Sunset had just finished modeling the leather vest for Rarity and returned it to the rack, while a satisfied Sweetie Belle headed off to her room after a long session of being a secondary assistant to her big sister. It was time for both unicorn mares to travel to Manehattan and meet up with the client who ordered the attire. Although she already mistakenly ended up in Manehattan after falling asleep on the train yesterday, Sunset decided it would still be a nice opportunity to continue spending time with Rarity if they were able to travel there together. After all, worrying too much about getting to the coronation didn't give her much room to truly explore the marvelous sights of the city, much like with Canterlot during the Wallflower memory incident. The only issue she could immediately foresee was that she'd likely need to go back to home to Canterlot first for some bits in order to purchase another train ticket.
"All right, so now that the vest is good to go, I suppose we can travel to Manehattan now?" Sunset asked. "You did mention your client will give you a much bigger bonus if you got there early, right?"
"Very much so." Rarity replied. "Miss Valencia will surely be pleased to the point where she'll pay extra and even recommend my line to everypony in Equestria. She is a powerful influencer in the clothing market, after all."
"Valencia?" Sunset began to think back on who that might be. "That name sounds familiar, even to me. I want to say I've met her once in my adventures back in the human world?"
"Oh, well there you have it!" Rarity exclaimed in excitement. "That goes to show how well known she is. In the meantime, we might as well take the train, since it appears to be arriving at the west Ponyville station in about 15 minutes. Perfect timing, I'd say! Since I regularly have to travel for delivering my clients' orders, I do have a creator's pass which allows me to take the train at no charge, plus one guest. Since you would want to explore more of Equestria, you're welcome to come with me, dear."
"Really? That's great!" Sunset said with delight, now knowing the train ticket problem was solved. "Since we're heading to Manehattan to deliver the order, will that give us some time to check out some of the city together?"
"Well, not quite." Rarity replied. "See, once I arrive to Manehattan, I'll also have to fill out some paperwork while attending a meeting with other fashionistas. After which, I'm expected to also attend the beauty pageant itself and act as a photographer during the showoff segment. You're certainly welcome to take part in the event, admission is free and all. But I'm afraid we most likely won't have time together there."
"Oh, really?" Sunset said with a little disappointment. "Well, I suppose I could try to enjoy Manehattan by myself, but it certainly would be nice to have somepony join me. Are any of our friends going to be there too?"
"Actually, come to think of it..." Rarity began. "Starlight did mention to me this morning that she was going to be somewhere around Manehattan. Perhaps you two could be travel buddies for a few hours while I take care of my business responsibilities."
"All right, cool!" Sunset said with her optimism back. "It'd be nice to spend time with her, since I haven't really met anyone whom I can truly connect with as far as having a troubled past."
"Very nice then, onward to the train station!" Rarity announced happily before taking the leather vest off the rack and putting it in a fancy bag.
Rarity and Sunset had just arrived in Manehattan after getting off the train. The memories of anxiety began to slowly inch up to Sunset, as the last time she was here, there was a scenario of panic involving becoming critically late to a big event. Since the event was well over by this point, she had nothing to worry about and had a whole luxurious city to fully explore. Admittedly, Sunset had never seen Manehattan much, or was truly familiar with what the city contained. This began to feel like yet another effect from her living in Canterlot, as she stayed there during a majority of her time in Equestria.
She used to always feel that being a pony who lived in Canterlot gave her privileges above anypony else, to where caring about other cities and landscapes wasn't of her interest in the slightest. Due to this, Sunset felt this would be a great change, being able to finally appreciate the outer world she had neglected for so long, even if it was considered to be an inferior lower-class compared to Canterlot. Going with Rarity into the city, Sunset was luckily able to spot Starlight a short distance away, casually sitting outside at a restaurant's table by herself. As she had mentioned previously, Rarity had to go attend an important meeting, so she waved goodbye to Sunset and went about her own way, as Sunset trotted over to the restaurant.
"Hey again, Starlight." Sunset greeted the one friend she always found immensely relatable, before taking a seat with her. "Seems like a good day to be in Manehattan, right? Pretty nice to just relax and get away from all the hard work in our everyday lives."
"Hi, Sunset." Starlight greeted back. "Yeah, admittedly, I could certainly use a break after everything the School of Friendship puts me through. Being a guidance counselor isn't exactly the easiest job in Equestria."
"I understand." Sunset said. "What are you doing here by yourself, by any chance? Mostly to explore Manehattan?"
"Yeah, I just felt like seeing more of Equestria now that I have some free time. You're welcome to join me in that activity, if you wish. Right now though, I'm just grabbing a bite to eat, as this restaurant opened up recently, so I thought I'd check it out. I've been told it's a place many other ponies would certainly recommend, and that the food's certainly 5 stars. Would you like to order something with me as soon as the waiter's ready?"
"Well I would, but I unfortunately left my saddlebag and money back at home." Sunset replied. "It's okay though, I already had some muffins along the way, I'm sure I'll manage."
"Don't worry about paying, I'll handle it." Starlight assured. "You are both my friend and guest, after all. We didn't get too much time to know each other last time you returned to Equestria, so I'd figure this would be a nice time for us to bond."
"That's really nice of you." Sunset smiled.
By perfect timing, the waitress finally came out of the restaurant, ready to take orders. Both Sunset and Starlight's eyes widened when they saw who it was. They had a seemingly mutual feeling of anxiety as the pony before them sparked unpleasant memories during their first adventure together. However, both of them tried their best to keep calm and carry on casually without acting unusual.
"Hello there, I'll be your waitress this fine afternoon!" Juniper Montage said with enthusiasm. "What can I get started for you today at the Manehattan Eatery?"
"Hi, could I just get a simple order of hayburger and fries, please?" Starlight ordered.
"Yeah, I'll have the same thing she's having." Sunset requested, not really being too picky on food, as her absence in Equestria gave her less of a palette to choose from.
"Coming right up!" Juniper said as she wrote down the orders and returned to the restaurant's kitchen.
"Starlight, did you just get déjà vu from that?" Sunset questioned.
"If you were thinking about a certain magical mirror and giant movie star monster, then you just read my mind." Starlight responded. "At least we won't need to worry about anything this time, since we both got our magic. But... let's move on from that unpleasant experience, and get to know each other a bit better while we wait for our food."
"Agreed." Sunset nodded, before returning back to the previous conversation. "So hey, you run a school yourself? That sounds pretty impressive. The most I've ever been is a student, and hey, even being Princess Celestia's pupil only still entailed being once again, a student. I've never heard of this school before, besides small mentions from Twilight writing to me."
"Oh yeah, it's a more recent institution Twilight and I set up." Starlight explained. "Let's just say that having almost every creature here in Equestria becoming acquainted with ponies wouldn't have been possible if not for the school. Yaks, griffins, hippogriffs, dragons, changelings, you name it. To be honest, I've always been surprised at how far I've come in both my life and career. I went from a manipulative village ruler who believed everypony should be equal, to a caring psychological advisor for a school encouraging all sorts of creatures and ponies to feel proud about being different."
"Tell me about it." Sunset related to Starlight's words. "I used to be a manipulative bully myself, who shunned ponies interested in being my friends, took Princess Celestia for granted, and even worse, ruled CHS with an iron fist. Honestly, Starlight? It's kind of become a form of psychological relief for me ever since I met you and learned more about your past. It just... feels nice to have somepony to relate with and understand where you've been your whole life. I mean, how many friends have you made also share as troubled a past as yours?"
"I know, right?" Starlight replied. "Before I met you, I felt more connected with ponies like Trixie, just for the fact that I was able to understand her on at least a smaller level. She's mentioned taking over Ponyville for a while after obtaining the Alicorn Amulet and creating many forms of turmoil. Honestly, that still seemed like nothing compared to what I did. Trixie wanted revenge on Twilight for ruining her show after the incident with the Ursa Minor, and I wanted to get back at Twilight for interfering with my beliefs and structure of a society where everypony was equal. But to her credit, she eventually helped me understand why those beliefs were wrong."
"While it feels like I never had any direct resentment toward Twilight, I still fall under that category for stealing her crown." Sunset reflected. "I was more bitter toward Princess Celestia at the time, mostly for not giving me what I wanted when I felt I was ready. And that unfortunately led me to be at my worst when I was all alone in the other world at CHS. All those years of shunning potential friends resulted in me becoming the nastiest bully imaginable. Whenever I reflect on that point in my life, I always look back in shame."
"I guess I could say the same too when Sunburst moved away during our youth. "Starlight related. "Like I've mentioned before, after he saved me from that stack of books and got his cutie mark, I felt I was abandoned. I made myself believe that cutie marks would take any potential future friends away from me, and started my village of equality. Little did I know, I was just taking away individuality from those ponies which made them special."
"I see." Sunset listened on. "Now I don't have much room to speak myself, considering I was never close with my own family to bother keeping in touch with them, but I am now curious. Was there a reason you never kept in touch with Sunburst? I never kept in touch with my parents since I grew up as an overachiever who believed socializing was a waste of time."
"I'm thinking because I wasn't really told where he went off to?" Starlight reasoned. "Even if I had the motivation to write to him, he and his family did end up moving away before I even got a chance to ask for where he'd be after. I was still in a state of emotional shock and rather heartbroken after seeing him just leave me. But I learned later on that Sunburst actually only moved away with his dad to continue the rest of his new life, while his mother stayed behind in Sire's Hollow."
"He only grew up with a dad, just like I did?" Sunset began to brainstorm. "And you say this friend of yours was named Sunburst, just like my name, Sunset. Would you think it's a coincidence that we both have sun attributes in our names, along with the fact we only grew up with a dad in our lives? The only real difference I can see is that my dad and I lived in Ponyville, whereas you mention Sunburst and his dad lived in some place name named Sire's Hollow."
"Oh, no. I think you misunderstood." Starlight clarified. "His mom stayed behind in that town, but as for Sunburst and his father, all I was really told was that he moved to Canterlot to pursue his path in studying magic. I never actually questioned Sunburst on where his father lived after their move, but I would presume he moved there with him? Somepony did have to take care of him since he was still a little colt at the time. Either that, or his dad moved somewhere else, while he was placed under the care of Canterlot."
"Hmm, if that's the case, that would also explain why I only grew up with a dad before moving to Canterlot, and why I've never heard of anypony named Sunburst before you mentioned him to me." Sunset kept thinking. "Do you have any idea why his parents split up?"
"Unfortunately, that's all I was really told from Sunburst regarding his family." Starlight continued. "That, and the fact he's often been frustrated with how persistent his mother keeps sending him letters to ask about his future plans, when he and I returned to Sire's Hollow for a while. If I'm being honest, Sunset? It really was a shame to find out after all those years I felt abandoned, I could've simply asked his mom where Sunburst moved to, so I could've kept in touch with him. I always thought Sunburst and his entire family moved away after he got his cutie mark, but that apparently wasn't the case. And to think I almost caused Equestria to become a desolate wasteland when I was going up against Twilight with my time travel spells."
"Wait, you did what now?" Sunset asked from confusion, as her previous thought of Sunburst's parents were suddenly derailed.
"Oh yeah, I guess I never really talked about that." Starlight said with shame. "By changing the past to where Twilight and the rest of her friends never met, it somehow caused massive changes in the future that resulted in awful outcomes. It even got to a point where nothing in Equestria remained, as everything and everyone got obliterated. I single hoofedly almost caused Equestria to be completely wiped out, all because one childhood friend moved away. Yeah, I admit, my motives to do everything I did were very weak, and I would've ended up doing something I would've heavily regretted in the long run. Never really shared this with anypony else, since I'd imagine they'd believe I'm crazy or psychotic. And honestly, now that you've heard this, I wouldn't blame you for being afraid of me and thinking I've been a messed up pony for most of my life."
While Sunset was a little shaken up by what Starlight revealed, she couldn't help but feel Starlight was rather noble about opening up about something so serious.
"While I'm a little surprised to hear you went through all that, I'm kinda in a similar boat." Sunset explained. "After stealing Twilight's crown and putting it on myself, I turned into an actual she-demon bent on taking over Equestria with my own little army of personal human zombies. I planned on returning to Equestria to exact revenge against Princess Celestia while using my new powers to also create the literal destruction of this world we're both in right now. So needless to say, it even feels like further mental relief to learn I now know somepony who can even understand where I've been in almost doing irreversible damage to all of Equestria. And it sounds like in both of our cases, it was because of Twilight that neither of us ended up going through with what we planned to do back then."
"Yikes, sorry to hear you had to go through that as well." Starlight replied. "When you first mentioned something like that during our first adventure together, I didn't realize it was to that extent. But you're right, it's nice to actually meet somepony you could connect with on such an immense level. Not even Trixie was capable of doing something as insane and unpredictable as I did. Both of us truly were one-of-a-kind mentally unstable unicorns back in the day, weren't we?"
"Yep..." Sunset agreed. "But hey, now that we both got each other and all sorts of other friends, we're been living the lives we've always wanted, right? All thanks to Twilight, it's no wonder she's the Princess of Friendship. Although I've had the ambitious wish of becoming a princess myself for so long, I instead now feel a lot happier in the path she's helped me take. Plus, let's just say I've learned over time that being a princess and leader is a much bigger responsibility than you would think."
"I could say the same about running a village." Starlight responded. "I agree though, like I mentioned before, thanks to Twilight, I would've never met Trixie or found Sunburst again. Speaking of Sunburst, would you like me to introduce you to him sometime later this week? It sounds like to me, you're hoping to find your parents or something?"
"Well, I suppose meeting him and his parents will at least give me a better idea on whether or not they're the biological family I have." Sunset elaborated. "And yes, that's kind of the idea, since like I've mentioned before, I was never particularly close to my family before I moved to Canterlot and became Princess Celestia's pupil. All I knew for absolute certain was that during my days as a filly, I only grew up with a dad, but not a mom. Is it reasonable to surmise that since Sunburst's parents were for whatever reason separated, there's a connection there between his dad and mine?"
"Sure, I can help you two get acquainted whenever I get the word he's not too busy." Starlight offered. "Admittedly, your reasoning does seem to make sense to me, since aside from Sunburst, you're the only other pony in Equestria I'm familiar with who has 'Sun' in their name."
"What about Sunburst's dad though?" Sunset questioned. "After everything that's remained ever since the thought first came to me about looking for my parents, I only have one possible lead. There was a distinct word engraved on the bottom of my saddlebag, which I kept on thinking has to mean something more significant, as I have a definite memory that my dad gave it to me. Is Sunburst's dad named 'Solstice' by any chance?"
"No, I don't believe that's his name." Starlight debunked. "While I've never really known Sunburst's father personally, I'm pretty certain that based on the times Sunburst and I hung out, he vaguely mentioned something about how his dad's name was actually 'Sunspot' and not 'Solstice', as you presume."
"Well... then there's still the possibility of either of those names being a nickname." Sunset believed. "Either way, a single dad with the attribute of 'Sun' in his name is enough of a lead for me to at least check and see whether he's my actual dad or not. I guess if I arrange a time to meet him, I could determine it for myself. The idea is, if he doesn't act strange when I mention the name 'Solstice' to him, or if I just don't recognize him at all myself, even through my vague memories of my father, then he's only Sunburst's dad and not mine. It'd still be worth a try, I'd imagine."
"Sounds like an all right plan to me." Starlight continued. "Plus, I'd certainly be happy to introduce you to my first childhood friend. It'd be nice to see two ponies I've grown to connect with so much finally meet. I'll be sure to contact Sunburst sometime after to meet with you, and if he has time, also introduce you to his father. Assuming Sunspot truly is your dad, that would make Sunburst your brother. Are you sure you've never heard of Sunburst before in your life, or had any vague hints of having a brother?"
"I'm afraid not." Sunset replied. "The very first time I heard a mention of anypony named Sunburst was from you, and I definitely wouldn't remember having a brother in my life, since it was only my dad and I who lived together in Ponyville."
"Hmm, okay, well I'll still arrange this with Sunburst regardless, since I want to help you out." Starlight smiled. "Anything for a good friend who just wants to get closer with their family. I'll admit, for a while, I never really liked my own dad, since he always treated me like a child whenever I came to visit him. But I eventually learned to love him and not take him for granted, as this behavior of his was more an effect of me not visiting him as often as he would've wished."
"A very valuable lesson to learn, since... one day, your family won't be around anymore, regardless of how close you were with them." Sunset moped. "I'm at least things worked out with your own dad, at least. But out of curiosity, what about your mother?"
"Oh, funny story about my mom." Starlight began. "See, when I was just a filly-" But before Starlight could even continue her story, Juniper had just returned with the food made in the time Sunset and Starlight were conversing together.
"All right, two orders of hayburgers and fries, as requested." Juniper announced to the two mares, before setting the plates of food in front of them. "Enjoy, and please be sure to leave a tip!"
"You got it, ma'am." Starlight said to Juniper before turning back to Sunset. "Err, I'll tell you the story some other time."
As Juniper trotted back into the restaurant, Sunset and Starlight began enjoying their meals. Just like with Derpy's muffins, Sunset notably had more enjoyment with this meal than most foods she was accustomed to as a human, since she was able to devour using her natural herbivore taste buds again. She had certainly forgotten what good hay tasted like, and to Sunset, it felt like such a relief, as she remembered attempting to chew on hay as a human didn't exactly work out for her.
"Hungry, aren't you?" Starlight observed as she saw Sunset downing the meal as if she hadn't eaten in a while.
"You bet, haven't had good hay like this in ages." Sunset replied, while finishing off nearly all her fries. "And hey, I just made a realization. At least this time around, our waitress didn't serve us a dish of revenge like she did last time, right?"
"Ha! That's a good one." Starlight said amused, as both unicorns continued to finish up their meals.