Chaotic Dreams

by Czar_Yoshi

Listless Leaders

Sunset's entire body ached. She didn't open her eyes; she could feel that she had succeeded. She was a pony again.

She was laying on an impossibly flat, smooth, hard surface that possessed no temperature whatsoever. Everywhere Starlight had struck her stung, and the floor did nothing to assuage that. Briefly, Sunset considered casting around for a pain-dulling spell, but her horn hurt, too.

Everything was silent, save for her own breathing and the beating of her heart. She perceived a rush in the distance, but it was almost felt more with her body than her ears, as if the world itself were in motion around her. That might even be true, considering where she thought she was. Hesitantly checking, Sunset opened her eyes.

The sky in which she swam- the floor below her was purely invisible- was simultaneously the brightest thing she had ever seen... and yet darkly comforting in the same way as the night. Despite the rest of her aches and pains, she was pretty sure she could stare into the hearts of galaxies for as long as she pleased, and not suffer from eye strain.

Rather than test, Sunset instead focused on herself. Her coat was remarkably smooth, and she hoped that wasn't an indication that her injuries were internal. Her leg still hurt, at least. Looking down her side, she saw her Cutie Mark, the same one she had had on the day she left Equestria, emblazoned on her flank. It shone back up at her with a metallic sheen, and she heard no voices in her head.

She did, however, hear something behind her. A hoofstep, light as a feather and yet thunderously loud, prompted her to swing her head around, not bothering to heave herself to her hooves.

Starlight Glimmer lay in a patched heap, clearly far worse-off than she. But the noise had been made by Twilight Sparkle, who was standing up, pacing towards her, a foalish grin on her face. "...Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"You used magic!" Twilight giggled, eyes closed and muzzle curved upwards in a smile. Her wings were outstretched, and there was a bounce to her step as she pranced closer.

"Yeah, I... Twilight, are you all right?" Sunset's ears folded back, and she gazed at the incoming alicorn with concern.

Briefly, Twilight's eyes opened, and focused. "It's a coping mechanism. Let me have this." Her oblivious expression returned.

"Twilight, you're not all right," Sunset said, getting to her hooves. "How long were you in there with me? It was before... before... while you were still tied up in the locker room, wasn't it?"

Twilight ignored her. "Alicorn magic!"

"What?"

"Your horn! That spell! The ice! This place! It all makes so much sense!" Twilight bounced in a happy little circle around Sunset, apparently not the least bit stiff like she was.

"Ice? Wait a sec." Sunset's eyes narrowed. "You were a mile away in a storm. How did you see that?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You kinda froze the whole school. It was pretty obvious. But, but!" She returned to her fanciful demeanor, pupils huge and cheeks grasped in her hooves. "Alicorn magic!"

"Twilight, I... You know what? Fine. If you need the time to think, I'll play along for now." Sunset forced herself to give a soft smile, though she felt anything but happy. "But you're not getting out of this. Take it from me, burying your pains in studying is not a good way to cope."

"Of course it's not!" Twilight giggled, doing a little pony-hop.

Sunset cringed. "O-Okay. Now, what's this about me and alicorn magic?"

"Youuu used it!" Twilight stuck her grin in Sunset's face, staring at her horn.

"Twilight, hello?" Sunset waved a forelimb. "I'm still a unicorn! Just because I had wings there doesn't mean I do as a pony!"

Twilight stuck out her lip. "So?"

"Twilight, you're not making sense! I'm worried about you!" Sunset's ears drooped, and she felt her gaze waver with fear.

"Oh, it makes perfect sense," Twilight rambled happily. "Unicorn magic is powered by mana stored in a horn, which is recharged through ambient heat in the air! By using our innate harmonic magic, we can control the random bouncing of particles- heat- to reverse entropy, gathering heat in our horns to be converted to mana! How fast a horn can do that is one of the biological statistics that give different unicorns different levels of magical capability, but in general, unicorns are all pretty bad at it, while alicorn horns are orders of magnitude faster and more efficient! In fact, aside from innate species magic like their lifespans, and personal magic like their Cutie Marks, it's the main difference between alicorn magic and unicorn magic!"

Sunset's eyes crossed. "I have no idea what you just said."

"Huh," Twilight said, confusion entering her gaze. "Really? I thought it was pretty concise."

"It's also totally irrelevant to what just happened to us over the past twenty-four hours!" Sunset stressed.

"Oh, it's totally relevant," Twilight proclaimed, snapping back to happy oblivion. "Because that's what you did! I mean, all that ice? You weren't trying to make that. It just happened! Obviously, you're an alicorn!"

"No wings, Twilight. I'm just a regular unicorn." Sunset turned, broadly indicating her bare sides.

"Hmm. Odd." Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. Lighting her horn, she knelt down and began poking at Sunset's sides.

Sunset raised an eyebrow and almost said something, but held her tongue, simultaneously hoping and fearing that the alicorn's curiosity would run its course. Gahhh. As much as she didn't like seeing Twilight burying her pain- and the princess obviously wasn't being rational right now- a big part of her dreaded the conversation she wanted to push Twilight towards.

It wasn't that she was afraid Twilight wouldn't forgive her for what her Cutie Mark had done in the locker room- that was all but a foregone conclusion. Neither was it that she'd been suddenly given a very large reason not to return to Equestria- that was a dilemma that almost seemed silly in light of what she had just been through, but if there were ponies there who carried grudges against her that she knew nothing of, returning would invite nothing but trouble.

No, there was something else, a thought that chewed on the back of her mind and refused to die. A thought about how... easily Twilight had listened when she told her to stop attacking Starlight. Almost without thinking, Sunset let her gaze slide over to Twilight, who still appeared to be studying her lack of wings. Without even forming the words in her head, Sunset imagined Twilight switching and checking her other side.

It wasn't even thought coherently, let alone commandingly. Yet, as Sunset watched, Twilight flicked an ear and leaned across her, poking at her other side with magic and curiosity.

Blood chilling, Sunset kept Twilight in the corner of her eye, and tried again, this time prodding Twilight to examine her own wings.

Twilight did.

Suddenly unable to breathe, Sunset became aware of every hair on her body. Oh no.

Ohh no no no no no. Please no. Please don't let her be subconsciously doing everything I want. Following orders, I can live with, I can just not give orders. But if this works when I'm not even trying? When I'm not even aware I want something to happen? If it's on all the time...

Pointedly ignoring the hideous thing on her flank, she summoned her thoughts once again. Twilight shall... shall want to s-sniff my mane, for no reason at all, even though it has nothing to do with what she's doing...

Her eyes were scrunched closed, but a light tickling on the back of her neck told her everything she needed to know. She didn't even register collapsing against the ground.

Smashing her hooves into her eyes, Sunset curled as tightly as she could, teeth sparking and lips taut as she pathetically tried to defend her thoughts from a flood of pain, loneliness and loathing. Every emotion and thought she had thrown up in defiance of her Cutie Mark and Starlight's assertions swirled venomously through her defenses like ironclad punches. They were right...

T-Twilight's turned into... into an extension of me, when I'm around... Everyone, doing exactly what I want, telling me exactly what I want to hear... I'll never wake up again, not knowing what's going to happen... I-I'll never be able to have a conversation again, a conversation that's any different from talking to a mirror... When I'm wrong, everyone will still tell me I'm right... I'm alone... once again, so, so alone...

Sunset wailed.

Her voice was unarticulate, but the same three words burned themselves into her mind over and over again, making up in intensity for what she lacked in coherence. Starlight was right. I am a monster. Starlight was right. How did she know? Starlight was right...

Starlight's ragged ears flapped once, and then were still. Twilight drew back sharply, confusion and concern battling the curiosity that presently held sway over her gaze. Sunset beheld the pony she would never get to know again through a treacherous, tear-stained eyelid that refused to close all the way. She hiccuped.

"Uhh..." Twilight's ears folded back. "Sunset?"

"Hey, Twi." Sunset stretched out a hoof along the ground. She put on the fakest smile she had ever worn in her life, brought her train of thought crashing to a halt with an ear-splitting internal scream, and pinned her focus on anything but the rock in her heart. "Wanna... do some science? I've got this spiffy new alicorn magic..."

---

"Cast a spell!"

Sunset paused and cocked her head, smile just as plastic as Twilight's. "Like what?"

"Oh, basic telekinesis is fine," Twilight said, spinning in a circle. "You can just lift me!"

Eagerly, Sunset obliged, lifting Twilight a meter off the ground. The princess rotated for a bit, then teleported out of Sunset's field, reached out, and touched her horn.

"Feel it!" Twilight chirped. "It's a little colder than usual! Usually, unicorn magic makes your horn heat up due to inefficiencies in mana conversion, but you can do it fast enough that that's never an issue!"

"Huh," Sunset said, crossing her eyes to look upward at her horn. "That's cool."

"Yep!" Twilight grinned again, giggling at the pun. "Science is fascinating! I just wish I knew why! Hey, let's do an experiment!"

Sunset turned to keep Twilight in her field of view. "Uh... Sure! What kind of 'experiment' are we talking about?"

"You try everything you can to bring out more magic! Maybe it'll make wings appear! Oh, that would be so exciting..." She hugged herself, taking wing and slowly orbiting Sunset's head. "I'll watch and take notes."

"Isn't that what we're already doing?" Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe," Twilight said, still orbiting. "Now try stuff!"

With a last glance at Twilight, Sunset sighed and lit up her horn. Struggling to keep her breathing straight, she started casting various spells on herself, from illusion-breaking to cloud-walking. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. I'm alone, so what? This is fun, I'm happy... No wings surfaced.

"I know!" Twilight piped up, swooping into Sunset's face and eliciting a squeak of surprise. "Let's walk through the steps I took to become an alicorn! Maybe there's something there we're forgetting!"

Sunset made a big show of rolling her eyes. "Suit yourself. B-But..." She's still hurting, too... Maybe I could...

"Hmm?" Twilight hummed eagerly, slightly invading Sunset's personal space.

"Y-You... Never mind," Sunset stammered, inwardly kicking herself. "You were saying? About becoming an alicorn?" She could feel her smile slipping, but shored it up as best she could.

"Of course!" Twilight giggled, and began rambling again. "Let's see... First, I got this old enchanted journal that had belonged to Star Swirl the Bearded! It had some pretty complex spells inside, and I tried casting one, but it was unfinished. It messed up my friends' Cutie Marks, so I fixed them by putting on the Elements of Harmony! Then they all used their Elements on me while I wore mine. There might have been some friendship involved! And then I wound up in a place that looked exactly like this, and Princess Celestia was there and walked me through my life, before giving me my wings!"

Sunset stared, distracting herself with numbers once again. "Star Swirl spells... Pretty sure Starlight took care of that one. Messed up Cutie Marks? Double-check. Elements of Harmony? Well, I did wear Magic for a while and have the essences of the others used on me, though I doubt they were the real things. Stuck here with a princess... Twilight, shouldn't that mean this is your job?"

Twilight froze, landing and halting her circling. "You're right! What if this is an ascension? What if I'm supposed to be guiding you to the next phase of your life? I've never done something like this before! I don't even know how it works! What am I supposed to do? Sunset, help!"

Sunset stuck out a limb with a shaky breath, steadying the panicking princess. Somehow, the act made her feel ever so slightly better, even though she knew Twilight might as well be a figment of her imagination for how she was able to respond. "N-Never mind, Twilight. This isn't an ascension. Relax, it'll... it'll be okay. You said I already have alicorn magic, and I doubt you know enough about my past to walk through even a fraction of it. Besides, she's here too." Sunset indicated Starlight with a pointed limb.

Twilight bit her lip, and looked up at Sunset in confusion. "Then what do I do?"

Sunset stared. Somewhere within her, a tiny part of her mind cried out. You help me!

But she can't! Sunset answered herself.

But I need it! And she can do it! She's the Princess of Friendship, she can do anything when it's to help her friends!

Twilight's expression didn't change. She met Sunset's eyes, her own large, curious and confused. Her ears were back, her tail was limp, and she simply stood, waiting for an answer... or maybe waiting for Sunset to want her to do something else. She certainly didn't look like she was capable of anything.

But she can't, Sunset repeated to herself. If whatever happened to her in the school wasn't enough, I've certainly seen to the rest. She can't help me. She'll never be able to. I'm alone.

Breath sticky against her throat, eyes dry as bones, Sunset examined her friend, hoping beyond hope to find a sign that would prove her wrong. Beyond Twilight's scientific curiosity, beyond the fear and confusion that might have been superficial, or might have been cracks in that mask... the same cry for help sparkled in Twilight's eyes.

She wants me to help her, too.

Sunset gritted her teeth, stealing a glance at her flank. I wish I could. It's what I want to do, who I want to be... Who I wish I was. I wish I could be something other than this...

What if I can?

Grasping onto the thought like the last handhold on the edge of a cliff, Sunset steeled her gaze, opening her mouth before she had a chance to come to her senses. "Well," she choked, "we could try talking about what we went through. We're going to need to do this eventually, Twilight."

Twilight whimpered, lowering her head.

"You're not... not getting out of this, Twilight. S-Stop hiding, and... talk with me." Even if she can't truly respond... Even if I'm hiding right now myself... She hung her own head, before snapping back up with a growl. No. No it isn't. Right now I'm helping Twilight, not hiding. I can still do what's right, even if I can't be right myself. She'll remember this, even after I leave and take my influence with me. I can still help my friends. I will still help my friends.

"I-I guess..." Sunset started, voice much less determined than the volcanic emotions pounding against her chest, clamoring for comfort from the pony she looked up to above all else. "Twilight, you know what you saw. What I did. And that really happened. The thing that did those... things... aagh, I still can't even bring myself to talk about this! Listen to me and my generic language, and... Twilight, I'm so sorry."

The words tasted foul in Sunset's mouth. She knew she was fumbling, and she fought to keep talking. "That was me. A part of me that I apparently parted ways with during the Fall Formal. Something that made me who I was... my Cutie Mark."

Twilight looked up quizzically, ears flicking forward. "You lost your Cutie Mark?"

Sunset sighed. "Yeah, I did. And it's been giving me nightmares ever since, nightmares where I won, and you lost, and I guess that's what it thought this world was, or something, and it took over again!

"Listen, Twilight. From the moment you and your friends saved me, months ago... nothing has mattered more to me than ensuring that you, my friends, are safe and happy. I... I got my Cutie Mark back. I had to, to stop Starlight. But it's not what I want, and it's not who I am. My old Cutie Mark, the mark of a monster... it lets me control things. It makes me control things, even you, and even when I don't want to. It makes me a monster, and I hate it. The person- pony I want to be isn't defined by what she can make others do for her, but by what she can do for them."

Sunset's eyes hardened, and she stared into Twilight's, fully serious. "WHAT MATTERS MOST TO ME IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE MY FRIENDS."

There was a gleam of lavender light, and Twilight gasped. Sunset turned to look, and her view was obstructed by a pair of large, golden wings.

"You have..." Twilight's breaths were short, eyes wide and eager. "This is absolutely unprecedented! I've never seen anything like this before! Sunset, this is the scientific discovery of the millennia!"

"Uhh..." Sunset flexed her new wings, unsure of what to do with them. Her Cutie Mark momentarily forgotten, she looked over her shoulder at the golden plumage. "Twilight, didn't you just become an alicorn yourself? Not that this is common or anything, but it's hardly unprecedented!"

"Not your wings," Twilight said, pushing Sunset's right wing aside and pointing further down on her flank. Sunset turned her head to look.

There, where her red and yellow sun of a Cutie Mark should have shone, boldly taunting her for all her past misdeeds, was a six-pointed lavender star.

---

"Huh," Sunset said, looking at the copy of Twilight's Cutie Mark inexplicably affixed to her own flank. "That's strange."

Twilight herself had returned to sciency oblivion, happily poking at Sunset's new mark with her horn, summoning tiny discharges of magic. "Oh, it's more than strange. Have you ever even heard of a pony with two Cutie Marks? How did you get it? Is it the same as mine? Where'd your other one go? Can we replicate this in an experiment? Ohh, I have so many questions!" She held her cheeks, staring into Sunset's face with stars in her eyes.

"Wait, Twi. Let me think about this for a sec." Sunset grounded the hovering princess with her horn and ran over what she had just been doing, suddenly able to think. Perhaps it was the curiosity, or perhaps it was something else, but it didn't hurt as much, and she wasn't about to question it.

"Let's see... I haven't seen myself as a pony since I stole your crown before the Fall Formal... And after that you and your friends blasted me, and pretty much completely changed who I was. And now I just got my old Cutie Mark back, but it switched to this one when... when I focused on what mattered to me most! My friends!"

Twilight sat watching, tail thumping against the invisible floor.

"I wonder..." Sunset concentrated, and forced a line of thought through her head she couldn't have imagined several minutes ago. I WANT TO CONTROL PEOPLE AND PONIES, AND BEND THEIR WILLS TO MY WHIMS.

There was an orange flash, and when she looked, her wings were gone. Her old Cutie Mark was back, sitting on her flank like an ugly, venomous bee, and no trace of Twilight's remained. The alicorn in question pouted, ears drooping. "Aww. Mmrgh!" She scuffed at the ground.

Sunset concentrated again, much more easily this time. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO USE THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP, AND DRAW UPON ITS POWER TO PROTECT THOSE I CARE FOR.

Flash! Wings. Happy Twilight.

"Well, I guess there's that mystery settled," Sunset said, folding her new wings. "I guess I somehow got this when you got rid of my old Cutie Mark. Maybe the Element of Magic didn't want me to be blank?"

Twilight nodded, grinning widely, looking as if she wished she had parchment and a quill. "Go on!"

Sunset was already lost in thought. I... I have two Cutie Marks. But a Cutie Mark is a sign... the power to be who you were meant to be. If I have two... does that mean I get to choose?

Twilight continued to grin eagerly, clearly hoping she would continue. Sunset eyed her, opened her mouth, and... something clicked.

I can help you...

She focused her eyes, quickly reaching a decision. "...No. Sorry, Twilight, but you need help, and we've put this off long enough. Besides, growing wings and getting two Cutie Marks is hardly the weirdest thing that's happened today. We'll study it later, I promise."

"Please no?" Twilight looked up with a puppy face, chin on the ground.

"Sorry, Twi." Hating herself for what she was about to do, Sunset reached inside herself for her old Cutie Mark. If I have to have this, I might as well make it useful... Twilight shall be willing to discuss this past night. I got you out of that world, and I'm going to get you out of whatever you're stuck in now, Twi. I promise.

There was a gleam, and when Sunset looked back, her old Cutie Mark had reappeared. She stared at it perhaps a bit too long, and had her attention refocused by a sniffle from Twilight. A tear traced its way down the alicorn's cheek as her eyes wobbled, large and pleading.

Sunset hesitantly reached out a hoof, then drew back. "Twilight, let me help you. How long... how long were you in there?"

"I was just sitting in my castle, minding my own business," Twilight sniffled, "and it was the middle of the night. I was reading a book! I don't even remember what. Spike was asleep. And my Cutie Mark started glowing, like the- hic! Like the map was summoning me."

She rubbed a hoof across her eyes, and continued, ears flat. "And I got your message, in the book, and I just came and thought I could help and that I'd know what the problem was all by myself because I was the only one who was summoned! But then I got there and couldn't find you or what had happened to you and I realized I had been too... sniff! Too fast and didn't know what to do, so I went back to Equestria to get the book and try to talk to you again, but before that I tried to check the map again to see if it could tell me something and Starlight's portal appeared before I could do anything!"

Twilight was wailing now. "Then I was tied to a bench, and you came in, but I couldn't tell if it was you, so I didn't say anything because I didn't want to let anyone know what I knew until I knew who not to trust, and I was tied up so I couldn't even use the magic pendant on myself!

"Then Starlight came in and I thought it was her because I've never seen a counterpart for her at or near Canterlot High, so I went with her to try to ask what was going on, but somehow she knew who I was and tied me up and gagged me in Celestia's office so I couldn't talk or stop her and still couldn't use the magic and she kept me there forever until she came and brought me out front and I was still tied up and there was nothing I could do to stop you from killing eachother!"

She scooched forward, wrapping her forelegs around Sunset's, eyes pleading up at her. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so, sorry!" she choked. "If I hadn't overestimated my ability to help... if I had waited longer, and let you explain what was going on, I would have known, I could have done something! I could have found a spell first that would get you out, I could have told you what was going on when we were in the locker room, I wouldn't have trusted Starlight, I... I... Snrrrkt!" She pressed her face into Sunset's coat, drying her eyes. "You had to live out your worst nightmare, you almost died because of meeeee!"

"Me? I- Twilight, what about you?" Sunset was taken aback. "I'm fine... well, still alive. Yeah, I almost died, but I didn't. All I have to worry about now is not hurting my friends." And still having that concept exist for me... "Maybe I'll stop having nightmares, and actually be better off for the experience. You, though..."

"Oh, yes, me," Twilight said bitterly. "The self-proclaimed Princess of Friendship who got her friend locked in an awful, torturous nightmare world and almost killed because she didn't even listen to them when they were in trouble! I can't even stop one h-half-dead person with a hammer from... from... Aaaaaaaahnnnghh... hic..."

Sunset straightened up, standing at her full height, summoning and extending her wings for emphasis. With a hoof, she lifted Twilight's chin so the princess was looking at her once again. Sad eyes brimming with determination, she looked down and met Twilight's gaze.

"Twilight, look at me. And then look at yourself. Which one of us looks more 'all right' to you?"

Sunset took a step nearer, pushing down the fact that she was very much not alright, still holding her friend's chin. "Here's a hint: it's not you. Twilight, I haven't told you much about my past, aside from the fact that I used to be Princess Celestia's student." She moved her hoof to Twilight's shoulder, keeping the princess steady. "There's a reason for that. It's because my past is very, very... uncertain. There's a lot of stuff there I'm not proud of, and even more I still don't know how to feel about. But that... no longer defines me. It never has, not since the day you changed my life, Twilight." Yeah, now I'm just unstoppable and alone...

Twilight sniffled, ears perking towards Sunset. Sunset continued, "I'm never who I used to be. And now, everything that just happened- all the fighting, scrambling, hatred and mistrust, the pain and the control and the effort to survive... It's all there with everything else in my past. A burden I've been carrying, and will always need to carry, but not one that defines me. I'm all right, Twilight. You haven't hurt me. Wherever I go from here, I promise I'll be doing everything I can to be a me that you can be proud of."

"Wherever you're going?" Twilight choked. "You're... you're not going back to Canterlot High?"

Sunset drew back, dreading what she knew to be coming. Here it comes... You don't deserve to be mindless, Twi. And that means not being around me. What's more... you'll forgive me, for everything that happened... and everything I still could do. Of course you will, because it's what you do... and because it's what I want. And I can't live with that. Even if you would already, I can't live with asking you to... making you forgive me when I condemn myself for what I am. I can't live with the knowledge I had a hand in it, so... I'm sorry about this, Twilight...

Steeling herself, she took a breath and forced the thought into her words. "I didn't say that, but... It's not up to me, Twilight. You're a princess. One of the four most powerful figures in Equestria, now. And I... Regardless of intent, I captured you, and held you against your will. I used mind control on you, Twilight. I might even have stolen your alicorn magic. I..."

She broke contact with the princess. "I've committed so many crimes and violations against you, Twilight... It doesn't matter whether or not I wanted to, because I did. Maybe it was a me from another time, a past I never want to return to, but I did it! If I return to Equestria... I won't be welcomed. Forgiveness isn't really on the table, this time. I can't be forgiven." Send me away, Twilight. I won't hate you for it. It'll be easier for both of us, I promise...

"What?" Twilight said, clearing her face and puffing out her cheeks. "Forgive you? Why wouldn't I do that?"

"Because you can't!" Sunset's eyes widened as if she had been punched. "Twilight, I don't know if you fully understand what I did to you- even if it was a past version of me, it was still me- but you don't exactly have the option of just wiping my slate clean. I have a history in Equestria, and if I go back, things are going to get dug up. Don't you get it?" Stop fighting this, Twilight! Don't make me abandon you myself...

Twilight frowned, drawing herself up into an equally imposing figure in front of Sunset. "It doesn't matter! You weren't acting of your own free will, but even if you were, it still wouldn't matter! Maybe it's you who doesn't get it, because that's what redemption's about. But you weren't yourself! You're right that I can't forgive you, because that requires having done something in need of forgiving!"

Sunset knew she was reaching, but grabbed Twilight's shoulders, leaning in until their faces were inches apart, and neither flinched. "Yes. I. Have! And you can't do it! You can't erase that! No matter what you say, I'll still be the pony who stole a princess!" I'm dangerous, Twilight! she added in her mind, though she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. I can force anyone to do anything, and without friends who can bring me back, I can make wrong judgements! You can't keep me around, so stop trying!

"Stop it," Twilight growled, eyes steely, tears still pooling at the sides. "Stop it! Stop conflating what I think of you and what Equestria thinks of you! I'm not Equestria, and they don't speak for me! If they did, Canterlot would have fallen to Changelings a year ago! Forget the laws, I don't care about laws! Following the rules isn't how I became a princess, Sunset."

Valiantly, Twilight wiped her face with the tip of her wing, neither breaking eye contact nor letting go of Sunset. "I'm not worried about what will happen to you when we go back. I'm a princess, I'll be in your corner. Celestia will be in your corner, I'll talk to her. What I'm worried about is the fact that my friend has apparently had her faith shaken so much that she pretends I'm just clockwork... rules and laws and unfeeling so it'll hurt less when I pass judgement on her... whether it's because she doesn't believe I'll forgive her, or knows I will and doesn't believe she deserves it."

Sunset felt her eyes widen. Twilight, no! Please don't make this harder than it needs to be! Please don't...

"Don't you understand, Sunset?" Twilight sniffed, still maintaining her gaze. "Don't you know who I am? I'm a pony, just like you, who knows a lot... a lot about what you've been through in life. Who values you as a friend. Who values nothing more than her friends. You're so important, Sunset... To me, to... to everything! And now, because of a mistake I made, I feel like I've lost you... like I've hurt you so much, like you're that afraid of what someone with a will of their own could do to you that you can't even see me as a pony anymore..."

Because you're not! Sunset wanted to scream. You don't have a will of your own! I can take that away from you! I've already done it just by existing! I command you to stop! Stop! Twilight...!

Twilight coughed, her composure finally breaking. She drew away as Sunset stared, speechless, and huddled to the ground, looking away. "At first, I was worried that you'd be mad, that I didn't save you when I could have so easily," she whispered. "Then, as things got worse, I... I thought you might die, Sunset. That you'd be gone for good. It was almost too much to bear..."

She looked up, ears straightening, and met Sunset's eyes once again. "But this? Hearing you talk to me about friendship like you don't believe it can apply to you, about forgiveness like you're not worthy of answering to someone with a soul?" She opened her mouth, shivered, and her tears began flowing freely once again. "It hurts more than I could possibly imagine..."

N-No... That's not... Sunset stared, eyes unfocused. Not worthy? Twilight, that's... that's the one thing I do want...

Choking, Twilight dragged herself back to her feet. "I forgive you, Sunset! I forgive you for the pain, for what I'm feeling now, I forgive you for anything that happened at the school! Whatever or whoever you think it was, I forgive you and them and everything for anything you think has happened to me and more! Just... please..." She took a step forward, tail between her legs. "Tell me I still exist to you..."

Sunset's reverie shattered. Mane sagging, she gasped for breath as Twilight's words sunk in. "How?" she rasped. "I tried... I pushed you away! I didn't want... I wanted you not to... to interfere, in my... judgement..." She blinked furiously, and focused on Twilight's pleading eyes. "I said I didn't want you to let me back! Can you really... not... care?"

"No," Twilight replied, summing the strength of a thousand minotaurs in her voice. "I care more than you could possibly know. And I'll never let one of my friends take the fall for something I did. So please don't fall, Sunset. I want to help you. I need you to help me! Sunset, please!"

Sunset sniffed, fighting to remain coherent. "T-Twilight, I can't! My Cutie Mark, it... it forces what I want to happen! I can't turn it off, I can't not use it! I want to help you, but just by being around someone, I make them not a person... pony anymore! My judgement isn't perfect, Twilight! I need my friends to keep me on the right course, and if they do everything I want, I... The risk is too great, I can't... I'm too dangerous, Twilight! I don't want you to lose yourself by being around me! I don't want you to accept what I am!"

"Well, I'll say your judgement isn't perfect," Twilight suddenly thundered, looming up over Sunset. "You want your friends to correct you when you're wrong!?" Her face softened, and she extended a hoof. "Then here's the place to start. Help me, Sunset. And let me help you."

"Y-You..." Tears began flowing openly across Sunset's face. "Twilight..."

"You really think you don't deserve to be forgiven? Accepted?" Twilight looked down, and her gaze was stern. "You think you can make me do what's bad for you, just because of some Cutie Mark? Then do it. I dare you. Make me move this hoof away, just one inch."

Sunset looked. Sunset trembled. Move it.

Twilight's hoof remained still.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. Twilight, I command you to move that hoof. T-Take it away. Right now.

Twilight's hoof trembled, though it might have been from her ragged breathing. Her eyes didn't move.

"Grrrrrr..." Sunset crouched back, ears folded. "Move your hoof, Twilight! Move it! Move it!"

Twilight spread her wings, and her hoof remained still. "No."

Sunset collapsed, and felt a shudder roll through her body. "I can't..."

"That's what I thought." Sighing, Twilight stood normally once again. "I... would be lying if I said I wasn't upset about what happened to me. A part of me- a big part of me I didn't even know existed is telling me to run, to leave you here and send you away, to make you pay for what happened." She hung her head.

Every fiber of Sunset's body was still.

"But I won't," Twilight continued, looking up with a spark in her eyes. "Because I've been here before. I've had reasons to doubt my friends. This isn't the first time I've wanted to send someone away, and the stakes were even higher before. Before, I've been betrayed for real. I'm not even sure why I feel conflicted right now, Sunset, because I should have every reason to let you back. To want you back. As a friend."

She narrowed her eyes. "Is this your 'taking away my choice,' Sunset? What you think you'll do to me by being around? This... irrational want? Because if so, living with it is a price I'm willing to pay to keep you as a friend. You can make me doubt you, Sunset, but you can't take away my choice. And even then, that doubt I can fight. Can you forgive me for feeling it at all?" She held out a hoof again, and waited.

Sunset stared at the offered limb, utterly speechless. "You felt it... you felt it and you fought it... it can be fought, and you really, truly... want me back..."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not the first time tonight you've... err, something has failed to make me betray my friends."

Sunset broke down into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. "We must look like the biggest fools in Equestria right now, Twi. Here's me, freaking out about some power that doesn't even work, and you, blaming yourself for hurting me when I'm just fine! I'm fine! So, so... hah! Hahahah... I'm still... myself... This doesn't mean I'll be alone, after all..."

"So... you don't care either?" Twilight asked, tentatively. "Honestly and truly? That I failed to get you out myself, even when it would have been so easy? That I didn't see this coming and stop Starlight before it even started? That this is all my fault?"

Sunset shook her head, smiling through her tears and extending a hoof of her own. "Water under the bridge."

Face cracking into the first genuine smile she had produced since waking up in the starry expanse, Twilight lunged forward, catching Sunset with her wings. "I'm so glad... So, so glad... I've failed before, but never so badly that it lost me a friend as true as you..."

They hit the ground rolling. Sunset almost had a flashback to her fight with Starlight and tensed, until she realized there was a fuzzy pony muzzle embedded in her neck. "Guhh! Twilight!"

"Hmmmmm?"

"I just had an evil mind-control monster try to make you do exactly that," Sunset whimpered. "Really?"

"Eep!" Twilight raised her head, blushing furiously. "Sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I was just-"

Sunset cut her off. "Just lonely. Lonely, and glad to have me back, as a friend. And I'm glad too."

Twilight met her eyes, silent and apologetic.

"And if a platonic cuddle is how you want to celebrate that?" Sunset smiled tenderly, reaching a hoof out and pulling Twilight's head back in. "Well... okay."

Slowly, Twilight's tension evaporated as Sunset returned her embrace, and she hummed happily.

Sunset let herself relax too, laying her chin on top of Twilight's mane with a purr. "You do realize what letting me stick around is going to cost, right?"

Twilight's voice was muffled by fur, but Sunset could still make it out. "No. And I don't care."

"Politically, I mean? Has Celestia ever even told you why I was 'banished?'"

"No." Twilight untucked her head, leaning to try to meet Sunset's eyes. "But when I returned, that very first time after saving you? She didn't ask me about the crown. She didn't ask about the other world, or even about me. She asked if you were all right." With a contented sigh, she readjusted her wings and continued. "I'm sure she'll stick up for you, too."

Sunset giggled, a loose strand of Twilight's mane causing her nose to twitch. "Has she ever asked you to invite me back?"

Twilight shook her head. She was too covered in Sunset for the motion to have much of an effect, but the message got through.

"Well, be sure to tell me what she says when you ask her." Sunset smiled a little, feeling the strands of Twilight's mane slipping across her hooves. "I'm feeling... optimistic right now, Twi. Maybe it's been long enough that they've forgotten, and I can come back..."

"You're going to have to do something about Starlight, too, you know," Sunset mumbled when Twilight didn't reply. "She's your friend too, or at least used to be. If you let her go, I'll be prosecuted."

"I'll take the blame," Twilight answered, shifting about in Sunset's embrace and giving a small hoofy-kick. "All of it. I told you, I could have stopped this. This was my fault. And if you're banished, even if it's for something as silly as trying to mind-control me... then wherever Equestria decides to send you, I'll go too."

Sunset sighed with happiness. "...Thanks, Twi. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with you just abandoning your life and your friends if I had to go somewhere, but... it means a lot to me."

"Well, I..." Twilight squirmed. "I really don't think it will come to that. You've got a lot on your side, Sunset, and I can get more. And besides, there's nothing you've even done, unless Starlight makes something up. You'll be all right..." She was still for a minute. "I do mean it, though. As close as that just was... friendship doesn't lose."

"But what if the prosecutor brings more friends than we do?" Sunset teased.

"I doubt it. We've got two princesses of friendship now! That means we'll be four times as unstoppable!" Twilight giggled sleepily, trying and failing to pump a hoof.

Sunset smiled, less because of the joke than the wiggling alicorn in her grasp. Then she sniffed. "Not to change the subject, but we've just been through a whole night of chaos and smoke and storms and you've been trapped in a sweaty locker room. Why does your mane still smell good?"

"It's this place," Twilight murmured. "I really do think this is where ascensions happen. If the harmonic energies here are strong enough to grow you a pair of wings, they're strong enough to heal wounds, too. I guess dirty hair is on that list..." There was a chuckle, and then they were still.

---

Things were silent for a while as the alicorns snuggled. Overhead and underneath, in all directions and all-encompassing, the heavens spun, nebulae turning like purple gears on a great machine. The distant rush of exploding matter and colliding gas soothed three pairs of equine ears, two locked together, the other some distance away, frayed and unmoving. Then: "Sunny?"

"Yeah, you can."

"Huh?"

"Call me that."

"Oh. Well, then you can call me Twily. But that's not what I wanted to say."

"Mmmrff?"

"Just between you and me, Sunset, I... know how you feel."

"How so?"

"With the whole... The making-people-do-what-you-want thing."

"Wait, what?"

"Mhmm... And you were there. At the Battle of the Bands. I didn't have any weird magic, but everyone... well, our friends believed in me so much that they couldn't even recognize when I failed. They couldn't help me... they didn't know. I was alone, and their blind trust only made things worse... both for me, and everyone else."

"Twilight..."

"Yep. I've never heard of magic like yours before, but having nobody to stand up to you... or even recognize that you aren't perfect isn't unique. I've been there. I know what it's like... You're not alone."

"T-Thanks, Twi."

"Mmmhm. And don't forget... even though you went along with it for a while, you were also the one to fix it. As much power as everyone gave me, I was powerless and trapped, and you were the first to notice. I'm just... I'm just glad to be able to return the favor."

"Hmmm... I'm not alone..."

"And I'm not either..."