The Best She Can, or, The Rising of a New Dawn

Chapters

Learning the Ugly Truth
The Hospital and further revelations
Learning the Ugly Truth Version 2.0
Past and Present
New Friends and Enemies
The End of a Decade
Healing Rifts
Into The Mind

Learning the Ugly Truth

"Remember, my faithful student, friendship is magic" Sunset said with vitriol in her voice. "As if there's any pony around here except for Celestia that I would actually try to make friends with. After all, all of the other ponies in this city were content to let me starve out on the streets, and all of the servants in this castle act as though I'm beneath them!" Sunset said, as she passed the throne room. She would have kept mumbling about the unfairness of it all as she made her way back to her quarters, but as she passed the throne room, she heard Celestia talking to herself.

Upon hearing this, Sunset immediately felt tears coming to her eyes, but stifled her sobs, wanting to learn why her mother was saying this.

"After all, if she can reawaken the Elements of Harmony like I think she can, then my little sister will be returned to me! Everything will work out in the end!" Celestia said, before continuing with "I'll have Luna back, and Sunset will be on the path to becoming an Alicorn!"

Sunset, however, did not hear that last part, having long since galloped down the hall to the room where the mirror that showed her as a powerful Alicorn was, crying tears of sadness and rage all the way there over Celestia's apparent betrayal. "So that's why she rescued me" Sunset said, bitterly. "It was never to give me a better life, but instead it was to make sure that I felt indebted to her so that I would do whatever she said! Well she can find another patsy to use in her plans! As soon as I figure out this mirror's secrets I'll have everything I need right..."

Sunset never got the chance to finish her sentence, as suddenly she felt an explosion of magical energy rocket through her body, sending her to the floor.

"What...what was that?" Sunset asked, as she stood back up. "Well, I wanted to know the mirror's secrets, didn't I?" She said, as she quickly anchored a teleportation spell onto the source of the magical energy.

Upon arriving at the location that she had anchored her teleportation spell to, the first thing that she saw was the devastation. In front of her was what used to be an extremely impressive manor, if the parts of the building that were still standing were any indication, at least. Upon seeing the devastation, her good nature won out, and she immediately ran into the wreckage looking for survivors, despite being sure that she would find none.

'If this is what that mirror does, Celestia's worse than what I thought...' Sunset thought to herself, appalled at all of the destruction surrounding her. She eventually came to the only corpse in the entire building, which was that of a young unicorn colt. Oddly, Sunset couldn't see any burns on his body, which she figured meant that he died from smoke inhalation.

"I'm so, so sorry, little one." Sunset said, with tears streaming down her face. "I should have never went near that mirror" she said, as she began to turn around to leave.

All of a sudden, she saw the colt's chest rise and fall as though he was breathing. She immediately turned back to the colt and watched him very carefully. The colt slowly began to open his eyes, and when she saw this she immediately went to his side to begin a side-by-side teleport.

As she did so, the colt looked at her with wide eyes and asked the question that would forever change her life "Mommy?"

Author's Note

Suggested music for this story (note that I said suggested and not recommended. I cannot stress that enough.)

I've always felt that Sunset's reason for leaving in canon was a bit...stupid. That, along with the fan theory that she was an orphan prior to Celestia taking her in, and the fact that Celestia was trying to get her to believe that Friendship is Magic, even though if the fan theory about Sunset being an orphan prior to Celestia taking her in is correct than the ponies that had been in Canterlot during Sunset's lifetime would have been willing to let her starve to death on the streets. Add to that a mysterious colt who's powers work like Raven's, and Sunset hearing Celestia talking about the Elements of Harmony and being able to feel magical disturbances, and we've got a story!

The Hospital and further revelations

Upon arriving at the hospital, Sunset immediately walked up to the front desk, knowing that her face alone commanded respect as she was the Princess's personal student, which should help with getting an emergency room right away for the colt that she had found.

"Hello, Miss?" She said, getting the attention of the hospital receptionist.

"Well if it isn't Sunset Shimmer" the receptionist said in a very dry tone. "What brings you to the hospital today, Miss Shimmer? Did you burn yourself again?" The receptionist asked, weary.

"Not this time around I'm afraid." Sunset said with an impatient tone. 'Honestly to hear this mare talk about it you'd think that I get burned once every week or something! Of course, seeing as how I'm the only Pyromancer in living memory that isn't Princess Celestia, it's more like once every three days, but there's a colt's life at stake here!" She ended up shouting in frustration. She immediately began to try to apologize for shouting in the hospital, as she had been told that if she did so again, she'd be kicked out as her shouting wasn't conducive to the other patients recoveries, but was cut off by the receptionist.

"Colt? What co..." the receptionist started to ask before looking over her desk and seeing the barely breathing colt on the floor next to Sunset Shimmer. "We have a Code Blue at the Admissions Desk! Repeat! We have a Code Blue at the Admissions Desk!" The receptionist said into the communication device that was at her desk.

"I'm not going to insult either of our intelligences by asking if you are responsible for the colt's current condition, Sunset..." the receptionist started to say before being interrupted by Sunset Shimmer.

"What?! Of course I'm not responsible for his current condition!" Sunset said, angrily. "One second I'm looking at a secret mirror in the castle and the next I'm anchoring a teleport onto a magical disturbance and I wind up outside of the wreckage of what appeared to be his completely destroyed home!"

"Our unicorn doctors felt the same disturbance, but they just waved it off as something that you did again, Sunset, hence why I said that I wasn't going to insult either of our intelligences by asking if you are responsible for his current condition." The receptionist said, placating Sunset for the moment. "Now, how long has he been breathing like that?" She asked, letting a hint of worry show on her face so that Sunset would understand the importance of the question.

"For about as long as I've known him, which would be since I saved him from the destroyed wreckage of what appeared to be his completely destroyed home. The only time that he has ever breathed normally that I know of is the time that he woke up for a few seconds when I was moving next to him to get ready for a side-by-side teleport and asked for his mother." Sunset said, with worry in her tone.

"Well, our unicorn doctors only felt the disturbance around fifteenminutes ago, so there shouldn't be any significant damage..." the receptionist said, before continuing with "especially if he woke up and asked for his mother. That shows that he at least has a good chance of surviving this with his memory intact. He did ask for his mother, right?" The receptionist asked, wanting to make certain that Sunset wasn't misinterpreting what had happened.

"Well, actually, he kinda looked up at me and asked 'mommy?'" Sunset said, sheepishly. "Either he was asking if I was his mother, or he was asking for her. And considering my own experienceswith family, I'm really hoping that it's the second option there."

"You might not have a choice with how long he's been breathing like that, you know." The receptionist said, serious. "With the amountof time that his brain hasbeen without oxygen, as well as his apparent age, he could have imprinted on you."

'Those med school courses I took back in the third century have really paid off!' Celestia thought to herself, before turning her disguises attention back to her daughter, who she had been afraid had entered the magical portal by accident after Celestia had looked all aroundthe palace for her after being told by one of the palace staff that the "street urchin" had been seen running to the room where the mirror was kept with tears streaming down her face.

It had taken Celestia a few minutes to figure out who the staff pony had been talking about, but when she did, she immediately went into the stallion's mind not caring about any pain that she might have been causing the pony, in order to find out how many of the palace staff had the same opinion of her daughter.

What she found shocked her. Apparently almost all of the palace staff considered her daughter to be beneath them or unworthy of their time, and the palace staff that didn't think this way had apparently all made a mass exodus for the midnight shift when they wouldn't have to see Sunset being constantly belittled by the other staff. It wasn't until Sunset had already left that Celestia realized that Sunset had been talking about going back to the destroyed house where she had found the colt to see if she could find any more survivors among the wreckage. 'That's my girl.' She thought with a small smile on her face. 'Now...what was that magical disturbance earlier, if it wasn't Sunset going through the portal then?' She thought to herself.

Sunset Shimmer's P.O.V, a few minutes earlier

"...imprinted on you."

As soon as she heard about this possibility, Sunset knew that she had to make sure that the colt's actual mother was with him when he woke up for good and that she was nowhere to be seen during their reunion. "All the more reason for me to go back to the destroyed house to look for other survivors, then!" Sunset said, as she began to teleport back to her previous location. "Wish me luck! With how badly damaged that house was, I'm going to need all the luck I can get." She said, as the spell finished forming.

Upon arriving at the house, Sunset immediately saw two Earth Ponies standing outside of the wreckage talking to each other with angry looks on their faces. She immediately began to walk up to them to ask if that had been their house and to let them know that their son was alright, but as she got closer, she began to hear what they were saying to each other.

"I knew that we shouldn't have taken that street urchin in!" The stallion said to his wife, angrily.

"But I heard a rumor that Celestia did it, and the quickest way to climb up the social network around here is to emulate the Princess!" The wife argued back.

"Well look what happened! We left for all of a few days, and when we come back, our house is completely destroyed and he's nowhere to be seen!" The stallion said to his wife, clearly blaming the colt for what had happened to the house.

"Don't worry about it dear! It's not like we don't have the place insured against unicorns, after all!" The wife reminded her husband.

At this point Sunset immediately changed her mind about what had happened that morning with the mirror and the magical disturbance. After hearing what those two Earth Ponies thought about their adoptive son, she immediately reversed her decision on what the fact that Celestia had an artifact like that meant.

'So...she's not complete horse dung...' Sunset thought to herself, 'She's just blinded by grief about what happened to her sister. After all, if there had never been a magical disturbance this morning...' Sunset shuddered as she thought of what the colt's life would have been like, as she began to teleport back to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the receptionist immediately spoke to her, saying "Celestia's looking for you, you know."

"Celestia can wait." Sunset said, with worry in her tone. "Now, how's the colt doing?"

"So you found the corpses of his parents, then?" The receptionist countered.

Sunset told the receptionist that, while the parents were still alive and well, they wouldn't be getting the colt back, and then proceeded to tell her about what she had heard the parents saying.

After Sunset got done telling the receptionist about what she had heard from the parents, the receptionist had the same look on her face as Celestia did whenever she had to deal with particularly obnoxious nobles in Day Court. "Tell me, Sunset, where exactly are these lovely ponies?" She asked in a sugary sweet tone that sent chills down Sunset's spine.

"M...Mom?" Sunset asked, stammering as she had never before seen her mother so angry before. "Exa...Exactly how long have you been impersonating the receptionists at this hospital, and w...why have you been impersonating the receptionists at this hospital?" Sunset asked, trying desperately to regain some of her composure.

Upon seeing what her barely contained rage had done to her normally sure and confident daughter, Celestia immediately dropped the illusion around herself and broke down crying, something that caught Sunset completely off guard. "I'm sorry, my little ray of sunshine! I didn't know that the staff were treating you like that! I never meant to make you feel like you were just a means to an end!" Celestia said, as tears streamed down her face.

"Could we take care of family business in private, please?" Sunset said, strained. "I've come to realize that what happened this morning was necessary, but we can't be seen acting like this out in public!" Sunset said, pleading with Celestia to stop carrying on the way that she was.

"You're right, of course." Celestia said, sniffling. "Boy qm I glad that I've had to attend countless meetings over the past millennia." She said, calmly. "The practice at hiding behind a mask really comes in handy when I realize that I've screwed up. Sorry about that. It's just that when I saw that you were actually scared of me, well...all of the day's stress just hitme all at once and then some."

"Sorry, mom." Sunset said, apologetically. "It's just that I've never seen you that angry before."

"I thought that I was hiding my fury rather well though!" Celestia said, in dismay. "What gave it away?"

"The tone that you said the phrase, 'lovely ponies' in, actually. But that's besides the point. Why are you so angry? I know that it isn't just because of what they were saying, because last week a noble in day court demanded permission to 'bed me' and you just laughed at him as you said, and I quote, 'go ahead and try!' Of course, it was rather fun to have a moving, thinking target that you were...oh. That's why you said that, isn't it?"

"I'm sure that I have no idea what you're insinuating, my little ray of sunshine, but, if I did I would be fervently agreeing with your astute deduction." Celestia said with a wink.

"Right, the old 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil' strategy. Got it." Sunset said with a smile. "But back to my question. Why were you so angry? Even if they just did it because you did it, which I agree is wrong, you sounded ready to go against the highest law in the land and kill them over it! While what they did was wrong, it certainly doesn't deserve that!"

"Right." Celestia said with a tone realization. "You were gone for that, weren't you? Have I mentioned how proud I am to be able to call you my daughter recently, Sunset?" Celestia said, trying to distract her from what she had accidentally said out loud.

"Gone for what, mom?" Sunset asked, not taking the bait.

"I mean, not only are your studies coming along well, but you proved that you are selfless in ways that I haven't seen from my ponies in a long time!" Celestia continued, hoping to distract her.

"Mom, what exactly was I gone for? Is something wrong with my son?" Sunset asked, hoping to distract her mother from distracting her.

"Wait...your son?" Celestia asked, shocked.

"Well, you did say that it was possible that he had imprinted on me, right, mom?" Sunset asked, smiling up at her mother. "And you did want me to make friends, right? And I'm pretty sure that neither of us want him going back to his old family, or, at the very least, I know that I don't want him going back to his old family, if the most important thing about the situation they're currently in to them is the fact that their house is destroyed, do you?"

At this, Celestia immediately had to try very hard to remember that Sunset had no idea what she was implying by asking that question. She opened her mouth to respond, thought better of it, performed a mental calming exercise, and then opened her mouth again. "You have no idea what you're playing with, daughter. What's happened to your son is beyond your scope of comprehension. That's why I can't tell you about it. If I did, you wouldn't even begin to comprehend what I was saying." Celestia said, deadly serious.

"I'm sorry, mom." Sunset said, worried that she had pushed too far. "I'm just worried for my son's health"

"I know, Sunset. Trust me, I know all too well how it feels to not know how your loved ones are doing." Celestia said, sadly. "Just trust me when I say that between the two of us we should be able to help him."

Author's Note

I've got more planned out, as well as an alternative version of this story, but I want to wait and see the reaction to what I've put up so far.

Learning the Ugly Truth Version 2.0

Author's Note

Time for me to have a bit of fun with this. Anywho, I'm not entirely sure who said the following quote, but I want to say that it was Lex Luthor: "There exists a countless number of universes. Some darkerthan our own."
It is now time for me to put this story up the way that I had originally planned to!

Strap yourselves in folks, this is going to be a bumpy ride!

Which apparently won't be quite as bumpy as I thought it would be:

As before, this is the recommended music to listen to while reading this story:

what

That was NOT the original Chapter One, I'll have you know. I just can't seem to find the original Chapter One. Oh well. Chapter's Two and Three will more than make up for it.
There are apparently random letters in this author's notes that I didn't put there. Please ignore the y under the Joker clip and the what under the Miracle of Sound song, if they show up on your computer screen while you are reading the author's notes for this chapter.

Learning the Ugly Truth Version 2.0

"Why can't she quit being so stubborn and just do what she's told?" Celestia complained to herself, unaware of the fact that her student was listening in on what she was saying. "Who cares if the ponies here were willing to let her starve?" She continued.
Upon hearing this, Sunset immediately felt tears coming to her eyes, but stifled her sobs, wanting to learn why her mother was saying this.

Upon arriving at the location that she had anchored her teleportation spell to, the first thing that she saw was the devastation. In front of her was what used to be an extremely impressive manor, if the parts of the building that were still standing were any indication, at least. Upon seeing the devastation, her good nature won out, and she immediately ran into the wreckage looking for survivors, despite being sure that she would find none.

"I'm so, so sorry, little one." Sunset said, with tears streaming down her face. "I should have never went near that mirror" she said, as she began to turn around to leave.

As she did so, the colt looked at her with wide eyes and asked the question that would forever change her life "Mommy?"

Past and Present

Author's Note

Here's the original chapter two of the story! Don't worry if it doesn't make much sense, I wrote it where the majority of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings were painted. Or, at the very least, in an environment very similar to the place where Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings were painted. Next Chapter we run into Purple Smart the Bitchy Unicorn! (That's totally how Sunset's going to refer to her after next chapter to!)

Past and Present

Years Later

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‘It’s today’ Sunset thinks to herself, looking at her personal copy of Predictions and Prophecies that she had borrowed from the Palace Library, after making sure to remove the tracking spells on it. ‘I hadn’t wanted to drag him into this at his age…’ she thinks, looking at her son. It was five years after that night, and the event that she had thought was a fluke at the time had actually been a warning as to what her son’s cutie mark was going to be. She still wondered what had happened in his life to make his magic decide that turning him into a living bomb was a good idea. Needless to say, he didn’t have any problems on the power front. Thankfully, she had been around when his magic had first decided to do that and had rushed him to the closest hospital that was able to treat injuries like the ones he had, Celestia and her machinations be damned.

Years Prior

What the doctors told her when she got to the hospital made no sense. At the time, they had said that his pulse was racing, but that his heartbeat was too slow for what his pulse was, and that he was feverish but that he was going into hypothermic shock, and that his insides were a mess. Later she paid for it to be discussed with the greatest magical minds in Equestria, lying through her teeth and saying that the Princess was good for it, knowing that she was going to have to lie low for a while after this, and it was found that his magic had flared due to unknown stresses. They asked her if she might know anything about this, to which she lied again, and told them that she didn’t. Of course, she did, but she wasn’t about to tell them that she had been cornered by five Royal Guards that had apparently been wearing mythril armor that had probably been sent by Celestia to drag her back so that Celestia could use her as a pawn to fix Celestia’s own mess and get her sister back. Nor was she about to tell them that her adoptive son’s own magic field had been far more convincing to her than anything those guards had said until she had seen the state that he was in when he collapsed, as the field had felt just like Celestia’s on a warm spring day. How his magic ended up affecting the guards through their mythril armor, Sunset would never know, but they all suddenly passed out as if from heat exhaustion.

Present Time

That had been the day that she had learned that he could somewhat direct who got affected by the blast, and while she had grateful towards him for his timely actions, it had proved three things: the colt was extremely defensive of her, which she supposed was to be expected, after all, hadn’t she, in her own way, been extremely protective of her ‘mommy’ at his age, at least, until she had stumbled on Celestia’s plot to use her to clean up Celestia’s own messes, that is; and that Sunset desperately needed to teach adoptive son, Inner Light, some other forms of Pyromancy based magic, not just because that was what her cutie mark was in, and so that was what it was going to be easiest for her to teach him, though that certainly helped the decision, but because his own magic seemed to be leaning towards Pyromancy as well; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, there was the fact that being wrapped in that facsimile of Celestia’s magic had made her want to take her innocent son and go running back to Celestia begging to be taken back, regardless of the fact that she would get used. She pitied the next foal to attract Celestia’s ‘benevolent’ attention. Luckily, Inner Light had taken to Pyromancy like a fish to water, Sunset later reflected.

“Hey kiddo, remember that trip to Ponyvillle we were talking about taking?” Sunset asked, hating every word.

“Sure I do, mommy!” Inner Light replied, enthusiastically. “Wait, is it today? Is that why you’re asking?” He continued, excitedly.

“Yeah” Sunset replied, morosely. “Today’s the day.” She had been dreading this day ever since she had unwittingly gained a son all those years ago, especially as their first and most important rule, which was ‘no using your main magical spell except for when I’m there to get you to a hospital’ seemed to go out the window whenever it looked like she might get hurt if he didn’t.

“Well, what are we waiting for, mommy?” Inner Light said, with all of the exuberance a small child is capable of mustering. “I wanna go explore a spooky forest and fight manticores and…”

“No!” Sunset said, cutting him off. “Under no circumstances are you to engage the wildlife!”

“Yes mommy.” Inner Light said, having heard Sunset’s “I will not be argued with” voice several times before. He knew enough to know that she only used it to keep him from ending up in the white room where needles poked into him.

“All right. So, when we get there, what are you looking for?” Sunset asked, as she and her son set off to the train station.

New Friends and Enemies

As Inner Light was looking for the library in Ponyville, he saw a purple unicorn walking towards his destination with a dragon on her back. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to make a new friend, he trotted up to the unicorn with a smile on his face, and said “Hi there!”

Meanwhile, Twilight had had enough of the ponies in this town wasting her time trying to make friends with her. Didn’t it matter to any of them that she was trying to avert disaster? Of course not, all that mattered to them was friendship. Ugh, give her a break. Suddenly, she heard yet another annoying voice saying “Hi there!” from behind her. Maybe if she kept walking, they’d think that she hadn’t heard them? No such luck, as the voice continued.

“My name is Inner Light, and I just moved here today with my mommy! What’s your name?” He asked, politely.

By now, Twilight had had enough with all of the ponies in this town trying to make friends with her, so instead of stopping for the colt, she continued with her plan of pretending that she hadn’t heard him, and just continued on her way to check on the music preparations, muttering something that sounded like “mumble ponies mumble town royal business mumble mumble,” to Inner Light, who took this as a cue to get out of there and go warn his mommy that another pony might be there to harass them.

Twilight had taken a few steps when she quickly whipped around as she heard a familiar sound emanate from behind her. ‘Wha…but I thought that I was the only unicorn that was strong enough to know how to teleport!’ she thought to herself, frowning, before she smirked to herself and thought, ‘oh well, I’ll just piggyback a teleport onto his teleport and…wait…that magical signature he’s heading towards…it CAN’T be…not the legendary lost unicorn battle mage Sunset Shimmer!’

Meanwhile, back at the Golden Oaks Library

‘Well, it appears that I was right in where the elements have been kept all this time’ Sunset thought, closing the book that she was holding in her hooves. ‘Now hopefully the spark is a spark of fire like I thought, or, failing that, the trap that I laid out for Her Majesty, Nightmare Moon, will be good enough to stop her in her tracks.’

All of a sudden, Sunset felt her son’s familiar magical signature trying to teleport into the library. She quickly lowered the barriers, allowing her son’s teleport through, and raised them back up as soon as she felt the reason that her son didn’t just walk to the library like she had expected him to. Apparently, one of the royal guards must’ve tracked them to Ponyville or something, because she felt another pony trying to piggy back a teleport on her son’s. ‘that was a close one’ she thought to herself.

Outwardly, she thought, ‘uh-uh,’ she thought, disapproving. ‘Don’t you know it’s considered rude to stalk somepony’s son?’ At first she was shocked when she actually heard a response, but that shock quickly turned to anger when she heard what the response was.

‘Stalk someone’s son? That’s rich considering you probably killed that poor colt’s parents and brainwashed him into calling you mommy!’ Twilight responded, having been told about Sunset Shimmer by Celestia.

When Sunset responded, it was all she could do to not leave the other pony a vegetable. ‘HOW DARE YOU! IF IT WEREN’T FOR ME, MY SON WOULD BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!’ as it was though, the other pony had given Sunset something to think about. Why had he called her his mommy all those years ago? Surely he had already had parents, and for that matter, what had happened to his parents? Knowing what she did of his cutie mark magic, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, but she at least had to try. So, after finishing her mental deconstruction of that unicorn’s last ten minutes in order to make sure it didn’t remember encountering her, or her son, and then she turned to her son.

“Hey sparkie?” she said, with a serious tone in her voice, despite the playful name she had used.

“Yes mommy?” Inner Light asked, worried about the look in her eyes. It was a look that generally meant that something really scary was about to happen.

“What happened to your actual parents?” Sunset asked, gently.

“You are my actual parents, mommy!” Inner Light said, protesting, and tearing up. Did this question mean that his mommy didn’t want to be his mommy anymore?
“Hey, it’s all right…don’t cry, mommy’s here.” Sunset said, as she wrapped her son into a hug upon seeing his reaction to the question, and remembering her own reaction to a very similar question from…”I was just curious is all.” She continued. “Say, you didn’t happen to pass a mean unicorn on the way here, did you?"

“Boy did I ever!” Inner Light said, perking up as his fears were assuaged by this confirmation that yes, his mommy did, in fact, want to be his mommy. “It was just after I got the five Elements of Harmony! I tried talking to her, but all she said was something about how she had royal business to do!” Inner Light said. “So do you think that this is the one mommy, huh, do you?” He asked, hoping it was just another royal guard that been sent out on a patrol mission.

“Well, since she couldn’t find me again, I’d say that yes, this is her new student.” Sunset said, musing.

Her son noticed the downcast expression on her face and thought that it was his fault and that he had done something wrong with finding only five of the six elements. As such, he adopted a similar expression as he said, “I’m sorry that I was only able to find five of the elements, mommy” he said, looking down.

Sunset stopped her musing, realizing that the expression on her face could be misconstrued as disappointment, trotted over to her son, and wrapped him in a hug. She smiled as he immediately returned the hug, and reassured him that she wasn’t disappointed with him, saying “ssh…it’s all right sparkie,” she said, as she ruffled his mane. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

All of a sudden, a gasp was heard emanating from the entrance of the library, and Inner Light immediately buried himself further into the hold, whimpering. Sunset wasn’t entirely sure what was up with this, as she had seen her son go up against Royal Guards to keep her safe, but she DID know what had preceded the action, and with this knowledge in mind, she looked toward where the sound had come from, and saw an Earth pony standing in the doorway, leading her to think that her son had had a bad experience with an Earth Pony at some point in the past.

Scowling, she said “what do you want?” as she figured that that was the safest question to ask the mysterious pony that had somehow broke all of her barriers that had been set up around the library. She had learned over the years that if you acted as though you belonged somewhere, ponies wouldn’t question it either.

“That was just SO cute!” The pink pony squealed, before saying “Um…is there anything I can do to help, by the way?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Don’t you think that you’ve done enough?” Sunset said angrily, before remembering that a bigger threat was on its way. “Actually…” she began, in an apologetic manner “Now that I think about it, there is something that you can do to make up for scaring my son half to death like that…”

“Wait, you two are…” Pinkie began, before being interrupted.

“Do you want to hear about how you can help, or, do you want to hear the story about how I adopted my son, something which you’ll no doubt hear about later if you help me out now?” Sunset said, injecting equal parts impatience and urgency in her voice.

“Ooh! I wanna help! I wanna help! What do you want me to do?” Pinkie asked, excited, as it seemed as though she would get a new friend from this which was something that she absolutely loved to do.

“There’s a unicorn coming here that’s not me or my son, obviously.” Sunset said, not trusting the pink pony’s common sense to pick up on that. “I need you to distract her so that I can get my son and myself away from here and somewhere safe from her. Can I count on you?” She asked, with a pleading tone. Truthfully, she could just let her son know what the purple unicorn had said about her, but that would be too close to her original motivations for following that magical surge all those years ago.

Sunset unfortunately was unable to get her son to tell her what that had been about in the library, but she had respected his wishes up to a point. They were, after all, on a mission to free an alicorn that could just go into his mind and see what was wrong there. She did feel bad about her plans, but she knew that what she was doing was for her son’s own good.

‘I wonder if that’s what Celestia thought…’ whispered a treacherous part of her own mind, before she justified her actions with, ‘Celestia wanted to use me to clean up her own messes. All I want to do is see what’s wrong with my son, so I’m pretty sure that there’s a big difference there!’ she thought, effectively shutting down those thoughts.

Author's Note

In this chapter we get to see Twilight Sparkle and how deep Celestia's machinations run in this parallel universe! Next it's the Summer Sun Celebration, with a twist!

The End of a Decade

“Wow mommy, look at all these ponies.” Inner Light said, this being his first time seeing a crowd this size. “What do you think is going to happen to them?”

“Hopefully nothing, though that is a good question, son.” Sunset said, unwilling to share what she had learned about Nightmare Moon’s plan with her son. ‘I didn't want to drag him into this before I knew that the entire world was depending on us being able to stop an all-powerful Goddess, and I definitely don't want him knowing what's at stake now that I do know.' That wasn't even taking into account the fact that this was a rather large crowd, and chances were they were going to panic when it wasn’t Princess Celestia that appeared up there, and when that happened, a mob would more than likely form.

When Nightmare Moon appeared up there and demanded to know if anypony remembered her, Inner Light stepped up and told her that he did before Twilight or Sunset had a chance to.

“Ooh I know!” Inner Light said, with all the excitement that a young child is capable of mustering. “You’re Princess Luna, better known as Nightmare Moon!”

While Sunset Shimmer was proud of her son for remembering what they had studied, she was a bit upset that he had set off the trap prematurely. Sure, it still did a lot of damage, but when Nightmare Moon looked right at Inner Light and said “My, but you are an impertinent one, aren’t you?” Sunset Shimmer knew by the deadly tone in Nightmare Moon’s voice, that her son wouldn’t have long for the world if she didn’t do something. So, she did. With all of her considerable magical strength, she sent a barrage of fireballs headed towards Nightmare Moon’s face, each impacting a second after the last. “Leave my son alone, you monster!” She shouted, as she prepared a humongous fireball.

Suddenly, she felt herself be transported a vast distance and came face to face with the last face she had ever wanted to see again. “Celestia.” She spat out, as she began to choke.

Back on Equestria

Inner Light couldn’t believe it his eyes. Mommy had told him that this pony was once a good pony, and that she was just misunderstood, yet, the pony had just killed mommy. He could feel the magic building up like it had so many times before, but before he released it this time he turned to the only other pony that was left in the building, which was the purple unicorn he had passed earlier, and said “good-bye meanie unicorn pony” before he used his telekinesis on her to shove her outside before turning back to Nightmare Moon who was still disoriented.

“This is for my MOMMY!” He said, as he turned his body into a living magical bomb. Nightmare Moon saw this and realized what was happening, but because of what Sunset Shimmer had done to her, she was still too out of it to turn into mist and escape the almost certain death headed her direction from this small colt. With her few remaining moments, she was curious as to what allowed the colt so much magical strength and so she dived into his mind. It was the worst mistake of her life, and, conversely, the best decision she had ever made.

Author's Note

I've noticed something about my writing style. I tend to focus more on the action/dialogue of the scene than any scenery, or anything else, really. If anyone reading this would be interested, help in focusing on areas other than the action/dialogue would be greatly appreciated.

Healing Rifts

Months later, Canterlot Castle

Inner Light woke up to the sounds of an intense debate.

“No. I won’t. I’ll be keeping him here, so I can keep an eye on his power level. He nearly killed Luna and Twilight, Sunset.” Said a voice that he didn’t know. He also didn’t know what a power level was, or who Twilight was, but he did know who Luna and Sunset were.

“Yes. You will. That’s just it, Celestia. Thanks to my training, not to mention my assistance these past few months, he only almost killed Princess Luna and Twilight. Trust me, I don’t want Princess Luna dead any more than you do. After all, there’s something seriously wrong with my son’s mental state, and when she’s regained the ability to dream walk, I need to ask her what it is. I did find him with no memories, after all.”

“Mo…Mommy?” Inner Light said weakly from the operating table.

“Son!” Sunset said, moving to his side. “It’s all right son, I’m here.”

“I’m cold, mommy” Inner Light said, shivering.

Sunset glared at Celestia upon hearing this. “See, I told you he would be, but you were all like ‘no, let’s save the blankets for those who need them more like the immortal alicorn’” Sunset shouted, causing Inner Light to cringe at the loud noise.

“Nice going, daughter. Are you sure that you’re mature enough to have a foal of your own?” Celestia asked, chuckling maliciously, upon seeing a horror-stricken look on Sunset’s face as she realized the pain she had inadvertently caused her son.

“Wait, your mommy’s mommy?” Inner Light asked with a wide-eyed look on his face. “Then does that make you my grandmother?” Then a horrified look spread across his own face “and does that mean that I almost killed my other grandma? I’m so sorry mommy!” He said, tearing up.

Celestia felt something in her that she hadn’t felt since Luna became Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago – pure unadulterated love for something beyond that which one might feel for an exceptionally well-crafted tool.

“It’s all right, Inner Light. I’m sure that Sunset/Celestia wouldn’t be too horribly put out by your staying here/leaving and not coming back right daughter/mother?” Celestia and Sunset said at the same time.

“Aww…but I wanna stay here and get to know grandma and grandma, mommy!” Inner Light said, pleading with Sunset.

“While I can’t speak for Luna’s personality, you actually don’t want to get to know Celestia, trust me. I already know her, and wish that I didn’t.” Sunset said, casting a dirty look in Celestia's direction. “Besides, I made that pink pony a promise, and I always keep my promises, remember sparkie?” She said, smiling at her son.

In truth, she kept only those promises that it suited her to keep, and all others she let fall by the wayside. However, she had been trying to be a good role model for her son, so she had limited the amount of promises that she had made in front of him to things that she could ostensibly do later on.

“So you met Pinkie then?” Princess Celestia asked, as she realized that the moment was clearly over, and she didn't want to push the issue. “Great! I think that your plan of meeting with Luna and working through whatever’s wrong with your son is the best step then!” She said, smiling benevolently. 'And then Luna can tell me what's wrong with your son, and I can find a way to use that to my advantage in getting back intoyour good graces, dear daughter.' Celestia thought, already planning on how to get back into Sunset's life.

Author's Note

Well, hopefully that works out for you, Celestia. Because, to be fair, it's not your fault that I don't know how to proceed with the other path... :pinkiesad2:

Into The Mind

It had taken most of the rest of the day to explain her son’s dilemma to the pink pony and Princess Luna who had decided to show her gratitude to her and her son by going back to Ponyville with them, and Sunset had noticed something interesting with the pink pony as time went on. At first, her hair had been abnormally poofy, but after hearing about how Celestia had been using her as a weapon to get her sister back and had never actually loved her, her hair had gone abnormally straight, only to go back to being abnormally poofy when Sunset talked about how she had unofficially adopted her son, and saved him from his magical flares on several occasions.

At that point, she asked the two ponies about possibilities for why his magic could be turning him into a living bomb, and, furthermore, why he seemed able to control how those who got hit by it reacted. When she got questioning stares from them, she related the night in the alley all those years ago. When Pinkie’s eyes lit up and she dashed off, Sunset turned a serious gaze to Princess Luna. “

“So,” she began. “You’re the princess of the night and everything in the night, including dreams, right?”

“Verily?” Luna replied, questioningly.

“Good. Any second now…” Sunset said, trailing off as her adopted son came into the room.

“Mommy,” he said, slowly trotting up to her. “I couldn’t sleep. Is it alright if I sleep in here with you?” he asked, positioning himself at her feet and looking up at her.

“Sure, sparkie.” She said, having explained to both Princess Luna and Pinkie Pie that he had got that nickname after she saw how quickly he had taken to Pyromancy.

After saying this, she looked at Princess Luna and said, “This is the fourth time this week that he’s not been able to sleep without me physically being there. Granted, I enjoy these times, but even with me being here like this, I can tell that he’s under duress most of the time. So, if you’re…huh. That’s odd.”

“What troubles thou so, fair Sunset?” Princess Luna inquired.

“Usually he’s kicking by now. Oh well. Would you please…” Sunset began to ask, before being interrupted.

“Go into your son’s mind and try to find out what’s wrong with him?” Princess Luna finished for her.

“If that’s not too much trouble” Sunset said, hopefully.

What Princess Luna encountered in the colt’s mind was completely unexpected. It was a scene of idyllic happiness containing him, his adopted mother, herself, and her sister off in the distance. There was also a door with the words “No touching – This means you, LUNA, Seriously, this is my last act here, please don’t let it turn out like the moon thing AGAIN. Signed, N.M.” Curious, Luna turned the door invisible for a second.

What she saw behind the door shocked her, and she quickly undid the spell. Not quick enough, though, it appeared, as the dream figures surrounded the dream representation of the colt in a protective manner and were staring at her in an accusing manner. “She told you to leave well enough alone, Luna” said the dream representation of herself. “Just like she told you to make the ponies desire the night because of the dreams that they would have more than the day when they couldn’t dream. Have you learned nothing from getting yourself trapped up there for 1000 years?” her dream representation snarled at her “How about the way that decision has twisted Celestia into a manipulative shell of her former loving self, or robbed Inner Light’s mother…”

“This isn’t about my real self!” Sunset’s dream representation voice could be heard shouting. “She almost let the memories loose again out of curiosity! I Told Her What Those Did To My Son, And Then, When She Gets In Here, She Risks Letting Them Loose Because She’s Curious About Them!”

“P…Please stop fighting…” came the voice of Inner Light’s dream representation.

“We’re sorry sister, it’s just we went to so much trouble to commemorate her last act on Equestria before this colt’s heroic act saved not only my immortal self from being on the moon for a thousand years, but his mother from dying.”

“So was it also her that came up with the defenses for the door” Luna questioned, as the dream representation of her knew far too much to just be a figment of another pony’s imagination.

“No, that was all us.” The dream representation of herself said. “You see, when Nightmare Moon was blown apart, she was in the colt’s mind, so she left impressions about all of us in his mind.”

“And he naturally formed his own impressions of his wise, all-knowing mommy” At this, Sunset’s dream representation scoffed “something that my mortal self has lost count of the number of times she’s tried to dissuade him from thinking of her as such.”

“And, of course,” came the voice of Inner Light’s dream representation “mommy says that I am the most important thing in her life, but, mommy is the most important thing in my life, so we ordinarily share the responsibility of being the center of the circle, with grandma Celestia and you forming the outsides of the circle, and normally, we just have a picnic, and talk about the exciting adventures we had on our respective days! It’s what I like to think our days would be like, if mommy and grandma Celestia weren’t likely to attack one another.”

Author's Note

So, Celestia's plan's a flop. Unfortunately. Anyways, if anyone's interested in helping out with the other path, that would also be extremely appreciated.