Chapter 10: Reminisce
Gunsmoke
by Wanderer D
Chapter 10: Reminisce
Sunset stared at her diary.
It hadn't been ten minutes since she and Luna had returned from their drive around town, and suddenly, it had started vibrating.
She had quickly opened it up, expecting a long letter from Twilight, but instead it was two sentences that made her extremely nervous.
Sunset, I'll meet you at the statue tonight in about twenty minutes. Can you request the day off tomorrow?
She stared at the diary for a full minute, before she sighed and wrote her reply.
Yes.
The next ten minutes were a rush of texting Luna, emailing Surgeon, and letting the other Twilight know that she would probably be out the whole day and wouldn't be able to meet her for their scheduled experiments.
She hesitated at the door, looking back at her apartment. She wondered what Twilight had to say, and if she would be coming back home at all.
And then she was off to Canterlot High.
She hadn't been back to the school in the middle of the night for a while now, ever since she had stolen Twilight's crown, in fact. It looked peaceful, and yet Sunset had a hard time not thinking about her friends—if she even deserved to call them so—and the complications they were going through.
Her inner turmoil was interrupted by a shimmering of the statue's surface and the emergence of Princess Twilight, in her usual purple skirt and light blue shirt. The princess stumbled a little before getting quickly used to her different form once again. She looked up and smiled. "Hi, Sunset!"
Smiling uncertainly, Sunset waved. "Um, hi Twilight." Twilight gave Sunset a hug, which she returned a bit nervously. "How was the trip from Equestria?"
Twilight smiled. "As fast as you can imagine! I was hoping you'd come back with me for a day, what do you think?"
Sunset giggled. "Yeah, I figured as much..." she nervously glanced at the statue. "It's been a while since I last visited."
"Well, come on then," Twilight said, motioning with her hand. "I think you need a little break from this world."
Sunset chuckled. "Maybe."
"Sunset!" a voice called out.
The pair stopped when Vice Principal Luna ran around the school building and, once spotting them, trotted up to them.
"Luna?" Sunset blinked. "Did you come to see me off?"
"Hi Vice Principal Luna!" Twilight said, smiling at the woman as she approached.
"Hello, Twilight Sparkle, I assume you have good reason to take my student away in the middle of a school week?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.
Twilight fidgeted. "I do. I promise. I know how important education is."
Luna chuckled, walking up to them and nodding. "Take good care of her."
"I will!"
Luna then gave Sunset a surprise hug, which was returned firmly and quickly enough. "And you. Make sure you come back," she whispered into her ear.
Sunset was a bit surprised by the whisper, but she gave Luna a reassuring pat on the back. "I promise."
"Good," Luna said, stepping back. "I wish you both a safe trip. And see you soon."
Twilight took Sunset's hand and guided her through the statue, leaving the Vice-Principal alone.
Luna stood in front of the statue, gingerly poking the now-solid surface of its base.
"So, I take it Sunset did go with Twilight like you suspected?"
Luna glanced over her shoulder at Celestia, who was just coming around the building and nodded, before turning around and sitting on the floor, back against the statue. "Yes. It was as I suspected. And feared. Although perhaps I was too hasty in assuming anything was wrong."
Celestia sighed, walking over to sit next to her sister. She looked at her school, where so much had happened in one single year. "Maybe you're getting too close to our student, Luna."
Luna tensed, but slowly forced herself to relax. "Maybe. But she's a good friend, and a brave one too."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't push it, knowing that Luna would talk to her on her own and bring it up if it was something she needed to share.
"It's been a while, Celestia, since I've had time to make friends in real life," Luna said. "My escapes into video games and my online acquaintances are always fun, but they don't provide that physical sense of closeness and understanding." She sighed. "I fear that Sunset might end up trying too hard to escape reality and lose all that she has worked to accomplish by becoming... well, a shut-in, as they say."
Celestia leaned on her sister's shoulder. "It took a long time for you to come out of your self-imposed exile. I remember how hard it was for you to leave your hermitage."
Luna snorted. "I also wonder what it would have been like, had you not been around and so forgiving."
Celestia nodded. "You fear Sunset is doing that? Secluding herself?"
"That... and I am being selfish," Luna said after a moment of looking up at the sky and trying to find her namesake.
"Luna, you're an angel. Heaven-sent. The moon's brilliance doesn't do honor to your awesomeness."
"Selfish how?"
"I don't want my best friend to go away." Luna hugged her knees. "I don't want to lose Sunset."
Celestia looked at her sister in surprise and a little concern. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, trying to say what she was thinking, but bit back the warnings, the judgement, and the fear.
Luna sighed when Celestia wrapped her arms around her, and leaned onto her sister. "What am I doing, Tia?"
Celestia pondered the question, not letting go of her sister, who didn't struggle in her embrace. "I don't know," she said at length.
The transformation from human to pony was seamless, although Sunset had to stop and get her bearings with the shift in height and center of mass. This, along with the feeling of total control she had of her magic, so different from what she was experiencing in the human world left her a bit out of sorts. Soon enough though, she was able to comfortably walk into the room proper, where Twilight and a lavender baby dragon she assumed was Spike, were looking at her in surprise.
"What?" Sunset asked, crossing her eyes trying to look at her nose. "Do I have something on my muzzle?"
Twilight shook her head.
"It's more like something on the sides of your barrel," Spike provided helpfully. He coughed. "Sorry, princess."
"Don't call me—" Sunset frowned and looked at her withers, eyes widening when she noticed the wings. "Oh. Crud."
Twilight and Spike exchanged glances. "Wait, what's wrong?" Twilight asked. "Didn't you always want to be a princess?"
Sunset cringed, pressing the wings against her body. "Yes, and we know how that well that turned out."
Twilight shook her head and walked up to her, using her own wing to pull Sunset closer. "Don't worry, we're here for you."
Sunset bit her lip doubtfully, but nodded, allowing Twilight to guide her through the castle into a bedroom, where she sat down on the bed next to her.
"I figured we could talk a little tonight about what's going on," Twilight explained after a moment. "I know the wings are hard to take in though, so if you want, I can—"
"No," Sunset spoke up. "No... it-it's okay, I can deal with this for a day."
Twilight smiled. "Excellent. Spike, could you please bring some tea and snacks?"
"Right on it!" Spike said, trotting out of the room.
Twilight's smile grew as her assistant ran out of the room before she turned to face Sunset. "I had hoped to get the girls here to talk to you tonight, in case they could help your friendship with their counterparts, but after some thought I decided maybe we should just talk first... I didn't want to push them on you."
Sunset chuckled weakly, pulling one of her wings with her magic. "Thank you Twilight, I know they're not the same peo—ponies, I mean, but... things are a bit tense right now, and I think I'd have a hard time facing them."
Twilight nodded. "I still think you might want to talk to my Rainbow Dash," she said. "But that is better left undecided until tomorrow. For now, why don't you tell me about your other friends?"
Sunset smiled. "It'll take some time, I have to start a couple of months ago, just after the end of the Friendship Games."
"Well," Twilight giggled. "We're in my castle. And I'm not going anywhere."
Sunset nodded, glancing around at the large room she was in, before leaning back onto a pillow, forelegs on her chest and legs crossed. It took some shuffling but she finally managed to get comfortable after spreading her wings on both sides and trying to ignore Twilight's giggling. "It all started when I went to check on Scientist Twilight several months ago," she began.
"...and this is my lab!" Twilight Sparkle said, opening the door to allow Sunset in.
Sunset whistled. "This is an impressive amount of equipment!" She glanced at the bed. "Do you spend the night here often?"
"It's for a special experiment." Twilight walked past her, turning on the lights and nodding at her words. "And the equipment is impressive, but Prof. Sombra has been very kind in helping me build it to my specifications." She looked at Sunset. "He teaches Computer Science."
"I see. He just... had a counterpart in Equestria, that's all."
"Oh? Was he also a teacher?"
"Not exactly." Sunset coughed. Then looked around for something to deviate the conversation. "Oh, what's this?"
She walked over to some sort of visor-helmet, resting next to what appeared to be Twilight's main computer.
"Oh... that's a-an Amusphere."
"Really?" Sunset asked. "I think I read about these. Weren't a bunch of people trapped in a virtual world for about two years and if you tried to removed them they'd fry your brain or something?"
Twilight shrugged. "Those were the NerveGears, they've been discontinued and recalled. They had very powerful microwave emitters, but these?" She picked it up. "They've been designed to prevent anything remotely similar from happening. The most you'd suffer if someone were to suddenly remove it would be surprise, and maybe a bit of nausea, no matter how much you tweaked the software."
"Well, that's good to hear," Sunset laughed. "So, are you playing any games?"
Twilight cringed self-consciously.
"Hey, hey," Sunset placed a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with that, I um..." she stammered. "Um. Play Pokemon."
Twilight stared at her and then started giggling.
Sunset smiled. "Now, don't go around telling anyone!"
"I promise," Twilight said, fighting the giggles. "Anyway, yes... I'll tell you which one, if you promise not to laugh?"
Sunset lifted her hand and nodded solemnly.
Twilight pulled up a page on the computer and stepped aside, to let Sunset see.
"Gun Gale Online," Sunset read aloud, blinking as she read the rest of the description in silence. "You're into gunfights?!" She gasped, glancing at meek, awkward sciency Twilight Sparkle. "Wow." She turned around to read more. "And it's a VRMMO, so... it's like you're really being shot at and shooting, huh?"
Twilight nodded, still pressing her lips together with a light tinge of red on her cheeks.
Sunset was at a loss for words. She grabbed a chair and sat down, browsing the description of the game, videos, the weapons, the contests, monsters, world...
She talked to Twilight for over an hour about it, learning that she could have more than two weapons on her, as long as they were in storage, or were tactical items, such as grenades or dura-steel cables. She learned that there were things called 'raids' where squads would get together to hunt really powerful monsters and that the player who dealt the killing blow usually got a special item. She learned how she could build a completely new persona, with different skills than her own, and yet learn a lot from how the mechanics worked. She learned she could even earn real money out of this game, given that it had its own unique game-money to real money conversion system.
Twilight's embarrassment about being caught as a gamer had faded completely. She talked excitedly about meeting other people who never knew she was an introvert, or so physically weak in the real world. How she had taken out her frustrations in the game up until her involvement in the Friendship Games. How she could be whoever she wanted in there.
And the more they talked about it, the more Sunset slowly began to fall in love with the idea of playing it herself.
Their conversation was interrupted by a text from Rainbow Dash, which made Sunset's phone vibrate in her pocket.
Sunset blinked and pulled out her phone. "Let's see..." she slumped. "Oh man, I wanted to go to the concert at the Canterlot Auditorium tonight."
Twilight blinked. "Well... why don't you?"
Sunset leaned on the back of the chair and sighed loudly. "Well, I suggested it, but the others don't want to. I guess it's not their type of music."
Twilight had brought up the Auditorium's schedule. "Wow. I mean. Wow." She cleared her throat. "I hate to point this out, but given what you usually play, I never thought something like 'Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse'(1) would be part of your interests."
"Mine," Sunset sighed again, petulantly bumping the desk with her fist. "Not theirs. They want to go to Sugarcube Corner again and then watch a movie at Rarity's again."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, I guess," Sunset said, pushing back on the chair to stand up. "Except... I dunno. I've suggested going to so many places I'd love to share with them and they always default to one of their houses, or any of their favorite activities." She shook her head. "I guess that's the price of friendship."
She turned around to leave, but Twilight spoke up.
"Um, I could go with you, if you want?"
Sunset stopped in her tracks, eyes wide. "What?"
"I mean, if you'd like me to? I've never been to one of those, and we can join Lemon Zest, I know she was going to the Auditorium tonight," she added. "She told me on the bus this morning."
"I-I would love to! Are you sure, Twilight?"
Twilight smiled and gave a single, firm nod. "Of course! But you have to promise to try out GGO with me sometime this week!"
Sunset laughed. "Twilight, I think you had me sold on that an hour and a half ago! If it's half as amazing as you make it sound, I'd love to play that game with you."
Twilight blushed. "Well, I do like that game," she mumbled, before taking her phone out of her purse. "Let me text Lemon Zest."
Sunset nodded, pulling out her phone and writing her own text.
Sorry girls, I'll have to take take a rain check tonight, Twilight offered to go with me to the concert tonight and it's the last day so I really don't want to miss it.
~SS
Twilight's phone buzzed and played a little tune, and she quickly read the message. "Lemon Zest says she'd love to have us go with her! But that we should buy the tickets now, if there's any chance of getting them."
While Twilight turned to type at the computer, Sunset's phone vibrated again. it was Rainbow Dash.
You'd rather go to some lame concert than hang out with your friends? I guess that's okay then, see you tomorrow at practice.
Sunset closed her eyes and flinched. 'Maybe I should cancel this an—' her thoughts were interrupted by Twilight's giggle.
"Two tickets, purchased!" Twilight gushed, spinning on her seat. "I'm so excited! I've never been to a concert before!"
Sunset blinked in surprise, then turned off her phone's display. "Well, let's meet up with Lemon Zest. We'll have to go home and get ready pretty soon if we want to make it in time."
(1) Yes, I know Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse only happens in Chicago. All I can say is, I love that thing too much to not include here. 
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This story is really great! I especially enjoy the update pace, and the say it shows how friendships change and what can be done to fix them and make new ones. Keep it up! Onward!
I love the background we're starting to get. Also I had never heard of Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse but I just looked it up and it seems awesome. I'm really starting to desire a fight between Sunset and Rainbow. Like an actual fight. Rainbow deserves to be knocked down a peg or two or all of them.
Yay, a new chapter has appeared! Love the update pace. So here Sunset did evolve, er, ascend after FG, although I thought there would have been more of a reaction or angst from her about her change, given her still lingering issues.
Nice to see Princess Twilight and get more background for Sunset's fight with Dash. Now it sounds more like it had been building up for a while. Hope Twilight can help Sunset sort things out (though Luna might be another issue soon). Now I just have to get this image of Sunset as a Rapidash out of my head.
6712948 An actual fight between the two, I agree. It'll have to wait until Sunset gets control on her magic, though. I mean, she's going to be really mad at Dash when the fight happens and look at what happened to the locker when Sunset punched it after getting mildly pissed off.
I'm glad that the friendship issues aren't just reactions and actually were building up for some time now. Otherwise, this would be really disappointing. Keep up the good work and please let us know when you've decided on which submitted OCs you're going to use.
I was just as surprised as Sunset when she experienced what happened when she returned to Equestria, but what really caught my interest is the backstory where Science Twilight reveals that she is an avid gamer. I was hoping this would be the case, and I am glad for it. Hopefully, we might get to see her GGO persona at some point in the future. Also, Luna is truly showing a lot of emotional baggage as she feels conflicted about her connection with Sunset.
Princess Shimmer.
Glad to see some pieces falling into place, while still leaving much to be discovered. That builds the feeling of anticipation and excitement in the reader (me in this case) that I love some much!
This story is an example of how to do fan-fiction right.
Sunset going back to Equestria really surprised me, but it's the perfect setup for some background story to be told, and I feel this was a perfect place in the story to do that, timing wise. Well played.
After that text reply from Rainbow Dash, I thought to myself, "Rainbow Dash (the pony) would not react well to this." A couple people were saying Sunset and RD should duke it out soon, but wouldn't it be simply hilarious if RD went back with Sunset and gave other RD a slap or at least a good talking to?
That would totally be her style if she could get away with it.
Princess Sunset... Congratulations. You've found a way to love this even more. I love the way you build the feels around the characters. I'm honestly surprised this isn't featured yet!
So, alicorn Sunset. Huh. I actually was half-expecting it
At least she was surprised about it too and didn't go stir crazy. Same with Twilight.
Still it's sad to see how Sunset was pushed into usually doing things not in her line of liking and away from what she liked...
Because removing context is fun!
Way to be possessive. Holy crap.
Geez. I thought it was just a misunderstanding followed by some hot-headed bad decisions that tore Sunset and Rainbow apart, but after reading this line I see that this has been a long time coming. What the heck, Rainbow?
Edit: also this story inspired me to get back into a multiplayer shooter I've been neglecting lately. I got so many kills that it was almost like I wasn't rusty from not playing it in five months! RED team MVP!
Anyway, thanks for that.
wow! seriously rainbow dash?
Alicorn Sunset? Huh. I wonder if unconscious effects from that might have something to do with Sunset's depression issues.
Yeah I don't think telling her his counterpart is a power mad evil king will go well.
This may be excessive, but Rainbow makes me want to slap her so hard she becomes the first human to generate a Sonic Rainboom.
9021211
Agreed she is being a bitch
This story has been really fun so far, but
Really?
I mean, I get that Rainbow is abrasive and can be a bitch once in a while, but usually it's in a situation where she's defending her friends or something plausibly redeemable. This is just her being pointlessly antagonistic, which given how often I somehow see this in stories is a huge pet peeve of mine. Honestly with characterization like this, it's not only surprising that Sunset's been friends with her up until the latest disagreement, it's puzzling that Rainbow has any friends at all.
...dash is a dick.
9764652
Rainbow Dick?
This story is making me scream with so many emotions ranging from excitement with *SQUEAL* and I'm reading this at 4:30 in the morning like???? So good.
Like, it's so good that even right now with the main flow interrupted I barely notice this is Sunset telling a story to twilight because there's no distinction and it's just.... soooo well told.
I thought I fell in love with Young Amazons but this!!!!!!!! It's so!!!!!!! good!!!!!!!
HOLD UP. WHEN THE FUDGE DID THAT HAPPEN?!