When the great scholars and writers talk of Celestia, of them meeting with her, they always leave out one detail. Always. They tell you all about her beauty, about how powerful she is; her majesty. But they never speak of how inferior you feel beneath her gaze, how her very presence in the same building, nay the same hamlet can leave you feeling as though you were being suffocated; drowning even. It seems to be some unspoken rule

"Sunset Shimmer?" Her soft voice demands my attention to her concerned eyes and even softer smile; I'm hyperventilating as my small, foal legs knock against each other under my quivering body. "Are you alright?" Her tone is soft and comforting, but each syllable seems to make every bone in my body shudder.

Even though I feel like a lit candle in a hurricane, I nod. Her influence is like an oven to me, so much magic in one pony, it seeps out and seems to smother mine. The air itself shimmers and vibrates around her, leaving her to look like the morning sky: beautiful pale blue with stars winking away as the sun's rays drowns them. She raises from her crouched position and her wing extends several times my own body length before settling on my side.

Comfort. I can't help but gaze up at her in awe as my terror dies; forgotten. Somewhere deep in my mind, it titles her other than Princess, but the word elude me for now. She only nudges, barely even touches me, and I know to walk as she does. She's slowing herself down to a comfortable pace for me, "I take it the guards have been treating you well?" She asks me.

"Ye-" I swallow and cough; my throat is dry. "Yes they have been, Princess Celestia." I finally manage to say.

"Good, good." She smiles, turning her gaze forward as we enter the throne room, the center of the castle. The ceiling goes up nearly six or seven floors, large gold and marble arches curve up and twist around their siblings, then fall down as massive crystal chandeliers. "Welcome to Canterlot Castle, Sunset. This will be your home for the next few year."

I turn to gape at her, "Wait, wait, wait." I lean out of her embrace, waving my hooves in front of me, "I knew you were taking me as your personal student but… I'm going to live in the castle?" I sit on my haunches and gaze around.

She chuckles, "Of course. It wouldn't be very efficient to gather you from Manehatten every morning now would it?"

I shake my head, "Th-That's true..."

She chuckles. "Don't worry. Here, I'll show you to your room so you can get settled in." She offers her wing again, which I immediately huddle under. She then starts and I follow. Could I honestly be expected not to follow her? She is just awe-inspiring, just gives off an aura of safety; of grace. "When you're ready, I can personally show you around the castle if you wish."

"But Princess!" I gasp, "Surely you have something more important to do?" I stare up at her in shocked horror.

"Sunset, I took you on as my personal apprentice." She says slowly as I nod, "Did you think that meant I would load you off every time I had a little paperwork to do?" She laughs a little. I blush and start to stutter out a reply, but she quickly adds one last thing. "And quite honestly, I hate all that stuffy paperwork." She tilts her head and gives me a smirk and a wink.

I stare up at her for a moment before giggling. She soon joins in and we continue down the hall, laughing like old friends.

"Celestia?" I call out, not entirely sure of myself. She looks up from her desk, "Can we talk in private for a moment?" I request.

She nods to the guards, "Yes Sunset? Is something wrong?"

I nod and take a seat across from her. "As a matter of fact, yes. It involves my current assignment actually." She perks an eyebrow and I continue. "I don't understand it's purpose. It seems very wasteful and pointless to send me to find friends when you could be teaching me something far more important or useful." She takes a slightly deeper breath as she sits her quill down, staring blankly at me. I decide to just be blunt, "I don't believe I need any friends, Celestia. Not right now at the very least."

"Sunset," Her stern tone takes me off guard almost, "I know you do not understand the importance of this assignment. And I can't tell you it's importance until a long while. But I want you to put your trust in me, I'm your teacher and I know what's best for you to learn. Do you understand that?" I nod slightly, "Then trust me when I say that friends? True friends? They're exactly what you need right now."

I inwardly roll my eyes and scoff, but on my exterior I smile and nod. "Okay." I force the cheerfulness into my tone.

She nods back as she levitates her quill back up, "Good. Now if that's all, I was in the middle of a very important letter to the griffon queen discussing a possible agreement between our nations. I don't expect anything immediate, it might take another ten or twenty years to really make any true progress, but..." She looks at the letter again.

I nod, "Of course. I won't bother you any longer." I say with another smile, backing out of her office again. I nod to the guards again, and return to my room again. Again, she has delegated me away to some useless task while she shoves her muzzle under a mountain of paperwork which she at one time claimed to hate. My hoofs clack louder on the marble floor than I intend, with each step growing louder still. But I don't care. I'm too angry to care.

I deserve bette

"NO!" I screech, catching my long time 'mentor' off guard. "I will not calm down! I will not listen to this manure!" I stomp both forelegs on the ground, the clap echoing the office like thunder.

"Sunset, what has gotten-"

"What has gotten into me?" I ask incredulously, "Into me?" I say quietly with a small, slivering smile. I turn around the room, circling around back to her, laughing just a little. "What has 'gotten into me' is you sending me away to this little town in the middle of Equis knows where to make friends." I frown, the words slipping from my lips like poison. "What has 'gotten into me'," I reiterate, my voice deeping into a hiss, "Is you sending me away to the smallest little shit-hole of a town you could find, like I'm your shameful little mistake." My eye twitches, "What has 'gotten into me'," I start yell, "Is how mistreated I am! I deserve better! I deserve-"

"What you deserve the right to shut your mouth." She suddenly interrupts my rant, her influence washing over me like hellfire. A cold chill shudders down my spine and I nearly fall on my flanks. "I don't know what has caused you to act this way, but I assure you, you will not be getting what you want by throwing a tantrum."

She rises from her desk and I'm immediately reminded just how tiny I am. I want to run. "And this has not brought you any closer to being finished with your assignment. In fact, the only thing this has accomplished is concreting my assumption that you need friendship aside from the reason I already intended."

She strides towards me, but for all my fear, she could be lunging at me like a raging manticore. "Sunset Shimmer… I don't even know what to say to you." She sighs, closing her eyes as she looks away from me. "I didn't intend to postpone a meeting with the royal committee to listen to a child throw a tantrum, but you managed to accomplish ruining my intentions on that matter fairly quickly." She opens her eyes and stares past me. I want to hide, I want to go home and hide under my bed and cry for mommy, I want- She walks past me without sparing another glance, "Go home to Ponyville, Sunset, and do not come back here whining about your assignment again."

I can only gallop out of her office in utter terror. I run past her, without another word between us. I run down the halls of Canterlot castle until I reach my wing of the castle. I throw myself through the door, barring it with my magic while looking around frantically. Where is it? Where did I put that book? Ah! I find the book under a copy of foals tales, the cover said something about the mare in the moon or something like that.

I hold the book from my childhood close to myself, shuddering and wrapping my hooves around it as I tried desperately to calm myself. I can still feel her influence, I can still feel her anger. It's blazing through me like the spite of the queens themselves. I soon manage to catch my breath, and soon after I catch my mind from it's mad dash of fear. I tear my hooves from the old book, quickly tucking it away in my saddlebag.

I gallop out onto the balcony and take a few last minute breaths. I bring a hoof to my heart, closing my eyes. I search for the distant items I require. I can feel them brush against my minds reach and I call for the words. Those distant words, almost forgotten but never gone. My magic blazes and my emergency items flash into existence before me. I stuff them into my saddlebag without a thought; without even looking at each item.

I steady myself and my mind, searching through my rationality. Am I really going to do this?

Yes. I will give myself what I deserve, I will give myself better. "I will be better." I say aloud with finality before galloping full speed from my old home.