Reign of Fire

“I hate them! We went through so much and did so much for them...I did so much for them! And what did I get in return???” the young pony screamed and threw things off the nearest closet and, crying, collapsed on the floor.

Today was a difficult day for Sunny Starscout. Rather, even terrible. Only recently she was beaming with joy that she was able to bring back the magic and unite all the ponies of Equestria, and today she already hates these same ponies and this same magic.

Her heart was squeezing with pain and resentment, and the thoughts still couldn’t fit into her head: “Why? How so? Everything was good, what went wrong?”

Sunny could not believe that the citizens of Equestria could remain as evil and imaginary even after reconciliation. How can you envy and hate the magic of other ponies with such malice? Of course, it takes time and training to fully and skillfully control magic. Of course, there may be minor incidents. But how can you hate each other with such fierce hatred and not give a second chance?

Sunny calmed down a little and finally got up from the floor and walked towards the shelf, which was a kind of memorial of her deceased father.

“A few days ago I dreamed that you would be here, so you could see what I have achieved, so you would be proud of me, Dad...But now, on the contrary, I’m glad that you don’t see all this chaos, everything got even worse. Forgive me, Dad, I let you down,” Sunny barely squeezed out, unable to hold back her tears, leaning her forehead against her father’s photo.

“So, pull yourself together, Sunny,” the young pony thought to herself. “You are strong, you can handle it. We lived in isolation for so many years, which means we will live just as long.”

With these thoughts, Sunny looked around the room and decided to clean up the mess that she had made. After finishing, she decided to go take a nap, because she wasn’t in the mood for anything.

Lying down on the bed, the Sunny took her phone and opened the gallery. Countless photos of her new friends. However, these pictures did not help cope with sadness, but only added fuel to the fire. Sunny put the phone down and, struggling with sad thoughts, tried to fall asleep.

Pony woke up from the annoying vibration of her phone. She opened her eyes. It was already getting dark outside, and the Sun had almost set. “How long did I sleep?” Sunny thought. “All day? This is not like me at all.” Without getting out of bed, she reached for the phone to finally see who had been calling her all this time. Lots of “I’m worried about you” and “Let’s meet and talk” messages, as well as countless missed calls. All of them belonged to the unicorn named Izzy - Sunny’s first friend in so many years.

But Sunny didn’t want to see anyone. Even a pony as important to her as Izzy. After lying there for a while and looking at the ceiling, the pony decided to take a walk and be alone with herself and her thoughts somewhere away from the city.
But first she needed a snack - after such a long sleep, whales seemed to be “singing” in the pony’s stomach. Without hesitation, Sunny ate a couple of crackers, drank some juice, pulled on her jacket, took her bag and set off to wander around the evening neighborhood of Maretime Bay.

After sunset, Sunny was able to cast aside bad thoughts and enjoy a beautiful summer evening.

And the evenings at Maretime are just magical. The small coastal town takes a break from the heat of the day and plunges into the blue silence of the sea and the colorful infinity of voices. The evening begins with sunset: as soon as the rays turn red, the sky turns purple, and a special pre-evening grace spills everywhere. Only then dusk falls on the city.

Sunny loves to watch the movement of ponies around, changes in nature, and her own sensations. Young pony loves to sit on the pier - it seems to her that she is supposedly in the world of evening life and at the same time sees only the sea and the sky.

Sea and sky. That’s all. They are so limitless that it takes your breath away. The salty smell of the evening sea thickens and changes, it becomes almost visible, then the sky also begins to waft salt and algae, and stars light up on the surface of the water. And nothing seems out of place at this moment: neither inappropriate music, nor the smell of distant smoke, nor someone’s very sharp voice in the distance.

The wind becomes cold, and it also radiates eternity - eternity becomes the air itself, almost the main detail of the landscape. It seems that everything seen, all sensations could not be conveyed even with the help of painting. So all that remains is to take a white sheet and paint it dark blue and write in dainty silver letters: Eternity.

Sunny began to freeze and decided that she had had enough of philosophy and nightly festivities. However, as she was getting ready to leave, she noticed a fire in the distance on the beach. At first there seems to be nothing special about this. How many ponies have nightly gatherings around the fire? But there was something special about this fire, even alluring. Taking a closer look, Sunny realized that the fire was a completely unusual color. It was soft pink with purple tints. After a couple of moments, the pony’s curiosity took over, and she decided to take a closer look at what was there. Sunny slowly moved towards the fire, like a moth to a flame, without taking her eyes off it. Approached the fire as closely as possible, the pony froze, looking at it with admiration.

“Can’t sleep either?” a calm and soft voice rang out.

Sunny shuddered and realized that she had not noticed the figure sitting behind the fire.

“Sorry, I didn’t notice you,” the pony said nervously. Sunny moved away from the fire and now could see the stranger. The mysterious figure was wrapped in a cloak with a hood pulled over its face so that it was impossible to distinguish it. However, Sunny saw the main detail - the big horn.

“So what, is it insomnia or love for night walks?” the cloaked figure repeated her question.

“To be honest, it’s both,” Sunny answered calmly.

“Well, sit down with me, let’s talk,” the stranger patted the log next to her with her hoof.

Sunny silently sat down carefully next to hooded figure, still not taking her eyes off the fire.

“So, you are a unicorn? " the Sunny interrupted the silence. “And after today’s events you didn’t run away from here to your homeland?”

“Oh, my dear,” the stranger replied with a small grin. “What happened here today doesn’t bother me at all. Moreover, this interests me from a good point of view. Besides, I can’t go back to this terrible forest, because I don’t live there.”

“You are a unicorn, but not from Bridlewood?” Sunny asked with great surprise.

“That’s right,” the stranger answered calmly. “Moreover, I’m not even from Equestria”.

Sunny’s eyes widened in surprise, and instead of answering, she could only make inarticulate sounds.

“Yes, I am a guest from very distant lands,” said the hooded figure, laughing at Sunny’s reaction and deciding to change the topic. “Tell me young lady, do you have any hobby or special interests of some kind?”

“Oh, I like history and everything about magic and magical artifacts,” - Sunny answered. “But I’m limited in my research by the small amount of information. It’s as if all the history books are hidden from us.”

“I’m not even surprised,” said hooded figure. “It seems like she didn’t want everypony to know the truth.”

“Excuse me?” Sunny sounded confused.

“Maybe later I’ll explain it to you, " answered stranger and one again changed the topic. “I see you are delighted with my fire, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes, ma’am, it’s excellent...and so charming,” the pony answered uncertainly. “But how did you manage to create it?”

“Elemental powers grants enormous possibilities.”

“Elemental powers?”

“What? You don’t know about it either?” stranger asked in surprise. “There are a lot of magic powers in this world. And not only those stupid sun and moon powers. I possess a much greater power - the power of fire. This campfire is just a small part of my true power, Sunny.”

As soon as Sunny heard her name from the stranger, her charm gave way to fear and anger. Without noticing it, Sunny again awakened the power of the alicorn in herself and brought the horn to her interlocutor’s head.

“How do you know my name???” Sunny asked suspiciously, bringing the horn even closer.

Under the light of magic, the pony finally saw the stranger - from under the hood a face with ocean-colored eyes, purple fur and a snow-white grin was looking at Sunny.

“First of all, my dear, it’s indecent to point your horn at other ponies. Where are your manners? Secondly, your name is on everyone’s lips now. Why are you so nervous about it?” the unicorn answered calmly.

Sunny cooled down a bit and lowered her head.

“As I see, are you an alicorn? I’ve never seen a pony be able to turn into an alicorn by her will,” the stranger continued.

“I only recently discovered this in myself,” Sunny answered uncertainly. “I don’t know and don’t understand a lot about it.”

The stranger grinned and turned towards Sunny. “In that case, I have a suggestion. If you want help and some advice find me tomorrow afternoon northwest of Maritime. We’ll talk about magic and your powers. What do you think about this?”

The hooded figure stood up and held out his hoof to Sunny, waiting for an answer.

“I’ll think about it,” Sunny answered sharply, standing up without giving a hoof.

“Well, then we’ll wait for tomorrow,” the interlocutor replied a little angrily.

“Wait,” Sunny said sharply. “What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t. It’s Opaline.”

“Okay, Opa-” before Sunny could finish, she was blinded by a flash.

Sunny opened her eyes, but neither the fire nor the unicorn were there. Gathering her thoughts, the pony hurried home.

After having dinner, taking a shower and washing off the sand, Sunny finally went to bed. After such a hard and eventful day, the pony fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day, Sunny woke up around lunchtime. Pony still couldn’t believe what happened yesterday. At the same time, she did not know what shocked her more - the ungrateful and evil ponies or the night conversation with that “Opaline”. Sunny remembered about the offer, but could not decide what to do. Perhaps this is her chance, or perhaps this will not end well. But after weighing all the pros and cons, the pony decided to meet with that unicorn. “But where exactly should I go? She only gave me a direction, not a specific place,” thought Sunny.

After thinking about it, the pony decided to simply follow the road, which went in just the right direction through the hills in the vicinity of Maretime. Walked a quite a distance along the road in the right direction, Sunny saw a familiar figure. Opaline looked, in Sunny’s opinion, somewhat outdated - the white shirt and blue skirt looked like they were from the last century. Actually, the same as the hairstyle – curled locks with some hair braided around her ears.

“You finally came, Sunny,” Opaline said dryly. “And you weren’t in much of a hurry.”

“I was thinking until the last minute whether to agree to your offer,” Sunny replied.

Examined her new friend from head to hooves, Sunny realized one thing - Opaline was very tall.

“Excuse me for being rude,” Sunny began. “But aren’t you too tall for an ordinary unicorn?”

“Aren’t you too short for an alicorn?” Opaline answered sarcastically.

Sunny just smiled displeasedly in response.

“Let’s not discuss each other’s appearance, okay?” Opaline continued. “Let me take you to my home first. There we will discuss all your questions.”

Having walked quite a long distance, they ended up at Opaline’s “house”, which made Sunny fall into a stupor. Opaline’s house turned out to be a huge castle on a cliff.

“Castle??? There’s a whole huge castle next to Maretime, and I didn’t even know about it???” Sunny thought to herself in shock.

“Home sweet home, at last,” Opaline smiled. “Please come inside.”

The castle was designed in cool colors with a predominance of blue and purple stones. Large empty halls were illuminated by simple candles - there was no talk of any electricity. All windows were stained glass - this with the candle lighting created a rather gloomy and depressing atmosphere.

“I want to show you the two most important rooms in this castle, Sunny. I hope you find them interesting.”

The first room was the library. A huge hall with countless bookcases filled with ancient books that the current generation of ponies can only dream of, and many do not even know about. History of ancient Equestria, various Bestiaries, books on alchemy and magic, including dark magic. What more could an inquiring mind ask for? And the second room is simply impossible without the first one. This is the laboratory in the castle tower. It has everything needed for any experiments with anything. Here you will find alchemical apparatuses and enchanting slabs. It even has its own furnace for smelting metals.

While walking around the castle, Sunny heard a door slam somewhere on the floor but she forgot about it immediatly when she notiсed huge dead garden outside the open window and thought it would be cool to plant it with something.

After a short tour of the castle, the two went down to the main hall with throne and strange pond-like device.

Opaline sat down on the throne and looked at Sunny with a smile in anticipation.

“This is just excellent,” Sunny began. “All these books, devices...But where does all this come from? And this castle aswell. Tell me, Opaline, you’re definitely not a simple unicorn, right?”

“It’s obvious, my dear,” Opaline answered. “In my country I was very important and significant person. Everything was fine until that Twilight Sparkle appeared-”

“But she’s a hero and a noble ruler!” Sunny objected.

“Oh, Sunny, you’re young, naive and don’t know much about this world,” Opaline answered calmly, slightly rolling her eyes.

“Now listen, Sunny. I want you to know the whole truth. I want you to learn everything I know. I simply cannot allow such a capable pony...or should I say, alicorn, to waste her life living a meaningless existence. You have limitless power, which we can use for good, in the direction we need. Do you want all ponies to be united? I know how to achieve this. Do you want ponies not to be afraid of magic? And we can arrange this together. We can’t let a great alicorn like you disappear without even being born.”

Sunny stood and listened in confusion. Opaline’s sweet words were very tempting. “She knows about everything I want. And she promises to fulfill all this. And she has the ability to do it all. But what should I do with my...friends? Maybe if I gain full alicorn power, my voice will become more important and ponies will listen to me? This…might work.”

“I...accept your offer, Opaline,” answered Sunny. “But if something will go against my interests, I quit.”

“That’s great, just great, Sunny!” Opaline answered without hiding a smile. “Our classes will start tomorrow. Come at dawn and, please, don’t be late.”

“As you whish,” Sunny answered and got ready to leave.

“And one more thing,” Opaline stopped her. “Your friends don’t need to know about this.”

Sunny just nodded silently with a forced smile and walked towards the exit. Opaline continued to sit on her throne even after Sunny left. She was very pleased with herself and the development of events. All that remains is to come up with a training ‘’program’' for Sunny.

After some time, light hesitant steps were heard on the stairs between the second floor and the throne room.

“Yes-yes, Misty, you can come down now,” Opaline said loudly so she could be heard.

A young unicorn with blue fur and blue curly hair walked into the room. She walked up to the throne, placing her freckled little face on the armrest and, looking up at Opaline, stammered.

“W-Who was it? Do we have a p-problem?”

“It’s okay, Misty, don’t worry. This may be our key to restoring former greatness and creating better life,” Opaline answered, without leaving her thoughts.