Sunset Shimmer scowled and quelled the embers of aura forming on her horn. The thirteen year old filly took a deep breath - one of disbelief rather than exhaustion - and looked Princess Celestia directly in the eyes.

"What do you mean 'that's it'?"

Celestia brushed a few cinders off her withers and remained aloof. "I meant exactly what I said, Sunset. I don't need to see any more of your spell. You failed this test."

Sunset blinked back ash-induced tears and shot the princess an icy gaze. "What's wrong with my spell?"

"I asked if you could hit all the targets on the tarp above us with a no more than three bolts of fire maximum." She nodded up to the tarp, punctured perfectly in all but the last target. Each hole was like a wound in some brightly colored flesh, the frayed edges bleeding ashes down on the goddess and unicorn below, the majority of the stuff settling on the head of the latter like a crown.

"I used one bolt of fire for all of them - I was able to control the flame perfectly and-"

Celestia cut her off with the a wave of her hoof. "You are too arrogant, my Faithful Student."

Sunset pulled back from the princess' reach. "Too arrogant? There were nothing in the rules you set down that I couldn't do this! I practiced that spell for weeks-"

"Are you suggesting that you looked to bend the rules of this assignment for your own pleasure? The rules exist for a reason, Sunset. Why do you continue to seek to disobey the rules I have made for your education?"

A small spark too light next to Sunset Shimmer, but she angrily stopped it out with a forehoof. "Of course there's rules! Magic can't exist without rules... but the rules you've been teaching me by... they're beyond rigorous, Princess! They're... They feel wrong! You never give me anything to challenge myself and I've been wasting so much of my potential... I wanted to challenge myself, since you won't."

"Sunset, you are not here-" She swept a wing to indicate Canterlot Castle behind them. "-for the purpose of being challenged. You are my Faithful Student because you have power that you need to learn to keep in check and have proven that you have enormous potential which-"

"What's the point of me having the potential to do anything if I never put it to use?! I don't feel like a Faithful Student at all - I'm not learning anything other than rules! Your rules, that's all I've really been learning, my own cutie mark tells me I'm supposed to play with fire - it feels right!"

"Sunset-"

"Am I just some sort of trophy to you, Princess? It doesn't feel like being a Faithful Student is meant to be anything at all, after all what's the point? You keep acting like me - or one of the previous ones - are supposed to be the best of the best when it seems like all that being a Faithful Student entails is prestige and more library privilege. Oh, and I get to ogle at myself in some stupid magic mirror."

"Sunset Shimmer," Princess Celestia cautioned, her tone stern and almost cold. The spitfire of a filly ignored her warning.

"The last Faithful Student became a college professor and died old and... just a portrait in the halls of the castle or a name to have on a guest list. If we're so special then why did Gusty just... fade from everything?"

"Sunset, Gusty did not 'fade'-"

"I feel like I'm just supposed to be some kind of ornament instead of a real pony."

Celestia looked appalled. "You are a real pony, Sunset. Why would you believe that you weren't?"

"I'm not treated like one, maybe? I don't want to be a good filly who stays at your side forever."

"Sunset, who is telling you these awful things?" Celestia took a step toward her Faithful Student, and Sunset took one away from the sun goddess' advancing shadow.

"Actions speak louder than words, Princess. You told me that. I wonder if it's really true."

"Sunny-"

"Don't call me that, you're not my grandmother!" Sunset shrieked, she turned away and began to storm back towards the castle, a stray wave of magic rippling across her coat and down to her hooves as she galloped faster and faster, the black jacket she always liked to wear flowing in the wind.

Celestia looked around the hedge maze pavilion and sighed, brushing a few ashes on the ground with her wingtips, pushing them under a topiary wall until everything looked clean again. She quietly began to clean everything up again and in ten minutes it looked as if nothing had happened and she began her flight back to the castle.

Dear Sunset,

I have allowed you your space tonight after your outburst this afternoon, even if it is not an incentive that I would normally permit. I understand that you are frustrated with your studies and the speed of your progress. Acting out is no way to express this, nor is withdrawing from the open hooves of other ponies a proper way to cope.

After tomorrow, I would like to see you start to open up and begin to focus less on yourself. Your worry will fade as you communicate and your pride will be able to transform into something healthier. I will not allow a Faithful Student to have behavior that is so destructive.

You are going to begin to make friends. I am not going to discontinue your studies, but they will not resume until you have made at least one friend. Have you ever talked with Princess Cadance? I have seen the both of you talking at the past two Summer Sun Celebrations, and think that you two would make great friends. She may be older than you, but she is gentle and good at telling jokes. You two would have a hard time not getting along.
By dawn, I do think you will reconsider the harsh words that you spoke to me. I may have forgiven you for them, but they were unnecessary.

I know that you are a very smart young mare but the extent of focus you've devoted to your studying is unnatural. There is more to life than the mastery of magical arts and the solitary state you've withdrawn to since you arrived from Tall Tale is not acceptable. I understand you enjoy your studies, but power is not something you should be seeking.

Your astronomy books no doubt put great focus on their illustrations of the sun - some for the sake of style, some to flatter me - but somepony long ago once told me that all the stars were just suns far away. Ponies have managed to make telescopes to confirm her words to me, but I find the gesture to be long overdue.

Sunset, I know you want to be the sun and light all that is around you.

Nopony is the sun. Not even I am truly like that, and I cannot bring myself to think of myself so highly. You are not the sun, and contrary to how I may be styled neither am I. All of us are stars, Sunset and one day, I know that you'll learn this lesson.

Your Teacher,

Princess Celestia

Princess Celestia stood outside the same room that a young Twilight Sparkle would call her own. She was a couple minutes early, but wanted to see if Sunset would try to make any offer to reconcile before ushering her off to breakfast and switching their conversations to social concerns instead of magical matters.

A moment passed and she still waited. Sunset was most likely applying the black cosmetics she liked to wear and would be out shortly.

Celestia sighed and rubbed her eyes with a forehoof, taking another sip of coffee from her mug of some plain color between slate gray and purple that had reminded her of twilight skies.

Her gilded shoe knocked upon the door. Once. Twice.

When no reply was given she promptly pushed the door open with her hoof, and found it gave away easily.

The letter she slipped under Sunset's door last night was still there, but it was kicked aside slightly. Had Sunset exited her room at some point in the night?

She looked in Sunset's bed, pulling away the covers like a young foal might rip off a bandage. The only color beneath the pale blue sheets was the soft gray of shadows from the bed's canopy.

"Sunny?"