//------------------------------//
// Celestial Gift 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Celestial Gift


"So," Twilight said. "Are you looking forward to dinner tonight?"
"Is there something special about dinner tonight?" Sunset replied casually; to add to the insouciant affect, she did not look up from the book she was reading.
Twilight made a wordless growling sound. "Cadance? My brother? Flurry Heart? Family dinner, all-"
"All princesses together and then some, yes, I do remember; I was just messing with you," Sunset insisted as she finally deigned to look up from her book. "And it might indeed be said that I am looking forward to it."
Twilight's eyes narrowed. "It might be said that you're looking forward to it?"
"It might also be said that I am considering feigning a stomachache," Sunset added. "Cadance and I... Well, we… that is to say that I... we didn't exactly get along famously when we both lived in the palace."
"You're not the same pony that you were back then," Twilight said.
"I know, but that doesn't mean I want to look her in the eye," Sunset said. "Especially since I... you know, I didn't ask for any rivals; what went down between us was not one hundred percent my fault."
"Uh huh," Twilight said sceptically.
"You say that, but I know from other people's experiences that having someone show up to compete for the affections of your mentor and... parent is not fun. Especially when they're more beautiful than you are, more graceful, more skilled..."
Twilight's voice was soft and quiet. "Who are we talking about now?"
"Amber," Sunset said. "She fell for a lot of reasons, but jealousy was one of them, I'm sure."
"A lot of things have changed for both you and Cadance," Twilight insisted. "I'm sure that you can put the past behind you." She paused. "It would make me very happy. It would make Princess Celestia very happy."
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Weaponise my affection for Princess Celestia," Sunset said. "And don't make that face either," she added, as Twilight's eyes swelled up to as much as twice their normal size. "Fine, yes, I'm coming to dinner, no excuses."
"Yes!" Twilight crowed. "It'll be fine! You'll have a great time, and then you can apologise for ever worrying otherwise."
Sunset snorted. "Gladly."
Twilight smiled. "So, what are you reading?" She leaned forwards a little to overlook the book where it sat in the table in front of Sunset.
"I was hoping to find out some information about Grogar," Sunset said.
"I thought you-"
"I did," Sunset said. "But I was hoping that I could find something to explain... not how he got to Remnant, I suppose — that kind of explains itself; well, it doesn't explain how Gusty knew about Remnant, but that's a minor detail — but what those dead things were, what the Blood of Unicron is, whether any monsters he created might be on the loose... Grogar is gone, but there are a lot of unanswered questions."
Twilight nodded. "I guess so. Found anything useful?"
Sunset shook her head. "Some of it is interesting — did you know that Grogar had a race of snake-people servants? — but not particularly relevant to my questions."
"'Snake people'?" Twilight repeated. "I'd never heard of that."
"Me neither," Sunset replied. "But apparently they founded a city called Cobra-La—"
"'Cobra-La'? Really?"
"Twilight, we're in a city called Canterlot; who are we to talk?"
"Fair enough."
"And then, one day, after the defeat of Grogar, they... disappeared," Sunset finished.
Twilight frowned. "'They disappeared'? Did they leave any proof that they were ever real?"
"At this point, it would be a nice change of pace for a myth or legend to not be real," Sunset observed. She shut the book. "But, as I say, irrelevant to my questions."
"You might find other answers if you keep looking," Twilight suggested. "Want some help?"
"No, thank you," Sunset replied. "What with us going back to Remnant tomorrow, it's not like I have time for an exhaustive search."
"You can't stay longer?"
"Some would say I've stayed too long already," Sunset replied. "I can't leave my friends sticking in the wind forever. Ruby in Freeport, Pyrrha and Jaune in Mistral, Blake and Rainbow in Atlas, I have no doubt that everyone is doing everything they can to resist Salem; what right do I have to sit here safe while they hazard their lives? If there was one thing I could use to justify delay, it was that learning more about myself could help me help them better, but I've done that now, so... everything else is just self-indulgence."
"Researching a threat is hardly what I'd call self-indulgence," Twilight said.
"It's not exactly getting out there and back into the fight," Sunset replied. "Research won't save Professor Ozpin."
"I guess not," Twilight admitted. "Perhaps I'm just trying to get you to stay longer so that we don't have to worry about you for a little longer."
"Have recent events not shown that Equestria can be perilous in its own way?"
"You know what I mean," Twilight insisted.
Sunset nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean." Her voice dropped to a mere whisper, "Friend of my soul."
"What's that?"
"It's from the Mistraliad, a classic in Remnant, and one of Pyrrha's favourites," Sunset explained. "One warrior explains to another that, since they are going to die anyway, they may as well risk their lives seeking glory in battle."
"Pyrrha never struck me as a glory sort of person in your descriptions."
"She isn't," Sunset acknowledged. "That's the irony of... Well, it's the irony of the Evenstar stuff, but more generally of Pyrrha herself. She fights, she moves, she speaks like a prince out of legend, she has spent her life walking in their... their footsteps, their shadows, you could argue it either way, but despite all that, she doesn't feel like they do. She doesn't fight for the same reasons that they fought. No prince of ancient times would have even considered becoming the Fall Maiden through the use of that machine — it would have revolted their pride — but Pyrrha? You're right, glory does not move her, but I think she found the undercurrent of fatalism reassuring at times."
"And you?"
Sunset smiled. "I can't deny I'd like the equivalent of one stained glass window," she said.
Twilight grinned. "At Beacon?"
"If it's ever rebuilt, sure," Sunset agreed. "But I would settle for a statue in the gardens of the House of Nikos: Sunset Shimmer, who bore the sword Soteria to such honours that she eclipsed all other bearers of the blade, even Achates Kommenos himself." Sunset chuckled. "I have to go back. The chains that pull me back are no less irresistible for being invisible."
“Are you worried about what will happen to you and Cinder when you do go back?” Twilight asked. “I mean, you’re both… from what you’ve told me… and we are talking about Atlas, where-”
“I’m aware that there might be difficulties, but I hope that General Ironwood will show me a little consideration as a member of Professor Ozpin’s organisation, even if he doesn’t approve of me personally.”
“And Cinder?”
“I won’t let anything happen to Cinder,” Sunset said flatly. “Certainly not because of a place I brought her to. I won’t bring her to Atlas and then let be thrown into some prison. That would be… pretty terrible, don’t you think?”
Twilight chuckled. “To say the least. Still, have you thought about what you’re going to do when you arrive?”
“I’m going to really hope,” Sunset said, “that Blake or Remnant’s Rainbow Dash will still take my calls.”



Cinder's footsteps were muffled by the carpet as she advanced down the centre of the chamber.
They were not muffled completely. The throne room was too quiet for that. A fly's footfall would have been distinctly heard, never mind a dragon's; for the long chamber was empty, save only for Cinder herself and Princess Celestia, who sat upon the throne at the far end of the room.
As she walked down the room towards the princess, Cinder's eyes glanced left and right to the stained glass windows that lined the transept, so many of which depicted this or that triumph of Princess Twilight Sparkle or her friends.
"At this rate," Cinder observed as she approached the dais, "Princess Twilight and the rest need only save Equestria a few more times, and there will be no more windows left." She smirked. "When that point comes, will you retire the older triumphs to make room for newer ones?"
Princess Celestia said nothing, but her raised eyebrows spoke volumes.
Cinder cleared her throat. "Forgive me, Your Highness; for many years now, wit has been my..."
"Weapon?" Princess Celestia suggested.
"My weapons have been my weapons," Cinder corrected her. "But wit has been my companion on the lonely road. I am more used to its presence than to judging how it will be received."
"It is of no matter," Princess Celestia declared. A slight smile pricked at the corner of her mouth. "It is a question that has occurred to us, I confess, but I will not bore you with the solutions I have considered. That is not why you are here."
"Then why am I here, Your Highness?" Cinder asked. It struck her that she probably ought to bow, and so she dropped to one knee and lowered her head, averting her eyes from Equestria's senior sovereign.
"There is no need for that," Princess Celestia said. "No need at all, not here, not between the two of us."
Cinder said nothing, but got back up onto her feet.
Princess Celestia said, "At a ceremony to be held in Twilight's castle, Starlight, Trixie, Thorax, and Discord will be honoured for their part in our rescue and the redemption of the changelings."
"Are they going to get a stained glass window?" Cinder could not help but ask.
Princess Celestia chuckled. "No," she said. "I'm afraid the nature of your adventure and the contributions made are difficult to capture in a single image."
"Saves you a window for later," Cinder muttered. She cleared her throat. "Apologies, once more."
"You will not be at that ceremony," Princess Celestia declared.
"No," Cinder murmured, "I don't suppose I will."
"But that does not mean your efforts are not appreciated," Princess Celestia went on. Her horn flared with a golden light, and that same golden light surrounded a small object upon a pink ribbon, which Princess Celestia brought down on Cinder's head, hanging the object by the ribbon around her neck. "Equestria's highest honour, the Pink Heart of Courage, given with immense gratitude."
Cinder looked down, raising one hand to lift up the decoration a little so she could see it better. It was a heart, a ruby — or so, at least, it looked to her — cut in the shape of a heart and set in gold that looked like pegasi wings. It was, perhaps, a little cute, but all the same... Equestria's highest honour. It was the first time that she had been honoured by any place, let alone made the recipient of their highest honour.
She would dedicate no spoils in Mistral's Temple of Victory, there would be no statues raised in her honour, but this... this could not be taken away from her by any power in Remnant. She had won this, she had earned this, and Princess Celestia would always recall that she had won it and how.
This was proof of her valour. This was proof she was not that which she had been.
"I will treasure this," she said softly. "I give you my word."
Princess Celestia did not reply until after she had begun to descend from the dais. "You must... no, you need not, but rather I hope you will forgive me, Cinder. I did not treat you-"
"You treated me according to my dessert, Your Highness," Cinder interrupted. "I deserved no more from you, and in any case, you have no need of my forgiveness, you being as you are, and I being..."
"Being possessed of Sunset's love?" Princess Celestia asked.
"If I may, Your Highness, I wish she had been here to see you honour me."
“Once more I beg your pardon for that, but I wished to speak with you alone," Princess Celestia said. She turned away from Cinder. "I am... afraid."
Cinder had no need to ask of what she was afraid. "I understand why. I will not insult you by pretending that there is not cause for fear."
Princess Celestia sighed. "How bad is it?"
Cinder hesitated.
"Speak true, I beg of you."
"Many great and valiant heroes have fought against the will of Salem," Cinder said softly. "Now they are bones, or else, their bones are dust."
"I see," Princess Celestia whispered. "I have had many students," she said. "But few indeed have I loved quite so well as Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. And Sunset is... gone where there is so little I can do to aid her. I may counsel her, when she requests it, but I cannot cast a spell to keep her safe, I cannot send a host through the mirror to protect her, I have no great talisman to bestow upon her. All I may do is trust her... and you, Cinder Fall." 
Once more, the horn of Princess Celestia flared with magic, and as she turned back to face Cinder once again, she levitated out from behind the throne a spear of gold.
Or at least, the lance was gilded, whatever lay beneath, and worked with patterns of rippling flame — created with such skill that the burning gold seemed slightly redder than the rest — spreading up the spear. Just beneath the tip was set a gleaming blue sapphire the size of Cinder's human palm, cut in a diamond shape and set in slender bands of swirling gold. Above that sat the tip of the spear, long and sharp and red as the most beautiful dawns to illuminate the sky.
Princess Celestia placed the weapon into Cinder's hands. "This spear belongs to an elder age, a more violent age, one which Equestria has fortunately left behind. Remnant, alas, has not been so fortunate, and so I grant this spear to you and beg you use it to... to keep my daughter safe."
Cinder looked down at the spear. It was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and not only that but well balanced too, as she discovered as she spun the spear deftly in circles in one hand. She thrust with it one-handed, then with two, then moved fluidly through a series of blocks and stances. It was as swift as the wind, but more than that, "I feel... something inside of it."
"The sapphire is infused with magic," Princess Celestia explained. "It will cast shields, to defend you or others."
Cinder took the spear lightly in one hand. She could feel the power with the spear, like still water eager for a current to set it running. Gingerly, she reached out, the equivalent of dipping her fingers in the current. She held out her other arm as a shield of magic, patterned after Pyrrha's Akoúo̱, appeared upon her other arm.
Cinder hesitated, then planted the spearbutt onto the carpet by her feet. A larger shield, like the ones that she had seen Sunset created, appeared in front of her, completely covering her from head to toe. 
Cinder’s smile was brief, and flashed some of her teeth. She looked towards one of the windows of stained glass and thrust out her hands towards it. 
A shield appeared there, tall enough to guard even Pyrrha from all harm. 
Cinder's dragon eyes widened as the shield vanished. "This... Princess, this gift is-"
"The least I can do, and yet also the most," Princess Celestia lamented.
Cinder bowed her head. "You honour me, and I shall likewise bear this weapon with great honour. Does it have a name?"
"Not that I know of, I confess."
"Then I shall name it," Cinder spun it in a circle, turning in place to bring it down, tip pointing towards the doors. "Daybreak."
“How very original.”
Cinder’s eyes darted around. “Discord?” It had been his voice, but as she looked around the throne room, she could see no sign of him anywhere. 
“Surprised?” There was a flash of light, and suddenly, there he was, standing before her, casting a shadow over her. He craned his long neck down so that his face was inches away from hers. “You didn’t think I’d let you leave without some token of my appreciation, did you?”
“I thought it possible,” Cinder murmured as she fought the urge to back away. He still frightened her. She had spoken kindly to him in their trip to reach the changeling hive, but still, he frightened her. He was too powerful, she too helpless before him. She fought, too, the urge to conjure up a shield between the two of them with her newfound weapon, but of course, he could turn Daybreak into a twig with a snap of his fingers if he wished to do so.
Discord seemed to notice her fear despite all her attempts to hide it. “I am reformed, you know,” he pointed out. “I don’t enjoy people being afraid of me anymore. Annoyance, yes, in anypony but Fluttershy; exasperation, in a pinch; an irritated desire for me to go away, well who doesn’t appreciate that-”
“Many,” Princess Celestia said flatly. “Of whom I wish you were one.”
Discord paid her no heed. “-but fear? No, that’s a pleasure that I’ve given up. After all, friends can be annoyed with you, but they shouldn’t be afraid of you. Why, how would you feel if everyone was still scared of you?”
“I think I’ll have the chance to find out soon enough,” Cinder said. “To speak truth, I might prefer it to them thinking me pathetic.”
“Hmm,” Discord mused. “You have a way to go, don’t you, Cinder Fall? But you did help save Fluttershy, and you were the only one who didn’t laugh at me while I was temporarily without my powers.”
“I know what it’s like to be powerless,” Cinder replied. “I know that it’s no laughing matter.”
“Either way,” Discord said. “I think you deserve a little something to help you, in turn.” He snapped his fingers, and…
Nothing happened. Cinder didn’t look different, didn’t feel different, nothing new had… oh, wait, something had appeared: on her right arm; in golden ink upon her scales was nowt painted a design of an ouroboros, a wyrm eating its own tail.
“Your gift to me is a tattoo?” Cinder asked, keeping her tone respectful. 
Discord chuckled. “You’ll figure it out,” he promised her. “When you need to.”



Sunset examined herself in the mirror, brushing her mane back first this way and then that, fretting with this strand or that of her fiery locks.
Reflected further back in the mirror, she could see Cinder, sprawled upon the bed as though she had collapsed there after a hard day.
"Are you nervous?" Cinder asked.
Sunset took a moment to reply. "A little."
Cinder sat up. "Why?"
"Because... because Cadance and I..." Sunset trailed off for a moment. "It is one thing for Twilight to do what I could not, but the fact that Cadance was more successful than me was always harder to take."
Cinder was silent for a moment. "You knew her, before you left?"
Sunset nodded. "She came to live in the palace after her ascension. Cadance... if I tell you that Cadance was my Pyrrha, does that make any sense to you?"
Cinder considered that for a moment. "That could either mean that you were impossibly devoted to her while at the same time — unlike anyone else you might be impossibly devoted to — seeing her as an equal, which is unlikely, so I suppose it means that you were irrationally jealous of her for reasons that in hindsight appear... undeserved."
"It's the second one," Sunset clarified. "Beautiful Cadance, beloved Cadance, surrounded by admirers Cadance, Cadance the muse of poets and the glittering ornament of court; Cadance who shone like a star, the brighter were ten thousand are. Cadance who... who took Celestia's affection away from me."
"Princess Celestia did not love her as she did you."
Sunset turned around, to look at Cinder and not her reflection. "How do you know that?"
"Princess Celestia told me so, when she gave me Daybreak to protect you," Cinder said. "She told me that she had had many students, but none she cared for as for you and Twilight."
Sunset's eyes widened. "She said that?"
Cinder smirked. "You can't honestly be surprised."
"We are talking about a thousand years' worth of ponies, here," Sunset pointed out. "I, um... you're going to make me blush, feeding my ego like this, wow." She coughed. "Anyway, the point is that... well, there are a couple of points, the first being that I am now more aware of the possibility that being Cadance wasn't all it appeared to be back in the day."
"And the second?"
Sunset laughed nervously. "In spite of that, I'm still kind of jealous. She... Cadance... this isn't something I could admit to just anyone, but you're a snob as well, so you'll understand."
"Excuse me, I am not a snob," Cinder declared. "I am an elitist. But don't let that stop you from spilling whatever it is that would make egalitarians hang their heads in shame. Although, quite frankly, I would have been right at home in a place so filled with coronets and princely styles."
"Oh, it is," Sunset assured her. "My attitudes did not spring sui genesis from my nature, but... Princess Celestia would not approve, and none of my Remnant friends would. Did I ever tell you how Blake went off on one at me just because I addressed Lady Nikos by her title?"
"No, but that sounds like a fun story."
"Maybe later," Sunset said. "The point is... one of the reasons I didn't like Cadance was the fact that some podunk pegasus had surpassed me without even trying. I was Princess Celestia's student, and yet, this country mare — whom not only had I not known was in the race; she hadn't known she was in the race either! — had lapped me and done what I could only hope to do and done it without any of my advantages or instruction. Which jealousy could be something I could apologise for, except-"
Cinder grinned. "You're still jealous  aren't you?"
"She's still more successful than I am!" Sunset cried. "I accept that the destiny I sought after belonged to Twilight Sparkle all along. Celestia chose more wisely in her than in me. But Cadance... she's the ruler of her own country; I think I have the right to feel... she makes me feel less."
"Why?" Cinder asked. "What has she actually done that you should feel embarrassed to compare accomplishments with her?"
"She rules her own city," Sunset said bluntly.
Cinder blinked. "Alright, I accept that that could be awkward. But that is a thing she has, not a thing she has done. How many lives has she saved, how many wicked hearts has she redeemed, how many battles had she won?" Cinder knelt before her. "I'll wager that you have done more since coming into Remnant than she has sat upon her throne." She smiled. "So chin up, for gods' sake. The Princess of Hope should hold her head up high."
"Should she now?"
"Yes," Cinder confirmed. "Because the Princess of Hope is my Princess, and I could never love someone who was not surfeited in self-regard."
Sunset sniggered. "Then I shall wrap myself in pride, for your sake."
"That's more like it," Cinder agreed.
"Are you ready?"
"If you are, yes."
The two left Sunset's guest room, and Sunset led the way — although Cinder might well have known the route herself by now already — through the corridors of a palace now safely empty of changelings, reformed or otherwise — yesterday's bedtime monster were now today's friends and allies; a race less forgiving than ponykind might have struggled to cope; decades later and neither humans nor faunus had gotten over the Revolution yet — to the dining.
Princess Celestia was waiting for them there, and Princess Twilight.
And, of course, Princess Cadance.
She was every bit as beautiful as Sunset remembered: tall, with a slender frame — in particular, her legs were noticeably more willow than was common — which lent her an air of fragile grace. Her mane, of rose and violet streaked with pale gold, was almost as long as she was tall, descending almost to the ground, only to curl gently upwards at the tips. She was attired like a miniature Celestia, with a slender golden necklace clasped about her neck and a dainty coronet resting on her brow. Sunset could not help but find that something of an affectation — if there was any pony with a rightful claim to be a new Celestia, it was Twilight Sparkle, but you didn't see her prancing about that way, did you? — but since nobody else seemed to find it worth commenting on, Sunset decided she would not mention it.
Her husband — or at least, Sunset assumed the stallion with her was her husband, and therefore Twilight's brother too — was equally attractive, in his own way; he was squarely built and muscular, with a firm jaw and a powerful body. His mane was short by the standards of most people that Sunset knew — possibly a bit longer than Cardin’s hair — a little spiky, and coloured in various shades of blue matching his eyes.
Sunset stopped, and took a deep breath. "Princess Cadance."
The conversation died. Cadance turned towards her, her long mane swaying. 
"Sunset Shimmer," she said softly. "I'm sorry, that should be Princess Sunset Shimmer, shouldn't it?"
"Not here," Sunset said. "This hardly seems the place to stand on ceremony."
"And yet, you just-"
"Yes, thank you, Cinder, I know what I said," Sunset hissed. She kept her eyes fixed upon Cadance's face. "I... there are things that I said to you which I... I'm sure that you... I didn't think... I'm sorry."
Cadance was silent for a moment. "I never meant to make you feel... it was never my intent to take anything anyway from you."
"You didn't," Sunset assured. "I took them away from myself."
"But I've sometimes wondered if... if my being here contributed to... I didn't understand what you were going through."
"I don't think either of us understood what the other was going through " Sunset said. "For my part, I didn't care to try. Congratulations, on your rule in the Crystal Empire."
"Congratulations upon your ascension. You made it, just like you said you would."
"Thank you," Sunset said.
It was Cadance who made the first move, stepping forward and baring her neck. Sunset stepped in, pressing her own neck against that of Cadance. The hug was brief, although not brief enough to be called perfunctory, but it made Sunset feel better. The awkwardness was past; they had shut the door upon that part of the past.
And Princess Celestia watched them with a smile upon her face.
Sunset stepped back. "Allow me to introduce you to my... my girlfriend, Cinder Fall." It felt quite good to say that; she'd have to find excuses to say it more often.
Cinder bowed. "Charmed, Your Highness."
"Cadance will be fine, please," Cadance said. "It's a pleasure to meet our unsung rescuer. You have our gratitude, even if we have nothing else to offer. And allow me to introduce my husband, Shining Armor."
Shining Armor nodded. "A pleasure."
Cadance's horn glowed violet as she lifted up from somewhere out of sight an infant alicorn, with a coat of white and a mane of pink and cyan. "And this is our daughter, Flurry Heart."
Flurry Heart gurgled happily, waving her little legs — and wings — in the air.
Sunset's eyes widened. "An infant alicorn?"
"Astonishing, isn't it?" Twilight said.
Sunset nodded. "Astonishing," she agreed, leaning forwards closer to the baby. "And so cute too! Who is? You are! Yes!"
"Sometimes, I don't think you know who you are in this world," Cinder said.
Everyone laughed, even little baby Flurry Heart, who reached out to grab Sunset by the nose.



The method by which Twilight had gotten the mirror working again full time was… well, it might not have impressed the other Twilight with the slapdashness of its appearance — a bellows pump here, a large tank there, glowing coils on either side of the mirror itself, wires and tubes and a lot of other things completely ruining the mirror’s aesthetic — but it got the job done.
“Since you’re here with your copy, we can’t use the journal that you use to communicate with me and Princess Celestia to find Remnant the way that I did last time,” Twilight explained. “So we’ll have to use your copy of the journal that you share with Ruby; then I’ll use our copy of your journal to direct the mirror once you’re back in Remnant and then send the Ruby journal through the portal to you.”
“I’ll try and catch it as it comes out,” Sunset said dryly. She turned to Cinder and Cardin, standing behind her. Cinder carried the spear that Princess Celestia had given her in one hand; Cardin wore his saddlebags across his back. “This is it,” Sunset said. “Are you both ready?”
“Oh, God, yes,” Cardin said emphatically. “Although… this is safe, isn’t it?”
“It’s safer than jumping into a wild portal to get here in the first place,” Sunset said. Or at least no more dangerous.
“And I’m going to get my clothes back on the other side, right?” Cardin asked. “Because I really don’t want to show up in Atlas naked.”
“Nobody wants that, don’t worry,” Cinder murmured.
“We will all get our clothes back exactly as we were wearing when we entered the other portal,” Sunset promised. “That’s just how it works.”
“Okay,” Cardin said. “But if we get arrested for indecent exposure, I am putting all the blame on you.”
“And I will accept it,” Sunset said. “Cinder, are you ready?”
Cinder twirled Daybreak deftly in one hand. “Absolutely,” she said. “Although I am forced to wonder why this spear shouldn’t change in transit into… something else.”
“I think that the magic in it will prevent its transformation,” Twilight said.
“You think?”
“This isn’t a field of study with a lot of data to go on,” Twilight offered weakly. “Sorry.”
“I’m sure that Princess Celestia wouldn’t give you anything that was going to become absolutely useless,” Sunset said.
“Indeed, one would hope not,” Princess Celestia said as she stepped into the mirror chamber.
“Princess,” Sunset said.
“You didn’t think I’d let you leave without saying goodbye, did you?” Princess Celestia asked, with a smile upon her face.
Sunset hesitated. “I… I didn’t want to presume.”
Princess Celestia chuckled. “Come here,” she urged. “Let me hug you, one last time before you go.”
Sunset smiled in turn and trotted forward until she stood under the shadow Princess Celestia. She felt the princess descend upon her, felt the warmth of her neck on Sunset’s back, felt the softness of her feathers, felt the safety of her embrace. 
The safety that she would now leave behind once again. 
“Fare you well,” Princess Celestia whispered. “My daughter. Take care of yourself.”
“I will, Mother,” Sunset whispered in return. “I will survive, and I will be victorious, and I will bring all my other friends to visit here.”
“I would like that very much,” Celestia replied, raising her head and releasing Sunset. She closed her magenta eyes for a moment. “I will miss you, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset could not meet her gaze. “I’ll miss you too,” she whispered. 
“Cinder Fall, Cardin Winchester,” Princess Celestia said, her voice growing louder. “Go with my blessing, and all good fortune attend you in your enterprises.”
Cinder bowed. “We thank you humbly, Princess, and shall, in all respects — deeds, bearing, words, and character — prove worthy of your faith in us.”
Sunset looked at Twilight. “It’s time.”
Twilight’s horn glowed, and she lifted the magical journal up into the air, placing it atop the brass shelf, between two metal conductors. Instantly, the book began to glow, the sun and the rose emblazoned on the cover shining with a brilliant light, a light of white and lavender intermingled, bursting out like a star until the rest of the book was hidden from view. The journal rose into the air, and as it rose, light sparked off it like lightning, striking the hodgepodge construction built around the mirror, spreading through the wires and the tubes, illuminating the panels, making various bits and pieces thrum and move, pistons rising and falling, wheels spinning, magic spreading across the device until, at last, the sparks of magic struck the mirror itself. 
There was a flash so bright that Sunset had to shield her eyes. When she opened them again and uncovered her face, she could see that the mirror’s surface had been replaced by a swirling vortex of pink.
Just as it had been so long ago. 
Sunset stepped forward. Her saddlebags felt very heavy upon her. 
Coming here had been the best decision that she had made in recent times, and now, she was leaving again. 
She could do nothing else. 
And yet, it wrenched her now far more than her first departure had. 
Sunset forced herself to walk forward, placing one hoof upon the raised pedestal on which the mirror sat. She looked back at Twilight and Celestia. 
“Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
Twilight smiled encouragingly. Princess Celestia nodded. Was that a tear in her eye? Sunset found she didn’t really want to know.
She looked forward once more. The vortex was before her. Remnant was before her. 
Her many tasks were before her, each one harder than the last. 
Then best get started, eh?
Sunset took a deep breath. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Professor,” she murmured. 
And then she stepped into the waiting portal and was lost to the sight of ponies.