Sunset Shimmer regarded the large golden gates to Canterlot Castle with a sense of nostalgia mixed with dread. They were less imposing now, given she was substantially taller, though the shift in physical perspective did little to stem the tide of emotions seeing them brought. Still, Sunset likely had a friend that would blast them to pieces if she asked. Sunset wouldn’t even have to be nice about it. Starlight Glimmer would likely comply if it was a request, an order, or even if the unicorn caught a whiff that the gates themselves filled Sunset with unease.
Speaking of unease, knowing that’s how Starlight might react wasn’t all that comforting… Still, having any sort of friendly back-up, especially one that would use actions to help instead a bunch of empty platitudes lifted out of the greeting card aisle was comforting. More comfort than Sunset could expect from most her friends… at least without having to prod them a little. In that regards at least, Starlight was an ideal companion.
Starlight herself also seemed somewhat intimidated by the idea that she was responsible for fixing a mess past those golden gates, and that in itself was also a bit if a relief to Sunset.
Sunset took a deep breath and recited a mantra that had just recently sprung to her mind as she made this harrowing journey to her ‘home’. Or at least a place that still had the lion’s share of her most treasured memories… and the moments she most regretted.
How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.
As true as the lines she recited to herself were, Sunset had stolen them from a movie, which in turn, lifted them straight from the book series the movie was based on which she might shamefully admit she couldn’t get all the way through.
Look, it wasn’t HER fault the movies had already been out when she jumped dimensions and that they were so freakin’ good she’d forgo a balanced diet, sleep, and basic hygiene for an entire day to marathon the entire extended trilogy! And, hey! Books were great, but was it her fault she wasn’t born Twilight ‘perfect friend and best bookworm’ Sparkle?! Sunset had had dance popularity contests to win and a high school to rule over!
Sunset frowned heavily. It was amazing what a perspective change brought on by a few world-threatening events could do to make one reflect on several years spent wasted on frivolous pursuits.
The high school stuff, that is. Not marathoning movies. It’d be a below-absolute zero day in HELL before she’d regret any of that.
Anyhow, the mantra had one flaw in that it didn’t offer any advice. On examination of the source material, apparently, the answer was ‘Leave now and never come back!’
Well, Sunset had left, and now she was back.
She wasn’t about to back down now.
“Uh, Sunset?” Starlight interjected. “Are you alright? You’re kinda just glaring at the castle and spacing out…”
“YOU ARE A STUDENT OF TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Sunset unexpectedly yelled at the top of her lungs. “NO MATTER WHAT COMES OUT OF THAT GATE, YOU WILL STAND YOUR GROUND!” Okay, yeah… Maybe it worked in a book or in a movie, but that just sounded stupid otherwise.
Starlight put on a determined smile and stood ready as if the devil himself might throw open the gates and attack. “Okay!” she replied as if the thing Sunset had just said was completely natural and not insane at all.
No wait! I take it back. Cool. Totally cool! I’m being cool now and not an overwhelmed dork who isn’t prepared for this at all!
Sunset put on her game face and prepared for the worst. Her wings weren’t for show, after-all. Facing a reality tearing high-schooler who was possessed by a demon of gluttony by utilizing the combined powers of your friend’s most positive traits had to count for something when you had to deal with your past emotional baggage!
…Right?
And then the gates to the castle opened.
And there stood a lone pony. A pale, off-white unicorn stallion balancing small spectacles on his muzzle and wearing a dignified red jacket and blue-grey ascot. He looked across the way to Sunset with his soft-brown eyes and she suddenly understood what it must be like to have one’s soul set ablaze via ‘penance stare.’
Any illusion that Sunset previously held that she had ‘got this’ shattered.
A new set of guards ready to escort Sunset to her unavoidable fate? Sure. Princess Celestia herself? Been there, done that. A horde of Orcs that charged at her and Starlight after the mighty battering ram Grond destroys the gates themselves? Bring it.
But Kibitz, the closest thing Sunset Shimmer ever had to a father? Nope. There just wasn’t enough time to work out the epic mental obstacle course of the ways that might go down.
While it was relatively well known in Canterlot amongst those ponies with longer memories than most that once upon a time Celestia had adopted a poor little orphan filly and said filly had turned out to be a bit of a hellion, what wasn’t well documented was the castle staff that put up with her.
Out of the servants that came and went, some likely directly because of Sunset, Kibitz had been a fixture of Sunset’s life since the moment she first stepped hoof in the castle. This was somewhat unavoidable with Kibitz being the royal scheduling aid and majordomo for Celestia herself. As of such, he became sort of an unwilling babysitter, at least in Sunset’s eyes.
Then one day Sunset thought she accidentally killed her mother, and this unicorn came across the scene. Towering over Sunset, he looked down at the small filly in judgment.
But instead of condemning or even rebuking Sunset when she was at her absolute lowest, he opened his heart to her and told her that everything would be alright. In that moment he became the second pony ever to really let her know she deserved to be loved.
Though, regarding the ‘tragic death of her mother’, Sunset was admittedly being a tad melodramatic at the time. in her defense, she was just a recently adopted orphan who didn’t have a frame of reference for how much damage a large hardcover book could do when lobbed at a pony's head.
Still, even if Sunset learned to reciprocate all the love Kibitz had shown her by making sure she was always taken care of and even occasionally spent time with the little filly on one of the many occasions when her mother was too busy, it didn’t mean she magically became better behaved. As the years went on this poor pony had dealt with a great deal of Sunset’s tantrums, especially since he was so much quicker to put his foot down than Celestia.
Through it all, never once did he ever give the slightest indication that he’d be anywhere but there to help Sunset when she needed it.
And instead of ever thanking him for that, she ran away from home.
Whatever disagreements she may have had with her mother, Kibitz wasn’t part of them, and still… Sunset was able to cut him from her life the same she did to Celestia.
And she didn’t have clue one as to how a pony could even begin to apologize for that.
So, Sunset stood there like a deer in the headlights of a multi-ton, multi-trailer rocket truck and let out a silent prayer that her heart wasn’t about to be ripped out and shown to her.
Starlight, to her credit, did indeed stand her ground as if Kibitz, of all ponies, might be Celestia’s trained assassin. Though the mare did it with some degree of confusion.
Stone-faced as ever, Kibitz took a step, and then another. Then another… In fact, he strode forward as if he was greeting any other royal dignitary as the caretaker of Canterlot castle and not approaching the adult version of a filly whose tantrums he had weathered for many a year. Nor did he look upon Sunset with the eyes she’d expect from a pony who refused to sit at make-believe tea parties but would instead schedule real tea parties with himself and Sunset in attendance.
Sunset searched desperately for the hints of the pony who’d soothe her when she’d accidentally break an ancient vase while playing where she shouldn’t, or part of her mother’s regalia on one of the occasions where she was pretending to be a real princess. Each time followed by discreetly having the item repaired without a word to Celestia. She looked long and hard for a reminder, any reminder, of the love Kibitz had shown when he would read her bedtimes stories when Princess Celestia was still busy with one of her endless royal duties.
Sunset focused all her attention on the pony trotting towards her and practically attempted will into existence that spark of light that showed that her absence had been marked. That she was indeed still loved.
She. Just. Couldn’t. Find. It.
Quickly, silently, Kibitz arrived within a foreleg length of Sunset.
And there was a gulf of silence as Starlight kept an eye on Kibitz’s horn as if it might be used to blast Sunset at a moment’s notice. As comforting as that might be, a terrified Sunset Shimmer kept an eye on his perfect poker face. Waiting for it to break into anger and tell Sunset that she had gone too far. That she had finally crossed a line and there was no going back.
That this time… this time she really did lose the love of somepony whose feelings meant the world to her.
Out of all the ponies that Sunset had wronged time and time again, no pony had shown Sunset more patience or dealt with her often times miserable behavior with more grace and dignity than the pony walking up to her now. If ever there was a pony who had a right to return to Sunset all the pain and stress she had caused over the years as a filly in one single, brutal moment, it was Kibitz.
Sunset had a bag… no, an entire armory of return-fire ammunition to deal with her Mom if it came to defending herself and her old, insufferable ways.
The mental bag of comebacks and tit-for-tats she had for Kibitz? It was a big fat load of air that read ‘you done bucked up’ when turned inside out.
And then Kibitz took a couple steps forward.
He wrapped a foreleg around Sunset’s neck and rested his head on her shoulder.
He murmured, “Oh, child… Why did you ever leave your home? I missed you terribly.”
Sunset’s geode suddenly flashed red, and a tsunami of regret and longing from the pony holding her hit her in an instant.
Then Sunset recognized that her heart had been ripped out and shown to her.
As tears poured forth and the paper-thin walls that held her emotions at bay were obliterated by this wave of emotion, she rejoiced.
It's like Alfred and his master Bruce. There are some people who will love you no matter what you've done, so long as you come back to be patched up.
Damn...that was powerful.
FUCK!!! Nothing happened this chapter but the gate opening and kibitz walking a few strides and my own facade shattered. Im on a public bus trying (and failing mind you) to hide a stream of tears from just this little tidbit. GOOD FUCKING JOB SIR!
Happy to see an update here.
And sometimes you just have to go say hi to Celestia.
GOOD.
Oh this is going to be fun.
I got nothing to say to that, that's just really fucking sweet.
Daaw....
I dont mean to undermine the story, but all these people saying they were driven to sobbing by a few paragraphs should find help
9012682
You weren't touched, that's fine. It doesn't mean the rest of us are crazy.
9012682
Why?
Damn, this was touching. Nice to see this updated again, hope we can get more soon
Couldn't get through Tolkien?
Respect for little sunhorse -3
what films is this line from?
9012864
The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
One does not simply walk into Canterlot--oh, wait, they did, never mind.
9012641
Haha! Ditto, on the train, face did a thing, probably looked like I was having a stroke.
As for the story, not enough authors take in Kibitz like that, or really any other relationships Sunset may have had growing up (which we know she must have had to at least care for her while Celestia was busy).
9012641
Dude, I'm at work and my co-workers are looking at me funny right now because I don't really show this much emotion.
Just barely held tears back at the end. Great job!
9012855
In fairness, not everyone has time to read, and Sunset was pretty busy ruling over a school.
9012682
Who are you to judge other people for how they feel about things, edgelord?
9012901
It's only a model. Wait, wrong franchise.
9012933
A few years ago, I eventually did get around to reading the entire trilogy. And the SIlmarillion. And reread the Hobbit. I don't really get why people whine so much about the movies, I loved all of them.
9012682
Keep your unwanted thoughts to yourself next time, okay?
9012900
Not a trilogy. 1 book divided into 3 volumes due to paper shortages. Though each volume was divided into two sections, so there's technically 6 books and the intro and appendices.
kathymacmillan.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/image1-e1418088427545.jpg
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And also, the Red Book of Westmarch codex contained There and Back Again (Bilbo's memoir), Translations from the Elvish (Bilbo's translations and commentaries of The Silmarillion and related tales that he worked on while retired in Imladris), various bits of Hobbit poetry like The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and scholarly essays on Pipe Weed and Chronology written by Merry Brandybuck.
9013001
I was referring to the trilogy of films, not the book.
Very well done chapter, short, but managed to get the feelings of these characters across. Well, at least Sunset is likely to work through most of her issues by the time she reaches Celestia at this rate.
9012900
ah thanks never finished those films the first 1 bored me to near death
Great chapter, really contrasts with the end of the last one.
9012962
I actually read through the trilogy a couple of times myself. I'm not saying it's not worth the time, just that some don't have it.
9013204
Yeah
YEAH NEW CHAPTER! IT WAS GREAT TOO!
This is the chapter on the cover image.
Huzzah, it lives!
He said, five months after his last update.
Shut it, Deadpool.
9013204
The movies are almost perfect. I say that because I get why those who complain about them have issues with them.
First, the Ents. In the movies, Treebeard is clueless, and only when he sees the devastation to Fangorn does he wake up to the truth and attack. In the books, Treebeard knew about the damage to his forest for quite some time, and the Entmoot was convened to decide what to do about it. The difference in the directorial styles is that in the Two Towers, Merry and Pippin are really just observers. They don't do anything of substance until Helm's Deep and the battle for Gondor. Peter Jackson changed the roles so that the heroes of the story were more central to events. I get why it happened, I just don't appreciate turning Treebeard into a giant toadstool in the process.
The second big change was Saruman. In the movies, he's approached after the fall of Isengard, interrogated, and then assassinated by Wormtongue. He says all the parts he needs to, before passing from the movie. In the books, he is drawn inexorably out of the tower by Gandalf, and cast out into the world to wander as an eternally homeless vagabond. Theoden relents a little when he sees how far Wormtongue has fallen and offers to bring him back to his people, but Saruman's servant just spits on the offer and travels with Saruman. Later, they invade the Shire and turn it into a small, Orc-controlled puppet empire with Saruman in charge. The hobbits organize a local militia, and lead the charge against those who've taken their home, ending with Saruman driven out, and assassinated by Wormtongue before he is shot dead by a hobbit bowman.
The directorial difference lies in the fact that the Battle for the Shire served a purpose in the books that there was no room for in the movies. In the books, it was meant to be an allegory for returning servicemen after World War One, and the difficulty of settling back into civilian life. It was also meant to drive home the idea that the war touches everyone, no matter how far away, and that even if you go back to your house, you can never really go home again. The battle and the epilogue after touched heavily on these ideas, and used it to build a powerful narrative for the reader.
But in the movie, there isn't time for that. The destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron is the emotional climax of the movie, so having another battle scene after it is just bad pacing. So they cut it out. But that also means Saruman's end has to come earlier if it's going to happen at all, and it needs to, in order to properly end that plot arc. But it nevertheless does cheapen the hard-won experience for the Hobbits a little bit, because that final sequence was meant to highlight what they had become when held against who they had been. But for the purposes of narrative pacing, it was scripted that way.
9013341
Not to mention Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel totally getting shafted.
9013354
Well, they`re basically bit parts in the overall scheme of things. So they don`t serve a purpose important enough to preserve in the movie. I can`t recall offhand what contribution Glorfindel made in the books (although that kind of highlights my point, I think.) But Tom`s big moment was when the Hobbits realized that this creature may well be one of the original godlike Ainu from their world`s mythology... and he utterly didn`t care. The Ring had no power over him. Which sounds good, until you realize he might lose it in a poker game one night, and neither know nor care that he accidentally loosed the most powerfully destructive artifact in the world again. The Hobbits decide he couldn`t be trusted with it because he was just so disconnected from the world that he wasn`t actually part of it. That`s all important background lore... but it`s also totally unrelated to the important events in the movie, so it got cut out.
9012951
well you see, people have these things called opinions
Alfred Ponyworth
Hrrrrk, right in the feels!
9013367
Glorfindel drove off the Nazgul and saved Frodo when he was poisoned. And a thousand years earlier, he defeated and drove off the Witch King himself. And he soloed balrogs in the 1st age. Quite possibly the mightiest of the High Noldor since Feanor himself, making it rather silly for Peter Jackson to stick Arwen in his place. Despite having Maia blood in her as a descendant of Melian and being granddaughter of Galadriel, she was of the half-elven line. While great in wisdom, having the martial strength to pull off feats that Olorin barely could is dubious.
Always a nice surprise to see an update to a quality story like this one.
9013403
An opinion is not an excuse to be a jerk.
Just my opinion.
I wanted to post a video of Zuko and Iroh:
Z: How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me.
I:I was never angry with you. I was sad because I was afraid you'd lost your way.
9013528
Well, lore notwithstanding, there's what? Two, maybe three women of any real substance and value in the entire printed Lord of the Rings trilogy? And of them, Galadriel is the very alien Elf Queen, who is so distant that introducing the ruler of the elves as an ethereal and incomprehensible woman just adds to the mystery, which was undoubtedly the point. There's Arwen, who in the printed books was the token trophy wife offered to Aragorn. Yes, they were supposedly an item, but aside from a few lines of angry dialogue between Aragorn and Elrond, she barely shows up except at the end, when she speaks all of three lines as Elrond is handing her off to him. Then there's Eowyn, who's the only self-assured woman in the trilogy.
Lord of the Rings was written both during and just after World War One. It's notable that with the introduction of Eowyn as a strong female protagonist that Tolkien didn't just turn women into fainting damsels in distress. But every other deed worth talking about in the story was performed by men, and that's because it's the era Tolkien lived in. There just weren't stories about strong women who carried the day, unless they were inherently tragic, like Joan of Arc. So it's understandable that women played very little role in his stories.
However, we are living in the Twenty-first Century now, and the thing to remember about a good story, is that it's relatable to the audience it's being told to. A story written in the literary standards of the early 20th would not stand up so well in the 21st as a movie if produced exactly as written. (Entire stretches of that trilogy are downright dull, and would be a slog to watch on the screen.) So parts of it get updated and changed around.
Glorfindel's role is less important than Arwen's, partly because substituting her allows Jackson to portray a strong elven woman with a character arc in several defining scenes. Her dealing with the decision to become "mortal" and only live for roughly a thousand years or so (given she looked no older standing over Aragorn's tomb as she did in the present,) became a major point for character development not only for Aragorn, but also for Elrond and Arwen. Glorfindel would have just added another bit character whose involvement offers nothing once the scene has ended.
9013749
Yes it is actually, if you feel my opinion is mean, that's on you, I can understand getting sad from a story, but all these people saying they are sobbing are weird
*sniff* Feels, man.... ;_;
9013833
People are affected by things in different ways. Say if the scene has involved Philomena, which in this continuity was Sunset's pet. That might tug at your heartstrings whereas the reunion with a father-figure didn't. That wouldn't make you weird, it just means you respond to things differently than others. I'm guessing you've never been separated from your own father, or possibly that you never knew him. The rest of us can empathize with Sunset easily enough, because we've felt that acceptance, or can imagine how it feels for her.
9013833
I'm not offended, I'm saying you lack empathy.
If you want to say that people who are moved by something need help, you can't really cry victim when people call you out for being rude.
9014452
I think it's buried somewhere in the depths of MAD, but the basic idea is that Twilight and Sunset keep each other up to speed on all the weirdness of their lives as a way of mutual catharsis. So, even if she's never met him personally, she at least is aware of Discord and what he's done.
I can honestly say this was touching. Also very glad to see this story back in action.
9014481
True, also I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter
9012682
First of all, emotion isnt bad, empathy is a decent thing. That was uncalled for.
9013403
Second off, Yes, but when you share those opinions which happen to offend a large number of people, that is no excuse for trying to defends oneself. Just makes you look like those jackasses that claim the first amendment is the green light to be an asshat.
9013833
Thirdly, why is it weird? So you didnt sob, five bucks a bunch of others didn't either, so is life. But to those that have higher empathy, for better or for worse, there is a bunch of them. We feel the pain a lot more, for one reason or another, and crying is a release. Nothing wrong with it. And that has caused us to lash out at your own lash. Just how it goes.
Also, i just now realized, Sunset is the epitome of The Prodigal Son. Like, how did i just now get that?
9014456
She probably saw a lot of herself in Sunset, which was what lead to the adoption. But she failed to account for how difficult it would be to raise herself.