Author's Note

Sunset Shimmer's counterpart in the human world is dead. Grieving a version of herself she never knew, Sunset seeks answers.

3: Destiny

Sunset Shimmer sat in her apartment, doing homework, tapping her pen on her knee. Bored, she put down her textbook and picked up her computer. She scrolled through her social media pages, looking for anything that could be more interesting than stupid homework.

Suddenly, she stopped scrolling... she saw a news headline, featuring a familiar face. Not just a familiar face, but her face.

Did someone make a report on the time I became a she-demon? Sunset wondered to herself as she clicked on the article. Her wondering ceased once she read the headline.

LOCAL STUDENT OF CRYSTAL PREP DEATH RULED A SUICIDE

Sunset was confused. She didn't go to Crystal Prep. Maybe they used the wrong picture?

She scrolled down, and there was an interview with the family from Youtube. She played the video.

"Ma'am, we understand you lost your daughter. What do you have to say about teen suicides everywhere and how it has impacted you?" The interviewer asked, and the camera frame changed to one of a woman with orangey skin and bright red hair.

"Mom?!" Sunset said, surprised. It looked just like her mom in Equestria, although she was human. She hadn't bothered searching for her parents in the human world, and the ones in Equestria abandoned her long ago.... wait, if there was a alternate version of mom... is there an alternate version of me?

"My daughter, her name was Sunset... She was a good student. She could be a bit rebellious at times, but in her heart she was good. She wasn't suicidal. I didn't think so." Her mom spoke to the interviewer.

That answered Sunset's question.

Shock and realization suddenly struck Sunset Shimmer. My counterpart.... is dead?

It kind of made sense. In Equestria, her version of acting out was trying to take over the world... but in this world, she didn't have that ability. So instead, she must have killed herself when things got hard.

Sunset was in shock. She did research on the girl with her same name and face, and found out that she went to Crystal Prep. She was a straight A student, and she lived... just a few blocks from Sunset!

It wasn't like Sunset could just show up at her alternate moms' house, or something. She would probably scare the living shit out of her. But Sunset wanted to know more, and if there was anything Sunset could do, it was be persistent.

So she got her coat, and went out.

"Sunset?" Twilight said, rubbing her eyes. "It's late, and you have school tomorrow. What are you doing here?"

Sunset had snuck to Canterlot High, and went through the portal to Twilight's house. She had to see her, and tell her what she had just found out.

"Twilight, I need to talk to you." Sunset said, assertively. She trotted into Twilight's castle, sitting down at the dining table at the late hour.

Sunset pulled out her phone and showed Twilight the article she'd found.

"Isn't that you?" Twilight asked, examining the article.

"Yes," Sunset said. "That's my human counterpart."

"What? Why does it say she committed suicide?" Suddenly Twilight gasped. "Did she?"

"Yes, she killed herself." Sunset looked down at the ground. "I need to find out more, but I can't just show up at my moms house asking why I killed myself- it'll scare the crap out of her."

"Are you asking me to go into the human world, show up at your moms' house while you hide in the bushes, and ask her about you?" Twilight raised one eyebrow.

"...Maybe." Sunset replied. "I just need to know! Everybody has a human counterpart... and I find out I have one, and I never even got to meet her."

"Starlight doesn't have one," Twilight replied. "Maybe something happened to her counterpart, too."

"We do have similar pasts," Sunset sighed. "It's just weird that our world mirrors the human world, but in different ways."

"Like how the cutie mark crusaders are searching for their passion instead of their cutie marks?"

"Exactly."

"Just sounds like bad writing to me." Twilight replied. "Sometimes I feel like we live in a story."

"Right," Sunset replied. "So will you go with me? Before school?"

"Sunset, you're lucky I'm up at this hour. I don't want you to be late to school."

"Please?"

"I guess we can... if it doesn't take too long." Twilight replied, sighing.

"It won't, I promise!" Sunset grinned, excited.

Twilight knocked on the door in front of her. They had walked to a house, a few blocks down, but still on the Crystal Prep side of the town. It was a small house, old and rotting, almost looking abandoned. It looked like it had seen better days.

Sunset stood bent down in the bushes in front of the house, hiding out of sight.

A grown woman answered the door, and she looked middle aged and exhausted. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Twilight Sparkle, I used to go to Crystal Prep-"

"Did you know my daughter?" The woman asked quickly, looking at Twilight intensely.

"Uh, yes." Twilight sorta lied. "She was very kind." She had never asked human Twilight whether she met Sunset at Crystal Prep, but it didn't seem like she had.

"Oh, goodness. I suppose you heard the news?" The woman said to the girl in front of her, standing at her door.

"Yes," Twilight began, "it's very sad news. Can you tell me what happened? Sunset and I were quite close..."

"That's weird, she never mentioned a Twilight..." The lady thought to herself out loud.

"Oh, yeah, I mean, not too close, I didn't get out much back then..."

"Come in," the woman said. "You can call me Mrs. Shimmer."

Twilight went into the woman's' house, and Sunset couldn't see or hear them any longer. She grunted, thinking of ways to get closer.

Thirty minutes later, Twilight came out of the house and waved bye to Mrs. Shimmer. Sunset waited patiently for Mrs. Shimmer to leave.

As soon as she left, Sunset came out of hiding and approached Twilight.

"Sunset, she could still see you!" Twilight whisper shouted, trying to motion Sunset to go back to hiding.

"You have to tell me what she said! What happened?"

"I'll tell you when we're back at your place," Twilight answered confidently.

The two walked back to Sunset's apartment, which was not far. It was a mutual, unspoken decision for Twilight to stay the night at Sunset's apartment that night.

At Sunset's apartment

"Okay, tell me what happened," Sunset said, putting down her bag on the couch. Twilight did the same.

"Well, she said that Sunset, or, you, I guess, were very studious and smart. You had a desire to become the most intelligent person in the school, but were always beat..."

"Let me guess, by Twilight?"

"Possibly, Twilight was the top student at Crystal Prep." Twilight answered. "Anyway, the mom didn't notice anything was wrong with Sunset, until she started finding notes in her room with names of her classmates crossed out... and then she killed herself."

"But why did she kill herself?" Sunset asked, question filling her eyes from her irises to her pupils.

"I don't know," Twilight responded. "I don't think there's anything we can do."

"There must be," Sunset replied. "We can't do some spell to talk to the dead or something?"

"Um, no." Twilight replied. "I'm sorry Sunset. There's nothing we can do to find out more."

"Ugh, fine." Sunset replied.

They both laid down to go to sleep, and Sunset laid tossing and turning in her sleep. She couldn't stop thinking, what brought me to kill myself? What was so bad? Why did it turn out different in my world?

The many questions burned at her subconscious, and she pulled Twilight closer into her chest. Was there a possibility that she could have been drawn to the same fate, if it wasn't for Twilight? Twilight changed her world. Too bad she couldn't be there for other Sunset, too.

Sunset sighed, and closed her eyes, trying to get some sleep.

The whole rest of the school day tomorrow, after Twilight had went home, back to Equestria, Sunset seemed off. Her friends were wondering what was up, but were giving her space to figure it out. She couldn't stop thinking. What if someone recognized her from the article? Was it going to be hard living in the human world now that she was so well known, although she was two different people?

Would she and her human counterpart would have gotten along? Could she have saved herself? It was truly a unique problem. She didn't think anyone else in the world had a problem like this.

She walked through the halls of Canterlot High, avoiding eye contact with those around her, even her friends.

After school, it was finally Friday. It was time to go through the portal and visit her three girlfriends, Trixie, Starlight, and Twilight, and have crepes and milkshakes at their favorite diner.

Sunset walked towards the portal, going through it discreetly. She met up with Twilight in her castle, kissed her girlfriend hello, and they began walking to their favorite diner.

At the diner, they met Starlight and Trixie, who were waiting at table #3 for them. They knew each others orders, so they didn't have to ask what they wanted. A strawberry shake for Starlight, with a mixed berry crepe. Orange slushy for Sunset, with a lemon shake. Blueberry shake for Twilight, with a raspberry crepe. Blue raspberry slushy for Trixie, with a plain cream crepe.

"Who knew crepes were so good!" Trixie exclaimed. She had recently joined the relationship, and thus started going to crepe dates with her new girlfriends.

"They are," Sunset said sadly, picking at her food.

"Aw, what's up Sunset?" Starlight asked her girlfriend, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight looked over at Sunset and realized she was uncomfortable, so she stepped in. "Sunset is having a hard day," Twilight said. "She needs our support."

"It's okay, Twi. I'll tell them." Sunset sighed. "I found my human counterpart," she began.

"What? You have a human counterpart?" Starlight said, looking surprised at her girlfriend. "And Twilight knew about it?"

"What's a human counterpart?" Trixie asked, sipping her slush.

"We already explained this, Trix. In the human world, there's a human Twilight with glasses, and probably a human Starlight-"

"Another Starlight?" Trixie said in surprise. "Can I meet her?"

"We don't know where she is in the human world, or what she did instead of trying to brainwash a small village...." Starlight wondered to herself briefly, then turned to Sunset. "So, what's the news on the human Sunset?"

"She killed herself recently." Sunset said and Starlight and Trixie let out a gasp. "I found out from a news article. She went to Crystal Prep."

"Did human Twilight ever see her there?" Starlight asked, looking over at Twilight.

"We haven't asked," Twilight said. "We visited Sunset's mom though, and she said she didn't know much about why she did it."

"Don't you think we should go visit Twilight?" Starlight suggested to Twilight and Sunset.

"Good idea," Sunset said, finishing the last bite of her crepe.

Together, they waited for Starlight to finish eating, in anticipation for going to ask questions to human Twilight.

Twilight knocked on Twilight's door. Twilight answered the door. "Twilight?" Twilight said to Twilight, in surprise.

"Good to see you!" Twilight said to Twilight, and Twilight noticed Sunset behind Twilight.

"Sunset, you didn't seem to happy at school today- is everything okay?" Twilight asked, pushing up her glasses.

"We need to talk to you, can we come in?" Sunset asked before Twilight motioned for her to come in.

Twilight, Twilight, Starlight, Trixie and Sunset sat down in Twilight's house. It didn't seem like her parents were home, but upstairs you could hear her brother playing video games.

"Oh, Trixie, what are you doing here...?" Twilight asked, adjusting her glasses once more.

"That's pony Trixie," Sunset said quickly. "She doesn't know you."

"Oh! Nice to meet you, Trixie. You look just like the Trixie at my school..." Twilight said, smiling at her new friend.

"She acts the same too," Sunset deadpanned and Trixie gave her a dirty look. "In a good way!" Sunset added on.

"Humph," Trixie said, sitting on the couch.

"So what did you guys come here for?" Twilight asked, sipping some of the coffee she had made herself.

"You went to Crystal Prep Academy, did you ever... see another Sunset there?" Sunset asked her friend.

It was true that Sunset was dating pony Twilight, and one might think that dating one Twilight and being just friends with the other would be difficult, but to Sunset human Twilight was as different from pony Twilight as could be. Pony Twilight had more in common with Sunset, like magic and stuff. The other Twilight was just a good friend.

"Another Sunset? Um... I didn't get around much at Crystal Prep, I didn't have any friends there and if I did see a human Sunset it would have been walking in the halls to class, so... I don't think so."

"Darn," Starlight said, crossing her arms in defeat.

"Why do you ask?" Twilight asked, setting down her coffee.

"We found out the human Sunset died, and we talked to her mom... we can't figure out why she killed herself though." Sunset said, sighing, almost ready to give up as well.

"Oh, well, obviously the two worlds parallel each other... but each world has their differences. In Equestria, you have magic and sought to gain magical power. In this world, you were just a student, and you didn't have another world to jump to to try to take over, so...." Twilight thought to herself. "Why did you do what you did when you left Celestia's school? Maybe that's the same reason Sunset killed herself."

"Oh," Sunset suddenly realized, as if the answer was in front of her the whole time and she just needed a genius thinker like Twilight to sort it out for her. "I guess I did it because I grew resentful and couldn't be the best at magic, couldn't get Celestia's attention like I wanted..."

"Your mom did say that Sunset always wanted to be the best in class, but was always 2nd best." Twilight said, thinking to herself.

"I think that might be my fault," Twilight said, blushing a bit. "I'm sorry for your loss Sunset, but if it wasn't for the portal, you wouldn't have known this at all. You shouldn't spend time worrying about what could have happened and instead look at what you can do in your own life. You said you went and talked to your mom in the human world, but how long has it been since you talked to your mom in the pony world?"

Realization suddenly hit Sunset. She hadn't talked to her mom since she left for the human world. Maybe it was time she made amends? She was only a student when she ran away from home. Her mom probably thought she was dead, too...

"I need to go, now." Sunset said, standing up and picking up her schoolbag and heading towards the door.

Her girlfriends and her best friend looked at her for a second, then their expressions relaxed and they wished her well.

"Mom?" Sunset said as the door opened. She knew that this particular house would be home to one mare, as her dad died many years before. He died when she was a filly, and after that it was just Sunset and her mom. The house was old and beat up, almost as if it was falling apart. Sunset never had much money growing up, but her mom made it work. It seems as if after she left, her mother gave up all hope. Not that Sunset would know if she had or not, because she hadn't spoken or seen her mom since she left Equestria.

As a filly, she was lucky to get into Celestia's school. Celestia hand-picked her, and gave her a scholarship that paid for her education. Looking back, Sunset felt so spoiled and guilty that she gave up her spot at Celestia's top school just to gain power, but she couldn't change the past.

The door opened, and behind it was a mare with an orange coat and yellow hair. Her name was Sunlight, but Sunset just called her mom.

"We don't want any of your cookies, plea- Sunset?!" Sunlight looked shocked, as if she had seen a ghost. She looked Sunset up and down, as if her eyes were deceiving her.

"Hey, mom." Sunset began to speak. "Let's talk."

Sunset and her mother sat down in the small, torn apart house, and memories filled Sunset's mind as she walked through the house. The macaroni art that she made her mom in foal school was hung up on the wall. Pictures of Sunset everywhere, including her missing poster. A letter from Celestia announcing her acceptance into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Sunset felt tears fill her eyes as she sat down at the old wooden table she once ate dinner at every day.

"Where did you go? Where have you been?" Sunset's mom asked, worry in her eyes. She looked tired and lost. Like she had lost a part of her long ago.

"Um," Sunset didn't know how to explain what happened to her mother. She supposed that the truth would be the best. "I wanted more than Celestia was teaching me, so I found a mirror... a portal, that led to another world. I ran away through the portal and was mean to a lot of ponies. I tried to steal Princess Twilight Sparkle's crown and turned into a she-demon. She turned me back and forgave me. Now I'm sort of kind of dating her and two other ponies we know."

Sunset's mother looked shocked but not too shocked. "I always thought you had done something crazy," she said, sighing. "I supposed you got yourself killed or something. We searched everywhere for you, but there was only so much Celestia could do..."

"I'm sorry, mom." Sunset said, sighing as well. "I thought you couldn't care about me any longer, things were already hard once Dad died, but something took control of me and..."

"It's okay, Sunset." Sunlight said with sorrow. "I know things were hard for you. I just can't believe you resorted to something so... extreme."

"It was pretty extreme," Sunset let out a nervous chuckle. "Twilight and her friends have been teaching me a lot, though. I still live in the other world, I have my own place there, but I mostly stay with Twilight."

"I can't believe my own daughter is dating a princess," Sunset's mother smiled to herself. "And two other ponies. I don't really understand what you mean by that, but I support you."

Sunset laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty unconventional..."

Sunlight smiled at her daughter, as if she was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"I love you, Sunset."

"I love you too, mom."

Sunset spent the rest of the night talking to her mother, catching up on what has been going on, making dinner plans, crying, laughing, and the like.

Sunset realized something that night. No matter how sad the fate of her human counterpart was, she had the power to change her own fate. She couldn't bring Sunset back to life, but she could fix herself.

The next day, Sunset showed up at another familiar house, almost similar to her childhood one, except a bit less pony-like. She left a bouquet of beautiful gladiolus', which were colored orange and red, just like her locks of hair. She left the flowers on the porch, and was on her way.

Perhaps those flowers would bring some strength to the ever-mourning Sunlight Shimmer. It definitely brought some peace to Sunset, mourning a version of herself she never knew.