Punishments weren’t something that Twilight Sparkle often had. Sometimes though she’d get her nose a little too deep into a subject only sort of connected to what she was supposed to be doing. Which is what brought her to this moment. Shining the armor through the castle. It was an over the top and out of place punishment for an academic like her. But it was something she herself had recommended. It was a punishment her brother had often mentioned himself and others had to do during his training and Celestia didn’t seem keen on punishing Twilight. But she’d completely slept in! She needed some sort of
Honestly she’d found it a bit relaxing. Though she seemed to take far too much time with each piece. After taking an entire day on a single suit of armor, she’d been told in no unclear terms that too much attention to detail makes getting things done impossible. She’d taken it as a lesson. One that she didn’t fully agree with. Though she could see where they’re coming from.
While she was in the camp that if you were doing a job, you did it right. But it was hard to spend an entire day on each set of armor when there were so many. So, while it pained her, she stopped paying attention to the areas that she’d been told to ignore.
Having a guideline made things easy. She could perfect a guideline and soon, she had done just that. The only problem was that she’d finished ahead of schedule. But that wasn’t right. Her schedule was perfect. But there she sat with time for another suit of armor. A full set. Usually worn for heavy combat or ceremony. An intimidating piece of artwork the captain of the guard had called it.
But she’d checked off all the suits. Hadn’t she? At least she thought she had. Yet upon another glance at her paper there did indeed seem to be one left. Celestia had told her there were one hundred and fifty two suits of armor. But she’d only cleaned one hundred and fifty one. For the life of her she didn’t know where the last one could be. The only thing to do? Research!
Of course, the first one she went to was Celestia herself. Who better to get help with an assignment than the one who’d given it to her? Even if it had been Twilight’s idea to start.
Unfortunately however, it seemed Celestia had no clue either. “I’m sorry Twilight. That’s not something I keep track of” had been her answer. It’s not like when she was a filly and thought Celestia knew absolutely everything but it had been disappointing. Especially since what followed afterwards was a repeated process of asking, getting an unhelpful answer and moving on.
Eventually though her efforts were rewarded.
“Say again?” She did a poor job of hiding her excitement. It had gone from just being a punishment to being a quest. She had to figure out why the numbers she’d been given were wrong and this mare seemed to have the answer.
“I said there’s an old set in storage. It’s too thick to be ceremonial. Honestly though it’s weird…” She explained, mumbling the last part.
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know. It’s… sun above it sounds foalish. It’s creepy. There’s something about it that makes me glad it’s packed away.”
It certainly was foalish. Or at least Twilight thought so. A royal guard creeped out by an old suit of armor? Please. “Thank you very much.That’s a wonderful help. Whereabout would that storage area be?”
The guardsmare didn’t seem too keen on answering right away but Twilight was nothing if not determined and she soon got the answer she desired.
Once she entered the storeroom she wished she’d asked for more information though. The castle storerooms were massive and there were a number of sets here. She didn’t have to clean those. Professionals dealt with them.
Once she looked towards the back though she knew she’d found it. She also felt bad for thinking so little of the guardsmare’s feelings about it. As she looked at the imposing, full set of dull red plate armor a shiver ran through her spine.
But she had a job to do and after she pushed through her fear she realized something about it. The armor was old. But not just old. Ancient. She’d learned a lot about armor through this punishment and she could tell pretty quickly that it wasn’t modern in any respect. The heavy plates were far thicker than anything modern. Meant to prioritize not taking damage over being able to wear it all day.
On top of that, Twilight couldn’t imagine it was very comfortable. There were very few open areas. A pony wearing this would look like more of a golem instead.
But the most damning proof was the insignia. It wasn’t the familiar Sun that was emblazoned on all the guards. But instead a simpler circular sun with a crescent moon hugging it’s side. This had to have been brought from the Castle of the Two Sisters!
Her eyes were alight with curiosity. Why was it here? From exactly what part of Equestria’s history was it from? Was it special?
The thick layer of dust reminded her of why she was here. “Right!” She exclaimed as she summoned her tools with magic and did a quick scan of the suit for any particular weak points that she should be careful while cleaning.
Satisfied that there was nothing she had to be careful of, she went to work. There was a lot of armor to clean after all!
The creepy feeling never went away though. Through the cleaning and and polishing that shiver never left. As if she were filing Cerberus’ nails and any wrong move could be the end. Even the room itself felt colder.
Every now and again she could swear she even heard whispers. But a quick glance at the door told her that she was still alone. She shook her head with a small chuckle. “You’re being silly Twilight. You’re in a store room cleaning Armor very few ponies even know is here.”
“...light…”
Twilight froze and looked around. She was sure she was alone. “Hello? Is anypony there?” She called out, successfully keeping any of her building worry from her voice. “It’s not funny to play pranks!” She added with a huff. A few moments passed with no reply.
She huffed again but before she could muse on what she’d heard, another word echoed through the air. “...Pony…” This time however. There was direction to it.
She gulped and slowly turned towards the armor. There didn’t seem to be any difference to it but she was sure that the word had come from it.
“...Prank…”
That set something off in her though “Oh yeah. Ha, ha. Make fun of Twilight because she’s a little jumpy.” She grumbled as her magic enveloped the helmet and yanked “Though I have to admit it took a lot of dedication to wait… through…” There was nopony there. Worse than that though was what WAS there. A softly wafting flame of teal.
“I… uh…” The confusion and shock caused her to drop the helmet into her bucket of dirty water. The moment it made contact with it, the flame faded into almost nothing. Twilight’s mind was quick and made a connection.
“The cleaning…” She mumbled as she pulled out the helmet and quickly cleaned it. As she expected, the flame began to increase in intensity. She didn’t know what this thing was. She didn’t know why it had that flame. But she wanted answers. She was pretty sure that it wasn’t dangerous, or it’d have been locked away right?
She took a breath and continued cleaning, keeping a close eye on the flame. Just as she expected it grew as the armor got progressively more clean. It was fascinating.
Eventually Twilight had gotten to a point that she couldn’t think of how to clean it in any other way. The flame looked… would healthy be the right word?
Not knowing what to do now, she put the helmet back on. Through the slit for the eyes two dots of light that matched the flame appeared and immediately locked onto Twilight. “Who...are you?”
The voice was feminine though rough. Not quite gravel rough but, still. “Oh. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Celestia’s personal student. I was cleaning all the armor in the castle and found you! You’re pretty fascinating honestly. How do you work? Are you a golem?”
“Go- N-no. Sunset.” The armor didn’t say much but it was enough. Golems rarely had names.
“Sunset? Oh. Well it’s nice to meet you! Do you remember who you were made by?”
Sunset shook her head “I don’t… I don’t remember… anything.”
Author's Note
This was just a little idea that popped into my head and I didn't want to just let it keep sitting in my drive. So... here ya go.
Initially it was going to be a bunch of ideas of what could happen to Sunset but none of my other ideas felt right for this. Either too big or too small. idk.
uhh. Hasn't been edited. Thanks for reading.
