Sunset Shimmer had followed by Celestia's side since she was very young. For Sunset Shimmer, she was both a teacher and a role model.
Sunset Shimmer longed to become an existence like Celestia, and when she became the Princess's protégé, she was convinced that this would be her destiny.
Celestia also had no friends; she was lonely, beautiful, powerful, and had ruled Equestria alone for a thousand years.
"So that's what you think. But have you ever thought that perhaps Princess Celestia is not what you think she is..."
"Are you trying to say that you know her better than I do?"
Sunset Shimmer's tone became impatient; Aurora's words had undoubtedly touched her forbidden zone, and there was suppressed anger in her tone.
"Don't forget, I came first! I am the pony who has spent the longest time with her!"
"...Sorry, I didn't mean to deny anything. What I want to say is, since she is our teacher, she certainly wouldn't require her students to spend extra effort on meaningless things. If you think the strong don't need friends, doesn't that contradict the Princess's orders?"
"..."
This was exactly the point that Sunset Shimmer couldn't understand. If the friendship Princess Celestia spoke of was for ruling the country, then after becoming a superior, wouldn't the ponies naturally obey her orders?
Unless friendship really had magic, and very powerful magic at that, would it be worth it for a Princess to spend effort on this aspect.
But how could this be possible? If friendship is magic, then why doesn't Princess Celestia use it herself? She is the Princess; if she wanted to, no pony in all of Equestria would refuse to be friends with the Princess, right?
Obviously, the Magic of Friendship was still too much of a nonsense, not to mention that Celestia herself was already very strong, and Sunset Shimmer also wanted to be an independent and powerful pony like her.
"If you're interested, you can research the so-called Magic of Friendship yourself. After you produce results, I will consider it then, provided that you can prove it really exists."
'She's really incorrigible; serves you right to eat a Rainbow Cannon.'
Aurora secretly stuck her tongue out at Sunset Shimmer's back.
Little did she know, the friendship she valued the least was the version answer of this world, and also the prerequisite for the heir to the throne.
However, Sunset Shimmer was right about one thing, and that was that Aurora had no way to prove the existence of the Magic of Friendship to her.
The most direct way to verify the Magic of Friendship is through the elements of harmony; Aurora knows they are currently stored in the Old Castle of the two princesses in the Everfree Forest, but without the elements of friendship to activate them, they are just six stones.
Based on the spell Twilight Sparkle perfected in the Season 3 finale to complete the Magic of Friendship, the criteria for activating the Magic of Friendship is "you in me, me in you, and the signs of destiny merging into one."
In layman's terms, it means shouting about friendship and bonds when you're low on health, and then launching a charge at the boss that's akin to a mechanic kill.
What a high threshold. You have to know that Aurora used to only play single-player games.
It seems the Magic of Friendship will have to wait for the Equestria M6; after all, one Sonic Rainboom from Rainbow Dash blasted out six cutie marks.
They really are destined best friends; it's truly enviable.
"Princess Celestia?"
The two ponies arrived at the usual meeting spot with Celestia, but they didn't see the familiar The Grand Princess; the throne was empty.
This wasn't the first time this had happened. Celestia was the ruler of the nation and had many things to manage; it was common for her to be suddenly called away to handle urgent matters.
Usually, when they encountered such situations, they would just wait there or wander around to kill time, but this time they discovered a place they hadn't seen before.