The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer

by ratedoni

Interlude 03: Noche

This was the first time where Sunset didn’t close carefully a door. In fact, she had all but slammed the door in all but rage and fear of what had just happened. Sunset knew that what just went on at the other side of the door was not something that was planned or even thought of.

She knew what kind of dimension the door was; she had seen several episodes alongside Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy who apparently were fans. And Sunset had to admit that she had enjoyed the story and the characters, but from what she remembered there was no death or people getting their souls practically torn aside from their living bodies.

She wanted to ask her host for more information about what had just happened, but seeing his cup of tea untouched and his head on his hands just took all the wind from her sails. If Observer was as freaked out as her then it meant that it was a real crisis.

As she was about to open her mouth to say something or maybe ask for confirmation, a weird thing happened on top of everything else. A tear in the middle of air appeared and from it came a man wearing what Sunset knew as a martial arts gi in red and black, holding on one hand a golden claw and in another a blue dragon statue.

“Alert! Alert! Bad things are going to… I guess you already know” He said calming down instantly while watching at Observer and his raised eyebrow.

“Yes, well, I think you arrived a little late but thanks for the warning” the bespectacled man said standing up from his usual chair and starting to walk in Sunset’s direction “care to tell me how everything simply derailed?”

“Hey, don’t look at me, I had nothing to do with it... this time, I thought you were keeping an eye on him!”

“In his future version, yes. We both know what will happen but that is only one outcome and we both know everything is still in the air”

“Excuse me; can someone please explain what is going on?”

“I’m sorry my dear, I suppose in the excitement of everything I just left you in the dark. My… comrade at my side is Keeper”

“Geez, try to sound colder, maybe next time you will freeze space”

“Do not be so melodramatic. You see Sunset, both of us have a really important job in the multiverse. Keeper is in charge placing several factors or key changes in a timeline. This changes allow for a chain reaction that allow for histories to remain their courses”

“Just like placing all of Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports in one place so Celestia can send them back so they can stop Discord. One of my proudest moments” he said mimicking shooting with his index fingers before getting slapped on the back of his head by Observer.

“Quite, anyway, my job is to maintain everything under observation so I could interfere in small doses and keep the multiverse in order” The gentleman explained, obviously not as proud of what he did like Keeper, and Sunset understood why. So far Observer was content with just watching and keeping things in order, she didn’t want to know what other things he had to do on his long life.

“Like giving me the Ever After Key”

“Like that, which allowed a version of you to be on a place where she will be useful”

“Useful for what?” Sunset had never really understood why they send Sunset to the other school. She first thought that maybe it was because she was going to be happier at Ever After or that she would learn more about friendship. After watching the way Aang had been manhandled and all but tortured she was beginning to think there was something else behind it all.

“Useful to maintain under control the monster you just saw” Observer said looking at this side and realizing that his partner was right now stuffing his mouth with cookies “a monster neither Keeper nor I wanted you to meet yet”

“So this guy, is he not from the Avatar world?”

“Oh no, he is worse than that and is very funny that you question his origins. You may notice a certain naming similarities between him and another of Equestria’s enemies”

“Who… Sombra! Wait, are you saying that guy’s an Umbrum?!”

“Not just one Umbrum, THE Umbrum. What your princesses fought a millennium ago was an Umbrum born again as a pony and even then it took the princesses their power and that of the Crystal Heart to seal him away because there is no real method to defeat an Umbrum”

“The problem with this crazy one is that he is the original Umbrum, who escaped from his prison, then he was defeated by his son and others and then… well, he went away”

“How do you know all that?” Sunset asked at the words of this Keeper, as if that story was common knowledge.

“Because it used to be common knowledge before Discord destroyed the books and ponies forgot the past. Now, only few books reference that period and must of them are found in the Crystal Kingdom”

“So what’s the story? How was he defeated last time?”

“He wasn’t” The Observer told her reclaiming his chair and trying to salvage some of the leftover treats that Keeper wasn’t munching on “last time he was in Equestria he was banished thanks to the Elements of Unity”

“The what? Don’t you mean Harmony?”

“Oh my sweet child, the Elements of Harmony may be the most stable powers thanks to the creation of the Tree of Harmony, but they haven’t been the first one. I think there is a door that will lead you to the world of Broken Horn where everything happened”

“Thankfully not everything was lost and you were capable of kicking Noche out of Avatar before he could get its powers” Keeper said placing the dragon statue on the table. The craftsmanship was impeccable but something on it made Sunset’s skin crawl as if at any moment it would jump and attack her.

“What do you mean? I thought you were the one who kicked Noche out of the Avatar’s world”

“Woah, you know I have no powers like that”

“Neither do I”

“Wait, so you want to tell me that everything that just happened had nothing to do with either of you?” Sunset asked both interdimensional beings with round eyes.

“It seems so. Sunset, you were the only one that was watching directly, what did you saw?”

“I… I don’t know, one moment Noche had the Avatar on his hands and then everything, I don’t know, glitched somehow. Then everything went back to normal and they were alive” just watching Keeper and Observer as lost as she was feeling was not a good thing.

“Well, seems like there are things not even us can explain. What do you think my dear? Want to see in what kind of mess your counterpart will find herself as the Avatar?”

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

Earth>Water>Fire>Air... Did the Avatar cycle go in reverse?

[Windsor]

7395730 I guess.

[Sylica telca]

Intriguing