One after another, the blackboards on the room was being filled, while the girl holding the chalk wrote number after number, letter after letter, never stopping with her work. The sun outside the building was slowly crawling downwards in a very majestic spectacle made Sunset Shimmer’s hair glow with it. Looking at the beautiful light and effects it was no wonder why the young looking genius took on that name.
Stopping for a second to look at her work, the redhead was distracted by the sound of the trees outside. Already the city was starting to change colors; making the transition into autumn. There was still a part of her that was fascinated by the work of nature itself and how the whole planet could work without anyone’s input. Although, there was an older part of her that knew there were even more amazing things outside, somewhere in the galaxy. It was that part that had been strangely quiet and she was grateful for that.
Leaving the blackboard alone, the old warrior walked to the window and opened it up, taking a moment to enjoy the fair weather the city was having these past few days. She closed her eyes and for a moment, nothing was there; not the nightmares, or memories, or the ideas of revenge and dead. For the first time in a week she was free alone with her thoughts. Of course, this being Sunset Shimmer it never really got that quiet in her life.
Behind her, at the other side of the room, the door handle jiggled before someone entered the room Sunset Shimmer used as her laboratory. The person at the threshold stood there for several seconds as she and Sunset watched each other. The two had similar smiles in their faces, capable of communicating so much with such a small action.
Instead of her now usual ponytail, the young girl had her hair once more on her bun, something most people at the school haven’t seen in a long time; the hairdo alongside the lab coat told Sunset everything about what Twilight had been doing.
“So what’s the occasion Twilight? I haven’t seen you in that getup since the Friendship Games,” the day that made her life go a full circle, or at least the life of the one that thought was a pony. No wonder Sunset ever found home anywhere and at the same time, she could thrive everywhere.
Looking at the attire and the hairstyle made Sunset think back at that time; how easy everything seemed, with just random and sporadic appearances of magic and villains to defeat. Has it really been only a few months since that day? It felt longer, almost like years or decades since the happy go lucky days where she could act as if she were a normal teenager going to high school. How envious she was of those days and how naïve her created persona was.
“Oh, well, I was helping Professor Smith with a few things.” At the name Sunset winced, knowing exactly who Twilight was talking about. Just like her, the man known as Smith by every single student in Canterlot High was older than he looked. Even with the differences of body, the two had grown up somewhere else; hell, they were schoolmates hundreds of years ago.
“His name is Doctor, not Smith; I don’t know why he keeps calling himself that,” Sunset rolled her eyes, something that she had been doing more this past week. It used to be an iconic reaction to all the stupidity inside Canterlot High, but it had been removed thanks to the Elements of Harmony. Now, with her mind returned -or at least less fractured- Sunset felt it was a good enough expression to everything human or stupid around.
“I know is just… I’ve grown used to call him that. You have to admit this situation is beyond anything that we have gone through, well, I guess you are a little bit more used to this,” the younger girl said with a sheepish smile remembering the true nature of her friend. She knew she was from an alternate dimension, where everyone was a pony; Twilight had made peace with that and accepted it. Their situation was completely new and after seeing the way in which Sunset’s mind collapsed after their adventure involving the Changelings, well, it worried Twilight more than she could express with words. To see someone as strong and confident as Sunset collapse in the middle of the school, it was horrible. For a few days Twilight had been worried that she would lose Sunset; that she will lose her to the madness and guilt.
“Where is he now?” Sunset turned around once more, to look across the empty lot of the school and the trees that were now slowly turning brown.
“He went with Roseluck to visit her parents; apparently he was invited for dinner.”
“The Doctor? Willingly going to someone’s house for a normal dinner?”
“She twisted his arm, literally,” at those words, a small chuckle escaped Sunset’s lips. Just the image of the man who had mastered Venusian martial arts, being toppled by a teenage girl, well, it was hilarious.
“Good for her, I don’t think there would have been any other way to make him accept something like that. He was never good with families; never understood why he started one.” She said, remembering the old days when the universe made sense. When her mind was still free of the drums. Even now, with the protection of the Elements of Harmony, she could still hear the drum beats in the back of her head.
“He was married?”
“A long time ago, a really long time ago; we literally were different people back then,” Sunset laughed at her joke, but it didn’t make Twilight laugh. She only looked worriedly at Sunset as the redhead calmed down and remembered the days, long gone, of her youth in Gallifrey. The young girl alongside the other friends already knew a little bit about what it meant to be a Time Lord, like the extended life span and how sometimes they could cheat death. They never talked about Sunset’s past, or who they thought was Sunset Shimmer. The only thing they knew was her original name, The Master “Twilight.”
“Yes?” She quickly answered back, a little surprised how quick Sunset’s mood changed; from being jovial to a completely serious face.
“The Doctor asked you to help him storage all his belongings, right?”
“How did you know?”
“Because I know him; I’ve fought and helped that man so many times that I know him inside and out. He is jumping out of his skin, ready to dance his way across the stars. To take his ship and once more turn into a vagabond that will go across time and space. And he is going to make me travel with him.”
“Wait, what? What are you talking about? This is your home! Why would he do that?”
“Because we are the only two left Twilight. There are no more Time Lords and there should never be! Because he doesn’t trust me; hell, I don’t trust myself! What if I go back to being The Master? Maybe not today, but what about a month later, or a year, or a decade?!”
“I won’t let that happen!”
“You don’t live forever Twilight, you are just human!” Twilight was completely unprepared by the sheer emotion in Sunset’s voice. She had never seen the redhead cry and it made her want to cry alongside her, because she was right “even if I stay the only thing that will happen is that I will see you all grow old and then die; and then I’ll see your children die and then their children! And what happens if I also die? Yeah, three cheers for regeneration! The only thing that will happen is that I will die and someone else will take control of my body, of my memories!”
“But you will keep on living!”
“Not Sunset Shimmer! No matter what happens, this body will disappear; the way I think, the way I act, it will die with me. What if I die and just go back to being The Master? It scares me Twilight.”
“So you will leave us? Just like that? After everything that has happened?” At the crestfallen look in Sunset’s face, Twilight understood that the redhead had made her choice and knowing how stubborn the girl was, there was probably no way to make her change her mind. For now, she will let the topic go and instead she turned her eyes to the equations written in the old blackboard with wheels.
Twilight’s lab in the school had been put in the basement, just like Twilight liked it, it made her feel relaxed; it was so different to Sunset’s lab, full of windows and light. In a way it fit Sunset’s attitude, or at least before she remembered.
“What is all that?”
“Oh, just, equations from a long time ago, from another place.”
“Used for what?”
“The greatest machine, the meaning of the universe. Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means life.”