Special Delivery knocked on the door that led to the office of his boss’s boss’s boss for a third time, and for a third time, got no answer. He glanced down at the folders tucked under his wings and thought about just shoving them under the door but... he knew that wasn’t going to be enough. The stallion in charge seemed to take an odd pleasure in berating Special Delivery and a few of the other ponies that he came across for the tiniest infraction. Not turning over the latest reports personally would just give the grumpy old unicorn more ammunition to use against the low-ranking stallion.

So, the young pegasus stallion opened the door and looked around. Unlike the majority of the time he had been sent on a delivery to the stallion at the top, the office only had a single pony within in. And he was asleep at his desk.

Special Delivery cautiously approached the sleeping stallion and blinked at the sight of him drooling on a map of the castle and some other papers that covered his desk. “Um...Captain Hard Line, Sir?” he asked cautiously.

“Stop,” he grumbled as his body jerked the slightest bit.

The command made the private blink in confusion. “Stop what, Sir?”

Hard Line grunted. “No...no! Can’t let her,” he mumbled before his body twitched a little in his sleep. “See...now…”

“See what, Sir?” Special Delivery asked before he poked the sleeping pony.

Captain Hard Line sat up with a cry of surprise. “Huh? Wha?” he asked before looking around. When his eyes settled on Special Delivery, the unicorn’s gaze narrowed. “What do you think you’re doing, interrupting my special concentration method?”

With the captain being so demanding, Special Delivery took a step back. “You mean, you weren’t sleeping, Sir?”

“SLEEPING?” the captain yelled. “Are you suggesting that I am lax in my duties, Private?”

The tone of the captain’s words had Special Delivery standing up a little straighter. “N-No sir! I’d never do something like that, Sir!”

“Don’t lie to me, Private! Report to Corporal Punishment for immediate disciplinary action for speaking ill of a superior officer!” the unicorn yelled.

Special Delivery winced. “Y-Yes, Captain,” he said before extending one of his wings to put the folder on the unicorn’s desk. He didn’t want to give the unicorn another reason to be angry at him. “H-Here’s the morning report from the ponies that were assigned to assist the Civic Guard, Sir.”

When the Captain didn’t move, Special Delivery gulped. “T-The soldiers that were assigned there because of the extra mare power needed to handle security for the Princess Fair.”

After staring at the collection of papers for a few seconds, Hard Line snatched the folder away with his magic. “I knew that! Now get going!” he ordered, making Special Delivery gallop out of the unicorn’s office as fast as he could.

Despite her newfound youthful exuberance, Celestia was still a thousand-plus year old pony. So, when she saw the train wreck that Sunset’s plan to try and recreate the friendships she had on Earth in a new form was quickly becoming, the little alicorn took action. Celestia galloped away from Twilight and put herself between Sunset and Cadance before lighting up her horn to cast spell. Grunting from the effort of having to use an immature horn for magic that most adult unicorns would have been unable to do, Celestia needed to close her eyes in effort from the strain it put on her. When the opened them, the world around her was a dull, lifeless gray that stood perfectly still, save for the tiny bubble that she shared with Cadance and Sunset.

A bubble that was much too precariously small for her liking. So they would need to deal with the matter in front of them quickly.

“Huh, you can stop time too,” Cadance mumbled before taking a tiny step away from the border and looking down at Celestia. “But...why?”

Celestia pointed at her daughter. “So she can catch her breath,” the little alicorn explained before giving Sunset some direction. “Come on Sunset, in and out. Push out the fears when you exhale and-”

Sunset spun on Celestia. “Push them out?” she demanded as she looked at the smaller pony with wide eyes. “How am I supposed to push them out when they’re right in front of me? Maybe, I should have kept them in a little longer. Then I would have been able to go, putting Rarity and Applejack in a box together for more than five minutes, does that really sound like a good idea? Oh and hey, Rainbow Dash. Yeah, let’s let someone who’s never even heard of a filter next to Fluttershy. Or maybe, I should have gone, geeeee we’ve got these things called love potions that can make a pony do it with somepony else. Yeah, that isn’t going to make the first official law I made go horribly wrong!”

Cadance put on a confused frown. “Um...what?”

The mention of Sunset’s earlier crisis got a sigh from Celestia. “Upper Crust did something horrible that’s got Sunset doubting her ability to make good decisions,” she said before hanging her head with a sigh. “Which...might be upsetting her more than I originally thought.”

“Okay so first thing we need to do is smack her out of the panic pity party,” Cadance said as she raised a hoof.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at the bigger pony. “Don’t you mean, snap?”

“Nope,” Cadance told her before drawing back a foreleg and...pausing. “On second thought, I got a better idea.” She lit up her horn and created a long crystal formation as thick as one of her legs. Then, the pink princess took it in a hoof and whacked the amber alicorn upside the head hard enough to send cracks down its length. “Cut it out, Sunset!”

A cry of pain came from Sunset and she looked back to Cadance while rubbing the back of her skull. “OW! Cadance that…” she said pausing for a moment, her eyes widening a bit. “That actually hurt.”

“Well of course it did,” Celestia mumbled. Didn’t the overgrown foals in front of her know what crystal magic did to a pony’s natural energy flow? Cadance studied the spellbook revolving around it every night for pony’s sake!

Shaking off the bit of childish contempt she had at her daughter’s ignorance and niece’s lack of instruction, Celestia looked up at the amber alicorn’s face. “Okay Sunset, now that you’ve had your moment of panic, think! Analyze the situation.”

Sunset paused and looked out to the little fillies in front of them. “Well...okay, give me a second here,” she mumbled before focusing on the unicorn and earth pony that were in the process of yelling at each other. “Applejack and Rarity are fighting because Applejack made a mistake. She’s not going to give anything but lip service when it comes to an apology, because anything more would make her admit she was wrong. As for Rarity, she’s not going to settle for anything that doesn’t involve the replacement of her dress.”

Then she looked over to the blue pegasus. “Pretty sure Rainbow didn’t mean to say anything bad. She just does...all the time, now that I think about it.”

“And Fluttershy’s-”

“Overreacting to the situation while focusing completely on the negative, like you?” Celestia asked evenly. “Yeah, I’ll take care of her.”

Cadance looked over to Rainbow Dash. “Guess Dashie is mine, then,” she said before turning her attention to the fighting fillies. “Should we leave them to their parents, or…”

The ensuing silence was filled by a snort from Sunset. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’ll take care of them.”

“You need to talk to Twilight,” Cadance told her before looking down at Celestia. “For some reason, she may have reason to believe that you’re replacing her with a more talented filly.”

Celestia stiffened uncomfortably under Cadance’s unhappy gaze. Now that the pink princess had mentioned it, Twilight had seemed a bit...terrified, for some reason.

A reason that was now rather apparent thanks to Caddance’s comment. “Oops.”

Sunset rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Okay, I’ll...take care of her after I stop Rarity and Applejack from killing each other.”

“And the other thing?” Cadance pressed.

“What other thing?” Sunset replied.

Celestia joined Cadance in giving Sunset an even look. “This crazy idea that you’re responsible for the actions of a selfish, short-sighted fat filly that made several stupid decisions after you made a law that had nothing to do with her at all in any way, shape, or form?”

After being glared at by the two alicorns for several seconds, Sunset lowered her ears. “If I had seen that loophole, then Upper Crust wouldn’t have-”

The rather short temper Celestia had gotten from being turned into a filly ran out. “Oh shut up about that already!” she yelled. “Fine! You didn’t see one little hole in your new laws because you're not an opportunistic monster anymore. Stop beating yourself up about it! Even I don’t see everything coming! That’s why there’s other princesses to pick up the slack. So next time when you want to start making decrees, ask us for help! Got it?”

While Cadance blinked at Celestia’s ferociousness while Sunset lowered her head. “Okay.”

“It will work out Sunset. Just give it time,” Celestia said before she looked back to the frozen scene in front of her. “So! I’ll handle yellow, Cadance gets blue, and Sunset will take the rest. Let’s go!”

Celestia popped her magic bubble and moved forward as the world around her continued at normal speed. She galloped after Fluttershy as the smaller filly ran away from the group in search of someplace to hide.

While she quickly gained on the yellow pegasus with the gangly legs, something shiny caught Celestia’s attention and she skidded to a stop in order to examine the important object.

Which turned out to be an extremely shiny chariot that gave Celestia a very distorted view of herself. “Hmmm,” she said before spinning around so that the chariot gave the little princess an enlarged view of her rear end. “Did I put on more weight than I was supposed to when I got older?”

When no answer came, Celestia looked around to see she was alone, then caught sight of Fluttershy as the pegasus darted into the storage building where the palace parked their unused chariots that needed repairs. “Ugh! Stupid immature attention span,” Celestia grumbled before resuming the chase. Gotta get Fluttershy. Gotta get Fluttershy. Gotta get Fluttershy.

When she got into the storage barn, a minor locator spell led her to the back corner where Fluttershy had curled up in a ball to cry. Celestia looked down at the yellow pony and tried to think of something. She wasn’t Princess Celestia at the moment, she didn’t have the reputation that would make Fluttershy calm down and listen.

So, she went with her strengths and gave the little filly a bright smile, despite the situation they were in. “Hey there Fluttershy,” Celestia greeted in a cheery voice. “Why’d you run away? We didn’t agree to play hide and seek.”

Fluttershy froze for a second before she looked up at Celestia. “Wha-What do you want?”

“I wanted to come play with you,” Celestia lied before nodding her head towards the exit. “Come on, let’s go to the fair.”

“But...but didn’t you hear what Rainbow said?” she asked.

Celestia thought back to just a few moments ago. “That you got nervous in front of a bunch of other ponies and had an accident that they never let you live down?” she asked before nodding. “Yeah, I heard. So, you wanna go play?”

The offer made Fluttershy give Celestia a long look before she curled back in on herself. “You’re just trying to get me out there so that everypony can make fun of me.”

“Everypony, huh?” Celestia asked evenly, a little teed off at the fact the pegasus filly had just insinuated that Sunset would be joining in on the mockery. “Do you honestly think Princess Sunset and Princess Cadance would be mean and laugh at you?”

Fluttershy was silent for a few seconds. “...well...no,” she admitted.

“Do you think that anypony they want to spend the day with would be mean and want to make fun of you?” Celestia continued.

Once again, Fluttershy became hesitant. “Uh...Rainbow Dash-”

“Yeah, I think that’s her being an idiot more than anything else,” Celestia said before Fluttershy could fully voice her thought and add more weight to it. “She didn’t follow you around in kindergarten and pick on you, right?”

Fluttershy looked up at Celestia. “Well...no,” she admitted. “This is the first time I’ve ever even heard her voice.”

The rather obviousness of it all made Celestia half-close her eyes and look away from the filly for a second. Called it, she thought before centering her gaze back on Fluttershy. “Listen, Fluttershy. I know the whole social scene hasn’t been all that kind to you, but that doesn’t mean hiding yourself away where nopony can even see you is the answer. Because if you do…” Celestia cut the light to her horn, letting the shadows cover them. “You’ll spend your whole life in the dark, alone...and afraid of everything.”

After giving the pegasus a second to digest her words, Celestia lit up her horn and offered Fluttershy a hoof. “So, if you’re tired of all that stuff, come with me and let’s go have some fun.”

There was another moment of hesitation as Fluttershy looked at the alicorn with the pink mane. Then, she reached out tentatively with a trembling hoof that Celestia gently took before hauling the little pegasus to her feet. She blinked as Fluttershy met her eye to eye. Despite her age being at least two years more than the little pegasus, Celestia and Fluttershy were of equal height.

“Hey you’re tall!” the alicorn exclaimed, making Fluttershy start to crouch down. But before she could get an inch down, Celestia continued. “Just like Princess Celestia. That’s so cool!”

Fluttershy straightened up before Celestia grabbed one of her hooves. “Come on, let’s go see what everypony else is doing!” she said before galloping forward as best she could. Fluttershy fought to keep up, eventually flapping her wings and just letting Celestia pull her through the air.

When they made it outside, Celestia found Rainbow Dash and Cadance waiting for them while Sunset stood over a downcast Rarity and Applejack as a simple light blue sundress with a few tiny sapphires in the hemline floated above them.

“Hey there Fluttershy,” Dashie said as she stepped forward before reaching up to run her own shoulder uncomfortably. “Look, sorry I...embarrassed you. I didn’t mean to uh...be mean...like that. I was just...excited when I remembered you is all.”

Fluttershy looked around uncomfortably. It didn’t look like she had gotten many apologies in her life. “Well…”

With the taller pegasus hesitating, Celestia stepped in. “Long as it doesn’t happen again.”

“Hey I’ll make sure that’s the last time anypony mentions it,” Rainbow Dash declared before she flew up into the air to hover there in a dramatic fashion. “That’s what heroes like me do!”

As Fluttershy smirked at Rainbow's antics, Celestia trotted over to give Cadance a pensive look. “Hero?”

Cadance let out an uneasy giggle. “Well, Rainbow hasn’t gone through anything that would let her empathize with Fluttershy so...had to give her something cool to emulate,” she said with a shrug.

“Guess that makes sense,” Celestia reasoned before she turned her attention over to Twilight, who was with Cheerilee and Sassy. “Has Sunset talked to Twily yet?”

“This is Sunset we’re talking about,” Cadance deadpanned.

Sunset watched Twilight go over her schedule as the rest of the girls stood around the food cart to get a snack that would hopefully help put the disastrous start to their day behind them, her face mirroring the worry on Sunset’s. Okay, just got to reassure her that I’m not replacing her. That won't be hard. All Sunset had to do was what she wished Celestia had done when Cadance came around. Just...less extreme.

She looked back to the food cart and Cadance gave her an encouraging glare that made Sunset turn her attention back to Twilight. “Really wish she didn't take after me so well.”

But, Cadance’s visual kick in her butt got Sunset going. The amber alicorn trotted over to where Twilight was standing and took a second to think. She couldn't open with the problem, so… “Hey Twily. What are you doing?”

“Why did you have to bring all those other fillies?” Twilight asked as she looked up from the paper floating in front of her with wide eyes. “My plan for today didn’t include so many other fillies.”

After getting hit with Twilight’s energetic sad face, Sunset broke eye contact with the unicorn. “Well, uh...I thought you might want to meet some other ponies in your age group, so I invited some other fillies I knew to the coronation.”

“Where’d you meet them?” the purple pony asked.

“Dash and Fluttershy come from Cloudsdale and Rarity and Applejack are from Ponyville,” Sunset told her.

Twilight frowned and drew in on herself a little. “What about Sunny?” she asked. “Where’d you find her? How is she so good at magic? Are you...tutoring her too?”

Okay here we go, Sunset told herself.

After learning about Twilight’s fear that Sunset was replacing her with Celestia from Cadance, the amber alicorn had worked up a plausible explanation. “Twily, you remember that letter I gave you a week ago?”

“The one you wrote to tell me you wouldn’t have as much time to teach me magic that I misinterpreted to mean that you were going away forever? Then had a panic attack about and passed out until the next morning when you came to have breakfast?” Twilight asked.

The mention of the cover story Sunset had fed her to explain the missing time of the night she had almost left Equestria got a nervous laugh from the amber alicorn. “Well...Sunny is the pony I want to be a...tutor,” Sunset half-lied. “She just wanted to get to know you on a more...even field, first.”

Both of them turned their attention to Princess Celestia after hearing a little squeal. “Cake flavored ice cream? You have ice cream that tastes like cake?”

“Well, birthday cake flavored,” the earth pony that was operating the cart said uneasily as he glanced over to Cadance.

Twily blinked as she looked up at Sunset. “So, she’s...a student from Celestia’s school?”

“Five scoops. No wait, ten! No! Two cones with five scoops each,” she ordered. “My filly metabolism makes me unstoppable! Muhahaha!”

“Uh, sure. Let’s go with that,” Sunset said with a nod before forcing a smile on her face. “Now, I know what you want to do, but let’s see about your new friends want to try. And don’t you want some ice cream?”

All of the fillies looked at the collection of straws Sunset held in her hoof, trying to decide which one to pick. Shining Armor understood that the older girls needed to keep from showing favoritism, but random determination of what they were supposed to do seemed wasteful. Although not designed for more than herself and a few other ponies, Twilight’s plan did maximize the time they had to spend by going from one ride to another based on what ponies did at a certain time of the day. It seemed foolish to just toss it aside.

Celestia went first, her straw turning a bright pink as she picked it from the grouping.

“Hey Shiny, I’ve been wondering,” Cadance said. “You not feeling any side effects from the age regression, are you?”

He looked up to his fillyfriend. “What kind of side effects?”

“Twily! Hey Twily, check this out!” Celestia called out, getting everypony’s attention before she cut off the magic holding her staw and stuck out her tongue. The plastic fell on her mouth muscle and remained upright while she stumbled around in an attempt to keep it balanced. “I kwan bawance my staw on my-waaaaaah!”

Cadence sighed as Celestia crashed into a nearby cart that was serving snow cones. “A complete lack of impulse control, for one,” she said.

Sunset cleared her throat. “Okay, let’s see everypony’s straws so I can get the order,” she said before taking them up in her magic and looking at them closely. Each one had less than an inch difference in length from one to the next, and they had different colors, depending on the pony who drew them. “So, it looks like...Sunny gets to pick first, then Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Then we’ve got Rarity, followed by Twilight and Fluttershy.”

“I wanna go on a roller coaster!” Rainbow Dash cried out.

Fluttershy’s head cocked to the side. “What’s a...roller coaster?”

The request got got an uneasy look from Rarity. “Darling, while I’m sure that sounds fun and all, some of us have weak stomachs that can’t even take a little ride in the sky from Ponyville to Canterlot. Maybe it’s best if-”

“Hey!” Applejack exclaimed. “Are you talking about me?”

Rarity shrugged. “Well, if the horseshoe fits…”

“Ah can handle roller coasters just fine!” Applejack told her before looking over to Sunset. “Princess, Ah wanna go on the roller coaster too!”

Sunset gave to two fillies a hesitant look. “Well, there are three of them, so I guess it’s-”

“Then I’ll go on a roller coaster as well!” Rarity declared at she looked at Applejack.

“Okay girls,” Sunset said as she gave Rarity a look of disbelief over her choice of activity. “But right now, it’s Sunny’s turn to pick. So...what do you want to do, Sunny?”

When the hidden alicorn decided that she thought they should spend some time at the game booths, all of the girls happily followed along before dividing up into pairs or groups of three, with Celestia sticking to Twilight like glue as she talked the purple pony into playing a game that involved rolling a ball into a set of holes protected by rings on the ground.

Since it didn’t look like Shining Armor needed to help Twilight, he looked around for something to occupy himself with. That something turned out to be a cart offering cotton candy. The idea of eating anything before going on three roller coaster rides seemed rather foolish.

But...cotton candy wasn’t really food, so...Shining Armor didn’t see that much of a problem with having some.

“Hey! You can’t use yet horn fer horseshoes!” Applejack cried out indignantly from the booth her and Rarity were at.

He trotted up to the cart and looked up at the earth pony. “One please.”

Once he paid for the candy, a process that involved tracking down Sassy Saddles because she was the first older pony he found with any money, Shining Armor took his treat in his magic and looked for a place to sit down. When he found a bench with a dull pink-ish purple unicorn sitting on it with her mane done up like a pair of feather-dusters, Shining Armor trotted up and plopped himself down. “Hey there, mind if I sit here?”

She looked over to him with big, sad eyes and sighed before slumping down on the bench even further than she alreasy was. “I guess.”

Shining Armor moved to take a bite of his candy, but stopped before he did. “Hey uh...you want some?”

The filly looked up and blinked at the offer several times. “Uh...okay,” she agreed before her horn lit up and tore off some of the pink puff. She looked at the candy for a few seconds, then over to Shining Armor. “Thank you.”

While seeing a filly at a fair wasn’t uncommon, seeing one sitting by herself while every other pony in her age bracket and then some were running around having fun worried Shining Armor. “So...are you...feeling alright?”

“I’m fine,” she replied in her not fine, super depressed voice.

Shining Armor looked around for a pair of older ponies that in some small way resembled the filly next to him. “Are your parents here?”

She shook her head. “I’m a student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” she said, as if that explained everything, before looking down and sighing. “For now, anyway.” Just mentioning the academic institution looked as if it depressed the little filly even further.

“Oh, uh...that’s...I have a little sister that wants to go there next term,” Shining Armor said. “Maybe you can show her around sometime.”

The filly’s eyes started to tear up a little, and she started blinking her eyes. “I...I’m not, that’s not...going to happen,” she said. “T-They’re probably gonna...kick me out.”

A sniffle quickly followed the little filly’s words. Shining Armor decided not to wait and looked around for a pony to help him before the waterworks really began.

“Princess Sunset! Princess Sunset! Look what Sunny helped me win!” Twilight cried out as she galloped up to the amber alicorn with a familiar looking yellow stuffed animal held in her magic. Although, the Sunset plushy was a bit more...foal friendly than the actual model.

“It’s so fluffy!” Twilight cried out as she lowered the stuffed princess to hug it tightly.

Well, it’s not like Celestia’s in a position to do something at the moment, he told himself before finding the little pony standing at a strength test machine, trying to lift a hammer twice as big as she was.

And as for Cadance…

“Nu-uh!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Yeah-huh!” Rarity countered.

“Nu-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nu-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nu-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nu-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

The pink princess looked up to the heavens and sighed as the debate she was moderating continued with no end in sight.

So, Shining went with his final option. “Uh, Sunset! Could you come here a second?”

“You seem...familiar.”

Starlight Glimmer gulped as she looked up at the gigantic alicorn looming over her. Despite the lilac unicorn’s position on a bench, Princess Sunset Shimmer looked even bigger than the little unicorn remembered. And the frown on her face made her seem much more intimidating.

Ever since she had come to Celestia’s school, Starlight had heard the stories about Sunset Shimmer. Ponies commented on Starlight's skill and power, but then turned right around and said it was almost like Celestia’s personal student. Teachers would endure her loud protests, then talk about she wasn’t nearly as bad as Sunset Shimmer’s outbursts. Other students would shy away from her from time to time while they spoke of Sunset Shimmer in hushed whispers and froze at the mention of her name.

And now, she was literally standing in the new Princess’s shadow. “Um...I-I’m...Starlight G-Glimmer,” she said quietly before finding a very interesting piece of grass to look at.

Princess Sunset blinked at the reaction before the frown disappeared to be replaced by a smile. “Hey there, Starlight. Sorry if I spooked you, I forget how big I’ve gotten lately and how scary that can look to a little filly. You wouldn’t believe how scary I used to think Celestia was back in the day.

“So, um...what’s wrong?” Sunset asked after a short pause. “Did you lose your friends?”

Even though she knew Princess Sunset meant it in a locational sense, Starlight couldn’t stop herself of thinking of the question in the worst way possible. “Ye...yeheheheeeeessssss!” she cried out as tears fell from her eyes.

Starlight didn’t care if Sunburst did have a new friend, she would play with both of them! She’d have Trixie play Dragon Trap and make kites with her and Sunburst. Even if Trixie wasn’t good a magic, she could...she could hold the spellbook and run errands for Starlight while she practiced it with Sunburst!

Two big forelegs enveloped Starlight. “Aww, there there,” Princess Sunset said as she picked the much smaller pony up and hugged her. Starlight buried herself in the royal’s shoulder. “Shhhh. It’ll be alright. Ummmm. Hey girls, can you umm...handle the fillies for a few? I need to take care of this real quick.”

“Huh?” Starlight said as she looked up at the big pony with wings and a horn. “You’re gonna...help me?”

Sunset looked down at the little filly and smiled. “Why wouldn’t I?”

The question confused Starlight. It wasn’t that she misunderstood it. What confused her was the fact that a princess was asking her such a thing and going against everything that Starlight knew important ponies were supposed to do. “Because...you’re a princess. You’re too important to do something like that. This whole fair is all about you!”

“So?” Sunset said with a little snort before she used her magic to put Starlight on her back a reached up with her wings to settle the little pony in before she started trotting forward. “Now, let’s go find your friends. What’re their names?”

Starlight blinked. “Uh well, they’re a unicorn colt and filly named Sunburst,” she said before stumbling over the next part. If she told Princess Sunset the truth, she might not want to help her. “A-And Trixie.”

The pony Starlight was riding came to a sudden stop. “Trixie...Lulamoon?”

“Y-You know her?” Starlight asked in fear. If Trixie knew the Princess, then all she had to do was say one bad word and Starlight could kiss any hope of staying at Celestia’s School goodbye!”

Sunset smirked. “Sort of,” she said before looking back to a bunch of fillies that were gathering around another princess.

When the colt that had given her some candy galloped over to them as well, Starlight realized that Princess Sunset and Princess Cadance must have taken the lot of them to the fair for some reason. “Um...Princess Sunset, aren’t you with them?”

“Okay everypony, are you all ready to go on the roller coaster?” Princess Cadance asked them in a loud voice that was full of energy before the colt got the Princess’s attention and said something as he stuck a hoof out in Starlight’s direction.

Princess Sunset gave Starlight an uneasy laugh. “Yeah, but I’ve already had enough of being flung through the air at breakneck speeds to last a lifetime.”

The search for Trixie and her boyfriend didn’t take long, with what Sunset knew about the little pony’s human counterpart.

Since the fair was all about cheap entertainment for little fillies, there was a good deal of performances going on on top of all the rides and candy. So, all Sunset had to do was take a look at an information booth’s schedule and map to see where a magic show was being performed. She found Trixie sitting in the front row next to another unicorn that had almost the same coloration as Sunset did. But, rather than reveal herself right away and ruin the show, she waited in the background under a tree and looked back to Starlight Glimmer.

“Okay girl, while we’re waiting for your friends to finish watching the show, how about you tell me just what I’m getting into here,” Sunset requested before she picked the little filly up and set her down on the ground as she crouched to rest on her barrel as well.

Despite the loss of height that went with her legs, Starlight still had to look up to see Sunset’s face. “What do you mean?”

Sunset took a second to consider her answer. “Well, why aren’t you hanging out with Sunburst and Trixie anymore?”

“Um...well…” Starlight looked away and twisted her hoof on the ground. “I never really hung out with Trixie, and uh...Sunburst, he said he...moved to Canterlot to get away from me.”

Despite the fact that she knew preconceptions were a bad idea in situations like these, Sunset could already guess what had happened. The two kids had played around as children, with Starlight being the bossy one that always had to have everything her way. Then, when Sunburst moved away and found Trixie, he got a...well...okay, the Trixie that Sunset knew was also pretty self absorbed and bossy, but maybe she and Sunburst just clicked better than him and Starlight did. It also made sense that the guy would gravitate towards a similar personality to what he was familiar with.

Although, the fact that the guy was hanging out with Trixie when Starlight said he moved away to get away from her… It didn’t speak well of the filly’s character.

“But, I thought you were friends,” Sunset said.

Starlight’s expression became desperate. “We are! We always played together back home! He played Dragon Trap with me. He studied magic with me. He even made a few kites with me when I took him out of town.”

The particular wording of Starlight’s description had Sunset thinking for a moment. From the way Starlight talked, it was pretty obvious that she was a very self-centered filly, not that Sunset could blame her, given her age. “And now you want Sunburst back, so that he’ll play with you again.”

Starlight nodded. “Yes. Can you make him play with me again, Princess Sunset?”

With a great deal of willpower, Sunset managed to keep the smile on her face from turning vicious as she looked down at the filly. “Of course I can, Starlight. Don’t worry, by the time I’m done, Sunburst will be playing with you like crazy.”

The little filly’s beaming smile lasted longer than it took for the magician’s performance to end. When it did, the performer announced that the next show would be a juggling act involving a pair of brothers on unicycles and torches. As the magician waved goodbye, Sunset let Starlight up on her back before she trotted over to the little ponies.

Thankfully, most of the crowd dispersed quickly rather than wanting some time which the Princess, which Sunset felt she had to thank her tyrannical weekend rule for. Sometimes, being a bitch paid off.

The two foals were too into their discussion of the show to notice Sunset until she cast a shadow over them and spoke. “Hello, my little ponies.”

Both of them looked up and got wide eyes upon seeing the amber alicorn, but it was Trixie that managed to talk. “P-Princess Sunset. It’s um...hello, Your Majesty.”

Since she didn’t want anypony else to see what she was doing and it didn’t look like there was going to be anypony sitting in the stands for the next several minutes, Sunset cast a misdirection field around the lot of them. It was a simple spell that worked on the same unobtrusive principles as a number of other spells built around not being noticed, if to a lesser degree. Ponies would still be aware of Sunset’s presence, but it would take them several minutes before the information really registered in their brains as important. Unless a pony was actively searching for Sunset or one of the younger ponies, she wouldn’t be disturbed or eavesdropped upon.

“Hello Trixie,” Sunset said with a nod before looking over to the other unicorn. “And you must be Sunburst.”

The amber unicorn blinked. “Um, yes. T-That’s right, Your Highness,” he said, obviously affected by the fact an alicorn even knew his name. “How do you know who I am?”

Starlight took that as her cue and promptly jumped down from Sunset’s back to stand tall with a borderline vicious smile on her face. “Because I told her!”

Both of the other unicorns stiffened at Starlight’s presence. Sunburst took a step back and half-moved behind Trixie as the blue unicorn frowned. “W-What’re you doing here, Starlight?”

“Princess Sunset is going to make Sunburst play with me again!” she said proudly.

Sunset nodded. “Yep!” she agreed before lighting up her horn. “And I’ve got just the spell to help me with that.”

It took a great deal of effort to keep the bile from rising in her throat as she weaved the spell around Starlight, but Sunset managed to do it without letting her distaste show.

A blue aura surrounded the lilac unicorn for a moment, making her blinked in confusion before she looked over to Sunset. “Princess, what’re you doing?”

“Oh! Well, you see, you talked so much about playing with Sunburst when we were talking,” Sunset said before she completed her spell. “I figure that it’s his turn to play with you.”

Starlight blinked. “Huh?”

Ignoring the filly’s confusion, Sunset looked over to the colt. “Give her an order.”

“Uh…” Sunburst said as he looked back and forth between Sunset and Starlight, his eyes finally settling on the unicorn. “Lift your right foreleg?”

Starlight frowned. “Why would I-ahhh!” she exclaimed as her body responded to the command. A second later, her face twisted in anger. “Hey, what’s going on here?”

Sunset’s smile turned dark as she narrowed her eyes. “Like I said. I think it’s time Sunburst got some time to play with you.”

“Oh my gosh!” Trixie exclaimed with an excited look on her face. “She’s like our doll! Quick! Starlight, the Great and Powerful Trixie orders you to dance!”

There was a brief flash of fear on Starlight’s face before she...stood there with her hoof raised. “...huh?” she asked.

“Sunburst is the one that gives the orders,” Sunset explained before she looked over to the disturbed colt. The fact that he didn’t like what he was seeing was a good sign in Sunset’s opinion. “So Sunburst, what do you want your new plaything to do?”

Starlight’s expression turned angry as her horn lit up. “Sunburst, you better let me go right now or-”

“S-Stop using magic!” the amber colt ordered.

The light around Starlight’s horn winked out. When the filly became fearful again, the emotion stuck around. “W-What?” she breathed out in terror.

With things going not quite as she envisioned them, Sunset looked over to the colt that shared her coat color. “Sunburst, did she use to threaten you like that a lot?”

“H-Hey-” Starlight said before Sunset shot her a look that quickly silenced the little filly.

The alicorn’s menacing presence seemed to have an effect on Sunburst as well, as he looked away and rubbed his shoulder. “Well, uh...not...a lot,” he said.

“So, she did bully you into playing with her? How far did it go? Did she just threaten you, or did Starlight actually hurt you?” Sunset asked, one question quickly following the next, what little sympathy she had for the filly evaporating more and more with every one. Sunset had thought Starlight had just been a self-centered brat with control issues. But if she had gotten her way through physical violence…

Sunburst gulped. “Well...j-just once,” he said. “She said it was my fault for...not playing with her.”

But the threat of beating the poor colt within half an inch of his life with her horn probably kept him in line after that. Sunset snorted angrily at the thought. It also made her little plan go right out the window. Originally, Sunset had just planned to just use the spell for a few minutes to show Starlight what it was like when another pony made her do everything he wanted without having to do anything she did. The whole thing would let her feel what it was like to be on the receiving end of that type of relationship and hopefully develop some perspective and empathy. After that, she would have hopefully come out of it an improved pony and treated others better down the line.

But if the little brat was just a violent maniac, then Sunset knew it was probably better to just toss her down the darkest hole she could find and never let her out. She had seen today what giving ponies one too many chances led to. Life wasn’t baseball, and three strikes just gave the unrepentant two more chances to hurt others.

Sunset moved to sever the command spell with the intention of dragging the filly off when she noticed water gathering in the lilac unicorn’s eyes. “I’m sorry!” Starlight cried out before tears started running down her face. “I’m sorry, Sunburst! I just...you wouldn’t play with me unless I made you. But -w-we had fun sometimes, didn’t we?”

Despite the uneasiness Sunburst was obviously feeling, he nodded a little bit. “Yes. Even if you did make me do a bunch of boring stuff like fly kites.”

Starlight latched onto the colt’s words as if she was a drowning mare given a life preserver. “Then we don’t have to do that anymore, or anything you don’t want!” she said. “Please, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ever did anything to make you angry at me.”

Trixie sniffed and turned her nose up at Starlight. “What makes you think we want to do anything with you?”

“Because-” Starlight cut herself off and looked back to Sunburst. “Because...I...I said I was sorry. I...I’ll be good from now on, I promise.”

“You’re just saying that because of the spell!” Trixie accused as she pointed a hoof at Starlight before turning to the colt. “Sunburst, make her tell the truth, make her tell us what she really thinks feels.”

Sunburst looked up at Sunset, who found herself torn. On one hand, she saw so much of the old her in Starlight, the one she was after she put on the crown and didn’t bat an eye at the idea of killing Twilight Sparkle. She saw Upper Crust, a pony that had used Sunset’s kindness in taking her to the Formal to commit such an evil act that Sunset still wasn’t sure how to deal with her. She saw...a terrified little filly that was teetering on the edge and in desperate need of a pony to pull her back.

Which was something Sunset knew she couldn’t do. She was the authoritarian princess. She could make a pony obey. She could make them do what they were supposed to do despite their personal desires. But she couldn’t make the filly in front of her change her way of thinking.

That was more Princess Twilight’s thing.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” the amber alicorn told the colt. “You’re the one that can tell her what to do here.”

With that, Sunburst looked back to Starlight. “Okay then,” he said before gulping. “Starlight, I order you...to...do whatever you want for the rest of your life, even if I tell you otherwise.”

Starlight blinked at the words, then looked down at her leg, which slowly lowered back to the ground before she turned her eyes up at her horn that responded to a mental command by lighting up. “Huh?” She looked back to Sunburst with wide eyes. “Why?”

“I don’t...force you into doing thing you don’t want to, Starlight,” he told her before sighing in exhaustion. “Like you did with me. Go do whatever it is that you want.”

The useless command hung in the air several seconds before Starlight eyes tear up again. “But I want...I want to be with you again!” she cried out as she galloped forward to rear up and hug Sunburst. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I was so mean to you! I don’t have to fly kites ever again. I can do what you want from now on. I just want my friend baaaaaaaaaack!”

Since all the colt did was stand there as Starlight cried into his shoulder, Sunset cleared her throat and stepped forward. “You know Starlight, I wouldn’t exactly call what you had with Sunburst friendship.”

Starlight sniffed in a loud breath through her runny nose and looked back at Sunset. “Friendship is when two ponies want to be together because it makes them both happy, not one pony making the other do something because it makes only her happy,” she explained.

“Then…” she said before looking back at Sunburst. “Do you...want to want to be friends, Sunburst? For real this time? Please?”

The colt looked away from Starlight, but his face was more amused than sour. “Well...I wouldn’t say that our time together was all bad,” he admitted, making Starlight smile before he turned to the blue unicorn of the group. “What do you think, Trixie? Do you want to hang out with Starlight?”

When the colt deferred to the blue filly, Sunset started to consider how best to fix this latest development.

Trixie gave the lilac unicorn an even look before she glanced at Sunset for the briefest of moments. “Well...if Princess Sunset took the time out of her day to bring this pony to see Trixie, then I suppose we can give her a chance.”

“Thank you!” Starlight said before she rushed over to the unicorn filly. “You’ll see Trixie, I’ll be the best friend you’ve ever had!”

The close proximity made Trixie take a step back. “Uh…”

“I’ll let you practice magic tricks on me!” Starlight offered.

Trixie looked over to Sunburst with a pleading expression.

“I’ll help you cheat on your tests!”

Sunset cleared her throat loud enough to cut into the conversation. “Excuse me?”

The interruption had Trixie giving Sunset a nervous smile a few seconds later. “Oh um…” she said before turning Starlight around and smiling up at the amber alicorn. “D-Don’t worry, Princess Sunset. Trixie and Sunburst will show Starlight how she needs to behave from now on!”

A very big part of Sunset said that she needed to just go ahead and drag Starlight off to the magic academy’s disciplinary committee and take steps to make sure that she was dealt with. From what she could tell, Sunburst was a well behaved colt and Trixie...okay, well Trixie was also pretty borderline, but Sunset doubted she would be as bad as her human counterpart if there was a positive influence in her life like the amber colt.

It was a thought that had Sunset thinking back to her own expulsion and how nobody had stuck their necks out for her. Which Trixie actually...well, Sunset doubted that the blue unicorn actually wanted to save Starlight’s proverbial bacon and was just wanting to get some points for doing what she thought Sunset wanted her to do. So, it wasn’t all that altruistic.

From what Sunset had seen from the equine counterparts to her human friends, foals were pretty short sighted, selfish little bastards. Something the amber alicorn had to admit she never really grew out of. Which was partly Celestia’s fault for never doing anything until she expelled Sunset from her school. If something had been done to at least make sure she followed the rules before, then...

Sunset blinked as an idea suddenly popped into her head. “You know what?” she asked rhetorically. “That’s not a bad idea.” It needed some fine tuning, but the thought of a discipline system for foals enrolled in Celestia’s school began to form in her mind. Something that would have helped keep her from turning into such a brat way back in the day.

“Eh?” the little blue unicorn said in confusion as Sunset looked down at her before turning her attention over to Sunburst.

“I haven’t actually heard from you yet,” the amber alicorn told Sunburst as she focused her attention on him. “What do you want to happen with Starlight?”

Sunburst blinked. “Why’re you asking me, Princess?”

“Because, you’re the one that knows Starlight the best of of the three of us,” Sunset explained before looking to the little filly. Starlight pulled in on herself from the attention and crouched down to the floor “From what I’ve seen, Starlight Glimmer is a selfish, self-centered little filly who doesn’t care about the wants of others and only uses other ponies to make herself happy, no matter how bad it makes them feel. But I know that’s only a part of who she is, you’ve been around her for years, you know the full story. So, I’ll leave the final choice of what happens to her up to you.

“If you want, if you think she can turn herself around, I’ll let her stay here in Canterlot and keep going to Mom’s magic school,” Sunset offered. “But if you think that she can’t change her ways, that everything she’s saying in a lie that she’s just saying to avoid getting in trouble, then I’ll take her to the school’s disciplinary review board and explain to them how she wanted me to cast a spell that would have made you and Trixie follow every command she gave with the recommendation that she be expelled. Which I’m guessing they’d do since both of you fillies have already been caught trying to alter grades.”

Starlight went stiff and Trixie winced at Sunset’s words. “Trixie was hoping that you didn’t remember that.”

“And that on top of the time I grabbed Starlight before taking her to the office a few weeks ago means that one more mistake from her and it’s over. So, that’s my question to you, Sunburst,” Sunset told him. “Do you think that there is a chance that Starlight will become a better pony, or do you think that it’s best we cut her loose now so that she doesn’t do something really bad?”

The question had Sunburst rubbing his chin while Starlight looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Well...Starlight’s not that bad, as long as you do what she says, that is.”

“I won’t boss you around anymore!” Starlight promised from her place on the ground. “Please, Sunburst. I don’t...you were my only friend. Please don’t let them kick me out.”

After looking into Starlight’s eyes for a few seconds, Sunburst sighed and hung his head. “Okay, I guess that I can give her another chance.”

A second later, Starlight leaped up and hugged Sunburst again. “Oh thank you! Thank you! Tank you! Thank you!” she cried.

“Good,” Sunset said. “Oh, by the way, if Starlight does get into trouble again, I’ll make sure that Sunburst will be expelled as well.”

Trixie gasped. “What?” she cried out. “But why? Sunburst is such a goodie-goodie, he never does anything wrong!”

Sunset frowned. “Because that’s what taking responsibility means,” she said before looking over to Starlight. “Do you understand that, little filly? If you truly care about your friends and don’t want them to suffer for your mistakes, then I would suggest you keep yourself under control or you won’t be the only one paying the price. So behave, got that?”

Hopefully, Starlight’s desire to be friends with the colt would keep her on the straight and narrow while Sunburst’s newfound stake in the mess would keep him from trying to distance himself from the filly thanks to their past. Sunset knew from personal experience how hard it was to turn a life around when nobody else wanted anything to do with you.

Sunburst gulped. “Understood, Princess.”

Starlight hugged onto the colt even tighter.

Trixie stepped forward. “W-We will, Princess Sunset.”

“Good,” Sunset told them. “Because, even though I’ll have a busy schedule, if I do come by to check up on the three of you, I hope that I’ll see the three of you have set this problem behind you and become good friends.”

Sunset turned to leave as she dropped the facade and smiled to herself. Although it probably could have gone a lot better, it felt good to deal with a friendship problem that wouldn’t affect the fate of the world.

“Hey Twily! Twily! That was fun, wasn't it? What do you want to do next?” Sunny Skies asked excitedly as Shining Armor the rest of the fillies with the exception of Fluttershy took a moment to recover from their third straight roller coaster ride.

Twilight let out a little moan. “I want the world to stop spinning.”

Thanks to all the tunnels beneath Canterlot with tracks already put in place, all ponies needed to do was put on the movement and protection spells to create the longest roller coaster rides in Equestria. Tracks they had just spent thirty minutes on thanks to the presence of two rather...competitive fillies.

“Ready to give in yet, Applejack?” Rarity asked as she sat with her back propped up against the mountainside as she held her stomach. “There’s no shame if a pony with a stomach as sensitive as yours has had enough.”

The earth pony that was sitting next to the unicorn looked back with a superior smirk as she took in deep breath after deep breath. “Don’t know the meaning of the word.”

Rainbow Dash gave them both a hesitant look. “Hey, I think roller coasters are cool and all, but we just rode all three and-”

“What’s a matter Dashie, you too chicken to go again?” Applejack asked.

“...I have no idea what that means,” Rainbow Dash said.

With a lack of knowledge shown, Twilight's ears perked up and her eyes locked onto the target. “A chicken is a white bird that’s unable to fly and kept to harvest their unfertilized eggs for consumption,” she explained.

Rainbow Dash took to the air. “Hey! I’m great at flying!” she yelled at Applejack.

“That ain't what I meant,” Applejack deadpanned.

Before they could continue, Cheerilee totted up. “Okay girls, I think that’s enough of that,” she said. “There are other fillies here that want to do something. We went on three roller coasters, that’s one for Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity. It’s time for Fluttershy or Twilight to decide what we do.”

Rarity looked back at the earth pony teenager. “What about one of the mares picking a ride?”

“Oh! Well, we’re fine with whatever you girls what to do,” she said.

There was a disgruntled sound from the male of the group. “Hey, don’t I get to make a suggestion?”

“Yer a boy,” Applejack told him. “Probably want us all to ride around in go karts or something.”

Twilight winced at the utterance of what her parents called a trigger word. Anything with four wheels and an autonomous movement enchantment that wasn’t meant to haul around anything always…

“No,” Shiny said before he sat down to curl into a ball. “Not racing karts. Not derby racers. Monster behind me. The fire. Only race in water. Boats are safe. Boats are fun.”

Cadance trotted over to the colt before looking back to the purple pony. “Uh, Twily? What’s wrong with your brother?”

“Mom says it’s because of the Canterlot Derby,” Twily explained. “But that’s all she or Dad will say.”

Shining Armor began to rock in place. “Fire all around me. Monster behind me. Monster wants to eat me.”

At that point, Cadance scooped up the colt and held him close. “Okay, I’ve been through this enough to know the drill. Cheerilee, you’re in charge until Sunset returns or Sassy gets back from the bathroom with Fluttershy. I’m going to take Shiny to get something to eat that’ll help calm his nerves.”

After Cadance took to the air with her little coltfriend and headed off, Applejack looked over to the near-adults. “What happened to Shining Armor?”

“Certainly his memories of the Derby couldn’t be that bad,” Rarity said. “I lost the position of most original to the oddest mare in town, but I don’t let...it...g-get to me.” A second later, the filly wiped a tear from her eye.

Sunny Skies cleared her throat, getting everypony’s attention. “Canterlot’s derby is a bit different than Ponyville’s. The parents of the foals build magic into their carts. The three criteria that our racers are judged on are most powerful, most enchanted and winner of the race,” she explained. “Because I-think Princess Celestia puts a shielding spell and a teleportation enchantment to remove them from the race when their kart gets destroyed, the karts get enchanted with several spells, including concussion blasts and fireballs.”

After a few seconds of silence, Rainbow Dash dropped to the ground. “I so got to move to Canterlot before the next derby.”

Applejack snorted. “The only ribbon worth winning in a derby is the one for most traditional.”

“Pashaw!” Rarity exclaimed. “I think you meant to say is the style ribbon is the most important.”

Cheerilee blinked at the sight from her place beside Twilight. "Why is it that the oldest fillies in this group also the most immature?”

A dismissive snort came from Applejack. “No. I mean what I say. And what I say is the style ribbon is the most worthless. Least the fastest kart is fast. Style is the most stupid.”

Rarity’s mouth dropped. “Y-You-” she said before her eyes widened and she galloped past Twilight. When the purple pony turned around to see where Rarity had gone, she caught sight of Princess Sunset right before the white unicorn reared up to put her hooves on the amber alicorn that had made her way over with Fluttershy and Sassy not far behind. “Princess Sunset! Tell Applejack that the style ribbon is the most important thing to win in a soapbox derby.”

“No!” Applejack said before she galloped over to stand next to Rarity in front of Princess Sunset. “The traditional ribbon’s the most important.”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

The look on Sunset’s face became annoyed and she raised ahoof halfway off the ground. Knowing where this was going, Twilight quickly braced herself for impact. A second later, the ground shook, and both the little fillies found themselves standing on cracks in the ground.

“Now that I have your attention,” Sunset said as her horn lit up and the damage was repaired by magic. She looked back and forth between the two fillies for a few seconds. “Let me guess...you’re arguing over the importance of form versus function?”

Cheerilee cleared her throat. “Actually, it’s style versus tradition. They’re arguing over which prize for their town’s derby is more important,” she said before frowning slightly. “Although, it’s a little strange how you were able to get that close after just hearing Rarity.”

A tiny laugh came from Sunset’s mouth. “Well, they’re a lot like some other friends I used to have,” she replied. Then, the amber alicorn gave both of the nine-year olds a disappointed look. “Maturity level and all.”

“Okay so, this shouldn’t take too long…” Sunset paused to think for a moment. “Girls, what you’re arguing about is simply a matter of personal taste and opinion. While there’s nothing wrong in sharing your opinion tactfully, getting angry because someone doesn’t agree with your way of thinking and trying to force that way of thinking onto them is like beating your head against a brick wall. Both of which are utterly futile and only end up giving you a headache,” Sunset told them. “I mean, if I said that I don’t really like wearing clothes or eating apples-”

Rarity backed away as if Sunset had turned into a demon while Applejack let out a horrified gasp. “Y-You don’t...like...apples?”

As the two fillies had a nervous breakdown, Sunny trotted over to the stunned Sunset. “You should have quit while you were ahead.”

“Oh for crying out loud, I was giving them an example!” Sunset shot back before she moved to calm the fillies down. “No, no! Girls, I think clothes and apples are just fine! I used to wear and eat them every day!”

After managing to get Shiny to calm down with the help of a corn dog and some talk about how good it was that he was a colt at the moment or she would have used the time alone together to give Shiny a bit of sexual relief, it took Cadance a good half an hour to find Sunset and Sassy. However, the fact that they were alone was something she did not take as a good sign. “Hello you two...um, where are the girls?”

Sunset pointed towards a giant pink tent that was set up nearby with a long line waiting out front. The sign on top made Cadance squint in order to read it. “The Pavilion of Pony Princesses Past?”

“It’s a display of artwork featuring all of the princesses of Equestria,” Sassy explained. “Well, except for possibly you and Sunset.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Why aren’t you two accompanying them?”

“The number of ponies allowed in the tent for at a time is limited to eight,” Sassy said.

Next to her, Sunset offered Shiny a seat in her lap, which he took after a moment of consideration. She kissed him on the cheek and hugged him to her chest. “Hey Shiny, the girls told me what happened. You okay?”

The colt blushed at the attention. “Yeah.”

“You know, the girls will probably be in that tent for a while,” Sunset told him. “If you want, we could go do something together, like take a picture or go on a ride you don’t want Twily to remember you went on ten years from now.”

“Um…” Cadance began as she looked over to Sunset. “I’m pretty sure that they would have made an exception and let you in Sunset.”

Sunset looked up from their colt and raised an eyebrow. “Cadance, it’s a tent full of paintings of alicorns that actually earned their titles. Does that really sound like something I should be surrounded by right now?”

Sassy put on a confused look and blinked several times.

“...point taken,” Cadance replied before taking a seat at the picnic table.

The three mares and one temporary colt sat in silence for a moment before unset broke it. “So uh...what exactly made Shiny freak out?”

Cadance shared a nervous look with Sassy before the unicorn spoke. “Uh...it was that race Canterlot holds every ten years or so for the foals.”

“You mean the derby?” Sunset asked, causing Shiny to go stuff in her forelegs. She bent her head down to kiss the little unicorn on the top of his head a giggled. “I remember when I rode in the derby. I built my kart to be about twice as big as everypony elses, with wings on the side that could slice through stone, and spikes in the wheels that let me just shred any kart I ran into. Not that they were much more than a burning wreck by the time I ran over them thanks to an all consuming fireball spell Mom helped me work into the front.” Another tiny laugh came out of Sunset’s mouth. “I think it was the only race where a single car finished. I roasted the rest.”

After Cadance’s mind worked to connect the dots, the princess looked down to the colt in Sunset’s arms, then back to the pyromaniac who had apparently traumatized him.

“Something wrong Cadance?” Shining Armor asked.

Since it didn’t look like Shiny had realized the connection, and telling Sunset would probably mean having to talk her out of jumping off the side of Canterlot five minutes later, Cadance decided to keep them ignorant. “Nope!” she assured them both with a happiness she had to force. “So, Shiny. Since Twily and the others are going to be busy for awhile, what do you think about getting a few pictures made, hmmm?”

Twilight could barely contain herself as she and the rest of the girls walked into the pavilion. As soon as they got in, the purple unicorn got around Cheerilee, with Sunny leading the way past their supervision. Temporary walls had been set up all around to hang portraits that had to be well over a hundred years old, showing the past of Equestria in all its glory.

Cheerilee made a sound to get everypony’s attention. “Okay girls. We just need to wait for the tour guide to lead us through.”

“Wait, is this like, a maze? I thought we were just going to look at a bunch of dumb pictures.”

Twilight looked back over to Rainbow Dash, unable to contemplate how a pony as intelligent as Sunset could see any worth in a stupid pegasus like the blue one floating in the air behind Twilight. “It’s obvious that the walls are set up to they can display the maximum amount of artwork in the space provided,” she deadpanned.

While Twilight was contimplating the correct terminology to label the aerial ignoramus, she a hoof grabbed her right foreleg, and she found herself an inch away from Sunny’s muzzle a second later. “Come on Twily, I know more than what some tour guide can tell you,” she said before zipping ahead with the little purple pony in tow.

“Shouldn’t we…” Twilight said before looking over to Cheerilee and seeing the earth pony with a half-raised hoof and hesitant expression.

Then they turned the corner, and the rest of the group was gone. The next thing Twilight knew, she was alone with Sunny as the pink-maned unicorn pointed up at a picture of a red and black alicorn standing alone on a yellow field. “So, do you know anything about her, Twily?”

Twilight looked at name tag under the painting. “Princess Luminescence, the obscure,” she said before giving a nervous glance to her future tutor. “Ummm, I’m sorry, I don’t really know anything about this pony.”

A worry passed through Twilight’s mind. Had that been another test? Was Sunny really at the fair to see if Twilight was smart enough to be tutored by her?

“I’d be very surprised if you did know anything about this alicorn,” Suny told her with a smile. “Everypony thinks that Luminescence was some really old student of Celestia’s whose records were all lost after the Princess moved from the Everfree to Canterlot. But the truth is, she’s a mistake.”

Twilight blinked. “Eh?”

Sunny giggled. “One day, Princess Celestia tripped while trotting through Canterlot Palace and spilled grape juice on a painting that showed her in a dark hallway. Then the artist that she commissioned to restore it thought the shadow she was casting was in fact another pony. Then, he decided to paint a picture of the pony by herself,” she said. “After that, historians from all over looked around to find information on this mysterious alicorn that Celestia would only smile pleasantly about. Entire books were written, compiling facts about this pony that ranged from accounts of how she was Princess Celestia’s first daughter from which all other alicorns are descended, to a bat pony that had been born with a horn.”

“But...she wasn’t real,” Twilight said as she tried to wrap her mind around how somepony could find facts about the life of an alicorn that never existed. “Wait! If she wasn’t real, but everypony says she is, then how do you know that she wasn’t real?”

A pleasant smile appeared on Sunny’s face. “Oh, caught onto that, did you?” she asked. “I wonder which pony you should believe. The one voice in front of you that’s saying one thing, or the hundreds of books that say otherwise?”

Twilight reached up to rub her forehead. “I’m confused.”

“Ohmygosh! I haven’t see a picture of her in forever!” Sunny exclaimed before Twilight was dragged along to another painting and plopped down in front of her.

As she tried to stop the world from spinning, Twilight turned around to see a painting of another alicorn. Unlike the first, this one was on a silvery backdrop and depicted an alicorn that looked much taller than a normal pony with a black coat, wearing armor that had been colored blue. “Now this is-”

“Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said before Sunny could finish.

With the white pony still holding her hoof, Twilight could feel Sunny go rigid at the name. “What?” she asked before looking around and sucking in a breath. “Oh...that...thing. I thought I had told them to stop putting it up.”

Twilight blinked at the grumbling coming from Sunny Skies in confusion. What did Sunny Skies have to do with the Pavilion? She put the question out of her mind and took a step closer to the painting.

“So...uh, Twilight,” Sunny Skies said. “What can you tell me about Nightmare Moon?”

The question posed to her made Twilight think for a few seconds. After her last conversation involving a black alicorn that was regarded as fact when she was actually mythical, she knew that just giving Sunny the basic answer of how Nightmare Moon was just an old mare’s tale wouldn’t be any good. “Well…” the purple pony began as she looked at the painting, focusing on the alicorn’s sharp teeth. “I don’t think she actually gobbles up young foals. Even if she’s supposed to be evil, she’s still a pony, which makes her a herbivore.”

Sunny’s ears perked up at that. “Oh? What else do you think about her?”

Twilight wracked her brain, reviewing all the old bedtime stories that she had heard about Nightmare Moon. “Well, she was supposed to have been banished to the moon by Princess Celestia for trying to blot out the sun forever, and that the silhouette on the moon’s surface is the magical seal that keeps her there for all but a single night of the year,” she said before putting some thought to the information. “But, the weird thing is, there’s nothing about where she comes from, or anything like that. Or why she battled Celestia. There’s just this one big evil thing that she did after she just appeared one day for no reason.”

Even if Nightmare Moon was just a fable, it struck Twilight as odd that she had absolutely no backstory. Mythic figures like Flash Magnus and Starswirl the Bearded had dozens of legends revolving around them, half of which couldn’t possibly be true.

Except for Starswirl’s of course. He probably did all the amazing things he and other ponies said he did and more. He was the greatest magic user of all time, after all.

“So what does that tell you?” Sunny asked.

“Well,” Twilight said as she began to think it over. “Assuming that Nightmare Moon is real. Then she would have had to had a reason to do what she did and a past to go with it.” The purple pony looked over to the bigger white unicorn in front of her. “Even Princess Celestia was a filly at one point in her life.”

Sunny nodded. “That’s true.”

“Sooooo,” Twilight drawled as she continued to think. Her brain went back to the last painting. “Oh! What if nothing we know about Nightmare Moon is right?”

The expression on Sunny’s face became a tiny frown. “What do you mean, Twilight?”

“Well, there’s the possibility that all these stories about Nightmare Moon are made up. Princess Celestia’s the only pony who knows for sure what happened, but she could be...um...well...lying,” Twilight tentatively admitted before she crouched down in preparation for whatever fierce rebuttal Sunny had for her.

After all, everypony knew without a shadow of a doubt that Princess Celestia was the most beautiful, most graceful, most intelligent, and most truthful pony in the history of Equestria. Is was practically a banishable offense to say something negative about her. Which was what Twilight had just done by calling her a liar.

Sunny stood perfectly still. “What makes you say something like that, Twilight?”

“Well...I...um...I met Princess Celestia this one time and-and she…” Twilight shivered at the memory. “She wasn’t nice, or warm and friendly like everypony who’s met her says. S-She looked at me, and I felt cold, and small. It was like all the light in the world got swallowed up by this big mean pony because she didn’t want to give me any.”

Twilight gunted in surprise as she found herself in a strong hug. “I’m sorry, Twily!” Sunny cried into her ear before letting out a sniffle. “I didn’t mean to frighten you! I just got reminded of this other pony when I saw you and-and it all just came out!”

The nonsense that Sunny blabbed to her got a blink from Twilight. “Eh?” she asked.

“Oh!” Sunny said before she blushed and let the smaller pony down. “Sorry, um...bad impulse control.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why’re you apologizing for what Princess Celest-”

“Hey! You know what?” Sunny said before Twilight could finish talking. “We should go find the tour guide! She’s been taking way too long to make her way back through the tent for our group!”

Once again, Twilight found herself being carried through the air by Sunny’s unnatural strength. Well, unnatural for a unicorn, at any rate. They zoomed past dozens of more displays, using the trick of always following the wall on the right to find the end of the maze. As she was carried, a confused thought kept running through her mind. Why would Sunny apologize for something Princess Celestia did?

“And you’re sure she didn’t touch any of the paintings or start a fire?” Sunset asked the tour guide as she stood outside the tent with her friends and the fillies standing not far behind them.

Celestia frowned at the bigger alicorn as the tour guide shook her head at the question. “You know, I’m starting to think your faith in me is lacking, Princess Sunset,” she said as she sat on the grass nearby with her forelegs crossed.

Just because she had a little attention problem...and maybe some impulse control issues, it didn’t make her a pyromaniac like Sunset used to be!

After making sure Celestia didn’t accidentally bring a picture to life, Sunset looked back at her. “You were on your own for a good five minutes like that. I’m just trying to make sure you didn’t do something to doom us all somewhere down the road.”

When Sunset looked back at the guide, Celestia stuck her tongue out at her daughter. “Naaaaaaaah!”

“Okay,” Sunset said as she spun around to face the girls. “So, whose turn is it to pick a ride? Um, Fluttershy, right?”

The little yellow pegasus crouched down at the attention from Sunset. “Oh, um...I um, I’m fine with doing whatever the rest of you want.”

Celestia blinked at Fluttershy’s unease and trotted over to her. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?”

“She heard that the petting zoo has bunnies,” Rainbow Dash said. “Which, I think would be totally cool to see. Uh, long as, you know, they’re in cages or something.”

As everypony that was raised on the ground just gave the pegasi a look of confusion, Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Neither of you have been to flight camp yet, have you?” she asked.

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned to look at Celestia before they shared an uncertain look and shook their heads in response to her question. “That’s this Summer,” Dashie explained. “And what difference does that make?”

“In order to keep pegasus foals from flying too far away from Cloudsdale, most pegasus parents tell them that the ground is much more dangerous than it actually is,” Celestia explained. “They tell their little ponies that every animal down there wants to eat them, and even the grass is dangerous.”

Cadance, the former pegasus who had been raised on the ground, frowned. “Why would they do something like that?”

Celestia rolled her eyes at the obvious answer. “For their mental stability, mostly,” she said. “While there are dangerous animals on the ground, the chance of a pegasus foal being able to avoid them is pretty much guaranteed unless they’re drop dead tired. However, pegasus ponies of Fluttershy and Dashie’s age don’t have the endurance to fly from the ground back up to Cloudsdale. Added to the fact that the city is almost always on the move means any pony left on the ground would have to watch her home and parents fly further and further away. And that’s not even beginning to consider how behind the weather would be if the city had to stop for every single foal that had thought they were tough enough to fly from the ground back up to the city.”

As she finished her explanation, Celestia realized the odd looks all of the fillies were giving her before she realized that there was no way a normal filly of nine should have known something like that. “Oh!” she exclaimed before reaching to scratch the back of her head and smiling. “At least, that’s what my Mommy told me when I asked her why I never meet any pegasus fillies that come from Cloudsdale until they’re about the same age as me.”

“Aaaaah!” Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity all replied in response to the little alicorn’s explanation before Fluttershy went a little further. “So, there aren’t any big scary monsters at the petting zoo? Just animals and cute little birdies?”

Sunset came towards the little pegasus. “Well, I’m sure they’ve got plenty of animals,” she said. “Not sure what they’d have as far as birds, though. They’re not exactly...pettable.”

The news made Fluttershy’s head droop. “...oh,” she mumbled dejectedly.

Before Sunset could get into a panic about ruining the little pegasus’s hopes, Celestia came to her rescue. “But while they’re clearing out the animals in the palace garden for the banquet, the birds are all still there,” she told Fluttershy. “I could even show you some!”

“That would be nice,” Fluttershy agreed with a little smile that looked like she was afraid that if she looked too happy, something would come along and ruin it.

Celestia had to wonder just how horrible the poor filly’s first year of school had been for her to actually be afraid of feeling happy about something. At least she wondered until her mind went back to how sad it was that Fluttershy didn’t even think she could feel happy without something bad happening to her.

With such a thought running through her head, Celestia bounded over to wrap the lanky pegasus up in a super special hug with all of her strength just to show her little friend how much she cared. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy! I’ll take you to the gardens myself! I’ll show you all the nests, oh! I’ll even take you to see Philomena!”

“Say Mmmmy little Sunny,” Sunset said as she looked over to her mother. “I know you mean well and all, but I’m pretty sure Fluttershy would like to breathe sometime soon and not have to deal with a crushed spine.”

Celetia dropped Fluttershy, who sucked in a deep breath of air after being released. “Sorry,” she apologized.

After making sure Fluttershy was alright, Sunset lifted Celestia up in her magic and placed the tiny princess on the amber alicorn’s back. “Come on, let’s trot on over to the next ride everypony. Then we can break for a late lunch.”

The group fell in line behind Sunset, who put an invisible sound barrier around herself and Celestia before glancing to at the filly on her back. “We can talk now,” she said. “If you want, I mean.”

“Talk about what?” she asked.

Sunset took a few seconds to respond. “I dunno. If there’s anything...wrong?”

As far as Celestia could tell, today was going great.

They had played a ton of really fun games at the start of the day and even though a lot of the others didn’t really care for the experience, riding all of those roller coasters had been really fun! Plus, there were the conversations she had with Rarity about their dresses and getting to hear from Applejack how her family was doing after Sunset saved them. Rainbow Dash’s questions about how fast Cadance and Sunset were in the air were a bit awkward considering that neither of them were a good flier, but Celestia’s offer to race her that the white filly had made without thinking had been laughed off as Dashie had accepted it, thankfully. The paintings had only really been fun at first when it was just her and Twily, because the tour guide had gotten just about a million bajillion things wrong and she was so slow and boring.

Although, it still felt good to be with her friends and…

Celestia’s train of thought slowly grinded to a halt as the wisdom of her years corrected the foalish brain’s thinking. They’re not my friends. Not really, she told herself to look back at the group of ponies.

Cadance was carrying Shining Armor and Twilight’s Sunset likness while Sassy and Rarity had stuck up a conversation. Fluttershy was sticking close to Cheerilee as Rainbow Dash did a flip for no apparent reason, which was quickly followed by Twilight asking her why she was flying around instead of walking like everypony else. It was a beautiful scene of togetherness that reminded Celestia of…

Well…nothing personal.

It had reminded her of the other times she had watched groups of ponies have fun at fairs and events that she never participated in. Some were students, others were just ponies she saw through her telescope.

The closest thing she had ever some to experiencing such events were high society dinner parties and events like the Grand Galloping Gala. She would go into a room surrounded by a bunch of ponies that, as Sunset liked to put it these days, fought to see how far each one of them could stick their lips up her butt. A joke she had heard a dozen times before and maybe laughed at once, thus proving it was Celestia-approved, got told by every single pony there while she just happened to be in close proximity.

“No,” the pseudo-foal of an alicorn whispered sadly before she laid her head on the back of her daughter and did her bed to wrap her forelegs around Sunset’s thick neck for extra support. “Everything’s...perfect.”

Thankfully, Sunset didn’t look back to see the tears that were making her vision blurry.

The wait for the log drop was longer than most, with a whole lot of ponies forming a twisting snake of a line that probably would have gotten tangled in itself had it been the actual article. While royal privilege probably could have gotten them all to the front of the line a lot sooner, Princess Sunset had insisted they wait around like normal ponies for some reason Twilight couldn’t conceive.

Which was probably why Princess Sunset was the princess, and Twilight Sparkle was just the common unicorn foal.

So, she stood in the back of the line, behind Sunny and everypony else.

However, all the standing around did give Twilight time to think. And what she was thinking about was the odd actions of the oddity of their group.

Where Sunny Skies had been about as active as a filly could ever be before they had to wait in line, her time since then had been anything but energetic. She wasn’t even making fart noises with Rainbow Dash and blaming it on other ponies like during the princess painting tour! She just stood there, staring ahead with a blank look on her face.

Twilight looked back to the princesses, but upon finding they were talking to her brother understood that she wouldn’t be getting any help from them. It was up to her to try and find out what was wrong with...well, she didn’t really know any other fillies that were slightly older than her.

If anything, Sunny acted like…

“Uuuuugh! I don’t get why we gotta wait in line to ride a part of a dumb tree off the side of a mountain,” Rainbow Dash whined. “Can’t I just go jump off myself?”

...a more knowledgeable version of Rainbow Dash. Only with a horn and less colors in her hair.

A sigh coming from Sunny had Twily looking back to her. “What’s wrong, Sunny?”

“Twilight?” Sunny Skies asked as she looked over to the purple unicorn. After a few more seconds in which they all had to move forward with the line, she replied. “What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“Well, this is the first time since I’ve met you that I’ve seen you look sad,” Twilight told her.

Sunny blinked before giving Twilight a little smile that still looked sad, somehow. “Well...it’s just, after we’re done here, we’ll have to go back to the palace to show Fluttershy the birds, and after that...it’ll be over.”

The answer only confused things for Twilight. After the log ride and showing Fluttershy the birds of Princess Celestia’s menagerie, they were all planning to have lunch and then...well, Twilight’s fair schedule didn’t really go past that, but she knew Princess Sunset would have something fun planned for them to do!

Unsure of what to say next, Twilight spoke to buy time as she racked her brain for a suggestion. “Um...well, we can play games in the palace, maybe?” she asked.

“I...Twily, you know I’m not really a normal filly, right?” Sunny asked.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

The smile on Sunny’s face didn’t get any happier as she nodded. “Well, we get back to the palace, I’ll have to go back to being my old self.”

“Uh, is the old you so different from the...um...young you?” Twilight asked as she confused herself. Just going back to the palace wouldn’t make Sunny any older. At least, not any older than the other fillies would be since they were all constantly aging at the same rate.

Sunny blinked. “Honestly...well, apart from my current impulsive nature and something Sunset calls ADD, I don’t think I would have wanted to act any differently than the way I did today.”

The confession made Twilight raise an eyebrow. “Even the fart noises?”

“Especially the fart noises,” Sunny told her with a smile that looked a little more genuine. Then she frowned a bit. “Besides, that mare deserved them. Star Butterfly didn’t invent the blazing rainbow, she just accidently set one on fire. It’s a completely different thing.”

Twilight blinked as the line moved forward again and she noticed something odd about Sunny. She didn’t use titles. Even Rainbow Dash, as rude as she was, put the big P-word in front of Princess Cadance and Princess Sunset’s names.

“So...what will you do after we get back to the castle and you go back to normal?” Twilight asked.

The question killed what little happiness Sunny had managed to raise. “Go back to the same old routine, I suppose. Talking with ponies without really being talked to. Having everypony do what I tell them to because of what I am rather than who. See, every single pony in Equestria watch me for the slightest misstep or pretend to like every single thing I do because they think it’ll make me like them more.”

If ponies acted like that towards her, Twilight guessed that Sunny must have been a very important pony. But, the mystery of Sunny’s identity could be solved later. Right now, Twilight needed to cheer her up. “We could play a game!”

Sunny looked back to Twilight and blinked. “Huh?”

“Card Wars, or a slumber party!” Twilight suggested as a real plan began to form in her mind. “We could have a slumber party! I bet if I told Princess Sunset that I scheduled in a slumber party, then she could intervene because she said that I got to plan out the schedule, and if it’s on the schedule then everypony has to make time for it no matter how important they are.”

Despite Twilight’s best efforts, Sunny didn’t look very sure as the line moved again. “Twily, that’s…”

“Don’t be sad, Sunny!” Twilight begged her. “You’re super nice and super smart, and I know that you’re just here because you wanted me to talk to you without anything else getting in the way, but you’re the most fun filly that looks about my age I’ve ever played with. Please don’t stop having fun with me the next time we’re together!”

Sunny blinked. “T-Twilight, I...that’s a very sweet offer, but, you should know something about me,” she said hesitantly.

“Hey! get moving you little punks!”

Sunny bristled and looked past Twilight. “Cram it dummy! I’m trying to have an emotional moment here!”

Before Sunny could get herself in trouble, Twilight tapped her shoulder. “Uh, Sunny? It’s our turn to get in the boat.”

The white unicorn with the pink mane blinked and looked back at where the ride’s operator was standing as well as a very large and open space between them. “Um..but, I was gonna tell you-oh, nevermind. It can wait till tonight,” she said before taking Twilight’s hoof. “Come on Twily, let’s plummet hundreds of feet in the most basic of flotation devices!”

As she found herself yanked forward, the reality of the situation suddenly became apparent to Twilight. “W-What?” she asked as Sunny put her in the front seat of the two-pony vehicle that was nothing more than a very big log that had the top of it cut out to hold a pair of fillies with a pair of restraining devices to keep them from falling out. “No wait!”

The spells keeping the log in place faded, and the two ponies shot forward into the tunnel that lay before them at a pace even an energetic pegasus would have had trouble keeping up with thanks to the magical spell on the back of the log that multiplied their momentum by several times as they raced down the river. A situation that had Twilight voicing her displeasure. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

The darkness of the tunnel disappeared five second later and Twilight was blinded when the light from the sun hit her eyes since her pupils had been trying to adjust to the darkness of the cave. By the time she could see again, Twilight found the log she and Sunny were in had flown off of the rapids beneath them and had reached the point where it seemingly floated in the air for a moment before gravity pulled it down towards the lake below.

Because of the crude boat’s shape, or perhaps some other spell that had been placed on the front of the log that Twilight couldn’t see, the ride they were in quickly adjusted to point straight down towards the lake at the bottom of the waterfall a good three hundred feet below them.

Even with the belts holding them down and the numerous protection spells that the makeshift boat had been equipped with, Twily couldn’t get her mind off the fact that even a watery impact from such a height would cause catastrophic damage to her body. That, and the fact she didn’t want to be reduced to a pile of floating mush. “I want off! I WANT OFF! I WANT OFF!”

“T-Twilight?” she heard Sunny call out from behind her. “It’ll be okay! We’re perfectly-”

“LEMME OFF! LEMME OFF! LEMME OFF!” she screamed in a panic.

The water got closer and closer, and Twilight found herself unable to keep looking at her approaching doom as her panic words became a terrified scream before she felt a pair of hooves touch her from behind.

“Okay Twily, hold on!” Sunny said in a voice that was much too calm before Twilight felt herself being wrapped in the other pony’s magic.

A few seconds later, the belts holding her in place undid themselves and the purple unicorn was met with an odd tingling sensation over her entire body. “S-Sunny? What’s going on?” she asked in fright.

Everything came to a sudden stop, but Twilight didn’t feel a dreadful lurch or anything, they simply stopped moving. Almost immediately afterwards, there was a loud splash sound beneath her, and Twilight found herself soaking wet.

Instinct demanded Twilight reach out and her front legs flailed around in a panic for several second before she felt another filly’s forelegs on her upper barrel, which told her which direction there was something to latch onto. She wrapped her forelegs around Sunny’s shoulders and swung her hind ones forward until they got ahold of the other pony’s barrel. Then, Twilight buried her head in Sunny’s shoulder and her own forelegs as far as it would go as a strange fluttering nose filled her ears while little droplets of water continued to hit the side of Twilight’s head at rapid intervals.

“Shhhhhhh,” Sunny softly whispered into Twilight’s ear as the purple unicorn felt them slowly move through the air. “It’s okay. I’ve got you Twily. You’re safe now. I’d never let anything bad happen to you.”

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, which only showed her a blurry mess of white and blue for a few seconds before her vision cleared. Once it did, she stared at the large hole in the back of Sunny’s dress...because there was a pair of rapidly flapping wings sticking out of it.

What? Twilight asked herself as Sunny flew her over to the edge of the lake, away from where the logs from the ride launched themselves out of the water and onto the prepared landing area that had several pegasi to fly them back up to Canterlot.

When they got to the the grass, Twilight stumbled forward before she turned around to see Sunny working herself out of her ruined dress as Princess Sunset and the others galloped over. There was also a large splotch of white on Sunny’s rear that looked as if it was melting.

“What happened?” Princess Sunset’s voice resounded in Twilight’s ears a second before she was aware of the big alicorn that had Shiny on her back. “Is she okay? Twily, are you okay?”

Behind the amber princess, Cadance and the others stood a few feet away, held back by the pink pony’s wings.

“She go frightened on the way down and I just reacted,” the pony with the white paint said as it continued to run down her coat, revealing the golden yellow underneath. “Don’t worry, I made sure the sudden stop wouldn’t hurt her before I pulled us out of the dive.”

Princess Sunset let out a long sigh as she lowered her whole body in relief and put a foreleg on Twilight’s back. “Oh Twily, why didn’t you tell us you were afraid of going on the ride?” she asked gently. “I would have stayed with you.”

The paint ran off of Sunny’s cutie mark completely, making Twilight blink as the questions that had been cropping up all day involving Sunny’s true identity found their answer. “You’re…” Twilight mumbled as she slowly raised a hoof to point at the little solar alicorn. “You’re Princess Celestia.”

Despite the distance between them, the rest of the fillies gasped at the sudden reveal.

Princess Celestia blinked before she looked to the wings on her back, then to her cutie mark. “Hmmm…” she said as she turned her head back to Twilight. “Real-wait, I already pulled that one with Rarity. Okay, yeah. It’s me Twilight.” Then she looked up to Princess Sunset. “Now, can we get out of here before somepony with a camera decides to start taking pictures?”

Thanks to Sunset and lot of teleportation magic, the group made it back to the Solar Palace before anypony else got close enough to see Celestia’s wings, something the little filly was very thankful for. If stories about her galloping around as a foal got out, she couldn’t even guess how bad a scandal it would cause. Maybe even to the point where she would have to call for a news blackout.

However, the sudden reveal of her true identity before she was ready to go through with it did make her sad. She glanced over to where all the other fillies were walking down the other side of the hall, silently eyeing Celestia as they trotted to the dining room.

Celestia hung her head and looked in despair. While it would have happened at the end of the day anyway, she would have a least been able to play with Fluttershy in the garden before all of the fillies found out who she really was and distanced themselves from her forever like all ponies eventually did.

“So uh, are we gonna race around the palace, or is it gonna be like, the Wonderbolts track?”

The question coming from above her made Celestia pick her head up and look back. “Huh?” she asked after seeing Rainbow Dash floating there.

“The race you said we were gonna have,” Rainbow Dash clarified. “Are we gonna do it around the castle, or the track? You can swing that, right? You know, with you really being Princess Celestia and all, right?”

As Celestia continued to stare at the impossibility of the filly asking her a question without any care of her title, Fluttershy floated over to share the airspace above her. “Rainbow Dash,” the yellow pegasus whined. “Princess Celestia said she was going to show me all of her bird friends.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed with a nod. “But when she’s done with all those stu-uh…” The blue pegasus looked back to Cadance, who was giving her a sharp frown. “...birds, she’ll have to do something else before Twilight has her slumber party, right?”

The purple pony of the group froze solid, prompting them all to stop. “W-What?” she stuttered.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “You know, that party we heard you planning with Princess Celestia when we were all in line waiting for the log ride.”

“Ah didn’t hear nothing,” Applejack said.

“A P-Princess slumber party?” Rarity cried out with excitement before she rushed over to the shortest alicorn. “Oh! Princess Celestia, can you do my mane?”

Celestia blinked at the sudden intrusion of her personal space. “Uh...that, um...okay, Rarity.”

Sunset cleared her throat, making the fillies stop any further requests. “Girls, I think you should give my mom some space to breathe,” she told them, making the fillies take a few steps back. “Okay, so...birdwatching now, right?”

The question made Celestia realize that there was a flaw in her original plan to take the girls to the gardens. While one or two ponies, or one pony with a filly on her back wouldn’t be any trouble, a whole group of foals would cause too much racket. The birds that stuck around the gardens were very skittish creatures that didn’t like newcomers very much.

“Actually Sunset, I think it would be best if just you and Fluttershy went to the gardens,” she told her daughter. “A bigger crowd might cause problems. Is that okay, Fluttershy?”

For her part, Fluttershy looked back to Sunset and then over to Celestia again. “Well, if you think-”

Celestia didn’t let her finish. “Hold up,” she said as she put a hoof to the filly’s lips. “I see that hesitation, and I know I said that I’d take you to see the birds in the garden. So if you want, I’ll have Sunset undo the magic spell and take you there myself. But, a crowd any larger than two will cause problems.”

“But, I can’t race you when you’re an adult!” Rainbow Dash cried out. “You’ll be all faaaa-uh, big, and-”

The blue pegasus’s protests were ended when Cadance cleared her throat. “Dash, this is about Fluttershy, not you.”

As Rainbow became so dejected she actually stopped flying, Fluttershy guided Celestia’s hoof away from her mouth. “No, it’s alright. I’m fine with Princess Sunset taking me. To be honest...um…”

“You were worried I’d scare the birds away with my antics?” she asked with a knowing smirk. When Fluttershy flinched at the words, Celestia just snickered. “Hey now, just because I have impulse control issues doesn’t mean I’m not aware of it. I am Princess Celestia, after all.”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Okay, come on Flutters. We’ll meet you all back here in an hour for lunch.”

The group Celestia was with watched Sunset depart after she put Fluttershy on her back until she turned the corner and disappeared from sight. Once her daughter was gone, they all turned around to looked at Celestia. “What is it?” she asked.

Cadance blinked. “Uh, well...are we going to the Wonderbolt’s track or do you know someplace else do you want to use instead?”

“Well, I’d prefer if we use something a little more private since I don’t want anypony to see me like this but-wait,” Celestia said as she got an uneasy feeling in her gut. “Why’re you all asking me about this?”

“Because you’re you,” Cadance deadpanned.

Celestia sighed dejectedly. Even if the other foals would talk to her directly, it looked like she was thrown back into the role of a leader. “Right,” she said before considering her options. “There’s a hidden garden set up on a ledge on the other side of the mountain that I go to when I needed a moment to think for myself. We can let everypony use the edge as spectator seats while I set up a track with some clouds.”

When everypony agreed to the suggestion, Celestia looked over to Twilight. Since being revealed as an alicorn, the poor purple pony had an odd look plastered on her face. She wasn’t afraid or even confused, but the girl was obviously trying to work something through in her head.

“But before we do that, anypony else need to go to the bathroom?” she asked before sending out a miniscule pulse of magic. Even if all of the ponies in front of Celestia had been staring at her horn, they wouldn’t have seen anything.

The spell she used was one she had developed centuries ago to help her deal with petitioners that just wouldn’t stop talking. Rather than telling them, as Sunset would put it, to piss off, Celestia just used a teeny bit of magic to cause a minor reaction in their body that fooled it into thinking that they had other business to take care of.

As soon as the magic went off, Twily raised her hoof. “I do!”

“Okay, come on Twilight,” Celestia told the filly before trotting past her at a brisk pace.

Twily looked over to the other ponies for a moment, then quietly followed Celestia a good foot behind the alicorn. When they got to one of the palace’s staff restrooms, Celestia waited for Twilight to enter, then threw up a minor illusion that told anypony wandering by that the room was closed for repairs.

By the time she entered, Twilight was already in her stall, so Celestia stood outside near the sinks and waited for her to finish. As she did, the nervousness the little alicorn was feeling bloomed into a prediction of what would come about if she didn’t make up with Twilight here and now.

For starters, Sunset would find out how she had been mean to Twilight, and then…

“How could you do something like that to a filly?” the much bigger, much more powerful alicorn shouted at Celestia as she looked down on her with a frown.

Which would quickly be followed by…

“You’re the worst mother EVER!” Sunset yelled.

And to top it all off…

“YOU’RE GROUNDED!” Sunset ordered as she sent Celestia to her room to sit in a corner and think about what she had done.

Celestia blinked in confusion at the last image that came to mind before quickly shaking her little filly head to clear it out. Yeah, that seems like a bit much, she told herself.

Although...Sunset getting angry and leaving Celestia in her current state didn’t seem too out of the realm of possibility. To further complicate the matter, Celestia didn’t know if that would even be so bad. She could stick around and advise Sunset on stuff, but could also play with her new friends and do all the things she hadn’t been able to do when she was younger because she had to take care of Luna!

The happiness Celestia had been feeling at reliving an unburdened foalhood quickly died at the realization.

As her mind shifted to her little sister, the door to Twilight’s stall opened to reveal the little filly while the waste depository emptied itself out behind her with a flush. When she saw Celestia, the little pony blinked. “Uh...P-Princess,” she mumbled.

Grateful for something else to focus her mind on, Celestia smiled at Twilight and looked over to the sink. “Um, do you need help washing your front hooves, Twily?”

Twilight looked over to the counter that was just a bit too high up. “Y-Yes,” Twilight replied nervously.

After conjuring a stepping stool, Celestia followed Twilight to the other end of the room and made her own risen area to put her hooves. As the little foal turned on the water using her own magic, Celestia did the same and looked ahead to the mirror that stretched the length of the room. Pushing back the nervousness inside her with a little cough, Celestia began speaking. “I never meant to frighten you, Twilight,” she told the filly. “The day we first met, I mean.”

“Oh,” Twily repled. In the mirror, Celestia saw her glance over to the white alicorn. “But, um…”

“Why did I get so angry after seeing you and hearing your name?” she asked for the purple pony when Twilight didn’t continue. Celestia looked up at the ceiling. “Well...it’s...Twilight, you know I’m really, really old, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Nopony knows your actual age, but using the time you first raised the sun as an estimate, then you have to be at least over one thousand, one hundred and ten years old.”

Hearing the purple filly give her a number that was far below her actual age, Celestia decided not to correct her. “Well, it stands to reason that I’ve met lots of ponies, right?”

“Yes,” Twily replied with another nod.

“And having met so many ponies, it also stands to reason that I would have met ponies that look alike with similar names, correct?” Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded again. “That is reasonable, yes.”

“And by the law of averages, some of these ponies I met wouldn’t have been very nice. In fact, some were downright mean and selfish little monsters that didn’t care one bit about anypony else,” Celestia said, her tone darkening as she ran through everything she knew about Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twily shut off the water and gulped. “Um...that’s...I-I suppose.”

The expression on the little filly’s face made Celestia reign in her anger...barely. “I’m sorry, it’s just...Twilight, seeing you reminded me of this pony and when I looked at you, I didn’t really see you, I saw her.”

“Oh,” Twilight said uneasily. She hesitated for several seconds before speaking again. “What was she like?”

Celestia frowned at the question. “She was very cruel and deceitful,” the alicorn answered. “She even fooled me until I saw some of her correspondence with Su-ome other pony. And I’m even angry with myself, because after reading it, I couldn’t see how I could ever-!” Celestia stopped talking as she realized that her voice was getting loud enough to go through the door and travel down the hallway for quite the length. “Ah, one second.”

After taking in a deep breath, Celestia cleared her mind and started over. She looked over to Twilight and gave her an apologetic smile. “Look, I’m not angry with you, Twilight, and I’m sorry I frightened you,” she told the filly as they both jumped back down to the floor. “You are the most-uh, okay, the second most wonderful little unicorn I have ever known. Which I’m guessing you know is a lot of unicorns.”

A tiny smile appeared on Twilight’s face. “R-Really?” she asked as she pulled back in on herself a little, as if she expected Celestia to suddenly rip the floor out from under her after getting her hopes up.

Celestia wrapped the little filly up in a hug. “Yes,” she told Twilight. “I can’t wait until I can get you into my school and start teaching you magic.”

“Oh,” Twilight said in a tone that actually sounded a bit disappointed. “That sounds, um...nice.”

“Sorry all this is such a disappointment for you, Fluttershy,” Sunset said as she walked out into the palace gardens, the little filly on her back.

There was a shift in weight as the little pegasus looked over to the amber alicorn. “Disappointment, Princess Sunset?” she asked in confusion.

“Well, yeah. I mean, you had to go on all those roller coaster rides and now most of the animals have been cleared out of the menagerie. Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s my mom that you’d rather be walking around the gardens with, not me. Oh, and you don’t need to call me Princess, just Sunset is fine.”

Fluttershy let out a tiny and hesitant moan, much like her human counterpart, making Sunset look back at her. “Actually Prin-er, Ms. Sunset. I liked going on the roller coasters.”

The completely unexpected response brought Sunset to a standstill. “You...liked being on a rollercoaster?” she asked, a little worried that Cadance’s overblown fear about changelings was right on the mark. Only that they had struck in an unexpected place. “It wasn’t scary, or anything?”

“Well, it was a little bit frightening,” Fluttershy admitted. “But that was because everything was so dark. But when I just closed my eyes and enjoyed being pushed along, everything was fine.”

Sunset blinked at the nonsensical answer. “So...you were frightened because the tracks aren’t that well lit, but after you completely cut all the light coming into your eyes, everything was fine,” she said, trying to verbalize her train of thought. “But, you weren’t…” Sunset stopped herself before she could list everything that could go wrong on a roller coaster. “Worried about anything else?”

“No,” Fluttershy said with a shake of her head. “I might have been frightened going that fast if I was flying, but all of the straps and padding kept us safe, so there was no reason to worry. I actually found it very fun and exciting.”

Fluttershy’s reasoning had Sunset working to process the information as she tried to figure out why the pony version actually enjoyed roller coasters while the human version froze up at the mention of a visit to the amusement park. Could be an age thing I suppose. Plus, one of the fears surrounding roller coasters was heights. What type of pegasus could be afraid of heights?

The trek continued and Sunset made her way out into the garden where they tables had already been set out and covered, but not much else had been done. “Oh...well, the menagerie is pretty much empty because of the coronation, so...sorry about that,” Sunset apologized.

“That’s okay,” Fluttershy told her. “All I really wanted to see were the little birdies.”

Once again, Sunset found herself thrown off by the little pegasus’s response. “Uh, okay. Well, I’m sorry you got stuck with me instead of going with my mom. Maybe she can spend some time with you after the coronation. Like, have a tea party, or something.”

Fluttershy blinked in confusion at the amber alicorn. “Didn’t you already apologize for that?” she asked.

Fluttershy’s question made Sunset blink as her mind reviewed the last several seconds. “Yeah, well...it’s important enough to need more than one apology,” she said to avoid correcting herself. “There are some things that a pony should never stop apologizing for. Like me making you miss out on a personal tour of my mother’s menagerie, performed by Princess Celestia herself!”

The increased volume made Fluttershy pull in on herself. “Oh...um...that’s...okay?”

With Fluttershy once again failing to stand up for herself or call out the unfairness of the situation at getting saddled with the lesser princess, Sunset stomped her hoof. “No it’s not!” The little pegasus needed to call Sunset on her ruining things, not be understanding about it!

The sound of more than a dozen wings flapping on top of the tree limbs shaking got Sunset’s attention. It also made her tense up when she realized just what had happened a second later. “Oh no,” she mumbled before looking up. Every single bird that had been in the garden flew through the sky in a mass consisting of every color imaginable in nature.

She had just ruined Fluttershy’s bird watching experience!

“Oh my,” the little pegasus said.

Sunset gulped. “Fluttershy, I’m sor-”

“That was so amazing Ms Sunset!” Fluttershy exclaimed when the amber alicorn looked back at her to finish her apology, an excited look covering her face. “There were so many pretty birdies, I don’t think I would have seen nearly as many if we just trotted around the garden looking for them in the trees.”

Fluttershy’s unexpected exuberance caught Sunset off guard, mentally unbalancing her even more. “I um...but you, uh…”

“I can’t believe there are so many birds here in Canterlot!” Fluttershy went on, completely oblivious to Sunset’s confused distress. “I usually only get to see one or two a week when Cloudsdale goes down from its usual elevation to give a town its weather.”

Sunset paused, unsure of what to say. Despite her mistake, Fluttershy had apparently enjoyed the show. If Sunset told her how she had screwed everything up, her happiness would probably be affected. So, the amber alicorn kept her mouth shut and put on a tiny smile she hoped Fluttershy couldn’t tell was fake. “Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it, Fluttershy,” she said, unsure of what else to do. “So...we’ve probably got some time before Dash and Mom finish their little run around, anything else you want me to show you?”

The question made Fluttershy think for a second before she looked around and threw out a wing to point with her feathers. “Oh! What’s that?”

“Hm?” Sunset replied before looking over before her mild curiosity concerning what Fluttershy was interested in died a quick death to bring about an air of slight annoyance. “That’s a statue,” she deadpanned.

Fluttershy blinked at the answer and tilted her head. “Yes but, of what? It looks strange.”

Sunset looked back at the mismatched thing and frowned. “It’s called Discord,” she explained before taking a moment to think up a summary that a filly Fluttershy’s age would comprehend. “A long time ago, he caused trouble for a lot of ponies and Princess Celestia ended up...making it so he couldn’t hurt anypony else.”

While Sunset didn’t see any problem with Fluttershy learning about the monster’s real fate, the fact that Celestia put one petrified enemy in her garden inevitably led to the fact that all of her statues were ponies that had committed one heinous crime or another without showing the slightest bit of remorse for their actions.

As Sunset continued to look at the statue, an idea occurred to her. It wasn’t something she could act on immediately though, so she shoved it to the back of her mind with the intention of running it by Cadance later. Right now, she needed to focus on Fluttershy. “So...want to come and see some pictures of what type of bird Princess Celestia keeps as a pet?”

“That sounds nice,” Fluttershy agreed happily.

After that, they could fetch Cadance and the rest of the girls and grab some lunch. Hopefully, the food would put the lot of them in the mood for some easier activities that involved things like naps, books, and whatever else they could think of that required little to no physical effort.

Although, after thinking about how the next big group event they would have involved food, her mother, and an immature version of Rainbow Dash that probably wasn’t all that different from her human counterpart despite the age difference, she turned a calculating eye back to the little yellow pegasus on her back. “I’ll even let you sit next to me at lunch.”

Fluttershy smiled back at her. “That sound nice, Ms Sunset.”

“Eh, it’s more for practical reasons and anything else,” the amber alicorn told Fluttershy as visions of the upcoming food fight danced through her head. “I doubt you’ll want to get involved with the combat and these big wings I’ve got should make good cover for you.”

“...Huh?” Fluttershy asked as Sunset carried her out of the garden.