//------------------------------// // The Mare Who Won Infamy and Fortune // Story: The Sun Never Sets // by Mr Fislewait //------------------------------// The Friendship Express traveling west-northwest from Canterlot maintained a steady speed of approximately seventy miles per hour, 'perfectly suited to accommodate passenger comfort and allow for a view of the scenic countryside whilst still ensuring the passenger always arrived on time' as the promotional material of the train-line described it. As a mare entirely uninterested in enjoying the surrounding countryside and more than used to living in discomfort for extend periods of time Eventide couldn't help but disagree with company policy. Land speed records had come a long way in the past few decades and the route from Canterlot to The Crystal Empire was already needlessly indirect, needless to say Eventide did not approve of the decision. Her desire for a more direct route to the empire had trebled when five minutes into the journey she realized that whilst she had remembered to pack toiletries, gifts, a change of clothes, formal wear (just in case), her prescription, a packed lunch, snacks, travel papers and bullwhip (never can be too careful) into her saddlebags she had failed to bring any reading material for the arduous journey. Ten minutes into the journey she had caved into boredom and begun to read the rag sheets. Her train of choice had left Canterlot in the wee hours of the morning barely an hour after Celestia had raised the Sun, a decision that had allowed Eventide to avoid the prying eyes of the public. Normally when she left the house she did so under the anonymity of heavy cloaks and wide brimmed hats, with her short bob cut mane and cutie mark concealed she could generally move about unrecognized, but not today. Today was a social visit and she intended to look the part, to try and be somepony she wasn't around her friends felt intrinsically wrong, Eventide was used to deception but somehow that particular deception had never sat right with her. So it was that she sat awkwardly in one corner of the carriage trying not to notice when the other passengers gawked at her. Truth be told she probably would have avoided half the attention had she changed into her 'uniform' once she had arrived. Sure someponies would still have recognized the dandelion unicorn with the red and blue mane and flaming compass rose cutie mark if she was in the nude but it was really her distinctive clothing choice that made her identity unmistakable, a tan fedora whose brim rested atop her horn and a faux leather jacket that covered her withers and back with sleeves up to the knees of her forelegs. She couldn't recall a single publicity photo she had been in where she hadn't worn the costume. It had been Rainbow's idea, 'every explorer needs to look their coolest when busting open ancient tombs' had been her choice of words and though Eventide had declined several of the mares ideas (never in a thousand years would she change her name to Daring Eventide Danger Trailblazer) the thought of a 'cool' explorers outfit had always held a certain appeal. Her chosen attire was comfortable, practical and easily repaired or replaced, its sole weakness was that it was distinctive to a fault, in the last five years nopony had ever failed to recognize the unicorn with the fedora. Her desire for even a modicum of privacy had in the past few minutes caused her to re-evaluate the merits of the tabloids. What the paper lacked in content, journalistic integrity and taste it compensated for in prodigious size. At Canterlot everypony had seen her take her seat, there had been no escaping the curious glances and malicious glares of the early commuters who had boarded the train alongside her, but behind the makeshift screen of the paper the subsequent passengers boarding between home and the empire were largely ignorant of her identity. Even the content of the paper seemed to become more appealing as time went on though Eventide was willing to put that down to Stagholm syndrome. Sapphire Shores announces comeback tour that might have counted as news seven years ago but after the last two comeback tours this was more an inevitably than a major story. Flim Flam Inc. patents wondrous new technology personally she would reserve the term 'wondrous' for a medical breakthrough but evidently someponies would deem a juicer usable by less than a third of the population of Equestria a scientific marvel. King Spot XIV abdicates throne oh Celestia somepony actually took the time to report on Diamond Dog politics, who did they upset to be given that job? Countess Coloratura where is she now? touring without the prefix you cretin. Manehattan leads the way in Nightmare Night reforms. A local school in upper Manehattan has begun preparing its yearly Nightmare Night celebrations but with an interesting new twist. For a number of years now members of the PTA and School-board have been expressing concerns that the celebration is distasteful in its portrayal of the much beloved Princess Luna and so this year in an interesting twist have opted to replace the outdated imagery of the Princess in her cursed state with a much more recognizable figure that perfectly encapsulates the origins of the holiday. Gone will be the moody blacks and blues that normally adorn such parties, replaced instead with gaudier reds and yellows as the community opts to replace the figure of Nightmare Moon with the equally terrifying Sunse- There was still have a page of the article left and many questions left unanswered, was the journalist supportive of the movement or did he stand in opposition to such sudden changes in a time honored tradition, how had the community outside the school felt about these changes, were there plans to extend these 'improvements' to a wider area? Eventide would never know the answers to these questions though as the paper was burnt to a crisp in the grip of her magic. Her face red with anger, her eyes ablaze, steam practically rising off of her head it took her about a minute to realize that everypony in the carriage was staring at her and the blackened lump of paper still held in her grip. Once upon a time Eventide recalled that with every triumphant return from the furthest corners of the world she would be met with stares of awes and admiration by fans and admirers, the stares currently directed at her could not be more at odds with those cheerful memories. Shock, surprise, perhaps even a touch of fear, Eventide hadn't paid any attention to the level of noise in the carriage up until now but she was certain it hadn't been quite so deathly silent. "Ummm, magical sneeze, nothing to be worried about," she tried as she delicately levitated the charred remnants of her paper to the bin. It was a feeble lie and everypony knew it but it was enough to diffuse the worst of the tension. Conversation began to start up about the carriage once more but the damage had been done, it wasn't hard to guess what topic half of the hushed conversations were going to be about for the next leg of the journey. "It's her!" A young pegasus mare sitting across from Eventide didn't even make a token effort to conceal her gossip. "Evening Tide Tail Grazer!" she winced at the horrible fumbling of her name turning her head to look out the window and avoid any eye contact with the other pony. From what she had seen the pegasus had an obnoxiously pink coat and long green mane styled in bangs. Her friend was an earth pony mare with a more subdued grey coat and chocolate mane. She hadn't seen either mares cutie marks but was quite sure she had met neither of them before in her life. "I expected her to be taller," her friend didn't even bother trying to whisper, either she didn't care if Eventide heard her or was to dumb to realize how far her voice would travel. "I thought she'd be angrier too," angrier? Had the mare somehow missed her explosion? "I'm telling you it's her! Nopony else wears a hat like that. My dad has this photo of her from years back, I'm telling you it's definitely her!" Early on in her career she had craved this kind of attention, nowadays though it all felt so hollow, so artificial. "Well, are you going to ask her then?" Ask her what? Where had everything fallen apart? What had happened to the plucky young mare who had once been hailed as a real life Daring Do? "Hay yeah I'm going to ask her!" Joy, she never tired of answering the horrible probing personal questions that had become the bread and butter of interviews ever since she aired her more controversial views following the... unpleasantness. 'Unpleasantness' was one of Starlight's earliest lessons and to her credit it had helped her in talking over the past with her friends. By reducing everything that had happened into one concise yet woefully inadequate term, she could talk over her problems without having to deal with the specifics, specifics such as how many bones were in a pegasus wing (fewer than she would have guessed but she would have preferred to never have found out). She was shaken from her grim reverie by a polite tap on the shoulder. "Hey, are you really Eventide Trailblazer?" while she had been lost in her thoughts both mares had crossed the train and taken up the seats either side of her that no other pony had dared to occupy in the otherwise crowded carriage. The earth pony at least managed to get her name right so Eventide decided to at least make an attempt at civility. "Yeah, that's me, Eventide Trailblazer, explorer of the four furthest corners of all the world, the real life Daring Do. What can I do for you?" the pair were going to ask her their question no matter what she said, might as well cut to the chase and get it over with. "Awesome! So my name is Flittering Breeze," an insufferable name for an insufferable pegasus, "and my friend here is Annabelle Farthings, she goes to college in Canterlot," the last part was whispered as though it were some great secret or lofty accomplishment. "Anyways we wanted to ask you about the article you had in the Journal of Theoretical Unicorn Science and Magic about time travel theorem," Eventide had been asked many things over the last five years by various journalists, critics and passerby's but not once had she been asked that. "The article on the potential for applied time travel magic? What about it?" she cocked one eyebrow in curiosity at the notion, she wouldn't have pegged the pair for having even a passing interest in such things, Miss Farthings perhaps had the bearing of a scholar and a closer examination of the mare revealed that she had a suitably scholastic cutie mark in the form of an abacus. Giving Flittering a quick once over Eventide found her flank to be adorned with a comparatively unremarkable cloud and breeze, typical fair for an unremarkable weather pony, likely born and bred in Cloudsdale. "Yeah that's the one! So is it true, all that stuff about time space and multi-theory universes?" she winced as Flittering managed to horribly mangle the words of her article. "I'm going to assume you meant space-time and multiverse theory," the pegasus nodded vigorously in response. "Well from my own research I'd say that yes, time travel is not only theoretically possible but that there is enough existing evidence to move the study from purely theoretic conjecture into the realm of organized study," to her surprise both mares seemed engrossed in what she had to say. "Whilst most recorded attempts at time travel are anecdotal and were undertaken outside of lab conditions they do seem to possess a number of traits that allow us to make several safe assumptions about the nature of space-time," neither mare balked at her words and Eventide began to feel like she was getting some momentum to her speech. "Even beyond recent recordings of time travel I have found evidence in the darkest reaches of Zebrica and among the ruins of the ancient Ponicians to suggest that both cultures may have made a few successful forays into the field before ultimately deeming it to be impractical. More recent evidence implies that we can split time travel into two major categories. The first category, 'self perpetuating', is a philosophical anomaly that allows a pony to travel backwards in time in such a way as to cause their past selves to later become their present self and in turn feel obligated to travel back in time thus completing the loop. For the most part this is a poorly understood phenomenon that warrants future research." "The second category, 'tangential time travel', allows for a greater degree of time travel over a wider time frame but appears to bare the limitation that any direct change to the timeline results in the returning traveler to end up in a divergent history entirely separate to their own. A different universe amidst the multiverse in which nopony will remember them and there is a potential for the traveler to meet their alternate self, raised under the changed conditions of the new universe with an entirely different set of experiences and memories. Current evidence suggests that the traveler can potentially return to their original timeline but without further evidence that is all up in the air. Personally though I think-" Flittering giggled. Eventide knew that she hadn't made any intentional jokes and thinking back over her last few words she couldn't think of anything that she had said that one might misconstrue as a crude sexual innuendo. 'Half the time ponies are laughing with you, not at you' that was another of Starlight's lessons. This time though Eventide had no doubt that the laughter was coming entirely at her own expense. She turned and eyed up Miss Farthings finding a smug grin of amusement on the earth ponies face. "You're mocking me aren't you?" she deadpanned. "But it's so silly! I think everypony would remember if somepony had gone and changed history don't you?" the idiocy behind the statement was barely worth acknowledging, Flittering was clearly an idiot or a simpleton. Eventide would just have to be the better pony, she would let the insult go, get off of the train at The Crystal Empire and never have to see either mare ever again, simple. "I mean granted it's not the weirdest thing you've ever written but you must have been joking when you submitted that article to the journal right?" if Flittering were a smart mare she would know to quit while she was ahead. "It's just such a laugh though! I read stories about time travel when I was a little filly you know? It was all fiction you realize right?" evidently Flittering was not a smart mare. "Really though the prize for weirdest thing you ever penned has to go to that article on the element bearers though. Seriously, Sunset Shimmer being friends with Twilight Sparkle? How much had you had to drink to come to that conclusion?" on second thought being the better pony was highly overrated. In one swift movement Eventide rose from her seat and took a step forward, securing her saddlebag at her side and moving as though to leave the carriage. With the still giggling Flittering seated directly behind her though she smiled and put on her most sickly sweet voice. "Well it has been a pleasure speaking with you, Flittering Breeze, but I'm afraid I have to go find someone further down the train," for a habitual liar like Eventide it would have been easy enough to leave things there, let Flittering think she genuinely had left to find somepony else and never have to deal with the insufferable pegasus ever again. "Before I go though I thought I should let you know you have something on your face Miss." "Really?" Flittering raised a hoof to her face feeling around for whatever it was that Eventide had noticed. "Did I get it?" "Nope," Eventide sang in a practiced dulcet tone. "I've got you covered though, it's right here," and so with one swift movement of her hind legs Eventide bucked Flittering in the face.