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// Chapter 14: Sunrise and Sunset 
// Story: Pandemic: Starting Over 
// by Halira 
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Pony Hope was a jarring hodgepodge of building styles. There were plenty of residences and businesses that looked as if they were taken straight out of Equestria. However, sprinkled among these were buildings that would not look out of place in any small town or even major city from before ETS. The building Starlight had teleported me to looked like a simple one-story office building, aside from the fact someone had taken the time and effort to paint elaborate murals of ponies and humans on the side of the building. The streets were mostly dirt roads still, but there was at least one major paved road that ran through town and built within a depression that allowed for the residents to build walkways over it for safe crossing. This was not too dissimilar to how roads for cars were handled back in Riverview- or at least had been.

The city (using the term lightly, since less than ten thousand people lived here) was still a major public works project in progress. Most streets had crews working on them laying powerlines, putting in sewer drains, and more. However, there wasn't much heavy machinery being put into use in those projects. There was an occasional construction vehicle here or there, but most of the work seemed to be done by hoof, hand, and horn.

While the streets followed a nice gridlike pattern (or as much of one as was possible with uneven terrain), there didn't seem to be much in the way of ordering districts. There were shops right next to residential houses. It was chaos by my sense of organization, since I preferred a place for everything and everything in its place; clearly defining where to find living residences, businesses, and other types of buildings. I was glad I was living in Denver instead of here.

Walking down the street was causing quite the silent buzz. Not a single pony came and greeted me, which would be an oddity for most people visiting these western towns. Eyes followed me, though, and conversations went quiet as I neared ponies. I'd only visited this town once before, and that had been years ago, but everyone knew my distinctive appearance and cutie mark from the news.  The Shimmerists around were easy to pick out of the crowds, since I could see them trying to hide their sneers at me (although a few didn't bother even to try to hide them). Whether they had seen me in person or not before, all of them knew my face. All of them were no doubt wondering what brought Sunset Blessing to their town.

The fact it was effectively just a small town suited me just fine at the moment. Considering they didn't have anything resembling public transportation, I'd need to walk to where I was going. Unfortunately, that was going to be a different type of pain. Most mapping applications didn't give directions for where to go in Pony Hope. It was a place where you either had to know your way already or ask directions. I had a feeling most ponies I attempted to get directions from would flee, and those that didn't would be obstinate Shimmerists who would much rather pick a fight with her. At least there were some humans here. It was kind of ironic I was in Pony Hope and was going to be counting on the humans and not the ponies to be helpful.

I tried approaching a human who was talking with a group of ponies. The ponies all gave me nervous glances and started backing away. The human picked up on his companions' anxiety and joined them, giving me an accusing glare- like I had done something to them or something. I sighed and continued down the dirt road until I found another human, but she quickly ducked into her house. Alright, it seemed the humans weren't going to be much better than the ponies. It confirmed my worst fears, that I was so associated with the Cataclysm that these people likely expected the worst to happen if I was here. 

I started approaching another group, and right away, I saw them getting flighty. "Hey! I'm just looking for directions. I'm not trying to steal your firstborn or anything!"

A shape came down abruptly in between the group I'd been approaching and me. It hit the dirt hard enough that it stirred up a cloud of dust, and I had to turn my head and cough. A moment later, I heard the beating of wings and the dust cloud cleared from the air. 

I turned to see a yellow pegasus with a curly orange mane, hovering a few feet in the air, and my eyes narrowed upon recognition that it was Sunrise Storm

The newcomer turned to the group I had been approaching. "Don't worry; I'll make sure everything is alright. She's not going to cause any problems."

They nodded and did a collection of various words of thanks, but still backed a few more feet away. She didn't seem to take any issue with this, and still hovering in the air, turned back to me. "I’ll walk with you to make sure you get where you need to go."

That was enough to make me smirk. "My understanding was you don't do much walking if you can help it. You don't even have your hooves on the ground right now. I'm going to get a crick in my neck, staring up at you."

"Sorry, a force of habit, but I know that makes some ponies uncomfortable.” She did me the courtesy of landing. “Speaking of making ponies uncomfortable, I noticed you were scarring my friends and neighbors."

And my smirk was gone. "I'm sorry. I don’t know what I did to make them all so skittish. I was trying to get some directions since there's no good map of this place. There's no need for Sunrise Storm swooping in to save the poor citizens of Pony Hope from my dastardly plans."

She fluffed her wings. "I’m not here to save anypony or thought you had any dastardly plans. But I try to talk things out and defuse trouble where I can. I'd been watching you a few minutes from up above. There seems to be a lot of ponies that are either scared of you or really don't like you. When you started yelling, I could see that some of the ponies I know are Shimmerists started looking like they might do more than just glare at you; that’s when I figured it was time to intervene. Ponies around here normally feel better if I get involved before something happens."

"Well, if you can just give me some directions, I won't be bothering anyone else," I replied. "At least I can count on you not to act like a frightened foal."

"Or how about I just walk with you to wherever you’re going," Sunrise suggested. "I’m not sure how much you noticed, but all your old buddies seem to have it out for you. I rarely see ponies getting ready for violence without at least being provoked, but you seem to have a special effect on them."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I'm looking for an elderly earth pony couple that lives on Applejack Street."

She raised her eyebrows. "You don’t mean Dry Soil and Hook Line?"

"You know them?"

“I get around,” she gestured around her with her wings. "I know most ponies that have been here for a while. Hook Line teaches some classes on installing electrical wiring into houses, and I've dropped into a few of them to tell everypony how great a job they are doing. They like hearing the encouragement."

"Regular cheerleader," I muttered.

She shrugged. "Why do you want to see Dry Soil and Hook Line? A flower pony and an old electrician don't seem to be anypony you'd care about."

I looked down with a quick sigh. "They're my parents."

That caused her to do a double-take. "That nice old couple are your parents?"

"What? Did you expect my parents to be psychopaths or something?" I asked, growing annoyed again. 

She shook her head. "No- not really. They just never mentioned you."

My ears dropped. "They might not even know I'm their daughter; we hadn't spoken in nearly eighteen years before ETS. People can find out my human name if they go digging for it, but they typically don't."

"Well, around here, it's considered bad manners to do that," she replied, matter-of-factly. "Sure, I can take you that way. They should both be home. Dry Soil typically spends most of her time in her garden at their house, and Hook Line doesn't teach classes today. It should only take a few minutes on hoof."

"Can you stand to be on the ground that long?" I asked snidely. 

She harumphed. "I can make the sacrifice."

Sunny started leading me away, and we walked in silence for several minutes across dirt and grass. Ponies still stopped and stared, but her presence did seem to make them less nervous than they had been earlier. Not that I cared, now that I didn't need directions. 

"You um— have my condolences," Sunrise said, quietly breaking the silence. 

I didn't need to ask what she was talking about. I just gave a stiff nod rather than discuss that. I punctuated my desire not to have the conversation go that way by directing it elsewhere. "You seem to be handling leadership well."

"I was never given a lot of choice about it," she replied with a dry laugh. "But I've adapted to it. I've chosen to make it my own, and I think I've managed to do some good things. I actually should be thanking you."

I looked at her out of the sides of my eyes. "For what?"

"I didn't know much of what was going on outside of my region after ETS, but you got the southern ponies to integrate back into something closer to their old human lives early on. If you hadn't done that, I'd never have decided or been able to get ponies here to bring things back that they'd thought unnecessary."

"Well, it was foolish and stupid for ponies to be tossing all that stuff away to live like medieval serfs," I grumbled. 

"And you were right- about that much," she replied. 

"It seems I was right to think of you as a leader as well," I countered.

"Not the leader that you wanted," she said in a neutral tone. 

I hung my head. "I'm glad you didn't listen to me back then. The smartest thing you ever did was not getting involved with us. Shimmerism is a plague that needs to be wiped out."

She turned and raised an eyebrow at me. "Jenny said she met you, and that her voice thing told her that you weren't the same anymore," Sunrise continued. "I know the Shimmerists around here despise you, to put it extremely lightly, but I'm a little surprised to see that the feeling is so mutual. I didn't think I'd ever see the day Sunset Blessing became rabidly anti-Shimmerist."

"The most passionate of voices are of the convert and the disillusioned," I replied, and then decided I'd rather not talk about Shimmerists anymore. It would put me in a bad mood. "I didn't spend much time talking to your sister. She wasn't in Riverview long, and she was there to visit my niece instead of me. I do remember her chasing Phobia all-around Wild Growth's mansion demanding a fee waiver."

Sunrise stopped in her tracks and stared at me. "My sister chased a Dreamwarden around a house demanding a fee waiver?"

I stopped and chuckled. "She sure did. I didn't even know my daughter could move that fast before that- and while wearing a dress!"

She broke down laughing. "And to think she used to be terrified of Dreamwardens, and all she had to do to scare them in return is be a dissatisfied customer!"

My mood fell again. "I'm told she gets along well with my wife."

Sunrise realized that the subject matter was drifting into the wrong territory and stopped laughing. We resumed our walk, and it was another minute or so before she started talking again. "So, how is your niece? I heard the stories about what happened to her. She's a very brave little filly."

"She's not a filly; she's a girl," I tersely corrected. "Not great, to tell the truth. Her parents tell me she started having magic surges recently. They've been painful for her and everyone else in the household. They've called in some experts, along with some crystal ponies, to try to get them under control as well as try to figure out what the hell she's even doing- something with sound, but they haven't figured out quite what it is yet. Add to that she just began having human menstrual periods, and she's an unhappy young lady right now. Poor girl, no eight-year-old should have to be going through that, especially after all she's already gone through."

She nodded. "Jenny told me your niece is physically and mentally advanced for her age. My memories of human puberty are kind of spotty. They weren't exactly ones I eagerly tried to keep fresh in my head, but I remember human puberty is rough. Add to that magic surges, and that's just an all-around bad time. She has my sympathies." She paused. "I did want to ask you about something."

"What?"

"My mother has recently taken a lot of interest in these Blessingists. It's the first real group she's ever shown this kind of interest and backing for. I try to keep myself a relatively neutral party to all these groups, but I figured the best pony to tell me more about them would be the one they are named after."

"You probably know more about them than me if Sarah is talking all about them," I answered. "I just heard about them the other day, and I haven't even bothered to research them yet. I'm not involved with that kind of stuff anymore. Your mother isn't stupid, and she's a good mare, so they can't be that bad. I'm just a simple unicorn, trying to get by. Trying to deal with the five foals I was given custody of, and I just need to worry about myself and them. I feel like my time spent in the larger arena was a waste, and I did far more harm than good."

She stopped and gave me a surprised look. "You actually mean that, don't you?"

I stopped as well. "Every word of it."

She looked at me curiously then extended out a hoof at me. It took me a moment to even realize what she was doing, and then I touched hooves with her.

After we set our legs back down, she smiled at me. "I think we can start being friends now. Jenny's right; you aren't the same. I just needed to see it for myself."

"I'm not sure that makes me better," I replied glumly.

"You're trying to find yourself, and I can support that," she said with a gentle smile. She then gestured at a small wooden house. "We're here. I'll keep an eye out above when you're leaving. Good luck with your reunion. They're good ponies."

I looked at the door of the house and took a deep breath. Were my legs shaking?

Sunrise walked over and touched a wing to my side. "It will be okay. It's a fresh start. If you're serious about mending fences, you'll do fine."

I nodded, and after taking one final breath, I marched up to the front door, ready to get this done.