Monday, AM: As we Lie Here

Monday, AM: As We Lie Here

The first thing Sunset realized upon regaining consciousness was that the place she was now in had an atmosphere of…stillness. For the past half-decade, it seemed, she’d gotten used to the noise of something always going, always doing, always moving: the HVAC in the house she’d been living in for the last few months or so – it felt like forever now, even if she’d spent just a fourth of the time there as she had in that shithole of a warehouse – the occasional sound of a car driving somewhere, even the easily identifiable noise from a jetliner cruising many miles overhead, there was always something making noise such that “quiet” never quite meant its full meaning anymore.

But here, quiet reigned. Sure, there was the occasional tweeting of birdsong, the rustling of leaves in the light breeze, things that silently screamed “Nature!” Those weren’t constant noises, though, as for the most part there simply was nothing - a peaceful nothing.

Sunset was unnerved and yet calmed by the sound of silence. Anybody would easily be at ease with such pure, natural surroundings, but what unnerved her was twofold. First, she felt the raw power of abundant magical ley lines in the air, a feeling she hadn’t felt at all in a year, and not in this kind of strength since she left Equestria. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the mirror had in fact been another link between the worlds of ponykind and humanity. Second, she was in some really, really old castle ruins, the likes of which she had a good guess of its identity despite never having visited before: Castle Everfree.

Of course, as Sunset started to lift herself up from the ground, she barely even registered having to compensate her sudden change of height and perspective, or her skeletal structure having forced her to return to quadrupedal stance. It was almost as if such changes in her body were becoming second nature, that if either world allowed her to assume the form not normal to them, she would have no problem going back and forth between the two. The implications did frighten her, though, as it left her questioning which world she belonged to...if she belonged to either species in either world anymore.

Then she got an even bigger shock as she turned to look at her reflection in the mirror. The fact the mirror was lined with silver instead of gold was unnoticed, the mare’s eyes too focused on what that lining held. As expected, the Equestrian side of the mirror was a reversed version of the gem placements on the human side, with Celestia and Faust’s marks on the left and the two moon crescents-in-clouds on the right. But that’s where the comforting similarities stopped and the true nature of the mirror’s origin became clear.

The innocent looking gems on the human side corresponded to outright colored crystal caricatures of the alicorns they represented, the presence of two near-identical blue alicorns seemingly at odds with the recognizable shapes of Princess Celestia (though oddly only pink haired) and Queen Faust. Sunset didn’t know who the blue alicorns were, the idea one of them might have been a Princess counterpart to Vice Principal Luna posed itself, but Shimmer quickly dashed it. Celestia had never mentioned having a sister, so it was just as possible Luna didn’t even exist as a pony, much less a princess.

But that didn’t change the fact the quartet of alicorns were all seemingly miserable, their legs and necks shockingly chained with the carved iron lengths running up along the edge of the mirror towards the top, where the most unclear shape of the gems became the clearest of the ponies on the mirror. While Sunset didn’t know who it actually was, she knew it was not Star Swirl the Bearded, leaving the question of the black unicorn’s identity a mystery. His motives, however, were quite clear as he held all the chains in his tightly gripped hooves. Even without a voice his evil laughter seemed to ring in her ears, delighting in the misery of his four captives.

What a great way to be welcomed back, thought Sunset, hoping the mirror’s fearsome true side was not indicative of how her visit back to the world of ponies would go. Turning away from the mirror, she also made a mental note to remember how to get back to it when she had to go home. If I survive, that is. No way Celestia won’t eventually learn of my return, and if she’s angry enough to incinerate every last atom of my body…well, I’d be lucky.

As it turned out, Sunset noted that the room she and the mirror were in had only one doorway leading out of it. Of course, being a thousand-year-old ruin, said doorway had long since collapsed and prevented any possible way of entering the room conventionally. But as Sunset only knew too well from her self-inflicted downfall, she tended to do things unconventionally out of habit. So, without any thought put into whether or not she was even capable of magic – the more powerful, couldn’t-do-as-a-human kind - she quickly spied what looked like a stable platform in another part of the castle and teleported there.

The instant she reappeared, Sunset clutched her head and gave an agonized groan. Was teleportation always this hard? Sure, she was out of practice, but now that she was back in her own world, Sunset figured her magic would have come a little more naturally. Her teleportation now had almost been as hard as when she had teleported to save Twily from being hit by that...

Sunset’s heart started to quicken as her mind’s eye was suddenly filled with images of her foster sister’s mangled body sprawled out on the road. Oh God, Twily. Please hold on! Sunset wasted no more time, running through the ruined castle as fast as her legs could carry her, searching desperately for a way out. She had to find whatever was hurting her sister as soon as possible. It wasn’t long before she stumbled into what had been Castle Everfree’s throne room. It looked to be in rather good condition, given the forces of nature thrown around through that hole between the two thro-

Wait. Two thrones? I know Celestia said Castle Everfree had once been the seat of power in Equestria, but why would there be another throne? Sunset couldn’t recall her former mentor ever mentioning having shared power, nor did Celestia ever say having been on a throne alongside Queen Faust. In fact, Sunset didn’t know a whole lot of anything about Castle Everfree, save that it was where Nightmare Moon was born and the first battle between her and Celestia had torn the castle asunder. Everyo-no, Everypony was familiar with that story, it was sort of the backstory to why ponies celebrated Hallowee-

Nightmare Night. Wow, I’ve been in the human world so long, I’m having trouble remembering the versions of their holidays I used to enjoy as a filly. Sunset thought. I’m wasting time, though; I gotta get going.

Sunset picked up her resolve and continued on her way. Though if this was the Cradle of Nightmares, it was yet another reminder to Sunny of the evil that resulted from power abuse. In fact, as she left the mysterious room of dual thrones, she felt the lingering signs of dark magic itself. It was tantalizing, almost literally whispering in her ears the promises of unlimited power and wealth if she was to just try and tap into it. The power to save Twily.

“N-NO!” she screamed. Having been both out of touch with that kind of raw power and befallen those false promises before, Sunset’s immediate reaction was to hurry the hell out of there. Sunset found an overlooking window space and let the overpriced cafeteria food from the museum find its way hurtling down at nine-point-eight meters-per-second squared.

Trying to get the taste of magically-induced vomit out of her mouth, Sunset cried, “I’m not that Sunset Shimmer anymore! I’m different! I won’t fall for those lies anymore!”

She briefly needed to sit on her haunches and catch her breath, a few tears trickling from her eyes. Not even an hour back and already she had felt the temptations. Unless it’s the work of whatever the fuck is hurting Twily through those nightmares. Sunset gritted her teeth in anger; if that’s what this evil wanted - to turn Sunset back to the dark side - then it was going to regret ever messing with her sister.

Sunset took a moment to get her bearings, taking advantage of the spectacular view from the rampart she’d ended up on. The sky was crystal clear, save for the birds still flying off in fear of an angry ex-princess-to-be. Sunset could see all around for miles, the sheer natural beauty making her push the darkness out of her head.

And then she saw it.

In the first year she’d been trapped in the human world, Sunset had noted just how the landscape of Equestria seemed to be taken from the fanciful illustrations in human fairy tales. Now that she finally saw Equestria again through appreciative eyes and not on industrially-printed paper, it truly was like a fairy tale in how just in the distance, beyond the edges of the Everfree, sat a small hamlet of civilization. It was almost comical in that while the majority of it looked like a piece of humanity’s Tudor-era style cottage design in housing, there was a stereotypical farm in the background complete with a big, red barn.

A cloud over the town seemed to be producing rainbow-colored waterfalls out of nothing, the cloud itself serving as the foundation for some house. Probably a well-to-do pegasus who worked for the town as mayor or something. In the middle, though, was the key landmark: a giant treehouse. Not a large, blocky structure built in the leaves of a tree, but an actual structure built from a tree. Then, on the side of the town farthest from Sunset, the peaks of what looked like tents could be seen. They reminded her of some renaissance fair that Flash Sentry had taken her to on a date some time back.

Sunset decided that the best course of action was to find Princess Twilight. Even if that’s not the town Twilight’s in, considered Sunset, then at least I can find out where to go. And with that, the unicorn merely teleported down to the ground before galloping down what seemed to be an open path through the Everfree that would take her right to the town. And Celestia help any mangy beast that tried to stop this mare on a mission.

About an hour later, Sunset emerged from the depths of the Everfree, finding herself at the sharp cut where the forest ended and civilization began, gasping for breath. She had made excellent time through the Everfree. Mental images of Twily lying on the bathroom floor in a puddle of her own blood saw to that.

Sunset looked at the various ponies milling about the streets a fair distance away. The first thing she noticed was how blissfully carefree they all looked, smiling and nodding to each other as they passed. A stark contrast to how Sunset was feeling at the moment. The maize coated mare looked down at a nearby pond and observed her reflection. The pony looking back was run ragged, lines of worry and fear etched across her face. Every instinct in Sunset’s body told her to just run into town and find the source of Twily’s nightmares as quick as possible. Her reflection told her otherwise. It wouldn’t do her foster sister any good if everypony in town thought she was a raving lunatic.

So, with some reluctance, Sunset practiced putting on a friendly smile. It took her a few tries before she finally came up with something that looked convincing. Something that didn’t look like she was crying inside. Taking in a lungful of air, Sunset strode into town, keeping up a natural smile.

But what didn’t feel natural in the least was how she was able to just trot into the town with nothing but a smile…and nothing happened. Here she was: Sunset Shimmer, an extremely powerful and dangerous unicorn, walking into what looked like a sleepy little village, and nobo-pony reacted. Back at Canterlot High, the past year had seen her become accepted as just another regular student, despite what she had done. Here, though? None of the ponies seemed to think she was any different, even though they were far more likely to recognize her for her worst crimes. Just smile and nod, Sunset. Smile and nod. Or at least that’s what she thought, until her distraction caused her to accidentally bump into another pony.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” apologized Sunset. Her heart was racing, hoping that the pony she’d just made contact with wouldn’t immediately run to alert the guard.

“Nah, no big deal,” said the pony, turning around to face Sunset. To Sunset’s total surprise, she immediately recognized who this pony was, without ever having met this pony. Well, she had met this pony before...sorta.

“P-Pinkie Pie?!” she asked, double checking just to be sure.

“Huh? How do you know my-“ asked Pinkie, confused before suddenly coming to a horrifying realization, gasping dramatically. “Oh no! You know who I am, but I don’t know who you are! But…but I know everypony here in Ponyville! Unless…unless you’re a new pony in town!”

“Uh, yes?” cringed Sunset. She did not like where this was going, especially when Pinkie’s muzzle stretched into a wide, crazed grin before the pink pony dashed off to who knew where. Sunset prayed it wasn’t to alert the authorities to her presence, but at the same time, the fact it had been Pinkie Pie – or, at least a pony extremely similar to her – somehow eased Sunset’s tensions. It wasn’t as comforting as knowing what Pinkie was actually doing, but Sunset didn’t need the stress to freak her out any more than she’d been earlier. In fact, if that had been Pinkie…

Then are the others around this place as ponies, too? She wondered, resuming her leisurely trot to the tree in the center of town. She didn’t know what the tree was in terms of being just a house or public services building, but as the centerpiece around which the town was apparently built it would serve as a start to getting her bearings. Though given Pinkie Pie was here, Sunset was positive that meant the others were here as well. Sunset wondered if that meant Princess Twilight also lived in this village. Heck, she didn’t even know which town this was outside of not being Canterlot. Maybe this was the Equestriani version of San Palomino or something?

But then she walked past the edge of one building, making the turn to head straight towards the tree, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the sign indicating the tree building’s name: Golden Oaks Public Library. As silly as it seemed for somebody like Princess Twilight to live in such a common-looking dwelling, much less the public library, the name being the same as that of the street upon which her family lived couldn’t have been mere coincidence. Only one way to find out, thought Shimmer as she boldly made for the door and knocked three times.

“Just a second!” called a voice from inside, too muffled for Sunset to recognize if it was a voice she was familiar with. But then suddenly, the door swung inside the tree, revealing none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle herself. Her gentle and warm smile dissolved into shock as she recognized the pony at her doorstep, “Su-Sunset Shimmer?!”

“Princess Twilight!” exclaimed the unannounced guest, throwing herself into a bearhug on the flustered princess. Her wings flaring up in shock, they produced enough power to unbalance their owner, subsequently causing both unicorn and alicorn to topple to the ground. Sunset didn’t seem to notice, her joy overwhelming. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright, and that I found you in time!”

“It’s, uh, good to see you too, Sunset?” said the princess cautiously, gently pushing the now-clingy ex-archnemesis off of her so they could both stand up. “To be honest, I’m really, really surprised to see you, given that, well, the last time I saw you was in that other world of, uh…”

“Humans,” said Sunset. “The creatures native there, the ones we turn into with the hands and small noses? They’re called humans.”

“Ah, okay, so the ‘human’ world. Got it. But still, even if the portal was open – which it can’t be and thus your presence here is impossible – how are you here? Wait, how do you know where I live?”

“Would you believe finding you was nothing but total luck?” asked Sunset, a big smile on her face in an attempt to lighten the circumstances of how Twilight seemed to think the boundaries of space and time were torn somewhere. When Twilight’s skeptical look didn’t vanish after a few seconds, Sunset’s smile dropped instead. “Seriously, I don’t even know what town we’re in right now. After coming through the mirror, this was the first settlement I saw and-“

“Lying to me is not a good idea, Shimmer,” Twilight interrupted, her face now a mask of distrust. “We both know the mirror between worlds isn’t open, yet you keep insisting you came through it. Even then, this couldn’t have been the first settlement you came to, since the mirror is still in the Crystal Castle like last time, when you stole the Element of Magic from me and nearly ruined both this world and the human world!”

Sunset started to cower slightly, knowing this was the point where she was beginning to sink into the proverbial hot water. “P-Princess, please, I apologize - I should have been more clear! The mirror you’re thinking of isn’t the only one of its kind!”

“You’re saying that there’s another mirror?” Twilight inquired, slightly curious now but unwavering in her dominating position. “One that, somehow, nopony has ever known about yet would have to have been created from powerful magic like the one connected to that school?”

“Y-yes!” Sunset nodded furiously, “I only learned about it by total chance, myself, but it’s in a sealed off room in that old ruin in that forest! Castle Everfree!”

Twilight carefully scrutinized Sunset for a few more moments. “Okay, fine, assuming you’re being honest about there being a second mirror in the castle ruins – which you are going to lead me to later – it still doesn’t explain why you’re back in Equestria. That said, considering your history in meddling with powers far beyond your control and-“

“No! I swore to change my ways, don’t you remember? I’m only here because I want to protect you, Twily!”

“Twily?” asked Twi, confused. “Just because we’re on good terms now – at least I think we are – doesn’t give you permission to use something only my family is allowed to call me.” Still, the princess backed down, giving Sunset some breathing room. She took advantage of it, taking in a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…there’s a lot I need to explain to you. I’m on your side this time, your majesty.”

Twilight slowly nodded. “Oh-kay…I still would like to know the reason why you’re back in Equestria in the first place, beyond just ‘you’re here to protect me’.”

Sunset dared to smile a little. “Just think of this as me repaying you for saving me from myself last time, since-“ she suddenly noted something in the corner of her vision, which upon glancing over slightly stopped Sunset in the middle of her sentence.

There, standing in the doorway to what might have been a small kitchenette-and-dining room, was a perfect copy of Sunset. Well, almost a perfect copy. The pony’s mane and tail were styled the exact same as Shimmer’s, but beyond a second of a glance there were very notable differences. For starters, her colors were much more muted, a coat of mulberry matched to a mane and tail mix of cornflower-blue and lilac with eyes of a crimson rose. Her cutie mark was a baby blue gem in the shape of a heart, with radiating gems of red, purple, and yellow circled around it. But oddest of all was on her left leg, on which she wore some kind of leg brace over the middle. On the central component was an embossed line drawing of a heart – similar to the one in her cutie mark – wearing a crown with two hooves positioned as if holding the becrowned heart.

The whole time, Sunset stared wide-eyed at the new arrival. Aside from the colors, she looks just like me. But, that would mean...

“Sunset, are you okay?” asked Twilight, unsure of what was going on. Following Sunset’s gaze, she saw that the other pony in the library had been noticed. Twilight rapidly looked between the two ponies before shaking her head and laughing. “Never in a thousand years would I have guessed you two would have the exact same choice in mane styles.”

“Choice?” said the still-unidentified mare. “This isn’t really styled like, say, Rarity’s mane. I mean, I brush it so it doesn’t look like bedhead, but more or less it’s naturally like this.”

“Mine…too…” slowly agreed Sunset, wary of the meaning of another similarity.

Twilight, sensing the need to do something, figured the polite thing was the optimal choice and so introduced Sunset to the other mare. “Sunset Shimmer, this is Raspberry Beryl: Princess of the Ancien Regime of the Crystal Empire and Head of House Sombra. Razz, this is Sunset Shimmer, my predecessor as Celestia’s protégée and, uh, the only other pony to be able to use the Element of Magic besides me.”

“It’s a pleasure,” said Razz, managing a nervous smile and walking forward to join the other two ponies. When within range, she held out a hoof, which Sunset took with some trepidation.

“Likewise, your highness,” answered Sunset, though her smile was somewhat forced and her right eye may or may not have slightly twitched at the idea that a pony who looked so much like her had attained what she once felt was rightfully hers. Of course, the similarities between this Raspberry individual and Sunset herself were freakishly duplicated, like they were intentionally of the same mind in terms of personal stylings… and evidently age. “I apologize, but I’ve been out of touch with the status of the Equestrian royalty for a couple of years, as I don’t recall anything about a ‘House Sombra’ being of any standing.”

“That’s, uh, because there wasn’t one. Not until recently, since my relation to King Sombra was discovered.”

Sunset blinked a few times in confusion. “And just who the hell is this ‘King Sombra’ guy?”

Raspberry seemed shocked at the question. “You’re kidding, right? I thought everypony knew about him, at least after he tried to reconquer the Crystal Empire.”

When Sunset’s confused look remained firmly on her face, Twilight laughed. “Sunset’s been in a place very far from Equestria. Far enough that she wouldn’t know what’s happened in the last few years. ”

“Ah, alright then. Obviously, you two have some catching up to do, and since we finished lunch, I’d better head on back to the Retreat.” Without another word, Raspberry happily let herself out.

“Okay, Sparkle,” Sunset growled the second the door was closed, “what am I missing here?”

“Missing what?”

“I randomly come in here to find a pony who looks similar to me right down to the hairstyle that you happily introduce to me as a princess? You do know why I left Equestria in the first place, right?”

Twilight nodded cautiously. “Well, yes, you wanted to be a princess, but I’m guessing that’s not why you came back?”

Sunset shook her head. “Nope, not interested in being a princess anymore, but-“ Once again, before she could explain the reasons for her being back in Equestria, somebody else came to interrupt. The door to Golden Oaks swung open to reveal a pint-sized dragon, colored purple and green, with a fiery phoenix chick happily perched on his head.

“Hey, Twilight, Pee Wee and I ran into Razz on the way back so Heelee went with her and- what is she doing here?!”

Sunset was, in a word, stunned. “Wow. Er, so…you actually weren’t lying about being a dragon.”

Spike was unamused. “Yes, because dogs normally talk don’t they?”

“Hey, easy you two, let’s not destroy the library, alright?” asked Twilight, good-naturedly. “Why don’t you go up and clean your claws while I get you something to eat, then we can get back to work.”

“Alright…” warily said Spike, slowly walking towards the stairs, phoenix chick still smiling happily on his head, but the dragon didn’t take his eyes off of Sunset until he was past the halfway point on the stairs.

“He really didn’t like being turned into a dog,” Twilight explained, “so he sort of still blames you for it.”

“Oh, don’t worry, he’s still getting his revenge on me on the other side,” Sunset said with a grin.

Twilight eyed her curiously. “I get the feeling you have a lot to tell me,” Twilight glanced in the direction of the kitchen. “You hungry?”

Sunset nearly answered no. There’s no time. I have to save Twily! But then she realized that she was feeling a bit peckish. Probably because she’d deposited her lunch over the side of Castle Everfree earlier. Smile and nod.

“Sure, I can go for a bite.”

In a few minutes, Twilight had fixed a daisy and daffodil sandwich for her guest, and the two of them were sitting at the table. Twilight herself had already eaten, but she started to boil a kettle of tea for both of them. Sunset then proceeded to give Twilight the rundown of her life since the infamous Fall Formal incident, starting from when her improvised home had been demolished and she’d moved in with the human version of Twilight’s family. Of course, Sunset had intended to give Twilight a bare bones description so she could get to the heart of why she was here, but the Princess kept interrupting her to ask questions. This ultimately led to Sunset’s abridged tale becoming drawn out to at least ten minutes before she finally decided to put her hoof down.

“Listen, Twilight. I need your help. You see, the reason I’m here is-”

A high pitched whistling noise in the kitchen abruptly cut Sunset off. The unicorn mare couldn’t help but glower. It seemed like every time she tried to breach the topic of Twily’s nightmares, something stopped her.

“Oh, that’ll be the tea,” Twilight said standing up to make her way to the kitchen. As she did, three firm knocks sounded at the door. “Oh, shoot! Sunset, can you get that?”

Sunset rose to her hooves and made her way toward the front door. She figured it must be some friend of Twilight’s at the door, and couldn’t help but wonder whether she might see Pinkie Pie or any of the other ponies she’d come to know as humans. Those thoughts stopped as quickly as her heart when Sunset opened the door to a pair of large white unicorns clad in shining golden armor.

“Sunset Shimmer?” the one on the left asked as he and his partner leveled steady glares at her.

Sunset couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Outside just past the two guards was a sky chariot complete with two armored pegasi and another unicorn standing at the ready. Her heart racing, Sunset could only manage a shaky nod as her answer, and the two ponies shifted their positions slightly. Another pony might have missed it, but Sunset knew they were readying to take her down should she prove to be uncooperative.

“Come with us,” the stallion on the right said sternly.

A few moments later, Twilight Sparkle emerged from the kitchen levitating a pair of tea cups, only to find that her guest was no longer there. Furrowing her brow, Twilight set the cups down on the table and made her way to the front door. She opened it just in time to see a sky chariot full of armored ponies and a single fiery-maned unicorn take off. Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Twilight shut the door and turned around.

“SPIIIIIIIIIKE! Did you send a letter to Princess Celestia about Sunset being here?”

“Come on, Twi! Sunset’s the reason I had to suffer being a talking dog for a few days! Plus she wanted to take over Equestria! I think Celestia needs to know!”

Twilight turned slightly pale. There was no telling what was going to happen to poor Sunset now.

Monday, PM: There's a Magic I Can Hold

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Monday, PM: There’s a Magic I Can Hold

It took all of Sunset Shimmer’s resolve to keep up a calm outer appearance as she flew over the Equestrian countryside in the sky chariot, armored ponies beside her. The mountainside city of Canterlot was quickly getting bigger on the horizon. Too quickly. Although she was doing her best to imitate her captors’ rock hard exterior, inside she was screaming. I’m screwed I’m screwed I’m so screwed!

Indeed, it seemed likely that Princess Celestia would throw her in a dungeon upon her arrival at the castle. Or banish her. Perhaps some combination of the two? Of course, it was also possible that the Princess would be merciful and grant Sunset a quick death. That thought didn’t do much to reassure the young unicorn as she realized with despair that if Celestia gave Sunset her well-earned punishment, she wouldn’t be able to save Twily from her nightmares. It was then that Sunset’s strong facade cracked, and the once proud unicorn let out a whimper.

It couldn’t end like this. Not before Twily was safe from whatever haunted her. Sunset began looking around at her surroundings, desperately searching for an avenue of escape. Her captors remained unflinching as they sat around her, staring straight ahead. Sunset thought she might have recognized them, and for a moment wondered whether they were the same guards she’d knocked out before first escaping through Platinum’s mirror.

They haven’t bothered to put her in chained hobbles or attach an inhibitor ring to her horn. It would be all too easy to simply teleport herself to the ground. The guards would give chase of course, but the Everfree Forest was very close. Even Celestia’s soldiers would know better than to follow her in there. And if they did, Sunset could probably knock them out just like she had last time. When I stabbed Celestia through the heart.

That sobering thought shook all notions of escape from Sunset’s mind. Even if she could escape, what then? She couldn’t run from Celestia forever. Besides, she’d already had a run through the Everfree earlier that day, and the thought of another suddenly became very unappealing. Sunset Shimmer was tired of running.

So it was with a surprising sense of calm that Sunset was led through the halls of Castle Canterlot to her likely doom. Feelings of nostalgia welled up within her at the familiar sights of the castle. The tall, vaulted ceilings. The shining marble floor. The stained-glass windows depicting battles of old. It was only when Sunset was led into the throne room itself that the fear began to resurface. Sitting on the throne at the end of a long red carpet was Princess Celestia herself, flanked by a pair of guards. The solar diarch studied Sunset as she approached with the careful neutrality Sunset had come to know so well over her years as Celestia’s protégé. As her surrogate daughter.

“So, you have returned, Sunset Shimmer,” said Celestia, her voice showing no sign of anger, but no trace of happiness either. Her head was also raised slightly such that Sunset couldn’t get a good enough look at the eyes of her former mentor to get an idea of her true emotional state. “Have you set your sights beyond a mere artifact of magical power and instead seek other means to achieve that which you refused to earn through honest means?”

Sunset found she couldn’t talk, couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but let her legs tremble in place. But not because Celestia was suggesting she hadn’t learned a thing in the past four years, but because she seemed to be expecting it. It hurt to even have the accusation be little more than a suggestion, but Sunset knew how much she’d hurt the princess. It felt more than a little ironic to be back in the place where it all began: the halls of power that she so very much wanted - and now wanted nothing to do with, now that she had a home on Earth, a family that loved her...and a sinking guilt that she had been given what she desired just to have it taken from her now. Now she knew she had to ask for the goddess-princess - the one who could banish her to an eternity of solitude on the heavenly body of her choosing - to forgive an offense that had gone deeper than any physical wound could.

“No…I have come seeking something more valuable, Princess.”

Celestia’s eyebrow raised up slightly. “Oh? Tell me, what does this pony before me - who herself stated to desire naught but power- seek that even surpassing Faust herself cannot compare to?” As she finished speaking, she gave Sunset the courtesy to look eye-to-eye.

“Your help,” Sunset said, bowing lower than she ever had in her life. She would have said “your forgiveness,” but Sunset didn’t feel like pushing her luck just yet.

The Princess gave her former pupil a curious look, but retained her calm ire.

“Look, I don’t blame you for assuming the worst about me. Lord only knows I’ve done everything to earn your mistrust,” Sunset started, as with most things in her life not thinking about what would come next. “I know that I’ve also earned whatever retribution you wish to bring down, but please just hear me out!”

Sunset looked up at Celestia, who continued looking down at her with that unreadable expression. Sunset took her silence as a sign to continue and swallowed the bile building up in her throat.

“Someone very close to me is suffering horribly. Whatever’s hurting her is here in Equestria, and I have to stop it!” Sunset’s eyes began to water as she thought of Twily. The truck was bearing down on her. Sunset blinked the tears away and took a calming breath. It wouldn’t do to break down now.

“I ask… no, I beg you! Let me do this one thing. Afterwards…” Sunset bowed her head low, “I’ll submit myself to your judgement.”

It seemed a very long time before Sunset had the courage to look back up. Celestia was unrelenting in her gaze, but something in her features changed. It was subtle, so subtle that any other pony might not have noticed, but Sunset Shimmer had become very proficient at reading her old mentor over their years together. Princess Celestia’s expression had suddenly turned softer.

“Guards, please leave us,” Celestia ordered calmly.

“A-as you wish, your majesty,” they replied, clearly uneasy in leaving their matriarch alone with Sunset. But they were sworn to follow the orders of Celestia all the same, and so they left their posts.

“You’re different than when last we were here,” Celestia mused once they were alone. “Tell me, Sunset. Does the prospect of ascending truly hold no appeal to you?”

“Of course it doesn’t!” Sunset’s answer was immediate. “Honestly? If I could take it all back I would. Not a single day goes by that I don’t regret everything I’ve ever done to hurt you. No amount of apologies in the world can ever fix what I did, but Princess, you deserve to know that I am so, so sorry.”

Princess Celestia then stepped down from her throne and approached her disgraced pupil slowly. In an instant, she was no longer the supreme ruler of Equestria, but a mare who had lost something precious to her. One who was grasping for it in futility.

“I want to believe you, Sunset,” the Princess’ voice suddenly seemed frail and vulnerable, her features hanging low in a quite un-regal manner. Sunset touched her throat where it was clenching up. Perhaps this was Celestia’s punishment; the pain in her voice hurt Sunset more than all of the fire in the sun ever could. “I really, really want to believe you…”

The unspoken words hung heavy in the air around the two ponies, weighing them down. But I can’t. Celestia then brought herself back up to her full height, and Sunset found herself talking to the Princess again. “Nevertheless… I accept your apology. Now, if what you’ve told me is true, an innocent life is in danger. I won’t let what has come between us destroy whatever chance we have of saving it. So, for the time being… I withhold my judgement.”

Sunset let out a breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding. Yes, she would still have to face Celestia’s judgement eventually, but at least now she could go through with her quest to save Twily.

“Now, you look hungry,” Celestia said, a slight smile cautiously finding its way across her face. It wasn’t the warm, motherly smile that Sunset knew - that she yearned for - but it was still good to see. “Let us discuss the rest of this matter over some lunch.”

Sunset nodded in agreement. It would be nice to eat some good Equestrian cuisine again. As the two of them exited the throne room, the cold dread in her heart began to dissipate. In its place, a small light of hope found its way through Sunset’s mind as she thought that maybe… just maybe… Celestia could yet forgive her.

As it would turn out, Celestia had invited somepony else to have the impromptu luncheon with her and Sunset.

Somepony who Sunset had been absolutely sure didn’t exist.

“You didn’t tell your student about your own sister?!” blurted a stunned Luna.

“Well, what was I going to say, Luna?” retorted Celestia. “That I had to banish my own sister when she got possessed by her own dark side? Then to help calm the masses afterwards, I made an entire annual holiday based around the idea of you eating candy tribute instead of small foals?”

“I’d think that given what you were hoping Sunset would become, it might have been helpful to inform her about who she was actually taking on in the first place!”

"I didn't tell Twilight - the one who actually fulfilled that prophecy - so I'm not seeing your point, Luna."

Sunset nervously shrank back as far as she could from the verbally-sparring alicorn sisters, trying to enjoy her first taste of native cuisine in years. I wonder if Twilight, being a princess and all, has to deal with this she pondered.

It was quite surreal, eating in the castle’s main dining hall for the first time in years with her old mentor sitting at the head of the table just beside her. Indeed, everything seemed to be exactly as Sunset remembered. The paintings, displayed plates and other decadent decor was exactly where it had all been when she’d had her last meal here. The chef had served Sunset her old favorite: black bean and cheese enchiladas with the hottest sauce they had. Even the chef was exactly the same pony as when Sunset had lived here as a filly. It was as if Canterlot Castle itself was as ageless as the Princess who called it home. Or rather, Princesses now.

The second Princess in question saw Sunset’s state and backed down. “My apologies, Miss Shimmer. This is not the place for me to confront my sister about such a minor matter.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Sunset said meekly.

Luna leaned forward and tried to give Sunset a reassuring smile “In fact, I think that you and I are not so different.”

Of course, Celestia and Luna had gotten Sunset caught up on the events that had occurred between them. Hearing of Luna’s fall from grace as she took the form of Nightmare Moon, only to eventually be defeated and subsequently forgiven gave Sunset some hope for her own relationship with Celestia. That hope was short lived, as she then remembered that Luna had been possessed by some dark force before her rebellion against Celestia. When Sunset betrayed her, she did so entirely of her own volition.

Chancing a glance at her former mentor, Sunset thought she saw her do the same. What was more, Sunset thought she saw a flicker of something in Celestia’s eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

Celestia made to say something, but then one of the guards entered and whispered something in her ear. “Is that so? Uh-huh, right…ok, just give me a minute.” The white princess turned to face her ex-protégée. “My apologies, Sunset, but it appears Luna and I are needed elsewhere at the present time.”

“We’re needed for what?” asked Luna, confused.

“You know quite well, Luna. The ambassadors from-“

“They’re here? Now?!”

Celestia nodded glumly. “They certainly know how to time things in the most annoying way. Regardless, as unpleasant as the next hour or so is going to be, it shouldn’t be much longer than that, so it might be in your best interest, Sunset, to just wait for me in the library. My guards will escort you there.”

The unicorn perked up at the suggestion. “Okay!”

Judging from the muffled sound of what seemed to be both Princesses shouting along with an undefined number of male voices, it would have sounded (to Sunset at least) that war was on the horizon. The fact Sunset was located nowhere near the royal throne hall where said argument was taking place was an indication that anypony without godlike hearing protection would probably go deaf if they were in the same room as the princesses. However, Sunset had managed to tune out the world around her like she had so many times in her previous life (including the guard who was silently watching her), and instead was more interested in the large pile of books she’d compiled.

Specifically, she had selected books about the Crystal Empire and its most infamous resident: the twice-late King Sombra.

An entire empire, thrown forward a thousand years into the future, Sunset pondered as she deftly drifted her eyes along the printed words. Come to think of it, there was a lot of stuff getting any relevance they had thrown forward a thousand years. Probably explains why this book is so new.

While among the books in the dwindling “To-Read” pile and the increasing “Already-Read” piles were old tomes that had been doubles lent out from the Crystal Empire’s own library, the majority of the texts had been printed within the last two years. Admittedly, there wasn’t much about the Crystal Empire to begin with, given the thousand year time jump, but as it was only supposed to keep Sunset occupied for a little whi-

“Holy. Crap,” gaped Sunset, a nine-month old newspaper in her hooves. On the front page was the unicorn mare from earlier: one Raspberry Beryl, posing with a nervous smile and a raised hoof, on which was perched a gold-and-green phoenix. According to the article, the phoenix was her pet by the name of “Heliodor”. Much more alarming, though, was the detail of how she had been pardoned from the death sentence by Celestia after innumerable crimes of having committed dark magic. Yet, despite the amended sentence of life servitude for the crown, she was allowed to keep living in Ponyville and retain her inherited title of princess as the only known member of the once-extinguished Crystal Imperial line.

But it was the article’s descriptions of what had happened that drew Sunset’s full attention. Evidently, back on Nightmare Night, Raspberry Beryl had unintentionally allowed a black crystal she had disguised as a valuable diamond get eaten by Spike the Dragon. She’d nearly killed him by accident it seemed, then later at the trial, the revelation that Prince Blueblood (where had she heard that name before?) had stolen and then abused Heliodor had sent Raspberry into a rage. She had nearly killed not only him but all four alicorn princesses (there was a fourth alicorn?) simply by overpowering them.

And her appearance, thought Sunset. It can’t just be a coincidence!

“There’s a sight I never expected to see again,” Celestia said with a slight smile. She stood a few paces behind Sunset, scaring the absolute hell out of her.

Sunset bit back a comment about Celestia’s old habit of sneaking up on her, silently noting how she’d seamlessly gone back into being a bookish nerd again. It was a shocking contrast to the kind of person she tended to be as a human.

As if reading Sunset’s thoughts, Celestia’s warm demeanor vanished. “Now, before we were rudely interrupted by those ambassadors, I was going to ask you for more details about the situation back in the human world.”

“To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was looking for myself, but now I think I do,” replied the fiery-maned mare, lifting up the newspaper with her telekinesis. “Seriously, a pony who uses dark magic, is the blooded descendant of this King Sombra asshole, and nearly killed you and all the other princesses is still allowed to be walking around in public?!”

Celestia frowned, and Sunset couldn’t keep her ears from folding back. “Raspberry Beryl is a very…complex pony, but she is far from a threat to anypony. In fact, she has proven to be a very great asset to Equestria .”

“I wish I could believe you, Princess, but you see… I have reason to believe she’s the source of my problems back home,” Sunset then proceeded to tell Celestia about her living situation back in the human world. She told her about how Twilight’s human counterpart had become the sister she never had, and how the poor girl was being tortured to insanity with horrifying nightmares. Nightmares that featured Equestrian ponies.

Celestia studied Sunset skeptically, “I don’t see how this relates to Raspberry-“

“Because Twily described her attacker in these dreams as another unicorn who looked similar to me, but darker in coloration and was attacking her with some sort of smooze or gak-like substance.”

“Gak?”

“It’s like a slimy, goopy human toy, but that’s not important. What is important is that the creature attacking Twily used dark magic and looks exactly like Raspberry Beryl! That can’t just be a coincidence!””

Celestia did not say anything at first, considering Sunset’s words carefully. After some deliberation, she chanced to say, “I see your point, Sunset. The potential truth behind your statement is…concerning with regards to how closely related this world is to that of the humans. However, I do not believe that Raspberry Beryl would willingly do such harm onto anypony, or any human.”

Sunset couldn’t believe it. She finally had the first decent lead on whatever was harming her sister. Finally had a name to go with the face. And here Celestia stood, defending that pony! Before she knew what she was doing, Sunset stomped a hoof on the marble floor and glared defiantly at the Princess.

“I don’t care! I know it’s her!”

Sunset immediately took a step backward, ears folding back at her own outburst. The last time she blew up at Celestia like that hadn’t ended well for either of them. The look of calm disappointment on Celestia’s face was scathing. “Princess… I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to…”

Celestia closed her eyes and took a patient breath. “It’s okay, Sunset. What I was going to suggest is that you go to Ponyville and keep an eye on Raspberry. Even if she doesn’t mean it, the fact is Raspberry still has some…control issues when it comes to the effects of her magic, if the recent incident in Lonesome Dove is any indication.”

Sunset wasn’t quite sure what incident Celestia was referring to. She certainly didn’t remember reading anything about “Lonesome Dove” in the article she found. Before Sunset could inquire further into the matter, Celestia continued.

“Additionally, I think you could benefit from spending some time with Princess Twilight and her friends. I am sure they’ll do everything in their power to get to the bottom of this as well.”

“Okay,” Sunset nodded.

“As it is, you probably need to go back to Ponyville to secure your lodgings. I’ll prepare a sky wagon to send you back to Golden Oaks, as I’m sure Twilight can help you with that.”

With everything said, Celestia turned to leave. Before she could, though, Sunset felt that she needed to say one more thing. “Um, Princess?” Celestia stopped and turned to look over her shoulder at her former student. “Thank you... For giving me another chance.”

“I know you’re worried about Twily, Sunset,” Celestia said. Her voice then took on a dark tone. “But I would strongly advise against any more violent outbursts during your stay here.”

It was evening by the time Sunset arrived in front of Golden Oaks Library, Celestia’s sun setting on her first day back in Equestria. Something seemed… off about the tree structure as Sunset approached. The blinds on all the windows were closed and by all outward appearances, Golden Oaks was devoid of life. A feeling of cold dread began to well up within Sunset Shimmer as she slowly opened the library’s front door.

Inside, the library was pitch black. Sunset carefully crept into Twilight’s abode, feeling more ill at ease with every passing moment. Maybe Raspberry Beryl was behind this. Maybe that demon unicorn found out that Sunset was onto her, took care of Twilight and Spike and was now lying in wait for her.

“H-hello?” she asked the darkness. Immediately the lights switched on and for all Sunset knew, the entire town was now packed into the library.

“SURPRISE!” they all shouted. Sunset could feel her left eye twitching slightly, the only instinctual response to her inability to process the rapid turn of events fast enough. What were they all doing here? Certainly this had to be some kind of mistake, given that nobody-nopony would bother throwing a surprise party at the drop of a hat for a pony they weren’t even sure would be back.. That required some kind of inexplicable foresight that Sunset was only even able to conceive of possibly existing all due to it being how Pinkie Pi-

Of course, thought Sunset, her nerves slowly getting less jumpy upon seeing the smiling face of the pink mare with balloons on her flank. It seemed to be that wherever there was a Pinkie Pie, in whatever form, there was always something to celebrate with a party when they were concerned.

“Let me guess,” came the voice of Princess Twilight, walking out of the crowd and up to her reality-jumping friend. “Pinkie Pie doesn’t throw parties quite at random in the human world compared to the one currently making three balloon animals at once over there?”

Shimmer shook her head. “Nope, though that may have more to do with just how different human life is compared to pony life, especially being a teen in high school. The unending mountains of homework, for instance, would slow anybody down.”

“What’s wrong with homework?” asked Twilight with a totally straight face.

“Either you are a really good liar, Twilight, or…” Sunset then remembered just who she was talking to. “Nevermind, I forgot that you are a total workaholic when it comes to academic stuff.”

Twilight laughed. “Like how Pinkie Pie is always ready to throw a party?”

“Always,” replied the yellow mare, chuckling alongside the alicorn. “Though since that’s the case, and we’re both familiar with the human versions of your friends, are their pony counterparts just as similar?”

“Ohhhhhhhhh yes, are they ever! Right down to initially not liking you, to be honest.” With a quick side nod of her head, Sunset glanced in the indicated direction to see Rainbow trying to not be obvious that she was watching Sunset’s every move closely. A quick scan revealed the same was for the other three in question, though it was hard to tell if Fluttershy actually was watching Sunset or was glancing around quickly because she was nervous.

Just like the Fluttershy I know, thought Sunset with a smile.

“Oh, by the way, what are your lodging arrangements?” asked the princess, catching Sunset off guard.

“Uh, don’t have any at the moment, though I was thinking about renting a room at an inn or something.”

“Did Princess Celestia give you some money? Or do you have invisible saddlebags? You certainly didn’t seem to have any means of carrying money when you walked in a few hours ago.

Sunset’s hoof firmly connected to her face. Suffice to say, the action hurt a lot more as a pony than as a human. “Ah, yes, kinda need money to sleep at an inn…money I don’t have…er, do you think they accept debit cards?”

“Debit cards?”

“Oh, right, those don’t exist in Equestria…” Sunset was now in a new dilemma: without means of getting a rented room, she’d need to bunk with somepony. While in the human world she shared a house – and sometimes the same bed – with Twily, it just didn’t seem appropriate to ask the same of Princess Twilight. But who else could-

“Oh, do you need someplace to stay for a while?” Pinkie asked, appearing out of nowhere. “There’s a spare guest room at Sugarcube Corner – that’s where I live and also where I work so I get paid for making my own breakfast! – that I’m sure I could ask Mr. and Mrs. Cake to lend you!”

“Wow, um, yeah, that’d be great!” said Sunset, beaming. “That is, if it isn’t an inconvenience for them.”

“Nah, as long as you don’t need nighttime room service they’ll be fine! Trust me, Pound and Pumpkin – the twin foals the Cakes have – won’t like it if you take their parents attention away from them in the middle of the night when they need a diaper change!”

Oh. Great. Babies. Thought Sunset, her beaming smile faltering a little. Still, it’s probably going to be more of a ‘homey’ feel than living at an inn for a few days, and I’ve dealt with the human twins so hopefully pony babies aren’t too different.

The rest of the night was more enjoyable, at least for Sunset. She met with the other main friends of the Princess who she hadn’t met with yet, and while they were all honest about their concerns – well placed, given how Twilight had said she’d almost been killed by Sunset – they were willing to be more open than they initially wanted to when the princess herself vouched for her. And Sunset couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated when Twilight took her aside to mention what had become of Spike.

“You grounded him?” the yellow unicorn gasped.

Twilight nodded solemnly. “I’ve never had to punish him to such an extent before, but just sending you off willy-nilly to possibly face Celestia’s wrath? I hope you’re worth the month of indignant looks he’s going to be shooting me afterwards.”

“Hey, you can order him around, your Spike is much more disciplined than the one I’m stuck with.”

“I’m guessing he’s not housebroken, then?” The two mares laughed, both of them glad they could find some common ground in humor.

However, when the time came for the party to end, with Pinkie to escort Sunset to the bakery, the unicorn did note that of all the ponies at the party, she hadn’t seen one trace of Raspberry Beryl.

Later, once settled into her room on the second floor of Sugarcube Corner, Sunset looked up into the night sky through the room’s window, the first time she’d seen it as it had always meant to be: the designs of Princess Luna and not of Princess Celestia. She idly wondered if the stars that were in the heavens here in Equestria were the same ones whose light reached the night sky back through the window at 482 Golden Oaks Drive, San Palomino.

If they are, then they too bore silent witness to what I did over the last four years, thought the unicorn. There was so much that could have been different had she just surrendered herself to sense and returned at the first possible chance after the thirty moons had passed, instead of blowing those four years and trying to steal the crow-

Wait, Sunset’s eyes shot open as it suddenly occurred to her. If thirty moons was approximately thirty months, on a twelve month calendar it’s about two and a half years. If the mirror only ever opened at two and a half year intervals, that meant Sunset should never have been able to go back when she did. It should have been five years when Sunset went back through to steal the crown, but it had only been four.

How did I not realize this before? Actually, that could be explained by Sunset’s focus on her vain ambition keeping her from thinking about anything else. It still didn’t explain why the mirror didn’t follow it’s own rules. Sunset tried to push those thoughts from her mind. She needed the sleep. It had been a long, tiring day, but at the very least the returned mare could close her eyes with the knowledge Celestia wouldn’t outright try to destroy her. She’d have to face her old mentor’s judgement eventually, but she finally had the first step she could track in saving Twily and, just maybe, redeeming herself at long last.

Tuesday, AM: Your Smile of Honey Gold

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Tuesday, AM: Your Smile of Honey Gold

Groggily, Sunset regained consciousness as she felt the building pressure in her loins. It was strange that, for once, she was actually awake in any capacity at that early a time and not because of having to help Twily deal with the nightmares. This time, though, it seemed nature was calling for a porcelain cruise, so to comply with the call she reluctantly moved to stand up from the bed. She got as far as putting her feet on the ground before trying to stand up on her hind legs.

“WAAAAAH!” she gasped, her half-awake mind not comprehending how she was unable to balance on her legs. Somehow, her center of mass wasn’t right, allowing gravity to bring her crashing down and introduce her muzzle to the floor. “OW! That smarts…wait, what…what happened to my mouth?!”

Quickly bringing up her hooves to her face, Sunset was shocked to find she had a muzzle. And hooves. And that she was now a pony.

“Huh? What the hell happened?! Why am I…oh, right, I am a pony. Guess I’ve spent so long as a human…oh well.” But while Sunset tried to shake it off, the fact she was surprised to be back in her native form, in her native land gave her pause. Am I still a pony at heart?

She was able to get an answer a bit later when she, thankfully, remembered how to use a toilet built for a pony (which she didn’t want to have to relearn given her mare parts were now in a relatively awkward position compared to how she’d been doing her business over the past four years). The fact she didn’t need to pull up her panties – given that she wasn’t wearing any – also made her critically self-aware of who exactly was getting a nice view of her little red caboose.

But as she crawled back into bed, her hoof idly traced over the scar where Gilda had stabbed her, now hidden from sight under her furry coat - apparently the scars she’d gotten as a human had translated over when in her original form. If nothing else she thought, drifting back to sleep, this is proof that the human world and the pony world are connected somehow.

She didn’t get much sleep in the end, for it was right when Celestia started to raise the sun that Sunset bolted upright as if she was a clockwork toy. It felt so natural to her that it was almost as if she’d never left Equestria.

Goddamnit, to think I used to be such a morning person because my teacher controlled the freakin’ sun! bemoaned Sunset, knowing this time she didn’t have the luxury of going back to bed. She needed to find Raspberry Beryl and observe her, as even though Celestia certainly meant the best - and no way was Sunset not listening to her like last time. Sunset’s priority was protecting Twilight, and by extension, Twily.

Guess I’d better go wash up, the unicorn thought, getting on all four feet this time before heading to the bathroom.

Mercifully, cleaning up wasn’t any harder than it was as a human, just more time consuming since she was covered in fine, tiny hairs, and then her tail had enough long hairs on it to account for a second head. As a counterpoint, being able to freely use her telekinesis to get that soap all over her really simplified things as it couldn’t slip out of her magic grip. The same applied for toweling off, as after having to do with hands for years, with magic it felt like a spa attendant was doing it for her. Of course, she also felt the need to shake like a dog for some reason, which in the privacy of the bathroom she happily did, indulging herself in what seemed to be a guilty pleasure.

Good thing Spike isn’t around to barge into the bathroom and see me naked again, she thought. Being the size of a large dog compared to him would be bad enough, but to be acting like one...he’d never let me live it down!

Her moment of bliss was interrupted, however, upon the sound of a familiar pair of cries. After fruitlessly looking for something to throw on only to subsequently remember herself, Sunset emerged from the bathroom in search of the source of the cries. She soon found them in the form of two small foals crying their butts off in a crib.

“So…I’m guessing you two are Pound and Pumpkin Cake?” rhetorically asked Sunset, chancing an impish smile. Back at the Sugarcube Corner Café she worked at, the twins were maybe two or three years old, but still very much toddlers. It amazed her at how the baby ponies - no more than a year old themselves - looked so much like the ones who had, early in Sunset’s employment at the café, thrown up all over her. In fact, it didn’t surprise her in the least that neither child was the same kind of pony (earth) as their parents. Pound had always reminded her of a pegasus with how fast he could move if one just glanced away for a second. Pumpkin by the same line of thinking always managed to get ahold of things well beyond her arm’s length as if she had a unicorn’s power of telekinesis. Then as the foul smell assaulted her nostrils, the older unicorn got a rude reminder of the other power inherent with babies of all species.

“Don’t worry, I got this!” hollered Pinkie, racing into the room and sending Sunset into a wild spinning motion like a merry-go-round. When she recovered, she noted Pinkie expertly tending to the foals by changing their diapers and disposing of the soiled ones with what looked like a well-practiced swing. “There, nice and clean again!” The twins gurgled happily as a result of Pinkie’s TLC.

“Those two seem really comfortable around you, Pinkie,” Sunset observed, though she knew the human Pinkie doted on her cousins as well.

“Yeah, I’m really grateful for that,” said Pinkie, letting out a sigh while putting the twins back in their protective bed. “You wouldn’t believe how troublesome these two were to me when I tried babysitting them for the first time, by the time I got them settled down to sleep that night the entire lower floor looked like my party cannon had misfired into the pantry!”

Sunset gave a wide smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so I’m just going to assume your metaphor describes the state of the house as one you didn’t want your aunt and uncle coming home to!”

Pinkie blinked. “My aunt and uncle?”

“Yeah, aren’t Mr. and Mrs. Cake your relatives?”

Pinkie blinked again, before she suddenly let out a chuckle. “Oh, I understand now! Mr. and Mrs. Cake aren’t my relatives; if anything I’m a closer relative of the Apple Family, though I wouldn’t mind having the Cakes as full relatives, as they’re like a whole second family to me.”

“Uh huh, sure, a second family,” nervously acknowledged Sunset.

Pinkie’s claim to have two families triggered a pang of emotions that Sunset didn’t dare show to the energetic ball of pink fluff. Jealousy, regret, anger, feelings that the unicorn had become all too familiar with over the last few years. While she was willing to say progress towards squashing those feelings had improved when she moved into that house in San Palomino, there would always be something preventing Sunset from feeling like she truly belonged.

“Hey, are you alright, Sunset?” piped up the party pony, concern on her face. “You look troubled about something.”

“Wha? Oh, no, it’s nothing, really!”

Pinkie didn’t really buy the wide smile Shimmer was now giving her, but both ponies became aware of the loud crash from the kitchen below.

“What was that?” asked Sunset.

“I dunno,” shrugged Pinkie, “but we better go check it out!”

Raspberry Beryl was hoping to enjoy a nice quiet morning from her position behind the Inn’s front desk. Most guests who stayed at the Traveler’s Retreat arrived to make their reservations in the afternoon, and Raspberry often spent her mornings sipping quietly on a cup of tea while she listened to the swinging pendulum of the lobby’s grandfather clock. Her quiet morning wasn’t meant to last, as a dark yellow earth pony with a cutie mark depicting a floor lamp crossed against a screwdriver approached her desk. Light Fixture, the Retreat’s resident repair pony, had made it his mission of late to make all of his problems Raspberry’s as well.

“I swear there’s something wrong with that thing!” exclaimed the repair pony. “I know it was working just fine when I fixed it last week!”

“Yes, Mr. Fixture. You made me watch you fix it last time, and-“ Raspberry inhaled deeply to try and calm herself. It was hard having to deal with the Traveler’s Retreat maintenance staff given their predisposition to how she had come to be employed. Though she was also certain they held her (mostly ceremonial) title against her for whatever reason. But when it came to the notoriously unreliable toilet in Room 27, Light Fixture became an order of magnitude more difficult to work with.

“Wait a sec, wasn’t Room 27 the one you always stayed in, before you got in good with the bosses and moved into their guest room?” asked Fixture, narrowing his eyes in her direction as he so often did. “As I’m pretty sure that damn dumping tank only went on the fritz after you left.”

“I don’t believe I pay you to insult co-workers, Mr. Fixture,” suddenly came the voice of an older mare, “or was I mistaken in that regard?”

The bickering Inn employees both turned their gazes to the source of the voice, and saw the familiar stern-faced earth pony mare descending the lobby stairs towards them. The elderly pony had a pale tan coat and possessed a cutie mark depicting a green sweater. Her blue mane was going gray with age and was done up in a bun.

“Uh, n-no, Mrs. Cashmere,” answered the stallion, his tone changing immediately. “But it’s just that-“

The co-owner of the Retreat fixed the unruly repair pony with a glare over the top of her glasses. “For your information, Razz was staying in Room 20, not 27. Additionally, if you believe the toilet in that room is no longer serviceable, then you need to tell either me or Ascot about it and we’ll see to getting it replaced. If however, it can be fixed, then I suggest you do your job and stop wasting Raspberry’s time.”

“Of course, m’am. I’ll get right on that.” Fixture immediately departed to go investigate the broken toilet, much to the relief of Raspberry.

“I don’t get it, why does he have such a problem with me?” idly asked the unicorn, before groaning at the knowing look cast upon her by Cashmere. “Seriously, do they still believe I think I’m better than them because of my title? A ceremonial title, no less?”

“Well, dear, you are a princess, of sorts, and while we all know you mean the best, some ponies sadly need a little more time to adjust. It’s probably still intimidating to them that somepony with your reputation is so closely connected to their paymasters. After all, you’re quite unique in many ways.”

“Honestly? I’m not so sure.”

Cashmere’s brow furrowed. “Razz, dear, don’t go into one of those depressive funks again. The last time you wallowed in self-pity about your sense of self, you-“

“This isn’t about that!” interrupted the unicorn abruptly. “Seriously, what happened in my hometown last month was completely unintentional and nothing bad turned out in the long term. It’s behind me.”

Cashmere’s expression softened, and the old mare gently rubbed her surrogate daughter’s shoulder. “Well then, what’s the matter this time?”

“I know it’s gonna sound weird, but…yesterday, after I had lunch with Twilight, there was this pony who came in who looked similar to me.”

Cashmere blinked in surprise. “Like a mirror image?”

“Sorta, yeah. Only her colors were more or less the opposite of mine, and her cutie mark was some kind of two-colored sun. Same mane style, though, and she was a unicorn who the Princess seemed to know from a while back. She said, um….” Razz concentrated, trying to remember how Twilight had introduced the other mare. “She said that other pony - Sunshimmer or something - had been her predecessor as Celestia’s personal student.”

“Predecessor?”

“Yeah, I was surprised, too. Evidently Sun-something had gone away for a few years, and didn’t know about King Sombra or the Crystal Empire.”

Cashmere’s brow furrowed again, but there was something different in her look this time. It went beyond the simple maternal concern she’d held before. “Razz…” the older mare began, “was that other pony’s name ‘Sunset Shimmer’?”

“Yes, that’s it! How did you know?”

“Oh, dear…”

Evidently, there was something about this Shimmer mare that Raspberry was missing. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Sunset Shimmer was Princess Celestia’s former pupil, but from what I hear, she fell out of the Princess’s good graces a while ago. There’s a lot of rumors going around about what exactly happened between them, but the most popular theory is that she tried to overthrow Princess Celestia and was banished from Equestria.”

“Twilight mentioned Sunset going somewhere far, far away… but how long ago was that?”

“I’d say anywhere between four to five years ago, shortly before Twilight Sparkle became prominent in that position. For Sunset to be in Equestria again and be on good terms with her successor…it doesn’t add up,” Cashmere frowned. “If Sunset is really back… it’s likely she’s up to her old tricks. She may even be trying to, uh...remove Twilight.”

Raspberry frowned. “I think it would be best to keep an eye on this Shimmer character. Twilight’s practically family, and I’m not going to let some wannabe princess hurt her!”

“Don’t do anything rash, hon,” warned Cashmere with a kiss on her foster daughter’s cheek. “No doubt she’ll learn about your particular talents, and if what else I heard about Sunset is true, she isn’t one for letting rivals as powerful as she is prove to be her betters.”

“I’m not going to do anything like that, Mom,” replied Raspberry, reaching back to tap her leg brace, “not when I’m among friends.”

“Mr. Cake!” exclaimed Pinkie, seeing the mountain of kitchenware that had been the source of the commotion and now entombed her employer-slash-landlord. She raced from the foot of the stairs to dig him out just as Sunset too descended to the ground floor.

“Ungh…knew I should have used the stepladder…” moaned the pastry chef, little Pound Cakes fluttering in circles around his head.

“Of course, silly!” mock-chided Pinkie, “In fact, why isn’t Mrs. Cake around? I know she would have insisted on you using it.”

“Unfortunately, she’s coming down with a bad case of the pony pox,” explained Carrot, finally free of the avalanche of aluminum. “She’s in no shape to bake today, then what with you having your own schedule to keep to as you aren’t working today, I figured I’d try to just get the morning goods baked by myself.”

Pinkie gasped, “But Mr. Cake, there’s no way you can bake that many things in time! Heck, even if I pitch in, the morning rush is going to be so soon we may not meet the quota!”

Sunset, watching from outside the kitchen proper, knew all too well what the morning rush at Sugarcube Corner Cafe would be like. Given that was just in the human world, she could only imagine how bad it got here in Equestria since all the customers ate like, well, horses. While far from being any good at baking masterpiece after masterpiece of pastry goodness, she knew enough of the basics that she could be a help. At the same time, helping out at Sugarcube Corner would cut into the time she had to investigate Raspberry Beryl. Twily’s clock is ticking, Sunset...

Sunset was just about to bid the two confectioners goodbye, but then she found her thoughts returning to Princess Celestia. To how quick she was in accusing Sunset of treachery. Before she even knew what she was doing, Sunset spoke up.

“I’ll help, too!”

That caught Pinkie and Mr. Cake by surprise. “No offense, Sunset,” said Pinkie, “but you’ve never worked in a-“

“I am a mare of many talents,” replied Sunset, striding into the kitchen. “Just tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.”

Mr. Cake was still unsure, but looking at the clock he needed all the help he was going to get at this point. “Alright, thanks. Here’s what you can do to help out…”

The next few hours proved to be some of the most frantic in Sunset’s life. With Mrs. Cake down for the count, and Pinkie only able to sporadically help when not needing to look after the twins, Sunset ended up being the only pony constantly in the kitchen, with Mr. Cake manning the cash register when Pinkie couldn’t and when he himself wasn’t needed in the kitchen. It was hot, it was sweaty, but by and large Sunset’s skills in both natural magic talent and minor baking thanks to working at Sugarcube Corner Café managed to be enough to keep a plentiful amount of stock that satisfied the morning crowds.

It also was good for Sunset, as she was still rather too self-aware about being a nudist again, so being able to hide in the kitchens worked out well for her. As such, it allowed her to focus more on keeping the confectionary prep line running smoothly. Gradually, noon rolled around and business slowed down to the point where the morning rush was effectively over.

“Phew!” sighed a relieved Mr. Cake. “Thanks a ton, Miss Sunset, no way Pinkie and I could have done that without your help!”

“Yeah!” furiously nodded Pinkie. “You’re really good at baking!”

“Gee, uh, thanks, guys,” said a bashful Shimmer. Had she been the same mare from years before, she would have been quite boastful about how her magic allowed her to do such a menial job better than everyone else, but now she was just happy to be of service. Especially since she’d chosen to be a good Samaritan as opposed to spending the morning tracking down Raspberry Beryl.

“But what are we gonna do for the rest of the day?” asked Pinkie. “Mrs. Cake is still very ill!”

Mr. Cake sighed. “I’ll have to send for the doctor, my sugarplum seems to have caught a particularly bad case of the pony pox and as you both know, the worse a case of that is, the more specific it is to that pony.”

“R-really, now?” stammered Sunset, now worried that she might end up catching pony pox again. She’d had a bout of it well before she was enraptured with her egotism, but while she couldn’t remember much of the event, she did remember it being a very, very unpleasant experience. Furthermore, a much worse possibility was that she might end up being a carrier and, upon returning to the human world, cause a pandemic that would kill countless humans.

Pinkie was oblivious to Sunset’s sudden paleness. “Yeah, I had it on the rock farm as a minor case when the vaccine proved to be a bit too powerful, not fun at all. Though thankfully that means I can’t catch it again or spread it around! You’ve had your shots, or had the pox before, right Sunny?”

“Wha? Oh, yes! Years ago, don’t really remember it myself but yep, good to know I can’t spread it around to infect millions of other innocents!”

“…Okay!” said Mr. Cake, slightly wary of Sunset’s suspiciously specific wording. “Of course, since the Missus. is down for the count, while she’s recuperating I’ll need to look after the twins, so Sugarcube Corner will have to be closed for the rest of the day.

Sunset nodded, though inside she was smiling wide. Maybe I’ll still have time to follow that Beryl character around after all….

As she briskly walked through downtown Ponyville, Sunset decided she needed to find Twilight. Her priority was to get more information about Raspberry Beryl, and the freshly crowned princess seemed familiar with her. Even if Twilight’s trust in Sunset’s mysterious doppelganger was misplaced, what she knew could prove to be revealing. Talking with Twilight would also keep Sunset’s mind off of her exposed posterior.

“Hi, Twilight!” she called out, picking up the pace to meet up with the Princess who had been peacefully reading a book while sitting on a bench in the park.

“Oh, hey there, Sunset,” greeted the alicorn. “How are you today?”

“More than a little self conscious, actually,” admitted the unicorn. “After wearing clothes over in the human world, the fact ponies don’t and our, er, ‘mare parts’ are sort of exposed for the world to see is somewhat off-putting for me.”

“Oh, don’t worry, our you-know-what's are hidden much more than you seem to remember. After all, considering how often ponies end up staring at each other’s plots, all you see is-“ A maize hoof promptly found its place in front of Twilight’s muzzle.

“Sparkle, I will strangle you if you finish that sentence and all the consequences be damned!” snorted Sunset. “Right now I am desperately trying to resist yanking that towel from that pony over there to cover myself.”

“Uh, noted. Sorry,” Twilight half-apologized, chuckling as she did. “Moving on from that topic, though, I am curious to know more about the human world.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? You were there.”

“For only three days, silly!” Twilight magically placed a bookmark in her novel, before closing it and teleporting it away. The two mares then began a leisurely walk back in the direction of Golden Oaks. “Since I was so busy trying to figure out how to beat you at becoming Homecoming Queen, I couldn’t take the chance to study other aspects of human culture. For example: what is the importance of somepony becoming the Homecoming Queen, anyway?”

“Really? You actually want to know that?” Twilight nodded, prompting Sunset to sigh heavily before laughing softly. Just because she was here to gather information on Raspberry Beryl didn’t mean Sunset couldn’t indulge Twilight for a little while. Besides, considering the warlock was apparently in good with the princess, it might serve to butter Twilight up a bit before cutting to the chase. “Popularity contest, that’s all there is to it.”

Twilight was taken aback. “You…you mean that the Homecoming Queen doesn’t actually have any duties of office like a true member of a royal court?”

“Believe me, I was the three-time running elected person - admittedly more by ruling with fear than actually being popular - so I’m pretty safe in saying getting named Homecoming Queen is nothing more than bragging rights. If anything, for straight power I should’ve went for the student council, but then I would’ve been overseen by a teacher, so I settled for being the power behind the throne, so to speak, and Homecoming Queen was a good way to do that.”

“And a magic crown, don’t you remember?” laughed Twilight, Sunset finding enough humor to laugh alongside.

“Hey, that reminds me,” remembered Sunny, “what ever happened with the actual Homecoming queen tiara I tried swapping out for the Element of Magic?”

“Oh, that thing? I actually have it back at Golden Oaks. Even though it is cheap plastic, I kept it around as a reminder of the experience I had as a human. If Princess-sorry, Principal Celestia wants it back, then I’ll give it back gladly, but personally I would like to keep it. Believe it or not, after what happened with the real Element of Magic, having a spare lookalike actually saved me a lot of work!”

“Really? What happened with the-“ asked Sunset, before being interrupted by having bumped into another pony.

“Oh, dear, I’m sorry!” apologized the other pony with a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. “I really should have been watching where I was going!”

“Ah, don’t worry about it…” said Sunset, turning to see who she’d collided with…and turning almost pure white in shock as she immediately knew who the pony was without having ever met her.

Well, not the pony. But in the human world, Sunset thought of Octavia Melody as like a sister.

Tuesday, PM: You Said We've Been Friends Too Long

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Chapter 4, PM: You Said We’ve Been Friends Too Long

Having met the pony versions of her friends back in the human world, Sunset seemed at a loss as to why seeing a pony version of Octavia was making her brain malfunction.

“Um, excuse me?” asked Octavia, tilting her head at the stupefied mare. “Are you okay?”

“Helloooooo, Earth to Sunset,” said Twilight, waving a hoof in front of the pony’s face, ”anypony home?”

“Iiiiiiii, uhhhhhhh…” uttered Shimmer, looking like she was going to pass out. Then, she blinked repeatedly and shook her head, evidently regaining her bearings.

Octavia, opting to ignore the strange pony, instead decided to strike up conversation with the princess. “Anyway, Your Highness, it’s good to see you.”

“Likewise, Octavia, though you’ve known me long enough to call me by name.”

The earth pony giggled. “Sorry, Twilight, force of habit from dealing with one too many Canterlot nobles. You know how rare it is to have ponies amongst the gentry who don’t have swelled heads, right?”

Twilight nodded and added, “No argument there. So, what brings you to Ponyville?”

"Meeting Lyra. We were going to finish up our musical composition for the Summer Sun Celebration in two weeks. Princess Celestia has commissioned us for a musical piece, an--"

Suddenly, Sunset seemed to come to her senses and rushed over to grab Octavia by the withers, almost overcome with excitement. "TAVI!” she exclaimed, “Oh, God, do you know how great it is to see a familiar fa...wait...."

"Who are you?" asked Octavia, confusion etched on her face.

“I…I’m sorry, it’s just that you reminded me of somebody that I know.”

“Some…body? As in, not a pony?”

“Well, yes, sort of, I mean this person I know has the same hairstyle as you and…and…the same color eyes and, er…”

“So? It’s not like my manestyle is anything special, and lots of ponies have eyes of this color, though I don’t even know what a hairstyle is, and-“

Before Sunset knew it, her mouth was running a mile a second and there was nothing she could do but watch helplessly as the words poured forth. “And you also like butterscotch milkshakes and classical music and play the contrabass only it really annoys you when people think it’s a bass guitar which is a completely separate instrument that doesn’t fit your refined image at all and-”

“Okay, I don’t know who you are, but whoever told you I go by ‘Tavi’ is both mistaken and somepony who clearly doesn’t respect my cousin Octavia-“

“Whoa whoa whoa!” interrupted Twilight. “You have a cousin with the same name as you?”

“Two, actually. I don’t want to go into detail about it because-“

“Because it’s the result of some weird family feud issue involving you and your cousins being born simultaneously!” blurted Sunset.

A stunned, and slightly unnerved, Octavia looked wide eyed at the unicorn. “Honestly? Now you’re starting to freak me out a little, though you’re far from the first pony who remembers a little too much from those music journal interviews, but-“

“And that you had your appendix removed when you were eleven.“

“My what now? I have no idea what an appendix is.”

“Well, you have that scar that’s-” Sunset’s unending spiel managed to be cut just shortly after her mentioning Tavi’s appendectomy, as she was suddenly slapped with a lightning fast move from Octavia.

“H-how do you know about that!?” gasped Octavia. Sunset wasn’t sure why the gray mare was suddenly glaring furiously at her with bright red cheeks.

“Gah, Sunset, I told you to stop abusing those kinds of spells!” interrupted Twilight, having watched the two ponies go back and forth like a tennis match. Her horn was lit up, and her head moved slowly back and forth as if waving something over Sunset. “I do apologize, Octavia; my friend here has a bad habit of using an obscure kind of, uh... awareness spell to try and get to know ponies better, since she really has trouble breaking the ice.” Twilight gave her best winning smile. “Unfortunately, it tends to go over as well as what just happened here.”

“Oh, okay,” replied Octavia, though barely less shaken for her trouble. “But wouldn’t those kind of spells be illegal? It seems kind of obvious how easily they would be abused for exploitation.”

“I, uh, only do it when I’m with Twil-er, Twi,” Sunset lied, thankful Twilight was able to work her out of that hole she’d dug for herself. “Really, I know I should stop it. It’s totally my bad, Tavi.”

“Octavia, if you please. Also, as much as I hate to leave this charming discussion, I do need to meet with Lyra, so I’ll talk to you two later.” Bidding farewell, Octavia hurriedly made off on her way with a quickened pace.

Sunset just sighed in defeat. “Wow, I totally screwed the pooch on that one, didn’t I?”

Twilight just patted Sunset on the back. “Yeah, you kinda did. But you’re lucky I experienced the same thing back when I first arrived at that school.”

“But…but she jumped when I only mentioned she got her appendix removed. It’s not that big a deal…is it?”

Twilight looked at Sunset with disbelief. “Sunset…what's an appendix?"

“C'mon, they covered this in biology class! The appendix, formally known as the vermiform appendix, is a blind ended tube connected...to...the...cecum...." Sunset facehoofed as a thought suddenly came to her. "And it's a vestigial organ in humans."

Twilight nodded. “Which means in ponies, it doesn't exist. But since she said she had surgery...think about the differences between bipedal and quadrupedal body structures, Sunset.”

Sunset took a moment to process the information, realization marked with a sudden gasp and her face turning a bright red. “The scar…it’s not exactly in a place she’d want ponies to look, is it?”

“Evidently, I can’t say for certain, given that I didn’t even know she had surgery, but….”

Shimmer groaned, trying to bury her face in her raised foreleg. “What a great impression I must be making to you, Twilight. I can’t even go a day without doing something wrong.”

“Well, don’t worry about it too much, since I’m guessing that’s just like with how you told me yesterday that you and my human counterpart are living together. That is what you said, right?”

“Yeah, with you, your family and your cousin who stays over often.” Sunset immediately wished she’d taken that last part back, given what had just happened, and unfortunately, Twilight had noticed her quick gasp.

“Cousin?” asked the princess. “Now you have me curious. I don’t really have any cousins I’m especially close to. What’s their name?”

“Let me put it this way: You just met her.”

“I just-oh.” Twilight looked skeptical. “Seriously, Octavia Melody is my cousin in the human world? But, I don’t really know the Octavia from this world all that well beyond formal acquaintances. How can somepony barely within my social purview somehow end up being a close relative to my counterpart?”

Sunset nodded, thankful that pony Octavia wasn’t around anymore to hear this. “On your father’s side, which seems to be the slightly saner part of her bloodline. As for her mother’s side…well, Christmas reunions reportedly are a trial.”

Twilight blinked. “What’s a ‘Christmas reunion’?”

“Christmas, not Christmas reunion,” Sunset groaned, facehoofing as she did. “We have a lot to cover, evidently.” This might set me back a bit.

After a quick lunch back at the library, Sunset Shimmer spent the next couple of hours struggling to explain the concept of human holidays to Twilight. It was a significantly more trying task than she had anticipated. Sunset never imagined that she would ever have to explain that Jesus Christ and Santa Claus were in fact not immortal political figures, or that the President of the United States was not allowed to go around scaring people on Halloween. Sunset eventually compromised by promising to send Twilight a few books on the topic when she returned to the human world. Assuming such a thing was even possible, anyway.

“At its heart, Christmas is just like Hearth’s Warming. It’s a time when families get together, give each other gifts and just enjoy time together,” Sunset said.

Twilight had somehow managed to fill several pages of notes and was still scribbling away. “Right. I take it you exchanged gifts with the human versions of me and Octavia?” Twilight stopped writing and looked away. “I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Octavia is my cousin in the human world! I wonder just how much about our families are different over there.”

“Well, Tavi’s family did bring me along to a museum exhibit about her famous ancestor, so I got to know a lot of her side of the family.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “Oh, Octavia’s human counterpart has a famous ancestor too? Was she also a musician?”

“Yeah…” Sunset decided not to go into any more detail on the matter. She remembered the strange coincidences surrounding Octavia’s ancestor Musica Allegra, whose works sounded suspiciously like plagiarisms of classical Equestrian music. Sunset didn’t want to elaborate on the theory she’d formed on the matter. I have enough on my plate right now as it is.

“Sunset?” Looking up, Sunset saw Twilight had put away her notes and was looking at her with concern. It would seem the maize unicorn’s change in mood hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Is everything okay?”

Sunset’s first instinct was to answer “yes” and act like everything was okay. Smile and nod. But when she looked at the alicorn across from her, all she could see was a scared teenage girl, run ragged by nightmares. “No…” Sunset hung her head and let out a tired breath. “I never did tell you why I came back, did I?”

Twilight just looked at Sunset, silently urging her former rival to go on.

So Sunset did. “Twily’s in trouble. Back home, she’s having nightmares. And before you ask, no, they aren’t just normal nightmares. She sees ponies in them. She sees you in them!”

“Me?”

Sunset nodded. “And Octavia, and me as a pony. And then something else, something monstrous. These nightmares… they’re destroying her, Twilight! She almost killed herself because she couldn’t take it any more!” Sunset took another shaking breath, and then she realized that she herself was shaking. Twilight just sat quietly and waited patiently for Sunset to continue.

“I owe Twily so much. I owe all of them so much. Octavia, Shining, Mom, Dad, even Spike! They gave me my second chance. They gave me a home. They loved me like I was one of them, and I am so, so grateful….” Trembling, Sunset desperately tried to hold on to the fond memories she’d made with Twily and her family. But no matter how hard she tried, all she could think about was Twily waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, screaming and crying. Begging Sunset to make the nightmares stop.

Sunset forced her eyes shut, doing her damnedest to will the memories from her head, but all she saw was the girl with purple hair and magenta highlights standing in the middle of the road. The truck was bearing down on her. Sunset called out to her but she didn’t hear. The truck wasn’t stopping but the girl didn’t care. Suddenly, tears were flowing from Sunset’s eyes and she couldn’t have stopped them if she wanted to.

“I don’t even know if she’s alive right now!” Sunset sobbed. “For all I know, Twily could already be dead and I’m just wasting my time here….”

As she sat there, letting the pain and stress of the last couple of months pour down her cheeks and onto the floor, Sunset felt something soft and feathery drape itself across her back. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Princess Twilight Sparkle sitting beside her, one of her wings wrapped around her back.

Sniffling, Sunset brought a trembling hoof up to rub the tears from her eyes. “I’m s-sorry, I….”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said, giving Sunset an encouraging smile. “Sunset, if I’d known it was this bad I wouldn’t have wasted your time with so many inane questions.”

Despite herself, Sunset couldn’t help but smile back, if only briefly. The next few minutes were spent in silence, with Twilight wordlessly comforting her former enemy. If a year ago, Sunset had been told she’d be sharing such a vulnerable moment with her hated rival, she would have laughed. Now, she was just glad for the sanctuary that was offered.

“It’s Raspberry….” Sunset said, finally breaking the silence.

Twilight looked over at her. “Hmm?”

“Raspberry Beryl. She’s doing this. She’s hurting Twily from this side of the mirror.”

Twilight removed her wing from Sunset’s back and gave her a quizzical look. “But, Raspberry’s my-”

“Friend, I know!” Sunset exclaimed. “But I know what Twily told me. The thing attacking her in her dreams is a dead ringer for Raspberry! She uses dark magic, Twilight!”

“And she’s a good pony!” Twilight shouted back. She then closed her eyes took a breath, gently placing a hoof on Sunset’s shoulder. “Look, I promise you we’ll get to the bottom of this, okay? Just, please trust me, alright? I’m on your side this time.”

It’s not you I’m worried about, Princess, Sunset thought, but she held her tongue. The rest of the afternoon passed relatively quietly. The former rivals spent their time doing research on anything they could find in the library pertaining to the mirror, dark magic, and nightmares. Something felt different now than it had when Sunset previously spoke with Twilight. Sunset felt more… loose somehow. Like she had spent her previous conversations with Twilight compressed into a tight ball, and now she was allowed to stretch out.

Sunset allowed Twilight to ask more questions about the human world while they worked. It helped to keep her mind off of the grim possibilities of what was going on back home. Still, they didn’t keep Sunset from brooding about her enigmatic twin.

Suddenly, Sunset remembered something Celestia had said when they discussed the same issue. “Hey Twilight, can I ask you a question?”

Twilight grinned. “You mean apart from that one?”

“What happened in Lonesome Dove?”

Twilight’s grin vanished. “That’s… not really my place to say.”

“It had to do with her, didn’t it?”

Twilight nodded. “Razz and I went there a couple of months ago. It was the town she grew up in, and she wanted to… look, I probably said too much already. But you should talk to her about it. Who knows? Maybe getting to know Razz might help put your fears about her to rest.”

“Yeah. Maybe….” Sunset said, though her heart wasn’t into it. In truth, a direct confrontation with this pony was not something she wanted to pursue. Dark magic could be used in many ways, not the least of which was on a person’s mind. Sunset had learned first hand what that was like. A conversation with Raspberry Beryl could end with Sunset suffering the same fate as Twily, or worse. No, Sunset would have to wait until she had more information on the mare before attempting to face her.

But one look at the clock and a yawn told Sunset another story. It wasn’t especially late, truth be told, but between waking up earlier than she was accustomed to, helping the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner, and pouring out her heart and soul in front of her former rival, Sunset was spent. Still, the day wasn’t a total loss. She had learned a bit more about the pony that was haunting Twily’s dreams, and suspected she was on the right track. Still, Sunset wasn’t sure how well she’d sleep tonight with so much still weighing on her mind.

So after bidding Twilight a good night, Sunset made to leave the library and return to her cozy guest bed at Sugarcube Corner. But as she turned to close the front door behind her, Twilight stopped her.

“Hey… your sister’s fine, okay?”

“What makes you so sure?” Sunset asked.

Twilight smiled. “Because if she’s anything like me, she’s a lot stronger than she looks.”

“That I know, Twi,” Sunset said with a weary smile. “That I know.” But as she walked away from the treehouse, the unicorn mentally added, And now it’s time for me to be strong for her.

To Sunset’s surprise, when she got back to the Corner and climbed into bed, she slept like a log.

Wednesday, AM: Lazy Days, Crazy Dolls

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Wednesday, AM: Lazy Days, Crazy Dolls

Once again, Sunset found herself waking up at sunrise, though at least this time she wasn’t as sleep deprived.

Hopefully I’m not needed to help in the bakery again, she thought, going through her usual motions of prep in the morning. Her crippling self-awareness about not having anything to cover up her exposed sex was also much less than it was yesterday. Though she could only figure it was more out of a need to adapt to her situation because of the simple lack of anything close to “pony panties” being available. Still, she would have preferred walking around in just underwear to walking around not in underwear.

“Morning, Miss Shimmer!” greeted Mr. Cake as the unicorn descended the stairs.

“Good morning, Mr. Cake! How’s Mrs. Cake?”

“Oh, she’s still down with the pox, unfortunately, and Pinkie’s off visiting her family on the Pie rock farm today, so Sugarcube Corner will be taking the day off since it’s only me here who can bake.”

Naturally, her recently increasing stance on being as helpful to all as could be led to Sunset speaking before thinking. “B-but what about yesterday? I can help!”

“If it hadn’t been for you, yesterday would have been an unmitigated disaster, but as it is, I can’t possibly ask you to help out again. Not when we’re down Pinkie as well. Besides, it’s probably for the best; I really need a day off and I can’t imagine a better way to spend time with my kids.”

“Oh, okay then!” Sunset chirped as she made her way out the door. Once out of earshot of Mr. Cake, she sighed with relief.As much as I would have liked to help again, I can’t afford to lose more time, I gotta check out Raspberry to see if she-

As if on cue, that very same pony happily trotted past right in front of Sunset, not noticing the maize unicorn’s wide-eyed stare. Nor did the magical green phoenix that seemed to be following the red-hued mare’s path.

Well, shit, that’s convenient, thought Sunset, stunned. But I can’t just walk behind her, she’d make me in a moment. Invisibility spell would help, but what if she can see through that? I need a disguise…. Fortunately for the pony-turned-human-turned-back-again, her eyes noticed something in the back of a shop nearby Sugarcube Corner. A wide, devilish grin formed on her muzzle, for she had found the perfect disguise.

It had been months since her last…”incident”…and so to Raspberry Beryl it was great to have the confidence to be able to happily trot around town without being looked down upon. Plus, she was out running errands for Cashmere, which was also good as she really didn’t get out much. Of course, she hadn’t got out much before the incident last Nightmare Night where her very literal “dark secret” had come to light. That said, Raspberry preferred her current hermit status to the one she held before. At least now, she no longer had to worry about ponies finding out about what she could do and burning her at the stake.

Plus, she thought, I didn’t have to lose Heliodor. Glancing up at the soaring green avian, Razz smiled. She thought the world of the bird, who had been her only family for nine years until she’d been taken in by Ascot and Cashmere to live at the Traveler’s Retreat. Indeed, he had risked his life numerous times – almost truly losing it at her trial from hell no thanks in small part to Bluebood’s greed.

But then she noticed something unusual: There, partially hidden behind a wall and partially inside the alley was a box. A typical, large cardboard box, it had no markings other than a giant red exclamation point on each side. Idly, Raspberry noted the box was large enough to hold a pony underneath it, but she shook her head before looking up to her pet, who had found a perch on a lamp post.

“Think I’m just seeing things, Heelee?” she asked. Heliodor nodded playfully in response, and she groaned. “Of course you do. C’mon, still got some things to pick up. Fixture forgot to put in the order for that dumb toilet part so we gotta go pick it up.”

As Raspberry and Heliodor left, Sunset risked letting out the built-up breath she’d been holding. Amazingly, she’d forgotten to cast an invisibility spell, so without further ado she cast one, the box melting into nothing and concealing its secret cargo, then as an added layer of stealth cast invisibility on herself. Unfortunately, Sunset wasn’t quite as skilled as she believed. While true, she honestly was still a very good spell caster, invisibility spells had always been a difficult matter for her. As a recently returned unicorn who hadn’t even tried to cast an invisibility spell since before going through the mirror the first time, her prowess with that particularly difficult kind of magic had degraded further. The end result of this being no more than five minutes after casting the spell when it wore off, bringing the box back into view. Sunset, being on the inside, didn’t realize her disguise’s first layer had already been stripped away, much less the second soon after.

“Come on, Diamond!” called out Silver Spoon. “Seriously, it’s like you normally don’t do this much walking.”

“Well, that’s normally because I don’t!” retorted the pink filly. “Honestly, I still don’t see how you all convinced me to go along with this little project, anyway.”

Apple Bloom groaned, “Ah’m sorry, but back when we were all you-know-whats Ah’m pretty sure you were perfectly capable of-“

“I thought we agreed never to talk about that again, you cou-er, sorry, Apple Bloom.” Diamond mentally facehoofed. This whole “being nice” thing was probably the most difficult thing she’d ever had to do, but given everything she’d done wrong by the Cutie Mark Crusaders and to Silver Spoon, having to deal with being part of their little club was Diamond’s penance to pay. Besides, given the monster she’d become - both metaphorically and physically - the last time she’d gone against the Crusaders, it was the preferable option.

“See? You’re getting better at it!” praised Scootaloo. “Maybe there is hope of you not trying to insult any of us on a daily basis!”

“I’m not going to justify that with a comment,” snorted Tiara, the urge to shoot a nasty look at the pegasus almost too much to keep down by sheer force of will.

“Yeah,” Silver piped in wryly, “at this rate she will have easily toned it down to, like, insults every other day or something.”

“Girls, come on, we’re losing sight of what we need to be doing!” chided Sweetie Belle. “If this is going to work, we need a box of some kind!”

“You mean like that one?” said Silver, pointing to a box with a large red exclamation point. Immediately the box lifted up, aglow with a flickering pale green aura.

“Y-yeah! This will do!” said Sweetie, straining to keep the box up. She failed, the box becoming dull again and fell to the ground. It would have crumpled had it not been for Silver and Apple Bloom’s quick movements to balance it on their backs.

“That was a close one!” laughed the farm filly.

“Yeah, I’ll say. Now, come on!” replied Scootaloo, “we gotta get this back to the Fortress of Awesomeness!”

“The what now?” remarked Diamond in a perfect deadpan.

Sweetie facehoofed. “The treehouse.” She then turned to Scootaloo, who had a large grin. “You know if Babs was still here she would have decked you, right?”

“Yep! That’s why I said it, because I know she’s the only Crusader who would-“ started the orange filly, only to receive a light punch to her left foreleg. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Well somepony’s got to take Babs’ place, don’t they?” snarked Diamond, leading the way back to the treehouse.

“I’d be mildly angry at that if it wasn’t for the fact you used to do a lot worse, Diamond,” admitted Scoot.

“Yeah, she might have filled your room full of cats!” whimsically suggested Apple Bloom, glancing devilishly at Silver.

“Hey, look, we apologized for that!” retorted Silver, only to get more laughter out of Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, Ah know, Ah’m just givin’ y’all a hard time!”

None of them had noticed the yellow unicorn with the flame hair - the one who had been under the box - still crouching low to the ground and slowly moving forward. Sunset looked around, perplexed that her cover had mysteriously vanished the moment she blinked. After some thought, the maize unicorn decided it didn’t matter. As long as her invisibility spell was still up, she didn’t have anything to worry about.

“I do not mean to offend you, your highness,” profusely apologized Pear Blossom, as the pale beige earth pony looked at her pear stand’s best customer, “but I do not think you can carry so many pears.”

“Seriously, Pear, just call me Razz,” the pony in question insisted. “The whole ‘princess’ thing is just formality and given my magic handicap it usually only really needs to be mentioned if I need to scare somepony.”

Pear adjusted her lightish red cap. “Ah, merci then, Razz. But still, how will you get so many pears back to the Retreat?”

Razz laughed. “Simple!” With one fluid motion of her head, her horn lit up with its hazy, bubbly dark aura of purple and green…sans her eyes. Noticing Pear Blossom’s look of confusion, she sighed. “Let me guess, you’re expecting the eyes thing, too?”

“Well, yes, isn’t that part of dark magic use?”

“Normally, but that crap irritates my eyes, so I figured out how to nullify it.” The several crates of pears that had been behind Pear Blossom’s stall suddenly became uniformly shrouded in a black aura, before they all winked out of existence. “And there we go!”

“Go? But…but where?”

“Why, to the Retreat, of course! I just teleported them to the back so Mom can sort them into the kitchen. Just because my magic is of the dark persuasion doesn’t mean it can’t be used for mundane purposes.”

“Oh, I’d say that’s hardly mundane, Razz!” laughed Pear, impressed with Raspberry’s minor demonstration of her mundane powers of darkness. Suddenly, she saw some movement just behind her customer. “Ay, what was that?”

Razz blinked in confusion, “What was what?”

“That mare, over there!” Pear pointed with her hoof. As Raspberry’s gaze drifted to follow, she saw…Sunset Shimmer. For whatever reason, the yellow mare was crouching as if trying to hide, her face oriented towards where Raspberry Beryl was standing, but her eyes were closed. As if she stupidly believed that would help her hide.

Don’t know how she lost the box, but obviously I was right, thought Raspberry with a smirk, a knowing look on her face as she glanced up at Heliodor. He merely bowed and waved a wing around as if graciously accepting defeat for being wrong. Razz just laughed as her attention went back to Pear Blossom, being sure to use a tone that sounded conversational but was reduced in volume enough that Sunset wouldn’t hear. “I do believe she’s following me, but don’t worry. I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for her behavior and, if for whatever reason there isn’t, she’s just one pony. That’s nothing compared to the entire towns I’ve had to outrun in the past.”

“Well, uh, I trust you know what you are doing, then. Oh! And I will send the bill by mail later today.”

“Yeah, hopefully it arrives this week,” joked Razz. “I mean, Derpy’s good at her job, but there’s always that one letter she ends up losing for weeks. Anyway, gotta go, so I’ll talk to you later.”

As Sunset watched Raspberry Beryl leave once again after what may have been her looking in the general direction of the maize unicorn’s location, it appeared she didn’t notice anything different or out of the ordinary.

Man, Solid Snake really did know what he was doing! thought Sunset, slowly inching her way past the pear stand. From behind said stand, a very confused Pear Blossom watched Sunset sluggishly pursue Raspberry, which was odd considering the unicorn in question was invisible. She must be looking at something behind me. Sunset thought, doing her best to keep up with her darker counterpart…

...At least until said darker counterpart suddenly darted into a side alleyway, which judging from the phoenix circling above must have meant she’d taken a wrong turn. But as Sunset slowly clip-clopped her way up to the entrance, she saw that there was no trace of Raspberry Beryl.

“Boo,” suddenly came the voice of Raspberry Beryl from behind Sunset, scaring her a foot into the air and subsequently trapping her between the end of the alley and Raspberry herself.

“H-how did you see me?” blurted Sunset, “I was invisible and everything!”

Raspberry, in turn, looked at Sunset as if she was stupid in ways not yet discovered by ponykind. “No…no you weren’t. In fact, I’ve known you’ve been following me for the past hour. Even Pear Blossom saw you for Celestia’s sake!”

Shit, thought Sunset, trying to come up with an excuse. “Well, uh, okay then….”

“So you gonna tell me why you’ve been following me around?”

Sunset wanted nothing more than to call out the mare in front of her. To demand that she stop tormenting Twily with nightmares or else. But if Pheonix Wright had taught her anything, it was that she couldn’t convict without evidence. Thus, Sunset decided to pursue another course. “Yes, it’s a simple explanation, actually.”

“Oh?”

“SMOKESCREEN!” shouted Sunset, quickly casting an obscurity spell (that happened to create a cloud of smoke) in the hopes she could run past the blinded duplicate of herself and escape. And it almost worked, too, had it not been for her face smashing into a wall of black crystals that had somehow spontaneously erupted from the ground.

“Trust me, Sunset,” chided Razz, “I basically mastered that trick during my time living alone in the Sierra Neighvada Desert a few years back. Smokescreens were the only way to outwit those damn snakes.”

“You don’t say,” replied the dazed unicorn, reeling from having gotten her first direct taste of dark magic.

“Now, I believe you were about to tell me why you’re following me around?”

Chewing her lip, Sunset looked from the scrutinizing glare of her lookalike and the wall of obsidian-like dark crystals blocking her only escape. It was clear she wasn’t getting out of this one with more cheap tricks. Fortunately, Sunset thought of a way she could both explain her strange behavior to Raspberry, and try to get some information at the same time.

“Alright, you caught me!” Sunset exclaimed, raising her forelegs in mock surrender. “Princess Celestia has instructed me to keep an eye on you.” Technically, it’s not a lie!

Raspberry squinted suspiciously at Sunset. “Is that so? So, are you two buddies again?”

Sunset flinched. “Well, n-not exactly. But she did ask me to watch you! You can check with her yourself, if you want.”

Raspberry’s skeptical look remained unchanged. “Fine. Why does she want you keeping tabs on me?”

Drawing on all of her experience intimidating the students of Canterlot High, Sunset did her utmost to look as casual as possible, idly inspecting her hoof as she dropped what she hoped would be the wham line. “Lonesome Dove.”

It got the reaction Sunset was hoping for. Raspberry furrowed her brow and tilted her head back. “I went over that with her a dozen times. It’s finished.”

Sunset took a step forward as she pressed her attack. “Celestia doesn’t seem to think so. Hence… me,” Sunset then began to stalk around Raspberry, like a predator circling its prey. Sunset could see the other pony’s confidence slip away, just like with the teens she used to bully and manipulate. Her tall shadow loomed over Raspberry, and the person Sunset swore would never show her face again was out in full force, much to her shame. But this is for Twily!

“Now, I don’t actually have all of the details of what happened in your hometown. You’d be making my job a lot easier if you told me what exactly happened,” Sunset grinned. “Of course, I’m going to find out sooner or later, so you might as well just spill the beans now!”

To Sunset’s surprise, Raspberry stomped a hoof down and gained a bit of ground. “If you think you can just bully me into telling you all about my personal life, you have another thing coming!” Raspberry stepped back and collected herself. “If you must know, exclusively being able to use dark magic made for a very… difficult childhood. Twilight and I went back to Lonesome Dove a couple of months ago to try and set some of it right. Get me some closure. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go as planned.”

Raspberry’s horn glowed with the bubbly, creepy ichor indicative of dark magic and in an instant, the wall of dark crystals blocking the entrance to the back alley vanished. “That’s all I feel like saying,” Razz said as she stepped aside. “You can go.”

Sunset wanted to know more, but she figured that was all she was going to get out of the warlock. She’d have to learn the rest on her own. “Fine,” But before departing, Sunset went right up to Raspberry and pressed her face into hers. “But just know, I’m watching you… like a hawk!”

Evidently, the statement didn’t have the desired effect, as a big stupid grin formed on the dark unicorn’s face. “ ‘Like a hawk’? Why don’t you watch me like a pon-”

“Razz, Sunset, Ah’m glad Ah found you!” suddenly came the voice of Applejack, who emerged from out of view. Both unicorns turned toward her, suddenly completely affable. “Listen, Ah hate t’ ask y’all about this, but Big Mac’s sprained his right hindleg and so we need yer help to harvest the apples.”

“Did you ask Twilight or the others?” suggested Raspberry.

“Yeah, Ah tried to, got everypony ‘cept Twi. Turns out she’s doin’ some official ‘princess business’ or what have ya.”

“Well, I’d love to, but I’ve still got some errands to run. However….” Raspberry gave a sly look at Sunset. “I’m sure Sunset has nothing better to do today, right?”

“Well, I, um…” sputtered the flustered unicorn. She wanted dearly to keep an eye on Raspberry, but with her box gone, Raspberry aware of her intentions, and the fact telling Applejack anything at all related to what she’d been doing would look like insanity and alienate the earth pony, she was at a loss as to what to say.

“Ah understand if you have stuff to do,too, Sunset,” said Applejack, a touch of caution in her voice, which was not unexpected given her reaction to meeting Sunset just two nights ago under the pretense she was still a power-hungry wannabe princess. “But Ah would really ‘preciate the help. Plus, since it might take a while, Ah was gonna bring out one of the reserve apple cider barrels for everypony, too.”

“Did you just say ‘apple cider’?” asked Shimmer, her priorities suddenly shifting.

“Eeyup. And no, it ain’t the non-alcoholic stuff we usually sell, either, this is the Apple Family private reserve Ah’m talkin’ about. ‘Course, if you’re one of those ponies who don’t drink alcohol for whatever reason, we got the regular kind, too.”

“Screw that, you have no idea how badly I’ve wanted a good, hard cider!” blurted Sunset, faint hints of desperation in her voice. “Yeah, I’ll come help with the apple harvesting.”

“Thank ya kindly, Sunset. C’mon, we gotta get started right away or else we’ll be at it all night!”

As the farmer led the unicorn away, Raspberry gave Sunset a wink. “Trust me, you’ll probably thank me for volunteering you once you taste that cider.”

We’ll see about that, thought Sunset, as I’m not done with you yet, Raspberry. Not by a long shot.

“My, we’ve really let the place go, haven’t we?” asked Luna as she surveyed the decayed ruins of Castle Everfree.

“Well, not like there was any choice, Lu-Lu,” said Celestia. “After your rise as Nightmare Moon and subsequent banishment, nopony wanted to remain here in the capital. By the time the original fears of your presence still lingering in these walls had vanished, the forest had already begun to reclaim the area. Plus, with Canterlot nearly built, there was no need for our old castle beyond hiding the Elements of Harmony.”

“Indeed. Though I must say somepony’s been doing a little work here and there. For a ruined castle that nopony lives in, it is remarkably well kept.”

“Well, my friends and I have been doing some cleaning up of the place,” said Twilight, blushing. It had been her idea to bring Celestia and Luna to Castle Everfree for the purposes of trying to locate the supposed mirror that Sunset claimed to have come through. “Much of the castle remains in desperate need of TLC, but the path from the main entrance to the library and the secret private library is mostly cleaned up as far as either me or my friends can accomplish.”

“And all the traps are still in working order?” asked Celestia, noting Luna’s ears perking up at the possibility of hearing something she was really interested in.

“Of course, princess, didn’t I say as much in the letter I wrote to you? Oh wait, that might have just been in the journal.”

“Pardon me, but…” interrupted Luna. “When you mean ‘all’ the traps, you do actually mean all of them, yes?”

“Yes, they’re all functional. They’re all marked, since they can still give ponies quite a scare, but-“

“Actually, hold that thought, Twilight,” interrupted Luna once again. “I need to, er, use the little princess’s room for just a quick moment!” The Princess of the Night then darted away into the castle interior before Twilight could reply.

“B-but…this castle doesn’t have indoor plumbing,” blurted the purple alicorn. “It didn’t exist when this castle was built!”

“No, it doesn’t,” confirmed Celestia with a smile, “but it does have a slide.” Subsequently, the sound of a very happy princess was heard echoing from somewhere within the castle.

“OH, HOW WE HAVE MISSED THIS!” boomed Luna, momentarily using the majestic plural by accident as she was caught up in reliving memories of childhood.

Celestia just shook her head in amusement. “You wouldn’t believe how upset she was when she learned Castle Canterlot wasn’t built with a slide, Twilight,” said the eldest princess to her faithful protégée. “Though now that she knows the original is still in working order, I fear there’s going to be a new levy being pushed for restoring this old castle and possibly even slide extensions.”

“While I’m all for the preservation of history,” replied Twilight. “I think it would be prudent to learn all the secrets of this castle first. After all, the very reason we’re here is because of one such secret, no?”

Celestia’s smile quickly dropped into a hard line, though not in regards to Twilight. “Indeed, though if what I suspect is true, that one secret may be but just the beginning to a whole collection of revelations which could help paint a larger picture of just what went wrong those many, many years ago.”

As the princesses started to walk – they both were confident that Luna would easily find them again once she was done with her beloved slide – Twilight couldn’t help but be unnerved by Celestia’s words. “I…I don’t understand, what exactly do you mean by ‘painting a larger picture’?”

Celestia took in a deep breath, choosing her next words carefully. “Twilight…who am I?”

The question only made the young alicorn even more confused. “Huh? You’re Princess Celestia, the beloved ruler of Eq-“

“Sorry, that may have not been the right thing to ask,” apologized Celestia. “I guess the more appropriate question would be: what am I, in your opinion?”

“Oh, that’s easy! You’re a great ruler, wise and kind, but you’re also my teacher and just as much part of my family as my friends and blood relatives. A second mother to me, really.”

“You flatter me, Twilight,” Celestia demurred, though it didn’t stop her from blushing a little at Twilight’s answer being so personal. Though I wish I had been able to do the same with Sunset, the solar avatar lamented within her thoughts, instead of having only learned from my mistakes with her far too late. That in turn led to her next question for Twilight. “Now, I need to ask you one more thing, but I want your honest opinion.”

“Princess, why would I ever be dishonest with you?”

“Out of well-placed but misguided attempts to spare me painful truths,” Celestia said, giving Twilight a knowing grin. “Don’t worry, I can take it.”

Twilight shifted her wings uncomfortably. “I…see. Alright, then, what do you want to ask of me?”

“Twilight…do you think of me as infallible?”

Oddly, Twilight looked at Celestia as if she’d grown a second set of wings. “No offense, Princess, but I’ve never thought of you as perfect.”

The blunt honesty caught Celestia off guard. Admittedly, I did ask her to not hold back

Not noticing Celestia’s momentary shock, Twilight started listing her reasoning: “Looking at your history as princess objectively, your first years on the throne were a complete disaster! First off, you let Sombra’s ambitions go unchecked beyond maintaining your position on the throne, which led to him going over to the Crystal Empire and we both know how well that went. Ditto for how Sable Loam was allowed to leave to join him which in turn resulted in the creation of werewolves, the problems stemming from those fleabags of course not needing to be mentioned. Then you spent quite a while having to deal with Discord when he forcefully took over and only used the Elements of Harmony as a last resort, leaving much of the country in disarray. That in turn prompted Sombra to accelerate his build up in preparation for war, which you plunged the country into only for the Crystal Empire to be lost and you didn’t actually kill that bastard anyway. And then you fail to notice your own sister’s growing resentment to the point she becomes corrupted by her own animosity and jealousy towards you and once again plunges Equestria into war, this time a civil war which you only were able to stop by banishing Nightmare Moon a.k.a. your own sister to the moon for a thousand years, thus ensuring she endure a millennium of the very things that caused her to turn into Nightmare Moon in the first place. Oh, and then when every single one of those heavy hitters from a thousand years ago showed up within recent history, you relied upon me and my friends to deal with them because you for whatever reason couldn’t finish the job!”

Celestia could only stare at Twilight, as if the smaller mare had up and slapped her clean across the face. Twilight quickly realized this and, naturally, went into a mad panic.

“OhnoI’msorryIwasfartoobluntpleaseforgivemePrincessIdidn’tmeanto-“

The presence of a golden shoe placing itself on Twilight’s muzzle silenced the younger princess, though her eyes were still fearful. But surprisingly, Celestia wasn’t at all angry. “There’s nothing I need to forgive you for, Twilight; you’ve done nothing but what I explicitly asked you to do.”

“B-but!” sputtered Twi, “I made you sound really, really bad, when in reality you had justifiable reasons for doing what you did!”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but with all the justification possible for any of those actions, it doesn’t change the fact they reflect poorly on my leadership, my age and inexperience notwithstanding. Nor do my other mistakes during my solitude on the throne become any less poorly judged as the years progress.”

Twilight looked at her mentor with a sad frown. “Princess, why are you being so hard on yourself? You and you alone are the reason why Equestria has enjoyed centuries of peace, often with you personally making sure the necessary actions were done. Even when you couldn’t, you made sure that the ponies who could were in the right place at the right time. After all, that’s why you sent me to Ponyville to meet the ponies who would be my closest friends, to save both Equestria and Luna by rejuvenating the Elements, right?”

“Indeed. Please do not think I’m being hard on myself just at random, however. A pony’s worst critic is more often than not themselves and I have over a thousand years of mistakes and regrets that I must bear silently in order to keep this land safe. As you are a princess yourself, Twilight, you must remember that though you are an alicorn, rarest of the pony species, you are not infallible. I asked you to be brutally honest to me, because I needed that slap of reality. It…grounds my judgement in reality.”

“I see…but why are you telling me this?”

“Because as I said before, I was hardly fit for the throne when I claimed it in place of my mother, with my concerns being more in line with fighting off potential usurpers than really being an effective leader,” Celestia’s gaze grew distant, and in that moment she was no longer in her mother’s old castle, but elsewhere entirely. “It is only too easy for things like this supposed mirror to have skirted around my awareness, but the fact something as powerful as a gateway between entire realities lay hidden for a thousand years…it could have let anything through and nopony would know. Worse still, the world Sunset has come to call home? It and our world of Equus may be far more connected in history than anypony could have guessed.”

“Yer kiddin’ me,” flatly stated Applejack, not fully convinced of what Sunset was saying.

“Nope, that’s honestly the truth,” replied the unicorn, trotting in-step with Applejack along the well used road to Sweet Apple Acres.

“Well, Ah can’t say Ah know yer lyin’, but all the same Ah can’t imagine mah family willin’ to sell the farm and go run a freakin’ store. Ah mean, that’s what Mr. Rich does for the Apples, workin’ as a middleman to sell Zap Apple jam outside of Ponyville an’ all.”

Sunset’s eyes widened slightly. “Mr. Rich? As in Filthy Rich? As in ‘the one who founded Barnyard Bargains and probably is on Walmart’s hit list’ Mr. Rich?”

“Ah don’t know what a ‘wall mart’ is, plus Ah think it was Mr. Rich’s grandfather, Stinkin’ Rich, that founded the company, but otherwise Ah’m guessin’ we’re talkin’ about the same pony.”

“I didn’t know Barnyard Bargains worked so closely with independent farms. Though really, the closest I’ve ever been to a Barnyard Bargains anything was a distribution center that was being built on what had been my home.”

“Say what now?!” exclaimed AJ, stopping dead in her tracks. “Ah know Mr. Rich, so Ah also know he would never go in and knock somepony’s house down just to build somethin’ on top of it! At least not without askin’, first!”

“Huh? I don’t…” Sunset then dawned on the realization, chuckling a little at her silliness. “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t being clear. Back in the human world, my home had really been an abandoned warehouse that I was kinda, sorta illegally living in. At least until the property got sold.”

“Oh, well Ah can’t say there’s much to be done ‘bout that. Though Ah’ll bet whoever built that place was a might angry at it being torn down.”

“The company that built it had long since gone out of business before I came along. It was some appliance company, ‘Flim-Flam Bros. Manufacturing’ or something, I don’t remember.”

Now it was Applejack’s turn to be wide-eyed. “Did you just say somethin’ along the lines of the ‘Flim Flam Brothers havin’ gone outta business years ago’ or somethin’ of that nature?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I guess?”

Applejack’s mouth seemed to waver before the farmer erupted into laughter. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA! At least there’s some place out there that those two-timing scammers got their just desserts!”

The unicorn, in turn, put on a nervous smile. “I take it you’re not on good terms with them?”

Applejack wiped a tear from her eye as she got herself back under control. “Considerin’ they have caused mah family no end of trouble, rangin’ from almost scammin’ us outta our farm to nearly gettin’ Granny Smith to do somethin’ incredibly dangerous because their dumbass fake ‘cure-all’ made her think she was indestructible? Ah guess you could say Ah wouldn’t mind them havin’ to find ‘alternative’, or should Ah say ‘honest’ employment that don’t involve mah family encounterin’ more misfortune. We got enough of that from….” Applejack mysteriously trailed off for some reason, piquing Sunset’s curiosity.

“From what?”

Applejack just shook her head. “They weren’t involved in that matter, which Ah’d rather not talk about since it’s private, family business. Ah hope ya understand.”

“Sure,” Sunset returned her attention to the road in front of her. A large red structure had since come into view in the distance. Alongside it were rows of trees as far as Sunset Shimmer could see. “Is that it?”

“Eeyup, it’s just-“ Applejack was cut off as a large explosion suddenly sounded off not too far away.

KRAKA-DOOOOM

The sound seemed to shake the ground beneath the two mares’ hooves.

“That didn’t sound good!” said Sunset, taking note of a trail of black smoke starting to rise up near the distant red barn.

“Ah swear if it’s who Ah think it is that’s responsible…” Applejack muttered as she took off at a full gallop.

A hunch formed in Sunset’s mind as to the identity of the culprits as she took off after Applejack. Considering the haste at which the farm pony was moving, it could only be one group of fillies. Assuming the versions of Applejack’s sister and her friends who Sunset was familiar with were anything like the ones at the base of the distant column of smoke.

Wednesday, PM: Drinking Wine and Killing Time

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Wednesday, PM: Drinking Wine and Killing Time

“Ah’m bettin’ it’s mah sister and her friends again!” shouted Applejack, who had now far surpassed the unicorn. While Sunny was far from being the most athletic pony ever, Applejack being able to quite effectively leave Sunset in her dust came as a surprise. “Those Crusaders better not have done somethin’ really stupid this time!”

“Wait, what are we defining as ‘stupid’ here?” hollered back the flame-haired mare.

“Ah’m talkin’ stuff like makin’ some kinda wheeled motor vehicle that crashes into the Everfree, or throwin’ knives at each other, dumb stuff like that. Given what happened as a result of both of those times, if somethin’ similar happens this time…Ah’m gonna be really, really pissed off!”

“Throwing... knives... at each other?! And they might... be doing it again?!” Speaking proved to be quite the struggle for Sunset as she fought to keep up with the farm pony.

“No, it was some kinda stage magic or somethin’. They tried replicatin’ what they saw. As for what happened, let’s just say it was a bad fur day for everypony involved for months afterward!” That Applejack was speaking with little to no problems at all spoke wonders for how much more athletic the earth pony was.

In the interest of privacy, Sunset decided to not pry further about what the “bad fur day” had been. In the interest of not running out of breath before reaching the farm, Sunset decided to cut the chatter and just focused on running.

The scene that greeted Sunset and Applejack upon their arrival at the farm was both stupefying and unsurprising. Even from the front gate to the farm, the contraption that was belching the smoke was visible. As the paired ponies got closer, it immediately became clear that the machine had been of the Crusaders’ creation. Various rods and poles stuck out from what looked like the merged remains of a record player, a hand-cranked pencil sharpener, and various discarded farm equipment, each ligament having a different object at each end. A boot, gardening shears, a hammer, a wig, a horseshoe magnet, and a sponge were among the items Sunset could make out. Surrounding the smoking device were five fillies, all of whom appeared to have been too close to the thing when it exploded, and had in turn themselves exploded into arguing.

“Where did we go wrong?”

“I don’t know, it was working earlier!”

“It was? But we just finished it, this was the testing, wasn’t it?”

“How should I know? It was her idea!”

“GIRLS!” barked Applejack, metaphorically, “What in tarnation is goin’ on here, and what is this…thing?”

At once, the Crusaders all looked at the one pony among them who could really even begin to describe what they were circled around. Apple Bloom sighed. “It was supposed to be a machine that would help gather apples, since Big Mac isn’t able to right now.”

“Huh, I wasn’t aware that apples were naturally…magnetized…when they’re ripe,” sarcastically commented Sunset, fixated on the horseshoe magnet.

“No, the idea was that the moving rods would just knock the apples to the ground,” corrected Silver Spoon, “then, when all the apples are on the ground, we fillies would just run around and toss them into the box.” She then gestured to a half-charred object at the front – or what looked like the front – of the machine. Sunset immediately frowned in annoyance when she recognized the red exclamation point that marked it as the same box she’d been using earlier.

“Uh, okay, that much Ah got,” said Applejack, scratching her head in confusion over another detail, “but how exactly did you power this thing? Ah hope you didn’t use-“

“We couldn’t,” interrupted Scootaloo, knowing exactly what Applejack was talking about. “After all, isn’t the whole reason you keep ‘the garage’ locked up that tightly is to keep us Crusaders away from the truck?”

“Hold on, did you just say truck?” asked Sunset. “As in, ‘has four wheels, a driver’s seat, a cargo bed, and a self-powered engine’ truck?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess you’ve seen it, then?”

Sunset shook her head, then turned to Applejack. “You have a truck? How in the world do you have something that the technology for doesn’t exist here?!”

Applejack chuckled. “Well, Ah’m guessin’ you really are outta the loop. There’ve been huge leaps in technology here in Equestria over the last few years. Parade floats, the industrial strength pet hairdryer…”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah… wait, what?! What is an ‘industrial strength pet hairdryer’ and why do you have one?”

As Applejack struggled to (quite unsuccessfully) hold in her laughter, Sweetie Belle piped up. “Oh! We got that when we were trying to be ‘Cutie Mark Crusader Pet Caretakers for Spike.”

Sunset gave the filly a deadpan stare. “That literally explained nothing.”

Apple Bloom snorted. “Do ya know how hard it is to dry clean a dog?”

“Uh… no?”

“Exactly.”

With some effort, Applejack managed to reign in her uncontrollable guffaws and did her best to don a stern, serious face.“For real, now, how exactly did you girls try to power this thing?”

“Coal,” said Diamond, nonchalantly.

“Coal?” Sunset repeated, trying to understand. “How exactly does that work?”

“The same way coal is used for the steam engines on trains, of course,” answered Apple Bloom. “You put th’ coal in a box, then you set it on fire. Then that drives the locomotive.”

“Uh, girls…” said Applejack, rubbing the back of her head nervously, “that’s not all there is to a locomotive. Ah mean, they call ‘em steam engines because that’s what they run on. The coal burnin’ is to heat the water into pressurized steam. Then the steam goes into the pistons an’ drives the wheels. That’s why steam comes out from the bottom of the engine, but smoke from the top.”

“Oh. Ah guess we sorta forgot the water part.”

Applejack’s hoof went from behind her head to facehoofing it. “So y’all pretty much just lit a coal-powered fire under a contraption made of wood.”

“That explains the fire, at least,” said Sunset, “but what about the explosion? Coal doesn’t violently explode.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the bags of sand we used to try and anchor this thing?” suggested Silver.

“Sandbags?” asked Applejack, “but we don’t have sandbags on the farm right now.”

“Then what were those bags filled with behind that one building you all call ‘the garage’?”

Applejack’s composition grew pale. “Those were bags of fertilizer. Specifically the ones Ah accidently ran over with the truck a couple of weeks ago and leaked a little of the fuel on.”

Sweetie cocked her head. “But…how does fuel-soaked fertilizer explo-“

“Because you combined fire and what I’m guessing was ammonium nitrate fertilizer with gasoline!” shouted Sunset, horrified at the literal bomb that the five fillies had unintentionally set off in their faces. Granted, there was no way to know. Sunset herself only knew about what was more conventionally known back home as “ANFO” after reading an article in a newspaper. Officials were cited as blaming a fuel leak fire for a freak explosion at a fertilizer plant somewhere in Texas.

Yet, ironically, the fillies had managed to accomplish their goal: Every single ripe apple on the farm had been knocked loose and was waiting for collection on the ground. However, while they weren’t going to get their cutie marks in improvised farming techniques, their tempers were beginning to flare up.

“Why am I not surprised that we nearly killed ourselves by overlooking the obvious?” grumbled Tiara.

“Hey, it was your idea to use the ‘sandbags’, Tiara!” retorted Scootaloo.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I’m the one who thought of trying to build a coal-powered steam engine without the steam!”

“Hey, come on, girls, take it eas-“ interjected Apple Bloom, trying to calm things down, only for Tiara to cut her off next.

“And this whole stupid thing was your idea in the first place, I might add!”

The yellow earth pony narrowed her eyes. “Well, ex-cuse me for tryin’ to find a way for us to be helpful on the farm here.”

“Yeah, well, a butt would be more helpful”

“Are you callin’ me a butt?”

“What if I am, butt?”

“Don’t you know it takes a butt to know a butt, butt?”

“Only butts would say something like that, you BUTT!”

Sunset glanced nervously at Applejack. “This could get ugly,” Sunset said as the two fillies continued their butt-themed back and forth.

“Eeyup,” agreed Applejack, who moved to intervene. She was too late, however, as Diamond Tiara escalated matters.

“Oh yeah?! Well, you’re the biggest, stinkiest, gaudiest butt there is in all of Equestria!”

Apple Bloom gave Diamond a look that could kill. “Well, at least this butt never betrayed her best friend and helped an undead maniac try to destroy Ponyville!”

Silence reigned over the setting, so much so that somehow even the broken machine spontaneously stopped burning as if in shock at Apple Bloom’s words. Then, as if in reversal of their old dynamic, it was Diamond who broke into tears and scampered off.

“Oh, Ah shouldn’t have said that…” said Apple Bloom, dropping her head in shame.

“No, you shouldn’t have,” admonished a disappointed Applejack. “All of you stay here while I-“ Sunset’s outstretched foreleg prevented AJ from chasing after the filly. “Sunset what are ya doin’?”

“Let me go after her, Applejack.”

“Why?”

Sunset merely gave a small smile, though tinged with a hint of sadness. “Because she won’t think I’m biased toward your sister.”

Applejack raised a hoof as if to object, but thought better of it. “Well, can’t see any harm in it. B’sides, somepony’s gotta deal with this mess now anyway.”

“I won’t be long.” With that, Sunset dashed off in pursuit of the crowned filly. Based on Apple Bloom’s finishing blow in their argument, Sunset had sensed she and the filly had more in common than it would seem. Now the only problem was trying to track the filly down on what was proving to be a very large span of farmland.

“The old masons would cry out if they saw what has become of their once grand masterwork,” lamented Celestia, she and Twilight continuing their journey into the depths of the castle. While the majority of the castle was intact, that was more a testament to the structural engineering work devoted to ensuring the castle would forever stand. The same could not be said for the furnishings and decorative work that had been unfortunate enough to be in the western “rear” of the castle, which had seen the greater part of the first battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon.

“I don’t recall ever having visited this part of the castle before,” commented Twilight, noting how she didn’t recognize her surroundings despite having visited Castle Everfree’s ruins many times since first coming to Ponyville. “Plus, I don’t see what this place was originally. The castle’s layout is nothing like Castle Canterlot’s.”

“Back when these ruins were the capital of all ponykind, these areas were the living quarters,” Celestia answered. The way she looked around as she spoke indicated she could still see what these halls were in their prime. “Specifically, I believe we’re walking through what used to be the old guard barracks.”

“The barracks? But…but what are they doing this far in the back of the castle? And I thought the guard wasn’t formally created until the EUP Guard was formed after-”

“Well, this wasn’t so much a barracks as it was an armory, since back then the guard was just any common pony on-hoof when needed. But this place did house ponies who were needed to tend to the armor and weapons They were housed away from the main social areas such as the throne room, the library, places where the gentry wouldn’t have to be ‘exposed’ to the less savory aspects of how guards used to live. Such as what passed for internal plumbing.” Celestia motioned with her head to a doorway, through which was a large room partially occupied by what had once been the second floor. From what Twilight could see, however, the room was lined with one continuous bench, with holes in the seats spaced evenly apart.

“Th-that’s disgusting! Did everypony have to do their business like that?”

Celestia chuckled. “Not if you were in the gentry. The more ‘formal’ alternatives weren’t actually all that better and frankly I’d rather not go into that. Let’s just say that one of the things Luna was angry about when she turned into Nightmare Moon was how terrible the restrooms were back then, and I can’t exactly fault her.”

“It wasn’t,” suddenly came the voice of the younger ethereal-maned alicorn, who appeared to have been waiting for her royal counterparts on the opposite side of a doorway, “but I will admit one of the best things about coming back to Equestria was learning I would have my own private water closet, or ‘bathroom’ as they had since been called. The poor maid staff was so confused when I kept gushing about how novel it was to have running water that I could change the temperature of without the need for magic!”

“Funny, that’s like how the crystal ponies responded when Canterlot sent plumbers to aid in building the Crystal Arena,” said Twilight.

“I’m not surprised, not being able to take a bath whenever you want without having to wait for the water to be brought in by servants or yourself is something nopony misses.” Luna then cleared her throat, desiring to change the subject. “Anyway, while you were down there, I did some looking around myself in the grounds where the nobility used to live.”

“And…?”

Luna took in a deep breath before replying, “There’s something still here, something powerful… and dark. It’s one of the houses in the far back, two stories up, but the front’s caved in. However, the back might still be standing. I couldn’t see right away, but there’s signs of somepony having teleported around there, possibly to that overlooking edge of the castle.” Luna gestured to a part of the ruined castle where the external path once patrolled by guardsponies remained aloft, though part of the portcullis edging had crumbled away.

Twilight immediately teleported over, the feeling of another pony’s magic becoming clear the moment she reformed at her location. Thankfully, it was still recognizable enough to be identified as Sunset Shimmer’s magic.

“Yeah, this is Sunset’s magic I’m feeling,” Twilight called back, “and if I remember correctly she said she teleported out of the room where this mirror is, so….” Lighting up her horn with a tracing spell, Twilight’s eyes followed an illuminated path only she could see all the way to the back of the old residence Luna had mentioned. Then, something glimmered in the sunlight.

“Twilight, what do you see?” said Celestia, having teleported herself next to Twilight, Luna following suit.

The youngest princess squinted her eyes. “It’s…definitely a mirror, but there’s something about it I can’t make out. Give me a sec.” Twilight quickly summoned a pair of binoculars, which she used to enhance her vision. She immediately regretted it. “Uh, Princess? You’re gonna want to see this, though you won’t like it.”

Wordlessly, Celestia levitated the binoculars from her protégée and held them up to her own eyes. She indeed did not like what she saw, but of course nopony could fault her for that. After all, seeing a mirror with a gem caricature of herself in chains, along with her own mother and two – two? - Lunas, all enslaved by the laughing form of Sombra was not a pleasant sight to behold.

About five minutes of searching led Sunset to the base of a tree in a secluded part of the farm. What made this tree so special was that there was a treehouse in it. Rather, a very elaborate treehouse. While Sunset had seen quite a few treehouses back in Equestria County, especially after her living situation changed to be in an actual residential zone, most of those were little more than one room box-like shacks with a ladder for access. In comparison, this treehouse was fully decked out with a ramp leading up to the balcony, which wrapped around the house itself. It even had what appeared to be a second floor, as she could make out a telescope poking out from the upper window. Though judging from the size of the upper level it wouldn’t fit anybody larger than a filly.

But she also could make out the sound of crying from within. Cautiously, Sunset made her way up the ramp to investigate, cursing under her breath when the wood creaked loudly halfway up.

“G-go away!” shouted the filly. “Nopony’s home!”

Shimmer elected to not point out the contradiction in the filly’s words, instead choosing to speak gently. “This is a pretty nice treehouse. Can I come in and have a look?”

The sniffing stopped, the pink filly inside recognizing the voice of the unicorn who had been with Applejack. “Wh-who do you think you even are? You’re certainly not somepony from around here, are you?”

Sunset took the lack of a “no” as a signal to walk into the treehouse proper. The filly was slouched in the far corner, the tiara she’d been wearing discarded on the ground next to her. When she saw Sunset enter, the filly sat up straighter and hastily wiped at the tears in her eyes.

“No, I’m not. I’m just here visiting a friend. My name’s Sunset Shimmer, by the way.”

“D-Diamond Tiara,” answered the filly with a sniffle. Sunset immediately recognized the filly’s mane colors, lavender-and-white, as being the same as one of the eighth graders who sometimes visited Sugarcube Corner Café, usually with a silver-and-gray haired girl that had a hair braid exactly like the other filly Sunset hadn’t recognized earlier. “But what should it matter to you? Why do you care?”

The unicorn smiled a little. “Because… you remind me of myself a little.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sunset moved to sit in front of Diamond. For her part, the filly had stopped crying and was now looking at Sunset with curiosity.

“Let me guess: This isn’t the first fight you’ve had with Apple Bloom?”

“That’s an understatement…”

Sunset made sure to speak gently as she continued. “You used to bully her - and her friends - didn’t you?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Diamond’s curious gaze shifted to one of suspicion. “Are you reading my mind right now?”

Sunset couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course not! That kind of magic’s forbidden anyway. You wanna know my secret?” Diamond nodded with childlike wonder. “I know what you’re going through.”

Diamond simply looked down and scowled at something on the floor. “Yeah right. That’s what they all say. My dad, my therapist. All of them,” Diamond’s look hardened, and it seemed as though anything at the end of her gaze would combust. Tracing Diamond’s eyes, Sunset realized that the object of her heated fixation was the tiara idly lying on the floor.

“They all say that because they think it’ll make me feel better, but do you really know what it’s like? To spend your whole life thinking you’re the most special, important pony in Equestria? To believe it so strongly you’re willing to trample anypony who gets in your way? Even the ones you really care about?” Tears started to appear in Diamonds eyes again, but the filly rubbed at them viciously, as if they were the ones causing her strife. “Do you know how hard it is to prove you’ve changed when everypony who looks at you just sees the s-same… monster from before?”

“Yes. I do,” Sunset answered with such quickness and such conviction that Diamond looked up through teary eyes with renewed curiosity. When Sunset looked at her, she found herself thinking back to some of the first memories she had as a filly. Of a lonely door in the midst of a rainy night. “I was like you once. I was an orphan before I was taken in by… a very important pony.”

“What, like a noble or something?”

Sunset thought it best not to mention her status as the former favored pupil of the princess. “Something like that. She took me in, taught me to be a powerful mage, and became my mother in all but name. She gave me everything, but somehow… it wasn’t enough. I wanted more, to the point that it led me to hurt my mother in the worst way possible. I ran away. Far away to a place where I only got worse. I mercilessly bullied a group of friends, tore them apart…” Sunset gave the filly a slight grin. “Sound familiar?”

Diamond Tiara simply listened to Sunset with wide eyes, hanging on her every word. “What happened?”

Sunset leaned forward as if to share a great secret, and whispered, “I got my butt kicked!” at Tiara’s perplexed head tilt, Sunset laughed and leaned back. “By the same group I used to bully, no less. Everything just kinda… got put into perspective since then.”

“What did you do?” asked an enraptured Diamond Tiara.

“I became friends with my former victims. Ever since, I’ve done nothing but try to be better. I won’t lie to you: it was really hard. Painful even,” Sunset rubbed the part of her stomach where she’d been stabbed by Gilda, “but now, I have a family that loves me, and the best friends anyone could ask for.”

Sunset glanced over at the discarded tiara Diamond had been scowling at earlier. Lighting up her horn, Sunset levitated up Diamond’s trademark headgear and tenderly placed it on the filly’s head. “If I can do it… so can you.”

Considering her job done, Sunset turned to leave, but Diamond Tiara went after her. “Hey, ‘Sunset’ right?” Sunset stopped to look back, and the filly smiled. “Thanks. That really did make me feel better.” Diamond’s ears suddenly stood up. “Hey! You should talk to Raspberry!”

Sunset froze. “Why?”

“To be honest, she’s the reason I’m no longer a monster. Figuratively and literally,” Diamond must have noticed the look of skepticism on Sunset’s face, as she continued. “I know her dark magic may seem scary, but she’s actually a nice pony. Talk to her. She helped me. Maybe she can help you.”

Sunset wasn’t sure what to think. Was this filly under the warlock’s influence too? Or was it possible that Raspberry wasn’t a bad pony after all? As Sunset made to respond, the pair heard a voice call out from outside.

“Diamond! You up there?” Apple Bloom called out.

With a single motion of her head, Sunset told Diamond Tiara to follow her outside. The pair emerged from the treehouse to find Apple Bloom standing on the grass below.

“Oh, there you are, Diamond!” she exclaimed, slightly out of breath from running all over the farm. “Look, about calling you-“

“Forget about it,” cut off Tiara. “We all agreed to build that thing; plus, it was our tempers doing the talking more than our brains.”

“Y’know, Ah don’t think Ah woulda believed you were capable of apologizin’ before…you know.” Apple Bloom got closer and stuck out a hoof. “Friends?”

Diamond took the offered hoof in her own. “Friends.”

Apple Bloom smiled wide as she helped her former archnemesis up. “Now, c’mon, we gotta help pick up all the apples we knocked down!”

“Okay!” eagerly agreed Diamond as the two fillies bolted off. But before disappearing into the field of trees, Diamond Tiara turned to give one last silent thanks to Sunset Shimmer.

Applejack was waiting for Sunset when the unicorn finally found her way back to the main grouping of structures on the farm.

“Ah don’t know what you told Tiara, but Ah’ve not seen that filly so happy while doin’ anything here on the farm since that one time when she was done doin’ the bunny hoppin’ durin last year’s zap apple harvestin’ season,” Applejack said, giving Sunset an appreciative smile.

Sunset shrugged. “Yeah, well, it was probably good for me, too, since it let me be more open about things I normally like to keep to myself.”

“Like how you were a total bitch before Twi set you straight?”

Sunset couldn’t help but give a raised eyebrow of annoyance in response. “Sure, be blunt about it, why don’t you?”

Applejack snickered, “Hey, just sayin’. B’sides, you ain’t caused no trouble while you’ve been in town, so Ah can’t complain about that.” Applejack then turned her gaze to the direction of the orchard. “Plus, a lot of the harvestin’ work has been cut down since the Crusaders decided to detonate that bad fertilizer by accident.”

The unicorn scrunched her nose in irritation. “Could do without that smell, though.”

The apple farmer snorted in agreement. “No argument there.”

“Oh, by the way, Diamond almost mentioned something, apparently it had something to do with Raspberry Beryl.”

“Did she now? What was it?”

Sunset shrugged. “Well, she only said part of it, something about Raspberry Beryl preventing her from becoming a monster. You know anything about that?”

Judging from Applejack’s demeanor growing sour, Sunset guessed she knew too well about it. “Ah have a lot to say about that matter, most of it angry, but Ah can’t rightly say to you what Diamond almost told you.”

That annoyed the unicorn. “What, is it like some kind of event so terrible that-“

“Sunset, Twilight told me about the…thing…you briefly turned into, so Ah know you’ll understand when Ah say this matter is something like that. Turnin’ into somethin’ where your self-control ain’t total, your body unrecognizable to yourself…tell me, that monster you turned into, would you want that to happen to anypony you know?”

“Wh-what? No, not at all!”

“Well, let’s just say somethin’ similar happened round these parts. An’ Razz put a stop t’ it. Ah don’t know what you got against Razz – oh yes, Ah figured you’ve got somethin’ goin’ on with her – but mah family can never repay her for the good she’s done for us. You should know that if you do anythin’ to hurt that mare, you’ll bring down a world o’ hurtin’ from yours truly.”

“Uh…er….” stammered Sunset, shocked at Applejack’s sudden outburst.

“Er, sorry ‘bout that,” apologized Applejack, having the courtesy to look sheepish as she rubbed the back of her neck. “If’n y’ couldn’t tell, it’s really personal.”

“And I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that.”

“Well, now that we’re all apologizin’ and stuff, let’s crack open one of those barrels, shall we?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “But we haven’t-“

Applejack just laughed. “What do you think Ah’ve got the Crusaders doin’? They’ll be busy while we’re samplin’ the good stuff, and it will burn their energy so they’ll sleep easier tonight. Now, come on, Ah gotta justify openin’ up one ‘o the reserve barrels with a friend.”

Sunset would later admit that Sweet Apple Acres Reserve Cider was the best cider she’d ever had. Though, her mind lingered on the nuggets of info she’d gleamed about her mysterious dark enemy. Why is everypony so nonchalant about there being a dark magic user in their midst? It’s almost like… Sunset’s eyes widened as she realized she’d seen similar behavior before. Everypony’s indifference to Raspberry’s dark nature was exactly how her parents had acted in the face of Twily’s nightmares. They’re all under her curse, same as them!

Sunset did not sleep soundly that night.

Thursday, AM: I Know You Don't Believe Me But It's So True

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Thursday, AM: I Know You Don’t Believe Me But It’s So True

Octavia slowly found herself waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, but this did not alarm her. It wasn’t her normal sleeping arrangement back in her cozy apartment that she’d spent the past few days living in. Rather, it was one of the two bedrooms in the house that her friend, Lyra Heartstrings, was renting alongside Lyra’s roommate, Sandalwood. Originally it had been Bon-Bon, but after the confectioner had gotten married to her coltfriend over a year ago, Lyra had found somepony else to burden with half the rent for the residence. The refined gray pony had to admit it was a serviceable enough abode, nothing like even the cheapest housing in the Equestriani capital but then again, a month’s rent for a house in Canterlot probably paid for six months rent here.

It’s certainly less than what a pony of Lyra’s talent deserves, thought Octavia, yawning and grudgingly dragging her form out of bed, but for a former Royal Canterlot Symphony member, she could have done a lot worse for herself. Plus, if she’s happy here, who am I to judge?

The sound of what could only be an avalanche of books falling off a bookshelf suddenly echoed through the walls, reminding Octavia why her lyre-playing friend was a former member of the Symphony in the first place. Sure enough, a short walk down the hall to the door left slightly ajar, Octavia found the mint unicorn digging herself out of a layer of parchment, ink, and glue bindings.

“Oh, uh, morning, Octy!” greeted Lyra, a warm smile on her muzzle as if being buried alive by books was a normal occurrence. In fact, it probably was a normal occurrence, as Octavia noted the majority of the books on the floor looked somewhat beaten up as if they spent just as much time at ground level as they did in their proper shelf places.

“Morning, Lyra, I trust you’re okay?” warily asked Octavia.

“Yeah, sorry if the books falling woke you up, the shelf isn’t evenly balanced – came with the house, you see – and I keep forgetting to have a carpenter look at it.” She looked at it again, then gave Octavia a wan smile. “Probably doesn’t help that the shelves are a little overloaded anyway - I’ve really have to prioritize my books again.”

“Indeed. It seems like you really need a hand with that.”

Lyra’s smile dropped as did her ears. “Come on, Octy, I get enough shit about this from ponies who aren’t my friends.”

“Lyra, you know I’m only slightly ribbing you about this human obsession of yours. Granted, I do think it’s…odd for a pony to be so invested in some mythological species, but Celestia knows I have the strangest ponies for friends. Vinyl’s still convinced werewolves actually existed, Midnight Moondust thinks her roommate is a vampire, and then there’s you and your maddening belief in evolved monkey creatures!”

“Well, at least mine comes with documented evidence!” Lyra said, holding up a book labeled Mysteries of Mankind: The Secret History of Ponykind’s Most Elusive Legend. “This book was the result of years of research by Dr. Wild Goosechase and Prof. Pseudoscience! Can either of your friends say anything like that?”

Octavia’s answer was to yawn. “Far more than I care to admit,” she replied.

The unicorn rolled her eyes in response while finally freeing herself from her printed word prison. “Hey, at the very least I’m not like other ponies I’ve heard of who think humans were evolutions from ponies and not monkeys, citing absolutely unfounded things like ‘lybians’ being the answer.”

“What on Earth is a ‘lybian’ exactly?”

“Conventionally, lybians are sort of like minotaurs. Only instead of being half-bull and half…whatever the other half is, lybians are half-pony from the waist down.”

Octavia looked at Lyra as if she’d just said Princess Cadence had been born a pegasus and had an ice cream cone glued to her forehead to become an alicorn. “That is one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard of. And you’re saying there are ponies who believe that these…’lybians’, as you say they’re called, are the middle point between ponies evolving into a monkey-based lifeform?”

“I said that’s what they think, Octy. Trust me, I’m the so-called conspiracy theorist here and I think the ponies who believe that are crazy. There’s absolutely no evidence supporting their claims compared to the wealth of knowledge regarding human existence!”

“The wealth of knowledge?” Octavia raised a curious eyebrow.

The look on Lyra’s face was an uncomfortable smile. “Well...at least the stuff that everypony knows is true, right?”

The gray mare just shook her head. “No wonder Vinyl says this town is full of crazy ponies. Just the other day I bumped into this one unicorn who was with Twilight, but when I tried to apologize the mare acted like she’d known me so intimately that she knew all of my deepest, darkest secrets!”

“Like how you’re a lesbian and madly in love with Vinyl, who is oblivious to your affections?” asked Lyra, a sly look on her face.

Octavia was not amused. “I will let that slide as my comeuppance for making that ‘hands’ joke, but somehow she knew I have two cousins also named Octavia,, and then she somehow knew of the scar left over after…well, you know. You sent that awfully nice ‘get well’ card while I was recovering.”

“You sure she wasn’t a stalker type of pony? I told you about the time that somepony was following Bonnie around, insisting that she was a changeling. Thankfully, Twilight was able to talk some sense into that pony, but...well, I’m sure you get the idea.”

“I would hope not; such a pony has no business hanging around the princess! Though, to be fair, she said that I actually was like some…oh, what was that word she used….”

“Somepony?” suggested Lyra, her interest now increasing in the pony Octavia described.

“That’s what was odd, she used some words that made no sense. Like, er, ‘somebody’, yes, that was it, somebody she knew, not somepony. Whoever she was describing also had the same ‘hair’ style as me, then she said ‘people’ a lot as if describing a non specific group instead of just ‘ponies’ like any normal member of society. Oh, yes, and then as I hurried off – politely, of course – I overheard her use the word ‘appendix’ and ‘removal’ in the same sentence, though why anypony would remove the reference part of a book is beyond-“

“No, it wasn’t a book part, Octy!” interrupted Lyra, who had seemingly been triggered into a hyperactive state, “it was a body part! And all those words she used? Those were human terms!” Lyra suddenly raised a hoof to her chin, and her mouth began to move as she soundlessly muttered something. “What did she look like?” she then asked.

“The unicorn?” Octavia looked at her friend queerly. “Well, she had a kind of… fiery mane…”

Lyra’s response was to grab Octavia and gasp for such a long amount of time that for a moment, Octavia thought she would collapse from oxygen deprivation. As it was, Octavia wasn’t that lucky, and a now giddy Lyra ran over to the pile of books and dove in, resurfacing with a book before the cellist could so much as make a snarky remark. Lyra then proceeded to open the book and shove it in Octavia’s face.

“I think I know who that mare is!” Lyra exclaimed, peeking over the top of the book to grin in a way that was just a little unsettling.

Backing up so she could have the luxury of both seeing what Lyra was trying to show her, and (more importantly) breathe, Octavia took a look at the tome’s cover: The Truth About Sunset Shimmer, by someone named Talespinner. She then read the page Lyra had set it to, which was the Introduction:
===
Sunset Shimmer, Baroness Westphalia, was said to be the pride of the palace, the most important pony of her generation and the youthful ward of our beloved Princess Celestia. However, one day, something happened, which caused our young noble to disappear, never to be heard from again. As for her position, she was supplanted by Celestia’s younger student, Twilight Sparkle, who eventually became the Bearer of the Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship.

But that leaves a huge question: what of Sunset Shimmer? Some state she fought against the princess and escaped through a magic portal in the palace. The official report indicates that after her fallout with Princess Celestia, she departed the palace, last seen headed in the direction of Trottingham, and was never seen again.

But I believe something different: that as punishment for her crimes, Princess Celestia tasked her former apprentice with a different measure of redemption. I believe that Sunset Shimmer was sent to a different reality to serve as an explorer - I believe she was sent to the human world. And this book will explain how.
===

Octavia then looked at the picture on the same page, one of a younger image of the pony, in fine dress with the caption underneath reading: SUNSET SHIMMER, Age 17, at the Grand Galloping Gala. “Yes, that’s her alright, but where does it mention anything to do with humans?”

“It doesn’t!” answered the excited mare with glee, “but nopony knows where she went after she escaped custody. There were rumors that she’d fled through a magic portal or something, though where she ended up could never be confirmed – until now! That book even says so!”

Calmly, Octavia brought a hoof up and lowered the book in Lyra’s grasp. “The book also says that she went to an alternate dimension, which is impossible. You took the same Theoretical Physics class in college that I did, so you should know that!”

“And yet the Breezies are confirmed to come from a known pocket dimension,” Lyra countered.

“The what?”

“The Breez-you know what? Nevermind.” Dropping the book, the unicorn took Octavia in her golden aura of magic and brought her close into a rib-crushing hug, muzzles pressed against one another. “This is huge, Octavia! We have to go find her immediately! So many questions about the humans finally so close to being answered!”

Octavia could only wonder at the horrors she had potentially set into motion.

“Could you repeat all of that?” Raspberry asked incredulously from her place behind the front desk of the Traveler’s Retreat.

Twilight sighed. “Look, I just need you to come out to Castle Everfree to help investigate this strange artifact we discovered there.”

“Given that you’d only ask this of me if the object in question was of the same... magical nature as I am, I presume this thing is in some kind of magical vault and needs to be re-secured?”

“Uh…no.”

Razz looked at the alicorn with a questioning expression. “So then, do you mind telling me why there’s something insanely dangerous that’s been sitting unprotected in an unpatrolled ruin for who knows how long?”

Twilight leaned from left to right nervously. “Actually, it’s been slightly over a thousand years. We believe it was created by, well….” Not wanting to scare any patrons who might be listening in, the lavender alicorn motioned towards the unicorn’s horn, which looked like any normal cranial endowment. But of course, it was the real horn hidden behind the false disguise that Twilight indicated. The one that indicated Raspberry’s true lineage.

However, Razz just frowned harder at the revelation this object in the ruins had been something connected to her ancestor, for whom she had no love. “How can it be something that had belonged to him? Shouldn’t somepony have detected its dark aura years ago?”

“That’s just it, Razz. It’s not giving off any kind of dark magic aura. If it is, the emissions are somehow undetectable by anypony using conventional magic. However, given the… decor on this thing, we’re pretty certain he made it. So, given that you have all of his power at your hooftips….”

“Okay, I get it! You just want me to look at this thing,” Raspberry sighed with exasperation. “But you’re sure this isn’t like the last ten or so things that you were sure was contaminated with dark magic?”

“Absolutely. This isn’t just a haunted mailbox or possessed kitchen knife. This is a portal to another world.” Twilight’s conviction on the matter was steadfast, that was clear, but there was also a hint of fear. Raspberry had to wonder what the alicorn wasn’t telling her, though a part of her slightly suspected the sudden appearance of that Sunset Shimmer character had something to do with it.

“I really hope this isn’t going to be just some ‘evil’ portal that leads to a Sombra-worshiping cult of Breezies or something. But I probably should get some exercise today, since Nurse Redheart told me it would be good for my damaged leg muscles to be used as much as possible. Just let me tell Ascot and Cashmere I’m going out and fetch Heelee. I’ll meet you outside and we can get going.”

In light of how her previous efforts of secretly observing Raspberry had failed, Sunset opted to instead go and see if Twilight was available now. Of course she wasn’t (just like yesterday) but this time Sunset had spied Twilight walking alongside Raspberry Beryl before she’d even gotten to the library. She could feel herself growing irritated with how this dark reflection of herself - the one cited from Twily’s dreams as the culprit for all the nightmares - was just openly hanging out with the pony version of her foster sister.

Here I go again, I guess, thought Shimmer, once again doing her best to inconspicuously stake out her prey. I don’t know whether Princess Twilight is that warlock’s thrall or just naive, but I’ll make her see I’m right one way or another.

Thankfully, Razz and Twilight were too busy in their conversation to feel as if they were being watched, so all Shimmer had to do was blend into the crowd, keeping the pair in her sight at all times.. But this rapidly came to an end when Twilight and Raspberry proceeded to walk out of town and into an open field, at which the other end connected to the Everfree Forest. Trying to remain inconspicuous now would be difficult. Sunset’s difficulty with invisibility spells hadn’t vanished overnight.

However, her priorities changed just as fast as the weather above her head went from bright and sunny to a fierce downpour.

The spectrum-hued mare then high-hoofed the offered green-and-gold feathered wing, Heliodor chirping in response before flying off to rejoin his mistress. Rainbow, meanwhile, spied her target below, and within moments had gathered up a small cumulus. Using the cloud cover to her advantage, the pegasus slowly stalked Sunset Shimmer from above. Even though Twilight had told her friends that Sunset was reformed, Rainbow didn’t buy it. Not when even Twilight had admitted she didn’t know why Sunset was in Equestria once more.

But clearly her intentions don’t mean well for Raspberry, mused Dash, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sure, she hadn’t exactly been nice to Razz for a long while following the exposure of her dark magic talents, then especially after it turned out she was responsible for triggering a relapse of Applejack’s lycanthropy. But eventually she’d come around to seeing Razz in a good light again and was thankful for her role in solving their latest hairy problem.. To that end, Dash felt she owed a debt of gratitude to Raspberry for saving her adoptive little sister, and so nopony was going to bring harm to Razz without going through the Element of Loyalty first. Especially not when I still owe her a little payback for causing Twilight all that trouble over the Element of Magic.

Her chance came when, as Twilight and Raspberry were heading off to the Everfree for whatever reason, Sunset made it obvious she intended to follow. Rainbow, in turn, decided to make it clear she intended otherwise. Standing atop the small cloud, she proceeded to jump up and down on it, her innate pegasus magic agitating the water molecules inside the cloud and turning the white, wispy contours into rolling crevices of dark gray. The subsequent result was an instant rain storm on command that for one unfortunate unicorn, happened to be right on top of her.

“Wh-what!?” cried out Sunset, trying to figure out where the rain was coming from. Well, obviously, it was coming from the cloud above her, but what was it doing well below the troposphere where it belonged? And how could it just spontaneously rain in just this one spot while everywhere else around her was a clear day?

Wait...clouds are only in the troposphere back on Earth, Sunset recalled. They can be anywhere here on Equus, mainly due to--

Her confusion gradually turned into clarity which soon morphed into a boiling anger when she heard the titters and snorts of…Rainbow Dash? Memories surged in her head of the incident where she’d stayed after school to come to Rainbow’s soccer practice – only because the hispanic athlete had been asking her to come see her sweet moves repeatedly over the past week. Only too late had she realized the whole thing was a set up for Rainbow to dump an entire cooler of Gatorade on her from a vantage point in the stands.

“RAINBOW DASH!” shouted Sunset involuntarily, not actually knowing it was the mare in question who had dumped liquid nourishment from above.

The laughing abruptly stopped as the cloud above suddenly exploded into nothing, leaving a slightly irritated blue pony flapping in its place. “Now hold on, I want to get something straight here,” said Rainbow, swooping down so she was eye level with Sunset. The domineering position the pegasus held, and the look of barely controlled fury in her features brought back memories of Sunset’s early confrontations with the teen at Canterlot High. Back when Sunset was public enemy number one. “Pegasi make up roughly a third of Ponyville, yet even though you and I have never met, you still knew it was me causing that rain on your head?”

“If you must know, I didn’t somehow instantly become aware you decided to just randomly dump weather on my head, but it seemed so similar to what the other you once did to me that it seemed to be the logical conclusion.”

“The other me?” asked Rainbow, now landing to give her wings a break but not breaking eye contact. “You mean…the other Rainbow Dash that Twilight mentioned having met from wherever it is you ended up?”

“¿Quién más podría estar hablando?” replied Sunset, summoning forth every last bit of Spanish she could remember…along with an observation she’d made the night when Rarity had become Spike’s waifu. Given how similar Pinkie Pie and Applejack were between their human and pony versions, it was time to see if it applied to Rainbow as well.

“¿Por qué estamos hablando de repente en Burroñeso?” replied Rainbow without missing a beat, until she realized what was going on. “Hey, how did you know-“

“The other you is fluent in two languages, I just wanted to see how far that went,” smirked Sunset. “Though, now I’m curious as to why you’re so fluent in Spanish.”

Clearly not expecting to have lost ground so quickly, Rainbow nervously looked around to see if anypony was listening. Fortunately for her, Twilight and Raspberry had long since gone out of earshot, so it was just her and Sunset on the outskirts of town. Sighing deeply, Rainbow knew she had no other choice. “Look, I don’t know what Spanish is, but Burroñeso? I…okay, I don’t really know why I can speak that language so fluently. It was like I was born to be so awesome that being bilingual was part of the package deal. I don’t really bring it up, since I’ve never needed to talk to anypony not fluent in Equish or whatever it’s called in your Not-Equestria world.”

“English?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, ‘Engrish’. Point is, I’ve never really made a big deal out of it, since aside from letting me slide through some foreign language courses, it’s a mostly useless ability.”

Even though it’s basically what has been saving my ass in Spanish classes back at school, thought Sunset.

Rainbow, not noticing Sunset’s self-smirking, suddenly took the conversation about her abilities in another direction. “Hey, you said that you knew I spoke another language because the Rainbow Dash you’re more familiar with does…that means she’s also the most awesome athlete in her version of Ponyville, right?”

“Er…not exactly,” answered the unicorn. “Truth be told, I don’t think she’s ever lived in Ponyville. From what she’s told me, she moved straight from Cloudsdale to Canterlot.”

Rainbow looked at Sunset as if she was an alien…which wasn’t entirely incorrect in some respects. “She lives in Canterlot? Does that mean she’s both rich and a total jerk? Or…” Suddenly, Rainbow jumped into the air in glee. “You’re saying she’s a Wonderbolt!”

“Um…sort of?” Sunset cringed as it was becoming clear that while Rainbow had the same personality on either side of the mirrors, their secondary similarities weren’t as perfect. “Canterlot High’s sports teams are called the Wondercolts, and Rainbow is on the soccer team.”

“Oh, cool! Never heard of ‘sock-car’ but I bet she’s the best player they have! Flying and diving all over the place, making the opposing flyers wish they could soar as good as her!”

“Soccer is a ground-based sport, there’s no flying or anything on the part of the players,” clarified Sunset. “Plus, the Rainbow Dash on the soccer team? She’s not a pegasus, or any kind of winged creature. Humans can’t fly without assistance.”

“Huh?” Dash’s energetic motions pantomiming whatever she must have thought “Sock-car” was came to an abrupt halt. “But…if she’s ground bound, then…what’s she actually doing when she plays that sport?”

“She runs around chasing a white ball with black spots, trying to kick it to other players with her legs, and everybody, including her, tries to kick the ball into the opposing team’s net. Whoever scores the most points wins.”

The right eye of the pegasus in front of Sunset visibly twitched. “That sounds so very…unawesome for any version of me to do. You’re going to need to clarify this, because I refuse to believe that whoever this other RD is can consider herself an athlete simply because she can kick a ball!”

Sunset just groaned. Despite the fact that pursuing Raspberry Beryl at present was infeasible, it didn’t make the reality of the situation any better. It was infuriating; here she was in Equestria to save the life of her suffering sister, and Sunset found herself once again unable to continue her investigation. For a brief moment, the temptation to just storm into the forest after the witch presented itself, but Sunset forcefully reminded herself that she was on a tight leash. Celestia was watching.

She’s stronger than she looks. Princess Twilight’s words found their way through Sunset’s mind, and all at once she found herself calmer. It was thus that she resigned herself to another day with another of her friends’ local counterparts..

“My dear Raspberry,” said Celestia, “are you quite alright?”

“Wha? Oh, I’m fine,” replied Raspberry, though in a tone indicating that wasn’t entirely true. “It’s just…something bad happens to me every time I come here ever since last Nightmare Night.”

Celestia had been waiting for the two youngest princesses at the Everfree ruins. While it would have been simple enough to have teleported to the mirror they were going to see, Celestia had suggested they just walk there instead. It would give her a chance to have a leisurely chat with Razz, who the sun princess wished to learn more about both in terms of how she controlled dark magic without her mind being corrupted and as just an individual pony.

“That was only twice, you know. Both times involving that undead werewolf, whom you put an end to permanently.”

“That’s exactly what makes me so uneasy about coming back here,” Raspberry answered. “I did everything I vowed against doing in order to finish that bitch once and for all.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Twilight. “The last time you were here, you saved all of Equestria!”

“Only by repeating my actions in Lonesome Dove nine years ago.”

Twilight sucked in a nervous breath. “Right. Guess that puts everything about our recent return trip into perspective,”” said the purple alicorn. “Well, on the bright side, all of that nightmarish crap you unintentionally did helped everypony out in the end, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” shrugged Raspberry, “plus my father was much more of a personal demon to me than Sombra could ever be. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate the fact I’m related to that psycho, but if given a choice between the two, I’d pick Sombra over my father if it came to a confrontation. At the very least he wouldn’t blame me for my mother’s death.”

“Indeed, unlike her horrid son, Princess Obsidian Gem was satisfied with her station in life,” replied Celestia. “Though regrettably she had much less of an influence over her only child’s eventual disposition compared to his overbearing father, Prince Consort Golden Scepter.”

“I don’t remember you ever mentioning you knew of Sombra’s father,” pointed out Twilight. “Obsidian Gem is barely in any history textbook covering the period right before Queen Faust’s departure from the throne, and only because she was, as you say, Sombra’s mother. Any reference to his father is non-existent.”

“As it should be,” answered the eldest princess, her tone suddenly becoming much more cold and foreboding. “Golden Scepter had decided the title of king belonged to him and the time had come to depose of my mother and restore the ‘true’ unicorn monarchy. He claimed that the time of unification had come to an end and thus she was no longer needed. While he failed to carry out his assassination plans, it was only because his method of choice: a poisoned cup, happened to go to his wife instead of the queen. For attempted regicide and accidental equicide, Scepter was stripped of his titles and banished to…huh, I’ve quite forgotten where Mom sent that bastard. Regardless, his actions were regarded as so horrible that all traces of his existence were to be erased such as if he never existed.”

“I’m guessing Sombra didn’t take any of that well?” asked Razz.

“I can’t say for certain, as he was but a young stallion at the time who had just passed into stallionhood. However, the death of his mother and the harsh punishment of his father most likely is what drove him into seeking the power of dark magic. Of course, that was only rumor at the time, as were the rumors that he also sought comfort in the forelegs of some unknown mare who allegedly had been seen in his presence. I never put much stock in the latter, truth be told.”

“And given what kind of a monster he was, especially after he left to take over the Crystal Empire, well…I’m the enduring legacy of that, aren’t I?”

“No. Your familial connections to Sombra cannot be denied, but you have more than proven that you are far nobler than Sombra ever was.”

“Is that because she’s actually of royal blood?” inquired Twilight, “or because she publicly humiliated Prince Blueblood?”

“Either or,” was all Celestia said in response, getting a good chuckle out of everypony present.

“Oh, come on!” exclaimed Dash, “I’ll admit I’m still not sold on whatever she does being even remotely considerable a sport, but how can she…I don’t even…”

“To be honest, she’s still more successful in that regard than basically everybody else I know. She’ll probably make a living off of it, which is extremely hard to do for the average person.” Sunset and Rainbow had mutually decided to have lunch at a local restaurant called The Bannered Mare, which Sunset felt would be a good name for something from those high fantasy games Spike liked to play. It even had the same… charming pub-like quality of those types of areas, as the two mares sat at a dimly lit table surrounded by bar-goers.

“But…but…Soarin’ is like, the hottest pegasus alive as far as I’m concerned! Which means he’s a total looker from wherever you came back from! And the other me is only in an on-off relationship with him?!”

“Yep.”

“GAAAAAHH!” moaned Rainbow, planting her face into the table next to her food. “How can I be so non-committal like that!? I’d ask Soarin’ out in a heartbeat if there was a chance in Tartarus he’d say yes, but…he’s not even a Wonderbolt you said?”

“Wondercolt, and he’s on the basketball team.”

“Then he should be fawning at her feet to ask her to be his marefriend!”

“Girlfriend,” Sunset corrected.

“Whatever! And she should be saying yes! Because I don’t know what basketball is but it probably is lamer than soccer since I’m awesome and any version of me wouldn’t choose the least awesomest sport there was!”

Sunset just shook her head. Arguing with Rainbow had eventually proven fruitless, as in a way it was actually just a kind of self-criticism from one onto another. I wonder if I should tell my Rainbow Dash about this, if only to see her go into histrionics about how another version of herself wants Soarin’ so badly.

“Ugh, at least tell me she’s the fastest…whatever she is, and is a good role model for whatever version of Scootaloo is also in this horrible sounding place,” Rainbow said, staring dejectedly into her drink.

“The fastest?” Sunset had to raise an eyebrow at that. She knew pegasus ponies were capable of great speeds, but claiming to be the fastest of them all was so much the trait of a braggart that it was just silly.

“Yes, the fastest.”

“I’m afraid not even remotely - nor does she have any interest in it,” Sunset explained. The expression of mixed shock and horror on Rainbow’s face made Sunset break out into laughter. Accounting for the differences between the facial structures of humans and ponies, it was a perfect match to human Dash’s face back when she discovered during the sleepover her DVD of The Matrix: Revolutions was in fact unreadable by the DVD player.

Rainbow was practically begging when she was able to speak again, “Please, do not tell me the fastest in that other world is Lightning Dust. I don’t think I could live that down.”

Way to kill my humor, Rainbow, thought Sunset, knowing there was no way Dash could have known about what the human Lightning Dust had done. “Okay, it’s not Lightning Dust, and the less said about her the better, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do, since I’m betting she didn’t get the reality check the one I know went through.”

“Raspberry Beryl didn’t happen to be involved, was she?” Sunset asked, suspicious of just what that “reality check” had been.

“Not…exactly, what makes you-oh, right, you’ve been going after her all week,” Rainbow’s jovial tone she had throughout the conversation vanished, and the prismatic pegasus gave Sunset a look that was deadly serious. “I don’t know what your beef with her is - and I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna tell me - but I will tell you straight up that if you want to mess with her, you’re gonna mess with me, got that?”

“Yeah, yeah, Applejack read me the riot act yesterday, right before your sister and her friends accidently set off a bomb trying to buck apples.”

And just like that, Rainbow’s expression went from deadly serious to complete stupefaction. “Scootaloo did what?! Well, that explains why her mom came to me asking why she looked like she’d been at ground zero of an explosion.”

Sunset blanched. Scootaloo’s mother?

Rainbow noticed Sunset reacting to the mention of Scootaloo’s name, and she didn’t like being out of the loop. “Shimmer, if there’s something I need to know about my adoptive little sister that you’re not telling me, you better tell me right now or so help me I’ll-“

Sunset waved her forelegs in front of her face, trying to ward off the angered Rainbow. “No, no! It’s not about Scootaloo. Well, not the one you know.”

“You mean this ‘other’ Scootaloo?”

Sunset took a breath, readying herself for the long and difficult story. “Yeah, you see, the one I’m more familiar with is your ‘other’ self’s adopted younger sister. Only, that Scootaloo had a much different mother.” Sunset proceeded to give the brief basics of what she’d been told by human Rainbow about how human Scootaloo’s mother had basically come from a broken home. About how providence had been fortunate that Rainbow’s mother had found the abandoned baby within only a few hours of her abandonment, and how within the year the parenting rights had been given to Rainbow’s family, shortly before they moved away to Canterlot. She even mentioned how Scootaloo’s biological mother had tried to take her back several years later, and how Rainbow herself had stood by her sister’s side during that little reunion.

The normally boisterous Rainbow – the pony version – sat there, evidently digesting what she’d just heard. It actually touched Sunset how even though the story hadn’t been about the filly this Rainbow knew, it was as if Dash was concerned about her as a sister all the same.

“Wow, I…just, wow….” was all Rainbow could manage. “My Scootaloo - obviously she’s not really adopted, we’re just part of a local Big Brother/Big Sister program - didn’t come from parents like that. Flower Shower and Slipstream, they love Scootaloo but aren’t around usually because of their jobs as trainers for localized weather teams. The fact they willingly entrust her into my care, plus the fact I really do think of her as the little sister I never had... it’s rough hearing about any kind of Scoots getting treated badly. More often than not, I worry I’m not doing enough by her as her foster sister, y’know?”

“Yeah….” replied Sunset, though there was no way she was going to let anypony other than Twilight and the other princesses know about how she herself was in a similar position to Rainbow as an older foster sister. Or how that was the entire reason she had come back to Equestria in the first place.

Just then, a pale lavender pegasus with cornflower hair came in, antsy about something. “Dash! There you are, we’ve been looking all over for you!”

“Oh, what’s up, Cloudchaser?”

“It’s another rogue storm coming in, apparently those goofballs up at the Cloudsdale weather factory sent too much in our direction!”

Rainbow facehoofed. “Again?! Gonna have to send a letter about this - it’s the third time that’s happened this month!” Dash then turned to Sunset and said, “Hey, I gotta take care of this, but I’ll pay for lunch. I guess Twilight was right about you, Sunset: you aren’t what she originally described you as.”

“Uh, thanks?” replied Sunset, slightly confused but happy to have left a good impression all the same.

“But,” added Rainbow, “don’t go after Razz like she’s your enemy. She wouldn’t hurt a fly if she could avoid it, so whatever your deal is with her, use words to solve it, not violence.”

“Er, sure thing!” However, Sunset wasn’t about to let go of her suspicions about Raspberry, not when she still matched the description of the evil presence Twily described as the one hurting her in her dreams. Even so, she thought, everypony I’ve spoken to thus far has vouched for Raspberry. It might do to visit the other two members of Twilight’s little group. If Raspberry hasn’t gotten to Fluttershy or Rarity, then they must have something I can use against her. And once I have proof she’s the one torturing Twily, I’ll take that dark bitch down myself!

Thursday, PM: Sitting in the Summer Sun

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Thursday, PM: Sitting in the Summer Sun

Sunset knew she was going to have a difficult time trying to meet with Fluttershy. Given how much of a wallflower the human Fluttershy was, the unicorn could only imagine the degree of shyness that the pony version would be. And yet, that was the only constant Sunny could feel was assured with regards to what she knew of the chiffon-haired female as something she had experience dealing with.

Often, during those rough times shortly after her place as Canterlot High’s tyrant bitch had been torn down and all she’d had in terms of friends was the five students who had befriended Twilight, Sunset had wondered what her friends would be as ponies. For the most part, her only clues aside from their personalities had been their hybrid forms, and even then aside from the pony ears and the absurdly long instant ponytail hairstyles, the only non-human features any of them had gained were the wings on Rainbow and Fluttershy. Off of Sunset’s own guesses, she’d easily predicted the sub-species of Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow, but she was of the opinion that, somehow, there had been some mistake when it came to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, in that the latter had been given the former’s wings. It was a logical guess, since Pinkie was super hyperactive and managed to move at speeds beyond comprehension. On the other hand, Fluttershy was much more of a flower child in that she had a natural affinity for animals – often hiding three of four of her “friends” in her backpack during the days when she’d had no human friends (which had largely been Sunset’s fault) – and so seemed as if she’d been meant to be an earth pony and somebody had given her Pinkie’s wings instead.

It had sure been a surprise to see Fluttershy really was a pegasus, as her human counterpart’s hybrid form had suggested, thought Sunset, herself a hybrid of sorts now in both worlds. As a human, she still had equine blood, a pony’s hearing range, and her magic; here in Equestria she was stumbling over being more culturally attuned to that of humans than the social norms of her own race and species. On that note, what of the possibility that she wasn’t even the first? Sunset still lacked a definitive answer to whether or not Musica Allegra had traveled to the human world through unknown means, which in turn left her unsure that Tavi was entirely human herself. So many questions Sunset would have liked answered, but if only-

“STOP!” cried out a familiar voice, halting Sunset in her tracks...as did a butter-yellow hoof connected to a pegasus Sunset could have sworn wasn’t nearby a second ago.

“Huh? Fluttershy, where did you-?” started Sunset, but she glanced down and understood immediately. Right in front of the ponies was a mama duck and her ducklings. Sunset had to question why the little flock had to cross at that specific point at that specific moment, but she did so internally as to not offend Fluttershy.

“You really should be more careful, Sunset,” said Fluttershy after the ducks were safely on their way. “You never know what you’ll encounter if you’re not keeping your eyes on the road.”

“Uh, sure, thanks for the tip,” replied the unicorn, sheepishly grinning at having to accept advice on the obvious.

“You’re welcome. Now, I’m sure you’re going this way to see me?”

“Well, er, yes. How did you know?”

Fluttershy shrugged. “Generally, ponies don’t come out this way unless they’re coming to visit. My house is somewhat close to the Everfree, so unless you have business in the forest, I figured I’m the reason you’re here.”

“You live near the Everfree Forest?” skeptically asked Sunset. It made no sense - why would anybody even remotely like Fluttershy live near a forest full of dangerous creatures?

The pegasus seemed to read Sunset’s mind. “Most of the animals in the forest aren’t really aggressive towards ponies; they stay in the forest and ponies stay in town. Besides, a lot of the creatures in the forest are also my friends, so it’s beneficial for them to have me live nearby if they need my help.”

Sunset just nodded in faux understanding. “Uh-huh, sure. Anyway, the main reason I came out to see you is…well, just that. After spending some time with Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow, I figured I might as well spend time with you, if only because I’m friends with another version of you.” Sunset tactfully decided to leave out her ulterior motive for her visit. Fluttershy probably wouldn’t take being used to gather dirt on another pony very well.

“Oh, to be honest, I am sort of curious about the other Fluttershy that Twilight mentioned having met on the other side of that mirror. Of course, she only spent like, three days with her, maybe less, so I didn’t want to be too intrusive about the matter.” The pegasus seemed to shrink back, her bashfulness subtly influencing her to use the overhang from her bangs as a shield to hide behind.

Definitely Fluttershy, thought Sunset with a smile. “Well, I’ve spent lots of time with the other version of you, so if you want I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can.”

“How wonderful!” exclaimed Fluttershy, her wings popping open in excitement. “I was just about to have tea when I saw you about to collide with the ducks, so we can chat over the fresh pot I just made.”

“That does sound wonderful.”

As it turned out, Fluttershy practically lived in a cottage that was designed more for her animal friends than herself. Perched on top of a small hill and only accessible directly by crossing a bridge set over a small pond, Fluttershy’s house seemed perfect for the chiffon-haired mare. Inside, it proved to be far more spacious than it looked from the outside, with a large main room and stairs leading up to a small second floor that couldn’t have contained more than her bedroom and an accompanying bathroom. The bottom floor, aside from the aforementioned receiving/living room, had an attached kitchenette that was well-furnished despite Sunset not being clear on just how Fluttershy made a living, and a guest room off to the side.

“Angel, I’m back!” called out Fluttershy.

“Oh, Angel’s here, too?” asked Sunset, curious as to what Fluttershy’s brother looked like.

“Yes, of course, he-“ began the pegasus, but was cut off by a loud squeaking noise. Sunset’s head snapped to the direction of the noise and saw a small bunny rabbit dressed like some hardcore action hero and some crudely assembled “weapons”.

It then occurred to Sunset that, just as how Spike didn’t translate over the dimensional rift as a pony, clearly Angel was also an exception. The Angel personas of both worlds obviously liked those violent action films (and certainly had Fluttershy counterparts who disapproved of such viewings), with this world’s Angel Bunny deciding to go all Rambo on her butt.

In response to the screaming vermin about to latch itself to her face, Sunset could only wonder: Why didn’t I go see Rarity instead?

For nine years, Raspberry’s self-esteem rarely was anything above the point of self-hatred. Not just because of her fearsome powers, but because she simply didn’t like being reminded of her relation to Sombra every single time she had to look at herself in the mirror.. Of course, after she found herself accepted by the most important ponies in the country as a friend, acceptance of her real self came shortly after. Now it didn’t pain her to look at her true appearance in the mirror, but she still felt more comfortable in her “normal” guise all the same.

With all of that in mind, Raspberry never expected to be put into a position where instead of her reflection giving her problems, it was the actual mirror itself that coldly reminded her she walked a different path than everypony else.

“Well, it’s…unique, I’ll give it that!” said Razz, voicing the only words she could find to actually describe the magical artifact she’d been brought out to see.

“And certainly Sombra’s, too,” added Celestia, with Twilight nodding in agreement. Obviously they’d been hoping for their local dark magic expert to have a more detailed first reaction to the mirror, given it allegedly was powerful enough to cross the boundaries of time and space.

The unicorn sighed. “I know that wasn’t what you wanted to hear, your highness-“

“Please, we’re all princesses here,” pointed out Twilight. “We don’t need to be so formal.”

“Oh, right. Anyway, ladies, I know that wasn’t what you wanted to hear me say, but while yes, I can certainly feel his presence in the magic imbued into this mirror, it’s not immediately clear just what he actually did to it or what this mirror even does.”

“Sunset Shimmer - who I’m sure you remember from the little ‘incident’ you had with her yesterday - claims this mirror is a portal between worlds.” For a moment, Raspberry wondered whether she did the right thing in telling Princess Celestia about the tense stand off between herself and Shimmer. She still wasn’t sure about the recently returned unicorn’s intentions, but she didn’t want to bring Celestia’s wrath down on her over something as trivial as that. That Celestia let the matter rest as she continued speaking indicated that she was of the same mind on that point. “This one in particular apparently shares the same destination as Platinum's Mirror, which until now was thought to be the only link between the worlds of ponies and humans.”

“Which is the place Sunset came from, right?” Raspberry asked. Of course, Celestia had already given her the basic rundown about her wayward pupil and why she was suddenly back. “So, does somepony want to clue me in on how all this relates to her stalking me?” Raspberry had noticed Sunset at it again today, moving with the crowds in Ponyville; her cold, calculating cyan eyes never leaving her.

Twilight glanced at Celestia with uncertainty, but with a nod from the senior princess, Twilight turned that look over to Raspberry. “Celestia told you about her foster sister - my human counterpart - back in that world, right?” Raspberry nodded, no stranger to terrible nightmares herself. “Sunset seems convinced that you are the one causing her nightmares.”

Raspberry’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Twilight in disbelief. “What?! What possible basis would she have to deduce that?”

“Sunset gave me a very detailed description of her sister’s tormentor…” Twilight chewed her lip, “which also happened to be a perfect description of your, uh… other form.”

Raspberry promptly brought her rear end down, suddenly finding it very difficult to stand. She looked back and forth between the two other princesses, meeting their gazes with wide eyes. But Raspberry only saw the accusing stares of a crowd of ponies in a dreary town. “I… I wouldn’t… Twilight, you know I wouldn’t!”

A white hoof quickly found its place on her shoulder, and Raspberry realized she was shaking. “Relax, Raspberry,” said Celestia, “Twilight and I do not believe you are capable of doing such a thing intentionally.”

Ah. There’s the catch. Celestia’s last word echoed in Raspberry’s mind. Seeing the change in her face, Celestia continued. “It is as you once said: dark magic doesn’t play by the rules of normal magic.”

“It’s entirely possible that dark magic has different effects on the dimensional barriers than regular magic,” Twilight added. “The fact that Sombra was able to use dark magic to create his own mirror portal that operates on different rules than Princess Platinum’s is evidence to that.”

“Furthermore, your own dark magic powers are still not entirely under your control. Your recent trip to Lonesome Dove--”

“Has been discussed to death!” Raspberry exclaimed, staring at her hooves when she realized she was shouting. She felt a familiar wing draped across her back, and looked over appreciatively at Heliodor. “Even that was a pretty isolated incident. If dark magic has crossed the borders of time and space to attack a human - intentionally or not - it could threaten reality itself.”

“Which is why it is vital that we investigate this mirror. Thoroughly,” Celestia said, giving Raspberry a calm, grave look. “If we don’t get to the bottom of this, more than just one innocent life may beat risk. You’re the only one with the ability to uncover Sombra’s machinations.”

Gathering her strength, Raspberry stood and gave Celestia as confident a look as she could muster. “Y-you’re right,” she said, taking another glance at the accursed looking glass. “But first, let’s find a way to move it. If we’re going to be unlocking this thing’s secrets, I’d rather do so in a controlled environment.”

Sunset slowly started to wake up, not quite sure what was going on. The last thing she could remember was visiting Fluttershy. More specifically, her pet rabbit Angel deciding to latch itself to Sunset’s face like some sort of sci-fi alien facehugger and not letting go until Fluttershy had given what she later described as “The Stare” to the rodent. After that, having tea with the pegasus had been quite nice. They’d talked for a bit about Fluttershy’s human counterpart, during which the butter pegasus was saddened her human self’s relationship with her parents wasn’t as happy as her own. Everything that happened after that was fuzzy to Sunset. It was like she’d been hit from behind with a steel pip-

Oh, shit! internally shouted the unicorn, immediately scrambling to her hooves despite the pain.For whatever reason, somebody must have knocked her out when she’d gotten back into town. Evidenced by the change in surroundings, she had been taken and dumped in a bedroom. Admittedly, it was a well-kept bedroom and she hadn’t been tied down, restrained, or (much to her relief) stabbed, as had been the case last time she’d been hit with something from behind. But that didn’t change the fact she’d been effectively kidnapped. Is it because I’m from the human world? Or because somepony knows what I did all those years ago? Or is it even worse than that?!

Loud shouting could be heard from outside the door. Sunset couldn’t tell if she knew the voices – she probably didn’t, given the only ponies she’d talked to so far numbered a little more than ten in this town – but one of them was very clearly pissed off at the other one.

“YOU DID WHAT?!”

“I had to! Do you know what she could tell us? She could validate everything we know!”

“For the record I had absolutely nothing to do with her actions,” a third voice added itself to the others.

The arguing got louder and harder to make out, so Sunset dared put an ear to the door. She suddenly heard one of the angered party stomping towards the door, and Sunset moved out of the way just in time before it swung open forcefully. She couldn’t believe the pony who stood in the doorway.

“D-Deputy Sandalwood?!” gasped the stunned unicorn. There was no question about it, despite being a pony, the mare looked virtually identical to the cop from the Equestria County Sheriff’s Department that had visited her home shortly before the whole incident with “The Club”. Brown hair in the same general style and those distinctive violet eyes, tied together with a tan fur coat that looked almost like a human skin tone, she had to be Sandalwood’s pony counterpart.

“Uh…have we met?” asked Sandalwood.

“No. I mean, yes! Well, sort of. It’s complicated-“ sputtered Sunset, unable to form a cohesive sentence.

“Technically, she’s met the human version of you, Sandy,” drawled a familiar weary voice, drawing out her pronunciation of “human” to emphasize it. Sure enough, Octavia came into view. “She’s already done it with me, though to be fair the princess did try to cover for her.”

“Really?!” exclaimed Sandalwood, her wide grin punctuated with a strange noise Sunset could only describe as a *squee*. The moment was short lived, however, as the tan pony recollected herself. “I mean, that’s great and all, but the fact is Lyra still kidnapped somepony on a whim!”

Octavia nodded before turning to Sunset. “I do apologize about that, when I was talking to Lyra this morning I sort of let slip a few details from our previous…’conversation’ as it were, and so she figured out you’re from this ‘human’ world she and Sandalwood here are obsessed with.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sunset replied, only to get a particular glare from Octavia.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t lie to me,” the earth pony stated simply. The cold tone in her voice reminded Sunset of the week she, Twily and Tavi had pretty much given each other the cold shoulder after the whole incident with The Club. It wasn’t anything she wanted to relive again.

“Planning to hit me from behind again?” asked Sunset in turn, more to anypony who was listening than specifically Octavia, though the earth pony was the one that reacted.

“I...hadn’t expected Lyra to go so far,” Octavia said sadly.

“I get the feeling things got off on the wrong foot,” Sandalwood interjected.

“Ya think?” Sunset snarled.

“Look, Lyra probably didn’t mean any harm,” the tan earth pony admitted, “but she also tends to not think things through when she’s excited. Like, she’ll…okay, have you met Pinkie Pie?”

“Uh…Yes?”

“Basically that happens.”

“Ah.”

Just then, Lyra herself stumbled into view, making it very crowded in front of the bedroom. Her horn was aglow with a yellow-gold aura, holding an ice pack to the side of her face. “Yeah, sorry about knocking you out with a two-by-four and, well, kidnapping you. Sandalwood just now reminded me why that’s not a good idea, if you’re wondering about the ice pack.”

Sunset just shook her head. “Look, what do you ponies even want from me? All I got is that you think I’ve got the answers to whatever it is you want to ask about humans and so you dragged me here, but is that all you want? To ask me some questions?”

Sandalwood blushed slightly, while Lyra’s head bobbed up and down to the point her head was just a motion blur. Octavia, in turn, facehoofed. “That’s their way of saying yes.”

Shimmer just sighed. “Fine, I think I can answer a few,” she started, before she remembered this was pony Octavia, who might possibly know things not in any of the documents Sunset had read on the history of one Musica Allegra. “But I get to ask some questions of my own, got that?” she insisted.

“Fair enough, I suppose,” answered Sandy.

“I fail to see how this is any better than where it was before,” commented Twilight.

While the three princesses had agreed the mirror needed to be moved, Twilight had not exactly been supportive of the idea of moving it to what amounted to a different part of the Everfree ruins. In this case, the mirror had been relocated to the only other location in the area of any recent importance: Raspberry’s old safe house.

“Oh, come on, it’s perfect!” replied Razz, with Heliodor chirping agreement from his place on the old birdstand. “I still come out here occasionally to make some crystals if Rarity or anypony else wants fake precious stones, so I still maintain all the defensive measures, and it’s a closed structure so nopony can get in even if they knew what’s in here now. “

“Or if they’re too tall, of course,” added Celestia with a laugh from outside. At one time Raspberry had claimed the one still-standing cottage in the ruins as her own. It had been just the right size for her gem forgery operations and out of the way of civilization that nopony would really notice the signs of life in the otherwise dead ex-capital. However, structurally the cottage was the exact same as it had been a thousand years ago, and back then it wasn’t normal for royalty, much less the alicorns, to visit the lower class residences. Thus, Celestia was in fact too large to even fit through the door, as the top of the doorframe only came up to her withers. Razz herself only cleared the ceiling by about a foot, which was still more than Twilight, her slightly larger frame and horn making it so she had to turn her head at an awkward angle to get through the doorways.

“Or that too,” snickered Raspberry. “But seriously, I’ll need to get this thing into working order if we’re to learn anything from it.”

“Wait, how do you know it’s broken?” asked Twilight. “Some time ago you didn’t even believe it was a portal!”

“I can gauge its magic,” Razz tapped her horn as if to remind Twilight. “Same way you knew something was wrong with me way back when our horns accidently touched.”

“Oh, yeah, when I was more interested in examining how Heliodor could perch on your horn!” Twilight laughed. Heliodor rolled his eyes at the chuckling mares, reminded of one of the few times he didn’t like being the center of attention. Ignoring the bird, Twilight continued. “Anyway, how do you plan on fixing it?”

“Well, it’s not really broken; after all, it was able to get Sunset through to Equestria and presumably it will allow her back through, but that’s really all it can do. Sombra hasn’t touched this mirror for well over a thousand years, and while I can’t say for certain, a possible second dark force may have exerted itself on this thing.”

“Maybe it was Nightmare Moon’s magic?” suggested Celestia. “If Sombra had left the mirror when he went to take over the Crystal Empire, it would have been sitting in the castle when my sister and I had our little ‘fight’.”

Raspberry nodded. “That would do it. In fact, I think Sombra knew about it, too.”

A solitary eyebrow made its way into Celestia’s ethereal mane as she strained to get a better look into the abode. “Sombra knew about the coming of Nightmare Moon?”

“Yeah. Don’t ask me how, but Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon are clearly depicted on here as separate entities.” Using her hoof, Razz directed Twilight towards the two blue alicorns carved into the mirror.

“They’re both here,” Twilight called out to Celestia. “Along with you, as we all guessed, and Queen Faust.”

“My guess is that these are what keeps the mirror stable,” theorized Razz. “I can sense dark magic having been stored in them, like some sort of balancing act, but after a thousand years plus of neglect, abuse, and interference from other powers, it’s pretty much drained.”

“But…would it be a good idea to try and salvage it?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Based on what else I can see about this mirror’s enchantments, only a pony of dark magic skill on par with Sombra’s can actually control it. Luckily for everypony, the only living being who fits that description is yours truly.”

“I think we need another pony’s help as well,” said Celestia. “After all, Sunset Shimmer knew enough of this mirror from the human world that she was able to come through it, but she is no dark magic prodigy. Given she is also trying to understand what’s going on between realities, her knowledge on the subject should be of great assistance.”

“Great idea!” exclaimed Twilight. “She can get her answers at the same time we do, it’d be perfect!”

“What do you mean you don’t know what happened?!” shouted Sunset.

The maize unicorn sat on a relatively comfy green armchair in Lyra and Sandalwood’s living room, facing Octavia and the aforementioned ponies on a similarly colored couch. The room was moderately decorated with a fine wooden coffee table in the middle complete with a bouquet of roses as a centerpiece. A small fireplace was across from the couches, and behind them a similarly tasteful wooden bookshelf was against the wall. Though, Sunset wasn’t sure why all of the books were in a large pile on the floor instead of on the bookshelf where they belonged.

“Nopony knows what happened!” retorted Octavia. “Seriously, you’re asking about Musica Allegra, one of the biggest enigmas in Equestriani history.”

“Uh, didn’t she write the national anthem of Equestria?” pointed out Lyra, who wasn’t sitting on the couch like a normal pony, but instead slouched in a way humans with bad posture might sit.

“Well, yes, she is the one who wrote In Regnum Aeternum Solis, and a bunch of other famous works, but nopony knows what became of her.”

“Why?” asked Sunset. She didn’t know what to feel; frustration seemed to be what she leaned towards the most but at the same time she was baffled. The one pony counterpart that would have answered the questions she had about Octavia’s heritage…and she evidently mysteriously vanished a thousand years ago.

“There’s a lot of bad shit that went down a thousand years ago, which given you claim to be Equestriani in origin you should know about,” said Sandalwood, “but I’m presuming that between the whole deal with the Crystal Empire and then the Lunar Rebellion and Civil War, this Musica just got lost in all the chaos.”

“Hey!” snapped Octavia, “You two have given me enough trouble today because of your interests in cryptozoology--”

“What’s that?” Sandalwood asked.

“It’s the study of things that supposedly don’t exist,” Octavia snapped. “For example, Lyra’s concept of common sense. And since you two have been blathering on about your human nonsense, at least let me have a few seconds to talk about music history with somepony who actually wants to know!” She then cleared her throat before reciting from memory. “Musica Allegra was a unicorn born during the earliest years of the newly-founded Dominion of Equestria, a member of one of the prominent unicorn noble houses whose talents revolved around music. Musica in particular made a name for herself by writing such pieces as In Regnum Aeternum Solis and the Banquet of Clouds, the former of course being named the national anthem by the newly-crowned Princess Celestia at the time. However, fate seemed to go against her when she ended up being caught in the Crystal Empire years later when it was seized by King Sombra, and while she is one of the few ponies known to have managed to escape before it was cursed to vanish for a thousand years, the experience was said to have traumatized her and shortly after the rise of Nightmare Moon, she simply vanished into the pages of history.”

“And nobo-sorry, nopony noticed that the most important musician in all of Equestria just simply stopped being relevant?” Sunset had to insist on making sure that Musica Allegra, both a possible household name in her day and part of an important noble bloodline, just up and dropped off the face of the earth.

“Well, all that’s known is that she was a much different mare after she’d somehow managed to escape the fate of the Crystal Empire. Some accounts even stated that after her return from the Crystal Empire, she couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as musical instruments or even music itself,” Octavia snorted, as though the idea was completely ridiculous. “In any case, given the horrors as retold by some of the crystal ponies, can you really blame her for wanting to just be nopony special when she was thrown from one terrifying war to another in the span of two or so months?”

“Replace ‘war’ with ‘situation’ and I can say I’ve been in a similar predicament,” snarked Sandalwood, to which Sunset had to wonder if it had anything to do with what she’d heard from other ponies…and if Raspberry had a hoof in that as well.

“Well, okay, point is we answered that question!” Lyra impatiently interrupted. “Anyway, our turn for asking!”

“Alright, what is it you want to know now?” countered Sunset with a sigh. “What does the spleen do? How the education system works?” All the questions so far had been about how hands worked, so it hadn’t been too bad.

“What do humans look like?” the celeste-hued mare asked.

Sunset blinked, trying to comprehend what she was asked. “Come again?”

“Simple, what do humans look like?”

“Yeah, sure, um…” Sunset rocked from side to side in her armchair. How much could she reveal? Certainly, given how the existence of humanity wasn’t common knowledge, Celestia wanted to keep it under wraps. But Lyra and Sandalwood had already proven they knew a lot about humans from their own limited resources. In fact, based on the sizable collection of documents, books and other research materials, they were a long way towards figuring out the truth long ago, even if she’d not arrived back in Equestria herself.

Furthermore, they had at least answered the question of Musica Allegra’s existence somewhat, so even though they’d kidnapped her, it was just Lyra being paranoid, and Sandy’s mean right hook had delivered enough comeuppance for that. Plus, even though Octavia wasn’t interested, the presence of the earth pony gave Sunset unintended guilt trips over how she’d last left her cousin, even though it had been a necessary action.

Glancing up, Sunset guessed there was enough space between the floor and ceiling for her to try and make an illusory image of her human form. “Okay, stand back….”

“Don’t need to tell me twice, given the last time I failed to heed that kind of advice,” said Sandalwood, incidentally copying local wise elder figure Zecora’s rhyming speech pattern.

Sunset made sure the other three ponies were a safe distance away from her, before she closed her eyes and concentrated on generating a magical image of her human form. Only she felt something was off as to where her magic was going. She didn’t dare cancel the spell, one of the first things she learned about magic was that canceling a spell would end poorly if you couldn’t properly redirect the magic, which you could only do if you knew where the magic was going in the first place.

Except she realized her front legs were no longer holding her up, yet her face wasn’t smashing to the ground. And then the spell felt…finished. Opening her eyes, she noticed the three ponies cowering below her. Looking down at her feet, Sunset realized she had somehow turned herself into her human form. It wasn’t a perfect transformation – her skin tone was the same maize hue as her natural fur coat – but mercifully she was still fully clothed, with pants (and undergarments), shirt, and her inherited bomber jacket.

The spell lasted only for a moment, though, as just as she had turned human again, she radiated a bright glow and had been returned to pony form.

“Wh-what?” gasped Lyra, both excited out of her mind and stunned at what Sunset had just done.

“I…I honestly don’t know!” blurted Sunset. Shapeshifting had not been her gameplan, and it freaked her out that she had turned human and back so easily. “Look, er, it probably would be for the best if nobody here ever says a word about this, got it?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” said Sandalwood. Sunset could only wonder just how much the mare got around with her kinds of experiences.

“Well, moving on, then, is there anything you wanted to know?” Sunset said, as she turned to the aromatherapist.

“Well, this might seem silly, but...would you say that you’re happy with your life as a human?”

Sunset was at a loss for an answer. At first she was going to answer in the affirmative, after all the entire reason she was here in the first place was to stop Twily’s nightmares from driving her to suicide. But the more Sunset thought about it, the more she could think of ways she wasn’t happy compared to her former life as a pony. Before her escape through the mirror, she’d never had to live a life constructed of lies that even those closest to her could never know. She’d never had to hide who she really was or her powers. A small voice in the back of her head never made itself known every day, reminding her that no matter how hard she tried, she was always going to be an outcast. That those she held dear would break off all connections with her when they eventually learned the truth that she was a midget horse living under the stolen identity of another girl. She always countered in this mental battle by pointing out her five closest friends already knew that stuff and they didn’t really care, but the same could not be said for the family she had longed for ever since she understood what being an orphan meant.

Sandalwood misinterpreted Sunset’s hesitation as merely trying to come up with a simple answer. “It’s just something I’m curious about, just in case somepony else ends up living as a human and would need to know how easy it would be to adapt to such a life.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” replied Sunset, “but really I’m not quite sure how to respond given my experience.”

“Well, I think it would also be for the best if we all went our separate ways and went to bed,” suggested Octavia, still shaken by Sunset’s earlier transformation.

Wordlessly, the other ponies agreed and Sunset was on her merry way back to the spare bed at Sugarcube Corner. But sleep didn’t come easy, partly because it had still been relatively early, but also because Sunset had spent much of her time curled up into a ball, having a major identity crisis on her hands…hooves…whatever.

Human or pony…which do I identify more with? fretted her thoughts. She had everything she ever wanted back in the human world. A home. Friends. Family. But she couldn’t just cut ties with her pony side, her true state as a unicorn still very much defined her no matter which form she was in. But how much of me is still a unicorn anymore? Sleep eventually came to her uneasily.

“Celestia, a word?”

Celestia groggily woke up, blinking her eyes under her sleeping mask before just pushing it up to her forehead. “And you couldn’t just talk to me in my dreams…why, Lu-lu?”

“Because this is a very serious matter, Celly,” replied the night matriarch. “It concerns your former pupil, Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia’s brow furrowed, and her half-asleep gaze took on more concerned features. “What about her?”

Luna shuffled her front hooves. “It’s…her dreams. As part of my duties, you know it’s my job to make sure ponies sleep with a clear consciousness, which Sunset currently doesn’t have.”

“And your point being?”

“How do I say this…um, to put it bluntly, her dreams are hard for me to read.”

Celestia sat up at that remark. “Come again?”

The younger princess sighed. “It’s like she’s partly dreaming like a pony, but partly…not. I can’t really say I’ve ever encountered anything like this before.”

Celestia gave a small smile. “Because you’ve never encountered a pony who has gone through as much change as Sunset Shimmer. Right now she is on the verge of what I feel will be one of her most daunting challenges yet, one even Twilight hasn’t faced. She must challenge her own perceptions of herself.”

“Do you think she can manage?”

Celestia simply leaned back in her bed and reapplied her sleeping mask. “For good or for ill, I always have faith in my students.”

Friday, AM: The Way we Laughed As One

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Friday, AM: The Way We Laughed as One

Sunset Shimmer looked around. She was surrounded by the ruins of a castle; faded, decaying walls consumed by nature. Castle Everfree. What struck her as odd, though, was that she wasn’t a pony. She stood on two legs and wore the clothes she had when she first entered Cavalcanti's mirror. And yet, she wasn’t fully human either. Sunset could still feel her pony ears on her head, and her skin was the same maize yellow she had as a unicorn. She was both species and neither at once.

It was only when Sunset emerged from the depths of the ruins and found herself standing on a terrace overlooking a vast landscape that she realized she wasn’t in Castle Everfree at all. The castle she stood in was on the side of a mountain.

“How pathetic,” intoned a dark, distorted voice laced with venom. Sunset whirled around and found herself face to face with what could only be described as a monster. A monster called Raspberry Beryl.

The dark, twisted pony stood as tall as Celestia, perhaps taller. Her colors were comprised of darker reds and blacks, as opposed to the raspberry and cornflower blue that she wore normally. A pair of leathery, bat-like wings were flared up, and the monster grinned at Sunset with a mouthful of sharp fangs. Her terrifying red eyes were ablaze with the telltale green and purple smoke of dark magic, but worst of all was her horn. The thing was curved and filed to deadly sharpness, stained red with the blood of numerous victims.

“You…” Despite the terror threatening to consume her, Sunset managed to summon forth a bit of righteous anger as she realized this was the very same creature tormenting Twily’s dreams. “You leave my sister the hell alone!”

The monstrous Raspberry just laughed. “Or what?”

Sunset didn’t waste time with idle threats, instead choosing to follow through with a real one as she focused magical energy into her hands. Despite her altered form, it was easier than when she’d done it in the human world. Recalling everything Celestia had taught her about combating dark magic, Sunset hit the demon with a full blast of purifying arcane energy.

Raspberry was not impressed. “You used to be so much more. What happened?”

Sunset wasn’t giving the monster the satisfaction of an answer. She just started channeling more magic through her hands. She was going to need a lot more power if she was going to do any damage.

“Oh, that’s right: you found friends. You found a family,” Raspberry sneered. “But where has that gotten you? The old Sunset Shimmer wouldn’t have wasted her time helping them. You were ruthless! So, what happened?”

“I was a different person!” Sunset shouted as she launched another, stronger attack at the demon. This time, it exploded in a cloud of smoke and for a moment Sunset thought it was over.

“No…”

But then the smoke cleared and in Raspberry’s place, Sunset saw five other figures lying motionless on the ground. Sunset ran toward them and found the bodies of Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity strewn around her.

“You just knew the importance of power.”

Trembling, Sunset looked down at her hands and saw red skin and claws. “N-no…” Sunset turned and tried to run, but found the way blocked by a mirror. A terrible red demon looked back at her through the looking glass with flaming hair and familiar cyan eyes. Sunset took a step back and realized she was looking at Sombra’s mirror. Sunset saw the effigies of the alicorns - of her beloved mentor - bound in chains, but Sombra wasn’t the one holding them. She was.

Her demonic reflection grinned. “Why deny who you are?”

“BECAUSE I’M NOT THAT PERSON!” Sunset struck the mirror with all of her might, shattering it and the demon within. Blinding sunlight shone forth from the mirror’s frame, and without a second thought, Sunset ran through.

Hoping to have finally escaped her tormenter, Sunset took in her new surroundings. She was back in the human world, standing on a paved road in the middle of nowhere. Sunset saw specks of red at her feet, and looked up to find a bloody trail leading down the expanse of pavement. She followed it to its source, her heart beating more and more quickly.

“If you’d really forsake your true potential for them…”

The corpse of a human lay on the asphalt before her. Blood and bits of bone were everywhere, their limbs splayed out in ways not meant to be. The person was so thoroughly mangled that it was impossible to even tell whether they had been a man or a woman. Sunset’s stomach churned and she could feel the bile working its way up her throat, but she forced herself to keep it down.

“...then you’d better prepare to pay the price of weakness!”

Then Sunset saw there was still hair on the corpse’s head: dark purple with streaks of magenta.

“OH GOD NO!!!” Sunset fell to her knees. She gasped for air as she shivered and cried, “No no no oh God oh please no please…”

With what she had feared most now lying in front of her, Sunset was unable to register anything else. She didn’t notice when the smokey blackness rose from below to claim the corpse in front of her. She didn’t care when that blackness then became the demonic form of Raspberry Beryl. Only when the monster charged forward did Sunset finally look up, but by then it was too late.

Her breath was cut off as the creature’s twisted horn penetrated her chest. The pain was excruciating, but Sunset couldn’t scream. Not even as her blood seeped out onto the demon pony’s horn. Not even when the horn pushed deeper and pierced her racing heart…

Gasping for breath, Sunset’s eyes shot open, and the unicorn sat up in a cold sweat. Shaking, Sunset brought a hoof up to her chest, and felt her rapidly beating heart. More importantly, her chest was whole. For some time Sunset just sat in her bed with teary eyes, breathing heavily in the cold, wet darkness of the guest bedroom. If that’s what Twily goes through every night, it’s no wonder she tried to….

Sunset couldn’t finish that thought, and it was all she could do to race to the bathroom across the hall before she vomited. I can’t afford to waste any more time, thought Sunset as she rinsed out her mouth. Indeed, it was getting dangerously close to Sunday, and the morning after that the rest of her family would be home from Italy. If she didn’t figure this out before then, there was no telling what would happen.

Fortunately, there was still one more pony Sunset could go to for information on her enemy. During her conversation with Fluttershy the other day, the butter pegasus had told her that the pony who probably knew Raspberry Beryl the best was Rarity, as the fashionista used to regularly buy counterfeit gems from the dark unicorn. If anyone can give me the full truth about Raspberry, its Rarity.

It seemed only fitting: Rarity was arguably Sunset’s closest friend back in the human world, and she was the only one of her friends’ counterparts she hadn’t spoken to yet. However, one look in the bathroom mirror made Sunset realize she shouldn’t just rush off to meet her just yet. If this Rarity was anything like her friend back home, she would never let Sunset get a word in if she didn’t look her best. So Sunset stepped into the shower and cleaned herself off before fixing her mane and applying a bit of makeup.

As she descended the stairs, Sunset was very, very, very glad that her temporary living situation was on top of a business that did a brisk breakfast service. With Mrs. Cake happy and healthy again, Sugarcube Corner was back open for business. As sort of a belated thank you, the Cakes allowed Sunset to have anything she wanted free of charge, which had she been anything remotely as bad as she formerly acted would have resulted in her exploiting the Cakes out of both business and home. But instead, Sunset was grateful for their generosity and didn’t take more than a large slice of cheese danish. The coffee, however, was nothing more than a miracle elixir as it helped wake her up almost instantaneously. She probably looked like hell, given the nightmare that still lingered in her head.

“Hey, you okay, Sunny?” asked Pinkie, somehow balancing several empty pans with just her tail even though it clearly had the consistency of cotton candy. “You look like you had a rough night.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” replied the unicorn, partially trying to get drunk on caffeine and partially shocked that Pinkie was speaking in a controlled manner without using any crazy, cutesy words.

“Was there something wrong with the bed? Maybe your pillows weren’t fluffed up enough?”

“No, it’s…well, I had a lot on my mind.”

Pinkie looked more concerned, so much that she placed the empty trays on top of one of the display cases before taking a seat. “Huh, like, Princess Luna didn’t come into your dream to help?”

Sunset looked up from her plate of crumbs to give Pinkie a skeptical look. “What are you talking about?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Maybe you don’t have a princess in your world who looks out for ponies in their dreams when they’re troubled. That’s what Princess Luna does.”

“She goes around in people’s dreams?” Sunset vaguely recalled having seen some cartoon a year or two ago where the plot had the main character – who for whatever reason was an anthropomorphic sponge – go into a bunch of other character’s dreams and utterly destroy them by being an absolute idiot. She then imagined Princess Luna wearing the same clothes as the sponge and bouncing from one pony’s dreams to another, and couldn’t help but snicker a little.

“Yeah, I know, sounds silly in a way,” continued Pinkie, unaware of SpongeLuna PrincessPants in Sunset’s head. “But ever since she came back, part of her duties as princess of the night is to ensure everypony sleeps well. It’s a job she appreciates considerably more than she did before her banishment.”

Sunset frowned. “All the same, if that’s what she does, then why didn’t she help me last night? I could have used the backup.”

“I dunno, maybe you weren’t thinking pony thoughts or something?”

The idea that she was becoming so human that her own brain no longer fully thought like a pony, thus preventing an almighty alicorn from getting into her mind only made her more concerned for what she was becoming. I was neither a pony or a human in that dream. However, the door to Sugarcube Corner slammed open, ending that train of thought.

“Sunset! There you are!” squealed Rarity.

“Uh…hi, Rares?” replied Sunset, caught off guard such that she accidently used the more casual name she had for human Rarity. However, the fashionable unicorn didn’t seem to notice.

“If you’re not too busy, I need you to come back with me to my house right away!”

“Yeah, sure, but-“

“Fantastic!” Like greased lightning, the alabaster unicorn took the maize unicorn by the foreleg and raced off in an almost-cartoon like dust cloud straight for Rarity’s Casa de Fabulosity.

Pinkie, on the other hand, was left with a hoof on her chin in wonder. “I wish I knew how to do that.”

“Thank you for staying at the Traveler’s Retreat!” warmly said Raspberry, “We hope to see you again soon!” With a smile and wave, the unicorn saw the business pony take his bag and head out the door to catch his train. Once he was gone, Raspberry took the small pile of bits off the counter and deposited them into the cash drawer. “First payment of the day~!” she half-sang, half-stated to Heliodor. Perched on his custom-made crystal bird stand, looking more like a piece of décor than anything, he cooed approval before pointing with a wing towards the set of keys freshly returned to the management. “Yes, yes, I’ll mark them,” she replied, reaching down to grab a cleaning tag. She’d attach it to the keyring before placing the tagged set onto a small pegboard just to the side of the main board indicating the available rooms. Later, the cleaning duo Spic and Span would collect the keys and prepare them for more guests.

While she was fiddling with the tags, the bell attached to the door chimed brightly, followed by a single ding of the service bell. “Just a second!” said Razz, finally getting the tag on the keyring. Getting back up from the ground, she automatically said the phrase that defined the job of desk clerk: “Hello, how may I--” She stopped when she realized just who it was that had come in.

Twilight just smiled sheepishly. “Hello to you too, Raspberry. And you as well, Heliodor.”

The phoenix chirped a thanks, doing a little bow, while Raspberry just sighed. “You keep showing up so often, Sparkle, one might start thinking you’re intent on conquering my domain.”

The alicorn just laughed. “Oh, don’t be silly! The Retreat is your castle, just as Golden Oaks Library is mine. Though I will admit I am slightly jealous of how you got your own little cleaning staff in your deal.”

“Not really, since I’m staff myself I have my own fair share of responsibilities. Plus, being a ‘princess’ - even if it’s just in title - hasn’t won me any points with Light Fixture or Spic and Span. Especially because of how Ascot and Cashmere have basically adopted me as a daughter.”

“What do you mean ‘basically’ adopted? You call them your parents, don’t you?”

“I’m in my mid-twenties, so they didn’t fill the paperwork, but that’s just formalities. Familial bonds don’t need a sheet of legalese to exist.”

Twilight nodded, her thoughts turning to her own relationship with Spike. “I couldn’t agree more. Legal or not, it’s always nice to have someone there for you.”

Raspberry closed her eyes and muttered. “Especially when it feels like you have a target on your back.”

Twilight tilted her head and shot her friend a concerned look. “On that note, what’s the word on your latest stalker?”

Raspberry opened her eyes and her frown deepened. “I’m guessing you mean Sunset? Sorry to disappoint, but ever since the talk you and Celestia had with me yesterday evening, I haven’t even seen the mare,” Raspberry paused. “At least, not in person.”

“I don’t follow….”

Raspberry reared up suddenly, looking around for some reason. Landing back on her hooves, she quickly pulled out a little sign that read Back in Five Minutes. “Come on, I guess you’d better see this,” she said, moving and motioning towards where Twilight guessed her room was. The princess followed, wondering what was in store, though Heliodor stayed put as if he was some kind of guard. Then again, he could utilize fire with devastating effect so in a sense he was well equipped for the job.

Upon passing through the door, Twilight noted that Razz’s room – formerly just a spare guest room – was somewhat undersized for what normally passed as the private quarters of royalty. But it was more spacious than either the normal rented rooms Razz had formerly occupied or the safehouse in the Everfree Ruins. The bathroom looked bigger, too.

“Here,” pointed out the mulberry pony, a hoof in the direction of her desk. On it were a few books - some that Twilight recognized as having only possibly come from Sombra’s secret sanctum within the Crystal Empire - and various papers on which were an assortment of various notes, enchantment symbols, and other things Twilight didn’t even know how to quantify. Raspberry saw the wordless observation of the alicorn and smiled a little. “For whatever reason, Sombra kept very detailed notes about that mirror even years after he’d abandoned it in Castle Everfree. There’s no section about how to repair it, but the various enchantments it works on are both explained in some of his notes and easy enough for me to work with.”

Uncharacteristically, Twilight didn’t hear much of Raspberry’s words, her attention diverted to a particular sketch partially hidden under the various other papers. Uncovering it, she couldn’t help but let out a gasp at what she saw: It was a pencil sketch of a human about the same age as Twilight had appeared to be when she had visited the human world. But even without the colors, the various shading on the two stripes in her hair, plus the whole hairstyle made it clear that it was Twilight. Or, rather, the “Twily” counterpart who Sunset spoke so fondly of. Rather disconcertingly, the human Twilight seemed to be crying, half her face buried into the shoulder of another human. The princess didn’t need to see the other human’s details to know that shoulder was Sunset Shimmer’s.

“This…that’s…how did you?” sputtered the alicorn.

“That’s what I was hoping you could tell me, honestly,” replied Razz. “I can only guess that’s the human version of you and Sunset, so from what I can tell, she’s telling the truth.”

Twilight regarded Raspberry with a suspicious glare. “You didn’t do anything to Sunset, did you? The only way you could have even known what humans look like is if you read her memories, which is clearly written in Equestriani law as a-“

Raspberry met Twilight’s glare with one of her own. “I thought you wanted my help, not to put me on trial again.”

“Sorry,” Twilight said, ears folding down as she reigned herself in. “But that still begs the question of how you came up with this image.”

“Well, that’s the thing: I saw that memory of Sunset’s through that mirror.” Seeing Twilight’s skeptical expression, Razz took the liberty of going into a recap of events. “I don’t know if Platinum's Mirror does this kind of thing, but with Sombra’s Mirror, it seems to reflect parts of what’s in the head of the pony who last used it. Or something, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Raspberry just shook her head. “It’s only one memory, and although it appears to be a pretty important one to Sunset, I’m not entirely sure that’s all the mirror is capable of.””

“You mean…it could potentially show more of a pony’s memories? But only the important ones, maybe? And how far back?”

“I really don’t know,” Raspberry gave a weary sigh indicating she’d spent quite a lot of time trying to answer those very questions. “Maybe if I get the mirror back to full power we can get some answers, but I don’t like digging through other ponies’ most private moments. From what I could tell when that memory popped into my head, there was more the mirror was trying to project, but simply couldn’t. Though, on the bright side, I did make it so the mirror only works for me…at least, in all capacity it does work. I don’t know if it still works as a portal, however. Even Sombra seems to question how he actually managed to connect worlds.”

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her snout. “So we need Sunset on this, since she knows about the mirror’s outlet in the human world.”

“Indeed. To be honest, it’s sort of relieving that there’s things about dark magic I can still learn, even if it’s from the writings of that jackass Sombra.”

Twilight nodded, before her eyes went wide from remembering something else they had talked about. “Hey, if you’ve got time later, I dug up some counterspells that supposedly work against dark magic, but they’re kind of sketchy, so it would be helpful if you wanted to spar.”

“Sure, I have some magic tricks I need to practice anyway,” answered Raspberry, who then cracked a grin. “Should be fun.”

Sunset didn’t believe she could be in a situation any more humiliating than she already was at that moment.

“Hmm, yes, this needs to be pinned a little higher….” mused Rarity, fully in her element.

Furthermore, even the Rarity she knew wouldn’t do this to her. Sunset stood on a small stand in the middle of Carousel Boutique while measuring tape, scissors and an assortment of other tools levitated around her. Rarity studied Sunset and the dress she had been forced into through red-rimmed glasses.

“…and to close up this part, I knew I shouldn’t have made the hole so big…”

Sunset made it a point to sigh as loudly as possible. Being made to act as a stand-in model for Rarity, just so the fashionista could have the closest possible form to work on finishing Raspberry Beryl’s dress, was an entirely new low.

“And done!” triumphantly declared the artist of the dress, stepping back to admire her work. It was still very much a work in progress, that much was true, but having a virtual duplicate of Raspberry worked wonders in terms of judging those small parts that defined an article of clothing as being a masterpiece or an embarrassing reject. “I just need to make those adjustments and it will be ready for her highness!”

Sunset winced, still not comfortable with classifying her dark recolor as a royal for various reasons. “So, can I take this off now?”

“Yes, yes, just give me a second.” Rarity’s horn lit up, giving both it and the dress a medium blue hued aura, before somehow the dress was removed from Sunset’s body without any change in Sunset’s pose. Shimmer just raised an eyebrow momentarily in response while Rarity put the dress back onto one of her ponnequins that looked suspiciously similar to carousel ponies in the human world. “Now that we’ve taken care of that matter, we can move onto the centerpiece of the conversation!”

“Come again?”

Rarity laughed. “Oh, come now, certainly you know that Twilight told me enough about that human world, and I’m well aware of fashion being important there. For instance: is it true that humans always wear clothes?”

Oh, thank Celestia this is going to be easy, thought Sunset, relieved that this line of questioning didn’t look like it would end up like…whatever last night had turned into. “Yeah, nudity is a pretty big social no-no. Humans usually wear shirts and pants, and then under those they have underwear and socks. Except if you’re a girl, then if you have any kind of….” The idea of trying to express what breasts were on humans left Sunset trying to figure out just how to word such a concept. On human females, their busts were on their upper chest between their arms, a location that on the same general place on a pony body would look hideously out of place.

“I see your point, darling,” quickly interjected Rarity, having suspected Sunset got caught up on trying to explain something rather embarrassing about the human physique. “But surely there’s different styles or even different types of garments, no?”

“Yeah, of course. Let me try and show you.” Sunset lit up her own magic and concentrated on trying to generate imagery of human clothing. Please don’t turn me into a human again, she repeated over and over in her mind. Fortunately, she didn’t lose track of what her magic was doing, and in the air between the unicorns there appeared various pieces of human clothes. Curiously, even though Sunset’s wardrobe had gotten larger ever since moving into the house on Golden Oaks, all the clothes in the air were clearly the ones both Tavi and Twilight had been wearing the day she’d first met them. Why?

“Is…is that a sweater with a hood on it?” asked Rarity, ogling the magical copy of Twilight’s gray hoodie, “and a double-ended pouch for storing things?”

“Well uh…” began Sunny, before realizing that the real point of the “pouch” was for humans to stick their hands in to keep warm, something that in practice would render ponies immobile at best. “Yes.”

“How novel! I take it the hood is to be put over the wearer’s head, to keep it warm?”

“That’s generally the idea of a hooded sweatshirt, isn’t it?”

Rarity nodded, the gears of fabulosity turning in her head. “I may need to introduce this in my fall line, such a great idea yet nopony ever came up with it. I can only wonder why.”

“Don’t we all?” Sunset, however, did figure it out. Humans don’t have necks half as long as their legs, so a pony hoodie would be awkward to say the least: the hood alone would almost be like a cape! Hell, the cloak I wore was weird enough in hindsight. She didn’t say it out loud, though, lest she be subjected to being a dressmaking dummy again.

“I must say that these look awfully uncomfortable, though,” criticized Rarity, her attention now on what looked like Tavi’s jeans. “Are humans really this thin in their legs?”

“Normally humans don’t have legs like ponies.” And I sure as hell am not going to ask Tavi how thick her legs are. That’s all kinds of wrong.

“Hmmm, well, not all things that can be worn are things that should be worn. This would be one of them. Anyway, I do thank you for showing me the, um, ‘hoodie’, that should be interesting once I put my own touch on it.”

“I don’t doubt it. Especially since you fix-“ No sooner had the words stopped then did Sunset’s forehoof find its way shoved into her own mouth. Unfortunately, Rarity had heard enough.

“Oh? I fixed it once? That does remind me that, according to Twilight, there is a human who is quite like me. I would be interested to know how she and I compare to one another.”

Sunset sighed. Me and my big mouth.

Not noticing Sunset’s hesitation, Rarity headed into her kitchen. “I have some leftover coffee cake, want to chat over that and coffee?”

“Never could turn down free cake,” admitted Sunset, following behind.

A few minutes later, the unicorns were sitting down at the table, sipping from a well-made batch of black coffee and nibbling at slices of day-old coffee cake. Rarity started by asking about her human counterpart’s dressmaking career, and Sunset had to explain that all of their counterparts were still in high school. They sat there talking for some time afterward. It was as they were discussing the human world’s magic (or lack thereof) that the unicorns heard the sound of the front door opening.

“Rarity, I’m hoooooommmmmee!” came a distinctly familiar voice with a slight squeak, followed by a jarring door slam. Sweetie Belle entered the kitchen, adding, “I’m also hungry, we got anyth-“ She stopped when she saw Sunset, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“Oh, um, yes, this is Sunset Shimmer,” hastily introduced Rarity, a strained smile crossing her features.

It didn’t seem to placate the unicorn filly, if that had been the intent. “Sis, you do know what happened the last time a unicorn with that manestyle was in your house, right?”

“I’m guessing you mean Raspberry Beryl, yes?” asked Sunset, though given no other pony in town had the shared hairdo as Sunset and Razz, it was more of a rhetorical question than anything.

Sweetie gave Sunset a suspicious glare that would have offended her if it wasn’t so cute. “Yeah…you’re not up to anything, are you?”

“Sweetie Belle!” reprimanded Rarity. “That is not how you talk to guests!”

“But Rar-“

“To your room, we’ll have a talk about your behavior once I’m finished talking to Sunset here.”

With a pout, Sweetie turned and stomped up the stairs, another slammed door soon left in her wake.

“I do apologize for that,” said Rarity, “my sister usually isn’t that accusational. I just don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sunset said, a grin slowly creeping across her face. It was hard to stay mad at the filly when she had given Sunset exactly the kind of information she was looking for. Or at least gotten me started on the right path. “So, what exactly did she mean by that anyway? Did Raspberry cause you guys trouble?”

Rarity’s eyes suddenly drifted away from Sunset’s and fell on what remained of her coffee cake. “That’s one way of putting it I suppose.”

Sunset leaned forward. “Oh? Do tell…”

Rarity chewed her lip. “Don’t get me wrong, Razz means well, but she doesn’t exactly have a ‘clean history’ if you catch my meaning.”

Sunset took a sip of her coffee. “Go on….”

“Sunset, this is starting to sound like an inquisition,” Rarity said with a frown.

“Look, I’ve already asked everypony else around here about this, but no one will tell me anything. All I want are some answers, is that really so bad?”

With a resigned sigh, Rarity conceded. “Very well. If you must know, Razz and I first met when she sold me forgeries of precious gems made of dark crystals. It was her only source of income at the time, and in her defense they were really good. Unfortunately, it almost didn’t end so well for poor Spike.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I think I read about that. She almost killed him!”

“Not intentionally!” Rarity countered.

“But still, if she could cause that much damage by accident, imagine what she could do on purpose!”

“Well, maybe instead of focusing so much on what she could do, maybe you should focus on what she has done?” Rarity said, giving Sunset a firm look. “Yes, she’s made some bad decisions in her life - the least of which was her forgeries - but she’s also done a lot of good. Over the course of the past year, she’s really turned her life around. For the first time in her life, she’s made friends and found a family. What’s more, she’s done so much to protect them - to protect us.”

Whatever Sunset was about to say in response died in her throat. All of a sudden, Sunset wondered whether she and the dark unicorn had more in common than just their looks.

“Maybe instead of thinking of Razz as your enemy, you should try being her friend,” Rarity continued. “I get the feeling you’ll have better luck with your problem if you work together.”

Sunset levitated her cup of coffee to her lips, but stopped and set it back down. All of a sudden, she didn’t crave the taste of bitterness anymore. “Yeah… I’ll think about it.”

As expected, Sunset left Carousel Boutique with more info on Raspberry. Suffice to say, Sunset was not expecting to leave completely reevaluating her mission. Despite how much Sunset wanted to reject it, Rarity brought up a very good point. She could accomplish far more by cooperating with Raspberry than she could working against her. And then there was what Rarity told her about Raspberry’s past. It’s the same story as mine, just with a different protagonist.

And yet, Sunset Shimmer was unable to shake the nightmare from her mind. Everytime she tried to think of a way she could approach Raspberry, all she could see was a laughing, pony-shaped demon. No. I can’t think like that. I have to trust Princess Twilight. I have to-

Sunset didn’t finish that thought as she was struck motionless by what she saw next. There, in a distant field outside of Ponyville, were the forms of Twilight Sparkle and Raspberry Beryl - and the latter was evidently raining dark magic on Twilight’s pitiful defenses.

Horrified, Sunset immediately galloped in their direction. She could only hope it wasn’t already too late.

Friday, PM: And Then You Dropped The Bomb

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Friday, PM: And Then You Dropped the Bomb

“Uh, Twilight?” asked Razz, “Are you sure about this?”

“Totally!” confirmed the alicorn, a determined look on her face. Her horn aglow, she was surrounded by a sphere of magical energy with arcane runes forming lines going every which way. “I modified this one myself with what I know of dark magic, so feel free to put a little more punch into your attack than before!”

Raspberry just watched the spinning runes go back and forth. There was something wrong with them, she knew, but she just couldn’t put a hoof on it. Though, if Twilight was using more conventional magic, Razz considered that she may just not recognize Twilight’s spell. After she’d finally given up on trying to use ordinary unicorn magic years ago, she’d never bothered to really read up on normal magic. It only made her feel depressed, and in a way, “inferior” to accomplished magic prodigies like Twilight.

“Hey, you okay, Razz?” called back the encapsulated pony. “Something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh! No, no, sorry about that! Just lost in my own thoughts for a moment.”

“Gotcha, but I’d rather not keep this spell up forever, you know!”

“Then let me solve that problem for you!” Immediately, Raspberry lit up her horn, a thick cloud of a purple, bubbly mass boiling on her forehead that was ready to be unleashed. She reared, throwing her head back, then upon landing fired a bolt of raw dark magic. Despite Twilight’s boastfulness, Raspberry intentionally made this attack weaker than the earlier ones, just to make sure that protective bubble actually could stop dark magic at all.

The result, however, was alarmingly different than expected. Even if the shield had done absolutely nothing, Raspberry’s attack would have done nothing other than turn Twilight an ugly shade of green. Instead, the spell shattered the shield on contact, before somehow both spell and shield fragments converged into a single-point of mass in front of Twilight and exploded again, sending Twilight spiraling backwards.

“Twilight!” cried out Razz, immediately teleporting to the downed alicorn’s side. Thankfully, whatever had happened, the immediate aftermath showed Twilight wasn’t hurt too badly, just a bruise here and there. The adverse reaction from the spells, both offensive and defensive, did knock her unconscious however, and there was no telling-

“NO!” screamed somepony in the distance. Raspberry barely had any time to react to that before Sunset Shimmer suddenly appeared next to her and delivering a hoof right into Raspberry’s face. “STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER, YOU MONSTER!”

Oh, great, the one pony I don’t need involved, thought Raspberry as she hit the ground.

I’m too late. A shell-shocked Sunset Shimmer looked at the still, lifeless body of Twilight Sparkle. Taking in trembling breaths, Sunset’s thoughts were flooded with images of the bloody, mangled human with Twily’s hair. And to think, she wanted me to be friends with that monster! How could she have been so blind?

Suddenly, the truth about what was really going on hit Sunset like a ton of bricks. She thought about what she’d read in that article, and about what Rarity had told her. It all started when Raspberry Beryl was caught and forced to stand trial. After her outburst at said hearing, Raspberry had come up with some big sob-story about her ‘dark and troubled past.’ She had Twilight and the others wrapped around her hoof after that. The princess must have just now discovered the truth, forcing Raspberry to silence her once and for all!

Hearing a grunt, Sunset looked over to see her dark counterpart struggling to stand. Sunset lowered her horn and began channeling magic. “Don’t bother getting up!”

.Back on her hooves, Raspberry hollered, “What, you don’t want me to help her?”

“You’ve done enough already!” Sunset roared.

“Look, just calm down, I’m sure that-“

“NO!”

A blast of magic rocketed forth from Sunset, and Raspberry barely managed to raise a wall of dark crystal to block it. Even still, the wall only held up so much without reinforcement, and Raspberry darted out from behind it before it shattered under Sunset’s relentless force. However, Sunset had to recover from using so much power at once, a brief respite that Raspberry took full advantage of.

“Okay, fine then!” Her horn encased in its dark aura, it was as if Raspberry suddenly released a concentration of pure shadow that immediately sought out Sunset like a snake looking for its next meal. Sunset could only brace for impact, blinking in confusion when the shadowy mass just passed right on through her and dissolved.

“What was that supposed to do?!” jibed Sunset, wondering if Raspberry was toying with her. It became evident this was not the case when in attempting to cast another offensive spell, she found the energy suddenly reflect back as if hitting a blockage, causing a sharp spike of pain in her head. Quickly darting a hoof up to her strangely malfunctioning horn, she gasped sharply as she discovered strange spikes of something having grown on them.

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” snarked Raspberry, looking all too confident, “I’ve cut off your magic. It’s not permanent, unless I want it to be.”

“Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?!” seethed Sunset. “If you can cut off a unicorn’s magic so easily, why didn’t you do it to Twilight?!”

Raspberry facehoofed. “If you’d just let me speak, I can explain the situ-“

“Ohhhh, I get it now! You think I’m not as much of a threat as Twilight, don’t you?!”

“What? Why would I think that? You’re the one who’s been harassing me all week!”

“Because you’re the one attacking my sister’s mind!” Sunset roared, the look in her eyes pinpricks of rage. She then gestured to the limp form of Twilight. “And it’s pretty clear now what you do to ponies that dare oppose you!”

Rather than retort, Raspberry chose to sigh deeply and close her eyes. If she thinks I’m down and out she’s making a big mistake! Sunset thought. With her horn incapacitated, Sunset elected to go for a more physical assault. She couldn’t help but feel satisfaction when Raspberry opened her eyes only to see Sunset’s hoof connect to her face. The warlock staggered back, blood trickling from a displaced muzzle.. Righting herself from the lump she’d landed in, Raspberry wiped the blood from her face, slitted eyes angrily boring into Sunset.

“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” accused the darker unicorn. “Y’know, Twilight was wrong about you. You haven’t changed one bit!”

“Pfft, don’t lecture me, you Sombra-born bitch!” shouted Sunset. “You’re the one who used dark magic and manipulation to become a princess. It’s only fitting that you’re just my twisted mirror image. You’re everything I aspired to be! But not anymore. Now, I will protect my friends and my family from you!”

Seeing an opportunity, Sunset took a huge breath and gave Raspberry the deadliest stare she could muster. “Your ass is going to be Discord and I’m going to be all six fucking Elements of Harmony. I’m going to rampage on you like the Princess did against the Minotaur Invasion of 957. I WILL BREAK YOU LIKE SHE BROKE THE ENTIRE CHANGELING ARMY AT SADDLEBACK RIDGE, AND I WON’T FEEL AN OUNCE OF REMORSE DOING IT, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?”

“What. The Fuck. Are you talking about?” balked Raspberry.

Sunset just stood there, taking a few moments to mentally reboot. “Oh for…I’m in the actual country where all that shit actually happened and I still waste that awesome pre-asskicking speech?!” She groaned.

Raspberry just stared at her opponent with an uncomprehending expression. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You are!” Without letting Raspberry even think about finishing her off, Sunset rushed forward to try a more “direct” method of assault.

Following her white lie about knowing martial arts to explain to her family just why she’d been able to do otherwise superhuman feats (like punch restaurant tables into oblivion and beat the snot out of her ex-boyfriend in seconds) she’d taken some pointers from Applejack on learning Taekwondo. Now deprived of her magic, Sunset knew this was the only means of fighting the monster she had left. However, trying to actually apply what little she knew into attacking Raspberry was relatively awkward given Taekwondo was not designed for quadrupedal stances, much less sapient equine bodyforms.

Thus, her attacks ultimately amounted to awkwardly flailing around in a manner that looked quite ridiculous. She still managed to get in some good side kicks and almost even landed an axe kick without too much strain. Raspberry must have been completely flabbergasted, as she made no real effort to go on the offensive. But she did seem to have unnaturally good reflexes, and managed to either dodge or shrug off anything that wasn’t more than a glancing blow.

This isn’t working, Sunset realized. I need to do something to turn the tide before she decides to stop messing around and finish me with another dark spell. It was then that Sunset caught sight of the brace on Raspberry’s hind leg, and a glimmer of hope appeared. It was a sign that her opponent could take permanent damage after all, and more importantly, it was a good weak point for her to exploit. If there’s anything I was ever good at, it’s exploiting others’ weaknesses.

Sunset reared up on her hind legs, raising her left hoof in a feint. Raspberry fell for it, and shifted her position to best protect herself from the attack, exposing her injured hind leg in the process. Rather than follow through with her projected attack, Sunset spun around and nailed Raspberry’s braced leg with the hardest buck she could muster.

With an agonized scream, Raspberry fell to her side, clutching the broken appendage as her eyes rolled back in blinding pain. Sunset couldn’t help but grin now that her victory was all but assured.

“Not so invulnerable, are you?!” The smug grin on her face quickly faded, however, when she looked back at Raspberry.

Despite the small streams of tears coming from her eyes, the wisps of dark magic energy starting to flow around Raspberry didn’t bode well. Indeed, it was as if a shadow now passed over the injured mare, her colors shifting to darker tones including her cutie mark as well. That made it worse: given the intrinsic link between a pony and her mark, to see a change like that was nothing short of unnatural.

Sunset’s attention, however, was quickly diverted to the other alarming feature, the one that had been the reason she’d been convinced Raspberry was the one causing all of Twily’s problems: her real horn. As the fake, normal-looking horn faded away, in its place emerged the slightly curved, smooth-faced magical conductor that struck fear into Sunset. All around them, the very world itself seemed to grow darker as Raspberry’s agonized cries continued. Indeed, a glance up confirmed that an unnatural vortex of dark clouds now swirled above them. When Raspberry climbed back to her hooves, Sunset was looking at a completely different pony. She was looking at the monster from her nightmare. Now, Sunset finally began to understand that she’d totally underestimated what she was up against.
“GRWAAAAAAAHH!” wailed the monster. It was a loud and unnatural sound - like the cry of a wraith - that shook Sunset to the very core of her being., The monster’s eyes –which Sunset caught for only a brief moment in their normal blood red coloration – poured with the green-and-purple mist, her fangs bared. Almost as if to mock Sunset, Beryl’s first course of action now was to charge her assailant in a full body slam.

“Oooof!” Sunset was knocked back a few meters, the enraged unicorn opposite her having come in like a wrecking ball to her chest. Already gasping for breath, Shimmer’s eyes went wide when she saw Raspberry charging up another spell. The simple thing would have been to teleport away to recover, but as the pain in her head magnified in the attempt, she only then remembered her horn was prevented from working. She was trapped.

As if to underline that fact, Raspberry shot several bolts of magic at Sunset, who found herself encased in dark crystal from the neck down and pinned against a nearby tree. As Sunset struggled to escape, she realized there was one part of her body still exposed: the part of her chest where her heart was located. Sunset’s worst fears were confirmed when she looked up from the hole to see Raspberry charging her, that frightening horn aimed like a dart heading for a bullseye and its piercing tip casting a gleam for a split second. Her almost limp hind leg with the brace dragged sickeningly behind her, yet it had no effect on the mad unicorn’s speed.

Time seemed to slow as the demon unicorn closed the distance between them, and Sunset found herself thinking with despair about all she would leave behind. Her human friends would all be heartbroken when she didn’t return. Principal Celestia would have to tell her family everything. What would they think? Would her parents ever forgive her deception? Would Shining Armor, Tavi, or Twily think of her differently? Oh God, Twily. If the nightmares don’t kill her, this will.

“I...I’m sorry, Twily, forgive me!” sputtered Sunset, the tears starting to flow.

Something happened in that moment that Sunset couldn’t explain. Raspberry’s eyes went wide for a second, and suddenly they didn’t seem as monstrous as before.Then she abruptly locked her three good legs at an angle, kicking up grass and soil while she slid to a stop just in front of the encased Sunset. The oppressive darkness of the clouds above them slowly lifted, and for a brief moment, the two lookalikes locked eye contact, during which Sunset swore she saw a flicker of… something in Raspberry’s eyes. It looked almost like… sympathy? Understanding? However, both mares suddenly felt another force take hold of them and promptly they fell unconscious.

“Oh, no!” gasped Fluttershy. She had arrived during the brief battle when Heliodor – who Raspberry had allowed her to pet-sit for the day – had suddenly taken off without warning in a clear panic. Fluttershy had understood the source of it as soon as she looked to where the bird was flying and saw a swirling vortex of dark clouds. He now was at the side of his sleeping companion, head nestled against her to make sure she knew he was there. Fluttershy herself was by Twilight’s side, helping the dazed alicorn get back on her hooves.

“D-don’t worry,” assured the princess, “it’s only a sleeping spell. I’ll apologize to them later, but it’s the only way to be sure they can’t hurt each other right now.”

Fluttershy gave Twilight her patented worried look. “But, Twilight, they’re not simply going to be nice to each other once they wake up, are they?”

“Most likely not, but something happened with Razz that allowed her to regain control of herself, and I have a small theory as to what that is. But clearly, we need to get those two ponies talking about what’s going on here, especially Sunset,” Twilight closed her eyes. “I should have seen this before, it’s a failure in my position as the Princess of Friendship that this had to come to pass.”

“No, my dear Twilight,” said a voice behind her,, “if anything, this proves you are the only pony who deserves that title.”

Twilight turned around and her eyes widened at the pony standing there. “P-Princess Celestia? What are you…?”

“I was having lunch with Princess Cadance when she felt a surge of Sombra-level dark magic being used. Since we only know one pony capable of such a feat, and that said mare is in the crosshairs of my wayward student, I felt I needed to step in,” Celestia glanced over at the two mares in question. “Though, it looks like you have things under control for the time being.”

“Right,” Twilight turned to address her friend. “Fluttershy, do you think you can take Raspberry back to the Retreat?”

Fluttershy nodded and went over to the mare in question to wake her. Twilight’s gaze then fell on the one who had started this incident. Sunset Shimmer lay on the grass where she had landed when Raspberry’s dark crystals had dissipated. Twilight knew her once-enemy had only acted out of love for her family, but she couldn’t deny the situation looked bad. Sunset had triggered another dark power surge in Raspberry, and it was through sheer luck that nopony was hurt.

Twilight swallowed when she looked back at Celestia. “So… what about Sunset?”

Celestia’s gaze briefly flicked to her former protégé. “Take her back to Golden Oaks and keep her there until we decide how to proceed. There are ponies she should talk to. Ones that in hindsight, we should have had her speak with after she first explained why she’s here.”

When she woke up, Sunset wondered if she’d ever know life without some kind of perpetual headache again. Reaching a shaky hoof up to her head, she got a further surprise as she brushed her horn. It was free of whatever Raspberry had put on it, despite her claims that only she could remove the blockage.

But that was a small blessing to the world of shit she knew awaited her. The bed she was in wasn’t the one she’d been spending the previous few nights after whatever crazy event had occurred that day. And this wasn’t Sugarcube Corner - it was Golden Oaks. Never before did Sunset think coming back to such a familiar name would be bad.

Above all else, what had actually happened? Sunset was certain that she’d managed to sign her own death warrant through rash, hasty action, but the fact she wasn’t dead meant nothing to her. Is Twilight okay? Is she even alive? Sunset fretted. Getting out of the bed, she still felt the lingering effects of getting headbutted in her barrel; no more running around for her tonight. Magic use was also most likely out of the question, both from the pains in her chest and her head.

And of course things just had to get worse when she accidently overshot a step while trying to go down the staircase, causing her to promptly turn into a rolling, maize-and-red colored ball all the way to the floor where she landed with a loud thump.

“Yeah, I keep telling Twilight we need a railing for the stairs,” said one of the few male voices Sunset had heard all week. “But of course now that she can fly, she doesn’t need stairs, much less rails.”

The mare simply groaned in pain before regaining her senses. The sight of Twilight’s number one assistant sitting at the table casually reading a newspaper helped put some of Sunset’s fears at ease. If Twilight was dead or seriously injured, she was sure the baby dragon would look a little more concerned.

“I take it Twilight’s fine, then?”

Spike closed the newspaper he was reading and looked in Sunset’s direction. “Better than you, at least,” he told her, a satisfied grin coming onto his face, “but then again you’re the only one Raspberry beat up.”

A flicker of anger came to Sunset’s face. “Well, not the only one…”

Spike blinked in confusion, then asked, “Are you talking about how she accidently knocked out Twilight right before you charged in like an angry minotaur?”

Now back on her hooves, Sunset glowered at Spike. How could he of all people ignore the obvious? “Accidently?! She threw an exploding beam of energy at Twilight!”

“No she didn’t; all she did was throw a minor hex that would have recolored Twilight’s coat. What happened was Twilight’s fault by complete accident!”

“Huh?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Here’s the deal, at least what Twilight said at any rate: she and Razz were testing out a bunch of anti-dark magic spells Twilight had found, with one of them having been modified by Twi herself. Only she got some of the spell’s composition wrong, and so instead of having the intended effect of dampening the dark magic’s effect, it amplified the power. She asked Raspberry to use a strong spell out of ill-placed confidence, but it was Razz who used a relatively weak spell instead because she didn’t trust Twilight’s defenses.”

The unicorn was struck dumb, her understanding of the entire situation turned on its head. “Huh?”

Spike lowered his brow and gave Sunset Shimmer a deadly glare. One that she remembered seeing on much more canine features. “Let me put it simply: you assaulted a member of Equestrian royalty for no reason, and potentially endangered all of Ponyville in the process.”

Sunset sat in place, suddenly feeling like she was tumbling down the stairs all over again. Celestia’s parting words on her first day back echoed in Sunset’s mind. I know you’re worried about Twily, Sunset, Celestia had warned her. But I would strongly advise against any more violent outbursts during your stay here.

“I’m screwed…” Sunset said at barely a whisper. “When Celestia finds out…”

“She already knows.” When Sunset looked back up at Spike, it was with a look of pure terror. “She apparently arrived just after you passed out and ordered you sent back here. You’re pretty much under house arrest until she and Twilight figure out what to do with you, so don’t go anywhere.”

As Sunset just sat there in chilled silence, Spike continued. “Hey, what do you know about my counterpart in that other world? Is he a dog too?”

Sunset forced herself to focus. She didn’t really care to indulge Spike, but it served as a brief distraction. “Oh, um…yes, the human world does have a version of you, but….”

Spike narrowed his eyes. “But what?”

Sunset merely blushed. “He’s not a dog - he’s a human just like the others; more specifically, he’s the little brother to Twily. And so therefore, since Twily’s my foster sister, the other version of you is my foster brother.” An embarrassed cringe followed on Sunset’s muzzle.

Spike didn’t change his questioning glare. “So…the other version of me is a ‘hyuo-mahn’, like what Twilight turned into, and not a dog like what I turned into?”

“Yeah, just a normal kid.” A pause. “Well...mostly.”

With a sigh, Spike got up from his seat. “I’ll be right back,” he said cryptically, before proceeding to head on upstairs. Sunset didn’t understand what was going on until a distraught cry rang from the upper floor: “NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” This was in turn shortly followed by the baby dragon coming back down the stairs with the exact same unamused expression on his face. However, it was clear that he still had something else to say.

Sunset knew exactly what it was. “Anything else, Spike?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, getting to it. Twilight told me I have to apologize to you for what I did earlier in the week.”

She eyed him carefully. “Are you really sorry?”

“Only insofar as that Twi took away my gem stash and comic books.”

The fiery-maned mare rolled her eyes. Well, at least he doesn’t have a 3DS to confiscate, or else he’d probably start doing worse things to me. “Fine, apology accepted, since that’s probably the best I’m going to get out of you.”

“Good. Just...tell Twilight I was really sorry, okay? Or else she says she won’t give me my allowance to buy the new Power Ponies issue that comes out next week!”

“Don’t push your luck,” Sunset nickered.

“Fine, I get the message. Okay, now that I’ve taken care of that, we can move on.”

“Move on? To what?”

Spike gave her another hard look. “You need to stop harassing Raspberry Beryl.”

Sunset gave a weary sigh. She was getting sick to death of talking about that pony. “Don’t tell me she got to you too.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that, but Razz isn’t a bad pony. The only times she’s ever been hostile to anypony is if they were hostile to her first. Though, I guess you know all about that!”

Sunset gave the drake a skeptical look. “And what about when she fed you that dark crystal? Was that in response to some hostility from you?”

“So she tried to kill you for no reason, then?”

“No! Just…” Spike sighed and rubbed the space between his eyes with a claw. “Look, that whole thing was an accident, okay?”

“Yeah, the article I read said the same thing,” Sunset said with a touch of venom. “Guess it pays to have a princess under your control.”

“Look, here’s what happened: you know that Raspberry used to make gem forgeries out of dark crystals for a living, right?” Sunset nodded. “Well, she made a particularly big, juicy looking one for Sweetie Belle’s Nightmare Night costume. Problem is, it ended up within my reach.”

Spike gave a lamenting sigh. “It was my fault, really. I knew I wasn’t supposed to eat that gem, but I was thinking with my stomach that night. Anyway, the very magic in my fluids that allows me to eat gems in the first place somehow caused the disguised crystal to grow inside my throat. If Twilight hadn’t been so quick to use the Haymlich, I wouldn’t be standing here. But Raspberry was horrified.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah, once her secret was out, Raspberry ran off.”

“Doesn’t that just prove her guilt?” Sunset asked. “The innocent don’t run.” I know that all too well.

“Not unless they know they’re going to be locked up or put to death for something that’s beyond their control,” Spike answered. “You do know that she only uses dark magic because she can’t use regular magic, right?”

Now, both eyebrows made their way up Sunset’s forehead. “That’s news to me.”

“Anyway, she only ran after she knew I was okay,” Spike continued. “Heck, running when she did ended up putting her in a position to save Apple Bloom from a terrible fate!”

“She…she saved that filly?” Sunset didn’t know what to think. Everything she thought she knew about her supposed enemy was suddenly being turned on its head. “But why hasn’t anybody told me that? All I’ve been hearing is that there was this big event everypony was involved with that featured her, but nopony will tell me what that was!”

“You will learn that in time, Miss Shimmer,” came a third voice, both feminine and regal. As unicorn and dragon looked to the stairs, Princess Luna was standing atop them. “But it is not Spike’s position to inform you of that, nor is it mine.”

“P-princess Luna!” blurted Sunset, immediately bowing. “What are you doing here?”

“My sister feels that, in light of today’s ‘incident’, you and I needed to talk. Frankly, from what I know about you, I do agree with her that such a conversation is long overdue.”

A few minutes later, Sunset and Princess Luna were outside, atop the elevated deck on Golden Oaks and gazing up at the starry skies. A tea set was laid out before them, courtesy of Spike’s usual ministrations; Luna had briefly teased him about being around for “girl talk” before giving the baby dragon some gems and sending him on his way. Seeing the princess do that, it made Sunset wonder if Ms. Luna had ever done something similar for Spike before she entered the picture. It seemed like something she would do.

“Tell me, Miss Shimmer,” began Luna, a teacup floating just before her lips, “are there nights like these in the human world?”

Sunset looked up to gaze at Luna’s handiwork. The night sky was covered in a blanket of shimmering stars, each vying for her attention. The shapes of ponies, ursas, and dragons looked down at her from every corner of the dark expanse, and every time Sunset thought she’d seen them all, she’d spot new shapes she’d failed to notice before. Even when studying under Celestia’s wing, the night sky had never looked so beautiful. Of course, that could be because it hadn’t been tended by its proper master.

“Probably, but one would need to be atop either Mount Shasta or Mount Lassen, at least where I live. Elsewhere, generally you have to be somewhere far from a highly commercialized area,” replied Sunset. “My world’s a bit more densely populated than Equestria.”

Although Sunset’s slip-up was barely noticeable, Luna caught it immediately. “Your world? Does Equestria no longer bear that title?”

That thought had lingered over Sunset’s thoughts like a dark cloud on the back of her mind. The more she thought about the past week, the more she realized she was a stranger in what had once been her home. Despite how accommodating Twilight and the others had tried to be, she was still treated like an outsider. She was an anomaly at best, and a criminal at worst. The realization drew a dismayed sigh from Sunset.

“I guess not.”

Luna gave a sympathetic smile. “And yet here you stand. That you have returned even after all that has transpired is proof enough that you will always be a part of this world.”

Sunset returned Luna’s smile with her own, but her heart wasn’t in it. “With all due respect, Princess, you know why I’ve come back.”

Luna nodded. “Yes, which brings me to why I’m here, now.” Luna shifted in place and studied Sunset for a moment. “When you stepped through that mirror five days ago, what was your plan?”

Sunset opened her mouth to answer, only to realize she couldn’t. She’d come to stop whatever was causing Twily’s nightmares, but that wasn’t a plan. That was an objective.

When Sunset didn’t answer, Luna did for her. “You didn’t have one, did you? You just waltzed back into Equestria expecting to find some evil monster plotting to destroy your family.” Luna then gave Sunset an impish grin. “I thought my sister’s pupils were supposed to be smart!”

Sunset was unable to hold back an indignant glare. “I did find a monster plotting against my family. It calls itself Raspberry Beryl.” Except, Sunset wasn’t so sure anymore. The more she hunted for evidence of the warlock’s guilt, the more she seemed to find the opposite.

“Remember when we first met at the start of the week? I said that you and I were not so different,” Luna said, setting down her teacup. “Let me tell you the tale of another monster. One that called itself Nightmare Moon.”

Tilting her head, Sunset gave Luna a quizzical look. She knew the tale of Nightmare Moon just like any other pony in Equestria, and now knew there was a great deal of truth to the myth. But Sunset did not know where Luna was going with this.

“The tale may seem familiar: Nightmare Moon was a monster born of jealousy and spite. The princess that birthed that abomination believed that she was entitled to more than what she already had. She believed that Celestia was holding her back, and so betrayed her. Wounded her in the deepest, most personal way imaginable. It was some time before that pony was shown the error of her ways, but when she finally did, she made it her goal to better herself, so that she might never fall prey to such vain temptations again.”

“Seems like I’ve been hearing that story a lot these days,” Sunset commented.

“There is another aspect to the story that others do not tell,” Luna continued. “The truth is, Nightmare Moon was born of fear as much as she was born of vain ambition.”

“Fear? Of what?”

Luna leaned closer. “Of not being loved. Indeed, it was that mare’s fear of losing her sister’s love just as she had her subjects’ that brought her to such madness, and drew the Nightmare Forces to her. Ultimately, it was that pony’s fear that led to her downfall.”

A slight gust sent a chill through Sunset, and she brought the tea to her lips in an attempt to combat it, but the drink was already losing its warmth. “That’s a cool story and all, but I don’t really see how it applies to what we were talking about.”

“Is that not what drives you, Sunset Shimmer? Fear of losing your sister’s love?”

In a way, Luna was right. What the princess was trying to say then dawned on Sunset with sudden clarity as she thought back to some of her actions over the past week. Of those moments where she had let her old side slip out, all because she was afraid of losing Twily.

Seeing the sudden change in Sunset’s expression, Luna smiled. “Ah, now you understand. If you let your fear control you, you’ll just become another monster.”

Sunset gave a single nod. “I... never thought about it like that.”

“It sometimes helps to have an outsider’s opinion, does it not?” Luna then leaned in closer and gave Sunset a conspiratory grin. “Of course, it also helps to talk to someone who was once of the same mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“Someone who at one point or another, believed that Celestia was the biggest, gaudiest, most uncouth butt in all of Equestria!”

Sunset snorted, and before she knew it she was laughing alongside Princess Luna. The pair sat in comfortable silence for a time afterward, during which time Sunset thought long and hard about a great many things. Namely, about what was going to happen the next day.

Once she finished her tea, Luna looked over at Sunset. “So, do you have a plan now?”

“Well, I can’t do much while I’m under house arrest, but I think I do.” There was only one thing Sunset could do now. It had been right in front of her all along, yet it was only now that she finally acknowledged it. “I’m going to talk to Raspberry. I’m going to apologize for attacking her, and then - if she’s up to forgiving me - I’m going to work together with her to solve this mystery once and for all!”

The night princess gave an approving smile. “Spoken like one of my sister’s pupils.”

When Sunset Shimmer crawled into the guest bed of Golden Oaks that night, she found herself surprisingly calm. Sure, the jury was still out on whether Celestia intended to punish her for her assault, along with everything else she’d done, but her dreams were not plagued by nightmares that night. For the first time that week, Sunset went to bed knowing exactly what she had to do.

Saturday, AM: The Pebbles You've Arranged

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Saturday, AM: These Pebbles You’ve Arranged

When Sunset descended the library stairs that morning, she found Twilight waiting for her at the table with a plate of Spike’s homemade pancakes sitting in the center. Swallowing, Sunset pulled out a chair and sat down across from the princess before filling the plate in front of her. Every sound seemed deafening in the silence between them. Once she had a suitable amount of syrup on her pancakes, Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Sunset wanted to say her piece first.

“Listen, Twilight. I know I screwed up yesterday, and I want to make it right,” she said. “If you’ll permit me to leave Golden Oaks for a couple of hours, I’d like to set things right with Raspberry.”

“Oh… okay. Good,” Twilight seemed unsure of what to say. Evidently, she’d been planning to convince Sunset to do just that. “That saves time on the whole speech I had prepared.”

Much to Sunset’s amusement, Twilight tossed away what appeared to be a couple of cue cards. The rest of their breakfast passed in silence, with Sunset acutely aware of every sound. When they were both finished, Twilight wordlessly got up and moved to the front door.

“You ready?” she asked, her tone indicating neither anger nor joy.

“Yeah, let’s go,” answered Sunset, finding herself wanting a cup of coffee. But that would need to wait.

As the pair of ponies silently made their way through a Ponyville going through its morning routine, Sunset could feel the cautious looks from every single pony who now knew what she’d done. It was not a good feeling, even though it was what Sunset had been expecting when she had first arrived. It was not the first time she’d felt this way, either. Those few weeks at Canterlot High following her defeat had been no different. But at least in that scenario, she’d had the five girls who stood by her even though she felt she didn’t deserve their kindness.

Those very girls were now waiting for her as ponies, watching her with guarded expressions. They stood along the path to her apparent destination: a rustic bread and breakfast with a hanging sign that helpfully identified it as the Traveler’s Retreat.. The glares from the five ponies bore into Sunset, as if they were executioners observing her walk to the gallows. No matter how much Sunset reminded herself that the five ponies she walked past were not her friends, all she could see were five human girls standing at the edge of a crater in Homecoming dresses.

When Twilight and Sunset got to the front door, they found a very displeased looking elderly mare waiting.

“So, are you Sunset Shimmer?” the mare asked, eying the unicorn carefully.

“Um, yes?” replied Sunset. She immediately felt sharp pain on her face as she reeled from a vicious slap.

“That’s for hurting my daughter!”

“Mrs. Cashmere, I know you’re upset,” said Twilight, “but the idea about all this is to resolve the problem without violence.”

“No, no, I deserved that,” countered Sunset. “Along with a swift kick in the rear, too.”

“That can be arranged,” stated Cashmere with a slightly unsettling amount of enthusiasm.

“Mom, not outside!” came a fourth voice from just beyond the door. “Guests won’t like it if you’re randomly beating up ponies in view of the street!” Soon enough, Raspberry Beryl appeared next to her mother figure in the doorway. “It also looks bad for me, since a princess of any sort shouldn’t need to rely on her elderly mother to handle a simple dispute.”

“You do make a good point, dear,” Cashmere acquiesced reluctantly, though before she fully retreated the older mare whispered into Razz’s ear, “but kick her in the rear with your good leg, anyway, just for the principle of the matter.”

“My left leg is fine, thank you!” loudly jested Razz in return, knowing Cashmere hadn’t meant the comment seriously - not much, anyway. She still shook her head all the same. “Parents…” she muttered, before turning her attention to the ponies at the door. “Well, Shimmer, shall we get this over with?”

“On one condition: you got any coffee?” Sunset couldn’t understand why Twilight decided to react by rolling her eyes in disbelief. “What, and you’ve never made it through a day without a Starbucks venti double mocha?”

Both dark mage unicorn and alicorn princess looked at Sunset with confusion. “What’s that?” Twilight finally asked.

It was all Sunset could do to prevent facehoofing. “Note to self: must find a way to tease Twily about this later,” she intentionally muttered semi-audibly.

“Alright, the cup is hot, mind you,” warned Razz, levitating two cups of coffee as she entered her bedroom. The bubbling mass of darkness coming from her horn still made Sunset nervous, and she shifted uncomfortably as she took the offered cup in her own magic. The other was set down next to Raspberry.

“Thanks,” said Sunset, taking a sip. The hot, caffeiney goodness of a fresh brew was just what she’d needed. “Now that is a good cup of coffee!”

All things considered, the talk was off to a well enough start. Sure, Raspberry’s pet phoenix had outright assaulted Sunset when she first entered, but a stern scolding from his master quickly cowed him.

“It’s what keeps our guests coming back,” joked Raspberry, making an honest attempt at a light smile as she took a sip from her own cup. “That should tell you something right there: that ponies are willing to deal with the incarnation of Sombra himself just for some of Mom’s home-brewed coffee.”

Sunset gave her a perplexed look. “Oh, so this is your home? I thought all princesses needed to live in a giant castle or something.”

“Heck no; Twilight still lives in the public library. It’s not like some power above Celestia will come in and decide she needs to have a gaudy as hell replacement, and have Golden Oaks leveled into splinters to force such a thing, right?”

Now, it was Sunset’s turn to feign a comfortable smile. “Well, at least Twilight’s current home suits her. She is a gigantic nerd after all!”

The breath that came from Raspberry’s nose could have been a laugh. Sunset took a long sip of her coffee so she wouldn’t have to talk, but the action only delayed the inevitable. She knew she couldn’t procrastinate forever. Just smile and nod.

“Look, Raspberry. I… owe you an apology. For attacking you yesterday, and for treating you like a criminal all week,” Sunset said. “It was wrong of me to assume the worst about you right off the bat. Since that’s pretty much what people do to me, I should have known better.”

Raspberry sat there, staring at Sunset as she measured her words. Behind her, the green phoenix appeared to be doing the same. Or it was just glaring at her.

“I appreciate your sincerity, Sunset. Apology accepted,” Raspberry glanced down at what Sunset realized was her injured leg. “While I don’t appreciate the way you nearly cost me my leg all over again, I don’t hold anything else you did against you. Let’s just say I’m used to being treated like a criminal. Also…” Raspberry glanced away. “I know all about what’s happening to your sister.”

“Then you know why I’ve been so suspicious of you. Twily’s being attacked with dark magic, and when she told me about her attacker, she described you! Even you have to admit there’s something strange about that!”

Raspberry leaned over the table and looked down into her cup. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Sunset. That kind of magic is beyond my ability. Even if it wasn’t, I would never use it to hurt anypony, let alone a complete stranger in another world!” Raspberry leaned back in her chair, her eyes on the ceiling as she thought. “Maybe if you told me a little more about your sister’s condition. Does she have any other symptoms?”

“Aside from insomnia, no. The only other thing she’s done is try to…” Sunset’s eyes widened as she remembered another detail about Twily’s condition. One she’d forgotten about simply because it was too horrifying to remember. “I found her in the bathroom one night completely naked with the whole room covered in her blood. She was scratching… symbols into the walls.”

“What kind of symbols?” Raspberry was leaning closer now.

Sunset looked around. “Do you have a pen and paper I could use?” Sunset remembered the symbols themselves well. Twily’s Exorcist-esque scrawlings wasn’t the first time she’d seen them.

Soon enough, Raspberry returned with a quill, an inkpot, and a notepad. Sunset hastily took the quill in her magic and dipped it in the ink. Wow, haven’t written with one of these in a while. She then proceeded to write out six symbols: ס וֹ מ ב רַס . When she was finished, Raspberry turned the notepad around to study it.

“Do you know what it means?” Sunset asked.

“Not really…”

Sunset sighed. There was no easy way to bring up what she was going to say next. “Raspberry… Celestia told me that its possible you could be doing this unintentionally.”

Raspberry closed her eyes. “Look, the thing you need to understand about me is… I don’t always have full control over my powers. Sometimes, if I’m under a lot of stress, my magic kinda… takes control of me.”

“Like it did when I hit your leg?”

“Yes, and that’s exactly the thing: that was the first ‘incident’ I’ve had in…” Raspberry trailed off, and her eyes widened. “A few months…”

“Which is exactly when Twily started having her nightmares,” Sunset said, leaning closer. “I think it’s time you told me exactly what happened in Lonesome Dove.”

Raspberry worried at her lower lip before finally giving a relenting sigh. “I suppose you’re right. You’d better get comfortable though, because there’s a lot I’m going to need to explain for it to all make sense.”

As Sunset shifted in her seat, she heard a sound like the faint crackle of a radio. Then she heard a very faint voice.

“Look, I already said I checked the batteries…”

“Wait, do you hear that?”

Raspberry froze, and her ears stood at attention as she listened.

“Why are we listening to Razz and Sunset again?”

The tiny voice sounded vaguely familiar. It came from somewhere inside the room. All of a sudden, Sunset had a sneaking suspicion about what - or who - she was hearing.

“You’re sure this thing works, Tiara?” asked Scootaloo. The five members of the CMC were gathered in their treehouse headquarters, though unlike most Saturday mornings they weren’t searching for their cutie marks. Instead, they had a different interest they were trying to explore.

“Look, I already said I checked the batteries, and that this thing is fresh off of Dad’s store shelves. And he makes sure all his stuff works. He takes his ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ promise literally. ”

“So… why are we listening to Razz and Sunset again?” Silver Spoon asked. “We’re not going to learn anything about Razz we don’t already know.”

“Because it’s Sunset Shimmer who we’re really interested in!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “She’s the one from another world! Ain’t ya curious about what she’s been livin’ like over there?”

“I…guess?”

“Shhh!” hushed Diamond. “I…I think I’m getting something!” She fiddled with the dial until a slight bit of static could be heard. “Ugh, these things are hard to tune!”

That was when Apple Bloom noticed the one detail they’d all overlooked. “Uh, Tiara? That’s the volume knob.”

“Yeah, so?”

“As in the transmittin’ volume knob. We’re not gettin’ anythin’ because that’s not what we’re doin’. The receiver is the thing you put outside Raspberry’s window, it’s playin’ everythin’ we’re sayin’! We’re the ones transmittin’!”

We’re the ones transmittin’! suddenly came the radio-quality mirror of Apple Bloom’s voice. As the five crusaders all turned to the window, Heliodor swooped in, placed the receiver in his talons easily on the table, gave a mischievous wink, and was gone.

“Well, at least we know it works, right?”

Sunset sat in perfect silence as Raspberry recounted the trials of her life. The more Sunset learned about her reflection, the more guilt she felt over her actions and thoughts of the past week. Raspberry told her about her troubled life growing up in the small, backwater town called Lonesome Dove. She spoke of how the entire town loathed and feared her because of her dark magic. She told Sunset about how her father viciously abused her, emotionally and physically. Raspberry had talked about how nearly a decade ago, she’d lost control of her dark powers and killed the brute in self-defense, forcing herself to flee the only home she ever knew.

All the while, Sunset slumped lower and lower in her seat. All this time I’ve been telling everypony I had changed, but I’m exactly the same as before. I just have different reasons for abusing people now.

It was then that her gaze fell on the brace on Raspberry’s hind leg; the one she’d deliberately struck during their battle. Sunset wasn’t able to keep herself from wincing as she sucked in air through her teeth. The action wasn’t lost on Raspberry.

“Oh, don’t worry. This actually happened relatively recently. It’s not my father’s work,” she explained, lightly patting her brace.

Sunset let out a breath and straightened up in her chair, relieved not to have reopened any old wounds - literally or figuratively. “Look, I’m sorry all of that happened to you, but I don’t see what this has to do with Twily’s nightmares.”

“Because just a couple of months ago, Twilight and I went back,” Raspberry said, taking a calming breath. “She thought it would be good for me to get some closure, and it turns out she was right. Though, not in a way either of us expected.”

When Sunset gave her an inquisitive head tilt, Raspberry just sighed. “Look, even I don’t fully understand everything that happened over those couple of days. All you need to know is, things got… weird. Let’s just say I had some very literal past demons I had to deal with. Unfortunately, well… you already know how well I handle stress.”

Sunset nodded. “So, am I to assume you went all ‘feral darkness monster’ then?”

“That’s one way of putting it, but yeah. It was pretty much up to Princess Twilight to keep me from destroying the whole town. Unfortunately, the ‘feral darkness monster’ interpreted her actions as threatening, and responded accordingly. I ended up using a dark spell designed to attack her mind…”

“Wait, wait, slow down, Speed Racer!” Sunset exclaimed, waving a hoof around. “Why do you know what’s basically a mind rape spell? I thought you said you didn’t know how to do that?”

“I said I don’t know how to use nightmare magic. However, I’d recently been called to the Crystal Empire to help deal with some of the effects of Sombra’s dark magic. You see, the Mad King liked to torture his subjects with nightmarish visions designed to break their minds and bend them to his will. It was how he was able to wipe most of their memories when the Empire returned not long ago.

“Anyway, there were still lingering effects of Sombra’s spell on the mind’s of the crystal ponies, and I was called in to help fix it. Fight fire with fire, you know? Let’s just say I learned way more about mind magic than I ever wanted to in coming up with a counterspell.”

“Right, so when you went crazy in Lonesome Dove, you recalled what you’d learned about Sombra’s mind magic and used it on Twilight,” Sunset said, thinking she knew where this was going.

“Yes. Twilight managed to reflect it and it simply disappeared. We didn’t think anything of it at the time; I’d designed it to only target her, after all,” Raspberry rubbed her chin. “But now, it seems entirely possible that the spell managed to cross dimensions. If it couldn’t get Twilight, it would go for the next best thing.”

Sunset’s ears perked up and a hopeful smile appeared on her face. “But if you came up with a counterspell to cure the crystal ponies, you can use the same spell to cure Twily!”

“That’s the idea,” Raspberry said, Sunset grin spreading to her own face. “It would just be a simple matter of firing the counterspell through one of the mirrors.”

Leaning back in her chair, Sunset took what felt like the easiest breath she’d had in days. A part of her didn’t quite believe it could be that simple, but deep down, she knew this was it. It was finally over! All of her worrying - all of the crippling terror that she would lose Twily forever - finally began to wash out of her, replaced by the hope that maybe… just maybe… everything was going to be okay.

“Razz…? Thank you for being so understanding,” Sunset said. “You have no idea how much Twily and the others mean to me.”

“She’s your family. Of course she does.”

“Yeah, but she’s also much more than that,” Sunset said, glancing out the window on the bright, sunny day outside. “You see, when Princess Twilight finally defeated me at the Fall Formal, she could have easily just turned her back on me. Hell, it would’ve been in her right to do so. But instead, she gave me another chance at friendship. And then when Twily came along, she gave me another chance at family.”

Sunset gave a single laugh. “It’s funny, I owe everything I have to the Twilights of both worlds. To the very person I hated the most. Makes you think, huh?”

“Believe it or not, I know exactly what you mean,” Raspberry said with a sympathetic smile. “After I first killed my father and ran away from Lonesome Dove, I was consumed by guilt and despair - which would quite literally come back to haunt me later. It felt like the whole world was against me, and in truth, it was. At least, before I met him.”

Raspberry jerked her head towards the side of the room, and Sunset turned to look at a crystalline bird stand with the great green avian perched atop it. Heliodor had his beak tucked into his wing, and Sunset could see his chest rising and falling as he snoozed.

“Heelee was the first real friend I ever had,” Raspberry continued. “No, he’s more than that. He’s family, but what’s more, he gave my life meaning. Just like Twily gave to yours.”

Sunset nodded, and then something occurred to her. “Was that why you stopped?”

It took Raspberry a few seconds to grasp what Sunset meant, but then it clicked and her brow rose. “You mean stopped myself from impaling you through the heart yesterday? Yeah, when you said your sister’s name, somehow I knew that… you were just like me.”

Sunset smiled. “I guess we really are reflections of each other after all.”

The pair simply sat in companionable silence afterwards. Their coffee had long since gone cold, but neither of them cared. The feeling of absolution they each felt was better than any caffeine.

“On the note of reflections…” Raspberry eventually said, getting up and moving to her desk to gather some papers. “I was wondering if you could help me with Sombra’s mirror. It’ll need to be up to code, so to speak, if we’re going to send that counterspell through, and I could use your insight.”

It was the best idea Sunset had heard all week.

This was such a bad idea! Thought Sunset as she swallowed with an audible gulp, trying to make herself as small as possible.

The afternoon had started out well enough. After a quick lunch with Raspberry and Twilight, Sunset had accompanied the pair of princesses to Raspberry’s hideout in the Everfree ruins where she’d been keeping Sombra’s mirror. It was then that they went about repairing the myriad of spells and enchantments held within the looking glass. Sunset’s knowledge of the mirror’s appearance on the other side turned out to be instrumental in their work.

The first sign that something was amiss was when a dome of pure darkness enveloped the mirror, and expanded like a black hole to envelope the three ponies along with the rest of the structure. Despite the fact that they were now alone with the mirror inside a dark void, Raspberry had assured Sunset that what happened was perfectly normal, and that they were in no danger. She went on to explain that she had just completed repairs on one of the mirror’s secondary functions, which then reacted to Sunset’s presence. She was, after all, the last pony to use the mirror to travel between worlds.

It was some time after that when the validity of Raspberry’s claim of safety was proven. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all entered the void as easily as stepping through a door. Twilight explained their presence by saying they needed to see what was about to be shown.

And then Sunset saw Raspberry’s notes. More specifically, she saw a sketch depicting a familiar scene of an older human teenager comforting a younger one.

“What the fuck is this?!” Sunset yelled at Raspberry. “Where the fuck did you see this?”

“Sunset, if you calm down I can explain…” Raspberry started.

“Have you been reading my mind, warlock?”

“It’s a function of Sombra’s mirror,” Twilight explained, effectively cutting the tension. “One we just now fully repaired.”

Raspberry went on to explain what function Twilight was talking about, and the more Sunset understood, the more unbridled terror welled up within her.

“I’m sorry, I should have been more clear about what exactly we were doing here,” Raspberry said apologetically. “As far as I know, the mirror should still be capable of sending you home, but… she wanted me to repair this particular function.”

“What do you mean? Who?”

That was when the great white alicorn entered the void, her ethereal mane almost lighting the nothingness around her. Celestia strode toward the ponies gathered around the mirror silently, her face an unreadable mask. It all made sense to Sunset now. Why they repaired this particular function of the mirror. Why Sunset had really been brought here. It was around the time Celestia’s gaze found her that Sunset gulped and shrunk to the ground.

“Sunset…”

At the sound of her mentor softly calling her name, Sunset opened her eyes and looked up. Celestia was still looking down at her, but there was something in her expression that hadn’t been there before. Sunset had noticed it when they dined together at the start of the week, and it was a testament to her long relationship with the divine princess that she noticed it at all, but Celestia’s face took on a more comforting appearance. All of a sudden, Sunset wasn’t so afraid. Carefully, she stood to her full height, and looked over at Raspberry.

“Sunset, we don’t have to do this if you really don’t want to,” Raspberry said.

“No, it’s okay,” Sunset replied. It was probably for the best. “Show them.”

With a nod, Raspberry lit up her horn, tendrils emerging that made a beeline for the five engraved ponies on the mirror. The five points on the mirror’s frame soon began to glow as if a light was turned on behind them. It was a sickly glow at first, but the intensity quickly grew brighter until suddenly the mirror itself stopped being a reflective surface as light radiated from it. Then, with a loud *POOMPF* as if the noise was a cloud being burst by a pegasus kicking it, an orb of light shot out of the mirror and smashed itself against the black atmosphere. More orbs soon followed until eventually, all the black around the ponies was replaced with bright images. There were creatures moving in a world that looked very different from Equestria. But those creatures - and that world - were all too familiar to Sunset Shimmer.

“Wh-what in tarnation?” exclaimed Applejack.

Whatever Applejack was going to say next was lost in the collective gasp as the mirror itself began to project an image. This one commanded the attention of the group as it was a very different image than the ones playing all around their heads. A dark night, pitched in what appeared to be a frigid blizzard, with a statue of some kind of equine - but not a pony - in the forefront. Behind it was a building of some sort. Snow was piling up but there appeared to be the remains of a shoveled path from the entrance. Suddenly, the snow on one side of the statue melted, neatly revealing a polished marble surface so shiny it was like a mirror.

Then through that surface tumbled a figure that sort of resembled a hairless monkey, only the tuft of hair on its head was like a beacon in the snow with its red and yellow stripes.

“Sunset, is...is that you?” asked Rarity, her attention moving from the figure on the mirror to the pony now standing next to Celestia. She got a small nod of acknowledgement, as if she was scared of what was coming next.

Indeed, the mirror suddenly flashed, showing a much different scene. The Sunset in the mirror, now wearing clothes and inside what looked like a school, was just one of many similar creatures of both sexes, their bodies various shades of brown with the only color variation in their hair and eyes. Only the Sunset in the mirror appeared to be picking on (to everypony’s shock) another creature that looked a lot like Fluttershy. The mirror then flashed through several sequences, where it was a similar scene only the individual being picked on was different.

Applejack.

Rarity.

Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie.

But the mirror didn’t stop, as it kept iterating past the familiar faces and a very vivid picture of what Sunset had been up to in the human world was painted. The rest of Twilight’s friends all looked at Sunset in disbelief, finally starting to understand what it was they were seeing.

“Sunset, are these… your memories?” Rarity asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“From the human world, yeah…” Sunset replied as all of her sins were laid bare.

Her heart racing, and her body shaking, Sunset looked up and studied the face of her old mentor. Celestia studied every image that appeared with careful scrutiny. When she first returned to Equestria, Sunset had promised to submit herself to Celestia’s judgement once Twily was saved. With the deed done, it was clear that the princess now held Sunset Shimmer to her vow.

Saturday, PM: They Speak To Me Like Constellations

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Saturday, PM: They Speak to Me Like Constellations

Sunset wanted to hide. She wanted to find somewhere that could provide any kind of refuge from what was going on. Failing that, she just wanted to shrink into nothingness. But it wouldn’t do her any good: the entire dome was now nothing but a giant cinerama dome filled with smaller monitors, each one seemingly presenting a time where she’d been every bit the egotistical bitch she’d left Equestria as. The largest of the images, presented through the mirror itself, seemed to just be doing them in chronological order. There was a lot of ground to cover, as the slideshow of her sins had yet to get to the first Homecoming.

“So this is what you were up to, outside of my reach in this other world?” chastised Celestia.

Sunset merely hung her head. “What can I say? I was just a pony with power and potential who thought she was already princess material.” She’d choked on the words “power and potential”. They were an echo of her words to Celestia years ago, when she had first shown her Platinum’s mirror.

Meanwhile, the other ponies just looked at the mirror in a mix of shock, horror, and disgust. “I hope you don’t intend for that to be a simple justification for this, Sunset,” growled Rainbow. “Seriously, you seemed okay, but-“

“I never said I was justifying myself!” snapped back Sunset. “Honestly, is this any real surprise to any of you? I know Twilight must have told you about how I publicly humiliated her with the pictures.”

“You what?!” shouted Applejack, held back only by the sudden lavender wing unfurled in her face.

“Easy, AJ,” cautioned Twilight. “Considering what she’s letting us see, what she’s done to others in the past, the whole altered pictures thing is minor.”

“Be glad I hadn’t pirated a copy of Photoshop back then,” Sunset said sadly, “or it would have been that much harder to disprove.”

“There is something I am curious about,” piped up Rarity, turning to Razz, “just how is all of... this possible?” Rarity gestured to the dome of images around them.

“From what we’ve learned, it’s one of the more subtle features of the mirror that Sombra installed in it.”

“Subtle?” Rainbow pointed to the ceiling. “This is subtle?”

“Well, okay, in execution it’s rather obtuse, but really I don’t think Sombra intended to tell anypony about this function, if about the mirror at all. See, when somepony uses the mirror, they are actually tied to it in a way that normal magic users can’t detect, but I can since, well…” The mulberry mare gestured to her horn, still covered in its bubbling mass of dark magic haze.

“And since I came through the mirror last, it seems it can lay out pretty much everything I’m ashamed of.” Sullenly remarked Sunset, wincing as the mirror replayed a memory of her shoving somebody else (maybe Fluttershy? The hair was covered by the raincoat hood but it wasn’t exactly hard to misidentify who had a bust that big even in middle school) into the mud on a rainy day while laughing evilly.

“So…Sombra could look into the dark secrets of anypony who used his mirror, then use it as blackmail of sorts?” theorized Fluttershy.

“That’s the only reason why I can think Sombra would want to look into other ponies’ memories,” replied Razz, “I mean, if I wanted to, I could tune it to show any part of her head – with her permission, obviously, - but it’s default setting is revealing the darkest parts of one’s mind.”

“That’s…really strange phrasing, y’know?” pointed out Pinkie.

“Hey, it’s what the spell’s runes translate into, just because I’m good with it doesn’t mean I actually wrote the laws of magic or anything.”

Celestia tapped a hoof to her muzzle. “Sunset…is this essentially what you did for all the years you were a human, before you came back to steal the crown?”

“Mostly. There were some…other things, that I did that I really, really regret…” she confessed, looking away as the mirror now showed the first time she and Flash Sentry had kissed. Sunset wondered whether she should tell Twilight about Flash’s true nature.

Razz, figuring there was a very real possibility the content could go into territory straight out of a cheap romance novel’s most “intimate” scenes, made a silent command to the mirror to skip any future “embarrassing” moments with the blue-maned male. The mirror complied, skipping ahead to the first Homecoming ceremony. There was a younger Sunset, who looked so happy to have been chosen to wear the Homecoming crown. Her smile looked nice enough, but then they spotted another girl fleeing the stage in tears, her fabulously-styled hair dyed a sickly green color.

The scenes that followed were all similar. If anything, Sunset’s actions proved it was possible to rise and fall simultaneously. The fiery teen sunk to new depths as she rose to the top of the social ladder. Twilight and her friends watched with despair as their human counterparts were torn apart by Sunset’s manipulations. Sunset’s heart beat faster as another Homecoming came and went. And then another. Before she knew it, Sunset was watching herself return through the portal in a fit of rage as she realized she no longer had the crown she stole. She had Fluttershy cornered against a locker next, and that was when her conqueror and her savior appeared.

The rest of the ponies watched her stand-off with Twilight in rapt silence, all the while the pit of dread in Sunset’s chest grew wider and deeper. Her efforts to antagonize Twilight went by in a flash as the mirror brought them closer to the moment Sunset dreaded most. It’s like it knows.

Then the night of the Fall Formal arrived, and Sunset swallowed as she saw herself standing by the polished marble of the statue, a sledgehammer raised over her head. She saw herself order her cronies to let Spike go, and remembered her words at that moment. I’m not a monster. Ironic, considering what was about to happen.

After the brief game of keep-away, Sunset Shimmer held the crown in her hands, and then she placed it on her head. A chorus of gasps emerged from the ponies around her as they watched the girl in the mirror become enveloped in a brilliant, ethereal column of light. Sunset saw her own face contort in pain, tears running down her face, and all at once she remembered the burning agony and sheer mind-numbing terror she had felt as her body was changed. Her tears then evaporated into the air, and floating in her place was nothing short of an abomination. A red, laughing demon with fiery hair and black eyes now floated in her place. A living monument to all of her sins.

“It…it’s horrible!” Fluttershy squeaked, attempting to crouch behind her friends.

“Don’t worry!” assured Razz, “it’s only an image, it can’t come out and get any of us. Just a ghost of the past.”

One determined to haunt me for the rest of my days, it would seem, Sunset thought as her counterpart in the mirror began her (admittedly) poorly conceived plan to brainwash the entire student body for her war against Celestia. Of course, that had never been her endgame before she put on the crown. She just hoped that Celestia would have the wisdom to figure that out.

“Oh no!” Pinkie shrieked. Sunset returned her attention to the mirror just in time to see her very literal past demon launch an attack at Twilight and her human friends only to be blocked by a magical barrier that appeared around them. “Oh, phew…” Pinkie sighed.

“Uh, Pinkie? I’d think the fact that I’m standing here right now indicates pretty strongly that I survived,” Twilight said in complete deadpan.

“Aw, way to ruin the suspense!”

Sunset just ignored them, her eyes glued to the mirror as it showed Twilight and the others rising in the air, taking in the power from the Element of Magic. She watched as her demonic counterpart was blasted by a swirling vortex of rainbows, leaving her a pitiful, sobbing mess at the bottom of a huge crater.

Suddenly, the image flickered, before fully vanishing and leaving the mirror’s surface nothing but a reflection of the ponies in front of it once again. Similarly, the dome was plunged back into darkness as the windows into parts of Sunset’s early human life vanished from above.

“Hmm, that’s strange,” commented Razz, her gaze suggesting she wasn’t focusing on anything in sight. “There’s some sort of…blockage the mirror’s encountered. I can try to work around it, but only if you want to show anything else, Sunset.”

“Well, I think I’ve seen enough,” snorted Rainbow, stepping to the front. While the other four ponies behind her generally seemed to agree, judging from the tone of their murmuring, they also sounded somewhat uncommitted.

“Oh, come on, girls” groaned Twilight, “I know you all can be more respectful of the big picture, here.”

“Plus, aren’t you all forgetting why Sunset came here and then tried to kick my butt?” added Raspberry. “I think it’s safe to say that there’s a clear difference between the Sunset we saw in the mirror – the one she allowed us to see in full – and the one here with us now who we’ve all interacted with. Don’t you agree?”

“But how do we know she’s for real?” countered Dash, “for all we know, her claims that she’s now friends with our other counterpart selves could just be her trying to cover her tush, should Twilight-AGH!” Rainbow’s loudmouth was silenced suddenly, all her attention now focused into glaring angrily at Applejack, whose hoof still gripped the spectrum-hued tail hairs of the pegasus.

“I, for one, am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt,” said Applejack. “Ain’t there still a whole year’s worth of events that we haven’t seen yet?”

“Exactly,” Raspberry said. “I just need some time to readjust the mirror’s settings.”

Pinkie suddenly raised her hoof high. “Can we take a potty break? I really gotta go!” Then, without waiting for an answer, the pink pony zipped away, disappearing to the other side of the dome.

“I do believe we all could use a little time back outside for some fresh air,” suggested Celestia, to which everypony else agreed.

When nopony was looking, Sunset quickly darted out of sight and behind one of the many cottages that sat in the shadow of the once-great Castle Everfree. She needed to be alone, lest the others see her begin to hyperventilate. Her heart had been racing like a jackrabbit the whole time and all the stress would possibly end up giving her an ulcer if she didn’t vent it somehow. All the worry she’d also been building up had drained her of much of her body’s energy, so taking advantage of privacy she let herself collapse, resting on her side.

Suddenly, there was the sound of metal-on-stone just behind her. “May I come in?” asked the voice of Celestia.

Never could let me rest, could you? mused Sunset, not in the mood to immediately jump back into dealing with her former mentor. Her brain not firing on all pistons, she somehow came up with a reply Celestia couldn’t make sense of: “Magic Eight Ball says ‘try again later’.”

“I…guess that’s a human turn of phrase?” postulated Celestia.

Sunset rose to a sitting position, but kept her back to the princess. After what they’d all just witnessed, Sunset wasn’t sure she could bear to look at Celestia’s face. The look of calm disapproval alone would be enough to kill Sunset where she stood. As it happened, Sunset didn’t have to turn around to look at her old mentor. Celestia moved in front of her and lifted Sunset’s chin, and student and teacher were looking into each other’s eyes once again. To Sunset’s surprise, she didn’t see a trace of malice or disapproval in Celestia’s face. She only saw the same unfamiliar pony she had glimpsed on her first day back: a weary old mare with a mind plagued by millennia of regrets.

“Do not make the mistake of thinking you’re the only one who laments what has come to pass.”

When Sunset had been unable to meet Celestia’s gaze moments before, she suddenly found herself unable to look away. It almost sounded like Celestia… believed Sunset’s regret was sincere. That doesn’t mean anything. For all she knows, I only regret leaving her because doing so burned my best bridge to power. Just like that, Sunset found her eyes drifting away from Celestia’s once again.

“So, assuming Razz can fully restore the mirror’s functions, do you think you’ll let us look at the rest of your life as a human?” Celestia asked, lowering her hoof and regaining her regal stature.

Sunset’s ears flattened as she suddenly found a mark on the ground very interesting. “I don’t know what good it’ll do. It’s not like anything I did after Homecoming can erase everything I did before.”

“That’s true. Even Twilight couldn’t change the past, despite her best efforts to do exactly that.” A hint of a smile formed on Celestia’s lips, and Sunset had a feeling there was a story there. “All of the good deeds in the world can’t erase a bad deed, but in my opinion they don’t always have to…” Celestia paused for a moment, carefully considering her next words. It was strange to see a pony who always knew exactly what to say hesitate so noticeably.

“Did you know the sunlight that creates your shadow is approximately eight minutes and twenty seconds old?” she suddenly asked. Sunset tilted her head, confused by the sudden strange tangent. “I always found that interesting: that when you look at your shadow, what you’re really looking at is a manifestation of the past. However, no matter how great or how small your shadow is, it doesn’t really define you now does it?”

Sunset’s mouth slowly drifted open as she began to comprehend what her old mentor was really saying. Celestia simply turned and began heading back to the big black dome, stopping briefly to add, “Food for thought.”

Sunset Shimmer sat in place for a time, her mind a hazy mist as it tried to process all of the thoughts circulating through it. It seemed like no time had passed at all when Twilight came to get her.

“Hey, Sunset? Razz finished with the mirror,” she said, taking a step toward her. “If you want to show the rest of your human life, we’re all ready.”

“Okay…” Sunset muttered, before straightening up and giving a sure nod. “Okay.”

As the two mares walked in the direction of the large dome of pure darkness, Sunset couldn’t help but fidget nervously. Everything she thought she understood about Celestia’s state of mind was suddenly thrown to the wind. Her anxiousness did not pass unnoticed.

“Do you want to know the first thing Celestia asked me when I returned from the human world?” Twilight asked. Sunset could only look at her and nod once before Twilight answered, “‘Is Sunset Shimmer okay?’”

The others were waiting by the mirror as Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer entered the dark dome once again. With a nod from Sunset, Raspberry fired up her horn and the final segments of Sunset’s human life began to play out. The first thing the ponies saw within the mirror’s frame was a rickety old building collapsing under the assault of various construction vehicles.

“What exactly ‘re we lookin’ at here?” Applejack asked.

“My old home,” Sunset answered.

“You mean the buildin’ owned by the Flim-Flam brothers?” When Sunset nodded, Applejack let out a single, amused guffaw.

As a shocked human Sunset Shimmer looked on at the destruction of her home, another figure approached her. He was a tall, uniformed man who was the very picture of authority. As he gave the teenage girl with fiery hair a stern talking to, Twilight spotted the blue stripes in his own hair and her eyes widened.

“Is that…?”

“My foster brother,” Sunset answered, “Shining Armor.”

Twilight and her friends watched in stunned silence as what were the most important events in Sunset’s life played out. Her talk with Officer Armor in the burger joint. The moment she met her soon-to-be foster parents. Principal Celestia’s stern final warning.

Celestia the princess studied her counterpart closely. Her human self had appeared a few times in their earlier viewing of Sunset’s life, and Celestia had been briefly amused when it was explained that her counterpart was no more than a high school principal. Now, something evidently clicked in the solar diarch’s brain as she looked at her counterpart now.

“Sunset…” Celestia said, looking down at her former pupil. “How much do the humans know about our world?”

Ah, of course. Sunset figured this line of questioning would come up at some point. It would seem as if Celestia was able to spot some small nuance in her counterpart’s demeanor that hadn’t been there before.

“Not much,” Sunset replied. “Most of the student body retains no memories of my, er… rampage. The only ones who do remember are the girls that helped Twilight defeat me, as well as your and Luna’s own counterparts.”

“Interesting…” Celestia’s gaze remained focused as she returned it to the mirror, but Sunset could see the gears turning in her old mentor’s mind. If Sunset could venture a guess, Celestia was likely going over possible First Contact scenarios, and considering the necessary preparations for such an eventuality.

If anything, that line of thought helped keep Sunset’s mind off of the scene playing out on the mirror. Sunset remembered the immense discomfort she had felt as the principal lectured her, and noted the way her past self was unable to meet her eyes. Not much has changed, evidently. After their last conversation, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder how Celestia felt about this particular moment. Another glance at her face showed the same careful indifference she usually reserved for court, but Sunset couldn’t help but wonder...

Then the mirror jumped ahead to the next morning. For the first time, the main pony counterparts of the “Eightmazing Eight” at long last got a glimpse of the actual human counterpart of Twilight Sparkle, along with Octavia. The two now appeared in the mirror just as Sunset had seen them that morning long ago.

“Well, that explains your…um, excitement when we ran into Octavia Melody a few days ago,” commented Twilight with a grin.

“Hold on, those clothes look familiar somehow…” said Rarity, completely oblivious to Twilight’s comment. Sunset immediately remembered why Rarity recognized the clothes, but the mirror didn’t give the alabaster fashionista a chance to remember as well before it skipped to later that same day. Sunset was now having a conversation with her friends in Sugarcube Corner Cafe’s upstairs kitchen.

“Huh?” questioned Dash, seeing the reaction of the humans on screen to something Sunset had said, taking special note of her own counterpart’s reaction: dropping a cookie and splashing milk all over herself. “What did you say there, Sunset?”

“Oh, that? I was telling them that I now lived with Twilight Sparkle, or at least the one who was human from the start.” She then turned to Twilight – the alicorn princess version – with a gleam of admiration in her eyes. “While they did befriend Twily and Tavi soon after this, Twily isn’t the same to the girls as the one they knew first. You should know that they miss you, Twilight, so don’t think they’ve forgotten you.”

“Thanks, Sunset,” replied Twilight, her eyes slightly misty as memories of her time on the human plane came back. “Though, I have to wonder how different I am from the human who shares my name.”

Sunset took the chance to crack a sly grin. “Very different, actually. For starters? Twily doesn’t believe in magic.”

The look on the purple princess’ face was priceless. “What.”

The greater part of the next two hours involved mainly just Sunset now giving narration to the slideshow of her life that was in the mirror. Such as when she got stabbed in the attack by Lightning Dust and Gilda (though Rainbow’s staunch defense of the pony version of Lightning Dust seemed odd) and how that led to her acquiring her beloved bomber jacket in the wake of losing the old black leather one.

Then there was the time Sunset had put on her little “magic show” for the children and ended up becoming a minor hero for finding the wayward Grapevine. Though she shrunk away from Celestia’s disapproving look when Sunset reluctantly admitted that she’d used real magic in front of a bunch of people and potentially jeopardized her secret.

Following that was her brush with the group of high school rapists known as “The Club”. Much to the gathered ponies’ horror, Sunset explained how she’d been asked by the principal and vice principal to use her magic and later how she’d managed to save Twily, Tavi, and indirectly Rarity before it had been too late. Princess Twilight in particular looked scandalized as she saw Flash “Brad” Sentry do things she wouldn’t have considered possible. Sunset couldn’t help but notice tears in Twilight’s eyes as her image of the boy she had loved became as shattered as the wall Sunset had punched through in the restaurant. It’s probably for the best that she knows the truth, Sunset thought, even as the purple princess furiously wiped at her eyes.

Next was Sunset’s adventures in LA. Present Sunset decided to avoid mentioning the enigmatic “La Musica” and the possibility she was in fact a transplanted pony. She instead opted for emphasizing how she helped resolve the problems of both Octavia and Screwball. While it did embellish her ego slightly, the mystery of Musica Allegra paled in comparison to the next major topic: the “Twily’s Nightmares” saga.

“Holy shit! Well, I can certainly understand why you were out for my blood if you thought I was doing that!” Raspberry gasped, horrified at the mirror’s present glimpse into the bathroom, where Twily’s blood had been written into numerological signs. The poor teen herself - the scratches still fresh from being self-administered on her body - clutched Sunset for dear life. “I…I honestly can’t imagine what would have happened to her if you weren’t there for her.”

Sunset took a deep breath before replying. “I can, unfortunately.” And pretty soon, you won’t have to imagine either.

As more scenes played out showing Twily’s continued descent into hopeless despair, her pony counterpart spoke up. “Earlier, Raspberry told me what you two concluded, and I can’t help but feel the need to take full responsibility. If I had any idea this is what would have happ-NO!”

The mirror was going faster now, having skipped ahead to the moment in time when Twily had finally broke. At the moment of Twilight’s exclamation, it looked for all the world as if the giant wheeled vehicle was going to smash right into the teen in front of it. Only a red-and-maize blur -accented with light cyan magic for the briefest of moments - saved her in the nick of time.

“I don’t think I’d ever been more terrified in my entire life than I was at that moment,” Sunset confessed solemnly. “If I had been even a fraction of a second slower, I don’t think either of us would have made it.”

The memory caused Sunset’s throat to clench up, and it took all of her willpower to blink away the tears that threatened to spill forth all over again. A reassuring hoof on her shoulder - courtesy of Twilight - reminded her that everything would be okay, and Sunset smiled appreciatively.

The mirror had moved on from Twily’s near-suicide as now Sunset was bidding her foster family farewell at the airport. “With most of the family out of the country, and me having to stay at home to attend summer school, I had a perfect opportunity to study this weird mirror. It belonged to some ancient Italian guy. Uh, Baldassare di Cavalcanti.” Sunset was certain she’d botched the Italian pronunciation, but carried on regardless. “Allegedly, his mirror allowed him to ‘converse with a black unicorn who taught him black magic’, or something.”

“Black unicorn?” said Pinkie, “Are you saying this Bald guy was having conversations with Sombra?”

“Given that Sombra created this mirror and, as far as any of us can tell, was the only one to use it until recently,” deadpanned Razz as she stated the obvious, “I guess he did. I’ll bet nopony on the human side believes it, though.”

“Not a word, since whatever Sombra ‘taught’ Baldy couldn’t have been legitimate magic,” explained Sunset. “The only reason I can do any tricks of my own is because I am a unicorn. Even then, my magic is far more limited than it would normally be. It almost feels like something’s holding me back…”

Sunset noticed Princess Celestia give a brief glance in her direction before hastily returning her attention to the mirror. Though she was probably silly for doing so, Sunset couldn’t help but analyze her old mentor’s every movement, and wondered if there was something more to the look she just gave her.

Then the mirror’s image changed again for what had to be the last time, as now it showed Sunset and (to everypony’s surprise) Principal Celestia, inside what looked like a restricted area of a museum. Sunset was pushing a large pane of protective glass away from the front of the mirror and the display box holding the displaced ruby.

“Wait a minute,” said Razz, her tone growing dead serious, “the ruby isn’t in the mirror?”

“Oh, yeah, might have forgotten to mention that,” answered Sunset sheepishly. “The emerald and the diamond are also loose, if that’s import-“

“Important would be an understatement,” remarked Razz, her eyes suddenly letting loose the dark magic fog that had been restrained until now. “I’ll explain later, but right now I need all of you to go back outside immediately.”

The ponies began to look around, growing increasingly nervous. A faint rumble sounded as somehow, the intangible walls of darkness around them began to quake.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” whimpered Fluttershy.

“The stability of the mirrors is more fragile than I thought: the fact I’ve been pushing an ancient magical portal to do things it hasn’t done for centuries with nothing but jury-rigged repairs isn’t doing it any favors. But I need to shut it down now or else reality might break so badly that Discord will be begging for a return to order, and I can’t have you guys in here!” Raspberry had already dropped her normal appearance to cut the drain on her magic and her voice reverberated as it had just the other day as she shouted, “So GO!”

Everypony immediately obeyed, running at full gallop toward the edge of the dome as the whole world seemed to shake around them.Sunset was the last to go through when she stopped right at the edge to look at the mirror one last time. The fading image on the mirror was that of her summoning all her courage and then stepping through it. The exact moment the Sunset in the mirror vanished from view, the mirror itself simply dissipated the image like a TV turning off. Then, suddenly, Sunset felt a pair of hooves seize her and effortlessly yank her to the outside.

“You really need to stop obsessing over mirrors, Sunny!” chided Pinkie, gently putting Sunset down. The unicorn tried to comprehend how Pinkie Pie could have lifted her up and then run on her hind legs only back through the dome’s wall, but between human Pinkie doing similar feats and pony Pinkie having the excuse of natural earth pony strength, Shimmer opted to just not try to solve that enigma. There was enough on her mind already.

“Hey, what’s happenin’?” shouted Applejack, directing everypony’s attention to the dome. It was now shrinking rapidly, though with Raspberry and Sombra’s mirror still inside, it was anypony’s guess as to what was going to happen when the dome vanished. Except when it did, there was absolutely nothing. A pony just arriving on the scene would see nothing different from what had been there just several hours ago.

Sunset took a step forward and looked around, a dark pit of worry forming in her gut. “Where’s the mirror? Where’s Razz?”

The other ponies followed suit, looking around with wide, frantic eyes as they called out, “Razz!”

“Raaaaaaaaz!”

“Raspberry Beryl!”

At the beginning of the week, Sunset had been convinced that her dark reflection was nothing more than an enemy that needed to be destroyed. “RAZZ!” Yet here she was, calling her name and growing more and more worried when she didn’t answer. Sunset’s life was anything if not full of surprises.

“Phew!” sighed Raspberry, emerging from her safehouse in her normal guise. “That was a close one!”

“Razz!” exclaimed her friends, all of them proceeding to cowpile on top of her with hugs, careful of her wounded leg.

Sunset let out a relieved sigh, also glad to see Raspberry was okay. Though given what she’d implied, the day’s discoveries might end on a bittersweet note for the wayward Shimmer. “Raspberry, is the mirror…I mean, will I be able to go home?”

“Y-yeah! Just…just give me a moment!” laughed Beryl, playfully wrestling herself free from the entanglement of wings and legs. “Sheesh, you girls are so clingy! Anyway, Sunset, the mirror’s okay, I just needed you guys out of there. Trying to keep everything stable is harder when there’s more ponies in a sub-pocket of reality like that.”

Sunset and the others gave understanding nods, smiling now that the tension had passed.

“Now, while I do wish you’d told me about the state of the gems on the other side earlier, the connection between that one and Sombra’s is still strong enough to get you home,” Raspberry said.

“Assuming Celestia lets her go at all,” Rainbow Dash growled, giving Sunset a glare.

Sunset swallowed as she looked away from Rainbow. As much as it hurt seeing a pony that resembled a friend scrutinize her so severely, it wasn’t Rainbow’s opinion of her that mattered right now. Slowly, Sunset Shimmer brought her eyes up to Celestia, who was currently preoccupied with her celestial charge. She then realized it was getting late in the evening, and her old mentor still had a job to do.

“Is there anything else you wish to say before I pass judgement?” Celestia asked as she willed the sun lower in the sky. “Do you still regret all that you have done?”

Still unable to get a read on Celestia’s thoughts, Sunset glanced away. She found her gaze resting on her own shadow, and suddenly remembered her earlier conversation with Celestia that sparked her uncertainty. In the orange light of the setting sun, Sunset’s shadow stood tall and imposing. And yet, it only moved when she moved. When she raised a hoof, her shadow replied in kind. Despite how large and scary her shadow appeared, she was still the one in control of it.

“No,” Sunset answered. All of the gathered ponies looked at her in astonishment. Even Celestia’s gaze fell from one sunset to another. “Yes, I truly regret hurting you, along with everyone else, but I don’t regret making mistakes. Because really, it’s my mistakes that made me who I am today. Sure, if I’d never made them in the first place, I might still be at your side, but I’d also be the same mare that I was before. Power-hungry and selfish.”

Sunset gave her shadow another glance. “No matter where I go, my past will always follow me. All that matters now is what I choose to do with it. And what I choose is to learn from it, so I might become a better person.”

By the time Sunset was finished, Celestia had completely lowered the sun, and her looming shadow disappeared in the darkness of night. Sunset knew it was still there, but it wasn’t so big a presence now. The group of ponies remained silent for a while, the chirping of crickets in the night the only sound that prevailed. Finally, Celestia turned to Sunset.

“Well spoken, Sunset.”

Sunset couldn’t help but smile a little. Celestia’s praise always made her feel a little warm. “Thanks, Princess,” Sunset said. Her smile slowly fell as she cleared her throat. “For the record, I still intend to take whatever punishment you have planned for me, but I’d really appreciate not being sent to the moon. I-I can’t even… begin to describe how much I’d like to stay on the ground.”

Celestia gave a sly smile. “Now, why would I do that?”

“W-well… you have to punish me somehow, right?” Sunset’s mind started running laps as her heart quickened to keep up. Is she… not angry? “I-I mean… t-there’s no way you could just… forgive me, right?”

“Of course not,” Celestia said stoically, dropping Sunset’s heart down a dark pit of terror in her chest. At least, until she added, “because there’s nothing to forgive.”

Just like that, Sunset’s racing mind ground to an abrupt halt, and she went from thinking about a thousand things at once to being unable to even focus on her own name. “W-wuh...?”

“I’ll admit: your betrayal hurt me more than I could bear. It was for that reason that I needed to be so cautious when you returned. I needed to be objective in dealing with you, or else risk suffering that betrayal all over again. But Sunset, you need to know that even if I couldn’t trust you, I could never hate you. Not even for a moment.” Celestia’s voice trembled as she tenderly brushed aside Sunset’s mane as she had so many times when she was a filly. Sunset saw her eyes glisten as she said, “There’s nothing to forgive, Sunset, because I’d forgiven you years ago!”

Sunset’s head spun, and she felt like this was some dream. Except any dream she had about her old mentor had always been a nightmare. She had never heard the words that Celestia said now, because she never expected to hear them. Yet here she was, wondering when her dreams had suddenly felt more real than reality. Sunset’s vision clouded, and she realized her own eyes were filling with tears. This was everything she’d ever wanted, but never thought she deserved.

Unable to contain herself a moment longer, Sunset felt her hooves launch her into Celestia’s own in a torrent of tears. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m s-so s-sorry!” Sunset wailed as Celestia wrapped her up in a cocoon of forelegs and wings.

Celestia’s warm embrace was bliss, and Sunset cried and sobbed like a foal. She was a messy, ugly sight, and Princess Twilight was watching with all of her friends, but Sunset Shimmer didn’t care. She just let Celestia hold her closely and gently stroke her as she had when she was a filly. Sunset wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that; time lost all meaning in Celestia’s embrace. Nevertheless, when Sunset was finally spent, it felt as if the weight of the world was lifted from her shoulders, and a great tiredness washed over her whole body.

Sunset only meant to close her eyes and rest for a moment, but she felt so warm and safe in her old mentor’s arms that she started to drift to sleep. Before she knew it, Sunset was back in her guest bed at Sugarcube Corner. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Sunset fell asleep without a care in the world.

Sunday, AM: The Stories in Your Eyes

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Sunday, AM: The Stories in Your Eyes

Rain.

That was the only way to describe Sunset’s surroundings. The rain was so dense that all around she could see nothing but a solid curtain of precipitation; it looked similar to a constant stream of gray barrelling down against the world, soaking all the life and color away. And yet, though the rain appeared to hit her, she felt neither wet nor cold. It was as if she wasn’t there at all, wherever “there” was to begin with.

With no other option, she walked forward, taking each step gingerly into the unknown. Gradually, she picked up her pace, and with it shapes began to materialize around her: big, blocky shapes that turned into the dark outlines of buildings. More specifically, the backs of buildings.

Hey, I think I know this place, realized Sunset. The architecture suggested that she was, for some reason, in a back alley of Canterlot, though why she’d be in one of them in the middle of a downpour was anypony’s guess. But a part of her subconscious nagged at her mind, this was a specific alleyway, she’d known this place once long ago. Why do I feel this way, though? This looks like the southern district of town, and I’ve never spent any time here. Unless….

All this time, Sunset had seen a light in the distance, which she’d followed; had she been on Earth long enough, she likely would have heard - and heeded - the warning to “not go into the light”. But in her subconscious mind, she was a pony, and to ponies that light meant magic and succor. And as she approached, the light turned out to be a lonely lamp, its bright aura unyielding in the hard rain as the only source of light in the area. But it was the building it was attached to that made Sunset wonder what was going on, as she read the sign out loud.

“Canterlot…Orphanage….” All stories had their beginning, and all ponies had some place they came from. For Sunset Shimmer, she only knew her story began on the very steps in front of her. She wondered if it was a night like this that she had been abandoned here, the urge to scoff at how cliché it all sounded quickly suppressed. But the sudden sound of rapid hoofsteps rattling against the wet cobblestones caught her attention just then, prompting her to hide behind a convenient crate opposite the orphanage.

Peeking over the crate, Sunset watched as a lone pony’s shape pulled away from the shadows, its features covered with a heavy cloak but still obviously a mare. Looking around to see if anypony was watching, the mare seemed placated enough to reach around and take off her pack. She did so very carefully, as Sunset soon realized that the pony’s pack was in fact a filly - one with a shock of red-and-yellow hair framing a maize-colored horn.

The mare whispered something to the foal, but it was too quiet for Sunset to hear. She got a glimpse of the mare’s face though, and its features held an incredible amount of love, rivaled only by the sadness in her eyes. Sunset felt a deep connection to the mare in the cloak, and her heart longed to go to her. To hold her and be with her.

Just then, a crack of thunder echoed around them, causing the infant to start crying. With one final kiss and hug, the mare tearfully placed the babe on the top step of the orphanage, still keeping her forelegs wrapped around the babe as if letting go was not an option. Then she quickly turned and looked right in Sunset’s direction, as if she knew she’d been watching.

Before Sunset had pulled back out of impulse, she’d gotten a full on view of the mare’s face. Though shrouded in the shadow of the hood, the mare was a unicorn of white coloration, her mane a shade of bright yellow with shocks of silver framing her horn. But it was the eyes that gave Sunset the biggest surprise: they were the exact same shade of cyan as Sunset’s. Given how rarely coloration and such was passed down from one generation to the next, eye color as unusual as Sunset’s (cyan was one of the most uncommon pony eye colors) could only have come from someone related.

Another loud crack of thunder broke the silence, with the baby crying even harder in return. Realizing she’d been staring at nothing, the mare shook her head before taking one last look at her child. She knocked on the door with a few forceful raps before she dashed off into the night, quickly melting into the shadows and the rain. The older Sunset, having just seen where her oldest memories began, still instinctively wanted to chase after her birth mother but was stopped when the door to the orphanage flew open, light pouring out onto the alley.

Dreamy Heart, as Sunset recalled the name of the orphanage’s kind caregiver, immediately saw the crying babe and took her into a warm hug, resting on her haunches.

“There, there….” comforted the mare, ignoring the pouring rain that soaked both her and the baby. Looking at the foal in her arms, the new mare said, “Oh, but you’re like a bright spot of light on this dreary evening - almost like a shimmering sunset, you know that? But I wonder who left you here?” She looked up and down the alley, to see if whoever had abandoned the child was around. But as Dreamy Heart had told Sunset years later, she never knew how Sunset had ended up on those steps.

Sunset could only watch, her emotions in chaos as Dreamy Heart took the now sleeping filly into the building, closing the door behind her. Within a matter of minutes, the earliest defining moment of Sunset’s life had occurred, but to a pony who now came across the scene, it was no different than what Sunset had found beforehand.

“Luna….” started Sunset, having figured out this was all a dream. “Why…why are you showing me this?”

“Do not be alarmed, young one,” said a pleasant voice that wasn’t Luna. “While I can reach the dreamscapes, I am not my daughter.”

Sunset was overcome by such sudden shock, she didn’t notice the surroundings fading into nothing, leaving only an endless, empty expanse in their wake. After all, nothing else mattered when Queen Faust now stood before her. The exact nanosecond Sunset recovered from her shock, she threw her face into the ground, bowing before the great alicorn harder than she’d ever bowed before. If prostrating before Celestia, begging for forgiveness, was almost like pushing herself through the marble of the throne room, Sunset was willing to push herself to the center of the planet if need be this time around.

“No need to hurt yourself, Sunset!” laughed the great matron seeing the unicorn’s utter panic. “Please, rise, there’s no need for such formality.”

Sunset blushed profusely as she got back upright. “So, um, I have to ask, why are you here?” asked Sunset, worried that any word she said would offend Faust and cause Sunset all kinds of problems that made Twily’s nightmares look tame in comparison. “I’m certainly nopony special, just another unicorn.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?” chastised Faust, though her voice tinged with nothing less than amusement. “My daughter, Celestia, saw something in you long ago. While the role you were meant to play eventually went to Twilight Sparkle, that does not mean your story and your importance to Equestria has ended.”

“I…I don’t understand…” Sunset said with a tilt of her head.

The cream-white alicorn briefly glanced off to the side, and when Sunset followed her gaze, she caught a fleeting glimpse of the alleyway she’d just stood in. “Tell me, why didn’t you pursue the mare you just saw? There was nothing stopping you from doing so.”

Sunset Shimmer couldn’t deny there was a part of her that longed to have all of the answers. It was in her nature. It was what led to all of her mistakes. “Because whoever she was, she’s nothing more than a piece of my past. And I’ve decided I’m not going to let it control me.”

Faust smiled. “Oh? And why is that?”

Sunset’s answer came quicker than even she expected. “Because I have my own family now. The woman who made me a part of that family is my mother, not the mare who birthed me.”

“Then, would you say you are more human than pony now?”

Sunset opened her mouth, but no answer came easily. “I don’t know…” she muttered. “Twily’s family has fully accepted me as one of their own, and I couldn’t be more thankful. But… I’ll never truly be one of them. No more than I truly fit in here, my own homeland!” Sunset’s ears drooped, and her whole posture sank as her she looked down. “Earth… Equestria… I don’t belong in either one.”

“You were never one to think of the glass as half-empty, Sunset.” At Faust’s words, Sunset looked up again at her infinitely wise and compassionate face. “Try thinking about it another way.”

Her brow creased, Sunset thought carefully about Faust’s words. Why can’t these immortal alicorns ever just give straight answers? Try thinking about it another way…. But there was only one other way to interpret her current crisis.

“Are you saying I belong in both worlds?”

Faust gave another warm smile. “Your greatest accomplishments tie both of these worlds together. You couldn’t have done all of the good you did in the human world without pony magic, and it is what you learned as a human that allowed you to show your true colors here in Equestria. And then there’s Sombra’s mirror to consider.”

Faust moved closer to Sunset and leaned down to her. “There are still more mysteries linking the worlds of ponies and humans together, and only a child of both worlds can unlock them. You are still destined for great things, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Y’know, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that got me in trouble years ago,” Sunset said with a dry smile.

Faust stood back, raised to her full height again. “True, but things are different now, aren’t they?” The image of the great alicorn started to rapidly fade away, shrinking as she grew ever more distant. “I have faith that when your destiny calls, you’ll know what to do…”

Just like that, the empty expanse around Sunset Shimmer dissipated, and she opened her eyes to look at the ceiling of her guest bedroom.

Was that really Faust talking to me? wondered Sunset, amazed that if it had truly been the celestial matriarch, Faust hadn’t blasted her into oblivion for all the times she’d said she would be greater than her. Sunset got up and washed up for the final time in Sugarcube Corner. Today was, after all, her final day in Equestria. Tonight she would return to the human world - her home.

However, she figured Equestria wasn’t quite done with her yet when she came downstairs.

“Oh, Miss Shimmer!”

At the sound of the voice, Sunset looked over at the entrance to the kitchen, and saw a blue middle-aged mare step out with a tray of freshly steaming pastries.

“Mrs. Cake!” Sunset exclaimed, surprised to see the previously sick confectioner up and about. “Feeling better?”

“Much, thank you,” Mrs. Cake answered as she set the tray down on the counter and started putting the assorted pastries in the display case. “Were you heading out?”

”Not yet. Do you need my help with something?”

“No, but Derpy said she’s got a letter for you, under strict orders to make sure she gives it to you directly.”

Derpy? wondered Sunset, delivering a letter to me? The Derpy she knew back in the human world was insanely smart; a regular computer whiz who others often drew comparisons to “Gates” or “Jobs”. Sunset had no idea who those humans were, outside of them being important when it came to computers. “If you don’t mind me asking,” inquired Sunset, “do you know why Derpy was sent to deliver it and not like, the local mail service worker?”

Mrs. Cake blinked in confusion. “Derpy is the one in charge of Ponyville’s mail.”

Now Sunset was the confused pony. “She’s the mail carrier?”

“Well, yes. To be more precise, she’s actually the entire postal system for Ponyville.”

Before anything more could be said, a blonde pegasus with gray fur and unmistakably out of alignment pupils came up to Sunset and Mrs. Cake, putting a plate with crumbs down on the counter. “Just as good as ever, Mrs. Cake!” complimented Derpy with a smile, “No better way to start the day than with a Sugarcube Corner muffin!” She then turned to Sunset, producing a small letter from her saddlebags. “I was told to give this to you directly!” the pegasus chirped.

“Um, thanks?” replied Sunset, taken aback by how overwhelmingly cheerful Derpy was being. The human Derpy tended to be both snarky and cocky, most likely as a side effect for being teased about her eye condition. Sunset wondered if the human she knew was more like the pegasus in private.

“You’re quite welcome!” After saying goodbye, Derpy merrily hummed a tune as she left to do her daily letter delivery.

“Here, why don’t I make you something special for breakfast?” asked Mrs. Cake, “ I’m sure my husband and Pinkie have been showing their appreciation for your help with covering for me, so I feel obliged to do the same.”

“Yeah, sure, that would be great!” said Sunset, figuring one more cup of coffee before going back home wouldn’t be too bad.

“…Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

The laughter of the two alicorns echoed through the cavernous halls of Canterlot Castle. Beside them, a blue-maned white unicorn stallion gave a good-natured role of his eyes.

“Y’know, I used to think that was so annoying,” said Shining to his aunt-in-law. “Then again, I also didn’t think I had a chance of asking Cady out, either.”

“Maybe it’s just some kind of curse you have,” replied Celestia, “where all the girls in your life eventually turn into alicorns?”

Shining chuckled. “Do you have any idea how my mom would react to gaining wings? At her age?”

“She’d probably master flying within a week and then keep giving me tips on it,” snarked Twilight.

“Oh, come now, Twily,” said Cadence, “it took me years to learn how to fly, and you’re much more adept at it than I am.”

“You were also born with wings. I had them magically sprout from my back.”

“Touché.”

Just then the great hall’s doors opened as Princess Luna hurriedly made her way to the others. “Many apologies; Discord turned the staircases into those moving atrocities again.”

“It’s alright, Lunar. But we have a more important matter to discuss right now.” Celestia led her fellow royals to the meeting table specifically set up for their use. “Cadence, Shining, I trust the letter I sent you detailed the situation enough that you understand the basics?”

“Well, I’m not sure how to feel about there being another mirror that connects to this ‘human’ world,” admitted Shining. “Especially if it’s really Sombra’s hoofwork.”

“That’s not a major problem,” said Twilight. “The bigger issue is that the mirror itself has been left open for over a thousand years. That’s a lot of time to have a portal between worlds unaccounted for.”

“There’s also the issue of the one who discovered the mirror in the first place,” Celestia said. “My old protégée, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Wait, isn’t she the one who stole Twily’s crown?” asked Cadence, her eyes narrowing. “I take it you didn’t incinerate that no-good mare on sight, Auntie?”

Celestia gave a patient sigh. “No I didn’t, Cadance.”

“Then let me handle that,” the Princess of the Crystal Empire insisted, standing from her seat at the table as if she meant to track Sunset down that instant. “She should count herself lucky she didn’t face me - and I’ll be more than happy to rectify that.”

“Cady,” groaned Twilight, “I appreciate the sentiment, but you’re not my babysitter anymore. Besides, she’s not back to cause more trouble.”

“Then why did she come back, through Sombra’s mirror portal of all things?”

The youngest alicorn sighed. “Remember Razz’s little ‘incident’ back in Lonesome Dove?” Cadance, unable to come up with something that expressed her concerns about that, merely nodded. Twilight proceeded to give Cadance a brief summary of the events of the past week, and their relation to the Lonesome Dove incident. After the other princesses’ insistence that Sunset was on good terms with Equestria now, the alicorn of love reluctantly conceded.

“Okay, if Shimmer’s really a friend now, what ‘issue’ is there surrounding her?” Cadance asked, sitting back down.

“Yesterday proved to be very… illuminating. Without getting into details, all of us who know Sunset were treated to a replay of events from her human life,” Celestia explained before leaning forward and speaking in a quieter tone. “But what’s concerning me is that later that night, Raspberry Beryl told me there was still more Sunset wasn’t sharing. My gut tells me Sunset knows something more about Sombra’s mirror.”

“Your gut has served you well in the past, sister,” Luna said, leaning forward with a grin. “Except when it comes to cake!”

Celestia deemed to simply ignore the comment and press on, resulting in a pouty night princess. “However, now that Sunset’s loyalty to us has been reaffirmed, I feel comfortable moving forward with my new plan for her, which we discussed previously.” Celestia turned to look at Twilight. “Has your research into Star Swirl’s spellbook revealed anything more about Platinum’s mirror?”

“Actually, yes,” answered Twilight, summoning the book in question with her magic and flipping through its pages at a rate that made the other princesses’ heads spin. “There are detailed ways to establish a line of communication with Sunset between worlds if need be, as well as a way to undo the time-restriction on Platinum’s mirror itself.”

“Wait,” interrupted Luna, “we could have just removed the time lock on it?”

Twilight shrugged. “It’s a lengthy spell, and certainly would take weeks to fully apply, as the purpose of the time lock is to prevent abusing the mirror’s powers.”

“Yeah, that worked out so well,” sarcastically commented Cady.

Twilight rolled her eyes but continued anyway. "The point is, if Sunset needs to reach us or even return to Equestria, the terminus for the Platinum mirror is easier to access and more stable than Sombra’s mirror.”

“That’s all well and dandy,” said Shining, “but if we’ve already got everything worked out, why did we all need to be here?”

“Well….” Uncharacteristically, Celestia appeared to become extremely nervous. “She…doesn’t know about what will be asked of her.”

“Um, that’s not exactly an answer to my question.”

Luna, however, sighed as she recognized what was going on. “Celly…you don’t want to ask her, do you?”

Celestia shook her head. “No. Despite all she had done in the past, Sunset doesn’t owe me anything,” Celestia’s eyes focused on the table, and the others saw something in her they had never seen before: shame. “The truth is, the betrayal that divided us… it goes both ways.”

“Celestia… what do you mean?” Twilight asked, leaning closer to her mentor.

“There’s a reason her magic is so much weaker in the human world. A reason she never regained her full power when she returned to Equestria.”

Twilight gasped and her eyes grew wide with understanding. “You didn’t…”

Celestia looked up from the table, her eyes betraying uncharacteristic vulnerability. “If I would really ask this of Sunset Shimmer, I’ll need to set things right. I’ll need to give back what I stole from her….”

When Sunset arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, she didn’t quite know what to expect. The letter had informed her to be at the farm as soon as possible, but didn’t go into detail. It wasn’t signed either, though strangely enough the writing looked vaguely similar to Applejack’s. The human one, anyway.

Do signatures correspond, too? wondered the unicorn, passing through the arch marking the entrance to the farm. She was relieved to see that, unlike last time, there were not five fillies trying to make some crazy, fantastical multi-armed apple picking machine that ultimately was nothing but a neutered IED.

“Howdy there, Sunset!” came the voice of Applejack. Sunset looked in the direction of the voice and found the blonde farm pony trotting up to meet her.

“Hey, Applejack,” greeted the unicorn, “were you the one who sent that letter?”

“Eeyup. Ah know ya gotta go back home at some point today, but Ah’m also sure you’re wonderin’ about somethin’ else everypony’s probably been rather mum about.”

Sunset nodded. “Is that why you sent the note?”

Applejack gestured with her head towards what looked like a rose garden in the distance. “It’ll be a long explanation, but as far as Ah’m concerned, you deserve to know the whole story.”

As Sunset followed Applejack, she had to wonder what a rose garden was doing on an apple orchard farm. One look from Applejack confirmed the farm pony knew what she was thinking

“Not many ponies know that apples are in fact in the same family o’ plants as roses,” she said. “For as long as the Apple Family has been around, it’s been tradition to use roses to decorate the family graveyard.”

The word froze the unicorn in her tracks. “The…family graveyard? You mean, whatever is going on….”

Applejack looked back for a brief moment with a melancholy look, catching Sunset off guard. “Yeah, don’ know if anypony told you, but mah parents didn’t exactly have the same stroke of luck as their human versions.” She then turned and kept going, leaving Sunset with no choice but to follow.

A few minutes of silence later, the two ponies arrived at the most sacred portion of the farm. It was a breathtaking sight for Sunset, as the fenced in plot of land was filled with roses far richer in color than any she had seen on human Earth. Within the roses were several tombstones, though two of them stood slightly higher than the others and were made of what looked like marble. Upon them were inscribed a few words, but they sent a chill through Sunset’s veins.

APPLESEED

Loving Father

CORNFLOWER

Loving Mother

“I…I….” Sunset tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

“Yeah, Ah know what you’re gonna ask. Well, let me ask you a question, Sunset. Do the humans have myths about certain members of their own species who have the ability, or really more like the curse, of turnin’ into wolves?”

“You mean like, werewolves?” It was a nonsensical answer, Sunset knew. Twily had gone into brainiac mode months back during Halloween and happened to mention the word “werewolf” was in fact from an Old English origin, with the prefix “were-“ specifically referring to a human man. The idea that ponies used the same term, where humans didn’t exist, was virtually impos-

“Oh, they call ‘em werewolves, too?” Applejack gave her a look indicating she knew something Sunset did not. “Ah hope they don’t actually exist in the human world, because here in Equestria, lycanthropy ain’t nothin’ but trouble!”

Sunday, PM: The Silent Wings You'll Fly Away On

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Sunday, PM: The Silent Wings You’ll Fly Away On

As unicorn and earth pony stood among roses and headstones, Sunset Shimmer stared at her host in ever-increasing disbelief. It wasn’t every day a pony learned that the existence of werewolves was one of Equestria’s most closely guarded secrets. First created by King Sombra one thousand years ago, the blight that was the werewolf curse lingered throughout the ages. Lycanthropes lurked in the shadows of the history books for a millenium.

As Applejack went on to explain, her parents had both been infected and subsequently murdered by a pair of werewolves. But what caused Sunset’s mouth to drop open was the reveal that Applejack herself had been afflicted by the very same curse, passed on to her by the very same werewolf that did her parents in. Seeing Sunset’s wide-eyed expression, Applejack laughed.

“Don’ worry, I ain’t a werewolf anymore. I’m cured. Twice in fact,” she said.

“Okay, this is fascinating and all, but I don’t really see what werewolves have to do with anything that’s happened recently,” Sunset said, letting out a breath now that she was relatively sure Applejack wouldn’t maul her come the next full moon.

“It’s why the girls an’ I put so much trust in Razz,” Applejack glanced over at the pair of marble headstones. “If it weren’t for her, there might be more graves out here.”

“Does this have to do with the incident on Nightmare Night a year ago?”

Applejack nodded. “Eeyup. The same night Razz was exposed for what she really was, she managed to save Apple Bloom from another werewolf; an undead one at that. Turns out my sister was havin’ a hairy problem of her own. One she’d contracted from me somehow.

“In the end, Razz was able to use her dark magic to cure everypony of lycanthropy for good. She even quite literally risked life and limb to stop that undead werewolf once and for all!”

That would explain the leg brace, thought Sunset, still feeling some guilt over nearly breaking Raspberry’s leg completely.

“As you can guess, I feel I owe Razz a lot for everything she did,” Applejack’s gaze grew distant, and all of a sudden she seemed to be reliving it all over again. “Being a werewolf was hard. I suddenly had all of these… urges to do things I would never have even considered as a regular pony. What was worse, I was afraid to let my friends and family know about that side of me. Do you know what that’s like? To hide such a big part of yourself from those closest to you?”

Seeing that Applejack was working herself up, Sunset gave her a reassuring smile. “More than you know.”

Applejack managed to return her smile. “Of course, I coulda saved myself a lotta trouble if I’d just come out with the truth right away. Word of advice: honesty is the best policy!”

Sunset’s smile started to crumble. If only it were that easy, AJ. The two mares stood quietly in the patch of roses for some time after. Applejack stared at the two marble headstones with a distant look.

“Hey, Sunset?” Applejack asked, finally breaking the silence. “Do you know them? Their human versions, I mean.”

“Oh. Um, not really; I met them the last time I slept over at AJ’s place. But I’ve talked to your human counterpart, and…”

“How are they?” Applejack asked, suddenly turning to look at Sunset with a face full of fragility. To see the hard exterior of the pony version of her friend start to crack was jarring. “They doin’ well?”

Sunset thought about Applejack’s parents back in the human world. She knew that Applejack’s mother was in a wheelchair because of the accident, and that for a long time she held herself responsible for the death that it caused. But she also remembered the time Applejack visited her at the Sugarcube Corner Cafe to tell her about her mother’s meeting with the victim’s wife.

“They’ve moved on from the car crash,” Sunset said. “They’re doing well.”

Applejack smiled, and her eyes glistened a little. “Good.” She then chuckled a bit. “Did you say ‘car?’”

“Yeah, why?”

Applejack just chuckled some more before glancing back in the direction of the barn. “Nothin’. Jus’ a funny coincidence.”

Sensing there was a story there, Sunset smiled. “Care to elaborate?”

“I’ll do ya one better,” Applejack said, turning toward the barn. “Follow me.”

“Oh, wow, um…” stammered Cadence as she watched Raspberry and Twilight levitate the ancient mirror out of her safehouse. “That is most certainly Sombra’s magic I can feel from that thing.”

“Cady….” groaned Shining Armor.

“What? I’m not going to throw myself at it like I did with Sombra’s little sanctuary back in the castle!”

“Smart decision,” said Razz, whose focus was mostly directed on the mirror she was moving out into the square. “The connection through this mirror to its human counterpart is distorted enough as it is, the last thing anypony needs is for you to make it worse.”

“Um, is moving it out of there really a good idea?” asked Luna, nervously eyeing the engraved gem representing her corrupted self. “After all, while I don’t mean to suggest fault on your part, Raspberry, but even you have said this mirror isn’t functioning to its full capacity. Thus I must question the thought process behind taking it out of its containment.”

“Nothing is going to come through it, if that’s what you’re worried about, Princess Luna,” grunted the dark magic expert as she set the mirror down in the middle of the decaying town square. The ancient relic now served as the centerpiece to the rest of the old capital’s ruins. “In fact, it’s going to be a one-way ride for whoever goes through this next.”

“But you’re sure Sunset will make it through okay?” Twilight inquired, a touch of concern in her voice.

“Yes, she will. Really, the mirror will function exactly as it will need to. In fact,the only reason I wanted it brought out was so everypony can see Sunset off.” While what Raspberry had said was true, for anypony larger than Twilight couldn’t fit in the ancient cottage, it was clear to all those present she’d meant Celestia above all others.

“Do you know how much longer Sunset has before she misses her window?” abruptly asked Celestia, clearly nervous despite her best attempts to keep up a facade of calm.

“At least several more hours, so there’s plenty of time for Rarity to come back with the others and for all of us to say our goodbyes. It won’t matter if Sunset went through now, or at the last possible second - trust me on that.“

Whatever the unicorn was going to say next was interrupted by the sound of multiple ponies approaching. Twilight looked down the old street to see four of her friends approaching.

“Hey, girls. I trust you had no problems getting here?” Twilight greeted.

“No,” Rarity answered. “As much as I hate to say it, we’ve all become quite familiar with this wretched forest.”

“And do you all have your letters?”

This question was met with much more enthusiastic nods from the four ponies.

“I gave my counterpart all kinds of pointers to help her be more awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, hovering in place. A contemplative frown brought her back to the ground. “Based on what Sunset told me, she’s going to need them.”

“Where is Sunset, anyway?” Twilight asked, before noticing only four of her friends were present. “For that matter, where’s Applejack?”

“I think Applejack asked Sunset over to the farm early this morning,” Fluttershy said. “I saw them going towards the barn where they keep that truck thing stored.”

“Really? What does Applejack want with Sunset?” asked Shining.

Rarity shrugged slightly. “I think we can make a good guess.”

The next fifteen minutes were the bumpiest and most uncomfortable quarter hour Sunset Shimmer ever had. The lack of seatbelts had been an early warning sign, but evidently the truck also lacked a suspension system designed to handle off-roading.

“Yeeeee-hah!” shouted Applejack, who was actually enjoying this much to Sunset’s shock. “Normally Ah don’t drive this thing around, but this is sort of like one of those fancy whirlin’ ride machines they have at the county fair!”

“Y-y-y-ou don’t sa-a-a-a-ay!” stammered Sunset, her entire body reverberating from trying to secure herself to the seat. To say that when the truck stopped, it couldn’t have come soon enough for the rattled unicorn, who actually didn’t realize it was stationary until five minutes after it had stopped moving.

“You alright there, sugarcube?” chuckled Applejack.

“Let’s not do that again, please?” was all Sunset could say in response.

“Fair enough, though it’s yer loss.”

Sunset ignored the suggestion such a thing as the last fifteen or twenty minutes could be considered fun enough to do again, instead concentrating more on keeping herself upright. It felt awkward to her having to experience all her limbs rendered into jelly, given she’d felt the same as a human after her first time riding with human Applejack in her family’s delivery van. I can’t believe I forgot Applejack drives like a wannabe NASCAR racer!

As her legs gradually returned to normal, Sunset took in the sights around her. When she’d first arrived, she’d beat a hasty exit towards Ponyville, the only thing on her mind being to end whatever was hurting Twily. But now she had the chance to marvel at the decrepit ancient capital, which looked majestic and grand even though its prime had been centuries ago. What had once been common pony homes now lay as broken shells, surrounding the half-hollowed remains of Castle Everfree.

And then she saw the the mirror standing in the center of town square, with all the ponies around it.

“Ah, here’s the pair we’ve been waiting for!” announced Raspberry. “Took you two long enough, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, yeah, if yer gonna blame somepony, blame it on me!” retorted Applejack. “Thought Ah’d take the chance to have a little talk with Sunset so she understands what we were all bein’ so secretive about.”

“And you brought the truck?” asked Rarity, eyebrow raised. “We could hear the screaming from here.”

“Ah, she loved it!” laughed the farmer, reaching over and dragging Sunset into a surprise side hug. Rarity paid more attention to the furious shaking of Sunset’s head indicating the truck ride had been anything but “loveable” to her.

“So,” interrupted Cadence. “This is the mare who was causing Twilight so much trouble last year?” Sunset immediately paled, realizing who was speaking…or rather who her human counterpart was. While Sunset had never seen Cadence in court, she most likely was about to find out what it was like to be at the wrong side of her wrath.

“Sheesh, at this rate Cady’s looking more like the protective big sibling than you, Shiny,” snarked Twilight. “Though, I think Sunset has both of you beaten on that front.”

“Hey!” angrily retorted the one male in the assembled group, “Twilight is perfectly capable of protecting herself. Cadence, though, is the one who constantly needs saving.” He then gave a smug look to his wife, getting a chuckle out of everypony except her.

“Oh, ha ha,” said Cadence in a falsetto laugh, before leaning in close to Shining to whisper, “I’m totally making you pay for that later.”

"With interest, I'd imagine," Shining said flippantly, before he paused in thought. A second later, he added, "You are joking, right?"

Cadance just fixed him with an even look.

"Oh. I'm in trouble now, aren't I?"

"Yes, dear."

"Couchable offense?"

"For the whole week, dear."

Shining sighed. "Crap."

Everypony else laughed again.

“Though speaking of ponies in trouble,” said Celestia, suddenly fixing Sunset with a cautionary glare. “Twilight mentioned something to me about you showing off your human form to a few ponies.”

Oh shit! thought Sunset, having forgotten all about the moment she’d unintentionally transformed in front of Lyra, Sandalwood, and Octavia. How did Twilight find out about that?

“Lyra and Sandalwood are probably the two most trustworthy ponies in Ponyville outside of my friends,” Twilight explained, figuring out what Sunset was thinking. “Octavia, though, is another story.”

“Rest assured, we explained the situation to her, and Miss Melody has agreed to an oath of silence on the matter. In light of that, and the care you have otherwise put into keeping your secret, I’m willing to let the incident slide this time,” Celestia stated, allowing Sunset to relax. It was then that Celestia’s stern demeanor dropped away. “However, I must ask: can you do it again?”

Sunset blinked. “C-come again?”

“I don’t want to make any unreasonable demands of you, Sunset, but I would like to see the form you’ve chosen to take in your new life directly, not through a mirror.”

Murmurs of interest and curiosity sprouted up, to which Sunset had no choice. “Uh, I can try, though that previous time was an accident.”

“Surely your magic hasn’t decayed that fast, has it?” Luna commented with a smirk.

With an annoyed huff, Sunset fired up her horn, intending to prove the night princess wrong. The problem was, as Sunset proceeded with the spell, she found it harder to deny the truth: her magic was definitely weaker than it was when she first left Equestria all that time ago. Like before, she felt her magic begin to go elsewhere when she began casting the spell, but she was ready for it this time. Even so, holding on to so much unstable magic was incredibly daunting, and Sunset gritted her teeth as her head started to throb.

But a few moments later, the spell was complete, and Sunset stood on two legs again, panting from exhaustion. A glance at Sombra’s mirror indicated she was wearing the same clothes as she had when she left the human world, and she even had her proper skin tone this time. She was pure, one hundred percent human.

“Wow!” remarked Pinkie. “You’re really tall!” Indeed, Sunset in her human body towered over everypony else, with Celestia being eye level with Sunset for the first time ever. Curiosity taking over, Celestia took a step forward and cautiously raised a hoof, putting it on Sunset’s cheek.

“Yeah, it kinda sucks not having fur to keep me warm,” admitted Sunset. Celestia didn’t hear, too busy looking her former student over in her adopted body, which after a few seconds made Sunset feel uncomfortable.

“And what about you, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Would you mind as well?” Without even answering, Twilight charged her horn, ready to cast a shapeshifting spell.

“Um...no offense, Twilight,” Sunset said in a choked voice, “but I’d rather you didn’t. It...it would be too painful for me right now.”

Seeing the flicker of pain in Sunset’s eyes, Twilight nodded, dissipating the spell. “I understand. You must really miss her right now.”

“She’s my sister,” Sunset replied. No more needed to be said. The fragility on the human girl’s face was clear as day. It was proof enough that the Sunset Shimmer that stood before the group of ponies now really had changed. Even Rainbow Dash would agree that she wasn’t a bad person after all.

“Sunset…” Celestia started, looking at the girl uneasily. “I know things have been… difficult between us. Thus, it would be completely within your right to say ‘no’ to what I would ask of you. Nevertheless, I want you to at least hear me out.”

Sunset nodded slowly. “Okay…” Sunset’s apprehensiveness was fueled only by Celestia’s own. Such nervous uncertainty was unlike her. Sunset was the one who had cruelly betrayed her. So why does she look so guilty?

“It has recently come to my attention that there may be more linking our two worlds than it might appear,” Celestia began.

Raspberry took the opportunity to step forward. “The connection between Sombra and Calvacanti’s mirrors is distorted. Something or someone traded places between the two worlds. Permanently. Sunset, we must know: have you seen any indication that you aren’t the first pony to take on a human life?”

“Yes,” Sunset answered gravely. “I didn’t mention anything earlier because I have no solid evidence to go on, but I think an ancient musician called Musica Allegra might have been a transplanted pony. I would have looked into it more, but my priorities shifted once Twily started having her nightmares.”

“I would like you to resume that line of investigation when you return,” Celestia said, maintaining a carefully guarded demeanor. Too carefully guarded. “Additionally, I would like you to be the eyes and ears of Equestria in the human world.”

“Wait, whoa whoa whoa,” Sunset exclaimed, waving her hands back and forth. “Are you saying you want me to spy on humanity? On my own family?!”

“Spy isn’t exactly the right word,” Celestia said carefully. “‘Evaluate’ is more what I had in mind. You see, despite our current theory regarding Allegra, you are the first known pony to have integrated into human society. Thus, you are in the ideal position to evaluate whether Equestria should… reach out to them.”

Sunset nodded, beginning to understand where this was going. "You mean, First Contact?"

"First Contact?" Sunset explained what the term meant and as soon as she was done, Celestia nodded. "Well, I wouldn't think it so dramatic...just don't expect me to play a xylophone at this 'Devil's Tower' place."

“And this wouldn’t prevent me from living my life as I’ve come to know it?”

“All you’d need to do is just send letters and stuff,” cut in Twilight. “We’ve found a way to remove the time lock on Platinum’s mirror. As long as you retain control of Equestrian magic, you should be able to step through any time you want. Additionally, I found a spell that Star Swirl created. One that supposedly allows for communication across the borders of reality without the need of going back and forth through a portal. He called it a ‘dragonfire candle’, so I made one for you. It’s in here.” Twilight then levitated a bag that had been tucked out of sight and flew it over to Sunset.

“Regardless of whether or not you accept this responsibility,” said Celestia, “I had Rarity make these saddlebags for you so that no matter where you go, you’ll have more means to support yourself then you did the first time you left.”

Sunset blushed, then opened the bag. Immediately, she could detect the powerful magic within. “Subspace storage?” she said, surprised that something requiring such a rare magic was being given to her as a gift. In her hooves was a bag that was magically enchanted to have an infinite ability to hold anything. Just looking at it wouldn’t suggest anything more than a typical pouch, but if it could fit through the opening, the only limit to what could be carried was the strength of the user, as the combined weight of all the items inside still applied. Such bags were of course normally banned for the ease of which they could be used to hide dangerous materials, but for Celestia to have such a thing made for her? It suggested that the princess had an incredible sense of faith in her former student. “I...I’m not even sure I know what to do with portable hammerspace.”

“Hammerspace?” Twilight asked, curious.

“It’s a...human term for the same thing.” And I really am not in the mood to explain the cultural values of Ranma ½ right now, the flamehaired girl mentally added.

“Regardless, you may have need of it,” Celestia said, “and I cannot think of anypony I could trust more with it.”

“I…I don’t know what to say…” Sunset said, rummaging through the bag with her magic. She found the dragonfire candle that Twilight mentioned, along with several sealed envelopes. “ Wait, why are there a bunch of letters in here?”

“Oh, those?” answered Rarity. “We all decided to write letters to our counterparts!”

“Er, I never told them thatthey have pony counterparts,” pointed out Sunset “Honestly, I think they’re still kind of getting used to being friends with just one unicorn.”

“Well, in that case,” said Rarity, “we’ll leave it in your hooves to decide the proper time to give the letters to them.”

“And please, Sunset,” began Celestia again, “regardless of whether you agree to my request, I would like you to keep in touch with me. I believe it would be beneficial for us to stay in contact. We both made the mistake of not talking to one another and I don’t wish for a repeat of where that landed us years ago.”

“It’s okay, Princess. I can keep an eye on the human world for you,” Sunset replied after some thought. “It’s the least I can do after all I’ve done. Besides, I’m already keeping the truth about my origins from my family,” Sunset tried to give a light-hearted smile, but it just looked forced. “What’s one more secret?”

Oddly enough, Sunset could see no joy in Celestia’s expression at her answer. Only grim resignation. “Very well. I suppose that brings us to the heart of the issue.”

Looking around, Sunset spotted the same uncertain looks on the other princesses as Celestia. “What’s do you mean?” Sunset asked.

“Sunset, haven’t you ever wondered why your magic has been far weaker ever since you first left Equestria?”

Sunset gave Celestia a quizzical look. “Well… the human world doesn’t have Equestrian magic, right?”

“Normally that’s true. However, when Twilight used the Element of Magic to defeat you, it should have filled the human world with enough Equestrian magic to bring you back to your full power.”

Sunset was silent for a moment. “So… why didn’t it?”

“For the same reason your magic hasn’t been working fully since you arrived back,” Celestia explained, barely meeting Sunset’s eyes. “Sunset, I... I stole your magic!”

A second passed. Then another. “...Um, what?”

“More specifically, I bound your magic; cut you off from most of your reserve. It’s something I must do sometimes with young ponies whose magic is too great for them to control.”

“She did it to me the day after I passed my entrance exam,” Twilight added. “I had turned my parents into potted plants during the exam, so it was good that she did. Of course, my parents gave their consent, but since it looks like this is the first you’ve heard of this…”

Sunset looked at her former mentor in disbelief. “When… when did you do this?”

Celestia just sighed. “The day you first left. I had been aware of your mad ambitions, and hoped that binding your magic would keep you from trying anything dangerous with it. You wouldn’t have even noticed unless you tried any really advanced magic. I was going to tell you later that night, but… well, I’m sure you remember how that went.”

Sunset didn’t know how to feel. A small part of her felt betrayed and angry that Celestia had taken such an integral part of herself without telling her. But on the other hand, Sunset knew she had more than earned it.

“Don’t worry about it, Princess,” Sunset said with a smile. “Water under the bridge and all that, right?”

Celestia returned her smile and took a step forward. “Now the time has come for you to regain the power you are meant to have, Sunset,” said the alabaster alicorn. Celestia’s horn shone brightly, as blinding as the sun, before she lowered it and touched its tip to Sunset’s forehead. In an instant, Sunset felt every atom in her body ignite with power, washing over every single speck of her existence. Had she been the Sunset Shimmer who had wanted this power, she surely would have wasted no time in plotting to abuse it. But now? This was just allowing her to use magic as a mere tool for her needs when they arose. And she smiled, for it was not power that brought her happiness now, but the idea she could protect those that made her happy.

Just as quickly as it had started, the moment ended, and it was as if nothing had happened. But Sunset knew the truth. This was her second chance. Celestia was taking a big risk in relying upon her former student, one who had committed acts of borderline treason. But that was because she believed Sunset had become the pony she was meant to be after having shed the skin of the cruel, selfish individual she’d been turned into. “Thank you, Princess,” said Sunset, her eyes watering, “I won’t fail you this time. I’ll make you proud of me.”

“As cheesy as it sounds,” admitted Celestia, “you’ve already made me very proud.”

Taking a step toward Sunset, Celestia spread her wings and wrapped her former pupil in an embrace, holding her tighter than she had when she first took the small filly home from the orphanage. “I should have told you this so many times, so long ago, but…” Celestia’s voice trembled. “I love you, Sunset. You’re the daughter I could never have.”

“And you’re like a mother to me, Celestia,” Sunset replied, only barely holding herself together.

“All this time, I thought of Celestia as a second mother,” Twilight muttered as she and the others watched the pair hold each other. “But I never realized: Celestia was Sunset’s only mother.”

Celestia pulled back as something Sunset said then clicked. “Like a mother?”

Sunset looked down. It was something that had been on her mind since she and Celestia reconciled the other day. “I’ll never forget the role you played in my life, Princess. You’ll always have a very important place in my heart. But my family’s in the human world. Twilight Velvet is my mother now.”

“I see….” Now it was Celestia who looked at the ground, and for a moment Sunset was afraid she’d broken her heart all over again. Instead, the princess gave her a teary smile and another soft embrace. “Good. I’m glad you’ve found people who love you like I do.” Despite her words, Celestia held on a little longer, unable to let go just yet, and Sunset felt the princess’ tears on her hair and face.

“Ahem?” interrupted Raspberry. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I would like to shut this mirror portal down as soon as possible and if you keep dragging this teary moment out, Sunset’s never gonna leave,” Raspberry then dropped the serious tone and gave the pair a warm smile. “Besides, you know this isn’t goodbye.”

“She’s right, you have finished your business here in Equestria, and it is time for you to go.”

Sunset nodded, and turned to face the mirror, looking confidently at the human girl shown in its reflection.

“I’ll keep a grip on it from here,” said Raspberry, lighting up her horn in its dark magic fog for emphasis. “Come hell or highwater, you’re going home. Though...I’d recommend changing back to normal, so there’s no chance of latent magic interfering.”

“But I am as norm…oh.” Sunset blushed slightly as she realized her faux-pas. Fortunately, nopony gave her grief on it, and a second later, as Sunset returned to the form she’d been born in, there was nothing but smiles all around. “Better?”

“Yeah.” Raspberry stated, before her ears suddenly pointed up. “Oh! There’s something I forgot to mention. There may have been a slight… temporal discrepancy when you came through the mirror at the beginning of the week.”

Sunset tilted her head. “Will it be a problem?”

“Nope. In fact…”

“Good,” the maize unicorn interrupted, anxious to get back home. She then turned to see everypony else watching. “Thank you, everybo-no, everypony. This week’s been one hell of a ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world… both of them!” With one last smile, the unicorn turned to the mirror and leapt right into it.

“Phew!” exclaimed a distinctly Ozark-accented voice. “That thing was heavier than it looked!”

“You can say that again!” agreed an equally exhausted chirpy tone. “Sunset made it look so easy when she used her magic hands!”

“Let’s just hope we’ll see those hands again, with the rest of her in tow,” said a third, quiet note. All those who had seen Sunset jump through a mirror into what she had described as almost certain death voiced agreements that they hoped their friend – or in the case of Celestia and Luna, their friend’s daughter – would return soon.

But no sooner than had the last of them turned their backs to the mirror, than did it emit a bright light.

“What in the-“ sputtered Applejack, turning with the rest of the humans to see what was going on. Her jaw dropped at the sight, as did the rest of the group. Fluttershy almost screamed, but quick action by Pinkie muffled the chiffon-haired girl in time. After all, they didn’t want to alert anybody else in the museum to the mirror’s self-illumination. Or the dark, translucent tendrils emerging from its back that seemed to wrap themselves around the protective screen in front of the mirror.

But when it looked like the ghostly appendages were going to easily crush the pane, they instead lifted it up as if it were a feather. There was now nothing between the humans and the mirror, letting them see its surface unobstructed. To their further surprise, the shape of what looked like a unicorn seemed to be approaching them. Only, as it drew closer, its shape began to twist and morph, until finally it no longer resembled a unicorn but instead…

“S-Sunset?” stammered Rarity, as the red-and-yellow haired girl stepped out of the mirror, looking exactly like she had when she had gone through the mirror, except for the addition of a backpack she’d somehow gained.

“Oh, hi, everyone!” happily greeted Sunset, who then looked up and saw the pane of bulletproof plastic being held above her head by dark forces. “Oh, better let Razz put that back down,” she said to herself, walking forward to rejoin the group and turning to watch as the mirror’s appendages gently lowered the screen until it was back in place. As the tendrils retreated back into the mirror, one of them seemed to wave to Sunset as it sunk back into the ancient looking glass, to which the girl waved back.

“Okay, what the fuck just happened?” asked Rainbow, voicing everybody’s confusion over Sunset’s sudden return. “Like, we barely had enough time to move that thing before you show back up and the mirror is suddenly your bestest buddy or something!”

“Good to see you, too, Dash,” laughed Sunset, before being promptly assaulted by a Pinkie hug. “And everybody else as well.” Sunset’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she realized what was wrong with this picture. “Wait, what are you all even still doing here? Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting for me all week!”

“A-all week?” Fluttershy trembled.

“Sugarcube, you’ve only been gone for about five minutes!” Applejack exclaimed.

At this, Sunset looked over at the mirror and gave it a knowing grin. “Temporal discrepancy, huh?”

“Regardless, we’re just glad that you’re back safe and sound, Sunset darling,” Rarity said.

“Indeed, you have no idea how relieved I am Luna and I don’t need to explain to your mother that you’re actually a horse-like alien,” said Celestia.

“Ooh! I bet you have some crazy stories of your adventures in Ponyland!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Did you make peace with your mentor? Did you make cupcakes with a pony that kinda looks like me? Did you do battle with a pony that kinda looks like a dark version of you?!?!”

“Lower your voice, Pinkie,” Rainbow stated calmly, grabbing the bubbly girl’s arms, effectively stopping their windmill-like rotations.

“I’ll explain everything later, but I’m happy to report that I managed to figure out what was hurting Twily. My sister’s nightmares are finally at an end.” Sunset knew her own problems weren’t quite over, however. There was always the risk of the real Sunset Shimmer returning to find another having taken up her abandoned identity. There was the chance somebody would discover she was really a pony with magic powers. She still needed to uncover the true depths of the connection between the human world and Equestria. And of course there was the most problematic issue of all: summer school.

But to that, Sunset just smiled. She could handle those problems. Bring what they may, she knew that she stood strong with her friends and family; she had a foundation to stand on. She wasn’t Sunset Shimmer, the angry pony whose own ego had nearly cost her everything. She was Sunset Shimmer, the child of two worlds, and she had every reason to take pride in what she had accomplished.

TO BE CONCLUDED

Seven Days in Sunny June, Book II

by BlueBastard

Monday, AM: As we Lie Here

Monday, PM: There's a Magic I Can Hold

Tuesday, AM: Your Smile of Honey Gold

Tuesday, PM: You Said We've Been Friends Too Long

Wednesday, AM: Lazy Days, Crazy Dolls

Wednesday, PM: Drinking Wine and Killing Time

Thursday, AM: I Know You Don't Believe Me But It's So True

Thursday, PM: Sitting in the Summer Sun

Friday, AM: The Way we Laughed As One

Friday, PM: And Then You Dropped The Bomb

Saturday, AM: The Pebbles You've Arranged

Saturday, PM: They Speak To Me Like Constellations

Sunday, AM: The Stories in Your Eyes

Sunday, PM: The Silent Wings You'll Fly Away On