//------------------------------//
// The Ghost and the Shadow (Danny Phantom - Post Series) 
// Story: Sunset's Isekai 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//


Sunset's Isekai
The Ghost and the Shadow 
By Wanderer D






"Alright," Lena said, leaning back and closing the book. "I think I've had enough for today."

"I think—as your mentor—that's my decision," Sunset countered, but  after a moment of glaring at each other, she smirked. "And I agree. I'm glad the magic lessons are paying off."

"Well, without your help I wouldn't have been of much assistance with Scrooge's team to take back the mansion," Lena admitted with a grimace.

"Hey, you did fine," Sunset said, patting the young duck's shoulder. "You controlled the flow, transformed things, kept your cool, and used your magic like a pro. I'm proud of you."

Lena chuckled. "Heh, I'm still not used to praise like that. Whenever I performed some complicated spell, Au—Magica simply told me that it was "sufficient", you know?" She grimaced. "Because it was natural that even if I was just a shadow of her, I should be able to do it."

Sunset shrugged, "I'm not impressed by her decision-making skills. And clearly she completely underestimated your own talents. If you were a unicorn, I'd recommend you immediately to study under Celestia herself."

Lena's smile grew. "Coming from you, that means a lot. I never thought a mere shadow could achieve this much."

"And I mean every word too," Sunset said, smiling warmly. "So none of that "I'm just a shadow" attitude. I think you'll grow up to be one of the best magicians in the multiverse, and that is something Magica will never accomplish herself."

"Aww, shucks," Lena laughed then leaned in to pick up her tea and took a sip. "You'll make me feel self-conscious, teach." She brushed her feathers out of the way and looked up at Sunset. "So, when's our next lesson?"

"Hm, let me—" Sunset was interrupted when her phone chimed. "Hold on." She picked it up, glancing at the message. "Huh. It's Nightmare Night back home."

"Nightmare Night?" Lena asked. "What's that, like Halloween or something?"

"Pretty similar,' Sunset said, putting down her phone. "Although in my world it's the night that Nightmare Moon was exiled to the moon for a thousand years." She grinned. "Little colts and fillies run all over the city asking for candy to appease her appetite so she will not gobble them up!"

Lena laughed weakly. "Yeah, we have legends like that too."

"That was a true story, though," Sunset said, standing up and picking up the empty teacups. "Princess Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon and fought Princess Celestia over the Everfree Forest. The whole world was encased in darkness during the fight, and by the end of it, the silhouette of Nightmare Moon's head was visible on the moon, as it trapped and absorbed her essence."

Lena's eyes were wide. "What happened then?"

"Well, a thousand years went by and the spell imprisoning her broke," Sunset said as they started cleaning up the table. "She came back to Equestria and captured Princess Celestia, trapping her in the sun, just as she had been trapped in the Moon. But that's when Twilight Sparkle comes into the story. Together with her friends, she hunted down the Elements of Harmony, and used them to fight Nightmare Moon."

"So, is Nightmare Moon trapped in the moon again?" Lena asked, following Sunset into her office and starting to organize the books on the bookshelf.

"Nope. The Elements worked differently with her, just as they did on me," Sunset said, turning to smile at Lena. "Nightmare Moon was slammed by the magic, and when it was all over, Princess Luna was back. With Nightmare Moon gone, Princess Celestia quickly returned to the world and instead of finding a victorious student and a trapped monster, she returned to find her sister alive and well, and cured of her madness."

Lena laughed. "Okay, that's a good ending, but I thought you were going to go for a scary one. You missed a perfect chance."

"Did I?" Sunset asked, motioning for the young duck to follow. "If it's Nightmare Night, then I'm bound to expect a special guest."

Lena blinked. "What do you mean?"

That's when the door slammed open and a young human girl ran in. She was dressed in a very similar way to Lena, with clothes that were just a bit too big, without it becoming so much it would hinder her. Her hair was raven black and her eyes an ocean blue. She looked around and noticed them, grinning. "Sunset Shimmer! You came back, just like you promised! And you brought a Teenage Mutant Duck!"

"A what?!" Lena gasped. "What did you call me, brat?"

Sunset couldn't help but bark out a laugh. "She's not a mutant, I told you before I'm visiting all of the multiverse. Anyway, let me introduce you girls." She stepped to the side so the two youngsters could get closer to each other.

There was something about this girl that reminded Lena a lot of Webby. She wasn't sure if it was the height—she was short—or the mischievous smile, or that self-assured air of competence and curiosity, but she felt herself instantly liking her. Something told her they would be getting along fine. 

The girl studied her with similar interest, looking her up and down and taking her measure. Whatever she saw, she seemed to approve and returned Lena's smile with her own.

"Lena, this here is my bodyguard-wannabe, Danielle Phantom." Sunset turned to the young girl. "Dani, this is my student: Lena de Spell."





"I can't believe you made me wait a whole year and you got a student in the meantime!" Dani moaned. She gave Sunset a rueful look, slurping her strawberry milkshake.

"Hey, don't give her a hard time," Lena said, her own, chocolate milkshake in hand. "I hate to admit it but I really needed help, you know?"

Dani sighed. "I know, I know, but I'm… not doing that great either. It's hard living on your own, even with superpowers."

Lena raised an eyebrow. "What type of powers?"

"I'm a ghost," Dani said.

Lena stared at her, then poked her. "Nope. I know a ghost and you can't poke him. He's also see-through. And a waste of magic."

"Different ghosts in different universes, Dani," Sunset said, joining them at the table. "So it's not a bad ghost." She paused and looked at Lena. "Right?"

"Nah, Duckworth isn't that bad," Lena said. "He has a nightmarish form which he can use to scare people, and granted, he enjoys that way too much... but he throws the best parties."

Sunset pondered that. "Huh."

"Anyway," Dani spoke up. "I'm totally a ghost! I just have a human form too!"

Lena leaned back, draping her arm over the back of the chair, and gave Dani a half-lidded eye of disbelief. "Prove it."

The little girl jumped off the table and stood, legs spread and fists raised as her whole body was enveloped in light blue energy that transformed her clothes into a black and white jumpsuit, while her hair turned completely white and her bright blue eyes, into slightly-glowing emerald-green.

Smirking, the young ghost levitated up into the air and phased through Lena, who trembled at the feeling. "Okay! I believe you!"

"Ooooh! A ghoooost!" Dani crowed as she hovered around the duck. She made to do another pass, but Lena's eyes lit up with inner light that had traces of darkness around it. An invisible barrier stopped her in the air where she could do nothign but stare in surprise. "Alright, alright! I was only playing around. I'll sit down! Geeze!"

She reverted down to her normal form as soon as Lena released her and took her seat. "What's with the black magic, anyway?" she asked, slurping more milkshake as if nothing had happened.

Sunset glanced at Lena, ready to act if necessary, but the young witch was able to get a hold of the warring energies and dissipate them with long, steady breaths. She fell forward, grabbing the edge of the table to steady herself. "T-that was not cool," Lena mustered.

"Hey, you okay?" Dani asked, leaning over the table a little worried. "I'm sorry, I didn't think my prank would do this."

"Yeah. I'm just… I'm not a normal duck, alright? I was created by my evil "aunt" from her shadow and sometimes my essence just does that."

"Oh my gosh!" Dani gasped, leaning across the table. "You too?!"

Sunset chuckled and stood up. "I think I'll let you girls talk, I have plenty of work, so just call me if you need anything."

"Will do!" Dani said.

Lena watched her go and then turned her attention to Dani. "What do you mean?"

"Well, to explain that I need to explain a bit more about my sorta-family."

Lena grinned and leaned back, crossing one leg over the other as she got comfortable. "I'm not going anywhere. And it's not like it's possible to be late in this bar."

"That is true," Dani said, smiling. "Anyway, I'll try to make this short. Back in my world there's this kid named Danny Fenton, right? He got powers thanks to an invention that my 'father',"—She stopped to make quotation marks with her fingers.— "Vlad Masters and his parents had developed when they were younger to access the Ghost Zone." 

Lena sighed. "Oh. One of those places. Sounds a lot like the Shadow Realm: Parallel to Earth? Full of scary things? Normal people can't see or access it?"

Dani nodded. "You got it. Well, it turns out, Vlad also had powers—and he had been using them for ages, to get rich and control several companies! But anyway, he wanted to recreate Danny for one of his bone-headed plans, and while cloning him he created many failed ghosts that would only last for so long before melting, in one variation he got me."

Dani cleared her throat. "It… wasn't very stable, so he convinced me to help capture Danny… but he betrayed me, and left me to die." She curled her hand into a fist. "Danny helped me escape and later on helped stabilize my ectoplasm, so now I won't just die because I'm using my powers… but after that? I mean, Danny and his family offered to adopt me, but there was just so much to do, you know?"

"Heh," Lena grinned. "Oh, I know what you mean. Once I got over being on my own, the world was my oyster."

"Right?" Dani asked, eyes shining. Then her smile faded a little. "But I still was an outcast, and I still was made from… whatever Vlad had thrown in along with Danny's DNA. After Danny convinced all the ghosts to save Earth, I was really stuck on what to do. I could feel the darkness in me… but then, during a fight with another ghost, I found the page."

Lena tilted her head. "The page?"

"From Sojourn's Journal(1)," Dani said. "It was something that Vlad had told me about before… he's been hunting for them as his plans advanced. They're pieces to find a secret place in the Ghost Zone which is called "The Elsewhereness"."

"That's a mouthful," Lena said, shaking her head.

Dani took the opportunity to drink more of her milkshake. "Tell me about it. Anyway, the problem is not only that it's basically a legend, but also that getting to the Ghost Zone is really hard… and any slight miscalculation can end with you in… really bad places."

Lena watched as the young human tapped her fingertips guiltily. "I… knew this, but I didn't care. I used tech that I had stolen from Vlad and borrowed from the Fentons—"

"Borrowed?"

Dani gave Lena a look. 

Lena smirked.

Dani shrugged. "Anyway, with the tech, I went to several places in the Ghost Zone, but none of them matched what I thought was in the page… and one time, I messed up and I ended up in a place called The Unworld."

"These names." Lena frowned. "They're killin' me, smalls."

"Whatever," Dani said, grinning. "I know it sounds dumb, but that place is horrible. If you're a human, you can fly, go through things and all that good stuff in the Ghost Zone, while ghosts can't. In the normal world, ghosts can do those things. In the Unworld… you have no powers." She gulped. "And it's dangerous."

"That's where I found her," Sunset said as she walked into the bar proper, carrying a heavy-looking box. "I had to drop Rarity off there, and just as I was about to head out, this girl comes running through the door."

Lena chuckled. "Scared?"

"Hey, there were… things chasing me, okay?" Dani said, crossing her arms and glaring at her.

"Okay! Okay!" Lena said, raising her hands in a placating manner. "Let's not get into an argument! I've been chased in my nightmares to the point of being afraid to sleep, so it's not like I have a leg to stand on if I wanted to make fun of you."

The pair sat back into a comfortable silence, slurping their milkshakes and with the silence of the bar only broken by Sunset coming or going. It wasn't long after Sunset went into her office that Lena spoke up again, "So… created as a clone, huh?"

"Yep," Dani said, "from green goo. It wasn't too long ago that I was melting into a puddle. It was really dumb luck that Danny managed to infuse a random experiment of his dad's into my DNA and save me but… I did melt. It was not fun."

"Yeah. When Magica took over Ducksburg and I tried to fight her she…" Lena wrapped her arms around herself. "She turned me back into a shadow and absorbed me."

"Ouch, that doesn't sound fun." Dani grimaced.

"It's not." Lena chuckled. "At first I was just… meshed in her, part of her army of shadows, but Webby—she's my best friend—was able to reach out to me and… I don't know how, when Magica was defeated, and all the other shadows were blasted into basically oblivious nothingness, I remained behind. I stayed stuck in the Shadow Realm for almost six months though." She smirked. "I couldn't talk to the others, but I could still hang around Webby and the others and… well, try to help, at least, even if I didn't do much unless magic was involved."

"Heh, like some sort of stalker ghost."

"I mean, I didn't follow her to any weird places!"

"I'm teasing." Dani ginned. "Yeah. When I went… goo… I didn't really feel pain, but it was horrifying. I felt the strength leave my arms and legs. I couldn't lift them and I could feel them melting before I slowly stopped feeling anything at all. At least if I had been able to feel something I—" She gulped. "I dunno."

Lena took a deep breath and let it out slowly, she glanced around the bar. "I wonder what will happen to us when we die?"

Dani blinked. "Okay." She pointed at herself with her free hand, the other holding her milkshake for another quick sip. "Ghost?"

"Alright," Lena said, crossing her arms. "Hear me out. So, ghosts happen when a creature—"

"Not person?"

Lena gave her a short glare. "It's a habit I've picked up from here. Too many species. Anyway, person, creature, whatever. They die, then ghost and/or afterlife, or something, right? Kinda hard to argue with that since I have ghosts in my own world."

"Right." Dani put down her milkshake and slid her hands into her pockets. "That's pretty much standard."

"But… we're not really people, are we?" Lena asked softly. "We're constructs."

Dani stared at her. "Wow. Now I'm really going to get a complex."

"I'm serious, though," Lena said, choking back a laugh. "We didn't really die, did we? But we were close. I usually don't think much about it but..." She motioned at Dani with her hand. "You come from a world full of ghosts."

"No, I get what you mean," Dani said. "I usually just don't think about it. I mean, it's a certainty that everyone else has a chance to become a ghost, at least in my world. There are also a LOT of different places in the Ghost Zone, where ghosts live as normal people or go to areas where they can do what they most enjoyed in life. But…" She trailed off.

"What about us, right?" Lena said. She licked her beak. "I—don't even know if I'll age. It took some time for me to turn from a shadow left behind into this but. I've been around for a while, looking like this. I might be a teen forever."

"Well, I for one hope I get older," Dani said. "I don't want to be a kid the rest of eternity like something out of an angsty vampire novel."

"Tell me about it."

They fell into an uneasy silence, neither willing to meet each other's eyes, or even drink their milkshakes.





"Well, I expected you to become friends, not to fall into doom and gloom at the first chance you got," Sunset commented as she emerged from her office. When she closed the door, it shimmered and the ying-yang sunset mark on the door turned into Rarity's three diamonds. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much," Lena sighed. "Just wondering what happens to constructs when they die."

Sunset frowned. "I imagine this is not a joke."

"It's not," Dani said. "Since we're both created like this, even having an afterlife of sorts like I do, what would happen if I really died?"

Sunset blinked.

"I'm made of shadows, and basically she's a clone," Lena elaborated. "Most places require you to not be made up to have a soul and therefore an afterlife."

"I see." Sunset took a seat. "Man, this is above my paygrade."

Lena and Dani glared at her and she grinned. "Sorry, sorry. I'm not making fun of you girls, I'm tying to figure out how to put my thoughts into words." She took a deep breath. "A lot of places have no concept or even a real proof of an afterlife, you know?" she started, crossing her arms and staring at the half-full glasses of milkshakes. "Sure, they have some religion or other telling them they have one, but proof?" She shook her head. "Nah. And just because it's true in one universe, it doesn't mean it's true in another."

"So… what do they do then?" Lena asked.

"The same we do, the same you do." Sunset gestured with her hand and a bottle of soda levitated from the fridge up to her. She took a sip before continuing, "they live their lives and try to change and leave a mark in the world that will come after them."

The girls were quiet.

Sunset sighed. "I have a friend… someone I want you girls to meet some day, but he once wrote the declaration of principles for an alliance of many species and worlds, to work in harmony. Every time I talk to him, I—he touches something deep within me. With his words, his history—" She laughed a little, then straightened up in her seat. "Anyway, part of that declaration of principles says this:

"Here, gathered together in common cause, we agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another.
Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us and each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.
We are one."(2)

The girls stared at her, and Sunset wasn't sure it was because of the words themselves, because of how solemnly she had said that, or because she had remembered it exactly, but she took that as a sign to continue. "This has been true every place I have been to. Every Rarity, every Gilda. Every wizard. Every human. Every Atlantean. Every immortal or mortal."

She smiled and reached out taking the girl's hands in her own. "It's scary, not knowing. I don't know either for sure, but… every voice matters. Every creature across the multiverse has a message of their own; a shared intent to live or be outlived by their legacy in some way or another. Maybe we'll become ghosts, or maybe we'll fade… but I look at you girls, and I sit here and I hear you and I feel your joy and sadness, and I know you're as real as I am. As anyone else out there.

"I know you matter, and not only to me, but to everyone else that meets you. And that your absence would sadden me and make the universe a little less bright. And what is that but your soul? The one thing that every culture across the multiverse debates and argues but all agree that is, in the end, what goes to the afterlife or not?"

Lena smirked, then chuckled, then let out a laugh. "Sunset, you take things too seriously."

"Yeah," Dani said, a big grin on her face and her eyes sparkling with veritable joy. "We were just talking, you know?"

Sunset smiled, and finished off her soda, before patting the pair on their shoulders. "Of course. I didn't need to take things so solemnly, right?"

"Right!"

"How about we go back to my home and visit Princess Twilight and the others? Tonight's Nightmare Night, after all, and what better than demons, shadows with magical powers and ghosts to give them all a good fright?"

Lena and Dani shared a glance. "Sounds like a plan!"

As Sunset picked up the glasses and took them to wash, the girls smiled at each other.

"We are one, huh?" Lena asked, offering her fist to Dani.

"We are one," the ghost replied, bumping her fist with her own.


End Chapter