Who Tells Your Story?

by ultiville

A Man's Name

It was a long trip, but Rarity expected it to be worth it. Hamilton, with the original cast! On Broadway! Surely having attended would serve her in good stead for years!

"However do you think Principal Celestia got all these tickets?" She mused to Fluttershy, sitting next to her.

"Mmm?" Fluttershy seemed not to have heard her, then shook her head. "Oh. It's a special school program. Most nearby schools have senior trips for it."

"Oh," Rarity deflated a little.

"Oh yes," Twilight piped up from behind them, "not to mention, the historical Alexander Hamilton founded Canterlot High! He even gave it that weird name. Weren't you paying attention when Principal Celestia announced the trip, Rarity?"

Rarity thought back on her deafening inner excitement at hearing she would be going to the musical of the season, perhaps of the year or even the decade! She blushed.

"I, ah, must have missed it," she said.

Pinkie, sitting next to Twilight, was uncharacteristically silent for the exchange.

"What about you, darling? Aren't you excited? I thought hip-hop was your thing!" Rarity leaned over the seat and nudged her.

"Oh yeah," Pinkie smiled for a bit, "but I'm worried about Sunny. Look." She pointed back to where Sunset was sitting alone, looking out the window distractedly.

"Hmm? What about her?"

"Don't you think she's seemed distracted? And look, she can barely sit still!"

Rarity looked over. While Sunset was looking out the window, when she looked closer, she saw their friend's hands fidgeting animatedly, as if she were rehearsing a speech. She thought about going and asking what was wrong, but thought better of it. It might draw attention that would just embarrass Sunset. And in any case, they were already in New York proper. Surely they'd be arriving soon.

"I'll talk to her on the way back," she promised instead, and they moved on to other topics.

Still, she glanced at Sunset from time to time, and Rarity had to admit she looked increasingly agitated. Even were she so crude as to talk in the theater, though, they had individually assigned seats, and she was several away from Sunset. As the lights dimmed and the first speaker opened, she spared a final glance at Sunset. Her friend's eyes were wide, and she certainly needn't have been sold the entire seat. But before she could wonder much more, the play began in earnest, and she was entranced.

---

Canterlot, Equestria, Late Summer, 240 Years Before the Return of Nightmare Moon

Sunset Shimmer, age thirteen, was proud her parents had let her stay alone in the house for their trip. Of course the Nebulas next door checked in on her and went shopping with her, but in the house proper, it was all her. For a whole month, while they sailed down the river to Baltimare and back! She might not have her cutie mark quite yet, but she was surely becoming a grown-up pony.

Still, maybe she wasn't ready to grow up quite yet. And so she was sitting on the couch, the book open between her forelegs purely keeping up appearances, waiting on the day they were supposed to return.

The very end of that day, now. Though it wasn't quite her namesake time, the light across her unread book was getting longer and warmer, and even though she knew nopony could predict the winds on the river perfectly, and a million things could delay ponies on a long trip, she worried, even as she told herself to be a big pony.

Still, when there was a heavy clunk outside the door, like luggage, she was on her hooves and turning the knob with her magic before she could even think about being a grown-up, calm pony. She threw the door open.

And saw Princess Celestia for the very first time.

Well, not exactly the first time, of course. She did live in Canterlot, even if it was just their first year, and they were in the unfashionable lower districts with the other ponies who didn't have a noble title. It was still Canterlot proper, not one of the hill towns, so of course they'd gone on their first day to see Celestia raise the sun. But she'd been on the palace balcony far above them, the shimmer of her mane distant enough that it might have seemed a trick of the light.

Now she was on their doorstep. Guards flanked her, one with hoof raised to knock on the door, now astonished to find it open. Sunset might have laughed at his appearance. She might have fallen in awe of the Princess, who towered over her, whose heavenly mane adorned the late-afternoon sky.

But she'd been expecting her parents. And she knew there could be no good reason she'd gotten Celestia instead. So she fell on her barrel and began to cry. The Princess lifted her gently, and put her back on the couch, then wrapped a soft wing around her.

She never knew how long she bawled before she could hear a single word of what the Princess was softly saying to her. And then the first words she did process were "so sorry", and she began sobbing again, because then she knew, really knew, that her parents were never coming home.

Somehow, she finally got all the information. There'd been a storm. The boat was lost. The ponies on it, as well. The house was hers, now, forever. But she couldn't live there, alone. So they'd changed her day student spot at the School for Gifted Unicorns to a boarding one. She should move in tomorrow. The house would be kept in trust. Here was a letter to give to the porter at the school.

They were all so sorry.

One of the guards asked if she wanted somepony to stay with her. She turned him down without really thinking. He said he'd be outside if she needed him. Then she was as alone as she'd been feeling. As she knew she'd always be, now.

She felt cried out, but didn't know what else to do. The last light of the sun was on her book, but she couldn't even view it as a possibility. She grasped for the Princess's words like timbers of a sinking ship. Then she regretted her metaphor. Still, she remembered, she was moving tomorrow. She should pack.

Mechanically she sorted out her things. There wasn't much to do. Her first semester started in just over a week. She'd been so excited, she remembered, though the memory of happiness felt now like it might as well have happened to somepony else, a character in her discarded book. She'd mostly packed it all up. All she had to add now was her small library, her smaller collection of jewelry, and her toiletries.

She wondered if she wanted to bring any keepsakes of them. Before she could reflect on whether it was a good idea, she went to their room and opened the door.

It wasn't a good idea.

Everything looked exactly the same. Of course it did. And yet it felt like a dream, or as if she'd woken up from one. It was all ready for them to come back. She even opened her saddlebag and pulled out the letter to the porter. But it was there, and she fell to the floor and sobbed again.

Finally she made her way to her mother's dressing stand. Her favorite of all the room's fixtures was there, a full-length magic mirror. Their family couldn't afford much of the kind of high magic that Canterlot nobility was famous for, but this was an exception her mother insisted on. She felt they'd never be taken seriously if she couldn't coordinate her outfit with the actual appearance of whatever room she'd be wearing it in, a task for which the mirror was invaluable.

And, of course, it could keep young Sunset entertained for hours. Her mother had a mastery of it, and used it to illustrate all of her stories to Sunset with people and places real or imagined. She nearly cried again, remembering it. Sunset herself had never really gotten the knack. Still, she stared at the apparently unremarkable mirror, hoping somehow its magic could make things better again.

"Can you show them to me, one more time?" She finally whispered at it, with no real hope, channeling magic into her horn, but with no idea of how to shape it.

Indeed, only her own face stared back. She shook her head and started to turn away.

"I'd take somepony who knows what this is like," she muttered, "but I hope nopony does."

She turned back as the mirror changed. Nopony was in evidence, but the surface now showed a curious view. There was a window on the left side, though it was broken, jagged pieces of glass filling the frame. And above it were strangely exposed wooden beams. It took a moment for Sunset to realize it must be a small personal mirror, lying on a table, and she was seeing the wall and ceiling of a damaged house. She didn't know if the mirror could also transfer sound, but she did feel a little curious.

"Hello? Anypony there?" She also hadn't realized how much the quiet of the house was weighing on her. Just saying the words made her feel a little better.

No one answered, but she heard a clattering noise from the mirror, and then a stallion's voice, "who's there? Where are you?"

"The mirror," she replied.

She thought it took the stallion a surprising amount of time to get there, and was wondering if he was outside the house and so didn't know where the mirror was. Then a very non-stallion face appeared for a moment before quickly pulling back in apparent surprise. A few moments later it came back into view and stayed there.

It wasn't a creature Sunset recognized. It had what she took to be pale fur, but then realized was bare skin. It did have a coppery-colored mane, and while its eyes were smaller than a pony's, they were a striking blue-violet and shone with intelligence.

"Do you understand me?" Sunset asked.

"Are you a talking horse?" It said, at the same time.

Since that effectively answered her question, Sunset answered.

"I'm a unicorn pony," she flashed her horn, "and horses are mythical creatures, everypony knows that."

"Well," the creature said, "I am not a pony, as you can see, but I have seen horses, and been told that unicorns are mythical creatures."

"Huh," Sunset said, "what kind of creature are you, then?"

"I am a man. Do unicorns have names?"

"My name is Sunset Shimmer. Do mans have names?"

"Men do, yes. My name is Alexander Hamilton."

---

"My name is Alexander Hamilton," sang the actor on the stage, and Rarity briefly surfaced.

She glanced over again at Sunset. It was hard to tell with the lowered house lights, but she thought she saw a tear on the other girl's cheek.

Comments

[Bad_Rabbit_S]

My name is Alexander Hamilton."

I wonder if there's a million things he hasn't done. We better wait and see....

[Sunsette]

7618503 AYYYYY. Yeah, but he would never be satisfied.