Broken Promises

Sunset felt somepony walk up next to her, before settling down to the ground. She turned her head slightly, and, realising it was Celestia, buried her face into the Princess' warm fur, tears streaming down her face as she screamed. Celestia's wing settled around Sunset, supporting her and pulling her closer, and she noticed that Celestia was careful enough to use her magic to lift Sunset's broken leg, now in a cast. She didn't know how long she spent crying into her mentor, having her mane stroked while she was held tightly.

Part of her wanted to blame Celestia and Shining for drugging her and pulling her away from Sunray's search party, but she knew she wouldn't have fared much better luck than them. It didn't stop her for blaming herself for losing her concentration on the spell, blaming herself for not getting out of the way of the avalanche, blaming herself for not refusing to let Sunray leave without her. But she knew it was too late now, and she cried harder, knowing that Sunray was gone. And there was nothing she could do to bring her back.

A thought took hold.

Well, almost nothing.

Sunset woke slowly, pressing her face into the pillow as the sun shone into her eyes. That failing, she turned over slowly in her bed.

Wait. In my bed?

Sunset was up like a shot, staggering out her doorway, unsteady on her broken leg. She banged the next door over, Sunray's room, but there was no response. She pushed on through the hallways, rapidly approaching the throne room, passing several confused nobles and guards. Occasionally one would call out a greeting or a question, but Sunset ignored them as she pushed her way through the small queue outside Raven Inkwell's, Celestia's assistants, office.

She heard a few ponies in the queue complain, and one unicorn even tried to grab her with magic, but Sunset quickly brushed it off with a forceful counterspell that would accidentally disable the noble's magic for the rest of thhe day. But Sunset didn't care, grabbing the door in her magic and flinging it open.

Celestia looked up from her throne in surprise, and the small council around her, from Whinnyapolis, if she remembered correctly, looked even more surprised.

"Where is Sunray?!"

"Sunset, I-"

"No! Where is she!"

Celestia took a deep breath and sighed, before descending from the throne and approaching Sunset. It all but confirmed her fears, but the words broke Sunset's heart as she was pulled into a hug by her mentor.

"I'm so, so sorry, Sunset."

She stood in shocked silence for a moment, disbelieving.

She can't. She couldn't.

Then she burst into tears, burying herself into Celestia's chest.

"We found her a few miles from Snowybury. Her left wing was frostbitten, and it looked like she'd been attacked by a timberwolf, judging by the damage to her armour. Her wounds and the cold were- were too much."

Sunset's world had already shattered, and she could only bury herself further into her mentor as she sobbed uncontrollably.

Sunset felt numb as she was led away from the funeral by Celestia, but her mind had started working in overdrive. She'd heard the myth once, an alicorn who managed to breathe life into a fallen hero. It was a long reach, and Sunset wasn't even entirely sure she could become an alicorn, but in that moment, she didn't care.
She would throw herself into her studies headfirst, learn everything Celestia could teach her, and then more. She could do this. She would become an alicorn. She could save Sunray, could bring her back to her.

The cost didn't matter. If it meant losing her friends, if it meant isolation, if it meant fighting all of Equestria, she'd do it. She'd promised as much, so many years ago, and she wasn't going to back out on it now. She had broken the promise once, and Sunray had died. But she could fix it. She could bring back Sunray.
This was something she knew, in her whole heart, she had to do.

No matter what.