Unexpected Aftermath

by Autum Breeze


Chapter 14

Chapter 14

___________________________________________________________

I open my eyes and yawn, stretching out in my bed, before using a wing to lift the covers off me and hop down and trot out of my room.

A maid is waiting with my breakfast at the dining table and I settle in for my meal of bacon, eggs and hash browns with a glass of apple juice.

Once finished, I thank the maid and head out, her taking my dishes to the kitchen.

It’s been about a week since I confronted Celestia, Luna and Star Swirl about Somba’s Alicornhood and the danger of the chance information of it could be easily found if we’re not careful.

Twilight’s been staying here in the Empire, helping Maresbury sort through the Empire’s library, her keeping a keen eye out for anything that seems even remotely related to Sombra’s findings that let him turn into an Alicorn.

So far, they’ve found nothing and, thanks to Twilight’s help, almost 2/3 of the library is now sorted.

I’d like to think this means there’s nothing left to find, that Platinum’s journal was the last trace that could lead to anypony learning the truth about Alicorns, but I’ve learned never to count your chickens before they’ve hatched.

My earlier time here in Equestria is proof enough of that. I still remember when the idea of simply not being treated with hostility was something I thought never impossible, even when I’d found Applejack’s parents.

There’s always the chance something might be found.

That’s not all, of course. Celestia and Luna are having the Royal Guard search their old castle from top to bottom, with orders to bring every book, scroll or anything that looks like it could’ve been important once upon a time, to Celestia’s personal study, herself and Luna planning on going over everything personally with a fine tooth comb.

Twilight even checked her library before coming to the Empire, since a good number of those books came from Celestia, so could’ve unintentionally held something important within their pages.

I walk out of the castle, with two Crystal Guards flanking me, but from a slight distance.

Aside from Flash, most of the guard have come to like me. My respectful actions and snarky at times nature endearing me to them.

To put it simply, they felt they could be themselves around me and understood that, while I am a princess, I am still just a pony like them, with my own wants and interests, so they try to give me space while still doing their job to the best of their abilities.

As we pass the stadium the Equestria Games had been held in, I hear a familiar sound before weight is on my back that wasn’t seconds ago.

“You really like just teleporting onto my back, don’t you?” I ask with a smirk.

Flurry coos and laughs in response, hugging me around the neck.

The guards give light chuckles and I roll my eyes, but smile and we start off back on our walk, though, focusing on Flurry, I fail to realize I walked into the stadium itself.

Since there aren’t any big events happening, it’s not like it’s closed off to the public or anything, so nopony stopped me, clearly seeing nothing odd about the two youngest princesses going inside the stadium.

There’s even a small tour happening.

I can see a hippogriff and a changeling among the group of mostly normal unicorns.

I don’t really pay it much thought, since it’d be rude to just interrupt a tour, plus I don’t feel like dealing with ponies from outside the Empire realizing who I am, either mistaking me for Cozy due to not being in the know or somehow knowing and wanting to ask me questions I probably can’t answer.

As I turn to head in the opposite direction of the tour, however, Flurry makes a sound and turns my head with her magic to look back at the group.

“What?” I glance at her over my shoulder. “It’s just a bunch of ponies and other creatures getting a tour. What, did you wanna join the tour too?”

She shakes her head, making an “Uh uh” kinda sound, before pointing at the group.

I look back at them again and don’t see what it is that has the baby Alicorn so fascinated.

Deciding Flurry must just be playing a game, but knowing full well she won’t stop unless I play along, I decide to head over.

“Sorry to interrupt,” I call as I get near, causing the ruby red Crystal Pony mare to stop whatever she was saying, drawing all attention to myself. “Princess Flurry Heart wanted to see you all… I think. Despite how close we are, it’s still hard to figure this foal out.”

Flurry blows as raspberry at me.

There’s your typical “awws” from the crowd that would follow a baby doing something, before a voice I was not expecting speaks from within the group.

“Wait. Since when were there two Alicorn foals?”

The tour group parts a bit… and my jaw drops as I look at a yellow unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane and tail and a red and yellow sun Cutie Mark.

Okay, I was not expecting to just randomly run into Sunset Shimmer of all ponies here in the Empire today, if at all.

But… wait, something’s different about her.

She seems, I dunno, younger, I guess? Her legs look a little stockier than I remember from her last appearance as a pony in Spring Breakdown. Plus, she seems shorter too.

Not to mention her hair’s in more of a ponytail style, kinda like Sci-Twi’s was after Friendship Games. She’s wearing glasses like Sci-Twi too.

“Sunset, didn’t Twilight ever tell you about me?” I ask before I can catch myself, cursing internally. “And what’s with the hair and glasses? Are you trying to go undercover or something?”

The unicorn replies with a raised eyebrow. “Why would one of the princesses of this world talk to me? I’m nobody special. And what about my hair and glasses?”

Now I’m the one raising an eyebrow. “Uh, the journal? You know, the one you got when you met Starlight Glimmer for the first time? And why wouldn’t I know you name?”

That also seems to confuse her further. “Um, why would a little baby give me a journal to talk to the princess?”

Okay, seriously, what? I am so lost now.

“Sunset, are you feeling okay?” I ask, the others in the tour seeming to understand something’s up and all start moving away to give us privacy.

The younger than normal mare frowns. “I’m fine, aside from the fact I now know the Royal Family are somehow aware of who I am and think a baby is connected to me somehow.”

What in Equestria is she talking about? I am so confused.

A tap on my head makes me look back to Flurry, who points to Sunset.

“Sunset?” I ask.

Oddly, Flurry shakes her head, pointing at Sunset again.

“Not… Sunset?” I ask, now confused by the foal.

She nods, then shakes her head.

What?

“Um, I do apologise if I seem rude, Your Highness,” Sunset pulls my attention back to her, “but, I think I should rejoin my tour group. Touring that swamp was fine and all, but I really want to explore this Empire. It wasn’t here before.”

I roll my eyes. “Well, obviously, when you were younger it wasn’t here. The Empire was gone for a thousand years and only came back a few years ago. You know that. How else could you have stolen the crown back then?”

Sunset suddenly gets angry at me. “Crown? What crown? I’ve never stolen any crown! How dare you accuse me of something like that! Royalty or not, that’s just rude as hay!”

At first, I’m taken aback by her unexplained anger… but then her words just leave me baffled.

“What’re you talking about? The crown? CHS? The Fall Formal? Any of this ringing a bell?”

Sunset is still angry, though confusion enters her expression. “What do you mean? None of my schools ever had a fall formal. And what’s CHS supposed to mean? Is that like the IRS? Why bring something like that up?”

I open my mouth to continue, before I pause, something occurring to me and I glance back at Flurry. I point to the yellow mare.

“Sunset?”

She nods.

“Not Sunset?” I ask, still pointing.

She nods again.

I frown, thinking it over, before deciding to ask a question I hadn’t thought of before, because the idea had never even crossed my mind.

“Are you the Human Sunset Shimmer?”

To that, she gets a slightly condescending look. “What, is there any other kind of me?”

My jaw drops again.

Holy shit. This is the Sunset from EQG! What in Celestia name is she doing here in the Empire?

___________________________________________________________

We’re sitting in the room the princesses, Shining, Zecora, Star Swirl and I were using over a week ago, myself, Cadance and Sunset sitting around the table.

We’re waiting for two more to arrive.

“Is there a reason for all this?” Sunset grumbles, forelegs folded.

Soon as I’d realized this wasn’t the Sunset I knew of, I’d used my power as a princess to order her to come with me to the castle.

She’d clearly been about to object, but apparently then remember I’m royalty and decided it was better not to argue.

I’d had one guard stay with us, while the other I told to rush off to the castle to inform either Cadance or Shining what was going on, as well as have them inform another guard tell Twilight and Maresbury to pause their work and the former to join us at the castle.

Soon as Twilight had clapped eyes on the unicorn, the confusion and understanding went so fast, it kind of unnerved me.

Next thing I knew, Twilight had teleported away, without explaining why.

That’s leads us to now, with all of us still waiting to see if Twilight’s going to return or at least send a scroll to inform us why she just up and teleported away like that.

I sigh, looking to the unicorn. “Sunset, I want to explain to you, but we should wait for Twilight to come back. It’ll be easier the less we have to repeat the explanations. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

Sunset gives me a look, glancing to Cadance, who simply nods.

I do appreciate how much faith Cadance has in me. I’ve made her question the wisdom of that faith every once in a while, but I’ve always come through, confirming it justified, so it feels nice that she’s putting complete faith in me this time, not even giving me questioning looks.

Suddenly, the room’s full of a blinding flash as Twilight teleports back into the room, but with another by side.

Sunset’s jaw drops open as she stares at an equally shocked, slightly taller and less stocky looking Sunset.

“And I think that answers most of the questions already,” Cadance smiles and I chuckle, before asking the two newcomers to sit down… though that takes a few moments, since Sunset seems to have mentally shutdown at the sight of another her.

Once Sunset has sat down alongside Twilight and the two identical mares have somewhat composed themselves, I start of by asking the younger Sunset what she was doing before coming to the Empire.

She’d mentioned a swamp, so, I’d had a few theories while we’d been waiting, but had kept them to myself. Choosing to wait until I had further information.

Turns out, my theories weren’t too far off the mark.

The swamp Young Sunset had referred to was indeed Hayseed Swamp. As she told us what she could remember, I noticed similarities to what Bright Mac and Pear Butter had told me happened to them before they found me there, meaning she must’ve somehow caught Swamp Fever and miraculously been cured (we still have no clue how every creatures afflicted by Swamp Fever got cured, not to mention the trees seem to have simply vanished) like them.

It also explained why she was so much younger than our Sunset. She’d technically been frozen in time once turned into a tree, just like every other creature.

That did bring up the question of why Young Sunset was here in Equestria in order for her to end up infected in the first place.

Young Sunset went on to explain that, not too long ago, by her perspective, at least, she’d failed to get into the Everton program, the same one Sci-Twi had been trying to get into.

Though, it wasn’t actually so much she’d failed as she was too young, so Everton had told her to wait until after high school.

Angered, she’d run away from home to try and find something that would made Everton take her in.

The uneasy look our Sunset gave told me she was seeing the similarities between the two of them, as Sunset being headstrong and assuming she was always right was the reason she’d gone as far as she did, especially when she didn’t get what she wanted when she wanted it… and it seemed her human self was quite similar in that regard.

As Young Sunset goes on, she mentions traveling to an island Twilight, our Sunset and I immediately figure out is the one from Spring Breakdown.

The giant man eating plant hadn’t so much scared Young Sunset as it had intrigued her.

However, while trying to study it without letting it eat her, she’d fallen through the natural portal and found herself in Equestria as a pony.

With no idea how she’d gotten into that cave, she’d simply wandered around, fascinated by the changes in her body.

Once she’d found a way out, she’d travelled through the Everfree, studying it, thinking she could use what she’d learned to get into Everton… only to unintentionally wind up near a Swamp Fever tree and becoming infected.

Not really focused due to being sick, Sunset had continued on through the Everfree, stumbling completely by chance on Hayseed Swamp, only to find herself suddenly surrounded by multiple ponies and other creatures.

She’d then found a temporary place to stay until she got a hold of herself and then decided to do some exploring around Equestria, see if anyone could explain why she was a pony and help her get into Everton.

“And that included taking a tour of the Crystal Empire?” Twilight asked, confused.

Young Sunset shook her head. “After deciding the swamp wasn’t for me, I thought this empire was a good place to set up until I could find my way home. At least, that’s what I told myself,” she finishes, looking down dejectedly.

The five of us glance at each other, before Cadance chooses to speak.

“What do you mean, Sunset? Has something changed?”

Young Sunset glances to our Sunset, before sighing, leaning her head against a hoof. “When you learn you were turned into a tree and stuck that way for years, it’s pretty hard to keep your motivations.”

“You don’t want to go to Everton?” our Sunset asks.

Her double shakes her head. “What’s the point? All I wanted was to prove myself, but after all these years…” she sighs. “They probably think I just gave up. I’d have to reapply all over again, not to mention explain my absence for all that time.”

“What about my— um, your family?” our Sunset asks, her choice of words making me cock an eyebrow.

Young Sunset looks to her double, before sighing, her body sagging. “They probably think I’m dead. Would it even matter, now? I’m in another world, with no idea how I even got here.”

“Well, about that…” our Sunset rubs her the back of her head nervously. “Do you… know how things have been in Sire’s Hollow since you left?”

Young Sunset looks shocked for a moment, before slumping down again. “Of course, since this pony world’s a mirror of mine, you have a Sire’s Hollow too.”

Our Sunset takes a deep breath, before sighing. “Sunset… your family don’t think you’re dead… because I’ve met them.”

My ears perk up. Hello, this is new.

To her double’s questioning look, our Sunset explains.

As she talks however, I realize she’s talking about the Anon-A-Miss thing from that Christmas comic a long while back.

Unlike in the comic, it hadn’t been so easily settled.

Once Sunset had felt alienated from everyone, she’d run away from school, taking a random bus, not knowing where it was going.

By sheer dumb luck, she’d gotten on a bus that passed by the EQG Sire’s Hollow.

She admits she’s embarrassed that, in her at the time emotional state, so desperate for someone to not hate her anymore, her mind had briefly forgotten what world she was in and she’d just automatically gone to her family’s home and knocked on the door.

When Stellar Flare had answered (yes, it turns out Stellar Flare is Sunset’s mother, which makes a little too much sense, when you stop and think about it), the woman had been absolutely shocked and burst into tears, holding Sunset close, Sunset, feeling a caring embrace, had reciprocated, the two falling to their knees, holding each other and crying.

It had taken a while, but, by the time the two had composed themselves, Sunburst had arrived back home.

The man had been shocked to see whom he thought was his sister and, so happy to just be in a loving environment again, Sunset hadn’t corrected them… until the rest of the Humane 6 at the time had found her and come to apologize.

Sunset still had her location on for Trotter, so they’d been able to find her once things had calmed down and they’d learned the truth.

It was then Sunset had come clean to Stellar Flare and Sunburst… but the two hadn’t been angry with her. In fact, they were still willing to let her be part of their family, since they had assumed their Sunset was dead.

“I don’t live with them, but I go every two or three nights for dinner or lunch,” Our Sunset says as she finishes her story. “Sometimes breakfast, if everything works out right.”

Young Sunset looks like she can’t tell if she feels sad, angry or guilty.

“I’m staying then.”

We all look to her, confused.

“Here, in Equestria, I mean,” she answers our questioning looks, before looking down at the table. “I don’t belong in the human world anymore.”

“Whoa, hang on now,” our Sunset says, Cadance and Twilight looking like they too wanted to protest.

I, however, look at Young Sunset sadly. I think I can understand what her reasoning is.

Our Sunset has been living as the human world’s Sunset for almost four years now. In that time, she’s aged with that world while making a place for herself there.

This Sunset, however, is the exact same age she was when she left that world and came here, to Equestria.

If she were to return now, there was be questions about why she seemed younger, along with the fact there’d be two of her now, which would be much harder to explain.

“But… but that’s not right,” our Sunset says after I explain the younger’s reasoning, herself confirming my belief. “It’s your world, not mine! I don’t have the right to take your place!”

Is it mine?” Young Sunset looks to ours. “Think about it, Sunset. You’ve been living there for all these years. You’re the Sunset everyone associates with the name. You’re the one who has official records going through freshman year and onwards at a high school, while I don’t. Without meaning to, you’ve naturally established a life for yourself there. I can’t live there too if you’re there and I won’t take that life away from you for myself.”

“I… but… no, Sunset, I…” our Sunset looks to us for help… but we can’t really give any.

Young Sunset has a point. I had no clue about our Sunset’s family relations and, from what I’ve heard throughout this meeting, our Sunset has yet to try making up with her family here, while having a seemingly strong one with the human version.

“Having no family is a fitting punishment,” the younger Sunset says, standing up and making to leave. “I wouldn’t listen when others told me to take it slow. I only thought what I wanted mattered and, for it, I was trapped as a tree for years, while another me took my place in my world. I deserve to have nothing here.”

There’s silence, before our Sunset snarl, slamming her hoof on the table, startling all of us, making Flurry cling tighter to me.

“No,” she glares, getting up and stomping over to the younger pony. “If I can be given a second chance, there’s no reason you aren’t allowed to have one either, Sunset!”

“But… how can I face them?” she looks away from her older self, tears in her eyes. “I abandoned them. Plus, how could you explain us both existing there. That would expose this world to ours. You’ve lived in my world for four years now. You know how fucked up humans can be!”

Twilight and Cadance give each other confused looks, while I stay silent and indicate for them to do the same. This isn’t for us to interfere in.

Our Sunset snorts. “You’re right, I do know how fucked up humans can be. It wasn’t exactly easy for me when I first got to that world. But, I’m not talking about that world.”

The glasses pony gives a confused, “Huh?”

Our Sunset’s expression calms, before she looks understandingly at the younger pony. “I feel the same way about my family as you do yours. I think… I know a way we can both have a loving family, without causing problems for either world.”