Fluttershy's cottage, many moons later
"Death Drive... A mare with no identity, and only a maddening love to cling to. Her words were like barbed wire, responding to an unspoken bitterness towards her that truly only existed in her mind. She needed to feel loved. But she was loved. But she was consumed by the creeping fear that it could be pity rather than affection. And she would do anything to feel loved."
Sun's house, one morning many moons ago
Death Drive had just received a scroll from a royal messenger. She opened it up, making no attempt to hide a sinister smirk that crept across her face.
"Gosh, you sure look... happy." Cozy said curiously.
"I couldn't be more happy." Death Drive replied simply.
Cozy noticed that the scroll had an emblem of Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark on it, and her interest was piqued. "A letter from Twilight? Who's it for?"
Death Drive chuckled with a hint of sinisterness. "Cozy, I'm going to need you to keep another secret. This letter is for me. You see, since I've been such a good girl lately, Twilight let me ask her for a little favor."
"Ooh. What did you ask for?"
"Just a little bit of Princess Cadence's power." the pale unicorn smirked, showing Cozy a small amulet that was rather unprofessionally taped to the scroll. A gasp from Cozy prompted Death Drive to elaborate, "It's nothing to be concerned about. All I'm doing is using the amulet to make Sun love me for a day, and that's it." She looked at Cozy's slightly horrified face with a completely unfazed grin on her own.
Cozy wanted to tell Death Drive that what she wanted to do was pretty morally questionable, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. All she could do was mentally prepare herself for a rollercoaster ride that would probably end with the carts flying off the tracks to Celestia knows where.
"I know, it's perfect!" Death Drive grinned with delusional delight. She put her plan into action almost immediately, equipping the heart-shaped locket and making her way upstairs where a sleeping Sun laid in her bed. She laid there, looking as unkempt as she always was when she wasn't in public. Death Drive looked at her, and for a brief half-second, she wondered why she would want this pony, of all ponies to unrelentingly love her. She batted away the thought, however, as she harnessed the power of the amulet and shot a beam of it towards the sleeping mare. Cozy subconsciously held her breath as Sun's eyes opened, waking from a peaceful slumber.
"Good morning." Sun said, without a hint of grogginess.
Cozy gasped. "She never remembers to say good morning!"
"I did today, because I... uh... made sure to remember for... um... Can we just start over?"
"Why don't we, over some breakfast?" Death Drive replied. "We could go out."
"I'd love to!"
Cozy gasped again. "She specifically dislikes going out for breakfast!"
"Cozy, I can hear you, you know. Whatever. I do usually hate going out just to eat breakfast, but y'know, it's perfectly fine, because it's the perfect opportunity to spend time with my beautiful girlfriend." She then leapt out of bed and hugged Death Drive.
Cozy gasped a third time, but what came out of her mouth was "That's kinda sweet. Kind of."
Death Drive looked at Cozy with a serious expression. "Don't tell anyone what's going on. Remember: it's a secret, Cozy." With Sun close by her side, the two walked out of the house, and into Ponyville. The secluded spot in which the house stood sat right outside the forest on the edge of Ponyville, with a single, straight, linear path that led into the town. It was like a tunnel with walls made of trees, and the summer sun's warm rays peeked through the leaves. The two walked through the path, feeling a warmth that was nothing but wholesome.
"Death Drive," Sun said, "you look beautiful today. Did you actually get sleep last night?"
The pale unicorn's eyes widened, and since the answer to Sun's question was no, she just ignored it. She noticed that the Mane Five sat together at a table outside the Kingdom House Cafe, eating some breakfast with each other. Death Drive looked around, and sat down at a table near theirs, and Sun joined her. While she couldn't take her eyes off of Death Drive, the white mare would constantly glance at the five ponies at the other table, hoping that they would notice her.
"So, what are you having?" Sun asked.
"I don't know what they serve here." Death Drive replied.
"Have whatever you want, because I'll pay for it."
"Oh... Thanks..."
Suddenly, a waiter mare walked up to their table. To Death Drive's surprise, their waiter was Dragon Rose, and she looked no different from when the two last saw her, save for a few bruises and scars. She rolled her eyes, and with a tone that screamed, "Oh, great. You.", she said, "Hello, can I please take your order?"
Death Drive had an equal level of indifference. "Yes, I'd like... uh... Do you have bagels with cream cheese?"
"I'll have one too." Sun added.
Dragon Rose's jaw dropped upon seeing Sun, who she somehow didn't notice her sitting at the table. "WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH YOU?!" Rose exclaimed in pure confusion. The sudden loud noise caused every head around them to turn to see what was going on, including the Mane Five. Death Drive was a bit flustered, feeling like she was being watched by every set of eyes in Ponyville.
"She's my girlfriend!" Sun proclaimed with a smile.
There was a long moment of silence before Dragon Rose spoke again, "I don't care, actually. I'll just get your order." She quickly walked back inside, trying to detach herself from a situation that she was shocked by.
Death Drive took a deep breath, and looked at Sun, smiling back at her. "I AM your girlfriend. You'll do anything for me, won't you?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yep!" Sun replied.
"Good. Then stop eating like a pig. Ever since I started living with you, the way you eat just ticked me off. It's like you have no self-awareness."
"I don't!" Sun replied.
The Mane Five, who were watching from their front row seats to this performance, were confused, to say the least. Applejack and Rarity exchanged an equally speechless glance.
"What's this about doing whatever she wants...?" Rainbow whispered.
"Oh, my... They must really love each other." Fluttershy remarked.
"Good for them." Pinkie grinned.
Dragon Rose came back, and placed two cream cheese bagels on the table for the two lovestruck mares. She swiftly went back inside the cafe and banged her head against the counter repeatedly, trying to hit her head enough to forget the fact that she just witnessed the most stupid, confusing thing in Equestria.
Death Drive paid it no mind, however, only focusing on the cute spectacle of a mare sitting across from her, who was messily eating her bagel. She actually didn't mind that Sun completely forgot her order to eat with any modicum of table manners. The Mane Five, though, were astonished watching the complete contrast in behavior that the couple put on display. Death Drive was like a unicorn of high prestige, delicately cutting her bagel into pieces, while Sun was a common earth pony, just sort of taking bites of the bagel until it was gone.
Their friends left aghast, the two paid for their food, and left. "So, where to next, Emmy?" Sun asked.
"'Emmy'?" Death Drive raised an eyebrow.
"You know, like, how 'Pale Moon' starts with an M... Kind of. So, I thought I'd call you Emmy for short."
"Cute." Death Drive grinned, patting Sun on the head. "Let's go shove our lovely relationship in your cousin's face."
"Oh, sure! Maybe then he'll see why we're so good together!"
"Well, that's kind of what we're going for."
A minute later, at Sunburst's house
Sunburst's neutral expression turned into a scowl as he saw Death Drive on his doorstep, standing with Sun. "Hello, Sun." Sunburst said coldly.
"Such hostility!" Death Drive mockingly exclaimed. "Then again, I'd expect passive-aggressiveness from someone like you. Did I catch you in the middle of reading Old Ponish For Dummies?"
Sunburst visibly recoiled, and tried his best to recover. "What do you want?" he sighed.
"Oh, I just wanted to stop by to tell you that I have a special somepony." She grinned.
"Why would I care about that?"
Death Drive chuckled, and Sun looked at her, the same smile she had when she woke up still on her face. Once the two locked eyes, they hugged each other. Death Drive couldn't help but smile ear to ear as she hugged Sun, and looked at Sunburst. Speaking of him, he was horrified.
He gasped dramatically, "No! I... This can't be happening! This makes no sense!"
Sun laughed, "Yeah, but it's happening anyways. I know me and her are meant to be!"
Sunburst's jaw dropped even further. He saw Sun staring into Death Drive's eyes, lovingly, but with an eternal smile and eyes that were soulless and empty. "Th-there has to be some sort of explanation to this! I had a good reason not to trust you when Sol let you in, Death Drive. I know you cast a spell on my cousin, or something!"
A subtle pause before Death Drive spoke again only furthered his concerns. She chuckled, "Oh, please. I bet you're just jealous that Sun got a girlfriend before you did."
Sunburst replied not with another appalled expression, but instead, by playing a rather bold move in this game of chess. Death Drive suddenly began to feel her arcane amulet being telekinetically pulled away from her. It happened too quickly for her to react, but what was happening was made clear when Sunburst gasped, seeing it.
"How in Equestria did you get your hooves on Amore's Amulet of Affinitas?!" he gawked.
Death Drive sighed, realizing that this was probably karma. Her weird joke had fallen through, and so, she explained, "I asked Twilight for it, and she was so kind as to give it to me. If she can trust me with it, then why can't you?"
"Does Twilight know you're using it for this?"
"Why can't you trust me?"
Sunburst facehoofed at her pathetic attempt to dodge the question. "This is why, Death Drive. You're using a love charm to force my cousin to fall in love with you, just to spite me!"
"That's not the reason."
Sunburst was genuinely surprised to hear that. "Wait, really?" he asked, catching onto Death Drive's lack of her usual snarky tone when she objected to his claim.
She took a deep breath, and put aside her spite for Sunburst to explain. "The real reason is that I like her. But... there's no way she likes me back. She probably hates me like you do. I was only going to use this charm on her for today, and then send it back--"
"Wait," Sunburst interrupted, holding up his hoof, "you like her? And you decided that you should force her against her will to like you back?"
"Obviously I like her! I know it's odd, but it's true. She's so forgiving of me, even though I tried to kill her several times. It's like she sees something in me that no one else does. But still, I can't shake the feeling that I'm going to find out that she just pities me, or something."
"Then TALK to her! Don't just keep worrying about it forever, and ESPECIALLY don't misuse such a valuable artifact just so you can give yourself the illusion that she likes you. Besides, her eyes are really starting to creep me out."
Death Drive actually began to consider Sunburst's words, putting aside her spite to listen to his genuine advice. Although, she still kept her sense of pride. "I'll consider it." she said, beginning to walk away in a huff.
"Please consider it! Love is a fickle thing for her, you know." Sunburst replied, bringing to mind childhood days of him and Sun. To elaborate, on lazy summer days when Starlight would come over, she would often care for Sun and treat her like a little sister. Sun would often mistake her kindness for loving affection, which is an unfortunate trait of Sun's that she still possessed. But perhaps the specifics of how that love bloomed and withered are for another chapter.
Back to the two mares, they resumed their walk through the town, with Sun subtly being shown off to others like a fancy new dress that Death Drive wore. And while it seemed that everypony noticed it, the only one to actually come up to the two was one mare Sun knew: Octavia Melody.
"Oh, good morning, Sun." the grey mare greeted, occasionally glancing at Death Drive with an almost impressed look. "It's been a while. I see you've had some... changes." Her eyes curiously looked towards Sun's eyepatch, her blank flank, and of course, the mare whose side she seemed to be glued to.
"She's my girlfriend!" Sun said, pointing to her partner. Her soulless eyes and happy expression didn't seem to faze Octavia.
"Oh, lovely! Nice to meet you--"
"I'm sorry, Octavia." Sun cheerfully interrupted. "I'd love to talk, but my girlfriend is facing a disheartening internal crisis right now, and she needs to figure it out before she starts spiraling!"
"O-oh... Okay..." Octavia said with a quizzical expression.
Sun had successfully avoided a social interaction for both her and Death Drive, and so, the two carried on their walk. Death Drive breathed a sigh of relief. A half-remembered poem, vaguely relevant to her situation, suddenly came to mind.
"I walk the village round; if at her side
A youth doth walk in stolen joy and pride
I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe
That made my love so high, and me so low."
The validity of her actions began to crumble further, its flimsy structure effortlessly fractured by Sunburst. Whenever Death Drive passed by a couple, brought together by love genuine and real, she felt a twinge in her heart. Sun's "love" for her was artificial, and it felt no realer than a daydream, and the pale mare finally decided that it was time to get her head out of the clouds.
Death Drive opened the door of Sun's house, and found a concerned Cozy waiting at the door.
"Did you learn your lesson?" Cozy asked bluntly.
"Yeah. I'll get the cheesy stuff out of the way - I like the real Sun more than this one who just blindly loves me. It was nice at first, but the real Sun is weird, and does what she wants, and I like that better than this one that just does whatever I want." Death Drive replied.
"What else did you learn?" Cozy asked with a smirk.
Death Drive sighed, and rolled her eyes. "That it's wrong to brainwash people and force them into loving you so you can avoid actually talking to them." she answered with a groan in her voice.
"You should've known that from the st--"
"I know, Cozy!" Death Drive put Sun down on the couch, and took off her amulet. "Sun, fall asleep!" she ordered.
"It was great being your lovesick delusion." Sun grinned one last time, before lying down and immediately falling asleep.
Death Drive fiddled with the amulet, until eventually she somehow managed to undo the spell. The blush-colored aura that the amulet sent into Sun's body now came back out of it, and back into the heart-shaped spinel in the center of the necklace. Still, Sun's body lay sleeping comfortably on the couch.
"Uh, you're going to tell her what you did, ri--"
Death Drive suddenly put her hoof to the filly's lips to shush her, seeing that Sun began to wake up. The yellow unicorn awoke subtly, opening her eyes, and turning over to realize that she was on her couch, rather than her bed that she remembered falling asleep in.
"Why am I on the couch...? I thought... Actually, I don't care." Sun groaned, and got up from her comfy resting place. "I'm gonna go eat some chips for breakfast like I always do." She then groggily stumbled her way into the kitchen, and opened the cupboards. An avalanche of miscellaneous foodstuffs fell out and onto her, eliciting a startled series of curses.
Cozy looked at Death Drive. "What do you see in her?"
With a contented sigh, and her usual playful grin, Death Drive just shrugged.