Face to Face on High Places
Breakfast was essential. Sunset lodged that phrase in her head as she groggily poured herself a cup of coffee. The smell of burnt bean water wafted from her tall ceramic mug and did a little to help invigorate her. She sipped from it once, then again, and one final time before setting it down to turn her attention to breakfast proper. One, two, three eggs found themselves cracked into a plain white bowl. Ground black pepper and a healthy helping of chili powder followed shortly afterwards. A short bit of whisking later and she had her scrambled eggs ready to go.
Ritual dominated a vast swathe of Sunsets’ life. From the magic to the mundane, repetition kept her moving forward as evenly as she could. It was an anchor in trying times and a source of comfort in her daily life. Breakfast was one of those rituals she hadn’t had a chance to establish until recently. Before making the move back to Equestria and even in the years of her youth she was far too concerned with the pursuit of power to let herself dwell on simple pleasures. Like spreading apple jam on a piece of toast and watching the sunrise from your small cottage or smelling butter melt across a pan, ripe for cooking. She let a smile cross her face as images of a plain life drifted through her head.
By now the pan was hot enough to cook with so she poured the egg mix in, delighting in the sizzle that met her ears. She agitated the bubbling egg mess with a spatula, fluffing the whole deal up with ease. Cooking eggs was a delicate art and one Sunset thought herself rather gifted at. Perhaps she should’ve been a breakfast chef at some inn rather than… Whoever she was now. Life certainly would’ve been league's less complex.
~~~
Not that Sunset could complain, really. She reflected on the fate of the stable of villains that came before her as she transferred her eggs from pan to plate. Many had been banished to here or there or frozen in stone. Some had been destroyed in their entirety. Not her. No, she was given a second chance by the Princess of Friendship. She spread a helping of butter across two pieces of bread and laid them on the skillet. Toast was essential.
Why the second chance? It wasn’t like she didn’t do something evil. It’s not like she didn’t try to kill her. Still she was given the opportunity to learn and grow beyond what she was. Maybe ponyfolk got a softer punishment for evil plans; the magical equivalent to a slap on the wrist. Even with all these questions, an undeniable fact of Sunsets life is how much she owes Twilight. It was weird owing another pony your life. Did all of Twilights friends feel like this?
Toast was done. She snatched it up off the skillet, snuffed the flame out, and ambled her way to the table. The slight amount of work she put into breakfast each morning only made it more rewarding. She settled into her chair to enjoy her handiwork, closing her eyes for just a moment to enjoy the early morning. Satisfied with her brief reverie she began to eat.
She wasn't even halfway through her eggs when the tranquility of the morning was disrupted by the sudden arrival of a letter, appearing on her table in a puff of ash and flame. She drifted it towards her, unravelling it as it went. The letter was from Twilight and judging by the script was written with a degree of haste. Curious. Wasn’t often she received letters from Twilight.
Dear Sunset,
I have received a very frightening portent. A sign of things to come. There is dangerous magic on its way. Please visit when possible.
Well. That certainly wasn’t how she was expecting her morning to go. She finished her breakfast and grabbed her saddlebag before concentrating on a teleportation spell. With a few moments of focus she moved her body across space, arriving at the doors of Twilights’ gleaming crystal castle. No matter how often she visited it was always a strange sight to see.
Before she could knock on the door it swung open, Twilight standing there wide-eyed.
~~~
“Sunset! It’s good to see you. I detected your teleport. Starlight and the princesses are already here. Please, come inside. We have much to discuss.”
The princesses were here? It must be pretty serious if they’re not in Canterlot. What could be threatening Equestria now? What ancient evil has dredged itself up from the past to terrorize the lands? She kept these questions to herself as she followed a swiftly-moving Twilight up flight after flight of stairs. They swept into a large meeting room, the center dominated by a round oak table. Sat at the table were Luna, Celestia, and Starlight. The princesses had contemplative looks on their faces, while Starlight looked just as lost as Sunset felt.
“So. Celestia and Luna already know why I called you two here so I owe you an explanation. When I woke today I felt. Something. A powerful force is moving across this land and in my experience that’s never a good sign. That kind of magic is usually a sign of something very nasty setting up shop. Luna and Celestia have reported the same feeling. We’ve been trying to locate the source but it’s been eluding us. You two wouldn’t happen to have felt anything, would you have?”
“Well… I have experienced something, I suppose.”
“Really? What was it, Sunset?”
“It was a dream. I- I dreamt I was a princess. I could feel my wings. I don’t know-”
“No way. You had that dream too? Was yours as… scary as mine?”
“Scary? I don’t think so. More… revealing, than anything else. What happened in yours, Starlight?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I did become a princess, though. Wings and all. Could that have something to do with it?”
“That could be it. You didn't have a hoof in any of that, did you Luna?”
“Absolutely not, unfortunately. I did notice that your dreams were especially… Hard to reach last night. I like to check in, make sure everything is going well. Something stopped me, however. That happens with very, VERY rarely. So as you can imagine I’m very worried. We’re all worried.”
Celestia looked to be deep in thought, with the ethereal breeze that usually fluttered her hair having slowed considerably. Her eyes were narrowed and she hadn’t spoken much at all since the meeting had started. Slowly the table grew hushed as if anticipating her speech. “I do not believe Equestria is in any danger, if these dreams speak the truth. I can say with utmost certainty, however, that the days ahead of you two will be the most trying they have ever been. If you do not master your magic, you will be destroyed.”
That stunned the entire table. Nopony really wanted to dispute what she just said. How could you, after all? It was Celestia! If there was anyone who know what they were talking about it was her, especially when it came to being a princess. Sunset and Starlight both looked horrified, but Starlight was the first to speak. “D-Destroyed? I’d… I’d really rather not. I’ve taken to really enjoy being alive.”
“Then you must be prepared to fight against the darkness in your heart, Starlight Glimmer. That is the only advice I can give you, for each princesses challenges are her own. May you walk safely down your path.” With a flash of light Celestia was gone, signalling an end to the meeting as abruptly as it began. Twilight looked concerned.
“I promise she’s usually less… Aloof and difficult to understand. I think. At least to me she is.”
“It’s alright Twilight.” Sunset put a reaffirming hoof on her friends shoulder. “I’m sure everything will be just fine!”
Dreams are interesting things. It says something about the intricacies of a sleeping mind that ones’ dreaming world can be possessed of nearly the same depth and diversity as the world they wake to. In some ways, for some ponies, dreams can prove to be better teachers than real life at times.
That’s how it’s often been for Sunset Shimmer. She remembers phases of her life by the dreams that accompanied her through those times. When she was young, just a little schoolfilly, she would dream of resplendent wings of fire. Her entire body was wreathed in a blazing corona and from her horn shone a beam that beat back even the deepest darkness. Those dreams changed as she did.
She was older now, bitter and wise in the use of power to further her own goals. Her dreams were dark, just bordering on the edge of nightmare most nights. They only got darker as she became more withdrawn. They only became lonelier as she eschewed friendship in the pursuit of more grandiose magics.
Her first dreams in the human world were just as confusing as the rest of the experience. They were like some grisly portmanteau of very different universes, jostling for a position in the limelight of her subconscious. There were times where she would lurch awake, hit with a terrible homesickness that was swiftly overtaken with indignation at her situation. That was a pretty awful way to wake up, by any account. Slowly her dreams settled down and became mundane, simple repetitions of tasks she had performed earlier that day or week.
Curiously enough, there was no trauma to be found in sleep as she crossed that threshold yet again, stepping back into the fresh-but-familiar form of a unicorn pony. Rather every dream she had left her feeling full of purpose and determination. Perhaps it was due to the changes she had undergone as a human, perhaps it was thanks to the “dangerous magic” that Twilight had summoned her here for. She didn’t particularly care. She welcomed the change from the norm with an open heart.
~~~
So it was that this dream made her feel very similar to many dreams she had already had. Initially, at least. She was walking through a meadow, a nameless place of soft greenery and warm sun. There was a lake in the distance and trees much closer, offering her to opportunity to seek shelter when the suns heat inevitably grew to be too much for her. There was a distinct feeling of peace in the air. It sort of permeated everything she saw and seemed to flow in and out of the world as if it was breath through a healthy lung. She enjoyed this scene for quite some time, basking in the warm glow from her dream-sun without a care in the world. In time she grew tired of the stillness that surrounded her and the dream responded accordingly.
She was pulled now into a dimly lit hallway. There were mirrors lining the walls for as far as she could see and above her head faint candles cast a warm light. As she walked through the hallway she saw a great many things in the mirrors. Each was her but radically different in some way, be it charming or truly terrifying. There were some things she saw that shook her to the core but her hooves were compelled onwards. She would always leave those images behind and something altogether more pleasant would sweep in to fill the void in her mind. She saw herself bedecked in a bridesmaids dress, in a general's’ fitted suit, or crowned with some gleaming tiara.
She began to call into question what each of these images meant. Did they have some greater purpose in being here? What was her mind trying to tell her? Are they portents of possible futures? Is this some sort of gallery of nightmares and daydreams, all laid out for her combined viewing fortune and displeasure? The dream answered her quickly. It never seemed to miss a beat.
She found herself confronted with a door and that door lead to a room and in that room was the biggest mirror she had ever seen. It dwarfed even Canterlot castle in height and length, seemingly stretching out into infinity. For now she suspended her disbelief regarding improbably-sized mirrors and focused on the image contained within it. She moved closer, believing herself perhaps mistaken but proven incorrect. It really was empty. There was nothing there. Nothing for her to see. Where was she?
~~~
You see now, don’t you?
There came a voice. Not a physical one of course. No words had been spoken since dreaming claimed her and that would continue to be the case until she awoke. It was a voice nonetheless and it spoke softly, in a cadence not unlike her own. Something about it seemed more raw, more primal, more pure than what she knew her voice to be. It sat heavy in her mind for long enough to get caught in thinking about just the way that voice spoke, rather than the question it spoke to her. A reply came from her dry lips.
“What is there to see?”
Nothing but your true self now. You have already laid eyes on every possible version of yourself, every physical manifestation of the twists and turns of fate. All that remains now is to see you as the world does. As you know yourself to be.
Then her dream struck her down.
~~~
She had dreamt of death, of her own and that of others, countless times. This felt more complete, more total than anything else. Her heart was torn apart instantly and as if this wasn’t enough the rest of her soon followed suit. She was unmade entirely and cast back into the nebulous nothing, the ethereal unbeing that preceded her creation. There was no concept of time or space or self like this so to say it ended quickly or slowly would be an impossible statement to make. All that can be said for certain is that it ended and Sunset found herself reborn in a hauntingly familiar image.
She was before the mirror yet again, its edges still spanning out into eternity. She could tell there was an image now but it was difficult to see, her eyes were blinded by some brilliant light. As she focused on the faint outline of a figure in the mirror it became readily apparent to her what she was seeing. It was her.
Not as she normally was, no. She was engulfed in flames that poured from her skin and lapped around her frame. She was held aloft on a pillar of fire and the soft beat of two new appendages jutting from her back. She was no pegasus, no unicorn. She was a princess. Through and through. Princess of what? What had she done? Was this dream just a dream or something bigger, something that marked her for a future she wasn’t aware of? As the questions came rushing in so did the dark and within moments Sunset was awake and trembling.
There was no forgetting what she had been shown in that dream. There was no denying the truth of the matter. She would have to speak to Twilight about this.
