The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

Love and Kindness

"Twilight! Emergency downstairs! We really need your help!" before Starlight burst into her throne room Twilight's day had been exceedingly dull. She'd spent the morning organizing paperwork for Celestia and preparing further friendship lessons for her student. At lunch Spike had brought her a plate of daisy sandwiches and there had been no indications of impending monster attacks or impromptu friendship crises. Granted, Twilight didn't object to the idea of Ponyville having some peace and quiet, but at the same time the monotony did sometimes wear upon her. So when Starlight burst into the room with a wide eyed expression of fear Twilight leaped from her chair before the unicorn had even opened her mouth.

"Where do we need to go?" she asked Starlight.

"The castle lobby downst-" the magical pop of teleportation magic cut Starlight off mid sentence as Twilight transported them both to the lobby. Looking around there was no immediate signs of danger but to her surprise she saw Fluttershy standing with Cheerilee, both with looks of worry on their faces. More troubling though was the fact that Cheerilee was nursing a very recent looking black eye.

"What happened!?" Twilight asked looking between her three friends and trying to make sense of the scene. While she did consider Cheerilee a good friend, it was very rare for her to show up at the castle. As for Fluttershy she and Starlight were meant to be taking Sunset to her checkup at the hospital. "Where's Sunset?" The thought hit her like a train, had something happened to her friend? "Are you alright, Cheerilee?" she added realizing just how bad the other mare's eye looked.

"Sunset's in the library and I'm fine, Twilight, really, it looks worse than it is," Cheerilee stated matter of factly, though she winced in pain a little as she applied an ice pack to her eye. "I'm more worried about your friend, I can't imagine what she must be going through."

Twilight bit her lip trying to work out exactly what Cheerilee was talking about. With the hope of having Sunset's foal attend the local school if she did decide to stay in Ponyville Twilight had managed to convince Sunset to allow her to tell Cheerilee about the pregnancy. She hadn't yet arranged a meeting for the two to get to know each other and, to Twilight's knowledge, Cheerilee didn't have any further information about Sunset's situation, certainly nothing to warrant her comment.

"Oh, it was all going so well too," Fluttershy whispered with disappointment. Twilight looked at her expectantly but before Fluttershy could elaborate Starlight stepped in to let her know what had happened.

"Everything went fine at the hospital, Twilight. Sunset went in for her check up and when she came out she seemed happy enough. Doctor Horse had given her some more dietary guidelines to be following and she had some 'special news' that she couldn't wait to share with you when she got back to the castle," Starlight stopped and shook her head. "Then when we were on the way back here we saw Cheerilee walking by and waved her over. The three of us exchanged hellos but when we came to introduce her to Sunset... Sunset started freaking out. Really bad."

"This isn't as bad as it looks, really, I just hope you can get her the help she needs," Cheerilee stated sincerely.

"She hit you?" Twilight stared at the schoolteacher in shock.

"Well ummm... first she shouted at her a bit, then Cheerilee tried to explain things to her and then she hit her," Fluttershy whispered sheepishly. "She ummm... accused Cheerilee of being a changeling, she said that if she was the real Miss Cheerilee then she would have recognized her." Twilight stared at the three for a few moments before the gears clicked into place. Of course, Sunset had known a Cheerilee on the other side of the portal, that didn't exactly excuse her response but it did begin to explain some of the situation.

"The poor mare," Cheerilee sighed. "I can't imagine anypony would respond well to being told somepony they thought they had known for years was really a changeling. I imagine I could have let her know with a bit more tact. Perhaps we should hold off on introducing me to her until a later date, Twilight? She seemed a little out of sorts." Twilight nodded dumbly. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I should have somepony look at this eye." When Cheerilee walked out of the castle Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry, girls, I had no idea she might act so poorly to meeting the pony version of someone from the humans world. She seemed to be coping so well with the pony versions of the girls that I suppose I never considered that she might do something like this. Where is she now?"

"She ran off and hid in the library, Twilight. If you don't mind me saying though this seemed a little much for her just being creeped out by seeing a pony Cheerilee, she really seemed to believe she was a changeling, Twilight." The two mares nodded in agreement before turning to look at the library door.

"I'll talk to her, see if maybe she's calmed down a little. She's been through a lot and from what Sunset has said so far...well I get the impression that the changelings left a pretty bad impression on her, I'm not surprised if she might be a little bit paranoid about them."

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Sunset crouched down in the center of a carefully constructed book fort, the walls barely came up to her muzzle but even still it gave her a small measure of comfort. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there crying, she felt awful about hitting the other pony. What had come over her? She saw the doppelgangers of her CHS friends everyday so why had this one thrown her so badly?

"Hey, Sunset, is there room in there for one more?" On the other side of the wall of books was standing Twilight Sparkle herself, a reassuring smile on her face. Sunset awkwardly shuffled over a little, giving Twilight room to sit down beside her and place a wing over her withers.

"Is...is Cheerilee okay?"

"She's fine, Sunset, she doesn't blame you for what happened, she's just a little worried about you that's all." Twilight gently rubbed Sunset's back to help calm the other mare down. "Want to talk about what happened at the hospital? I hear you have some good news," Twilight asked in an attempt to improve Sunset's spirits.

"She's a unciorn, just like her parents," Sunset managed to say with a hint of a smile. "The doctor showed me some magical scans of her, she's so tiny but they can already tell her gender and everything," she continued barely concealing her sniffling nose.

"That's wonderful, Sunset, maybe when she grows up we could have her attend Celestia's school, if she's anything like you then I imagine you have a real magical prodigy on your hooves, Sunset," Twilight continued rubbing her back but Sunset seemed to flinch at the touch. She turned and looked Twilight in the eyes, a deep sadness on her face.

"Twilight, have you ever heard of a living will?" Sunset asked seemingly out of nowhere. "It's something they have in the human world, a person can write down exactly what they want done if they ever become unable to... to make reasonable decisions. I explained the idea to Dr Horse today and he helped me write mine." Silence hung in the air between the two of them for a few moments as Twilight sat dumbfounded at the statement.

"Why?" It seemed the only question worth asking.

"Twilight, I'm not well. I'm worried I might fall back into my old habits, but worse this time. If anything like that happens, or...or if I die then the will comes into effect."

"Sunset, you are better than that, you're a changed mare and you're not going to die."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Twilight," Sunset said shaking her head in despair."Doctor Horse says I'm not healing as well as he expected. I'm trying my best to stick to his diet but it isn't helping, apparently there's several things wrong with my blood and the word immune system came up a few times... Twilight, if the worst happens I want you to be her legal guardian."

"Sorry?" This was not what Twilight had expected to be hearing, how had Sunset's 'good news' turned into this?

"Twilight, I haven't got any real family and most of my friends are the other side of the portal... I want her to grow up here in Equestria, this is her heritage and I don't want to deny it to her. You and Celestia are like family to me Twi, if it comes to it I want her to grow up here in Ponyville where she can make friends and not have to worry about all the stuffy politics of Canterlot. I'd be honored to have you raise my daughter, Twilight, if... if I'm not around to do it."

"Okay," Twilight whispered holding in her own tears. The thought had never crossed her mind till now. Sunset's poor health had been common knowledge among most of the population of Ponyville but she had never considered the danger it might put her in during her pregnancy. "Anything else I should know about the will?"

"Her life comes before my own. If it comes down to it then the doctors save her first."

"You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?"

"Yeah... Her father was a good stallion, Twilight, when I met him he was trying to save the world all by himself," Sunset chuckled morosely to herself.

"I'd love to hear about him," Twilight said returning her wing to Sunset's back.

"Okay Twi..."

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It wasn't exactly a fairy tale romance but it sure started that way. When I say I literally fell out of the sky on top of him that isn't some metaphor, a few feet to the left and I'd have landed directly on top of him. See the thing with the portal was that it seemed to try its best to drop me off wherever it had found me, in this case that was high up in the sky just south of the Crystal Empire, problem was while there had been a sky chariot where it had picked me up there wasn't one where it dropped me off.

I panicked a little flailed my hooves in the empty air and then remembered I had my magic. I managed to use it to slow my descent just in time to stop myself winding up as a small red stain on the tundra. It still hurt when I hit the ground but I was getting pretty good at managing to land without aggravating my leg. I barely had time to pull myself together before he sprinted over to make sure I was alright. He was sweet, and handsome and he was genuinely concerned for my health. He actually opened up with 'are you alright?' before the more obvious 'holy Celestia, you fell out of the sky'.

When he'd made certain that I had no life threatening injuries we made our introductions, no I'm not telling you his name, Twilight, I already made it clear that I don't want anypony to go looking for him. Anyway, when he saw my magic his face practically lit up, it was like seeing a human be introduced to magic, he seemed so surprised. I was a little confused by that and so we began filling each other in with some context. I went through the whole 'lost in space and possibly time' speech while he told me about the Tirek situation. The way he told it I was probably the last unicorn in Equestria able to cast magic, and bless his heart he wanted to make sure I didn't lose it.

We traveled north towards the ruins of the Crystal Empire. Apparently Sombra's return had been thwarted but not without some collateral damage, the Empire in that world was a ruin, abandoned by Equestria and rife with dark magic trinkets that nopony had dared to touch. My new friend was apparently heading there in the hopes of finding something strong enough to stop Tirek and I was happy to accompany him, it was nice to have friendly company and I still had a lingering hope that i might find the mirror there. It wasn't easy going, the north seemed colder and crueler than it had been during my previous spell in it and I had come without any food or clothing. My friend was willing to share what little he had and wouldn't take no for an answer, so the two of us pressed on as best as we could.

Over the few days it took us to get to the Empire we shared stories, talked about the good and the bad. I ended up telling him how I'd been through a bit of a dark patch, how I idolized Celestia and how I never knew my family. He told me about his career, his hopes for a better future and his own family troubles, his parents and marefriend had all apparently died during Tirek's rampage. I was a little worried that my new friend was on a revenge quest and was in danger of succumbing to the dark magic he hoped to use, but then he told me a little story about the Equestrian version of our friend Trixie.

In this Equestria she was personal apprentice to Celestia and when Tirek broke free she had made a valiant last stand against him. She had acquired a cursed trinket called the alicorn amulet and while it did little in the face of Tirek's overwhelming strength it had an interesting side effect when Trixie was defeated. When Tirek tried to absorb the dark magic from the amulet it seemed to weaken him leaving him in a state similar to how he had been when he first broke free of his prison, apparently his conquest had slowed massively after that. My friend's plan was to find whatever dark artifacts Sombra had left in the north and use them to poison Tirek, to make him weak enough that he could be returned to Tartarus. I wasn't thrilled with the plan but it seemed to give him hope in an otherwise hopeless world so I didn't voice my concerns.

We were a day away from the Empire when the blizzard hit. The two of us nestled close together in a makeshift shelter, we huddled close together to conserve our body heat. I leaned over to lay my head next to his but before I could get settled he turned to look at me, we stared into each others eyes, leaned in close, and kissed. It was spur of the moment, it was probably a mistake but at the time neither of us really cared. We... well I won't go into all the details but I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next. And every night after that for that matter. We were both dealing with some pretty bad stuff but having each other made it all a little more bearable. It wasn't true love, I'm sure somepony with a better grasp could describe what it was, love for the sake of convenience if you want to be cynical I guess. It didn't matter to us though, what we had was good enough for both of us.

The blizzard passed after about two and a half days and I spent the rest of my time there helping him search through the ruins of the Empire. I never found the mirror but my magic proved invaluable for disarming magical traps that Sombra had left to guard his dark relics and for defrosting frozen doorways. By day we would scrounge for treasure and by night...

I'd counted the days this time round and was getting much better at predicting the portal's arrival. It was a week in total and for the last few hours of that seventh day the two of us lay together about a fire. I'd warned him from the start that I wouldn't be able to stay, that like it or not I'd be spirited away from him and we would probably never see each other again. We just laid together, said our goodbyes and wished each other the best of luck. I hoped his plan would work out and he hoped that I could find my way home. It was nice, it wasn't like being family, but it was close enough.

This time when the portal grabbed me I was ready for it, I had makeshift robes to warm me and a few scraps of food that my lover could spare for me. It appeared and I jumped into it before it had a chance to tear me away, it seemed like the exit was a little less unpleasant that way.

What was his name, Sunset?

Still not saying. Maybe someday, but not today. You need to understand, Twilight, that as much as I might have 'loved' him, I'm never going to be able to see him again, not the version of him I fell for. We wouldn't have any history, he wouldn't have the memories of what we went through together. There may be a stallion out there identical to my filly's father, but it isn't him,Twilight, and it never will be.

Author's Note:

I promise right now this story will never have a chapter in which Twilight forces Sunset onto the Equestrian version of Jerry Springer/Jeremy Kyle.

Comments

[Juicer]

."Doctor Horse says I'm not healing as well as he expected. I'm trying my best to stick to his diet but it isn't helping, apparently there's several things wrong with my blood and the word immune system came up a few times...

Seems like Time Travel sickness or chronotosis