“One hundred moons ago...”

A fiery orange phoenix feather dipped itself in an inkwell, the end dripping with the dark ink as it levitated to a page with cursive writing on it.

“Why won’t you tell me? I’ve already met her. Do you not trust me?...”

The feather shifted a bit too far on the paper and the tail of a letter was dragged out across a line.

“Stop thinking about it. I need to stop thinking about it and get these dates right or I’ll never get to the bottom of this.”

The line was crossed out as the feather was dipped again into the inkwell and placed onto the page. The pace of the feather quickened as it zoomed across the page, drawing out the words quickly before another interruption happened once again.

“I do trust you, Sunset. I wouldn’t have entrusted you with the role of princess if I didn’t trust you. However, this is something that I can’t tell you right now. I may in due time but not right now.”

“I already know that she went to your school alongside me. You can’t cover this up forever.”

The feather fell as tiny droplets of ink splattered across the piece of paper. Sunset let out a sigh as she rubbed her temples with her hooves. She wasn’t going to get any work done at this rate. Not with her mind replaying the same conversation over and over again.

She stood up from the small desk in the corner of her room and quietly tucked the chair in, careful not to make too much noise. It was rather late at night and Princess Luna had already raised the moon hours ago. She wasn’t planning on dealing with a sleep desperate dragon when she already was suffering with the inability to think straight.

She quietly made her way to the balcony of the tree library and leaned herself against the railing, inhaling the fresh night air. The scent was a mix of grass and flowers along with a little hint of rain. The smell somewhat comforted Sunset as she stared up at the stars above, basking in the moonlight.

“I wonder if Twilight is able to see stars wherever she is too..” She mumbled to herself.

It was quite a simple thought but one that led to many questions Sunset didn’t have the answers to. If Twilight had simply disappeared through a portal, it was possible there was another world on the other side. But what was within that world? Did they have the same time as Equestria? Maybe that portal was just a teleportation device to another place within Equestria. But why would Celestia not let her investigate further then?

On the night of Twilight’s appearance after many years, Sunset had been able to stop the former student and help her reconsider her actions of taking her revenge on Princess Celestia. It was clear that she was very hurt and angry with her but Sunset wasn’t really able to see clearly why. Her gift had only allowed her to see bits and pieces of the past but it wasn’t enough to conjure up a clear answer.

She didn’t have enough time to do so either since Twilight had fled when Princess Celestia got close to them and she was forced to chase the unicorn until she escaped through a magical portal. Sunset would have jumped in too before Princess Celestia stopped her and told her otherwise. But did Sunset know why? Not exactly.

Celestia kept telling her the same thing, “You’re not ready.”, “This is my responsibility to take care of.”, “It is best if you focus on your own duties as a princess right now than this situation.” But Sunset refused to.

Before leaving the Crystal Empire, Sunset was able to get a record on all of the recorded students from the past that had attended Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and oddly enough more information from Twilight’s sister in law, Princess Cadance.

Recalling the conversation in her head, Sunset felt rather bad for Twilight’s family as she remembered the look on the princess’s face when she asked about the missing unicorn.

“Before I go, I’ve been meaning to ask you a question,” Sunset said, trotting alongside the Crystal Empire’s ruler as they made their way to the train station. “If that’s alright with you.”

Sunset nervously held a book she had rented from the Crystal Empire’s library underneath her wing, away from Princess Cadance’s view in case she perhaps saw the title and asked questions.

“Of course, I don’t mind at all. With everything you and your friends have done for me and Shining, I would be more than happy to. What are you curious about?” Princess Cadance asked as she smiled warmly at Sunset.

That smile however would soon vanish upon the next thing Sunset would ask.

“Do you know of a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle?”

The princess suddenly stopped in her tracks as her eyes widened. Sunset wasn’t expecting her suspicions to be correct in thinking that the wife of the Captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot would have anything to do with Twilight. She had heard things about Shining Armor being in contact with Princess Celestia on a regular basis so she wondered if perhaps his wife had known anything about her. It seemed she was right as Cadance had gone silent, a tense feeling filling the hall.

Sunset suddenly felt guilty for asking, seeing as Cadance seemed to have a bit of a past with her from her body language.
“You know what, never mind. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. It was kind of insensitive of me to jus-”

“No, no, it’s quite alright. I’m just a little surprised to hear that name again..”

A silence fell over the two of them as Sunset looked out a nearby window. All her friends were waiting outside at the train station, talking amongst each other it seemed. The train hadn’t arrived yet so it seemed she had some time to spare.

“Are you willing to tell me a bit about her?” Sunset asked. “I have time before me and my friends leave back to Ponyville.”

“Well, I suppose I could. I’d like to know how you know her name as well.”

Princess Cadance and Sunset chose to sit in an empty room near a window so Sunset could see if the train arrived during their conversation.

Sunset explained the night before her Princess Summit to Princess Cadance and how she knew very little about the unicorn yet she could sense there was something rather troubling about her and from the memories she witnessed. Cadance seemed almost a little hurt that Celestia hadn’t told her what happened and that she was learning all these things now. However, despite it all, Cadance decided to explain her perspective of the unicorn.

“When Twilight was young, I was her foalsitter. She was the reason I found Shining Armor and why we’re together now.”

“She helped set you and him up?” Sunset asked, rather confused.

“Sort of in a way. Shining Armor is her older brother and since they lived in the same home, every time I came over to foalsit her, I got to spend time with him too. Once she understood what was going on between us, she tried all sorts of things to get us together. I guess her plans really did work out in the end.” Cadance smiled sadly.

“What was she like as a filly?”

“She was very bright and always willing to learn new things. She unfortunately didn’t have too many friends so it was mostly me that she hung out with. When we weren’t playing games or messing around, she was usually telling me about how she wanted to meet Princess Celestia and be really good at magic. And then of course she got into her school from all her hard work and things went on from there.”

“Did you know she disappeared before this?” Sunset rubbed her chin, thinking.

“I wasn’t in the loop with the Sparkle family for a while after Twilight was old enough to be without a foalsitter, but Shining had always seemed very bothered by something and never really had the courage to open up about it. Before we were married, I learned more about the situation after Shining broke down about her not being there. it deeply saddens me that she’d just run away. Her parents nor her brother have no idea why she’d do such a thing. All I know is that they’re very upset and they want her to come home, they have for years now.”

“Hm, well, I suppose this does answer a few things I’ve been wanting to know.”

The chuffing of a train rolling into the station outside was heard as Sunset looked out the window, seeing her friends and other ponies beginning to board the train back to Ponyville. Sunset frantically stood up, tucking in her chair.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. Thank you for talking to me though!”

Before Sunset could leave though, she felt Cadance’s hoof touch her shoulder and stop her. Sunset turned around to look and saw that the princess’s eyes were a little teary.

“Wait, before you go. If you ever do happen to see Twilight again, tell her that she’ll always have a place here and that her family misses her. We just want her to be okay.”

“I will, I promise.”

Sunset opened her eyes again as she looked back into the dark room of her bedroom. Her eyes fell onto the book of records on her desk and the messy writing where she had attempted to record the times of when students joined and graduated Celestia’s school.

Sunset let out a sigh. “I don’t think I’m going to get anything done tonight. It’s probably best if I just head to bed.”

Sunset quietly trotted back inside and slipped back into her bed, covering herself in her blanket and burying her face into her pillow. It seemed the exhaustion from working so hard all night had got to her and she drifted into a deep sleep.

Sunset awoke to the sun shining in her eyes and the sound of glass smashing as she slowly sat up in bed, rubbing at her eyes. The mare could barely see anything considering her messy red and yellow mane was in her view but she could see everything in front of her beginning to become more clear as she looked through the strands of her mane.

“Spikeee, did you break something?..” Sunset asked groggily.

“I-...Uh...No?” Spike replied sheepishly.

She pushed her mane out of her eyes and looked over to her right, seeing Spike hastily trying to clean up a mess of ink that was dripping off the desk and to the floor. She could see her inkwell had been overturned somehow, most likely by Spike bumping her desk, and it had spilled all over the place. She was a little peeved that her ink had been wasted but something suddenly concerned her more than that as she hopped out of bed.

“Wait, did you spill it on my records?!”

“Your what?”

Sunset’s horn glowed a turquoise color as she quickly pulled a slip of paper off her desk and away from the mess of ink. However, it seemed she was too late as a large puddle of dark ink had gathered right on where her writing had been. She could barely even make it out anymore as she folded her ears.

“What’s that? Was that something important?” Spike pointed to the paper Sunset was levitating. “I couldn’t even make it out so I figured it was just some draft or something.”

“Yeah, it was important.” Sunset replied bitterly, crumpling up the piece of paper. “Now it’s not.”

She tossed it in the nearest trash can and trotted downstairs, leaving Spike with the mess he had created. She heard him call out to him but she was too angry with the whole situation right now to talk calmly to him. It wasn’t even just him that she was angry at, however. Princess Celestia refusing to tell Sunset more and hide it from her was the biggest issue right now. Now that Spike had ruined her notes that she was going to use to further help her investigate, it felt like she was at stage one all over again.

She suddenly noticed that she was trotting down the busy square of Ponyville and that she was no longer in her home. She must have gotten carried away with her thoughts to notice her surroundings and where she was going. However, she was quickly grounded from her thoughts when she noticed a little filly leave from her mother’s side when seeing her trot past and galloped up to the princess excitedly.

“Princess Sunset Shimmer, is that really you?” The little one gasped.

“O-Oh! Yes, I suppose I am.”

Sunset mentally punched herself in the gut for responding so awkwardly like that. She wasn’t used to being a celebrity and sometimes even forgot she was a princess, quite like now. It was strange being approached for such a reason. Of course, nothing felt worse than forgetting your own royal title.

“That’s so cool! Can you sign my head?” The filly pointed to her forehead, a big smile on her face.

“Uhh...Are you sure about that? I don’t think your mother would be very happy with a bunch of words plastered across your face like that.”

As Sunset said that, she leaned over to her right to see the mother of the filly taking pictures of them both with a hoof held camera. Sunset rubbed her eyes, nearly blinded by the flashes from her camera as it seemed the mother was a little too happy to see her daughter with the Princess of Friendship.

“Naw, mama doesn’t care. Can you sign it, pretty please?”

Sunset looked down and saw the filly looking up at her with puppy eyes. Sunset had once thought she was able to resist this tortuous look but it seemed it wasn’t so as she sighed, giving into the filly’s request.

“Fine, but you’re going to have to find a pen or something. I don’t have one on me.” Sunset replied regrettably.

“Hold on a sec, I’ve got one!”

The filly began to dig around through her fluffy mane as Sunset simply just raised her eyebrow. This young one had seemed to have mastered the talent of using one’s mane as a portable inventory as she immediately pulled out a little purple pen from her mane. It reminded Sunset of how Pinkie sometimes stashed party canons in her mane or her other party supplies in her tail. Sunset still couldn’t figure out how it was logically possible but there was no point in wasting her energy on trying to find out. Thinking about it too hard could drive somepony mad.

“Okay, I got it! Now you just need to- AAHHHH!”

The filly screamed and dropped the pen onto the ground as she ran and hid behind her mother. She was clearly shaken as she clung to her hooves, her eyes the size of pinpricks as she stared upwards. The reaction almost seemed contagious as the mother gasped and picked up her filly, galloping the other way through Ponyville.

“Wait, where are you going?” Sunset called out, rather confused. “I thought you wanted me to sign your forehead!”

But it was no use, they definitely couldn’t have heard her from that distance. Sunset sighed and turned around to go the other way when she suddenly bumped into something large and brown. She rubbed her head and looked up as she too almost developed the same expression as the mother and the filly did upon seeing what was behind her.

“Discord?!”

“Well, that’s rather unfair isn’t it.” Discord said, crossing his arms.

“Hold on, what are you doing here. You’re not here to cause trouble again, are you?” Sunset asked, a bit disoriented.

“I’m just standing here and all you ponies think I’m here to cause some kind of mayhem. I can’t even look at somepony without them running away. It's very bad manners.” Discord began to levitate in the air. “Since you’re a princess now, you should issue a law where it’s rude to run away from someone and scream. Perhaps it’d solve my little issue.”

“To be fair, it wasn’t long ago you turned Ponyville upside down, quite literally. I don’t blame them for being suspicious of you because I am too.” Sunset narrowed her eyes.

“But I’m reformed now! Surely I wouldn’t do such a thing again.” Discord smiled smugly.

“Yeah, I don’t believe that.”

Sunset began to walk away. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Discord’s games and pranks at the moment. She already had a lot on her mind and she didn’t exactly need anymore problems. However, it seemed Discord was like a fly that wouldn’t go away as he teleported in front of her, stopping her in her tracks.

“It’s rude to walk away from someone mid conversation you know. I was really entertaining the thought of speaking with the new Princess of Friendship. That’s what you are now, right? If so, shouldn’t the Princess of Friendship make time to speak with the Lord of Chaos? He’s her friend sooo...”

“That’s not really how it works and I’m honestly not sure if you’re my friend. You haven’t really shown it very well.”

“What must I do then, Sunny? Perhaps a box of chocolates?” He suddenly had a heart shaped box of chocolates in his paw and claw. “Or perhaps a bouquet of flowers?” He held a bouquet of roses with his tail. “Or maybe even-”

“Discord.” Sunset said sternly.

Discord stopped as the princess stared him in the eyes seriously. As she did so, the flowers in his tail suddenly shriveled up and died as its dead petals fell to the ground and all the chocolates in the heart shaped box melted and leaked onto the ground.

“Look, friendship isn’t about giving your friends gifts to earn their respect and trust. It’s about selflessly caring for them and making memories with them. You don’t need to shower them with gifts to let them know that you care about them. But as for me and you, I’m not so sure I’m ready to forgive you just yet. I know Fluttershy already has but I need some time. Do you understand?”

Discord dropped the empty box and packaging for the bouquet as he pouted, looking the other way. “Fine, if that’s how you feel.”

Sunset shook her head sighing as she attempted to leave the draconequus behind again. She honestly couldn’t tell if he was just faking being upset or if he actually was. Discord was a jokester and quite the actor. It wasn’t worth entertaining something if it was just a joke.

“So I heard you and Princess Celestia got in a little scuffle. What was it about? I’d love to hear all about it.”

Sunset screamed as Discord was now riding on top of her head, nestled into her mane near her ear. He was about the size of a small bug as it seemed he had somehow shrunk himself with his chaos magic and he was already bothering her about something else.

“Do you really have to do that?” Sunset asked in annoyance.

“Well I always do enjoy some good tea from the higher ups. It’s always so interesting.” Discord sipped a small cup of tea.

Sunset sighed. “Well for your information, we didn’t really fight. I just didn’t get what I was looking for in what she was saying.”

“And what were you looking for?”

“I wanted to know more about an old student she had in the past. She disappeared suddenly one day and came back in the middle of the night to do something to Princess Celestia but she failed to carry out her plan when I stopped her. And then she ran away when Celestia showed up through some strange mirror. Princess Celestia told me to not get myself involved with the issue and that I wasn’t ready but I think she’s just scared about something that she doesn’t want me to know.”

“Ah, ol’ Cay-Cay is hiding her mess ups again, ay? She’s always done that. She’s too proud to face the truth.”

“Cay-Cay?”

“Just an old nickname I gave her years ago. You wouldn’t know the amount of things she hides from ponies to keep her ‘perfect reputation’ in check.”

Sunset suddenly stopped and looked over at Discord. “She hides things? Things that could ruin the way others see her?”

“Precisely. She’ll never tell you what happened with that old student of hers because she’s too afraid you’ll know what she’s done.”

“I’ve seen bits and pieces of it but they weren’t really bad..”

“Perhaps there’s a bigger piece to it that would change your entire outlook of that prissy little princess.” Discord grinned mischievously.

Sunset thought to herself. She couldn’t believe that she was questioning her own mentor over ideas Discord was putting into her head. This all couldn’t be true, could it? Discord had lived for thousands of years, way more than an average pony so he had the luxury to see Celestia’s actions over the years. Did he know more than her because of this? He could easily twist all this information because he knew nopony else but the princesses and him would know the truth. But was it worth not taking it into consideration and passing up something important? She didn’t really know.

“And since she’ll never tell you that, I may have a plan that I can propose.”

“A plan? And why should I trust you? You’ve led me and my friends astray before and turned them to the opposite versions of themselves. How am I supposed to even believe anything you’re saying right now? You’re the least trustworthy creature out there!”

“I may have had a little too much fun in the past but I can assure you, I’m a changed draconequus.” Discord bowed as a tiny halo appeared over his head. “Besides, it’s not only you who will be gaining from this plan. I will as well.”

“Alright, what exactly would you be gaining?”

“Well, the plan entails me helping you get through the mirror without anyone seeing. Of course, by helping you, I will come along. I’ve always wanted to explore the other dimension on the other side and now would be the perfect chance for me to meet its inhabitants.”

“Hold on, sneak in and just go through the mirror? I could get in huge trouble for that!”

“Not if no one sees.”

“But what if somepony does see? I’m a princess, you know. I can’t just risk everything for this. Princess Celestia would be so disappointed in me and I’m sure my friends would notice I was gone and-”

Discord suddenly placed a finger to Sunset’s mouth as he was now oddly enough his normal size again. He quietly shushed her as she looked up at him annoyed.

“If you knew anything about me, I’m a rather powerful Spirit of Chaos. I can take care of all that quite easily. All you need is a compelling story to sell them for a while. They won’t question a thing then.”

Sunset tapped her hoof to her chin thinking before she looked up at Discord again.

“Have you made up your mind yet, princess?” Discord asked, his same smug smile playing on his lips.

“I guess I have. But don’t make me regret this or I swear I’ll turn you to stone again. Also, don’t call me princess.”

“Oh, you ponies are no fun.” Discord chuckled.

Author's Note

Yup, I decided that Discord will be Sunset's travel companion instead of Spike. Totally not because of biased reasons but because I think since both Twilight and Sunset are two different ponies, they deserve different travel companions as well. Unfortunately Sunset's more loud and annoying. It seems she'll just have to deal with that though.

I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! It'll get more interesting in the next few, I promise! It's a pleasure to work on this and improve the story. ^^