Sorry this took a while. I was running out of ideas for this chapter and I'm also working for another story of mine (Go check out Rainbow's Love Dilemma). Anyway, it's here now so no need to complain.
Today's the day.
Sunset was struggling in her sleep. Her nightmare had haunt her deeply. The words they say, pricked her deeply into her heart. The words they say, won't get out of her head. Her nightmares were getting worse and worse every second. She grunted and turned her body repeatedly.
Eventually, when the nightmare was in the most worse state, she woke up with a 'NO!' scream. Her mother heard her scream and barged into her bedroom door.
"Is there something wrong, dear?!" She asked with a worried tone in her voice.
"No, mother." She replied as she rubbed her eyes. She turned her head to look at the elder mare. "I just had a bad dream."
"Oh, is that it? There, there."
Her mother sat herself down on her daughter's bed. As she helped her daughter up and sat herself next to her, she patted her on the back and stroked her mane sympathetically.
"I already told you, Shimmer. Just ignored them. Soon, you'll show them that you worth more than a penny." Fire Cracker reassured.
"You made it sound easy to ignore them, Mom." Her daughter said with a sniff. "But it's harder than you'll ever think."
"I'll tell you what, why don't we try taking your mind off them and find another thing that you can think of instead. Like... Oh! Maybe breakfast. I'm making oats with raisins."
Her face lit up, hearing her mom said her favorite cereal. 'Maybe she's right. Maybe the best cereal in all of Equestria can take my mind off them.' She thought.
Her mother gestured her to go downstairs to eat her breakfast. Sunset followed her mother and was able to smell the scent of the cereal on the way downstairs. She inhaled the scent deeply and sighed in pleasure.
She sat down on a chair nearby the dinner table. Fire Cracker brought the bowl of cereal and placed it infront of Sunset. Then, the elder mare sat on a chair across her daughter.
"So how's the cereal?" The elder mare asked.
"It's delicious!" The daughter exclaimed, before she went to take another scoop of her cereal and stuffed it in her mouth.
"Oh and by the way, I called on an enchantress to help you on your magic stories, and she will be really happy to help you! So your studies will began today."
Sunset either nearly choked on her cereal or spit the cereal out from her mouth. She freaked out, she didn't think her mother would call somepony that early.
"Wait, like right now?"
"Of course, Shimmer. So you better finish that cereal and we'll be off sooner. Don't want to keep your lesson teacher waiting, do you?"
"Of course.. not." Sunset stammered with a nervous chuckle.
As soon as Sunset was finished with her bowl of cereal, they were in their wooden carriage and were off to their destination. You can't imagine how long did it took them to reach Sunset's teacher home. So to keep Sunset from dying of boredom, She grabs one of her spell books in her satchel and reads it. After that long journey that seems to take eternity, they finally made it to the Everfree Forest. Sunset gawked in confusion looking the dreadful place, with all the tall, dark trees and the mysterious plants looking so much alive.
"Mom, what are we doing in the Everfree Forest? Shouldn't we be in the enchantress' house or stuff?" Sunset inquired, tilting her head, showing that she was in a really confuse state and really needs answers.
"That is why, my dear, your teacher lives here!" Her mother answered her question.
"Why would she live in the Everfree Fore-,"
Sunset was unable to continue since her mother took one of her forelegs and began to drag her to the deeper part of the forest. In a second, darkness covered the light of the sun and strange noises began to sound. The younger unicorn shivered in fright as goosebumps started to appear. She felt her mother knew where she was going so that made her less afraid.
Out of nowhere, those words in her nightmare started coming back in her head. It was gone for a moment, but then it appeared. It feels like those voices in her head were haunting them. Sunset seemed to be lost in her head until...
"Sunset, we're finally here!" The elder mare declared with a singsong voice.
Sunset shook of her head, returning back to the reality world. Right there in front of her, was a quite small hut made from a bamboo type of material. There were Zebrican masks on the door's right side as well as the left side. Not only Zebrican, but also Native A-mare-rican masks hanging on the walls.
"This place is weird." Sunset stated honestly.
"Don't judge a book by its cover, Shimmer, darling." The mother unicorn said.
Sunset and her mother stood infront of the door basically doing nothing. Until the latter knocked on the door using the given knocker on the door.
"I'm coming, please wait. Don't leave just yet." The voice from the inside said.
Soon enough, the source of that voice opened the door. She was a very unusual pony. She had white coat with grey stripes. Her hairstyle was a Mohawk and she wore tons of jewelries.
"Ah, you must be Lady Fire Cracker, nice to meet you. What can I do to help you through?"
"Yes, I want you to do me a favor of helping my daughter improve her magic." Fire Cracker explained
"I can teach your daughter to get her spells right. I can serve ponies from day until night."
"Oh, We don't need the whole day to practice, just two hours is enough."
"Why do you look like a weird pony?" Sunset inquired which seems like she was being disrespectful to her, but that pony doesn't seem to care.
"That's because I'm a zebra, not a pony. I am Zecora, the one and only." Zecora said with a bow.
"Okay, that's cool." Sunset shrugged.
"Let's get started, shall we? And do not need to give credits to me. I insist." Zecora rhymes.
Zecora gestured Sunset to come inside and Fire Cracker told her that she will pick her up at noon. As the two went inside, Zecora was tidying up her potions and ingredients while Sunset sat on a small chair.
" The magic you wanted to learn, I'll let you choose. Perhaps something that keeps you amused?" Zecora said, still cleaning up her stuffs.
"I aced levitation already, but I can't do teleportation just yet, so maybe we could start with that?" Sunset asked.
"Teleportation is very handy, you see. It can take you where you want to be. I have the right book, maybe you can take a look." The zebra expained, as she lend her the velvet-colored book.
Sunset skipped through the pages and found the page she's been looking for. She reads some information about it but still doesn't get it.
"Zecora, I don't get what this book means." Sunset admitted.
"Ignite your horn, but not that much, 'cause it will prick you like a thorn. Focus on the destination you want to be, picture it in your mind and see. Once you've done that, ignite your horn more, stronger to be true, but concentrate the place at the same time too. By the time you'll know it, You'll be in that place in no time."
Sunset followed her steps. She kept grunting but still doen't work. She sighed in tiresome.
"I give up, Zecora. This is harder than it looks." Sunset said. Zecora giving a disappointing look.
"You need to try again, dear. Soon enough, you will be all clear." Zevora explained.
Sunset again followed her advice. She kept trying and trying. This little part of her mind told her to give up and lose. But no! She really wants to prove those unicorns back at the gala wrong. So she took a deep breath and try again.
"I will have to go get some supplies, I do not want to go out there at night where the sun dies." Zecora announced.
Sunset just simply nodded. As soon as the zebra closed the front door, she left her seat and began wandering around the place. It always have been a wonder to her that even the hut looks very small on the outside but very spacious on the inside.
She somehow stumbled across a room. It's not the bedroom or the kitchen, just a small room. She didn't want to break in her privacy, but her whole head is telling to go in. She let her curiosity took over her, She sighed and turned the doorknob.
Inside she found shelves containing different colored potions and bookd. But there is one that caught her eye the most, it's this bloody red potion with a very shiny, golden flask. She can tell this potion is special from the others just because of its display.
She reached up to get it but accidentally knocked ober book that was at the shelf under the shelf containing the potion. It coincidentally opened up to the page where there is the picture of the unusual potion.
She picked the book up as she read the passage about it in her mind.
The Unicorn Potion
A very rare, powerful potion made by the Great, Starswirl the Bearded. It gives one the knowledge to know all the spells in pony history. One who drink this potion will be the most powerful out of all. Rumors have said the potion will not work with everypony, or else then more ponies will have the same magic abilities. Since this was made by Starswirl, ponies believed the potion will only work with ponies in Starswirl's family, able to follow after his footsteps and be as powerful as him.
Sunset felt so satisfied. She had been rumored sometimes being Starswirl's great, great, great granddaughter. Atleast it's worth a try.
She opened the cap of the potion and drank the whole bottle down he throat. She first felt something tingling inside. She never felt so powerful before. Her brain started filling up with new knowledges. It felt like it's driving her crazy.
After all that reaction stopped, she tried to teleport. She tried to teleport back to her table, and she did it. She tried teleporting to differenet parts of the hut, and that went smoothly as well.
"I did it!" She muttered to herself excitedly.
She was so excited she accidentalky teleported back to her home, shocking her mother.
"Shimmer! You scared me!" The elder mare bellowed.
"Sorry mother! But I just learned how to do teleportation, and more!" Sunset explained, but also fibbed because this was all not her, it was her ancestor's potion.
"Well that's good, because I just heard the news from the princess that next week is your audition."
"Okay, I'm feeling good about it."
But what she didn't know is that there's more to that potion: a warning.
WARNING: THIS POTION IS VERY DANGEROUS! ONE'S BAD DEED WILL CORRUPTED ONE MORE AND MORE, BOTH LOSE ONE'S GREAT POWER AND DARK MAGIC.
(End of Chapter)
Now you know the rumors are true, Sunset is indeed related to Starswirl (not canon, just something that I can bring out Sunset's character more). Sorry Zecora wasn't really much in the story, cause the chapter title says it all that she is really important in this chapter, but let's just say I don't really have any other names for that title and I am so TERRIBLE AT MAKING RHYMES. I kinda need help from Google for Zecora's rhymes.
Oh and I really wanted to change Sunset's age for this fanfic, cause I think she's too young for these kinds of stuff, so let's just change her age from 9 to 14, sounds good? Okay, very big change, I know and I'm sorry.
Chapter four might not be that interesting as this one. Let's just say it's about magic tests and studies. Hope I didn't spoil much. I did? Well I just said tests and studies.