11 December 1008
‘’I did.’’
Sunset hated it. She hated that she was talking about it to Nightmare Moon of all ponies, she hated that it had happened, she hated it had been necessary.
Her horn lit up, and the altar was covered in flames in an instant. ‘’And it’s done now.’’
‘’It is.’’ Nightmare Moon sounded… oddly calm about the whole affair. ‘’I don’t begrudge you mourning what was lost, though.’’
‘’Do you?’’
Nightmare seemed to consider the question. ‘’I do not mourn it.’’
‘’Really?’’ I find that hard to believe.
‘’I mourn the peace and stability that Equestria enjoyed, but even that was only a false thing,’’ Nightmare replied. ‘’The thestrals knew no peace under Celestia, and neither did so many others.’’
‘’I,’’ Sunset said dryly, ‘’am aware.’’
‘’You are,’’ Nightmare agreed with an inclining gesture from her head. ‘’Perhaps more so than most. Perhaps more than anyone.’’
‘’That’s not-’’
‘’Isn’t it?’’ Nightmare Moon interrupted. ‘’Celestia ignored your needs until you broke, and then sent her student to fix her own mistakes. You trusted her, and look how she repaid that trust.’’
That was… distressingly true.
‘’... fine,’’ Sunset allowed. ‘’You’re right. Damnit, you’re right. Celestia abandoned me.’’
She poured more power into the flames, and the altar started to melt. The fire wasn’t near hot enough to do so, but this was a dream, after all.
‘’By all rights,’’ she continued, ‘’I should hate her. And I do.’’
Silence fell in the cathedral as the altar was consumed by the flames.
‘’But,’’ Nightmare Moon said eventually.
Sunset swallowed. Moment of truth. ‘’But.’’
Nightmare Moon turned to the side and looked down, staring Sunset straight in the eye.
‘’But I miss it.’’
The words flowed out before Sunset could stop them. ‘’I came back to Equestria expecting nothing, but I wanted to talk to Celestia. To explain what I did to her.’’
29 March 1007
Canterlot’s hallways hadn’t changed at all in the decade of Sunset’s absence, she idly noted as she followed the guard that functioned as her guide.
‘’Here we are,’’ the guard informed her in a neutral tone of voice as they arrived in front of the doors.
‘’Thank you,’’ Sunset responded with a similar tone. Not that I don’t know that, flankhole.
The guard knocked on the door. ‘’Your Majesty, your visitor is here.’’
‘’Send her in!’’ Celestia’s voice called out clearly, despite the - enchanted and rather thick, Sunset knew - door in-between them.
The guard opened the door and held it open for her. Sunset gave him a tiny nod as she entered.
The rooms hadn’t changed in any way since Sunset had last seen them. They were still as stately and regal as always.
‘’Sunset!’’
Celestia leapt from her chair in a graceful movement that no non-alicorn could ever hope to replicate, and moved towards Sunset.
Sunset bowed her head. ‘’Princess Celestia.’’
Celestia stopped, only a single step away from Sunset. ‘’Sunset.’’
Sunset raised her head and gave her ex-mentor a wry smile. ‘’Been a while.’’
Celestia chuckled weakly. ‘’Yes, indeed. It’s so good to see you again.’’
‘’It is good to see you too, Princess.’’
‘’Sunset-’’
‘’Do you have anything to drink?’’ Sunset sidestepped the issue.
Celestia’s face was marred for just a moment by the slightest of frowns, before it cleared up again. ‘’Of course! Please, have a seat.’’ She gestured at the pair of chairs next to the fireplace.
Sunset walked over to them and sat down in the right one, which she had always used. Celestia sat across from her.
‘’What did you want to drink?’’ the alicorn asked.
‘’Tea will be fine.’’
Celestia hummed. ‘’Your old blend?’’
You still remember that? Of course you do. ‘’Please,’’ Sunset said with a slight hitch in her voice.
Celestia’s horn lit up, and two cups, already filled if the steam rising from them was any indication, floated over to the table, accompanied by a box that Sunset knew was filled with all manner of exotic teas.
‘’Thank you,’’ she said after Celestia had picked the right blend from the box and put it into her cup. With her telekinesis, Sunset pulled the cup to her and allowed the smell of mango to enter her nose.
‘’So, Sunset,’’ Celestia began the conversation after a moment of silence. ‘’How are you doing?’’
‘’I’m doing good, I suppose,’’ Sunset replied rather vaguely.
There was that slight frown again, and it lasted a second longer this time. ‘’That is good to hear,’’ Celestia’s calm and serene voice said anyway. ‘’How are you finding Equestria?’’
The word was out of her mouth before she knew it. ‘’Shitty.’’
Celestia raised an eyebrow. ‘’Oh? Do elaborate.’’
I’d rather not, thank you. Even if it’s true.
Saying that wouldn’t work, and so Sunset drank from the far-too-hot tea in an attempt to gain a few more moments to formulate a response. ‘’Well,’’ she said as she lowered the cup away from her mouth, ‘’I just find it strange that you’ve done nothing with all the criticism I had on your rule back then.’’
‘’You were not a very reasonable person back then.’’
That one stung more than Sunset liked to admit, even if it was true. ‘’Fair,’’ she allowed, ‘’but my points were not wrong, you acknowledged that even then.’’
‘’Your points,’’ Celestia rebutted breezily, ‘’were that thestrals should be integrated more fully into Equestrian society.’’
‘’They were.’’
Sunset, having grown up in Buckcastle before becoming Celestia’s student, had been friends with a lot of thestrals, seeing as the city had a large community of them. And she had been a smart filly, even then. She’d been able to see how badly the thestrals were being treated by the rest of Equestrian society.
Celestia let out a long sigh. ‘’As I said then, I don’t disagree, but over the past years I have tried my best to work on this problem. In fact, I have done-’’
‘’No, you haven’t.’’
Sunset had looked into it. She’d gone back to Buckcastle for a week after spending her first two weeks in Equestria in Ponyville; the thestral ghetto - a word she had picked up on the other side of the mirror - had grown slightly in size, but it hadn’t changed at all with how dilapidated it was. Sunset had gone looking for her old friend, Serene Star, and had found that she had become blind in one eye thanks to a factory accident that wouldn’t have happened if the overseer had just listened to Serene and the other workers.
And Celestia had done nothing. It was almost slavery.
‘’I went back to Buckcastle,’’ Sunset said before Celestia could get a word in. ‘’You remember Serene Star, the filly I used to write? She’s blind in one eye now, because the overseer of the factory she works in refused to listen to her warnings about malfunctioning machinery. And she told similar stories about her other friends.’’
‘’Sunset-’’
‘’Don’t Sunset me,’’ Sunset cut in. ‘’You have done nothing, Celestia. I checked the laws and decrees: Nothing has happened. You haven’t passed a single law that aids thestrals since I left; in fact you haven’t done so since you made lynching them illegal in 678.’’
Celestia frowned heavily now. ‘’And what would you want me to do, then?’’
ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!
Sunset exploded. ‘’I don’t fucking know, maybe make some fucking laws or statements to start fixing your fucking country, you overweight mare?!’’
‘’Sunset Shimmer!’’ Celestia snapped. ‘’It is not so simple as that, young lady!’’ She drew herself up. ‘’From the first days after Nightmare Moon I have tried to help the thestrals, to help ponies see they are not the enemy! But the thestrals have always refused my help.’’
‘’That doesn’t work on me anymore, Celestia,’’ Sunset snapped back. ‘’You don’t know what I saw on the other side of the mirror.’’ What she was saying about the thestrals was just wrong, Sunset knew that, and so she didn’t even bother to think about it.
‘’No, I don’t, but that is not relevant to this discussion-’’
‘’It is,’’ Sunset interrupted. ‘’You know what I saw there? I saw entire groups of people, enslaved and killed for who they were. Simple things, like their beliefs, or even their colour. For those things, they were discriminated against, bullied and forced out of society. Tell me that is not what is happening to the thestrals, has been happening to them since Nightmare Moon.’’
‘’Sunset, I tried,’’ Celestia said, pleadingly, ‘’but ponies refused to listen. Everyone refused to listen to me. I did my best, but I am not a miracle worker.’’
Sunset snorted. ‘’I find that hard to believe. It’s more likely you don’t listen to them.’’
‘’I beg your pardon!?’’
‘’Stalliongrad,’’ Sunset deadpanned. ‘’The Apple War. The Changeling Invasion. The Cozy Glow Disaster. You’d think you would get the hint eventually, but it seems your skull is as thick as your cheeks.’’
‘’I-’’ Celestia slumped back. For a moment it seemed like she might burst into tears. Then, she sat up again, as if someone had kicked new life into her. ‘’I will not be spoken to in this way.’’
It was Sunset’s turn to raise an eyebrow. ‘’I’ll speak however I want,’’ she retorted. ‘’I’m not your student anymore, and technically I’m not even an Equestrian citizen.’’
Twilight had actually gotten her a passport as soon as she’d stepped out of the portal, but Celestia didn’t know that. Probably.
‘’Regardless,’’ Celestia continued, ‘’I still demand a level of respect, especially from you, Sunset Shimmer.’’
‘’No.’’
Celestia’s voice turned lower than Sunset had ever heard it go, and she felt her hairs rise despite herself. ‘’I will not repeat myself,’’ she warned. ‘’This is why you left in the first place; because you refused to listen to me. Are you going to repeat that mistake?’’
‘’Oh, I will,’’ Sunset said with a smirk that portrayed more confidence than she felt. ‘’I will repeat this to the newspapers, to Twilight, to Princess fucking Luna, until you fix this.’’
‘’You will not!’’
‘’Are you attempting to tell me what to do?’’
That seemed to snap Celestia out of whatever trance she was in. ‘’Sunset, you can’t-’’
‘’I can, and I fucking will.’’ Sunset said, before teleporting away.
In a blink, she stood outside the gates of Canterlot Palace. Without saying anything, she turned and galloped away.
Away from this place.
11 December 1008
‘’I miss her. What we used to have, I mean. Discussing spellwork until late in the night, having lessons at day, just… being with her.’’
‘’I know what you mean,’’ Nightmare Moon said before Sunset could continue spewing truth without regard for her own safety. ‘’I, too, miss things of that time. But I could never in good conscience go back to it, knowing what I do now.’’
‘’Neither can I,’’ Sunset admitted immediately. ‘’How I didn’t see it back then, I’ve no idea.’’
‘’You were young, and hopeful still. I was too, once.’’
‘’That doesn’t excuse it,’’ Sunset argued.
‘’Perhaps not,’’ Nightmare Moon agreed, ‘’but it is an explanation. And I already forgave you, did I not?’’
That was true too. It seemed that Nightmare Moon, when she was inside the Dream Realm, spoke the sort of absolute truths Sunset usually avoided.
‘’You did,’’ she admitted. ‘’But still-’’
‘’We can have this argument until the end of time itself,’’ Nightmare Moon interrupted, ‘’or the end of this dream, whichever you prefer.’’
‘’Neither.’’
‘’Very well.’’
They stood together in silence, broken only by the sound of flames.
Celestia’s arguments did make sense, Sunset carefully thought and didn’t say aloud. Help needs to come from two sides. And the thestrals really didn’t want to be helped. The situation was a clusterfuck all around.
I should have gone back, or not left at all. Instead, I went to Luna, and it all spiralled down from there.
Sunset tore the flames away from the altar and sent them up against the roof in a spike of anger. She forced my hoof. What’s done is done; I can’t move back.
But she could make a better future.
‘’I’ll do it,’’ Sunset said.
‘’Do what?’’ Nightmare Moon asked.
‘’I’ll go to the Crystal Empire,’’ Sunset elaborated, though she wasn’t sure how Nightmare Moon hadn’t realized what she meant. ‘’I’ll go help there, and I’ll teach Flurry the magic she needs and wants to know.’’
Nightmare Moon smiled a full, wide smile. ‘’Thank you, Sunset,’’ she said, gratitude tangible. ‘’You do not know how much that means to me.’’
Sunset really didn’t. She tried to appreciate it anyway. ‘’Just give me a coat before I leave,’’ she tried to joke. ‘’It’s freezing up there.’’
‘’So it is,’’ Nightmare Moon agreed with a chuckle. ‘’Not to worry, I shall give you all that you require.’’
Part of Sunset wanted to see how far she could push that. ‘’Thanks,’’ she said instead, of outing that thought.
‘’In the Crystal Empire, however,’’ Nightmare Moon said, ‘’you shall also have to speak with someone.’’
‘’Who?’’
‘’Your possible successor.’’