Bellosh

Professor Shimmer blushed in response to Yona’s enthusiasm. At least this was a good sign that Sunset was earning her students’ respect. “All in good time, heh heh,” the unicorn chuckled good-heartedly; “Honestly, hardly anybody at all knows how Friendship Magic works because it’s never been studied in a controlled environment until now. But I hope to change that! In fact, I’ve arranged several lab sessions this year so we can delve into that field of Magic. It’ll be great!!!”

And maybe things will turn out better than the last time Sunset tried analyzing the Science of Magic in a lab.

Sunset looked mildly uncomfortable as some of the students murmured about Cozy Glow’s creepiness. While it was her instinct to gently admonish them, the professor bit her tongue for now. In the adolescents’ defense, Cozy’s actions and motivations made it very hard for the hatchet to be buried anytime soon.

The young dragon’s question triggered memories of a different world; of Sunset Shimmer’s encounters with the corrupted visages of Midnight Sparkle and Gaea Everfree. “You raise another interesting issue, Smolder. Out in the real world, you’ll hardly encounter consummate evildoers only out for themselves. Rather, you’ll mainly find beings who are capable of caring for others and showing empathy... buuuut they also just happen to have goals which don’t have everyone’s best interests in mind. 

We’ll be going in-depth into conflict resolution techniques later in the course, but just as a fair warning... in many of the most extreme situations I’ve personally been involved in, the uhhh... resolution often boils down to blasting a magic rainbow of friendship at the wrongdoer.” Sunset chortled; come to think of it, many of Twilight Sparkle & Friends’ greatest accomplishments came down to that, too. No wonder the EEA eyed Friendship School as essential to national defense.....

Sunset Shimmer raised an eyebrow at the mention of Hope Hollow. But that was all she got to do until Flash Magnus led Twilight off somewhere. That left Sunset all alone to her thoughts; on one hand, she was shocked against all expectations that after many long years, somepony in Equestria actually mentioned her hometown by name. Seriously, despite how everything back in Hope Hollow was purportedly well-know, nopony in the real world ever uttered a peep about that town.

And yeah, sure, Sunset Shimmer still carried that childhood grudge against her hometown, but she also couldn’t ignore the strange report. Although the unicorn believed Hope Hollow more than earned every self-inflicted misfortune it had coming to it, strange happenings could be caused by any manner of things that were of no fault of the community’s, and Sunset’s inner conscience couldn’t abide that, even if said place was a dumpheap.

One minute of deliberation later, and Miss Shimmer made up her mind. Instead of idling by, she would do... something! At the very least, the unicorn could find out from Twi what was going on! Off-limits zones were of no concern; without bothering to look around for museum staff first, Sunset waltzed into the darkened private area. The mare learned ago how surprisingly easy it was to snoop around anywhere if she acted like she owned the place.

Several seconds of trespassing later, Sunset heard the voices she sought. Her old eavesdropping instincts kicking in, the ex-apprentice tip-toed at crawling speed, mindful not to get noticed as she snuck towards a corner, around which were surely Twi and Flash. Sunset had a hard time making out their conversation; Twi was speaking all hush-hush like, but the eavesdropper picked up enough to know... Twi and Flash weren’t talking about Hope Hollow at all.

"...true...yourself, Princess."

"I...the way I feel is..."

"I under...make me feel...make you feel?"

"...special, yet comfortable..."

"....love, Princess?"

"You...heart, Flash."

"...love...Twilight?"

"I....do."

Sunset gasped in the heat of the moment, perhaps louder than she would have liked. She covered her mouth, but the damage was already done.

Was Twilight... making a love confession... to FLASH MAGNUS?

Princess Cadence’s ears dejectedly flopped downward; it seemed like some ponies still had the Crystal Faire Invasion fresh on their minds. And... was the Crystal Empire REALLY that remote of a realm? Crystal Spire could easily be reached via a several-hour long train ride, for Celestia’s sake! Regardless, it wasn’t in Cadence’s nature to be confrontational. Accepting that the Count was dead-set on having the honeymoon elsewhere, the princess meekly replied with a glum sideways glance; “Oh... I see.....”

“Zap Apple,” Cadence quickly filled in the blanks for Shining, grateful for the pivot away from the perceived shortcomings of a Crystal Empire honeymoon. When asked if a playdate was possible, the alicorn replied; “Hmmm... it’ll be tough, seeing that we won’t be visiting Ponyville too often once Twily moves back to Canterlot. But maybe our families could meet up next Summer Sun Celebration? Hopefully we can make it work out; I wanna see how much Zap has grown!”

An appreciation for couple-watching was certainly one trait of Cadence’s that rubbed off onto Shining Armor. Something about the second couple struck the princess as familiar. It then dawned on her; “Oh yeah, the diamond dog’s companion must be the pony who wrote to Dear Cady about not making a scene over their date. I’m not seeing anypony else with a runt, it looks like. Oh, and it looks like they’re having a good time so far!”

“Awwww,” Cadence pouted out of pity, sympathetic to the plight of being alone at an event where so many attendees are coupled up; “She looks SO bored to tears. How about we wave her over and find her a companion before the night’s through! Don’t you agree, Shiny?”

Grubber appeared dumbfounded as the hippogriff came up and gave Tempest Shadow a mouthful. Although a subconscious part of the hedgehog was indeed grateful for the show of solidarity, years of service in the Storm Armada had conditioned Grubber into believing that he ex-commander’s behavior was entirely normal, and was not in fact bullying. On the whole, Grubber felt immense loyalty to Commander Tempest, even if both of them were these days officially connected only by the legal paperwork enabling a minor like the hedgehog to pursue friendship studies.

Hence was Grubber compelled to interject on the behalf of somepony with whom he was only dimly aware of a lack of a healthy relationship between them. “Ah, cut Tempetht thome thlack,” the runt appealed, spinning around in the hippogriff's connection; “Back when thhe wath the commander, thhe had to be the biggetht, BADDETHT grump in the fleet to keep all the troopth in line. Tempetht couldn’t make friendth either, or elthe the Thtorm King would be all like ‘Oh... No waaaaaaaay, thhe’th finding allieth to betray me; NOT cooool, dude!’ Tho then Tempetht wath able to therve the Thtorm King for tho long becauthe thhe never liked making friendth!”

Grubber yabbered on animatedly, heedless of the fact that Tempest could probably overhear him. “But if there’th one thing I know about Commander Tempetht, thhe NEVER failth a mithsion. I betcha if thhe put her mind to it, thhe could abtholutely be the betht friend anybody can ask for!”

“Princess Sparkle”? That was an odd way of calling Twilight for sure. For a bizarre reason, Princess Cadence envisioned a fishworks from Neighpon and a heavy manufacturing concern combining forces to create the most uncanny dishwashing detergent mascot to ever creepily resemble the Friendship Princess. Strange thoughts happened to everypony here and there.

Anyway, Princess Cadence wasn’t the sort of pony to take no for an answer. “Oh don’t you worry,” she cryptically assured Fire Walker; “Twilight would LOVE IT if you asked her to officiate your wedding!” If there was one thing better than Cadence presiding over a wedding, it was the chance for her little sister-in-law to do so for the first time! And to clarify from earlier, Cadence isn’t going to take “no” for an answer from Twilight on this one matter. How could a ruling princess take her royal duties seriously without honoring a force as vital as Love?

“By the way, have the two of you decided on a honeymoon destination, yet? Because the Crystal Empire is rapidly becoming a popular and affordable choice! We’ve got spas, historic districts, great cross-country skiing right outside the city limits, and the world-famous Crystal Heart!!!” As a demonstration of her incredible alicorn powers, Princess Cadence materialized a Crystal Empire travel brochure out of thin air geared specifically towards enticing honeymooners. Aware that she was coming off like a salespony, the mare chuckled; “Just something to think about.....”

When Tempest Shadow looked back at Sunset Shimmer, Tempest would see a face with widened eyes, a forced grin, and sweat running down her brow. To her shock, Sunset had realized that in truth, the Mirror World would actually be a place of unimaginable horror for Tempest, as everybody depended on fingers for practically everything. Welp, time to get outta this conversation subject while they still could.

“Ye-yep!” Sunset awkwardly answered the question; “N-no ponies at all, in fact! You know, come to think of it, you’d, eh-heh, probably hate the place anyway. Alternate worlds ARE an acquired taste, after all. ...They’re not for everybody. I mean, besides, it’s not like most ponies can leave EVERYTHING they know behind because they’ve made almost zero friends in Equestria and disowned their fami-”

Miss Shimmer stopped herself, not wanting to inadvertently drown Tempest with her own petty problems. The amber unicorn faked a chuckle; “I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

Whoever wrote this next letter was... certainly something. Princess Cadence hadn’t felt such high levels of misequinthropy vibes since the time Tempest Shadow visited the Crystal Spire. This letter couldn’t have been from her, could it? After all, the assumed name “Air Superiority” triggered memories of rants about Princesses of Military Air Supremacy and-

*Ka-BOOM!!!!!!*

.....and Explosions.

Cadence sighed as the sound of foalish giggling emerged from smoldering corner of her private royal office that until just now was set aside as a pristine play area. A mother’s work is never done.....

If Princess Cadence was correct, the clues in this latest letter was written by a servicepony attending the upcoming Royal Equestrian Guard Ball. The letter itself presented a scenario that was fairly straightforward to respond to:

Princess Cadence gave Shining Armor a shifty-eyed glance out of jest. Of course the alicorn lacked megalomaniacal aspirations; she was too much of a goody four-shoes for that. Although... “I don’t know, it’s just if I was Empress of the World, I’d spread faith in True Love to those corners of the globe that hold fast to romantic cynicism and pragmatism.” The Crystal Princess seductively batted her eyelashes; “Surely that’s as good a reason as any for taking over the world, my love?”

The first two couples that came the royal duo’s way was naturally half-composed of noble-folk; Count Swift Squall of House Squallcoast and Presteza of House Aethermane, although neither had a reputation for partaking in the high society scene. While Princess Cadence wasn’t too terribly acquainted with Count Squall, she could personally attest to Presteza’s friendliness and skill in art.

Cadence recognized Flash Sentry, who she once believed Twily was growing feelings for. That romantic thread sadly got cut before its time, and these days the Princess of Love couldn’t precisely guess who her sister-in-law desired as her special somepony. Some gossip tabloids claim it’s some Kastroti sorcerer, while Princess Celestia recently thought it necessary to point out to her adopted niece how Twily was spending a curiously large amount of effort bonding with Sunset Shimmer. Either way, lil’ adorable Twily clearly had a thing for ‘bad ponies’, or at least those who presented themselves in contrast to... well, Shining Armor’s noble paladin type.

Speaking of: nopony cares about your O&O player characters, you lovable dork Shiny. Cady rolled her eyes at what her husband “wisely” considered to be worth adding onto his own list of titles.

The last mare Cadence knew only by reputation. Captain Fire Walker was one of those royal guards Twilight held in high esteem, which is how Fire became the leader of Twily’s personal guard service. Perhaps tonight would be a chance to get to know her better!

“You and me, both!” Cadence did agree with Shining about Royal Voices; “That’s why we refused to remove the Royal Canterlot Voice from the curriculum at the Imperial School of Knighthood and Chivalry. And I must say that our cheerleading squad is better off for it. It’s... pretty much the only counter we have to my auntie’s enthusiastic support for her buckball team.”

Briefly, Cadence’s attention was grabbed by the Presenter’s voice announcing more guests, but before she could see who they were, the alicorn heard Capt. Walker utter that most beloved of F-words, and gasped! “THE TWO OF YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED???” With excited wings spread out and hearts in her eyes, Cadence unwittingly shoved her husband, Flash, and Presteza out of the way as moved to give Fire a quick celebratory hug; “CONGRATULATIONS!”

Upon letting go of the pegasus mare, Cadence bombarded her and Count Squall with questions; “Do you have a wedding date set? Where’s it gonna’ be? How many guests? Is there a theme? You have a wedding planner? An officiator? Where’s the honeymoon-?” And so on and so on.....

Sunset Shimmer nodded at the mention of Cozy Glow, the former student of Friendship currently serving a life sentence in Tartarus. Like Gallus, Sunset also wondered about the story behind the demented filly Twilight had spoken of before; who Cozy’s folks were, and if she really was evil at heart. What lies or taunts led her on the long march from harmony’s light, or she would not rather have stayed there... in the company of true friends?

The youthful griffon meanwhile brought up a pertinent issue. It was something Professor Shimmer planned on tackling in detail later in the semester, but she wasn’t the type of lady to string people along, either. “Good question, Gallus! You’re in fact touching upon one of the great dilemmas of Friendship; whether anybody who completely gives in to Darkness can be redeemed or atone for their mistakes, no matter the severity of their crimes. Truthfully, it’s a hard question to answer because oftentimes, we don’t actually understand what they truly feel in their hearts.”

Sunset got out a folder and one-by-one, began to levitate and stick onto the chalkboard portraits of various personalities of infamy she painted by hand. “For a thousand years, ponies wrote off Nightmare Moon as a monster who gobbled up foals one night a year. You’ve got Discord, who had been demonized for far longer. And let’s not forget the Pony of Shadows, a literal creature of darkness who only became that way due to a simple misunderstanding.”

Another duo of portraits got stuck onto the chalkboard; “But then, you get cases like Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, creatures who time-and-time again choose to do despicable things. As Professor Fluttershy will tell you, there is immense value in learning the perspective of your foe. However, I acknowledge that isn’t always possible in the most extreme situations. Not unless you happen to master a spell giving you empathetic insights, anyway...”

The professor manifested seven crude globs of glowing magic in front of the students; six of them colorful and arranged in formation ala the Elements of Harmony, the other a swirl of pure darkness. “When you’ve got your friends, family, and homes on the line..." The six colorful globs of light shined together and shot a beam at the darkness, poofing it into nothingness; “Sometimes, you have to do what needs to be done.....”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sunset Shimmer groaned; “I’ll drop off those history books when I come in to work next week. But first, you’ll need to have that last batch of stuff I let you borrow ready for return. The school library won’t lend me any more books otherwise, and its borrowing limit is generous enough as it is.” Who knew that book depository intended for ordinary adolescents could hold so much knowledge about the Mirror World? When you added computers into the mix.....

As for armor; “I’d have to read up on armor again back home, but honestly, the only people I’ve ever seen wearing it are those LARP kids who meet up in the park every Saturday. And well..." Sunset awkwardly smiled; “There’s only so much you can do with cardboard, eh heh.” Perhaps Miss Shimmer’s fashion-conscious friend was starting to rub off on her.

It turned out Twilight herself knew a thing or two about Equestrian art history, but also knowing the circumstances behind her knowledge of it was somewhat disheartening. It was a good thing then that Flash Magnus timely swooped in with encouraging words to Twi. “He’s right,” Sunset chimed in, having bashfully blushed a moment ago knowing that the Pillars knew of her deeds, as she planted a supportive arm on the alicorn’s shoulder; “There’s no shame in having been afraid once. I pretty much spent most of my early foalhood hiding in the library because I didn’t want to deal with the jerks in my crummy old hometown. Life’s too short to always be spending energy on ponies who’ll give you a hard time! What matters is that when push comes to shove, you choose to stand up for someone else who's in need of a friend.”

Sunset smirked as she jabbed Twi’s elbow; “.....You know, like our shy friend I raged at because she inadvertently snatched your stolen crown out from my grasp. Remember how you defended her when nobody else did?”

“Tehehe, now’s not the time to bring that up,” Princess Cadence gently chided her love when he brought up that dance lesson; “Let’s try to get to the Ball first before it ends... and THEN we can worry about what to do in our castle guest room afterward.” The alicorn’s devious smirk could have been placed in a dictionary alongside a definition of “wink wiiiiiink”.

“And don’t worry Shiny,” Cadence further reminded Shining Armor; “I love any moment I can to get a dance with you... even if I’d rather do it in the company of respectable, high society ponies so that we can increase our social standing among the ponies most worth knowing.”

....................

“I’m kidding, honey. Of course I’d love to meet all your old army buddies! In fact, you can think of it as having more of you to go around!” The Crystal Princess couldn’t help but giggle loudly; it never hurt to play the role of teasing vixen every now and then.

It should go without saying that Princess Cadence loves balls... or at least, the concept of such fancy events. Like Auntie Celestia, she too could find the typical soiree attendee to be... insufferable. Fortunately, as this was a REG Ball the royal couple would be attending tonight, no spoiled cousins or snotty trend setters would be around to put a reality check on Cadence’s foalhood dreams of playing dress-up with pretty dresses and waltzing with knights in shining armor.

On both of those two fronts, the Princess of Love failed to disappoint. There was Shining Armor obviously, and then there was Cadence’s lovely gown, sparkling with hues of pink and purple. Her mane had been done special for the occasion, crowned with two ornate crystals harvested in the Crystal Empire itself (where else is a Crystal Empress supposed to find gems?). The heart-adorned crystal slippers were also products of Crystal Empire craftsmareship, and then there were the Itailian pearl necklaces; mementos once owned by the mare’s used-to-be-long-lost birth mother, Amore Della Familia, who was now gladly back in her life.

Speaking of mementos of the old country, Princess Cadence was salivating at the thought of portabella bucatini al nero when a herald’s booming cry announced the royal couple’s entry onto the ballroom floor. Hearing the long list of her apparently official titles made the alicorn blush a deep shade of red. Nonetheless, Cadence quickly gathered up her mischievous wits; “.....Oh sir, I do believe you forgot to mention Mother of Alicorns and Foalsitter of Princess Twilight Sparkle among that list of titles.” That was one of Celestia’s most important lessons of leadership: always have a sense of humor!

And yes, if Twily was going to end up on the majestic Equestrian Throne in the near future, then yes the entire world was going to hear how Cady once foalsat that cute adorable lil’ filly.....

Chatting it up with Commander Tempest started to remind Grubber of the good ole’ times when he got to snatch all the sweets he wanted and Tempest would be there to-

WAIT NO, DUCK AND COVER! BAD OLD TIMES INCOMING!!!

“EWWWWOOOHHH!!!!!!” It was almost a learned reflex for Grubber at this point, jolting as if a wave of electricity punished him for whatever mistakes he made this time. And yet... there was pain to be experienced. Yelling from Tempest, sure... as well as a light show of fiendish fright. Even some spit on Grubber’s face! But no part of his body had been touched by the scorch of crackling plasma energy. And then, Tempest just... coldly turned away.

.....Was this the dawn of a new Tempest Shadow???!

Initially dumbfounded, the hedgehog suddenly beamed and rushed back to Tempest’s side; “Oh ohhhh, have you been going to Anger Management therapy? Becauthe I can definitely thenthe you’ve made progreth, Tempetht!” He glanced behind him and gestured towards the frightened hippogriff; “Thee? Thethe guyth can tell, too! They’re not running away from you threaming, anymore!!!” The way Grubber was speaking, one might believe that Tempest just accomplished the most amazing thing in the world.....

The good news was that Tempest Shadow didn’t try shaking Sunset Shimmer off her tail. Whatever her negative thoughts on Friendship were, at least Tempest was accepting companionship at the moment. That was something Sunset could work with.

Suddenly, the broken-horned unicorn asked about... “over there”. Miss Shimmer took a few moments to consider what exactly could be conveyed about the realm without Tempest incredulously laughing in her face, then she spoke. “Honestly, life there isn’t bad at all if you get used to a lack of unicorn magic... and uhh, other changes. One plus of living in a magic-less world is that there’s no monster attacks to worry about... or evil overlords trying to take over the world with ancient relics. That’s something about Equestria I definitely don’t miss at all, teh heh heh!”

As the two unicorns kept walking side-by-side, Sunset glanced towards Tempest; “I should be more precise; Magic DOES exist in this other world after a fashion, but how it manifests is unpredictable, and can’t be reliably reproduced the way unicorn spells can. It took me a while to accept that uncertainty... but then I realized that actually, there’s something cool about not knowing what it’s gonna’ do next. After everything I’ve been through over there, I feel like not knowing something isn’t always so bad! It gives you something to work for.”

Sunset glanced upwards with a fond smile; “Equestria has a magic all its own, but this other world does too! Someone has to figure out how it works there, aaaand... it may as well be me, so..... that’s why I choose to live there.”