The pink orb emerged from the surface portal, and Sunset saw it all from the beginning, not letting herself be distracted by the movement of billowing fabric in the corner of her eye. As always, she contemplated just what it was that she was actually seeing as the orb traced out a colorful arc in the air, then turned into a blur, which then turned into a man who was screaming as he hit the—well, not ground, but whatever it was that separated the endless void of white above them from the endless void of white below.
He landed with a thud, cutting off his scream, before opening his eyes and then screaming in confusion as he frantically took in everything around him: the glowing portal above his head, Sunset Shimmer, the bodies lying down on the not-ground all around them, the infinite and featureless white that stretched on and on in all directions everywhere, the bodies again. He then screamed in horror again as he clambered up on elbow and palm to a sitting position, then drew in his knees and shrunk himself while fearfully eyeing the bodies as if he were in any danger of touching them. With a grimace on his face and a stuck scream in his throat that leaked out as a pulsating whine, he looked up at Sunset with eyes full of trepidation.
She gave him the most reassuring of soft smiles in return, something she’d had far too much occasion to practice.
“Don’t worry. They’re not dead.”
“Th-they’re not?”
Sunset knelt down by the body of Pinkie Pie, and picked up her forearm and stretched it out towards him.
“Here, feel.”
He hesitantly reached out to touch the back of Pinkie’s hand with his own, and the confirmation that it had the same warmth that living flesh had seemed to make a difference. Less scared, he leaned forward a bit to study her closer. The happy smile on Pinkie’s face seemed to reassure him, and he visibly relaxed, his shoulders untensing.
“So they’re just… asleep?”
“Yes. Most of them.” She motioned to a corner of the field of bodies, and his eyes followed her to a pile covered in coats and jackets.
Sunset watched him nod slowly, and then look past Sunset, out at the field of bodies that were neatly arrayed in front of him, head to toe and side by side. Studying them, too, as if somehow making sense of this pocket world of deathly quiet and endless white. Then, he pointed at one of the bodies.
“Oh, hey, I recognize this one. It’s her, Vignette Valencia! Wow, she looks just like she does in the movies! And this girl… that’s Pinkie Pie!" He turned to her. "And that must mean that you’re Sunset Shimmer! Oh, wow! You know, I never believed what they said about you. Trying to take over the world just because you were jealous of her? It always seemed really thin as a motivation, you know?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah! Which is why I thought that it would be good to add a bit of nuance to Her next project, you know? For the viewers that were a bit more sophisticated? But look where that got me…“ He frowned, then looked back at Sunset. “Wait, if you’re Sunset Shimmer, that must mean that you’ve been in here for…”
“Fifteen years.” Sunset supplied gently.
The man gulped as that sank in, and his eyes widened as he looked all around himself again at the endless white void that surrounded them, then down at the bodies, then at Sunset again.
“What is this place?”
She smiled softly at him.
“I know you have a lot of questions. But first, could you use a hug?”
He nodded weakly, and she wrapped her arms around him, and visions of the outside flooded her mind. The giant cineplexes that were in every city, with enough seating capacity to accommodate the entire population for their daily required viewings. The glimpses of the movies that Sunset had grown to appreciate for all the clever ways they contorted themselves to have their seventy-foot-tall star and Her merely human co-stars appearing in the same frame. The man’s life as a senior scriptwriter, recently promoted from mid-level, just high enough to catch Her notice for the first time…
With all the better understanding of him to make this part easier, Sunset told the shaken man,
“Let me explain everything.”
And she did, giving him the tour as she did so, walking between the rows of bodies while holding a comforting arm around his side. Squeezing tight when they went past the edge, reappearing on the other side of the field of bodies as this tiny world looped back around itself . After that bit, he was mostly quiet for the rest of it, his face following the contours of disbelief to horror to hopelessness.
Sunset tried to not let her relief show at how defeated he sounded when he asked,
“So that’s it, then? There’s really nothing that we can do?”
She smiled sadly.
“Unless you figure out something that all of us together overlooked in our years of trying, no. All we can do is wait for something to happen on the outside. Who knows, maybe there’s still a Resistance somewhere, or maybe Equestria is still trying to do something..”
She pointed up at the portal hovering above them, forever out of reach, and he looked up at it with bated breath as if rescue would come for them through it at any moment. Sunset waited until just enough time in silence had passed.
“And of course, you’re free to try! It’s just that…”
“No, I understand.” He looked down at his feet and at the featureless, endless white beyond them.. “I mean, it’s not like I’d know any better. What choice do I have?”
“You have this one!” Sunset reassured him. “And you can take as long as you need to—.”
“No, just do it.” He sighed. “I never wanted any of this, and I hate everything about it, and you’re offering to make it all go away. And either I wake up and everything’s fine, or I don’t. That’s… not the worst deal.”
She nodded solemnly, and took out the round, blue-green stone from her pocket, its eye motif glowing. As she had done so many times before, she shaped the energies within it in just that special way that Starlight had figured out, so many years ago.
Yet another wonderful day at Canterlot High. Stopping an out-of-control toast-making robot that has gained self-awareness somehow, while Flash Sentry croons in the background. As you do.
Sunset let go of Twilight’s arm, and the idyllic vision dissipated, replaced by the sight of the real Twilight Sparkle lying supine on the floor. Her eyes were closed behind those thick-framed glasses, a serene smile on her face. Sunset let that peace seep into her as much as she could, slaking herself with every drop of it as she let go of her arm.
In the Void, nohuman needed to eat or drink or sleep. Left alone, Twilight would lie there forever, dreaming that dream of endless adventures in the life that they had all once shared together. Perfect and without decay.
Sunset slowly stood herself up, instantly towering over the field of bodies around her, flashing a glance . All with the same peaceful smiles on their faces, insensate to the void of unchanging white all around them. It never failed to warm her heart to note that Applejack was clasping Rarity’s hand, or how Rainbow Dash was embracing Fluttershy.
In the Void, joints did not stiffen. Bedsores did not form. Blood did not flow underneath skin that always felt soft and warm.
And she braced herself for what came next. The self-satisfied smile of Vignette Valencia, off conquering worlds inside her own mind.. A happy ending that she did not deserve.
In the Void, bodies did not hurt. But words still could.
She looked down next, with satisfaction, at their newest addition. A serene smile on his pink face, and as Sunset knew from the memories she had peeked into, more at peace than he had been in a very long time.
A much better end for him than what could have been. She was always the last stop on Sunset’s little tours like this, at the corner of the field. A lone green arm, peeking out from the quilt of sewn-together jackets and coats obscuring her face and body.
In the Void, it was very difficult to die. But one could find the way, if motivated enough.
Sunset squeezed the stone inside her pocket.
Draped in another jacket-quilt, Starlight smiled a crooked smile at her, the only kind she could, with facial features smeared across a half-formed muzzle. Her heliotrope skin seemed normal and smooth from a distance, but as Sunset sat down next to her she could see how it had a texture halfway between human skin and horse coat. Starlight was a half-human, half-pony blend of a thoughtform that would frighten others, but to Sunset she was the only splash of color in the featureless void. The only other thing that moved in this place.
Sunset draped an arm over Starlight’s not-shoulders and buried her face in her too-long neck so that she could feel, as much as hear, her croaking voice.
“Is he settling in okay?”
“Yeah, he is! He’s having the time of his life in there. He just wanted a better reception for his more difficult stories, isn’t that funny?“
Starlight chuckled.
“That is fun. Kinda cute.”
“Yeah. I wish you could’ve met him.” She gave Starlight a squeeze. “I always feel so awful hiding you away.”
Starlight stroked her cheek with the back of a gnarled hand, the hooves on the ends of her fingers pointed away.
“No, don’t. It always works better when you don’t have to explain me to them. Besides, it was a privilege hearing you work.”
Sunset smirked. “I’m getting pretty good at it, aren’t I?”
“Yeah! Much better than I would be…”
Starlight let that drift off, not saying anything else, and letting her hand drop off as well. Sunset opened her eyes to see Starlight staring out at the bodies with a frown. She looked too, though she did not need to in order to know what Starlight was contemplating. How neatly arranged the bodies were in their rows, how unchanging the smiles on each of their faces.
She squeezed Starlight’s hand.
“It’s the best that we can do for them.”
Starlight sighed, and leaned into Sunset’s embrace as she looked up at the glowing portal, forever out of reach, that loomed above them like an eternal sun.
“I hope so.”
