//------------------------------// // Reflections, Part II // Story: Forgotten: Sunrise // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// The throbbing tension headaches brought on by complete magical exhaustion are unfortunately one of the quickest and most unpleasant ways unicorns learn their limits. Cold compresses may appear to help, but it mostly acts as a placebo, and the only remedy is to let the pulsating pains run their course as the horn's magical energies recharge. Sunset would have gone outside and dunked her head in the river, were she able to currently stand up. She hadn't experienced complete magical exhaustion since her first semester at Celestia's school, and she had forgotten how absolutely unpleasant it was. The first and only time it happened, she spent the next three days in bed with cool damp cloths over her face. Disenchanting the museum wall had come close, but she had definitely pushed herself too far this time. So here she laid in the near-pitch black, bearing the pain as best she could, wondering how long it would be until the pain lessened enough for her to move and find something close to a remedy, it was clear that whatever noise her commotion down here made was not heard or noticed by the guards outside. The throbbing quickly robbed her of the ability to keep track of time, but if somepony had heard something, they would have checked it out by now. The unicorn lightly wiggled her back right hoof, giving her mind something, anything else to focus on. At the very least it was pitch black and quiet in here, save for her own breathing and whimpering; magical exhaustion frequently brought on a crippling sensitivity to light and sound for the duration. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she heard hoofsteps close by. Had the guards outside heard the commotion? She didn't summon the willpower to raise her head to look until she felt a hoof gently touch her side. Head still throbbing, she slowly opened her eyes, and they immediately widened when she looked up, and saw the visage of her long-gone teacher and mentor, Princess Celestia. "Why so glum, my former student?" Sunset closed her eyes again. 'I've finally done it. I've gone insane,' the unicorn thought to herself. The hoof on her side moved up to her head, and she felt a soft tingly sensation, and the throbbing in her head lessened, then faded completely over several moments. This grabbed her attention immediately. Still not willing to use her horn in such an exhausted state, she opened her eyes, rolled to her hooves, and eyed the towering white alicorn with caution. The aura coming off of her brightened the room just a bit. "Alright, you're not really Celestia..." Sunset claimed, thinking back to some of her last correspondences with Twilight. She remembered something about a spirit underneath her castle and school. Sunny even told her she had encountered it in the caves underneath the remains of the school. "The Tree of Harmony? What do you want?" Sunset asked. "For you to not make a very grievous and tragic error," the spirit replied, motioning lightly to the books scattered all about the room. Finally, the bit dropped for Sunset. It wasn't residual magic from the mirror; this spirit had been shielding them from her spells. "These books are dangerous. A forest could have burned down, homes and businesses could have been lost, because these unicorns haven't had magic in generations, and they don't know what they're dealing with," Sunset protested. "And destroying them will help them know?" Sunset scoffed and began to pace back and forth in the middle of the room, knocking away the books in her path aside with her hooves, as the spirit merely watched silently. "Destroying these tomes will not protect these unicorns forever, Sunset Shimmer. You must know that." Sunset looked up at the spirit, looking into her mentor's pale magenta eyes. "Keeping them around won't do them any good either." "Tell me how you know that." "Because an inexperienced unicorn got too curious and nearly burned a tree down, which could have very easily spread to the rest of the forest! To other homes!" Sunset shouted. "And you stopped this fire?" "N... No. Another unicorn did. With a weather spell, that gave her a splitting headache for days." "It sounds like they need someone to guide them in their curiosities." "There isn't anyone," Sunset replied. "But there is," the spirit retorted, again raising a hoof, and pointed it directly at the unicorn, whose expression turned to disbelief, before her gaze lowered to the ground, looking at the spell tomes scattered about the room. "What if you're wrong? What if these books are wrong? All this knowledge, all this magic... Everything that Princess Twilight accomplished, and Equestrian civilization still split apart!" Sunset was surprised at her own words. Had that been her concern all along? Had her fear of history repeating itself been the driving force behind this escapade of hers? Sunny had said it herself; a great deal of the threats to Equestria revolved around artifacts and powerful spells. Generations upon generations of collected magical knowledge, and the unity that Twilight and her friends and proteges had championed... Had not been enough. The incredible magic that had helped change and transform her into a better person and pony had not been enough for Equestria. That fact shook Sunset Shimmer to her absolute core. "Time moves inexorably onward, Sunset Shimmer, and civilizations and societies rise and fall as surely as the sun does. It is the nature of existence. If you let the fear of failure paralyze you, you will be doomed to remain stagnant and stationary. The fire that this unicorn caused due to lack of expertise, do you think that curiosity won't befall other unicorns weeks, months, or years from now? You are one of the very rare individuals that has experienced multiple dimensions, and multiple eras. You have the opportunity to help shape and guide willing minds in the ways of magic, and your extensive knowledge rivals that of Twilight and Starswirl. Do you really want to keep that locked away within yourself, and have it fade to history? Do you truly think the magic portal that thrust you forward this many generations did so for no reason at all? A new dawn is coming, after eons of separation and darkness, and you can be the sunrise for these unicorns, and guide them into a whole new world." Sunset wasn't sure how long she stood there, staring down at the books with the spirit's words repeating in her head, but when she looked up again, the form of Princess Celestia had vanished. The throbbing headache was gone, but she didn't dare use her horn yet; better to let it recharge. She dug into her saddlebags, found her phone, saw that the battery was dead, and instead took out her lantern, finding that it fortunately had enough of a charge to last at least an hour. Without using her horn, she went around the entire room, carefully avoiding the broken mirror shards, and gathered up the books, stacking them in the center of the room. When they had all been gathered, she picked up the lantern, and headed up the stairs out into the main hall, and towards the front door. She turned the lantern off, gave the right large door a yank, and it opened with a creak, startling the guard who had been sitting on the stairs just outside. "Yah!" Thunder gasped, leaping to his hooves and whipping around. His frightened expression softened when he realized who it was, and also as Zoom came up to his side. "Miss Shimmer? How long have you been in there?" She asked. "H-How do they do that? We've been sitting here for hours. I swear sometimes I think this posting is a prank," Thunder complained. "Can we help you, Miss Shimmer? Is everything alright?" Zoom Zephyrwing asked, seeing how tired the unicorn looked, not to mention the fresh cut on her left cheek. "If you can do me a very big favor, I need a one-pony cargo wagon." Sunny Starscout sat at her dining table, nibbling at her leftover pizza that had gone cold a half hour ago. She hadn't had much of an appetite the past couple days, since Sunset vanished without a trace. Countless texts and calls to the unicorn's phone had gone unanswered. There were most certainly other troves of knowledge out there, long forgotten, that she would hopefully discover. But right now, the earth mare's biggest fear is that Sunset would beat her to all of the ones she knew of. Every time she tried her best to consider the unicorn's point of view, she always circled back to her initial position; destroying knowledge and history as a precaution was wrong. The soft sounds of the evening tides crashing against the coastal cliffs was interrupted by a knock on her front door. Looking up from her pizza, she got up from her chair, and went over to the door, pulling it open, and was very surprised to see Sunset standing there, with a wagon full of books behind her. Tears filled the unicorn's eyes, and her lips trembled as her gaze met Sunny's, and she took one shaky breath. "I'm sorry, Sunny. I'm so very sorry," Sunset greeted on her unsteady exhale. Relief had washed over the earth pony when she saw the books in the wagon, as well as Sunset's look of grief on her face. She stepped out onto her doormat and pulled the unicorn into a reassuring hug as she quivered with emotions. She held her for a few moments, then pulled away, and gave her a soft smile. "Come on in."