Who Are You?
Who Are You?
Sunset stared. Another Sunset? The other Sunset? Another Sunset who was quite unfazed to see a doppelganger of herself standing before her? Another Sunset who talked so glibly of Equestria?
What in Celestia’s name is going on here?
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sunset declared with a face that gave nothing away.
The Other Sunset smirked. “Oh, come on, don’t be like that. We have the same face, for crying out loud.”
“That is quite a coincidence,” Sunset admitted.
“What do you think that you’re going to get by playing the fool like this?” Other Sunset asked. “Do you think I’ll forget what I know? Do you imagine that this is some wavering conviction from which I can be disabused by stonewalling denial? We share a face, we share a name, I know exactly what’s going on here, and I know exactly where you come from, so why don’t you drop the act so we can talk: me to me. Or you to you, if you prefer.”
Sunset took a step backwards and began to gather magic in her right hand. A green glow surrounded it as she thrust her left hand into her pocket and began to fumble for her rings.
Other Sunset’s eyes flickered to Sunset’s glowing hand. “So… that’s it? That’s what Equestrian magic looks like from one born with it?”
You might find out what it feels like in just a second, Sunset thought. “What does the name Equestria mean to you?”
“Not a lot, I admit, until someone – somepony, I should say – arrived from there not too long ago,” Other Sunset said casually. “I was part of the Ranger patrol that brought them in. It was the strangest thing: they had the face – the exact same face – of someone that I had known for over a year, someone I had taken orders from, someone I trusted and respected; this stranger had their face, but they were a faunus, while the face they wore belonged to a human. She claimed the same name, this stranger, at the same time as claiming that she didn’t know where she was or why she was wearing a form so familiar to us but which seemed so bizarre to her. She told a story about a magical land… and when we investigated the woods out of which she had emerged, we found… a cave from which a golden glow emerged… a glow through which we threw a rock only for it to disappear into nothing. Naturally, we took her story a lot more seriously after that.”
“Who is she?” Sunset asked.
Other Sunset smirked. “Ah, so you admit it?”
Do I look that delectably punchable when I’m smirking? Sunset wondered. “Is there much to be gained from outright denial?”
The smirk remained in place. It was very irritating, not least for the way it held up a mirror to Sunset herself. “Nothing at all,” Other Sunset declared.
“Then as you asked, I shan’t bother denying it,” Sunset said. “I am you, you are me, but I am from Equestria, while you… had the misfortune to be born here.” Sunset paused. “So, who is she?”
“Do you think you’ll know her?” Other Sunset asked.
I want to be able to tell Twilight who she is, in case somebody’s looking for her. Also so she can make sure nobody else accidentally falls through that portal. “Is there some particular reason you don’t want to tell me?”
“Perhaps I don’t trust myself?” Other Sunset suggested. “Or perhaps I know that the Queen wouldn’t like me to go around giving away secrets like that to just anyone, even if they are me, in a manner of speaking.”
“The Sun Queen,” Sunset murmured.
“You’ve heard of her?” Other Sunset said. She chuckled. “Of course you have. What has Prince Rutherford told you?”
“He has nothing but praise for her energy and ambition.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re a very good liar?” Other Sunset asked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sunset said softly.
“And loyal to your host, too,” Other Sunset said in an equally soft tone. Her green eyes narrowed. “You didn’t stumble out of a portal yesterday, did you? How long?”
Sunset hesitated. “Six years.”
Other Sunset whistled. “You never wanted to go home?”
Sunset shrugged. “The portal I travelled through didn’t stay open,” she said, which was not entirely untrue. “It was one use only.”
“And you never searched for another?”
“This place became home,” Sunset replied.
“I see,” Other Sunset said. “Well, I wouldn’t recommend trying to use the portal we found. Something – magic, I suppose – is seeping through it. It’s doing weird things to the area around. I thought the trees were going to attack our patrol on the way out.”
That means nobody stumbling the other way, thankfully. Assuming I can trust a word coming out of your mouth, Sunset thought. “Like I said, this place became home.”
“Not this place, exactly,” Other Sunset pointed out.
“No,” Sunset conceded. “Not exactly.”
Silence descended over the pair of them.
“Are you going to give me a little more to work with?” Other Sunset asked.
Now it was Sunset’s turn to smirk. “Perhaps I don’t trust myself.”
Other Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’m looking in a mirror, and I’m not sure I like it.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Sunset said, unsympathetically.
Other Sunset’s eyebrow rose curiously. “I know we’ve never met before-”
“And yet, I am continually confronted with mirrors of myself,” Sunset explained. “It happens so much more often than you’d think.”
“That sounds unbearable.”
“It’s a constant encouragement to keep doing better,” Sunset said. “Or trying to.”
“How saccharine,” Other Sunset remarked. “Where have you come across all these foils?”
“What have you done with your guest from Equestria whose name you won’t supply to me?” Sunset asked.
“You haven’t considered that she might not want you to have her name,” Other Sunset said. “You have no claim on her.”
“I’m her countryman,” Sunset said.
“Are you, after six years remove?”
Sunset snorted. “Fine. Keep her name to yourself; what did you do with her?”
“She is the Queen’s guest and treated with dignity,” Other Sunset replied. “Few people know of… where she truly comes from, but she is not harmed. The Queen and her closest do what they can to help her adjust to a stay in this new world.”
“She’s in Freeport?”
“Where else?”
“I’d like to meet her,” Sunset said.
“Homesick?” Other Sunset asked.
“I want to make sure that she’s alright.”
“I have no power to guarantee it,” Other Sunset admitted. “I am, after all, only a Ranger under the command of Sunsprite Rose. But… I see no reason why the Sun Queen should not be amenable to you… provided that you prove yourself to be amenable in turn.”
Sunset exhaled through her nostrils. “Vale,” she huffed. “We travel eastward from out of Vale.”
“Why?”
“We seek a ship to carry us east to Anima.”
“Why?”
Sunset put one hand upon her hip. “We hope to visit some old friends in Mistral.”
“'Old friends,'” Other Sunset repeated flatly. “Hmm. Is there any reason you couldn’t get a ship or air ship in Vale?”
“How long have you been out here in the wilds?” Sunset asked. “A lot has changed in Vale recently.”
“Has it so?” Other Sunset murmured. “Such as?”
“How long have you been out here?" Sunset repeated.
“Long enough,” Other Sunset replied. “A few years, perhaps a little longer.”
From Atlas, perchance? “There must be a fascinating story to how you ended up here,” Sunset suggested.
“Ancient history now,” Other Sunset deflected. “I prefer more recent stories.”
“Vale was attacked by the grimm,” Sunset informed her. “In great numbers. The city was protected by Atlesian and Mistralian troops, as well as by the young huntsmen and huntresses, but Beacon Tower was destroyed and… and Professor Ozpin among the casualties.”
Other Sunset became very still, and very quiet. “Ozpin… is dead?” she asked.
Sunset nodded her head, very slightly. “Yes.”
“So mighty a man was he, and only grimm to withstand him?” Other Sunset demanded.
“He fought alone,” Sunset replied, venturing a trace of truth. He fought alone because I was not beside him. Because he sent me away, though he surely knew the battle would return to Beacon and to him. “Where even the mightiest may be overwhelmed by the power of the horde.”
“You bring tidings blacker than a storm-crow,” Other Sunset muttered. “You say the tower fell and the CCT with it?”
“Yes,” Sunset replied. “It has made travel out of Vale… more difficult.”
“So you came east, hoping to find a ship on the coast?”
“Right.”
“To visit your friends?”
“Indeed,” Sunset answered.
“Hmm,” Other Sunset repeated. “This news of Vale’s weakness will please the Sun Queen, although…”
“It does not please you?” Sunset asked.
“I am but a Ranger, for all that I am fortunate to enjoy the confidence of Captain Rose,” Other Sunset declared. “What pleases the Queen pleases me best.”
“You are more than just a Ranger if you can guess her mind upon my news,” Sunset answered. “Why should Vale’s weakening please her?”
“Is it not obvious?” Other Sunset demanded. “The Sun Queen builds a kingdom here amidst the wilds. It is a sight that might not please the eyes of Vale, a new realm emerging upon their border where once a treacherous no man’s land lay fallow. But the eyes of Beacon Tower are blind, and Vale is wounded. There is nothing to trouble us in the west.”
“Keen strategic insight from a mere Ranger.”
“I like to think that I could be more,” Other Sunset said easily. “One day.”
“Hmm,” Sunset murmured. “So… what happens now?”
The Other Sunset threw up her hood and once more raised her mask to cover her face. “I‘d appreciate it if you kept me to yourself; I’ll speak to Captain Rose and ask that she not mention my name, since it’s a little too late to keep silent about yours.”
“You’re not known amongst these people?”
“Why would they know me in particular?” Other Sunset asked. “I’m just a Ranger, one amongst many.” Her face was now concealed beneath her mask, but Sunset could sense the smile. “I look forward,” she declared, “to getting to know me better.”
Ruby stared at the other woman, the one who had named herself Sunsprite Rose. The girl in the yellow cloak who called herself her cousin.
My cousin.
I have a cousin.
My mother had a sister.
What does that even mean?
It meant… well, it meant that she had a cousin, obviously. A cousin she’d never known about before, the daughter of an aunt she’d never known about before, a whole part of her family she’d never known about before.
Her family. The Rose family. The Xiao Long-Rose family that had just gotten a little bit bigger.
And she has silver eyes. A silver eye.
Not that that made any difference – it didn’t make them any more or less family than they had been before – but… it was pretty cool.
Sunsprite dismounted, handing the reins of her horse off to one of her Rangers. In doing so, the mount – a bay horse, covered in a crude armoured carapace like most of the Rangers’ horses – turned to the side, exposing the gun thrust into the saddle holster.
Ruby’s eyes got even wider, if that were possible. “Is that a Mantle Assault Rifle ’37 from the Great War?”
Sunsprite paused, looking a little confused as to whether Ruby was being serious or not, but after a moment’s hesitation, she reached for the holstered weapon and produced the antique firearm. The world’s earliest example of a selective fire assault rifle, the AR-37 was a squat weapon, short in length, manufactured entirely out of black metal, save for the modest stock of dark wood, with a slender barrel and a banana shaped magazine. “It is,” Sunsprite declared.
Ruby’s mouth formed an O. “How did you get something like this? These are supposed to be really rare.”
“In the Kingdoms, maybe,” Sunsprite said. “Old guns are a lot more common in this part of the world; there are still many relics from the war.”
Ruby looked past Sunsprite and saw that many of the weapons with which the Rangers were armed were old-fashioned short-magazine rifles, either bolt-action or semi-automatic. None of them, that she could see, had an assault rifle. “This still looks pretty rare.”
Sunsprite grinned. “We were fortunate enough to stumble upon a large cache of Great War weapons preserved in an old abandoned bunker, forgotten by the armies. Assault rifles, machine guns, pistols. The Sun Queen let me take my pick. I…” she scratched her chin with a trace of embarrassment. “I’m kind of a weapons nerd.”
“Really?” Ruby gasped. “Me too! I guess we really are family!”
“I’m not sure that’s quite how it works,” Sunsprite murmured.
“Have you ever disassembled any of your weapons?” Ruby asked.
Sunsprite nodded. “I’ve taken all of them apart to make sure they work and that I know how they work.”
“And then you put them back together again?”
“Obviously.”
“Didn’t you feel like the parts, like the weapon was… like it was talking to you?” Ruby said. “Talking in a language that only you could understand?”
Sunsprite said nothing as she leapt over the wagon that separated her from Ruby. “I learnt how to maintain weapons from my mother and my grandfather,” she said. “Did your mother teach you?”
“N-no,” Ruby admitted. “My mom… she died when I was really young. I don’t… the weapon thing… it’s just something that I’ve always been good at. I’ve always known what to do around weapons, even when I didn’t really know… anything else.”
“Huh,” Sunsprite murmured. “Who knows? Perhaps it is in our Rose blood, as strange as that sounds.” She held out the old assault rifle.
Ruby blinked, and looked at her cousin. “Really?”
“I’m not giving it to you,” Sunsprite clarified, “but if you know so much about it, don’t you want to know how it feels?”
Ruby did want to know how it felt. Mantle weapons were pretty cool for how advanced they were compared to the weapons being used by other countries in the Great War. In fact, it was kind of a surprise they lost the war with so much technology on their side.
Gingerly, Ruby reached out and lifted the weapon gently out of Sunsprite’s hands. She didn’t know if it was loaded, but she kept her finger well off the trigger and the barrel pointed towards the ground even as she pressed the stock tightly into her shoulder and looked down the iron sights. “It’s a little smaller than I thought it would be,” she admitted. “Or perhaps it’s just smaller than I’m used to. Does she have a name?”
Sunsprite blinked her one visible eye. “Why would it have a name?”
“It?” Ruby repeated. “You can’t call her ‘it’; you’ll hurt her feelings!”
“It’s a gun, not my daughter,” Sunsprite said, holding out her hand.
“Yeah, but…” Ruby handed the weapon back. “You put your life in her hands; doesn’t that make her special?”
Sunsprite’s eye narrowed. “Are all dwellers in the kingdoms so sentimental about their weapons?”
“Not just in kingdom,” Prince Rutherford declared. “Rutherford’s axe named Serpent Slayer, after great-grandfather kill king taijitsu with it.”
“Such is the way of the past,” Sunsprite declared. “I am amazed that you hold to it in Vale.”
“In Vale, everyone names their weapons,” Ruby explained, a little disappointed by her cousin’s hard-nosed attitude. “Like this.” She produced Crescent Rose and turned away from Sunsprite so that she had room to unfurl her enormous weapon in all her glory. “Meet Crescent Rose.”
Sunsprite’s eye was so wide it seemed ready to pop out of her socket. “What… is that a scythe?”
“And a sniper rifle,” Ruby said proudly. “Do you like it? I made it myself!”
Sunsprite continued to stare. “You… you were not lying about a talent with weapons. We… there is not the skill in Freeport to create such a thing… yet! The Sun Queen will raise us up so there is such skill, and then… when we can make such weapons, then they may be worthy to be given names.”
Ruby folded Crescent Rose back into its more compact and portable configuration. “It’s not about how complicated they are, it’s about… it’s about what they mean to you. What does that gun mean to you?”
Sunsprite glanced down at the weapon in her hands. “It means nothing to me; it’s a gun. It is a fine gun, but it’s still just a gun.”
“That’s just sad.”
“That is the way things are here,” Sunsprite declared. “This is a hard land, and we must be hard people to dwell in it. We have no time for sentimental nonsense.”
“The Frost Mountain clan seem to disagree,” Ruby pointed out.
“They are a clan; what do you expect?” Sunsprite muttered.
“What Sunsprite say?” Prince Rutherford demanded.
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all,” Sunsprite said. She fell silent for a moment, looking down at Ruby. “So…”
“Yeah, so…” Ruby said awkwardly. She had hoped that they had broken the ice by bonding over weapons, but now that that subject was done… there were things that she wanted to ask, so many things that she wanted to know… but she wasn’t sure how to ask them.
“You’re… small,” Sunsprite observed.
“I guess,” Ruby said dispiritedly. “You’re… not.”
Sunsprite snorted. “How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Sixteen, and you made that?” Sunsprite demanded. “How long ago?”
“When I was fourteen,” Ruby said. “That’s the age when all the students at Signal Combat School make their own weapons.”
“And yet I bet they were not all as… well-made as yours.”
“I…” Ruby grinned slightly. “I guess not.”
“So,” Sunsprite said. “What brings a girl of sixteen years away from the safety of the Kingdom of Vale out into our eastern wilds?”
“I’m sixteen; I’m not some kid,” Ruby protested. “I’m a huntress… or at least… I was training to be.”
“Did you see sense?”
“‘See sense’?” Ruby repeated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that your mother went away to Beacon Academy,” Sunsprite said, a touch of harshness in her voice. “That tower drew her far away, over the mountains, and beyond the rivers. For a long time, my mother and my grandfather – our grandfather – looked for her return, but… she came homeward not. The tower drew her away… to her death, it seems. You are come… not homeward, for you did not think to find me here.”
“No,” Ruby admitted. “I didn’t know… my mom… she wasn’t…”
“She did not live long enough to tell you of her family or where she came from?”
“No,” Ruby agreed. “Although… I’m not sure if she would have. I don’t think she told Dad. He never mentioned that Mom had a sister. I have her diary, and so I knew that she came from outside the kingdom, but she never talked about where. So… my mom grew up here? On this side of the mountains? In Freeport?”
“Freeport is a creation of the Sun Queen,” Sunsprite corrected her. “It did not exist in my mother’s time or yours. Our family dwelt then in a place called New Lancaster, a little hamlet of small account. I took my grandfather to Freeport where he would be safe when I joined the Sun Queen’s Rangers.”
“And your mom?” Ruby asked.
Sunsprite was silent for a moment. “My mother met the same fate as your own, and in a like manner, no doubt.”
“Oh,” Ruby said softly. “I’m sorry.”
Sunsprite glanced away. “We must all be willing to give our lives, must we not? We who venture out to fight for others?”
“Yes,” Ruby agreed. “But all the same… I’m still sorry. Knowing that someone you love died for a worthy cause… it doesn’t make losing them any easier.”
Sunsprite looked down at her. “Who else have you lost?”
Ruby glanced down at the ground. “My sister,” she said. “She died last year, at the Battle of Vale.”
Sunsprite knelt down before her, her yellow cloak pooling in the dirt around her legs, and reached out to place a strong, firm hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “You are right, of course. The cause, however worthy, does not make the loss any easier to bear.”
“Does… is our grandfather-?”
“He still lives, though he is old and sickly now,” Sunsprite told her. She smiled. “He will be delighted to meet his other granddaughter… though it will grieve him to learn that his daughter is dead, and that he had another granddaughter whom he will never meet.”
She clearly thought that Yang was also Summer’s daughter, and Ruby was in no mood to dissuade her from that opinion. Summer Rose had been Yang’s mom, in every way that mattered, and what was the point of splitting hairs at a time like this? “I’d like to meet him too,” Ruby said. “Hey, do you want to meet my Dad?”
“Do I want to meet the man who took my aunt away?” Sunsprite muttered. She sighed. “Yes. Why not?” She stood up. “But even more, I would like to know what brings you here, you and your companions.”
“We… we’re trying to get to Anima,” Ruby said, as she led the way through the camp of the Frost Mountain clan. “A… a friend of ours is waiting for us there.”
“There are no boats in Vale to carry you across the sea?”
“We… were hoping to move secretly,” Ruby replied. “We were hoping to find a boat in Freeport.”
“That will depend.”
Ruby frowned. “Depend on what?”
“On what the Sun Queen thinks of your errand, and of you.”
“Does the Queen control all the boats?”
“The Sun Queen is the mistress of Freeport, its architect, the arbiter of all peace in this land,” Sunsprite declared. “No boat will sail for Anima without her leave.”
“Why not?” Ruby asked. “I mean, why would she stop us from sailing across the sea?”
"Because they are the Queen's boats," Sunsprite said. "Crewed by the Queen's subjects."
"She owns all of them?" Ruby asked. "There are no fishing boats, or… or trading ships, or anything like that?"
"And why should a fishing boat not belong to the Sun Queen?" Sunsprite asked. "When she is queen of Freeport and all the lands around, why, then, should not all the treasures of Freeport and the land not belong to the queen, to dispose of as she will? Even this gun," she added, "belonged to the Sun Queen until she, in her benevolence, bestowed it on me."
"That… doesn't sound like a great thing," Ruby admitted.
Sunsprite stopped. "Why not?" she asked.
"Because you can't just say that you own everything," Ruby declared.
"Is that not how it is in every kingdom?"
"No! Why does everyone around here seem to think that?" Ruby demanded. "People don't just get to go around taking stuff! It's the opposite; we call those people criminals, and we lock them away!"
"We do that here, as well."
"Unless you're the queen," Ruby pointed out.
Sunsprite was silent for a moment. "You have spent some time with the Frost Mountain clan, and no doubt, they have filled your head with a great deal of talk of freedom and such like. But the freedom that my mother – and yours – grew up in was the freedom to die. The freedom to be preyed upon by grimm and tribes alike. Do you know what some of these nomadic tribes were capable of?"
Ruby nodded slightly. "One of our… someone travelling with us used to belong to the Fall Forest clan, before they left. She said that… that they used to sacrifice people."
Sunsprite nodded grimly. "And so they did, and worse besides. The Fall Forest clan were amongst the worst, but the others were not so much better. Even your friends of the Frost Mountain clan, though they present a friendly face, are not beyond being roused to savagery. These lands have had no law since the wars in our great-great-grandfather's time. Since then, they have belonged to the grimm and to the tribes, and all others must skulk about and hope to escape the fury of those latter two." Sunsprite paused. "You have the eyes. Do you know what is said of them?"
"That we have cool magic eye powers?" Ruby suggested.
Sunsprite snorted. "So I am told, though they have never… I have never been able to… in any case, what is also said – what has been said since long before there were kingdoms of men – is that we who have these eyes are destined to lead the life of a warrior. Perhaps… perhaps that is why we both respond so readily to weapons? Perhaps that is why they speak to us? It is not our Rose blood but our silver eyes that call to us."
"I… I guess," Ruby murmured. "But what does this have to do with-?"
"There are too few of us," Sunsprite explained. "Too few to fight the grimm, too few to protect every farm and town and hall. We are the last of our line, you and I. Grandfather had two daughters, but my mother had only one daughter, and your sister is dead. I have not met another with our eyes in all my years. We may be the last in all the world. Trust cannot be put in natural born warriors to defend the light and ward off darkness. But the Sun Queen… she is building a better world for all who dwell east of the mountains. She has imposed the Queen's Peace upon the clans, she sends out her Rangers to defend the people and enforce her laws, she is making a nation that can defend itself from all perils. Is that not a thing worth fighting for? Is that not a thing worth dying for?" Sunsprite reached up and lifted up her eyepatch; the eye that should have been beneath it was gone, and in its place, a mass of ugly scar tissue. "A beowolf took my eye, fighting before a steading west of Falkreath. I had fought too long, and my aura broke. The beast would have killed me, but I was saved by one of my Rangers." She paused. "But in that steading were children, and men and women alike helpless before the fury of the grimm. And thanks to our efforts, they did not come to harm. I would have given my life for less."
Ruby nodded, a smile crossing her face. "You know, it's funny… so many of my friends, even the people who care about me… they act like I'm weird for feeling just the way that you do… maybe it's another silver eye thing, maybe that's why they don't get it?"
"Or perhaps they are simply unsuited for the life of a warrior," Sunsprite suggested. "These friends of yours, are they whom you seek across the water?"
"I…" Ruby hesitated, unsure of what to say. She didn't really want to lie to her cousin, but at the same time, she wasn't sure that she ought to tell her the truth either. "My Dad isn't far away, come on."
Sunsprite replaced the patch over her eye and said nothing about Ruby's obvious evasion as she followed her smaller, younger cousin through the camp of the Frost Mountain clan. It was, indeed, not long before they found Taiyang, sitting on the ground, reading a slender book. Zwei sat by his side, but as Ruby approached, he barked eagerly, causing Taiyang to look up.
"Ruby," he said. "And who is…" he stopped. "Your… eye…"
"Dad," Ruby said. "This is my cousin, Sunsprite Rose. Sunsprite, this is my Dad, and Zwei."
Zwei barked.
Taiyang climbed to his feet. "'Cousin'?"
"My mother was Tudor Rose, sister of Summer Rose," Sunsprite said. She frowned. "Aunt Summer never told you that she had a sister?"
"No," Taiyang murmured. "Summer… didn't talk much about her family. None of my teammates did when I was a kid, so I just accepted it, and then later… I figured there was a good reason, and, so I left it alone."
"I understand that… she and our grandfather fought, about her crossing the mountains," Sunsprite admitted. "For his part, Grandfather regretted it after, but… perhaps she felt there would be no welcome here for her."
"Maybe," Taiyang replied quietly. "That… would explain it, I suppose." He held out one hand. "Taiyang Xiao Long, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Sunsprite said, clasping his hand firmly. "I am sorry to hear that you have lost both wife and daughter."
Taiyang nodded. "They both died bravely, I'm sure. I… I try to take what comfort I can from that."
"Of course," Sunsprite said softly. She paused. "I… I never knew her, but I heard my mother talk of her sister, and my grandfather still mentions her. I would… know of her, if you can bear to speak."
"There's a lot that I'd like to know about my family too," Ruby said.
Sunsprite glanced down at her. "I will tell you what I can, and when you meet our grandfather in Freeport, then he will be able to tell you more."
"Nice to see you're all getting along so well."
Ruby looked around. Sunset stood just a little way off, accompanied by the Ranger in Kendal green who had asked to speak with her. At first she thought that it was Sunset who had spoken, but Sunset's mouth wasn't moving, even though it sounded just like her. The Ranger, her own face concealed beneath her mask, must have a very similar voice.
"Forgive the interruption," she continued. "My name is Vesper Radiance, and I was hoping that I might have a word with you, Captain?"
"Of course," Sunsprite said. "Excuse me." She left Ruby and Taiyang and crossed the distance separating her from Vesper and Sunset. Sunset, for her part, headed the other way, towards Ruby.
"How are you doing?" Sunset asked softly, as Sunsprite and Vesper engaged in hushed conversation of their own.
"Okay," Ruby said. "I like her."
"How much have you told her?" Sunset asked.
"Not much," Ruby said. "I wasn't sure how much to tell. Just that we want a boat to carry us east."
"That's about all I've said too; let's keep it that way."
"What's going on?" Taiyang asked.
Sunset's eyes flickered towards him. "Not right now," she said.
Sunsprite turned back towards them. "My Rangers will escort you and the Frost Mountain Clan to Freeport tomorrow. Tonight, I will try and persuade the old man to open up his gates and his wine cellar to us. He might be more amenable to a Queen's Ranger than to a clan chief." She looked at Ruby. "We will talk of our family, of your mother and mine and all else I can remember, but later. Right now, I must give the orders to my followers and set up camp."
"Sure," Ruby said. "Until later then."
"I look forward to it," Sunsprite said solemnly, before she turned and walked away back towards the edge of the camp. Vesper hesitated for a moment before following after her.
"Sunset," Ruby murmured, as they left. "What's up?"
Sunset didn't answer. She looked around the camp until she caught sight of Cinder. "Cinder!" Sunset hissed, gesturing with one hand.
Cinder, who was holding what looked like a scarf in one hand, jogged over to them. "The word in the camp is that the leader of these Rangers is your cousin, Ruby," she said. "How does that feel?"
"Weird. Great. A little scary," Ruby said. "It feels like a lot of things, and I'm not sure what it feels most like. They're just… all mixed up together, you know?"
"If I found out I had a whole new branch of my family I'd never known about before, I'm sure I'd feel the same way," Cinder murmured. "Sunset, is something amiss?"
Sunset glanced at Taiyang. "Mister Xiao Long, will you excuse us for a moment?"
Taiyang folded his arm. "Why?"
"Because I am about to touch on certain matters personal to me," Sunset said sharply, "and I don't mean to share them with just anyone."
"I'm Ruby's father."
"But not mine," Sunset replied. "I don't owe you all my secrets."
"If there is something going on, then I'm not going to let you keep me in the dark," Taiyang replied. "In fact, I think we should all-"
"No," Sunset snapped. "No way. I am not telling Sami or Torchwick or Jack about this."
"Sunset," Ruby whispered. "Does this have to do with…" she trailed off; there was only one secret that she could think Sunset would be this protective of at this stage, but she didn't know how to say it while still keeping it a secret.
"Yes," Sunset answered. "It is exactly that."
"I see," Ruby said softly. "Dad, it's okay."
"Ruby?"
"I'll explain the important stuff to you, but Sunset's right," Ruby insisted. "She deserves to keep this to herself if she wants to."
Taiyang hesitated, but only for a moment. "Okay, if you're sure." He bent down and scooped up Zwei in his arms. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said to Sunset, before he walked away.
"Yeah," Sunset muttered. "Me too."
Cinder's eyes narrowed. "What am I missing?"
Sunset closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "So… you know that I am from Equestria?"
"Yes," Cinder said.
"And in Equestria, there is another Twilight Sparkle, another Rainbow Dash-"
"Another Yang," Ruby added.
"Right," Sunset agreed. "Well, the opposite is true too. There is another Sunset Shimmer native to this world… and I've just met her; she's the one who called herself Vesper Radiance."
Ruby's eyes widened. "She was… she was you? I mean, she was another you? I mean another Sunset Shimmer?"
"Yes," Sunset replied. "And that's not the half of it. She wasn't in the least bit fazed to see me; she knows about Equestria and about the fact that there are duplicates there of people living here."
"How?" Cinder demanded.
"Apparently, there is another portal, besides the one I used," Sunset said. "A wilder portal, through which another pony fell, was found by the Rangers, and told them everything. So the other me says, anyway."
"But you don't believe her?" Cinder said.
"I don't trust her," Sunset said. "She is me, after all."
"But she does know about Equestria," Ruby countered. "Why would she lie about how?"
"Why wouldn't she tell me the name of this pony who fell through the gap between our worlds?" Sunset asked. "I just… am I being paranoid, or do I remember what I was like too well?"
"You're wise," Cinder assured her. "I wouldn't trust another me either. Not until they gave me cause to trust."
“Do you think she’s planning something… something bad?” Ruby asked, aware that the word sounded inadequate but unsure of a better one.
“I’m sure she’s planning something,” Sunset replied.
“What?”
"I… I don't know," Sunset admitted, as she ran both hands through her flaming hair. "I just don't know."
Stats
Page generated in 0.053 seconds
Total duration
889 users online
510,402 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh, this is a very early update. Though yeah, Sunset has met her Remnant counterpart and some part of me doesn't trust Sunsprite.
I have no trust for anyone willingly following the Sun Queen's banner. Something feels off about her, and I don't trust her one bit.
I keep reading SAPR as 'sapper' in stead of 'sapphire'
Something feels very off with this whole setup, and with everyone from Equestria becoming faunus once they cross over has me wondering about just were the Faunus originated from.
Huh, I never would have guessed that the ArmaLite Corporation expanded into an alternate world
This is Sunset Shimmer meeting her other self.
Anyway, Sunset has every reason to be cautious. Up until over a year ago, Sunset Shimmer was not a good person and there is no sign that the Remnant version has made the same kind of friends that made her a better person. Plus, if this 'Sun Queen' establishes a firm territory in these parts, she would have greater access to the second portal to Equestria , and so Princess Celestia and Twilight have to be warned. In the Spring Break Equestria Girls episode, we see that the second portal opens right next door to Ponyvile. That's dangerous for kinds of reasons, and also because the Equestrian currently 'enjoying' the Sun Queen's hospitality is likely a resident of Ponyvile. Who knows? This Sun Queen might have come from the portal herself. We must be very careful.
And the fact that 'Other Sunset' (we need another name for the sake of convenience) is calling herself Vesper Radiance as an alias is... unsettling. There's another fanfic where Vesper Radiance belonged to a dark version of Sunset.
10438946
Yes, that's where the name came from.
10438982
Oh, dear.
Anyway, I've been low-key waiting for the other portal to show up for most of the past year. I figured that Sunset and the others would have a better chance of coming across it in their travels to Mistral, or perhaps within Mistral. I remember that Sunset still feels she's not ready, or worthy, to visit her home yet and see Celestia again (and that she might be tempted to take some of Equestria's treasures to fight Salem), but this would be great for her character development. To bring comfort to a troubled soul. And she might likely bring Ruby and Cinder, just like she brought Twilight and Rainbow Dash in Spring Breakdown, who could both also find comfort for their own troubles. We really need to see Sunset fully embrace Celestia again; doing it through the journal isn't the same.
And this might be how Sunset acquires the new journal that Celestia had crafted specifically for herself and Ozpin.
10438414
10438456
10438701
10438946
Well, lets see all the inconsistencies that arise from this conversation alone, shall we?
1) R!Sunset recognizes Sunset magic and asks if that it how it looks like from someone born with it. Implying that 1) she has not seen an Equestrian do magic, making her story of an Equestrian currently with the Sun Queen suspicious (specially since she doesn't want to share the name) and 2) that she has seen someone not born with Equestrian magic do Equestrian magic, which raises a lot of really troublesome questions.
2) She apparently knows the Sun Queen directly well enough to know how would she act, and shows great interest in anything that could help or hinder the expansion of the Sun Queen domain.
3) She says that she will ask Sunsprite to keep her name a secret, since she is her superior, but them immediately introduces herself with a fake name in front of Sunsprite and she doesn't react in any way, meaning that she was already keeping this information a secret from everyone else. Also, Sunsprite seems to be a bit of a zealot highly loyal to the Sun Queen, yet the way that R!Sunset talks to her doesn't look like the way you talk with your superiors, and R!Sunset is definitely calling the shots, something hard to do with a zealot leader unless you already outrank her.
So yeah, there is definitely something going on.
10439027
To play the devils advocate, there is a two in three chance that the equestrian in question is a Pegasus or earth pony. And not a magic-casting unicorn like Sunset was.
"Vesper Radiance". Cute. Anyway, I'm curious who the pony is.
10439030
All 3 races have magic, and why would a Remnant native be able to recognize the differences? Would you say that Pegasus weather control is not magic? Earth Ponies could be harder to show, but their absurd strength, endurance and ability with plants would still be considered magic by any Remnant native.
If she had specified that it was unicorn magic, then it would be understandable, but she just talks about magic in general and EVERYTHING in Equestria has some form of magic.
As an aside, Sunset should be now the physically strongest person in the cast, Alicorn strength is absurd by itself and you are adding to it the benefits of aura.
"And I know me! I wouldn't trust old me!" -Sunset, probably.
10438699
I'm so happy I'm not the only one
10443277
That was my thought, yes.
10444811
I know, Rainbow Dash likes to stick to what’s comfortable and it’s her way of coping with a lot of things, making her feel good about herself. But it’s not the first time we've seen her boasting cause trouble like with the Mare-Do-Well episode, as a start. One of the lessons from that episode is that there are more than enough times where boasting is in poor taste, especially without the proper consideration of others. 'Helpless', indeed.
And in the previous chapter, Rainbow Dash and Ciel rolled their eyes at "Valish incompetence" allowing the White Fang to acquire so many bullhead gunships, and that Atlas security would never allow such a thing to happen. Well, I for one believe that Councilwoman Cadence would disagree after the White Fang crashed her wedding.