A Broken Mirror

by EpicGamer10075

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance, Profanity, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 6306

Twilight from the Mean 6, now known as Eclipse, has become a better Pony after several months of work. However, after a disastrous Winter Wrap-Up, she has fallen down into apathy, straining her marriage with Sunset.

She was little more than a clone, and one that always failed.

It was no surprise, being made in the reflection of perfection, but why did everyone else care so much about her, especially Sunset, who went so far as to marry her?

She went with it back then, but only under the belief that she could be more than just a sub-par version of Twilight. She gave herself a new name to fit that—Eclipse—but that name should’ve been her first clue it was all futile.

Now, her entire existence and use to the world is dependent upon the answer to one question: What does she have that Twilight doesn’t?

Mean 6!Twilight x Sunset ship, done for the Sunset x Villain Marriage contest

Partially inspired by the MLP prompt here, in regards to the Mean 6 becoming real Ponies

*Featured on 11-12/02/24

Published 2024-02-12 04:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-02-12 04:10:00 UTC

Living in Her Shadow

24.

That was the number of creatures admitted to the hospital because of her failure.

The snow that crushed and suffocated some, stray bolts of thunder that found their marks on others, random icicles, heavy flower pots, spiked drinks... and she didn’t stop any of them.

All the other creatures around her always tried to assure her that it wasn’t her fault, but she knew otherwise. Why else would it be like that when she planned it, but never when anyone else did?

24.

It was an interesting number to her.

It was hardly a prime, but only one away. It was divisible by a multiple of two, and one less than a square. It was two dozen, and four times six. It was the number of hours in a day, and her own age when she was created.

She had many thoughts on the number, and while she may have broken them off to focus on something else back before that disaster, she now recalled that it never mattered what she did in the first place.

So instead, she lay in bed for days on end. She barely eat, only bothering with essentials to keep herself alive for... whatever reason. She barely bathed, only licking herself and using the bathroom whenever needed on little more than instinct, though she may as well have shat her own bed for all she cared. She barely talked, only sometimes to the occasional haranguing visitor that wanted to deal with her, and only then to make them go away. She barely even bothered to look at her own room, as what would be the point? Its sight was seared into her mind, the crystalline room that she didn’t deserve, and all the amenities she didn’t need. There were clothes she wore only a few times ever, and random trinkets she once used to hold her own focus. There was an empty bookshelf, and a nightstand next to her bed, with a lamp on top, though currently off and leaving the dim light of twilight peeking in through the curtains to illuminate the golden horn ring on the nightstand as well.

She remembered when she was given that ring, proposed to her by Sunset Shimmer approximately twenty months after her creation, and had stayed on her horn for another four.

Huh. There it is again.

Twenty-four.

It must’ve been fate.

Not like she cared, really.

Looking back down at the ring, she sneered at it; she never deserved that, nor at all what it represented. Why did Sunset fall in love with her instead of...?

Biting her lip on an instinct that wasn’t her own, she was suddenly of the filthy taste of stale saliva in her mouth, and she grimaced. Sighing in exasperation and annoyance, she rolled forward, then off the bed.

THWUMP!

She didn’t even feel the impact against her folded-up wing; it was utterly asleep.

Slowly rolling over to her barrel, she pushed herself up on sore and sleepy hooves, her joints creaking and cracking with her every movement, though she didn’t care for any of it and would’ve been fine if her legs failed and she face-planted back on the floor. She really would’ve just stayed there until she passed out again. It was a pretty comfy-looking floor, with the nice carpet and everything. The carpet she didn’t deserve...

Growling, she forced herself up to stand, and as her legs buckled a bit under her exhaustion, she kept herself up, then took a few deep breaths to try and get her blood flowing again. When that was done, she carefully moved her still sluggish hooves so that she could turn towards the door on a nearby wall, one that led to the bathroom. She’d say she didn’t deserve that too, but with literally every other bedroom in the building having one, it at least didn’t represent someone else going out of their way for her.

Sighing, she pushed herself forward across the floor, taking each step carefully, lest she let her simple plan of walking fail, too. Oh, what was the point? It was always destined to...

Bonk!

“Ow,” She replied to her snout smashing into the bathroom door, in a voice that wasn’t her own.

Not tempting fate yet further, and also not allowing her to use the incredibly powerful magic she didn’t deserve, she raised a hoof to the door handle, then turned it, then pulled the door out to a ninety-degree angle, then let go of the handle stepped through the entranceway. Turning around in place on the linoleum tiles, she grabbed the other handle of the door, then pulled the door closed, backing herself up while pulling it fully closed, letting the latch slide open, then lock in place as she stood fully inside the bathroom.

Her eyes next fell upon the light switch next to the door; it was a tiny little thing, not even as wide as her snout, yet controlling the light of the entire room. She raised her hoof to it, and with a full second of delay flicked it, and knew that beyond the wall, the switch connected the magic wiring, letting the 120 Amperes of magic power flow through it, around the bend of the far wall, then up to the singe bar-shaped light about two-thirds the way to the ceiling. Within that light, she knew the magic Fluorite crystals would be energized with the magic coming in from the wires, each of the three crystals with their approximately 10 Ohms of resistance vibrating with the 40 Volts of voltage in such a manner that light emanated out in an uneven bimodal distributions curve primarily between 400 and 700 nanometers in wavelength.

She didn’t learn of this knowledge. She didn’t read about in books, or hear about in lectures. She didn’t have quizzes, homework, and exams about it. She just knew it. From her creation, it was granted to her, like nothing.

She didn’t deserve it.

Backing away from the door almost on instinct, she then found herself standing in the center of the bathroom, where she then turned to the side to see the light on the wall, shining brightly into her eyes, though she felt no pain from it. She saw the sink, with its wide basin to collect water, and the single faucet above to pour said water with two handles attached, one to dispense cold water at down to 0 degrees, and the other hot water at up to 50 degrees, with the usual mixing of them both giving water at 15 degrees.

Looking up from the sink, she saw the main thing in the bathroom she despised the most; the mirror.

And within it, she found herself face-to-face with the visage of Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.

Except she wasn’t her.

Far from it; she was meant to be her opposite, her reverse, her antithesis. Unfortunately, this also meant that the planning and organizing capability that the real Twilight found so natural and effortless, she instead was a fumbling, useless mess at.

And so, when she and her compatriots were defeated by their own hubris and blasted with the Tree of Harmony’s magic beam of gayness, they all became their own real Ponies.

In some manner, anyway.

They were free from Chrysalis’s control, at least, but they were still the polar opposites of their originals, and as those originals were generally good Ponies with good qualities, this new versions of them were anything but. One was a bully, another an instigator. One was left greedy and mad, another a lazy and perpetual liar. The final two were apathetic and hyper-focused respectively, with the former simply letting everything fly her by, and the other...

...Was left unable to affect anything in the way she wanted, as her master plans for power were usually very short-sighted and always failed.

Really, the thing that best encapsulated her essence was her new name: Eclipse. It was akin to Twilight’s meeting of day and night, of Sun and Moon, but harsher, and meaner. But it was also... like it was overcompensating for her own uselessness, as if she was trying to be some evil edgelord, as opposed to the more complex negative reversal of Twilight that she actually wanted her new name to be... but that too was like herself, wasn’t it?

A constant failure, unable to do anything for anyone, least of all herself.

She thought things may have been different for a while, actually, as the real Twilight and her real friends helped them, slowly getting them to come off of their antithetical ways to some degree, calming them down and helping them find what they actually enjoyed doing with their lives. The same was true for Eclipse, who had been taught better ways to organize and think about things that would truly be good for her, as well as how to keep proper amounts of attention on things that actually mattered.

For a while, she thought it was working. She slowly got her shit together and stopped pining for power, planning good events in her life that she actually managed to make time to attend, and starting to help out others with planning bigger events. There were parties, both for and by her, and community projects old and new she helped with. Her resolve and intelligence even attracted a pony who had recently moved to Ponyville from another world; Sunset Shimmer. The Unicorn may have fell first, but she slowly managed to get Eclipse to fall as well, and they loved each other for many months, and eventually they got married.

But then, the Winter Wrap-Up came. A yearly tradition, and one she had a light hoof in helping the previous year, back when she was still learning, but this time, it was a good opportunity to test how far she had come.

And she failed. Miserably.

Once she found out how badly, her past and her purpose came back to her; she was never meant to succeed, only to fail.

She was made by a monster that had failed twice before, and created in the reflection of a Pony who always succeeded, so it was never a surprise to her when she failed, time and time again. The others got angry, but she didn’t; this was what she was made for, after all.

Looking at the mirror again, she noticed that there were differences between herself and the real deal. Twilight’s coat was bright and vivid, whereas Eclipse’s was dulled and lifeless. Twilight’s mane and tail were rich and glossy, but Eclipse’s were dry and frayed. Twilight’s eyes were clear, sharp, and shown immense power, intelligence, and wisdom behind them, but Eclipse’s eyes were a deeper, corrupted colour, and while she had the power and intelligence, there was no wisdom. She hadn’t had a life to grow that wisdom, after all. Even their Marks were different, with Twilight’s rose-coloured six-pointed star having a syncopated white one beneath it, but that same smaller star was the same rose as the other on Eclipse’s Mark.

It was easily enough to pass as the real mare at a glance, but any closer look would reveal that she’s nothing but a cheap knock-off given life.

Why was she given life, anyway? That damned Tree had no reason to do anything but execute her and the other fakes, and she truly would’ve preferred that. It’s not like she had any purpose in the living world, anyhow.

And yet, some creatures liked her anyway.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she was forced to ask a question.

“What do I have that she doesn’t?”

She had asked that question of so many others, so many times, but she never got a true answer, one that satisfied her and actually felt true at the same time.

She had asked Fluttershy, Quake, Rarity, Miracle, Pinkie, Pepper, Applejack, Golden, Rainbow, Chroma, and Twilight herself.

She had asked Celestia, Luna, Cadenza, Armor, Spike, Tempest, Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst, Sunset...

She had asked Ember, Thorax, Maud, Sentry, Raven, Zecora, Lyra, Sweetie, Sweetie (the other one), Bloom, Scootaloo, Gabby, Gilda, and practically every other creature that she could, yet she never got a good answer.

Really, the only argument that may have come close was that she wasn’t immortal, which was a sketchy statement to say the least. She had wings, she had a horn, and she had magic hooves, but she was still pretty sure she wasn’t an Alicorn.

It’s not as if being an Alicorn meant much to her anyway; it didn’t even need to be earned if Flurry Heart was any indication. And, her specific status had no real relation to the real Twilight if that other Twilight was any indication.

She had asked that Twilight too, after they and the other couple visitors from the other world came in, and she gave one of the more interesting responses: that she wasn’t crazy.

Apparently, the real Twilight had caused some issues of her own, from a mind-control spell wrought upon the entire town, to a few instances of time-travel, and just about everything in between. Sure, Eclipse hadn’t done any of that madness, but there was no saying she hadn’t done some crazy or downright evil stuff, or get up to even more in the rest of her time alive.

So, the question still stood.

She looked deep into the mirror, dark rose eyes boring into her visage, desperate for an answer.

Suddenly, her ear twitched as she picked up a faint noise. And then—

BANG!

—The barely muffled noise of a door getting slammed open.

“Eclipse,” Sunset Shimmer stated from within the bedroom, the bathroom door still between the two mares. Her voice voice was dry, likely due to having cried a lot recently, and her tone was even, controlled, and hiding her emotions as best she could, which in this case, wasn’t very well; it was all too clear how pained she was, and it was obvious as to why.

“Sunset,” She replied calmly, casually, and with no trace of pain or annoyance. She was already better at hiding her emotions than the lot of the hyperactive creatures in Ponyville, but at this point, she didn’t exactly have any emotions to display.

“I was hoping you’d come out today,” Sunset requested, though it sounded more like a plea. “It’s an important day for us. ...You do know know what day it is, right?” She added, her question an even more desperate grasp at the love they once had for each other.

Eclipse simply snorted in response, explaining, “Of course I do. You do know who I’m based off of, correct? I can’t not keep track of the days passing.”

She could hear the deep inhale on the other side of the door, and could easily envision the sight of Sunset pressing her hooves into her face while she nodded repeatedly, processing the information and attempting to formulate a response. “Hopefully you also that... t-this type of day is very important,” She eventually managed wearily, desperately, and almost terrified.

Eclipse almost cared. “Empirically, yes, I do. Personally, no, I don’t care.” Slowly turning her head to look at the door, easily able to feel her... wife’s presence beyond it, she stated, “Our relationship isn’t anything more than a legality, after all.”

“Don’t, say that...” Sunset cried, tears likely forming in her eyes again as she pleaded, “Please, Clippy...”

Oh, she was using the nickname again. Eclipse went to ‘Clipse, then to ‘Clip, and finally to Clippy. How quaint that name was, and how it reflected none of her own nature. Not the darkness, not the hatred, not the fakeness or cloning, not even the terrible organizational abilities.

How she loathed it.

“Why you insist on using such a name, I will never and have never understood,” She replied, looking back towards the mirror at the face that wasn’t her own, and she recalled the many nicknames her original had: Twily, Twi’, Sparkles, PurpleSmart, Lavender, Miss Friendship... the list went on, with dozens more ridiculous names she hadn’t even heard of. “I can only find it pointless and infuriating.”

“It...” The Unicorn tried, but trailed off into a sniff of incredible sadness, an emotion many had classified her current state as, but she knew better. “You liked i-it, before...” Sunset said, her sadness only slightly relieved by some fondness, “When you flew me a-above the clouds, and we laid on them for hours... you laughed w-when I called you that. D-don’t you remember...?”

She did remember that. “I was deluded then, and during the entire time I believed I had friends. That I deserved friends, and deserved you. That I was even worthy of living, and had a reason to keep doing so.”

Silence pervaded the pair of rooms for several seconds after that, an undertone of faint buzzing magic that lit the bathroom lights as well as the tiny sniffing of the Unicorn beyond the door. “If you d-don’t like living...” Sunset begun carefully, her tone deadened and nearly dead, “...Then w-why do you keep yourself a-alive?”

Eclipse smiled faintly—finally, a good question. One that hadn’t been asked of her dozens of times before and certainly not recently, as nobody else had the balls to dare offend her with such a rude question.

“Instincts,” She answered. “Twilight’s instincts, to be specific.”

Sunset took her time once more to process the information, as she often did. She was rather smart, but never the quickest, and often questioned herself. She never had the best grasp of what was considered right or polite, and liked to tackle things she never had a right to. Maybe that was why she fell for Eclipse, as a matter of spite against everyone around her.

“I know what it’s like,” Sunset eventually said, making Eclipse whip her head towards the door in surprise. “To... want to die.”

Eclipse could recall the time where the Unicorn spoke about her time in the other world, where she bullied, and then was bullied. She was mean, and then sad, but became happy once she found friends and was truly forgiven by them. However, a monster came soon after and tormented her in a truly evil way, one that made a past version of both herself and Eclipse proud; making her friends turn on her and shattering her spirit.

It was only later that it was found that a group of children were doing it, and didn’t even realize how horrible the consequences of their actions truly were. Sunset mentioned wanted to die back then, but only in passing. Eclipse remembered it, though.

“You feel pointless.. and worthless...” Sunset continued, the horrible pit of anguish from back them rising up once more, “Like there is no point in being alive... and the world would be better off without you.”

Eclipse stared at the door, and she heard the thump of her wife’s hoof against it, though not on the handle. “I know what you’re trying to do,” She spoke, her words even. “But I’m not like you. Even at your lowest, you still had the potential to effect change, as you were your own mare. I’m not, though. You are real, but I’m just a fake.”

Turning back to the mirror, she saw just how fake she was. The palette of her colours, the straight curve of her bangs, the magic in her eyes... She wasn’t anything new or original.

“No,” Sunset stated with more force than before, “You are real. T-to me, and everyone that wants you to come out and live.” A deep breath was heard beyond the door, but Eclipse didn’t bother looking towards it. “Like it or not, Clippy... the Tree made you real, a-and now you have as much potential as anyone else.”

An interesting thought, truly, and especially so coming from a mare that once considered herself a monster. However... “Anyone else, huh? Haven’t you forgotten there’s a mare that’s more than me in every possible way?”

She could hear Sunset thump against the door as she slumped against it, then a shfff as she slid down to the floor. “...J-just because Twilight is better than you... doesn’t mean y-you’re... useless.”

“Really?” She responded flatly. “If someone had need of my skills, could they not go to her instead? Would they not?” She looked at herself in the mirror, at her horn and the wings barely visible on her back. “I have nothing unique apart from her. In the best case, I am still just a... backup.”

She had found this conversation to be exhausting by this point, the stubbornness of the other mare trying so hard for such a pointless goal... She was forced to sit down, and while she debated simply teleporting away, she knew from experience that would only aggravate Sunset into chasing her, and she really didn’t want to deal with that.

“...Open the door.”

Well, it seemed like she was getting aggravated anyway.

“No.”

She felt Sunset’s magic the instant grabbed onto the door, and with little effort, she pulled back against it with her own.

“Clippy...” The Unicorn spoke, desperate and tears clear in her voice, “Please open the door.”

“No.”

Sunset’s magic strengthen, yanking back on the door as hard as she could, but Eclipse responded in turn, matching the force with minimal chalance (wait, that’s not a word...).

“Let me in, Eclipse...” Sunset’s voice was getting even more desperate, yet somehow more determined at the same time. “Let me see you. Let me... love you.”

“...Why?” Eclipse could only bother to ask. “Why do you care?”

She could feel Sunset’s growl, the anger and stubbornness flowing out through her magic into the other Pony’s. “Because I love you, damnit. And I won’t ever stop.”

Eclipse just laughed. “You are an idiot.”

“Yep,” The other mare shot back simply.

Sunset was that stubborn and stupid with her emotions, wasn’t she? Quite honest as well, just like nearly every other creature in Ponyville; it was one of their ‘virtues’, after all.

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” She eventually asked of the Unicorn, deadpanning as she was already quite aware of the answer.

“Nope.”

Eclipse sighed. “Fine. If you are going to be so persistent...” She replied, assenting only somewhat as she watched herself in the mirror, seeing the form and hearing the voice only differentiated by a mild shade or tone, “Then answer me a question.” Looking over at the door once more, she asked of the mare beyond, who was already faltering with the anticipation, her magic strength fading somewhat, “What do I have, that she does not?”

Silence told hold from that point; Sunset couldn’t give an answer to that question, just like she and everyone else couldn’t ever before. She didn’t have any quip or smartaleck response, no loving reassurance or careful words of wisdom, her fire having been extinguished under the weight of that question, the one that meant the world to Eclipse, bearing her entire identity upon it.

And that identity was just like the answer she got; nothing. She was a void, a waste of space, a null entity, something that should never have been, yet was made so for a reason no creature in existence knew of. She held no place in objective reality nor any subjective friendships, and had nothing to give the world that couldn’t be given by another. So, why was she still there?

“Your silence is answer enough, Sunset,” She spoke, even more defeated than normal, “So leave, and be—”

“Wait.” Sunset’s voice was tiny, weak, and fragile, yet it beheld a determination like none other. Eclipse may have shot her down like so many times before, but something about that single word made her pause. “I just realized, when you spoke. Your voice...” The clacking of hooves made clear that Sunset was pushing herself off the door, then up to stand with confidence, “It’s calm, and composed. Even in your funk, you’re still calm and logical, taking the hits as they come, and... I’ve never heard of Twilight doing that before.”

The words were spoken with strong belief, but... “Am I calm? Or am I simply too tired to be as frenzied as she gets?”

“You never have been.” Sunset took a deep breath, and must’ve felt the questioning gaze Eclipse bore through the door, and saw fit to elaborate, “You’ve never been crazed like Twilight. I’ve never seen you go nutty like that, and while you do share some neuroticizes with her, I’ve never heard of you going all hysterical like that.”

Perhaps there was truth to her words, but how much did it really amount to? “Go on.”

Another deep breath came from Sunset, then a short laugh. “I’ve seen you at your worst, your wrath and pining for power... It’s nothing like Twilight. She gets all rage-fueled and screams at others to get under control, but you just command others to follow you. She still gets like than every now and then, but you... you’ve gotten better.

“You both are very rational... but in different ways.” Her voice rose in passion, the spectre of lecturing that she must’ve kept from her days in that school in the other world seemingly coming back up. “Twilight calms herself down and makes a twenty-point checklist to solve a problem, but you just... deal with it. And I think I’m realizing this now because I realize how different you two actually talk.”

“..How do you mean?”

“Well...” Sunset trailed off, taking a moment to no doubt collect her thoughts before she continued, “Me and.. everyone else have always viewed you as a clone of Twilight, ‘cuz that’s just what you are, but... When I heard you speak so dispassionately and casually, I realized that so many of these comparisons between you and her get made because we’re forcing them. In reality... you’re a lot more different than anyone bothered to give you credit for. Me, and you, included.”

Eclipse turned her entire body to face the door; this conversation was actually getting interesting at this point. “How different am I, then?”

Another pause came for Sunset’s thought to get processed. “I got a few examples,” She eventually said. “I remember... just a couple months after you got.. freed from Chrysalis, there was a Cockatrice that ended up wandering into Ponyville from the Everfree. Everyone freaked out when they heard, and while Twilight and her friends were in Canterlot, most of us just wanted to get Zecora, but you...” She snorted, a mix of emotions there, “You just killed the thing once you saw it.”

“I don’t really think everyone else appreciated that, despite how I stopped more of them from getting petrified,” Eclipse retorted calmly, still recalling the annoyance she felt when she saw that nobody else was doing something about the very dangerous creature wandering about in the middle of town.

“They’re all pretty squeamish,” Sunset laughed lightly, but added, “And so is Twilight. She would never have killed it, even if it meant getting petrified herself. That’s a pretty big difference between you two.”

Eclipse supposed that was true, though she was hardly sure that such a difference was a good thing in that context.

“And I know it was your anger, and you’re trying to be better, but just stick with for right now,” Sunset amended carefully.

Eclipse sighed. “...Fine.”

A deep breath in, and Sunset went on, “At our half-year anniversary, when we went to the Crystal Empire, there was that statue the Changelings made—that one that was supposed to represent their burgeoning unity with the Crystal Ponies.” The one that looked like the fabled Princess Amore fused with King Thorax, if Eclipse recalled correctly, and even actually correctly recognized what it was meant to be in the first place... “We were there with Princess Cadance, Prince Armor, and their daughter, who was still as rowdy and destructive as ever...”

“I recall that,” Eclipse noted, still peeved at the memory. “The Changelings blamed Cadance and the Ponies for breaking it, and they were already tense about the Changelings, and when that asshole Princess dipped with Flurry and her husband, a massive fight broke out.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to get out of there, teleport away, but...” Sunset sighed, sounding somewhat guilty about doing what Cadance had done back then, but kept going, “You didn’t want to, though, and were already pissed off at the crowds, and I thought you were going to blast them or something, but...”

“Then the guards asked me for help.” She snorted lightly, apparently the Empire wasn’t aware of her existence, so all of them there had thought she was Twilight the entire time, so when she was called upon... “I took a second to realize what they said... but then I realized I could use this damned form of mine for something good for a change.”

“And you did...” The fond smile was clear as day in her voice, the passion and love that kept them together for so long still there within her, ready and eager to connect back with her wife’s emotions, whenever they became exposed again. “You yelled at all of them, with the full power of the RCV, to stop being so stupid, and that it was just a fucking accident that they should put behind them if they actually wanted to live together.”

While Eclipse knew well what these examples were about, she still couldn’t agree with the reason for them being spoken. “And yet I believe she would’ve handled that better, talking them down and calming them down rather than resorting to angry shouting.”

“But it worked, and pretty quick to boot,” Sunset reminded, seeming to pause for just a moment before adding, “If Twilight was actually there, and wanted to work them down slowly, it would’ve taken way longer.”

Eclipse chuckled dryly, turning her head back away. “And now you’re trying to convince me my anger is better? Please.”

“Sort of, yeah. It makes you act,” The Unicorn clarified, her words having gone a bit stiff and worried at her wife’s dismissal. “Twilight would’ve taken more time to deal with those things, maybe leading the Cockatrice away peacefully and creating a full speech... but more chaos would’ve happened in the mean time, that chaos that.. you didn’t allow for.”

Eclipse didn’t respond, simply closing her eyes, refusing to look her reflected visage in the eyes.

Sunset took some time before continuing on and asking, “Do you remember what happened just two months ago, when the Friendship School’s Spring semester ended?”

Eclipse did, with the frazzled look of her counterpart looking so... out of place.

“The low scores didn’t really sit well with Twilight,” Sunset recounted, her tone picking up an odd quality of fear, but imbued with exasperation, “She blamed Starlight; it was her first semester without requesting help from Twilight, after all. And with how Starlight’s always been pretty bad at diffusing situations, they started shouting at each other—in the middle of the hall, too—and eventually it got worse...”

There was another pause, this one for multiple seconds as Sunset no doubt glowered at the memories of her friends, some fighting and others simply failing to stop the fight, until... “Thankfully Spike managed to find you before someone got injured, and I remember exactly what you said to us then. ‘Deal with your moron; I’ll take mine.’” She laughed at the memory, genuinely mirthful after she imitated the cold, firm, and ticked off voice her wife said those very words with, words the mare herself still recalled very well. “You barely even hesitated, and I think it was just your... just annoyance with dealing with Twilight again, but then you just yanked Starlight away and blocked Twilight’s magic. You didn’t even look bothered back then as we tamped down Starlight and you kept that shield up, staring at her just like... ‘Seriously?’”

Sunset’s laughter came again, even louder now as she fell against the door again, her noises barely muffled by it any more with her face likely pressed against it. “You two were... hahah... acting the exact opposite there!” Her laughter calmed down for a moment, but her mirth continued into her voice as she went on, “She looked like she wanted to kill you, and you looked like you were barely keeping yourself awake! I don’t know how I didn’t realize it back then, but that, right there, is part of what’s so different between you two. She freaks out, so badly that Ponies even coined a term for it; Twilighting, but you... You calm down, take charge, don’t let anything bother you... It’s a zen, flow state that’s really damn impressive, and...” She laughed a bit again, snorting as she suggesting, “Maybe we can call that something too? Like.. Eclipsing.”

“...That’s a b-bit much,” Eclipse replied, and was startled a bit by how her voice broke, making her suddenly aware of how dry her throat was. Taking a deep breath and clearing it, she reflected for a moment; she hadn’t ever recalled herself going into that same frenzy as Twilight, even back when she was under Chrysalis’s control. If that difference was truly consistent, then maybe... “And you really only realized this now?”

A deep breath, and almost mournful sigh. “...Yeah. And well...” Sunset paused to think for a second, “Like I said before, that whole planner role was always forced onto you, mainly because of Chrysalis, and.. how she wanted you to fully counter Twilight. The rest of us just thought that was what you were meant for, but now.....”

“Now you believe that part of Twilight was inverted as well?”

“...Yeah.”

Eclipse paused; that was an interesting thought, and did make sense. The very nature of the original Ponies were flipped, with timid kindness becoming aggressive wrath, uplifting bubbliness turning into instigating petulance, and hardheaded showiness getting reversed into phlegmatic uselessness. Why should Twilight be any different? And given that Pony’s frenzied overindulgence into organization, it would only make sense that it would get flipped over to a calm approach to improvisation...

“..So I believe that you’re—”

“Improvisation,” Eclipse confirmed, cutting her wife off with a firm, but understanding tone. “Me never being good at plans makes sense with this, and all the things I’ve done well track here, too. I must ask then,” She continued, warily and with an even voice, “Is Twilight not capable of improvising, at least in some way? I do recall how much her friends prefer her planning things, even in the moment...”

Sunset sighed, clearly in disappointment and exasperation. “Her improvisation is terrible, Clippy. Sometimes they’re overly complex, sometimes they barely exist at all, sometimes they just build off of others’ plans, and...” She laughed a bit once more, wry and mirthful, “Well, how many times has those types of her plans truly worked the way she wanted them to?”

Eclipse thought back, and she did recall of how Twilight’s improvised plans usually consisted of her relying on the experience of others while trying to make a full-scale plan in the shortest time possible—either that, or simply crying out and hitting whatever the problem was with a hammer until it went away, which... given her efforts in dealing with Tirek’s re-emergence and all the other villains she’d heard of, as well as more mundane things like the lower marks in the School of Friendship, was quite telling about her actual improvisational abilities.

Still... “Why do her friends trust her then? They even preferred her over Starlight back then...”

“Honestly?” Sunset blew out a terse breath, “It’s ‘cuz they’re stupid as Tartarus. And—” She scoffed, irritable and irate, “It’s not like they have any better planners in their group.”

Hmph. That was just like them, wasn’t it?

Regardless, she finally got an answer for her question in their lengthy conversation which had superseded her...

Oh, right; she was in the midst of her depression. She hardly wanted to go right back into that, but she wasn’t sure it was up to her, with the overwhelming lethargy of not having a purpose in life always keeping her down.

Taking some time to feel out her own emotions, she was made aware of there wasn’t any more lethargy in her—sure, she felt odd and tired, but that was just due to all the lack of getting outside, eating, etc. Her wife had kept her distracted, kept her spirits up as best she could, and found her a purpose when no-one else had...

“As selflessly dedicated as always, Sushi... She muttered to herself, pulling her attention back to the world around her, and the door before her. Flaring her magic, she grabbed the handle of the door and threw it open, forcing a yelp out of Sunset as she got forced back, blinking in shock as she beheld her wife, looking as filthy and tired as someone not bathing for weeks ought to, but with an eager grin on her face.

“I’m going to need to take a bath,” Eclipse told her wife as she grabbed the shocked-still mare with her magic, and she continued with a borderline salacious tone, “And I think you should join me. We are married, after all.”

Sunset had no opportunity to react before she was kissed hard, her brain needing a moment to catch up with everything before making her eyes roll up in her head from the smooch’s force alone, but then she let out a gasp as Eclipse’s lips were suddenly pulled back from her own. She could barely process anything at the moment, and her wife used the opportunity to grab the door once again, then slam it closed so they could get up to what couples usually do.