It was calm in Hope Hollow, a quiet town where most ponies were content living their lives in solitude. Neighbors rarely spoke to one another, and the loudest conversations were simple hellos that were given with a half-hearted enthusiasm.
Princess Celestia, a mare who was often surrounded by smiling faces and cheerful voices, couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable watching the village from afar. Though, even if Hope Hollow was the happiest place in all of Equestria, she would still feel uneasy about what was to come, for inside the village was one of her greatest mistakes.
She trotted into the town, donning the appearance of a plumb colored pegasus with a silver mane as she looked for the proper address. Several ponies in the village gave her a long glance, as if they all knew why she was there. Celestia knew that it was only a figment of her imagination, but she couldn’t help but think that every pair of prying eyes had stared into her soul and seen the misery she caused.
Many years ago, Princess Celestia had sat by as an innocent creature was unknowingly lied to by everyone around her. Sunset Shimmer, the ex-student of Princess Celestia, had galloped through a magical mirror to escape her exile from the castle. Princess Celestia lamented the loss of her student, and soon rejoiced when Sunset appeared to return only eight moons later. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the mare that Celestia knew.
The Sunset that she met was a shell of her student, a mumbling mess of anxiety that called everything around her a dream or some illusion of her mind. She claimed to be a strange magic-less creature called a human, that she was only two-thirds her actual age, and that she had never once heard of Equestria. At the time, Celestia and many others believed that Sunset had been mentally afflicted by the mirror, causing her mind to reject reality and drive her into a fantasy of flying metal birds and other seemingly nonsensical things.
How Celestia wished she had listened then.
Celestia spared no expense to “help” her former student. Even if Sunset was no longer allowed to be part of Celestia’s school, the solar princess would take care of her ex-protege and give her the treatment she thought Sunset needed. It took many years for the doctors and nurses to convince her that Earth wasn’t real, that she was and had always been a unicorn from Equestria, and that her parents had died years ago, against Sunset’s claims and protests.
For years afterwards, Celestia felt good about her decision to treat Sunset, to give her a new start in Equestria as she waited for memories of a false past to never arrive. It wasn’t until her newest portage, Twilight Sparkle, had suddenly chased a cloaked figure through the mirror, that Celestia learned the truth.
Celestia forbade any of her friends from following after Twilight, fearing that they would succumb to the same madness that plagued the yellow unicorn. But, Twilight returned with news of the other world, and the mysterious assailant who she chased inside.
Sunset Shimmer, the one who had been exiled many moons ago, had taken refuge in a world of creatures that Celestia had only heard of once. It didn’t take long afterwards for Celestia to realize the implications of Twilight’s story, especially when her student described how everypony had a counterpart in the human world. And so, with a heavy heart, Celestia went to search for the mare, or rather woman, that she wronged long ago.
Celestia stood at the purple door of a rather plain house, her hoof inches away from the door as she held back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. The Princess of the Sun had two choices to make, to allow this mistake to continue so that the Human Sunset could continue living a lie, or to shatter Sunset’s understanding of reality once more and do everything in her power to help the wronged mare.
With one last breath, Celestia’s hoof connected with the door to call forth the home’s owner. Sunset answered only after a minute of silence, wearing a proper smile as she greeted the disguised princess.
“Hey there. You’re here for the plumbing, right?” Sunset asked.
“I’m sorry, but no. I’m here for something else.”
“Really? Damn, when the buck are they going to get here,” she muttered before sighing and opening the door a bit wider. “So, what brings you here, stranger?”
“I… I’m here to… It’s about Earth and---”
“Oh, you’re from the clinic huh?” Sunset asked with a noticeable hint of worry in her voice. “Well, if you’re here to make sure I’m fine, then I am. I haven’t thought of ‘earth’ or anything in years. I’ve been taking my medication too, just like the doc ordered, so I’m all good. Sorry you had to waste your time,” Sunset apologized as she tried to close the door. Unfortunately for the worried mare, Celestia’s hoof blocked it.
“It’s not that either, I’m… I’m glad that you’re doing well Sunset but… May I please come inside?” There wasn’t a hair of confidence in Celestia’s voice as she spoke. Any thoughts of how to approach the changed human vanished when she laid eyes on her.
Celestia had conjured an image of the mare in her mind as she walked into the town, a frail pony who would stand on weak knees, with a voice so soft that it would sound like a whisper. She imagined some shell of a mare, a pony who had seen the depths of Tartarus and given up. Sunset didn’t look like the sickly mare she imagined she would be. Her coat was pristine and her mane was combed well. She didn’t look like a mare who had suffered indescribable hardships, she looked just like any other mare in Equestria, as if Celestia had never touched a hair on her coat.
How many had Celestia unwittingly hurt with her good intentions in the past? How many would she find if she looked? Would they all look as normal as the mare standing before her, or would it be easier to spot her other sins?
“Well, I’m actually expecting somepony to come by for my pipes, winter’s coming and all that, you know? I’d be happy to talk some other time though,” Sunset explained with worry still lacing her words.
Celestia wanted nothing more than to push this off indefinitely, to forget about her sins and fly to the edge of Terra so that she could never be confronted by them again. But, as a mare who once held the Element of Honesty close to her heart, Celestia couldn’t allow her mistakes to continue.
“It can’t wait, I’m afraid. And, I… I’m so sorry, Sunset,” Celestia apologized as she prepared to tear apart Sunset’s belief in reality once more. Celestia would do everything in her power to ease Sunset into her situation, and would do whatever was needed to make sure that she would get the proper help and care she would need now.
She still doubted if what she was doing was right.
