Chapter 17: Quiet at Sunset
Light filters through a window left ajar, catching drifting dust motes in their lambent spotlight and turning them into scintillating flakes of softly falling gold. The late day breeze whips up even more of the glittering sparks and twists them in an intrinsic dance on the window sill. Silently they float back down in comfortable silence. Jangling of keys disturbs the quiet, and the scrape of an unoiled bolt retracting mars the stilness further. The front door buckles swings inward with a rasp against the floorboards as the mistress of the home slips inside with a heady sigh of contentment.
Shoes are carelessly tossed to the rubber boot tray and a hefty canvas bag plops down next to the kitchenette's countertop just a few feet away. A sock covered foot shunts the door closed moments before that frayed covering is torn off and lazily pitched onto the worn green fabric of a kitchen chair. Sunset Shimmer sighs and combs a hand through her messy mop of red and gold hair, slipping into the townhouse with all the assurance of long-standing familiarity. Her fist clenches her old olive drab field jacket in one hand for just a moment longer before she drapes it over the back of the same chair. Her weary sigh echoes with the soft padding of her feet as she meanders toward the refrigerator at the back of the kitchenette.
With a hollow thump, Sunset peers inside at the perhaps too-empty shelves. "Mmmph, Thursday night, Thursday night, pizza and streaming night." she smirks to herself before rising up on her toes in a stretch that would make a cat envious. Feeling both the warmth of the late day sunshine beaming down through the front windows and the slight chill of the refrigerator, she lets out a breathy groan of satisfaction as that last frustrating knot in her shoulder pops with the stretch.
Breathing a sigh of contentment, she peeks inside for a closer inspection as her front jacket pocket buzzes noisily on the chair back. That same sigh of contentment turns to one of irritation, and Sunset rubs her eyes before confronting the intruder, "Why is it always just as I get inside?" Her friends had an unerring ability to text her at some of the most inopportune times.
The fiery haired girl sighs, tensing and glancing back at the hanging coat. She flashes it a look of annoyance before it turns into a smirk, a can of grapefruit soda plucked from a second-shelf condiment bin as she returns to her phone. She upends the can once, then brings it to her lips before cracking it open and sucking up the fizz. With a noisy slurp she reaches for the inside pocket of her coat and pops it out. A text from Pinkie pops up, 'Sup Shimmies? Felt that doozy yet?'
While she knew better than to just ignore one of Pinkie's inexplicable... things, she couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't told her in person. "Spend the afternoon hanging out at the mall, and in half an hour she's bored again. Figures." And yet, it was hard to be truly angry at her. She puts the drink on the table and starts meandering aimlessly around her little townhouse kitchen while tapping out a message.
The front door rocks inward on its hinges with a colossal bang, startling the girl as she fumbles with her phone. "B-by Celestia what?!" Sunset summons up every reserve to keep the shriek of surprise in her throat. It probably sounded a lot more angry than she intended, but her thundering heartbeat wasn't allowing her the luxury of even hearing a reply.
There, in the center of the doorway, was Twilight. Her chest heaves as she pants with effort, her eyes look glassy and dull as her tongue lolls from her mouth. But what drew Sunset's attention is the unsightly sprigs of hair stuck out every which-way, like she'd been blinded by a windstorm.
"Yeash, Twi, you nearly gave me a heart attack." She clutches her chest and unsteadily plants the phone on the kitchen table. But something was wrong, and it just seemed to strike her. Twilight was missing her glasses.
"Don't tell me, Rainbow troub-hey!"
Twilight's sudden lurch forward catches Sunset by surprise. It was like a zombie flick in real life, and even as Twilight's hand clamps down by her wrist and feebly tugs, Sunset couldn't help but think that she should be covering her neck... Or forearm. The last one was forearm, even as it called for 'brains'. Zombie movies were kinda dumb, now that the thought bounced around in her head. But it did help settle her down a little bit.
"N-no. Tih... Time." Twilight gasps for breath.
And despite the manic shiver coursing over her frame, it took little effort for Sunset to reflexively wrench her hand away. "Hey hey, yo, calm down. Calm down, Twi. Just tell me What's-"
Her hand had stopped right over her friend's shoulder on its own accord. As if by instinct, it never touched. A wellspring of cold radiates from her like she was covered in dry ice. And as her voice hitches, she could hear it: a slow, unnerving ring like blood pounding in her ears. The sickening lurch in her stomach might have been from surprise, but a bitter tang in the back of her mouth felt different.
What would make her friend cross town...
It wasn't Twilight from across town. No. The little wrist curl, the lack of glasses, she was even a little taller than before, though it was hard to tell with her awkward slouch.
"Relax. Take a breath. Here." Sunset reaches for the can of soda on the table and firmly presses it into Twilight's hand. Her friend grips it shakily and takes a deep gulping draught. "Uuuuh Twi, you might-" Twilight cackles, splutters, and after an awkward hesitation, lets out a rather unladylike belch. The little whine of pain coaxes a suppressed chuckle from Sunset. "Y- ahem. You might want to take it easy there. Hey, c'mon, sit down and tell me what's wrong."
Sunset gestures to her friend and pulls out a chair, trying to coax her friend to take a seat at the table in the centre of the kitchen. But a teary-eyed Twilight waves her off. Still recovering, Twilight pushes the drink back into Sunset's grip and gasps, "Gotta... Go... 'questria. Now." Again, she reaches over to clasp Sunset's arm where that prickling cold sweeps over her whole limb, dragging an unconscious shiver from her.
"Wait wait, what's-" The insistent tug got a breath. "Twilight, slow down. Alright, we'll go. Why don't you tell me what's going on and I'll get ready?" Sunset reaches back to the chair to fetch her socks. All the while, she cast hasty glances back at the obviously distraught Twilight. If this was one of her manic fits, a little bit of time and an explanation was a good starting point. She'd dealt with 'their' Twilight long enough to know the signs of her usual fits: she would often lapses into her moods, ignoring people or getting too worked up, overly tired, or obsessed. It wasn't healthy, and she definitely didn't like to talk about it much.
Princess Twilight seemed much the same, but this was unlike her. She was a friend and mentor, a confidante that she confided in even more than her friends. Perhaps it was the safety of distance, but there had always been a degree of awe about her. That simply disappeared looking at the trembling, panting figure sat awkwardly in her kitchen.
'If she had a problem, why not use the book?'
"Twilight?" She waits until she had her friend's attention. "Should I just... Y'know?" she held a hand out, smiling and knowing that the princess knew what it would mean.
And with a nod, Twilight let her. Putting the soda can on the table and gulping away a sudden welling hesitation, Sunset's hand clasps Twilight's shoulder, but the warning her own senses scream at her started even before that touch.
Shooting pangs of despair and apprehension race through her hand and run like fire through her veins. The anxious nausea swells up deeper and more intense than any sensation she'd known. It was no juvenile anxiety of test week, not finals, not deadlines of any kind, or even her own sensations of breaking into Canterlot Castle. It was pure unadulterated apprehension. Existence itself was holding its breath.
Flickering images of Ponyville and Canterlot race by in a blistering myriad of kaleidoscopic ruin. And it all settles on Luna. The crackling blue aspect of the Alicorn, the racking spasms in her comatose shape, covered in a sheet... No. Covered in a shroud. The grey black funerary processions, the trepidation of discovery, the pit of grief from loss, and the untapped ocean of rage that fights against it.
Blotted visions of baleful Thestrals clad in black plate adorned with a crimson cats-eye prowl the waking and sleeping worlds. Their shadowy forms hang chains laden with corpse meat from towers in the name of the slain prin- Sunset's mind revolts against the grotesque image.
It stares; something like a raven peers at her from atop the rotting corpse of a diamond dog strung between the bladed spires of Canterlot Castle. It knew. It had caught a vision of her as something more sibilant and slithering squirmed from the canid's corpse to fix her in its gaze.
All was touched by fear.
Fueled by fear.
Steeped in fear.
And the brass bell tolls, nine flat chimes roll through the unfathomable deep.
The rasping breath was her own, and Sunset Shimmer knew it. She lets go of Twilight and reels back, nearly tumbling to her kitchen table. Her elbow scrapes painfully against the sharp corner. But it isn't the pain that strikes her, but the sudden stink of offal and rot clogging her nostrils. Sunset's breath dissolves into a series of gagging, hacking sounds as she snaps a hand to cover her mouth in the vain hopes of stymieing the rising tide of bile. But that crushing weight disappeared the moment she'd staggered back from Twilight.
Sunset looks up at the princess as if for the first time, a paleness stealing the colour from her cheeks. 'Filly, what have you gotten yourself into?' It was like Twilight was swimming in pure undiluted fear.
Twilight glances up, reaching out again to steady her. And she flinched. Twilight saw. The Alicorn-turned-girl draws back with a pained expression flashing across her face before letting her gaze fall to her feet. "S-sorry." It wasn't needed. Instead, Sunset lurches forward, wrapping her arms around her friend in a crushing hug. Twilight's tears well up moments later and dissolve into the embrace.
The hug was broken after a few more moments when Twilight's breathing returns to normal. "Feel better?" Sunset asks with a light smile, receiving a nod in return. "Good, so, why'd you decide to come all the way here to get me?"
Twilight finally meets her gaze, eyes showing the pain and fear but in far lesser amounts than the sickly pall that had hovered around her not long before. "That's just it. I didn't have a choice. Every time I tried to use the book, it kept... well... deviating." Sunset's brow arches in confusion, and sensing her friend's imminent question, Twilight waves her off and lets go. "It's hard to explain. You have yours here, right?"
"Yeah, of course." Sunset affirms and draws back, taking more than just a gulp of the grapefruit soda to clear her mouth of the offensive taste. "Let me go get it. Just, y'know, take a breath, get something to drink. Did you run here all the way from the school?"
Twilight did as she was bidden, collapsing in the chair and flopping face down onto the tabletop with a nod. She turns her head, probably savouring the sensation of the cool surface on her flushed cheek.
"Wow. Alright, just gimme a second." Sunset flashes a somewhat forced smile and palms her phone before quickly heading upstairs. Along the way she taps a little reply to Pinkie, 'brb' then a quick follow up, 'something came up and might have to sort something out. Don't worry and back soon.' She quickly forwards the message to her entire cadre of friends. The Pinkie-sense was never wrong, even if she dearly wished it was.
Climbing the steps blind as she texted was easy. Rounding the corner and striding into her bedroom, she flings the phone to her somewhat messy sheets and quickly fetches the precious book from her top dresser. She quickly snaps up a ballpoint pen from next to the laptop on her paper strewn desk and disregards the rest of her somewhat messy abode.
Twilight was more important, and in her haste, she takes the stairs three at a time. The girl returns to find Twilight sipping gingerly from the grapefruit drink. After another sour 'bleck' face and a head shake, the can is pushed back towards the center of the table but not quite out of reach.
Sunset weakly grins and spins the seat opposite of Twilight around, sitting in it and resting one arm on the chair back. Catching Twilight's attention, she clicks the pen and offers them both to her. "So, what's up? Want to start from the beginning?"
Twilight takes both, saying just one word as she cracks the book open, each page blank and fresh. "This." The moment the ballpoint touches the paper, the ink runs in dark blue rivulets. When Twilight holds it at the center of the page, the ink keeps running.
"Woah." The lines spider in front of Sunset's eyes. An elaborate series of geometric designs and swirls form from the ribbons of blue sliding across the page by their own volition. In the center of the second page, bleeding over the margin, is an eight-pointed star.
The girls' eyes meet as the ink begins to dry and the colours begin to change. "Now, from the beginning." Sunset licks her lips and hesitantly reaches out for Twilight's hand.
"Oh, hey Starlight!" Though it's quick and a little forced, Sunset embraces the lilac coated Unicorn with a breath of familiarity. Still, having found her somewhat unfamiliar hooves again, Sunset Shimmer flashes a more genuine smile of both friendship and apology. "Nice to see you again, sorry it couldn't have been under better circumstances."
That shared embrace outside Luna's heavily guarded hospital room drew some attention. The eyes of the guards may have been directed down the poorly lit evening corridors and into the unknown, but the dead-eyed stare shared by Trixie and Moondancer fell on to the pair.
"Starlight," Trixie's voice lingers just long enough to catch her friend's attention, "Who is this mare and how do you know her?" It was impossible to miss the pale blue mare's too-even voice. The tone was so far outside her usual smarmy comfort zone that even Twilight shot a momentary glance between Trixie and Starlight, questioning if she too had missed something important.
The pair separates and turns back to regard the others. "Oh," Starlight's gentle laugh and hoof wave were both cheery and dismissive, "we met a little while ago when Twilight was busy and Sunset here needed a hoof with something. So, I asked if I could help, and I might have visited for a bit."
Twilight's surprised 'huh?' dies in her throat with some other half-formed sentence.
The cream-coated Unicorn mare just looks between Sunset and Starlight. "That is a remarkably vague reply for what sounds like an in depth story that I... frankly don't care about." While Twilight's reply was cut short, Moondancer's blase mien had evidently returned in full force, perhaps aided by the peach juicebox currently levitating in her arcane grasp.
Sunset trots over, the little unsteady wobble disappearing after one or two steps. She merely squares herself off and holds out a hoof. "Sunset Shimmer, nice to meet you."
Trixie's swift deathglare all but bounces off her stony exterior as the scholarly mare cranes her neck out a little and flashes an equally hurried and uncompelling smile at Starlight. "Moondancer, Canterlot U grad student and researcher. So, you're our supposed empath psychonaut?"
Sunset smiles a little, though the shine had dimmed. She lowers her offered hoof and just bobs her head. "Straight to the point. Yeah, it seems to be something I picked up over there."
"Over th... anyway." Moondancer's hesitation mixes with a certain squint that betrays more curiosity than she'd meant to let on. She studies Sunset for a moment, turning the nearly muzzle-to-muzzle gap a little awkward for both as silence hung on the stale air.
"So, um, yeah I heard. Or, well, I saw a bit of the problem. I just expected to meet you over with Discord and we'd go from there." Sunset awkwardly looks away, ignoring the feeling of Moondancer's breath being far-too-close for such new acquaintances. But glancing over her own withers at Twilight, her mentor and friend replies with only a bit of a shrug.
"We appeared right back at the mirror in the basement." Twilight nods and looks around the room, "But the dimensional shift was also a lot more calm than before. I suppose Discord didn't see a need to stop us?"
"Calm, yeah, but... it almost felt like being in a box." Sunset hums a little. And while she might not have meant it, that caught everypony's attention. Feeling three pairs of eyes on her, Sunset continues after a hiccuped hesitation. "I-I mean, like. You know, it's kinda like looking at a landscape shot on TV, you kinda just know it's fake."
The blank faces of three ponies greet her. Sunset draws in an awkward breath, "Oooookay, bad example. Uh... Ever held a painting in front of a window?" That's met with a chorus of 'oh's. "So, yeah. It felt like that."
"Well," Twilight nods trots over to the room's door before pausing to glance at the pair of stony Thestral guards posted to either side of the entrance, spears in hoof. "Whatever the case, this is just the first logical step." She quickly opens the Twilight quickly opens the door to the room and ushers everypony inside unchallenged.
Sunset follows Twilight, with Moondancer scampering inside just behind them. The other pair takes up the rear, with the pale blue mare still staring harshly at an awkwardly grinning Starlight who keeps her own suspiciously silent counsel. A sharp glare from Trixie gets a defensive shrug and mouthed 'please, not now' that only Trixie and the pair of Thestral guards were privy to. Trixie still stares, and Starlight slips inside the Princess's medical room only to hear Moondancer's question.
"So, you gave her the full briefing?" Moondancer asks, getting a nod from both Sunset and Twilight.
"Everything that..." Sunset's voice wavers. Her eyes locked to the huddled form on the simple cot pressed up against the tiled wall. Only the sound of two ponies hooves and the slowly creaking door breaks a sudden intense pall of silence.
Sunset freezes, then slowly approaches the incapacitated princess of the Night, glancing over the narrow frame and matted hair of the Alicorn. Her hoofsteps echo in the soft green-grey room, the tap of keratin on marble deafening in the lull. The Unicorn mare sidles up along the bed, ears slowly folding back as she looks over one of Equestria's immortal diarchs. Rearing up to softly settle on the bedside, creasing the cloth and letting her frogs feel the soft radiating warmth of the still living Alicorn.
"Sorry." Sunset whispers. "It.. All felt real when Twilight showed me. But now it's surreal. I just hope I can do what she needs me to." A pregnant pause lingers in the room now devoid of any sound at all. "I've never actually met Luna. Celestia, though..." An unexpected sigh slips free. "I'll do everything I can."
"Thank you, Sunset." Twilight quietly intones. The weight of Sunset's words had subdued even Moondancer's scholarly mien. She holds her tongue while Twilight sidles up beside Starlight and gingerly reaches out to place a wing on her back. A quick backwards glance from Sunset lets her take in Twilight's confident smile, "We'll be right here if you need anything, okay?"
The fiery Unicorn regard her friends and acquaintances with a sincere smile of gratitude. There's a solemn nod, a weakening of the smile as she reaches up to nudge the blankets down just far enough so that she could lay her hooves on Luna's withers.
But even then there was a pause, much more visible this time as Sunset hesitates almost a full hoof-span from Luna's body. "Cold." the empath whispers to herself, then shuts her eyes and lays her hoof on Luna. Sunset's world swiftly blurs, melting into an all consuming snowstorm of blinding white static and torrential shrieking noise.
