As Sunset Shimmer walked alongside Princess Twilight Sparkle through the corridors of Canterlot Castle, she couldn't help but remember the last time she had walked these halls. Admittedly, part of her was very nervous about being here, but what she had told Twilight was true.
'I'll do anything to get my friends back.'
After she had returned through the Crystal Mirror in Twilight's castle in Ponyville and explained the situation; how her friends and all of Canterlot High had been stripped of all memory of her redemption, Twilight was flummoxed, and offered to go see somepony who would have more of an idea than she did.
'There is one pony who might be able to help, but I don't know if you two want to see each other.'
Fifteen minutes later the two of them were on a train to Canterlot, and had swiftly made their way to the castle. As they made their way through the courtyard, Sunset's memories began to bombard her of her days studying under Princess Celestia. Even as they walked together through the castle proper, Sunset found herself in the same hall where she made the fateful decision that had landed her a dimension away; the night she jumped through the Crystal Mirror.
Now, they came to the throne room doors, their destination on the other side. Royal schedules, it seemed, were considerably more flexible when another Princess needed some of the Canterlot rulers' time. Sunset felt her throat tighten and her heart beat just a bit harder as the unicorn guard on the left lit his horn up and opened the set of doors for them, revealing the throne room.
There sat Princess Celestia, with her sister Luna on her left. Celestia, who had been conversing with Luna, turned to look at the visitors, and her wings flared up.
Sunset's nervousness grew as she lowered her neck and averted her gaze, but kept pace alongside Princess Twilight, who kept smiling as though nothing was wrong. Sunset's mind replayed their final confrontation with each other in one of the restricted sections of the castle library.
'This is the biggest mistake you'll ever make.' Sunset had furiously spat at her teacher as the guards escorted her out, her trespass having been the final straw after weeks of testing her teacher's patience.
They approached the throne and came to a stop, and with keeping her eyes squarely on the carpet to her left, she didn't notice Twilight nervously smile up at her teacher. She didn't need to, as her voice gave away just how nervous she was too.
"Sooo, Princess Celestia, hehehe, you'll never guess who's back... Actually maybe you can guess 'cause she's right here, but um..."
Twilight tapered off, pausing awkwardly before raising a hoof and leaning over to the amber unicorn's ear.
"Am I helping?" She whispered, the throne room's acoustics however, did nothing to stop that from reaching the two pairs of ears up on the throne platform. Sunset knew she had to break this ice before Twilight's performance became even more laughable. Briefly closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she raised her head and stepped ahead of Twilight, looking up at her former teacher.
"Princess Celestia, the last time we saw each other, I was your snide little pupil who betrayed and abandoned you."
"I wouldn't have said it that way..." Twilight whispered up to her, apparently still not aware of how far the room carried her lowered voice. "What Sunset means to say is-"
"I mean that I come before you a changed pony," Sunset interrupted, raising her right hoof to stop Twilight in her tracks. "Humbly asking for forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge."
Writing it in a letter was one thing. Saying it in front of her was quite another. Princess Celestia's wings folded back to her sides, and her uncertain expression softened just noticeably as she began to descend the stairs. Seconds later, her towering figure shadowed the unicorn in front of her. Now a foot in front of her, Sunset couldn't hide her nerves from her expression as she looked up into Celestia's studying eyes for just a moment before lowering her head again. Celestia had forgiven her in her first letter to her but... Were they ready for this face to face?
Sunset felt Celestia's right hoof under her chin, and it lifted her head to meet her former teacher's gaze again, and her expression went from indiscernible to that gentle, caring look the unicorn remembered from so many years ago.
"I've missed you, Sunset Shimmer." Celestia said before smiling down at her.
Sunset's legs grew weak, her eyes widening as the emotions that had been churning in her stomach since this mess with her friends' memories had begun, now made their way up to her chest and writhed around her heart. As they squeezed around it, a pressure went through her rib cage, up her neck, and found their exit, as tears fell from her eyes.
"I'm... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." The unicorn choked out, taking two steps forward and wrapped her front legs around Celestia's, before breaking down, weeping and collapsing back into a sitting position, and the Princess sat down on the carpet as well, returning the embrace, nuzzling the back of her neck comfortingly as she continued to cry, relieved that the forgiveness expressed in Celestia's first letter was very real.
A few paces behind the duo, Princess Twilight also found herself tearing up at the reunion in front of her.
'Sunset Shimmer... Is she alright?'
While Twilight knew that Celestia accepted and respected Twilight's decision to leave Sunset at Canterlot High after her theft of the crown, she was never sure that she had approved of it. It wasn't until nearly a year later, after the Friendship Games, when Sunset wrote a letter apologizing to her former teacher, and sent it back with Twilight. It had been their first correspondence in years, and Sunset had also expressed how she had been becoming homesick on occasion, which had cropped up again worse than ever after she and her friends had attended Camp Everfree, and discovered that she was not the only source of Equestrian magic in the other realm. But Celestia had urged her to stay put for now, reminding her of everything she had accomplished since she had let the magic of friendship into her heart...
...All of which had apparently been ripped from the memories of everyone at the school.
Celestia held her former student for a minute as she let out her relief at being forgiven, and the frustrations of her current predicament, before the unicorn broke the embrace, and smiled up at her former teacher. As she blinked the last of her tears away, Princess Luna descended from the throne platform to join her sister.
"Princess Luna, it is an honor to finally meet you." Sunset Shimmer greeted, giving a bow. She had read the legend of the Mare in the Moon, but she had never met the Princess of the Night, having jumped through the Crystal Mirror years before she had been freed by Twilight and her friends.
"A pleasure, Sunset Shimmer. Princess Twilight has told us nothing but good things since you have redeemed yourself."
"Now, my student," Celestia began, bringing the unicorn's attention back to her. "What help can I be?"
Author's Note
This was originally going to be a oneshot, but I figured I'd split it up so I can get you guys some content sooner to wet your whistles.
Hope you enjoy! I'd say more to come soon, but this weekend is going to be crazy busy.
Thanks for reading!
"I woke up this morning to meet my friends at the beach. When I got there, it was like they didn't even recognize me... The way they looked at me, talked to me. Then I touched them and saw their memories, and I had vanished from all of them. It was like nothing after the Fall Formal ever happened. It... It was so convincing that I had to write to Princess Twilight to make sure it hadn't affected anypony over here." Sunset began to explain after her and the three princesses left the throne room.
"I am not familiar with the exact spell that could have erased your friends' memories, but it sounds like Equestrian magic is at work in your world again." Celestia told her.
"Hm, indeed. The toilings of this nefarious enchantment portend unimaginable catastrophe if left unchecked." Luna added, and for whatever reason, this caused Sunset to hold back a snicker, for which Twilight smacked her with her wing.
"Sorry, I'm just used to you saying 'no student parking in the faculty lot', hehe." Sunset tried to save face.
"This 'faculty lot' you speak of sounds like a place of great power." Luna commented, even getting a smirk out of Twilight as they continued on.
"The best chance we have of finding what you're looking for is in the Canterlot Library." Celestia told them, ushering them forth.
Now that the nervousness had passed, and knowing that she truly had her former teacher's forgiveness, Sunset felt a lot more at ease... And a lot more at home here in the halls of the castle. It felt like so long ago when she was here last. As they exited the castle proper and made their way into the city, she remembered walks with Celestia, as she went over the day's lesson, practical magic applications, and on her walks alone, how she turned down opportunities to socialize and make friends. It was like Twilight used to be, only worse. Not only was she wrapped up in her studies and research, but there was an arrogance, a belief that she was above making friends.
It was a slice of her life that she was now completely disgusted with. Princess Twilight had proven that powerful spells were nothing before the feats of friendship. It was only a short jaunt to the Canterlot Library, and the four ponies made their way up the steps to the main doors. Before going in, she had to do a double take of the guard to the door's left. She swore it looked like Flash.
Upon entering, Sunset and Twilight found themselves in a very familiar location; the three story concourse, each level lined with shelves packed with tomes.
"There's over a million books in here." Sunset mused, becoming disheartened by the amount of content they seemingly had to sift through.
"I wish," Twilight began with a laugh. "But don't worry, you're looking at somepony who knows this place like the back of her hoof."
As the two younger ponies stood in the entrance, Twilight noticed that the two elder Princesses had not stopped, and continued down a corridor at the rear of the concourse.
"Where are you going, Princess Celestia?" The lavender alicorn asked.
"To the restricted section." Celestia replied plainly.
Twilight gave a look like a mare would look at an incoming mobile DJ booth.
"There's a r... A re... A re... A re..." The Princess of Friendship began to hyperventilate.
"Breathe, Twilight." Sunset told her, getting her attention with a touch of her hoof to her side, then went to follow Celestia and Luna. Twilight soon followed, though the stunned look didn't leave her face.
At the back of their chosen alcove, Celestia and Luna lit up their horns, and pulled at a pair of books on the shelf, as they came out, mechanical works could be heard behind the wall. As one would pull a lever, the books sprung back into the shelf, and the entire unit slid away, revealing a hidden staircase that spiraled downwards.
Sunset had to shut Twilight's jaw.
The descending staircase was lined with enchanted torches that lit up upon their approach. The passage was so seldom used that bats had began to roost on the stalactites as the stairs took them well under the library deeper into the mountain Canterlot had been built into.
After descending at least two hundred feet, they came to a set of large double doors, which Celestia and Luna pushed open with their magic.
Twilight took in a three second gasp of breath.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! So many books... All unread... Ancient historical artifacts! Just... I thought... I can't..."
Sunset smirked.
"You sure you're up for helping me go through all this stuff?"
"DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!" Twilight pleaded.
"I should warn you however, the archive's mechanical catalog has not been... Well maintained..." Celestia said, standing next to a rather ancient looking mechanism with a series of levers and index wheels scribed in Ancient Equestrian glyphs. Curious, Sunset approached and tried the center lever.
What she got in return was a few clouds of dust, one index cylinder falling off its mount, one tumbling to the floor, and one catapulting to the opposite end of the room. On top of everything else, now they had a repair job to do.
"Guess we'll have to read everythiiiing!" Twilight excitedly sing-songed. "Come on!"
With a flap of her wings, Twilight bolted up to the second floor of the archives, immediately taking hold of a trio of books, studying their covers before her eyes went wide.
"No way, can you believe they have Canterlot Cannibals Volume Thirty-One?! You heard me! Thirty. One. Sunset... That's when it gets goooood."
Sunset Shimmer wasn't quite sure what disturbed her more... The fact that cannibalism in Canterlot's history required at least 30 other volumes, or that Twilight knew precisely when it got 'good'.
The only thing the unicorn could do with the sight before her was look up at her former teacher and share a hearty chuckle at how the Princess of Friendship was losing herself in this ancient knowledge.
As Celestia watched her two students spend the next several hours go through the archives, the irony that Sunset Shimmer was now finally in a restricted section with permission was not lost on her. Soon enough, a pile of searched books began to form around the central table. She had to admit, enough time had passed where she wasn't sure exactly what had been collected down here in the last millennium. Suddenly, Twilight got a look of absolute euphoria, and Sunset one of absolute bewilderment when the alicorn came out from one of the alcoves with an absolutely massive purple tome. Twilight set the chest-high book on the central table, and Sunset craned her neck to look at the cover.
"The Life, Times, and Decrees of Chancellor Puddinghead." She read, a look of hopelessness coming over her face as she lowered her head down to the table.
"Sunset, are you alright?" Celestia asked, stepping up to the table.
"Princess... If... If this doesn't work... If we can't find anything... I mean, I-I could... Come home, right? They don't remember me as it is. No one over there remembers how I've changed."
These words miraculously got Twilight's attention away from the current book she was buried in.
"But Sunset... Everything you've done over there... The sirens, Camp Everfree..."
Celestia held up a hoof, and Twilight stopped there.
"Twilight, could you continue the search? Sunset, let's take a walk." Celestia told her former pupil. Gulping, Sunset stepped from the other side of the table, and followed Celestia out of the archives, while Twilight happily resumed her reading.
Sunset followed her teacher up out of the secret passage, and even out of the library. Looking up at the sky, the sun was well into the second half of the sky; they had spent hours down there so far. The two of them retraced their earlier steps back to the castle, and instead of going back to the throne room, Celestia took her to her private study, which consisted of a fireplace, two bookshelves, and a couple tables.
As Sunset sat at the center table, Princess Celestia went over to a small chest on one of the end tables against the wall. Her horn lit up, she opened it, and came back to the table with a book. Celestia sat down, opening the book, taking out a folded piece of parchment, unfolding it and levitating it over to Sunset, and she looked down at the photograph that had been cradled in the centerfold of the parchment.
Sunset's heart throbbed achingly as she gazed down at the first letter she had written to Celestia since her redemption.
"You've told me in your letters how homesick you've been, and I get the feeling there's a little bit more to this situation you've found yourself in. Can you be sure that you wouldn't start to miss your life over there, just as you're missing your life in Equestria now?" Celestia asked Sunset as she looked at the group photo she had sent along with the letter.
"Of course you would, but you know what I think? I think you're trying to convince yourself that because they don't remember how you've changed, that they wouldn't miss you. Maybe you think it would even save you from the pain of having to say goodbye to them."
Celestia's tone wasn't accusative, but gentle, and the point had hit the mark regardless. A single tear fell down the unicorn's cheek. It had never taken much for her former teacher to see through her when she was under her tutelage; back then it was one of the things that annoyed her most, but now, it was exactly what she needed.
Celestia brought her open book up to eye level, and began to read aloud.
"I'm not sure if you think I went and got Twilight the morning after you went through that portal, but I did a lot of reflecting. I spent many weeks wondering how I had failed you. I had hoped to augment your ambition with compassion, but with the way events have played out, I've accepted that perhaps it wasn't my place to do so." Celestia recited, then lowered the enchanted correspondence book to look back at her student.
"I didn't write that just to make you feel better, Sunset. With the way events have played out in that other realm, I don't believe you and I were meant to take your studies any further than they had gone. I thought you were lost, I still did when you came back to take Twilight's crown. But now, I believe our paths were supposed to split that night you jumped through the mirror. Maybe you were still lost, but Twilight, and your friends over there, helped set you back on your path, and you've been walking it since. Now, something over there has taken that from your friends... From everyone at Canterlot High."
"It's not fair..." Sunset said shakily, running a hoof over the photograph.
"You're right, it's not. It's not fair to them, or to you. That's why you've got to find out the source of what did this to them. Because abandoning their memories of you, turning your back and giving up... That doesn't sound like the Sunset Shimmer I've read about in Princess Twilight's reports. You're clearly not responsible for all the Equestrian magic in that other realm, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you don't belong there, even if it is just for the time being. The Sunset Princess Twilight has told me about, the one I hope is sitting in front of me now... I think that, homesick or not, she would fight for her friends with every ounce of her being, whether or not they remember her."
Sunset sniffled, sliding the photograph back over to Celestia.
"You're right. You're absolutely right. I'm so sorry. I have to try and fix this."
Celestia smiled down at her as she rounded the table and stood next to her former pupil, draping a wing around her.
"And if and when the time comes to come home for good, even if it's painful for a little while, I think you'll want to say your goodbyes the right way."
As she smiled and nodded at her former teacher, her own correspondence book began to vibrate from inside her saddlebags. She took it out and opened it.
"Twilight says she found something!"
After Princess Twilight had shown Sunset an ancient scroll written by Clover the Clever, they knew precisely what they were after; a magical artifact known as the Memory Stone. Now that they knew what they were looking for, Twilight stayed in the archives to try to find the last missing piece of Clover's scroll and repair the catalog, and Celestia accompanied Sunset back to Twilight's castle in Ponyville, where she would return to Canterlot High and begin the search, and hopefully convince her friends of the situation.
Starlight Glimmer had let them in, and showed them to the north library, where Twilight had set the mirror up. Now that she was standing in front of it with her former teacher, another memory resurfaced, when Celestia had shown it to her for the first time.
'Look into this mirror and tell me what you see.'
'I see a pony who isn't powerful enough. Somepony who could be great, powerful... Somepony that could rule Equestria.'
She had been powerful enough to accept forgiveness from her friends... Powerful enough to defeat the sirens, to help Twilight discover the magic inside... So what about now? Would she be powerful enough to find who had this Memory Stone?
"Do you need anything else before you go?" Celestia asked.
Sunset cleared her throat.
"Just... One question, if you will." The unicorn asked, looking up at her former teacher, a bit nervous at what she was about to ask.
"Go ahead." Celestia replied, ready for student's inquiry.
"In the centuries of your reign... Of all the pupils you've taken under your wing... Did... Anypony else do what I did...?" Sunset asked, shifting on her hooves, unable to keep eye contact as her gaze fell to the carpet.
Celestia offered her a gentle smile as she risked a look up at her.
"When it comes to ponies who have abandoned their studies on an... Inter-dimensional scale, you would be the first. But no, there have been other stallions and mares who have turned their back on the tutelage I had to offer. Some came to feel that their calling was elsewhere, some felt that they were no longer up for it, and some were even like you, unsatisfied with the pace at which they were proceeding. Some came back hours or even days after regretting their decision, some found success on their other walks of life, and some I'm afraid I didn't hear from again."
Sunset was expecting Celestia to say 'one or two', but it sounded like there were quite a few. So it begged another question...
"So if and when I come home... Where would I go? What would I do?" She asked herself, looking at the reflection of the two of them in the mirror, reminding her of so long ago.
"Questions that would probably be best pondered after you've solved this problem."
Sunset nodded. Celestia was right, there were more important things to do than wonder about her future right now.
"This is quite a contrast from the last time we parted ways," Celestia began. "But you are not that way anymore. With every choice you make, you prove yourself to possess a kind heart."
Sunset stepped up and threw her hooves around Celestia.
"Thank you... So much."
Celestia returned the embrace.
"I am very proud of you, Sunset Shimmer. I hope I can see you again soon."
Sunset broke the embrace, and slowly stepped up to the mirror. She looked back at Celestia, and exchanged one last smile before stepping through. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared through the mirror, leaving the Princess alone in the library.
"Good luck, my student."
Author's Note
I'm sure the astute readers of mine noticed right away that much of this story mirrored the events of Forgotten Friendship: Homecoming. While my 'Homesick Shimmer' stories have usually taken place after the films, this one felt good to give an alternate take on.
While writing this entry, I realized that if the server leak from late last year holds true, and G4 is going to end within the next couple years, it stands to reason that Equestria Girls will end with it; which of course begs the question, what will be Sunset's ultimate fate?
Here's to wondering if DHX will address Sunset's so-far unmentioned homesickness as they begin to close it out.
If not, here's to hoping I'll be able to come up with my own finale to this Homesick Shimmer saga.
As always, thanks for reading!
