"Heh." I snorted to myself.

Truly, the Universe thought itself as the funniest thing in existence.. What were the odds that my human sister, and the seemingly random pony turned human would share the same name?

I see your bullshit Harmony. I see your bullshit and I'm not amused.

"What's so funny?" Sarah, or rather Sunset asked.

"Cosmic fuckery." I grunted. "Excuse me please." I brushed by Sunset's legs, jumping back onto the bed to resume preening.

"Cosmic... Fuckery?" she said hesitantly.

"You wouldn't get it." I sighed. "So why did you run away from Celestia?"

"A-are... Isn't preening supposed to be an intimate thing?" the girl asked.

"You interrupted me while I was getting out of the shower. And I'd perfer to do this while I'm still damp." I retorted. "But that's not the answer to my question. Why'd you run away?" I repeated.

"I- I didn't feel like she was teaching me to reach my full potential." Sunset sighed, clearly not comfortable with me preening, sitting down on the opposite bed. "I- Fox News? Really?"

"It was the first news channel I found, they're too stupid to not air their plans live for the nation to see, and I broke the remote." I levitated the crushed remote into Sunset's hand. Her eyes widened. "Feel free to turn it off, I don't think I'll get more than their opinion about Celestia and I already got that. But you never know what they'll let slip." Sunset set the broken pile of electronics and plastic onto the bed, her eyes wandered over the half full bottles of alcohol.

"You're... You're more in tune with Humanity than I expected..." she said after a moment.

"Heh." I snorted around a mouthful of feathers. "How long have you been here?" I asked after I let the feathers slip out.

"Two, three years? I don't remember the exact date." Sunset responded.

"Twenty four years for me." I took another nip at my feathers.

"T-twenty four?!" Sunset half exclaimed in surprise. "How did you get here?! Where have you been hiding?! What have you been doing the past millennium?!"

I sighed into my wing. Just because I believed "Sunset" about being a pony, didn't mean I trusted her. Something about Sunset running away from Celestia didn't sit right in my brain. The excuse "she didn't teach me enough" didn't sound totally honest, she was hiding something without outright lying. But I couldn't be sure about what that could be.

Maybe I could trust Sunset with some information in an effort to get her to reveal more?... Something that wouldn't doom me in the long run?

"You got here through a portal, I got here the long way with no FTL." I finally said after I cleaned a few feathers to buy me some time to reply.

"FTL? What does-" Understanding dawned on her features. "Y-you flew here through space?!" she pointed accusatorily at me.

"Weren't too many options after being launched into orbit by Celestia. Crash into the moon or fly into the unknown. Take your pick."

"Wow." Sunset stared wide eyed at the TV, which now displayed a drug commercial.

"Why are you surprised? You've clearly read the history books. It's not like you can just gloss over the disappearance of half the executive branch of government."

"Uh... Kind of?" Sunset hesitantly stated. I lifted my head out of my splayed feathers.

"What do you mean, 'kind of'?" I asked, sounding a little more aggressive than I wanted, but too caught up in the moment to care.

"Well..." Sunset began tapping her fingers together nervously. "The history books state that an Alicorn by the name of Nightmare Moon kidnapped you, Princess Luna, and then threatened to bring about eternal night. Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia dueled each other, but Princess Celestia won when she used the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon. And you were just... Never found."

I stared at Sunset, mouth agape in shock.

"That's not what happened. That's not what happened at all." I managed to get out. I stopped my preening and reached over with my telekinesis, yanking the power cord on the TV, finally silencing it. "I- I made a deal. I made a deal with a demon. I asked for the power to see what ponies feared. I wanted the power to understand how to deal with Sombra."

"Sombra?" Sunset asked. "I don't know who that is."

"Sombra... Well, in the grand scheme of things, he was barely a blip. So I guess it makes sense he wouldn't be much more than a footnote. But he was a Unicorn that enslaved the entirety of the- A place called the Crystal Empire, using dark magic. I confronted him in his dreams, only to find a much stronger opponent than I was expecting. So I made a deal with an archdemon."

Sunset looked to be enthralled with my story. Apparantly this wasn't a story she was familiar with.

"But the archdemon had been another enemy of mine in the dream realm for a very long time. My deal was a trick. I imprisoned the demon in my own body while I gained its ability to see what other ponies feared. When I next confronted Sombra, I- I did a too good of a job. He fled and took the entire city-state with him, vanishing into thin air. Which is why I suppose there's no major historical record if the city just vanished. Anyway, somehow, Celestia and her cronies found out what I had done and thought I was tainted beyond redemption. And- And they tried to get rid of me." I paused for breath, trying to reign in my emotions at recounting the tale. "We fought, and she won. Nothing else to it. No megalomania, no spite, and the only thing I mentioned about an 'eternal night' was because I wasn't going to let Celestia take the Moon when morning came. My only mistake was believing I could still count on her to back me up if it came down to it."

Fuck I'm thirsty.

I levitated one of the half full bottles over to me and twisted off the cap and began to drink. Not greedily, but enough to drown out the rising tide of emotion in my chest.

"You know the rest."

Sunset sat quietly as she watched me drink out of the bottle.

"... I-If you could... If you had the opportunity, would you try to take revenge on the Princess?"

No. I may hate her, but she got what she wanted. Let her hang herself with her own rope.

"Depends." I replied instead.

Come on, tell me more...

"Depends on what?"

"Depends on why you want revenge on Celestia." I cast a sideways glance at Sunset. "I may not like my fool of a sister, but she can be trusted to not share secrets. Whatever you wanted, she withheld it from you for a reason. And I'm not going to risk my neck for something you don't deserve."

"How dare you?!" Sunset suddenly screeched. "I was the first personal student Princess Celestia has taken ever! She saw in me such great potential that she thought it would be best to teach me herself rather than some stuffy old fart in her school! But than she has the gall to not teach me everything she knows! I came here to see if you would teach me what Celestia wouldn't! What happened to Princess Luna?! Fiendbane and Mistress of the Night?! Instead I find some washed out pony attempting to drown herself in booze!"

Ah, there it is.

It was funny, in a sad sort of way. Sunset was a child playing at being an adult. She may have been smart, intelligent enough to be Celestia's personal student even, but she still thought in the terms of a child. She was used to bullying her way on the playground with ham-fisted temper tantrums to get what she wanted. It didn't even sound all that sincere, she had been waiting for me to start pushing back a little bit before erupting. Did she really think I didn't see what she was doing? Trying to goad me into giving her exactly what she wanted with petty insults?

"Alright fine." I stated harshly. "I will teach you what I know."

Her face beamed as she smiled happily, telling me exactly how upset she really had been.

Not at all.

I may not like Celestia, but she was right in keeping certain knowledge from you Sunset Shimmer. I would not trust you with a burnt out match much less actual knowledge of dark magic.

But I will teach you. I will not coddle you nor will I treat you like a child.

I will show you exactly how much reality cares for your playground bully schtick.

I will disabuse you of that mindset.

And you will hate me for it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 53 The Car Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 44 Minutes