“Hmm. I’m kind of partial to tulips, myself.”

“Roses are clearly the best. There’s a reason they put them in all the stories, you know.”

“Ooh, what about lilacs? They’re really pretty and smell nice and are super tasty too! Oh, hey Sunset. How about you? What’s your favorite flower?”

Sunset Shimmer winced, freezing in her tracks. The pair of obnoxious fillies had been blocking the hallway with their inane chatter, and she had been hoping to squeeze past them without attracting any attention to herself. It didn't look like she’d be able to avoid this, so she spun, drawing herself up and steeling herself for the inevitable confrontation.

“The best flower,” Sunset began, giving a snort for emphasis, “Isn't anything you’re going to find at your local florist’s shop or at a restaurant. I doubt either of you have ever even heard of it.”

Lily White scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Uh, hello? In case you hadn't forgotten, my cutie mark is a flower. I think I’d know a lot about flowers. I don’t see a flower on your butt. Or, you know. Anything.”

Sunset resisted the urge to grind her teeth together. “It’s called a Sunburst Rose. It’s an incredibly rare flower that grows in remote regions and only blooms during the few minutes when the sun is touching the horizon.”

“Wow!” Sandy Art said, her eyes wide and sparkling. “That sounds like something straight from a fairy tale!”

"Of course it does," Lily White snapped, stomping a hoof. "That's because she made it up. There's no such thing."

Sandy Art lowered her head, biting her lip. "Aww, really?"

It was exactly the response she had expected. She could prove it to them easily, of course, but she preferred to keep the flower as her own special secret. Besides, she had collected better ammunition against these two.

"Not real, huh? Just like your results on the unicorn history test?" The flicker in Lily's eyes was all the confirmation she needed to keep pressing . "Yeah, that's right. I know you cheated and got your uncle to give you all the answers. Sure hope none of the other teachers find out."

Lily White growled, taking a step forward. "Why you little..."

"That's not true!" Sandy Art shouted. "Lily's real smart and she studied super hard for that test. I saw her!"

Sunset threw back her head and laughed. And this was the good bit. "Sure thing. Great testimony coming from a filly who still wets the bed."

Sandy Art stiffened, and her eyes began to fill with tears. “How do you…”

Lily White looked positively livid, but she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Come on, Sandy. Let’s get going. There’s nothing I have left to say to this blank flank loser anyway.”

“...Okay.” Sandy sniffed, then turned to Sunset, eyeing her flank, eyes still watery. “Maybe your special talent is being a jerk, Sunset Shimmer!” she yelled before turning and running down the hall after her friend.

Sunset watched until the two had rounded the corner and she was alone in the hallway again.

Good. It was exactly the outcome she had been hoping for.

If there was one thing she had learned since coming to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, it was that ponies here were the same as they were anywhere else. She had painstakingly dug up dirt on her fellow classmates so she could defend herself when they inevitably tried to mess with her. Now that Lily and Sandy knew what she was capable of, they’d stay away, especially if they thought she knew even more. And if they told anypony else, the rumors would probably help head off even further trouble.

Sunset galloped back to her dorm and slammed the door behind her. She hoped her little showdown hadn't delayed her too long. Scrambling onto her desk, she nosed open the window and poked her head through the curtains to look out on the garden below.

She had gotten pretty lucky when she had been assigned a dorm room that overlooked the academy garden, and even luckier when her roommate had dropped out within the first week, leaving her with a double all to herself, at least for the semester.

And in another struck of luck, she had made it on time today.

Princess Celestia visited the garden on a regular basis, and Sunset always tried to be there to watch her.

She didn't know what brought the princess here. From all she’d heard, the gardens at the royal palace were far more lush and extravagant. But once a week, at the same time, Princess Celestia would come and make her way through this dinky but well-kept garden.

She would walk the paths and give personal attention to each and every plant: watering, trimming, or sometimes, Sunset suspected, just talking to them. As if the princess truly cared.

Except for one plant.

There was a gnarled little shrub in the corner covered in small buds that the princess never paid any attention to. The regular gardener still watered it, but it almost seemed like an afterthought to them. Why should they care about such an unimportant and worthless plant?

But Sunset knew better. Every night as the sun touched the horizon, the little buds would bloom into the most glorious reds and yellows and oranges and purples.She made sure to watch it every night before she went to bed and was positive that there was no flower in Equestria that could match it.

It wasn't fair. Why should such an amazing flower go overlooked and unnoticed, despite its clear superiority? Why didn't the princess care for it like she did every other flower? She always left long before sunset. And, because she was back in her palace when she lowered the sun and raised the moon, she would likely never see this small and hidden wonder of Equestria.

Sunset watched Celestia make the rest of her rounds that afternoon, but even after the princess had left, Sunset found herself still staring over the garden until the sun began to lower. She had already completed all of her homework assignments, easy as they were, and found herself lost in thought and anticipation.

The flowers bloomed again, and, for what must have been the hundredth time, she was the only pony there to witness their splendor.

It wasn't fair. They deserved better.

This time, Sunset decided, as the sun vanished from sight, and the buds began to shrink once more, she was going to do something about it.

---

Words were cheap. Thoughts were cheaper. Action was all that really mattered. And Sunset was finally prepared to follow through with her plan.

The first step was research. She spent countless hours poring through the library, digging up every mention she could find of the Sunburst Rose. Most of them really were from fairy tales. It was a pretty common gimmick, usually used as a miracle cure or a test to prove one’s love. But she was also able to find a few gardening manuals and botany guides that dealt with the more physiological aspects of the flower.

Once she knew as much as she could about the plant, she moved on to studying magic. Magic was why she was here in the first place, but the teachers wouldn't give her the time of day for such a “frivolous personal project,” so like always, she was on her own. She researched the properties of light and fire, how magic interacted with the two, how they interacted with each other, and the true strength and nature of the sun’s radiance. Even outside of her usual studies, the academy was a bastion of specialized knowledge, and she was able to glean what she needed through tremendous effort and long hours in the library.

Then came the theory and the practice. Sunset spent many late nights working out the equations she needed and devising the perfect formula, and then she set about practicing her magic until she could get it right. By the time she was ready, she had almost exhausted herself to the point of falling asleep in class. Not that she needed to pay attention to the lectures in the first place, but she didn’t need any more reasons for ponies to start riding her back.

After two months of running her brain ragged, she was finally prepared to show the fruit of her labors.

---

Sunset crouched under a bush, waiting for the right moment.

Princess Celestia sure was walking a meandering path today. It was taking her forever to make her way over to where Sunset was hiding. Of course the crick in her neck, the cramping in her legs, and the bugs crawling up her flank weren't making it any easier to sit and wait.

When Celestia finally passed by her hiding spot, near the forgotten bush of Sunburst Roses, Sunset took a deep breath, then jumped out behind her, shouting, “Hey!”

Celestia blinked, then turn to regard her with a quizzical eyebrow, an amused smile playing at her lips.

This was it. This was the moment she had been studying and practicing for. All of her calculations were perfect. The tests she had run had all worked, at least on a smaller scale. The theory was sound, and she knew she had the ability.

Sunset began channeling magic into her horn. Slowly at first, then a little more. Then a lot more. Cutie mark or no, she was still a magical prodigy, and at that moment, she tapped into every scrap of power she could muster. Her horn glowed with the brightness of the sun, and the air above the garden began to shimmer and crackle.

She had her eyes squeezed shut, sweat streaming down her face as she furiously poured through the formulas in her head. She had the right time of day. She was accounting for the season. She had made sure the weather was clear and sunny before doing this. It was working. It had to work.

Princess Celestia gasped. “Oh my…”

Sunset opened her eyes, panting heavily. The air around them had a bit of an orange haze to it and the Sunburst Roses were in full bloom.

She had bent the light and the magic of the sun itself in order to trick the flowers into thinking it was the same wavelength as an actual sunset.

It wasn't an effect she could keep going for very long, but it had the desired effect nonetheless.

“There,” Sunset said, wheezing as her magic drained away from her horn. “I did it.” She wasn't really sure what else she was supposed to say.

Princess Celestia stepped forward, eyes distant, and reached up a hoof to tenderly run it along the length of one of the flowers. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then turned to look down at Sunset, smiling. “Did you do all this just for me, little filly? What is your name?”

“Sunset Shimmer,” she gasped, taking in several short breaths. Her chest ached, and her legs threatened to give out on her. She felt like she had just run a marathon with no warmup. “I… you never looked upon or cared about these flowers. They deserved better.”

“Ah. I see.” Princess Celestia stepped forward, looming over Sunset before kneeling down to the same level and reaching out a hoof towards her.

Sunset flinched, but the princess merely tweaked her nose, smiling.

“I do actually know of the Sunburst Rose, Sunset Shimmer. It is a hardy plant that requires little care. As for its blooms,” she paused, her eyes growing somewhat misty, and her smile fading to the barest whisper. “I find they’re best enjoyed with the company of another pony.”

Sunset’s heart fell out of her chest, and she collapsed to the ground. “You… you already knew? You mean I did all of that for nothing?”

Princess Celestia shook her head, chuckling wryly. “Not at all. It’s been far too long since I've seen a Sunburst Bloom, and I got to see them together with you, after all. Plus, I think you may have come out with something else thanks to your efforts.”

Huh? Sunset cocked her head to the side, then followed where the princess's hoof was pointing; right at her flank. Right at…

Her cutie mark!

She finally had her cutie mark!

Renewed vigor and excitement washed away her fatigue, and she found herself bouncing up and down in circles around the princess, giggling madly and shouting, “Cutie mark! Cutie mark! I've got my cutie mark!”

Princess Celestia laughed, the sound rich and hearty, her ethereal mane flapping in the light breeze as she wiped a tear from her eye. “I will never get tired of seeing such moments.”

Sunset finally calmed down enough to actually stop and look at what it was. “It’s… a sun? Kind of like you! Amazing… but, what does it mean? Is my special talent being really good at light magic and stuff?”

“I’m sure that’s a significant part of it,” Celestia said, rising to her hooves. She looked fondly at the bush again, which had retreated down to its buds now that Sunset’s magic had faded. “You've demonstrated an incredible amount of magical talent and ingenuity, especially for somepony so young. Even here, at this school for the best and the brightest, you would be hard pressed to find any unicorn who could pull off what you just did.”

Sunset puffed her chest out, her heart swelling with pride. Finally. She knew she was good, and she had finally been able to prove it. Not just good, but the best.

Princess Celestia placed a hoof on her shoulder. “But there’s more to it than that, I think. You bent light to show things in a different perspective, and shone a spotlight on something that rarely gets the chance to showcase itself. You have a lot of potential, and you should take this to heart. Consider this your first lesson.”

Of course. It all made sense; it was Sunset Shimmer’s time to bloom and shine in the glorious light of the sun.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘first lesson?’”

Princess Celestia grinned.

---

Sunset turned off her shower, shook herself off the best she could, then stepped out, grabbing her towel and beginning to dry herself off the rest of the way.

She raised a hand to wipe the steam from her mirror and sighed. It wasn't the face she wanted to see reflected back at her, but there was no getting around that for now.

At least she still had her cutie mark. She was incredibly grateful that whatever magic that governed the portal had let her keep it, especially when she had learned that humans didn't actually get them.

She ran her fingers over her mark, then shook her head as old memories came to her unbidden. It made her cringe now to think how badly she had misinterpreted that first, most crucial lesson. It hadn't just been the foolishness of youth, she had been a fool, plain and simple.

Even now, a small part of her wanted to blame Princess Celestia instead, for not noticing her problems sooner and treating them with understanding instead of driving her away, but she quickly squashed that little voice into oblivion. She alone was responsible for her choices and the mistakes she had made.

But that was then and this was now. She was her own mare again. She knew how to both stand tall in the spotlight, and how to step back and let others take center stage while she did her best to support them.

It had been a hard-learned lesson, but one well worth it.

As Sunset began to get dressed, she glanced over at her phone and noticed that she had over seventy new messages. It looked like she was going to have another interesting day ahead of her.

At least Pinkie wasn't leaving all of those as individual voicemails anymore.