//------------------------------// // Coward // Story: How the Sunset Sparkles // by Scipio Smith //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Coward "So, how do you plan to start on this project of yours?" Twilight asked politely, taking a sip out of a cup of tea. Sunset sweetened her own tea with a little sugar, taking a drink. "I can't build anything out of thin air, so that means I have to start by gathering raw materials. Metal, mostly. The frame can be built out of anything, even wood I imagine, but the guts need to be metal or they won't conduct electricity." Twilight nodded. "How are you going to get around that particular problem?" "Magic," Sunset replied. "The same way that the movie theatre and the arcade get around it. Say, I don't suppose you could use royal funds to spring for an arcade machine for me to take apart? The graphics interface and stuff would be quite similar to what I need." "Maybe later," Twilight said guardedly. "Once you've earned it." "Earned it?" "Earned my trust." "We've progressed as far as tea, haven't we?" Sunset said, flashing a charming smile in Twilight's direction. "You think that makes us close?" Twilight asked. "No wonder you turned out the way you did." "Don't be like that," Sunset said. "You wouldn't have offered me anything to drink last week." She looked around the library. "Hey, where's Spike. I haven't seen him glaring at me all morning." "He's gone to Canterlot on royal business," Twilight said. "Royal business? Him? On his own?" "It happens sometimes," Twilight murmured. She set her teacup down upon the table and looked thoughtful. "Usually when it's convenient for me to have him out of the house, like the night of the slumber party." Sunset struck a coquettish pose. "Why, Princess Twilight, are you planning on seducing me?" Twilight flushed crimson. "No! Why would you say something like that?" "I was only joking. It wasn't as if I meant it." "Oh." "I do now." "What?" "Well, why are you blushing?" Sunset cackled. "You're too easy, Twilight Sparkle. You'd think living with that pink maniac, you would have developed a thicker skin." She stood up. "I've got to be going. Thanks for the tea." It was no substitute for coffee, but it did perk her up a little bit. "Where are you going?" Twilight asked. "The wastes east of town," Sunset replied. "Mining for copper isn't my thing, so I'm going to go scout for gems and then use them to buy what I need." "Good luck," Twilight said. Sunset nodded, and started towards the door. Before she could reach it somepony started knocking from the other side. "Come in," Twilight said politely, rising to her hooves. The door opened, revealing a dark blue unicorn with a silver-white mane and grey eyes standing diffidently in the doorway. "Pardon me, Princess Twilight Sparkle, but I was told that I could find Sunset Shimmer here if I hurried and I─" her eyes, darting around the library, found Sunset and widened a little. "Sunset." Sunset's eyes were plenty wide themselves. For a moment her breath stuck in her throat, and when she spoke her voice was more hoarse than usual, "Eclipse?" Eclipse stared at her. "So, it really is you." Twilight cleared her throat. "I take it you know each other?" Sunset gave a half-laugh. "Yeah, you could say that. Twilight Sparkle this is my little sister, Eclipse. Eclipse, this is Twilight Sparkle, my...supervisor." Twilight smiled invitingly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Eclipse. Please, come in. Sit down. Would you like some tea?" "No, thank you, Princess," Eclipse said quietly, stepping inside the library and closing the door after her. She stared at Sunset, while silence began to drag on. "Would you like me to give you a moment in private?" Twilight suggested. "Yeah, that'd be great, thanks," Sunset said impatiently, anxious to get Twilight out of the room so that she and her sister could catch up. "No, thank you, but this won't take that long," Eclipse said. "I don't want to put you out." "It's no trouble─" Twilight began. "I said no," Eclipse snapped. She lowered her eyes and her voice became quiet again. "Sorry, Your Highness." "Won't take long?" Sunset shook her head incredulously. "Come on, sis, it's been three years. I mean, how are you?" "I'm good," Eclipse said. "Good? Come on, Eclipse, work with me here," Sunset urged. "What are you up to? I mean, you came to see me, don't you want to talk?" "I came to give you this," Eclipse said, taking a letter out of her saddle bag and levitating it over to Sunset. "Under the circumstances, I thought it was best to deliver it in person." Sunset took hold of the letter in the grip of her own magic, opened it, and read the fine, cursive script. Dear Sunset Shimmer, You are cordially invited to attend the wedding of Planed Surface and Eclipse to be held at the Canterlot Registry Office on Saturday the 21st of July at 2.00 PM. Sunset looked up. "You're getting married. To somepony named Planed Surface?" "He's a carpenter," Eclipse explained. "You're marrying a carpenter?" "We won't starve. Or lack for furniture," Eclipse said defensively. "Yeah, but come on, Eclipse. You could do better than that," Sunset said. "Is he even a unicorn?" "He's an earth pony, and I love him," Eclipse said obstinately. Sunset sighed. "Well, in that case, congratulations!" She smiled, but Eclipse did not smile back. Her face remained stern, almost a scowl. It made Sunset's own smile fade. "So, yeah," Sunset said, looking away for a moment. "Um, thanks for the invite. I'll─" "You're going to decline," Eclipse said firmly. "I am?" Sunset asked, frowning. "Yes." Eclipse said. "Planed Surface is a good stallion, he thinks that our wedding should be an occasion for both our families. It was him who said I should invite you, him who said I should come talk to you. So I came to tell you I don't want you anywhere near my wedding. I don't want you anywhere near me ever again. Ever." Sunset blinked rapidly, a cold icy grip squeezing her stomach as she stepped away from her little sister. "But, why not?" Eclipse laughed harshly. "Do you even have to ask? After everything you've done. I know what you did, Sunset. Princess Celestia told me everything when she came to tell you were back in Equestria. I can't believe you had the nerve to show yourself around here again. Why did you come back?" "What, you'd rather I'd stayed gone?" Sunset demanded angrily. "Yes, because then I could tell everypony you were dead!" Eclipse shouted. "You told everypony that I was dead?" Sunset yelled. "What the hay, sis?" "What was I supposed to tell them? That you were a traitor? That you were evil?" "I'm not evil, I just─" Eclipse cut her off. "Spare me your self-serving justifications. I'm not interested in hearing them." "Come on, you've got to hear me out." "Why?" Sunset's face crumpled. "Because, we're family." Eclipse's eyes burned with anger. "That's what you said when you stole my Pretty Princess doll and lost her. That's what you said when you raided my allowance to buy comics for yourself. That's what you said when we both got detention because you convinced me to be your lookout while you rigged Lyra Heartstrings' room with pranks. All my life you told me I had to put up with your ponyfeathers because we were family. Well not any more. What did you ever do for me?" "I looked out for you," Sunset said. Eclipse laughed bitterly. "The only pony you have ever cared about is yourself! If you cared so much about your family you wouldn't have run away and disappeared for the last three years." "Eclipse─" "I don't care," Eclipse snapped. "Whatever you want to say, I don't care. Stay away from me." She opened the door. "Goodbye, Sunset, have a nice life." She closed the door softly behind her on the way out. Sunset stood as still as stone in the library for a moment. Twilight's face was pale, but mostly she looked embarrassed to have been a witness to all of that. "Sunset," she began, her voice tender and compassionate. Sunset snarled wordlessly and kicked the table so hard her hoof began to throb with pain as the unicorn bust toppled onto the floor and rolled across it, stopped only by Twilight Sparkle's magic. Sunset cleared her throat loudly, shifting uncomfortably beneath her jacket. "Right. So, where were we? Oh, yeah, I was leaving, right. See you tomorrow." "Sunset wait," Twilight said. "Are you really going to ignore this?" "Ignore what?" "What just happened," Twilight said loudly. "Your sister─" "I don't have a sister," Sunset snapped. Twilight frowned. "Sunset Shimmer, I know that you may not like me very much, but you can't be alone at a time like this. You can't just shrug this off." "Says who?" Sunset demanded. "Are you my guidance councillor on top of everything else?" "You have to talk to somepony─" "No, I don't," Sunset snarled. "I don't have to talk about this, I don't have to open up about my feelings, I don't have to hug or share or any other chick flick Doctor Phil nonsense. I am not going to cry on your shoulder, I am not going to chase after my sister and beg her to forgive me. I am going to handle this way I handle everything." "You can't just pretend this didn't happen," Twilight cried. "Watch me," Sunset shouted, stomping out the door. Unlike Eclipse she didn't bother to close it behind her. *** Sunset walked out into the dusty brown wastes east of Ponyville, glad of the solitude as she kicked up dust with her hooves. Hardly anypony ever came out here unless, like her, they were prospecting for gems. It looked like Rarity was doing something else today, so Sunset Shimmer had the whole wasteland to herself. Which was good, as she spent a good half an hour levitating rocks with her magic and throwing them as far as she could, yelling at the top of her lungs the whole time. What right did Eclipse have to do that to her, to treat her like that? None at all! Showing up out of the blue just to tell Sunset that she hated her guts? What kind of pony behaved like that? What kind of person would have behaved like that? No human would have done that, that was for sure. If she didn't want Sunset to come to the wedding that was her own business, but all of the other stuff, that was just harsh. "I didn't want to come to your stupid wedding anyway," Sunset said, pouting. "Though I'm sure you'll all have a lovely time eating off of tables that the groom made himself." She couldn't get over that, a carpenter. Come on, little sister, have some standards. "And I did not run away!" Sunset shouted up at the sky. "I left to pursue other projects. I didn't run away. I've never run away from anything!" "No argument here, ma'am," a passing pegasus called down to her as he flew overhead. Sunset rolled her eyes and stamped up some dust with her hooves. She supposed she'd better get to work, or Eclipse would have ruined Sunset's entire day. Finding gems out there wasn't hard, but digging them out with bare hooves was more of a trial. She should have thought to bring a shovel, but she'd been too mad to get one. "You see this, Eclipse, this is your fault. Don't say you never cause me to have a hard time," Sunset muttered as she scrabbled through the earth, getting dust and dirt all over them. She'd already taken off her jacket to keep it from getting ruined, tying it around her body so that it hung down like a cape, the way that people did in the summer on hot days in the other world. Sunset was sweating profusely as she worked. "Hey, Princess Celestia, do you think you could maybe move the sun a little further away before I get heatstroke?" The sun didn't move. "No? Please yourself I guess." Sunset wiped her brow. "I really should have brought a shovel." "Sunset!" Sunset looked up to see Twilight Sparkle trotting towards her. "You left in such a huff, I thought you might need this," Twilight said, planting a shovel in the ground in front of her. Sunset sighed. "A nice thought, but I'm fine." She went back to digging with her hooves. Twilight rolled her eyes. "Accepting help from others isn't weakness, you know." "And being self-reliant isn't a sign of wickedness," Sunset replied. Twilight shook her head. She watched Sunset work for a couple of moments before she said, "You'll ruin your clothes with sweat if you keep working in them like that." Sunset frowned. "Then I'll wash them afterwards, or maybe ask Rarity to make me a couple more outfits. I can't wear the same stuff every day after all, can I?" "Why do you need to wear anything at all?" Twilight asked. "Most ponies don't bother except on special occasions." Sunset huffed and stopped work for a moment. She looked Twilight in the eye. "I am not most ponies, now am I?" "I know that, but it half seems to me that you're trying to set yourself apart from everypony else." "Ah, well there is a very good reason for that." "What?" "I am trying to set myself apart from everypony else." "But why?" Twilight asked. "Because I'm already different so I might as well stop pretending otherwise and be myself," Sunset said loudly. "I went to another world, Twilight Sparkle. I lived among a whole different race of beings. I've had experiences no other pony has except you, and you didn't spend one percent of the amount of time there that I did. Like it or not, that place changed me, and I don't see why I shouldn’t recognise that." "But it isn't normal," Twilight said. "No, it isn't," Sunset agreed, with a look daring Twilight to make anything more of it. Twilight frowned. "Do you wish you'd stayed there? On the other side of the mirror?" "Nah," Sunset said, shaking her head. "If I'd done that, best case is that I'd be going to animal shelters with Fluttershy and talking to stuffed unicorns. As opposed to digging up earth with my bare hooves and talking to you. Huh, maybe I should have stayed after all." "There's the shovel," Twilight pointed out. "Yes, I know," Sunset shouted. "Don't you have anything better to do than annoy me?" "Well, I─" Twilight began to speak as a large shadow loomed up over her. "Twilight, look out!" Sunset yelled. Twilight twisted round, a panicked look on her face, a split second before something brained her on the back of the head with an audible clunk. Twilight's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed in a heap on the ground. A trio of big, burly dogs emerged from under the earth, rubbing their hands with glee. "Look what we have here? Pony Princess, yes?" Sunset's heart was beating rapidly now, her breath ragged with fear. She whispered, "Leave her alone." "Or what?" one of the dogs demanded. "Go, tell ponies that we ransom princess for many gems. Yes, yes, many precious gems." "This one knows how to find gems," another dog, bigger and meaner looking, pointed out. "Maybe we take her too, have her find gems for us." He lunged for Sunset, whose magic flared upon instinct. Sunset disappeared in a flash, teleporting twenty metres away from the dogs. No sooner had she reappeared than she started to run, without even waiting to see if they were following her. "Run little fraidy-pony," the dogs crowed. "Run, and tell pony folk to bring precious gems if they want see princess again!" Sunset didn't look back, didn't say anything, didn't let any sound escape her except her frantic breathing. She had to escape, she had to get away. The teeth, the claws, Celestia save her! She had to get out of this waste. Who knew where those dogs might pop up, springing out of the ground to devour her. Their teeth like knives, their claws like spear points. She had to escape. She had to get back to Ponyville where it was safe. She wasn't going to let them get her like they'd gotten Twilight Sparkle. She'd go back to Ponyville, go home, lock the door... And tell everypony that she'd run away and let their princess get taken away by monsters. Sunset tripped over her own hooves, falling down the riverbank and into the stream which ran into Ponyville. She landed in the water, soaking her new outfit and her mane. She shook her head, water droplets falling out of her mane and onto her nose, and gazed at her reflection in the water. "Don't feel too bad, Sunset," her reflection said. "After all, isn't running away what you always do in times like this." "It's called picking your battles," Sunset snapped. "It's how you keep winning." "Oh, is that what you call it," the reflection sneered. "Just call it cowardice, its more accurate." "I am not a coward," Sunset said. "What was I supposed to do back there?" "You tell me, you're the magical prodigy. You're the one who wanted to rule all of Equestria. Tell me, if you had led an army through the mirror would you have backed down the moment Celestia looked at you funny?" "Shut up." "Such rapier wit," the reflection said mockingly. "But at least you're consistent. You've never liked to pick on people your own size, have you?" "That isn't true." "You knew that Fluttershy wouldn't fight back, so you were harder on her than on anyone else. You always knew everyone's breaking point, and you never pushed anyone so far that they stood up to you." "Because I was smart!" "Because you were afraid! Because you knew that if they stood up to you, then all your power would crumble like a hollow eggshell. You're pathetic. All you've done your whole life is run away. You ran away from Equestria, you ran away from the mirror world, now you're running away again." "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Sunset yelled, splashing water everywhere to get rid of her reflection amidst the ripples. She sobbed, bowing her head and letting her wet mane fall to obscure her face. Tears began to fall down her nose and into the water. "It's true," Sunset whispered. "I am a coward." And yet, where could she run to this time? Ponyville would not forgive her for abandoning Twilight. There was nowhere in Equestria that she could go where Celestia would not find her. Did she really imagine that she would be given a second chance after this? She would have to leave Equestria altogether, and even then, she wouldn't be free of what she'd done. It would follow her all of the days of her life like the Mark of Cain, a sign of evil upon her warning other ponies to shun her and her company. "I will never be free of it, unless I do something now," Sunset murmured. She still had time. Nopony knew what she had done. If she went back now, then they need never know. They might even call her a hero. She wrung her jacket out, put it back on, then turned the collar up for no other reason then because it made her look a bit more badass. She really missed having a pair of sunglasses. "Right," Sunset muttered to herself. "Can't run away, I suppose I'll have to move forward." With nowhere else to go, she headed back into the waste, following her own terrified hoofprints until she reached the spot where she had been digging. There was a nearby hole which was probably where they had taken Twilight. Sunset looked down it, took a deep breath, and teleported in after her. She materialised with a flash inside a deep, dark tunnel. It was like some videogame level, or a scene out of a book. Sunset half expected an armed welcoming party to jump out at her. "Deep breaths, Sunset, deep breaths," Sunset said, her horn glowing to provide some light in these catacombs. "Remember: you are awesome, you are a demon, you are all that and a bag of chips. You can do this." She hoped her legs weren't trembling too hard as she set off down the tunnel. "Twilight Sparkle?" she yelled. "Twilight Sparkle?" There was no answer. Only the darkness and the cold and the earthy confines pressing down all around her. "Come on, Twilight Sparkle, answer me," Sunset called out nervously. Was it her, or was the tunnel getting smaller? Was the roof about to collapse and bury her? Were dogs about to appear from all directions and have her for dessert? Sunset closed her eyes, then found she could barely open them again for fear of what she might see. Unbidden, a song from her childhood came to her lips, one of the old traditional songs you heard every holiday. A song to keep the monsters away. "The fire of friendship lives in our hearts, So long as it burns we cannot drift apart," Sunset's voice trembled, her pitch was all over the place and she barely kept the tune. But then, in answer, another voice took up the song. "Though sorrows arise their numbers are few, Laughter and singing will see us through." "Quiet, pony!" "Twilight Sparkle!" Sunset yelled, rushing towards the sound of the singing. "Hold on, Twilight, I'm coming." She burst out of the tunnel into a spacious cavern, where Twilight Sparkle sat trussed up in rough, dirty rope, her wings tied down and her horn clamped so tightly, it was a wonder she wasn't getting a migraine. The three dogs from before stood between her and Twilight, and Sunset could hear other things moving in the shadows beyond her sight. "Back again, fraidy-pony?" the big, mean looking dog taunted. Sunset scowled. She could do this. She had terrorised an entire student body for three years, she could bluff these filthy mutts for a few moments. “There’s an old earth expression: bite me!” "I've come to get our princess back," Sunset declared. "Give her to me and we'll say no more about this...mistake, on your part." The dogs cackled. "You threatening us, fraidy-pony." "THREATEN!" Sunset's voice boomed out, echoing across the cavern as her horn glowed brighter than before. "I DO NOT THREATEN, DOG. I PROMISE." Sunset's whole body burst into flame until her body disappeared behind the aura of an alicorn, blazing with wrath. "YOU MEDDLE WITH FORCES GREATER THAN YOU KNOW. I AM NO MERE PONY. I AM SUNSET SHIMMER, THE FIERY DEMON OF EQUESTRIA, THE HIDDEN WEAPON IN CELESTIA'S ARSENAL. IF THERE IS ONE PONY IN THIS LAND YOU SHOULD NOT OFFEND IT IS I, FOR I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL THE UNICORNS COMBINED! YIELD TO ME, OR I WILL TEAR THE ROOF FROM YOUR LAIR AND DRAG YOU INTO THE SUNLIGHT FOR THE SPORT OF THE COMMON HERD! FLEE, FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!" Sunset's flames began to spread throughout the cavern, her wings of shadow spread from wall to wall. To the dogs she appeared to be twenty feet tall, and turning the earth to ash beneath her hooves. She heard the dogs screaming in terror, heard them run for their lives, leaving Twilight alone to stare up at Sunset with wide eyes. "Sunset?" The clamp on Twilight's horn shattered, the ropes confining her fell away. Then all the glamours on Sunset's voice and appearance disappeared and she stood before Twilight as she always was. "Well that was fun," Sunset muttered. "You came for me," Twilight said gratefully. "Yeah, yeah, don't mention it," Sunset said quickly. "Now, we should get out of here before they come back..." Her legs gave way beneath her and Sunset toppled to the ground, striking the dirt with a heavy thud. She heard Twilight yelling her name, but the sound of her voice was faint and distant. Sunset couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything. She felt so very tired... *** Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling above her. "Sunset?" Twilight's voice was soft, concerned, a gentle caress to her ears. Sunset looked for her. She found Twilight sitting by her bedside. Sunset herself, she saw, was connected to a half dozen drips of various kinds. "I'm in hospital?" Sunset asked, trying to sit up. "Stay down," Twilight said anxiously, pushing her back down onto the bed. "The doctor said you shouldn't exert yourself, even a little. Yes, you're in hospital. You collapsed with complete magical exhaustion. You were totally drained." "Well, duh," Sunset said softly, grinning. "You think all that god-tier stuff is easy?" "You'll have to stay here for a few days, until your magic has recovered," Twilight said. "What about our meetings?" Twilight chuckled. "I'll come to see you for a change. Sunset Shimmer...thank you, for saving me." "You would have done the same for me," Sunset replied. She paused. "Wouldn't you?" "Probably," Twilight replied. "Hey, Sunset, why did you do it? Come and get me, and all by yourself? Sunset looked long and hard into Twilight's face, suffused with concern for her. She said, "Because I need you." She grinned. "Besides, it was a pleasure to play hero for such a cute princess." Twilight flushed. "Just don't give up on me, okay," Sunset said. "No matter what happens, promise you won't turn your back on me." Twilight leaned in close to whisper, "Never. I promise."