CHAPTER 34: JUST A DREAM

Sunset shimmer had joined her friends on the train to ponyville, and they were leading her to some unknown location. Sunset held a red quill with her magic as she wrote her very first entry in the diary that she and her six friends now shared. "okay, it's my first entry in this diary, honestly i'm nervouse, not for writting, but for what lies ahead. i know that medusa was definatly not the only villain my new friends and i will face, but like my best friends once told me, you must at least find the courage to try, i was afraid to fail, but then i realized that the only true failure is when you stop trying, so now i know that no matter how afraid you are, a little bit of courage and bravery can overcome it, especially when you have the bestest friends in equestria by your side." sunset closed the diary and twilight had insisted she wear a blind-fold. Hercules was sitting on her shoulder as her friends lead her through ponyville. "So, where are we going?" she asked finally, she lifted her blind-fold the tinniest bit when pinkie pie pounced in and said "no peeking!" sunset shimmer dropped the blind-fold back over her eyes. "Okay, we're almost there" twilight acknowledged, "where exactly is 'there'?" sunset shimmer asked in reply. "I can't say, it's a surprise" twilight added, sounding all giddy and excited. the sound of a door-knob turning and the creek of an opening door made sunset very excited, twilight removed the blind-fold, but sunset kept her eyes shut because she pinkie promised to keep them closed until her friends said otherwise. "Okay, open your eyes!" twilight said. Sunset shimmer blinked as the light of the room flooded her vision. It was a loft, with a kitchen, bathroom, and bed-room. "It's nice, whose is it?" sunset asked as she explored the den. "It's yours" twilight smiled. "Mine? Really?" sunset shimmer replied, "Well duh it's yours, you can't live in ponyville without a house, silly!" pinkie pie added. "And wait til' you see down-stairs, it was made, just for you!" said rainbow dash. Sunset followed her friend's down-stairs. It was a two-story loft, so whatever was downstairs must be really cool for rainbow dash to brag about it. "ta-dah!" chimed rarity. Sunset's jaw dropped open as she stared at the room. There were obstacle courses, and ladders and rock ledges along the walls, swing-bars, and climbing ropes, and nets hanging from the ceiling, and all sorts of targets, and knives and swords and possibly every weapon known to equestria sitting on racks and along the walls! "Is it not the coolest most awesome thing you've ever seen?" asked rainbow dash. Sunset shimmer glanced at Hercules, who was eyeing a hamster-tunnel system twisting throughout the ceiling and in and out of the walls, and not really paying attention to anything else. "This, is... Amazing!" sunset shimmer praised. Her friends smiled with pride as their friend examined all the equipment. "Look at all this training equipment! This would make the designer of the royal guards training room cry! You did this, for me?" she asked. "Of course we did darling, you needed a place to live, so we fixed up this old place for you" explained rarity. "Hey! New friend, new house, new knight, you know what this needs?" asked pinkie. "What?" they all asked in unison. pinkie pie kicked open the front door to reveal everyone in ponyville smiling and laughing and having fun, along with balloons, cake, and all sorts of decorations. "A party!" pinkie answered. She herded her friends out the door and they were showered with congratulations and praise. Sunset was talking with applejack when a hoof tapped her shoulder. "Did you miss me sunny?" asked a familiar voice. Sunset shimmer turned to face her sister, melody breeze, "melody!" she cheered as she gave her big sister a hug. "So i hear you're like a big-shot now huh, well, congrats little sis, i didn't think you had it in you" melody joked. Sunset playfully punched her arm in reply. The sisters chatted for a while, then melody went off to go mingle some more, and pinkie pie pulled sunset shimmer over to a stage, apparently there was going to be a show. Sunset shimmer had been told that melody had been working and scribbling lyrics ever since she heard her sister was home. And she convinced her friend sapphire shores to sing it tonight. She signaled sapphire shores on stage, and the pop star began to sing,

"If I could reach the top of the world
Be all I am and it'd be so beautiful
If only...
I could be brave and I could be strong
I would know where I belong
If only...

While sapphire sang, sunset shimmer trotted through the crowds, who were going crazy over the song that sapphire shores was singing. Sunset touched the gold locket around her neck, conceal, and reveal, to heal. First the locket hid her dark magic, and now it was a locket that held a picture of her family, and turned into a magical gold sword whenever sunset summoned it!

"I wanna to feel free to be who I am
What I'm about is more than I've been
Ready to show the world who I am
And start letting out what I'm holding in
And find my own place to stand
So I can be who I am

Oooooooh yeaaay

I'm closer to where I'm meant to be
If I try I know that I can get there
And not gonna stop 'cause I believe
That it's so much more... to me yea..."

sunset shimmer signaled rainbow dash in the air, she saluted and sped through the air, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic rain-boom, and making the crowd explode in cheering and applause. Her father approached her in the crowd, her mother and sister were with him. "I still can't believe you did all of this, in about a week!" bronze blade laughed. "A good friend of mine told me, "you need to find the courage to try," turned out to be pretty good advice" sunset shimmer said as she threw twilight a wink. She smiled back and then trotted over. "So, what did you say earlier, about NOT moving to ponyville?" twilight joked. This made sunset laugh "oh shut up, you got that place for me, i was just nice enough to accept it" she chuckled. "We both know that being nice is NOT one of your natural qualities" twilight laughed back. "Okay, come on! I want to introduce you to everypony!" twilight beamed. She dragged sunset shimmer through the crowd, introducing her to Miss Cheerilee, big Macintosh, photo finish, DJ pon3, etc. etc... a familiar head of gold caught her attention, prince blueblood. "so, your name is sunset shimmer?" he asked, she blushed and smiled, "yah, sorry about all the lying, i'm afraid i used to do that a lot." blueblood chuckled, "i thought it was amazing" "you did?" sunset said, clearly confused. "of course, i told princss twilight that i wanted to find a mare who was brave, selfless, adventureous, and you, you are more than anything i ever could have barganned for!" he said, but he meant it to be a good thing. "if you wouldn't mind, i would love to get to know sunset shimmer better" blueblood smiled. sunset blushed again, "well, you can start with this" she said as she kissed blueblood on the cheek. his eyes widened and he blushed, as he kissed her back, this time on the lips. this caught sunset shimmer a bit by surprise, but she liked it as much as she liked blueblood. he pulled away, and they both blushed. "i'll see you around" he said. sunset smiled "yah, see you" he saluted and trotted away with a skip in his step. twilight and applejack trotted up with sly grins, "well that was somethin' wasn't it?" said applejack. "yah, he seemed happy to see you" twilight grinned with a raised eyebrow. sunset shimmer rolled her eyes, the friends walked to the stage and listened to sapphire shores sing.

"I wanna feel free to be who I am
Oh yeah, it's more than I've been
Ready to show the world who I am
Oh yeah yeah, yeah

I've found my own place to stand
So I could be who I am
yeaah yea yeaah yea yea
So I can be who I am...

So I can be who I am

Yeah... "

Sunset shimmer had never felt so happy, she had her family, all of them. And her friends, true friends. Her past was just that, her past, and it didn't matter now. She was herself again, not some tool for evil, she was sunset shimmer, spirit of the element of courage, and she was as strong and courageous as the burning sun. She now knew that THAT was what her cutie mark truly meant. Courage is being strong like the sun, and so was she. She now had memories of friendship, and family, and love. And everything was as it should be. But as the newest member of the knights of the round stable, she would stand united with her friends, through whatever the universe threw at them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna asked her and her friends to talk alone, and sunset joined them behind the stage. "How are you liking your new home sunset?" the princess asked. "Well, I've only been in it for, about a minute, so..." her voice trailed off. "Sunset, you know of the powerful magic that the elements of harmony hold" celestia began. "Yes, why?" she asked in reply. "we fear that the darkness of our wicked sister may still be within you, and to stop it from taking hold of you once more, i have conjured this" princess Luna held up a glass bottle, containing a sparkling liquid, small glowing orbs fluttering throughout the potion. "I have called this potion, star-dust, with it, you can conjure any memory into one's mind, and it is so real, it is as if they have lived through it for real" Luna explained. "What does that have to do with us?" rainbow dash asked. "Friendship is what saved sunset shimmer from death, and so memories of the magic of friendship will protect her if the darkness tries to take hold of her again" celestia replied. "Memories that all of you have had together, she will have as well" Luna finished. "But it is your choice, and yours alone, we will not force you if you do not agree" said celestia. The seven friends exchanged glances, twilight could almost hear what her friends were thinking, and she nodded in agreement. "sunset shimmer and i haven't always been friends, we started out as enemies, but if memories of friendship will stop medusa's magic from ever touching her again, then count me in!" twilight agreed. "I'm all for it!" said rainbow dash, "I'm in too" said fluttershy. "I am ready to remember!" squealed pinkie pie as she rubbed her temples in concentration. The six mares put their right hooves in a circle, sunset hesitated at first, but smiled and put her hoof in too. Celestia and Luna nodded in confirmation. "Who knows? Maybe you'll wake up tomorrow, and feel that this whole adventure was just a dream" said princess celestia. Princess Luna removed the cap of the bottle, and the glowing orbs flew out, soaring through the sky, and spreading out across the land. Seven of the orbs stayed, one being absorbed into each mare's mind. Changing and morphing memories. sunset started to remember all sorts of different things, nightmare moon sending her a vision of peace, and all sunset had to do was abandon the quest for the elements of harmony, but sunset found the courage to keep going, and in doing so earned her element. She remembered discord taking away her courage, and her turning into a trembling coward. She remembered the canterlot wedding, the crystal empire, the galloping gala, the equestria games, the breezies, going to Manehattan for fashion week with rarity. It was all there in her memories. And they would be with her forever, adventure after adventure, she would stand with her friends. And together they were stronger than any evil.

Sunset shimmer blinked open her eyes. She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She climbed out of bed and chewed on oat-flakes while practicing her knife throwing. She hit the target every time, even though her mind was elsewhere. She rarely had dreams, and this one was very strange, it kept going on and on and on! She decided to ask twilight about it, she would know. Sunset took one more bite of her oat-flakes and trotted out the door. She walked to twilight's castle. It was amazing and sunset would never get used to seeing it every day. It stood in the place of the golden oaks library, which had been destroyed by the evil Tirek. it seemed like only yesterday her unicorn magic was stolen by tirek so he would take over equestria, but the seven friends stopped him by unleashing what twilight like to call 'the rainbow power.' it was really cool, when the chest from the tree of harmony had been opened, the rainbow power had been released, and the seven friends had transformed! Sunset had found her key by going to the crystal empire to visit her brother. It was guards exchange week, and sunset had to trade places with a crystal guard. Her brother's supervisor was a real jerk, he pushed everypony around like he was captain and not shining armor. His name was flame tail, and since he was their boss, sunset shimmer felt like she couldn't stand up for her brother. But she took the risk and told him to start acting better or get out. He took the hint and left, and sunset was given a set of crystal armor from shining armor. The helm of the armor had been her key, for finding courage and standing up for those who couldn't do it themselves. "Twilight?" sunset shimmer called. Her voice echoed through the castle halls. "Sunset?" asked rainbow dash as she flew up behind the unicorn. "What are you doing here?" rainbow asked. "I was about to ask you the same thing" sunset replied. "I had the craziest dream last night" rainbow dash said. "Me too, what was yours about?" asked sunset shimmer. "I don't remember any details, but i remember that princess celestia and Princess Luna had another sister, and she was super evil, and tried to take over equestria, but somehow we stopped her" rainbow dash explained. "No way! Mine was like that too!" "Whoa, creepy." rarity trotted up to them like she was in a hurry too. "Thank celestia you two are here, have either of you seen twilight?" rarity asked. "No, let me guess, you had the craziest dream last night, and you think twilight might have answers" rainbow guessed. Rarity nodded. "Girls, what are you doing here so early?" asked twilight as she walked over to her friends. "Before you say anything, let's go to the throne room and talk" twilight waved them forward. They walked to the throne room together, fluttershy, pinkie pie, and applejack were already sitting in their thrones when they arrived. Sunset took her seat in the throne that was labeled with her cutie mark. "so, I'm going to come out and say what we're all thinking, did any of you have, weird dreams last night?" twilight asked. "I did" said applejack, "so did i" rarity added, "me too" rainbow dash cut in, "dido" said sunset shimmer. "What's going on, why are we all having the same dream?" twilight asked herself, her friends just shrugged. "Well i for one and totally over it!" said pinkie pie. "What?" the six others said together, "pinkie pie how can you say that, this could be very important" twilight objected. "Yah, but in my dream, we found seven keys and opened the tree of harmony chest, and found what was inside, but that already happened! So there's really nothing to worry about" pinkie explained. The six pondered that for a moment, "come to think of it, pinkie's right, we did already open the chest" said rainbow dash. "And if the dream meant anything then we would probably be getting some horrible omen from princess celestia, so pinkie is absolutely right, nothing to worry about" rarity concluded. "Well, alright then, meeting adjourned" said twilight. "Good, cupcakes anypony?" asked pinkie pie as she held up a tray filled with rainbow-frosted cupcakes. Everypony took one and talked and laughed together, spike even retold the story of him melting the giant ice-berg that would have crushed the equestria games, for the fifth-tenth time. Sunset shimmer smiled, she had six of the bestest friends in the world, a loving family, even a colt-friend in canterlot. Prince blueblood was very adventurous, and exactly sunset's type. What more could anypony want?