//------------------------------// // Equestria // Story: The Ashes of a Phoenix // by Xehanort107 //------------------------------// After what felt like a millennia, maybe longer, Clover had come back to Equestria, a land she once believed would never remember her, never give her the light of day once they learned of her misdeeds. Even before she left for good, she feared her own death, being struck from behind by her own pride and trust. Even as she left Canterlot High, she feared Rainbow pulling a fast one and doing all she did to spite her, just to leave her in her time of need.         When the portal left her and Twilight in a strange crystal cathedral, the walls reverberant enough that a single echo can be heard from virtually anywhere, the floor solid enough to withhold the impact of a meteor. Clover looked around with two thoughts flying by her as she tried to walk like a pony again.         The first is that she had missed so much, right up to Twilight earning her keep in her very own castle, complete with a round table for each of her friends in Equestria… The second was a rather suggestive distaste for the place as a prison for her beloved mirror, and a home fit for spoiled royalty who could do with whatever they want however they please. Twilight looked at Clover with enthusiasm, ignoring the obvious, “We’re back home, Sunse… I mean Clover. Sorry it’s gonna take a while to get used to that.” “So… what happened? While I was gone. I never asked.” Clover asked in curiosity. “Well, I got this castle,” Twilight responded, sillily, “I can see all of Ponyville from here.” Clover and Twilight looked beyond the nearest window to find the ponies trotting around almost everywhere, talking to one another, going places, and even just lying down and resting from what potentially was a rough day. Around then, it dawned on her, So much had changed, and even she was starting to forget Sunset’s life, remembering the old days before she built the mirror, and now, after she escaped it. It all felt familiar, but too weird and impossible to be true, that she lived a life before her own. “It’s so dark in here,” Clover said carelessly. “It’s night time. Remember? Day in your world is night in ours. I was just about to go to sleep before I read your message.” It had been so long ago, she had all but forgotten the time difference between dimensions, quite literally night and day. Clover took in a sigh of forgetfulness as Twilight walked her down the corridor of her Castle. On the left side, Clover saw what she knew was Twilight’s room. It looked just like her own room. Turning her head, Twilight stopped at a large, wooden door dividing them from the contents.         “I hope you don’t mind, Spike hasn’t cleaned it, yet. This is where you can stay until we can help you out. I need to get some sleep, you look a little tired as well. There’s some books if you want to read.”         “Thank you, Twilight.” Clover said in a low, almost forgiving tone.         Before leaving, Twilight whispered, as if signaling serenity in what she says, “They weren’t your friends, but trust me when I say I care. I want to be your friend.” Clover didn’t say another word for the rest of the night. She walked into the dark room, turned on a lamp by the bed, fetched a book from a cubby on the wall, and laid silently on the cool mattress. She took a look at the book, and got only a few pages before throwing it on the ground. It wasn’t that it was boring, but she couldn’t concentrate. Something in her is keeping her awake, and desperately bothering her, but with all the years that passed, the thought that Discord survived seemed impossible, and the thought she may ever see her husband or Star Swirl was not considered, but thought to be absolutely ridiculous.         Half an hour passed before Clover turned her lamp off, due to the irritation of the light. She closed her eyes and hoped for a better day. It was unlikely to be any worse than today.         Almost inaudibly, Clover was awoken in a daze by someone downstairs. As far as she assumed, no one was here except her and Twilight. What is she doing down there? Feeling unable to return to sleep, she finds her way to the wooden door and slowly descends the stairs with soundless tiptoes, inching her way closer and closer as the sound seems to get louder. When the sound became a screech of a painfully high pitch, she knew she was just around the corner, from her view, it is still dark. The light doesn’t quite stretch that far. She takes very soft steps, silent and quick. With a deep sigh, she turns her head and sees who was making that noise.         “Oh, Why hello!” It was Discord, being his usual self, trying to scrape grease off of a pan he was just cooking in with his claw. “Twilight didn’t tell me she was going to have company, I would have baked more. Say, you look familiar. Have we met before?”         Clover had no idea what to say, only the feeling of hunger at the aroma of eggs and pancakes, which Discord had prepared for breakfast. It almost reminds her of her old life, when she had it for breakfast as a filly. Discord snapped his claw in her face to wake her up.         “Ahem! I asked you a question.” He said impatiently.         “What?”         “Have we met before? You look very familiar, but it must have been so long ago, I can’t put my paw on it.”         “I’m Clover.”         “Clover? That’s a pretty name. You know, I can’t help thinking I knew a Clover once. I can’t remember, it was so long ago. Anyway, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t dwell on the past. I’m Discord, Lord of Chaos, and chef extraordinaire,” Discord grips the steel pan in his claw and shuffles pancakes in hefty flips, almost impossible to do by anyone else.         He had completely forgotten her, yet it was something she couldn’t blame him for. She had also forgotten him until now. There has never been more distraught in her heart than to know that she was forgotten by her own creation.         “What time is it?” Clover asked, hoping to change the topic.         “About 2:00AM, I haven’t been keeping track that much.”         Without another word, Clover was pulled away from him by some feeling she couldn’t describe. IT tugged her back upstairs, but instead of going to the left, where Twilight left her, she turned her head to the right, down a longer hallway, devoid of crystals of any sort that produce light. She walked down only a few steps before she saw something.         Fluttershy. But not the one she remembers. Just the pony Fluttershy who must have been awoken as well, or even overheard Clover’s talking with Discord. It is entirely possible since Discord was being carelessly loud. Fluttershy was always reserved, and Clover could not hear her even though she saw her moving swiftly into her chamber in a whisper of wind.         It was almost real. Clover could walk in and it would be her, but in the body of a mare. It could have been her one and only chance to know if there even was a second Fluttershy, but she refused and returned to her wing. Fluttershy is gone. No use groping over it.                  As she followed herself back, her eyes frayed from the doorway as she caught a single glimmer of light shimmering from somewhere, but she couldn’t see it. Twilight struck her in a daze of sleep. Neither knew they were there. Twilight opened her eyes and saw Clover, but when Clover opened her eyes, they pointed toward the opposite wing.         “Sunset?” Twilight said in an exhausted state, half willing to collapse where she stood in slumber, “What are you doing up? It’s almost morning.”         “I couldn’t sleep. Discord’s downstairs if you want to say hi.”         “Discord’s not downstairs,” Twilight responded, barely keeping her eyes open and failing to talk without yawning. “He’s with Fluttershy in her cottage. They sleep together every night. Go back to bed. I’ll be up in a few hours.” Twilight drunkenly trotted away and bumping into the wall every now and then.         Twilight must have been sleepwalking. She never noticed Fluttershy coming down the hallway, or even that she slept over. Clover brushed it off and returned to her chamber and tried to return to sleep. Morning will come soon. She just needs to wait it out. There was a noise that had awoken Clover and forced her to her hooves. She knew that sound like it was her own heartbeat. It was Fluttershy. Her Fluttershy. She ran down the hallway at blinding speed, passing numerous doors, almost infinite doors, until she ran herself dry. She collapsed on the floor, realizing she made no progress at all, and she was only at the medium between wings, by the staircase. She saw the faint glimmer of light again, and this time, she knew where it was coming from. It was at the far reaches of the wing, where she and Twilight went through returning home. There were ruins by a door on the left, where Fluttershy entered earlier. Clover seemed faster when she was pulled than when she was running. When she saw the room, it was destroyed. Fluttershy was gone. Book pages scattered the floor and bedsheets were crumpled beside the mattress. There were footsteps behind her, but she couldn’t hear them. All she wanted to know was what happened.There was no answer. No voice from anywhere answering her, but in a blink she, herself was gone. She looked around, but all she saw was Adagio staring through her like clear glass. Her smile refused to leave and her presence immediately paralyzed Clover in her tracks. She could only listen. Her feet were unable to take even the smallest step. Adagio wasn’t human, though. She saw her true self now. A hideous, scaling beast levitating in the air. Her eyes were blood red with anger. “You still forget what you did. Even after you know what was done.” She hissed, “You did this to us. You ruined our lives by turning us into these horrid monsters, forced to feed off hatred and lust. We were once your friends, Clover. Even now, I wish we still were, but I can’t forgive you as long as I look like this. I will never forgive you. We will never forgive. You can never be rid of us. You know us better than we thought we knew you.” “You’re just a figment. You can’t tell me anything I don’t know. I don’t care anymore. I never wanted you as a friend, nor anyone else. I don’t need friends to tell me who I am.” “If only Fluttershy felt the same way,” She sighed, knowing the key weakness in her, even if she is just a piece of memory. Clover knew that, and it hurt her inside that Fluttershy was also back there, with them. It was a personal goal to save her, but it was not an immediate issue. “You are still not real, and you have no control over me. I don’t care if you have any more to say, I won’t listen.” “Sunset Shimmer: brash, abrasive, destitute of friends. At least Clover had us.” “Sunset is gone. My name is Clover, whether you like it or not.”         Clover walked away, as if they meant nothing. As if who she was meant nothing.        “You finally Understand,” Adagio’s voice changed abruptly, echoing a new voice she never thought possible to hear. Suddenly, her body started fading, washing away the lies that deceive her very eyes, which she trusted to compensate for her hallucinations. There was now just her, Sunset: a human in the world beyond the mirror, and a mare who had been forgotten before her time. Sunset fell to her knees, unable, unwilling, to get back up. A dark, embracing shadow crept up from the floor as her eyes faded from existence, blank. Sunset said it herself, she was gone. There is only Clover, The Clever. How clever, indeed. “I’m back, finally, and Sunset Shimmer will never be remembered. Only the eternal. Only Clover, The Clever. Nay! Clover, The Wise, The Absolute; superior to everypony: human, equine, or anything else.” Sunset couldn’t think. She was destitute of feelings, of memory. Everything faded from her, even the memory of Fluttershy, of Twilight. “All we had to do was stay out of Equestria. Was that too hard? But you had to leave. You had to let them know I was alive. You had to ruin everything, didn’t you? At least you didn’t break the mirror. I was hoping that would be the last thing you do. But alas, you perish so quickly. Farewell, stupid girl, and hello Clover.” There was nothing. Finally, she saw herself: the young, kind, important girl who learned what it meant to be a friend. But it faded. Sunset tried to fight it, but nothing worked. She was too tired. Collapsing to the ground, Sunset laid motionless as the curtain of emptiness enveloped her. “There is no Sunset Shimmer, and I will live on, forever!”