Sunset Shimmer finally returns to Equestria but when she arrives she is confused and sitting on death's door. Twenty five years later the mare Eventide Trailblazer is looking to continue the legacy of Sunset Shimmer for better... or for worse.
Eventide Trailblazer is a mare obsessed. While the rest of Equestria shuns the name Sunset Shimmer, she spends her time dwelling on the true story of the mare behind the myth, a story that culminated in a horrible disaster five years ago. Trusting no one but her best friend and her therapist Eventide plots in secret, making plans that will fix things once and for all. But while her intentions might be good, do her plans truly benefit anyone but herself?
Twenty five years prior to Eventide's own plans the object of her obsession returns to Equestria from parts unknown. The end of Twilight's inter-dimensional duel across time with Starlight Glimmer also marks Sunset's unexpected return from CHS, yet when Twilight meets up with her she can barely recognize her friend from the other world. Scared, paranoid and horribly injured, Sunset claims to have spent the last seven weeks of her life trapped in her own inter-dimensional journey, a journey that sounds worryingly familiar to Twilight.
Set directly after cutie re-mark for Twilight chapters and approximately 25 years after season 5 for Eventide. Other Tag is for Flurry Heart.
Whilst reading the Canterlot Inquirer this morning I came across quite the interesting article by some fledgling journalist by the name Gusty Transcript. The content of this article "Sunset Shimmer Equestria's greatest monster" left me baffled to say the least considering that my own last five submissions to your humble paper have all failed to make print. Had I known that the sole requirement for submission into your paper was a vaguely literary surname and a slew of unproven and borderline libelous ideas then I would long ago have stopped writing to you as my own contributions are so clearly devoid of merit. I am of course joking, regardless of how unlikely you are to publish my work we both know that I'd still write letter after letter to my favorite muck raking, dirt shoveling editorial upstart.
I digress. Returning to the main point of my letter I am making a formal request for you to print a retraction of the article, my own research into the last ten years proves the article to be biased in several accounts and outright wrong in a dozen others. Attached are notes confirming most of these accusations whilst I have information currently concealed by the red tape of 'National Secrets' that discredit the rest. Should you refuse to print the retraction I can assure you I will be taking this matter to the Princesses, precisely which ones I have yet to decide but I'm pretty certain I can grab the attention of a couple of them in this matter. Speaking of the royalty I hear that it is career suicide to get on the wrong side of them, you know just saying. Attached please find tickets to the last two Grand Galloping Galas, I am led to understand that you have never been invited but perhaps if you are really careful and the royal guard doesn't notice that it is the wrong date and wrong name you might be able to sneak into the next one with these. Don't worry they haven't been used before, I receive a personal invitation to the event every year but just can never seem to make the time. Still what are connections for if not helping ones friends and hindering ones opponents, enjoy the tickets!
Yours, Eventide Trailblazer
Eventide put down her quill, folded the letter and slipped it into the envelope. Looking over her handiwork she frowned, something wasn't right. Running through her mental checklist everything seemed to be accounted for. -Expired tickets to the gala, check. -Research notes, check. -Particularly unpleasant letter to despised editor, check. Nope, all the intended documentation was present, snide barbs and personal stabs accounted for but somehow she knew it still wasn't perfect. Trotting across to her stationary cabinet Eventide ran her eyes over the resources available to her looking for the necessary piece of paper. Envelopes and scrolls, ribbons and seals were crudely pushed about, gripped by the light blue aura of her magic until at last she found the desired item. Returning to her desk she removed the letter from its previous envelope and replaced it in the new one. Pink wasn't really her normal style but for Quill she was willing to make an exception. The thought of his face wrinkled up into a great big smile upon receiving the envelope only to drop into a despairing grimace upon realizing who it was actually from... oh what she would give to see that for herself. The ornate monogram of HRHFH adorning the corner of the envelope was all but guaranteed to raise his hopes before dashing them spectacularly, now it was perfect.
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With the letter posted it dawned on Eventide that perhaps the change of envelope was not the smartest decision she had ever made. It was one thing to get herself in trouble with the press she thought (proudly glancing at the framed restraining order from Honest Quill that was hung above her desk) but using the 'borrowed' envelope came with a small risk that Flurry would end up in hot water with her mother. Still it was too late to change that now (not without some serious mail tampering) so Eventide dismissed the matter as a potential problem for another day, and a small one at that.
Practically collapsing onto her sofa she sighed and spared a brief glance to the stack of papers piled onto her coffee table. A dozen or so rejection letters from various publications, a handful of polite letters from friends and colleagues pleading with her to stick to writing about ancient and pre-Lunian equestrian history instead of her recent 'obsession' with current events... Scooping them all up in one burst of magic she shoveled the offending documents into a trash can and scanned her eyes over what little remained. Compared to the previous stack it really wasn't much, an invitation to the Crystal Empire, a reminder to book her monthly appointment with Miss Starlight, a request by Miss Heartstrings to discuss Eventide's findings on 'theoretical pre-Equestrian societies' and last (but by no means least) a letter from her aunt asking that they meet up to discuss her concerns about Eventide's health. Oh boy, that was a meeting she could do without. Her aunt meant well she really did but there came a point where good intention ceased to become sweet and instead became a nuisance. She couldn't of course put off the meeting forever but that wasn't going to stop her from trying.
The other letters though were all quite easily addressed. A brief letter to Starlight confirming her choice of date was indeed acceptable, a suggested meeting time with Lyra along with a curt reminder that she should bring along her usual payment and a confirmation that she would love to visit the Empire over the weekend (hay any excuse to get out of Canterlot was good in her books). With her responses penned and the remaining letter strategically forgotten beneath a dusty old tome on early Zebrican tribal customs she readied herself for the second mail run of the day. Dressed up in her darkest cloak and most discreet hat she was about to leave when she spied another letter stuck in the letterbox. Temporarily discarding her own letters she grabbed the new one in her telekinesis and floated it across the room. It certainly hadn't been there with the rest of the mail which meant it had been either delivered by hoof or by courier in place of the normal postmare. The address had been penned in unfamiliar hoofwriting with an equally unfamiliar return address in-
Ponyville.
Always Ponyville.
Had anything good ever come out of that accursed little-
No. Eventide paused her train of thought and took a series of deep breathes to calm herself. Her mind cleared (slightly) she gave out a pained sigh. "Nothing wrong with Ponyville, you just have some bad personal experiences with it. Some of your best friends are from Ponyville, of course you can expect the occasional letter from there," little things like this, breathing exercises and voicing her problems were among Starlight's approved methods of dealing with excess anger and avoiding panic attacks. Angry letters to her former editor were on a blacklist referred to as 'negative coping mechanisms', but what Starlight didn't know couldn't hurt her. Eventide certainly had no intention of letting her know that she indulged in the occasional poison pen letter to her least favorite pony in the whole of Equestria.
Snapping herself out of her reverie (thinking about writing to Quill had the most wonderful ability to remove her from all but the darkest of funks) she returned her attention to the letter, tearing the envelope open and running her eyes over the contents.
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Dear Lady Trailblazer
I know it has been a long time since we spoke face to face and I understand why you have been trying to avoid me but I just couldn't avoid this any longer. Your friends and family miss you and we all worry for your health. Locking yourself up at home all the time, flying off to the furthest corners of the world on your expeditions and throwing yourself so heavily into your work just isn't healthy behavior for a mare your age. When I was your age I had a wonderful group of friends who would go on adventures both big and small. I'm not trying to say that you are as bad as Twilight was when I first met her but some of us do worry.
I know for a fact that you still visit Ponyville on a regular basis (Bon-Bon told me you and Lyra are quite close) so perhaps the next time you visit you might be willing to stay a little longer and maybe chat about the good times, and what you are doing now. But only if it isn't a bother for you.
It might not mean much coming from me but I also wanted you to know that I don't hold any hard feelings over the unpleasantness of five years ago and I know that the rest of the girls feel the same way. You are always welcome to visit and I know that given a chance the rest of the girls would extend the same invitation to you.
I got your current address off of Twilight because nopony else seems to have it. Please don't blame her for giving it to me, I was quite assertive in requesting it, and, I still feel a little bad that I might have raised my voice when speaking with her.
Hoping to see you soon, Fluttershy
Fluttershy... Of all the ponies Eventide knew she never would have expected to be receiving a letter from her. They were acquaintances at best far from what she would call close friends and coupled with her crippling social anxiety put her pretty low on the list of ponies that she would expect to want to speak with her. Hay Fluttershy had more reason than most to hate her after all of the- unpleasantness.
Another problem for another day though, maybe she could visit her after she was done with Lyra, it was an open invitation after all. She could meet with Lyra, discuss business and then if she was feeling up to it she could make a brief detour to visit Fluttershy before catching a train back to Canterlot. Nice an simple no need to commit to anything she could easily skip town if she got cold hooves and nopony would be any the wiser.
It was just typical though wasn't it, every problem in Equestria always seemed to start in Ponyville...
Everything Twilight Sparkle loved best about Equestria could be found in Ponyville. There were a few notable exceptions but for the most the statement held true. She had her friends, her books, a close-knit community that she loved and was in turn loved by, more than enough work and study to keep her mind occupied and enough fun to keep her heart in good cheer. Yep, Ponyville really was the best thing that had ever happened to her (okay maybe it fell slightly behind becoming personal protegee to Princess Celestia but it was a really close run thing). The real icing on the cake though was that as of three days ago Ponyville was now officially home to her own personal protegee! Said protegee was currently seated across from her in the train cart gazing out of the window of the friendship express and deeply lost in thought.
Understandably so. Starlight probably had a lot to think about after the visit to her old town. Everypony had forgiven her, nopony had said anything they might come to regret at a later date and all in all though there was likely still some slight animosity between Starlight and some of her former followers but nothing that time wouldn't repair. For now though the two of them were returning to Ponyville where Twilight could begin working on her first proper friendship lesson for her. Perhaps something to do with Starburst... she'd have to make a list, no multiple lists. There was no way that Twilight was going to risk screwing this up for her first ever personal protegee, she would have to be careful, analytical and above all patient.
"So..." she started, "are you looking forward to getting back to Ponyville as much as I am, Starlight?"
"I guess," startled out of her thoughts a sheepish grin crept across her face. "I mean this is all so much to take in. Everypony has been so understanding and accepting. I suppose a little part of me is wondering if all of this is just some wonderful dream."
"Oh it's no dream, Starlight, everypony deserves a second chance even if they did make some, ummm, bad life choices," Twilight shrunk backwards into her seat as she stumbled over the last couple of words. Talking with Starlight wasn't the easiest of things to do and she found herself constantly walking on eggshells around her in an attempt to tactfully avoid the elephant in the room. Thankfully she seemed to have gotten away with it this time as Starlight let out a jovial burst of laughter.
"I think enslaving a small town of ponies and trying to rewrite history out of spite is a teeny tiny bit more than a 'bad life choice', Twilight, but thanks," her eyes wandered away from Twilight and back to the window, catching on the quickly approaching sight of Ponyville. "I suppose I'm just glad that nopony got hurt by it all. It all feels so strange that nopony will have any memory of it all happening except you, me and Spike." She laughed again shaking her head in amusement. "Perhaps the greatest feat of magic in our generation and there isn't even any evidence it happened except for the three of us. We traveled through time, Twilight! Repeatedly! But three days later here we are at Ponyville and life is just going to keep rolling on as though none of that even happened. It all feels so... surreal." Twilight wasn't entirely certain what to make of that, she was never the best pony at reading the mood or at picking up on other ponies emotions but she knew when to recognize a friend in need of support.
"Starlight, when you've been through the kind of cray adventures I have you begin to get used to it. Okay so maybe this whole time travel situation has left you with some deep existential questions about the very nature of our universe, about the nature of things like destiny and prophecy and our place in the vast-" realizing that an ever increasing expression of horror was spreading across Starlight's face Twilight politely coughed before attempting to try a different track. "What I meant to say was that being able to jump back into the daily routine of life is just as important as being prepared for great potentially world altering adventures." Starlight's expression seemed to have changed from one of abject terror to mild confusion, not perfect but probably a good start at assuaging her fears.
"What I'm trying to say is that big adventures are a really small part of life. Some of the best things are easy to take for granted, like hobbies, good friends and hard work. So then, Starlight," Twilight asked with a playful nudge of her hoof, "what do you like to get up to in your spare time, whats going on in the life of Starlight Glimmer?"
"Well," Starlight cleared her throat, "between deceiving a small community of overly trusting ponies and spending a good portion of a year stalking and plotting against you, I uh can't say I've had much time for hobbies," she scratched the back of her head "or spare time," she stroked her chin "or, well anything. Does magic count as a hobby? If so then lets go with magic, hopefully the normal non-apocalyptic study of magic." Twilight coughed awkwardly whilst Starlight came to the sudden realization that the piece of carpet directly in front of her seat was the single most fascinating thing in the room. Starlight was not good at the whole friends thing, that had been made abundantly clear over the course of the past year but for all Starlight's own problems Twilight seemed to be sincerely trying to help her, the least she could do was try to make an effort to keep the conversation going.
"Enough about me though! What's going on in the life of Princess Twilight Sparkle, you know, time travel incidents and evil unicorns aside?" the forced smiles of the townsfolk in Our Town had been awkward to say the least but at this very moment Starlight was willing to bet all the bits in Equestria that her own forced grin could beat them all.
"Oh you know, Princess business, spreading friendship, exploring the science behind cutie marks," she seemed ready to trail off but instead turned and smiled at Starlight, a genuine smile in complete contrast to Starlight's own. "For the record though I'm having a hard time remembering dealing with any evil unicorns recently, misguided perhaps, but definitely not evil," it wasn't much, Starlight had heard many similar sentiments from Twilight and her friends over the past few days, but the sincerity behind the statement really did touch her.
"Thanks Twilight."
"Think nothing of it. Other than that the biggest things going in my life are probably recruiting a wonderful new personal student to study with me who I am certain will more than exceed my expectations," another smile and this time Starlight found it impossible not to return one of her own, "and any day now I'm probably going to be an aunt!" That was certainly news to Starlight, in all of her stalking she hadn't really bother looking to much into Twilight's family.
"Really? I'm guessing an older sibling right? A brother or a sister?"
"My brother, Shining Armor and his wife Princess Cadance. They both live in the Crystal Empire and we are expecting to hear the good news any day now!" The train slowed as it pulled in to Ponyville station but rather than getting up Starlight just sat there staring past Twilight with a look of disbelief. "Okay, I know it's weird to hear that my sister-in-law is Cadance but I'm a little surprised you didn't already know."
"I um never really looked into your family, Twilight. Are you sure that they are living in the Crystal Empire though?" Starlight asked cautiously.
"Positive, their duties there are very important and they only leave on emergencies and important family matters."
"Right..." Starlight whispered scratching the back of her head. "Would I be right in thinking Cadance is a pink alicorn, big ol' heart for a cutie mark?" Twilight nodded. "And your brother's a white unicorn, blue mane, shield for a cutie mark?" her jaw dropped.
"Okay that was weirdly accurate. Are you sure you haven't met them before?"
"Pretty sure," Starlight whimpered "but I think that is about to change in the next few seconds." As the train came to a stop Starlight pointed out of the window to a retinue of royal guard standing on the platform, at their center the aforementioned unicorn stallion and a heavily pregnant alicorn.
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As the two ponies stepped off of the train anypony watching could only wonder at their remarkably different body language. Twilight Sparkle was uncharacteristically upbeat practically bouncing across the platform towards the guards. Anypony who knew the princess would have been forgiven for mistaking her for Pinkie Pie in disguise (or for assuming she had received a very large shipment of new books) but only her closest friends would have known that she was simply happy to see her BBBFF and the greatest foalsitter in all of Equestria. In stark contrast Starlight appeared to be making a remarkable effort to achieve non-magical invisibility, trying to make herself appear as small as possible and only making herself all the more notable in the process. Her face had turned as white as a sheet and she held herself with none of the confidence or bravado that she was known for by her acquaintances.
"Shining Armor, Cadance, I thought you were both in the Crystal Empire! If I knew you were coming I'd have got Pinkie to arrange a welcoming committee! Or a party! Or a party committee! I mean welcoming party, I mean what are you both doing here? Not that I don't want you here, it's great to see you here, a little unexpected and leaving me no time whatsoever to be a good host and have things ready for you, but great nonetheless," Twilight embraced her family, hugging each in turn whilst Starlight contemplated the merits and detriments to utilizing teleportation as an efficient means of avoid awkward social interactions.
"Calm down, Twily," Shining Armor chuckled, "we tried messaging ahead but according to Spike you'd left on 'friendship business'. Which from what I can gather meant you were either lecturing some poor pony until they made friends or... you were off fighting some giant Equestria hating monster," pointing a hoof over to where Twilight's best friends were waiting outside the station he gave her a conspiratorial wink, "but I'm hoping it was the former seeing as how the rest of the element bearers are all still here."
"Oh same old same old, Shining," Twilight giggled pulling Starlight over with one hoof. "I was just helping Starlight Glimmer here make amends with some-"
"Wait a minute, Starlight Glimmer?" Shining glared at the pink unicorn. "The same Starlight Glimmer who enslaved a small community of ponies and stole their cutie marks? The same Starlight Glimmer who looked you and your friends up and tried to brainwash you? The same Starlight Glimmer who bottled your cutie mark and tried leaving town to stop you getting it back?"
"Yep, that's me," Starlight squeaked in a voice so quiet that it could have given Fluttershy a run for her money.
"The important thing though is that she has seen the error of her ways and is trying to make amends," Twilight said as she stepped between the two unicorns. "Enough about us though, what are you guys doing here? I mean I'm always happy to see you guys but..." she quickly surveyed the ten guards standing to attention around "... I'm guessing this isn't a social visit." The shift in the mood was palpable. Shining Armor grimaced and stared at the ground, while Cadance bit down on her lip, they clearly had something to tell her, something important but neither seemed keen to say what.
"Twilight," Cadance finally broke the silence. "Do you still have Celestia's magic mirror, the one she stored in the empire?"
"Of course I do, its been in my castle for some time now... why?" Shining and Cadance exchanged a quick worried look and Twilight's heart began to race. She'd not seen expressions like those very often but when she had they never accompanied good news. Expressions like that were reserved for discussions about sickly relatives and pets that had 'run away'.
"Twily, three days ago a mare appeared inside the crystal palace, nopony knows how she got there and she has been... uncooperative about answering questions. Twilight, the mare claims to be Sunset Shimmer and we really need to know if that's even possible before we can really begin helping her."
"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight didn't know what to say, she stood mouth hanging open, running through all of the possibilities as to how Sunset could have managed to get to Equestria, let alone got into the most secure location in the Crystal Empire. "No, that's not possible. There's only one doorway between here and-" she stopped herself before she could say 'Earth' suddenly remembering that even if the guards were authorized to know about Earth Starlight most certainly was not. "-and there. The door won't open naturally for awhile yet and ever since the pigeon incident I've been avoiding leaving it open and unattended. No, Sunset can't be in Equestria she-" at that moment something clicked inside Twilight's head. Her friends were standing within sight but none of them had made any attempt to come and greet her, instead they stood nervously together their expressions matching those of Shining and Cadance, then there was Shining's choice of words.
"What- what do you mean 'begin helping her'?"
"Twilight," Cadance wrapped one wing around the smaller Alicorn and gave her what she imagined was meant to be a reassuring smile. "It was a little touch and go at first but the doctors say she's not in any immediate danger any-"
"Touch and go? Danger?" she shrugged off Cadance's wing and turned to face her, staring her sister-in-law in the eye. "What are you talking about? What happened to her?"
"We don't really know Twily," Shining said hanging his head in defeat. "Since the guards first found her she has refused to tell anyone how she got her-" he paused evidently trying to work out how best to break whatever unfortunate news he had for his little sister, "-her injuries. We've been trying to help her as best as we can but without some context it's a little tricky to know how to treat some of her injuries, some of them are over a month old Twily it's... it really wasn't looking to good for her when we found her."
"Where is she now?" the words were barely audible Twilight had failed to help her friend in the past, the thought that something awful had happened on the other side of the portal without her even knowing about was soul destroying. A month! How could Sunset have been in trouble for a month without asking her for help? Had she checked? She didn't recall any troubling messages in the journal recently but maybe there was some hint, some sign of trouble that she had overlooked.
"Ponyville hospital Twilight. She was stable enough to be transferred and we felt that if she was who she claimed to be she might be more willing to open up about what happened to her to a friend," Cadance was putting on a good show but now that she knew something was wrong Twilight could tell the other alicorn was shaken by recent events. "If you'd like we can take you to see her right now." Twilight nodded silently and fell into step alongside her brother as they made their way across town.
"Twilight," the word startled her out of her despair, she practically jumped as she turned to face the speaker. Walking alongside her with none of the urgency of the rest of their group and a nervous look on her face was Starlight Glimmer. "I don't want to sound insensitive but, who is Sunset Shimmer?"
The Friendship Express traveling west-northwest from Canterlot maintained a steady speed of approximately seventy miles per hour, 'perfectly suited to accommodate passenger comfort and allow for a view of the scenic countryside whilst still ensuring the passenger always arrived on time' as the promotional material of the train-line described it. As a mare entirely uninterested in enjoying the surrounding countryside and more than used to living in discomfort for extend periods of time Eventide couldn't help but disagree with company policy. Land speed records had come a long way in the past few decades and the route from Canterlot to The Crystal Empire was already needlessly indirect, needless to say Eventide did not approve of the decision. Her desire for a more direct route to the empire had trebled when five minutes into the journey she realized that whilst she had remembered to pack toiletries, gifts, a change of clothes, formal wear (just in case), her prescription, a packed lunch, snacks, travel papers and bullwhip (never can be too careful) into her saddlebags she had failed to bring any reading material for the arduous journey. Ten minutes into the journey she had caved into boredom and begun to read the rag sheets.
Her train of choice had left Canterlot in the wee hours of the morning barely an hour after Celestia had raised the Sun, a decision that had allowed Eventide to avoid the prying eyes of the public. Normally when she left the house she did so under the anonymity of heavy cloaks and wide brimmed hats, with her short bob cut mane and cutie mark concealed she could generally move about unrecognized, but not today. Today was a social visit and she intended to look the part, to try and be somepony she wasn't around her friends felt intrinsically wrong, Eventide was used to deception but somehow that particular deception had never sat right with her. So it was that she sat awkwardly in one corner of the carriage trying not to notice when the other passengers gawked at her. Truth be told she probably would have avoided half the attention had she changed into her 'uniform' once she had arrived. Sure someponies would still have recognized the dandelion unicorn with the red and blue mane and flaming compass rose cutie mark if she was in the nude but it was really her distinctive clothing choice that made her identity unmistakable, a tan fedora whose brim rested atop her horn and a faux leather jacket that covered her withers and back with sleeves up to the knees of her forelegs. She couldn't recall a single publicity photo she had been in where she hadn't worn the costume. It had been Rainbow's idea, 'every explorer needs to look their coolest when busting open ancient tombs' had been her choice of words and though Eventide had declined several of the mares ideas (never in a thousand years would she change her name to Daring Eventide Danger Trailblazer) the thought of a 'cool' explorers outfit had always held a certain appeal. Her chosen attire was comfortable, practical and easily repaired or replaced, its sole weakness was that it was distinctive to a fault, in the last five years nopony had ever failed to recognize the unicorn with the fedora.
Her desire for even a modicum of privacy had in the past few minutes caused her to re-evaluate the merits of the tabloids. What the paper lacked in content, journalistic integrity and taste it compensated for in prodigious size. At Canterlot everypony had seen her take her seat, there had been no escaping the curious glances and malicious glares of the early commuters who had boarded the train alongside her, but behind the makeshift screen of the paper the subsequent passengers boarding between home and the empire were largely ignorant of her identity. Even the content of the paper seemed to become more appealing as time went on though Eventide was willing to put that down to Stagholm syndrome.
Sapphire Shores announces comeback tour that might have counted as news seven years ago but after the last two comeback tours this was more an inevitably than a major story.
Flim Flam Inc. patents wondrous new technology personally she would reserve the term 'wondrous' for a medical breakthrough but evidently someponies would deem a juicer usable by less than a third of the population of Equestria a scientific marvel.
King Spot XIV abdicates throne oh Celestia somepony actually took the time to report on Diamond Dog politics, who did they upset to be given that job?
Countess Coloratura where is she now? touring without the prefix you cretin.
Manehattan leads the way in Nightmare Night reforms. A local school in upper Manehattan has begun preparing its yearly Nightmare Night celebrations but with an interesting new twist. For a number of years now members of the PTA and School-board have been expressing concerns that the celebration is distasteful in its portrayal of the much beloved Princess Luna and so this year in an interesting twist have opted to replace the outdated imagery of the Princess in her cursed state with a much more recognizable figure that perfectly encapsulates the origins of the holiday. Gone will be the moody blacks and blues that normally adorn such parties, replaced instead with gaudier reds and yellows as the community opts to replace the figure of Nightmare Moon with the equally terrifying Sunse-
There was still have a page of the article left and many questions left unanswered, was the journalist supportive of the movement or did he stand in opposition to such sudden changes in a time honored tradition, how had the community outside the school felt about these changes, were there plans to extend these 'improvements' to a wider area? Eventide would never know the answers to these questions though as the paper was burnt to a crisp in the grip of her magic. Her face red with anger, her eyes ablaze, steam practically rising off of her head it took her about a minute to realize that everypony in the carriage was staring at her and the blackened lump of paper still held in her grip. Once upon a time Eventide recalled that with every triumphant return from the furthest corners of the world she would be met with stares of awes and admiration by fans and admirers, the stares currently directed at her could not be more at odds with those cheerful memories. Shock, surprise, perhaps even a touch of fear, Eventide hadn't paid any attention to the level of noise in the carriage up until now but she was certain it hadn't been quite so deathly silent.
"Ummm, magical sneeze, nothing to be worried about," she tried as she delicately levitated the charred remnants of her paper to the bin. It was a feeble lie and everypony knew it but it was enough to diffuse the worst of the tension. Conversation began to start up about the carriage once more but the damage had been done, it wasn't hard to guess what topic half of the hushed conversations were going to be about for the next leg of the journey.
"It's her!" A young pegasus mare sitting across from Eventide didn't even make a token effort to conceal her gossip. "Evening Tide Tail Grazer!" she winced at the horrible fumbling of her name turning her head to look out the window and avoid any eye contact with the other pony. From what she had seen the pegasus had an obnoxiously pink coat and long green mane styled in bangs. Her friend was an earth pony mare with a more subdued grey coat and chocolate mane. She hadn't seen either mares cutie marks but was quite sure she had met neither of them before in her life.
"I expected her to be taller," her friend didn't even bother trying to whisper, either she didn't care if Eventide heard her or was to dumb to realize how far her voice would travel. "I thought she'd be angrier too," angrier? Had the mare somehow missed her explosion?
"I'm telling you it's her! Nopony else wears a hat like that. My dad has this photo of her from years back, I'm telling you it's definitely her!" Early on in her career she had craved this kind of attention, nowadays though it all felt so hollow, so artificial.
"Well, are you going to ask her then?" Ask her what? Where had everything fallen apart? What had happened to the plucky young mare who had once been hailed as a real life Daring Do?
"Hay yeah I'm going to ask her!" Joy, she never tired of answering the horrible probing personal questions that had become the bread and butter of interviews ever since she aired her more controversial views following the... unpleasantness. 'Unpleasantness' was one of Starlight's earliest lessons and to her credit it had helped her in talking over the past with her friends. By reducing everything that had happened into one concise yet woefully inadequate term, she could talk over her problems without having to deal with the specifics, specifics such as how many bones were in a pegasus wing (fewer than she would have guessed but she would have preferred to never have found out). She was shaken from her grim reverie by a polite tap on the shoulder.
"Hey, are you really Eventide Trailblazer?" while she had been lost in her thoughts both mares had crossed the train and taken up the seats either side of her that no other pony had dared to occupy in the otherwise crowded carriage. The earth pony at least managed to get her name right so Eventide decided to at least make an attempt at civility.
"Yeah, that's me, Eventide Trailblazer, explorer of the four furthest corners of all the world, the real life Daring Do. What can I do for you?" the pair were going to ask her their question no matter what she said, might as well cut to the chase and get it over with.
"Awesome! So my name is Flittering Breeze," an insufferable name for an insufferable pegasus, "and my friend here is Annabelle Farthings, she goes to college in Canterlot," the last part was whispered as though it were some great secret or lofty accomplishment. "Anyways we wanted to ask you about the article you had in the Journal of Theoretical Unicorn Science and Magic about time travel theorem," Eventide had been asked many things over the last five years by various journalists, critics and passerby's but not once had she been asked that.
"The article on the potential for applied time travel magic? What about it?" she cocked one eyebrow in curiosity at the notion, she wouldn't have pegged the pair for having even a passing interest in such things, Miss Farthings perhaps had the bearing of a scholar and a closer examination of the mare revealed that she had a suitably scholastic cutie mark in the form of an abacus. Giving Flittering a quick once over Eventide found her flank to be adorned with a comparatively unremarkable cloud and breeze, typical fair for an unremarkable weather pony, likely born and bred in Cloudsdale.
"Yeah that's the one! So is it true, all that stuff about time space and multi-theory universes?" she winced as Flittering managed to horribly mangle the words of her article.
"I'm going to assume you meant space-time and multiverse theory," the pegasus nodded vigorously in response. "Well from my own research I'd say that yes, time travel is not only theoretically possible but that there is enough existing evidence to move the study from purely theoretic conjecture into the realm of organized study," to her surprise both mares seemed engrossed in what she had to say. "Whilst most recorded attempts at time travel are anecdotal and were undertaken outside of lab conditions they do seem to possess a number of traits that allow us to make several safe assumptions about the nature of space-time," neither mare balked at her words and Eventide began to feel like she was getting some momentum to her speech. "Even beyond recent recordings of time travel I have found evidence in the darkest reaches of Zebrica and among the ruins of the ancient Ponicians to suggest that both cultures may have made a few successful forays into the field before ultimately deeming it to be impractical. More recent evidence implies that we can split time travel into two major categories. The first category, 'self perpetuating', is a philosophical anomaly that allows a pony to travel backwards in time in such a way as to cause their past selves to later become their present self and in turn feel obligated to travel back in time thus completing the loop. For the most part this is a poorly understood phenomenon that warrants future research."
"The second category, 'tangential time travel', allows for a greater degree of time travel over a wider time frame but appears to bare the limitation that any direct change to the timeline results in the returning traveler to end up in a divergent history entirely separate to their own. A different universe amidst the multiverse in which nopony will remember them and there is a potential for the traveler to meet their alternate self, raised under the changed conditions of the new universe with an entirely different set of experiences and memories. Current evidence suggests that the traveler can potentially return to their original timeline but without further evidence that is all up in the air. Personally though I think-" Flittering giggled. Eventide knew that she hadn't made any intentional jokes and thinking back over her last few words she couldn't think of anything that she had said that one might misconstrue as a crude sexual innuendo. 'Half the time ponies are laughing with you, not at you' that was another of Starlight's lessons. This time though Eventide had no doubt that the laughter was coming entirely at her own expense. She turned and eyed up Miss Farthings finding a smug grin of amusement on the earth ponies face.
"You're mocking me aren't you?" she deadpanned.
"But it's so silly! I think everypony would remember if somepony had gone and changed history don't you?" the idiocy behind the statement was barely worth acknowledging, Flittering was clearly an idiot or a simpleton. Eventide would just have to be the better pony, she would let the insult go, get off of the train at The Crystal Empire and never have to see either mare ever again, simple. "I mean granted it's not the weirdest thing you've ever written but you must have been joking when you submitted that article to the journal right?" if Flittering were a smart mare she would know to quit while she was ahead. "It's just such a laugh though! I read stories about time travel when I was a little filly you know? It was all fiction you realize right?" evidently Flittering was not a smart mare. "Really though the prize for weirdest thing you ever penned has to go to that article on the element bearers though. Seriously, Sunset Shimmer being friends with Twilight Sparkle? How much had you had to drink to come to that conclusion?" on second thought being the better pony was highly overrated.
In one swift movement Eventide rose from her seat and took a step forward, securing her saddlebag at her side and moving as though to leave the carriage. With the still giggling Flittering seated directly behind her though she smiled and put on her most sickly sweet voice. "Well it has been a pleasure speaking with you, Flittering Breeze, but I'm afraid I have to go find someone further down the train," for a habitual liar like Eventide it would have been easy enough to leave things there, let Flittering think she genuinely had left to find somepony else and never have to deal with the insufferable pegasus ever again. "Before I go though I thought I should let you know you have something on your face Miss."
"Really?" Flittering raised a hoof to her face feeling around for whatever it was that Eventide had noticed. "Did I get it?"
"Nope," Eventide sang in a practiced dulcet tone. "I've got you covered though, it's right here," and so with one swift movement of her hind legs Eventide bucked Flittering in the face.
"If you need anything, anything at all, we will be right outside darling"
"I know she won't try anything but if she starts talking crazy to you just come and find us!"
"..."
"I know we don't know if it is the Sunset that you know, Twilight, and I know that if it is the Sunset you know then we aren't the amazing friends she knows who you also know but when she does get better we can throw her the biggest 'got out of the hospital' party that Equestria has ever seen and maybe then she wont look so.... so.... sad."
"Sugarcube, ah' can't begin to get mah head around what's goin' on here, and ah can't rightly say I've entirely forgiven Sunset for the whole stealing yer crown thing. But we know she's yer friend and I think ah can speak for all of Ponyville when I say that I hope she recovers from...whatever it is that she's been through."
Her friends words of support on the way over to the hospital had done little to alleviate her fears. Words of comfort were normally meant to be reserved for the patient not the friends and family. Every sentence seemed a half-truth, every 'I hope she gets better soon' sounding more like a 'I'm sorry for your loss'. She now sat alone in the hospital room but for her own thoughts and the lone patient, lying motionless in her bed. Sunset Shimmer, it couldn't be her just couldn't. Empirical evidence told Twilight that Sunset couldn't be the mare lying before her... -The portal had remained closed almost permanently since the incident with the sirens. -It wouldn't naturally open for several years. -Even if Sunset had found a way to force the portal open from her own side she would have arrived in Twilight's castle, no in The Crystal Empire. -Had Sunset been in dire trouble she would have surely contacted Twilight by the diary. -Her injuries had according to the doctors been sustained of a period of a month, possibly more, yet Twilight was certain the last message in the diary had been sent perhaps a week earlier at the longest. ....all evidence confirmed that Sunset had to be safe on the other side of the portal, not lying here in an almost comatose sleep. As much as she denied it though her heart told her otherwise, the similarities between the mare and her friend were uncanny. Deep down Twilight knew it was her but she didn't want it to be Sunset, she wanted to be some error or mistake, anything that meant her good friend from the other dimension wasn't the mare lying on the bed before her.
Attached to the front of the bed was a sketch of Sunset's cutie mark to help staff and visitors identify her (her actual cutie mark was currently concealed beneath bandages and bedding), though burnt down to the skin in multiple places her coat was a recognizable amber and according the doctors her eyes were cyan. The only thing that immediately stood out as being wrong was her mane, it was shorter than Twilight remembered, lacked its tell tale yellow stripes and was entirely the wrong shade of red, more maroon than crimson. She had only met Sunset once as a unicorn (and that was a fleeting encounter in the dead of the night) so such details as height and facial features were harder to confirm but with every glance at the sleeping mare Twilight felt another burst of recognition; mane aside she would have been indistinguishable from the Sunset that Twilight knew. Mane and medical supplies.
To Twilight's immense relief 'Sunset' was not trapped in a full body cast or hooked up to an extensive network of medical machinery. An oxygen feed ran to a small clip on her nostrils and a lone medical drip fed her a steady supply of fluids but her condition had apparently improved enough that she was no longer required to be hooked up to one of the hospitals precious few heart monitors. The exact nature of her injuries had yet to be divulged to Twilight but she could easily guess. 'Sunset' had been involved in a fire that much was clear, her coat was a patchwork mess where the hair had been burnt away and medical gauze was wrapped in places about her forelegs, neck and on one cheek (likely where the fire had managed to mark her skin). Beyond the burns her horn was cocooned in medical cast as was her right hind leg. Then there was the bandage on her flank, it wasn't gauze like her other dressings suggesting that perhaps that specific injury wasn't a burn like the others, its placement completely concealing the cutie mark on her right flank. Without disturbing the bed sheets it wouldn't be possible for Twilight to check for a similar bandage on the other flank and so she could only guess at the exact nature of the injury. Even in the absence of her physical injuries Twilight would have deemed the mare to be in need of medical attention, her ribs a noticeable feature of her emaciated form and deep black bags hanging beneath her eyes suggesting that her present unconsciousness was perhaps the first proper sleep she'd had in some time.
"Ughhh..." at the sound of the groan Twilight leaped out of her visitors chair and sprinted to the side of the bed. She had been here about an hour now and in all that time this was the first sign of consciousness she had seen in the other mare. "Water..." she gasped her eyes slowly opening.
"Here," Twilight levitated a small glass of water across to Sunset with a straw tilted to face her mouth. "Don't try holding it with your magic, something happened to your horn," Sunset gripped the straw between her lips and began desperately getting the water into her system. As she did so Twilight held the glass in place and thought over what the doctors had asked of her. Speak to Sunset, try to get her to open up about whatever she had been through, make sure she felt safe and above all let her know that she had friends to look after her.
"It's funny," Sunset started after dropping the straw out of her mouth. "You sound sort of like somepony I used to know."
"Sunset? Is that really you, Sunset?" the voice was the final proof Twilight had needed, any doubts she had once had about the mare were banished. It may have lacked her usual confidence but the voice was unmistakably Sunset's.
"Twilight?" though held in place by restraints (for her safety not yours the doctor had said) Sunset attempted to turn to face her, wincing in pain in the process.
"Try not to move Sunset, you're badly hurt and need to take things easy."
"How- how did we first meet, Twilight?"
"What?" definitely not the question she was expecting.
"Please, Twilight, this is important to me. If you're who I think you are then I need to know. How did we meet, how did we become friends?"
"I was at the princess summit in The Crystal Empire and you took something important from me," she chose her words carefully if this wasn't Sunset she couldn't let slip the exact details of their first meeting or subsequent encounters, the other world was not something that Celestia wanted the public to hear about. "I chased you to a place far away from Equestria and we fought. I took back what you had taken and left you in the good care of some close friends of mine. We weren't really friends though until you asked me to come and help you with a magic problem caused by a trio of sirens. Since then though I've always considered you as one of my closest friends." It was quiet at first, a slight sniffle of the nose, then a cough before evolving into a torrent of great rolling tears and sobbing.
"I'm home!" she gasped between sobs, "I'm... I'm finally home!" Sunset tried to lift her hooves to her face but seemed to lack the strength to do much more than twitch them slightly. Trying her best not to disturb any of the bandages Twilight wrapped a wing behind the mare, gently patting her on the back as she whispered calming noises. "Twilight," she finally managed to get the word out as her tears began to subside. "This is going to sound weird, Twilight, but could you come stand on the other side of me? I'd like to see that it's really you." It took Twilight a few moments to finally understand the meaning behind the request, amidst the commotion of her friend waking up she hadn't noticed that while her left eye still had its normal teal coloration it was marred by a cloudy white fog.
-------------------------
It took a little while but once Sunset had calmed down from her emotional outburst Twilight decided to address the elephant in the room. "What happened to you Sunset? Your horn, your coat, your eye? Whatever the trouble is I'm here to help, I always will be, but I need to know how this," she waved a hoof at Sunset's inured form "came about. Was it another Equestrian monster attacking the school?"
"No Twilight," Sunset gave a hearty chuckle, "no more monsters attacking Canterlot High. Nah when I was last there we were having a little bit of trouble with the threat of magic interfering with a competition but I'm sure the girls have managed to get that under control by now," she paused and for a few moments stared off into empty space. "They must be so worried about me, think you could send them a message, let them know that I'm alright?"
"Sure thing, Sunset, next time I'm at the castle I'll hop over and let them know. I wouldn't exactly call you 'alright' though, I mean no offense but you like you've been in a fight with a mob of dragons," the smile was forced and the levity feigned but Sunset seemed to appreciate it nonetheless.
"Nah, no dragons," she managed to flick a hoof in what Twilight imagined was meant to be a dismissive gesture but served only as a reminder of how fragile her health currently was. "I got in a hoof wrestling match with the Sun though," Twilight raised an incredulous eyebrow at the statement. "Won too, not going to be trying that again anytime soon, turns out he's a pretty sore loser."
"You hoof wrestled the sun? The actual sun, big flaming ball of light in the sky, that sun?"
"Yeah pretty much," Sunset chuckled again, "perhaps not the smartest thing I've ever done but at least this time it was for purely selfless reasons. I've learned a lot from you Princess, really taken the friendship lessons to heart."
"I'm glad to hear it. You know good friends share their problems, Sunset, I can't begin to imagine what you've been through since we last met but I'm here now and I want to help. So whenever your ready how about you start at the beginning and talk me through what happened to you? Doctor Horse has been trying his best to help you but if he had some context for your injuries I'm sure it would be a great help." Sunset stared off into space again, lost in her own thoughts her previous cheer replaced with a grim solemnity. Had Twilight said something wrong?
"Okay," the answer was short and so quiet as to be barely audible, Twilight contemplated if it had been in her own imagination. "I'll need a little bit of time to get my thoughts together, and I'm not going to tell you everything. Some of the things that happened are... kind of private. Tomorrow though I can start telling you what happened but fair warning it's going to be a long story. Just make sure you let everyone at Canterlot high know I'm here, and I'm recovering. I've been missing for well over a month now so I can only imagine how worried they must-" Sunset froze. There was something in Twilight's manner and expression that had changed. Shock, fear, disbelief, all were present in her face as she stood rooted to the ground staring wide eyed at Sunset.
"Sunset, you spoke to me less than a week ago through the journal. I was telling you about how the CMC's had finally earned their marks and that I'd been invited to give a presentation at Canterlot. You were telling me about some big competition that was going to take place between Canterlot High and some rival school."
"Oh," her mouth hung open as she processed the information. "Friendship Games were meant to happen this week?" Twilight nodded in confirmation. "Definitely not something that took place about six weeks ago?" Another nod. "Huh," Sunset collapsed backwards into her bed. "Guess she was right then, time travel's a bitch."
In the years since the return of The Crystal Empire and the final defeat of Sombra there had been something of a cultural renaissance in the north. The crystal ponies seemed to have taken to their new found freedom with gusto and had quickly gone about making up for a thousand years of lost time. The result was that modern fashions and technology from around Equestria had come to be blended with the traditions and styles from the last millennium that were still fresh in the minds of the populace creating a fresh style entirely unique to the region. Unsurprisingly beautiful crystal patterns and motifs featured heavily in every aspect of the trend, sometimes subtly but always eye catching. Eventide loved the way the city skyline blended seamlessly between old and new, castles and skyscrapers, historic statues rubbing shoulders with modern art pieces. Were it not for the Empire's peculiar population demographic Eventide could have certainly imagined herself moving to live here in a more permanent basis. The city felt so much more alive it's thriving nightlife blossoming where Canterlot's had long ago seemed to have become stagnant and predictable. Where Canterlot and its surrounding environs were well mapped The Empire sat with the great northern wastelands and mountains upon its doorstep, a veritable treasure trove for an explorer like herself. She had joined two expeditions and lead one into the far north and in all three cases they had returned with new discoveries from the ruins of lost cultures to previously undocumented natural phenomena. And so it was great regret that Eventide sat in her jail cell holding a bag of ice to a black eye instead of meeting with Flurry to catch up with one another and maybe hit a few bars as had been her original plan.
To the credit of The Crystal Empire this was without a doubt the single most comfy jail cell she had ever been in. It had a bed (with actual mattress), bookcase packed with reading material, a bathroom that was not exposed her to the scrutiny of every passing guard and a table with two chairs (two!). Either the local constabulary had a really lenient sense of punishment for offenders or this particular cell was reserved for diplomatic prisoners that they couldn't risk offending. Probably the latter. At present she was lying down on the bed awaiting either, punishment or interrogation for her actions on the train. To Flittering's credit she was a lot stronger than she looked and had a pretty mean right hook. She hadn't quite expected her to recover so quickly and was caught off guard when the pegasus dived onto her and delivered her a black eye. She definitely hadn't been expecting the conductor (an aging but surprisingly sprightly earth pony stallion) to respond so quickly a tackle her to the ground in an attempt to break up the fight. That had all but ended the brawl as whilst Eventide was more than happy to buck the unpleasant little pegasus she couldn't really bring herself to take out her anger on an aging stallion who was just doing his job. The remainder of the journey had been spent under guard, watched by the disapproving gaze of the stallion and as soon as the train pulled into the station she had been handed off to the local guard alongside a full report of the incident on the train.
She guessed she had been lying in the cell for about twenty minutes before she heard the sound of somepony approaching her cell. Turning laconically to face the door it was with immense surprise that Eventide realized her visitor was not in fact a guardpony. Instead of the anticipated guard she found a bright pink alicorn with a heart cutie mark and Eventide's saddlebags on her back stepping through the door of the cell and politely seating herself at the table.
"Hello, Eventide, would you like to take a seat so we can talk about what happened on the train," Cadance sighed motioning at the other chair.
"Hi, Princess." Eventide took the seat but refused to make eye contact with her visitor, instead staring guiltily at the table, her shoulders hunched and her eyes pressed down against her head. "I think... I think I might have messed up, Cadance."
"That is one way to put it I suppose," she replied with barely concealed anxiety. "I've looked over the report and I know why you did it, Eventide, but you must understand that this sort of behavior isn't acceptable. Now this time you got off lucky, nopony was seriously harmed and ultimately Miss Breeze handled the situation just as poorly. The train line isn't pressing any charges and Miss Breeze was also willing to drop the matter in exchange for a complimentary tour of the castle for herself and her friend."
"So, am I free to go then?" Eventide asked skeptically.
"After you answer a few questions for me? Yes, you will be free to go." Eventide let out a distressed groan, this was not how she had been anticipating the start of her weekend break to go. "First of all have you been keeping to your appointments with Starlight?" so that was how the questions were going to go.
"Yes, but I'm starting to wonder if their meant to be helping me or helping her," as much as she hated to admit it the therapy sessions had been helping her, she had objected to them fervently when they had been practically forced upon her but in the years since she had come to appreciate that perhaps they had been of some help. "I've been making the appointments every month just like I promised you all, this months is next week. The last four sessions though Miss Starlight has had to excuse herself from the room," those were awkward memories to say the least. "She comes back after about five minutes, ten at the most, with red eyes and a clean face. Pretty sure she was crying in the bathroom."
"Have you told Twilight about this?" Cadance asked with concern. "I can't say I know her very well but she never seemed the type to ask for help when she needed it."
"I'm not speaking with Twilight at the moment. Things are a little awkward between the two of us at the moment and I could really do with some personal space so I may have been avoiding her a little bit."
"Oh."
"Perhaps you could let her know about Starlight for me though? She seems like she could do with a shoulder to cry on."
"Of course," Cadance said her mood noticeably brightening. "You know it's when you say things like that show just how good a mare you really are. The fact that you care even though the two of you aren't really friends is a good thing."
"Because it shows my heart isn't all black and shriveled up like half of Equestria seems to think it is? 'Cause it means I'm a little less likely to do the whole 'crazy vengeful unicorn gone made with power shtick' that was all the rage back in your day? News flash, Cadance, magic isn't my special talent so I don't think I really fit into that template!" She spat the words with such venom that Cadance flinched backwards in shock, Eventide's hooves flew to her mouth as though it would take back what she had said but it was too late. "I'm sorry, Cadance, I didn't mean that. I didn't mean it to come out so... angry," she had meant it all. Perhaps she hadn't intended for it to come across quite so accusingly but every word had been spoken from the heart.
"It's fine, Eventide. You have a lot to be mad about and it's better that you try and get those feelings off of your chest with friends and family then keeping it all bottled up inside you until you take it out on some poor unsuspecting pony that doesn't deserve it," she may have forgiven her for what had been said but Eventide could still feel the hurt in Cadance's voice. "This does bring me to my second question though," she said levitating a small bottle of pills out of the saddlebags. "Have you been taking your medicine?"
"Yeah. That's why I brought the bottle with me for the weekend."
"And you remember to take it everyday?"
"Yes"
"Right number of pills?"
"One every morning with a glass of water." The pair sat in silence for a little while as Cadance seemed to scrutinize the younger mare.
"Eventide. I checked the bottle. The prescription needs renewing in five days."
"Then in five days I'll go renew it," Eventide said through gritted teeth.
"There's still about a dozen pills in there Eventide. There should only be five tops," once more she found herself staring at the table to escape Cadance's gaze. "I'm not mad at you for not taking your pills Eventide, I'm worried. I'm not the only one either, I can't force you to speak to Twilight but if you keep shutting us all out of your life there's only so much we can do to help you get through this."
"Is that everything?" Eventide whispered, taking the pills in her magic and returning them to her saddlebags.
"Pretty much. I'm here for you if you want to talk anything over though, remember that."
"Will do," she took the saddlebags off of Cadance and placed them back onto her back. "I'll try talking over some of it with Flurry tonight if that's okay mam," Flurry was always good at listening to her problems. "Does she know about what happened on the train?"
"Not yet," Cadance shook her head. "She doesn't know you've arrived yet, she's still at the castle going over her princess homework from Twilight."
"Princess homework?" Eventide asked in disbelief prompting a giggle from the alicorn. "I don't suppose we could keep the business about the train private could we?"
"I'm not going to lie to my daughter," Cadance stated curtly, "but I suppose if it doesn't come up in conversation at all then I won't mention it. You should really tell her though, it won't change anything between the two of you."
"Thanks Cadance," she said forcing a smile as she followed the alicorn out of the cell.
"Oh, there was on last thing actually Eventide," from the change in her tone it was something serious. "You aren't in any money trouble are you? You haven't had to take out any loans or do anything questionable to pay the bills have you?" The question threw her, where was this all coming from?
"I'm not 'hooking' if that's what your implying Cadance, I can make ends meet," she shot the alicorn a glare at her insinuation.
"I didn't mean- ugh!" she face-hooved in a manner not normally expected of the royalty. "Look, you didn't hear this from me but the ERS have taken an interest in your finances. Somepony has got it into their heads that your up to no good and apparently there are some irregularities in your personal accounts. If you've got yourself involved in something shady tell us, we can help you. I know we might not have all been there for you in the past but we're here now," Eventide considered the words carefully before she answered.
"I'm not involved in anything illegal, Cadance. I know what the problem is but you don't have to worry, everything checks out. A few of my old expeditions brought in some real forgotten treasures. There's some real moral grey areas though with who some of them belong to but a few items have cleared recently and under some ancient bylaw I get a cut off the profit. Doesn't exactly fit into the normal tax forms though so I may have filled in some pretty hefty mistakes on my taxes. It's all fine though, I caught it early and me and the ERS are working it all out so it doesn't happen again."
"Well if you have any troubles don't hesitate to call me." She didn't like lying to Cadance like that but in this case the truth was not an option. In her defense though she wasn't technically doing anything illegal. She'd made certain to check and double check the law before she began her little venture and confirm without doubt that what she had been doing was presently deemed legal by omission. Nopony had ever even tried what she was up to, let alone made laws on the topic.
Twilight was reluctant to leave Sunset to be fed and washed by the nurses, not due to any lack of trust in their abilities but because of that last confusing comment the unicorn had made. Time travel, Sunset Shimmer believed she had traveled through time. Had somepony made such a suggestion a few years back then she would have been understandably incredulous but since the move to Ponyville she herself had traveled through time on two separate occasions. Yet even though she knew that time travel was possible the means Sunset had used still confounded her. From the way she had spoken it seemed as though she hadn't even realized that she had traveled through time until Twilight had told her how little time she had been gone. That in itself lent doubt to the theory, in both occasions of Twilight having traveled through time it had required a powerful spell cast intentionally by a powerful unicorn. How could Sunset perform accidental time travel, and from a magically inert dimension no less!? That lead her to the second problem with the theory. Even if she had managed to perform time travel that still failed to explain her mysterious arrival in The Crystal Empire, in all of her previous experience Twilight had come to understand that though one could travel backwards to anyplace and any time the return journey to the present seemed to invariably deposit the traveler at their point of origin. Using current evidence then that would imply that Sunset's initial departure had been from Cadance's castle, or that she had time traveled backwards to the castle from some point a month or so in the future without having the spell fizzle out on her after about a minute or so.
Applejack prodded her gently in the ribs to snap her out of her thoughts. "You okay there, Twilight? You kind of walked out of the room and then sat their starin' at a whole lot a nothin' for some time." Staring at her with concerned looks were Twilight's Ponyville friends, Starlight, Shining and Cadance.
"I've been better," she sighed staring at her hooves despondently. "I mean in my imagination I'd run through all of these worst case scenarios on the way over here and each of them was so much worse than the truth... but seeing her for real in there? For some reason it just made everything worse. She just seemed so..."
"Broken?" Rarity finished for her. "We tried to talk with her before you got back, Twilight, but she was absolutely impossible to speak to," the rest of the circle nodded in agreement.
"About that. What sort of things has she said since she got to Ponyville? Oh! And in The Crystal Empire too. I'm pretty sure that's Sunset in there but some of the things she spoke to me about were a little confusing to say the least. If there's anything you guys found out from her don't hesitate to tell me, it could be the missing piece for working this puzzle out."
"What kind of confusing things did she say, Twilight?" Fluttershy whispered.
"She seems to believe that she might have traveled through time," as soon as Twilight said it five sets of eyes turned to face Starlight, who awkwardly shifted back and forth beneath their stares until Twilight put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. "I know you don't know Sunset, but I was hoping you might come with me to speak with her later. As one of Equestria's three resident time travelers your input could be a real help."
"Well if it's to help a friend," Starlight said a smile beginning to replace her earlier frown, "then as student to the Princess of Friendship I don't think I can really refuse."
"To answer your earlier question, Twily, she didn't really say much of anything in the Crystal Empire," all eyes turned to Shining Armor who had taken it upon himself to break the ice. "The first we knew of her was a couple of the guards reporting strange lights coming from the throne room. Me and Cadance were moving to investigate it but before we could get there Sunset had fled the room and was being pursued about the palace by the guard," he rubbed the back of his head and a deep red blush filled his cheeks. "Considering the state she was in and the fact that she wasn't performing any magic I'm a little embarrassed that the guards took so long to corner her. When me and Cadance turned up she had been backed into a corner with a look on her face like a wild animal, pretty sure I heard her growl at one of the guards. I ordered the guards to back away from her though so we could get a better look at what we were dealing with and then-" he stopped, trying to find the best way to describe what had happened next. "She looked at the two of us and just fell apart, she seemed to crumple in on herself. She collapsed to the ground, started bawling her eyes out and passed out shortly after."
"We had her taken to the hospital as soon as we realized how beaten up she was," Cadance continued from where her husband had left off. "When she woke up she refused to speak to anypony about what had happened to her or how she had got into the throne room. The only thing we could get out of her was that her name was Sunset Shimmer and that she needed to speak with Twilight Sparkle. I recognized her from back when she was still Celestia's student and the changeling detection spell confirmed that she was a unicorn, so as soon as she was safe to travel we got her on the train to Ponyville."
"Yeah and on that note, Twilight, it's probably best you don't mention the 'C' word around Sunny," Rainbow frowned. Twilight and Starlight both stared at the pegasus in confusion. "Changelings, Twilight, she uh... she kind of threw a fit when we mentioned them."
"We all tried to talk with her to make her feel at home until you got back," Fluttershy said nervously. "But it didn't go very well."
"We all went in withe the best of intentions but soon as we stepped through the doors Miss Shimmer started rantin' and ravin' 'bout how we was all imposters and frauds. Said we weren't really her friends, we just looked like them." Applejack paused and shot Rainbow Dash a glare. "Then Dash goes and gets in her face and tells her that we all 'aint Changelings so we aren't pretending to be nopony else than who we are." Everypony in the room but Twilight and Starlight took a brief moment to stare at their hooves in despair.
"And that's when the screaming started," Rarity continued. "First of all came the threats and accusations, then the spitting and then she just burst into tears and broke down completely. The poor dear just kept repeating the same phrase over and over again, 'I'm sorry Pinkie, please forgive me', or words to that effect at least," until then Twilight hadn't even noticed Pinkie Pie. The pink mare had been sitting in one corner, her mane deflated and devoid of her normal cheerful exuberance.
"Well if you are all quite done catching up I was hoping to fill Princess Twilight in on the details of the case," behind them Doctor Horse had quietly joined the group with a perpetual frown upon his face. "I would rather have filled you all in before you visited her but the Princess," he pointed accusingly at Cadance, "was quite insistent on you visiting her as soon as possible."
"Thank you for your patience, doctor. I'm sorry if we broke any protocols for visiting the patient but I'm here now and I would like to here what you have to say."
"Very well, Princess Twilight." Horse pulled out a clipboard and cleared his throat. "Miss Shimmer was brought into us horribly malnourished and with indications of having suffered from prolonged exposure to the elements, her hooves in particular seem to have suffered from a little bit of frostbite but thankfully nothing permanent. We have been working on getting her safely back up to her correct body weight and she has been responding well to treatment. We have had to be careful with her diet though as she has shown several burst of nausea and vomiting that we have yet to confirm the cause of, we have a few tests to run today though and will hopefully have the answer by tomorrow morning." Horse took a quick sip from a glass of water before adjusting his glasses and continuing. "She has suffered a number of first degree burns spread across her body alongside second degree burns to her face and neck and some third degree burns to her forelegs. Her mane was burnt off completely but should regrow with time."
"Her mane?" Twilight interrupted. "But when I was in there she-"
"A wig, Princess Twilight," Horse interjected. "She was quite distressed about her lack of hair so Miss Rarity supplied us with a wig to help her with her self esteem. While these burns all appear very recent the burn on her cutie mark is probably a few weeks old and clearly administered intentionally. A fourth degree burn quite clearly received from a branding iron,a practice that to my knowledge has been illegal in all of Equestria for centuries," shocked gasps and looks of horror from the collected group accompanied this statement as well as a look of outright disgust from Shining Armor. "Moving on from her burns she seems to have a number of minor scars of varying ages and a broken hind leg. The leg appears to have suffered a minor break some time ago but was never properly set and has been overused since then. Somepony appears to have tried using magic to heal it at some point but did a pretty poor job of it. She will likely be stuck with a limp for the rest of her life. Her horn was cracked significantly from what appears to have been massive magical feedback and overexertion, we have applied a medicinal cast that should heal the damage with time but until then she will be unable to cast magic. As for her eye the cornea has been slightly damage by overexposure to sunlight but the real damage is in the retina. I have seen ponies recover from worse in the past but only time will tell if she regains her eyesight entirely. Finally I'm recommending that she undergoes therapy, I don't know what she has been through but I cannot imagine it was pleasant, or that it failed to leave emotional scars." Having said his piece Horse dismissed himself to tend to his patients.
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It was with mild trepidation that Twilight and Starlight stepped into Sunset's room. A few choice words had been spoken after Horse had finished reeling off the full extent of Sunset's injuries, the existence of the brand in particular leading to some incredibly harsh words from Shining Armour. The age of the injuries though had proven one thing in Twilight's mind though and that was that her claim of time travel seemed to be increasingly likely. Sunset may not want to go into full details on what had happened till tomorrow but Twilight was determined to at least get some information on her time travel theory before calling it a night.
"Hey," Sunset almost managed to wave at them as they stepped into the room. "Who's your friend, Twilight? She doesn't look like another nurse."
"This is Starlight Glimmer, a recently made friend of mine who has some personal experience with time travel. I thought that between the three of us we might be able to get to the bottom of the whole time travel thingy."
"Wait a minute, Starlight Glimmer?" Sunset scrunched her face up in concentration. "Crazy unicorn who enslaved a small town and stole their cutie marks Starlight Glimmer?"
"Soooooo I guess Twilight has told you about me then huh?" Starlight winced.
"Yep. But if Twilight's calling you a friend then I guess that means your cool now. I'd offer to shake your hoof but..." Sunset looked sheepishly at her extensive medical restraints. "Welcome to the reformed villains club, as a fellow unicorn with a less than faultless past I'm hardly one to judge you."
Starlight returned her smile, "thanks." Perhaps this whole friendship thing wouldn't be so hard after all. "So ,Twilight said you think you've performed some time travel? Care to elaborate?"
"I will, but as I recall I also told Twilight that I wanted to save talking about that for tomorrow," Sunset shot the alicorn a glare causing Twilight to develop a new found interest in the hospital curtains. "What about you though? I mean time travel, wow. How did you two even pull that off?"
"Stole a spell from the Starswirl the Bearded wing. Manipulated it in a nefarious and ill conceived attempt at revenge, you know typical evil unicorn things," Starlight giggled, for all the strangeness of the situation she was finding Sunset surprisingly easy to talk to. The amber unicorn really didn't seem to have any problem with Starlight's own history removing the awkwardness she seemed to be having speaking to everypony else. "I travelled back to the day Twilight and her friends got their cutie marks and repeatedly threw off the timeline. Apparently this drastically altered Equestria in the present but you'd have to ask Twilight about that, I only got to see one of them."
"Changed it how?" she wasn't sure how the change had come about but Starlight was suddenly aware that the mood of the room had undergone a rapid shift. Up until now Sunset had seemed approachable, cheerful even but her last question was eerily cold and laced with anger. If Twilight had noticed the change though she didn't show it.
"Oh changed it in all sorts of ways, but never for the better," Twilight answered in excitement. Had she really not noticed it? "It was fascinating really, we only spent a few minutes in the past but the differences in how we behaved during each visit drastically altered what occurred in the future! Now me and Spike only spent an hour or two at most in any given future but each was observably different. The first one had Equestria engaged in a war with King Sombra of The Crystal Empire, you probably haven't heard much about him before. Then there was the world ruled by ch-" she stopped herself before remembering what Dash had said. "-chickens. That one was weird. There was one where Nightmare Moon returned to reign over night eternal, another where-"
"Where Lord Tirek carried out his reign of destruction unopposed?" Sunset interjected, her voice dripping with venom as her gaze narrowed into a merciless glare at Starlight.
"Yes..." Twilight paused seemingly to suddenly pick up on the mood of the room. "How did you know that?"
"Those chickens of yours, Twilight, let me guess, were they by any chance love stealing shape changing bugs?" Twilight nervously nodded in confirmation. "You want to know where I was, Twilight? Fine. Same place as you from the sound of things. All those different timelines you visited? I don't know how but somehow I got pulled along for the ride."
"How is that even possible?" Twilight asked moving over towards Starlight who had begun to wither beneath Sunset's ever more menacing glare.
"No idea, Twilight. But while you may have only had to deal with those problems for 'one to two hours tops' I was stuck there for a week. I had no idea how I got there, no idea if there was someway to get home!" Sunset's simmering fury had sparked into a roaring fire now. Her voice raising to the highest volume that her present state allowed, had her magic been working Twilight was certain that Sunset would be hurling everything within her reach at them right now. "A week, Twilight! I had to live through each and every horrible reality for a whole damn week! And you!" Sunset stabbed one hoof towards Starlight wincing in pain in process. "You did this to me! For what? Some petty revenge against Twilight for putting an end to your evil schemes? You know I learned my lesson the first time I wound up defeated in a crater. But you! You just had to go looking for some ridiculous way of enacting your revenge didn't you!?"
"Sunset, she didn't mean for-" Twilight tried to interrupt, tried to break Sunset out of her tirade but she was having none of it.
"No, Twilight! The things I have had to go through! The month I spent never knowing if I would ever see my home again, ever get to meet my friends again! Get her away from me, Twilight! I never want to see her face ever again!" her voice began to break, her throat sore from its exertions and her rage exhausting her fragile body. With Starlight's own voice seemingly frozen in horror and Sunset inconsolable with rage Twilight took the only option that seemed reasonable. She threw a wing about Starlight and ushered her out the door leaving Sunset alone with her anger.
The Crystal Palace was central to The Empire in every sense of the word. It was geographically the dead center of the city, politically the hub of the government, home to the royal family and house to The Crystal Heart (spiritual center point to the entire race of crystal ponies. For many ponies a tour of the palace would likely have been a once in a lifetime experience but the appeal had long been lost to Eventide. That wasn't to say she disliked the palace (it was no castle of the two sisters but it was a vast improvement on the crystalline monstrosity in Ponyville), rather she had long ago come to think of it as the home of her BFF at which point the allure and mystery of the building had quickly faded. Perhaps had its halls and chambers not been long since cleansed of all traces of Sombra's dark rule then her youthful fascination and explorer's instinct might have still held, but several minor adventures while she had been a foal had found no hidden passages or lost chambers. The thought brought a genuine smile to her face. The two of them running amuck while Flurry's parents were out on business, evading the guard and leading Starburst on a wild goose chase about the castle grounds as he desperately attempted to fulfill his role as royal babysitter. Back when she was still a tiny little thing, barely capable of putting together a full sentence, Flurry would pick her up on her back and the pair would fly short distances across the halls (much to Starburst's consternation). She almost felt sorry for everything they had put the poor unicorn through, if she chanced upon him over the weekend she should probably apologize. They had never behaved maliciously towards him of course, at worst they had playfully pulled pranks on him and the most awkward situations they had ever forced him into were simply the result of youthful naivety or hilarious misunderstandings. She had fond memories of him turning bright red when little filly Eventide had asked him why he didn't live with mama and her. At the time of course it had made perfect sense, they had a similar color of coat and he was a unicorn just like her. From what she understood about families at the time it seemed extremely logical that the unicorn stallion who she was regularly forced to spend time around whenever her mama was unable to look after her had to be her father.
"Evey!" Eventide turned to see the speaker and a grin spread across her face. Of course there was only one pony that still called her by her nickname but seeing the magenta alicorn bounding across the lounge towards her still came as something of a surprise. Flurry ran up to her and grabbed her in a bone crushing hug pulling her off of the divan she had been reclining on. She wasn't normally one for such shows of physical affection but for Flurry she was willing to make an exception. The hug concluded, Flurry gave her a conspiratorial smile and knowingly raised her eyebrows. Evey happily returned the smile while mockingly rolling her eyes. The two parted and instantly crouched down facing one another.
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" the two sang as they carried out the ancient ritual of greeting passed down from generation to generation of Flurry's family (Cadance had taught Flurry and a young Flurry had decided that in her role as 'assistant babysitter' it was her royal duty to teach little Evey).
"Pretty sure that got old like eight years ago, Flurry," she said with a smirk, "besides, imagine the scandal if the tabloids were ever to catch you behaving in such a foalish manner!"
"If it's so foalish then why dost thou never seem to tire of it?" Flurry retorted, playfully sticking her tongue out at Evey.
" 'Cause if I don't indulge you I'm pretty sure I'll wind up getting locked away in the dungeons for my treason never to again see the light of day!" she fell backwards onto the divan in an overly dramatic swoon only to immediately jump back up and give the alicorn a mock glare. "Serious talk though, 'dost thou'? Not even Luna speaks like that these days. Did you hit your head on an antique desk or something?"
"Ugghhhhhhhh," Flurry groaned performing the singularly least graceful face-hoof Evey had ever seen. "It's Twilight's princess lessons. She has me reading up on the usage of 'the royal Canterlot voice'."
"Princess lessons? I think your mom mentioned something about that earlier."
"It all started a month ago. We were all visiting Twilight, the two of us had some alone time and I made the mistake of mentioning that I was having a little bit of trouble understanding my role as a princess," she slumped backwards joining Evey on the divan. "Twilight commiserated with me having apparently had similar issues when she was first crowned and everything would have been fine if we had left things there, but...."
"But then Twilight decided to be Twilight."
"Yep," Flurry stifled a giggle at the memory. "So Twilight says she knows just what to do and disappears for the next two hours leaving me and my parents with Spike. When she came down she had written a three page check list of potential lessons and activities to help me become a better Princess based off of her own experiences and a whole lot of 'solid theory'. The Canterlot voice thing? That is a part of what she likes to call 'Princess History'. I'd tell her that I don't think the lessons are helping that much but trying to persuade Twilight that lessons aren't fun is like trying to persuade Pinkie Pie that you don't want her to throw you a party. Soooooo for the time being I'm putting up with the lessons and trying to work out what in Equestria I'm supposed to be princess of, it's like trying to earn a second cutie mark to be honest," Flurry sighed looking at stylized arctic wind emblazoned upon her flank.
"Well, Flurry, in the name of friendship I insist that you put aside any of your princess lessons for the duration of my stay, Twilight can hardly complain about you being a good friend to your BFF now can she? Now then," she clapped her fore-hooves together, "I have come bearing presents." Evey removed her saddlebags and began levitating some of the contents out. "First of all, for Shining Armor we have some authentic dragon made fire wine, tested for safe consumption by ponies courtesy of yours truly," she placed a hefty bottle of glittering red liquor upon the lounge table. "Next, for Cadance, a necklace carved from empathy emeralds, a mythical mineral said to glow a different color depending on the wearers feelings. It's meant to glow pink for strong feelings of love so they should go with her coat perfectly," she levitated an elegant jewelry case next to the bottle. "Last but definitely not least, for Flurry Hearts we have this," she levitated a sealed bell jar out of the other saddlebag and placed it onto the table with the other gifts. Inside the jar was a beautiful flower with curling ice blue petals that curled around into crystalline white tips. The stem spiraled in a seemingly impossible fashion like a helter skelter, the light of the room catching off of the inside and making it look like a stream of water continuously ran down it in a cascading waterfall.
"Is that a polar crystal orchid?" Flurry stared at the plant in disbelief as Evey nodded, "but those were meant to have gone extinct over three hundred years ago! First of all, you don't need to bring us gifts on every social visit, secondly how did you even manage to find this, and third how did you prepare all of this at such short notice?!"
Evey tilted her head sideways and stroked her chin in a comically over the top pantomime of thinking. "In order, yes it is, three hundred and twenty four to be precise, I don't have to bring you gifts but I love you guys and you've always been there for me so It's nice to return the favor every once in awhile, it was frozen dead in the ice caps but perfectly preserved so with a little magical assistance we got it stuck in stasis inside the jar and I've been sitting on these gifts for a little while waiting for a good opportunity," she paused to suck in breath before continuing. "Before you go trying to open the jar up to bring the species back from the dead I think you should know that I checked with some leading botanists and that is never going to happen. I managed to bring back two preserved specimens, the other one has been donated to the Canterlot Museum of Natural History but I was given express permission to keep this one as a souvenir. Now once you are done pining over the long dead flower how about you get changed so that we can hit the town!"
Flurry exchanged a couple of disbelieving looks at both the long extinct orchid and the curious little mare in the fedora and jacket. She did sometimes wonder if the legality of some of Evey's 'finds' was everything she said they were but could never really reconcile the notion of her as some law breaking treasure hunter with the image of the little filly that she used to play big sister to. Perhaps it was her being sentimental but she just couldn't ever find it in her heart to believe half of what the other ponies said about her lil' Evey.
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The pair made for a curious sight as they sauntered through the streets. Evey dressed up in her hat and jacket, while by her side walked a suspiciously tall magenta unicorn with a wine glass cutie mark. The pair had come up with the illusion when Flurry was eighteen as a means of slightly reducing the attention they suffered when trying to have some lighthearted fun. back then they still received some unsolicited stares but Evey was happy to pander to her fans. Both had agreed that it was a vast improvement over the dreaded alternative of the pair being dubbed marefriends by the public, the scandal would have been only marginally less mortifying than the truth. It seemed their concern had proved warranted though as within about a day of their first excursion the press had begun speculating about where the young explorer had picked up her 'charming new marefriend'.
The first stop on the tour was a fashionable little bar called The Heart's Desire, a little cheesy for Evey's own tastes but it had always been a firm favorite of Flurry's. As Flurry went to collect the first round of drinks Evey picked out a small table in one corner away from the worst of the bar's prying eyes. Identifying a quiet looking corner she made her way across the room, no less than three ponies 'accidentally' knocking into her en route. Anywhere else she would likely have gotten up in their face about it but not here, not where Flurry could see her.
"So," Flurry said putting the first round of drinks down on the table. "How's little Evey doing?"
"I'm not that little, Hearts," their official name for the persona was Berry Heart but Evey generally referred to her by the shared second name, she found it made it easier to not slip up and reveal her true identity. "The only reason I look small is because you share so much in common with your mom."
"Evey, I may be tall but that doesn't change the fact you are kinda short for a unicorn your age." Evey shot her a glare from across the table as she began downing her first cider, as much as she hated to admit it she had always been short for her age. While Flurry had been growing into her heritage Evey had desperately been awaiting a sudden growth spurt so that ponies would stop mistaking her for an adolescent. If she had been born an immortal alicorn princess she was willing to bet she would still barely come up to eye level with a mare her own age.
"Yeah, well I may be short, but I think you'll find that I have something you are sorely lacking," while she was a little touchy about her height she did enjoy a bit of playful banter with her BFF, and she was quite able to give as good as she got.
"Oh, and what would that be?" Flurry asked taking the bait.
"A coltfriend," Evey sneered before downing the rest of her current glass. The look of horror on her friend's face was priceless.
"Please, please, please don't tell my mother!" she begged a mortified look upon her face. "I'm really happy for you and I want to hear all about him but if Cadance finds out about this I will never hear the end of it! Princess of Love, Evey! She has been nagging me about when she's going to meet the handsome young stallion or beautiful filly that has caught my eye, forever! I mean don't get me wrong I'm so happy that mom and dad had their own little fairy tale romance but can't she just accept that I'm not ready to get into a relationship right now? She just has all of these expectations, and hopes, and the wedding folder! Have I ever told you about the wedding folder!?"
"Including written correspondence? Nineteen times and counting," Evey grinned. "Don't worry I won't say a word. As for my coltfriend all I'm going to say is that we have a lot of shared interests but we are taking things slow on account of it being a rather long distance relationship. Now, how about another round?"
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They were four bars into the night when Flurry finally decided that it was time to see about getting Evey back to the castle. While Flurry had been sticking to a maximum of two glasses per visit (often low alcohol and in the current bar only soft drinks) Evey had been showing no such restraint. At present she seemed to be wobbling back and forth (both literally and metaphorically) between being inebriated and plastered. Helping her up off of her seat Flurry managed to get Evey to lean on her as they walked, offering some much needed support to the intoxicated unicorn.
"Flur- I mean, Hearts. Hearts," Evey paused as if in deep though then giggled to herself. "Hearts is like the thing on your mothers flank. She named you after her butt picture." Flurry gently shook her head, she could easily correct her friend but at this point there seemed to be little point in trying. "Hearts, are you going to miss me when I'm gone?" Flurry winced and ignored the question, a lot of the time Evey tended to be a happy drunk, unfortunately tonight it seemed as though she was going to be a little more maudlin. "In nine hundred and ninety five years I'm gonna be dead, Hearts," she had heard this speech before, the last time had been two years ago when Evey had spent her birthday getting wasted, back then it was nine hundred and ninety seven. "Course, I'll be dead before then. A loooooooong time before then. Will you still be round, Flurry? Alicorns live so long and I don't wanna... don't wanna," she paused and stared at her hooves, Flurry had gotten her out of the bar and into the streets but they had a long way to go yet. "I don't wanna leave you, Flairy," she slurred. "If you're still around then though, if your still kickin' about. Can you tell her that I miss her?" Evey wiped the tears from her eyes before they could begin to gain momentum.
"I'm gonna miss you too, Flairy," this was new, Flurry had heard this speech a few times but this seemed to be a new development. "I'm gonna miss you when I'm gone but whatever you do, don't come lookin' for me. It's a reeeeeeal maze out there and I don't wanna think about you getting lost somewhere."
"Evey, what are you talking about?" the concern in Flurry's voice was genuine, Evey kept her secrets close to her chest but had been known to spill them when drunk. She had only found out about the big secret after Evey had somehow managed to acquire some spirits to celebrate her fourteenth birthday and had engaged in a little bit of private drinking after her party had concluded.
"I'm gonna be going away. Don't tell anypony, it's a big secret. Princess might try and stop me," she paused again as she tried to process her thoughts, "not sure which Princess, I'm gonna go with Celestia though cause she has a stick lodged so far up her-" thankfully Flurry didn't have to hear the rest of the sentence as Evey suddenly rushed over to a nearby bin and vomited inside. Flurry trotted up to her and patted her on the back to help her with the coughing fit she was struggling with. "Thanks, wa was I saying again?"
"Something about going away, Evey. Listen, Evey, we all care about you, if you're in trouble or if you just want to get away from Equestria for a little bit you can count on us. Evey, I love you like a sis-" she caught herself before she could finish, realizing the awful mistake she was making. It had long been something of a sore point for Evey and Flurry had long ago learned to avoid the topic but tonight she had slipped up. Worse, Evey had noticed her slip up.
"But I'm not am I. I'm not your sister, not really. I don't have... have a wings, and a horn and a... a thing the earth ponies have.... hooves, yeah hooves, I don't have hooves. I don't get to go around calling some pony like Velvet my gram. Cause I'm the silly little filly whose records nopony can ever seem to find. No parents, no gram parents, nothin, an in nine hundred and ninety somethin years I'll be dead and... and she won't," this last comment was punctuated with Evey shoving her with one hoof, a futile gesture considering their noticeable size difference but visually it was an act of aggression, and that only made things worse.
"Hey! You leave her alone you no good tribalist!" Flurry winced at the squeaky slightly nasal voice as Evey turned to face her accuser. They had managed to go an entire day without incident but such an encounter had been bound to happen sooner or later, after all, the changelings had been the third largest culture amidst The Crystal Empire since their acceptance into Equestria. Standing before them was a chitinous black changeling wearing a blue scarf and a trilby alongside a chocolate brown pegasus that she gathered was its marefriend. Clothing, alongside chitin dye, was the preferred method the changelings used to express individuality and tell each other apart and while Flurry had nothing against them herself she had hoped they wouldn't have any run ins tonight.
"I'm not a tribalist dumbass, she's a-" Evey paused briefly to check Flurry out, "-a unicorn. Don't got anything against unicorns."
"I'm not talking about her," the changeling growled through gritted teeth.
"Still not a tribalist though," Evey giggled as Flurry desperately tried steering her away from the couple. "Cause I don't hate any of the three tribes. Bugs though, they aint a tribe. So I can hate them. As. Much. As. I. Want," Evey paused between each word charging up her magic as she advanced on the Changeling.
"Come on, Tarsus, she isn't worth it," the pegasus mare pleaded, sharing the same look of worry as Flurry.
"In a minute," Tarsus gently pushed her aside to fix a glare on Evey. "You know ponies like you should disappear and never come back. Go screw the demon bitch you filthy tribalist. Oh wait, you already have," Evey's magic dissipated harmlessly from her horn as she gave up on any pretense of subtlety and launched herself at the changeling, tackling him to the ground and screaming a predatory roar that had no right to be coming from a mare her size. Hooves slammed against flesh and chitin as the pair brawled in the middle of the street, splashes of red and green beginning to stain the pair's faces. Flurry and the Pegasus tried to separate them but to no avail, Evey flailing wildly whenever either pony got too close to her while Tarsus used his own magic to try and counter any attempt at separating them by telekinesis.
Shouts from down the street confirmed that a number of bar patrons had begun to notice the fight outside and were quickly converging on their position to watch the show. With little time before the fight managed to have enough witnesses to make for a news worthy story in tomorrow's paper Flurry took a deep breath, tried to clear her mind and cast her spell. With a barely audible pop and a flash of light Flurry and Evey disappeared, teleporting across the city and into the castle. She had been aiming for her bedroom but instead materialized out in the hallway, collapsing to the ground exhausted from casting an already difficult spell whilst under the influence of more alcohol than was probably safe to cast. To her left Evey rolled around on the floor yelling obscenities, but with her opponent gone and no suitable source for her rage remaining she quickly succumbed to the effects of the liquor and tumbled into a deep yet troubled sleep. Flurry stared at her friend with a mix of fear, concern and sympathy. When the guards arrived to check on the disturbance she would have them help her get Evey to bed in the guest suite before retiring to her own bedroom for the night to contemplate where everything had gone so wrong.
Sunset started at the sound of the voice, somehow familiar yet at the same time entirely alien to her. She was alone in the darkened halls of Canterlot. It was just as she had remembered it being all those years ago but something seemed wrong, oh so very wrong. The halls were bathed in a sinister red glow that did little to illuminate her former home, instead seeming to cast impenetrable shadows into the corners of every hall and room. In her wanderings she had come across no other signs of life but the ominous cooing voice that she knew she wanted nothing to do with.
"Sunset! Come to me, Sunset! We belong together, together until the end of time itself," the voice called to her again, cackling from the darkest depths of the castle. She felt so alone, she wanted nothing more than to scream out 'hello' to ask if anypony was there, but to do so would surely call the owner of the voice right to her location.
She stopped, pausing in the royal suites before a great mirror that stretched from ceiling to floor. There she was, just as she remembered herself but for one horrible difference. Her horn was gone. The mare that stood before her was none other than Sunset Shimmer but where her horn had once proudly stood there was nothing but empty space. Yet she was not an earth pony, her build was her own and she felt none of the strength or endurance she would have expected of the tribe. Sunset was alone, she was scared and she was useless, quaking before her terrified reflection in the mirror. What skills did she truly possess in her present state? Her talent was for magic but without her horn she was weaker than a young foal still awaiting her cutie mark. In her reign over CHS she had relied on manipulation and social standing but what use were either of those talents with nopony to follow her orders? Even the gifts she had after her reform felt lost to her here, she had once been able to call upon the magic of friendship but that was similarly useless when she was so devoid of friends.
"Oh but you don't need to be useless, Sunset! I will always be here for, always there to pick you up when you fall and carry on where you left off. Even when you die I shall be there to force you to stand once more," the voice was closer now. It giggled maniacally as it taunted her with its feigned sweetness.
She rose from her position in front of the mirror. Powerless as she was the only thing she could do was keeping moving, perhaps if she kept moving she could evade the voice, stay one step ahead of it.
"Peekaboo!"
Sunset fell backwards screaming in horror as the shape leaped through the mirror in a great shower of broken glass. It was beautiful and terrible, a great towering alicorn that circled her with the elegance of a Queen and the eyes of a predator. A great fiery mane billowed from her head floating ethereally like that of Celestia herself. Her coat was a deep bloody red and her wings... where every other alicorn's wings were formed of feathers hers were more akin to those of a bat, great leathery red monstrosities that stood proudly extended at her sides.
"Who are you," Sunset whimpered, though at heart she already knew the answer.
"Why, I am you, my dear precious, Sunset! I am everything you ever wished to be, everything the mirror promised you would become. Oh, you might say that I am behind you, that I am some ghost of your past, but we both know that is a barefaced lie. I am you, Sunset, past, present and future." The alicorn knelt before her to put its eyes level with Sunset's. "I am your destiny, Sunset, dictated by the mark upon your flank. I am succession and though they may be loathe to admit it, without me Equestria will whither and die." With a sinister black glow from her horn the alicorn began channeling a spell and light began to flood into the halls. Turning away from the grim specter of her past Sunset gazed in horror as she realized what was happening. Outside, wreathed in a thin black nimbus the sun was rising.
"You can no more change your future than you can change your past, Sunset. Celestia shall not live eternal and when she dies the two of us shall raise the sun in her stead." The alicorn trotted back into her sight with a sinister grin and for the first time Sunset noticed that its mouth was fanged like that of a carnivore. "And when that time comes, Sunset, all of the little ponies shall bask in our radiance. Or if that does not appeal to them, they shall tremble in our shadow!"
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"Sunset!"
Sunset snapped back into consciousness her body jumping in her restraints and her eyes snapping open. She was back in the hospital, safe in the world where Twilight and her friends had bested the foes of Equestria. Her coat was cold and drenched in sweat and her body felt sore all over, a result of fresh bruises from her restless struggles in the bed and her painkillers wearing off over night. The nightmare had haunted her night after night over the course of the past month. With a few exceptions she had barely gotten a single good night's sleep since her journey had begun, by now she had grown accustomed to the sickly feeling of cold sweat upon her skin.
"Speak to me, Sunset! Are you alright? Do you need me to fetch you a doctor?" the voice called to her again. Not the voice from her nightmare, this was a different voice. A voice filled with worry and concern, a motherly voice.
"Celestia?" Sunset croaked in a combination of pleasant surprise and sudden fear. The voice was unmistakably hers yet Sunset could see no sign of her.
"I am here, Sunset," the white alicorn replied. "I apologize if my raising of the sun brought you any discomfort. Had I known it would rouse you so roughly from your sleep I would have stepped outside. I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to leave your side," the voice spoke to her again though the speaker continued to remain absent from her sight.
"The... the other side of the bed, Celestia. I can't see you if you stand by the windows," Sunset was quickly growing to hate the layout of her room. The bedside chair had been placed on her left and so it seemed that ever since she had arrived in the hospital bed everypony who visited would gravitate towards her blind side.
"Of course!" had Celestia ever sounded so concerned, so fragile? Sunset could recall her being disappointed or angry but the concern she had shown back then was always that of the disapproving teacher, this was new, this was nice. "Doctor Horse had told me of your eye but I am afraid it had slipped my mind. How are you, Sunset? Is there anything I could get you?" Celestia strode into view coming to sit beside the right side of Sunset's bed. Great bags hung beneath her eyes and the white of her coat was streaked with the stains of dried tears.
"How long have you been here?" Sunset croaked out. "Water?"
Levitating a glass of water to Sunset's lips Celestia smiled at the unicorn. It was a sad smile but compared to how things had been when they had parted company it was a welcome balm for her troubled mind. "Since Luna took over for the night. When I arrived you had already drifted off to sleep but I was happy to wait at your side until you woke. I have been waiting many years for this moment, Sunset, I only wish it could have come about under better circumstances."
"I'm sorry," Sunset said once she had finished her drink.
"Sorry? Whatever for, Sunset? My being here is of no inconvenience, the day court will resume when I return to Canterlot but for the next two hours I will remain by your side. I am here because I want to be, Sunset, there is nothing to be sorry about."
"No," she whispered back. "I'm sorry about shouting at you, sorry that I didn't listen when I was your student. I'm sorry that I ran away, sorry that I stole the crown, sorry that I wanted more than I deserved," the confrontation had been a long time coming but she had never pictured it playing out in this manner. She had imagined Celestia to be angry with her, she had pictured herself begging for forgiveness, shouting out how sorry she was for her misdeeds. Instead Celestia simply hung over her with a smile and a look of pity as Sunset could barely muster a whisper to list off her crimes.
"You are too hard on yourself, Sunset. I have long since forgiven you for your actions, Twilight made it quite clear that you have changed for the better and grown into the wonderful mare I knew you could be. If anything I should be the one begging forgiveness from you. I raised your hopes with promises of gifts I was unwilling to explain, I encouraged study one minute yet demanded you make friends the next. The mistakes you made were a result of my own negligence."
"No. It wasn't like that, it was never like that, it was all me. I..." Sunset shook her head as best as she could. "Could we, could we just start over? Put it all behind us. No more blaming each other, no more blaming ourselves?" Celestia positively beamed.
"You truly have come a long way my student. I am so proud of you. Now, I must ask, what happened to you, Sunset, to injure you like this?"
"Can't that wait?" Sunset pleaded. "I've promised to tell Twilight, and I will, so can't we just spend this time talking about happy things? I've missed you, Celestia, I'd love to hear what's been going on while I was away."
"Very well then," Celestia conceded without even a hint of disappointment. "On one condition," her gaze narrowed for a brief moment her eyes seemed almost threatening. "I hear you have made some friends, I would love to hear about them." The pair laughed, for the time being at least Sunset would be able to put aside her troubles and enjoy the company of her oldest friend.
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Twilight had been very busy since she left Sunset yesterday evening. First she had accompanied Cadance and Shining to the train, she was reluctant to say goodbye having barely had a chance to speak to the two of them but they were required back in The Crystal Empire. After that she had put aside an hour to catch up with her friends at Sugar Cube Corner. A portion of this time had been spent trying to console a somewhat distressed Pinkie Pie who was convinced that she had done something incredibly wrong to upset Sunset. By the end of the hour she wasn't quite her normal bubbly self but she had shown a noticeable improvement over how she had been before.
After that she had gone through a similar process with Starlight, reassuring her that she wasn't a bad mare and that everything Sunset had said was in the heat of the moment. Starlight had been a little trickier to placate than Pinkie but in the end Twilight had managed to distract her from the worst of her worries with a mammoth study session on time travel, trying to work out exactly what had happened to Sunset. In Twilight's eyes it was a small miracle that she had managed to convince Starlight to accompany her back to the hospital in the morning with the small chance of achieving some form of reconciliation. Up until they had mentioned their own time travel experience everything had been going so well, the two unicorns seemed to have really hit things off and almost seemed to be bonding over their past experiences.
"Are you sure this a good idea, Twilight, I mean she didn't exactly seem thrilled with me being there yesterday," Starlight was understandably reluctant in being here but as Twilight had informed her last night 'nothing ventured nothing gained'.
"Starlight, right now Sunset is hurting and she probably said a few things that she didn't mean. She's a long way from the place she calls home and she is likely feeling alone and afraid. Right now she needs all the friends she can get. Don't worry I'm sure she will open up to you in time." Speaking of Sunset's friends Twilight had unfortunately been unable to get in touch with them last night. She had left a brief message in the journal on the off chance that one of them had Sunset's copy before opening up the portal and having a quick look on the other side. Sadly it had been night time when she had gotten there and so the school grounds were empty. In the end Twilight had left a note explaining the current situation in an envelope, tucked beneath the doors of the school and addressed to her friends. Celestia or Luna would likely have found it this morning and would make sure it made it to the intended recipients.
"Twilight! It is good to see you here," the two mares paused as they turned the corner to reach Sunset's room. Standing before them was none other than Princess Celestia herself. "I imagine you are here to see Sunset but I was hoping I could perhaps have a word with you first."
"Sure," Twilight said recovering from her surprise. It made sense of course that Celestia would come to visit her wayward prodigy but she hadn't quite expected to see her here so soon and unannounced. "Why don't you go on in without me, Starlight, the Princess and I just need to catch up but I'll be with you shortly," Starlight opened her mouth to protest but found herself pushed through the door by Twilight's magic before she could voice her concerns. "What can I do for you, Princess?" Twilight asked with a genial smile.
"Please, Twilight, how many times must I remind you to call me Celestia?" the elder alicorn laughed. "Enough of that though, I would like to hear your opinion of Sunset, she has been away for so very long and now she has returned we have much to discuss."
"Have you... seen her yet?" Twilight probed, uncertain of what Celestia knew of her current condition.
"We have spoken, we have cried, we have laughed with one another as we once did long ago when our relationship was still stronger. Though it pains me to see her in her current state I am overjoyed that we have managed to reconcile with one another. I know my own thoughts on this matter though, it is yours that I wish to hear."
"She's really turned things around," Twilight decided to start with the good news. "Things haven't been easy for her through the portal but she has made some good friends and taken your teachings to heart. I for one would be proud to call her my student if I were you." Celestia nodded in agreement but said no more, clearly waiting for Twilight to finish. "That said though she seems to be in a bad place right now, I can only imagine what she has been through but it seems to be weighing her down. She isn't like she used to be when she was at her worst but she seems scared and ready to lash out at the slightest provocation. If we give her time and support though I'm sure she'll make a full recovery." Celestia nodded again.
"Something wonderful has happened, Twilight, and I may have been given an opportunity to rectify one of my great mistakes," Twilight had known that Celestia had regretted how she had handled Sunset but she couldn't help but feel there was something more to what Celestia had said then a simple matter of reconciliation. "I do not know if you noticed it but there has been a great change in Sunset's aura, a recent change from what I can gather. In her absence it would seem she has connected with The Elements of Harmony, she has used all six under her own power to achieve some great deed I can only wonder at," Celestia paced back and forth in front of her in excitement. "The last time a pony wielded all six elements on their own was when I banished Nightmare Moon. Twilight, I believe Sunset is ready to ascend," Twilight jumped in surprise at the admission, Sunset had long desired to be made a princess but she seemed to have thrown such ambitions aside ever since her reformation. "Not now at this moment of course, and not without her approval. I understand that she has friends in the other world and may wish to return to them but I am hoping you might broach the matter with her during her recovery here in Ponyville. If she still desires it the choice will be hers. I do not know how it happened but in her absence it would seem she has earned the right to call herself princess." Twilight nodded dumbly, not wanting to raise her fears on the subject to her mentor when Celestia seemed so clearly overjoyed by the development.
"I'll see what I can do," she managed in the end.
"Thank you, Twilight. Now if you will excuse me I have a court to attend and preparations to make for the birth of your niece," with that Celestia strode off through the hospital halls, the look of a proud and doting mother displayed across her face for all to see.
"Ah, Princess Twilight! A word please?" Before Twilight could join Starlight and Sunset she found herself pulled aside by doctor Horse, why did it have to be so hard to walk through a hospital without being accosted by everypony?
"Well I was hoping to see Sunset but I'm guessing this has something to do with her?" Horse nodded grimly in confirmation.
"I'm afraid we have been having a little difficulty with Mrs Shimmer's case. Her medical paperwork is somewhat lacking and we have no information on her whereabouts for over a decade. No check ups, no visits, nothing." Twilight had expected that but she could hardly let Horse know the truth of the situation. "According to what we do have she was orphaned at a young age so we have no next of kin to turn to and on top of it all she has been tight lipped about how she found herself in her present state," the doctor scratched his head awkwardly and let out a defeated sigh. "I know this is hardly standard practice but I was hoping you might take on the role of next of kin until we can locate her family."
"I'm sorry but didn't you just say her family had died?" Twilight had never been wholly certain on Sunset's family situation but the ease with which she had left Equestria had always made her suspicious.
"Her blood relatives yes, but I was hoping we might-" Horse stopped mid sentence as though struck by some sudden realization, his mouth silently forming the word 'oh'. "I umm, take it you haven't been informed of this mornings development in the case then?" he nervously asked.
"What development?"
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The atmosphere inside Sunset's room could at best be described as 'awkward'. Sunset sat quietly in her bed staring off into space as Starlight stood by the door waiting for Twilight to finish speaking to Celestia. Maybe she hadn't even seen her enter? She was completely blind in one eye but Starlight had forgotten to ask how good her vision was in the other. Maybe if she just stood there and waited she could put off the conversation until she had Twilight to support her, maybe she could-
"You going to stand there like a rabbit in the headlights all day, or are you going to say something?" Starlight had no idea how long she had been standing there before Sunset spoke. The amber unicorn smiled at her from across the room but Starlight was certain it was insincere, Starlight knew all about fake smiles.
"Headlights?" she asked, wow what a start to the conversation, Twilight would be so proud.
"It's-" Sunset stopped, "It's a thing from where I live, a figure of speech, I forget most ponies won't get it."
"The other world you mean?" Starlight asked.
"Yeah, I'm guessing Twilight filled you in on the details of where I'm from then?"
"Some of them, but she was a little vague about a few things."
"Sounds about right," Sunset chuckled. "Hey could you come over here, Starlight, I having something to say and it's sort of private. I'd rather not have anybody else overhear it. Starlight nervously looked at the other mare as she slowly walked over towards the bed. "I'm not going to hurt you Starlight, I don't think I could even if I wanted to," Sunset gently rocked in her bed to prove the point.
"I'm really sorry, Sunset, I never meant to hurt anypony, I wanted a little revenge on Twilight but I didn't think anything like this would happen, I didn't know how much things would change just from messing about with one little race, I didn't-" Sunset raised a hoof as much as she could to stop Starlight mid breakdown.
"I know. If you weren't sorry you wouldn't be here and that actually means a lot. Now then, be honest with me, Starlight, how do you feel about Twilight?" that was not the question she expected.
"She's a good friend. I owe so much to her right now, if it hadn't been for her I'd still be in a dark place right now, until she came along I never really understood what I'd been missing in my life," as she finished Sunset gave a curt nod of confirmation.
"About what I expected. I'm pretty much the same you know, I owe her so much and I don't know how I can ever hope to repay her for what she did for me. I care for her a lot you know, she's like the sister I never had. Now I could go and do the whole protective elder sibling act and say that if you ever hurt her again there will be hell to pay but she already has a brother to do that for her, so instead here's the deal," Sunset raised her head as far as she could off of the bed and brought her voice down to a low whisper.
"I don't like you, Starlight. I don't expect you to ever understand but the things I went through just aren't in my power to forgive. I'm not Twilight, I can't just ignore everything that happened and move on from it. We will never be friends Starlight Glimmer, doesn't matter how much you try to apologize nothing will change that. But Twilight wants us to besties, she's so transparent like that. I may not like you, Starlight, but my friendship with her means the world to me. I'll play nice, I won't go starting fights with you and when Twilight's around I'll act like the two of us are cool, act like the past is water under the bridge. That's all it will be though, an act, and I expect you to do the same." Sunset sank backwards into her bed, resting her head on the cushions. "Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Starlight answered through gritted teeth. This wasn't what she had wanted, this wasn't the friendship she had come here to try and fix. There was no reconciliation here, no closure. Yet it was still preferable to the alternative.
"Good," Sunset said as the door to the room opened. Standing in the doorway was Doctor Horse and Twilight Sparkle, the latter with a look of absolute shock and horror plastered on her face. For a moment she worried that Twilight had been listening to their conversation but there was no anger in her face, only sympathy.
It was almost midday by the time Flurry checked in on Evey. She had been expecting her to need a bit of a lie in to get over her inevitable hangover from the previous night but now she was beginning to get concerned. Growing up Evey had always been an early riser, 'any time spent in bed could be spent exploring' was a favorite phrase the filly would use when trying to get her friend out of bed. Delicately applying her magic to the handle Flurry opened the door to the guest suite as quietly as she could, Evey may have been an early riser but with her temper Flurry was not keen on the thought of finding out how she would react to being forced awake.
Stepping into the room she breathed a sigh of relief. Though the curtains were tightly drawn and the room dark she could easily make out the form of Evey curled up on her bed. Judging from her well groomed mane and the fact that she was now on top of her covers instead of tucked into them as she had been left last night, it seemed safe to assume that she had woken earlier in the morning and since then returned to her bed for a nap. While she would still be in for an awkward discussion with Evey about the events of last night it was still preferable to the dreaded alternative, that once again she would have eloped from the castle without leaving any note or message as to where she had gone. Growing up those had been some of the scariest days of her life, waking in the morning to the panicked sounds of the guards, her family practically tearing the castle apart in their search and little Evey's room empty and devoid of her belongings. To this day Evey denied she had ever mastered the teleportation spell but Flurry sometimes wondered as to the truth of that statement considering the ease with which the unicorn had managed to disappear without a trace at the age of five.
Flurry trotted across to Evey's bedside, being careful not to disturb her, and looked over the few items scattered on the bedside table. Her hat of course proudly occupied the bulk of the space but with that exception the remaining items were depressingly devoid of any emotional significance. 'An explorer packs light and practical' Evey had insisted upon returning from her first real 'adventure', yet Flurry felt it was a sad display of her friend's life that she had not brought with her a single photo or memento. Instead her chosen traveling companions were a scuffed and battered store bought pocket watch, a small tub of face wipes and a box of tissues. In addition to these items there was a bottle of pills and an empty glass. The glass still held a few residual drops of water in it and Evey had forgotten to screw the lid back onto the bottle. Cadance would be pleased to hear that Evey was remembering to take her medication in the morning, the pink alicorn had expressed concern about that several times over the past month. Six pills left, hopefully Evey would remember to refill her prescription this time.
"Hey, that you, Flurry?" Evey asked with a yawn as she rolled over in the bed to look at her guest. "I'm sorry about last night. I can't remember exactly what happened but I know I ruined it." Evey didn't sound exhausted but she was clearly still tired, her voice lacked any of its normal passion instead coming out as a drab monotone.
"Oh I wouldn't say the night was ruined. We had a very good time for the most part and it was a lot of fun catching up," Flurry said in her most diplomatic voice. It was all technically true, the night wasn't truly ruined but it had certainly raised some worrying questions. The encounter with Tarsus had even been a calculated risk of the evening's escapades, running into a changeling had always been a likely trouble.
"Anything I should tell Starlight this week? Or should I just let her know I got drunk," the mellow tone didn't suit her very well at all. Her emotional outbursts and abrasive personality had always been considered something of a vice by Evey's friends and family but without it all she seemed a different mare altogether.
"You got in a fight with a changeling," Flurry confessed "and you were a little bit aggressive with me shortly before that." As much as she hated burdening Evey with the truth it was important to her health that Starlight had access to all of the facts whenever Evey did happen to slip up.
"Okay, I'll make sure to tell her." Evey rose from the bed and levitated the glass into the en suite where she poured herself another drink. The ease with which she agreed to tell Starlight was startling, in fact come to think of it this was probably the first time Flurry could think of that Evey had suggested speaking to the other unicorn ever. Normally she was incredibly cagey about her appointments with Starlight and would go to great lengths to avoid the topic, perhaps the two of them were getting on better these days?
"There was one more thing..." Flurry whispered.
"Oh?"
"You said some things. They didn't make a lot of sense and then you trailed off into a little bit of a rant about alicorns." The things that Evey had said were not the words of a mare in her right state of mind but over breakfast Flurry had come to one possible conclusion as to what she had meant and since then had been debating whether or not it was safe to broach the matter. "Evey, you'd gotten back onto the thousand year speech again and then you started talking about 'going away'." It was very brief but Flurry was certain she detected a slight flinch in Evey's face. "Evey, you aren't contemplating... ending things are you?" With all morning to prepare Flurry had finally concluded that there was no easy way to ask your best friend if she was planning on committing suicide. For about thirty seconds the two of them stood in silence, Evey blinking repeatedly and looking about ready to drift back off to sleep at any moment.
"No. No I'm not." The way she said it was so calm and matter of fact, if Flurry didn't know better than to joke about such matter she would have been inclined to ask what had happened to the real Eventide. "Don't worry, Flurry, I'm just going on another expedition. I still have a lot of preparations to do but where I'm planning on going this time is really far away. I don't know if I'll be able to keep in touch while I'm there and I may be gone some time, so I suppose I was just feeling a little bit of trepidation about the whole thing." She slowly walked up to Flurry and gently embraced her in a hug. "Don't worry, Flurry, I'm not going to kill myself over Nightmare Night," and there it was. Something had clearly been bothering Evey for the duration of her stay, something she had been keeping bottled up inside her, hopefully this was it.
"What's wrong with Nightmare Night, Evey? Well other than the normal problem," she asked in a soothing voice.
"Some ponies have been saying some unpleasant things about me and about... her. I guess Nightmare Night is making it all feel like it's coming together," Evey shrugged. Perhaps Flurry had been wrong perhaps this wasn't the problem after all. It was hard to really judge anything that Evey was saying right now in her eerie exhaustion induced monotone.
"Think you could talk to Starlight about it?"
"Sure. Anything for you, Flurry," Evey acquiesced. A part of Flurry was proud of her for agreeing to confront her problems for once but at the same time there remained a lingering doubt at the back of her mind that she had completely side stepped the real issue behind Evey's behavior last night.
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Shining and Cadance had already left to go about their duties by the time Flurry managed to get Evey out of bed. To Flurry's great consternation the unicorn had insisted on packing all of her belongings into her saddlebags and bringing them with her, the visit had been meant to last for the whole weekend but it seemed quite apparent that Evey had no intention of staying. The journey to the dining room for lunch had been surprisingly difficult, with Evey nearly falling over several times in the halls and needing assistance to descend the stairs. As the cooks prepared the two of them a light lunch Flurry resolved that in the future she would be a lot warier about how much she let Evey drink when the two of them were together, she was clearly suffering from her actions last night.
"Can I ask you a favor, Flurry?" Evey politely asked between mouthfuls of sandwich.
"Well it depends on what the favor is but sure. We love you, Evey, if there's anything you need just ask."
"After lunch I'd like to take a pegasus chariot to Whitetail Woods. Alone." Evey still spoke in monotone but the serious look on her face made it clear what she meant.
"Evey, you've barely even been here for a whole day, why do you have to leave already? Whatever business you have can surely wait till later can't it?" She knew it was normally pointless to argue with Evey but it was possible that in her current state she might be willing to listen for once.
"I'm meeting Starlight tomorrow, I need to be back in Canterlot by then."
"So leave this evening, the chariots could easily get you back home in time. In fact if you wanted we could probably arrange for a chariot to take you straight to Starlight in the morning if you wanted."
"No." Evey shook her head and with that the argument was done. "Flurry, I blew up at somepony on the train, we got in a fight," Flurry had wondered about the black eye that Evey had been nursing for the duration of her stay but knew better than to ask how her friend had come by it. "Then I got in a fight with some bug in the streets last night. I'm going to go visit mom's place in the woods before my visit with Starlight, see if maybe I can calm down."
"Evey, have you looked at yourself in the mirror today? You look pretty darn calm to me," the conversation may as well have been over at this point but so long as logic was on her side Flurry wasn't going down without a fight.
"Flurry. This morning I was livid. I was riding a rage train from last night but I couldn't even remember what had set me off. I may seem good right now but that's all a lie. I don't know how long this can last but I can't keep this up without seriously hurting myself. All this," she waved a hoof gesturing at her whole body, "is the result of me doing something really, really dumb when I got out of bed this morning. If you love me at all Flurry, you have to let me go do this. I need to see mom."
Flurry examined her friend carefully trying to work out the hidden meaning behind her words. How had she achieved this calm facade? From what she knew of Evey she wouldn't have some sort of spell to do this to her and she had always scoffed at the calming methods taught to her by Cadance during their youth.
"Fine, if this is something you need to do, Evey, then I'm not going to stop you."
"Thank yo-"
"BUT. I want you to remember that you have friends here, friends who care about you. If you ever need to vent, or just need some time away from it all we are here for you," she strode over to her BFF and embraced her in a feathery hug. "Don't go waiting until you receive an invitation for your next visit okay?"
"Kay."
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The flight to Whitetail Woods was awkward to say the least. Evey had always loved flying, as a little Filly she had often wished she had been a pegasus 'jus like Dearing Doo!', she had taken every opportunity granted to hop on one of her guardians backs and fly across the sky. Then she had grown up and was too big to really be comfortable perched atop the back of another pony, Twilight had tried to teach her a spell to grant her temporary wings but the casting was above her level of expertise. The chariot flight brought back fond memories of the thrill she had felt back then but it was mired somewhat by the stony looks she would receive from the guards. While they maintained the air of professionalism expected of them she knew that if either pegasus were to meet her on the street then they would happily give her an earful about how awful she was and how their darling Princess Flurry Heart was to naive to realize it. They wouldn't be the first pony to warn her to stop bothering the royals.
When the chariot did finally touch down she quickly hopped off, straightening her hat and adjusting her saddlebags for the next portion of the journey.
"Thanks for the lift," she said receiving a pair of disdainful grunts in reply. The chariot flew off, leaving her alone as she pressed on through the trees. The Whitetail Woods were far from the wild untamed depths of the Everfree but even they had their secrets. She hopped over rocks and pushed through foliage, moving to where the trees were tall and the wood was dense, far from the traveled paths through the forest that most ponies knew. There in a small secret clearing was a pool of water, untouched by the hooves of ponies, that shone with a crystal clarity. More importantly though her secret spot was home to the wagon. The wagon had always been her home on the road but even now when it had long since stopped moving, its wheels rotted away and vines beginning to wind across its roof, it still felt more like home than her little house in Canterlot. Sometimes when she was feeling down she would come out here and spend days, even weeks alone in the wagon.
The vines had made some real progress in engulfing it since she was last here and the wildflowers had buried the stumps where the wagons wheels had once proudly stood. The bright red paint had almost entirely cracked and peeled away with the few spots it still remained having faded to an uneven pink. With a little effort she could probably restore the old girl but honestly she preferred it this way. It reminded her of some lost tomb or ancient mausoleum, some unknown grave or memorial to ponies long forgotten, the likes of which she had seen in her adventures across the world. So long as the door remained accessible to her and the magic keeping the walls together remained in place she was happy for the wagon to succumb to the ravages of time. The more it weathered the harder it was for somepony else to stumble across it by accident.
"Mom, I'm home," she called as she tugged the door open, a great squeaking attesting to the fact that it was in dire need of oiling. The windows had been almost entirely sealed over by the advances of nature so she conjured up a small ball of light, her own little sun to keep her company for her stay in the wagon. Everything was as she had left it, the family belongings neatly organized on the table and walls, a pair of beds on the far side, easily pushed together if need be, in one corner was her mom's mini-fridge, magically fueled and able to keep a meal fresh. What little space remained after that was reserved for an armoire and a dressing table, she couldn't bear to open either of them up. Her own clothes had long since been moved from the pair to her own house in Canterlot, all that remained inside now were her mother's belongings.
"I visited Flurry yesterday, mom, she's doing good. Twilight has her doing some silly princess training exercises, pretty sure she's the only one to have to go through it." She slumped down on her bed, it was dank and musty but it felt like home despite the neglect. "I spoke to Cadance as well, she and Shining Armor sound happy together," she paused and stared at the empty bed by her side, "I'm happy for them."
"I have a boyfriend, mom," she said as her eyes wandered over a crudely carved engraving in the wall behind her, 'Evey and Flurry together forever'. "It's a proper relationship this time, not some silly filly crush. I managed to get us some of Celestia's magic journals, we were in sort of a long distance relationship without them. He's nice, you'd like him. He studies magic and has some ideas about how to further my own research."
"Don't tell Cadance though mom, Flurry would never live it down. I know you didn't always get on with Cadance but you'd like her daughter, she's real nice. Maybe the two of you will meet some day," her eyes stopped on the second engraving 'Flurry Hearts BSBFF' she'd got a real scolding over that one. Hopping off of the bed she made her way to the table and began flicking through the photo album. The bulk of the pictures were all in the same style, a pair of unicorns standing together smiling at the camera. The young filly often posing for the shot or hugging her mother, while the elder's horn was invariably channeling magic to use the camera. In every picture the elder unicorn wore a thick traveling cloak, concealing her whole body from the neck back, in most of them she seemed to be masking a look of worry beneath a big goofy smile. Canterlot, Las Pegasus, Van Hoover, Manehatten, Griffonstone, Yakyakistan... the photos showed every place in Equestria and even some further afield.
"I'm going to be going away for a little while, mom. So don't be surprised if I don't visit for sometime. It's going to be hard, I might fail, I might never be able to come back..." she took a deep breathe, "but I'm going looking for dad. My real dad, no substitutions," she leaned over and kissed one of the rare solo photos of the other unicorn on her forehead. "Love you, mom, I really wish you were still here."
Starlight and Sunset stared at their friend as she stood rooted in the doorway, her frame shaking like a leaf and tears beginning to trickle down her face. "You okay, Twilight? You look like you've seen a ghost-oof," Sunset found herself tackled by the alicorn in a firm yet gentle hug that kept her pressed to the bed. It was not uncomfortable but it was surprising if nothing else and probably not a great idea considering her current fragile state.
"I'm so sorry that this has happened to you, Sunset, and you need to know that we are all going to be here for you and the princess loves you and forgives you for everything that happened in the past and nopony is going to blame you for this and you are welcome to stay at the castle when you get out of the hospital we are all going to support you through this and whatever happens we are are going to try to make things right and I can't even imagine how awful it must have been for yousoifyouneedtotalkaboutitthenI'mhereforyou butyoumightneedyourspacesoifyouwantmetoleaveyoualonethat'sfinetoo-"
"TWILIGHT!" Sunset snapped. "Take a breathe, slow down and please could you maybe just loosen your grip a little? You're crushing me here." Twilight gave a sheepish smile as she stepped back from the bed, tears still running down her face.
"Sorry, Sunset, I just, I just heard some news about you from Dr Horse and I guess I just hadn't realized till now just how bad the past few weeks must have been for you. I mean it's one thing to see the injuries but I guess I'd just imagined that's all it would be, that everything would just be skin deep," she let out another sniffle, desperately trying to maintain her composure. "Starlight, do you think you could maybe step outside? Me and Dr Horse have something to talk about with Sunset and I imagine she would like some privacy, it's a... a sensitive matter."
"I'm okay with her being here, Twilight, the two of us have resolved our differences, it's all in the past. I don't mind her being here," that was certainly a surprise to Twilight. She may have wanted the two of them to reconcile but she hadn't expected it to happen so easily, judging by the confusion on Starlight's face her friend was equally surprised.
"While I'm glad to hear that the two of you were able to sort out your differences I think you might want to hear this in private, Sunset," Twilight twitched her head towards the door motioning for Starlight to move but the other mare didn't seem to take the hint. "It's a bit of a personal matter."
"Twilight, she's your friend, anything you have to tell me I'm sure she is going to hear sooner or later anyway. I'm probably going to be here some time so sooner or later I'm pretty sure all of your friends are going to find out I'm pregnant." Twilight's jaw dropped, had she been Pinkie Pie it would probably have slammed into the ground. "I mean, I'm guessing that's what you're here to tell me right?" Sunset asked nervously.
"You know?" Twilight asked managing to get her jaw moving again.
"She's pregnant?!" Starlight whispered.
"Ahem," Horse cleared his throat. "As I had been trying to tell you before you burst into the room, Princess Twilight, it was Sunset that had suggested the tests in the first place. Now then, Sunset," he said trotting over to the bed and keeping on the side of her good eye. "As you predicted you are about four weeks into your pregnancy and with this knowledge in mind it is very important that we begin addressing your diet. It is clear that you have been through a great deal recently so we are going to be supplementing your meals with some medical supplements to speed up your return to a healthy weight."
"Run it all by me later doc," Sunset waved her hoof in what she hoped was a dismissive gesture. "Right now, I think I owe Twilight some explanations." Horse nodded and left the room leaving Twilight and the two unicorns alone. "Okay then, I'm guessing you want to hear about where I've been, but first I have a question for you, what was with that freak out earlier?"
"What was with me? What's with you? How are you taking this so well? I mean this is life changing news! If I were you I'd be freaking out right now, I mean how do you even feel about this? I just... it's all so awful, that somepony would force themselves on you, that some stallion-" Sunset's eyes opened wide and her face reddened into a deep blush.
"Okay, story time is on hold. First things first, Twilight, stop whatever you are currently thinking. He didn't... I wasn't... Look I know who the father is, he didn't 'force himself' on me, when we slept together it was a consensual thing okay? Yes, a lot of bad things have happened to me over the past few weeks, but he wasn't one of them. He was nice, a real gentlecolt. He helped me through something of a rough patch, I did the same, and then one night we..." Sunset closed her eyes and stopped. Twilight and Starlight nervously exchanged looks uncertain if they should speak up or not, after about thirty seconds though the decision was made for them as Sunset continued. "It was cold, really cold. I'm not sure if either of us loved the other but we were getting along well and we'd bonded over the few days we had known each other. That night we cuddled up to each other to keep warm and then... then we kissed," she laughed a short but happy laugh at the memory. "The world was ending around us, neither of us knew if there was anything left for us in the future and so we decided that, hey, there are worse ways we could spend what could be our last few moments in Equestria."
"Who was he?" Twilight asked wrapping one hoof in support across the back of Sunset's neck.
"He was nice, and I don't know if I loved him, but I definitely cared about him. That's all your going to get out of me though," Sunset said with an air of finality.
"What? Why?"
"Twilight, I know you, and if they are anything like my versions, then I know your friends. If I tell you who he was then somepony is going to go looking for him, the version of him from this timeline that is, and they will have the best of intentions in trying to bring the two of us together, but it will all blow up in our faces. He's never really met me, Twilight, he doesn't know who I am. I'm not just going to force myself into his life and dump some foal he never actually fathered on him. He was a good stallion, Twilight, I doubt somepony like him would fail to turn a few heads in a timeline where everything went right. Chances are he has a happy life with a family, maybe he's married, maybe he already has some foals of his own in this timeline. I'm not going to be some homewrecker, turning up out of nowhere and threatening to tear his life apart. That's the old me, I've changed Twilight."
"You don't know that for sure," she answered. "There's no harm in just checking."
"No, Twilight. Look I've had sometime to think this through, I had my suspicions even before I got back to this Equestria. I did some soul searching and I'm keeping the foal, I want to give it everything I never had when I was growing up. If you and your friends want to help that's fine, it'll be nice for the foal to have lots of honorary aunties to dote on them, but I'm keeping the father out of it and that's final." Twilight began to open her mouth to continue the argument but Starlight gently nudged her in the side and shook her head, the conversation wasn't getting anywhere, Sunset had clearly made up her mind on the matter.
"Now then I think I owe the two of you a time travel story right?" Sunset cut off any further inquiry into the foals parentage, instead addressing the original purpose of the meeting. "It feels so long ago now but it all started back at CHS...."
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I'd been tasked by Vice Principal Luna to try and keep magic from interfering with this big event called The Friendship Games. To answer your two obvious questions Starlight, no this isn't the same Luna as here in Equestria, and yes where I was living magic was kind of a big deal. I'm pretty sure I left you a note in the journal asking for advice on what to do, Twilight...
You did, I was looking over it last night in case I missed something important.
Right. Well I left the note but then I remembered this weird figure who I'd seen hanging about the portal. Now the only other people-
People?
They don't call each other ponies in the other place, Starlight. Now could we leave the questions till later? This is going to take forever with you guys interrupting me every five seconds. Anyway the only other people who had ever shown an interest in the portal were myself, and the sirens, so it stood to reason that this figure was another Equestrian looking to get their hands on some magic. So, in the name of keeping magic out of the games I decided to check the portal in case they had left some evidence behind.
When I got there it was immediately obvious something was wrong. The portal was open, but not like it was before. This time anybody walking past would notice it without even having to accidentally touch it and fall through. There were these weird circles and colored lights spinning across the surface and while nobody had noticed it yet it was only a matter of time before some stranger with a phone walked past and got a recording of the freaky magical special effects taking place at CHS. What I did next I regret immensely. I sort of assumed that this was some weird side effect of you opening the portal up again from your end so I decided to hop through and ask you to turn it off before somebody saw what was going on. Without any real magic on my side of the portal I could hardly go and analyze it from my end so as I saw it the only real way to fix things would be at your end. That's when everything went wrong.
The journey through the portal was every bit as unpleasant as I remembered it being except this time it was...different. I have no idea how to even go about describing it but there was something fundamentally wrong in the experience, it felt more painful than normal, more disconcerting. When I tumbled out though I didn't notice anything fundamentally wrong. Checking myself in the mirror I was still me, the unicorn me that is, just like when I'd come through before. Even the room was as I remembered it, some out of the way storeroom for magical relics in The Crystal Empire. That should have been my first warning that something was up really. You'd mentioned changing where you kept the mirror to your own castle but I'd never seen it there, from what I could recall the Equestrian side of the mirror was exactly as it should be.
The room was darker than I had expected it to be. The times don't match up perfectly but I was pretty sure that if I came through the portal at midday it wasn't supposed to dump me into Equestria in the middle of the night. The first real sign I had that something was wrong was when I touched the mirror, it had closed behind me. I'm not going to lie, I had a major freak out right then and there. I'd considered coming back to Equestria in the past but the thought of being trapped here, without any of my friends at CHS knowing where I was or what had happened to me was terrifying, I hadn't even managed to say goodbye. That was when I realized just how odd it was that the mirror was there. There was no evidence of the equipment you had described that allowed you to open it at will, nopony had come to investigate my arrival and at about that point it clicked that you had mentioned in the past that the mirror was meant to be in Ponyville. I was Sunset Shimmer though, I wasn't going to let a few minor conveniences keep me down. I decided that the best case scenario was that you'd moved the mirror back to The Empire without telling me and that if I went to find somepony we could get everything straightened out by dinner. Worst case scenario something had happened to you and you might need my help for a change. In either case moping about in a storeroom was helping nopony so with all my stupid big headed confidence I strode up to the door and pushed it open. If I'd remembered any of the lessons Celestia had taught me I could have used a dozen different spells to check that door for traps, when you spend so much of your life devoid of magic though it just stops being second nature to you and you end up getting zapped in the face by a lump of black crystal.
I don't know how long I was out but when I woke up I was in Canterlot. Except it wasn't really Canterlot, it was dark and there was nopony else there. Nopony but myself and the... there was an alicorn. She followed me everywhere, whispered horrible things to me, truths that I couldn't bare to hear. It was a nightmare, a literal nightmare. I won't.... I won't trouble you with all the details but somehow the crystal had trapped me with a monster who knew all of my fears. Sometimes she would attack me, other times taunt me. She would never leave me alone. A couple of time she conjured the shadows of...ponies. She forced me to fight them, compelled me to do so, I was powerless to resist. A few times I even hoped one of them might end me, put me out of my misery, but I was too good. I don't know how long I was actually trapped there but from later evidence I would guess it was about three days, three days with my own worst nightmare. Waking should have been a relief. Ha! Always be careful what you wish for.
---------------------
It was an abrupt switch. One moment I was surrounded by a cloying darkness, fighting some twisted mockery of a real pony that the alicorn had set upon me, the next moment everything was white. My senses overloaded as I tried to adjust to the change, it was so sudden so drastic. The world was white and I was suddenly aware of a biting cold that seemed to penetrate to the bone. My body was sore all over but the worst pain came from a great gash on my forehead; the taste of copper filled my mouth. The sound was deafening, the heavy rumble of hooves, the clash of metal on metal. I could no more move then than I can right now, my body was weighed down by heavy barding and hoof guards clearly not built with a unicorn like myself in mind and I was physically exhausted despite having apparently been sleeping for some time. I could barely focus on anything, let alone defend myself with magic. As soon as I focused on one thing some fresh stimulus would break my concentration leaving my head swimming in pain. The first real coherent thought I managed was that I had fallen over into a snowbank and that standing in front of me was an angry looking blue mare in a uniform.
"Help me," I managed to get out, though from the expression on her face I gathered she either hadn't heard me or simply didn't care, her eyes showed nothing but destain.
"Troops, get ready to fall back, enemy reinforcements are inbound on our position and we need to make ourselves scarce before they are breathing down our necks!" I don't know who was shouting, I could barely focus on anything that was going on. For those first few moments my entire world consisted of me, the snow and the mare before me.
"Got a live one here, commander! She's a unicorn too!" the mare shouted over the din.
"A unicorn? Now that is real curious. Pick her up and bring her along, maybe she knows something."
"Help me," I pleaded once more, staring up at the mare from my position on the ground.
"Sure thing, commander!" She barked at the other voice before turning back to me with a smile on her face. She raised something large and metallic on her left (I couldn't make out what it was but could gather that it was some manner of weapon) then brought it swinging down with a great crack as it slammed into the side of my head and the world went dark around me.
Waking up was a painful experience. My sleep had been remarkably peaceful all things considered and in retrospect that length of unconsciousness was probably one of the longest rests I had over the course of it all. My dreams weren't haunted by nightmarish alicorns and for that I can at least be thankful. Waking however was unpleasant. With a yelp of pain I lurched into wakefulness as a bucket of ice cold water was tossed over my body. My senses were still frazzled from before and it was almost impossible to focus on anything other than the biting cold. Judging from the snow in the surrounding area the air was probably below freezing, with the assistance of the water so was I.
"Rise and shine, sunshine!" somepony barked at me. I couldn't make out a face but I was beginning to get a better sense for my surroundings. We were outside beneath a moonlit sky, a thick lay of snow covered everything as far as the eye could see and the land was a mix of mountainous ridges and sprawling tundra. Nearby I could hear the crackle of a campfire but I had been set up away from its warmth. I could feel the cold metallic grip of an inhibitor on my horn and a tightness about my neck and hooves. While I had been unconscious my captor had seen fit to manacle both sets of my legs and had crudely rooted me in place with a tether about my neck. The tether's post had been hammered into the ground within my reach but it appeared solid and would likely need either magic or earth pony strength to remove it.
"I said get up!" there was a stinging sensation across my hide as something cold and metallic whipped into me, I could barely register what was happening but I made an effort to stand. The manacles made things tricky and twice I stumbled falling flat on my face to the amusement of my captor. She sniggered at my difficulties but rather than feel anger towards her it instead peaked my curiosity, there was something eerily familiar about her laugh.
"Leave the prisoner alone, Dash. We're better than the Empire. Don't lower yourself to their level," Dash? The new voice was the most horrifically dull monotone I had ever heard, I had maybe heard one other voice that dull in all my time across either world. For that moment though my mind focused on what had been said, she had addressed my captor as 'Dash'. The voice fit, it was a fair bit colder and crueler than the Rainbow Dash I knew but it was unmistakably the same voice. Impossible, a lie, some trick from my injured mind, those were the thoughts that ran through my head as I tried to reconcile this pony with the person I knew. I hadn't actually ever met the Equestrian Rainbow Dash but from what you had told me about her I knew she was meant to be the Ponyville weather pony, not...whatever this was. Guard, criminal, bounty hunter, those were the possibilities that immediately ran through my head, Equestria had never really gone to war before after all so what possible need would they have for soldiers?
"Shut it, Maud! If it wasn't for her then the Commander would still be alive and we'd be safe back at base camp instead of stuck the wrong side of enemy lines!" Dash dealt me another blow, this one across the face, flooring me and leaving a thin cut across my cheek. In the state I was in they probably didn't even need the inhibitor, Dash could have probably beaten me senseless and I'd have been too out of it to stop her. I tried to stand but a hoof slammed into my nose knocking me right back down. That time I opted to stay where I was, lying on the ground waiting for the next blow, it never came. I heard rather than saw Dash get bowled over as something leaped out of the darkness onto her sending both itself and Dash tumbling into the snow.
"No, Dashie!" a third voice growled. "We don't torture ponies! We are better than that!"
"But she-"
"No! If you want to interrogate her go ahead, but just questions, no more beatings!" In the shadows I could make out the two forms disentangling from one another and could hear Dash muttering a few curses under her breath. Both ponies returned to where they had me tied up as the third brought over a torch, finally illuminating my captors.
Seeing Rainbow Dash was not as great a surprise as it should have been, I'd already guessed as much that this would be the pony version of the girl I knew from CHS but she looked nothing like I imagined her to be. Her rainbow mane was cut in a jagged punk style, a blue military uniform much more practical than the standard Wonderbolt flight suit covered most of her body, one wing was replaced with some sort of metal prosthesis and a huge chunk was missing from her left ear. The other two ponies were more uncanny though, a pair of earth ponies in identical purple and grey military uniforms, different yet similarly styled to the one worn by Dash. One pony was pink the other grey and had it not been for Dash I doubt I would have recognized either. She had addressed one of them as Maud, the same name as Pinkie's creepy sister, the differences were more pronounced than they had been with Dash but it wasn't hard to imagine that these were the Equestrian equivalents of Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie.
"Sorry for, Dash," Maud droned. "She's not normally this high strung but she's blaming you for the recent death of Commander Flash Freeze. We'll try to stop her from breaking military conduct again though if you answer some questions for us." I blinked a few times, in part because of how confused I was at the surreal situation but mostly as I was having trouble adjusting to the light on account of the throbbing headache I was stuck with. For all the strangeness of the situation though I managed to make one coherent thought, they were playing good cop bad cop. I nodded.
"First things first, name, rank and outfit," Pinkie shrilled. Normally her high pitched voice would have been a comfort but here and now she was deadly serious, this Pinkie's mane was flat and plain, her eyes grim.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer, I- I don't know what you even mean for the other two questions though. I'm not some soldier, I don't even know how I got here," it was the truth, the honest to goodness truth. Both Pie sisters raised a skeptical eyebrow though while Dash moved as though to strike me again. I flinched back on instinct, like a cowed dog and tumbled to the ground in pain. Feeling had begun to return to my body just in time for me to discover that one of my hind legs was in immense pain, as I tried moving back on it the leg buckled beneath me and sent waves of blinding agony across my body. A glance backwards and I could see why it had happened, the leg had been crudely bandaged and splinted from some recent injury but from the angle it was currently pointing I doubted that it had been properly set. This together with the manacles meant that I'd be lucky to make it across to the fire on my own, much less escape.
"Bull! Nopony in Equestria could be that ignorant! We want your military rank and what job you had in Sombra's army!" Dash advanced once more but this time thankfully the Pies held her back.
"Army? Sombra? What are you talking about? Why is Equestria at war?"
"Can't you see she's lying, Pinkie?" Dash said shrugging the two ponies off but making no further attempts to approach me. "They know about the war all the way in Zebrica for Celestia's sake, she's clearly hiding something! I bet she's some bigwig in the army, somepony who actually volunteered instead of being enlisted! I mean she's a unicorn, far as I heard there's only one other pony in Sombra's whole Empire who isn't a crystal pony and we all know who that is."
"This may not be easy to believe Rainbow Dash but I'm telling the truth. I came through the portal to check on some weird anomalies it was showing and next thing I knew everything had gone to Tartarus around me! Look, if you can just get me to Twilight then maybe she'll be able to explain what's going on," precisely what I had said wrong I didn't quite know but Dash was upon me as soon as I was done speaking.
"Look, Sunny! You should just quit while you're ahead. I don't know anypony called Twilight, I don't remember telling you my full name and I don't remember you! So stopping acting all friendly and spill the beans, why are you with Sombra and how do you know who I am? You a spy or something?" this time the Pies let her be, standing ready to intervene if necessary but content to let Dash lay into me. This Dash didn't know Twilight, Sombra was supposedly very much alive and at war with Equestria and everypony I knew seemed to be some dark caricature of how I remembered them. At that moment I realized (though in retrospect I wasn't entirely right) what had happened. Whatever freaky anomaly had been influencing the portal had dumped me into the wrong Equestria. It wasn't too much of a stretch of the imagination, if there was an alternate world where everypony was a human it wasn't outside the world of possibility that there existed an alternate world where Equestria and The Crystal Empire were at war. I was in really deep water, my knowledge of my own Equestria was horribly out of date so what hope could I have of passing off as a native here? I had no friends to fall back on, no resources at my disposal and my actual ignorance was easily mistaken for intentional deceit. There was only one card left that I could play.
"Princess Celestia! I'm the personal student of the princess, or at least I was. We had a falling out years ago and I ran away, far away. I only got back recently, I didn't even know there was a war on until I woke up in the middle of nowhere wearing-" I paused as that little detail from yesterday finally managed to sink in. "I was wearing armor. Why was I wearing armor? I don't... I don't remember. I was in the castle, there was some strange black crystal, it did something to me..." had I not already fallen on my bad leg I imagine I would have collapsed then and there. Something bad had happened and I had a good idea what.
"When did you run away? Before or after The Crystal Empire first disappeared?" Maud asked.
"After. I don't know much about it but from what I have heard it disappeared around a thousand years ago right?" Maud nodded in confirmation. "I don't know how I got here, I used a... a pretty sophisticated teleportation spell. It was meant to bring me to Ponyville but instead I wound up here. If I can speak to Celestia she can maybe straighten this all out. It's possible that she might not know me personally but she should know about the spell that brought me here."
"Hate to break it to you, sunshine, but even if we were able to reach her I doubt she'd want to speak to some POW like you," Dash scoffed, kicking a small mound of snow onto me.
"Flash Freeze seemed to think she was important, Dashie, besides she doesn't seem too dangerous to me. She's no soldier, Dash, just look at her. She probably got enlisted just like all the rest." The more things change the more they stay the same, even out here in the middle of a war Pinkie Pie was willing to give a complete stranger the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm not a soldier but I learned some pretty powerful magic studying under Celestia, if you take the inhibitor off I imagine I could help you get back to your base, wherever that is. I'm not your enemy, I just want to go home," once more it appeared I had said something wrong. Dash shot me a glare as though she was about to strike me again.
"Can't you see she's playing us? You both saw what she did down at Frostridge. She's probably a spy or an assassin. Maybe she attacks us as soon as the inhibitor comes off, maybe she waits till we get back to camp then tries to kill the princess, either way we can't take that chance!"
"Then don't take the inhibitor off unless you need my magic! I just want to see my friends again."
"I'll vouch for her, Dashie," Pinkie piped up, cutting off whatever rebuke the pegasus had been about to say. "I might not know who she is and I'm pretty sure the only student I've ever heard of Celestia taking was some mare called Moon Dancer, but she seems scared and hurt and I'm pretty sure anypony that willingly followed Sombra wouldn't even know what friends were," she offered out a hoof to help me stand though it did little to alleviate the pain in my hind leg. "If all this blows up in our faces then you can say 'I told you so', but I say we get her back to camp. Flash Freeze wanted us to grab her for a reason and I'm pretty sure it wasn't so that we could beat her bloody in our spare time," she shot Dash a glare so cold that the camp would have frozen over had it not already been logged with snow. "Fine, maybe you don't trust her, but are you really going to tell me that you didn't trust the Commander?"
"Fine," Dash muttered turning away and walking towards the campfire, "but we leave at the break of dawn, make sure the prisoner is ready to move cause I ain't carrying her again." The Pies removed the tether about my leg but left the manacles and inhibitor on. Still it was a welcome relief that they allowed me the freedom to join them at the fire and what little warmth it supplied in the cold northern night.
The first day of travel was... awkward. Though Pinkie did manage to convince Dash to remove the manacles she refused to budge on the horn inhibitor. It wasn't pleasant to wear and left me with a constant feeling of numbness on my forehead, it was in that regard worse than being in the other world as the feeling served as a constant reminder that something I could almost consider as an additional sense was noticeably absent. A thick blanket had been loaned to me (though not without objections from Dash) to try and keep me warm but between my treatment the night before and whatever had happened between me being struck by the crystal and waking up in the snow, it was apparent that I had developed something a little more significant than a cold. I could barely feel my hooves and a constant shaking rattled my body making it even harder for me to walk than we'd been expecting. At some point in the night Maud had fashioned me a crude crutch to attach to the side of my injured leg allowing me to reduce the amount of pressure on it, but the shaking added an additional level of difficulty. For the first hour or so of our journey Dash attempted to persuade the Pie sisters that I was dead weight and they should just leave me behind but when it became clear that this wasn't being viewed as an acceptable option she resorted to maintaining a moody silence instead.
I wasn't told the exact plan, as Dash refused to risk 'Operational Security' but from what little I was told we were going to be heading south across the tundra before eventually reaching the mountains. Once Dash finally decided to shut up there was a quiet serenity to the whole affair, that felt entirely at odds with the chaos I had so briefly experienced the previous day. We saw neither hide nor hair of other ponies, the sky was devoid of pegasi and all was still. It would almost have been pleasant if it hadn't been for the bone gnawing chill that no amount of warm blankets could hope to keep away, and the telltale signs of recent battles. The fighting may have ceased for the time being but the tundra was littered with craters and eerie crystalline formations. Tattered standards hung limply here and there, their cloth frozen pathetically in place as a reminder of their owners defeat and we carefully avoided small mounds of piled snow that I couldn't help but notice were depressingly pony sized. Even ignoring Dash my other two traveling companions seemed to have no real interest in conversation, from time to time Pinkie would flash me a brief yet sad smile but for the most part the pair maintained stony expressions as they scanned the horizon for any signs of danger.
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By nightfall we had made it to an abandoned series of trenches, they stank of disease and excrement but a small cellar dug into the side of one offered us some small measure of protection from any wind or blizzard that the north might whip up overnight. It took a lot of effort but I just about managed to avoid collapsing in front of Dash when we finally stopped in the shelter, we hadn't taken a rest all day and my leg was killing me. Our journey was to the mountains, I knew that much, but I hoped we wouldn't need to climb them given the state of my leg. Dash immediately left the shelter to scout the area leaving Maud to begin preparing some sort of soup for the evening and Pinkie to light a fire. As Pinkie struggled with damp fuel and a lack of proper tinder I managed to maneuver myself to sit beside her and tried to make the best of my situation.
"You know, I could help you light that fire if you got the inhibitor off of my horn," I started, knowing that with Dash absent this would be my best shot at getting my magic back.
"Not going to happen, Sunset. You're on thin ice with Dashie as it is so please don't try pushing your luck."
"What's her problem with me anyway, if you don't mind me asking?"
"You... you really don't remember do you?" she replied with a pitying smile.
"No. I think I have an idea though," the nature of the dream had been troubling me for most of the day. I had dreamed of defending myself against shadow ponies before awakening in the middle of a battlefield. It wasn't too hard of a jump to make to work out what I was doing there and why I had been wearing armor. Maybe I had been an unwilling, unknowing combatant but chances were I had fought some innocent ponies, possibly even killed them.
"Well, try not to think about it too hard, nopony really knows how Sombra gets his soldiers to fight for him, perhaps you can help us solve that little mystery when we get you back to camp." Pinkie let out a curse as the flame failed to catch again.
"You haven't managed to take anypony else prisoner during the war?"
"No," Pinkie shook her head. "The crystal ponies... expire... shortly after being removed from their armor. I think that's why our Commander wanted to bring you with us."
"Pinkie, if you take the inhibitor off of me I'll light the fire for you. After that, if you don't feel safe with me having my magic you can put it straight back on afterwards, I won't try to stop you." She sat in silent contemplation for a few moments, Maud had also come over to listen in but remained out of our conversation.
"You promise?" Pinkie asked skeptically.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I promise, Pinkie, we're friends and I want to help," the gestures were a little tricky to convert from what Pinkie had taught me at CHS considering my different anatomy but I'd like to think I made a decent attempt.
"Where did you learn a silly thing like that," she giggled at my bizarre gestures.
"A good friend taught me it someplace far away." Pinkie gave me a strained smile then nodded, with a click I heard Maud remove the inhibitor from my head and I instinctively began flexing my magic, conjuring small lights and paltry magical effects. When I finally felt like everything was under control I let the magic flow into a concentrated ball of conjured flame that promised to burn for a few hours without needing too much fuel. The spell cast I closed my eyes and lowered my head towards the Pie sisters to allow them to reattach the inhibitor. After about thirty seconds I noticed that nothing seemed to be happening and opened my eyes to see Pinkie pocketing the inhibitor in her uniform.
"Why? Dash is right, I could be lying to you, why trust me?" I asked with a mixture of surprise and relief.
"Silly, if you wanted to attack us you wouldn't let us put this back on. Besides, friends have to trust friends," with those few words I almost felt happy. She wasn't the Pinkie Pie I knew but it wasn't unthinkable that she could be the same girl at heart.
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When Dash returned from her scouting she was pissed to see me without my inhibitor. Ignoring the food that Maud had managed to prepare she took Pinkie Pie outside for a not so quiet chat. I couldn't catch what was said but it was pretty easy to guess who it was she was speaking about. When the pair stepped back inside Dash angrily slumped herself down as far from me as she could and began tucking into her soup while Pinkie settled down directly between us. Evidently I was going to be allowed to keep my magic but Dash was seemingly now even more suspicious of me than before.
When we woke in the morning I noticed Dash hadn't moved from her spot and her eyes were fixed on me in a perpetual glare.
"When did you get up?" I asked with a barely suppressed yawn.
"Never went to sleep," she shot back at me. Pinkie really hadn't been kidding about me being on thin ice.
That day we continued on towards the mountains through the trench network. Personally I'd have preferred to travel across the surface again as the stench of the trenches was quickly proving to be unbearable, but I couldn't deny the strategic merit of remaining out of sight in the long abandoned burrows. Travel was just as slow as it had been the previous day but with my magic now returned to me I was able to conjure a small ball of portable heat to travel alongside us, to the delight of Pinkie and the irritation of Dash. My chills had unfortunately gotten worse over the night and that day I suffered a constant stiffness of the joints, I attempted a couple of medical spells to alleviate some of the worst of the pain but I wasn't any doctor and was loathe to attempt to fix my leg for fear of making the injury worse. The travel may not have been pleasant but I had to give credit to Dash, she had managed to pick us a route across the war zone that seemed to avoid any hostile ponies. Of course I knew that had to be too good to last.
That night we stopped at another bunker, this one practically at the foot of the mountains. The evening meal was another soup that I could swear had rocks in it. This was more than made up for though by the increasingly amiable company I had to share it with. Pinkie told jokes, I shared a few (carefully edited) anecdotes about my time with the girls at CHS and Maud produced a pack of playing cards. Dash... continued to be Dash, if she appreciated the fires I had been able to supply then she refused to show it and she excused herself to go on watch the minute we began to enjoy ourselves. It pained me to see her being so cold to me but I kept on reminding myself that this wasn't the Rainbow Dash I knew, just a pony who happened to share her name and appearance.
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The third day of our journey started out so well. With the exception of Dash everypony was in good spirits, Pinkie even going so far to hum a pleasant tune as we walked. While Dash had refused to allow anypony to divulge our final destination she had let me know that we would be traveling through the foothills of the mountains. It would make for an arduous trip but was preferable to having to climb the slopes on my dud leg. It was as we began to cross between the mountains disaster struck. Behind us, from the direction we had come from we heard a trumpet call and turning to face the noise I could make out a cluster of small black shapes quickly gaining on us in the distance from the trenches.
"Crystal ponies!" Dash cursed. She motioned for us to quicken our pace and the Pie sisters each lent me a helping hoof to assist me, speeding up my normal hobbling walking pace. After about thirty minutes of forced march though it was clear that we couldn't hope to outpace our pursuers. We were limited by my own slow walking speed and it would be only a matter of minutes before we were caught.
"Leave her and run!" Dash yelled at the sisters. This time I couldn't even blame her, hay If I hadn't been so out of breathe I might have suggested the same thing myself.
"She's right, you guys go on ahead. I'll... I'll try and hold them off," cliched I know. Still with the threat of death or being enslaved by whatever dark magic had been used on me before barrelling down upon us it seemed as good a time as any to try and go down swinging.
Maud dragged Pinkie away while Dash took to the air above them. As the obsidian armored ponies approached I stood my ground, not bravely though, the shaking in my legs at that point was a result of more than jut the cold. My imminent demise was ever nearing, this world's versions of my friends would be hopelessly outnumbered by the enemy and none of my friends would ever know what had happened to me. In other words it was the perfect opportunity to do something brash, short sighted and exceedingly stupid. Just another day in the life of Sunset Shimmer really. With a discharge of magic I let off a great crack of thunder, not real weather of course as I wasn't a pegasus, but a loud enough facsimile to accomplish my goal. The earth itself shook that day as the slopes either side of me dislodged their snowy burdens, a mighty avalanche of snow that would descend on my position and (if all went to plan) bury the valley completely cutting the crystal ponies off from Dash and company. As idiotic heroic sacrifices went it was a pretty solid plan, or at least it would have been if Pinkie hadn't decided to run back to try and grab me.
By the time I realized what she was doing I was running out of options. Had I had the energy to teleport I'd have already jumped myself to safety so instead I opted to try something quick, violent, but ultimately efficient. A quick burst of telekinetic energy sprung from my horn sending her flying backwards, almost as an after thought I directed a similar blast at the crystal ponies closest to me, hoping to knock them clear of the danger zone, then mustering the last of my energy I cowered beneath my hooves and tried to conjure a small dome of force about myself. The avalanche fell with a deafening crash and the world went dark about me, an experience that over the past couple of days I had becoming depressingly familiar with. This time however was different, this time I was still conscious. Mustering a small spark of light while still keeping up the dome I checked myself, somehow I had survived. As good news went though that was it. I was trapped beneath a great mound of snow, I had a limited supply of air in the dome and there was the distinct possibility that the only mares who knew I was here had been buried beneath my makeshift avalanche.
After five minutes I dropped the light to conserve my energy. After ten I shrunk the size of my shield reducing my room but reducing the strain on my magic. Fifteen minutes and I was trying not to hyperventilate, I needed to conserve my air to survive. At twenty I began to consider that I was going crazy as a strange drilling noise began to fill my shelter. At first the sound was barely a whisper but it was quickly getting louder and closer till it was practically on me. Silence. The sound had stopped just as suddenly as it had started. I strained my ears to try and hear some sort of evidence that it had been real, that it hadn't just been in my head, when something burst from the snow beneath me and grabbed a hold on my withers. With a scream of terror I was pulled into the snow and found myself being dragged through some sort of tunnel. I contemplated struggling, perhaps defending myself with magic but the reality was that being captured by diamond dogs or some other subterranean creature seemed preferable to suffocating in my own little bubble.
It came as a great surprise when my new captor reach the end of their tunnel and tossed me up into the cold light of day.
"Thought we lost you there, Sunshine!" I turned my head to see a smiling Rainbow Dash. Not a cruel or malicious smile, a genuine happy to see me smile. Even the tone of her voice seemed to show relief.
"What?" Straining against the sudden change in lighting I looked at the hole I had emerged from in time to see a snow covered Pinkie Pie and Maud emerge.
"Best burrowers in the entire Earth Pony Eighth," Pinkie proudly proclaimed giving me a playful punch with her hoof. "You know if everything works out with Celestia I'm pretty sure you could have a preeeety promising career in demolitions, Sunset." I turned to observe my handiwork, a great wall of snow that would no doubt take days of hard labor to remove.
"Hey! Easy on the civvy, Pinks. Our mission now is get Miss Shimmer here back to base camp so she can debrief on whatever she knows about those freaky Empire helmets, see if the princess remembers her and then, if she is up for it, we can maybe see about getting her to help with the war effort. Pretty sure I can name a few outfits that wouldn't mind another capable unicorn on staff."
"Dash is right, Pinkie, we need to get her home before you can celebrate," I stared between the three of them with my eyes finally falling on Dash.
"Seriously? Three days of the cold shoulder and now you trust me? What the buck?"
"You're kidding me right? You launched Pinkie clear of your little avalanche, you cut off the enemy pursuit, you pretty much got yourself killed trying to save our hides and, oh yeah lets not forget that you dropped a freaking avalanche on the enemy! How awesome was that? Anypony who does that is either okay in my books or the best damn double agent in Equestria, and trust me when I say that if it turns out to be the latter then I will kick your sorry ass so hard that your cutie mark will fly off."
"So all I need to do to impress the mighty Rainbow Dash is nearly get myself killed saving her flank? Good to know," she laughed. She actually laughed, and I was happy to laugh with her.
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The rest of that day and most of the next were spent trekking across the mountain foothills. It was slow going but good company and high spirits made it much more bearable than the past few days. We talked, shared jokes, almost managed to forget that somewhere else across the mountains ponies were likely killing each other in a war that I couldn't really understand. Sombra's motives were entirely alien to me and I had no desire to ruin the mood by broaching the subject with my companions. With plenty of time to think I mulled over my present situation. Ideally Celestia would either recognize me as being her student or recognize the mirror I would describe to her, from either of those points I could hopefully have her believe the rest of my story and from there we might be able to work out a way to return me to my own world. If that dream proved impossible though I could begin to see myself living here. It wasn't the first time I'd found myself stuck in a parallel world and though it would hurt to never see my friends again at least this time I'd be starting over with a few ponies who seemed willing to give me a chance.
"Almost there, Sunset, another few miles and we should be able to see base camp," Pinkie gave me a playful bump but recoiled instantly in pain as a spark of electricity jumped off of my coat and onto her hoof. "Ouchy. What's with all the static, Sunset, that some weird unicorn magic thing?" I looked over myself in horror as magical static bounced across my coat. It had been a long time since I had read any unicorn medical journals but from little I could recall spontaneous magical discharge was never a good symptom.
"This, this is bad. This shouldn't be happening, Pinkie." The panic in my voice caused all three mares to turn and face me, the worry in their faces told me everything I needed to know. "This is going to be okay, everything will be okay, just stand clear of me," I kept drawing in deep breathes to try and calm my panic but it did little to help. Beneath me I could feel the ground drop away from me as I began levitating up into the air as though being pulled by unseen strings. "Dash, I don't know what is happening but I could really use another unicorn here, how fast can you get to camp!" Above me a hole tore apart the sky revealing a swirling vortex of light bordered by spinning symbols and magical clock hands.
"Not fast enough," she muttered before leaping into the air and grabbing hold of me.
"What are you doing!" I screamed as the tug of the portal strengthened.
"Trying to save your sorry ass, Sunset!" she groaned, struggling in her losing battle against the tug of magic. Pinkie was screaming, Maud was...well she was speaking calmly and quietly but that's just Maud, Dash to her credit was putting up a spirited fight against the portal but I could tell a losing battle when I saw one. Whatever fate the portal had in store for me I wasn't going to saddle Dash with it to so I mustered as much magic as I could and threw it into a short teleport directly up and out of her grip. As soon as I re-materialized, no longer held in place by Dash's efforts, I was dragged up and into the sky, into a disorientating tunnel of magic that....
I'm sorry. Twilight, the next part is... difficult to talk about. Think we could save it for another day?
Sure, Sunset. If you don't feel talking about something, we can maybe skip it over. Whatever works for you
No. No I need to get this off of my chest, it's been eating me up inside. But not now. Maybe we can take a break for the next few days, maybe talk about what's going on with you for a change? I just... I need some time to get my thoughts together.
Starlight's house was pretty much everything Eventide expected of a dwelling in upper Canterlot. Posh furniture, swanky carpets and a few antiques. She didn't begrudge Starlight her success, but Eventide felt that house was depressingly representative of everything she hated about Canterlot. In fairness though she likely wouldn't even have cared enough to dwell on the decor had it not been for two notable facts, the first being that Starlight was absent, the second being the constant ticking of the damned grandfather clock. It was a hefty old antique that went remarkably well with the other furnishings. It was stylish yet functional, interesting without being an eyesore, distinctive but far from garish. It was easy to see why anypony would desire such a thing to adorn their home but it was incredibly easy to hear why somepony might secretly wish to burn the thing to an ashen crisp never to grace the world with it's presence again. The ticking kept a constant rhythm at an audible level, she could imagine a pony coming to tune it out if they lived with it all day every day but for Eventide it was a throbbing headache that accompanied every single therapy session.
The other problem she could sadly hear down the hall sobbing. Had Starlight always been like this with their little sessions and she simply hadn't noticed it? Or was it a recent development? This was the fifth session in a row that the unicorn had excused herself to cry in the bathroom during the first minute of the session. Those first few times had been a little awkward, now they were beginning to get distressing. To make matters worse she really had no idea what the problem was or how to resolve it, Miss Starlight was the therapist after all, not Eventide. Initially she had considered that maybe she was going through some personal issues of her own but her little episodes had such a startling regularity that she was lead to conclude that the problem had something to do with Eventide. The clicking of the bathroom door unlocking suggested that the fit had concluded, seven minutes this time Eventide noted as she checked the clock.
"Sorry about that, Eventide, had a little something in my eye," Starlight lied with a smile and red eyes. Was she really expecting her to believe that excuse or was it just a formality? "Now then, how have things been since our last meeting?" she continued taking a seat opposite Eventide.
"Okay for the most part, I had a few slip ups over the weekend but other than that I've been okay," Starlight didn't need to know about the poison pen letters, it wasn't like they were actually hurting anyone.
"What sort of slip ups?" there was no annoyance in her voice, she spoke in gentle soothing tones. At first Eventide had hated that, it had felt so forced and artificial, but in the past two years she had really come to appreciate Starlight's efforts. She may hate the room, she may hate the clock, but within this room nopony ever judged her or chastised her. Starlight's living room was a sanctuary from the outside world in which she could receive honest advice and support.
"Immolated a newspaper because I was upset by one of the articles, bucked a mare in the face because I thought she was taking the piss out of me, was a little terse with Cadance, went out and got far too drunk, blew up at Princess Flurry Hearts and then ended up in a hoof fight with a changeling," she sighed trying to let all of the bad feelings out of her. It really hadn't been a good weekend all things considered.
"I see," Starlight said as she scribbled notes into a small journal. "Anything else?" the quizzical look on her face seemed to indicate that she knew Eventide was holding back on her.
"I may have sort of....overdosed on my medication" she whispered in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry I didn't catch that last bit," Starlight said observing her with concern.
"I... I overdosed. Intentionally." In a matter of seconds Starlight was upon her wrapping her in a hug with her hooves. As a therapist Eventide was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to be this touchy feely but they had known one another since Eventide had been a little filly so it wasn't entirely inappropriate, just mostly inappropriate.
"Are you alright? Was anypony there to get you to hospital? How much did you take? What drove you to even contemplate...that!?" the questions rolled of her tongue one after the other but there was no rebuke behind them, only genuine concern, like a mother worried about her child a little voice stabbed at the back of Eventide's mind.
"I'm fine now, Starlight. Nopony actually realized anything was wrong but Flurry was around so if I had gone too far she probably could have gotten me there. Six, though not all at the same time, and I wasn't trying to kill myself I was just trying... trying to take some of the edge off of everything." Starlight released her from the hug and stared into her eyes, it had been awhile since Eventide had seen anypony look so worried about her. Cadance and Flurry couldn't hold a torch to the fear in her eyes right now.
"You could have killed yourself, Evey! What happened? In the five years you've been visiting me the only problem we have had with your medication was that you were forgetting to take it from time to time," she seemed to be calming slightly but then a fresh burst of concern overwhelmed her. "This is the first time this has happened isn't it Evey? Have you done this before and not mentioned it?"
"No no... this was the first time. It was the morning after my bender and the fight with the changeling and... well, and pretty much everything else as well. I'd ended up taking a brief stay in a jail cell for assaulting a mare on the train, Cadance called me out on not having been taking my medicine that week so the morning hadn't exactly left me in a great mood even before I was plastered. The next morning when I woke up I was still so... so angry! At the changelings, at the princesses and at the whole of Equestria!" she paused and looked to Starlight, the other mare had quietly returned to her seat and resumed her notes, she nodded for Eventide to continue.
"So I took my medication for the morning and then lay down to try and get a bit more shut eye. Except I still felt mad, so after about a minute I took another. That didn't help either so I ended up taking another and...well I guess you get the picture."
"How did you feel? After you stopped taking the pills that is."
"Honestly? Worse. Much worse." She grimaced in pain at the memory of walking around Flurry like nothing was wrong. "I was still mad at everything but I just couldn't really muster the energy to direct it all at anyone. I guess to anypony else it would have looked like I was a normal mare who was in need of some coffee. Really though it was like I was like I was watching somepony else walking around in my skin. I mean I was choosing what to say and where to go but it was all wrong. I wanted to shout, I wanted to scream, break something maybe even hurt somepony but... I couldn't. I'm really messed up aren't I?"
"Eventide, you haven't had things easy these last few years so I understand that you do have a lot of pent up anger. Working out safe ways of venting that anger has been a big part of this therapy," Starlight paused and tapped her quill against the inkwell. "This weekend is not indicative of your behavior during the rest of the treatment and it is by no means an indication that you have failed. From what you have told me it sounds as though you encountered a number of particularly negative stimuli on a day that you had neglected to take your medication. You then proceeded to take an unhealthy amount of medication whilst there was likely still a rather high amount of alcohol in your system. Anything you were feeling while under the effects of your medication was very likely a direct result of your overdose. Have you ever felt that angry before?"
"Sometimes, but normally in short bursts. Normally if I feel like that I end up doing something dumb right after and then calm down in time to realize just how dumb it was. Like bucking the mare on the train," she said wincing at the memory.
"While I'm upset that you resorted to violence twice over the weekend I'm proud that you were both willing to come clean about doing so and clearly regret your actions," Eventide couldn't bring herself to correct her, while she might have felt regret about hitting the pegasus she had no such remorse for getting in a fight with the changeling. If anything she felt something sickeningly akin to pride about that. "Now then, have you had any luck in finding new coping mechanisms that work for you?" the letters, but that had long ago been black listed.
"Not really, I haven't really been able to vent in a healthy way for some time. But I've found something that helps me calm down." That made Starlight perk her ears up.
"Oh?"
"I've been visiting our old cart. I never bothered moving it after mom left it in the whitetail woods and nopony else seems to have found it. It's parked up in this nice calm little spot and I just feel so safe inside it. Being there it feels like I'm a little foal again, that nothing's really changed and that mom's going to walk in at any moment to tell me that we are going to get moving again. I can curl up on my bed inside and feel like I'm a part of a family again," she sniffled, thinking about the wagon had a real way of making her sad inside, but perhaps being sad was preferable to being angry.
"Eventide, you have other family you know, have you thought about moving in with them? If being around family makes you feel happy then I know they'd take you in, you don't have to lock yourself away in your house all the time."
"If you're talking about Twilight Sparkle you can forget it. She lives in Ponyville, lots of bad memories of Ponyville."
"You could move past them, the healing process may take some time but it can only happen if you're willing to give it a try."
"Perhaps," Starlight had made this suggestion in the past but Eventide had always shot her down. She could cope with visiting that place for business reasons but that was all. "There's also the little problem of her being a princess though."
"Flurry Hearts is a princess," Starlight countered, "and you get along with her just fine."
"That's different though. She wasn't involved with the unpleasantness. She didn't know enough to lie about it all. I doubt they even told her what happened." Starlight seemed to falter slightly at the word 'unpleasantness' it had been her idea to call it that in the first place but for some time the word seemed to have started eliciting strange reactions out of the therapist. "I'll think about it okay? Just, at the moment I really can't even stand looking at Twilight, let alone speaking to her. Moving in with her is pretty much out of the question right now."
"Well we can maybe consider that idea again when we next meet." Starlight turned to a new page in her notebook and dipped her quill back into the ink. "Now then, anything else I should be concerned with? You haven't had any more trouble with Mr Quill have you?"
"I bought a telescope," Eventide blurted out. She hated lying to Starlight directly but from the expression of horror on the therapists face it seemed as though this new bombshell should take her through to the end of their session. The safest way to avoid having to lie about Quill was to not give Starlight the opportunity to ask too many questions about him. "It's funny you know," Eventide chuckled to herself, though Starlight seemed to share none of her amusement. "The word lunacy comes from some silly old belief ponies had that it was the Moon that drove them mad, funny how things work out isn't it?"
"You're sure you're up for this, because we can always delay your reunion with Starburst till a day that I can join you," Twilight asked for the fifth time that day as Starlight prepared to board the train with the rest of Twilight's friends. "You're welcome to stay here in Ponyville with me and Sunset, I bet she'd welcome another friendly face being around!"
"No no, this reunion is a long time coming and I can't go putting it off any longer! Besides, Spike has been looking forward to showing me around the Crystal Empire and I'd hate to disappoint him," Starlight said, blanching at the idea of having to spend an entire weekend with Sunset.
"I only wish I could join you guys! It's not every day you get to attend a crystalling you know! It just feels wrong running off to visit my family and leaving Sunset stuck in her hospital bed all alone. Also I sort of have to be here to make sure everything goes alright with the 'you know what'," she said with a smile.
The plan had taken a few days to work out and had almost been thrown into disarray with the news that Shining and Cadance's baby was arriving imminently. Twilight couldn't exactly be in two places at the same time (not without resorting to some exceedingly dangerous magic) so she had to compromise. Spike would cover for her in carrying out Starlight's friendship lesson, her friends would help out at the crystalling and she would stay at Ponyville to chaperone Sunset's special guests. As the train rolled out of the station with everyone else aboard Twilight teleported across town to her castle.
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The walk from the castle to Sunset's hospital room was awkward to put things lightly. With Applejack and Fluttershy in tow she attracted more than her fair share of confused glances. From the way she was walking Applejack seemed to be perpetually drunk and was clearly embarrassed by the fact, Fluttershy by contrast appeared to be gazing at her surroundings with a new found sense of wonder. A couple of ponies, hospital staff included, cautiously moved out of Fluttershy's way as she seemed prepared to pounce on and hug every passerby. The three walked in silence till they finally reached the room, Twilight entering first followed by her two friends.
"Hey, Twilight! Look at this!" Sunset called as they entered. Raising one of her forelimbs Sunset waved her hoof back and forth in an enthusiastic wave. "Proper movement in my limbs! Doc Horse says that in a week or two I can start getting out of bed for some physio, maybe even start walking around on three legs!" Though her smile was encouraging it was undermined somewhat by the sadness in her eyes, it pained Twilight a little to see her friend this way. "He even says I could be able to move out of the hospital by the end of the month."
"That's good to hear. Any news on your magic?"
"Horn's going to take awhile to heal. It should come back with time though," she sighed and seemed to deflate somewhat, any happiness at her recent victory lost in an instant.
"Well, let's not dwell on that now," Twilight pressed trying to move to a happier topic. "I brought some friends who I think you might appreciate being here!"
"Twilight, I know you mean well but this is still awkward for me. I know you want me to be friends with everyone but it's really creepy seeing all these ponies who look so similar to the people I know," Sunset averted her eyes from the group and stared down at her bed covers.
"Now ah take offense at that, Sunset!" Applejack laughed. "Ah'd like ta think we know each other enough that you wouldn't go mistakin me for somebody else." Sunset's ears perked up, her eyes snapping to the three ponies and looking at them in a new light.
"No way... Twilight are they who I think they are?"
"The very same. It would be a little awkward having two sets of my friends walking around but we managed to arrange for Fluttershy and AJ to come through for a visit. Of course that was before we knew everypony else would be out of town on business. We weren't even entirely certain anyone would be able to come so we decided to keep everything a secret in case we couldn't pull it off." Twilight took a seat while her CHS friends walked over to the side of the bed.
"I know you've talked about Equestria before, but I never realized everybody... oh sorry... everypony would be so adorable!" Fluttershy squeed. "Twilight told us all about your... um... injuries and everybody at CHS is wishing you a speedy recovery. What happened, Sunset? I don't want to sound mean but you look awful!"
"I've been through a lot. Let's just leave it at that for now. How did everything go with the friendship games though? I'd love to hear some news from home."
"Ah jeez, Sunset, I'm guessing you haven't heard then? Celestia and Luna cancelled the games. When you went missing me and the girls pretty much put everything on hold to get a search going. Nobody knew where you'd gone, we ended up getting the police involved... technically you're still a missin' person, Sunset. Anyways Luna checked the security footage of the grounds and even though we couldn't see whatever happened to ya we could see that something real magical happened on the school grounds. Long story short Principal Celestia decided not to risk getting Crystal Prep involved in some crazy magical business and called the whole thing off."
"Sorry I had you guys so worried. Hey uh... did Twilight tell you guys anything else about-"
"Bout you being ummm in the family way? Yeah she mighta mentioned that," Applejack rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "For the time being it's just the girls that know, we figured you wouldn't want the whole school knowing when you came back."
"Thanks, but I'm not coming back."
"What?" the other three ponies all shouted in unison, turning to see Sunset shrinking backwards into her bed.
"I'm not going back to CHS. Look I love you guys and you've really made it feel like home there, but there's no life for me over there, not anymore." Sunset let out an exhausted sigh and looked out the window. "The human world was pretty hard to live in without any proof of identity or proper income, and from what I gathered while I was there it's not exactly an easy place to be a single mom, even before accounting for things like me being a teen over there or the whole, total lack of any family, situation. That's before even getting onto the fact that we have no idea what effect traveling through the portal would have on the baby, or on my injuries."
"So uh, ah take it your planning on keeping the kid then?" Applejack mumbled.
"Well yeah, why wouldn't I?" Sunset glared at her friend, the mood turning cold.
"It's an honest mistake to make, Sunset," Twilight interjected trying to get between the two friends before something unpleasant was said. "I mean it isn't something you've discussed much with anypony so we didn't really know what your plans were. I suppose I had been expecting that eventually you'd want to go back to CHS and so I sort of guessed you might put the foal up for adoption." From the expression on Sunset's face Twilight gathered she had said entirely the wrong thing.
"No. No, I'm a lot of things Twilight but I'm not like that, I'm not just going to ditch my foal because it's inconvenient! I'm going to give it everything I didn't have when I was growing up, a home, a family. I've not worked out all the details yet but I'll get a job, make some bits, make sure the foal has a happy life."
"And we will be more than happy to help you," Twilight smiled laying a hoof on Sunset's shoulder. "I think I might have a few ideas, ponies that would be happy to hire a mare with your experiences."
"Thanks Twilight, that... that means a lot to me."
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They spent the next few hours catching up on 'old times', shared experiences from CHS, recent events from either side of the portal. It was nice, a pleasant distraction from the less pleasant topics that were perhaps better off left alone. Eventually though the calm came to an end when Twilight brought up a subject that she had been skirting around all morning.
"So, Sunset, think you could maybe tell us what happened to you while you were away?" Sunset froze at the suggestion.
"I uh... the next part of the story, continuing where I left off I mean... it isn't... it wasn't my proudest moment. Also I don't remember a lot of it. I understand if maybe AJ and Fluttershy might want to leave."
"Sunset, we are all worried about you, we want to know what happened so we can help you move past it," Fluttershy smiled at her but Sunset couldn't bring herself to return it.
"If you insist..."
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After the portal pulled me up I found myself lost in a swirling void of color and distortion. It didn't hurt but it was really uncomfortable. After a few passing moments I felt the pull of gravity return to normal and dropped out of the sky straight onto my bad leg. Around me everything looked pretty much the same as it was when I was grabbed. I was up in the mountains, alone with no signs of my new friends and no signs of the war that seemed to have engulfed Equestria. In my heart I knew it was all gone, I knew that whatever strange magic had changed Equestria into a warzone had once more ripped me from where I had been and thrust me into the unknown. Didn't stop me trying to deny it though.
The pain in my leg was blinding, I had no food, the blanket that Pinkie had given me was gone and the crutch had broken in two on impact. With no other prospects and little to no hope of survival I decided to follow my last chance at getting home. I would get to the place where Dash had said their base camp was and hope against hope that Celestia was there. At a guess I'd say I managed to crawl a mile, perhaps a mile and a half on a broken leg before I finally gave up. All the time I was scanning the horizon for the promised camp but couldn't find a single sign of it, couldn't find a single sign of civilization. So with my body weary, my will broken and my resolve shattered I collapsed in the snow and waited for the end to come.
When I awoke I thought I'd passed on to some other place. I think the only hing that clued me in to that not being the case was the thought that if I was dead I wouldn't be in so much pain. I was in a wagon of some kind being transported somewhere. From the temperature I gathered that my 'saviors' had left the cold climate of the north and made it to warmer climes. I could scarcely move, could barely feel my leg unless it flared up in violent spasms of pain. They tried to feed me from time to time and with a little effort I managed to make the food go down. You know I was so naive as to the nature of that world that I actually whispered thanks to my 'rescuers' whenever they visited me. I never questioned why I didn't seem to see the same pony twice, never questioned the fact that my bad leg was the only part of my body that didn't seem to be paralyzed by whatever anesthetic had been applied to me. I won't dwell on the details of my 'recovery' but know this, the only reason that I was cared for was that I was useful to them as... as food.
I think we made quick progress across Equestria, it was hard to say considering how often I phased in and out of consciousness. The one thing I could tell though was that every time I woke the world seemed hotter and drier. At first I thought it was a fever and tried to alert my companions of the symptoms but even if I had been able to communicate with them I doubt they would have listened. It was only when our journey ended that I found we had come to the badlands, and to a vast anthill like structure that the likes of which I had never seen before. A changeling hive.
I...I won't go into detail on what happened there. The important thing is I learned that the changelings had somehow conquered all of Equestria, they sought out any resistance and brought their captives back to the hives to be fed upon. I escaped just in time to be snatched up by the magic portal again and-
Wait escaped? How? What was it like in the hive? Who told you what had happened? What exactly did happen to you? I mean I've never heard of what a hive is even meant to look like let alone...
TWILIGHT! Please... just respect that this is something that I don't want to talk about. The changelings are monsters, the things they do are unspeakable and all of you are better off never having to know what went on in there.
But you escaped? I mean how did you do that?
Fine, Twilight. You really want to know? Magic. By the end of my week there I felt drained of energy, drained of... of love. But I had an abundance of two things, the first was anger, the second was magic. My talent is magic, same as yours, Twilight, but my specialty was always to do with the sun and by extension...fire. In the hive all the captives are held in place inside of cocoons but a determined prisoner like myself could break through the goo and be free. Not that it would do them much good though, by then the prisoner would be weak from imprisonment and surrounded by soldiers in the middle of a heavily fortified hive. I imagine the changelings are normally used to just walking up smacking the escapee around a little and throwing them straight back into a cell. They hadn't reckoned on me.
I was pissed, I was alone, I was full of magical potential that I hadn't really had a good chance to use for years and one of my last good memories was almost getting myself killed trying to save Maud, Pinkie and Dash from crystal ponies. So I smiled to myself, giggled like a maniac and decided that the plan worked out so well last time that it was worth giving it a second shot. I took all of my pent up magic and anger and channeled it into one great big pyre. You want to know something about changelings Twilight? You want to know about their nests and hives? Fine. They burn just as well as any other bug. The flames fed on that hive, it was like tinder. I can...I can still hear the little popping sounds Twilight as it engulfed them. I tried to drown out all the sounds, all the screams, all the fire. I tried to drown it out but I couldn't. I don't know how long I let it all burn but I was in control. When the flames died down everything was smoldering ashes around me, not a single burn on my body. That was when I heard the worst sound of them all. Laughter. Wild, untamed, manic laughter. I stood there among the dead and I laughed, I couldn't stop myself, I couldn't control it. I'd killed them all and the only thing I could bring myself to do was laugh.
You want to know why I didn't want to talk about my escape? There you have it. Now, could the three of you leave? Please? I want some time to myself to think about everything I've done.
Most ponies owned very few clothes. Eventide was not one of them. Her wardrobe was surprisingly large when one considered that she had no real interest in fashion, but for the most part each outfit had a purpose or story to it; Eventide did not really own 'clothes' she owned costumes. Her favorite was of course her explorer's outfit, it was an accurate expression of her character, or at least of the mare she wanted to be. She had some fond memories of that costume and though the exact articles of clothing may have changed over time it was the outfit she had worn for some of the best years of her life. Then there was the dresses, each one gifted to her as a present from well meaning friends in the hope that she might wear them to the gala, none of them had ever been worn. There was the suit and tie, immaculately ironed for her court hearings (she had over the past five years been on both sides of that exchange) the tie a sombre black with thin teal stripes that she had specially commissioned for her first court date (back when she was the plaintiff). She had three separate cloak ensembles for use about the town and while none of them would ever conceal her identity from a determined paparazzi they were quite adequate at allowing her to not be immediately recognized by anypony who had read a paper in the past decade.
Her current costume though was one she despised. Today she was business Eventide, and wore the clothes and the mask to match it. At first glance it had a lot in common with her town clothes, consisting of a long jet black cloak with an amethyst clasp and a panama hat. Where this costume diverged though was in its length and other accessories, the cloak completely concealing her tail, a pair of tinted sunglasses covering her eye color and an old maroon wig making her mane look longer and darker than her usual style.
As she stepped off of the train at Ponyville station nopony paid her any attention. Most of the town knew this mare by the name Fantasia Scales, Canterlot music enthusiast and patron of the arts. Only a few of them knew that it was her beneath the costume and Eventide liked it that way. Ponyville was home to a lot of bad memories and were it not for the fact that she had business to conduct there she would happily leave it be. She didn't like Ponyville and it was a pretty good bet that most of the residents didn't like her. That was nothing new of course, a lot of ponies all across Equestria hated her, the difference here was that once upon a time she knew many of these ponies by name.
Reaching her destination she pushed open the door to the sweet shop and swept inside, a bell chiming above her to announce her presence. It was a humble establishment with affordable sweets of all kinds arranged in jars across the walls, at present there were only two other customers and no sign of the owner. The elder customer a unicorn mare (Dinky Doo, if Eventide remembered correctly) payed her no attention but the second stared at her in curiosity. It was a small walnut earth pony filly who had not earned her cutie mark and judging by the curious looks she was giving Eventide was not somepony she had ever met before.
"You look mighty important miss!" the filly squeaked, eliciting a barely concealed giggle from Dinky.
"I am not so important as you give me credit," Eventide droned in her best Whienna accent, having spent the better part of a year based out of the city she could imitate it well enough and so had opted to use it in her disguise. "I am simply here on business with Miss Lyra Heartstrings to see what wonders she has composed for me since the last time we were meeting." She extended a hoof towards the little filly. "Fantasia Scales."
"Paula Red Apple," the filly replied shaking the offered hoof. Eventide had not made it her business to keep up with the Apple family tree but at a guess she would pitch the foal as being the daughter of one of the three local apples. "If yer lookin for Lyra though why are you here?"
"I am of the understanding she still lives with Miss Bon Bon yes? Her living arrangements have not changed in the past few months?" the filly appeared a little confused at the question but behind her Dinky politely shook her head with a smile while mouthing 'no'.
"Okay I've got your order here, Dinky," Bon Bon said entering the storefront from the back room with a large basket of assorted sweets and chocolates on her back. She was beginning to go a little grey in the mane but still retained much of her youthful vigor, a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose being the only other indication that she was starting to show her age.
"Thanks, Bon Bon!" Dinky called levitating the basket onto her own back and a small bag of bits onto the counter. "Tell Lyra I said hi!" With that the unicorn trotted out the door leaving the other three mares alone. Bon Bon's eyes lingered briefly on Dinky before panning over to her remaining two customers. As she saw Eventide she froze slightly and ground her teeth together, her expression hardening.
"Do uh... do you two know each other?" Paula asked, clearly unnerved by the change in the confectioner.
"Oh we go back some ways, Miss Apple. Sweetie Drops is just a little surprised to see me, that is all," Eventide said with a forced smile as she looked between the filly and the owner. To her credit Bon Bon was doing a remarkable job of not freaking out.
"Sweetie Drops? Everypony around these parts calls her Miss Bon Bon," the little filly puzzled.
"It is a little nickname we have for her, me and some of her other friends that is. Now, how about you pick some sweets to buy little Apple, me and 'Bon Bon' we have some things to discuss." Eventide levitated a hoof full of bits over to the filly who proceeded to pick out and pay for her purchases then quietly leave the shop, constantly casting nervous glances at Eventide as she did so. When it was only Eventide left in the shop Bon Bon finally spoke.
"I thought I told you to never visit me at work and never call me Sweetie Drops in front of other ponies," she hissed. "Next time use the backdoor and just go see Lyra directly."
"Must have slipped my mind," Eventide shrugged her shoulders as she dropped the accent. "I wanted to see you first anyway. Just wanted to make sure that you had my payment before I went to see Lyra." She paced the room and pretended to inspect the wares, fully aware of the fact that Bon Bon was glaring at her the whole time.
"I have your payment in the backroom," she muttered. "You don't have to do this though, you can walk away right now, nopony needs to know whats been going on. We can all just drop this and move on with our lives!" she pleaded, her voice softening.
"No, Bon Bon, you could move on with your life." Eventide passed the owner and walked on into the residence at the back of the shop. "I'll be back down when me and Lyra are done," she whispered making her way upstairs to Lyra's room.
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Lyra rushed to the bedroom door as soon as she heard the knocking. Practically pulling the door off of its hinges she returned the huge smile that Evey had on her face with a grin of her own.
"Little Evey! Wow, is it good to see you! Come on in!" Lyra pulled Evey into a friendly hug as she entered the room then maneuvered her towards her desk. "Trust me you are going to love the latest pieces. I've got this great guitar piece that I bet the city kids would lap up!"
"Genre?" Evey asked cordially, speaking to Lyra more as a friend than a business partner.
"Prog Rock. The guitar is the dominant instrument but it has some keyboard, drums and flutes supporting it," Lyra answered levitating some sheet music over to her friend.
"Looks good, I'll be sure to pass a copy on to some of my contacts," Evey said as she scanned the paper. She didn't have any real musical talent herself but she had a few contacts in the industry that would often be willing to overlook her past if the music was good. "If I can get this published then you get your normal royalties and I take my normal fee. In the mean time though I have some more photos for you." Evey levitated the envelope of photos out of her saddlebag and over to Lyra. The other unicorn squealed in delight and quickly tore it open, spreading the pictures over her desk.
"Seriously, Evey? Where did you find them? I mean if you took even one of these to the journal of exotic animals and fauna... Evey this would be the scientific discovery of the century!"
"I've told you before, Lyra, Celestia doesn't want anypony else knowing about them, if I didn't know how much you used to obsess over them I wouldn't even be showing you these photos. I mean I could get into a lot of trouble for smuggling these into Equestria."
"But humans, Evey! Nopony believes they even exist! If you went public with this the entire field of cryptozoology would be given new respect!" Lyra shouted enthusiastically, her limbs animated in a convincing imitation of the mythical human.
"You know my thoughts on the matter, Lyra. If Celestia wants to keep them secret then who am I to argue otherwise? If things ever change trust me when I say you will be the first to know, but until then keep the photos under wraps, I don't want to see you getting arrested," the lie seemed to placate Lyra who let out a short exasperated sigh before returning to drooling over her photos.
--------------------------------
"If you ever hurt her you are a dead mare, you realize that right?" Bon Bon asked as Eventide descended the stairs.
"You give me too little credit. I don't want to see her hurt anymore than you do, all I'm doing is enabling her little fantasy a little. So long as she doesn't go sharing what she has seen then it's perfectly harmless."
"If you really cared about her you wouldn't be using her to get to me," the earth pony growled. She led Eventide to the back room of the sweet shop and pointed at a folder. "Everything you need to know from the MIB is in there. Take it and go." Eventide grabbed the folder in her magic and had a quick flick through the contents, nodding her approval.
"This all looks good. A couple of things I'd like you to look into though, Sweetie Drops," she winced when her name was mentioned. "First of all Starswirl's time travel spell..."
"Destroyed. We've been over this before, Eventide. It's gone and there's no bringing it back," Eventide didn't like the glares that Sweetie would shoot her but she had come to expect them, the mare despised Eventide's presence in her life.
"I know. I was going to ask you where it was kept prior to Twilight Sparkle's first encounter with it. What wing, what shelf, little details like that. For a mare with your connections that should be simple enough," Eventide said with feigned indifference.
"What would you even have to gain from that?" Sweetie Drops asked, her hostility replaced with curiosity.
"That's for me to know. Don't worry I have no aspirations to actually cast the spell, I have heard first hand how dangerous that sort of magic is, even if I were strong enough to cast the spell I wouldn't risk it. Second thing have you heard anything about the ERS looking into me?"
"It may have come up. A few of my former colleagues are a little curious about all the money mysteriously trading hooves back and forth between your bank account and some less than reputable ponies. Is that anything that me and Lyra should be concerned about?"
"No," Eventide muttered. While it might not be a problem for them though it was certainly something she had been hoping to avoid. Having the government looking into her buying and selling habits was not a good thing.
"Why are you still doing this, Eventide? Do you think she'd be proud of the mare you've become?" Sweetie Drops sighed and her tone shifted to something sadder, something pitying. "I knew her, Evey, not well, but I did know her. This wasn't the sort of life she wanted you to have. Blackmail? Extortion? Is it really worth it?" Eventide didn't dignify her with an answer, instead taking her papers and heading towards the door. Sweetie Drops didn't know a damn thing about her. "Even if you do go ahead with it and make good on your threats you'll be taking yourself down with us! You aren't innocent in all of this, hay you're pretty much the guiltiest of the lot. So what is worth all the risks, Evey?"
"The difference between us," Evey spat "is that for the past five years I have been at rock bottom. Right now I have nothing left to lose but everything to gain, you on the other hand? You could lose everything you have ever worked towards. Don't worry though, Sweetie Drops. If all goes according to plan then this should be over soon, I'll be out of your hair and you two will never have to deal with me again. Just find me where they kept the spell and we can all move on with our lives."
"What are you planning?" Sweetie Drops whispered.
"I'm planning to fix my life without hurting everypony else, so please, try not to get in my way." As she sauntered out of the door Evey adjusted her sunglasses to better hide her eyes and to conceal the tears she had begun to cry. The costume was necessary, it was important to the success of her plan. Without Business Eventide she could never have come as far as she had. So why was it that every time she wore this costume she always seemed to come away hating herself a little more?
It was two months after the crystalling and Sunset was still refusing to elaborate any further on what had happened to her during her timeline hopping. Twilight's friend was for the most part keeping in good spirits and had responded well to physical therapy. While she would likely be walking with a limp for the foreseeable future she would not be wheelchair bound or reliant upon a walker. While her physical recovery had been a great talking point among the staff of Ponyville Hospital though her mental health seemed to have taken something of a nosedive since the visit from AJ and Fluttershy. Twilight had been privately warned by Dr Horse that she was not to attempt to draw out anymore of the story until such a time as Sunset showed improvement, or until she brought the matter up herself. Apparently since the visit she had become terse and self-depreciating at even the slightest mention of her recent past and exceedingly self-conscious about her injuries. In addition to the wig she now wore a hospital gown at all times and had on several occasions refused to let the nurses change the bandages on her brand. A brand, Twilight thought to herself, that she had yet to see herself.
According to Spike, Starlight had handled herself well in the visit to the Crystal Empire, she had made a start at repairing bridges with Sunburst and with the exception of a minor incident involving baby Flurry Hearts and some wildly out of control alicorn magic (an incident she was certain had been grossly over exaggerated in the little dragon's telling) her trip had been largely uneventful. Twilight couldn't help but notice though that Starlight had been somewhat distant with Sunset since her return, even going so far as to make friends with Trixie of all ponies, Trixie! She didn't disapprove of Starlight making new friends but it seemed strange for her to have so easily hit things off with Trixie when she didn't even seem to be trying to make friends with Sunset anymore. Now the day had finally come for Sunset to be discharged from the hospital and Starlight was mysteriously absent.
"Sunset will just be coming down in a minute, Princess, all of the paperwork has been signed off and once she is done getting changed we can release her into your care," Nurse Redheart explained as they waited at the front desk. Lacking anywhere to stay Sunset had been persuaded to stay in one of the spare rooms at the castle. With the exception of her diary all of Sunset's belongings had been moved through the portal and into her new home, the diary had been left in the care of her friends at CHS to ensure that they still had a means to communicate between the two worlds and a way to open the portal at will.
"What do you mean getting changed?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Rarity came in earlier with a dress for her, the two of them are just getting her changed into it now." As if on cue the pair of unicorns turned the corner at that moment and walked towards the desk with Dr Horse in tow. Sunset was looking better than she ever had since her return, with Rarity clearly having gone to great effort to make here feel more comfortable in her appearance. The dress was a simple green one without any of the flair Rarity was normally known for, but it accomplished its purpose well, completely covering Sunset's body and hanging low enough that it even concealed her tail and hooves. On top of this she wore a wide rimmed sunhat that fit neatly over her still bandaged horn while her wig had been carefully restyled to look like her old mane with two exceptions, it still lacked her normal yellow streaks and had a notable side fringe that covered her left eye. The final result was that with the exception of a few facial burns her physical injuries were almost entirely hidden from the scrutiny of a passerby.
"Hey, Twilight, everything ready to go?" Sunset asked. She seemed to be in a cheerful mood today which made for a nice change over how dispassionate she had been recently.
"Ready when you are, Sunset. It's a little way to the castle from here though so are you sure you're up for walking it?"
"Twilight, after being stuck in hospital for the past two months and a bit you have no idea how much I have been looking forwards to walking." Sunset gave her a friendly smirk and then marched towards the hospital door with Rarity and Twilight following on either side.
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The walk to the castle was pleasant though Sunset repeatedly ended up staring at the ground to avoid making contact with other ponies. Despite the preparations made to minimize any unwanted attention the fact still remained that an unknown pony was walking through the streets with princess Twilight and one of the other element bearers. Though nopony directly approached the trio it was clear that many were curious about the strange newcomer. Starlight had similarly come under the scrutiny of the townsfolk but this was different, for the past couple of months Twilight's frequent visits to Ponyville hospital had not gone unnoticed and Sunset's public appearance would no doubt add new fuel to the rumor mill.
"You know as happy as I am to help a friend you truly must allow me to make you a proper wardrobe, Sunset. While practical, I would hardly call the dress I threw together for you fashionable. Why if anything I would go so far as to say it is one of the plainest garments I have ever made." Rarity had been keeping a steady conversation up with Sunset since they had left the hospital.
"It's fine, Rarity. Honestly I'm just glad that nopony can see just how messed up I am underneath this. It's good to know I can always rely on you to come through for me though. You've really helped me get through some rough patches."
"Well I appreciate the compliment but I assume you are mostly referring to the other me," Twilight winced slightly at the comment. While Rarity had meant no harm by it Sunset had repeatedly shown adverse reactions to being around the pony versions of her friends, thankfully this time she didn't seem to mind.
"Mostly yes, but I mean all of the yous. I don't think I've met a single Rarity who didn't live up to the title of element of generosity."
"So you've met with multiple other mes?" Rarity asked with a confused look on her face.
"Three others if you include the human Rarity, the other two really helped me through some rough times actually," Sunset paused briefly in the street and stared off into space. It was a look that Twilight had learned to be careful of, Sunset often did it when she was thinking back on her time in the other timelines.
"Well if you ever want to talk about them I would love to hear what they were like."
"That would be... nice. My time away was not something I'd ever want to go through again but it did have its moments. Things were bad but even in the worst of times there were still good ponies willing to help a friend, even if their friend was a monster." This was unfortunately another recurring problem with Sunset since the visit. Though neither of them had directly mentioned the matter it was clear that the destruction of the hive was weighing heavily on her conscious.
"Well whenever you want to talk about it I'll be there to listen. Out of curiosity have you considered what you will be doing, Twilight mentioned you were looking for work?"
"No idea. Pretty much everything I learned at CHS is mostly nontransferable to life in Equestria and most of what I learned under Celestia is useless until my horn heals." She took a deep breathe and sighed.
"Well, Sunset," Twilight interjected, "I may have some good news for you. Ever since my battle with Tirek Ponyville has unfortunately been lacking a public library. I've been converting one of the rooms of the castle and it's just about ready to open but with my new princess duties and the cutie mark map I just wont have time to run it myself. If you're interested the position of Ponyville librarian is up for grabs."
"Twilight, you don't have to-"
"You're right, I don't have to." She smiled and placed a reassuring hoof over Sunset's withers. "But I want to. Think of it as a temporary position, something to keep you busy and bring in a few bits while you wait for the foal to be born. Then afterwards you are more than welcome to stay or to move on to something else. I know Celestia would love for you to return to finish your studies and I'm sure she would make accommodations for the baby." This was technically half true. As far as she was aware Celestia considered Sunset's studies complete, still it seemed a more subtle way of broaching Celestia's desires for her future than outright asking 'would you like to be a princess?'
"Okay maybe I can see myself running a library for you," Sunset mused with a smile. "Hay, it might even be fun, but I'm not going to go back to my studies with Celestia. I realized recently that I was going into those lessons for all of the wrong reasons and I guess I just don't want those things anymore. I'm a changed mare Twilight."
"Just...keep it in mind okay?" For the entire duration of Sunset's recovery she had been worrying about how to handle Celestia. When Twilight had last met her the elder princess had made her intentions quite clear but since her reformation Sunset had shown no real desire to become a princess. If anything she seemed to be positively adverse to the idea, had her brief time as a she-demon really soured the idea that much?
Finally reaching the castle Twilight pushed open the doors and invited her friends inside. "Spike will show you to your room, feel free to take as much time as you need to settle in. I'll be in the lounge if you need anything and dinner will be at six. If you want a look around the public library just call me and I can show you around, I've got the books sorted already but if you want to resort them into some other fashion then that's your right as librarian."
"Thanks, Twilight, this... this really means a lot to me." Sunset hugged her as Rarity politely took her leave.
"You're welcome. Oh, and, Sunset? Welcome home." As Sunset left to find her room Twilight couldn't help but marvel at how well the day had gone. They had had no problems getting out of the hospital, Sunset seemed to be opening up to her friends a bit more and her mood was showing remarkable improvements. Sure Starlight seemed to be avoiding her but on the whole the move seemed to be a big step in the right direction for Sunset. She was finally on the long road to recovery.
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Berry Punch sighed. It had been a slow work day for her with very few ponies coming in for a drink. Sure, things normally picked up in the evening but so far it had been an exceedingly dull day. She couldn't even have a drink of her own when she was working the counter, it showed a 'lack of professionalism' and one drink would inevitably lead to a second, then a third and so on. It had been a dry humorless day for her and from the looks of things showed no signs of changing.
"Hey, Berry," while she had been moping Roseluck had stepped in and approached the bar. Perhaps the day could be salvaged after all, it was very rare for Roseluck to come in, not unless she had something interesting to share.
"Hey there, Rose, can I get you anything?"
"Oh just a small glass of cider," small glass, that meant drinking wasn't her reason for being here. Berry poured out the mug and passed it over taking Rose's bits in payment.
"So..." she pried. "Hear anything interesting on the grape vine?"
"Oh you wouldn't believe it!" Rose giggled, as expected she clearly had some juicy piece of gossip to share. "So I have a friend" she motioned air quotes with her hooves "who works in OBG at Ponyville hospital and for the past couple of months she has been really tight lipped with me. Some big secret to do with doctor patient confidentiality."
"And she finally broke down and told you?" Berry finished for her.
"No." Not what she had been expecting. "Now I'd gotten it into my head that Princess Twilight had gotten herself with foal seeing as at about the same time she was making constant visits there but it seemed a silly fantasy, I mean Twilight? I don't think I've ever even seen her with a stallion. Still, today I saw her and Rarity escorting a rather nervous looking mare who I'd never seen before from the hospital to the castle!" Roseluck bounced up and down in excitement but Berry couldn't quite follow why.
"Is there something I'm missing here?"
"Blue Blood has finally gone and knocked somepony up!" Berry's eyes widened. How had Rose jumped to such a strange conclusion? "Oh don't look at me like that! It all makes perfect sense. This mare is clearly the mystery patient the staff have been so tight lipped about and Princess Twilight Sparkle herself has been keeping a close eye on the case. But why would a local hospital like ours be treating someone nopony has ever seen before?"
"Maybe she's visiting family," Berry hazarded.
"Maybe, or maybe she is visiting the royal family. Think about it, a few months back Princess Cadance herself turned up and spent a lot of time around the hospital. It all makes sense! Bluebood has gone and got this poor mare knocked up and the royal family are trying to keep the whole thing under wraps! Of course Celestia is far too nice to throw the poor thing out on the streets so they are hiding her away here in Ponyville until the foal is born and she has Princess Twilight looking after her to make sure she doesn't go to the press!" While Roseluck and her friends had been known to indulge in a lot of foalish rumors and gossip there did seem to be a bit of substance to this one. Twilight's unusual behavior would be explained by the story as would the unexpected visit by Cadance...
"I don't know, Rose, it seems a bad idea to go spreading rumors like that about the Princesses without anything to back them up."
"Which is why I'm keeping this to a few select friends for the time being," Rose finished her drink and walked to the door but before she left she turned and gave Berry a smug look of satisfaction. "Mark my words though, Berry, in a few months time I bet that mare will start putting on some 'unexpected' weight, and when she does I'll be sure to say 'I told you so.'"
Eventide hated Ponyville. She hated the bad memories it brought back to her. She hated some of the residents. She hated it so much that every time she visited the rustic little town on business she made sure to grab the first train back to Canterlot after she was finished. So why was it that after having finished speaking with Sweetie Drops and Lyra she had walked in entirely the wrong direction? Why was it that she was now standing staring gormlessly at the door to Fluttershy's bizarre tree house? She barely even knew the mare, hadn't spoken to her in over five years and even then had never really known her. The letter hadn't even been entirely clear as to what Fluttershy wanted with her. As far as Eventide had been aware any bridges between them had been thoroughly burned down during the unpleasantness but then out of the blue she had received the letter, Fluttershy had gone through the trouble of finding her address and having it sent to her by courier, hay she had even addressed it to Lady Trailblazer, nopony ever used her title.
Continuing to stand outside the door without knocking, Eventide considered how much the times had changed since she had been a filly. Back then she would probably have been tackled to the ground by now for being creepy and standing outside Fluttershy's, back then she practically idolized the townsfolk, back then this was an animal sanctuary. From the looks of things there was still an abundance of bird feeders and burrows but many appeared empty and there was not the excess of wildlife she recalled from her youth. Realizing that she couldn't exactly stand there forever and finding her legs unwilling to move, Eventide took a deep breath, raised a hoof and knocked three times on the door.
At first there was no sign of anypony being home but just as Eventide was considering leaving she heard the telltale clicking of the door being unlocked. Slowly the door creaked open and on the other side Eventide could just about make out the eye of the yellow pegasus within. A few moments later the door swung wide open and Eventide found herself embraced in a great hug.
"Oh, Eventide, why didn't you tell me you were coming today? I'd have prepared a lunch for us." Fluttershy smiled as only she could, she was so softly spoken, so welcoming, the very definition of kindness...and that tore Eventide up inside. Shouting, anger, cruel words, Eventide had her fair share of those meetings and was well versed in how to tackle them. She could hold her own in a fight be it verbal or physical. But being so readily welcomed by somepony with every reason to hate her? It was like a dagger to the heart and she had no idea how to deal with it.
"I was in town to see Lyra. I didn't... I wasn't planning on coming here at first but you'd taken the trouble to send me that letter and I thought I'd hear you out." Her eyes panned over the room. As with the outside it seemed that the number of animals the building could cater to had been drastically decreased. It was as tidy as Fluttershy had always kept it but now it lacked most of the animal smell.
"I'm getting on in my years and as much as it pains me I just can't look after all of my animal friends anymore," Fluttershy seemed to have read her mind, had she been that obvious in looking about the house? Eventide felt a slight twinge of guilt at how badly she had been scrutinizing her host's home.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy, is this as awkward for you as it is for me? Cause right now I can't think of a single thing to say that would even begin to fix things," as she spoke her eyes were drawn to Fluttershy's wing, not once had she actually seen it since the pegasus had left the hospital. Her right wing was bound to her side with a brace but even with it being obscured it was easy to make out the extent of the damage. The entire limb seemed twisted and disjointed, even with the finest doctors in Canterlot they had been able to repair it and many of the bones had ultimately been unable to set at the correct angles or positions. Apparently she had refused the suggestion that the entire wing be amputated, if Twilight's letters were to be believed though she had taken the whole experience in her stride and even gone so far as to make a point of how 'she barely used the thing anyway'.
"Oh, Eventide, you don't need to fix anything. I never blamed you for what happened and if he could speak to you I'd bet Discord wouldn't blame you either." How, how could she not blame Eventide? The thought pounded on the inside of her head again and again, after the myriad of woes that other ponies she had never even met had heaped on her, how was it that Fluttershy could stand here and act like nothing had ever happened?
"How are things going with Discord? Is Twilight any closer to finding a cure?" her voice began to break as she spoke and tears began forming at the corners of her eyes, she didn't want reconciliation! None of her worldly experience had taught her how to deal with a situation like this, the judgement of others had always lit indignant fire inside of her but now it was as though she were being crushed beneath the weight of her own guilt.
"I'm afraid not," Fluttershy shook her head. At some point she had boiled them tea, how had Eventide not even noticed her making tea? "Rainbow power may be stronger than The Elements of Harmony but it isn't something she ever worked out how to control. I'm afraid we just can't stick on some pieces of jewelry and magic the problem away." Fluttershy nudged a cup of tea over to Eventide and then settled down onto a pile of cushions. "How are things with you though Eventide? We haven't really spoken much for the past few years and I'd love to hear about your adventures. You know after me and the girls had less adventures of our own I really did enjoy hearing you talk about all the places you'd been and the creatures you'd met. Have you met anypony special?"
"How!" Eventide screamed, jumping out of her own seat, the tears now running down her cheeks in great torrents. "How can you just sit here and want to talk about my personal life, about guys and adventures!? How can you... I... after everything I said, after everything that happened...after mom... after...you should h-h-h-hate me! Hate me, judge me, tell me how awful my mother was! Just don't... don't sit there and do whatever it is you are doing now!" Her speech degenerated into a series of wracking sobs and unable to continue she collapsed to the ground. A wing gently rubbed across her back.
"Feeling better? Just let it all out," Fluttershy just stood there making gentle shushing noises and rubbing Eventide's back for the next few minutes as the unicorn bawled her eyes out, trying to bury herself in the cushions she had been sitting on.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she eventually managed to whisper between her tears.
"Well it wasn't you who hurt me and Discord was it? In fact I can't think of a single time I've met you that you weren't polite and friendly with me. I remember you as the little filly hiding behind your mother, or playing with the animals. I remember you being the young mare who came to me when she was worried about her ummmm romantic preferences. Now a lot of ponies have said some unflattering things about you Eventide but I know first hand that we shouldn't trust everything we read in a newspaper." She released Eventide and poured her a fresh cup of tea.
"Most of what they said was true. I did say a lot of those things..." she whimpered trying to avoid eye contact with her host.
"I guessed as much. Now tell me, Eventide, how much of that would you have said if it wasn't for that Mr Quill? Now I know for certain that a lot of the things he had printed were taken out of context and they were printed without your consent. Do you think you would have said half the things you said if it wasn't for that first awful article?"
"Probably not..." that first interview really had been the start of a downward spiral. After that everypony wanted to know if it was true what Quill had said about her, when she had the option to either deny what had been said or embrace the truth she had apparently made the wrong decision. After that the whole world had seemed to come crumbling down around her.
"Well that settles it then. You've never done anything to hurt me personally and the things you said were only said because some very mean ponies put you in a very bad position. So really I don't see any reason the two of us can't still be friends. Do you?" Eventide looked up, it was hard to tell with her vision clouded by tears but she was certain that Fluttershy was smiling.
"What about mom?" Eventide asked as she levitated a tissue out of her saddlebags to wipe her eyes.
"Your mother..." Fluttershy took a deep breathe and sighed "she hadn't been well for a very long time. I know there are a lot of ponies that felt just awful about what happened. A few of us felt like we'd failed her, that maybe if we had noticed just how bad things were, we might have been able to stop her before things got so bad. Now I don't condone what she did, but I do feel sorry for her, and when we spoke with her before she... before she left, she seemed very sorry for everything that had happened, I'm sure eventually everypony will come to forgive her."
"I'll be dead, Fluttershy." The pegasus let out a little squeaking sound at the statement. "It's just so long, Fluttershy, and I don't think there's any magic in all of Equestria that will let me live to see the day... I guess it just feels like a hollow victory. Even if they do forgive her I'll be dead by then. I just... everything feels so hollow, like they robbed me of all my happiest memories and now? What am I even sticking around for now? A career that nopony cares about anymore, ponies that hate me and friends who I seem to hurt just by being around them. When I visited Flurry she ended up having to bail me out of a drunken brawl with a changeling and Starlight can barely even look at me without bursting into tears! I don't even know why she acts that way, did I do something wrong or am I just cursed to be a burden to everypony who cares about me?"
"She... she never told you did she? Starlight never told you about what happened?"
"What happened? I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Starlight's been nothing but a good friend to me since I first met her. She's a better aunt than my real aunt that's for sure. What happened? Did I do something wrong? Does she think she did something wrong?" Eventide wasn't so much angry as curious, worried even. She'd pretty much come to conclude that it was some personal problem Starlight had been having to deal with. The idea that she had unintentionally upset the mare was disconcerting.
"It's the second one... she's really been torn up about it but that's really something she has to tell you herself. It wouldn't be right for me to tell you. Now how about we talk about something nicer? How about some good old fashioned girl talk?" Eventide had to chuckle at that. From anypony else she'd have said they were pulling her leg, well anypony except Flurry. Fluttershy seemed so genuine, she actually cared about what was going on in her life.
"There's a guy I've sort of been seeing. It's a long distance relationship, really long distance. He's nice and we have a lot in common but I just have no idea how to even go about talking about him with anypony else. The problem, the one when I was thirteen?" Fluttershy nodded, she remembered that talk very well. "Well lets just say that never really went away."
"Oh... so you like this stallion but you aren't attracted to him?"
"No.... no I'm attracted to him, problem is I have no idea how I go about explaining that to anypony. The court of public opinion would have a field day!" Eventide let out a hollow laugh at the idea.
"Oh... so I guess that means he's a-"
"Yep. Please don't tell Twilight, she didn't exactly approve the last time this happened."
"Eventide. Twilight didn't approve of that relationship for a couple of reasons, your ummm rather unusual taste in stallions wasn't one of them. I'm sure if you talked to her about it you'd find her to be very open minded about it." A part of her could hardly believe this was happening, she felt embarrassed and ashamed, she felt stupid and silly but oddly she didn't feel bad. She actually felt happy, sitting here talking to a mare she barely even knew about some of the most mundane aspects of her life was making her feel happy.
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For the next few hours Eventide retold some of the stories from her old adventures. She imagined Fluttershy had probably heard a few of them before, after all they all predated the unpleasantness. If she had heard them before though she showed no indication and instead lapped the tales up. Perhaps Fluttershy was just humoring Eventide but frankly she didn't care, she was enjoying herself and didn't want the moment to end any sooner than it needed to.
It was late evening when she left Fluttershy's cottage, as she made her way back into Ponyville she considered how fortunate it was that she hadn't had to take her costume off at Fluttershy's, it was awkward putting the thing back together and a few times in the past she had almost been caught out having made a mistake with some minor detail like the wig or glasses. Still, this was the best mood she had been in after a visit to Ponyville in a very long time. Things had gone very well with Fluttershy and she pretty much felt on top of the world, it would take a miracle to ruin her current mood.
"That's her! She's tha mare that was bein all mean to Miss Bon Bon!" she turned on the spot to look at the source of the voice. Sure enough down the road stood the little apple filly that she had met at the sweet shop, an accusing hoof pointing directly at Eventide. With her was Applejack, Spike and none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle.
"You! Ah don't know what trouble you've bin causin today but ya better know we won't stand for it!" Applejack had quickly closed the distance between the two of them and was practically nose to nose with Eventide, from the look in her eyes she was clearly not happy to see her. Of course in Ponyville miracles happened everyday...
"I thought you said she was a unicorn?" From their hiding place behind a large stack of books the four foals watched the weird new librarian. Since the library had opened last week they had heard a few stories about her from the town ponies and had finally decided to come and see what the fuss was. It had all been Rumble's idea, he had dared Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie to come with him because they were 'scared' of her, just like everypony had been scared of Zecora. Dinky let out a sigh, if she hadn't opened her mouth they probably wouldn't have dragged her along but now the three were convinced she knew all about the new librarian.
"Sweetie Belle told me that Rarity told her that the new librarian was a unicorn. She also said her name was Sunset Shimmer. Can we just go?" since they had arrived Dinky had been getting increasingly uncomfortable. Her mother had always taught her it was rude to stare but the four of them had been doing that for the past minute. Rumble tore up a small ball of note paper and scrunched it into a ball. Hefting it with one wing he launched it in an arc through the air culminating with it hitting the librarian on the hat and bouncing onto the floor, the mare just stood there and stared off into space, just as she had been doing since they had walked in.
"Why did you do that!" hissed Sunny, "you aren't supposed to throw things in the library, especially not at adults!" All four foals ducked behind the walls of their hiding place but it seemed as though Sunset hadn't heard them.
"I think she might be asleep," Rumble mused peeking back over the top of the books. "My brother used to sleep walk, maybe she's the same." The pegasus colt turned to Dinky with a scowl on his face. "Are you sure she's a unicorn?"
"Maybe her horn is under the hat?" Peachy suggested as she joined Rumble at the walls of fort book.
"Maybe Sweetie Belle was fibbing," Rumble retorted as he began rolling up another ball of paper. Dinky was feeling more and more uncomfortable about the situation, maybe she should find the princess and tell her? Her mum had raised her to be a good little filly and not treat other ponies differently for being a little different, the new librarian was very different. If she went and fetched another adult though then the others would call her chicken for running away, or a telltale if they got into trouble. Being a kid was difficult. Rumble hefted the second piece of paper this time hitting the mare on her nose, she wrinkled it up in response but didn't seem to wake up.
"What's wrong with her face?" Sunny asked as she and Dinky joined the others at the walls. The librarian had chunks of fur missing from her face and neck and the skin was lumpy and dark where her fur was missing.
"Nothing's wrong with her face, she's just...different," Dinky said, glaring at Sunny. Mean ponies had said things like that about her mom and when they did it made Ditzy very sad. She liked Sunny but you weren't meant to say something like that about another pony, you could really hurt another pony's feelings by talking that way.
"Maybe she's hiding her horn because she can't do magic?" Peachy considered as she hopped onto the chair that stood at the center of fort book. "I heard from an adult that unicorns that don't have their cutie marks can't do magic."
"That's not right. Sweetie Belle was learning magic before she got her cutie mark. Also she's an adult, adults all have their cutie marks." Sunset was starting to make Dinky very uncomfortable, for some reason the mare made her feel very sad but she couldn't quite decide why. She was pretty sure that Rumble was wrong, sleep walking ponies were meant to walk, not just stand around doing nothing. Maybe she was just choosing to be quiet? Everypony was meant to be quiet in a library so maybe she was just setting a good example.
"Nuh uh. Not all adults have their cutie marks, it's a medical thing. Whenever I've seen her around town she's always been dressed up like that, I bet she's scared that somepony will call her a blank flank." Peachy was treading on thin ice, if the librarian was a blank flank she shouldn't be talking about it, Dinky imagined that an adult would be very sensitive about something like that. Thankfully the librarian still seemed to be 'asleep' and hadn't noticed what Peachy had said.
"Nah, Thunderlane said she has a sun for a cutie mark. He says he saw it when she tripped up in Sugar Cube Corner and her dress hiked up." To Dinky's disappointment Rumble had begun rolling up another ball of paper.
"My mom says Thunderlane spends too much time looking at mares' flanks," Sunny grumbled causing Rumble to shoot her a dirty look. The four sat staring pensively at the still immobile librarian before Sunny suddenly perked up again. "If she has a sun for a cutie mark does that mean Celestia is her mom?" that was a deep question, a lot of ponies looked down on foals because they were so young but sometimes they would talk about important things. Mr Time Turner had said that was called philosophy, philosophy was a long word and hard to say which meant it must be very important.
"No, Trixie had a moon for a cutie mark but she can't be Princess Luna's daughter, she's too old," Dinky paused mid thought and considered the other possibility, "or too young. She'd have to be really old to have been born before Luna was banished. I don't think anypony in Ponyville was around back then, except maybe Granny Smith." The others nodded in confirmation. Granny Smith was very old and Luna had been banished a long time ago, Miss Cherilee said it was a thousand years ago, a thousand years was a very long time. Rumble managed to land another ball of paper on the librarian.
"Sunset, I'm here! Is Twilight around?" all four kids bolted for the door at the sound of Rarity calling from the door. Even though it was a public library they didn't want to be caught misbehaving.
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As Rarity walked into the library a group of four school children came sprinting past her. She could of reprimanded them for running in the library but they were already gone, besides it wouldn't do to discourage the children from studying at the library. Turning back to the library she could see Sunset picking up some balled up pieces of paper with a frown on her face.
"Problems with the children?" Rarity asked. Over the past week Sunset had been working at the newly opened library she had heard that a few of the town's ponies had visited to check out books but she imagined this was probably the first time that Sunset had been forced to deal with the rambunctious youths of Ponyville, they could really be a hooffull and it was probably for the best that Sunset's first dealings hadn't been with the crusaders.
"I honestly have no idea how they did it, Rarity. I'd been sorting some books in the stacks and when I came back I heard you coming in. I have no idea how they managed to make all this mess without me hearing them, still at least they were keeping to the whole 'quiet in the library' rule," Sunset chuckled gesturing to the scattered pieces of paper and an impromptu book fort that had been erected by the reading tables.
"How have you been adjusting? Has everypony been treating you well?"
"Well a few of them have been giving me some funny looks, but other than that everypony has been very nice. I guess a lot of them feel like they are walking on egg shells around me," Sunset decided to omit the fact that she was pretty sure one pegasus had intentionally tripped her up in Sugar Cube Corner, she still didn't get what his problem was but at least he had the manners to help her get back up after her tumble.
"You're sure you want to talk about this today though?" Rarity said as she disassembled the fort and arranged some sitting cushions for three ponies to have a talk. "We don't want you to feel pressured into doing anything you're uncomfortable with."
"No, no I want to talk about this, it'll be good to get some of this off of my chest. I'll finish up tidying the mess those kids made, you go fetch Twilight." Rarity nodded and trotted off to find the princess leaving Sunset alone to wonder how in Equestria the kids had managed to make the mess without her noticing.
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Okay, Twilight. Where did I leave off?
You'd been snatched up by the time portal for the second time.
Right.
This time when the portal dropped me off I was a little more prepared than I had been before. It wasn't exactly a graceful landing but I managed to twist my body so that I fell on my side instead of on my hoof. It still hurt but nowhere near as bad as when I landed on a broken leg. Not going to lie, the first hour or so of being there I wasn't in a particularly good place, I laughed a bit more and then... then I just curled up and cried, it wasn't my proudest moment.
After I'd pretty much managed to cry myself out of tears I realized how hungry I was, I hadn't had any proper food for the past two weeks and moping around wasn't going to fix that. I pulled myself up off of the ground and had a look around. I was somewhere in the badlands, presumably wherever the hive had been built in the other Equestria if past experience was anything to go by. I had a couple of theories as to the nature of what had been going on but hadn't really had any way to prove any of them till then. My surroundings seemed to confirm the theory that the portal hadn't moved me through space, just through realities. My other theory though seemed to be disproved, I'd assumed from my first experience that it would deposit me someplace at the same point of time it had picked me up at but while the portal had taken me at about midday it had left me in the dead of night.
In the distance I could just about make out the lights of civilization and so, beneath the light of the full Moon, I set off in the direction of the lights hoping that whatever strange quirks this world had the ponies would be kind to a lost and weary traveller (after my last two experiences I doubted it would be like the Equestria I remembered). The funny thing about this world was that I probably would have worked out what was wrong if I hadn't spent the past few years in the human world, for me the shadowy image of a mare that seemed to adorn the side of the moon was a simple sign that the world bore some similarity to the world I had known long ago, I had never seen Equestria's Moon since Luna had been freed.
By the time I reached the source of the light I was immensely thankful that the portal had seen fit to leave me in the middle of the night, the journey had taken me some time and I couldn't imagine how I would have made it beneath the sweltering heat of the Sun. To my disappointment it wasn't a town or village that I approached, merely a small campsite consisting of about a dozen tents and wagons, as I crept through the dark I began to hear the sound of ponies speaking about a central campfire.
"I'm telling you I saw what I saw!" the raspy voice of a stallion exclaimed.
"Crispy, nopony has any problem with you having a bit of cider while on watch but please stop getting yerself so drunk," a second stallion this one with a deep husky tone replied clearly unimpressed with whatever his companion had been talking about.
"Oh leave him be, Shady, it's bad enough being on punishment detail without the two of you being at each others throats all the time," there was a mare with them, her voice had a distinctive Canterlot accent to it and she sounded a little irritable. Even so after hearing her voice I was a lot more comfortable about making myself known to them, if it had only been stallions at the camp... well I'm sure you've heard unpleasant stories about vulnerable mares in the rougher parts of Equestria.
"You believe me though right, Tavia? I'm telling you it was a great big ball of magic, bright as the moon itself!" Stepping into the light I counted five ponies who were awake. The current speaker who I gathered to be Crispy was a lanky orange earth pony with a chocolate brown mane. Sitting with him were a gray mare and a stocky batpony, while the remaining two ponies (a teal unicorn stallion and a green pegasus mare) sat off to one side playing cards. All of them were dressed up in dark blue armor that looked vaguely reminiscent of the nightguard. Strange vaguely draconic helmets sat discarded around them and each had a spear close to hoof. As I stumbled into their midst the three who had been speaking grabbed their weapons and turned to face me but quickly lowered them when I collapsed exhausted on the ground.
"Who in Tartarus are you, and what are you doin in the badlands?" the batpony asked, from the sound of things he was probably the one called Shady. I raised my head to look at him and proceeded to open and close my mouth without managing to form a single word, my throat was well and truly parched on top of being horribly sore from my earlier laughter. I raised one hoof to my mouth and mimed drinking, the message seemed to be understood as the mare (Tavia if I had heard correctly) quickly procured a flask from the ground and passed it over to me. I nodded in thanks and quickly began guzzling the water down, I coughed up the first few mouthfuls but after that the rest went down easily enough.
"Sunset Shimmer. Lost. Magical mishap. Need to get to Canterlot." The words were difficult to get out at first but with each mouthful of water my speech seemed to return to me a little more. By this time the other two ponies had stopped their game and come over to see the cause of the commotion while Crispy had moved behind me and was staring at my flank with a strange look of regret on his face.
"Boss, her... her cutie mark," Crispy whispered as he continued to stare. The remaining members of the group suddenly seemed to take notice of it and joined him in their looks of sadness. Tavia walked up to me and placed one leg across my withers.
"You've clearly been through a lot, try getting some rest as we'll be moving out in the morning," she said gently and gestured towards a comfortable looking sleeping bag by the fire. Too exhausted to argue and too upset to worry about what was bothering the others I just nodded and then settled down to get some sleep.
"She has a poor lot in life this one doesn't she?" I heard Tavia whispering to her fellow guards as I began to drift of into sleep, "Treat her as you would any other guest, no need for us to make this any worse than it needs to be." She sighed. "You know sometimes I really hate this job."
I awoke to Tavia nudging me in the ribs with her hoof. At first I was a little confused as to where I was, it had been a long time since I had received a good nights rest and waking up I briefly thought I was back home and that everything up to that point had been some horrible nightmare. Only briefly though, the reality of my situation quickly set in and with it came confusion.
"I thought you said you were moving out in the morning?" I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes and yawning. Even though the rest had been incredibly refreshing I still found my body tired and aching from the past two weeks. Around us a few of the other ponies were packing belongings onto one of the carts but the majority of the camp appeared to be remaining here.
"It is..." Tavia seemed about to say something but quickly caught herself before she finished and shook her head in exasperation. "I'm sorry, I don't think I ever introduced myself properly. I'm Octavia Melody, you said your name was Sunset Shimmer correct?" I nodded in confirmation, stifling another yawn before it could escape my throat. "Now, Miss Shimmer, you mentioned something about a magical mishap. I don't mean to sound too forward but perhaps you might elaborate?" Something was clearly up and while I was willing to invest a little trust into Octavia I hadn't forgotten the words I'd overheard before falling to sleep, while she might pity me it sounded as though she had something unfortunate in mind for me.
"I'd been studying magic in Canterlot, I was hoping to impress my teacher with something special so I was trying to teleport with the aid of one of the old magical artifacts, I was really hoping to wow her with something to mark the nine hundred and ninetieth Summer Sun Celebration but somehow the spell dropped me off here." As lies went there was certainly some basis in the truth, at the time I'd barely even considered the possibility that time travel might be the cause of my problems but at the time it seemed a convenient way of explaining my knowledge being so outdated. My working theory was that I was periodically traveling between different realities whilst remaining at the same place in space and time, if Octavia bought it then I'd be covered for my lack of knowledge on current events since I first stepped through the portal to CHS.
"I... I hate to be the one to break this to you, Miss Shimmer, but that was a little over eleven years ago," as she had done before the mare gave me a look of genuine sympathy, evidently she had bought the lie. I wasn't proud of it but it certainly seemed that my practice manipulating people in CHS was paying off.
"Oh," I whispered with feigned shock. "Anything happen while I was gone?" Octavia cast a forlorn look to the Moon while biting down on her lip, almost to the point of drawing blood.
"No... nothing you need concern yourself with. Miss Shimmer, if you'd like to hop into the wagon we've prepared then we have some breakfast for you. I'm not sure how long you've been out here but you look in desperate need of a meal and a lie down. I don't mean to sound rude but your leg looks awful, I can't imagine it is comfortable walking about on it." For a few moments I considered my options, Octavia was clearly not very good at lying and whatever she and her friends had in store for me was likely a trap, that being said I didn't particularly want to hurt her, my leg meant running from them was impossible and after what I had done to the changelings I was pretty much magically exhausted. With both fight and flight options denied to me I instead opted to go for your own favorite option, talking.
"So what happens if I try to run right now?" I asked bluntly. To her credit Octavia took my comment in her stride, rather than deny what was going on she simply sighed and leveled with me.
"If you run then Shady Skies will catch you, maybe hurting you in the process, then we will be forced to stick an inhibitor on your horn and chain you up in the wagon to be brought before our superiors," a sliver of her former pity remained, replaced for the most part with an excess of formality.
"What happens if I come with you without resistance?"
"No inhibitor, no chains, but if you try anything funny then Shady will probably take it out on you," she shrugged her shoulders in a very matter of fact manner.
"What happens when we get to your 'superiors'," this time she didn't answer, instead averting her eyes to the floor. "Fine, different question, what sort of charge am I going to be held for?" my voice took on a certain level of resignation, at this point the best I could do was go with the guards and hope for an opportunity to escape to present itself.
"Political dissidence, Princess Nightmare Moon is very careful to keep a close eye on anypony that might be a threat to her reign. I'm afraid that you have certain traits that fit a profile for ponies warranting immediate arrest," her eyes drifted to my flank as she finished speaking. That pretty much answered most of my questions, it was still dark because Nightmare Moon had won, presumably upon her return as opposed to her first appearance, as Octavia had recognized the name of the Summer Sun Celebration. Hilariously the crime I was being arrested for had nothing to do with me being a powerful unicorn, or even having lied to the guards, the only reason they were bringing me in was that I had a Sun for a cutie mark, my name probably hadn't done me any favors either.
"The Mare in the Moon, that's Celestia now isn't it?" I asked receiving a curt nod as an instantaneous answer. "What's the punishment for political dissidents?"
"If you come quietly? You'll probably be thrown into the dungeons," Octavia didn't see fit to inform me what would happen if I didn't come quietly, judging from the grim expression on her face though it wasn't that hard to take a guess.
"Well then, I guess I better go enjoy my last breakfast as a free mare," I said in a matter of fact way and made my way over to the wagon. Depending on how things played out I expected that I would likely end up sitting in a prison cell for a few days before whatever magic powered the mysterious dimensional portal stole me away to some horrible new world. All things considered it was preferable to facing a potential execution for an arbitrary crime.
----------------------------
The breakfast was a mixture of trail rations, oats and an apple, yet it was still the best food I had eaten since leaving CHS. My guards kept their distance, opting to leave me alone and unattended within the wagon. If I could have mustered enough magic to perform even a small teleportation spell I could probably have slipped away without any of them noticing, sadly that wasn't the case. As we journeyed across the badlands though I did come to feel a little sympathy for my captors, while the five of them were all united in seeing me brought before their boss none of them seemed to be very happy about what they were doing. A part of me wondered what would happen to them if I were to escape, judging from their behavior I doubted it would be pleasant. Considering that we were stuck out in the badlands I was somewhat surprised when we stopped after only about three hours.
"The two of us will be leaving the others behind here. Please refrain from doing anything foolish, Miss Shimmer, I have no desire for this to be any harder on you than it needs to be." Octavia led me from the wagon towards a small wooden fortress. Rather than enter though we instead approached a cluster of batponies and pegasi who were working on a number of sky chariots. Evidently wherever we were heading it was not in the badlands.
"Star Hunter!" Octavia called to one of the pegasi. "I require a chariot to escort myself and this prisoner to the castle." The pegasus nodded and began seeing to the work as Octavia turned and whispered in my ear. "For your own sake please don't speak out of turn. While there are many ponies who still pine for the days of the sun there are a great many who have sworn undying fealty to the princess and would see you punished harshly for any act of rebellion. I hold no real sway at court, in truth I am only out here in the badlands for having displeased her highness, but I might be able to ensure a comparatively light sentence for you so long as we don't have a direct audience with the princess."
"I imagine bringing her a dangerous dissident to throw in the dungeons would help earn you some favor at court wouldn't it?" I whispered back as I considered my situation.
"Yes. Yes it would, but though I have accepted my place as a cog in the system I refuse to climb the political ladder at the expense of my fellow ponies. It may not seem the case right now but I'm trying to do you a favor, Miss Shimmer." As we boarded our chariot I began to realize just how sad the whole situation was, all of these ponies no doubt remembered life under the rule of Celestia, they knew how wrong this world of eternal night was but were powerless to do anything about it. If ensuring somepony was thrown in a comfy cell was considered an act of kindness in this world then I dreaded the kind of things that wicked ponies might do.
---------------------------
Our chariot flight took us quickly across the skies of Equestria. I periodically flexed my magic when I thought nopony was watching but even conjuring a small burst of light seemed to give me a headache, my window for escape seemed to be rapidly dwindling and I was powerless to prevent my incarceration. At first I thought we were headed towards Canterlot, the course we were traveling on seemed about right but the chariot began its descent long before we reached the mountain, instead descending towards a great and shadowy palace nestled within the Everfree forest, the old castle of the sisters if my history lessons were to be believed.
The chariot parked itself upon a great balcony attached to the side of the castle and Octavia politely thanked the charioteers for their service before directing me inside. The room we entered was devoid of any other ponies, it appeared to be some sort of meeting chamber with a series of moderately comfortable blue and black sofas making up the entirety of its furnishing and great banners hanging from the walls adorned with moon iconography and representations of the alicorn herself. As soon as we entered Octavia passed a small note on to a servant waiting just outside the room before turning to me.
"I can't promise you safety but I am going to try and keep you alive," she explained taking a seat on one of the sofas, "that being said though, if you wish to take your chances at the mercy of the princess and her guards then this is likely your last chance to escape." She closed her eyes and turned to face the door the servant had been behind, as it was I was left entirely out of her line of sight, even if I'd felt I had a chance of escaping at that moment I'm not sure I could have brought myself to do it, after all, how would Octavia have explained to her superiors that she had lost an unarmed political prisoner in the middle of the Princess' own castle. I may not have known the mare but I felt as though she didn't deserve to suffer the inevitable fallout of such a willful act of disobedience.
After a few minutes of silence somepony opened the door to the chamber and Octavia rose to meet them, a smile upon her face. I sort of just sat there frozen in place, mouth wide open in disbelief and stared like an idiot at the newcomer.
"Octavia, darling, while it is always a pleasure to see you I must say that you have come at a dreadful time. The Princess is somewhat out of sorts at the moment and I doubt she would take your presence very kindly," even though I'd barely seen you as a unicorn Rarity I knew for certain that it was that world's version of you standing before me. Her cutie mark was unmistakable, her voice and demeanor though a little colder than what I was used to were still recognizable as belonging to my friend from CHS. You...she was dressed up in a jacket in much the same style as the guards armor with her hair tied up in a bun, she embraced Octavia in a hug and the pair exchanged brief kisses on the cheeks.
"I'm sorry to hear things have been difficult around here. I was actually hoping you might do me a favor. I apprehended this mare in the badlands and was hoping you might have her assigned a comfortable cell without news having to reach the ears of the Princess. She hasn't proven to be any trouble and so far her only crime has been having a rather unfortunate special talent." Octavia gestured to me and I finally managed to close my mouth, managing to make myself look a little more respectable. Rarity final noticed me and almost instantly flew into a panic.
"Oh no no no. Octavia, this can't be happening! You have chosen the worst, possible, time to spring something like this on me!" at first her voice sounded downright hostile but it very quickly slipped into a more worried and sympathetic tone. Whatever was happening seemed to bode ill for me. "Last night the Princess was approached by a traveler who has left her rather terrified for the safety of her rule, if this mare winds up before her I'm afraid it will be a public execution for sure to make an example of those who would oppose the throne!" the two mares trotted up to me with fear in their eyes.
"What do we do, Rarity," Octavia whispered in hushed tones. The unicorn stood deep in thought for a few seconds before perking up, an idea written plain upon her face.
"You leave, head back to the badlands. If pony asks you about the prisoner you brought in you tell them she has been sent to the deepest dungeons," she turned sharply on the spot and pointed a hoof in my direction, "how is your magic and your manners?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. While I had decided to lie to Octavia earlier it seemed the time for deceiving her had now passed. Considering how much trust they were investing in me it seemed in my best interest to let the mares who seemed willing to potentially put their own lives on the line for me know exactly what they were getting into, besides, even if she didn't know me I felt as if I knew Rarity and lying to my friends had never ended well before then.
"I was a magical prodigy, personal student to Celestia herself but right now though I can probably just about levitate something small if I put my mind to it. My manners could probably use some work but I think I can still remember most of what the princess taught me about correct manners around court," the other two mares mouths dropped and Rarity briefly mouthed something unintelligible before regaining her tongue.
"I thought Twinkleshine was meant to be Celestia's student," she finally managed to say her voice deathly quiet.
"I was her previous student, we fell out, I ran away and my life has mostly been one downhill slide since then." Rarity looked between me and Octavia a couple of times then nodded.
"Octavia, make yourself scarce, I'll take of this. Now then, from here on out you are called Dusk Shadow," I was about to open my mouth to object but Rarity raised a hoof to silence me. "No objections, a name like that will earn you favor with the Princess if need be, I'd rather not know your real name, ignorance is a great aid in such an act of deception." Prompted by a wave from Rarity, Octavia left the room while the unicorn paced around me sizing me up. "As chamberlain it is expected of me that I have some servants of my own. From here on out you are my personal hoofmaid, you will either await me within my chambers or wait upon me while I am on business."
I nodded. Servant was a pretty decent step up from a life in prison and a big leap from public execution.
"I expect for you to follow my orders to the letter, while we are in the presence of other members of the castle staff you are not to speak unless spoken to. You will be expected to wear your uniform at all times, even in private," I gave her an incredulous look, while the other pieces of advice had all made some sense this one seemed a little out of place, "it's a dress with a bustle, so long as you are wearing it nopony will be able to see your cutie mark." I nodded again, her plan to keep me safe was starting to make sense. "Now I expect you to pull your weight around the castle, you will be helping me maintain the elegant decor of the palace as well as assisting with paperwork. Once the princess has gotten over her current panic though I might see fit to have you privately dismissed from the castle grounds, if such a time comes then I would appreciate you never speaking of this matter again if you should ever be caught again. Now then, I'm going to go fetch your uniform, don't leave this room while I'm gone, we can't risk anypony else seeing you.
Rarity strode to the door but before leaving gave me one last appraising look. "Welcome to the castle, Miss Shadow, I hope we can one day see you safely out of its halls."
The dress was really not my style. It was a large black and blue thing in a similar style to Rarity's own clothes but without quite so much ornamentation and with the promised bustle to cover my flanks. It was really uncomfortable and a little impractical, every time I tried to turn with it on I worried that I might knock something over, not to mention that the chest piece was uncomfortably close to being a corset. Once she had gotten me into the dress Rarity led me through the halls of the castle towards what I later found out was the servants' quarters, within which Rarity had her own small apartment.
As we made our way through the castle I realized a few things. First I had no idea what the time was, with all Equestria bathed in an eternal night how did ponies track of time? From what Octavia had said when we first met it seemed as though some ponies still acted as though there was a day night cycle with mornings and evenings, yet any notion of day seemed to be arbitrary. Secondly the guards in the castle looked a lot more menacing than those I had met so far. Each one was dressed in full armor and stood at attention, we were repeatedly stopped by guards and questioned, suspicious glances constantly being thrown my way. While Rarity explained to them that I was her new hoofmaid I tried my best to look meek and unassuming, for the most part I just thought about how Fluttershy behaved and tried to mimic her in my pony form.
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The castle was cold and unwelcoming, lit solely by magic flames its corridors were unnerving and shadows seemed to crawl across the walls. It reminded me of something I'd been seeing in my dreams, the dark Canterlot that Sombra's magic had shown me.
You mentioned that before. What exactly did you see, Sunset? It sounds similar to some dark magic that me and Spike encountered but that was made to show you your worst fear, not just some freaky alicorn monster.
Well that's what I saw, Twilight, it was... it's in the past now, it can't hurt me anymore.
Don't worry, if that nightmare ever returns we have Princess Luna in this world to chase it away, she watches over everypony's dreams, Sunset.
Yeah... everypony. Anyway, for all the repairs that had been made to it and even with Rarity's artistic touches the castle still felt like a shadow of Canterlot, it was a cold facsimile of the place I once called home, entirely devoid of any of its good cheer or contented citizens.
"For the time being you shall be staying here, we can take turns sleeping in the bed or on the couch, if possible I will try and arrange for a second bed to be moved here. I do apologize for not being able to allow you your own space but this seems the safest way of keeping your secret safe," Rarity unlocked the door to her apartment and led me inside, it was remarkably lavish considering it was located in what was ostensibly the servants' quarters. A part of me wondered if this was just on account of her being Rarity and she had simply decided to add a personal touch to an otherwise drab room, but given the size of the apartment it seemed more likely that my friend was of some importance to the princess. The apartment was made up of a small lounge kitchen with doors leading off to a bedroom and a bathroom, it wasn't a house but it was clearly superior to what one would expect of a servant's room. Lavish carpets and exotic decorations did little to brighten the rooms mood though as it shared its color scheme with the rest of the castle, blue walls, blue floors and blue decorations with black highlights.
"Thanks for putting yourself on the line like this Rarity. I mean I don't want to sound rude, or ungrateful, but why risk it? You don't know me."
"Miss Shadow, while I may at times come across as a little cold I am not heartless. I have no desire to see anypony suffer for no reason. Had you been brought here any other night I would probably have agreed with Octavia and had you hidden away in the dungeons, with the Princess out of sorts though... well she would probably have had your head." Rarity grimaced and collapsed down into a recliner.
"You mentioned something about that earlier. Is that why we got stopped by the guards?" Rarity rubbed her temples and nodded.
"Another alicorn turned up at the castle last night, one that the Princess had never seen before. With Celestia locked within the Moon and Cadance banished to the north Nightmare Moon should really be the only alicorn in Equestria. If that wasn't unsettling enough this alicorn made some wild claims about time travel and Elements of Harmony."
"What did she look like?"
"No. No, I have said too much already, I'm sorry, Miss Shadow, but the less you know of this matter the better," Rarity levitated a bottle of wine and glasses across the room and began pouring herself a drink.
"Please, Rarity, I...I think that whoever this alicorn was she could be connected to what happened to me! Rarity, this Equestria is wrong! Since I ran away from Celestia I've seen other worlds. The last few weeks I've been stuck visiting strange versions of Equestria where everything went wrong. In my Equestria a group of ponies banded together to unite the Elements and defeat Nightmare Moon. I don't know what happened but I need to find this alicorn, she might be able to help me fix things, she might be able to get me home!"
"I'm sorry, Miss Shadow, but it is too late for that. The alicorn disappeared shortly after she arrived, apparently she summoned some sort of magic portal in the forest and escaped. If it is any help I think you might be right, the alicorn made... similar comments about the state she found Equestria in. When things have died down perhaps you can try and find her but please for the sake of both us leave the matter alone for the time being, speaking about her around the castle could be deemed a treasonous offense." My heart broke a little at that moment, my first possible clue to working out what had happened to me had vanished while I was in the badlands and while I wanted nothing more than to press the matter I had to agree with Rarity, I couldn't risk her life to satisfy my own curiosity.
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My 'duties' it turned out consisted mainly of following Rarity around the castle and helping her with anything she asked of me, I had no formal set of tasks, simply whatever Rarity needed from me at the time. For the next two days (nights? I never did work out how they organized that) I led a relatively relaxed life with regular meals, a comfortable bed and a much needed opportunity to recover. By the second day my magic had mostly returned to me and I began helping Rarity with changing tapestries and cleaning the castle. A couple of times she had me wait on her and her guests, pouring drinks and fetching food for what I guessed was visiting nobles. What quickly became clear though was that she had no intention of bringing me before the princess, she quickly dismissed me to clean her quarters whenever she was required to go to the royal chambers.
It wasn't an enjoyable life, I quickly realized that if I was to be stuck in another world I would have much preferred the one where Equestria was still at war. There I could have helped other ponies out and assisted them with their war. Here the conflict had come and gone and now everypony seemed to be trying to move on with their lives, maybe there were rebels or some sort of resistance elsewhere in the world but where I was now it seemed like the ponies were content to fall into line to ensure their own safety.
While neither of us had proper medical training we did manage to finally treat my leg. Setting the bones was a painful experience and our attempt at medicine was a little crude, but it was a vast improvement over what it had been before. I've pretty much been walking with a limp ever since but if we hadn't managed to try and fix things back then I can only imagine how bad the leg would be right now.
Things would have probably gone well for me in that world if that had all been the end of it. I could have tackled my work there easily enough, gotten some proper food and good rest and then be spirited away to somewhere else by the end of the week letting Rarity get on with the rest of her life without having to worry about me. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. About three, maybe four days into being there me and Rarity were fixing some tapestries in the eastern wing when she was called away to wait upon the princess. As usual she left me to finish up the work and then return to her quarters. It was as I was leaving the east wing that everything went wrong.
"Hey you there, Dusk Shadow, right?" one of the guards called to me, Rainbow Dash to be specific. Yeah, from what I saw of that world both Rarity and Rainbow Dash were on the castle staff, up to that point I'd not really had any opportunity to speak to her and had decided to err on caution rather than seek her out, that world's Dash seemed as stern and humorless as all the rest of the castle guards so I was unwilling to risk her discovering my secret.
"Yes. I was just returning to Lady Rarity's quarters after finishing up in the east wing, is everything all right?" after my first day in the castle I hadn't been stopped once, I'd played my part well, following Rarity's instructions and not mouthing off.
"Yeah, everything's fine, just doing some mandatory security checks, extra security since the incident a few days back," she waved my question off dismissively but I recognized something in her face, something predatory.
"What sort of checks?"
"Oh normal things, make sure you haven't stolen anything from around the castle, make sure you are who you say you are..." she grinned and I felt a lump growing in my throat. "See, strange thing is, one of my friends on patrol duty asked me about this unicorn prisoner that was brought in a few days back, you know, about the time you showed up. Now I went down to the dungeons, asked if they had any new arrivals, weird thing is they hadn't," at this point there really didn't seem to be any reason to try and deny it.
"Okay, so maybe I'm the unicorn, Rarity has me working for her instead of sitting around doing nothing in the dungeons, is that a problem?"
"Depends," Dash stated circling me like a vulture. "Ever since our little incident this week the Princess has been having her best and brightest wizards searching for unusual magical traces. Now a few of these reports ended up on my desk and I noticed something interesting. See, some weird magical time energy apparently surged up in the badlands same time as this identical magical surge happened in the Everfree. Now I don't know much about all that magical mumbo jumbo but I'm not stupid, seems to me that whatever happened in the badlands probably had something to do with our alicorn guest, maybe an accomplice of hers."
"Cut to the chase, I have rooms to clean."
"Sure, sure. Well as I was saying this unicorn that got brought in, she apparently got brought in by Octavia and last I heard she was stuck on punishment detail," Dash paused for dramatic effect, "in the badlands. Times and locations all seem to match up when I look at it, Miss Shadow, but you've got nothing to worry about, see my friend told me the unicorn had this real distinctive sun cutie mark, good thing you don't have a cutie mark like that huh? Otherwise you'd been in real hot water right now." With my magic returned to me beating the ever loving crap out of Dash right then and there wasn't entirely out of the question, the two of us were alone with no witnesses. In the end though basic morals and a desire not see Rarity get hurt for my actions made me decide against it.
"Okay, Dash, bring me to the dungeons I'll come nice and quietly, just one condition. Leave Rarity out of this, only thing she's guilty of was not wanting to be responsible for somepony else dying. Me and her hoofmaid? Different ponies, none of the fallout for this comes down on her." Dash seemed to be considering my ultimatum carefully.
"What makes you think I need you to come quietly?"
"Not trying to brag, Dash, but I'm pretty powerful, it's not every unicorn that goes traveling through time," it was a bluff of sorts, true I was powerful but I hadn't got a clue about time travel.
"Fine. Deal's a deal but I'm the one that brought you in, I'm the one who gets the credit for capturing you. We clear?" she asked jabbing a hoof in my face.
"Crystal," with that I followed Dash deeper into the castle, to dark catacombs hidden beneath the main building, to a place that I had never ventured before.
The cell that I was thrown into was a dank and dingy little thing without any light. In one corner of the cell was a small pile of straw to sleep on and in the opposite corner a small metal grate was built into the floor to serve as a toilet. I was surrounded on all four sides by plain stone walls, the gaps in the stonework encrusted with moss and mold with the only differentiation between them being that one wall had a thick iron door, complete with viewing slot.
For the first day or so of my incarceration Dash left me alone in the cell without food or water. With a total lack of company or diversion I ended up talking to myself trying to figure out what to do if the worst came to the worst. So long as I kept my side of the bargain Rarity would hopefully remain safe but would Dash keep to the bargain if the portal made me disappear? Then there was the risk that I might face execution, if it came to that would I be able to fight my way out to freedom?
I don't mean to sound rude dear but ummm... talking to yourself? I understand that you were probably stressed but it isn't normally a healthy sign. Is everything all right now?
Don't worry, Rarity, everything's fine, I just needed to clear my thoughts and talking it over with myself seemed a good way to do it.
------------------------ Trapped in the cell with little to no hope of escape Sunset paced back and forth. It wasn't her Rainbow Dash, but maybe she could befriend this one just like she had with the other one. That one had hated her guts when they first met but had eventually come around when she proved herself a loyal friend, problem was that from where Sunset was there was unlikely to be any corrupted crytsal ponies to fend off this time.
"Why not simply fall back into our old habits and lie to the fool? Oh, she would just eat up any lies you fed her about Rarity being the leader of the plot, it would be so easy to shift the blame to her!" Sunset jumped as she heard the voice, it was her own but older, more mature. The voice of the alicorn. From out of the shadows it stepped with its red coat and leathery wings, leering down at the little unicorn as though she were nothing more than a bug.
"You're not real, you're just a figment of my imagination, or some delusion brought on by this weird world. You aren't like the thing upstairs living in Princess Luna, you're nothing, nothing." If she really was nothing though, why was Sunset shrinking backwards into the pile of straw?
"Oh perhaps, perhaps I am nothing after all. Though that hardly bodes well for our character does it? Look at us little one! Look at how we shake at our own shadow, look at how we conjure up phantoms to taunt and mock us when we are at our lowest! Why if I am not real then that means that we are quite mad," the alicorn chuckled to herself as she illuminated the room with her magic. Now able to see her properly Sunset choked at just how much the two looked alike.
"Leave me alone, I'm not a monster, not like you...."
"Deny it all you wish, little one, but we are quite the monster. Why, think back on our recent actions, how many innocent ponies have we killed?" the alicorn smirked and began counting numbers off with a rhythmic tapping of her hooves. "First of all we must have no illusions about the fact that we killed a fair few innocent ponies at the behest of this delightful Sombra fellow. Why, they may have only appeared to be shadows at the time but we can safely say each of those was somepony fighting on behalf of Celestia. Next we have the dearly departed Flash Freeze who it seems lost his life to try and see you safely returned to his Princess, not to mention those crystal ponies who you most likely buried beneath a great mountain of snow! What crime did they commit other than being possessed by the same curse that had controlled you?"
Sunset turned away but there was no escaping the alicorns words. "Then we have the changelings... vile little bugs that nopony would miss so perhaps we can be excused for them...but what of the other prisoners, Sunset? We were not so naive as to believe that we were the sole prisoner of the hive were we?"
"I...I wasn't thinking straight, I was mad, I was hurting, I was barely in control of my magic!" she cried, pleaded with the alicorn but couldn't deny the truth.
"Barely in control, but you still had some control did you not? Now we are here in the present! How many lives shall we snuff out here hmmmm? Rarity? Octavia? Perhaps even Rainbow Dash? Oh, yours may not be the hoof that cuts them down but be honest with yourself little one, when you escape this place, whether it be by your own hoof or through these unknown magics, do you truly believe that the wrath of Nightmare Moon shall not fall upon those who failed to see you executed? Why if we have any compassion in our heart we should kill ourselves now and save them from their fate!"
"No... no there has to be a way out, what if we give Rainbow what she wants? Tell her how we got here in the first place? It might keep us from being executed and give her something else to look into, if she's to busy chasing after magic time spells and portals then she might never even have a chance to tell Nightmare Moon we are here," a sense of resolve came over Sunset but her joy was short lived as the alicorn flashed her a toothy smile.
"I'm so proud of you, little one," she smirked.
"Why?"
"Why, because you seem to finally be accepting that there is no you or I, there is only we. It is fitting of one so deserving of royalty, one such as us." ------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset? Sunset, are you okay? You sort of spaced out a little there.
I'm fine, Twilight. Anyway, as I was saying Dash saw fit to leave me alone in the cell for sometime. When she did finally visit I had a vague plan and was relieved to see that she was alone, if she had any other ponies with her then I'd have been in a lot more trouble.
"So, Sunflank, first things first, I'm guessing 'Shadow' isn't your real name?" she slammed the door behind her as she entered the cell, in her hooves was a small magic lantern that just barely illuminated the cell.
"No. My real name's, Sunset Shimmer." Dash whistled to herself at that.
"Sunset? Wow and there I was thinking that your cutie mark was bad. No offense but your parents really dropped the ball there. Now then, Sunset, lets talk about time magic shall we?"
"Sure," I shrugged my shoulders at the suggestion, it had been my plan to tell her anyway. "I have no idea how it works, it's unstable and not something I can control. I can't tell you what spell was used to start it all and I can't tell you anything about the alicorn because I don't even know her name," I omitted the fact that I had a pretty solid guess as to who she was.
"So, in other words, you know nothing and are of no value to me other than as a prize to throw at the Princesses hooves to cheer her up? Really not doing yourself any favors here, Shimmer."
"Dash, I may not have the answers you were hoping for..." and here was the trump card "...but I can show you where the magical artifact is that brought me here."
"Please," Dash scoffed, "we already found the magic map thing that alicorn used to get here and it's broken. Whatever she did left it completely unusable." That was news to me, I hadn't ever heard of a magic map before in any books on obscure magical artifacts.
"I didn't use a map. My first encounter with 'time travel' was from stepping through a mirror portal. It wasn't meant to be used for time travel but at a guess I'd say somepony has done something weird to it and changed how it functions. Last time I saw it, it was in the Crystal Empire." Dash smiled at me, either I had said something really wrong or really right.
"No bucking way! Ever since she subjugated the Empire, the Princess has pretty much had all of their old magical artifacts locked up where she found them! Are you seriously saying that she has a magic time portal just sitting around locked up and nopony knows?"
"Maybe, I could show you the exact room I found it in if you took me there." While I hadn't really had a chance to observe my surroundings in Sombra's Equestria I could remember vaguely where the room was from when I stole your crown, Twilight. In retrospect it was probably a fools errand, after all in that timeline Celestia had been banished before the return of the Empire, hay, chances are the mirror was still sitting in Canterlot castle, abandoned and forgotten.
Rainbow Dash stepped outside for a moment then came straight back in. She tossed me a traveling cloak and fitted an inhibitor to my horn before gesturing for me to follow her. "Come on, Sunset, the two of us are going for a little flight."
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There were four of us in total, me and Dash riding on the chariot while a pair of batponies pulled. We cut through the air at an amazing pace flying straight out of the Everfree, over Canterlot and towards the frozen north.
"I hope you didn't tell Nightmare Moon about me," I whispered to her as I cast my gaze at the moon.
"I'm not stupid, I'm not promising her something till I know I can deliver. Why, you been lying to me, Sunset?" she jabbed a hoof into my chest pushing me to the floor of the chariot.
"No, but I can't say for certain if my theories are correct." As I spoke I felt a strange tingle in the air and a smile crossed my face. "More to the point I can't say if I'll make it to the Empire."
"You dying or something?" Dash asked, surprise flickering across her face. "What's your game, Sunset? You have no magic, no wings, no way of escape... Right now I have you exactly where I want you, so what am I missing huh? What's your plan?" the tingle travelled down my horn and across my back till it made my tail stand up.
"I told you earlier, the magic is unstable. I can't control it, Dash," she floored me again with the back of her leg.
"Inhibitors stop magic. Now get talking, what is this, a trap?"
"No, Rainbow Dash," I pulled myself up from the ground as the magic ran into my hooves. "This was never a trap, it was a way out. A way out for me, a way out for you and a way out for Rarity. Nightmare Moon doesn't need to know you lost a prisoner, just go back and if anypony asks, you killed me yourself. Everypony can get on with their lives." She struck me again, anger and confusion in her eyes.
"You're not escaping, Sunset, if I have to I will turn this chariot right around and throw you before Nightmare Moon herself," she gripped me by the neck and stared into my eyes. "Or you can cooperate and help me find my time portal!" Sparks leaped off of my coat and onto Dash causing her to jump backwards in surprise. Above me I could feel the magic culminating in another portal. If I'd known that the next one was coming so soon I probably wouldn't have even bothered leading Dash on a wild goose chase.
"I think I just found your time portal, Dash!" I yelled over the wind and the roar of magic. "If I were you I'd stick to that plan! It really is the best for everyone!" With a wave of my hoof I said goodbye just as the portal ripped me from the back of the chariot and up into its magical grasp, the surge of power overloading the inhibitor and blasting it to pieces.
Where it took me next, that was the world where Tirek had gone unopposed, the world where I met the stallion who I.... well. That's a story for another day, Twilight. Thanks for listening, Rarity, it helped having you here. Oh, and could the two of you maybe not tell Dash about this? I'd rather she didn't know how...how mean she was in that other world.
Eventide stood nose to nose with Applejack, a sneer on her face. Behind the farmer was a surprised looking Twilight, an embarrassed Spike and a very confused looking Paula Apple. Over the years Spike had managed to grow to be a full head taller than his sister figure, though in fairness he was standing on two legs. Curiously though he had not yet come to grow a pair of wings, perhaps he was entirely the wrong type of dragon? Eventide had certainly asked him if it was a matter he'd be interested in having her look into but ever since her fourteenth birthday party the dragon hadn't seemed to be able to look at her the same way. While she still liked to consider the dragon a friend and was ambivalent towards the filly she frankly couldn't stand the other two mares, and that meant it was show time.
"Ah, Applejack, always a pleasure to be seeing you," Eventide said adopting her fake accent. "Might I be suggesting though that you send the little one home? I am thinking some of the words we shall be speaking are not suitable for the ears of one so young," Applejack's gaze hardened on her, fire in her eyes.
"Paula, get back to the farm, me an Twilight can take things from here sugarcube," Applejack didn't even turn to the filly as she spoke, instead keeping her gaze locked firmly on Eventide. Behind her the little filly nodded and sprinted off down the road. "Okay, Eventide, Paula's gone so drop the accent and start talkin, whadidja want with Bon Bon and Lyra and why were ya comin back from Fluttershy's? If you hurt even one hair on that poor mare's head then ah swear-"
Eventide cut Applejack off with a hollow laugh, practically a cackle. "Oh, Applejack, do you really think I'd stoop so low? I would never hurt a friend, and Fluttershy made it quite clear today that she still considers me a friend. As for Lyra believe it or not I've actually been helping her with getting her music heard, anything for a good friend."
"Yeah well what about Bon Bon huh? Accordin' ta Paula Bon Bon seemed to be actin mighty uncomfortable about you bein in her shop," while Applejack was getting up in Eventide's face Twilight had slowly walked closer to them, a concerned look on her face.
"Well that is between me and her, don't worry though I have never hurt that mare," Eventide paused briefly before whispering one final word, "physically." Applejack practically reared up on her hind legs in anger. Keeping her calm Eventide simply took a step back and tilted her head slightly to the side with a smile. "Relax AJ, I'm just kidding. Just a little joke between friends."
"You ain't no friend a mine missy!"
"I'm shocked, AJ!" Eventide gasped with mock horror. "I thought you were meant to be the element of loyalty! We were friends once upon a time weren't we? Don't you have any loyalty to your old friends?"
"Honesty, Eventide, ah was the element of honesty," to her delight Eventide could actually hear Applejack grinding her teeth.
"Well if that's the case, Applejack, how about you be honest with me right now? How about you tell me exactly what happened five years ago? Not the lies that Celestia lets the public believe, not the half truths that our oh so benevolent Princess of Friendship has been spewing to me. I want the truth, what really happened out there in the badlands?" Eventide's voice spat venom and for a moment it seemed as though Applejack was going to strike the younger mare.
"ENOUGH!" Twilight yelled. "Enough... Eventide, I know you are hurting but please, don't go taking your anger out on other ponies. This isn't the mare your mother wanted you to grow up to be," her voice was filled with sympathy and a touch of disappointment.
"You're right, Sparkle. She never wanted this for me, too bad isn't it? Sure I could be a better mare, but you know what? It's just so much easier to just act the way everypony expects me to! Oh those first few years I played things your way, Sparkle, I was nice and quiet, kept to myself and tried to avoid rising to all of the baits," she stepped around to get closer to Twilight, looking her in the eye was difficult with the height difference but she tried her best to look intimidating. "You know what happened though? Nopony cared! My side of the story was an elaborate fiction! The lies of a deranged mare trying to deny the truth about her lover!" She physically spat the last word causing Twilight to raise a hoof to her face to clean off the saliva. "What wonderful friends you all were when I had daily callers asking about my sex life, or if I'd learned dark magic, oh and my favorite, 'what were you really up to on your expeditions?'" She let out another mad cackle, a few tears trickling down her cheeks. "Over the course of a single week every contribution I had ever made was put under scrutiny, my whole career disowned, my name scrubbed off of the museum displays! I had to change my address to get away from all the hatemail from changelings and changeling sympathizers! Just where were you then, Princess?"
Applejack moved to stand between the two of them but with a single movement of her wing Twilight stopped her in her tracks. "Eventide, my door has always been open to you these past five years, I've sent you letters asking you to visit to speak with me. I've always wanted to help you but you've been pushing me away. If there is anything within my power that I can do to help you then I'll try. I can't make any promises but I'll do my best."
"Starswirl's time travel spell," the words came out instantly, catching twilight off guard. "If you care about me and mom, if you ever cared about us, then travel back to six years ago and this time be the friend you were supposed to be. Go back, and this time act like you give a damn, go back and fix this for everybody. Go back and actually listen to what Pinkie Pie had to say instead of just blindly following Celestia like the little sheep you are!" She may not have been a magical prodigy but Eventide didn't need spells to hurt other ponies, she could twist words like a knife if she felt like it.
"I'm sorry, Eventide, even if we still had the spell time travel doesn't work that way, it's a highly theoretical field and nopony really understands how it works."
"Lets say I could get you an intact copy of the spell though, would you and Starlight be able to try and use it to fix everything?"
"No, Eventide, and even if we could I don't think we would. Time travel is dangerous and frankly I don't think it is possible to use it to achieve your desires, if anything it seems naturally predisposed to causing chaos and disaster."
"Well then," Eventide muttered being sure to let Twilight hear the bitterness in her voice. "I really don't see what use you are to me." Eventide pushed her way past Twilight and Applejack, flashing Spike a smile and batting her eyelashes as she passed.
"Evey!" Twilight called, stopping the mare in her tracks. "Who told you about Pinkie Pie warning me?" Eventide didn't answer immediately, taking time to make sure she didn't let anything important slip.
"Pinkie told me in person, too late for me to do anything about it but, before the...unpleasantness."
"One more thing before you leave, Evey," the unicorn sighed in exasperation. "Zecora warned me that the alicorn amulet has gone missing, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"
"Sparkle, it's so nice to know you have the same low opinion of my character as everypony else." She lifted a hoof to her chin and tilted her head back carefully thinking on how best to answer. "Sparkle, if I had ever put on the amulet then I'm pretty sure you'd have heard about the mysterious and untimely death of Honest Quill. So no, Sparkle, no I don't know about your magical amulet. Maybe next time try keeping it someplace safe, it's a pretty sorry state of affairs if one cursed artifact can go missing twice in so short a span of time." With nothing more to say, Eventide marched off towards the train station, not wanting either of the other mares to see the tears she had been so desperately holding in.
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That evening Twilight dug out an old box of fire damaged belongings from the castle's storerooms. She had tried to return them to Eventide on several occasions but every time Evey had refused her. As she looked over the remnants of a life that seemed lost to time she couldn't help but wonder when everything had gone wrong. Inside the box were old foal's toys, children's books, a few old party dresses and what had survived of the little filly's diary. So little had been saved from the fire but what little Twilight still had seemed to belong to an entirely different mare to the one she had met today. She flicked the diary open to a random page and looked over the contents.
Dear Diary,
Me and mommy visited Manehatten today! There were lots and lots of cool things like big buildings and a very pretty statue. We went on all of the best rides at the fairground except for the ones that mommy was too tall for or I was too small for. We had lunch by the sea and I got to see one of Miss Rarity's shops! It was smaller than the one in Canterlot but mommy found me a very nice sunhat. After we bought it though mommy got in an argument with one of the mares who worked there about mommy's cloak, she said it wasn't very fashionable and made mum look 'round'. Mommy stormed off and we got a lot of funny looks from some ponies on the streets. When we got back to our wagon somepony called us gypsies and that made mommy very sad. I don't know what the word means but I'm sure the next time I see aunt Twilight I'll make sure to ask her.
This evening mommy asked me where I wanted to go next. I said I'd like to see Griffonstone and she agreed! We are going to start traveling tomorrow morning. My mommy is the bestest mommy in the world, she shows me all of these cool things and we get to travel to fun and exciting new places. She says that if I want we can visit the dragons someday, or even go to Zebrica! I want to see all of the world someday! Miss Dash gave me lots and lots of books about this pegasus called Daring Do who goes on exciting adventures all across Equestria. I'm still reading them now, I hope they have a happy ending. When I grow up I want to be just like Daring Do!
I miss flying. Mommy says we aren't allowed to fly in cities, she says it is very bad and might get us in a lot of trouble. She promises that there is a lot of road between here and Griffonstone though, so there will be lots of opportunities for us to fly before we get there. I'm not a good filly, diary, and i don't deserve to be allowed to fly. Mommy asked if I had seen her mirror and I said no, but actually I'd hid it under the bed. It was very naughty and when we are in Ponyville I will tell aunt Twilight that I was bad but only for a good reason. If I don't hide the mirror then sad mommy turns up, I don't know how to make sad mommy happy so for now I'll just keep hiding the mirror.
Evey
A few tears dripped onto the page before Twilight closed the diary. All of the signs had been there but she had done nothing.
---------------------------
Returning to Canterlot Eventide walked through the slums to her second property. It was very rare that she came here but the building wasn't without use. She had purchased it under a false name and to her knowledge not even Twilight knew about its existence. Quickly checking that she wasn't being followed she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Though it had been a burnt out ruin when she had first purchased it she had since managed to fix the worst of the damage and board up the windows. It had ample basement space for her purposes and was far enough out of the way that it was unlikely that the royal guard would stumble upon it by mistake.
With a few swift movements of her magic she opened a wall safe on the ground floor and checked the contents. Despite the fears that Twilight had managed to place in her mind the contents were undisturbed. She levitated the ominous silver and red amulet out of the safe and over to her body. She could practically feel the dark magic radiating off of it. For a few brief moments she levitated it over her neck and considered fastening the clasp, it would be simplicity itself, don the amulet and go out in a blaze of glory. How many of them would it take to put her down? Equestria was just waiting for an excuse to be rid of her, why not speed up the process?
Sighing, Eventide levitated the amulet away. No. Not tonight, the amulet would prove useful, but this was neither the right time or the right place. She had done her research and made her plans, she could wait a little longer for the rest of the pieces to fall into place. Content that her lair hadn't been discovered she levitated the amulet back into the safe to sit with the other five identical amulets that were stored inside. She slammed the door of the safe shut and smiled to herself. Soon, not now, but soon, very soon.
"Twilight! Emergency downstairs! We really need your help!" before Starlight burst into her throne room Twilight's day had been exceedingly dull. She'd spent the morning organizing paperwork for Celestia and preparing further friendship lessons for her student. At lunch Spike had brought her a plate of daisy sandwiches and there had been no indications of impending monster attacks or impromptu friendship crises. Granted, Twilight didn't object to the idea of Ponyville having some peace and quiet, but at the same time the monotony did sometimes wear upon her. So when Starlight burst into the room with a wide eyed expression of fear Twilight leaped from her chair before the unicorn had even opened her mouth.
"Where do we need to go?" she asked Starlight.
"The castle lobby downst-" the magical pop of teleportation magic cut Starlight off mid sentence as Twilight transported them both to the lobby. Looking around there was no immediate signs of danger but to her surprise she saw Fluttershy standing with Cheerilee, both with looks of worry on their faces. More troubling though was the fact that Cheerilee was nursing a very recent looking black eye.
"What happened!?" Twilight asked looking between her three friends and trying to make sense of the scene. While she did consider Cheerilee a good friend, it was very rare for her to show up at the castle. As for Fluttershy she and Starlight were meant to be taking Sunset to her checkup at the hospital. "Where's Sunset?" The thought hit her like a train, had something happened to her friend? "Are you alright, Cheerilee?" she added realizing just how bad the other mare's eye looked.
"Sunset's in the library and I'm fine, Twilight, really, it looks worse than it is," Cheerilee stated matter of factly, though she winced in pain a little as she applied an ice pack to her eye. "I'm more worried about your friend, I can't imagine what she must be going through."
Twilight bit her lip trying to work out exactly what Cheerilee was talking about. With the hope of having Sunset's foal attend the local school if she did decide to stay in Ponyville Twilight had managed to convince Sunset to allow her to tell Cheerilee about the pregnancy. She hadn't yet arranged a meeting for the two to get to know each other and, to Twilight's knowledge, Cheerilee didn't have any further information about Sunset's situation, certainly nothing to warrant her comment.
"Oh, it was all going so well too," Fluttershy whispered with disappointment. Twilight looked at her expectantly but before Fluttershy could elaborate Starlight stepped in to let her know what had happened.
"Everything went fine at the hospital, Twilight. Sunset went in for her check up and when she came out she seemed happy enough. Doctor Horse had given her some more dietary guidelines to be following and she had some 'special news' that she couldn't wait to share with you when she got back to the castle," Starlight stopped and shook her head. "Then when we were on the way back here we saw Cheerilee walking by and waved her over. The three of us exchanged hellos but when we came to introduce her to Sunset... Sunset started freaking out. Really bad."
"This isn't as bad as it looks, really, I just hope you can get her the help she needs," Cheerilee stated sincerely.
"She hit you?" Twilight stared at the schoolteacher in shock.
"Well ummm... first she shouted at her a bit, then Cheerilee tried to explain things to her and then she hit her," Fluttershy whispered sheepishly. "She ummm... accused Cheerilee of being a changeling, she said that if she was the real Miss Cheerilee then she would have recognized her." Twilight stared at the three for a few moments before the gears clicked into place. Of course, Sunset had known a Cheerilee on the other side of the portal, that didn't exactly excuse her response but it did begin to explain some of the situation.
"The poor mare," Cheerilee sighed. "I can't imagine anypony would respond well to being told somepony they thought they had known for years was really a changeling. I imagine I could have let her know with a bit more tact. Perhaps we should hold off on introducing me to her until a later date, Twilight? She seemed a little out of sorts." Twilight nodded dumbly. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I should have somepony look at this eye." When Cheerilee walked out of the castle Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry, girls, I had no idea she might act so poorly to meeting the pony version of someone from the humans world. She seemed to be coping so well with the pony versions of the girls that I suppose I never considered that she might do something like this. Where is she now?"
"She ran off and hid in the library, Twilight. If you don't mind me saying though this seemed a little much for her just being creeped out by seeing a pony Cheerilee, she really seemed to believe she was a changeling, Twilight." The two mares nodded in agreement before turning to look at the library door.
"I'll talk to her, see if maybe she's calmed down a little. She's been through a lot and from what Sunset has said so far...well I get the impression that the changelings left a pretty bad impression on her, I'm not surprised if she might be a little bit paranoid about them."
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Sunset crouched down in the center of a carefully constructed book fort, the walls barely came up to her muzzle but even still it gave her a small measure of comfort. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there crying, she felt awful about hitting the other pony. What had come over her? She saw the doppelgangers of her CHS friends everyday so why had this one thrown her so badly?
"Hey, Sunset, is there room in there for one more?" On the other side of the wall of books was standing Twilight Sparkle herself, a reassuring smile on her face. Sunset awkwardly shuffled over a little, giving Twilight room to sit down beside her and place a wing over her withers.
"Is...is Cheerilee okay?"
"She's fine, Sunset, she doesn't blame you for what happened, she's just a little worried about you that's all." Twilight gently rubbed Sunset's back to help calm the other mare down. "Want to talk about what happened at the hospital? I hear you have some good news," Twilight asked in an attempt to improve Sunset's spirits.
"She's a unciorn, just like her parents," Sunset managed to say with a hint of a smile. "The doctor showed me some magical scans of her, she's so tiny but they can already tell her gender and everything," she continued barely concealing her sniffling nose.
"That's wonderful, Sunset, maybe when she grows up we could have her attend Celestia's school, if she's anything like you then I imagine you have a real magical prodigy on your hooves, Sunset," Twilight continued rubbing her back but Sunset seemed to flinch at the touch. She turned and looked Twilight in the eyes, a deep sadness on her face.
"Twilight, have you ever heard of a living will?" Sunset asked seemingly out of nowhere. "It's something they have in the human world, a person can write down exactly what they want done if they ever become unable to... to make reasonable decisions. I explained the idea to Dr Horse today and he helped me write mine." Silence hung in the air between the two of them for a few moments as Twilight sat dumbfounded at the statement.
"Why?" It seemed the only question worth asking.
"Twilight, I'm not well. I'm worried I might fall back into my old habits, but worse this time. If anything like that happens, or...or if I die then the will comes into effect."
"Sunset, you are better than that, you're a changed mare and you're not going to die."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Twilight," Sunset said shaking her head in despair."Doctor Horse says I'm not healing as well as he expected. I'm trying my best to stick to his diet but it isn't helping, apparently there's several things wrong with my blood and the word immune system came up a few times... Twilight, if the worst happens I want you to be her legal guardian."
"Sorry?" This was not what Twilight had expected to be hearing, how had Sunset's 'good news' turned into this?
"Twilight, I haven't got any real family and most of my friends are the other side of the portal... I want her to grow up here in Equestria, this is her heritage and I don't want to deny it to her. You and Celestia are like family to me Twi, if it comes to it I want her to grow up here in Ponyville where she can make friends and not have to worry about all the stuffy politics of Canterlot. I'd be honored to have you raise my daughter, Twilight, if... if I'm not around to do it."
"Okay," Twilight whispered holding in her own tears. The thought had never crossed her mind till now. Sunset's poor health had been common knowledge among most of the population of Ponyville but she had never considered the danger it might put her in during her pregnancy. "Anything else I should know about the will?"
"Her life comes before my own. If it comes down to it then the doctors save her first."
"You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?"
"Yeah... Her father was a good stallion, Twilight, when I met him he was trying to save the world all by himself," Sunset chuckled morosely to herself.
"I'd love to hear about him," Twilight said returning her wing to Sunset's back.
"Okay Twi..."
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It wasn't exactly a fairy tale romance but it sure started that way. When I say I literally fell out of the sky on top of him that isn't some metaphor, a few feet to the left and I'd have landed directly on top of him. See the thing with the portal was that it seemed to try its best to drop me off wherever it had found me, in this case that was high up in the sky just south of the Crystal Empire, problem was while there had been a sky chariot where it had picked me up there wasn't one where it dropped me off.
I panicked a little flailed my hooves in the empty air and then remembered I had my magic. I managed to use it to slow my descent just in time to stop myself winding up as a small red stain on the tundra. It still hurt when I hit the ground but I was getting pretty good at managing to land without aggravating my leg. I barely had time to pull myself together before he sprinted over to make sure I was alright. He was sweet, and handsome and he was genuinely concerned for my health. He actually opened up with 'are you alright?' before the more obvious 'holy Celestia, you fell out of the sky'.
When he'd made certain that I had no life threatening injuries we made our introductions, no I'm not telling you his name, Twilight, I already made it clear that I don't want anypony to go looking for him. Anyway, when he saw my magic his face practically lit up, it was like seeing a human be introduced to magic, he seemed so surprised. I was a little confused by that and so we began filling each other in with some context. I went through the whole 'lost in space and possibly time' speech while he told me about the Tirek situation. The way he told it I was probably the last unicorn in Equestria able to cast magic, and bless his heart he wanted to make sure I didn't lose it.
We traveled north towards the ruins of the Crystal Empire. Apparently Sombra's return had been thwarted but not without some collateral damage, the Empire in that world was a ruin, abandoned by Equestria and rife with dark magic trinkets that nopony had dared to touch. My new friend was apparently heading there in the hopes of finding something strong enough to stop Tirek and I was happy to accompany him, it was nice to have friendly company and I still had a lingering hope that i might find the mirror there. It wasn't easy going, the north seemed colder and crueler than it had been during my previous spell in it and I had come without any food or clothing. My friend was willing to share what little he had and wouldn't take no for an answer, so the two of us pressed on as best as we could.
Over the few days it took us to get to the Empire we shared stories, talked about the good and the bad. I ended up telling him how I'd been through a bit of a dark patch, how I idolized Celestia and how I never knew my family. He told me about his career, his hopes for a better future and his own family troubles, his parents and marefriend had all apparently died during Tirek's rampage. I was a little worried that my new friend was on a revenge quest and was in danger of succumbing to the dark magic he hoped to use, but then he told me a little story about the Equestrian version of our friend Trixie.
In this Equestria she was personal apprentice to Celestia and when Tirek broke free she had made a valiant last stand against him. She had acquired a cursed trinket called the alicorn amulet and while it did little in the face of Tirek's overwhelming strength it had an interesting side effect when Trixie was defeated. When Tirek tried to absorb the dark magic from the amulet it seemed to weaken him leaving him in a state similar to how he had been when he first broke free of his prison, apparently his conquest had slowed massively after that. My friend's plan was to find whatever dark artifacts Sombra had left in the north and use them to poison Tirek, to make him weak enough that he could be returned to Tartarus. I wasn't thrilled with the plan but it seemed to give him hope in an otherwise hopeless world so I didn't voice my concerns.
We were a day away from the Empire when the blizzard hit. The two of us nestled close together in a makeshift shelter, we huddled close together to conserve our body heat. I leaned over to lay my head next to his but before I could get settled he turned to look at me, we stared into each others eyes, leaned in close, and kissed. It was spur of the moment, it was probably a mistake but at the time neither of us really cared. We... well I won't go into all the details but I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next. And every night after that for that matter. We were both dealing with some pretty bad stuff but having each other made it all a little more bearable. It wasn't true love, I'm sure somepony with a better grasp could describe what it was, love for the sake of convenience if you want to be cynical I guess. It didn't matter to us though, what we had was good enough for both of us.
The blizzard passed after about two and a half days and I spent the rest of my time there helping him search through the ruins of the Empire. I never found the mirror but my magic proved invaluable for disarming magical traps that Sombra had left to guard his dark relics and for defrosting frozen doorways. By day we would scrounge for treasure and by night...
I'd counted the days this time round and was getting much better at predicting the portal's arrival. It was a week in total and for the last few hours of that seventh day the two of us lay together about a fire. I'd warned him from the start that I wouldn't be able to stay, that like it or not I'd be spirited away from him and we would probably never see each other again. We just laid together, said our goodbyes and wished each other the best of luck. I hoped his plan would work out and he hoped that I could find my way home. It was nice, it wasn't like being family, but it was close enough.
This time when the portal grabbed me I was ready for it, I had makeshift robes to warm me and a few scraps of food that my lover could spare for me. It appeared and I jumped into it before it had a chance to tear me away, it seemed like the exit was a little less unpleasant that way.
What was his name, Sunset?
Still not saying. Maybe someday, but not today. You need to understand, Twilight, that as much as I might have 'loved' him, I'm never going to be able to see him again, not the version of him I fell for. We wouldn't have any history, he wouldn't have the memories of what we went through together. There may be a stallion out there identical to my filly's father, but it isn't him,Twilight, and it never will be.
Prowling the streets of Manehattan in her trademark jacket and hat, Eventide took a certain amount of pride that even without wearing a costume many ponies would likely regard her as the scariest thing they saw tonight. She didn't even try to look menacing, a polite smile here, a well meaning grin there, she could send stallions running with even the smallest of civilities. She would likely end up receiving an earful from Starlight (or from Twilight if the alicorn even cared in the slightest) about how she shouldn't be out at all on Nightmare Night, let alone be visiting Manehattan. Truth be told Eventide had no real problem with Manehattan until she had seen the article about their 'changes' to the holiday, too bad for them, if they didn't want her to show up then they'd have left the matter well enough alone. The best part of the whole situation was that so long as she didn't kick up a fuss there was no legal measure that could be taken to remove her. None of her restraining orders kept her from visiting the city and the Nightmare Night revels had been advertised as a public event Everypony Welcome.
As she walked the streets of Manehattan she stared at the towering skyscrapers and fashionable shops done up with Nightmare Night decorations that were, for the most part, tastefully blue and black. Evidently she had not yet reached the offending district that had opted for red and yellow. If things had worked out differently she could have seen herself living in the big city, maybe she could have moved there after she'd finished with her adventures. She could have lived the high life, hosting parties with her amassed fortune, making friends with the locals and possibly even settling down. Manehattan was meant to be pretty open minded about things, perhaps she could have managed to start a family without being judged for her preferences.
"Hey, miss, miss!" Eventide snapped back to reality as a small group of foals came running up to her. A colt with vampire fangs, a filly dressed as a toilet roll mummy and a ghostly trio whose genders were indeterminate on account of the bed sheets they were wearing. "That's an awesome costume, miss! You even got the cutie mark right!" the vampire squeaked.
"Yeah, thing is kid this 'aint a costume. This is how I usually dress." Eventide deadpanned the whole thing and waited for the kids to run off, except they didn't.
"You mean you're her? You're really Eventide Trailblazer!? That's so awesome!" the mummy said with the entire group joining in on for the final word. Eventide blinked a few times in confusion then frowned.
"You uh... you do know who I am right?" she asked trying to make sense of what was going on. Normally the confirmation of her identity was quickly followed up with some unpleasant comment or look of disgust, sometimes the other pony would just go silent and walk off as if the interaction had never happened. This was new territory.
"Sure do, miss!" the vampire shouted, from the looks of things he was probably the eldest of the group, maybe about twelve years old. "When I was little I had your photos and everything! Mom got me reading these books about this mare called Daring Do who went on all these cool adventures. She was cool, but then I found out that you were doing stuff like that for real! I had your book and some newspaper clippings and everything!" the book he was talking about was probably her first autobiography, she'd written it when she was nineteen at what was regrettably the height of her career. The book covered the first three years of her once successful career as well as some anecdotes about her youth detailing how she came to realize what she wanted to do with her life. The book had been a bestseller at the time only to be pulled off of the shelves a little over a year after its publication.
"So when you say you had my book..." she was pretty sure she already knew the answer to her own question.
"My mom took it away, she never said why though," the kid looked a little downtrodden at that. It did answer the question that had been nagging in the back of Eventide's mind though, the kids weren't scared because they didn't know. None of them knew her as anything more than renowned explorer Eventide Trailblazer. There was something immensely pleasing about being judged for her career again, it had been too long. "Are you going to write another?" he asked with a twinge of hope in his voice.
"That's... complicated, kid. Maybe someday, but I wouldn't get your hopes up," she had written a second book four years ago, it had never made print. Her first book had been subject to a few small pieces of censorship by the princesses, her second one had been politely denied publication by them for its content. She winced at the memory, all of her hopes and dreams had rested on that book and after she received the letter denying her the right to publish it she hadn't left the house for a whole month. "Hey, kid, a few words of advice from me to you. Always tell the truth, even if somepony else tells you not to; always follow your dreams, no matter where they take you; and look after your family, cause family is probably the single most important thing in the whole world," she hadn't really realized the last one until she had lost her own.
Flashing the group of foals one last smile she continued on her way. The kids seemed a little confused by what she had said but that was to be expected. After all, they had no idea why Eventide should be looking so sad, they had never been told why her book had been pulled from the shelves.
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The streets she was walking now were adorned with reds and yellows, the fiery pallet mixing well with Nightmare Night pumpkins and similar decorations. Her trip to Manehattan had been made with the intention of letting off steam at the expense of a few other ponies. To shout and rage at the ones who had decided to take Nightmare Moon out of Nightmare Night. From what she recalled Princess Luna loved the celebration, there was no reason to change things, the night princess didn't deem it to be in bad taste. That one run in with the foals though had shattered her resolve, what would she be accomplishing here? Sure she would get some of the anger off of her chest but she would likely ruin the night for a few kids in the process, and if the previous encounter was anything to go by then the kids were perhaps the only ponies in Equestria who still liked her.
Before, she had strutted about the streets with an air of superiority, now she couldn't help but notice the way passersby looked at her. The adults would shy away, avert eye contact perhaps glare at her or mutter something under their breath. The kids though treated her like any other pony, not a single one of them seemed to care who she was. A new resolve began to form in her heart as she pressed on deeper into the festival, there was a stage up ahead and she intended to use it.
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Principal Chalk smiled as he surveyed the Nightmare Night festivities. It had taken a little bit of work to get the rest of the school-board to agree but nopony would be able to argue with the results. The new and improved Nightmare Night was a significantly brighter and more colorful affair, the kids were loving it and there hadn't been a single complaint all night! He didn't want to toot his own horn but he'd wager this was the most successful Nightmare Night celebration that Manehattan had seen in decades and nothing was going to-
"Hey!" Chalk shouted as another unicorn climbed up onto the stage. The band had been given a break and his speech had long since passed so nopony else should be up there- he froze as he recognized the mare, his face turning a deathly white. His legs shook and his jaw silently rattled up and down as he tried to work out what to say. Not once during all of his preparations for the festival had he planned out what to do in the situation that Miss Trailblazer decided to turn up. She lived in Canterlot, she was a notorious recluse, in the past five years Chalk had not once heard of her attending a Nightmare Night festival. At this moment he should probably be doing something, call security, politely ask her to leave, maybe even try to tackle her off of the stage. Instead though, as images of an impending disaster culminating in his dismissal from his position as principal flashed through his head he opted to go with the simplest solution and fainted.
"Hello?" Eventide spoke into the microphone, "is this thing on?" with a few light taps that sent magically enhanced static through the festival she determined it was indeed on. As the eyes of the crowd turned to face her she saw a lot of confused looking foals and worried looking parents. Eventide sighed, took a deep breath and then began.
"Hello, for those who don't know me my name is Eventide Trailblazer. Over the past five years a lot of ponies have said a lot of things about me and about the mare Sunset Shimmer. I've said a lot of things too and a lot of that is stuff I regret. I'd like to apologize first off if my being here offends anypony, don't worry I'll try to keep things brief and then I'll be out of your hair. First of all I'd just like to say that while it is true that I was a close friend to Sunset, the nature of our relationship presented by the press is a complete fiction, we were never marefriends and we were certainly never..." she considered what word she could get away with in the presence of so many foals "...intimate." They probably didn't know what that one meant.
"For most of the last year that she was still in Equestria I saw very little of her, most of the questions I have been quoted as refusing to answer I simply didn't know the answers to, I was away on far off shores exploring strange and wondrous lands. Before that though I considered her a close friend. I can't speak for the last year but before that time I'd like to say that she was a kind and caring pony, just like any other. She had her flaws but who doesn't? She certainly wasn't the monster that she has since been labelled as, which I suppose is why I'm here tonight. The changes to this holiday sadden me but they don't surprise me. I'm not going to kick up a big fuss though, if this is how you want to celebrate then so be it. I would however like to question the motivations behind these changes. I read an article that stated that the main reason for the change was that the old holiday could be deemed disrespectful to a beloved mare, Princess Luna. I'm not going to try and say it isn't but I am going to say that if this is the only reason then it is just as disrespectful to hold the holiday with Sunset Shimmer as your symbol of fear. Like Luna she did some bad things, things that some might say were unforgivable, but also like Luna she wasn't always a monster. I for one have fond memories of her from before the...unpleasantness. I'm not going to make any demands or threats, I'd just like to say that if the aim was for the festival to cause no offense then it has sadly failed."
"Before I go though I would like to say a few words to the foals. A good friend of mine once told me that we should giggle at the ghostly and tonight I encourage you all to do just that. Have fun, eat your fill of candy and remember to be safe on the streets. Have a few scares and a few more laughs, enjoy yourselves but try to remember that this is a school night so don't stay up too late or you'll be in a lot of trouble with your parents in the morning. Have a spooktacular Nightmare Night and don't wander too far from your parents," ending her speech with a smile she was encouraged by the fact that there was no booing and nothing had been hurled at her. The adults seemed less angry at her being here and more confused. "Now then," she said into the microphone, "if anypony needs me I'm going to be spending the rest of this Nightmare Night at Manehattan observatory with somepony very special to me."
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To her dismay the observatory turned out to be closed for the night but she had thankfully had the foresight to bring along her own telescope. Sitting atop a small hill in the public park she adjusted her equipment and turned it to face the night sky. It was unlikely that her little escapade tonight wouldn't make the news. Had anypony recorded what she had said? Would the full speech spread across Equestria? She could hardly keep it from reaching Starlight but hopefully she would take the news well. The unicorn would likely be disappointed that she had decided to visit Manehattan but hopefully proud that she hadn't blown up at anypony. Regardless of her opinion on the events she would have a lot to talk about at the next meeting.
With a few final calibrations she turned the telescope to the Moon. Sure, what she was looking for could be seen with the naked eye on a night like this, but the extra magnification gave her a sense of closeness, of greater familiarity. Across the pock marked surface of the moon there stretched a great darkened imprint that covered almost half of its visible surface, the unmistakable image of a horned pony.
"Hey there, Sunset," Eventide whispered into the night. "How are things at your end? Is it really made of cheese up there or is that just a myth? Things are a little rough down here right now but I think they might be starting to look up. I'm going to have a family again Sunset, one way or another I'm going to make it happen. I'd talk to you more often but Starlight thinks it's bad for my health." Eventide sighed and turned her head away from the viewing lens. "Nine hundred and ninety four years," she muttered to herself. "In nine hundred and ninety four years I'll be dead, Sunset."
It had been months since Sunset had moved into Ponyville and Rarity was immensely thankful that in that time things had returned to normal. For awhile she'd been a little worried that Twilight was taking the situation a little too personally. She'd seemed to have placed the burden of seeing to Sunset's recovery firmly upon her own shoulders and it had been noticeable to all of her friends that she'd been becoming increasingly stressed and tired. Now though things seemed to have calmed down. Sunset was for the most part able to take care of herself and with the exception of a few minor altercations had adapted to life in Ponyville very well. Perhaps she was a little bit of a recluse but that was understandable, it was a little sad really how Twilight seemed to be the only one she seemed willing to completely trust as since the map had begun working again Twilight would often be out of town on friendship business. On days like that nopony really saw Sunset about town.
"Wow, I really can't thank you enough for this, Rarity," Raindrops turned a couple of times on the podium admiring her new dress from every angle.
"Think nothing of it, darling, I always strive to see the customer happy," noticing a few minor flaws in the dress Rarity quickly went about finishing her adjustments, her magic quickly correcting the imperfections.
"I know but it was at such short notice I was worried you might not be able to get it done," Raindrops sighed her face dropping slightly. "It's my own fault really, I've known about the wedding for months I just never seemed to get round to sorting out a dress." She admired herself once more in the mirror and smiled. "I just hope you haven't done too good of a job, I'm pretty sure it's bad form to show up better dressed than the bride."
The two of them shared a quick laugh. Oh adventure was all fine and good but Rarity adored moments like these, getting to work on a beautiful dress, talking to a friend or acquaintance...
"Say, Rarity... I don't suppose you've heard the latest piece of gossip floating around town have you?" Raindrops asked with a grin.
"Why a lady does not indulge in such petty things!" Rarity joked. "But do go on," she quickly flipped the sign on the door to 'closed' and then sat down at her coffee table with Raindrops quickly joining her.
"According to a less than reputable source, Prince Blueblood finally managed to knock up some poor mare in Canterlot! I mean everypony always assumed he'd been sleeping around, anyone who's met him wouldn't be surprised by that," Rarity could only nod in agreement, her own meeting with the stallion had proven his character to be lacking. "Except now he's gone and got one of his one night stands pregnant and Celestia is having to clean up his mess! Hay I bet the whole 'ambassadorial' thing he has going on right now is just to keep him out of the public eye till it all blows over."
"No!" Rarity gasped. "Oh it all sounds so scandalous! I doubt it's all true though, the Princess is hardly one to cover such a thing up. May I inquire as to the identity of your source? Somepony in the Canterlot elite no doubt!" Rarity's eyes lit up with hunger. It had been far too long since she had heard a good bit of gossip. Her mind quickly ran through the possibilities of Canterlot ponies who might have let the news spill, casually listing a few of those ponies as potentially being the mother of Blueblood's child.
"Roseluck!" Raindrops said with a conspiratorial grin. Not who Rarity had been expecting, Roseluck was a notorious gossip but it seemed unlikely that she would have a way of finding such a secret out. "Rose made a little wager with Berry months ago and apparently she won it. Now Berry has a little betting pool going on, which is pointless really because Rose already told everyone that Blueblood was the father..."
"I'm sorry, darling, but I'm afraid you've lost me, how in Equestria did Rose hear about this? And what is this about a betting pool?"
"Oh, it's just a few harmless bets as to who the foal's father is, as for Rose she worked it all out herself."
"So it isn't so much a matter of Rose having heard of Blueblood having a child, as it is that she assumes a mare is carrying his child," a chill passed down Rarity's spine as the implication began to set in, an awful dread setting in as she began to realize whom Rose might have been talking about.
"Pretty much," Raindrops nodded. "It's the new librarian," even if she wanted to it had become impossible to deny that Sunset was pregnant, between the frequent visits she had to the hospital and the increasingly obvious bump in her belly it had long since become pointless to deny the fact. "Random pregnant mares don't just turn up out of nowhere, and they certainly don't take up lodging with a Princess! According to Rose the only Princess that hasn't visited her is Luna. It all makes so much sense, Rarity, Blueblood got her pregnant and now the Princesses are trying to keep the whole thing quiet by looking after her and keeping her out of the way in Ponyville!" It took Rarity a great deal of self restraint not to do something rash, in the end she politely raised her hoof and called for Raindrops to be silent.
"Raindrops, I know we aren't really close friends but if you value my friendship in the slightest please promise me that you won't spread this little rumor around the town. Having spoken with Twilight and Sunset I can assure you it is also quite baseless. Sunset has been through rather a lot and she isn't in the best place right now. Now I know you and Rose meant no harm by it but we really must stop this silly little gossip, I can only imagine how upset Sunset would be if she were to hear about ponies whispering behind her back." As she spoke Raindrops smile dropped and her face turned pale.
"Oh dear..."
"How... how many ponies have heard about this little rumor..." Rarity mumbled, from the look on Raindrops' face she wasn't going to like the answer.
"I heard it from Cloud Kicker but there were a couple of other members of the weather team there with me. Ummm the betting pool though... when I asked Berry about it she said there was about two dozen ponies who'd already placed wagers," Rarity couldn't believe what she was hearing, this was just like the incident with Zecora all over again. Ponies had certainly seen Sunset walking around the town but the unicorn rarely spoke with the townsponies, just like Zecora she hid her body away and what little was seen was quite memorable.
"Dare I ask what people are saying about her behind her back?" Rarity muttered. She wasn't so much angry with the others as disappointed, she thought they were better than this, thought they would have learned from their mistakes.
"Well Blueblood is the most popular choice," Raindrops nervously answered, tugging at her mane. "Then on top of that there's ummm... I'm sorry Rarity but promise me you wont get too angry at some of these." Rarity sighed but motioned for her to continue. "Fancy Pants, Soarin, Hoity Toity, Soothing Spell, Dusk Duster..." Rarity raised an eyebrow at the last one, "apparently he's some distant descendant of Clover the Clever, I'd never heard of him either. Then there's also..." Raindrops paused again weighing up whether or not to tell Rarity. "Because she's staying with Twilight a few ponies have considered she might be doing a favor for family or a friend and they might have gotten it into their heads that... well Big Mac and Shining Armor are both on the list too." Rarities mouth dropped wide open. "There's ummm also a bet that Thunderlane placed, that she got pregnant in prison."
"Prison?" Rarity gasped. It was one thing to imagine how bad Sunset might feel if she got wind of ponies speculating about her foals father, but to have them calling her a common criminal! "Where in Equestria did he get such an idea?"
"He uh... he sort of thought she was kinda attractive even with the burns... and well... you know Thunderlane. He 'accidentally' bumped into her in Sugar Cube Corner hoping to get a look under the dress and he uhhh... he saw some things while she was getting herself back up."
"What sort of things," Rarity grimaced.
"She had some sort of thing wrapped around her horn, he said it looked a little like an inhibitor. He also said she has some sort of tattoo across her cutie mark, except it's just a string of numbers. Like identification or something. Look, Rarity, I'm sorry, I don't think any of us thought that this might hurt her. It was just a little bit of harmless gossip."
"Yes, well, the damage may have already been done. I'll talk to Twilight, perhaps you could see about having Berry cancel her little betting pool. I'm sure if you explain it to her politely she will be happy to oblige."
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After Rarity had finished explaining the situation to her Twilight the Princess just sat there blinking. "They did what?" she asked incredulously, if Rarity hadn't gone into so much detail she would have asked her friend to repeat what had just been said to make sure she'd heard right. She could scarcely believe that this had been going on.
"Yes, well I've asked Raindrops to try and explain the situation to Berry and I'll be going around the town hoping to mitigate some of the damage, don't worry, I shall be having words with Rose about what she has done," from the way she was talking Twilight imagined the words would be quite loud.
"I should probably speak with Sunset," Twilight sighed, "hopefully she hasn't heard but... well hopefully she hasn't heard."
"Heard what?" both mares jumped at the sound of the third voice, standing in the doorway was Sunset a mad grin on her face. "The part where I apparently slept with half the Canterlot nobility? Or maybe the part where I'm a dangerous criminal who's been let out of jail just long enough for me to give birth," a few tears were working their way down Sunset's face as she spoke. "What about the part where I was apparently talking to my own reflection in windows, did Raindrops tell you that too or did this Roseluck forget to mention that part to her," Sunset gave a hollow chuckle and stared at the floor.
"Sunset, how much did you hear-"
"Only the end of your conversation, Twilight, but a whole lot more the past few weeks about town. I'd have brought it up with you but... well I was pretty much expecting this to happen. I did warn you Twilight, this is precisely why I don't want anypony knowing who her father is," Sunset slumped backwards onto her hindquarters and rubbed a hoof across the surface of her belly. "Sunset Shimmer, home wrecker," she laughed again. "If this is how a few small town ponies are going to react, how would Equestria treat me... us if they knew the truth? He'd hate me for lying about having slept with him and everypony else, well they'd probably hate one of us, either me for for being some gold digging little orphan or him for refusing to take responsibility. Twilight, I'm going to raise this filly without his help, deal with it. Now you can either support me in this, and if Ponyville will have us then the two of might live here. Or I can go somewhere else, somewhere that ponies wont care about who her father is. Your choice, Twilight," rising from the floor Sunset strode out of the room leaving the other two mares standing open mouthed and visibly shaken. Until now they hadn't quite realized how touchy a subject the foals parentage had been with her.
Starlight Glimmer didn't make a habit of visiting her patients unannounced but this morning she had made an exception. Her next meeting with Eventide wasn't due for about a month but after she'd read her morning paper it seemed pertinent to check in on her.
Former archeologist, Eventide Trailblazer, caused an uproar in Manehattan last night when she interrupted the festivities in an attempt to further her own agenda. Taking to the stage uninvited, Ms Trailblazer spoke at length on her own opinions and relationship with regards to the figure Sunset Shimmer who was banished from Equestria five years ago by the Elements of Harmony. Listeners were appalled at the manner in which Ms Trailblazer seemed to be attempting to garner sympathy for the infamous monster. Relatives of Sunset Shimmer's victims were unavailable for interview, while Princess Naiad declined to give an official statement on the incident.
Starlight sighed as she scanned the rest of the article, it really only got worse from that point onward. She paused outside Eventide's door and was thankful that her patient's residence was not publicly known information. Those few journalists who had managed to track her down had been subject to gagging orders directly from Celestia herself; as the information began to circulate that the Princess wished for Eventide to be left alone the press quickly stopped trying. Starlight hesitated at the door, one hoof raised to knock but a feeling of impropriety keeping her from continuing. Eventide was a nice enough mare, she seemed to get on with Starlight and Eventide never judged her for her past actions. Unlike most of Starlight's friends she hadn't really known Eventide very well when she was just a little filly; Starlight had always been kept at a distance from the foal and hadn't really gotten to know her till she had begun attending therapy. That was the real problem though, Starlight could be the best friend in the world to Eventide but it still wouldn't change the fact that the young mare was broken, damaged goods. It was possible that Starlight being here would only make things worse, who was to say what her mental state would be like at the moment? It took the sound of breaking glass on the other side of the door to spur Starlight to action.
Mustering a small burst of magic Starlight teleported to the other side of the door and into Eventide's house. She hadn't visited her at home before and was a little surprised at how plain and humble the interior was. This surprise however was quickly overtaken by fear and shock at the state of the mare in front of her. Eventide was swaying back and forth in a chair attempting to uncork a bottle of wine with her teeth, scattered about the living room table were a number of empty bottles of varying spirits and on the floor was the broken remnants of a bottle of whisky, its fragments slick with liquor and blood. One of Eventide's back legs was resting on the floor in the midst of the bottle's remnants, shards of broken glass poking into the skin as rivulets of blood spread across their surface.
"Eventide!" Starlight screamed, yanking the bottle out of the other unicorn's hooves with her magic and placing it on the table, before turning her telekinesis to quickly scooping up the shards of glass off of the floor.
"Whadda you want?" Eventide growled, her voice slurring the words together and anger in her eyes.
"Evey, you're hurt! We need to get that leg cleaned and bandaged up," Starlight began pulling cloths and towels over from Eventide's kitchenette to start cleaning the mess but she had no idea where the unicorn might keep her medical supplies if she had any.
"Dozen hurt any moren what they had to say about me," Eventide grimaced pointing at a newspaper lying scrunched up on the table. It wasn't even midday yet Starlight mused hoping that the empty bottles hadn't been full when Eventide began drinking. "I godup an I said the trooth ta them, and nothin offensive. I didn shout or scream and I didn try to say that what she did was right, just tha she wasn't always like that. Jus that there was anudda side to her, that she was a pony like every pony else," Eventide slammed a hoof down on the table crushing the paper beneath it. "And they jus when ahead and spat in my face. Um done playing Twilight's games, Starlight. I lose when I'm honest, I lose when I tell the lies thad I'm supposed to tell, sho what now? I keep trying to come up with shome excuse to shtick around but every time it just blows up in my face. S'like the howl of Equestria wants me to be bad, wants me to do something wrong."
Starlight took Eventide between her forehooves and hugged her tight, whispering hushing noises in her ear. "You're not a bad mare, Evey, I can't say I'm proud of you for going to Manehattan when you probably knew things might get quite heated, and I'm certainly opposed to you obsessing over the moon," the writer of the article had tailed Eventide after her speech, by the end of the week her moon gazing would be common knowledge across all Equestria, "but I'm proud of you for trying to push past this and trying to be the better pony. I'm sure your mother would be proud too." Eventide whimpered quietly between Starlight's hooves and nodded. "Now, Evey, do you have some medical supplies in the house? I need to take a look at this leg."
"Upstairs, first door on the left ish the bathroom. Medical cabnets inside."
Starlight released Eventide from her grasp and made her way to the bathroom. As Eventide had promised the cabinet was inside and Starlight began collecting the necessary supplies. She picked up some cotton wool, tweezers, disinfectant and bandages as well as filling up a small tub with water. As she got what she needed her eyes paused on a pair of bottles in the cabinet, one was the new prescription for Eventide's medication but the other was unfamiliar to her. Pulling it closer with her magic Starlight examined the bottles label in confusion. Aetherozin- Take three pills with a glass of water every evening until symptoms have subsided. Prescribed by Dr Good Wishes to Eventide Trailblazer for Magical Exhaustion. Starlight blinked a couple of times and reread the label, while it wasn't unheard of for unicorns to suffer from magical exhaustion after casting particularly complicated spells the problem was only really present among mages and other frequent practitioners of magic. Eventide was somewhat lacking in magical talent, to Starlight's knowledge she was only really capable of telekinesis and minor acts of pyromancy. Given her special talent Twilight had once hypothesized that Evey would likely become an expert at long range teleportation but the spell had proven to be beyond the little filly's talents. So what could Eventide possibly have been doing that would have left her in a state of magical exhaustion?
---------------------------------------------
Starlight considered asking Eventide about the Aetherozin while she cleaned and treated her injury but decided against it, at the moment the mare was in no state to answer such prying questions.
"Why are you sho good to me, Starlight?" Eventide whispered as she finished up removing the last of the glass.
"You're a good friend, Evey, and I care about what happens to you. Even if I wasn't your therapist I'd still care about your well being, I don't want to see you getting hurt."
"But you hate me, Starlight," the unicorn froze at Evey's words. "I'm not blind. Every time I visit you ken baerly look at me. You run off an cry. Not blind Starlight. Not blind."
"I don't hate you, Evey... It just... it hurts to see you sometimes. I let you down, I hurt your mother and I just... It feels wrong to sit there and act like everything is okay Evey." Starlight turned to look Eventide in the eye expecting to see a familiar scorn, instead there was only confusion and sadness.
"Mum didn like you. But thawas her problem, I never held you to that. And you were pretty much tha only one who didn't let me down, Starlight... well, you an Fluddershy. You weren't there five-" Evey stopped and shook her head, "-shix years ago. You didn't stab me in the back."
"Evey," Starlight began, taking a deep breathe before continuing. She liked the little mare and hoped they could remain friends but at the same time feared that nothing would be the same after she had finished what she was going to say. "Evey, when you came back to Equestria six years ago... six years ago today, I was meant to be at the train station to pick you up. Twilight wanted me to be there to get you somewhere safe before anypony took advantage of you, we knew you wouldn't have heard the news yet and... and it seemed best that you had it broken to you by friends instead of strangers." Evey sat there and blinked a couple of times, her expression unreadable. "When I got to the station though, your boss noticed me... Mr Quill told me that your train had already come in and you'd headed back to your house. I ran off hoping to catch up to you before you got into any trouble and when your train actually came in I wasn't there to help you. Evey, it's my fault he had the opportunity for that interview with you, I'm sorry. If there's anything I can-"
"Shush" Eventide cut her off. "Quill's a bashterd. Sgot nothing ta do with you Starlight. He tricked you, an he tricked me an if I ever go off the deep end he's gonna be ina lotta trouble. Don't blame you, Starlight. Shit happens, wasn't your fault," Eventide squirmed a few times in her seat as Starlight finished bandaging her leg. "Im jusht glad you don't hate me, Starlight. Got too few friends left to go around losing them."
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By the time Starlight left it was already evening. The unicorn had deemed it necessary to remove all of Eventide's remaining alcohol from the house and though Eventide was thirsty for another drink she found it hard to blame her for the decision. She'd been a real mess when Starlight had come in, she hadn't even realized that she'd stepped in the glass until Starlight had pointed it out. She still felt a little tipsy but by the time Starlight left she had mostly returned to her senses (mostly).
As she lay on her couch nursing her injured leg and suffering from a growing headache, a buzzing sound filled the air, a magical thrumming originating from her bookcase. Wincing in pain at even the most minor of magic tricks she levitated the book across to where she was sitting and looked over the cover. It was a thick unlabelled tome with no real markings on it except for a few metallic clasps and the image of her cutie mark emblazoned on the cover. Flipping it open the book stopped humming and Eventide turned to the most recent page.
Hey, Blazer, just thought I'd let you know that the ritual is set up and ready to go. Was a little tricky getting the crystals to hold the magical charge but it should be nice and portable, just set it up when you want to use the spell.
Eventide smiled as she read over the words picking up a quill of her own and writing a line beneath the most recent entry.
Heeeey, Sapphire, how you doing?
There was a brief pause then the book hummed again, a new line appearing on the page.
Ummm you okay there, Blazer? Your writing was all over the place.
Nope I'm really really drunk right now. You know, I'm really not doing anything at the moment. Howsabout I come over to your place and we have some fun?
Blazer, what day is it over there? And I don't mean week day, I'm talking calendar day.
Night after Nightmare Night
In that case no. Look the stuffs ready you just need to come pick it up and I'd love to see you again anyway, but right now I think you should be getting some sleep. You're clearly not feeling like yourself right now and what with it being the anniversary of your mother's death, well I don't want you doing something stupid you're going to regret later on.
But I've done so many stupid things I regretted later on! At least this one would be fun!
Not today. But maybe when you next visit.
So hows the ritual work? I don't have the scroll yet but is there anything else I need?
Other than the magical catalyst? A pretty hefty magical source to power the whole thing, a suitable receptacle to receive the spell and then a pair of identifiers to track the target.
Got my power source, receptacles old hat. What are the identifiers?
Well in your case I think we can get away with two hair samples. One lock of hair from you and one from your mother. I get that the second one is tricky but I trust you have your ways?
Possibly. Does it have to be an exact match? If I were to say take a lock of hair from mom's identical twin would that work?
Should do. The important thing is that you have to use your own hair, no donors for that one. If it isn't an exact match you might just end up finding another doppelganger.
Good to know. Anyways, I think I'll call this a night.
Night, Blazer.
Eventide closed her journal and gently kissed the cover. Let the ponies of Equestria say whatever they damn well pleased. She didn't need them anymore. Soon she would have the final pieces of her spell and when it was complete everything would be right again. The hair sample might take a little bit of work but she had a plan for that, and once Sweetie Drops got back to her she could easily enough acquire the magical catalyst. It would be like taking candy from a foal. She laughed to herself; Twilight was worried that she had stolen the Alicorn Amulet to seek out some petty vengeance, silly Twilight, so short sighted and unimaginative. With that sort of power available to her why would she waste it on revenge? No...Twilight would never see this coming, not until it was too late to stop her.
Okay, Twilight, where did I leave off? With Tirek? Yeah that sounds about right.
So as things were I was cold and hungry but not really unhappy. Sure I was a little sad at having left the last world but I had to press on, had to deal with whatever the world threw at me next. Considering that I was in the Crystal Empire when I was taken by the portal I was pretty surprised at what I was greeted by.
Warm sandy beaches as far as the eye could see, fluffy pink clouds spread across the sky and great pools of bright green water. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, the worlds I'd been to before were horrible, twisted versions of reality. This seemed calm, serene, pleasant. I thought I might have gone mad.
Maybe you had.
Quiet, you. As I surveyed what I had been expecting to be another arctic wasteland I suddenly noticed something was wrong with the Empire itself. While the surrounding lands had been flipped from frozen north to tropical paradise the Empire itself had been entirely replaced with a vast green citadel. It still seemed to be made of precious gemstones but instead of crystal everything was formed out of great spires made of emerald. I began to wander the streets looking for some sign of life but I seemed alone in the city, the streets were entirely deserted, the buildings unoccupied. Through the city there ran a great thoroughfare that I initially thought was made of gold but on closer examination was actually just made up of bricks painted in bright yellow.
That was pretty much how I spent the whole first day there though, just wandering around in silence, not wanting to call out just in case I wasn't alone (experience had left me wary of trusting strangers in these strange worlds) and not wanting to leave the confines of the city in case there was something sinister lurking in the world outside.
Paranoia doesn't suit you, Sunset. I think I preferred it when you were a sociopath, at least then you were interesting.
I said quiet!
Just telling you the truth, Sunset.
Moving on! I did manage to find some little signs that the city was used in the form of furnishings and small food stores from which I managed to make myself a small lunch of oats and stale fruit, I didn't imagine the owners would miss them. As evening turned to night I picked a house with a comfortable enough looking bed and settled down for some much needed sleep. I'll tell you this now Twilight, if I learned anything from my travels it's that you really have to appreciate a proper meal and a comfy bed, you never know when you will see them again next.
Too bad that your sleep was restless though, Sunset. I imagine the nightmare haunted you?
No...I didn't.... Okay fine, even with the comfortable bed the nightmare still haunted me. The great red alicorn...
You.
What?
Well it wasn't just any alicorn was it? I mean come on, red coat and bat wings? Sounds a lot like how you looked at the fall formal don't you think?
I didn't tell you what the alicorn looked like, did I?
No, you can thank Luna for that. Now lets stop beating about the bush, Sunset. You are literally your own worst nightmare right?
Yes... yeah that's pretty much true. Wait, if Luna has seen my nightmares why hasn't she done anything to stop them?
Just continue the story, Sunset, I'm a busy mare and I really don't have all day to waste on the likes of you.
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When I woke the next day it was to a cockerel that had somehow made its way into the room I was using. I didn't realize what it was at first though because instead of crowing it let out an electronic beeping noise, like an alarm clock from back home. On instinct I swatted it on the head to try and make it shut up and it was only when my hoof came down on soft feathers instead of hard plastic that I realized something was wrong. I stared at the bird a little bit, rubbing sleep from my eyes to make sure I was seeing things correctly. It was definitely a cockerel and it had definitely performed a perfect impression of an alarm clock. It returned my stare for a few brief moments then ran off making strange saxophone sounds instead of clucking. As a reasonable mare...
Reasonable is pushing it don't you think? You did sort of abandon your studies over a petty feud, you stole a magical crown in an ill advised attempt at conquest and you even jumped through a clearly unstable magic portal on a whim.
AS A REASONABLE mare, I decided to go through the normal sort of checks to see if I was dreaming. Pinched myself, threw water on my face, tried falling backwards... With all those failing I decided that I was actually awake and that this new world was just really weird. I made myself some breakfast from the meager food supplies in the house then set off towards the main palace at the center of the city. If there was any evidence of what had happened in this world then I was going to find it there, plus I was still holding on to the hope that I might have found another world where the portal had been moved to the Crystal Empire. It was while I was walking down the main road that the world decided it needed to prove a point and hammer home just how weird it really was, so it started raining chocolate. After tasting the first few drops of rain I sprinted into the palace, not wanting to risk suffering some strange curse from whatever weirdness this world had to offer, the past had taught me caution if nothing else.
Sunset, caution is really just a polite way to say paranoia. How are you not seeing that?
The palace was...
So now you're just ignoring me? Real mature, Sunset, Celestia would be so proud.
...was just as empty as the other houses, but where the homes had been abandoned the palace seemed fundamentally wrong. It felt like a facade, an illusion of a real castle. The tapestries adorning its halls were made out of paper, the paintings were all white sheets with the number four hundred and four written on them placed in expensive looking frames. I tapped one of the walls after walking past a particularly flat looking door and found that the entire wall was just a prop, a stage dressing sitting in front of a much plainer actual wall.
When I reached what appeared to be some kind of throne room I found it to be empty except for a curtained partition and a large empty fishbowl. In front of the bowl was a small signpost reading Out on Chaos, Please Ignore the Sign Behind the Curtain. I frowned and pulled back the curtain with my magic revealing another sign that read Sorry for the inconvenience. I shrugged my shoulders and continued onward, deeper into the palace.
The layout was mostly the same so navigation wasn't so much difficult as surreal. It was easy enough to find where I wanted to go but half the time some strange quirk of the architecture would make it feel like I was walking upside down, or across a wall. This wasn't helped by the fact that whoever had remodeled the castle had opted to place numerous extraneous staircases on the walls and ceiling. As I rose to the higher floors of the palace I looked back down from where I had come and saw that one staircase even seemed to be looping round on itself, constantly ascending but never going anywhere. I turned away before I got a headache, while the owner of the castle wasn't mad in the same way that Sombra was they clearly had a few personality problems of their own.
Hello pot, this is kettle.
Words hurt, Twilight...
So do fireballs, have you ever thought about that?
It wasn't there. I found the room that Celestia had once stored the mirror in but it wasn't there, the chamber had been converted into some sort of ball pool complete with a needlessly tall diving board, the room having been extended upwards high into the sky to accommodate it. With my only real lead having failed I was left with two real options available to me, either I tried to reach Canterlot to see if the mirror had been left there, or I waited the week out in the relative safety of the city. The city had its appeal of course, it was sorely tempting to just spend the week recuperating, enjoying what food there was and sleeping in a proper bed every night. The counter argument though was that if I was still in the city at the end of the week then I would probably be thrown into the cold wasteland of the north when my next week began.
It wasn't an easy decision to make so I mulled over the pros and cons as I descended the palace stairways to return to the city itself.
You chose stay though.
Not exactly, I mean ultimately circumstances changed and-
But you would have chosen to stay. If nothing had changed, if everything had remained the same you would have stayed there because that is the new you, Sunset. Why take action, why face your troubles when you can just call on someone else to fix them for you or wait until the problem goes away?
That's not entirely...
I mean when the Sirens showed up the first thing you did was call me in to clean up the mess. Okay so maybe old you wasn't exactly 'nice' but at least she did things. She set her mind on a goal and tried to see it through. I mean you don't need to go full on evil demon Sunset again but the old you wasn't entirely bad, maybe try finding a middle ground?
I'll think about it. Where was I?
Descending the staircase of the cooky chaos castle. Your one plan had failed and you were already out of ideas.
Right, so as I left the castle I saw a scarf sitting on a bush just outside. I didn't remember seeing it on my way in and hadn't noticed any other ponies in the city so I was more than a little confused. I trotted up to it and plucked it from the bush, the scarf was a raggedy old thing, home made by the looks of things and had clearly seen a lot of wear and tear. The rain had let up but the scarf showed no signs of having been left out during the chocolate downpour. I turned it over a couple of times in my hooves and then stepped forwards to look inside the bush in case the owner was hiding. That was when the net pulled up around me and hoisted me into the air.
Sunset the Great and Powerful laid low by a simple net trap. Truly you were a unicorn deserving of the title 'Princess'.
Hanging upside down suspended a short distance off of the ground in a net was not a situation that normally ended well for the pony in the net. That wasn't even accounting for the gammy leg I'd been having to walk around on for the past few weeks, if the net was to drop then I'd almost certainly end up injuring it in my fall undoing any of the healing that it had managed to go through. Thankfully while a net trap might snare a normal animal I was an experienced unicorn, with a flash of light I teleported out of the net and onto the ground, another few flashes let me blink across the city, the small teleports putting a reasonable distance between me and the trap without straining myself too hard.
With the palace behind me I galloped into one of the abandoned homes and closed the door behind me, from there I crouched beneath the window and looked outside, hiding myself from anyone on the street with the curtains. Whoever else was in the city had been leaving traps and while they might not necessarily have been meant for me specifically I couldn't take that sort of chance. Even if the traps had only been placed to protect the locals from dangerous creatures it would probably be difficult for me to explain my presence to them, plus I hadn't exactly ruled out the likely reality that the trap had been placed for me specifically.
In fairness you would fit the profile of dangerous creature don't you think? By the time you'd reached them you'd wracked up quite the body count don't you think? Sure you hadn't picked up quite so many...deformities by then but I imagine you were still pretty scary to look at. A twisted leg, chipped and cracked hooves, not to mention the wild look in your eyes. How were you feeling back then? Angry? Despondent? Or had you managed to pick up that mad little twitch in the eye but that point? It really doesn't do you any favors, Sunset.
The twitch came later... I think.
When this is all over maybe you could write me a timeline for when each of your defects began to manifest? You have so many that it would make for a truly fascinating study, I imagine I could write a book on it.
I uhh... I waited in the house for about an hour just watching the street to see if anypony was looking for me but after the hour had passed with no signs of movement outside I dropped my guard and went exploring again. From then on though I was very careful in my movements, I took food for my meals sparingly and tried not to stay in one place for too long. When I moved through the streets I did so with small magical hops, moving straight from house to house so that anyone watching the streets wouldn't see me.
Again, paranoia, Sunset. I know that Equestrian mental health care pales in comparison to what they had on the other side of the portal but even you must have heard of paranoia. Delusions of persecution? Check. Exaggerated self-importance and delusions of grandeur? Check. Unwarranted jealousy? Between me, Cadance and the Dazzlings I think we can say that one is a check.
I wasn't jealous of the Dazzlings!
Really? They had magic in a magically stagnant world, they were popular they were loved... They'd pretty much manipulated their way into a position of power and reverence. Sounds pretty much like everything you ever dreamed of to me, Sunset.
...
Oh, please continue, it may not sound like it but I really am interested in hearing this. Please drone- I mean go on.
I spent the rest of that day on edge, as with the night before I decided to hole myself up in one of the houses for the night, this time being sure to lock the door and set up some magical wards. The previous night a cockerel had managed to sneak up on me without warning, if there was something trying to trap me then I wasn't going to make its job easy.
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My sleep that night was undisturbed...
Recurring nightmares aside.
...by anything breaking my wards. Without an alarm clock I ended up waking up much later than the previous day and so it was nearly midday when I rose. I made myself a light meal from some of the dregs I had collected the previous day then got ready to set out for another day of exploration. When I stepped out of the door though I was greeted by a letter that had been carefully placed outside the door of my house. I grabbed the paper and retreated back inside, locking the door behind me and taking the letter over to the kitchen table.
'We don't mean you any harm, Miss. We thought you might be an agent of Discord but with that seeming pretty unlikely now we'd like to meet you today, face to face. We'll be hanging around outside of the palace gates if you want to meet us, if you don't then we wont bother you no more, just finish whatever you're here to do then move on. We'll be keeping an eye on the palace all day so don't feel no rush to be there too soon, just turn up whenever you want to and we'll be mighty pleased to see a friendly face.'
The note was short and to the point, written in scruffy but legible hoofwriting. Somepony had been stalking me during the night, probably the same one who had left the trap, and now they wanted to meet me in the flesh. While I was still a little paranoid...
See? That wasn't so hard was it? Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it, Sunset.
...about being followed, the author seemed to be harmless enough. If they meant me any ill will they would probably have tried spiriting me away in the night, not left a polite note asking if I wanted to meet them. With few other options, trusting them seemed a decent enough way to get some answers about this new world and the author had already revealed one useful piece of information. The old chaos lord Discord was evidently free in this world and judging from the unusual state the Crystal Empire was in, it seemed unlikely that he had been reformed.
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When I walked up to the palace it seemed that the courtyard was just as empty as it had been the previous day. I cast my eyes about looking for any signs of the promised meeting but nopony seemed to be there. The muscles in my legs began tensing up and I felt a shiver run across the length of my back, while the note had seemed innocent enough the situation was beginning to feel like a trap. I paced back and forth in front of the stairs to the palace for a full minute before I heard them approaching. Slowly trotting towards me from one of the side streets I could make out the shapes of six other equines, all coming from the same direction. I was still tense but I appreciated their approach, they didn't appear to be trying to rush me or surround me, instead giving me plenty of room and opportunity to escape if need be.
As they came into the light I could make them out more clearly, a pair of stallions and four mares. The stallions were a light amber unicorn and a pale blue pegasus. The mares were a blue unicorn and three earth ponies, one gray, one a very pale blue and the third... the third was Applejack. Sure I may have only met the pony version of her once and that was only briefly...
She was chasing you for theft of an important magical artifact. 'Briefly' is putting things lightly don't you think?
...but it was unmistakably her. The apple cutie mark, the mane and coat color and the old stetson placed on her head.
"Applejack!" I called out to her as the group approached. Unsurprisingly she seemed a little startled by my recognition of her, this Applejack had probably never met Sunset Shimmer.
"Ummm, ah take it we've met before, Miss? Ahm mighty sorry but ah just plain don't remember ever meeting a unicorn like you before. Mind introducing yourself?" The entire group had exchanged curious looks of surprise and confusion between themselves, I had apparently not made a great first impression. They stopped together a safe distance away from me, whether it was for their own safety or to keep me at ease I wasn't sure.
"Sunset Shimmer. We haven't actually met before but... well it's complicated. Short story is it's great to see you, you have no idea how nice it is to see a friendly face right now." Applejack smiled politely and was about to say something but the blue unicorn stopped her.
"Nice to meet you, Sunset. I guess you know Applejack so let me introduce you to the rest of the crew, my name's Minuette and this is Joe, Soarin, Marble and Rara," each of the ponies gave some variation of 'hello' as they were introduced with the exception of Marble who gave a quiet 'mhmm' while trying to hide behind her mane. "Sorry if we scared you yesterday but we were a little scared ourselves when we saw some mysterious pony searching the palace, we sort of thought you might have been sent by Discord."
"About that," I interjected. "I'm a little out of touch with current events right now. So mind filling me in on what's going on? Discord, the Crystal Empire... anything else crazy that might have gone down over the last couple of years." The group stood there staring in disbelief as though I'd just asked them who moves the sun across the sky.
"Is she serious?" Joe asked Minuette.
"Be polite, Joe," Rara said giving Joe a disapproving glare. "She's clearly been through a lot," I winced slightly at that remark. I may not have looked quite so bad as when you all found me but I was still a pretty sorry sight. My coat was a mess, my mane was ragged and unkempt and my ribs were starting show.
"Well, ah don't know how you done gone missed it but Discord got sprung from his prison about a year ago and he's bin making all Equestria into his personal playground ever since," Applejack grumbled. "Crystal Empire sprung up during the middle of his reign of chaos and he decided to give it a makeover."
"Right... that makes sense I guess," I rubbed the back of my head thinking things over, the story AJ had just given me pretty much explained everything I had encountered so far. If Discord was free then all the strange things I had run into would probably be considered pretty tame by the standards of what this world had to offer. "So mind if I ask what you're doing here? I mean the whole city seemed pretty deserted when I got here."
"Yeah, place is a ghost town. The crystal ponies left last week to try finding the Crystal Heart after Discord stole it, there's still bits and pieces left around but the whole city may as well be dead." The pegasus, Soarin, spoke with a slightly husky voice and constantly cast nervous glances towards Minuette whenever he spoke as though he was expecting her to interrupt. "We came here looking for something important but then you sort of showed up outta nowhere and some of us might of thought you were Discord in disguise." Minuette audibly sighed and slammed a hoof into her face, I was only barely able to suppress my laughter at the absurdity of it all.
"Okay, I'm going to take a bit of a shot in the dark here. Minuette here is the personal protege of Princess Celestia and the six of you are on a quest to find the Elements of Harmony, defeat Discord and restore peace to Equestria," by the time I'd finished all six of the other ponies were standing with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.
"You, friends with somepony called Pinkie Pie, sugarcube? Cause I 'aint never seen nopony but her pull off something that scary accurate before except her," Applejack chuckled.
"I have never met some pony called Pinkie before, Applejack, but I know exactly who you are talking about. Like I said, it's complicated."
"I don't suppose you've seen the elements anywhere have you?" Marble mumbled from behind a wall of hair, she was barely audible from where I was standing.
"Afraid not, did you check the castle of the sisters in the Everfree?" As one the group nodded their heads before Minuette let out a long sigh of despair.
"Well, Sunset, you seem to know all about us, maybe you'd like to share something about yourself so that we're on a little more even ground?" she asked. While the rest of the group seemed relatively at ease about me Minuette spoke warily. While she didn't sound suspicious of me there was clearly something about me that had her on edge.
"I'm a traveler looking to find her way home. I don't mean anypony any harm and I won't be sticking around these parts too long but while I'm here I'm happy to help you guys search for the elements. I've heard a few stories about them and might be able to lend a helping hoof. All I'd be looking for in return would be to share some friendly company until I move on from here."
"Yeah I think we can agree to that," Minuette nodded. "The Empire's a pretty big place and an extra set of hooves would be appreciated. Hey guys, why don't you go get a space ready for Sunset back at our little campsite, the two of us are just going to have a little chat in private." A mix of confusion and worry seemed to pass over the other five ponies but they acquiesced to her request and trotted off back down the street they'd come from. When they had left Minuette placed one leg across the back of my withers and gave me an ice cold glare.
"Something the matter?" I asked politely, while preparing to teleport and escape her if need be. I'd been on both sides of the 'private conversation' before and was worried about how this one was going to play out.
"I know who you are, Sunset. You may not remember me but I sure remember you. You were a spoiled little brat who thought that she was Celestia's gift to all ponykind. Now you seem a lot less awful than you were back then but I'm not taking any chances. You step out of line around my friends and we'll put it to the test which of us is the better magician, the drop out or the loyal student. I'll humor you for now but the minute we leave the Crystal Empire we part ways, I don't want somepony with a history like yours messing this up for us. Do we have an understanding?" her icy glare had not abated, if anything it had just got colder as she spoke. I hate to say it but I really didn't remember ever having met her before but I could tell she was being honest with me, the Sunset she described was a pretty perfect description of how I'd been as Celestia's student.
"Yeah, I think we have an understanding. I was planning to move off at the end of the week anyway," I kept my voice level and devoid of emotion, not wanting to give any ground to her but at the same time not wishing to rise to her bait and prove that I was the malicious little pony she remembered me as.
"We'll be gone before then anyway. Now come on, the others will be expecting us back at the camp."
The campsite was nothing more than a converted library that had been repurposed to hold beds, furniture and food stores. It was clearly a temporary set up and even if I hadn't interrupted them it seemed like they hadn't been planning on spending much time here. Over the next few days I helped their group scour the Empire for the elements or at least information on where they might be. Really it was no different than what I had been doing the previous days but this time with company. We searched through houses and civic buildings, tore the palace apart to make sure we hadn't missed anything and emptied the library searching for any useful information. It was an ultimately futile search but it felt good to be helping them.
Throughout our hunt I barely saw Soarin as he was generally searching from the air. Joe and Marble were poor conversationalists but for different reasons (Joe seemed uneasy around me while Marble was just naturally quiet) and Minuette refused to interact with me unless absolutely necessary. AJ and Rara were good to me though, the pair were fillyhood friends apparently and had been reunited during Discord's reign of chaos. They made for good conversation while we searched so I spent most of my time accompanying the two of them. AJ wasn't entirely comfortable around me and I couldn't blame her (she didn't bring up the fact that I seemed to know her but it clearly bugged her) but they did their best to be hospitable and kept their conversation on pleasant topics instead of the state of Equestria. So yeah with the exception of Minuette the ice queen, everything was pretty good.
Wow I just got it! Minuette was acting like you! Terse, threatening, generally unpleasant towards other ponies, unwilling to forgive and disappointingly confident. It must have been like looking into a mirror.
Minuette had every right to be suspicious of me, Twilight, she knew about my past, knew what a rotten student I'd been.
Funny thing that. See I've been listening to all of your stories and I've noticed a little recurring trend, even with me out of the picture every single student Celestia picked up was a unicorn.
It was a magic school Twilight.
Maybe, or maybe Celestia is a bit of a tribalist. Good thing you never picked that up off of her huh? Or did you? Do you look down on ponies like AJ and Rara for being inferior to you?
No, Twilight, no I never thought that. Never. Right? Did I?
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That week passed all too quickly, the last day quickly came and Minuette made it clear that the group should be moving on. Their search had turned up nothing useful and it was time for them to leave.
"Hurry up, ponies, we have places to be and Elements to find!" she was a lot more genial when the others were around. A part of me worried that if it was all just a facade then her quest would be futile, did she see the others as her friends or just as a means to an end?
"It was lovely meeting you, Sunset, it was nice having a fresh face to keep us company in the search," Rara said as she gave me a goodbye hug. "Are you sure we can't persuade you to come with you?"
I cast a quick glance to Minuette who shot me a glare in return. "No, I have places to be. I'll be heading my own way soon enough and I'd like to spend a little more time here before I have to get going."
"Well, Sugarcube, if ya have a change of heart our next stop's Yakyakistan, Discord apparently paid them a short visit at the start of his reign so we have mighty high hopes for this one," Applejack gave me a hug of her own but I found it hard to return her enthusiasm. I couldn't really offer her any honest words of encouragement as their entire quest had a feeling of futility to it. In the week I had known them I had come to realize that they were pretty much stumbling blindly across the face of Equestria hoping to eventually bump into a clue as to where the Elements had been hidden.
The others gave their own goodbyes until only Minuette was left. "Go on your way and forget you ever saw us," she hissed in my ear. "Try to follow us and it will be at your own peril." Her words spoken she gave me a meaningless hug, more for the benefit of her friends than the two of us, then turned and marched down the yellow brick road, gesturing for the others to follow her.
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With little time left before I would be taken away I tucked into a light meal and lay down on a bed to get some rest. The break from constant danger had done me some good and now my ribs were only barely visible beneath my coat. I'd managed to get in a few baths with the abandoned amenities of the Empire and had cleaned up relatively well, doing so had however had the unintended consequence of showing me how badly I had been beaten up over my journey. Until I sat down and had a long soak in the tub I hadn't even noticed all the small scars and bruises that littered the skin beneath my coat.
Thank you for covering the worst of that up, Sunset. Ponyville owes you one for not forcing us to put up with looking at your body whenever we see you.
With... with some food in my belly and a decent rest I stepped back into the streets and waited on a park bench outside, at a rough estimate I had at most an hour until I left. I planned to spend the rest of the time sitting there waiting but then I noticed something strange in the sky. I squinted trying to make out what it was and to my disbelief I saw a small biplane flying through the air, an honest to Celestia biplane like the ones they used to fly on the other side of the portal. Trailing behind it was a great banner bearing the words 'Storm of Chaos Coming Soon to You' and a great smiling Discord face.
"Oh, go on, have a nice long stare, but if you want to truly appreciate the beauty that is moi, then look no further," I tripped backwards off of the bench as the voice of an older stallion laughed in my ear. I stumbled away, quickly getting back up onto my hooves and looking back at the bench. Sitting right next to where I had been seated was the figure of Discord himself, just as I had remembered from the statue garden except dressed up in a creme suit and blue shirt, eating chocolates from a box on his lap.
"Discord," I growled.
"Oh come now, Sunset! Must we really be so antagonistic towards one another? We don't need to be antagonistic antagonists my dear, why I really just want a nice friendly chat! A little heart to heart, if you will," his face seemed perpetually curled up in a smug smirk and one arm pulled me back onto the bench beside him.
"What do you want and how do you know who I am?"
"Ah, Sunset, I know who all of my little ponies are. It just so happens that of them all you are of interest to me today. You're like a little miniature scion of chaos, Sunset! Hopping through time and space sowing Discord across timelines! Why if you weren't leaving so soon I'd offer you a job! Sunset Shimmer, personal protegee to Princess Discord! Has a nice ring to it don't you think?" He elbowed me jokingly in the ribs but I kept my silence refusing to rise to the bait.
"Anyway, Sunset, I come to you today with a little offer, you see while it pains me to admit that I am not entirely omniscient as the ruling deity of this little Equestria, I do know a great deal about its little goings on. I did a little research," his suit transformed into a lab coat and he peered down at me through a pair of spectacles "and it seems that you are lost, my dear. I'm here to offer you a bargain of sorts, something I want in exchange for me sending you on to your home instead of leaving you to the whims of the magical timey wimey portal in the sky."
"What sort of offer," I hazarded to ask, I didn't like him but Discord had just straight up offered me the solution to all my problems, I'd be mad not to at least listen to the details.
"Ah, you see a little band of merry rebels are trying to spoil the wonders of my chaos Equestria and a little bird told me that you might have met them. It's a simple trade, you tell me where they are going and in exchange you get to go back home to Kansas!"
"Kansas?"
"A figure of speech, it means I send you home to the Equestria you came from. So what do you say, Sunset, old buddy old friend old pal? Care to shake my paw?" he stretched out his lion's paw in my direction but I shrunk backwards away from it.
"No, I'm not going to sell them out on some false promise, if you want them then go look for them but I'm not going to help you, do what you will but I'm not betraying them."
"Oh, Sunset, you of little faith!" Discord said lightly patting me on the head. "I'd never hurt you! I may be many things but I don't make it a habit of hurting foals."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Hmmm how do I put this. You're eating for two, you have a bun in the oven, harboring a fugitive, knocked up..." he pulled a lever that had materialized in front of him and party poppers exploded about us covering me in confetti as a banner unfurled behind him reading 'Congratulations It's A Filly!!!'. "Now, Sunset, while you many not be so selfish as to turn those other ponies in for your own sake, perhaps you'd do it for hers," he said pointing a single digit at my stomach. "I hardly think 'lost in time and space' is really a suitable environment for raising a foal, do you?" I silently mouthed meaningless words as I stared at the banner, trying to get my head around what Discord had said.
"No...no you're lying, I'm not pregnant. I can't be... I mean... how would you even know? Even if I was pregnant it'd be too early to check, most medical spells wouldn't be able to tell for another few weeks," the words spluttered out of my mouth as I tried avoiding choking up between each word.
"Again, Sunset, God of Chaos. I'm a cut above most magic. Why I'm the creme de la creme not just another Jane Doe," he casually began filing his nails while humming an unfamiliar upbeat tune to himself.
"Well the answer's still no, Discord, I'm not going to sell other ponies out like that, that isn't who I am anymore." I tried to put on a brave face as he glared down at me, his eyes filled with fire, his teeth grinding against each other and a great vein throbbing on his forehead. He clapped his hands together and party poppers went off.
"Congratulations, Sunset!" He beamed with a sudden smile on his face. As the second wave of confetti fell around us he passed me a balloon with the words 'Honorary Back up Element of Loyalty' scrawled across it. "You passed the test!"
"Test?"
"I had a little wager with somepony else about whether you would sell out a friend for personal benefit and I am a creature of my word, oh it stings a little to lose but it amuses me to see your reaction. You see, Sunset, I already know where your friends are going and I was powerless to send you back home in the first place! You actually made the objectively correct choice, Sunset! Kudos." I blinked over and over again. This was what Discord did for sport? Traveling across Equestria raising ponies' hopes only to dash them on the rocks.
"So what? This was all just an elaborate joke at my expense? There's no way home, nothing I could do to protect AJ and the others? I bet I'm not even pregnant!" I snarled at him with new found energy.
"Oh no, Sunset, you're still pregnant. Don't feel so bad though! It was all just a prank! A harmless jape! Oh, you should have seen the look on your face! Serious talk before I go though, if you ever do get back to your home might I recommend teaming up with your version of little old me? Why I dare say there is a fire in your heart that could bring all of Equestria to it's knees! It would be a shame to see that go to waste."
"If I ever get home..." I said holding back tears, "and if I ever have the misfortune to meet a version of you as unpleasant as this, then I will kill you. You're a monster, Discord, there's no logic to what you're doing! You're just hurting others because it amuses you, I've met a lot of monsters, Discord, but at least they had motives, you... you're doing it for laughs."
"Well you really are a mood killer aren't you? Quite the ray of sunshine," grumbling to himself Discord snapped his claws together changing his clothes into a black dress and hat with a scarf, traveling bag and umbrella. "Well if you have a change of heart feel free to come and find me, it's clear that your not in any mood for fun right now so I suppose I will be bidding you adieu." He tipped his hat to me then unfurled his umbrella, a sudden gust of wind sending him rocketing into the sky and out of my life.
You asked me once why I was taking the news about the foal so well, Twilight? Well the answer is that I didn't. For the rest of the hour that I was waiting for the portal to arrive I was a wreck. I wasn't ready to have a kid, especially not if my life was going to continue on like that forever, hopping from one disaster to another. I was never going to see the father again, I didn't have a job, I didn't have any parents to show me what to do or set an example for me to follow. I was a wreck Twilight, collapsed in the park crying my eyes out.
Oh boo hoo. 'My life's so hard because I made a lot of stupid mistakes then refused to accept the consequences' that's what you sound like right now, Sunset. Seriously, it hurts to listen to you.
Twilight, what are you...
What I'm trying to say, Sunset, is you're nothing. Seriously, you help save the world one time and you get it into your head that you're a hero. No, Sunset, you're like our Discord, a washed up has been of a villain who is just hanging onto the coattails of better ponies and looking for a little recognition. At the end of the day every achievement you have was just gained from leeching off of others. Without others to lean on and steal credit from you're nothing, Sunset, you're-
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A loud knocking on the door broke Sunset's concentration.
"Sunset? Are you alright in there? I was just down in the library and couldn't find you," Twilight called to her from the other side of the bathroom door. Sunset twitched a little trying to make some sense of her surroundings. She was in the castle bathroom standing in front of the bathroom mirror. How had she gotten there? Thinking back over what had happened she tried to connect the dots together but there seemed to be gaps no matter how she looked at it. She'd needed to wash up after spilling some ink on her hooves and then Twilight had asked her to continue her story. The two of them had sat down in her study and she had filled Twilight in on the next part of the tale. Sunset looked down at her still ink stained hooves. Why hadn't she bothered to clean them? Why was she back in the bathroom? Why did her legs hurt so much? She'd been sitting down on a comfy cushion when she was talking to Twilight but it felt more like she'd been on her legs all day.
"I'm fine, Twilight," Sunset called through the door, "just cleaning myself up." There was a brief pause before Twilight replied.
"Well if you're sure. It just felt like you'd been in there awhile. When you're done how about we close up the library for lunch and go get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner?" Twilight sounded concerned, unduly so. Sunset hadn't been in the bathroom that long so why was she seeming so needy all of a sudden?
"That sounds great,Twilight," she called back through the door as she began washing the ink stains from her hooves. "that sounds just great."
Eventide was rudely awoken the following morning by a furious knocking on the front door. Dragging herself out from under her bed covers she trudged downstairs and began unfastening the latch on the door. Eventide let out a long yawn and carefully rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She took a few seconds to make an attempt at straightening her mane then pulled the door open and glared at the pony who had woken her so early in the morning.
"Greetings, Miss Trailblazer, I'm Bit Interest with the Equestrian Revenue Service. I do apologize for the early hour of my visit but I felt you would find it preferable to a late night meeting." Standing on the other side of the door with a great fanged smile on his face was a silver grey batpony in a suit, with a briefcase tucked beneath one wing. Eventide blinked a few times as she tried to make sense of him. It stood to reason that batponies did exist outside of the night guard but she had barely met any of them in her travels. Of those she had met she would never have placed any as being a bureaucrat. "I understand that you are likely confused mam but would it be possible for me to step inside? The business I have to discuss with you is not something that you would want others to overhear," Bit spoke with a deep baritone and a perpetual grin that put Eventide on edge. Without speaking Sunset gestured for him to come inside, she pointed over towards the chairs in her living room which she noted (with a twinge of annoyance) still bore some slight stains from yesterday's drinking session. Eventide closed the door behind him then slowly moved to join him around her table.
"I pay my taxes, Mr Interest, so how about you just cut to the chase and tell me why you're here?" Eventide groaned still nursing her headache from yesterday.
"Blunt and to the point. They did tell me you would be terse," Bit unfastened the clasps on his briefcase and began sorting through the paperwork inside. "The short of it, Miss Trailblazer, is that we at the ERS have noticed a few irregularities in your paperwork. Miscellaneous expenses and income that don't appear to have been covered by either your writing career or by your work as an explorer."
"My adventures brought in a lot of income that was hard to fit into the normal tax forms," Eventide shrugged as though the matter was no big deal. "As for expenses I often ended up spending my bits in far off places, haggling with locals, paying guides... it becomes quite difficult to track where the money has gone after awhile. Sorry if that messed up your precious paperwork." Bit furrowed his brows but his grin persisted. .
"I understand. The problem here, Miss Trailblazer, is that the details I'm referring to have all been over the past five years, a stretch of time in which I am lead to believe you have been unemployed. Yes you have been paying your taxes, yes you have been filing your paperwork, but there are some rather considerable sums of bits that we have noticed you moving that are unaccounted for. You are aware that money laundering is a crime, Miss Trailblazer?" Eventide squirmed beneath his gaze, just how much did he know?
"Money laundering only refers to illegally obtained bits, Mr Interest. All the money I've been handling has been exchanged for trade goods. Pretty sure I listed that on my paperwork didn't I?" despite the fact that she was telling the truth there was a lingering hint of doubt in Eventide's voice.
"Indeed you did, Miss Trailblazer. Indeed you did. Frankly though I don't believe some of what your claims. For example we have records of you making bulk purchases of precious gems and then selling them on for considerable profit to a third party. We tracked your purchase and the first half of the transaction is perfectly fine, you bought from a reputable seller and the gems were shipped to your residence," he scanned his paperwork nodding to himself, then flipped to a new page. "However when we looked at your subsequent selling of the gems we found that your buyer lived at a nonexistent address in Griffonstone, with a little more digging I noticed that none of the normal postal companies had any record of you shipping anything out of Canterlot, Miss Trailblazer. The gems simply arrived at your address and by the end of the month they had all vanished without a trace, replaced by a very tidy little profit."
Eventide gave a noncommittal shrug, "Sounds like the problem is with my buyer then, if he was using a fake address then it seems like he's the shady one here. Now how about you tell me what gives the ERS the right to stalk me? I'm pretty sure you don't have the right to track every letter and parcel that I send."
"That would normally be true but I have a writ from the Princess granting me additional influence in any matters regarding this case.
"Which Princess?" Eventide snapped back at him, now more angry than worried.
"I'm not at liberty to say. I have other examples of irregularities in your income but I don't wish to bore you with them, for the most part they are much the same, one legitimate business, one buyer or seller who doesn't seem to exist and then you sitting in the middle of the deal turning an easy profit. Now then, let's move on to your purchases." Bit returned the first pile of paperwork back to his briefcase and exchanged it with a fresh stack. "Looking at your recent purchases we have noticed a considerable portion of your income, a little over eighty percent in fact, has been diverted to Baltimare in exchange for 'goods and services'. Such a considerable expense to one location with seemingly nothing gained in return is quite the red flag in our ledgers. Normally we would assume something along the lines of drugs, blackmail, perhaps an extended family that you were seeking to secretly support... but there is no evidence to suggest that you are a drug addict and my sources inform me that you have no living relatives. The third option also seems unlikely as your reputation is so mired in controversy that it is hard to imagine what somepony could blackmail you with that is worse than what everypony already knows."
"Glass, Mr Interest. I've been buying glass," she was quickly coming to hate the stallion, his suggestion that she had nopony in the world that she might possibly care for stung more than she would care to admit. "I imagine you already knew that the money had been going to a small coastal shipping company, Celestia knows you seem to know everything else about my money. So in answer to your query I have been buying glass. In my travels I took quite a fancy to a specific style of crafted glass that they use in the far east and now that I have been unceremoniously forced into retirement I've decided to begin collecting. I'm allowed a hobby aren't I, Mr Interest, or does that offend your Princess?"
Bit frowned and looked over his notes. "You expect me to believe that you have spent a veritable fortune on glass decorations?"
"They are very expensive, Mr Interest, and that is before taking into account shipping and holding. I pay almost twice the cost of the glass itself in shipping alone to make sure that it arrives in one piece."
"Fascinating," Bit sighed, his voice heavy with sarcasm. He looked up from his papers and scanned every inch of the room. "I find it curious though that you have spent so much money on this hobby and yet I see no evidence of it in your home."
Eventide had to laugh at that one, sometimes it seemed honesty really was the best policy. "Mr Interest, if you are here on business from the Princess I imagine she has told you a few things about me?" Bit nodded grimly. "For example the fact that I am an alcoholic. Now knowing that fact, Mr Interest, and knowing that I freely admit that I have a problem, do you really think I'd leave a fortune in fragile glassware somewhere that I could easily break them while drunk? No, Mr Interest, I keep them stored somewhere safe and secure where I can enjoy them in private, and no I'm not going to show you where that is."
"Yes, well while I can certainly see why that might-" Bit was cut off by a sudden furious knocking at the door. Both ponies turned to the source of the sound as it continued unabated. "Are you expecting somepony else?" Bit asked with a curious grin. Eventide hadn't been expecting anypony at all. It was far too early for post and almost everypony who knew her address would have let her know they'd be coming ahead of time. The knocking continued. "Perhaps you should get that."
Eventide cautiously made her way over to the front door, Bit Interest watching her like a hawk the whole time. With slow and careful movements Eventide opened the door, hoping to be able to speak to her new guest without Bit seeing who they were. Her attempt was instantly foiled though as the moment she began to open the door her visitor forced their way into the room and slammed it shut behind them, standing there dressed in sunglasses and a sunhat was Sweetie Drops.
"Here," she whispered, thrusting a small envelope into Eventide's hooves. "Exact details including room number, shelf number and position on the shelf. I don't know what you hope to gain from it but it's not my problem anymore. I never want to see you in my life ever again and if you ever dare come near Lyra then there will be Tartarus to pay." The instant she stopped speaking Bit Interest surreptitiously cleared his throat, causing Sweetie Drops' eyes to instantly snap to him.
"Is there a problem, Miss Drops?" he asked in a genial tone that sent a shiver down Eventide's spine. To her knowledge the only ponies that knew her by that name were involved with the MIB.
"No... no problem at all," Sweetie said with a nervous laugh. "I was just passing on some music that my marefriend wrote for Miss Trailblazer. Now if you'll excuse me I have some other business to attend to before I head back to Ponyville." Turning quickly on the spot Sweetie Drops opened the door and left the house leaving Eventide and Bit alone. As Sweetie Drops left Bit began returning his papers to the briefcase and fastened the clasps.
"I must also be heading off, Miss Trailblazer. I have just recalled a rather pressing matter of business of my own that I must look into. I must say that this visit has been quite the enlightening experience, I imagine we shall be speaking to one another again in the near future. Good day, Lady Trailblazer, do try to keep out of trouble." Straightening his suit Bit Interest walked to the door and let himself out.
Alone at last Eventide collapsed onto her knees. How much did they know? Had Bit overheard what Sweetie had said? Fresh dread and a sense of impending doom washed over Eventide as she began to consider the possibilities. For the time being it seemed that her safe house had gone undiscovered, if the Princess knew of its existence she doubted that she would have sent a spy to her house. Still, if one of them was starting to grow suspicious of her activities then she needed to hurry up her plans.
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Dear Diary,
My name is Eventide Trailblazer but my mommy and her friends call me Evey for short. Hello, diary, how is it being a book? I've never written a diary before so I'm sorry if I'm doing this wrong, mommy says that I should just treat you like a friend and that I can tell you anything at all because nopony else is going to read you but me.
Today Pinkie Pie gave you to me as a late birthday present, which was a little odd because she had already given me a present on my actual birthday. Big Pinkie Pie not little Pinkie Pie. She gave you to me and everybody was very happy about it, apparently every little filly needs a diary and you are my very first! Then Pinkie Pie was weird. She took me aside when nobody else was looking and told me what to write in you, but she seemed very sad about it. Pinkie told me that I should write down everything that happens that makes me happy and everything that happens that makes me sad. She also said I should write lots and lots about mommy and what makes her happy and sad. Then she said that if mommy ever acted funny, or odd I should write that down too. I don't know why but I trust Pinkie so that's what I'm going to do.
Then she told me that if I ever get too scared or worried about mommy then I should take my diary to Princess Twilight and let her read it. That was silly though because everybody knows that you're not supposed to show somepony else your diary! Also my mommy is the best mommy, she never scares me and she is big and strong so I don't have to worry about anything ever.
Today was very good except for lunch. At lunch the man who took our order gave me a very funny look. Apparently something I said was bad or confusing and he didn't understand it. Mommy and Princess Twilight both told me that I was going to need to remember to use my right 'pronouns' from now on. I don't know what that word means but I think I saw it on the menu as a salad so I guess it is some kind of food.
"That's the last of them," Spike said as he placed the final box into the room. His work complete he slumped backwards against the bed and wiped his arm across his forehead. It had been a bit of work but all of Sunset's belongings were finally moved into her new room. Originally she had been given the largest of the guest rooms but after her accident earlier in the week it had been decided that the safest option was for her to live on the ground floor so that she no longer had to deal with any more stairs. As he looked over his handiwork with pride Spike heard the telltale squeaking of wheels approaching the room. "Hey, Sunset! I've just finished moving the last box," the dragon called out into the hall.
"Thanks, Spike, I really appreciate it." Sunset rounded the corner and entered the room, surveying it with a look of satisfaction from the comfort of her wheelchair, a thick cast covering her bad leg. The accident hadn't really been anypony's fault, while walking down the stairs of the castle Sunset had seemed to have lost her concentration and tripped down the last three steps. Twilight had quickly rushed her to the hospital and thankfully the fall hadn't been bad enough to affect the foal. It had however broken Sunset's leg and with her so far into the pregnancy it was deemed to be impossible for her to safely use a crutch. She was going to be wheelchair bound until she had given birth and probably for some time after that as well.
Sunset had seemed to be taking it surprisingly well until she realized that between the cast and the wheelchair her dresses had become incredibly impractical. She had attempted to stick with the dress for about half a day before she had to give up, the cloth having gotten caught in the spokes of the wheels every ten minutes or so. If she had been considered a recluse before Spike could only imagine what ponies would consider her now. When Spike had been keeping her company on the way back from the hospital he had noticed a lot of the ponies on the streets giving Sunset strange looks, a fact that Sunset seemed quite aware of. Most of the town had only ever seen her wearing the dress so it was unsurprising that they would be curious, but the looks Sunset got were clearly making her uncomfortable. Her body was pockmarked with bald spots where her skin had somehow been burned and on her right flank her cutie mark was defaced by a long series of numbers that had been burned into her flesh. Spike knew that a lot of the onlookers probably felt sorry for her but he really wished they would stop staring.
"Do you think you could go fetch Twilight for me, Spike?" Sunset asked as she wheeled her way about her new room. "I kind of owe her an explanation for this," Sunset sighed as she pointed at the numbers on her cutie mark.
"Sure thing, Sunset, are you going to be okay down here on your own?" Twilight had rather unsubtly hinted to her friends that she didn't think Sunset should be left on her own anymore, she was worried that Sunset might have another accident and considering that the first one had happened in her own home had been blaming herself pretty badly.
"I'll be fine, Spike. Just tell Twilight I'll be waiting for her in my room if she wants to hear the next part of my story," as Spike left to fetch Twilight he considered how Sunset's recovery had been going since she first arrived. There had been some ups and downs but at least nowadays she was smiling.
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Sunset was a bad mare. She was a thief, a liar and a murderer. She was a very bad pony. But everypony deserved a second chance and she had finally been given hers. She hurt most of the time nowadays, her leg was killing her and it had barely even been able to support the weight of her body before her fall down the stairs. That was okay though, she deserved to have a bad leg, she deserved to be feeling this pain, she was a bad mare after all and this was her comeuppance.
Sunset wasn't a good mare but she could be, she could try to be. She was going to have a little filly and when she did everything would be alright in the world. She would give her little girl everything she had lacked in her own life, she would give the filly everything her heart desired. The two of them would be inseparable and life would be like one long holiday. Only the best for her little girl. She wouldn't need to go to school, Sunset could home school her. Sunset was going to be the best mother in Equestria, she wouldn't make the same mistakes Celestia had with her, if she promised her little girl something then she would make sure to deliver on that promise. Her little filly would be loved and she would be safe, woe betide anypony that dared to harm Sunset's child. She would make the world safe for her little girl to live in no matter what the cost.
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Well someone looks happy! Spike told me you wanted to continue with the story, it sure has been awhile huh?
It hasn't been that long, Twilight. Anyway, picking up where I left off, after the portal took me away from Discord's world of chaos-
Discord? Don't you mean Tirek?
What? No the last part I told you about was Discord, Twilight.
Really? Because I don't remember hearing that part of the story.
Huh, guess I told that to somepony else, maybe one of the girls. Look, I'll catch you up on that part later on, right now I imagine you want to here how I got this brand.
I don't want to sound rude but that has been bugging me for some time.
Right. So as I was saying. The portal dropped me off where it had picked me up, in the middle of the streets of the Crystal Empire. This wasn't like Discord's Empire or even like Sombra's though. The streets were cold and littered with snow and they were also heavily populated. As I fell from the sky I got plenty of funny looks from the locals but to my surprise they pretty much ignored me, nopony asked me if I was alright or where I had come from, nopony even seemed to care that I was there.
In addition to the snow this Empire had a number of other obvious differences to the real one. Only a small number of the buildings appeared to made from Crystal, the remainder appearing to be made of brick and wood. The residents weren't crystal ponies, they were almost entirely earth ponies and pegasi, all dressed in heavy cloaks or overalls that almost completely covered their bodies. All of them appeared bitter and moody and moved about with slow methodical purpose. The city looked busy and well populated, packed to overflowing if the sheer number of ponies in the street was anything to go by, but they didn't seem happy. Up above me the sky was filled with great black clouds, not the kind made by weather ponies though, this was a thick black smog that seemed to be rolling up into the air from various buildings scattered about the snow capped city.
Choking a little on the stench of filth that seemed to be filling the streets I cast a small heating spell to keep the worst of the cold off of me. None of the locals looked like they were going to be willing to make small talk with me so I quickly decided that I would need to try a different approach to work out what was going on. It was at that point that I noticed a trio of foals sprinting through the streets towards one of the buildings, the doors were massive, like those of a warehouse, and heat seemed to be rolling out of it. Curious as to what was going on I followed the trio to the doors and watched them as they moved inside. The little trio were all earth pony fillies, each with a very short mane cut and no tail hair, each wearing a snug little set of overalls. One was grey with a white mane and seemed to constantly be bringing up the rear of the group, squinting at the others and occasionally bumping into them, the leader of the group was an orange filly with a purple mane and the third had a yellow coat with a red mane.
The room the trio had entered was mostly occupied by a very large machine with various earth ponies standing around waiting to operate it. Watching the room with a look of indifference was a single unicorn stallion with a black mane and purple coat. He appeared to be looking at a clock on one wall and the moment the hour struck he pulled a cord with his magic setting off a loud steam powered whistle. The instant the noise began the workers began operating the machinery, churning out great swathes of textiles as it worked. The whole operation was a big step up from the small time businesses ponies operate here but this seemed to come at the cost of safety, fast moving components of the machine were exposed and if a pony were to trip and fall they could likely have been killed or maimed by the machinery. Though I had been briefly distracted by the pony that seemed to be the foreman I quickly remembered about the fillies and turned to see where they were. To my horror all three appeared to be moving between the small crawling space underneath the machine, between whirring gears and crushing pistons with rags and brushes in their mouths and hooves. This wasn't some game played by irresponsible youths, they were actually cleaning the machine while it was being used.
I watched for about ten minutes until the machine came to a sudden shuddering halt. The workers began shouting among themselves and various levers were pulled to settle the machine down. In the commotion the little orange filly was given a spanner and she proceeded to crawl in between the gears that had only seconds ago been grinding against one another. After a few minutes I heard her call out to confirm that the problem had been fixed at which point the workers immediately began getting the machine working again. The filly leaped out of the gears only seconds before they began moving again.
I couldn't watch any longer. Striding across the room I made my way up to the unicorn and jammed a hoof in his face.
"Why in Equestria do you have little foals working here? Those kids should be at school!" he blinked at me in surprise then shrugged his shoulders.
"I take it, mam, that you are from one of the noble houses? I apologize if this comes as a surprise to you but this is how everypony conducts business. Besides, if it were not for such charitable individuals as myself the little ones would be starving in the streets. It's hardly as though they are being forced to work here, you shall find that they get paid quite favorably by their contracts. Now how about you trot along back home hmm?" The unicorn had a smug condescending look about him that made my blood boil, how could it be normal for little foals to be working in these conditions?
"I'm not some noble, buddy. I'm a traveler and I only just got back to Equestria yesterday. So please tell me how it is now considered normal to be forcing foals to do that!" I shouted gesturing at the machine.
"Again, mam, they aren't being forced to do anything. They work and in exchange they get paid by their contracts, I'm sorry but I didn't actually catch your name, Miss..."
"Sunset Shimmer."
"Thrifty Mill," he offered me his hoof but I declined to shake it. He stared at me for a few moments as though weighing up some new idea and then opened his mouth again. "Each of those fillies has signed a contract with me to work for the next ten years, for which they will be handsomely reimbursed with bits and food. I'm afraid they are bound by law to fulfill this contract until either those ten years are up, they die, they are dismissed or somepony else pays off their contract."
"How much to pay off the rest of the contract?" I asked, turning back to look at the three fillies.
"Quite the amount I'm afraid, nine years worth of food and lodging pay held in trust per filly. More than I imagine you could produce at such short notice," he paused and seemed to consider the matter a little while longer. "Of course as a businesspony I would be open to working out some other arrangement if you are so adverse to them being here."
"What kind of arrangement," I hissed.
"Put simply, you open a contract of your own and have the bulk of the pay be put towards paying off their contracts. You would come to work for me while those three would be dismissed. They would still have their remaining nine years pay be held in trust and it would slowly be given to them over the next nine years to pay for food, board and other expenses." I snorted at the comment.
"So you want me working in the little crawl space barely big enough for a foal to walk through? Why make the offer? What do you have to gain by letting those three off and taking me on?"
"Honestly? Skilled unicorn labor is very rare to come by, especially unicorns willing to open a contract. Orphaned fillies on the other hand? They are easy enough to come by. A unicorn like yourself would likely make me more than ten times the bits those three make. If you sign up with me for the next three years then the fillies are free to go, I will sign off on their contracts and have no further hold over them and they will be paid a living wage for nine years. For those three years you will receive a living wage of your own with the remainder of the profit going to myself."
I mulled the idea over in my head. It would be a little dishonest on my part but if I were to sign up with him I'd likely only be fulfilling one week of his three year contract. I'd be cheating him but by the time he realized the fillies would be free from his grasp and paid up till they were all mares. Sadly the deal would likely wind up with three new fillies being forced to work in the factory but it still seemed worth it, if I could save even three of them then I'd be leaving this Equestria a better place.
"Fine, Mr Mill, I think you have a deal."
-------------------------------------------
I followed Mill to the back room of the factory where a pair of burly looking pegasi were playing cards. Mill sat me down and ran me through some paperwork, having me sign off on various things but not before I had a chance to read them. The contract was pretty much what Mill had said it would be with a few clauses indicating what would happen if I tried to run away. If a ran and was later caught then I would be placed into a position of indentured servitude till the damages for breaking my contract had been paid off. That was fine with me though, it wasn't as though Mill would ever find me after I made my escape. As I was signing the document I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hours were incredibly light, full pay for only two hours of work a day, spell casting at the palace to be performed first thing in the morning and at the end of the evening.
"And that is the last of them." Mill said with a satisfied smile as he had me sign off on the final document. With the last signature complete the three fillies were now free from their contracts. "Now if you would like to hold still we can fit you with your identification marker in case you attempt to run away."
"Identification marker?" As the question came out of my mouth I was tackled to the ground by the pair of pegasi. One jammed a horn inhibitor onto my head while the other fit a thick wooden block between my teeth.
"So you don't bite your tongue off," the one holding the block whispered sympathetically. I struggled a little in panic but without my magic I was powerless to throw the two of them off. As I struggled Mill moved out of my vision but I could still hear him moving around behind me. After a few moments I heard him walk up behind me and clear his throat.
"Now, this will sting for awhile but don't worry, it is very rare that anypony gets an infection from the process." By this point I had stopped struggling, it was a futile effort and had potential to injure my leg again. I felt the heat coming off of the iron before it even touched my skin. As an immense burning sensation spread through my flank I suddenly realized something about the world I had visited, with all of the clothes the workers had been wearing I hadn't seen a single one of their cutie marks.
That was the number assigned to me by Thrifty Mill. He had already left the room by the time I had finished thrashing about in pain and cursing at nopony in particular. The two pegasi helped me get back onto my hooves and removed the inhibitor, apparently it had only been put on me to stop me from panic casting a spell during the branding process. They handed me a small bag of bits to tide me over till I was receiving my contracted allowance. I was given an address at the palace to go to for my work and instructions on what to do when I got there. Thrifty wouldn't be arranging any form of accommodation for me (I was apparently expected to pay for that out of my own pockets) but I was informed that unicorns working at the palace were apparently offered a bed for the night to recover from the casting process. When I was finally able to stand again I was handed a cloak to cover myself up with and then shown the door.
With most of the day to kill before I was needed at the palace I wandered the city streets without purpose. High above me the sun shone in the sky but the rays of light barely seemed to pierce the thick clouds of smog and snow that hung in the air above me, making the entire city appear to be trapped in a perpetual state of twilight. Street vendors peddled cheap and disgusting looking food to passersby and everypony I passed seemed to move with a dull monotonous step. I now watched them with fresh interest though, curious as to just how many of them might have brands beneath their clothes. The entire concept sickened me, cutie marks were meant to be an indication of a pony's special talent, the thing that set them apart from others but here ponies were defacing them with horribly uniform markings that indicated a living condition that felt suspiciously like slavery.
As I wandered the city streets I felt a pricking on the back of my neck. I was being followed. I continued walking but made sure to occasionally turn around to check behind me. Sure enough whenever I turned there was a small commotion in the crowd behind me as my pursuer ducked into cover. After five or so minutes of this I decided that enough was enough and that I should confront whoever it was that was tailing me. Instead of continuing straight down the street I turned off into an alleyway and crouched into the shadows behind some bins, using a touch of magic to help conceal myself. I waited there hidden in the dark for a few moments and sure enough my stalker quickly entered the alley to see where I had gone.
I had been expecting somepony sent by Thrifty or perhaps an agent of whatever evil had overtaken this Equestria had come to investigate my sudden magical appearance, so it came as a great surprise to me when the three fillies from the factory came walking down the alley.
"Where did she go?" whispered the orange filly to the others as they walked straight past my hiding spot. "I swear she came in here!" her two friends shrugged and nervously followed her. When all three had moved past me I stepped out behind them, cutting off their route back into the street.
"Looking for me?" I asked, catching their attention. I tried to keep my voice level and calm, not wanting to scare them too bad but it was clear they were startled as yellow and grey ran to hide behind orange.
"What if we are?" orange shouted, puffing out her chest and staring me down in an attempt to look brave. "You gonna make something of it?"
"No," I sat down on my haunches to the side of the alley, giving the trio are clear avenue of escape if they wanted to take it, "I was just curious why you were following me." There was something familiar about the orange filly's voice, looking over the three of them I began to consider the possibility that I had met them before on the other side of the portal.
"Is it true?" yellow asked, with a slight country twinge to her voice. "Did y'all pay off our contracts?"
"Sort of," I awkwardly rubbed the sore spot on my flank. "I opened a contract of my own with Thrifty in exchange for him forgetting about your debts. You're welcome by the way," I tried not to sound hostile, I was in a bad mood from what had happened but I didn't want to take it out on them.
"Why would ya do a thing like that? Ah don't know you. Also you're a unicorn, why would you ever go startin' a contract?" The trio seemed to be staring at me with a mixture of awe, gratitude and disbelief.
"Seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Kids like you should be in school, not working in some death trap of a factory."
"Hyeah, maybe if we were unicorns," grey muttered, kicking up some dirt.
"Okay look, could we maybe get some introductions done? I swear I've seen the three of you before but I just can't place you," I extended a hoof and gave each of the fillies a quick hoof shake in turn. "My name is Sunset Shimmer."
"Scootaloo," orange said, holding my hoof with suspicion.
"Applebloom," said yellow, confirming my suspicions about her familiar accent.
"Silver Spoon," muttered grey. She seemed a lot more shy than the other two and squinted whenever she was trying to look at anything. It was odd seeing the three of them together as in the other world they never seemed to get on, but it did raise some other questions. What were they doing in The Crystal Empire and why was Sweetie Belle not with them?
"You okay, Miss? You aint looking so good," Applebloom asked. Where before the three had seemed to be cautious of me Applebloom had suddenly become worried. To be fair I was a bit of a wreck after everything I had been through.
"I'm not great. But I imagine I'll survive," I sighed, "look girls, is there maybe somewhere else we could go to talk? It's freezing out here." The three of them nodded and began to walk, leading me through the streets towards their home.
----------------------------------------
Their home was not a vast improvement over the chill of outside but it did offer us some shelter from the weather. It was little more than a rickety shack that would long ago have been condemned in any reasonable society, small piles of dirty blankets scattered about the floor to serve as beds and a few half eaten scraps of food laying about the room, quite probably attracting rats into the dwelling. The trio seemed keen to get me comfortable and gave me what appeared to be the bulk of the blankets to sit beneath. While they had initially been a little frosty around me they were quickly warming up to my presence, grateful for what I had done for them.
"So you really have no idea what happened to Equestria?" Scootaloo asked me incredulously. The topic had come up on the way there after I had begun pressing the three of them with questions about the Empire, Ponyville and why the Princesses were effectively allowing slavery to occur within the borders of Equestria.
"Not a clue. Like I said I've been away for some time," the kids had pretty much bought my usual set of half truths, that I'd been far away from Equestria and had only recently returned. "So how about somepony fills me in on the details. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek... the whole lot." Scootaloo nodded, she was the most vocal of the three earth ponies and the others seemed to look up to her like a big sister. Applebloom for the most part stared at me with admiration and bemusement while Silver Spoon seemed to be stuck in a perpetual funk. I'd realized that the Silver Spoon on the other side of the portal wore glasses but judging from the state the fillies were living in I doubted this one could afford such luxuries, no wonder she was constantly bumping into things.
"A year and a bit ago Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria but was stopped by Lemon Hearts and the other Elements of Harmony, transforming her back into Princess Luna," Scootaloo explained as I nodded along, same story different unicorn. "Not long after that though Discord escaped his prison, the Elements sealed him right back up but..." Scootaloo paused in her explanation and cast a nervous look over to Applebloom, "...one of them died in the process. After that the rest of the Elements were useless, apparently you can't use them if one is missing," from the downcast look on Applebloom's face I could guess which Element Bearer had died. "Not long after that changelings attacked Canterlot, they were defeated by Princess Cadance but she was badly injured escaping some prison she had been thrown in and passed away shortly after. Celestia had barely recovered from the loss of her niece when the Empire showed up so Princess Luna came to fight this evil unicorn called Sombra on her own. She couldn't beat him alone though so instead she sealed the two of them away in a prison of ice far to the north."
"How did Celestia take that?"
"Poorly," all three fillies stared at the floor in solemn silence. "Then after all that this monster called Tirek showed up. The Princess went to fight him and with the help of some...some dark magics she killed him. The fight destroyed Ponyville though and Celestia died moments after she had killed Tirek."
"So the three of you are..."
"Orphans and refugees from Ponyville. Pretty much had to move to whatever city had the room to take us in."
"That still doesn't explain all this though," I pointed out gesturing at the smoggy sky and horrible living conditions. "Who made Equestria into this?"
"Nopony made it like this," Scootaloo shrugged, "it just sort of happened. Ever since the Elements broke up little things started going wrong. The pegasi couldn't control as much of the weather anymore, there were some dud harvests and a lot of ponies started going hungry. So a few rich and business savvy ponies got together and started introducing some 'reforms'. Magic and machinery started pushing earth ponies out of business and Celestia was too busy to see what was going on," Scootaloo grumbled, a touch of resentment underlying her voice. "Then when she died everything got real bad, nopony was left to move the Sun and the Moon," I gasped at the notion, I hadn't even considered that possibility.
"If it wasn't for Lemon Hearts there wouldn't even be an Equestria left. She found this old spell deep in the Canterlot archives that lets a big group of unicorns get together and move the sun and moon just like they used to do. Apparently it's really bad for their health though so they get paid loads for doing it... which put even more bits in the unicorns' pouches."
"And left the earth ponies and the pegasi to pick up the jobs that they didn't want to do," I finished for her. Scootaloo nodded grimly. I made a horrible sort of sense. With harmony broken and the Princesses gone Equestria was ripe for abuse by the rich and unscrupulous. The power had wound up entirely in the hooves of the unicorns and the Country lacked a strong leader to stop them from taking advantage of it. I thought back on my time here and realized that a lot of what I had assumed to have been looks of indifference from the locals were more likely looks of disdain. No wonder the fillies had been so cautious of me. I could also now make a pretty safe guess at what Thrifty was planning for me, he was no doubt going to have me help raise the sun and from the sounds of things would be making a considerable profit from taking my wages.
"I'm sorry girls, sounds like you've had things pretty rough," the three of them nodded in unison. "I hope maybe now that you don't have to work at that factory you can maybe make something of your lives but I'm afraid I wont be able to help you more than I already have."
"You're kidding right?" Applebloom chortled. "After what you gone done I don't think any of us could ask for more."
"Thanks, kiddo," I smiled, rubbing her playfully on the head. "Now I have some work to go do, so I guess this is where we part ways." I stood up and was halfway out the door before Scootaloo stopped me.
"Wait! If you want you can always come back here after work if you need a place to crash," the other two nodded in agreement.
"Thanks, Scootaloo, that sounds nice." I turned and left the shack, making my way across the city towards the palace where I would be helping to lower the sun for the night.
While the rest of the Empire seemed to have fallen into darkness and misery the palace retained much of its lustre. Lights shone in the windows and hallways while the crystal interior had been polished to an eye catching sheen. It would have almost seemed serene and harmonious if it wasn't for the fact that the only ponies present that weren't unicorns were the custodial staff, a team of rough looking pegasi. As I walked the palace halls looking for the desk I was meant to check in at I noticed that there were three distinct types of unicorns. The first were haggard, tired looking creatures that reminded me of myself, the only real difference being that their cutie marks were proudly on display and clearly unmarked. The second group still had bags beneath their eyes but they walked around with a sense of arrogance, raising their noses and looking down upon the rest of us, coupled with their fanciful manner of dress I gathered that they were the affluent and the nobility. The final group (and clearly the minority) were twitchy creatures with blood shot eyes and ragged manes, even they had no brands on their cutie marks but instead bore track marks, bloody noses or other signs of drug abuse.
"Excuse me, darling, if you are looking to check in for the evening you need to come over here!" A voice called to me from across the room inviting me towards a small desk situated in one corner. Sitting there with a smile upon her face was none other than Rarity. She looked a little more run down than when I had met her in Nightmare Moon's world but she appeared a great deal happier. I slowly walked across to her and she passed me a signing in sheet which I promptly filled in.
"Hi there," I mumbled, a little uncertain around this new Rarity. "I've uh... never done this before so would you mind filling me on the details?"
"But of course!" Rarity said with a genial smile, her voice upbeat and chipper She levitated a scroll out of her desk and passed it across to me. "This is the spell you shall be assisting with, now if you are magically inclined then feel free to go through the normal steps of the spell, but if that is too much for you no need to fret, just feed your magic into the spell and the more experienced wizards will do the rest. We shall be starting in about ten minutes, you can either wait out here until then or go straight on into the ritual chamber," she pointed her hooves towards a large set of open doors that lead into an open air chamber, a few of the other unicorns had already gathered inside it. "After the spell is done you are welcome to stay for tea and scones and we have beds set up just down the hall if you need a rest from casting the spell, we simply ask that you be out of the palace by nine in the morning."
I nodded along politely as I read over the details of the spell. It was actually remarkably simple. It wasn't something that every unicorn would be able to do but I imagine that if they read over the scroll then any unicorn with magic as a special talent would be able to carry it out. The real problem was that it required so much energy to use it, to safely cast it I imagine you would need dozens of unicorns all working together, looking down the check in list I counted only fifteen.
"How is this supposed to work?" I asked pointing at the scroll. "By the looks of things we would need at least twice the number of unciorns we have here just to move the sun, let alone the moon."
"Quite," Rarity replied in a very matter of fact manner. "That is why we have an additional two teams working simultaneously with us from Canterlot and Appleloosa while the moon teams work out of Vanhoover, Manehattan and Baltimare." Rarity frowned and blinked at me a couple of times. "You really weren't kidding when you said you were new to this were you?" I shook my head. "Well we can always use more talented young unicorns to help keep the sun moving. Now you will likely feel a little sore and drained after you are done casting the spell but don't worry, that is perfectly normal. Now let's not keep the others waiting," Rarity shooed me into the chamber where the other fourteen unicorns were already waiting to start.
The 'chamber' was really just an extended balcony, hanging out across the city and giving us a clear view of the sun in the sky above us. It was simple and fit to its purpose, permanent runic scrawlings having been engraved into the crystal floor to assist in casting the spell. At the center of the group stood a wizened old unicorn who could have probably passed for Starswirl himself if he were to dress up for the part. He was a gruff old stallion who had no time for words and instead pointed everyone into their places and expected for us to do the rest. He barely gave us time to get into position before he began channeling the ancient spell to raise the sun, for that first try I didn't even bother trying to cast it along with him, instead I watched and learned while channeling my own magic into strengthening his spell. By the third day I would be casting alongside him but for my first few attempts I was content to simply lend my own magic to his.
Raising the sun was without a doubt the single most strenuous spell I have ever had the displeasure to cast. It wasn't just that it was exhausting, it was also painful. Oh so very painful. It started as a dull headache, a light throbbing at my temples. The pain slowly magnified and moved to the base of my horn, slowly creeping up its length until the entire horn felt like it was being crushed by an immense pressure. Next came a burning sensation across my skin. A light tingling at first but quickly building in temperature until it felt as though I was standing inside of an oven. I quickly felt as though I had my limit but then, without warning the spell stopped and I collapsed to the ground. Around me the other unicorns had all similarly collapsed but many of them were already pulling themselves back up and heading towards the door. Our leader nodded in approval and I realized that without me noticing the sun had gone down and the moon had risen in its place. In total the spell couldn't have taken more than three minutes but it had felt much longer.
I didn't bother joining the others for the promised 'tea and scones' instead retiring straight to bed. The beds were remarkably more comfortable than I had been expecting them to be. They looked like simple cots but the mattresses were soft my tired body appreciated them immensely. In any of the other worlds I would probably have chosen to sleep in late on a bed like that but instead I was promptly roused at five in the morning to come and assist with raising the sun.
I followed the servant who had come to wake me downstairs and saw that once again Rarity was on the desk at the reception. This time she had a large mug of coffee on her table.
"Hey, Rarity," I yawned as I approached her, "got any more of that to go around?" I pointed at the coffee with hungry eyes.
"There are cups just over there... Sunset, wasn't it?" I nodded as I levitated a small cup of coffee off of a nearby table and began taking deep mouthfuls of the bitter liquid.
"You know, dear, you don't need to be up this early. I did say that you only had to be out by nine remember?"
I shook my head. "I remember, but I needed to get up to help raise the sun." with a dull thunk Rarity dropped her mug onto the table and stared at me in disbelief.
"Darling, I know the job pays well but you really should take breaks between castings. Why, most of us try to keep it to once a week, twice at most." There was a touching look of concern in her eyes as she examined me from head to tail. "Now I know a lot of us have fallen on hard times as of late but really even a single casting's pay should tide you over for a little while. If you are desperate for money then I can see about booking you another casting later in the week but I can't in good conscience allow you to do this to yourself." I turned my eyes away from her and stared backwards at my covered flank. Maybe there wasn't any great world destroying monster ruling over this Equestria, but evidently the ponies in charge here cared little for the well being of others, I began to wonder how long Thrifty Mill was expecting me to last here.
"Now then, how about I move you to this open spot on-" While I had been looking at myself Rarity had been flicking through her schedule for the coming week. Turning to see why she had stopped speaking I noticed that she had begun quickly flicking back and forth between the pages, repeatedly stopping and then continuing to the next page. She dropped the notes and stared at me, her mouth twisted into a grimace and a look of horror on her face. "Darling, for some reason I have you booked into every casting for the foreseeable future, mornings and evenings."
"That sounds about right," I nodded grimly.
"But why? No amount of bits could possibly be worth putting yourself through that."
"It's not exactly my choice anymore," I sighed raising the hem of my cloak to show Rarity the numbers branded into my flank. Rarity let out a high pitched scream and I dropped the cloak back into place before anypony else turned to see the source of the commotion. Once she had managed to collect herself Rarity leaned across the table to me and resumed speaking now in a hushed whisper.
"You signed into a work contract? Why in Equestria would you do such a thing? You're a unicorn!"
"I didn't know any better," I whispered back with a shrug of the shoulders. "That and I didn't have any bits. It seemed like a good idea at the time and if I hadn't done it then..." I paused and stared around the room to make sure nopony else was paying attention. "I did it to pay off the contracts on three fillies, Rarity. Fillies! They have them working on these huge machines down in the city and there's no safety precautions whatsoever! The whole place is a death trap!"
"You'll kill yourself though! Now I appreciate that it was a very noble gesture but if you keep this up the stress will kill you!" she was visibly shaking in her seat at that point.
"If they were left working where I found them I bet the work would kill those fillies too. One life for three? Sounds a pretty good trade from where I'm standing," I neglected to mention that I wasn't planning on sticking around long enough for the stress of casting to kill me.
"You know the three of them?" Rarity queried.
"Yes, but I only realized that after I'd payed off their contracts," she shook her head trying to understand what I had done and I realized I needed to try a different tactic. "Rarity, do you have a sister or daughter?"
"Yes, a younger sister, Sweetie Belle, she's a unicorn like all of my family."
"What if she had been born an earth pony, Rarity? What if she ran away from home and then one day you found her working in one of those factories under a contract?"
"Well," she puffed out her chest, "I would get together all of my bits, sell my belongings if need be and pay off her debt!"
"What if you didn't have any bits though, Rarity?" she shrunk a little at that. I'll admit that the question hadn't been fair, I knew she had a little sister after all, but it seemed my point was starting to hit home. "Kids shouldn't have to go through that, Rarity, nopony should. Maybe someday the unicorns will realize that but right now? Right now I'm ashamed to have a horn." With that I walked away from here and towards the ritual chamber to help raise the sun.
"When's she gonna get here?" Applebloom whispered to the other two fillies. I didn't have a clue who they were talking about but evidently I was meant to know that they were coming, the three fillies seemed to believe that I was asleep and were trying not to wake me. I had been in that world for almost a week at that point and was dead on my hooves. I felt sickly and nauseous even when I wasn't casting the spell to move the sun. Over that week I had become more adept at casting the spell but even as I became more experienced in using it my body had become weaker and weaker from over exertion. I had quickly fallen into a regular routine, every morning I would help raise the sun, after that I would get a small bite to eat in the city then return to the shack to see the fillies and have a rest. In the evening I would return to the palace for the second casting before collapsing into bed at the palace bunk room. Morning and evening Rarity would without fail offer my her sympathies, sharing food and medicine with me to help keep me going and questioning me on why I had done what I had done.
"She should be here any minute, don't worry, Bloom," Silver Spoon whispered back. On the other side of the portal I couldn't stand the girl but here she was starting to grow on me. The three of them really did seem to care about my well being and it seemed to go above simple gratitude, like Rarity they had been growing increasingly worried about my failing health. As if on cue there came a loud knocking at the door and the three fillies jumped up. I shifted my head slightly to look at the door but couldn't find the energy to rise. I could just about make out Scootaloo pulling the door open and inviting a purple unicorn in a slightly bloody smock inside.
"Okay girls, where is the patient?" I flinched at the voice and examined the unicorn in closer detail while Scootaloo pointed her in my direction. It was you, Twilight. The unicorn was you. She was pretty much identical to you in every way except for the smock, a pair of glasses perched upon her nose and a distinct lack of wings. Also her cutie mark, instead of having your trademark star this Twilight had a pair of scissors. "Hey there," she said with a smile as she crouched down beside me. "I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'll be your doctor today."
I groaned in pain and (with a little encouragement from the girls) Twilight began looking me over. She pulled various tools (stethoscopes and the like) out of a hefty looking doctors bag and began checking my vitals as the girls watched in fear. Occasionally she would cast a small spell or make some quiet comment about me under her breathe but she never really spoke to me during her check up. After a little while I managed to muster enough energy to speak.
"Hey girls," I whispered, managing to get everyponys' attention. "Think you could go outside for a bit? Me and Twilight need to speak in private." They were reluctant to leave but with a little encouragement from Twilight the three scooted outside. Once they were presumably out of earshot I turned to Twilight. "You working for free or are they paying you?" I asked her.
"They... they paid me to come here," she admitted, tugging nervously on her mane. "I very rarely work entirely free of charge," she admitted sighing in disappointment.
"Then leave please, pack up your tools and go. The girls don't have enough bits to waste on paying for a doctor to look at me."
"I'd hardly call it a waste," Twilight perked up. "I'm not going to try and sugar coat this, you have one of the worst cases of magical exhaustion I have ever seen. If it wasn't for those girls I imagine you'd be casting your way into an early grave. As it stands though I think we caught this just in time, if we can see about getting you some medicine and limit your casting for the foreseeable future then we might be able to reverse the worst of the damage and you should be able to make a full recovery."
"No," I said causing Twilight's face to drop. "The girls can't afford it and I won't be around long enough for it to even matter," I coughed into my hoof and stared at my flank, then tugged at the cloak to show Twilight the brand. "Even if I was sticking around I wouldn't be able to stop casting, I'm obliged to." Her reaction was about the same as Rarity's had been. Evidently unicorns very rarely signed into contracts. Twilight clammed up at that point and seemed unsure what to say.
"Scissors are a pretty odd cutie mark for a doctor, Twilight," I said hoping to break the silence.
"I'm not... I'm not actually a doctor," Twilight mumbled forlornly. "I dropped out of medical school, I'm a barber." She nervously rubbed one hoof over her leg as she looked over her tools and smock. "I do a little bit of medicine and the occasional piece of surgery on the side, I don't charge much though so I get a fair bit of business from ponies who can't afford normal medical care."
"Earth ponies and pegasi."
"Yeah, mostly." She looked absolutely crushed and I felt a stab of guilt at having brought the matter up. "But I am trying to make a difference!" She shouted perking up a little. "Normal unicorn medicine has been stagnating over the past few years but I've been doing some independent research in my own free time! I've been tracking details, making studies... soon I should have a decent enough case put together to show the medical authorities and demand some proper change! Like this new disease cholera! I've been tracking cases and I think I might have managed to work out the transmission vector for-" I cut her off there. She seemed to have gotten back into good spirits but I really didn't want to hear about horrible life threatening diseases.
"Sounds good, Twilight. You do that, make the world a better place," I yawned and put my head back down on the floor, nestled among the ratty old blankets of the shack.
"Seriously though, let me do something. You really don't look too great." Before I could tell Twilight to leave me alone we were interrupted by a commotion at the door. There was a lot of shouting, some of which was recognizable as belonging to the fillies, before the door to the shack burst open in a rush of magic. Rarity came storming into the room with the three fillies trying desperately to stop her.
"I demand to see Sunset Shimmer!" she shouted as she entered. Twilight leaped up in surprise and moved to try and stop her but Rarity pushed past her and walked over to me. "Darling, you are coming with me. We are going to be getting you a proper bed and some good medical care. I will not be having you killing yourself under my supervision any longer!"
"I'm technically her doctor at the moment," Twilight mumbled nervously, clearly out of sorts before the more forceful unicorn.
"A proper doctor! Not some charlatan!" I know Rarity meant well but it hurt me to see the way Twilight deflated upon hearing her words. "Darling," Rarity smiled at me returning to a calmer volume and a more amiable tone. "I've been thinking things over and I have a few ideas, we can claim that you were forced to sign under duress, or that you weren't of sound mind! There are so many things we could try to get you out of this awful contract. Just come with me and everything will be alright."
"Can you actually help her, Miss?" Scootaloo asked her, no longer trying to stop Rarity from getting too close to me.
"I can't promise anything, but I am certainly willing to try." The fillies seemed to light up at that and even Twilight nodded in approval.
"No," I mumbled, surprising them all. "I keep trying to tell you, there's no point in wasting time trying to help me. I'll be gone soon anyway."
"No, absolutely not!" Rarity shouted.
"We care for ya, Sunset!" Applebloom chimed in.
"I can't say I know you as well as they seem to," Twilight continued, pointing at the other four. "But I for one don't want to see anypony just dying when they could be saved.
"Not dying...I'm just going. Going to be gone." I sighed, I hadn't bothered trying to explain the nature of my situation to any of them, it had felt like I'd be wasting effort. "Look you want to help?" They all nodded. "Then the two of you look after the three of them." I pointed from the two mares to the fillies, "and all of you... be better than this. Everypony seems to be out for themselves. Don't. Help others, be kind be charitable, bring back the old Equestria."
"Darling, while I appreciate the sentiment what are we meant to do about it? I'm a glorified secretary and she's a hairdresser."
"Barber..." Twilight muttered unpleasantly beneath her breath.
"Maybe you don't change anything, maybe you do fail. Doesn't mean you can't try." Rarity reached down to try and pat me on the back but quickly jumped backwards as a spark of magic leaped from my coat onto her hoof.
"Get back!" Twilight gasped, pushing the three fillies away from my body as more sparks began to form. "This isn't just magical exhaustion! This is magic instability! Her horn must have been damaged by whatever she's been doing to herself, if her magic goes out of control anything could happen!" I smiled to myself there, remembering how back when the portal had first appeared in Sombra's Equestria I had jumped to similar conclusions. "Stay where you are, Sunset, we'll get some professional help and be back for you soon, just... don't move!" Twilight ushered the others out of the room, the fear in here voice adding to her sense of urgency. I wondered if Twilight actually expected to be able to help me or if she was just trying to get everypony clear of the room in case I exploded, judging from the fact that she shut the door behind herself I guessed it was probably the latter. So it was that when the portal appeared to pluck my limp body from the floor I was entirely alone.
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It's weird to think there was a version of me out there who never really discovered magic...
Probably multiple versions of you. You weren't Celestia's student in the other worlds either, who knows what your talent was in them?
That's a scary thought.
I did have on question about that world for you actually, Twilight.
Safe within the confines of her little safe house Eventide dropped her belongings and began sorting through the notes in her desk. She had a week's worth of food, all her necessary toiletries, enough medicine to last her for the foreseeable future... she shouldn't have to leave the house until she had everything in place. Eventide levitated the bottle of pills across and quickly popped one down hoping to slow her furiously beating heart. She needed to focus, to concentrate; no more distractions. Her eye twitched ever so slightly as she realized that she hadn't brought any liquor with her. It wasn't like she actually needed the alcohol... but it would be hard going dry for a full week, maybe longer.
Dumping another stack of papers onto the floor she finally found what she had been looking for, the journal. This wasn't a magical journal like the one she had for talking to Sapphire but to an extent it was even more important. Eventide flicked it open to the center of the book, past all of her detailed notes and scientific analysis and moving straight towards the list, her eyes scanning the pages looking for suitable candidates.
Eventide sighed and began scanning to some of her later entries, most of her early attempts had been duds.
#016 Theocracy. High magic (unstable) Banished
Closer but still not ideal.
#029 Civil War. Standard magic (minimal divergence) Exiled
Promising. She scribbled down number twenty nine onto a piece of paper. From what little she remembered about it she should be able to infiltrate it easily enough. The point of entry was even quite favorable. In theory twenty nine could cover both her requirements but one of them would be significantly trickier to find.
#041 Highly standard. Entry located in alt CHS. Sectioned.
That had been a relatively recent one, she remembered it well. Eventide noted down forty one on the paper and nodded to herself in satisfaction. Two suitable sources for completing the ritual, both relatively low risk and both having the component close at hand. This would be a piece of cake-
Downstairs there was a knocking at the door.
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After a brief panic Eventide had managed to pull herself together and make her way to the door, where her visitor was still politely knocking outside. Nopony knew about this address, not even Twilight. Chances are it was just some door to door canvasser, or a curious neighbor. The chance of it actually being a spy from the ERS, or the Princesses or even the MIB was laughable. She couldn't have been found out, she had been to cautious, she had covered her tracks perfectly. Any notions of the pony knocking at her door actually knowing who lived here was just the paranoia speaking. Eventide took a deep breath, cast aside the panic on her face and opened the door.
"Ah, Miss Trailblazer! Just the mare I was looking for!" It took a great deal of restraint on her part not to slam the door into the stallion's face. Standing in front of her was a lanky green earth pony with a silver mane and a camera for a cutie mark. "My name is Tin Foil, I was rather hoping I could get an interview with you, Miss Trailblazer."
"I don't do interviews anymore," she deadpanned looking the journalist over. He had a hefty pair of saddlebags no doubt full with the tools of his trade, he certainly didn't look like a spy. "Plus I'm pretty sure that word had gotten around that Celestia didn't like you guys making house calls to me. You looking to get fired?"
"First of all I'm freelance, secondly she objected to us visiting your Upper Canterlot residence not your secret lair."
"Freelance? Sorry to break the news to you buddy but there's no bits in stories about me anymore. Nopony will publish whatever it is you want to say," her initial desire to simply dismiss the reporter had been replaced with a growing curiosity. What was Tin Foil hoping to achieve here and how had he tracked her down?
"I gathered that much when I was fired from the Fillydelphia Tribune, also this isn't about the money, this is about the truth." The stallion spoke with a sense of fervor and purpose that reminded Eventide of her own passion back when the unpleasantness had been considered current events.
"How about you come inside? I think I can spare some time for a quick interview." Tin Foil nodded in thanks and stepped across the threshold into the dusty old room. Behind him the door clicked shut and Eventide led him over to the desiccated remains of the sitting room. "Sorry for the mess. I'm not used to entertaining guests. Now before we get started I have two questions, if you refuse to answer either of them then you're gone, no interview. How did you find this address and what are you planning to do with the information you gain here?" Eventide glared at him, staring the earth pony down and practically daring him to lie to her.
"I don't live here, I just didn't want somepony else buying it up and converting it into some sideshow attraction. 'Come visit the house where she lived', it would have been disgraceful," that had been a part of the reason behind her buying it up. The large basement space had been the other.
"As for the information, I'm hoping to publish it myself. Print the story in free pamphlets and get them distributed to the masses. 'Sunset Shimmer the true story behind the Blazing Dusk'-" Eventide slugged Tin across the jaw with one hoof sending him crashing backwards off of his chair and onto the floor in a shower of dust. He raised one hoof to his mouth and began rubbing his cheek while staring at the shaking form of Eventide. Curiously though she appeared to be shaking more in fear than in anger.
"I'm... I'm sorry," Eventide quivered, helping Tin back up off of the floor. "I... I have an adverse reaction to that phrase. Really sets me off. If you need to talk about it around me just call it 'the unpleasantness', my therapist found that it makes it easier to talk about." Still shaking, Eventide sat back down in her seat and managed to force a smile.
"Right," Tin frowned and straightened himself out. "I have most of the notes ready to print, it was a little tricky to sort through all the lies and half truths that were printed about her but I think I have a pretty decent picture to make a full and unbiased account of the years that led up to the Blaz- the unpleasantness. I really just wanted to straighten some of them out with you, see if I can clarify a few theories."
"I can't promise anything, but go ahead. Let's hear what you have to say," having managed to collect herself Eventide found the situation almost comical. What ludicrous theories had Tin managed to construct? It would be amusing to listen to his wild suppositions, maybe he had concluded that Sunset was the daughter of Discord come to claim her birthright, perhaps she was Sombra's consort seeking revenge. Eventide had heard them all before, nothing Tin could say could possibly surprise her now.
"First of all I'd like to address your relationship to her," a pretty standard start Eventide mused. "She was your biological mother correct?" Eventide had been wrong, apparently there was room for her to be surprised after all.
"What?" She could feign ignorance, deny details perhaps even outright lie. First though she needed to find out what Tin knew, or at least thought that he knew.
"I looked into you, Eventide, and one thing I always found curious was that I could never find a birth certificate. There are a few early reports of a young filly matching your description making visits to Ponyville and the Crystal Empire but the first time you really appear in proper records is at the age of fourteen. Princess Twilight Sparkle was directing a large search effort for a young mare who might answer to the name 'Evey' who had apparently run away from home to parts unknown. A few months later you turned up on a ship returning from the dragon lands in the company of the explorer Ford Stallionson, who hailed you as a 'promising up and coming young explorer who will likely be making a name of her own'. After that your career took off and the rest as they say is history."
"I was a traveler, Tin," Eventide answered with a frown as the stallion began making notes. "Technically not a gypsy but that didn't stop ponies calling me one when I was little. It shouldn't come as a surprise that you couldn't find much about my upbringing, I spent it on the road. Now get back to the point, Sunset was my mother? Where did you come up with that?"
"I looked into some records, newspaper clippings, stories from other ponies that sort of thing, trying to work out what connection you had to Twilight. Then I came upon an interesting little story about a mare named Sunset Shimmer who lived in Ponyville for about a year."
"Sunset Shimmer never lived in Ponyville," Eventide corrected. "She was Celestia's apprentice before Twilight, she ran away to parts unknown and returned many years later after using dark magics to... to become stronger," she fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat, the words tasting sickly in her mouth. "Everypony knows that."
"Except," Tin cut in, "for the part where there are records of a mare going by that name living in Ponyville twenty five years ago. I get that Celestia's official story is what most ponies know, but I for one don't believe it, there's too many gaps and inconsistencies." He tapped his quill against the notepad and looked Eventide in the eye. "Now, the Sunset who lived in Ponyville, she doesn't fit the exact description of the other mare, she had a different mane color and records of her cutie mark are a little hazy, but she was real and she did live with Twilight Sparkle. Also she was pregnant," Eventide said nothing, keeping her face stony and devoid of emotion. "I couldn't get any proper information about her and most of the ponies I interviewed seemed cagey about the whole thing, a few of them expressed some regret about something they had done. What I did find though was that while nopony seemed to know who she was or where she came from there was a small file on her at the local hospital."
"That so?" Eventide asked trying to put on an air of indifference.
"Yes. She had a death certificate. Apparently she died during child birth, there's a little gravestone for her in the Ponyville cemetery."
"So she was a completely different mare who has no bearing on your little publication then?" Eventide sighed hoping to throw him off of whatever scent he had leaped onto..
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. See I sneaked into the hospital records and had a look over other paperwork for the day she died and I found it to be somewhat lacking, there was a document missing. If Sunset died giving birth then there should have been a record for the birth certificate of a young foal."
"Maybe it died at birth, maybe it was stillborn."
"Maybe," Tin conceded, "but I'd be willing to bet all the bits in Equestria that it was you. The age fits, your frequent visits to Ponyville would make a great deal more sense. It even explains why Princess Twilight Sparkle would take such an interest into a runaway unicorn. That Sunset was your birth mother, when you grew up you came across the other Sunset, you befriended her and became obsessed with her, you wanted her to be the mother you never had. Sound about right?"
"Not even close," Eventide snorted. "For one thing I had a mother, she loved me very much."
"A pegaus right?" Tin probed.
"How did you..." Eventide had said a great deal over the years but she couldn't remember ever saying that in an interview.
"There aren't many of them but I made sure to interview every pony who seemed sympathetic towards either Sunset Shimmer or yourself before I came here. Hurricane Wings mentioned it. He also mentioned that any of the stories about you and Sunset having a sexual relationship were entirely wrong, he declined to say how he knew that but he insisted that it was true." Eventide smiled to herself at that, she hadn't kept many friends after the unpleasantness and it was nice to know Hurricane still had her back...
------------------------------------------- Seven years ago
After the award ceremony Evey and Hurricane had returned to his hotel room. The Purple wonderbolt was standing over her on the bed, slowly working his way up her neck towards her mouth in a rain of soft and tender kisses. Her dress had long since been discarded on the floor of the room and she knew precisely what was going to be coming next. The ceremony had been nice, the meal they had shared had been nice, Hurricane had been nice... everything was nice and now the end of their night together was going to be...nice.
"Are you alright?" Evey snapped to attention and looked up to where Hurricane was standing. At some point he had stopped kissing her and now was just standing there looking confused. "This is what you want right?"
"Huh? Yeah sure, why wouldn't it be?" Evey tried her best to put on a seductive smile and gestured for Hurricane to come closer but at some point while she hadn't been paying attention the mood had been killed, Hurricane rolled over and laid down in the bed beside her looking concerned.
"Look I like you, Evey, but something is seriously wrong here. I was trying my hardest but you just looked... well you looked a little disgusted. Is it me?" there was a look of hurt in Hurricane's eyes.
"No... no it isn't you! You were great, just great! Everything was... everything was nice!"
"Nice?"
"Nice."
"Nice." Hurricane sighed. "It shouldn't be nice, Evey, it should be more than that. Look I know a big part of this was just publicity, let's not beat around the bush, my agent and your boss pretty much threw us together to help us make the papers... But I kinda like you, and I sort of thought you felt the same way." He sighed and rubbed a hoof against the side of his head. "Look, I read about you spending a lot of time with this mare called Berry something, If you're gay or something just come out with it. I don't mind, this was always a publicity thing and I was an idiot to hope it might be something more."
"I'm not a fillyfooler," Evey snapped just a little to quickly. It was clear that sex was now off of the menu for the night and to her surprise Evey was relieved. It had been her idea for the two of them to come here in the first place and... everything was so complicated. "Look, you're nice and I do like you but... I guess I was hoping that things might work out this time. I guess I was thinking that things might be different with a pegasus." Things hadn't worked out with Pear Pudding and they hadn't worked out with Radiant Moon, why would Hurricane have been any different?
"Is this something to do with the whole magic thing?" Hurricane stopped and then slapped himself on the forehead. "Buck!"
"Buck?"
"Sorry... Before we met up for the first time, my agent gave me a list of subjects to never bring up around you, uh your magic was one of them." Rather than get mad at him Evey instead gave him a playful hoof bump. Maybe she wouldn't be sleeping with Hurricane tonight but she still liked the stallion. Maybe they could have some other fun.
"Don't leave me hanging, Hurricane! Let's hear the details, what were you to never ever mention around me? I promise I won't get mad." Hurricane eyed her up for a moment then sighed.
"Fine. She told me to never talk to you about your family, never draw attention to your 'stocky build', her words not mine. Under no circumstances compare you to being more like an earth pony than a unicorn, as if I'd do that. And also not to mention your 'sub par magical talents' again, her words not mine," he paused expecting Evey to cut in but she just sat there smiling at him and gesturing for him to continue. "Apparently you're pretty sensitive about the whole magic thing. Want to talk about it?"
"Not much to talk about," Evey shrugged. "You know all those warnings about how you shouldn't drink, or do drugs or other things like that when you're pregnant?" Hurricane nodded. "Unicorns have another one to add to the list, don't cast to the point of magical exhaustion. If the foal's a unicorn you can really mess up their horn that way," Evey sighed and looked forlornly at the ceiling. "I mean I don't blame mum, but it still sort of sucks."
"So you only agreed to date me because I was a pegasus?" Hurricane hazarded in an attempt to move the conversation to something less depressing.
"Sort of... I mean you seemed nice anyway and we got on well, I just sort of hoped that I might be able to be more...intimate with you. I've always liked pegasi, wished I was one myself. Some of my favorite memories were flying with mom," Evey gave a contend sigh as the nostalgia hit her.
"I thought you said your mom was a unicorn?"
"It's complicated," Evey muttered. "Important thing is I love flying and I like pegasi and I thought that maybe, just maybe that would be enough for me to have a proper relationship for once! But no! Apparently little Evey just isn't attracted to Ponies at all!" She clamped her hooves over her mouth, she hadn't meant to say that.
"So, you've never been attracted to a stallion or a mare, in a uhhhh sexual way?" Hurricane didn't seemed to be disgusted with her, or judging her, just surprised.
"Never. I've tried I've really tried! That was the whole point of tonight! I liked you, you liked me... I thought maybe if the mood was right and I had a little bit of alcohol in me... but nope, nothing," she gave a hollow little laugh. "I'm really messed up aren't I?"
"Hey, secret's safe with me. Just promise me you won't do something like this again? Seriously, forcing yourself into doing something like that cause you think it's what everypony expects of you? I'm not even going to try and count all the reasons that's a bad idea."
"Sure thing, we still friends, Hurricane?"
"Still friends."
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"Hurricane was correct about me not sleeping with Sunset," Eventide answered as Tin pored over his notes. "As for the rest of your ideas? Well you hit the bulls eye on a few of them but the others you were way off of the mark on."
"Care to elaborate?" Tin asked with a hungry look in his eyes.
"Nope. You want answers? I have a whole unpublished book of answers upstairs, the biography of Sunset Shimmer, entirely unabridged, written by Eventide Trailblazer the mare who knew her best," Tin's mouth dropped and his eyes became as large as dinner plates. "But if you want a copy I'm going to need to hear everything you know, I want to hear just how wrong you got things."
"Okay, Sunset, Princess Celestia will be visiting later today, she has some things to discuss with you; Dr Horse wants you coming in for a check up every other day to check on the progress of the foal and Pinkie Pie wants you to stop cancelling on her baby showers. Careful on that last one or you'll probably be receiving a surprise baby shower when you least expect it," there were a few other items on Twilight's checklist as well but she didn't see any reason to bother her with them.
"Thanks again for all this," Sunset sighed from her bed. "I still don't get why Horse seems to want me to be stuck in bed all day. I'm perfectly fine, I should be watching the library, not lazing about!" Sunset's complaints about being bed ridden hadn't let up over the past week but other than helping her track her appointments there was little Twilight could do to help the unicorn. Twilight wasn't going to say it to her face but she actually agreed with how Horse was handling the matter, even confined to her wheelchair Sunset had been falling asleep from exhaustion with distressing frequency, hopefully today she'd be able to stay awake long enough to speak to Celestia.
"So any idea what the Princess wants to speak to me about? I've barely seen her since I got back," as Sunset fidgeted uncomfortably in her bed Twilight pondered how much she should tell her. It was almost certainly the case that Celestia would want to talk to her about the idea of Sunset becoming a Princess herself, Twilight herself had received enough subtle (and not so subtle) questions probing her about the matter over the course of the year to know that it was still her hope to see Sunset crowned.
"I have a pretty good idea, but I think it would be best if you spoke to her about it when she got here."
"Fair enough," Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, the question successfully deflected for the time being. "Now then, Twi, I have a few hours to kill till she gets here, want to here how I got all of these?" Sunset gestured to the burns coating her body, while Sunset could cover the worst of them with clothes it seemed unlikely they would ever properly heal. Even the burns had been better received by Sunset than the news about her eye, she had refused to speak to anypony for days after Horse had informed her that the damage was irreversible.
"Assuming you visited the same number of alternate Equestrias as I did this must be the last one right?"
"Yep, this was the last stop on the tour. Excluding home of course..."
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Falling out of the portal and landing face first in the dirt was not a great start to the week, but it was preferable to winding up in another frozen over Crystal Empire in the state I was in. Helping move the sun had taken its toll on me and I could barely move my body. I just about had enough energy to look around before I ended up drifting back off into sleep. The world was warm and dry, dust blowing across a parched Equestria. The sun hung low in the sky casting a grim half light across a cracked and broken world. The only real indication that the portal had dropped me in the north was the fact that I could just about make out the ruins of the palace, collapsed nearby. Of the rest of the Crystal Empire there was no sign.
I'd had a few brushes with death over my journeys but as I lay in the dust I had never been so certain that I was going to die, worst of all it wasn't going to be a quick death at the hooves of some strange enemy, this was going to be a slow death to exposure and starvation, a death that had already begun with my poor treatment over the past week. Too tired to move and too resigned to my fate to care I just lay in the dust flickering in and out of consciousness.
I have vague memories of seeing a figure approaching me, a white pony slowly coming towards me from the distant ruins of the palace. Then there was a feeling of being dragged and hauled across the dirt. I know now that it wasn't in my imagination but at the time it seemed like I'd fallen into some strange delusion.
I only really came to my senses after I was forcibly fed dirty half filtered water, the much needed drink being poured down my unwilling throat by another unicorn, my mouth held open by their magic. It tasted foul and I practically choked upon it as it went down, but the drink was exactly what I needed to be returned to reality. I wasn't imagining things, somepony had found me and pulled me to some small semblance of safety. Cracking my eyes open I looked around, my vision hazy from a small build up of mucus about my eyes. I had been moved to the ruins of the palace from the looks of things and judging by the stinging sensation across the length of my body I had probably been dragged the whole distance. A short distance from where I sat was a makeshift campsite built around a crudely built well, surrounded by small buckets of dirty water. I scanned my surroundings looking for my savior and when I saw them my heart leaped. A unicorn with a white coat and a dirty blue mane was standing with their back turned to me, trying to make something vaguely edible out of moldy vegetables and dried out oats.
I smiled at them and after clearing my throat called out. "Hey, it's you. You came back for me. How did you find me?" It came out as a barely audible whisper on the wind but the other unicorn had heard me. They turned around and glared at me from where they stood, my heart breaking a little and my face dropping into a despairing frown. The unicorn was a mare with strange red eyes. "Sorry, I- I thought you were somepony else."
The other unicorn sighed and picked up a spear in her magic, I hadn't noticed the weapon in my initial scan of the room, it was a makeshift thing made up of a jagged lump of crystal tied haphazardly to a length of pole. She cautiously approached and prodded me a few times with her weapon. I made no effort to protect myself, I didn't have the energy for it. Thankfully her attacks were merely probing strikes not intended to draw blood or cause serious injury. When she seemed content that I wasn't any threat to her the unicorn discarded her weapon and levitated a large chunk of black chalkboard over to where she was standing. Carefully manipulating a lump of white stone she began writing on the board, shoving it into my face when she was done.
"Are you Sunset Shimmer?" the board read.
"Yes," I croaked through my still dry lips "How did you know that? Were you expecting me here?" It was a strange development, with the exception of Minuette and Discord nopony had ever recognized me before in the strange Equestrias I had visited
"Do you know who I am?" the board had been wiped clean to make room for the new message.
"No... I thought you were a stallion that I used to know. Sorry, I don't think we've ever met before," it was a half truth I had a feeling I knew the mare's name but that was based on the assumption that she was the Equestrian version of someone I knew at CHS.
"Vinyl Scratch," she manipulated the chalkboard with a practiced ease. "You seriously don't remember me?"
"No," I shook my head. "You're mute right?" she nodded. "Between that and your eyes I think I'd remember you."
"Are you human?" That one rattled me, how was I even supposed to answer that?
"No. I'm a pony, but I've been to the human world before," a thought suddenly crossed my mind and I pointed at my new companion, "are you human?"
"No. You suffering from amnesia?"
"No." It was like the singly most paranoid game of twenty questions I had ever played. The mare clearly knew something about me but was skirting the topic cautiously. "I'm not from around here though, I've been away for a very long time and I only just got back-"
"You from an alternate reality then?"
"How did you...." I fell into a coughing fit before I could finish the sentence. Vinyl sighed and patted me on the back with her hoof to help me through it.
"If there's one alternate reality out there, makes sense there might be a couple more." She wiped down the board then instantly began on a new message. "Sorry about the rough treatment. Me and another version of you had some history. Needed to check if it was her or not."
"Another me?" my mind froze at the possibility. If there was another me in this world I might be able to have her help me get back to my own reality. If anypony would believe my story about humans, alternate worlds and time travel then it would be Sunset Shimmer. "Any idea where I could find her? I might need her help."
"She can't help you. She's dead." No emotion spread across the mare's face, no sadness, no regret. The other Sunset was apparently dead and she couldn't seem to care less.
"D-d-d-dead?" I stammered a little over the word finding it a little hard to take in. "Are you sure? How did it happen?"
"She took a long walk off of the edge of the Canterhorn" once more she wrote it all down with a matter of fact expression on her face. Apparently this Sunset was not well loved by Vinyl.
"Suicide?" she nodded to confirm. "Why?"
"Realized she'd royally bucked up. Didn't want to live with the results anymore. Handed me her fancy tiara, gave me a quick hug all nice and polite then just hopped off of the edge of the mountain. Didn't even tell me what she was going to do."
"What... what had she done?" I asked, fear and trepidation worming their way into my mind. In all of the worlds I had visited most ponies hadn't even heard of Sunset Shimmer. Here though, the first pony I had met had not only met Sunset, but had been present for her death.
"You really aren't from around here are you? Have a better look around, Sunset." Vinyl pointed up to the ruined walls of the palace that surrounded us. At first glance the only difference had been their ruined state, it was only with Vinyl pointing directly at them that I noticed the other major difference. Adorning the walls, faded with age and coated in dust, were great red and yellow banners bearing the symbol of the sun. Not Celestia's sun though. No, these banners bore the unmistakable image of my own cutie mark.
The sight of the banners disgusted me, I tried to hold it down but I wound up vomiting what little was left in my stomach onto the floor, much to the surprise of Vinyl. As I began to choke up my thoughts fluttered to the obvious truth of my situation; in every world I had visited some enemy of Equestria had succeeded where they were supposed to have failed, why should I have been exempt from that rule?
To the side of my head I could hear the scratching of the stone on the chalkboard and turned to see what Vinyl wanted to say. "Are you okay?"
"No," I shook my head back and forth vigorously, "no I'm not okay. I destroyed the world, Vinyl. I mean, is anypony else even alive? What happened? How did she- I win?"
"Wasn't you. Was a different Sunset Shimmer," she meant it in earnest as well, there was a sympathy in her eyes and from the manner that she was tracing one hoof back and forth in the dust I guessed she was feeling guilty about her earlier treatment of me.
"Not different enough, Vinyl, now answer the damn question." A terrifying sense of clarity had come over me, it would have been easy to pretend that this was the handiwork of a completely different Sunset Shimmer from a completely different world but the honest truth was no doubt that the only difference between me and her was that nopony stopped her from claiming the Element of Magic.
"The other Sunset stole Princess Twilight's crown and ran off with it to some other world called CHS."
"Wait, Princess Twilight? Personal student of Princess Celestia? Element of Magic?" That made no sense, all of the previous worlds had gone wrong due to somepony else being there instead of Twilight. How had this one gone wrong?
"That's her. She followed Sunset to this CHS but two days later Sunset returned as some freaky red alicorn wearing the Element on her head and with a small army of mind controlled civilians in tow." Vinyl paused as though expecting me to question her on the matter but I kept my silence and motioned for her to continue. "The fight was pretty bloody, unarmed ponies against royal guards, apparently it was fairly one sided until Sunset turned the Element of Magic against Luna and Celestia. Even a corrupted Element still has a lot of power, perhaps even more than normal, she used the magic to banish Celestia and Luna to the Moon," Vinyl gave a great sigh and sunk to the floor, hiding her head between her hooves as she continued writing. "Things just got worse from there. Nopony was strong enough to stand in her way and soon enough Equestria was hers. That first day after banishing the sisters she raised the Sun but the following night she couldn't lower it. She began getting crazier and crazier every day, strange proclamations, ordering ponies to continue on as though nothing had changed, even as the Sun was slowly baking all of Equestria beneath it she insisted that everything was fine and anypony that said otherwise was punished. She had the remaining Elements of Harmony brought before her and cut their horns off so that they could never stand against her again-"
"Hold up, horns? Who were the other Elements?"
"Lyra Heartstrings, Twinkleshine, Moon Dancer, Minuette and Lemon Hearts," and there it was. In this world Twilight was still Princess, she still had a good group of friends to stand with her against any danger, but in the world of CHS she would have had nothing. The only one of those names I recognized as going to CHS was Lyra and I had barely done anything to her during my reign as queen of the school. When Twilight turned up she probably wouldn't have noticed that your five friends had been broken up, hay she probably wouldn't even have known who they were. She would probably have had to stand against me alone, nobody to help her win the crown, nobody to clear her name from the rumors being circulated about her and nobody to help her fight Sunset Shimmer.
"Want me to continue?"
"Please."
"Not much more too it. Sunset kept things going like that until there was nothing left of Equestria to govern. Everypony who was still alive had run away to far off lands where the sun was cooler, or taken shelter in the mountains and dark corners of the world. Ponies are still alive out there, but they are in hiding. Then one day Sunset leads me to the top of the Canterhorn, takes off her crown and turns into a little amber unicorn that looked just like you. Takes a walk, takes a jump and then splat. Sunset pancake." Vinyl made a gesture of slamming one hoof into the ground to accompany the end of the story and though mute managed to blow a raspberry into her other hoof to give an accompanying sound effect.
"Why were you even there? How did you know her? What are you doing here of all places?" the questions rattled off one after another. I'd been interested in the histories behind the other worlds too but this one felt much more personal.
"I was her chamberlain. When she came to power Blueblood put himself forward for the position but she got mad at him and ended up having him executed. Next two were volunteers, followed by five unlucky sods who got voted in. I got elected cause my name was pulled out of a hat."
"What did you do that the others didn't?"
"Didn't talk back to her, never raised my voice. By the end of it all she seemed to think of my as a friend, not even sure she knew what the word meant. After she offed herself I looted a few things from Canterlot and came back here, apparently this is where it started." Vinyl looked forlornly to the ruins of the upper floor. "Sunset said a lot of things in her sleep. She never said she killed Twilight though. I'm hoping one day the portal will open up again and Twilight will be waiting to come back through."
Grabbing Vinyl roughly between my forehooves I stared deep into her red eyes. "The mirror is here? In the palace?" Vinyl nodded her head slowly. "Can I see it? I might be able to get it working, or find out how I got here or...or anything! Vinyl, I've been trying to find that mirror for weeks, I've been through Tartarus and back, you have to let me see it!"
"Upstairs in the ruins of the throne room, knock yourself out. It isn't exactly going anywhere." The moment the message was finished I half sprinted, half scrambled across the floor of the room. I'd made no recovery from my week of work in the last world but this tiny new flame of hope gave me new energy. My body protested at the movement, aching at the joints and threatening to give out at any moment, but I didn't care. I finally had a shot at getting home, and I was going to make the most of it.
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Vinyl hadn't been lying. Upstairs, exposed to the open air was the mirror, a little dirty but otherwise exactly as I remembered it. Beside it sat a small chest but when I entered the room my attentions was entirely on the mirror itself. My first test was a simple matter of touch to see if the mirror was currently active, unsurprisingly it was not. I was a little disappointed but not wholly surprised. I hadn't been expecting it to be as simple as just finding the mirror tapping my hooves together three times and magically returning home. So I began exploring other options.
I don't know if Vinyl was scared of me, or sad for me, maybe she was giving me some space or maybe she couldn't stand being in the same room with somepony who looked the same as the mare who had destroyed her home. Whatever her reason was she left me alone with the mirror for what must have been hours as I tried to open the portal. My attempts started off simple and reasonable, mustering what little magic I had available to me to cast scans and spells of opening. I looked for unusual physical markings that I might have missed in my previous studies of the mirror. Switches, buttons anything that might allow a pony to influence the mirror. Hours after I had started I had resorted to casting random spells into its surface, speaking magical words out of foal's tales and slamming my hooves against the surface until they were red and bloody. I hadn't even noticed how bad my hooves had gotten until then. The keratin was broken and in places and had almost completely fallen away in others. The skin at the base of my legs appeared off colored and dead, frostbitten from repeated exposure to the cold over my weeks away.
It was a heart wrenching experience. The one thing that had kept me going for the past few weeks had been the hope of finding my way home and now even that seemed to be robbed from me. If the mirror wasn't going to do anything until another the thirty moons had passed then what good was it to me? Perhaps I could find Celestia in the next world and see about having her help me get home but if past experience was anything to go by then it seemed likely that she would be indisposed in any awful version of Equestria I might end up visiting. I screamed in anger and kicked the chest next to the mirror, spilling its contents across the floor and chipping a large lump of hoof off my leg. I cursed at that pain and cradled the injured hoof against my chest. I was so mad I barely even noticed the technicolor glow that was beginning to spread across the room.
As the light intensified my attention was turned to the contents of the chest, now strewn across the floor of the room. Six pieces of jewelry, one a crown the others all necklaces had begun to levitate up off of the floor and were floating towards me. Memories of my own attempt to use the Element of Magic flooded into my mind and I winced backwards from the approaching objects, raising my hooves to try and keep them away. Yet just as soon as the light show had started the room seemed to return to normal, bathed in the perpetual twilight of a frozen setting sun. I blinked and looked about the room to check if anything had changed, check that I hadn't just imagined the whole thing. Being attacked by angry Elements of Harmony would have been about par for the course for my guilt ridden mind.
Cautiously checking out the room I saw that I had indeed knocked the chest over. Its contents though were not haphazardly spilled across the floor of the room though, nor were they floating ominously towards me. Instead, lying immobile upon the floor by my hooves was a golden diadem with six gems embedded within it. At the top of the crown sat the Element of Magic, its shape unmistakable, while beneath it the remaining five gems were arranged together to form my own cutie mark. Each of them shone with a different brightness, the red of loyalty being particularly radiant while the blue of laughter had almost faded to grey. Cautiously I lifted the crown in my magic and placed it upon my head. The feeling I felt as it came down upon the top of my head was not the same sense of pain and malice that had surged through my body at CHS though, instead I was filled with a great sense of purpose and desperation. This world's Sunset Shimmer may have ruined everything, but I might be able to fix some of her mistakes.
Behind me I heard the scratching of Vinyl's blackboard. "What the hay happened up here?" was scrawled in large letters across her slate and she eyed the crown upon my head with palpable fear.
"It's okay, Vinyl," I sighed. "I'm not her, I'm not going to hurt you." My eyes turned to the sun, perpetually shining into the room through the decimated masonry. "In fact, I think... I think I might be able to fix things here. Vinyl, I think I might be able to bring the Princesses back."
It was strange how little there was to do. Assuming the magic worked as I believed it did then I had a whole week to put my plan into motion, a whole week to prepare myself. I could have just gotten straight to the task and tried to free them on that first day, I made the right choice not to. For an entire week a lay about the ruins of the palace getting as much sleep as I could. With the sun stuck in place in the sky I couldn't track day or night but Vinyl promised me that she would be able to wake me for my seventh day there. It would have been a horrible irony to have been spirited away from the world before I could fulfill my promise to her, especially considering that she was the one doing all the work for those first six days.
The Elements were kept out of sight and out of mind in the chest that Vinyl had been storing them in. When the other Sunset had...died... she had rounded the Elements up and brought them here, apparently she planned to pass them on to Twilight if she ever returned through the portal. The arrangement that the two of us had was pretty simple, Vinyl would help me recover and when I had my strength back I'd attempt to free the Princesses. It was a fair deal and in retrospect Vinyl probably got the better end of the bargain, but day after day for the entire week she seemed to resent me more and more. Vinyl had to gather and prepare food for both of us, she had to draw water from the well, she had to work at keeping us both alive while I spent almost every hour sleeping and recuperating. She didn't know if I could make good on my promise, for all she knew I was abusing her trust and that at the end of the week I'd run off without even attempting to hold up my end of the deal. After hearing how bad the other Sunset had been I think the only reason that she didn't kick me out on my flank was the fact that the Elements had responded to me.
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"It's time." The message Vinyl shoved in my face one morning was short and to the point. If I was going to try and fix her world then it was now or never. I nodded and rose from my makeshift bed in the throne room. I'd barely moved from the side of the mirror for the whole week and despite being well rested I didn't feel much better. I hadn't been expecting some miraculous cure to all of my physical woes brought on by a lengthy bit of sleep but I was really hoping to have improved more than I had. Almost as soon as she roused me that day I bolted towards the corner of the room and began vomiting up the contents of my stomach. I hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days and I was beginning to feel like it had nothing to do with the poor quality food and murky water that the two of us had been living on. Giving myself a quick look in the mirror I frowned at how thin I'd gotten. If Discord's words were to be trusted then I probably wasn't doing the foal any favors. In a good world I'd be starting to consider the fact that I would be eating for two, back then I was barely even eating for one.
"Okay, Vinyl. Plan's simple. The moment I start casting you can't do anything that might interrupt me. Doesn't matter what happens to me, stay out of the way until the spell is done." Vinyl nodded in agreement then pointed towards the buckets of water she had piled up in the corner of the room. "Right. Once the spell is done go ahead and douse me. I might be pretty out of it, or passed out from the pain so just do what you can to get me back on my hooves so I can use the Elements." She nodded again and moved to the entrance of the room, stepping across the threshold and out of my way.
With Vinyl gone I slipped on the crown and readied myself in the center of the throne room, digging my hooves into the dust of the ground to prepare for the coming struggle. "Hey you," I whispered to the Sun as I stared at the horizon through the breach in the palace walls. "You've had a good run, but I think Equestria is about due for a night's rest." Mustering my magic as I had learned to do in the last Equestria I began channeling the spell to lower the sun, except this time I also attempted to cast the portion that would raise the Moon in its place.
There were a few things I had going for me. I was the personal apprentice of Celestia herself, one of the most magically gifted unicorns of the past century. I was well rested and had been preparing my magic for this task for an entire week. I had practiced this spell every morning and every night for a whole week prior to my rest. I was not only wearing the Element of Magic but the other five Elements as well. My cutie mark was the image of the sun, a mark that was borne by Celestia herself and marked me as being the perfect unicorn for carrying out this task. The odds were as heavily tilted in my favor as I could have ever hoped them to be, it still didn't change the fact that I was a lone unicorn though, I wasn't an alicorn.
I described how painful the ritual to raise the Sun had been right Twilight? Well everything I felt casting the spell with the aid of other unicorns I felt in the first few seconds of casting it on my own. The pain flooded through my body and I screamed out in pain, true to her 'word' though, Vinyl did nothing to intervene. As pure agony shot up the length of my horn my knees buckled and I almost collapsed to the ground. Steadying myself I kept my gaze locked on the sun and gritted me teeth, forcing the sun to slowly move even as it resisted my magic.
Hoof wrestling with the Sun, Twilight, that's how I described it to you all those months ago, Twilight. As it began to dip below the horizon I felt a second burst of pain shoot through my body. Up to that point I'd only ever felt hot from casting the spell, this time was different. The first sign that it wasn't just some magically induced feeling but genuine heat was the smell of burning hair. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that my mane was starting to go up in flames and I could feel the tell tale burning sensation of embers across my coat. I couldn't stop though, if I stopped the spell would be broken, everything I had already done would be for nought and I could end up being subjected to horrific magical backlash. I realized just in time that the burning strands of my matted mane were dangerously close to my right eye, slammed my eyelid shut just before the burning strands of hair managed to curl into it. I kept my left eye locked on the Sun, tears running from it as I kept my concentration on the sun, murky spots beginning to mar my vision.
If the smell of burning hair was unpleasant then the smell of burning flesh was downright sickening. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from but judging by the increased intensity of pain in spots across my body I gathered that wherever my coat had been burning before the heat had now moved on to my skin. My only distraction from the stench was the intense pain in my horn. It was like over channeling and magical exhaustion mixed together and coupled up with the worst headache imaginable. To make matters worse as the Sun finally began to disappear behind the horizon and the cold light of the Moon began spreading across Equestria I heard a sound like cracking bone that worryingly seemed to be coming from my forehead. With one last crunching noise I felt my magical connection to the sun being shattered and I was frown backwards across the room, landing in a heap on the floor. Around me the world had gone dark, but this wasn't the darkness of unconsciousness or even of prison, this was a new type of darkness, and it was terrifying.
I flailed about on the floor screaming in pain and calling for Vinyl. Something had gone wrong with the spell that much was clear and now I could no longer see the world around me. The feeling of cold water hitting my coat was an incredibly welcome sensation. I might not be able to see her but it was safe to assume that Vinyl was somewhere in the room with me. Another wave of water hit me and I was relieved to feel some of the worst of the burning across my body was diminishing. I stopped my flailing just in time for the third load of water to hit me square in the face. Blinking the water from my eyes the light of the room returned to me but it was muddled and hazy. I wasn't blind, not entirely. I'd been holding my right eye closed tight for most of the spell but my left, the one I'd kept locked on the Sun was seeing only a dark haze, the details of the world completely indistinguishable to it.
"You okay?" the chalkboard was shoved roughly in my face as Vinyl embraced me.
"Hurts!" I moaned, "it hurts all over. But we still have work to do." I noticed the crown sitting on the floor in the middle of the room and tried to levitate it back to my head, for my efforts I was rewarded with blinding pain and a fresh headache. Rubbing one hoof across its length I confirmed my worst fears, deep jagged cracks crossed its surface, I wouldn't be casting any more spells unless they healed.
"Can you still free them?" Vinyl motioned towards the Moon where the silhouettes of a pair of alicorns covered the entire surface.
"Only one way to find out." I hobbled across the room to where the crown had fallen and picked it up with my hooves, placing it firmly back upon my head. It took a few tries to get it to sit comfortably as there was barely any of my mane left to hold it in place. I kept my eye away from the mirror at the center of the room not wanting to see just how much damage the spell had done to me. With the crown finally settled on my head I turned my attention to the moon, only to feel the sting of a still burning ember on my flank. I turned to try and pat out the offending flame only to see that the culprit wasn't a fire, but the electrical crackling of magic across my coat.
"No! No this is too soon! I'm not done yet!" With the magic of the portal quickly spreading across my body I turned my attention to the Moon and scrunched up my face in concentration. I didn't bother wasting my time trying to cast unicorn magic, instead I though back over happy memories, of times with my friends in CHS and all the ponies I'd wound up meeting over my travels. I thought of you Twilight, and of Celestia, trying to channel the emotions I had felt at the Battle of the Bands. With the magic surging through my body growing stronger by the second I thought of the little foal I might be harboring inside of me and of how nopony deserved to have to endure a lifetime of eternal day or of eternal night. As gravity lost its hold upon me to the tug of the growing portal a blast of multicolored energy shot from the crown and up into the night sky, slamming into the surface of the Moon above me. The last thing I saw was...was... Moon. Surface... nice and clean... no shadows... no...alicorns. Free. They...free.
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"Sunset!" Twilight screamed as her friend collapsed to the bed, her eyes open but devoid of any sense of recognition. Her hooves twitched slowly in involuntary spasms and her mouth hung open, limply. Twilight was instantly at her side gently shaking her to try and wake her from whatever had come over her. "Sunset! Wake up, please wake up!" Despite Twilight's efforts Sunset showed no signs of returning to her senses. Feeling something damp against her fur Twilight took a step back and looked over her friend's body, finally noticing that a slightly bloody liquid was seeping onto the bed sheets from between Sunset's hind legs.
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With a burst of magic Sunset was flung through the portal and into another world. A quick scan of her surroundings through her one good eye revealed that she was in a much better kept version of the throne room she had just left. She was clearly in an inhabited version of the Crystal Empire but what kind of villain ruled over this one? Hearing the sounds of other ponies at the doors she hobbled behind the throne as a pair of guards checked on the room. Sunset wouldn't be caught again, she'd have to make her way out of the palace and find somewhere to lay low until she had a better idea of what this world was like, until-
There was an unexpected weight upon her head. The crown. She was still wearing the crown. She hadn't meant to take it! Who knew what damage could be done by removing the Elements from their native Equestria!? What if they fell into the hooves of this world's villain? Sunset couldn't allow that to happen, she needed to hide them somewhere, someplace they wouldn't be noticed, someplace like... the portal room. Every instance of the room she had seen so far seemed like a storage room for unwanted magical junk, and forgotten artifacts. Or a large and forgotten ball pool. Either of those would be the perfect hiding place for the crown!
Sunset waited till the guards seemed distracted and sprinted out of the throne room, skidding across expertly polished crystal floors and past surprised ponies she made her way through the palace halls towards her destination. She kept her movements erratic and unpredictable, trying to prevent her pursuers guessing her destination, until at last she was at the door. With one hoof she flung it open and with the other she tossed the crown into the nearest pile of magical junk, and then she was off again. Hopefully they would never realize that this had been her destination.
Now all she had to was escape the palace. Turn after turn brought her closer to the exit but the guards cut off her every escape route. Time and time she altered her course attempting to find some way around them to freedom but she was thwarted at every junction and soon found herself cornered. With no magic, nowhere to run and and already battered and broken body it seemed the end was finally at hoof for Sunset. She glared at the guards, growled at them in anger as they advanced upon her, backing her up against the wall.
"Hold!" the voice rung through the halls and stopped the guards in their places. "Who are you and how did you get into the throne room undetected?" Sunset turned to the stallion asking the questions, there was something familiar about his voice. He was a tall white unicorn with a blue mane and-
"Shining!" Sunset gasped beneath her breath, trying to tilt her head so that her good eye had a better view of him. "Is it really you?" at this distance he probably couldn't even hear her. Sunset cautiously took a step towards him and-
"Is everything alright, Shining?" a heavily pregnant pink alicorn that Sunset recognized as Princess Cadance stepped to the side of Shining Armor and nuzzled him affectionately, her eyes turning towards the source of the commotion that had been spreading through the palace. Sunset's eye flashed back and forth between the two of them and-
No. No no. nononononono
She collapsed backwards into unconsciousness as the two of them stared at her in confusion, no recognition of who she was on either of their faces.
"So you're the daughter of the Sunset who lived in Ponyville, but you grew up on the road under the care of a pegasus and it was on the road that you met the Sunset everypony knows..."
"So you speculate," Eventide eyed up the reporter, it was clear that Tin Foil didn't know the whole story but he seemed to have come nearer to the truth than most other ponies. "Still, it would hardly make headlines would it? 'Eventide Trailblazer's obsession born from her mother sharing a name with Sunset'. Not exactly the most thrilling of articles."
"Perhaps, but I've also been considering some of her motivations," Eventide nodded in interest, most of the papers put little thought to Sunset's motivations, 'evil for the sake of evil' or 'establishing herself as sole power in Equestria' were the two popular explanations. "Now then, Sunset's attacks on Discord and Princess Luna make a certain kind of sense. Either of them could have been a threat to her and trying to remove them quickly would make sense regardless of her motivation. No, the ones I'm more interested in are Fluttershy and her actions in the Crystal Empire."
"Fluttershy was the weak link, she pretty much lived alone and she was never a fighter. Everypony agrees that Sunset went after her because she was the easiest of the former Element Bearers to defeat. With her out of the way she'd be safe from Twilight's rainbow power magic nonsense," Eventide muttered reeling off the common story that had been repeated again and again over the past five years.
"Perhaps, I've also heard ponies call it an efficiency thing. Attack Fluttershy to lure out Discord, two birds with one stone," judging from the off hoof manner he was speaking Eventide judged that Tin didn't believe either of those explanations. "I briefly considered that it was some jealous fit of rage thing going on, that Fluttershy was the pegasus who raised you... but that seemed a dead end. So instead I looked at things from a slightly different point of view." Tin Foil pulled a letter out of his bag and scanned the contents nodding to himself. "While trying to find out a little more out about this address I got into contact with the mailmare who would normally do the local post run. The... unpleasantness left her a little traumatized, learning that one of her regular delivery addresses was home to," his eyes darted down to the letter, "to 'one of the worst monsters in Equestria', left something of an impression on her and she hasn't returned to work since. She's quite terrified that every seemingly normal house could be home to a killer."
"Is there a point to this?" Eventide sighed as Tin Foil began to trail off.
"Yes well, I interviewed the poor mare and she had a few little stories about her visits here. She was very struck by how normal the house seemed and how polite the resident was to her. With the exception of Sunset being 'a little tall and constantly dressed in dark cloaks' she was apparently otherwise exceedingly normal whenever the two of them met. One thing that did stick in her mind though was that the day it all kicked off Sunset had received a letter with a return address in Ponyville."
"Is that so," that was news to Eventide, she'd never heard this part of the story before.
"It is. Now I collected some hoof writing samples of a few mares I suspected might have been writing to Sunset and presented them to this mailmare, she pointed Fluttershy's out instantly. Quite curious don't you think? Not only did Fluttershy apparently know Sunset by name, but she knew her address and was apparently involved in some manner of correspondence with her. I'm guessing a little here but I'd imagine that whatever the contents of that letter were was what made Sunset attack her. Blackmail or threats are out of the question, this is Fluttershy we're talking about, but I wouldn't put it past her to have potentially been encouraging a reconciliation between Sunset and Celestia. Fluttershy might have had good intentions but if Sunset felt Fluttershy might ruin her cover..." Tin trailed off a little and eyed Eventide up, looking for her face to betray some hint of emotion.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm curious about what Fluttershy would want with Sunset," Eventide had one idea but she had told Fluttershy that in confidence, would she really have shared it with Sunset? "But I can safely say that whatever it was she wanted to talk to her about, it isn't what you are thinking. Sunset and Celestia got through the whole reconciliation for their differences thing a long time ago," they might have had another falling out since then but Tin didn't need to know that.
"Really? If so that changes everything. Why do any of it then if she had no intention of usurping the throne?"
"Maybe she thought she knew what was best for Equestria better than Celestia did," when it came down to it that really was the cause of the unpleasantness. A lone mare trying to save Equestria from disaster, the best of intentions with...some rather poor application.
"I assume your little book has some context to back that claim up?" Eventide nodded. "Fine then, that does still leave the question of what Sunset was doing in the Crystal Empire though. Judging from her other actions a lot of ponies assumed she was there to attack Cadance and Shining Armor but evidence suggests she didn't even attempt to find them. She turned up, refused to cooperate with the guards and forced her way through the palace. Then she left."
"Your theory, Mr Foil?" Eventide sighed in exasperation.
"She was looking for something, she found it and left," he answered. "Considering what she went on to do I believe it must have been some crystal pony relic, something similar to the crystal heart. A strong source of empathy magic," Eventide nodded along with him.
"That would make a lot of sense. You're wrong again, but it would make sense."
"Feel free to correct me, Miss Trailblazer, I'm here to research my story and any contributions that you might make would be appreciated." Eventide's eyes panned to the stairs, it would probably be the simplest way of getting him out of her hair.
"Fine, Tin Foil. I have a copy of my book upstairs, might take me a little while to find it but if you're happy to wait around for about ten minutes I should be able to dig it out, a copy of my own notes as well."
"That would be immensely appreciated," Tin beamed.
"I'll be right back."
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As Eventide ascended the stairs to the first floor Tin Foil's eyes drifted to a second staircase right next to it. These stairs were hidden behind a sturdy looking door with several locks that at present was hanging wide open. The stairs descended deeper into the house into what Tin assumed to be the basement... no the wine cellar. One thing his research had turned up about Sunset's address was that it had originally belonged to a vintner who had fitted it with quite a large and robust cellar. Considering the fact that the ground floor hadn't collapsed during the fire the cellar had presumably survived intact.
While he would be gaining more than he had ever hoped for from Eventide's personal account on the life of Sunset Shimmer what sort of journalist would he be if he didn't take this chance? Speculation would suggest that this was the very cellar in which Sunset had planned her attack, who knew what Eventide might have done with it. Perhaps she had set up some crude shrine to commemorate the object of her obsession? Or perhaps...
Quiet as a mouse Tin crept down the stairs, wincing whenever one of the steps creaked or groaned. It was dark in the cellar but he had come prepared with a small magical flashlight that a friend had constructed for him. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he cast the beam of light about the room, pausing now and again whenever something caught his eye.
There was no casks or bottles of wine, the vintner's furnishings had long ago been removed. By the stairs was a small end table with a few pieces of jewellery laid out on top of it along with lumps of chalk and small gems. Stretching out across most of the room were tall white shapes, sheets that were covering tall yet thin objects. Each was uniform in shape and size and covered in a dust sheet with a piece of paper pinned to the front. Squinting at them from a distance it looked as though the sheets each had a number written upon them. #4 #12 #21 #6... those were just the closest ones that he could see. Whatever Eventide was keeping down here she had a lot of them.
As Tin's flashlight swept across the room he found himself briefly blinded by the light reflecting back into his face. Rubbing his eyes he focused more carefully on the reflective surface and blinked in surprise. Towards the center of the room, away from the collection of stored objects were a trio of full body mirrors. Considering the size and shape of them it was quite likely that similar mirrors were hidden beneath the sheets. The three uncovered ones were very strange though. The first one was more ornate than the other two, it had a thick purple frame encrusted with amethysts and with delicate ornamentation around the edges. The other two by contrast were much simpler in their designs. The mirrored surface was much the same as on the more ornate mirror, even going down to the size and shape, but the frames were much simpler and more pragmatic. Stranger still was their placement. While the ornate mirror and one of the simpler ones had been set up together the third and final mirror had been placed with a distance between it and the others. It stood at the center of a large collection of chalk markings on the floor, circular patterns and runic symbols surrounding it, the mirror sitting dead center of the pattern.
"What have you been doing down here, Eventide..." Tin muttered to himself.
"You shouldn't be down here." Tin almost leaped out of his skin as Eventide's voice came to him. Spinning around to face the entrance he could see her standing at the top of the stairs, a book tucked beneath one of her legs and a large kitchen knife levitating in her magic. "Stay here, I'll be down shortly. Was that too hard to understand, Tin Foil? If that even is your real name!?" bathed in the flickering light of the torch Tin could just about make out a look of anger and malice on Eventide's face, the knife flicking back and forth in front of her as she swung it about in her magic.
"Now, Eventide, let's not do anything hasty..." he quickly looked about the room for another exit but it seemed the only means of escape would be to go directly through Eventide and for the time being she wasn't moving.
"Be honest with me, Tin!" Eventide tossed the book to the bottom of the stairs where it landed with a dull thud. "Were you ever interested in my story or was that just an excuse to get in here so you could have a nose around? Who are you really working for?"
"Everything I said was the truth, Eventide," he said, beads of sweat beginning to trickle down his face. "I really am writing the story, I just... I got curious about what you might be keeping down here. If you let me leave now I promise this will remain a secret between the two of us, I won't press charges." To his dismay she just laughed at his suggestion.
"I bet you don't even know what all of this is do you? Bet you don't even appreciate how hard it was for me to set all this up!" Eventide kept twirling the knife as she talked, if Tin timed things right perhaps he could catch her off guard... "you really aren't with the ERS or with the changelings or the Princesses are you? You just came stumbling in here hoping for the scoop of the century and stumbled upon something so far above your miserable little world of experience that you wouldn't even know what to do with it. You're just so-"
Sensing his opening Tin hefted his bag up in one hoof and turned sharply on the spot. Bucking it with all of his might he sent it flying through the air and straight into Eventide's face. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a confused look of surprise on her face before it smacked into her with an audible crunching noise. As she tumbled backwards Tin could hear the sound of hooves scrambling on wood. A series of sickening thuds marked Eventide's descent down the staircase, with her balance lost she came tumbling down them and with a final cracking sound came to rest at the bottom of the stairs...motionless.
Originally the plan had been to throw her off of her guard and then sprint past her on the staircase but as she began to fall Tin had wound up staring at her tumbling form with morbid curiosity. There had been a sudden flurry of sound and movement but now...silence. is bag had ultimately wound up beneath Eventide's body, the unicorn had brought it with her as she fell down the stairs. Tin approached her cautiously, half expecting it to be a trap but the unicorns showed no signs of movement. He was soon standing directly over her body and still she didn't move. Lifting her in both hooves he flipped her sideways to extract his bag from beneath her and-
Blood. There was a lot of blood. He tugged his back out and then put Eventide back down and got a better look at her. Her neck was thankfully not twisted or broken but her jaw appeared to have been dislocated in the tumble and a thin stream of blood was trickling down her face from her scalp. The source of the pooling blood though was quite obvious, protruding from Eventide's chest was the handle of the knife and a few millimeters of the blade, the rest embedded in her body. He dropped the body and jumped backwards away from it retching. He hadn't meant for this to happen, it was an accident. If she hadn't been holding the knife then she would have a little tumble down the stairs and maybe ended up needing to go to a hospital for some bumps and bruises, it wasn't his fault that she was... she was dead.
The damage had been done though nothing could change that now a more practical part of his mind whispered to him. Eventide didn't have any family and from what he gathered nopony even knew she owned this address. He could clean himself up, leave and nopony would be any the wiser about what had transpired here. The same practical part of his mind reminded him to grab the book and check beneath the dust sheets. With Eventide dead there was no longer any rush after all.
Turning away from the body and trying to put recent events out of his mind Tin trotted up to one of the sheets, #31 inscribed on the sheet of paper attached to it. With a single pull at the sheet he exposed the object beneath. Another mirror, identical to the two in the simpler frames that were sitting across the room. Why did Eventide have so many of these? What use did one pony have for so many mirrors? As the question gnawed at the back of his mind he spotted a detail of the room he had missed earlier. In one corner of the room was a stack of murky glass panes sat right next to a stack of empty frames. Perhaps he should readdress his early statement, why would Eventide make so many mirrors?
A dull thudding sound from the entrance drew Tin's attention back to the body...or at least where the body had been. The knife lay discarded in a pool of blood where he had left her and a smeared bloody trail led from the pool over to the table with the chalk and jewelry but there was no sign of Eventide's corpse.
"Eventide?" Tin whispered to the room. Behind him there was a rattling sound, he spun about just in time to see the mirror he had been examining lift into the air in a dark red magical aura and come hurtling towards him. He had just enough time to brace himself before the mirror impacted with his head and sent him spiraling into a heavy state of unconsciousness.
Twilight sat at the end of the hospital bed, watching Sunset intently. The unicorn hadn't stirred since she had been brought in twenty minutes ago. She had told Spike to send a message to Princess Celestia but hadn't stuck around to dictate the details to him, he was a clever dragon, he could probably work out what to write on his own. With the Princess having already been planning to visit today anyway Twilight imagined that she would likely be at the hospital sometime in the next half an hour.
"Heeeey, Twi," at the head of the bed, Sunset's eyes had begun to open and she was staring at the alicorn with a look of amusement on her face. Sunset looked exhausted but quickly began giggling to herself. "Why you looking soooo grumpy, you grump you," Sunset said through another fit of giggles.
"Oh thank Celestia," Twilight said hugging her friend. "When you collapsed in the castle I was so worried!"
"Collapsed in the what now?" Sunset didn't sound particularly worried, more curious. Though judging from her general behaviour that might just have been on account of all the medicine she had been given since being brought in.
"You passed out in the castle, Sunset. I brought you into Ponyville Hospital, Dr Horse says your body was ready to go into labor but there were complications," a dopey look of confusion passed over Sunset's face that Twilight considered might almost pass for worry. "Everything's fine, the foal's fine, you're fine. You didn't actually go into labor but Horse wants you to stay in the hospital in case you do," Sunset began giggling to herself and mumbling the word 'horse' repeatedly. "Also they thought you might be in a lot of pain when you woke up so they gave you some painkillers," Twilight eyed up her giggling friend and then corrected herself "a lot of painkillers."
"Am I gonna die, Twilight?" Sunset managed to get out between giggles.
"No, Sunset, no of course not!" Twilight would have probably sounded more convincing if the same thought hadn't been playing through her mind for the last thirty minutes. "You're going to have a nice healthy filly and you're going to get better and then the two of you will live in Ponyville and be very happy together."
"Eventide..." Sunset mumbled.
"What?"
"It's the name I want her to have. Eventide. Thought I'd tell you now in case I'm not able to later, can't have you calling her 'filly' forever can we? Eventide Shimmer... It's a nice name."
"It's a lovely name," albeit a little unconventional, Twilight silently noted. It was rare but not unheard of for a pony to pass on one of their names to a child though, she herself was proof that it did happen.
"I didn't know, Twilight," Sunset groggily muttered. "Back when I slept with him I didn't know who he was."
"Nopony is judging you for sleeping with some stallion, Sunset," Twilight said with a sigh. "You were lonely and cold and in a bad place, we don't think anything less of you for what you did."
"Thanks, cause it was really awkward when I found out who he was. I mean neither of you ever mentioned the other by name so how was I even supposed to know?"
"Sunset, what are you saying?" Twilight wasn't sure when it had happened but it seemed like Sunset was having an entirely different conversation to the one she was in. In her drug addled state who could say for certain what the other unicorn was talking about?
"If I'd known he was your brother I wouldn't have slept with him, Twi. Friends don't sleep with each other's brothers, I'm pretty sure that's a thing right? Anyways I'm sorry, If I'd known who he I was I wouldn't have-"
"Shining Armor!" Twilight exclaimed, stumbling over her words. "You-but-why-how-the... You slept with the Shining from the other world?" Sunset nodded with a big goofy smile on her face. "And he's the father of-" another nod. "So I'm her Aunt?"
"Yeah I guess so. Technically anyway," Sunset paused and thoughtfully tapped one hoof against her chin, "and Flurry Hearts is technically her half sister. And I'm technically a big ol' homewrecker who slept with a happily married stallion who also happens to be co-ruler of an entire Empire. See why I didn't want to tell the father, Twilight?"
"Sunset, this is a very big deal! Why didn't you tell me sooner? What are we going to do about this? How do I tell Shining, or Cadance..." she stopped and gasped "or my parents Sunset!? How are they going to react to finding that they suddenly have another grandfoal?" Twilight wasn't angry, she was panicked, terrified and perhaps a tiny bit upset but she definitely wasn't angry.
"Which is why we don't tell them Twilight! And we don't tell Twilight either, cause she won't be able to keep the secret from-" Sunset paused and seemed to gain some fresh insight into her situation, "oops." She began waving one leg back and forth in front of her face, "you weren't kidding about the drugs were you? How much am I on right- ow."
"Right 'ow'?" Twilight repeated.
"No. 'Ow'. As in 'ow my stomach hurts'. Ow!" Sunset almost doubled over, her forehooves moving to clutch her bump.
Realization flashed across Twilight's face and she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Nurse!"
"Twilight! I got here as fast as I could," Celestia called as she entered the room. Sunset was lying on her side on the bed, breathing heavily but otherwise looking as though she was drifting off to sleep, the hooves of the foal were just about visible protruding from beneath her tail. With her in the room were a pair of nurses, Doctor Horse and an extremely frazzled looking Twilight Sparkle. "How is she doing, doctor?"
"Progress has been a little slow," Horse muttered. "Miss Shimmer never truly recovered from the injuries she had sustained when she was first brought in, she is very weak right now and we've been doing most of the work." Horse turned away from the Sun Princess and back to his patient, "if you can hear me, Sunset, try to push," Sunset gave an unintelligible mumbling in response.
"She's going to be alright isn't she, doctor?" Horse didn't even respond, instead moving his hooves to the breaching foal and trying to help ease it out. Celestia took a place by the head of the bed and placed a reassuring wing over the back of Sunset's head, looking down at her with a sad yet comforting smile as Twilight continued to pace back and forth at the end of the room.
Twilight couldn't watch, she could barely think. Everything had been complicated before, what with Sunset's poor health and lack of family. Now though! With Sunset's accidental revelation to her about the foals father... things were... Twilight couldn't even think of a suitable synonym for complicated that did justice to the matter! This was her BBBFF she was talking about! Twilight had flipped out when she thought Shining was getting married to somepony she had never heard of, how would he react to the news that he had somehow wound up having a filly with a mare he had briefly met one time? How did you even go about having a conversation like that? 'Hey, Shining, you remember Sunset right? You met her one time when she turned up half dead in the middle of your palace, well she has a filly now and you're the father! Congratulations!' Not like that, that wouldn't be a good way to start the conversation.
Before she could dwell on the matter any further Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by a high pitched bawling. Turning back to Sunset she saw that one of the nurses was cradling a tiny daisy colored unicorn in her hooves, a dinky little horn on her head and a fuzzy red and blue mane draped over her face. The nurse ferried the crying filly to the front of the bed and placed her next to Sunset's head.
"She's beautiful, Sunset," Celestia smiled, looking down at the pair. For her own part Twilight could only stare at them mutely. The little filly was so tiny, so delicate looking. "Sunset?" Celestia looked down at the unicorn with concern, her barrel was still rising and falling with every breath but she hadn't made any response to her newborn filly. Out of the corner of her eye Twilight caught Horse and the nurses exchanging worried glances culminating with horse making a noticeable gesture to one of them. The nurse who had brought the foal to Sunset carefully picked the filly back up and began licking her clean, removing some of the gunk from her body and helping her blood circulation. "What's wrong?" Celestia asked, her concern evident in the tone of her voice.
"Twilight," Horse said, ignoring Celestia for the time being. "Could you take the filly outside for a little while? We'll have a nurse come by shortly to check up on her but at the moment we just need the two of you out of the room."
"What-" before Twilight could finish speaking she found the filly bundled up in a blanket and placed in her hooves as the nurses quickly lead her out of the room. The moment the door closed she heard the muffled sounds of panicked shouts and hurried action coming from within the room.
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Twilight sat alone in a waiting room just down the hall from Sunset's room. Alone that was except for a wide eyed little filly that was wriggling about in her blankets.
"Hey, you," Twilight said with a forced smile, looking down at the wriggling newborn. "Don't worry, they said a nurse would be along shortly," the filly... Eventide just stared at her and wrinkled her nose. Rolling about in the blanket she finally managed to disentangle herself and began trying to nervously crawl about on her hooves. Twilight just looked down and smiled at her...her niece. Eventide began nuzzling Twilight, bumping her head against the alicorn in an adorable fashion as she crawled back and forth across her body. "What are you doing, little-ow!" Eventide had crawled towards Twilight's back legs and nipped her on the teat. Frowning a little she carefully levitated the filly off of her and placed her gently back into the blanket, "sorry, Eventide, nothing to drink there."
"Well, sounds like I got here just in time," an unfamiliar nurse had just entered the room and approached the pair with a bottle of milk. "Ideally she should be drinking from her mother but we have to keep some other milk at hand just in case." She delicately lowered the teat of the bottle to Eventide's mouth, the little filly eying it with suspicion at first but quickly latching on and suckling at the milk.
"Is Sunset okay?" Twilight whispered, still cradling the little filly.
"The mother? I'm sorry I don't know, Nurse Redheart was rather flustered when she told me to come here and then she ran off again right after. If you don't mind we need to take the little one to get weighed and have a quick check up, after we're done you'll be able to visit her in the nursery, okay?" Twilight nodded and passed Eventide over to the nurse. "Thank you."
As the nurse trotted off with Eventide in her hooves Twilight slumped backwards into the seat. Having Eventide to look after had been a great distraction from the darker thoughts that had been lurking in the back of her mind. Something was wrong with Sunset, what had happened to her? To her surprise it seemed Twilight wouldn't have to wait long to find out.
A dejected looking Dr Horse came stumbling down the hallway and into the room, a look of regret on his face and three pieces of paper in his hooves.
"Dr Horse! Is Sunset-"
"I'm sorry, Twilight," he said curtly. "We did everything we could for her but... you must understand that her recovery had not been going as well as we had hoped, even before the recent developments."
"No..." Twilight mumbled, tears beginning to run down her cheeks.
"I know this isn't something you want to be having to deal with right but I will be needing your help with some paperwork, I'd have asked Celestia but as per Sunset's last wishes you are technically her next of kin, her daughter aside that is." Horse carefully placed the three papers in front of her on the table. Sunset's living will, a barely completed birth certificate and a death certificate with the name 'Sunset Shimmer' at the top. "I apologize if this may come across as insensitive but given the lack of information about her I was going to have a hard time filling it out without the assistance of you or Celestia."
"Where is the Princess," Twilight whispered between her tears.
"With Sunset," Horse sighed. "She wouldn't leave the body, she practically forced us all out of the room. Normally I'd call security but... well normal procedure doesn't really cover how to deal with a grieving Sun Goddess. If you need some time alone I can leave, we don't have to fill these out just yet." Twilight nodded in agreement but stopped Horse before he could leave.
"How's Eventide?" she asked to Horse's confusion. "The filly, Sunset wanted her to be called Eventide before she..." Twilight broke down into a fresh wave of tears
"I've not checked in on her myself yet but from what I saw... I do have some concerns." Horse sighed and took a seat by Twilight. "Now, Twilight, if you do agree to be her legal guardian as per Sunset's last wishes there are a few things you should know. First of all, even though she wasn't born prematurely she is still much smaller than she should be for a newborn. There are a few possible causes and we will hopefully know if it is a major cause for concern by the end of the day. Secondly, her horn appeared a little malformed, I didn't get a good look at it but it should have been significantly better developed than what I saw. It shouldn't hinder her too much as a filly, if anything it should limit any magical outbursts she might have, but growing up she might struggle with her magic." Horse sighed and placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "If you need any help, Twilight, we are here to support you, I'm very sorry for your loss."
That was the title that Celestia had appointed to her and by the stars she deserved it. In all her years serving under the Celestial court Twilight Sparkle had been nothing but studious, loyal and hard working. As she sat at her desk in Canterlot castle working her way through the latest set of petitions and reports she gave out a great sigh of contentment. While the Princess herself was away leading the campaign against the usurper she was given the responsibility... no... the honor of taking care of the day to day running of the Celestial Empire. Never before had a pony of such low birth been given so great a responsibility as this. Queen Celestia appointing such a lesser noble such as Twilight Sparkle to so great and lofty a position had been deemed positively scandalous at the time! Now though all those neigh sayers and critics had settled down and shut up though, after all with the Queen half a world away it would be ill advised of them to raise the ire of the de facto ruler. Yes, things were very good for Majordomo Twilight Sparkle-
Across the room the doors to her wardrobe swung open and a short yellow unicorn hopped out. She had a disgustingly short red and blue mane, a bob cut Twilight believed it was called (such a short mane was considered unfashionable on a mare, not to mention the other societal connotations), and wore a long black cloak that covered her body. Her eyes shone with a red glow and a kitchen knife hovered at her side held in a similar magical aura, a bloody kitchen knife. She smiled with a predatory look of glee in her face and slowly trotted across the room from the wardrobe.
"ASSASS-ack" Twilight began to yell at the top of her lungs before a vice clamped down around her neck and began choking her. Her hooves raised to try and remove it but found only a magical aura about her throat.
"Shhhhhhh. Hush now, little Majordomo. I'm not here to cause any trouble, I'm no assassin! Why if I was you'd already be dead," the unicorn giggled as Twilight's eyes bulged in their sockets but she was gradually releasing her hold on the throat. "Now, I'm going to let you go and we are going to have a civil conversation, Twilight, I too work for the Queen you see, and am simply here on business." Twilight was dropped to the down and she began desperately gasping for breath.
"Who... who sent you, who do you work for?"
"Bon Bon, though you may know her as Sweetie Drops," the unicorn muttered nonchalantly. The royal spymaster, nopony knew her by the name Sweetie Drops except for those in Celestia's highest circles. Turning to the door Twilight noticed that her guards had thankfully not heard her cry for help, it wouldn't do for them to see such a pony.
"What...what were you doing in my room? How did you get in here?"
"I was watching you for a little while before I decided to make myself known, as for how I got in here I used the window." The window was indeed slightly open just how Twilight liked it but very few ponies would ever be able to fit through the gap.
"You were in my wardrobe."
"I got here while you were out," that sent a shudder down Twilight's spine. She had been working in the room for hours now, had this...creature been waiting there all this time? The unicorn had made her way to the center of the room and was delicately twirling the bloody knife about in her magic, performing delicate movements and using it to trace intricate patterns in the air, giggling like a maniac all the time. As the unicorn raised a hoof to her mouth to stifle her own laughter Twilight noticed that both her fore hooves were coated in dried blood.
"Have... have you killed somepony in the castle?" the knife shot past Twilight's face so close that she could feel the flat of the blade brush against her hair, with a wet thunk it hit something on the desk behind her and then flew back to its owner baring an apple.
"No," the mare replied taking small bites of apple off her blade. "Don't worry it's-" she broke down into a fresh set of giggling. "Sorry normally this would be the part where I'm meant to say 'don't worry it's not my blood', in this case though.... Don't worry, it's all my blood."
"Why do you want, Miss... whoever you are?" Twilight was having a hard time holding down her lunch. The mare was disgusting, her appearance flaunted Equestrian societal norms and conventions, her manners were atrocious and her behavior... oh sweet Celestia, Twilight had only ever seen this sort of behavior in asylums or on the end of a hangponies noose.
"Lady Eventide Trailblazer, Majordomo. I'm here on business, have some questions for you, need you to escort me to the Starswirl the Bearded wing," Eventide talked as if it was the simplest thing in the world but the spells in that wing were off limit to even the Majordomo herself!
"Then I'm afraid I can't help you, Lady Trailblazer, you and your mistress shall have to wait for our beloved monarch to return from campaign," she spoke the name with nothing but disdain Trailblazer, a trail pony name. How had one of such low birth been granted a title? Talent, a little voicein her head warned her, Eventide might appear mad but it was likely that she was skilled at whatever awful task it was that Sweetie Drops had her carry out. Reminder, don't eat or drink anything while around this mare.
"You seem to have misunderstood the position you are in, Sparkle," Eventide growled. "That was not a request, it was a demand." She felt the magic gently tightening around her throat again and the knife gently caressed the side of her face. "Oh I do like this," Eventide laughed sharply pulling the blade away and making a sudden flurry of lunges with it at thin air. "Such precision, such dexterity! Oh I could get used to this!"
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Twilight begrudgingly escorted the other unicorn through the halls, waving off any guards that the two of them passed, so far she had only seen greenhorns and fresh recruits, if she was going to escape she'd need to wait for some well trained guardsponies to help her.
"Ever heard of a pony called Sunset Shimmer?" Eventide asked seemingly out of nowhere as she finished off the last bite of her apple.
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"She was a coward and a charlatan. Given the opportunity to lead Celestia's armies herself against the griffons she threw the offer in our Queen's face! Apparently she considered such an honor to be some sort of punishment. The cretin." Twilight couldn't help but notice that with every word she said Eventide's eye seemed to twitch and her smile grew.
"Where is she now?"
"Exiled to parts unknown. Frankly Celestia was unduly merciful to the little traitor."
"Good to hear, good to hear. Makes me feel a lot better about what happens next," Eventide must have been half her own age Twilight gathered. How had she never heard of this pony before? Just how young was the spymaster recruiting her agents these days?
"I've seen your type before, Eventide," Twilight said stopping in the hallway. Approaching them were a pair of guards she recognized, capable soldiers and loyal to a fault. More than a match for a thief and secret dealer. "You're the type of unicorn who spent her youth crushing bugs beneath her magic aren't you?" Unsurprisingly this brought a fresh wave of laughter to Eventide, that was fine though, Twilight just needed to keep her distracted.
"Oh, Sparkle! Trying to needle me with little jabs and jibes about my troubled youth? Well I'm afraid you are shit out of luck. I had a very loving childhood, I was raised by a wonderful mare and it was my mother who squashed bugs with her magic, not me." As Eventide kept her attention on Twilight, the Majordomo nodded to the guards, instantly both of them leaped upon Eventide as Twilight mustered a spell of her own to strike down the impertinent-
Blinding pain shot through her head and she collapsed screaming to the ground as her spell fizzled harmlessly into nothing. Before they even reached Eventide one of the guards was gripped in a red magical aura and swung bodily into the other sending both flying into the wall. The aura of magic dragged him back and then slammed him into the other guard again and again until both were unconscious. All the while Eventide stood motionless sneering down at Twilight as she clutched her head in pain.
"Oh you have no idea how long I have been waiting to do that, Sparkle," Eventide cackled levitating her knife back to her and now balancing a sizeable chunk of broken purple horn upon the end of it, Twilight's horn. "Now then, Starswirl wing, fast, no more distractions. Any more tricks and I might have to start getting stabby, are we understood?" Twilight nodded and whimpered her confirmation.
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"You won't get in, the door is sealed against-" the two had reached the locked door of the wing without any further incident, before Twilight could finish informing the madmare that she didn't have a key though the other unicorn simply blasted the door from its hinges.
"Doesn't look that sealed to me," Eventide grinned and gestured for Twilight to step inside. She begrudgingly obliged, rubbing the stump where her horn used to be as she did so. "Oh quit with your whining, it'll grow back." Eventide followed her inside and produced a letter from beneath her cloak. She scanned the details then quickly started counting out shelves and wandered off. "Stay here, I won't be a minute." Twilight nodded weakly and began looking about the room. Centuries ago Celestia herself had deemed the knowledge contained within these walls to be off limits to any but herself, what did Sweetie Drops want from here? Perhaps more importantly where had she found so powerful a unicorn and how had Twilight never heard of her? "Got what I came for, don't worry I'll be out of your mane shortly," Eventide had returned and was carefully hiding a large and very ancient looking scroll within the folds of her cloak.
"Just go, I never want to see you again," Twilight muttered pointing one hoof at the ruined doorway.
"Really, Sparkle? Do we need to work on our listening skills? I said I'd be gone shortly. The two of us still have some business we need to sort out," Eventide licked her lips and slammed the knife down into a table, embedding it into the woodwork and finally letting it leave her magic.
"What do you want with me?" Twilight shuddered, a new fear gripping her heart.
"Honestly? I didn't have anything against you personally, you just bare an unfortunate resemblance to a mare I loathe and despise, but after spending a little time with you? Well you are such a loathsome and snobbish little prig that I really don't mind what I'm about to do."
Twilight froze on the spot, "what do you mean?"
"Story time, Twilight!" Eventide shouted with a worrying sense of mirth. "Once upon a time there was a mare called Twilight Sparkle, she went on lots of wonderful adventures and was loved by everypony who didn't know any better and she was an absolutely awful friend. One day Twilight Sparkle took a knife," Eventide yanked the knife from the table, " and she stabbed it deep into the back of a mare who trusted her unconditionally, a mare who saw her as the only family she ever had," the knife came stabbing down in front of Twilight's hooves and the Majordomo stumbled backwards in fear. "But that's a story for another day," Eventide casually sent the knife spinning across the room and off into the stacks of the library.
"Now, Twilight Sparkle was a very scholarly unicorn and she had some very particular ideas about how unicorns should act, and who they should love and what they should do with their lives. Twilight Sparkle expected every unicorn to want to love magic as much as she did so she took on a young student and began to teach her the wonders of magic!" Books began levitating off of the shelves and floating around the room, gripped in Eventide's magic. "Teleport across the room, Twilight," She ordered.
"I can't," she mumbled, "even if you hadn't cut off my horn that spell was forbidden by Celestia herself!"
"Teleport, Twilight!" Eventide roared and fired one of the books into her side, the blunt impact stinging her flank. "Teleport, Twilight, and you can dodge the books!" Another two came spinning towards her smacking her in the face and the barrel. "With a cutie mark like yours, Twilight, it should be a simple matter! Cutie mark magic is some of the simplest magic to master, even a runt like you should be able to manage this!" Book after book smashed into Twilight until she was half buried beneath them. When the barrage ended she felt herself gripped by magic and roughly pulled from the pile.
"Maybe we need to start simpler? After all, Evey, you do have such a stubby little horn." Eventide grinned with unearthly malice and put on a much higher pitch voice.
"Evey? Who are you? I'm Twilight Sparkle..." Twilight managed to stand herself up in time to see a fresh load of books hover into the air.
"Let's see how many books you can levitate, Evey! It's a simple spell, we can use it to practice your magic and someday you might be as good as me! Now how many can we levitate, Evey? Five?" Before Twilight could object five books came flying across the room and slammed into her body. "Four?" Another four slammed against her. "Three? Two? One?" Again and again the books came flying at her. "Oh, Evey, not even one book? Whatever are we going to do with you?" Eventide dropped her pitch back to its normal level and sighed. "I thought you loved books, Twilight? Why do you look so glum? If you want I'll give you all the books in the world!"
"Why are you doing this?" Twilight managed to mutter between tears of pain.
"Because I can, Twilight, because for once in my life I'm better at being a unicorn than the great and arrogant Twilight Sparkle! You want me to stop?" Twilight nodded mutely. "Fine." All of the objects that Eventide had been lifting dropped as she ended her magic. Turning to the door Twilight suddenly noticed there were numerous guards waiting outside the room, banging against a deep red magical barrier that was separating them from her. "Fight me, Twilight," the short yellow unicorn whispered. "No magic, no tricks, just a straight up hoof fight. Me against you, hay, I'll even give you a free shoot!" Eventide lifted Twilight up onto her hooves and then stood proudly in front of her with her eyes closed. Twilight took a deep breath and then putting all the strength she had into her swing punched Eventide in the face. The other unicorn just stood there and didn't move, calmly taking the blow without even budging.
"See that's the difference between us, Sparkle," Eventide chuckled, swatting Twilight's hoof from her face with only a bloody nose as evidence that she had been struck. "Sure, I was no magical prodigy," she slammed a hoof into Twilight's face knocking several teeth from her jaw, "but take away all the magic," another blow this one leaving her with a black eye, "and I'm just plain better than you," the next blow was a sucker punch to the gut and left Twilight gasping for breathe. "Squat little Evey, stubby little Evey, stocky little Evey. Words hurt, Twilight, but you know what? I learned to accept who I was," Eventide turned and bucked twilight across the room sending her flying into the shelves.
"'You should spend less time training for strength and agility and more time studying magic, it's the only way you'll ever get better', care to guess who told me that, Sparkle?" Eventide circled her fallen opponent like a bird of prey, at this point Twilight couldn't even bring herself to try to stand back up. "No? Well no matter. The point is that while most unicorns are either svelte and scrawny little waifs or pudgy little scholars I spent my whole life being compared to earth ponies and pegasi, and I'm okay with that! Now while you consider how wasted all of your talents are the instant somepony cuts off your magic I'm going to make myself scarce. Enjoy your pitiable existence as glorified secretary to one of the must stuck up equines in the history of Equestria."
Eventide turned and made for the door, the guards raising the weapons in preparation. To her side though Twilight could hear an ominous creaking sound, one of the shelves had been gripped in the ominous red magic and was now been pulled down on top of her, every book on it's shelves being dropped onto her body in one great flurry.
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As the sinister looking unicorn approached the barrier Flash Sentry readied his spear, alongside him were eleven of the best guards in all of Canterlot, an equal mix of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies between them. The unicorn stopped as she reached the barrier and flashed them a twisted looking smile. With a great wave of power the barrier exploded outwards knocking the guards to the ground. Flash and the earth pony Iron Bulwark were the first to recover from the spell and turned in time to see the unicorn disappearing off down the hall, sprinting in the direction of the Majordomo's chambers. Nodding in unison the pair retrieved their weapons and gave chase. The mystery mare was fast and wily, knocking over ornamental suits of armor to try and hinder their passage and putting on a remarkable burst of speed as they closed on her. The mare beat both guards to the room but Flash was just in time to see her leap into a wardrobe and close the door behind her. Flinging his spear across the room the blade pierced the doors and flew through the piece of furniture, likely skewering the unicorn in the process. With Bulwark backing him up Flash quickly removed her weapon from the wood and pulled the doors open. The wardrobe was empty. Perhaps stranger still though there was no mark on the wall at the back of it and the blade of the spear had vanished entirely, severed unnaturally cleanly at the shaft of the weapon. Of the unicorn and the blade there was no trace.
"Flurry, do you think you could come here for a moment? You have some guests," Sunburst called from the doorway. He was a very good pony, he was apparently something called a crystaller but Flurry Hearts wasn't really sure on what that meant. It just seemed like a big word for a babysitter.
"Coming, Sunburst," she hopped down from her seat at the table and trotted after the unicorn. Flurry often had guests but they were generally announced ahead of time, it was very rare for ponies to just turn up and visit her. Apparently lots of other ponies her age would make spur of the moment visits to their friends but with Flurry it was different, she was a princess and the palace guards weren't very keen on visitors turning up to see her out of the blue. As the two of them walked through the palace halls she thought of all the ponies it could be, certainly not one of her friends (they always told her ahead of time), maybe her grandparents, or perhaps Luna (she'd had a bad dream the other night, maybe Luna wanted to talk to her about it). Really there weren't very many ponies who it could be but judging from the smile on Sunburst's face it was somepony she should be happy to see (or that he should be happy to see, Starlight perhaps?).
"Auntie Twilight!" Flurry screamed as she turned the corner and saw the purple alicorn standing in the hall waving to her. "What are you doing here, Twilight?" Flurry asked as she hugged her auntie's leg. With her free foreleg Twilight rubbed her mane affectionately and smiled down at her.
"It's lovely to see you again, Flurry, you've gotten so big since I last saw you."
"Uh huh, I ate all my greens just like mommy told me to and I'm going to grow up big and strong and as tall as Celestia!" Flurry proudly puffed out her chest and fluffed up her wings putting on her best serious face, the one that always caused Twilight to giggle for some reason even though it was a very very serious face.
"That's very good to hear. Now then, Flurry, I have somepony very special with me today, she's going to be staying with you all for the next few months and she's a little shy around other ponies. I was hoping that the two of you might be good friends." Twilight took a slight step backwards and nudged forwards a tiny unicorn filly who had been hiding behind her legs. "Flurry, this is Eventide, but most of us call her Evey. She's a little younger than you and because her mother moves around Equestria a lot on...work, she doesn't have very many friends. Do you think you'd like to be friends with her while she's staying here?" Evey looked very scared, the little filly had very quickly tried to hide behind Twilight again but the older alicorn was having none of it and nudged her forwards once more.
"Hi there, Evey, my name's Flurry Hearts. Do you like drawing? I have some crayons in my room if you'd like to draw something, or I've got board games or we can play hide and seek!" She shook Evey's hoof and pulled her a little further forwards away from Twilight. "Wanna be friends, Evey?"
The little unicorn just stood there blinking, wobbling uncertainly on her hooves. Slowly though she shuffled forwards and to Flurry's side but her eyes quickly drifted away from the alicorn and to Starburst. "Who's he?" Evey whispered in a barely audible voice as she gazed seemingly in awe at the bearded unicorn.
"That's Starburst, he looks after me while my parents are busy, he's really nice. He can help us set up a game if you like, Evey," the little unicorn nodded in reply, still staring up at Starburst as though the crystaller was the single most important thing in the world.
"Uh huh," she managed to say as she slowly followed Flurry to her room.
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Age 6
"But why not!" Flurry winced as she heard the high pitched scream of Evey come through the wall. It was very unladylike to eavesdrop on another pony's conversation but Miss Rarity (the most ladylike pony she knew) did it so it surely couldn't be as awful as her mother had made it out to be. Still, there did seem to be something wrong about listening to Evey and her mom having an argument that was clearly meant to be kept between the two of them.
"Because, Evey, it's just a silly little crush and you'll forget about it soon enough anyway. Evey, the sooner you drop this nonsense the better." Flurry had only seen Evey's mom twice, both times she had been dressed up in a very heavy looking black cloak that made her look like a witch from out of one of her story books. Evey's mom was big, very big. Not as big as Celestia but she was one of the tallest ponies Flurry knew. She was also one of the scariest.
"But I love her, mom, and one day the two of us are going to get married!" Evey cried. Evey had a crush? That was news to Flurry, maybe she shouldn't be listening to this conversation after all, if Evey didn't want her to know about her crush then she didn't want to find out about it like this...
"No, Evey!" Miss Trailblazer bellowed. With a voice like that no wonder the guards were scared of her. In truth Evey's mom had never done anything to scare Flurry directly, but once when she was visiting to pick up her daughter Flurry had overheard some of the guards talking about her. She didn't catch all of the conversation but apparently Miss Trailblazer's job was to hunt other ponies, and apparently she was very good at it. When Flurry had asked little Evey about her mom's job she had been told that 'she travels a lot and sometimes has to go away on business without me', whenever she was away on business Evey would be left with either Twilight or Cadance. "This ends now, you can't marry Flurry, it's wrong!"
Miss Trailblazer put a startling emphasis onto the word wrong that sent shivers down Flurry's spine. Her own mother had taught her that love between two ponies was something very special and that it could happen between any two ponies, regardless of tribe or gender. She'd never heard love described as wrong before. As she mulled over the idea though another thought finally clicked into place. Evey had a crush on her?
"But why, momma?" from the sound of things Evey was crying now.
"I...I can't tell you right now," Miss Trailblazer's voice seemed to soften, becoming much more tender and loving. "Listen, Evey, when you're older I promise I'll tell you, okay?"
"Uh huh..." Evey said between sniffles. "Is this something to do with why I'm not supposed to call Mr Starburst daddy?"
"Yes, Evey, it's... it's complicated. When you're older though I promise that me, you and Twilight will have a sit down together and we'll explain everything to you. Now let's wipe those eyes and make ourselves presentable, just because she shouldn't be your special somepony doesn't mean I don't want you to be friends with the princess. It makes me very happy to see you getting along with somepony your own age."
"Okay, momma," Evey replied, her tears sounding more under control now.
"And if you're very good then I was thinking we might stop by Ponyville when I'm back from work, maybe visit all of mommy's old friends? How's that sound?"
"Could I get a muffin from big Pinkie?" Evey asked, her voice sounding much happier now.
"The biggest muffin she can bake!" on the other side of the room Flurry could hear the flapping of cloth and the ruffling of feathers, the two of them were probably hugging from what she could guess.
"Love you, mommy."
"Love you too, Evey."
When Evey stepped out of the room Flurry had managed to make herself look nice and inconspicuous, reading an upside down storybook while seated nice and casually on a chair. Definitely not looking like somepony who had only a minute ago been eavesdropping on a private conversation between her best friend and her mom.
"Hey, Flurry!" Evey cheerfully said as she sprinted over to her best friend. "Mom's just left, so what are we going to do today?" As happy as the little unicorn appeared to be Flurry couldn't help but notice that her eyes were still very red from her recent tears.
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Age 10
"Hey, Evey!" Flurry came bounding down the hall and wrapped her BFF in a great feathery hug. It had been ages since they had last seen each other. Evey's mom had apparently not had much work to do over the last few years and so the two had been on what seemed to have been one long vacation. Releasing Evey from the hug Flurry was very surprised to find that Evey wasn't returning her affection. She let go and looked at her friend to see- to see her cutie mark!
"Evey! You got your cutie mark! When did that happen?" a flame wreathed compass thingy now adorned both of Evey's flanks, an explorers cutie mark! That fit her friend to a tee! Evey had always been so inquisitive, exploring the palace and the Empire and wandering Equestria with her mum!
"What? Oh yeah that..." Flurry's eyes snapped away from her friend's new cutie mark and to her face. While she hadn't been crying recently it was pretty obvious that Evey was feeling upset, her ears were drooping, her eyes were heavy lidded and a great frown was plastered across her face.
"What's the matter, Evey?" Flurry asked with concern. Had something happened to her or her mom?
"I had a talk with mom and Twilight," Evey mumbled. "Mom didn't want to tell me but she'd promised Twilight that when I got my cutie mark the three of us would sit down and have a talk about some stuff."
"What sort of stuff?" Flurry had never seen her friend looking so depressed before. Upset or angry perhaps but not like this.
"Starburst's not my dad."
"Evey, we knew that ages ago."
"I know... But hearing it from them, I guess it finally killed the dream."
"Was that it?" Flurry asked, noticing that Evey was shifting nervously on her hooves. Clearly there had to be something else bothering her.
"There was some other stuff too. It's meant to be secret though," Evey nervously rubbed one of her forehooves across the length of her leg. "Hey, Flurry, you know that thing Aun- your Auntie Twilight calls your dad?"
"BBBFF?"
"Yeah that one. Do you think, do you think maybe we could have something like that between the two of us?" Eventide's eyes widened with a hopeful look as she stared at Flurry,
"Sure! I'd love a cool nickname like that between the two of us! What would we call each other though?"
"Maybe... maybe you could be BSBFF and I could be LSBFF?" Evey asked then flinched backwards as though scared of something disastrous happening when she said the words. Not entirely certain what the problem was Flurry just stared at her with a touch of confusion.
"You mean like, Big Sister Best Friend Forever?" Evey nodded in confirmation. "But, Evey, we aren't sisters."
"We could be though!" the little unicorn yelled with gusto before quickly shrinking back in on herself and lowering her voice. "I mean...I was always staying here when I was little, and we've always gotten on so well with each other...and I don't have any proper family...so I was thinking maybe we could...pretend?" Evey scrunched up her face, leaving one eye open to watch Flurry's reaction.
"Sure! I've always wanted a little sister or brother, I mean the two of us are practically family. So if you want me to be your BSBFF then that's fine by me. Sound good to you, LSBFF?" almost instantly Evey's expression brightened and she was back to her normal cheerful self.
"Sounds perfect, BSBFF!"
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Age 14
"I'm sorry, Evey, but I just don't get the problem," Flurry said as her LSBFF paced back and forth in front of her.
"It's just, Twilight's so.... arrrghh!" Evey threw her hooves up in the air and slumped down onto the floor.
"It's only for another year though right? Your mom said she should be back in time for your fifteenth birthday," Flurry had never been entirely certain on the details, just that Evey's mom had disappeared almost two years ago and had left her in the care of Princess Twilight Sparkle.
"I don't think I can handle another year of this! I mean it was great at first, Twilight loved the fact that I was taking an interest in magic, she couldn't have been more thrilled when I asked to look over Starswirl's notes, but now!" Evey cleared her voice and put on a mocking impression of Twilight. "Practice your magic Evey, lift the book Evey, don't feel discouraged Evey, you can't expect to get it right first time Evey, maybe we should try something related to exploration Evey, don't worry teleportation is a very difficult spell Evey."
Flurry giggled a little at the impression. "Well just tell her that you've lost interest in learning magic then. I'm sure she'll understand."
"No. She. Won't. This is Twilight Sparkle!" Eventide groaned in exasperation. "This is the same mare who overheard me telling Rainbow Dash that I enjoyed the Daring Do book she lent me and then went out and bought the entire collection for me! There were copies in the library, there were her own personal copies, there was Dash's copies, but no! She gets it into her head that I like the books and decides I need copies of my own!"
"But, Evey, you love Daring Do!" Flurry gave a little chuckle, Evey could get so worked up about the silliest little things.
"And!? Twilight didn't know that then, she just assumed that because I expressed the slightest interest in something that I'd fallen madly in love with it! She's just so..."
"Kind? Generous?"
"Overbearing," Evey finished, shooting a glare at her friend. "Okay maybe I could tell her that the whole magic thing isn't for me, but do you really think she'd listen?"
"Give her a chance and I think you'd be pleasantly surprised, Evey." Flurry idly flicked through her date diary and stopped on next week. "So your birthday is coming up then, Evey, what sort of party is Twilight throwing you, something casual or will we be needing dresses?"
"Casual. Just show up at her castle, it's going to be a quiet little get together between friends. Mostly her friends but..." Evey trailed off and a deep red blush filled her cheeks. Flurry dropped everything she was doing and stared at her friend wide mouthed.
"No way! You have a special somepony!?" Evey's blush deepened. "Anypony I know?"
"Maybe," Evey giggled nervously. "He's not technically my special somepony yet... but I'm going to ask him at the party if he might be interested in going on a date with me." Evey was knocked off of her hooves as Flurry embraced her in a hug and spun her round the room.
"My little Evey's all grown up! So come on then, spill the beans! Who is it?"
"At the party, Flurry! I'll tell you at the party!" Evey gasped, crushed in the alicorn's hug.
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Age 26
Flurry was sitting in her study drinking tea and going over some of the books that Twilight had lent her. Most of them were ancient old tomes hardly relevant to the modern day princess but some of them were quite interesting. A few had some very interesting ideas on the role of a princess in Equestrian society, a couple were amusing for how outdated they were and a small number were 'entertaining' for an entirely different reason. Evidently Twilight had not checked every single book about princesses that she had sent Flurry and as a result The Princess and her Seneschal, Noble Lance and the Five Princesses of Saddle Arabia and Romancing the Princess of the Stars had all managed to be included in the delivery. The third of the books had in fact only been written in the last decade and Flurry found the protagonists love interest (an adventurous purple princess with a lust for learning) to be hilariously familiar. She had quickly flicked past the scenes of passion in the book as she really had no interest in imagining her aunt ever doing that but the rest of the book was quite entertaining.
She was so engrossed in her current book (a thorough second reading of Noble Lance and the Five Princesses of Saddle Arabia, just in case she had missed something important the first time) that she almost fell out of her seat when a letter magically materialized on the desk in front of her, the scroll unfurling instantly and proudly displaying Starlight's signature at the bottom.
Dear Princess Flurry Heart
Please meet up with me in Canterlot as soon as possible. Eventide might be in trouble. I was worried about some things I saw at her house when I recently visited her. I did a little research and then decided to check up on her again but now I can't find her. Everything important has been moved out of her house but she hasn't left any note indicating where she might have gone to. If she isn't with you then I'm worried that she might have run away or alternatively that she might have done something rash. Please get here as quick as possible.
Starlight Glimmer
Flurry's eyes flicked back and forth over the scroll making sure she hadn't missed anything. The letter seemed to be hastily written and lacking in any significant detail. One thing that was clear from it though was that Evey was in trouble, and neither of the two ponies who knew her best had any idea where she was.
A towering mountain reaching up into the bluest of skies. Vibrant greens rolling down its lower slopes and across the foreground. The beautiful spires and antiquated buildings nestled atop its highest points contrasting with the winding train track that rolled across the scene trailing all the way from the front of the shot on into the distance where the castle sat...
Sunset bit her lip and dipped the paintbrush into the yellow smear on her palette. She still wasn't happy with the sun, she could never seem to get the sun right. She carefully placed her tools back onto her desk and abandoned the easel for the time being, she would finish it some other time. A few strides brought her across the room and she slumped down into her bed. Her room was quite nice all things being considered. She had her books and her paints and a comfortable bed, fresh clothes every morning and three meals a day, the staff had even been willing to accommodate her desire for a vegetarian option. If it wasn't for the fact that the sole window out of her room was fitted with thick iron bars then a casual observer might have been lead to believe that she was the guest at an affordable hotel.
"Good afternoon, Sunset!" came a cheery voice from her door.
"Good afternoon to you too, Buttercup, I thought that today was a free day?" Nurse Buttercup was one of her regular points of contact at Ashhoof, Sunset might even consider the woman to be a friend, but today there was something off about her. "Have you done something with your eyes today?"
"No, Sunset, nothing different to usual," the nurse carefully looked about the room, scanning for any signs of misconduct from her patient, when she seemed content that all was it was meant to be she nodded and walked up to Sunset's painting. "It's really coming along now isn't it?" she said admiring the work. "Where did you get the idea from?"
"Home, it's meant to be a painting of home." Sunset sighed and admired her work, even after all these years the image of Canterlot remained strong in her mind.
"Sunset..." Buttercup sounded disappointed, but that was nothing new. "I thought doctor Stern had been over this with you? Nowhere like this exists in Canterlot, Sunset. In fact I don't think anywhere like this exists in the world."
"Would you prefer me to lie about it? Pretend I have memories of growing up around here just so everybody thinks I'm normal?"
"No, Sunset, nobody wants you lying to speed up your recovery," Buttercup's gaze flickered between the painting and Sunset. "It's been twenty six years though, Sunset, if you aren't showing signs of recovery by now...and after your 'accident' last month," both women's eyes shot to Sunset's still bandaged wrist, "well I'm just worried that you might never be allowed to leave."
"Maybe that's for the best." Sunset shrugged her shoulders, that was the plan after all, live out the rest of her life here at Ashhoof.
"Sunset," Buttercup sat down beside her on the bed and put an arm across her shoulders. "In the first few years you spent here you should so much progress, it was clear that you regretted your actions and that given a chance you could be reintegrated back into society. What changed, Sunset?"
"Nothing changed, I just... I guess I never really felt I deserved to leave."
"Have you mentioned this with Stern?"
"Yes, multiple times. He thought I might be faking symptoms to stick around here, had me go through a lot of tests before he decided I wasn't lying about my memories," Sunset sighed, it was depressingly easy to convince everybody she was mad, all it took was for her to mention a couple of truths about her past and they'd add a few extra years onto her mandatory treatment. "Anyway back to my original point, I thought today was a freebee?"
"Ah right," Nurse Buttercup brightened up again, "you have a visitor."
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Twenty three years, it had been twenty three years since her last visitor, excluding people from the press that was, or the parole board. Understandably then Sunset was a little confused as to who might be visiting her after all these years, she didn't have any family or friends outside of the institute and her story had long since faded from public attention. She fidgeted awkwardly in the chair of the visiting room, the handcuffs itching at her wrists. Buttercup had expressed a great deal of regret over having to put them on her but it was a necessity, she'd never actually been downgraded from her status as a dangerous patient. Sunset didn't mind though, they were a welcome reminder as to why she was here in the first place.
Across from where she sat the door to the visiting room clicked open and a young woman stepped inside. From the moment she entered Sunset knew there was something wrong about her though. Her facial features were oddly familiar and her choice of dress was incredibly unorthodox, Sunset doubted there were many people who visited a mental hospital in a long black dress and cloak. Beneath the hood of the cloak Sunset could make out short red and blue tresses and a startling pair of red eyes that practically glowed. The eyes coupled with the dress made her look like a witch, the curious silver and red necklace clamped around her neck completing the image. Slung over one shoulder she carried a crude handbag and in one hand was a long pair of scissors. She wasn't wearing a visitor pass. Something was very wrong.
"Hello, Sunset," the woman said with a genial tone to her voice as she took the seat across the table from her. Where were the staff? Whenever Sunset had met with a visitor in the past there had always been at least one orderly on hand...
"Hello..." Sunset paused and cast a glance at the young woman.
"Eventide," she said, filling in the missing word. "But you can call me Evey."
"Hello, Evey," the glow in her eyes, that was what had been wrong with Buttercup, there had been a similar red glow in her eyes too. "You're not from around here are you, Evey?"
"No, no I am not," Evey gave a slight giggle as she spoke but quickly seemed to return to her previous kindly demeanor. "I am very far from home, further than you even. I'm here today to see you though, Sunset, I was hoping we might have a little talk."
Sunset's eyes returned to the pair of scissors that Evey had now placed delicately on the table. "At the end of this talk do you execute me? It's been a long time coming," to her surprise Evey paled at that comment, she looked mortified perhaps even sad.
"No! No never that! I...I read up on your case the last time I was here," Evey stumbled over her words, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers. Were those tears in her eyes?
"So... you weren't sent here by Celestia?" Evey shook her head.
"No...I...I wanted something from you. But I was also hoping that maybe we could talk for a bit? Like...friends?" Sunset blinked in disbelief, who was this woman and why did she care about her? "I read the papers from back when you were first locked up in here," Evey mumbled trying to keep the conversation going. "You hit another student in the head with a sledgehammer. Died instantly, nothing anybody could do to help her. Very sad. Quickly emerged that both of you and her were homeless, no family, both in school on forged documents or no documents at all. The investigation revealed that you were suffering from various delusions and... other problems." Evey paused and took a deep breath. "If you want, I can help you get out of here. We can walk right out the front door nobody would even try to stop us, we could find you somewhere safe to live, away from the humans and away from Celestia-"
"No." Sunset cut Evey off leaving the young woman staring at her in confusion. "I wound up here for two reasons and both of them were technicalities. First they believe I'm mad when we both know I'm not. Second they believed that when I...killed her... I was a minor. I wasn't. Life in prison or a probable death sentence, that was what I should have gotten regardless of which side of the portal we were. This right here? It's a punishment, but it's better than what I deserved." Sunset played with the handcuffs, feeling the metal rub against her skin. "Three years after I killed her Celestia herself came to investigate what happened. She visited me, we talked... permanent banishment from Equestria was a much more lenient punishment than what she could have done to me."
"You thought she had sent me to kill you didn't you," Evey mumbled, barely suppressing her tears.
"Sort of. Look are you alright? There's clearly something going on here, what do you want with me, why do you care about me and... no offense but how are you using magic?" It had been a long time since she had seen magic but Sunset was pretty sure Evey must have used some kind of mind control spell on the staff.
"Cursed amulet, it gives me an external magic source so I can get away with a few magical tricks even though I don't have my horn. As for the other two questions, I'd like a lock of your hair and the only reason I care is that you remind me of someone very dear to my heart."
"Dark magic?" Sunset arched an eyebrow at the sinister looking amulet about Evey's neck. "Yeah, sorry lady but if I learned one thing about dark magic from my studies in Equestria it's that you don't go giving body part samples to anybody who practices it."
"I don't practice dark magic!" Evey snapped, fiddling with the necklace about her neck. "This thing was a spur of the moment decision, I was going to use it as a glorified battery! I never wanted to put it on... I can quit any time I like." Her eyes dropped to the floor, why was she acting like this around Sunset?
"Then take it off, prove what you said, take it off and then maybe I'll help you out," Sunset folded her arms and looked at the young woman, in truth she could probably take the hair sample by force so why wasn't she? Every part of the situation should have put the power in Evey's hands but it was as though she was entirely subservient to Sunset.
"For you? Fine. I'll do it for you." Evey reach up to the back of her neck and undid the clasp on the amulet, proudly removing it from her neck and slamming it down onto the table. "See, Sunset? I'd do anything for you-" before she could finish what she was saying Evey turned a deathly white and collapsed onto the table, her body twitching in spasms and her breath becoming ragged. She seemed to try taking in a deep breathe of air but instead wound up coughing blood onto the table.
Sunset stumbled backwards from the table in fear. What was going on? What was happening to her? Was it some aspect of the curse? Had Sunset killed her by making her remove the amulet? Thinking fast she grabbed the amulet up off of the table and ran round to Evey's side, carefully trying to fasten it back about her neck. Between the cuffs and Evey's twitching this was easier said than done but on her third attempt the satisfying click of the clasp put it back in place.
"Are you alright? What just happened?" Sunset asked as Evey began to return to normal. She wrapped the young woman in a hug, patting her on the back to try and help her cough up any more blood that might have been stuck in her throat.
"Turns out I can't take it off just yet," Evey muttered clearing her throat. "Had a little accident, couldn't get to a doctor and needed more magic to heal myself," Sunset began to loosen her grip on Evey but was surprised to find that Evey was returning the hug, keeping the two of them locked together. The closeness felt a little awkward, especially as Evey seemed to be crying into her shoulder. "Right now I guess the amulet is the only thing keeping the injury from finishing me off, I was sort of hoping it might be done fixing me up by now but... well I guess it's going to be keeping me company for a little longer yet huh?"
"Evey, who are you and why are you here?" Sunset whispered into her ear. "Cause this? This is pretty weird right now."
"Sorry," Evey mumbled, "I know you're not her but... it was nice to pretend at least for a little while. Could I... could I just hold you a little while longer?" the young woman sniffled like a child, her grip on Sunset tightening further and making her feel that it probably wasn't a request. Whoever it was Sunset reminded her of must have been very special to her.... have been, past tense. As awkward as the hug was Sunset couldn't bring herself to break away from Evey, the girl seemed to be grieving, Sunset could relate to that.
"Why do you want my hair, Evey?" Sunset whispered, rubbing her gently on the back.
"It's a spell, me and my friend came up with it. Has a few unusual components but if it works out then I should be able to use it to find my dad," the tears were letting up a little but the hug remained tight.
"Why my hair?"
"Cause you're Sunset Shimmer, or at least a Sunset Shimmer. She was my...my-m-m-m-"
"Shhhhh," Sunset hushed the young woman before she went any further. She was clearly hurting, she didn't need to say anymore. Disentangling herself from Evey's grip she reached down and picked up the scissors, the blades were nice and sharp, she could.... For the briefest of moments the blades hovered over her unbandaged wrist before she raised them up to her forehead and cut off a long lock of hair. "Here, I think you wanted this right?" Evey nodded and gratefully took the hair, stowing it and the scissors away in her pouch. Breathing a sigh of relief the young woman wiped the tears from her face and stared at Sunset.
"Thanks," she rose as if planning to leave the room but quickly slumped back into her chair. "Would you... would you mind if I just sat here for a little while longer? With you? Just... just to remember the good times?"
"Sure, Evey," Sunset replied as she returned to her own seat with a smile, "if it makes you feel better then I think I can spare some time down here." The young woman nodded gratefully and silently mouthed the words 'thank you'.
Roseluck sighed as she stepped outside that morning. It had been five years already, five years and the pain still had yet to go away. Oh she might smile on the outside, try her best to act as though nothing was wrong, but everypony knew otherwise. They were worried for her, worried that she might do something to hurt herself. She'd already been caught trying once. Straightening her mane and making herself look presentable Rose picked up the bouquet of her namesake flower mixed with hyacinths and stepped out of the door. She looked vaguely presentable, but anypony who paid her attention would know something was up. In fairness anypony who really knew her already knew where she would be going. Five years ago today. It wasn't her fault, she knew that, but that didn't ease the feeling of guilt.
"Hey, Rose, the flowers look particularly lovely this year," Daisy called to her as she passed her in the street. "You know you don't have to do this, Rose? I spoke to Princess Twilight, she doesn't blame you for what happened, nopony does, and she says she doubts that Sunset would have wanted you to do this to yourself."
"Thanks, Daisy, but it's something I just have to do." She continued on, heading out of Ponyville proper and up to the cemetery. Perhaps this year somepony else would be there? That had always been the strange thing, she would have expected to at least see Twilight up at the graveyard. Maybe she went at a specific time of day and the two just missed each other. Maybe Twilight was giving her some space to be alone.
Today the weather ponies had spread gentle rain showers across Ponyville, it seemed fitting, very appropriate to her day. She trudged between the headstones until she reach the far side of the graveyard, a solitary headstone sat tucked away in one corner, away from public gaze. It was oddly fitting and at the same time cruelly ironic. It probably wasn't placed there specifically for that reason but it was still an awful reminder of what she had done. If she hadn't shoved the poor mare so suddenly into the scrutinizing eyes of Ponyville would things have played out any different? Twilight had assured her they wouldn't have, that Sunset had been very ill and that there was very little that could have been done to help her.
Placing the flowers across the front of the grave Rose was disappointed to find a few weeds had taken root around the edges of the plot. Carefully pulling them she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment, Sunset had lived in Ponyville for almost an entire year, did nopony really care enough to keep her grave tidy? Sure most of the townsponies had hardly known her but Rose would have expected a little more effort from Twilight or her friends, they had all seemed quite friendly with the unicorn. The grave itself was a very simple affair, a name, date of birth, date of death, Here lies Sunset Shimmer, nothing else. No words of affection, no engraving of her cutie mark. It was depressingly plain, as though the world that had turned its back on her in life had gone on to turn its back on her in death too.
"Hey, lady, why are you crying?" Rose jumped slightly in her skin as a surprisingly upbeat voice sounded off behind her. There was a touch of sympathy to it but it was clear that the owner had no idea what they had interrupted. Turning to face the speaker Rose was surprised to find a little unicorn filly with a red and blue mane sitting in the grass behind her, a quizzical look upon her face. "You alright, Miss?"
"No not really," Rose said as she tried to force a smile onto her face. Children really shouldn't be playing around in graveyards but she couldn't find the words to explain that to the young unicorn, she probably had no idea about the significance of where she was. "I'm here to see somepony and try my best to apologize to them."
"Oh," the filly fidgeted about on her hooves, her eyes wandering off to the far side of the cemetery before returning to look at Rose. "I don't see anypony else about. Are they late?"
"Yes, very late," Rose maintained a sad smile and hoped the filly would get the message and leave her alone. She didn't want to be mean to the child but she really wanted to be alone right now.
"What did you do?" the filly asked, "that means you need to apologize to them?"
"I..." was this something she should be talking about with a child? "I said some very bad things about her and made a lot of ponies think poorly of her. When she heard what ponies were saying about her behind her back she got very upset."
"Oh." The filly continued to fidget uncomfortably. "But you're sorry right?"
Rose nodded. "Very sorry. Something happened and I never really got the chance to say sorry to her properly. It's been very hard for me. I- I regret what I did everyday and... yes, yes I am sorry." There was something about the little unicorn filly that was making Rose very uncomfortable, she felt she had seen her around Ponyville a few times but couldn't for the life of her remember the filly's name. More unnerving though was that there was something eerily familiar about the little filly, like a ghost from the past.
"If you could back and do it all over, would you do things different?" Rose blinked in surprise. Who was this filly and why was she asking her all these questions?
"Yes, definitely yes. I... I was a bad pony, I didn't think about what I was saying and it hurt somepony I didn't really know." Rose sat down on her haunches and sighed, a few tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Okay!" the filly yelled suddenly sounding much more upbeat, a great big smile spreading across her mouth.
"Wha-what?"
"My momma said that you had been a very naughty pony, but Princess Twilight said you were very sorry and we should make you feel better. Momma asked me to check if you were sorry though, and you sound very sorry to me, so you shouldn't be sad any more." The filly hugged her about the leg and smiled again, giving Rose the biggest smile she could muster.
"Who are you?" Rose asked, staring at the filly in disbelief.
"Momma! Momma she's sorry, you can come out now!" the filly shouted at the top of her lungs, her grip about Rose's leg unrelenting. Rose was about to try and pull the filly off of her when she heard the sound of a twig snapping underhoof by the gates to the graveyard. Her eyes snapped up and settled upon the form of another pony now striding towards her between the graves. A towering pony in a heavy black cloak that concealed almost her entire body, she stood as tall as Luna herself and a long horn poked out from the hood of her cloak. She strode towards Rose with a seemingly unnatural purpose, reminiscent of some specter of death itself. Rose's breathe caught in her throat as she considered screaming, her heart beating furiously in her chest. As the pony neared her the little filly released her hold, darting over to the taller mare and playfully jumping about at her hooves. Rose stood frozen to the spot as the mare stopped in front of her and lowered her hood.
"I forgive you," she whispered to Rose before turning on the spot and walking away, the little filly cantering along beside her.
------------------------------------- Five years earlier...
Twilight sighed as she finished up filling in the last few details on the paperwork. Horse had thankfully left her to fill out the details in peace, normally he would have had to stick around but it turned out that being a princess allowed her to be invested with a great deal of trust. She would still have to hand them back to Horse but it had been a relief to not have him watching over her as she filled out the details on Sunset and Eventide that he had not been privy to.
Eventide. She still had no idea what she was meant to do about the little filly. She could try explaining the situation to her brother and Cadance, maybe they'd be willing to take her in? Or she could raise Eventide herself, treat her like a daughter of her own, she had helped raise Spike when she was a filly, how much harder could the little unicorn be? She certainly had the bits to look after her. Or adoption, from what Sunset had told her she definitely didn't want her filly ending up in an orphanage, but there were a lot of very nice families out there who would just love to adopt a little filly like Eventide, she could name a few in Ponyville off of the top of her head.
It was as she was listing off a few possible families that she heard the explosion. Jumping up from her seat she ran in the direction of the sound, just in time to see a slightly frazzled looking Princess Celestia stepping out from Sunset's room.
"Ah, Twilight! Just the pony I was looking for!" Celestia beamed with a tired but happy smile.
"Celestia! Are you alright?" Clearly something was off with the princess. When she had spoken with Horse he had described her as being mad with grief but the pony before her looked like she was over the moon. Denial, sometimes when a pony suffered a loss they went through denial.
"I'm a little singed around the edges," Celestia winced displaying a few burnt feathers, "but other than that I couldn't be better. Now then, where is the filly Twilight?" Twilight sniffed a little taking in the smell of burnt hair and feathers coming off of Celestia, the princess had closed the door behind her concealing Sunset's body but there was clearly something strange going on.
"In the nursery with the other newborns..." Twilight whispered cautiously. "What... what happened in there?" Twilight asked pointing at Sunset's room, Celestia was already off though, walking down the hospital halls with a sense of urgency.
"No time to explain, Twilight, we need to find Sunset's filly right now."
"What's going on?" she asked, catching up with Celestia and matching her pace. Princess or not Twilight had no intention of letting Celestia get too close to the foal in her current state, not until she had explained what was going through her head.
"I'll explain when we have made sure that the filly is safe-safe! Twilight, while she was living with you was there anywhere in particular that Sunset felt safe?" the question came so casually, like she barely even cared that the pony she was talking about had just died.
"The-the library I guess?" Other than her room it was the only place she would frequently go to of her own choice, even spending her off work hours among the books.
"Then we shall go there next!" Celestia said with a sense of triumph. She stopped abruptly outside the nursery and to Twilight's relief she didn't go inside, instead quickly scanning the cribs through the window. She sighed and mustering her magic teleported herself and Twilight across the town to outside of Twilight's castle. "I'm afraid we missed her at the hospital, hopefully you are right and she will-"
"Celestia!" Twilight snapped. "What are you talking about? Why did we go to the nursery, why are you all singed, what are we doing at my castle and why are you acting like nothing's wrong!" she had more to say but she found herself out of breath.
"Twilight," Celestia said, her voice both commanding and comforting. "Everything is alright, we just need to check up on Sunset and make sure it was her that took the filly out of the nursery."
"Sunset's dead, Celestia!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, "she's dead," the tears she had been holding back started to fall again, her resolve shattered by Celestia's behavior.
"The doctors told you she was dead?" Celestia asked in confusion. "Oh, Twilight. I did try to explain to them but they wouldn't believe me. Perhaps there was nothing left that normal medicine or magic could do to help her, and perhaps her body was dead in the eyes of most ponies, but her soul still lingered! I cared for Sunset deeply Twilight, while there was any chance of saving her remaining I wasn't going to-"
"What did you do?" Twilight whispered in horror. "I've studied magic my whole life, the only spells I can think of that might possibly save a dead pony are... are dark magic. If she was dead not even alicorn magic should have been able to save her," a guilty look came over Celestia's face and she nervously rubbed one hoof against the ground.
"Well no, not even alicorn magic could have saved her body, that was a lost cause. But there was another spell, one that wouldn't hurt her at all, why it was even supposed to heal most of her older injuries! I didn't expect her to react so... unpleasantly to me saving her life."
"What did you do." Twilight asked once more, with a little more force this time. If there was some magic mystery spell that could cure a dead pony without consequence then she had certainly never heard of it, she certainly couldn't imagine Celestia keeping such a spell from the public.
"I... I helped her fulfill her destiny, Twilight. She had been ready for it ever since she was returned to us earlier in the year, she has simply been refusing to accept what Harmony has had in store for her. She has been holding it back through her own thoughts of self doubt and I simply... tricked her magic into thinking she was ready to embrace it. I nudged her down the last little step towards achieving her destiny, Twilight." Celestia pushed open the door to the castle and walked inside, heading straight towards the library.
"Destiny? Harmony? What are you talking about Celestia? You don't mean you-" Twilight froze as realization began to set in. "You did didn't you? I thought we were going to talk about this! Make sure that it was what she wanted before-"
"I wasn't really left with much choice, Twilight," Celestia pouted. "In the state she was in I couldn't really go and ask her permission could I? This was the right choice, Twilight, I saved her life and in time she will come to appreciate the gift I have given her," she looked down at the burnt tips of her wings "hopefully."
Celestia pushes open the doors to the library and strode inside, Twilight quickly following. Twilight heard the two of them before she saw them, a noisy suckling noise coming from the corner of the room. There, nestled among the books lay Sunset Shimmer, Eventide resting at her side drinking from her mother's teats. Sunset turned to the newcomers and shot Celestia a glare that caused the elder princess to stop in her tracks. Sunset was so different than from when Twilight had last seen her, the scars and burns were all gone, her cutie mark was unblemished, her hooves pristine and new, her mane was long and had returned to her own colors, clearly no longer a wig. The only mark of her ordeal was that her left eye retained its cloudy color. These changes though were minor compared to the other differences in her body, she was much larger now, certainly taller than Twilight, her horn was longer and sprouting from her back were a pair of beautiful amber wings.
"Don't." Sunset hissed at Celestia. "Whatever you are going to say don't say it. I won't have you ruining my first memories of my daughter with some half assed apology or some speech about how I have some newfound duty to Equestria. I won't have it."
"You're alive, Sunset, you're really alive," Twilight whispered in disbelief.
"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" Sunset's voice softened and she looked at Twilight, confusion written upon her face.
"You... you were dead, Sunset. For a little while there you were dead. I filled out you're death certificate with Dr Horse, there's.... there's paperwork and everything." There was something horribly surreal about the whole situation. A mare she had minutes ago been grieving for was sitting in her library and acting as though none of it had even happened.
"Sunset, we need to get the two of you back to the hospital, you teleported off in quite the hurry and I imagine by now the staff are wondering what has happened to your filly," Celestia pointed out.
"No, no I'm not going back. I just... I just want to be left alone okay? Can't everypony just leave the two of us alone? If ponies want to think of me as dead then that's fine by me, nopony would miss me, nopony would care."
"We'd care, Sunset!" Twilight blurted out. "I was devastated when I thought you'd died."
"Fine, someponies would care. Look, Twilight, I... I need some time to think okay? Could the two of you leave me alone until the morning? I have some things I need to sort out, I just... I want some time to myself. Come back in the morning, I'll talk to you then okay?"
"Okay," Twilight whispered, nudging Celestia to get her to follow the two princesses left the room, Twilight carefully closing the door behind her. "Whatever you want to say it can wait till morning Celestia, I need to get some sleep and I don't think I can handle anymore drama tonight." Twilight sighed and teleported up to her bedroom leaving a stunned Celestia behind.
------------------------------
"Sunset?" Twilight called as she stepped into the library the next morning. "You here Sunset?" the pile of books Sunset and Eventide had been sitting next to last night was now empty, perhaps Sunset had taken Eventide back to her room to get a proper sleep- Before she could leave Twilight spotted a letter, carefully placed on the library floor where it could easily be discovered. She lifted it in her magic, unfurled it and began to read.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I'm sorry. By the time you read this me and Evey will be gone. I packed up my personal belongings, grabbed the bits I had been saving and left in the night. Evey is with me, I can take care of her on my own, don't worry about the two of us. I know you had been hoping we might stick around in Ponyville but I don't think I can. Everypony seemed so suspicious of me, I don't want Evey growing up surrounded by gossiping neighbors who might end up whispering about her, she deserves better than that. I don't know where I will go but please don't try to follow me, I want to work out where my life is going and what I want to do with it, it's going to be easier to do that without you and Celestia constantly breathing down my neck about my new role as Princess of who knows what.
That was the first thing she said to me when I woke up Twilight. 'Hello Princess Sunset Shimmer', princess, the word tastes like ash. This isn't goodbye forever Twilight, I'll come back and see you sometime, I promise. So no this isn't goodbye, this is till we meet again. I meant what I said last night Twilight, don't bother correcting Dr Horse, if he thought I was dead it's probably easier to let him think I am. Any other explanation is going to raise a lot of questions and if you give the honest answer ponies are going to be curious about what's happened to Equestria's newest princess. Please don't make any announcements about that by the way. Celestia may try to force it but don't let her, it'll be a lot easier for me to keep my privacy if nopony knows there is another alicorn walking around Equestria, it might be tricky but I should be able to keep it secret from everypony, hay I imagined to go years in the human world without anyone realizing I didn't belong there and I didn't even have magic to help me.
Tell the girls at CHS that I miss them and will make sure to visit the next time I'm in Ponyville. Don't tell Shining. Please. I'm not planning on letting Evey know about him and I'd appreciate you keeping her a secret from him.
Not much else to say other than that you have been the best friend a mare could hope for. I'd have stuck around to say bye but I was worried that if I did then I might lose my nerve and stay. Also if I stuck around to say bye I'd have had to deal with Celestia. I'll miss you,
Your friend, Sunset Shimmer
By the time she reached the end of the letter tears had already begun to stain the page, some of the words quickly blotching as the paper became damp.
Colts are awful and fillies aren't much better. Mommy was off working around town and she said I was old enough to look after myself so long as I remembered all of her rules about strangers and didn't leave the wagon unlocked. So I decided to go to the playground because Mrs Velvet told me that I should have more friends my age. Everything was going very well and lots of the ponies were being friendly, I introduced myself and we played some games but then one of the colts said that they shouldn't be playing with me because I was a 'tinker pony'. I didn't know what it meant but apparently it was a bad thing so I told him I wasn't but then he said I was because he had seen my mom around town working and she was a tinker pony and if she was a tinker pony then so was I. After that none of the other ponies wanted to play with me and the other kids all picked up their saddlebags and kept them on in the park. I went back to the wagon but I could still see them from there. Eventually their parents came to pick them up, most of them had two.
Mommy taught me that we shouldn't be greedy because greed is something for bad ponies. She says we should be happy with what we have. I'm happy with mommy but sometimes I notice how all the other ponies seem to have more than one pony in their family. They all have a mommy and a daddy and sometimes brothers and sisters and other things too. Flurry has a mommy and a daddy and also her auntie Twilight and her great auntie Celestia and her grandmommy and her granddaddy. When I saw them at her birthday they were very nice to me but they were just being friendly because I was one of Flurry's friends. Flurry has lots of friends but apparently I'm her bestest and Mrs Velvet says she talks about me all the time. I don't want to be greedy of what Flurry has because mommy says that's called 'NV' and if you get NV then you turn into a green eyed monster (just like a boogeypony) but I wish I did have somepony more than mommy. I used to think I had Starburst but whenever I ask mommy about him she says he isn't my daddy and that she'll explain everything when I get my cutie mark.
Today when she got back from work mommy got in argument with Celestia. I couldn't see her but Celestia is a very powerful pony so she was probably invisible, or talking from very far away.
Evey
---------------------------------
Twilight sighed as she finished reading the page. At a guess she imagined that Evey must have been about six or seven. Pinkie had given her the diary on her fifth birthday and this appeared to be one of the earlier entries from when she was still recording incidents of Sunset 'acting funny'. So little of the diary had survived the fire and every page was like a dagger to the heart, but Twilight found it hard to stop. She hadn't been the best aunt to Evey, she had certainly tried and it was tricky juggling being a good aunt with making sure that she followed Sunset's rules about being around her daughter. Sunset had always been so protective of her, perhaps that was the problem? If it hadn't been for Twilight insisting that Sunset tell Evey about her father when she earned her cutie mark would Sunset have ever gotten around to letting her know? Then there was the disastrous three years when Sunset had been away on an 'extended business trip'. Twilight had such high hopes for those three years, she was going to have an opportunity to really connect with her niece and maybe have Evey open up a bit more, the young mare had been so introverted, so distrusting of other ponies, those three years were meant to help her break out of her shell.
In retrospect they had certainly succeeded in getting Evey to interact with other ponies but it hadn't been the way that Twilight had been hoping. Had she been too rash at Evey's fourteenth birthday party? She had said a lot of things she regretted in hindsight and her personal feelings had certainly clouded her judgement... but a lot of what had been said was true. Twilight never could have predicted her niece running away from home and catching a ship to foreign shores. That had been a very stressful few months, if she hadn't turned up again Twilight had no idea how she would have explained it to Sunset. Speaking of Evey running away...
------------------------------------
I HATE TWILIGHT SPARKLE
She is the worst. The absolute worst. Why couldn't I have Fluttershy as an aunt instead? Or Rainbow Dash? Buck, even Starlight seems nicer than she is and I've barely even spoken to her! Twilight Sparkle thinks she knows what is best for everypony, she thinks that just because somepony stuck a pair of wings on her back and slapped a crown on her head that she knows best! What is she even princess of? Friendship? Friendship isn't all it's cracked up to be, lots of the worst ponies I know have so many friends, if friendship was as powerful as Twilight says it is then they should be a lot nicer. Also I stand corrected. Twilight is not the worst, she is second worst. Award for worst pony ever goes to little Applejack. She is an arrogant, hick, farm pony who could stand to be taken down a peg or two. Earlier in the year Twilight forced me to attend one of her little gatherings against my will. It was bad enough having to spend the day with one farm pony but having to spend it with the entire apple clan!? I get it AJ you have one of the largest families in Equestria, no need to flaunt it all the time. Still, I guess it does prove the old adage about quantity and quality.
Anyway, Twilight Sparkle. She's a prude, an absolute prude. She's so damn set in her ways and has such particular beliefs about how everything must be done in such specific ways. Not like Shivery Timbers, he recruited me as cabin colt even though I'm a mare. He doesn't care that I didn't have any proper credentials, once I proved that I was a capable worker he was willing to hire me on my skills and talents alone. I bet Twilight Sparkle would never do that, she'd need a three page essay on why you were good for the job, a half dozen references, a full employment history and a hooffull of aptitude tests. Can't write any more. Too tired and too pissed off, hammock isn't particularly comfortable and the sea is very loud.
Evey.
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When had things last been good between them? Evey had used to love Twilight and in turn Twilight had doted on her little niece. She'd tried her hardest to give Evey the things that she was going to be missing out on. Against Sunset's wishes she'd introduced Evey to her half-sister and Sunset had begrudgingly come to accept their friendship (just so long as they remained friends and not sisters), Twilight had arranged for Evey to spend time with Night Light and Twilight Velvet though none of them had known the nature of their relationship. Hay, Twilight had even trusted the little filly with a major state secret so that she could meet her mom's friends. Their relationship couldn't have soured over one little spat at a birthday party could it? She sighed and attached a date to the page, at least this one had a very clear time frame, it made it much easier to sort. As she picked up the next page Twilight couldn't help but sigh at the poor quality hoof writing, this was probably one of the earlier fragments, those were proving much harder to organize.
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Dear Diary,
Today was a very scary day. We were traveling through the Smokey Mountains to try and head west. Lots of ponies describe the west as 'undiscovered' and mommy says that it's up to adventurous ponies like me and her to change that. Anyway that's not the point. The point is that while we were traveling we came across some other ponies with wagons. They were being very nice and everypony was friendly but then mommy shot one of them the dirtiest look I've ever seen. She told all of the other ponies to get their wagons and move on because her and the other pony had a 'personal matter' to talk about and that they should all make themselves scarce. I've never seen mommy so angry before. She was very quiet but there was something scary in her voice. The other ponies all decided to follow her advice and then mommy told me to go and hide in the wagon until she came to fetch me.
There were some raised voices while I was in the wagon and some awful wailing. It sounded like somepony was in a lot of pain and I was very scared. When the noises stopped mommy came in to find me, she had lots of green gunk on her hooves and some on her horn too. I asked her if she had hurt the other pony and she just smiled and said yes. Ponies aren't meant to hurt other ponies and for a little while I wasn't sure if it was really my mommy or not, my mommy is a good pony. She sat me down and told me that everything was alright and that the pony wasn't really a pony, he was a boogeypony, like the ones in her stories that spirit naughty young foals away in the night. She said that boogeyponies were very bad and that they didn't count as ponies for most things. She said that ponies like her have to make sure that the boogeyponies never ever hurt good little ponies like me. When mommy was cleaning herself up I realized what she meant. She's a super hero just like the power ponies, that's why she always hides her wings or her horn, it's so she can keep her identity a secret!
Today was very scary but I'm glad that I have somepony like mommy to keep the monsters away.
Evey
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"Oh, Evey..." Twilight sighed as she threw the page onto the stack of unsorted early entries.
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Dear Diary,
Today Twilight was very cross at me. It was my fault, even though I didn't know all of the rules I shouldn't have burnt the book without asking her. Apparently burning books is very bad and not just because you are destroying somepony else's property. I got very upset but mommy told me I had to apologize to Twilight because I had done wrong. Twilight was still upset but she was very happy that I said sorry and that I meant it.
Not much else happened today, we don't get to visit mommy's friends till tomorrow so I was just sitting around the library reading. I didn't mean to be bad but I got very angry with the book I was reading and my magic flared up. I didn't mean to burn it but I definitely wanted to. The book was called 'Peter Plastern' it was about a bad pony who foalnaps some children and tries to convince them that their families don't love them. It was a very bad book because at the end the villain wins. I'm very sorry that I broke the rules but I'm not sorry that the bad book is gone. It was a very evil story.
Evey
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That one was easy enough to place. Twilight remembered the incident very well, she had been very shocked to find Evey glaring at the smoldering remains of the children's book in the middle of the library, she'd never seen the little filly so angry before. Evey had been inconsolable when she was told off. Neither Twilight nor Sunset had been able to make Evey explain why she had burnt the book, other than that it was very bad and said bad things. Rubbing a hoof against her forehead she put a date on the entry and sorted it with the rest.
"Twilight!" Spike called to her as he entered the study. "Letter for you from the Princess."
"Thank you, Spike," Twilight quickly scanned the letter from Celestia, it was short and to the point. It was also something that required her immediate attention. "Spike! Pack a bag, we're going to Canterlot as soon as possible!"
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Princess Luna was just awoken from a troubling sleep. She saw a premonition of things yet to come, things that hopefully may yet be prevented from transpiring. In her dreams she saw Tirek freed from Tartarus once more. I have dispatched some of my most trusted guards to Tartarus to investigate the matter but I request your presence in Canterlot to help us. It should go without saying that we cannot allow Tirek another attempt at conquering Equestria.
"Okay, Evey, we're here," her mother sighed slipping out of the harness of the wagon. Inside the wagon Evey popped her head out of the window and looked around. They were on the outskirts of a small town from the looks of things and her mommy appeared tired from the walk. She was always pulling the wagon whenever they had to move. Evey was too small to make the long walks so she had to sit inside for most of the journey, she was much too little to help her mommy. Even though the town was pretty normal looking Evey couldn't help but stare in wonder at the building they had stopped in front of, a towering crystalline tree house structure the likes of which she had never seen before.
"Where are we, mommy?" Evey gasped, staring in awe at the building.
"This is Ponyville, Evey," Sunset replied with a smile, rubbing a hoof affectionately through her mane. "This is where you were born and it's where most of mommy's old friends live. The castle belongs to Princess Twilight Sparkle, you were too young to remember meeting her but she is very important to me."
"Is she one of my godmommys?" Evey asked, remembering her mommy telling her that even though she didn't have much family she did have lots and lots of godmothers.
"No, Evey," Sunset chuckled "she's actually a bit more important than that. If things go right today though I might be able to take you to visit your godmothers though, I'm sure they would love to meet you." Sunset hesitated slightly and looked up at the castle. "Now, Evey, me and Twilight haven't seen each other for three years, it's possible she is going to have a few choice words to share with me. Do you think you can be a good responsible little filly and guard the wagon while I speak to her?" Evey nodded her head up and down with enthusiasm. "There's a good girl. Now I want you to stay in the wagon at all times and not let anypony else in until I'm back. The ponies around here are nice but don't go trusting strangers," Sunset leaned over and gave Evey a peck on the cheek, "I'll be back soon."
As Sunset wandered into the castle Evey began looking around from her perch at the window. It looked like a very pretty town but this early in the morning there weren't many ponies about. The castle though was very interesting, and so shiny! Evey had heard of a place called the Crystal Empire but she'd never got to visit it yet, apparently all of the buildings there looked like this.
"Hey there, I don't think I've seen you around town before," Evey turned to see a pink unicorn with a purple mane looking up at her perch in the wagon with a smile on her face and concern in her eyes.
"I'm not meant to talk to strangers," Evey replied and turned her head away from the unicorn.
"That's very smart of you," the unicorn nodded. "If you can't talk to me though do you think I could talk to your parents? They haven't left you here on your own have they?" there was something in her voice that sounded comforting, like the way her mommy talked to her when Evey had hurt herself or was feeling upset.
"No, my mommy would never leave me. She's just inside talking to Twiglet Sporkle."
"Your mom's friends with Twilight is she? So am I, actually I work with her in the castle. Maybe she mentioned your mom to me some time-" the unicorn stopped as a look of recognition came into her eyes. "You... you wouldn't happen to be called Eventide Shimmer would you?"
"Nu-uh!" Evey said blowing a raspberry at the unicorn. "I'm Evey, Evey Trailblazer, it's a completely different name!"
"Well, Evey, I'm Starlight Glimmer." The unicorn winced, "your mother hasn't happened to mention me to you before has she?" Starlight whispered nervously.
"Nope, never heard of you." As the two unicorns were speaking the doors to the castle swung open and out stepped Sunset and Twilight, engaged in a very friendly conversation. Twilight had one wing wrapped around Sunset and both mares appeared to have recently been crying.
"...just glad that you want to meet with her again! I'm so happy you had a change of heart, she was very upset when you ran off Sunset, we all were. Oh and I just can't wait to meet your daughter!" The two stopped as they stepped outside and saw the scene in front of them. As both mares saw Starlight and Evey their faces lit up, Twilight's with joy and Sunset's with barely concealed rage. Starlight nervously swallowed the lump in her throat and carefully backed away from the wagon.
Evey nervously fidgeted about in her dress, she wasn't used to wearing clothes like this. The cloth seemed to bunch up in uncomfortable places and it was too tight around her neck. Not to mention all the times she had gotten pricked while Rarity had been making adjustments to its proportions. Rarity insisted that it had been made with Evey's measurements but it seemed at the same time much too large and much too tight. Her mother on the other hand looked perfectly at ease in her own dress as she sat waiting for the ceremony. Unlike all of her mommy's other clothes this dress showed off her wings as opposed to hiding them and it didn't have a hat either. The way the purple silk flowed across her mother's body it was as though she had been born to wear dresses like that, she seemed so comfortable in it as though this was something she had done a million times before.
"Celestia and Luna will be down shortly, Sunset," Twilight said as she entered the room in a dress of her own, a crown perched atop her head. "This is pretty much your last chance if you want to change the ceremony into something a little less private."
"No, Twi," her mother chuckled. "You and the girls are the only ponies in Equestria I'd want to share this with. I mean, let's be honest, this whole show is entirely for Celestia's sake anyway, right?"
"She wants you to be happy, Sunset. If this isn't going to make you happy then-"
"No, Twilight," Sunset cut her off. "We aren't cancelling this." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Okay, maybe it isn't what I want anymore, but if it's only the few of us that know then nothing really changes. Celestia gets to call me Princess, I get to mend a bridge that I almost burnt down a second time and we all get to see my little Evey in an adorable dress." The two alicorns looked in her direction and chuckled as a blush spread across her face.
"Lady Eventide." Twilight playfully corrected.
"Lady?"
"Yep, I was reading up on Equestrian titles to see how this would effect Evey. Apparently there's some long standing political tradition where while alicorns are granted the title of princess by their right as leaders among ponies their children aren't necessarily also royalty. There was a big argument centuries ago about any non alicorns the princesses might conceivably produce." Evey began to try and tune out the conversation but her mother looked genuinely interested. "Some big wigs in the unicorn nobility were still a little uppity about not having their own ruler anymore so they had Celestia sign some agreement where while all alicorns would be recognized as princesses or princes the only other ponies who would be granted the title would be direct descendants of Princess Platinum."
"Like Blueblood." Sunset chimed in.
"Exactly! So as a unicorn Evey is granted the title of Lady."
"My little Lady Evey," Sunset cooed grabbing her daughter in a hug.
"I hope we aren't interrupting anything?" Celestia laughed as she and Luna stepped into the room. Sunset and Twilight quickly straightened themselves up and turned to face their smiling mentor. "It is good to see you all." Celestia quickly crossed the room and hugged each alicorn in turn before turning and kneeling in front of Evey to get down to her eye level. "And this must be little Eventide. It is so good to finally meet you. I hope that the two of us will become firm friends," Celestia said smiling at the filly.
"No," Evey replied tersely causing looks of surprise to form on the faces of all four alicorns. "You're a big meany and you make mummy sad and I don't want to be your friend ever!" tears streaming down her face Evey ran out of the room leaving the other ponies in stunned silence.
"I...I honestly have no idea what that was about," Sunset muttered before taking off after her daughter.
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Starlight was nervously pacing the halls of Canterlot castle. This particular wing of the castle had been abandoned by the guards and staff for the rest of the day for a private function, the secret coronation of Sunset Shimmer. As Twilight's student and one of the few ponies who knew about Sunset she had been invited to the event but had been carefully keeping out of Sunset's way until the actual coronation. She was expecting somepony to come looking for her any minute now to announce the start of the ceremony. As she paced though she heard a quiet sniffling from a broom closet. Carefully approaching Starlight opened the door and looked down to see Sunset's daughter hiding in the closet crying to herself.
"Evey, what are you doing here?" she asked with concern.
"I ruined everything, I shouted at Celestia and called her a meany and now she's going to banish me to the moon and I'll never see mommy again," Evey said between tears.
"Oh, Celestia won't banish you for something like that Evey," Starlight reassured her. "Now how about we head to the main hall so you can say sorry?"
"No... I don't wanna see her again," Evey muttered.
"Why not? Why don't you like Princess Celestia?"
"Cause she makes mommy unhappy," Evey mumbled. "Sometimes when mommy's asleep she talks about her, and it makes her upset. She's a big meany and she ruined mommy's life and now she's forcing mommy to do something she doesn't really want to."
"Evey," Starlight knelt down and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Princess Twilight has told me a lot about your mother and one thing you should know is that Sunset doesn't hate Celestia. They've had a very rocky relationship and they've both hurt each other but your mother really wants to make amends with her."
"But...but she hurt mommy," Evey whispered.
"Evey, I know we don't really know each other but do you like me?"
"Uh huh, you seem nice and you're always very friendly to me when I'm at Twilight's."
"Well would it surprise you to know that once upon a time I did a very bad thing that hurt your mommy a great deal?" Evey blinked and looked up at the pink unicorn.
"But you're always so good to everypony!" Evey objected.
"That wasn't always the case though, Evey. The thing I did was... very bad. I did it for all the wrong reasons and in the end I wound up hurting Sunset a great deal, even though I'd never even met her before." Starlight sighed and helped Evey up off of the floor. "Now if you can accept that a nice mare like me was once very bad do you think you might be able to accept that maybe Celestia might deserve a second chance to be friends with your mom?"
"Okay," Evey whispered.
"Good, now let's get you cleaned up and back to the ceremony."
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Age 18
"Eventide?" Starlight knocked on the door for the third time and there was still no answer. She had received an urgent letter that morning from Princess Flurry Heart via magic scroll. Apparently Eventide has meant to be visiting her yesterday in the Crystal Empire but had never showed up. Considering that Starlight lived just down the road from her it was easy enough for her to check up on the unicorn mare, even if the two of them hardly knew one another. "Eventide are you in?"
Starlight hated to break in on another pony's privacy but this could potentially be an emergency. Casting a quick snooping spell she magically looked inside the house peering about at the inside of Eventide's living room. Starlight gasped and teleported inside. Lying splayed out on the floor was an unconscious Eventide, her lips dry and parched. Carefully checking Eventide for signs of life Starlight was relieved to feel a pulse and slow but steady breathing. From the looks of things she had probably passed out a day or two ago and been laying here since. From the looks of things she had probably suffered a major case of magical exhaustion and not had anypony around to help her get to a hospital.
Lifting Eventide onto her back Starlight prepared to teleport the two of them to the closest hospital in Canterlot when she noticed an unusual fitting in the room, the mirror portal to CHS. She hadn't seen it since Twilight had given it to Sunset and it looked a lot scruffier than Starlight remembered it being. That did potentially explain the exhaustion though... If Eventide had been experimenting with unknown magics... Starlight sighed as she teleported across the city. Why had Twilight ever encouraged Eventide to explore such complex magics?
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Age 20 "I'm glad you agreed to come here, Eventide, I hope that within these sessions we might be able to help you cope with what happened over Nightmare Night," Starlight said from her seat as Eventide got settled on the couch.
"Whatever," her patient muttered, "not like I had much choice."
"Nopony is forcing you to be here, Eventide, if you don't feel comfortable with the therapy then you aren't obligated to see it through. However I would recommend you attend for at least a month before making that decision." Starlight got out her quill and stared at her patient, how was she even meant to go about fixing this? "Now, Evey, tell me how you feel about what ponies are saying about the blazing dusk?" Starlight was thrown backwards into her seat as Eventide slammed a hoof into her face.
"I-I didn't mean to do that! I'm so sorry, Starlight," Eventide rushed to her side and helped her back up as Starlight rubbed the sore spot where she had been hit.
"It's okay, Eventide, that's clearly going to be a sore spot for you so I should have approached it with a little more tact. This does however give us an excellent starting point to work off of. Do you think you would be comfortable talking about... that day by name?" Eventide sat in though for a few moments, her face still clearly distressed, then shook her head. "Right, in that case let's work on something else to call it by. Something a little less... painful to remember it by. Now we could pick a random word or something more descriptive like 'the incident', or 'the problem' or 'the unpleasantness'. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable about speaking about this." Starlight placed her hoof on Eventide's. "Eventide, you're not going to be alone in this, you have ponies that care about you and they are going to help you get through this."
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Age 25
"Flurry!" Starlight waved the Princess over the minute she stepped off of the train. "I'm so glad you're here, Evey's not at her house, I've checked the local bars, I checked the museums and I just don't know where she is!"
"Breathe, Starlight," Flurry said noticing the distress in the therapists eyes.
"I'm sorry but I'm just so afraid that she might be dying somewhere and not have anypony to help her! I checked the hospitals they haven't seen her-"
"Dying? Why do you think she's dying?" Flurry asked, new concern in her tone. Starlight's letter hadn't mentioned anything like that.
"About a year ago I got worried that Evey might hurt herself, she was going through a rough patch in her therapy and I was scared for her. I put a small tracking spell on her, nothing invasive, just a little charm that would inform me if she was...was..." Starlight's breathing became ragged and she could hardly go on. "It went off earlier today. I don't know where she is, she's clearly left her house and she's in trouble, Flurry! She might already be..." Starlight trailed off again.
"She has her old family wagon hidden away in Whitetail Woods. Sometimes she goes there if she wants to be alone," Flurry pointed out. There weren't many places her friend went these days but that was one of them.
"No," Starlight shook her head frantically. "It's a very simple spell, it was pretty much meant to let me know if she had an accident at home. It's not got a very long range, only within Canterlot really."
"Don't worry, Starlight, we'll look around all of the places she used to go in Canterlot, we'll talk to her old acquaintances and ask the guard to be on the look out for her. We'll find her Starlight, don't worry everything will be fine." Flurry just wished she could believe her own words, her best friend was probably alone and injured and she had no idea where she could be.
Everything's all ready to go, just waiting on the final components from you, Sapph.
Great, fire up the portal and I'll come drop them off.
What? No I'll come to you and pick them up.
Nah it's fine, I'm at the portal all ready I just need you to turn it on. Plus this way I can help you set things up.
You don't want to come over here right now, Sapph! It's a real mess, I wasn't expecting guests so I haven't had time to clean. Look wait where you are, I'll come over to you.
Blazer stop. What's this really about? Cause you know I don't care what you look like right?
I know I know. I'm just being a little neurotic right now. Also you might not care about how I look but I really prefer not seeing you as a pony.
Should I be offended by that?
No! No definitely not. It's just I don't get along with other ponies very well and then on top of that you sort of look like my granddad.
I look old?
No. Specifically like my granddad. Blue coat, dark blue mane. It's sort of creepy really.
I'm not though right? I'm not my world's version of him right cause that would be really weird.
No you look similar but you're not the same. Look this conversation is getting really uncomfortable so I'm just going to fire the portal up. See you soon.
Eventide slammed the book shut and groaned. She didn't dislike how Sapphire looked as a pony, it's just she preferred how he looked when he was himself. She also preferred how she looked when she wasn't herself. Perhaps it was petty, perhaps it was superficial but it was true. Eventide trotted up to the mirror collection and mustered her magic at the tip of her horn. It was still red, hopefully that wouldn't effect the spell. The blast of crimson light lanced from her horn to the surface of the mirror and a fresh sheen shone over its surface as the mirror rippled like water. After a few moments it pulsed and a blue unicorn stallion with a blue mane and a blue gemstone cutie mark jumped out of it.
"Now that is never going to stop being the strangest thing in existence!" Sapphire exclaimed, shaking his body in discomfort. Once he was done he walked up to Eventide and hugged her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek that she tried her best not to recoil from, he might look like a pony but he was still Sapphire, she just had to remember that. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah everything's fine, now let's get this ritual set up," she broke away from the hug and lead Sapphire towards her runic circle. "I have a fresh mirror set up to receive the spell, I've got both hair samples on the table over there, magical catalyst is prepped and ready to go and my remaining batteries are on the table."
"Remaining batteries?" Sapphire placed a hoof on Eventide's shoulder and turned her to face him. Frowning as he noticed the amulet about her neck and the red glow in her eyes. "Blazer, I thought we'd been over this, you weren't supposed to actually wear the amulets, just use them to power the spell. This is dark magic, Blazer! That stuff messes with your mind."
"I know, I know!" Eventide waved her hooves in the air in exasperation. "It was a mistake okay! I messed up and now I'm stuck with it! It's not too bad though, I may have let it take me to a pretty dark place right after I put it on," she winced at the memory of beating the other Twilight Sparkle, she really shouldn't have enjoyed that as much as she had, "but I'm in control now and I've never felt more alive! All my life I've muddled through knowing so few spells that you could count them on one claw! But now! Now I feel like I could do anything, beat anyone!"
"That's the dark magic talking, Blazer! Take it off and-"
"Die. I take the amulet off right now and I die," Eventide deadpanned.
"What?" as Sapphire looked at her in disbelief Eventide sighed and undid the clasp of her now bloody cloak. It rolled off of her back leaving her naked except for the amulet and revealing a large gash in her chest, covered by a softly glowing red light. "Blazer, what happened to you?"
"Fell down a flight of stairs and landed on a kitchen knife," she shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal. "Managed to crawl to the amulet and stick it on before I died. It's just like you told me, dark magic is like a parasite, sure it doesn't care for it's host but it isn't going to let it expire while it's still useful. I'm hoping the magic will fix it completely sooner or later but until then I'm sort of screwed."
Sapphire hugged her again but Eventide couldn't help but notice that he angled his body to avoid contact with either her stab wound or the alicorn amulet. "Blazer, I think maybe we should put off the ritual for the time being and get you to a doctor. Dark magic or not you need some proper medical attention."
"Yeah... about that. I might be on a short leash here. For starters even though this is the amulet from..." she lifted up a tag on the side of the amulet and checked the number, "...universe twenty one, the amulet is sort of missing and stolen in this world. It's also incredibly illegal."
"So, we find you a doctor in another world then, one who won't care about it!" Sapphire was about to say something else but he was cut off by the sound of something heavy repeatedly thudding against wood. "Blazer, what was that?" his eyes drifted to a wooden door with a chair wedged against that the sound seemed to be coming from.
"I may also have a conspiracy theorist locked up in my broom closet..."
"Why! I thought this house was meant to be a secret? Why in the world would you kidnap somebody and lock them in your basement? This whole plan was meant to be secret right?"
"I didn't invite him down here!" Eventide snapped. "He came snooping, one thing lead to another and bam! I'm falling down the stairs with a knife lodged in my chest! Look, I'll let him out when we've done the ritual or..." Eventide's eyes flickered from her own amulet to the spares she had waiting on the end table. "Or we screw the plan and do something even better!"
"Blazer, what are you talking about? After all this work you want to just throw it all away?" Sapphire rubbed one hoof against his temples.
"Hear me out, hear me out. I met a couple of ponies on my travels who might be sympathetic to me, if I were to round some of them up we should have enough amulets here that everypony could have one. With that kind of magic I might be able to free my mom!"
"You told me your mother was dead, Blazer," Sapphire's surprise was slightly overshadowed by his evident hurt at having been lied to.
"No. I told you she was as good as dead. She's trapped on the Moon, banished for a thousand years by magical friendship laser beams or some other nonsense."
"Which is a problem because..."
"Because the average pony is lucky to live for a century tops. By the time she's free I'd be long dead. But with a hefty dose of magic I bet we could break her out! Think about! You'd get to meet my mother, me and Sunset would be reunited at last and then maybe if she wanted to see him again the three of us could finish up the ritual and go find dad! We could all be one big happy family again and everything would be right in the world!"
"No."
"No?"
"No, Blazer," Sapphire sighed. "Look I love you, I really do, but this?" he gestured at the amulet about her neck and the broom closet door. "This isn't you Blazer! What happened to the girl who I caught mid fall? Who fell into my arms from out of the sky?"
"Onto your back, Romeo. You didn't so much catch me as break my fall. Flying looks a lot simpler than it is okay?" Eventide chuckled at the memory.
"What happened to her though, Blazer? She wouldn't be dabbling in dark magic or kidnapping other ponies." Sapphire dropped his bags and walked over to the mirror. "If you want help setting up the ritual you know where to find me, but right now? Right now you need to get help, the magic is messing with your mind, Blazer, you're not thinking straight. Go find your friend Flurry or that therapist you mentioned to me. Talk things through with them, get yourself fixed up and then we can talk."
"Oh come on, Sapph! I'm fine! Better than fine! In fact this is the best I have been a long time!" she had half a mind to turn the portal off before he could leave but that would just prove him right.
"Get help, get healed and get rid of the amulet, Blazer. Come speak to me when you're your normal self again okay?" Sapphire sighed and stepped through the portal, vanishing from Equestria and returning back from whence he came. Eventide growled and began sorting through the contents of his bags, pulling out the crystals and instructions for the ritual. What did Sapphire know? She'd show them all, she'd set up the ritual on her own and go find her dad. Then the two of them would work together and do what Sapphire didn't have the guts to carry out! Maybe it hadn't been a part of the original plan but it would work! By Tartarus it would work! She'd save her mother and she would unmask Twilight as the traitor she truly was! Who was going to stop her? Sapphire? She shot a bolt of energy into the mirror turning it off. Not anymore he wouldn't. Twilight? She fiddled with the amulet about her neck. Not if she knew what was good for her. No, Eventide was unstoppable, nothing would stand in her way!
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Seven Years Ago
Eventide finished polishing the mirror and made sure it was set firmly in the frame. The dragonflame glass had been hard to come by and expensive to obtain but according to her analysis of the CHS mirror that was the component Starswirl had used. The material for the frame itself seemed a little less consequential so for her first attempt she had opted to go with a simple wooden finish. Eventide finished up making the chalk markings on the floor of her living room leaving the new mirror sitting proudly at their center. Starswirl's notes had been cryptic at best and downright useless at worst, the stallion really didn't seem to want anypony replicating his work. Still, using the knowledge of her other spell she was pretty sure she had managed to reverse engineer most of the enchantment and now it was time to test that theory.
Taking a deep breath Eventide steeled herself and began to channel magic, a lot of magic, more magic than she had ever used before. The casting process came to her naturally though, the holes in her theory filling themselves as the spell progressed, it was strenuous but it otherwise seemed like second nature, like casting this spell was... she quickly glanced at her cutie mark and smiled... like destiny! The spell completed and a rainbow pulse rippled over the surface of the mirror, quickly dissipating and leaving it exactly how it had looked before. Carefully Eventide approached her work and gently prodded the surface, it felt like liquid.
"Yes!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She had succeeded where others had failed! Who should she share it with though? Lyra? A mirror like this would be the best birthday present imaginable for the mare. A working portal to CHS! With the possibility of multiple portals between the two worlds Equestria could begin considering diplomatic relationships, the other world could become a place accessible to all, not just the privileged nobility! Feeling a little light headed Eventide calmed herself and remembered the second part of the test. Where in CHS did this portal exit? Having two portals potentially sharing the same exit could be problematic, she needed to check where her new one actually lead to before she got too far ahead of herself. Taking another deep breathe to calm her rowing headache she took a walk through the portal.
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Something was wrong, that much was clear. As expected she could no longer feel her magic but she still felt like she had a coat of hair across her body, and she felt small, very small. The architecture was also clearly wrong, it was more medieval than the city of Canterlot was meant to be in the human world. Turning around she checked the exit, confirming that it was indeed the base of a statue, but instead of a statue of a horse it was... a mouse? The 'mouse' represented in the statue had a cloak wrapped about his shoulders, a sword in one paw and a little belt about his waist. He was posed dramatically as though in combat and...Eventide looked down at her own body. Paws instead of feet and hands, no clothes, fur as opposed to hair... she was a mouse. A bipedal mouse from the looks of things and perfectly sized for the surrounding architecture... but she was still a mouse. Eventide darted back through the portal and back to the safety of her own home.
Once content that she was a pony again Eventide stared in disbelief at the mirror she had created. To Eventide's knowledge there were two worlds, Equestria and the human world of Earth. The mirror standing in front of her completely changed this fact. The spell had forged a gateway between Equestria and another world, previously unknown to ponykind. Had she messed up the spell or... or did each casting of the spell open a gateway to a different world? Perhaps the material used in the frame was a determining factor, or the quality of the glass, the time of day when the spell was cast, any number of things! The possibilities were endless! This was much more interesting than just improving the ease of transport between Equestria and CHS! With magic like this she could discover any number of things, an advanced culture whose scientific knowledge Equestria might benefit from, magically inclined people who might share their advanced spell casting and advance unicorn magic to new heights! Eventide's mind was so distracted with the myriad possibilities that she didn't even notice how bad her headache had gotten, not until her ears popped and she collapsed to the ground totally exhausted.
"Frankly I can hardly believe this is happening! It all feels so long ago now, I hate to sound like a bad friend but I was beginning to think she'd forgotten about us and moved on," Rarity said from the passenger seat of the truck. Applejack was driving while the other girls were squished together in the back.
"Ah don't know what else to say, Sugarcube. This morning the journal began buzzing and jus' like that there's a letter from Sunset sayin' ta round up the posse and head over to CHS."
"This is going to be super duper amazing!" Pinkie squealed from the back. "The whole crew back together at last and now we get to meet Sunny's little girl! I bet she's going to be adorable!" The truck pulled up to the school, none of the girls actually attended it anymore but thanks to the placement of the portal it was still the obvious meeting point for catching up with the Equestrians.
"Hey girls!" Twilight called to them as they got out of the truck. She and Sunset were standing at the base of the portal, older than when the girls had last seen them but still clearly recognizable. Very little had really changed about Twilight, the noticeable differences were all in Sunset. Her eyes looked a little tired, bags hanging beneath them but she also appeared happy, much happier than she had for most of her time at CHS. She was kneeling down on the ground by the statue with a small toddler clinging to her legs, Sunset appeared to be trying to reassure the child but her grip on Sunset's leg showed no signs of letting up.
"Hey, Twi, hi, Sunset!" Dash yelled sprinting over to the trio. "So I'm guessing this is her huh? How you doing kid?" She held out a hand for the toddler to hold but Evey shrunk away from it, trying to put Sunset's legs between her and the newcomers.
"It's great to see you guys after all these years, sorry about Evey. She's a little nervous around new ponies- errr people and the whole fingers and toes thing is freaking her out a little." Sunset grabbed the offered hand and shook it then stood up and gave Rainbow a full hug. As the rest of the girls got over to the statue they took it in turn to hug both Sunset and Twilight, when everyone had said hello they were left standing in a circle with Evey doing her best to keep behind her mother and out of sight.
"Evey," Sunset said picking her daughter up off of the ground. "This is Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy. They're your godmothers, Evey, and they have all been looking forward to meeting you for a very long time. Think you might be able to say hello to them?"
"Hello..." Evey whispered and waved at the group, her gaze lingering on her hand as she did so.
"If it's too much for her I could take her back to the castle while you and the girls catch up, Sunset," Twilight suggested but a furious shaking of Eventide's head quickly shut down that suggestion. "Or maybe we could all go to Sugarcube corner and get her something sweet to eat?"
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"...and the two of us have been traveling Equestria ever since. It's nice, I get to spend lots of time with my little girl, I've been seeing the world, getting back in touch with the life I left behind..." Sunset took a quick drink from her milkshake and smiled at Evey as the little girl nibbled on the edge of a large choc-chip cookie, "...I mean I do miss you girls and I wish I'd gotten back in touch sooner but the last few years are something I'm never going to regret. Before I came to CHS I'd spent my entire life in Canterlot and when I got back I spent all my time cooped up in a library in Ponyville. I guess I just hadn't realized quite how much I'd been missing out on. Equestria's a big place girls, and Evey and I are going to see it all."
"That sounds wonderful. I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself, oh, but it would be nice to see you more often, Sunset," Fluttershy smiled at Sunset across the table. The last time any of them had seen her was about four years ago when she and AJ had visited in Sunset and that visit had ended on a somewhat sour note. It was nice to see their friend looking happy again.
"Yeah, why exactly have you been away so long, Sunset? You haven't been avoiding us have you?" Rainbow Dash asked giving Sunset a playful nudge.
"No, not you guys. It's more that I've been avoiding..." Sunset froze and turned to Twilight, a look of shame on her face. "...I sort of ran away from Twilight and Celestia. The whole alicorn thing had left me really freaked out, Celestia was using words like 'duty' and 'destiny', after everything I'd been through I just didn't want to deal with it. So I ran away, changed my name a little, took to the road and cut off contact with my past till I was ready to come back. I mean me not wanting to be a princess anymore is a reasonable wish right? We all remember how well that desire turned out last time."
"Ya mean when you turned into a literal raging she-demon? Er, no offense," to Applejack's surprise Sunset seemed to jump slightly at the comment and shrink backwards into her seat, looking as though she had seen a ghost. "You okay there, sugarcube?"
"Yeah, Sunny, that was the part where you were meant to say 'none taken', just like old times!" Pinkie chimed in, her hair deflating slightly as she looked at her friend in concern.
"Huh? What?" Sunset shook herself slightly and sat back up, a smile on her face once more. "Sorry girls, just spaced out a little there. Hehe, none taken. Wow, that feels so long ago. Anyway, now I'm back these visits should hopefully be a more regular thing, assuming Twilight's okay with me using the mirror whenever I visit that is."
"It's fine by me, Sunset. Honestly at this point I'd say you have a better claim to owning it than I do," Twilight replied as the girls began catching up on what had happened in their own lives over the past four years.
"Happy birthday!" everybody cheered as Sunset and Evey entered Sugarcube corner. Pinkie might not be working there anymore but she was still firm friends with the Cakes and had convinced the two of them to let the girls host the party there. Evey squealed in glee and ran up to hug her mom's friends. The last two years had seen the little girl make several visits to see them and with each one she seemed more confident in her human body. As Evey ran off to play with Fluttershy and Pinkie, Sunset sat down with Twilight and the other girls.
"She certainly is a very intelligent little girl," Rarity mused, looking over at the happy little child.
"Yep, I've been teaching her everything I know in my spare time," Sunset proudly proclaimed.
"Spare time? I thought the two of you were pretty much joined at the hip? You know adventurers, together forever!" Dash asked in confusion.
Sunset rubbed the back of her head and sighed. "She's been spending a little time with her half-sister, they babysit her sometimes when I'm working in the area," she whispered. "She still doesn't know they are family though, so please don't tell her. I wasn't exactly keen on her meeting them at all but somebody," she turned and shoot a light glare at Twilight, "decided to take my little girl on a road trip the first time she was babysitting."
"I stand by that decision, Sunset. I didn't tell her the secret and this way she gets to be friends with Flurry before she finds out. The two of them love each other and when you do decide to tell her the truth she'll hopefully take it a little better as she already knows them."
"Yeah I guess," Sunset sighed again. "But it's raised all sorts of other problems. Evey's convinced that that Starburst character is her dad and she's developed a little filly crush on Flurry... I'm going to have a talk with her and straighten some things out, I just really don't want this to hurt her. She's in love with her sister, Twi! How do I even go about explaining how wrong that is?"
"Anyhow, so ya said you were home schooling her huh? How's that going?" Applejack cut in.
"Great. She just loves to learn, AJ! I get back from doing work for the local ponies at wherever we're visiting and she's raring to go. She just hangs on my every word like I'm Celestia herself," a look of immense pride came across Sunset's face. "We've tried a little bit of magic but that isn't going anywhere yet, she isn't an early magic bloomer and most unicorn foals don't pick it up till much later anyway. Still when her magic does begin to break in I'm going to be there to help her learn it every step of the way!" the mood around the little table was broken by the sound of shattering glass, everybody turned to see that Twilight had turned pale and dropped her glass onto the floor, a look of absolute mortification on her face. "You okay, Twi?"
"I...I...I'm so sorry, it never occurred to me until now that you wouldn't have heard." Twilight whispered, carefully glancing over to Evey to make sure the little girl was still distracted with Pinkie and Fluttershy.
"Heard what?" The three girls from CHS shuffled nervously in their seats, they weren't entirely sure what had gone down around Eventide's birth but they knew that Sunset had not been well and had run off without a proper checkup or filling in any paperwork.
"Sunset, Eventide's magic might never break in. When she was born Dr Horse expressed some concerns about her size and her horn and-"
"Okay so she's a little short!" Sunset snapped. "I still love her and when she starts learning magic-"
"If, Sunset. If she starts learning magic. It's a birth defect Sunset, all that moving the sun while you were pregnant in the other timelines it... it might have damaged her magic. She should still be able to learn the basics but she's probably never going to be like me or you, probably not even like the Rarity from Equestria. I'm sorry Sunset, I thought you already knew." The sombre mood at the table was somewhat broken by the sounds of Evey's laughter from the other side of the room.
"So it's all my fault huh? I was dumb and reckless and now she gets to pay the price? Is that what you're saying?"
"I hardly think anybody is blaming you darling, these things happen," Rarity said placing a reassuring hand on Sunset's shoulder.
"I... I'm going to spend some time with Evey," Sunset muttered as she pushed Rarity away and rose from the table.
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Twilight banged her head against the wall outside Sugarcube corner. Why hadn't she told her earlier? Why in Equestria did she not realize that Sunset wouldn't have heard Dr Horse's diagnosis of Evey?
"Hey there, Twi! Mind if we have a little word?" to Twilight's surprise Pinkie had somehow snuck up on her. "You know what I do at college right?" her normally bubbly friend asked through a forced smile.
"I don't mind at all, Pinkie," Twilight sighed, still internally bemoaning her lack of foresight about the situation with Evey, "It was... psychiatry right?" Pinkie had mentioned something like that during one of Twilight's previous visits, much to the princess' surprise.
"Psychology actually, knowing how people think makes it much easier to help them smile," Pinkie gave a wistful sigh and reach into her handbag pulling out a handful of brochures.
"What are these?" Twilight asked looking them over carefully. They appeared to be self help pamphlets for family and friends of those suffering from various problems. PTSD, Depression, Dissociative Identity Disorder... Twilight hadn't even heard of half of these.
"I've noticed that Sunset's been a bit of a grumpy guss since she started visiting us again, she hides it well Twilight but I think there's something really wrong with her. So I took some notes, I did some research and I asked Evey a few questions and this is the shortlist."
"Shortlist?" Twilight froze. "Pinkie, there's nothing wrong with Sunset. I've been seeing her regularly for the past few years and she's fine, she's happy! Besides with the exception of her eye everything that was wrong with her when she came back to us was cured by her ascension." Twilight passed the pamphlets back to Pinkie and frowned.
"You sure, Twilight? Cause I was speaking to Evey and she said that sometimes Sunset talks to herself..."
"Everybody does that! I do that sometimes, it's a perfectly normal thing to do. Sunset. Is. Fine." Twilight glared at the pamphlets in Pinkie's hand. "I haven't even heard of half those things before, most of them probably only effect humans because we certainly don't have whatever PTSD is in Equestria."
"Post traumatic stress disorder," Pinkie said, her hair now flat against her head. "We didn't know about that one for ages and the first time we came across it we called it 'shell shock' and tried to pretend it didn't exist. A lot of people got very hurt because the men in charge thought they were just scaredy cats faking a problem to get out of a war."
"Well there you go! Equestria doesn't have wars, Pinkie, so we certainly don't have this PTSD!" Twilight sighed and gave a reproachful look at her friend. "Sunset is fine, I'd have noticed if she wasn't. Now please, Pinkie, don't go putting ideas in Evey's head, she doesn't need to go around thinking her mom is loopy."
"Okay, Twilight," Pinkie whispered. After a moment her hair bounced back to it's normal exuberance. "Evey! Ohmygoshohmygosh! I totally forgot her present!"
"Ummm no you didn't," Twilight remembered Pinkie having given Evey a very large box of cookies.
"No you silly! Her other present! I'll be right back!" and with that Pinkie shot off towards the shops, going entirely the opposite direction to her house.
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Age 12
Eventide stood outside a house in the nice part of Canterlot, her hand hovering nervously over the doorbell. Taking a deep breath she extended one finger and pressed down on the button sending a ringing sound echoing through the building in front of her. Almost instantly the door swung open to reveal a familiar young woman that Eventide had never met. If it wasn't for her dowdy clothes, glasses and ponytail she would have been identical to Eventide's aunt Twilight, but this wasn't really her just a doppelganger from another world.
"Hey there, can I help you?" the other Twilight asked, looking over the young girl with a look of surprise.
"I...uhhh I was...that is I read that..." Eventide breathed deeply and collected her thoughts. "I'm sorry but I thought that Mr Shining Armor lived here."
"He does, I'm his sister. I was just visiting for the day, hold on I'll get him for you," the other Twilight turned her head back into the house and yelled "Hey, Shining, you have a visitor!"
"Evey!" Twilight and Eventide turned to see a young woman, about the same age as Twilight sprinting down the path to the house. She had long red and yellow hair and a look of absolute terror in her eyes. "Evey, you aren't supposed to be here," she said grabbing the young girl by the arm and trying to drag her away from the door.
"What's the problem?" Standing in the doorway behind Twilight was a man with short blue hair and pale white skin, standing at his side was a tall woman with a pink skin tone and multi hued hair.
"I read that there's this test that you can do and it's really cheap and we only need a single drop of blood to carry it out and-" the words flew out of Evey's mouth rapidfire until Sunset clamped a hand down over her mouth.
"I'm so sorry about that! We didn't want to be a bother, we'll just be leaving now..." Sunset began tugging Evey towards the path but the little girl was resisting.
"Hey I know you!" Twilight exclaimed pointing at Sunset, who suddenly stopped in her tracks. "You're that girl from CHS who went missing... wow it must be about thirteen years ago!"
"I get that a lot," Sunset muttered, "Come on Evey, it's time for us to go."
"Hold on now, Miss, if your sister doesn't want to go she doesn't have to go." Shining said observing the scene carefully, reaching into one pocket he pulled out his police badge, technically he was off duty right now but something about the scene seemed a little off.
"She's not my sister...she's my daughter," Sunset sighed in defeat.
"That can't be right," Twilight mused. "I mean she looks about ten, maybe thirteen tops. I mean if she was your daughter that means you'd have had to have gotten pregnant about..." the gears finally clicked into place in Twilight's mind. "Oh... I think I'll be going upstairs, Shining," Twilight retreated inside before she could make the situation any more awkward.
"How about we all step inside and have a sit down?" Cadance suggested looking over the increasingly awkward scene.
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Sunset was mortified as she sat across the table from Shining Armor. Eventide was sitting on the sofa chatting with Cadance and from what little Sunset could hear of the conversation it sounded as though the topic was how Evey was doing and if Sunset was caring for her properly.
"You know I don't think that missing person case was ever resolved," Shining pointed out as he passed Sunset a mug of coffee.
"It wasn't," she replied. "I went missing, got myself knocked up then couldn't bring myself to face everybody at school. Ran away and now... now here I am with a wonderful albeit reckless little girl to look after."
"Well the two of you seem to be doing okay for yourselves," Shining said looking over at the girl talking to his wife, "I'm not seeing any real signs of abuse or neglect and I can respect you wanting some privacy... but if you don't mind me asking why did she come here looking for me?"
"She thinks you're her father."
"So the blood test..."
"She got it in to her head that if she can track down her dad and convince him that she's his daughter then the two of us will fall in love get married and the three of us will live happily ever after," Sunset sighed and stared into the depths of her coffee. "I'm really sorry you got dragged into this. I've told her a little about her dad, she knows he's got pale skin and blue hair... that his work involves helping others and putting his life on the line..." she sighed again. "Well she's a smart girl, she did some research, looked for possible people who were about the right age and matched the other criteria who were living in the area at the time..."
"And she came up with me." Sunset nodded. "I've never met you though, the first I ever heard about you was when my little sister came home feeling horribly guilty about nothing."
"What?"
"Twily was meant to be taking part in some school pride sporting event for Crystal prep, she didn't want to but according to her, refusing would have jeopardized her academic career. So the day of the event she comes and sees me in the evening and starts asking me all these questions about wishes and stuff. Apparently the whole event was called off because a popular girl had gone missing without a trace, possibly abducted. Twily felt dreadful, she'd wished the whole thing wouldn't happen and when her wish came true... well she felt a little responsible for you vanishing."
"She got what she wanted but felt it came at the cost of someone's life."
"Exactly." Shining took another slurp of his coffee. "You know I really should take you down to the police station, your case is still open."
"Please...don't. There's so much I can't even begin to explain about it and... I don't want them taking Evey from me," Sunset glanced over to her daughter.
"I can respect that," Shining sighed. "You know if you want I'm happy to go through with the blood test, just to let her know I'm not her dad. You know, give her some closure."
"No! I mean, thank you but no. I'll explain it to her, tell her more about her dad so this doesn't happen again, but please don't help her with her tests, I don't want to encourage her running off like this again."
"Fair enough." Shining finished the last of his coffee and stared at Evey. "You know if I didn't know better I'd swear I was her father, there's some real similarities. No wonder she came here." He chuckled to himself and turned back to Sunset. "Now then, I'm not going to force you to come with me to the station, but if you two ever run into trouble you are welcome to come here for help, you seem a good kid and whatever it is that you went through... well I'd like to help in anyway I can."
"Thanks, I'll bear that in mind," Sunset replied as she finished her own drink.
Eventide's train pulled in at the Canterlot station, as she stepped down onto the platform she couldn't help but notice that there was an inordinate amount of chatter among the locals, no doubt about the unusual occurrences of the past day. She'd have to look into those soon but for the time being she was looking forward to a well earned rest and a warm bath, as much as she loved exploring the world there was much to be said about the amenities of home. Thinking of home Eventide constructed a quick mental checklist of things to do while she was back.
1. Long warm bath 2. Well deserved rest 3. Say hi to mom 4. Check in with Flurry 5. Finish writing up latest travel journal for Quill 6. Visit the girls in the human world 7. Construct another mirror
That should tide her over nicely until her next journey. Eventide had seven mirrors now excluding the one to CHS that her mom kept at her place. It was a truly fascinating experiment, so far it had borne no real fruit with three out of the seven mirrors leading to worlds that were effectively empty. Honestly she had been meaning to try making another mirror for sometime but the most recent one had left her unnerved. It had essentially been a close copy of the Equestria that she knew with a few interesting differences. It had all been quite surreal and after a little exploration Eventide had actually begun to consider it a more preferable world than her own; pegasi could only glide, earth ponies were strong but that was it and by unicorn standards Eventide was a veritable magical prodigy. The world had fascinated her up until the point that she realized that there seemed to be a parallel pony in that world for almost everypony in her own, except her it seemed. Ten minutes of research through a newspaper archive told her everything she needed to know, Tragic Runaway Cart Accident Kills Three Foals, the headline read, Sunset Shimmer cut down as a young filly before she had even so much as earned her cutie mark. It had left a bitter taste in her mouth and she had put off any further explorations ever since.
"Eventide!" a burgundy earth pony stallion with an ink pot and quill cutie mark called to her through the crowd as she stepped off of the platform.
"Quill! Wasn't expecting to see you here. What's the occasion?" Quill had been her editor, publisher and agent ever since she her first brush with celebrity status. Sure it had been Mr Stallionson who had helped thrust her into the limelight but it was Quill who got her travel journals into the Canterlot Inquirer, it was Quill who had set her up with meetings with other archeologists and explorers, it was Quill who had pushed the idea of her being the real life Daring Do.
"I was just coming to see how my favorite explorer had fared on her latest adventure!" Quill beamed through his spectacles. "How about we head back to the offices and discuss your trip eh?"
"I was hoping to get a bath," Eventide said sniffing her jacket "but if you can put up with me I suppose I can leave that till later."
"Perfect," Quill grinned as he lead her towards the offices of the Canterlot Inquirer. "I don't suppose you're up to date on current events are you, Eventide?" Quill casually asked with a hint of disinterest as they stepped through the doors of the office.
"Not really, I only just got back into Equestria today. What exactly happened? Did Celestia get drunk or something?"
"Something like that, yes. I don't suppose we could have our little interview in your office do you?" Quill asked in his normal soft tone.
"What's wrong with your office?"
"My secretary can see if I'm drinking in my office," Quill smiled pulling out a large bottle of whisk from his saddlebag. Eventide grinned and lead him to her work space. It wasn't much to look at, a cramped little room filled with stacks of half organized paperwork and souvenirs from her travels, a few personal items littered on her desk. Quill sat down opposite her and the two began talking about Eventide's latest adventure to the unexplored lands beyond Zebrica. The interview was quite friendly and Quill was quite generous with the whisky, he barely touched his own and by the time he was on to his second glass Eventide had already finished her fifth.
"Who's that?" Quill asked pointing a hoof at a photo on the desk while pouring a sixth helping of liquor into Eventide's glass. The photo was a favorite of Eventide's taken only three years ago. It showed what to the casual observer would appear to be two unicorns, both smiling and with one hoof over the others shoulders. Eventide was dressed up in her explorers outfit and had just returned from her latest adventure while Sunset was dressed up in one of her big black cloaks. Eventide loved this particular photo for a few reasons; it was one of the few she had of the two of them since Eventide had grown up, it was one of the few she had in which her mother looked genuinely happy and it was one of about only five where Sunset hadn't hidden her eye either by angling her head away from the camera or leaving her mane in the way. Though Sunset had always remained self conscious about her injury, Eventide found it to be one of her favorite features, there was something beautiful about the cloudy orb.
"That? Oh she's..." Eventide paused and got her thoughts in order, she was feeling a little tipsy and it wouldn't do to let her secrets slip out, "...she's a friend. A good friend." Eventide took another drink from her glass and looked at the photo, recalling how proud Sunset had been at her daughter's success.
"Well she certainly looks like a little more than a very good friend to me," Quill said with a smile that caused Eventide to blush. "She wouldn't happen to be called Sunset would she? Sunset Shimmer?"
"You've... you've met her?" Eventide gulped uncertain how to go about dodging any further questions about it.
"Oh I had a friend who used to go to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, she mentioned a mare with that name who also used to attend it."
"Right... right of course," that made a sort of sense Eventide mused, her mind hazy, barely noticing that Quill was still taking notes for the interview.
"She's a little old for you don't you think?" Eventide's blush deepened even further, no doubt from where Quill was sitting his thoughts had just been confirmed. "Not judging you at all of course, love conquers all eh? If you don't mind me asking though how did the two of you meet? My friend was under the impression that Miss Shimmer went missing some time ago."
"Oh you know," Eventide waved a hoof dismissively. "I used to travel a lot, she used to travel a lot, we'd run into each other on our travels... We were just good friends though, nothing else!"
"Of course. Did Miss Shimmer ever express an interest in changelings?" Eventide blinked, the question had seemingly come out of nowhere. It really was good whisky though, the expensive stuff not the store bought kind.
As she raised the whisky bottle to her face to read the label she began answering the question. "Hated the filthy little bugs. Love stealing, life ruining monsters, Quill, mark my words Equestria would be better off without them."
"You share similar sentiments then?" Quill asked, continuing to write.
"Course I do, anypony with half a brain should think that, Quill. The changelings are monsters, monsters!"
"I don't suppose as her marefriend you'd know what Sunset did for a living would you?" Quill asked casually.
"Maybe," she replied missing the first half of the sentence entirely. "Oh she was always off on work, here and there, there and here, furthest corners of Equestria looking for monsters and dark magic." It was exceedingly good whiskey.
"Dark magic?"
"Oh yeah! She's a great pony, Quill, stomping out dark magic and putting monsters in their place. Protecting the realm so Princess Twilight Sparkle can have a break," Eventide sneered at the name.
"I assume it was Sunset who told you that she was 'stomping out dark magic'?"
"Of course!" When had the second bottle of whiskey been opened? "She loves me, Quill! An I love her. She'd tell me anything, anything! She'd never lie to me, Quill, she didn't make those stories up if that's what you're thinking."
"The thought never crossed my mind," Quill rose from his seat and walked to the door. "Well I must say that this has certainly been an eye opening experience Eventide, thank you for your time." He stepped out of the room leaving Eventide alone with the rest of the whiskey.
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Present Day
Honest Quill sat at his desk looking over the latest submissions to the Canterlot Inquirer. The work by his regulars made for good fodder but he needed something fresh, something interesting and sensational. The celebrity element did wonders for the papers sales but at present it was sorely lacking. The paper needed a new star, a new pony to elevate it back to its former heights. Changelings were popular right now, they were very much in fashion. Perhaps it was a little late to jump on the bandwagon but if he could get an interesting changeling writing for the paper... it could certainly work.
The wall behind him exploded in a deafening crash.
Chunks of timber and masonry were hurled across the office, his papers scattered to the wind and his body knocked to the ground. Scrambling back up onto his hooves Quill turned to see the source of the disaster flying in the street outside, slowly drifting down into his now ruined office. His ears still rang from the explosion but he could just about make out screaming close by.
"Hello, Quill," the words cut through the chaos as his assailant landed in front of him. His sense returning to him he instantly recognized the pony standing before him. Eventide Trailblazer. The mare was wearing a long black cloak with a strange amulet clasped tightly around her neck, her eyes shone with an eerie red glow and a pair of sinister looking moth wings extended from her back.
"Eventide?" he gasped. "You uh... you look different."
"You like?" Eventide grinned, fluttering her wings gently in the breeze. "It's an old spell I once read about, oh it has all sorts of limitations and it really doesn't go well with heat, but it does feel wonderful to fly!" A red glow gripped Quill by the throat and levitated him into the air, slamming him backwards into one of the surviving walls of his own office.
"You don't want to do this, Eventide!" Quill gasped, barely able to take a single breath with the magic gripping his throat.
"No," Eventide whispered, tilting her head to the side. "No I think I want to do this a great deal, I think I've wanted to do this for a very long time. The difference now, Quill, is that I have the means to do this and won't be suffering any of the consequences for my actions."
"I can-"
"NO. You. Can't." Eventide grinned. "Whatever you have to offer me, what ever halfhearted apologies, whatever bribes or promises you might have are worth nothing to me compared to the immense pleasure I will receive from what I am about to do," her smile widened even further, "goodbye Quill." A small burst of purple light flashed and Quill vanished from the room. "What?" Eventide turned and looked about the room for where Quill had vanished.
"Eventide, stop what you are doing and remove the amulet," with a second flash of light Princess Twilight Sparkle appeared in the room, a look of immense disappointment on her face.
"Sparkle, oh this day just gets better and better!" Eventide mustered a bolt of red magic at the tip of her horn and blasted a wild bolt of energy at the princess, Twilight raised a dome of force to protect herself before it hit though and the energy exploded across the room cutting chunks out of the walls.
"Eventide! You are better than this! Can't you see what the dark magic is doing to you?" Eventide scoffed at Twilight's words, staring down the shielded alicorn.
"Please, Sparkle! I've read your journals! I know exactly how powerful the amulet is. So far I've just taken it for a test run against a lesser Twilight but now, now for the real deal! This time though you can't rely on little tricks and deceptions, I'm wise to your game Sparkle! I'm not taking this off, ever!" A second volley of magic exploded from her horn and fizzled harmlessly on the shield spell.
"You need help, Eventide, just like Sunset did-"
"You shut your mouth! You don't know a damn thing about Sunset and if you think I'll let you help me like you helped her then you can forget it!" Her next blast took out the floor beneath Twilight but the alicorn simply flew in the air, keeping her orb protecting her.
"Eventide, just listen to me, please! Everything I told you about Sunset was the truth, we-"
"I said quiet! I don't need to listen to your lies any longer! With the magic of the alicorn amulet I shall defeat you, free Sunset and then find my father, and you will be powerless to stop me!" Her next shot didn't even hit the shield, Twilight simply stopped it mid air reducing it to nothing.
"Evey! Think about this! You can't free her, I'm sorry but you just can't. The only thing that can undo the magic of the elements is either waiting for their banishment to naturally end or using the elements themselves."
"No!" Eventide screamed firing shot after shot into Twilight's shield.
"Stop, Evey, just stop. You're right, I did need to use trickery to beat Trixie when she had the amulet. But Trixie was naturally a pretty good magician, she may not have been powerful but she knew lots of spells and how to use them. Also when I fought her I was only a unicorn." Evey's barrage ended, the little unicorn panting for air. "Yes the alicorn amulet is powerful Evey, but it's not as strong as the elements, and it's not as strong as an alicorn."
"How? How did you know I was here? Who told you to stop me?" Eventide wasn't even trying anymore, each shot was weaker than the last, a halfhearted effort to stand up to her aunt.
"I didn't. I was in Canterlot to see the princesses about another matter and I heard the commotion. Evey, come with me and we can get you whatever help you-"
"No," she whispered. "No this... this can't be happening. I'm what? A footnote in the history of Princess Twilight Sparkle? Some petty villain you happened to be passing by and decided to thwart? You didn't even care did you? All my work? All my effort? You didn't have a clue did you?" Eventide gave a hollow laugh, a dead laugh. "You didn't plan this, you just showed up, waved your horn and kicked me to the curb like I was nothing. I was meant to be the hero, Sparkle! I was going to save Sunset, I was going to find my father and I was going to finally have my happily ever after!"
"Evey, please come with me," Twilight stared at her with a caring look on her face. Eventide stood uncertainly before her as twilight extended a hoof in friendship. The unicorn's eyes drifted to it and her magic subsided. "Please, Evey." Twilight had almost closed the distance between them, they were within touching distance now...
"No!" With a flash of red light Eventide teleported away, leaving Twilight alone in the ruins of Quill's office.
Evey bounced around Twilight's castle like it was a trampoline. She was so excited to be visiting her godmothers again! She'd get to see Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and- Evey paused and fidgeted. Every time she visited she felt less and less comfortable around Applejack and Pinkie. Applejack was a farmer, not a farmpony, but there was so much in common between the two worlds was there any real difference? As for Pinkie... Pinkie wasn't her friend anymore. She didn't dislike Pinkie, but the woman didn't really behave the same around her anymore, she was always asking so many questions! Or talking about Evey's diary! A few of the questions had used words like 'abuse' or 'neglect' and they were always asked whenever it was just the two of them alone. It was almost as though Pinkie thought that Evey had a bad mommy! Then there were all the books and paperwork! Every visit Pinkie Pie would secretly give Evey things to take back to Equestria in her bag to pass on to Pinkie's Equestrian friend, when had she even met Miss Starlight before? And why couldn't she just give them to Twilight or Sunset? Books were heavy.
"You alright there, Evey? You're looking a little lost in thought," her mommy said stepping up and rubbing her mane.
"I'm fine, momma, I just don't get why we have to wait so long!" she pouted.
"Twilight was talking to some of the girls a few weeks ago and she had to write in the journal to do so Evey. She left it somewhere in the castle so I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait for her to find where she left it."
"But, momma! You and Twilight are alicorns! You're so magical! Why can't you just cast a spell and open the portal?"
"It's a little more complicated than that Evey," Sunset chuckled.
"Why though?" Evey groaned. "Why can't you just point your horn at the mirror, blast it with some magic and bang! open the portal?" Sunset smiled as her daughter mimed out the gestures. As Evey pointed her horn and a few paltry sparks of magic formed at the tip of her horn though, something went wrong. Normally this was the point where Evey tried to do something other than levitation and gave herself a headache, or tired herself out, this time was different. The light blue magic coalesced into a beam that shot from her horn and into the mirror, the force of the shot sending Evey flying backwards through the air and slamming into the bookshelves.
"Evey!" Sunset ran to her daughter's side, helping her up off of the ground and checking her over for any injuries. "Evey what happened? Are you alright? Where does it hurt?"
"Momma," Evey moaned. "Why's the mirror doing that?" Sunset turned and looked at the mirror, in her rush to help Evey she hadn't noticed anything different about it but with her attention now on it once more the change was immediately obvious. It was shining with a rapidly diminishing light, the surface rippling slightly like liquid.
"Stay here, Evey," Sunset commanded as she approached the portal. Gingerly placing one hoof on the surface she found it passed right through, without the book and outside of the normal opening window.
"Evey! When did you get your cutie mark?" Sunset spun about to see Twilight standing in the doorway with the journal held beneath one wing, staring at her daughter. Her daughter who now had a picture of a flaming compass rose on her flank. Any concern Sunset had over the portal instantly evaporated as she stared in pride at her daughter. Nopony who knew her would be surprised by the mark, it was an explorer's cutie mark if ever she had seen one.
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Age 22
Eventide swallowed her Aetherozin and winced. The pills were disgusting but necessary, if she didn't take them she'd pass out within minutes. For the time being she had been managing to convince the doctors that her magical exhaustion was simply a result of her malformed horn but sooner or later somepony was going to start asking questions about what she was doing to herself to so frequently deplete her energy. Still it was worth it, it was necessary. She examined her handiwork and smiled, it had been so much easier to keep making the mirrors since she had moved the operation to Sunset's old house. She no longer needed to worry about somepony like Starlight walking in to find her collapsed in front of a magical artifact that was believed to have been destroyed. She could stop at anytime of course but what would she do then? No, this was her life now, she would keep forging the mirrors until she found a world that she could be happy in. Equestria hated her but any number of alternate realities might welcome a talented young mare such as herself. The problem was finding the right one.
She stepped through her latest piece of work and instantly found herself standing alone in a courtyard in Canterlot. Checking herself she confirmed she was indeed still a unicorn and that magic did work in this world. This time the portal had manifested in... in a memorial? A great statue stood behind her, the portal manifesting on one of its sides. In design it was similar to the CHS portal but here the great horse was an alicorn and instead of rearing up on its hind legs it was curled up peacefully in sleep. Her eyes darted to the alicorn's flank confirming it as being a statue of Celestia. Eventide checked her surroundings again, the courtyard was more like a garden really, but while many of the Canterlot gardens were public places this one was silent and empty. As quiet as the grave. It was more than a memorial, it was a graveyard, a graveyard with a singular tenant.
"Sunset? Sunset, is that you?" Eventide froze at her mother's name and prepared herself to dart back through the portal. Somepony had found her intruding in the tomb of a princess and worse had mistaken her for Sunset. Her past experiences had taught her that as wonderful as her mother was it was very rare for the locals to have fond memories of her. "Wait don't go! I thought...sorry I thought you were somepony else, somepony I used to know." The voice was husky yet female and sounded simultaneously happy and sad. Eventide turned to face the speaker and saw an orange earth pony with a purple mane and horrible scars stretching across most of her back. "Wow, that is uncanny!" the mare exclaimed staring at her.
"You know Sunset Shimmer?" Eventide asked.
"I... well," the mare nervously rubbed the back of her head, "I did. I guess you don't recognize me huh? Have you never read it in the papers or at school?"
Eventide stared at the mare, there was something familiar about her but she couldn't place it. "Sorry but I'm drawing a blank here. You uh... you knew Sunset though right? And you actually liked her?" the mare seemed startled by the accusation, clearly confused by something Eventide had said.
"Well yeah! I mean hardly anyone knew her but she's practically a national hero. The Sunset Memorial Hospital wasn't named after her for nothing!" There was a sense of hurt in the mare's voice, apparently the implication that somepony might not like Sunset was foreign to her.
"Sorry," Eventide shied away. "I'm... I'm not from around here. I don't really know much on current events but..." she paused and considered her next words carefully, "I'm Eventide Trailblazer, I knew Sunset pretty well but I had no idea she was some sort of hero." What had this world's Sunset done that was so drastically different to the others?
"Well, hero might be pushing it a little. I'm Scootaloo by the way, you seriously never heard of me?" She had heard of a Scootaloo before, even met the mare a few times, but that Scootaloo was a-
"Pegasus. You're a pegasus aren't you?"
"Yeah, real nasty accident as a kid, you probably read about it at school."
"No. I'm... I'm not from-" Eventide paused and looked around, staring up at the sky. Thin clouds of smoke seemed to drift through the air, Celestia was dead and buried, Scootaloo had no wings... "The Crystal Empire! You met Sunset in the Crystal Empire! She paid off some stallion who was making you work as a kid in his factory, you spent about a week living with her and two other fillies... Applebloom and... Silver Spoon? She had to raise the sun every morning and lower it every night and..." the memories came flooding back. Perhaps she was right, perhaps she was wrong but this could very well one of the worlds Sunset had told her about in her stories. This would be impossible though! Manipulation of time should have rendered this entire timeline nonexistent, it being here answered so many questions about her multiverse theories and the nature of time travel!
"So you did read up on that at school then?" Scootaloo asked her quizzically.
"No! She told me herself! I'm her daughter, at the end of the week she disappeared into a magical portal and was whisked away to another Equestria!"
"She's alive!?" Scootaloo yelled. "That's amazing! I mean, sure it was only for a week or so but Sunset was like a second mother to me! She inspired Twilight Sparkle to take on the board of medicine about the condition of Equestria! She was the driving force behind Rarity going into politics! Hay, if it wasn't for her then Rarity's sister might never have decided to research Starswirl's unfinished spell and fix the problem with the sun! AB, Silver and me would probably be dead if it wasn't for-"
"She's dead," Eventide cut her off. "Or at least as good as dead. I'm sorry," the mood dropped instantly. Before both mares had been exhilarated, Eventide with the thrill of discovery, Scootaloo with the possibility of meeting her hero again... now though reality returned, Sunset was gone and neither of them could change that.
"Sorry for your loss. We all thought she'd exploded, vaporized by unstable magic. She didn't know many ponies but the few of us who had met her... well, never again. We vowed that never again would good ponies be abused and manipulated." Scootaloo sat down beside Eventide and put a leg across her back. "I don't know if it's any consolation but she really made a difference here, thing's have gotten a lot better since she came here. Sure there's still some problems, but foals have a lot more rights and with Princess Belle on the throne the three tribes are a lot more equal again. Hay, she's even trying to free Luna so she can get some help with moving the moon!"
"Belle? Sweetie Belle? She's the princess of Equestria?" Eventide stared in disbelief as Scootaloo nodded then burst into laughter.
The two of them spent hours talking before Eventide finally headed home. Scootaloo had talked about her job caring for the castle gardens, her memories of Sunset and the history behind Sweetie Belle's rise to power; Eventide in turn talked about her mother, the existence of alternate Equestrias and very carefully avoided touching on the exact nature of what had happened to Sunset. The mare clearly idolized her mother, it would break her heart to hear what had happened.
"You're always welcome back here you know? It's the least we could do after everything that happened," Scootaloo said giving Eventide a hug goodbye.
"I'll bear that in mind," as Eventide stepped through the portal though her mind wasn't even considering the possibility of taking up a permanent residence in that world though. Sure that had been the original plan but now... this world changed everything. If the worlds Sunset had visited were all out there somewhere in the multiverse then that meant somewhere her father, her real father, was alive. With Sunset gone he was the only family she really had left, and now she had a chance to potentially find him.
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Age 23
Eventide jumped up and down like an overexcited school filly. Scales! Beautiful yellow scales! And wings! She flexed them back and forth, admiring her reflection in the lake. She even had a horn protruding from her head which (with a few attempts at levitation to confirm) was capable of casting magic. Turning about on the spot she awkwardly examined her body, admiring her long elegant tail, her sharp yet flexible claws, her long forked tongue... Perfect! Everything about this form was perfect and...her eyes turned to face the cliff. The portal had brought her out on top of a mountain ledge, the portal itself being built into a large flat wall of stone in the mountainside. The pool of water she was using to admire herself in was formed by a series of trickling waterfalls that cascaded down the side of the cliffs and the wind blew across her body. Her eyes fixed on the edge of the cliff and she smiled, she had been given the unique opportunity to fulfill one of her greatest fantasies. Taking a running start she leaped off of the side of the mountain and flapped her wings. "Oh." Something didn't seem to be working, perhaps she needed to flap harder? Or with a different rhythm? These were the thoughts that briefly went through Eventide's head before being overtaken by a screaming voice telling her that she was falling.
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"About time you woke up," Eventide's eyes finally managed to pry themselves open. How long had she been out cold? The last thing she remembered was falling and screaming and then... then she hit something large and blue. The aforementioned large blue object appeared to be standing in front of her with an ice pack on his head.
"Bwuh?" Eventide muttered with all the grace of the Canterlot elite as she tried to focus on the pony.
"Yeah, good to see you too," he muttered. There was something off about his voice, something inequine. Eventide's eyes finally came into focus and she saw... a dragon, a brilliant blue dragon. With long blue spines running down his back and great billowing wings and... Eventide's wings lurched outwards pushing her up into a sitting position, why had they done that? "Well things got exceedingly awkward, exceedingly quickly," the dragon muttered, rubbing his temples with one claw. "Care to fill me in on what went wrong up there? It's pretty obvious your wings are in...umm working order, so I'm guessing that wasn't the problem."
"Hey! Flying looks a lot easier than it is okay!" Eventide yelled as she came to her senses. She tried getting her wings under control, she wasn't sure why but she felt there was something incredibly embarrassing about their current extended position.
The dragon stared at her in disbelief. "Seriously? You seriously expect me to believe that a young adult like you has never flown before?"
"I've flown! Just... never with my own wings before," she mumbled fiddling with her claws.
"Wow, you must be spoiled rich if you've never had to fly before. You from one of the noble houses or something, Miss..."
"Eventide, Eventide Trailblazer," Eventide muttered shaking the dragon by the claw.
"Molten Sapphire," he returned. "That is a... a very odd name. Bet you got teased a lot as a kid for it huh?"
"No!" Eventide shot him a glare. "I got teased plenty but not about that, I mean what kind of name is Molten anyway?"
"One that is exceedingly common among horned drakes," he sighed, "I prefer to go by Sapphire, or Saph. Mind if I call you Blazer? That at least sounds vaguely normal compared to.... to well any other part of your name."
"Sure whatever," Eventide muttered. "Look trust me there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for my name, and my problems flying and...and anything else weird you might have noticed about me!" Eventide shot her wings a glare for their earlier betrayal. "It just so happens that said explanation is so strange and unorthodox that it would surely go over the head of somebody...ummm somedragon, like you."
"Somedragon? Who says somedragon? I'll have you know I'm quite the mage, I doubt any explanation you could give would possibly surprise me. I mean it's not like your some kind of inter-dimensional traveler from an alternate reality." Eventide shuffled nervously in her seat, trying not to make eye contact with Sapphire. "Oh by the wyrms you are aren't you!"
"No...?" Eventide whispered in a voice that would have failed to convince anyone.
"You are! This is amazing! Extraordinary! How did the dragons in your world invent it? Why can't the dragons in your world fly? Are you the only traveler or are there others? I mean I made some spells for observing facets of the multiverse as part of my magical thesis but-"
"Wait hold up," Eventide cut in. "You can observe the multiverse?"
"Sort of, it's unreliable though and most of the worlds I've looked at don't even have have dragons as the dominant species, if they have them at all. I mean what are the chances of this happening? I mean it's not every day that a pretty young drake falls onto you from out of the sky, but one who also happens to be an inter-dimensional explorer!?" Sapphire was becoming increasingly animated as he spoke, walking around the room waving his arms as he spoke.
"Okay so first things first, I'm not actually a dragon in my world. As far as I can tell the magic that lets me travel seems to change a... individual into whatever the dominant species is of the place they are visiting, that's why I didn't know how to fly. Secondly as far as I know I'm the only one who does this, and third I.... wait? You think I'm pretty?" Sapphire awkwardly turned away, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay forget that for the time being, you said you can observe other dimensions, is there anyway you could direct your observations? Perhaps track down a specific reality?"
"Perhaps, I guess. I mean I've managed to reliably locate specific realities, I guess with some effort I could adapt the spell to look for certain qualities, you know, if I knew what I was looking for."
"What about if you had access to a spell to open the gateway to the other worlds? Would you be able to find a way to make the gate open into one of your observed worlds?"
Sapphire sat in deep thought for a moment then nodded. "It would be tricky, but yeah. I think that might be possible."
Eventide grinned and looked down to where here cutie mark would be if she was a pony. "Sapphire, do you believe in destiny? Because where I come from we hold a lot of belief in signs and fate, and me meeting you right here? If that isn't a sign that we were meant to work together then I don't know what is."
Starlight and Flurry Hearts had so far failed to find any evidence of where Eventide had gone. None of her usual haunts had showed any signs of recent activity and she had left no note or letter to suggest where she might have been intending to go. The two things that they knew for certain though were that she was still within Canterlot and that she had suffered some manner of accident. With increasingly fewer places to look they had begun to widen their net. They had already checked in at her old house (the one she had been forced to move out of during the publicity storm following the unpleasantness) and a few of her favorite places from when she was a filly, the next stop on the search was Sunset's old house in lower Canterlot. As the pair silently made their way through the streets Starlight felt torn, on the one side she wanted to find Eventide as soon as possible, on the other the house held a lot of very bad memories. It was there that the whole mess had kicked off, most ponies considered Sunset's visit to the Crystal Empire as the starting point for the whole mess it had in truth begun here. She had set her own house on fire and to this day nopony knew why. Approaching the building it was a surprise to see that it was still standing, the fire had ruined its exterior but since then somepony had put in some work to make it almost habitable. If they were lucky then that pony was-
"Evey!" Flurry cried staring down the street at a cloaked figure with insect wings protruding from their back. Starlight had barely even registered the magical pop of the unicorn teleporting into the road but the figure before her was unmistakably Eventide, though she really wished it wasn't.
"Eventide, what happened to you?" Starlight asked. Her cloak appeared torn and bloody, her eyes glowed red and she was clearly using magics well above her normal level of expertise.
"Stay back!" she hissed, raising a bubble to shield herself before Flurry could get close enough to give her a hug. "I don't have time for anymore distractions! My work is nearly complete and the last thing I need is the pair of you getting in the way!"
"Evey, what's wrong?" Flurry asked with hurt upon her face. Starlight was used to hearing the occasional emotional rant from Eventide, it came with the job, but had Eventide ever been this dismissive of her friend before? "Evey, Starlight said you were in trouble, that you might be dying. We've been looking everywhere for you, what happened? Why are you...like this?"
"Like what, Flurry? Like what!? Why am I so upset about being lied to for the past six years? Why am I so hurt? Why am I actually competent at the one thing that makes unicorns special for once in my life!?" Eventide's face curled up into a horrible villainous sneer, an expression Starlight was uncomfortably familiar with, she'd used that face before.
"This isn't you, Eventide," Starlight stepped forwards and pushed Flurry behind her. The young alicorn's magic was powerful but she had no experience in a fight, not like Starlight, if things did get violent Starlight fancied her chances against whatever Eventide was using better than Flurry. "We care for you, Eventide, we were worried, we've turned over half of Canterlot just trying to find you. Please just, stop what you're doing and talk to us, we're your friends, we want to help." With practiced care Starlight slowly approached Eventide. The shield she had set up looked pretty strong but Starlight was willing to bet she could break it if need be.
"I...I... have to do this, Starlight, I have to. There's nothing else left for me now. If I don't do this I have nothing, nothing," the unicorn stammered, she was confused and panicked and apparently packing a lot of magical power, a dangerous combination.
"Evey, don't be silly you-" Starlight subtly raised a hoof to tell Flurry to stop.
"Eventide. Evey. You have us don't you? Flurry and I? You have us don't you? And Cadance, I know you have mixed feelings about her but she worries about you as well. What about Fluttershy? Or Lyra? I know those two care about what happens to you, Evey, they're your friends." Twilight cared about her as well but Starlight knew not to risk dealing with that particular can of worms.
"Friends are just another thing that can let you down," Eventide mumbled, fiddling with an amulet beneath her cloak; the alicorn amulet, Starlight had never seen it herself but she had heard the stories. "If friendship is so great then why did my mom's friends all turn on her so easily?"
"Evey, you know I can't help you with that. I've told you all I can, if you are still having trouble coming to terms with that then I'm afraid I can't say anything that will make things magically better. The friends you do have though, they care for you, they don't want to see you hurt yourself."
"I'm not hurting myself," she whispered. "This is what I want, this is what I've always wanted," there was a lingering hint of uncertainty to her voice and Starlight leaped on it.
"Are you sure about that, Evey? Or is that just the magic talking? I remember a bright little filly who wanted to explore the world, a little filly who didn't care if she was a little different. I remember that little filly growing up into a strong willed young mare who ran off and explored the world and proved everypony else wrong, who showed everyone that she could be as strong as an earth pony and as brave as a pegasus. I don't remember her caring much about magic."
"It's... it's what I want... it...it has to be. I need this, I need this to bring my family back," the shield flickered and faltered around her as Eventide nervously tugged at the amulet.
"Family is whoever you want it to be, Evey. Your mother never knew her birth parents, but she found a lot of family in an unexpected place didn't she? The friends she made on the other side of the portal...they were more than friends to her, Evey. I'd like to think that Flurry and I care about you enough that you might consider us family, does that sound so bad?" Eventide flinched, paused and then slowly shook her head. "Now how about you take the amulet off and we can work through whatever is troubling you like a family? That's what family does, Evey, they help each other." Eventide looked at the two of them and then, slowly at first, began to undo the clasp on the amulet. Starlight breathed a sigh of relief as the clasp gave a satisfying click and the red faded from Eventide's eyes, the amulet falling to the floor.
"Evey!" Flurry screamed. Where before her cry had been one of relief this time it was one of terror as Eventide's eyes rolled backwards in her head and she collapsed, quivering, to the ground.
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Pain. As she began to wake from her slumber the first thing Eventide was aware of was an immense feeling of pain throughout her body. There was a tightness in her chest, and every breath she took felt forced. Something was wrong with her body, that much was clear. The sounds and lights of the room were muffled and uncertain, ponies were talking but she couldn't hear what they were saying. She tried to rise but she felt too tired to do so and something tugged at her limbs restricting her movement. Her attempt had evidently been noticed though as the conversation around her turned silent. Focusing her vision Eventide realized that she was in a hospital, splayed out on her back in a bed. Strapped to her mouth was an oxygen mask and running down her chest was a large surgical plaster over the point where she had fallen on the knife. Her limbs were tethered to the sides of the bed by thick cloth straps and one foreleg had been cuffed to the wall with a manacle.
"Evey?" a familiar pony sighed. Standing at the foot of the bed were Flurry Hearts, Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle. "Why, Evey? Why did you do this?" Twilight shook her head in disappointment, all three of the mares looked sad, from the looks of things Flurry had been crying.
Evey tried to answer but her voice came out as a muffled gurgle, it hurt to even try to speak.
"The doctor said you probably wouldn't be able to speak for a few hours, Eventide. They have some of the best magic and medicine in Equestria trying to get you back on your hooves but..." Starlight paused and sighed, "whatever cut you grazed your heart and punctured a lung Eventide. The dark magic apparently fixed the worst of the damage but you won't be up and about for awhile." Starlight glanced nervously at Twilight and then at Eventide's manacle. Eventide noticed they hadn't stuck an inhibitor on her horn, without the amulet was her magic really considered to be harmless?
"I'm sorry, Evey," Twilight sighed. At her side Flurry had started crying again and though Eventide wanted nothing more than to comfort her she was immobilized on the bed. "Evey, I've been trying to be patient with you, I hoped that perhaps Starlight might be able to help you where I had failed. I've looked the other way on certain incidents you have been involved with, I've tried to hold back the press from bothering you, I've given you space when it became clear that you didn't want to be around me." The princess had a look of resignation on her face, of defeat. "Evey, this latest incident... it went too far. I'm sorry but I can't just sweep this under the rug, attempted murder, Evey. Even with slight mitigating circumstances from being under the influence of dark magic this is still a major crime. I'm sorry, Evey, but you're going to be going to jail, perhaps for a very long time."
Eventide fidgeted in the bed. She couldn't talk back, couldn't answer any questions, she was a captive audience to Twilight handing out her punishment.
"You won't be jailed in the Canterlot dungeons, Eventide, instead I have decided that it would be better for everyone if you were moved to the Crystal Empire and jailed there. I've already spoken with Starlight, she is more than happy to move there to help oversee your recovery and eventual reintegration into Equestrian society. You will be allowed visitors, I hope to arrange things so that Flurry doesn't have to go through too much effort to see you on a regular basis..." Twilight sighed again and rubbed a hoof against her forehead. "I've...I've tried to be as lenient as I can, I know it might not always seem like it but I do care for you, Evey. I...I...have some business to attend to at the castle, I'm already late, I should have been there ages ago," Twilight awkwardly walked towards the door of the room. "I'll be back to see you later, Evey...I...I'm sorry it came to this."
"I think I need some time alone," Flurry mumbled between her tears as Twilight left the room. "Do you think you could keep Evey company, Starlight? I have... I have something I need to do in town," she fled from the room in tears before Starlight could even answer. Eventide slumped backwards in the bed. Just like that, everything was over. Her plans were in ruins, her life was a shambles and the portal forming in her basement would never see use. She was broken in mind, body and spirit. Her life was over.
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"Sorry I'm late," Twilight mumbled as she stepped into the throne room. Celestia and Luna had no doubt been waiting for her for some time. "I ran into Eventide on my way here and...well things went poorly, I won't trouble you with all the details but she-"
"LALALALALALA" Luna flung her hooves to her ears, turned away from Twilight and began drowning her out with the most obnoxious noises she could.
"Does she...does she always have to do that when I talk about-"
"If I cannot hear you, Twilight Sparkle, then I need not conceal what you hast said!" Luna shouted before returning to making her din.
"She is correct, Twilight," Celestia sighed. "I know it is not the most optimal solution but it has been working for these past six years and it would be a shame to ruin that now. Perhaps after we are done resolving the matter with Tirek you might like to speak to me in private about this matter?"
"Of course Princess," Twilight sighed as Luna removed her hooves from her ears. "About Tirek, what exactly do we know? Your letter was a little brief."
"We were woken from our slumber by a vision, Twilight Sparkle. Dire portents of things soon to come. Tirek, returned to his full power and reeking havoc upon Equestria once more," looks of fear were shared between the three princesses.
"I have already dispatched agents to both Tartarus and to the Crystal Empire but there are no signs of his imprisonment weakening, therefore we have concluded that he will be aided in his escape by some outside force." Celestia's concern was evident, the last major attack on Equestria had been the incident six years ago and that barely counted, that had been...an unfortunate misunderstanding.
"Wait.. why are you sending agents to the Empire?" Twilight asked.
"There was another aspect to the vision, Twilight," Luna answered. "I saw... Tirek's first victim Twilight. It was your niece."
"Eventide?"
"No, Twilight, Flurry Hearts." Twilight's heart dropped, Flurry wasn't even in the Empire. Twilight had seen her less than an hour earlier in Eventide's hospital room and- and just like that the pieces began to fall into place. Twilight had barely paid Eventide any attention when she had mentioned finding her father, she had assumed it to be the ravings of a madmare. But if she had been telling the truth, if she had somehow found a way to make her dreams a reality... if that was the case then they didn't need to worry about Tirek breaking out of Tartarus, they needed to worry about him breaking in to Equestria.
"Umm are you okay?" Spike had a lot of experience in dealing with various friendship problems while serving as number one assistant to Princess Twilight Sparkle, dealing with a bawling young filly however was not something covered by this. Twilight had just left the castle to arrange transport to the Crystal Empire and he had been left in charge, everything had been going perfectly fine and then Evey actually woke up.
"Noooooo!" she cried. "Mommy doesn't love me anymore. She left me here and ran away and-and-and now I'll never see her again!" The little filly buried her face deeper in her pillow but Spike could still haer the sound of her crying. She'd been fine when Sunset had left the previous evening, a little quiet perhaps but he'd just assumed that she was shy.
"Hey now, don't say that. Your mom's just going to meet somepony very important and she thought you might like to stay here while she was gone, she'll be back in a few days, don't worry." Evey raised her head from the pillow and stared at spike through red, tear-filled eyes.
"How do you know? Mommy's never left me before. Never. And now-now-now she's gone! She was the only family I ever had..." Her face slammed back down into the pillow, whimpering quietly to herself.
"I can relate to that a little, Evey," Spike said sympathetically. "See, I never knew my parents."
"You didn't?" She hadn't fully removed herself from her hiding place but Spike could just about make out her face peeking out at him.
"Nope. I was raised by Twilight and her family, they weren't my birth parents but I loved them just the same. Now your mom loves you a lot and that's great but she doesn't have to be the only family in your life."
"But momma doesn't have any family...and I don't know who my daddy is..."
"Perhaps," Spike sighed, "but you know family doesn't have to just be your parents and your grandparents."
"It doesn't?"
"Nope, family is whatever you make it. Close friends and ponies that care about you, and maybe when you grow up, a special somepony. Now I know me and Twilight might seem strange and scary but both of us, Twilight especially, would love you to consider yourself a part of the family."
"You really mean that?" Evey whispered crawling out of her bed covers.
"You bet, Evey. In fact just last night Twilight was telling me how much she'd been looking forward to meeting you, now let's get you cleaned up, Twilight has a big day planned out ahead of us, she knows a few ponies who she thinks you'd love to meet."
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Age 7
"Colts are awful!" Evey shouted as she stormed into the room. Spike guessed that Sunset had just dropped her off for the weekend, she was always grumpy immediately after leaving Sunset, it was like homesickness really.
"I take offense at that! I'm not awful am I?" Spike chuckled from his seat as Eventide undid her saddlebags and pulled out a book. He frowned when he realized she was using her hooves and teeth, Sunset and Twilight were both getting increasingly concerned about her showing no signs of being able to use even basic telekinesis. He didn't know all of the details but apparently it was a unicorn thing, he wasn't supposed to mention it to Evey, apparently they didn't want her thinking there was anything wrong.
"Oh you don't count Spike! You're not a colt...you're a dragon! Also you're really really nice," Evey sighed and slumped down on her cushions, "why can't there be more ponies like you Spike?"
"Hey, it can't be that bad can it?" Evey shot him a death glare. "Okay, want to tell me what happened?"
"Me and mommy were staying at this little village and mommy was out working, I was staying at the wagon reading and then these colts came and knocked on the door," she began to tear up a little but quickly suppressed her tears. "I went to the door and they told me I had to move the wagon or they'd call the guards." Spike swallowed a lump in his throat, he'd hear stories like this from Evey multiple times in the past and already had a good idea where it was going. "I said I hadn't done anything wrong but then they told me that I'd parked our wagon on their farm and that they wanted me gone before I started stealing fruit from the orchard. I tried to move the wagon but the harness was really big and I'm so small! One of them threw a pear at me and it got stuck on my horn and then I had to hide in the wagon until mommy got back from work... Why is everypony so awful to mommy and me?"
"Hey now, don't be like that," Spike walked over to her and gave her a small hug before she could start crying. "Not everypony is awful, Evey, it's just really easy to remember all the ones that have been mean to you and forgot the ones who haven't. Now how about we get you a cookie from the kitchen huh? That always cheers you up"
"Thanks, Spike," Evey mumbled as the dragon led her to the kitchen.
-------------------------------------------- Age 13
"Thanks for meeting me like this, Fluttershy, I didn't know who else to go to about this and... and I'm scared." Eventide sat across the table from Fluttershy, nervously sipping from her cup of tea. She hadn't yet gone into the details of why she had wanted to meet with Fluttershy in private but whatever it was, was apparently a sensitive matter that she hadn't wanted to talk to Twilight about. To say that Fluttershy was concerned would be a major understatement, while she had certainly met Eventide a few times in the years since her mother had begun regularly visiting Ponyville, she would hardly have considered the two of them to be close friends. Still, if Eventide was willing to trust her then she wasn't going to disappoint the young mare.
"Oh don't worry Eventide, I'm sure whatever it is it can't be too awful. Now how about I get us some sandwiches?" Before Fluttershy could stand up Eventide had shot one of her hooves out to stop her, terror in her eyes.
"I'm not hungry, Fluttershy, I just wanted to talk to you about...about Discord," Fluttershy sensed a little bit of deceit in the statement but that was understandable, whatever had Eventide so rattled was something she didn't want to speak about directly.
"Okay Eventide, what would you like to know about him? Oh! He hasn't played a prank on you has he? I know he means well but sometimes he does go a little too far."
"No! No it isn't that it's just that-" Eventide looked around the room as she stumbled over whatever she wanted to say next. "Well you two are close right? He's your special somepony even though he's what he is?"
"Oh no, Eventide, we're just good friends, nothing more." Eventide's face dropped, evidently Fluttershy had said the wrong thing.
"Oh... okay maybe this was a mistake then, sorry, I thought you might be able to help me but... but I guess not," Eventide held her head between her hooves and groaned. "This whole visit was just one big mistake, I should so go."
"Eventide, please don't go. Something's clearly bothering you and I'd really like to help. I'm sure whatever it is can't be that awful can it?"
"I...I don't like ponies," Eventide whispered.
"You mean you're having trouble making friends?" Fluttershy asked. As far as she knew Eventide got on incredibly well with Princess Flurry Heart, and a few other ponies as well. Perhaps she wasn't the most sociable of ponies but she certainly had some friends.
"No...no I mean... romantically," Eventide continued to whisper as she nervously bumped her hooves together. "I just don't find them attractive, at all. I'm scared Fluttershy, Aunt Twilight says that my magic is all messed up because of something that happened before I was born and I'm scared that this is the same. What if I'm all messed up in the head and this is part of it? What will other ponies think?"
"Are you sure Eventide? Maybe you just haven't met the right pony yet?"
"No...no...I'm attracted to...well I've had those feelings, just not for any ponies. Does that make me a freak?" Fluttershy had never seen Eventide look so scared before in her life.
"No! No, never. Eventide I know a lot of ponies look down on you and your mother because of your lifestyle, but most ponies are very accepting of others. You've had some bad experiences but don't let those make you think of everypony as being like that. You seem to be a wonderful young mare and I'm sure that me and the other girls will be happy to help you with whatever is is you're going through."
"No!" Eventide practically leaped out of her seat. "No you can't tell anypony else about this! Especially Twilight! She'd throw me out of the castle and I'd be homeless! I'm not like mom, I can't pull the wagon around Equestria! Where would I even go?"
"Oh Eventide, whatever it is I'm sure Twilight will be supportive. Your aunt loves you Eventide, she might have an odd way of showing it sometimes but she cares for you a lot... now how about you start from the top and tell me about your little problem?"
-------------------------------------------- Age 14
"Happy birthday!" everypony cheered as Evey stepped into the room. Evey forced a smile onto her face and began making a show of saying hello to all of the guests but Twilight could tell her heart wasn't in it. To Twilight's knowledge this was only the second birthday that Evey had been through without her mother and she wasn't happy about it. Last year had been tolerable, but even then Evey had been showing anxiety about her separation from her mother and in the year since, her relationship with Twilight had taken a turn for the worse. As Evey awkwardly shuffled around talking to the guests it was clear that the only ponies she was happy to have there were Flurry and Lyra, the rest of the guests were in truth Twilight's friends, not hers. Not wanting to see Evey cause a scene Twilight headed off Applejack before she could talk to Evey.
"Somethin' the matter sugarcube?" Applejack asked as Twilight lead her away from where Evey was standing.
"Yes, actually," she sighed. "I know that Evey wasn't exactly the politest of ponies at your family reunion..." Applejack scoffed at that, "...okay, she was rude and a bad guest. Well, I've had a talk with her and I think I owe you an explanation. Evey doesn't like farm ponies."
"Well of all the no good... Twilight, ah thought you and Sunset were better than that? How did she grow up around a nice pair of mares like you two and wind up so darn proud?" Applejack shot Evey a glare but didn't move to confront her. "So what? She thinks she's better than us? Okay maybe farm work ain't the prettiest thing in Equestria, but it is hard work an' ah won't stand for her lookin' down on us!"
"No! No it's not like that at all! If anything it's the opposite!" Across the room Evey was nervously exchanging words with Fluttershy, the unicorn glanced over towards them briefly then wandered off in the direction of the kitchen. "Applejack, she doesn't like them because in her mind they think they're better than her."
"Come again Twilight?" Applejack raised one eyebrow, giving her a look of total disbelief.
"Evey and her mother have... not had the best experiences with farm ponies across Equestria. Now Sunset is old enough to take it in her stride and not care too much about what gets said...but Evey has been having to put up with this since she was very little and I'm afraid it's made her a little bit prejudiced..."
"Put up with what Twilight?" Applejack asked in concern.
"Evey and her mother travel a lot, Applejack, apparently they've been run off a few farms and been accused of being thieves a few times as well. I know you'd never do something like that, Applejack, but a lot of ponies are suspicious of strangers. I know that Ponyville has become a lot more trusting since the incident with Zecora all those years ago but sadly the rest of Equestria isn't the same."
"How long's she been having to put up with this?" Applejack whispered.
"Most of her life from the sounds of things," she sighed. "Now I know that doesn't excuse her behavior, but I thought it might give you a little bit of context before one of you wound up saying something you might regret to the other. Now how about we go find Evey and have a nice civil chat and straighten all of this out?"
------------------------------------------------
"Hey Spike," Evey said with a smile as she walked into the kitchen.
"Oh hey Evey, why aren't you out there enjoying the party with everypony else?" Spike asked, lifting his head up from the oven.
"I just thought I'd keep you company for a little while, you don't mind, do you?"
"Nah, I don't mind, me and Twilight love having you around." Evey let out a barely audible squeak at his words.
"There was another reason for me being here though..." Evey mumbled, nervously running her hooves through her hair. "I've got something for you."
"Evey, it's your birthday! Everyone else is meant to get things for you, not the other way around!" he chuckled.
"I know! I know! Just... close your eyes would you? It's a surprise." Spike looked at her incredulously but ultimately obliged, at which point Evey realized she hadn't entirely thought her plan through. Spike was actually quite tall and she was not, plus him being bipedal put his head irritatingly high up. Carefully moving a chair up to where he was standing Evey jumped up onto it to give herself some extra height, placed her fore hooves around the back of his neck and then gently kissed him on the lips. It felt a great deal different to kissing her mother, or Flurry, or even kissing the dragon on the cheek. This was new, exciting, passionate. In that moment, with her eyes closed as she embraced Spike, Evey felt on top of the world.
"Ummm, Evey, what are you doing?" she opened her eyes to see Spike looking at her in confusion.
"I was... ummm... kissing you Spike? I really like you...and I sort of thought you liked me as well so..."
"I do like you Evey," he sighed, "but as a friend. Now how about you get down from there and-"
"What is going on here Evey!" Twilight yelled from the doorway. Evey and Spike turned to see Applejack and the Princess staring at the two of them in confusion.
"I...I like Spike, Aunt Twilight," Evey mumbled as she awkwardly disentangled herself from the dragon and got off of the chair. In her head this encounter had played out in so many different ways, but never with a flat out rejection.
"Evey..." Twilight groaned, "I thought your mother explained this to you, he's your uncle, Evey, your uncle! This is just like your crush on Flurry all over again..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Evey snapped. Her initial sadness at the rejection was quickly being replaced with something hot and unpleasant. It wasn't a feeling that she liked but it was rapidly building in her chest and made her want to say hurtful things to her Auntie, things she had often thought but never dared to say aloud.
"It's a crush, Evey. Think about this reasonably, he's your uncle, he's a lot older than you and the two of you aren't even the same species!"
"It's fine Twilight, really. I was just explaining to Evey and..." Spike tried to diffuse the situation but to no avail. He knew Twilight could be overprotective of her family but right now she seemed ready to explode.
"It's not a crush this time, Twilight!" Evey yelled, in the other room the sounds of the party seemed to stop.
"It is though Evey! Your mother and I have seen this in you before. You latch onto anypony who shows you the slightest bit of affection and end up obsessing over something that isn't there! It happened with Flurry, it happened with Starburst and now it's happened again. Think this through reasonably, please!"
"Oh so just because you've decided to live the life of a frigid little ice queen with no time for romance in her life so do I? You're not my mother Twilight!" The Princess flinched backwards a little at those words, things certainly hadn't been good between the two of them for the past year but Evey had never spoken so maliciously.
"I think you should probably go to your room and think about what you've said," she commanded.
"You're such a hypocrite! Here you are being all buddy buddy with hayseed! But then you start acting like it's wrong to be attracted to someone in your own family! At least Spike's adopted!"
"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Applejack, had been silent for most of the confrontation but what Evey had just said struck a nerve with her.
"Oh you know what I mean!" Evey sneered as the heat in her chest continued to boil over. "It doesn't take a genius to work out how you got such a big family! I've traveled around AJ and I know that everything they say about farm ponies and their cousins is true!"
"Evey! Go to your room!" Twilight shouted, putting herself between the two other ponies before they resorted to violence.
"Fine!" she yelled storming off down the hall.
--------------------------------------------
"Evey?" Flurry whispered as she knocked on her friend's door. The party hadn't really been cancelled, but after pretty much everypony present had become an unintentional eavesdropper on Evey and Twilight's argument most of the guests had excused themselves. Somepony needed to check up on Evey though and Flurry doubted that she would be in a mood to speak with Twilight. Carefully pushing the door open when Evey failed to answer, Flurry was immediately struck by an unfamiliar stench that filled the room. Laying curled up on her bed, her face red and stained with tears, Evey was nursing a half empty bottle of brown liquid, two similar bottles lying empty on the floor. "Evey are you okay?"
"Heeeey Flurry! Our family sucks! Suckssssss." Flurry carefully picked one of the bottles up off of the floor and examined the label, gasping in shock at what she read.
"Evey! This is alcohol! How did you even get this?"
"Mom keeps some in the wagon to make the bad feelings go away, she thinks I don't know about it but she's not as good at keeping secrets as she thinks she is. Iz supposed to take the edge off of life, but it's just making the hot feeling hotter..." Flurry had lead a very sheltered existence, she had no illusions about that. She had wanted for nothing and never had to deal with a lot of the unpleasantness of reality, seeing her best friend like this was perhaps the first truly terrifying experience of her life. It was like she had become a completely different mare, her body language, her speech...almost nothing remained of the little Evey she knew and loved. "Hey Flurry,wanna hear a secret? Twilight and my mom made me promise never to tell anypony, but buck them."
Flurry tried her best to ignore the pony that looked like her friend and carefully extracted the last bottle from Evey's hooves.
"You really are my BSBFF Flurry, that's the secret."
"That's not a secret," Flurry sighed, "I was there when you came up with that remember?"
"No... I remember. What I mean is me and you are sisters... well half-sisters Flurry. Cause Shining Armor's my dad too! Isn't that great?" Flurry stared dumbfounded at her friend and some of the words that she had overheard between Twilight and Evey suddenly made a great deal more sense.
"No. No we aren't," Flurry muttered. "Evey, my mom and dad love each other very much, dad would never cheat on mom and... and for that to even be true he'd have needed to have been cheating on mom while she was pregnant, which he wouldn't do. He's a good stallion...he'd never," tears began to form in Flurry's eyes. The idea seemed absurd, laughable really. But there was a definite resemblance between Evey and Shining, then there was the way that she referred to Twilight as her aunt... It seemed like a bad joke, the idea of her father ever being unfaithful to Cadance was an impossibility in her mind.
"It's true though! Isn't it great? Me an you are actual sisters Flurry! Not silly pretend sisters! We're family, proper family! Just like we always wanted!" Evey stumbled off of her bed with confusion and hurt in her eyes. In her mind this was no doubt something wonderful, but all that Flurry could think of was that it meant her own happy family was nothing more than a facade, a show put on by her unhappy parents to convince her that everything was fine. Did Cadance and Shining even love each other anymore? What did he even see in a mare like Sunset? Evey's mother was rude and brutish, nothing like her own.
"It's not that I don't believe you Evey," Flurry said holding back her tears. "I just need to speak to Twilight about this." Twilight would know what to do, she always had the answers.
"Buck Twilight! Buck you too! Buck the whole damn Equestria!" Evey yelled down the hall as Flurry left to find her aunt. "I don't need you! I don't need anypony! I'll do perfectly fine by myself!" Flurry barely even registered those parting words, not realizing they would be the last thing she heard from Evey for almost half a year.
Starlight Glimmer was not in a good mood. Five years of hard work had been ruined in less than an hour. Eventide had seemed to be doing so well, sure she had the occasional slip up, but in general she was honest about her mistakes and had showed a genuine desire to get better. Where had things gone wrong? Was there some sign she had missed? Some outside force that had perhaps been exerting influence on her patient? The books she had borrowed from Pinkie Pie spoke about malingering, but this felt like the opposite, that Eventide has been concealing symptoms as opposed to faking them. The unfortunate truth was that Starlight had failed Eventide, that her patient would be very lucky to ever truly be free. Twilight would no doubt push for Eventide to receive an early parole or a reduced sentence, but even once she had been released she would likely spend the rest of her life under constant surveillance. Ponies didn't dabble in the dark magics without consequence and unlike most ponies Eventide would be unable to plead ignorance, she had read Twilight's friendship journals, she knew exactly what the alicorn amulet was capable of.
A flash of purple light outside the room suggested that Twilight had just returned, evidently her duties at the castle had not taken as long as she had been expecting. As the door swung open Starlight was surprised to see not one, but two alicorn princesses.
"Princess Celestia!" she squeaked, falling down into a bow.
"Rise, Starlight Glimmer. You need not worry about such airs and graces in private. The two of us are here to see Eventide, is she awake?" there was a touch of concern to her voice but it was somewhat overshadowed by the evident worry that both she and Twilight were displaying on their faces.
"Mm wake. Hurts to speak. Go away," Eventide croaked from her bed, what little energy she had seemed to be directed into glaring at the two princesses.
"Eventide Shimmer," the unicorn winced at Celestia's words, "I have heard of your recent actions from Twilight Sparkle. I am disappointed, Eventide, but I am not angry. Your mother's decision was regrettable and I know it has come to hurt you over these past five years. Given a chance to do it all again there are many things I would do differently but I cannot change what has been done, nopony can." Starlight couldn't help but notice Eventide and Twilight's eyes brief glance in her direction as if challenging the last statement. "I do not believe you are a bad pony at heart, Eventide, you do however need help and we have been trying our best to supply it to you."
"Want to help me? Then tell me. What happened?" Each sentence was punctuated by a deep wheezing breath as Eventide's lungs struggled to draw in air.
"Eventide..." Celestia sighed, "I have told you the truth, Twilight has told you the truth, nopony has lied to you. We all deeply regret that the public cling to their own little lie, that they find it easier to accept an absolute monster than a fallible princess, but you must accept that the fantasy you have constructed for yourself is just as false."
"Prove it. Free her. Let her say it. To my face. Won't believe you unless I hear it from her. She loved me. You're lying." Eventide fell into a coughing fit and Starlight brought her a glass of water, Eventide still had yet to explain to her how she had received the injury that had left her in her current state.
"You know we can't do that, Evey, without bearers the elements can't be used, the girls and I have tried, Evey, we really have, but the elements of harmony your mother...acquired...just don't respond to us. Unless a new group of element bearers emerges we won't be able to use them." Twilight bit her lip before she continued, judging from her expression Starlight imagined that she wasn't looking forwards to whatever she had to say next. "Evey, Celestia and I aren't here to discuss Sunset. When you were wearing the alicorn amulet you mentioned something about finding your father. Now it is very important you let us know how you intended to do that as all of Equestria might be in danger."
"Buck you, Sparkle. Buck. You. Not telling you shit." Celestia frowned disapprovingly at Eventide's language but she didn't say anything, instead letting Twilight handle the conversation with her niece.
"I'm serious, Evey, Princess Luna has had a vision of Tirek destroying Equestria, I believe that the Tirek she saw might be the same one who was victorious in the world where Sunset met your father."
"No. My father. Was a hero. He was going to defeat Tirek. Save Equestria. Fix everything," Eventide's voice grew madder with each word. "He's waiting for me. He's alive. I'm going to find him. And have a family again."
"Twenty six years Eventide, it's been about twenty six years since Sunset met him. Even if he was alive, even if he has beaten Tirek, do you think he wouldn't have moved on with his life? He doesn't even know you exist Evey, he never knew Sunset was pregnant."
"He'll understand. He'll love me. That's what family does, Sparkle. There's nothing, Sparkle, nothing more important than family. And you. You took mine away from me. You took everything I had. And you banished it to the moon."
"I didn't-" Twilight rubbed her forehead in consternation, she was tired of having to go through the same conversation with Evey, again and again. "Evey, if we don't stop Tirek a lot of ponies will be hurt. Hate me all you want but do you really want to be accountable for the kind of destruction he would bring?" Evey slumped backwards into her bed in sullen silence. "Where's Flurry? Evey, according to Luna she is one of the first casualties if Tirek does attack. If nothing else at least tell us where we can find her so we can get her to safety, she was here earlier where is she now?"
"She left shortly after you Twilight," Starlight answered on Evey's behalf, "she didn't say where she was going but she was very upset about everything that had happened."
"House," Evey coughed. "If Luna's right Flurry will be at Sunset's house. That's where I was working."
"Thank you, Eventide," Celestia said with a smile. "Come, Twilight, let us go find your niece and then put a stop to whatever-"
"Won't work." Evey said with a smirk. "Can't stop it once it's started. Rituals too strong. You'd need to turn it off completely."
"What are you talking about Evey?" Twilight couldn't help but notice that Eventide's features had grown more reminiscent of how she had looked in her attack on Quill.
"Portals. I've been building portals. Based on Starswirl's, work same way. Open once in thirty moons. Unless you have the spell to turn them on and off." Her features twisted further into a malicious grin. "Left the spell running while I met Quill. Plenty of power down there to charge it. I'm the only one who can close it once it opens. Without me you'll need to wait. For three days. So it closes naturally."
"How long has this been going on, Evey?" Twilight gasped, scarcely believing what she was hearing.
"Before unpleasantness. Now. Here are my terms..."
"Terms?" Twilight recoiled in surprise.
"S'right. Terms. You need me. Not doing this for free." The other three occupants of the room exchanged nervous glances but eventually Celestia nodded. "First. The amulet. I want it back. Wont have enough magic if I don't have it. Can barely move right now without it. No amulet, no help."
"That is acceptable," Celestia conceded reluctantly.
"Second. You stay away from the house. It'll be just the three of us. And Flurry."
"Very well, I will however be close at hand in case of trouble," Celestia replied.
"Fine. Third. Sparkle tells me the truth. Start to finish. What happened to Sunset."
"Evey, I've already-" Twilight tried to explain but Celestia raised a hoof to cut her off.
"Also acceptable. Any further demands or is that all?"
"Unless you can free Sunset. Or banish me to the moon. Then no. Nothing else."
"Very well then," Celestia turned to Twilight and Starlight. "Fetch her the amulet, we have a centaur to stop."
-----------------------------------------------
Flurry had been surprised to find the door to Sunset's old house unlocked. As she had expected there was evidence that Evey had been using the building, but it seemed that in her haste to leave she had forgotten to fasten any of the numerous locks that had been placed upon the door. The furnishings inside were sparse, nothing more than the bare essentials of life and a few personal items. There were a few drawers upstairs crammed full of magical formulae and other notes but Flurry had no desire to go rooting around in her friend's writing just yet, she was here with another purpose. Something had set Evey off, pushed her over the edge and led to whatever accident had nearly killed her. Flurry was willing to bet anything that it had happened here.
With the ground floor and upstairs quickly searched that left only the basement. She had been putting it off since she had first got to the house, certain that whatever it was she was looking for would be found down there but scared to check. She knew that that burnt and ruined portal apparatus had long ago been removed by Twilight, but there was still something terrifying about the thought of stepping into the room where the Blazing Dusk had actually begun.
Slowly, hesitantly, she crept down the stairs, her magic illuminating her path. As she reached the bottom though it became clear that she wouldn't be needing it, the entire basement was lit by a great magical glow that bathed the entire room in a red light. Mirrors, each reminiscent of the one that was said to have been destroyed, stood about the room. Some were covered, others not, but the most prominent of them all stood at the center of the room, great red tendrils of magic snaking across its surface. At the end of each tendril an amulet hovered in the air, channeling power into the mirror. Chalk scrawlings surrounded the mirror, occasionally pulsing with a sickly green light that clashed with the red of the amulets. A curled up scroll also floated in the air, one end tied with what appeared to be red and yellow threads, the other with red and blue.
"What were you doing down here, Evey?" Flurry whispered in awe. She could scarcely believe that all of this had been made by her friend. Evey wasn't a magician, she hated magic, and she certainly wasn't evil. Whatever magic was at work here was quite clearly evil, good wholesome magic didn't look like this, it had no reason to look so menacing, so ominous. She was interrupted in her analysis f the room by a frantic knocking from a door in the basement. Flurry hesitated briefly then pulled away a chair that had been keeping the door wedged shut. A stallion and numerous brooms came tumbling out of the closet.
"She's mad! absolutely mad!" the stallion raved, running across the room and scooping up a collection of bags.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?"
"Thank you for freeing me but I'm not dumb enough to stick around and wait for her to get back!" The stallion said, checking over his bags and placing them on his back. "I don't know what she's was doing down here and frankly I don't care. I recommend you make yourself scarce too, I wouldn't want to be around when she gets back." Before Flurry could try to stop him he was rushing up the stairs and out of the house, leaving Flurry alone with the mirrors, the glowing one growing brighter with each passing second.
It had been less than a week since Evey had been born, less than a week since Sunset had...had died. In that time Sunset had seen no signs of being followed by anyone from Ponyville or Canterlot, her desire for privacy had apparently been respected. The bits she had saved up while working for Twilight at the library had gone towards a sturdy looking wagon to serve as a home for her and Evey, furnishings, food, a few extra articles of clothing to go alongside what she had brought with her from Ponyville... Her old wardrobe was mostly sufficient for helping her keep her privacy, but it had quickly become clear that many of the dresses would require substantial adjustments to accommodate her new proportions, her collection of cloaks helped but she couldn't help but feel they might give ponies the wrong impression of her.
This evening Sunset had finally gotten around to unpacking the last of her belongings, both new and old. She had largely scrimped on any major luxuries but had made a concession for getting a few plush toys for Evey's crib. Thankfully the little unicorn foal hadn't been too much trouble, sure, getting used to changing nappies and feeding her baby had been a lifestyle adjustment, but little Evey was generally quiet as a mouse and had shown no signs of exhibiting magical surges that she had heard troubled many unicorn mothers. She wasn't unprepared, she'd had a lot of spare time to read up on the subject while she had been working at the library, but caring for a child was proving exhausting. Expensive too. As a student to Celestia she'd never needed to worry about money, as a student at CHS she had been getting by on the sizeable stash of money she'd managed to put together by selling all the gems she'd brought with her, and under Twilight's care she'd never really needed to spend her own money. Now was really the first time she had ever had to worry about her own expenses and it quickly become apparent that without any form of income her savings would quickly dwindle away into nothing. She'd manage though, she always did.
Money would be a problem for tomorrow though, this evening she was exhausted from a long day of pulling the wagon and caring for her daughter. Making sure Evey was safe inside her crib, with a clean nappy and a full stomach, Sunset sorted the last of her belongings out of the boxes. A few books, a guitar, some sentimental gifts from the girls at CHS and a small looking glass. As Sunset unpacked the last of the items and began to set it down at her bedside, she screamed and leaped backwards, flinging the object away from her. The mirror fell to the ground but didn't break, instead coming to rest mirrored side up on the floor of the wagon. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest, perhaps it had been some trick of the light, or optical illusion? Cautiously she levitated the mirror back to herself and checked her reflection, the alicorn was still there. With a red coat and leathery wings the reflection in the mirror was unmistakably that of the alicorn from her nightmares, but there were differences too. It's build and height were the same as her own, the same went for the length of its horn, and where the alicorn from her nightmares had always appeared predatory and evil, this one matched her own facial expressions perfectly.
"Here to mock me again?" Sunset snapped at the reflection. To her surprise it mimicked the movements of her face perfectly and offered no words of its own. "Well? Out with it! Why are you here? What do you want?" Once more the image remained the same, a perfect mirror of her on face except for its coloration. "Well say something!" she screamed at the mirror. "Hate me! Scorn me! Tell me I'm awful! Just...just don't look at me like that!" Her grip on the mirror tightened, almost to the point of cracking it, as she stared deep into her own reflection. "You're not me! You're not! You're a monster, I'm...I'm a good pony, a pony who's changed!" Still the mirror remained as it was. "Talk to me or leave me alone, I don't care! Just stop doing that!" Her last scream was accompanied by a juvenile wailing from the crib. "Evey!" Sunset gasped, dropping the mirror and rushing to her daughter's side. "Evey, I wasn't shouting at you! Mommy loves you Evey, she loves you more than anything in the world! Please baby, please be quiet..." she lifted the filly from the crib and began tenderly stroking her mane, gently cooing to her and trying to calm her down, forgetting about the mirror until her daughter was alright again.
"Evey?" Sunset called into the darkness. "Evey, where are you? Mommy can't find you, come out, Evey!" The wagon was overturned in a ditch at the side of the road, blown over in a heavy storm. Sunset had suffered a few bruises but wasn't really any worse for wear, her daughter however was nowhere to be found. "Evey!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, light from her horn illuminating the bushes in her search for her missing foal. "Evey?" something was rustling in the bushes. From the forest emerged black chitinous pony shaped creatures, their faces twisted into sinister scowls and judging smiles, their eyes glowing green and viscous green blood dripping from their bodies.
"Stay back!" Sunset screamed, recoiling in fear. There was something horribly unpleasant about the changelings, they smelt of burnt hair and skin and each one looked half dead and half alive. "Where's my daughter, what have you done with her?" the Changelings laughed in reply, a quivering high pitch laugh that stung at Sunset's ears. "What have you done with her!?" Before Sunset had a chance to fight them, a great beam of light swung down from the moon reducing the changelings to dust, righting the cart and banishing the storm. Sunset blinked in surprise as Princess Luna stood before her, a smile on her face.
"Greetings Sunset Shimmer, I am Princess Luna, I do not believe we have ever been formally introduced." The elder alicorn smiled and offered Sunset a hoof to shake. Sunset nervously took it, offering a slight bow in the process.
"This...this was a nightmare wasn't it?" she asked, looking around her surroundings.
"Indeed," Luna nodded. "Though curiously it has been your first nightmare since your return to Equestria. Considering the ordeal that my sister says you have been through I find it hard to believe you have had no need for my assistance this past year," with a flick of her mane Luna banished the dream around them, transporting both ponies to a beautiful meadow, lit by a setting sun. "Happy ponies do not abandon their friends and family, Sunset, your abrupt departure from departure was quite distressing to both my sister and to Twilight Sparkle. Tell me, Sunset, are you alright?" Luna took a seat upon the grass and gestured for Sunset to do the same.
"I...I don't know. I just wanted some time to myself, time away from everything to sort my life out. I just... have you ever woken up in the morning and realized you don't like the pony you see looking back at you in the mirror?"
"I believe I can relate to that sentiment. You have doubts about your new status as an alicorn don't you?" Sunset nodded.
"Alicorn...Princess... I guess at some point in my life I got used to the idea that the two words meant pretty much the same thing. Then while I was on the other side of the portal... being a princess was an obsession to me," Sunset winced at the memories of what she had done to win her crowns at CHS. "I know it sounds crazy but I guess I'm worried that now I'm an alicorn I might fall back into my old ways."
"That does not sound crazy at all, Sunset. It sounds like the honest fear of a good pony who is worried of hurting others. That is a key difference between good and evil, Sunset, a truly evil creature never expresses such doubts or concerns, nor do they show regret for their actions. Now, Sunset, let me ask you a question. Why share this fear with me?"
"I..." Sunset sighed, why was she sharing it with Luna? "I can't tell Celestia, I can't even speak to her right now! I mean on the one hand- errr hoof, she saved my life, if it weren't for her I wouldn't be here, Evey wouldn't have her mother. On the other, she went right against my wishes! I didn't want to be an alicorn anymore, that dream was over. And I can't tell Twilight! She'd done so much for me, and it feels like all I ever do is cause her more and more trouble. I just don't want to burden her with anymore of my baggage."
"I see," Luna solemnly answered. "Sunset, I am not here in your dreams to drag you back to Canterlot. I am not here to condemn you for your sudden flight from Ponyville. I am here to help ease your troubled mind and grant you peaceful dreams. Now with your permission I shall inform my sister and her student that you and your daughter are safe and well, I know it would ease their minds no end. I can also promise you, Sunset, that when you do decide to return to them, they shall both welcome you wholeheartedly, during your absence though I ask only this in return," Luna's smile hardened slightly, "if you are ever in need of aid then reach out and contact one of us, whether it be here in the world of dreams or out there in Equestria."
"Thank you," Sunset whispered. "You said...you said I hadn't had any nightmares since my return?"
"That is correct."
"No...no it's not. Luna, ever since I got back my dreams have been haunted by...by an alicorn. A monstrous evil alicorn. I've lost sleep, I've had panic attacks... Luna, why haven't you stopped it?" the hurt in her voice was palpable, why hadn't the Princess of the night come to her aid?
"These nightmares, have they persisted in the week since your ascendance?" Luna asked knowingly.
"No...no the nightmares have stopped," other waking symptoms had perhaps persisted but the nightmares themselves hadn't troubled her this past week.
"And when was the first nightmare?"
"In the Crystal Empire. I don't know how much Celestia and Twilight told you about my journey but I spent a week in a world where Equestria and Sombra were at war. The nightmares started there."
"Then they shall trouble you no longer, Sunset," Luna spoke with a sense of finality. "This alicorn you speak of was a symptom of some nefarious curse, likely obtained from one of Sombra's insidious traps. Sombra delighted in torturing the mind's of ponies, showing them their worst nightmares again and again. When you ascended though any trace of physical sickness or magical corruption should have been purged from your body."
"What about mental sickness?" Sunset hazarded, the alicorn had been surprisingly quiet when she saw it in her mirror. Could it really be that it was just a trick of the mind?
"I'm afraid I cannot say. I have been gone for a thousand years and there is much I am not yet caught up on. In my time these 'mental sicknesses' were oft deemed by many as personal faults. My own faults were discarded by many as the childish and petty jealousy of a younger sister. I am afraid that without further research I could not say." Luna eyed the younger alicorn up curiously. "I take it then that you believe your mind to be 'troubled' in some fashion?"
"I don't know. I just... does self-loathing count?" Sunset chuckled slightly at the thought. "I honestly don't know, maybe it's all just the stress getting to me, maybe not. I mean a few minutes speaking to you and so much of it seems so small compared to... well," Sunset nervously avoided mentioning Nightmare Moon, from what she heard the Princess had moved on from the incident, but mentioning it still felt insensitive.
"I am glad to have been of assistance, Sunset Shimmer. If you ever find yourself needing somepony to talk to, then call to me in your dreams and I shall try to make time to come and listen. I wish to help you overcome your troubles, Sunset, I know firsthoof how dangerous it can be to let such fears go untreated."
Sunset looked over the papers on her desk and sighed. Repairs on the cart had really bitten into her savings, schoolbooks had set her back a little too... travel overseas was becoming an increasingly implausible prospect for the two of them. She'd always promised Evey that they'd travel to far off lands together but the furthest they'd really managed so far was Griffonstone and Yakyakistan. They weren't poor, not quite at least, as long as she kept up a disguise Sunset could pass herself off as any of the three tribes opening up a wide variety of different odd jobs wherever they happened to go. At the same time though money was never in an abundance, they managed to scrape by, but that was all. She turned and looked at Evey, the little filly was writing in the diary Pinkie Pie had gotten her, her nose pressed up against the page. Twilight had assured her that she didn't need glasses and that her small size was not a result of a poor diet. Not that Sunset wasn't blameless for her problems, Sunset's reckless use of magic had apparently been the cause of multiple defects for the little filly. She loved her daughter though, and Evey loved her too, which was going to make the next conversation very awkward.
"Evey, could you put your diary away? We need to have a talk." Evey quickly obliged, finishing up what she was writing, popping the diary away and then running across to the table and climbing up onto her chair. "Evey, how do you feel about Cadance and Shining Armor?"
"They're nice, momma. And I lo- ummmm... I really like Flurry and Starburst," love, Sunset knew she had been going to say love. Now was not the time to be opening up those old wounds again though.
"And do you like their home Evey?"
"Uh huh, it isn't as cozy as the wagon but I guess it's nice, Flurry has so much stuff." 'Stuff' that Sunset could never hope to offer her own daughter, not yet at least.
"What about Twilight? Whenever we visit Twilight loves giving you lessons, do you enjoy your time with her?"
"I guess," Evey nervously answered. "Twilight and Spike are great, I prefer my lessons with you though, momma. Oh, or Mrs Cheerilee."
"Cheerilee?"
"Uh huh, the last time I was staying with Twilight she let me go to the school. It was different and there were other foals there too, which was weird, but Mrs Cheerilee was nice."
"Evey, you're a smart little girl and I think you deserve to have a say in what I'm planning for us." Her daughter continued to nervously squirm in her seat, perhaps she already had some inkling of what Sunset had planned? "Evey, we aren't rich, not like Cadance or Twilight, and as a growing young girl you need to learn. I love teaching you, Evey, I really do, but these past couple of months I feel like I've barely had any time to be your mother. Between work, and travel and all the time I need to spend teaching you, it just feels like we have less and less free time together. Evey, how would you like to live with Cadance or Twilight? Permanently. I'd still be around, I'd have a lot more free time to be with you... there would be a few changes but the big one would be that you'd be in school while I'd be at work."
"Did I do bad momma?" Evey whimpered. "I can be a good girl! I don't want you to leave me! I love you and the wagon and traveling! I'll be good momma! I promise!"
"Evey, calm down!" Sunset chuckled. "You did nothing wrong, if you don't want to do that I have another plan. Now, Evey, one of mommy's oldest friends offered her a job."
"Is it a good job?"
"It's... a job that would pay very well. Mommy turned it down though because of personal reasons. Now mommy's friend loves her very much and I think that if I was to talk to her she would probably offer it to me again."
"Do you want the job though?"
Sunset stopped and looked over her daughter, carefully choosing her next words. "It would let us stay together, Evey, not all the time, but more often. If she accepts my offer then we could keep living like this, I'd have more time to spend with you but when I do have to work I'll probably have to drop you off with Cadance or Twilight."
"But I don't mind waiting in the wagon sometimes while you work mommy!"
"This work would be a little different Evey, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving you unattended while I was working."
"I'm not sure I follow you Sunset," Celestia said in confusion. She had been overjoyed to see Sunset visit her again, and was thrilled to have her bring up the subject of being crowned a Princess, but now she was lost.
"I'm willing to be crowned Princess, and I I'm willing to take up some duties on behalf of Equestria, but I don't want my status to be publicly known." Sunset was hoping that Celestia would accept her offer, she knew it was unconventional but was counting on her mentor's desire for her to be a Princess to win out.
"Sunset, how would you carry out the duties of a Princess if nopony was allowed to know you were one?" Celestia began pouring the two of them tea but her attention remained glued to Sunset.
"The Mares In Black. I want to work with them," Sunset winced as Celestia began coughing on her drink.
"Sunset, how do you even know about such an organization?"
"I...I was a bad student, I had little regard for your rules, I looked into all sorts of things you didn't want me to. Can we just say I was an unscrupulous little mare and leave it at that?" She really had been awful back then.
"Very well, but that still doesn't explain why you would want to be involved with such a group. I imagine the work they would offer would often take you away from your daughter." Celestia carefully analyzed her former student for any hint of what she was after.
"Honestly? The money would be good, not going to lie about that. But also it would let me pay back one debt I've never really been able to fix. I think I'd be good at the work, I think it'd make good use of my talents and I think I'd be proud to help keep Equestria safe," she meant every word of it.
"I shall consider it, but only on one condition. Tell me Sunset, what debt is this you are speaking of?"
"Twilight Sparkle," Sunset sighed. "I've never really properly paid her back for everything she's done for me. If the MIB had an alicorn working with them then there'd be all sorts of monsters they'd be able to keep at bay. Twilight and her friends have been doing their work for them for so long now, I'm sure she'd appreciate a break from all the monster fighting. I know it isn't what you had in mind for me when you gave me these," Sunset said lifting her wings slightly, "but it's something I'd like to do, something I'd feel proud of doing."
"I see," Celestia replied, clearly deep in thought. "Very well then, Sunset. If this is truly what you wish, I imagine I might be able to accommodate you. I will get into contact with a few of my colleagues and we shall see what we can do for you."
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5 Years Later
Agent Sweetie Drops was, in theory at least, out of the game. She had retired from her work in the MIB, settled down, gotten a marefriend and a normal job... nowadays she would occasionally serve as a liaison to other agents but for the most part she was out. So it was a matter of significant irritation to her that she was having to play host to a teal pegasus in black shades who was going by the horribly unsubtle pseudonym of Jane Doe.
"What's this about Miss Doe? I'm a busy mare," Sweetie said, grinding her teeth as the agent settled down at her kitchen table.
"Oh just a casual visit, nothing major. We wanted your opinion on a few things before we finalized something with one of the other agents." Agent Doe pulled a manila folder out of her saddlebag and began looking through the contents. "We want your personal opinion on Agent Shimmer."
"Agent Shimmer?" there was a lot Sweetie could say about her, she was a nice enough mare, a valued agent, had a lot of influence with the princess... she had actually visited Sweetie on a regular basis to discuss business while she was in Ponyville. She was polite, dedicated to the job and had a lovely young daughter who Lyra had wound up foalsitting on a few occasions. Sweetie hadn't spoken to the filly much herself, but Lyra apparently adored the kid. "Agent Shimmer is a valuable asset and a trusted member of our organization, is there a problem?" Yes, there was many things Sweetie could say about Sunset, but when somepony was having a character analysis that usually meant they were in trouble.
"You seem to think quite highly of her then, I take it you haven't heard some of the reports on her behavior?"
"No, no, I haven't," whatever came next Sweetie doubted it would be good.
"Agent Shimmer is not well loved by a lot of agents. New recruits find her intimidating and unapproachable, the old guard feel she has jumped the ranks by virtue of being an alicorn. Personal opinions aside though she is also borderline psychotic. She is a loose cannon and the higher ups are worried about her becoming an imminent problem. We need to know how to get her out of the way."
"Out of the way?" Sweetie turned her nose up at the prospect.
"Nothing permanent! We just need her gone, for let's say... three years, while we arrange negotiations with the changelings. We are close to making a breakthrough and we don't want her messing things up. You know her well enough Agent Drops, we are going to send her off on a 'mission' to the far corners of Equestria, all we need is a story that she will want to follow."
"Why? I'm not helping you with this unless you tell me why. Why do you need her out of the way?" Three years would be a long time and wherever they sent her Sweetie doubted they would let her bring Eventide along with her.
"In short? Agent Shimmer is a bigot and a speciesist. She has shown no signs of being willing to accept a peaceful solution to the changeling problem, her dealings with them have... gone beyond an acceptable use of force. Running a few checks we confirmed that she has been hunting changelings since before she joined the MIB, some of us have suspicions that she only joined up so that she had a more legal avenue for fighting them." Agent Doe sighed as she flicked through her folder. "According to Princess Naiad the changelings have no knowledge of who has been systematically hunting down their infiltrators, but they do have a name for her. Celestia's pet monster. Understandably it would be poor form to have any little 'accidents' occurring during the negotiation process. All we need is for Agent Shimmer to be somewhere far away from the changelings for a few years while we make a start on hammering out the details. Nothing nasty, nothing unpleasant, just a little false lead to keep her out of Equestria." It felt dirty and underhanded but Sweetie Drops understood the reasoning behind it. Celestia had been working on building a positive relationship with the changelings for years now, they couldn't have that opportunity ruined by one stubborn mare.
"Her daughter," Sweetie reluctantly replied. "She loves her daughter more than anything in the world. Just make her think that the job will keep her daughter safe and she'll do anything you ask of her. Tell her there's some foreign threat, or rumors of some great monster in far off places, then twist the wording so that she considers how it might be a threat to her daughter's safety. She'll take up the job, doesn't matter how long it is or how far it takes her, she'll do what you ask her to."
"Thank you, Agent Drops," Agent Doe said, putting the folder away. "Don't worry, we should be able to have the details sorted out in three years, it might take a little longer to finalize the entire deal but I assure you this is the right choice."
Walking through the streets of Canterlot Eventide imagined they made for an unusual sight. Princess twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, a dozen royal guards and Eventide herself, dressed in a long black cloak with the amulet around her neck, an inhibitor on her horn and manacles on her legs. Her freedom hadn't been part of the deal and her escort was taking no chances. While they had been willing to grant her the amulet to get her back on her feet it had come with the caveat of her wearing an inhibitor at all times to prevent her casting spells. A few ponies had stopped and stared as they made their way through the streets, quickly ushered on by guards but no doubt curious as to what was going on. Between her earlier actions and her current appearance Eventide imagined that her incarceration would be public knowledge by the end of the day. Not that it mattered.
"I thought we agreed it would be just the three of us," she snapped at Twilight while observing the guard retinue. An equal split of all three tribes.
"Your request was that Celestia stayed away, I'm sorry ,Eventide, but considering your recent actions-"
"Spare me your condescending prattle, Sparkle, the only reason I'm helping you is to make sure Flurry is safe. After that you and I will be settling things between us, once and for all." She barely cared about what Twilight had to say, chances are she would just spout off the same nonsense as before, the same lies and half truths. "We're here anyway, It's all set up in the basement of the old house." How fitting that the very place it had all begun would bear witness to its conclusion.
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The retinue marched in single file down the staircase and into the basement, it was a testament to the size of the room that it was able to accommodate everypony and still have plenty of space to move around.
"Twilight! Starlight! Evey!" Flurry called as they entered the basement. She was thankfully unharmed, the ritual was yet to be completed. "What's going on down here Evey? And why are you wearing the amulet again!? Twilight, why is she wearing the amulet again?" Flurry stormed up to her aunt and, to Eventide's amusement, jabbed an accusatory hoof into her chest. "How could you let her wear it again Twilight? It made her do such awful things the last time she had it on!"
"Flurry," Twilight sighed, "we need you to head back to the castle while we sort things out down here. Eventide has been dabbling in some very unstable and exceedingly dangerous magics, we needed her assistance to stop them, but I promise that as soon as she has fixed this she will be removing the amulet and returning to the hospital." Twilight pushes past her niece and joined Starlight at the center of the room, staring in awe at Eventide's handiwork. "You made all these?"
"Don't sound so surprised Sparkle!" Eventide snapped. "I know I wasn't a magical prodigy like you or Starlight, but I was smart and determined. I wasn't the little idiot that you thought I was!"
"I never thought you were stupid, Evey. I knew you were a bright young filly and I hoped to nurture that intelligence," twilight turned away from the glowing mirror at the center of the room and wound up nose to nos with Flurry. "I thought I told you to get to safety?"
"Safety? What's going on here, Twilight? There's dark magic and multiple alicorn amulets, Evey's in chains and from the sounds of things you want her to do something very dangerous. I'm not leaving until I know she's safe!"
"Flurry please-"
"Leave her," Evey growled. "If she's going to be stubborn don't waste time arguing with her. Just get this damn inhibitor off of my horn so I can close the portal up and call it a day. Shouldn't take more than a minute, it's a lot easier to break things than it is to build them in the first place." Twilight nodded to one of the guards who proceeded to slip the inhibitor off of Evey's horn. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and looked at the mirror, it would likely be ready in an hour at most. "Right then, let's settle this." To the credit of both Twilight and Starlight they both noticed the malice in Eventide's voice and managed to raise their shields in time, everypony else was not so lucky. A great nova of red energy erupted from Evey's horn, knocking all of the guards and Flurry to the ground, unconscious. The energy cascaded harmlessly off of Twilight and Starlight's shields, but that was fine by Eventide, she hadn't been expecting this to be easy. A second blast from her horn shattered the chains of her manacles and freed her legs.
"Eventide, no! Think of all the progress we'd made, think of all the ponies that you're putting in danger, think of-" Starlight pleaded to no avail, Eventide had heard this speech enough times today already that she knew it was nothing more than hollow platitudes intended to throw her off.
"Think of how I finally defeat the great and arrogant Twilight Sparkle? Think of how at the end of this day she will be gone and my mother will have returned?" Evey smirked, it had been all to easy too convince Celestia to keep her distance. She didn't fancy her chances against two alicorns, but she was certain that this time she could take Twilight on by herself.
"Is this really how you want to be remembered, Evey? As a selfish young mare who valued revenge over the safety of Equestria? Evey, you can't beat me, we proved that already. All you're doing here is letting Tirek win!"
"What can I say Sparkle? I'm a fast study. I thought I'd take a leaf out of your own playbook, if I can't defeat you by raw power alone... then I'll beat you with guile!" Beams of red light shot from Eventide's horn in every direction, her opponents' shields held strong but this time they weren't her targets. Each beam struck one of the mirrors scattered about the room and in unison the surface of each rippled like water. "Without me you don't have a snowballs chance in Tartarus of stopping the ritual, Sparkle! So catch me if you can!" Not giving Twilight a chance to stop her, Eventide dove through the closest mirror, disappearing from the room and into another world.
"Starlight! Get everypony to safety, I'm going after her," before the unicorn could answer, Twilight was already across the room and through the portal Evey had fled through.
As Twilight tumbled out of the portal she instantly realized that she was no longer a pony. Her body felt poorly suited to being a quadruped and she could no longer feel her magic. She felt vaguely human shaped but was much shorter and younger than she had been at CHS. She just about had time to register that she was in a forest of some kind before a female figure ran at her with a tree branch. Twilight raised her hands to block her attacker's swing and soon both girls were grappling for control of the weapon. Both girls wore green tunics and stood at the base of a statue of a hooded humanoid figure, the lower surface of the statue serving as the portal back to Equestria.
"How does it feel Twilight?" her opponent snarled with a voice unmistakably Eventide's. "How does it feel to have to fight me without your magic?" As the two of them wrestled across the clearing twilight realized they were standing amidst some kind of ruin, triangular patterns engraved on various surfaces, it would no doubt have been a fascinating place to study were it not for her present predicament. "The great and powerful Princess of books, finally out of her element!" Eventide cackled, clearly taking the upper hand in the duel. With one final pull, Eventide wrenched the branch from Twilight's hands and swung it at her head, the princess barely ducking in time to avoid the blow.
"You don't have to do this, Evey!" Twilight pleaded. "You're better than this, Evey, you still have a chance to change, a chance to do the right thing!" She backed off towards the center of the clearing as Eventide wildly swung her makeshift weapon.
"Do the right thing?" Eventide gave out a little giggle that sent shivers up Twilight's spine. "But I am doing the right thing! I'm defeating the traitor who has been lying to Celestia for years on end! With you out of the picture I can find my father, convince Celestia of your trickery and free my mother! I can still be the hero here, Twilight! All I need is for you to be gone!" Eventide dropped her branch and ran up to a pedestal in the clearing. Twilight hadn't noticed it before but it appeared as though it held some kind of sword, with a weapon like that Eventide could actually pose a serious threat. Twilight quickly began looking for a weapon of her own but was out of luck, the sword seemed to be the only thing at hand. "After all these years, justice shall be dealt!" Eventide grabbed the sword and tried pulling it from its podium, only to find it was well and truly wedged in. She gave a quick curse then darted back towards the portal. Twilight ran to head her off but Eventide reached it first, leaping through with Twilight following just behind.
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Eventide rolled out of the portal and back into the basement, she instantly channeled a spell and fired it into the portal but to her disappointment her blast struck just after Twilight crossed the threshold, the surface of the portal becoming inert behind her.
"Evey! Stop this madness before somepony gets seriously hurt!" A blast of energy shot from the alicorn's horn and over Eventide's shoulder, narrowly grazing her. Apparently she had finally succeeded at getting Twilight mad, that was the first offensive spell her aunt had cast all day.
"Not a chance, Sparkle! This ends with one of us dead or banished!" Eventide lowered her horn and charged at Twilight, the alicorn reflexively raising a shield to block her, Eventide predicted the move though and teleported straight past Twilight and through another portal.
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Following Eventide, Twilight was thankful that in this world she was still an alicorn. Everything else about it though was foreign to her. Great glass towers and neon lights, floating metal objects that whizzed through the air like the cars from the human world. The world appeared far more advanced than the Equestria she knew, that much was obvious, but at the same time she could feel magic flowing through her body in abundance, like and untapped resource ripe for the taking. This time though Eventide was nowhere to be seen, she had apparently abandoned the portal (this time built into the side of a transparent glass box, barely large enough to accommodate a single pony). She quickly surveyed the area for some evidence of where Eventide had gone and quickly heard screams and sirens nearby. Taking flight, she rushed to the scene of the commotion.
Eventide cackled madly as she flew above the chaos. A great pair of leathery wings, composed of pure magic, sprouting from her back. Below her ponies rushed about like ants as she set fire to her surroundings, so far she hadn't caused any real harm. She'd disrupted traffic, set fire to a few empty cars, set the corners of a few buildings on fire, nothing that would cause any immediate harm to the populace. The ponies here might be technologically advanced but clearly they had no experience dealing with magic.
"Eventide! Stop!" Twilight commanded as she flew into sight.
"Make me! Eventide retorted. "I can keep this up all day, Sparkle! Sooner or later you're going to have to actually try and stop me!" As Twilight began suppressing the fire with her magic, Eventide alighted and flew off further into the city, spreading flames wherever she went. The ponies here, all earth ponies Twilight noted, stared in fear and awe at the two 'alicorns', some running for safety, others cowering where they stood. Quickly realizing Eventide could spread chaos faster than she could control it, Twilight gave chase and began firing shot after shot through the air at her opponent.
"Now that's more like it, Sparkle!" Eventide laughed before disappearing from the air in a burst of red magic. Twilight sensed a burst of magical power back at the portal and teleported after Eventide, arriving just in time to see her leaping back through the portal.
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Starlight teleported the last of the unconscious ponies upstairs and returned to the basement just in time to see Eventide flying out of one of the mirrors shooting a blast of energy over her shoulder. Twilight followed her almost instantly, and the two ponies flew across the room straight into another one of the mirrors, gone just as suddenly as they had appeared. Starlight stared at the space where they had been for a few moments before turning her attention to the mirror that the two of them had come through. Where Eventide's magic had struck it the mirror had lost all traces of its former magical power. Starlight carefully placed one hoof upon its surface to confirm her suspicions. Just as surely as her earlier spell had opened all of the portals, her last spell had closed this one.
"Evey, you wouldn't dare...would you?" Starlight muttered to herself, considering the implications.
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Scootaloo was carefully tending the flowerbeds of the memorial garden when she heard the sound behind her. She leaped backwards just in time to avoid being hit by the pair of alicorns that exploded out of the base of Celestia's grave and crashed into the garden. One bore a striking resemblance to Dr Twilight Sparkle, while the other looked a lot like Sunset's daughter.
"Eventide?" She asked, but her words went unheeded as both alicorns began darting around the garden, firing off beams of magic at each other. Scootaloo ducked for cover beneath a park bench, watching in awe as the two ponies fought one another. Eventide had mentioned that there were many other Equestria's out there, judging by how different these two ponies were to her friends she imagined they must be from some unknown world she didn't know of.
"Why. Won't. You. Die!" The Eventide like alicorn screamed, breaking the statue of Celestia off of the grave with her magic and swinging it about like a club at her opponent. The Twilight alicorn fired a beam of magic into it, reducing thee statue into shrapnel to the irritation of Eventide. Her weapon gone, Eventide darted for the base of the grave and disappeared through its surface, Twilight hot on her tail.
Four children looked on in wonder from the door of the room. They had been told that they were allowed to venture any part of the old country house but this room and so had understandably investigated it at the first given opportunity. They had been surprised to find the only object present in the room was an antique wardrobe, but this surprise paled in comparison to what they felt when two women burst through the doors of the wardrobe, their hands about each others throat.
"I'm stronger than you, Sparkle!" the younger of the two women screeched, her hair an unnatural mix of red and blue. "Life on the road made me strong, it made me tough! I may not have your alicorn constitution, but I have a lifetime of experience, exploring the world and fending for myself! What do you have, Sparkle? A lifetime of books and sitting on a throne!"
"I have my friends! And I'll do anything to keep them safe!" the elder woman shouted back, wresting her opponent off of her. The elder of the two had an equally unnatural hair color, a mix of purple and pink.
"Oh, spare me your friendship lessons, Sparkle! They were cute when I was a little filly, but now I can see them for the lies they are!" The younger woman punched the elder in the gut, sending her stumbling backwards in pain. Rather than follow up on the success of her attack though she turned and ran for the wardrobe, disappearing among the old coats and furs inside. Though still reeling from the sucker punch, the other woman was back on her feet and followed her into the depths of the wardrobe.
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In the halls of a great temple the two alicorns fought, Eventide had pulled a metallic cylinder from one of the walls and now wielded the strange object in her magic, an intense beam of red energy extending like a blade from one end. Whenever it came close to Twilight she felt it singe her feathers and hair, the magical beam giving off an unearthly heat.
"Give it up, Sparkle! Time's running out and you still aren't giving it your all! Fight me, Sparkle! Fight me!"
"No, Evey!" Twilight dodged away from the unicorns weapon, relying exclusively on defensive spells and non-lethal blasts of magic. "Killing you solves nothing! If you refuse to close the portal to Tirek's world then all of Equestria will suffer for your actions! I still believe you can be a good pony, Evey, you just need to trust me!"
"Trust you? The last pony who trusted you was banished to the Moon for a thousand years while her name was dragged through the mud! I'd sooner trust Tirek than trust you!" Hurling the weapon at Twilight with wild abandon, Eventide once more made for the portal.
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Twilight and Eventide dueled through the air above Canterlot as a furious battle raged beneath them. Ponies fought in the streets and battlements below them, armed with rapiers and axes, spears and pikes. Cries of 'death to the tyrant' and 'death to the pretender' echoed up into the sky, but Twilight paid them no heed, her attention was fixed exclusively on Eventide, making sure that the instant she tried to flee, she would be ready to follow.
"It's funny," Twilight mused, not expecting Eventide to listen. "This takes me back to something that happened about twenty six years ago."
"Oh?" Eventide answered, apparently not totally disinterested in what she was saying.
"Back then of course I was fighting across time rather than space, but the principle is still the same. Starlight thought that the world had turned its back on her, that she needed to destroy everything and start afresh. But she saw the light, Evey, I showed her that there was a better way, and I'm sure I can show you too!"
"That's the difference between me and Starlight though, isn't it? Starlight was wrong, she was making a bad decision with terrible consequences, when you finally gave up fighting you managed to show her how wrong she was! But I'm different, Sparkle! I'm in the right, I have the moral high ground! When you finally give up I won't roll over and grab defeat out of the jaws of victory!" The two ponies parted in the air, both dodging a blast of energy from a third combatant. Turning to face the new threat they found themselves not longer alone as two more alicorns, one clearly Celestia while the other appeared to be this world's Cadance, flew past them, engaged in a duel of their own. "Well things suddenly got a little crowded for my tastes, Sparkle. Time for a change of scenery!" And once more Eventide was off.
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"How much longer before you concede, Sparkle?" Eventide asked as the two of them emerged into a collection of eclectic city streets. "If you won't fight me properly you're only hurting your cause." Twilight flew after her but was quickly disoriented by the strange nature of the world she was in. High above her where the sky should be, there instead extended a second set of streets and buildings, as though the roof of the world was an upside down city. Curiously this world appeared home to humans and other various creatures that Twilight could barely begin to describe, mostly humanoid but in various shapes and sizes. Despite the seeming abundance of these humanoids both Twilight and Eventide had remained in their natural forms, the natives barely paying any attention to their presence.
"If there's any hope of getting you to see reason then I'll keep on fighting, Evey!"
"What if I cut you a deal? Surrender now and I promise that I will close the portal upon my return, Equestria will be safe from Tirek, Twilight, all you have to do is give up." While Twilight considered her offer, Eventide fired off another beam of magic in Twilight's direction, the alicorn so taken off guard that she barely managed to avoid the shot. "A word of warning, Sparkle!" Eventide cackled as her opponent dodged for cover. "This world's inhabitants are a little ornery, very quick to anger if you know what I mean! I wouldn't stick around any longer than you have to!"
Time and time again Starlight watched as Twilight and Eventide darted from mirror to mirror. With every flight Evey deactivated the mirror they had been fighting in, but even at the rate they were going there was still an abundance of worlds left for her to flee to. Despite Starlight's best efforts she had found no way to deactivate the mirrors with her own magic, or to interrupt the ritual that was slowly empowering the new portal. She had no way to tell just how long the portal had left before the spell was completed, but judging by the intense light it was now emitting she didn't imagine that it would take much longer.
Her attempts at moving the mirror had been in vain, while all of the other mirrors were easy enough to levitate around the room, the one held in the grip of the alicorn amulets was completely immovable. She could perhaps try teleporting it somewhere inhospitable, like a volcano or the bottom of the sea, as soon as the ritual was completed, but that worked on the assumption that a magically empowered Tirek would be vulnerable to mundane hazards. With all of the potential magic he might be holding onto it was quite probable that he would emerge unscathed. There had to be some other way to defeat him, some trick or ruse that would stop him from ever reaching Equestria. Starlight had no idea how long it would take Tirek to invade once the portal was formed, but judging from the urgency the princesses had been speaking with, she probably wouldn't have long. As Twilight and Eventide made another pass through the room, a thought popped into her head. What if she could kill two birds with one stone?
The two of them emerged into a barren wasteland, volcanic seams in the ground spewing magma into the air at regular intervals. The sky above was heavy with clouds of ash, completely blocking out the sun. The world was illuminated only by the red hot veins that crisscrossed its surface.
"I never did work out what happened here, you know," Eventide mused as she flew away from the monolith the portal had formed on. "Oh, there were signs of civilization, clearly pony culture, but I never could find what happened to the inhabitants."
"Evey, please look around you! If you allow Tirek to invade then a fate like this is what lies in store for Equestria!" Eventide made a great show of rubbing one hoof against her chin, as if in deep thought.
"There're no bodies though, Sparkle. That's the curious thing about this world, the whole place seems dead but there aren't any dead bodies. I looked around and I kept thinking I'd stumble upon some sort of mass grave, some scene of battle or some heroic last stand. But no, there's nothing here, just one great dead wasteland." Twilight tried to follow Eventide but her niece teleported back to the monolith. This time though, instead of running straight through it she erected an orb of magic around it, cutting herself off from Twilight. "I think you'll like it here Sparkle, one great big mystery waiting to be solved!"
"Evey, what are you doing?" Twilight asked in panic as she landed at the edge of Evey's barrier. She began starting to tear it down with her own spells, but it was clear that Evey was putting her all into maintaining it.
"I'm not a monster, Sparkle, I don't kill ponies. I'm simply granting you the same courtesy that you granted my mother. Actually, I'm being a lot more lenient than you were. Why when the portal naturally reopens in twenty odd moons you'll be able to come right home! Of course I can't remember the exact date this one's due to open next, so I'm afraid you'll have to check it every day," she flashed Twilight a wicked smile, "try not to stray too far."
"You don't have to do this, Evey!" Twilight yelled, slamming her hooves against the barrier.
"You're right, Sparkle, I don't have to do this." She leaned right up to the edge of the shield and gave Twilight one last smile. "But I want to," ignoring any further protestations from the princess, Eventide turned round and sauntered through the portal back to Equestria.
Alone in the basement, with Twilight Sparkle safely trapped behind her barrier for at least a few minutes longer, Eventide let out a great sigh of relief. She'd won, Twilight was defeated, not by force or overwhelming power, but by a simple act of trickery, just as she had once tricked Trixie. Once the portal was closed, Twilight would be out of her hair for good, her vengeance would be complete and she could finally get on to the important part of her work; reuniting her family.
"Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle, goodbye forever," mustering her magic Eventide took great pleasure in casting the portal closing spell. She would savor this moment, record it to her memory forever, this was the moment that Eventide Shimmer won. A bolt of red energy leaped from her horn towards the portal, sealing Twilight's doom once and for all. As it left her horn though her eyes widened in terror, an aura of turquoise magic taking hold of the mirror and yanking it abruptly to the side. Her terror grew into fully fledged horror as she realized that with the mirror gone the path of her magic now intersected with something else, the mirror at the center of the room. Unable to stop her spell or even change its course she could only stand and watch as her magic collided with her incomplete masterpiece, the magic surging across its surface and down into the amulets powering the spell. With an ear splitting crack, the surface of the mirror exploded into useless shards of glass, the scroll and hair samples burst into flames and the amulets dropped to the ground, no longer supplying power to the spell.
"No!" Eventide screamed at the top of her lungs. "How? Who? Why?" She sprinted over to the ruins of her work, frantically trying to piece the shards of broken mirror back together in their frame, taking no notice of the cuts she was sustaining to her hooves in the process.
"It's over, Eventide," Starlight sighed in relief as she emerged from the shadows, carefully placing the mirror Twilight was still inside of, facing away from Eventide in case she tried to seal it again. "For the sake of everyone, you should take off the amulet and get back to the hospital, I want to help you, Eventide, but you're going to need to work with me." At the base of the destroyed mirror, Eventide continued fumbling with the pieces of broken mirror in her hooves. "Eventide?" Starlight cautiously asked, uncertain if the unicorn had heard her. "Evey?"
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It had taken a little effort but Twilight had managed to break down Eventide's barrier. As she stepped through the portal she was surprised to find it facing away from the center of the room. With no immediate sign of Eventide she carefully crept round the mirror, not wanting to fall victim to a surprise attack. As she turned the corner though it wasn't Eventide that she saw, but Starlight Glimmer.
"Starlight!" Twilight called in surprise. Suddenly realizing that the room was now being illuminated by a ball of light in the air as opposed to the ominous red glow of the ritual. "What happened? Where's Evey?"
"It's over," Starlight sighed with palpable sorrow, "the mirror's destroyed and with it gone I imagine Tirek won't have any way of reaching us. As for Eventide..." Starlight pointed one hoof at the center of the room. Amidst the ruined remains of the mirror Eventide sat on her haunches, rocking slowly back and forth, constantly muttering under her breath. The amulet was still tightly clasped around her neck, but most of the red had faded from her eyes and the wings on her back had shriveled away into nothingness.
"Is she-"
"She seems fine physically," Starlight explained. "She didn't suffer any magical backlash from destroying the mirror, but..." she turned and regretfully looked at the catatonic mare. "She's been out of it ever since. I've tried talking to her, I've tried reasoning with her... it's like she's not even there. She's broken, Twilight, she's broken and I have no idea how to go about fixing her."
"Don't worry, Starlight, we'll make sure she gets all the help she needs." Twilight turned and began surveying the remaining mirrors that were still active. "Who knows? Perhaps if we are lucky one of these leads to CHS, maybe we could get Pinkie to help?" Twilight couldn't help but feel sorry for Eventide, after everything she'd done, Twilight had every reason to hate her, but looking at her rocking back and forth like a scared child, Twilight couldn't help but reminded of how Sunset had first been when she had returned to Equestria twenty six years ago.
"How did it happen, Twilight? The incident with Sunset I mean. How did it really happen?" Starlight asked as the two of them stared at Eventide as she curled up on the floor.
"Exactly as we told her it did, Starlight, exactly as we told her."
Twenty years. It had been twenty years since Sunset returned to Equestria and she was still haunted by memories of the changelings. She had scoured the Badlands, spending much of her free time looking for the elusive hive, but still she hadn't found it. Today she had finally decided to bring another pony into her confidence, somepony who might know where the changelings were hiding. As Agent Sweetie Drops descended into the depths of Sunset's cellar, she considered that perhaps she should have covered the mirror apparatus up. The exact function of it was a state secret not even known to the MIB, but that shouldn't be obvious through simple observation. The mirror was one of her most prized possessions, a gateway to her other home, available whenever she wanted to use it. Twilight had gifted it to her as a housewarming gift, but in her heart Sunset knew she had been given it to try and smooth things over between the two alicorns.
"Nice place you've got here, Agent Shimmer," Sweetie Drops deadpanned, "care to fill me in on why I'm here instead of preparing for the celebrations in Ponyville?"
"Celebrations? You know what? Doesn't matter." Sunset sat down and collected her thoughts. "Agent Drops, ever since the incident with my daughter's foalnapping-"
"She wasn't foalnapped Sunset," Sweetie sighed, "she ran away from home."
"Sure, whatever. Ever since that I've found it hard to trust most of the other agents. Most of them, but not you. You're a good friend, Sweetie Drops. Here's the deal, I think the MIB are trying to cover up the changelings and I need your help to find them. It's been twenty something years since the wedding and still nopony has found them!"
"Sunset, has it ever occurred to you that maybe they might be using illusions to hide themselves? It's kind of their specialty. They're experts at it, Sunset, and the Badlands are a big place. Nopony knows where to start looking and nopony knows how big the hive would be. There's no conspiracy, Sunset, the MIB simply doesn't know where the hive is, there's no conspiracy here, Sunset."
"Illusions...of course... Nopony would ever find them if they hid behind illusions, not unless they already knew where they should be looking... You've been a great help, Sweetie Drops, a great help."
"Great, now if you'll excuse me I need to be back in Ponyville to help set up for tonight." Sunset paid no attention as Sweetie Drops departed, she was already focusing on her memories, thinking back to the bad times. It hurt to remember, but she needed to do it. The fire, the screams, popping sounds and...and laughter. It sent shivers down her spine. But then there was what came next. A seemingly blank expanse of land, unusually empty actually, a few mountains nearby, one of them vaguely memorable. She thought back on her crawl to the campsite and the journey north to the edge of the Badlands in the company of the nightmare guards. She could probably make her way back there.
Sunset made her way out of the basement and back into the main house, as fond as she was of the mirror she found it hard to spend too much time in its presence, her reflection unnerved her. She had a proper lead now though, her first one in years, and there was no pressing urgency after all, the changelings weren't going to disappear overnight. She settled down on a sofa and sorted through her days mail, preparing to relax for the evening. She had dozens of pamphlets and fliers that had piled up on her doormat over the past week or so, a hoofful of letters in response to her ongoing inquiry into how her daughter was doing... that just left five other letters. The first was a postcard from Evey, confirming the date she should be getting back to Canterlot. The second was a letter from Luna, inquiring about Sunset's recent nightmares, the third a coded message from the MIB and the fourth was an invitation to meet up with Twilight and her friends.
That just left the curious fifth letter, it had originally been on the top of the stack as it had only been delivered that morning. Slicing the top of the envelope open with her magic, Sunset levitated the letter out and began to read.
Dear Princess Sunset Shimmer,
I know we haven't really spoken much except for when we have met at Twilight's little get-togethers, but there's a matter regarding your daughter that I need to speak to you about. I've met little Evey a few times over the years to discuss some personal matters that she didn't feel comfortable speaking to Twilight or you about. I don't want to breach the trust she has shared with me, but at the same time I'm worried for her safety. According to the papers her last few visits have been to the Dragonlands and I'm worried she is going to wind up getting herself hurt. Most dragons aren't as nice as Spike and even though I'm sure she can look after herself, I think you have a right to know considering you're her mother.
I won't say any more on that subject as I feel it is better discussed face to face.
I'd also like to remind you that you are always welcome to visit us in Ponyville. I know Twilight loves it whenever you visit and I'm sure the rest of the girls feel the same way. If you do visit then please bring Evey with you, I know she isn't getting along very well with Twilight and Applejack but I'm sure that given a chance they can reach a reconciliation.
I got your current address off of Twilight because nopony else seems to have it. Please don't blame her for giving it to me, I was quite assertive in requesting it, and, I still feel a little bad that I might have raised my voice when speaking with her.
Hoping to see you soon,
Fluttershy
Fluttershy. Sunset hadn't been expecting a letter from her. Well whatever she wanted to talk about, Sunset could probably spare her some time. Fluttershy had always been a nice and thoughtful girl, if she had some concerns about Evey then it would probably be a good idea for Sunset to hear her out. With an hour or so of dusk left, Sunset penned a few responses to her letters and threw on a cloak. She stepped out of the door of her house and saw-
Changelings. Changelings everywhere! She slammed the door to the house shut and ran to the window. How did they find out so fast? This couldn't be a simple coincidence! The same day she found out that the hive was probably masked by illusions they perpetrated a mass attack on Canterlot. What if Sweetie Drops was working with them? Sunset peeked through the window to double check what she had seen. Sure enough the changelings were walking about the streets of Canterlot, not even bothering to use proper disguises. They instead took on comically monstrous forms, transforming themselves into vamponies, zombies and other strange creatures. One of them even had the gall to crudely disguise itself as Princess Celestia, the illusion was unconvincing though, the height was all wrong for starters. She couldn't stay here, that much was certain. If Agent Drops was working with the changelings then this would be one of the first places they would attack. She ran into her basement and gathered up a few items of importance (her photo albums, Twilight's journal and the mirror) and teleported them to the safety of her wagon in Whitetail Woods. Then, mustering her magic, she set fire to the room. The flames curled across the walls and the floor, enveloping everything they touched. Whatever the changelings hoped to gain from attacking her home they would be leaving empty hooved. Satisfied that the flames had caught she cast a second spell, teleporting her to the castle.
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"Luna!" Sunset screamed as she ran into the alicorn's chambers. "Luna, it's an emergency, the changelings are attacking Canterlot again! They're all over the streets and the guards aren't even trying to stop them! It's not too late though, I think I know where we can find their hive so if we act now we might be able to make a counterattack while they-"
"Sunset." Luna said with authority, cutting the other alicorn off from her panicked ranting. "Sunset, it is Nightmare Night. Whatever you saw was probably just somepony in fancy dress. Are you quite alright? Has something else set you off today?" Luna observed Sunset with concern, she had long worried for her health, try as she might to help her overcome her past, Sunset still continued to have horrible nightmares on a regular basis.
"Nightmare Night? No, Luna, that was last year, this is a serious problem that we need to-"
"Sunset, it is an annual holiday. Those do tend to happen every year. Now how about you sit down and speak with me, it seems you are quite distressed." Luna had been planning to make a public appearance tonight but this clearly took priority. Sunset was clearly not feeling like herself. Reluctantly the younger alicorn took a seat on the floor cushions, her head nervously twitching back and forth.
"The changelings, Luna, they could strike at any time! I think I know where they are now though, so I was thinking me, you, Twilight and Cadance might be able to work together and defeat them once and for all. Just like with Tirek or Sombra or any other villain." She continued to nervously fidget, ill at ease despite how familiar the two of them had become with one another over the years.
"Sunset, the changelings aren't going to attack." Sunset stared at Luna in disbelief but didn't interrupt. "Over the past decade or so we have actually been working to improve relations with them. Not all changelings are evil, Sunset, it was Queen Chrysalis who orchestrated the attack on Canterlot. It is true that their current Queen has no great love for ponyfolk but we have been working with her daughter to solve that problem. Princess Naiad believes that with our assistance she could carry out a successful coup, deposing her mother without any need for violence. Under her leadership the changelings could emerge from the shadows and begin to integrate themselves into Equestrian society as proper members. Do you understand, Sunset?" At present the plan had only been known by the two royal sisters and a few select members of the royal guard and MIB, but if everything went according to plan soon everypony would know.
"I...I...understand," Sunset replied.
"Good, now how about the two of us-"
"I understand that you're betraying us to help them!" Luna was taken completely off guard by the blast of magic that erupted from Sunset's horn, it hit her at full force sending her flying through the wall of her chamber and out of the castle, crashing into the streets of Canterlot below. "How could you, Luna? How could you betray us all and side with them?" A furious looking Sunset landed in the street beside her, narrowing her eyes at the princess.
"Sunset, think through this rationally, you are not thinking straight and you are acting rashly." A second blast from Sunset's horn came flying towards her, but this time she was ready and blocked the shot. As she did so though she felt a surge of pain run down her side, apparently she had broken some ribs during Sunset's initial attack. Around them ponies watched in horror as the two alicorns fought and Luna suddenly realized that Sunset was no longer in disguise. Her alicorn status would soon become public knowledge and the first thing the populace would know of it would be her attacking royalty.
"When did they get to you? Who else have they taken? How..." Sunset turned and saw the crowds gathering around them, most dressed in Nightmare Night outfits. A look of fear crossed her face and Luna knew what was about to happen. The next blast from Sunset's horn wasn't aimed at Luna, but at the crowd. Mustering her energy, Luna leaped through the air and interposed herself between Sunset and her target, absorbing the worst of the shot with her shield and the rest with her body. "Too many...there're too many," Sunset muttered before disappearing in a flash of light.
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Rematerializing in the Crystal Palace, Sunset stormed through the halls. Guards approached her demanding that she halt, but she simply pushed them out of the way with her magic. She didn't have time for this, Equestria was in grave danger, betrayed by those who were meant to be protecting it. How far did the conspiracy go? Who else was involved? Was that really Luna she had fought with or was it an imposter? There were too many questions and not enough answers.
Turning the last corner and levitating the remaining guards out of her way she finally came to the artifact chamber and blasted the door off of its hinges. If she was going to have to fight the changelings on her own then she would need a weapon, thankfully she had the perfect tool for the job in mind. Raising a magical barrier over the door to prevent the amassed guards who were now following her through the castle from interfering, Sunset began to sort through the contents of the room. There was a lot of junk but she quickly found what she had been looking for, the crown from the other world, the one that held the Elements of Harmony. Placing it firmly upon her head she realized she had one last place to go before she headed to the Badlands.
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Fluttershy was just making the last finishing touches to her house as she settled in for another Nightmare Night when a flash of light filled her room. She was about to run and hide beneath her bed, until she realized who it was.
"Sunset?" Fluttershy asked, as she tried to hide her earlier terror.
"My daughter," Sunset muttered, her voice barely audible, "I need you to keep her safe when she gets back to Equestria, things are dangerous right now, your letter seemed to suggest the two of you are friends." Something appeared incredibly wrong with Sunset. Fluttershy had long known that the mare had a nervous disposition but her current state went far above that. She wasn't in her normal disguise and didn't appear dressed up for the holiday, instead wearing an unusual crown upon her head.
"My letter? Oh yes, I needed to talk to you about something very personal to do with...dragons. I know we don't know each other very well but-"
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked, twisting her head to the side. "We know each other great, you're one of my best friends, Fluttershy. One of my first friends."
Fluttershy stared at her in confusion before realizing what Sunset meant. "Oh, you mean the other Fluttershy." It was easy to forget that Sunset was good friends with the human versions of Fluttershy and her friends.
"Other Fluttershy?" Sunset blinked a few times then her expression hardened. "Fluttershy, what instrument do I play?"
"You play music?" Fluttershy hadn't pegged Sunset for a musician.
"What's my favorite food?" Fluttershy nervously backed away as Sunset advanced on her. There was a wild look in her eyes that she found unnerving. "My favorite color? What was my favorite class at CHS?"
"I don't-" a blast of magic cut Fluttershy off and sent her flying into the wall of her house with a sickening crack. Never before in her life had she felt so much pain. The world was spinning around her but she could just about make out her wing on the side where Sunset had struck her. It was covered in blood, most of the feathers were gone and it seemed to bend at angles that she was certain it shouldn't. She reflexively tried to move it but that only made the pain worse.
"If you were really Fluttershy then you'd know the answers to any of those questions! But you're not! You're just another changeling!" Fluttershy lay where she had fallen, whimpering in pain and fear as Sunset advanced on her. She could see Sunset channeling another shot, one that would no doubt kill her, and she was powerless to protect herself. The spell exploded out of Sunset's horn in a burst of confetti. Both mares stared in disbelief at what had happened as the confetti swirled together taking on the form of Discord himself.
"Nopony hurts Fluttershy," the Draconequus growled, staring down at Sunset. "Now then, Princess, I don't believe we've ever formally been introduced but I am Discord, Lord of Chaos, and nopony harms my friends." Fluttershy had never seen Discord so mad before, but true to his word he wasn't harming anypony, he was reformed, and good ponies asked questions first and fought second.
"Never formally been introduced?" Sunset laughed maniacally, to the surprise of both Fluttershy and Discord. "How can you not remember me? You mocked me! Taunted me! Acted like all of my suffering was one big joke!"
"Hmmmmm, no. I do that to a lot of ponies but I'm afraid I don't remember you," Discord mockingly answered. "I know you're not as rare as you used to be but I'd like to think I'd remember all of the alicorns I've met.
"I wasn't an alicorn back then!" Sunset screamed in rage.
"Oh, I remember you!" Discord smiled snapping his claws. "You were the mopey little apprentice that the Princess had! The one who kept coming down to the palace gardens and complaining about how awful her wonderful pampered lifestyle was. I'd have joined in with the conversation but, you know, I was a statue at the time."
"No! No you'd remember me! I was down on my luck, you made me an offer...."
"I make a lot of ponies offers, I generally keep them too."
"You told me I was pregnant!"
"Still not ringing any bells."
"I made you a promise before you left!" Something changed in Sunset's expression, her rage twisting into a smile.
"Remind me of the details," Discord absentmindedly asked as he began bandaging up Fluttershy's wing with his magic, scarcely paying any attention to the alicorn.
"With pleasure," the crown perched upon Sunset's head lit up and a multicolored beam of light shot forth. Discord casually snapped his claws together to dismiss the magic but to his surprise nothing happened. The beam continued towards him and he suddenly realized where he had seen this magic before.
"Oh bother," he muttered as the magic hit him. When the light cleared Discord was standing exactly where he had been before, except now his entire body was white and he was frozen in place, petrified. Sunset turned away from his frozen body and blasted a hole in the door of the cottage, turning to face the setting sun with a smile upon her face.
"I'm an expert on your kind, changeling, I've studied you in great detail. I know for example that you are primarily nocturnal, preferring the dark to the light. I know that excessive heat makes you slow and lethargic, and I know that you burn just as easily as everything else in the world." Sunset mustered her magic and began channeling a spell at the sun. Fluttershy watched in awe as it seemed to freeze in place in the sky, embraced by an ominous black nimbus. Despite the dark ring that now surrounded it, the sunlight seemed to grow in intensity, its light increasing and the evening becoming unbearably hot. "The dusk shall not end tonight, changeling! Not until your Queen has been defeated and Equestria is safe again!" With a flash Sunset was gone, leaving Fluttershy alone and injured, with the statue of her friend.
... Evey was a good pony. Good ponies didn't do bad things... they didn't hurt each other or call each other bad names. Good ponies loved their families and they had mommies and daddies and grandparents and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and they were very happy...
Evey was not happy...did that make her a bad pony?
...
...
The other ponies kept talking from time to time. But Evey drowned most of the words out. She didn't care what they were saying. One of them had tried cleaning all of the red off of her hooves and one of them had thrown a blanket over her back to keep her warm. They'd both said things to her, but she didn't listen to what it was. One of them had pulled at the thing wrapped around her neck. It didn't come off...
...
Evey loved her mommy. Her mommy was the best mommy in the whole world and when she grew up she wanted to be just like her! Just like her...
"Evey, no!"
"I thought we'd cleaned up all the glass?"
"Evidently we missed a piece... Just keep an eye on her okay? If she tries putting anything near her eyes again try and restrain her, she's been through enough already, we can't let her maim herself."
Just like mommy...
...
...
The other ponies had names. There was a third one now and its face was wet. It had words with the other two. Loud words. Angry words. Evey didn't like angry words, angry words were what the bad ponies all used to get Evey and her mommy to leave.
"Evey? Wake up, Evey, come on this isn't funny!" the third pony was upset about something. "Evey, you remember this right? Sunshine Sunshine..." she was too loud, Evey just tuned her out for a little bit as the third pony danced about.
"Evey, I know Twilight and your mom never wanted anypony else to know, but what if we told my mom and dad? It might be weird at first, but then they could be your family. Twilight could be your aunt, and Night Light and Velvet could be your grandparents... We could be one big happy family, doesn't that sound great? No? What about Starlight? You love Starlight right? Maybe she could adopt you, and then she and Sunburst could finally get married, you could be the bridesmaid, he'd be your dad just like you always wanted when you were a filly... Please, Evey, just say something... s-s-s-stop playing silly games!"
Evey fell over sideways as the pony's leg slapped her across the face. She didn't bother getting back up, what was the point?
...
...
Nine hundred and ninety four years...
She'd be dead in nine hundred and ninety four years...
Ponies didn't live that long...
Evey was a good pony, so she wouldn't live that long...
Twilight Sparkle was rushed off of her hooves dealing with the chaos spreading through Ponyville. The Nightmare Night festivities had been interrupted before they had properly begun and she was having a hard time making heads or tails of what had happened. From the strange solar event that was currently occurring she assumed something had happened to one of the Sisters at Canterlot, but the urgent message she had sent via Spike had yet to receive a reply. She had briefly heard someone mention something about Rainbow Dash taking Fluttershy to hospital and something else about Discord. The Draconequus was meant to be reformed though, and in the past twenty odd years he had shown no signs of returning to his old ways. As princess though, it was Twilight's duty to remain calm, she needed to set a good example to the confused and troubled ponies around her.
A blinding flash of light signaled the arrival of Celestia in Ponyville, and the townsponies bowed in respect. Normally Celestia would make a habit of telling them to stand, that they didn't need such formalities with her, today was different though.
"Twilight Sparkle, round up your friends quickly, I believe we might need them if we are to stop..." Celestia paused briefly, suddenly aware of the fact that she was surrounded by a great many ponies, all of whom were in earshot, "...the Blazing Dusk. She is powerful, but I believe she can be saved and prevented from inflicting any more damage than she already has."
"Blazing Dusk?" Twilight had never heard of that villain before, she'd made a habit of looking up all of Celestia's old enemies after her repeated Run-ins with them but the name Blazing Dusk was new to her, still, it was oddly fitting considering the heat the Sun was putting out.
"It is complicated, Twilight Sparkle, perhaps we might be better off discussing it in private?" Taking the hint Twilight nodded.
----------------------------
It took a little while to round her friends up and get them to the throne room, mostly because she had trouble finding Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow tried to outright prevent the other pegasus leaving the hospital, but Flutterhsy was insistent that she see Twilight. It was still shocking though when she entered the throne room with her wing bandaged up and in a sling.
"Fluttershy! What in Equestria has happened to you?" Rarity gasped, rushing over to her side. With Fluttershy present that made all six former Element Bearers, Spike and Princess Celestia. Content that everyone who needed to be there, was, Twilight cleared her throat.
"I'm assuming, Celestia, that what you want to talk to us about has something to do with what happened to Fluttershy?" the pegasus slowly took a seat as she was fussed over by her friends.
"Indeed, Twilight Sparkle. It is, with great regret, that I must inform you all that Princess Sunset Shimmer has..." Celestia stopped, uncertain what to say next. "I cannot even find the words," she said with a hollow chuckle. "Such phrases as 'fallen to darkness' seem in poor taste. Sunset has attacked my sister, civilians and your friends, she has frozen the Sun in the sky and refuses to let it move, she has somehow taken the Elements of Harmony to use as her own...but I do not want you to think of her as a villain, not like Tirek or Sombra. From what my sister has told me, Sunset is not in a right state of mind."
"Sunset did this!?" Rainbow Dash yelled, pointing at Fluttershy's wing.
"Regrettably, yes..." the whole table devolved into a hubbub, mostly of Twilight's friends asking Fluttershy what had happened and if she was alright. Slowly and nervously at first, Fluttershy confirmed, filling them in on the details of what had happened at her house.
"So, she thinks that everypony is a changeling?" Pinkie finally asked when the story was complete.
"Not quite, but in essence, yes. Even as we speak she is probably searching for their hive to try and destroy them, or at least I hope that is the case," the assembled gasped in shock at the callous words. "Do not think ill of me my little ponies, I do not wish ill upon the hive, but my understanding is that it is a fortified and well hidden location. It is preferable that she be spending time trying to find it than simply taking her rage out on defenseless citizens whose only crime was to be enjoying Nightmare Night."
"She already has. Were it not for my sister, she would likely have killed a family, and though unintentional she has already put six ponies into hospital, foals among them. We found her home on fire earlier this evening, it was quickly put out but not before the flames had spread onto some of the neighboring buildings. Nopony died but..." Celestia turned her head away from the others and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Enough of that though, if we are to save the changelings and perhaps rescue Sunset from whatever madness has taken hold of her mind we must act quickly. Her hold on the Sun is powerful, but she lacks my experience, I have been gently tugging at it since she first locked it in place, not enough to break her hold but enough that her magical signature should be easy enough for you to track, Twilight Sparkle. I shall take care of trouble here in Ponyville and Canterlot, you and your friends should make haste to the Badlands to try and stop her."
"How will we catch up with her though? How will we stop her? What if we're too late? I have so many questions!"
"Magic, Twilight, and friendship. I have faith in you, Twilight Sparkle. I know you can save Sunset from herself." With a blinding flash, much like the one that heralded Celestia's arrival, Twilight and her friends found themselves no longer in the throne room, instead standing in the barren wasteland that was the Badlands.
"Well, ah guess there's no prizes for guessin where Sunset is," Applejack muttered, pointing at great plumes of smoke rising from the near distance, a small shining object soaring through the sky above the smoke like a miniature Sun.
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Finding the hive was easy when she knew its secret. Illusions! How had she never considered that before? She must have walked past it a dozen times in her search of the Badlands without realizing it was there. This time was different though, this time the changelings couldn't hide. After she had dispelled the illusion they had actually attempted to fight back, it was laughable really. The little insects flying up to meet her in the air, only to be swatted out of the sky by her magic. They were slow in the intense heat she had brought to the Badlands, while she was powerful, fueled by the strength of the Sun itself. A few of them had gotten close to her, and some had attempted magic of their own, but ultimately none had so far posed her any threat.
With their immediate defense defeated she imagined they were rallying their forces inside, perhaps hoping to fight her in close quarters rather than risking being cut down in the open. She was prepared for such a plan though. Rather than oblige them and fall into their trap she simply glided overhead and began blasting great beams of fire into the heart of the hive, destroying walls and setting chuncks of the interior ablaze. Far below her she saw little black shapes come running from the wreckage, flames clinging to their bodies. Like ants beneath a magnifying glass. Eventually their movements stopped, but not before the flames had died out. Blast after blast bombarded the hive and still no second wave of defense was forthcoming. Perhaps they had already been broken? Perhaps she had won? There was a protrusion at the top of the hive that appeared grander and more ornate than the rest of the structure, a throne room perhaps? Another blast of magic shattered the roof, cracking the room open and allowing Sunset to land amidst its now ruined splendor.
"Greetings, my little pony." She had been right in thinking that it was a throne room, though the style was unfamiliar it was unmistakable in its purpose. A single throne sat at the far end of the room, a full length mirror standing directly behind it. Atop the throne sat Princess Celestia herself, smiling kindly at Sunset despite the ruin that surrounded her and the small piles of green goop that were pooling beneath the fallen masonry. "Come, sit, I am so proud of what-" before Celestia could finish, Sunset blasted her off of the throne with a gout of magical flame, sending her flying backwards into the mirror. She screamed in pain and green fire rolled across her body, revealing her for the changeling she really was. "Well it was worth a shot," she chuckled, slowly getting back onto her hooves. She was taller than the others, her build naturally like that of Celestia, her face feminine and a crown perched atop her head.
"Chrysalis, I presume?" Sunset asked, sending a wave of fire through the doors to the throne room, cutting off the Queen's approaching reinforcements.
"In the flesh," she laughed. "I know who you are of course, if not by name then certainly by reputation. Celestia's attack dog, her pet monster." The changeling queen sneered down at her, trying to maintain a vague sense of regality.
"I'm not the monster here, Chrysalis, you are." Sunset paced the room, keeping an eye out for any further enemies and wondering why Chrysalis made no attempt to defend herself.
"Ha!" she laughed again, cold and malicious. "Have you not looked in the mirror recently, my dear?"
"Constantly," Sunset's answer seemed to throw the queen off guard. "Hasn't changed much in the past twenty years."
"Do you like what you see?" Chrysalis asked as Sunset briefly looked at herself in the mirror.
"No, but that's fine. It's all in my head, Chrysalis, I'm not really a monster, you are." She turned and blasted Chrysalis in the chest, knocking her to the ground, bleeding. "You could at least try to fight."
"Why bother?" she cackled. "I'm starving, my children are starving. We have no fight left in us. I shall not give you the satisfaction of killing me in a fight, nor shall I beg for mercy. If Celestia has sent you to kill me, then do it! But it shall be done in cold blood, like the murder it is!"
"They do say that revenge is a dish best served cold," Sunset mused, resting one hoof on Chrysalis' neck and experimentally pressing down.
"And the ponies call us evil?" she hissed, her words almost choking in her throat.
"It's not evil to kill you, Chrysalis. When you are gone the world will be an objectively better place, even your daughter agrees with that."
"My-" for the first time since Sunset had entered Chrysalis sounded afraid.
"Don't worry, once I'm done with you I'll be sure to go look for her. From the sound of things she is just as treacherous and vile as you. I'll be sure not to leave the hive until I've found the other big changeling and given her the same treatment."
"No...you...can't," Chrysalis gasped for breath as the pressure on her neck increased.
"I thought you said you wouldn't plead?" Sunset smirked, looking down at the monster trapped beneath her hoof.
"Not...for my own...life...but for hers," the queen wheezed out, barely able to breathe. A flash of purple filled the room causing Sunset to look up. Out of nowhere Twilight, Spike and the other Element Bearers... she casually adjusted her crown... former Element Bearers had appeared.
"Sunset! Stop this at once, you're not a monster, you don't have to do this!" Twilight stared at her with fear in her eyes. She didn't need to be afraid though, Sunset had already defeated the monsters, Equestria was safe again. "Let Chrysalis go, and talk to us, Sunset! You need help, I didn't want to admit it, I wanted to think you were okay, that nothing was wrong, but you haven't been well for a long time Sunset! You need help, and this isn't the way to get it. Let her go, Sunset." Sunset looked between Twilight and Chrysalis, Chrysalis and Twilight, slowly back and forth.
"Kay," with a sickening crunch Sunset twisted her hoof sharply to the side, then stepped off of the body, casually wiping goop off of her hoof on the floor of the throne room. Twilight and her friends recoiled, Applejack glaring at her, Rarity turning green in the face, Fluttershy hiding her eyes beneath her one good wing... Sunset smiled.
"If you try to hurt any of my friends again I'll..."
"Don't worry, Twi, I'm not going to harm anypony, I'm not a monster." Sunset spread her wings and took to the sky, hovering in the air above the throne room. "I'm the hero here, Twilight! Granted, I've had to jump through a lot of hoops to find this place... but I've finally done it! I've defeated the last great threat to Equestria! You should all be celebrating!" she laughed...it wasn't a laugh she'd used for a very long time... it felt... nostalgic.
"Fine, Sunset. You've won. Now you can lower the Sun and take off the crown." Twilight and her friends huddled together beneath Sunset, it was almost as though they feared her!
"No. No, I think the Sun can stay up a little longer, just until I'm sure I've gotten them all. If you don't stamp out the whole hive then sooner or later you're going to have the bug problem come back. Besides, I actually quite like the Sun like this, I can almost see why the ponies didn't bother with the night a thousand years ago..."
"Listen to yourself, Sunset! Is this really who you want to be? Is this really how you want to be remembered? Sunset, I defeated you once at CHS, if you won't see reason I'm not afraid to do it again here!"
"CHS, CHS! You just have to bring up old injuries don't you? I've tried to let bygones be bygones but then you go and rub salt in the wound! I'm not that girl anymore, Twilight! I'm the hero here!"
"Sunset, please! Please stop and listen!" Tears were running down her face now, it was pathetic really.
"Girls, step aside. I think it's time that Princess Twilight Sparkle was taught a lesson." Sunset began forming a ball of fire at the tip of her horn, not enough to kill Twilight of course, but enough to teach her a lesson. To her surprise though, rather than stepping away from her, Twilight's friends clustered around her defensively. Sunset shrugged, "So be it." She threw the ball of flame towards the helpless girls below, her leathery wings flapping at her sides, her rightfully earned crown atop her head, her skin red, her hands clawed and her feet...
"No!" Sunset screamed, throwing the fireball harmlessly off into the sky. She dropped out of the air, collapsing to the ground and burying her face beneath her hooves. High above her she let go of the Sun, the black nimbus vanishing and the celestial body instantly dropping beneath the horizon as Celestia took control, the moon quickly rising to take its place. "No! I...I...didn't mean to...I never wanted...I'm not her anymore, Twilight...I'm not her...am I?" Sunset felt a hoof gently rest on her back. Whimpering, she looked up from behind her hooves and saw Twilight and her friends, crowding round her with smiles on their faces.
"I knew you could do it, Sunset. You're not evil, you just need some help, and we're going to make sure you get it." The fear hadn't entirely left the other ponies' faces but it had mostly been replaced with sympathy.
"I...I...hurt a lot of ponies didn't I, Twi, I...I killed..." she shuddered as she caught the sight of Chrysalis' body out of the corner of her eye, necks weren't supposed to bend like that.
"You...yes, you did. But we can fix things, Sunset, with time we can fix things."
"Yeah, Sunny, we all know you wouldn't have done any of that stuff if you'd been thinking straight," Rainbow grinned.
"And I know you wouldn't have done what you did, if you hadn't thought I was a changeling," Fluttershy just about managed a smile but Sunset could see her broken wing all too clearly.
"Darling, you are a wonderful mare who has simply suffered through some...unfortunate experiences, everything will be alright," Rarity patted her on the back.
"Yeah, Sunset, we'll get you straight to the bestest doctor in Equestria and he'll fix you right up and then I can throw you a 'not crazy anymore' party!" Pinkie's smile was the widest of them all.
Sunset turned and looked at Applejack, who had remained oddly silent. Everypony else turned to her too. "Ah can't lie to her, Twi!" she whispered, not quiet enough to escape Sunset's hearing. Both alicorn's faces dropped.
"She's right isn't she..." Sunset muttered. "We can't just wave a horn around and fix all of this...I...I...really bucked up this time." She looked at her hoof, green goop still stained it.
"Perhaps, Sunset. I'll admit things won't be the same as they were, it'll take a lot of ponies some time to forgive you and after what happened here..." Twilight sighed, "...there might have to be a trial of some sort. But considering the mitigating factors they might be lenient. Don't worry Sunset, they'll forgive you sooner or later, they can't stay mad forever. They forgave Luna for being Nightmare Moon after all!" That had taken a thousand years though, Sunset couldn't help but think. "Now then, let's get you all back to Ponyville!" Twilight and her friends separated from the group huddle, the princess getting ready to cast a spell.
"You're right..." Sunset mumbled, "it's just like Luna...they'll forgive me...but...I need to be punished..."
"Sunset?" Fluttershy turned to face her, apparently having heard what she was saying. "What are you-?"
Sunset turned to face the mirror at the back of the room, turned to stare at the red alicorn, stared as it stared back at her. Atop her head she felt the crown heat up, she focused, mustering its power just as she had done against Discord. From atop her head a beam of multicolored energy shot forth from the crown and collided with the surface of the mirror, rebounding off of its surface and flying straight back at her. She smiled, welcoming the oncoming beam of magic. She heard Twilight scream her name, and then...darkness.
--------------------------------------
"Sunset!" Twilight screamed as soon as she realized what was happening. She leaped towards her friend but it was too late, the beam struck her and a great wave of light flew through the hole in the roof and up into the night sky. Twilight turned, her eyes following its path as it impacted with the moon, leaving a great alicorn head imprinted upon its surface. "Sunset..." She whispered.
The clattering of gems on stone brought Twilight's attention back to the room, six gemstones had fallen to the floor where Sunset had once stood, the Elements of Harmony, awaiting new bearers.
"Did she...?" Rainbow looked between the stones and the moon, trying to get her head around what had just happened.
"She banished herself to the moon...why would she banish herself? She... she didn't need to...she wasn't evil..." Twilight stared at the stones, it seemed silly that such little things could have such great power.
"What do we do now, Twilight?" Pinkie asked, her mane deflated.
"We...we pick up the pieces," Twilight's eyes remained locked onto the Elements, she couldn't stand to look at the moon. "I'll teleport Fluttershy and Spike back to Ponyville, the two of you can fill Celestia in on what transpired. The rest of us will stay here and keep the Elements safe," she looked at the smoldering remains of the throne room, "and see if we can help the surviving changelings. There should be a changeling princess around here somewhere, she'll need help looking after her subjects." Action, Twilight needed to take action, anything to distract herself from what had just happened. "Evey! Spike, as soon as you get back to Ponyville, take a message and send it to Starlight, she lives in Canterlot. Evey's train will be arriving first thing in the morning, tell Starlight what has happened and make sure she gets Evey somewhere safe and private. I don't want her hearing about this second hoof, I'll...I'll tell her myself." Action, action would delay her having to think about what had happened, action would keep the grief at bay.
"...and that's how it happened." Twilight sighed, finishing up her story. She'd had a few interruptions, like when Evey had tried stabbing herself in the eye with one of the shards of mirror, or when Flurry had come down and shouted at them. The younger alicorn was curled up beneath her wing now, still crying to herself. Evey still wasn't moving. They'd had to stand her back up again after Flurry had knocked her over, it didn't feel right just leaving her on the ground like that.
"She just left?" Flurry whispered between tears. "She never even said goodbye?"
"She wasn't in a right state of mind," Twilight sighed. "She had the Elements, she was feeling guilty...she did what she felt was right at the time."
"And Evey paid the price," Flurry growled.
"S' a lie." Flurry, Starlight and Twilight all turned, startled by the sound, despite it being as quiet as it was. "All a lie," slowly backing away from them, Evey was rising back onto her hooves.
"Evey!" Flurry screamed in delight, rushing towards her friend only to be stopped by a barrier of red magic.
"She loved me!" Evey yelled, her voice finally returned to her. "She loved me more than anything in the world! Anything in all the worlds! She loved me! She'd never just leave me! Never abandon me like that! She'd have left a message, a parting word, a letter! Anything! That's how I know you're lying, Twilight, she loved me too much just to leave me like that!"
"Evey, please-" Twilight began to speak but the unicorn was off, darting up to one of the remaining mirrors that she hadn't deactivated.
"No more lies! No more wasted breath! This isn't over, Sparkle! It might take me nine hundred and ninety four years, but I shall return! you haven't seen the last of Eventide Shimmer!" with a wild look in her eyes, Eventide leaped through the portal and her barrier dropped. All three ponies ran after her, but before any of them could pass through the mirror's surface, the alicorn amulet came flying out of it. Red beams flew wildly off of it,striking each remaining portal and closing the gateways, the one Eventide had just stepped through included. Flurry slammed face first into the surface of the mirror, desperately clawing at it with her hooves.
"Evey, no! No, no, no!" Flurry sobbed as Twilight rested a wing across her back.
"Was she telling the truth, will she really come back in a thousand years?" Starlight whispered. "Is she...is she a threat to Equestria?"
"No..." Twilight sighed. "The only way back would be through this portal, we'll keep it under lock and key and if she does come back...if she does come back we'll catch her and get her the help she needs. Maybe in thirty moons, or whenever the portal opens again, maybe we can send someone through to see if they can find her and bring her home. For now though...I just hope she can find happiness wherever it is she's run away to."
The three of them emerged from the basement an hour later, it had taken that long to convince Flurry to leave the mirror alone. There would be a lot of work to be done, inquests to be made, ponies to be interviewed... Celestia would want a full run down of what happened and all of Evey's belongings would need cataloguing. Most of them would have to be locked away in the secret vaults of Canterlot castle. As Twilight stepped out into the cold air of the night she looked up at the moon and gave one more sigh of despair. "I'm sorry, Sunset," she whispered to the moon, "I'm sorry we couldn't save her." One thousand years was a very long time, who knew what might happen? Would Twilight even be around to welcome her home? One thousand years was a very long time, and for one thousand years Twilight would have to think about how one goes about telling somepony that their daughter nearly destroyed the world out of grief...
Epilogue: And the Stars Shall Aid In Her Escape...
Darkness. At first there was nothing but darkness for Sunset. She remembered being hit by a beam of light, and then...nothing. Wherever she was now there was no light, no, sound, no warmth, she couldn't even feel her body or move her limbs. Then, there was a light. Faint at first, but rapidly growing as it approached her.
"Sunset," a voice whispered to her from the light. It took form, becoming a more recognizable shape, Luna. Sunset tried to speak, but lacking any body she was uncertain how. "Concentrate upon your old self, Sunset, think of your mouth and tongue and then try to speak."
"Luna?" following the alicorn's instructions she slowly managed to form the word, it echoed around the dark void.
"Good, very good. You are trapped within the Moon, Sunset. At present you lack any physical form, but with practice you will be able to take shape as I have, as though in your dreams." Memories came flooding back to Sunset of her last meeting with Luna and she suddenly felt ashamed.
"I'm sorry," she managed, speaking like this was difficult, it was uncomfortable.
"Water under the bridge, you are not the first one who has attacked me in a fit of rage and I doubt you shall be the last," Luna chuckled. "Now then, Sunset, I am here to help you. When we last spoke, your mind was clearly troubled, the fact that you saw fit to banish yourself to the Moon does not bode well for your mental health. But we now have one thousand years ahead of us to try and heal those wounds, together I hope we might be able to fix whatever damage it is you suffered in your travels."
"Thank you," Sunset whispered, words were still difficult but they sounded more and more like her own voice.
"Think nothing of it. Now before we begin there is one issue we must address. Your friends and family, little Evey." Evey, only now did Sunset even consider the fact that she wouldn't see her daughter again for a thousand years.
"Evey! She'll be..."
"Dead. Yes," Luna sighed and turned away from her. "I am sorry, Sunset, but this is the undeniable truth of your banishment. Everypony you knew, who was neither alicorn nor dragon, shall likely be dead by the time you return to Equestria. This gives us two options, Sunset. The first is that I inform you of their deeds over the coming years, you shall be unable to speak to them or aid them, but you shall have knowledge of their accomplishments. Or, I shall speak nothing of them during my time here, you shall be separated from them but will not know the grief of being powerless to aid them when they fall." Sunset found herself wishing to cry but her current form lacked the eyes to do so. Only now was she truly appreciating all that her banishment would cost her.
"The second," she finally whispered. "If...if losing her now hurts this much...how much worse will losing her again hurt me?" It was like her daughter was already dead, already lost to her. How would she ever deal with the news of her actual death?
"You are certain?"
"Yes..."
"Very well then," Luna gave her sympathetic smile. "I shall cut off contact with little Evey, I shall offer you no lies of omission about your daughter, Sunset. If I know nothing of her life then we shall both be in the same boat, so to speak. I shall be leaving you for now, likely there is much you need to process, but do not fear, for I shall return. You are not alone, Sunset, we shall help you through the years to come."
Six figures stood atop the ruins of the Castle of the Queen. It was the single oldest piece of changeling designed architecture in all of Equestria, and though it stood in a state of horrendous disrepair it had apparently weathered all that the world had to throw at it for the past thousand years. There, standing in the broken remnants of the throne room, Dawn Glitter levitated the strange gems that had been embedded into a statue of the old changeling queen to each of her new found friends.
"Phasmatodea, you kept us going when we doubted ourselves, you represent Honesty!" The orange gem formed into a necklace as it reached the ivory changeling.
"Meadow Spring, you looked past the eyes of the cockatrice and saw it was in pain, you represent Kindness!" The pink gem also formed a necklace as it reached the blue earth pony.
"Sunny Skies, you kept up our spirits throughout all the drabness of the Badlands, you represent Laughter!" The turquoise gem went to the orange pegasus.
"Ashy, you shared your gems with the diamond dogs, convincing them to show us the way here, you represent Generosity!" The purple gem for the grey dragon.
"And Gada, even when the other griffons mocked you, you stuck with us to help us on this quest, you represent Loyalty!" The red gem went to the Griffon.
"Which leaves me. Girls, until tonight I never realized the importance of friendship, but you all taught me the joy and happiness that friendship can bring! The spark you girls lit inside of me, is the spark of the element of Magic!" The star shaped gem form a crown atop the brown unicorn's head, completing the group. The six girls gave a triumphant cheer, bumping hooves and claws in celebration.
"Soooo.... now what?" Gada asked, turning to Dawn. "I mean, I know we're supposed to be stopping Blazing Dusk from returning and bathing the world in perpetual sunlight... but where is she?" The six of them turned and looked at the moon, sure enough the mare remained vanished from its surface, just as it had been for the last few hours as they sprinted through the castle.
"Is she late for her own evil scheme or something?" Sunny suggested, pulling a watch from her saddlebags.
"I uh... I don't know. I mean the book said we'd find the elements here, I just sort of assumed we'd find her here trying to stop us," Dawn nervously rubbed the back of her head.
"I believe that is my cue," the six friends turned to face the voice. Out of the shadows strode a towering amber alicorn with a fiery red mane and a sun for a cutie mark, a genial smile upon her face.
"Blazing Dusk!" they shouted in unison, forming up, ready to fight their enemy.
"Actually, I go by the name Sunset Shimmer. It's a pleasure to meet you all," she extended a hoof towards them, causing the friends to look at one another in confusion.
"Ummmm... aren't you meant to be really evil or something?" Phantasmodea asked, "girls, why isn't she evil?"
"Ah, young changeling," Sunset turned her head towards the shapeshifter causing her to squirm uncomfortably. "To you and your kind, I am deeply sorry. In my madness I hurt your kind more than any other, I only hope that with time you can manage to forgive me." To the assembled groups surprise the regal looking alicorn bowed deeply before Phantasmodea.
"Ummmm... apology accepted?" she turned and looked back at the others, "seriously, I'm pretty sure she was meant to be evil, have we got the right alicorn here?"
"Hey, I read the book too and I'm just as confused as you lot," Ashy mumbled. "Go on epic quest? Check. Acquire Elements of Harmony? Check. Fire magical beam of energy at monologuing villain," she turned and looked at Sunset then shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh by all means go ahead," Sunset said, standing back up and looking at them. "I have been gone for a thousand years, for a thousand years I have considered my past actions, my misdeeds, my failings and the failings of others. I have...tried... to better myself, but there is only one test that shall confirm if wickedness has truly been banished from my heart and mind," she pointed a hoof towards Dawn's crown. "The Elements of Harmony. Turn their power upon me, little ponies, if I am still a threat to the harmony of Equestria, then they shall remedy it."
"Well if it's what she wants..." Meadow whispered to the others. Dawn nodded and turned to face Sunset, atop her head she felt the power of the Element of Magic growing, coalescing in a beam of magical energy. Similar beams shone from the others' neckalces, joining in a single ray of magic that shot out across the throne room, washing harmlessly over the alicorn. As the magic subsided it revealed Sunset to be standing where she had been before, unharmed and unchanged. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"My little ponies," a kindly voice echoed across the top of the throne room. The six friends knelt in reverence, instantly recognizing the second alicorn.
"Princess Flurry Heart!" they called as one, bowing on their knees.
"Rise, my friends. You have done a great service to Equestria this day but your work is not yet done. I believe we still have a Draconequus to free before we can celebrate," Flurry said in a motherly fashion, looking down in pride at the new element bearers. "First though, I would like a word with Princess Sunset Shimmer, the two of us have much to catch up on."
"Princess!?" the friends shouted in disbelief. They had all heard, old foals tales about the mare in the moon, but not one of them referred to her as a princess.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Flurry said, dropping much of the regality of her voice. Her student and the other element bearers had gone downstairs to give the two alicorns some privacy.
"Too long," Sunset sighed. "Flurry, I don't mean to sound rude, but why did they send you to be the one who welcomed me home? You hate me," Flurry winced at the words.
"I don't hate you...at least not any more," she considered some less than ladylike things she had said about the mare during her own youth, "was it really that obvious?"
"Well, it certainly wasn't subtle," Sunset chuckled.
"They chose me to be here because...because I was the closest to Evey."
"She's dead," Sunset said in a matter of fact manner, throwing Flurry slightly off guard. "I came to terms with that many, many years ago, Flurry, so why send you?"
"Sunset," Flurry sighed, "Evey was...she was...a troubled mare. I'm sorry, Sunset, but her story was not a happy one and we don't know how it ended. I can tell you what happened if you wish or..."
"Was she happy?" Sunset asked, her face betraying no emotion. "Was she ever happy?"
"Briefly. She had these wonderful little bursts of joy, these few moments that she just seemed like a different mare, so happy, so content. They were brief and fleeting, but... yes she did have some moments of happiness." Sunset stood like a stone, her face unmoving, no tears falling from her eyes.
"I...I would like some time alone. I assume that the others are in Canterlot?" her voice was a whisper.
"Yes, we'll be waiting for you there. Take all the time you need."
"Thank you," Sunset's face briefly showed the true extent of her sorrow but she hid it well, her mouth flicking back up into a smile. "Now then, I think you have some Element Bearers to be looking after, they seemed a bit disappointed with their villain and looked like they might need some reassurance of their heroism, I'd hate to have robbed them of their victory." Flurry nodded and turned to the stairs.
"We'll be seeing you soon, Sunset, welcome home."
Sunset waited until she was certain that Flurry was out of earshot the turned to face the dark corners of the throne room. "You can come out now, it's just the two of us." Hesitantly a crimson unicorn mare with an orange mane and half a sun for a cutie mark crept from the darkened corners of the room.
"I thought they'd never leave, she muttered as she walked towards Sunset on unsteady hooves. Sunset observed her closely and smiled.
"You are not from around here are you? I am Sunset Shimmer, what is your name and what are you in your native form?" Sunset recognized those shaky movements anywhere, she had lived them herself when she had been forced to adjust to a human body.
"That obvious huh?" the mare muttered.
"Only if you know what to look for," Sunset walked up to her and helped steady her on her hooves.
"I'm Blazing Dusk," the mare answered, "which is weird 'cause apparently that's your name."
"No, my name is Sunset Shimmer, that name was given to me by others in the hopes of distancing me from my past misdeeds."
"Normally I'm a dragon," Dusk continued to mutter. "I uhh... I'm here to bring you a message." She paused again, her face filled with uncertainty. "From Eventide. She... she wanted to let you know that even after everything that happened she still loved you, she's sorry she couldn't be here herself."
"You...you knew my daughter?" Sunset whispered, staring at the mare in awe.
"She was...my mother. She died a very long time ago, real young for a dragon. Can't have been much more than a century old before she just...faded away. 'Course I guess that was something to do with her not really being a dragon, huh?" Sunset blinked in disbelief, uncertain what to make of the strange mare's words. "Mirrors, she used to make magical mirrors according to her old stories. One of them was a gateway between my home and here, anyone who steps through it transforms into one of these...ponies," Dusk stared at her body uncomfortably. "Made her a promise on her death bed to pass the message along, she built a magic device specifically to let me open the mirror tonight." She awkwardly rubbed the back of her head and stared up at the moon. "So... Message has been passed on, I guess I'm done here. Sounds like you've got someplace to be, I won't waste your time any longer." She turned and began to walk away.
"Wait!" Sunset called, leaping after her. "Please, wait! I have been gone a thousand years, a few more hours will be a drop in the ocean. Please, I'd... I'd like to hear about her, about my little Evey! Can you indulge me, just a little longer?" She stared at the mare with pleading eyes and found something familiar in Dusk's eyes, a certain sense of longing.
"I guess, I mean the portal's not going anywhere...but...one condition."
"Name it, anything within my power I will do for you."
"Could...could you maybe tell me about mom? What she was like when she was little? I never expected her to be gone so soon, there's so much I never got to tell her, so much I never knew..."
"Then we have something in common," Sunset smiled. It was a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"Okay." Dusk whispered. "Where to start? Mom was...she was an oddball. She didn't behave like the other dragons, a lot of drakes called her crazy... I mean in some ways she kinda was. She was never entirely right in the head but dad and I loved her all the same. She used to tell all these amazing stories of adventures, far off lands and fantastic worlds! She had her bad days, days where she didn't seem herself, but for the most part she was pretty happy, I guess." Dusk chuckled, looking off into the distance. "This one time, she smacked Professor Spines around the side of the head for his theories on time travel, said it didn't work the way he theorized it to. They got into a massive argument and she claimed that as the only one with 'empirical evidence' she was the most qualified to describe it. Oh the look on his face was priceless! His scales turned bright red and he...
Bon Bon may have retired but that didn't mean her life had slowed down. Since her retirement she had moved to Ponyville, formed a stable relationship with her marefriend and reignited her fillyhood passion for confectionery. Life was good for Bon Bon, sure, sometimes she would be called in as a consultant, or pestered by her former colleagues, but in general life was good. As she finished boxing up a bag of fudge for Pound Cake she heard a knocking on the door to the house portion of the building.
"I'll get it!" Lyra called from the other room. Despite her eccentricities Lyra was a very dependable mare, Bon Bon was lucky to have her. She didn't shirk away from her own share of the housework and on a busy day in the shop like today, she would take post and turn away cold callers at the front of the house. With a satisfying 'click', the front door opened and Lyra welcomed their visitor with a jovial "Hiya!".
"Hi there...I uh...I think I'm early, but I was having trouble arranging a foalsitter and-" Bon Bon frowned, as she heard the voice of an unfamiliar mare filter through from the other room. She began weighing out some Sherbet Lemons for Silver Spoon, but kept an ear out to catch the conversation from the other room.
"Wow you are big!" Bon Bon winced slightly at what Lyra had just said. She was many things, but sadly subtle was not one of them, her marefriend had an unfortunate habit of accidentally sticking her hoof into ponies' personal matters. "I mean, not in a 'you could do to lose a few pounds' way, but like, you are really, really tall! Seriously!"
"I uh... I get that a lot," the other mare sighed. "Look, I'm sorry Sweetie Drops but if this is going to be a problem I can reschedule to another day, I honestly thought Twilight would be in town to look after my daughter," hearing her real name caused Bon Bon to drop the current bag of sweets onto the counter in a panic. Sunset wasn't supposed to be here for another two hours!
"Uhhh I'm not 'Sweetie Drops', ma'am, I'm Lyra. In fact nopony by that name lives here. But if you want to maybe speak to my marefriend Bon Bon, I have a feeling she knows who you might be looking for," Bon Bon hurriedly ushered the remaining customers out of the shop and began closing up, much to the confusion of the Ponyvillians. Despite her exceedingly loose lips Lyra had at least managed to keep Bon Bon's identity a secret for almost a decade now.
"Hi there!" Bon Bon exclaimed, running through to the front of the house. "You must be Sunset!" She had been told to expect the new agent to be turning up today, but she hadn't been entirely prepared for the mare that was standing in front of her. Lyra wasn't lying, she was really tall, a long black cloak covering most of her body but not even reaching her fetlocks, let alone the ground. Her eyes had large black bags hanging beneath them and an energetic looking little filly hugged herself close to Sunset's leg. The letter had omitted that tiny detail, the two of them were meant to be meeting alone.
"Hi...I uh, I'm sorry for being early, I was just telling Lyra that-" she sounded tired, very tired.
"That you hadn't managed to arrange a foalsitter, I heard from the other room," Bon Bon looked down at the little filly and frowned. Back when she was the 'go-to mare' for the MIB she would never have stood for such unprofessionalism, right now though there was something in Sunset's voice that made her hold back on lecturing her, that and the fact that it was generally deemed a bad idea to mouth off to somepony who was technically royalty.
"I...uh...I didn't know Twilight would be out of town, if it's a problem I can always come back another day."
"No, no it's fine. Lyra can look after her if you're okay with that, she's great with kids," Sunset's eyes briefly flicked towards Lyra with a look of suspicion but then snapped back to Bon Bon.
"You don't mind me leaving my wagon parked outside do you?" she asked, gesturing towards a large traveler's wagon standing in front of the building.
"Not at all."
"And will you be okay without mommy for an hour or so, Evey?" Sunset asked the little filly that was hiding behind her leg.
"Uh huh," the filly nervously answered, "I'm a big girl now, I don't need a foalsitter all the time."
"Well, maybe not, but today Lyra is going to be looking after you, okay?"
"Kay..."
----------------------------------
"They didn't tell me you had a kid," Bon Bon said, trying to break the ice a little. The two of them had moved to the kitchen and Bon Bon was sorting out some tea, but she couldn't help but notice Sunset's eyes kept flicking towards the living room, where Lyra was keeping Evey entertained with her lyre. "She's quite the cutie."
"Yeah...she really means the world to me," Sunset sighed. "How much did they tell you about me?" Bon Bon had imagined the new agent being many things, but the nervous wreck sitting at her table was not one of them. It was hard to reconcile the worried mother with the reports of a mare who was, to all intents and purposes, a serial killer.
"Former student to Princess Celestia, extended absence from Equestria as a result of a powerful magical artifact, reformed villain, friend to Princess Twilight Sparkle, recently crowned Princess and an alicorn," they had also mentioned that she was believed to have been involved in the grisly deaths of no less than nine changeling infiltrators that the MIB had been keeping tabs on, but Sunset didn't need to know that.
"They didn't mention Evey though?" Sunset asked, taking up her cup of tea in her magic.
"No, they neglected to mention that little detail," Bon Bon sighed, "though I should probably have guessed it. I mean, I'm assuming you are the same Sunset who died here about seven years ago, right?" the alicorn looked a little different from the mare that had quietly hobbled about Ponyville for about a year before finally meeting her untimely demise during childbirth, but the similarities were uncanny, that and the shared name.
"I was only dead for about an hour, but yeah that was me. I don't think we ever met properly back then."
"No, no we didn't," to her eternal shame Bon Bon had placed a few bits on Sunset having gotten knocked up by Blue Blood. "The kid's the same one you were pregnant with, right?"
"Yeah..." Sunset sighed despondently, "if it's a problem I can always come back-"
"Another time," Bon Bon finished for her, "look, Sunset, I don't really know you, but you look shattered. Let Lyra take care of the kid and just sit back and relax for a little. Have some tea, take your mind off of life, and then, maybe, we can talk business." Sunset nodded mutely and took another sip of tea from her cup, her eyes drooping slightly. "Tough being a single mom I take it?"
"Unbelievably," Sunset answered with a chuckle. "I love her, I really do, but it can be so hard making time to look after her, and then a few years back I got some bad news about her health, so really she needs all the care I can give her. Hopefully the new job will help with that a little..."
"That's not why you're taking it though are you? Cause if it is I think you need to to maybe reconsider before you go any further, this job...it isn't great for relationships," Bon Bon had found no time for family during her time with the MIB, even after she left it had come dangerously close to ruining what she had with Lyra.
"No...no, I want to do this. I need to do this, I can help Equestria, the money is just an added bonus." Bon Bon considered the words carefully, 'need', there was a possibility of mania behind those words, an obsessive need to give back to Equestria. The question was why.
"How do you feel about changelings?" Bon Bon casually asked, sipping her own drink. She was unsurprised when Sunset practically jumped out of her skin.
"What about them?" the alicorn growled, quietly.
"Oh, I was just curious," that all but confirmed her superiors' suspicions. "I'm obligated to fill you in on the details of how this work goes, what it entails, what the MIB will expect from you...that sort of thing," she continued, "unless, you tell me right here and right now that you no longer want to go through with this. You don't know anything important yet so you can still just walk away, go be with your daughter, find something else to do with your life," the higher ups had been quite insistent on Sunset being accepted, 'better she be working for us than somepony else' as they had put it. She was deemed to be 'a valuable asset that if given direction could greatly benefit Equestria'.
"No, I want-"
"Because this job will not do your relationship with her any good," Bon Bon cut her off again, "and because revenge is an awful reason to get into this kind of work." That gave the alicorn something to think on. Sunset sat there, her mouth hanging open but no words coming out for about a minute before she came to a decision.
"No. No, I can do some real good here, Sweetie Drops. I can help ponies, I can save lives. This is what I want to do with my life."
"Well then," Bon Bon replied, barely repressing a sigh of defeat, "welcome to The Mares In Black."
Lyra ran her forehoof back and forth across her lyre producing haphazard sounds that barely qualified as music. With the rain hammering down outside she hadn't been able to go to the park to practice and she didn't particularly feel like playing inside. So instead she simply sat on the sofa and tried to pass the time till Bon Bon got home from Canterlot. Not that she would ever admit to her marefriend just how bored she had been all day, Bon Bon had even suggested that she accompany her on the trip to Canterlot, but Lyra had declined the offer, she would not give Bon Bon the satisfaction of knowing she had been right. It came as something of a surprise to Lyra then, when there was a furious knocking at the front door several hours before Bon Bon was due to return.
"I'll get it!" Lyra called out instinctively, even though she was entirely alone in the house. She walked to the door and pulled it open, revealing a miserable looking Eventide, drenched to the bone and eyes red. "Little Evey! What are you doing out in the rain?" Lyra asked, noting that the filly seemed to have been crying.
"C-c-can I come in?" she asked, in short shuddering breaths, barely suppressing a fresh round of tears.
"Sure," Lyra replied, stepping out of the doorway and helping the other unicorn inside. "Take a seat," she said, pointing to the sofa in the living room as she fetched a towel to dry off her young friend. "Everything alright with you? You kinda looked like doodoo out there," she asked as Evey began to get settled.
"Shit, you can say 'shit' around me, Lyra, I'm not a little filly any more," Evey mumbled as she began toweling herself down.
"I can, but that doesn't mean I should. Now come on you little grouch, tell auntie Lyra what the problem is."
"I'm not little!" Evey snapped, uncharacteristically. "I'm not, I'm just...just...still growing, that's all..." the small unicorn began to sniffle a little, nearly breaking out into a fresh batch of tears.
"Ooooookay, so I'm guessing this has something to do with your height then huh? Was Pound Cake teasing you?" It was pretty much accepted at this point by a few of the townsponies that Pound Cake had developed a crush on the unicorn, even if Evey was completely oblivious to it. There was about two years between the two of them but Lyra had to admit they would make a cute couple, assuming of course that Pound Cake realized that his 'playful teasing' was having entirely the opposite effect to what he was intending. The lanky pegasus looked like Big mac when he stood next to Little Evey, and she was a little twitchy about the matter.
"No, nothing to do with him," Evey grumbled. "It's all Twilight."
"Hooooookay, wow, well that is a can of worms I really shouldn't be touching with a ten foot pole," Lyra said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head with one hoof, "but if you want to vent, I guess I'm here for you," Lyra had foalsat Evey a few times over the years and had quickly come to realize that 'aunt' Twilight was a touchy subject. Evey had her good days and her bad days, sometimes Twi was 'the bestest Auntie in the whole world' and other times she 'wasn't Evey's mom'. The kid was a real momma's filly and it was abundantly clear that nopony was ever going to be able to stand in for Sunset in that role. "How about I get us some tea, huh?" Lyra asked when it became clear that Evey was in no mood to speak.
-----------------------------
With the tea prepared and Evey finally dried off, the two of them sat down at the kitchen table to drink. Lyra began dipping a biscuit into her drink using her magic while Evey picked up her cup with her hoof and slowly sipped at it.
"Okay, Evey, I know I'm not one to talk, but seriously? Pretty sure your mom taught you unicorn table manners," generally speaking a polite unciorn was expected to handle their cutlery in their magic, a fact that she was pretty sure Evey was aware of. Apparently though this was entirely the wrong thing to say as Evey instantly burst into a fresh wave of tears. "But I'm just silly old crazy Lyra, so what do I know?" she chuckled nervously, trying to alleviate some of the new tension that had been introduced into the conversation.
"Y-y-you're not c-c-crazy," Evey sobbed, "and it's n-n-n-not your fault that I'm a p-p-p-pathetic little failure of a unicorn," Lyra flinched at Evey's self-depreciating words, evidently today was one of her bad days.
"Trust me, I'm crazy. I came to terms with that aaaaages ago, but you Evey? You're not-" she really didn't want to repeat it, "any of those things you just said about yourself."
"One," she mumbled.
"Huh?"
"That's how many books I can levitate at one time. One. I can't hold a knife and fork at the same time and still be able to use them properly, it takes all my concentration to write with my magic, I can't even manage to get the light spell to work properly... I'm a failure, Lyra, I can't do anything right and it's all my own fault," she buried her head between her hooves and continued to cry. "Mom and dad were both powerful unicorns, I'm being taught by one of the most powerful magic users in Equestria... so yeah, it's pretty much all my fault that I can't do anything right..."
"Okay, so maybe you aren't good at magic, there's plenty of others things you're great at Evey!"
"Name one."
"Well... you're fast and agile!" Lyra could still remember the time that Evey had climbed up the outside of the town hall and managed to get onto the roof, an event that the two of them had both agreed had never ever happened if anypony responsible was to ask them about it. Lyra wasn't sure who she was afraid of being chewed out by the most; Sunset, Twilight or Bon Bon.
"Yeah, stick a pair of wings on me and I'd be a below average pegasus," Evey grumbled.
"Or... how about the fact that you're tough and strong?" as evidenced by how well she had handled the little jogs they'd been on through the tamer parts of the Everfree (or the Whitetail Woods if anypony else was to ask them).
"Yay... so I'm a sub par Earth Pony with a lump on her head, whoop de freaking doo."
"Well...what about your cutie mark?" Lyra asked, trying to hide the desperation in her voice.
"Exploration? Yeah, I'm really great at that. I've explored every corner of Twilight's castle. Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow I might discover the fabled 'Sugarcube Corner' spoken of in legends. Yeah, there's soooo many interesting things to be discovered in Ponyville," she snorted.
"Look, if things are rough at the castle you can always spend a few nights crashing here, I wouldn't mind and Bon Bon-"
"Why do you call her that?" Evey cut in, genuine surprise on her face. "Whenever my mom talks about her she calls her Sweetie Drops, but you always call her Bon Bon. Why is that?"
"You...you uhhhhh... you don't know?" Lyra nervously asked. She'd always assumed that Evey was well aware of the nature of her mother's business. After all, if she didn't know what Sunset did for work then what did she think was taking her mother away from Equestria for three whole years without any opportunity to send or receive mail? A lump suddenly formed in her throat as she considered the possibility.
"They do 'business' together," Evey grumbled, "business for Princess Celestia."
"But you have no idea what?" Lyra asked, wincing at the line the conversation had taken.
"Diplomacy or something I guess?" she muttered, finishing off the last of her tea.
"Okay... right...look, Evey, what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room, okay?" Evey frowned at her, but quickly nodded. "Bon- Sweetie Drops and your mom are both monster hunters, Evey. They keep Equestria safe from all the scary monsters that live in places like the Everfree."
"What...you mean like boogieponies?"
"Sure," not a word Lyra had ever heard herself, but every parent had their own little stories to scare naughty foals into line, her own parents had tried to scare her with stories of humans that would snatch a naughty pony away in the night. "The point is, Evey, that whatever your mom is doing is probably really important. She's out there keeping Equestria safe for little ponies like you."
"I miss her," Evey whimpered.
"I bet you do, kiddo, I bet you do. Now how about auntie Lyra reads you one of her awesome stories about creatures that definitely do exist and aren't made up, then we can see about getting you back home. Sound good?"
"Sounds great," Evey wiped the tears from her eyes and for the first time since she had turned up she was wearing a smile on her face.
The rain hammered down against the windows in great torrents. It had come upon Ponyville from the Everfree, thick black storm clouds that the weather team had been ill-prepared to deal with. It wasn't too much of a problem for the town, realistically the pegasi would just lighten up on the rain for the next week or so, but it had thrown off Bon Bon's plans for the day. She and Lyra were meant to be having a picnic, just the two of them, but the rain had put a damper on that plan. Heavy rivulets of rainwater ran down the windowpanes and the sound of rolling thunder could be heard in the distance. The day wasn't a total bust though, neither of them had any work and they still had the lunch they'd prepared for the picnic, sure it would be eaten inside, but it would be a nice romantic meal for the two of them...
A furious knocking interrupted Bon Bon's thoughts as somepony began hammering furiously on the front door. "I'll get it!" Lyra called in from the other room. Bon Bon groaned, all of her regulars knew that she had plans with Lyra today, she thought she had made it quite clear to the townsponies that the two of them would not be able to entertain guests or business callers today, and that their private time together was not to be disturbed.
"Hey there, I..." Bon Bon could just about make out the hoarse and feeble voice of a young mare as Lyra opened the door, but whatever she was saying was drowned out by a great gasp of shock from Lyra.
"Sweet Celestia! What happened to your face!?" Bon Bon winced slightly at Lyra's complete lack of tact, before considering the concern in her marefriend's voice. She wasn't poking fun at somepony's looks, she was genuinely worried.
"It's nothing, I just...I need to pick up some of my mom's things." Bon Bon recognized that voice, not well but she definitely recognized it.
"Get in out of the rain, you'll catch your death from the cold if you aren't careful!" There was a click as the door closed, and the sounds of somepony wiping their hooves on the welcome mat. Well that settled it, apparently they were accepting guests now. Bon Bon ceased putting the finishing touches onto the lunch and stepped through into the hall to meet their guest.
"Lyra, who is it? I thought we had plans for-" Bon Bon froze as she locked eyes on their guest. She didn't know Eventide as well as Lyra did, but she knew her well enough to recognize her at a glance. Bon Bon couldn't think of a single time in her life she had seen the unicorn looking so downtrodden and despondent. Her coat was drenched, her mane was matted and she had a dead look in her eyes. Her eyes... She had a nasty looking black eye, swollen shut and oozing blood, a recent injury from the looks of things. Sniffing the air Bon Bon also noted a curious scent. Liquor.
"What happened to you Evey? I mean, no offense, but you look like doodoo. Seriously, what happened?" Lyra had one hoof placed protectively across the back of Eventide's neck. She was a grown mare now but in Lyra's eyes she'd likely always be a little filly. Little fillies don't go about making inflammatory comments about national tragedies to the press though, she mused. It wasn't that she disliked the mare, she barely knew her, but she and Lyra could really do without the kind of trouble that Eventide's reputation seemed to be bringing these days.
"I...I fell down some stairs," Eventide mumbled, raising one hoof to her eye. "Really, it's nothing. I just wanted to pick up some of my mom's belongings and then I'll be out of your hair," Bon Bon was no doctor, but she was pretty sure a pony didn't get an eye like that from 'falling down stairs'.
"Go get the medical supplies from the bathroom, I'll get some ice from the fridge," trouble as she was though, Bon Bon was not going to let Eventide leave in her present state.
"Uhhhhhh yeah, about that..." Lyra chuckled with a familiar nervous laugh that roughly translated into 'I did something dumb and forgot to tell you'. "I may have kinda used up a lot of the supplies in a little bit of an arts and crafts project," she paused. " And by a lot, I mean all of them, we are completely out." Bon Bon's eye gave a very slight nervous twitch, almost unperceivable to the casual observer, but easily recognized by her marefriend. "I didn't forget though! I put it on the shopping list and everything! Look!" Lyra thrust the list into her face and, sure enough, 'doctoring stuff' had been scribbled at the bottom of it.
"Okay... how about you go see if any of the neighbors have some spare?" Bon Bon diplomatically suggested between her gritted teeth.
"But it's raining!"
"She's your friend, and you're the one who used them all up, Lyra," a vein bulged very slightly on Bon Bon's forehead, the second sign of the average conversation with Lyra.
"Fine..." Lyra finally caved in, "I'll be back in a bit, don't go anywhere!" As Lyra grabbed an umbrella and stepped outside into the rain, Bon Bon turned to her 'guest'.
"You've been drinking, isn't it a bit early for that?" Bon Bon had a strict 'no alcohol in the house' policy, sure she'd indulge in the occasional mug of cider, but she liked to keep the booze well away from her home and her business.
"Wasn't too early when I started," Eventide muttered under her breath.
"You're unbelievable! You realize that right? Have you any idea the kind of trouble Lyra has been in around town for standing up for you? She's had the good sense to not agree with any of the things you've been spouting around Canterlot, but even so, she's not made any friends by sticking up for you."
"That's her choice, not my fault if she wants to back me up," Eventide winced in pain as Bon Bon applied the ice to her eye.
"Look, I get that things are hard for you right now. What happened with Sunset was tragic, it really was. But all this?" she gestured towards a stack of newspapers on the table, most of them had an article or two that mentioned Eventide, if not quoting her directly. "All this is on you. Why couldn't you just have kept quiet, denied what they said and avoided antagonizing everypony?" Bon Bon sighed, Sunset had always seemed a nice enough mare, how had she managed to raise such a brat as Eventide? "Anyway, you're out of luck, I don't have any of Sunset's belongings, Twilight might but Sunset never left anything here-"
"I know," Eventide cut in, wobbling slightly on her hooves. Was she really still drunk? It was barely noon!
"Then why are you here, Eventide?"
"You have contacts in the MIB right? I want you to see if you can get me some copies of whatever reports they have on the- the unpleasantness. Something's being covered up, Sweetie Drops, I want to know why," Bon Bon could smell the liquor on her breath, it was disgusting.
"First things first, never call me that name. I'm Bon Bon. Second, no. I get you're hurting but there's nothing for you to gain from reading that information, not to mention it would be illegal. If you want to keep avoiding the truth then go ahead, that's your problem. But I'm not putting my neck on the line to give you some small measure of closure that you could just get by talking to Twilight," nothing was really being covered up, not really. If she wanted her answers she just had to go and swallow her pride and speak with her aunt, it was really that simple.
"I need those files, Sweetie Drops," there was a look of pain in her eye, of betrayal.
"Not going to happen."
"I'll go public, tell the whole of Equestria about the MIB, tell them that Sunset was a monster hunter on Celestia's payroll, bet that would turn a few heads," she was really desperate if she thought Bon Bon would succumb to such idle threats.
"That's not a fight you're going to win, Eventide," she snorted in derision.
"Maybe not, but it's a fight you'd lose. I doubt Ponyville will treat you the same way when they find out that you were her direct superior, that it was you giving her missions and calling the shots. Ponies will start asking questions like 'what was Bon Bon doing in Canterlot the day it all kicked off?'" in the silence that followed you could have heard a needle drop.
"What?" Bon Bon packed as much venom and menace into that one word as was physically possible. Eventide was playing a dangerous game and it wasn't one she had much experience in, Bon Bon however was an expert.
"The MIB won't help you either, they already threw Sunset under the carriage for whatever went down out there, they'll happily throw you under it too if need be. Doesn't have to happen though, all I'm asking for is a few little pieces of paper and we never need to speak of this again." Bon Bon wasn't sure which sickened her more, the smell of Eventide's breath or the insidious little smile on her face. Was she actually enjoying herself?
"You think you've got this all worked out don't you?" Bon Bon dropped her voice to a whisper, betraying none of the anger that she presently felt towards the unicorn.
"Pretty much, yeah. You value your quaint little life here too much to just throw it away, and nopony will actually be harmed by giving me what I want. The choice is pretty obvious if you ask-" whatever she had been going to say was cut off as Bon Bon slammed her against the wall, pressing one hoof firmly against Eventide's throat .
"Now you listen here, you vile, despicable little mare, 'cause I'm only going to say this once. What happened with your mother was tragic, I wish we could have helped her but it's too late for that now. What's done is done, we have to get over it," Eventide whimpered a little under her hold, she was pathetic really. "If you want to ruin your life by running around telling ponies that the changelings deserved what happened to them then fine, be my guest. But you stay away from me, and you stay away from Lyra. You want to try the blackmail game? Go ahead, I've got nothing to hide, nothing you'll be able to credibly prove anyway. And even if you do try to ruin my life, all you'll really be doing is hammering the last nail into your own coffin. Are we clear?" Eventide let out a fearful little squeak and furiously nodded her head as best as she could from her current position. "Good."
"Hey gals! I'm baaaaack," the front door swung open and Bon Bon heard Lyra waltz into the house. Quickly, she let Eventide go and straightened out the kitchen as best as she could before Lyra saw them. "Uhhhh what happened to your head, Evey?" Lyra asked as soon as she walked into the room, one hoof pointing at a small blood trail snaking down her head from where she had been slammed against the wall. Eventide wiped the blood off of her scalp with one hoof and nervously chuckled.
"I uhhh... tripped and fell, hit my head on the table. You know how it is, Lyra, clumsy little Evey," it was about as believable as her story on how she got her black eye but Lyra seemed to buy it, she was a trusting soul.
"Yeah well let's see about getting you bandaged up, huh? I think there's some ointment for the eye in here as well..." Lyra began busying herself with Eventide's injuries and didn't notice the glares they shot one another across the room.
'This isn't over,' Eventide mouthed silently.
"Jeez, Evey, maybe try not falling on your head next time huh?"
"I can try I guess," she chuckled halfheartedly. "Everypony has their weakness though, guess my head's mine." She placed one foreleg across Lyra's withers for support and then looked at Bon Bon. "Everypony has their weakness," the words were said like a joke, but there was a predatory look in Eventide's eyes that spoke of the intent behind them, her gaze flickering between Bon Bon and Lyra, back and forth. Lyra was too busy with the injury to notice it, but the look wasn't meant for her. Bon Bon felt a lump growing in her throat as Eventide hugged Lyra, perhaps she had been a bit too hasty in threatening Eventide. Perhaps she should have just accepted her first request.
