Sunset Shimmer leaned against the row of lockers in the corridor of Canterlot High School. It had been four months since the new year began, and the winter cold had given way to a beautiful spring. She had been writing regularly to Celestia throughout that time, and things had finally progressed to where they could meet face-to-face again. So far, their encounters were still very strained, but Twilight’s presence during most of them had smoothed tensions immensely. There was a lot of adjusting to do, between mending her relationship with her mother and spending time with Twilight and her pony friends - not to mention a new relationship with her aunt Luna and reconnecting with Cadance. This was especially since she now commuted regularly between school and Ponyville. All things considered, the stress of starting her senior year was somewhat minor in comparison.

At the moment, Twilight Sparkle was examining the combination lock on Sunset’s locker, deftly manipulating the dial before opening it to stash a book within. Twilight had become very interested in human world sciences, especially physics, after reading her Hearth’s Warming present, and had taken to borrowing books from the school library to learn more.

“I’m glad I’m getting better at using fingers,” she mused as she closed the locker.

Sunset smirked. “I’m glad you’re getting better at using fingers,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

Twilight blushed a very deep shade of crimson.

“Y’know, we’re standing right here,” groaned Rainbow Dash, who had come along with Fluttershy to talk to Twilight after her recent arrival.

“Aww, leave them alone, Dash,” said Fluttershy, smiling widely as she watched them. “I think they’re really cute.”

“No way! We have to put up with their lovey-dovey nonsense enough as it is,” retorted Dash. She groaned again as Sunset affectionately pecked Twilight on the cheek. “Oh, come on! Are you two quite finished?”

“Well, if you gave us about twenty minutes alone in the locker room, we could be,” grinned Sunset, making Twilight blush even harder.

Rainbow threw up her hands in exasperation. “Okay that’s it, I’m outta here. C’mon Flutters, let’s go find the rest of the girls in front of the school. You two can meet us when you’re done playing kissy games.”

Twilight mock-punched Sunset in the shoulder as Rainbow pulled Fluttershy away. “That was for teasing me in front of them.”

“Totally worth it,” snickered Sunset. “Anyway, now that they’re gone… what’d you wanna talk to me about?”

“Well, it’s about Princess Celestia,” explained Twilight. “She asked me some questions about you recently, and while it’s not quite a sure thing just yet, I’m pretty sure that… well, she wants to formally acknowledge you as her daughter.”

Sunset gasped. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. She wanted to know if you might want to move back to Equestria after you graduate, and she has noticed that you still never call her “Mom” in front of her. Also, there was one time she wondered aloud in front of me whether she could still make you a princess anyway, in title at least. I know for a fact that she’s been having lunch with a lot of newspaper editors recently, which means that she’s about to announce something very big that will cause a lot of controversy.” Twilight paused, carefully considering what she was about to say next. “And I’m not supposed to tell anyone this, but she’s also told me discreetly that she’s planning on taking a long sabbatical very soon. I know that she wants to let Princess Luna take over more responsibilities in government, but that’s hardly a reason to suddenly have to take a break.”

“You think she’s going to announce me to the court and then abdicate to avoid an even bigger scandal?” asked a worried Sunset.

Twilight shrugged. “The way Equestria works, I don't think she can exactly abdicate, and I know that in the very least she plans on being around to advise Princess Luna on any important matters. But I think she’s hoping to spend more time with you, and possibly me. Anyway, she hasn’t been able to really take a vacation in decades. Taking a year or so off would probably be good for her.”

Sunset slumped against her locker. “This is huge… I don’t even know whether I should be happy or terrified. Those high society gossips will crucify her.”

“I don’t know what that is, but I’m assuming it’s bad,” noted Twilight. “But… if anything, Princess Celestia will probably ask to talk to you first. I wasn’t sure I should tell you, but we are kind of really close now and I don’t want to keep anything from you.”

That consideration from Twilight made Sunset smile. “I guess I’ll deal with it when it comes. Let’s go join the girls.”

They walked towards the school exit. As they entered the entrance hall they noticed an older man dressed in a smart military uniform standing outside the school office.

He had tanned amber skin and thinning blonde hair, and looked to be of about middle age. Despite this he seemed to be in excellent physical condition and the way he stood gave off a powerful aura of confidence that implied he was used to being in command. On his shoulder was the rank insignia of an army Major.

He turned as the girls approached, and smiled as he asked in a deep, clear voice, “Hi, I’m looking for Principal Celestia but she doesn’t seem to be in her office. Would either of you happen to know where she is?”

Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but stopped as she noticed his name tag on the front of his uniform.

His name was Daydreamer.

He looked at the teenager quizzically as she took a few very quick but deep breaths. Her companion seemed equally shocked for some reason unknown to him, but eventually the girl with the red and yellow hair smiled nervously and spoke.

“Principal Celestia is in the cafeteria. Follow me, I’ll show you to her.”

THE END

Author's Note

Hello everyone who got this far!

This concludes my first fanfiction story ever. I hope you liked it. I honestly never thought that it would get as much attention as it has, because I am a totally new writer who hasn't got any experience writing for anyone other than myself. But this got over a thousand views and (when I last checked) more than two hundred people liked it. I think it even managed to get into the Featured box for a couple of days, provided you had your mature stories enabled, so yay, I guess!

The idea that started this all was a little line in the MLP wiki about the Tree of Harmony and Twilight's cutie mark, implying that she was foretold and destined to hold the Element of Magic hundreds of years before the series began. Coincidentally I also watched Equestria girls for the first time not long after (I held off on it for a long while because I'd noted a lot of negative reviews, but Rainbow Rocks was supposed to be pretty good, and FIMfiction writers seemed to like Sunset Shimmer a lot, so I decided to catch it at last).

Now I really like Sunset Shimmer, even if one thing that annoyed me was how quickly Sunset redeems between EQG and RR, not to mention the very drastic change in personality. But when I read the comics about her (The Fall of Sunset Shimmer and the Equestria Girls Holiday Special) I thought to myself, "Y'know, if she ever found out about the Tree of Harmony and the fact that she never had a chance of getting the Element of Magic, she'd go ballistic."

When I first began conceptualizing the fic Sunset wasn't really supposed to be Celestia's biological daughter - I only needed her to treat Celestia as a mother figure. But The Fall of Sunset Shimmer, as I noted earlier, gave me a lot of headaches. The comic seriously felt illogical in a lot of places (To be fair, the EQG movie was pretty illogical also. Behold Sunset's awesome plan to defeat the Royal guards with her army of high school students, who we can totally believe will have no problem adjusting to a lack of hands!). One thing that really stuck out was the idea that Sunset Shimmer would basically declare herself to be Celestia's equal and demand to be made a princess. This honestly sounded titanically stupid, and Sunset isn't supposed to be that stupid.

But it would make sense if she thought it was her birthright.

So that developed into the idea that I eventually wrote. And I get that at least a few people who read this story will be put off by the idea that Sunset is Celestia's daughter (not to mention my amateurish writing skills). But here's the thing. Most of the logic of this fic doesn't require Sunset to be Celestia's daughter. Celestia obviously taught Sunset differently from Twilight. Sunset is deliberately presented in Equestria Girls as a different, failed version of Twilight. But the fact is Sunset never ever had a chance to succeed, because the MLP writers honestly hand the world to Twilight on the platter of destiny (that's okay, they are kind of writing for little girls after all). And Celestia had to have known this because of her cutie mark.

Poor Sunset Shimmer.

I also debated internally whether to have Sunset and Celestia reconcile on their own (or "on camera"). If I was a better writer I think it would have been more thematically appropriate for Sunset to learn to forgive Celestia without Twilight's assistance. But from the beginning, I really really wanted Twilight to be the one to help Sunset, because I confess that I totally, totally love stories where the pure girl redeems the bad boy (or bad girl) with the purity of her pure heart. And this meant that Sunset and Celestia had to try and fail to reconcile on their own, and once I wrote that in, putting in a scene where they reconciled would just be "Hey mom, I'm not mad at you any more. Let's hug." Sorry.

I also don't doubt that me making Celestia very flawed went over badly with a few people. But in the previous chapter I note one indisputable bit of proof that she can be kind of thoughtless to those close to her. When I first watched the episode Slice of Life, it struck me how one-sided Celestia's and Luna's argument was. Luna logically pointed out that a) she had done the gifts for Shining and Cadance's wedding, b) It was therefore Celestia's turn to do them and c) that it was in fact Celestia who was supposed to bring the very gifts she was rebuking Luna for. Celestia's argument quite simply boiled down to a) I don't care and b) I'm blaming you anyway. So I immediately thought, "Celestia, why are you scolding Best Princess for something you clearly did?"

So even if you think that I threw poor Celestia under a bus for this fic, just keep in mind that Lousy Sister Celestia is totes canon.

Lots of love,

Sporktacles.