The Warmest Star of Winter
“Night’s a lot more beautiful here than I remembered.”
Sunset leaned forward, poking her head and hooves out of the castle window. Her eyes were locked onto the sparkling stars that hung above Ponyville, noting how each one seemed to beam with its own personality, glittering in its own unique rhythm. She spotted the snow that fell from the clouds above, forming a little pile on her window sill. The Moon, the brightest she ever laid her eyes on, glowed with a sort of life and vigor that she had never seen before.
“Back at CHS, the night always seemed so random,” Sunset muttered her words, as if scared that somepony would hear her, “but here, it looks like it was made with a—”
“Purpose?”
The voice caused Sunset to gasp in frightened shock. She placed a hoof upon her chest to try to quell her racing heart as Princess Luna descended gracefully through the window.
“Apologies, we did not mean to frighten you.” Luna took a seat beside Sunset, who was staring at her in silent awe. “You must be Sunset Shimmer. A pleasure to meet you.”
“Y-yeah.” Sunset shook her head, attempting to snap herself out of the daze. “L-likewise, Princess Luna.” Suddenly, she bolted up from the window seat, a wave of panic washing over her face. “I’m sorry! It’s been so long! I forgot to—”
Luna giggled softly. “There is no need to bow to us, Sunset Shimmer. We are merely here to talk with you.”
“O-oh? Really?” Sunset stood up from her attempted bow and retook her seat, running a hoof through her mane. “Well, I mean about what? I’m sure I’m not the most interesting person— umm, pony to talk to.”
“We do not agree. And neither does our sister,” Luna spoke with a playful smirk.
“Y-you mean Celestia was the one that sent you to talk to me?” Sunset gazed up with a fearful expression.
Luna laughed once more. “Nay. Celestia simply enjoys conversing about you. However, that is not what we are here to discuss.”
“O-oh…” Sunset glanced down at the window sill, a frown appearing on her face. “Then what’re you here to talk about?”
“You have not had good rest since you returned to Equestria, have you?” Luna spoke in a much more serious tone as she gazed out into the village.
Sunset darted her head up, her mouth slightly agape. “H-how did you know?”
“We know the dreams of all our subjec— ahem, citizens. It is part of our job to patrol the dreamscape to make sure they have a restful slumber.” Luna turned to Sunset, frowning slightly. “Yours in particular have been causing you much distress.”
Sunset turned her gaze to her hooves as she rubbed them softly together. “I guess I have you to thank for pulling me out of them?”
Luna let out a heavy sigh. “We wish we could do more. However, we fear that saving you from them night after night is merely a temporary solution.”
“T-then… what’s a permanent one?”
“We believe you already know the answer to your question.”
For a few seconds, silence enveloped the two mares. Even the usual chirp of the crickets had disappeared. It made Sunset wonder if time, and the world around them, had stopped moving altogether. Just as she opened her mouth to break the still night, Luna begun to speak.
“What has gotten you so frightened, Sunset Shimmer?”
Sunset thought for a moment before answering, “I… I don’t know.”
“Are you sure?” Luna asked without hesitation.
Sunset felt her heart sink at Luna’s words. She darted her head to the left, landing her gaze on the bed that sat in her castle room.
Why did you even try to lie? You knew this wasn’t going to work.
Taking a deep breath, Sunset spoke, “I’m worried she still doesn’t forgive me.”
“Ah, of course.” Luna’s expressionless face finally cracked a soft smile.
“After all this time… after all I did. It’s not something I think she’ll ever look past, no matter how much I try to tell myself otherwise.”
“Celestia does seem serious at times, we do admit that fact.”
Upon hearing Luna’s words, Sunset turned her attention back to her, raising an eyebrow and opening her mouth to speak. However, she just as quickly shut it tight, silencing her words before they could escape.
Luna tilted her head in confusion towards Sunset but continued on, “However, she has had nothing but smiles since you’ve returned from the portal. I doubt she still holds a grudge against your previous actions.”
“R-right.” Sunset felt a stray snowflake land on her hoof and lightly brushed it off. “She probably doesn’t,” she said in a hushed tone.
Luna tapped her hoof lightly on her chin for several moments before giving off a soft smile. “Would you like to go on a walk with us?”
“A walk? Where? It’s the middle of the night, there’s nothing to do.”
“Well, thou said it thyself.” Luna hopped off her seat and took several steps towards Sunset’s bedroom door. “The night is beautiful. What better way to experience it than to take a trot with nopony around?”
Sunset wanted to decline but when she asked the question ‘why not?’ in her mind, she found no suitable answer. Not like I’m going back to sleep anyway. With a shrug, she jumped off the window seat and levitated a purple scarf lightly around her neck. “We won’t be staying out long right?”
“We would answer, though after 1000 years on the moon, our idea of ‘long’ might differ from yours,” Luna said with a smirk, levitating an orange beanie onto Sunset’s head. “Though do give us a few seconds, we have a letter to send.”
“Take as long as you want Princess Luna.”
“Simply Luna would be more than sufficient.”
Sunset nodded, smiling. “Then I’ll meet you at the main gates when you’re done.”
“Very well.”
With that, Sunset moved off, descending the steps of Twilight’s castle. Once she was out of view, Luna conjured a piece of paper and a quill and began to scribble. After a few seconds of writing, she quickly rolled the parchment up and caused it to vanish in a puff of blue smoke. She proceeded to trot slowly down the steps, a sly smirk drawn across her mouth.
“You know, when you’re away from Equestria for so long, you sorta forget how… different things are.” Sunset dragged a hoof lightly across a snow pile, watching the white powder rise slowly into the air.
“We can relate.” Luna fixed her eyes on the unicorn across her, watching a small smile form on her face. “We had to adapt when we returned as well.” She paused, spotting a small snowpony with a missing hoof standing in front of a house. Enveloping a nearby layer of snow in a blue aura, Luna formed it into a perfect cylindrical shape and fitted it seamlessly to the snowpony. “...I had to adapt.”
Sunset gave a warm smile to Luna’s actions, but it quickly changed into a frown when she started to speak, “Couldn’t have been easy, returning after all that time to face your sister.”
“Verri-” Luna cleared her throat. “Yes. We considere— I considered another thousand years away, if it meant not having to face the guilt for our— my actions.”
Sunset stopped in her tracks. Standing silent and dumbfounded, she could only watch as Luna trotted on, her starry mane and tail flowing behind her.
“Something a lot of ponies do not understand, was that the hardest part was not when we- I first met her. It was the weeks, months, even years that followed, unsure if Celestia—”
“Had really forgiven me after all this time," both ponies said in unison. They turned to face one another with a shocked stare, though it quickly melted into one of warmth.
“It was no easy task speaking to my sister once we— I had returned. She acted as if nothing had happened between us. She treated me with endless kindness, patience and understanding. But—”
“It only made the pain of remembering what you did worse, didn’t it?” Sunset asked.
“Yes, thou knowest what that feels like?”
“Yeah. I had someone...” Sunset reached for her scarf, pulling the purple garment tighter around her neck. “...somepony like that.”
“However, I soon realised that the pony that hated me most was… myself.” Luna stopped at Ponyville’s market square. Stalls, empty of ponies or produce, stood around them, covered in a blanket of snow. Even the oil lamps on their benches sat in darkness. “All the fear, guilt and regret I felt was from me. And it was what was haunting me all this time.”
Sunset frowned and darted her eyes away. “Did you ever get past that?”
“With help from several friends, yes. They helped me confront my worst fears, so that I may move on.”
Biting her lip, Sunset attempted to find the right words to say. “Y-you know what my worst fear is, Luna?”
“Do tell. Perhaps, like your friends have helped me, I may help you."
Sunset took a deep breath, starting to speak. “After I ran from Equestria, I thought Celestia would come after me, beg me to come back. Yet.” She paused. “She never did. Instead, I find out that Celestia had… replaced me. And not only was my replacement a better student than me, she accomplished more than I ever would’ve.” A tear started to flow from Sunset’s eye. “One of the reasons I didn’t come back to Equestria was that I was worried I’d find it still the same, no, better then when I left it. The thought scared me because it made me feel like I wasn’t… important. And that Equestria, Celestia and everypony else was better off without… without me.” Sunset hung her head low, tears trailing down her cheek and onto the snow below.
“I left so much behind, but everyone just kept looking ahead. There’s so many things I’m afraid to face. So many ponies… so many friends. I’m scared she doesn’t miss me. I’m scared of not being loved, which is how she must’ve felt when I left.”
“You mean Celestia?”
Sunset didn’t answer. Instead, she shut her eyes tightly and allowed her sobs to fill the air. Suddenly, she felt a hoof wrap around the back of her neck. She shot her eyes open in shock and felt herself being pulled into a soft hug.
“Dearest Sunset, I know not who you speak of, but if one of your worries is my sister, then allow me to offer some words of comfort. When I first returned, I could not do justice the amount of pain and sorrow Celestia would have when she would speak about you. She told me she did not come after you for she saw herself as the source of your pain, and thought you’d find your own way if you were left on your own. For years, she doubted if she had been a good mentor to you.” Luna held Sunset at hoof’s length, smiling wide. “Allow me to let you in on a little sisterly secret. When Twilight told Celestia about how much you’ve learned and grown in the human world, it broke her heart in twain. Do you know why, Sunset Shimmer?” Sunset simply stared at Luna with a perplexed expression, eagerly awaiting the answer.
“Because she believed that you were better off without her.”
The words caused Sunset to shut her eyes and begin sobbing. She dived straight into Luna’s coat, feeling tears stream from her eyes. Luna wrapped her hooves tightly around the sobbing mare, the gentle fall of snow around them.
“Better, Sunset Shimmer?” Luna asked, levitating a tissue towards her.
Sunset nodded, wiping the last few tears from her eyes.
“We should head back and get you warmed up.” Luna grinned, standing on her hooves. Once Sunset had gotten on hers, the duo began their trot back. The first few steps were taken in silence, until Sunset’s voice broke the stiff air around them.
“Did you ever feel unneeded, Luna? Like… you weren’t important?”
A soft giggle was Sunset’s reply. “I returned after a thousand years to find out that my sister had been raising both the Sun and Moon in my stead, handling world affairs and taught two unicorns to be the hope for Equestria and beyond. Equestria flourished and our citizens were still happy in the time I was gone. I suppose one could say that I felt a little ‘unneeded’.”
Sunset blushed a bright red and looked downwards, feeling a red hot wave of embarrassment and guilt wash over her. Without warning, she felt somepony bump lightly into her. Upon darting her head up, she saw Luna staring down at her with a wide smile.
“Even though it took a lot of time and a lot of self-searching, I realized something important. I remembered that I have a role to my citizens that my sister could never replicate, even in my thousand year absence,” Luna said with a tinge of pride in her voice.
“Which is?” Sunset asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.
“Taking care of my subjects when they rest. Finding out what might be causing their restless slumber.” Luna moved in closer, whispering, “And taking them out for midnight walks.” She gave a knowing wink to Sunset, who smiled back in kind. “All these things made me realize that while my sister was excellent in handling the country, she needed somepony that could handle the ponies in it. To watch over them when they were at their weakest and to guide them on their path.” Luna’s horn glowed a soft blue, enveloping a collapsed snow house and setting it back upright. “That is my place.”
“Maybe one day I’ll find mine.”
“I do not doubt you already have.” Luna turned, spotting Sunset’s puzzled look. “I can think of few who have ventured into another world and adapted as well as you did. And still managed to save them from dangerous Equestrian magic. Your deeds there are fairly special.”
Sunset sighed softly. “Yeah, I guess.”
“However, I do not think that is where your greatest accomplishment lies. Yes, I could name few that have done what you did. Yet, even fewer can I name that were so willing to work past their past misdeeds. To want to truly do right among her friends, and more importantly, herself. That is something we should both be proud of.”
Sunset smiled softly. “Thank you, Princess Luna.” She had wanted to say so much more, but found her immense vocabulary lost in her wandering mind.
Soon, they arrived at the gates of Twilight’s castle. Luna placed a hoof upon the ornate door and opened it with a slight push. “May I ask you a question, Sunset Shimmer?”
“Of course.” Sunset took her first steps in, eyes locked onto Princess Luna.
“Will you be able to finally get some good rest tonight?”
“I’ll… I’ll try my best.”
“Does something still frighten you? Is there still something I can help with?”
Both mares trotted up the steps, stopping just outside the doors to Sunset’s room.
“It’s nothing, Princess Luna,” Sunset shook her head. “You’ve helped plenty.”
“Sunset.” Luna trotted close to her, a look of concern on her face. “My sister was not the only one you were afraid of confronting after your return, was she?”
Sunset shot her gaze upwards in disbelief. Her mouth stood open, but no words came.
“When you spoke to me tonight, you kept referring to a ‘her’. At first, I thought it was Celestia. However, I see now your fear lies on somepony- someone else.”
“Luna…”
Placing a hoof on Sunset’s bedroom door, she spoke, “Perhaps it's time you face that fear.”
Luna pushed the door open softly. The very second they parted, a bright orange light shone through the gap. Sunset shakily peered into her room, and sure enough, a familiar bird stood perched on top of the headrest of her bed.
“P-Philo...Philomena…” Sunset stammered out, taking one trembling step into her room. When the phoenix noticed the approaching mare, it raised its head up high and turned away. “Philomena, I’m sorry. I… I never meant to leave you. It was… I didn’t know how the portal would change you. I didn’t know if you’d even make it through!” The phoenix didn’t budge, instead, it turned even further away. Tears had begun to fill Sunset’s eyes. “T-truth is, I knew I was making a huge mistake and you were the last thing in Equestria I wanted to suffer.”
Sunset took a glance at the phoenix, who had its back turned towards her. “But all those are just excuses. I was suppose to care for you. I was there when you hatched and I should have been there for you till the end. Instead, I ran when I got scared. I disappeared without even saying goodbye.” She turned her gaze away, her voice now broken and staggered. “I can’t imagine how much that hurt you. I never should have left you, regardless of what I was going through,” she stammered, taking several more steps towards the bird. “I understand if you won’t forgive me. I… I wouldn’t forgive myself either. But I’m sorry. And if we have to start from nothing,” Sunset lowered her head and collapsed onto the ground with tear-filled eyes. “I’ll do it.”
Suddenly, Sunset felt something land on her head. Looking upwards, she spotted the wide, playful grin of Philomena staring back at her. She smiled back wide, laughing loudly. “You playful little— Still the same after all these moons huh?” Immediately, the phoenix soared into the air, screeching happily as it dove into Sunset’s hooves.
Sunset fell to the floor, laughing and crying. She swiftly ruffled Philomena’s feathers, giggling like a filly as she did so. Years of memories came flooding back into her mind, overwhelming her emotions.
Two screeches came from the phoenix. “I missed you too, Philly. Thank you for waiting for me. And I really am sorry for everything I’ve done. But I’m ready to make it right again.” Philomena gave another happy screech in reply as Sunset wiped away her own tears. All of a sudden, she thought of an idea and sat back upright. Extending her hoof forward, she met Philomena’s gaze. Merely a second later, Philomena flew upwards, diving down and perching herself on Sunset’s waiting hoof. The sight caused Sunset to chuckle loudly, filling the air with unbounded joy. “You still remember. Of course you’d still remember…”
Luna watched the scene in silence. Slowly, she slinked away, glancing out the window to the skies above. Enveloping the moon in a blue glow, she slowly brought it down until it was past the horizon. Once it had disappeared, the sun rose from the hills to the east, sending the darkness of night away with its first rays of orange light. Luna stared at the scene, grinning as wide as she could. I do not think this will be a sight I shall ever tire of seeing.
“Princess Luna?” A voice called out from behind her. She spun around, spotting Twilight in the hallway, still dressed in her pajamas. “What’re you doing here?”
Luna gave a smile towards her. “Good morning, Twilight Sparkle. Had a good rest?”
“Well, yeah. But that doesn’t answer my—”
“That’s good to hear. May I suggest talking to Sunset? She has quite a lot to tell you.”
“Sunset?” Twilight levitated away the orange eye mask hanging on her horn and turned towards the door. “What’s it got to—” However, when she turned back, Luna had already vanished from view. Twilight approached the door, knocking on it several times before hearing a screech from within…
Luna entered the living room, trotting past the lit fireplace. With a glow of her horn, the scarf around her neck glided through the air and landed softly onto a nearby coat rack.
“Had a fun night, Luna?” The voice asked, followed by a loud sip.
“I take it you received my letter?” Luna questioned, not even glancing at the coffee table.
“Mmhm. Unless you thought Philomena flew all the way there on her own?”
Luna made her way to the blue doors that sat across the room. However, before she could enter, another question stopped her in her tracks.
“Is she… okay?”
“Philomena? Or Sunset Shimmer?”
“...Both.”
“Last I saw, those two were inseparable.”
For a moment, there wasn’t a word spoken between the two.
“Yeah, that’s how I last saw them too…” the voice muttered.
“You have little need to worry. They have reconciled.”
“I suppose you’re right. Well, go get some rest. Good night, Luna.”
Luna swung open the door to her room. She took a step in, but turned towards the table and the pony seated at it. “You are going to miss her.”
“Hm? Who? Philomena? Or Sunset?”
Luna smiled, knowing that both of them knew the answer that was to come. Nevertheless, she said it with a giggle and a tinge of pride in her voice.
“Both.”
