Shutting the door to her office as Luna trailed behind her, Celestia reached into her desk drawer and pulled out two cans. Luna gave her an infamously hard stare, and Celestia just grinned.
“Oh, relax, little sister, it’s just fruit punch. I know it’s not much, but with it being a special occasion and all…”
“Ah.” Luna took one of the cans, cracking it as her sister did the same. “To celebrate it being halfway through the semester?”
“Well…” Celestia paused, eyes darkening. “No. I meant more that it was...”
Luna remembered the date, then kicked herself mentally. How could she have almost forgotten the… anniversary. “Right. Still, perhaps a toast to a happier occasion would be more appropriate?”
The light returned to Celestia’s eyes, and she raised the can. “I’ll drink to that. To senior year for the Rainbooms! Long may they make our lives interesting.”
Luna touched her can to her sisters with a metallic click, reciprocating the toast. “To the senior slump and its strange absence this year.”
At that, Celestia barked out a laugh. “We usually lose so many cross country team members. I guess it’s a blessing Dash seems to have too much free time.”
“And that she’s carrying the entire team.”
“And that she’s carrying the entire team,” giggled Celestia. “Now that’s a sports scholarship or twenty right there.”
They both took a sip of the fruit punch, which had miraculously stayed the slightest bit cool in Celestia’s drawer, both sitting in silence and looking out over the fields outside.
Luna finally spoke up. “Sunset Shimmer’s also graduating this year, you know. She’s not eighteen yet, but…”
“Yep,” Celestia said quietly, staring at her drink. “Wonder if all them leaving means we can finally have a semester without a hydra or two.”
“Has Sunset… talked to you of what she wishes to do?”
“You know, she dodges the question every time we bring THAT up,” Celestia sighed. “She’s a good kid, Lulu. It just… took her a while to get there.”
“I was referring more to her plans post graduation. I haven’t heard a peep from you regarding plans for college or any sort of vocation. She’s an odd contrast to Twilight Sparkle.”
Celestia smiled. “That girl’s going to either discover cold fusion or kill us all. Possibly both, let’s face it. I guess we’re fortunate she’s aiming to stay in Canterlot.”
“Her friends are here, as is her family.”
“Yeah…” Celestia murmured, slowly moving her eyes down towards the picture frame on her desk. It was rare for her to have any sort of photo out, but she always brought it out around this time of year. For the anniversary. Luna gave her a look that she hoped urged caution.
“Tia…”
“She’d be the same age as Sunset, you know. They even have the same birthday.”
“That does not guarantee anything.”
“Do you really believe that?” snapped back Celestia. “Even after Flurry?”
“I…” Luna hesitated. “I just don’t want to see you setting yourself up to get hurt again. You can’t set yourself up for that. You know you can’t.”
“But what if I’m right?”
“And what if you’re wrong? What if Sunset isn’t what you hope she is?”
“That doesn’t mean I’ll care about her any less! I just… I need to know, Luna. I know it isn’t closure, but…”
She fixed her younger sister with her best puppydog stare. It wasn’t quite how the sibling dynamic was meant to go, sure, but it was effective all the same.
Luna sighed. “Fine. But you are to promise me three things: first, you’ll approach the subject gently.”
“Right.”
“And you won’t get angry, no matter what you learn.”
“Right.”
“You will NOT get angry, Tia.”
“I promise!”
Luna fixed her with a hard stare.
“I mean it!” Celestia insisted. Luna rolled her eyes. “It’s under control these days.”
“Then, lastly, and this is important, you will let Sunset make her own decisions. She decides what your relationship is going forward, understand?”
“I—” Celestia hesitated. “I understand. When did you get to be the responsible one, little sister?”
“Philomena’s in your garage, not mine,” pointed out Luna. “Let’s bring her in, then.”
“Sunset Shimmer, please report to the principal’s office.”
One by one, every head in the class slowly rotated to face Sunset. She could swear she heard the grinding of stone as it happened. Some of the more fearful students had made a move to duck under the desks if need be, though a few seemed to be reaching into their desks and seeing if a protractor could be sharp enough to cut through a hydra’s head.
That had been a one time occurrence, really.
There was another staticy click, followed by some indistinct grumbling on the intercom, followed by, “Apologies. You’re not in trouble, Sunset. We just needed to ask you about something.”
Which was met by a disappointed sigh from the rest of the classroom. Linear algebra was, evidently, not the most interesting of subjects. Not the way Cranky taught it.
Something. Sunset groaned internally. This was going to be about THAT again, wasn’t it? She figured with graduation and her birthday both coming up, it was probably at the forefront of Principal Celestia’s mind. Which meant another awkward conversation and a lot of sitting around trying not to look at one another as they sipped some cheap soda. Sometimes, she missed being old enough to drink.
But it was that or going over matrices and transformations. The choice was simple, then. She sat up, pushing her chair out and ignoring the stares. She had an excuse to get out of math class, and they didn’t get to fight a hydra. The students at Canterlot High, at this point, only really considered it a good school day if something chaotically arcane happened.
“Sunset!” Celestia cried as the student walked into her office, Luna shutting the door behind them. “Come on and sit down. Do you want a drink at all?”
She pulled open a drawer and held up a can. Sunset gave her a look, to which Celestia rolled her eyes, smiling.
“Relax, it’s fruit punch.”
“For celebrating getting halfway through the school year,” Luna clarified. “The hard liquor will not be imbibed until after school hours.”
“As is tradition for teachers off the clock everywhere,” finished Celestia.
“I uh…” Sunset settled into the chair awkwardly. “I probably didn’t need to know that. Though I guess it’s maybe a bit obvious.”
“It’s a thankless job Sunset, at least on average.”
The girl didn’t smile at that. All three just sat there in silence, before Celestia finally coughed.
“Right, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood. The reason I called you in is because there’s something we’ve been trying to make sense of.”
“Oh. It’s not another hydra is it?”
“No!” Celestia waved a hand. “I was under the impression that you girls had that handled to begin with.”
“Wait, is it another issue with plasmoids? Because if you’ve still got that vacuum cleaner thingy Twilight built, we should be fine—”
“No, nothing magical. Well,” Celestia glanced down at a framed picture on her desk, mouth in a thin line. “I mean, it is about Equestria; there’s something I was curious about, and I’m trying to make sense of it. I hoped you could help.”
Internally, Sunset breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, just girl talk about interdimensional horse nonsense. That’s something she could work with, at least.
“I can try, sure. What’s up?”
“So, I’m sure you know that Cadance and her husband Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother—”
“We’ve met.”
“I know. Again, I’m just making sense of this. So. they recently had a baby—”
“Baby Flurry Heart. Congratulations, by the way.”
“Yes, thank you. Can I finish, please?”
“Sorry,” Sunset sank into her chair a bit. Probably no way their conversation wouldn’t be slightly awkward, even if it brought a small smile to her face to think about how much Twilight had been cooing over her new niece.
“So, from what I’ve heard about the other world, Cadance and Shining Armor are also married and also have a daughter there, also named Flurry Heart.”
“Mmhmm.” Sunset nodded. “Though, from what Princess Twilight tells us, she’s a bit more of a handful. Like, world-destroying, firing-out-lasers, glass-shattering-screams handful.”
Celestia smirked. “That’s not too different from babies here, honestly. But that’s the coincidence I’ve been trying to wrap my head around. Do you know Chiffon Swirl?”
“Who?”
“Oh, the Cakes? Mrs. Cake. She’s an old friend, she and her husband run Sugarcube Corner, they recently had twins?”
“Ohhh, yeah, Pumpkin and Pound. Pinkie babysits them sometimes.”
“Are you aware if there’s something similar in Equestria?”
Again, Sunset nodded. “I get where you’re going with this. I think Princess Twilight’s mentioned something similar with their Cakes in one of the letters to Princess Celestia, I guess it’d be the same.” She thought for a moment. “Huh. I guess it’s not exactly a coincidence that a lot of relationships and families match up almost exactly.”
Celestia smiled proudly. “Perhaps that’s why they call them parallel universes. Obviously with some differences.”
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s exactly one-to-one.” Sunset chuckled. “After all, I’ve got no counterpart in the human world.”
At that, the principal’s expression immediately darkened. “Sunset… The reason I called you here in the first place was actually to ask you about your life in Equestria, in the past.”
“With Princess Celestia? I don’t know if there’s anything more to talk about there. It was kind of—”
“I know about you being her… pupil.” Celestia waved a hand. “I’m more curious as to what your life was like before…”
“Before Celestia?”
“Y-yes. I was under the impression that you were her student soon after getting your… mark… thing? So, perhaps the first… Sorry, I’m not familiar with how Equestrian magic works in this situation. You would have been ten years old? Eleven?”
“I got my cutie mark pretty early, actually.” Sunset smirked. “It varies from pony to pony, and I always hear people comparing it to puberty for humans, but… I dunno, it’s not quite the same.”
She looked over at Luna, who just gave her a noncommittal shrug. She turned back and made a little gesture for Sunset to continue.
“Right, so… I was seven years old, which made me the youngest unicorn ever to get accepted into Celestia’s School, and I don’t think that helped at all. Imagine being a seven year old orphan starved for any kind of attention and suddenly hearing non-stop how you’re suddenly the most important, most amazing filly that a bunch of professionals have ever seen, and then cap that off with the princess herself descending to take you under her wing and make sure your every wish and whim gets catered to.”
Celestia’s eyes went wide. “Hold on, Sunset. Can you repeat what you just… am I hearing you right?”
“I mean, it was like giving water to someone who had been dying of thirst her whole life, and— Uh…” Sunset shifted, realizing the principal had addressed her. “Sorry, which part?”
“You said you were… an orphan?” Celestia was giving her a very very hard stare, and it was making her extremely uncomfortable.
Relax. She said you weren’t in trouble. This is sympathy. She shows sympathy weird. She’s got resting-angry-sympathetic face. Or something.
“Y-yeah,” Sunset admitted. “I was a foundling. Left outside of and raised in an orphanage. I, uh… ran away a lot. It’s kind of how I was able to survive in this world. Had a lot of experience.”
“You ran away. At seven.” Celestia’s breathing was beginning to get shorter.
“Before I was seven, but, yeah. It wasn’t the best place,” the girl said quietly. “I mean, the caretakers weren’t mean or anything, but, like… You know. Not exactly a home.”
“Not a home.” Celestia deadpanned.
“Yeah.”
“The orphanage.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Where you were left.”
“Uh…” More shifting. This was beginning to get strangely uncomfortable. “Yeah.”
“As a baby.”
“Sorry, Principal Celestia, is this… Are you going somewhere with this? I know we talked about the whole— The whole, um…” Dammit, now she really, really wished she was in trouble. “Adoption. Thing. Before.”
“Our offer still stands, Sunset Shimmer.” Luna finally stepped out from her little hiding place in the shadows, giving her a gentle smile. “We would love to have you in our home and as part of our family.”
“Yeah. I appreciate it. I just… gotta think on it.” Oh boy, definitely awkward. Was that what this was about? She said it wasn’t, but it felt like it was. “Can I go?”
“Just one last question, Sunset.” Celestia sniffed a bit. “And yes, sorry, it is about adoption. Did… Princess Celestia… When you were living with her…?”
The question hung in the air, but it was pretty obvious. Sunset just barked out a laugh.
“Oh, no, no. Nah. Technically, she was my legal guardian, but she never, like, did anything more formal or official than that.” She smiled at the principal, trying to lighten the mood. “I actually asked her once, she said she didn’t think it would have been appropriate.”
Celestia just stared off into space. “Not appropriate.”
“Yeah. You should have seen her face when I accidentally called her ‘mom’. Pretty much the same level of shock as when I did it to you. Uh…” Aaaaand back to awkward. “No offense.”
Celestia sat there, silent. Her eyes briefly flicked to the picture frame, then back up to Sunset. She blinked once.
“I’m going to kill her.”
“What?”
“Tia! We talked about this!”
Celestia slammed the table, standing up, eyes aflame and face turning redder by the second. “Maybe not kill her, but certainly somebody needs to beat the living crap out of her. How dare she, how could— After I—”
Ranting and sputtering, the principal kicked her office door open, striding down the hall with enraged confidence.
Both vice-principal and student sat there, stunned, the fluorescent light buzzing overhead. Sunset Shimmer shook herself back to sanity.
“What the heck was that? Is she… Please don’t tell me she’s going through the portal to talk to Princess Celestia. It’s not that bad, I swear!”
Luna looked down at her, facepalming, finally. “This is a bit of a sore point with her, Sunset. Please stay here for a moment. I’ll try to talk some sense into her. And, if the need arises, I shall play peacemaker.”
And she, too, strode out of the office, hot on the heels of her older sister, leaving behind a very confused and slightly worried Sunset Shimmer.
A few mental gears turned in her head as she tried to process the last thirty seconds. One of those little gears drew up the start of the entire conversation. Something about both worlds and how families on each side mirrored each other.
No, not families, but parents.
Sunset had been through enough wild adventures to have some sense of where things were going. Filled with a sudden dread, she slowly got up from her chair and inched her way over to Celestia’s desk, picking up the picture she had been looking at. It had been the first time she had seen Celestia ever actually have a photo on her desk.
Turning it over revealed a slightly faded polaroid of a much younger Celestia. She was lying in a hospital bed, beaming, even though her entire face looked drenched with sweat and tears. In her arms was a bundle of blankets, an infant’s head visible within them.
An infant with wispy little locks of red and yellow hair.
The gears in her head went sproing.
Ah.
“Dammit,” she whispered, trying to keep her hands from shaking and trying even harder not to just throw the photo against the wall. “Now I have to go beat the crap out of her.”
The portal had a sort of feeling of cinematics, if she had to put a word to it. Swirling energy, glowing lights, and a tingling sensation throughout her entire body that she could only describe as magic. That… or Celestia was growing an extra pair of limbs.
With a final blinding flash of light, she stumbled forward into what she could only describe as a really angular library. Was it made out of crystal? She tried to study herself on the side of the portal, only to lose her balance and fall forward onto her hands.
No, sorry, not hands. Hooves. This… this would take some getting used to.
It’s for Sunset. You’re going to go find that horse and give her the business. Just a stern lecture, nothing more. Nothing more.
“Princess Celestia?”
A familiar voice made her raise her head, up and away from her weird new hand-hoof… Whatevers. A little purple winged unicorn was standing in front of her, but the hair and the eyes and the permanently curious expression could only mean…
“Twilight Sparkle?”
“Oh! Principal Celestia! I didn’t think you would ever—” Her former fake student gave a little bow. “Welcome to Equestria! I’m sorry, I should have realized it was you, what with the lack of magic hair and arriving through the portal to the human world and well…” She pointed down, and Celestia inspected the rest of her.
Whatever special effects she had been subjected to had seen fit to turn what Luna would call the “classic teacher’s outfit” into a far more stylized blazer. And, apparently, no pants.
“Ah. Sorry, ‘magic hair’?”
“Yeah.” Twilight trotted over, inspecting some strange machine next to the portal entrance, and giving it a satisfied nod. “She told me it’s the result of long term use of alicorn magic, so it’d make sense why you wouldn’t have it. It’d be fascinating if you two met; you could compare so many different things!”
“That’s actually why I’m here, Twilight.” Celestia gave her best smile, the one reserved for particularly difficult parent-teacher meetings. The smile for when you needed to lie through your teeth and make it seem convincing. “I’ve got something extremely urgent that I have to discuss with your Celestia, and I’m afraid it can’t wait.”
Mostly because she’d probably have a lot of regrets once the high of her anger wore off.
“It’s that urgent?” Twilight looked nervous.
“Extremely,” she emphasized. “If you could just point me to her whereabouts in the castle, I’ll be out of your way.”
“The castle?” The little horse laughed. “Sorry, I think you’re a bit confused. Um, no offense, Principal Celestia—”
“Just Celestia is fine, please.”
“Right. This is my castle. The princesses live in the palace in Canterlot. That’s a four hour train trip.”
Celestia paused. Of course Twilight Sparkle would have a whole castle. She wouldn’t be surprised to find it rigged to catch lightning if she looked around enough. “I don’t suppose there’s a way to get there faster, with… magic?”
“Oh, right!” Twilight blushed again. “Sorry, it’s a little crazy with you being here and also Equestria and the human world apparently being in danger and—”
“It’s okay, Twilight, but it is rather urgent.” Another smile, another lie.
“Not a problem. Just hang on. I don’t usually teleport more than one pony this far; it might get a bit bumpy.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be… Sorry, what do you mean, telep—”
With a flash of raspberry magic, both alicorns popped out of existence.
The surface of the mirror swirled, spitting out another pair of ponies, still stuck in mid conversation.
“I understand your anger, Sunset, I do but—”
“Sorry, do you understand?”
Luna paused. “Perhaps not. But do you truly wish to see them fighting? I was under the impression that your mot— Your Celestia was rather… powerful.”
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to give her a smack myself…” muttered Sunset.
“How about we talk out our problems instead? Surely that would be preferable instead of what I assume is a magic duel?”
“Let’s just hope there’s anything left of the palace by the time we get there.” The unicorn shuddered. “I may have seriously downplayed alicorn abilities here.”
“Well, then, we should make haste, surely, ah! Perfect, and here’s some assistance.”
Another pony had entered the room, evidently drawn by the commotion. Luna squinted briefly at her before…
“Twilight?”
“Starlight,” corrected the unicorn coolly. “Judging from the hair, I’d wager you’re… Principal Luna?”
“Vice-Principal Luna.”
“Oof. Don’t let our Luna know about that. Good to see you again by the way, Sunset.” She waved to the remaining pony. “Doesn’t… sound like it's under the best circumstances, though?”
“It’s gonna be pretty bad if we’re not quick. Did our Celestia come through here at all?”
Starlight Glimmer thought for a moment. “I think she just left with Twilight, something about some urgent business with the princess in Canterlot?”
“Then we’ve not a moment to lose!” Luna pointed her hoof skyward, then blinked when she finally noticed it was a hoof to begin with.
“Ah. I suppose it’s too much to ask if Miss Starlight is capable of driving a car?”
“A what?” Starlight looked confused. “A cart? I’m not pulling you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Sorry. She’s not used to the technology here,” admitted Sunset, sighing. “Are you still able to do that long distance teleportation spell you told me about?”
A palace. The other her, the other her that abandoned Sunset lived in a palace. It made sense; she was a princess and all that, but still. A palace, servants waiting on her hand and foot (hoof?), and still, still, after all that, she just…
Deep breath. She only wanted to talk to her other self. Air out her grievances, ~~deck her in her stupid face~~ talk things out and do what was best for Sunset.
Sunset Shimmer came first; that was the important thing to remember.
The double doors to the throne room ~~that could totally have room for her daughter you derelict excuse for a horse queen~~ opened with a practiced dramatical swing, the royal guards announcing, with some confusion, both guests as they trotted forward, Twilight Sparkle leading the way.
And there she was. Her. The other her. She looked surprised, but happy. As if she didn’t have any real care in the world.
“Twilight! And Principal Celestia, if I’m not mistaken? It’s an honor to meet you finally. Sunset’s said a lot about you.”
The mention of Sunset’s name finally broke the dam, and Celestia’s vision went red. Maybe it was something on this side of the portal, but she didn’t realize how fast she was moving, nor how quickly she had strode up to the princess, eyes ablaze.
“Principal Celestia?” the alicorn asked, looking concerned. “Is there something wrong?”
Bringing one hoof back, she smacked her royal counterpart across the face.
It was a good smack. It was a righteous smack, and it even made a deeply satisfying THWOP! as her hoof connected with the princess’s muzzle.
Unfortunately, she realized a bit too late that her new horse-goddess body didn’t just come with a pair of wings and an unwieldy horn (and no pants). Her other self went flying out of her chair, skidding a good two feet on her face before finally flopping over. It looked painful, and Celestia almost felt a flash of sympathy for her before she remembered why the alicorn was currently sliding across the marble in the first place.
“Celestia!” She heard Twilight shout as she and most of the present guards scrambled forward to her, evidently more than a little confused (she thought she heard one shout “changeling!” whatever that was). Given the way they paused, they had become even more confused as the throne room doors again burst open and two Lunas, Sunset, and a Starlight (she believed that was her name?) galloped forward. She wondered if the guards got paid enough to deal with something as existential as this. Twilight just seemed to be standing off to the side in a state of total shock.
But you know what? She didn’t care.
“How dare you!” she shouted at the other Celestia, who was slowly getting to her hooves in a daze. “How could you! How in the world could you do that to her?! And twice at that!”
“Ah.” Princess Celestia managed to compose herself infuriatingly quickly. “Principal Celestia, if this is about Sunset Shimmer, if you would allow me to explain—”
“Oh, now you’re willing to communicate? Where was that when you let her run away through a mirror, huh? Or when you left her at an orphanage and never told anyone? Actually, sure, let’s talk about that! Did you ever tell anyone? Were you ever going to tell anyone? Or was Sunset going to go her entire life not knowing she was your daughter?!”
“Tia!” shouted her sister from across the throne room. “Control yourself, for god’s sake! You’re on fire, and that’s not an expression!”
The red in her vision fading a bit at her sister’s voice, Celestia took stock of her surroundings. There were a few scorch marks here and there, and she assumed that the burning sound that was dying down was coming from her hair (mane?). The guards and Twilight were sitting there in open-mouthed disbelief, while Sunset had turned away from her. She looked ashamed, and that cooled Celestia’s anger quite a bit.
Luna (the one she was pretty sure was the royal Luna, the hair being a giveaway) flew in front of her. Her wings were outstretched in front of her sister, but her expression was one that at least feigned compassion.
“Principal Celestia,” she said gently. “Despite your outbursts, understandable as they may be, I believe you to at least be a…” She struggled, looking over to Sunset.
“Human,” Sunset offered.
“A somewhat reasonable human,” Luna finished. “Surely we can talk this out like adults, instead of resorting to violence?”
“I’m…” Celestia swallowed, feeling the last embers of her anger dying. “I’m sorry. I care deeply about Sunset’s well being, so after learning this, I…”
“It is understandable, I know. Indeed, this comes as a revelation to me, as well.”
Princess Celestia opened her mouth to say something, but the other Luna shot her a glare, and she wisely closed it.
Celestia was beginning to like her sister’s counterpart.
“Perhaps,” said the other Luna. “We should take this conversation somewhere where any outbursts might be a bit less… destructive.”
Principal Celestia gave a guilty half-laugh, hoping that it’d at least ease the tension in the room. Some of those guards looked oddly sharp, somehow. “Right. Perhaps… that’s for the best. Uh. Fruit punch isn’t poisonous to horses, is it?”
Most of the students didn’t give a second glance at the fact that two of the school staff were now being flanked by two doppelgangers. That wasn’t too surprising, though the one wolf whistle at Princess Luna that had been met with a cry of “That’s detention, mister Breeze!” from her vice-principally counterpart had been a bit of an eye opener.
Perhaps it was the way they carried themselves.
From the tales she had heard, Celestia had half expected her Equestrian counterpart to be nine feet tall, covered in eyeballs, and glowing as bright as the sun. Something that’d float around shouting “BE NOT AFRAID” at terrified mortals.
Instead, the portal had seen fit to make her princessly counterpart merely dressed in finery so expensive and audacious that Celestia could almost feel her paycheck crying out in pain. The flowing hair didn’t help, either. She looked like a better version of her; an immaculate perfect could-be version instead of the daughter-abandoning absentee-parenting punchable-face bitch that she was and—
Calm. Calm. Stay calm. Celestia took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to slap her horse-bitch-self’s face. For the sake of Sunset. She’d kept her temper under control for years now, this’d be the worst time to let it flare up again. She could take Philomena out for a spin after the fact.
All five of them sat there. No punch had been opened, nobody spoke. Whoever spoke first was making the first move and—
“Who’s my father?” Sunset blurted out, then shut her mouth, blushing. She looked back at the shocked Princess Celestia, whose own mouth was hanging open before she closed it, blinking several times.
“Sombra,” she said simply. “I would assume it’s the same here?”
Celestia nodded, but Sunset suddenly looked concerned, which, in turn, made Celestia concerned as well.
“I’m sorry, is that… is there something wrong with him in your world?”
“I mean, yeah,” shivered Sunset. “He was a monster. A shadowy unicorn usurper who enslaved thousands of ponies and ended up as a sort of smoke ghost who tried to kill everyone once he came back from the dead. Or something, I wasn’t quite sure what happened there.”
“Oh, goodness, I didn’t mean King Sombra from the Crystal Empire.” Princess Celestia put a hand to her face, shocked. “I meant another King Sombra reached via a crossdimensional mirror, different from the one we used. A good Sombra, from an alternate version of Equestria.”
Sunset blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“It’s a long story,” sighed Princess Luna. “One with an unhappy ending. I’m afraid he is… no longer around.”
“So, my dad is… a good mirror universe version of King Sombra.”
“Yes.”
“That’s gone.”
“Effectively.”
“Right.”
“Now, that’s interesting,” said Principal Celestia. “My Sombra and I met as grad students at Goodmirror University. We were both education majors.”
“Is your world simply determined to take the most fantastical elements of ours and make them depressingly mundane?” asked Princess Luna.
“One might say that your universe is merely taking our universe’s elements and making them bizarrely fantastic. I suppose it’s a chicken-or-the-egg situation,” fired back Principal Luna.
“He’s not a monster here,” Celestia said. “But he’s… He’s not the man he was. I’m not trying to downplay things just because he’s the superintendent and my boss. It’s just… Losing Sunny… Well.”
She took a sip of the fruit punch. It had gotten all too warm in the time she had been gone.
“Well,” she said again.
Princess Luna raised an eyebrow. “Given our world’s parallel nature, I assume that, in some way, your Sunset Shimmer is gone, as well?”
“Dead,” said Celestia simply. It had been almost a decade; it was easy enough to say.
“My apologies. If you don’t wish to continue—”
“No, no,” she downplayed. “I can talk about it. It’s good to talk about things, right?”
She took a long swig of the punch. Now she wished it was alcoholic. But, then, that would also be wildly inappropriate for the subject at hand, now wouldn’t it?
“It was a car accident. There was a drunk driver, going on the wrong side of the road, and there was a head on collision. That’s how Amore… Um, that was Cadance’s mother in this world…” She looked over at Sunset, who nodded for her to continue. “She was driving them back from practice. Sunny was in the front seat, Cadance in the back.”
“Sunny went to great lengths to always ensure she was riding shotgun,” mused her Luna sadly.
Celestia sniffed in response. She moved in to take another sip of the lukewarm punch, only to find that ~~that bitch~~ Princess Celestia was now putting a hand on her shoulder, giving her a look of sympathy, of pity, of all the things.
“I’m sorry, Celestia,” she said. “It’s hard. I know how much it hurts, losing your only child like that.”
“Lost your—? You didn’t lose her! She ran away! From her home. From you. Because of you.”
“She was lost to me all the same.” The princess sighed. “Just as your Sunset was. Before Twilight’s improvements, you have to understand that the portal was rarely active, and once she was gone, well…”
Principal Celestia fought against her rising hackles. “You could have at least gone after her.”
“I… made a few attempts to, but I assure you, Principal Celestia, my power has clear limits. I grieved, and made my peace with it. You grieved, too, in your own way, I’m guessing?”
Celestia grimaced.
“I went to a dark place after that.” The less said about that, the better.
“She bought a motorcycle, named it Philomena, quit her job, and got a tattoo that said ‘Daybreaker’ in flames on her back. She still has it, actually.” Luna clarified.
“Luna!”
Luna shrugged in response. Her counterpart smirked at that.
“Perhaps I reacted a bit worse. I went out and blew up one of Jupiter’s moons. One of the small ones that nobody would miss.”
Now it was the other Luna’s turn to turn indignant. “YOU were the one who destroyed Amalthea? You told me she had fallen into a black hole!”
The princess merely shrugged in response, to which her younger royal sister huffed. “We shall discuss this at length LATER, dear sister.”
Principal Celestia shook her head. “I just… I can’t understand you. Perhaps if it had been just at the start, maybe. I understand being scared, being worried. I was terrified when Sunny was born, terrified that I would be a bad mother, so, maybe, maybe I could get it if it was just that, just you hoping she’d have a better life.”
She sniffled.
“But you gave her up again. How could you do that? Your daughter. Your only daughter! To get her back, and then just… toss her aside, to just let her go, and…”
Celestia hugged herself, trying not to tear up. “Do you know what I would give to have that chance? To get a do-over? And you did get one and to see you waste it like that is just… It’s just… God dammit, how could you?”
“I tried,” the princess said. “But a thousand years of life does not make one suddenly a qualified parent.”
“You told her it wasn’t appropriate for you to adopt her. A seven year old girl! Who had nobody except you!”
“That is NOT what I said,” Princess Celestia frowned. “Not… not fully.”
Celestia went to say something, then stopped. She wanted to shoot the other Celestia the dirtiest look she could muster, but something about the way the other woman carried herself right now made her feel bad.
Evidently, she wasn’t the only one who had experience emotionally manipulating students.
“I said that it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to adopt her formally, because I hadn’t earned the right to be her mother. But…”
Princess Celestia looked down sadly. “I learned after the fact that that attitude was always my mistake. In my mind, motherhood was a position that had to be earned, like the ascension of an alicorn or the title of princess. What I realized, far too late, is that it was never about earning it or deserving it. It was always about what Sunset wanted, what she needed, in that moment. There is an irony in losing the right to a title because you were waiting to deserve it in the first place.”
Both sat there. One of the Lunas, possibly her Luna, it was hard to tell when they both were sitting in the shadows, coughed awkwardly.
“I suppose the question that remains is clear: what happens now? The cat’s kind of out of the bag, and I guess it’s…”
“A matter of custody?” suggested the princess. Celestia sighed in response.
“I… It bears repeating how out of my depth I am in this situation,” admitted Princess Celestia. “I had assumed that Sunset had moved on, but the error was, again, mine.”
She turned towards the girl and smiled warmly at her. It made Celestia’s stomach turn. “I care about you deeply, Sunset. I don’t think I’ve done a very good job of showing it, but all the same… No matter what happens, you’re always welcome back in Canterlot, at the palace. Not as a former student, but as my daughter.”
“Sunset’s made it pretty clear she wants to stay here, where she’s got friends. Where she’s got a future,” said Celestia pointedly.
“She would have a future in Equestria, no matter how many bridges she’s tried to burn there.”
“I’ve been offering to take her in for months! I’ve been providing for her in any way she’ll let me. Where have you been this entire time?”
“Are you her legal guardian in this world?”
“I want to be. We’ve talked about it quite a lot.”
“Yet, I am her mother,” the princess said simply.
“Like hell you are. You said you’re new to parenting, so here’s a bit of advice: moms are there for their kids. You haven’t been the one making sure she’s eating enough or trying to make sure she’s got a place to sleep even when she tells you she’s fine. You weren’t the one freaking out as you tried to figure out what boundaries were overstepping and what was just teenage pride. You weren’t the one that had to take her to the hospital because she was too scared they’d find out she didn’t even have a birth certificate! That portal of yours has been working just fine for how long and you haven’t even come to see her once!”
“That’s all the more reason for me to do better,” she reasoned.
“You’re a little too late to be a mom, princess,” the principal spat.
“Obviously.” The alicorn’s expression was cold. “It’s rather clear what your intentions are here, after all.”
“What, that I want to be the mother Sunset never had? Of course I want that! Even if she tells me she’s not ready or pushes me away, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop caring about her!”
“And, yet, if she’s pushing you away, it does not sound like she wants that kind of relationship in the first place!” Both women were shouting now.
“Because you’re the one who fucked up her head and made her think she doesn’t deserve to have a parent that loves her! After all, it’s not like she ever had one before!”
“That’s enough!” Princess Celestia was on her feet, right up in her other self’s face, eyes ablaze. “I understand that you care about her, I do. But you have assaulted me in my home, insulted me, and continue to demean me even when I have tried to be nothing but civil and sympathetic to your plight. I will not stand by and let you act as if I never loved my daughter, simply because you want her to replace yours!”
“Stop it!”
Both Celestias turned their heads towards the girl sitting in the chair, who was glaring at them angrily.
“You two have been at each other’s throats all day and it’s driving me up a freaking wall! Here I am trying to wrap my head around everything, and that’s… that’s hard enough to do without me wondering if you two are going to kill each other or something.”
“We—” Princess Celestia blinked. “We care about you Sunset, that’s all.”
“Sure, fine. But… look, just because you’re my… my mom and also kind of my mom from another reality doesn’t mean you just get to dictate my entire future. Both of you are acting like I’m some sort of prize or a trophy or just… Argh!”
Sunset took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling with a shudder. Funny, apparently a temper could be genetic.
“This isn’t your decision to make, it’s mine. My life, my choice. And right now, the thing I want to do is…”
She looked at both of them. Another deep breath.
“I’m— I’m going to go outside. Okay? I need to think about this. Just… don’t kill each other while I’m gone, please.”
And with that she strode out the door, slamming it as best she could.
Outside of the principal’s office, Sunset sat on a chair and tried not to cry. Or scream. Ideally, she needed to calm down and think for a second.
She had a mother. She had always had a mother. She had two mothers, sort of. A lot of things had started to make sense, thinking back on it.
And now they were fighting over her. Now suddenly, there were options in her life, beyond just awkwardly dancing around Principal Celestia’s offer for reasons she still couldn’t quite figure out. It was easier when she didn’t have two sets of parents she couldn’t disappoint. It was easier when she thought she had disappointed either Celestia, instead of realizing that both of them had probably been proud of her this entire time.
But she felt like she’d disappoint at least one Celestia now, for real, no matter what decision she came to.
“A bit for your thoughts, Sunset Shimmer?”
She looked up at the Luna next to her. Based on the funny shimmering hair, it was obviously Princess Luna. Unless the vice principal had figured out the trick to that, in which case, this was going to be all too confusing.
“Oh, hey.”
“I came to see how you were doing.”
Sunset leaned back in her chair and groaned. “I’d rather be stuck in linear algebra. This is all moving so fast, you know? I can barely process it.”
“Indeed. I suppose my shock at learning that I am an aunt pales in comparison to learning that you have one in the first place.”
“Yeah. It’s… It’s a lot. Hi, by the way. I’m your niece, I guess? To be honest, I never really believed you were anything but a legend.” She grimaced. “No offense.”
“No offense has been rendered, Sunset Shimmer. I came out here to offer you any aid, if needed. I felt that, in this situation, I am the closest thing to a neutral party.”
“Yeah, I guess. I know Vice Principal Luna a lot more, and she’s… nice. Once you get to know her.”
“But would you be comfortable living under the same roof as her? If she is anything like I am, her habits might come off as… macabre.”
“Oh, no. I’m cool with that. That’s the cool part about her. I guess Equestria really doesn’t have that whole subculture yet, huh? She does some crazy stuff during Hallowee— Er, Nightmare Night. Definitely one of the highlights of the school year that doesn’t involve magic. I just…”
Sunset sighed. “Look, what do I do here? It feels like no matter what choice I’m going to make, somebody’s going to have their heart broken. How do I avoid another mom-vs-mom screaming match?”
Luna sat down in the chair next to her, finally, struggling a bit before looking over at Sunset and copying her pose. She gave her a hard look, one that almost perfectly matched the one Vice Principal Luna was so fond of.
“You are correct that this is a…”
“Shit situation all around?”
“Indeed. My sister, either iteration of her, would be proud that you seek… Justice isn’t perhaps the right word. Fairness, maybe. You want everypony here to be happy, but you are missing a key point, I feel.”
“And what’s that?” Sunset’s mouth was set in a thin line.
“This is not about them; it is about you. What do you want to do with yourself?”
“I…” Sunset shrugged. “I guess not upset either of my… moms in either dimension.”
“And beyond that? There is more to life than upsetting one’s mother, believe me.”
“I’d like to—” Deep breath. They really were effective, she realized. “Celestia, that is, my Celestia in this world, always kept asking me if she wanted me to live with her, to be legally adopted by her. I kept pushing her away.”
“Do you not wish to live with her?”
“The opposite,” admitted Sunset. “I just… She believes in me, the way I thought Princess Celestia used to. I don’t want her to see me as some screwup, like how I’ve always been.”
“From what I am told, you are anything but a screwup.”
“Maybe,” she said, rubbing her eyes again. “I think I’m scared of being safe and happy.”
“That is a very sad thing to say, Sunset Shimmer.”
“I know.”
“Perhaps you should take a leap of faith, so to speak?”
“Easy for you to say. An alicorn can fly.”
“Not here, we can’t,” Luna retorted, to which Sunset gave a little laugh.
“Do you think it’s going to be okay?”
“Both Celestias are more alike than they might think. To that end, neither of them will be afraid of your decision, so long as it is done with conviction.”
Sunset sat there in silence, Luna joining her. She finally got up.
“Alright. Sure. Let’s face the alicorn music. Maybe I can puzzle this out...”
“First off, two questions. You gotta answer them truthfully, or this won’t work, alright?”
Both Celestias nodded as Sunset stepped back into the office. She walked over to Princess Celestia first, looking her in the eye.
“Were you ever going to tell me you were my mother?”
Princess Celestia paused. She began to shake her head, then stopped, then began to nod. Then stopped. Defeated, she looked down.
“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it constantly but until your principal burst into the throne room and demonstrated her rather impressive left hook, I could never figure out concrete plans on how to approach it.”
Sunset nodded, as if confirming something in her mind. Next, she walked over to principal Celestia, who smiled.
“Am I just replacing your Sunset Shimmer?”
“Of course not!” cried Celestia, obviously hurt and with her smile gone, replaced with a look of genuine anguish, as if she’d never considered the thought. “I know you’re your own girl, Sunset. I couldn’t be prouder of how far you’ve come, daughter or not. Please don’t think that’s the only reason I care about you.”
“But I am your daughter, in some ways, aren’t I? Maybe not exactly, but I bet she and I are almost identical, up to a point. That has to be influencing things somewhat, right?”
Celestia paused, remembering the promise, and nodded. “She had a thing for leather jackets, too.”
“They’re cool,” chuckled Sunset.
“They are indeed.”
“Okay. I’m not a replacement to the Sunset you lost, but maybe I’m a continuation? A second chance? I know most people wouldn’t be fine being in this position, but I think… I think I’m okay with being that.”
Celestia’s eyes welled up. “Does that mean—?”
“Look, I’m not mad at either of you.” She pointed at Princess Celestia. “I don’t think you knew what you were doing, and you’re so inexperienced at being inexperienced that you ended up doing nothing, because you were afraid doing anything would mess it up, which is worse in some ways.”
Then, she turned towards the principal. “And I think you’re scared of losing me again, and it makes you do things that you don’t think through and that are kind of the nuclear option in the long run. But, um…”
Back to Princess Celestia. “I… I hoped that when I went through the mirror, you’d follow me. I spent weeks hoping you would, that you’d be there and you’d drag me back to Canterlot and maybe… You’d talk to me, or tell me that I mattered. Maybe it’d hurt, but maybe things would be better. But you never did, and you said it yourself that you spent my entire life lying to me.”
She turned one final time to the principal, choking up a bit.
“And I feel like if I jumped through another magic mirror, you’d probably punch another god in the face if that’s what it took to bring me home.”
“In a heartbeat,” said Principal Celestia, perhaps a little too fast.
“And that’s why I want to stay here. Maybe I’m wanted back in Equestria. Maybe I’m even needed there. But I feel wanted here. You make me feel like I’m wanted.”
Sunset stepped closer to Celestia. “I know with half a semester left before I turn 18, it’s probably not as much time as you’d like, and I know I said I need a bit more time to think about it, but… Yes. If you want to adopt me, I’m open to it.”
Sunset couldn’t tell if her heart broke or soared at how quickly the principal cried out at that, leaping forward and sweeping her into a hug. She could feel Celestia weeping into her jacket, and it was taking a lot of willpower not to break down in tears herself. She could save that for later, maybe.
“I’m happy for you, Sunset,” came a quiet voice. “It’s good to see you finally know what you want to do with your life.”
Wiping her tears on her blazer, the principal looked over at her opposite. There were also tears at the corner of her eyes, but they weren’t happy ones.
Celestia sighed, turning away from that sad face.
“I’m… I’m sorry I punched you in the face, princess,” she offered. “I’ll… I’ll take good care of her. You can count on it.”
“I’m sure you will, but at this point, I think she’s more your daughter than mine.” Princess Celestia smiled at her counterpart, though it didn’t reach her eyes. She sat up, nodding to Luna as both turned to leave. “I wish you luck, Sunset Shimmer.”
They almost reached the door to the hall, when a voice cried out: “Wait!”
Sunset rushed over, having broken the hug with the principal and was now standing in front of her… mother. Her birth mother, looking down at her with sad eyes. But something behind them was shimmering, was that hope?
“Do you remember the first night you brought me home from the orphanage, and how there had been a huge summer storm outside the castle? I asked if I could sleep with you that night, and you let me and said I could always come to you if you were scared? And I got indignant and tried to play it off like I wasn’t scared, as if I was the adult in the situation?”
“You’d still do it even years later,” chuckled Princess Celestia. “You said it helped you sleep.”
“I did,” admitted Sunset. “It did. Look, you messed up. You messed up bad. But I remember the corners you’d cut off my sandwiches and that handmade birthday card that had way too much glitter on it and the time you’d take for me and… Maybe that wasn’t enough. But you’re still…”
She shuffled around.
“So, the portal to Equestria works at any time now, you know. This is where I’ve built my life, this is where I want to build my life, and I don’t see that changing but…”
Finally she looked up at Celestia, and gave her a gentle smile of her own.
“There’s nothing stopping me from visiting, right? I mean… I’ve got family over there.”
Celestia blinked, then gave a happy little cry before composing herself, failing, and sweeping up Sunset into a similarly massive hug.
“Of course you’re always welcome, Sunset Shimmer. I’ve missed you. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! This is my fault”
“Yeah,” said Sunset quietly. “But we can move past that, right?”
“Of course!”
Excusing herself, the princess turned back to her human counterpart. She offered a hand.
“I know you have every reason to hate me, but perhaps if Sunset is to be visiting more often… you don’t have to? You seem like a good mare— Sorry, a good woman, Celestia. I wouldn’t ever say no to being friends with a good woman.”
Celestia regarded the hand for a second, as if she was briefly thinking on why Celestia was expecting a handshake. Did ponies do the same gesture but with their hooves? She supposed that could work.
Finally, she took the hand and gave it a firm shake.
“I guess I should get to know Sunset’s family; we probably have a lot in common. Do you like motorcycles?”
“What’s a motorcycle?”
Having seen the royal sisters off back to their own dimension (with a promise to tell Princess Twilight how it had gone), all three remaining family members had elected to skip any teacher binge-drinking sessions and get straight to moving Sunset in, hoping to make the process as smooth as possible. So there they were, walking through the small town home, both sisters shared and getting its newest resident situated. Celestia had given her the grand tour, including the garage and a formal introduction to Philomena, which had stunned Sunset in more ways than one. She knew the girl had an interest in motorcycles. She wondered if it was cross-dimensionally genetic.
Celestia had gone slow, trying to contain her excitement as she pointed out the bathrooms, kitchen, some basics on how to get the hot water to not be skin-meltingly boilingly hot, and, of course, the bedrooms. Sunset had given her an amused look as she walked her through her new bedroom, taking note that it looked a lot more prepared than a guest room converted at the last minute. It didn’t have much in it; Sunset’s possessions were waiting to be moved in tomorrow, but Sunset had claimed it was the softest bed she had had in years.
Now, as the day drew to a close, they sat there in her room, Sunset laying down quietly and Celestia moving to adjust the blankets for her, which earned a chuckle from her charge.
“Are you trying to tuck me in?”
“Y-yes?” Celestia paused. “It’s your first night here. Maybe I’m being a little overzealous, but…”
“You know I’m seventeen, right?”
“And?”
“And it means I very much would love to be tucked in, if I’m being honest.”
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, which turned into a chuckle halfway out. “Welcome home, Sunset.”
“Glad to be home, I hope you’re used to raising teenage girls.”
“I got through Cadance, I’ll manage you. Somehow.” And with that, she pressed her lips to Sunset’s forehead, smiling and walking out into the hallway.
Sitting in her own bed, Celestia gazed down at her phone. She was a little too excited to sleep, she figured she’d earned a little scrolling, at least for one night.
Checking her emails, firing off a few late-night responses (Luna would give her an earful if she found her working after hours normally), then browsing the news, she finally flicked over to her text messages, filtering out the spam and what she was pretty sure was some magical chaos demon from the other side that had stolen one of the student’s phones and kept sending her random pictures of nonsense with vaguely insulting messages. She hadn’t the heart to block it; it was kind of funny.
Her eyes stopped on one of the last conversations she had, noting the name at the top.
Sunset Shimmer
Switching over to the contact tab on her phone, she grinned to herself, hitting the little edit button and typing in a few choice letters.
Daughter
It was silly, it wasn’t even some sort of ritual, but, for some reason, it felt right, in a way. For the first time in a very long time, she felt right. She felt whole.
Then she frowned, flicking her finger and scrolling down until she stopped over another name.
She should have been using her work phone for this, probably. He was her boss, after all. But his number hadn’t changed, even after all these years, and there had been enough emergencies that having a direct line without having to be put on hold was useful. Cinch didn’t get the same luxury, stuck up student-endangering bitch that she was. She felt a twinge of satisfaction over that.
Sunset had said it herself. She wasn’t a replacement, but she, also, in some ways, kind of was. A continuation. A second chance.
Didn’t that mean he also deserved to know?
hey, she typed out, i need to talk to you about something really important
Author's Note
Thanks to Love And What Came After for the proofread.
This was based off another abandoned fic by someone else that, obviously never got finished. I liked the concept enough and decided to see it through myself. Might do a followup on it, might not. You know how it is.
