After becoming Celestia's student, the first task she assigned to Aurora was to make friends with Sunset Shimmer.
"I know the reward, so what is the mission?"
This was, of course, a joke. Given the Senior Sister's current unapproachable attitude, building a good relationship with her was clearly not an easy task.
Even though Aurora adopted a very friendly attitude to try and get close to the Senior Sister, for some reason, she always acted very resistant. She would either coldly ignore her or rudely drive her away.
In short, there was no progress, and constantly trying to butter her up while being met with cold shoulders was too much to handle, even for Aurora, despite how thick her fan filter for Sunset Shimmer was.
Celestia was not trying to force Aurora to be friends with Sunset Shimmer; after all, friendship requires mutual cultivation, not one-sided effort.
It was just that Sunset Shimmer was extremely inexperienced and indifferent in this regard, and Celestia hoped that the more well-adjusted Aurora could take the initiative to care for Sunset Shimmer in areas she herself couldn't look after.
Knowing that Sunset Shimmer had her eyes on her, Aurora was curious about what methods the Senior Sister would use to deal with her.
Referring to Sunset Shimmer's actions when she was a villain in Equestria Girls, she might end up pulling some American-style bullying on her, or using other conventional villain skills from children's shows, like framing her.
However, in reality, it wasn't as fancy or complicated as Aurora had imagined.
During an experimental class once, the teacher, on a whim, explained a new advanced magic spell. Sunset Shimmer perfectly replicated this magic, winning applause from the whole room. As she enjoyed being surrounded by the other ponies, she glanced provocatively in Aurora's direction.
"!" This is... a show of power! Such a cute show of power!
In that instant, Aurora suddenly understood.
The original Sunset Shimmer was just a proud and complacent pony who believed that not another Little Unicorn in all of Equestria could compare to her. And, of course, that was true, otherwise, Sunset Shimmer wouldn't have been so arrogant.
However, she didn't satisfy Celestia, who even wanted to sever their teacher-student relationship.
Not understanding Celestia's good intentions, and simply thinking that she wasn't recognized because she wasn't strong enough, Sunset Shimmer pinned her ambitions on that mirror leading to another world.
That was why she gave up everything in the Pony World and ran off to the world on the other side of the mirror to be a school bully.
From heir to the throne to high school bully... um... I don't understand, but I respect it.
I actually prejudged such a simple-minded Senior Sister as a despicable, evil pony! I am truly terrible!
It wasn't impossible to change Sunset Shimmer's current arrogant personality.
For example, if there were another Little Unicorn at this moment who could be on par with Sunset Shimmer, or even do better than her...
Even if she couldn't instantly develop empathy in the Senior Sister, at least she could let her know that there are always better ponies out there.
Although the teacher only said the spell once, Aurora had a good memory, and since she had always focused on studying the logic of magic, it wasn't difficult to understand.
This was a reverse-growth magic that could turn plants back into seeds without damaging the plant itself.
However, this was also her first time casting an advanced magic spell after hearing it only once; as for whether it would succeed, she had to try to find out.
Aurora concentrated and began to try. When the flower in the pot in front of her turned back into a seed, she knew she had succeeded.
"Wow! You're amazing, Aurora! No wonder the Princess chose you to be her student."
The foals who had originally been surrounding Sunset Shimmer saw the commotion on Aurora's side and immediately gathered around her instead.
The experimental class teacher walked over to check the condition of the seed and asked in surprise.
"Miss Aurora, have you learned this magic before?"
"No, sir. I did it according to the method you just mentioned."
"That means you learned this magic after hearing it just once?!"
"Um... I just tried it; it can't be considered fully learned yet."
For Aurora, it only counted as fully learned once every spell incantation and circuit of the magic had been chewed up and swallowed.
The incantation for this reverse-growth magic was a bit like saying the growth magic in reverse, with a few connecting words changed; such a fascinating design was truly endlessly intriguing to her.
Aurora couldn't help but wonder if applying this combination method to other spells could also produce reverse effects in them.
"Oh, you are too modest, Miss Aurora, you are a genius!"
The experimental class teacher did not spare any praise for Aurora. Just then, the bell for the end of class rang, and after announcing that class was over, he left the classroom with his teaching materials.
Aurora saw that Sunset Shimmer had also walked out of the classroom, dismissed The foals who wanted to chat with her, packed up her books, and followed.
"Senior Sister, don't walk so fast, wait for me!"
Aurora quickly caught up with Sunset Shimmer from behind. It seemed she was still very unwilling to pay attention to her; it appeared that stealing her thunder in class just now had made her very unhappy.
"Do you have something to say? Smart and modest Miss Aurora. I'm rushing to the classroom for my next class, so if there's nothing urgent, please stay away from me and don't waste my time!"
Sunset Shimmer coldly issued an order to leave, and intentionally or unintentionally bumped into Aurora, then sped up to shake her off.
"That was really rude..."
Aurora, having been bumped aside, stumbled a few steps to steady herself, and raised an eyebrow helplessly as she looked in the direction Sunset Shimmer had left.
Ponies really are creatures with pure emotions; just provoking her a little bit made her feelings so obvious.
It seems my existence has already triggered Sunset Shimmer's competitive spirit; I'll have my hands full in the future.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sunset Shimmer was in a terrible mood.
Regarding the reverse-growth magic in class, Princess Celestia had explained the incantation for this spell to her in class before. In other words, she had only been able to perform it in class because she had learned it beforehand.
And that Aurora, she actually learned it after hearing it only once!
Sunset Shimmer knew how complex that incantation was, so this certainly wasn't a coincidence.
Although she didn't want to admit it in her heart, the facts were right in front of her, and she couldn't pretend not to see them.
She was no longer the most special pony... No... no! She was Princess Celestia's most outstanding student! Only this would never change!
Although she still couldn't understand why Celestia wanted her to make friends, even if she were to make friends, it would definitely not be Aurora!
However, very soon she saw Aurora again in the next class's classroom, sitting right next to her.
Aurora saw the muscles in Sunset Shimmer's face twitch, as she forcefully held back a funny facial expression.
"What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, I don't have class. And it doesn't say you can't audit the class here."
Just kidding, how could a place where magic is taught be without Aurora?
"Besides that, I have something I want to say to you, Senior Sister, so I followed you here."
"I'm telling you, you—"
"The two young ladies in the front row, even if you are the Princess's students, you must follow classroom discipline. If building relationships is far more important to you than my teaching content, please leave; do not waste the other foals' time."
The magic theory teacher tapped the blackboard with a pointer, looking at Sunset Shimmer and Aurora with dissatisfaction, and they also noticed that the other students in the class were staring at them with various expressions.
Aurora also saw a few ponies with familiar color schemes, the most conspicuous of which was Colgate... ah, no, it should be Octavia Melody.
"Sorry..." × 2