What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me
Amusement glinted in Cinder’s eyes, and there was a smile upon her draconic features that somehow managed to capture most, if not all, of the smugness that she had delighted in wielding as a human.
Sunset wasn’t sure it should be possible for a dragon to look that smug.
“So,” Cinder said, “to be clear: while I’m away, you’re going to be spending your time trying to work out what that mark on your bottom means?”
“It’s a cutie mark,” Sunset said patiently. “As I’ve told you.”
“And as I told you, I refuse to let those words pass my lips in that order,” Cinder replied. “One must have some standards and a little concern for one’s dignity.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “To be honest, I think we both left dignity behind some time ago, but have it your own way. This mark, my cutie mark” – she put added emphasis on the word – “I never really understood what it means, and this is a chance for me to rectify that. A chance for me to find my talent.”
“You’re not satisfied with your existing array of talents?”
“It’s not just about ability,” Sunset explained. “It’s about… I mean, yes, I might get a new ability out of it-”
“One would have thought you would have found it by now, if you had it,” Cinder pointed out.
Sunset shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way,” she said. “Here, among us, the way that our magic works is… it’s hard to explain, but there’s a great emphasis upon the moment of realisation. It’s not just that you can do things, even if you don’t realise it, or rather… that can happen, I suppose, but you won’t get the benefit out of it until you have that moment where you realise that, yes, this is who I am, this who I’m meant to be – no, who I want to be.”
Cinder’s eyes narrowed. “That all sounds rather vague.”
“It’s an art, not a science,” Sunset told her, “but vague or not, it matters to me. Finding out what my cutie mark really means will tell me… it will tell me what my gift to the world is, what I have to offer. I’d like to know that before we go back to Remnant. Just like I’d like to know what, exactly, I’m the princess of.”
“Will that give you any additional powers or attributes?” Cinder asked.
Sunset shrugged. “It depends on what, exactly, I turn out to be the princess of. I don’t think Twilight has any additional powers from being the Princess of Friendship – not that I’ve asked her; it would be very bad form-”
“Oh, of course,” Cinder said. “Discussion of magic and power is so terribly gauche, after all.”
Sunset raised one eyebrow. “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”
“Only because you’re making it so easy this morning,” Cinder said. “So, to recap: you want to find out what your… that means, on the assumption that it carries intrinsic meaning beyond what it appears to be; you want to find out what you are the princess of, which may mean nothing or something you don’t know-”
“Even if it doesn’t come with anything new, even if the realisation doesn’t change what I can do,” Sunset declared. “Even if all of that is true, then it will still be worth knowing, to me, at least. It will help me to see more clearly what I did to get it, help me to understand what path I’m supposed to follow going forward-”
“How?” Cinder asked incredulously. “I don’t mean to diminish this, and I accept that it will have meaning to you, but as a guide to our future course? What difference does it make, aside from – possibly – increasing your tactical options?”
“It matters a lot!” Sunset insisted. “If I were… okay, let’s take a hypothetical and say that I were the Princess of Friendship, instead of Twilight Sparkle. Then, I would unite all kingdoms and bring the world together in harmony against Salem.”
“You could do that regardless of what your title was,” Cinder pointed out.
“Perhaps, but I would have more right to do so in this case,” Sunset replied. “Or… not 'right' perhaps, but I should… this is quite hard to explain to someone who hasn’t lived here as I have.”
“Then don’t explain,” Cinder said, placing one scaled finger to Sunset’s lips. She knelt down in front of her. “If this matters to you, if this is important purely to you, then that is enough. We are in your land, after all, and we are here for your sake. If you want to spend a day exploring yourself in some fashion… what better time, what better place?” She snorted. “Although it does amuse me that all of this is to be accomplished with the aid of three children.”
“Apparently, they really know what they’re doing,” Sunset said. “Are you going to be okay?”
Cinder looked behind her, to where Starlight Glimmer stood in the lee of the crystal Castle of Friendship; Princess Twilight was with her, along with the pony Trixie Lulamoon, hitched to a wagon fashioned after a small house on four wheels. “I’ll be fine,” Cinder assured her. “I may grow somewhat weary of Trixie’s company, but I’m sure Starlight will look after me. And I’ll get to see more of this wonderful country of yours.”
“Are you s-?”
“Yes,” Cinder insisted. “This thing that you’re doing, this thing that I do not understand, and cannot because I am not a pony… best you do that in private, no? Self-discovery doesn’t need too much company. And, you know, I can manage without you sometimes.”
Sunset grinned. “Sorry, I didn’t mean… sorry.”
“Don’t be; it’s sweet that you care,” Cinder said, and with her outstretched hand, she stroked Sunset’s cheek quickly with her rough, scaly hand. She rose to her feet. “But I feel as though I should be the one wishing you luck. Perhaps by the time I return from this village festival of Starlight’s, you’ll know who you are.” She smiled. “Now wouldn’t that be something?”
“I know who I am,” Sunset replied defensively. “Mostly.”
“Then to complete your knowledge would make you even more glorious,” Cinder declared. “One can but hope, anyway.”
Sunset grinned. “Well… let’s not get our hopes up too much. All of those things would be wonderful, but mostly… let’s see, huh?”
“Of course,” Cinder said. “You can tell me all about it when I get back. Speaking of which, I fear I might be holding the others up.”
“Best not keep them waiting any longer, then,” Sunset said as the two of them turned and walked towards the castle – and to the ponies gathered nearby.
The Castle of Friendship was like the stained glass windows in the throne room, a new addition to the Equestrian landscape since Sunset had dwelt here last. It was a structure at once garish and impressive, imposing and eyebrow-raising, grandiose and a little bit of an eyesore. It had to be admitted – and Sunset thought that even Twilight would have admitted as much if she’d been asked – that it was not entirely in keeping with Ponyville’s rustic aesthetic, nor would it have really fit in Canterlot – or anywhere that Sunset was familiar with or could think of – but taken on its own, it was quite a sight, the tree-like way in which it spread outwards as it climbed up, the crystalline nature of the superstructure, the way it glimmered under the sunlight… the giant six-pointed star on the roof was probably a bit much by any measure, though.
And yet, it fitted with the rest of the castle, all the same.
Sunset… Sunset was a little bit jealous. Yes, she was supposed to be over it, and she pretty much was over it, and there were more important things than honours and glory, and even Twilight didn’t really care for the acclaim, but all the same… it was a pretty cool castle, really. Not even Pyrrha had a place quite like this.
“Ah, Cinder,” Starlight said. “Are you ready?”
“I am,” Cinder replied. “Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“It’s fine,” Starlight assured her. “We only just got done ourselves. Well, Trix, shall we get going?”
Trixie’s wagon creaked as she pulled it away, Cinder and Starlight walking on either side of it as they headed away from the Castle and away from Ponyville altogether, heading off in the direction of Starlight’s old village, the site of her past crimes.
It was a little surprising that they wanted her back, but then, Sunset reminded herself that that was the way of things in Equestria. These were a forgiving people. They didn’t hold onto grudges.
She glanced at Princess Twilight, stood beside her, watching the three of them depart. There was a slight frown on her face.
“Are you okay?” Sunset asked.
“I’m fine,” Twilight said, more softly than somepony who was actually fine might have answered. “I’m just a little worried about Starlight. She was quite nervous about this, and I’m not sure that Trixie is the best person to help her. When I suggested that she should take a friend for moral support, I was actually talking about me.”
Sunset snorted. “Well, it will teach you to be more specific in future, won’t it? And besides, if you’d gone off with Starlight, who would have been here to help me out?”
“The Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to help you out,” Twilight pointed out.
“Yeah, but I’m glad you’ll be there too,” Sunset replied. “And Cinder is with Starlight as well; it isn’t just Trixie.”
“Are you not worried about Cinder?” Twilight asked.
“Worried about what?” Sunset responded. “Cinder has survived far worse and far tougher than anything that Equestria can throw at her. She’ll be fine. I hope she’ll be fine.”
Twilight covered her mouth with one hoof as a chuckle escaped her. “We should probably get going. I told the girls we’d meet them at the clubhouse.”
“We’re not going inside the castle?” Sunset asked.
“I can show you around later,” Twilight promised. “But no, we’re heading across town to Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Okay,” Sunset murmured, a little disappointed despite herself. “I would quite like to see what it looks like inside.” She paused. “So this thing grew by magic?”
Twilight nodded. “After we defeated Tirek, the Rainbow Box sort of… it created this. I think that it’s linked to the magic of Tree of Harmony, but I couldn’t exactly say how.”
“I’m not sure you’re supposed to be able to say how, when it comes to things like that,” Sunset replied. She shook her head. “The Tree of Harmony, huh? When I was a filly, that was even more of a legend than Nightmare Moon.”
“A lot of legends have turned out to be true since I moved to Ponyville,” Twilight said. “I don’t envy the amount of trouble that you have in Remnant, but at least the world isn’t actually about to end every twenty six weeks or so.”
“No, it just feels that way,” Sunset muttered. “So, where’s this clubhouse, then?”
“This way,” Twilight said and started trotting around the crystalline castle, leading Sunset behind her across Ponyville. It was mid-morning by now, and many ponies of all species were about their daily business. They noticed Twilight first, hailing her and waving to her, wishing her good morning… but then they noticed Sunset following behind her.
They didn’t know who she was. There was not a trace of revulsion in their eyes, no disgust, no wariness, no fear. She wasn’t Sunset Shimmer to these ponies, she wasn’t the fallen student of Celestia, she wasn’t the huntress who had caused the Breach, she wasn’t anything to them except an alicorn. An alicorn unknown to them.
They didn’t stare too long, or too hard; they soon moved on with their own business, their own lives… but they did stare, wide-eyed with curiosity, and after everything that she’d been through… it was kind of weird. Sunset didn’t know whether to hide her face or primp up her mane or both.
This was her first time visiting Ponyville. The town had set on the edge of Canterlot, less than a day’s journey away on hoof and much faster by rail or pegasus chariot, and Sunset had often seen it from one of the many balconies that littered the palace and the city, but she had never had the temptation to visit. There had never, to her knowledge, been anything worth visiting for. Now that she was here… it still wasn’t for her. Rural charms did not charm her. But she could see why somepony so inclined – like Princess Twilight – might enjoy it. And she herself might have enjoyed the peace, even if she did not enjoy the place so much.
And after all, isn’t it really the people who make the place? It would really depend upon who lived here with me.
Twilight led her through the village and to a farm girded by a wooden fence with the name Sweet Apple Acres emblazoned above the arch that was the only way in or out. The farmhouse and barn were distant to the eye, set far off in the midst of vast acres of apple orchards, the sturdy trees groaning under the weight of the ripe red fruit that grew upon their branches. Twilight led Sunset through the orchards, not towards the farmhouse, but to a treehouse built amidst the orchards itself, in a secluded spot where the trees were less fruity than the rest and the lower branches could be sacrificed. The door was open, and the sounds of voices could be heard within, echoing outside.
Twilight led the way, her hoof-falls making the wooden ramp creak slightly, and Sunset followed her inside.
The clubhouse, assuming that was where they were, was sparsely decorated, with floorboards painted in a dark green and walls that were unpainted and looked more commonly wooden. However, it did have a few touches that lent it a lived-in and well-loved air, from the mismatched curtains on the windows – leaf print on one side, patchwork on the other – to the many framed photographs of family and friends competing for space on the wall with pieces of paper with various crossed out drawings and doodles scribbled over them, together with… posters of pony Rainbow Dash?
Oh, I have to tell her about that.
Within the treehouse waited three young fillies, standing behind an upturned crate that seemed to be serving as a table.
“Howdy, Twilight!”
“Hello, girls,” Twilight said fondly. “This is the pony I was telling you about: Sunset Shimmer.”
“Pleased to meet ya! Ah’m Apple Bloom.” Apple Bloom was an earth pony with a coat of pale yellow and eyes of brilliant orange. Her mane was vibrantly red and accessorised with a pink bow in her hair that reminded Sunset a little of Penny.
“I’m Sweetie Belle.” Sweetie Belle was a unicorn with a white coat and a two-toned mane of rose and mulberry, the streaks intertwining with one another through her curled mane. Eyes of green looked up at Sunset.
“And I’m Scootaloo.” Scootaloo was a pegasus with an orange coat and a purple mane cut in a style very similar to that worn by pony Rainbow Dash on her posters. Her eyes were a similar purple to match her mane, but Sunset had to confess that what caught her eye were the small, underdeveloped wings upon her back. Sunset doubted that she could fly with them and could not help but think it a pity that, even in the world of Equestria, Scootaloo could not escape such limiting conditions.
Nevertheless, she didn’t remark upon it and quickly looked away; she was here as a supplicant, after all, and it wouldn’t do to draw attention to something that the poor filly probably wasn’t all that happy about.
And besides, given the excited way in which she and her friends proclaimed in unison, “We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” before high hoof-bumping one another in the air over their heads, clearly, it wasn’t something that bothered her all the time.
More interesting than Scootaloo’s wings were the fact that all three of the Crusaders had variations on the same cutie mark: a shield made up of three colours, purple, grey, and red, with only the design within the shield being different. Apple Bloom had an apple, Sweetie Belle a musical note within a star, and Scootaloo a wing. Such unity was not something that Sunset had heard of before. Clearly, this thing that they did was something they were meant to do together.
It was quite extraordinary. Possibly unprecedented. Linked cutie marks.
These girls really were special, weren’t they?
Sunset smiled. “It’s very nice to meet all of you, and thank you for taking the time to help me with my problem.”
“It’s our pleasure!” Apple Bloom said.
“It’s what we do,” Sweetie Belle added.
“And it’s so exciting!” Scootaloo cried. “We’ve never helped an actual princess before! Or somepony who’s lived on another world! Can you imagine it, an actual other world?!”
“Yeah, I can imagine it,” Sunset murmured. “Seeing as how I live there.”
“It sounds so awesome!” Scootaloo yelled. “Can you tell us any cool stories about it? Twilight won’t tell us anything.”
“Why don’t we see how we get on?” Twilight asked quickly. “After all, Sunset doesn’t have all the time in the world, and she is here to find out the meaning of her cutie mark and her crown, not to tell stories.”
That, and you’re worried about what I might tell them, Sunset thought. Not that she blamed Princess Twilight; some of what had gone on in Remnant was not for children. However, it might make it awkward, depending on what they asked in order to help her make sense of things.
Hopefully this process can survive some censorship.
“Sorry,” Scootaloo said. “It’s just so cool, you know?”
Sunset sat down on the other side of the box from the three fillies. “Don’t worry, I get it,” she said. “The concept is pretty amazing. Actually living there… not always so much.”
“What do you mean?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Let’s just say, for now, that there’s a fair bit of trouble in that world,” Sunset replied. “A lot of people need help, and I’d like to be able to help the best way I can. Which is why I need your help, to figure out how it is that I can best play my part and help my friends.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” promised Scootaloo. “I think we should start by figuring out what it is that you’re the princess of.”
“That’s backwards!” Sweetie Belle declared. “We need to figure out Sunset’s cutie mark first, then we can work out what she’s the princess of.”
“Why do we have to do it that way?” Scootaloo demanded.
“Because figuring out the cutie mark will make it easier to figure out the princess!”
“No, it won’t; Twilight’s cutie mark doesn’t have anything to do with friendship!”
“Of course it does,” Sweetie Belle insisted, “what do you think that the five small stars represent?!”
“Ah think we can do both,” Apple Bloom said. “If we ask Sunset about what kind of things she’s been doin’, then we can get a feel for what her talent is and what she did to become a princess.”
“I guess so,” Scootaloo murmured.
“Okay,” Sweetie Belle acknowledged.
The three fillies sat down opposite Sunset, so that in the clubhouse, only Princess Twilight remained standing.
“That sounds like the best idea,” Twilight said, “but first, Sunset, why don’t you tell us how you got your cutie mark in the first place?”
“Even though I didn’t understand it at the time?” Sunset asked.
“Maybe you didn’t, but it will help to look at what was goin’ on at the time,” Apple Bloom promised.
Sunset's brow furrowed for a moment. "Okay. I got my cutie mark when I was… a little bit younger than you girls. Princess Celestia had taken me in when I was a very young filly – I can be a little discursive when you get me talking; I do apologise – and so, as her ward, I was naturally sent to study at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I wasn't her personal student at the time, however; I was just another student who happened to live in the palace. But anyway, I digress just a little bit, sorry."
"It's alright," Sweetie Belle said. "Little details can be a big help."
"If you say so," Sunset murmured. "Anyway, I was Pre-C, obviously, magic kindergarten, and we were doing Beginners' Practical Magic-"
"Without a cutie mark?" Twilight asked.
"There were a few blank flanks in there, yeah," Sunset said. "And even without a cutie mark, I was kind of acing things, if I do say so myself, but in this particular exercise, I had been partnered with the worst colt in class. His name was Snapdragon Sunrise, and I am sure that the teacher had put me with him to stop me getting too far ahead of the others because he was soooo slow. He couldn't do anything. He had his cutie mark, and yet, the simplest spells were beyond him, and it was so incredibly frustrating. I felt as though I was chained to a heavy boulder holding me back. I'd done everything required, and there he was, making no progress whatsoever…" Sunset paused.
"I wasn't always a very nice pony, so when I tell you that I yelled at him and asked if he was doing this to me on purpose, I want you to understand that I'm ashamed of it now. In fact, I became kind of ashamed of it at the time, to tell you the truth, because he didn't answer me; he just… he had tears in his eyes. He knew how far behind he was, he knew that no one was struggling as much as him, and he… there was nothing that I could say to make him more ashamed than he already felt, but it did… I suppose it made me feel a little sorry for him, so I… I helped him. We met after class – I asked Princess Celestia if I could have a friend over; she was delighted – and I spent a few hours showing him what to do. And the next morning, Snapdragon came into class, and he pulled off the spell, right there, in front of everypony, and the teacher too.
"And you should have seen the reaction from everypony, it was like… it was like, all this time, they'd all been willing him on to succeed, to finally get it. All the little fillies and foals stamped their hooves, and the teacher gushed congratulations, and Snapdragon looked at me across the classroom with this big beaming smile on his face. And I knew that he couldn't have done it without me, and so, listening to everyone tell him what a good job he'd done, it… it kind of felt like they were telling me I'd done a good job too." Sunset scratched at her ear with one forehoof. "And that's when I felt it; there was a flash of light, a tingling feeling, and… there it was. One cutie mark."
"So your cutie mark is in teaching?" Scootaloo suggested.
"I hope not; I haven't done much of that since," Sunset replied. "And I've never felt pulled towards it, particularly. Never felt as though I'm missing out."
"What happened after that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Princess Celestia was very pleased," Sunset replied. "I told her what happened, a little like I just told you – except that I didn't tell her that I'd yelled at him before I decided to help him out – and she was absolutely delighted. She threw me a big cute-ceañera in the ballroom with cake and balloons and pinatas and all that stuff – I think that she had more fun there than she does at the Grand Galloping Gala most years – and it was at my cute-ceañera that she took me aside and told me that she wanted me to become her own personal student, that I'd still spend time at school with the other kids, but that I'd also learn from her, directly, one on one. She told me… she told me that she thought I could become a very special pony someday, even more special than I already was."
"Hmm," Apple Bloom murmured. "So what happened to Snapdragon Sunrise?"
Sunset hesitated for a moment. "I, um, I don't know," she admitted. "I… well I… I got kind of a swelled head from becoming Princess Celestia's student, I… I didn't have time to help some loser who could barely cast a spell. I was too big for that now. That… that's how I saw it at the time, anyway. He tried to talk to me a few times, but I always gave him the brush off. Eventually, he stopped trying."
"Would you like to try and find him now?" Twilight asked.
"What would be the point?" Sunset asked. "All of this was years ago; he's hardly likely to remember, and if he does, he won't care. He'll have moved on, started his own life."
"You could apologise," Twilight suggested.
"It wasn't like I bullied him!" Sunset said defensively. "And even if I did hurt him, isn't bringing up those bad memories just so I can apologise for them pretty selfish?"
"I see your point," Twilight conceded, "but all the same, I think you should think about it, since you're here."
"Did you have any idea what your cutie mark might mean?" Apple Bloom asked.
Sunset laughed nervously. "I thought it meant… I thought, and I am aware now of how stupid this sounds, that the sun meant that I would succeed Celestia one day. Take over from her. Shine brighter than she ever did. Like I said, I was an arrogant little madam."
"Hmm," Sweetie Belle murmured.
Sunset's gaze flickered between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "Do you have an idea?"
"Not yet," Sweetie Belle replied, although Sunset thought that was probably at least a partial lie: she had an idea, just not one she was willing to share yet. "I think we need more to go on."
"Like tell us what you've been doing in the other world!" Scootaloo suggested enthusiastically.
Twilight began. "I'm not-"
"I think that's probably necessary," Sunset cut her off. "To an extent. Don't worry, I won't tell them anything that their sisters wouldn't want them to hear."
"Thank you," Twilight said. "Because I'll be the one hearing about it from them if you do."
"I'll be good," Sunset promised. She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I… I won't tell you about the first few years after I left Equestria and came to the other world, called Remnant; I don't think it's relevant; nothing much really happened. At least, nothing that I'm proud of, and if my cutie mark is in something sordid, then I'd rather not know, if it's all the same to you. So I'll start my story… when I arrived at Beacon Academy," she said, deciding that she didn't need to tell the fillies about her and Ruby's battle with Torchwick any more than she needed to tell them about her failed attempt to break up Rainbow's friendships or her relationship with Flash or any of the other unpleasant things that had happened to her before she went to Beacon.
"What's Beacon Academy?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"It's a school, where people learn… to protect others, from evil and danger. To be heroes, you might say," Sunset explained.
"That sounds awesome," Scootaloo declared.
"It was, some of the time," Sunset replied. "Other times, it was pretty scary. Especially… anyway, let me go back. I arrived at Beacon Academy; I'd decided to go and study there in the hope that I could… well, I was hoping to become a famous hero who people across Remnant knew about, like Twilight here."
"I'm not a hero," Twilight insisted.
"No, but you are famous."
"Thank you for reminding me."
Sunset smiled. "At Beacon, students are assigned into teams of four, and I was made the leader of a team called Team Sapphire, along with three people called Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, and Ruby Rose." Once more, she paused. "You know, I said that I didn't do any teaching, but I suppose that isn't quite true. Ruby was – is – a couple of years younger than the rest of us; she'd been allowed into Beacon early by the headmaster, and she struggled with some of the subjects since she'd missed two years of classes in C- in the level of schooling preparatory to the academies. So I started tutoring her, to help her get by. And then, when it became clear just how much trouble Jaune was having with his studies, I started to help him out too, along with my friend Pyrrha."
"Did Jaune get into school two years early as well?" inquired Apple Bloom.
"No," Sunset said. "Jaune had… don't try this at home, but Jaune had cheated his way into school, forging qualifications that he didn't have."
"I do not condone this as a general practice," Twilight added.
"Why are you talking like we might consider doing that ourselves?" Scootaloo demanded.
"Well, one day, there might be an awesome school that you really want to get into but can't, for whatever reason," Sunset suggested. "If that ever happens, don't cheat your way in. It's very wrong. Even though it did work out for Jaune and the rest of us."
"Is this going to be one of those stories that insists on something being wrong even though it's actually really cool if you ignore the narrator?" asked Scootaloo.
"Probably," Sunset conceded. "You see, Jaune was getting bullied by Cardin, who would later become a friend of mine but at this point was absolutely unbearable."
"Like Diamond Tiara," Sweetie Belle said.
"Probably," Sunset agreed, without knowing who that was. "Now, Cardin had found out about Jaune cheating his way into the school and was using it as leverage to get Jaune to do whatever he wanted. I found out that that was happening and why, and I decided to help Jaune do something about it. I broke into the school records to get rid of the evidence of his cheating-"
"I don't condone that either," Twilight interjected.
"And then I set things up with Jaune so that Cardin would take a massive fall. Unfortunately… that plan depended upon Jaune letting someone else get bullied – again, I repeat that I'm not proud of all my past decisions – and… and he didn't have it in him. He stood up to Cardin before he was supposed to, and… well, he made it clear that he wasn't going to be pushed around anymore." Sunset decided to gloss over the fact that she had been rather annoyed with Jaune at the time, even to the point of considering having him kicked out herself. "Pyrrha was very impressed with his newfound show of backbone, and when Cardin tried to have him kicked out of school regardless… the evidence was gone."
"So Jaune looked pretty good, huh?" Scootaloo murmured. "Hmm."
"Are you three all going to keep making that noise?" Sunset asked.
"Go on," instructed Sweetie Belle. "What happened next?"
Sunset exhaled loudly. "I… I started to become a better person? Dealing with Cardin made me realise… that I wasn't a very good person at that point and that I needed to try and become a little better. And that's when we got involved with a classmate called Blake. Now… I promised that I'd censor the bad stuff, but there's no real way around this: you know how in the old days, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi all hated each other?"
Sweetie Belle nodded. "We know the stories, but it's kind of hard to imagine."
"I know what you mean," Sunset said. "What Princess Celestia has accomplished seems so permanent, doesn't it? As eternal as she is. It's hard to imagine anything could happen that would set the three races against one another again. But the people who live in Remnant… they…" She thought about explaining it as 'they lack a Celestia,' but that felt rather demeaning to Professor Ozpin, who was trying his best in very trying circumstances. "They haven't gotten to that point yet; they're not as advanced as we are. In Remnant, races still regard one another with distrust, even hatred, just like the pony tribes did in the bad old days. Blake, not that we knew it at the time, is part of a race called the faunus, who are different from the majority of the people who live there. Blake was hiding that fact, just like she was hiding the fact that…" Sunset hesitated, searching for a child friendly way to explain the White Fang. "Blake was part of a group that tried to bring humans and faunus closer together, only not many humans wanted to hear that message, and when they didn't listen, Blake's group got angry, and they did some pretty nasty stuff to get their point across. So nasty, in fact, that Blake left and hid who she really was and came to study at Beacon with the rest of us. She was quiet, bookish, kept herself to herself, until Rainbow Dash showed up."
"Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Scootaloo.
"Yes, the other world's Rainbow Dash was also training to protect others," Sunset said. "Now, she was a student at a place called Atlas Academy, a long way from Beacon, but she and the other world's Twilight Sparkle arrived at Beacon chasing their friend Penny… it's a bit complicated and off-topic, I won't get into it more, but they arrived to join us at Beacon. Now, Remnant's Rainbow Dash is a faunus, but she and Twilight had some bad experiences with Blake's group in the past; meanwhile, Blake had also had some bad experiences with people from Atlas, so as you can imagine those two got on like a house on fire, at least at first. Rainbow found out about Blake's past, and… well, I think it's fair to say that Rainbow Dash overreacted somewhat to that, but I was able to make sure that she didn't do anything she would regret, and when Blake ran away, I led my friends out looking for her, and we ended up foiling a massive robbery and catching a bad guy, and Blake and Rainbow Dash became friends. So it all worked out pretty well, I think.
"Not much happened for a while after that, then we – me, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ruby – went on vacation to Pyrrha's big fancy house far away from Beacon, in a city kind of like Canterlot. Pyrrha, you see, is very rich and very well-born. The Princess Without a Crown, they call her, because she's descended from royalty. Now, Pyrrha had a crush on Jaune, but her mother was not very enthusiastic about the whole thing for obvious reasons. I tried to help Jaune by teaching him how to behave in a manner more appropriate for a great house like the one we were staying in; unfortunately, it didn't really help him much with Pyrrha's mother, although I think Pyrrha appreciated him trying, and they got together anyway, in spite of what Pyrrha's mother wanted. It was also during this vacation that I met Cinder, who is going to be very important later. Cinder… was evil, there's no getting around that, unfortunately, but I didn't know that at the time; I just thought she was really cool, and we kind of hit it off.
"But anyway, Cinder knew about Blake's secret past, and she revealed it, and Blake was arrested. But, Rainbow and I were able to get her released from jail, and all she had to do in return was help out Rainbow Dash stop some bad guys, and along the way, Blake and Rainbow Dash went from being kind of friends to rock-solid BFFs, and Blake became something of a hero. She really impressed a lot of people, and some of those people invited her to come back to the Kingdom of Atlas with them and become a protector of the people there. Which she did, and I think she's kind of famous there now."
"Because you and Rainbow Dash helped her out, huh?" Scootaloo murmured.
The three crusaders looked at one another.
"Did you help anyone else out like that?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Because from what I've heard, I'd say that your cutie mark is definitely helping others."
Sunset blinked. "Really? You… you think that's it?"
"Ain't it?" Apple Bloom replied. "You helped Jaune stand up for himself, and he impressed Pyrrha; you helped Blake, and she became a hero in this place called Atlas. You helped Snapdragon, and the whole class went nuts over him. Ah don't think that the sun represents you being better'n Princess Celestia or nothin' like that, I think it means that you help others to shine."
Sunset's mouth opened, but no words emerged. Out of the mouths of fillies indeed. It was not something that she would ever have considered ordinarily, but now that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had brought it up… it kind of made sense. She had helped Jaune out, and in doing so, his status had risen; she had helped Blake, and Blake was now one of General Ironwood's Atlesian elite; she had helped Pyrrha become the Fall Maiden, she had helped Cinder become a good person. She had helped Ruby unleash her silver eyes. Sunset had come to Beacon in search of glory, but it had been others who had gained the laurels on their brow with Sunset's assistance. Thinking back, she had spent a lot of time helping other people with their problems, and oftentimes, they had reaped the rewards, rewards for which Sunset could take some credit, even if all she'd done was say the right thing at the right time.
"Huh," she murmured. "That… that actually makes a lot of sense."
I wonder if that changes my plans at all.
Should it?
Well, I'd planned to defeat Salem.
I still can.
Except that I'm not the hero, am I? We just proved that; I'm the one who fixes everything for other people.
So? You can sort Professor Ozpin's problem out for him. You can still do all the work; it just means that he or Pyrrha will get all the credit in the end.
And that… that was fine. A little irksome, perhaps, considering what she and Cinder had talked about last night, but the deed was the important thing. The fact that Salem would be defeated, even if people thought the victory belonged to Professor Ozpin and not to her, she would still be gone. She would be gone, and the world would be safe, and her friends would remember what she had done, just as they hopefully remembered everything that she had done for them up until now.
"Thank you, girls," she said. "That… that's honestly a very good thing to know, because even though it's not a talent that gives me any extra magic, the fact that I've been doing… well, kind of what I'm supposed to be doing is a comfort." She smiled. "I was worried that I didn't know what my gift to the world was, but it turns out that I've been giving it this whole time, and that… that makes me feel better." I've made mistakes, Celestia knows, I haven't always thought things through, I've acted foolishly, I've done things no huntress should… but I've also, as it turns out, been myself, my best self, my destined self.
I've been fulfilling my destiny all this time, step by step.
"I…" she bowed her head. "I'm not the hero," she said. Saying it out loud gave it finality, a sense of truth and firmness, a sense that there were no takebacks anymore. But at the same time, it felt kind of good to say it, a relief. She didn't have to feel like or worry that she was letting herself down.
She would retain her ambitions, she would keep her promise to Amber in that regard, she would aim for momentous accomplishments and great deeds yet… but she would keep her ambitions in proportion. She was not the hero. That was Pyrrha, scion of a noble and an ancient line; that was Professor Ozpin, the immortal champion of this world; that might even be Ruby with her silver eyes; but it was not her.
She was the sun, but nopony – no one – looked directly on the sun. They saw only that which it illumined.
And she meant to illumine them so brightly, it would be blinding.
"Thank you," she repeated. "For confirming what I am meant to do."
"No problem," Sweetie Belle said.
"It's what the Cutie Mark Crusaders are here for," Apple Bloom added.
Sunset chuckled. "Well, you make it look very easy."
"It wasn't exactly hard," Scootaloo muttered. "But what about your crown? Do either of you have any idea what Sunset's a princess of?"
“It has to be something related to her cutie mark,” Sweetie Belle said, putting one hoof to her chin, “because it’s always something related; look at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. And Princess Cadance!”
“But Twilight’s cutie mark is magic, not friendship,” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“But don’t forget, girls,” Twilight remarked, “friendship is the most powerful magic there is.”
“So if Sunset’s cutie mark is helping others,” Scootaloo said, “that would make her the Princess of… Help?”
“Hopefully, it will be a little catchier than that,” Sunset remarked.
“Why don’t you tell what you did to become a princess?” Apple Bloom suggested.
“I wish I knew for sure,” Sunset replied. “As I see it, there are two possibilities.” She paused. There wasn’t really any way to sugarcoat what had happened to Amber. She glanced at Twilight, hoping that her fellow princess and sort of sister would understand.
Twilight frowned, and for a little while, she too was silent. At last, she murmured, “Okay, but… don’t give too much detail.”
“Detail of what?” asked Apple Bloom.
“You remember that I mentioned my friend Cinder?” Sunset asked. “The one who was… kind of evil, although I didn’t know that at the time? I found that out later, after we had had a chance to make a connection. A connection which might have ended up saving some people. I hope so, at least. Anyway, I found out that Cinder was acting against us in the interest of our enemy, but I also found out why. You see, everyone in Remnant has what’s called a Semblance, and it’s like… it’s a unique ability, similar to the way in which unicorns have access to magic related to their cutie mark and talent that other unicorns don’t have, at least some of the time. My semblance is empathy. I’m not sure how it relates to helping others, but it allows me to see into someone’s mind and soul when I touch them. I see their memories, and I feel their emotions.”
“I can see the connection,” Twilight said. “By understanding others, you also understand how to help them.”
“Well, perhaps,” Sunset allowed. “Perhaps I just haven’t used it enough to get that kind of benefit, but I used it on Cinder on the night when she showed her true colours, and I saw just why she was doing what she was doing. I saw… I saw all the awful things that she’d been through, and I felt… I understand why she had turned out the way she had, even if I didn’t agree with what she was doing. But what I didn’t see, what I didn’t know, was that before we met… Cinder had attacked a girl named Amber. There… there really isn’t any getting around this point: Cinder left Amber close to death. She was dying, and there didn’t seem to be any way to save her. Professor Ozpin, our headmaster, and the leader of a group fighting to protect the world from darkness, planned to… Amber carried a very special power inside of her. She was… it doesn’t matter what she was, but it was powerful and special, and Professor Ozpin couldn’t risk it falling into the hands of evil. He planned to pass it on to my friend Pyrrha, but the only way that they could think to do that was… well, it might have killed Pyrrha too.”
“This world doesn’t seem so awesome anymore,” Scootaloo said softly.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Sunset murmured. “I was pretty disappointed myself. I… I couldn’t lose Pyrrha. I just couldn’t. She should not die, so fair, so desperate; at least, she should not die like that. I spoke to Princess Celestia, I asked if maybe I was wrong, if it was right to sacrifice someone like Pyrrha for the greater good… Princess Celestia told me no, it wasn’t, I should find another way, even if Professor Ozpin couldn’t. So… so I did. I used my semblance on Amber, and I was able to… patch her up, basically. Wake her from her coma, bring her back.”
“And she wasn’t dyin’ or nothin’?” Apple Bloom asked.
“No,” Sunset said. “I couldn’t fix everything that Cinder had done to her, but she was healthy, and she wasn’t suffering any further injuries or ailments.”
“That sounds pretty impressive,” Scootaloo said. “Maybe you’re the Princess of Healing?”
“That is when I started to notice that my unicorn magic was growing stronger,” Sunset allowed, “but… this story doesn’t have a very happy ending, I’m afraid. Amber… I could stop the physical effects of Cinder’s attack, but I couldn’t erase the scars in Amber’s mind. She was afraid, terrified… and hopeless. Just like Professor Ozpin had been when confronted with Amber’s condition, she had lost all hope, and unlike Professor Ozpin, I wasn’t able to give her any cause for hope. So, afraid and hunted, she betrayed us, selling us out to our enemy in exchange for her life. Our foe agreed to that exchange, though it meant betraying her own servant, Cinder.
“Cinder found out that she was being abandoned, and it… it broke something inside of her. She’d been so proud, so certain of what she was doing; she always acted as though she didn’t feel doubt, didn’t hesitate, never lost confidence in herself, but when she was betrayed by her mistress… all of that seemed to leave her. She surrendered to me and my friends without a fight, she told me secrets about our enemy that she would never have told me before, she placed herself in our power, although there were people who would have gladly put her to death… it was as though she didn’t care anymore.
“When the fighting broke out, Amber tried to steal a powerful magical artefact and deliver it to our foe. I wasn’t there to stop her, so Pyrrha tried, and she released Cinder to help her. Together… together, they killed Amber; I’m sorry, there’s no other way of saying it. But the victory brought Cinder no joy. You see… for the sake of power, she had submitted to a creature of great darkness and been gifted with a kind of… dark magic which was… it was rendering her less of a person and more of a… it was devouring her.” And to think, this story started out with Jaune cheating his way into a school.
“What happened?” Sweetie Belle asked, leaning forward over the box, her eyes wide.
“I… I saved her,” Sunset said. “I used my semblance on her again, and I drove out the darkness, and I… I persuaded to take my hand, and she did. She came back. She… came back. And that, or shortly after that, is when I started noticing that I had pegasus powers and earth pony strength.”
“Hmm,” the three Crusaders all said in unison.
Sunset raised one eyebrow.
“Excuse us a second,” Apple Bloom said. “Girls.”
The three fillies retreated into the corner of the clubhouse, whispering to one another so softly that Sunset couldn’t make out what it was they were actually saying. Her tail swished back and forth over the green boards as she waited.
They turned back to her. “Tell us more about what you said about Professor Ozpin,” Sweetie Belle instructed.
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression of him; I know I haven’t mentioned him very much,” Sunset said. “He was not the kind of person who would have willingly sacrificed someone like Pyrrha unless… unless he felt he had no other choice. He had been fighting for so long, he had endured so much that… that it had driven all hope out of him. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that there was a way out of this predicament that didn’t… that didn’t cost him something. Thankfully, I… well, I didn’t do that much. Princess Celestia did most of the work in persuading him otherwise; I just introduced the two of them.”
“And how about apart from that?” Scootaloo asked. “Have you ever encouraged people when they were feeling down?”
Sunset snorted. “I’m a team leader; encouraging people is part of my job. Why, what are you fillies thinking?”
“Well, you said that you started to feel your magic growing stronger after you helped Amber, but it didn’t feel like you’d quite ascended until after you helped Cinder,” Sweetie Belle said. “But you were kind of doing the same thing both times, so what’s the difference?”
“One worked, and the other one didn’t,” Sunset said flatly.
“But why?” Sweetie Belle insisted. “Because Amber lost hope, but Cinder didn’t. Because you gave Cinder hope, but like you said yourself, you couldn’t do that for Amber. That’s the difference. You got partway there with Amber, but you only got it right with Cinder because you-“
“Princess of Hope?” Sunset said. “You think that I’m the Princess of Hope, don’t you?”
“It’s catchier than Princess of Help,” Scootaloo said. “A little.”
Sunset frowned. She thought back, and… while their pronunciation on her cutie mark had made sense, this very nearly prompted laughter on her part. “No,” she said. “No, that can’t be right. I’m sorry, but you’re missing something; we need to cover more ground.”
“What makes you so sure?” Twilight asked.
“Because I have had no hope for months, as you well know,” Sunset declared. “I wrote to you, I wrote to Princess Celestia, you know how… you know what I did, what fear moved me to. You know how I despaired at the way things were going with Ruby. How can I possibly have been the Princess of Hope all that time when hope was absent from my heart?”
“And how did that work out for you?” Scootaloo asked.
Sunset bowed her head. “Terribly,” she admitted. “I… I made mistakes, I misjudged people, I… I forgot who I was.” She looked up. “That was your point, wasn’t it? That I had betrayed myself.”
“Ah don’t think that being the Princess of Hope means you never let things get you down,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah think it means that you bring hope to others. But if you don’t have any yourself, if you can’t even muster it up on your own, then how can you do that?”
“How indeed,” Sunset murmured. A Princess of Hope would have encouraged her other self to resist Salem and her threats, inspired the Queen and the rest of Freeport to resist… but the Princess of Hope had forsaken hope, had had the fires of her hope snuffed out by grinding torment. She had forsaken herself, and so, she had forsaken the world around her.
Princess of Hope. Could it be so? The girls’ logic seemed sound enough; it was a difference between her failure with Amber and her success with Cinder. And it was a thin line between helping someone and inspiring them, so that link was there, but… could it be so? Had she done enough to earn that title?
Princess of Hope.
Inspiring Ozpin had been Celestia’s doing, not hers. And she had lacked hope other times than their recent journey overland: in Mountain Glenn, when Salem’s visions had knocked hope out of her.
Another time when I betrayed myself.
If they were judging by ‘made colossal mistakes in the absence of the same,’ then, yes, it appeared she did need hope as much as anyone, and more than most in order to get her decisions.
But had she spread hope? Had she inspired anyone?
“I think it fits,” Twilight said.
Sunset looked at her. “You think? But-”
“You’ve written to me so often,” Twilight said, “and Princess Celestia shares a great deal of what you write to her. I feel like I know you well enough to say that you’ve inspired quite a few people along the way. Sure, you’ve struggled sometimes, but that’s true of any of us.”
“Even you?”
“Especially me,” Twilight said.
“Hmm… Princess of Hope,” Sunset murmured. “That doesn’t seem like a title that comes with cool powers.”
“It means that you can inspire people to be their best selves, to be better than they ever thought they could be,” Twilight replied. “What could be more amazing than that?”
“Death rays.”
Twilight stared at her.
“I’m joking,” Sunset said. A soft smile played across her face. “Princess of Hope.” Sunset Shimmer, Princess of Hope. “In that case, I should thank you once again, you and Princess Celestia.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. “What for?”
“Because coming here, by your leave, has restored my hope,” Sunset declared, “and it seems it is my duty, and my privilege, to carry that hope back with me to Remnant when my time here is done.” She paused. “And yet…”
“Something wrong?”
“Princess of Hope, with a talent for helping others,” Sunset remarked. “It seems a frail thing to set against the will of Salem, her malice and her…” She glanced at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Her malice and her monsters.”
“'Monsters'?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously. “This world really doesn’t sound so great.”
“I don’t know; I think monster hunting might be kind of cool,” Scootaloo said.
“No, you don’t,” Sunset and Apple Bloom both said simultaneously.
“A frail thing?” Twilight repeated. “Maybe. But so is friendship, so is love, and yet, at the same time, for all their frailty, they are the most powerful things in the world, able to defeat immensely powerful evils. Yes, hope is frail, yes, it can be damaged or lost, but it can also inspire deeds of tremendous courage and power, and you know that, because you’ve seen it for yourself.”
Sunset chuckled. “A lot of heart,” she whispered.
“Pardon?”
“Something I said to Pyrrha once,” Sunset explained, “when she asked me what we had to set against all the power at Salem’s command. A lot of heart. And hope, it seems.”
“Don’t underestimate it.”
“No, I’d better not, hadn’t I?” Sunset replied. There’s been enough of that already.
Princess of Hope.
I just hope it’s enough.