Don't write while paranoid
It was a quiet and beautiful summer day in Canterlot. It was one of those days where everyone just wants to lay back and relax. In fact, it did fulfill Celestia’s requirements for a perfect day:
First, it was sunny and no cloud could be seen at the sky.
Second, no immediate threat tried to destroy and/or enslave ponykind.
Third (and most important), day court has been called off by the princesses due to “personal reasons”.
So, despite all of this, why did Celestia looked anything but relaxed?
Of course her sister Luna noticed this, too.
“Tia, why do you look so nervous? Twilight is coming for tea so you should be happy.”
Celestia sighed. “I know, Luna. The thing is… you know who she said would come with her.”
“Ohhh,” Luna nodded in understanding. “You mean your former student, Sunset Shimmer. I thought you were glad to see her again.”
“I am, Luna. I really am. It’s just… after all these years I kinda started to imagine how this meeting could happen and I’m a bit afraid it might be one of the worse scenarios. And from what Twilight told us, it is very likely that she somehow managed to channel the magic of this other world to ascend and became an alicorn. This means that we also have to consider her not liking this transformation.”
“I still fail to see your problem. Why shouldn’t she like becoming a princess? It means we can delegate even more work off of our shoulders. And Twilight said, that Sunset learned from her mistakes. You’re worrying to much about it with these possible scenarios. You aren’t one of these ponies, that makes a list about such things.” Luna joked.
“Yes, Luna, you’re right. Ha Ha. I’d never do something dumb like this. Hehehe.” Celestia tried to fake a laugh. But failed. Miserably.
“Celestia, please tell me you didn’t make a list.”
“I swear, Luna. I did not write a list about possible ‘Sunset returns’-scenarios.”
“Phew, I was really worried about you for a sec–”
“I WROTE A WHOLE BOOK!”, Celestia suddenly blurted out.
Luna stood there wide-eyed for a few seconds trying to process everything.
After what felt like an eternity for Celestia, Luna finally responded.
“W-What? N-No! Sister, why?”
“I already told you. Many things can happen in a few years. It started as a short list and evolved into a small notebook. And being prepared for a few possible scenarios doesn’t cause any problems, so why make such a big deal about it, right?”
“I make a big deal about a book, because you are going crazy about one. Now go on, show me this notebook.”
Celestia sighed. Her horn started to glow and a hidden drawer on the side of her throne opened up with a book encased in a golden glow floating out of it. Luna realized that ‘small notebook’ had been a huge understatement. The book had the size of a full novel and probably the same page count. It even had a title, “Sunset’s possible returns, by Princess Celestia”, and a well-drawn cover artwork showing a yellow unicorn with a red-and-yellow mane stepping out of a mirror. Luna was even more surprised when she opened it on the first page and found a table of contents, which divided the book into chapters like “bad for me and/or Equestria” over “weird alternate universes” up to “tearjerking”.
“At least it’s well organized.”, Celestia offered with an embarrassed look.
Luna answered with a deadpan glare and then flicked through the book until she stopped at a random page to start reading.
Scenario PE-GI#24:
Sunset stepped out of the magic mirror.
Celestia turned around at the sound and faced her former student.
“I’ll show you what has become of me.” Sunset then unleashed a huge beam of magic from her horn to blast a hole through the ceiling.
An epic battle between teacher and student followed, which the alicorn princess won. Sunset has then been banished and thrown into a dungeon there.
Scenario PE-GI#25:
Sunset stepped out of the magic mirror.
Celestia turned around at the sound and faced her former student.
“I’ll show you what has become of me.” Sunset then flexed the new wings on her back.
An epic battle between teacher and student followed, which the alicorn princess won. Sunset has then been banished and thrown into a dungeon there.
Scenario PE-GI#25.5:
Sunset stepped out of the magic mirror.
Celestia turned around at the sound and faced her former student.
“I’ll show you what has become of me.” Sunset then flexed the new wings on her back.
An epic battle between teacher and student followed, which the alicorn princess lost. Sunset has then banished Celestia into the world of the mirror and took over Equestria.
Scenario PE-WI#01:
Sunset stepped out of the magic mirror.
Celestia turned around at the sound and faced her former student.
“Horse meat is tasty.” Sunset said in a scary voice while licking her lips.
“So far the writing is stiff at times and it’s full of repetitions. The pacing is a bit weird, too.”, Luna criticized.
“It gets a bit better later.”
Luna continued skipping through the book.
Scenario KD-IC#09:
Sunset stepped out of the mirror.
Celestia was surprised by the arrival of her former student.
But instead of the expected boasting or threatening Sunset just opened her mouth in a comically wide way and started inhaling. Celestia couldn’t resist the pull for very long and finally got sucked in. For a few moments Sunset looked like an inflated balloon, before she suddenly reverted back to her normal shape besides now having the mane and horn of her former teacher.
“Poyo!”, she exclaimed happily.
“I don’t even understand half of it.”
“You know that I traveled with Starswirl through the multiverse a few times.”
Scenario PM-BC#96:
Sunset stepped out of the mirror.
Celestia noticed the mysterious cap on her head showing a strange red-and-white ball. Suddenly the unicorn pulled out a ball, that looked exactly like the picture, and threw it at the princess. The ball hit Celestia on her head and a red beam shot out of it. Celestia seemed to disappear in the ball, which then landed on the floor and shook and blinked rapidly until stopping with a *click*.
Sunset picked up the ball and held it up. “Yes! I caught a Celestia!”
“I’m seriously questioning your mental health right now.”
Scenario DC-SP#21:
Sunset stepped out of the mirror.
Celestia noticed the black fedora on her head.
“I wanted to apologize for my actions. During my time in this other world I learned that what I did was wrong. I even brought you something from there. This pill will cure you from all diseases.”
Celestia was surprised, but trusted her former student and swallowed the pill, though she failed to see the evil smirk on Sunset’s face.
“I hadn’t expected it to be so easy to fool you into taking this poison, Celestia.”
Celestia felt a sharp pain go through her body. All her strength left her and she fell to the floor. Her whole body felt like it was burning and melting.
“Rest in peace, princess!”
And everything went black.
Hours later Celestia awoke with a gasp. Her body felt sore, but she still managed to rise up. She immediately noticed, that something was off. Everything seemed bigger. She looked into the mirror, but instead of the tall princess she was greeted by a small pink-haired alicorn-filly...
“Okay Celestia, you are clearly overreacting. I don’t even want to know, what went through head when you wrote the last one. Just accept the fact, that you want to see her and she wants to see you. And lock this book away. Far away.”
“You’re right, Luna. I should throw this thing away like the others and finally move on.”
Luna wanted to smile, but then noticed one detail.
“‘Like the others’? Sister, please, don’t tell me…”
“Alright, alright.*sigh* Sunset wasn’t the only one. We had many villains over the past millennia. Of course I would try to be prepared for their returns. For example Sombra only had a short list. Tirek, too. Though his was more in Twilight-length. And don’t let me get started on Grogar or Catrina.”
“And Nightmare Moon?”
“Oh, nothing special…”
“How much?”
“A whole shelf.”
It again took Luna a few moments to register this information, but when she did, she reacted in the only appropriate way. “W-What? H-How?”
“1000 years can be very lonely and boring.”
“And how did I never saw them?”
“I hid them in the only place where I knew you would never look, the vampony-teenage-romance section of the library.”
Celestia was prepared for shouting or any other form of backlash from Luna. Instead the blue alicorn took a deep breath and answered in a surprisingly calm voice.
“You know what, Celestia, I’ll let it slide for now, because I don’t want to ruin this day. Just remember, it’s not over yet. Though I’m curious, what is the worst you imagined for my return?”
Celestia thought about it for a second.
"Now you’ll face the worst punishment for banishing me to the moon!”, Nightmare Moon basically shouted at Celestia.
“Please sister, stop this madness!”, Celestia exclaimed.
“Never! And now I will banish you… to your room, where you will have to read bad vampony-teenage-romance books for the next 1000 years!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”, Celestia shouted in an overly-dramatic way.
A shiver went down Celestia’s spine. “I-I really don’t want to talk about it. Just know, that sending me to the moon is pretty tame in comparison.”
“At least we somehow managed to change the subject.” Luna offered weakly. “But honestly, and I hate to repeat myself, just stop worrying about Sunset– Wait, I’ve got an idea!”
Luna took the book again and searched quickly through it.
“There! Here, take a look at these scenarios.”
Scenario TJ-SF#5:
Sunset basically shot out of the mirror and tackled Celestia into a tight hug.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I was an ungrateful brat and deserve every punishment for not listening to you.”, the yellow unicorn sobbed into her teacher’s fur.
“Don’t worry, Sunset. I forgave you a long time ago.”, Celestia comforted her student and proceeded by embracing Sunset with her wings.
Scenario TJ-CF#13:
Sunset came out of the mirror with a fierce expression on her face. She was prepared to stand up to Celestia. She was prepared for shouting. She was prepared for banishment. She was–
“I’m sorry, Sunset. I failed you as a teacher.”, Celestia admitted.
–not prepared for this. Sunset was caught off-guard by this. Celestia’s apology drained all of Sunset determination and replaced it with guilt. Then Sunset’s dams broke.
“I’m sorry, too. I failed you as a student.”, the crying unicorn then embraced Celestia in a tight hug.
Scenario TJ-BA#2:
Sunset and Celestia stood face-to-face to each other. Both with awkward expressions on their faces. And both decided to break the silence at the same time.
“I wanted to apologize for–”
“I wanted to apologize for–”
“You? I have to apologize. I should have listened to you more–”
“You? I have to apologize. I should have listened to you more–”
“Alright. Please stop. This is getting awkward.”
“Alright. Please stop. This is getting awkward.”
“Whatever. I missed you so much, Sunset.”
“Whatever. I missed you so much, Celestia.”
With tears in their eyes they embraced each other in a tight hug.
“Finally calmed down, Tia? I bet, that these are more likely to happen than the previous scenarios. You and Sunset will apologize, share some heartfelt moments (while I’ll burn down a part of the library) and everyone will be happy.”, Luna said hopeful.
And in fact Celestia did look a bit relaxed. “Yes, thanks Luna. I didn’t know how much I needed this. I should first apologize to you for making such a mess. I think the problem is, that it is just hard for me to imagine Sunset as anything other than the lone, cold-hearted mare she was when I last saw her.”
“I’m sure she’s worrying as much as you do. I know I did. She’s probably right now sitting in the train to Canterlot and can’t think about anything besides this meeting.”, Luna reassured her sister.
Meanwhile in the aforementioned train…
“...and these beauties–”, Sunset pointed excited at her newly-grown wings. “–were just the reward for messing around with harmony-magic. I mean, why aren’t there more alicorns when it’s so easy to become one? And what do you think is my title as a princess? Princess of humans? Princess of schools? Princess of bacon? Uh! How about Co-Princess of friendship. This would make you Co-Princess, too, of course. We can think about this later. But seriously, I don’t care what happens at the castle. Even if Celestia banishes me, returning was worth it just for Sunny and Shimmy.”
“Maybe you should calm down a bit? You and Celestia have both been looking forward to this. And I know wings can be overwhelming at first.” The annoyance in her voice could be heard by everyone except Sunset.
“As if you know how I feel right now.” –Twilight rolled her eyes at this– “And yes I know seeing Celestia again is important, but at the moment I have much bigger problems. Like, do you think I should dye my feathers? If I make them red, they’d look like flames and this would look pretty epic. Though then they may look like the mane of my cousin. Speaking of the daredevil, you think we can make a slight detour to Cloudsdale when we drive back? My new best friends have some bragging to do. I wonder what happened to her. I know she dreamed of becoming a Wonderbolt and as I know her she probably made it to captain. You think I could become a Wonderbolt with enough training… Wait. Why should I train, when I can just order them as princess to make me into one. And do you think…”
Twilight tried to zone out her friend, while imagining how her life would have went, if she hadn’t followed Sunset through the mirror.
Why did it had to be Scenario TF-OA#42?
Author's Note
Even I don't know what was going on with my mind when I wrote this. This can't be just the boredom, right?
Just know, that this nearly escalated even more
And please feel free to like, comment, point out mistakes and add this to (fitting!) groups.
