Author's Note

Hello! This is route a of this fic, written by me! Holy is currently writing route b, but hes much busier than I am, so I figured go ahead and post this while its finished.

Route A

I need you.

Please come to the portal.

Twilight Sparkle.

It was either a confession of love, or something was terribly, horribly wrong.

As flattering as the first option would be, every cell in Sunset’s body told her that couldn’t be the case. Twilight would never be so brief about something that important, nor would she do so at such a late time.

So, there Sunset was, standing before a statue under the diluted light of the moon; holding little more than a small backpack that carried the journal Sunset held so dear.

She closed the book after reading the message one last time, trying to catch her breath as the cold air filled her lungs.

“Alright.”

Sunset closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she began her running start. She dove headfirst into the portal, arms outstretched as she prepared to be turned into her native species.

Moments later, Sunset arrived in Twilight’s room, her vision an array of colors as her entire body morphed. Repetitive trips got her prepared, the shift between walking like a human and walking like a pony became less difficult of a transition.

Once her senses came back to her, the first thing she did was shout. Distant and always followed by thudding, coming from somewhere a few feet away. The blurry image of a large alicorn stood before her, towering in height with wings that could wrap around her like a blanket.

“P—princess Celestia?” Sunset rubbed her eyes, which was harder to do with hooves than hands. Once she did, she saw that this pony was far too purple to be Celestia. “Twilight? Oh wow, you’ve uh…you’ve really had your glow up, huh?”

Twilight tilted her head, eyes narrowing like an incoming plane.

“Glow up?” As soon as the question left her mouth, she shook her head, glancing at the doorway. “Nevermind, I don’t have time to play twenty question with human etymology. This is an emergency, Sunset. Equestria is about to fall.”

Sunset’s ears flickered, her heart skipping a beat in the worst way possible. Despite it all, a hollow chuckled pushed its way through her lips.

“What? No, come on, you’ve said that, like, a dozen times now.” Sunset began trotting around the room, mostly to get a hang of it again. As she did, she began to notice how distraught the room actually was. “You guys always fix things by the end.”

It was a mess. Considering it was Twilight’s that said far too much.

The windows were covered in torn curtains or tapestry, no light shining through from the other side. In fact, the room was barely lit, only a sparse few candles and the illumination from the portal let Sunset see the room at all.

Various objects scattered the floor, including books, which were torn from the shelves as if in a panic. The banging got louder, the door caving in and wood splintering.

“Right.”

Twilight lowered her head, moving closer to Sunset. Close enough to where she could see the dark circles under Twilight’s eyes, the creaking of her bones, and how sluggishly she moved.

“Not this time. It’s over, or at least it will be soon. I only have a few moments, at least. The other element bearers are in a secluded location, where we’re…” Twilight clenched her jaw, tearing her eyes away from Sunset’s. “Going to take away all of Equestria’s magic.”

“WHAT.” Sunset couldn’t help but slam her hooves against the ground, some amalgamation of emotions sitting in her chest. “Like Cozy Glow tried to do? Why would you do that?”

“I—” Another thud, this one causing a resounding thud to echo through the room. That door had seconds, at most. “I don’t have time to explain. Please, Sunset. Help me, and I will explain everything when things will settle down.”

Panic began to set in, a pressure starting in the back of her mind that spread like a poison.

“But, if you get rid of all the magic…” Sunset turned on her heel, glancing at the portal behind her. “Then I won’t be able to go back to my friends.”

It wasn’t phrased as a question, because both of them knew the answer.

“No,” a few seconds of silence passed, seconds they didn’t have. “You won’t.”

There was so little time, yet the few seconds that existed dragged on to an impossible extent. Every thud against the door, every creaking of the wood, was like a grain of sand in the hour glass.

Sunset’s mind drifted towards her friends, and the life she’d made with them. She was in her last semester of college, living in a dorm with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Applejack and Rainbow visited every weekend, and she’d finally made things right with Flash.

Not to mention Wally, who was finally starting to bloom and socialize all on her own. It took months of coaxing just to get her to attend a house party.

She’d started a life there, more of one than she ever had in Equestria; the home she abandoned.

“I can’t, Twilight.” Sunset faced Twilight, who was wearing a smile as patient as it was understanding. “I’ve made so many friends, I can’t just run away from them like I did to Celestia. My family, even…” She bit her lips, closing her eyes as she brought a hoof to her chest. “Sunburst.”

“I understand.”

Another thud, and the door gave way.

Twilight reacted instantly, horn sparking to life with vibrant energy that stretched out like a guiding hand to Sunset, pushing her into the portal.

The last thing Sunset saw as her body went through metamorphosis was the same magic enveloping Twilight, condensing and leaving nothing in her place.

At the edge of the room, surrounded by fragments of wood that were burning, was a purple figure Sunset didn’t recognize.

Sunset tumbled onto the grass, scraping her knees and being wettened by the dewed gress right outside of the statue.

“NO! No, no, no.”

She got to her feet, ignoring the dizziness in her head, and jumped headfirst into the statue hoping to get to the other side fast enough. She slammed her face against the statue, so hard she saw more stars than there were in the sky. Sunset scratched desperately at it, desperate for it to work just one last time; part of her refused to accept that it was already over.

Her fingers bleed, the cold encompassing her body was nothing compared to the adrenaline already coursing through her.

Blood trailed down her face, getting into her eyes and blurring her vision.

Soon, salty tears followed.

“Sunset? Can I come in?”

Pinkie knocked on the door, the sound echoing with no recourse.

After waiting a few seconds for some kind of answer, Pinkie put her key into the door and opened it, entering with the reticence of a teenager into a haunted house.

What she saw on the other side was something straight out of a conspiracy theorist's room.

Sunset’s part of the dorm was an absolute mess: paperballs decorated the floor like a bad game of golf, papers with practically gibberish written on them were taped and glued to the walls and floors in a pattern known only to the mad. Fast food containers littered the ground as well, along with insects only Fluttershy would know the name of.

At the center of it all, was the disheveled mess that Sunset had been reduced to. Not even sitting at her desk, instead resting on a circle in the center; the eye of the storm.

Even from the entrance, Pinkie could see her muttering something to herself, somehow not drowned out by the multiple laptops in the room playing all kinds of vidoes; garbling to into a white noise comparable to a school cafeteria.

While making sure to only step on the few clean spots in the room, Pinkie made her way to the center of the room. She wanted so desperately to reach out and hug her, or to turn off all the noise in the room until it stopped scraping against her ears. Instead, she settled for standing in front of her; close enough to smell how poorly she’s been taking care of herself.

“Sunset, it’s been weeks.”

There was a snapping noise, presumably, hopefully, it was just the tip of the pencil breaking.

Sunset’s muttering paused, looking up between Pinkie and whatever she was scribbling on.

“Could be years.” She spoke more clearly, reaching into the pocket of her pajamas and pulling out a pre-sharpened pencil. “Twilight never figured out how the time dilation worked. Could be longer, could be shorter, don’t know. Can’t figure it out without proper access and testing.”

“Oh, I see.” Pinkie picked up a random piece of paper, flipping it in various directions until the words resembled some language she knew. “Are these…coordinates?”

“Hm? Oh, yes!” Sunset swiped the paper frm Pinkie’s grasp, reading it earlier with pupils bouncing back and forth as quickly as ping pong balls. “This was when I was looking into The Bermuda Triangle. Your world clearly has some magic, there’s no way Canterlot High is the only place on this whole planet with magic; even if magic requires some kind of overlap between Equestria and here. Look, look!”

Sunset grabbed a bunch of the papers, coaxing through them until finding the one she was looking for, a ferver to her movements that left Pinkie unsettled.

“The Crooked Forest, The South Atlantic Anomaly, The Whartin Basin, I could go on and on! All of these locations are anomalousm and extremely chaotic; which lines up perfectly wih my Discord theory.”

Pinkie tried desperately to make sense of it, a headache quickly growing in the back of her mind.

“Discord theory?”

“Mhm! He looks like this, I think? I’ve never actually met him.” Once again, she grabbed a piece of paper, this one holding a drawing of some kind of serpentine creature. Pieces of other creatures attatched to it like some taxidermy project. “From what Twilight told me about him, and from what I recall from my days as a scholar, Discord is arguably the most powerful entity in Equestria; he’s opened portals to other dimensions a few times. Before he was reformed and before his reign a thousand years ago, who knows what he was doing? It wouldn’t be out of character for him to make some and just leave them around.”

Pinkie pinched her nose shut, her eyes starting to sting.

“But…why would he do that?”

“It’s Discord; his name translates to ‘senseless’ in some languages, he doesn’t need a reason.”

Pinkie looked closer at some of the documents, noticing some of them were bundled together in some form of categorization. She could make out what looked like a passport, and a pile of…ID’s? All with Sunset’s face, but each one in a different language.

“So, what, you’re going to…” In a pile next to that, were a pile of maps. Lines drawn with various symbols all over. “Travel to all of them and see if any of them still work?”

“Yes! The portal in front of the highschool has the strongest connection to Equestria, but if all the others are as old as I think they are, and they’re really made by Discord, at least one should still be active!”

“Sunset, even if that’s true, you can’t just…”

It was the light in Sunset’s eyes that hurt the most.

Not as bright as usual, holding a dullness to them that was all too familiar. It was the dying light of a flickering hope, burning through an ember a day until there’s nothing left.

Nothing less than agony struck Pinkie to see it so deeply embedded in her friend, made worse by the fact that she was smiling as she talked. Pinkie knew smiles, and this one was wrong.

“How would you even afford it? Traveling to just one place is expensive, some of those anomalies are really far!”

“Easy: grants!” Sunset’s hand scraped around the floor, eventually grabbing onto her phone which was cracked and barely legible. “Though I’m taking my gap year, I’m still technically a student and so I can apply to as many grants as I’m eligible for. But most importantly, the genius grant! That’s worth eight hundred thousand dollars! By itself that’s more than enough.”

“Eight hundred…wow ok, yeah that’s enough. But Sunset, what if you actually need that money for something in the future? I know you’ve talked to Twilight about a few research ideas if you got the funding; if you use it all on this, where will you get it again?”

“Pinkie, if it weren’t for Twilight, I wouldn’t have access to those grants in the first place!” Sunset got to her feet, wincing as Pinkie could hear cracking noises with each movement. “I don’t know the details, but all of Equestria! She asked me for help, and I said no. I can’t,” her voice shivered, hoarse and struggling not to crack. “I can’t not help, after everything she’s done for me.”

“Sunset,” Pinkie grabbed her hand, holding it in between two of her own. It was rough and dry, the fingernails having been bitten down to nubs. “Twilight wouldn’t want you to throw away the life you’ve built for her, especially on a gamble. I may not get all of,” Pinkie gestured to the various scribblings in the room. “This, but from I do get you’re saying, you’re going to risk your entire life on a gamble. Please, don’t do this. What if it doesn’t work? What if you wasted all that time and money on nothing?”

Something snapped in Sunset’s expression, like the tension in a rope had finally given out. Her hair fell, splayed and littered with all kinds of grime.

“I know that, of course I know that! But I can’t just,” The corners of her eyes teared up, face scrunching up so tightly it looked agonizing. “I can’t leave her.”

“I’m not asking you to leave her; I’m just asking you not to throw your life away! There has to be something here you can use. Like, uhm,” Pinkie desperately search her mind, surprised to find that so many of there magical mishaps had blended together, it was hard for just a specific one to come to mind. “What about the memory stone? Or that mirror that locked us in the pocket dimension? The geodes might still work actually once we—”

“The geodes!” The energy resparked in Sunset’s eyes, as she practically bounced in place. “Of course, the geodes! Twilight, our Twilight, figured out that their magic is independent from Equestrias. They might have enough juice to jumpstart a portal. Are they still in that cave at Camp Everfree?”

“Uhm, they should be? Dashie borrows them every now and again, bu—”

Sunset grabbed Pinkie by her shoulders, bringing her forward as Sunset gave her the most enthusiastic kiss of her life.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Sunset grabbed a bag, holding it with her as she put stuff from in her room in it. Soon, she was out of the room, leaving Pinkie standing in the center of the room.

“Happy to help?”

“Uhm, are you sure this’is safe, sugarcube?”

In the basement of Twilight’s house, where she kept her lab, was a large mirror; oval shaped and twice the size of a person. It was entrapped in the center of some sort of generator-like machine, vibrating with energy and sparking every now and again.

“Of course! Twilight ran a hundred simulations before this just to make sure.”

Sunset was placing the geodes on the outerrim of the mirror, each one just a few feet away from each other. At the top of the mirror, was the friendship journal. It was firmly taped in, the gems that adorned the front grew dull and were hard to make out.

“Coulda ran more, but with a ninety to ten ratio of success to failure, that's more than a good enough sample.”

“Ninety to ten?” Rarity asked, taking a step towards Twilight and glancing over her shoulder at the handful of monitors she was looking at. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that doesn’t that mean there’s a ten percent chance of something going wrong?”

“Um, technically yes? But there’s precautions, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“And, uh, what are these precautions?” Fluttershy asked, her voice meeker than usual beneath the ramblings of the machine.

“Don’t stand too close to it.”

Twilight pressed a button, and all the monitors in front of her blinked green and blue. Just a moment later, the machines vibrating got worse. So much so, it felt like the entire room was experiencing an earthquake.

Twilight guided everyone to the back of the room, the only one who stayed close to the would-be portal was Sunset. She was trembling almost as much as the machine, a smile so wide only Pinkie could match.

Beneath her heavy breathing, Sunset was whispering the words ‘come on’ over and over to herself. Her mantra buried beneath the sound of magic and science in front of them.

All the geodes began lighting up, each one brightly shining with different color. The journal, too, began to shine and shake, erupting a field of magic that pulled the other geodes close to it. Small beams of magic connected them, leaving a circle that perfectly lined up with the edges of the mirror.

With a high pitched blast, a portal opened, showing just a glimpse of the world Sunset had been clawing after. The Crystal Empire, to be specific. It shined with its radiance, surrounded by a pure white snow.

However, it was just a glimpse.

Before Sunset even had the chance to extend her arm, the clear image began to shake, growing more wobbly and distorted by the second. Sunset hardly had a second before she was blown away, a high pitchted ringing that climaxed into the mirror and every node shattering.

She tumbled backwards, landing right on her back. Glass from the mirror and the geodes shout out in various directions, stabbing into monitors, the walls, the floor; anything it could pierce at a high speed.

Some reached the back, lost accuracy and didn’t hit any of the girls in the back.

Of course, there was one girl that wasn’t as fortunate.

Pieces of glass had sliced through her skin all over her body, some still sticking in like nails. However, she didn’t seem to notice, focused instead on the journal that had fallen to the ground.

“Oh no…”

Steam was coming off the book, the edges glowing white hot. She crawled forward, grabbing onto the book by the sides. She let out a muffled scream, briefly letting go of it only to grab it again. Upon second touch, it began to crumble, turning into ash between her fingers.

In just seconds, the last piece of equestria, the last connection to her homeland, was gone.

She wanted to scream, and cry, and throw a tantrum like she did as Celestia’s student.

Instead, she whimpered.

And, if she had her way, its the last sound she’d ever make.

“Fluttershy? Dear, your shift is over.”

Fluttershy sat on a chair beside Sunset’s bed, a bucket of water beside her with a half-dry rag sitting on the side.

Sunset herself sat on the bed, stuck in the fetal position with her eyes stuck open; her blinks far more spaced out than they should be.

“Oh, has it really been that long already?” Fluttershy reached towards the desk, grabbing a bottle of sweet tea. “I can’t believe it’s been three days already, and she’s just getting worse.”

“I know, darling. It’s been trying for all of us.” Rarity placed a hand on Fluttershy’s back as she stood up, laying her arms to her side as her legs wobbled side to side. “But she’s been here for us through everything. If we can’t be there for her through this, what kind of friends would that make us?”

“You’re right, Rarity. It just,” She peeked at Sunset, recoiling as she bit her lips. “Doesn’t make it any easier.”

There was nothing Rarity could say to that.

She walked Fluttershy to the door, then soon took her seat. Rarity put a bottle of sparkling water on the desk, picking up the rag and rinsing the water out above the bucket.

Silence bore down on them, and with it Rarity’s frustrations only grew; she found herself quite irritable today. Should she speak at all? What use was it if Sunset wasn’t listening in the first place?

“You know, Sunset.” Rarity tried to ignore the stench, and all of her instincts screaming at her to fix all the little details that were astrew. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you told us; how Twilight prioritized sending you back, even when she needed help. Kind to a fault, as any princess should be.”

In truth, Rarity couldn’t say if Sunset could hear her at all. She’d heard coma patients are aware of everything that was going on, but she had no idea if that was the case here or if she was effectively talking to the wall in front of her.

No matter the case, she had to speak. If not for her, then for Sunset.

“She asked you to help her, then she gave you a choice and you chose to stay here. She didn’t try to convince you, she didn’t beg, and she put you back safely in our hands; despite how much danger she and her land was in.” Rarity reached into her purse, pulling out a hairbrush free of even a single strain. “And you, in spite of that, chose to spend all that time she gave you to help her.”

“I’m sorry, but I think it’s by far the most selfish thing you’ve ever done.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw Sunset twitch. She couldn’t be sure though, even she’s been a victim of wishful thinking.

“Twilight, your Twilight, respected your wishes so much that she let you have this life over Equestria. Over her friends, Sunset! She chose your happiness, your freedom.”

Sunset’s chest rose and fell, a bit more than it was previously.

“And so you, what, decided to throw the life you’ve made here, on something you said no to?” She patted the rag against Sunset’s forehead, where she noted a slight scar. In fact, as she tried to clean Sunset, she found a lot of scars. “I don’t understand, Sunset. Please, help me understand. Why would you throw your life away when you already said no? You didn’t speak with us for months; do you have any idea how worried we’ve been about you?”

Sunset closed her eyes, a few seconds longer than she would for just a blink.

Rarity waited, forgetting how to breathe as her very heart froze.

“Because,” It was slow and rigorous, but she moved. Relaxing her body and turning to face Rarity, legs dangling off the edge and arms crossed. “Equestria is my home. I did so many awful things to try to take it over, and they forgave me. Twilight forgave me, Princess Celestia forgave me, and welcomed me back with open hooves. I can’t just,” Sunset looked at the palms of her hands as they shook, clenching her hands until they turned whiter than Rarity’s skin. “Abandon them. I have to help.”

“No, darling,” potent relief wrapped around Rarity’s heart like a heated blanket, her underlying frustrations vanishing. She reached forward, slowly uncurling Sunset’s fingers as she interlaced her fingers with her own. “You don’t. When Twilight sent you back, that was her way of thanking you; she forgave you a long time ago. It’s time for you to forgive yourself, and move on.”

Sunset’s grip tightened, so intensely it hurt. Rarity grit her teeth, her jaw getting more painful with the growing pressure.

“But, they need my help?”

“Sunset, you can’t help them.”

That made Sunset whimper, sucking in her bottom lip.

“Regardless, we need you. Here and now.” Rarity shifted closer, locking eyes with Sunset as she held onto her gaze. “Please. We need you.”

Maybe it was the begging, or the eye contact, or the physical affection, or just some mixture of the three.

Sunset started to weep, leaning into Rarity’s arms.

Moments, which stretched into minutes, dragged on. Rarity’s clothes soon became a mess of snot and tears, not that she was wearing anything particularly pretty. Even if she was, it wouldn’t have mattered. Her friend needed her, and she was there.

Sunset’s sobbing stifled, lowering with each one that followed. She eventually pulled herself back, wiping off her face.

“Hell of a gap year, huh?”

She laughed. It was a little hollow and muffled, but there was an underlying genuineness to it that made it contagious. So much so, Rarity couldn’t help but join in.

“I’d say; it makes Rainbow’s look like spring break.”

With some help from Rarity, Sunset got to her feet; having to use the bedpost a support.

“I hate to ask, but, uh,” Sunset held the collar of her clothes, pointing to it with a finger. “Can you help me out of these and to the shower? I actually can’t remember the last time I bathed.”

“I was worried you’d never ask.”

Rarity guided her to the bathroom, stopping only at the wardrobe to get a different set of clothing. Soon, she was in the shower, cleansing herself in water so hot the steam fogged up the room.

“Sunset?”

“Yeah?”

“When you’re done,” Rarity pulled out her phone, quickly typing into it and shooting several texts. “Would you like to meet up with the girls? We were about to get dinner.”

Rarity could see Sunset’s figure pause, her head facing the shower head.

Just slightly, she could see her smile.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”