Flash Sunset

Chapters

Homecoming
Hunted
No Hiding Place
The Rock Cried Out
Take Me To The River
Wash Me In The Water
Home Is Where The Heart Is

Homecoming

Flash Sunset
Homecoming

The hardest word to say is ‘Sorry.’
--Princess Celestia

“I’m naked!” It was a tribute to just how long Sunset Shimmer had spent in the weird world of ‘humans’ that even before the mind-scrambling effects of dimensional travel had fully faded and the wonderful feeling of Equestrian magic had soaked into her horn once again, her absolute first instinct had been a shocked realization that her carefully-selected outfit with matching earrings, pumps, and a daring-but-not-flaunting miniskirt that Rarity had pressed on her before departing was gone, and the cool breeze that swept through the Royal Gardens felt extremely weird on her bare rump.

The second shocked realization was that Starswirl’s Mirror had been moved out of the secure storeroom where she had first encountered it, and placed in the middle of what could only be Celestia’s private garden. Nowhere else could there possibly be such a degree of flowering, blooming, growing, sprouting, and just plain green that filled every single crack and crevice of the ground around her, only parting in its expanse of photosynthesis in order to grudgingly permit the occasional stone bench or gravel pathway, and even there, the tips of curious vines crept out onto the forbidden territory just as far as they thought they could get away with their intrusion. All around her, the rustle and creak of hidden creatures filled Sunset’s mind with a strange mixture of intrigue and fear. The mirror should not have been put out here; it was a priceless treasure of Equestria that should have been locked away where nopony else could possibly fall through the cracks into another world like Celestia’s rebellious young student had done so many moons ago. Her reflexes surged to a near-panic as a nearby bush rustled, and her eyes caught the glint of polished steel in the moonlight.

It’s a trap!

Teleportation had always been easy for Sunset, an application of her boundless will upon the universe indicating that her current position of here was incorrect, and she actually was supposed to be there instead. A surge of welcome magic flooded over her horn and she reappeared on the wall of the castle in a flash of golden light, which did nothing for her night vision and everything for the guard’s ability to see where she had gone.

“There she goes!”

The rustle and flapping of wings brought a hammering terror to Sunset Shimmer’s heart. She had stolen from the Princess, assaulted the Royal Guard, and even committed what could be considered Treason Against The Crown, for which there was only one penalty. She had hoped that the kind and compassionate Princess Celestia who had once been closer to Sunset than her own mother would have been willing to listen to her plea for mercy. Now it seemed instead that her destined path was going to lead to a dark jail cell somewhere and unthinkable consequences.

Blinking through tears, her dazzled eyes could just barely make out the form of the mirror in the garden, but there were bulky armored shapes in front of it now, as well as a tall pale shape she knew too well. The only option left that held any hope was flight, away from Canterlot and into some place in Equestria where she could hide until Celestia’s immortal vengeance cooled, which looked to be a long, long time. An armored shape flung itself out of the dark garden in her direction as Sunset Shimmer turned her back and fed power into her magic again.

“I’ve got he—“

The wind from a pair of pegasi hooves barely breezed through her mane as Sunset reappeared on a nearby castle roof in a brilliant flash and a breathless panting. Using magic after this long away from Equestria was far more draining than she had anticipated, and she took a moment to orient herself against the shapes of buildings in the silver moonlight, trying to make sense of the moon symbols that had replaced so many of the familiar sun symbols in the castle.

Either things had changed far more than she realized in the last few years, or possibly she had managed to connect the portal to the wrong Equestria, because even the city beyond the castle walls seemed different in some fashion as it faded into sight to her flash-blinded eyes. Canterlot had always been awash in small changes as ponies attempted to one-up their neighbors with an ornate roof here or a trellis garden there, but this was far more. The normally dark streets were glowing with streetlights, and the distant throbbing music of dance clubs drifted through the mountain air, something she had never seen before in her time as a student despite her best efforts. Even the moon had changed, no longer bearing the image of a dark unicorn, but instead wearing a soft silver of vague craters like some old pony who had gotten a facelift.

The enchantments that filled the city beyond the castle remained the same, from the pegasus wards on the tops of tall towers to the vibrating pillars of massive enchantments anchoring the city to the side of Mount Canter. She could even feel the distant traces of the magic beacons in the Royal Guard armor, still unchanged since her abrupt departure—

“I’ve got you no—“ The triumphant cry of a Royal Guard pouncing down from the sky was rather rudely cut off by the solid wave of roofing shingles Sunset brought up between them, giving her a fraction of a second to teleport to another nearby roof before armored hooves reached for her again. He had sounded familiar for some reason, but she did not have leisure time to consider just what pony lurked behind that faceless identical facade of armor, just that whoever it was smashed out of the pile of shingles far faster than Sunset was willing to believe, and had streaked across the intervening space almost before she could teleport away again.

Fire seemed to fill Sunset Shimmer’s chest as she teleported again and again, each time barely able to heave a few anguished breaths and look for another safe spot before being forced to teleport to avoid capture. Whoever was chasing her was far too good to give even the smallest advantage. She had even taken to the rather risky method of double-teleporting to try and gain range on her pursuer, teleporting a distance away and into midair before teleporting to a new spot on the ground, but even that only gained her a few more seconds of panicked breathing before the whisper of wings sounded again and she had to flee. It would only be a matter of time before the Royal Guard managed to get one of their barrier experts — probably that arrogant twit Shining Armor — into position with a teleport-suppression field, and her attempts at escape would be squelched, leaving inevitably to that dark dungeon that she was seeing in her mind’s eye every time she vanished into a new position.

She was watching for it, so when the feeling of a dull magical shield appeared at the end of one of her teleportations, that was the cue to release a spell she had never actually cast before. A thin lance of magic speared silently through the barrier, expanding out even as it murmured sweet nothings into its pierced counterpart. With luck, nopony would be able to detect her tampering, and the natural tendency of barrier spells to self-heal would seal the hole behind her in just a few moments. With a flash of golden fire, Sunset Shimmer threw her teleportation spell through the barrier and into the open space behind it.

The very open space.

Air roared through Sunset Shimmer’s mane as she stared down at the bottom of Mount Canter, headed towards a rather messy impact that the barrier around the walls of Canterlot were supposed to protect ponies against, unless some idiot was extremely stupid enough to both poke a hole through the protective barrier and jump through. There were even a set of magical nets concealed under the lip of the wall, designed to catch any suicidal ponies who managed to make it past the barriers to jump, but not any brilliant unicorns who decided to actually go teleport far, far away from the wall.

Muffling a virulent curse, Sunset twisted while falling and tried to focus magic into her tired horn. It was not impossible to compensate for velocity while casting a teleportation spell, not even when accelerating away from the destination, but it required intense concentration and a calm mind, both of which were agonizingly difficult at the moment. Still, it beat dying.

...acceleration of 9.87 m/s less air friction resulting in a terminal velocity of 47 m/s and considering the amount of time fallen and the distance to the top of the wall means I need to fall another three point five seconds and exert thirty-two thousand thaums to cancel my base velocity and another fifty-seven thousand thaums for the range but better round that up to sixty thousand just to be sure and charging… now!

Nearly all of her prodigious magical power was focused on one task, so it was forgivable that she missed the whisper of wings from a single pegasus guard who had followed her out of the narrow hole in the city wards, but it was impossible to miss his triumphant shout as he plunged down out of the sky and wrapped his hooves around her body.

“Got you! You’re under — Oh no you don’t!” One armored hoof swung down at her blazing horn, making the teleportation spell spark and heave like a wild bucking bronco and Sunset cursed virulently at the guard.

“Get off! Get off you bucking idiot!”

There was no stopping her spell now, even with the additional weight of the guard and the frantic slapping he was doing at her blazing horn. They tumbled as they fell, the overcharged teleportation spell throwing sparks into her eyes until it discharged in a massive disruption of magic that wrenched her head to one side.

Even though the roar of passing wind had not stopped or even slowed, the night air had turned cloying and damp, clinging to their coats as the two ponies crashed through the trees sideways, branches and limbs reaching for them as they passed and leaving a shattered trail to their rear until they struck a forest giant far too large to even acknowledge the impact of two insignifiant ponies. Ever so slowly, the two entwined ponies slid down the bark, leaving quite a few patches of fur or blood along their path, and accumulating a number of long slivers in return, until they fell into a mercifully soft patch of moss at the base of the tree.

The relative pattern of the dark forest took a few minutes to return, the screaming of frightened birds and buzzing of disturbed insects slowly turning back to the regular chatter and hum of the deep forest. There was a new noise in the forest that added to the din, a slow moaning and groaning of injured ponies who had separated upon their impact with the forest floor and now lay on opposite sides of the mossy lump that had broken their fall. Finally, Sunset Shimmer dragged herself rightside-up and and spit out a lump of tree bark.

“Flash Sentry, is that you?”

There was a respectable period of time before the other pony responded, a faint but brief rustling indicating he had taken the time to shift position slightly and determine that perhaps immobility was the way to go at the moment. Still, that did not stop him from saying a phrase that she was dreading.

“Sunset Shimmer. You’re under arrest.”

Hunted

Sunset Flash
Hunted

Friendship is Forever.
—Princess Celestia

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Sunset Shimmer took a moment in the moonlight to rest her head on the soft spongy green lump of moss, which shifted slightly under her chin. “The first pony I find when I come back from the human world is my idiot ex. Oh, stars! I’ve got a splitting headache, I’m naked, and I still feel like I still should have fingers. To top it all off, Flash Sentry, the densest pegasus in Equestria, has joined the Royal Guard just to arrest my flank when I return. Hello, lovercolt. Tell me you have a bottle of aspirin and a shot of bourbon. Please?”

“It always has to be about you, doesn’t it?” The rustling on the other side of the spongy moss was brief but with undertones of pain that she hoped were at least close to the throbbing headache that was trying to split her own skull in half. Still, his next words shocked her to the core.

“Ungrateful bitch.”

“Me?” Sunset got up to her hooves briefly, but sat back down on the moss with a pained thud when the moonlit forest began to fade out. “As I was saying,” she continued once the world had finished spinning, “I’m not the one at fault here. You’re the idiot who tried to gang tackle me.”

“I caught you too.” A branch rose up out of the darkness and was lobbed away as the struggling noises on the other side of the mossy lump increased. “Mostly.”

“Sergeant Flash of the Royal Guard always gets his pony, I suppose,” said Sunset, wiping at a trickle of sticky moisture running down her cheek and getting onto unsteady hooves. “Buck that, I’m leaving. I figure we’ve got about ten minutes before the rest of your armored idiot friends track your armor beacon down. Just tell them I got away and nopony will be the wiser.”

“Screw that. You’re still under arrest, Sunny.” There was a little more rustling and another branch was tossed out of the darkness, sounding as if there were several more waiting their turn.

“You know I hate that nickname, Flash. Or should I start calling you Rodeo, because you only last eight seconds,” snapped Sunset through gritted teeth. There was no response except for a few more small branches thrown out of the darkness, and eventually Sunset asked, “You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine,” he responded almost instantly, struggling partially out of the darkness in a cascade of broken branches and collapsing onto the moonlit moss. “My wing’s a little numb, but I’ve been worse off—” Flash cut off abruptly, looking at her face with his bottom jaw drooping a little, just like he did back when they were dating and she showed off her magic for the nitwit. “Your horn!”

“What?” she snapped, staggering a little as she reached up to her head with one hoof. “Do I have something stuck on—”

* * *

It was, she decided, an action she had no plans of ever repeating. The cold and clammy surface of the cushioning fungus pressed all over her back as something gently tugged and jolted against her numb forehead. Opening one eye showed an extremely close view of Flash Sentry with a bandage dispenser in his mouth, gently coaxing out a long ribbon of white that he was wrapping around her horn. “Stay down,” he mumbled around the bandage, putting in one last twist before tying the end in a tight knot. “I put a Guard issue magic suppressing donut on your horn before bandaging. You were sparking every time you screamed, and I didn’t want turned into something.”

“You’re already a weasel,” whispered Sunset, opening up both eyes and blinking several times. “Ow.”

“You need to find a more impressive word, Sunny.” Flash tucked the bandage dispenser back into his armor as he talked. “Your horn is split down to about halfway and has a little chip out of the end. The suppression donut should keep it numb and stop you from aggravating it with any casting, but the sooner we get you back to Canterlot and into a hospital the better. I’ve only got four painkillers in my medical kit, so let me know if it gets too bad, and I’ll let you have one.”

“Why in Hades didn’t I feel this before?” muttered Sunset, trying to keep focused enough so that what she could see of the surrounding forest was not doubled.

Flash tapped his armor with one hoof. “You were close enough to me that the armor enchants protected you on impact. Good thing too, or we would have broke a lot more than your horn.”

“Makes sense,” said Sunset Shimmer. “I can’t believe I just agreed with you. Must be drain bramage.”

“How can you tell?” Flash snorted at his own joke, a disgusting habit that both Flash’s possessed, although there were several differences between them that only showed up beneath the sheets. “Anyway, the sooner the Royal Guard notices the hole you put in the Outer Wards, the sooner they’ll be here to pick us both up. My wing is starting to hurt like the…“

Sunset had laid her head back down on the huge spongy fungus in an attempt to calm the pounding headache that beat in time with her pulse, so she could not see whatever had made Flash trail off like that, but she still felt spiteful enough to add, “I blame you, Feathers-For-Brains.”

“S-s-sunny? Can I ask a f-favor?” His voice had gotten much quieter, and there was that little wheedling whine to it that annoyed her to no end. She could tolerate it when she was feeling good, but that was certainly not now. However, it was worth opening one eye to see what was going on, and then both eyes once she caught a glimpse of a pale Flash Sentry, barely managing to remain standing. He had pulled himself out of the dark shadow that surrounded the tree and into the bright moonlight, which gave the silvery trails of blood down his side a glitter like molten metal, and painted the pinkish ends of bone that protruded from the heaviest parts of his wing with a sparkle like shattered glass.

“Holy horseapples, Flash! Why didn’t you say something?” She staggered to her hooves, suppressing an almost instinctive attempt to put power into her magic to hold back the thin stream of blood that oozed from his side. The resulting wave of nausea was only amplified as she got a better look at the carnage their impact had made to his wing, with at least two different sections that had bones twisting in a direction they were not intended to twist, not counting the open fracture of his humerus that laid his skin open in a way that did not help her nausea one bit. Flash was no help, having turned his head away the moment she stood up and was maintaining a rather sincere inspection of a nearby weed with a fierce intensity that indicated that perhaps if he could not pay any attention to the broken wing, it would just go away. Idiot.

“How bad is it?” he whispered.

“You’ll never play the piano again. What do you mean, how bad is it? I was Celestia’s student, not a nurse. You need a doctor, or somebody who knows how to put together a mean jigsaw puzzle at least.” She swallowed as a terrified twitch ran down his shapely flanks. Flash had always been protective of his wings, and it had taken forever before he trusted her enough to help preen them. But this was not helping.

“Flash,” she started. “Take one of your painkillers. Right now, before I even touch anything.”

At least the big lug is obedient. Oh, for the love of—

“You’re not supposed to chew it, moron.” She helped the sputtering stallion drink from his canteen and got him situated on the spongy chunk of fungus before taking a better look at his broken wing. If anything, it appeared worse than it probably was. It would only take an hour or two with a medical unicorn before Flash could spend a few weeks recuperating, surrounded by pretty young nurses and lounging around in the hospital whirlpool. She, on the other hoof, was going to be surrounded by glum armored guards in the prison wing of the hospital until she recovered enough for whatever other punishment Celestia had planned.

Screw it. I’m out of here.

It took longer than she expected for Flash to settle down into a relatively relaxed state, considering the quantity of time-released opiates that must have been galloping through his bloodstream. After he began to snooze, she gently tucked his wing up into a more-or-less comfortable position and used the bandage applicator to tie it relatively immobile against the various clever little concealed latches in his Royal Guard armor.

Time was not her friend. It would only be an hour at worst until the Royal Guard followed the tracking enchantment in Flash’s armor and showed up in full force. The forest under Canterlot was relatively unoccupied, because nopony preferred to live where the possibility of huge rocks crashing down on top of your head was a daily risk. All she really needed to do was to figure out which direction Mount Canter was and head the other way. Once far enough away from the mountain, there were a huge number of nature trails and paths that she could vanish into, turning her tail on her former teacher and all of Canterlot. Maybe she could head to the Griffon lands, or even north to see how the Elk lived. A little bit of mane dye, a hat to hide her injured horn until it healed on its own, and she could travel anywhere in the world.

Why does my chest hurt so much? Did I break some ribs?

There was only one pony in all of Equestria who knew just exactly when she was returning through the mirror, but Sunset could not imagine Princess Twilight Sparkle having betrayed her. She was a friend, and even though the concept of friendship had always been something Sunset had considered to be a weakness, she had not only seen what friendship could do, but been slugged in the face by a whole rainbow full of it. Even if Twilight had betrayed… well, told Celestia that Sunset was returning through the mirror, that did not mean she meant for anything bad to happen to her.

We all make mistakes, I suppose. Some bigger than others.

She toyed with the idea of traveling to Twilight Sparkle, but discarded it almost at once. Celestia would not have put that many Royal Guards at her return location if she had not been expecting trouble, nor ordered them to detain and arrest her on sight unless she was planning on punishing her. To drag a friend into that kind of swamp and pit her against the Princess of the Sun and Moon would have been a betrayal of their friendship. No, it was better for everypony if Sunset Shimmer were to vanish away into the darkness, never to be seen again.

“There you go, Flash,” she whispered, patting him gently on the shoulder. He looked so cute with the moonlight reflecting across his face and glinting off his scratched helmet. Those muscles really did fill out the armor well, although it still seemed a little weird to see him without pants. Outside of the bedroom, that is. Once he closed his baby blue eyes and drew his legs up for a nap, she stood as quietly as she could. “Don’t worry, numbskull. The rest of your armored friends will be along any minute now.”

The world swayed a little as Sunset Shimmer looked up into the sky, making her take an extra moment to breathe and stabilize her stance before looking around. “Thank God for four solid hooves,” she murmured, scanning across what little of the sky she could see through the trees. Even with the thick foliage blocking her sight, there should at least have been a section of the sky without stars visible indicating Mount Canter. And these trees looked different than she expected too. The forests around the base of the mountain were all pine and aspen, where these huge trees had broad leaves that rustled in the nighttime breeze, making eerie shadows dance through the thick underbrush.

“Where’s the blinking mountain?” she murmured, trying to look through the cracks in the treetops and seeing only stars. “The Guard is going to be here any minute.” There was a distant thumping on the ground, as if some huge and monstrous drum was being played, or perhaps the granite of the mountain was conducting one of DJPony3’s latest hits to her, and Sunset tried to make sense of her surroundings.

If all else is eliminated, then the impossible, no matter how weird, is probably reality.

“Deciduous forest, oddly huge fungi, a damp smell of nearby swamp—“ Sunset swung her tail at an insect, which was one pony bodily function she was pleased to still be proficient with. The resulting dead iridescent bug glittered in the moonlight, a hostile mix of claws and shimmering wings that could have only been found in one place.

“The Everfree Forest?”

If there was any doubt, it vanished when a nearby hydra gave a stentorian bellow, most likely due to having scented wounded prey.

No Hiding Place

Sunset Flash
No Hiding Place

Adventure is out there!
--Starswirl the Bearded

“Buckit, buckit, buckit!” There had been a chapter in Dangerous Beasts and Fauna of the Everfree that Sunset Shimmer had read once that detailed a defense against hydras, but all she could remember was the postscript in the book that had dedicated it to the graduate students who had nearly given their lives proving that the three most effective ways to survive meeting a hydra were to run, run fast, and run far, far away.

“Options, I need options,” she gasped, feeling the forest floor tremble as the hydra grew nearer.

Stuff the rest of the painkillers into Flash and run. When it eats him, it should fall asleep.

“Only have four pills. Three, now. Need another option. Come on, brain. Think or you’re dead, Sunset!”

The inky darkness beneath a huge fallen tree caught her eye, a impenetrable ebon veil that could conceal anything from grizzly bear to a manticore, but right now the one thing she could be certain of was that it did not conceal a hydra, which made it the perfect place to conceal a terrified Sunset Shimmer. Her heart hammered in her chest as she mentally weighed the unconscious pegasus against the rapidly approaching thunderous footsteps, making only one thing she could possibly say before leaving.

“Well, Flash. It’s been good to know you, but I need to get going. Have fun at dinner.”

She patted him gently on the cheek and turned for her bolthole, but came to a sudden stop as the idiotic guard stirred in his sleep and muttered, “Love you…”

Every single second was critical if she was to get hidden before the hydra followed its sensitive noses here and ate Flash, but she paused, glancing back and forth between her ex-coltfriend and safety. She had always been able to make the right decisions, and this was an easy one, but…

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” She grabbed one armored hoof and heaved, trying to keep her numb horn from touching any part of his body as she struggled to get the heavy stallion with his heavy armor and his most certainly fat flank onto her back while ignoring the way the ground trembled and thumped underhoof. He dangled down on both sides, sticky blood matting into her own coat and certainly providing the oncoming hydra a delicious seasoning for her tender flesh. The world faded in and out as she staggered forward, cursing the donut-loving dolt and every tasty pastry he had ever shoved into his big mouth and collapsing to her knees once they both were inside the inky darkness.

Without being able to see, and barely able to hear through the throbbing hammer chorus in her head, Sunset could only imagine the scene outside in the overgrown clearing. The thunder of approaching steps slowed to a halt, replaced by the sound of four noses sniffing around the area. To her horror, she could also hear the faint crackle and crunch of dry bones under her own hooves from some huge forest creature trapped when the tree they were hiding under had originally fallen. She froze in place, feeling the warm breath of Flash on her neck as he twisted during sleep, gently nibbling up her neck to her sensitive ear with a constant stream of whispered, “Love you, love you, love you…” Despite the sledgehammer in her head and the certainty of death and consumption outside, she could still feel her aching knees get weak and her tail struggle to rise. Biting on her bottom lip did little good when he finally reached her ear and bit down gently with one final whispered word. “Princess.”

“What?!” The faint snorting noises outside cut off abruptly even though Flash continued his drowsy mutterings, unaware of his soon to be role as midnight snack. Sunset twisted out from underneath him, gaining painful scratches in her own coat from the jagged dry bones still trapped under the fallen tree. In a fit of desperation, she grabbed one of the broken bones in her teeth and darted to one side of their impromptu cave’s entrance just as the light from outside was cut off by a gigantic head. She flung herself forward in a blind panic with a muffled battlecry of mixed pain and terror as she jabbed down with the raw end of the jagged dry bone and felt it strike home in the monster’s eye.

Things got more than a little indistinct at that point, but when the fuzzy blur finally cleared and she could think clearly again, there was no sign of the hydra at the mouth of their shelter other than a blotch of blood at the entrance and some distant bellowing noises that seemed to promise future retribution. After taking a number of deep breaths and suppressing a pressing urge to throw up, she took a peek out the cave entrance to look at the devastated clearing. Grass and bushes had been thrown in all directions by the rampaging monster, making the peaceful moonlit area she had just left into a maze of torn up turf and ripped bark that could be concealing any number of impatient scavengers hanging around for leftovers.

She sat down in the entrance, or to be more accurate, both her hind legs suddenly made up their minds to collapse at the same time, triggering a wave of trembling that swept from shaking tail to chattering teeth. It was a surreal feeling to taste dry bones in her dry mouth, and she spit out the second splintered bone she had grabbed instinctively when the hydra had yanked its head out of the entrance and carried the first bone with it. Wherever her splitting headache had gone when the hydra first appeared, it was now returning in excruciating throbs that made her eyes twitch with the rhythm of her rapid heartbeat.

Thirty minutes in Equestria. It could only have been about thirty minutes so far. Forty, tops. Four years of high school as a human, and nothing had tried to kill her in that time. Well, other than the PE teacher trying to convince her to climb that stupid rope. She could feel slivers of bark still jammed under her coat, the humid motionless air wrapping her in sweat, and the cloying scent of dung from some other creature who had used this fallen tree as a den or—

It took a few moments to kick the smelly evidence of her fear out the doorway and regard the sounds of the sleeping simpleton snoring softly in the darkness. From sacrificial goat to salvation in just a few minutes. His fellow guards were going to be so proud of him after catching the prisoner and surviving their landing in the Everfree Forest. He might even get a promotion. Certainly Celestia would reward him in some fashion, and it might even spill over a little onto her errant student, the Prodigal Pony, as it were. Cover him with praise, lay the butter on as thick as it would go about how he saved her from the fall despite her failed spell, and stood guard through the night against the monsters of the forest.

Yeah, that might work. It sure as hell can’t make things worse. I better at least play the part.

The darkness in their little hidey-hole had just enough soft shimmers of reflected moonlight for Sunset to find Flash’s sleeping body, made easier by his gurgling snore. One of the many, many things a student of the princess learns is the habits and equipment of the constantly watching guards, particularly when trying to avoid them or borrow things from them. Under the right side of the standard Royal Guard paldron, hidden by a little pressure clasp, was a ‘pocket’ of sorts. In addition to their standard kit, a guard might store a picture or two, or even some bits in the cramped space, but what she was looking for was a little more useful.

“Ah, ha. Here we go. All we need is music and we can have a rave. Flash is already coked out of his gourd.”

The glow rods popped into a soft illuminating light when bent, one pale blue and one pale pink, which she hung by their strings on twigs sticking out of the tree overhead before turning to the task she had not wanted to face. Flash’s wing had swelled up somewhat since she had dragged him under the tree, and Sunset swallowed hard as she got a good close look at what she was up against in order to properly set and splint the broken limb. After an hour or two of rest, the injured flight muscles could easily start spasming, which would force the jagged edges of the break against delicate blood vessels and tendons. Contrary to her previous protestations, Sunset did have a little medical experience as a pony before traveling to the human world and suffering through dissecting frogs in Biology and surviving the ‘Your Female Bodies, Your Selves’ class. Somewhere at her old home here, she had a whole sash full of Filly Scout badges for dumb filly stuff, but she could still hear her old scout mistress talking about open fractures as if they were the greatest thing in the world. The old biddy had even seemed to wish that one of her little Filly Scouts would manage to break a bone in that exact fashion during their jamboree so they could be used as a teaching aid, although it never had happened.

With a pained sigh of remembrance for younger and simpler times, Sunset examined the rest of the guard’s standard supplies. The bandage applicator was nearly depleted, the weak yellow blinking gem in the side indicating the enchantment that powered it needed to be recharged by a unicorn who preferably was not stuck in the middle of the Everfree Forest with a split horn. The empty circular depression where the magic-suppressing horn ring was normally located she skipped, as the ring was still on her horn, of course, stuck just inside her visual range and making her cross-eyed whenever she tried to take a look where Flash had bandaged the annoying object in place. The two alchem light spots were empty now too, as well as…

She removed the empty condom wrapper and tossed it into the corner of the cave with a scowl before turning back to her inventory of available useful tools to use on Flash’s broken wing. A compact wad of cords turned out to be a pegasus wing restraint, which she sat to one side for later, but other than a tube of antiseptic cream, the rest of the kit was useless.

There were a few photographs of a young colt looking much like Flash, a pair of older pegasi who she vaguely remembered as his parents, and one well-worn picture of…

Oh, you blithering numbskull. Princess Twilight Sparkle? Really?

She was posed next to five other young mares, all seeming odd and hoofy compared to the human counterparts Sunset was familiar with. Even as ponies, there was no mistaking their identity, from Pinkie’s flyaway mane to Dash’s prismatic display, and a little purple dragon who could only be Spike. She sat the photo to one side with a pang of regret at having left her human friends all behind and turned to her unwelcome task.

~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~

Morning sunlight sifted down through the thick canopy of the Everfree Forest, illuminating the drifting motes of pollen and early-rising insects, splashing off the emerald green leaves, rebounding around the small forest clearing and reflecting into the small cavity under a fallen tree in which two groggy ponies were waking. A fitful night of sleep had done nothing for Sunset’s cheery demeanor, nor was the missing cup of coffee and absent breakfast pastry helping. Flash groaned while shifting positions, letting out one abbreviated yelp of pain when he tried to move his wings and shifting around so he could glare at his counterpart.

“Yer still here, Sunny?” He blinked and yawned with a stupefyingly bad case of morning breath. And mane. And tail. Sunset could not complain very much, being fairly certain that her own matted mane was going to have to be sheared off like some red and yellow sheep before they stuck her in the jail cell, but she could not help but snark in reply.

“How could I ever leave my handsome Shining Armor? Kiss me, you handsome thing,” she murmured, raising one eyebrow painfully at his blank expression. Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes and stood up, or at least staggered into as much of an erect position as the low ceiling of their shelter would allow. “Stay put, nitwit. I want to see how my little crafting project looks in the sunlight.”

Flash looked away as Sunset cautiously examined the splinting she had done last night, but due to his natural inability to keep his big mouth shut, he eventually swallowed and asked, “You don’t really think I’m Shining Armor, do you? Because you hit your head—”

“No, I don’t think you’re Sammy,” shot back Sunset. “I mean Shiny. I was being facetious. That means sarcastic,” she added. “Since you were so brilliant as to hit my horn in the middle of a teleport spell, we wound up in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Now shut up. My head is about to split open, I itch everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and I would have thought your idiot guard friends would have picked us up hours ago. I’m starting to look forward to a cold, hard cell with no bugs!” She stomped down on an insect and twisted her hoof with a certain malevolent degree of satisfaction.

“Well, it might take some—” Flash had gained some courage from somewhere and turned around to take a tentative peek at his bandaged wing, and remained looking with his jaw hanging open like some sort of armored flycatcher.

“What? Look, your stupid kit didn’t have anything in it for stitches, so I had to improvise.”

“Are those… Unable to twist a hoof around to his back, he craned his neck a little closer to his wing and squinted. There had been a ragged bloody split at least two hooves long torn in his thin hide where the thick wingbone had punched through, which was now ever so neatly stitched up by a neat line of—

“Ants?” he asked, looking at the line of beheaded ants, or more properly, bebodied ant heads, each one with sharp mandibles buried into his skin in a meandering line that tracked the edges of severed skin underneath the tight web of the wing restraint.

“I read about it once,” said Sunset with a small smile. “Once these bad boys get their jaws into you, they won’t let go even after you pull their bodies off.”

“Ants,” he repeated weakly. “I’m being eaten by ants. And this is supposed to be a good thing?”

“Chillax,” she said, stomping another bug. “They’re dead, and they’re saving your life. You want to bleed to death before your lazy friends get here? It’s taking them forever to follow your stupid beacon.”

“Um. About that…” Flash looked back outside into the empty sunlit clearing. “Maybe we should go out and start a fire. Something with smoke or something so they have something to follow. Or something.”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you, Flash? One thing I got from the books I read on the Everfree Forest is how blinking dangerous it is. We go out into that clearing to start a fire and Blam! A manticore will come swooping down on us or that stupid hydra from last night will come back.”

Flash squirmed in that entirely obvious way that showed he was hiding something. It must have been a doozy, because he folded his ears back and looked out into the clearing again. “Really. Once they find where you punched a hole in the Outer Wards, they’ll put out a search team. We’re a long ways away from the breach, so maybe a smokey bonfire would help. I mean if we really are in the Everfree Forest, maybe its magic is affecting my beacon, or it could even be malfunctioning somehow.”

“Malfunctioning?” Sunset blinked. “Flash, that beacon is about as fail-safe as Canterlot’s support spells. The only reason a guard would even turn theirs off is to sneak up on somepony—”

A series of completely unconnected items connected in Sunset’s mind and she could not help but snort with derision. “You turned your beacon off so you could watch Princess Twilight Sparkle without her knowing, didn’t you?”

“No!” A brief pause. “Of course not.” A somewhat longer pause. “That would be against regulations.” He grumbled as Sunset pulled his helmet off and looked inside. “Besides, it’s a dumb regulation.”

“You shorted it out?” Sunset Shimmer rotated the helmet towards the rays of sunlight beaming into their shelter and scowled down at the little charred rune inside. “How in the stars did you short it out without blowing your stupid head off?”

“It was an accident,” muttered Flash. “I was just trying to figure out how to turn it off a few weeks ago when it made a popping noise. I thought I could turn it back on, but I can’t, so let’s just get a bonfire built, and we can worry about pointing hooves of blame when the search parties pick us up.”

“Flash, you idiot! There won’t be search parties.” Sunset sat down and tossed the helmet aside. “I used a stealth slidealong spell when I punched a hole in the Outer Wards. I thought it was one of Shining Armor’s barriers, and I thought that slipping out of it without being detected was a good idea, but you know what they’re going to think now since we seem to have vanished without a trace? You know what they’ll think about Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry, who had been romantically involved before I got kicked out of the castle by Princess Celestia? They’ll think we did this together! They’ll think we planned on escaping Canterlot, and if they search at all, they’re going to be looking in every train station and steamship line across Equestria, NOT in the bucking Everfree Forest!”

“Um, Sunny?” Flash Sentry touched her gently on one flank.

“Not now, you idiot! I’m on a roll! And you know what’s worse? I’m stuck here with you of all ponies! My friends asked if they could come with me, but no, I had to turn them down. I told them there’s a balance to interdimensional mirror portals, and the more parallel versions of a pony who exist on one side, the more unstable they get. I mean, can you imagine two Pinkie Pies in the same place?”

“Look at the ants,” whispered Flash, in a somewhat hypnotized tone.

“I don’t care about the bucking ants!” screamed Sunset regardless of the excruciating pain from her head. “The ants are perfectly fine! Primitive tribes all over the Amazon basin used them for stitches for centuries! Leave the bucking ants on your back alone!”

Two powerful forehooves grasped her by the cheeks and rotated Sunset’s head to look out into the sunlit clearing. At first, she did not see what it was that had disturbed Flash Sentry, but after a few moments to run down the list of things it was not, a horrible realization began to grow.

“Ants,” she murmured. “So many bucking ants.”

The clearing floor seemed fuzzy from the uncounted multitude of ants that covered it in a lumpy thick coat, but the trees and grass were rapidly turning from green to a striped brown under their relentless jaws. Ants hung from branches, clumped on boulders, and generally existed everywhere within sight, and from the low hiss that she had originally put off as a breeze through the trees, the endless carpet of ants continued a long distance farther than she could see. There were even chains of ants draped from the trees as they linked their tiny bodies to form ant highways to reach the leafy foliage.

“They react to smell more than sight,” whispered Flash Sentry. “My little brother knows a colt who can’t stop talking about bugs. They can smell predators who kill ants and swarm them under.”

“Oh… crap,” whispered Sunset, looking outside the shelter opening at the growing pool of moving jaws and twitching feelers where she had thrown the other half of her ‘stitches.’

Author's Note

Note on the use of ants as stitches by Discovery.com

Also check out the short story Leiningen Versus the Ants which inspired many followups including the movie The Naked Jungle with Charlton Heston.

"You're insane! They're not creatures you can fight—they're an elemental—an 'act of God!' Ten miles long, two miles wide—ants, nothing but ants!"

The Rock Cried Out

Sunset Flash
The Rock Cried Out

I hate jungles.
--Daring Do

“Move really careful,” whispered Flash Sentry as he stepped out from under the fallen tree and into the clearing. All around them, thick ropes of ants hung from trees, carrying the severed green of leaves away to some unknown destination the exact same way each of the ponies could imagine the same ants carrying them away, one tiny bite at a time. The clusters of ants around his hooves swarmed and surged as if they were some sort of blackish living tar, with just a few clinging to each hoof as it swept forward and down in a peculiar sliding motion to move the huge ants to one side instead of stepping on any of them. “Gentle steps. One at a time. Don’t squish any of them if you can help it.”

“I hate bugs,” muttered Sunset, picking up and putting down her hooves with the precision of a ballet dancer as she followed behind.

“At least they’re not changelings,” said Flash Sentry. “The Everfree is supposed to have a hive of them somewhere.”

“Don’t say that, Flashlight,” scowled Sunset, carefully skirting a large clump of ants nearly the size of a small pony. After a few more cautious steps, she added, “What’s a changeling?”

“Big bug,” said Flash, shifting his weight between steps. “Pony sized. They eat love.” He stopped and looked back at Sunset Shimmer with a frown. “What do you mean, ‘What’s a changeling?’ Have you been living in a cave the last decade?”

“Concentrate, dimwit,” said Sunset, shaking a curious ant off one hoof and regarding the long, long distance they had to go to reach ant-free ground, considering that they had not even seen ant-free ground yet. “I’ve been living in a funhouse mirror dimension for the last four years.” After a few more precise steps, she added, “I thought you knew.”

He snorted as if laughing at a joke that only he heard, then after a few more minutes of careful progress snorted again. “What was I supposed to think? First I hear that you got thrown out of school for getting into the restricted section of the library, and I mean the ‘restricted, do not go here or else’ part that even Princess Celestia won’t touch. Then you snuck back into the castle before I could even ask what got into your pointy little head. Half the other colts in class claimed you had been corrupted by Dark Magic, and they had all kinds of twisted theories as to what happened when you went back. Nopony would say where you went, and even my own father wouldn’t tell me.” He paused to blow a few loose ants off his flank and spared her a curious look. “Mirror dimension?”

“Yeah.” She held still while shaking a few ants off her tail. “Weird place. Nice, but weird. Four years of not having a tail or a horn.”

The two of them picked their way along with the occasional yelp or muffled curse as a curious ant bit down on exposed flesh until Flash asked, “So what did you do for the other six years?”

“Not the time for it, jerk.” Sunset bit down on her bottom lip as a number of ants bit down on her exposed hock, turning her startled jump into a slow shuffle that scattered alarmed ants in all directions. “Crap.”

“Don’t panic, Sunny. I’m here.”

“Not helping!” Sunset shuffled forward as the ants flowed and surged together, making a low hissing noise as thousands of little ant limbs and ant jaws made contact with each other.

“Should we make a run for it?” asked Flash.

“No! Walk faster, and look for a stream or some water.”

The hissing rose in volume as they walked through the never-ending carpet of living chitin and jaws. Thankfully, the path seemed at least a little less populated than the surrounding writhing bushes and brush, with bare naked branches sticking up in places where the ants had already stripped every bit of greenery and left only what she could not help but think of as skeletal remains. The agony of ant bites had grown as they walked with the beginnings of a swarming masses clinging to her heels and hocks like an obscene set of wriggling black boots, and nothing was more welcome than the sight of a greenish stream of water winding its way through a low section of the valley.

“Flash,” she started, trying to remain calm as ants were climbing her hind legs regardless of her frantic tail swatting. “Run.”

Bursting into a gallop with Flash Sentry right behind her, Sunset Shimmer lunged off the dirt bank of the stream and into a deeper section where the curve of the water had cut a deeper pool, with just enough water to submerge everything except her head. “Keep your wing above water,” she managed to splutter, lifting herself up out of the water briefly before dunking down so just her eyes and horn were not submerged. Some of the blasted ants had lost their grip during her plunge and were swimming feebly through the pale green water. She grinned in a sense of revenge as a series of small fish broke the surface and made short work of their unexpected lunch bounty.

“Sunset?” wavered Flash’s voice as he held himself very still with only a little bit of water splashed onto his wing. “Something feels like it’s eating me.”

The little fish did not stop at snapping the ants off the surface of the water, she realized, but were also nipping away at the stubbornly-fixed ants clamped onto her legs. It tickled, despite the pain of the ant bites, and Sunset giggled as she thought about the time Rarity had taken her for a pedicure.

“Relax, nitwit. They’re eating the ants. There are places that would charge you a hundred bucks for this kind of treatment. Just keep your wing above the water!”

“Bucks?” There was a small splash as the injured pegasus swung his soggy tail at an irritating ant, and then a second, somewhat more distant splash that bothered her for some reason.

“Bits, although the exchange rate is weird.” The tickle of fish nibbles was still bothering her for some reason, even though the fish didn’t look like piranha, which would be just her luck. This was the Everfree, not some jungle stream in Africa where wandering wildebeests got eaten when they went to the river to drink. There were no lions native to the settled lands in Equestria, but there were—

“Out of the water, right now!” Sunset Shimmer lunged forward, struggling up out of the muddy bank to the thankfully ant-free shore with Flash Sentry right behind her. She stumbled once before starting to run, accelerating when the roar and splashing noises of a crocodile of some undetermined variety sounded from behind and hesitating when Flash Sentry gave a startled scream. The crocodile that had lunged out of the water on their trail was clinging onto one of his armored hind legs, while Flash was prone on the ground and kicking the reptile just as hard as possible on the nose with the remaining armored hoof. She looked around frantically for a stick or a rock just as the crocodile opened its jaws to take a larger bite, and Flash curled up into a ball before lashing out with both hind legs straight into its face.

They both tumbled in opposite directions, Flash nimbly onto his hooves and dashing in her direction, and the crocodile shaking its head and grumbling about missing lunch.

“Why didn’t you keep running?” panted Flash, slowing to a canter as he gasped for breath.

“And miss you getting eaten?” asked Sunset, spitting out a small twig about the size of a pencil and looking at his hind leg. “You’re bleeding.”

“Duh. Come on.” The wounded pegasus hobbled down the path. “Let’s get a little distance away from your friend first.”

“It’s not my friend,” grumbled Sunset Shimmer as she followed the muddy, dripping, and somewhat bloody pegasus. “My friends are back in the human world.”

After a period of walking, Flash abruptly asked, “What about me?”

“Hold on there, lunkhead. You chased me down, made me crash into a tree and break my horn, and now you want to be my friend? ‘And this is my best friend, Sunset Shimmer, who I crippled, arrested and got thrown into prison for the rest of her life.’ Yeah, right.” She shook a few drowned ants out of her tail while trying to fling them in his direction before stopping at a small patch of fresh grass. “Let me look at your stitches.”

Flash had that hunch around his shoulders that said ‘I’m thinking up something suitably witty to say in response,’ and it took until after Sunset had checked her ‘stitches’ and they both had nipped a few awkward-to-reach ants off each other’s coats until his words finally emerged.

“I thought we were friends.”

“What?” Sunset spit out a dead ant and glared. “How dumb are you? I used you. I abused your trust and took advantage of your complete stupidity. We had a few laughs, some good times in bed—”

“More than a few, if I recall,” scowled Flash.

“And now that we’re going to die in the Everfree Forest, you want to be my friend.” It took far to few minutes for the weakly beeping bandage dispenser to spit out the last of its contents while she wound Flash’s bloody hind leg as best she could with a few scant turns of the enchanted cloth. She hooved the exhausted dispenser back to Flash, who dutifully tucked it away back inside his armor instead of throwing the useless thing away, but then again, he was fairly useless too, so they went well together.

“I suppose,” she growled as she nipped off the last of the stubborn ants from his flank and spat them into the grass, “that I can say you are -ptooie- the best friend I have within a few -yuck- hundred miles of this place. And that if you can forgive me -ptooie- for being such a bitch, then I can forgive you for being yourself.”

“That’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Sunny.” He made a weak effort to bite an ant off of her flank in return, sticking his tongue out afterwards and coughing. “These things taste terrible,” he rasped.

“You have to consider the source,” said Sunset. “After all, they bit me.”

“On the rear,” added Flash totally unnecessarily and with a sharp nip to dislodge one particularly persistent ant. “Bleah! Next time get bit by something tasty.”

“Or nutritious.” Sunset buried her nose in the grass and took a bite to get the taste out of her mouth, chewing with a peculiar quirk to her lips. “So, genius. You’re the one with Royal Guard survival training. What do you think we should do now?”

“Lunch,” said Flash, already nose-deep in the green grass next to the path. “And another pain pill soon,” he added with a wince, shifting his weight off the bandaged leg.

“I can’t make up my mind if this is the worst grass I’ve ever tasted or the best,” said Sunset while chewing.

“Worst,” said Flash, although through a mouthful himself. “I skipped on dinner last night because I was so nervous about guard duty. We had no idea what was going to come out of that mirror.”

“Wait a minute.” Sunset Shimmer lifted her head with a particularly sour weed hanging from the corner of her mouth. After spitting it out, she continued, “You didn’t know I was coming out of the mirror? Well, why did you try to arrest me then?”

Flash ignored her for a few more mouthfulls of grass, finally muttering, “You’re a criminal, right?”

“Yeah. No doubt about that.” Sunset returned to her grazing with a vengeance as if each blade of grass were a witness to her betrayal of Princess Celestia’s trust. After all, she had defied Celestia’s orders not to go into the restricted area of the library, attacked the Royal Guard during her escape through the mirror, and then years later actually stolen the Element of Magic from Princess Twilight in an idiotic attempt to return to Equestria and overthrow her. If she were in Princess Celestia’s golden shoes, a returning traitor would have been clapped in irons and publicly executed the next day.

But she was not Princess Celestia.

The power she had drawn from the Element of Magic had not transformed her into an alicorn as she had hoped, but something far darker and malevolent. For just a few moments, she had seen the trail of blood and destruction she would cause by her return and reveled in it.

Then… Rainbows.

In one flash of polychromatic light, she had seen what her return would have meant to others. Their pain. Their sadness. Their deaths. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but redemption requires work. Hard work in order to rebuild the bonds of trust and friendship that she had shattered in her clutching drive for petty power. With as much as she had accomplished to heal those wounds with the humans, there was none of that in Equestria. All of the ponies she had hurt here, from Flash Sentry’s father to Princess Celestia, they all bore her hoofprint on their faces.

There was no way she was going to die in the Everfree Forest before making it up to them somehow.

“Come on, Flash. Let’s get walking.” She ripped one last mouthful of bitter grass free and lifted her head. “This stupid forest is only so big, and if we walk in a straight line towards Mount Canter, we should come out somewhere around…” She paused to swallow, wishing the answer were something else. Finally, she managed to splutter out, “Ponyville.”

“In just a minute.”

“Now, numbskull. If that stupid crocodile of yours doesn’t come back, there’s still a hydra out here missing an eye. Each of the major predators has a certain hunting area, and if we can get out of range of theirs—”

“We’ll find another one, only bigger?” For some reason, Sunset could not turn her head to look around the scattered treetops for the towering mountain, but could only remain looking forward to where Flash had grazed himself during their lousy lunch. It was an odd feeling, as if that was the way down, and every other direction was up, and even trying to turn around was impossible.

“Yeah, probably.” A cold shiver traveled down Sunset’s back even in the warm sunshine that filtered through the growing cloud cover and she added, “Any reason just why you phrased it that way?”

“Maybe.” Flash’s rear twitched as muscles bunched and heaved, but he also remained pointing the same direction as Sunset. “Do you know anything about a big plant about a pony and a half tall, but covered with eyes?”

“No. Wait! Yes, I think so.” Sunset thought back to her time in the library when she had skimmed through the one book on the Everfree Forest. “No mouths, right?”

“Right.” The sense of relief in Flash’s voice was obvious and misplaced, and Sunset moved quickly to stomp it out.

“It doesn’t need teeth, lunkhead. It’s a hypnotic plant. Keep your hooves moving to keep the roots from eating you.” Sunset Shimmer obeyed her own directions, lifting her hooves up from where a number of fine filaments were trying to tie them down to the ground. “Keep stomping so it won’t immobilize you. And move forward,” she added, hoping that it was a flash of inspiration and not just a way to get Flash killed faster.

“Yes, Ma’am.” The crippled pegasus guard began stomping forward while Sunset kept talking.

“Keep moving, Flash. Keep going forward until I tell you to buck just as hard as you can. Both hind legs, just the way you nailed that crocodile.”

“I don’t understand.” He may not have understood, but he kept moving, which was at least one point in favor of the dunce.

“The ponies who wrote the book had one of their group captured, and they pulled him out with a rope,” she said, keeping an eye on Flash’s muddy rear instead of whatever was controlling their heads. “They never got to examine the plant, but they had a few theories about it. Have you reached it yet?”

“Almost,” snapped Flash Sentry from gritted teeth. “I won’t be able to bite it. I can’t move my face.”

“You won’t need to,” said Sunset, hoping that she was right and waiting until Flash stopped. The hypnotic plant paralyzed most of the victim's higher nerve centers in their brains, but Flash had a nerve center in his thick head she was hoping was too dense to be controlled. She took a deep breath and called out.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing here?”

“Princess!” blurted Flash Sentry, swapping ends and staring at Sunset Shimmer with wide eyes and a sense of outraged betrayal when he did not see the princess in question.

“Now, Flash!” screamed Sunset. “Buck! Buck just as hard as you can!”

The hypnotic compulsion cut off like a light when the pegasus lashed out with both hind legs right into the trunk of the fragile plant. The leaves thrashed even harder when he took out his frustration with armored hooves on the rest of the plant, being joined in a frenzy of biting and stomping by Sunset Shimmer and ending only when just the shattered stump of the dead hypnotic plant was all that remained.

“That was…” panted Sunset Shimmer, spitting out a fragment of leaf and sticking out her tongue.

“Horrible,” added Flash Sentry, staggering a little on his hooves.

“I was going to say awesome,” said Sunset, lifting one hoof to bump against his.

“You’re still under arrest,” said Flash, although he did bump hooves.

“I knew you were going to say that,” admitted Sunset.

“Do you think it’s safe here, now that we’ve killed the major carnivore in the area?” asked Flash, looking around at the green forest.

“Don’t say that, idiot,” muttered Sunset, putting her hoof firmly down on a little plant sprout that had one tiny eyestalk. “This is the Everfree Forest, after all. Everything here lives to eat something else.” Her eyes tracked to follow a brilliant yellow bit of fluff with bugged-out eyes and iridescent wings that floated by, singing a quiet little buzzy song. “The more innocent and pretty it seems, the more lethal and aggressive it is.”

A shrill and distant mournful cry echoed through the forest, making both ponies draw together and shiver.

“Sounds like it’s hunting something,” said Flash Sentry.

“Three guesses what,” said Sunset. “Come on. I spotted Mount Canter through the trees off that way before the clouds rolled in. Maybe we can outrun it.”

During their dash through the dense trees, branches reached out and clawed through their manes as they passed, and roots thrust out in order to trip them. The path divided and joined up with other paths as they ran until Sunset was unsure of the direction they traveled any more, and was terrified of seeing the same scenery with perhaps the screeching carnivore simply waiting for its prey to run to it. The forest grew thicker as they seemed to be traveling downwards down the widening path, and the scent of fresh water washed over them like a wave as they both drew up short.

The forest stopped almost abruptly, opening up into a wide graveled streambed that stretched for considerable distance in both directions. Trickling down the center of the open area with twists and turns as it ran was a thin stream, no wider than a pony could jump. A distant peal of thunder rumbled from the rapidly darkening forest in the distance, and a few small raindrops splattered around the ground in response.

“Whatever’s chasing us is too fast to be on the ground,” panted Sunset Shimmer. “If it can fly, and we cross that open area, we’ll be sitting ducks.”

“There’s nowhere in the forest where we can set up a defensible position,” gasped Flash, holding his bloody hind leg up as they stood in the shadows of the streambank. “And we don’t know how many of them are chasing us. We need a defensive position like a cave or a fallen tree, something like—”

“There!” said Sunset, pointing with a hoof. “Out in the streambed.”

The jagged slab of shale was about the size of a wagon, and was tilted to one side with a number of masive trees jumbled downstream of it. It was scant cover, but both ponies bolted out across the loose gravel at a dead run as the eerie cry echoed through the forest behind them again. On the other side of the slab, there was a narrow crack between the stone and the wood, just about a pony wide that led into the darkness. Flash managed to open the compartment in his armor and fling one of the nearly depleted glowsticks into the revealed hole, which at least seemed unoccupied, even if it was dark and cramped.

“Get in there, Featherbrain,” snapped Sunset, glaring over her shoulder at the still-unoccupied streambank.

“Mares first,” said Flash, grabbing her by the tail and pulling.

“This is no time to play the noble white knight, rockhead,” hissed Sunset with a panicked look behind her. “You’re bleeding. Get in there and I’ll hold the doorway.”

“I’ve got my armor, dimwit!” Flash snarled, spitting out Sunset’s muddy tail. “I’m a Royal Guard, for pony’s sake. Whatever is flying around out there will have to chew through me first to get to you. Besides, if you get killed and I survive, Dad will kill me.”

Sunset paused with her jaw hanging open, finally ducking into the narrow hole with a muttered, “Idiot!” The light abruptly cut off as Flash backed into the hole, stumbling and almost falling against Sunset Shimmer, who cursed virulently when her horn struck an outstretched tree root. Their mutual shuffling for space in their cramped hole cut off abruptly as the unearthly cry of the creature echoed across the open gravel of the streambed.

“It sounds sad,” whispered Flash, giving a sharp twitch when Sunset Shimmer bit him on the flank.

“Shut up, you idiot,” she hissed.

The mournful cry grew softer, shifting as the creature or creatures passed by overhead. Sunset had just drawn a short breath reeking with the smell of unwashed pegasus and damp earth when the cry sounded again, even louder and coming closer. Wings fluttered in the damp air, a smaller presence than Sunset had feared, but in the Everfree Forest it was probably just as deadly. The dim light filtering through the front of their hiding place flickered as a small creature flew across the opening, then darted back and hovered in front of Flash Sentry. It was familiar in some fashion, coming abruptly into her vision as it perched on Flash’s helmet and peered into the darkness at Sunset with its head cocked to one side and brilliant yellow eyes seeming to fill the cramped space with light and heat. The bird opened its beak and called again, a deafening cry in the small cave, before hopping forward down Flash’s injured wing to perch on his rump and look up at Sunset with a raptor’s glare. She was not a happy bird, with ruffled feathers and small bits of leaves staining her normally brilliant yellow and orange plumage. She looked frazzled and more than a little pissed, much worse than when Sunset Shimmer had short circuited one of her avian practical jokes so many years ago.

“Philomena,” gasped Sunset Shimmer. “What are you doing here?”

Take Me To The River

Sunset Flash
Take Me To The River

Please keep your hooves inside the ride at all times.
—Anonymous Guide at Disneyhind’s Riverboat Ride

The inside of their primitive shelter was dead silent for a moment until a distant flash of lightning made Sunset Shimmer twitch in reaction and bump her horn against one of the many roots trailing down from the tumbled trees that made up their roof. The resulting virulent outburst almost drowned out Flash Sentry’s whoops of joy.

“Princess Celestia sent her pet bird to track us down! We’re saved. Come on, Sunset!” His progress out of the scant shelter and into the rain was slowed as Sunset Shimmer bit down on his tail and pulled, and stopped cold as a brilliant flash of lightning lit up the immediate area.

“Get back in here, Lightning Rod. Celestia isn’t out there. Ow!” During the scuffle, Philomena had decided that her perch on Flash’s mobile rear was inferior to a comfortable place in the middle of Sunset Shimmer’s ratty mane, right between her ears where she could give the unicorn the benefit of a sharp beak to the top of the skull whenever the bird felt it was needed.

“But… Philomena!” Flash had the ‘beaten puppy’ look down cold as he looked back over his shoulder at his ‘prisoner,’ which was only slightly spoiled by the way he twitched as another nearby flash of lightning illuminated the area.

“Get back in here before you attract a lightning bolt, Flash.” Sunset winced as Philomena gave her a sharp peck to the top of the head again. “Princess Celestia didn’t order Philomena to chase us. Nopony can tell this stupid bird anything.”

Philomena took that moment to deliver two sharp pecks to the top of Sunset’s head. With a sigh of resignation, Sunset settled down on the floor of their shelter and nosed the dim alchemical light onto a protruding root to better illuminate the cramped surroundings.

“Philomena hates me.”

With considerable maneuvering, Flash managed to get turned around so his tail was out of Sunset’s face. “Princess Celestia’s pet flew all the way out into the Everfree Forest just to peck you on top of the head?”

Trying to ignore the sharp peck that followed, Sunset glowered upwards at the bird. “She liked me before, but she’s hated me ever since I disobeyed Princess Celestia and broke into the restricted section of the library. After your father and the other guard escorted me out, she came swooping down and started pecking me in the head.” There was a shrill chirp followed by a sharp impact and Sunset looked up. “Like that.”

“Dad didn’t say anything about her pet,” said Flash.

“I… um… had stunned him by then.” Sunset tried to rest her chin on the irregular floor of their shelter but knocked her horn against a root with a sharp spasm of pain. “It was a stupid idea, but I thought it was my last chance. I knocked out the guards escorting me out of the castle, broke into the room where Celestia was storing the mirror, and… jumped.” She glared upwards at Philomena’s raspy chirp and added, “I was desperate. I wanted power so much and to have it snatched away from me at the last second just… I should have resisted. I should have at least considered that the immortal Celestia, my teacher for years and the ruler of Equestria since the era of Starswirl, might possibly have been right and I was…”

“Wrong?” said Flash after a few moments of relative silence broken only by the flash and rumble of lightning outside their shelter. “You never were wrong when we were dating. Insufferably right at all times, yes. ‘scuse me.”

While Flash nosed open the side panel on his armor and dug out a pain pill, Sunset glowered at the loose gravel that made up the floor of their makeshift shelter. She nudged one damp pebble at a time to the side, finally muttering something incomprehensible.

“Beg pardon?” said Flash, contemplating the pain pill on his muddy hoof and working up the spit to be able to swallow it dry.

“I said I was wrong.” A brilliant flash of lightning lit up the sky outside and Flash almost bobbled his pill into the gravel when the booming crash of thunder followed, although Sunset’s protests quickly drowned out the rumble of weather. “Ow! Stop pecking me, you stupid bird! I said I was wrong! I should have listened to Celestia, alright! I wasn’t ready, I was too wrapped up in my own greed to recognize my mistake, and I’ve never been willing to admit it before. That’s why I came here! I wanted to apologize to Princess Celestia! I couldn’t stay in that crazy world with her mirror image, knowing that I would never be able to really look her in the face and apologize for betraying her trust and causing her pain! That’s all I wanted! Is that too much to ask?”

With a delicate touch of his lips, Flash nibbled the pill off his hoof and gave a shuddering swallow. “You could have just said that when you came through the portal, Sunny. I was wondering why there was a cake.”

“A cake.” Sunset Shimmer’s voice could have frozen an erupting volcano solid.

“Yeah. Something that Pinkie Pie brought. It was stashed in the castle while we waited. We were hanging around for hours, Sunny. I thought there was going to be some sort of party, but—”

“Flash,” snapped Sunset Shimmer. “Shut up.” She reached up and nipped several longer roots off of the tree that formed the makeshift roof of their shelter and laid them down on the gravel. “Now listen closely, numbskull. The portal between Equestria and the other world originally only opened up every thirty moons.”

She straightened up one root and placed one end at her hoof. “This root represents the Equestrian timeline. Now I’ll drape this other root over it so they touch about every hooflength.”

“You’ve got a lot more root on some of those loops than others,” noted Flash with a skeptical glance between the roots and the very serious unicorn. “And some of them loop around.”

“Very astute, for you. Just because the portal opened up every thirty moons here, doesn’t mean it opened every thirty moons there. Starswirl the Bearded used the portal to dump some defeated monsters into the other world a little over a thousand years ago, Equestrian time, but a few months ago, their time.”

“Oh,” said Flash.

“In order to beat them, Twilight recently made a… device of some sort to hold the portal between our worlds open—” Sunset Shimmer lined up the end strands of root “—but there’s still some temporal slippage between the two interfaces.”

“Ah!” said Flash. “Temporal means something about time. So while you’ve been gone from Equestria for ten years—”

“Only four years passed in the other world,” completed Sunset. “And although I told Twilight when I was coming through the portal—”

There was a particular squirm about both Flashes when they did not know the answer to a question and this Flash managed the motion even with a crippled wing and wrapped in armor. She intentionally let him dangle there with Philomena pecking away at her head until the the pegasus finally said, “You had to reset your watch?”

“Dear Noble Sentry,” muttered Sunset. “I killed your son and left his body to rot in the Everfree Forest because he was too stupid to live. No, Flash. It means Twilight could not have known exactly when I was coming through the portal.”

“Oh,” said Flash. “Well, you shouldn’t have run then. If you hadn’t teleported away, I wouldn’t have chased you.”

“And if you hadn’t chased me,” growled Sunset through clenched teeth that caused her injured horn to throb in agony, “then I would have realized what was going on before teleporting over the shield wall. That still doesn’t make up for the fact that I was wrong to have run away, no matter how stupid you were for chasing me. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” said Flash with a somewhat bleary blink. “I’m sorry too. Wow. Either that pill took effect awfully fast or the air pressure just changed in here.”

Sunset Shimmer yawned deliberately and let her ears pop. “Air pressure. It’s obviously reacting with the vacuum inside your skull. Must be from the storm that’s blowing past.” Something bothered her about that statement, and she cocked an ear at the rumbling hiss of falling rain outside, only to wince as Philomena gave her a series of sharp pecks on the head. “What?”

“At least we have shelter,” said Flash. “On maneuvers, we would normally just make a quick field shelter out of some clouds.” The hiss of falling rain and nearby rumble of thunder made him raise his voice. “Aren’t you glad to be out of the rain?”

Philomena took that opportunity to rain a whole series of pecks on Sunset Shimmer’s head intermixed with raucous chirps and flaps of her wings that warmed up the cramped area under the slab of rock to an uncomfortable degree. Little hanging roots kept getting into Sunset’s eyes as she tried to fend off the frantic bird, but eventually the phoenix seemed to become frustrated with her assault and swooped out the narrow shelter entrance into the pouring rain outside.

“Do you think she’s gone to get Princess Celestia?” asked Flash Sentry in entirely too optimistic a voice for their situation.

“No, Flash. There’s something wrong about her. She hates water. Hm… Water. What’s that noise?”

A low rumbling could be more felt than heard through the loose gravel and litter covering the bottom of their shelter and Sunset turned for the exit with wide eyes. “She’s warning us! We’re camped in a riverbed, Flash! Move! Move!”

Both ponies had barely managed to stagger out the narrow doorway of their shelter when a brilliant flash of lightning illuminated a churning wall of brown water hurtling down the formerly dry riverbed and headed in their direction. Sunset glanced at the far bank of the river and promptly clamped her teeth down onto Flash Sentry’s tail. “Grab that tree,” she shouted as best she could through the mass of dirty hair.

Then the wall of water hit.

The world seemed to dissolve into heaving masses of brown water and occasional bursts of damp air. Rocks and branches clawed past her face as she scrambled up the rough bark of the fallen tree that had just recently been part of their shelter and now shifted underhoof as the roaring water began to undermine the riverbed. The tree gave a lurch as another massive chunk of waterborne timber smashed into it, knocking both ponies to their knees.

“This whole bucking forest wants to kill me!” screamed Sunset into the darkness.

“It must know you!” shouted Flash, clutching onto the other side of the tree. “What did you do?”

“All I want to do is apologize to Celestia!” shouted Sunset. The tree shuddered and began to shift, but Sunset Shimmer tottered to her hooves and stood on the uneven footing in order to better face into the spray of muddy water that was roaring past. “I’m not stopping because of some stupid forest! You think a little water is going to even slow me down? I’ve seen worse!”

The tree shook as it broke free from the rest of the snag in the now raging river and began to float downstream, causing both Flash and Sunset to jump as the massive tree trunk rotated. “You think that’s going to make me quit!” she howled while scrabbling up the bobbing tree, ducking wet branches as they took swipes at her. “Stupid forest! You missed! I’m still here and I’m going to make it to Celestia if it’s the last thing I do!”

“You’re crazy!” shouted Flash Sentry as a bolt of lightning stabbed down from the sky and burst a tree on the far bank into blazing shards. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m not crazy anymore!” screamed Sunset. “I’m angry! I was crazy to run away from Princess Celestia twice!” The entire tree they were clutching to plunged underwater as it surged down the raging river, making Sunset splutter as they burst back onto the surface. “I’m not making that mistake again!” she screeched as soon as she had a moment to breathe.

“Sunny!” screamed Flash, pointing downriver.

“Shut up!” she screamed back. “I’m on a roll! I’m going to beat this stupid forest! I’m going to make it back to Princess Celestia to apologize! And nothing is going to stop me! Not you! Not this stupid river! Not every starving monster in Equestria! Nothing! Do you hear me, you stupid forest!”

The only answer she received was a blinding flash of lightning that coiled across the sky and illuminated the entire river in stark-white light. Or at least as much of the river as she could see until it came to an abrupt halt downstream.

“Waterfall,” she said in a stunned monotone, holding loosely to a branch.

“Looks like it,” said Flash, clutching to the branch next to her.

“Steep plunge to certain death with sharp rocks at the bottom?” she asked.

“Probably,” said Flash, closing his eyes and grabbing the branch tightly.

“Bring it.”

Wash Me In The Water

Sunset Flash
Wash Me In The Water

Rest is very important for the recovery process of overstressed individuals.
—Merk’s Guide to Trauma Care

Sunlight filtered through the trees in the garden as Sunset Shimmer took a brisk walk to clear her mind before returning to Celestia’s school for her entrance exam. There were dozens of young colts and little fillies ahead of her in line, and spending that much time in close quarters with so many overstressed little ponies had been nerve wracking enough she had to get some distance before there would be trouble. Her foster parents were nowhere to be seen, of course, having vanished off into their boring jobs as boring ponies after dropping little Sunset off at the exam, much as they never seemed to be home when she returned after school. The one good thing about going into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns was that she would finally be able to ditch the losers. Just a few minutes to show her brilliance to the teachers and she’d be in, buttering up the right ponies to slide on through school like she had cruised through every difficulty in her life since being abandoned at the orphanage.

The sound of crying broke through Sunset’s youthful thoughts of scholastic conquest, and she hesitated momentarily at the spot where the path split. Flowers lined the trail in both directions, but the heartfelt sobs piqued her curiosity, and she tiphooved in their direction. After walking down the back path for a short distance and rounding a bush, she stumbled backwards as an immense wall of white filled her entire vision.

“P-Princess Celestia?” she stammered. “What are you… I’m sorry! I’ll just—”

The huge white alicorn that Sunset had only seen in the distance before turned away from her with a wet sniffle and a cough to clear her throat. “That’s all right, child,” she rasped in a voice rough from crying.

Although Sunset Shimmer had turned to leave Princess Celestia alone with whatever was causing her such grief, she hesitated, turning around again with considerable trepidation and asking, “Can I help you, Princess?”

“No.” Celestia remained with her back to Sunset Shimmer, her head bowed low and the soft pastel colors of her mane faded to faint blotches of dull pinks and blues.

“Are you sure?” Something about the ancient alicorn’s posture made Sunset walk up to her side and look at the small patch of ashes that had been damped by her tears. “Did something catch on fire here?”

“Philomena,” said Celestia. “She’s a phoenix, older even than I am, and the only friend that I have since—” She choked up and shuddered, as huge as a overhanging snowdrift to the little filly by her side but still warm as the sun.

“A Phoenix?” said Sunset Shimmer. “I thought they live forever unless they’re killed by a predator. Whenever they get old, they are consumed in fire and are reborn from the ashes. But you already knew that,” Sunset added in haste.

Celestia nodded. “She’s grown old and been reborn so many times. I thought she would never die, but this time…” One gold-clad hoof nudged the small pile of ashes and more tears rained down.

“Maybe she just doesn’t have enough fire,” suggested Sunset, putting her nose almost onto the cold pile of ashes as she examined them in detail. “She’s old, so maybe she needs a little boost.”

Golden magic began to wash over the little filly’s horn as she concentrated, small motes of light floating around her in a halo that cast shadows across the nearby bushes and plants. The sunlight grew in brightness around the pile of ashes, concentrated and focused by the determined little unicorn until the grass charred into coils of smoke and a wave of fire exploded out from the ground.

Coughing and gasping for air, Sunset Shimmer stumbled backwards as a bolt of yellow and orange erupted in front of her nose and darted over her head. The brilliant phoenix fairly shimmered with power in the concentrated sunlight, dancing and spinning in ecstasy as it circled Sunset Shimmer and eventually landed on her head.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia! I did it!” Sunset Shimmer looked up at the Princess of the Sun, who glowed with joy as she beamed down at the little unicorn.

“And that’s not all you did, Sunset Shimmer,” said Celestia, pointing at Sunset’s flank.

“My cutie mark,” she squealed. “I got my cutie mark! Philomena, look!” Sunset Shimmer danced around in the brilliant sunlight with the phoenix while Princess Celestia looked on with a sly smile and the subtle shake of her head.

“You have a very special gift, Sunset Shimmer,” said Princess Celestia, once the little unicorn had calmed down enough to talk. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen another unicorn with as much raw power as you, but you need to learn how to control these abilities through focused study. How would you like to become my own personal protege here at the school?”

~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~

Over the sound of birdsong and the gusts of the morning breeze, the sun rose rather slowly to spill its light across a wide spread of jumbled trees, the end result of last night’s flash flood in the Everfree. Water dripped from every tattered branch and splintered trunk, making sparkles of light chase among the brilliant morning sunbeams. Small creatures scurried around the waterlogged wood, scrounging for food or shelter in the maze of fallen branches as the warmth of morning replaced the bitter chill of the icy floodwaters. In this sea of browns and tattered green, a small fleck of yellow and orange fluttered, hopping from branch to branch as if it was seeking something it had lost. It paused on occasion with head cocked to one side and wet feathers fluffed to catch the morning rays of sunshine, then gave a raspy cry as it hopped over a fallen branch to brush up against a small fragment of yellow and orange that matched its own feathery coat.

The bird chirped once, then again as it received no response from the first call. It scratched briefly at whatever it had found buried in the matted branches, then lowered its beak and bit down firmly.

“Ow! What the… Philomena! Let go of my ear!”

Branches shifted, tumbling to one side or another as a soggy and very groggy unicorn staggered up out of the mess with a phoenix still hanging onto her ear by the beak.

“Philomena!” Sunset staggered and flopped down on a brushy cushion of damp branches, holding her head to one side to prevent the loss of one ear. The phoenix finally released her painful hold with a raspy chirp and hopped up on a nearby branch to regard Sunset Shimmer with avian disdain.

“Stupid bird,” muttered Sunset, rubbing her bloody ear. “You’re dumber than… Flash!” A rapid look around did not reveal the pegasus, but a low groan under a nearby set of branches turned out to be the battered guard. Still staggering on her hooves, Sunset yanked off the branches while cursing. “Flash! Say something, stupid! At least say something stupid so I know you’re alive.”

“Ow.” Flash Sentry winced as Sunset pulled a particularly large branch off his head. “Hurts too much.” His muttered complaints turned into a piercing shriek of pain as Sunset pulled off one branch that jabbed him in the matted mass of feathers that had been his bandaged wing, and it took several minutes of concentrated effort until his breathing settled down into a low rasping and Sunset’s heart quit hammering in terror.

“Need a pill,” he whimpered, repeating the phrase several times as Sunset dug him out of his branch-covered resting place. Sometime during their pell-mell ride down the river, he had managed to lose every piece of heavy armor except for the sideplate, which had been unable to slip over the sodden mass of bandages and straps that still stuck to his wounded wing. Thankful that the painkiller pill bottle was still intact, Sunset scowled as only one small white pill emerged onto her shaking hoof.

“I thought we had two of these left,” she muttered.

“Took one before we left to the ants,” whimpered Flash. “Hurt too much. Please?”

“Don’t chew it,” she admonished, holding the tiny white pill to his lips and trying not to feel resentful as he gulped it down as if it were candy. The hammering pain in her head far eclipsed any of the many cuts and bruises that covered the rest of her body, but as much as that pill would have made her feel better, Flash needed it far more than she did right now.

“Thanks. Sunny.” Flash just lay there and gasped for a moment before attempting to get up, with little to no effect. “We should. Get. Going,” he added between short coughs.

“You’re burning up, stupid.” After a short glance at the mass of matted feathers and dirty twine that covered his broken wing, Sunset took her hoof off of his head and looked towards Canterlot perched on the distant mountain. It seemed worlds away, as if she could walk for the rest of her life and it still would look just as distant.

“Go on,” said Flash. “Get help. I’ll wait.”

“No way.” Sunset heaved herself to her hooves and stretched. “Even if I find somepony out there to help, there’s no way we could find you again until the buzzards start circling.” She took long drink of water from the nearby muddy stream and returned to the groggy pegasus. “Is the pill working, Flash?”

“Uh. Yeah, I think. What’re you doing, Sun?”

Sunset Shimmer grunted as she shouldered the hot pegasus, trying not to pay any attention to the way his coat felt all slimy against her own muddy back. It took a few tries to get him situated across her bent spine so he would not fall off after a few paces, but as she started walking towards the distant castle, he slumped against her neck with a comforting and sleepy nuzzle.

“Tha’ks Sun. Yer best friend ever.”

“Shut up, stupid.” Sunset plodded along as a flutter of wings ruffled the tangled hair of her mane and Philomena resumed her comfortable perch. “You too,” she added, maintaining her constant plod towards the distant city. A sharp peck to the top of her head was the only response Philomena made, although she did rearrange her claws into a slightly less painful grip on the top of Sunset’s head.

* * *

The world had shrunk to the few short paces of dirt and grass in front of her hooves as Sunset stumbled along, trying to look up every few hundred paces to ensure she was still traveling towards the distant image of Canterlot that was shimmering in the sunlight like a heavenly cloud so far away it could have been some sort of mirage. Every time her concentration wavered and she was about to stumble, a sharp blow from a beak brought her back to reality.

“Stupid bird,” she muttered as Philomena rearranged herself somewhere above her horn and behind her line of sight. “You just wanna see me fail. ‘m not gonna. I didn’t fail when we first met, did I?”

A sharp chirp delivered directly into her throbbing ear was Philomena’s response.

“Yeah, right. You’re not stupid. You’re too smart for your own good. What were you thinkin’ by going into the stupid forest after us? You die and Princess Celestia won’t have anypony. Well, ‘cept Luna.” She trudged onwards, trying to keep her balance as Flash shifted in his sleep.

“Princess Luna. Seems weird. Nev’r saw her. All I can see is Vice Principal Luna in those high-heeled shoes she wears to try’n look taller around her sister. You can hear her coming down the halls for miles in those shoes. The sound of doom. Click, click, click. Scares the bejeebers out of the other kids.” Sunset walked onwards and tried not to talk, but eventually added, “The human Celestia has a parrot.”

At the interrogatory chirp from Philomena, Sunset added, “A dumb parrot. It’s not smart like you. It doesn’t do pranks. Or play dead to make little fillies think they’ve managed to save her life.”

Philomena chirped a defiant response.

“Bull,” said Sunset. “That was a setup. Princess Celestia knew my name.”

There was no response from the phoenix.

“She manipulated me from the time I first met her,” said Sunset Shimmer between pants for breath as the path she was following turned uphill. “I’mean Twi told me about her and the Elements. Celestia never told her about Luna in ten years. Never told me either.” Sunset trudged onwards for a while, trying to stay in the middle of the twisting path. “That’s only reason why she wanted us. Save her sister.”

The annoying bird purred somewhere deep in her throat before letting out a raucous cry.

“Figured you’d take her side.” She trudged in silence for a long while, eventually growling, “She manipulates everypony. Says it’s for their own good. Bull. Who was she to use me that way?”

This time Philomena braced herself on her muddy perch and stuck her head out far enough to look Sunset Shimmer in the eyes.

“Yeah, I know,” muttered Sunset. “She’s the Princess. All I wanted to do was be like her, but all I could see was the power and the manipulation. When I tried to be that way…”

She trudged along for a while until Philomena gave her a sharp peck to the forehead again.

“I’ve changed, alright? I have friends now. Yes, friends,” added Sunset at the disbelieving chirp that sounded from her smaller passenger. “More friends than I thought I had, I suppose. Even a stupid one from Equestria.”

That earned her two sharp pecks on the head, and after a long pause, two more.

“Two friends?”

Philomena rubbed her head against Sunset Shimmer’s throbbing ear and chirped loudly into it.

“I ‘spose.” She walked in silence for a long time with no more thoughts other than putting one hoof in front of another. What little strength she had seemed to trickle away with each step, and the fever-stricken pegasus on her back began to feel less hot as her own temperature began to rise.

“Gonna need a doctor,” she muttered. “Flash, we’re gonna get you to the doc. Fix you up. Maybe fix you. Always thought you’d be better gelding than colt. Better to guard Twilight.”

“Princess?” mumbled Flash, twisting around a little on her back before allowing his head to lol against her neck. “D’on wanna see her like this.”

“Shuddup, stupid.” Her plodding progress had slowed to a weak shuffle as the sun had risen high in the sky, but as long as she could push through the bushes, putting one hoof in front of another…

She froze with her nose still pointing towards the ground.

It was a hoofprint.

For one long moment, she was terrified that it was one of her own, and that she had been walking in circles, but when she moved her hoof next to it, she could feel a tiny spark of hope flare in time with her heartbeat.

It was a different hoofprint. Unshod. Different than any pony hoof she had ever seen.

A Zebra hoofprint on a rarely-trod path.

“Can’t be ‘n Zebrica,” muttered Sunset, straining to lift her head and look up through the blur of her watering eyes. “Spell could’a, but there’s Canterlot. I think. Gotta move. Celestia’s wait’n. Come on.”

She willed her hoof to raise, only for gravity to pull her down, ever so slowly until she was resting on her chest over the obliterated hoofprint. “Can’t sleep,” she muttered. “Never gonna bring me down. Never gonna… Gonna…”

The ground under her chest was thumping in time with her heartbeat somehow, a deep and rhythmic thud that made her acutely aware of every cut and splinter through her tattered hide. It vibrated her ribs, made her back itch, and one hoof twitched in response. Heaving the hoof forward, she strained to rise up despite the heavy pegasus on her back who seemed to weigh more than Mount Canter.

“Never gonna bring me down,” she muttered, wobbling uncertainly on all four hooves as her surroundings faded in and out of sight. “Not fame. Not pop’larity. Not…”

One hoof lurched forward.

Then another.

There was a rhythm to the ground beneath her that she strained to match, her original shuffle changing to a slow walk over time, and then an agonizing trot that she maintained with her eyes closed, using the thick bushes to either side of the path as her only guide as the hammering in her head and the raspy pant of her breathing seemed to merge with the thumping of the noise and drive her onwards. The pain was still there, just as strong as ever, but there was something else that overrode her fatigued body and filled it with energy. Even Flash seemed to recognize her struggle and shifted to a more stable position as she came up over a low hill.

Something seemed to strike her head and knock her off her pace, leaving a cold spot on the top of her head where Philomena had been sitting. She staggered on the narrow path while squinting in the bright sunlight, the rainbow smears of color through watering eyes dancing in front of her unsteady steps. Without the bushes to either side, there was no obvious direction for her to stagger, but she still managed a shuffling trot down the path while blinking away tears from the unexpected brightness. The thumping was louder now, resonating in her chest as her vision cleared up somewhat and revealed a sight that took long moments for her overstressed mind to comprehend.

“It’z a glass castle, Flash,” muttered Sunset Shimmer as she staggered a few steps on inertia before stopping. “She’z got a castle with a giant cutie mark over it.” The distant streak of orange and yellow that plummeted down out of the sky and into a window of the giant castle seemed funny for some reason and she burst into laughter as she swayed in place. “It’z a huge butt,” she gasped. “Twi’z mooning Ponyville. Ponyville?”

The outskirts of the small town with the occasional resident flying through the air or trotting down one of the small paths between buildings were scattered around the base of the huge crystal castle like pebbles around a monument. The peaceful streets seemed alien to her disbelieving eyes after fighting the Everfree Forest. Sounds of birds drifted through the air, mixed with the thready notes of a familiar tune that caused Sunset Shimmer’s slow swaying in place to stop as she recognized it. The song had been echoing through the back of her head ever since she had dug herself out of the wet pile of branches this morning, and now that she could hear it for real, a brilliant fire burned in her heart as everything else in the world came into sharp focus.

My friends.

With a clash of notes, the music abruptly cut off and all of the energy that had held her up drained away in a rush. The castle faded in front of her eyes as she began to collapse, barely able to tell that the two streaks of light that burst out of the top of the giant structure were a rainbow contrail mixed with a familiar violet, both headed in her direction as fast as they could fly.

It brought a smile to her face as Sunset Shimmer pitched forward unconscious onto the streets of Ponyville.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Sunset Flash
Home Is Where The Heart Is

Wherever you go, there you are.
—Buckaroo Bonsi

Sunset Shimmer shifted uncomfortably as the rough hospital sheets rubbed across her skin and against the number of bandages she had wrapped around several limbs and her head. The faint beep and hiss of medical machinery was a quiet comfort to her ears, and since somebody had turned up gravity in the immediate vicinity to an uncomfortable degree, she decided it would be best to simply lie in place and not move, not pee, and most of all, not think.

At least until the approaching click, click, click of a pair of high-heeled shoes walking across tile caused her to open one eye in curiosity.

The hospital room was just as she had expected, with a flaccid bottle of some unidentified fluid hanging above one arm and more wires and tubes than anyone should have to endure scattered across her body.

Her human body.

A tall woman with her usual disapproving expression and her lips drawn into a thin line stood a few feet from the end of her bed, looking down at Sunset Shimmer. Vice Principal Luna had never approved of her sister’s coddled student in Canterlot High, and had made her opinion known quite verbally at times. Now she seemed to be torn between anger and tears as she nodded and spoke.

“Sunset Shimmer. You have caused us much concern.”

“I’m—” Sunset coughed and cleared her throat, taking the glass of water that Luna handed her and drinking half of the cool liquid before continuing. “I’m sorry, Vice Principal Luna.” She lifted one hand up to touch at the bandages surrounding her hornless head before lowering her eyes to stare at the floor and the rather odd sight that greeted her there..

There was a familiar young girl curled up in a blanket at the side of her hospital bed. Her tangled blue hair and rumpled clothes indicated she had been there for some time, and she did not move other than a quiet breathing as Sunset stared at her in shock.

“Your friend, Twilight Sparkle, hath been at thy side since your retrieval.”

“I-I don’t understand,” said Sunset, holding a hand to her head as the hospital room seemed to swim around her. “I was with Flash in Eques—” She cut off with a sudden gasp for air. “Flash! Is he—”

“Your friend is recovering far more rapidly than yourself,” said Luna, picking up a clipboard from the foot end of her bed and observing it dispassionately. “You must rest now, and not be concerned. We shall watch over you.”

“Thank you, Miss Luna.” Sunset Shimmer sagged back against her pillows while trying to make sense of it all. “Everything seemed so real. Until now.”

Clues tumbled around Sunset Shimmer’s ears like snowflakes in a blizzard. “I’m not in the human world, am I, Princess Luna?”

Vice Principal Luna looked up from her inspection of the clipboard and favored Sunset with a dry look, which Sunset Shimmer met with as much determination as she could manage. “If I’m dying, I deserve to know, Princess.”

“Arrogant. Forceful. Perceptive. You are much as my sister told me.” The woman floated the clipboard back to its resting spot in a soft indigo magic that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “You have caused her great pain, young one.”

“I know.” Sunset lowered her head and looked down at where Twilight Sparkle was sleeping beside her bed. “When I first heard about Nightmare Moon, I thought Twilight and myself were both just tools that Princess Celestia was willing to use and throw away in order to save you. It made me angry and want to hurt her the way I felt. Twilight saved me from that part of myself and made me look at people… that is ponies and people in a new light.”

“She is a remarkable young mare,” said Luna. “As are you, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight Sparkle has spoken with us of your willingness to seek redemption, and your ability to make friends from those whom you once treated with such contempt. I scarcely believed it myself, but…” The disguised princess trailed off with a shake of her head. “No, I shall allow you to discover that for yourself. You shall live, Sunset Shimmer. Your companion was quite astute to treat your injuries with such… innovation. Other than its initial injuries, your horn was protected from the elements by the plastic sheath and shall heal over the next several months. As for your treatment of our guard’s injuries, I must give you similar credit for innovation. I doubt that ants shall become a part of the Royal Guard medical kit in the future, but in this case, they saved his wing from infection and possibly his life. His father—” and Luna put specific emphasis on that word “—was overjoyed to receive his son back in any condition, and asked to pass along his sincere thanks for your actions.”

“What about Principal Celest— I mean Princess Celestia?” asked Sunset Shimmer, trying not to look Luna in the eyes.

“I shall allow my sister to express her feelings as to your return in person. Suffice it to say I believe she was as pleased to hear of your return as she was to find out that you had not actually eloped with young Flash Sentry.”

When Sunset looked up to protest, she could see little crinkles at the corner of Luna’s dangerous teal eyes and a suspicious upwards turn at the corners of her lips. She chuckled instead, taking a deep breath of the dream hospital air and shaking her head slowly as not to have it fall off.

“He was the very model of a Royal Guard during our trip, Princess. Hard-headed, loyal, and about as deep as a sheet of paper. He, uh…” Sunset checked to make sure Twilight Sparkle still seemed ‘asleep’ before continuing. “He has a ‘thing’ for Princess Twilight.”

Luna nodded. “Quite obviously, even if you have never seen his dreams. The feeling appears not to be mutual. Fortunately.”

“Good.” Sunset Shimmer looked towards the hospital room door, from behind which the sounds of restless hooves could be heard. “I guess it’s time for me to face the music.”

The hospital room shimmered slightly, with human analogue medical instruments being replaced by their pony equivalent, and a dark alicorn slowly fading into view as Vice Principal Luna faded away. Really, it seemed less of a transitional shock than she expected, although the spell-muffled pain of healing injuries and the slow motion of stellar material through the mane of the Moon Princess was an unnerving reminder of her actual location.

Twilight Sparkle remained curled up on a blanket at the side of her bed, only with hooves and wings instead of a miniskirt and boots. She looked tired and stressed, but more beautiful than Sunset could almost stand at the moment. Were it not for Sunset’s own foolish pride and greed, it could have been her in that position, a yellow and orange alicorn at the side of Princess Celestia, with loving pony friends and respect from all of Equestria. Sunset managed to tear her gaze away from the young sleeping princess in order to look back up at Luna, who simply nodded again without changing her tranquil expression one iota.

“Regrets?” she asked.

“Yes, obviously.” Sunset took another breath. “I would not be who I am if I had not made those mistakes. The important thing to do now is to learn from them. Go ahead and let Princess Celestia in. I’m ready for her now.”

“First things first.” Princess Luna’s magic swung the hospital room door open and five colorful ponies stampeded through. All of them promptly crowded around her bed, except for a bright pink earth pony who was towing a dessert cart.

“Hiya, Sunset,” announced Applejack, taking her hat off and holding it over her chest as if she were trying to figure out if this was a celebration or a wake.

“You look like you’re in pain,” whispered Fluttershy. “Do you want us to go away and come back later?”

“This place is awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she hovered around the light fixture. “Did you see us come zooming out of Twilight’s castle and swooping down on you? Twilight caught you just before you hit the ground and had you off to the hospital so fast I could barely keep up!”

“Your poor hairstyle,” gasped Rarity. “They almost cut out half of your hair, darling. And they’ve got your magnificent horn all plastered up in some sort of cast! Are you going to recover?”

“They took away the awesome party cannon I found,” said Pinkie Pie, giving the stuck dessert cart an extra tug to get it out of the doorway. “I could barely get all of the cake and the punch for the Get-Well party on this cart.”

The close press of affectionate ponies warmed her heart despite the number of painful tugs of medical monitors and needles through her battered hide, although something about them seemed awfully familiar all of the sudden. These were Twilight’s friends, but they were treating her just the same as her human friends.

Then enlightenment hit her like a hammer.

“What did you do?” gasped Sunset Shimmer. “You’re all on this side of the portal at once! Twilight! Wake up! You have to get my friends back through the portal before they unbalance the two worlds!”

“Wha—” Twilight Sparkle jolted awake and sprang to her hooves, managing somehow to catch her horn on the hospital bed, knock over the pitcher of water, and unplug two of the medical monitors all at the same time. “What is it? Is Sunset going to be all right?” Behind the panicked young alicorn, the upset pitcher righted itself, the spilled water vanished, and the medical devices were plugged back in before they even managed to beep, all the while Princess Luna looked on with her own enigmatic smile and a faint glow to her horn.

“Breathe, Twilight,” said Sunset, putting a clumsy hoof on the young princess’ chest. “I’m fine, but you need to get my friends back through the portal right now! You’re going to cause multiple deep sympathetic resonance nodes that will stress the interdimensional—”

“—parallelism mechanism and cause cross-phasic tears in the thaumic substrate,” finished Twilight Sparkle. “I know that. Don’t worry. We fixed it.”

“We traded places,” said Applejack. “Twi came to our world, but she was all tore up ‘cause of you runnin’ off like that, an’ we all wanted to help look for ya, but she started talking all technical—”

“I suggested it!” said Rainbow Dash with her chest pushed out as far as it would go to the point where she started floating backwards with every flap of her wings.

“Me too!” said Pinkie Pie. “I knew the other Pinkie Pie didn’t know anything about you, like your favorite musicians or places to eat or your bra size only here you don’t need a bra—”

“Or anything else, for that matter,” interrupted Rarity with a shiver. “I don’t know how you can go through life without any clothes! I mean, I think I’m catching a chill just from this hospital. Oh, and I brought you a scarf, and some socks.”

“So you took Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie’s advice?” said Sunset very slowly and deliberately as she turned to look at a suddenly nervous Twilight Sparkle. “Really?”

“You gotta admit it were one heck of a good idea, Sunset.” Applejack waved her hat at the sunlight beaming in the hospital window and the small town spread out beyond. “Besides, you talked about wanting to visit Ponyville at least a couple dozen times after Twi told us all about it, and I didn’t believe that durned fool story ‘bout you runnin’ off with Flash neither. Ah don’t think there were no corner of Canterlot that didn’t have somebody poking their nose into it and lookin’ for ya, so we weren’t doin’ no good there until Pinkie’s tail started acting up.”

“Yep!” chirped Pinkie Pie, displaying the appendage in question proudly. “It started twitching and switching, and we followed it all the way to Ponyville. On the train, of course.”

“You followed Pinkie Pie’s tail.” Sunset Shimmer favored Twilight with a very dry look. “I always thought you were supposed to follow your head, or even your heart, not the other end.”

“Ah’m startin’ to think that’s the smart end,” drawled Applejack as Pinkie Pie leaped around the room, tail first.

Rarity cleared her throat, seeming determined in her vain attempt to bring the conversation back to normality. “When we arrived in town, we searched positively everywhere for you, darling. Twilight even took us out into that dreadfully dark woods to meet with Zecora, her herbalist friend.”

“The forest isn’t all that bad,” whispered Fluttershy. “Some of the cutest animals live there.”

“Don’t worry, Sunset,” said Rarity with an additional shudder. “We made her put them back.”

“And then we went back to Twilight’s awesome castle and jammed most of the day until you showed up!” said Rainbow Dash, playing her mid-air air guitar. “It was amazing. She’s got this magical amp that goes up to this little squiggly sideways eight, but she wouldn’t let us turn it up that high.”

“I was fighting my way through that carnivorous forest and the six of you were playing music?” Sunset Shimmer looked between the compassionate eyes of her friends and tried to continue when Fluttershy of all ponies interrupted.

“When I can’t find some of my little animal friends, I sing so they can find me. But it was Rarity who suggested it,” added Fluttershy.

Sunset Shimmer tried to suppress a tremor at the memory of Fluttershy dancing around the house singing while she had slumped onto the couch to watch television, only to find that ‘Silky’ was actually a ten foot python who had decided to curl up inside the couch cushions for a nap.

“Well, it only stood to reason,” said Rarity while looking out the window, unwilling to meet Sunset’s eyes. “I mean every time we ever had one of our little jelly sessions—

“Jam, Rarity.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes by making a slow roll in the middle of the room.

“—Jam sessions,” corrected Rarity, “you always seemed to show up. And you did.”

“I suppose it’s hard to argue with results.” Sunset Shimmer. “I’m just glad I found you, no matter how it happened, Pinkie’s tail or not.”

“Yeah!” said Pinkie Pie. “Only I really was worried that we wouldn’t find you, and now that we found you, I’m sad again, because you’re going to stay here and study with Princess Celestia again and we’ll miss you so much.” She hooked the overloaded dessert cart with one hoof and drew it up next to the hospital bed. “There’s not enough cake in the world to make that feel any better.”

Sunset Shimmer took the huge slice of cake that Pinkie Pie pressed into her hooves, but sat it carefully on a nearby tray instead of digging in like she wanted. “Look, girls. I really don’t know how to tell you this. It’s going to be hard enough to tell Princess Celestia… who’s probably waiting right outside the door, isn’t she, Applejack?”

“No! Of course….” The farmpony hunched her shoulders and stuck her ratty hat back on her head. “Yes. Why you always gotta go and do that?”

“Because you’re my friend,” said Sunset, “and I know you. It’s the same reason why I let Rarity do my nails and never step on a bug when Fluttershy is around. Or when she’s not around too,” she added rather quickly.

“Would you like me to bring Princess Celestia in?” asked Twilight.

“Can we do her hoovsies and braid her mane and play party games?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Ahh…” said Sunset, momentarily at a loss for words at the mental image of the ruler of all Equestria, Princess Celestia, Sol Invictus, with pink hoof polish and a braided ribboned mane. “No,” she finished with some reluctance. This is something I need to talk about with her privately. If I could just get you all to step outside for a moment? That means you too, Dash,” she added at the colorful pegasus who was trying to find some inconspicuous corner of the ceiling to hide.

“You’re sure you don’t want us with you?” asked Fluttershy in such a low whisper that Sunset could barely hear.

“I want you all with me, but I need to do this by myself. Now go on. This will only take a minute.”

It took a while for her friends to be gently herded out the door by Princess Luna, and thinking about the pun helped lighten the mood some, particularly when Pinkie decided to bark and chase Applejack when the stubborn farmer tried to stay behind. She sat in the resulting silence, trying not to look at the door and finding the single slice of creamy cake a much better focal object. After prodding it listlessly a few times with the fork, she took a deep breath and called out, “Princess Celestia? May I please speak with you?”

The hospital door swung open in perfect silence and there she was, an expanse of pure white crowned in gold that Sunset could not see beyond a bright smear from the tears in her eyes. The sharp clip, clop of golden-clad hooves grew near as Sunset attempted to blink away the tears, only to find more of the traitorous drops flooding her face in a battle for control that she could not allow herself to lose.

“Sunset Shimmer.” The royal voice was just as calm and loving as she had remembered and did not hold a speck of anger, although there was a tiny tremble in it that she had never heard before. “I am pleased that you have returned, although I was hoping to have this conversation a few days ago, and in a somewhat different place.”

“I’m sorry, Princess,” blurted out Sunset Shimmer. “It’s my fault. Don’t blame Flash. If I hadn’t bolted, he never would have chased me and we wouldn't have wound up—”

“I’m not blaming either of you, Sunset.” Celestia moved closer to the bed where Sunset could see her better despite the intervening tears. “I’m just glad you’re both s-safe.” To Sunset’s shock, there was a trickle slowly working its way down Celestia’s cheek as tears of her own began to flow. “I was afraid I had l-lost you again. I was a-afraid—”

Sunset opened her forelegs and put them around Celestia’s neck as her ancient teacher leaned forward, and for the longest time, student and teacher simply remained in a silent embrace, dampening each other’s neck with their long-suppressed tears.

Through all the years she had been Celestia’s pupil, Sunset Shimmer had never shed a tear in her presence, no matter how painful the burn from a failed spell or whatever teenaged angst had tied her heart up in knots. She had thought those tears long past and forgotten, but every one of them seemed to pour out in a soundless flood to be absorbed by Princess Celestia’s warm neck even as she could feel the princess’s own tears of sorrow splash against her own neck in return. There should have been anger on both of their sides, or blame for disputed wrongs, shouts of recrimination for insults previously forgotten and hasty words flung in spite, but instead there was only a flood of forgiveness and regret for opportunities passed, never to happen again.

They held each other for the longest time amidst the beeps and clicks of the hospital machines, gradually and reluctantly pulling away from each other in exchange for gently applied tissues removed from the hospital tissue box and turned into giant rough wads of soggy paper. After the longest time and continually mumbled apologies, Sunset took a deep breath in order to meet Celestia’s eyes.

“I’m glad Twilight was here when Luna returned. I never would have been able to make friends like she did, and I never would have been able to use the Elements of Harmony to free your sister.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, my former student.” Celestia stole a glance towards the hospital door, which glowed both golden and indigo from a shield spell, although the quiet thumps and thuds of five ponies trying to peek through the cracks was still evident. “You seem to have made more friends than you realize.”

“I never would have been able to do it without Twilight. Which reminds me.” Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath. “When I took my entrance exam, did you really try to fake me out with Philomena playing dead?”

Celestia managed to look slightly guilty while using the last wad of hospital tissues to wipe her face. “Actually… that was Philomena. I had this magnificent millennium floribunda that had not bloomed in years, and since you seemed to like plants so much, I thought it would work as your entrance test. Then when Philomena started dropping her last feathers, I forgot all about it. I think she missed Luna more than I did, and sometimes I think she’s smarter than all of us.”

“Oh.”

With a girlish giggle, Celestia added, “She did the same thing to Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy last year.”

The laughter seemed contagious, and Sunset Shimmer giggled along with Celestia, at least until she looked back, using the most serious Princess face. “I’ve missed you so much, Sunset. I wish that you could stay and be my student again.”

“I do too,” admitted Sunset Shimmer. “Those were some of the best years of my life, but you’re the one who taught me to finish one lesson before I start another. I may have failed at making friends in this world, but I think I’ve got a good start in the other world. I’m looking forward to finding out what we can learn together.”

“I agree,” said Celestia. “You have much to learn and to teach your new friends.”

“True, but right now, if I can get out of the hospital, I need to hobble back to the human world as quick as possible.” Sunset winced as she pulled back the hospital sheet and sat up.

“Shouldn’t you perhaps stay for a few days while you recover?” said Celestia. “Luna would love to show you around Canterlot, and I believe Philomena has a few tricks she was planning to use on us.”

Although she could not help chuckling a little, Sunset shook her head. “No, I need to get my friends back before Twilight’s friends wind up burning down the mall. I may come back and visit later, once I’m feeling better, and if you can tie up Flash. Who knows, maybe I’ll even talk Principal Celestia into swapping places with you for a few days sometime.”

“Oh, Sunset,” said Celestia with a twinkle in her eye. “Who says we don’t?”

~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~

Luna’s brilliant moon spilled a silver curtain over the castle gardens and lit the area with an intensity that still brought Sunset Shimmer’s heart up into her throat whenever she looked up into the night sky. The Equestrian night had been Celestia’s domain for her entire life, and now that it had been returned to the pony who truly belonged with it, the stars and moon seemed to compete in their attempts to bring awe to their watching audience.

Despite Sunset’s protests, it had been several days since she had staggered out of the Everfree Forest, and only near hourly reports from the enchanted notebook that spanned the two worlds had kept her calm enough to enjoy her brief time with her friends in Equestria before they all had to go home.

And it was home, now that she thought about it. A strange place with fingers and motorcycles and cheeseburgers that she had adapted to far more than she had ever fit into Equestria. Someday she might return and pick up with her magical studies, but for now, it was the magic of friendship that was going to be her subject to study for the immediate future. She looked out across the Royal Gardens with the mirror sitting so innocently in the middle of a patch of short grass, almost exactly in the same spot as when she had come through, and considered just what other worlds might be only a reflection away.

“Regrets, my former student?” Princess Celestia had come up behind Sunset with no more noise than a cat while her five friends were playing some strange game in the taller grass that involved a lot of running and very few rules.

“No. I learned more from my mistakes than I ever would have otherwise. I just wish I hadn’t hurt so many ponies and humans in order for me to learn my lessons.”

“As do I, my former student.” Celestia held herself very still as Sunset Shimmer rubbed up against her neck, the rough patches of bandages and missing mane making it more of a scratch than a caress. “I shall be looking forward to your letters as you learn more about friendship in this new place. Twilight Sparkle has promised to forward them on to me, after reading them, of course.”

“Of course.” They held close to each other for a long moment in the moonlit garden until Sunset looked away with a displeased scowl. “I see they let Flashlight out of the hospital too.”

The Royal Guard was standing alone by the side of the mirror, his wing totally encased by a white cast and one leg completely covered in bandages, but still holding his precise guarding pose despite his injuries and a complete lack of armor.

“I thought you would like to say a few words to him before you left. Go ahead, and I’ll bring the rest of your friends when you have finished.”

As Celestia strode away, Sunset got the distinct impression of a setup, even though she had planned for this possibility and had even been looking forward to it. Princess Celestia had centuries of experience reading ponies, and although Principal Celestia ran a close second, it would be a relief to go back to trying to get out of a tardy slip or drinking a soda in the hallway.

“Hey, Flash.” Sunset strolled up to the impassive guard and looked over the creamy white bandages that wrapped most of his side and held his wing completely immobile. “Your outfit looks a little loose. Want me to tidy it up for you? I think there are some ants around here somewhere.”

Flash Sentry remained perfectly immobile, not even glancing in her direction.

With a plaintive sigh that Princess Celestia would have been proud of, she leaned forward and kissed him right on the lips. Hard.

“Sunny!” Flash spluttered, backing up into the edge of the mirror and then lunging forward as if it were red-hot. “I’m supposed to be guarding that!”

“Relax, nitwit. Princess Celestia put you here so I could talk to you before I left.” She reached back into her sidesaddle and rummaged around among the medicines and potions she was going to take back to the human world for the rest of her recovery. “I brought you a little something for when I’m gone.”

“It’s not poisonous, is it?” Flash eyed the small card that she pulled out and read it while she held it out in front of him. “Le Creux? That’s a restaurant, isn’t it?”

“The most expensive in the city. I know how much you appreciate a powerful unicorn mare, and I paid for a date.”

His eyes flickered in Princess Twilight Sparkle’s direction, and Sunset fought ferociously keep a straight face as Flash’s ears perked up. “Really?”

“Not Twilight. Somepony else that I think you’ll fit well with. You have no personality and she has more than enough to share.”

He eyed her suspiciously, but picked the card up and tucked it away behind his bandaged wing anyway. “Thanks, Sunny. Are you sure about this?”

“Trust me, Flash. She’s great. Just… don’t take her out in the forest. It’s a lousy place for a date.”

* * *

Six colorful ponies gathered together in the moonlit garden for one last moment before they trotted forward and vanished into the mirror. There was a brief pause, and five ponies tumbled out in a big pile with a small purple dragon landing on top.

“Twilight!” shouted Spike as he picked himself back up and leapt into Twilight Sparkle’s embrace. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“It is good to be back, girls, but could you please get off my back,” said Rarity’s voice from the bottom of the pile.

“Wow!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a bound that took her over to Princess Celestia. “The human world is full of amazing things! I’ve never seen so many flashing lights.”

“I had no idea Rainbow Dash had a Mustang,” gasped Applejack after getting her hooves underneath her and wobbling upright. “I kept expecting that thing to explode in rainbows as fast as we were going.”

“A mustang?” asked Celestia with a peculiar tilt to her head as she regarded the ruffled pegasus climbing out of the pony pile. “I was unaware your alternate had a coltfriend in the human world. Congratulations.”

“Not a colt,” scoffed Rainbow Dash with a happy flap of her wings that took her straight up. “It’s a car! A convertible even. It could have fit through the portal if a wheel hadn’t come off in the parking lot.”

“And it goes really, really, really fast!” said Pinkie Pie. “Faster even than all those other cars with the blinking lights!”

Princess Celestia exchanged a look with her sister that had both of them shaking their heads.

“I’ll get the bail money,” said Luna.

Picture: I’m Sorry by mrs1989, used with permission.

(One last picture for the road)