Though she was nowhere near as well-known for a love of books as a certain spectacled friend of hers, Sunset Shimmer nevertheless enjoyed curling up with some literature every now and again. Such was the case today, as she'd found herself a nice and quiet spot in the local library of Canterlot. Sure, the one at CHS was all well and good, but things here just had a more relaxed feel, especially since the somewhat draconian efforts of the librarian Cheerilee weren't here to put a damper on things. Now, normally, when people went out of their way to read something, you'd expect them to be looking fairly pleased about it. But that was about as far removed from Sunset's current expression as you could get, as every flip of the page simply made her look more and more unhappy. After a while though, she sighed, closing the book and setting it next to a small pile of others she'd already gone through. Placing her hand upon the pile, the drummed her fingers on top of it for a few moments, musing on her thoughts before finally muttering to herself. "So much...just so much of it."
"Penny for your thoughts?" a second voice said to her.
The corners of Sunset's mouth turned upwards in what was, perhaps, the first smile she'd had for a while now. Turning, she looked to the far happier face of Twilight, who pulled up a chair and sat next to her, with the Equestrian looking to her with curiosity. "I thought you had some extra work to do?" Then, after a brief pause, she chuckled drily. "Let me guess...already done?"
Twilight took on a look of justified smugness, if only for a moment. "Let it never be said I don't try to cram in as much as I can." The two shared a laugh together, which thankfully wasn't something the librarians here were willing to penalise. But when their laughter faded, Twilight instead looked to the pile of books beside Sunset. "So, anything interesting?"
To that, Sunset started to look a bit less pleased than she was before, averting her face from Twilight to instead focus on the books. "Oh, you know, just some light reading to pass the day. Nothing to worry about."
The tone of her voice made it pretty clear that she was covering for Twilight's sake, and after taking a moment to adjust her glasses, the bookworm looked over the spines of the aforementioned literature, reading aloud their titles. "The complete history of the nation. Local stories and histories. The great acts of the past." She perked up slightly as she again looked to Sunset. "Hoping to become a bit of a history buff, are we?"
Sunset smiled to that, but only a little. "Well, I got to thinking. I might be an Equestrian, but I've pretty much decided on this world being my new home. So I thought, if that's how it's gonna be, then I might as well learn a bit more about the stuff that's gone on here." She thought on her own words. "Nopony back in Equestria would be caught dead not knowing the story of the Hearth's Warming Eve after all." A silence fell, and though Twilight clearly looked like she wanted to say something, she also recognised that Sunset was being unusually quiet right now, as though she had a lot on her mind. After a time, and after taking a deep breath, Sunset finally looked her friend in the eye. "Do you ever stop and think about all the stuff that happened before you and I were around? Stuff from years ago? The...the bad stuff?"
Here, Twilight began to understand the source of her friend's discomfort, and she too took on a rather saddened look, glancing down to the table they were both sitting on. "I...yes, sometimes."
Sunset, yet again, looked to her books. "I never once thought the world I live in ever had, you know, a spotless record? But when I stop and look through it all, seeing all the things that people have done, to each other, to themselves, it's just...I dunno...a lot to take in."
Twilight nodded as she finally glanced back to her. "I know the feeling. When I was younger, I used to think my home, this town, the city, that nothing bad could ever have happened there. But then we get older, we learn more, and...and we know that wasn't the case."
Sunset gave a solemn nod in response, then stretched out her hand and took the book from the top of the pile, opening it up to a specific page. Twilight, looking over her shoulder, winced at the image that was front and centre there. An image that, to put it mildly, depicted some fairly brutal treatment of otherwise defenceless people. Below the pictures were numbers, and fairly big ones at that. No words passed between the two, but even without any prior knowledge or context, they knew what those numbers represented. Sighing, Sunset closed the book, as well as her eyes. "When I first came to this world...I just got the feeling that a lot of the bad that I'd heard about from my own world's past...just wasn't to be found here. Tyrants like Sombra and Tirek, terrible disasters like the Windigo Winter...that this world has managed to go just fine without dark chapters in its life." Opening her eyes again, she patted the book in her hand. "But I guess...that was just the naivete of a newcomer."
Reaching out, Twilight gently placed her hand upon Sunset's shoulder, catching her interest before offering her a small smile. "If it makes you feel any better, I had the same feeling about your world once." Seeing Sunset raise an eyebrow, Twilight began to elaborate. "When I started hearing about your world from what the other girls had told me, at least from the stuff Princess Twilight had told them, I guess I just pictured some kind of pristine utopia." She looked up, to the ceiling, recalling her memories of those conversations. "It all sounded wonderful. Like a fairy tale kingdom you read about in books. A magical place where everyone was good to each other and bad things just didn't happen." Her visage turned more serious as she looked back to Sunset. "But then, after talking with you, I knew that wasn't the reality of it. Equestria has had its fair share of darkness just like Earth has. My world is not one of saints...and neither is yours, it seems." Exhaling, Twilight sounded understandably dejected. "Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If there's anywhere out there, among all those worlds magical or otherwise, that's ever escaped the bad the rest of us have known."
Sunset stared at her for the longest time. When last her friend had spoken with this kind of dour tone, it was with reference to her own past as Midnight Sparkle, the perverted shadow of her own psyche. Sunset too started to look down, and if any passer by were to look at the two girls right now, they would just assume they were going through some rough time at the moment. But then, after taking a deep breath, Sunset looked back up to Twilight. "You're right, Twilight. Our worlds aren't perfect. They never have been. There's been bad in yours and bad in mine." She watched Twilight glance in her direction before continuing. "It hurts to think about it. We never want horrible things to happen to people, yet even a causal look through a history book will tell you that not only have they happened, they've happened in ways that'd likely leave us with nightmares for the rest of our lives if we ever saw them with our own two eyes. People, nations, whole groups, these have sinned, and are sinning, and will continue to sin."
Twilight stared at her, somewhat blank-faced. "I still think...or hope rather...that your world might at least escape the kinds of depths mine has sunk to."
Sunset, as had happened so often today, sighed. "It'd be a lie to say so, Twilight. Princess Twilight often writes to me, you know. And she tells me how things go on in Equestria these days." Sunset grimaced. "Did you know that the school she tried to open was nearly done for because a pony didn't want those other than ponies attending it?"
Twilight stared at her, shocked. "What?! I hoped your world would be free of that kind of thinking at least."
Sunset shook her head. "It's not, I'm afraid. The crimes of your world are crimes in mine as well. And though things are getting better, there's a part of me that knows it might never truly be gone. Division and seeing others as 'wrong' goes back all the way to the founding of my country, and if it was still around today, then who knows how long it'll be before it's truly gone from our world."
Twilight, naturally, looked sad to that. "Your world...my world...you and me...how can we ever accept all this?"
Her Equestrian friend looked as though she desperately wanted to say something, anything, to be able to make them feel better. But after looking again to her nearby pile of books, having learned what she'd learned, she looked just as defeated as Twilight was. But then, in that instant, she heard a sound from outside. Looking up, Sunset saw through the window close to them that an old woman had fallen on the street outside. Immediately, a young man, one of their classmates perhaps, rushed to her side, helping her up and doing what he could for her. Seeing that, Sunset started to develop a small smile, and she again glanced to Twilight. "We accept it...just as we have accepted ourselves."
Slowly, Twilight turned to face her. "What do you mean?"
Sunset's smile widened slightly. "Yes, there has been bad, and there will likely be more bad to come. Yes, people have done terrible things, in both our worlds and likely any other worlds out there. And just like all that, you and I have had our own tastes of darkness and evil. Whether through pride or pressure, we messed up, just as the world has messed up." She took a moment, then reached out, placing her hand upon Twilight's shoulder. "But you know what you and I are, Twilight? Do you know what we are despite having those terrible moments in our history?" Seeing Twilight shake her head, Sunset answered her own question. "Better. We're better, Twilight. The people we were, a girl hungry for power and recognition, or a girl so desperate to succeed that she let others turn her down the wrong path...that's not us anymore." She looked out of the window again. "And the world is the same. The past may be a terrible place...but people can be better. They can improve, they can look at the things they've done, and swear 'no more', to be above what they might have been."
Twilight, in spite of that, still looked saddened. "But how? How can we ever forget?"
Sunset looked back to her, firmer in her expression. "We can't forget, Twilight...and we shouldn't forget. We may strive to be better than our pasts, but we must never try to forget them. Never try to ignore or sweep under the rug that which we once did. We must stand up, say to the world all the wrong we did, and accept what we used to be, however embarrassing or painful or shameful that might be." Taking a deep breath, her smile grew, and she continued. "As a wise person once said, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." She stretched out her hand, offering it to her friend. "So, let's not forget. Let's break the chain...and remember."
Twilight stared at the offered hand, nervous and uncertain. But when she looked again to the smiling face of her friend, the one person in all the world who knew what it was to do wrong and rise above it afterwards, she too began to smile, and she finally placed her hand into Sunset's. "Yes...let's."
Author's Note
Knowing the things that have come before can be difficult, but it's something we all need to do if we're to move forward into something better 😊
