This is where I will keep orphan chapters and writing experiments until they either prompt me to begin writing them in earnest or get adopted by another author
This is where I will keep orphan chapters and writing experiments until they either prompt me to begin writing them in earnest or get adopted by another author.
“So Shiny, are you excited to work at the District Attorney’s office? I’m so proud that you were able to get the job!” Twilight Sparkle asked her brother excitedly from the backseat. Even though she was going on 14, she still idolized her big brother, and was proud that he was pursuing a career in law.
“Twily, it’s just an internship, it’s not that big a deal. I’m just glad I was able to get one back in my hometown. Thankfully I was able to use the old crystal prep alumni network to score an interview.” Shining Armor replied bashfully, being as humble as always. Their mother just smiled from the driver’s seat, happy to have her eldest home for the next couple of months before his final year in college.
It was a clear moonlit evening in Canterlot. Twilight Velvet was glad that it hadn’t rained, as it had been threatening to do so earlier in the afternoon, otherwise Shining’s flight may have been delayed even more, after his plane was grounded for a couple hours due to mechanical issues. Thankfully he arrived safe and sound, and they were just about 20 minutes from the house if what her GPS told her was true. Oddly it had rerouted them away from the freeway and through some suburbs, since apparently traffic was pretty bad.
She slowed down as she came up on another red light, this time with the first pedestrian she had seen in the area. The redheaded girl looked somewhat lost, as she kept looking around as if to get her bearings. However, it seems she found what she had been looking for, as she began to cross the street. Velvet made eye contact with the kid as she passed in front of the car, and for some reason made note that she looked to be as young as her daughter, right before a giant hand seemed to have swatted her car from behind.
The next thing Twilight Velvet knew, there was broken glass everywhere, and shouting. Her face and shoulder hurt a bit from the seat belt and airbag. She could hear Shining Armor checking on Twilight, whom was shaken up, but both also seemed alright. Thankfully she’d taken the SUV to have space for all of her son’s bags. Her relief was short lived however, as she finally got the airbag out of the way.
The car had been hit hard enough to have crossed into the intersection from a full stop, just some 10 feet or so. It apparently was also hard enough to flip a 100 pound body onto the roof of the car, if the limp arm across the windshield was what she feared the most. It couldn’t be any bigger than her baby girl’s.
“Shiny… call 911.” Twilight Velvet said as she stared at the small hand at the end of that arm.
The first thing Sunset felt as she came to was nausea followed by throbbing pain in her legs, hips, head and hands.
“What...happened?” she croaked, looking around at what seemed to be a hospital bed. It seemed very similar to what she had previously seen in Equestria, though there did seem to have a few more gadgets beyond the incessant beep from the heart monitor.
The window in the room was letting in some morning light, she raised her right foreleg and felt along her head. It seemed to have some gauze on wrapped around it, and her temple felt incredibly bruised.
Her left foreleg had a needle jabbed into it connected to a saline drip, along with a cast at the end. Looking down she noticed her left back leg was also encased in a cast. She looked like she had lost a fight with an avalanche. The last thing she remembered was crossing the street in search for alternative lodging, after she was almost caught at the school she had stayed at the last couple weeks. Thankfully it was long enough for her to get some information from the library, however clearly not enough if she was hurt this badly within 15 minutes of leaving.
“Oh Good morning! So glad to see you’re awake dear ” A voice chirped from the doorway, as a nurse came in. “Let me see here… I’ll go get the doctor in a moment, but before that, can you tell me what is the last thing you recall?”
“I was… crossing the street and then… I remember flying in the air before hitting my head… what happened?” Sunset asked, her voice scratchy from lack of water.
“Well dear, you were in a car accident. It seems a distracted driver slammed the accelerator instead of the brakes. Thankfully they plowed into another car first, which slowed the collision down enough. If they had hit you directly we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” The nurse explained as she moved about, reading the instruments Sunset was hooked up to.
“From what I can see from the notes on your chart, you were knocked out from the hit to the side of the head, but while you have a fractured wrist and broken leg, and a LOT of bruising and cuts, there wasn’t any internal bleeding or swelling of the brain, so you got off pretty lightly. Not to mention you got to keep that beautiful hair.” The nurse informed her, as she flipped through some pages on a noteboard on the end of the bed.
“I do notice we don’t have any personal information on file though. Think you can provide your name, along with contacts for your parents or guardians? They must be pretty worried right now”
“Sunset Shimmer, and I don’t have… I don’t have anybody…” If Sunset had not been high on morphine, or as shaken up, she likely would have lied. While she immediately regretted letting that tidbit out, she knew she couldn’t take it back.
“Ok… hon, let me go get the doctor now, and the social worker I guess…” From the change in demeanor on the nurses face, Sunset had cleary made a mistake. The nurses had become hesitant and nervous, when before she was pretty matter-of-fact and even a bit upbeat.
Sunset would deal with it, just as she dealt with everything else thrown at her.
Sunset held out her hand so that the transformed Twilight could take it. She made sure to keep her expression open and kind, recalling how Princess Celestia would look at her in the early days of her apprenticeship, before she become confident in herself.
Behind her eyes however, she was battling with the excess amount of magic in her system. She could feel it slowly permeating her flesh, just barely under her control. As she had learned before, the magic of Harmony was never meant to be held by a single being, much less one with as little innate magical potential such as her human body.
Sunset knew she just had to hold it in for a few more minutes at the most and she would save the day. Though she had tried her best she could feel the stress on her body. The white encompass they found themselves in was probably the closest this realm had to the astral plane. If this had happened in Equestria, Sunset would probably have ascended into Alicornhood, based on her fragmented research years ago. Not that it mattered, she supposed.
Fixing the cascading ruptures between realities had been her focus from the start, and no matter what came next, she had saved both worlds she called home. Even risking a burnout, she was glad for that knowledge, along with the fact that she estimated she had enough power to fix Twilight and send her back down. Hopefully she would have enough to fix the damage done to herself.
That was actually the leading theory on cause of death during failed ascensions. Usually a pony that makes it to the realm has exhausted all their innate magic, and require the boost they get from a successful ascension to leave the astral plane. If they fail to gain their wings, they would lack the magic to return to reality, and fade away, as from a technical standpoint their bodies had been consumed in the initial trip.
Twilight finally capitulated silently, taking Sunset's hand. She smiled, knowing that with this final step, she would have saved everyone else at least, come what may. She could feel her magic destabilizing faster than expected. She didn't think she would have enough for both of them.
Sunset pulled Twilight into a hug, her wings encompassing them both. “Twilight, it’s going to be alright. I chose to help, and I knew what it meant. Remember that.”
“Wait, what do you mean by-?!” Twilight got out before Sunset expelled her back to Canterlot.
Sunset was now alone, watching as the white glare around her began to fracture into nothingness before her eyes. She curled up, floating in the center of this dimming pocket of light, feeling herself slowly getting pulled apart into the greater expanse of the relatively empty astral plane.
As her final moments approached, Sunset dwelled on the one main regret she had. She wished she had listened to Princess Twilight, and been able to at least gotten closure with Celestia, before now. She would have liked to see Equestria again, with all the changes that Twilight had described since her self imposed exile through the enchanted mirror.
As Sunset closed her eyes for the final time, she wondered if she would at least get to be in one of the palace’s windows for her final act of heroism.
Sunset unexpectedly had the oddest sensation of being pulled back together, like yarn being wound back into a ball, and then that ball being used to weave her back together.
It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't painful. By the end of it, she felt a brief moment of weightlessness before crashing down onto the floor.
“Oof! *cough cough* … how? Well, however you did it, thanks princess” Sunset muttered as she lay on the ground with her eyes tightly closed from the painful migraine that had hit her now that she had a corporeal body once again. Sunset presumed Princess Twilight had figured a way to restore her, and however that happened, she was grateful, though she would continue hugging the ground for a while longer.
The floor felt like rustic wood planks. She could smell a mix of parchment paper, dirt, and a hint of ozone, likely residue from the spell.
“It-it worked...it worked? It worked! Twilight it worked! She's alive! Aliiiive!” Exclaimed a voice Sunset didn't recognize, surprising her enough to flinch and finally open her eyes.
It seemed like she was in a basement laboratory, which looked just like Twilight’s old lab under the Golden Oak library. Obviously it couldn't be the same, as that had been destroyed by Tirek, but Twilight had created an almost seamless facsimile.
Sunset was apparently in pony form today, which made sense based on the side of the portal she now found herself. Sunset wondered how Twilight had been able to get her essence to coalesce on this end, though perhaps she had figured out some new property of astral realms that made it possible. She wouldn't put it past the gifted Alicorn.
She seemed to be in the center of a magical circle, with components of a couple summoning and warding circles she had read about, but modified to the point that she couldn't quite figure out all the components. This was incredible work.
Sunset looked up and saw the mare that spoke. She was mint green, with highlights in her mane. She had large tinted goggles around her neck, though the indents around her eyes showed she'd just recently pulled them down. She was staring at Sunset with open astonishment.
Beside her, an exhausted Twilight was panting, sprawled on the ground and gulping down water from a canteen as if she had just run a marathon, though she also had her eyes fixed on Sunset. Something seemed slightly off with the purple pony though. She looked a bit pudgier than the last time Sunset saw her.
“Twilight… you did the impossible and saved me again heheh...ow my heeeead…” Sunset rolled onto her side, or at least she tried to before she apparently twisted something on her back.
“… what the?!” It took a moment for Sunset's exhausted mind to realize she apparently had bent her right wing awkwardly. Realizing she now had wings was the last straw.
It was at this point that the stress reached critical levels and she fainted.
“Twilight! It worked, it worked! Even better than I could have dreamed of!” Lyra pranced around the library lobby area gleefully. Twilight lay bonelessly in the nearby lounge chair, still trying to recovered from the exhausting magical procedure.
“I’m-did you see what I saw?! Celestia, we have another actual alicorn on our hands! Artificially created at that! Becca is going to kill us! The whole purpose of the procedure was so she wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb anymore and could live in peace among us Lyra!” Twilight admonished her former classmate.
Lyra looked at Twilight, her demeanor getting more serious for a moment. “Twi… I’m not as good at magic as you, but I’m CSGU alumn too. I couldn’t care less if she had come out half pony half human! I felt how close we were to losing her thread completely in the weave. Right now, I’m celebrating that my friend is alive and if she ended up as an alicorn instead of a unicorn then that's just cake. She's even registering as biologically and genetically stable!”
Twilight couldn't really argue with her friend and former classmate. It actually HAD been a very close thing. For that reason she forced herself back up, and proceeded to run additional scans on her. Her newly created magical reserves continued to fill, and from what Twilight could tell, would likely end up being near on par with her own. Her apparent age was actually slightly younger than Twilight’s, with the diagnostic spell returning an age of seventeen. Becca had actually been a bit older, in her late twenties.
The new alicorn slept through the evening and most of the following day. Twilight took the time to perform further tests seeking to find out what had caused the unexpected results. Twilight was putting off informing the princess, as she dearly did not want to face the disappointment that was imminent. Which is why she continued to bury herself in making sure Becca was alright.
Finally in the late afternoon, she woke up. The only problem is that something apparently went very wrong with the spell they had purposefully designed to be very permanent.
“Hey Twilight -yawn- how long was I out?” Sunset called out as she entered the room. She had woken up, and groggily come down, following the sounds coming from the kitchen. She wasn’t quite sure where she was, but it sure did look cozy. Maybe it’s the mint pony’s place? she thought to herself. It kind of reminded her of Twilight’s description of her old treehouse, thought Sunset never got to see it herself.
“Hey, you’re awake!” Twilight stopped what she was doing and hugged her friend. “You had us worried for a moment there. You’ve been out since last night, and it’s almost evening again. I’m just finishing getting dinner ready. Lyra should be here in a coupe minutes.”
Sunset hugged her friend back with one hoof around her neck, still feeling the joy of having survived what she had been sure was an impossible situation. Her wings did an abortive attempt at following suit, before Sunset remembered to fold them back tightly against her sides, brely saving Twilight from getting poked in the eye with some feathers. “Great, is Lyra the mint green pony that I saw when you guys rescued me?”
She felt her friend stiffen up completely. “Uh…. Twi? Hey-hey Twilight?! You’re hugging is a bit tight… can...you...let...go...gah!” Sunset took the chance to catch her breath after Twilight finally relaxed her grip.
“Y-you don’t know who Lyra is?” Her friend’s face was in a rictus, alarming Sunset. “Uh… am I supposed to? I mean she looks familiar… maybe from my time at Celestia’s school?”
“Can you tell me what you remember?”
“Alright, I’m Sunset Shimmer, former student of Celestia. I’ve been living in an alternate reality as a ‘human’. I recently had to save said reality from begin destroyed by YOUR dimensional twin, where I… I...well, I sacrificed myself to save the day.”
"Oh Tartarus... She thinks 'Sunset Shimmer and the Friendship Games' was real?! That wasn't even on the pile of material! Uhuh... So... I've got some good news, and some not so good news..."
Becca was a twenty eight year old read headed human, that had accidentally been transported to Equestria over a year ago. As the only human in all of Equestria, she had gotten depressed when it became clear she would not be able to ever go home. She had been able to finally integrate in Ponyville society for the most part by then thankfully. After a while however, the fact she would never have the family she had dreamed of growing up, or be able to easily travel through the land without frightening ponies that didn’t know her, had begun to gnaw at her.
After six months of getting the unfortunate news, she had approached Lyra, her friend and ‘handler’ as Becca would say, and through her Twilight. Becca asked about the possibilities of having her species reassigned with magic. The problem came that most of the magic was aimed at making the changes for aggressive purposes, and were either not permanent, were not full body, or would severely impact her life expectancy by decades.
While Twilight had been working on that, Becca had gotten into Lyra's secret fanfiction and art stash, and discovered Lyra’s near novel length story based on Twilight’s adventures, crossing over with what she had learned about earth and humanity from Becca. She’d fallen in love with the sketches of Sunset Shimmer, which mirrored her own quite closely, thought Lyra had used a more orange tone on her skin than a natural human skin, and put in two toned hair. It was still clearly based on Becca, herself a read head.
She had come clean to Lyra, and then proceeded to show the sketches to Twilight. These seemed to spark off an idea for the theoretically inclined pony, and they ended up with a complicated magical circle that basically kludged together several different transformation magics. They did some testing by turning frogs to mice, though Fluttershy put a halt to their animal testing soon after. At this point it had been a full thirteen months since Becca had arrived in Equestria and this would be the biggest experiment that Twilight would perform on the human since the one that got Becca stranded there in the first place.
They would use the fruits of Lyra’s imagination as a basis to create a template energy matrix. Twilight had been inspired by the magic pond that Pinkie had discovered. Then they would use genetic material from the couple dozen ponies to create a primordial soup of sorts, and use changeling magic to force the genetic material to mimic the template held in place, with safety precautions to force the artificial genetic pattern to be viable against all 50 donors. This would make the results both look and actually be a pony down to their cells. A dash of chaos magic would help the disparate genes to glue together in place. Becca would be shunted into the astral plane with her body losing cohesion, then brought back down and forced via a heavily modified polymorphic spell, to adopt the genetic pattern as well as the phenotype created earlier. Then she would simply re-materialize as a Red and Gold maned unicorn, with possibly a Sun cutie mark, though Twilight highly doubted that last part.
Later review would let Twilight discover that she accidentally contaminated the samples with a couple hairs, making her the unwitting 51st donor and likely cause for Becca’s alicorn hood. This had troubling societal connotations, which meant that the notes on magic they had done would need to be sealed away instead of used for ponies looking for other options in reassignment (a growing need as society began accepting transtribal and transgender ponies).
"So... what you're saying is that I'm not really Sunset Shimmer, but this human... Rebecca Sterling... and the fact that I am in a pony body mostly like the one I have memories growing up in, along with all my memories actually... is all fake?"
Fluttershy carefully made her way behind the school grounds, passed the student parking lot, and into the small wooded area, making sure noone noticed her slipping away.
Today had been the worst day of sophomore year yet. Sadly, they were just a month into the school year. Fluttershy had hoped it would be better than the last year. The bar was already set pretty low, with the freshman year's loss of her friendships, the isolation, and gaining the bullying.
The summer had given her a much needed breath of fresh air, but it seemed Sunset Shimmer had decided to focus all of her attention on Fluttershy. She had always been extremely introverted, but Sunset's harassment had followed her every single day this last month, and now Fluttershy's nerves were on their last thread.
Thank the stars that she had discovered this oasis of privacy behind the school. It was a clearing a little ways into the woods behind the school, which looked like an abandoned picnic location, with the weathered stones clearly placed in formation at some point. The forest was slowly taking it back, but for now it was a nice place of solitude, where she was away from other people, and could enjoy seeing nature and the rare little animal that made the area their home.
It was the only place she could relax and let out her feelings without a feeling of anxiety. Fluttershy chose to sit near a fallen log nearby, and wait quietly for the animals in the area to come close by. She really hoped to see the family of bunnies she had discovered last week.
Sadly it seemed that none of her little friends were out and about. She kept waiting to see if any of the birds, squirrels, or maybe even a deer would come out, but it was silent. As Fluttershy sat quietly on a log, the adrenaline from all her pent up stress began to die down, leaving her tired all of a sudden.
Without noticing it, she closed her eyes a couple of times, as her exhaustion took her attention. Soon enough she was asleep, napping. It was hours before a noise finally broke the silence of the area. By that time the sun had long since set, though the full moon gave more than enough light to see.
Fluttershy slowly blinked her eyes open as there was quiet hooting from the trees beyond the clearing. She barely had time to really appreciate how late it was before what seemed like an owl seemed to fly out into the clearing, seemingly spooked by something, before quickly flying back out of sight. the bushes began rustling as something larger began making its way into the clearing.
Fluttershy first thought it was a deer or something as it seemed content to stay in the shadows, looking around and pawing the ground a bit. the shadowy shape slowly trotted the perimeter of the clearing, before going to the center of the clearing. Fluttershy covered her mouth, barely able to hold in a squeak of surprise.
The moonlight shown on golden fur, and a ruby mane that seemed to almost sparkle in the night. It had very equine-like look to it, but the creature had enormous eyes that were slightly reflective in the dark, and it's ears swiveled around reminded her more of a young doe. It was small with youthful proportions, making Fluttershy assume it was not done growing. As it looked around, she also noticed a horn. Fluttershy's mind finally made a connection with the childhood stories. She was seeing a unicorn!
The unicorn began trotting a bit quicker around, bursting into sprints now and then, seemingly content to play with itself. It would sometimes stop by a patch of flowers and nibble on them. At one point it got up on it's back legs before throwing itself onto its back and kicking at the air. All in all it was just enjoying itself.
This was when the experience turned from fantastical to magical. As the unicorn sat back up, that Fluttershy had noticed was a female, it's horn began to glow cyan. Soon after, a few dozen lights of the same color sprang up from the ground and began to weave around the unicorn. For a second a part of Fluttershy thought it may be a nest of fairies, though as her eyes acclimated, she was able to tell they were leaves held in some kind of aura. The unicorn had quite the skill, making beautiful patterns in the air.
Futtershy was finally able to focus on the fact that she would need some kind of proof for what she was seeing. She slowly pulled her phone out, and opened the camera app. As she tried to bring it up and get a good angle, her foot stepped on a twig. The snap echoed in the quiet forest, even as Fluttershy froze. However the damage was done. The unicorn barely spent more than half a heartbeat flinching her head up, before it leaped towards the woods. Fluttershy desperately brought her phone up, but by the time it began recording, it was gone.
Did it really happen? The hoof prints in the middle of the clearing seemed to disprove that for Fluttershy. She went ahead and took a picture of it, mostly as a way to prove it was all real come morning. She went around, taking mental notes on the plants that the magical beast had nibbled on, before returning and picking up her bag for her walk home. Her thoughts would be stuck on what she saw for the next few days.
Fluttershy was going to figure out how to make that unicorn her friend.
Today had been the best day of sophomore year yet!
Sunset cracked her neck as she slowly got up from the ground. The sky was beginning to lighten into that morning dusk. She could barely see her surroundings without a light, but the tops of the trees were once more visible against the sky.
Her body ached, bones and muscles feeling out of place once more, though oddly enough they felt well exercised and stretched. Returning to this form was uncomfortable, but it was worth it to have the brief respite back in her birth body.
For one night a month she got to be herself again, and touch the world with her magic. Sadly this realm was anemic, so she could barely use telekinesis and other simple parlor tricks, but it was enough to survive till the next full moon.
It also was proof that unicorn bodies did in fact create minor amounts of magic, something that was not testable in the highly magically saturated world of Equestria, and had been a theoretical exercise among academic circles for decades.
Her detail work had never been exercised so hard before, and once she was back home she knew the added efficiency in magic use would catapult her effective strength at least three fold.
She walked to the bag she had set aside last evening, pulling out a fresh set of clothes and some trail mix. It was time to go back to being human.
Sunset mused about how funny it was that when she was in her pony form her instincts made her so much more skittish. Why, last night she galloped away from a noise in the woods! Part of it was the healthy fear of discovery, but she had noticed how her mental processes changed subtly when her body did as well. Instincts and such she supposed. It wasn't that big a difference for the most part, and would likely not have been noticeable if it weren't for the stress of her living situation.
Finding out what human literature thought would happen to aliens if they were ever discovered had been an eye opener. However, Sunset had relaxed once she learned how such theorists were treated. Who would believe anyone saying they saw a unicorn behind the school?
Sunset Shimmer crept back out from her hiding place in the Canterlot High School, making sure the school grounds were abandoned for the evening. Tonight would be another full moon, and she was getting ready for her monthly ritual. She pulled out the blanket she had stuffed in her rucksack, and placed her thermos full of coffee to the side.
First she would test to see if the portal had reopened, then review her astronomical notes in search for any potentially meaningful patterns, and meditation against the statue. She usually stayed up all night, but it was critical that she not miss any opportunity. The meditation had actually become part of her monthly tradition after she almost fell asleep during her vigil of the statue on her 5th moon in this world. She had been feeling frustrated, and had been wishing to at least get a clue of what was going on in Equestria. The next thing she knew, she was able to make out the throne room, which had been mostly empty at the time of night.
She'd been able to shift her view around to the nearby areas of the castle, and get gossip mostly fby listening in on the staff as they went about cleaning and prepping for the next day, though she had a couple lucky breaks when some higher end government officials had late nights with the princess.
She had also noticed that the distance she could explore from the mirror waxed and waned based on the relationship of the stars with the moon, which is why she had begun studying them on both sides of the mirror. Tonight she would be confirming her theory, as the far end of the portal should get the largest boost yet, as there would be a special alignment that came around only once every millennia. She believed that the 30 moon timeline was due to a requirement that a similarly powerful alignment happen on both sides on the same night.
The last of the light in the dusk sky finally disappeared as Sunset sat with her head back against the statue.
Sunset focused her mind, feeling for the faint whispers of magic empowered by the constellations and moonlight. Slowly her mind followed the trail, until she began to see the mirror, then slowly the area nearby began to come into focus. It was currently set in the throne room, in an alcove across from the throne. At this time of night the throne room was usually empty, so she would spend time focusing on extending the range she could see from the mirror until she reached the administrative offices in the western wing.
Tonight however, to her surprise she saw Princess Celestia sitting in the dark, at the foot of her throne looking out of one of the windows. Sunset studied her mentor. If she didn't know better, she would say that the princess looked heartbroken. "The mare still gazes down from the moon... but I can feel her... She'll be free soon. No matter what, it will be tonight won't it?"
'What is she talking about?' She pushed through the molasses of her mind to get closer, when suddenly her heart froze. Celestia had tuned and was now staring right at her. That second of fear almost broke her concentration enough to break her connection. 'Can Celestia see me?!'
After a few seconds passed with Celestia not reacting except for a slightly scrunched eyebrow, Sunset convinced herself that the princess was simply looking at something behind her. She had never been caught while spying on Celestia before after all. She turned around, and noticed that it was likely the portal mirror that caught her attention.
With a couple deep breaths to rid herself of the dregs of her nervous energy, she once more focused on keeping up trance. She told herself that there was nothing for her to notice from the mirror. Celestia continued staring at the mirror, when her her face suddenly lit up in concentration, and a quill and notepad appeared in a flash of golden light. It seems she may have indeed noticed something. Sunset tried to remind herself that she was a whole dimension away.
"... Sunset? ... the mirror ... my eyes must have playing a trick on me..." the sun princess muttered to herself as she seemed to case an exhaustive set of diagnostic spells. Sunset stayed motionless, startled to inaction. If the princess did something to the mirror, it may sever her own way home. Her nerves were growing, but now she felt obligated to continue to spy on Celestia. Otherwise she may never find out if the princess did something to the mirror.
After a couple minutes however, Celestia seemed to be overcome by a fit of frustration. "Oh, you stupid old nag... your mind seems to want to remind you of all your failures tonight doesn't it... Oh Sunset... why? I'm sorry little sun... I'm so sorry..." tears began streaming down the alicorn's face. "Is it not pathetic I made the same mistake twice? First my sister and then the foal I had raised... "
'What did she mean by that?! Sister? By Equestria, it's starting to sound like the mare on the moon is real and she's Celestia's sister?!' Sunset's heart raced in her chest, as her head swam from what she had seen and heard. It seemed Celestia was done with her monologue for the moment however, her heavy hoof falls taking her back towards the base of the throne, where she proceeded to lie down on one of the areas illuminated by the full moon, and rest her head on her forelegs. If not for her ears moving every which way, Sunset would have thought her asleep.
Suddenly, the magical connection she was using to connect to Equestria seemed to suddenly fill with a torrent of energy. Sunset was barely able to keep the connection open. At the same instant Celestia's head shot up, though she was looking out the window instead of turning back towards the mirror. "She's free... Twilight, it will be up to you to save us all..."
Sunset barely caught the Princess's whisper as her concentration broke. She was assaulted by an intense sense of vertigo. As she snapped her eyes open, she barely had a moment to the stars surrounding the full moon as she fell backwards into the portal under the statue.
Sunset had a few seconds to realize what had happened while she was transported across realities. Her adrenaline as she realized she was about to fall right into Celestia's lap, and her only hope was that Celestia was distracted enough to not notice her arrival. She fell out of the mirror in a back roll which she pushed out off towards the nearest pillar, desperate to hide. Even with her acrobatic feat, one of the white alicorn's ears swiveled immediately in her direction, and Celestia began raising her head to look in that direction. However a larger distraction appeared.
The Skylight window shattered as a black shape careened into the floor in front of the princess, cracking it and sending rock chips flying everywhere. Sunset flinched even from behind the pillar, her mind being stabbed by the amount of magic suddenly saturating in the air. As the energy began to dissipate in the form of black smoke, Sunset finally was able to see the new pony in the center of the crater.
It was an alicorn of a similar height to Celestia, all black, in martial regalia. Sunset was unnerved, after noticing that she appeared to have reptilian slit eyes. She stood in front of the princess aggressively with her rapier like horn at the ready to either cast or gore her former mentor.
"Sister, did you miss us?" The black alicorn hissed as she began walking around Celestia. The sun princess just lay there looking at her apparent sister. "... Oh? not going to say anything?!" Even Sunset could tell that there was violence in those cold eyes and open nostrils.
"No demands? No recriminations or cries for mercy? ... yes... At least you know how little mercy is left in me... Well, don't worry, our subjects will flourish under the reign of Nightmare Moon." Celestia didn't seem to react at all to what Nightmare Moon said, though Sunset had gasped at hearing the name.
The Nightmare had finished her circuit around Princess Celestia, staring at her face to face once more. Finally, Sunset saw some reaction from her former mentor. Celestia seemed to scrutinize her sister's face, before quirking her lips in the most irreverent smirk Sunset had ever seen on her. "Luna, are you still going with that ridiculous pseudonym? Why don't you stop being ridiculous. Now that you're out of time out, I'd like you to accompany me to Poyville. I'm supposed to be officiating the Sun Summer Celebration there, you know."
Sunset's jaw dropped at her mentor, while the darker sister leaned back in surprise. There was a pregnant pause before a cackle burst from Nightmare Moon. "Oh sister... you never knew when to stop."
The violence was immediate and excessive.
Nightmare reared up and brought both front hooves down onto Celestias face with enough force to kill any pony else. Celestia's head snapped to the side with a crack as she toppled over. Sunset covered her muzzle with her fore hooves, her heart skipping a beat, which relaxed as it became clear she was only knocked unconscious.
"This'll do for now. We shall even take your bait, and see what trap you have at this Ponyville, but we refuse leave you behind to plot and trouble us." The orange unicorn did not know why, but she had barely stopped herself from jumping to the princess' defense when she heard Nightmare Moon's ominous words.
Instead, Sunset kept herself hidden as the dark alicorn's horn glowed with a sickly black color before blasting the knocked out princess. Celestia began to turn into motes of light that gathered into Nightmare Moon's mane, adding to its stars. For the first time Sunset saw evidence of some weakness, as Nightmare Moon panted from the magic she had performed. "Half my strength to keep you sealed until I've dealt with your final gambit? A bargain we say."
"Now to find this... Ponyville... hngh!" She became smoke once again, leaving the throne room. Sunset was now alone in the throne room, where she just saw some pony defeat the pony she had been planning to surpass for the last year.
Sunset walked unsteadily out from behind the pillar, until she was in front of where Princess Celestia's face had the cracked marble tile. This close she could see that there were a few specks of blood. Her mind seemed to be in turmoil as her heart ached for some reason. She had had many fantasies about how her return to Equestria would tun out, but in none of them did she ever contemplated Celestia not being around. She needed to be there for Sunset to prove her wrong for for holding her back, not helping her ascend, for exiling her.
An evil villain, sealed millenia ago, escaping and defeating the pony she had based her entire life around was unfathomable. Sunset began to feel an increasing amount of cold rage. ' I'm not going to let a fairy tale villain ruin everything before I've even reached my goals!'
With that thought she focused on what she knew. Nightmare Moon is at her weakest right now, as she's using most of her might in keeping Celestia sealed, not to mention having just escaped her imprisonment. Celestia had something cooked up at Ponyville that could defeat Nightmare Moon, likely related to the 'Twilight' pony that was her last hope.
The air smelled of disinfectants and illness even in the hospital waiting room. Velvet had been waiting all evening for an update on the girl she hit. Her children were at home with her husband, but she had opted to stay after being told that the young lady didn’t have any ID on her.
Originally they had kept her in the loop, and even let her know that there wasn’t any expectation of permanent damage at the moment, but suddenly it seemed like all information had been cut off in the last hour, with the last piece of news simply that she had woken up.
Finally, a nurse came up. “Miss Twilight Velvet? Hi, sorry for the wait. Do you mind following me?”
“Oh! Sure, one moment!” Velvet said, before rushing to pick up her belongings from the chair, and walking behind the nurse. “So, do you have more information on the girl?”
“Well, I can’t really give you more info, but I think Ms Radiant Hope get you up to speed ok?” The nurse replied, her tone polite but curt.
“Radiant Hope? Has light blue hair, violet complexion?” Velvet asked suddenly.
“Oh! You know her?” The nurse paused in surprise, before walking again.
“We’ve met. Her cousin and my son went to high school together. I didn’t realize she worked here though.”
“Whelp! We’re here, just go on through!”
The sign on the door.
“Velvet! Small world, small world! Sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances, but young Sunset Shimmer is slated to make a full recovery, in case you didn’t know before!” The younger lady said from across the desk.
“so that's her name... Radiant, can’t say I don’t agree. Yes, the nurses did let me know that at least before they shut down on me. Can you tell me what’s going on?” Twilight replied as she sat down.
“OK, so usually we don’t share patient information due to confidentiality laws. The nurses were kind of tiptoeing the line, but since she was unconscious and you were the only adult around that cared, they could presuppose ‘Jane Doe’ and 'good Samaritan' prerogatives. Basically as long as we don't have information stating otherwise, we assume you are the guardian until the minor told us otherwise. The nurses really pushed it, but when she woke up, what she said kicked off procedures that brought me into it."
"So, she woke up, provided her name, and then stated on record she had no relationship to you. And the moment she provided that information, they brought me in and couldn’t really share more with you. However, since she stated that she had no family or guardian, it kicked it to the case worker’s office, where I am, and opened a can of worms, though it also let ME talk to YOU.” Radiant explained, before taking a large breath.
“So… she’s refusing to provide her family information, so until you find them, you can decide speak to me while you act in loco parentis?” Velvet tried to summarize her understanding.
Radiant’s expression turned a bit somber, and she shook her head. “No. Her name came up quite quickly, didn’t take more than 10 minutes to verify her identity once I had her name. She’s in the national foster AND the missing child cases registries, but… well...here…”
Velvet took the offered printouts, scanning them quickly, before gasping and reading them in more details. “Let’s see… Mother and father died when she was 10… foster care… ran away at 12… body found matching description, presumed deceased?! Radiant, this is… are you sure that’s her?! It’s horrible!” Velvet gasped out, as tears escaped her eyes. In reply, Radiant, turned her monitor so it was facing Velvet, showing a profile picture of a little girl, with sad teal eyes, and hair like flames, with a clearly fake smile on her face.
“Velvet… that kid was in the system long enough that we have everything we need to identify her. Thankfully they hadn’t closed the case and declared her dead yet, which would have been a pain to reverse from an administrative perspective. More worryingly is the fact that there is now an unidentified death, though that’s a problem for the police department out in Marecopa county.” Radiant stopped for a moment, and both ladies seemed to take a moment of silence.
Once the moment passed, The case worker seemed to get a second wind of determination. “Look Velvet… I haven’t been doing this as long as some of the others, but if I follow the play book, that kid is going to go through all manners of hell before getting shoved back into the system, and get ruined…”
“But I talked with her a bit, and she’s not- she’s not as damaged as you would think from what’s on that paper Velvet. I was hoping to maybe... find her somewhere better to be while this goes through the system?” Radiant stared into Velvet’s eyes seriously. “That’s the reason I’m sharing this. This is me manipulating you into taking this kid in for a trial basis, cause it would help her so much more than what I could do for her any other way.” Radiant finished, looking exhausted, and with eyes far older than her face.
“Radiant… I’m… you… how would this even be legal?” Velvet let out, feeling completely overwhelmed.
“Usually social workers are given leeway on cases like these, since these types of situations are each so unique ok? Usually we are able to circumvent a lot of the steps for extended family or family friends since the official mission is to reunite kids with their families, so I’m still stretching things. Basically, you would be fostering her on a trial basis under my authority. Just think of it as me deputizing you as a foster parent in lieu of going through the normal screening process.” Radiant Hope took a deep breath, and continued her explanation.
“Since you’re not really family, that does mean that if anything goes wrong before you complete the screening process, it would cost my job, but I know you and Night, and you’d pass them with flying colors if you decide to take them. Otherwise, after 90 days she would be moved to another family that already has passed inspection.” Radiant finished her explanation, showing how much thought she had already put into this idea.
“Velvet, I can get you to speak to her if it will help you consider this. Will you do that at least?” Radiant Hope spoke hurriedly, looking slightly desperate.
Twilight Velvet didn’t really know Radiant that well, they had been acquaintances at best, so she was thrown off by the fact that she was willing to risk her career by trusting a stranger. Part of her was flattered that she gave such a good impression, however another was slowly growing more wary, as she realized that Radiant was truly pulling at straws to help Sunset. All very noble, but this was so much more than she expected.
“Alright, I’m willing to meet, it is the reason I've been waiting so long... but Radiant… this... I might not even be able to decide today”
In response, the social worker just beamed back at Velvet. “Don’t worry, let’s go up and meet her for now. She should be done with breakfast.”
Velvet felt unprepared as she followed Radiant Hope to Sunset’s hospital room. She hadn’t had a chance to shower or sleep, and oddly enough her mind got stuck on how bad of a first impression she may give the girl. As they finally walked in, she barely caught a worried look on the girl’s face before it was gone and replaced by a congenial expression.
“Sunset, I’m still working on your options, as I’d told you earlier, however while I do that I wanted to introduce you to Twilight Velvet here. She’s-”
“You’re the one that was in the… car… Weren’t you? You look familiar…” Sunset interrupted the social worker, having been exposed already to her habit towards long winded rambling.
“Yes, yes I am. I’m sorry we’re meeting this way, but I’m glad that you seem to be on the mend all things considered.” Velvet replied, somewhat unsure as to the etiquette of starting conversation in such an odd case.
“Yeah… they told me it should have been much worse, and I’m lucky. Actually, the nurse said you probably saved my life by slowing down the other car, so thanks I guess. I’m a bit confused why you wanted to see me though?” Sunset replied while maintaining her neutral expression, not really giving anything away. Velvet felt guilty as soon as the thought entered her mind, that the girl was probably an expert at lying with a straight face. It wasn’t fair, as she was just trying to be polite, but Velvet’s mind was busy scrutinizing her for any potential issues if brought near to her family. Velvet focused her gaze at the girls hands for a moment, frowning at how oddly she was holding them, with all her fingers curled in and her wrists bent.
“Do your hands hurt?” She asked the girl.
“What, my…? Oh! My hands, well not much… Just sore I guess? They had one in a wrap for a while, but they took it off once the swelling went down.” Sunset replied, raising her arms and flopping her hands back and forth at the wrist, almost as if they weren’t connected to the rest of her body. This was the most reaction either visitor had seen from the girl. This sparked a bit more concern from Velvet.
“Are you sure? If they hurt or you’re having difficulty using them… well it’s important to let the doctors or nurses know.” Velvet sighed, and made mental note to bring this up with Radiant and the nurses just in case the girl didn’t. She then kept looking around to figure out any other topic of conversation she could bring up that would be a bit less awkward.
“Look, do you… I mean, do you like to read Sunset? You know I’m a bit of a bibliophile myself, so I can bring a couple books on my next visit.” Velvet changed the question at the last moment. She would keep to her guns and not make any decisions until speaking with her husband on this. It was hard not to notice how small and pale the girl looked as she lay in that hospital bed however.
“I like books about magic and science for the most part, though lately I’ve been trying to get a copy of the newspaper whenever I can.”
“Ah, fantasy and sci-fi lover huh? Well, I lately have been pretty focused on the historical romance novels… Trashy I know, but it’s some mental junk food is good from time to time.” Velvet replied, getting an odd look from Sunset before she awkwardly smiled back.
Velvet could tell the young teen was feeling vulnerable behind her poker face, and a part of her just wanted to comfort the girl, but without committing to Radiant’s plan, there wasn’t much she could say that would actually help. “Look, Sunset… I’m running on fumes, and you need to rest. I heard you’ll likely be in the hospital for a day or so for observation. Do you mind if I come back tomorrow? I’ll try to bring some books for you too.”
“Sure go ahead.”
On the ride home, Velvet found herself trying to strategize how she would bring Nightlight up to speed about Radiant Hope’s request to go along with fostering Sunset for the month. She knew he would be much more ambivalent about it than her, since he didn’t see that child laid out on the car roof. She was self aware enough to accept that a big part of this was her guilt, and Radiant’s convincing argument.
Velvet hadn’t really realized when exactly she had decided that she wanted to help Radiant Hope and bring Sunset home, but between her thoughts about how to convince her husband, tell her children, figure out the best novel to bring back to the hospital and how she would redecorate the guest room, it had become an assumed conclusion.
Her husband had listened quietly as she had gotten him up to speed while she ate left over takeout in the kitchen. Nightlight was a thinker, and while smart, he tended to need a couple minutes to absorb new ideas, and make an opinion. Usually Velvet appreciated this, as it made him very level headed, however tonight, the minutes of silence as he thought about what she had said were torture. He stood up, and made himself some tea, silently offering to also pour some for her, which she declined. Finally he sat back down at the table, and seemed to have come to a decision for the most part.
“Vel… This girl is a complete unknown, and she has a really tragic story… But, on the flipside, you know that it means she will have huge issues. Do you really think it will be safe to have her in our home? Around Twily?” Nightlight asked Velvet. Funnily enough, this calmed Velvet down. Nightlight was doing what he commonly did for any large decision, he tended to play devil’s advocate against the choice he thought best of. A little bit of reassurance was all that was needed.
“Night, if we don’t take her in, she will be ruined by the system. As a runaway, they'd treat her as a delinquent. We’re her last hope honey. We have the room and funds, especially now that Shiny has left home. She’s Twily’s age, no one that young deserves what she’s gone through.” Night glanced at his wife at her impassioned declaration before once more focusing on his tea cup. With a deep sigh, he rocked himself back to his feet, and asked the question he usually ended up asking whenever he capitulated an argument.
“Alright. What are the next steps Vel?”
Twilight was nervous. The last couple days had been a whirlwind at the house. Her brother’s visit had been overshadowed by the accident, and then her parents’ rush to prepare the house for their new guest. It had been bittersweet having Shining Armor help her pack up so much of her stuff to make way for a second bed in her room. Twilight always thought it would be the other way around, that she would help Shining finish taking his belongings once he went to college. Instead they were shifting her stuff between the attic, the den, and the garage.
It was frustrating, and she wasn’t sure why her parents didn’t just turn the den back from an office into a bedroom. She supposed her mom’s need for a home office to work from made sense. At least the reorganization gave Twilight a chance to inventory all her books and equipment.
She knew her budding resentment was unfair, and part of her mind kept flashing back to the accident, when she had seen the other girls limb dangling from the roof of the car. She had had nightmares about it, and she wasn't the one hit, so she couldn't imagine how Sunset felt.
She heard the sounds of people arriving home. The front door opened and her mother called out. “Kids! Come here, I want you to say hi to Sunset!"
Well, there was no more putting this off. Time to go meet her new foster sister.
Sunset Shimmer couldn’t believe it had been seven years since she left. It felt like yesterday that she had packed up her few belongings from the latest foster group home, and shipped off to college. Well, one undergrad and most of a doctorate degree later, she was finally back in her hometown to stay. She had gotten a fellowship at the local university that would allow her to finish her research for her dissertation, which she hoped to defend within the next two years.
The Equestria State University campus in Canterlot may not be the most advanced, but working for Dr Whooves would give her access to experiment data results from Argonne labs, and even some allotted time on the super computers to crunch numbers. It didn’t hurt that the stipend was handsome enough to compete with a junior professor’s salary.
The greater Canterlot metropolitan area hadn’t really changed much. As a smaller city, there wasn’t as much hussle and bussle, in particular near the suburbs where she was driving herself at the moment. Sunset had just finished unpacking the last box from her move, just eight days after the movers dumped them all in her new home, and for some reason, now that she no longer had anything else to immediately distract her, she was feeling pretty nostalgic.
Nostalgic enough to hop in her car and drive to the high school Celestia was now a principal of, from what she last heard. The school day had ended hours ago, but usually faculty and staff stayed for a couple hours, and Celestia was always a workaholic. Sunset hadn’t really kept a good way of contacting her when she left town, and this was the easiest way to see her.
However she may have overestimated how late Celestia would work on a Friday, seeing as the school grounds she pulled up to looked completely abandoned, and the sky was already darkening. Well, there would be other opportunities. Sunset put the car in park, and stepped out to look at the building. It was very pretty, and clearly well funded as suburban schools in affluent neighborhoods tended to be.
She walked up to the main entrance doors,and as she expected, they were locked. Sunset turned around and sat on the steps. She had tried, and she would try again another day, but for now she would take a moment for her mind to clear itself. Her reunion wouldn’t happen today. Celestia would keep for tomorrow, or maybe the next week. Sunset tried to keep a positive attitude that she had been able to get this far.
She looked out to the setting sun, and simply took in the view. Once the sun was over the horizon she would drive back to her new place, and break down all the boxes for recycling, and maybe read some of the peer reviewed journals she had been meaning to get up to date with this month.
As the sky darkened and the first stars came out, she noticed the full moon in the sky. It looked huge, a clear sky of stars surrounding it. This was the type of magical night in fairy tales. In the back of her mind, she noted how unusual it was to see the stars so well when the full moon was out, as she stood up to go back to her car.
Before she could take more than a few steps away from the stairs however, the school statue began to glow with an otherworldly light. Sunset was frozen as someone stepped out of the light before the statue once more seemed to be made of stone.
The light had ruined Sunset’s night vision so she couldn’t quite see the being beyond the fact that they looked human in form. She slowly approached, noticing that they were quite a bit shorter, about the size of a young teen, dressed in an oversized jacket, and in a skirt much too short for her apparent age.
The girl seemed to be out of sorts, walking in a stilted manner as if both her legs were asleep. As Sunset’s eyes finally began to clear up from the earlier flash of light, she began to feel a growing sense of unease, almost as if she were falling down a rabbit hole.
The girl seemed to finally notice Sunset, and let out a yelp before tripping backwards and falling on her back, her eyes wide and frightened. Funnily enough this calmed Sunset down a bit, as it was clear the girl didn’t expect to see her either. Hopefully she could explain why she looked exactly like a fourteen year old clone of herself.
“Are-are you ok?” The large biped said in a disturbingly familiar voice. Sunset Shimmer was trying to figure out how best to respond, as her thoughts raced. She had just been turned into a similar creature herself, tough smaller. Sunset was also trying to figure out how much the creature had seen of her entrance into this new realm.
“I’m fine… you simply startled me…” Was her eventual reply, a couple seconds after the silence had become awkward, as she studied the larger biped. Her mind pegged it as female, perhaps since it seemed to share a mane with a similar color and style as her own. The creature reached out a foreleg, or rather a minotaur looking arm, seemingly to help Sunset stand back up. After just a brief pause, she decided to accept the help, though her grip was quite awkward.
After standing up again, and patting herself off, she carefully took a few steps backwards to gain some space from the stranger. Sunset wasn’t sure of her bearings, which were surprisingly well lit for night time, and there was a local guide right in front of her. First, she needed to figure out how much she knew. “Do you mind telling me how long you’ve been out here?”
“Long enough to see you come out of a statue… as if it were magic...” Was the deadpan reply. Well, it seemed that Sunset wouldn’t be able to easily bluff her way out of that display of magic. The stranger moved past her and patted the statue base before turning back. “What was that, and who are you?”
“Um… so… explaining what you saw may take a while… but... my name is Sunset Shimmer, what’s yours?” Sunset replied as she tried to think up how to explain the details of the portal without giving away too much, though it might already be too late given the wide-eyed look of shock now on the native.
“That’s weird, cause MY name is Sunset Shimmer.” was the reply.
An hour later found both Sunsets in the older’s new home. In that time, they had quickly established that while their worlds seemed seemed to have both had many similarities, the difference were quite large, even discounting the change in species.
Now the elder had begun grilling the younger woman over all the details to map how similar their pasts were. “OK, so let me get this straight kid. So, you’re also an orphan right? Annnnnd… you ran away through this magic one way mirror… want to tell me what you were running away from?”
“No, not really Doc… but I guess I should be able to open up to an alternate version of myself right?” The younger Sunset replied sarcastically, before sighing, and wilting under the stare she received. “Ok, ok… So, let me start from the beginning. When I was a young filly, my talent in magic was discovered and I was so amazing that I was invited to live at the royal palace and learn magic there. I wasn’t ever adopted by anyp-anyone, but I did have an apprenticeship under the crown.”
“OK, well, that sounds nicer than getting passed around a bunch of foster homes at least… Also, don’t call me Doc. I’m a doctoral candidate, and if the ethics committee ever suspects someone of passing themselves as a Phd, they drum them out of the program. Since Sunset Shimmer is a 24 yr old woman in this world, I get to keep the name. Got it squirt?”
“Ugh! Fine… Shimmer... I guess a new name in a new world makes sense… So, what about you? How was your childhood?”
“Well SUNNY… I ended up in the system, never ended up adopted by any of my fosters, but I was still pretty lucky, the families I got weren’t the worse. I probably would have become a high school dropout or something, but I came to the attention of one of my teachers my freshman year, and she became my biggest supporter… for while anyway…”
“I got a scholarship to go into higher education, and took it. Now I’m a rising star in the theoretical physics and applied mathematics fields, getting to study how the universe is held together! Well… after seeing what I saw today… most of what I thought we knew just went out the window... So… How common was it for kids to be taken into an apprenticeship like you were?”
“Actually, I was the first royal student in over 300 years,the youngest in the records too, so it was a really rare and great honor. It was in the papers for a while. It was great… at the start at least...”
“That does sound pretty amazing. So… if your life was so amazing… Why did you decide to jump into a magic portal?”
“... I… I don’t want to talk about it right now. Let’s just say I have something to prove, and my research told me that the best way to do it was to come here.”
Hours later, Shimmer was laying in her bed, wide awake as her mind refused to stop analyzing the insanity of having a child version of herself sleeping on her couch. Her younger doppelganger had acted very maturely for the most part during their conversation, and the drive home. It was clear that she had no clue about how stuff in the modern world worked though, which would be a red flag to anyone that would care to pay attention, and Sunset knew that someone would sooner or later.
In the end, she was a kid. A kid that had no idea how to act like a normal kid, just like she had been at that age. There was a hidden part of Sunset’s heart that had always wished someone had rescued her, had given her a place to live and someone to depend on as family. That dream had finished dying by the time she was Sunny’s age, as teens never get adopted. She knew that was the seed for what led to her estrangement with Celestia years ago. This situation was allowing her to fix history in a way, for another version of herself anyway.
Sunset’s heart began to beat faster as she realizes what she was contemplating. She had no illusions about how hard it could be to open her home to someone else, as she had lived it from the other side. If the girl was anything like she had been at that age, and if anything the signs pointed at her being worse, then this would be a very rocky ride with an ungrateful brat. However, didn’t she owe it to herself, to prove that Sunset Shimmer was worthy of a home and affection?
As her decision settled in her mind, her body finally began to relax. There would be freak outs later, and stress around the details of fostering a clone with no paper trails in the real world, but for now she had finished the most crucial step, where she decided to be there for that 14 year old girl drooling on her couch for as long as Sunny would let her.
Sunset had always prided herself in being a mare of action. As she jumped through the portal under the Wondercolt statue, she didn't let her confusion at the crystal walls delay her for even a second from moving on wards. Starswirl's Mirror had been in an out of the way alcove, and once she was sure her return had not been detected and she was not in danger of any pony coming by, she took a moment to evaluate her surroundings.
Well, this didn't go according to plan and I just started. Time to figure out how to make the best of this mess. Sunset's original goals had presupposed that the mirror was still at the Canterlot Castle. She had planned -hoped- to raid one of the lesser royal jewelry collections. They were not very secure, due to the fact that Celestia had been receiving gaudy gifts for millennia, and Sunset had been able to break the minor tracking enchantments since she was a filly. She knew of one that was kept in a closet off the main ballroom, which would be perfect for her purposes. It was the one Celestia dumped the most gaudy of jewelry, items too heavy due to excess use of gems or being actual solid gold. She also hoped to find as many magically charged gems and other magic materials from the labs along with some tomes from the library.
She would have had enough riches to live comfortably after converting it to cash, and with the materials she would have been able to create a simple energy converter attuned to electricity and magic, along with a magical focus in lieu of a horn. She would have access to some magic again, though it would have been a trickle in comparison to what she naturally produced as a unicorn. She would be set for life beyond high school, and never have to return to Equestria again. Originally her biggest risk -fear- had been that Celestia would have the mirror itself guarded in order to capture her. However it seemed that Celestia had cared so little that she had gifted the mirror away.
Sunset focused once more on the current situation. She would need to get some intelligence on where she was. At first glance she had theorized it may be a secret base in the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot Castle, but the view from windows proved that not to be the case. The late hour meant it wasn't much to see, however the city below was clearly not Canterlot, and the full moon allowed her to make out the plains going out passed the horizon.
Hours later, Sunset felt that she had begun to get an idea on what was going on. At this point, she was debating returning through the mirror for the night, and trying again the next evening, but she knew that the risk increased with each trip. She had actually hit pay dirt when she had stumbled into the Crystal Palace's library entrance, as there had been some booklets for the temporally displaced crystal ponies, which went over quite a bit of the latest changes in Equestria, along with some newspapers. So... Cadence has come up in the world. Crystal Empire huh? It's unlikely to have as many priceless artifacts laying around, but I'm sure I can find something worth my time?
She was trying not to think too hard about the fact that Celestia apparently found a more pliable version of herself and made HER a princess. Even her name is derivative! I mean Twilight Sparkle is such a knock off of my name!
The booklet didn't have details on how this Twilight Sparkle had ascended, however it did provide a quick summary of what seemed to have been highlights of her adventures leading up to her recent coronation. Of particular interest to Sunset was her first adventure, where she had rescued Princess Luna -and wasn't that another shocker?- from the moon using the Elements of Harmony, which must have been mystical items of unfathomable power to be able to reach that distance. This was the most likely culprit, as it would be in line with what little she had learned of Cadence's.
If I had one... I could even shove it in a Celestia's muzzle! I could... I could show her... If Sunset had something like that, it would neatly solve all her problems on the other side as well. The lack of fence-able gold and jewelry wouldn't matter if she had access to magic. Sunset's thoughts began traveling down darker paths as she skulked through the Crystal Palace. She was finally back near the royal bed chambers, and the more she thought about taking a chance and simply stealing this Twilight's element, which she actually used as her day to day crown!
She began slowly exploring each room looking for the one with the newest princess. The first room was empty, though it seemed to have been in use recently from the state of the covers, and the far flung pillows on the floor. Sunset looked around carefully, finding nothing of note beyond some how to guides for speaking modern Equestrian.
The next few rooms were unoccupied. Sunset kept going on wards until she was in the southeastern facing rooms.
She found somepony laying in one of the oversized beds in the largest suite yet. She crept in as quiet as a cat, trying to make out what was in the room.
She carefully passed the bed, making her way to the vanity on the far end of the room, where she could barely make out some jewelry glinting thanks to the moonlight.
It felt like it took forever to make it to the vanity. Sunset debated if a small light would be worth it to see the details of what was on the vanity.
Looking at the bed she could see that the pony on it had cocooned themselves into a huge ball of white sheets. After a couple seconds she created a soft light from her horn, aimed at the table top of the vanity.
There were a couple books beside an open jewelry box. Peering inside, Sunset carefully removed some gold hoof covers, below which she could see a stylized peytral, with suns, moons and six sided stars in a subtle filigree surrounding a large emerald. It was almost a twin for the one Sunset remembered seeing every morning on Celestia's neck, though that one had only had the sun on it. It weighed at least a couple pounds, the gold enchanted to lighten when worn. Maybe I will have something to fence after all... the gems seems to be magically charged as well! Maybe I'll luck out once more and she'll also have some magic tomes in the book pile too...
She carefully packed the jewelry into her saddle bags, making sure they wouldn't make noise as she moved. She looked at the gem encrusted jewelry box for a moment, debating if she should take it as well. It looked to be too bulky, and this was much riskier, with an equestrian princess sleeping mere steps behind her. She turned her attention to the books for a moment, quietly shuffling them to see each cover.
The first was a treatise on economic theory, which meant it was useless. One thing humans had surpassed Equestria on was in money. For goodness sake, ponies were still stuck on a gold and gem standard. The next one was actually very interesting, as it was related to transformation magic, and she took it. There had been a bookmark on a spell to detect if a pony was under a disguise, but the whole book seemed to be filled with useful spells.
A noise from the bed froze her as Sunset's heart suddenly tried bursting out of her chest. She extinguished the light and waited. It seemed she was still asleep. Sunset turned on the light again and packed the book into her bag before turning to inspect the rest of the room. There was one last thing to find now, the crown.
She noticed a bedside table on the far end of the bed that seemed to have things on it. Slowly, Sunset crept over, her ears trained on the bed at all times.
There you are... a crown was sitting on top of an opened book. Likely the princess's bed time reading material. She grabbed the crown and stuffed it into her bags, and would have begun making her way out of the room if she hadn't glanced at the open page beneath the crown. Sunset Shimmer was intimately familiar with that hoof writing.
It was her own after all.
Sunset's thoughts raced as she realized who was on the bed behind her, but she couldn't focus on any of them as she looked at the words. A part of her couldn't help but point out that it was no wonder the jewelry was so familiar, as another asked itself why was it out on her table like this, all while she read an account about her first time seeing Philomena be reborn, which at the time she had thought had been her death. She begged Princess Celestia not to banish her, and wrote 2 whole pages worth of apologies.
Right below was Celestia's response, calming her down ....'I want you to remember this whenever you have doubts, you are dear to my heart, and nothing will ever change that. I would never do anything as silly as send ou away from my side for an accident.' ... funny... took you just three years to change your tune...
Sunset leafed through, until she found the last page with writing on it. The gaps of time between messages had grown by the end there. The last page had 2 messages from Celestia.
The second was a summons to come attend her. Sunset remembered that was the day she was shown the mirror for the first time.
For some reason a part of Sunset was disappointed. As irrational as it was, she had expected to see something meaningful, perhaps a final message calling her back from the mirror, an apology or anything. Instead, it was simply a book chronicling the slow descent of their relationship into banality. No proof that the princess had any remaining affection for her prodigal apprentice... except for the fact that the journal was on her bedside table after all these years.
What did it mean? why couldn't Princess Celestia ever come clear and state her feelings? Sunset's mind continued to circle around itself, as she sat by the sleeping form of the most important pony in all Equestria.
Celestia woke up for some indeterminable reason. Her internal clock let her realize it was the middle of the night, a time she rarely failed to sleep through. An almost imperceptible sound caught her attention, felt by the tiny movement in the air more than by her hearing. Somepony uninvited was breathing in her room.
As none of her usual wardings had gone off, it likely wasn't an assassin. Their aura was hidden quite expertly, but as only a few ponies had the talent and training to hide their magic that well, Celestia thought it likely to either be her sister or Pinkie, trying to set up a prank perhaps. She carefully shifted her wing to provide a gap through which to look out.
The shortness of the pony immediately removed Luna as the culprit. Celestia felt a pang of true annoyance once she realized what the pony was pawing at on her bedside table. That was one of the few personal things that Celestia kept close to herself.
A search of her wayward student's rooms had revealed the counterpart journal was unaccounted for, and Celestia had desperately hoped that Sunset had taken it with her. She had galloped to her rooms and pulled it out. An inspection of the enchantment confirmed it so, but sadly more than that. The connection magic was strained to near the breaking point, as it seemed there was a lack of a magical field wherever Sunset had ended up. While Celestia wanted to write to her, it would have probably eaten up the last of the magic in Sunset's journal to do anything more than a single message each way. Celestia made the difficult decision that it would be more important that Sunset have some way to communicate back to her in case she needed rescue, than for Celestia to send a message for purely sentimental reason. Celestia made sure to always leave it somewhere that she would hear if a message ever came however.
Celestia's thoughts froze as the pony shook her head, giving her a profile. It was a very familiar hair style on a Unicorn mare. Celestia's heart began to race, and her eyes watered. Was it possible that her little Sunset was back? Some instinct prevented Celestia from moving and confronting the mare however. Instead she quietly spied on her as she silently hoofed her way back out of the room.
The moment that the door closed, Celestia sat up, quickly deciding what her next step would be. She would not allow another loved one to be lost due to inaction again.
"Sunset Shimmer, do you want to tell me why you're in my office right now?" Principal Celestia asked the freshman in front of her.
"No, I don't actually." Sunset slumped in the chair across the desk from Celestia, refusing to make eye contacts as she crossed her arms. In other circumstances, Celestia would laugh at how hard Sunset was trying to make it clear she didn't want to be there.
"Sunset... you're not in trouble alright? Can you just tell me in your own words, what happened?" Principal Celestia usually didn't take the time to meet with students simply for causing a disruption in class, but with who the student was, she felt she needed to take a personal hand with it. The teen continued to remain silent, forcing the Principal to prod her some more.
"From the report, you had a breakdown in the middle of your intro to Physics class... Time Turner even mentioned that it seemed like you may have even hurt yourself with how hard you kicked the wall on the way out." Celestia stated, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible. This last year had shown how volatile the girl could be.
"I'm fine! I know how to kick." Sunset grumbled out, taciturn but finally using words.
"Well... That's good to know. "Has this happened before? Can you recall what may have triggered your reaction?" Principal Celestia asked, continuing to attempt to get eye contact. In reply to the question, Susnet Shimmer almost seemed to flinch.
"...no...?" Sunset's reply came out far less convincing than she hoped. Principal Celestia didn't even dignify her response, simply letting the silence drag until the teen gave in.
"ugh fine! The heliocentric system model he showed... it irritated me." Sunset exclaimed as she burst out of the seat and began pacing in front of the desk. The sudden amount of energy took Principal Celestia aback fro a moment, which distracted her for a moment from Sunset's reply. Once she thought it over however, she simply felt incredulous.
"Sunset... are you telling me you got angry that the Sun is the center of the solar system?" Celestia arched an eyebrow at the ridiculous excuse the teen was trying to use.
"Well of course you'd say that!" Sunset pointed at her before seeming to deflate and dropping back into the chair. It seemed that the Principal had said the wrong thing, as Sunset clearly was unwilling to speak any more.
"Sunset... it's clear there is something underlying this that is what is truly upsetting you. I just want to help you."
"Sunset... you are doing so well in all our classes, you've joined clubs, are an active participant in all the school functions... so why do you keep doing this?" The teen kept up her silent rebellion as Principal Celestia loomed over her, her patience almost completely gone.
"Can you tell me why it felt like a good idea to call your biology teacher an 'ignorant bucking ninny' after disrupting class AGAIN?!"
".... he was wrong..."
What?"
"He was wrong, ok?! He said that mammals never have feathers, but there clearly must have been for the number of them captured in historical chronicles!"
"...historical?... Sunset are you serious?... there has never been any proof of a mammal having avian features such as feathers. Even flying mammals like bats have a completely different wing structure.
"But what about-!"
"-I'm not trying to infringe on your personal beliefs Sunset, but there is no proof of winged people ever existed in nature. We've never found the body of an angel or Pegasus ok? We focus on proven scientific fact in our curriculum.
... is that why you've been having these outbursts Sunset?
Gah!
Sunset, why are you pacing in front of my doorway now?
I want to lodge a complaint against Mr Turner! He is not teaching all the angles, and expects us to take what he says as gospel!
Come into my office please... alright, what exactly is it that he is forcing you to take on faith?
The Mass Balance and Energy Balance equations!
... what?
They're clearly missing basic universal variables, which have been piled into these constants, and he won't go into those so the class knows this is all hooey!
... Sunset... this is our best current understanding of the world, and it works for any situation larger than a quark. What exactly are you debating here?
It's missing a place to manipulate the Thaums! Without that, the universe would have a constant probability field across all of reality!
... ok... so... what kind of energy is measured in Thaums?
...uh...heheh... riiiiiight... ugh... ...
... principal Celestia... what if I told you I thought the world was 6 thousand years old?
oh joy...she's a young earther too miss Shimmer in a bit busy but-
What if you had folks with wings and a sun that was propelled through the sky by the mental force of your people, and there was proof that your whole world came to be, just 6 thousand years ago?
None of it makes sense... we don't even build our homes in a way that makes sense... principal Celestia... I think we're a runaway terraforming project...
So this idea was born from rereading the first couple chapters of Sunset Reset (go read that if you haven't!), which combined with my current obsession, which is Otome Villainess Isekai/transmigration Manga/Manhwa. For those that aren't aware, this is a sub-subgenre that's evolved from Isekai, which has the person reincarnating into the Villainess role in an Otome game, usually with future knowledge due either to playing the game previously or because they lived it and basically turned back time.
I've always been interested in exploring Sunset's experience in the Human world the years before the Crown theft fiasco. There are some really good fics out there that examine that era, but the big challenge is that Sunset wasn't really a character ready to grow back then. SO how do we change that? And my brain came up with this.
======================
Sunset startled awake from her new recurring nightmare, taking a tiny gasp for air before instinctively stopping herself from moving or opening her eyes. It was a throwback from her youth, when it was best to sometimes continue faking sleep.
She hadn't really been able to get a full night rest since the Fall Formal, visions of her victims through the years or being punished in more and more cruel ways after being dragged back to Equestria. It had only been a few days since the Formal, but she could feel exhausted down to her bones even first thing after waking up. Probably didn't help that today was the first day back to school since that whole fiasco went down, and the Principal had made it clear to her that she didn't really have a choice to skip.
She still had no clue how it would all play out, or even how to even begin to fix things. Even coming to the conclusion that she wanted to even try had taken her most of the weekend. Sunset frowned as she noticed the sounds and air didn't feel quite right.
She finally sat up and opened her eyes open before shutting them and squawking as she was unexpectedly blinded by bright sunlight reflected to her face. After blinking a few times, she realized she was outside. Her heart started racing as she scrambled backwards till her back hit what felt like a cement wall.
A small part of her mind noticed that one of her feet had kicked a bag and scattered the contents around her, though she was mostly panicking and trying to find the people responsible for somehow taking her from her humble bed. There were plenty of people with the motive to do so, and she knew that she no longer had any sort of reputation to protect her from the reprisals of everything she'd done through the years. For the first time in a long while she felt herself simply freeze, her vision tunnelling into one of her worse kinds of panic attack.
As the seconds ticked by, and her heart slowly stopped deafening her hearing, she was able to get her breathing under control. She had pulled her legs up, hugging her knees to herself and nestling her head against them. She idly noted that her cheeks were wet with tears as she found herself almost sobbing as she finally was able to get air into her lungs. She forced her breathing to even out as she stared at her boots.
She felt incredulous and not a bit nauseous at the thought of somebody having even dressed her in her sleep without waking her. Had they used some form of drug? She needed something to distract herself. The sturdy canvas bag and the glint from some of the scattered items by her feet was the only thing in her view that didn't require her to move any muscles, and they caught her attention the more she stared at them.
Something about it actually helped push back the incessant droning in her ears. They were a clue to the mystery. Something about them didn't make sense. That bag had her cutie mark emblazoned on it, but wasn't her bag. At least not her current school bag. It looked exactly like her old Equestrian saddlebag, which she had been forced to rig into a messenger bag when she had first arrived through the mirror.
She slowly shifted to lean closer and inspect what was beside it. That was a suspiciously full looking bag of bits, not to even mention the gems and reactants, but that was impossible. She'd depleted the little magic in that dimly glowing fire ruby trying in vain to re-open the portal early during her first moon here, and long since pawned it, and the rest of the gems off for what she had later learned was a pittance of local money.
She looked up, squinting and putting an arm in front of her face. It seemed that the light she had woken up to was the reflection off of one of the shiny faux minarets decorating the CHS roof. She shakily stood up, leaning against what she could now tell was the Wondercolts statue, where she had apparently been sitting in its shade.
Sunset had always been good at telling time based on the position of the sun. It seemed like it was late afternoon, almost sunset ironically enough based on where the sun behind her and the long shadows that the statue made across the lawn. Thankfully she still had more than enough light to see the school lawn however.
The School was oddly immaculate, with its front lawn perfectly trimmed, leading to a miraculously intact facade of the building. You'd never tell that just two days ago it was a bombed out carcass of itself. It made no sense. The brick looked the exact same shade of weathered as the rest of the building.
Nothing was making sense. Where is everyone else? Sunset wondered as her eyes darted around. It didn't feel like another of her night terrors, but there was no way for things to look so cleaned up. She began to shiver, suddenly aware of the cold, rough stone of the Wondercolt Statue on her back.
Sunset bent down and quickly shoved everything back into the bag, hurrying towards the school doors, looking behind and around in case she might catch anyone hiding. She almost missed the guardrail in her distracted stumbing, trying twice to grab it and use it to help herself up the steps.
Her body felt slightly off. Was it the residue of whatever drugs they used on her to be able to dress and move her here? She had finally made her way to the school doors, but they seemed locked. There was a notice stuck to them.
PLEASE BE ADVISED School Grounds will be closed from the 25th to the 31st. The Administration offices will be open for walkins from the 1st to the 3rd 10am-3pm for late student registration and book pickup. First day of School is the 4th.
The year on it was wrong. It had to be wrong. Oh please tell me I'm wrong.
Sunset knew she had more than enough clues, but it was her reflection that finally broke through.
The reflection in the glass was young. Much too young. Sunset Shimmer was looking at the world's saddest little tween. Gaunt face, scraped knees, swimming in a much too large jacket. Behind her, Sunset could just see a banner hanging in the School Corridor.
Hours later found Sunset Shimmer in the back of Joe's Donut's, morosely eating some day olds. He was gruff, and wouldn't risk breaking the law by just giving leftovers out, but old Joe and a couple other places in Canterlot skirted that state law by boxing them and packing them on an old rack instead of dumping it into the trash right away. Not his problem if someone stole em out of the suspiciously clean plastic crates. There were a few places like that around Canterlot that she had helped her survive long enough to get her balance the first time around.
Sunset had been able to figure some things out. She now knew what day it was, the 27th of August, a day after she first came through the mirror. To be honest, this sounds a lot more like the type of punishment that Harmony Magic would pull
The first time around she had returned to the statue, despondent from what little she had gleaned about the human world, and tried to return only to realize the portal had closed. She'd broken down at the time, scraping her new hands against the statue as she cried, blaming Princess Celestia for 'forcing Sunset' to take the drastic action of using the portal by her refusal to explain things to the young unicorn and attempt of exile from the palace.
She had ended up sputtering out of energy and laying there for hours till nightfall, before walking aimlessly, ending up in greater Equestria Metropolitan area for a while. Thankfully it seemed she had returned at the moment right after her original breakdown at the statue, and she could avoid those harrowing days outside the relative bubble that was the township of Canterlot.
I miss my loft. Sunset had checked it for some illogical reason. The old carshop two-flat was still boarded up and abandoned, with none of the changes she'd made through the years. She had been so proud of herself when she had been able to buy it at auction from the township for a steal her second year here. Sunset mentally trembled at the having to relive some of the most difficult times of her life again, without even the little she had been able to make for herself. She refused to live in the school rafters for a year again.
The only positives she was able to claw at in her mind was that at least instead of trying to fix her mistakes and make it up to others, she didn't have to make those mistakes in the first place. It didn't hurt that she still had all the knowledge and tricks she learned about surviving here, though she wouldn't be able to use some of it due to turning a new leaf. The bag's contents had become her consolation prize with everything else having clearly fallen off the rails.
For that reason, tonight Sunset would NOT go to the sketchy fence and get tricked into giving away literal pounds of gold and priceless gems just to blow the wad of money he would throw at her on the week rate motel. Instead she'd bunker down till morning and head to the Trading Post, an antique shop on Mane and Lake.
Sunset found herself trying to recall a good spot to spend the night as she scurried off with some extra donuts stuffed into her bag. Old Joe would look the other way about evaporating stale donuts, but he would definitely call CPS if he caught a kid actually trying to nest down in that alley for the night. She also wanted to be closer to the Trading Post Antique store. She had to get there first thing in the morning.
Sunset ended up laying down in the quarter-full commercial sized recycling bin in the alley behind the Quill's And Things bookstore, less than a block from target. These types of bins usually would get emptied once a week, and with how empty it was, it would likely be at least a few more days before any truck came around to empty it. It also had the benefit of not having any rotting food or stench nearby to get on her clothes. She literally couldn't afford to wash herself or her clothes till after tomorrow morning.
The old antique shop owner, Fair Trade, came in and ran it alone during the morning. He was much more fair than some back alley fence, but she knew he was obsessed enough with old coins to not ask questions and pay a premium for a couple Equestrian gold bits, as long as his grown son Fair Shake wasn't in the store yet.
She needed enough for a phone and a week at the motel. With some cash along with some gullible cashiers and the wonderful magic that was public library internet, she would be more than able to get a bank account set up and begin the process to create her paper trail again. If it went to plan she'll actually have a bank account by the end of the week, which will let her get a WeBuy and an Etchie accounts, and auction some more bits and sell some art. WIth a lot of luck she might get the old man to refer her to his jeweler friend to appraise some of her smaller raw gems as a favor.
Last time around Sunset at this point would have been feeling proud of herself as she tucked into her motel bed for tricking that back alley criminal to pay her for most of her worthless Equestrian currency and middling quality gemstones. Sunset would have struggled for the next few weeks, finding the library and barely figuring out enough to sign up for school at Canterlot.
Afterwards Sunset had focused on making money by selling homework, info and essays. She hadn't really known she could have been monetizing her art or junkyard finds till she was pretty set up as the delinquent kingpin, and hadn't needed to pursue it any more to survive. Making money off of the cheating economy wasn't really an option this time, so
Meanwhile, the fence would get caught with some of her larger equestrian stones that he hadn't been able to move along, likely as he mostly dealt with pickpocket and small time burglars. Afterwards most of the stolen goods would all be sold in a police auction, where they had thought the things were colored crystals. A hobby gemologist on vacation had bought the lot, and after a few pretty quick buys and sells, including being faceted by one famous jeweler, they ended up at Sotheby's, turned into a platinum necklace named 'The Sunrise Ruby', estimated in the low millions before it was sold in a private sale.
It had given Sunset visceral pain when she had read that article in the local paper about where some of her gemstones had ended up the first time by the end of her first year here.
This time around Sunset would do better. She knew she wouldn't have the type of paperwork worthy of standing up to the type of scrutiny folks would give with that kind of windfall for a while yet, but with the gold she had and her hard earned knowledge of how to best liquidate her bits, she would be able to comfortably survive and set herself up till her identity and life was rock solid in a couple years, as long as things kept to plan.
The next day arrived soon enough. Sunset had woken up at sunrise, moving to camp in an alley just across from her first planned stop for the day. The Trading Post wouldn't open for another half-hour, but she'd seen the old man park in the back a few minutes ago, so she hoped he'd open the door if she knocked. After another night of barely any decent sleep, she simply wanted to go through her goals for the day and hopefully get into an actual bed by this evening.
It seemed like he heard her banging in the door, as she could see him coming through the dark store from a door that lead to what seemed like the back-office.
He looked as gruff as ever as he wrinkled up his eyebrows at her before unlocking the door.
"Storefront opens at 8 kid." He said with his gravelly voice.
"Mister Trade, look. I'm clearly not here to buy anything ok? I've actually got a couple gold collectors coins, and I heard you can help getting identify them?" Sunset blurted out, turning in the charm. For some reason the old man didn't seem very impressed.
He grunted out. Sunset could tell he was about to close the door on her, but she pushed ahead.
"No-not asking you to buy them! Look, I... I got some stuff from my Gran's estate and I really want to know if any of it might be worth anything ok? I'm pretty sure these are made of gold so if you don't look at them I'm going to sell them to the gold for cash guys down the road, but they'll just melt them down. Don't you want to know if they're more important than that? I can't figure out what they are or where they're from." Sunset grabbed her elbow, trying to sell the downtrodden look.
Fair Trade squinted at her, frowning for a while. Finally though, he grunted and walked back, leaving the door open in silent invitation for Sunset to follow.
She carefully made her way through the unlit store after closing the glass storefront door behind her. Soon enough they entered the well lit back office. There was a placard with the name "Fair Trade' inscribed on it. It figured thought Sunset.
"Well, show me what you got" Fair Trade said as he sat down at his desk. Sunset pulled out two of her bits she had previously taken and folded in one of the leftover paper donut bags and stashed in her front pocket, and set them in the rubber mat he had in the table.
"I have a couple more, but I brought two for you to look at. think they're commemorative? " Sunset stated, forcing herself to sound credulous, as if she didn't know quite well when they were close to mint condition in spite of their age. Her effort at guile were wasted, as Fair Trade's eyes were pinned to the Equestrian coins, slack jawed for a moment.
He pulled out a cleaning kit, some cloth gloves a jewelers eyeglass and two transparent coin cases, looking almost affronted at the shoddy care she had shown for them. He was hooked.
===========
The cash she had gotten wasn't as much as she had hoped, being just a bit more than the fair value for the gold content of the coins, but Fair Trade wanted to get a second opinion and have appraised before giving her the rest. He still gave her enough for the next step in her plan, and she'd be heading back there in the next couple days. He also said if they were what he thought they were, he'd be more than happy including a couple free appraisals by his jeweler cousin Fair Cut on the raw gemstones.
Afterwards Sunset had been able to open an account online for the local Canterlot Credit Union from the local public library and then fund it using a prepaid visa card she had bought from the nearby grocery store. She had then gone in person to the branch to deposit most of the remaining cash she got from Fair Trade, and then rented a storage locker at the Self-Storage place, for her remaining coins and gems. Sunset made sure it was paid for a couple months and also linked it to her new bank account for autopay.
By that afternoon, Sunset was sitting on a park bench eating one of the last of the stale donuts she'd hoarded, along with some carrots and water from her new drink bottle she had picked up from the grocery store and filled with tap from a fountain. While she'd gotten a lot done that morning, she still didn't have a place to stay, nor any change of clothes. That was fine, she would be able to deal with it.
She found herself staring out at the families and kids taking advantage of the last week of summer vacation to enjoy the park and the Canterlot shopping district. Sunset sniffled and blinked her watery eyes.
Sunset had kept herself so busy since she woke up that she hadn't had a moment to continue her emotional spiral. Sitting here at the park, eating carrots, seeing people that may have almost been familiar walk by once in a while, it was almost too much. Sunset breathed in, then did so again, then one last time.
There was a lady that had stared a little bit too long as she walked by. It was probably time to keep moving. Sunset forced herself to focus as she crumpled the paper bag and wiped her face. Her next stop would be the trendy thrift store nearby.
She'd be able to get at least a couple tops and maybe some jeans for under twenty dollars. After that, it would be back on the bus to get closer to the part of town with the motels. She'd need to go back to Quills and Things for school and drawing supplies once she had a more permanent spot to sleep.
All this walking and busing around really made her appreciate her old scooter.
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Radiant Hope couldn't shake the image of that girl silently crying at the park. She could have sworn she had seen that same girl all across town all day, and had been thinking about approaching her to see what was wrong before the kid got up and left.