//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Sunset Shimmer is Not Supposed to Save Equestria // by jqnexx //------------------------------// “Miss Shimmer.” Sunset stared at the desk on the other side of the dimly lit, austere but immense office, and the occupant of the tall chair behind it. “Mister Sokolsy, a pleasure.” She greeted him warmly, with a wave of her hand as she stepped forward briskly. Time was money, and in this law office she was burning dollars by the thousand just to get her foot in the door. “I’ve taken the liberty of reviewing the documents you sent over.” He tapped a stack of papers on his desk, then continued. “I’m rather surprised you requested our services for this. There are many firms more specialized in international contract law and less resource-intensive.” He pointed to a chair opposite him as Sunset neared the desk. She noticed that two other chairs, similar to it, stood off to the side in shadow below the windows. Apparently they set up the room for the client. “I’m well aware, but this isn’t really just about the contract.” Sunset grabbed the proffered chair, slid it back slightly, and let herself fall into it. It feels even more expensive than it looks. “That’s more of a phase one” she said, grinning,” securing something that will be valuable later.” “You wouldn’t be the first mysterious billionaire that I’ve helped with something of that nature.” He smiled as he shuffled the papers on his desk for a moment, then looked up again after finding what he wanted. “Something tells me this has to do with the origin of your funding. Or rather, the lack of origin as far as anyone knows.” “It’s certainly not something I need legitimized.” Sunset frowned and pulled herself straighter in the chair. “That’s my gold and once it hits Lipizzaner that’s all anyone needs to know.” “I was not suggesting anything of the sort.” He made a wave-off gesture with his hands. Sunset leaned forward, smiling to restore a little friendliness to the conversation. “What I’m actually buying here is a relationship. I have plans. Ambitious plans. Depending on what happens with them, I may end up creating entirely new social norms.” “Ah, I see.” He steepled his fingers and grinned. “This is a common law country, so you want to ensure that whatever happens with your endeavours is favorable to you.” “And it’s not just about you specifically.” She swept her hands about. “This firm has a great many junior partners and below. Its overall level of success is quite high. And my project isn’t going to be over in a year, or even a decade. I’m going to college while things are built up to allow for it, I’m expecting things to really kick off a little after I start making people address me as ‘Dr. Sunset Shimmer, Ph.D.’” “Well, you’re quite an interesting woman. Long-term thinking is so lacking in this age of moving fast and letting things break.” “It’s like my mentor always said, I’ve got time on my side now.” Sunset turned her head slightly to look over at the dim light coming through the blinds. It didn’t look like anyone could see in. “I guess in a moment I’ll learn how much attorney-client privacy really means to you. I’ve got something you need to see in order to understand what I’m getting at.” She stood, kicking back the chair, then reached her right hand up to her neckline, and grabbed tight hold of her geode necklace. Red light poured out from the geode between her fingers, and lit up the skin of her hand. The glow suffused her body, then the reddish shape began to twist. “What the…” He stood up from his chair hastily and looked down, as the light faded leaving a yellowish pony the size of a large dog standing on the opposite side of the desk in front of him. “Surprise,” it proclaimed in Sunset’s voice, smiling bashfully. “This is the real me.” “Ah.” He sat down heavily, slumping back in his seat a bit. “I suppose that article I wrote about law and non-human sapience led you to me?” “In a manner of speaking, yes. It was one of many factors I considered, including compatibility of political views, networking, overall firm quality, and logo design.” “Logo design?” That broke him from his stupor, leaning forward. “Rarity would never let me work with someone who can’t represent themselves well.” He smirked. “I suppose there is wisdom in that.” “But yes, you’re taking this rather well.” Sunset levitated the chair back to in front of the desk, then jumped up and sat in it very carefully. “ I’m looking forward to our future relationship.” “That is the case for me as well. Also I eventually get to tell Riwoche that I won the bet on who would represent a space alien first.” Sunset shook her head. “Nay, neigh.” She chuckled a little at her own pun. “I’m afraid I’m a magical alien rather than a space one.” “The terms of the bet are quite clearly defined, and I am confident she will agree that you count.” “Greetings, Spasm viewers!” Sunset grinned cheekily at the webcam. “Today, I’m jumping on the trend of streaming Last Dream 14. I already went through the hardest part of the game, which is creating an account, off stream. I mean seriously, that website is so bad, I could make a better one. And I once tried editing photos with a hobby knife and glue rather than learning to use a program to do it! “But anyway, we’re going forwards.” She gestured to her left. There wasn’t actually anything there, but on Spasm it’d make it look like she was pointing to the chat box. “You may have noticed some changes to the chat, and also a few thousand extra viewers. So right now we’ve set it up so only people who have subbed or followed for at least 20 days can say anything. I’ve got a few extra mods as well; shout out to T_Sparkz, AJ127, and RainbowDeez.” Sunset rolled her eyes dramatically, then sighed deeply, leaning her head down and trying to pack as much world-weariness as a late-teen could. “I’m gonna say this once, for our new conspiracy theorist friends in the audience. I did not buy an island off the coast of Criolo Rica, Sunlight Solutions did. Sunlight Solutions is a company registered to Twilight Velvet, the mother of my friend Twilight Sparkle. She’s a literary agent who works with big authors. Maybe it’s A. K. Yearling’s private island. Maybe it has a portal to an alien world buried there. Yes, I was shipwrecked there a few months back. No, that’s a terrible reason to buy an island. The important thing is that I’m not answering questions about it, and if you harass me about it, there will be consequences. If you try snooping around that island there will be even worse consequences, because Twilight told me her mother hired the prestigious ‘Diamond Dogs’ private security contractor to keep people away from it. Although the whole thing is silly. Islands cost a lot of money, I’m a teenager who’s known for haggling aggressively at flea markets; where would I get the kind of money needed for that?” She shook her head, then glared as hard as she could directly into the webcam. “Now, if we can get back to gaming like I’m supposed to be talking about on this channel, I’m going to be making a black mage because I love fire and explosions.” “Huh, I would have bet on you going for botany.” Sunset sat on the edge of Wallflower’s bed, looking over the paperwork for college.  Sunset, Twilight, and Wallflower had all been accepted to Everton. The first two hadn’t been too much of a surprise, but the latter had come as a shock to the Rainbooms. Dash had even been blunt enough to say that out loud. Wallflower’s academic achievements were as unheralded as the rest of her life had been. “It was originally my first choice. But I decided to think more broadly.” Wallflower took a deep breath. “And I wanted to be helpful to you.” “Me?” Sunset blinked, taken aback. “You told me about your… thing. Back home.” Wallflower couldn’t quite meet her girlfriend’s eyes. “I was wondering if in the future something like that… if it could be fixed.” “Wallflower. You don’t have to…” Sunset reached over for her shoulder, but Wallflower turned to face her before she could complete the gesture, staring right into her eyes. “No. I want to. You saved me from myself, and now I want to repay the favor. I heard one eweTube video describe genetics as ‘the body’s memory of itself’ and something clicked for me. I feel like in the next few decades, it might be possible to fix a condition like yours.” Sunset shook her head. “I dunno. The condition doesn’t seem to affect me here at all, so you’d have to do all the research and trials in Equestria.” “Still.” Wallflower puffed herself up and stared determinedly into Sunset’s eyes. “Right now I’m expecting to follow you when you do return.” “Are you sure? We still have a lot of time to think about it.” Sunset reached out her hand towards the girl’s. “Let’s take things as they come, okay?” “Okay.” Luster Dawn loved having personal instruction with The Princess. Sure, she knew intellectually that there were other princesses, such as Cadance and Flurry Heart in the North, but for anycreature who lived in Canterlot it was always Twilight Sparkle. The Princess had told her about her own foalhood at the hooves of The Previous Princess, Celestia. Back then it was easier for a princess to get some time to herself, so Twilight had gotten more hooves-on instruction from her mentor than three times a week. Still, that just meant she had to make the most of it, and she concentrated intently as Princess Twilight explained the intricacies of parameterized spell matrices versus freeform. “Twilight Sparkle!” The immense shout sent one of the study doors flying off its hinges and crashing into the wall at the far end of the room. The tiny pink filly boggled at the sight as her ears folded down on their own, and then tried to hide under her princess, sitting on a cushion near the center of the room. “Sunset.” The great lavender alicorn rose to her hooves, shaking herself and stretching her wings. Luster continued to hide behind her rear legs, shaking at the sight before her. In the doorway stood a black-cloaked figure of a mare almost equal in height to Twilight herself, a unicorn with a red-and-yellow striped mane, blue eyes, and a red aura spiking along her lengthy horn. The scary mare made eye contact briefly with Luster, causing her to close her eyes and shrink down even further. Behind Sunset, although the filly had not paid any attention to her, a slight, green coated, and green maned earth mare wearing a similar black cloak stood silently. “Equestria has had two princesses, but it has only one sun. I demand the rite of blood!” Sunset stomped her right forehoof in time with the last word, which she pronounced with a lurid exaggeration. Luster squealed softly. She knew that there was a Princess Sunset of Equestria, but little more beyond that princess spending almost all her time out of sight on mysterious errands. “Very well. A moment.” Twilight turned herself slightly, lowering her great head to the tiny lump of filly trying to bury herself in the cushion. “Luster, you’re a brave filly, aren’t you?” Luster gulped. The princess wants me to be brave! I have to be brave! She stood, shaking. “Ye… yes ma’am.” “Good.” The princess smiled down at her. “You’re a brave pony, so I need you to watch this. No matter what happens, you mustn’t look away.” “Hmph.” The black-cloaked unicorn snorted. “Making a child witness this? Are you sure about your decision?” “Yes, I am.” Twilight raised her head and turned to face the intruder once again. “Her parents knew what they were getting into when she became my personal student.” “Very well, I’d hate to have to explain to them if she loses herself when you fall.” Twilight looked back over her shoulder at Luster. “She will not. I will not.” “Very well, I’ve had my subordinate prepare the chamber.” Luster Dawn could feel the beat of her heart in her throat as she entered the circular room at the top of the palace’s “new tower”. Two circles of small stones had been placed on the bare floor, and over each of them hovered two yellow orbs. A white curtain had been drawn across the room’s wide expanse of windows, so thick no light could possibly pass through. “We’re doing this. I want that sun.” Sunset stepped to the midpoint between the two circles. “Pick.” “I’ll take the first one.” Twilight trotted into the circle nearest the door, and reared up to place each of her forehooves onto a yellow orb. She moved her legs slightly, the orb bobbing or rotating with her motions. “Very well.” Sunset entered the second circle and placed her forehooves upon the other set of orbs, making a similar set of motions. This is it. They’re really going to! To! To! She wasn’t sure what they were going to do, but it couldn’t be good. “Calm yourself, Luster Dawn. Everything will be fine.” Twilight smiled at her, glancing over with one eye. Sunset had sparked her horn in the meantime and fired it at an unassuming box Luster had completely overlooked. The white curtain lit up suddenly with words as a bombastic tune began to fill the room, its beat echoing in the filly’s ears. A voice shouted the words on the screen. “Deadly Klash!” It then began listing out dangerous sounding names. She knew what this was, even if her parents never let her have one. “Are you two playing a video game?” Both of the combative mares burst out laughing. “Oh wow, oh man, we really had you going there didn’t we?” Sunset almost doubled over with her laughter. “Yes, you did.” Sunset flashed Twilight a brief dirty look at this phrasing. “And I’m sorry if we took it too far, Luster, but when I saw how you reacted to Sunset, I just had to do this.” “Yeah, you would. You always were more like her.” “Hmph, you kept the prank going too.” Twilight pouted at her fellow co-royal. “I’m the ‘bad’ one, Twilight. It’s my job.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “But the challenge is for real; my cutie mark is telling me I should be the one raising the sun.” “But you’re a unicorn, not an alicorn.” Sunset looked down at the small filly, her expression blank. Twilight looked back and forth between them, then over at the other pony in the room. The green mare was also looking back and forth between the others. Nodding at Twilight once, she walked up behind Sunset, gripped the heavy black cape with her teeth, then swung her head to yank it off dramatically. Two tiny wings popped up from Sunset’s back, fluttering angrily as she turned towards her partner. “Et tu, Dr. Blush?” “Sorry Sunset, but I was really worried you were about to get a little weird there.” Luster stared up at the second alicorn in the room. If the filly had been a pegasus, she’d have wings about that size. “What?” Sunset sighed. “It’s… a long story. I’m one of the test subjects for a treatment for pegagen insensitivity syndrome; it’s a disease that makes you not grow wings. We’re in our first year of trials, and it’s taking some time for the new wings to grow in.” Wallflower tapped Sunset’s side. “When you consider those wings are only one year old, they’re a perfectly healthy size. Although we’re hoping to get them to full size in under a decade and a half.” Sunset nodded. “Well, Scootaloo’s wings won’t take nearly that long to get to full size. They’re almost all the way there at 47 weeks.” Luster had heard of Scootaloo, in Twilight’s tales of her youth. Terrible tales of fire, explosions, and tree sap. A pony able to help and put up with her must be a saint, even if she seemed scary. “C’mon, kiddo.” Wallflower ambled up to Luster, ushering her out with the pressure of her approach. “Let’s get out of the way while they settle this. Sunset’s got a burr in her hoof over the sun.” She sighed dramatically as she looked back at a room now filling with shouts of competition. “Alicorns.”