The orange Pegasus was desperately flying through the Canterlot skies, the purple unicorn underneath her, watching her caringly. The Pegasus had just gone into labor with her first child, yelling in pain as she flew through the air towards the hospital. The little filly in the mother's womb was eager to get out, for it was about 2 weeks early.
She dropped to the ground next to her husband as they arrived in the hospital. "Help!" The purple colt yelled. The nurses came rushing in, and carried the mare on a stretcher. The mare was rushed into a room, where the doors nearly slammed shut. Immediately they went to work. For time was rushing past as they did their job, but for the colt, time seemed to have slowed down, leaving him in an utter state of impatience and suspense.
After what seemed like hours, the colt soon heard the crying of a young filly. The nurse called him into the room, revealing the mare holding a bright orange unicorn. Her hair as soft as silk, the yellow and red colors showing bold and bright. The purple colt slowly walked up to the orange filly with bright green eyes and a big smile across his face. The filly calmed down at the sight of her father, and let out a giggle. The proud parents laughed, and hugged their new child with open arms. "Sunset Shimmer." Her mother announced. The colt nodded in agreement. Sunset Shimmer, the perfect name for a radiant young unicorn.
A couple years passed, and another filly was born. This one, like a flower she sprouted, had the most beautiful of lavender fur. Her mane was unique, unlike much others in the town. The ocean blue strips in her mane stood out against the bold purple color. Her violet blue eyes twinkled at Sunset. Sunset Shimmer, now 2 years of age, stared at her new sister in awe. The parents watched carefully as Sunset examined her new sibling. "Name?" Sunset asked, looking at her parents. "Starlight Glimmer." The parents chuckled. "Starlight." Sunset looked at her new sister. Starlight let out a giggle as she lifted her hooves to her sister. The orange filly took a few steps back, looking at her parents in slight alarm. With encouragement, Sunset walked up to her sister, and held her hoof. Starlight let out a burp, and everyone was left giggling.
Starlight's birth was a difficult one. Her size was larger than Sunset's, and larger than any filly's at birth for that matter. She was about ¾ of the size of Sunset, which was shocking to her. A lot of newborn fillies she knew were very small, but she liked her sister. The uniqueness she spread was joyful and the two played in harmony, running around and squealing. They were told many times to quiet down, and they did, but only for about five minutes. Then they went right back to running around and squealing!
The years passed. Sunset was now 5, able to talk and prance around. Also at this age, her parents began teaching her to use her magic. Starlight found her horn intriguing, always caressing it and staring at it in the mirror. Sunset pranced around her little sister, who was now 3 years old. Starlight giggled and grabbed her sister's tail as it flew around her. Sunset fell with a thump, alarmed at first. Soon, though, they were all giggling.
"Starlight!" Her mother called, coming in from the kitchen, smiling. "Are you pulling at her sister again?"
"Uh uh!" Starlight smirked, and giggled.
"Yes she is!" Sunset whined.
"Oh, don't act all dramatic now! I heard you laughing!" Her mother smiled, and went back in the kitchen.
Her father sat behind the two fillies in his chair, his glasses sitting on his snout, smiling at the fillies. "Starlight, be nice to your sister now." Her father encouraged her and sat on the floor, pushing some toys over. Sunset saw her favorite toy, a plush unicorn with a rainbow on its chest, her cutie mark a bright yellow star. Sunset caressed the doll, and held its silky blue mane in her hooves. The dolls fur was a bright neon pink, Sunset's favorite color.
"Girls! The sun's going down! Want to watch?" Her mother came out from the kitchen and sat next to the purple colt. "Yes, yes, yes!" Sunset jumped up and ran outside and climbed into the tree. This was their family tradition, sitting in the tree and watching the sunset at night. Starlight smiled at her sister and sat at the bottom of the tree. "Down!" She called to Sunset.
"No!" Sunset protested. Starlight's ears flattened in disappointment, and she sat on the ground, staring down in sadness. Her father looked at her and smiled warmly, picking her up and setting Starlight in his lap. The young unicorn's eyes widened and she looked up at her father. Her father smiled again, and Starlight laid against his warm chest, staring at the setting sun.
"Daddy, when can we go watch Princess Celestia raise the sun during the Summer Sun Celebration?" Sunset asked from above.
The colt chuckled. "Once you and your sister are older, we'll think about it," he replied. "Okay?"
The unicorn sighed. "Okay."
The girls were off to bed once the sun had set, after playing under the starlight, of course. They enjoyed that, especially Starlight herself! She always loved playing under the watch of the moon and its brilliant night sky, as the stars twinkled like thousands of fireflies on a summer's night. The moon always glowed bright in the night, caring off the fear of children with its warmth of the night. Starlight was happy she had something watching over her dreams as she slept. The girls shared a room, so she could always count on her older sister if she did have a bad dream, or a nightmare. Sunset could do the same, but in a different way, only asking for comfort, which was always delivered. The two loved each other so much, and occasionally told made up stories of faraway lands before they went to sleep. They always had great dreams when they told stories.
The time had come for Sunset to go to magic school! Starlight didn't like the idea, but Sunset was so excited, she was virtually jumping off of the walls. She promised her little sister, who was now nearly the size of herself that she'd be back in time to play. Starlight sighed sadly and nodded, hugging Sunset before she left. Her mother took her there, walking with her since Sunset was a unicorn, and not a Pegasus. Sunset appreciated her mother doing this, and smiled with anticipation as they walked to Canterlot. She hoped to see the Princess there, and her mother just laughed. Sunset was slightly offended, but her mother corrected her laugh, saying that it might happen. Sunset went happily trotting along the pathway, nearly to the gates of the kingdom. She looked around in awe as they walked through the streets, staring up at the large white buildings. But what amazed her most was the vastness of the castle. It stood ahead of them, its towers shooting up into the sky with many array of colors decorating them. The castle itself was colorful too, but mostly white and gold.
Finally, Sunset and her mother reached the school, where inside stood a crowd of young unicorns. They checked in to get interviewed by some teachers, and sat down on a bench. Sunset couldn't keep still as she waited, fidgeting every few seconds in her seat. Her mother looked at her and smiled, chuckling. Sunset groaned. "How long is this gonna take?!" she exclaimed, putting her hooves out, then crossing them.
Her mother stared at the crowd. "We shouldn't be much longer, dear. Just be patient!"
"Patient?! I can't be patient!" The young unicorn moaned and leaned against the cool, gray wall.
The Pegasus chuckled again. "Yes you can. I know you can!" She smiled warmly at her child, and Sunset merely shrugged.
After what felt like hours, Sunset and her mother were called into a classroom to be interviewed. They were asked a few questions, then Sunset was asked to perform a spell on a phoenix egg. Sunset's eyes widened and she nodded. Staring at the bright orange and red egg, and charged up her horn, feeling the magic within her rush towards it and making her horn spark. It soon began to glow a bright, pale blue and she shut her eyes, sweating. Her mother watched in shock, as she had never seen Sunset do this before. Sunset, however, was having difficulty, and her magic went out due to drowsiness. She breathed heavily and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She tried again, this time with more force. In a book she read, it talked about a powerful magic which many ponies had tried, but it didn't state the outcome. She tried to perform this magic, it mixing with her current magic to make a less dull blue, and a slight green shade. She shot a beam of magic at the egg, the brightness of the beam nearly blinding the teachers and her mother.
After the light had dimmed, in the nest that the egg used to be, a large burning phoenix stood in its place, its wings like fire and its eyes looking at the ponies in the room, as if they were prey. Sunset looked at the bird in awe, but her mother was panicking. The teachers, too, were panicking. The odd magic that the young unicorn had used was dark magic, forbidden to be used by any pony. None of them realized she had used it, but the teachers knew that the phoenix was born with an odd "curse" by Sunset. The large bird quickly turned its head at Sunset and she flinched, backing up a bit. The phoenix cocked its head and looked down at her, but not at her face. Oh no, it was looking slightly past her. Sunset became confused then looked at what it was looking at, which was her flank. Her flank used to be bare, but not anymore. Sunset realized a balance she could create between the dark and normal magic while doing the spell, giving her a cutie mark representing just that in the shape of a sun. Sunset jumped around in glee yelling, "I got my cutie mark!" over and over again. The bird cawed at her and she stopped, turning to it suddenly. "Uh oh," she said.
The phoenix cawed again, but this time sounding more like a hiss as it jumped up, spreading its giant wings into the air. It seemed to glow as it stood there for a split second, then it dived down for Sunset. Her mother's eyes widened and she reached for her daughter before the Phoenix could get her. But before she or the phoenix could get Sunset, the phoenix froze, and a yellow glow of magic surrounded it. The mare and the filly's eyes widened and then looked behind them. There stood Princess Celestia, holding the phoenix still. Without looking at the two, the princess quickly removed the small amount of dark magic within the bird, and it flinched. It looked around, confused, then stared at Princess Celestia.
Celestia turned to the teachers first, but talked to everyone, saying, "Is everypony alright?" They all nodded, trembling. Then the princess looked down at Sunset and her mother. "You two are okay as well?" she asked.
They both nodded and Sunset stared at the princess in awe. The princess looked troubled at the sight of them, but looked back at the phoenix. She smiled. "I can take care of it, unless you want to." She looked back down at Sunset.
Sunset shook her head. "No thank you, Princess!" she replied. "I don't think I'm ready for that yet."
"Well I know something you may be ready for."
The Pegasus and the unicorn looked up at her with curious eyes.
"Would you like to be my student, Sunset Shimmer?" Celestia asked.
Sunset gasped. "Yes!" she said quickly. "Yesyesyesyesyes!"
The princess chuckled. "Good. I'll see you next week." Then she flew off with the phoenix.
Sunset had a big smile across her face and was jumping up and down excitedly. Her mother, still in awe, smiled and walked up to her and held her hooves. "Do you know what this means? Do you know what responsibility you must take?" Her mother asked her, seriously.
"I think so…" Sunset replied, now calming down and putting her hoof on her head in thought.
The two made their way home, before catching a glimpse of Princess Celestia and the bright glow of the phoenix. Sunset gazed up at the two in amazement, her mother smiling behind her, looking up as well.
"Someday I will be just like her!" Sunset smiled at her mother, as they continued making their way home.
"We're home!" Sunset came bursting in the doors as they arrived at their house.
"There's my little girl!" Her father picked her up in his arms and hugged her tight. "How was it?"
"She is now, officially, a student of Princess Celestia herself." Her mother smiled proudly, as Starlight came into the room.
"I made a bird come out of its egg, and then Princess Celestia came and announced it!" Sunset smiled proudly.
"Announced what?" Starlight asked, looking up at her sister.
"Oh! Starlight! I thought you were still napping!" Her mother said.
"Starlight! Starlight!" Sunset pranced around her sister, as her mother was about to continue her thought.
"What? What's going on?" Starlight sat down, confused.
"I'm Princess Celestia's student!" Sunset smiled. Starlight sat and stared at her.
"Sunset, dear, she doesn't quite understand." Her father sat Starlight on his lap. "Starlight is going to be with Princess Celestia and do spells and work for her and stuff!" The colt explained.
"Oh…" Starlight looked down.
"What's wrong?" Sunset sat next to her sister, sympathetically.
"Are you going away?" Starlight looked at her sister with big, teary, purple eyes.
"Oh, no!" Her mother ran her hoof over Starlight's mane. "Sunset isn't going anywhere. She is just going to be away a bit more than she already is. But, don't worry! She'll still have plenty of time with you!" Her mother reassured her, and kissed her on the head, smiling.
"Okay." Starlight said, and got off of her father's leg.
The two fillies ran to their room. "Tell me all about it!" Starlight smiled.
"Okay, well first, I was sent up. They gave me this big bird egg, I can't recall what it was…" Sunset paused and thought for a moment. "A phoenix!" She smiled.
"Oooooooh!" Starlight smiled, in awe. "I've seen pictures of those, and I've seen them in the sky! They are so pretty!" Starlight lay back on her bed in awe.
"Yeah! And then they told me to hatch it with my horn, and so I took my horn, and I tried so hard! It hurt my brain!" Sunset put her hoof on her head.
"Wow!" Starlight said.
"And then, and then I tried again, and this… this beam came out of it," Starlight gasped. "And the phoenix hatched, but it was… evil!"
Her parents listened from outside their door at how Sunset explained this to her sister.
"Evil?!" Starlight put her hoof over her mouth.
"Yeah! And then out of nowhere, Princess Celestia came just as it was about to charge at us, and she froze it with her magic, and took all of the 'dark magic' out of it." Sunset sat on her bed.
"Dark magic?" Starlight asked, sitting up.
"I don't understand much of it either…" Sunset lay on her bed in confusion.
Their parents came in after it was silent for a while. "You girls okay?" Their father asked.
"Yes!" Starlight said.
Their mother walked up to Starlight and kissed her goodnight.
"Mommy?" Starlight asked. "Is Sunset…" she paused, and whispered. "…evil?" Starlight asked.
"No, no, no!" Her mother said. "We don't know where that came from, dear." She hugged her daughter and walked over to Sunset, and whispered. "Be careful with what you say to her, sweetheart. She understands things a little bit differently than you do." Sunset nodded.
Their parents walked out, and Starlight quickly fell fast asleep. Sunset sighed and looked out her window, towards the moon. She began to remember the story that her parents told her, a couple nights before, about Princess Luna getting banished. She was so in awe at the "mare in the moon". She liked whispering to Nightmare Moon, although she would never hear her. Her prayer tonight was slightly different.
"Princess?" Sunset whispered. "Do bless my dreams tonight." She looked up at the moon. "I don't know why dark magic came out of me. It has scared me." She sighed and watched the moon. She thought she could make out a bit of a sparkle in it, before she lay down.
Sunset's dreams were odd. She was back at the magic school, but the room was empty. It was only her, and the phoenix. Sunset looked down on it, and its broken egg shells. A voice came out of its mouth, but Sunset was quite aware that it was not the phoenix's voice.
"My, dear subject." Sunset gasped. It was Nightmare Moon's voice! "You've come so far!" The phoenix cocked its head at the strange voice coming out of its beak.
"I have?" Sunset asked.
"Yes, little filly. You're so good at this!"
"Good? At what?" Sunset became confused.
"You'll find out soon enough. Rest now, you have a big week ahead of you." The voice left the phoenix's beak, and it cawed at her.
Sunset woke up with a start, whipping her body upward and breathing heavily. Only an hour had passed the night, and she looked back up at the moon. She could've swore the mare in the moon was gone for a split second, and appeared again.
She lay back down, and fell asleep.
Sunset slept very light the rest of the night, and woke up to Starlight jumping on her and her bed. "Sunset, Sunset! Wake up!"
Sunset moaned. "What?" she asked drowsily.
"Princess Celestia's here, and she has a gift!" Starlight giggled and jumped off of the bed.
She sat up a bit more and with the news, she became more awake. "A gift?"
"Mhmm! Come on!" The pink unicorn rushed out of the room in excitement.
Sunset pondered the statement for a moment, then shrugged. She climbed out of bed and stretched, then went to her mirror to fix her morning hair. She made herself as presentable as she could, then walked out to the living room, where her parents and Starlight stared at Celestia in awe.
Celestia turned to look at Sunset, and she smiled. "Good morning, Sunset Shimmer."
"Hello, Princess Celestia," she replied, yawning. "What are you doing here?"
Her parents gave her a look for saying such a remark, but Celestia just chuckled. "I thought I'd come by and meet the family of my new student. And might I say, your parents are a cheerful couple."
Sunset grinned and looked down.
"Show her the gift! Show her the gift!" Starlight urged.
"Okay!" Celestia acknowledged. She brought out a spell book that had large, curly words on the front that said "Spells for Advanced Unicorn Magic". "I'm sure you're well aware of the olden unicorn Starswirl the Bearded?"
Sunset nodded and took the book in awe.
"Well, he wrote most of the spells in this book."
"Wow!" she exclaimed, hugging the large book as best she could. "Thank you."
The radiant princess bowed her head. "You best be getting to studying, Sunset Shimmer. I have high expectations for you!"
Sunset nodded again and watched her leave the house. She sat down and opened up the huge book, flipping through each spell. Starlight looked over her shoulder with big, curious eyes. "Wow!" she exclaimed.
"I know!" the filly's sister replied, giggling. Their parents watched them, smiling. Sunset looked up at them, eyes filled with wonder. "Can I begin practicing?"
They nodded, and Sunset leapt up from the floor, running to her room. She stumbled a bit, trying to hold the book, but managed.
Starlight fell onto the floor and watched her go, sadly. She looked down and sighed. Her mother walked over to her and knelt down, lifting the filly's chin. "We'll make sure she plays with you. It's still just the morning!"
"But the morning's our play time!" Starlight said. "We always play up until my naptime!"
"Well, her schedule is going to be a bit different now that she's starting school."
Starlight sighed again and looked down.
Her mother was indeed right. Over the next few weeks, Sunset and Starlight grew apart. Starlight was beginning to be much lonelier than usual, and Sunset stayed locked in her room, studying.
When Sunset studies, she studies hard. She pays no attention to the world around her, she can't even recall hearing the birds chirp. When Starlight is complaining about a thunderstorm, Sunset says she never heard it. Her parents began worrying about her when this started happening, but they reassured themselves by saying that it's the kind of effort that Princess Celestia expects.
Starlight had to move out to her own room, because Sunset never talked when she was in there, only to herself. Starlight would sometime cry to herself because she was so lonely, but Sunset never made a sound towards her. She had changed, Sunset had changed.
With Starlight now in her own room, in which she never went in because she was so lonely, Sunset still didn't make a fuss about it. Normally, Sunset would make a whole fuss about it, she merely shakes the house!
Starlight just wanted to be with her sister. She missed the times when they sat in the tree together, now that Starlight was big enough too. That tree had now grown leaves on the branch that Sunset used to sit on, because no one has sat there in months.