Songs of Innocence

Chapter 41: The Shadow Over Sun

The train arrived at the station, and at last, Sun, Sunburst and Applejack were finally home. The excited faces of the mares' friends were the first thing to greet them, but the three were less than stoked. But they felt a little better knowing that they were home in Ponyville. As soon as they exited the train, the five greeted them.

"There's my three favorite yellow-to-orange ponies!" Pinkie smiled. She dashed to give them a series of hugs, but in a rare moment of self awareness, she grinded to a halt, and asked, "Hey, why the long faces? Did something happen?"

Applejack and Sunburst looked at Sun, and the mare answered with a mutter. "I don't want to talk about it. I'm gonna go home and sleep."

Rainbow crossed her arms in annoyance. "Aw man, all this buildup for this?" She sighed, "That's okay, I guess."

Sun left without saying another word, and Sunburst followed. As soon as they were out of hearing range, everyone started asking questions.

"Oh dear. You all looked so sad... What happened?" Fluttershy frowned.

"Yeah! Tell us, AJ!" Rainbow demanded with a smirk, hovering inches away from the farm pony's face.

"Sun didn't kill someone, did she?" Twilight asked half-genuinely.

Rarity's nervous expression suddenly turned into a bright smile, and she gasped, "Did she find out she's my long lost second sister?!"

"ENOUGH!" Applejack snapped. "SHE SAID SHE DOESN'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT, AND THAT MEANS AH DON'T EITHER!" She promptly trotted away in a huff, leaving all of them to speculate. She caught up with the two unicorns as they neared Sun's house. They followed her inside, and the second she got into her bedroom, she immediately threw herself onto her bed, staring blankly into the ceiling. 

"Do your scars still hurt?" Sunburst asked. 

Sun nodded in response. Her scars were covered up using the same spell that Princess Blue Moon Quartz used to cover up her missing eye. As it turned out, the spell hid the scars, but they were still there. She still hurt, but at least her friends wouldn't be freaking out over seeing that she had injuries.

"Sun, ah... ah know what it's like to lose yer parents. Ah'm just tellin' you because ah want you to know that ah know how you feel. Ah'll leave you alone now. Ah just wanted to let you know yer not alone, and ah'm there for ya." Applejack left the two after giving Sun a reassuring, but ultimately futile sign of sympathy.

Sunburst chose not to say anything to her at first, knowing her cousin didn't like being comforted whenever she was sad because she would always feel somehow lesser than the person comforting her. But he went against her wishes this time, because he wanted to tell her something that could make her feel a bit better.

"Sun, I know you don't want to talk, so I'll make this quick. I've been considering moving from the Crystal Empire to here for a while now, since I work at Twilight's school. That was the original reason why I was going to move here, and I was going to do it once Twilight leaves for Canterlot. But now, I'm moving here as soon as possible so I can help you every step of the way to feeling better."

Neither Sun nor Sunburst really knew when, but at some point during him talking, she fell asleep. Once he realized it, he chose to leave her be. She was fast asleep already, and she was in the middle of her first normal dream in a long time. She found herself in what seemed to be an awards ceremony. Every person she knew was in the seats (except for Avalonia), and the alicorns sat on chairs on the stage while Luna was at the podium to announce the awards. It was obvious that this was a dream created by her, but it actually had a positive vibe to it this time around. Everyone was excited and with a grin on their faces while pleasant, yet slightly melancholy music played in the background. It gave off a feeling that Luna knew that this was the end of a long and exhausting journey for Sun, and chose music that reflected that.

["Staff Roll" from Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers]

The lights dimmed, and a spotlight focused on Luna as she read through her cards that told her what to say. She levitated an award onto the podium, and cleared her throat to signal she was about to announce who would win it. "This idol statue symbolizes the acclaim a person is worthy of only when they face their deepest, darkest fears, and conquer them. I, Princess Luna, officially declare that the person most deserving of this idol is none other than..." She suddenly paused, and read through her cards before picking her sentence back up. "...Innocent Sun!"

Sun wasn't quite lucid yet, so she was still going along with everything. Once the spotlight moved to focus on her, she stood up from her seat and made her way to the stage while everyone clapped for her. She practically galloped onstage, and Luna let her have the podium to give a speech. The unicorn took the mic, and opened her mouth to begin... but then she started to realize she never made a speech. In fact, she didn't remember being invited to an awards show, either. That was when she became lucid.

Luna noticed rather quickly that Sun realized it was a dream, and the princess leaned in, and whispered, "It's okay if you don't have a speech. It's not like they're your real friends." ending her reassurance with a playful chuckle. She levitated the award into Sun's hoof, and the rest of the alicorns onstage started clapping for the unicorn, and all said, "Congratulations!" There were two that Sun didn't recognize. They were sitting together the whole time - one was a white unicorn stallion with a two-toned blue mane and icy white eyes (which felt off-putting to Sun), and his partner was a pink alicorn with a long multitoned mane, and a princess' crown. 

"Uh, who are they?" Sun asked the princess. "Are they just dream-people?"

"No, they are simply strangers to you." Luna said. She pointed to the stallion, and explained, "That is Twilight's brother, Shining Armor." She then pointed to the alicorn, and introduced her. "She is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, the alicorn of love, and a relative of mine. Shining Armor and her are married. Perhaps the three of you shall meet someday."

That explains it. Sun turned to Luna, and asked something slightly more important. "How'd you know I killed Anzu?"

Luna gasped, and the music stopped. "You killed him?"

"Yeah. He killed my parents. It was only fair." Sun explained rather casually, despite how emotional she was about it back when she was awake. "Isn't that why you're giving me this dream award thing?"

Luna was silent at first, shocked to learn that Sun would ever actually kill someone, even if they did something as bad as what Sun claimed (which Luna was also shocked to hear). "You are... mistaken. I orchestrated this dream in order to congratulate you on getting over your nightmares."

"Yeah, I must've done that by finishing off Anzu. I do not want to go into detail so you'll have to trust me when I say he deserved it. I'll say this, though: technically, it was my parents' house that killed him."

"...I will have to take your word on your claims. On another note, I assumed that you might be a little tired after your journey, and my dear sister gave me the excellent idea to give you this dream to congratulate you. Do you care to spend some more time with me?"

"Sure. It's honestly better than being awake right now. But I just wanna ask, are you gonna be in any more of my dreams? I might, like, need you to make more dreams like this."

Luna smiled warmly, "It shall be done. I may not always be there to be in your dreams, but I shall be in them whenever I have time."

Sun smiled back. Even if reality sucks at the moment (which it did), at least she can rely on the fact that her dreams don't.