Lonely Day did not wake again for some time. Though she had not seen it in any form more concrete than a few plates breaking, she had suffered badly during her time being mentally invaded.
When next she woke, she was no longer in the basement of the library. Alex couldn’t feel her clothes anymore, or her saddlebags. Instead, she felt a flimsy hospital blanket, and a similarly flimsy pillow behind her. The bed seemed massive to her little equine form. The light coming in from the window was bright orange, and to her sleep-addled eyes it seemed as though the whole space was bathed in light. An IV needle had been lodged in one of her forelegs, and a screen behind her diligently displayed her vital signs. There were tables around her, tables filled with stuffed animals and cards and flowers. The whole thing had the look of Sky’s touch about it, as though she had been about the room for days or weeks to make it look as welcoming as possible when Alex awoke.
How long had it been? She found the HPI wristband had been removed, and was no longer sitting on the table beside her. The clock on one of the beeping medical machines told her it was about seven.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Lonely Day.” A familiar voice spoke from her room somewhere, though she couldn’t make out anyone. This seemed very strange to her, since there was no thick shadow to hide in. Where could anyone hide? She sat up, concentrating on her vision. That was when she saw the figure, resting on her haunches in the corner of the room. She was quite large, about as big as Oliver, though Alex smelled only a mare in the room with her. Her hair matched the orange and reds of the clouds outside, and so did her coat; that might’ve been why Alex hadn’t noticed her at first.
She would’ve squealed with delight, but her head started pounding and she ended up whimpering instead. “Hmmmm. Sunset… Shimmer… what you doing… here?”
Even in her addled state, Alex could see a little surprise on the face of her friend. Sunset looked a little different. Less girlish, more mature. What did that even mean? The mare rose to her hooves, pulling back the hood of her robe. Even her horn looked a little bigger, though Alex was sure she was imagining that. “What your well-meaning doctor couldn’t do.” She was tall enough that she could reach Alex’s face without having to climb up on the edge of the bed. Even with the bed as low as it would go, Lonely Day was impressed.
She felt the touch of Sunset’s horn on her forehead, then held still. Magic glowed from the tip, the color of warm sunlight. It was like ice-water, rushing over the aches and the swelling and filling all the empty places Odium had made. She almost wanted to fall right back asleep, it felt so warm and wonderful. She somehow knew her friend would leave as soon as she did, and not be there when she woke.
Lonely Day waited until Sunset pulled her horn back to speak, for fear that saying anything might interrupt whatever she was doing. Her friend staggered back with an exhausted but triumphant expression, the glow fading from her horn. “T-There. Done.” She sat back on her haunches. “That thing really tried to make itself at home in there, didn’t it?” Alex nodded, and she went on. “It might take a few weeks before you feel like yourself, but you’ll heal. All the rest are healing. Though… some of the slaves he kept longest will never be themselves. The monster filled them with too much of itself, didn’t leave them enough space to be ponies. They’ll have to learn how all over again.”
“How long?” She managed to ask without sounding hopelessly drunk this time. “How long have I been out?”
The pony looked sad. “The monster, Odium… it tried to erase you. It might have, if your friends hadn’t been clever with sunlight and mirrors. You’ve been putting yourself together again for the last few weeks.”
Alex felt her heart seize in her chest. “W-Weeks? I’ve been unconscious for weeks?” She tried to sit up and roll out of bed, but she felt Sunset’s magic pushing her down.
“A few more minutes. You might collapse again if you try to walk so soon.” Her friend looked pretty close to collapsing herself, from the exertion of whatever spell she had done to Alex’s brain. She wondered if Sunset had needed to do the same spell on everypony who had been controlled by Odium, or if that was a special privilege reserved for hosts. She supposed Ryan hadn’t needed it, unless there was also a spell to put brains back together.
Thinking about that still made her sick, so she forced herself not to. “If I can’t leave, you’ll have to tell me how everypony is doing. Is anyone hurt?”
Sunset shook her head. “Your ponies?” At her nod, Sunset continued. “None so bad as you. No physical injuries except a few bruises. I haven’t told anypony I’m here, exactly, but they don’t seem to be missing anypony.”
“You’re hiding?” Alex wasn’t sure she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t force herself not to. “Sunset, I… you said I might see you again. If you knew you were staying behind, why didn’t you tell me? I… would’ve really wanted to know that. We would’ve loved to have you with us! Given you a place to live. Maybe not as nice as that castle you live in in canterlot, but-”
The unicorn silenced her, gently closing her mouth with a hoof. “No, Day. I couldn’t, because I didn’t know. I’d thought about it, but I hadn’t made up my mind yet. Not until I actually said goodbye. Thought about all you ponies, struggling here without anything more than a few books. Princess Luna and Celestia and Twilight were all going to be out of reach. Who would you turn to when something went wrong?” Her expression darkened. “What if we’d accidentally let in a few pests? We came and went between your world many hundreds of times, something was bound to follow us.” She smiled, patting Alex on the shoulder. “Guess you didn’t need our help on that after all.”
Alex blushed, though she felt stupid for it. It wasn’t as though she had actually done anything. It had been the princesses who changed her. If her changed nature was harder to conquer, than they deserved the credit. Though she supposed if Odium had really been defeated, Joseph deserved some credit too. He had been the one to figure out the thing’s weaknesses. And Taylor for softening up their defenses. And Moriah for saving them from the fire-dragon.
It had been a group effort. She told Sunset Shimmer so, explaining everything as best she remembered it. In the end, her friend only laughed. “Well, you’re just learning an important lesson about friendship.” She glared as Alex giggled, waiting for her to finish. “Don’t laugh, pony. Friendship is powerful stuff. Stopped me once…” she trailed off, staring suddenly down at her hooves.
Alex didn’t know what to say to that, so she tried to focus on something else. Instead she said: “You look different. Did you get taller?”
The unicorn seemed to shift uneasily on her hooves, looking away. “Y-Yeah, I guess I did. Being big is not a blessing. Guess it might be in your world, though.”
Her strength was coming back. With that strength came senses, senses she hadn’t entirely known she had until Odium had attacked her within her own mind. It was hard to describe what she felt, except that Sunset Shimmer was a little more solid than the rest of the world. Like the hospital might wither away to nothing, and leave her standing right there in the air. Her in the air, and Alex on her bed. It would be a pretty lonely hospital. She really wanted to see the doctor…
“You’re not just taller, are you?”
Sunset looked up, meeting her eyes for several seconds. It was like looking into the eyes of the monster in her mind, only it wasn’t. Those eyes had starflicker and the fire of July summer, they had the clouds outside, and a burning sun setting beneath the ocean. They had something else, too. Something more important. Compassion. “No. I’m not just taller. You’re not just lucky, either. There’s no such thing.”
“Are you an Alicorn? Like the princesses back in Equestria? Does being an Alicorn mean you can travel back and forth?” She felt the excitement returning. “That must be the reason you’re here, isn’t it! You can be our lifeline with Equestria!”
She sat back down across from her, shaking her head. Her flowing mane cascaded in front of her for a second, seeming more like light than hair. But no, she quickly realized, that had just been a trick of the light. It was still solid. “I am your lifeline, but not because I can go back. Princess Celestia herself couldn’t open the ways anymore. Princess Luna can no longer send dreams reliably, not even to thestrals. The way is shut. But I’m here, a time capsule. Like you, eventually.”
“Eventually.” Alex pulled the blanket off herself. She didn’t feel embarrassed with just Sunset in the room; she had been just as naked during most of her time in Equestria, after all, and it hadn’t bothered her then. Somehow, it was the expectations of the ponies around her that made the act embarrassing, not anything about herself. Maybe she would get over that eventually, like Cloudy Skies did.
Maybe, but not today. At least her friend let her rise without protest, watching carefully as Alex found her footing. When she could stand, she took a few slow steps just to be sure.
She made her way to the window, then pulled the curtains open with her teeth. The sun was indeed setting, though it was fading now and taking its light with it. Not long now, and she would have to turn on a light. Somepony would notice. Somehow, she knew Sunset wouldn’t be staying. “Why not?” she asked without even thinking. When the pony only looked confused, she added, “Why can’t you stay behind? I know you won’t. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have hid.”
Sunset sat down beside her, letting Alex rest against her. “I wish I could.”
Lonely Day sniffed once, then started to cry. She cried until the sun went down, cried about the ponies she had seen die, cried about how awful she had treated Riley, cried about how worried she was they wouldn’t survive the winter, cried about how she was too scared to tell Oliver how she felt and she was sure he would think she was weird. She cried about all the horrible things Odium had wanted to do, all the ponies and humans he had already killed and destroyed. She even cried for her missing mother, banished from her through the doorway into summer. She cried as she had never cried in front of her own ponies. Those ponies depended on her for strength, they couldn’t see even a hint that she was anything else. Her sex made her small and her age made her weak, so she had to compensate every day.
No longer. Sunset Shimmer wouldn’t judge her. She wouldn’t tell another soul, and she would give her exactly the warmth and love she needed. After what Odium had shown her, after a fight not for her life but for her very right to be, a little love was far more effective at healing her than any spell.
Eventually, her eyes dried up, and her patient friend answered her question. Despite the interruption, she hadn’t forgotten. “Princess Celestia and Luna agree that Equestria has interfered enough. You were adamant about it during your meeting, Luna said. If I moved about the ponies of this city or any other, I would interfere even if I didn’t mean to.” She let the robe fall from her shoulders then. Alex had been hugging her pretty close; she wasn’t even slightly surprised to see wings there. “All ponies respect Alicorns. Yours wouldn’t bow to me as Odium wanted, but…” She shook her head. “The chances I might get tied up with whatever you set up are just too high.”
Lonely Day considered that a moment. Eventually, she agreed. If Sunset Shimmer was intimately involved with the lives of ponies, she would shape their society without even meaning to. Any immortal would, through the sheer weight of years and power. “So why’d you come? If you can’t talk with us at all, there wouldn’t have been any point…”
Sunset smiled. “You’re right. I’m still here; just hidden. Searching for threats we introduced involuntarily, or magical threats your ponies can’t fight yet. Looking for ponies who appear alone and far from help, and helping them to safety. I’m not alone.” She levitated the robe back onto her shoulders, adjusting it with a subtle shimmer of her magic. “They just needed a leader. When I realized… When I realized my purpose, finally became what I am now, that was the sign we needed. I’ll be their leader, but I won’t be yours. I will stay in touch.” She nuzzled Day, in the parental way she had come to appreciate while in Equestria. “If a pony can be trusted not to rely on me too much, or to talk about me, there’s no reason I can’t make sure I’ve got an agent in your town. No reason I couldn’t visit. Discretely. For now. Maybe in a few hundred years your ponies will have decided what they want to make of themselves, and I’ll come out into the open. Just… not yet.”
She turned Alex’s face to look directly at hers, looking very serious. “You will keep me secret, won’t you? Until I decide I’m ready.”
“I wish you could be around more… but I understand. Professional courtesy. Oh!” She grinned. “On one condition.”
Sunset’s expression grew more nervous. “W-What condition?”
“You bring a satellite phone with you!” At the pony’s blank expression, she continued. “It’s that thing I showed you when we first met, remember? That little box I used to call for help? Like a radio, but more advanced. You could even go all the way down to Antarctica and it would still work fine! So long as you don’t leave without letting me give you one, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Scout’s honor.” She held up a hoof, though she wasn’t any kind of scout and had no fingers to make the sign with.
“I’m guessing it’s smaller than the radio I brought when I came here. You humans seem to like your stuff small.”
She laughed again. “Yeah. It’s… quite a bit smaller than that.”
There was silence then, and both of them turned to regard the darkening sky. Alex could hear ponies moving about the hospital, not far away. She suspected Oliver was preparing her supper, and would be in to check on her. Granted, it might’ve been a supper he was preparing to inject with an IV again… she could only hope he would be happy to see her. “One more question, Sunset.” She had hundreds of questions about what the cult had been and what had become of them, though she figured most of them could wait. Only one had been nagging at her, and it had nothing to do with the cult.
“Ever since I got back from Equestria, I’ve been… hearing things.” She stopped, feeling very strange. She expected her friend to have something supportive to say, but Sunset remained silent. Expectant. So she went on. “Mostly voices. When I’m alone, when I’m out in the forest. Then when the ‘Odium’ ponies showed up, I was sure one of those voices told me it was my job to put an end to them. It even promised me I’d be stronger. Then, when Odium tried to kill me, I felt more earth-pony magic than I have in my whole life. Stopped a knife right on my skin, shattered it like glass! Probably could’ve stopped a bullet if I’d wanted to. What happened? Was that something about what I am now?”
“I’m… not sure,” Sunset said, after a long time. “I haven’t seen anything like that since I got here. But I’m new; this planet isn’t really my home. I wouldn’t be surprised if it or something else noticed you more than it did me.”
“Planets can… notice? They can do things?”
Sunset Shimmer shrugged. “Magic changes things. It’s changing your animals, changing your plants. It changed you. It will change everything, eventually. If you’re wondering, I’m not the one to ask. You should find the one who helped and thank them. It wasn’t me.”
She did, though not that night. There were tearful reunions, the first of which was with her first and loyalist of friends, Huan. He'd waited patiently for her to finish with Sunset before tackling her to the ground and overwhelming her with canine affection. There was a makeshift party in a cramped hospital room, and tons of news. She learned that all the visiting ponies had eventually elected to stay in Alexandria after all. They had come against their will to destroy the library and the influence of Equestria’s Alicorns, but they had found freedom instead.
A few, she didn’t know how many, had willingly joined the cult back in Equestria, without fully realizing what they were giving up. They knew now, and none expressed any thought that was not relief at their master’s death. Alex didn’t like the way she had apparently been deified in their mind to fill the void, didn’t like their passive obedience and instant submission to her, but she figured it was something they could work on. Learning to be independent took time.
She learned other things too. Learned that Moriah was pregnant, learned that Cloudy Skies might be too, if she kept things up the way they were going. It hurt to hear that last, but not as much as she had expected. Maybe if things had been different…
But they weren’t different. Lonely Day wasn’t the same person she had been before the Event, and their world wasn’t the same world. Besides, she had learned that Oliver actually quite admired what she had done; throwing herself in harm’s way for Alexandria. Maybe he just liked it because it reminded him of himself. Whatever the reason, he had told her that he had taken the opportunity of working on her injuries to perform a few more examinations. Using a digital copy of one of the Equestrian medical texts, he had determined she wasn’t too young for real relationships after all. If she ever wanted to take him out somewhere, he would be happy to take time off from his gardening. Strangest of all, she had learned the thought no longer disgusted her the way it had a few months ago.
She might be Archive, might be something that was living and dead and maybe something in-between, might even be as immortal as the supernal truth she represented, but that didn’t also mean that Lonely Day couldn’t enjoy a life with her friends while she had them. Her friends the founders wouldn’t be alive forever, but that didn’t matter. There was still plenty of time to get to know them.
She wouldn’t waste a second.