The Darkness of Mare Being, by hawthornbunny
Compared to most other locations in the inner solar system, the red sands of Ares were relatively serene. With an atmosphere unbreathable to humans—not to mention the hundred million kilometer journey to reach it in the first place—it spent most of its days and nights in untouched tranquility, only disturbed by the occasional dust storm.
Today, however, was a special day, as the rhythmic clanking of a great floating machine echoed across the plains. From a far distance it resembled a star or pollen grain bobbing in the wind, but closer up, it was an intricate spiny yin-yang of orange and pink glass, an impossible clockwork ship conveying two passengers through the alien sky.
Twilight sighed happily, cuddled in the arms of her girlfriend as the machinery clunked around them, carrying them over the burnt orange vista far beneath their feet. "Thank you," she whispered.
Sunset squeezed her, gently nuzzling her hair. "No worries. I'm sorry it can't be longer," she said apologetically.
"I know," said Twilight, clasping Sunset's hand to her chest. "Don't worry, it's okay. I'm not asking you to stay just for me. You've got important things to do today."
"You're my most important thing," Sunset said, smiling gently. "But yeah, thanks for understanding. Hopefully I'll actually be able to convince the world leaders that the climate crisis isn't just going to magically go away, even if they do now have actual magic."
"How long do you have?"
"Not long. About ten minutes," Sunset said. "Let's just enjoy this while we can."
Twilight sighed dreamily. "Thank you for doing this for me anyway. I really didn't expect this from you. You even got the costumes right and everything."
"Hey, if I'm doing it, I'm doing it right," Sunset said airily.
"I'm just surprised. In a pleasant way, I mean. Honestly, I didn't even know you liked the book."
Sunset pondered for a moment. Dim sunlight flickered across her face as a spoked gearwheel spun overhead. "I'm not sure if I did, to be honest."
One of Twilight's pointed ears twitched at that. "Hmm?"
"Like it, I mean. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good book. I can see why it's so famous. It was just a bit..."
"Close to home?" Twilight offered.
"Yeeeah," said Sunset, awkwardly. "Kind of set me thinking down a dark path. One that I thought I'd closed off by now."
Twilight rubbed Sunset's forearm gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Sunset shook her head. "Nah, I don't want to ruin the moment," she said, gesturing at the red desert around them. "This is for you, not for me."
Twilight smiled, twisting gently in Sunset's arms to face her. "Come on."
Sunset frowned, avoiding her gaze. She made a show of adjusting their vessel's course, but Twilight wasn't deterred. "It's nothing, really."
"Are you worried about a nuclear holocaust?"
"Oh, no," said Sunset, with a dismissive flick of her wrist. "Nuclear weapons I can deal with. Nobody's blowing up the planet on my watch." She squinted up at the tiny blue dot of Earth in the sky; in the Arean daytime, it wasn't currently visible, but she still knew she was looking directly at it. "No, it was something sillier than that. It was Dr. Manehattan."
Twilight hummed, pursing her lips. "You felt like... maybe you're like him?"
"Sorta."
Twilight scrutinized Sunset for a moment. "I think I see where you're coming from. But I wouldn't say that you're very similar."
"I know," said Sunset. "I'm more powerful than him, for starters."
"Plus you've never exploded anyone," Twilight added.
Sunset's eyes wandered suddenly, one of her ears flickering. "Uh..."
Twilight blinked. "Wait, what?"
"I've never irreversibly exploded anyone."
"...'kay."
"But what I mean is... he kind of scared me," Sunset admitted. "He was basically the personification of one of my biggest fears. I mean, what if, even in spite of all my efforts to stay grounded, to stay connected, to care... what if I just... drift away?"
"You wouldn't do that," said Twilight. "That's not the kind of person you are."
"I know. That's what I told myself. But what if I don't notice that it's happening?" Sunset asked. "What if it happens so slowly, so gradually that I don't realize it? That's what scares me. I can deal with cosmic threats, reality malfunctions, even my own mistakes... but I don't know how to deal with god-level apathy."
"If it happens, you won't have to deal with it alone," said Twilight. "You'll always have friends to help you through it."
"I know," Sunset sighed. "I know all that, which is why I know it's silly. It wasn't really a big deal. These are questions I've already faced many times over, and I've come to terms with my situation. I just didn't expect a darn comic book to get to me like that."
"Custodians isn't a very typical comic book," Twilight noted, smiling.
"Yeah," said Sunset, resuming her cuddle with Twilight once more. The crystal vessel bobbed gently as Sunset made another minor adjustment to its course, taking them through a shallow valley. "Anyway, as you can probably tell, I really liked this part of the book. I came over here a few times in the first couple of months, just to make sure the orbit was stable and the Horsehead hadn't developed intelligence or anything. But until I read Custodians, I never considered that Ares could be beautiful."
"That's because you never photographed it through your 14-inch refractor when you were seven years old," said Twilight, beaming. "How long do we have left?"
Sunset squinted for a moment, synchronizing with her earthly presence. "We're out of time. Sorry, hon. We'll have to leave it here."
"Actually..." Twilight's eyes suddenly widened, "can I stay here?"
"No," said Sunset, immediately.
"Just until you're done with the summit, I mean?"
"Absolutely not."
Twilight's eyes continued to widen. Sunset felt a kind of invisible psychic vice closing around her, applying pressure. Nothing magical, just the power of a little sister with experience in getting what she wanted, now applied to an oh-so-pliable girlfriend. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"
"Twilight, I'm not leaving you by yourself on Ares."
"I'll be really careful, I promise!" Twilight begged. "I won't do anything dangerous and I'll just be looking at the scenery and please please please please please?"
Sunset groaned, and summoned a pot of rust-colored soil into existence, manifesting a tiny portion of herself into a bloom of red-and-yellow roses. "I'm keeping a physical avatar here. The moment I get even a hint that something's wrong, I'll be here, global summit or not."
"Oh thank you thank you!" Twilight said, squeezing her in a tight hug. "But seriously, you really don't have to—"
"Keep your arms and legs inside the ship at all times. Do not use magic unless instructed. Do not attempt to take control of the ship."
"Sunset," Twilight frowned, as Sunset placed the potted plant on a ledge above them. "Come on, you know I won't do anything stupid."
"I know, but I also know what scientific curiosity does to you," Sunset said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "When I'm done we can come back for a proper science date, how does that sound?"
Twilight beamed, delivering a peck to Sunset's lips. "Like the most romantic thing I've ever heard."
Sunset grinned and returned the kiss. "I'm glad I'm a hundred million kilometers away from anyone who can see me being this sappy. Love you, hon. Behave yourself."
She vanished in a flash of light.
Sunset reappeared at the podium of the summit assembly hall, where a large crowd of journalists and photographers were already gathered, seated behind a panel of leaders and experts from nations all over the world.
"Sorry, sorry for being late," Sunset said, adjusting a microphone with her magic. "I had something very important to attend to first..." she trailed off as she noticed the room had fallen silent far more quickly than she expected, and many were giving her some rather surprised looks.
She blinked and looked down at her bare amber figure. "Oh, right! Clothes."
Well, when you're playing the role of Dr. Manehattan and your costume is accurate... 
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... Sunset, what did you do?
11505449
In her defense, Blueblood was being a colossal prick.
Sunset tires of this world, of these people....
...so she has a holiday!
So the nightmare of appearing before a very important audience for a very important event while divested of your very important clothes finally hits reality! Or something like that, honestly never had that nightmare myself. Right, thank you for the words good author! It was adorkable.
Why isn't it going away? That's got to be within Sunset's powers, so why is she choosing not to fix it? A don't always rely on my to fix your problems thing?
11505554
I suspect Sunset doesn't get that nightmare, considering where she comes from. Or maybe she did start having it once she got the hang of human taboos...
11505769
My reasoning is that Sunset could take action to prevent climate change if she wanted to, but she considers it humanity's problem, not hers. She'd rather push them toward a greener world.
11505824
But she would intervene to stop a nuclear war, isn't that humanities problem as well? Or does she see that as different because it's instigated by a small faction of humanity rather than all of them?
11506099
It's a matter of urgency. There's a difference between "You need to work this out for yourselves" and "You idiots are literally going to all die in the next ten seconds if I don't do something."
11506179
so what your saying is if we get to the "we're all going to die" stage at 2100 or so. That when sunset will start directly interfering
Nice!!!!!
11506661
She likely sees climate change as something that can be reversed with the proper guidance, hence the summit. Nukes going off is something that will actually endanger human life within seconds, ergo she will take immediate action.
Moral quandaries aside, this is an amazing Valentine's Day story
Super cute and extra fluffy with a pinch of angst, just the way I like it.
11505769
It has been shown throughout this series that Sunset does not want to be a god. Stepping in and solving problems when she doesn't absolutely have to runs counter to that. There's also the issue that, should she just magically fix the environment, humanity, having learned only that Sunset will bail them out in the end, will probably just break it again.
11507107
It is actually a coincidence that it came out close to Valentines Day, I submitted it a couple of weeks ago and wasn't thinking about it then. Or maybe FoME scheduled it for the occasion, let's go with that. ^^
Unless they figure out how to create a blind spot in your omniscience, then proceed with an elaborate plan to nuke the world and blame you for it, Sunset.
11509569
Once the world's been nuked, does it really matter whose fault it is?
I have read . . all of this . . in the space of 3 or 4 days . .
My head hurts. Some, if not most of it, just went right
over my not so pretty and not so little head i am afraid.
Still, a mostly good read, very little to complain about
in terms of technical writing, i.e. Spelling, Grammar etc.
11506661
No, it's not a hard date like Year 2100, it's always 12 years.
In the late 1970s we were facing global cooling and had 12 years before it was irreversible.
In the 1990s we had global warming and we had 12 years before it was irreversible.
Now we have climate change, which has been happening for millions of years. Because the climate is always changing, we have only 12 years before it is irreversible!
So, it's not just moving the goalposts, it's putting them on wheels and towing them away with an affordable biofuel hybrid.
But 12 years is a pretty insignificant timespan for Sunset Shimmer, and possibly Twilight Sparkle as well,.
11514023
Climate change has been happening, yes. Anthropogenic climate change is a different beast.
Also, so help me, if anyone tries to drag any kind of real-world debate into this chapter, I'm deleting every comment involved save for my own, which I will use as a grave marker and threat to any follow-ups. This is not a topic of honor. No great deed is discussed here.
SHOVE OFF.
11505554
11505824
Given the nonchalant manner in which she stated the fact that she was stark naked, it feels like she still doesn't entirely understand why it's a big deal.
11509601
Late reply is late but if it's a tactical nuking in line with the contextual reference this chapter draws from then it absolutely matters who takes the fall for it.
A delightully cute chapter. Thanks Hawthorn!
Have to wonder if her foal pictures would make things better or worse with her worshippers.
That's hilarious.
Who custodes the custodians? It doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
11627204
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" sounds good to me.