Never Fade Away

Every pearlwood doorway Cadance and her passed through was singed black at the top, as if a ball of fire and self-hatred swept through it in a rush, too busy and greedy to give away its flames to anything it passed.

The amount of trailing hoof prints burned and melted into the masonry of the castle halls made Sunset think the fire knew as much about itself as she did.

The damage to every area she had walked through had no real consistency to it. Some hallways were pristine with not a single scratch on any of the furniture, while others were so blackened and warped the two of them had to keep walking until they found another winding path in the broken maze that now seemed to make up her life.

As Sunset contemplated the destruction that seemed to have hit every wing of the castle except for medical, she heard the repetitive small ringing of a hoofbell, the oddly deep timber ringing loudly, begging to be heard above the muffled haze that was the world around her. Looking down at the far end of the hall she and Cadance had just stepped into Sunset saw what was making the noise.

It was a small white ceramic orb, about as large as a pumpkin, branded with five layers of inky black runes overlaid on the top side of it in a slight spiral focused on a dark metal bell, the intricately carved bell continuing to loudly ring as it floated at eye level above the ball.

The white orb quickly rolled across the floor, seemingly morphing through whatever item dared to exist in the space it wanted to move through. Sunset watched it through hazy eyes as it quickly enveloped a plush couch that looked good enough to fall asleep and never wake up on, leaving the couch in better condition than it was before the ball trampled it like a rat that got dared to poke an elephant.

Sunset watched the orb roll towards her, only stepping aside for it at the last moment before it bowled her over and decided to see how she tasted—probably like snot and tears if the crusty feeling of her back was to be trusted.

As it passed Sunset by she looked over the spiraling runes spinning around the bell, every etched rune as dark as the bottom of the ocean and in a constant state of motion due to the ball's nonstop movement. Sunset watched the pattern swirl like the eye of a storm as it passed her by, it's rush to get to the end of the never-ending trail a walking inferno left behind the only thing it seemed to find purpose in.

Sunset stared on as the hoof prints got erased until nothing remained, the white orb disappearing around the corner to purify the rest of the castle. Sunset thought the pristine hallway still smelled like smoke and fire, even through her stuffy nose.

Cadance, who was apparently somepony Sunset used to know very well that wanted to get to know her all over again, walked up to her as she stood in the middle of the hallway and got lost staring at the endless red carpet rushing down the halls that stretched on and on, always merging with another doorway before leading off into their own hallways with their own endless red carpets.

"What, don't remember the cleaning borbs?" Sunset slowly looked over at Cadance, a look of slight confusion overtaking the tear-stained apathy that had been her expression since they left the hallway in front of medical.

"C-cleaning borbs?" Sunset asked, stumbling over her own words with a heavy cough that cleared the flem from her throat that had settled in it from all her earlier disgusting crying as well as a little more of the fog that had crept back into her head.

Cadance graciously pretended to not hear Sunset cough up a soggy lung as she nodded at her before suddenly flapping her wings to hover in the middle of the hallway so she could gesture with her upper limbs.

"Behold the after-effects of the cleaning borb!" Cadance said as she waved her hooves at the completely ordinary hallway they stood and hovered in the center of. Cadance stumbled over her words a few times and still looked like she was on the verge of tears, but Sunset could see some joy begin to peek through.

"Tired of having to wake up at three in the morning instead of two minutes before dawn because you needed to cast some repair spells after your oh so beloved student knocked some potassium in a glass of water while practicing alchemy?"

Sunset stared at the sad mare putting on a happy act with confusion. She was pretty sure the target demographic for this sales pitch wasn't anywhere near the hallway they were both standing in, but it was the first time in Sunset's very short memory Cadance looked happy so Sunset sat down and watched her.

Cadance continued her melancholic sales pitch, not put off at all by Sunset's lack of a reaction. "Introducing... the borb. Is it a ball? An orb?" Cadance shrugged. "I dunno, so why not a borb? Using a five-layer variety of public domain charms, enchantments, and runes, that bad baby is capable of cleaning and repairing over twelve hours of pure destruction! How does it work? Well, I'll tell you!" Cadance said with a slowly emerging grin before pausing for a few moments.

Cadance immediately slumped down like a worn-down puppet with a marionette tired of the thankless job pulling it's strings must have been before she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof and let out a tear-stained laugh, her sudden rush of enthusiasm quickly fizzling out. "Well, I would tell you if I remembered the rest of the pitch, but you always kind of lost me around that point. Too many technical terms..." Cadance let out one last tearful laugh as she looked for some sign of recognition in Sunset's face.

Sunset knew she wouldn't find what she was looking for; the only bells being rung at that moment were hovering above the white orbs chasing smoke and ashes.

"So did I...?" Sunset trailed off before gesturing towards Cadance's little performance.

"Create them? Y-yeah..." Cadance sniffled and made several noises Sunset would expect from a kitten that accidentally fell in its own water bowl before continuing to speak. "You made them for Celestia about four years before I showed up. And that was about a year and a half ago, so I guess you made the first one when you were around ten?"

Cadance smiled to herself as she told Sunset secondhand stories about her own life better than she could ever recall them. "I'm sure you can guess what inspired their creation. Apparently Celestia absolutely loved the entire thing, from the pitch to the invention itself."

Cadance shuffled her wings and continued telling Sunset about the little moments of her life she probably took for granted with a watery smile stitched over her face as they continued walking down the hall towards their destination.

"When I first asked Celestia about one she got this big grin on her face and immediately started doing the routine. She even split a table in half just to show me how one worked." Cadence said with a soft smile.

Sunset wondered if she had ever heard this story before. She probably would have appreciated hearing it.

The two of them continued walking for a few more moments before they passed by a row of tall windows facing the sheer side of the mountain, the previous window's view of tangled roads spilling out of the castle replaced by a deep blue river painted in a golden backdrop, dancing between mountains and escaping over the horizon and away from the warm glow of the setting sun.

Sunset didn't know how long she and Cadance had been crying in the hall for, but she knew it wasn't long enough to already have Sundown approaching.

Sunset tapped on the wide glass pane a few times, surprised at just how dry the heat from the outside world was; the glass pane in front of her was just barely able to keep it at bay.

"The forecast calls for Sunny Skies all week long..."Sunset muttered to herself as she stared at the mirage of heat dancing all across the windowpanes, sparkling against the bright orange sky on the other side of the clear wall. Sunset reached out and tapped the window a few more times just to see if it would budge. It did not.

Cadance's ears perked up before she swiveled her head towards Sunset. "I'm sorry, did you just say something?" Sunset looked at Cadance as she walked into the light of the window, her bright pink complexion now fighting a losing battle against the tired sun to be the brightest thing in her peripheral.

"Oh, nothing. I just remembered Flat Line telling me about how we're currently going through a bit of a heatwave." Sunset watched on as Cadance slumped forward slightly; whatever leftover energy she had from the sales pitch finally squeezed out of her bones.

"Yeah, it's been a pretty hot fall. If it wasn't for the early sunsets I would have probably melted into a puddle by now." Cadance frowned at the window before looking up at the cloudless sky painted in swirling amber and gold. "At least it's Sunny Skies all week long..." Cadance muttered to herself as well as they both continued walking down the now orange hallway, the white marble and stonework of the castle accepting the bright colors now draped across itself.

Cadance subconsciously started walking on the far left of the hallway, content to move through the few spots the sun couldn't reach from it's entrance via the tall arched windows. "I hope the staff are handling this heatwave a lot better than we are. It shouldn't be nearly this hot once you leave Canterlot."

Sunset thought about the staff, and the complete lack of them, as she walked on the far right side of the hallway and stared off into the neverending sunset. Besides Flat Line she had not seen a single staff member in any of the halls or rooms the two of them had wandered through on their way to a spot Cadance refused to tell her about.

"Where are all the staff? I haven't seen anyone besides Flat Line, and if he wasn't wearing a doctor's coat I would've thought he was a homeless stallion that snuck in." Watching Cadance's mouth twitch upwards made Sunset realize it was probably the first time she had made someone happy since she woke up, and the few embers of positivity she had managed to catch on the wind immediately snuffed themselves out.

"Oh, they're all on paid leave at the moment. I'm pretty sure Flat Line is one of the only staff members left in the building." Cadance puffed her cheeks up with air until they were as puffy as her eyes before she started to rub them in circles as she thought to herself, unaware that Sunset had somehow just discovered a way to hate herself for doing something positive.

"Let's see now... there's Flat Line, and I think Furaha left for a bit to pick up something for Flat Line?" Cadance asked herself while she continued to rub her puffy cheeks in thought, idly fluttering down the hallway.

Sunset nodded at her. "Flat Line talked about her for a bit before I was discharged. He said she's your pediatrician." Cadance slowly slapped her hooves over her face and let out a low moan of embarrassment.

"She's not a pediatrician, she's a doctor. I don't care what she is legally; I'm too old to still be going to a pediatrician!" Cadance whined childishly. Sunset let out a sudden bark of laughter at that, managing to startle the both of them, which made Cadance begin to pout.

"Any other staff in the castle besides those two, or is it just us and the cleaning borbs?" Sunset asked as two more cleaning borbs rolled by them on their way to an accident they were days late for.

"Gosh, give me a moment." Tsking to herself, Cadance went back to rubbing her cheeks as she flicked through a mental filing cabinet of all the ponies she knew. "There's also Raven Inkwell—call her Raven—she's Celestia's aide. There's also Kibitz; he's Celestia's scheduling advisor, which just sounds like an aide that does less work." Cadance let out a rush before moving on to the rest of her mental checklist.

"I can't forget about Gabriel; he's the butcher chef. And the meat chef. As well as the Poissonier. As well as the sous chef." Cadance nervously laughed to herself while bobbing in the air for a moment. "Don't ask him if he ever gets tired doing four jobs at once or else he'll just get angry and start berating you for thinking he's incapable of doing his job."

Cadance rubbed her chin in thought. "Well, he probably wouldn't berate you. He actually seems to like you for some reason." The moment Cadance realized what she said she immediately turned towards Sunset with a look of pure anxiety plastered across her mug.

"N-not that you're hard to like! I meant to say that Gabriel is the unlikable one!" Sunset watched and chortled to herself on as Cadance continued to dig a deeper hole. "Wait, I didn't mean that either! Don't let him know I said that, or he'll probably turn me into a horse d’oeuvre the next time the Griffin ambassadors visit!"

Sunset held her hoof out in front of her to stop Cadance's building hysterics. "It's alright, I understood what you were trying to say." Sunset watched on as Cadance stammered to herself for a few more moments before finally calming down again. Sunset shuffled in place for a moment before clearing her disgusting flemmy throat a second time. "So, uh, are there any other kitchen staff left, or are four ponies stuck with nothing but a meat chef for the time being?"

Cadance released a short breath to center herself again before looking at Sunset in confusion. "I would've thought you'd be happy we kept the meat chef out of all of them. I can remember a few patented Sunset lectures at dinner about how ponies are technically omnivores and how it's beneficial to eat meat." Cadance shrugged to herself.

"Oh well, at least you get to experience monkfish for the first time again. I'm sure Celestia will appreciate a second chance to take pictures." Cadance quietly murmured to herself, not minding if Sunset overheard her idle thoughts.

Cadance went back to rubbing her cheeks before Sunset could follow up on either of those statements. "I'm pretty sure Blueblood is out of the country at the moment. He's technically Celestia's nephew, but they're actually really distant so I wouldn't worry about that." Sunset didn't know why Cadance would be worried about him being close to Celestia.

Cadance continued with her cheek rubbing. "I think Dry Wall might still be in the castle. She's the royal architect. I haven't seen her since the meltdown, but I've been noticing some repairs that the borbs couldn't have gotten to, so it's either Dry Wall or it's... well, hopefully it's Dry Wall and they're just being skittish again."

Sunset thought about asking Cadance to elaborate on that ominous sentence before realizing she only had so many things she could tear her brain apart focusing on and that probably wasn't something worth adding to her worries.

"Anyways, that's probably everyone currently in the castle that I can mention. If you meet any new names on that list it's either somepony that came back early or someone not worth mentioning." Cadance hissed the word 'someone' out as if it wasn't a catch-all term directed at any staff members that weren't ponies but was instead directed at one sapient in particular.

Either Cadance didn't even want to mention them by name or wasn't allowed to by the powers that be. Either way, Sunset saw no reason to waste her time asking about them when she probably had more important things to get torn up over.

Sunset almost missed the overwhelming brain fog.

Eventually the two of them reached a large glass door that looked like it would be more at home on the entrance to a greenhouse than the middle of a castle hallway. Sunset squinted as she stepped through the doorway and her eyes adjusted at the sight of the bright orange glare of the setting sun as a wave of blistering heat blasted her in the face, the warm breeze from earlier nowhere to be found.

Sunset looked back at the doorway just to make sure she hadn't stepped on a warp sigil or a trap gate by mistake, but all she could see surrounding it were basic anti-animal and insect wards usually found at zoos and farms.

Looking back at the new area she found herself in she looked at the thick forest stretched out in front of her. After staring at the beautiful woods for a bit Sunset began to notice a lack of small imperfections, as if the entire forest were ordered out of the back of one of those old holiday catalogs that you could probably buy a house out of.

Cadance watched on from the doorway as Sunset slowly walked around the artificial forest and admired the old weathered statues peppered throughout it. "This isn't the place I wanted to bring you, in case you were wondering. I just thought it'd be nice to show you the royal gardens on the way to it."

"If I remember a time travel spell I'll send you a few minutes in the past so you can pat yourself on the back, because you were right, this is nice." Staring into the eyes of a dancing painter etched in marble Sunset felt herself begin to smile. "How big is this place anyway?" This castle feels as big as a city."

Cadance panted and wiped a wave of sweat off of her forehead as small tufts of steam and heat rose off of her body as she stood in the shade of a tree a few paces back from Sunset. "No clue! I know it's absurd even by royal castle standards though. Speaking of which, we should probably hurry back inside the big royal castle before we roast out here in this big royal hotpot of a forest."

Rolling her eyes at Cadance's theatrics Sunset hopped down from the pedestal she was balancing on before walking back to Cadance. "Come on, it's just a late heatwave. It isn't that hot out."

Cadance muttered a few words under her breath, the difference in temperature so sharp it caused the air in front of her mouth to mirage. "Says the pony with a cutie mark of the sun. Just wait until a pony with an igloo cutie mark tells you it isn't that cold out during a blizzard."

Sunset followed Cadance in a brisk trot through the never-ending forest towards Cadance's destination before she felt a cold breeze overtake her entire body. Slowing her movement until she reached a full stop, Sunset slowly looked to her right at a tilted pedestal sticking out of the ground.

There was absolutely nothing interesting about the pedestal. It was just a slightly mossy pillar that looked to be about as tall as she was, with a flared base surrounded by nothing but dirt that made it look like an upside-down bird bath with not even the most basic preservation runes or spells attached to it, as if whoever was in charge of up-keeping the garden exhibits hoped the statue would eventually just crumble to dust and blow away on a hot gust of wind.

'Wish granted'. Sunset thought as she stared at the empty spot. Whatever the pedestal used to display must've rested. Sunset almost wished she could have seen whatever once rested on it; a pillar that tall and thin would have only been used for a particularly old and esoteric piece of work.

There was nothing about the old pedestal worth sticking around for since it must have lost the only thing that made it worth looking at long before Sunset woke up. She turned around and began to walk back up the path to catch up to Cadance, the mossy old pedestal already getting pushed out of her mind in favor of better thoughts.

A freezing gale immediately blew past Sunset before she could take a single step. Sunset stood still as she felt the cold winter air pat her on the shoulder as it passed by, content to inspect every part of her except for her shaven head as it moved around and past her.

If Sunset was more clear-headed, she probably would have heard warm laughter being carried on the cold wind as it danced around her on its way to be out of place somewhere else.

Then the wind went as quickly as it came, and Sunset was left alone in a muggy forest on a hot fall day, with no relief from the burning grasp of the sun. Sunset looked at the trees surrounding her. Not a single leaf was moving. The wind had left them.

Sunset slowly looked back at the pedestal, unable to see anything different about it either. Just an old abandoned pedestal surrounded by bright blue flowers with no runes or enchantments of any kind etched onto it. Sunset looked at the pedestal again before looking down at the flowers surrounding it.

Sunset didn't know a lot about botany, but she was sure blue was one of the more rare colors for a flower to be, especially a blue as bright and beautiful as the azure flowers surrounding the pedestal's sinking base. Each flower had eight large petals that curled outward and upward, and each flower was slightly larger than a daisy.

Thinking back to the table of flowers Sunset had woken up next to, she couldn't recall seeing any of these flowers at it. Did that mean they were poisonous or just rare? Sunset looked at the flowers a little longer before she took a step closer towards them.

Walking up to the beautiful blue flowers Sunset stood a few paces in front of the pedestal yet again, this time not even bothering to give it the attention it didn't deserve, her focus resting entirely on the mesmerizing flowers waving at her from a cold breeze that made what little hair she had left flow through the air.

Sunset could hear somebody laughing on the wind again. Sunset couldn't help but feel a small drip of secondhand joy just from the thought that at least one person was enjoying their day.

Sunset took another step towards the pedestal before leaning down to get a closer look at the dark blue flowers still swaying and dancing in the wind to a song Sunset wished she could have heard.

"-nset! Sunset! Sunny, where are you?!" Sunset could hear Candace shouting from somewhere behind her; her voice so muffled the air between them might as well have been bedrock.

Sunset dragged her eyes away from the view to look over her shoulder at the direction Cadance had been yelling from. If Sunset squinted hard enough she could see small bits of her cheerful pink coat through the dark green pines and the bright orange glow the sun left behind on everything it looked at. "I'm over here, Cadance! I'm just looking at some blue flowers I found!"

Sunset could hear Cadance stop moving for a brief moment before she heard her break out into a full gallop on her way to meet back up with Sunset.

'Guess she must really enjoy flowers.' Sunset thought to herself as she turned around and looked back at the dark blue flowers before she involuntarily froze in place.

The dark blue flowers were still waving at her to try and get her attention, but now there was a bright white warning sign in front of them with a picture of a five-fingered appendage picking flowers, the center of it crossed out with a bright red circle and a blackslash through the center of it. The red borders at the top and bottom of the sign only had one message for her.

PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE FLOWERS.
POR FAVOR NO TOQUES LAS FLORES.

Sunset could only read half the message, but she understood it completely. Sunset wasn't sure how long she stood there staring at the sign, but it was long enough for Cadance to finally find her through a maze of pathways leading off to less interesting exhibits.

"Sunset, you haven't touched any of the flowers, have you?!" Cadance shouted at her as she skidded to a stop beside her before her mouth clicked shut when she too saw the small white sign that refused to let the sunlight touch it and paint it orange like the rest of the world.

Cadance let out a hiss of air from in-between her teeth, like a kettle that had finally reached a boil. "At least they finally put a sign down for them. You didn't ignore the sign, right?" Sunset just shook her head in response, which was all Cadance needed to see to let out a sigh of relief.

"Gosh, that's a relief. That's poison joke. It's like poison ivy, but instead of only giving you a rash it gives you anything except a rash." Cadance paused before continuing to speak in a lower tone. "And I do mean anything."

Cadance wiped some more sweat off her brow before staring at the beautiful flowers in abject disgust. "Lets get out of here; this heat is killing me." Sunset stared at her sweat as it got caught in the sun and evaporated with a smothered hiss before it could escape into the earth.

Sunset watched on from her spot by the sign as Cadance turned around and slowly walked back down the glowing amber pathway, looking as if she were chasing a river of melting light.

Taking one look back at the pedestal before she rejoined Cadance, Sunset saw the pedestal had found a new exhibit piece since she had last looked at it. Sitting on the cracked and mossy pedestal was a small Lapis Lazuli ring with small flakes of gold sprinkled throughout it. It's dark blue sheen somehow managed to reject every attempt the vesper sky made to paint it in a soft orange glow.

Beside the ring was a small envelope with a soft green wax seal on the front of it, depicting an eight-pointed star expanding outwards in a radial. Against all better judgement Sunset picked up the letter in her magic, popped open the soft green seal, and read the sun-bleached paper to herself.

Dear Lil' Sunbutt

You don't know me, but I know you. More importantly, I know that I owe you one or two or a dozen favors after you did me a teensy tiny MASSIVE solid a few days back. You didn't do it on purpose, and you weren't even the one that actually did it, but you started the delightful little Rube Goldberg chain of events that led to it. It's almost inspirational how much can change from a one bad day. At first I just settled for spicing up your floral arrangements (way too many lilies and carnations!) but then that doctor of yours smoked half of them, which made the entire gesture rather moot. So I quickly shuffled through someone else's belongings until I found a pretty enough gift for you. Now I know it doesn't match your coat or what remains of your mane, but it was the only thing I could find that was simultaneously shiny and non-lethal. Sunbutt Sr. should stick to her day job. She would make for a very poor magpie.

With appreciation, [Redacted]

Sunset looked down at the Lapis ring innocently sitting on the tilted pedestal in front of her. As far as Sunset could tell, there was nothing magical about either the letter or the ring. Sunset looked down at the blue flowers dancing in a still breeze. Sunset didn't feel anything magical about the flowers either.

Sunset calmly folded the letter back up, laid it down in it's spot beside the ring, and then turned around and slowly followed after Cadance. The ring remained untouched on the top of the pedestal, both it and the letter content to be ignored by the few gusts of wind that tried moving past them.