. She was letting her past experiences taint her current opinion of the other alicorn without giving her a fair chance. What Sunset had done in the past didn’t matter. She had decided to change, and the fact she was an alicorn now told Cadance that turnabout was genuine. The pink princess didn’t need to dwell on the amber alicorn’s past if Sunset had left it behind.

“Uh, Princess Cadance?”

The new voice made Cadance’s back go rigid as her wings poofed out on instinct, ready to take flight and avoid any danger. But, she quelled such thoughts and looked back to see the pony she had been waiting so long her thoughts had managed to get away from her. So far away they had pulled Cadance away from reality, and she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings.

“Shining Armor!” Cadance greeted the colt with a smile before she trotted up the sidewalk and…found herself hesitant to do anything more. Her usual greeting of a quick hug would have been a bit out of place with the unicorn being Sunset’s pick. Cadance didn’t want him getting any ideas.

Not that he wasn’t cute. Sunset did have pretty good taste in stallions. But it would take more than just cute for Cadance to chase after anypony. Looks were only good for looking at. She wanted a coltfriend with some substance to him.

...like the young stallion Sunset had her eyes on...

All of a sudden, Cadance realized she was just standing in front of the nervous colt. She shook herself out of the stunned silence she had embarrassed herself into, and went back to giving him a friendly smile. Not too much curl to indicate lust, and no teeth like with their first meeting. She wasn’t trying to see if he frightened easily this time around.

“So, ready to get started?”

Shining nodded. “Yes,” he replied before becoming hesitant again in that adorable way all young lovers were prone to experiencing. “But, um…start what? You didn’t tell me what we were doing before you had to leave for class.”

The question made Cadance roll her eyes. It was obvious Shining’s parents had never given him a romance novel to read. “We’re going to be planning out your date with Sunset this weekend, obviously,” she said before the young stallion in front of her opened his mouth.

For some reason, Shining Armor’s eyes widened in surprise at the explanation. Probably because he was nervous. It would pass once things got going. “Y-Yes Princess,” he stammered.

“Good!” Cadance beamed to help boost his confidence. “Now, what are your ideas? Remember though, first dates are important. Since you already have her attention, you really need to have something to wow her. Something to show Sunset how amazing you are.”

The attitude was apparently infectious, as Shining Armor’s stance changed to show a bit more certainty as he brightened up. “Oh! This’ll be easy then. I’ve got something planned that’ll let me do just that. We’ll be playing an Oubliettes and Ogres game!”

Although the stallion in front of her sounded excited at the prospect, Cadance couldn’t found herself unable to share in his joy. Mostly because…she had no idea what he was talking about. “A what?” she asked.

One hour of trotting on top of a rather long explanation about the fictitious world of Everglow later, Cadance found herself inside The Golem’s Dungeon and Hoofball Card Shop. The dimly lit store was filled to the brim with odd merchandise and figures of cute little critters that a foal might take interest in, as well as comics, and several books detailing the things that Shining Armor had talked about all the way to the shop with a passion that was kind of enchanting. Even if it wasn’t her cup of tea, Cadance could see how it might seem…nice to be somepony else for awhile.

She also met the shop’s owner, a rather pudgy stallion with a yellow coat by the name of Comic Book. He was a little too sarcastic for Cadance’s taste.

“So let me get this straight. Your plan to impress Sunset Shimmer is to play a game where you’re a knight-”

“Paladin,” Shining Armor corrected her for about the third time.

“-and you sit around a table with all of your guy friends, rolling dice and coming up with solutions to problems that another one of your friends gives you?” she finished while using all of her manners to keep a straight face. It was important to Shining Armor, laughing at the complete idiocy of the idea would be rude.

Their first date however…Cadance could tell it was going to be a disaster. A disaster of epic proportions. A disaster that would end with Shining Armor losing his shot at Sunset Shimmer forever. And if hanging out in his parent’s basement with three other guys was his idea of a good first date where he needed to impress a mare…Cadance was starting to think that he might be beyond her abilities to help.

Completely oblivious to Cadance’s unspoken opinion, Shining Armor gave her a little smile as he showed her the information about his character in the book held in his magic. “So, what do you think?”

“Well…” Cadance racked her brain to think of something nice to say. “It certainly shows Sunset the inner you.” Which was a good thing, she supposed. But showing somepony something like that really needed to wait until their third anniversary! It was one of those secrets husbands only told their wives after they were married and too old to find another stallion.

“Buuuuut,” she said while trying to come up with something that didn’t make the most terrible date idea ever sound like...what it was. “I think you’re trotting down the wrong trail here Shiny.”

After cocking his head to the side, the stallion blinked. “What do you mean?”

Well for starters, you just invited the mare you want to go out with to a...friendship activity, Cadance thought to herself as she started working up a nice explanation of why Shining Armor inviting Sunset to something like that was a bad idea.

But, she also didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Okay,” Cadance said as she tried to order her thoughts to form an explanation that didn’t include words like moronic. “Um…” Thoughts that needed more time to form. Several hours at least. “So…about O&O…how does everypony know where everything is at if it's just a bunch of books?”

Although a legitimate question, Cadance had only asked it to buy herself some time to think of a way to avert the coming disaster. Because nothing she could see would salvage a relationship that started in a basement over some books and dice.

“There’s plenty of ways, although my friends use miniatures-”

“Oh miniatures, that’s so impressive,” the pudgy unicorn behind the counter said before he took a bite of the burrito floating in his magic. “I’m sure that’ll really hook this mare you’ve been going on about for the past five minutes instead of buying something.”

For once, Cadance wished the pony on the other side of the room had ignored her order not to bow and act natural around her. What was it with jerky stallions and acting like…well, jerks?

But just to pull the rug out from under him, Cadence smiled and looked over at the big pony. “Oh, and what would your suggestion be, hmmm?” she asked as nicely as she could.

The question only made the stallion pause for a second, and then he looked up to a shelf behind the counter to float down a large black box with a small stylized silver X on the front. “This!” he said before opening the box to reveal a magical stone tablet with several gems embedded in it with lines of gold set between them in the shape of a pentangle. “Behold! The Tablet of Live Action Role Playing!”

Shining Armor groaned. “You know I don’t have the money for one of those.”

Ignoring his protest, Cadance stepped forward and looked at the item. Even though her knowledge of spellcraft was nonexistent, the princess could feel a slight tingle in her horn at its presence. “What does it do?” she asked cautiously.

Comic Book raised an eyebrow. “What? The name isn’t a big enough clue for you?” he replied.

Which made Cadance frown at him.

“Ugh…fine!” he went on. “This tablet contains a spell that’s similar to linked dream magic. Up to seven ponies can enter a near-sleeping state to act out a scenario created beforehoof by the GM. Everything looks, sounds, and feels real, but since it’s all a dream, there’s no actual danger.”

After hearing the explanation how the enchantment worked, Cadance had to force herself to keep from licking her lips. The possibilities that were forming in her head were...workable. From the way that guy Comic Book explained the whole thing, the artifact in front of her was the perfect solution to save Shining Armor’s chances with Sunset! While not all that romantic, it would at least keep Sunset interested in him enough for a second chance in a better setting!

A devious smile appeared on Cadance’s face, and she clasped her hooves before rubbing them together while a plan formed in her mind. “Shining Armor…there may be hope for you yet!”

Although soft, Sunset wished that she had taken up Celestia’s offer to make a cloud bed as she laid her belly down on the mattress, making the princess's body scream in protest. Getting flying lessons from Celestia had been…painful. Both to her pride, and her body.

“Crashing builds character my fuzzy pony butt,” Sunset grumbled before she looked up at her wings to frown at the traitorous appendages. “Why can’t you work like the ones in the mirror did? Or Rainbow Dash’s? Rainbow Dash didn’t have any problems flying around! And she hasn’t even had wings as long as I have!”

A second after Sunset said her comment, she groaned and looked down at her sheets. “Because she wasn’t real. None of them where,” she sadly reminded herself. It hurt, but…Sunset needed to accept that act and deal with it if she was to move on.

Even if they had been the best friends she’d ever known.

Sunset let out a loud sigh, and groaned. Why was it that letting go of a bunch of stupid memories about a magical delusion was so hard?

Maybe it had only been a day, but...princesses were supposed to be better than that! It had only taken Twilight a few tries to take her hand when they met the second time, and she had only reminded Sunset about her demonic transformation once!

In contrast, Sunset...couldn’t compare herself to Twilight, because the purple alicorn WASN’T REAL!

“I need something to take my mind off this,” Sunset told herself before she looked around her room. The books on magical theory on the shelf across from her bed were…tempting, but Sunset was more of a hands on type of girl, and causing magical explosions so close to dinner time was probably a bad idea.

She thought about playing her guitar, but then Sunset realized that she didn’t actually own one anymore. Not that it had ever been real in the first place. Which made her wonder… So…does that mean everything I know about music is also fake?

Tomorrow, there would be some experiments she could try. Since the transfer to Canterlot Academy wouldn’t happen for a few days, Sunset needed to keep herself busy.

But that didn’t solve her current boredom. Something which was becoming a real problem for her human-contaminated mind. Sunset was pretty sure that was the reason why she came up with the idea to go watch the guards go through their evening drills. The studly guard that was comprised almost entirely of stallions. Stallions without pants or underwear. Stallions that would do anything she ordered them to.

“Gah!” the alicorn screamed as images of a much hunkier version of Shining Armor fulfilling his princess’s needs filled Sunset’s mind. “Stupid brain! Why is it when I don’t want to have sex, you finally turn my libido on?”

Not that Sunset ever wanted to have sex while in the mirror in the first place! It had just been a means to an end! And something you learned to enjoy out of repetition didn’t really count!

“Okay,” Sunset said to herself. “Fuck this, I’m going to practice some magic.” An ice spell sounded like a good idea. She could make a block or two, and then sit on it with her tail raised. If her newfound alicorn body wanted to turn against her like this, then Sunset wasn’t going down easy.

It was at that moment that the doors to Sunset’s bedroom burst open, and she found Princess Cadance striding into the room with a large stack of books resting on her back. “Sunset? Good, you’re here. Come on now, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said before reaching behind her to toss all of the books on her back onto Sunset’s bed before pulling out a bag that rattled from under her wing and dumping out a load of dice. “So, are you down for a caster, a melee class, or something in-between?”

Sunset blinked at Cadance’s odd behavior. “Uh…” She looked down at the books in front of her to try and understand what in the hell the pink princess was talking about. A quick glance at the O&O titles told the alicorn everything she needed to know about why the pink alicorn was speaking so strangely. For the rest, she actually needed to ask Cadance. “What’s all this for?”

“For your date,” Cadance told her before her eyes narrowed and she took on a commanding tone. “Now…caster. Melee. Or something in-between?”

Sunset blinked. What date?

“But Daddy, isn’t there something you can do? She used magic on me! Unicorns aren’t supposed to do that!”

Strong Withers frowned as he heard his son’s rather...whine of a request when he and his family sat down to dinner at the dining room table. The immature colt’s words made the old stallion repress a groan, a skill he had picked up early in his political career when it came to dealing with his constituents and their foolish requests.

At least the day of bathing had managed to get the smell of manure out of the young stallion's coat. Strong took solace in that. “But alicorns can,” he said. “And you’ll be going back to school tomorrow.”

“Well, did you at least find somepony to do my homework?” Buck asked.

The absurdity of the question broke through Strong Wither’s political defenses. His face slipped into a glower. “I thought you had some colt doing it all for you.”

Buck slunk under his father’s gaze. “I did! But now that Armor’s friends with that other mare…can’t you do something about her Daddy?”

When his son couldn’t even complete the excuse for his own incompetence, Strong reached over to take a glass of brandy from the table and swish it around while he look at the four-legged disappointment that was his son. Despite good breeding and a fine physique, when it came to anything he couldn’t solve by hitting his hoof against it, Buck just threw a tantrum.

He was such a wasted investment.

Still, the request did raise a question in the Council Member's mind. Just what was to be done about this new princess? Strong was already well aware of the great secret concerning alicorn transformation that the public would never be privy to as not to cause a huge scandal. Apparently, Princess Celestia had presented herself to a stallion some thousand years ago or so to foal some long dead pony. Every now and then, one of her descendants would become an alicorn upon adulthood. None of them had her immortality though. That was Celestia’s alone.

The pink one, while unexpected, wasn’t much of a problem for Strong Withers and the rest of his supporters to sideline. Cadance was stupid and completely lacking experience in politics. She would be easy to deal with.

But Sunset Shimmer had been Celestia’s personal student for years. The princess had personally molded her practically from the day the brat could speak. Strong Withers doubted very much that all of those lessons had to do with magic alone.

The threat she represented to the political status quo would need to be...minimized.

Strong Withers look back to his son again, and an idea came to him. Perhaps the boy did have one last use after all. “Son,” he said. “Tell me again how this horrible mare so brutally assaulted you and your friends.”