Hope and Fear: Sunset Past

by Dasher924

Old Wounds; New Tears

“Your Highness” one of the royal guards spoke to Celestia, “There is a unicorn outside the gates claiming that he will destroy a portion of Canterlot, if we do not meet his demands.”

“What? And just what are his demands?” Celestia asked.

“He’s asking for 5 million bits, as well as safe passage out of Equestria.” The guard answered

Celestia thought for a second before pressing on, “And just how is he planning on destroying a part of Canterlot?”

“He’s holding some sort of device in his magical grip. We can’t seem to break through his magic, no matter how many unicorn guards we have. None of our magic can seem to overpower his. We fear that this device might set off some sort of weapon, or maybe set of explosives. We can’t let him use that device.”

“Let me see if I can bring him to his senses” Princess Celestia said as they reached the main gate of the castle.

“Your Highness” said the both the royal guards at once, as they both jumped in front of her path, blocking the door out of the castle. “It’s far too dangerous. We suggest that you stay here in case things get out of control.”

“I will not sit here and hide while the lives of ponies in Equestria are at risk.” Celestia said defiantly.

Without another word the guards parted and let her pass, but stuck close to her sides as she walked out the main gate.

Alan walked through to the other side of the door that had appeared in front of him just a minute ago. As soon as he stepped out, the door shut in a blast of light. He put his hand up to his Bluetooth earpiece. “Jim, can you hear me? I’m not sure of my location yet. Let’s see…” Alan turned around and saw an unconscious Sunset Shimmer lying on the ground. Alan couldn’t help but smile. “Yes Jim. I’m back in Equestria all right. I’ve got to go. I’ll check in later.” Alan walked up to the nearly motionless pony on the floor. He put his hand on Sunset to check for a pulse. He felt one, and allowed himself a sigh of relief. “I wonder what happened to her” Alan wondered out loud. He took another look around the room. It was then that he found a book in which he found familiar lying on the floor next to the pony. He looked at the open book, and read the title of the page. “This little one must have activated this spell, but maybe fainted from it as well. Maybe it took more energy than she had. Not that I know all that much about magic.” He was about to try to move the pony onto one of the couple of benches he saw a few feet away when he heard a commotion outside.

Alan moved to a window of the room. The first thing he noticed was that he was not on the ground floor of wherever he was. He heard a scream, and what sounded like orders being given. The sounds were coming from the left. Alan opened the window. Looking down, he saw that the roofline ran directly underneath the window. He couldn’t see much from the window, so he climbed out and stood on the roof of the building. He decided to stay low on the building top, so he wouldn’t be seen. He moved a little to get a better vantage point of what was happening. In doing so, he was able to get a look at the architecture of the building he was standing on, and thought it reminded him of a castle. A specific castle to be, well, specific. He knew he was standing on top of Canterlot Castle.

Alan looked down to the street where to commotion was going on. He saw a whole group of armored ponies. Alan figured they were guards. Especially because they were standing next to a pony he recognized. The pony stood taller than any others Alan had seen. She had both wings and a horn. “Princess” Alan murmured to himself.

Alan heard someone yell “Stay away from me, or I’ll send Canterlot up in smoke. It’ll kill everypony here. Alan looked a little to his right to try to follow the voice of the one who just spoke. The one who gave the threat was a unicorn. He had green eyes and a brown coat. With Alan’s improved senses, thanks to Shadow, he noticed something on the unicorn’s horn. He didn’t think too much about it then, because he noticed that he was holding something in his magical grip. Alan thought it looked like it had a button on top. Then he put two and two together. “Explosives.” Alan murmured to himself. He needed to get that device away from that unicorn.

“You can’t get though to me with your magic! I have a magic suppressant. Your magic can’t touch me.” The unicorn said.

“That’s why none of the guards had grabbed the device from him. It’s because they can’t grab it with their own magic.” Alan said, “It’s almost like some sort of force field. Very Sci-fi-y.” Alan paused a second before adding: “Fascinating.”

“Where did he get a magic suppressor that powerful?” Celestia asked the guards “Those things are only used by the royal guard, and are defiantly not supposed to be able to stop magic from an outside source. They’re supposed to just stop the one wearing it from using magic. How did he manage to get it to repel our magic while allowing him to use his?”

“Alan, we have to do something. We have to stop this.” Shadow said while still inside Alan’s body.

“You’re right, Shadow.” Alan stood up, and put on his serious face. “Stop it, we shall!”

“Shall? was the last time you heard someone say ‘shall?”

“Oh, shush”

“Shush? Really?”

“Shadow? Remind me why we’re friends.”

“Because I’m awesome!!”

“Oh yeah,” Alan said, rolling his eyes, “that must be it.”

“Don’t act like you don’t enjoy my company.” Shadow continued.

“It’s true. I guess I have to admit that.”

“See? There you go”

“Alright Shadow, give me a shadowrang.” Alan requested, focusing back on the matter at hand.

“Coming right up” Shadow said.

Alan pressed his index finger and thumb together on his right hand. A surge of black and purple energy shot down his arm, and a second later, and object appeared between his two clinched fingers. Alan called it a shadowrang because it almost resembled a batarang from his favorite superhero. Through because Shadow was the one that used his energy to create them, he called them shadowrangs. Using Shadow to help enhance his senses and skills, he threw his shadowrang toward the unicorn. With perfect aim, the shadowrang flew down, and hit its target: The object that the unicorn was threatening to use to blow up Canterlot.

“Where are my 5 million bits?” the unicorn demanded.

“First put that thing down, then we’ll talk about the bits.” Celestia responded calmly.

“No!” the unicorn shouted, “The bits first, then see my safe passage out of Equestria. After that, I can then, and only then, give your city back its safety.”

Then out of nowhere, Alan’s shadowrang flew down and struck; sticking right into the device the unicorn was holding with his magic. Startled, the unicorn dropped the device as the force of the shadowrang sent it skidding across the floor. Almost instantly after the device hit the floor, the unicorn was tackled by a dozen royal guards. The royal guards removed the magic suppressor previously worn by the unicorn, and attached a new one on his horn. This one preventing the unicorn from performing magic himself, instead of the other way around.

After the unicorn was successfully detained, Princess Celestia walked over to the device. She grabbed it with her magic, and pulled the shadowrang that was lodged in the device. As she was doing so, she gave her guards their next orders. “Take him down to the jail and question him.” She said referring to the currently nameless unicorn, “I want the rest of the guard to sweep the city for any explosives or weapons, and clear them out. Alert me if you find anything suspicious. I’m going to check on my student.”

“Yes, your highness.” All the guards said in unison.

They all went off to comply with their orders, letting Princess Celestia walk back toward the castle alone so she could think. She looked back down at the object in her magical grasp. She thought the object looked familiar. The alicorn thought back for few seconds before she remembered where she had seen it before, but more importantly, who it probably came from.

Celestia looked up to the general direction she thought the shadowrang was flung from: the castle. “It looked as if it came from a higher elevation” she thought to herself. She looked towards the castle’s upper levels. She saw somepony close a window on the second story of the castle, but she suspected that it wasn’t actually a pony at all. The window was in Starswirl the bearded wing, if she was not mistaken. That could only mean one thing: Sunset Shimmer. After that story she got done telling her student, she should have known this was going to happen. Sunset had found that spell book.

Alan climbed back in through the window. “I hope no one really saw me.” Alan said shutting the window. “I don’t want to cause a panic.”

Alan walked over to Sunset. He though that he saw her stir for a second. He kneeled down to get as low to her as he could. “Hey, little one. Are you ok? Can you hear me?” Sunset didn’t respond, but Alan noticed that her breathing seemed to be regular, which was a good sign.

“Alan, I hear footsteps—er, hoofsteps or whatever. Someone’s coming.” Shadow said

“Go see who it is.”

Shadow swept out of Alan’s body and moved across the floor. “A moving shadow actually looks creepy when it’s not really attached to anyone.” Alan thought to himself, before turning his attention back to Sunset.

Shadow slid around the corner, remaining flat to the floor so that he truly did resemble a shadow. Well, as close to a showdown as you can with red glowing eyes. Shadow slid through the gate and peered down the hallway.

“It’s Celestia accompanied by a royal guard.” Shadow said, sliding back and reentering Alan’s body.

Where Alan and Sunset were currently located, no one would be able to see them from the doorway.

“Stay here with her.” Alan said to Shadow, “I’ll go meet Celestia.”

“What? Are you afraid that this pony is going to jump up and kill us if we don’t keep watch on her?”

“Just watch her, Shadow. Please.”

Shadow was taken aback by Alan’s almost pleading voice. “Of course I will, Alan.”

Princess Celestia walked up to the gate of the Starswirl the Bearded section. The royal guard opened the door for her, and she walked in.

“Hello, Princess.” Alan said as he walked around the corner of one of the bookshelves to present himself to the Princess. “Long time, no see.”

The royal guard with Celestia, knowing that nopony should be in this section of the archives, jumped into action. He put himself between Celestia and Alan; ready to do whatever he needed to protect his princess.

“It’s ok.” Princess Celestia said putting a hoof on the guard’s shoulder. “He’s a friend. You can wait outside.”

“Your Highness.” The guard looked back to Alan and gave him politely bowed and left the room.

“Alan.” Celestia said as she and Alan stepped closer to each other. When they were close enough, Alan wrapped his arms around the alicorn’s neck, slipping her into a hug.

“It’s been too long” Alan said still hugging Celestia

“Yes. I didn’t think humans lived over a thousand years.”

Alan broke the hug, took a step back, and made eye contact with Celestia. “What do you mean 1000 years? It’s been just over 2.”

“What do you mean, only two years?”

“I mean, it was close to two years since I was here last. Besides, humans haven’t even come close to living for 1000 years.”

“Then, I don’t understand. How could 1000 years pass here, but only 2 in your dimension?”

“I don’t know, but we can try to figure that out later. For right now, there is somepony over there. She’s unconscious at the moment, and I’m worried about her. We should probably get her to the hospital or something to get her checked out.”

“Yes, of course. Is her coat an amber color? Red and yellow mane? A sun for a cutie mark?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s her. I trust you know her.”

“She is currently my personal protégé: my student. Speaking on that note, Alan, do you think, seeing as you’re here not anyway, we could sit down and talk? I could use some advice.”

“Of course, Princess. I’m always available whenever you may need me.”

Celestia used her magic to grab Sunset off the couch. “Come,” she said to Alan as they walked towards the door, “we’ll drop her off at the infirmary, then we can sit down and talk.”

“Sounds good to me.” Alan Replied.

As they opened the door and stepped into the hallway of the castle, Princess Celestia turned to the royal guard standing guard. “Alan, here,” she said pointing a hoof at the human, “is my esteemed guest, and therefore I would like him to be treated as such.”

“Yes, your highness. I will spread the word immediately.” The guard said before bowing and then running off in the other direction.

“How’s Princess Luna doing? I haven’t seen her around.” Alan asked after they had stated walking to the infirmary.

Alan could almost see Celestia cringe at that question. It was as if Alan had hit a bad topic of conversation with her. He wasn’t sure why, but whatever it was, it made her very sad. He could feel it.

It was part of the “gift” he had received when he first appeared in Equestria. He could feel the emotions of those around him. It was more of a curse, really. He didn’t like to feel others in emotional pain. He always did what he could to help others when they were hurting, and was proud to be able to help others, but it kind of sucked because he didn’t know how to turn it off. Wherever he went, he could feel everyone who was happy or sad, angry or depressed, and pretty much any other emotion you could think of. All of these emotions bombarded him 24 hours a day. Shadow tried to help by attempting to block some of them. It helped a little, but because they both shared thoughts, it all hit Alan anyway. Over the last couple of years, he had just learned to deal with it, with varying degrees of success, depending on the day.

Celestia still hadn’t answered about her sister, and Alan was afraid to ask any other questions in case he hit any other sour topics. They walked the rest of the way to the infirmary in silence. Alan waited outside in the hall, as Celestia took Sunset and gave her over to the doctor currently on duty.

“I think she may have put too much energy into a spell. I just want to make sure she’ll be ok. I’m not sure how much the spell drained her.” Celestia told the doctor. “I have some business to attend to. Please inform me of her condition when you find something out.”

“Yes, your Highness” the doctor replied.

“Come, Alan.” Celestia said as she reappeared back in the highway. “Are you hungry?”

Alan’s stomach answered that question with a well times growl. “Hmm, I guess that means that I am.”

The alicorn giggled at that. “Then let’s go to my personal dining room. I will tell you about my sister there.”

For a personal dining room, it sure was huge. Unnecessarily huge, if you asked Alan. He wanted to ask why she needed so much space for a dining room, but he was afraid that it might bring up some more sour memories, so he just let it go.

Shadow decided that it wanted to have a seat of his own, so he detached from Alan, and moved over to the chair next to him. He formed up into a wolf form and climbed up onto the chair.

“Why do you need such a big room to eat in?” Shadow asked.

Alan had to hold back the urge to facepalm. Sometimes Shadow didn’t always think before he talked.

“Oh, I am so sorry, Shadow. I neglected to say hi to you. How have you been?” Celestia responded,
“Keeping Alan out of trouble?”

“I don’t think there is anything I can do to keep Alan out of trouble. Trouble seems to find him pretty easily.”

“Anyway,” Alan interrupted before Shadow managed to totally embarrass him, “you said you wanted to tell me something, Princess.”

“Yes,” Princess Celestia said, “A lot has happened here since you left. I don’t know how 1000 years could pass here, but only two in your world, but I know that it really has almost been that long since I had seen you last. I can still remember the day you helped us find the Elements of Harmony. The day when you led both my sister and I to the Tree of Harmony. The day you freed Equestria of Discord.”

“Now just wait a minute, Celestia.” Alan interrupted, “I did not free Equestria from Discord. You did that yourself. I just helped you find the keys you needed.”

“Yes, I know, but I still can’t thank you enough for what you did. Anyway, I believe I owe you an explanation of my sister’s….disappearance.” She took a deep breath before she continued, “After Discord was defeated, Equestria was still in shambles. Ponies needed someone who would help put Equestria back to the way it was, or better off, if possible. Luna and I decided to take on this task. Together, from our old castle, which, today, lies in ruins in the Everfree Forest, we used the powers of Harmony to help put Equestria back together again. One of the first things we changed was the way discord changed day and night. When he ruled, there was no rhyme or reason to his day and night. It was as if day and night changed randomly. In order to break some of the chaos, and allow ponies to live happily, we had to make regular day and night schedules for Equestria.

I decided to take control of the Sun, and my sister took the moon. Together, we brought back both regular days and nights. Soon, we managed to bring Equestria back to where the ponies could prosper once again. Both Luna and I were both so happy we could change ponies’ lives for the better.

My happiness, however, was short lived. Soon, Luna started to become resentful of me. You see, she was mad because the ponies would play and have fun in my day, but when nighttime came around, all would hide away and sleep. She felt that nopony ever looked at or even cared about her beautiful night that she spent so long trying to make perfect. Her hatred and jealousy grew so large that it consumed her. It was almost as if she wasn’t herself anymore. She had turned into this, this monster. I tried to reason with her, but in the long run…I…I had no choice.”

Celestia lowered her head, so that her eyes were no longer visible to Alan. He didn’t need to see her eyes, however, to know that she was crying. Alan got up from his chair he was sitting on. He walked around the table and sat right next to the princess. He put a comforting hand on her back, and began to slowly moving his hand up and down her upper back.

“I…banished her. I banished her to the moon……for a thousand years.”

Alan could see her tears falling onto the table.

“I had to. She was going to hurt somepony. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Alan was about to say something when Celestia turned toward Alan. She threw her two front hooves around him, and began sobbing horribly. The two of them hung there for several minutes, the only sound in the room was of Celestia’s crying.

Alan was never one for watching sappy tv shows or going out to see tearjerker movies. It wasn’t so much because he didn’t like them; it was more because it affected him so much. Seeing someone cry always made him cry in response. He didn’t like to see anyone sad. So with Celestia crying her heart out on Alan’s shoulder, he could help but cry himself.

Shadow, still sitting in his original seat, sighed quietly. “No matter how many times Alan explains it to me; I still do not understand crying.” He said to himself. He wasn’t a creature of emotions, after all. His species never had any way to show happiness or sadness; anger or jealousy. Now, with all these emotions hitting his best friend all the time, he was beginning to learn about them. He didn’t even think he was capable of crying, but sometimes, when Alan cried, it made him feel incredible sadness too. It was as if Shadow was feeling the sadness, without the tears that come with it.

“Of course,” Shadow continued to think to himself, “I don’t see too much sadness around Alan. He definitely liked to be happy, like, all the time.” Shadow liked happiness too, but as of yet, as never seen another human display it so much. One thing was sure: Alan sure knew how to always see something good in any situation, no matter how grim. Even in the tensest situations, Alan always remained calm and did his best to smile through it. Shadow once asked him how he managed to do that. He responded, “It’s my way of staying focused on the situation. If you let the stress get to you in a dangerous situation, then you might miss something that’s right in front of your face.”

Whether it was true or not, it seemed to have worked for both of them thus far. He and Alan had been able to help out the human world in the last two years. Together, they’ve stopped countless thieves, as well as some bigger crises including one or two I’m-going-to-take-over-the-world plots. Together, they’ve done very well to help make his world a better place, just like Alan always wanted. Shadow just hoped that they would be ready for what’s about to happen. He had a bad feeling about being back here in Equestria. He just felt like something terrible was about to happen.

There was a knock on the door to Celestia’s dining room.

The princess broke the hug with Alan, and did her best to dry her tears, while Alan did the same. After she was sure all the tears were gone.

“Enter” Celestia called loud enough to be heard outside the heavy doors.

With magic, the doors to the dining room opened, and another royal guard walked in. After a quick bow, he started. “Your Majesty, I bring news from the infirmary. The doctors say that Sunset Shimmer is fine, and just needs some more time to rest to get her energy back up. They are ready to transport her back to her own quarters.”

“Thank you,” The alicorn said, “Tell the doctors that I will meet them at Sunset’s room”

“Very good, Your Highness” The guard responded and galloped off.

“Let’s go, you two. I’ll finish my story on my way. Sorry about my breakdown, you two. If you’d like to come as well, I’m sure Sunset will want to meet you. After all, I believe she’s the one responsible for bringing you here again.”

“Thank you, Princess.” Alan said, “I would love to meet her. Just remember, Celestia, it’s ok. If you ever need someone to cry to, I’ll always be there for you. Anytime you need.”

“Thank you, Alan. You really are a true, true friend.”

And that gave Celestia an idea.