The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

Madness and Loyalty (Part One)

Okay, Twilight, where did I leave off?
With Tirek? Yeah that sounds about right.

So as things were I was cold and hungry but not really unhappy. Sure I was a little sad at having left the last world but I had to press on, had to deal with whatever the world threw at me next. Considering that I was in the Crystal Empire when I was taken by the portal I was pretty surprised at what I was greeted by.

Warm sandy beaches as far as the eye could see, fluffy pink clouds spread across the sky and great pools of bright green water. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, the worlds I'd been to before were horrible, twisted versions of reality. This seemed calm, serene, pleasant. I thought I might have gone mad.

Maybe you had.

Quiet, you. As I surveyed what I had been expecting to be another arctic wasteland I suddenly noticed something was wrong with the Empire itself. While the surrounding lands had been flipped from frozen north to tropical paradise the Empire itself had been entirely replaced with a vast green citadel. It still seemed to be made of precious gemstones but instead of crystal everything was formed out of great spires made of emerald. I began to wander the streets looking for some sign of life but I seemed alone in the city, the streets were entirely deserted, the buildings unoccupied. Through the city there ran a great thoroughfare that I initially thought was made of gold but on closer examination was actually just made up of bricks painted in bright yellow.

That was pretty much how I spent the whole first day there though, just wandering around in silence, not wanting to call out just in case I wasn't alone (experience had left me wary of trusting strangers in these strange worlds) and not wanting to leave the confines of the city in case there was something sinister lurking in the world outside.

Paranoia doesn't suit you, Sunset. I think I preferred it when you were a sociopath, at least then you were interesting.

I said quiet!

Just telling you the truth, Sunset.

Moving on! I did manage to find some little signs that the city was used in the form of furnishings and small food stores from which I managed to make myself a small lunch of oats and stale fruit, I didn't imagine the owners would miss them. As evening turned to night I picked a house with a comfortable enough looking bed and settled down for some much needed sleep. I'll tell you this now Twilight, if I learned anything from my travels it's that you really have to appreciate a proper meal and a comfy bed, you never know when you will see them again next.

Too bad that your sleep was restless though, Sunset. I imagine the nightmare haunted you?

No...I didn't.... Okay fine, even with the comfortable bed the nightmare still haunted me. The great red alicorn...

You.

What?

Well it wasn't just any alicorn was it? I mean come on, red coat and bat wings? Sounds a lot like how you looked at the fall formal don't you think?

I didn't tell you what the alicorn looked like, did I?

No, you can thank Luna for that. Now lets stop beating about the bush, Sunset. You are literally your own worst nightmare right?

Yes... yeah that's pretty much true. Wait, if Luna has seen my nightmares why hasn't she done anything to stop them?

Just continue the story, Sunset, I'm a busy mare and I really don't have all day to waste on the likes of you.

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When I woke the next day it was to a cockerel that had somehow made its way into the room I was using. I didn't realize what it was at first though because instead of crowing it let out an electronic beeping noise, like an alarm clock from back home. On instinct I swatted it on the head to try and make it shut up and it was only when my hoof came down on soft feathers instead of hard plastic that I realized something was wrong. I stared at the bird a little bit, rubbing sleep from my eyes to make sure I was seeing things correctly. It was definitely a cockerel and it had definitely performed a perfect impression of an alarm clock. It returned my stare for a few brief moments then ran off making strange saxophone sounds instead of clucking. As a reasonable mare...

Reasonable is pushing it don't you think? You did sort of abandon your studies over a petty feud, you stole a magical crown in an ill advised attempt at conquest and you even jumped through a clearly unstable magic portal on a whim.

AS A REASONABLE mare, I decided to go through the normal sort of checks to see if I was dreaming. Pinched myself, threw water on my face, tried falling backwards... With all those failing I decided that I was actually awake and that this new world was just really weird. I made myself some breakfast from the meager food supplies in the house then set off towards the main palace at the center of the city. If there was any evidence of what had happened in this world then I was going to find it there, plus I was still holding on to the hope that I might have found another world where the portal had been moved to the Crystal Empire. It was while I was walking down the main road that the world decided it needed to prove a point and hammer home just how weird it really was, so it started raining chocolate. After tasting the first few drops of rain I sprinted into the palace, not wanting to risk suffering some strange curse from whatever weirdness this world had to offer, the past had taught me caution if nothing else.

Sunset, caution is really just a polite way to say paranoia. How are you not seeing that?

The palace was...

So now you're just ignoring me? Real mature, Sunset, Celestia would be so proud.

...was just as empty as the other houses, but where the homes had been abandoned the palace seemed fundamentally wrong. It felt like a facade, an illusion of a real castle. The tapestries adorning its halls were made out of paper, the paintings were all white sheets with the number four hundred and four written on them placed in expensive looking frames. I tapped one of the walls after walking past a particularly flat looking door and found that the entire wall was just a prop, a stage dressing sitting in front of a much plainer actual wall.

When I reached what appeared to be some kind of throne room I found it to be empty except for a curtained partition and a large empty fishbowl. In front of the bowl was a small signpost reading Out on Chaos, Please Ignore the Sign Behind the Curtain. I frowned and pulled back the curtain with my magic revealing another sign that read Sorry for the inconvenience. I shrugged my shoulders and continued onward, deeper into the palace.

The layout was mostly the same so navigation wasn't so much difficult as surreal. It was easy enough to find where I wanted to go but half the time some strange quirk of the architecture would make it feel like I was walking upside down, or across a wall. This wasn't helped by the fact that whoever had remodeled the castle had opted to place numerous extraneous staircases on the walls and ceiling. As I rose to the higher floors of the palace I looked back down from where I had come and saw that one staircase even seemed to be looping round on itself, constantly ascending but never going anywhere. I turned away before I got a headache, while the owner of the castle wasn't mad in the same way that Sombra was they clearly had a few personality problems of their own.

Hello pot, this is kettle.

Words hurt, Twilight...

So do fireballs, have you ever thought about that?

It wasn't there. I found the room that Celestia had once stored the mirror in but it wasn't there, the chamber had been converted into some sort of ball pool complete with a needlessly tall diving board, the room having been extended upwards high into the sky to accommodate it. With my only real lead having failed I was left with two real options available to me, either I tried to reach Canterlot to see if the mirror had been left there, or I waited the week out in the relative safety of the city. The city had its appeal of course, it was sorely tempting to just spend the week recuperating, enjoying what food there was and sleeping in a proper bed every night. The counter argument though was that if I was still in the city at the end of the week then I would probably be thrown into the cold wasteland of the north when my next week began.

It wasn't an easy decision to make so I mulled over the pros and cons as I descended the palace stairways to return to the city itself.

You chose stay though.

Not exactly, I mean ultimately circumstances changed and-

But you would have chosen to stay. If nothing had changed, if everything had remained the same you would have stayed there because that is the new you, Sunset. Why take action, why face your troubles when you can just call on someone else to fix them for you or wait until the problem goes away?

That's not entirely...

I mean when the Sirens showed up the first thing you did was call me in to clean up the mess. Okay so maybe old you wasn't exactly 'nice' but at least she did things. She set her mind on a goal and tried to see it through. I mean you don't need to go full on evil demon Sunset again but the old you wasn't entirely bad, maybe try finding a middle ground?

I'll think about it. Where was I?

Descending the staircase of the cooky chaos castle. Your one plan had failed and you were already out of ideas.

Right, so as I left the castle I saw a scarf sitting on a bush just outside. I didn't remember seeing it on my way in and hadn't noticed any other ponies in the city so I was more than a little confused. I trotted up to it and plucked it from the bush, the scarf was a raggedy old thing, home made by the looks of things and had clearly seen a lot of wear and tear. The rain had let up but the scarf showed no signs of having been left out during the chocolate downpour. I turned it over a couple of times in my hooves and then stepped forwards to look inside the bush in case the owner was hiding. That was when the net pulled up around me and hoisted me into the air.

Sunset the Great and Powerful laid low by a simple net trap. Truly you were a unicorn deserving of the title 'Princess'.

Shut up, Twilight.

Author's Note:

For a better idea of what the inside of the palace looks like type in M C Escher into a google image search.

Comments

[calinjc]

Why is Twilight being so cruel? I mean I don't like her, but this is too far, even for her.

[Mr Fislewait]

7348524 Yeah, I wasn't entirely sure if I should have posted this chapter without its other parts. Suffice to say there is a reason this chapter doesn't have the normal lead in for Sunset telling the story and there is a reason for Twilight being so cruel.

[Mr Fislewait]

7348789 Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it.

Also...

Yes, no and kinda but maybe not in that order.

[Granit]

And so the unraveling begins.