//------------------------------// // 55: Awakening // Story: Sunset's Adventure in Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Sunset moaned as she felt the light of the sun fall on her face, but as she tried to move she discovered that all she could actually do was remain wherever she was laying. She tired to open her eyes so she could get an idea of where she actually was, but found out that her weakened nature was leaving her with the ability to barely open her eyes at all. She decided to leave them closed for the moment, knowing that she would eventually regain the strength to not only open her eyes and see what was around her, but also move on her own. As she came to that conclusion she could have sworn that she heard someone talking to someone else, or a group of people when she heard the third voice speak up. She couldn't quite place any of their voices just yet, though she was sure that one or two of them were familiar to her in some way, so she allowed herself to drift off to sleep once more. ---- Sunset didn't know how long she actually slept for, but when she tried to open her eyes this time she weakly opened them and stared right at a curtain that was preventing the sunlight from entering her room. She moaned as she turned her head to the other side of the room, finding a door that she suspected led outside wherever she was resting at the moment. She did notice that she was resting in a bed, a nicer one than the others she had spent the last few weeks sleeping in she noted, before she heard a beeping sound. She turned to the source of the noise and found a simple hospital machine, one that merely fed a body the nutrients it needed while the body was down, hanging near her bed. "A... hospital?" Sunset weakly said, nearly coughing due to how dry her throat was at the moment, "I don't understand... Nirn doesn't have... any... hospitals..." As she thought about what she was trying to say she could feel herself remembering what had happened before she had woken up in the room. She remembered fighting the demon known as Tirek, using the power of the Dragon Priests and her friends to defend a world from being destroyed. They had fought each other, breaking the ground around them, before she had managed to devise a plan to take back the power he had stolen from the Daedric Princes. And, somehow, she had managed to open the Gates of Tartarus, call forth one of the legendary Wardens that make sure that the prisoners never escaped from their cells, and send the demon back where he belonged. Then she restored balance to a world in peril, sending the Princes back where they belonged before repairing the damage that had been done. Just remembering what she had done before waking up in this room made her sweat just a bit, so she lifted her front leg up and started to wipe her brow... before she stopped and stared at her limb. It wasn't a human arm that was wiping the sweat from her brow, but rather the front leg of a pony... an amber colored limb that ended with a hoof. Her eyes widened as she found the energy to remove the sheets that had been covering her, discovering that she had returned to her original body at long last. She even looked at her flank for a moment and stared at her Cutie Mark, tears coming down her face as she realized what gift Akatosh had given her. All this time she thought that she had returned to Earth, where she had stepped into the portal that had taken her to Nirn, but in reality she had returned to Equus... she had returned to her home at long last. "Sunset?" a voice by the door said, causing her to turn towards it and find a lavender alicorn, Twilight she realized, standing there, "Are you okay? Why are you crying?" "Its... its nothing Princess Twilight," Sunset replied, though she could almost hear the joy in her own voice at the moment, before she tried to wipe away her tears, "those were just tears of joy. I'm overjoyed that I'm back home." "Oh, well that's a relief," Twilight said, turning to look at the door for a moment, as if she was debating whether or not she had something to tell her, "Are you well enough to have guests... or should they come back in a few days?" Sunset had to wonder who was currently waiting outside the room she was in, as she was sure that most ponies had forgotten about her the moment she ran away and didn't return for some number of years. She chuckled for a moment and smiled at Princess Twilight, knowing that she would be able to rest later once all of her visitors had been taken care of. "No, you can invite them in," Sunset answered, leaning back as she turned her head towards the door, to which Twilight seemed to smile for a moment before moving towards the door. "Come on in girls!" Twilight said to whoever was on the other side of the door, "Sunset's awake and she's ready to speak with all of you." Sunset watched as five mares walked into the room, though she wasn't surprised to see who Princess Twilight had been speaking to before she had awoken. One of the mares had an orange coat with a light grayish olive mane and tail, though she was wearing a cowboy hat and had three apples as her Cutie Mark. The next was a cyan coated mare that had a rainbow colored mane and tail, though Sunset didn't need to see the lightning shaped mark to know who she was. She also spotted a white coated mare that had a purple colored mane and tail, though the diamonds on her flank gave Sunset an idea of who she was. She then spotted a shy mare that had a near butterscotch yellow coat that was accompanied by a light pink mane and tail, with a trio of butterflies for her mark. Lastly she noticed a light raspberry coated mare whose eyes widened the moment she noticed Sunset, so she immediately knew who she had to be. "Girls, this is Sunset Shimmer," Twilight said, turning to Sunset for a moment, "Sunset, these are my friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie... though I think you gathered that before I told you." "Actually, it was nice to have them introduced before I started guessing," Sunset admitted, as she had seen the resemblance to her own friends on Earth in each of the mares, but decided that she would let the Princess introduce them to her, "Its very nice to meet you all." "Oh, are we going to have a party?" Pinkie asked Twilight, who sighed the moment that the very idea of a party was even mentioned. "Not right now Pinkie," Twilight replied, but then continued before the party mare could deflate herself, "but when Sunset is allowed to leave the hospital we'll see about throwing her one." "Besides, I'm sure that the party will be awesome," Rainbow suddenly said, a smile appearing on her face for a moment, "that is, when we get around to it." Sunset could see the idea rolling through Pinkie's head as she mentally planned the party that they would be having when she was let out of the hospital, which also made her wonder something. She remembered beating Tirek and saving Nirn, but that was all she recalled before awakening here, so she had no idea how long she had been out for. "Princess Twilight," Sunset said, to which Twilight turned back to her, "How long... how long have I been in the hospital?" "One whole week," a new voice said, one that Sunset hadn't heard in years and caused her to turn towards the door once more, where she found a white alicorn waiting on the other side of the room, "You've been in the hospital for one week Sunset Shimmer." "Princess Celestia..." Sunset started, unsure of what was coming her way, but she knew what she had to do, "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you before I, um, went through the mirror..." Sunset stopped speaking when Princess Celestia walked towards her, worried that there might be some punishment that she had escaped that was coming for her. What actually happened was that Celestia wrapped a wing over Sunset and touched her with her nose, all while Sunset noticed that there was a kind smile on the Princess' muzzle. "I forgave you long ago," Celestia said, pulling back to look Sunset in the eye, "I should never have shown you that mirror until you were ready for whatever it would show you, so it is my fault that you felt the need to investigate it... and the world on the other side. I should have tried harder to get your mind off that mirror and the possibilities that it showed you, but I failed to stop you and you disappeared without a trace. I waited for your return, even after Twilight came back and told me about how she redeemed you, yet I feared that you might decide to stay on the other side. When I heard that you were planning on returning home, even if it was for a few weeks, I was overjoyed with the idea of being able to mend our friendship. So I went to Twilight's castle and waited there, with her and her friends, for what seemed like hours, before your friends sent Twilight a message through the book you left so they could communicate with you while you were gone. When Twilight and I studied the mirror we thought it had malfunctioned, sending you somewhere else in the sea of stars, though we were determined to bring you back. My sister, Luna, took over the duties of Canterlot while the two of us worked hard to figure out what happened to you and where you eventually ended up, so that we might be able to devise a way to safely bring you back. It wasn't until a week ago that we felt the another anomaly occur in the mirror, but when I dared to look at it I found that someone I knew that had to be you was fighting Tirek. You did what Twilight and her friends did when she fought the demon, you called upon the power of Harmony and sent the demon back to Tartarus, where both Twilight and I are sure he'll never be escaping from ever again. When we saw you fall from the sky I threw caution to the wind and charged into the mirror, though whatever magic had taken you there merely helped me come to your aid as I wrapped my wings around you and brought you home. We brought you to the hospital and got you the attention you needed... though I am overjoyed to see that you are definitely making a recovery from your ordeal." Sunset smiled as the tears from earlier returned, as she was thankful that the two Princesses had never stopped looking for her when she disappeared and, more importantly, that she was forgiven by everyone she had wronged at this point. Before she got comfortable and started answering whatever questions remained, as she was sure that Twilight's friends had some things they wanted to ask her, she noticed that the lavender Princess had something on her mind. "What is it Princess Twilight?" Sunset asked, wondering what could be bothering her friend at a moment like this. "Oh I'm just thinking of all the information we can record about this world that you discovered!" Twilight eagerly said, telling Sunset that the Princess wanted to know everything about the world she had left behind, "But I know that we can wait until you've recovered from your fight with Tirek... I did the same thing after my friends and I defeated him, not to mention the creation of my castle. Besides, as Celestia continued to tell me, you don't have to call me Princess Twilight anymore... considering that we're already friends. That's not mentioning that you earned your wings after your fight with Tirek." "Twilight, I took on the power of Harmony to stop Tirek," Sunset pointed out, as she was positive that the incident in Nirn had been exactly like the one on Earth, "I didn't become an alicorn like you... not with permanent wings." "Is that so?" Celestia commented, using her magic to pull over a mirror, revealing a large bandage wrapped around Sunset's chest, before she unwrapped the linen cloth to reveal what was beneath it, "Tell me, what do you see?" Sunset's eyes widened as she looked at her reflection for the first time since she had woken up, as she hadn't felt the desire to do so when she thought she was her normal unicorn self. Her horn had retained some of the length it had acquired when she had transformed, because it was now twice its normal size, but it was at least half the length of Princess Celestia's horn. Her mane and tail had almost returned to how they normally looked, but there was still a small hint of the fire they had taken on when she had taken on all that power. The biggest surprise was that she still had her wings, which were roughly the same size as Twilight's own wings, but she was surprised that they were still there. "I don't understand," Sunset said, not believing what her reflection was showing her, "I redirected all the power back into the world to prevent it from breaking... how can i still be an alicorn?" "That's because of the Tree of Harmony," Celestia replied, smiling at Sunset as she walked over to her side and draped her wing over her once more, "I don't know how they did it, but when your friends in that world used the power of their friendship to empower you they somehow tapped into the power of the actual Elements.. or rather the Tree itself. Sunset, the Tree of Harmony gave you the power you needed to defeat Tirek... just like it did when Twilight and her friends needed a way to defeat him before he ruined our world..." That was before a Solar Guard entered the room, trotted up to Princess Celestia, and whispered something into her ear, to which she sighed and pulled her wing back. Sunset immediately knew that something urgent must have come up for one of the guards to deliver news to the Princess while she was visiting her, though she was a little sad that she couldn't have a little more time to catch up with her former mentor. "My sister needs me back at the castle," Celestia sadly said, allowing everyone to understand that she desired more time with Sunset, but had to leave on business, "something about the Dragons and some riots. We'll catch up later on... when my sister stops burying me under the mound of paperwork she's no doubt left for me to sort through." As Princess Celestia left the room the majority of Twilight's friends, who hadn't spoken because they wanted to hear what had happened to Sunset, excused themselves so they could get back to their daily lives as well. In a few minutes the only ponies that remained in the room were Twilight and Sunset, but before either could say a word another pony, this one with a coat that looked like a mix between pink and purple, hurried into the room. Before the mare closed the door a dragon, the size of a filly, followed her inside, before she gently closed the door and turned to look at the room. "Ah, Starlight Glimmer, Spike," Twilight said, welcoming both her student and her assistant as she turned to face Sunset, "I'd like the both of you to meet Sunset Shimmer. Sunset, this is Spike, my assistant, and Starlight Glimmer, my new student. What brings the two of you to the hospital?" "We got mail!" Spike exclaimed, reaching into his bag and pulling out a letter, one that was larger than most of the ones that usually came to the castle. "We get mail all the time," Twilight countered, looking at the letter and wondering what was so special about it, "I don't see how that would require the two of you to run all the way to the hospital to deliver it to me." "That's because its a letter for her!" Starlight continued, pointing at Sunset for a moment, "Its not only got her name on it but its also sealed with a mark that doesn't come from this world, so I figured that we would bring it to you attention." Sunset stared at the seal that Starlight mentioned as Twilight floated the letter over to her, recognizing the dragon emblem she had seen on the Book of the Dragonborn, which Elenwen had showed her at her embassy. She gently took the letter in her magic and broke the seal, gently removing the contents of the envelope as she discovered that it was actually a letter. Before she started reading anything she looked up and found that Spike, Starlight, and Twilight were waiting for her to get started, though she also noted that Twilight was prepared for her first notes on Nirn. "Dear Sunset Shimmer," Sunset started, unfolding the letter as she went about her reading, "I would pray that this letter reaches you intact, but Akatosh has told me that he and the other Divines will ensure that this reaches you in one piece. I hope that you are safe and are recovering from your fight with Tirek, as that is what everyone in Skyrim, and across the whole of Tamriel, are doing at the moment. I merely wish to inform you of the damage the demon caused outside Skyrim's borders, as there is plenty of depressing issues to tell you about, but there are also good things as well. I don't know if you recall the attack that shattered High Hrothgar, but it had another effect as Red Mountain, in Morrowind, became active and started spewing lava once more. I am sad to say that a good portion of Morrowind is now covered in lava or buried under the ash once more, but at least half of it is still livable at the moment. Another of the demon's attacks caused serious damage to Cyrodiil, as the entirety of the Imperial City collapsed during a major earthquake that caught everyone by surprise... but I have been told that the new Emperor, and whoever was to succeed him, had perished in the quake. Your fight also caused tsunamis to hit the continent, as we have received reports that at least half of the remaining provinces had been overtaken by water... though it doesn't look like the levels will be receding anytime soon. Unfortunately the Summerset Isles was completely destroyed by the tsunamis, as were the Thalmor agents that called the Isles home at the time it was hit. We aren't sure of how many members of the Aldmeri Dominion survived the Second Oblivion Crisis, which is what many call what Tirek did, so as such Elenwen has been put in charge until one of her superiors reveals themselves. Here's the real kicker; Elenwen's first order as leader of the Aldmeri Dominion was to get rid of the ban on the worship of Talos, as she said, and I quote her on this, 'We cannot continue to deny the presence of Talos, not when he stopped Jyggalag from striking at the one person who could stop Tirek from destroying our world'. You should have seen Ulfric when she made that announcement, as he fell to his knees and praised Talos for everything that Elenwen said... it was rather strange now that I think about it. As a result of her announcement the Civil War is officially over and everyone, be they Imperial, Stormcloak, or the Thalmor, can focus on trying to rebuild the world after what happened to it. Elisif, the former Jarl of Solitude, has officially been crowned as the new Empress of Tamriel, though she has called for Ulfric, Tullius, and Elenwen to be her advisers for the rebuilding. Jarl Balgruuf and I have come to an agreement regarding the fate of Fellglow Hold; it is to keep the land it has been given and serve as one of Skyrim's holds. The Jarl is moving to Rorikstead, where he promises to build something akin to his former city and rule over the remainder of his land... while helping Siddgeir rebuild Falkreath. The Skaal, now forced into living in Skyrim, have been offered the area that used to be Winterhold, but from what I hear it sounds like they're planning on becoming the ninth hold in Skyrim... whenever they decide on their name anyway. Lydia, Raja, Fiona, Cicero, Serana, and I will remain in Fellglow for the rest of our days, helping the people that were displaced by the destruction across the entirety of Tamriel. We have commissioned someone to build a statue, not as big as Azura's broken statue, of the hero that saved all of Nirn from complete destruction... though it won't be done until we manage to get some of the other key repairs done first. Both Elenwen and Elisif promise that you will forever be remembered for everything you did for Nirn, whether it be in books or in a few crafted statues. We all wish you well, wherever you are, and hope that you continue to do great things for others. Sincerely, Bjorn Wyrmsblood, Stewart of Fellglow Hold, 5E 001 Sunset smiled as she reached the end of the letter, as it warmed her heart to hear that everyone in Skyrim was doing well, despite the hardships that the continent was forced to endure because of the demon. She looked up at the three who had been listening to the entire reading, finding that they had no idea what she had been talking about the entire time. Even Twilight seemed lost, as it appeared like she was expecting notes on the world and had received a few lines that she could have written down. Sunset chuckled as she laid her head back down on the pillow, looking at Twilight the entire time as she prepared to tell her something. "I'll tell you about Nirn later Twilight," Sunset said, to which she saw Twilight's eyes light up for a moment, "but that's when I've recovered from my 'ordeal'." Twilight nodded her understanding and beckoned for Starlight and Spike to follow her as they resumed whatever was on her list for that day, as Sunset was sure that there was something else besides visiting her. Before she completely relaxed she placed the letter on the stand beside her, definitely glad that Akatosh had taken her friends' letter and sent it to her. She sighed and closed her eyes, knowing that she would have a few more days before she was discharged from the hospital now that Princess Celestia knew she was up. Her life was back to normal at last, despite the fact that she was an alicorn, but she could overlook that for a time before she settled into whatever role she would be given later on.