Twilight Sparkle was napping when a loud sound awoke her from her pleasant sleep.*click, click* She frowned, tossed and turned in her bed, and fell beck asleep. A few moments later, the same noise could be heard again. *click click* The lavender alicorn grumbled and got out of bed to see where the noise was coming from. She walked down her staircase to the third floor of her home, to the room that was directly beneath hers.
She slowly opened the door, and to her surprise, saw nothing there. She let out a sigh of annoyance. She could have just gone back to bed, but knowing that something was causing a ruckus down here would just keep her up and annoy her just the same.
Twilight quietly stepped inside the room. It was the entrance to her gigantic library. She was familiar with this room.
*click click* The noise! She ran towards the sound, which was behind a bookshelf dedicated to facts about pegasi. She jumped, and to her dismay, saw absolutely nothing there. Just a wall with some windows. Alright, this was starting to tick her off.
She huffed and decided to just sleep in the library instead, so if she heard the noise again, she'd be close by. She used her magic to bring a pillow and blanket downstairs and she made herself comfortable on the floor. Twilight peacefully closed her eyes.
*click click*
Her eyes opened.
She had to find this thing!
She sprung into action, flying across all the sections of the library, mentally thinking 'Not here not here not here not here not here not here... ARG! Where is this thing?!'
*click click*
She heard that sound again. Twilight cursed under her breath. What in all of Equestria could that despicable noise be?
It was coming from the east side of the room, by a window, behind the same bookshelf from earlier.
"That's strange," Twilight thought. "I could have sworn I heard it coming from over there,"
She teleported to the window, and opened the curtains to reveal what the noise was.
Outside, she saw a glorious view of Ponyville, and a tree.
The noise was a tree.
She had done all of that bucking work for a tree branch.
Twilight opened the window, and angrily broke off a little too much of the branch with her magic.
She slammed the window shut.
*thud*
Twilight had just about had it with strange noises tonight, but looked down by her hooves to see what had fallen on the ground.
It was a book.
It must have been placed on the windowsill, but it didn't look very familiar.
In fact, Twilight wasn't even sure she knew what language it was in. She curiously opened it up to the first page.
It appeared to be a sketch of an animal similar to a human, but with wings, wispy hair, and a crown with her element on it.
Oh my Celestia! It was a picture of Sunset!
Twilight quickly skimmed through the pages, seeing all the prophecies inside.
There were pictures of Starlight Glimmer's village, Tirek, Discord, the Dazzlings' defeat in the human world, and King Sombra inside as well. Twilight had never seen the mysterious language it was in, but Princess Celestia probably knew how to read it.
"I have to bring this to her!"
Twilight quickly grabbed her saddlebags and left a note for Spike explaining her absence. She didn't want him to worry.
She flew down the staircase and opened her front door.
Time to visit Canterlot.
~~~
Two Lunar guards were standing in front of the entrance to the throne room. Twilight Sparkle came up to them, gasping for air. She had flown all the way from Ponyville to Canterlot, and it had taken up a few hours, and a lot of energy.
"Hello Twilight."
One of the guards cheerfully nodded at her.
"What can we help you with?"
Twilight gasped for air. "Princess... Pictures... Book...... Celestia..."
"Oh. Uh... Ok. We'll grab her for you. She'll meet you in there soon. Just let yourself inside."
They flew off, leaving Twilight alone in front of the door.
She opened it, and trotted up the red carpet to Celestia's throne.
A bright flash of light and poof of smoke surprised Twilight.
"Arggah!" She fell backwards.
The sun goddess laughed. "Nice to see you too, Twilight."
Celestia appeared in front of Twilight on her golden throne.
Twilight blushed, and regained composure.
"Princess, I need your help. I found this book a few hours ago in my library, and I can't seem to read it. It's in another language that I can't decipher. It contains prophecies that are surprisingly accurate and true."
Celestia raised and eyebrow.
The white Alicorn grabbed ahold of the book with her magic and fluttered through some of the pages.
She kept the same expression; skeptical, until she came to a page around the end of the book.
A look a panic spread across her face.
"Twilight, I need to meet you in my personal library. Immediately."
She disappeared in a poof of golden smoke same as before, but left the book in Twilight's possession.
It was on the ground, still opened to the same page Celetsia had last seen.
It was a picture of dark magic overtaking Equestria.
~~~
"Sunset darling, can you give me a little help over here?"
"Sure thing Rarity!" She cheerfully answered.
The girls had volunteered to help clean up the school after the events of the Friendship Games had made a couple of... messes... That needed to be fixed up. They were currently in the gym clearing away the things from the welcoming party. Pinkie looked devastated.
Sunset Shimmer walked over to the other side of the gym, where Rarity was. It looked like she needed help taking down one of the posters.
"Do you want me to take the left side?" She asked.
"Yes, that would be marvelous!"
Sunset grabbed a step stool to reach the top of the poster. The reason the girls were volunteering was because they were required to do 24 hours of volunteer work every year at CHS. None of them minded, since they always did the work together and it wasn't too hard.
The Twilight Pinkie had dubbed as 'Sci-Twi' came inside the gym with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie (who seemed much more energetic now that she got to show Sci-Twi around the school).
"- and over here is the gym where we're gonna do a bunch of volunteer work! We're volunteering because we're required to do 24 hours of it a year here at CHS but we don't really mind because we all get to do it together! Hey that reminds me did you know that in here in the gym we had this *awesome* music competition with these sirens and the rest of the school but then it turned out that they were really evil and wanted to use our Equestrian magic to fuel their dark energy so that they could make the entire world do their bidding? Aw don't worry! The gals and I took care of them! It was during this super awesome battle just between us and the sirens outside where we-"
"Um, Pinkie Pie?"
"Yeah?!"
"I have pretty much have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but ok."
Pinkie grinned ear to ear.
Sunset was surprised she was in this good of a mood. Pinkie hated taking down parties.
She grabbed the top of the poster and undid the string holding it up. In unison, Sunset and Rarity brought down the poster.
Rarity smiled. "Thanks Sunset."
She smiled back. "No prob."
A few feet away, Sunset heard a small vibration come from her backpack. Someone probably just texted her. Sunset knew that if someone needed to talk to her, she'd hate to ignore them for the next hour if they had a real problem and needed her help.
She walked over to her backpack and unzipped it. She checked her phone.
No New messages
That's weird, then what could the sound have be-
Sunset's backpack shook lightly. Of course. Duh. The book!
She frantically shuffled through her things until she found the brown book with her cutie mark.
Applejack had noticed what was going on. "Uh, Sunset, ya mind tellin' us what's goin' on?"
She opened the book.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
YOU NEED TO COME TO EQUESTRIA NOW I REALLY DON'T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED AND I AM REALLY TIRED BECAUSE IT IS LIKE THREE AM OVER HERE BUT SERIOUSLY WE NEED YOU.
NOW.
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle
Sunset cursed. She never wanted to go back there again. But if Twilight and her friends there were in trouble, she had to carry the burden.
"Guys, I think I have to go." Sunset shouted awkwardly.
"Why? What's the problem Sunset?" Rainbow asked.
"Is-Is something wrong?" Fluttershy pitched in too.
"I... Um... I gotta go somewhere... It's kinda important. Hopefully I won't be gone for too long... Just a little while..."
"Oh, ok. Just don't take too long!" Pinkie yelled back at her.
"Yeah... Well... Um, gotta go bye!" Sunset sprinted out of the gym into the school's front lawn. She hated lying to her friends, but she didn't want to hurt their feelings by telling them they couldn't come. Sunset took a deep breath. Hopefully she wasn't gone for too long, although her definition of 'a little while' might be longer than what her friends expected.
She treaded down the front steps to the concrete path. She kept on walking before coming to the giant statue. She smirked. Sunset remembered first coming through the portal to find that the school's mascot was a horse. How ironic.
Sunset looked at the full moon above her head. It was no coincidence that the portal was open during the same time this problem popped up in Equestria.
She took another deep breath and stepped inside the portal.
Sunset fell out of the mirror with a thump. She groaned. She'd fallen on top of her head. She looked up to see that Princess Celestia and Twilight were waiting for her. Celestia let out a small chuckle and tried not to break out in a laugh, or then she wouldn't be able to be considered serious. Sunset Shimmer remembered that Celestia had confided in her once and told her that. Her and the sun goddess had a different relationship compared to her and Twilight. Celestia to her was like an older sibling or cousin, unlike the mother-daughter relationship Celestia had with Twilight. She had been more laid back, and not as firm. Perhaps that lack of discipline is what led to Sunset's downfall.
Twilight on the other hand... Hoof... (She was going to have a hard time adapting to Equestrian customs now that she was back here) looked worried and distraught. She seemed to not even notice Sunset's awkward entrance. Well, that was fine with her.
She looked back up to Princess Celestia. She smiled at her, obviously having had her share of a good laugh. So much for another good first impression.
At first Sunset didn't know how to respond, but realized that in Equestria you bowed to your ruler, unlike in the human world where you just nodded your head or shook hands... Hooves... Whatever.
She tried to stand up, but when she did, she tried doing it on her back hooves and fell backwards again. Celestia couldn't help it, she let out a real laugh. Sunset forgot how much she had missed her old mentor. For the last time, sunset tried standing on all four hooves. She had succeeded at her task. Well, it was about time.
She bowed to the two princesses, and regained her composure.
Sunset bent her forehooves and lowered her head. That seemed to trigger her Equestrian body to expand her wings.
Wait, Wings?!
She sprung up in surprise and let out a gasp.
That seemed to catch the lavender and white Alicorns' attention.
Twilight Sparkle's eyes opened wide. "What the...? Sunset! What happened?!"
She blushed. By Applejack, she actually had no idea why she had these orange wings. There was no way she could have cast this spell herself, and nobody; er, pony, could have done it either. There was most certainly not enough magic in the humanized Equestria to turn regular old unicorns into Alicorns, or give plainly give unicorns wings. Sunset had no idea if she was an Alicorn or had just gained wings. Alicorns were in a separate group from winged unicorns considering that their magic was much more powerful.
"I... Um... Have no idea?" She asked herself uncertainly.
Twilight sparkle tried not to stare, her parents had always told her not to as a filly, but she couldn't help herself.
"This... This... This... Sunset... What in Equestria did you do?! To become an Alicorn you have to do an amazing task or accomplishment, like being Celestia's star student, or truly loving someone, or being undyingly loyal to you country..."
"Well your niece seems to be getting along just fine."
Twilight looked up at her confused.
"What?"
Sunset made a blank face.
"What?"
Celestia laughed nervously. She had never seen anything like this happen before. She'd never heard of a pony becoming an Alicorn in the human world and returning as one. It seemed strange.
Just then, a huge crack of lighting struck through the window.
Twilight's eyes widened in horror.
"Is that...?"
"Yes." Said Celestia. "I am afraid it is."
