Sunset Shimmer blinked awake. Her body ached, save for a numbness in her lower torso. She tried to reach a hand downward, but found herself unable to move her arms. She was restrained, gently tied down with straps. She opened her mouth to cry out, but her throat was parched. She was able to let out nothing more than a faint croak.
“Sunset? It’s okay. I’m right here. You’re safe.”
Sunset Shimmer felt too sore to turn her neck. She settled for peering out of the corner of her eye. She found herself looking into a pair of familiar blue eyes, full of warmth and strength. Whatever else had happened, at least she was reunited with the one her soul loved.
“It’s alright.” Shining reached a hoof out to rest against her shoulder. “The mirror Twilight’s been captured. You’re gonna get healed up right as rain before you know it.”
Sunset furrowed her brow. She looked down at her hand and found that she lacked the usual five fingers and a palm. Rather, it had been replaced with an orange hoof. She was in Equestria? That had to mean that the portal had worked. They must have taken her to treat an injury that her world had no method of fighting. How bad had it been?
The answer came in the form of the rolls of gauze wrapped around her torso. That was why she’d been restrained; so she couldn’t hurt herself further by accident. Dr. Sparkle had truly, truly wanted her dead.
A current of magic carried a cup up to her lips. A straw hovered just above her mouth. “You thirsty? Want a drink of water? Drink slowly.”
She accepted the drink with a small sip. Ever bone in her body cried out to guzzle it down, but she held back. No use throwing up just after waking up. Or worse. “Thank… you…”
The magic and the pony using it clicked together in her mind. “Shiny? Magic?”
Shining Armor set the cup gently on the bed’s side-table. “Thanks to you. Looks like I’ve got a handle on this—” The cup leapt from his grip and tumbled to the floor. “—whole… magic… thing. Yeah.”
Sunset looked over the gauze tapestry decorating her body. She attempted to wiggle her hind hooves and was rewarded with a jiggle of her blanket. “Can’t feel my body.”
“That would be the painkillers at work.” Shining got to his hooves and clomped towards the door. “I’m gonna go tell the doc you’re awake. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay.” Sunset closed her eyes. She wondered if they would untie her. Surely now that she was awake, she’d require fewer precautions against further injury. Hopefully.
She opened her eyes to get a look at the room. It was a Canterlot hospital, judging from the skyline out her window. She could just see the towers of the castle in the distance, overlooking the stone buildings that made up the mountainous city. A pang of homesickness hit her out of nowhere. It had been so long—more than a decade—since she’d seen it. Though she’d been found in Fillydelphia, she’d always seen Canterlot as her childhood home.
She’d just crossed a bridge that had been burned to cinders. Did she truly deserve the chance to see it again, after what she’d done? Dr. Twilight could never return home after her deeds, how could Sunset be any different?
One of Canterlot General’s most prolific doctors came in to give her a rundown of her injuries. They were severe, to use a gross understatement. Organs damaged or destroyed, skin torn away, horrendous blood loss. As advanced as modern-day medicine was back home, this was a list that spelled certain doom for most people. But, with a quick transportation to Equestria and the existence of a time-slowing spell, she’d lived long enough to reach the operating table. As it was, the nerve damage was extensive, and it would take months to regrow the muscle tissue. She was down one kidney, and her intestines had needed quite a bit of work done. Luckily, the other organs had been high enough to avoid being attacked by the dark spikes.
“I’m going to recommend at least a month of bed rest with a constant ambrosia drip. Your recovery will last more than a year after that.” Dr. Fine lowered his clipboard and gave Shining Armor a sidelong glance. “There is… one other matter, but I was told to allow others to share the news with you.”
Sunset sighed through her nose. “Yah got me… worried, doc.”
“I wouldn’t worry.” He smiled at her, adjusting his glasses to rub at tired eyes. “You are indeed in good hooves, Lady Shimmer. Though you had a tremendous trial, quick-thinking and skilled magic pulled you through to the other side. Safe and sound.” He stood up and made his way towards the door. “I’ll be back soon to track your progress. In the meantime, there are many ponies eager to see you for themselves.” He jabbed a pencil in Shining Armor’s direction. “Make sure they don’t wear her out.”
Sunset reached her hoof out to touch Shining Armor’s. She nearly burst into tears when she saw four familiar faces walk through the door. Twilight Sparkle and Principal Celestia came in first. Just behind them was—
“Mommy!”
Sunny rode on Scootaloo’s back as she took cautious steps into the room. He leaped off his perch and rushed to the bedside, nearly knocking Twilight and Principal Celestia off their hooves.
Scootaloo was unmistakably her Scootaloo. She wore her signature black leather coat, and her short mane was held back by a thin band. She looked pensively at Sunset, holding back a wince as she examined her foster sister.
Celestia appeared as a white-coated, pink-maned, middle-aged unicorn. If Sunset thought about it, it made sense. Her Celestia was no ageless superpony, but a woman who had seen much of the world and lived through many a hardship. The expression on her face was nonetheless serene, unfettered by fears of tomorrow. She was content to experience a happy moment with her protégé, the danger having passed.
Shining reached down to scoop up his son, though better of it, and lit his horn to help the younger unicorn reach the bedside. “Be careful, Sunny. Mommy’s really sore.”
Sunset didn’t think it was possible for her son to get any more adorable. Yet here was the little guy right at her bedside, his oversized pony eyes glistening with curiosity and concern. She leaned over to touch her nose against his. “Hello, Sunny. Have you been good for Daddy while Mommy’s been away?”
“Yep.”
“Good. Did you miss me?”
“Uhuh.”
She kissed his forehead and touched a hoof to her cheek. “I missed you, too. I love you.”
“Love you, Mommy.” Shining brought Sunny back so that the young colt could sit against his chest. The boy’s eyes never stopped moving as he studied his surroundings. “Do we live here, now?”
“For a little while.” Sunset gave Twilight and the others a slightly morose smile. “Just until Mommy’s better.” She took another sip of water with Shining’s help. Her throat was still sore, but at least it hurt less to breath. She peered at Twilight Sparkle, who took a seat on the opposite side of the bed. The little unicorn mare daubed her eyes behind her glasses, nearly knocking them from their perch atop her nose. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Twilight blinked the last of the moisture away. She looked tired. As tired as Sunset felt. “For what?”
“Ab—” Sunset shut her eyes tight against the oncoming sting. “Abandoning you.”
Twilight touched a hoof to her foreleg. “Sunset—”
“I left you… and Shiny… when you needed me…” Sunset Shimmer shook her head slightly. “I should have stayed… until your name was cleared. I was… selfish.” Sunset rubbed her friend’s leg with a soft sway of her hoof. “But you never left me… even when I was a world away.”
Twilight pressed her lips tight. She looked away for a second, but soon returned her gaze. “I won’t lie; I felt that way at the beginning. But I understand how much magic means to you. You had to take the opp—”
“Magic is nothing without my family.” Sunset turned to Shining Armor, seeking solace in his beautiful blue eyes, though she thought she didn’t deserve it. “I should never have left you.”
“While we’re apologizing…” Shining Armor passed Sunny to Scootaloo so that he could lean against Sunset’s bed. “I’m sorry for… for being jealous of you. For not seeing that magic was for everybody, not just a select few. For believing I could never stand at your side. I love you, and I want support you. As equals.”
He clutched her hoof between his two, his eyes locked to hers. “Together, we’re more magical than we could ever be apart. So we’re going to work together until we fulfill both our dreams. I mean… if you want to.”
“I can’t hold your dreams against you, Sunset,” Twilight said. “I just hope that from now on… we can achieve them together.”
Sunset watched Scootaloo play with Sunny, keeping the boy occupied during the tearful moment. She bit back a sob. “I don’t deserve you guys.”
“‘Getting what we don’t deserve’ counts as a blessing in my mind.” Principal Celestia eased herself into a chair, getting a load off of her four legs. “Something to be thankful for, not to bemoan. You have to make the most of what life gives you, good and bad.”
“I’m with Miss Celestia on that one, Sunset.” Scootaloo flapped her wings and carried Sunny upward. She hovered over the rest of the ponies present, letting the young boy dangle securely in her grip. “I’m pretty sure if most people got what they deserved, they’d spontaneously combust before they hit age twenty. Myself included.” She flashed a mischievous smirk Sunset’s way. “Yourself especially.”
Sunset had to catch her breath, so she settled for giving her little sister a smirk. After a few deep breaths, she turned back to Shining. “You all came here just to be with me?”
“Well…” Shining Armor bounced Sunny on his knee. “It isn’t just us…”
Celestia bobbed her head. “Princess Celestia is giving everyone in the school asylum in Equestria until we can be sure the Highborn authorities won’t imprison them just for existing.”
Twilight stared at Sunset’s bandages for a long time. “There are a lot of people who owe you their lives, Sunset. I think… you needed to go to the school. For them.”
A knock at the door prevented her from continuing. Starlight poked her head in and waved a hoof. “Just wanted to say ‘hi,’ now that you’re awake. You-know-who is on her way.”
“Right.” Shining Armor picked Sunny up and set him on his back. “We’re gonna get lunch real quick. You okay with another visitor, or do you wanna sleep?”
“I think… I’m fine.” Sunset frowned at Starlight Glimmer. “Who’s ‘you-know-who’?”
Starlight glanced back into the hallway and gritted her teeth, tapping a hoof nervously. “Um. Yeah. The princess.”
Sunset blinked. “Which princess?”
Principal Celestia rose from her chair and touched the edge of Sunset’s blanket. “My counterpart.”
Sunset’s ears fell to the sides of her head. If she looked past Starlight Glimmer, she could just see a white pony speaking with a purple pony in the hall beyond. She swallowed hard, then accepted Shining’s help getting another sip. “I… I don’t know.”
Shining and Celestia shared a glance. Shining turned his beautiful, caring eyes on her.
“Shiny…” Sunset Shimmer tugged her blanket up to her neck. The instinct to sit up was quickly defeated by the reality of her injuries. “I haven’t seen her in fifteen years. Not since I first left.”
Shining’s eyes trailed away. He took in a deep breath. “Will you trust me when I say that I think you need to hear what she has to say?”
Sunset stared at the small glimpse she could get of the princess through the open door. The only thing she could feel was trepidation. “I…”
“She loves you, Sunset,” Principal Celestia said, the smile fading from her face. “At least give her the opportunity to say goodbye properly.”
Sunset winced as the wind left her sails. There was no way to argue that point. Not without accepting that she was a coward. “Yeah. You’re right. This isn’t about me.”
“Yes it is.”
All heads turned to the doorway, where Princess Celestia stood tall. Her once-regal, ethereal mane had been reduced to a lesser, yet still glistening pink hue. The scar on her chest was pronounced, even beneath the regalia she wore around her neck. She was much older than Sunset remembered; worn and tired in her eyes.
And yet, when she walked, it was with a smooth, easy glide. Her presence was overbearing, nearly stifling, but only until one drew close enough to see that it was a warm, protective aura that surrounded her. The tiredness of her eyes could not overcome the serenity of her expression, nor the softness of her voice.
“This is most certainly about you, my most promising student.”
Sunset Shimmer was vaguely aware that everybody else had left the room. That didn’t seem important. Even if the room was crowded to overflowing, she would only have been able to stare at the princess.
Celestia took a seat beside the bed. She looked over Sunset’s body. Pain flashed across her face as she noted the bandages. “I’m… sorry… that we… that I…” She blinked as tears pooled in her eyes. “If only I knew then what I know now.”
Sunset felt a knot form in her throat. “Then we wouldn’t be where we are.”
Celestia sighed. She nodded slowly, allowing her wings to spread ever-so-slightly, possibly to cool her back. “I… I don’t truly wish to speak about those days right now. It is a time long since passed, full of decisions that have already been made.”
Sunset Shimmer crossed her forelegs atop her blanket. “We’ve already figured out what we both did wrong.”
“Yes. Yes, I believe you’re right.”
“Then what did you want to talk about?”
Celestia looked on Sunset with a familiar expression. It was the one she would use when teaching all those years ago. Mouth mostly level with a slight upturn on the edges. Eyebrows raised, framing bright, attentive vision. Ears tilted forward to catch every word.
“You have accomplished so much more than I could have hoped for.”
Sunset shook her head, wincing at the ache in her neck. “You intended for me to lead the Bearers of the Elements. You wanted me to save your sister from the darkness she’d fallen into. I wasn’t there for you, or her.”
“That does not matter.” Celestia’s voice rose ever so slightly, taking on a corrective tone. Turning Sunset’s train of thought aside as easily as she’d turned aside a fourteen-year-old filly’s. “No matter what has or hasn’t happened here, on this side of the mirror, what matters is what happened on your side. You have grown so much these fifteen years. You have overcome the greatest challenge any of us face…” Celestia touched a wingtip to Sunset’s cheek. “Your own shadow; your worst self. Your pride, and arrogance, and anger. You cast them aside in the name of friendship. Of love. You have grown, and inspired so much growth in others. You have created a family around you, pulling people from all walks of life together to live their best.”
Sunset couldn’t meet Celestia’s eyes. A gentle touch brought her back to see the tears pouring down her teacher’s cheeks.
“You have brought magic to a world that had none. To lives that had nothing. You have changed their world for the better, just by being a friend. Sunset, how could I wish that you had stayed with me, when you have become so much more than I could have hoped for?” Celestia took in a shaky breath, riddled with sobs. “The best part of you has nothing to do with me. You were right; I could only stifle you.” It was the princess’ turn to look away. “You have even taught me how to better myself. I dread the thought of what I would have put Twilight through, had you not rebelled. Had you not shown me that I hadn’t changed since the days I pushed Luna towards Nightmare Moon.”
“But I was wrong.” Sunset’s chest ached with the very thought of her old self. “I wanted to hurt people. You only stopped me from becoming a monster.”
“I stopped you, yes, but then did nothing to help you.” A smile that Sunset wasn’t convinced of spread across Celestia’s face. “But Twilight did help you. And you rose. You overcame. You succeeded.” She pressed a kiss to Sunset’s forehead and held it there for a long moment. “I just wish… no. I don’t wish anything different. Your accomplishments are your own, and I am…” Celestia wiped her eyes and cleared her throat, fighting to steady her voice. “I am so very, very proud of you, my most…” There was a laugh, and perhaps it was a bit more genuine. “My most absent student.”
Her eyes fell upon the orange-coated unicorn, taking on a distant, unfocused gaze. “When I heard you had befriended Twilight all those years ago, I was so happy that you had found yourself. But I was a coward. I waited for you to contact me, and decided if you didn’t, then we were better off apart. But now, when we’re so close? I couldn’t abandon you a third time. I had to make sure you knew how very special you are, and how much I love you.”
Sunset’s dam burst. She reached out to Celestia and hugged her foreleg close. “I love you, too, Celestia! I carry your lessons with me everywhere I go! The best part of me does come from you! Without your foundation, your love, I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t be me.”
Celestia’s tears returned as she brought her wings around her former student’s body, drawing her gently into a protective embrace. The two wept for a moment, mourning bygones and celebrating the present. Celestia kissed her forehead again, then leaned close to her ear to whisper. “There is one more thing, Sunset Shimmer.”
The motion of leaning forward freed Sunset’s back from the confines of the sheets. Though her midsection was still securely strapped down, her back from the shoulder-blades up was free to move. As she moved, an unfamiliar sensation tickled her coat. Celestia’s embrace was temporarily forgotten as Sunset jerked her head around to look at what was causing the discomfort.
Two orange wings, their feathers a bit mussed from having been slept on, stared right back at Sunset.
Celestia coughed, covering her mouth with a hoof. “I… um… I was leading up to that.”
Sunset Shimmer’s eyes opened wide. “You wha huh?”
“You see, Sunset Shimmer, you are quite far from being my student.” Celestia laughed once before having to wipe more tears. “I hesitate to even call you a peer. You are already so much more than I’ve ever aspired to.”
Sunset’s breath caught in her throat. Her head felt like it was in a haze. She had to be dreaming, right? Well, no, if the dull pain in every other part of her body was to be believed. “How did this happen?”
“When you saved Dr. Twilight from the explosion, it seems.” Celestia’s eyes twinkled with pure joy, and this time, her smile could have only been straight from the heart. “After the stolen fairy strings and the Alicorn Device were fully consumed by flame, you took the remaining magic in the air and channeled it through your body, showing skill and determination that few others have matched over the course of history. This ‘River of Magic’ technique you’ve invented seems to have had beneficial effects on you.”
Sunset Shimmer spread her wings. It was strange to acquire a new set of limbs, to say the least. She wanted to immediately leap off the bed and soar through the clouds. To test her newfound strength of limb on unsuspecting boulders. To explore the new limits of her magic. “Oh my God.”
“I suspect that your ascension was also part of how you survived the doctor’s attack.” Celestia sighed as she waved a hoof at Sunset’s wound. “Something I thank the Creator for every hour.”
Sunset Shimmer lay back against the pillow, her mind racing. This was everything she’d ever wanted in her young life. Everything she’d given up on. Everything she’d thought lost.
But it wasn’t everything she held dear. Not yet.
“Princess Celestia?”
Celestia frowned, and her cheek twitched in an unhidden reaction. “You have no reason to call me Princess, Sunset. I am not your liege. You are the princess here.”
“Princess Celestia.” Sunset Shimmer gave her old teacher a tight-lipped smile and narrowed her eyes. “When I recover from my injuries, would you do me the honor of teaching me about my new abilities?”
Celestia’s mouth fell open. She stuttered for a bit. “Would—Wouldn’t Twilight be a better instructor—?”
“Twilight’s already helped me.” Sunset Shimmer touched a hoof to Celestia’s foreleg. “I want to learn from you. One last lesson plan.”
Celestia couldn’t answer. She lay her head down on Sunset’s bed and allowed the tears to flow. Sunset draped a foreleg over Celestia’s shoulders and held her as close as she could.
“One last chance,” Sunset whispered, “to be a family again.”
The two of them rested in quiet solitude until the others had finished with lunch. Sunset decided that more healing had taken place during those few precious minutes than all the rest of her life.
***
Twilight Sparkle walked through Canterlot Castle in an awed daze. The architecture, the masonry, the tapestries… every inch was coated in a thick layer of artistry. This was the stuff of fairy tales, even moreso than Ponyville’s Castle. She gaped as she gawked at a stained glass window that held a perfect representation—considering the medium—of Celestia’s visage.
Shattered pieces of glass brought back into a cohesive whole.
Edgy Spike walked beside her, his face tinged with something between nostalgia and remorse. “Sombra’s castle looked a lot like this, before everything happened. It was the only inviting place in Equestria. It was where we… where I could feel safe from the Evil Celestia and Luna.” He looked ahead to their destination: a heavy wooden door at the end of the hallway. “Now it’s gone.”
Twilight nodded understanding. She pictured the cold, empty house back in Canterlot City that she still owed money on. “Is there anywhere you can go?”
“I can stick with Queen Chrysalis and Care. Like I always did.” Edgy Spike folded his hands behind his pale purple back. His scales had begun to glisten the more he stayed in Princess Twilight’s Equestria, with Little Spike helping him maintain a more healthy diet for a dragon. The scars, however, didn’t fade. As the color returned to his scales, the scars only became more pronounced. Much like the new scars she’d seen in Little Spike’s arms. “Things are gonna change now that Celestia, Luna, and Sombra are all dead. The only enemy left is Tyrant Cadenza and her army. Well, and whoever wants to invade from across the sea now that we’re an easier target.”
“When do you go back?”
“As soon as Chrysalis does.”
As they came close to the door, Twilight heard argument. The voice of Princess Celestia battled it out with the voice of Queen Chrysalis from the Reflection.
“Please try to see reason,” Queen Chrysalis said. “Keeping her alive is dangerous. She could break out at a moment’s notice and cause her brand of pain and suffering all over again. People like her are the reason the death penalty was invented! She is remorseless, callous, and violent.”
Princess Celestia’s counterargument was immediate and passionate. “She is no different from the many others who were thought lost and yet have found new life. My own sister would have been headed for death row had I not abolished capital punishment.”
“Do you really think a thousand years in the moon would improve the doctor’s outlook on life?”
The guards flanking the door opened it at Edgy Spike’s beaconing. He and Twilight slid inside and kept to the wall. The room within was small and dark, save for the lamp over the single table.
Celestia and Chrysalis sat opposite from the doctor. Their attention was not on her, but on each other. Their argument continued, neither budging an inch. The doctor’s eyes followed Twilight, sending chills down her spine.
The doctor was chained. Four times around her legs, and once around her neck. Magic siphons surrounded her on every side, and her collar was made from a magic-absorbing alloy. Since she could no longer use her vision-correcting spell, she had been given a pair of spectacles much like Twilight’s. She didn’t wear any clothes, so the six-sided star cutie mark was plainly visible. Her mane and tail had been trimmed short to prevent her from hiding anything… and to prevent her from injuring herself.
Queen Chrysalis broke off from her argument to polish her glasses. In the process, she finally noticed Edgy Spike. “Spike? What are you doing here?”
“I have some things to say to Twi—to the doctor.” He folded his hands behind his back. “I was told I could have a moment alone with her.”
Queen Chrysalis frowned at Celestia. “Promised, you say?”
Princess Celestia nodded. “I told him he deserved a moment, if nothing else.”
“The we’ll leave you to it.” Queen Chrysalis flicked her tail as she stood. She made her way to the exit with her wings spread wide. “Come, Celestia. Twilight.”
“Please stay, Twilight,” Edgy Spike said. He stopped her with a claw to the back. “I’d like it if I had a friend in the room.”
The hardness in Chrysalis’ expression melted away. “Friend?” She sighed through her nose. “Yes, I suppose a friend would be helpful. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”
When the princess and the queen had vanished, Edgy Spike and Twilight took their chairs. Edgy Spike stared at the doctor for a long, quiet moment. He scratched a scar on his shoulder and pulled loose a dead scale.
The doctor’s expression grew even darker the longer the silence lasted. After enough time had passed, she snapped at him. “What? What is it? What do you want, Spike?”
Edgy Spike breathed a small plume of smoke through his nostrils. “I wanted to thank you, Twilight.”
“Thank me?” The doctor’s face split in half with a gnarled grimace. “For what? I’ve done nothing but hurt you, apparently. Enough so that you traveled to an entirely new world just to spit in my face.”
“That’s the thing.” Edgy Spike looked down at the table. Twilight rested a hoof on his shoulder. “I would have stayed with you, Twi.” He breathed a small sob and reached up to touch Twilight Sparkle’s foreleg. “Even through the murders, the monstrosities, the twisted science, I would have stood by you. I loved you that much, Twilight. So much that I would have given up my own sense of self just to stay by your side, because I put so much of my worth into what you thought of me.”
Dr. Twilight sat speechless, content to glare daggers of ire at the dragon.
“But you decided to hurt me.” Edgy Spike brought his eyes up to look straight into the doctor’s soul. “You shot out Care’s eye and left her bleeding on the floor. You ran from me and left me behind when you abandoned King Sombra. When I came looking for you, you stole my memories and tried to kill me and my new friend.” He smiled, a halfhearted expression fueled by disappointment in himself. “So thank you for hurting me. If you hadn’t, I would have stayed with you to the end. But now I can look at you and see you for who you really are. And I have something better waiting for me.”
Dr. Twilight Sparkle bared her teeth in a gnarled, soundless growl. “You would have left me eventually.”
Edgy Spike nodded slowly, weakly. “You know, I hope so. I really hope so.”
He pushed his chair back, stood up, and left the room.
Twilight Sparkle remained seated across from her doppelganger. She regarded the doctor with cold eyes. “Not even going to respond to that, are you?”
“His words are meaningless.” Dr. Twilight Sparkle matched her chilly look with a heartless glare. “As are yours.”
“If we find meaning in the words and you do not,” Twilight said, “then which of us lives a wasted life?”
Dr. Twilight raised her eyebrows. “Platitudes can’t change my mind, Twilight. I’ve heard them all before. I’ve discredited them all before. Life is a series of painful events, and you can’t change that.”
“Yes I can.” Twilight clomped a hoof against the table top. “Yes I have. You tried to drag my family through the muck, but all it resulted in is you imprisoned and Sunset ascending. She really did get everything you ever wanted. Without stooping to your level.” She crossed her forelegs. “You might have, too, if you had treated people like people instead of things.”
“Seven years!” Dr. Twilight snapped, spittle flying. “I spent seven years of my life creating the school with Starlight, and you’re gonna say I didn’t treat people like people? You’re gonna say I didn’t give them hope, a purpose, and power unimaginable? I brought magic to a dead world, Twilight. I did something good and notable with my life. What have you done aside from shooting a homeless woman and dragging my good name through the muck?”
Twilight Sparkle pressed her lips together. She tried to look deeper into the doctor’s eyes, to see past the anger and betrayal to something else. Something good, or sad, or lonely. But those feelings were buried long ago. She leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice so that only she and the doctor could hear. “I’ve done very little, but I have loved and been loved in return. That, Dr. Sparkle, is what you lack.”
She stood up. There was no reasoning with her, and there was nothing else she needed to get off her chest. Anything else the doctor would say was nothing but hot air.
“I’m going to get out, you know.” Dr. Twilight jangled her chains as Twilight walked swiftly to the door. “I’m going to achieve ascension. When I do, I’m going to destroy your life.”
Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder. “Knowing me? Knowing Sunset? Knowing all the people we call family?” She gritted her teeth in a dangerous smile. “Good rutting luck, doc.”
She slammed the door behind her and walked towards where Edgy Spike waited. He was still listening to Celestia and Chrysalis, though the argument seemed to have petered out. She sat beside him and nudged him in the shoulder. “So what are they doing with her?”
Edgy Spike shook his head. “She can’t be imprisoned in her original world because of the spell that can bring her to Sunset’s world. She can’t be held in the human world because they don’t have the technology to handle magical inmates just yet. So she’s staying in Princess Celestia’s care. They’re taking her to Solitaire.”
“The Maximum-Security prison for mortals.” Twilight Sparkle fidgeted with her shirt’s buttons as she drummed up the courage to say what she’d been planning all day. “Princess Twilight mentioned it a couple times. I guess that’s that. You still headed with Queen Chrysalis?”
“Yeah.” Edgy Spike shrugged and walked on all fours to follow the rulers as they walked towards the dining hall.
Twilight Sparkle fell into step beside him. She bumped his shoulder with hers. “Do you feel uncomfortable going back right now?”
“A little, but it’s not like I have any other prospects right now.”
Twilight Sparkle seized all the courage in her chest and let it out at once. “You could stay at my place, if you want. It’d be a good time to get away from the places that have painful memories for you and… and it’s been really quiet since… since…”
Edgy Spike stopped in his tracks. He sat down and looked to her with a soft frown. “Since your Spike died?”
Twilight Sparkle fell silent as a lump formed in her throat. She took a deep breath and sat beneath a glistening stained glass window. “Yeah.”
Edgy Spike scooted over to her side. The queen and the princess were long gone, so the two of them sat in silence. They looked up and both saw a stained glass portrait of Princess Twilight Sparkle on the far wall.
At the princess’ side was a purple-scaled dragon.
“It seems our lives are reflections of each other, having lost someone very special.” Edgy Spike held out a claw to compare its sheen with Little Spike’s. “I just wish my Twilight was as noble as your Spike. Heck, I wish I was as noble as your Spike.”
Twilight bobbed her head and considered the wings on her counterpart. “But you are as loyal as he was. He disobeyed me in order to do what he thought was right. In doing so, he saved my life.” Twilight turned to Edgy Spike and blinked away unshed tears. “Maybe one day you can save your Twilight.”
“She’s already made her decision.” Edgy Spike stood up and held a hand out to her. “And I’ve made mine. I’ll stay with you for a little while. We’ll help each other get back on our feet. I do need to go back home eventually, but… just eventually.”
Twilight took the hand and allowed him to help her stand. “Thank you, Spike. I think I need the friendship as much as you do.”
Edgy Spike hugged her. It was quick, but it was warm. He gave her a slight, small glimmer of a smile. “Don’t we all?”
The two of them walked side-by-side to the dining hall, where the others were waiting. It was time to settle down for a cozy evening with friends, food, and comfort.