The few clouds in the night sky happened to part, revealing the full moon of the late spring. As the front yard of CHS brightened in the silvery rays, Sunset Shimmer watched as they hit the base of the statue, and before long the smooth marble surface began to wobble slightly, like the surface of a clear mountain lake.

Sunset checked her surroundings, just to make sure she was truly alone. She hadn’t told anyone else she would be here tonight this Saturday, the day after the Friendship Games, and it didn’t look like any random passers-by had strayed into the vicinity. She turned back just in time to see the ripples in the mirror surface stretch outward, and a tall woman with purple hair and wearing a flowing white dress appeared with a smile. “Twilight?”

The woman smiled and moved forward gracefully to embrace her. “Hello, Sunset. It’s good to see you again.”

Despite being slightly startled by the initial appearance, the voice set Sunset’s mind at ease, and she leaned into the hug. When they parted, Sunset had to actually crane her neck a little to make eye contact with her friend. “You look … taller.” Not only did she look taller. Sunset could swear there were sparkles of light in her hair, and it seemed to be forever flowing in a gentle ethereal breeze.

Princess Twilight looked down on herself, seemingly noticing the changes herself for the first time. “I suppose the mirror portal must have matched my human form to the changes my body has been going through in Equestria compared to the last time I was here.” She looked around for a bit with a nostalgic smile on her serene face, until her gaze fell upon the broken pieces of the cubist horse statue in a corner of the schoolyard with a dead-pan expression: “Oh, thank Harmony. Looks like someone finally decided to put that ugly thing out of its misery.”

Sunset chuckled, reassured that Twilight was still Twilight despite any outward changes. “If there’s one thing I learned over the last year, it’s that the world will move on, whether we like certain aspects of it or not. But some things can be rectified.”

Twilight’s smile reappeared as she turned back to Sunset. “Isn’t that the truth?” Then her features became serious. “Do you have it?”

Sunset nodded, reaching into her pocket and producing the device. Shadows swirled ominously around it as she held it in her hand. “The MCD Mk. 3 as your counterpart calls it. Or, I guess, the Horn of Sombra 2.0.” With all else being quiet, one could still faintly hear Opaline’s screams from within.

Producing an ornate wooden box in mid-air with a wave of her hand, Twilight opened the lid and held it in front of her. After Sunset had placed the device in it, Twilight closed the lid, causing the box to make some clicking sounds as several magic runes on its surface, which Sunset recognized to be abjurative in nature, lit up briefly. She made a dismissive gesture with her hand, and the box vanished. “I’ll make sure this stays safely under lock and key in Equestria,” she promised, adding to herself: “And I better start thinking of contingencies, in case we have an Opaline of our own running around somewhere.”

“Thank you,” Sunset said. “Now, do you have something for me?”

Nodding, Twilight reached into her pocket and produced a pink geode pendant, holding it up by its chain.

Sunset swallowed hard and reached out hesitantly before taking it wordlessly, running her finger over the imprint of Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark.

“What do you intend to do with it?” Twilight asked.

Sunset took out a leather case, opening it up to reveal the other five geodes, plus her own broken one. “I asked the others to lend me theirs,” she explained as she carefully deposited it with the rest of the set, the first time in years they’d all been reunited. “Even though my geode is broken, when Bright Hope shunted all that magic into me, it felt like I could briefly access my powers. They’re all still dormant. But I’m going on a school trip to Camp Everfree soon, where we originally found them. I dunno, maybe nothing will happen. I just have a gut feeling that I should bring them.”

“I’ve learned to trust your gut feelings more than most people’s solid conclusions.” Twilight looked over her shoulder at the portal. “What would you like me to do about the portal?”

“Make sure nothing comes through for the next two days,” Sunset replied simply while stowing the geodes away in her bag.

“I have a 24 hour watch of Royal Guard on the other side, plus Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst and Star Swirl the Bearded taking turns to head up the watches. Nothing dangerous will pass either way unnoticed while the moons are in alignment. But I meant afterwards. With magic permanently restored to your world, I could keep it open indefinitely once again.”

Sunset hadn’t considered that. “No,” she said after a few moments of reflection, “let it close naturally. But keep that device to open it handy. It’s too dangerous to leave it open for now, but we’ll have to meet again like this eventually. We’re not done yet.”

Twilight gave her an inquisitive look.

“I didn’t want to put this in the journal,” Sunset said, “but I saw something when I watched Bright Hope’s memories of the Maretime Bay incident. There were three motes of shadow that escaped from the original Horn of Sombra.”

“Three? Are you suggesting …?”

“I’m not suggesting, Twilight. I’m sure of it,” Sunset said as one of her hands balled into a fist and her knuckles went white. “Two more entities like Opaline were released that day, … and I saw one of them go for Pinkie Pie while her back was turned. We never understood why she fell ill after that day, but now I know. If those two entities are even half as dangerous as Opaline, that’s reason enough to hunt them down and put them away in the deepest pits of Tartarus forever. But one of them in particular I can never forgive, so I’ll never stop looking.” She stood there, shaking in anger while hot tears welled up in her eyes.

“Sunset,” Twilight began after a few moments of stunned silence, “do you realize what that means?”

“It means one of them killed my friend,” Sunset grated between clenched teeth.

“Yes,” Twilight said quietly and sadly, “but you’ve been blaming yourself for Pinkie Pie’s death for nearly three years now. If what you say is true, those entities were here long before you ever stepped through the portal, and they would have been released even if you’d never come here, which means Pinkie Pie’s death …”

Sunset’s body relaxed as the realization Twilight just made hit her. Instead, her lower lip trembled as she looked into Twilight’s gentle eyes which were urging her on to spell it out for herself. “… wasn’t … my fault? It wasn’t my fault?” She trembled as tears began to stream down her face, taking with them years of guilt and shame and self-loathing. “Pinkie’s death wasn’t my fault.” Twilight held out her arms and Sunset gratefully threw herself into them, crying, sobbing, screaming three years worth of repressed pain into the starry night. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“It never was,” Twilight told her friend in a soothing voice while stroking her hair gently. “We’ve all tried to tell you so many times. Maybe now you can finally believe it, too.”

Sunset cried. She just cried. She didn’t know how long she stood there, crying herself out on Princess Twilight’s shoulder, but it felt good, and so she kept on crying, finally free to properly grieve and mourn for her lost friend without any of her own bullshit getting in the way.

…

…

…

And in the midst of the unthinking cathartic relief she felt in that moment, deep down in the darkest part of her soul, a voice that hadn’t made itself heard since the night of her last Fall Formal went: Pinkie Pie, I will find whoever or whatever did this to you, … and I will make them pay!

Author's Note

And with that, three years of work comes to a close for now, and judging by the comments of the last few days, I don't seem to have messed up the landing too badly.

So happy holidays, thank you for going on this journey with me, thank you to everyone who ever wrote a comment, and I hope to see you all eventually for the sequel!

Brought to you by my generous patreon supporter(s):

Gold Tier:
-Daedalus Aegle

Silver Tier:
-Brandon Caldwell