The Other Sunset Shimmer

by Jerec the Ascendant

Longest Night

Sunset smiled at the guard in front of her, but hardly heard what he was saying. Around her were other members of the castle staff and the royal guard, gathered in the castle courtyard for the Summer Sun Celebration. Sylri slept behind Sunset’s ear, and Sunset silently wished that she could be in bed too. Despite her research, she couldn’t understand the importance of this celebration, and her previous night of studying had made this night seem like the longest night of the year, rather than the shortest.

Sylri snored softly, and Sunset fought hard to suppress a yawn.

“That’s very interesting,” she told the rambling guard. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on some preparations.”

Sunset swayed toward a buffet table, set up in front of a strange statue. As she sipped punch, she gazed at the statue, its giant grin illuminated by colorful lanterns. Sunset had never seen such a creature as depicted by this statue, and the more she examined it, the chillier she seemed to feel.

Her pondering was interrupted as three members of the royal guard burst in on the party. Their tails and manes were singed, smoke swirling above them. Sunset rushed toward them, but stopped when she saw the captain of the royal guard approaching.

“What are you three doing here?” the captain asked. “You’re supposed to be in Ponyville guarding the Princess!”

One of the guards spoke up, still trying to catch his breath. “Sir! She’s vanished!”

“It was Nightmare Moon!” another of the guards cried, as the ponies around them gasped and murmured amongst themselves.

Sunset didn’t know what to do. The captain began giving orders to the party members, but he ignored her. She figured he didn’t know what she could do, either.

She set herself down at the base of the statue and watched everypony scramble about.

“Sunset? What’s going on?” Sylri asked, crawling out of her mane.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Sunset said. “I guess Princess Celestia has gone missing.”

Sylri gasped at Sunset’s words, tripping over her shoulder and tumbling into her lap.

“Where is she? What happened? Why is it still dark? The sun should have been up by now!”

“This Nightmare Moon must have kept her from performing her spell,” Sunset said, slumping against the statue.

Sylri’s ears perked up. “Nightmare Moon? The Nightmare Moon?”

“Yeah, that’s what a guard said.”

“Sunset!” Sylri flew herself up and tugged at Sunset’s mane.

“Cut it out!” she ordered. But Sylri persisted.

“Do you need me to teach you everything? Nightmare Moon used to be Celestia’s sister, Luna. Years and years ago, the two had a fight, ending with Luna being banished to the moon!”

“How did I not know about this?” Sunset cried. She stood up quickly, Sylri clinging to her mane. Then she remembered. She had known about this - some of it, at least. Celestia had once told her about her sister, how she lost her to jealousy, a thousand years ago. But why had she returned now?

"You there!" Sunset turned toward the voice as Sylri disappeared behind her ear. The captain was marching toward her.

She stood up straight as he took of his helmet. His blue mane fell upon his shoulders, reminding Sunset of Flash Sentry. She felt a sudden pain in her heart.

The captain spoke again. “We could use your help rounding up the rest of the staff. We need everypony’s help to find the Princess.”

Sunset nodded slowly, still thinking about Flash. As the captain spoke, though, she couldn’t help but feel something else in her heart. The glimmer of urgency in his eyes and the confident flow of his voice made her head spin, and suddenly she couldn’t bring herself to care about her missing mentor.

“Hurry!” he cried, shaking her out of her stupor. “If we take too long, somepony could get hurt!”

He galloped off, and Sylri crawled onto Sunset’s shoulder.

“I can taste what you’re feeling,” she said, poking Sunset’s cheek. “But don’t you think you have more important things to think about?”

“What?” Sunset asked, blushing. “I’m thinking about the Princess, of course!”

“Really? Well, that would make things a little awkward, don’t you think?”

“Oh, be quiet.”

Sunset rushed across the courtyard and down a castle hall. All around her, maids and guards were panicking. “How are you going to gather these ponies when they won’t calm down?” Sylri asked.

“I think I have just the thing,” Sunset said. “Looks like it’s my chance to try out that paralysis spell.” Just then, three cook ponies turned the corner, stampeding toward the two. Sunset stood still and charged her horn. Seconds later, a volley of blue light shot from her horn, stunning each of the ponies.

As they dropped to the ground, a panting guard came around the corner. Sunset continued past him. “You’re welcome,” she called over her shoulder as she began running again.

“Hey Sunny, I think I should go back to the room,” Sylri said. “There’s a lot of fear and worrying going on here, and I don’t know…”

Sunset looked down at the sprite on her shoulder.

“Well, I just don’t want to do something that I might regret, you know?”

She slowed down and Sylri flew into the air. “Alright, but make sure you aren’t seen. I’ll meet you after this is taken care of.”

The two parted, Sunset continuing down the hallway, following the echo of panicked shrieks.

She came to an intersection, where she found more staff, hurtling toward her from the right. She fired a few more stuns in their direction, freezing one of the ponies, but missing another and accidentally hitting a pursuing guard. She laughed nervously and let out an apology before hurrying on.

Sunset ran past empty closets and suites, but slowed down when she heard a strange scream, over the other screams echoing through the castle. She tracked the noise down, entering a scarcely lit bedroom. On a bookshelf in the corner, under the light of a candle, Sylri was clutching a tiny, crying maid pony.

“Sylri, what are you doing?!”

The sprite looked up at her, and Sunset saw with terror that there were legs sticking out of her mouth.

Sunset stomped toward her. “Spit that pony out right now!”

Sylri frowned, then coughed up a guard onto the bookshelf, next to the traumatized maid.

“You know you’re not supposed to eat ponies, Sylri!”

“I’m sorry! Their panic just tasted so nice…” She smiled softly at the ponies, then fluttered up onto Sunset’s outstretched hoof. She held her arms out toward the ponies, and they started to glow. Slowly, the two grew bigger. However, when they reached Sylri’s size, they stopped.

“Sylri…”

“I’m trying!” the sprite cried. “My magic is malfunctioning again!”

“Whatever, don’t worry about that for now.” Sunset placed her on her back, picking up the tiny ponies with her magic. Together, they rushed to Sunset’s suite.

Sunset emptied a box at her desk and placed the ponies inside. “Okay, just stay here. I’ll come back with the Princess and she’ll sort this out.” She turned to go, but went back. “You’ll have to forgive Sylri, by the way. She’s actually very nice. It’s just sometimes when she gets a whiff of negative emotions, she just-” Sylri tugged Sunset’s tail. “Right. Well, I’ll be right back!”

She turned toward the door again, but stopped when she noticed a light on one of her walls. She looked out the window on the opposite wall and saw the morning sun rise into the sky. The endless night was over.

“Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset looked behind her, where Princess Celestia stood.

“Princess!” she cried. “You’re safe!”

Celestia lowered her head. “Yes. But the time has come for me to tell you some of my secrets, Sunset.”

“Secrets?” Sunset’s ears twitched, and something in her stomach dropped.

“As I’m sure you’ve figured out, you aren’t my only pupil. Your counterpart was one of my students, and I have another, whom I’ve sent to Ponyville. You’ve been…” Celestia looked away, poking the ground with her hoof. “You’ve been aiding this student since your lessons have started. I foresaw the return of my sister, and knew that it was she who had the ability to bring Luna back to good. She has proved successful, having united a group of ponies who represent the Elements of Harmony and thus saved Luna, myself, and Equestria.”

Sunset stared at the ground, but Celestia lifted her chin with a hoof.

“And it was because of you, Sunset, that she was able to do all this.” Celestia walked over to the box containing the ponies, while Sunset returned to looking at the ground. “It seems that you’ve been able to maintain order here, as well. Though, I see your friend has gotten a little carried away.”

Sylri hid herself in Sunset’s mane, peeking out to watch as Celestia approached the box. The ponies inside knelt before the Princess, despite their size and fear.

“Let’s see if we can fix this,” she said, her horn glowing. Pale yellow light engulfed the two, lifting them out of the box. They hung in midair, Celestia focusing all her attention on them. After two minutes of this, though, nothing happened. “Oh dear. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe with me.” Celestia placed the ponies back into the box, taking the whole thing up in her magic.

She cantered back to Sunset, trying to catch her gaze. “I am sorry for the deception. This was the only way to get my sister back, and to keep Equestria safe.”

“I forgive you,” Sunset whispered. Though she wasn’t sure that she meant it.

Celestia left her then, and Sunset crawled into bed, pulling the blanket over her head.

“Sunset? Aren’t you glad everything worked out?” Sylri asked, cuddling against her ear.

“You know how I feel,” Sunset grumbled. “Why do you have to ask?”

Sylri whined softly. “Isn’t there anything I can do to help?”

Sunset’s magic surrounded the sprite, pushing her out from under the blanket. “I just need to be alone for a while.”

“Please, Sunny, let me help you!” Sunset felt Sylri’s tiny fists against her head. She tried to ignore her, but soon she was kicking her muzzle, and Sunset found herself fed up.

“Fine, you can help me!” she cried, throwing the blanket off her. “Finish what you started when you first found me!”

“What?! But I can’t-”

“Can’t what? You seemed pretty willing with those other ponies!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen!”

Sunset picked her up in her magic again and flew her over to the desk. “If you aren’t going to do it, then leave me alone. I just found out that I’ve been nothing more than a tool to Celestia, and I’m starting to think that finding myself here wasn’t the accident she’s made it out to be. So please, Sylri! Just let me think…”

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Sunset just keeps going back and forth, and regressing very easily, it seems.

Is this the first time that she considers the possibility that her other self may have had a reason, beyond being evil, to do what she did, and Celestia was directly involved in that?

[Xzrea]

7160882
No idea. But unlike Twilight, Sunset knows that her world is definitely not all sunshine and rainbows, at least from news, and has a reason to suspect that this world - is also not. And exploits of people in power - a lot of examples in History.
BTW, I also feel that in some sense, Shimmer is Celestia's test pony now.

[StarzGecko]

Wait did we time skip or something? How long has it been for Sunset been in Equestria, because if I remember correctly that Twilight became Celestia student after she left.

Maybe I'm just confused how long it's been for Sunset

[7F]

Is sunset shimmer just used by to be prototype curriculum test subject for ?
Celly you shall not just ditch her..
Yet didn't understand whole deception..

[EchoWing]

Oh dear. Celestia better fix this, or she'll be repeating mistakes. Again.

[Xanderfox]

If the comments are any indication I see lots of people get Sunset's perspective on things but Celestia's escapes them. Celestia fears Sunset might THINK she is just using her, but for the Princess it isn't just about saving her sister. She sees Luna, Twilight and Sunset as priorities, as ponies she needs to help. The deception was because Celestia fears Sunset wouldn't understand, just like her Pony counterpart, that she wasn't the only one Celestia needed to help or had a destiny in mind for. That Sunset wouldn't be able to reconcile that Celestia took in Sunset for her own benefit, not just to be a better mentor to Twilight. Sunset did help Celestia better train Twilight, because Celestia learned lessons and Sunset figured out things that could be passed on.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/209825/a-moment-in-the-sun this fic suggests it was the appearance of Cadance that was the "straw the broke the camel's back" for Sunset. That being unable to reconcile her own destiny with that of someone getting everything she wanted seemingly out of no where. But in actual context Cadance's ascension wasn't a factor in Sunset's destiny, but Sunset couldn't see it.

[Greatazuredragon]

So much angst for such a short chapter.

[Jerec the Ascendant]

7160931 No, for our human Sunset Shimmer, the major villain shall not be the pony Sunset Shimmer. For now I'd say her major villain is actually herself, her depression, doubts, and fears. Will there be a major villain beyond that? I'm not sure. If there is who will it be? I'll tell you who it won't be, Prince Blueblood.

7161060 Actually this Sunset Shimmer is being taught more or less along side Twilight Sparkle. It's just that, part of her curriculum is offhandedly helping Twilight Sparkle in certain tasks. For instance, finding out that the Ponyville Library has a vacancy, having the book describing the Elements of Harmony placed there, stuff like that.

7161182 I think another point to make is that Celestia really didn't even need to tell human Sunset Shimmer that she'd been manipulating her to help other ponies with their destinies.

[Xanderfox]

7161917
well part of my point is I don't think in Celestia's view manipulation is what's she's been doing. I have a feeling she saw it more as Multi-tasking. She needed to help Sunset and Twilight and it made more sense if she was doing things that accomplished both tasks at once

[insert uncreative name]

I'm enjoying this story so far, however this chapter does confuse me.

what is Sunset so mad about? From my understanding, all Celestia did was basically say "You know all those seemingly random assignments I sent you on? Turns out it all had a point!"

Did I miss something because this strikes me as the opposite of how see should be reacting.

To give an example of my line of thinking is the karate kid. the kid was mad when the teacher was making do wax on, wax off for no apparent reason. When it was revealed that doing the repetitive motions taught him the basics he felt like everything was alright, and in my option he was right to do so.

Any clarification would be appreciated.

[Jerec the Ascendant]

7166927 If anything, she feels like she's been used as nothing more than a tool, and realizing that Celestia has a manipulative nature is starting to think that she might be in Equestria on purpose rather than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[insert uncreative name]

7166999 Okay I can see where that view point is coming from, thanks.