//------------------------------// // Vesta // Story: Glowing Embers // by Sun Aura //------------------------------// Interdimensional Counterparts.                 Why did it take her so long to think of that? In Sunset’s defense, she hadn’t met anyone she’d known. Surely not her parents or Lance, and especially not the Princess. She had seen that woman who looked like Cadence, but she wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or if that had been her Counterpart. But anyone else she would have known would have been in school somewhere, probably ‘Crystal Prep’, considering what she’d heard of it. It took her long enough to buy some furniture, a computer, an ‘internet setup’, and a handful of different outfits to wear since Humans had to wear clothes. Weird, but practical considering the lack of their own coat. She’d been, unfortunately, looking up if this world had any Ponies and was slightly disturbed to find these ‘Horses’ that were so pony-like yet almost monstrous when compared, and definitely not a Sapient Being. Anyway, there had been a link to a website of videos.                 There, right in the ‘trending’ category, had been Sapphire Shores. Music videos, sort of like a concert but in moving picture form. And most of the songs were just so the same. Sure, they had a few differences. While Equestria and this world used the same language, language had evolved differently. No references to magic or hooves or tails. Though Humans didn’t technically have ‘Cutie Marks’, they all wore accessories or patterns that looked like one. And this ‘Sapphire Shores’ had one just like the one in Equestria.                 She looked up a few other celebrities, finding much of the same as she did with Sapphire. Even the Daring Do series seemed to exist. She couldn’t find reference of a ‘Princess Celestia’ though. That was odd, but considering how this world’s Sun and Moon worked, perhaps there was no need for a Sun Princess.                 When she went searching for the Wonderbolts, she got something a bit more local. The school nearby, the one where the Portal home would be, was ‘home of the Wondercolts’. One page showed a recent article from the school’s newspaper. ‘Captain Spitfire vows to lead Canterlot High’s Wondercolts to Victory against the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts in the upcoming Friendship Games!’.                 What a name, ‘Friendship Games’. Almost sounds like something the Princess would have come up with. She did notice something. Farther down in the article. An oh so familiar name.                 ‘”This will be our year!” says Spitfire. “It’s been a tough few years, having not won since Captain Celestia was still here. I was just a Freshman back then, but I remember how she led the Wondercolts to victory. And we will do it again! I have plans, and we’ll beat them this year!”’                 Sunset frowned. Doing the math in her head, that would make this world’s Princess around twenty. Odd, but she guessed that a world without Magic would not have Immortals. Captain of a sports team seemed like such a downgrade from Princess.                 It was then that she did something she would regret. Without thinking, she typed her mother’s name into the search. ‘Sunset Silk’ gave quite a few results, her novels being very popular, and very similar to those in the other world. Of course, there were videos too, dramatic readings of her ‘bad’ work, purposely terrible with phrases like ‘galloping abs’ and ‘she was on him like a piranha on a corndog’.                 Her father’s name had fewer results, or at least actual results as ‘Daylight’ was a word, but most that brought up the man were just occasional mentions in articles about scientific experiments. He had been a Royal Mage back home, which was basically a Magic Scientist. It fit fairly well.                 She couldn’t find anything on ‘Gleaming Lance’, but she found her name. Well, a little more than her name, as Humans had something called a ‘family name’. Ponies hadn’t needed one, but some referred to themselves by a collective, like she’d heard of ‘the Apple Family’. Her name was in an article as well, with a picture of her face smiling into the camera.                 ‘Sunset Shimmer Vesta, age 13, missing. There are no signs of struggle, but missing items and an open window indicate that she might have run away. If anyone has any information on her, please call the number below. Her family is very worried.’                 She felt sick. That had to be what her parents, her real parents, were going through. She wondered what the Princess had told them, when she ran through the portal. It was the one thing that she felt remorse for, not regret. Leaving them behind, without explanation, without a way to know she was alright. What kind of Hell was that?                 For a brief moment, she wondered if she could find their Counterparts. She could pretend to be their Sunset, but with some form of amnesia. She could see her parents and her brother, and they would be happy.                 She shut that idea down almost immediately. They weren’t her family. They might look like them, act like them, but they weren’t her family. They could never be her family. And she’d never be their daughter. It would be just a cruel reminder of what she’d done.                 Closing the laptop, she lay on her bed and cried again.                 Time became a bit fuzzy, with no schedule to think of. She looked up textbooks online, seeing what history a girl her age should know and reading extensively. It was quite different from Equestria’s, almost sounding like a storybook as she read it.                 Culture was a little harder. While music and books were fairly similar, there were shows and movies. And even some books that would never work in Equestria, just due to the presence of Magic. For example, the one about the boy who finds out he has Magic and goes to Wizard School would make no sense in a world of Unicorns.                 As time passed, she vaguely noticed October, this world’s tradition of ‘Halloween’ being so close yet so far from Nightmare Night. Really, you just had to take out the connection to Nightmare Moon, and it’d be fine. She hadn’t participated, mostly because she decided she’d rather look up the cultural aspects of the holiday. But partly because she had absentmindedly wondered if Lance was going to the Guard’s party again. She couldn’t think straight after that.                 However, when November slipped into December, she noticed. This world had a few holidays, most with similar themes of togetherness and hope. But the one closest to Hearth’s Warming was Christmas. Everything from the tree to Santa, though this Santa had a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer instead of being a flying Reindeer himself. Though they had far different origins, Christmas’s being much more ‘religious’, they even had similar stories. A Christmas Carol was very familiar to a Hearth’s Warming Tail, other than a lack of Wendigos.                 It hurt more, seeing a holiday so close to home, one celebrating Family, but no way to see her family. Still, while it was stupid, she bought them gifts. A necklace for her mother, a book on this world’s science that her father would find facinating, treats for Philomena, and for Lance she bought an ironic shirt. Hopefully if she ever saw him again the shirt would fit a Pony.                 As the holiday passed, she tried not to cry as she watched the holiday specials. Eventually, she gave in, singing the Heath’s Warming Carol to herself. "The Fire of Friendship lives in our hearts, as long as it burns we cannot drift apart..." She wondered if that were true, now so far apart. She'd pushed them away for so long, chasing after Celestia, and now she was in a world without them. She still loved them, but had her own fire gone out? She felt it there, warm and barely flickering through the distance, but did they feel the same?