Being in Equestria again was not what Sunset expected. The magic, the breath of life that filled her being and tickled her horn with spells and energy, that was welcome. But walking on four legs was something she didn't think could feel so weird. She also didn't think she would miss fingers.
It was a good thing Twilight had the portal moved to her castle, Sunset thought to herself as she wandered the tree shaped crystal structure. Even with the Card Master looming over her thought, she couldn't help but awe at the sight.
As she checked the rooms, there was no pony to be seen. "Must be lonely," Sunset murmured to herself, "especially at night."
She found herself at a round table surrounded by chairs. She marveled at the parallels between it and a human legend she had read about. Knights of the Round Table, that's what Twilight and her friends were like in Equestria. Myths, legends, heroes.
But even those knights were but small stories. How could a helpful few change the world?
Sunset left the castle and strolled out on the roads of Ponyville. She marveled at how nothing changed but seemed completely foreign to her. She had been to this little town a few times, to study the magic of its citizens. She realized now that those excursions were just attempts to make her meet friends.
“Maybe I’d have a castle if that happened,” mused Sunset. She looked up, tracing the shape of her imagined castle in the stars with her eyes. Her glanced followed its edges, the points of the conical roofs of the rotundas, until she rested her gaze on the moon.
Luna was no longer there. Another change. She had left Equestria before the prophecy came true, before Harmony was reborn in Twilight and her friends. Now, she thought to herself, she’ll be helping fulfill another one. Her gemstone necklace hummed to her thoughts.
And then Harmony will be reborn again.
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The castle shimmered in the sleeping sun, but this night Twilight was not asleep. She couldn’t see where she was going. A streak of light, her streak of light that came from focus but flickered because the castle was everywhere around and it was hard to concentrate, outlined forms and shapes on the table.
Travel.
Her thoughts swirled around Los Pegasus, where the nights darkened with fake flashing stars shown by telescopes with dirty lenses. They expunged wealth from the onlookers. And around Canterlot, where paper birds flew the air with songs to ears, music about the failure of innocence.
She could do her part with her light. But the line of light was thin, running the length of the map touching little of it.
Her light traced the floor of the hall, through the door outside waited to drink her light, night rising deep in Equestria. She looked up, pitch black. Twinkles took all the attention but did little.
Why do we look at stars?
She wondered this to herself many times, realizing even one star, so close every pony looks to it to brighten their day, cannot light the night forever. The moon, half full, worked in shifts, because in the stars no pony noticed they could not see where to go, mesmerized.
Wind and air and clouds hugged her feathers so every flap and turn and inch of wing was in intimate embrace with cold, awakening breath. Surrounded in the night, not lifeless. Twilight saw the stars below.
A hundred streets with a hundred houses, a hundred ponies passing each second. A printing press, a house of stars, glimmered brighter in the night on its own, its light flying free, unchained from the sun anchor. Twilight landed on the roof where a pegasus platform was provided and accompanied with an eager pony, light shining around her pen.
She scribbled hastily and bade Twilight to come down into the building. Ink scented air filled her nose. Not from any printer, but from the raw number of pens and quills, spilling ink as words onto paper, thoughts given form but no less abstract being drafted.
“Every pony is wondering what the plan is to stop this from happening again.” The reporter had her own office, cramped with papers in every corner, window looking into the night. From the outside the lamp-lit room must have looked like a star. A square star.
“Magic safety laws: ponies who can, or wish to, cast combative magic have to be registered and taught spell safety.” Twilight kept her eyes on the reporter, who kept her eyes on her notepad. But the mind wanders, and Twilight’s found its way to the edge of her eye. Across the floor a stallion poured a cup of coffee for himself and a coworker. She chatted with a smile even while he had a frown. Twilight wondered.
“How can that be enforced?” The reporter’s head tilted, her pen aimed at Twilight, her light glowed around the pen; questions were to ignorance what love was to hate.
“To start, police stations and academies can offer training, but the plan is to create locations specifically to test unicorns and see if they’re fit to use combative spells.” A hundred ways that hundreds could turn on her, but this was the way it had to go.
“Magic largely revolves around natural talent. How will this plan regulate unicorns who can use dangerous spells but are considered unqualified when they register?”
The carpet wrapped up around Twilight. No black fog, the carpet was grey and soft and her hooves in it felt surrounded by a hundred tiny cushions. “Magic inhibitors can restrict specific spells. Here in Canterlot, young unicorns can be trained to cast that spell.”
“That’s a big risk, taking magic like that.” Her paper marked with lines, spider web of thoughts Twilight could not even guess where it touched. But this was its center, that question.
“We have to ask ourselves how much freedom we’re willing to give for security. If it’s none, then no pony can be safe.” Her mind cast back to a time when she was not free. Another time, another card. A soldier’s card. Taking orders was what she had to do for the freedom of others. Orders to kill.
Orders to die, if needed.
“I wish I had more to ask, but I can only have so much space in the weekend paper.” She got up, placed her notes in a drawer in the desk, and grabbed a cup of coffee for Twilight as they left the build. A fading star supernovas in time. They both drank coffee, the dark blood of countless processed beans that gave light to a dimming mind.
They talked a little more, a little more personal a little less professional. Favorite cakes, favorite movies, favorite themes and messages of said movies. Penning Wit liked to eat cheesecake while over--analyzing the characters in Dancing Galaxy, an old film about a civilization in space obsessed with dance.
And Twilight drank the coffee. And talked. And for once, stood on her own four hooves.
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Manehattan, Starlight.
Whether it was him or not, she wasn’t sure. Twilight still wasn’t back from her trip and the sun was already rising. Starlight guessed that if the Card Master called her to Manehattan, he was likely there, meddling. She’d catch him, with bubble magic; not even cards can escape a bubble with no exit.
The one path to Manehattan saw a sprawling scene of grasslands and towns. Sometimes, clouds overhead became castles, sun raging against their walls. Shaded earth looked different, balancing Starlight in peaceful sadness.
34892 Fourth Apple Street, Apartment 27G
The short walk stretched her legs. City air: a cozy kind of constriction, towering giants on all sides of asphalt veins. No wonder so many ponies felt safe within, but Starlight couldn't savor that kind of feeling. Winding through the streets she wondered what would happen. How, and why, did the Card Master call her here?
27G was at the end of the hallway on the top floor of the apartment building. The time it took to reach Manehattan and find it turned the morning into evening. It wasn't that tall of a building, but it was near the top of a slope and looked over the parts of Manehattan beneath it.
The first thing Starlight noticed walking into the apartment was its furniture. The sofa was brown and velvet with memory foam. Pillows of warm colors, dandelion yellow and orange and scarlet layered across the sofa exuded the fragrance of peaches.
The coffee table before it was glass, its bowed legs forming an "X" that touched the glass tabletop in the center and curved down to the brown carpet with gold paisley detailing.
That all was to the left, a small living room warmly lit by frosted light bulbs masquerading as candles. The yellow incandescent light seemed to toast the walls, complementing the darker shade of yellow ochre paint.
A short hallway down led turned to the bedroom, while ahead was a space for both kitchen and dining table. The wood floor contrasted the light beige rug beneath the chestnut table. It could seat four comfortably, but only two chairs were pulled out and set with plates and glasses.
They were plain, but still of high quality. The glassware were tall and scrawny wine tasters, and the silverware polished to shine like stars. Starlight couldn't identify the wood for the dining table, a deeper color than oak, she suspected its was colonial maple or chestnut, but couldn't be sure.
Whatever the wood, it complemented the dual wall coloring. White moulding covered the lower half of the wall and fought against the deep yellow ochre. In the sleeping light of the sun, it seemed a lively orange.
Yet the kitchen was the centerpiece. Bright, golden onyx crafted into a rectangular frame of polished black stone glowed like a changing horizon. The island counter was a solid wave of soothing light, lamps above looking into the glassy and translucent onyx.
The countertops were, as well, radiant. But only the island counter was rebirth from top to bottom.
"Pretty nice, isn't it?" Starlight turned to the voice, the one in a light blue dress taking a seat at the table.
She stared. "Sunset? You called me here?"
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"Neat trick right?" She pointed to her necklace. "I can do so much more with this gem here in Equestria."
"What are you doing back here? Twilight's busy in Canterlot right now so I don't know what she's up to."
The oven rang, making Starlight jump. Sunset got up and bustled through the kitchen, placing the two hot trays on the stove to cool. One a steaming apple pie, the other a four cheese spinach pizza.
"I know what Twilight's doing, the Card Master showed me."
Starlight's mouth was ajar. "He's messing with you too? Are you here because you figured out a way to stop him?"
Sunset chuckled. "A short while ago, I would have liked to have a plan like that. When I first met the Card Master, I believed it was possible."
"So, why are you here then?" Starlight took a seat as Sunset set their food on the table.
Sunset floated out a bottle of Fillydelphia Fun Farm's Fizzing Cider and put it between them. "It's a good thing it's so easy to travel between worlds. I want to help out, here in Manehattan, like you have."
Sunset cut a slice of pizza for Starlight, who hesitated in thought. "What about your world? Or, your new world, I guess."
"Funny," Sunset smiled, pouring cider for the both of them, "sometimes I forget that this is where I came from. I'm nearly done with my major there, you know. Physiology."
"That's... nice." Starlight had met Sunset once, years ago. It seemed like as good of a time as any to catch up, but she wasn't so sure that was all.
"I'm helping others in that world, but it's not enough," Sunset explained between bites of pizza. "I'm not like you or Twilight, it's going to take a lot more time to build up connections to make a bigger difference. And I'm more than happy to do the work to get there, but..."
"You want to start making that change now." Starlight finished, understanding the feeling more than any pony could. "Well, maybe it's for the best then. A lot of Twilight's duties have been piling up."
Sunset furrowed her brow. "No."
Starlight stopped in the middle of a sip of cider. "Excuse me?"
"I'm not going to play princess and fix whatever odd problem pops up on some stupid map." Sunset bit crust off her pizza, not caring that if she struck a nerve with Starlight. Which she had, but the look of it.
Starlight put her hoof down on the table. "That map is connected to the Tree of Harmony. It hasn't given a single reason to doubt it."
A blank stare answered Starlight. Sunset reached her magic around a small envelope in her bedroom, floating it over and presenting it around the table. In single file pictures of empty facilities circled around the table.
"Twenty-nine dams and water treatment facilities are left unmaintained in Manehattan alone. Seventy-eight if you count the surrounding areas." Sunset returned the pictures to their envelope. "And don't get me started on the five bridges that haven't even been inspected for six or seven years."
Pushing aside her dinner, Starlight answered back. "The city has its own mayor. This isn't a friendship problem."
Sunset's face grimaced. "Neither are fillies and colts being attacked at-"
"Don't," Starlight cut off. "That's not a place you want to go, Sunset."
"Then help me help others." Sunset finished a second slice of pizza and, to Starlight's astonishment, took a slice of pie. "If you don't like architecture, fine. We could help solve the problem of ponies getting addicted to prescription painkillers after medical treatment."
"Sure, we'll just go and do that, I guess," Starlight replied sarcastically, finishing her cider and pouring another glass. "Problem over in ninety minutes."
"There's a lot of options and ideas on what the solution is." The pictures stop levitating and returned to their cozy envelope. Sunset acknowledged that the problems weren't easy to fix, but that was the point. "But none of them will matter if we don't try."
Starlight sat back in her chair. Sunset let her think about it, taking the time to enjoy her pie. In all the talk, Starlight's mind had wandered from her original assumption.
Now she returned to it. "Did the Card Master put you up to this?"
"In a way, yes." The answer was so matter-of-fact that it caught Starlight off guard. "But no more than how I put myself up to this."
Starlight wanted to say something, maybe accuse her of being swayed by evil magic, but Sunset was a friend of both her and Twilight, and she hated the idea of judging a friend. She instead sat quietly and listened.
Sunset was glad she was willing to hear her out. "The Card Master showed me that what we have, the magic of the Elements of Harmony, is a lie. It's not harmony. The table and the map, everything from the Tree is slowly throwing our world out of balance."
"But I've been called by the map to solve problems before." Starlight wasn't about to let her efforts be discredited so easily. "How can we throw things out of balance by solving problems?"
"Just look at Celestia now," replied Sunset. "She was the only alicorn in Equestria for nearly a thousand years. Every pony relies on her more than anything. And then it was the Tree of Harmony. Then, the responsibility went to Twilight and her friends. Now the Card Master's distracted her, and the responsibilities shift to you."
Starlight pushed her cider away, leaning into the table a little. "New flash, I guess I might know so much about your world, but here in Equestria things change."
"No they don't." Sunset rose to the challenge. "It's nothing but a wheel of time. One savior after another, we always look to something to solve our problems."
"Some problems are too big to be solved alone, Sunset." Starlight got out of her seat and made for the door. "If you can't see that then we're done talking."
"And one of these days we won't be lucky enough to have a Starlight Glimmer to save the day." Sunset's words froze her for just a second. In one second she understood the meaning. The Card Master showed her a lot, but that amulet had gotten stronger and showed her more.
"You looked into my memories?" Starlight turned to Sunset feeling invaded.
The pony whom she wanted to be her friend stood by the window that was between the dining room and the kitchen. The dying sunlight was almost at rest. Scant shimmering beams across the black sky tickled the apartment so finely decorated, now losing hold.
"Twilight doesn't share everything," Sunset admitted with regret. "I only saw what you did to stop Chrysalis."
Starlight's faced turned to anger. "How could you? I didn't say you could-"
"It's not about me!" Sunset snapped back. "Be honest. It was luck that saved Equestria, wasn't it. It was luck that you weren't taken with the rest, and it was luck that Thorax escaped the Crystal Empire in time. Flip a coin a hundred times, and just because you get a hundred tails, doesn't change the odds of the next flip."
"We would have found a way to cope," Starlight pushed, but that seemed like a lie. She was angry at Sunset, even hating her, but what she said resonated in her. Power was centralized in just a few key ponies. It wasn't even hard for Chrysalis to tear it all down.
Sunset could see the look of doubt. "It's not wrong to doubt the world we live in. It's the only way our faith in it can work. I believe we can make it a better, safer place. But I doubt this is how we have to do it."
Starlight threw herself onto the couch, scattering a couple of the pillows onto the floor and burying her head in the remaining ones. When she was still planning revenge against Twilight, she had read a lot about the old mythologies of the Tree of Harmony, even texts written by ancient Callers from the Crystal Empire.
Its will touched every corner of the world, through time. It was the map that was the key to unrestricted time travel. If the Tree placed the map there, then it was for a good reason. But Sunset made a good point, too. The responsibility of protecting Equestria was too centralized, and so few ponies, no matter how powerful, couldn't always be counted on.
"Help me, Starlight." Sunset spoke quietly, almost pleadingly, to convince her friend. Starlight was the next generation for harmony as long as she was ready to accept the changing world.
"The human world is nothing like yours. There are no saviors and magic, but the problems stay the same. You told me once that we have to live in the moment and not worry about the future. I wanted to believe you, but that's not the real world."
Starlight looked at her. "If it's not real then what have I been living?"
"I don't know. But Equestria is a place where ponies know higher powers exist to defend them and make everything perfect." Starlight refused it inside, because she was far from perfect, like everything in her life was.
"For years I've only seen friendship guide the people in my world, like councilors resolving problems in college dorms, or total strangers empathizing with and helping victims of terrible crimes. I've never felt more alive than when I've struggled with others."
And that was it. There was the understanding. Starlight didn't know why the Card Master did what he did to Twilight, but this was something she could understand.
Sunset had a world worth living in where greed and lust and envy and wrath and gluttony fought with the hearts of the people, who used altruism and restraint and discussion to reshape the world with true magic.
No easy power was cooperation. Through it problems passed and some suffered but the world was bettered with legacy of goodwill. What Equestria was one problem to another, a game of trying to keep all the vileness hidden. The pieces change but it is always the same game in Equestria.
If a better world through different means was what the Card Master could give, Starlight was willing to accept that possibility.
"Say I help you. Where would we start?"
"Choose a problem, then find the root of it." Sunset waved her hoof out, back to her dining table. "Then, we can make a plan to try and end the problem."
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"And you haven't heard him since last week?" Luna was perplexed at the news. Twilight had gained some control of her own dreams, but last she saw, the Card Master was still present and unrelenting. She didn't show it, but Luna tested the magic in Twilight's dream tenderly with her horn.
There wasn't a change. Twilight hadn't gained more power over dreamwalking, and there was a definite feeling of the Card Master's presence. But the dreams had stopped.
It must have been nearly dawn by now, Luna thought. All night Twilight divulged everything she had seen from the Card Master. Worlds long forgotten, and whether they were truly part of their timeline or not didn't seem to matter.
Even Celestia hadn't warmed up beyond a few details of what transpired between her and the Card Master, and that was a long time ago. Even more impressive was the lightness of the dream.
They sat in at the map of Twilight's castle, or at least a dream version of it. The walls rippled slightly, the details unclear, but there was no interference of emotion or pain. The dream felt like diving into a cold stream trickling down a mountain from its glacial peaks.
"He never once explained what the purpose of those visions were," Twilight said. "Could that be the point, to let me figure it out by myself?"
"I can feel he is near," Luna said grimly, shaking her head. "He may be waiting for a time to strike. From the games he has played, with me as well as my sister, I'm afraid all he does is purely for his own amusement. Perhaps constant harassment doesn't interest him as much, but you may not be free of him yet."
Twilight looked down at her dream map. In her head, she could picture everything happening on it. She dreamed of Fluttershy's work in Fillydelphia, trying to start a new animal conservatory for aquatic animals. And she saw Rainbow Dash flying over the skies of Whinneapolis for the start of a Wonderbolts tour in memory of Manehattan Central Schoolhouse for Fillies and Colts.
"I don't understand all of it," she whispered, but her voice grew in conviction. "But I sit by with what I do know. The world is like a tree, all wrapped up and connected. I can't be stuck fixing unrelated friendship problems and live up to the Tree of Harmony."
"Celestia has already approved the changes you suggested." Not that there was much choice after the heavy press coverage, Luna considered in silence.
"And for now, we'll have to wait and see where it goes." Twilight's horned glowed as she changed the scene of her dream to an undeveloped field beside Ponyville. "But I've been thinking of something else."
In seconds Twilight's dream conjured wooden planks and roof tiles to build a lecture hall similar to the one in Celestia's school. "This one will be my contribution. Friendship is important, but that doesn't mean I can ignore the growing STAM fields."
Science, Technology, Advanced Magic. Three fields essential fields of study for young unicorns. But there were scant few pegasi and earth ponies.
Luna's made her displeasure apparent with a frown at Twilight. "The Card Master cannot be drowned out in work. Celestia already tried."
"But I think this is part of what he wants," Twilight said, waving a victorious hoof at the building she dreamed up. "Caller Weaver never needed to see the Tree of Harmony to improve the lives of Crystal Ponies. He didn't even know if he heard it or not."
"Heard?" Luna whispered to herself under Twilight's rambling. Surely she knew the Tree had never spoken, not even when she and Celestia took its elements to defeat Discord.
"I don't have to listen to the map anymore." Twilight expanded the school, dreaming of cafes and bookstores for students and new labs and crystal databases for experiments. "The world is bigger, so I have to dream bigger."
Despite her warnings, Luna felt her voice drowned out in the dream waves. The grass grew blurrier and so did she.
"It's nearing morning, Twilight. Before I leave, I advise caution. The Card Master hasn't left you, I can still feel him here, his presence is..."
Near.
No. His presence wasn't coming from her dream.