Chapters She rummaged through the closet. Boxes of books and papers slewed about her small apartment, all remnants of her old life. Her mind raced as she searched for something she knew not. Still, she knew it had to exist—still exist. Aggravation expressed itself as a guttural growl, followed by the flight of loose leaf papers. Sunset Shimmer normally wasn't one for swearing, but she allowed herself the exception. Deep breaths and a gentle head massage to calm herself, she tried to remember what she did it them. She didn't recall throwing them out. In fact, she barely threw anything out. That's the only reason she still had most everything she brought with her through the portal.
She made her way to her couch and plopped down. Twilight's words still echoed in her head, wracking her brain and causing the rest of her body to panic. “It can't be” she tried to tell herself, “Was it really possible?” Her hands shook anxiety. She noted that she had balled them into hooves—something she noticed she did when overwhelmed. “How?” With a grunt, she rose and returned to her searching. Thankfully, she had emptied out her locker of non-academic items, otherwise she would have gone crazy waiting till it reopened Monday.
Finally, she came across one last box. If it wasn't in there, she swore she would have a meltdown. Opening it, a spark of hope fluttered in her heart. She recognized the items as old. Memories of her first few days in the mirror filled her mind. She knew this was it. With new vigor, she dug through the contents. Finally, her hands came upon a small, red spiral notebook. She let out a jovial cry, holding aloft her prize in triumph. She didn't care it was the middle of the night. She didn't care if she awoke any of her neighbors. Not like they gave her any consideration when she tried to sleep.
Moving to her desk, she cleared it of irrelevant items. The clamor disrupted Ray and he moved to the edge of his tank to observe his owner with wondrous curiosity.
Sunset opened the book and began pouring through its pages, her hands quivering in anticipation. Out of habit, she made notes of her experiences crossing the portal. However, she wasn't about to give Princess Celestia the pleasure of reading her observations. Hence, she set aside her once-beloved journal and pinched this new notebook from a school supply store.
Sunset frowned, reading her written words for the first time. Her penmanship was horrid. Going from barely legible to down right scribble. She let out a laugh in spite of herself, recalling relearning how to write. How she would have loved to have seen Princess Twilight handle a pen with hands! She would have laughed at that, too, though not maliciously. If only because she experienced the same struggles. As much as they were at odds those three days, Sunset found it weird that she enjoyed the presence of a fellow pony.
Returning to her notes, Sunset was thankful she had an excellent memory. While she couldn't recount exactly what she wrote to save her life, only seeing a few words and letters jogged her mind to fill in the missing information. Soon, the full narrative became clear to her and she began to relive those early days.
A smile came to her lips. Struggles and adjustments which once were aggravating, she now looked back on with fondness and humor. With a turn of the page, she reminisced all her firsts. Some were pleasant: her first full walk upright; her first time examining new clothing; her first time exploring her new body. Others, not so much; like her first night on the street, or her first menstrual cycle. And, still, some were bittersweet such as her first taste of flesh.
Sunset took in a deep breath. This walk down memory lane was nice, but she needed to focus. She came here with a mission, and she wasn't going to let the night go without fulfilling it. Realigning her thoughts, she continued to scan the pages for anything which may help her. Anything would do; anything to give her some sort of clue.
She let out sigh as she closed the back cover. Leaning back her chair, she rubbed her eyes. Nothing. At least, nothing that jumped out at her. Still, she glanced at the back of the notebook, sure what she wanted laid within. She rested her arms and head on the desk, letting out a groan. She noticed a wide pair of eyes staring at her through a pane of glass. She smiled and gently raised a finger, petting at the leopard gecko through his enclosure. The lizard pressed his head against the glass, imagining her touch upon his head.
“What am I to do?” she asked, wearily.
The lizard cocked his head. “Coffee” he seemed to say, “Coffee helps.”
Raising to her feet, Sunset let out a yawn and stretched, letting out a sigh of euphoria as her joints each made a satisfactory popping sound. “Can't argue with that.” Giving herself a gentle shake, she felt her whole body loose and fluid.
A quick look in the cupboard yielded no coffee. Something else to add to the shopping list. “Oh well,” she sighed, pulling out a small box, “tea then.”
She attended to the kink in her neck as she plugged in the electric kettle. With gentle movement, and assistance from her hands, she rotated her head, releasing a series of cracks from the vertebrae in her neck. She closed her eyes as she freely rolled her head, exploring the full range of motion she felt lost before.
“Probably not something you should be doing” she scolded herself, prepping a mug.
“Don't really care” she replied, twisting her back, releasing more pops, “It feels good.”
“You age your body faster that way.”
“You saying only old people crack like this?”
“Just saying maybe it's not healthy.”
“...or, you're just saying that I'm old.” She paused. Suddenly a question came to her mind and she found herself dumbfounded that she couldn't easily answer it. “How old am I?”
She ignored the sound of the kettle announcing its achievement of boiled water. Flipping through the pages, she returned to her memories of various firsts in this world. Sunset turned to her notes about her new form. She reexamined her comments on her measurements, general and detailed physical descriptions. Her fingers trembled as she glided them along the lines of script. Suddenly, she tapped the paper excitedly. This was it! An off-comment she had brushed off at the time suddenly became the first key to unlocking her mystery.
What providence that she recorded this observation made by a CHS student! She reread the note: “Really? You look, like, fourteen.” Sunset always found it odd that she was aged down a few years in her human form, despite being a fully-developed seventeen-year-old pony in Equestria. She leaned back into her desk chair and pondered. “How old am I, really?” She pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil. Adding the years spent in the mirror world, she came up with the ages: twenty-two and nineteen. “Do either seem accurate?” She bit at the pencil end, “Well, I certainly aged in my time here. At least I now look a little closer to my Equestrian age.” She double-checked herself in a nearby hanging wall mirror to be sure. By all appearances, she was a full-grown, fully-matured young woman.
Satisfied, she returned to the desk. “Okay,” she said, aloud, “the question is why. Why was I aged backward three years? I should have come through looking like this species' seventeen-year-old. Unless...but then...” She quickly searched her pockets, then began darting around the apartment. “Where is it...” she grumbled. Finally, she searched her jacket, feeling her pockets. Her face lit up when she found something hard and rectangular.
Pulling her cellphone out, she swiftly unlocked it and began swiping through her photos. She stopped when she found it. A picture of the two Twilights standing side by side. She zoomed in to get a better look at them. They looked the same—exactly the same. Neither looked older than the other, even though Sunset knew Princess Twilight was older than seventeen. Same with for Starlight and the mirror aged her down some, too. However, Twilight was the only definitive proof she had.
“So,” Sunset drew her conclusion, “the mirror ages us to match our human counterparts. But, why the age discrepancy? And why is that not consistent?”
Ray looked at his owner and made a gesture Sunset could only interpret as a shrug.
“Still,” Sunset's shoulders dropped, “it doesn't solve my problem with what Princess Twilight said. How could they have gone through two Hearth's Warming Eves in a matter of months?” She put a hand to her forehead as she felt another panic attack coming on. “It doesn't make sense. How can you go through a whole year in a few months?” She looked to the little gecko as if he could provide an answer. Instead, she just got a blank stare.
Sunset returned to her brainstorm. She ran her fingers through her hair, scratching and massaging her scalp. “There must be something rational to explain this...” She suddenly stopped, fear gripping her from within, “or, what if not? What if it's something else...? Something sinister...” Her breaths quickened, she felt her already small apartment closing in on her. “What if Equestria has been put under some sort of spell? Or, what if this world has?”
She jumped at her book bag sitting on the floor next to her desk. Opening to a clean page, she put a pen to the paper, then paused. Dare she disrupt the princess? What evidence did she have? Just a single picture of two doppelgangers? A few unrelated, handwritten notes?
Sunset closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. If she was to get to the bottom of this, she would need some help. Letting out the air she was holding in, she wrote a few, short words: “Possible magic problem. Got a moment?”
She set the book down on her desk and attended to her kettle's complaining that it had been neglected. Awaiting Twilight's reply, Sunset prepared her tea and settled down on the sofa. She looked at the mess around her. The entire apartment looked like it had been sacked. “A problem for future Sunset Shimmer” Sunset grinned, taking a sip of tea, “Good morning, darling. Have a nice mess for you to clean.”
“This is why you're single.”
Her inward joke was interrupted by a vibrating coming from the desk. Sunset took another sip of tea. “Looks like Twilight's responded.” She forced herself off the comfy couch and back to her desk. Like hers, Twilight's message was short and sweet.
Sunset, I'm sorry to have upset you earlier.
I'd love to come over and talk it over with you. However, Princess Celestia is of the impression that it's best that you come over discuss this matter with her.
I understand this is asking a lot.
- Twilight
Sunset almost dropped her tea. How did Princess Celestia know? She quickly wrote her question.
“Sorry, Sunset” came the response, “She came over for a visit and I mentioned it in passing.”
Sunset gave the moment pause. As apprehensive as she was to reunite with her former teacher, she couldn't help but feel that this is what the situation required. She took in a deep breath, calming herself as her pen touched the paper. She felt her heart pound against the wall of her chest and her hand quivered. “Okay.”
Twilight's response was almost instantaneous. “Excellent!” Sunset could picture the princess with the widest grin plastered on her face. “Come over whenever you're ready.”
Sunset couldn't help but give a forced smile of her own as she took another sip of tea. The one thing she had dreaded for months after her disgrace at the Fall Formal was about to come to fruition. She sipped her tea and began gathering up her pertinent papers and notes.
As she packed her book bag, she let out a slight chuckle. It dawned upon her that she had still yet to see Princess Twilight in her pony form. She barely got a good look at the princess the night they first met. Despite being dark, Sunset wasn't all that interested in studying the features of those chasing her. She had her eye on a different things. She wondered if she could really recognize her on first sight. Last time, she had mistaken Starlight for Twilight. Though, to be fair, her head had taken a beating traveling through the portal—and the two do have their similarities.
Sunset put a hand on her hip and finished off her tea. Glancing at her bag, she ran a mental checklist to make sure she wasn't missing anything, not like it was much. “I think that's it” she announced. Placing the empty cup in the sink, she put on her jacket and slung the bag over her shoulder. She took a brief glimpse at Ray in his tank. “I'll be back soon” she blew a kiss, “Don't wait up.”
Twilight must have listened to her and Starlight's complaints. Sunset's travel through the portal was not quite as rough as her last time. Still, it didn't mean a soft landing. “Better,” Sunset rubbed her throbbing head, “still could use a few tweaks.”
“I'll make sure to get the maintenance team right on it” joked Twilight. She reached down and helped Sunset to her feet.
As before, Sunset had some time adjusting to being on all fours and did anything to fight the urge to stand and walk on her hind legs. “So,” she bounced on her forelegs, getting used to the feeling, “we gonna wait till morning? Or is Princess Celestia ready to talk now?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Sunset, the morning's already half-over.”
Sunset blinked. “Say...say what?” She held her hooves to her head. “No...no no no! That can't be right! It was really early morning when I came through. I checked my clock before leaving my apartment.”
“Try to calm down,” Twilight's voice was kind, though she couldn't help but feel Sunset's panic. “We'll get this all sorted later. Right now, how about we start with just getting you back with Princess Celestia?” She put gentle hooves on the unicorn.
Sunset only closed her eyes and nodded. Though, she found Twilight's calmness in the matter a little unsettling.
Twilight led the way down the halls of the castle. They stopped at the doors to the Map Room. “She's in here” Twilight said, “I'll leave you two alone for a now. Give a shout if you need me.”
Sunset gave a weak smile and acknowledged. She appreciated Twilight's tact and privacy. Alone before the door, Sunset closed her eyes and prepared herself. “Come on,” she chided herself, “this is the princess you're talking about—not your mother.” She took a quick moment to compose herself before using her magic to open the door.
The room inside was brightly lit with the mid-morning sun. Sunset had a hard time reconciling going from the darkness of night to the light of day in only a few seconds. “Is this what they refer to as jet-lag?” she pondered.
She stopped when she noticed the stone map table with matching chairs encircling it. She noted the markings at the top of each chair, recognizing each to be the cutie mark of the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony. She had seen the same symbols adorning the clothing of her human friends. Sunset began to wonder what deep connections ran between the two worlds if beings who had no need for cutie marks could be drawn to the same symbols.
It was then that she noticed her . A regal alicorn seated on the head throne, enjoying a morning cup of tea. Sunset let out an inward chuckle. Princess Celestia needed no excuse to have a cup of tea. At the moment, the solar princess seemed preoccupied with something else. That is, until Sunset made her presence known.
Princess Celestia quickly shot up at the sound of her former student's voice. She looked at the unicorn before her in almost disbelief. “Could it really be...” she wondered. So many times before, she had seen what she thought to be her beloved little pony. Each time, though it only proved to be a figment of her imagination. When Sunset gave proof of herself to not be an apparition, Celestia jumped up, not giving Sunset any time to react, and fast pulled her into a tight embrace.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the pure emotion of the situation, but Sunset lost herself into her former teacher. “I'm sorry” she tried to get out. However, whenever she opened her mouth, no words came out. She pressed in and nuzzled the soft white fur, weeping all the while. Little did she realize that Celestia was doing the same.
“Oh, my little pony,” Celestia whispered, “I'm so happy to see you again. Welcome home.”
Sunset grit her teeth. Celestia's words of kindness only added to the ache in her heart, bringing more tears to the surface. “Dammit” she hissed, “Why do you always have to be so nice?” She felt the hold get tighter and Sunset released a new wave of sobs.
Student and teacher stood in their embrace for some time, each comforting the other. When they had worn themselves out, Celestia gently broke them apart. She wiped the last tears from her eyes and Sunset's. “Now then,” she sniffed, “Let me take a good look at you.”
Sunset obliged, making a slow walk in a circle, allowing the princess to view her from every angle.
“Remarkable” said the princess, “You look almost like you did when you left. It's like you've barely aged.”
“Well,” chuckled the student, “not like you'd expect much change in five years.”
Celestia paused and gave Sunset a curious look. “Five?”
“Yeah, that's about as long as I've been in the mirror.” Sunset saw the princess hesitate. It filled her with an uneasy feeling. In her experience, it was never a good thing when the princess hesitated.
“Sunset,” Celestia said, slowly. She looked at her former student with grave concern. “it's been a lot more than five years.”
Sunset's eyes widened. “W-what?”
“You've been away for seventeen years.”
The unicorn took a step back. A ton of bricks may just as well have fallen on her. “Sev-” she stammered, “seven...teen?”
Celestia only gave a gentle nod.
“H-how is that possible?” Sunset yelled. She didn't mean to, but, at the moment, she put more importance on the problems of processing this new information than to focus on her volume. “I-I have documentation; proof! T-that I've only been over there for five years.” She felt her head become light, but her bones felt heavy. Her sight blurred. “S-seventeen y-yea—”
Celestia reached out a hoof her her distressed student. “Sunset? Sunset, are you alright?”
Sunset didn't respond. All she could focus on was the time that was suddenly missing. Suddenly, her magical mystery became much more problematic than she anticipated. She fell to her knees on the stone floor. Her head swimming; her vision fading. The last she heard before passing out was Celestia's panicked scream.
“SUNSET!”
Sunset awoke on a soft surface, a heavy blanket draped over her. She opened her eyes and raised slightly, her head still spinning. She heard something fall next to her, but didn't bother to see what it was. Looking around, she surmised that she was in one of the guest bedrooms. The curtains were drawn, but she could see daylight peeking through and around them. She let out a groan and fell back onto the pillow.
“Sunset?”
Sunset heard the sound of gentle movement as Celestia made her way to the bed.
“Sunset?”
Sunset let out a moan.
The princess let out a sigh of relief. “Good, you're awake. You had us worried. How's your head? You hit it pretty hard on the floor.”
Another groan.
Sunset felt a cold compress placed upon head. It made her aware of the slight bump on her head, and the pain she was apparently in.
“There,” smiled Celestia, “feel a little better?”
Sunset gave a silent nod. “What happened? How long have I been out?”
“Only an hour. As to what happened: that's not exactly clear. What's the last thing you remember?”
Sunset sat up, holding a hoof to the ice pack to keep it in place. “Freaking out. You told me that seventeen years had passed since I entered the portal.” She looked to her former teacher for confirmation. Celestia adverted her eyes, but Sunset received her answer. “Well then...” she let her ice pack fall.
“Look,” Celestia said, softly, “I understand this is quite a bit to take in—”
“Understatement.”
“Of course. However, both Twilight, Starlight, and I are here to help you—”
“Help me? I came here to help you. When Twilight told me that you had gone through a year in the same time I had gone through a few months, I...I didn't know what to think...”
“Yes, it is a bit of a conundrum how two parallel worlds can go through time at different rates.”
Sunset's eyes grew wide. “Wait...you knew?”
The great alicorn closed her eyes and bowed her head as if in shame. “I'm sorry, Sunset. I've known for some time. So have Twilight and Starlight.”
Sunset almost jumped out of bed. “Since when?” she exclaimed.
“For about two years, our time. Twilight first noticed it on one of her visits to you. She was shocked when she returned that about a week had passed here when she was in your world for only a few days.
“Later, when Starlight was over, while she claims to have been with you for only four days, she was gone from here for twelve.
“Perhaps the most telling is in the form of your journal and how you've recorded the events of less than a year of your life over the course of almost two years ours.”
“So?” Sunset leaned forward, “How do we fix it?”
“We don't.”
The unicorn growled. “What?”
“Control yourself, Sunset Shimmer.” her voice stern, “Twilight and Starlight did their due diligence and researched the matter. Our world and that world have always had different time rates. Starswirl noticed it himself when he created the portal. Though, he never bothered writing it down...”
“Then, how do you know—”
“Long story” Celestia said, simply.
“Well, it would have been nice if he did give anyone traveling through a heads up!” Sunset yelled, “If he were still around, I'd give him a firm...” She let out a grunt and smashed her fore-hooves together.
“You may just have that opportunity.”
“What?”
“Long story. Point is, you have been experiencing some sort of temporal anomaly.”
Sunset looked down. Suddenly, her physics lessons from CHS returned to her. “Time dilation. Einstein's theory of relativity.”
Celestia tilted her head. “I'm sorry?”
“Scientific theory from the other world. Two observers experience time differently based on their situations. Generally attributed to the effect of gravity on each of the observers. Most often applied in the case of space travel.”
“Doesn't everyone travel in space? You can't move through solids.”
“Outer space” Sunset clarified. “Leaving the earth, traveling among the stars.”
“People do that?”
“Only a select few, but it's a dream for most.”
“So, this theory of relativity...”
Sunset took in a deep breath. She found it amusing that the student was about to school the teacher. “Basically, it infers that two people—er, ponies—of the same age will experience time and age at different rates based upon their situation. If one leaves and travels in space, she will experience time and age at a slower rate than the one who stays behind.”
“How does gravity play into this?”
“There's no gravity in space. However, in our case, there must be some sort of gravitational difference between the two worlds to allow for such a time difference.
“Have you any calculations on how much of a time differential we're talking about here?”
“Best as we can figure, you've been experiencing time at one-third the rate we have.”
Sunset perked her ears. “Wow...”
“Indeed.”
Sunset slumped back down onto the bed. She tried to comprehend the wave of emotions washing over her. Everything seemed to want to hit her at once: anger, relief, confusion, sorrow, serenity. “How...” she began softly, “What do I do now?”
“What do you mean?”
Sunset laid a foreleg over her eyes. “I can't really just simply come back here, now can I? Seventeen years! How much has changed? How much of what I knew, who I knew, is still exists?
“Granted, there have been people incarcerated for a much longer time, but, still, I've pretty much served a long-term prison sentence...”
“Sunset,” Celestia snapped, “try to get a hold of yourself. Yes, your time away from here has been substantial. However, what you choose to do next is solely up to you. But, whatever you decide, know that you have those here, and there, who can, and will, help you.
“Besides,” her body relaxed, “seventeen years is nothing compared to another group of ponies I know.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Long story?”
Celestia smiled. “If you've got the time.”