Restricted
After the near instantaneous flash of light, and the loss of equilibrium that lasted just a bit longer, Pipp found herself standing in near-pitch black conditions, trying to remain on her feet.
"Whoa there. Sorry, I forget that teleporting is quite disorienting for first-timers," she heard Sunset say. She saw the darkened features of the unicorn by a single beam of light coming from a small hole to their right.
"Teleporting? Where are we?" Pipp asked.
"The other side of the wall. This way, there's a lot less to patch up once we're done here. We'll be as quick as we can!" Sunset called back towards the hole.
"I'll be here!" Whirlwind replied.
Pipp saw Sunset's horn light up again, but instead of becoming bright, the mote of light traveled to the tip of her horn before expanding into a warm, wide glow that made their surroundings easily visible; a cobblestone passageway that almost immediately curved to the left and down.
"Wow, you weren't kidding," Pipp commented as they started down the passage. There were torch sconces on the walls, but they remained dark.
"Enchantments probably long gone on those, they usually light up when you get close," Sunset stated, glancing at the sconces whose torches had long since rotted away.
"You've been down here before?" Pipp asked, as they continued descending down deeper into the interior of the mountain.
"Once, with Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight. We were attempting to find the origins of an artifact that had erased my friends' memories. This was the one place that had any kind of answer."
"Sunny's gonna jump out of her horseshoes when she sees this place," Pipp replied.
They had traveled down at least a story before it curved to the left again, and there were a giant set of doors.
"Well, this is it. Time to see what's inside," Sunset said. The glow of her horn intensified again, and the doors groaned and creaked in defiance, having not been moved for who knows how long. After a bit of straining, and her magical light flickering a bit, the right door gave, the ancient metal hinges letting out a screaming creak as it opened up, and Sunset took a breath as she stepped forward.
As they stepped into the large cavern, all guises of a pony-made corridor vanished, as the cavern had minimal additional construction done to it; just two limestone balconies that ringed the room and faded into the darkness beyond Sunset's illumination.
Pipp was perhaps expecting something akin to what they had seen in the library of the Crystal Empire, but truth be told, there wasn't much here in comparison. A few undoubtedly fragile books on the shelves, but this mild-climate cave didn't provide the conservation and protection that the arctic's frigid temperatures did.
"Sunset, look at that," Pipp said, pointing to a large carved stone table in the center of the cavern, with a lone chest on top of it.
The unicorn stood and looked, and Pipp was the first one to walk around the table, and her eyes widened when she saw the other side of the chest.
"What is it?" Sunset asked.
Pipp glanced at Sunset before she placed her hooves on both sides of the chest and rotated it so the other side was facing her.
"Your cutie mark is on it," the pegasus commented as the rotation was completed, and Sunset's mouth dropped open as she stared at the oak and brass-bolted chest.
"This is the trunk from my old dorm room. What's it doing down here?" Sunset asked, stepping up to the table, getting a closer look at the chest. The brass fittings and bands had a greenish-blue appearance due to the patina that had formed over the last millennium, but it was otherwise intact. So the first question was, did the lock still work?
The lock could be opened magically or physically, but neither might be feasible. According to Sunny, when magic left Equestria, that meant absolutely everything; including enchantments, protection, and conservation spells. Those obviously weren't going to be automatically reapplied upon the return of magic, as was evident when it didn't react at all to Sunset's magic. She carefully placed her hoof on the brass plate where her cutie mark was engraved, pressed gently, and tried to turn it clockwise, and it didn't budge. She tried again, leaning her ear down to the combination mechanism, and then took a step back, her horn firing off a soft beam towards the plate.
"What's that?" Pipp asked as the front of the chest was bathed in orange light.
"Lubrication spell. I'm hoping it could help me get the cam and dial working for the lock. Otherwise I'm going to have to figure out how to dismantle the chest without damaging whatever's inside."
After several more seconds, the beam dissipated, and Sunset once again put her hoof on the plate, and it began to rotate, and the dial clicked as it turned. After about ninety degrees, Sunset changed to rotating the plate counter clockwise. Pipp remained silent as Sunset's ears twitched at the dial. She once again switched to clockwise, and after another half-turn, the lock popped open, and the unicorn let out a quiet breath, as her magic now focused on the hinges on the back, firing dual beams at them, attempting to lubricate them. Once that was done, she put her hooves on both sides of the top curved half of the chest, and slowly lifted. There was some creaking protests from the hinges, but they let the lid of the chest swing up, and Sunset lifted it up and over, and Pipp put her hooves up to keep it from dropping once it passed the vertical position, and brought it down to rest against the back of the chest, as the unicorn peered inside, horn lighting up once again.
"Anything inside?" Pipp asked.
Not saying anything, the first thing Sunset magically lifted out of the chest was a laminated letter.
My dear Sunset,
I figured lamination would help this last long enough for you to hopefully find this. Enough time has passed that it's clear to me now that something about your return went awry. I don't have the heart to convince Twilight to give up, but I know if there was any way for you to contact us, you would have certainly done so. Ever since our clandestine correspondence with your school's headmaster, we've been unable to access the portal in the mirror, and our journal messages to you have gone unanswered as well.
I won't pretend that I haven't been worried sick along with Twilight; it's too familiar to what it felt like when you left the first time. In case you ever find your way back here, I've left this in a place that I'm confident only you would remember. I can't imagine how you're feeling, or what you're going through, but I hope if you find this, that it finds you in good health. I know you were looking forward to coming home, but maybe, just like last time, you wound up where you needed to be, even if you didn't know it at the time.
I think about you often, Sunset, and I hope you're okay, wherever you ended up. All of my best wishes to you.
Your former teacher and friend forever,
Princess Celestia
Sunset sniffled as the tears ran down her cheeks, dampening her cheeks as she read the letter from Celestia. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she gently set the letter down on the stone table next to the chest, looked at what was under it, and the waterworks continued as she lifted up a framed diploma, secured in a metal and glass case.
Sunset quivered as she slowly lifted the honorary diploma out of the chest. Pipp came back around and looked at what she was holding.
"A diploma? I'm guessing congratulations are in order?" She asked, putting a hoof around the unicorn's shoulders.
"A school I essentially dropped out of, because I wasn't patient. Because I couldn't temper my ambition, because I wanted to dive headfirst into magic I absolutely was not ready for."
Pipp draped her right wing across the unicorn's back as she continued looking down at the encased certificate.
"I've barely gotten to know you, and it's clear that's not who you are anymore. And this diploma might be pretty appropriate right now. I've been to Bridlewood only once since Reunification Day, and I know Izzy's been practicing with telekinesis and illumination spells, but absolutely nowhere and nothing close to what you've demonstrated today."
The unicorn turned to smile at her new friend.
"So honestly, Sunset? Take that diploma with pride, because right now, you are probably the most powerful unicorn in Equestria."
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Oh Sunset, I just wanna jump into that room and give her a great big comforting hug as she could use one.
Oh yeah that memory Stone that was one of the most trouble artifact of all time
Awww it is so heartbreaking so it looks like sunset and pipp finally made it to the old library where Celestia Luna and Twilight and sunset when during the forgotten friendship and it looks like she discovered her old box and it contains of Princess Celestia probably her last letter to Sunset and the school diploma from the gifted unicorn and she was so overwhelmed with emotion of loss I cannot imagine how it feels coming back 1000 years and all your friends and family and the world that you used to know are gone but she's not alone at least she has new friends to back her up in this new world I wonder what's going to happen next I guess we'll find out
Edit: sigh here we go again with this did I say something wrong
Always struck me as odd how Canterlot is supposedly so well preserved compared to the rest of Equestria (which is just gone). I doubt a piece of paper would've survived anywhere else.
"So honestly, Sunset? Take that diploma with pride, because right now, you are probably the most powerful unicorn in Equestria."
I hope that line didnt cause sunset to go through some for of PTSD. Granted she did just get done with saying Sunset isnt that mare anymore
And so on to Bridlewood to become Archmage......
I rather relieve that most of the restricted tomes didn't survive. Truth to be told, this new era is not save with them around.
That is true. Now, let's hope that Sunset didn't think of it as "I'm the most powerful mage in Equestria because all the greatest mages are already gone, I didn't deserve this.".
I just Realized Sunset is this Eras version of Starswirl the bearded only better looking.
Sunset, lass, you need a hug very very badly - happy to jump through the universes to do it myself!
Once again, a great chapter and I can't wait to see how Dr Shimmer works through this. One thing, I wonder why the portal did its time jump thing
Aww... good job Pipp, making her feel better! Poor Sunny too, she knows now that they knew something happened and tried to contact her too...
Congratulations sunset, you got what you wanted, all the power you could ever ask for
I'd say most powerful magic user barr none. Nice to see they recognize her for what she is.
And that letter was a gut punch. Poor Sunset
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If I had to guess, I would say it's one of two things.
1. When magic left Equestria, the mirror lost power, but instead of closing the human side of the portal, it reconnected with the next available point in time with enough magic to operate, causing the time jump.
2. When Sunset went through the portal, the Equestria side didn't have enough power to allow her to appear, but instead of failing or spitting her back out on the human side, it held her in a sort of stasis (possibly similar to how the Pillars were held in limbo) until the Equestria side had enough power to open up again after the magic came back and some extra time for the mirror to absorb enough ambient magic.
Also, while they did say
That isn't quite true, as some things did either keep or regain their magic after the reunification, as Sunset did have to dispel the ward to get into that room (the ward still being as strong as ever, since Sunset mentioned dispelling an alicorn grade ward as an achievement, meaning at least Sunset believed it to still be at full strength), as well as the mirror being able to function (granted very briefly) enough to bring Sunset into the new Equestria. So it's likely only alicorn level magic and artifact tier magic items were strong enough to either remain barely active long enough to recharge and strengthen themselves or reactivate once magic came back. Unless the mirror is a special case because of it's connection to somewhere else that sill had magic, even if only a very small amount.
such a sweet chapter.
this story just keeps impressing me.
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Do you have an impressing limit? I don't want to push you too far, I swear. I can start sucking if it's really necessary.
I won’t say that I’m not crying, because I am. This hits me hard
And... gut punch!
Yep, that was an unfortunate time for sunset to go through.
Your not the only one questioning it.
🤔
Yep
She likely is pipp.
I wonder if any time travel spells survived the disappearance of magic and however long it's been. Hopefully Tom and Boulder survived as well.
I'm just imagining two rocks just sitting in front of a bunch of worn down scrolls guarding them with whatever constitutes as a life for a rock
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Not Doctor- that’s only a Bachelors Degree. A Doctorate is a couple of ranks up. I think it’s Associates -> Bachelors -> Masters -> Doctorate.
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To be fair, Canterlot was typically the "upper-class" section of Equestria, so they could probably afford better-quality building materials.
Man, that was a beautifully bittersweet chapter. Definitely appreciated the work that went into the dialogue and characterizations. And now, Sunset managed to find Celestia's last letter to her as well as the diploma from Celestia's school. And, yeah, certainly appreciated her recall of the last time she was in this section of the library. Definitely liked Pipp reminding Sunset that she still has friends in this time too as well as the fact that Sunset is probably presently the most powerful unicorn in Equestria. I could definitely see Sunset stepping up as a teacher in Bridlewood (even if she might be OVERqualified for that).
VERY certainly looking forward to more of this.
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As well as MUCH nicer (thanks to Twilight AND her human friends way back when).
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You said it!
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Thanks.
I actually was anticipating a letter, but I figured it would be from her brother, or maybe a forward/dedication in one of the books he published. But this is just as good.
At least Whirlwind didn't automatically freak out and think Sunset's magic vaporized the both of them (since didn't know what teleportation is).
;-;
Did you HAVE to say THAT Pipp?
Liek dis if u cri everytim!
This story is definitely the best of the others. I love seeing the Sunset artworks and her character build up throughout her story.
I definitely hope maybe officially Sunset will appear in the new MLP generation since so far her being in this future is such amazing idea.
It took a while but you've earned it Sunset.
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It is ridiculous how much adorkable Sunset art has been seeded in this fic.
A few I hadn’t seen beforehoof, even!
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Glad you approve!
God damn, that letter is a gut punch to the feels
I have an ouchie
*points to heart*
in here.
Stupid crate of perfectly preserved freshly cut onions...
Beware your dreams. They can come true.
And there you go getting me teary eyed again.
Poor Sunshim