Roseluck sighed as she stepped outside that morning. It had been five years already, five years and the pain still had yet to go away. Oh she might smile on the outside, try her best to act as though nothing was wrong, but everypony knew otherwise. They were worried for her, worried that she might do something to hurt herself. She'd already been caught trying once. Straightening her mane and making herself look presentable Rose picked up the bouquet of her namesake flower mixed with hyacinths and stepped out of the door. She looked vaguely presentable, but anypony who paid her attention would know something was up. In fairness anypony who really knew her already knew where she would be going. Five years ago today. It wasn't her fault, she knew that, but that didn't ease the feeling of guilt.
"Hey, Rose, the flowers look particularly lovely this year," Daisy called to her as she passed her in the street. "You know you don't have to do this, Rose? I spoke to Princess Twilight, she doesn't blame you for what happened, nopony does, and she says she doubts that Sunset would have wanted you to do this to yourself."
"Thanks, Daisy, but it's something I just have to do." She continued on, heading out of Ponyville proper and up to the cemetery. Perhaps this year somepony else would be there? That had always been the strange thing, she would have expected to at least see Twilight up at the graveyard. Maybe she went at a specific time of day and the two just missed each other. Maybe Twilight was giving her some space to be alone.
Today the weather ponies had spread gentle rain showers across Ponyville, it seemed fitting, very appropriate to her day. She trudged between the headstones until she reach the far side of the graveyard, a solitary headstone sat tucked away in one corner, away from public gaze. It was oddly fitting and at the same time cruelly ironic. It probably wasn't placed there specifically for that reason but it was still an awful reminder of what she had done. If she hadn't shoved the poor mare so suddenly into the scrutinizing eyes of Ponyville would things have played out any different? Twilight had assured her they wouldn't have, that Sunset had been very ill and that there was very little that could have been done to help her.
Placing the flowers across the front of the grave Rose was disappointed to find a few weeds had taken root around the edges of the plot. Carefully pulling them she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment, Sunset had lived in Ponyville for almost an entire year, did nopony really care enough to keep her grave tidy? Sure most of the townsponies had hardly known her but Rose would have expected a little more effort from Twilight or her friends, they had all seemed quite friendly with the unicorn. The grave itself was a very simple affair, a name, date of birth, date of death, Here lies Sunset Shimmer, nothing else. No words of affection, no engraving of her cutie mark. It was depressingly plain, as though the world that had turned its back on her in life had gone on to turn its back on her in death too.
"Hey, lady, why are you crying?" Rose jumped slightly in her skin as a surprisingly upbeat voice sounded off behind her. There was a touch of sympathy to it but it was clear that the owner had no idea what they had interrupted. Turning to face the speaker Rose was surprised to find a little unicorn filly with a red and blue mane sitting in the grass behind her, a quizzical look upon her face. "You alright, Miss?"
"No not really," Rose said as she tried to force a smile onto her face. Children really shouldn't be playing around in graveyards but she couldn't find the words to explain that to the young unicorn, she probably had no idea about the significance of where she was. "I'm here to see somepony and try my best to apologize to them."
"Oh," the filly fidgeted about on her hooves, her eyes wandering off to the far side of the cemetery before returning to look at Rose. "I don't see anypony else about. Are they late?"
"Yes, very late," Rose maintained a sad smile and hoped the filly would get the message and leave her alone. She didn't want to be mean to the child but she really wanted to be alone right now.
"What did you do?" the filly asked, "that means you need to apologize to them?"
"I..." was this something she should be talking about with a child? "I said some very bad things about her and made a lot of ponies think poorly of her. When she heard what ponies were saying about her behind her back she got very upset."
"Oh." The filly continued to fidget uncomfortably. "But you're sorry right?"
Rose nodded. "Very sorry. Something happened and I never really got the chance to say sorry to her properly. It's been very hard for me. I- I regret what I did everyday and... yes, yes I am sorry." There was something about the little unicorn filly that was making Rose very uncomfortable, she felt she had seen her around Ponyville a few times but couldn't for the life of her remember the filly's name. More unnerving though was that there was something eerily familiar about the little filly, like a ghost from the past.
"If you could back and do it all over, would you do things different?" Rose blinked in surprise. Who was this filly and why was she asking her all these questions?
"Yes, definitely yes. I... I was a bad pony, I didn't think about what I was saying and it hurt somepony I didn't really know." Rose sat down on her haunches and sighed, a few tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Okay!" the filly yelled suddenly sounding much more upbeat, a great big smile spreading across her mouth.
"Wha-what?"
"My momma said that you had been a very naughty pony, but Princess Twilight said you were very sorry and we should make you feel better. Momma asked me to check if you were sorry though, and you sound very sorry to me, so you shouldn't be sad any more." The filly hugged her about the leg and smiled again, giving Rose the biggest smile she could muster.
"Who are you?" Rose asked, staring at the filly in disbelief.
"Momma! Momma she's sorry, you can come out now!" the filly shouted at the top of her lungs, her grip about Rose's leg unrelenting. Rose was about to try and pull the filly off of her when she heard the sound of a twig snapping underhoof by the gates to the graveyard. Her eyes snapped up and settled upon the form of another pony now striding towards her between the graves. A towering pony in a heavy black cloak that concealed almost her entire body, she stood as tall as Luna herself and a long horn poked out from the hood of her cloak. She strode towards Rose with a seemingly unnatural purpose, reminiscent of some specter of death itself. Rose's breathe caught in her throat as she considered screaming, her heart beating furiously in her chest. As the pony neared her the little filly released her hold, darting over to the taller mare and playfully jumping about at her hooves. Rose stood frozen to the spot as the mare stopped in front of her and lowered her hood.
"I forgive you," she whispered to Rose before turning on the spot and walking away, the little filly cantering along beside her.
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Five years earlier...
Twilight sighed as she finished up filling in the last few details on the paperwork. Horse had thankfully left her to fill out the details in peace, normally he would have had to stick around but it turned out that being a princess allowed her to be invested with a great deal of trust. She would still have to hand them back to Horse but it had been a relief to not have him watching over her as she filled out the details on Sunset and Eventide that he had not been privy to.
Eventide. She still had no idea what she was meant to do about the little filly. She could try explaining the situation to her brother and Cadance, maybe they'd be willing to take her in? Or she could raise Eventide herself, treat her like a daughter of her own, she had helped raise Spike when she was a filly, how much harder could the little unicorn be? She certainly had the bits to look after her. Or adoption, from what Sunset had told her she definitely didn't want her filly ending up in an orphanage, but there were a lot of very nice families out there who would just love to adopt a little filly like Eventide, she could name a few in Ponyville off of the top of her head.
It was as she was listing off a few possible families that she heard the explosion. Jumping up from her seat she ran in the direction of the sound, just in time to see a slightly frazzled looking Princess Celestia stepping out from Sunset's room.
"Ah, Twilight! Just the pony I was looking for!" Celestia beamed with a tired but happy smile.
"Celestia! Are you alright?" Clearly something was off with the princess. When she had spoken with Horse he had described her as being mad with grief but the pony before her looked like she was over the moon. Denial, sometimes when a pony suffered a loss they went through denial.
"I'm a little singed around the edges," Celestia winced displaying a few burnt feathers, "but other than that I couldn't be better. Now then, where is the filly Twilight?" Twilight sniffed a little taking in the smell of burnt hair and feathers coming off of Celestia, the princess had closed the door behind her concealing Sunset's body but there was clearly something strange going on.
"In the nursery with the other newborns..." Twilight whispered cautiously. "What... what happened in there?" Twilight asked pointing at Sunset's room, Celestia was already off though, walking down the hospital halls with a sense of urgency.
"No time to explain, Twilight, we need to find Sunset's filly right now."
"What's going on?" she asked, catching up with Celestia and matching her pace. Princess or not Twilight had no intention of letting Celestia get too close to the foal in her current state, not until she had explained what was going through her head.
"I'll explain when we have made sure that the filly is safe-safe! Twilight, while she was living with you was there anywhere in particular that Sunset felt safe?" the question came so casually, like she barely even cared that the pony she was talking about had just died.
"The-the library I guess?" Other than her room it was the only place she would frequently go to of her own choice, even spending her off work hours among the books.
"Then we shall go there next!" Celestia said with a sense of triumph. She stopped abruptly outside the nursery and to Twilight's relief she didn't go inside, instead quickly scanning the cribs through the window. She sighed and mustering her magic teleported herself and Twilight across the town to outside of Twilight's castle. "I'm afraid we missed her at the hospital, hopefully you are right and she will-"
"Celestia!" Twilight snapped. "What are you talking about? Why did we go to the nursery, why are you all singed, what are we doing at my castle and why are you acting like nothing's wrong!" she had more to say but she found herself out of breath.
"Twilight," Celestia said, her voice both commanding and comforting. "Everything is alright, we just need to check up on Sunset and make sure it was her that took the filly out of the nursery."
"Sunset's dead, Celestia!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, "she's dead," the tears she had been holding back started to fall again, her resolve shattered by Celestia's behavior.
"The doctors told you she was dead?" Celestia asked in confusion. "Oh, Twilight. I did try to explain to them but they wouldn't believe me. Perhaps there was nothing left that normal medicine or magic could do to help her, and perhaps her body was dead in the eyes of most ponies, but her soul still lingered! I cared for Sunset deeply Twilight, while there was any chance of saving her remaining I wasn't going to-"
"What did you do?" Twilight whispered in horror. "I've studied magic my whole life, the only spells I can think of that might possibly save a dead pony are... are dark magic. If she was dead not even alicorn magic should have been able to save her," a guilty look came over Celestia's face and she nervously rubbed one hoof against the ground.
"Well no, not even alicorn magic could have saved her body, that was a lost cause. But there was another spell, one that wouldn't hurt her at all, why it was even supposed to heal most of her older injuries! I didn't expect her to react so... unpleasantly to me saving her life."
"What did you do." Twilight asked once more, with a little more force this time. If there was some magic mystery spell that could cure a dead pony without consequence then she had certainly never heard of it, she certainly couldn't imagine Celestia keeping such a spell from the public.
"I... I helped her fulfill her destiny, Twilight. She had been ready for it ever since she was returned to us earlier in the year, she has simply been refusing to accept what Harmony has had in store for her. She has been holding it back through her own thoughts of self doubt and I simply... tricked her magic into thinking she was ready to embrace it. I nudged her down the last little step towards achieving her destiny, Twilight." Celestia pushed open the door to the castle and walked inside, heading straight towards the library.
"Destiny? Harmony? What are you talking about Celestia? You don't mean you-" Twilight froze as realization began to set in. "You did didn't you? I thought we were going to talk about this! Make sure that it was what she wanted before-"
"I wasn't really left with much choice, Twilight," Celestia pouted. "In the state she was in I couldn't really go and ask her permission could I? This was the right choice, Twilight, I saved her life and in time she will come to appreciate the gift I have given her," she looked down at the burnt tips of her wings "hopefully."
Celestia pushes open the doors to the library and strode inside, Twilight quickly following. Twilight heard the two of them before she saw them, a noisy suckling noise coming from the corner of the room. There, nestled among the books lay Sunset Shimmer, Eventide resting at her side drinking from her mother's teats. Sunset turned to the newcomers and shot Celestia a glare that caused the elder princess to stop in her tracks. Sunset was so different than from when Twilight had last seen her, the scars and burns were all gone, her cutie mark was unblemished, her hooves pristine and new, her mane was long and had returned to her own colors, clearly no longer a wig. The only mark of her ordeal was that her left eye retained its cloudy color. These changes though were minor compared to the other differences in her body, she was much larger now, certainly taller than Twilight, her horn was longer and sprouting from her back were a pair of beautiful amber wings.
"Don't." Sunset hissed at Celestia. "Whatever you are going to say don't say it. I won't have you ruining my first memories of my daughter with some half assed apology or some speech about how I have some newfound duty to Equestria. I won't have it."
"You're alive, Sunset, you're really alive," Twilight whispered in disbelief.
"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" Sunset's voice softened and she looked at Twilight, confusion written upon her face.
"You... you were dead, Sunset. For a little while there you were dead. I filled out you're death certificate with Dr Horse, there's.... there's paperwork and everything." There was something horribly surreal about the whole situation. A mare she had minutes ago been grieving for was sitting in her library and acting as though none of it had even happened.
"Sunset, we need to get the two of you back to the hospital, you teleported off in quite the hurry and I imagine by now the staff are wondering what has happened to your filly," Celestia pointed out.
"No, no I'm not going back. I just... I just want to be left alone okay? Can't everypony just leave the two of us alone? If ponies want to think of me as dead then that's fine by me, nopony would miss me, nopony would care."
"We'd care, Sunset!" Twilight blurted out. "I was devastated when I thought you'd died."
"Fine, someponies would care. Look, Twilight, I... I need some time to think okay? Could the two of you leave me alone until the morning? I have some things I need to sort out, I just... I want some time to myself. Come back in the morning, I'll talk to you then okay?"
"Okay," Twilight whispered, nudging Celestia to get her to follow the two princesses left the room, Twilight carefully closing the door behind her. "Whatever you want to say it can wait till morning Celestia, I need to get some sleep and I don't think I can handle anymore drama tonight." Twilight sighed and teleported up to her bedroom leaving a stunned Celestia behind.
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"Sunset?" Twilight called as she stepped into the library the next morning. "You here Sunset?" the pile of books Sunset and Eventide had been sitting next to last night was now empty, perhaps Sunset had taken Eventide back to her room to get a proper sleep- Before she could leave Twilight spotted a letter, carefully placed on the library floor where it could easily be discovered. She lifted it in her magic, unfurled it and began to read.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I'm sorry.
By the time you read this me and Evey will be gone. I packed up my personal belongings, grabbed the bits I had been saving and left in the night. Evey is with me, I can take care of her on my own, don't worry about the two of us. I know you had been hoping we might stick around in Ponyville but I don't think I can. Everypony seemed so suspicious of me, I don't want Evey growing up surrounded by gossiping neighbors who might end up whispering about her, she deserves better than that. I don't know where I will go but please don't try to follow me, I want to work out where my life is going and what I want to do with it, it's going to be easier to do that without you and Celestia constantly breathing down my neck about my new role as Princess of who knows what.
That was the first thing she said to me when I woke up Twilight. 'Hello Princess Sunset Shimmer', princess, the word tastes like ash. This isn't goodbye forever Twilight, I'll come back and see you sometime, I promise. So no this isn't goodbye, this is till we meet again. I meant what I said last night Twilight, don't bother correcting Dr Horse, if he thought I was dead it's probably easier to let him think I am. Any other explanation is going to raise a lot of questions and if you give the honest answer ponies are going to be curious about what's happened to Equestria's newest princess. Please don't make any announcements about that by the way. Celestia may try to force it but don't let her, it'll be a lot easier for me to keep my privacy if nopony knows there is another alicorn walking around Equestria, it might be tricky but I should be able to keep it secret from everypony, hay I imagined to go years in the human world without anyone realizing I didn't belong there and I didn't even have magic to help me.
Tell the girls at CHS that I miss them and will make sure to visit the next time I'm in Ponyville. Don't tell Shining. Please. I'm not planning on letting Evey know about him and I'd appreciate you keeping her a secret from him.
Not much else to say other than that you have been the best friend a mare could hope for. I'd have stuck around to say bye but I was worried that if I did then I might lose my nerve and stay. Also if I stuck around to say bye I'd have had to deal with Celestia. I'll miss you,
Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer
By the time she reached the end of the letter tears had already begun to stain the page, some of the words quickly blotching as the paper became damp.