//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Foreign Correspondence // by Stormie-squall //------------------------------// Twilight’s letter arrived at just the right time for Sunset. All day, she’d had a gnawing feeling of guilt in her stomach. But that had always been there on her birthday. Right now, her real parents would be mourning the loss of their daughter on what should have been her twentieth birthday. And here were the other Sunset’s parents, celebrating the birth of their daughter with an imposter. It was so messed up. As Sunset stared into her mirror, fiddling with the edge of her golden dress with the red frilly hem, the magical journal sitting on her bed vibrated. Sunset pounced on it and opened it, desperate for an escape from her problems. As she read, her worries were replaced with an overwhelming feeling of happiness towards Twilight Sparkle and her pony friends. “Thank you, Twilight,” she whispered, and wiped her eyes. Mascara-tinged teardrops were flicked onto the blank page that she’d opened to automatically, but Sunset was too busy glancing at the clock to notice. She supposed that she’d have time for a quick message, but Twilight wrote to her again before she could. “Are you okay? You just sent me tears.” “Yes, I’m okay,” she wrote back. “It’s just my birthday and this is always a hard time for me.” “I can understand why. You poor thing, and you’ve had to live through, what, ten years of this?” “Something like that. I just feel so guilty because the real Sunset’s parents have been celebrating her birthday with the very stranger who killed her.” More tears dripped onto the page, and Sunset could feel the mess that her eyes had become. “I wish I could come over to help but I’m just starting dinner. I’ll send someone over to help, though.” “Thank you. Sunset’s parents are taking me out to dinner tonight for my ‘eighteenth’ birthday so whoever you send to help will just have to wait at the house for me to get back.” “I’ll let them know. Stay strong, Sunset. You have good friends to help you.” “And a princess.” Sunset smiled and gave a little laugh, then stood to fix her make-up. Pinkie Pie let out a loud gasp when she read the news sent by her pony self. “She has beautiful handwriting!” she screamed. “Also, I have to plan a party.” “Don’t stay out too late,” her big sister Maud warned as the pink blur dashed out the door laden with party supplies. “It’s Saturday, Maud!” the pink menace screamed back, but her sister just blinked and closed the door behind her. Rainbow Dash was startled from her nap in a hammock at Applejack’s, and a party hat was plonked down on her head while a party favour found itself crammed between her lips. “Wha?” she asked, and launched into a coughing fit after nearly inhaling the party favour (which let out amusing sounds as it was dislodged from Rainbow’s mouth). “Party!” Pinkie screamed. “Didn’t your pony double tell you?” “No,” said Rainbow, still looking confused. “Oh right, the rest of you girls aren’t getting yours until tomorrow morning. Silly me, I forgot. Anyway, party at Sunset’s, c’mon!” And with that, Pinkie grabbed Rainbow’s hand and dragged the girl behind her. Applejack was knocked off the ladder she’d been standing on to pick apples from her family’s farm and landed with a crash on a conveniently-placed crash mat. “What in tarnation?” “Party at Sunset’s,” Rainbow explained. Applejack nodded in understanding, a solemn look on her face. “Why so glum?” Rainbow asked as the two were dragged behind Pinkie. “Well, you know what her situation is,” said Applejack, not elaborating because talking about those things in public was just plain stupid. “No?” Applejack’s hand slapped her own face in exasperation. “Her parents aren’t her real parents, you dummy. They’re back in Equestria. And their real daughter…” “Ohhh, okay, I getcha now,” Rainbow nodded, and then she took up a sad disposition too. “And she’s had to live through this for years with no one to help her. Although that does explain why around this time there’d be more trips to the nurse’s office for the weaker kids.” “She did seem a lot angrier around this time,” said Fluttershy. She was hung over Pinkie’s shoulder for lack of arms to be dragged by. “I can almost forgive her for breaking my arm one year.” “Well, I can’t!” Pinkie declared. “I had to take you to the hospital, Fluttershy, that’s how bad it was!” “She was hurting more than she ever hurt any of us,” Fluttershy whispered, sliding further over Pinkie’s shoulder. “And that was when she was evil. Now she has no anger driving her, nothing to stop her fr- PINKIE!” “Well how else was I supposed to drag you back over my shoulder?” Pinkie asked once her mouth was free of Fluttershy’s bottom. “We could’ve taken my car,” Fluttershy said, and it sounded like it wasn’t the first time she’d offered. “Rarity’s is bigger, she has a Hummer,” Pinkie reminded her. “Man, it must be good to have rich parents.” The awe in her voice said that they were now in front of the mansion that Rarity lived in, and soon the three girls were deposited onto the ground while Pinkie skipped inside to fetch Rarity. Pinkie worked fast, and soon they were on the road on the way to Sunset’s house. Sunset barely tasted any of the delicious food that she ate at the restaurant, and she was surprised that she’d even managed to finish a plate with how twisted her stomach was. All of Sunset’s aunts and uncles congratulated her on turning eighteen, and it was all Sunset could do to not blurt out that she was actually twenty. She was glad that she looked younger. “We have a surprise for you, Sunset,” Sunset’s father said as they left the restaurant. “We all saved all year for this and, since you can drive, we thought that you could drive us home.” Sunset teared up at the sight of the gleaming red Jeep sitting there in the restaurant carpark, but not for the reasons her parents thought. It just twisted the little dagger of guilt in her heart. “I love it,” she whispered, slapping on the fakest grin that she could muster. “Thanks, mum and dad.” She hugged them, feeling like a traitor. The girl who should have been driving this was long gone by now. Nevertheless, Sunset did drive her new vehicle home, and parked it in the driveway beside a suspicious white Hummer. “Oh, my friends are here,” she said brightly, and this time she didn’t have to fake the emotion. She opened the door first and flicked the lights on, and all her friends jumped out from behind the furniture. “Surprise!” they cried, and Sunset just grinned and joined in on a group hug. “Thanks,” she whispered to Pinkie. “Thank Twilight,” Pinkie whispered back, and gave Sunset another squeeze. “Well, you girls have fun but don’t stay up too late,” Sunset’s mother warned. “Some of us have to work in the morning.” “Sure thing, mum,” said Sunset with a nod. “We’ll try to keep it down.” When Sunset’s parents had left the room, Sunset finally let the façade drop. “I really am grateful that you girls are here,” she said, sitting shakily on the couch. Pinkie gave her a party hat and party favour before sitting on the couch next to her. Fluttershy sat on the other side of Sunset, while Rainbow leaned over the back of the couch and Applejack sat on the floor. Rarity, meanwhile, sat in one of the armchairs. “Twilight asked my pony double to write to me and tell me that you needed help,” Pinkie explained. “So I decided to throw you a surprise party. Did it help?” “Yeah, it helped a lot,” Sunset nodded. “It’d help even more if Twilight was here, but I understand that she’s busy.” “Yes, I imagine that being a princess must be exhausting despite being glamorous,” Rarity agreed. She sighed wistfully. The portal at Canterlot High shimmered and let out a graceful, dark figure. Tiny specks of light glimmered in her flowing hair, and her dress looked like it had been plucked from the night sky itself. As she straightened herself up, she looked around and then frowned at the night sky. “This has none of the finesse that my night sky has. I should give the guardian of the night here a stern talking to. Not to mention the fact that they’ve been letting their subjects have nightmares without intervening.” She sighed. “But I’m not here for that.” She closed her eyes, found her harmonious centre, and flashed away with a blink of starlight. The party attendees were momentarily stunned at the flash that filled the room. “And I thought that my sister made good entrances,” the new figure giggled. “Hello, everybody.” “Princess Luna.” To her own surprise, Sunset rose from the couch and strode over to the princess of the night with a smile. “I thought that Twilight’s help would only be my friends.” “Twilight?” Luna cocked her head to one side. “No, I came here under my own stead. I’d already risen the moon so I decided to pay you a visit. Your dreams have been concerning but I haven’t been able to break through, Sunset Shimmer. Curse that Starswirl and his rules about magic not working between the dimensions.” She scowled. “You’re a princess? How many princesses does this Equestria have?” Rarity asked, rising and then dipping into a curtsey to greet the diarch. “Four,” Luna replied. “Well, at the last count, anyway. Who knows how many there will be next week.” She laughed. “But you don’t need to curtsey before me, Rarity. You are not my subject here.” “How did you know my name?” Rarity squeaked. “I am not a dullard, I can make the connection. Besides, my sister has told me extensively about mirror worlds, mostly as cautionary tales. Although I am surprised that none of you have questioned my use of magic.” “I was getting to that,” said Sunset. “How did you use it so quickly? This world doesn’t naturally have magic.” “Twilight Sparkle told me about how you girls managed to access your magic, so I looked within myself to find my harmony. In my case, it’s the harmony of how the night and day work together to create the perfect environment for ponies to live in. Try it now- think of something that makes you feel harmony.” One by one, each girl grew pony ears, wings, and longer hair as they found their harmony. Sunset, however, found it more difficult. “Sorry, princess,” she apologised sheepishly. “I just can’t find it in me today.” “The road to reformation is one filled with bumps and potholes, you must just be careful not to fall in one,” said Luna, placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “It is only too easy to return to the darkness. But with friends, it is possible to become once more the pony you were meant to be.” “Sunset, who else is there?” Sunset’s mother called from up the stairs. In a flash of negative light, Luna disappeared. “Nobody, mum, we’re just watching a movie!” Sunset called back up. “Okay, well try to keep it down,” the older woman called back. “Okay!” Sunset sighed in relief and Luna reappeared as the negative light melted away. “I confess, that works better when it is dark,” she said with a giggle. “Should we shift somewhere else?” “No, we can stay here,” said Sunset. “We just have to lower the volume.” “I am still unused to that,” said Luna, her voice now at a more normal volume. “Is this better?” “Perfect,” said Fluttershy with a smile and a nod. “Oh, good. At least this Fluttershy isn’t too terrified of me to be honest. Now, Sunset, as I was saying before, the dark magic has left you but you are still tainted by the aftereffects. Coming to terms with what you have done and trying to make amends will take time, and a lot of support from friends. I have only recently got there myself. Only in my case, I had to regrow from a relatively powerless alicorn foal to a fully-powered one because the dark magic had seeped into my magic and it made me sick to use it. Fortunately, you are a relatively powerless being now and you were only a young unicorn when you were infected so it will not affect your magic so much.” “But princess, the dark magic made me kill someone,” Sunset whispered. “How can I possibly come back from that?” “Does not your legal system believe in reformation? Are murderers in your world not sent to prison to be reformed until such a time as they are deemed reformed?” Luna asked in response. “She’s right, in this country anyway,” Applejack nodded. “Even if that doesn’t seem like enough to the family affected.” Sunset’s heart began to pound and she trembled, her legs turning to jelly. “Easy now, child,” said Luna, curling a wing around her to hold her up. “We are not speaking of imprisoning you. That would not be something that a true friend would do.” “But I should be,” Sunset sobbed, leaning into the princess. “I have to tell her parents and then they’ll…” “And she is old enough now to be sent to prison,” Rarity added. “It’s no place for an eighteen-year-old.” “I’m twenty, actually,” Sunset corrected. “I was young when I came here.” “So you were only eleven years old when you killed someone?” Rarity gasped, but remembered to keep her voice low. “That’s horrible!” “In Equestria, we begin to be treated as adults when we have our cutie mark,” Luna elaborated. “Sunset got hers when she was around five. She was in her final years of Celestia’s school when she discovered that cursed book.” “It wasn’t really appropriate reading for a ten-year-old,” Sunset said with a sniff. “No wonder Celestia kept it locked away.” “But why did you read it?” Fluttershy asked. “If Princess Celestia was teaching you, and she is something of a goddess in your world, why did you need that much power?” “It promised to turn me into an alicorn,” said Sunset. “Celestia never gave me any answers about how to become an alicorn. I just wanted to be like my mentor and with my cutie mark, I was sure that I was destined to become a princess like her.” “So that’s why you hated Twilight so much,” said Rainbow Dash. “You tried so hard to get answers on how to become an alicorn, and then Celestia goes and makes Twilight one while you were gone. She didn’t even try to look for you, she just threw herself into that project.” “My sister is like that,” Luna nodded. “She often overlooks problems and chooses to forget about them, instead focusing on something else. And somehow, that something else ends up benefiting the problem that she’d been seemingly avoiding. She avoided the problem of me to teach Twilight that she needed friends. Then, she avoided all the major problems in Equestria to train Twilight to be a princess by dealing with problems. My sister is a strange one.” “She sure sounds like it,” Applejack agreed. “How do you put up with her?” “How do you put up with her?” Luna asked in reply, pointing to Pinkie Pie who was somehow managing to inhale food without using her teeth. “Ah, I gotcha.” Applejack nodded. “You just let her do her thing and hope that she doesn’t somehow destroy the universe by sneezing at the wrong time.” “That only happened once,” Pinkie whined. “And then that guy in the blue box showed up and fixed everything.” “Ah, your world has him too. He is also strange,” said Luna. “Lots of things are,” Sunset nodded. “Hey, you managed to make me feel better.” “It comes with the territory,” said Luna with a grin. “Not only as an Equestrian princess but as the ruler of the night and guardian of dreams. One has to become good at helping others feel better if one is to comfort frightened ponies.” “I wish you’d been there ten years ago, Luna,” Sunset sighed. “You could’ve interfered in one of my dreams of ruling and told me to stay on the path of light.” “And I could have better protected those books,” Luna agreed. “But nothing ever comes of wishing to change the past. All that can be done is to learn from our past mistakes and not repeat them.” Luna stayed there that night along with everyone else, although she simply sat in the corner of Sunset’s bedroom in a meditative state, an invisibility spell keeping her from being seen or even noticed. As the girls dropped off to sleep one by one, the doors to their dreams appeared in Luna’s mind. Curiosity as to what the girls dreamed about scratched at her mind, but she knew that it would be rude to intrude on their privacy. When the familiar gilded door to Sunset’s dreams appeared, though, Luna immediately entered the dream and stayed on the fringes like she had done previously. This time, though, she knew that she could interfere if necessary. She could feel it. A human Sunset Shimmer walked down the stairs and sat at the breakfast table like every other morning. Then, she ate her breakfast and got ready to go to school. On her way to school, though, a winged figure launched itself off the roof and landed in front of her in a circle of flames. “N-no,” Sunset gulped. “You’re not real, I-I killed-“ “You killed me, yes.” The girl was a perfect copy of Sunset, save for the fact that she had a scar running across her throat and leathery wings on her back. “I just thought I’d come to return the favour.” Luna tensed herself, ready to jump in, but Sunset acted quickly. The dream changed around her, turning Sunset into a pony. “That’s better,” Sunset smiled. “Now I can fight you.” Her horn charged with opal light and a spell struck the demon girl on the wrist, causing her to drop the knife she’d been holding. Luna watched as the fight continued. The demon bent to pick up her knife. Sunset’s hoof slammed down on her hand. The demon screeched and swiped at Sunset, now bearing claws. The claws cut, spattering blood onto the pavement. Now Sunset cried out. But already her horn was glowing again as she prepared another spell. A magical blade clashed against the claws. Again and again and again the blade met claws, but then finally the demon let out a roar. Fire emitted from the demon’s hands and licked at Sunset’s hooves. Somehow, they’d become fused to the pavement. The demon closed in as Sunset whinnied in fear. “STOP”. Luna finally jumped off the building in her pony form and fired a lightning spell at the demon, which disappeared in a wisp of smoke. The danger gone, Luna turned to help Sunset. The pavement became the grass of Equestria, and Sunset gasped as she finally moved her hooves. “Princess,” she smiled gratefully. “That’s the first time I’ve ever not died in a dream.” “It is annoying,” Luna agreed as she landed. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to help you, too. Do you have any other injuries?” Sunset shook her head. “They’re hardly the worst. One night I dreamed I became an alicorn and she-“ “I know, I was there. But the dreams can’t hurt you, Sunset. The demon is gone now, and with it the original Sunset Shimmer of the human world. Nothing can change that.” “Then how come I keep dreaming about the demon?” Sunset asked. “Sometimes I’m the demon and I wake up thinking that Twilight saving me was a good dream.” “I had the Nightmare in my head for a while too. She haunted my dreams, definitely living up to her name.” Luna chuckled darkly. “But she’s gone now. She can’t hurt me anymore. Once I became reformed, I stopped having those nightmares.” “I don’t believe you,” said Sunset simply. “You didn’t sleep tonight, you just went into a meditative state to watch over dreams just like you do in Equestria.” “Well, ponyfeathers,” Luna cursed. “You have caught me out. No, I have not slept for some time now. Meditation is sufficient for alicorns anyway, and it allows me to fulfil my role as the guardian of dreams.” “I wish it was enough for regular ponies too,” Sunset grumbled. “Just one night I’d like to dream about something that wasn’t the demon. Sometimes I think I’m dreaming about something else but then suddenly she appears and kills Twilight.” She blushed fiercely as she realised what she’d just said. “I could make a fortune as a journalist with all the gossip I pick up on,” said Luna with a laugh. “But it would not be fitting of a guardian of dreams to go around blurting out secrets. So fear not, Sunset Shimmer, your secret is safe with me. Although, if Twilight ever happens to dream about you, would you like to know?” “I don’t know,” said Sunset, shifting her hooves uncomfortably. “It might make things awkward. And how can I love another if I don’t love myself?” “You’re asking me?” Luna asked, and laughed. “But seriously, Sunset, these dreams should go away in time. Once you accept that you are not the pony you were before, you can move on. Become something great. As my sister would say, you cannot move on while one of your hooves in stuck in the past. Let go of it, Sunset Shimmer. Don’t let it hold you back.” “Are you quoting that new movie?” Sunset asked. “It has some good advice,” said Luna. “Let it go. Don’t let it hold you back anymore.” She began to sing, and Sunset laughed. Never, in her life, did she imagine that she’d be here with the princess of the night singing to her. It didn’t even matter that Luna was getting the context of the song totally wrong. It was the best birthday present she’d ever had.