Sunset Shimmer was smiling in her sleep. The sight of it brought much needed comfort and joy to Twilight Sparkle's strained heart as she stared down at her wife who had taken advantage of Twilight’s absence to sprawl across the entire bed. Twilight and her companions had returned from Mount Metazoa just before midday. She had to call Sunset at dawn on her crystal to remind her wife to get up and lower the moon, which Sunset had done and then went right back to bed. That was expected and she had earned the rest.
Now, as she stood over her wife, Twilight was torn on what to do next. There was still a great deal that needed to be done and she needed Sunset Shimmer’s input on much of it. There was so much that needed to be said and yet… she did not want to disturb her drooling, slightly snoring wife that was just as beautiful as a noon time hot mess as she was in her ballroom best before a gala.
After one last sigh, Twilight glanced to the door, doubled the magical seal on the lock, and quietly nuzzled her way into the bed. Sunset instinctively rolled and mumbled, pulling Twilight into her grasp. It felt so good, relieving, to feel those goldenrod legs wrap around her. Warm, breaths upon the back of her neck, the feel of Sunset nuzzling her while their breathing matched up. If one listened closely, their heartbeats also would fall into sync. This, in these few fleeting moments, this was Heaven in every definition of the word and Twilight reveled in the perfection.
It was what she had dreamed of for years. To be married to someone who understood her, someone intelligent, caring, could see Twilight for who she was and not just a crown or alicorn. Someone to share things with, everything, in fact. Experiences, concepts, just talking for hours about whatever came to mind and that they would love her all the more at the end of it. Someone to grow old with... maybe even have a foal or two. It was a beautiful, fleeting fiction. But like a perfect dream it could not last.
Sunset Shimmer felt Twilight come to bed. Nothing was said, which was fine. Sunset had no desire to speak at the moment and simply rolled to her usual cuddle position when Twilight laid down. She had snuck in a few sleepy nuzzles, indulging in the scent of fresh lavender shampoo and kiwi lotion, and began to settle back into deeper slumber when she felt a few shudders under her. Then, Sunset’s empathic senses were tickled and her heart felt heavy. An overwhelming sense of dread and despair washed over her, coming from Twilight. That was when the dam broke and Sunset heard the first whimpering cries. Still, even in the privacy of their own room, with no one to judge her, Twilight tried to fight down her tears. She tried to be brave when she did not have to be.
Sunset opened her eyes and slowly sat up. “Babe?”
Twilight turned, looking sorry and apologetic while tears poured from her eyes, her bottom lip having a slight quiver to it. Sunset felt cracks spiderweb across her heart quickly followed by hardened resolve to find out what happened, who had hurt her wife, and how best to make them pay for the greatest affront known to pony kind. Making Twilight Sparkle cry.
“I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I mean, I needed to, but I didn’t want to, certainly not with me being weepy and ruining everything. I just…”
Sunset gently pressed a hoof to Twilight’s lips, quickly followed by her own lips. Relief washed over both their welling emotions. Their anger and anxiety in equal parts simmered and finally cooled, replaced with a different, better kind of heat. Love and companionship. Sunset waited for Twilight to fully calm while stroking her face. Clearly, something had upset her and Sunset was going to find out what.
Sunset whispered. “Talk to me.”
Twilight nodded and forced a brave face. “I don’t want you to die.”
Sunset flashed a lopsided smile and nodded accordingly. “Well, yeah. I don’t want me to die either, at least not anytime soon. Granted, I have a bad habit of putting myself in ugly, near death situations, but I don’t have a death wish if that’s your concern. I just do what I have to do to keep others safe. Sometimes that means getting a little banged up. But I'm fine.”
Twilight grimaced, but not at the words specifically. More so, what they meant. “Maybe she’s right. Maybe it doesn’t matter what we want. We are all bound to fate in the end.”
“Um, she who?”
Twilight sat up and sighed before turning back to stare into her wife’s eyes. She knew what was about to happen and needed to be prepared. “Aine.”
As expected, Sunset’s eyes took on a fierce glow and her entire expression darkened. Despite that, she held the majority of her anger and fury in check. Though the bed and surrounding items were enchanted against fire they had not tested the threshold of those spells. However, Sunset's wings remained folded. A pleasant surprise for the purple alicorn. Sunset took a deep breath and let it out. “She was here, wasn’t she?”
Twilight nodded. “Just before we adjourned from the Hall of Unity. She showed herself to all the representatives. It was a helpful push as far as quelling any lasting doubt the others may have had on the seriousness of the situation, but she did not offer any solutions. At least, none that I found useful.”
Sunset snorted. “Shock of all shocks. Dare I ask what she did say?” Twilight hesitated. Her jaw just hung open as the words caught in her throat. Purple eyes began to well up with tears again. “Twily? What did she say?”
“She wants us to evacuate every creature. She suggested that many could be brought to the new world that she had been crafting. Somewhere far from here, apparently. Then she said that only the alicorns should have to fight. That it is our sacred duty to protect the younger races.”
“Okaaaay. Not sure how she expects us to teleport every creature to another planet while a giant space monster closes in who, from what Chaz and Luna said, is attracted to magic, but I digress. What else? That can’t be what was bothering you.”
Twilight shook her head. “No… she said… She said… That in the end, you will have to sacrifice yourself. That it was the will of fate.”
“Fate again. Lovely.”
“I won’t let it happen. Not without a fight. Not without me. I don’t care what a stupid tapestry says! You are my best friend and my wife and I love you! You are not sacrificing yourself!”
Sunset’s chest burst with warmth that spread to every molecule of her body. She smiled and gladly nuzzled Twilight, rubbing her horn along hers. “Yeah, throwing my life away is not a great Plan A. Got something better in mind in that big, beautiful brain of yours?”
Twilight blushed at the compliment and smiled through the last of her tears. “I have a few, but I wanted to run them by you. I love my number one assistant and probably will need Spike for some of this, I need my best sounding board now and that, my dearest, is you. Come join me downstairs. I promise there will be coffee.”
“Baiting me with spending time with you and my favorite drug. You are spoiling me today.”
“I love you. What else could I possible say?”
Sunset wiped the last of Twilight’s fallen tears away and kissed her once more. Neither could keep from smiling and the sun shined just a little bit brighter over the world as a whole. “It’s all I needed to hear.”
A quick run to the bathroom to freshen up and the two made their way to the large dining room side by side. Guards saluted, staff bowed appropriately. If it were not for the gargantuan challenge before them it would have felt like just another day in Canterlot.
When Sunset and Twilight arrived there were already others in the dining room. Both captains bowed and saluted. Spike, Isabella, and Flurry Heart smiled and bowed as well. Chaz and Belldandy just casually waved. Raven just crossed her forelegs and scowled directly at Sunset Shimmer. It was inappropriate, it was disrespectful, it made Sunset grin sheepishly and laugh a little bit.
“Oh, look, you are in fact not dead,” said Raven completely deadpan.
“I’m sure the rumors were exaggerated.”
“I found you in melted and broken ferronite armor, unconscious, and at the bottom of a deep crater filling with sea water. I fear I lack the necessary imagination to exaggerate that more.”
Twilight’s overemphasized gasp was too dramatic to be real, Sunset thought, as she side glanced between her captain and her wife.
“That’s funny. I found her at the bottom of a crater once too!” Twilight turned to Sunset, her goofy expression of fake astonishment tested the goldenrod alicorn’s ability to hold a straight face. “What a coincidence!”
“To quote a treasure old friend, ‘All y’all can bite me.’”
“Judging by your incredibly terrible attempt at a southern accent I would have to guess you were trying to imitate dear Applejack.”
Sunset arched a brow. One of the apples in the bowl on the table turned and rolled out down to the floor. It then grew to the size of a large beach ball and exploded with a jarring pow. Isabella gasped and jump-flapped a couple meters away. The draconequus did not look the slightest bit apologetic.
“Discord, I see you are back on your feet,” Sunset paused to reconsider her words as Discord was now floating in the air, spinning about with that trademark, snaggletooth grin, “so to speak.”
“Indeed. The great part about being me, I suppose. Can’t keep a good draconequus down. Or a bad one for that matter. Let me be, well if not the first, but certainly the most enthusiastic to say, good morning to my favorite junior chaos bringer!”
Sunset arched a brow, the title not sitting well with her... even less so since Discord had handed her a large red ribbon with gold lettering that read: Chaos Bringer BOOM, BABY!
“Um, what?” Sunset took a moment to examine the others in the room before turning back to Twilight who was also trying to avoid direct eye contact. “Seriously, what?”
“Don’t freak out, Aunt Sunset,” Flurry Heart said, which naturally, of course, immediately put Sunset Shimmer on edge, “but apparently there were some… um, side effects to diverting all that chaos magic into the ground and surroundings, you know…”
“No, no I don’t know. That’s why I’m standing here like I have… oh Celestia, did I do something to my face?! No, no, that’s not it, I just looked in the mirror a little while ago.” Sunset examined the rest of herself. "Still hooves and no hands. So, what happened?"
Discord stopped spinning and floated down to the floor like a balloon losing its helium. Sound effects included. He lost much of the quirky playfulness in his posture, electing for something a bit more somber. “What little firecracker over there is trying to politely refer to is the being you fought with. I understand that you had a run in with my old beau, Cosmos.”
Sunset nodded. “We did.”
Discord nodded as well, his head turning to Twilight, flashing her a weak smile. She returned it with as much sympathy as she could muster. “I had hoped she would stay out of things. I had hoped that without her near limitless power she would take up meditation or solitaire or something, anything other than just pining for revenge. A fool’s hope, apparently.”
“I’m sorry,” said Sunset Shimmer and she meant it. “Void didn’t give me many options.”
Discord smiled and began to float about again. “Yes, I heard the after action report from Captain Stick-up-his-plot over there as well as a more detailed and colorful retelling courtesy of Flurry Heart." Discord sighed, brought his claw and paw together and bowed his head for a moment of silence. Twilight, Sunset, and the others also bowed their heads, respectfully. "At least she is no longer suffering and I'm told you gave dear old daddy a quality cut across the nose for his efforts.”
“Honestly, didn't get a look at where I hit him, but yeah, he felt it. He probably already healed it by now even if he won’t forget it.”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” grumbled Flurry Heart, instinctively scratching at the scar on her foreleg that Sunsetnhad given her not long ago.
Sunset was about to apologize for that cut… again, when Twilight placed her hoof on her wife and smiled. “We know.”
“Annnnnywhoooo, the ‘side effect’, as she was saying, of releasing so much chaos energy into the surrounding area cause a few, let’s call them, magical mutations to crop up.” Discord reached behind his back and held up a cute, fluffy white bunny that was now sporting a unicorn horn. Sunset’s eyes went wide as her jaw hit the floor.
“What the ever loving fffff…. Did I cause that? What did we do?!”
“There are others too,” added Flurry Heart. “Some other types of critters and pets. A few changes to trees and such, crystals growing right out of the ground like grass or crops in a few spots. What’s odd, or chaotic would be appropriate to say, is that those of us closest to the explosion seem fine, but we are getting reports of transformations in the surrounding areas from Manehatten to Fillydelphia.”
Sunset groaned and facehoofed. “Wonderful. Just wonderful. I come back to Equestria and in only a few years I have drastically altered the environment and ecosystem forever. Go me!”
“I’m sure some pegasi will absolutely love having a flying dog. If I recall, Rainbow Dash had a flying turtle.”
"Tortoise," Twilight corrected.
Sunset growled and scowled at Discord. “Not. Helping.”
“What? Just look at this adorable little fluffball! My dear Fluttershy would have melted to a puddle at the sight of him.” The rabbit seemed to scowl and fired a small kinetic bolt at Discord’s paw causing him to yelp. The bunny quickly hopped away. “Ouch! Hmm, must have been a descendent of that devil beast, Angel Bunny.”
“Obviously, we will need to conduct a comprehensive ecological impact study and catalogue all the changes, see if any of them can be reversed. But that will have to wait. We have more pressing concerns at the moment,” said Twilight gesturing back to the table.
Sunset was thankful that things were moving forward. With nothing else to add, everyone, except for Discord, took a seat and lunch was served with a large coffee for Sunset Shimmer. Against better judgment, they allowed Chaz to try some as well. He made a sour face and passed it to his sister who also took a sip. She seemed less bothered by the bitterness of the dark liquid, but set the cup down unfinished regardless.
Once the table was cleared, Twilight signaled for Isabella to place what appeared to be a large crystal sculpture in the center of the table. Sunset Shimmer’s curiosity was piqued and she leaned closer to examine the item in question. She could see that it was enchanted and had numerous runes etched into a number of facets. It reminded her of the SunLight crystals, but larger than the first versions they had made and successfully tested. It was likely more powerful if it was what she thought it was.
When Sunset finally glanced up at Twilight, she was smiling brightly, pleased to see her wife was interested in the object. “Look familiar?”
“Looks very familiar. But what are these extra runes…”
“Watch.”
Twilight’s horn lit and the runes began to fluctuate and glow. A moment later, a familiar voice spoke up. “Hello? Can everypony hear me?”
“We hear you just fine, Mom,” said Flurry Heart.
“Hello, sweetie! Is Sunset there too?”
“They got coffee in me. I’m up now.”
Twilight activated more runes and another voice spoke. “Hello, princess?”
“We can hear you, Prince Whitetail.”
Then another voice. And another. Eventually five in all from across Equestria, to Mount Aris, to even where ever Sultan Alsame was at the moment. Sunset blinked a few times when her brain finally put all the pieces together and a light bulb went off.
“You created a crystal that can conference call?”
“It’s based on your original notes. It just needed some tweaking and needed to be larger considering the extra power requirements and stress on the signal facets from the multiple incoming channels.”
“Twily, this is incredible!” Sunset exclaimed. “When did you even have time to work on this between ruling and wedding planning and… everything else?!”
Twilight laughed lightly, smiling proudly with just a little bit of blush to her cheeks. “You run to your music room to destress sometimes, I run to my lab. We all need some down time. Besides, I only finished testing it right before we left for Mount Metazoa. This is the first time I have gotten to use it for what it was designed for.”
“Not to be rude, but we are all quite busy,” said Sultan Alsame. “What new information do we have?”
“Yes, apologies. This is where things stand at the moment,” Twilight stated, glancing to all those gathered around the table. “The Omega Beast is still approaching. We do not know where it specifically is, but as the most magic rich world at the center of the known universe we have to assume it is coming straight for us. We need a means of containing or destroying the beast and the best source of information on that is Void himself. So, our top priority is his capture.”
“Something that we are still currently working on,” said Belldandy with more than a hint of frustration.
“We also need a... reasonable backup plan for evacuating as many lives from the coming battle to come as possible,” added Sunset Shimmer. She turned to Twilight before adding, “I’m guessing the mirror is still out of the question?”
Twilight sighed and shook her head. “As I’ve said before, I designed the second Lunar Lock Mirror to prevent tampering with the cycle. The one I was most worried about tampering with it was me, of course. Besides, I can only imagine what pandemonium it would cause to try and shove every creature in the country and beyond through one mirror.”
Sunset chuckled lightly. “The poor lawn of CHS being trampled to death.”
"You mean the one you drove that motor carriage into?" said Gauge with an arched brow.
Sunset smirked. "Yeeeeeah, I definitely left a mark with that one."
“I, apologize, Your Highnesses,” said Prince Whitetail, “but may we be privy to the joke? Since this is supposed to be a life of death matter before us.”
Twilight and Sunset stared at one another for several quiet seconds, their eyes doing all the talking. Finally, Twilight shrugged and Sunset nodded, taking a moment to clear her throat and stand.
“Ohhhhh, this is going to be interesting to watch,” said Discord, snapping his claw and several bowls of popcorn appeared around the table.
“Okay. We’re going to let all of you in on a highly classified Equestrian secret. As world leaders, I suggest you keep it to yourselves because misunderstood it might set off a panic or riot.” Sunset took another deep breath and continued. “As all of you know, I was gone from Canterlot and Equestria for quite some time. When asked, Celestia or Luna or Twilight would simply say, I was away or 'off in another land.' This was only partially true. I actually spent more than a hundred years living in another dimension.”
There were no comments as those that were aware of the secret were scrutinized by those that did not all while Discord continued to shove pawfulls of popcorn into his face, munching away. It was more difficult to gauge the reaction of the leaders on the calls who they could not see.
“Seriously?!” shouted Flurry Heart, breaking the silence. “I knew kind of about the mirror, but I thought it was like a port-point teleporter that connected to a far off land or island somewhere.”
“It does,” Sunset said with a smirk, “It’s just reeeeeeeally far off.”
“It was first invented by Star Swirl the Bearded. He had crafted a few different mirrors and had experimented with cross dimensional travel,” said Twilight, trying to break some of the quiet tension. “Any creature that has studied advanced teleportation or trans-dimensional theory should not be completely surprised by this. He did write the books on the subjects, after all. I mean, Discord has his own dimension where he calls home so it’s not like all this should be that preposterous.”
“Every creature is of course invited for tea and tiny cakes. Just make sure you give me a chance to clean house first. The dust bunnies are usually migrating this time of year.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. "The point is, the multiverse exists. It is just not easy to access without causing catastrophic tears in our reality."
“Wait,” said the yak prince, Tarmont, “How many creatures have traveled to different worlds or dimensions? Raise your hooves.” Twilight, Sunset, Gauge, Raven and Discord all held up hooves… or in Discord’s case, held of a large, foam hoof with painted letters that read, ‘We’re #1.’ “I just realized I cannot see hooves through crystal. Forget I asked that. I will assume both princesses have hooves up.”
A thought clicked inside Sunset’s head as the side conversations grew louder. She tapped on the table a few times to bring things back around to order. “Please settle down. The point of this little aside is, dimensional travel is more than theory. And we have some experience with it. Heck, the omega beast is said to come from beyond our known space of existence. However, it is not feasible to try and shove every creature in the world through a mirror that cannot currently be opened. I didn’t bring all this up just to gloat or encourage every creature to start trying to tear down the walls of reality. Seriously, don’t do that. I just wanted to be honest with every creature and to throw it out there so that we can start planning for the worse. And to reassure those gathered that, Princess Twilight and I have extensive experience on the subject and know another expert as well.”
“Of course you do! I’m right here!”
Sunset glared at Discord. “Sorry, buddy, but I think Clover the Clever might have you beat in as far as places he’s been now.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Of course! He’s seen all kinds of things and places!”
“Ugh, him,” grumbled Flurry Heart.
“The feeling is mutual, and I could have gone a few more years without thinking about the little bastard, but his resume is still what it is.” Sunset smiled at Twilight and winked. “Unless you think we don’t need him and can figure this all out on our own.”
Twilight tapped her chin a few times. “We should probably have him double check any calculations we come up with and of course for brainstorming, just in case. I have EIS agents keeping discreet tabs on him plus, if needed, I have other means finding him as long as he has not left our world, which he promised he would not do.”
“Then is sounds like it’s time to pull the legend in out from the woods.”
“Is there any way to know how much time we have in all this?” asked the sultan.
“Not without getting close enough to the beast for it to detect you and try and eat you, I’m afraid,” said Chaz. “Cursed creature nearly ripped my arm out of my socket last time. It's attracted to magic and eats it like candy.”
“How are we supposed to help our subjects prepare when we know so little? How are we supposed to fight when we only have theories, backup plans, no idea what will even work?” The sultan’s words were begrudgingly true and several others around the table and on the crystals grumbled their agreements.
“For better or worse, there is only one thing we have that will work. And it is the one thing the creature wants. Magic.” Twilight stood and lit her horn, letting off a light show above the table with sparks and light fireworks. “Magic is the lifeblood of our world. We are all magical creatures to one degree or another, be it in our horns, our hooves, or our hearts. Our very souls are power sources of great magical potential. That is what we must use to fight. But not scattered around, aimlessly. What we need is a means in which to concentrate all our power. A foci.”
“You are talking about creating magical artifacts or talismans that can harness and hold our power and then release it all in one powerful attack. Like the Crystal Heart!”
Twilight nodded to Flurry. “I still need to run the numbers, but in the mean time I think the best vessels for gathering and holding the kind of power we are talking about are crystals. Special crystals that are absolutely flawless in design and fabrication and can store vast quantities of potential energy for use.”
“If it’s crystals you need, the Crystal Empire will provide. Just say the word Twily,” said Cadence proudly.
“Aunt Twilight, with your permission I’d like to be in charge of shaping the crystal or crystals.”
Twilight glanced to Sunset who nodded without a second thought. “I think that’s a great idea, Flurry. You should leave for the empire as soon as you can. We’ll pass on any necessary calculations or concerns as we crunch them.”
“I’ll leave as soon as the mee-”
The dining room erupted in blinding light. Every creature in the room had to shield their eyes and the calls on the conference crystal fizzled and then cut off. Gauge shouted at Captain Walnut for target verification, but the solar captain was just as blinded. That was when the thestral heard every anti teleport interdiction crystal in the room overload and shatter to pieces.
When the light died down and the spots were cleared from their eyes, everyone found a tall white alicorn standing just off to the side, not far from the double doors. Her teal eyes glanced about the room, the expression on her long muzzle seemed more annoyed that anything else. Once Sunset Shimmer could see she kicked her chair out from behind her and jumped up onto the table so as to stare down at the godly intruder. Sunset’s own teal eyes began to glow as she summoned her sword and held it steady in her magic by her side.
“Hello, granddaughter,” said Aine, the Goddess of Life, “I’m happy to see you too.”