The unicorn opened her eyes, as she lifted herself off the grass. In the distance, there was nothing but an endless field blanketed by fog, giving the looks of a distant moor or a fantasy location, though she wasn’t sure of either. For that matter, she wasn’t sure of how she got here, either.

“Hello?” the unicorn called out. “Hello?” She sounded out for somepony for the longest time, with no answer coming. After a few minutes of that, she started to walk in a chosen direction, which soon turned into a canter which then developed into an outright gallop, hooves flying amongst the verdant blades, footfalls landing and finding purchase somehow without tearing out gouts of loam and vegetation as she moved on.

After an indeterminate time, the unicorn reached a massive stone wall impeding her progress. Not sure of which way to go, she headed to the left. For what felt like minutes, hours or years – time somehow didn’t seem to mean much here – she came across nothing. With no visible breaks in the wall, she chose to head back the way she came, in the hopes that there would be some luck.

Inexplicably, there was: she hadn’t taken more than a few steps before she came to a stop in front of a massive door. The door was open, and she peered inside. Within, a great white figure sang to a pink pegasus, as ponies of alabaster white danced around them in poses while music filled the air, as if some intricate play were in progress. But as the unicorn looked at the being of ivory, she couldn’t make out more than a blur and great light, as if the figure was a shining star in the sky. Still, the unicorn’s heart ached to see the glowing creature, and she longed to be beside it.

…and twin doors of silver slammed shut in front of her. The doors bore the sigil of a blue heart hewn from crystal, wreathed by laurels made of gold. The unicorn pushed at the doors, but they would not budge. She knocked against them, screamed for those within to let her in, but to no avail: there was no answer, no response that acknowledged she was there, and only the echoes of her pounding hooves gave any indication that she existed, for nothing else recognized her presence.

After a few minutes, she turned away from the door, dejected by her rejection, but hopeful that she would find a response if she continued going on.

After a somehow longer and yet shorter passing of time, the unicorn found herself at another portal. This time she walked in completely if only to prevent being denied entry by the doors. In front of her was a great expanse of clouds, and above the midnight sky, with stars racing from one end to the other. Somehow, it reminded her of hyperspace – how did she know that term? – in its grand spectacle. But it was the figures in the distance that caught her attention. Again, the white figure that so called out to the unicorn’s heart appeared once more, now speaking to another unicorn, one somehow familiar to the first. Great images – seemingly holoscreens, though again she knew not where the term came from – seemed to float and flow past the two as the larger organism sang to the other unicorn. The first unicorn’s heart broke; she wanted so much for the luminescent form to acknowledge her, and in a desperate attempt to call out to them, she opened her mouth…

…only to find herself with her mouth shut and standing outside a golden pair of doors, as closed as the first. These doors bore a starburst of white and purple on it, in concert with six smaller stars. The stars sang to her in a sort of twilight gesture, though the unicorn didn’t know why, only that she’d been denied twice.

She collapsed on the ground, tears coming to her eyes unbidden as she felt the crushing loneliness of the empty world around her.

It was then that she felt a warm, golden light upon her. She looked up and the glow seemed to beckon to her, caressing her muzzle and drying her tears. Without delay, she got up and started galloping in its direction. She wasn’t sure why, other than that it called to her and she needed to go. It was almost as if it was a declaration of love and devotion, a promise that this time, she would not be spurned.

After another non-passage of time, the unicorn came to a stop in front of doors seemingly made of pure bismuth, glowing with radiant and iridescent coloring across the entire spectrum. And emblazoned on the doors was a sun in partial eclipse, burning with colors of deep red and brilliant yellow, in a sort of light and dark dance, yin and yang, polar opposites that were nonetheless part of one another. The door then radiated with a golden light that moved its way across the unicorn, until it came to a stop behind her.

The unicorn turned to look, her eyes tracing the path of the light and coming to stop on her flanks…

As if on cue, the great doors opened, and a golden light flickered within, beckoning her to come in. Hesitantly she followed, afraid of being cast out once more, but as the doors remained open, she continued on, following the light.

The unicorn walked on through the dark, guided by the glowing light in front of her. She briefly turned to look for the doors, but she didn’t see them any longer; in truth, nothing behind her remained but the darkness. She then gave up on them, focusing her attention back upon the light. She continued to walk for time upon time, until she came upon a clearing of trees, lit by a mysterious light that seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at once. And it made sense, given that these trees…were no trees.

The “trees” turned out to be made of what appeared to be stained glass, with a grand image ensconced in the middle of them, as if a variant of the holoscreens she saw earlier – again, how did she know that word? – displaying some sort of image, as if from a story:

A nervous unicorn mare leaving a bundle of swaddling on the doorstep of an orphanage.
A young filly, magic burning around her like the sun itself, accidentally turning a royal carriage and some surrounding escort carriages into a tea serving set.
A beautiful white alicorn taking the young filly in her wings, holding her close as a mother holding her daughter.

The unicorn’s eyes began to tear once more at the image of the alicorn. A word, unbidden, came to her lips: “Mother,” she murmured, the unicorn’s unbridled joy now unleashed at this memory. The being was her mother, and the brilliant white figure she couldn’t see earlier with the pegasus and the other unicorn was one and the same – no other words needed to suffice. But who were the other ponies, and why were they with her?

The unicorn wiped her eyes and moved on, continuing to look at the images of herself and her mother. Despite the sorrow she felt, she couldn’t help but also be happy as she looked at the images. They felt so bright and airy, as if of a simpler time:

A unicorn filly sleeping next to her mother, while the alicorn raised the sun.
The unicorn filly, casting spells that amazed so many countless adults, while the alicorn looked on with utter pride.
The alicorn tending to the filly while she was sick, despite the older pony having far more varied and “important” responsibilities. However, it was clear that from her presence, there wasn’t anything more important – anypony more important – than this ill filly.

The unicorn smiled, feeling her mother’s love and wishing she could see her mother at this moment. But then the sky turned red and the world darkened and the bright crystalline trees became gnarled, twisted mockeries of themselves, and she suddenly knew that all good things eventually come to an end as she looked through these newer images:

The unicorn filly, now a teenager, acting as though she was far too important for others because of her status, with her mother looking on in dismay.
The teenager, now an adult mare, arguing and insulting everypony around her, flaunting her power as if it were a toy, a cruel and malicious look on her face.
The unicorn and her mother, arguing. The look in the unicorn’s eyes on the image frightened the real unicorn looking at it, but this paled in comparison to the utter heartbreak she felt when she saw the angry but despondent look on that of her mother.
And finally, the unicorn running through what appeared to be a magical portal, forsaking everything.

She gasped, hoping that the images could not be worse, that this was just her fevered, tortured imagination at work.

The unicorn, now a young human girl – how did she know that? – naked in a world of snow. Somehow, she got to shelter, created clothing to shield herself from the elements, and started making a life for herself in this new world.
The girl, forging documents and claiming to be someone else, taking position in a school in this world so she could learn more about it. But to her horror, there was a human woman who looked much like her mother, though she carried neither the patience nor the love for this girl.
The girl found love elsewhere, in the arms of a boy. Though it was as much her fault as his, she whored herself before the boy, finally ditching him when she had no further use for him – or, admittedly vice versa.
Her reign of terror against countless individuals, male and female, destroying them all, ruining them, and in one case outright destroying a girl – the unicorn recoiled as she saw what she had done and her heart felt as if it snapped in two.
Her brief return to her homeland to steal an artifact that she could use as a weapon against her mother, only to have the artifact open a portal in her heart that a demon of the human realm crawled through, possessing her and claiming her soul. In the end, it took the intervention of the other unicorn from earlier – now an alicorn herself – and five human girls, the ones the girl had bullied the most, to end her reign of terror for once and for all.
The final image on the last tree was that of the girl, broken and battered, defeated and humiliated, with six girls standing above her to pronounce judgement.

The unicorn came to a halt, crying once more though this time out of sorrow. She cried her heart out, all the while sobbing how sorry she was, how much she begged forgiveness, how much she would do anything to turn aside those years of pain and anguish. She begged forgiveness from her mother, from the other girls, from the unicorn-turned-alicorn, even from the boy who she wronged as much as he wronged her. She begged and cried until her tears were spent, her eyes were red and her throat was dry.

…which was soon ended by a warm, golden light shining on her. She looked up to see the light glowing, and in the distance, a bright, welcoming light calling to her. Desperate to be rid of the darkness, the unicorn galloped as fast as she could.

As she ran, the world began to brighten once more, the trees began to become crystalline once more, the images shining brighter…

The girl, making friends with others and gaining a new family.
The girl, protecting others against forces considerably darker than she’d ever been.
The girl, once hated by the school, reaching the pinnacle of its social apex once again but now because she was beloved and trusted – the Alpha Bitch had become the Go-To Girl.
The girl, spending time with her friends and helping them out as they could, earning their respect and camaraderie – and in one particular case, love.
The girl, opting to take on literal forces of darkness at all costs, because innocents had been hurt and her loved ones were at risk.

And then, in the center of it all, was a massive stone statue. On the raised dais was an eerily lifelike marble statue of a girl, her face contorted in semblance of grief, crying out in anguish. The reason for that was the dead unicorn in her arms, a figure that made the one looking up at the statue shudder in grief.

Words came to her with clarity: “Twily…I’m sorry,” the unicorn said, tears coming to her eyes once more.

“So, you understand, Sunset.” The unicorn turned towards the new voice and found that the trees were gone. Instead, there was a massive wall, filled with stained glass windows and bright tapestries. A huge golden dais reached up ended in a massive throne, and on that throne sat a titanic white alicorn with blood-red hair and kind blue eyes. “You’ve figured it out much quicker than others – many take years in the Great Pasture before they remember who they are once again. Death is a cleanser of a sort; it wipes away the pain of life…but sometimes the good must go as well, to lessen the burden.”

“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Sunset, now knowing who she was, looked up at Faust.

“And you’ve fulfilled my plan. It was…let’s just say it was desperate. I needed to set forces in motion, but my ability to operate on this plane is limited. My adorants and worshippers here are too few and we are not a natural part of the design here. I can’t say much more – you wouldn’t understand – but I had to do something to counteract my failures.”

“Yes. I allowed a monster to settle here, one that is all too real and far more dangerous than the Wonderstones or Grogar’s imprisonment. But this monster has thrived and grown here and I cannot interfere. So I had to set a course to have someone I trusted to do the job. It wasn’t easy. It was, admittedly, an action born of desperation.”

It took Sunset another second to make her realize. “Me?” she asked, pointing at herself in shock.

“Sunset…haven’t you ever wondered why Platinum’s Mirror was open just as you fought with Celestia? Or that you were able to come back twenty-four moons later, on a mirror that operates every thirty moons?”

Clarity sank into Sunset’s mind, recalling something that she’d always wondered about but never really put into any stock. “You did that?”

Faust nodded. “As I said, it was a desperate gamble – I had problems that needed to be solved here and my influence decreases daily. And on the other side, I had to watch as my daughter and granddaughter fought. Thus, I made a very risky move and hoped that all the pieces would fall into place.” Faust descended the steps. “To use a human term, call it Tough Love.”

Faust nodded. “I am Celestia’s mother. You are her daughter and she is your mother. Thus, I think it would be rather obvious.” Faust reached down and kissed Sunset on the forehead. “And words cannot ever express how proud I am of you, Granddaughter. My only grandfoal, unless Luna gets her act together.” Faust wrapped her great wings around Sunset, embracing her. Sunset leaned into the embrace, and the two stayed there for the longest time.

Faust laughed. “Oh no, you don’t get off that easily. There are things you have yet to accomplish.”

“Going to be hard to adjust to that; so far my experience with grandparents has been…how shall we say…eclectic?”

“From what I can tell, they’re very exceptional people. As are your other grandparents, once you meet them.”

“Meet them?” Sunset said with confusion. “But they’re human! They can’t come to the Great Pasture.”

“You’re correct about that. But as I said, you have the task I set forth for you. Additionally, you have a second family now, one that loves you just as much as we do. And I suspect your sister will need you more than ever. She’s…well, she seems to be far more fragile than her counterpart is.”

Sunset thought of Twily, and Twi’s own words to her. “Naah, Twi seems to think Twily’s much stronger than she lets on.”

“For all of them. They are my family, after all.” A thought then came to her: “You aren’t offended, are you?”

Faust chuckled. “Just as I told you once before: you are a child of both worlds now, not just of one. Just don’t forget about us: this old gal tends to get lonely doing her job since I can’t spend as much time on the terrestrial plane.”

Sunset hugged Faust’s leg; in many ways, it made her feel like a filly again. “I promise not to, Grandmother.”

The others came up to them, and as Raspberry approached, Adagio’s smile fell. “Well, you survived,” the now-former SIREN commented. “Guess you aren’t all bad.”

“We didn’t all survive,” Raspberry said softly. “Some of us gave too much.”

Adagio instantly realized what the former unicorn meant. “She was my friend. I’m never going to forget her.”

Despite the enmity between the two, Raspberry patted Adagio on the shoulder. “She deserves to be remembered. Let it out when you get the chance. Did you—”

“Yeah, we did. It’s over. But we didn’t win.” Adagio sank to her knees, crying for everything she had lost. “We didn’t lose, but we sure as hell didn’t win.”

“No, we didn’t,” Raspberry said, reaching down and hugging the other girl. For once, Adagio didn’t argue, but embraced her rival.

A light began to glow in the room. And a second later, flowers started to bloom everywhere – red and yellow roses, filling the room with a cloying, peaceful scent. From somewhere in the distance, music played.

Everyone turned in the direction of the singing to see three ponies – a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony, swaying in time with the music. They were all alabaster, with wheat-brown manes and tails and sky-blue eyes. They wore brilliantly white stolas and their heads were bedecked in golden wreaths. They continued to walk towards the humans through the field of impossible flowers, all while singing still.

“To the morning sings the lively flower!”

The earth pony approached a teary and shocked Velvet and reaching out with her hooves, placed one of the flowers in her hair.

The pegasus walked up to Spike and taking one of her plumes, did the same to him.

“He will love me in the sunny shower!”

“…weave me through a dream.”

“For all of these simple things and much more,
A Flower was born.
It blooms to spread love and joy,
Faith and hope,
To people forlorn.”

“…lives the seed of a flower.”

The trio then began singing a rising note, which was doubled by the appearance of three more ponies. Trebled. Sextupled. Increased by magnitude, until there were dozens of alabaster mares hitting the exact note.

“Ring all the bells,
Sing and tell the people everywhere
That the Flower has come!
Light up the sky
With your prayers of gladness
And rejoice, for the darkness is gone!
Throw off your fears,
Let your heart beat freely
At the sign that a new time is born!”

And then a figure started to walk towards them, graceful and beautiful. Mane burning with bright ruby and gold. A pristine coat, the color of the ripest maize, glittering like amber. A crown, peytral and shoes made from radiant bismuth, flickering with all the colors of the rainbow. And topped off with a deep red stolas etched at the bottom with red and yellow gold piping.

And sticking out of the stolas’ sideports – two magnificent wings, folded at her sides.

She was beyond radiant and brilliant. The glorious figure approached, as everyone looked on in utter shock.

“Razz, get up, okay?” the figure laughed. “You’ve known me long enough.”

“Because I’m new to the world now. You’re the first pony who has seen me like this, so I suspect it’s natural for it to happen.”

Velvet looked at the new creature, hearing her voice, disbelieving it. “Sunny?” she asked, thinking it too good to be true.

“She has Ascended,” Raspberry said, her voice still holding a note of wonder. Finally getting up and looking at the others, she added, “She is now literally a goddess amongst our kind.”

“I…please, everyone, I’m not a princess or anything, okay? I’m just the Alicorn of Earth.”

“No, and stop that – I’m not a queen any more than the ruler of the Crystal Empire is an empress,” Sunset explained, quickly self-editing lest Cadance be confused. “I’m just me. You all know me.” She then transformed herself into her human form. “Am I that different?”

The answer to that was, clearly, yes. She now stood several inches taller, and filled out more, having a figure closer to that of Cadance or Luna than herself. Closer to that of an ideal woman – because what was more ideal than a goddess?

“Sunny!” Twilight rushed up and hugged her sister, sobbing. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry for everything!”

The neophyte goddess bent down and kissed her sister on the forehead. “It’s water under the bridge, Twily. I could never be mad at you.”

Velvet took a moment to compose herself. “Sunset, do you remember what I told you when we first met?”

Sunset remembered fondly; it was words she had taken to heart. “That you had a professor once tell you that it’s more important who you are now than who you were in the past.”

“That’s right,” the matron said with some hesitation. “And what do you want to be now?”

For Sunset, there was no hesitation. Tears of joy in her eyes, she went and hugged Velvet, saying, “Your daughter.” The two held each other, tears streaming down their faces, holding one another. A second later, a teary Night joined in and it wasn’t long before it was a massive group hug with mother and daughter at the center, enjoying an unbroken moment of love.

“Yes! You lied to me – to your whole family! When were you going to tell me you were an alien from another dimension?”

Velvet became angry, apparently genuinely so. “I am your mother – you are supposed to tell me these things!”

“How? It’s not like it’s a big difference that I was a unicorn and am now an alicorn, okay? I’m still the same girl I was!”

Night broke in. “Uh, ladies, I think we can let this one slide. Our daughter did just literally save our lives, I suspect.”

“See? Plus, I got to see what Sagittarius A-star looks like! Do you know the kind of papers I could write about that?”

Velvet wheeled on him. “Oh, so you’re going to go easy on her just because she gave you the kind of scientific breakthrough that’ll make you famous?”

“Vel, go easy on her,” Celestia told her friend. “She literally died and came back. That tends to be punishment enough, I think.”

“Fine,” Velvet huffed. “But if you do so again, Sunset Shimmer, I will not be happy, am I clear?”

“As Imperial crystal, Mom.” Sunset looked around the room. “Well, I—OOOF!” Her words were cut off as that moment, Pinkie immediately tackleglomped Sunset and laid a huge kiss on her lips, not caring who saw.

“Yeah, definitely not going to get used to this universe,” Raspberry commented.

Sunset managed to break away from Pinkie’s liplock enough to say, “PINKIE!” But the girl didn’t care, instead bawling horribly while making sure to maintain an iron grip on Sunset and resting her head against the taller teen’s bosom.

“Well, we need to get out of here,” Sunset said, literally teleporting Pinkie off her and making sure she stood just inches away. “But first….” She walked over to Divine Right. “A little less than a year ago, I was nearly in your position. I got pulled out of a crater by people who became my best friends, and who taught me there’s a better way. I suspect you won’t ever see that option.” He was about to speak but was immediately silenced by Sunset’s stare. “You destroyed lives and nearly brought Hell to Earth. I can’t have that happen again. So you will never see freedom again.” She turned to look at the others. “Does anyone have any problem with this?”

“He was pronounced legally deceased months ago,” Solaire explained. “Obviously he was faking his death, but as far as the world knows, he is no longer alive.”

“Then that is how he will stay.” Sunset snapped her fingers, and the yellow ball Divine found himself in exploded. A transparent crystal fell to the ground, about the size and width of a TV remote. Inside it was a miniature Divine Right, pounding the interior, demanding to be let free. Sunset picked it up and handed it to Raspberry. “You deal with him – I suspect you were going to anyway, right?”

“Yeah, just a bit. But he’s done all his crimes here on your world, not on ours.”

“Hence why the world’s better off if he’s in Tartarus. He will never escape from there, and even if he does, he won’t know how to get back. Plus, he’s used magic here, which is still unknown – there’s too much at risk right now.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I told you what was going on back home!” Raspberry reminded her, taking the crystal reluctantly.

“Trust me, everything will be okay there, and I’ll get you home as soon as I can, Razz.”

“Because I just need time to know what I can do now.” She yawned. “Look, we’re all wiped out, and I think we’ll want out of here before the police hit this place, given that I dropped three solar lasers and a 6.0 earthquake on the area. Let’s just go to our place and we can all talk there. I suspect we’re going to need to do a lot of talking.”

“Yes, we are.” Sunset turned to look at her counterpart, looking at her with a mixture of shock and anger. “Like who the hell are you?”

“You know. You probably had access to Chernabog’s memories when you were in a half-dead state. Just…give me a chance to explain, Sunset.”

“And that’s everything,” Sunset said. The Sun was starting to peek up over the horizon, something she could already feel, given her now-permanent link to it. It was close to six in the morning, near as she could tell, given that she hadn’t learned how to tell time by reading the magnetic pulses of the planet. She had a lot more senses now, it seemed, and she was going to have to get used to them.

She summoned another cup of coffee, probably her third one. “Anyone want another?” There were some muttered groans and she summoned several more, passing them, then floating off the empty ones to the kitchen.

“You never do the dishes, so it shouldn’t matter,” Velvet said wearily. “Look, Sunny, I’m going to be honest. This is going to make things a lot harder. Not just the adoption, given that we now have two Sunsets where there should have only been one, but….”

“Yes, for lack of a better term, yes, all this. You were dead center involved in the serial killings.”

“They came after us, Mrs. V,” Rainbow chimed in. “We didn’t go looking for trouble. They confused us with the other Sunset—”

“What Rainbow means to say,” Rarity spoke, taking the diplomatic route, “is that they erroneously assumed we were here with the, ahem, ‘human’ Sunset based on the fact that we socialize with our Sunset. We were just enjoying our vacation in Harmony and then all this happened.”

“And we got there in time to stop wholesale slaughter, but not enough to save the girls,” Adagio added. “So they were innocent. And now it’s all over, and we’re homeless and probably in severe legal trouble.”

“All of us,” Pine said sadly. “Look, if need be, I’ll turn myself in. I’ll take the heat.”

“Greenie, no!” Sonata told her. “You fought alongside us! You saved the world! You—”

“Have no life without my sister,” the young woman said sadly. “I’m lost without Sides! Plus, someone has to protect Sunny, or else they’ll find out about her someday! So I volunteer to be arrested.”

“You know what that means, right?” Cadance asked her. “You’d be confessing to both the deaths of the SIRENs and the Dead Hand killings. They’ll know it wasn’t you, but given that the police have no idea who’s behind it, they won’t bother looking when they have the perfect suspect.”

“Especially when the CPD and ECSD are overworked from just the fallout of the freak hurricane and now all this,” Shining added. “You’ll be lucky if you get life without parole.”

“My life was over the moment my sister died,” she said, burying her face in her hands.

“Yeah, well, good thing I wasn’t there,” Zephyr said, putting an arm around Solaire, “or else I might have to arrest her.” Solaire, tired but clearly happy, leaned against the man.

“This sucks!” Rainbow got up and stomped around the room. “We’ve got these awesome powers – we’re like superheroes and shit…but we can’t help anyone!”

“Rainbow, it’s more than just that,” Twilight said. “Are you even trained? Do you know how to control your powers?”

“That’s another thing to consider,” Octavia said. “You need to train them, Sunny. This…this was a mess on a Biblical scale. And now, for better or for worse, you are basically Biblical yourself. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep at nights anymore, knowing what I know and what I’m going through – and how do I know you’re not responsible for that?” Sunset looked at her cousin like a wounded bird, and Octavia, frustrated, muttered a quick apology.

“And what about us?” Aria asked. “We have nothing left. With what’s going on, CSIS is going push to put a freeze on any other funds out there they might find, and ARROWHEAD and Les SCARS are going to hunt us down if they even find out there were survivors. We’ll be running for the rest of our lives!”

“No. We’re not running. Not anymore,” Adagio said. “This is our home now. These are the people we belong with. Maybe we’re too young to live on our own, but we don’t have a choice – and besides, I don’t want to run. I’m tired of all this. I just want to be a normal girl.”

Celestia folded her arms and said, “So, we have a string of unsolved murders caused by a man who is legally dead, and a girl volunteering to take the fall for something she didn’t do. At the same time, we have dozens of illegal Canadian assassins – and that sounds so weird saying that – dead in the middle of downtown Canterlot, which was also the epicenter of a 6.0 earthquake and a massive unexplained solar phenomenon. And downtown is still standing.” The educator tiredly looked at Sunset. “Sunset, you’ve caused trouble for me before – but this time you’ve outdone yourself.”

“But it won’t last.” Night turned on a nearby TV; on it was CNN, covering the dozens of bodies they were pulling out of the rubble that was the construction site in the center of downtown Canterlot. A headline at the bottom of the screen said it all: FOREIGN ARMY FOUND IN CANTERLOT? “They’ll find their IDs and trace things. I’m not a cop and even I know this. They will find you – us. All of us,” he said, looking at his older daughter with concern.

“If I have to go down fighting, I’ll do it again,” Sunset said. “I won’t let anyone here suffer any more than we already have. I will do whatever it takes.”

“No, you won’t.” Sunset looked at Velvet. “Sunset, that is not your duty.”

“No. You are a normal teenage girl. Okay, maybe not completely normal, but average all the same.” She went over and hugged her daughter, saying, “You can’t save everyone and everything all the time. I’m not sure that’s even possible, and I don’t want you tearing yourself apart having to try.”

Sunset sighed. “Mom, I know that. Hell, I’m trying to adjust to my new powers and how I’m going to deal with my counterpart here.”

Shimmer took a sip of her coffee. “Fortunately for you, we’re only here on vacation, so once we go back, I’m out of your hair.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. But…look, this is weird for me too, okay? Mom once told me that I was supposed to have a twin sister, but that she was stillborn. If you were that girl, then maybe I could understand it….”

“Then perhaps I can be of help.” Everyone turned to see a woman standing there, suddenly appearing. She had blood-red hair and blue eyes and wore a simple white shirt and blue jeans.

“Grandmother?” everyone said, looking at the woman who didn’t seem much older than Cadance.

“Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Faust and I am Queen of Equestria – though I no longer technically rule – and the head of the alicorn pantheon,” she said. Walking over to Velvet, she said, “My granddaughter is my most precious possession. Please, take care of her.”

She then turned to Sunset. “My time here on this plane is drawing to a close. This is your realm now, sweetheart, but you cannot protect it if things are this precarious. You need protectors.” She then looked at the former SIRENs and said, “And they too, will need protection. I have a plan, but if it succeeds, the world you know will be very different.”

“How different?” Pinkie asked, fearfully, sidling up close to Sunset. “I don’t…I can’t!” She turned to Sunset. “I don’t want to lose you again!”

“No! I’m serious!” Tears started to fill her eyes. “Now that I know what I want in life, I don’t want to lose it! Even if you never look at me the way I want you to, I don’t want to lose you again!”

Faust chuckled. “So different from the one I’m familiar with. Have faith, Miss Pie. Things won’t be that different.”

“Then how?” Fluttershy asked. “Will my relationship with my father be different?”

“Again, not that different. Some things must remain as they are so that the world can retain some semblance of what you know. The dead must sadly stay dead…and some ties must remain as they are.”

“No, it’s not,” Raspberry told her. “But it’s given you a strength of character you wouldn’t have otherwise. A strength I haven’t seen in someone else I know like you, and you need that strength for this world.” Fluttershy got the hint and said nothing further.

“Well said, Raspberry. But it will be hardest for you.” This last, Faust said to Solaire and Shimmer. “To accommodate my granddaughter, you will need to live a lie for the remainder of your days.”

“Done.” Shimmer’s answer was instant. “She saved me. She didn’t have to, and it would’ve made her world so much easier.”

“I was already half-dead when you took on Chernabog,” Shimmer said, as if recalling a True Thing. “She kept me in the twilight realm between life and death, because it was the easiest way to keep my body alive and me not. So I owe you. I will do what you want – if it doesn’t mean I’ll come to harm.”

“I owe this other Sunset my daughter’s – and my own – life. Plus, she is avenging my dead brother and sister-in-law by getting rid of that bastard. So yes, I too will back my daughter’s choice.”

“Then so be it.” Faust raised her hand and blue light flickered into life in it. At that, everyone in the room fell asleep. “And now to do what must be done.” As she moved around the threads in the timeline from one to the other, cutting off some and attaching others, she felt a passing of guilt for a number of reasons: these weren’t their lives anymore, not really. Some of it needed to be cut to save others, while some needed to be changed to strengthen a few. Things were coming that she could not participate in, so all she could do was to prepare the forces for what lay ahead. Part of that, of course was that many of those changed would not only remember the new timeline as if they lived it but would remember the old one in tandem.

She heard a cackle in her mind. You fool. You know that they will not abide this. They barely abide me. But you are moving the fundamental powers of this universe and giving me power in the process!

Yes. I suppose it is like rearranging the furniture in someone else’s house, she replied in kind as she continued to weave quantum strings into new forms of reality, changing probabilities and possibilities.

And I will gleefully find all the spare change as a result, the man’s mocking voice said. I will be a god – and you will have put me there. Oh, this is rich! Now I can see why Discord laughs at such folly!

Have a care, villain, Faust said, weaving the final strings. Outside, time spun backwards as her spell took effect. She could feel countless stares at her, the glares of beings knowing she was twisting rules and laws that were not her position to do. Being a god is a difficult proposition in this realm. They have disbelievers here. And godslayers.

You have nothing to fear from me, not anymore, fiend, Faust said. But you will fear my granddaughter. She cut the line of thought off with finality.

She then looked at the timeline she’d so radically changed. For the common being, changing a timeline as if it were a pair of socks or a saddle was incomprehensible – and they would be right. That wasn’t exactly what she did. What she did was more akin to a surgeon’s skills in surgery; admittedly, it was a little more complicated and metaphysical than that, but the analogy still fit. She couldn’t bring paradise for anyone involved, though she wished to so very much. She couldn’t even do that for her own daughters, much less her granddaughter – all she could do was to try to keep them safe, and even that wasn’t a certainty.

Faust could feel that things were Done. It was time to go. She bent over Sunset and looked at her granddaughter with love – the last time she would likely ever see her again. It broke her heart, but at least there was a heart to break. Bending down, she kissed Sunset on the forehead. “This is your world now, my dearest grandchild,” she said softly. “I made it as safe as I could for you. Guard it well, for it is yours, just as you are its. And this is your bailiwick that I charge you with protecting – Alicorn of Earth.”

“Going so soon?” a new voice asked. She turned to see a man standing there, wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. He had tan skin, a neatly-trimmed beard, and a pleasant smile.

“I’ve done enough damage to your realm for my selfish reasons,” Faust said apologetically. “I have used it for things I should have not, and now I leave someone dear here to serve both as my penance and my promise to make things right.”

“That’s not necessary,” the man replied. “None of us are completely innocent in what we do, even though scripture and doctrine might say otherwise. But that is for mortals to concern themselves with.”

“I see.” Faust gave the man a weak smile. “Then please, as a foolish old mare, I have a request: watch out for my granddaughter for me. This way will be forever barred to me now—”

“No it won’t. I can assure you of that.” He shrugged. “I cannot explain why, even to another deity, but I assure you the way will not be barred. Besides, if you look, you will see that you set something in motion.” He pointed at a single quantum strand. “From there, it will grow and someday your granddaughter will be as known as the rest of us – she will be one of us.”

“She will ensure it. After all, I know something about Sons cleaning up after their Fathers,” he said with a smile. “Fare Thee Well in your own efforts.”

A Time of Reckoning: Seven Days in Sunny June, Book IV

by Shinzakura

∞: Les Fleur