The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

Epilogue: And the Stars Shall Aid In Her Escape...

Darkness. At first there was nothing but darkness for Sunset. She remembered being hit by a beam of light, and then...nothing. Wherever she was now there was no light, no, sound, no warmth, she couldn't even feel her body or move her limbs. Then, there was a light. Faint at first, but rapidly growing as it approached her.

"Sunset," a voice whispered to her from the light. It took form, becoming a more recognizable shape, Luna. Sunset tried to speak, but lacking any body she was uncertain how. "Concentrate upon your old self, Sunset, think of your mouth and tongue and then try to speak."

"Luna?" following the alicorn's instructions she slowly managed to form the word, it echoed around the dark void.

"Good, very good. You are trapped within the Moon, Sunset. At present you lack any physical form, but with practice you will be able to take shape as I have, as though in your dreams." Memories came flooding back to Sunset of her last meeting with Luna and she suddenly felt ashamed.

"I'm sorry," she managed, speaking like this was difficult, it was uncomfortable.

"Water under the bridge, you are not the first one who has attacked me in a fit of rage and I doubt you shall be the last," Luna chuckled. "Now then, Sunset, I am here to help you. When we last spoke, your mind was clearly troubled, the fact that you saw fit to banish yourself to the Moon does not bode well for your mental health. But we now have one thousand years ahead of us to try and heal those wounds, together I hope we might be able to fix whatever damage it is you suffered in your travels."

"Thank you," Sunset whispered, words were still difficult but they sounded more and more like her own voice.

"Think nothing of it. Now before we begin there is one issue we must address. Your friends and family, little Evey." Evey, only now did Sunset even consider the fact that she wouldn't see her daughter again for a thousand years.

"Evey! She'll be..."

"Dead. Yes," Luna sighed and turned away from her. "I am sorry, Sunset, but this is the undeniable truth of your banishment. Everypony you knew, who was neither alicorn nor dragon, shall likely be dead by the time you return to Equestria. This gives us two options, Sunset. The first is that I inform you of their deeds over the coming years, you shall be unable to speak to them or aid them, but you shall have knowledge of their accomplishments. Or, I shall speak nothing of them during my time here, you shall be separated from them but will not know the grief of being powerless to aid them when they fall." Sunset found herself wishing to cry but her current form lacked the eyes to do so. Only now was she truly appreciating all that her banishment would cost her.

"The second," she finally whispered. "If...if losing her now hurts this much...how much worse will losing her again hurt me?" It was like her daughter was already dead, already lost to her. How would she ever deal with the news of her actual death?

"You are certain?"

"Yes..."

"Very well then," Luna gave her sympathetic smile. "I shall cut off contact with little Evey, I shall offer you no lies of omission about your daughter, Sunset. If I know nothing of her life then we shall both be in the same boat, so to speak. I shall be leaving you for now, likely there is much you need to process, but do not fear, for I shall return. You are not alone, Sunset, we shall help you through the years to come."

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1,000 Years Later

Six figures stood atop the ruins of the Castle of the Queen. It was the single oldest piece of changeling designed architecture in all of Equestria, and though it stood in a state of horrendous disrepair it had apparently weathered all that the world had to throw at it for the past thousand years. There, standing in the broken remnants of the throne room, Dawn Glitter levitated the strange gems that had been embedded into a statue of the old changeling queen to each of her new found friends.

"Phasmatodea, you kept us going when we doubted ourselves, you represent Honesty!" The orange gem formed into a necklace as it reached the ivory changeling.

"Meadow Spring, you looked past the eyes of the cockatrice and saw it was in pain, you represent Kindness!" The pink gem also formed a necklace as it reached the blue earth pony.

"Sunny Skies, you kept up our spirits throughout all the drabness of the Badlands, you represent Laughter!" The turquoise gem went to the orange pegasus.

"Ashy, you shared your gems with the diamond dogs, convincing them to show us the way here, you represent Generosity!" The purple gem for the grey dragon.

"And Gada, even when the other griffons mocked you, you stuck with us to help us on this quest, you represent Loyalty!" The red gem went to the Griffon.

"Which leaves me. Girls, until tonight I never realized the importance of friendship, but you all taught me the joy and happiness that friendship can bring! The spark you girls lit inside of me, is the spark of the element of Magic!" The star shaped gem form a crown atop the brown unicorn's head, completing the group. The six girls gave a triumphant cheer, bumping hooves and claws in celebration.

"Soooo.... now what?" Gada asked, turning to Dawn. "I mean, I know we're supposed to be stopping Blazing Dusk from returning and bathing the world in perpetual sunlight... but where is she?" The six of them turned and looked at the moon, sure enough the mare remained vanished from its surface, just as it had been for the last few hours as they sprinted through the castle.

"Is she late for her own evil scheme or something?" Sunny suggested, pulling a watch from her saddlebags.

"I uh... I don't know. I mean the book said we'd find the elements here, I just sort of assumed we'd find her here trying to stop us," Dawn nervously rubbed the back of her head.

"I believe that is my cue," the six friends turned to face the voice. Out of the shadows strode a towering amber alicorn with a fiery red mane and a sun for a cutie mark, a genial smile upon her face.

"Blazing Dusk!" they shouted in unison, forming up, ready to fight their enemy.

"Actually, I go by the name Sunset Shimmer. It's a pleasure to meet you all," she extended a hoof towards them, causing the friends to look at one another in confusion.

"Ummmm... aren't you meant to be really evil or something?" Phantasmodea asked, "girls, why isn't she evil?"

"Ah, young changeling," Sunset turned her head towards the shapeshifter causing her to squirm uncomfortably. "To you and your kind, I am deeply sorry. In my madness I hurt your kind more than any other, I only hope that with time you can manage to forgive me." To the assembled groups surprise the regal looking alicorn bowed deeply before Phantasmodea.

"Ummmm... apology accepted?" she turned and looked back at the others, "seriously, I'm pretty sure she was meant to be evil, have we got the right alicorn here?"

"Hey, I read the book too and I'm just as confused as you lot," Ashy mumbled. "Go on epic quest? Check. Acquire Elements of Harmony? Check. Fire magical beam of energy at monologuing villain," she turned and looked at Sunset then shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh by all means go ahead," Sunset said, standing back up and looking at them. "I have been gone for a thousand years, for a thousand years I have considered my past actions, my misdeeds, my failings and the failings of others. I have...tried... to better myself, but there is only one test that shall confirm if wickedness has truly been banished from my heart and mind," she pointed a hoof towards Dawn's crown. "The Elements of Harmony. Turn their power upon me, little ponies, if I am still a threat to the harmony of Equestria, then they shall remedy it."

"Well if it's what she wants..." Meadow whispered to the others. Dawn nodded and turned to face Sunset, atop her head she felt the power of the Element of Magic growing, coalescing in a beam of magical energy. Similar beams shone from the others' neckalces, joining in a single ray of magic that shot out across the throne room, washing harmlessly over the alicorn. As the magic subsided it revealed Sunset to be standing where she had been before, unharmed and unchanged. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"My little ponies," a kindly voice echoed across the top of the throne room. The six friends knelt in reverence, instantly recognizing the second alicorn.

"Princess Flurry Heart!" they called as one, bowing on their knees.

"Rise, my friends. You have done a great service to Equestria this day but your work is not yet done. I believe we still have a Draconequus to free before we can celebrate," Flurry said in a motherly fashion, looking down in pride at the new element bearers. "First though, I would like a word with Princess Sunset Shimmer, the two of us have much to catch up on."

"Princess!?" the friends shouted in disbelief. They had all heard, old foals tales about the mare in the moon, but not one of them referred to her as a princess.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Flurry said, dropping much of the regality of her voice. Her student and the other element bearers had gone downstairs to give the two alicorns some privacy.

"Too long," Sunset sighed. "Flurry, I don't mean to sound rude, but why did they send you to be the one who welcomed me home? You hate me," Flurry winced at the words.

"I don't hate you...at least not any more," she considered some less than ladylike things she had said about the mare during her own youth, "was it really that obvious?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't subtle," Sunset chuckled.

"They chose me to be here because...because I was the closest to Evey."

"She's dead," Sunset said in a matter of fact manner, throwing Flurry slightly off guard. "I came to terms with that many, many years ago, Flurry, so why send you?"

"Sunset," Flurry sighed, "Evey was...she was...a troubled mare. I'm sorry, Sunset, but her story was not a happy one and we don't know how it ended. I can tell you what happened if you wish or..."

"Was she happy?" Sunset asked, her face betraying no emotion. "Was she ever happy?"

"Briefly. She had these wonderful little bursts of joy, these few moments that she just seemed like a different mare, so happy, so content. They were brief and fleeting, but... yes she did have some moments of happiness." Sunset stood like a stone, her face unmoving, no tears falling from her eyes.

"I...I would like some time alone. I assume that the others are in Canterlot?" her voice was a whisper.

"Yes, we'll be waiting for you there. Take all the time you need."

"Thank you," Sunset's face briefly showed the true extent of her sorrow but she hid it well, her mouth flicking back up into a smile. "Now then, I think you have some Element Bearers to be looking after, they seemed a bit disappointed with their villain and looked like they might need some reassurance of their heroism, I'd hate to have robbed them of their victory." Flurry nodded and turned to the stairs.

"We'll be seeing you soon, Sunset, welcome home."

Sunset waited until she was certain that Flurry was out of earshot the turned to face the dark corners of the throne room. "You can come out now, it's just the two of us." Hesitantly a crimson unicorn mare with an orange mane and half a sun for a cutie mark crept from the darkened corners of the room.

"I thought they'd never leave, she muttered as she walked towards Sunset on unsteady hooves. Sunset observed her closely and smiled.

"You are not from around here are you? I am Sunset Shimmer, what is your name and what are you in your native form?" Sunset recognized those shaky movements anywhere, she had lived them herself when she had been forced to adjust to a human body.

"That obvious huh?" the mare muttered.

"Only if you know what to look for," Sunset walked up to her and helped steady her on her hooves.

"I'm Blazing Dusk," the mare answered, "which is weird 'cause apparently that's your name."

"No, my name is Sunset Shimmer, that name was given to me by others in the hopes of distancing me from my past misdeeds."

"Normally I'm a dragon," Dusk continued to mutter. "I uhh... I'm here to bring you a message." She paused again, her face filled with uncertainty. "From Eventide. She... she wanted to let you know that even after everything that happened she still loved you, she's sorry she couldn't be here herself."

"You...you knew my daughter?" Sunset whispered, staring at the mare in awe.

"She was...my mother. She died a very long time ago, real young for a dragon. Can't have been much more than a century old before she just...faded away. 'Course I guess that was something to do with her not really being a dragon, huh?" Sunset blinked in disbelief, uncertain what to make of the strange mare's words. "Mirrors, she used to make magical mirrors according to her old stories. One of them was a gateway between my home and here, anyone who steps through it transforms into one of these...ponies," Dusk stared at her body uncomfortably. "Made her a promise on her death bed to pass the message along, she built a magic device specifically to let me open the mirror tonight." She awkwardly rubbed the back of her head and stared up at the moon. "So... Message has been passed on, I guess I'm done here. Sounds like you've got someplace to be, I won't waste your time any longer." She turned and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Sunset called, leaping after her. "Please, wait! I have been gone a thousand years, a few more hours will be a drop in the ocean. Please, I'd... I'd like to hear about her, about my little Evey! Can you indulge me, just a little longer?" She stared at the mare with pleading eyes and found something familiar in Dusk's eyes, a certain sense of longing.

"I guess, I mean the portal's not going anywhere...but...one condition."

"Name it, anything within my power I will do for you."

"Could...could you maybe tell me about mom? What she was like when she was little? I never expected her to be gone so soon, there's so much I never got to tell her, so much I never knew..."

"Then we have something in common," Sunset smiled. It was a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Okay." Dusk whispered. "Where to start? Mom was...she was an oddball. She didn't behave like the other dragons, a lot of drakes called her crazy... I mean in some ways she kinda was. She was never entirely right in the head but dad and I loved her all the same. She used to tell all these amazing stories of adventures, far off lands and fantastic worlds! She had her bad days, days where she didn't seem herself, but for the most part she was pretty happy, I guess." Dusk chuckled, looking off into the distance. "This one time, she smacked Professor Spines around the side of the head for his theories on time travel, said it didn't work the way he theorized it to. They got into a massive argument and she claimed that as the only one with 'empirical evidence' she was the most qualified to describe it. Oh the look on his face was priceless! His scales turned bright red and he...

Author's Note:

And that is the story complete.
All that remains are a few notes on the story, its future and other works surrounding it. Feel free to ignore these entirely.

The Idea For The Story
So this story actually comes from two separate stories I had been considering writing about Sunset. I wasn't happy with either of them and ended up using elements of both in writing this one. the first story was effectively an 'AU Evil Sunset' story, following a change of events that involve Sunset never traveling to CHS. I won't go into too much detail on that one as I might still use it someday, but the major aspects borrowed were the ideas of Sunset slowly descending into madness and acquiring the Elements of Harmony.

The second story was a 'reformed Sunset' story about her returning to Equestria years after the show with a child in tow. I had a few ideas for it but scrapped the concept as I found the protagonist to be uninteresting and dull, she was too nice, and was uninteresting to write. In essence the protagonist of that story went through a colossal rewrite and became Eventide, with most of the negative character traits of the evil Sunset being moved onto her daughter. I didn't want her to be outright evil though so I kept a few ideas from the original story, such as her strong sense of family and her positive relationship with Flurry.

Endings
I had three ideas for how to end this story. In the end I opted to go with a bittersweet ending, Evey goes off to lead a life that she is content with, but never really recovers from the events of the story and never sees Sunset again. Sunset returns to Equestria with a second chance and receives some small solace in finding that her daughter did manage to find some happiness in her life.

The other two endings are drafted as follows.
-Ending 2. Sapphire and the Spike subplot would have much less emphasis, while Evey's dabblings in dark magic would have a lot more emphasis. The epilogue would then play out much the same way except instead of it being Dusk who appears, it would be Evey. Rather than fleeing to the dragon land in the hope that being a dragon would extend her lifespan, Evey has dabbled in necromancy and other black magics to lengthen her life indefinitely. Sunset is horrified at what her daughter has done, while Eventide is uncertain about why she even needs Sunset's approval anymore (it has been a thousand years, the real Sunset is a disappointment to her compared to the ideal mare she has built up in her mind). The two part poorly and Sunset ponders the possibility that one day they might have to fight, as her daughter could be a threat to Equestria.

-Ending 3. Evey never runs away. She stays with Twi and co. The epilogue then details her being on a wonderful adventure with her mother and father. Everyone is happy, she has everything she wants and is living in her ideal world. The scene then cuts to Flurry who is caring for a still catatonic after many years. She is entirely dead to the world but despite this is kept locked in a secure cell, as the princesses have been unable to remove the alicorn amulet from around her neck. This ending would not cover any details of Sunset's eventual return to Equestria.

Deleted Scenes
There are a few ideas I had for the story that were ultimately cut, as I couldn't find a good place to fit them in. Some time in the future they may be added on to this story as bonus chapters but for the time being they will be detailed here.
1. A second epilogue chapter of sorts involving Tin Foil going around Equestria and interviewing ponies for his new documentary/book 'Eventide Trailblazer, Where is she now?'. Would effectively be a series of vignettes with Tin talking to a lot of the bit characters from the story (Lyra, Rose, Quill, an elderly changeling...) and putting some perspective on events after Evey's rampage.
2. Sunset meeting Twi. The reunion between Sunset and Twi that was happening during the first part of 'Evey and Starlight'. Never found a good place to fit it into the story and most of the details felt unnecessary anyway as they were covered elsewhere.
3.Sunset meeting Celestia. Again, much the same as above. Most of Sunset's story (between her ascendancy and her banishment) was going to happen in the final chapters and in the end it felt unnecessary to have both Sunset's reconciliation with Celestia and her request to join the MIB.
4. Sunset returns from her 'holiday'. Probably seeing a theme here. This would have been a confrontation between Sunset and Twi as to why Evey had gone missing, it didn't really seem to fit in either the chapter 'Sunset' or 'Blazing Dusk' though.
5. Sunset meets Bon Bon. yeah... once again, didn't really fit very well with the pacing of the final chapters and would be covering information that the reader could probably infer.
6. Lyra foalsits Evey. Originally intended to be in 'Family is Everything' it would have involved Evey stumbling upon Bon Bon's secret, plus have some conversation about humans. In the end this was cut as I didn't want to outright reveal that Sunset was working for the MIB until later in the story.
7. Some general content of Sunset coping with other ponies across Equestria, concealing her identity and dealing with some hostile reactions. The content was largely covered elsewhere but the original plan had a scene told from Sunset's perspective.
8. Flurry gives Sunset a piece of her mind. This was cut very early on, in favor of Flurry being more reserved about Sunset. It would have been a chapter in which Flurry (then aged about 18) got into an argument with Sunset about how she had raised Evey, blaming her for a lot of Evey's troubles.

Some of these may eventually be written up as bonus chapters at a later date.

Sequel?
No. Not by me at least. I have no personal intent of ever writing a direct sequel to this. The new Element Bearers were made up exclusively for the epilogue, they do not have rich and detailed pasts or backstories. Similarly I am content with leaving Evey's story where I have left it. That being said I may eventually come back and write some short stories about some of Evey's life prior to her eventual defeat. I enjoy writing the character and there are a lot of things I could do with her. Similarly I have some ideas for spin offs involving some of the alt Equestrias (mainly a one shot detailing Vinyl's stint as Sunset's assistant, and a potentially longer story set in Victorian Equestria).

Future Stories
Might be a little while till my next story, I'll need time to prepare/get a good idea, but I have a few thoughts for other stories.
-A couple of single chapter shorts come to mind. A sadfic about Smarty Pants, a comedy about AJ giving Applebloom 'the talk' and a few other story fragments that need a lot more though putting into them.
-Tropophobia is a story I'm still not sure about. There are details I like, details I don't. I'm still working out if I'll end up writing it or not. It is a sadfic starring Trixie.
-Shimmer; or The Equestrian Prometheus. This one is a recent idea that actually came about during the writing of this fic, while I was coming up with alt Equestrias for Evey's mirror journal. It would be a very close to source material, retelling of Frankenstein using the MLP universe. Shimmer would take the role of the titular doctor, Daring Do would be captain Walton, Celestia would be Alphonse and so on. I'm actually pretty enthusiastic about this one right now so it wouldn't surprise me if this is my next story (excluding one shots).

Thanks
Big thanks to everyone who's stuck through to read this to the end. I enjoyed writing it, I hope you enjoyed reading it. With the exception of Birdseed, Birdseed, Birdseed this was the first thing I've written for the site, and I actually began publishing this prior to Birdseed.

Special thanks go to Granit, who has been involved in a lengthy discussion with me about the story (it turns out there is a 100 message limit on replies through the site messaging system, who'd have thought!) and without whom this story would have a lot less commas and a lot more 'Susnets'.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section, I'll probably be happy to answer. As of yet I still haven't sorted a cover image for this but I am looking into it. And that's about all there is to say. So excluding possible bonus chapters.....

Fin

Comments

[Son of Sanguinius]

"And lo, there came a moment of silence, such that even the crickets dared not chirp. Then did the audience rise in a raucous choir, cheering for the beauty they had beheld."
Seriously, that was a beautiful, and at moments, rather funny, ending. In my opinion, the best of the endings you outlined.
And it's a wonderful feeling to know that after all her trauma, Eventide finally found some happiness.
Final comments:
Not much in the way of criticism. This chapter covers any lingering issues I had with The Sun Shall Never Set, and on a technical and stylistic level you have been superb throughout. Characterization is spot-on and both wonderfully consistent and understandable, and as I've said before, you managed to keep a strong degree of moral ambiguity to the characters without the story devolving into terrible people doing terrible things to each other for terrible reasons.
The story was very well-told and interesting in both concept and execution.
Overall, massive kudos. I have enjoyed every moment of this ride, through the madness and bad decisions of the characters to the beautifully bittersweet taste of this ending.
A salute to you, good sir.

[badninja]

Glad to see Luna gave Sunset the therapy she desperately needed. Now I understand why Luna was seemingly so absent during Evet's fall, it makes me sad but it is understandable. Good luck in your future writings!

[Granit]

-A couple of single chapter shorts come to mind. A sadfic about Smarty Pants, a comedy about AJ giving Applebloom 'the talk' and a few other story fragments that need a lot more though putting into them.
-Tropophobia is a story I'm still not sure about. There are details I like, details I don't. I'm still working out if I'll end up writing it or not. It is a sadfic starring Trixie.

"Arbitrarily cruel and dark tragedy punishing the innocent for the sake of poetic resonance".

We're onto you.

If there's one loose end, I should like to know what the humans thought of Sunset's fall, if anything.

And on that note, while I quite agree that the story is complete as it is, and a sequel is either needed or desired...

...I may have my own answer to my own question.

The Sun Never Sets: False Dawn

ETA: August 2016

And that'll be the last for now...
...Granit, signing off.

[Mr Fislewait]

7432856

This is not a shameless plug (well not entirely). Granit has actually been discussing the concept with me since about the chapter 'Happy Birthday'. The idea has (from what I can tell) changed a few times since then, but it is a different take on the story. Should be interesting.

[Granit]

Yeah, it was a very shameful plug!

...waitaminute.

[kp145]

It was a peaceful and bittersweet end
And it's suitable ending for sunset shimmer
(For some reason it's kinda remind me of the ending of "Sunset of Time" by albinocorn)

Hmm why can't Luna let Little Evey meet Sunset in her dream?

Anyway...
Good job writing this wonderful story.
It's already one of my favorite.

I will never forget...

The whole world, which had been like a festival
Slowly calmed down

And those days...
Became the gentle time of what is called
"The Age of the Calm Evening"

Let me show you just a moment of this brief time before night comes

...

The night of humanity,
May it be a peaceful age.

~ykk

[Da Fennec]

7435313 Remember Sunset asked Luna to not tell her about Evie while she was imprisoned on the moon. Luna went to extremes not to know anything about Evie

[Dream Dusk]

Somehow I kind of regretted reading this, I already expected the ending. BUT holy moly feel like I got shot by a .50cal of feels!