Sunset finds her eyes closing as the potion touches her lips. She brings the tasteless liquid into her mouth, and she quickly swallows. After several gulps, she finally sets the flask back down on the bench. She smacks her lips, glancing around at all the eyes fastened on her every movement, Hermione steps forward, “Well?”
Sunset sighs and shakes her head, "Nothing, it didn't work. All of that time and effort for..." Sunset’s eyes glow bright white as reality distorts and shifts around her.
***
Sunset staggers as though she’s landed from a great height. She blinks several times to clear her vision and looks around, trying to get her bearings. She almost feels like she just had a bad teleport. With the first question being; where is she?
She glances down slowly to see her orange furred forelegs, the switching between human and unicorn is starting to affect her equilibrium. Judging by the buildings around her, she’s in Ponyland, sometime before the great Windigo attacks that had forced the ponies to move further south. The dreary gray sky tells her she’s around the right time. She walks forward and rotates her head back and forth, “But where is everypony?” She whispers to herself. She smiles as her ears flick to the side; she can hear something. She gallops forward and rushes through the narrow streets.
Digging her hooves in, she almost sends herself tumbling as she comes to a stop under the copula of a portcullis. Several other ponies are cowering and taking cover here, along with some odd-looking type of brownish goblin creatures. The goblins look like those she’s seen pictures in the Hogwarts library with big ears and scarce hair, as well a pair of orc like creatures cowering against a wall. Both the orc and goblins are wearing some sort of Viking style helmet as well as a leathery armor. Even though they all seem scared, they are actually singing! She steps forward, following their line of sight, there is a pony, a pegasus, flying through the air, on her back is a human. Sunset shakes her head. What? A human girl!? She gallops forward, then bounds backwards as a lightning bolt explodes at her feet. Trembling a bit, she slowly looks up to see him standing on a balcony, his forehooves on a parapet as he snarls, Grogar. His horns glow as he fires his magic again, but it’s not directed at her. The ponies seem to be keeping a step ahead of him. A light purple pegasus with a white mane flies past her before she hovers in front of a large wooden gate, almost dancing in a taunt. Grogar obliges the mare by firing a beam at her. She scampers out of the way as the beam knocks the gate down. Sunset glances around franticly trying to find the girl and the pegasus again. In the commotion, she’s lost sight of them! She looks at where she last saw them and she concentrates her magic, winking to the top of a large tower. Quickly scanning around, Sunset can see the two do a barrel roll and bank into a large cave. The sounds of thunderous blasts and lightning fill the air as Grogar ties to blast the ponies out of existence. Sunset Shimmer shakes her head, the ponies are risking everything to keep him distracted. Looking back to the cave, Sunset winks out again.
This time, she finds herself reappearing inside the cave. Though it seems to be part of some larger castle complex with old beams and supports. The tunnel is narrow, yet the pegasus and her human rider seem to be able to fly through it almost as well as Rainbow Dash could. At the end of the passage is a large, ancient bell hanging in a window. The pegasus with the girl riding her flies as fast as she can, determination on her face as she veers towards the bell. The pegasus rears up, kicking the bell with all of her strength. The bell tolls loud and clear. Sunset grips her head -- it feels like her ear drums meeting with a mallete. She shakes her head and looks over at Grogar. The look of shock evident on his face as the bell on his collar melts away. He’s vulnerable! The girl jumps off the back of the pegasus, and picks up a large piece of wood. She swings the wood with everything she’s got. Slamming the wood once again into the bell gets an otherworldly scream from Grogar. Sunset watches as the demonic ram slowly turns to smoke, which dissipates agonizingly slowly, his scream continuing until the last wisps of the smoke have disappeared.
***
Sunset shakes her head, looking around at her friends, “...nothing.” She moves over and sits in a chair.
Rarity comes up, offering Sunset a big glass of water. “That was most certainly not nothing, darling.”
Sunset drinks gratefully. “I saw a human girl and a pegasus vanquish Grogar, send him back where he came from.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know if it tells me enough.” She reaches over and grabs the flask once again.“I need to try again.” She tilts her head back, letting more of the white liquid flow down her throat.”
***
Sunset shakes her head, her whole body wobbling a bit as she looks around, she’s in the past again. She can feel it. The sky is dark, ominous, with the sounds of thunder rolling across the heavy air, though she is unsure if it is actually night, or just the oppressive clouds blotting out the sun. Wind whips through Sunset mane and tail lashing them as she looks around, her ears rotating as she listens intently. She doesn’t have much time to learn. She leaps forward, galloping as hard as she can. Lighting is crashing in the distance, she needs to see what is going on! She focuses ahead of her, she can see where the lightning is originating. She looks forward and gasps, that is Canterlot! And there’s some kind of shield around the city. She concentrates her magic and winks out.
She winks back into existence next to Princess Celestia herself. Her mentor’s multihued mane is wafting in an ethereal breeze as she strains, her horn is lit and glowing brightly, her face fixed in intense concentration. She’s doing everything she can to maintain this field all by herself. A glance tells her why. Hordes of dark creatures are assaulting the shield. And proudly standing on a cloud is the demonic ram himself. His horns glow and the bell on his neck tolls as he sends bolt after bolt of power into the shield. Celestia, however, stands firm against the assault...
“Give up, you will never be able to outlast me.” He says mockingly.
Princess Celestia stomps a hoof. “I will never surrender to your evil.”
That gets a rich laugh from the demonic ram. “You call me evil, yet you have taken possession of the moon and the sun. A moon that you have banished your own sister to!” He swaggers back and forth, sending a few more bolts at the shield. “And all must pay homage to the great Princess Celestia, bringer of light.”
“It’s not like that.” She stops for a moment, standing tall, “I don’t have to explain myself to you!”
“No, you don’t, because you have already lost. I know full well what is happening here.”
“We will never lose, as long as there are ponies that will stand up to tyrants like you.
“Like your sister? Or how about your prized student, Gusty, was it?” Grogar turned starting to walk away from the shield his minions continuing to attack the barrier. “You shall weaken, the shield will fail, then your subjects shall die. There will be no one left to fight. But before I leave you to your demise, are there any last words you have for Gusty?”
“It’s me you want, Grogar!”
“You shall fall, but first, your student,” Grogar said as his horns glow brightly, and with the ring of a bell he vanishes.
“Grogar!” Celestia yells then takes a step back, her ears drooping as the dark creatures double their attack, shot after shot hitting her shield, her horn slowly starting to dim under the constant pressure. The dark army advancing against the barrier as shot after shot land against it. With tears in her eyes Celestia lowers her head.
“I’m not going to cower like some foal!” A filly called out as she appeared beside Celestia, her own horn lighting and adding to the shield.
A moment later, other cries come, “For Equestria!” “For the princess!” “For freedom!”
Unicorns, Earth ponies, and pegasi stream from the gates, the unicorns lending their magic to the wall. Pegasi creating gusts of wind to drive back projectiles, and Earth ponies charging any of the creatures that broke though.
Looking down at the light blue unicorn beside her with black mane, she smiled. “All we need is time.”
Sunset’s ears fall. Grogar had a reason he was leaving. She glances at Princess Celestia, she would much prefer to stay next to her former mentor. She shakes her head, she needs to find where his bell is. She can see him in the distance. His apparent calm demeanor broken by the urgency with how fast he is whipping up the cloud. She winks along, keeping pace with the cloud. At times, she wishes she could wrap herself in her magic to allow her to fly. But that is not a spell she’s learned. Soon, she’s able to see a cave entrance up ahead. Ponies are arrayed around that entrance. More of the Royal Guard! She winks ahead, behind the ponies as they start attacking Grogar.
Sunset flattens her ears as she gallops into the cave, the screams of the guards following her as she works her way deeper into the cave. Hoofsteps ahead of her spur her forward.
“Gusty! There it is!” comes a male voice. Sunset winks forward, two ponies are galloping towards another bell. It’s hanging in the window.
“Not this time, you aren’t!” Grogar roars. The guard must not have been able to do much to stop him. A lightning bolt flashes through the cavern, landing just in front of the bell. The demonic ram is standing there, a sneer on his face.
“Gusty, go for it!” The stallion calls out as he lowers his head, crashing into the ram. He starts to scream as the mare darts for the bell, tears in her eyes. Her horn lights and a large rock is wrenched from the wall. With all her strength, she shatters the rock on the bell, which tolls loud and true. Grogar looks up from the now prone stallion, a look of shock on his face. He shakes his head as the bell on his collar fades away. He turns and rushes back the way they came.
“Feather!” Gusty calls out, she scampers over to the stallion, picking him up and cradling his body.
Sunset moves closer as the stallion coughs, “You defeated him, he’s lost his power.” He glances over at the direction the ram had disappeared, he looks back at her, “You beat him, little sister.”
She runs a hoof along his cheek, tears falling from her eyes as the world swirls around Sunset, and she ends up back in the chair back at Hogwarts.
***
Sunset shakes her head, “The bell, that is the source of his power.” She takes a moment to wipe the wetness off of her cheeks. Did that stallion survive?
Rarity scrunches her face. “You mean that awful ugly thing he wears around his neck?”
Sunset shakes her head, “No, he uses that to channel his magic. He has one, likely hidden away. It’s got to be somewhere in the UK, though.” She shakes her head, “Though I couldn’t tell you where,” she sighs, “I’m going to have to try again.” She picks up the flask and sloshes the liquid around, “I think I’ve got enough for one more try.”
Twilight speaks up. “You sure you want to do that, Sunset? These are taking a lot out of you.”
Sunset shrugs, “I’ve gone this far.” She tilts her head back, draining the flask. In a matter of a few seconds, her eyes once again glow and the entire world around her warps and twists.
***
Sunset blinks her eyes. Everything is blurry. She takes a moment to rub her eyes, then she looks down, she’s remained human this time. That must mean they are in this world! She looks around to discover that she’s in a large room. Though the lack of windows in the large space tells her this is underground. There’s Grogar, yelling at the humans gathered around him. Nearly a hundred humans seem to be his new army, though with all of them having magic of their own, they can be a very effective army indeed. Sunset knows little of mundane war and firearms, but she knows that magic can turn even a small force into a threat to be feared. She stops and looks at one of the humans, the last time she had seen that face, he was dead. She glances around. Is this today? Was it some time ago? She steps forward, everybody here ignores her, a fact she’s grateful for as she searches around.
She draws her wand, there is a source of annoyance in having to depend on this stick to be able to access her magic. But she has to deal with how things are. “A bell, a bell, my kingdom for a bell… Where is this place?” She couldn’t even hazard a guess as to where this place is, even if it’s in Scotland, or England, or Wales, or what? She grips her wand tighter and surges her magic through it, winking away from the other humans. She closes her eyes and pulls deeply on her magic, feeling the area around her with it. She winks from room to room, looking around, and finally she stops.
She stands up straight and pushes her wand into her robes. “That’s not what I expected,” Sunset murmurs, now seeing that the bell is a lot smaller than she thought it would be. It is brass, though. Two snakes are embossed along the surface, culminating in a crest she knows quite well. Salazar Slytherin’s crest. She reaches out to touch it, but she recoils at the feel of the magic rolling off it. It’s a lot smaller than the bells she had seen before. She shakes her head. “But how do we get here?” She again pulls her wand from her robes, it lighting as she raises it up to teleport.
***
And suddenly she’s sitting in the chair back at the school. “NO!” She screams. “It took me away too soon!” She reaches over and grabs the flask, only a few drops are left of the potion. She looks over at Professor Snape, “I need you to make it again.” Her head sinks down to be cradled by her hands. “I saw it!”
Professor Snape folds his arms, “I’m perfectly willing to make the potion. Unfortunately, I will have some trouble getting the necessary ingredients. It may be a few weeks.”
Sunset moans, “He could win in a few weeks. We need to find out where his base is!”
Hermione crouches down next to her, “Did you see what the place looked like?”
Sunset shrugs, “Nothing I could recognize. Even the bell was different. It doesn’t look like Grogar’s bell. How it was in the other visions. This time, it’s not very big, not like a big church bell, but bigger than a hand bell.” She shakes her head, “It had two snakes embossed on it, along with…”
“Slytherin’s crest.” Snape finishes. Every eye in the room turns to him. He frowns, drawing his wand. With a flick of his wrist a book comes flying of the shelf and lands on the table opening and flipping pages on its own, to stop at a picture of four wizards, each with a bell in front of them.
“That’s it!” Sunset says pointing at one of the bells.
Snape shakes his head, “Remember the Death Eater was trying to manufacture a horcrux to bring the Dark Lord back. This bell was originally placed in Hogwarts when it was founded. It was the bell for the Slytherin house dorm, placed there by Salazar Slytherin himself. It was stolen by the Dark Lord himself sometime ago. He found it amusing to summon the Death Eaters with it.”
“What happened to it?” Twilight asks as she looks up at Snape.
“After the fall of the Dark Lord I don’t know. One of the Death Eaters likely sequestered it away so as to keep it safe for his eventual return. it’s not like we could ask them, however.”
Rarity comes up and places a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, it’s getting late. Perhaps we should retire for the night…”
Sunset shrugs off her hand. “We need to practice. I need to train you all.”
Twilight adjusts her glasses. “Sunset, it’s been a long day, and, well, we’re tired.”
Sunset looks at all of her friends. “I never thought you of all ponies would say no to neurotic panic study in the face of sleep deprivation; that’s not like you.” Soon, Sunset Shimmer deflates a bit, realizing that she’s lashing out unfairly. “You’re right; let‘s hit the hay.”
***
Sunset collapses into her bed and sighs as she feels the warmth of the sheets envelope her, she’s not ready for sleep just yet, there’s just so much going on. Her mind is churning with the visions she had, in some cases the created more questions then they answered. It was frustrating her to no end.
Rarity opens her drawer and pulls on her one-piece, blue silk this time. She reaches for the complimenting robe, “I really should have packed more. Maybe I can get some materials to make more outfits while I’m here.”
“Oh, oh, oh!” Pinkie bounced, “A whole line of Rarity pyajamas -- Rarity’s Secret’s!”
With a blink, Rarity quickly shook her head. “I think not darling, that would be, unmentionable – those are for far more, um, social sleeps…” Rarity quickly looked to Sunset, hoping to change topics. “So, tell us more about your visions, darling.”
Sunset leans back, pulling off her socks, recounting, “Well, there was a pony. It took me a while to remember her name, Northpoint. But I’m still trying to understand something. There was a human girl riding her. In fact, the human girl rang the bell, actually defeating Grogar and banishing him.”
Every eye in the room latches onto Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow Dash steps up, “Humans, like us, in Equestria?”
Sunset nods, “She couldn’t have come through the mirror, first it would have turned her into a pony,” the thought of a human in Equestria was just strange. She reaches over and runs a hand along her school robe, “Second, I think I was back in time before the founding of Equestria, before Starswirl was even born, so he couldn’t have even made the mirrors. The problem is, her clothing was very different from what we wear back home.”
That gets Rarity’s attention instantly. “Darling, you simply must tell me everything you remember. Color, cut, accessories, everything.”
Sunset frowns, looking inwards, “She was blonde, probably in her tweens. It all happened so fast, I remember a blue jumper, frills, pink shirt.” She continues looking inward as she recounts the details. Rarity pulls out a sketch pad, and a set of colored pencils. She starts drawing as Sunset closes her eyes, filling in the details as she runs over everything in her head over and over. Finally, she opens her eyes. Rarity smiles and turns the pad towards her. Sunset grins, “You have an eye for detail, Rarity.”
Rarity smiles, “Well, of course, I wouldn’t be able to make fashion without it.” She turns the pad and sits it on her lap, “This certainly isn’t the most modern of dressing styles.” She taps her chin with a slim finger, “First off, that jumper is out of the dark ages.”
Sunset frowns, “Well, it was fifteen hundred years ago.”
Rarity looks up sharply, “No, I’m talking about fifty years ago, those came into fashion in the middle fifties, and were pretty popular up to the eighties.”
Sunset blinks, “That’s impossible! This girl helped defeat Grogar well before the Windigo exodus, it had to be about 1500 years ago.”
Rarity looks at the sketch. “That gaudy heart in the middle of the jumper…” She shakes her head, “I’d have to say middle fifties to early sixties for this. Especially with that big pink bow holding back her ponytail.”
Sunset gets up and moves over, tracing a finger along the sketch, “Starswirl only began researching the portal about a thousand years ago, but it never says what started his research,” she looks at her friends, “What if there were other portals, not created by any mage, but some natural connection between our worlds.” She frowns, “Some kind of unstable portal, really hard to use or reach, and they go through time and space.” She moves over and sits heavily on the bed, “Oh, that’s just great.”
Pinkie Pie bounces in her bed, “Oh, oh, oh! Like a lost valley? Or the land that time forgot? Ohio? Those portals come out of Equestria’s ancient past!”
Sunset thinks hard, “Well, they wouldn’t have been made with Star Swirl’s spell to act as a control or buffer, so they wouldn’t have been changed.” She giggles, “That means ponies from my world could have been flying around your skies. And humans from your world came to ours. And stayed human.” She flops back onto the bed, “This is too much! Humans in Equestria, the idea’s almost laughably absurd.”
After a while, the room quiets down as the other girls bed down. Sunset finally finishes getting ready for bed, she pulls a spell book from the stack next to her bed, “Natural portals… beyond amazing.” Sunset reaches over to draw her wand from her robes.
***
Fluttershy tosses and turns, her dreams all night have been stormy. It’s actually so bad, most of her critter friends have decided to sleep elsewhere. Though Hermione’s cat has decided that her pillow is the perfect one to share this night. Fluttershy opens her eyes to a dim bedroom, she looks over at Sunset, “Sunset.”
Sunset looks up from her book. Fluttershy plays with her hair for a moment. “Can we win? He is so powerful.” She looks around her four poster bed, several owls are perched on it, sleeping, one of them shifts his wings for a moment, “The fight yesterday, some of the other wizards around London are scared. Some even want the children brought back from Hogwarts until this is over.”
Sunset’s face twists in fear for a moment, the she leans back and sighs, “I don’t know, Fluttershy. It’s certainly not going to be easy. He’s got a lot of humans under his control. The ponies were able to defeat him before. We know what his weakness is. We must prevail, or this world will be lost.” She growls the last, “And you know he will turn on Equestria next. And bolstered by the magic here, he will be nigh unstoppable, especially with his vulnerability safe here in this world.”
A loud tapping at the window gets both girls attention. Sunset draws her wand, and the window glides slowly open. A large owl steps through, she hops over to Fluttershy’s bed, chirruping softly. The owl bows. “Oh my, how formal,” Fluttershy says softly.
“What is it saying?” Sunset says, perking up.
The owl continues, Fluttershy listens intently as the owl identifies herself, and continues on with her story. She glances at Sunset, who seems to be getting a bit frustrated. She holds out a hand to forestall her friend. Finally, the owl finishes her story and Fluttershy smiles at Sunset.
“This here is Lunara. She profusely apologizes for the delay in her arrival. The Ministry of Magic is monitoring all magical forms of communication, especially the owls, and she apparently has no real love for the ministry.”
Sunset huffs and throws off her covers and sits up on the bed, the large owl regards her warily. “Why would they do that? They don’t really believe that Grogar is a threat.”
Fluttershy shakes her head. “Not Grogar, but an escaped wizard by the name of Sirius Black.” She smiles, “Lunra here is not at all happy that any human in the ministry thinks that she would associate with a known criminal like that.” She shakes her head. “Well, she had heard from some of the other owls that there was a human that could communicate with owls as easily as they communicate with each other.” She stops and blushes, “I’m guessing she means me.” She shakes her head, “Her master has changed. He is now being controlled by this evil and dark creature. One that makes the Dark Lord at his worst seem mild by comparison. She had tried to let her master’s son know, but without a letter, he never understood her, so she came to me.”
Sunset gasps, “Grogar!”
The owl chirps, Fluttershy shudders, “That’s the name she heard.”
“Who is her master?”
“Lucius Malfoy.”
Sunset stands up and crouches down to be close to the owl. “Lunara, is Grogar at your master’s home?”
The chirping response needs no translation, Sunset leans close, “Where is that?”
A few quick chirps has Fluttershy saying, “Malfoy Manner.”
Sunset squeals softly, “I should hug you, Lunara! Thank you!”
The owl offers a talon, which Sunset shakes gratefully, “We need to go on the offensive, but we need to know more first. Twilight and I will head out in the morning. And we will figure out how to stop him.”
The owl hops back onto the window ledge. She chirps softly before taking flight, her wings silent in the night. Sunset crawls back into her bed, “Sleep well, Fluttershy.” She waves her hand and the candelabra extinguishes.
Fluttershy settles back into her squipper, reaching up to scratch Crookshanks’s cheek. Having animal friends all around her really does make life so much better. She lets her eyes drift closed -- tomorrow will probably be very busy.