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Prologue - A Beautiful Choice976 words
Chapter 1 - Homecoming3,022 words
Chapter 2 - First and Fallen3,600 words
Chapter 3 - Looking back before moving forward3,205 words
Chapter 4 - To soar above the world1,028 words
Chapter 4 - The World left behind1,779 words
Chapter 5 - Till the Morning3,635 words
Chapter 6 - Chains of Birthright1,825 words
Epilogue - The Sum of All Choices640 words

Chapter 4 - The World left behind

Princess Twilight ran down the corridors hyperventilating, she was worried, Sunset Shimmer had ran off she needed to inform Princess Celestia. She turned a corner slipping and barely missing a guard as she crashed into the wall in front of Celestia’s study. Picking herself up and dusting herself off, Twilight knocked on the doors.

“Come In.” Princess Celestia replied demurely from inside her study, she sounded clearly distracted.

Twilight opened the door, her hair stood on end in agitation, she could barely keep her wings down but she tried. “Princess, I have bad news.”

Celestia put down the papers, and turned to greet Twilight. “Greetings, Twilight. Me and Luna missed you at breakfast, Though I Presume you were preoccupied with my Daughter.” Celestia smiled at twilight before taking a quick look around the room. “What can I do for you?”

Twilight looked downward, she held her breath in, this was going to be hard but it had to be said. “Sunset Shimmer ran away.”

Celestia looked at twilight, a look of absolute seriousness on her face. “What?”

Twilight blurted out rapidly, without a thought everything she could. “We were talking about her past, and I mentioned how powerful me and my friends were in that state. She freaked out, I tried to comfort her, but when I let her go she bolted.”

“I see, thank you Twilight.” Celestia said flatly.

Twilight looked at Celestia, she betrayed no emotion and yet Twilight could not imagine that was true. She wondered what was going on in the Elder Princess mind, Celestia gave every indication she cared deeply for Celestia with what Twilight. She had seen what Sunset called her mask come off in regards to her, and she had only seen two other beings do that. She could not imagine Celestia was any less devastated by Sunset vanishing.

Twilight gathered all her wits about her, composing herself, looking as princessy as she could. “Celestia, I request to know how you feel about this. With your mask off.”

Celestia looked up at Twilight and smiled softly. “I’m glad you are worried about your friend Twilight, but my Daughter deciding to run off to think after an emotional shock, well the only surprising thing is that she’s thinking instead of chucking fireballs around a room.” Celestia said before adding. “If she’s not back by tonight, well, then I’ll get worried. But I really don’t think this is all that big a deal.”

“And what if she isn’t back, shouldn’t we have someone tail her or something?” Twilight asked.

“Doing anything in an official capacity even that over what looks to be a little tantrum would look a little silly, and if she doesn’t come back she will once again shatter my hopes.” Celestia then added musing softly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think her special was shattering hopes.”

Twilight perked her ears curiously. “If I might be so bold, what IS her special talent?”

“She hasn’t told you?” Twilight shook her head, Celestia waited a moment clearly thinking. “I guess you have a right to know. Do you know the story of Icarus?”

Twilight nodded. “Pegasus who flew too close to sun and burned off his wings?”

“Yes.” Celestia closed her eyes. “Sunset’s talent is much the same, it’s not about being the sun, It’s about reaching for it.”

“Thank you Princess. I will take my leave now.” Twilight nodded and turned to go, opening the doors telekinetically and taking a step.

“Twilight.” Twilight stopped at the princess voice. “She’ll be fine.” Twilight simply nodded and walked out.

Twilight returned to her room, less spacious than Sunset’s or Celestia’s but she only used it occasionally when visiting, it was however still lavish and she estimated there were just as many books as Sunset’s room. She flopped on the bed.

Twilight was worried, and confused. Celestia may tell her not to worry but she couldn’t help it, But she couldn’t help it. She was deeply, deeply worried about her friend. She had seen Sunset fly off in a panic, and she had no idea where Sunset went, or even what was going through Sunset’s mind when she left. Sunset though perhaps her best friend, was also the one she knew least.

Their relationship was forged from a place of conflict, but rapidly bloomed into a close friendship. She tried mentoring her but that rapidly was replaced by just keeping in contact and once the portal was open meeting for lunch or dinner whenever the mood struck, they were, just, better as equals. Twilight ran that concept though her mind, ‘equal’, and realized how few of those she had, she loved her friends dearly but they were never her equals if she was honest, social class, her element, and now her crown created a gulf between them. The elder princesses had age, experience, wisdom, she would not be their equal for centuries if ever. ‘Cadence!’ Thought Twilight mentally slapping herself, So two equals.
Just two.

Twilight rolled over and held her hooves over her ears vainly trying to mentally avoid the revelation brewing in her mind, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t worried about Sunset, Twilight knew quite well Sunset could take care of herself, she wanted Sunset back. Twilight felt guilty at the revelation, she was supposed to be the Princess of Friendship. She was supposed to care about her friends, not want to possess them. But then she rolled that word over in her mind again ‘equal’, couldn’t she, put aside her crown just for Sunset shimmer and be a little selfish? A little smile crossed her lips, Sunset would probably approve of it really, she never did let her get away with being a Princess.

Twilight rolled out of bed. Too much introspection, she needed to do something productive, and there was an obvious thing to do. She would puzzle out the enigma that was Sunset Shimmer and her condition.

Celestia sighed over her papers, she was supposed to be not worried, it was a pony healthily reacting to an emotional situation.

‘Manure’ she scolded herself, it was her daughter, her daughter was upset and distraught and she couldn’t be there for it. Twenty years she had waited for Sunset to come home, and now that basic privilege of consoling her was already gone. She had grown up, she had left the nest. Twilight couldn’t see how evident that was but it was true. Once more Sunset shattered all of Celestia’s hopes, once more she had exceeded the goals she had set for herself.

Celestia sipped the tea cup by her desk slowly, allowing the taste to run down her throat, she poured herself another glass from the kettle.

She perhaps should not be so surprised. Her daughter had a talent for shattering her hopes, whether by throwing them off, or by exceeding her expectations in ways she couldn’t predict. Yet when she had conceived of the plan it seemed perfect, Cut a very nice deal with a minor noble and his wife she knew of through his heroism to procure herself a child. Then train her to wield the elements against her sister, which well she had to find a Plan B after Sunset left, which she fortuitously did a very excellent plan B if she could say so. But the second part of her master plan, Twilight could never fulfill that, Twilight never had the temperament for that. So when Blossom had informed her that her daughter was returning she felt a weight lift on her, she would be with Sunset again, and soon she would have been have been able to raise her to Alicornhood. But she didn’t even know if that was possible with what her Daughter had become.

Celestia got up to get a maid, family demanded something stronger than Tea.

It had taken hours but it was done, or well half done to twilight. It was a mess honestly, Across the room was the puzzle in front of Twilight, and that puzzle was Sunset Shimmer. Scattered all over the walls was papers with everything Twilight knew about her friend, and everything she knew about the elements of harmony. Twilight hadn’t really organized the papers but before she did she was going to stand back and take it in, all her disorganized thoughts at once.

Celestia had given her the piece she needed, that Sunset’s special talent, her heart and soul, was her willingness to set goals for herself, It seemed so obvious in retrospect but she had never given it much thought. It told worlds about Sunset that she could now infer from that context.
But it was a piece that made the puzzle all the more contradictory, By all accounts Sunset had given up on her defining need to compete with her mother and become an Alicorn. She had found peace in rejecting herself, going against the core of who she was, didn’t she?

Then there was the question that had propelled Sunset to run, how powerful was she really? She had some idea the power her and her friends had wielded in that state, hardly time for an exact measuring however, could Sunset really have that kind of power?

She stood back, she looked over everything, her eyes leaped from note to note.
‘The elements of harmony’s magic is the most powerful magic in the world’
‘The elements are both physical objects and magical truths’.
Ah right, her battle with the siren’s she chided herself writing ‘You cannot use the elements power without them, unless you are sunset shimmer’ and placing it between the elements and Sunset sections, yay more contradictions she mused.
‘Sunset shimmer could not pursue the path to become an Alicorn Me or Cadence did.’
‘Her special talent is reaching for the sun.’
‘Prefers hooves on experience to book learning.’.

Something was missing, something that would connect everything, one final thing, it was on the tip of her mind. A memory she tried to avoid, scattered and disjointed. But there in that memory of when she first met Sunset, not as friends forever, but as enemies, and yet still as equals. There, in that memory was the horrifying truth that connected it all together. She placed one last piece paper among the elements of harmony.
‘Power of the elements exists in other worlds, even worlds without magic.’

Twilight’s mouth fell open as she finally placed the last piece in the puzzle.
She had her answer.

Author's Note:

I'm gonna admit, this half of chapter four was supposed to be normal chapter sized. But The other half was so much work, I just wanted to finished four up and get moving. So I wrote much more like my early brisk style, I wish I could have gotten more color in but I really want to get moving in the story.

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