//------------------------------// // Interlude: Sunset Shimmer 3 // Story: Harmony Consultant // by jqnexx //------------------------------// Ozone crackled in the air as Sunset exited the station wagon. The hill overlooking the stage was perfect, but the girls were nowhere in sight. Maybe the Sirens already got them. Trixie’s band was up on the stage, and Trixie seemed to be gloating over something. Oh great. She ran to check the store rooms under the stage for what she assumed would be incapacitated bandmates. “Girls!” Sunset brightened as she found her friends not only alive and conscious, but not even restrained beyond a locked door. The jubilation rapidly turned to panic as she read the room. There was a sickening aura of anger magic in the air, but you didn’t need a sense for that to see the way they looked at each other. And at her. Rainbow Dash broke the silence. “Hmph. So, how’s that big plan of yours working out? Maybe if you’d been here we wouldn’t have been locked up in here for so long.” Sunset shrugged. “Or maybe I’d be trapped in here with you. Who can say? The important part is that we’re all ready. Just come with me, Celestia and I have everything we need.” “Yeah, no. I realized that we really don’t have any assurances you’re actually on our side. Remember what you used to do.” The other four Rainbooms now stood beside Rainbow, matching her glare. Sunset almost wilted. No, the world is counting on me. Celestia is counting on me! I won’t let her down again. “You don’t have any reason to believe in me. But you don’t need to. You believe in Twilight Sparkle. We’ve all seen her. She’s a magical pony princess, the embodiment of friendship. She’s…” Sunset’s breath hitched. “...She’s better than me in every way. And she told you to be my friend. Because that’s what she does. She convinces people to be their friend and they stop being bad. There are people back home in Equestria that were legendary evils for centuries and she made them stop being bad, made them her friends, and now they’re trusted and loved. “She asked you to be my friends, and one component of that is trust. She asked you to trust me, and me to trust you. So you don’t have to believe me – just Twilight Sparkle, the Princess. Now let’s get out there and deal with this Siren crap so we can go home and I can finally get a good night’s sleep.” “Well… that…” Rainbow’s eyes unfocused, then refocused. “Haha! Yeah that was an awesome speech. You watch that show too?” “What show?” “I’ll tell you later. C’mon everybody.” The Rainbooms cheered as one as they rushed out. This was the Sirens’ moment of triumph. The students, faculty, and parents in the audience were totally ensnared. They hovered above the stage, diaphanous fin-wings trailing behind. “Nothing can stop us now!” ended their verse. “Now.” Sunset threw the switch on the electronics connected to the crystalline device. Glowing lines began to move through it. Her friends claimed they could sing their parts without the sheets, and that it would look more “badass” that way, as Rainbow put it. She really hoped they were right. It seemed oddly easy to memorize for her, but she still was going to use her sheet music. “Ah-ah…” In everything, there exists a cosmic truth. Why do things exist? Why is there something instead of nothing? It is because the universe was lonely, and sang for us. Thus companionship is the highest of virtues. And those who discard it are damned. The crystal surged with a pressure only Sunset and the Sirens could feel. If she still was a unicorn, she’d have been flinching. Already it felt stronger than standing next to Celestia as she raised the sun on the Summer Sun Celebration. Her friends were singing the chorus, so she could catch her breath for a moment and observe. They were glowing faintly, and outlines of the ears and wings they’d sprouted when they’d last used magic were visible in the glow. Companionship is the core of existence. Nothing, anywhere, can exist truly alone. To deny this is folly. Space divides matter and energy, but they exist together with space. Without things to measure the distance between, space does not exist. The Sirens were singing, but Sunset couldn’t hear them. Waves of energy pulsed off the crystal in time with the chorus, and the air was thick with ozone. Sunset took an involuntary step away from the crystal as she felt the energy rise. On the stage the sirens seemed to be looking to each other in panic even as they continued singing. The Rainbooms standing with her had fully ponied up, ears, extra hair, and wings fully visible. The chorus was ending soon, time for her next part. Exa Pico which created all things, grant me understanding. Grant me power. I have received the understanding. Now, I shall receive the power. I shall transcend this mortal form, and become power. I shall turn myself into a song, for the sake of the world. I shall sing of a new beginning, and it shall echo across the universe. Sunset was wondering if she’d overdid it just a little. She could no longer hear her own song, but could instead feel it. Without the understanding of Harmony Magic that Twilight possessed, she’d felt her only option was to overwhelm the dark magic with raw power. Companionship is the core of existence. Nothing, anywhere, can exist truly alone. To deny this is folly. Space divides matter and energy, but they exist together with space. Without things to measure the distance between, space does not exist. The Sirens had manifested transparent constructs of their true forms, and sent them forward to attack the Rainbooms. This last resort of the Sirens was failing utterly. The energy pressure flowing from the crystal was simply too strong for the constructs to approach. Sunset smiled as the Sirens began to really panic, but her grin turned to open-mouthed horror as the center one pointed down, towards the crowd, then looked directly at her. The message was clear: while the crystal was repulsing the constructs, they could still attack the innocents. Before she could consider if she even wanted to negotiate, the chorus triggered a large pulse from the crystal. The Sirens staggered back, then thrust their right arms down in unison, pointing towards the crowd. Sunset snarled. It was time for her to change the plan slightly. The basic truth of the universe is that you exist because it wants you to exist. This is self-evident, as we are created from its love. To reject that, to foster hatred and despair, is to commit the greatest of crimes. Those who grow and feed hatred must not be. Will not be. Shall not be. The crystal glowed with a fearsome, blinding light. Everything else was darkness, the crystal was light. The light collected in the center of the crystal, and then fired upwards. Things seemed to Sunset to be moving in slow motion as the Sirens’ constructs dived towards the crowd, which had just become aware of what was happening enough to panic. The front two rows seemed to have cleared out completely, and the third was halfway to doing so. Then the beam came back down on the center of the stage. Sunset was aware of a sound too loud to hear, and a light too bright to see. Then she fell unconscious. Far behind her, Principal Celestia pressed the “Call” button on her cell phone. The first thing Sunset was aware of when she regained consciousness was dust. There was dust everywhere, hanging in the air, making it difficult to see too far. The second thing she became aware of was the crystal, still glowing, but no longer constrained by the circuitry and metal she’d used to harness it. Below it sat a bubbling, metallic puddle that told her all she needed to know about whether she should approach it for the moment. The third thing was her friends, who were moaning and starting to stand up. “Oh thank the Goddesses! You’re alive.” Sunset dived over and gathered them all into a group hug. As if on cue, the dust began to part around them. With the seats now revealed, it became clear that the audience seemed to have escaped major injury. They were bewildered and confused, and moving around dazedly, but all of them seemed to be moving at least. The stage revealed that the Sirens weren’t as fortunate. The bluish and purplish ones were in what one could charitably call “a condition incompatible with life” if one wished to use official euphemisms. Not even a piece of the third was visible. Sunset paled. Unless one counted biting flies, she’d never deliberately killed another animal. She may have attempted to kill Twilight at the climax of her mad rampage, but she definitely did not succeed. And now she’d smashed three Sirens. She was a killer. She… no. She’d seen it. Glimpsed the power of a god, the foundations of the universe. Maybe she could pull off another miracle. The girls were still looking towards her. They hadn’t seen the stage yet. “Every...one! We’re out of danger but I need you to sing with me one more time. Just follow my lead.” Words came to her. The wheel of reincarnation spins. I grab hold of the rim “They deserve a second chance as I received,” I say. “I did not mean to take it from them.” Sunset was vaguely aware of being lifted into the air. She didn’t notice her hair lengthen, or her ears change position and shape to pony-style. She could feel it, see it. The flow of energy, of information. Of time. Everything made sense to her, and was known to her. The mandala-snowflake structure of the universe’s neighbors. The arrangement of gas in the early universe, carrying a tune never before known to mortals. She watched as galactic clusters split and merged as gravity and inflation fought a tug of war shepherded by unseen voices. It was incredible and beautiful, but she needed to focus more closely. Sunset zoomed in, hard. The planet. Just the planet. She could see the cosmic order in it, the movement of continents and air and water and nutrients through the ecosystem. She could feel the fear deep in the planet’s core, that something bad would happen in the near future. She cleared her mind of it. The planet’s “near future” was a century away, it wasn’t her problem. She focused out everything until she could see the cycle of souls. With this knowledge came power. If she could see everything, she could affect anything. Knowing how it worked was the first step to changing it, and she’d already seen the source of all power. Celestia would say friendship was the most powerful magic of all, but Sunset knew that it was more nuanced than that. The universe was lonely. It had exploded to make parts of itself different from the rest. So it could have friends. In that sense, the desire for friendship, as the motivator of existence, was most powerful. But an argument could be made for the engine of existence: the true, deep song magic she’d tapped to ignite the core sitting beside her. She had power, now. Real power, not the glimmer she’d felt when she’d worn that crown a few months ago. In fact, she felt she had enough power. The idea that there could be such a thing was terrifying, that there was a power so great it could slake even her former lust for power. What could she really do with it? She had to shake off such thoughts. There was only one thing to do with it: not be a killer. The Sirens’ souls were easy to locate, and if she could incarnate them immediately she could prevent them from losing their former identities. The carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and other elements that made up their bodies were gathered to make new ones, and the souls were tossed into them. It was simple, really. Sunset was just reassembling the shells that concealed them before and skipping the layer of magic. The second verse was easier. A lot of the surrounding people had minor or moderate injuries. She could feel a lot of hearing loss in the people. It was a lot easier to fix than death, but the same principle applied. All she had to do was put things back to the way they should be and had been. The song was ending. She could feel the power fading, but it wasn’t frightening. It was like a friend was going away for a little while, but would return soon. The knowledge began to fade as well. There was something tugging at the edge of her awareness, but it faded out as well. The pony ears and wings of her and her friends faded as well, and they all opened their eyes. “Darling, what was that?” “What the hell Sunset?” “Holy cow that was great!” “Oh… oh my.” “What’n the heck?” Sunset smiled, they’d pulled through admirably. “Thank you all.” She pulled all five of them into a group hug, which Pinkie immediately reinforced while the other four looked startled. “It’s over now. We’re good.” She released the hug and gently pushed away Pinkie’s hand, staring out at the stage. Three women were slowly rising. The Sirens looked exactly the same as before, minus their necklaces, which lay shattered on the stage, and their clothes, which Sunset had neglected to reform. Oops. The Sirens furiously gathered downed curtains to wrap themselves as Sunset’s friends turned around to view the sight. Nothing like a job well done. Then she heard the sound. A faint “chop chop” noise that was rapidly growing louder. Helicopters zoomed overhead and began to circle the stage. They were barely visible, being painted all black against the night sky. Sunset didn’t know much about military technology, but she knew the police department didn’t have black helicopters. Three of the helicopters lit their spotlights, centered on the Rainbooms. Fluttershy collapsed to the ground, hands over her head. Rainbow tried to comfort her, while the rest simply put their hands up to try to block the spotlights. Ropes dropped from the helicopters, and figures in all-black military gear and helmets began to slide down them. “Horseapples,” muttered Rainbow as she moved her hands into the universal surrender position, “it’s the ATSF!” Sunset and the rest joined her in putting her hands up as the men began to move towards the Rainbooms, guns pointing directly at them. Additional troops began to move towards the crowd and the stage, but the helicopters were kicking up so much dust it was difficult to see too far. One final figure dropped down the rope nearest the Rainbooms, wearing not military apparel but instead a black, formal business suit. She was a woman with Maroon hair tucked into a bun with one curl on her left side, half rim glasses with built-in displays, and an extremely severe expression. “Well well, what do we have here? Some crazy bunch blasting away at a crowded musical event? Although I know it’s far more than just that. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Abacus Cinch, Director of the National Defense Research Bureau. We’ve seen unusual energy readings from here before, but this was simply off the scale. And using them to blow up stuff? Well, that’s where my fine colleagues in the Anti-Terrorism Special Forces come in. Their job is to deal with whoever is trying to blow up stretches of our wonderful country, but my job is to figure out things. And since I felt there was a lot to figure out here, I was able to put this under my control in a matter of moments.” She smiled a bit. “Oh, and my dear old friend Celestia called me in when she thought you couldn’t handle it,” she looked directly at Sunset, “Sunset Shimmer.” “Clearly that was a mistake on my part. I should have finished the job of cutting lose all memories of you.” Celestia approached from behind Rainbooms, some of the soldiers looking at her but none of them raising their weapons to her. “Yes, because I’m sure Sunset had a brilliant plan to evade the consequences of a gigantic explosion in a populated area. No, roomie, for once you’ve done the right thing. I’ll even forgive you for costing me that job at that posh private school.” “Your behavior is what cost you that!” Cinch grimaced. “And they never would have found out about it if you hadn’t told them.” Celestia shook her head. “I’m surprised you were able to get a job that needs security clearance with that on your record.” Cinch laughed. “Oh, those are far easier to get than you’d expect. Unless you’re a liar or a whistle blower type. But enough about ancient history. We’re old women of the world now, and it’s quite a dangerous one. I’ll offer your protege here a deal. No prosecution in exchange for handing over whatever you’re doing that can produce such powerful energy surges.” “It’s really quite fascinating. Did you know it produced a burst of neutrinos so immense, every neutrino detector on the planet saw a supernova-sized spike?” “Twilight!?!?!?” shouted all the Rainbooms at once. The girl emerging from behind Director Cinch was almost the spitting image of the Fall Formal Princess (and actual Princess) they knew. Differences were there too, however. The new Twilight seemed confused at their greeting. She wore thick-rimmed glasses, and a smaller version of Cinch’s business suit. “Intern! Cease talking. This is important.” Cinch moved to step between Twilight and the Rainbooms. “Now then, the deal I mentioned. You, Sunset Shimmer, will you accept?” “She doesn’t need to.” Celestia strode through the line of gunmen, pushing them aside. “About an hour ago the adoption went through and Sunset is now my child. So go on, let’s take her in front of the prosecutor. Just remember it’s an elected position with a lot of discretion.” Cinch frowned in exasperation at Celestia. “Yes, I suppose your little tribal bloc has a surprising amount of local influence. But you can’t protect all of them, somebody’s got to take the fall for this blast. Did you know we had to ground a newschopper on our way here? You should thank me.” She turned to Rainbooms. “I don’t need to prosecute Sunset. I can prosecute any of her friends.” There was a pause as data flew across the display in her glasses. “Ah, Rainbow Dash. Interested in getting a pilot’s license? Well, guess what they don’t give them to: convicted terrorists.” Cinch swept out her arm across the group, ending up on Fluttershy, who flinched and tried to hide behind Dash. “How do you think she’d do in a supermax? It wouldn’t be hard to try any terrorist as an adult.” Another pause as she waited for the display to update. “Applejack, what would your parents say if they could see you in the defendant's seat?” Cinch’s posture was practically gloating as she gestured to each girl in turn. “Rarity, ready to become socially untouchable? Pinkie, let’s see how much fun you find solitary confinement!” “Stop!” Sunset shouted. She hated this world and its miserable, petty hatreds. She wished she could blast all of it in the Elements of Harmony. Maybe I could. I’m the only one who actually knows how this works. “I’ll do it, but I want two extra conditions in addition to the ‘nobody gets prosecuted’ thing.” “Hmm, trying to negotiate with me?” Cinch smirked at her. Sunset smirked back. Cinch momentarily flinched, which Sunset didn’t miss. “Well, I kind of destroyed most of my notes before I got here in case it failed. But if you want me to build a big, bad friendship laser for your silly military-industrial complex, I’m going to need friends. So you’re going to let me finish out my schooling, until I can call myself Doctor Shimmer. And then, the second condition is I want her assigned to me.” Sunset pointed at Twilight, who was peeking out from behind Cinch. “Really, this intern? I’m sure I could find someone smarter and more worthwhile.” Sunset smiled. “No, I’m sure you can’t.” Cinch shrugged. “Fine. I need someone keeping an eye on you anyway. Intern! You’re now going to school with those idiots.” “But I already have my high scho–” “Don’t care! I’ll whip some sort of paperwork up to make it work. You’re now in all her classes.” She turned to Celestia. “Any complaints?” Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she smiled. “Not at all.” Sunset felt a burst of nostalgia when she realized the smile was genuine. This Celestia plays the game as well as the Princess. I’ll have to consult her directly on our next plays. Cinch nodded. “Great. Now, if you’ll excuse me, a secret military aircraft has crashed here and we need all civilians out of the area. Holden! Call Fort Garry and tell them to box up some aircraft bits they’re not using. Scott! Get some kerosene and magnesium powder. Hudson, get the rest of the civilians out of here.” “Oh.” Sunset broke in. “You should probably save time and hold the three naked women on the stage on some charge or another. I’ll explain later.” Cinch grinned. “We’ll make one of us of you yet.” “Celestia I hope not,” Sunset whispered. “Intern, go with them.” It didn't take long to be ushered through the checkpoints that had established themselves around the park. Sunset and her friends ducked as they passed a parked helicopter, then turned onto the street. “So what the hell was all that?” Rainbow was the first to break the silence as the military forces faded into the background behind them. “You’re going to cooperate with them?” “It’s the only logical choice.” Everyone stared at Twilight. “Simple game theory would tell you that Cinch had her over a barrel and she’d need to make some sort of compromise.” “That doesn’t sound like a very fun game.” Twilight turned to Pinkie. “You have such interesting company.” Sunset laughed. “Don’t I know it. I have full confidence you’ll fit in soon enough.” Celestia placed her hand on Sunset. “Do not worry. I’m certain we’ll get through this.” Sunset stared off into the distance. She could almost see it. A giant antenna, powerful enough to broadcast a Harmony signal across this entire cursed world. “We don’t need to worry. I’m sure we’ll make the world harmonious.” That’s a nice name for the Project. Harmonious. People are always giving these things weird spellings though. Maybe H-a-r-m-o-n-i-u-s.