Flash Sunset
Homecoming
The hardest word to say is ‘Sorry.’
--Princess Celestia
“I’m naked!” It was a tribute to just how long Sunset Shimmer had spent in the weird world of ‘humans’ that even before the mind-scrambling effects of dimensional travel had fully faded and the wonderful feeling of Equestrian magic had soaked into her horn once again, her absolute first instinct had been a shocked realization that her carefully-selected outfit with matching earrings, pumps, and a daring-but-not-flaunting miniskirt that Rarity had pressed on her before departing was gone, and the cool breeze that swept through the Royal Gardens felt extremely weird on her bare rump.
The second shocked realization was that Starswirl’s Mirror had been moved out of the secure storeroom where she had first encountered it, and placed in the middle of what could only be Celestia’s private garden. Nowhere else could there possibly be such a degree of flowering, blooming, growing, sprouting, and just plain green that filled every single crack and crevice of the ground around her, only parting in its expanse of photosynthesis in order to grudgingly permit the occasional stone bench or gravel pathway, and even there, the tips of curious vines crept out onto the forbidden territory just as far as they thought they could get away with their intrusion. All around her, the rustle and creak of hidden creatures filled Sunset’s mind with a strange mixture of intrigue and fear. The mirror should not have been put out here; it was a priceless treasure of Equestria that should have been locked away where nopony else could possibly fall through the cracks into another world like Celestia’s rebellious young student had done so many moons ago. Her reflexes surged to a near-panic as a nearby bush rustled, and her eyes caught the glint of polished steel in the moonlight.
It’s a trap!
Teleportation had always been easy for Sunset, an application of her boundless will upon the universe indicating that her current position of here was incorrect, and she actually was supposed to be there instead. A surge of welcome magic flooded over her horn and she reappeared on the wall of the castle in a flash of golden light, which did nothing for her night vision and everything for the guard’s ability to see where she had gone.
“There she goes!”
The rustle and flapping of wings brought a hammering terror to Sunset Shimmer’s heart. She had stolen from the Princess, assaulted the Royal Guard, and even committed what could be considered Treason Against The Crown, for which there was only one penalty. She had hoped that the kind and compassionate Princess Celestia who had once been closer to Sunset than her own mother would have been willing to listen to her plea for mercy. Now it seemed instead that her destined path was going to lead to a dark jail cell somewhere and unthinkable consequences.
Blinking through tears, her dazzled eyes could just barely make out the form of the mirror in the garden, but there were bulky armored shapes in front of it now, as well as a tall pale shape she knew too well. The only option left that held any hope was flight, away from Canterlot and into some place in Equestria where she could hide until Celestia’s immortal vengeance cooled, which looked to be a long, long time. An armored shape flung itself out of the dark garden in her direction as Sunset Shimmer turned her back and fed power into her magic again.
“I’ve got he—“
The wind from a pair of pegasi hooves barely breezed through her mane as Sunset reappeared on a nearby castle roof in a brilliant flash and a breathless panting. Using magic after this long away from Equestria was far more draining than she had anticipated, and she took a moment to orient herself against the shapes of buildings in the silver moonlight, trying to make sense of the moon symbols that had replaced so many of the familiar sun symbols in the castle.
Either things had changed far more than she realized in the last few years, or possibly she had managed to connect the portal to the wrong Equestria, because even the city beyond the castle walls seemed different in some fashion as it faded into sight to her flash-blinded eyes. Canterlot had always been awash in small changes as ponies attempted to one-up their neighbors with an ornate roof here or a trellis garden there, but this was far more. The normally dark streets were glowing with streetlights, and the distant throbbing music of dance clubs drifted through the mountain air, something she had never seen before in her time as a student despite her best efforts. Even the moon had changed, no longer bearing the image of a dark unicorn, but instead wearing a soft silver of vague craters like some old pony who had gotten a facelift.
The enchantments that filled the city beyond the castle remained the same, from the pegasus wards on the tops of tall towers to the vibrating pillars of massive enchantments anchoring the city to the side of Mount Canter. She could even feel the distant traces of the magic beacons in the Royal Guard armor, still unchanged since her abrupt departure—
“I’ve got you no—“ The triumphant cry of a Royal Guard pouncing down from the sky was rather rudely cut off by the solid wave of roofing shingles Sunset brought up between them, giving her a fraction of a second to teleport to another nearby roof before armored hooves reached for her again. He had sounded familiar for some reason, but she did not have leisure time to consider just what pony lurked behind that faceless identical facade of armor, just that whoever it was smashed out of the pile of shingles far faster than Sunset was willing to believe, and had streaked across the intervening space almost before she could teleport away again.
Fire seemed to fill Sunset Shimmer’s chest as she teleported again and again, each time barely able to heave a few anguished breaths and look for another safe spot before being forced to teleport to avoid capture. Whoever was chasing her was far too good to give even the smallest advantage. She had even taken to the rather risky method of double-teleporting to try and gain range on her pursuer, teleporting a distance away and into midair before teleporting to a new spot on the ground, but even that only gained her a few more seconds of panicked breathing before the whisper of wings sounded again and she had to flee. It would only be a matter of time before the Royal Guard managed to get one of their barrier experts — probably that arrogant twit Shining Armor — into position with a teleport-suppression field, and her attempts at escape would be squelched, leaving inevitably to that dark dungeon that she was seeing in her mind’s eye every time she vanished into a new position.
She was watching for it, so when the feeling of a dull magical shield appeared at the end of one of her teleportations, that was the cue to release a spell she had never actually cast before. A thin lance of magic speared silently through the barrier, expanding out even as it murmured sweet nothings into its pierced counterpart. With luck, nopony would be able to detect her tampering, and the natural tendency of barrier spells to self-heal would seal the hole behind her in just a few moments. With a flash of golden fire, Sunset Shimmer threw her teleportation spell through the barrier and into the open space behind it.
The very open space.
Air roared through Sunset Shimmer’s mane as she stared down at the bottom of Mount Canter, headed towards a rather messy impact that the barrier around the walls of Canterlot were supposed to protect ponies against, unless some idiot was extremely stupid enough to both poke a hole through the protective barrier and jump through. There were even a set of magical nets concealed under the lip of the wall, designed to catch any suicidal ponies who managed to make it past the barriers to jump, but not any brilliant unicorns who decided to actually go teleport far, far away from the wall.
Muffling a virulent curse, Sunset twisted while falling and tried to focus magic into her tired horn. It was not impossible to compensate for velocity while casting a teleportation spell, not even when accelerating away from the destination, but it required intense concentration and a calm mind, both of which were agonizingly difficult at the moment. Still, it beat dying.
...acceleration of 9.87 m/s less air friction resulting in a terminal velocity of 47 m/s and considering the amount of time fallen and the distance to the top of the wall means I need to fall another three point five seconds and exert thirty-two thousand thaums to cancel my base velocity and another fifty-seven thousand thaums for the range but better round that up to sixty thousand just to be sure and charging… now!
Nearly all of her prodigious magical power was focused on one task, so it was forgivable that she missed the whisper of wings from a single pegasus guard who had followed her out of the narrow hole in the city wards, but it was impossible to miss his triumphant shout as he plunged down out of the sky and wrapped his hooves around her body.
“Got you! You’re under — Oh no you don’t!” One armored hoof swung down at her blazing horn, making the teleportation spell spark and heave like a wild bucking bronco and Sunset cursed virulently at the guard.
“Get off! Get off you bucking idiot!”
There was no stopping her spell now, even with the additional weight of the guard and the frantic slapping he was doing at her blazing horn. They tumbled as they fell, the overcharged teleportation spell throwing sparks into her eyes until it discharged in a massive disruption of magic that wrenched her head to one side.
Even though the roar of passing wind had not stopped or even slowed, the night air had turned cloying and damp, clinging to their coats as the two ponies crashed through the trees sideways, branches and limbs reaching for them as they passed and leaving a shattered trail to their rear until they struck a forest giant far too large to even acknowledge the impact of two insignifiant ponies. Ever so slowly, the two entwined ponies slid down the bark, leaving quite a few patches of fur or blood along their path, and accumulating a number of long slivers in return, until they fell into a mercifully soft patch of moss at the base of the tree.
The relative pattern of the dark forest took a few minutes to return, the screaming of frightened birds and buzzing of disturbed insects slowly turning back to the regular chatter and hum of the deep forest. There was a new noise in the forest that added to the din, a slow moaning and groaning of injured ponies who had separated upon their impact with the forest floor and now lay on opposite sides of the mossy lump that had broken their fall. Finally, Sunset Shimmer dragged herself rightside-up and and spit out a lump of tree bark.
“Flash Sentry, is that you?”
There was a respectable period of time before the other pony responded, a faint but brief rustling indicating he had taken the time to shift position slightly and determine that perhaps immobility was the way to go at the moment. Still, that did not stop him from saying a phrase that she was dreading.
“Sunset Shimmer. You’re under arrest.”
Yeah, I'm mean to the little lovebirds. First comment is reserved for the author. There *will* be a happy ending, for a certain value of 'happy.'
5092329
Is the value of happy "i"?
I can dig it. Love Georg stories.
Now kiss!
Sweet. I ship FlashXSunset like it's Amazon Prime, and there are already tons of intriguing questions to be answered. Is this actually the right Equestria? And if so, what's gotten Celestia so judgy. Usually ol' Sunbutt loves forgiveness and second chances.
Most importantly: Does this Flash play guitar?
Interesting concept for a story. I wonder what future chapters will hold. I'll give a better review/comment after I read two more chapters. As for initial impressions, I say this is going to be a fun story with lots of physical humor.
This isn't my crack. ;~;
5092417 You may find it interesting to separate the observations of the characters from their assumptions and conclusions in this case. I'll go as far as to say that almost everything assumed by both characters to this point is completely and totally wrong.
5092430 Chapter 2 "Hunted" goes up tomorrow. "No Hiding Place" should be out by next week.
5092436 Time will tell.
5092384 Will you settle for having their hooves all over each other in the next chapter, but not in that way?
5092381 And I love writing them. It seems to work out well.
5092378 Well, *somebody* is going to be happy at the end of this. If nothing else, there's a hydra who is getting a midnight snack. (I'm not saying)
5092466
Yup. Still waiting for you to wrap up the next Traveling Tutor so I can reread the prior ones, but this looks like a fun read. You've taken two characters that have a relatively bad rep in the fandom for no good reason, put them in a highly awkward situation, and now we get to see it play out. Truly looking forward to what else you have in mind for us with this story.
I'm certainly intrigued. Between the mirror's location and Flash's presence in Canterlot, this definitely isn't the Equestria Sunset left. The question is, what's different? Eagerly looking forward to finding out.
5092378
Well, they say happiness is all in the mind. I suppose that does make it imaginary.
5092466 Soooooo Sunset hasn't actually ended up in an alternate dimension where Celestia is less understanding "judgmentElquestria"? That large pale figure was Luna testing a ghost costume for Nightmare Night? Flash Sentry has just arrested Pinkie in a Sunset Shimmer suit? PONY FLASH SENTRY PLAYS THE BASE!?
5092384 I agree most emphatically with my fellow commenter.
5092466
I hate Brad with the fury of a thousand suns, so not likely.
5092477
I'm not sure if this is a different universe or not but this certainly doesn't seem like something Celestia would do, something's definitely up.
Woohoo! The story I voted for was the one to win the coveted "Published First" prize!
Anywho, quite engaging so far (as any good Georg tale should be), so definitely gonna buckle my seatbelt and enjoy this ride.
5092590 You got that right.
I need this to be done, now, so I can read it. @_@
5093198 Oh I agree. This is too good. Why must authors torture us with cliffhangers??
Oh wait I do that too :P
5092417
It's all a misunderstanding, Celestia just wants to make sure Sunset gets her Welcome Back party.
I sense the down votes are simply because of Flash Sentry, because this is the beginning of a fun story.
5093498 Ooooh, Pinkie finally convinced the Princesses to pass "Cranky's Law?"
5092329
5092378
A Roald Dahl "happy" ending perhaps?
Oh heck yeah, I was looking forward to this one.
And what an action packed start, too.
"You know, I can't help but feel I have forgotten something," Celestia said. "But I can't quite put my hoof on what."
"That's not like you." Twilight said, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "I hope it wasn't something important, then."
Celestia frowned. "That's just it, it feels like I have missed something vital, I just can't recall it. Oh, this is frustrating."
"Did you forget about your meeting with the goat Prime Minister?" Luna suggested.
"Believe me, I almost wish I did," Celestia sighed. "No, that's not it."
"Did you forget Raven's birthday?" Twilight suggested.
"No, and that's not for another month," Celestia replied.
"Did you forget to raise the sun today?"
"Luna!"
Twilight cocked her head and scratched her chin. "Did you forget to tell the guards that we decided to pardon Sunset Shimmer for stealing my crown?"
"Don't be silly, Twilight, of course I...." Celestia paused. Then she closed her eyes and groaned slightly. "Ah. Oops."
5094453 I just want you to remember this sequence when reading the second chapter of the upcoming "Trixie and Twilight, Sitting in a Tree"
There was a sharp knock at the front door, despite the large sign that Twilight Sparkle had put up earlier that proclaimed in large letters “Quiet! Very Important Guest! Do not knock!” With a muffled curse, Twilight darted to the door, yanking it open and snapping, “Can’t you rea—“
“Now I remember,” said Spike. “Princess Celestia said she was going to visit later today.”
There was a very small squeak, much like would be made by the rusty hinge on a jewelry box, or perhaps a young alicorn princess with dirty towels draped all over her body and a sock on her horn finding Princess Celestia standing on her doorsill.
But asking is better than never having.
General Ackbar is sexy as hell.
And lo behold, the stupidity of the Royal Guard is once again proven to be over 9000!