Sunny didn't know how long it had been since she'd been this tired. It wasn't like anypony sensible would blame her, of course. Going on an Equestria-spanning adventure to unite the three tribes of ponies tended to burn a lot of energy. Plus there had been that whole transformation into an alicorn, something she'd certainly never expected, and the immediate cleanup in the aftermath of Sprout's attempt to start a war. In hindsight, maybe Hitch shouldn't have let him and his mother (who willingly took the punishment) off with just a few months of community service. At least nopony would support him if he tried something that stupid again.
At the moment, all Sunny wanted was to lay down in her bed in the lighthouse (which had been easy enough to rebuild with the help of unicorn magic) and sleep. It wasn't just physical exhaustion, either. After watching the crystals fail twice, Sunny needed to relief-cry herself to sleep at the thought that ponies wouldn't despise each other anymore.
Another thing nagging at her mind was this: remarkably, she'd never even considered what to do if her seemingly impossible dream of a united pony society ever actually came to be. Now that she was a fusion of all three tribes, did they all expect her to be some sort of leader? If they did, could she pull that off, or would her incompetence lead to the three tribes hating each other again, ultimately making everything she and her friends had suffered through pointless?
Pulling a leg out from under her blanket, Sunny wiped sweat off her forehead. She was catastrophizing, which wasn't going to help in any way. She and her friends had already done the hardest part, pushing through years of lies the tribes had told about each other. All they had to do now was keep it from happening again. How hard could that be?
Sighing to herself, and hoping she hadn't been jinxed by asking that last question, Sunny tucked her wings in and closed her eyes once more, slowly drifting off to sleep.
Sunny Starscout's eyes snapped open, like somepony had blasted an air horn into her ear. But there had been no noise that woke her up. Instead, it felt like some foreign power had taken control of her brain, forcing her to become aware again.
But she wasn't sitting in her bed anymore. She was standing in some kind of ethereal plane, a seemingly endless landscape of blues and greens, dotted with white stars. Even stranger, there didn't seem to be any solid ground, yet her hooves were definitely standing on something.
Sunny looked around, finding nothing in the vast expanse. She couldn't recall how she got here, but for some reason, that fact didn't bother her. She felt...safe, but she couldn't explain why. She knew this location was magical, but in a way she'd never seen before.
She took a few steps forward, spread her ethereal wings and flapped them, taking to the air to try and get to a vantage point. That effort proved to be in vain very quickly, however, and as the entire area looked the same, and seemed to have no end. She settled back down on the ground, feeling slightly annoyed.
"It's okay. I was weirded out by this place the first time, too."
Sunny whirled around on one hoof. She'd been joined by a second alicorn, one with a bright lavender coat. Her Cutie Mark was an asymmetrical six-pointed star that almost made Sunny jump.
"Twilight Sparkle?" she ventured, her stomach filled with butterflies. She was staring at the pony who'd inspired her father. The pony whose figurine she'd kept for so long. She was staring at her hero.
"That's me," replied the other alicorn. "Hello, Sunny. I'm glad you could make it here."
"Here? Where is here? What the heck is going on?" Sunny's mouth couldn't regurgitate the questions her brain was coming up with fast enough.
Twilight didn't respond right away, instead turning around and beckoning with one hoof, inviting Sunny to follow her. With no other course of action, Sunny obeyed, and the two alicorns trotted across the landscape.
"This is a special plane of existence, where ponies come as they ascend to alicornhood," Twilight said as they walked. "I came to this place when I became the Princess of Friendship. Several others came here at their time. We weren't able to bring you here immediately, due to the need for magic to build up once more, but we were able to make the transfer while you were asleep."
"Wait, we?" asked Sunny, latching onto that particular word. She heard the clopping of more hooves around her, and she turned from side to side, seeing that they were joined by more alicorns.
The shining white Celestia, once the avatar of the sun. The star-maned Luna, the embodiment of the moon. The compassionate Cadence, master of love across Equestria. And her daughter Flurry Heart, bringer of hope to ponies everywhere. They all gave Sunny gentle smiles as they looked down at her, and she felt no fear.
"We've never seen an earth pony achieve alicorn status before," said Celestia. "Congratulations, Sunny Starscout. You should be proud of what you've achieved."
"Well, I am," Sunny replied, blushing a little at being complimented by somepony who might've been once considered a god, "but what exactly have I achieved?"
"See for yourself," answered Luna, gesturing around them with one hoof.
Sunny glanced around, discovering yet another new feature of this strange location. They were surrounded by screens, though apparently they didn't need a tv or anything, which played images of Sunny's life, and her recent adventure. Sunny listening eagerly to her father's tales of a united Equestria, Sunny freeing Izzy from the Unicorn Entrapment Device, Sunny and Izzy meeting Zipp for the first time, the five friends joining together in Izzy's house to plan how they would restore magic.
"A pony can become an alicorn when they achieve their ultimate purpose," Twilight continued, "and by uniting the tribes, you achieved yours. Only certain ponies have the potential to become alicorns. Don't get the wrong idea, this wasn't predestined or anything. You earned your horn and wings. That's why the crystals transformed you."
Sunny was reminded of another question. "Where did the crystals come from?" she asked. "How do they fit into this?"
"The crystals were created by us before we departed for this plane of existence," said Twilight. "They were intended to represent the unity between the three tribes, reminding ponies of how important the magic of friendship was. They were also responsible for keeping the flow of magic going in Equestria. They weren't supposed to ever be separated, but what's done is done. When the tribes split, they lost their magic as well."
"So bringing the tribes back together restored the crystals," Sunny summarized. "But these..." She gestured to her ethereal horn and wings. "What do they mean? What am I now? What should I do with them?"
"In our Equestria, they would've signified you becoming Equestria's latest princess," said Celestia. "You, Sunny Starscout, are the Princess of Peace."
Sunny actually froze where she stood. She certainly hadn't expected this. From her father's study of ancient Equestria, she knew that the princesses were the highest authority back then (apparently, there were no queens, but nopony knew why). She thought maybe the others would look to her for leadership, but she didn't expect it to be justified. She could lead her four best friends easily, but all ponies?
"A-are you sure this process is accurate?" she stuttered. "I mean, I'm not exactly princess material. Zipp and Pipp are already princesses, maybe they—"
Then she felt a soft weight on her back, and realized Twilight was draping a wing over her. It was a comforting feeling, like when her father used to tuck her in. Her anxiety faded into the background as Twilight began to speak.
"I had a similar reaction when I first became an alicorn. Don't worry. Besides, your Equestria isn't the same as ours. You aren't obligated to suddenly rule over everypony now."
Sunny released the breath she'd been holding. "That's a relief," she admitted. "I may have helped bring ponykind back together, but I don't think I'm ready for that."
"They may ask you to become their ruler," said Celestia. "However, you'd be within your rights to refuse. The magic of our Equestria has long faded. New magic has taken its place. You'll have to build Equestria in your own way, not rebuild it in our image. You have to find your own way."
"I figured," said Sunny. "We can't repeat the past, after all. Still, from what I heard about your version of Equestria, it was pretty incredible."
"Oh, incredible isn't the word I would use!" came a haughty male voice. "More like horrifyingly boring! Or borrifying, is that a word?"
Sunny looked over her head to see a long, snaking form flying over her head. The creature above her was easily the strangest she'd ever seen. It had the head of a goat, mismatched horns and wings, a lion's paw, an eagle talon, a bull hoof, a reptilian foot, and a dragon-like red tail.
"Are you...Discord?" she asked, nervous. "The legendary Spirit of Chaos?"
"The one and only," snarked the draconequus. "How does it feel to be the most powerful pony in all of Equestria, Sunny Starscout?"
That thought made Sunny's heart skip a few beats.
"Discord,"Twilight groaned, "we talked about this. She's going to be part of the next generation of harmony. We don't want to freak her out."
"Twilight, you are no fun!" complained Discord. "Even after all these millennia!"
"Don't worry about him," insisted Celestia. "He just likes to mess with others. He may not be an alicorn, but some rules don't exactly apply to him."
Sunny calmed down a little. Another question suddenly popped into her mind. "Wait. I read in my dad's research that alicorns were immortal. If that's the case, why did you leave everypony? And why didn't you find more ponies who could ascend?"
"That's one of the occasions where the truth got lost in the sands of time," replied Twilight. "Alicorns aren't truly immortal. We just have very long lifespans. Celestia and Luna had even longer ones due to their connections to the sun and moon. Before they passed, they used all their magic to ensure the celestial bodies would move on their own." She looked off into the distance, as if reminiscing over long lost memories. "As for your second question...Equestria was changing. The old ways, the ways of royalty were fading. I thought perhaps Equestria didn't need alicorns anymore. So I helped forge the three crystals to keep magic flowing, and stepped down from the throne. But after I passed, things got worse, and without the magic of friendship between the three tribes, the crystals lost power. We were unable to interfere from this plane of existence."
Sunny nodded sadly. "I understand. Still, I wish I could've met you and your friends, the Guardians of Harmony, while you were alive." She glanced around at the other alicorns. "So is this where you tell me everything I need to know about being an alicorn? I mean, in my time, this is unprecedented."
"There's no magic formula as to how to do things, Sunny," said Flurry Heart. "However, we've got something that may help. It'll hold a special significance to you, too."
All five alicorns lit up their horns, and as the various-colored magical auras gathered together, a sphere began to form above them. Inside the sphere, a rectangular shape appeared, before dropping downwards all of a sudden. Sunny barely managed to light up her horn to catch the book.
Taking a look at the cover, she gasped. The cover had an image of a gold horseshoe on it, with the familiar asymmetrical six-pointed star in the center.
"This is...this is..." she breathed.
"The friendship journal my friends and I wrote," said Twilight. "I encourage you to take a deep look. I'm sure that it will assist you in restoring friendship to Equestria."
Sunny didn't know what to say. Her father would've done anything to get his hooves on this journal, and now she was holding a copy in her own. This wasn't a dream come true, this was beyond a dream come true.
"...thank you," she finally breathed. She looked up, prepared to ask more of the questions that had been filling her brain since she arrived, only to notice the other alicorns and Discord were becoming more and more transparent. In fact, the whole landscape around her seemed to be fading away.
"Wait a minute!" she cried out. "Don't leave yet! I have so much more to ask about!"
"Don't worry, Sunny," Twilight replied, her voice echoing, as if she were speaking from across a vast canyon. "If you need us, we will always be with you."
Sunny didn't even get a chance to ask her to clarify before white light enveloped everything.
Sunny woke up with a start and her wings flared outwards, nearly sending her sprawling onto the floor. She managed to stabilize herself at the last second, landing on all four hooves with a loud thump.
Disappointment flooded through her veins as her brain processed what was going on. Of course it was a dream. Probably brought on by her wishful thinking, wanting to have somepony to tell her how to do this whole alicorn thing. Part of her wanted to try going back to sleep, to try and recover some of it, but she knew it was a lost cause. You could never get back to a dream once you lost it.
Another thumping sound drew her attention, and she noticed that a book seemed to have fallen from the bed as well. This was a curiosity, as Sunny didn't remember reading before going to bed last night. Intrigued, she levitated the book up with her new horn, but nearly dropped it upon seeing the cover. The same six-pointed star inside a gold horseshoe.
Her previous exhaustion forgotten, Sunny scurried over to her desk, flipped on the lamp, and began to read.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...
