The study was vacant, save for two souls–an enormous white alicorn sitting at the table and a young apricot unicorn standing in the middle of the room. The midday sun sent light and shadow dancing over the tile. The alicorn sipped her tea and sat on a large red pillow. Across from her was another pillow with a teacup, its contents lukewarm. “Sunset, why don’t we take a break and have some tea? We have only just started working on transfiguration a week ago.”

“I! Almost! Have! It!” The young unicorn stared hard at the empty ceramic teapot on the floor in front of her. Her horn glowed and sparked in teal light, glittering off the sweat beading on her face. Her hooves dug into the carpet.

Pop!

The teapot shone in teal light and transformed into a large black pot.

The unicorn gasped and the light in her horn went out. She knickered and bucked and trotted a circle around the pot, head and tail held high. A grin so wide it must have hurt broke her features.

Princess Celestia grinned, set down her teacup, and clapped her hooves. “Very good! You’re learning at an incredible pace, my little pony.”

Sunset stopped and ran to the table. “Thank you! I promised you I’d learn as much as I could!” The excitement and joy glimmering in her eyes–Sunset couldn’t stand still, even while addressing her.

“And you are doing wonderfully.” Pride and a joy to match the little filly’s swelled up inside of her like a phoenix. “You are a brilliant student, Sunset. But remember, if something is too difficult or if you are feeling pressured, please do not be afraid to tell me. There is no shame in traveling a steady road.”

Sunset nodded. “Okay! But you don’t have to worry about me. I’m pretty good at learning new things.” She pranced to her spot with tea and took a sip, flicked her ears back at the temperature, reheated it with her magic, winced from its new temperature, and then continued drinking it without waiting for it to cool down.

Princess Celestia bit back a sigh. She would need to weave in some lessons pertaining to patience. Maybe a history lesson, or a plant growing potion. Potion lessons took time, and plant-growing potions took time to take effect. Teatime wasn’t helping much; Sunset weathered burns better than most any pony Princess Celestia had ever seen. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think the little filly liked her tea scalding.

Eventually, Princess Celestia concluded their lesson. Sunset ran back to the pot and concentrated on it. To her credit, she did turn it back into a porcelain teapot. However, she wobbled on her hooves and keeled sideways. The alicorn outstretched one of her wings and caught her. “Sunset, that’s quite enough out of you today. Please return to your quarters and rest.”

Sunset, her eyes closed, rested on Princess Celestia’s wing for a heartbeat longer before nodding and standing up straight. She blinked open her big teal eyes. “I’ll see you at dinner! Thank you again!”

Princess Celestia smiled. “I’ll see you at dinner, Sunset. Please rest. Don’t lay in bed reading a book!” Princess Celestia raised her voice to call after the unicorn. The filly stumbled as she got to the door, flinching.

Gotcha!

“Okay, I won’t!” With that, she was gone.

Princess Celestia walked out the same door.

Her tired eyes trailed over the stained glass of the hallway windows. The bleeding light of the late-day sun ravaged the colors of the different depicted scenes. Her pale magenta eyes crossed over an indigo alicorn with a black crown over the top of the crescent moon. “Dear Sister, how I miss you.” There were so many words she wanted to say, so many phrases she’d said a million times before. So many she’d say a thousand times again.

“Princess?”

Princess Celestia stood up a little straighter at the hard tone of her guard and turned back. “Yes, Snow Breeze?” One of her more prominent, but younger, royal guards stood behind her, a purple unicorn mare panting heavily at his side, her silver mane and tail done up in a bun.

The pegasus raised his stark white wing in salute before bringing it back down and stating, “Sunset Shimmer is in the restricted section of the library, Your Highness.”

Princess Celestia’s gaze went dark. “Thank you for telling me. Come with me.” As they trotted, she said, “Please do not interfere, Dusty Books.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness,” the unicorn whimpered.

Another white pegasus guard met them by the library, standing just outside of view from the inside. He was about the same age as Snow Breeze; both friends that hailed from Cloudsdale. Despite being young, they made an excellent team. Friendship always reaped rewards. Why can’t my pupil see this?

Princess Celestia walked inside. The princess’s own coat all but glowed in the firelight, and her shoes and weight made her a terrible sneak. Yet Sunset’s voice trickled out of the library from behind a suitcase, undisturbed. “The crystal mirror… every thirty moons, a portal will open to… another world?”

Princess Celestia stated, “That’s not really for you to know, now is it?” Snow Breeze and Sword Fall flanked her, heads lowered and wings half furled, staring down the unicorn student as they would any other threat.

Sunset snapped the book shut and turned on the princess quick as a snake. “How dare you keep this kind of magic from me! You know that I’m ready for this, that I can be great!”

Princess Celestia kept her head high and her voice level. “You could be great,” she agreed. “I thought I saw compassion and sincerity in you, but it was nothing but ambition. You’re being selfish, you need to step back and reflect…”

The young unicorn gasped and smacked the old book, sending it flying at the alicorn. She barely needed to react to make a shield suitable enough to reflect it. She did need to raise a hoof to keep her guards from lunging. Sunset spat, “I’m selfish? That book right there says that I could become as powerful as an alicorn princess. I could rule here. It’s selfish of you to keep me from my rightful place.”

Sunset stared up at her with hard, defiant teal eyes. “I deserve to stand beside you and be your equal… if not your better. Make me a princess.” The last words were a statement, an order.

“There can only be one princess in Equestria. And that princess will be me!”

No. It will not happen again.

Princess Celestia kept her tone level still despite knowing her words would not come across. “No. Being a princess must be earned. I have been trying to teach you everything you need to know, but you’ve turned from it. Every time you say you ‘deserve’ to get something without the effort just proves to me that you are not ready.”

She spread her wings wide, stamped her hoof, and steeled herself. She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Sunset Shimmer, I am removing you from the position of my pupil. If we cannot get past this, your studies end here. You are welcome to stay in Canterlot, but you are no longer welcome in the castle.”

Hatred and wounded love choked by jealousy raged like fire in those big blue eyes that glared into hers.

Sunset swelled up and shifted on her hooves. She spat out, “We’re never going to get past this because you aren’t seeing how great I deserve to be. Is that all you have to say to me?”

“No. The guards will escort you out,” Princess Celestia stated. The pegasi guards stepped forward and brushed her forward with their wings. Sunset spat and stalked forward to avoid being touched.

The unicorn growled, “This is the biggest mistake you’ll make in your entire life.”

Princess Celestia turned away from her former student as they walked into the hall and her eyes caught a tapestry of a flying black alicorn being attacked by a standing white alicorn with one foreleg cocked. She sighed and shut her eyes. “One of many.” Suddenly her head weighed more than the whole of the castle and her body ached with all the age it held. But the purple unicorn librarian still waited in the corner, watching her. Princess Celestia turned and crept out of the library.

Her hooves were slow, and her head bent on its own. She let out a quiet sigh. What could I have done differently? What did I do wrong? Maybe I rushed some things. Maybe we could have done some lessons with other ponies. Perhaps I could have assigned her a lesson to make a friend? No, she wouldn’t have taken that seriously.

Deep in thought, her hooves took her down a bitterly familiar corridor. Her ears perked at the sound of pained groaning. Princess Celestia’s head snapped up and she ran to the sound. The two guards lay on the floor of the mirror room, groaning. Alone.

A spike of ice cut through her heart. She breathed, “Oh Sunset Shimmer… no…” She ran to the guards on the floor, first checking Snow Breeze as he was lying on his side with his wings tucked. He pulled his head up unsteadily and unfolded his wings. “She took us by surprise and just… just… jumped in the mirror. I don’t know…”

Princess Celestia hushed, “Shh, it’s fine. If you’re feeling up to it, would you please help move the mirror to a safer place?” She turned to Sword Fall, who sat up, a hoof to his head.

Princess Celestia waited with the two stallions until they had recovered. Once they were feeling better–truly better, not just agreeing with her–the three of them picked up the mirror with her magic and their strength. Being of immense magic, the mirror had quite a bit of magic resistance. It didn’t have complete magic resistance, though. Not to her.

Moving it wouldn’t move the portal in the other world, though. Right?

Dear Sister, I hurt you. You won't be able to come back for some time, but at least my little pony can.

They set the mirror in the throne room. Snow Breeze asked, “Why hang it in an even more prominent place? Shouldn’t you hide the mirror, princess?”
Princess Celestia’s gaze grew sad. “No… I want it here… to remind me. Also, maybe she’ll come back… someday.”

Author's Note

Guess who's taking notes from "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer"? Ayoooo me!

Princess Celestia, my beloved. :,) Reading/watching that little comic and then going back and watching "Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendships" is an ENORMOUS whiplash. But like, truly TFoSS is the last time Princess Celestia ever saw Sunset prior to EG:FF. She's heard about her progress probably but didn't see it.
Also, there's only so much room in a fic with like 1700 words, so I apologize if I lay anything on thick. I sincerely tried not to! I'm just... used to writing longer fics with more substance. lol