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// A Word is Worth Face Value, A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, A Picture Can Trigger a Terrifyingly-Real Memory 
// Story: A Christmas to Remember 
// by TwiPON3 
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That night, when everyone went to sleep, the picture, most likely drawn by a kid-Sophia, lay folded next to Sunset.





Sunset was walking in the streets of Moscow, when she finally found the house she went to for Christmas, but something was... different.

"Hello?" she said, knocking on the door, "Can I come in?"

It was as if the others didn't pay her any attention. The first Sunset would've just crashed the party for the hell of it, the second Sunset would have left them to their space. but the current Sunset knew something was up, so she let herself in.

It was a necessary evil.

She saw everyone, except for Arnold, but they were several years younger, children rather, along with a woman who looked shockingly like Aunt Natasha, almost like her sister.

Wait...

"Natalya!" Sunset's aunt said, chasing after Sofia, "Help me get your little rascals!"

"Come to Mama, Ale-" he ran off, "Alexander Ivanov!"

Since when do I know Russian? Sunset thought to herself.

"Follow me to the bathroom, Alex!"

The five-year-old Alex ran into a bathroom with Sofia, then locked the door.

"Why are you two in the bathroom?" Natalya said, a familiar emphasis pattern, "Together like that!?"

She went up to the door and listened in, still unnoticed by anyone."

"Alright, Sofia, just a few more touches."

"And stars"

"And Byelorussan flag"

"And color and... done!"

"Mama, close your eyes," Sofia said, holding something behind their back.

"Okay," she said, obeying the two children, "But you two are still eating my biscuits!"

"When are you going to turn the oven on?"

"Now I know why you two started running," she said as they gave her a picture, identical to the one she remembered going to sleep with.

"Open!"

She looked at it, then pulled her kids in a hug, "Novvy God, you two rascals," she said as the four shared a laugh.

"You're not going to try to finish them, are you Mama?"

"These might actually be good."

Everyone went into the kitchen and saw what may have been a breathing science experiment.

"Mama," Sofia said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a scientist so I know what you try to cook."

"It's that bad?" she replied, earning several heads nodding "Yes".

"Well, I know where their cooking skills came from," Sunset said to herself, suddenly being noticed by the others.

"Who..." Natasha said, "Who are you?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer."

"Sunset?" Alex said, "How are you here?"

"I'm really not sure, but I think it may have something to do with your mama's gift."

"You know my children?"

"I know everyone here," she replied, before looking into Natalya's lifeless, gray eyes, "Everyone except you."

Immediately, tears came from the Byelorussian mother's eyes, "I'm sorry we never met."

As she finished that sentence, the scene suddenly turned to a city, which she soon found to be Viciebsk, where she saw the two sisters, younger still, but with Natalya supposedly carrying her soon-to-be-born kids, walking to a park.

Sunset was, again, on a separate plane of existence from them.

"What are you going to name them, Natalya?"

"I'm not sure. Are you still going steady with Maksym?"

"We decided to go our seperate ways. It just wasn't working. For now, I want to spend time with you here in Byelorussia."

"How is Moscow?"

"It's like a version of Omsk that is in European Russia."

"Did Vladislav stay?"

"He did."

Natalya had to sit down, "When the twins come, I want to have an apartment in Minsk."

"You should stay here at home," her sister joked.

"Says you. You and our brother moved to Omsk, then he stays in Omsk while you move to Moscow," she laughed.

"Alright, but why Minsk? Why not stay in town?"

"I don't want Jonagold to have my address, but I want to stay in Byelorussia."

"You can always come live with me in Moscow."

"Thanks, but I don't want to intrude."





Sunset snapped up in cold sweats, "What in tartarus...?" she grabbed for her journal and began to write.

Twilight,
I just had the strangest dream, but I think it would be easier to talk in pony.
-Sunset