“Maybe I should just give up…”
Sunset Shimmer narrowed her gaze slightly as she looked at the downcast student sitting on the couch opposite her. She was looking down at her feet, slightly shuffling her shoes against the carpeted floor of Sunset’s office.
“And what would that accomplish?” Sunset asked, realizing a second too late that her tone was perhaps slightly too confrontational.
The student sighed for what seemed like the dozenth time. “It would be easier. I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore…”
“But would that make you happy?”
“Huh?” The student seemed shocked by Sunset’s question, jolting up to look at the counselor in front of her.
“Answer my question, Willow, honestly and truthfully: Would giving up music make you happy?” Sunset asked again, not breaking off the newly established eye contact.
Willow paused for a moment. “....No. It wouldn’t.” She finally responded.
“Then there’s your answer.” Sunset said, relaxing the tension that had been building up in her posture and leaning back a little. “You can’t give up on something that makes you happy, even if things get tough.”
“Even if I’m not making any progress? Even if I’m not getting any better while everyone else is?”
Sunset smiled. “Just because you don’t feel like you’re making progress doesn’t mean that you aren’t. When I was first learning to play guitar, I remember thinking that I’d never improve. It took me months to reach a point where I could consider myself a novice.”
Although, to be fair, I was just getting used to the concept of having fingers in general at the time, Sunset thought, but that’s besides the point.
“Progress never feels like much when you’re making it. It’s only after, when you look back, can you see how far you’ve come.” It sounded like it came out of some cheesy motivational book, but Sunset went with it anyway. “Have you talked to your bandmates about this?”
Willow sighed yet again. “No, I… didn’t want to bother them with it. I didn’t want to… bring the mood down.”
“You should talk to them about it. Tell them how you’re feeling. Share your worries. They’re your friends. You can rely on them. That’s what friends are for.” It was definitely cheesy at this point, but Sunset didn’t let that deter her. “Nobody gets anywhere going through life ignoring their problems, but you don’t have to face them on your own.”
Willow took a second to process Sunset’s words before replying. “I.. guess you’re right. We’re a team; I can’t just keep everything to myself.” she said.
Sunset lightly smirked. “Of course I am. It’s my job to be right.” she said, but her tone was obviously joking rather than cocky.
Willow chuckled. “If you say so…” she said, smiling for the first time since she’d entered Sunset’s office. “I’ll talk to everyone next practice. Get everything off my chest. They’re my friends. They’ll understand.”
“I’m sure they will.” After all, friendship is magic. Sunset kept that one to herself. It was just too cheesy.
Willow stood up, stretching lightly. “Thanks, Mrs. Shim- I mean, Sunset.”
“Anytime. It’s what I’m here for.” Sunset smiled again, this time genuinely instead of jokingly.. “And don’t forget to take your juice box.” She gestured to one of the two small boxes of orange juice on the table between the two couches.
“I’m not taking the jui-”
“Take it! They’re not cheap, you know. What, you think oranges grow on trees or something?” Sunset quipped, leaning forward and grabbing one of the boxes.
“...Fiiiiine…” Willow groaned, her still present smile betraying her true feelings despite the overly dramatic tone. She reached over and grabbed the remaining juice box before grabbing her bag from where it sat beside the couch exiting Sunset’s office.
Sunset leaned back again and took a sip of her juice box. She was sure that everything would turn out fine. She had seen Willow and her friends around the school; eating lunch together, chatting in the hallways between classes, practicing in the same room The Rainbooms had done so in… They were true friends, and Sunset was confident that they would be able to help their friend overcome her worries.
Sunset once again reflected on how lucky she was to work at Canterlot High. She had heard horror stories about what counselors at other schools had to deal with. Students being severely bullied, attempted suicides… But Canterlot High very rarely had students who had such problems. The school had changed very little since Sunset and her friends had graduated seven-ish years ago. The atmosphere was still that of a place that valued friendship as much as education.
Not that Sunset would have wanted to work anywhere else. Ever since she’d decided on her career path, she only had one place in mind. It wasn’t about trying to make up for the things she’d done in the past anymore. She’d finally accepted those debts were paid, even if she still felt bad about them. No, this was about making sure that Canterlot High stayed a friendly and welcoming place. To lend an ear and a smile and a juice box to those struggling with their problems and worries.
Sunset wondered for the millionth time if this was the true meaning of her cutie mark, or if it even applied in this world. She still wasn’t sure. But what she did know was that she was happy. Even if the hours weren’t great, the pay was crappy, and the government kept slashing her funding, she wouldn’t trade it for the world.
And that, Sunset thought, is the real proof you’ve found your calling. The straw of her juice box made the ear-grating noise that meant that the liquid within was exhausted. She tossed the empty box across the room into her trash can, Although, some more funding really wouldn’t hurt. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to pay for juice boxes myself.
It wasn’t often that Sunset was the last member of the faculty to leave, but today that was the case. She had decided to reograzine her files; she had finally gotten sick of taking several minutes to find anything after putting it off for months and watching the folders stuffed into her filing cabinets pile up to the point where it was nearly impossible to shut them. Twilight had been telling her to fix it for weeks, even devising a (according to her) “perfectly optimal” system, but it wasn’t until today that Sunset had finally buckled down and actually done it.
It’s ironic, Sunset thought as she was locking the doors of the school’s front entrance, I always tell the students to “just do” the things they’ve been putting off, yet I’m guilty of the same thing. Maybe I should take my own advice more.
Sunset normally took the back exit to the school, the one that led to the parking lot, but for some reason she’d felt an urge to exit through the front and walk around. She wasn’t quite sure why. A change of pace? A chance to stretch her legs after hours of being cramped up in her office? Or…
She finished locking up and turned around. There, the late afternoon sun reflecting off it’s white marble surface, was the school’s iconic horse statue, standing atop it’s base with all the majesty a marble statue of a rearing horse could muster. (Which was quite a bit.)
Sunset sighed as she walked towards the base of the statue. Memories, good and bad, flooded her mind. Her time as Princess Celestia’s student, running away through the portal in a fit of entitled anger, ruling Canterlot High with an iron fist, her redemption and subsequent battle with the Dazzlings, all the time she spent with her friends saving the city from magical threats….
Sealing the portal forever…
Sunset put her hand on the front of the statue’s base. Once, this had been the place that two worlds met: The portal to the magical world that had been her birthplace, and the source of all the adventures of her high school years. But now, her hand just met with solid rock. Just as it had been for the last eight and a half years.
“So you’re saying....”
“Yes.” Princess Twilight said, face grim. “The rate that Equestrian magic is entering your world is increasing. At this rate, it won’t be long before we hit a “critical mass” and your world is completely flooded in magic.”
“But would that be a bad thing? I mean, look at all the awesome things we’ve done with our magic!” Rainbow Dash said, puffing out her chest.
“Maybe, but what about all the people who were corrupted by magic, or used it for selfish reasons. If magic spread across the whole world, how many people do you think would take advantage of it for their own ends?” Princess Twilight sighed. “I just don’t think that your world is ready for that.”
“She’s got a point, darlings.” Rarity said. “There are some awful people out there. If any of them got access to magic like Wallflower Blush or Vignette Valencia had…” She shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
“So what do we do about it? What can we do?” Twilight (the human one) asked.
“I think I have a way I can reverse the portal's energy flow. If I’ve done my calculations, correctly, it should suck all the magic out of this world and back into Equestria, sealing the portal behind it,”
Everyone stared at Princess Twilight. “But that would mean…” Sunset began.
Princess Twilight finished for her. “That you’d all lose your magic, and the way to Equestria would be sealed forever.”
Sometimes, Sunset regretted her choice to stay on Earth rather than returning to Equestria. She missed the magic, the way that casting a new spell made her feel alive, fulfilling the calling of her cutie mark…
And then she thought of everything she would have had to have given up. Her friends, her girlfriend, the cozy little apartment she’d lived in, even her tiny audience of Tremor viewers… And she knew that she made the right choice. Equis may have been where she was born, but Earth was her home.
And now? She had a job she loved, guiding the students of Canterlot High on the right path just as she had been guided so many years ago, a wife she loved more than anything, friends who she would drop everything for…
Doesn’t mean I don’t miss the magic though. She thought, touching the geode around her neck with her other hand. Even though they had long since lost their magic, Sunset still wore hers everywhere. They all did.
Sunset sighed again and lowered her hand. There was no point in checking where the portal was: It wasn’t there anymore, and it never would be. She turned around to walk around the school to her car in the parking lot.
“Sunset?”
Sunset froze. The voice that came from behind her sounded like Twilight, but there was no reason for her to be here. She should have still been at home, working on some theoretical physics problem that Sunset only understood half of. Slowly, she turned around to face the source of the voice.
It was, for lack of a better term, a hole. Like someone had punched out a hole in the fabric of the universe itself. A perfectly round hole, directly in front of the base of the statue. And inside that hole, or rather, on the other side of it…
“Princess Twilight?” Sunset asked, voice only a whisper.
She was tall; about as tall as Celestia was. Her mane and tail were long and flowed in an invisible breeze. But those colors, those eyes, that voice... There was no doubt in Sunset’s mind. This was Princess Twilight.
“Sunset… it is you. It’s been so long since…” Princess Twilight waked towards Sunset, stepping over the rim of the hole in spacetime. Her eyes were watery, as if she was seconds away from breaking into tears.
To Sunset’s further shock, once Princess Twilight fully stepped out of the hole into the courtyard, she didn’t transform into a human. She remained in her natural alicorn form, wings, horn, and magical floaty mane included.
“But… how? How are you here? How are you still a pony? What about the magic leakage? Why-” Sunset sputtered, completely and utterly lost on what was going on, but was cut off when Princess Twilight embraced her. Sunset, still in a state of shock, noted numbly that Princess Twilight was surprisingly good at hugging humans in her pony form.
“We… we solved it, Sunset, we solved it. It’s been so long, Decades, so much has happened, a-and… and…” Princess Twilight’s voice broke up as she could no longer hold back her tears, crying into Sunset’s shoulder. “It’s… good to see you again, Sunset.”
The time dilation. Sunset realized. The time flow between the two worlds had been desynced before Princess Twilight had connected them with the journals, and since the portal had been sealed… It had been eight and a half years for Sunset, but for Princess Twilight, it would have been closer to sixty. No wonder she’s reacting like this.
Sunset looked around Princess Twilight and into the hole- no, portal she had come though. She could see what looked like a lab out of some sci-fi movie, filled with a variety of creatures, several of which Sunset didn't even recognise. Clearly things had changed in Equestria since the portal had been sealed, assuming that even was Equestira.
But Sunset put all those thoughts to the side. It didn’t matter right now: She would have time to ask questions later. Princess Twilight had clearly opened this new portal and come though intentionally, and what she had said about “solving it”, that meant that there was a way. A way to go back to Equestria. A way to travel between the worlds again.
“It’s good to see you again too, Twilight.”