Sunset listened carefully, and looked both ways. Nopony else was around. Very few ponies ever came into this deserted section of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, anyway.
Sunset used her horn's magic to jimmy the lock on the basement door, started down the stairs, and closed the door behind her, hearing the lock click back into place.
As she walked through the disused caverns beneath the school, she heard her own hoofsteps' echoes, and not much else. She threaded her way through rock-walled passages, to find a chamber with an old steel chest. She opened the chest, pulled out a blanket, lay down upon it, and cried.
"I'll never have a marefriend or a coltfriend!" she whispered. "I'm doomed to be alone. What's the point in being so good at magic, if the teachers forbid me to check out books from the Forbidden Spell Section, or to make even ONE little love potion? I'm too busy to find a special somepony the slow, boring way!" Finally she wailed loudly, "I'm so lonely!"
Sunset looked up, to see a tall, gleaming mare walking into the room.
The pony's coat was white. Her mane, tail, and wings were tinged with yellow, orange, and red. Her fiery coloration complemented Sunset's own.
"Wings," Sunset said. "You have wings...and a horn? You're an alicorn!"
The alicorn said, "I heard you crying. You are sad, because you are lonely."
Sunset sniffled. "So what are you going to do, report me to the teachers? Report me to Princess Celestia?"
The alicorn grinned, showing her pointy little fangs. "Worse. I shall give you an extra credit assignment."
"Ha. I've never seen you on the teachers' roster."
The alicorn spread her wings. "I am a special tutor. A VERY special tutor. Most students at this school never get to meet me like this."
Sunset nodded. "You must recognize I'm special. That I'm better than the rest."
"I heard you saying you were lonely. We should do something about that. But I warn you, if you fail to pass my tests, you shall be trapped within these caverns beneath the school FOREVER."
"Yes!" Sunset shouted. "Put me to the test!" She leaped up off her blanket, tackling the fiery-maned alicorn. "Don't worry, I won't disappoint you!" She kissed the alicorn's face passionately. "Let me show you what a good special somepony I can be!"
"Wait!" the alicorn said. "This is not what I--"
Sunset's horn glowed, surrounding the gleaming alicorn's muzzle with a wrapping of magic. "This is going to be really good, I promise you. I've studied all the 'educational' books in the library's Disreputable Materials Section."
The alicorn's head swung to and fro, failing to shake off the magical restraint.
Sunset said, "You threatened to keep me prisoner within these caverns forever? Well, TWO can play that kinky 'you are my prisoner' game!" Sunset licked the alicorn's nose. "This will be so much fun!"
***
Sunset lay beside the alicorn, one foreleg thrown loosely over her companion's chest. The magical wrappings around the alicorn's muzzle finally vanished. "Did I pass your tests?" Sunset asked.
The alicorn said, "This...is most unusual."
Sunset's hoof stroked the alicorn's chest fluff. "Yes, I've always been a very gifted student. It only stands to reason that even though this is my first time ever, I'd already be the best at sex."
The alicorn slowly blinked. "When I manifested myself in this cavern, it was not my plan to make love to you."
Sunset snorted. "It's obvious you already wanted to be my special somepony. Why else would you have followed me down here, eavesdropped on my secret, private confession of loneliness, and then responded by thrusting yourself upon me?"
"I didn't THRUST, exactly--"
"You know what I mean. You said I was your captive, and I'd have to pass your tests. Telling a mare you're going to make her your prisoner unless she pleases you...well, that's pretty forward of you."
The alicorn blinked again. "I don't really have much experience with this."
"I know," Sunset said. "You were TERRIBLE. It's a good thing I studied so well ahead of time, to be skilled enough for the both of us. It was like you've never done this before at all."
The alicorn replied, "What I mean is, I did not appear in this cavern to become your special somepony. You fail to understand my true nature." The alicorn's shape blurred and shifted, taking on a different form.
"WHAT?" Sunset said. "You're PRINCESS CELESTIA?" She grinned. "You dog, you. You guessed I had a little crush on you, and you decided you felt the same way about your very best student as I did about you! How naughty of you!" Sunset nuzzled the alicorn. "You sexy villain."
The alicorn said, "You misunderstand my purpose here. I appeared within these caverns to tell you something very important."
"What could possibly be more important than what we just did?"
"Sunset Shimmer, for the good of Harmony...you need to make some friends."
"What we just did doesn't count?"
"No." The alicorn shook her head, as she faded out and vanished.
"Celestia? Celestia? Where did you go?"
***
Five days later, Sunset went to Princess Celestia's parlor for their weekly tutoring session.
Partway through that visit, the unicorn said, "We need to talk."
Celestia put down her teacup, and smiled. "Very well. Let's talk."
Sunset grumbled, "How can you act like this?"
"Like what?"
"Like nothing happened!"
The alicorn princess tilted her head quizzically. "A great many things happen every day. Could you be more specific?"
"Like you and I...didn't do what we did!"
Celestia sighed. "More specific than that."
"When I said I was lonely."
"Why, Sunset! Are you lonely?"
"You know well I've been lonely. You overheard me talking about it. And after that--"
"Sunset. I don't appreciate being called an eavesdropper. And if by some chance I did happen to overhear a remark by you, I hope I would at least have the courage to speak to you honestly about it."
"Oh, you certainly did," Sunset growled. "You made your feelings very clear...or at least I thought you did. But after that, it seemed you completely changed your mind. Do I mean NOTHING to you?"
A tiny furrow appeared partway down Celestia's muzzle. "Sunset, I love you very much. I like to think you already know that, and I'm happy to tell you again."
"Then why did you abandon me the way you did? After mocking me by telling me I need to 'make some friends?'"
Celestia blinked. "Sunset, do you feel abandoned?"
"After what happened between us last week, how can I NOT feel that way?"
Celestia added, "Although I have to admit, advising you to make some friends...I can think of worse advice to give you." Celestia put one wingtip beneath Sunset's chin, slightly raising it. "Having friends might help you to be a happier pony. Not to mention a better adjusted one."
Sunset stomped one hoof. "Don't talk down to me! I'm the most brilliant student you've ever had, and the most powerful! You know I'm destined to become an alicorn, just like you. And to rule beside you!"
Celestia shook her head. "Sunset. I don't know what's gotten into you. You're getting ahead of yourself." She sighed.
"Stop playing with my feelings!" Sunset stepped forward, pressing her lips against Celestia's. The alicorn blinked several times, surprised and shocked. After a moment she stepped back, interposing a wing between herself and her student.
"Sunset. I don't know why you're behaving like this. You need to get a grip."
"YOU'RE the one who needs to get a grip, you...liar! No, you're WORSE than a liar. I can't take this anymore!" Sunset ran out of the room. As she galloped down the hall, she shouted, "You're cruel, and I hate you! I never want to see you again!"
Celestia stared at her study's open door. Belatedly, she walked out into the hallway, trying to guess which way her student might have gone.
By the time Celestia caught up with Sunset, the unicorn had already gone through the Mirror Portal, leaving several stunned, unconscious palace guards in her wake.
"Oh, Sunset." Tears dripped down Celestia's muzzle. "If you only knew how I care about you."
But as Celestia looked into the mirror, she saw only her own face.
Beside Celestia, a shimmering figure appeared, a shape that looked very like the alicorn princess' own.
The specter said. "I think your student and I had a misunderstanding. I am sorry."
Celestia whirled to face the false alicorn. "YOU'RE sorry? YOU'RE sorry? The Mirror Portal just closed. My student is trapped in some bizarre ape world for the next thirty moons, and YOU'RE sorry?"
The specter shrugged. "When you are a magical Tree, it is easy to lose track of these quickly changing pony details, like your silly Mirror's schedule."
"Thirty moons isn't a minor detail!"
"I sought only to teach her a lesson about friendship. I had no idea she would turn the tables on me, and give me a 'very special friendship lesson' of her own."
"You disgust me. Get your deceptive, fake pony form out of my palace, and out of Canterlot!"
Author's Note
The Tree of Harmony can be kind of a jerk.
But we can totally blame TCC56 for the fact that I was thinking about the relationships between the Tree of Harmony (in its false alicorn form) and real ponies and other MLP creatures. (link)
We might also blame Bad Horse's "Do That Again," (link) for being a funny story about an...um...unusual relationship. As the story's description says, "It's time to put the romance back in necromancy."
I also had the interesting experience of (initially, for a moment) completely and utterly misunderstanding a discussion between RB and Magical Horn Horse in a discord, about the Tree of Harmony ~~~getting "fu**ed"~~~ getting destroyed in an explosion.
By the way, this story of mine is merely a story, and it doesn't mean I have some kind of fetish for ponies having sex with magic trees. That is an important point!
The truth is, I appreciate a great variety of tree stories, as well as many other kinds of stories too!
