“AH-HAHAHA!” Evangeline’s laughter was a mixture of malice and genuine amusement as she approached Sunset, Asuna, and Negi. “I don’t know if that was supposed to be some demon god or whatever, but it was no match for me!” She grinned at her teacher and fellow-students. “How was that, children? Do you realize now how awesome my power is?”
“That was great, Eva-chan!” Asuna shouted. “You’re amazing! No wonder you keep saying you’re the strongest!”
“I’ll admit, even I was impressed,” Sunset said. “Not that I doubted your ability, but I didn’t think you’d be able to handle it so… casually.”
Evangeline threw her head back and laughed. “Ha! That just goes to show you the difference in power between us! Besides, I had plenty of time while things got set up to figure out exactly how I wanted to handle it.”
“With overwhelming overkill?”
“How else?”
Sunset grunted in reluctant agreement.
“B-but what about the Attendance Perdition Curse?” Negi asked. “You shouldn’t be able to leave the Academy!”
“About that…” Negi looked up to see Chachamaru descending, a large rifle slung over her shoulder. “Even now, we’re using a high-level ritual in order to continue to deceive the spirits that perpetuate the spell. The principal has to sign and seal one ‘Evangeline is in Kyoto for school purposes’ document every five seconds. I apologize that it took so long to prepare.”
“As a reward for today,” Evangeline continued smugly, “that old geezer agreed to endure signing perdition until we finish sightseeing in Kyoto tomorrow.”
“O-once every five seconds?” Asuna paled. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Not like he doesn’t have magic to support him,” Sunset muttered. “Still, ouch.”
“Hmph. This is all his fault for not foreseeing this would happen anyway!” Evangeline dismissed. “He deserves to work a bit! Especially since I’ll be continuing to keep his precious granddaughter safe.” She briefly surged her magic, causing her body to glow. “Ah, this feels nice. All of my powers are back while I’m outside of the Academy’s barrier. It feels good to go all-out again.”
“So that’s why you decided to help?” Sunset asked. “A brief parole and a chance to have some fun?”
Evangeline shrugged. “Pretty much.” She turned to Negi. “Listen up, boy. If we were to say that today was one of those Japanese video games I play in my spare time, then this would be the part where you ask why the last boss helps you when you’re about to die in the first dungeon. If something like this happens again, don’t expect to be able to rely on my power. At times like these, you’ve got to show them your own guts.”
“R-right,” Negi muttered, swaying slightly on his feet as he grabbed at his petrified arm.
“Hmm.” Evangeline spared him a rare look of concern. “Guess that fight was hard on you after all. Are you-”
“Blood Sucker!”
“Eva-chan!”
“Evangeline-san! Behind you!”
Evangeline stared in shock as Sunset, Asuna, and Negi rushed towards her. Negi reached her first and grabbed her, pulling her close as he got behind her.
“Wh-what are you-” Evangeline’s eyes went wide as she saw what the others had, a white-haired figure rising quickly from a puddle of water behind her.
“Lance of Stone.”
Evangeline’s grit her teeth and threw Negi aside. “Get out of the way, idio-”
The pier shattered as spikes of stone erupted through it, impaling Evangeline through the stomach and lifting her nearly a foot off the ground.
“Eva-chan!” Asuna started forward, only to stop as Sunset grabbed ahold of her arm. “N-Nichi-chan?! What are you doing?!”
“Just watch,” Sunset hissed.
“Evangeline A. K. Macdowell, ‘The Doll Master,’ huh?” The white-haired boy asked, his face schooled to neutrality once again. “I can’t say that I’m impressed.”
“Heh, you seem to be underestimating me too.”
The boy’s eyes went wide as Evangeline erupted, transforming into a swarm of bats that flew behind him and reformed in an instant. Evangeline’s hand glowed with power as she grinned maliciously at the boy. “I am, after all, The Undying Mage.”
A massive blast of ice magic split the boy in two, tearing apart the back half off the pier in the process. Evangeline grit her teeth as she saw not blood, but water pouring from the boy’s torso.
“I see,” the boy said as he slowly dissolved into water droplets. “I would be at a disadvantage if I were to fight a true-blood vampire. I’ll be retreating for today.” With a final splash, his remaining body turned to water and fell to the jagged edge of the pier.
“An illusion?” Sunset asked. “Or a water clone of some sort?”
“Either way, he’s long gone by now.” Evangeline scoffed. “Coward.”
“E-E-Eva-chan!” Asuna stammered, staring from her face to the massive hole in her clothes, through which she could see the vampire’s undamaged stomach. “Y-you just-”
“Oh relax,” Evangeline said. “That boy wasn’t human either. I doubt that would have killed him even if he had been here in person. The way he moved, I’d guess he’s some sort of construct.” She shook her head. “In any case, I’ll be accompanying you all for the rest of the trip; he won’t try anything again.”
“I think she was referring to your ‘Vlad the Impaler’ impression,” Sunset snarked.
“Psh, that?” Evangeline waved Asuna off. “You can’t hurt a vampire with a sword or a gun, especially not a true-blood like me. It’s just like you see in the movies. Regenerating is really tiring, though. So annoying.”
“Th-thank goodness,” Negi stamered, collapsing to his knees. “Evangeline-san, you…”
“O-oy! Boy!” Everyone rushed forward as Negi collapsed completely, his breathing ragged and heavy. “What’s going on?!”
“Don’t tell me...” Sunset knelt by Negi’s side and tore the sleeve off of his shirt. His entire arm had turned to stone, up to the shoulder. Peeking under his shirt, Sunset saw that the petrification had begun to advance across his chest as well. “Damn it! You were holding magic in reserve to fight, weren’t you?! I told you to focus on keeping it back!”
“Negi-kun!”
“Negi-sensei!”
“What’s wrong, de gozaru?”
Sunset looked up to see Konoka and Setsuna running towards them, Kaede and Yue right on their heels. “He’s been petrified,” Sunset explained as they got closer. “But it only got his hand, and it’s been spreading slowly.”
“Even without conscious effort, Negi-sensei’s magic resistance is incredibly high,” Chachamaru said, examining him herself. “Thus why the process has been so slow. But at this rate he will suffocate when it reaches his neck and cuts off his breathing.”
“Can you do anything, Evangeline?” Sunset demanded. “I haven’t gotten to healing magic yet.”
Evangeline actually blushed as she looked away. “I… I’m really bad at healing magic. I mean, I’m undead after all.”
“Tch. Makes sense.” Sunset glared down at the creeping line of petrification, barely noticing as Ku Fei and Mana arrived as well. “We can’t get him to medics in time,” she muttered. “Anyone in the region who could have helped is already stoned up at HQ.”
“Reinforcements should be arriving about midday,” Chachamaru said, “but they won’t make it in time.”
“U-um, Nichi-chan?” Everyone turned to Konoka as she approached. “W-would it help if I kissed Negi-kun?”
“W-w-what are you saying, Konoka?!” Asuna shouted. “At a time like this-”
“No no, that’s not what I mean!” Konoka said. “You know, that ‘pactio’ thing!”
“That might work,” Sunset muttered. “If your magic is related to healing, like what you used on Setsuna in Cinematown, then your artifact will probably be something that can take care of this.” She backed off, allowing Konoka to kneel down in her place.
“Negi-kun,” Konoka said softly, cradling Negi’s upper body and bringing it up to her. “You’ve done so much tonight to try to help me. It’s my turn to repay the favor.” She leaned down, closing the distance and planting a chaste kiss on his lips.
The glow of the pactio contract overtook them both, Konoka’s card forming at her side as Negi’s body softened from stone to flesh. As Konoka leaned back and the glow began to fade, Negi’s eyes fluttered open.
“Konoka-san,” he muttered, consciousness slowly returning to him. “Thank goodness. You’re okay.”
Cheers erupted from most of the surrounding girls. Evangeline and Chachamaru stood off to the side while Sunset just shook her head and smirked down at her teacher. “That’s our line, Springfield. You gave us all quite the scare.”
“S-sorry,” Negi said sheepishly. “I didn’t-” He gasped and leapt to his feet. “That boy! The onmyou! What… woah.”
“Careful, Negi!” Asuna steadied the child teacher before he could collapse again. “Mou. You just can’t take things easy, can you?”
“It’s alright, Sensei,” Setsuna said. “The onmyou fled soon after the demon was taken down, and the white-haired boy is gone as well.”
“The demons have retreated as well,” Mana added, patting the case slung over her shoulder. “Along with the shinmeiryuu.”
“Th-then, that means…”
“Yeah,” said Sunset, sighing in relief. “It’s over.”
*****
The rest of the night passed with little incident. Kaede, Ku Fei, and Mana returned to the hotel before their absence could be noted. Between Negi, Sunset, and Evangeline, they managed to cure everyone’s petrification at the Kansai Magic Association HQ. Evangeline had noted with surprise that the spell used on them was fairly low-level, certainly below what the boy had been capable of. After being debriefed by Konoka’s father, the students and child teacher all but collapsed into bed, exhausted from the night’s activities.
All of them except for one, that is. Sunset sat on the roof of the Kansai Magic Association Headquarters, staring out across the mountain forest that surrounded the compound. She would occasionally glance down at her right hand, curl it into a fist, relax it, and go back to staring out into the night.
“You’re going to be exhausted come sunrise.”
Sunset shook her head. “I’ve had plenty of sleepless nights before; I’ll manage. Couldn’t sleep even if my mind was calm. A certain dangerous vampire is lurking a little too close for my liking and I’m finding it hard to lower my guard.”
“You shouldn’t worry about that,” Evangeline replied, sitting down beside her. “With how overwhelmingly powerful I am, it doesn’t matter if you keep your guard up or not; I could destroy you in an instant either way.’
“...”
“...that was supposed to be funny.”
“Hit a little too close to what I’ve been thinking about.” Sunset sighed and looked down at her hand again. “He played with us, MacDowell. Tossed us around like so much trash and casually kept us from offering even a token resistance. The one solid blow we got in was barely enough to make him flinch.”
Evangeline raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I do the same thing to you? You weren’t moping around after our fight.”
“Not like this.” Sunset shook her head. “Your magic is far superior to mine. You have far more experience and raw power than I’ve ever had. Even so, it’s something I can comprehend. I can imagine ways to counter and trick you, strategies that would weaken you and tactics that would take you down. They might not have much of a chance of success, but they’re there. But that boy…” She sighed again, pulling her knees up to her chest.
“You know, when I first got here, the concept of unarmed martial arts was strange to me. Unicorns and pegasi sometimes fought like that - well, more like ‘brawled’ than ‘fought’ - but it wasn’t the sort of thing that you trained in. Hoof-to-hoof combat almost always involved a weapon of some sort, because how could you enchant your hooves to make them better? Earth ponies were bare-hooved fighters, but they channel their magic through their whole body. Some of them don’t even bother with armor because their magic protects them. But here? Sure there are spells for strengthening your body, making it faster and stronger, but that’s not what I’m seeing from other people. The way that that boy moved, even the way that Setsuna moves, there’s something that I’m completely missing. And until I figure it out, I don’t stand a chance against him.”
Evangeline was silent for a minute. “So, let me get this straight. You think that there’s some sort of source of power or ability or way to train that Sakurazaki and the white-haired boy have realized and you’re up here in secluded introspection to try and reach within yourself and discover what that is, right?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“...you’re an idiot.” Evangeline stood up and stretched. “You can teleport other people with you, right?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Um, yeah. Why?”
Evangeline scanned the forest before pointing. “There. That break in the trees. That looks like a big enough clearing. Teleport us both over there.”
Sunset’s eyebrow arched further and she contemplated declining the extremely powerful and dangerous vampire’s request to go off into the woods with her alone.
Eh, if she really wanted to kill me, she could do it literally anytime she wanted. Sunset stood and placed a hand on Evangeline’s shoulder before pulling out the spare wand she’d borrowed from Konoka’s father to replace the one she’d lost in the lake. “Ianuae Magicae.” In a flash of light, they vanished from the rooftop and reappeared in the clearing. Sunset took her hand off of Evangeline’s shoulder and turned to face her. “Okay, so what did we have to come all the wa-”
Sunset didn’t get to finish her question before Evangeline stabbed her hand into Sunset’s chest. Pain coursed through Sunset’s body and she coughed up a mouthful of blood onto Evangeline’s face, which didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. She could feel Evangeline’s hand digging deeper, rummaging around as if looking for something.
“You’re a real idiot, you know that?” Evangeline lectured, as if she didn’t have her hand buried wrist-deep in Sunset’s chest. “You think you need to ‘dig deep and find the answers yourself’ on this? There are some things that that applies to, but what you’re looking for is a lot more straightforward. Ah, here we are.”
Sunset’s breath seized. Evangeline was caressing her wellspring, the source of her Equestrian magic that had been sealed off from her arrival in this world. Was this what she was after? Was she going to devour it like the centaurs of Equestrian mythos? Crush it just to see the despair in Sunset’s face?
“If you’d asked Sakurazaki, she would have been more than happy to explain how Ki works to you. It probably would have sounded really familiar too. She probably would have had a less painful way of doing this too, but you irritate me so I see no reason to be gentle.” She grabbed something and Sunset’s eyes went wide. “Hope you’re ready for this, Nichibotsu. Because if you aren’t, it’ll probably devour you.”
With a single tug, she shredded through the barrier around Sunset’s wellspring.
And Sunset’s world exploded.
If this kills Sunset, Evangeline ia dead the next time Celestia decides to pay a visit.
And this is why you don't open yourself up to vampires. They'll assume you're okay with doing so in a more literal sense.
9771875
If this kills Sunset, the story's over. I think she'll be able to handle it.
9771815
Not the comics, the Equestria Girl movies. If Sunset had any family left in Equestria, then she would have visited it or at least get Princess Twilight Sparkle to get them letters after the second Equestria Girls movie.
Giving Sunset a brother has been done in fanfics and is always dumb.
9771891
Look, Evangeline knows Sunset teacher is a literal sun goddess, one that can visit. Unless she plans to destroy the magical mirror, killing Sunset is a very stupid thing to do and yet she literally does something that as she herself said, is likely to kill Sunset.
Knowing very well that if Sunset dies by her hand, Negi will be forced to kill her even if she gets rid of the portal to Equestria.
After all Evangeline killing one of Negi students is something he just can't forgive.
Sure it can be covered up, but it definitely screws everything up.
Does Evangeline just want to die or what?
9771907
Recall that, at this point, Negi is absolutely no match for Evangeline, so no risk there. And Celestia has no way to know what's going on on the other side of the mirror. Honestly, if Eva kills Sunset, there really aren't any consequences for her.
Wow, this was hard-core, evy going into sunset so hard, and drawing blood, and popping her wellspring cherry, of course sunset's world exploded, now sunset will grow again. Took you long for this update, and though you abandoned the fic, anyway, waiting for next arc :D.
Got to admit, when Eva impaled Sunset, I thought we were going to get vampire Sunset. That would've been an interesting direction.
Wonder if as Fate has 'noticed' Sunset, we might see his 'it's personal' mentality split between Negi and Sunset as well.
Agree with giving Sunset a brother being kinda iffy though. On the other hand, it WAS mentioned earlier in the fic.
Regardless, thanks for the update. =)
9771924
No way, man. I'm determined to finish this one. It's just that publishing entire arcs at a time takes... time. (That sounded more coherent in my head.)
9771973
Thus far, she's registered as a curiosity more than anything else. Don't worry; I'm not about to steal Negi's rival for her.
Already enjoying the dog and pony show.
With the ki shenanigans standing in for earth pony magic, I'm just waiting for actual flight or wings so she can go the full pseudoalicorn styling.
9772153
Lol. Maybe I'll have her steal Negi's staff.
9771914
Recall that as this point Eva is sealed and only has temporary her powers because of a loophole. Sealed Eva is much weaker than current Negi.
Also do remember that EVANGELINE HAS EVERY VAMPIRE WEAKNESS EVER EVEN AT FULL POWER!
That's how Negi's dad beat her, remember?
So yeah... Eva is boned if she gives Negi a legit reason to kill her.
Also Negi made her promise to not hurt his students.
Then she goes and kills one?
Wait, is this- Is that- MAGIA EREBEA?!
No, no can't be. Something similar then? Oh holy fuck, either way, this is going to be fucking AWESOME!!!!!!!
9772770
Woah, calm down dude. No way in the nine hells is Eva giving her something like THAT this early in the game. But it will be... interesting what happens next for our bacon-haired heroine.
9772791
Well she does have friends, does care about Negi and was willing to risk getting killed to help Negi...
Just have her save the world a few times and she will ready to become an Alicorn.
9772801
Eh, she was willing to risk her life to help Konoka. Negi... eh?
9772847
Sunset decided to try to keep busy a guy she herself saw as more powerful than Evangeline to give Negi a chance to do his summoning. And that was before Evangeline showed up to "help."
If that's not self sacrifice I don't know what it is.
9772853
I agree, but my point is that it wasn't for Negi's sake. Negi was a means to an end, that ends being Konoka's rescue.
9772785
Being completely fair here, the whole thing reminded me of "fighting your darkness", sorta like what Negi did (at least, if I recall it correctly. It's been a while.) And Sunset at least has the better skills and mindset for handling a power similar to Magia Erebea.
Looking back, do I believe it is that skill? Nope, because that power is broken as shit at this point in the story. Doesn't mean that I don't see Sunset getting that skill or creating something similar to it in the future.
And. Here. We. Go.
9772866
I don't see why Sunset has to love Negi to rescue him. If anything, the fact she shows disgust for the way the class threats a MINOR speaks good of her.
And it was not just Konoha, a lot of people was petrified.
And rescuing a friend is something that shows both her LOVE and FRIENDSHIP, right?
You know, I kinda hope that this ends with Sunset permanently "ponying up". If only because it'll inevitably drive Chisame nuts when noone seems to notice the pony ears or tail. Otherwise, I really am curious to see how Sunset will power up. Also, I need more scenes of Sunset/Nodoka fluff. Those two are adorable.
9772733 Actually, Eva has almost no vampire weaknesses other than garlic and leeks; she's immune to sunlight, immune to holy symbols, immune to impalement, no OCD, can enter homes without permission (decapitation might work, I don't recall if it was ever tried in the books), and since she is outside Mahori's barrier with the Headmaster loopholeing her out of her curse, she is at full power right now, which means Negi is not even a blip on her radar, power-wise. (Remember, a full-power Eva outmatched the damned Lifemaker, so about the only entities that might be able to match [or exceed] her are Celestia, Luna, Discord and equivalent beings.)
Nagi beat Eva by exploiting her only (confirmed) remaining vampire weakness and also exploiting the fact the Eva was in love with him and not fighting at anything close to her full ability.
9773012 A permanently Ponyed Sunset would get on Chisame's nerves (But would Chisame resist her impulse to put Pony-Sunset on the internet as an "apprentice" net idol?)
medics
Gah! Fluffing cliffhangers!
9771891 9771907 Well, at least 9771914 is letting Sunset get some things off her chest right? Getting in touch with her inner self so to speak. Gotta admit, the hands on approach is always rough.
9771907
On the subject of her having a brother, it doesn't matter if she would have gone back to visit him post-EQG2, because this story doesn't have EQG2. Sunset already has an alternate backstory, which means things are going to continue to change for her now. Even if this were the EQG world and I pulled out a brother from nowhere, I'd still be able to make it work by just giving her a few trips to Equestria between movies and shorts.
The canon does not confine or restrict us any more than we allow it to. Any criticism that says "but in the canon..." can be legitimately countered with "Yes, but in my story..." I can't tell you how many fanfics I've seen where Mysterious Mare-Do-Well is retconed into being a work of fiction in-universe. Or even stories where certain episodes are completely ignored.
Tl;dr: if I want Sunset to have a brother, ain't no canon gonna stop me. On this site, fic-canon trumps show-canon.
9773070
Thanks again for all of those edits. And yeah, I felt like it was a bit of a jerk move to leave it on a cliffhanger like that... So I did.
9773207
My argument was that so far every time Sunset is given family in a fanfic, that's not just someone adopting her, it sucks.
But not as bad as the writters deciding to giving Rainbow Dash a family after so many seasons.
She is the freaking element of loyalty and she never ever mentioning having a family before!
Heck what kind of family she had that wasn't there when she was made a Wonderbolt or when she was part of the Equestrian games?
Is a plothole bigger than a house.
And PLEASE stop.ignoring the fact Evangeline is only a full power temporarily. Once she is sealed again she can't even beat current Negi without her robot maid help.
9773371
I disagree. Evangeline is a master martial artist, with her abilities being beyond those of Setsuna and, probably, Ku Fei and Kaede. Even without magic and powers, I still think she's quite the match for Negi.
And I like what they did with RD's parents. It makes sense to me.
9773396
Hey Rainbow Dash, I know is been several seasons and they never visited when you went to the Young Fliers competition, took part in the Equestria Games or became a Wonderbolt, but you actually have parents!
9773578
She specifically kept all of that from them. The "cool, awesome, radical Rainbow 'Danger' Dash" can't have her parents cramping her style after all.
9773597
Considering how loyal she is to her friends and how she caused A FREAKING DISASTER JUST BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT HER TURTLE TO HYBERNATE?
That would have fit season one Dash, maybe season two but not such a late season Rainbow Dash.
Is like the writers forget character development when is convenient. Or exaggerate characters traits just to have a plot for an episode.
There is a reason I stopped watching after miss "I wanna erase all existence with Time Travel" became a main character.
9773801
There's also the question of when it would have come up. If Rainbow doesn't especially like talking about her parents because of how embarrassed she is by them, then I don't see the topic coming up in conversation. Fluttershy is the only other one who would know about them, and she would also know how she feels about them. Honestly, I fail to see what loyalty has to do with anything here.
As for Tank, Dash trashing the Weather Factory was completely believable. Dash does everything 110%, be it racing, flying, or, in this case, loving. She can't stand doing nothing while Tank disappears for an entire season, especially since she's grown so close to him after he saved her life. Dash is also short-sighted and impulsive, going with her gut and the first idea that pops into her head without thinking of the consequences.
And I like Starlight. Yes, her redemption was rushed, but what can you do with 22 minute episodes? Besides, she continues, even now, to struggle with not using magic to solve everything, she still has a temper, and she acts as a great foil to Twilight, even reformed. There's plenty to appreciate about Starlight if you give her a chance.
...we seem to have tangented wildly.
9773812
Let's agree to disagree, okay?
Back to the story, yes Eva can be killed by Negi if she is back at being sealed and yes, an an immortal being she can't rule out Celestia visiting again and figuring out what she did. Since this Sunset back story is wildly different, Celestia eventually visiting to find out what happened doesn't seem that out of character. More so since Sunset not only was her personal student, but also a part of the military. And her going Rogue and causing trouble is possibly.
Not to mention that killing students is the kind of stuff the Headmaster wouldn't tolerate. And while he plays the fool a lot, he is the leader of a magical association for a reason.
If Eva killed a student once she can do it again, meaning they risk her killing the whole school student population out of amusement the next time the school wards fail.
Sunset is not Eva student, didn't sign a contract with her, or entered a Master Student relationship with her.
With Negi, she had that. And even the Headmaster would have understood if Negi killed himself during training since he at least he knew the risks.
Here she is just tampering with Sunset magic because as she admited, she hates Sunset. And Sunset didn't even agree to it first not was informed of the risks something that did happen with Negi in canon.
Even if Sunset survives, all this will do is make Sunset never trust Evangeline again. Sunset will also think of maybe going back because at least Celestia won't kill her just to mess with her and even prision time is better that the risk Evangeline just deciding to slash her throat the next time the wards fail.
9773863
Hm. I wonder about that.
Not the "Eva would face consequences" thing. While I maintain that Negi would still be no match for her at this point, I agree that the Mahora staff wouldn't be complacent.
But I do disagree with your assessment of Celestia's actions. She really can't risk going through the mirror and launching an investigation regarding Sunset. That would almost definitely take more than three days, and then she'd be trapped in the human world while Equestria was left without her to protect it and, you know, move the sun and moon. She wouldn't be able to take that risk.
As for Sunset's reaction to Eva-chan's actions... Hehehehe. I have plans. Wonderful, horrible plans.
9773959
If Sunset has her journal Twilight Sparkle can make a permanent portal.
If she doesn't is still possible to make a permanent portal.
3 days is more than enough to sent someone to ask, remember the mirror is in LIBRARY ISLAND THE SAME PLACE AN INMORTAL "CORONEL SANDERS" lives in.
They can just ask him.
Then Celestia goes and kill Eva who being sealed doesn't even last ten minutes.
All done in less than 3 days.
9774226
But you're forgetting something important; in EQG1, Celestia didn't do any of those things. She accepted that Sunset had run away and that she didn't want anything to do with her. I might have changed a number of things about Sunset's backstory, but not enough for Celestia to, after all that time, mount an expedition to discover what happened to somepony that chose not to return.
9774233
We don't know that, we don't know how much time passed between Sunset running away and Twilight Sparkle becoming Celestia student and why the two mares look almost the same age while on the human side.
Is possible there is some time stuff going with the mirror, so while for Sunset it was just thtee years it might have been over a decade for Celestia.
Celestia might have not know that, waited years and not see the portal open even after a decade and so she... moved on.
But in this case Celestia has been on the other side of the mirror before.
And must have been quite the impression for Evangeline to remember her.
So her giving her up so easily doesn't make sense.
9774249
Okay, now you're just getting into wild speculation. There's no evidence of a time difference, and the journal kind of puts a dent in that theory.
Besides, Celestia having gone through the portal before doesn't make it more likely that she'd do so again. It comes back to her respecting Sunset's agency and her apparent desire to be left alone. If Sunset doesn't want to return, Celestia wouldn't force it.
9774264
There is actually the fact that even if Twilight Sparkle got her cutie mark (and became Celestia student) the day Sunset left, she would still be at least a decade or so younger than Sunset, yet both of them look the same age when human. Unless you believe Twilight Sparkle went from younger than the CMC to adult and defeating Nightmare Moon and Discord to Princess Alicorn in less than three years.
9774296
We have no idea how pony ageing works. It's also possible that Celestia regularly took multiple students at once and that Twilight and Sunset were students at the same time but that, being a total recluse, Twilight didn't register as a threat to Sunset and, being a total recluse, Twilight didn't even know about Sunset.
It's also possible that Sunsetwas in the human world for more than just a single cycle, or that 30 "moons" isn't 30 "months" but some other form of Equestrian time measurement. (I was just at a panel at Bronycon that made an amazingly convincing argument that "moons" = "weeks.")
At this point, we're speculating wildly. Or rather, you're speculating wildly as I already know how things work in this case because, well, author. And no, I have no intention of explaining the exact mechanics of the mirror portal just to settle an argument about what my interpretation of Celestia (who again, as the author, I have complete control over with regards to personality and backstory) would or would not do.
9774612
Is a plothole the movies never cared to explain.
But even just taking into account the first Equestria Girls movie and nothing else, Sunset wouldn't be such a Queen Bee and social butterfly if she had been a social recluse.
Then again canon Sunset wouldn't have truly cared about the girls making Negi life hell, or make real friends so fast.
This is definitely not canon Sunset and not just because her military background.
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It's definitely not canon Sunset because she was forced to rely on the kindness of others for the first few months while she learned the local language. That sort of forced humility changes someone.
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A few months of kindness did what Celestia couldn't do for years.
No wonder Celestia sucks wirh kids.
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A few months of 100% reliance followed by several more of continuing to receive kindness.
But yeah, Celestia kind of does suck with kids. Luna is much better with them.
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Celestia is good with adults, Luna is good with kids.
Is like ya know they existed to balance each other.
Now back to the story, even if Sunset doesn't tell anyone and Evangeline faces zero consequences, Sunset is never gonna trust the vampire again.
Now who is also immortal, powerful and lives in/near the school and definitely is not a big bully?
Colonel Sanders!
Definitely the best option to learn magic and to fight Sunset could have.
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Except that the good Colonel has no reason to have anything to do with Sunset.
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Save for his somewhat friendly rivarly with Evangeline (friendly on his part, Eva either can't stand him or is all tsundere on him) . If Negi rejects him like in canon, getting another student that might be able to be better than Eva's student in some things might be something he might do.
Notice that Sunset literally makes new spells, and is also quite a fast learner.
Sunset and Evangeline don't like each other, so Eva won't take her as a student and Sunset won't ask . Because Eva almost killed her and if she is gonna ask for training from someone who hates her she might as well go back with Celestia and beg for forgiveness, since Celestia at least won't kill her.
And there is only so far she can get on her own but again Evangeline almost killed her, and didn't even ask first if Sunset was willing to risk death to become stronger or made Sunset her student.
So if she doesn't get training from Albireo Imma or Evangeline, she is gonna fall behind.
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And everything is party-canon!
Aaand... Evangeline reminds us how terrifying she can be even when she helps.
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The bath is in the same building as the girls' dorm, and almost all of her class, who share her floor, were down in the bath. There was no-one to notice once she left.