//------------------------------// // Chapter 20: Pleasant Surprises // Story: The Sunset of a Frozen Princess // by DaylightHobbyist //------------------------------// If Sunset was forced to describe Silver Shoals in a single word, it would be... pleasant. It was a stark contrast to any portion of modern Equestria she had been exposed to thus far. Nothing at all like Canterlot, with its crowded streets and tall densely packed buildings, yet also nothing like Ponyville in its seemingly ever-expanding diversity. Everything here was all so open, so tranquil, so uniformly organized. Nothing in sight but green plains enclosed by rocky hills and valleys that were all spotted in simple wooden structures that had an obvious seaside motif. Each building matched in color but differed just enough to keep the scenery from becoming monotonous. The buildings themselves spread out in tasteful groups across the land and surrounding hilltops in no particular pattern, but still seeming deliberately set up to maintain a certain aesthetic appeal to any onlooking eyes. It was as if somepony had taken a portrait and decided to turn it into a town. If Sunset didn’t know any better, she’d assume that the weather here must have always been a perfect sunny sky filled with just enough clouds to keep the sun’s rays a pleasantly warm bath to the townsfolk down below. It was all so pleasant. That was the objective term Sunset was obligated to attach to the scenery. A perfect little plot of land far removed from the rest of Equestria that bordered the sea and probably never really changed. Not too big, not too small. Not too crowded, not too empty. Not too rural, not too urban. Just an all-around ideal location for settling down. Probably not the sort of location Sunset could ever see herself settling down in. Probably not the sort of location she would have ever imagined Princess Celestia settling down in either for that matter, but then again, she couldn’t say she had ever imagined what Princess Celestia retiring would have looked like in the first place. Even having known about it for years now, she still struggled with the concept that Princesses could retire. Though Flurry certainly seemed at home. Trotting along beside her, practically prancing over the dirt path that led them through town, Flurry had just waved a hoof in greeting at yet another passing pony. The youngest princess was actually rather popular around these parts. Sunset could fight past the worries silently stewing beneath the surface to appreciate that welcome change compared to Canterlot Castle. Sunset hadn’t dared mention it, but it certainly hadn't escaped her notice that most of Twilight’s staff generally avoided her if they could. No doubt an effect of the less than pleasant attitude Flurry carried herself with for Celestia knows how long. Typically crowded halls became suspiciously desolate corridors whenever the Princess of the Crystal Empire just so happened to be strolling through. However hard Flurry was trying to amend her behavior now, Sunset knew firsthoof that it took time for people to stop glancing at you like you were a ticking timebomb just waiting to go off whenever they thought you weren’t looking. However hard she tried to feign indifference, you hardly needed a magical necklace to tell that Flurry was far from immune to what other creatures thought of her. If anything, she was more sensitive to it than most. "Hey, Mr. Astern! You fight anymore sea monsters since I’ve been gone!?" Flurry playfully called out to an old bearded Earth pony in a sea captain's garb who gave Flurry a smirk and a wink in response. But here, Flurry practically received her own homecoming. Not a single creature they’d passed so far hadn’t at least offered a welcoming smile in greeting, and several had even gone so far as to stop Flurry to exchange a few quick pleasantries. Flurry, in return, was more comfortable and at ease than Sunset had ever seen her. Thankfully, Flurry had elected to only take along one of the dozens of carry-on bags Sunset had witnessed being crammed onto the train, so her protégé wasn’t quite as high maintenance as Rarity after all. However, the real shock came when she casually left her regalia behind on the train in favor of a less royal appearance. It wasn’t until Sunset had seen Flurry without all the traditional accessories of an Equestrian Princess that she noticed it was a sight she had never witnessed before. Twilight was, more often than not, dressed in the very same manner, but she wasn’t necessarily attached to it. Twilight tended to shed some of her regal armor when she was free of prying eyes. For meals, late nights in the office, and more recently she’d taken to losing the crown whenever it was just the two of them. Sometimes, she almost seemed relieved to get it off her. She couldn't recall ever seeing Flurry do the same. Not during the meals they’d had together, not during their private lessons over the past week, not during any period of the day, be it dawn or dusk. Sunset tried not to read too deeply into something that could have simply been nothing, but it stuck out all the same. If there was anything to it though, it didn’t apply here. "Oh, look over there, Aunt Sunset! That place makes the BEST haycakes! You have to try them at some point!" Flurry Heart eagerly pointed out to her, jabbing a foreleg in the direction of a quaint little restaurant they had just passed. At this rate, Sunset was confident she’d be able to find her way around this town solely through all the little points of interest Flurry kept recommending. "You really know your way around, huh?" Sunset nodded at Flurry with a subtle smile. It was cute seeing Flurry so eager. Even for a pony as expressive as Flurry tended to be, she wasn't usually this bouncy. "Oh yeah, I’m here a lot. It’s kind of a second home. Heh, I might consider making it my first home if they’d let me," Flurry giggled. "Really?" Sunset looked up to the alicorn beside her, the genuine interest in her tone signaling Flurry to continue. "Definitely," Flurry nodded without a trace of doubt. "It’s just so quiet here. No politics, no newspapers that print every unflattering expression you make. Back before I could come here by myself, I used to practically beg Uncle Discord to take me," Flurry reminisced. "You know, I didn’t know you two were so close," Sunset stated, seizing the opportunity to learn more about the curious relationship the two seemed to share. "You mean Uncle Discord?" Sunset simply nodded, choosing to forego any words that could wind up unflattering. "Well, when I was little, if it wasn’t Aunt Pinkie, he was usually the one spending time with me," Flurry shrugged like it was no big deal to have the literal spirit of disharmony babysit you. Sunset couldn’t keep the look of skepticism off her face. "Huh, I never pegged him as the nurturing type." Flurry smiled, finding Sunset’s disbelief amusing. "He always said that was just something Aunt Fluttershy beat into him. Besides, I didn’t exactly have a wide selection when it came to foalsitters, and when your mom and dad are as busy as mine were, you need one pretty often. Mom got by for a few years by exploiting my Crystaller. I don’t think anypony ever told Mr. Sunburst that childcare wasn’t actually part of the job description, but he eventually went to work for Mrs. Starlight. After that, there weren’t many ponies who were as okay with the possibility of being blown up at any given moment." "I guess being the only natural-born alicorn in Equestrian history does mean that nopony really knows how to take care of one," Sunset offered, an understanding of Flurry that she’d never considered before actually having met her. Flurry Heart shrugged. "Yeah, but we managed. Mom actually used to know a lot of ponies who were pretty used to taking on super dangerous tasks for even less reward than a standard babysitting fee. Sometimes it was Aunt Rainbow or Aunt Applejack. They actually co-foal sat one time, but… that didn’t really end well," Flurry shuddered slightly as she briefly relived the event. Sunset didn’t even want to know. "Anyway, it was Aunt Pinkie who usually picked up the slack, but even she couldn’t just rush off to the edge of the Kingdom all the time, so Uncle Discord just kinda, y’know, popped in." Sunset shook her head in disbelief. "And Cadenza was okay with that?" Prissy perfect goodie-goodie Mi Amore Cadenza, who’d never let the foals she sat for stay up a second past their curfew, was perfectly willing to entrust her one and only child to the Lord of Chaos for safekeeping? Flurry Heart grimaced, "Eh, kinda. Mom was pretty desperate at the time, and he had to pull Aunt Fluttershy in with him at first to get her to agree to it, but after that, he just kept coming back." "That does sound like Discord," Sunset admitted as neutrally as possible. He certainly kept coming back. Flurry just chuckled at Sunset’s cadence, well aware of how much of an acquired taste he was for most. The odd pair pressed on in silence following that, Flurry leading the way on their path and Sunset trusting her guidance and following along while taking in every sight she could as they passed by, privately trying to visualize Celestia in the setting now that her thoughts were, unfortunately, free to run wherever they pleased. Try as she might, she just couldn’t imagine it. Princess Celestia strolling down to the market and picking her own groceries off the shelves. Princess Celestia casually sitting outside some random café, sipping something besides some grossly over-priced brand of tea. Princess Celestia huddled up in the middle of the town square chatting and trading local gossip with the neighbors. Things anypony living in this town must have done nearly every day. Things princesses were above doing. Nothing about this place reminded her of her old mentor. Nothing she had even so much as heard about her since she’d ventured back through the mirror reminded her of the pony she once boasted about being so intimately familiar with… or at least, that she had liked to believe herself so intimately familiar with. If she was honest with herself, how well did she really know Princess Celestia? It wasn’t like she had known that she even had a sister. That she had always been mapping out this grand destiny for some lucky little filly with a cutie mark etched into the tree of harmony. Not even something as simple as how, apparently, she couldn’t act on stage to save her own flank. Was this really how Princess Celestia longed to spend her days? Maybe she didn’t really know the first thing about Celestia. Maybe she was just on a personal journey to encounter a complete stranger who had forgotten that she had ever even existed long ago. Mere blocks away from the reality she had always known deep down, pulled closer to it with each step. Flurry hummed, picking up on the nervous energy that was beginning to radiate from the unicorn beside her. "Aunt Sunset, are you feeling alright?" Flurry ventured to ask. Sunset's head snapped around, her wide eyes turned in Flurry’s direction. "Honestly, Flurry… I think I might throw up." Flurry Heart performed a comically quick shuffle away from the potential splash zone. "Oh, wow, uhm, okay. You know, we don’t really have to go straight to Auntie Celestia’s house right away. We could go get something to ea-er, actually, that doesn’t sound like such a great idea right now. Oh! They have a spa here! We could go there, or do some shopping, or heck, I know a couple of inns we could stay at for a day or two until you’re ready to—" Sunset pulled herself to a standstill and lifted a hoof, wordlessly signaling Flurry to stop. Flurry clamped her muzzle shut and waited for Sunset to get her bearings. True to her word, the amber unicorn looked positively queasy. It was an incredibly sudden unraveling for Flurry to behold for a pony that was ordinarily so collected, even until a matter of moments ago. Flurry had never seen her look so shaken. The idea of anything getting under her fur had seemed like a nearly foreign concept mere days ago. Aunt Sunset was cool and pretty much always had the answer to everything. She didn't even so much as flinch at the idea of going head to head with a Princess. But Auntie Celestia was a different matter entirely. She didn't know all the details, but she had picked up more than enough to know that by now. The signs had been there since she had this "genius" little idea. Still, she went ahead with it, and worst of all, she knew she was perhaps the least qualified Princess to handle any manner of emotional distress. Then again, the list of things she was qualified for probably couldn't fill out a post-it note. Sunset swallowed deeply, finally managing to bring her nausea down some. "Sorry, I just… needed a moment." "I-it’s fine. I mean, I’d be pretty nervous too if I hadn’t seen my mom in who knows how long." Whatever color had begun to make its valiant return to Sunset’s face raced off in sheer terror at Flurry’s liberal use of the "M" word. Sunset brought a hoof up to her mouth as a precaution. Flurry grimaced at her words having the exact opposite effect she intended. "S-sorry, I didn’t mean… What I was trying to say is… Okay, I’m not very good at this," Flurry conceded with a defeated laugh. For lack of a better idea, Sunset sharply inhaled a breath in and pushed it out, following the motions along with her foreleg. She repeated the action once or twice for insurance. "Oh, hey, Aunt Twilight showed you Mom’s breathing thing," Flurry commented in relief. "Y-yeah, it’s… much more effective than it has any right to be," Sunset confessed, feeling her stomach successfully settle. Some things just never changed. All these years and it still didn’t take much for anything related to Celestia to send her over the edge. "Are you going to be okay?" Flurry’s eyes glistened with concern. "I’m... fine, Flurry," Sunset assured her. Flurry had heard far too many ponies say they were fine when they weren’t to believe that. "I’m really sorry, Aunt Sunset," Flurry Heart sighed. The butterflies in Sunset’s stomach ceased their incessant fluttering to float in abject confusion. "Uhm, okay, what exactly do you have to apologize for?" Flurry gently smacked a hoof against the ground in front of her, kicking up a small cloud of dust that she chose to focus on over the pony in front of her. "Well, I'm the one who forced this on you. You said you weren’t ready, but I still pushed you into it. I just really wanted… I thought we could…" Flurry stumbled over her words, fumbling for the right ones, "I’m… not very good at thinking things through. I just thought that I could at least do this for you, but I can’t really help you or anycreature. I’m sure Aunt Twilight could help you if she was here, but you’re just stuck with me. Sorry," Flurry apologized with a wince that showed she believed every word. Sunset quirked an eyebrow. The sparkle really didn’t shimmer far from the star. "Flurry, that’s ridiculous." "It… is?" Flurry asked, seeming genuinely confused anypony could disagree with what she had said. "Yes, it is. I’m a grown mare, Flurry. I make my own poor decisions," Sunset flashed Flurry her most playfully reassuring smile. "No pony did anything other than giving me a chance to do something I needed to do a long time ago. And for what it’s worth, I think I might have turned tail a while ago if I didn’t have you," Sunset said with complete sincerity. It was true after all. Even now, Sunset felt better just having Flurry here to inspire her to act like the adult she was supposed to be. In situations where no words could ever truly suffice, it was invaluable to have somepony else to just… be there. "O-oh, uhm, no problem really," Flurry stuttered around with a bashful smile. Sunset dared to think she might have been getting good at this whole mentor thing. "But, we still don’t have to go straight there though if you need a bit more time," Flurry offered once more. Sunset shook her head in refusal, able to think a bit more clearly now. "No, I don’t think that would really help. I’ve been avoiding this for a while. If you gave me a thousand years to prepare, I’d probably still be shaking at the front door. But, I guess if I’ve learned anything in all that time, it’s that nothing really changes if you’re not willing to do anything that makes you uncomfortable." Flurry hummed in response, considering the sentiment. "I should probably ask though, exactly how close are we right now?" Flurry merely turned her gaze to the not-so-distant horizon they had been headed for. "You’re kidding," Sunset muttered. "Nope, they’re pretty much on the other side of this hill," Flurry stated, marching her way ahead. "I thought you said it was a long walk?" "…It was. We’ve been going for almost an hour." That told Sunset two things. One, her cardio had drastically improved from living in Equestria again, and two, she had really checked out back there. "There it is!" Flurry waved Sunset over as she reached the top and pointed a hoof to something in the distance Sunset couldn’t quite see yet. She could only hear the rhythmic squawks of the birds that flocked near the sea and confirmed they had indeed made it to the coast. Sunset’s measured steps pulled her up to a place beside Flurry where she instantly felt the cool ocean breeze whip her mane about. In the faintly orange-tinted light of the evening sun, Sunset at long last beheld what the most ancient pony in Equestria now called home. "…That’s it?" Sunset blinked as though it would cause her vision to correct itself and pick up whatever was missing. As it stood, there was nothing really there. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. There was one thing there in the inconspicuous little valley bordered by the gently swaying waves of the sea. One singular thing. One little thing surrounded by plenty of nothing aside from grass, a painfully plain picket fence, and some small flower beds. A small wooden cottage that was scarcely two stories, and only stood out because there was absolutely nothing else around. "What? Were you expecting a castle?" Flurry playfully nudged Sunset. "…maybe?" Sunset answered, uncertain herself. Flurry giggled at the idea. "That’d be a bit much for this place, wouldn’t it?" Sunset shrugged. "That didn’t stop Twilight from planting one in the middle of the suburbs." Flurry opened her mouth to respond only to pause in contemplation. "Okay, touché. Still, I think what they have is pretty nice. Auntie Luna really likes that it’s not a marathon to make it to the kitchen anymore." "Yeah, it’s… pleasant," Sunset settled on. Just like everything else in this sleepy little town. So pleasant. "So, you ready?" Sunset jumped slightly at the question, ashamed she needed to be reminded that they were here for more than to look at the scenery. She was meant to go down there. She was meant to walk past that fence. She was meant to knock on that door. She was meant to find… something. Sunset took another deep breath, exhaling it slowly. It didn’t help quite as much this time. "I guess we’ll find out," Sunset sighed, and took her first step forward, taking the lead for the first time since they had arrived. "Though I have to admit, this is probably the last way I ever imagined it," Sunset confessed to Flurry Heart. Even looking dead at it, Sunset could not fathom Celestia actually living inside this middle-class abode, virtually indistinguishable from any other. It all seemed so surreal. A mailbox out by the open front gate for Celestia to come out and collect her own postage, which would likely include dozens of worthless advertisements and magazines. Shrubbery and beds of daisies framed the outside, which would require at least some toiling around in the dirt to maintain. It was like Celestia was no different from anypony else. Sunset and Flurry, at last, reached the front porch of the house, allowing Sunset to fully take in the well-worn wooden surface that indicated the house was far from new but still cared for. Sunset took the first step onto the stairs that would lead her up to the front door before she had time to give herself second thoughts. The wood creaking under her hoofsteps alone nearly made her recoil, but Sunset shut it out and rushed the steps until she had reached the top. "Hey, w-wait for me, Aunt Sunset!" Flurry called to her as she nearly tripped up the steps, picking up her own pace when the unicorn had managed to nearly leave her in the dust. Sunset paused to wait for Flurry, giving her an anxious smile in apology. "Sorry, I got a little excited." "Well, we made it," Flurry announced upon reaching Sunset, more to ward off the tension than anything else. Sunset glanced around, taking it in. She'd always figured she'd be surrounded by stained glass and tapestries rather than rocking chairs and wind chimes if this moment ever came, but here she was all the same. Years for her. Decades for anypony else. Now all that may have very well separated them was a plain wooden door. "Do you think they’re here?" Sunset couldn’t resist asking, maybe to stall for time, maybe because the silence that ordinarily would have been completely normal felt unnervingly eerie to her at the moment. "They should be. I know they’re in town right now, and they’re not usually out this late," Flurry stated as she walked up to the front door. "I guess we should probably just knock and find out." "Wait!" Sunset called out, her tone not harsh and only slightly unsteady, yet sharp enough to halt the alicorn who had already raised a hoof to rap on the door. Flurry slowly lowered the offending appendage and waited for Sunset to explain. "Let me do it. I think… I want to be the first thing she sees," Sunset confessed. Flurry took only a moment to process the request before her curious face shifted into an understanding smile. "Sure thing, Aunt Sunset." Flurry Heart stepped aside, making room for Sunset to take the lead before considering Sunset might have wanted a bit more than a few steps of space. "Oh, wait. Do you need me to… you know?" Flurry glanced back, making a gesture that indicated she could remove herself from the situation. She was fairly used to her mom and Aunt Twilight preferring she step out when handling more important matters. "No no, that’s not it," Sunset shook her head. "Believe me, this will be much easier with you by my side." Sunset stepped beside Flurry, taking her place before the door, which up close seemed to stretch to an impossibly imposing height. Flurry leaned her head down and in place of any words offered Sunset a nuzzle of encouragement. A gesture Sunset returned without hesitation. It was funny how long it had taken her to grow accustomed to her own world’s open displays of affection, but now it was what gave her the courage to push forward. After all, whether Celestia did or didn’t care for her as more than another student plucked from a sea of generations, whether she shared at least some of the same fondness for what could only account for the smallest fraction of her centuries-long lifetime, or whether she even remembered her at all, it wouldn’t change what she knew she already had. No matter the outcome, this would allow her to finally close that chapter of her life on her own terms in the way she always should have. As long as that was true, she could live with whatever this reunion held for her. With a hoof steadier than Sunset had ever believed she could possess at this moment, Sunset tapped on the door. One, two, three. The sounds of the impact practically echoed through the previously still air, almost deafening to the unicorn who had made them. The seconds that ticked by stretched into infinite spaces of time in which Sunset waited for some form of response. Just as Sunset was beginning to wonder whether she should try knocking again, questioning whether she’d even have the fortitude to do so, the inside of the cottage began to stir. Voices. Sunset couldn’t make out any of the words from outside, but she could still hear the ensuing conversation. Two ponies. Going back and forth, almost like bickering, though lacking any sort of edge. Both were too muffled for Sunset to make out most of the finer details, but the pitch alone of one of them sent a shockwave through Sunset's system. That very voice uttered one last statement, the last word before all went silent again. It didn’t take long for hoof steps to follow, starting low and drawing closer with each passing second until they were just behind the door. The door handle clicked, and Sunset felt her breath catch in her throat. Without even a moment’s hesitation, the door swung wide open. A towering alicorn, standing an entire head over even Flurry, with a perfectly white coat, light magenta eyes, and a long solid pink mane that softly hung in a ponytail around her neck like any other mane stepped through the doorway and immediately locked herself in place upon giving an almost imperceptible gasp as if a vacuum had just sucked the air from her lungs. Sunset’s subconscious battled with itself on whether to turn her head in embarrassment at the pony that was practically standing in front of her stark naked. It seemed almost scandalous to gaze at the pure white fur and bare hooves that were meant to be covered by no less than engraved gold and sparkling gems. But, at the same time, Sunset couldn’t have possibly looked away. Not when the pony before her was such a cluster of features she could never forget, and some she couldn’t recognize. Her eyes, the same bright crystal-clear radiant shade she had looked into countless times as a young filly, but they sparkled in a way she had never seen before. Her mane was the opposite. No sparkles, no physic defying wind, but so much pink, like the single stripe that had once highlighted it had consumed the other colors. Nothing but pink left in her still long, but no longer flowing mane. It was her. In a fraction of a hummingbird’s heartbeat, Sunset knew it must have been, and yet… it wasn’t. So familiar, so alien, so… Flurry Heart cast a glance at Sunset, who seemed to be frozen in a trance of some sort, just staring at Celestia like she was trying to see straight through her. She turned her head back to her Auntie Celestia, standing still enough to pass for one of her own statues and must have broken records for the quickest shift of expression from a carefree smile to a pony who was about to be run over by a speeding train that Flurry had ever seen. Celestia’s mouth hung slightly ajar as her eyes expanded in a way she didn’t know they were capable of. They had been standing like this for a least twenty seconds at this point. "Ahem," Flurry coughed, deciding that somepony needed to jolt this situation back to reality, and sadly she was the only option. "Hey, Auntie Celestia! I just thought I’d swing by, you know, since I was in the neighborhood, and you will never guess who I bumped into. Or, well, I guess you can. Y’know, cause she’s right here… in front of… you." Heaven help her, she was bombing this worse than Aunt Twilight doing stand-up. Flurry gave Sunset a firm nudge in the side. Sunset stumbled a bit, Flurry’s nudge being more of a jab, but it was an effective means to snap her back to reality, for all the good it did. Sunset refocused her eyes onto the surprisingly startled face that she hadn’t seen in so terribly long. The face she'd longed to see just once more. This was it. Face to face with Princess Celestia. So much to tell, so much she wanted to know, all the ways she had imagined this moment through all these years, and now that it was finally upon her… she couldn’t think of a single thing to say. "H-hi," Sunset said, picking up a hoof to politely wave. Celestia managed to regain some form of awareness from the simple meek greeting, bringing her jaw back up to give the most appropriate response that came to her at the moment. "H-hello." The awkward tension that had existed before somehow managed to triple when Sunset and Celestia resumed their staring contest. "Soooo," Flurry interjected again upon seeing this was going nowhere fast, "how have you been?" "F-fine. I… w-we’ve been just… fine," Celestia mumbled, her eyes never leaving the unicorn directly in front of her, the response practically automated. Celestia squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, apparently trying to get some sort of handle on herself. When at last she reopened them, she pointedly avoided looking directly at either pony, a nervous, borderline unhinged, giggle crawling its way from her throat. "I-I’m sorry. Could you please give me a moment?" Celestia requested with a forced grin, and without waiting for any sort of answer, the former princess proceeded to shuffle back into the house before promptly slamming the door shut in front of them, creating a resounding smack. The piercing sound did the seemingly impossible task of shattering the spell Sunset had placed herself under. "P-princess Celestia, wait!" Sunset cried, desperately reaching a hoof out to the door despite knowing it was already too late. Sunset slumped back onto her haunches, lost and confused all over again. She didn’t have the slightest idea what had just happened. Had she just blown it all over again? Was that it? What was she supposed to do now? "Huh, maybe dropping by unannounced wasn’t the great idea I thought it was," Flurry’s brow furrowed in confusion. "I’ve never seen her act like that before." Sunset perked up. Flurry’s words struck a chord of realization that risked being forgotten and buried under the hailstorm of emotions simply seeing her face again had inspired. She had been so captivated by the mere sight of her, what was new, what was the same, that she’d nearly ignored the pony herself. "…Yeah. Neither have I." This entire trip… no. That didn’t do it justice. Her entire life, the fear that had always clawed at the back of her mind was that she’d receive no acknowledgment at all. That Celestia just wouldn’t care. That the hard truth was that their relationship didn’t… couldn’t extend beyond student and teacher. A fear that accumulated evidence drop by drop as the years went by until that fateful night. The night where Celestia had thrown her away. No. No, that wasn’t true, Sunset amended to herself. She had overstepped. Broken her trust, more than likely broken a few laws, by being there that night. Celestia was under no obligation to let that stand. Rather, her obligation was to ensure such secrets never found their way into hooves such as hers. Her banishment from the castle was justified. Perhaps you could even say she got off light for actions that could be viewed as treasonous through certain lenses… but it still hurt. That after everything, Celestia could just watch her go and never look back. Never try to find her. Never even write. That it seemed the only thing that had changed was just… having more time to dedicate to the more promising pupil Celestia had picked up a hoof full of years ago. The pupil Celestia never openly acknowledged during whatever increasingly spare time they had together. The pupil Sunset pretended not to notice. The pupil Celestia sent after her like she was more of a test than a problem. A steppingstone. Not an issue even worth dealing with personally. Even the journal that was supposed to always connect them from beyond the very edge of Equestria itself could be thrown out like an old lamp that was taking up space. But… she wanted it back, Sunset reminded herself. So many years dwelling on the uncertainties, too much of a coward to chase the answers, and maybe deep down already convinced of the conclusion. All of it upset by a new piece that threw several pre-convinced notions into question. A part that dared to give her reason to question... to hope. And now another. Celestia was not a pony Sunset had ever known to be swayed by her emotions. She was ashamed to recall that after some of their more heated arguments, near the end, she had wondered if she had any at all. Always strict, always in control, always expressing herself in only the utmost appropriate and respectful manner possible. Polite smiles when appropriate. Disapproving scowls when appropriate. Never once would Celestia lose herself to the heat of a moment. It had frustrated her to a childish degree, Sunset admitted. How in the twilight of their relationship, some days she’d just lose it, stomping, shouting, for harmony’s sake, she’d actually thrown things at her the night she was banished from the castle, and Celestia still never gave her an inch when it came to getting a reaction. That just didn’t seem to have ever changed. Not even when she had managed to pull her sorry traitorous flank back to Canterlot and into Celestia’s presence so she could beg for the help she so desperately needed to preserve her friend’s memories. She didn’t think Celestia had known she was coming. How could she have? Spike had been off somewhere else that day, she’d never really bothered to ask where, and Twilight certainly didn’t sound like she had given the Princess any sort of notice of their arrival. And yet, still, Celestia didn’t seem put off by her presence in the slightest, all while she’d been scared out of her fur. Those eternal seconds where Celestia had just… stared at her, not saying anything, not doing anything, not giving any indication whatsoever of what was going on inside her head were easily the most terrifying moments Sunset had ever lived through in her entire life. None of the ancient evil sirens and possessed teenagers even came close. She was still grateful, of course. Celestia didn’t hate her, she had at least let her know that. She’d helped her without condition. She never would have managed to save her friends without the invaluable resources she had allowed her access to. Access to the very types of books she had been banished for reading so many moons ago. And when it was time to depart, Celestia had given her some parting words that she could have only imagined hearing from her that morning. That was all Sunset could really ask for. A better ending to their otherwise tragic story ...But, Sunset knew deep down, no matter how hard she tried to change, she was a selfish pony at heart. A selfish pony that wished Celestia had more to say to her than just a few kind words to a repentant student. Who wished that when she had turned to leave again, even if on much better terms, Celestia tried to stop her. Maybe reach out and try to pull her back when it was all over, instead of once again just letting her go. It was such a silly self-centered desire. Had Celestia actually done any of that, Sunset had no idea if she would have even considered it. She had a life, friends who were as good as a family, a world, and a home where she was happy. Where she was accepted. That didn’t stop her from wishing Celestia had at least tried. She wanted a reaction. Something, anything, that told her that her presence in her life meant something. ...something that, for better or worse, she had finally received. "Uhm, Aunt Sunset, you still there?" Flurry asked, waving a wing up and down in front of Sunset’s face when the unicorn in question had simply sat down and went blank. "Y-yeah, I’m still here, Flurry," Sunset nodded, bringing a foreleg up to gently push Flurry’s wing out of her face so she could get back on her hooves. The last thing she wanted to do was go to pieces in front of her. "Oh, good. I was worried you were Aunt Twilight levels of spaced out for a bit there, and I’m kinda lost. I’m not really sure what to do at this point, and they’ve been making a lot of noise inside." "They have?" Sunset asked. "You mean you didn’t hear any of that? I mean, ponies call me a bull in a china shop, but it sounded like Auntie Celestia barreled over half her furniture after she shut the door. Then they started doing that thing, you know, where you’re speaking like you’re supposed to be whispering, but you're clearly talking way too loudly for that. They’ve been quiet for a while though." Sunset tilted her head in confusion, awestruck by the absurdity of what Flurry was saying. Long before Sunset had the chance to so much as process the information, the echo of hoofsteps just outside the door once again picked up, though they somehow managed to sound both heavier and lighter than before at the same time. Just as before, the door to the small cottage clicked and opened without pause to reveal an alicorn standing in the doorway. An alicorn Sunset instantly recognized, and yet barely knew, with eyes unwaveringly set on her. "…Princess Luna?"