Princess Celestia sat in her throne two months after her student’s apparent death, brooding and largely ignoring the stream of simpering supplicants who were trying to use the magical crisis as an excuse to increase their own power.
The doors opened, and Celestia noticed that all sounds in the throne room ceased. She looked up, and was utterly stunned to discover the unicorn Sunset Shimmer.
“Mares and gentlecolts,” she announced to the curious ponies, “I have returned from my expedition.”
“Expedition?” asked Prince Blueblood.
“Yes, an ultra-secret expedition on Princess Celestia’s behalf. I have learned much that will help us solve the magic problem.”
Celestia looked around her for a moment, then stood up. “What Sunset Shimmer says is true,” she announced. “I said what I did so as not to jeopardize her chances of success. Now please leave us, so I can debrief her on her activities.”
The nobles left with some reluctance, closing the door behind them.
“You survived,” Celestia said, allowing her shock into her voice.
“I figured out how to traverse through the void,” Sunset told her, still standing just within the door. “I did not end up in the world I was aiming for, and that is for the best.”
“So you did not take a world’s magic from it,” Celestia surmised, picking up and mirroring the formal tone that Sunset was using.
“That is correct,” Sunset said. “I returned to Equestria as soon after the moment I left that I could. I was in the other world for almost four years.”
Celestia rushed forward and pulled Sunset into an embrace, breaking the formality. Sunset seemed much more muscular than she had been before, and Celestia saw traces of scars around one of her ears. “I’m sorry for any misfortune you may have experienced.”
“I needed to experience it,” Sunset said, remaining still and not returning the embrace.
Celestia stepped back. “And did you find a solution?” she asked.
“I found a suspicion,” Sunset replied. “I need to do some research to be sure. Please delay my re-introduction to society until I am sure that I’m right.” She turned to go.
“I’m glad that you’re back, Sunset,” Celestia said. “I missed you.”
Sunset looked back over her shoulder, seeing not only Celestia but also the stained glass windows behind her. “I’m sure you did,” she said in a neutral voice.
And then she left.
Celestia did not see Sunset for the rest of the day. She sent a message out to Princess Cadance of Sunset’s return. Cadance was currently in Cloudsdale, performing the duties that Celestia had planned to do herself before the apparent tragedy.
After an uneasy sleep that night, Celestia walked out onto her balcony. She brought the moon with its Mare down to the horizon with her magic, where it refused to set. She gathered her magic…
“Stop!”
Celestia turned, to see the silhouette of Sunset Shimmer standing in the light of the outer door of her room. “Sunset?” she asked.
Sunset ran into the room, clambered up the railing of the balcony to be level with the Princess, and reached out a hoof to touch Celestia’s horn, putting out her spell. “It’s you,” she said, breathless and teary-eyed. “You’ve been taking the magic out of Equestria.”
“Explain yourself,” Celestia said coldly.
Sunset dropped down onto the floor of the balcony. She pointed over at the setting moon. “The Mare in the Moon is no mere mark. It is the essence of Nightmare Moon, the actual being your corrupted sister Luna transformed herself into. Those are the guardian stars marking out the span of one thousand years before she can be released, a thousand-year period slated to end in another decade. And your nightly spell is artificially prolonging that period. It’s a spell you’ve been casting for decades, if not centuries, and the magic required is constantly increasing.” Sunset took in a deep breath, straightening up and looking her monarch straight in the eye. “And if you keep it up, you will remove all magic from Equestria.”
“And without magic, she can never return,” Celestia said coldly.
“But what about all of the magic creatures on this world? They’ll die!”
“Not all of them,” Celestia replied. “I was weaning the ponies, getting them used to using less and less magic every year. Eventually, they would have broken their addiction, and therefore would have survived into the era of no magic that is to come. A transition that was not helped by you teaching the ponies to give me their magic!”
“How was I to know?” Sunset asked. “You never confided in me! Did Cadance know?”
“No!” Celestia replied. “I would never have another pony subjected to the knowledge of what is to come. Besides, she and I will not survive the transition.”
“But why cast the spell at all?” Sunset demanded. “You defeated Nightmare Moon once. With time to prepare, with ponies like me at your side, we’d be able to defeat her when she returned.”
“You would not be able to beat her!” Celestia insisted. “There was only one weapon that could stand against her, the Elements of Harmony. And my use of them against my own sister destroyed them forever. When Nightmare Moon returns, she will slay the princesses and institute Eternal Night. But all light magic comes from the interaction of sunlight with living beings, so eternal night will kill all magical creatures just as surely as you would have killed that first world you tried to use dark magic on!”
“Look, I said I didn’t know!” Sunset countered. “But it can’t be so cut and dried. There has to be another way to defeat Nightmare Moon.”
“There is no other way!”
“Hmm...you’re beginning to sound just like me.” Sunset reached out a hoof. “Look, I want to make a deal with you: stop casting the spell while I look for a way to deal with Nightmare Moon. It won’t take more than a month. If I fail, then go back to casting it, and I’ll work with you to find ways to transition all magical creatures into existing without magic, if at all possible. Even you and Cadance.”
Celestia looked down at the offered hoof and frowned. “What good would stopping the spell do in the long term if you’re just going to fail?”
“In the long term, probably nothing. But in the short term, it will fill every creature with magic, and hope. And I’m really banking on the latter. So, do we have a deal?”
Celestia looked down on the offered hoof for a moment, before finally grasping it.
A week later, Sunset was finally ready to set out on her expedition, “to find any sources of lost magic.” The press was there to document her departure, as they had been for every day of her preparations. Sunset had planned on this, so that the communities she planned to visit in her search would be prepared for her coming.
“Ponies of Equestria!” she cried out to the gathered multitude of ponies from Celestia’s balcony. “I, and the magical researchers I have gathered, have dedicated ourselves to the mission of discovering any lost sources of magic, anything which might stop the drain of magic we have all experienced. As Princess Celestia informed you a few days ago, she has found a way to temporarily halt that drain, but that is a one-time solution, one that might cost the Princess a great deal.”
The crowd below groaned in sympathy, even though they all knew this.
Sunset looked back at the group she had gathered, consisting not only of unicorns with promising magical talents, but also prodigies among pegasi, earth ponies, zebras and a visiting hippogriff.
She turned to face the crowd once more, reflecting that her whole momentous journey began with her looking up at this very balcony, demanding justice for non-ponies. She scanned the crowd, and for a moment thought she spotted a very familiar mane color combination. But then it was gone. She decided to abandon the rest of her speech. “We’re leaving now. Wish us luck!”
The crowd roared out its support. They sounded so much louder than the semi-defeated crowd of ponies she had led more than three years ago, by her personal accounting. They were energized by the return of long-accustomed levels of magic, and by hope.
Sunset led her team out of Celestia’s room, through the hallway, down the stairs, and out of the palace, where the crowd split in two for the group to walk through. At the other end was a bridge, leading over the chasm that separated the palace from the city of Canterlot. In front of the bridge stood Princesses Celestia and Cadance.
“Good luck,” Cadance said, stepping forward to pull Sunset into an embrace, which Sunset gladly returned.
“I’m sorry I’ve always treated you so badly,” Sunset whispered into her ear.
“You were just jealous that I had the alicorn status you sought for so long,” Cadance replied. “I forgive you.”
“Well if you’re willing to keep a secret, that little problem has already been resolved.”
Cadance pulled back in shock, and Sunset winked at her.
Now it was Celestia’s turn to hug her. “I truly hope I am wrong about Nightmare Moon,” Celestia whispered.
“I also hope you’re wrong,” Sunset said with a smirk.
“Oh, and feel free to reveal those wings any time you’d like.”
Now it was Sunset’s turn to be shocked. “I never could pull one over on you, could I?”
Celestia shook her head with a laugh.
The two princesses stood aside to allow Sunset to cross the bridge.
But she couldn’t, because somepony was standing in her way.
At the top of the bridge was a newly-cutied unicorn. Her eyes were aglow with magic, and her mane streamed all around her, carried aloft by a magical wind generated by her nearly-blinding horn. “I won’t let you take him!” she screamed.
The Princesses began to charge their horns, but Sunset waved them down. “Won’t let me take who?” she asked the intruder.
“Him! Sunburst!”
Sunset turned to look back at her lead researcher, a brilliant unicorn who was still technically a student at Celestia’s School of Magic.
“Starlight?” Sunburst asked incredulously.
Sunset whipped her head back around, trying her best to make out the features of the unicorn on the bridge despite the bright light she was giving off. One thing she did see was the tears flowing down pony Starlight’s cheeks.
“Starlight,” Sunset said gently, beginning to walk across the bridge towards the unicorn. “I need Sunburst in my expedition. He’s very important to me, and I promise that he won’t get hurt.”
“But you’re taking him away from me!” Starlight screamed. To Sunburst she yelled, “And you never even said goodbye!”
“What?” Sunburst said incredulously. “I didn’t know you even cared about me.”
Sunset stopped a couple of strides away from Starlight. She looked her straight in the eye, despite the discomfort of staring into such a bright pair of lights. “Stallions,” she said with a smirk. “They can be so dim sometimes.”
Starlight’s magic disappeared in an instant. “W...what?” she asked. “I say that all the time!”
“I know, Starlight Glimmer,” Sunset said calmly. She glanced over her shoulder at Sunburst. “Look, I can see the two of you have a lot to talk over, and you have really impressed me with that display of yours. Why don’t you join the expedition? You two could talk, we could talk. Interesting things could happen.”
Starlight blinked, thinking it over.
“Haven’t you ever wanted to travel?” Sunset prodded her. “See Equestria and everything it had to offer?”
Starlight, once again hearing words that had frequently fallen from her own lips coming from this pony that just seemed to know her, nodded mutely.
“Well then,” Sunset said with confidence. She walked past Starlight, and the other ponies in the expedition followed, Starlight falling in beside Sunburst.
“Seriously,” said Sunburst. “You didn’t once let me know that you had a problem with me leaving.”
Starlight shook her head incredulously and started walking.
Somewhere out there they were going to find magic, friendship...and maybe something more.