The Beginning of Many Ends
Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes, mouth too full of cotton candy to reply right away. After quickly chewing it into a sugary paste, she glared at Pinkie Pie.
"Fortune teller? Come on, you know I don't believe any of that nonsense, right?" she said, her lips as blue as her unhealthy snack. She had to speak up to be heard over the nearby loudspeakers playing Entry of the Gladiators on repeat.
"Aww, come on, Sunset, it'll be fun! I'll go in with you! Besides, everyone knows it's a load of phony baloney. Aaand you still owe me for last night," Pinkie said with a suggestive catlike purr.
Sunset coughed as she was taken off guard. By the time she recovered, her face was as red as the streaks in her hair, and Pinkie was giggling. "Jesus, Pinkie," Sunset rasped, her esophagus mildly sugar-burned, "not here! Fine, I'll see the stupid fortune teller if it'll make you happy."
"Yay!" Pinkie shouted, clapping her hands together. She grabbed her friend by the wrist and pulled her toward the tent with the large crystal ball on its sign.
Sunset's eyes had to adjust to the dark interior that seemed more poorly lit than the seven or eight randomly scattered burning candles would have one expect. Inside, there was a table with a very cliché glass ball sitting on a plain bronze base. A middle-aged woman with long, dark blue hair sat behind it, wearing a shawl and looking excited to have customers.
"Oh, hey there, Pinkie!" the woman said. "I see you brought her, as was foretold."
"Wait, what?" Sunset asked.
"Oh, um, nothing!" Pinkie said, tittering.
"Pinkie saw me last night," the woman explained, "and in her future, I saw her bringing a friend for an important visit!"
Sunset placed her palm on her face. "Really? That's how you get customers? You make people bring their friends by 'predicting' it?"
The woman shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?" Her smug smile didn't help matters. "Anyway, three tickets per reading."
"Here ya go, Kismet!" Pinkie said quickly, with a three-ticket-long strip already prepared.
Sunset sighed. "Fine, let's get this over with." There was a metal lawn chair covered with patterned blankets on her side of the table, and she sat on it. The fortune teller (apparently named Kismet) opened her hands and moved them around the ball in a smooth, practiced motion that was almost hypnotic. The ball shone with a pulsing glow, obviously from a light in the base operated by a foot pedal under the table or something.
"Hmmm, yeeesss, I seeeee," Kismet said in an overly dramatic attempt at sounding mysterious. "You are... pregnant, no?"
"Ha!" Sunset laughed. "No!"
"Ah, exactly as the ball foretold! You are not pregnant!" Kismet said.
Sunset could hardly believe some people fell for this garbage. She actively ignored the small "Wow!" from Pinkie.
"You said I was pregnant, then changed your mind when I said I wasn't!" Sunset challenged.
"I was going to say more but you cut me off by laughing," Kismet said.
"Oh? What were you gonna say?"
"I was going to say you are pregnant no... longer! Because you were, in a different life! But now, you are certainly not."
There was obviously no winning here. This woman was clearly well-practiced in flimflammery. Sunset rolled her eyes and sat back in the admittedly comfortable chair to just enjoy the ride. "Alright."
"Now," Kismet said as the ball grew brighter, "we shall see what the spirits have to say of your future. Will it be happy? Tragic? Laborious? Place your palm on the ball, and we shall soon know."
"Oooh, this is my favorite part!" Pinkie said in an excited hush.
Shrugging mentally, Sunset opened her hand and gently touched the cool glass ornament. Because it really was just an ornament, not a real–
Falling.
Falling!
Falling!!
Sunset screamed, a sharp yelp that she could, surprisingly, hear quite clearly. Her limbs flailed, reaching fruitlessly for safety, for something to hold. Everything was dark, save for a million pinpoints of dim light all around her, like the night sky, but in every direction. Despite the overwhelming feeling of falling, there was no air rushing past her, and after several panicked breaths, she realized she wasn't falling, but rather floating.
Where am I? she thought as her initial panic settled into a cold terror in the pit of her stomach. The small specks of light, unlike stars, moved about slowly like lazy fireflies on a calm summer evening. She noticed that she wasn't spinning or tumbling, and despite there being no visual cue for where up was, she felt properly oriented. What did that fraud do to me? Did she drug me? This must be a hallucination.
As Sunset's outrage grew, one point of light grew larger, and her Sherlockesque deductions came to a halt as soon as she noticed it. When the light drew nearer, it eventually resolved into a shape. It was a circle, as expected. A ring of light around a dark hole. It wasn't long before she noticed that the ring wasn't just made of a single solid line. It had details that became clearer until she realized it was a snake. A snake eating its own tail.
In the empty void, distance was difficult to determine, so she was surprised when the snake kept growing and growing, until it took up nearly her entire field of vision. What the heck is going on? she thought.
"Sunset Shimmer," a sudden voice boomed out, eerily silent to her ears but echoing loudly through her mind. It was the snake, but it wasn't moving its mouth, as its mouth was full of its own tail. "You have been chosen. You will endure countless heartaches over the next forty-five days. You will feel the pain of loss of, not only those you love, but yourself, for you, too, will die. Your world will be shattered, your willpower tested. Sometimes you will find the strength to live on, and other times, you will succumb to the crushing weight of this loss. And for your suffering, some shall earn fame and fortune, but you will get nothing. These outcomes are now inevitable, for the gears that turn your wheel of fate have already been set in motion, and this cannot be undone. Your life is now a plaything of mad gods vying for glory, and you will be subject to their machinations. Good luck."
Sunset gasped, not even realizing she had been unable to breathe or move the entire time the snake-thing had been speaking. It began to retreat, its mysterious and ominous message burning a hole in her mind. "Wait!" she rasped, coughed, then tried again. "Hey! What was all that about? Who are you? Come back!"
The creature did not respond as it rapidly shrunk again to a point, then disappeared entirely. Heartache? Loss? Death? What was all that cryptic nonsense? Just part of the drug-induced hallucination? she thought. As she came dangerously close to slapping herself to try to wake up, Sunset noticed many of the dots moving in a pattern, coming together and forming neat rows of ten or so. Then, the formation, over a hundred lights in total, came closer to her.
These lights were circular in shape, like bubbles with some kind of video playing inside them. None of them were very clear from the distance she was at, but one, the very top left, floated over to her, and hovered in front of her. She saw herself holding a crumpled piece of paper and crying, her tears darkening the white sheet and smearing the blue ink. An odd desire to touch this bubble came over her, and she reached forward until her fingers brushed its surface.
Sunset was crying. In the back of her mind, she had no idea why, but she was. She looked at the note in her hands, and read it.
Sunset your a whore I hate you!!!
I never loved you bitch!
I am braking up w/ you and dont pretend you dident kiss snips because he told me ALL ABOUT IT ok??
~~love~~ hate,
snails
Snips? Snails? Ew! she thought. For some reason, she couldn't control herself, and heaved another deep sob. Lines of drool hung from her open mouth, and a trail of snot ran from her nose and clung to her upper lip like a glob of treesap.
Suddenly, she stood up and ran to her dresser, completely against her own will. Try as she might, she simply couldn't make her arms do what she wanted them to, and instead, they opened the top drawer and dug through her underwear until her fingers wrapped around something cold and hard. Then, with a quick pull, she found herself looking at a handgun. Knowing almost nothing about guns, she was surprised to see her hands move deftly across it, pressing a catch that released the ammo clip thingy, caught it to check that it had bullets in it, then slammed it back into the handle.
Okay, so I'm totally just a passenger for this crazy ride, she thought as she watched herself pull the top part of the gun back to make it go chk-chk.
"You wanna play that game then, Snips? We'll play that game," she said, scaring herself, but unable to physically react. She marched out the door with a grim smile.
Then, suddenly, she was outside Snips's bedroom, crouched below his window. The odd teleportation-like feeling wasn't entirely alien to her, as she had teleported as a pony many times, but it still caught her off guard.
"Dammit, stupid camping bitch!" Snips cried in his obnoxious, almost falsetto, voice.
Sunset stood up and slid the window open, aiming the deadly weapon at Snips, who was turned away and wearing a headset.
"I banged your mom last night, bitch!" he shrieked into his microphone, spittle flying from his mouth.
She could feel her finger tighten on the trigger. No, she thought, fighting for control of herself and gaining no ground, no, no, no, no!
A sudden, loud noise came from the gun in her hand, and Snips slumped over, a spray of red on his TV. The screen was broken. Long lines of rainbow-colors stretched between the cracks in the flat screen, and danced beneath the million crimson droplets that dripped down, leaving jagged vertical streaks on the glass.
"That's for lying to Snips about kissing me, bitch," she said, but she barely heard herself, as her mind was busy processing what she had just seen. The shock and confusion of it all left her in a horrified daze, but she still spoke again. "Now to Snails. Nobody dumps Sunset Shimmer!"
No, no, no, no, why, why, why, why–
"Why, why, why, wha... huh?"
Sunset was back in the void. Tears fell freely from her eyes, and she dry-heaved and sobbed.
What... was that? she thought. I don't like Snips or Snails, but I would never... never do something like that!
Another orb came to her, a bubble showing her sitting at a table with her friends. She reached forward, desperately seeking escape from the horror that she had just seen herself commit.
"Oh, shut up, Applejack!" Twilight said with a giggle. "The only way I'm going with Big Mac is if Flash Sentry just drops dead or something."
Sunset watched, helpless again, as she reached forward and grabbed a beer bottle, taking a big swig from it. Eugh! Disgusting, she thought, trying to scrunch her face. "Yeah, and Flash and Shining Armor are the best cops in town," she found herself saying. "And you're gonna have to get through my man first before you can get to Flash."
The group laughed easily, and Sunset could feel the alcohol clouding her... other mind. The one making the decisions and talking. After some more cheerful conversation, the friends all stumbled out of the bar together, joking and laughing.
"See you guys tomorrow," Sunset said with a slight slur. They waved and said goodbyes as she broke off from the group, giggling to herself and walking with heavy, unsteady footfalls. She pulled her keys from her pocket as she approached her car, dropping them on the ground.
No! Stop, you idiot! I would never drive while this drunk! she thought, helpless to do anything but watch.
"Oopsie!" She giggled as she struggled to lean down and pick the keys up without falling over. After a long fight with the lock, she finally got her door open, then fumbled with getting the key into the ignition.
It wasn't long before her car roared to life, like a predator in the still night. She stepped heavily on the gas pedal, and pulled forward, turning around to exit the parking lot. After a too-wide turn onto the street, her phone rang.
"Dammit," she said under her breath that smelled like alcohol and french fries. One clumsy arm reached blindly into her purse, perched on the center console, and dug for her phone. She found it. Wrapped her clammy fingers around it. Pulled it free of her purse. Looked at it. Stared. Tried to make sense of the words on the screen as her clouded mind struggled to decide whether she wanted to answer it. It was a call from her ex-boyfriend. No. She declined the call. Looked up. A noise, irritating and loud, faded into existence as two bright lights came toward her.
Shit!
"Shit!"
As her foot was halfway between the gas and brake, her car slammed head-on into the oncoming vehicle. She was jerked about violently until the car slid to a stop, a twisted heap of hot and cold metal. Steam poured from under her hood.
Her forehead was bleeding, and she could tell that other-her was suddenly much more sober as the reality of what she had just done began to set in. Adrenaline coursed through her, and her debilitating shock wore off. "Shit," she said. Her windshield was shattered, and bits of broken glass littered her lap. She tried her door, but it was stuck. Tried harder. It opened, and she was saved from spilling out onto the pavement by her stretched seatbelt. After unbuckling herself, she climbed carefully from her car and approached the other car.
She felt goosebumps rise on her neck and arms. It was a police car.
Sunset, in the back of her mind, wasn't sure why that mattered, but she found herself walking toward it while chanting "no, no, no, no, no no nonononono."
As she circled around the front of the police car, she heard her voice grow louder. "No, no, no no! No! NO!"
She screamed. Cried for help, because her phone was still in her car. Tried to wrench open the door of the police car. Sunset finally recognized them in the dark. It was strange seeing Flash Sentry and Shining Armor in police uniforms, so she hadn't recognized them right away, but when she did, she understood why she was acting so desperate.
Shining Armor is my... boyfriend? Husband? At the bar, I called him my man. And Flash Sentry is... oh, poor Twilight, she thought.
Her hands were bleeding, cut by jagged pieces of torn metal and glass, but she pulled at the door anyway, trying to get to the limp form of her apparent beloved. Then, however, there was a blood-chilling whuff as a fire started under the hood. She screamed again, desperately, slurred their names as loud as she could, but they remained unmoving. Unconscious or dead, she didn't know, but they stayed still even as the fire overtook the cab, burning its two inhabitants.
Sunset wished she would look away or close her eyes, but she just watched as their skin peeled and bubbled, a sight she would much rather have avoided seeing.
It was far too late.
They were certainly dead.
She felt sick.
In the distance, sirens rang out.
Sunset gasped, coughed, choking on smoke that wasn't there. She was floating again.
Before she could recover, a third bubble came to her. She didn't reach out to it. It insisted, pressing itself against her.
In her aged, wrinkled fingers, Sunset held an old, framed photograph. It was her, older than she was presently, but much younger than the body she inhabited. She was standing next to Sandbar, a younger guy that had only recently shown up at her school. They were on an altar, presumably just after marrying. She ran her fingers over him.
Is he dead? That seems to be the theme in these... dreams? Visions? Hallucinations? They feel so real... she thought.
She reached over for another photo, showing Sandbar, this time about twenty years older, on another altar. He was with Gallus, another fairly new student.
Oh. Wow. Her fingers tightened on the frame, turning white. She suddenly threw it across the room, and it struck the wall, the glass shattering, falling to the floor in a thousand pieces.
It landed face-down.
She was back. Again.
Another orb came.
"No! Stop! Stay aw–"
–ay.
Sunset was kissing her mother. At first, it was fine, but then the kiss became deeper, passionate. She broke away.
"Mom," she said, a hand around her mother's waist, gripping and stroking, "I love you. Only you. I'll break up with Twilight tomorrow."
What is... oh no, no, no!
She leaned forward for another kiss, and she felt her mother's tongue slip into her mouth.
"Stop! Stop! No more! I can't... I can't take this," Sunset said, crying as another bubble came.
She held a small box in one hand out to Winona, Applejack's dog. Her other hand opened it, revealing an enormous diamond ring.
"Winona, will you marry me?" she asked tearfully.
Winona barked once and wagged her tail, and Sunset wrapped the canine in a hug.
Just then, there was a knock on her door.
"FBI, open up!"
The door burst open.
Sunset Shimmer covered her eyes and cried into her hands.
"Whoa, hey, Sunset, you alright?" Pinkie asked.
Sunset perked up. She was back in the fortune teller's tent. "Pinkie? Is that you?"
"Course it's me, silly!" Pinkie said, giving her friend a warm, comforting embrace.
Sunset accepted the hug and smiled, eyes still wet and head throbbing. After Pinkie was all hugged out (which took a lot of hugging), Sunset turned toward Kismet, who had a mysteriously knowing look on her face. The fortune teller reached across the table and offered her hand, and Sunset took it hesitantly.
"Listen to me, Sunset Shimmer," Kismet said, "for the path ahead is dark. But at the end, there is light. There is always light at the end."
Sunset nodded, feeling like she understood.
"What is it?" Pinkie asked, concerned.
"Pinkie..." Sunset said, turning to her. "I think the next forty-five days are gonna be rough for me. Like, real rough. But I'll make it through. Right, Kismet?"
Kismet nodded. "Yes, after turmoil comes merriment. After the sun sets," she said, pausing to enjoy her cleverness, "it eventually rises. It will be hard, but you will survive. You did before, and you will again."
"Before?" Sunset asked. Kismet just nodded, not really answering her question. Sunset shrugged. "Alright. Well, Pinkie, whaddaya say we go out and enjoy the rest of the night? And as for my fortune... we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it."
The two left the tent laughing.
