//------------------------------// // Answers, or not... // Story: The Other Sunset Shimmer // by Jerec the Ascendant //------------------------------// Celestia landed on the balcony and carefully set down Sunset Shimmer. Sunset staggered and wobbled - the unexpected flight had devastated her still fragile ability to balance. It had also made her dizzy, and worse queasy. She was suddenly wondering what she had for breakfast, hoping she hadn't eaten anything that would make a huge mess if it came back up. She swallowed rapidly, holding a hoof to her lips. "Stay *urp* stay down." She felt a much stronger heave, and swallowed even more. "Breakfast *urp* you're not *urp* not listening." Celestia looked at Sunset with concern, realizing that she had been a little too overzealous. "I apologize. I don't get much opportunity to do things like this," she said with a slightly embarrassed smile. She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, a faint blush showing up on her cheeks. Her horn then lit up, her gold aura surrounding Sunset Shimmer for a moment. "That should help you feel better." Sunset stood up straight, her nausea gone. A relieved smile crossed her face. "Thank you, I do feel a bit better," Sunset said as they started toward the balcony door. "So, what do you mean by that? Not having the opportunity?" Celestia stopped just before the door. "You said you wanted a bit of revenge earlier, which, because the pony you want revenge on is in another world, means that you are going to settle on mischief like looking through her diary." Celestia reared and clapped her front hooves together for a moment, giggling as she did so. The regal princess she normally held herself as almost completely disappeared, replaced by a prankish teen. "Even as a young filly, I never truly got the chance to have these kind of experiences. Sure my little sister and I would play, and we'd cause the guards somewhat of a headache. However I've never experienced things like this." She giggled again. "I can't wait!" Sunset smiled up at Celestia, glad to see the uptight royal loosen up. "Glad I could help." she said, growing ever more accustomed to the idea of being stuck here. Celestia opened the door and they walked in. As Celestia closed the door, Sunset took in her new room. It was clean and well organized. There was a bed in a corner of the room - thin, short, and all-together small. A small desk and chair took up the opposite corner of the room. On the desk was a small stack of parchment, some quills and bottles of ink, and a layer of dust that revealed where a book once sat. They continued looking around, searching every nook and cranny of the bedroom, but they couldn't find anything other than notes on the portal and on the human world. "It seems she may either have made another trip to your world, or she focused all her attention on anything that mentioned it." They hoped to find more in the living chamber of the suite. However, the decor was sparse and Sunset found it hard to imagine finding anything in here. There was a cozy looking couch, a coffee table, a few potted plants, and a small picture of the Shimmer family. The suite’s study offered them one last hope, but when they walked into the small room, both ponies gasped. It was a disaster area, like a tornado had come in and ripped everything apart. There were books scattered all over the floor and the furniture, overturned chairs, wrappers from packaged foods, soda bottles, bottle caps, and parchment - the parchment was everywhere. Sunset could have sworn some pieces were still gently drifting to the floor. "Ouch!" she cried out after her first couple steps into the room. She looked down and saw she had stepped on an overturned bottle cap. "Wow, this makes my old room look clean." She kept looking around, paying much closer attention to the ground this time, hoping to find some sort of diary, or something that might explain why her parallel did what she did. Sunset stopped. She saw something move in the corner of the room. With tentative steps, she moved forward. In the dark corner, an old, half-eaten sandwich was swarming with roaches. "Oh my, NO!" She galloped out of the room, past the confused princess and toward the bathroom, the only room they hadn’t looked in yet. Celestia remained in the study, taking in every detail. Then, closing her eyes, her horn glowed again, covering the mess with its golden aura. Sunset released her breakfast in the surprisingly clean bathroom and returned to the study to find Celestia standing in the middle of a practically spotless room. The books were all stacked neatly in the center of the room, the parchment as well, and the trash was gone. Now that it was cleaned, they could properly examine the room. There was a long desk with a chair, a table with all sorts of chemistry supplies, a couple of odd machines, and yet more sets of quills and ink. The walls were adorned with several portraits of Sunset Shimmer, which made her feel slightly awkward. Some of the portraits were smeared with tears. "I've looked at the covers of the books and a couple of their pages, and I believe she took her diary with her." Celestia said solemnly. Sunset's head dipped, her chance at some vengeance was gone. "At least, she took the enchanted diary I gave her. Odd, that book was meant for communication between us, perhaps she is planning on talking to me. One can only hope.” Celestia lifted a book in her aura and floated it over to Sunset, who took it in her own aura. “I did find what seems to be a personal diary, though.” As gently as possible, Sunset opened the cover. This book may hold the reasoning behind her being here, or at least give her a lot of dirt on the other. Sunset started shifting through the pages, scanning for any possible clue, but she didn't find much. Only the last entry seemed to hold anything of relevance. “I've finally found it! The date of the portal’s opening. It's tonight, which means I don't have much time... Now, I've got to hurry through, Celestia's been getting worried. Ever since the day she showed me the mirror, and she saw my reaction to it, she's been keeping a closer eye on me. I have take this chance, quickly... Once I find out more of what's on the other side then my true efforts can enter the planning stages. I'll show her. I'll show her what I can do. I'll show her that I'll be a much better Alicorn princess and ruler... No need for kindness and sincerity, an iron hoof does a much better job at ruling a country... After that, there was a slight line, as if she started another letter, but then was suddenly distracted. "She's planning to do something with my world." Sunset felt tears start to flow. Her parallel was planning something, something horrible, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. Even if she did go back, there would be irreparable damage done to both worlds. Sunset sunk to the floor as Celestia took the journal and read through the last entry, her eyes going over it again and again, widening with disbelief each time. She truly had created another monster.