Virga

by Dave Bryant

Epilogue • The student

“It sounds like it was just awful, Sunset.” A butter-yellow hand squeezed Sunset’s shoulder.

Sunset sighed as she rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. She still hadn’t readjusted completely to being human again, but that was passing quickly enough. “A lot of it was, Fluttershy. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares now and then for a while yet. Rose thinks I should be okay in the long run, though.”

Her closest friends, true sights for sore eyes that they were, sat with her around the pair of tables pulled together on the terra-cotta-paved back patio of Lectern’s New and Used Books under partly cloudy skies. All were affected by the long, sometimes horrifying story she just finished pouring out, subdued and solemn. Even Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash evinced little of their usual exuberance—Pinkie’s hair somehow looked less vivid and fluffy than usual, matching her sad expression.

“Are you sure?” Twilight Sparkle’s face was the picture of concern. “I mean, you went through at least two battles, and that second one—” Her shiver had nothing to do with the autumn season.

“Rose was, and she should know—but just to make sure, she set me up with an appointment for an evaluation at the same place where the Dazzlings are getting their therapy.” Sunset’s hands lowered to the table. “Cook told me not to worry about the cost. If nobody else does, he’ll pay for it out of pocket. I think he feels responsible, even though I was the one who called him about going.”

“Ya did fine,” Applejack assured her in a bracing tone. “Ah mean, Ah c’n understand why Rose and—uh, Colonel?—Galea were upset with ya after that airship bushwhack, but ’tain’t hard t’ see why you were so shook up and kept shootin’. From th’ sound ’f it, even Galea understood that, even if she hadda read ya the riot act over it.”

Sunset glanced down and nodded before looking up again. “That was the biggest lesson I learned, but it wasn’t the only one—and don’t get me wrong, not everything was bad. Some pretty amazing things happened too.” Her expression hardened a little. “Now I’ve got a question I’ve been waiting to ask you all since I got back. Why in Tartarus are you not in classes right now?”

This was greeted with much hemming and hawing, and much avoidance of eye contact. “Girls, da—” Sunset bit off the curse and clutched her hair. Plainly Rose had been a bad influence.

Twilight looked down at the tips of her forefingers, tapping against each other, and mumbled, “We decided to wait. For you.”

“Oh, for—I had a feeling it was something like that.” There was some heat in Sunset’s voice along with resignation. “Look, just because I was off playing hookie, that’s no reason for all of you to—”

“What’s done is done, Sunset,” Rarity pointed out primly. “And consider we were very worried about you—and Equestria. It would have been difficult to concentrate under those circumstances.” This was corroborated by general nods and noises of agreement.

Sunset shook her head. “Still, you shouldn’t have waited. All those scholarships and grants down the drain.”

“Not all of them,” Twilight protested. At Sunset’s trenchant look she conceded lamely, “Just most of them.”

After a moment Sunset flung up her hands in defeat. “Fine. All for one and one for all. But you know we’re going to have to dig up new financing all over again. I’m sure Cook will help, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Rather than answer in words, the friends nearest to her leaned over for another embrace, as if to assure themselves once more she really was there, healthy and whole. She closed her eyes as she returned it, and in a husky voice told them, “I’m back and I’m okay. We’ll figure it out and start classes as soon as we can, all right?” When the hugs broke up she straightened and cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’ll bet you have a zillion questions.”

To no one’s surprise, Rainbow Dash jumped right in, though her words were slow and disturbed. “That thing you told us Cook said, about adventure . . .”

Sunset quoted from memory, the words seared into her mind. “Puts a different spin on all those stories we read, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Dash looked as if she’d swallowed something vile. “I dunno if I can read any more Daring Do books without wondering what kinda stuff isn’t in ’em.”

“I said something like that when I was talking to the princesses before I came back. Celestia told me it’s part of growing up.” Sunset couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “Just what I wanted to hear. At least she was smiling when she said it.”

“But she smiles all the time, right?” Pinkie pointed out. “Even more than Principal Celestia does! I remember you and Princess Twi talking about that.”

“A lot of the time, yeah, Pinkie.” The unicorn-girl thought a moment. “Huh.”

The tone of realization in her trailing syllable caught everyone’s attention. “Well, darling?” Rarity finally prompted. “Care to give us a little more than an uncultured grunt?”

“Hm?” Sunset blinked. “Oh. Yeah. I was just thinking. You remember when I went back to Canterlot during the Memory Stone thing?”

“How could we forget?” Rarity’s grimace mixed humor and apology. “I know I can’t, especially how I treated you so badly.”

Sunset flashed her a crooked smile of forgiveness. “I was so surprised when Princess Celestia cracked a joke. But when I think about it now—she had a sense of humor all along. It’s just that, when I was younger, a lot of it must have flown over my head; as I got older, I never saw it because I was so focused on myself and what I wanted, and I was getting madder and madder at her. And by then I guess she didn’t have a lot of reason to joke around.”

“Reckon she’s right, then.” AJ put an elbow over the back of her chair and tipped up her hat with the other hand. “The growin’ up part, Ah mean. Yer seein’ things now ya ain’t noticed b’fore.” She looked around. “Anyone else?”

Rarity leaned forward. “Sunset, darling, I particularly remember your description of Cook’s reaction when Dame Galea introduced herself. It piqued my interest in itself, and it seemed an oddly specific, yet trivial, thing for you to mention.”

“And you’re fascinated by anything connected with social rank,” Sunset observed shrewdly. Her grin was a bit wicked, more like her old self, which made everyone else smile with a touch of relief.

“True,” Rarity admitted with an abashed shrug.

“Uh, let’s see.” The gears in Sunset’s head turned as she considered her explanation. “Equestria’s got a bunch of chivalric orders—you know, organizations of knights. They’re a lot more formal and organized now than they used to be in the old days, of course, and each of ’em has different rules and traditions: who can be a member and why, who’s allowed to dub in—ah, induct—a new member, ranks, and so on.”

She looked around and got nods to show her audience was following along. “Okay, so the rules for the Order of the Golden Sun are pretty simple. It’s Princess Celestia’s personal order. She’s the only pony who can dub in new members. She doesn’t have to explain the reasons for adding somepony, though she usually does. There’s no limit on the number of members, but as far as I know it’s never very big. It’s one of the ways Celestia can reward a pony for doing something special.”

To the widened eyes of her friends she added, “Yeah, now you know why Cook was so impressed. Anyway, since Princess Luna came back, she’s started something similar, the Order of the Silver Moon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someday Princess Twi creates her own, the Order of the Dawn or something like that.”

“Wait wait wait,” Dash broke in. “Aren’t you gonna tell us what Galea did to get in?”

“She wouldn’t say. She only mentioned it in the first place ’cause the rules say it has to be part of a formal introduction.” Sunset shrugged as if to leave it at that, but when Dash shook a mock-threatening fist at her, she held up both hands and grinned. “Okay, okay. I asked Celestia about it. Turns out Galea was in command of a Guard airship that got hit by a supply airship during practice. Both of them crashed, but she was able to save a lot of her crew by casting her protective spell around part of the gondola, even though she was hurt pretty badly in the collision. She got hurt worse when the spell collapsed hitting the ground—y’know, magical feedback—but it cushioned the impact for everypony else. She had to retire after that, kind of like Rose did, but the Guard gave her a promotion and Celestia knighted her.” Over the low whistles and mutters from the others, she continued, “So who’s next?”

Just then a buzz and glow emanated from the messenger bag sitting before her. She stared at it briefly before scrambling to pull a leather-bound journal out of it. She flipped through the book quickly and, upon reaching the correct page, her eyes flicked left and right, following the fountain-pen writing still tracing out in purple light. When it finished, she sat there with a stunned expression.

Even Fluttershy joined in the general clamor of anxious queries. Sunset looked up and her mouth flapped for a moment before she was able to answer, “Says here Cook figured out why you girls hadn’t started classes and told the princesses, the rat. ‘In gratitude for service past, present, and future, keeping the peace and upholding the good in two worlds, the crown is pleased to—’” She put the book down and finished in a faint voice, “Celestia is sponsoring full-ride scholarships. For all seven of us.”

Author's Note:

Her Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle lowered the fountain pen to the ancient writing desk and looked up earnestly at the far larger mare beside her. “You can be terribly mean sometimes.”
  Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia looked back with what was undeniably a smirk. “Now Twilight, what a shocking thing to say to your elder and mentor!”
  Then they both burst out laughing.

Comments

[Eroraf86]

Celestia is my kind of ruler. Congrats on finishing another well-written story.

[Dave Bryant]

9420146
Oh, it isn’t finished quite yet; Cook and Rose will get their own epilogues as well.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Just when I was going to comment about how the academic damage stung so much. That sly foal of a...

Well, it would be terribly impolitic for me to finish that sentence.

Still, wonderful to see Sunset start her road to recovery and something approaching normalcy. Of course, the others have their own post-war journies. Cook in particular may end up raked over the coals for his actions.

[Venerable Ro]

I heard it said once, that "adventure" is something horribly inconvenient happening to someone else, far, far away.

[Dave Bryant]

9420417
Cook’s formulation—“adventure is someone else having a bad time somewhere far away”—is a bit simpler, but includes all the essential elements.

[Venerable Ro]

9420441
Yes, that's the one. I've a terrible memory for quotes.

[Dave Bryant]

9420448
Well, it’s not an original sentiment—as I understand it, a number of different people have said a variety of similar things, and Cook was paraphrasing the general idea.

[Noble Cause]

Somehow, I'm not that surprised. How do you thank teenagers who set aside obligations to stand stalwart for a friend when they need the support, even if she doesn't know she has it? Setting them up more or less for life, academically, is a good start.

[Dave Bryant]

9425656
That is exactly correct! Plus it gave Celestia and Princess Twi an opportunity to tease the Mane Seven in a good-natured way.

9420193
By, say, Rose’s standards, Sunset is moderately fortunate; she hasn’t had to experience the full horrors of war, so she’s been spared the worst psychological effects. As she says, she’s dealing with some lingering aftereffects, but she’s young, tough-minded, and more experienced than a lot of people her age, so with a little counseling she should be right as rain. As for her quondam companions, well, we shall see.