From Beyond Love and Darkness
Cadance
Opening my eyes once more to the realm of crystals that had long since existed within my dreams. Unlike the empty halls that I had once wandered, wondering what it meant. Why was it that I held such a thing within my mind? What did it mean? What did it imply?
Now, however, unlike the foal that had stumbled through the grand halls, with wonder and fear in equal measure, determination had replaced both. With a singular flap of my wings, I was sent flying through the air as I once more was in search of my ancestor. He usually resided within the training hall where we shared most of my nights within my dreams, him acting as another teacher to my magical skills.
While Sunset’s tutelage was often far more practical, many of her lessons started with her going into gory detail in the many ways that I could have easily perished. Umbrum’s lessons were far more varied. Dancing from topic to topic, touching upon anything and everything that I had questions about. One night we would be discussing the intricacies of the difference between Alicorns and any other Ponies and on the next we would be creating crystals in a myriad of forms and functions.
As I neared the training chamber a familiar sickening scent of burned flesh was suspended in the stagnant air. Grimacing as I forced myself not to gag as I continued forth, it seemed that Umbrum had not been able to heal his wound. Landing and thanking Celestia that Sunset had the foresight to teach me a spell to purify the air of any poisons. While not its intended intent it did well enough to cleanse the smell of my grandfather's burnt flesh.
Pushing open the doors, I couldn’t help but once again wince at the sight before me. Umbrum’s coat was no more than the remnants of slagged flesh and crystals that he had cocooned himself within. He was so lost in his thoughts that I nearly managed to get within a few hoof steps of him before he realized I was once more here. His blood-red eyes focused on me with the acknowledgment that I had once more returned to my dreams.
The minute twitching of my grandfather's muzzle was enough for me to once more offer my services to him. “Are you sure that I can’t do anything at all to help you?” Wincing as he slowly shook his head, causing black crystal to splinter into shards, at the small movements. I had picked up some knowledge regarding healing. Even if he wasn’t a pony, I was still an Alicorn. We were still within my dreams.
“My descendant, while my physical form has long since been lost to time, this is little more than an inconvenience for one such as I. You can no more heal me any faster than I can heal myself. Your time would be far better invested in ensuring that you will survive beyond your dreams in Equestria.” Umbrum’s voice was now a gravelly mess that raised the feather of my wings. He was at times an obstinate old non-pony who refused to realize that Equus had indeed continued after he had entered my dreams. He was, however, no fool.
Sighing, I nodded and allowed his newest lesson to wash over me. My mind however reviewed the moments that I had all but forgotten with what I had nearly done this morning. Where we had been previously practicing magic, only for Umbrum to falter and become enwreathed within pitched flames that had refused to be smothered. No matter how I had attempted to extinguish them. Water, crystal, and even trying to banish them from my dreams did nothing to protect my grandfather from those inferna; flames. It was a horrifying thing to watch as Umbrum was burned alive, even if he didn’t exhale in pain, much less scream. He must have felt something.
He had to have felt something. No matter what he was, pony or not. The flames that had sought to reduce my ancestor to nothing more than smoke reminded me of Sunset’s flavor of flames. If anything they looked far more feral than the ones that my partner had once wielded against me. I knew exactly how hot my partners' flames burned and the blackened flames that had engulfed Umbrum had no doubt been of similar, if not greater, strength.
Yet he had claimed otherwise, offering to continue the lessons that had been interrupted. Even as his flesh began to boil, he acted as if he truly couldn’t be harmed by such a thing. It was maddening. I had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that he would have already healed himself by the time I had returned to my dreaming domain.
“-you even listening?” Umbrum’s voice pierced my mind as I once more focused on my ancestor, no doubt with guilt clearly shown on my face. “Don’t tell me that you are still concerned with your earlier performance with the Demon? Take no heed of such failures, there will be chances in the future that you shall be able to use.” I had initially opened my mouth to apologize for zoning out but now I could only let it limply hang open at the words that I would have never expected to come out of my grandfather's mouth.
Was he offering something positive regarding my relationship with Sunset? I mean I knew he didn’t like her after the many attempts on my life, but he was still refusing to use her name. Instead, he opted to call her a demon, which was rather rude, that was a battle that I was waiting to fight. Yet here Umbrum was offering solace of all things after my actions?
“Thank you?” I all but stuttered out to my grandfather who had potentially taken the first step into approving Sunset as my marefriend. Umbrum simply scoffed, the action finally causing the black crystals around his neck to shatter. Revealing the pustulating waste of ruined flesh beyond. That was until Umbrum re-summoned his crystals around his wound. Hiding from me the true severity of his wounds.
“There is no need to thank me, my descendant. You have foolishly chosen the Demon as your current bedmate, against my advice and all common sense.” Okay, that was uncalled for. I would have interjected to defend our relationship, but his next words caused my rebuttals to die wretchedly upon my tongue. “The sooner that you succeed in binding it to your will the better the outcome will be for the both of us.” Umbrum frowns after he concludes his words.
What? I must be mishearing something. Umbrum certainly didn’t just say what I thought he did.
“What did you just say?” I questioned my grandfather, taking a step forward so that I could better illustrate the difference between the two of us. “Did you just imply that I was planning to sleep with Sunset so that I could bind her to my will?” My question was a simple one. One which I was expecting a swift and succinct answer to.
I wasn’t sure who was more surprised by Umbrum’s swift nod. His eyes flashed emerald as they began to bleed magic, and his red pupils became filled with unmistakable shock. Immediately he was scanning the room, his horn lit with a putrid black smoke that smelled of decay.
Such actions didn’t give me any reprieve from the putrid tar that had coated me at the truth of his words. Did he think so little of me? No, he knew who I was. He had silently watched through my very own eyes as I grew up.
This was something that he had once more let slip. Something that he should have not remembered after entering my dreams. Something that he hadn’t intended to share with me. After all, he was trapped within my dreams, how would the outcome of my sleeping with Sunset help him?
Umbrum finally looked back at me, his eyes still aglow with magic. The shock that had previously been held, had been replaced with something far more primal. Something far more banal. Something that I saw each time that I stared into Sunset’s eyes. “Cadance you need to!” He started before I silenced him with my intent alone. My magic that he had taught me, now was used to silence him.
He struggled for a moment before accepting that I was going to speak. We were going to have a discussion that had been long since overdue. Umbrum knew far more than he should, especially with what he had long since claimed.
“How exactly would we both benefit from me screwing Sunset?” I asked my words touched with magic as I felt a familiar grasp of something more flooding into me. I knew not what Umbrum truly was, however I was an Alicorn on the cusp of my final ascension. He would answer my questions.
I had seen Sunset manipulate the mind of that annoying pony earlier today and as both she and Umbrum claimed, I was a quick learner. One who was getting annoyed by the secrets that were just outside my wingspan. I couldn’t exactly do this to Celestia, no matter how at times I wished I could wring the truth from her. Umbrum on the other hand was always within my grasp.
“It is still weakened, still half slumbering and barely conscious. After your lusts had been sated by the Demon acting as your concubine, I would have taken that moment where it had been even further bound to fully bind it to you. Ensuring that you wouldn’t -!” Umbrum cut himself off in a rather literal fashion as a flash of glinting black crystal erupted and sliced his tongue in two. Truly? I had learned beyond the basics of healing magic. A tongue was nothing beyond my skills.
Re-knitting it with merely a thought. My grandfather sought to use the moment where I had split my attention to slip into his smokey form. I didn’t allow him to escape so easily, the muted blackness of his summoned crystals was replaced with the splendor of my own rainbowed ones. His eyes held undisguised fear as I magically handled him with apparent ease. He had spent an eon within my dreams and had faltered against my will.
I had been taught during the hours when the Sun was still shining by Sunset Shimmer and during the night by Umbrum himself. Was it really that much of a surprise that I was able to best him? A being that was within my castle? My dreams? My mind? Where, my will and magic was ever present? Where my Love held dominion over all?
I may not have studied the specifics of dream magic, but I had spent half my life within my dreams. I held no proper learned knowledge, but my practical understanding of my dream was second to none. That included Umbrum who was an outsider who had entered in on his own accord. I may have not been taught that field of dark magic by him, but I had read the journal of that old Alicorn who had recorded her testing of a great many dreams herself.
“Explain how fucking Sunset would have weakened her? Then explain to me in clear detail what it was that you had cut your tongue off to prevent me from learning! Then explain every single detail that you have purposefully not been telling me.” Perhaps I could have wielded more finesse with both my magical manipulations and commands, but I decided to take a page from Sunset’s book for the moment.
I could see the way he strained against my will. Great swathes of black crystal statues are arranged in battalions. Numerous Earth ponies are accompanied by smaller detachments of Unicorns and Pegasus. Deer, Gryphons, and creatures I didn’t even recognize; were constructed by Umbrums blackened crystals. Arrayed upon this desolate plane that could only be my ancestors' mind.
Yet even as my magic wrapped around each of these statues, I could feel a faint heart begin to beat within this graveyard of crystal statues. It was a slow thrum, yet it pulsed throughout this mental landscape. Focusing on where I felt the tremors form I found a shattered statue. It was no larger than any of the ponies that stood in my grandfather's mind.
It, however, was the only one that was shattered. The only one that was letting loose was something that I could only describe as utterly repulsing. I pushed forth endeavoring to touch the shattered statue, attempting to see what it meant within Umbrum’s mind. His resistance had only increased the more I focused on this particular statue after all. It must have held some great deal of importance.
“Don’t!” Umbrum half wheezed, half shouted. Yet I took that as confirmation that I should indeed further investigate this shattered statue. A tendril of my magic grasped at one of the larger fragments. If Um-brum wouldn’t answer my q-uestions I would take the answers from h-im di-r-ec-t-ly. I w-ou-l-d- l-ea-r–n w–h-a-t h-e h–ad ke-p-t h-i—d–den fr-om- -m-e-.
Screams echoed from around me, my soldiers had been reduced to only those of my vanguard. I couldn’t help but scoff as the screams grew louder as it approached. Giving the command to impede it for as long as they could before I scowled and allowed myself to be pulled apart. Moving through the ground towards where I would make my final defense against this assault. My plans for if I should fail had already long been completed.
Scoffing as I turned corporeal once more, here I was anticipating defeat. Not against the Sisters of the M̶̧̘̘̘̝̐͋̏̿̀̎͛͒̓͝ȍ̸̢͚͙͕̱̖̣͕̤̺̊̐̀̓͊̎͑̇ö̶̻̳̱͇͈̙́̃̍̃͑̍̌̚͠n̷̹̰͐̈͋̓ and Sun. Nor was it against that insufferable Princess of Love or that infuriating P̸̧̢̣̲͇̦͓̤̹̰̥̽̓̈́͋͒͌̀͊͋͝ͅr̴̡͓̝̣̖̰̞͊͐͌͋̾͊͗͠ị̴̢̤͙̼̲̖̲̲̯̘̲͇̂̔͂͘ņ̴̘̟͉̼̱̰͖̲̂͘͠ͅç̵̘̳̣͍̮̮̟̹͔͐̃́̎́̓͐̓̓̀͊͒̍͒͜e̶̡̡̝͙̖̻̳̦͊́̓́s̶̡̧̖̩͚̥̩̲͙̳̗͇̔̈̎̐͠͝s̶̪̳̰̪̠͉̲̣͎͍͑͂́̽́̈́̾́̏̒̅̕͠ͅ ̴̘̳̗̲̌̓͌̐̒̀͑̾̆ő̶̬̟͂͐̃̑͒͗̃͝f̴͇͑͋͒̊̽ ̶̡̲̹̫̞̺͓͍̈́̒͊̎̃͐̃̓̃̈̽́̚F̶̢͎͈̼̞͚̗͕̋̊͊̒̈́̓̔̅̚̕r̴͓̫̩̺̎̋̅̉̒̄̿̃̋̊͜i̵̢̡̮̗̘̜̲̲͈̺͚̹͈̻͉̒̉̊̋͠e̶̢͉̫͓͎̮̙͇̣͕͐̀͗̈́͑̒̓͂͐͘͘͝n̶̡̫̭̟̦̟̮͇̊̿ḑ̶̧̜̠̰͇̥͔͓̓̔̊̋̓̀͗̂̈́̕s̵̜̪̥̤͍̲̝̈͂̂̋̚h̷̢̢̨̖̀́͛͛͋̀̿̎̇͘͝i̶̧̩̺͍̟̦̣̹̺̯̘̰̲̠̐̈p̷̼͈̳͓̦͐͐. No, instead it was a Demon that had brought me to my lowest. One of which had come from nowhere. Appearing in the center of Canterlot one unsuspecting day and turning it into nothing more than a molten graveyard.
Initially I, like my contemporaries, had rejoiced at the blow that had been struck against the ones that had bested us at one time or another. That quickly faded as it was clear that this new player who had joined so late was not merely attempting to conquer. No, it was seeking only destruction. Attempting to cleanse all of Equus with its rampaging flames.
I could feel the magic I had woven so carefully into this haven, incinerated at the behest of one who sought nothing but unceasing destruction. I flooded the cavern with crystals that would sap the magic from the Demon, not even Celestia herself could have easily melted these crystals. I could feel a grin stretch across my face as the destruction slowed before eventually stalling.
Demon or not, she would rue the day that she dared attack me! I would thank her for taking care of my competition with a swift death. I was a just ruler, after all, only a tad bit of torture as I wring the rest of its secrets from its crazed mind. The few that I had managed to acquire had already allowed me to contest her might while the rest of Equus fell to her flames. The secrets that she had managed to steal were enough to reclaim my empire and no doubt the rest of Equus.
My smirk fell from my muzzle as I smelled something beyond the earthiness of the cave and the rampant scent of death. It smelled almost of smoke, of flames and fury. Releasing my hold on reality allowed me to escape the shockwave that decimated the cavern I had fallen back to. I could no longer retreat ever further into the depths of Equus. I could feel its molten core scream out, in service to the Demon itself.
Snarling I flew upwards dodging the sea of flames that attempted to engulf me. Partially reforming before my final foe. The only one left that stood before me and my eternal domination over all! I-! I felt warm! Far too warm!
I could feel the flames that bloomed from within, yet even as I grew crystals within my flesh I could do little but slow the quickness of my death. So be it! I would fall and be reborn. I had come back from oblivion once, I would do so again! Even though my existence burned, I charged the Demon that was silently watching my final moments. I would give it something to remember before I reclaimed all that it had stolen.
An endless empty void awaited me at the end of those accursed flames. No light to guide the way, only the all-encompassing darkness that not a single other soul resided within. A noiseless expanse that subsumed even the fearful echoes of my heart as it tried in vain to remind me that I still lived. Yet within such a realm could it count as anything beyond existing? Beyond merely holding the flame of conscience?
Even that conclusion was circumspect. I could remember my end within the flames of the Demon. Even after I had lasted the longest against that creature, I had still fallen to its flames. What had Celestia released?
A pair of wings embraced me. Guiding me safely through the void that I had been brought into, to never leave. Dragging me from nothingness, through the darkness, into my Crystal Castle. Frowning as I looked around, I had never decorated it even when I had begun to train with Umbrum. Who? No, that wasn’t his name. That wasn’t my name!
“Don’t think of him. Not yet when you have just escaped his clutches.” A soft voice beckoned me from the flames I had been burned in. “Good job, I know it's hard but I need you to open your eyes.” The voice reminded me of my mother-. The mad grasping of darkened smoke erupted from the darkness beyond the void, lashing out in an attempt to claim me as its own.
“She’s dead and it’s all your fault!” A cruel whisper echoed from the darkness I had been pulled through. “How is it fair that she should perish for you? One who wasn’t even her blood?” It hissed out as the darkness pulsed beyond the void. “Just like the pony that had called himself your father!”
“Don’t listen to him! Just listen to me. Cadance, I need you to open your eyes.” The words were accompanied by a gentle warmth, one which promised salvation. “Relax and open your eyes. I have you.” Following the directions that were being given, I did my best to release the tension that had formed throughout me. From my hooves to my horn, to my wings…
When did I have wings? I had never managed to ascend even with the amulet at my-. ”Those aren’t your memories, Cadance. Shut him out and open your eyes.” The warm voice pleaded once more. Hearing the desperation now tingling in that voice that was filled with such care for her ponies I allowed myself to relax. Allowing her wings to protect me as the darkness rushed forth attempting to subsume me within itself once more.
I opened my eyes and the darkness faded. Instead of that assault, I was greeted by the sight of only one pony who could have saved me from whatever had just happened… I wasn’t over my entire worship of Celestia as I had thought.
“Thank you, Auntie!” I thanked Celestia immediately only to be greeted by her chuckling… Was I missing something? Taking a risk to blink my eyes, I was no longer able to see the darkness much less the void beyond it, all I could see before me was that the Alicorn was fully ascended. Her mane was ethereal, yet instead of a full rainbow, it held three primary colors while fanciful representations of hearts flowed through it. Instead of the near alabaster white of Celestia, her coat was on a second glance far more pink. It was a familiar shade…
No… That's impossible… I…
The figure before me chuckled once more at the way that I was now floundering with my words. Its amusement is displayed within its purple eyes. A familiar shade of purple that I saw whenever I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. Her wings shifted allowing me to see the final damning piece of evidence that I was standing before an imposter of the highest degree.
Taking a momentary pause as I found myself upon my crystal throne. “You're not Celestia are you?” Ensuring that my voice didn’t waver while I asked my question, which brought forth an amused smile as my duplicate shook her head in the negative. Was it a changeling that stood before me? Or perhaps this was the cruel jests of Discord? Seeing that I wasn’t going to make any guesses as to its true identity, the Alicorn before I decided to once more speak.
“Is it that strange to see another you?” My imposter asked as it dropped its wings, once more revealing the cutie mark that was identical to my own. I must have not withheld my true thoughts from my face as my duplicate continued. “I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Alicorn of Love.” It announced with practiced regality that wouldn’t have been misplaced within Celestia. “You can call me Cadance.” It concludes with a shrug, the soft smile never leaving its muzzle.
“I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Alicorn of Love.” My declaration fell short of the one that my duplicate had offered, but I wasn't done. “Yet you already knew that didn’t you?” It had said my name when it was helping me from that… mess I had fallen into. I would deal with whatever this was and then sort out Umbrum’s thoughts and words at a later moment. Deal with the most threatening first and work your way towards the least threatening as Sunset had kept reminding me.
My duplicate nodded its smile falling from its lips. “Who are you?” It wasn’t a question, far more of a demand. I was within a crystal castle so close to my own yet there were differences that I could easily spot. Different decorations clung to the walls, the castle itself held a warmth to it that my own lacked. I wasn’t sure what exactly was before me, but it wasn’t me.
“I truly am you.” My duplicate continued with the lie that it had spun. “We could have been the same, with not a single difference to be found between the two of us. Yet here I am, and here you are. Two ponies each ourselves, each the Alicorn of Love.” It didn’t answer my question if anything it was further attempting to confuse me. I was sick of this, first, the one who had called me his descendant, and now this?
“Stop speaking in riddles and explain yourself!” I all but screamed my frustrations out at my duplicate who had spent far too long dealing with Celestia and Umbrum if it was emulating every aspect of them down to this annoying portion. The castle that I was within shook, and the alterations faded back to their original forms or even were lost entirely. Now I was within my crystal castle once more. The intruder's version that had been superimposed within my realm was lost as I once more regained control of my dreams.
“Another difference, I had never bothered to learn any form of dream magic. I never needed to learn about such a field. There was already a vanguard of the slumbering world.” My duplicate prattled on as it looked at the fixes that I had brought forth. “It was as I said earlier, Cadance I am you. Or I am what you could have become.” Now upon the muzzle of the thing that claimed it was me, was a tight frown. One that no doubt would have grown if not for the pony that kept it in check.
“Do you realize how insane you sound?” I couldn’t help but ask, dumbfounded that the imposter before me was even attempting such a grand lie. Ever since I had bested Prismia and the monster that she had transformed herself into my life had been one great upheaval after another. Ascension, Celestia, death, Discord, time travel, and Sunset Shimmer. Yet all of those had managed to make some manner of sense.
What this duplicate of me was claiming was an impossibility beyond what I had already seen. Something that couldn’t be. I was Cadance. She couldn’t be me. If it had been attempting to deceive me it should have chosen a much simpler tale. Perhaps claiming to be my birth mother. Or it could have…
My thoughts were halted as a familiar beating began to resound from the clone before me. One of which I was innately familiar with. A beating that was set loose from my heart. From my very Love that echoed in turn with the one that my counterpart was giving off.
“Why don’t you check? See for yourself if I am lying.” My duplicate offered an impossible task. Something that I couldn’t accomplish. Something impossible. Something that couldn’t be done. “Oh yes, how could I forget you have just recently ascended, haven't you?” My duplicate regained the smile it had previously held. “You seem much older than I was at your age. You have experienced more than you should have at your age and your eyes carry the weight of what you have seen.” The regained smile it held fell at its words as its eyes softened.
I wasn’t sure what exactly any of that implied but I didn’t enjoy the implications nonetheless. Yet before I could voice my reasonable complaints to the one that had stolen my very physical form it had once more done the impossible. Love swelled before me in a vortex that created a familiar heart. One made of crystal. One that I had as a part of my cutie mark.
It wasn’t made of any spell or equation, no it was formed fully of Love itself. The physical manifestation of the Love my duplicate held. Without even touching it with my magic I could hear laughter spilling from it, joy blossoming from its depths. Desire to see an always better outcome, and the determination to see such a desire through.
What was more, when I finally allowed my Love to touch upon the crystal heart I saw countless ponies flash before my eyes, many of whom I had never met. Of the few Celestia was at the forefront of those I recognized, yet as the deluge of the ones that my duplicate loved began to slow I was able to see another's face that I could recognize.
Shining Armor if a little older and a small foal with both horn and wings were equally held as the final ponies that my duplicate loved. It took me a moment to understand what that meant. What having Shining Armor and that unnamed foal at the forefront of her heart meant.
I had a foal? I had a foal with Shining Armor! How had that happened? Didn’t he already have a special pony in his heart? I had a foal with a pony that loved another!
Calm down. Breath. It was my duplicate who had done such a thing. Not me. “Another difference between the two of us.” My duplicate was almost somber as it spoke. “Your heart has become far more guarded than mine ever had to become and holds far fewer within.” Had it seen my heart when I touched its own? I hadn’t offered to bare my heart to it like it had offered to bare its own to me. Yet it appears to have touched upon my own nonetheless.
“You were the one that said that there were differences between the two of us.” I couldn’t help but snap out at my duplicate, who was looking more and more like it was me. Even if such a fact should have been impossible. I truly was getting used to the rampant insanity that my life had descended into. What should have been no more than specters of the past and theoretical impossibilities were no longer so.
Requiring a moment to once more center myself atop my crystal throne before I once more opened my eyes. My duplicate had reclaimed the manifestation of its Love and was simply waiting for me to take the next move, giving me initiative in how to proceed forward. While I would have preferred to know the ‘how’ such a thing could wait until the ‘why’ had been learned.
Centering myself the best I could I asked the question that no doubt my duplicate had been waiting for. “Why?” If she was truly me, she would understand and if she didn’t I would know that all of this had been one further great lie. One more to add to the rapidly growing pile.
“My tale ended in tragedy.” My duplicate answered the small smile on her face, not even wavering. I could however hear the underlying pain that had been hidden within those stalwart words. “I will not let what happened to me happen again.” Her words held a burning conviction that would not have been misplaced within Celestia’s mouth. I had certainly taken after Celestia in all manner of ways, hadn’t I?
A pit formed in my stomach at her ominous words. She had fully ascended and yet here she was.
“Your dead aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. The Cadance before me was no longer alive. She had said it herself that her tale had ended in tragedy nonetheless. An Alicorn once they had fully ascended was a true immortal, that was an irrevocable fact, yet here she was speaking of her death.
The horror I felt only spiked as she nodded in confirmation of my guess. “How?” I knew I shouldn’t ask yet I had to ask. I had fully ascended and still perished. I had to know if Sunset's efforts to protect me would have been in vain. If once I finished my own ascension I could still fall to the chains of mortality that I should have escaped from.
“I sacrificed myself to give my family a better chance at escaping.” Once more my elder self intoned words that would have broken me had I dared utter them. I didn’t know how to even respond to what she had said. What she had implied. What her sacrifice had failed to do. “Yet I have not saved you from S̶̘̮̖̣͕̞̖̳̩̞̖̙̘̗͎̆̅̍o̵̢̮͕̞̥͐̋͒͛͒̊̎͗͊́̽̈́͗͝m̷̨͖̱͉̺̬̯͑̉̄̔̎̏̈́̄͠b̶̧̜̩̳̟̜̹̼̞̦̀̽ͅŕ̷͕̅́͆͋̊̽͆̈́̊̕̕̚͝à̸̢̢̻̗̦̳̭̜̠̳̈̚͜͜͠ͅ to discuss my failings. We…” She trailed off as her eyes narrowed upon my own. “Even touching upon his mind isn’t enough to break the veil? She truly has won, hasn’t she!” For the first time that I had met my other self, I had seen the emotions that she had kept buried within her gentle facade and burst free from the mask of indifference that she wore.
A sea of frustration boiled forth, anger and annoyance now freely exposed upon the eyes of the living dead before me. An unfamiliar taste of iron found its way upon my tongue as I involuntarily gulped at the sight of a fully ascended Alicorn raging against the fate that had found her. Were we not within my dreams or were she not dead I knew that I would have not been able to continue to stand before her. Such was the difference between one who had finished their ascension and one who had yet to take that final step from a pony to an Alicorn.
Embracing my inner Sunset as much as I could I opened my mouth once more and further antagonized the Alicorn who had yet to grieve over all she had lost. Perhaps Sunset was right to keep reminding me of the countless times that I had been in mortal danger, I had a knack for finding myself in rather perilous spots. I had also not forgotten every moment that some pony had raged against Sunset for something that she hadn’t done.
“It was Sunset who killed you.” She had wanted to kill Sunset when I had teleported after her. No doubt she had been in my mind for at least that long. “You, Umbrum, Discord, even that strange pony have implied that something is wrong with her. That it is her fault, that she is the root cause for some great evil.” It was hard to begin but once I managed to get those first words out the rest followed. I couldn’t have talked to any pony about what I had managed to piece together about the pony that was my partner.
My elder self’s rage crystallized, as great swathes of brilliantly shining crystals formed at her beckoning. Yet her heart still sang with an unfinished song. I was close to the answer that had been scarred into her Love. It didn’t fully fit, but with what every pony had been claiming…
Sunset was harsh, even cruel. She however was not a complete monster. Not to the degree of what I have seen and what every pony has been referring to. No matter her magical strength she can’t kill a fully ascended Alicorn. No matter what allusions my partner had made to killing the pony that she thought of as her mother, we both knew that such talk was shallow. You couldn’t kill an Alicorn that had finished their ascension.
Yet my duplicate who had somehow perished after finishing her ascension proved that there was some way to defy that truth of Equus. That there was some form or fashion to irrevocably slay an Alicorn who had achieved true immortality. For there was a fully ascended Alicorn before me who had perished.
One who had perished at the hoofs of Sunset Shimmer.
One who shared my name.