Where no Sunset has been before

by FieryUnicorn42

Everything stays, but still changes

Back in the citadel, Sunset installs the crib on Dawn's room, and Nova gently put the girl inside the machine. The cover closes and a series of lights run over Dawn's body while all her injuries are listed on the crib's panel.

Scan complete. Initializing repairs. Estimated time remain: 21:00 hours.

"We have almost one day. If you don't mind, I will have some sleep, and" she looks to her watch and sees that is past 11 pm "we can talk in maybe six hours?"

"All right, girls," said Daydream "Let's allow our guest to have some rest. See you in the morning, Sunset."

---

The next morning, Sunset walks into the building cafeteria and Nova and the others are sad on a table, waiting for her.

So which one of you will tell your story first?

Daydream was the first to speak "I'll, if none of you mind."

Sunrise, Nova, and Starlight nod and she continues.

"I guess your and my story have somethings in common. I was princess Celestia's prized pupil once, but it wasn't enough for me, I thought that was my right to be a princess at her side, and when she said that I wasn't ready, that I had a lot to learn before she could think of making me a princess. I ran away, came to another world, made everyone life's miserable until one day the portal opened again and I stole Twilight's crown. She and her friends defeated me, I apologized to all school and started a new life. Sometime later, I finally meet princess Celestia to say that I was sorry and beg her to pardon, she forgive-me and tells me that she was my mother..."

"Wait a minute, you are princess Celestia's daughter?"

"I suppose in your universe, we aren't related, right?"

"No, I never meet my parents, she was more like a surrogate mother to me. But continue, I want to hear the rest of your story."

"We had a little fight, but in the end I forgave her, and we stay close for two wonderful years."

Sunset noticed sadness on Daydream's voice "Why only two years? What happened?"

"King Sombra happened. He returned with an umbrum army and declared war against Equestria. I fought along with my equestrian friends and her, but when she thought Sombra will surrender, he stuck a crystal blade in her heart, and without the crystal heart magic she quickly died. I was angry, so much angry that I absorbed an absurd amount of the Sun's energy that the ground around me melted and lightenings start to grow from my body. I'm not proud of it but I killed him, burning him until not even ashes remained. After that, aunt Luna and my sister tried to make me the next sun princess, they said that was my right as Celestia's daughter, but I said no, Equestria was not my home anymore, and I don't deserve to be a princess, not after letting my mother die."

A few tears forms on Daydream's eyes and she wipes before continue.

"I returned home, and for the next decades, I lived a happy life with Pinkie and our kids, Celestia and Igneous. I was almost forty years old when we noticed that I wasn't aging, probably because I was half alicorn and even without living in Equestria, it stills affected me and I would outlive my friends. In the March of 2091, Pinkie passed away, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Rarity, and Twilight was passed away some years before, leaving just me and AJ in the end. Was spring of 2094 and I was there when her eyes closed for the last time. In October of 2111, my son Igneous died at age of 86 years, and my daughter Celestia dies two years later, at age of 87 years. Only my grandkids remain, but I couldn't see my loved ones die again while I stay behind, unable to meet them again in the afterlife. I tried but I couldn't die, so I go back to Equestria, to live with the only person or pony that could know how I felt, my sister."

"I wrote a letter and crossed the portal one last time, but instead of the castle, the portal took me to a completely different place: was like a room with no walls, completely white, so a voice that I don't hear in more than a century talks to me, was my mother, she waited for me and give me her final gift before goes to the afterlife: I became an alicorn! After that, I and Twilight ruled Equestria together for almost seven hundred years but one day I was in the throne room with her and felt strange energy, is like was trying to separate all my being, my vision goes dark and I passed out. I don't know how much time passed, minutes, hours, days, but when I wake up there was just debris where the Canterlot castle used to stay, I fly for all Equestria searching for some clue, somepony, but found nothing, was like everything was erased but me. When I landed in Ponyville, I saw a rock gate and felt like it was calling me, so I crossed and I was on the citadel."

When she finished, Daydream's eyes are full of tears and Sunset felt really sorry for her and give her a hug, she never imagined Daydream had suffered that much.

"Is my turn, I guess." Nova take a breath and began to talk. "I was princess Celestia prized pupil, but like you and Daydream, that wasn't enough to me. One day, she takes me to a room in her personal library and showed me a mirror, and asked what I was seeing, I said 'a beautiful pony, that has not but power and potential.', I saw myself as an alicorn, be a princess was my future but then, she never talks about the mirror with me again, always saying that I wasn't ready yet."

"One night, I sneaky entered her library to learn about the mirror but she caught me and the guards were escorting me out of the castle when I take them down and run through the mirror. thirty moons later, I was back to Equestria and heard that the princess had a new pupil: Sunset Shimmer and that she and her friends were the guardians of harmony, bearer of the elements. She was in the castle for her coronation and I saw a perfect chance to my revenge. I knew the Canterlot Castle as the back of my hoof so was easy to get in Sunset's room and stole her crown, but I stomped on the tail of her dragon assistant, and the crown falls off my saddlebag. I run and jump in the mirror and Sunset came after me."

"In just two days, Sunset united all the school again and was crowned as the princess of spring ball. We fight, I stole her crown again, turned myself into a raging she-demon, almost killed her, but she and her friends awakened the magic of the elements of harmony and I was hit with a rainbow laser and could see every mistake that I make, I felt like every cell of my body was being incinerated and I passed out with the pain. When I wake up, I was on a bed in the school infirmary, I tried to move but couldn't feel my legs or arms, so I rolled out and fall hitting the ground with my face, I stayed there for some minutes crying until she and nurse Redheart come back, when I see her, I was terrified and began to craw far from her. She so stayed on her knees and slowly approached me and when I reach the wall, she embraced me and said: 'I'm so sorry, Was never my intention to hurt you, I'm sorry.' I cried for some moments more before was able to say anything and she continued hugging me. When I recomposed myself, I apologized for all that I did wrong and she forgave-me wiped my tears and looking into my eyes said: 'You can come back to Equestria with me, or you can stay here and try to make things right, whatever choice you do, I'll stay at your side, supporting you.' I..."

Before Nova could finish her story, there was a flash and she, Daydream, and Sunrise was hurled against one of the cafeteria walls and pinned there with magic.

"Where are my mother? What you did to her?"

Dawn was in the cafeteria center and they could see a greenish halo around her, and where her left hand was supposed to be was something that resembled a cannon with a bright red light pulsating.

"You have three seconds to respond."

"I'm here, Dawn, lower your hands"

She looks to her right and sees Sunset walking in her direction. The ponies fall to the ground and Dawn embraces Sunset.

"I wake inside the crib and couldn't feel you, I felt two energies similar to yours and teleported to here.

"It's ok. See? I'm alive, just a little weak, that's why you couldn't sense me."

"I'm so happy, you're alive, I don't fail." Dawn smiles and then passes out.