Sunset Shimmer was the nigh-omnipotent Spirit of Harmony... until the day she wasn't.
Sunset Shimmer was the Spirit of Harmony, preserver of a newly magic-infused universe, unwilling object of worship, and girlfriend of the most brilliant person this side of Equestria.
Sunset woke up, which was the first sign that something had gone horribly wrong. Sleep was a luxury she could rarely enjoy these days, and she definitely didn't remember indulging last night. "The crap?" she muttered.
The second sign was that she didn't recognize her surroundings. Rather than the privacy screen-partitioned part of her warehouse home she'd designated as her bedroom, she lay on a queen-sized bed looking out at the top half of a two-story window. "The crap?"
The third sign, which she noticed the moment she sat up, was she didn't feel anything beyond the usual five human senses. No finger on the pulse of the universe, no faint sussurus of unwanted prayer, no connection to the vast mass of her power and mind devoted to holding the universe together. Not even the sixth sense she'd been born with, the thaumoception she'd regained along with her everyday magic.
As a worm of dread slithered through her stomach, Sunset brought a hand to her forehead.
Smooth, unbroken skin.
"The actual TARTARUS!?"
Sunset would later insist that what followed was not panicking. Panic was flailing about pointlessly. This flailing clarified a number of important points.
One, breathing was mandatory again. Fortunately, her body handled that on its own; ditto heartbeat, blinking, et al.
Two, she had all the magical capacity of a dust bunny, and no amount of straining mind or soul could so much as make a spark, much less discorporate her body and manifest something with a proper headgem.
Three, as the window suggested, the loft was a two-level affair. Corollary to three, the stairs had no banister, and falling down them while whinnying every Equish curse Sunset could remember hurt. It also did wonders for making her focus on actually doing something constructive.
"Okay," she said once she'd made sure she hadn't broken anything. "Okay. Let's review. And talk to myself, apparently. I have no magic. I'm fully human and material. I'm in a weird apartment..." She took in the gaming set-up, the open takeout containers, the empty bottle of Silky Mane shampoo in a wastebasket. "But one that definitely seems like I live in it. So, what now? What resources do I have at my disposal? My friends. Princess Twilight." She flipped a light switch, making several strings of Yuletide lights strung along the second-floor railing offer faint illumination. "Electricity, and hopefully the Internet. Finances uncertain, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Point is, we have options, Sunset. We can figure this out."
The pep talk wasn't quite as helpful when she couldn't manifest a second body to deliver it, but Sunset still felt prepared to tackle the challenge.
"Now where in the name of Celestia's cake-fattened rump is anything?"
Mostly prepared.
A somewhat less frantic search followed, and Sunset eventually tracked down the journal. Which was under her bed. She felt unreasonably proud of herself for not shouting and throwing it out of that very nice, very large window, or the smaller one over the bed.
Doubly so when it turned out the quantumantic artifact which was supposed to produce an indefinite number of pages on demand was somehow full.
Sunset felt an eyelid twitch as she mentally moved "Conspiracy to drive me insane" up a few ranks in her inner list of potential explanations for what was going on.
After a deep breath, she found her phone on the nightstand, and that at least was familiar. As was her unlock code. "Hey Gillion, round up the girls. We have a situation."
"I'm sorry," her phone said in far more vacant tones than she'd expected, "I didn't get that."
The dread returned, and it brought friends. Sunset gulped. "Gillion?"
The phone binged expectantly. After a few seconds, with the exact same inflection, it said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that."
Sunset didn't want to say it. Saying it would make it real. But she had to be sure. "You aren't self-aware, are you?"
"Well, I'm soft-aware."
A chill ran down her spine. She wasn't sure if it was more comforting or terrifying to know she wasn't the only one out of sorts. After a deep breath, she unlocked the phone and said, "All right, group text."
The Girls
now SS: Major emergency. We need to talk ASAP.
The responses came almost immediately.
PP: Meet up at Sugarcube Corner! 5s ago
RD: 1st! now
Sunset smiled as other confirmations came in, some of the anxious weight coming off her shoulders... though a bit settled back on when she had to look up directions to the cafe from her current, unknown address. She turned out to be within walking distance, on a familiar street in a neighborhood that had been way out of her price range when she'd first been looking for shelter in this world.
"Well, if nothing else, I have some good real estate tips for later." Sunset took a deep breath, then stiffened her resolve. And also her back. "We're going to fix this," she told herself. She opened the door...
Only to be met with a faceful of windblown snow. She flinched back, gasping, spitting, and immediately colder than she'd been for months. She slammed the door shut against the late December morning and turned back around.
"Okay. Jacket," she said as she made for the closet. "Jacket, and then we fix this."
Sunset came to appreciate the scope of the change as she made her way through the blustery weather. Oh, sure, every unicorn aspect might be wearing a hood. The earthen could all be wearing gloves, the assorted fliers scarves. But no one was flying. Pedestrian traffic going three-dimensional had been one of the first and most persistent changes Canterlot had seen after the change. Walk signals were for people who couldn't fly and didn't have friends who could airlift them. Or they were yesterday.
But even more than that, no one recognized her. No one stopped to stare at Sunset Shimmer brought low and walking among the mortals. No one approached her with a desperate prayer, or a camera poised to feed social media's endless hunger for candid shots of the Bacon Horse. She was pretty sure an entire sect of Shimmerism revolved around upvoting anything with her in it.
Or it had.
She wasn't sure how to feel about the idea of not being worshiped anymore. For all that she groused about it, it was nice to feel respected, especially without having to bully anyone into it. Still, this was the first time in months that she felt remotely norma—
"Oof!"
"Sorry!" she said.
The man she'd walked into just rolled his eyes as he moved around her. "Watch it next time."
Okay, there was such a thing as overcompensation.
Sunset still hadn't resolved how she felt by the time she walked into Sugarcube Corner. The place was mostly empty; the usual morning rush wasn't factor between Yuletide and New Year's.
"Sunset!" That didn't stop Pinkie from waving so quickly that her entire forearm was a pink blur. "Over here!"
She returned a much more conservative wave and sat next to Rainbow Dash. "Hey, girls. Sorry if I'm intruding on your break, Pinkie."
Pinkie giggled at that. "Don't worry, silly. How could I even be here if I were working today? Unless I skated all the way here from the mall..." Pinkie gasped. "Sunset Shimmer, you're a genius!"
Sunset tried to factor that into her analysis of the situation and, as was often the case with Pinkie, found she had no idea what to do with it. "You know what, I'm not even going to question that."
"So," said Dash, having turned her chair around and leaning on the back, "what's the emergency?"
Sunset shook her head. "I'd rather wait until we're all here. But it's big."
As if on cue, the door rang open again. Pinkie waved. "Hi, Rarity! Hi, Fluttershy!"
"Hello, everyone," Rarity said as she sat. "Now, whatever is the matter?"
"Is it Equestrian magic?" said Fluttershy.
Sunset blinked. Wait, what?
Dash rolled her eyes. "Of course it's Equestrian magic! What else could it be?"
"Ooh!" Pinkie beamed and took in a great gulp of air. "What if the government finally noticed all of the supernatural events in town and sent a bunch of unmarked vans to conspicuously park outside all our homes, but Sunset accidentally brushed up against her new mailman who's actually one of the deep cover agents and now she going to warn us about how we're all getting carted off to an undisclosed location?"
"Um... No," said Sunset. "Not that."
Pinkie leaned back in her chair and wiped her brow. "Well that's a relief. I'm trying not to blow up more government property after that time at the post office."
"When did—"
"And it would be difficult for Sunset to detect such devious schemes without her geode," said Rarity. Sunset's wha— "Whyever aren't you wearing it, darling?"
Dash nodded and held up a blue stone on a necklace. Was that— "Yeah. No telling when something crazy's gonna happen."
Sunset held up her hands, mind spinning. "Could... could we just slow down for a minute?"
"Sunset?" Fluttershy reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, a concerned look in her eyes. "Is everything alright?"
"No. Everything is not alright. And the more I see and hear, the more I think nothing is alright. Even since I woke up this morning, the entire world has..." Sunset trailed off as a thought struck her. She pulled out her phone, went to the photos, and started scrolling through them. All of them.
After the Battle of the Bands, she didn't recognize a single one.
"Sunset?"
"Sunset? You good?"
Sunset absently shook her head. "What the actual..."
"Helloooo? Ground control to Major Shim? Your circuit's dead, connection's dim."
"Sunset, darling, please, speak to us. What has you so upset?"
"I-it's..." Sunset's head started to swim. Right. She didn't need to breathe that much. A paper bag popped into her peripheral vision. "Thanks, Pinkie." Once her blood oxygen was back under control, she said, "It's a lot to go through, and I'd still rather wait for Twilight and Applejack."
"Well, we'll be waiting for some time," said Rarity. "I doubt they've left the farm; they were working on something..." She spun a hand for a few moments. "Farmy. And mechanical. But saying everything's gone wrong and not telling us anything else doesn't help anyone, it just worries the rest of us along with you."
"When I say a lot to go through, I mean it. So much is different and no one else seems to notice."
"Like what?" said Fluttershy.
"The fact you can even ask..." Sunset shook her head. "I'm starting to consider time travel as a possibility."
Pinkie gasped. "You mean like the time loop you undid during the Star Swirled Music Festival?"
Sunset stared at her for a few moments, hoping she might make more sense. She stubbornly remained Pinkie Pie. "I'm sorry, the what I what during the what?"
"You know, the one where we got to perform with Su-Z and K-Lo after you broke the Time Twirler?"
"You keep saying these things like I'm going to understand them."
Pinkie flinched back and gasped in horror. "Oh my gumdrops, you don't remember PostCrush!?"
A vague memory of pop culture news wriggled in the back of Sunset's mind. "Hang on. K-Lo as in Kiwi Lollipop? I thought she went solo years ago."
"You truly have been living a nightmare." Pinkie grabbed Sunset in a bear hug.
Sunset kept talking around and through the mass of pink trying to consume her head. "This may be further evidence. Ripple effects. Discrepancies in memory. We need to find a divergence point..." She managed to spot her phone on the table through the curls. "Of course! After the fight with the sirens—"
Pinkie pulled back. "You mean the one at the Battle of the Bands, or when you and Aria got into a shouting match at Star Swirled?"
After a beat, Sunset said, "The Battle. After that, did any of you notice any tattoos where you didn't have any before?"
Most of the others just stared at her. Dash gave a low whistle. "Dang. What kind of after-party did we have in your timeline?"
"The magic didn't build." Sunset's gaze moved to Dash's necklace. "Or at least not as quickly. Did..." She looked down at her own hands. "Could I have changed something retroactively? But if my memories don't match yours, if I remember the way things were, why can't I remember what I did?"
"Do you think Wallflower might know something about this?" said Fluttershy.
Sunset looked up and blinked. "Who?"
That got her a full set of scowls, even from Pinkie. Fluttershy said, "That's not funny, Sunset."
"What do you— Oh. Oh!" Sunset winced. "Yeah, that was in poor taste. Did she not transfer to Ravnica High early in the year?"
That got a full set of blank looks. Pinkie spoke for the group. "What High?"
Sunset frowned "Ravnica? You know, the town twenty minutes south of us? The Fighting Froghemoths? Their gym teacher's been trying to get Rainbow to transfer since sophmore year."
Dash crossed her arms, brow furrowed in thought. "I mean, I am awesome, but I don't remember playing any Froghemoths. Which is a shame, 'cause froghemoths sound awesome."
"You don't remember because there is no such town," said Rarity.
"Wait, really?" Sunset's brought a hand to her head as she thought, her other hand sketching vague shapes along the table. "Time travel that could erase an entire town should've rendered this one unrecognizable."
"Hang on," said Dash, "why do you think you did something to change history?"
"That's a big part of the long story. I—"
"Howdy, y'all!"
Sunset looked up to see Applejack walk up to the table. Along with an even more welcome sight. "So sorry we're late," said Twilight. "Several components of that engine block had rusted together until they'd fused. So, what manner of—"
It had been a long day, and Sunset hadn't even been up for an hour. She felt she could be forgiven for all but pouncing on her girlfriend once she saw her.
But out of all the signs of something gone terribly wrong, this was the most terrible of them all. Twilight often hesitated to initiate more physical displays of affection, but she warmed to them quickly. Yet this kiss began at "dead fish" and only got worse from there.
Sunset pulled back the moment she realized that, seeing her friend—only, at best, perhaps still her friend—stare back at her in shock and confusion.
Sunset's first impulse was to make her body vanish through sheer force of will. When that didn't work, she said, "Oh. That's different too. Good to know. I'm going to go cry now."
And she spun around, pivoting on the pit in her stomach, and walked into the bathroom to do just that.
The ladies' room of Sugarcube Corner wasn't the best place to have an emotional breakdown, not like the soulless, institutional stalls of CHS. It felt more like a residential half-bath, with a single toilet, walls done up in a pastel blue and pink color scheme reminiscent of Mrs. Cake, and a plug-in air freshener that made the whole room smell like cinnamon sugar. But Sunset didn't let that stop her.
She wasn't sure how long she spent sobbing, but she managed to cry herself out after some time. Rarity must have been listening at the door, because a few moments after Sunset moved from weeping to wallowing in sorrow, she heard a knock on the door followed by "Sunset? Are you feeling better?"
Sunset grunted something unintelligible. Rarity of all people should've appreciated a good wallow.
"We're here for you if you need us," Fluttershy said through the door.
"Uh-huh." Sunset didn't have the emotional energy to try to resent Fluttershy right now.
"You just have to let us in. Emotionally and literally," Pinkie said from right behind her. Sunset didn't even lift her head. She knew the other girl wouldn't be there when she looked. Or she'd be standing in the landscape hung over the toilet. There were days Sunset suspected that changing the world had actually weakened Pinkie's abilities.
Well, she'd be able to confirm that now.
"Sunset?" Sunset cringed. Oh no. Not Twilight. Not now. "We need to—"
"Phrasing, darling!"
Sunset could almost hear the eye roll. It was like another dagger to her heart. "I want to talk."
Another grunt worked its way up Sunset's throat, but she cut it off when her view of the bathroom tile got cut off by a pair of indigo boots. She looked up to see a concerned Twilight look back. Twilight's gaze darted away as she started toying with a loose strand of hair. "Pinkie confirmed you weren't, er, using the facilities. And, well, let's just say you've made me question certain assumptions and provide evidence for certain hypotheses that, in hindsight, I deliberately hadn't tested. And Timber Spruce may be, shall we say... facing an oral exam soon. For comparison's sake."
The gears in Sunset's mind groaned into motion, settling into the familiar task of translating Twilish scientific euphemisms. "Even so, I'm sorry for doing that. I won't make any excuses, I still—" Then they locked up again. "Hang on, Timber Spruce? The camp counselor? Isn't he like twenty? That's kind of creepy."
Twilight's developing blush flared up in an instant, turning her cheeks a furious magenta. "He's eleven months older than me and I turn eighteen next month. It's not... creepy." She curled her fingers into air quotes for the last word.
Sunset snorted as the banter enveloped her like a comfy blanket. "Sure. Told your parents about him yet?"
The blush grew until Twilight almost glowed. She cleared her throat. "Right now, we have more important things to worry about."
"That wasn't a yes."
"Come on, you." Twilight took a step back and held out her hand. "We have a world to save."
"Again." Still, Sunset managed a smile as she took the hand and pulled herself up. "I really need to get out of the habit of Twilights pulling me out of my hole." She gasped. "Of course!"
Twilight blinked. "What?"
"In a second. 'Scuse me." Sunset scrambled around Twilight, out of the bathroom, and all but through her dearly beloved friends.
"Sunset, bipedalism!" called Fluttershy as the others followed after her.
"Right! Sorry!" Sunset had reared back up by the time she made it back to the table where Rainbow Dash and Applejack waited. "Time isn't the problem," she cried, "space is!"
Both seated girls shared a perplexed look. "So... aliens?" Dash said after a moment.
Sunset shook her head. "No, none of the species in contact with us would have anything to gain from this. Okay, maybe the Vaucoi, but this seems way outside their capabilities."
That got perplexed stares from everyone, including the Cakes and the few other customers who had trickled in during the off hour.
"I'll get to that." Sunset let the others seat themselves, then more quietly said, "You all know how Equestria is a different world with a lot of the same people as this one, right?"
Rarity grimaced. "Intimately. We had to trek through the Everfree Forest after the Lux Deluxe sank. I can understand why you'd miss unicorn magic, Sunset, but given the choice, I much prefer a society that isn't clothing optional."
"Hey," said Dash, "if it weren't for that portal, we'd have been stuck on that island for who knows how long. Or blasted by..." She trailed off and furrowed her brow in thought. "I guess it was the ghost of the Storm King? What was his deal, anyway?"
Sunset's jaw worked silently for a few moments. "We're going to have to come back to that too. The point is, it's not the only other world out there."
"I knew it!" Twilight cried, popping out of her seat with arms raised to the sky. "I knew the magic horses confirmed the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics!" She held the pose for a good few seconds before collapsing back into her chair, head in her hands. "What is my life?"
Sunset couldn't help but smile at the bittersweet familiarity. "I know how you feel. But thinking of Princess Twilight made me realize there was one discrepancy that no amount of time travel could explain, the journal."
"Which one?" said Pinkie.
Sunset stared at her in blank incomprehension. "Excuse me?"
"Well, you, I mean the local Sunset, not you-you but youish? You adjacent? She went back to Equestria to pick up a fresh one after she-you filled the first one."
"Exactly my point. In my world, the journal was supposed to provide pages as needed. It couldn't fill up. But this one did. A magical artifact behaving that differently can only mean I'm in the wrong universe."
"Isn't that worse than time travel?" said Dash. "Going by comics, there are a lot of other worlds out there. And most of them are full of evil versions of us. Or zombies."
Pinkie gasped. "Or evil zombie usses!"
Sunset shook her head. "It's fine. I know people in the local multiversal society. Contacting them may be tricky, but I have a couple options there."
"That's all fine an' dandy, but where's our Sunset?" said Applejack.
Sunset furrowed her brow. "I'm... not sure. I was honestly too focused on figuring out what even happened to think about her. She could be sequestered in my subconscious right now. She might have been sent into a third Sunset like one of those pendulum office toys."
"Falling's cradle," said Twilight.
"Or..." Sunset winced. "We could have switched places. Which is the worst outcome possible."
The others shared confused glances. Rarity spoke for the group. "I know our two worlds are quite different, but how bad could it be?"
Sunset rose from her seat. "We can talk about it at my place. I think we've taken enough of the Cakes' time and hospitality, and I don't know how much of the supernatural you want to share with anyone who happens to be in the room." She swept a hand across the cafe, making more than one person try to hide the phones pointed at the group.
"Oh, everyone in town pretty much expects this from us." Pinkie waved at a few of the more poorly hidden cameras.
Applejack hoisted her by the collar. "Don't mean we gotta go flauntin' it. C'mon, y'all."
Silence fell over the loft after Sunset finished running down the basics of her world. The others sat, all staring at nothing in particular as they tried to grasp the magnitude of what she'd told them.
Rainbow Dash spoke first. "So... I can fly whenever I want?"
The others turned to face her, all with varying amounts of bemusement on their faces. "Really?" said Applejack. "Outta all o' that, that's yer takeaway?"
"Hey, flying's awesome!"
"You can pretty much call up yer wings whenever ya want here an' now."
Dash crossed her arms. "Yeah, but the other me's been able to do it for months more than me. She's got an edge."
Applejack buried her face into her hat. "Fer cryin' out loud..."
Twilight turned to Sunset, notebook hovering beside her in a way that every instance of Twilight apparently developed once she had telekinesis. "So, personal symbols are at the crux of a religion?"
"Is that not the case here? " said Sunset. "I didn't want to intrude."
Twilight shook her head. "They ultimately developed from noble heraldry. Wealthy merchant families commissioned their own coats of arms, which became a sort of early corporate logo in simplified forms. As fortunes changed, more and more such symbols spread among the populace, and the younger generations made larger and larger alterations to their family crests. In time, it developed into the modern state of personally significant symbols with loose thematic connections within a family. At least, that was how it worked in Stirrope. In the East—"
Sunset held up a hand. "I get it, Twilight. Normally, this would be fascinating, but we have bigger concerns."
"Like you holdin' that whole dang universe together with chewin' gum an' chicken wire," said Applejack, who had somehow ended up sitting on Rainbow Dash over the course of Twilight's lecture. If anything, it was a comfortable bit of normalcy.
"And that's the best it's been in months," said Sunset. "If the place is going untended, it's working its way down to spit and duct tape. And if your Sunset is there, she could be doing untold damage without even meaning to."
Pinkie scratched her head. "So how do we get she-you back and you-she to the right warp pipe before the timer runs out?"
"Like I said, I have some contacts outside of the universe, and I know the Equestrian Time-Space Administration Bureau likes to hire iterations of the same person for this kind of work. But there might be an even more reliable option." Sunset turned to Fluttershy. "Do you think you can get me in touch with Mr. Discord?"
The girl shook and paled to the color of a Maneila folder. "M-m-m... No! I hated that show when I was a little girl!"
After a moment of blank incomprehension, Sunset shook her head. "Okay, I'm lost. In my world, he's your favorite teacher at CHS."
Twilight tapped away on her phone. "If you mean John Q. Discord, in this world, he's kind of the face of popular science. He had a popular edutainment show about ten years ago, The Fun of Making Sense." She angled her phone so Sunset could see muted video of a somewhat less gray Mr. Discord capering around in a way very reminiscent of one of his classes. Then a little cartoon chimera popped into being next to him.
Fluttershy was halfway to a fetal position by this point. "There was this horrible, nasty little creature who'd show up and say the most awful things!"
Twilight nodded and tapped the edge of her phone. "The Draconequus. He'd propose scenarios that are physically impossible, Mr. Discord would shoot them down, they'd both sigh in disappointment. It happened at least once per episode." She gave a sheepish grin. "I may still have a plush Draconequus in my closet."
"Well, he was a bit of a long shot in a world without widespread magic," said Sunset. "ETSAB contacts it is. Pinkie?"
Pinkie snapped to attention and snapped off an admittedly impressive salute. "Yes, ma'am, Commander Shimmer!"
Sunset smiled. She could use a little silliness right now. "Private Pie, I'm going to need the contact information for Ditzy Doo and Lyra Heartstrings."
Pinkie remained at attention, but the others looked confused. "Beg pardon, Sunset," said Rarity, "but who is 'Ditzy Doo'?"
"Right, she said her name was inconsistent. Sudsy Bubbles?" More blank stares. "Derpy Feet?"
Fluttershy gasped. "Oh, Muffins!"
"My next guess," said Sunset.
Rarity shook her head. "You'll have no luck there, darling. If she is a secret agent across time and space, then she's put it on hold. Last I heard, she and her beau were spending as much of the winter holiday together as they could get away with."
"Oh." Sunset couldn't help but smile. "Well, good for her and Flash. They're cute together."
The others traded yet more perplexed looks. "Flash?" said Dash. "As in Flash Sentry?"
"Um... yes? Who else?"
"Bulk Biceps."
Sunset felt her jaw drop. The sound that escaped her mouth wasn't speech. It barely qualified as human.
Applejack gave a wry grin as she gently shut Sunset's mouth. "Y' just imagined the kids, didn't ya?"
Sunset cleared her throat and looked away. "Maybe."
"Don't fret, everyone gets that look when they find out."
"The phrase 'bull in a porcelain shop' comes to mind." Rarity put a hand on Applejack's shoulder and gazed into her eyes. "Oh, but they are precious together."
Applejack looked back with equal affection. "Heh, yeah. They sure are."
Sunset smiled. "Nice to know some things didn't change."
Both looked back at her. "Huh?"
"Uh... Aren't you two..." Sunset whipped a finger back and forth between them.
As one, Rarity and Applejack cried "She doesn't—!" They stopped, looked at one another, and chorused, "Do you?"
Dash scratched her head. "I thought you two got together after the whole Equestria Land thing."
"Equestria what!?" said Sunset.
"The animation company," said Twilight, "not the pony universe."
"There's an animation company?"
"What about Ragamuffin?" said Applejack.
Rarity put her hands on her hips. "What about Dirk Thistleweed? 'Slather away' indeed."
Pinkie sidled up to Sunset, phone in her hand. "Yeah, this might take a while. It's calling Lyra now."
"Thanks, Pinkie." Sunset put the phone to her ear.
"This is Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings."
Sunset gave her universal activation phrase, the one that would activate any sleeper agent of the Strings Section of the Office of Parallel Timelines when said in her voice: "Pony wears the saddle."
After a few moments of silence on the other line, Lyra said, "Sunset, I don't know if this is a weird alien horse thing or if Pinkie's trying to teach you how to make prank calls, but either way, it isn't working."
"No, no it isn't." Sunset slumped onto her couch. "Sorry, we're in the middle of magic nonsense and there was a slim chance you could help."
"Would it help if I went to your home planet again? Because you never let me get a good look at it last time and—"
Sunset heard the aggravated "Lyra." She could only imagine how it sounded on Lyra's end. "I'll, uh, let you get back to whatever you were doing. Tell Bonbon I said hi."
"Who's Bonbon?" Lyra's tone turned almost as hostile as her best friend's. "Don't you dare spread rumors about me cheating on Sweetie Drops again, Shimmer."
Sunset flinched back from the phone before she could even think to catch herself. "Sorry! Alternate universes are involved."
"Okay. This time." With that, Lyra disconnected.
Sunset sighed. "Well, Lyra was a bust. And I'm out of convenient ways of contacting the greater multiverse." She looked around the room and noted the complete absence of mysterious doors with her cutie mark on them. "And apparently I don't need a drink as much as I think I do."
"Uh..." Dash uhhed.
"If you ever really need to find out, you will."
"You do have one guaranteed contact outside of this universe," said Twilight.
"Who?"
Twilight stared at Sunset for a moment, then took off her glasses, pointed at herself, and raised an eyebrow. After another brief pause, she said, "Please don't make me undo the ponytail. It takes longer than you think to get it the way I like it."
The penny dropped. "Oh. Of course!" Sunset sprang to her feet. "You said there was a second journal?"
Twilight pointed up to the actual lofted part of the loft. "You usually keep it on the shelves by your bed."
"Then I know what I have to do." Sunset looked around the room, from those friends smiling back at her to the ones currently lost in one another's eyes. "Thanks guys. All of you."
Fluttershy fidgeted. "Um, we didn't really do much."
"You did more than you know. You guys are how I stay grounded in my world, how I keep myself from going as distant and hands-off as the Tree of Harmony. Without you specifically, I don't know what I would have done today."
"Group hug!" cried Pinkie.
After get pleasantly crushed by everyone, Sunset waved them off. "Now go on. I don't want to eat up your vacation any more than I already have."
"Dude, seriously?" said Dash. "We're just about to get to the good part!"
Sunset shook her head. "We're getting to the part where I'll have to investigate this in Equestria. You may all have a little experience with hooves—apparently—but this calls for rigorous magical analysis. No offense meant, but I'm barely qualified for the next steps."
Twilight grinned. "You say that like it's going to deter me."
"Also, your counterparts are kind of famous at this point, so duplicates hanging around might raise some uncomfortable questions."
"There is that, yes. Your counterpart was adamant that we avoid the locals' notice whenever possible."
"Even though I was right there and I totally could've raced myself," added Dash.
"Look, if things go wrong..." Sunset thought about it and said, "You know what? No matter how things go, I'll let you all know what the plan is after I get in touch with the princess. But right now, I'd like to figure this next part out on my own."
"Well, y'all heard 'er." Applejack tipped her hat on her way out. "Good luck, Sunset."
"Let us know the moment you have something concrete," said Twilight.
"Cement your suspicions!" cried Pinkie, fist in the air. "Make an asphalt of whoever did this!"
"And when you find our Sunset, tell her we miss her," said Dash. "You're cool. Like, cool enough that people literally worship you."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "No matter how much I tell them not to."
"But she needs to get back where she belongs as much as you do."
Sunset bumped Dash's offered fist. "No argument here."
Fluttershy waved farewell. "Tell the ponies we say hi. And to visit us sometime."
"Will do." Sunset turned to her last guest, who was making no effort to depart. "Uh, Rarity? Pretty sure you have business with Applejack."
"Far more than I realized, yes, but I feel you should know one more thing about this world. Consider it further impetus to set everything right."
Sunset crossed her arms. "At least one universe will explode if I don't pull this off. I don't need any more motivation."
"All the same. You mentioned that Flash was seeing Muffins in your world?"
"Yeah," Sunset said with a nod. "The whole 'childhood friends turned lovers' thing. Which you seem to enjoy yourself."
Rarity cleared her throat, though, she couldn't completely hide her blush. "As I said, darling, this isn't about me, it's about you. Muffins didn't get together with Bulk because she spurned her best friend's advances. The name may change, but we both know she wouldn't hurt anyone like that. Flash has been trying to rekindle his relationship with you." Rarity looked straight into Sunset's eyes. "And you've expressed at least some interest in doing so."
It shouldn't have been a major revelation. It wasn't, in the grand scheme of things. But it still made the pit in Sunset's stomach sink even deeper. "Oh."
"Indeed."
"That is extra motivation. Breaking his heart once was bad enough, and that was back when I could tell myself he was just a tool, not a friend. Thanks, Rarity."
"Of course. Thought you ought to know." Rarity gave one final wave and left the loft.
Once the door shut, Sunset took the stairs up to her bedroom two at a time.
The second journal was embarrasingly easy to find once she knew there was one to look for. It wasn't like there were a lot of other leather-bound books on her shelves. Certainly none that had "Cover material donated by Daisy Jo of Ponyville, 1076-1108" debossed on the back.
The cover image brought a bitter smile to Sunset's lips. She traced the purple right half of the design. "Soon." Then she opened it and started reading. The missives from Twilight were largely familiar at first: Concern over growing royal responsibilities, funny moments from Ponyville, the trials and triumphs of Starlight Glimmer.
But then they kept going. A "Festival of Friendship" where everything had gone wrong, from the foreign dignitaries proving unable to attend to a surprise invasion by some southern warlord. A School of Friendship based on the experiences of guiding Sunset and Starlight both, intended to spread harmony worldwide. The new students' quirks, Cozy Glow's scheming, Sombra's return...
Celestia's retirement.
Nerveless fingers dropped the journal as Sunset contemplated that. Celestia... was. The idea that she would abdicate, that she even could, it would be like Sunset herself passing on her mantle.
A mantle that, right now, was either going unclaimed or resting on unready shoulders.
A few deep breaths, and Sunset managed to collect herself. "Sun-mommy issues later, filly. Investigation now." She picked up the journal again and flipped back to where she'd left off.
The gradual transition of power. The Summer Sun Celebration becoming the Festival of the Two Sisters. Discord's nearly cataclysmic attempt to boost Twilight's confidence by bringing together her greatest remaining adversaries. An accession ceremony that had gone almost as badly as the Festival of Friendship, and how Twilight was sorry Sunset couldn't attend.
And as Sunset turned to the first blank page, a folded sheet of paper fell out of the journal, not one of the creamy Equestrian pages but a standard-sized sheet taken from the printer tray downstairs.
On it went, lines fitfully starting and stopping all across the page, some crossed out once, others so heavily scribbled over that Sunset couldn't begin to guess what lay under the graphite smear. But she didn't need to. She recognized her guilt as easily as her handwriting.
Still, none of the scratched-out lines said just what the local Sunset had done.
Sunset stopped herself moments before she called Apple Bloom. She'd never given this one domain over the past. The Apple Bloom she could call couldn't perform psychometry on the sheet anymore than Sunset could. The only person who could say what it all meant was gone, and Sunset was using her body.
She sighed and fell back onto her pillow. Her head lolled to the side, facing her nightstand, and that was how she saw it.
Sunset hadn't even noticed it that morning, focused as she'd been on the familiarity of her phone. But there it sat, shining like a drop of amber, engraved with her cutie mark.
Grimacing, she grabbed the necklace, holding the crystal up to her eyes. It crackled with cobweb-thick bolts of energy, and she felt a distinct sense of rejection and resentment.
"I know. I'm not your Sunset, and I passed up my geode. But I did that because I didn't need more power then, because I was honestly afraid of what more power would do to me. If you want her back now, I need your help. You're the only other entity that was here when it happened, and you clearly have some degree of awareness."
The geode didn't react to that, but it was a very pointed sort of nonreaction, deafening in its silence.
"You exist to bridge gaps, foster understanding. Help me understand what your Sunset did and why, and I'll do everything I can to bring her back where she belongs."
Time stretched on as the crystal gave no response. Just as Sunset began to question the wisdom of negotiating with a piece of jewelry, it flashed with a gentle, familiar golden light.
Sunset smiled. "Thank you." She donned the necklace and put a hand on the scratch paper.
Almost immediately, her vision whited out, and the past unfurled before her.
Sunset's first impression was an old memory recovering from a stint as a nightmare. The carpet was still scorched in places, the marble blackened, the stained-glass windows replaced by plain ones. The entire back wall was just gone, replaced by sheets of wood. Celestia's throne room had certainly seen better days.
But it wasn't Celestia sitting on the reading chair that had taken her throne's place. And it wasn't Sunset speaking to the princess. Not exactly.
"Wait," said the memory of the local Sunset, "the princesses went to a retirement community?"
And the question was so bizarre, so fundamentally wrong, that the Sunset watching forgot she was spectating and completely fell into her counterpart's mind.
"No, no," Princess Twilight said in her hastily supplied backup throne. "I thought that at first too, but. that's Silver Stable. Silver Shoals is this nice kelp-farming village in Bittish Columbia. Perfectly nice place as long as you don't drop any cucumbers in the bay." She gave a nervous laugh as she took in Sunset's confused look. "Long story. There was a bunyip."
"It's not that. It's just... Celestia. Retiring." Sunset shook her head. "No matter how many times I hear it, I can't make myself believe it."
"I know exactly how you feel. And I'm the one who took her place!" Twilight slumped in her chair. "I don't think anypony would try to conquer Equestria if they realized they'd actually have to run it afterwards."
Sunset waited. The expected rump covering never came. Finally, just to break the silence, she said, "Yeah, that's rough. You know, I still have a notebook full of possible policy changes I wrote up before the Fall Formal if you're interested."
Twilight gave a beatific smile she'd definitely picked up from their mentor. "As far as I'm concerned, with Starlight looking after the school, you're the eighth member of the Council of Friendship. Feel free to bring it next time you're free. As long as they aren't too..." The mask slipped as she cleared her throat. "You know, evil."
Sunset smirked. "I'm pretty sure this makes me a royal vizier. Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to be evil?"
"Don't get me started," Twilight groaned. "Suddenly all the ponies who had years to get to know me, even after the wings, are crawling out of the woodwork to make nice with the 'new princess.'" For somepony born without wings, she put an impressive amount of scorn into the feather quotes. "I'm not even the newest princess anymore! Flurry's almost two years old!"
Sunset made herself nod. "Must be rough."
"And it's so frustrating. They all think I'll rubber-stamp any proposal they give me if they force the word 'friendship' into the first paragraph. I'm starting to get sick of the word." Twilight brought her hooves to her chest. "Me! The princess of the thing!"
"When's the last time you slept?" Sunset said as she approached the "throne." "You're sounding a lot like the other you after a weekend-long all-nighter."
"Sleep isn't the problem. Luna's still looking after the dreamscape, thank goodness. The problem," Twilight all but snarled, "is that apparently, after all I've done, some ponies hadn't ever heard of me until now. Clearly that means I was foaled yesterday."
Sunset patted her on the withers, royal etiquette be banished. "Don't worry. Give it a moon, tops. Everypony will know full well you're Princess Twilight Sparkle, and you've been around the block a few times."
"Thanks, Sunset. Really. I—" Twilight cut herself off as her horn started flashing. "Oh! Hold that thought." She moved to one of the western windows, lit her horn, and began moving the sun below the horizon.
Her. Not Celestia. Twilight.
"Happy to help," Sunset said over the internal screaming.
"Happy to help. Happy to help!?"
Sunset had wandered away from the throne room at some point. After a few minutes, she'd realized her hooves were guiding her to one of her favorite venting spots, the section of the Archives full of the most advanced and obscure magics, where almost nopony else might have intruded upon her dropping her old facade.
Or the one she'd had to put on today.
"Gets the world handed to her in a feedbag and she's just..." Sunset fluttered her eyelashes and, in her best worst mockery of Twilight's voice, cooed, "'Oh, look at me, I'm Miss Perfect Sparkle. Boo hoo hoo, ruling the country is so hard, and nopony could ever understand. I can move the sun and moon without batting an eye, but I'm surrounded by ponies who haven't heard of me. Waa waa waa.' Stuck-up... little..."
Sunset's rant and pacing both slowed to a halt when she realized she wasn't alone. An old unicorn stallion stared at her from the entrance, one eyebrow raised. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on behind the beard, but she couldn't think of any expressions she'd actually want to see there. The glass-enclosed flowerpot balanced on his back did not help. If anything, the way it pointed at her made it feel like the flower was judging her even more than its steed. "Um..." Sunset swallowed against the lump in her throat. "How long have you been standing there?"
The stallion moved into the central annex. "I came in somewhere around 'Miss Perfect Sparkle.'"
"I, uh..."
"Sunset Shimmer, I presume?" he said as he set the flower down at the foot of the central hourglass.
Sunset briefly considered denying it, but her old instincts told her there was little point in trying to deceive him. "You have me at a disadvantage, sir."
"Truly?" He looked up at the bust atop that hourglass. The one of the wing's namesake.
The one that looked exactly like him.
"Star Swirl!" Sunset found herself split. Did she bow? Genuflect? Box his ears? She settled on stammering out, "I, you, Twi... oh my gosh, I-I'm sorry, I'll go apologize to Twilight right away. I just—"
He held up a forehoof, silencing her. "Relax, Miss Shimmer. An apology will not help either of you right now. I understand your resentment."
"Y-you do?"
That got a single, jingling nod. "Indeed. You remind me of a young Luna."
It wasn't hard to follow his line of thought from there. "And Twilight is Celestia."
"Precisely. She flourishes, you languish, and so your resentment begins to outweigh your sisterly love. I know you are not sisters in blood, but you were both mentored by Celestia, and that manner of sisterhood can be just as binding. Until it is not." Sorrow crept into his gaze, and the restrained but burning energy surrounding him retreated. For the first time since Sunset had spotted him, Star Swirl seemed old. "I see a bit of Stygian in you as well, the stallion I so terribly failed."
"Twilight told me about him. I'm not going to court any dark forces for power if that's what you're worried about. Been there, done that, took a rainbow to the face." Sunset rolled her eyes. "And then I had to clean up the messes you left in that world..." She trailed off as she realized just who she was mouthing off to. "That is to say—"
Star Swirl shook his head. "Do not twist your words away from that harsh truth, Miss Shimmer. You more than anypony have earned the right to chastise me for my sloppiness. Stygian and Clover both warned me I had grown too reliant on banishing my problems. Over time, the spell became so rote I didn't even realize I was sending so much to the same world. It is because you have done so much to truly solve those problems I merely delayed that I trust you will not fall again.
"No, I sought you out for a different reason. With a new alicorn on the throne and no appeal in the forces of darkness, doubtless you feel like there is nowhere for one as ambitious as you to go. I fear you will simply lie down and accept irrelevance and futility. Far too many times have I seen a promising pupil give up hope because she felt she could not compare to her contemporaries, when with enough effort she could have been remembered for generations while they were all lost to history."
Sunset gave a lopsided grin. "That's a really convoluted way of saying 'Hang in there.'"
"But the message is no less important. You have already had a lasting impact on two worlds and the legacy of a foolish old stallion."
"Not always a good impact," Sunset said, gaze falling to the floor.
A stomp made her dart her head back up to see Star Swirl scowl. "As Meadowbrook once told me, show me a pony who has made no mistakes, and I shall show you a newborn." His expression softened to a smile mostly found in his eyes. "I sincerely hope that you continue to leave your mark on history, even with Princess Twilight on the throne."
Sunset returned the smile as best she could. "I appreciate that. Really." She rubbed a foreleg with the other fetlock. "Don't suppose you have any suggestions?"
"Well, as it happens..." Star Swirl's eyes moved to the flower under glass.
"Wait, seriously?"
"I have several other errands to attend to while at the castle, but after..." Star Swirl's expression soured as he said, "recent events, I find myself without anypony I can trust enough to tend to this wishblossom while I do them."
Sunset gasped and took in the flower. Each of the eight heliotrope petals glowed with its own inner light, the paler outer edges almost florescent. "W-wishblossom?"
"The one I left in Princess Twilight's care ended up exhausted by youthful folly. But who better to treat my work with the respect it deserves than one who has seen it misused time and again?"
Sunset gave Star Swirl a sidelong glance. "I literally crushed one of your greatest creations under my heel."
He snorted. "The Time Twirler. A fool's errand, that one. Nearly drove me mad before I was rid of it."
"Same. Hence, you know, the crushing."
"It only bolsters my confidence in you, Sunset." Star Swirl patted her on the withers and turned to leave. "I'll be back shortly."
Sunset watched him go, then turned back to the wishblossom. After a few moments, she said, "This was all just a setup to get me to plantsit for him, wasn't it?"
The wishblossom did not respond. Yet Sunset couldn't help but sense a sort of... eagerness to it. An attentiveness like Fluttershy staying quiet and letting other people talk themselves out.
"Well... It's just..." Sunset shook her head. "No. No, one of the greatest wizards in Equestrian history trusted me with this and I will not betray that trust."
The flower just stared at her, as much as something without eyes could. Come to think of it, it had been pointed at her since Star Swirl had come in the room. Was that normal? She'd gotten a few sunflowers to shift back when she helped Princess Celestia garden. Maybe it was something like that. She thought about finding a book on exotic flora to double-check.
But her hooves didn't seem inclined to leave the flower. Well, sure, she was supposed to guard it. From all zero other ponies in the Star Swirl Wing.
It was quiet. Libraries were supposed to be quiet, of course, but this silence was like a yawning chasm waiting to be filled. An abhorrent, unnatural vacuum. Enough to—
"Okay, fine." Sunset glared down at the flower. "But I'm just going to talk. And I'm not going to say you-know-what. I did do a little research about you before I fled the palace, in case you could've given me what I wanted back then. You want to be used. Something about your reproductive process and the germ of ideas.
"And that's the thing. I was trying to do this for years. Years!" Sunset felt herself start pacing again and went along with it. Like the words she was finally getting out, it felt good. "And even after I put aside world conquest, whenever I think of Princess Twilight, I can't help but think 'It could have been me.' If I had just sat down, shut up, and actually listened to what Celestia had been trying to tell me, it could be me in that throne room. And Twilight knows that. She knows my history with the prin..." Sunset shuddered as she added, "the former princess. She was there when we reconciled. But she complained about living my dream to my face, and it's..." She cut herself off, unwilling to go too far.
It lasted for all of a few seconds. "She got to be an alicorn, a princess, a ruler. At the Friendship Games, I thought I might have caught up, but..." Sunset bit her lip. Her hooves stamped in place like she had to use the little fillies' room. "I just wish I could be the one to get supreme power like that."
Sunset gasped and clapped her hooves over her mouth. "No! I mean, don't! Don't do it! I didn't mean it!"
The flower didn't react, and the strange allure vanished, a tug on her mind she only knew was there after it had gone.
Sunset let out a long sigh, her guts twisting. She couldn't tell if she was relieved or disappointed. "I guess even magic can't grant some wishes." She found a vaguely interesting looking book and stared at it for a while, occasionally remembering to turn a page.
The memory grew hazy from there, enough that the Sunset watching remembered that she was separate from the one who'd lived it. Star Swirl returned, giving Sunset praise that she grinned and bore even as the guilt stabbed at her. Sunset wandered through a Canterlot that had forgotten her and boarded a train full of strangers, then passed through a Ponyville that was just as ready to embrace a new era. Once through the portal, she moved through a different Canterlot in the same daze, one that had hardly ever known her in the first place, barely registering the people passing her by.
The hours blended together into a gray blur until they refocused on Sunset lying on her bed, crossing out line after line on the same scratch paper the other Sunset had used as a psychometric focus. "In a moment of weakness..." Furious scratching reduced that to one of the completely illegible lines. "It wasn't weakness, Shimmer, it was honesty. It's what you want but can't admit without a magic flower tugging on your tongue."
She sighed and went back to drafting. "If you could... Allow me to... Tell Celestia..." She scoffed at that. "What? Tell her what, Shimmer?"
With a groan, she wrote out one last line, then scratched it out so hard she almost tore the paper. She shoved the paper into the journal and slammed the book into the shelf. And then, falling back on her bed, geode glimmering unseen on her nightstand, she said what she'd last written.
"I just wish it could have been me."
And so Sunset turned out the Yuletide lights, shut her eyes... and began to glow.
Repetitive buzzing jolted Sunset out of her daze. For a few confused moments, she wondered why her local self had set an alarm for 11:28 in the morning. Then she realized it was the new journal. She flipped to the most recent message, forcing herself to focus through her mental fuzz.
Dear Sunset,
I'm not going to make any accusations one way or another, but Star Swirl would very much like to know what happened to six of his new wishblossom's petals. You should probably get to Ponyville as soon as possible. We'll both be waiting there.
"That... does explain things," human Twilight said once Sunset finished telling her about the vision. "So what did you tell my counterpart?"
Sunset dodged around the spotty foot traffic and patches of slush as quickly as she could manage while keeping her phone to her ear. "Basically, it's complicated and I'll explain in person. I'm on my way to CHS now. Sorry!" She practically pirouetted to avoid a man lugging several massive boxes. "I really miss teleportation," she grumbled.
Twilight replied with the high-pitched laugh that meant new information about magic had forced her to reassess her worldview, but she didn't want Sunset to feel bad about that. "W-well, with any luck, you'll be popping around spacetime in no time!" She cleared her throat and, somewhat less hysterically, said, "I'll let the others know the situation."
"Thanks, Twilight. I really do appreciate it. I'm not trying to shut you girls out, it's just panning out that way."
"I understand, and I'm reasonably sure the others will as well." After a moment, Twilight added. "Also, if this is the last time I speak to this specific instance of you, I just want to say it's been... enlightening. Thank you."
"Glad I could help," Sunset said with a smile. "When all's said and done, I'll see if the ETSAB can track down this worldline. I still need to say goodbye to everyone else."
"Right. So... bye!"
"Bye." Sunset couldn't bring herself to move the phone away from her ear, even as she crossed the street onto the CHS campus. If something went wrong...
After a few more moments, Twilight said, "Are you going to hang up first? I've fallen into this hole with Timber before, once I got him to communicate in something other than emojis."
Sunset sighed. "I'll have to. See you when I see you, Twilight." She finally put down the phone and, after one last moment of hesitation, ended the call. She looked at the marble plinth and held out a hand to it. Faint glimmers of light played along its surface as she got close.
"Didn't think I'd be able to do this again for decades." She shut her eyes. "Here goes nothing."
The passage through the portal was largely as Sunset remembered it, but for one brief moment that seemed to stretch out for eternity, she could see the higher levels of reality that had been closed off to her. In that transcendent instant, her shifting form resonated with the greater harmonies of the paracosmos, and her soul rose on astral wings.
Then she stumbled face first into the floor of the Ponyville castle.
Sunset sighed and got to her hooves. After she confirmed that the only bruises were on her pride, she turned to check her sides. No wings. "Really wasn't sure what to expect there."
"I expect an explanation," thundered Star Swirl. Given how his expression of seething rage almost perfectly matched Zeus's during Sunset's Olympian negotiations back home, it seemed an appropriate term.
"Oh, right, Star Swirl." Sunset nodded to the other pony in the room. "Hey, Twilight."
"Sunset. I'm afraid we have a lot to discuss."
"We do, just not how you think." Sunset turned to Star Swirl and tried her best to replicate the look she'd used on the god. "What in the name of Discord's dewclaw were you thinking!?"
His glower redoubled. "You dare speak to me like that, you—"
"You gave magic wishes and a compulsion to make them to a recovering megalomaniac. And you knew she was suffering from inadequacy issues. How are you surprised? You might as well have helped Luna pick out a new name for when she succumbed to darkness."
"Wait," said Twilight, "'she'?"
Star Swirl scoffed. "I thought you might at most make one wish. Either you would use it bring yourself closer to Twilight's level, or you would overcome the temptation and walk away knowing you had the strength of will to resist the simple solution and make your own."
Sunset snorted. "It was a little hard to resist temptation when the wishblossom practically grabbed her by the ears and shouted 'wish for something!'"
"'Her'? Sunset, why are you—"
"My experience with full specimens has admittedly been..." Star Swirl looked away from Sunset, if only for a moment. "Minimal. It is possible that I underestimated the allure."
"Why were you even exposing her to that allure in the first place?"
Twilight half-shouted, "Will somepony—"
"My intention was to follow the example of Princess Twilight and her friends." Said princess fell silent when Star Swirl's nodded towards her. "Generosity is a virtue in these times, especially in offering both inspirational and tangible aid to one's friends. Goodness knows I could have done more for many of my apprentices in that regard.
"But I didn't expect you to so shamelessly exploit that generosity." Star Swirl stomped a forehoof. "Half a dozen wishes, and yet here you stand, no different than yesterday! What nonsense did you even squander them on?"
"HEY!" Both unicorns jumped and turned to Twilight, who cleared her throat and scowled at them. "Sorry to break out the Royal Canterlot Voice, but I feel we should focus on why Sunset keeps trying to distance herself from making the wishes."
Sunset shook her head. "Wish."
"What?" the others chorused.
"Star Swirl was right. Sunset only made one wish."
"You are Sunset!" Twilight groaned. "Please tell me your Trixie hasn't rubbed off on you."
Star Swirl scoffed. "Never once have I heard of a wish using multiple petals. How do I know this isn't some absurd ruse? And even if it were true, how would you know about it if you were who you claimed to be?"
"I was able to convince this Sunset's geode to show me her memories." Sunset brought a hoof to her chest only to find nothing there. She looked around the room for a spot of orange that might have flown off when she arrived and found nothing. "They're, uh, sort of that world's Elements of Harmony—"
"Twilight has told me of them, yes. You have yet to convince me you aren't the one who so abused my trust."
Sunset grimaced. "I may not like that part of myself, but I still deceived everyone I knew for years. If I were lying to you, I'd tell you something much more believable."
"You will forgive me if your legacy as a scoundrel doesn't make me trust you more now," Star Swirl said as he rolled his eyes.
Sunset quirked an eyebrow. "All right." She stepped closer to Twilight, leaned in, and whispered something into her ear.
Twilight jumped back like she'd been stung by a wasp. "I never told you that! I never told anypony that!"
"You never told your Sunset. The Princess Twilight I knew told me after... Well, it's complicated. Believe me now?"
Twilight nodded hard enough to make her mane flop about. "Absolutely. Please don't supply any more proof."
"Hmph." Star Swirl still glared at Sunset. "Very well then, I will entertain this farce out of respect for Princess Twilight. What was this single wish?"
"That, for once in her life, Sunset could be the one to get supreme power." Twilight gasped. "And apparently that meant the Sunset who was using that power had to go somewhere." Sunset held out a hoof to Star Swirl. "I need to get back to my body so I can make sure my universe doesn't disintegrate, and you need to get the other Sunset back so you can tell her off. Let's work together."
"Hmm..." Star Swirl's expression softened. His gaze trailed off into the middle distance as he stroked his beard. "It is unprecedented, but the power of six petals brought together could certainly pierce the veil between worlds, much less displace two souls. But a single swap like that would take decades to erode the boundary between the worlds. Why would your entire universe be at risk so soon?"
"When I say supreme power, I don't mean political. I became my human world's Spirit of Harmony after magic almost tore the world apart, and I've worked to pull it back from the brink ever since." Sunset waved her still-extended foreleg. "Also you're leaving me hanging here."
"Ah, yes." Star Swirl bumped the offered hoof. "The course of action is clear. We must set things right, so that you may preserve your home and your counterpart faces a suitable punishment for her misdeeds."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "And what about you dangling the thing that let her commit those misdeeds in front of her face before leaving her with it unsupervised?"
Star Swirl cleared his throat. "I... suppose I still have much to learn in the ways of friendship."
"Yes. Yes, you do. But speaking from experience, learning that you're capable of making mistakes is an important early step. Now, let's..." The sentence died in Sunset's throat when she turned to Twilight. "Uh, Twilight? You okay?"
She didn't look okay. Her wings drooped to the ground, and her ears and head were doing their best to follow suit. "I had no idea Sunset felt that way," said Twilight. "Looking back on yesterday..." She sniffled and shook her head. "How could I have missed this?"
Sunset moved next to her and gave her a friendly nuzzle. "Hey, it's not your fault. She didn't tell anyone, on either side of the mirror. She could barely admit it to herself under the wishblossom's influence." Sunset sighed. "I can only imagine what she's doing now. Maybe if we consult with the Tree of Harmony, I can—"
She felt Twilight flinch at the mention of the Tree. "Um, about that..."
The Punch Bowl comprised half of Discord's list of hot Ponyville party spots, but it wasn't exactly hopping before noon. Still, half-price wassail had a way of attracting ponies who'd normally never set hoof inside the bar before sundown.
"It's almost too quiet these days," Junebug said to Berry Punch between sips of bargain brew.
Berry shrugged, wiping down the counter in the way of bartenders across the multiverse. "Not really a bad thing if you ask me."
"I guess." Junebug gave a forlorn sigh that would work a lot better if she were actually drunk. "But it feels like Twilight took all the excitement with her when she moved back to Canterlot."
Berry snorted. "Starlight still lives in the castle, and now Trixie does too. We've still got plenty of excitement. Besides, it's always been a little dull between Hearth's Warming and Winter Wrap-Up."
"I suppose. But—"
An almost physical wave of sound came from the direction of the Palace-Tree, rattling the windows and shaking dust from the rafters. Only in the echoes did the mares register the words "Sombra what!?"
"See that?" Berry said as she started wiping off the fresh dust. "There's still plenty of life in Ponyville."
Twilight managed to look even sadder, mostly through tears in her eyes. "I... didn't want to write about it in the journal. Writing made it feel too real."
Guilt stifled Sunset's first response. She wasn't used to other ponies anymore; she felt like she'd kicked a puppy. A puppy who was also her girlfriend. After a deep breath, she managed, "Okay. So. The Tree of Harmony got shattered into a million pieces. Fine, then. Plan B." She marched out of the portal library, glaring ahead and daring something to stand in her way.
"Sunset!" Twilight called after her. "Where are you going?"
"Plan. B."
A bleary-eyed pony Trixie stuck her head out of one of the rooms. "Who set off Big Bertha? I didn't think I'd even put a fuse in her."
It took most of Sunset's self-restraint to weave around her. "Plan B!"
From behind, she barely made out "Sunburst isn't even here this week."
Once Sunset reached the map room, she magically threw open the doors, stomped to the table itself, reared up, and slammed her forehooves onto it. "Okay, Junior. We have a situation and your mom isn't available. We need an alternative. What have you got for us?"
"Who are you talking to?" Twilight said from behind her.
Sunset didn't even glance away from the inactive Cutie Map. "Your castle. What did you think was guiding you through this thing?"
"Sunset, that's absurd. The castle isn't—" The Map activated, and Sunset felt her coat tingle with harmonious magic. "What!?" cried Twilight.
Copies of Sunset, Twilight, and Star Swirl's marks floated off of their flanks and orbited a point in the Everfree Forest. A very familiar point.
Sunset finally turned to Twilight. "I thought you said the Tree had been destroyed."
"I... You... This..." Twilight shook herself out of her sputtering and snarled at the Map. "Begged you. I begged you for a mission for moons! And then you sent me to the back end of nowhere!"
"Twilight, you can yell at your house later."
"It's not even my house anymore!" Twilight began stomping around the Map, spouting assorted half-words and other irritated noises as her horn sparked in agitation.
Sunset shuddered at a sudden attack of perspective and turned to Star Swirl. "Was this what I was like a couple minutes ago?"
He shrugged. "Thereabouts. Hardly my first brush with a brilliant mind driven past the point of coherence."
Twilight completed a circuit around the table and cried, "Why am I only learning this after I moved out!?"
"You didn't ask," Sunset deadpanned. "Why is it sending us to the Castle of the Two Sisters?"
"Oh, that. Well..."
"Your students WHAT!?"
Berry Punch smirked. Junebug just rolled her eyes. "All right, all right, you've made your point."
"More wassail?"
"Please."
After a few more deep breaths and thoughts of the cautionary tale that was Twilight's behavior, Sunset ground out, "Okay. So. A bunch of kids made a clubhouse out of the Tree's corpse and that somehow got it to rejuvenate and take over the castle ruins. Sure. Fine. Completely logical. Anything happen to it after that?"
Twilight shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of."
"Great. Then let's go check it out." Sunset pointed at the still-circling cutie marks with perhaps more force than was strictly necessary. "Clearly there's something we can do once we're there."
Star Swirl raised an eyebrow as they left the room. "For a Spirit of Harmony, you are rather intemperate."
"I usually struggle against a constant urge to be calm and collected, so I'm overcompensating right now. Also trying to process the Tree of fizzling Harmony getting cheap shotted and coming back through postmortem desecration. That may take me a while."
That actually got a smile out of the stallion, or at least the suggestion of one behind the beard. "It took me some time to adjust to that revelation as well. Those six are an... interesting group. Perhaps even more so than Princess Twilight and her friends."
"Huh." Sunset thought about that. "Huh. Kind of want to meet them myself, but I do need to get back home as soon as possible."
"Couldn't you visit them in your Equestria?" said Twilight.
"You're kind of ahead of us. The changelings reformed barely a month ago."
Star Swirl glowered at that. Before he could say anything, a pegasus guard charged through the doors of the castle. "Princess Twilight! You're needed in Canterlot!"
She shook her head. "Multiversal emergency! I declare Councilors Applejack and Fluttershy co-regents until I can return to the throne. And the answer to any and all marriage proposals is no, but save the contact information of anypony who scores an eight or higher with me in the Cadenza Compatibility Matrix."
"Understood, Your Highness!" The guard saluted and turned on a dime, streaking towards the horizon.
"You've gotten good at this," said Sunset.
Twilight shrugged her wings. "It turns out ninety percent of leadership is just sounding confident."
"Yeah, sounds about right."
"At barest minimum," added Star Swirl.
"Any reason you didn't just move the capital to Ponyville?"
Twilight shook her head. "We were already changing national leaders for the first time in over a millennium. If I tried changing the capital city on top of that, ponies would riot in the streets." She gave a wry grin. "Besides, I like Ponyville. I'm not going to tip over Canterlot and dump all the politics onto this town."
"Fair. Let's roohhh Celestia that's cold!" The moment Sunset passed through the palace doors, she froze on the spot. Not literally, but it certainly felt that way. Winter in Ponyville was a lot more picturesque than human Canterlot; no blackened road slush, no dull grey skies, just artfully piled snowdrifts that sparkled like heaps of diamonds in the sun. But it was also much colder.
Sunset made a stiff, shivering turn and staggered back inside the lovely, magically heated castle. "Coat. Earmuffs. Possibly pants. Then let's roll."
The gallop through the Everfree was astonishingly uneventful. Sunset had read about the ancient forest, heard about the countless perils within. But now the path was clear and the woods looked about as dangerous as the human-world national park that shared their name. Even the wild weather was warmer than in Ponyville, making Sunset actually feel more welcome here.
"Nice place. Apparently."
Star Swirl nodded. "The imbalance is slowly healing after all these years."
"And most of the monsters are hibernating," added Twilight.
"There is that, yes."
"So," said Sunset, "back to business. I have an idea about how I can get to my world, but it's a long shot. Anypony else?"
"Well, we do have the creator of the original mirror portal with us."
"I made many more portals beyond the one in the castle. Most were destroyed shortly before my exile in Limbo, but I have not forgotten the art." Star Swirl scowled. "However, without a specific planar frequency to attune the gateway, there is no telling what world it will connect to."
Sunset could tell where this was going. "Let me guess. We need something from that world to get the frequency."
"Precisely."
"Fantastic. Well, it's definitely a plan. Keep thinking... about..." The trees ahead cleared, and Sunset's jaw dropped.
If the forest had been bizarre, the castle was downright surreal. It definitely seemed related to the Ponyville castle, but with actual foliage. It had more organic curves and fewer harsh angles than either the castle or the Tree of Harmony as Sunset had last seen it. And also a lot of balconies, looping staircases, and variously shaped windows.
Oh, and it had settled on the foundations of one of Equestria's oldest historical landmarks and had apparently eaten most of the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Couldn't forget that part.
After a few moments of staring, Sunset got out, "I am... really not sure how to feel about this."
"I'm still not used to it myself," said Twilight.
Star Swirl shrugged. "I am simply grateful that I had to hold back the Everfree for only a single week."
Sunset shook off her awe and made for the bridge. "Well, come on. Not sure what we'll find, but it's bound to be useful."
The inner courtyard wasn't any less disconcerting. The transition from ancient stone to freshly reincarnated harmony crystal was about as smooth as going from Namepending Castle to Twilight's front lawn. But Sunset recognized the tranquil energies wafting off of the structure.
She brought a hoof to a crystal wall. It was warm, and pulsed warmer at the contact. "Are you there, Harmony? It's me, Sunset."
A duplicate of Twilight manifested in front of the treehouse's front doors like a low-budget sci-fi hologram. "Hello, Sunset Shimmer."
Twilight made a sound like she was swallowing her own tongue. Star Swirl gave a thoughtful hum. Sunset just blinked and said, "Oh. Huh. You're... not who I was expecting."
"You were expecting this?" cried Twilight.
"Not you. The one I talked to was... well, taller. With a horn like a tree branch. Also a tree, a human, and a couple thousand other things at the same time." Sunset bobbed her head from side to side. "You kind of had to be there."
"I am a relatively young Spirit of Harmony," said the sparkling Twilight. "I am still learning how to interact in linear time. I chose this form because it was familiar to those I first spoke to. I found it pleasing to maintain it."
Twilight shuddered. "Is anypony else uncomfortable? Because I'm uncomfortable."
"My heavens." Star Swirl approached the manifestation, eyes wide. He circled it, lips moving silently, before settling next to Sunset. "When we planted the seed, I never imagined it would develop into a thinking being."
Harmony's smile widened a fraction. "Hello, Father."
Star Swirl flinched back. "Father?" He stroked his beard for a few moments before nodding. "Yes, I suppose. In a sense. I knew you would be my greatest legacy, but a child?" He sighed. "I fear I have little to offer in that regard."
"I don't mean to be insensitive," said Sunset, "but you two can hash out your relationship later. We're kind of in the middle of something right now."
Star Swirl cleared his throat. "Yes. Of course."
Sunset turned to Harmony. "So, any idea why the Map sent us to you?"
"We may be relatively young and weak Spirits but we can recognize one of our own. Even one trapped in an unready body."
Sunset nodded. That was an unspoken question answered. "So that's a no on the wings."
"She is close to the next step," said Harmony, "but she is not yet ready, and she cannot become so while you inhabit her form. Even if she were, I am still healing from my disruption."
"Great. So now what?"
"I cannot uplift you. But I can contact my fellow Spirit." Harmony's horn glowed, followed by its—her?—entire body. Just before the light reached blinding intensity, it shot off into the sky.
After a few moments, Twilight coughed into a fetlock. "So, um, now what?"
"I think I know," said Sunset. "That went to my Equestria, right?"
Harmony shook her head.
Sunset waited for further explanation. When none came, she said, "What?"
"It would be less efficient to contact that Spirit when the one we need is closer to another." Harmony's eyes flashed from within. "She is on her way."
"'The one we need'?" said Twilight. "Who is it talking about?"
Sunset looked up and smiled. "The only person I know who can reach us on such short notice from pretty much anywhere."
For a moment, Sunset wasn't sure if she'd found what she'd been looking for or just a trick of the light. Then the speck in the sky came careening down in a streak of silver and gold, slamming into the courtyard and kicking up more dust than Sunset had thought was even there. When the cloud cleared, it revealed...
A human girl lying face down on the crystal flooring.
"Oof. Okay, I officially give up on making superhero landings work. Thank goodness for crash resistance."
Twilight's jaw hung open. "Is... Is that...?"
Sunset nodded. "It is."
The spirit manifested in front of the girl. "Hello, Ditzy Doo. Your Sunset is ahead on the right."
"Huh?" Ditzy looked up, locked an eye with Sunset, and beamed. "Oh! Great! Thanks, uh..." Her eyes went further askew when she turned to Harmony. "... Holographic Ghost of Princess Twilight from the Future."
Harmony smiled. "I am a treehouse."
"Uh..."
Sunset walked up to Ditzy and offered her a hoof. "It helps to remember that one of the Elements is Laughter."
"Does it?" Ditzy said as she pulled herself up.
"A little." Sunset took a deep breath and braced herself as best she could. "Okay, Ditzy, how bad is it?"
"On a scale from one to ten? We need you home yesterday."
Everything proceeded swiftly and logically from there. So swiftly and so logically that Sunset only really thought about the specifics when an imitation Canterlot accent crooned out, "Twilight?"
Twilight jumped and turned towards the sound, and the unicorn who'd made it and was now poking her head through the doorway. "Rarity! I can explain."
Rarity shook her head as she walked into the room. "No need. I can appreciate much of what's going on. For one, based on Sunset Shimmer's presence—Hello, Sunset."
Sunset gave an awkward grin and a wave to match. "Hi, Rarity."
"I can presume that this has something to do with the human world." Rarity began to pace about. "That presumption is supported by the creature who I shall assume is the inexplicably still human Muffins. Hello to you too, dear."
"Hi, pony Rarity," said Ditzy, who had to sit to fit under what was for her a terribly low ceiling, especially given the tangled assembly of wire she wore like a tiara. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically yes."
"I see." Rarity turned back to Twilight. "Now, both you and Star Swirl are present—Greetings, sir."
"Lady Rarity," said Star Swirl, not looking away from his work but still giving a brief nod.
"However, none of the other Pillars or our friends are, thus this clearly also involves magic far beyond my understanding or capability."
Twilight frowned. "You're a much more talented spellcaster than you give yourself credit for, Rarity. You—"
Rarity held up a hoof to cut her off. "Compliments later, darling. I'm deducting."
"Inducting, actu—"
She shook the hoof in Twilight's muzzle. "Ut-tut-tut! Now." Rarity resumed her pacing. "You teleported in rather than simply using the door, so this is clearly a matter of great urgency indeed. With all of this put together, I largely have a sense of what is going on. I have but one question for all of you."
Twilight gulped, her ears folded back. "Yes?"
Sunset's followed suit when Rarity shrieked, "Why in the name of every princess are you doing whatever you're doing to my dressing room mirrors!?" For Star Swirl had planted himself in front of the trio of oval mirrors in the back room of the Boutique and even now was inscribing looping, curling symbols into the ones on the sides.
For his part, he didn't even flinch at the shout. "I am crafting a portal to this Sunset Shimmer's adopted home plane," he said. "It desperately needs her, and without her, the consequences for both it and her Equestria will be dire. The human, called Ditzy Doo in her world, is providing the necessary vibrational frequency I can use to attune the mirror to its proper destination."
"Yes, all well and good, but why my mirrors?"
"We needed mirrors big enough for somepony to walk through," said Twilight, trying to smile, "and the Boutique was the... first place... I thought of?" The smile held up admirably well against Rarity's glare. Twilight less so.
After another few moments of trying to channel Fluttershy, Rarity said, "I see. I don't know if I should be flattered or infuriated."
"I will be finished in fairly short order," said Star Swirl. "Enchanting the portal was never the problem. Making a suitable mirror was. Quality glass was much harder to come by more than a millennium ago. I had to make most of them myself."
"And you'll clean up after yourself, I trust?"
Star Swirl was facing the mirrors, but Sunset could almost hear him roll his eyes. "We are in the process of saving multiple worlds, Lady Rarity. Some degree of mess is to be expected."
Rarity answered with an even more elaborate scoff than her human counterpart's best. "I have saved this world many a time, sir, and I have always managed to leave it as I found it, if not better."
Sunset considered the two as they kept bickering, along with Twilight watching in silent horror. "They may be a while," she said to Ditzy. "What can you tell me about the specifics back home?"
"Well, I don't have a full firsthand account, but Agent Heartstrings briefed me on the parts I didn't know. Apparently, they called in a Pinkie who's more perceptive than most to fill in the gaps."
Sunset tried not to think too much about what that entailed. "I guess they would have several available."
Ditzy nodded. "Based on their reports, it all started last night..."
The last thing Sunset had known, she'd been falling asleep in her bed, trying not to think too hard about the wishblossom or anything else she might have tried to ask of it. Then she was wide awake, standing somewhere she didn't recognize, what looked like someone's attempt to make an abandoned warehouse liveable. And going by the familiar decorative touches, that someone had been her.
"What the-?" She didn't get out anything more before the sensations hit her. First, magic. Not the faint whisper of potential she'd sensed at Camp Everfree; no, this was like she'd regrown her horn then jabbed it into a power outlet. Magic was everywhere, including in her. Especially in her.
And as her mind tried to accomodate the return of her sixth sense, it kept expanding far beyond that, out and out until there didn't seem to be any out left. Sunset didn't just feel everywhere, she was everywhere. She was vaguely aware of her body staggering against a cheap sofa and falling backwards. The sensation of a skull hitting inadequately carpeted cement hit her like a memory of an old bruise.
It was enough to remind her what and where she'd been a few moments—Minutes? Eons?—earlier. She wasn't sure how to get back, so she just tried.
And it worked.
Sunset got to her feet. She was unsteady at first, but then she realized that she wasn't actually in pain; she had just expected to be. She turned and looked at the impact site, flipping back the rug.
The cement had cracked.
She brought a hand to the back of her head.
Not even a twinge of pain.
"Huh." Sunset smiled. She held out a hand towards the broken floor. A familiar rush flooded through her body, centered in the middle of her forehead, exactly where it should be.
And the floor mended itself.
"Heh. Heh heh." Sunset felt her grin slowly widen to Pinkie proportions. "Heh heh heh. Ha haha ha. Ha hahaha haha ha ha!"
Sunset gave Ditzy a flat look. "Really?"
Ditzy brought her arms down and coughed into a fist. "Okay, the maniacal laughter might have been an embellishment on the Pinkie's part. But the point is, she figured out how to use your powers really quickly."
"Not surprising. My abilities are ultimately based on pony magic. Human magic adds some wrinkles, but for someone like me, that usually makes things easier. Still, I'm guessing people noticed that I'd been replaced."
Ditzy bit her lip. "Well, thing is, you know how you removed your need to sleep?"
"Yeeees?"
"That meant she had multiple hours to do research."
Sunset winced. She knew what she'd do in those circumstances. This specific her, anyway. "Research in how I usually behave?"
Ditzy shook her head. "Research in how you're percieved."
It had begun with a Gillion search for her name, just to get a sense of what the wish had done.
The first hit had been for something calling itself "the Church of the Divine Bacon Horse."
From there, Sunset went down the rabbit hole of Shimmerism as far as it could take her: The Digital Positivists. The Seventh-Day Zen Agnostics. The Citric Relevantists. Orthodox, Vehemist, Reconcilist, Scarlet, Saffron...
The more she looked, the more denominations she found. The more proof she had that she'd gotten exactly what she'd asked for, that this wasn't a fantasy...
Was it?
Sunset got up from her laptop and wandered the warehouse until she found a full-length mirror. Judging by all the curlicues along the edges, it was probably a gift from Rarity. What mattered was that it let her see herself.
She took in the pointed ears and the oval jewel embedded in her forehead. "Huh." She got the gem to flash like a horn tip and shrugged. "Whatever works. Now, let's try something I know is impossible."
And with the tiniest exertion of her will, Sunset made himself a new body.
He immediately realized he should've made himself new pants as well.
After a few moments of extreme awkwardness, Sunset shifted back and nodded to herself. "That confirms it." Unicorn arcanists had tried and failed to make a gender change spell for centuries. Her wish hadn't been granted; she was just dreaming it had.
Sunset shook herself out of that line of thought. She flexed her hands and will, played a few bars on a guitar that existed just long enough for her to get out the tune, and smiled even more widely. It wasn't just a dream; she was fully lucid.
She rubbed her hands together, possibilities already springing to mind. "Oh, we will have fun with this."
"So, between the many sects of Shimmerism and the possibilities offered by human magic, she's concluded that home is too ludicrous to be real." Sunset's lips twitched. "This would be funny if it weren't potentially catastrophic."
Ditzy cleared her throat and managed to get her own smile under control. "She definitely found enough reasons to convince herself that it didn't matter what she did. There wouldn't be any consequences."
A chill ran down Sunset's spine. "Oh. Great. Because that's always my healthiest state of mind, thinking I can get away with everything. At least tell me she didn't blow up the planet."
"I would have mentioned that by now. She definitely hadn't blow up the planet when I was last there, and she probably won't."
Sunset took a deep breath. It helped. A little. "Probably."
Ditzy shrugged. "We can't rule it out completely."
"And if you ignore Mr. Discord's 'A scientist is never sure' mantra?"
"We should be fine. She... actually likes the idea of being worshipped." Ditzy wrung her fingers. "Like a lot."
Sunset facehoofed. "Oh no."
"Yeah, that was the first major sign something was off."
Ruby Rose gulped. "Um, Sunset?"
Sunset smiled down on her. "Yes, Ruby?"
"No offense meant, o Glorious Proclaimer, but... why are you here?" The pale pink redhead swept her hand across the central Church of the Divine Bacon Horse to emphasize its here-ness. "You usually avoid the place like the plague."
Well that was just silly. It probably symbolized something about Sunset's latent self-loathing. "I just wanted to show my appreciation to my largest and most charitably active congregation."
"Uh... huh." Ruby edged away from her, which might have worked better if Sunset weren't watching her do so. "Excuse me for a moment, I need to go calibrate Crescent Rose." She spread her wings—weird way to work pegasus magic, but Sunset appreciated the novelty—and zipped off.
Sunset herself shrugged and walked among the Baconists, happy to speak with people who were so happy to see her in turn. Anyone who'd come on a dreary late December morning like this was clearly devout, after all.
After several minutes, she heard a "Sunset?" and looked up.
She beamed at the familiar faces. "Hey girls! What's up?"
Applejack scratched under her hat. "You, uh, feelin' alright there, sugarcube?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Sunset spread her arms wide. "This dream is amazing."
An awkward silence stretched out just long enough that Sunset furrowed her brow and willed it to end. On cue, Rainbow Dash blurted out, "Did you hit your head or something?"
Twilight shook her head. "That shouldn't have any impact on her memory. Her mind's effectively on the cloud."
"Well she needs to get her head out of the clouds!" Pinkie turned to Sunset, actually frowning. "This isn't a dream."
Sunset was taken aback for a moment before a realization made her smirk. "Okay, I see what's going on."
"We're concerned for you and want to make sure you're okay?" said Fluttershy.
"No, you're my conscience." Sunset smiled fondly. "Of course it'd take the form of you girls. I appreciate the concern, really, but it's not like I'd do anything I'm planning in real life!"
Twilight approached her, scowling. "Sunset, this is—"
"Nope, not putting up with this." Sunset wanted her friends to calm down and drop the subject. At that desire, she felt connections to them like she felt when harnessing the geodes' power (and she'd have to look into where those had gone at some point.) It was a simple matter to reach across those bonds and—
"At that point, the inter-Pinkie feed went dead." Ditzy shrugged. "We're not sure what happened."
"She found the connection between us and she..." Sunset fought to keep her breathing under control as she considered the implications. "She weaponized it. We discovered it this summer, during the whole Fluttertree incident. The girls and I are connected on a fundamental metaphysical level, and that meant she could just reach out and..." Sunset shuddered. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"I apologize in advance," said Ditzy.
Sunset blinked and tried to focus on the here and now. "For wha—"
Arms grabbed her by the barrel and heaved her into a lap. "H-hey! What are you—" Fingers began to work behind her ears, and her eyelids fluttered shut. She bit her lip to keep from moaning or any other noises.
"My word. How scandalous." Sunset was aware of the words, but couldn't bring herself to care.
"Not now, pony Rarity."
"That was not a condemnation. Going by Sunset's reaction, you could put the local spa to shame."
After that, Sunset lost track of time for a while. At least until Ditzy stopped and said, "Should I keep going?"
The pit in Sunset's stomach, banished by those wonderful fingers, started to reestablish itself. "With the scritches or the news from home?"
"The news."
Sunset sighed and got out of Ditzy's lap. "As much as I want to say no, I need all the information you can give me. People have to have noticed this on a wider scale. What's the overall reaction?"
"Well, most people are waiting to see how this shakes out before they do anything really drastic." Ditzy gave a lopsided grin. "For all we know, this is how your PMS works these days."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "I turned that off before I stopped my sleep cycle."
"Well yeah, who wouldn't? Still, everyone's hesitant to do anything too drastic in case this all blows over. You're too important to risk on a misunderstanding." Ditzy looked away, though she ended up with one eye still on Sunset. "But they're not going to wait forever."
"And we're still figuring out what can work as an effective countermeasure against me beyond ludicrously unsafe levels of dark magic." After a moment, Sunset added, "Maybe Mr. Discord."
"I actually can give a firsthand account there. He wasn't answering his phone, so Agent Heartstrings sent me to get in touch with him directly. 'Cause, you know, intern. And..."
It was already a bad day. Aria Blaze answering the door made it worse. Ditzy wasn't terribly fond of any of the sirens, but at least Sonata and Adagio just embraced Mr. Discord's more trollish side. Aria gave off the impression that the only thing keeping her from tearing out Ditzy's throat was getting kicked out of the house.
Ditzy tried very hard not to think about what Mr. Discord being out of contact might entail there. "Um, we've been trying to get in touch with—"
"I know. He left his phone here, and it's been running in circles ringing at max volume. And it's indestructible." Aria cracked her knuckles.
The decidedly destructible Ditzy backed away a few steps. Some of them were vertical. "Well, uh, if you could just tell me where I could find him, I can get out of your hair."
Aria peeled back her lips. It came off as less a sneer and more showing off how her teeth were closer to a shark's than a pre-change human's.
Ditzy couldn't exactly meet the other girl's gaze, but she did hold her ground. Airspace. A little of both.
Finally, Aria shrugged and pulled a balled-up piece of paper out of her jeans. "Whatever. Might as well pass this off to someone who cares." She threw it at Ditzy's face and slammed the door. After a moment, she repeated the process with a smartphone that had grown little arms and legs.
Ditzy let the phone perch on her shoulder as she uncrumpled the paper.
To whom it may concern,
As Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, I have decided the safest and most reasonable course of action I can take in light of Sunset Shimmer's recent descent into solipsism is to depart the planet for the foreseeable future. In the event you have need of me that my lovely assistants cannot provide, you can find me in the oceans of Stirropa, looking for life beneath the icy crust. Don't worry, I'll make sure I don't contaminate the area.
I have no doubt that I'll be able to detect whatever overdramatic magical display will resolve this little to-do, so don't worry about getting in touch when it's all taken care of. Moreover, don't try dragging me back to try to fix things. This is a strictly capital-H Harmonious problem, and I'd really rather not experience petrification firsthand.
Yours in any way that doesn't involve facing a mad demigoddess, John Q. Discord
"So, yeah, he ducked out."
"I can't say I blame him." Sunset sighed. "I'm not happy about it, but I can't blame him."
Ditzy nodded. "That was basically how Agent Heartstrings felt. She said they may have to bring out the big guns."
Sunset took a moment to consider that statement in the context of the Equestrian Time-Space Administration Bureau, an organization that was to the fabric of existence what a weather patrol was to climate. She gulped. "What are the big guns?"
"I have no idea, but she didn't seem happy about the idea. She said she'd try to give us a reasonable window to try something else, but..." Ditzy sucked a breath through her teeth. "Yeah. Not looking good."
"Wonderful," Sunset groaned.
"If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure my hip icons flashing through my pants were enough to convince them to hold off for a little longer."
"How long is a little longer?"
Ditzy bit her lip. "I... kind of flew out of the meeting before I could get any hard numbers. I figured every second counted."
"They probably do." Sunset took a deep breath. Nothing for it now. "Thanks, Ditzy. You've been a big help. Now we just have to wait for Star Swirl to—"
"It is done," Star Swirl proclaimed. He had a good voice for proclaiming.
"Finally." Rarity had an even better voice for complaining.
He scowled at her. "This would have taken most mages weeks to complete."
"I'm sure most mages would have found mirrors somepony else wasn't already using."
Sunset got to her hooves. "Rarity, we're on a time crunch."
Rarity had the decency to look sheepish. "Right, of course. Ever so sorry. I get testy when something forces me to close early, and I can usually take it out on some threat to Equestria."
"In any case." Star Swirl ran a hoof along the left-hoof mirror's edge. "I admit, this was rushed work. Once I activate the portal, it will burn itself out in a matter of seconds." He leveled a harsh glare at Rarity. "Which will do no harm to the actual mirrors."
She bobbed her mane. "So long as we're clear on the matter."
"Given that, it seems wisest to send only Sunset and Ditzy. I find it is best to keep everypony in their proper world."
Ditzy cleared her throat. "Right. That is definitely a thing I do."
Star Swirl gave her a long look, then shook his head and turned to Sunset. "Are you ready?"
"We have to be. And given the time we have to work with..." Sunset looked to Ditzy. "Get on."
Ditzy looked at Sunset's face, then her back, then both at once, more confused with each step. "What?"
"Get. On."
"Um..." Ditzy settled on Sunset's back. Given how she couldn't stand up straight in the dressing room, that involved a lot of hunched-over scuttling. "Is this as awkward for you as it is for me?"
"It'll be even more awkward after we're through," Sunset said with a smirk.
Star Swirl shook his head. "I only wish I had enough time to ascertain just how much knowledge of your future you carry with you. The long-term effects could be—"
Sunset shook her head. "With all due respect, Star Swirl, I hold together a cosmos for a living."
"I thought most of your income came from T-Cup donations," said Ditzy.
"My point is that I have a pretty good sense of what will or won't break the timeline. And most of the stuff in my world doesn't apply anyway." Sunset looked up at Ditzy. "This you is going out with Bulk."
That got a shrug. "And? Bulk's cute, in a craggy kind of way."
"Very well. Good luck to both of you."
With that, Star Swirl lit his horn and set it against the engravings on the right-side mirror. The magic raced along the runes, curving and spinning back on itself until it consumed the central mirror in a wavering plane of light, sparks spitting along the edge.
The moment it seemed finished, Sunset galloped through.
The other mirror portal always felt vaguely like being drunk. Through a straw. This felt more like a pinball table in freefall, with Sunset as the ball. She bounced off of not just walls, but also ceilings, floors, and Ditzy Doo. Any moments of sublime transcendence were lost in the turbulence.
Finally, Sunset found herself sprawled out on snow. Judging by the shape of the cold prickling the ends of her forelimbs, she had hands. Judging by the way she could detect the madness behind her through something that was neither smell nor hearing nor touch, she had a headgem. Judging by how she wasn't immediately freezing, she had the jacket she'd put on that morning.
But that was where it ended. She couldn't feel anything greater unfolding in the back of her mind, no connection to a vast power that would let her shake off her bruises by building a fresh body. This was Sunset, and only this was Sunset.
"Okay," she said as she got to her feet, "Call it halfway there."
"Have I mentioned how I hate portals?" said Ditzy, who'd apparently stabilized in midair, if upside down. "Because I hate portals. And I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual."
"Well, you shouldn't need to go through more any time soon." Sunset looked around, then looked behind her. "Huh." As she'd suspected, they'd come out the side of the CHS statue opposite from the usual portal location.
"Uh, Sunset?" Ditzy said as she reoriented herself. "Your zipper is flashing."
"Huh?" Sunset looked down. A stobing amber light shone through the teeth, rising further and further up her chest. She unzipped her jacket a few inches, letting the geode pop out, floating in midair and blinking like a turn signal. "I think it detects the other Sunset."
"Well. That explains her."
Sunset looked up when she heard Ditzy's worried tone, and her own eyes looked back, galaxies glittering within.
The two Sunsets held each others' gaze for a time. The one who'd been in this world all day was certainly a sight to see. Sunset's body could act as a reflection of her state of mind, but she usually kept that tamped down unless she needed to emphasize a point. Her counterpart had felt as much need for that kind of restraint as she had for any other.
The being floating before Sunset had stars sparkling on her skin as well as in her eyes, making her seem as much a living nebula as a person. Her hair billowed in an unfelt breeze, along with the lengths of strategically draped cloth that were her only clothing. She emitted a luminous aura, a faint chorus of wordlessly harmonizing voices, and the scent of burning sandalwood.
The more mundane Sunset wrinkled her nose. "Okay, I get the homage to Celestia, I understand the disdain for human nudity taboos, and I can even accept the cosmic body glitter. But don't you think the incense and backup singers are a bit much?"
"Um, Sunset?" Ditzy said as she drifted away from the spirit. "Maybe don't mock Happy Fun Goddess?"
Sunset agreed, but she didn't even glance at Ditzy. She knew herself, especially when power-mad. She knew she'd pounce on any sign of weakness. Defiance wasn't much better, but it would at least hold her interest. "I wasn't a god, I won't be a god, and currently she is not a god."
The deniably divine Sunset tapped her lip in thought. "You know, this is interesting. At first I wasn't sure what to think of you. After that comment, I thought you might be my sense of restraint. Maybe guilt or shame or humility." She turned to Ditzy, tilting her head to one side. It kept going a bit past what a human neck should've allowed. "But you. I don't know what to make of you. What does Muffins mean?"
Sunset gave a sharp whistle, getting her counterpart to look back at her. Ditzy wasn't prepared for this; Sunset needed to keep eyes on herself. "Hey! That's my head you're getting lost in, filly."
"Oh?" The spirit smiled. "What a strange thing to say. Isn't it my head too?"
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Come on, I know we're smarter than this." Implicit insults to her intelligence; those would definitely keep her focus off of Ditzy. "You must know about the wider multiverse. The Twilights are living examples of how this works."
At that, the other Sunset beamed. Literally; her halo intensified as she smiled. "Of course! You're my latent anxiety about my human counterpart. Never did figure out what happened to her." She turned back to Ditzy. "I suppose that makes you my luck. Or lack thereof."
Ditzy paused halfway behind the Wondercolt statue. "I really wish I could dispute that, but it makes a terrifying amount of sense."
"Except we're real," said Sunset. She swept a hand over the area. "It's all real, Sunset. Everything you've done, everyone you've hurt, it's all actually happening. This isn't your world; it's mine."
"Even if that were true, I haven't hurt anyone."
Sunset crossed her arms. "Our friends?"
The spirit rolled her eyes. "I just wasn't in the mood for a lecture spoiling a chance to cut loose and stop worrying about if I'm backsliding every second of every day."
"At which point you started to backslide."
"Yes, because clearly I'm back to the bad old days." The spirit spread her arms, the chorus hitting a brief crescendo. "People don't fear me, they adore me. And no, I'm not just basking in it like I would've back then. I'm working to be worthy of that adoration."
Sunset's forehead started to ache from how hard she lifted one eyebrow. "By flitting around and smacking down everyone who disagrees with you?"
"Tell me how that's different from Princess Twilight." The spirit's smirk grew to a deranged smile that made Pinkie Pie look sedate. "But I've gone beyond even her. I'm not just a good person, I am goodness. I am the eternal support of the cosmos itself!"
The sheer surprise nearly made Sunset stagger. "Hold on, you've actually been maintaining the universe?"
"Of course!" It was the spirit's turn to spread her arms to encompass everything. "I can feel how broken everything is, how the right push in the wrong direction could send it all tumbling down."
"Yes!" cried Sunset. "That's why—"
"It's a dream. Of course it's full of logical inconsistencies. So I prop it up, and I get to enjoy my time here until I decide to put it down."
Silence met that, at least until Ditzy poked her head out from behind the statue and said, "Sunset? I... I think she's holding the universe hostage."
Sunset gulped and took a step forward. "Please, at least consider the consequences if you're wrong."
The spirit gave her a pitying smile. "Heh. Of course you don't want me to wake up. Relax, I won't be done for a while yet. But I can hardly have fun while you're badgering me. So..." Suddenly, the shining figure was right in front of Sunset. She held back a flinch. "You can go now."
And Sunset booped Sunset on the nose. Then pushed.
It was much like going through a portal, only while facing backwards. Endless roiling color consumed Sunset's vision. She couldn't move. She wasn't sure what she'd be moving if she could. Bits of her waved in and out of her vision: hair, hands, hooves, feathers, claws, paws, tentacles, coronal prominences, on and on. She felt herself unfold, like she'd been hunched over for hours and had finally gotten a chance to stretch.
All the while, the brightest spot in the center of her vision grew smaller and smaller.
Then something shot out of it and streaked towards her.
As it got closer, it resolved into a congery of silvery spheres shimmering in all colors, an oil slick rainbow on a trail of foam. It zipped behind her, and Sunset felt her motion gradually slow.
Oof. She really shoved you.
Sunset blinked. At least seven eyes were involved. The words had gone into her mind without even considering her ears, which was a good thing, since she wasn't sure if she had any at the moment. She projected her own thoughts back. Ditzy?
Who else? Don't worry, I have a plan.
Push me back? The bright spot may have stopped receding, but it wasn't getting any closer either.
That got the idea of a negative grunt. Won't work well. I don't know how things look to you, but you're kind of... Yeah, "nebulous" is a good word. I think you qualify as a cloud to my magic, and you know how that part of pegasus magic didn't translate well. There was... some kind of sensation behind Sunset, a mix of pushing against her and pushing into her. Yeah, it's like trying to carry water in your hands. It'd take a long time to work, and time's screwy out here anyway.
So what's the plan?
Being gentle won't work, but a big burst should. You might call it a gust, if this place had wind. Or, well, air. But it's going to blow me backwards. Time may be screwy, but conservation of momentum still works. Not sure where I'll end up, so, you know, try not to get kicked out of the universe again.
Sunset gasped—or at least tried to—as the implications hit her. Ditzy, wait!
Already doing it!
"Gust" undersold what happened. Sunset wasn't sure about the details, but it felt more like getting shot out of a cannon, the world approaching at a ridiculous clip. A fading psychic call of Good luck! was the only sign of the consequences for Ditzy.
She can take care of herself, Shimmer, Sunset told herself. You have plenty of other people to worry about right now.
The shining world filled her vision, and she found herself staggering forward a few steps from where she'd been pushed out in the first place, which meant she stumbled right into her counterpart.
Yourself, for example.
"What... What are you... Why are you still here?" cried the other Sunset, all playfulness and serenity gone. Even most of the special effects had ended, just leaving another, sparklier version of her who was terribly underdressed for the weather. Only landing on her back and possibly her own subconscious desires prevented any further exposure. "This is a lucid dream! Lucid! I control everything here!"
"Yeah, think about that." Sunset stood back up, and as she straightened, she felt herself stretch out in other, more esoteric ways.
"You're..." Fear flashed in the other Sunset's eyes before she shook her head as she staggered to her feet. "No, you're just some... some subconscious issue that I can deal with later. Right now, I want you to go away!" There was nothing cutesy this time. One Sunset charged the other, leading with a shoulder as she tried to tackle her out of the cosmos.
Sunset crouched, took the hit, and held onto both her counterpart and reality around her. This time, her vision briefly filled with the colors beyond space and time... and the golden radiance of a scared girl's face.
Then the world snapped back like a rubber band and sent both of them tumbling into a heap again. Sunset couldn't help but smirk. "We've got to stop meeting like this."
Her counterpart flushed with rage. "You think this is funny?"
"Kind of. Think about what just happened."
"Me literally wrestling with my issues?" deadpanned the other Sunset.
Sunset got to her feet, rolling out each shoulder. "Something not just defying you, but not immediately folding when you tried to force the issue. What does that tell you, Miss Lucid Dream?"
She could see the penny drop a moment later. "No." The other Sunset backed away from her, crawling on her back, shaking her head with every denial. Even the stars in her skin started to wink out. "No, no, that can't be it. I would... That would make me..."
"To be fair, you didn't realize it at first." Sunset offered an empathetic smile. "I can hardly blame you for looking at Shimmerism and thinking this couldn't possibly be happening. I have trouble believing it myself some days." Her expression hardened. "But when you took the bonds I made with my friends and turned them into leashes—"
"My friends!" The other Sunset pushed off the snow and hung in the air. "Yes. That's the meaning of this all."
Sunset sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sunset, just stop."
The other didn't even seem to register her, even as the stars in her eyes went out and left a black void. "I can't beat you alone," she half-muttered, her eyes spitting out dying sparks that started fires in her hair. "I can't expect to overcome my self-doubt, my inadequacy, everything that's held me back by myself." With every item she mentioned, her skin darkened and reddened. The limp, apparently taped-on cloths writhed and coiled around her, forming into flame patterns and leather. "It's what everypony's been trying to tell me from the very beginning. But with my friends..."
Sunset took a few steps back. Even as heat and sulphur began to assault her senses, she tried to keep her tone calm and rational. "I mean, that's a very valuable lesson, but you're—"
"Shut up!" cried the other Sunset, her hair erupting into full flame as ragged bat wings burst out of her back. "Just shut up!" Sunset's friends popped into being around her, each staring blankly with eyes glowing the color of her Element. "We're going to blast you with rainbows and then I can wake up and I won't be a monster and everything will be fine!"
"You know, darling, you really are being selfish."
Both Sunsets slowly looked at Rarity, who, even in Generosity's thrall, had her hands on her hips and glared up at the demon in an unmistakably Rarity fashion. "What?" said both.
"You could definitely go about this more nicely," said Fluttershy.
"Plus you're kinda sorta causing mass panic?" Pinkie pointed at the onlookers who Sunset hadn't noticed until now, several of whom had their phones pointed at the conflict.
"Oh, that's going to be fun to explain." Even so, Sunset couldn't help but take comfort in how she assumed she'd have survivors to explain it to.
The demon looked between the three girls who'd mouthed off to her, quivering with rage. "You... You are the Elements. I am Harmony. Why aren't you listening to me?"
Applejack crossed her arms. "We may be Elements, but we ain't your Elements, now are we? This ain't who, where, or what you should be."
Rainbow Dash gave the Sunset on the ground a thumbs up. "Whoop her butt, Sunset."
That brought the demon's attention on her as well. "You," snarled the creature, pointing a claw at Sunset. "You're turning this into a nightmare. Well I won't have it!"
"I'm trying to set things right. You're the one who's giving Nightmare Moon another run for her money." Sunset gestured to all of her counterpart. "Look at yourself. You're even getting ready to swarm me with your teenage army."
The demon just glowered at her and snapped her claws. And between them appeared one more girl, heliotrope pools of light where her eyes should be.
Sunset gasped, all bravado forgotten. "Twilight..."
Twilight Sparkle said nothing. The others called out to her as well, but she showed no reaction.
"You're right," said the demon. "It is like last time. Magic doesn't judge. Magic listens to me. And with her, the others fall into line." The light in Twilight's eyes intensified, and the others' followed suit. They stiffened and returned to their initial positions.
Sunset barely noticed. "Twilight, please."
The slightest shift, and Twilight was looking at Sunset and not just in her direction. "I am prepared to do what I must."
Sunset looked into those blank eyes and nodded. "I understand."
"Good," snarled the demon. "Now go away!"
The power built slowly, fitfully. Harmony was never meant to be wielded by a single will running roughshod over so many others. It was the mistake Sunset had made at the Fall Formal, the one Celestia had made in her battle against Nightmare Moon. But the power still built, and nothing could stop the unbridled power of Harmony once it got going.
Unless...
It was stupid. It was reckless. It was the best plan Twilight could come up with and the only choice Sunset had.
She rushed towards the girls.
"What? No! Stop!" And the power of Harmony, driven by a single individual, wavered and stuttered with her split focus. The demon hesitated, eyes darting as she tried to take everything into account.
Before she could come to a decision, Sunset reached Twilight, grabbed her girlfriend in a tight embrace, and squeezed her eyes shut. She brought all of her focus on the geode still around her neck, on the way she'd dredged memories from another mind.
And then she took that spellform and turned it inside out.
Sunset felt Twilight seize up as her recent experiences played out in the other girl's mind. Even through her shut eyelids, she could tell how the prismatic radiance around her took on a more golden cast. And even if she couldn't, she could feel the magic stretch out from girl to girl, riding along the much-abused bonds between their souls.
And once it had completed the circuit of the girls on the ground, she felt the power of empathy rise up, flowing eagerly to its proper mistress.
The other Sunset's screams made her open her eyes, letting her see the demon clutch at her forehead. "It can't be true! I won't let it be true!" The demon fell from the sky, hitting the lawn hard. Snow that had melted to slush feet beneath her now flashed into steam. She staggered to her feet and locked an eye with her counterpart, the other squeezed shut. Bolts of rainbow energy cascaded about her, incredible amounts of built-up harmony magic with nowhere to go.
The demon snarled. "That's enough!" she cried, lunging forward and grabbing the still-floating necklace.
The moment she touched it, everything seemed to stop. All motion, all sound, all thought. Then the necklace flashed brighter than ever.
When the light faded, Sunset let go of the gem and returned her body to its usual state.
The other Sunset, also back where she belonged, started sobbing as she all but collapsed in Twilight's arms.
Twilight staggered from the unexpected load, faltering back a few steps until Sunset caught her in turn. "Easy. She has a lot to process right now."
"Sunset?" said Twilight, looking up at her with those beautiful eyes and the beautiful sclera and pupils she'd taken for granted until now.
Sunset smiled. "Hey, Twilight. Good to be back."
"I have numerous questions."
"Hang on. I'm answering some of my own right now." Sunset reached out to the universe, her mind flooding out where before it trickled. "She was... maintaining the place, at least. It didn't get any better, but it also didn't get any worse. I actually did more damage with the portal. I guess she didn't even think to fight her instincts as a Spirit of Harmony."
"So..." Rainbow Dash walked up to them, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah, what happened?"
"You was actin' crazier'n a cat in a field o' nip," added Applejack.
"I wasn't." Sunset nodded at her counterpart. "She was."
The other Sunset clung tighter to Twilight, who looked incredibly uncomfortable with the situation. "Sorry. So sorry..."
Fluttershy put a hand on the other Sunset's shoulder. "Here." The sobbing girl latched onto her. Fluttershy didn't even stagger.
"We switched last night through a ludicrously powerful magical wish. I've spent all day trying to get back from her Earth." Sunset frowned. "All things considered, I made ridiculously good time."
"We helped. Mostly me."
Everyone but Fluttershy turned to look at the speaker. "Pinkie?" said Rarity.
Laughter winked, eyes still glowing blue. "Kind of."
Sunset took a moment to review her day. "Wait, is that why so much goofy stuff happened along the way?"
"I'm not the most subtle Element. But we all helped out."
"Mostly through our counterparts. We could sense something was awry and nudged causality." Wide-eyed, Twilight brought a hand to her mouth, then sighed. "I'm never going to get used to that."
"Hopefully you won't have to," said Sunset. "You should all try to keep magic use to a minimum for the next few days; we don't want you permanently bonding with your Elements on that level."
Rarity nodded. "I do appreciate that part of myself, but it's no way to run a business."
"Sunset?" said Fluttershy, who'd seated herself and the other Sunset on the thawed-out potion of the lawn. "I think she's coming around."
Sunset sat next to her counterpart. A twist of magic formed a bubble of comfortably warm air. "Hey. How you feeling?"
"I..." The other wiped her eyes, looked around, and brought a hand to her headgem. "This all really happened, didn't it?"
"It did. And on that note..." Sunset manifested numerous avatars around the world, giving a brief summary of the situation, calming down some of the more zealous Shimmerist congregations, and conferring with Agent Heartstrings.
"Uh..." said her own voice.
"Give her a moment," said Twilight. "She's multitasking."
"I can only divide my attention so much." Sunset nodded once most of the smaller fires were put out and Mr. Discord knew it was safe to return home. "Okay. So, that was your taste of supreme power. Was it everything you'd hoped it would be?"
"I'm sorry! I... I just..." The other Sunset groaned and huddled into herself. "After all this time, I'm still a horrible person."
Sunset put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, take it from yourself. We're not perfect."
That got an eye roll. "Says the literal goddess."
"Like I said, you weren't a god, I'm not a god. This universe handled Equestrian magic a lot worse than yours. I'm just gluing it back together after the fact. And in spite of everything, you did a good job holding it together while I was away."
"Yeah, I just ruined your reputation and violated your friends' free will. No big deal there."
Sunset waved that off. "Nothing I haven't dealt with before, same as you. But you never answered my question. Was it what you'd hoped it would be?"
Her counterpart didn't answer for several seconds. Eventually, she said, "No. Kind of. Maybe a little. It didn't actually help, but at least it let me blow off a little steam." She sighed and slumped. "That and find out I'm a horrible person."
"Hey, I remember all the things I've done after quicksaving in Skysedge. We do not deal well with a consequence-free environment."
That coaxed out something like a smile. "That... does tend to make for popular streams."
"You stream? I've done a few, but I figured I couldn't do regular ones without crashing Spasm."
The other Sunset just glared at her.
She winced. "Sorry. Not helping. And neither did this. You wanted your turn with unfathomable power, you got it, and... Well, what would you have done if you had known this wasn't a dream?"
"I..." The other Sunset had a look of utter befuddlement that Sunset had seen far too often in the mirror. "Honestly? I don't even know. I never expected to take someone else's place, certainly not another version of myself. I just... You stole Princess Twilight's crown, right?"
"Yeah."
"You remember how it felt seeing her that first time." Sunset felt her gut twist as she recalled those feelings, and she saw her counterpart grimace at the same memories as she kept going. "Our replacement. The one who got what we'd tried so hard to earn. Seeing her on the throne, actually ruling Equestria, was that times a thousand, and I couldn't even hate her for it. She's earned it. She's more than earned it! And meanwhile, I...
"You were in my world, but you didn't see what it's like. The only ponies in Equestria who even remember me are either busy rebuilding the country or stuck in some kelping village. I have to put down magic incursions on a monthly basis with nothing but one psychomantic trick, six girls who wouldn't know a cantrip if it bit them on the dock, and a seven-person rainbow cannon. That's it. No in-betweens, no support, no way for me to protect my friends beyond physically throwing myself in harm's way." She held up her geode. "If it weren't for Flash, we'd have all gotten killed by a toaster a few months ago because this got knocked ten feet away from me.
"On top of all of that, I have to hope that no one looks at any of the footage on EweTube and takes it seriously, because I have no other way of keeping it from getting out. Who knows what people will do if they find out magic is real on a larger basis?"
Sunset nodded. "Yeah, managing that is a tricky process. And that's coming from me."
"Exactly." The other Sunset fell back into Fluttershy's lap—Sunset silently thanked the girls for letting her vent—and moaned, "I can't keep doing this."
"Sunset—"
"No, literally, I can't keep doing this. I graduate in six months. I have no idea if I can even stay in that world after that. I have a back alley birth certificate and barely any other documentation. I haven't even applied to any colleges because I'm afraid of what will happen if someone looks past the surface, and there's still the question of my human counterpart." She brought her head up. "Any tips there?"
"She's... elusive," said Sunset. "I keep meaning to look into why, but other stuff keeps coming up."
"Great." Her counterpart huffed out a sigh. "Meanwhile, the other girls have been talking about their futures, Princess Twilight is on track to lead Equestria, her friends are essentially princesses in all but name... I guess I thought if I got wings out of all of this, if I got something special, it would..." She shook her head. "Well, I got the geode, didn't I? But that just didn't do it for me."
"Do what?"
"Make it feel like it was all worth it. That it all meant something. That I actually cleaned up my mess, not just Star Swirl's over and over. That I didn't just kick the can until something comes along that we can't deal with and destroys the world. Or it destroys the world because the others can't deal with it because I got deported.
"I don't have anything left in Equestria. In a year, I might not have anything in either world. I could disappear and for all the work I did, all the progress I made, all the lessons I learned..." The other Sunset shook and choked off a sob. "I wouldn't have mattered."
The words hung heavy in the air for a few moments. Then the proverbial lightbulb went off. "You know," said Sunset, "you may have done it in the worst way possible, but I do think you learned the lesson you needed today."
Her counterpart looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Asking my friends for help?"
Sunset nodded. "Specifically your Princess Twilight."
Sunset took a deep breath. She was back in her proper body. Vast, cosmic powers were once more at her disposal. The universe was safe and getting a little safer every day. All that power and self-reassurance meant nothing against the foe she now had to confront. It could, yes, but then she would become the very thing she'd dismantled the day before.
No, the only tools she could use against public opinion were her wits and the truth. And it might be enough.
"Hello, everyone," she said into the camera. "You're probably all wondering what happened yesterday. The UN certainly is." She grimaced. "I have an... interesting January ahead of me. This wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but I'm still going to have to tell them exactly how bad that would be. Which, for the record? Real bad. We're going to need to have some serious discussion of ways to bring me down or at least ward me off in case something similar to this happens with a more malevolent entity. The problem there is most magic opposed to mine is... Well, I'm the Spirit of Harmony. Most of the forces antithetical to me are dangerous for both the user and everyone around them. We can't just throw a couple angst monsters at the next guy and hope for the best. And then there's the matter of keeping that knowledge out of the hands of those who'd try to use it on me as I am..."
She sighed and shook her head. "But that's a matter for another day. Right now, you're here for an explanation. By the time you watch this, I'll have released an official statement, but I'll summarize it here:
"Long story short? Shenanigans." Sunset let that statement hang for a few moments. A little incongruity to dislodge minds from the fears they'd clung to.
"Long story less short? I got an up close and personal demonstration of the principles of the multiverse. Like I've discussed before—link's in the description—there are a lot of worlds very similar to ours out there. A lot of Sunset Shimmers didn't have to do what I did to preserve their worlds. One of them traded places with me thanks to a incredibly powerful magic wish on her end of things, and when she woke up in my body... Well, she looked into Shimmerism and concluded that this world was so ridiculous, it had to be a dream. Let's let that sink in for a moment." Another brief stretch of contemplative silence followed.
"So. You're probably all wondering two things right now: What's going to happen to that Sunset, and how do we keep this from happening again? I'll answer those the other way around. Our friends in the Equestrian Time-Space Administration Bureau, who I also mentioned in the multiverse video, will be sending some of their best to ensure I can't get wished out of this universe again."
The ETSAB dispatch office was a fairly typical office building that wouldn't look out of place in most Equestrias' Manehattans... aside from it being in an otherwise barren and rather chilly world that had no native life. Granted, that just meant it actually felt the way most Manehattan office buildings did metaphorically.
"Ugh."
Another trait it shared with its more typical ilk was how the inhabitants reacted to obnoxious orders from further up the chain of command.
Lyra Three-Zero-Eta rolled her eyes from behind her desk. "Groaning won't make this any easier."
Lyra One-Nine-Tau just leaned back in her chair, sprawling in a way that made even her fellow double-jointed unicorn wince. "Uuuuugh!"
"Hey, look on the bright side," said 30H. "After this stunt, Princess Prudence was finally able to get us the kind of funding that lets us actually do something other than monitor other worldlines for new recruits and threats to HQ. They may even spin the Office of Parallel Timelines into its own bureau."
19T sighed as she straightened up. "Yeah, yeah, office politics actually working out for once. Woo. Rest in peace, tripartite designation system; we'll be cataloguing way too many worldlines for that to hold up much longer. But I still have to harden a world against wish magic."
"Just a few specific forms of it."
"But this is Seven-Zero-Upsilon we're talking about." 19T lifted the briefing folder with her magic and let the stack of forms three times thicker than a typical assignment drop back down with a dull thud. "The place is a Faberneigh egg, and now I need to go bolt some shock absorbers onto it without doing more damage than I'll prevent. It's going to take for-ev-errrrr." She slumped in her seat. "And it'll all be on subjective time. My anniversary's next week, and now I'm not gonna be able to enjoy it for moons! Plus Bonnie won't even be allowed to know why I'm exhausted."
30H shrugged. "Just tell her it's classified, she'll understand."
"S.M.I.L.E. doesn't exist back home!" To anyone but another Lyra, and on any topic other than her Bonbon, it would have come across as whining. "She really is just a confectioner!"
"Oh." 30H winced. "Ouch. I'm pretty sure the boss lady will let you switch out with some-Lyra who doesn't have an anniversary coming up. She still has fond memories of her Lyra, after all."
After a moment of visible struggle, 19T shook her head. "No, I'm one of our best ontologisticians and I know it. Problem is, so do the higher-ups. Still, do we really have to do this?"
30H opened the folder and tapped a seal on the top sheet with her hoof. A symbol like a stylized number 4 was embedded in the forest green wax. "Orders from the princess herself. It's not just a thank-you for opening the doors to the multiverse for us. It's also self-defense."
19T's head darted up from the forms she'd been half-heartedly flipping through. "How do you mean?" she said, professional mask back on.
"You know that one demon Sunset we've been monitoring, the one from one of Seven-Zero-Epsilon's Glimmer splinters?" said 30H.
"That's the Equestria connected to this Hearth's Warming ornament of a universe, right?"
"Right."
19T shrugged. "What about her? She's been wandering probability space at random for moons. Reports say she's been getting a spa day in installments."
"Because she abandoned her world for dead." 30H leaned over her desk. "Now imagine an even more powerful demon Sunset who wants to avenge her world and blames us for letting it die."
She could see 19T's pupils shrink to dots at the idea. The assigned agent pasted on a smile as wide as it was fake and got out of her chair. "Welp! I'm going to go on ahead to Seven-Zero-Upsilon. Get used to that unicorn-human hybrid body before we have to get to work. Sooner we start, sooner we finish, right?"
"Third-floor bathroom by the elevators just restocked its amnestics," said 30H. Even when not on missions, ETSAB agents often saw what needed to be unseen.
19T snapped off a shaky salute as she left the office. "Thank you!"
"As for what's going to happen to the other Sunset... Well, we had a talk before she went home. She explained why she did it, and we worked on finding a healthier way to fix her problem, for her and for everyone else. You have to bear in mind that we gave her over to ultimately Equestrian authorities. And she technically didn't break any laws. Legislatures here may have stepped up efforts to condemn magical mental influence, but Equestria's a lot more about forgiveness and repentance than punishment. She knows she messed up and she wants to make up for it." Sunset rolled her eyes. "The one who gave her the wish is less apologetic, but... Well, the ETSAB's also taking care of him."
"How you feeling, rookie?"
Ditzy Doo brushed back her sodden bangs, the better to glare at the Lyra who'd located and extracted her. She wasn't sure if it was her usual handler or not; they all wore those mint-green suits when human. "After shoving Sunset Shimmer back into my home universe, I landed in what I can only describe as the Elemental Demiplane of Waffles." Ditzy flicked an arm, spraying syrup and batter along the office floor. "At which point I learned that viscous, opaque fluids and neck fluff do not mix, which meant I was stuck there. How do you think I feel?"
"Hey, there are much worse demiplanes you could've landed in," said the Lyra. "Most of them were made by a Discord. For every universe made of waffles, there's one of barbed wire, or fluorine."
Ditzy held back a groan. "That's your 'we have a job for you' voice. Can I at least get a shower first?"
"Sure thing. We'll have a change of clothes ready for you when you're done." The Lyra's smile shifted to the calculated, neutral expression they adopted when they weren't officially supposed to be angry. "Just don't take too long. You helped us find another active instance of the Bearded Idiot, and I want you there while we deliver the usual spiel on what we need him to do—and, more importantly, not do—to ensure something resembling an easy-to-manage time-space continuum. Go learn the ropes so you can do it yourself next time you find one."
Ditzy considered her brief experience with that Star Swirl. "Do any of them actually listen?"
The Lyra shrugged. "Sometimes. Parts of it anyway." After a moment, she added, "Really, we do it more so we can say we told him so later. That and catharsis."
"That... actually sounds really nice right now."
The Lyra nodded. "I know it does. I've crashed into the Waffle Plane myself." She reached over as if to pat Ditzy on the shoulder, but stopped herself at the last minute. "We ship out in forty minutes; get moving."
"Getting back to that Sunset, she took me up on my suggestion for how she can find purpose in her life. Her Princess Twilight Sparkle was more than happy to help her do so. And now..." Sunset allowed herself a hint of a smirk. "Well, you might say she'll get a taste of what I have to go through on a daily basis."
Fauna Luster had seen her fair share of insanity in her time as mayor of Canterlot: Raving crackpots, Black Friday brawls, bitter election seasons... and those were just the regular occurences. Every day she thanked whatever might be listening that the local professional sports teams were so universally terrible that the odds of championship riots were slim to nil. But this?
"Magic," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," said the literal teenager on the other side of the desk.
This was new.
Fauna ran her fingers through her locks, which were only red rather than as stark white as her skin thanks to the miracle of hair dye. "Magic is real."
Sunset Shimmer nodded. "As demonstrated by my friend levitating that chair, ma'am, yes."
Fauna looked at the purple girl, Twilight Sparkle, whose necklace couldn't possibly contain a magnet that powerful. Never mind that the chair was plastic. "Evidently."
"I'd demonstrate my own," said Shimmer, "but I read minds, and I try to do so with permission when it isn't an emergency."
"I appreciate the thought." Fauna turned to the third and oldest member of the group. "And you, you're..."
"A former sovereign ruler of the nation that lies on the other side of a magical gateway between your world and mine," said Princess Luna, no last name given or apparently available. She had a faint, unplaceable lilt to her voice that could certainly work as an alien accent. It went well with her outfit, something Fauna expected from a nobleman in a Spear Shaker play, cape and laced tunic and pantaloons, all in blues and blacks that went well with the woman's complexion. It explained the fracas at the metal detectors regarding a sword. "I still retain authority enough to officially open diplomatic ties between our realms and nations."
"Uh... huh." Not for the first time, Fauna sniffed at her coffee. If they had slipped her drugs, they were very good ones. "You do realize you should go to Chopperton with this, right? Possibly Hosswell?"
"We're trying to work our way up to that, ma'am," said Shimmer. "We figure if we go through you and Governor Hassenfeld, we'll have a lot more credibility than asking to see the president directly."
"And here I was expecting a slow week after the holidays..." Fauna shook her head. At least it wasn't another campaign fundraiser dinner. "Alright, let's get this ball rolling."
Sunset smiled, partially out of satisfaction with how things had gone and partially so Twilight knew when to start the outro music when editing the video. "In the long run, I think this will work out fine for both worlds."
"Sunset?"
Sunset looked up from the latest e-mail she'd been writing to her congressman, blinking away the fuzz until Twilight came into focus. "Uhn?" She shook her head. Right, Twilight had been helping so much with this that she'd practically moved into Sunset's apartment. And Sunset didn't even need to steal someone else's near-godlike power to get the help!
She shook the cobwebs loose. "Sorry, I've been at this for..." Sunset glanced back at her laptop's clock and winced. "Too long. What's up?"
"So..." Twilight bit her lip and dipped her head down. Catching sight of the piece of paper in her hands made her straighten up and clear her throat. "In light of certain personal revelations and the refutation of previous assumptions regarding your long-term plans, I, uh, have a proposal."
Sunset quirked an eyebrow. "O... kay. And this proposal would be?"
Twilight set the paper on Sunset's desk. "I think this speaks for itself."
If it did, it wasn't in any language Sunset knew. The somewhat crumpled diagram proved deceptive in its simplicity. Just a chain of four circles connected by short lines, yet the meaning eluded her. Yes, that was her cutie mark in one of the center ones, but why was it connected to the shield and the star, and why was the star also connected to the four-pointed star bounded by... leaves? It was hard to tell given Twilight's iffy art skills.
Finally, she had to look up and ask, "What am I looking at?"
"A peroxide polycule," said a blushing, fidgeting Twilight.
Sunset looked back and forth between Twilight and the diagram a few times. "Don't you mean molecule?"
Twilight nearly turned pink. "Not necessarily."
"Huh." Sunset looked back at the diagram, gears starting to turn. "Huh."
After some more contemplation, Twilight squeaked out, "Well?"
"I..." Something stirred in Sunset's gut. She coulldn't tell if it was unease or anticipation. "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about something like this." She held up a hand. "I'm not saying anything one way or the other. Not right now, certainly not before we can talk to Flash and Timber about it, much less hash out the embassy."
"Yes, that..." Twilight visibly slumped. "That does make sense."
Sunset got out of her chair and took Twilight's hand in hers. She smiled into the other girl's eyes. "But if it were just up to me, you could call us all ethylene dione, because I'm in favor of this double bonding."
Twilight burst out laughing, and Sunset beamed at how wonderful it felt to be responsible for that.
So yeah, that's how my day went. Initial reaction to the video seems positive, but we'll see how the people in power feel. How'd yours go?
Nowhere near as exciting, I'm afraid. Or possibly thankful. I'm imagining unexpectedly switching places with my human counterpart, or a version of me from before Nightmare Moon's return, and
You realize it wouldn't be nearly as bad because you've never been a selfish little witch?
I wasn't going to say that.
No, you just spent the better part of a minute trying to think of a different way to finish that sentence. :P
Well, maybe I should ask to get a few more mes over here anyway. I could use the help planning out that festival in Canterlot in a few moons.
The Festival of Friendship, right?
It's a working title, especially since none of our foreign allies seem able to make it.
I mean, I could send my Twilight over. If she's allowed to set foot in Canterlot again after the Electric Kettle Incident.
Funny. And if I can't get Celestia to move the sun to the angle I need her to, she definitely won't budge there.
Yeah, who'd have thought she'd be touchy about somepony else telling her how to arrange the heavens?
Point made.
How's security looking?
Security? It's a party. I was going to give the Guard the day off.
Your brother's wedding was a party too. Look at how that turned out.
You really think it'll be necessary?
Call it a hunch.
Several months, countless e-mails, numerous borderline interdimensional incidents, and one alicorn existential crisis later, the embassy stood proud, directly opposite Canterlot High. It wasn't too different from most buildings in the human Canterlot, though Equestrian influences like heart-shaped windows could be spotted here and there. (Getting the contractors to stop screaming had been one of the more frequent minor incidents.)
Now, after all the headache, heartache, and backache, the building was ready to open. Princess Twilight wasn't available for the occassion, but the retired diarchs were, along with most of the graduating class and faculty of CHS. The girls who had first brought magic to this world flanked the podium, while many of their classmates stood in the crowd amidst the press corps, local luminaries, and governmental agents of all stripes.
Mayor Luster gave a picture-perfect smile as she concluded her part of the proceedings. "And now, to cut the ribbon, I am pleased to introduce your friend and mine, Ambassador Sunset Shimmer."
The graduates' cheers were almost deafening. Two young men were particularly vocal, one of whom hadn't even attended the school.
"Thank you," Sunset said once the noise died down to something the microphone could pierce. "I am honored to be here today. For years, I thought I had to hide who and what I really was, for fear of ostracization and expulsion from this beautiful town and incredible world. Now I look out a crowd of Equestrians and Earthlings alike, and it warms my heart to know that friendship transcends even the boundaries of time and space. We stand ready to enter a new era, one of cooperation between worlds of science and magic to elevate both to undreamt-of heights."
The mayor passed her a pair of giant novelty scissors. "And so," said Sunset, "through the efforts of dozens of ponies and humans alike, I am very pleased to declare this Equestrian embassy to the Federated States of Amareica open!"
She closed the scissors. They went through the ribbon in front of the doors almost effortlessly. Cameras flashed, the crowd cheered, and her body started to glow from within.
Sunset blinked. Wait, wha—
Then she exploded.
The crowd gasped. Some screamed. Many tried to get away from the podium, threatening to crush others underfoot. The discreetly placed security personnel swooped in, which only made some people panic more.
Twilight rushed for the mike. "Everyone, please remain calm!" Naturally, this only made the crowd mill about even more. She sighed and nodded to Pinkie.
Pinkie nodded back and hurled a handful of sprinkles as high as she could. The resulting fireworks drew everyone's attention. Thankfully, Rarity didn't need to deploy any shields against any soldiers who might have mistaken the bursts for gunfire.
"As I was saying," Twilight said, "please remain calm." She looked at the scorch mark Sunset had left on the steps of the embassy and couldn't help but smile. The char formed a flawless recreation of the familiar two-tone sun emblem. "This is perfectly normal for unprecedented acts of magic and friendship."
