Equestria, My Home (New)
Equestria, My Home
“Thanks for coming,” Sunset said. She paused awkwardly, realising that with one exception, that wasn’t a particularly relevant thing to have said. “Not that most of you had much choice.” She clapped her hands together and beamed. “So thanks for coming, Blake!”
The corner of Blake’s lip twitched upwards. “It’s fine. Yang didn’t even say anything this time.”
Ruby made a wordless noise of discomfort. “Sorry that we’re stopping you fitting in with your new team,” she murmured.
Blake waved one hand. “It’s not your fault. It’s just that I… I’m in an unusual position, and Yang gets that. They all do. Just like she understands that we have an important mission tomorrow, even if she doesn’t know exactly what it is.”
“Thanks for coming anyway,” Sunset said. “I asked you here because, well, I thought it might be nice to do something like this between the team-”
Blake coughed.
“You’re an honorary member of the team; your name’s on the wall now, remember?” Sunset reminded her. “I thought that it might be nice to do something with the team rather than having dinner down in the cafeteria.” She paused. “I know that this mission we’re about to go on is… I know that some of you have… I know that it’s not the easiest mission we’ve ever been on, and I know that some of you are aware of that, but I thought it might be nice to do something fun and relaxing on the night before.”
That was why she’d popped out to Benni Havens’ and brought take-out; foil boxes littered the dorm room floor around the members – and honorary members – of the team. Rices egg and chicken fried, noodles, curries, meats in black bean and sweet and sour sauce, plus a few less Mistralian options like chips. They all lay opened and ranged in state from sampled to nearly disappeared. Soda cans, one of which was held in Sunset’s right hand, were starting to accumulate in the dorm room bin.
The members of the team sat on the floor, scattered across the room, backs resting upon their beds. Pyrrha was the one exception; she sat on the window seat, back straight and posture prim, one hand stroking Jaune’s hair while her red sash fell down to the floor from her waist.
“Is everyone enjoying themselves?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah!” Jaune cried.
“Indeed,” Pyrrha said, a warm smile on her face that illuminated her green eyes. “This was a wonderful idea, Sunset.”
Sunset bowed her head in acknowledgement. “I’m glad,” she said. “I… I really am glad. Tomorrow… tomorrow, we start on something the likes of which… well, you’ve all heard the news: this isn’t a reconnaissance any more; this is a rescue mission.”
“Right,” Blake murmured, a determined look upon her face.
“But I will tell you all the same thing that I told Rainbow Dash: we are going to rescue Rainbow and Twilight’s friends, and we are going to do it in style, and we are going to do it without loss, and why? Because we are Sapphire!” Sunset cried.
“Yes, the odds are against us, and the situation is grim. Yes, Cinder knows that we’re coming; in fact, she’s probably counting on it. Yes, we will be walking into an urban nightmare infested with grimm, but you know what? I have no doubts. None at all. Tomorrow, we go into Mountain Glenn, and however this mission ends up, all of us are going to walk out again. All of us, safe and sound and victorious. And do you know why?”
She let the question hang in the air for a moment, although the others, knowing that it was rhetorical, made no move to answer it. They simply waited, spellbound – or so Sunset fancied – hanging upon her words.
“Picture the White Fang in Mountain Glenn,” she invited them. “Picture them in their numbers; picture them with their weapons, their Atlesian equipment; picture their dust; picture them as we fought them at the docks. And then remind yourself that in all those ranks of the White Fang, there is not one of them named Pyrrha Nikos!” Sunset gestured at her, in case the team had forgotten who she was. “There is not one of them named Ruby Rose! There is not even one of them named Jaune Arc, and there is certainly not one of them named Blake Belladonna… anymore.”
Blake’s eyebrows rose, but as her ears did not droop, Sunset knew that she wasn’t really ashamed or upset. In fact, she fancied that there was a slight quirk to her lips that suggested that she was actually amused by it.
“Some of you drive me crazy, and you know who you are,” Sunset went on. “But you are bold, and boldness will be as much a shield to us as aura will, and you are skilled. We are the best team in Beacon; we have studied for this, we have trained for this, we have met the White Fang twice before, and twice before, we have sent them running!”
Her voice dropped. “We can do this. I know we can do this. And I hope you know it too. It will be hard, but it will be done.”
She took a drink, for the talking was drying her throat.
“But that is for the morrow,” she said. “Tonight, we eat, we drink, we laugh, we… well, I asked you here to tell you something. Something that I haven’t told anyone in Remnant.”
Sunset leaned against the wall, turning the words over and over in her head.
“Pyrrha asked me a little while ago, after I got out of the hospital, about whether she should… well, I asked her to write to my teacher, Princess Celestia, and tell her if I should fall in battle.”
“I thought you just got done telling us that we were all going to make it out?” Jaune asked.
“We are,” Sunset informed him. “But Pyrrha asked, and she even offered to take my weapons home and carry word in person to Princess Celestia-”
“Your teacher was a princess?!” Ruby cried.
“Yes, Ruby, I was taught by a princess,” Sunset replied. “I was taught by the wisest princess who ever ruled, far-sighted and fair, kind and generous, loving and… and possessed of nearly infinite patience.” That nearly, of course, had been where Sunset had tripped up, trespassing at last upon limits that she hadn’t even suspected were there.
“That explains a lot, actually,” Blake murmured.
“Sunset could have been a princess herself,” Jaune said. “Isn’t that right, Sunset? That’s what you said in Mistral.”
“I have decided,” Sunset said, by way of reply, “to tell you all my story. All of it, including the bits that will explain everything, because… because I love you guys, because you are my dearest friends, and if anyone deserves to know the truth about me, it’s you, and because… because it will explain why you can’t go to my home and bring word of my death to the princess in person – although thank you, Pyrrha, for the generous offer.”
Sunset bowed, flourishing one arm extravagantly out to her side, even as she held her free hand over her heart.
“But you cannot go to my home,” she went on, “for the simple reason that I… that I… I was not born into this world.”
Her friends and teammates stared at her.
“Uh… come again?” Ruby asked.
“I said exactly what you think I said,” Sunset declared, looking from one to the other until her gaze had affixed on each of them in turn. “I’m not from Atlas; I’m certainly not from Menagerie. I’m not from anywhere beyond the kingdoms. I am… I come from a land called Equestria.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Blake said.
“I’d be alarmed if you had,” Sunset replied. “In Canterlot, in the west of Solitas, there is a statue of a horse in the grounds of the combat school; the plinth… it looks like there’s a mirror on the north face. It is a mirror. A magic mirror that leads…” They’re either going to believe me or they’re going to think I’m absolutely nuts. “It leads to the magical land of Equestria. That’s where I’m from.”
“You’re… you’re from the other side of a magical portal?” Jaune asked.
“You asked me if I was a magical girl,” Sunset reminded him. She grinned. “You were more right than you knew.”
Jaune laughed nervously. “Are you being serious right now?”
“Why would I joke about something like this?” Sunset asked. “Don’t you think if I was making stuff up that I would make up something a little more plausible than the fact that I come from another world on the far side of a magical mirror?”
“I guess,” Jaune murmured. A frown besmirched his features. “Hey, isn’t that one of the things that Lyra believes according to…” He trailed off, stopping himself from saying ‘according to the info that you leaked off her scroll,’ for which Sunset was very grateful.
After all, Ruby didn’t know about that yet.
“In this particular instance, Lyra happens to be on the mark,” Sunset said. “I haven’t told her that, obviously, but… she’s right. Well, she’s right that there is a magical portal to another world; I don’t know whether somebody called Megan Williams ever went through it.”
“There are older tales of people travelling through magical portals,” Pyrrha remarked. “The Girl Who Fell Through the World, Taliesin and the Magic Mirror; could Equestria be the place they went?”
“Quite possibly, though in Equestria, we tell no tales of them,” Sunset admitted. “For whatever reason. Perhaps… we are a world more attuned with magic than you are here; it is more present – omnipresent, in fact – in our lives. It is harder for history to become legend or old mare’s tale than it is here in Remnant, because so much that would seem fantastic to you is commonplace to us. That being the case… it would not surprise me completely if Princess Celestia had decided to suppress such stories, lest others be tempted to seek out the mirror and the portal within.”
“So not everyone knows about it, then, in your world?” Jaune asked.
“No,” Sunset said at once. “It is a secret of Princess Celestia; very few know of it, and she regretted showing it to me almost as soon as she had done so.”
“Good,” Jaune said. “'Cause it would kind of suck if everyone in another world knew about us and was just laughing at how stupid we are for not having a clue about them.”
Sunset grinned. “Don’t worry, Jaune; everyone who’s laughing at you is here at Beacon. And even they’re not laughing anymore.”
She paused. In some ways, that had been the easy part, the part that was the simplest to convey and that said the least about herself. The next part… well, the next part was either to reveal that she had not been born a human but a magical unicorn in a world full of ponies, or else the reasons that had driven her from Equestria to Remnant in the first place.
She honestly wasn’t sure which one she ought to tackle first.
It was a bit of a toss-up, provided that none of them brought up the pony thing. Said pony thing would be, possibly at least, more difficult to explain, but at the same time, at least she would be able to put off explaining what a brat she used to be.
It was honestly a tough choice, which one flowed more naturally, which part would be the easiest to explain… which one she was more comfortable with.
Jaune made the decision for her. His frown deepened. “Hang on, Sunset… Lyra’s theories… I’m sure they said that the world on the other side of the portal was inhabited by horses.”
Sunset nodded. “Yes. Yes it did. Or ponies, rather.”
“So this Megan Williams didn’t go through your portal after all, then,” Jaune declared. “She can’t have.”
“No, I think it’s quite plausible,” Sunset murmured, looking away from him and speaking in a very, exceedingly, casual tone.
Blake began, “But you-”
“Assumed this form, adjusted for age, obviously, when I passed through the mirror,” Sunset explained. “Equestria… Equestria is a magical land full of magical, talking ponies… and so am I. So was I. It’s a bit complicated; I’m not entirely sure how to define myself.”
“You’re kidding!” Jaune exclaimed.
“Once again, I ask you: why would I make up something so ridiculous?” Sunset said. “Why would I gather you here, promise to tell you the truth, and then spin you such a far-fetched yarn that you couldn’t possibly believe it unless it were true?”
“That, in itself, is true,” Pyrrha murmured. “The liar intends their deceits to seem close to truth; the truth-teller cares not for how outlandish their tale may seem. Why would you try to deceive us with such an astonishing story as this one?”
“Why would I try and deceive you at all?” Sunset countered. “I had no need to tell you anything; it’s not like you were beating down the door to get the answers to my past. I’m telling you this because I want you to know the truth, the whole truth, which is-”
“That you’re a horse,” Blake said flatly.
“A pony,” Sunset corrected. “A unicorn, to be exact.”
“'Unicorn'?” Pyrrha repeated, a note of anxiety entering her voice. “As in the grimm?”
“That thing in the bestiary is not a unicorn,” Sunset declared. “And shame on you for besmirching the name so, and that goes for pegasus as well. I don’t know how it is that grimm that happen to look that way showed up, or griffons either, for that matter, unless some distant memory of contact between your world and mine is preserved in their creation – although I hope not; it would mean that we were seen as monsters and so bred monsters of our names – but they are not true unicorns. I am a unicorn. Equestria is not home to mere dumb beasts of the sort that you could call ponies, and which would be earth ponies in our lexicon, but unicorns and pegasi, living in harmony in a world of magic, while other creatures that seem mere myth or monster to you like griffons and dragons dwell beyond our borders. Although I will admit the dragons are still pretty monstrous, even in Equestria.
“So,” she said. “What do you think of that, then?”
It started as a snort out of Ruby’s nose. Then it was a snigger escaping out between her pursed lips. And then Ruby’s giggling was transformed into shrill, high-pitched laughter that echoed off the walls and ceiling as her whole body trembled. She almost doubled over with laughter.
“A unicorn!” she cried. “You’re actually… you’re a unicorn? Like, with a horn and everything?!”
Sunset stared balefully at her laughing partner, lost in an uncontrollable fit of hilarity far beyond that which the revelation warranted.
And then, quite suddenly, she was laughing too. It was like being punch drunk; she knew that it wasn’t funny, really, but somehow, she just couldn’t help but snigger as she said, “Yes. Yes, Ruby, with a horn and everything. And an amber coat and perfectly poni-pedicured hooves.”
“'Poni-pedicure?'”
Sunset was still giggling as she nodded. “Poni-pedi, for short.”
“Poni-pedi!” Ruby yelled, as though it were the funniest thing that she’d ever heard.
One by one, they all succumbed. It wasn’t hilarious. It wasn’t even particularly funny, but nevertheless, they all began to laugh, even Pyrrha, even Blake — which was positively amazing, because Sunset didn’t think she’d ever seen her genuinely laugh like this before. It was like they were all so intoxicated that they found even the stupidest things to be the height of hilarity, or they had all been so struck with tension by the arrival of Salem that even the slightest chance at a relief of that tension was like the bursting of a dam to let the floodwaters flow down upon the valley.
“And that,” Sunset declared, as the laughter died down, “is one of the many, many reasons I didn’t tell you. And exactly the reason why I told you now.” She grinned at Ruby. “Thanks.”
“For what?” Ruby asked, in what might have been calculated innocence or genuine cluelessness. It was sometimes hard to tell with Ruby.
“Magic,” Pyrrha said, her voice soft and not without a few lingering traces of the amusement that she had displayed only moments before. “So, magic is something that all can do in your world?”
“It’s complicated,” Sunset said. “Magic is… hmm, how do I explain this? Well, to start with, each of the three pony races has their own kind of magic. Unicorn magic is what I can do; it’s the most obvious, the most impressive, the best kind of magic, obviously, and when we talk of magic amongst ourselves, it is the magic of unicorns to which we refer. Pegasi can fly and have power over the weather; we are not at the mercy of natural forces; when we wish for rain to water the crops, we make it rain; when we wish for sun, we clear the clouds. Or rather, the pegasi do. They can even walk amongst said clouds and make their dwellings in the sky without fear of falling. The magic of earth ponies is vaguer, more subtle; it has to do with a connection to the land itself, it gives earth ponies a greater strength, superior endurance, and… I think it makes them good farmers too. I confess it’s the aspect that I know the least about, from lack of interest as much as anything else.”
Lack of interest amongst unicorn scholars too; there was never as much to read about earth ponies.
She had considered getting into how magic was filtered through cutie marks and how each pony’s unique talent affected what magic they were or were not capable of. That, however, would both have involved saying the word ‘cutie mark’ but also probably have led to questions about Sunset’s cutie mark, which was… rather a sore subject with her, one that she would prefer to keep to herself.
“And you say that you all live in harmony?” Blake asked sceptically.
“You say that like you find it surprising,” Sunset noted.
“I find that far more incredible than a land of magical talking horses, or ponies,” Blake admitted. “In this world, the strong prey on the weak, they exploit and oppress those who are different from them, and you mean to tell me that in your world, a world which is division is entrenched by race to an even greater extent than here in Remnant, a world where earth ponies could be argued to be a ready-made labour caste or superior by virtue of their physical prowess, no one race oppresses the others?”
“Equestria is not as Remnant is,” Sunset declared. “We are not prey to all the vices of men, nor will we suffer them while Princess Celestia wears the crown and sits upon the throne in Canterlot. She holds all things in harmony and keeps the peace across the land.”
“Then harmony is maintained by fear?” Blake asked. “By force? How can one person hold a whole nation in subjugation?”
“That’s not what I meant, and stop trying to make my home out to be as bad as yours,” Sunset said, her voice sharpening just a little. “Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies live side by side, holding none greater than the others, none more exalted and none more despised, not solely because Princess Celestia would have it so but because… because prejudice is not our way. We are… we have outgrown such arbitrary divisions, moved past them.”
“It sounds idyllic,” Blake murmured. “So why would you leave such a place to come here?”
“I didn’t know where I was going when I left,” Sunset admitted.
Blake snorted. “Why didn’t you go back as soon as you found out?”
Ah. Now they had come to the hard part. Still, there was no turning back now. She had promised them the truth, and the truth was what she would give them. However shaming it might be.
“It begins… it begins with Princess Celestia, as so much in Equestria does,” Sunset said quietly. “Princess Celestia… as I have already said, she rules over the land. She is… everything, and all-important. Our Princess of the Sun, our ruler, our… our god, you might almost say. Sun and moon arise at her command, the stars align as she would wish; heavens and earth move as she wills. She is immortal, eternal, and she… she is everything that a ruler ought to be: generous, kind, just, wise, patient. And I… I betrayed her.
"She taught me everything I know about magic. She would have taught me more if I'd had the wit and wisdom to pay attention to the lessons that she was trying to give me. Even now… when I feel lost as to the right course, I try and imagine what Celestia would consider to be the right course; when I don't just ask her myself, that is. That's who I write to in that book I have, as Pyrrha knows already; it is a magic book; it connects to Celestia and to…" Sunset decided that it would be too complicated to try and explain the doppelganger business to everyone, that there was another Twilight Sparkle in Equestria with whom Sunset was in correspondence. "And with her new protégé. The one who came after me.
"Celestia raised me. She was more than just a teacher to me; she was the mother that I didn't have. I'd like to think that I was more than just a student to her, but…" Sunset shook her head. "Anyway, the point is that she didn't just teach me, although she did that to the best of her ability. She didn't even just raise me, although she did that too, albeit without as much success as she might have liked. She was grooming me to be… in my world, in the world I came from, in Equestria, it is possible to ascend, as we call it. If you become a paragon of virtue to shine above all others, then you will ascend, become an alicorn and a princess, honoured and revered above the common run, a shining light over the world. That was the destiny that Celestia intended for me. It was the destiny that I wanted more than anything else: to be at the centre of all things, admired and honoured, feted and lauded." She ventured a slight smile. "That much hasn't changed."
Pyrrha shook her head fondly. "Indeed not."
Sunset sighed. "But it was something that I couldn't have. I was too vain, too proud, too focussed on my destiny to the exclusion of anything that I might actually need to claim my destiny: friendship, love, any actual virtues beyond ambition and a willingness to work hard. In the end, Celestia realised that she had made a mistake. It wasn't meant to be.
"I couldn't take it. I couldn't brook it. I already knew about the magic mirror; Celestia had shown it to me once, and I had seen such wonders within… it gave me a vision of myself wreathed alike in flame and glory. As Celestia ordered her guards to expel me from the palace, I thought, I convinced myself, that that vision was a sign of where my destiny lay: through the mirror, on the other side, in this world. And so I assaulted the guards, fought my way into the mirror chamber and… came here. Self-imposed exile. I'm forgiven now, given that Celestia's already asked me to come home, but for a while… and that’s why I’m here."
“That explains your attitude,” Jaune muttered.
“Yes, yes, I know,” Sunset replied. “No need to rub it in.”
Pyrrha rose to her feet. “Speaking for myself… I’m afraid in the face of so many revelations about you I can only say that… Equestria’s loss is our gain.”
Sunset smiled. “Thank you, Pyrrha. That would mean a lot from anyone here but especially from you. I… since coming to Remnant, I flatter myself that I have become so much more than the arrogant unicorn who fled Equestria. If that is so, then whatever I have become, whatever I am now, it is your doing. All of you.”
“You are not the only one who has been changed or found their life transformed by this team, and for the better,” Pyrrha murmured. “I am honoured to go into battle with you, tomorrow and in all the battles to come until… until whatever end.”
“Until whatever end,” Sunset repeated, slowly and softly.
Until whatever end. Until whatever awaited them, tomorrow and in Mountain Glenn or thereafter. There would always be a tomorrow, always a next time, always something else awaiting them. In the face of Salem, their labours would never cease; Remnant would never be safe enough for them to put down their arms and take their rest.
But so long as they were together, so long as this team stood by her side, then Sunset’s fears were soothed and balmed, and she did not tremble before tomorrow.
Or whatever end.
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Gods this was amazing
I love this chapter. A far more fitting, comfortable and secure place for Sunset to discuss her origins. More openly and only amongst her more trusted friends. But most importantly of all, it shows how far Sunset has come as a new person, a new pony, for her to reveal all of her past to the rest of SAPR of her own choosing. Rather than someone doing it for her.
I’m also hoping to see Cinder’s own reaction when she discovers that the person she felt a true, kindred connection to is actually a magical, talking pony.
Haven't read the chapter yet (I will, and probably post another comment), but when I saw the notification my mind went HOLY SHIT WE ARE FINALLY IN EQUESTRIA, I WAS WAITING TO SEE WHAT SUNNY AND CINDY WERE DOING THERE WHILE SHIT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN IN ATLAS!!!! but nope, it's the rewrite
Damn
I mean, yeah, this chapter seems to be very good (haven't read yet still) but come on! WHY WOULD YOU NAME THE CHAPTER THIS WAY DAMN IT
Humm, yet again, Sunset shows some unhealthy beliefs in immortals. This time it is Celestia. I mean, she, of all people, have to understand that despite all of her virtues, the record of at least 2 ponies close to her, whom she mishandled shows, that she is flawed, as any living being, immortal or not
Love the chapter, but still bitter because of the naming
Well, not my preferred method of hype speech, but whatever works Sunnkykins. I am a bit more interested in Blake's incredible levels of disbelief regarding Equestrian harmony. I get it, you've become jaded by life as a Faunus, which is completely understandable. However, this outward level of mistrust in such a thing existing makes me question your past with the White Fang. What were you fighting for when you were with them if not equality? What are you fighting for now that you left an organization you feel has become corrupt? That Blake believes harmony between races to be next to impossible strikes a little too close to Adam for me, although many an interesting development can come from this.
10915503
I think you're being a bit harsh, there. It's not that Blake can't imagine 'equality' in abstract, it's more than she can't imagine the complete absence of racism - and I think, to be fair, that a lot of anti-racism campaigners, however hopeful they may be, would struggle to imagine that as well - in a society which has, in some ways, far more reason to be racist than Remnant does. Ponies are literally different races, with vastly different and incompatible abilities on a far greater scale than any differences between humans and faunus. And yet they don't just rub along with begrudging acceptance, they don't seem to care about the differences.
It is, from her perspective, kind of amazing. Hell, it's so amazing that even the G5 writers can't concieve of it and have brought in the racism that Blake expected to find there in the first place.
You moved it. Interesting choice, may I ask why?
10915522
It was kind of oddly placed where it was, it works better in this context I think.
10915510
Well, I would say that it's more that Equestrian preconceptions of the other are not strong enough (or are not allowed to be strong enough) to become the aggressive racism that the Faunus see. There is definitely some classism and racism in Equestria, it's just subtle since any visible form is frowned upon by it's society. They value harmony too much to allow themselves to forcefully divide their society like that.
There is also a bit of self-loathing. If the ponies, who in paper have it much harder than us, can make a society like that, why can't we? Are we just that flawed? Not exactly a nice idea for Blake to have.
Could’ve also brought up windigoes, the evil spirits of cold powered by racism, that could only be defeated by getting along. So part of the reason the ponies get along is because they don’t have a choice.
Though that makes it sound harder than it is.
And the truth is revealed to the rest of team SAPR, honorary members included.
Now, in just the presence of these four, Sunset can speak more freely about her past experiences.
And this is why I love Pyrrha.
Yeah I think Sunset has a bit of rose tinted glasses on her when it comes to Equestria and equality. It’s better than Remnant, but definitely not as perfect as Sunset makes it out to be. She neglected that the three tribes were decided by race and it was the threat of the Windigos that caused them to get a long together. Not to mention even now ponies seem to struggle to have positive thoughts on the other races that aren’t ponies as seen with Zecora, and Neighsay. Heck, the evil trio in the final season were able to break the harmony between the 3 tribes of ponies with little difficulty even if it was fixed by the end.
Like I said bit as bad as Remnant, but it definitely isn’t as perfect as Sunset said it was.