The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

25 Years Ago

Ponyville.

Everything Twilight Sparkle loved best about Equestria could be found in Ponyville. There were a few notable exceptions but for the most the statement held true. She had her friends, her books, a close-knit community that she loved and was in turn loved by, more than enough work and study to keep her mind occupied and enough fun to keep her heart in good cheer. Yep, Ponyville really was the best thing that had ever happened to her (okay maybe it fell slightly behind becoming personal protegee to Princess Celestia but it was a really close run thing). The real icing on the cake though was that as of three days ago Ponyville was now officially home to her own personal protegee! Said protegee was currently seated across from her in the train cart gazing out of the window of the friendship express and deeply lost in thought.

Understandably so. Starlight probably had a lot to think about after the visit to her old town. Everypony had forgiven her, nopony had said anything they might come to regret at a later date and all in all though there was likely still some slight animosity between Starlight and some of her former followers but nothing that time wouldn't repair. For now though the two of them were returning to Ponyville where Twilight could begin working on her first proper friendship lesson for her. Perhaps something to do with Starburst... she'd have to make a list, no multiple lists. There was no way that Twilight was going to risk screwing this up for her first ever personal protegee, she would have to be careful, analytical and above all patient.

"So..." she started, "are you looking forward to getting back to Ponyville as much as I am, Starlight?"

"I guess," startled out of her thoughts a sheepish grin crept across her face. "I mean this is all so much to take in. Everypony has been so understanding and accepting. I suppose a little part of me is wondering if all of this is just some wonderful dream."

"Oh it's no dream, Starlight, everypony deserves a second chance even if they did make some, ummm, bad life choices," Twilight shrunk backwards into her seat as she stumbled over the last couple of words. Talking with Starlight wasn't the easiest of things to do and she found herself constantly walking on eggshells around her in an attempt to tactfully avoid the elephant in the room. Thankfully she seemed to have gotten away with it this time as Starlight let out a jovial burst of laughter.

"I think enslaving a small town of ponies and trying to rewrite history out of spite is a teeny tiny bit more than a 'bad life choice', Twilight, but thanks," her eyes wandered away from Twilight and back to the window, catching on the quickly approaching sight of Ponyville. "I suppose I'm just glad that nopony got hurt by it all. It all feels so strange that nopony will have any memory of it all happening except you, me and Spike." She laughed again shaking her head in amusement. "Perhaps the greatest feat of magic in our generation and there isn't even any evidence it happened except for the three of us. We traveled through time, Twilight! Repeatedly! But three days later here we are at Ponyville and life is just going to keep rolling on as though none of that even happened. It all feels so... surreal." Twilight wasn't entirely certain what to make of that, she was never the best pony at reading the mood or at picking up on other ponies emotions but she knew when to recognize a friend in need of support.

"Starlight, when you've been through the kind of cray adventures I have you begin to get used to it. Okay so maybe this whole time travel situation has left you with some deep existential questions about the very nature of our universe, about the nature of things like destiny and prophecy and our place in the vast-" realizing that an ever increasing expression of horror was spreading across Starlight's face Twilight politely coughed before attempting to try a different track. "What I meant to say was that being able to jump back into the daily routine of life is just as important as being prepared for great potentially world altering adventures." Starlight's expression seemed to have changed from one of abject terror to mild confusion, not perfect but probably a good start at assuaging her fears.

"What I'm trying to say is that big adventures are a really small part of life. Some of the best things are easy to take for granted, like hobbies, good friends and hard work. So then, Starlight," Twilight asked with a playful nudge of her hoof, "what do you like to get up to in your spare time, whats going on in the life of Starlight Glimmer?"

"Well," Starlight cleared her throat, "between deceiving a small community of overly trusting ponies and spending a good portion of a year stalking and plotting against you, I uh can't say I've had much time for hobbies," she scratched the back of her head "or spare time," she stroked her chin "or, well anything. Does magic count as a hobby? If so then lets go with magic, hopefully the normal non-apocalyptic study of magic." Twilight coughed awkwardly whilst Starlight came to the sudden realization that the piece of carpet directly in front of her seat was the single most fascinating thing in the room. Starlight was not good at the whole friends thing, that had been made abundantly clear over the course of the past year but for all Starlight's own problems Twilight seemed to be sincerely trying to help her, the least she could do was try to make an effort to keep the conversation going.

"Enough about me though! What's going on in the life of Princess Twilight Sparkle, you know, time travel incidents and evil unicorns aside?" the forced smiles of the townsfolk in Our Town had been awkward to say the least but at this very moment Starlight was willing to bet all the bits in Equestria that her own forced grin could beat them all.

"Oh you know, Princess business, spreading friendship, exploring the science behind cutie marks," she seemed ready to trail off but instead turned and smiled at Starlight, a genuine smile in complete contrast to Starlight's own. "For the record though I'm having a hard time remembering dealing with any evil unicorns recently, misguided perhaps, but definitely not evil," it wasn't much, Starlight had heard many similar sentiments from Twilight and her friends over the past few days, but the sincerity behind the statement really did touch her.

"Thanks Twilight."

"Think nothing of it. Other than that the biggest things going in my life are probably recruiting a wonderful new personal student to study with me who I am certain will more than exceed my expectations," another smile and this time Starlight found it impossible not to return one of her own, "and any day now I'm probably going to be an aunt!" That was certainly news to Starlight, in all of her stalking she hadn't really bother looking to much into Twilight's family.

"Really? I'm guessing an older sibling right? A brother or a sister?"

"My brother, Shining Armor and his wife Princess Cadance. They both live in the Crystal Empire and we are expecting to hear the good news any day now!" The train slowed as it pulled in to Ponyville station but rather than getting up Starlight just sat there staring past Twilight with a look of disbelief. "Okay, I know it's weird to hear that my sister-in-law is Cadance but I'm a little surprised you didn't already know."

"I um never really looked into your family, Twilight. Are you sure that they are living in the Crystal Empire though?" Starlight asked cautiously.

"Positive, their duties there are very important and they only leave on emergencies and important family matters."

"Right..." Starlight whispered scratching the back of her head. "Would I be right in thinking Cadance is a pink alicorn, big ol' heart for a cutie mark?" Twilight nodded. "And your brother's a white unicorn, blue mane, shield for a cutie mark?" her jaw dropped.

"Okay that was weirdly accurate. Are you sure you haven't met them before?"

"Pretty sure," Starlight whimpered "but I think that is about to change in the next few seconds." As the train came to a stop Starlight pointed out of the window to a retinue of royal guard standing on the platform, at their center the aforementioned unicorn stallion and a heavily pregnant alicorn.

-------------------

As the two ponies stepped off of the train anypony watching could only wonder at their remarkably different body language. Twilight Sparkle was uncharacteristically upbeat practically bouncing across the platform towards the guards. Anypony who knew the princess would have been forgiven for mistaking her for Pinkie Pie in disguise (or for assuming she had received a very large shipment of new books) but only her closest friends would have known that she was simply happy to see her BBBFF and the greatest foalsitter in all of Equestria. In stark contrast Starlight appeared to be making a remarkable effort to achieve non-magical invisibility, trying to make herself appear as small as possible and only making herself all the more notable in the process. Her face had turned as white as a sheet and she held herself with none of the confidence or bravado that she was known for by her acquaintances.

"Shining Armor, Cadance, I thought you were both in the Crystal Empire! If I knew you were coming I'd have got Pinkie to arrange a welcoming committee! Or a party! Or a party committee! I mean welcoming party, I mean what are you both doing here? Not that I don't want you here, it's great to see you here, a little unexpected and leaving me no time whatsoever to be a good host and have things ready for you, but great nonetheless," Twilight embraced her family, hugging each in turn whilst Starlight contemplated the merits and detriments to utilizing teleportation as an efficient means of avoid awkward social interactions.

"Calm down, Twily," Shining Armor chuckled, "we tried messaging ahead but according to Spike you'd left on 'friendship business'. Which from what I can gather meant you were either lecturing some poor pony until they made friends or... you were off fighting some giant Equestria hating monster," pointing a hoof over to where Twilight's best friends were waiting outside the station he gave her a conspiratorial wink, "but I'm hoping it was the former seeing as how the rest of the element bearers are all still here."

"Oh same old same old, Shining," Twilight giggled pulling Starlight over with one hoof. "I was just helping Starlight Glimmer here make amends with some-"

"Wait a minute, Starlight Glimmer?" Shining glared at the pink unicorn. "The same Starlight Glimmer who enslaved a small community of ponies and stole their cutie marks? The same Starlight Glimmer who looked you and your friends up and tried to brainwash you? The same Starlight Glimmer who bottled your cutie mark and tried leaving town to stop you getting it back?"

"Yep, that's me," Starlight squeaked in a voice so quiet that it could have given Fluttershy a run for her money.

"The important thing though is that she has seen the error of her ways and is trying to make amends," Twilight said as she stepped between the two unicorns. "Enough about us though, what are you guys doing here? I mean I'm always happy to see you guys but..." she quickly surveyed the ten guards standing to attention around "... I'm guessing this isn't a social visit." The shift in the mood was palpable. Shining Armor grimaced and stared at the ground, while Cadance bit down on her lip, they clearly had something to tell her, something important but neither seemed keen to say what.

"Twilight," Cadance finally broke the silence. "Do you still have Celestia's magic mirror, the one she stored in the empire?"

"Of course I do, its been in my castle for some time now... why?" Shining and Cadance exchanged a quick worried look and Twilight's heart began to race. She'd not seen expressions like those very often but when she had they never accompanied good news. Expressions like that were reserved for discussions about sickly relatives and pets that had 'run away'.

"Twily, three days ago a mare appeared inside the crystal palace, nopony knows how she got there and she has been... uncooperative about answering questions. Twilight, the mare claims to be Sunset Shimmer and we really need to know if that's even possible before we can really begin helping her."

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight didn't know what to say, she stood mouth hanging open, running through all of the possibilities as to how Sunset could have managed to get to Equestria, let alone got into the most secure location in the Crystal Empire. "No, that's not possible. There's only one doorway between here and-" she stopped herself before she could say 'Earth' suddenly remembering that even if the guards were authorized to know about Earth Starlight most certainly was not. "-and there. The door won't open naturally for awhile yet and ever since the pigeon incident I've been avoiding leaving it open and unattended. No, Sunset can't be in Equestria she-" at that moment something clicked inside Twilight's head. Her friends were standing within sight but none of them had made any attempt to come and greet her, instead they stood nervously together their expressions matching those of Shining and Cadance, then there was Shining's choice of words.

"What- what do you mean 'begin helping her'?"

"Twilight," Cadance wrapped one wing around the smaller Alicorn and gave her what she imagined was meant to be a reassuring smile. "It was a little touch and go at first but the doctors say she's not in any immediate danger any-"

"Touch and go? Danger?" she shrugged off Cadance's wing and turned to face her, staring her sister-in-law in the eye. "What are you talking about? What happened to her?"

"We don't really know Twily," Shining said hanging his head in defeat. "Since the guards first found her she has refused to tell anyone how she got her-" he paused evidently trying to work out how best to break whatever unfortunate news he had for his little sister, "-her injuries. We've been trying to help her as best as we can but without some context it's a little tricky to know how to treat some of her injuries, some of them are over a month old Twily it's... it really wasn't looking to good for her when we found her."

"Where is she now?" the words were barely audible Twilight had failed to help her friend in the past, the thought that something awful had happened on the other side of the portal without her even knowing about was soul destroying. A month! How could Sunset have been in trouble for a month without asking her for help? Had she checked? She didn't recall any troubling messages in the journal recently but maybe there was some hint, some sign of trouble that she had overlooked.

"Ponyville hospital Twilight. She was stable enough to be transferred and we felt that if she was who she claimed to be she might be more willing to open up about what happened to her to a friend," Cadance was putting on a good show but now that she knew something was wrong Twilight could tell the other alicorn was shaken by recent events. "If you'd like we can take you to see her right now." Twilight nodded silently and fell into step alongside her brother as they made their way across town.

"Twilight," the word startled her out of her despair, she practically jumped as she turned to face the speaker. Walking alongside her with none of the urgency of the rest of their group and a nervous look on her face was Starlight Glimmer. "I don't want to sound insensitive but, who is Sunset Shimmer?"

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Hmm... you have my attention!

[Revan]

I'm reading a lot of stories at the moment, so it may take a while before I get around to finishing this story.