To say that I was shocked would have been an understatement. I knew that my friends didn't like Sunset Shimmer. They had made that clear through their expressions, and some choice words, when I had told them about her upon my return. Each of them had reacted, at the time, in way that had made sense. If I had thought that any of them would have been violent, I would have thought twice about the idea that Sunset be brought here. Even with the idea that any of them would have been violent, though, there was a certain list.

Fluttershy wasn’t one the small list of ponies that I thought might have gotten physically violent. I also wouldn’t have thought that she would have been able to take down Sunset Shimmer in a single hit.

It seemed there were some things that I didn’t know about our local animal caretaker.

I wasn’t the only one that was shocked by all of this. Pinkie Pie had a horrified look on her face, and she was just looking at Fluttershy. Applejack seemed to be looking between the two, Fluttershy and the fallen Sunset, with a confused look on her face. Rainbow was over at my new student’s side, poking her as if to question if this had really happened. Rarity had fainted, the only thing that had happened today that actually made any sense to me.

Nopony seemed to know what to say for a while.

“Holy-moley.” Pinkie finally said. “You’ve got a really good kick there, Fluttershy. Remind me not to make you mad.”

Fluttershy, upon hearing this, blinked a few times. It almost seemed like she didn’t know what she had done. At least, that was what I was told I looked like when I got confused about something that I had done. The look of confusion on her face quickly changed to one that seemed to be a panicked expression. That was one that I had seen on her a lot, one that meant that I needed to go over there and give her a hug.

Everypony else got the same idea, and soon enough we were hugging a silently crying Fluttershy.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. It’s going to be fine.” Pinkie Pie said as we hugged our yellow friend. I didn’t know whether or not to say anything. Part of me wanted to comfort her, which was the right thing to do. I knew, though, that her reaction hadn’t been one that could be described as alright. This was my friend, true, but I had always been taught that physical violence was something that you do your best to avoid.

There was only one thing that I could do.

“What happened, Fluttershy? This doesn’t seem like you.” I had to know what had caused her to be violent. There was the incident with Iron Will, but that had passed. Fluttershy had learned that she couldn’t be that form of assertive, and we all had learned that we needed to treat Fluttershy better. Everypony involved had learned something. At least that was how I thought it had ended.

Had I been wrong?

Fluttershy looked at me, her sad eyes still overflowing with tears. “I don’t k-k-k-knowwwwww.” She cried out as we started to nuzzle into her. “I just, I just, I heard what she did to those animals on the other side, and how she was so mean to my friends. I just … I couldn’t stop myself.” That answer made sense, yet at the same time I didn't know what to say about it. If Fluttershy was willing to become physically violent, what did that say about the others?

I took a couple of steps back and looked down.

“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring her back as my student without letting any of you know.” If they had known, maybe they could have prepared. Maybe this could have all been avoided if I had just sent a letter to them. Fluttershy would have prepared to run into a pony she obviously didn't like, at the very least. I still didn’t know how the others were going to react. Each of them one after another, turned to look at me.

The others remained shocked, and it seemed as though Fluttershy was feeling even worse than ever.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Rainbow was the first to say something. “Please tell me I heard you wrong.” This was actually something that I hadn’t anticipated. I hadn’t thought that my friends were going to be so put off by the idea that I was going to take Sunset Shimmer as a student. “You’re taking that mare as a student? She’s good at magic, she had to be to be Celestia’s student, but still…”

“I think what Rainbow is trying to say, darling.” Rarity was awake, that was good. I had meant to go over and check on her. My floor was made of wood, after all, and there was always the chance of a concussion. “There are plenty of students around Ponyville that could use a more direct hoof to guide them.” That was definitely true, there were plenty of unicorns around here that would have made excellent students. “Like Sweetie Belle.”

At the mention of the white filly, everypony looked up. I started to think about what would have happened if I had chosen Sweetie Belle instead of Sunset Shimmer.

The town was burning.

The town was a disaster area unto itself, but something made this different. The fire was greener, reminiscent of what it looked like when a changeling transformed. Ponies ran around, their bodies covered in fire and blood. I entered town, having come back from a very important meeting with my former mentor. Everything had gone perfectly there, I had even spent some time with Luna.

The thing I had asked her to do, before I had taken the six hour trip, was work on her telekinesis.

How had this happened?

“Ah known Sweetie Belle will do just fine without Twilight teachin’ her.” Applejack cut in. “And ta be honest, I don't see what the big deal is.” I looked back at Applejack, a smile on my face. It seemed as though I might have gotten some support here. “Don’t get me wrong, ah don’t like Sunset Shimmer from what ah heard of ‘er. She sounds like a mean spirited pony who knows nothin’ about friendship.” The more she said, the more I was starting to worry. If she was going to be my support, she could have at least said something good.

“But Twilight knows what she’s doing.”

That worked.

“This wouldn't be the first time we’ve helped fix some big baddie.” Applejack turned to look at Fluttershy, who was looking down at her own hooves. “Heck, you were the one that said that we should give Discord a chance.” Discord turned out to be her friend, and a decent friend at that. I hadn’t actually thought of that fact, but maybe I should have. “Maybe we should give ‘er a chance. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? Twilight’s a princess. She could always just banish ‘er.”

Fluttershy looked up, a conflicted look on her face. “You’re right, Applejack. I shouldn’t have just kicked her like that.” Suddenly, she turned to me. “I’m sorry I kicked your student, Twilight. I’ll understand if you’re mad at me and want me to go.” She started to move from the hug, and it seemed as though she was going to try to leave. It didn’t even take a second for me to know that I shouldn’t be mad at her for this.

She made a mistake, but I knew it wasn’t a malicious mistake.

“No, Fluttershy.” I moved back in and nuzzled her cheek. “You didn’t do it to be mean. You thought that you were doing something that would help us.” Admittedly, I still didn’t know why she thought that violence was going to solve it. The best case scenario was that I would have agreed that it was a bad idea to have Sunset be my student after the others said something about it. I couldn’t think of a way that violence would have gotten rid of her. “And I’m sure that Sunset will agree with me when she wakes up, and you apologize to her.”

“But can we trust her, Applejack?” I heard Rainbow finally say something again. “I trust Twilight with my life, but I’m worried about her new student.” As she said the words new student, I heard something that sounded like disdain. I didn’t know what it was that was causing this. It was true that Sunset caused a lot of trouble last time, but it was also true that she had been reformed by the Elements of Harmony. I had seen it myself, I had left her with the others from that side.

I had told my friends about this, I was sure.

There had to be a quick way to make sure that they understood that.

“It could be worse, she could have gotten Trixie as her student.” Pinkie joined in the discussion. I didn’t know what to think about that idea. Trixie did have a lot of things that would have stopped her from being a good student, or at least she seemed to. Then again, Sunset didn’t seem like the best student either. At least she didn’t seem like she was going to be if I was going primarily off of what I had seen at that school.

“You’re just mad that she used that amulet on you and removed your mouth.” Rainbow replied. “I’d rather have Trixie here than a pony who turned into a giant demon and tried to kill Twilight. Even at her worst, Trixie didn’t try to kill anypony. Rule over, humiliate, cause pain to, but she didn’t seem to want to kill any of us.” That wasn’t a good justification for wanting somepony to be my student.

“And to think that you all seem to be against Sweetie Belle being her student. She may be a hooffull, but she hasn’t done any of that.” I gazed over at Rarity, who once again seemed to be pushing the idea that her sister would have been the perfect student. If my mental image was any indication, or even close to the truth, that wasn’t the case. “With my sister as her student, I’m sure that everything would fall in line. Twilight could teach her responsibility, and she could help Sweetie get her Cutie Mark.”

“Ahm gettin’ the feelin’ that ya just want Twilight ta watch yer sister for ya.” Applejack smirked as she turned to face Rarity. That is what it was starting to sound like, but that didn’t seem like… actually, it seemed very much like something that Rarity would have done. At the same time, though, it was always possible that she just wanted the best for her sister. Rarity did have a really high opinion of what I was capable of, even more than I did.

“I would never do that.” Rarity didn’t look like she had convinced herself, let alone anypony else in the room. She looked to all of us, stopping with me. “I just feel as though this is a better opportunity for a pony who hasn’t had a lot of opportunities in their lives. Sunset is magically gifted, true, and Trixie might be as well. But Sweetie is more in the unknown potential category.” My jaw dropped as I thought about everything that she had said.

It made sense, really.

“And then she won’t be around to mess up your dresses, Rarity.” Pinkie cut in. That piece of information seemed to bring a wider smile to Rarity’s face, once again causing me to wonder what her reasoning behind pushing her sister into this was. It was more likely that her talent was going to be something related to music than something related to magic, we all knew that she was excellent at singing. “I think I should be Twilight’s student.”

“Pinkie, you’re not able to use magic…” I couldn’t believe that I had to remind her of that.

“Oh yeah.” My right front hoof met my face. Did she really forget that she was incapable of using magic? Actually, a better way of putting it was that she couldn’t actively use magic that I was able to define. I knew there had to be something that helped her do some of the things that she was obviously capable of doing. “Then I have no problem with Sunset Shimmer being your student. You have my approval.” She said as she pulled out a giant green felt check mark out of nowhere.

“Errr … thanks Pinkie.”

“Ummmm …. Girls?” Fluttershy sounded about as loud as she was capable of getting. All of us looked over to her, wondering what it was that she wanted to say. “Sunset Shimmer kind of woke up and left. She seemed kind of afraid of me.” She looked down at her hooves again, obviously sad at the idea that she was feared. There was really only one thing that I had to ask, though.

“When did this happen?”

“It was around the time that Applejack started to talk. I wanted to get everypony’s attention, but you all seemed so busy. I just didn’t want to interrupt.” Fluttershy had gone from violent to sad to her old self within the span of the small amount of time we had been here. That was something I was going to have to figure out, but later after I found where Sunset Shimmer had run off to. “I’m sorry, I’ll try to make sure I speak up if something like this ever happens again.”

“And I say good riddance!”

That was a surprising statement from Rainbow. I knew that she didn’t trust Sunset, but this seemed to be taking it a little too far. I wasn’t the only one that thought this way, though, as an unexpected voice was heard. “I am ashamed of you, Rainbow. What if she gets hurt? What if she gets lost? She doesn’t know her way around here, so many horrible things could happen to her. I know that you don’t like her, but I can’t imagine you actually want her to get hurt.”

“Says the pony that actually knocked her out.” As soon as she said it, Rainbow seemed to realize that she had said something incredibly hurtful. “I’m sorry, ‘Shy. I didn’t mean for that to come out. Today’s just been a bit of a bombshell. I mean, the pony who tried to kill Twilight is now supposedly her student.” Rainbow looked away, seemingly ashamed of what she had just said to her friend. “I’ll try to support whatever you guys think we should do. I still don’t trust Sunset Shimmer, though.”

I had a bad feeling about everything. Sunset had run off, and I had no idea where. Ponyville only looked peaceful, there were a lot more dangers than one would think.

“Alright, we’re going to have to all work together on this one.” I looked around at everypony gathered. “I’m going to need Fluttershy to go talk to her animal friends. If one of them saw her, maybe they can help.” Another reason was that I didn’t know if Sunset might eventually come back. If she did, I wanted to be able to talk to her before she saw Fluttershy. If Sunset ran from everypony’s favorite animal caretaker, I needed to make sure that she was given a second chance.

“Rainbow, I’m going to need you to find some pegasi to help search from the skies.” That seemed like the best idea, several ponies would do a lot better in the skies than a single pony searching. It also made sense to user her flight. The final thing was about my ability to fly, and how it barely existed. That was something I was going to have to figure out the answer to on another day, though.

“Rarity, Applejack, and I will go through town and see if anypony has seen her.” I looked over to try to tell Pinkie and Spike that I wanted the two of them to stay here, but then it hit me like a load of bricks. I saw Pinkie. I didn’t see Spike anywhere, though. I decided that it was in my best interest to finish with how we were all going to find her before I asked Rainbow why he wasn’t here.

“Which leaves Pinkie to stay here in case she comes back.”

I looked to my friends, and then nodded my head. “Everypony else head out, I need to ask Rainbow something.” I had this feeling that I might have been worrying over nothing. There was always the chance that he just hadn’t shown up. At the same time, though, I was worried that there was a big reason why he hadn’t. Either he was mad at me again or there was something wrong with his health.

Either of those two made me worry,

As every other pony left, aside from Pinkie who just moved to another room, Rainbow looked at me with a nervous look on her face. “I can’t explain why I don’t trust Sunset Shimmer, if that’s what you’re going to ask.” That … wasn’t what I was going to ask. I needed to remember to actually ask that in the future, though.

“Actually, I was wondering why Spike isn’t here. Is he alright?” I really hoped he was alright, though if he was that meant he was mad at me. “Or is it something I said the last time I saw him? Is he mad at me? Does he hate me? I’m so-“ It was around this time that I got a good taste of a blue hoof, as it was actually shoved into my mouth.

Rainbow’s hoof didn’t taste good.

“Don’t worry so much, he just has a stomachache from eating too much ice cream.” I always told him to eat less of the stuff, but apparently he wasn’t going to ever learn. “Last I saw, he was sleeping with the occasional muttering about how he was ‘Future Spike’ or something. I didn’t understand.”

“At least he’s alright.” I was relieved, and soon enough I was heading out the door. “Rainbow, I know if you give her a chance, you’ll be surprised.”

It was a good thing that they had been arguing about me, something that I definitely didn’t imagine I would ever think.

When I had come back around, the five of them seemed to have different opinions about me. Twilight seemed to be the most useless teacher I had ever had, at least at this point. Celestia certainly had been able to talk to her subjects better, and she certainly wouldn’t have had to justify what she did.  She would have just done something, and then likely everypony would have formed their own reasoning without her having said or done anything to help them reach whatever conclusion they had reached.

Twilight didn’t seem to be anything like that.

That wasn’t even my biggest concern, though. When I came back to the realm of the conscious, I look around. I had to know who it was that had been the vicious warrior that had assaulted me. Okay, that was probably a bit too far. Whoever it was, though, I had to know. I knew that it was a pair of yellow hooves, so that really slimmed it down. The simple fact that yellow was also the color of my friend Fluttershy made me think that these ponies weren’t going to be like the friends that I had on the other side of the mirror.

Fluttershy would have never kicked me in the face.

This Fluttershy, however, turned out to be the culprit. This Fluttershy looked as though she was getting comforted by her friends for having assaulted me. That was something that didn’t bode well for me staying here peacefully.

At this point, it didn’t matter if my sentence was …

…

Wow, I had really been stupid. Princess Cadance didn’t have authority outside of the Crystal Empire. There was no way she had the authority to force me to learn from Twilight. There was no way she had the authority to stop me from going off on my own. There was no way that she was going to figure any of it out even if she was somehow the true ruler of Equestria somehow, since I was going to sneak out of here before any of them figured out I was even gone.

It really was amazing how none of them noticed that I had left. They didn’t even notice when the door had been opened. Well, one of them noticed.

Fluttershy noticed.

I knew she noticed because she was watching me most of the time. I didn’t know why she didn’t say anything, aside from the idea that she might have wanted just this. If she kicked me to get rid of me, with the hopes that I was going to leave, then she had actually gotten her wish. As soon as I left the library, I looked around to figure out which direction would have been the best direction for my grand escape.

The forest seemed nice.

I could have sworn that I had heard something about the forest, this specific forest, but it wasn’t coming to me. That meant that it didn’t matter, at least from my perspective. I was going to go into the forest, I was going to stay there, and there was no way that I was going to be found by anypony. Within a couple weeks, I planned on moving on.

After all, I was not going to be killed by that vicious psychopath.

I had to admit that my mind had maybe exaggerated what this Fluttershy might have done. Maybe it was the fact that Twilight had already admitted that one pony close to her wanted to maim me. Maybe it was the fact that I had a head wound that still stung, one that had bled a little and was unprovoked. Maybe it was … no, those two were the only things that came to mind when I tried to figure out my own fears.

The forest came into view, and it actually looked quite nice. It was something different from what I had seen at school, and even different from what I had seen when I had looked down on it from Mount Canterlot. Maybe there was something about the fact that I was actually able to see more than a mass of green that helped with the second comparison. I took one more look behind me, I had thought that I had seen something orange move for a moment, and then I walked into the forest.

Still Sunset Shimmer

Well, the forest was boring.

Also, I had gotten lost fairly quickly. It had only taken about ten minutes for that to have happened. As much as I had loved the trees initially, there was something about them that made it quite easy for me to have gotten lost. It was the fact that everything looked to be the same, as if whoever created everything just copied and repeated indefinitely for this forest. The trees were of the same height, and the same width, with little variation.

It also didn’t help that around eight minutes in I heard something behind me that had caused me to try to find a place to hide.


None of this was my fault, though. I had come here because I had been tricked by that pink princess, Cadance. Then it was that yellow pony, Fluttershy, who had made me run away. Maybe if I thought about it really hard, I could have come up with a way for this to be  Princess Twilight’s fault as well. Or maybe if I really stretched logic, it was somehow going to be all Princess Celestia’s fault.

Maybe I was just being angry, though.

Technically, I had chosen to come back. I had chosen to run away from the vicious assailant. I had chosen that this forest was the best place to be. Finally, I had chosen that all of that wasn’t enough to make sure that I went back. If nothing else, I was going to find the other side of the forest and I was going to figure out a way to get to where I needed to be. I had thought that being a student again might have been nice for a while, but this wasn’t going to cut it.

All of this was because I had forgotten my bigger goal. If I had just told the royal couple that I just wanted to see my parents and then head back, none of this would have likely happened. I would have seen my mom and dad, as well as the others, and I would have been able to head back to see my friends. Everything would have gone so perfectly, but I had made mistake after mistake.

The snarling that I heard nearby pointed to the idea that this mistake was going to turn out to be much bigger than I had thought it was going to be. The thing that I saw looked to be incredibly dangerous. It wasn’t the fact that this was a wolf that was made out of twigs, that didn’t seem to be dangerous at all. The teeth, or more accurately fangs, were the things that actually made me start to back away before I turned to try to run.

Another one blocked my path that way.

Even if I wasn’t able to use my magic as well as I used to, my horn still provided me with something to ram through it with as I charged off away from the beast. As I heard the blood curdling howl, followed by others, I only hoped that I was going the right direction. If I went back to town, even with the vicious Fluttershy, I knew I was going to be safer than if I stayed in the forest with those monsters.

This would have been so much easier if my magic hadn’t abandoned me recently. I would have just teleported up a tree, or maybe pulled a twig away and snapped it. Maybe I would have caught it on fire and watched it burn to death. To my knowledge, I had been Celestia’s greatest pupil for over a hundred years. And yes, I would have burnt that thing to death if it meant that it wasn’t going to try to eat me.

I felt that I had good priorities. It was going to try to kill me, after all, so I was sure that nopony would have judged me.

Maybe it was better to just try to think of things that were actually possible, though. I had to get somewhere out of the forest, before something happened. I had to do it soon, too. Maybe there was something about the mirror that added weight, or maybe my slightly bloody head wound had affected me more than I thought, but I had already started to slow down a little.

Either that, or they had started to speed up.

I had to find her, I just had to.

Princess Cadance had told me that she was my student now, something that I was going to take seriously. Even if she wasn’t a princess, I probably would have listened to her idea about me getting a student. The fact that she was just made it something that I would have been rude to say no to. There was also the fact that it was Sunset’s punishment, which I thought was probably similar to parole with me as the officer.

I lost her, though.

Oh, this was not going to turn out well. If she remained lost, or something happened to her, I didn’t think I was going to be able to forgive myself. My negligence was going to be the thing that led to the death of a pony. Or at least, that was the likely thing if I didn’t find her. The bad thing was that I didn’t have any leads, nor did I have any idea if I was going to get any leads in the near or foreseeable future.

It had been about half an hour since we had been told that she had run off, and nopony that we asked had seen anything.

“Twilight! Ah think ah found somepony who might where she went.” Applejack showed up just in time to save the day. Okay, that wasn’t true. She showed up at a perfect time, though. Behind her was one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo. “Tell ‘er what ya saw, Scootaloo.” Applejack didn’t look happy at all, which definitely worried me. If Scootaloo had seen her at a shop or something, Applejack wouldn’t have looked like that.

“That pony Applejack said you were looking for went into the Everfree. I had been watching her, hoping that I was going to get my Cutie Mark for being a private investigator.” Scootaloo looked down, obviously saddened by her lack of a Cutie Mark. “But I knew better tan to go into the forest without one of you with me. I don’t want to get turned to stone, after all.”

I remember that, it was not an experience that anypony would have wanted to go through.

“Alright. Applejack, let’s round up the girls and -“ It was around this time that I heard a howl. That was definitely something that warranted me to rush. I knew that Sunset had gone into the Everfree, and I knew that the sound I had heard came from a Timberwolf. Either it was nothing, in which case I was putting myself into immense danger for no reason, or I was one of a few that was capable of saving Sunset’s life. “On second thought. Applejack, let’s go. Scootaloo, you go tell the others that we’re in the Everfree searching for Sunset.”

“Ah don’t thin-“ I probably should have asked Applejack what she thought about this, but I was more worried about the idea of a pony actually being killed by those beasts. A purple light enveloped my horn as I quickly transported the two of us to the edge of the forest. There was no time for any of us to waste, we had to get in there and follow the sound of the wolves.

Somepony’s life probably depended on it.

As soon as I could, I charged into the forest. I knew Applejack was behind me, she was the most dependable pony I had with me. She was the most dependable pony I could have had with me, actually. And I knew that when we found Sunset, Applejack was going to be the pony that helped to make sure that we got out of there in one piece.

The only downside was that I only had one sound to go by. It wasn’t as if I had put a tracker on Sunset, which would have made this whole thing a lot more simple. It wasn’t even as though I knew of a way to hone in on her magic. All I had was the direction where the howling was going and the speed that it was going at. Even that was mostly being calculated by shoddy equations. For all I knew, I was going to end up saving a deer.

I ran regardless. Part of me hoped that it wasn't Sunset that was being chased, but part of me knew that if it wasn’t that I was putting myself in danger for nothing. Either way, actually, it was likely something bad in the end.

Then the howling seemed to die down. I was getting closer to the source, but it had died down. Part of me thought that I had been wrong. It was possible that I had just chased down a group of timberwolves for nothing, that they had just been howling just to howl. It was possible that Sunset had found a safe way through, or maybe had ended up at Zecora’s.

Maybe she had found her way to the Castle of the Pony Sisters.

Then I saw it.

I knew that timberwolves ate meat. It wasn’t something that I had ever seen before, nor was it something that I had really put too much thought into. It was just a scientific fact. Griffins ate meat. Some birds ate meat. The sight that I saw, though, was something that made my blood boil. I saw that there was a pony that looked like it was about to be eaten by what looked to be a pack leader.

Sunset Shimmer was about to be eaten by a timberwolf.

I charged up as much energy in my horn as I could, as quickly as I could. Then I shot it at the would-be predator. Upon impact, it shattered into tiny pieces. That wasn’t going to be enough, though. I knew that these creatures came back to life, and I knew that they were faster than I was when it came to running.

It was fortunate that I knew how to teleport.

The distance was spanned in a few moments, and soon enough I was back on the outskirts of the forest with Sunset and Applejack. That was the good news of our little encounter, and it was the only good news. Sunset was bleeding, and she likely had lost a lot of blood. The fact that I had teleported so quickly, and with passengers, was incredibly draining. That, coupled with the fact that I had shot a giant beam of pure magic at the creature meant that I was going to be useless for a while.

At least Scootaloo had gotten my friends.

Now I just needed to let them know what had happ-

Maybe I had pushed myself just a little too far. I didn’t even take a single step before my face met the ground.

I was going to die.

It hadn’t been something big that had ended my run. It actually hadn't even been the fact that I was more out of shape than I thought I was. The thing that had ended my escape was a root, something that would have never stopped me before. I just wasn’t the clumsy type, but apparently that had changed.

This didn’t mean that I was going to go down without a fight.

The fact that I got slammed into a tree by one of those horrible monsters, when they charged into me, meant that I was going to go down without too much of a fight. Two head wounds in a single day, followed by the fact that I was going to get eaten by one of those monsters. The idea that this all could have been avoided if I had just taken the idea of having my horn removed, that actually went through my mind as I drifted off into the realm of the unconscious.

Well, that and the question of what Tartarus was like. I mean, I knew I was going there after all. If I had studied harder, I likely would have already had the answer to that final question.

Sunset Shimmer

Why was there beeping in Tartarus?

Why was the bed soft, too?

I had two options. The first option was to lay there, with my eyes closed, and continue to question this confusing afterlife. The other option, and the one I soon did, was to open my eyes. Seriously, this was one of the easiest choices I had ever made.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the white walls of a hospital.

There was more to my observation than simply white walls. The castle in Canterlot had white walls, at least some of them were white. Random houses on any given street likely had white walls. There was something that hospitals had that no house had, or at least none of them that I had been to ever seemed to have. Whenever I had ever gone to a hospital, I had been forced to deal with something that I despised more than I probable should have.

This smelled horrible.

That wasn’t something that I had ever heard any other pony say. It was just something about the extremely sterile smell of a hospital that … offended seemed like a weird word for it. That didn’t stop it from being the right word, but it still seemed like a weird concept for a nose to be offended. It just smelled so strong, that was probably the best way that I could have described it to anypony. It was strong, it was foreign, and it was horrible.

Of course, I didn’t have much option except to continue to lay here. Whenever I tried to move, and I did several times, I felt a nice sharp pain in my side.

Oh, and I felt bandages on my side.

I wondered what had happened. There had been a blow to the head, and then I had ran away. Then I had gone to that forest, which had only been the start of the horrible things that had continued to go on throughout that little adventure. I had gotten lost, yep I remembered that. Then I had run into those monsters, and they had chased me down. One of them had rammed me into a tree, and then I had woken up here.

Obviously something happened with the ramming that had hurt my side.

Maybe I needed to just read over the chart that was probably nearby. I moved a little, the sharp pain came back with a vengeance, and then I moved back to the comfortable position. There was actually only one comfortable position, and that was my back. Maybe it I had more pain medicine running through my system, I might have been able to move more than a couple of inches before being forced to recoil in pain.

That obviously meant that my escape plans were going to have to be put on hold. If it wasn’t the pain, and it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t even know where I actually was beyond ‘in a hospital’, my stomach growled and told me that I hadn’t eaten in a while either. If there was anything else that could have gone wrong, it was likely just about to. That meant that I was going to run into Fluttershy again, or more accurately her hooves were going to run into me again, or maybe another of Princess Twilight’s friends were going to get in on the act.

Or maybe Celestia was going to come over here and have her take on revenge.

“I have to get out of here ASAP.” I proclaimed to nopony.

“Well, I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen.” A mare’s voice was heard before the door opened, the nurse’s cap giving me an indication of why she was here at least. “You won’t be leaving here for at least another three or four days, we have to make sure those side injuries of yours don’t cause you any major complications.” That all sounded well and good, but the worst thing that could have happened was a cut.

It was probably broken ribs, though that could have caused internal bleeding at some point.

“How many ribs did that tree break?” There was no better way to know than that. The fact that she gave me that look, a confused look, told me that I had been completely wrong. Had I been pierced by part of the tree? Had it really been something that related to internal bleeding? Beyond that, I had no clue what it might have been. I had no idea what could have happened out there that would have ended with me being here.

After all, if he had eaten me I’d be dead.

“You really don’t know, do you?” That was always one of the worst questions, If a pony knew, they weren’t going to act like they didn’t. Sometimes they would, to be honest, but this didn’t seem like one of those times. I certainly wasn’t the type that would have done something like this when I was in a hospital. That just seemed like a horrible idea.

“Know what?” I tried to keep my anger in check. Part of me knew that she just didn’t know this about me, that she likely assumed I was like any other pony here. “If there’s something that I need to know, you should probably just tell me.” If it was horrible news, I needed to know it anyway. After all, the sooner I knew the soon I could process it. Somehow, I knew that the longer I waited the worse it was going to seem.

“You almost died.”

Huh.

I guess I had known that, really. The fact that she told me said something about how bad it had been. I wondered what it was that had almost killed me. If it was a head wound, I was going to blame Fluttershy for it. Of course, that didn’t have anything to do with my sides, so it was likely something else. “I know about how terrible two head wounds are. That doesn’t say anything about my sides, though. So spill it.”

That was likely more rude than I should have been.

“When you were brought in here, by Applejack, you had several bleeding wounds on both of your sides.” I had been pierced by the tree in several places? That didn’t make sense at all. “And almost every one of your ribs had been cracked by the force of a timberwolf bite.” That made a lot more sense, really.  I hadn’t been pierced in multiple placed by a tree, I had just been almost eaten by a timberwolf.

…

“What?!” That was about the time that it hit me. “You mean I was … going tom be eaten by a timberwolf?” The nurse gave me a sad nod. “But … are you saying that Applejack found me, found off the wolf, got out of the forest, and ran me here before I died?” My eyes had twitched, I had felt it. Applejack had saved me in a way that sounded impossible. There was no way she was that strong, or that fast.

There was no way she could have found me.

Well, okay, the last one was obviously false. The only way it could have been the truth was if I was dead, which I was fairly certain I wasn’t. “No, no, she apparently didn’t do it on her own. Along with you, there was a passed out Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash told me that she had passed out shortly after saving you from the forest. She said something about how her friend was, and I quote, ‘so awesome’. I wasn’t able to get much of the story from her, and her highness didn’t seem to want to tell me either.”

I needed to piece this together in my mind.

I ran away from Fluttershy, which any reasonable pony would have done, and ended up in the forest. I had ended up getting lost. Then I had been assaulted by timberwolves, only to be saved by Princes Twilight and her friend Applejack. The effort of whatever she had done caused her to pass out, and her friend Rainbow Dash had brought her here while Applejack brought me here and saved my life.

Okay, that seemed to be at least somewhat logical … aside from one fact.

“Why?” I questioned, only to get a confused look from the nurse. “I caused her trouble the last time we saw each other, I ran into the forest that is apparently dangerous, and I was being chased by those … timberwolves, you called them.” That name did sound vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it. “And yet, even with all that, she came in there and put her life at risk to make up for my mistake? Are you sure I didn’t die?”

I got a shrug in response.

“Why don’t you ask her that when she comes to visit? It shouldn’t be too long before she comes by. Every day at the same time, in about five minutes when we start passing out lunches for the ponies.” My eyes moved over to the clock, and a question came to mind. I wondered how many days that had been. There was only one way that I was going to be able to figure that one out.

“And just how many days would that be?”

“I lost count at twenty-four.”

That was not the news I wanted to hear. I had wanted to hear that it had been one, maybe four at most. The idea that I had been out for over three weeks, that was something that I hadn’t even considered.

“I hope you enjoy your food, you look like you could use it …”

I probably did. That didn't mean that I wanted her to say that, though. But before I had the time to even come up with a witty retort, the door opened and a lavender princess made her way through the door. A deeply worried look was on her face as she looked at the bed, though the fact that I tried to move to see her better seemed to bring about something that looked like a smile to me.

It also brought pain, but that was from the movement.

“You’re going to have to watch how you move.” That was an understatement. I still hadn't come up with a way that I was going to be able to move. Everything hurt when I moved, regardless of how I moved. It radiated from my sides, if that made any sense at all.

Actually, it did. I had been chewed on at least a little.

“Sure, sure. Just get me some good food … or some mediocre food, please?” I figured the word please was enough, especial since I wasn’t insulting her cooking or anything. Also, I might have been a little grouchier than I should have been. The sound of my stomach, which actually sounded like a monster itself, likely gave the reason for my sudden lack of levity.

I was hungrier than I had thought.

The nurse simply gave me a frown, and then went out to get my plate. I knew they weren’t going to give me more than a plate, even if I knew I was able to eat way more than a single plate of food. I could have eaten my body weight in food, and maybe Princess Twilight’s as well. The latter of which was standing in front of me with a disappointed look on her face. It was like she expected me to sound happy while I was this hungry.

She wasn’t going to get that, unfortunately for her.

“So, I heard you came here every day.” I had to get a couple of things out. She simply nodded, and I continued. “I also heard that you saved me from an untimely demise, that I was being eaten by that timberwolf.” I really hoped to never have to say that again, since being eaten was clearly on the top ten list of things that I never wanted to happen to me.

It hadn’t been before, actually, due to the fact that I hadn’t even thought about it.

It was now.

Another nod from Twilight, to which I nodded in response. There would have been no reason for her to lie, after all. “There are two things that I have to say to you right now.” I took a deep breath and looked up. “The first thing I have to say to you is thank you. I mean, I could have died. You could have just left me to die. I heard that whatever you did caused you to pass out, and you were obviously in danger the entire time.”

“Oh, it was nothing, I-“

I put my hoof up. Surprisingly, I had found a way to move that didn’t hurt. “I have one more thing to say, and I’m not sure you’re going to want to hear this.” It wasn’t exactly the more positive thing that I had to say. “But were you out of your mind?! You could have died out there? And for what? It’s not like you’re forced to be my teacher. There’s no way that she has that much authority. And it isn’t like you wanted me to be your student before that, so that pretty much means you risked your life for a pony that you don’t have to care about.”

Maybe that wasn’t the nicest way of putting it. I blamed the near-death experience. I also blamed the fact that I knew her life was more important than mine. If she had died, or gotten horribly injured, more ponies would have cared. Aside from my parents, I couldn't think of a single ponies whose life would have been negatively affected by my death. It was a harsh truth, but I had to come to grips with it.

Before Twilight could say anything, three plates of food were brought in.

“You might not want to be in here while I eat, your highness.” I said as I pointed to the door. “You have a lot to think about, I’m sure, and this isn’t going to be pretty in the slightest.”

I looked at Twilight, kind of glared really, until she left the room. I really didn’t know what else needed to be said about the matter. The thing I did know, though, was that I didn’t want her to see me eat. I hadn’t lied to her, about anything really, this wasn’t going to be pretty in the slightest. It certainly wasn’t going to have anything close to the etiquette that Celestia had tried to teach me years ago.

Why had she said those things?

I had gone out there to save her, and I had. I didn’t expect thanks, though it had been nice when I had heard it. When she had said everything that had happened, she hadn’t even known all of it. There was no way that she could have known all of it, she had been close to dying for at least a small portion. Through all of that, though, she felt the need to tell me how I had obviously been out of my mind when I had saved her.

Then she moved on to how I didn’t have to care about her, how Cadance couldn’t have forced me to take a student. That wasn’t even something that I had considered. I hadn't even thought about the fact that there was the chance that Sunset Shimmer couldn’t be forced to be my student. It had just been something that had been said by Cadance, that she was going to be my student, and I acted accordingly.

Even if that was true, I just didn’t get it.

Had Sunset Shimmer really been that alone? Was she still in the mindset that a pony only cared about another if there was something that forced them? I knew that she had friends, I knew that they cared for one another. Well, I didn’t really know. If they were anything like my friends, though, they cared. Or maybe there just hadn’t been this sort of thing that happened to her, so she was going back onto past experiences.

Either way, it made no sense to me.

Even if I had never been told that Sunset Shimmer was going to be my student, there was a chance that I would have helped out if I had known. She wasn’t my best friend or anything, but that didn’t mean that I would have just let her die. There was no reason for me to let anypony die when I had the power to change it.

Maybe this was something that I needed to get more information about. There was only one pony that I knew that could help me. There was only one pony who knew enough about Sunset Shimmer, other than Sunset Shimmer herself, that I could have asked. If I asked the pony herself, she wasn’t likely going to answer. That meant that I had to go the other source, and a quick letter was the best way to do it.

I had to write a letter to Princess Celestia.

As soon as I got back to the library, I quickly got a piece of paper ready. This letter had to be long enough to get all of the required information, but not too long. It wasn’t like this was a friendship letter or anything, which was something that I had to make sure she knew. There was only one way to open, though. I also didn’t want it to seem as though I was being too short with her.

Then there was the fact that I hadn’t written her in a little.

Dear Princess Celestia,

There are events in everypony’s life that change them

That letter was a complete dud. It started off as though this was something bigger than it was. It also started off as something that I could have sworn I had already used at another point. I threw that piece of paper into the trash, and moved to another one. This wasn’t the most difficult letter to write, so I was sure that this was going to the time that I got it right.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I know that it has been a long time since I’ve written you, and I apologize for that. Things have just been really busy lately, and I wasn’t sure what I should write. Something has come up lately, though, that requires knowledge that only you possess.

That seemed like a good enough start. It wasn’t too long, it wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t something that was slightly cliche. If I kept up this one, there wouldn’t be a third attempt. This might have been the one that got sent.

I recently discovered a former student of yours, Sunset Shimmer, in a cell. The only way that I was able to get her freed with her horn was to take her on as my student. There was an incident, though, that brought something to my attention.

Sunset Shimmer doesn’t seem to trust anypony. She questioned why I risked my life to save hers when I didn’t have to.

As her former mentor, I was hoping that you might have some knowledge as to why that is. Anything that you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

Always your student,

Twilight Sparkle

I looked over the contents again. It was short enough to be read quickly, yet at the same time it had all of the information needed. I made sure that there weren’t any giant errors in the letter, and then I sent it on its way to the solar diarch. I didn’t know when I was going to get a response, or if I was going to get one any time soon, so I started to think about what I needed to do for the rest of the day.

I didn’t know what I needed to do for the rest of the day.

I normally made planners for the entire month, but those had been thrown out the window recently. I planned to be in a teacher position, and the drama around Fluttershy happened. I planned for her to be out of the hospital soon, and it had been over three weeks. Then there was the fact that it seemed as though she didn’t want to be my student anymore, which meant that I was stuck back at what I was doing before.

And none of this took into account the fact that I didn’t have many duties as a princess. Ponyville pretty much ran itself, really. Maybe I needed to go make sure that there wasn't anything that I needed to do.

That meant I needed to go see the mayor.

Twilight Sparkle

That was a waste.

It had taken a while to get to see the mayor, even with my royal status. Then she had simply told me that everything was running as it was supposed to. The town had a budget surplus, there weren't any homeless. There weren’t any ponies without jobs, other than the ones who had retired. Crime rates were low, practically nonexistent. The only things that happened around here were things that couldn’t be foreseen.

This was no Canterlot.

In Canterlot, I would have never had the time to sit and wait for anything. There would have been a dozen or so ponies every hour, each of which wanted to talk to either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. In Ponyville, there wasn’t a court even if I did want to listen to the problems of the few ponies in Ponyville that probably would have shown up at some point to get me to address something wrong.

Wait, why hadn't I set that up yet?

That was what I needed to do.

Twilight Sparkle

Everything was perfect. I had plans for how I was going to be able run some sort of court for a few hours every day. There were probably a few problems out there, and there were likely to be a few ponies that just showed up from somewhere around Ponyville. If I was going to stay out of Canterlot, and I really wanted to, I knew that I had to do something that made my new royal status make sense.

As I put the letter in my mailbox, that’s when a letter appeared over my head.

Dear Princess Twilight,

That seemed like a weird enough start. I couldn’t think of a single time when I had been referred to as ‘Princess Twilight’ in one of these letters.

I’m afraid that I have some bad news. This is not your mentor, Celestia. This is Princess Luna. I’m also afraid that you will not be receiving a letter from her any time soon. This does not come from something being wrong with my sister, though, so fear not.

Something in your letter made her less-than-agreeable. As soon as she got done reading your letter, she flew off toward the Crystal Empire. Her eyes were like the fires of the sun itself. I have to admit that I was more than a little afraid, I definitely do not want to be on the receiving end of whatever she’s going to do.

I don’t envy Cadance, either.

With that out of the way, I will give you my opinion. The best, though not the easiest, thing to do would be to show her that she can trust you. If my sister’s former student has issues where she believes the worst about ponies, give her a reason to believe the best. You did that for me, Twilight, and I have a lot of happiness to attribute to that.

Of nothing else works, then you can always offer to do some sort of trust exercise. I have seen the guards do them before, and it very rarely led to a pony being put in intensive care. I’m sure that it will work for you as well.

Forever your friend,

Princess Luna

PS: Did you like how I’ve adapted to modern Equestrian? Not once did I use the royal ‘We’. I think I’m making progress!

I thought about her advice, and it wasn’t bad. There was still the wish that I knew more about my new friend. The idea that ponies didn’t do anything when they didn’t have to, there had to be something that had created that idea. All of the modern psychology books that I had read, and I had read a lot, said that these developments often happened during one’s youth.

Surely Celestia had seen it, or had heard about it.

Oh, another letter.

Dearest Sister-in-Law,

Hi, this is Cadance. How is everything going over there? I know that everything in Ponyville can be really difficult. There seems to be a disaster every week, or at least it seems that way from some of the letters I’ve read. Normally, I’d say that I really couldn’t tell you how glad I am that everything is going as perfect as is does in the Crystal Empire lately.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case.

Why?

Well, really, this is partially my fault. I should have known that something bad was going to happen when it came to Celestia’s former student. Part of me wishes I had just let her stay in that prison, maybe at least for a year or two. I wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, the one that is standing outside of my bedroom waiting for me to finish my ‘nap’.

Oh, I didn’t tell you did I?

Celestia is here.

I love Aunty Tia to bits, I really do. And I can’t think of much that would actually stop, or even lessen, the love that I have for her. She seems like she’s willing to put in the effort to try to see if there is anything that she could do, though.  It wasn’t even forty minutes ago that she showed up, at least according to my loving husband, with the intent on coming to see me. I made the mistake of actually complying with the request. It didn’t make any sense not to, after all. She’s my aunt, I love her so much.

I didn't know she hated Sunset Shimmer so much.

I have to say that I actually feel bad for Shiny. He has to feel horrible, split as to what he should actually do. Obviously he’s loyal to me, but he’s still loyal to Celestia. Oh, and there’s the fact that he kind-of agrees with Celestia. I say kind of because our benevolent ruler seems to think that the best idea is to actually have an execution for the crimes that she committed against the crown.

I’m really starting to be worried about her, both hers actually (Sunset and Tia).

Wish you could do something about this.

Your loving former foal sitter,

Princess Cadance

I shuddered as I thought about what was probably happening at this point in the Crystal Empire. I also wondered what it was that caused Celestia to hate Sunset so much.