Chapter 2
The next morning, Spike and I headed down to the tower’s kitchen. Sunset had requested that we come for breakfast, and I didn’t see any reason not to agree. Our host must have been an early riser, because she was already wide awake, where my brain still thought now was a great time to still be asleep.
Sunset placed a newspaper to the side and smiled as we made our appearance. “Hey there. Ready for a nice breakfast?”
“You could say that.” I failed to stifle a yawn. As a habitual night owl, mornings just weren’t for me.
“So what did you two want?” Sunset grinned as I tried to blink the blurriness out of my eyes. “Perhaps some coffee to get you going?”
“Coffee sounds—” I yawned again despite myself.
“That would be a ‘yes’,” Spike said. “I’m pretty sure Twilight can’t function in the morning without at least one cup of coffee.”
“I just need some to get me going,” I protested.
“And another to keep you energized at noon,” Spike said, counting off with his fingers. “And then again in the early afternoon, and then usually a cup in the evening...”
Sunset chuckled and started prepping a pot. “So that would be a yes.”
“Thank you.” I sniffed as the wonderful aroma of coffee started wafting its way to me.
Spike’s eyes danced over to the kitchen. Sunset had an impressive array of cooking equipment and ingredients scattered about, something I was sure he could more than appreciate given how much he liked to cook. Though I did notice something was absent that I had expected to be in an archon’s kitchen. “Huh, you’re going to be cooking yourself?”
“This time, yeah,” Sunset said while putting on an apron. “I like getting to cook now and again. It’s a good way to practice precise pyromancy. You have to get everything just right or you risk burning or undercooking everything. Besides, I just wanted it to be us this morning.”
Spike grinned as his eyes sparkled. “Do you want any help? I'm usually the one that does the cooking back home.”
“I’ve got this.” Sunset levitated out some eggs and a skillet, but she stopped mid-motion to look at Spike. “Though I do wonder how cooking with dragonfire compares to my way of doing it.”
“I could show you if you like,” Spike said, puffing out his chest.
“How about next time? Right now I want to cook for all of you.” Sunset turned back to breakfast. “Anyway, how do you like your eggs?”
I sat at the table and waited for the coffee to finish. “Scrambled, please.”
Sunset gave me a playful grin. “Scrambled eggs are good, but I'm a little sad you didn't request something trickier like poached eggs.”
I grinned back at her. “Well if you really want to try and impress me...”
“Maybe a little.” The eggs cracked in midair, and then Sunset started frying them with her magic.
“Pull it off and then we’ll see.” I watched Sunset and appreciated the skill that the delicate use of pyrokinetics took.
“Sounds good to me.” Sunset started levitating more breakfast items, ranging from haybacon to fruit. She put the haybacon onto the skillet while simultaneously cutting up the fruit.
Spike frowned as he watched Sunset cook. “So, you want to date Twilight?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I do. Seems like it's going well so far.”
“So is this a political thing?” Spike asked.
I nearly dropped the mug of coffee I'd been pouring. “Spike! It isn’t very nice to just come out and ask something like that.”
Spike crossed his arms over his chest. “What? I'm serious, I want to know why she wants to hook up with you.”
Ugh, it seemed that Spike was going big brother on me with the pony I was now dating. Just what I needed.
“It’s okay, Twilight,” Sunset assured me. “It’s a good question, and he should know the answer.” She turned to Spike. “There's definitely politics involved, but it's also personal.”
Spike cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, how so?”
“I like her.”
I felt my cheeks start to burn when she said that. “That’s w-why we're dating. Err, courting, technically. To see how much we like one another.”
“Exactly,” Sunset agreed. “I have a pretty good feeling this will work out, but I wanted us to spend some time together to make sure we’re compatible.”
“That makes sense.” Spike’s words were amiable enough, but his frown showed that he still had some doubts. “I’d just like to know the pony that wants to date my sister better.”
“Ask away, then.” Sunset flipped the haybacon and dumped the fruit in a bowl. “Any preference on seasonings or add-ins?”
“How about you show me what you like,” I said. Hopefully Spike wouldn’t embarrass me too much with his questions. Though with any luck Sunset would be able to deal with any doubts he had.
Spike looked over the spices and seasoning available. “How about you show me some of the local stuff you’ve got? I did want to try some local cuisine while we’re here.”
Sunset nodded and levitated a couple of small jars. “I can do that.”
Spike rubbed his chin. “So, why Twilight then?”
Sunset started seasoning the food, diced up some peppers and onions, and cheese hovered over the eggs. “Like I said, I like her and I think we'd be a good fit.”
Spike grinned with a hint of mischievousness. “You into big purple nerds? Because that's what you're getting with Twilight.”
I groaned. “Spike!”
“What?” Spike started counting with his fingers. “You like reading all the books, and sciences, and all the nerdy hobbies. She should know what she's getting into.”
“I'd figured that part out, yeah,” Sunset said. “And I wanted someone smart enough to keep up with me.”
“You won't find anyone smarter than Twilight.” Spike smirked my way before turning back to Sunset. “Are you sure you can keep up with her? She’s the smartest pony I know.”
Sunset returned with her own smirk. “Well I did beat her in a friendly spar.”
Spike took on the same debate tone he usually took whenever arguing which comic superhero was the strongest. “One, you beating her was part of the plan. Two, being able to beat someone up in a fight isn’t the same as being smarter than them. Three, Twilight isn’t exactly all that violent to start with, so I doubt she was giving you her all.”
Sunset paused in her cooking to look at Spike. “I see someone’s Twilight’s little cheerleader.”
I found myself chuckling awkwardly as the two of them debated. “Now we don't need to turn this into a contest. I mean, we didn't want to hurt one another. Like, I could have capitalized on that one annihilation blast Sunset was using, but no sense taking things too far.”
Instead of relieving the tension as I hoped, Sunset frowned. “Capitalized on it how? That's one of my most powerful spells.”
Uh-oh. I realized I might have tackled the issue of our little spar with Sunset incorrectly. Things had gotten a bit tense when she’d visited Ponyville, but I figured all of that was in the past now. But I sensed that I couldn’t easily put aside what happened without making things even worse.
“Your mixing of anima and anti-mana is pretty dangerous,” I tried to explain. “It requires a perfect balance of diametrically opposed forces, with the potential to backfire spectacularly if anything goes wrong.”
Sunset continued to wear her frown. “Yeah, it's a tricky spell. When Kukri asked about learning it I had to turn her down.”
“I'd really prefer it if you didn't use that spell anymore,” I said. “You could get seriously hurt using it.”
Sunset blinked at that. “Wait, what?”
“Just what I said.” I stood up and walked over to her. “I don't want you using that spell. It's dangerous, and there are much safer spells to use than that one. As you said, you don't even want your own apprentice to use it.”
It took Sunset a few seconds to reply. “Um, no. I've been using that spell for years. I know how to handle it. It's completely safe for me.”
I frowned as I failed to believe her assurances. I’d seen that spell in action, and if I’d been inclined to take advantage of its natural instabilities... “We have very different definitions of completely safe.”
Sunset’s surprise faded into an offended frown. “Considering I'm the one who developed the spell and regularly uses it, I think I'm a bit more qualified to say that it's safe.”
I grimaced at her more defensive tone. “I'm just worried about you, is all. I don't want you to get hurt.”
Sunset paused and the hostility dropped from her voice. “Oh.” She hesitated for several moments before continuing. “It’s not like I don’t know what I’m dealing with here. I played around with the theory for a while before I cast it the first time under some ... kind of weird circumstances.”
I raised an eyebrow. “‘Weird circumstances’?”
Sunset shrugged and returned to her cooking. “I was fighting a warlock working for Blackfyre, and had to improvise to win the fight.”
My eyes widened. “You improvised that spell?!”
“Kind of, yeah.” Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Look, I would've been dead or worse if I hadn't. Plus I did that after overstimulating my brain with rune magic, so that helped.”
My jaw dropped. “You did what?! You're lucky you didn't give yourself an aneurysm playing around with your brain like that!”
Sunset stiffened and didn’t look at me. Instead she gave her full attention to the haybacon. I groaned and ran a hoof down my face as I guessed why Sunset wasn’t forthcoming. “So that's why Celestia's lessons about that were so specific.”
Sunset let out a huff. “Things got a bit desperate. I did what I had to do to save as many lives as possible. Anyway, food's done.” She put the breakfast on the table and pointedly sat down. It made me wonder how sore of a topic this was to her.
I sat down opposite of her. “It sure sounds like you’ve put yourself through a lot.”
I’d heard stories about Blackfyre’s return to Northmarch, but a lot of those stories were crazy. So crazy that I was pretty sure a lot of them were nothing more than rumor.
Sunset sighed and rubbed her foreleg. “I took some risks and made some sacrifices, but that's what I needed to do to stop Blackfyre. Now can we just drop all of that, already? I wanted us to get to sit down and have a nice breakfast together. Not draw up bad memories of a time I’d rather not dwell on.”
I frowned but decided not to press the matter. “Okay then. I think I can understand. Can’t say I like to talk about everything that’s happened in my past. Especially where some enemies are concerned.”
Some of the tension left Sunset’s shoulders and she started scooping out plates of food to everyone. “I can imagine. From what I’ve heard, Chrysalis is on both of our lists.”
I scowled as unpleasant memories surfaced. “You could say we have a history.”
“That's putting it mildly,” Spike groused. “She’s one nasty bug, you know that?”
“I think she's on just about everyone's enemy list now.” Sunset flicked her hoof to dismiss the topic. “But let's not dwell on her. How're the eggs?”
Deciding it was best to drop it, I tried my breakfast. “Mmm! These are really good! Cooked just right, with some nice seasoning.”
Spike joined me in testing the food and he hummed approvingly. “You need to give me the recipe for these, I like them.”
Sunset smiled. “I can help you get some of the Freeport ingredients I used, though you might have some trouble replicating my advantage in managing the heat side of cooking. I'm a bit more precise than a frying pan.”
“Yeah, I always hate when stuff sticks to the pan,” Spike grumbled as he scooped up some haybacon. “And dragon fire tends to be pretty potent.”
Sunset turned to me. “Looking forward to the museum, Twilight?”
My lips spread with a big smile. “You know it! I've been looking forward to that since I saw the schedule.”
Spike snorted. “If you really know Twilight, you wouldn't even need to ask that.”
“Well, just between you and me.” Sunset leaned in to whisper conspiratorially to Spike. “Maybe I'm just hyping her up.”
“Makes sense, just be careful about getting her too wound up,” Spike said. “Otherwise she'll be hopping around like a filly in a candy store.”
“Eh-hahaha! Spike, stop exaggerating.” I nudged him with a wing to try and get him to be silent. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable for me to look forward to getting to see the Liberation Museum. Not to mention Sunset’s school, and—” I couldn’t help but squeal in a fillyish manner as I thought of all the things I’d get to finally see and visit in Freeport. “This is going to be great!”
Sunset raised an eyebrow and looked to Spike. “Are you exaggerating?”
Spike grinned. “You're going to find out.”
I started to pace about the kitchen as I considered the possibilities. “Oh! I do hope we're going to have time to see all the exhibits. And do you think there's a chance I could review the curriculum of your school? Oh! And I'm going to want time to check out a couple of books while we're here. There’s going to be time, right?”
“I'm pretty sure I can make all the time we'll want,” Sunset said.
“Great. I mean, as long as I'm not taking up all your time.” I gave her an embarrassed smile. “You must be busy. Ruling your own nation and all of that.”
“It’s fine. I set aside this time for you, Twilight.” Sunset grinned at me. “After all, I wanted to get to spend plenty of time with the mare I was considering marrying.”
I squeaked and found myself half covering my face with a wing. “Th-that is true, yes. Spending time together is good when we’re considering, um, that.”
“So how about we finish up breakfast and then we’ll get started.” Sunset pointed at my table spot where my cooling meal was waiting. “You don’t want to go on a big, exciting day of visiting museums on an empty stomach. Right?”
I chuckled and felt my embarrassment grow as I sat back down. “You’re probably right about that. Things are shaping up to be quite interesting.”
Sunset and I walked through the doors of the Freeport Liberation Museum, and I took in a breath of the old, clean air typical of institutions of learning. The main hall was covered in black marble, and it branched down a couple wide hallways that led to the exhibit rooms. Our entourage came in with us, and soon the entrance to the museum was pretty occupied.
Sunset turned to me. “Anything in particular you wanted to see while we're here?”
“How about everything?” I asked with a smile. “Assuming that’s not an issue with your schedule.”
“It shouldn’t be.” Sunset nodded to one of her guards, a unicorn mare by the name of Sunny Flair. “Checkout the whole building, then.”
Sunny saluted Sunset. “Of course, Archon.” She turned and gave instructions to other phoenix guards to make sure the museum was secure.
Having a bunch of magi with golems make sure there wasn’t something like an army of ninjas waiting to jump out of nowhere seemed like an excessive measure, but I wasn’t going to make an argument about it. I knew from my experiences with my own guards that they liked to play on the cautious end of things, and rationally, I couldn’t blame Sunset for wanting to protect me. It would reflect really badly on her if I got hurt. Not to mention—well, we were courting. Needless to say, someone attempting to assassinate me would put a rather sour mood on the date.
“I hope we're not causing too big a disruption,” I said while we waited for the Phoenix Guard to secure the building. “I don’t want to ruin the museum-going experience for anyone else.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Sunset said. “We scheduled the visit for when the museum isn’t busy to start with. My guards are only going to clear some rooms for us as we move along and coordinate with the staff.”
I wasn’t entirely sure about that. A couple approached the museum door, but upon seeing the guards standing there they turned around. That was one of the things I’d grown to dislike about being a princess: my mere presence tended to disrupt everything around me. I couldn’t even go to the Ponyville bookstore without Storm wanting to close it down so that I could peruse the aisles without having to worry about some assassin jumping out from between the bookshelves.
Still, I was here on a date, and Sunset was trying to make the best of it she could. It’d be rude not to be thankful. “This should be a lot of fun,” I said with a smile.
“I sure hope so.” She waved at the hallways. “So which section did you want to do first? History?”
I nodded. “Sounds good to me. I have always wanted to see Liberty Hall where the Torch exhibit is.”
“Wanna skip right ahead to that, or go through it in chronological order?”
“Well I wouldn’t want to miss anything,” I said. “I did come a long way, after all.”
“Sure, I’ll show you around.” Sunset led the way towards the exhibit hall. Besides the guards that had gone on ahead, everyone else was giving us a lot of room. Even a couple of the museum’s curators were waiting in the wings instead of eagerly jumping forward to give us the tour. It made me wonder if they were just showing deference to our stations or if this was some silent conspiracy to make sure Sunset and I hooked up. Considering the way Rarity, Cloud, and Strumming were whispering to one another while giving glances to me and Sunset, I had a pretty good idea which answer it was.
The first exhibit we entered was the one focused on Freeport’s earliest history. Pirates and smugglers had been among the first to settle on the Freeport Archipelagoes, and they had given rise to the old Pirate Kings. All the artifacts in the display cases were either old or reproductions. They ranged from old weapons and tools, as well as a few old paintings depicting when Freeport had been an even rougher place than the present. Several notable pirate flags were hanging on the walls, and a display of several models showed the evolution of ships over the ages.
Sunset stepped over to a display with a painting of a vaguely equine figure with a red coat, swirling horns like a ram, and a black and extremely pointy crown. “So we don't have a ton of reliable history for anyone before Marghast the Demon Pirate King. He was the one running the show when Equestria was busy establishing itself.”
“Oooh, interesting.” I smiled widely as I started reading the plaques. “I’ve read about him. Pretty nasty piece of work, given he pretty much ruled the seas for a time. None of the coasts were considered safe because of him and his pirate fleets.”
Sunset nodded. “Not a ton of artifacts from his time, unfortunately. Both because of how long ago it was and how the Golden Path tried to wipe him out of history as much as possible.”
I glowered as I remembered that little bit of historical vandalism. “Right, a lot didn’t survive the Golden Path, what with their tendency of burning any books with anything they didn’t approve of. Which was pretty much everything that they didn’t write. We lost so many tomes because of them.”
The Golden Path had overthrown the pirate kings and risen to power with the promise to bring about a moral and just new order. What had risen instead was an extremely oppressive and despotic government that busied itself controlling everything its citizens did. Part of them tightening their grip had been to destroy any proscribed literature, art, or pretty much anything else. As a result, most of Freeport’s early history came from non-Freeportian writers or the handful of works that had surviving copies in other countries.
“They weren't fond of preserving any reminders of the decadent and corrupt past.” Sunset frowned at the replica crown and cutlass in the display. “Then again, when the guy running Freeport before them was a Pirate King who sold his soul to demons, there were probably some relics of his that we wouldn't want saved.”
She walked by my side as we headed into the part of the hall that displayed artifacts from the time of the Golden Path. She stopped in front of an extremely ornate, gold-trimmed book that I recognized as the Golden Path’s main holy text: The Codex Aurum. “It’s a trend in Freeport’s history. Some new group overthrows the old corrupt government with the intention of making things better, only to grow corrupt over time and get overthrown themselves. Though hopefully we’ve learned enough from history to avoid doing that with the Archonate. It would be nice to not have a display about how the decadent and corrupt Archonate eventually fell and got replaced by a new regime.”
“I'd certainly hope so. Especially when, well...” I chuckled self-consciously. “There's a chance it might be my kid who will be the next archon. I’d be a bit of a grumpy grandma if my grandkids got overthrown because they became evil and incited a revolt against themselves.”
Sunset snorted and hip-bumped me. “Just a chance we’ll have kids?”
“Weeell, I do want to be a mom someday,” I said. “And I've enjoyed our time together thus far.”
Sunset went silent for several seconds as she stared down at the display. “Yeah, me too.”
“That you’ve enjoyed our time together, or you want kids?”
Sunset gave me a wry grin. “Maybe I’ll keep that a mystery.”
“I’d recommend against it.” I poked her shoulder. “Because having kids is going to be part of the package if we’re going to get married.”
“Okay, yes,” Sunset said with an exaggerated sigh. “I want kids. There’s the whole fact I need heirs, and... I think I’m ready for that phase of life. My godkids are so much fun.”
“Oooh, godkids?” I smiled. “You’re going to have to introduce me to them.”
“Definitely,” Sunset agreed. “They’re a mischievous pair who keep me on my toes, but that’s part of the fun.”
“I look forward to getting to know them.” It certainly seemed like a good idea to get to know the people close to Sunset better. If things worked out with Sunset, then I was going to be spending much more time in Freeport and her social circle. Getting along with them would go a long way to making things easier for both of us. Plus it was always fun to get to know new people.
“I’ll talk with Strumming about arranging something when I get a minute,” Sunset said. “Should be easy enough to make happen.”
“Good to hear.” I returned my gaze as we walked up to a display showing the white and gold robes of a Golden Path priest. “It sounds like you have experience with kids, at least. That’s good to hear given the type of plans we’re talking about.”
“Yeah, I know I didn’t want to have kids just because I needed an heir.” Sunset’s brow furrowed and her voice became tight with tension. “That wouldn’t be fair to them. I’m not going to have any kids if I can’t raise them into a loving home where their parents want to spend time with them.”
There was a lot more anger in that statement then I would have expected. What could be behind that anger? I wanted to ask her, but I sensed that wouldn’t be a very good idea. Instead I decided to try and be supportive.
“I agree,” I said. “I know it won’t be easy given our duties, but I want my kids to have a happy childhood.”
“Good to hear.” Sunset let out a breath, and some of the tension left her. “And if I’m going to be honest, if I’m serious about ever having kids it’s now or never. This isn’t exactly the type of thing you want to put off forever.”
I didn’t want to say anything about Sunset’s age, but she wasn’t exactly wrong about that. She was a long way from old, but she was getting well into middle age. After a certain age it got a lot harder to keep up with a bunch of young and energetic kids, not even getting into the potential difficulties and medical complications that came with waiting too long to bear foals. That might even be part of the explanation for why she had picked a potential spouse significantly younger than herself. It was a lot easier to sire than to be pregnant, to say the least.
She was right about not wanting to put this type of thing off forever too. I’d started exploring my own possibilities as well before coming to Freeport—at least when time allowed for it. Half the time it felt like I didn’t have time for anything, and a part of me could feel the sands of time trickling away. Given my ... behaviors, I could easily see myself suddenly finding myself an old mare and without having ever had the family I wanted. It would hardly be a life not worth living, I enjoyed my life as it was, but I still did want a family and joy it brought. Those facts did make courting Sunset all the more appealing, even with the inherent troubles involved.
“I can understand that,” I told her. “At least we can agree on this much: knowing if you want kids or not is a pretty important question to know the answer to.”
“You can say that again.” Sunset briefly froze as she moved to the next display case. “Even if the idea of being wholly responsible for a smaller version of myself is more than a little bit scary.”
“You’re telling me,” I agreed. “It’s a whole lot of responsibility.”
“Among the reasons why I wanted someone I could get along with,” Sunset said. “It‘d make me feel better to have someone I can depend on to help me raise my kids. If I had to, I could probably do it all by myself, but having two parents makes a big difference.”
“That’s pretty reasonable.” I frowned as some thoughts came to me. “Of course, there are a few hurdles for us to overcome.”
Sunset led us to a new room, this one with displays showing the Zebrican Empire’s occupation of the Freeport. There were stands with dated Zebrican armor, weapons, as well as paintings of the sultan of the time, and several other important figures from the period. “I figured a few things would come up. Anything in particular you wanted to talk about?”
“Distance comes to mind,” I said as I studied a document announcing several new laws in Freeport now that the Empire was in charge. “Freeport is a long way from Ponyville, after all. That’s going to make a few things complicated, like us getting to spend time together. I don’t want to just leave my home and all of Equestria, and you can’t just leave Freeport when you’re its ruler.”
Sunset nodded. “It's definitely something we'll have to consider, but it seems like the kind of problem we could find solutions to if we wanted.”
“That’s what I hope.” I turned to her. “I mean, not seeing you every single day wouldn't be the worst thing for me. Sure, it’s not ideal, but, um, I hope I’m not making it sound like I don’t want to see you.”
Sunset shook her head. “No, I get you. We’re probably going to have periods where we’re not going to get to see one another due to our duties. Admittedly, that’s something I was worried about too. I know you really like being around your friends, and might not like being so far from them.”
I frowned as I considered that and other problems. She wasn’t wrong about that. Sure, there were magical means by which to maintain communication, but that wasn’t the same as actually being in the same room with somepony. However I chose to deal with this, something was going to need to be sacrificed to some degree. There were just so many hours in the day, and I could only be in one place at a time.
“Being away from my friends isn’t something I like the idea of,” I admitted. “Though I’m also worried about if we have kids. I don’t want them to feel neglected because one of us isn’t around.”
Sunset grunted. “Right, I don’t want them to feel like we don’t care about them. I suppose we could always try some sort of way to cut down the travel time. There are plenty of tricks we could use.”
“That is true.” I rubbed my chin as I considered the possibilities. “There are several different forms of magical travel, even if none of them are exactly easy to pull off.”
“I'm not sure how viable they are, but between the two of us, I was figuring we could figure something out,” Sunset said.
I nodded. “I wouldn't mind looking into what options we have with you.”
“Great.” Sunset smiled and headed over to the next set of exhibits. There sat another old tome, this one titled The Noble Necromantic Arts of Ancient Selerika by Ushabti. “Now here’s the source of a lot of trouble—the book all the Necrocrats went crazy over. Of course, most of them never actually read it.”
I snorted. “Isn’t that true of a lot of intellectual discussions? I’m sure you remember at school how somepony would say they were all into Epic Curious or Lyequinegus, but as for how many actually read any of their works...” I tilted my head as a question came to me. “Have you read that book?”
“Cover to cover,” Sunset confirmed, sounding far too comfortable about having admitted she’d just read a big how-to guide for necromancy. “I was curious, and it seemed like the prudent thing to do after some other things that happened. I don’t agree with his argument, but I think it’s fair to say that the Necrocrats were ... not an accurate reflection of what Ushabti had in mind. Just like the way the Council was for a long time didn’t match up with what Torch wanted. That’s part of what I’m doing in Freeport as Archon: making sure we don’t lose those original ideals in the shuffle of day-to-day rulership.” She glanced over and rolled her eyes. “And before you ask: yes, that does mean I know how to do necromancy. It’s really not that hard. I bet someone as smart as you could figure it out pretty quickly if you actually wanted to. I just don’t use that knowledge.”
“Oh, good to hear.” An awkward chuckle bubbled out of me. “I was just a bit worried. Not seriously worried. Just a curious type of worried because I didn’t know all the facts. But I do now, so now I feel better.” I cleared my throat as I tried to direct the conversation away from how I thought for a second that Sunset might be a practicing necromancer. “It would be nice to avoid the mistakes of the past. What’s the point of history if we can’t learn from it?”
Sunset nodded along. “Yeah, it's hard not to notice some of the messy trends in Freeport’s history, and I'd like to avoid being on the wrong side of them. I don’t want to have someone five hundred years from now giving a tour in a museum, talking about how the Archonate lost its way and became decadent and corrupt, only to be overthrown by brave freedom fighters.”
“I don't blame you for that.” I looked at a display of Necrocrat skeletal soldiers. It was probably just a mock representation. Probably. They wouldn’t use someone’s actual skeleton for something like that, right? “In no small part because it might be my kids and descendants running the Archonate. Though I have to say, you've got a big job ahead of you. Creating a government that stands the test of time isn’t exactly easy. Most rulers are just satisfied ruling well over the course of their lives.”
Sunset thought about that for a second, then shrugged. “I guess being trained by Celestia made me think about building something that’ll outlast me. Sure, four hundred years isn’t bad by most standards, but I don’t want to make something that’s just good enough. Though I have no idea how succession’s going to work yet...”
“Why I’m here?” I asked. “Not hard to guess that whether I say yes or no to a marriage would make a big difference to your plans.”
Sunset chuckled and nodded along. “Yeah, passing the Archonate down through my bloodline is one of the obvious ideas everyone came up with. Not to mention that from what I understand we’d be pretty much guaranteed to have an alicorn kid, and that’s a pretty clear advantage when it comes to leadership claims.”
“That is true. Alicorns do have a lot of prestige to them to say the least, in addition to other benefits.” I rubbed my chin as I thought what she said and grinned. “‘Pretty much guaranteed,’ you said? Has somepony been doing some research?”
Instead of smiling at me, Sunset actually looked away. “Yeah. I had my DNA checked recently, just as a precaution after some of the stuff that’s happened.” She walked over to the next section of the museum which covered Torch’s anti-slavery campaign, and stopped in front of the display case containing Chainbreaker. “How much did Celestia tell you about Blackfyre’s return and the Northmarch Campaign?”
I joined her in looking at Chainbreaker, wondering what her change in tone meant. “Not much, admittedly. After it happened, Celestia deflected most of my questions about everything, and I didn’t really press that hard given most of my energy was on my studies at the time. I know you were involved in stopping Blackfyre, along with Celestia and Argentium the Runescaled. As well as how the campaign went. Shining was involved in that, and he told me all about it.”
“Well, the parts he was there for.” Sunset flexed her right foreleg, staring down at it with a faint frown. “Suffice to say some stuff happened, and...” She closed her eyes and concentrated for a second, conjuring up a cloud. Then she hopped up onto it, standing on it without any trouble. “Well, this is one of the less bizarre side effects.”
I raised an eyebrow and cast a scanning spell. To my surprise, she didn’t have a cloud walking spell on herself. Sure, she had a range of protective spells all over herself, but nothing that should have let her walk on a cloud. That left me with a great many questions. “How are you standing on that? I don’t think I need to go through all the reasons why that shouldn’t be possible.”
“Well, now that I’m done showing off...” She hopped down off the cloud, then conjured up a scroll, passing it over to me. “Since we are talking about kids and everything, I thought you might want to have a look over what I’m bringing to the table. If you really want the full story behind it all I can share, but it’ll take a while.”
My eyes scrolled over the data in front of me. It was a bunch of genetic data about Sunset’s DNA, and there were several odd bits about it. Her DNA was primarily unicorn, but had several noteworthy bits where it sequenced as that of an alicorn’s. It was as though someone had randomly spliced in several bits of alicorn DNA into a unicorn at some point. There were a couple other anomalies as well—and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was reading was.
“If I’m reading this right, you’re an alicorn in several bits of your genetic makeup,” I announced. “Though you’re still primarily a unicorn. Though there’s a few parts here and there I’ve never seen before. I would need more data to know what I’m looking at.”
“Short version, I got dosed with a dark magic mutagen, then merged my soul with Torch and Ushabti’s. Or something like that, it’s kinda complicated. Point is, from what Celestia’s said I’m kind of like an alicorn, except without wings or a lot of the other things that go along with being an alicorn.”
“Huh, that’s intriguing.” I reexamined the scroll’s contents now that I had some context. “That would explain a few things. Now I can see why you think we have a high chance of having an alicorn between us. Or at least some sort of proto-alicorn. That depends on several factors.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to say for sure until we actually have a kid.” She paused and glanced at me. “That is, assuming we get to that point.”
I cleared my throat. “Right, that is a pretty big step.” I did my best to smile for her. “The good news is that I’m enjoying this date. The museum’s been a good pick.”
“Glad you liked it.” She led us over to another book in a display case next to the sword. The first thing I noticed about it was the unusual cover; not many ponies would use ironwood for a book cover. “Evergreen Shimmer’s grimoire, on loan from my family collection. Seemed like a fun thing to add to the museum.”
I remembered enough of my political lessons from Celestia to have a pretty good idea of what she was up to. “And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that it helps tie your family’s legacy into Torch’s Rebellion.”
Sunset shot me a dry smile. “A happy coincidence.”
“Well then, I see my potential spouse is a very far thinking and manipulative mare,” I teased as I poked her chest. “How very appropriate for a Freeport Archon.”
“I mean, Celestia taught both of us, so are you really that surprised?” She snickered to herself. “That reminds me, did she ever tell you about how I broke the locking spell on her diary? Or how I used to steal all of the cake she had stashed away, because I thought it was another one of her weird tests?”
I held a hoof up to my mouth as I snickered. “Nooo. Well, she told me she had to enhance her locking spell after a naughty little filly got past it, but she didn’t tell me that was you. And I’m surprised to hear she has cake locked away. I always figured she always had the kitchen make it on demand.”
“I think that was her midnight snack stash,” Sunset answered. “You know, so she didn’t have to bother someone late at night. I usually just make my own food if I’m hungry late at night, but I guess cake isn’t really something you can cook on your own in a couple minutes.”
“It’s really not,” I agreed. “And you seem to have gotten a bit of a mischievous streak in you too. That’s good to know.”
Sunset snickered. “I don’t know about it being a full-blown mischievous streak, but I do have my moments. What about you? I’m sure you’ve got some fun stories about ways you messed with Celestia.”
“Weeell, I wouldn’t say mess with Celestia.” I felt my cheeks start to burn. “There were a ... few times when I might have read something that got me so hyped up that I ran to Celestia’s bedroom in the middle of the night to ask her questions. And I might have kept her up until it was time for her to raise the sun with my questions. I was a very curious little filly.”
Sunset snorted and shook her head. “I can definitely believe that. Though I might have to dispute your use of the past tense: you’re still a very curious mare.”
“Guilty as charged,” I agreed. “Though more of a grown mare than a little filly these days. Since Celestia will probably confirm that I asked her some questions about you back in Canterlot.”
“Are we talking about asking questions when you were a kid, or right before you came here?” Sunset smirked and nudged me with her elbow. “Just trying to figure out if you were pumping her for intelligence on how to impress me. Because if you did, it’s working.”
My lips wormed into a grin as my cheeks felt hotter. “I did ask about all of Celestia’s students in the past. Though you were the focus of my last round of questions. I figured it’d be a good idea to know about you before you started talking about getting married and having me carry your alicorn foals so that they can rule Freeport for untold generations. You know, just to lay out some groundwork.” I nudged her back with my elbow. “Not that you weren’t doing more or less the same.”
“I admit nothing.” Sunset smirked at me. “Though honestly, I half-suspect Celestia’s been trying to set us up. She did keep mentioning how smart and friendly you were, and how much I would like you if I met you...”
“Uh-huh, my isn’t that suspicious?” I smirked back. “Because she’s been saying very similar complimentary things about you too. I think you might be onto something about setting us up. Do we count that as endearing or creepy?”
“Little of column A, little of column B.” She looked at me, then shrugged. “As long as it’s something we both want to do for our own reasons, and not just because it’s some plan of hers and we want to make her happy, I’m not too worried about it. I’m doing this because I like you, not because Celestia or anyone else thinks I should.”
“Yeah, me too.” I tried to wrap my leg around hers, but then Sunset suddenly shied away from my touch. She pretended to walk over to check out one of the other exhibits, but a second later she walked back over to me and wrapped her left leg around mine. That was ... weird.
Sunset cleared her throat. “So, uh, is there anything else you wanted to see here?”
I decided to let that weirdness drop for now. Maybe I was just imagining things. “I wouldn’t mind seeing a little of everything if we’ve still got the time.”
“Nah, we’ve got all the time in the world.” Sunset gently pulled me along as we got to explore the entire museum.
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So, does Twilight not know about the golem leg or is she just not drawing the connection to Sunset's aversions? I don't remember if that detail got brought up during the story they met in and Twilight's scanning spell could have just as easily been fooled by a ward Sunset cast as it could reveal the workings of it.
what do you mean by middle age if ive counted on the timeline right sunset is only 36 how to hell is that middle age
Look like Sunset got some issues that she hasn't resolved yet.
How many stories are going to be in the Winningverse?
Now this was fun, amusing and endearing, I had almost forgotten about this story and this update made for a pleasant surprise and a nice bit of light reading I didn't know I needed.
Damn, this chapter teased me, I REALLY want Sunset and Twilight to have an honest conversation about Northmarch
Good chapter!
I'm glad this is out! I've been starving for more winningverse content, and this just reminds me how much I enjoy it!
Come on Twilight. You should know knowledge is inherently valuable in of itself. Knowledge doesn't need a use outside of itself because it by itself is a great boon to ponykind.
I had just glanced at this story again the other day and wondered when it would update again. I’m grateful and all and I know this isn’t your job but it’s like you and Chengar fell off the face of the Earth.
You kinda...repeated how Sunset doesn't want the Archonate to end up like Freeport's previous regimes. First she says it after talking about how the Golden Path purged books, and again when talking about Ushabti's book that led to the Necrocrats. Sunset uses the exact same phrase both times: "decadent and corrupt". Twilight even has a similar response both times about how it could be her kid that could be the next Archon.
10456026
I think Sunset wanted as few people as possible learning that she had prosthetic leg. So no, I don't think Twilight knows. Celestia was sparse on details anyway.
Fun to see a bit of the courting dance between these two. Though, there are some cracks already. Namely Twilight not be comfortable with Sunny's more… esoteric applications of magic. Hopefully that's not going to be a deal breaker. Or if it is, they figure it out sooner than later. Still rooting for SunLight in the end though.
Wait, when did Sunset become a godmother? And wonder who the parents are (though my first guess would be Puzzle and Strumming).
So sounds like Twilight doesn't know about Sunset's prosthetic leg, guess any reports of that have probably been mixed up with the rumors by now (and Celestia holding back on the details for the sake of Sunset's privacy). I'm not good at keeping track of the timeline, but I guess this is before the Rising Fire story, as I figure Starlight living in Ponyville would have come up by now (although in that story Twilight thought Sunset's anima spell had been a spur of the moment thing).
Anyway, cute to see them spending more time together. There's sure a long list of complications to any such relationship though, not sure if its too early to worry about those potential problems. I take it Sunset's worried about avoiding repeating her parents' mistakes too (and Sunset's already has far more responsibilities then they did). And Freeport had sure had a very... interesting history. My memory's not that good, so no idea if a Demon Pirate King had been mentioned before (and I thought the Golden Path "gods" and Necrocrats had been bad enough already). They're sure Freeport isn't cursed, right?
Looking to seeing more of Sunset and Twilight, particularly Sunset's school. They're both very skilled at magic but sure have different approaches to it, and I'm sure Sunset's school will reflect her philosophy.
10456366 Agreed, however it is something they will need to talk about, and probably soon.
10456435 Honestly, I think they're just assuming that Freeport has a bad luck in governments and the archipelago isn't cursed ... but Sunset should really look into that anyway (although checking an entire island chain for signs of ancient (as in, well over a thousand years old) curses sounds like a big job).
Wow. Who'd have thought a dragon might be possessive and protective of someone important to him? I am surprised. This is my surprised face:
derpicdn.net/img/2016/4/2/1122534/medium.png
Twilight, you are exceedingly tardy to the "castigate Sunset for her nigh-suicidal tactics" party.
Oh, you sweet summer child...
Three hundred years later...
Well, maybe not, but that is a particularly vicious historical cycle.
Fair point. Sunset is at least a decade older than Twilight. The mirror's bizarre interactions with time and aging mitigate that, but without it getting involved...
Oh goodness. Imagine a Sunlight-spawned Flurry Heart. Forget four hundred years, Freeport might not survive four weeks.
Some interesting hints at Sunset's recent past... and a number of potential dealbreakers in this potential relationship. Here's hoping these two can move past them. We'll see in time.
10456435
Yeah, the order of stories is kind of big here. I was almost expecting Starlight's name to drop in the breakfast conversation.
Sunset is keeping her leg from Twi? Guess they haven't gotten to that stage of their relationship quite yet.
Guess the life span is one of the things Sunset didn't get. Was hoping she would get a few more decades or centuries at lest.
10456039
All of them
Dating for these two is going to be so difficult considering their positions and it's easy to tell that Sunset, even while flirting is faaaaaar more guarded of her emotions than Twilight. Of course she has her reasons, a laundry list of them. That was fun. Especially the mental imagery of the entourage gossipping in the background.
10458530
Really? name something in history that was better left buried. Real or up to season 5 finale MLP.(havnt watched past that so can't comment) Sorry if I'm being rude
Straight to the marriage and kids discussions, I see. It may be how courtships were really done back in the day, but damn does it feel weird in the otherwise semi-modern culture of Equestria.
10458687
Not quite in your parameters, but season seven's Pony of Shadows was an ancient evil sealed away by Star Swirl, and in the comics at least, certain parties took measures to intentionally bury that history so that nobody could ever break the seal. And then Twilight uncovered that history and broke the seal.
10476493
Ok, taking what you say wouldn't a better response be to tell everypony about how important the seal is, have Celestia guard it. So no-pony stumbles upon it and does what Twilight did? If the seal was known and guarded the breaking of it wouldn't have happened
10477473
Probably. The whole Pony of Shadows saga was a rather poorly written mess, and you could poke a million more holes in it if you put in the time. I only mention because it's an example of something the characters thought was better left buried.
10477500
Given that the show, for entirely understandable reasons, is hesitant to provide us with a point anywhere in the story where the world gets distinctly worse and never recovers from that low point nor shows any hint of being capable of recovery after we lose track, it follows anything the show's camera touches and that we thus discover must have been better (or at least as well off) for having been discovered. The consequences always end on a high note, after all. ...Of course, if the criterion for something being better left buried is that we won't find out about it, reversing our cart and pony implies it's harder to claim there aren't examples just from lack of evidence.
It's like saying the School of Friendship is a silly thing. In-universe (and disregarding the storytelling reasons it actually exists) it is. Very. However, there's a guarantee that all of its students' lives will be immeasurably better off because they attended it. Canonically, it can't fail as an institution; it might be able to temporarily fail a student but only in terms of setting them up for a story arc where they end up redeemed and more successful than otherwise possible. Not sure about this continuity's incarnation, but that's how the show's has to work.
...I'm myself inclined to face the ethical quandary-inducing thoughts we as individuals and society probably aren't ready to have thought about, and lay out and examine all the mistakes which we can't really learn quite enough from not to repeat and whose details will likely inspire both new mistakes and refresh long-forgotten grudges, but I'm also not in a position which involves making that kind of decision. And am mostly willing to tolerate the unlikelihood of that being unrelated.
10490747
Actually, this is not strictly true, and this reminds me of a much better example of something better left buried like 10458687 was asking about: Time travel.
Absolutely nothing good ever came of time travel in MLP's world. At best, time travel was only ever used to fix problems also caused by time travel. Starlight Glimmer reformed after the events of Cutie Re-Mark, but that could've happened without time travel as well. Time travel resulted in the creation of several alternate timelines that were significantly shittier than the main one, some of which had no hope of recovery, and which as far as we know all still exist and are still suffering in the canon universe. In the Winningverse, it's even worse, because they were all wiped the fuck out, so unearthing time travel resulted in seven counts of omnicide. Time travel was effectively banned knowledge in Equestria, contained in the most secure archive with the presumable hope that it would stay buried, and in the Winningverse at least, it definitely should've stayed that way.
10490816
Winningverse, absolutely. Show canon? While I respect your interpretation of what we saw in the show both as reasonable and popular, I don't share it. And for a change, I've deleted a following wall of text, twice, partly because I wasn't willing to commit to fully explaining the framework I've been hammering out for how time travel could work within FiM while both granting us our full camera perspective from the show and absolutely preventing letting pony magic from using time travel to change the past or allowing any lasting negative consequences from anything a pony does manage to use it for. Really. I've thought about this one quite a bit. In the Starlight case, if you presume that Twilight mistakenly went through that episode's events to no result than saving Starlight from herself and eventually befriending her, with Starlight having presented no threat to anypony else from the start, it even leads to a suitable children's show episode resolution. Not the one the writers were going for, but one which may actually fit better into the show's structure taking future seasons into account than the intended one.
Not positive our evidence for the spell being heavily restricted is that valid. A spell which is incredibly hard to cast and (debatably) doesn't do anything that great if you get it right isn't going to be too popular, written about more for its underlying theory than copied piecemeal into grimoires. (I may know what Gödel's Incompleteness theorem means and enough about how it works to try out the method it outlines for deriving a system-breaking theorem, but I don't think I've ever read the full original version. Contrast with the quadratic formula, where it's worth learning the full derivation just to ensure you're getting the end result right when you actually need the formula for something.) A neurotic and paranoid Twilight deciding only Star Swirl's original monograph is a suitable source material for Saving! Equestria! From? I! Have! No! Idea!!! seems plausible. A library being locked when unstaffed in the middle of the night also. I distrust Twilight's or Starlight's estimations of security, though for different reasons. Starlight checking out a book from a public library using her own library card could drag in hostage-taking on a bad enough day. Let Twilight think she got a drop of coffee on the book and see what she'll go through to return it without getting caught. (Those last two sentences were hyperbole, but indicative of the directions of my skepticism.)
You're not wrong, but I happen to already be on the other side for that topic.
10490816
Ok absolutely fair. I will say that Time Travel is not a piece of history that should have been buried. It is available at the library. It is more like something that should have never been invented. Like in my opinion(though I know many disagree) nuclear weapons.
10490859
I'll give you that there's enough leeway to interpret it the other way. It's not absolutely definitive. I just don't think your interpretation is likely. At the very least, it seems clear to me that the writers' intent was for it to be restricted knowledge in Equestria, at least in those episodes. But writer intent probably doesn't count for much when the lineup of writers changed so much over the series, and interpretting canon is a crapshoot at the best of times, so I'm not going to argue any further than that. I'm agreeing to disagree on this one.
10549866
Slight correction. Cloud isn’t a guard, she’s a sort of Public Relations official that primarily deals with Twilights guard. Makes people more comfortable with them and the like.
Ah. If she never saved her life, can the feelings still be there?
10854514
900 years kinda makes that a moot point genetically speaking.
10854514
So are the Kickers and Sparkles distantly related as noted several times in the story. (Notably, Shadow addresses Twilight as her descendent in "The New Life of a Winning Pony". Distant blood relations are kinda moot.
10882733
I think at this point any biological relations are kinda moot, given the near 1000 years that have passed.
10882733
That was the point of my comment that it was silly to take that into consideration.
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11581376
what in the hell is this?
will you please continue this story in the future?
11659237
It’s supposed to say “UPDATE” in a blocky font, if you’re using a model device like an iPhone then it will appear distorted. If you view it with a laptop or desktop then it should come out clearly.
11798059
I'm on a laptop looks weird but that's probably because I can't read block