//------------------------------// // 8 - Unveiled Truths // Story: A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - Amalgam // by gerandakis //------------------------------// Chapter Eight Unveiled Truths Sunset shared a relaxed late afternoon snack with Lyra while the three professors had breakfast. Eating in the Great Hall when it was so empty was bizarre to her. Sitting at the head table was more so. She had only seen the Hall from something approaching this perspective once, on her first evening at Hogwarts, as she was waiting to be sorted. Glancing at Lyra beside her, she couldn’t help but smile mischievously. She suddenly understood why the sorting was such a well kept secret. She certainly wasn’t going to be spoiling the surprise. Conversation, when it wasn’t focused on Lyra and her questions about humans, mainly revolved around the school’s need for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It was that topic that reminded Sunset of something. “Say, Professor Dumbledore,” she chimed in when there was a lull in the three teachers’ conversation. “I’ve heard the stories, but is there actually a curse on that teaching position?” Dumbledore sighed wearily. “I have never found a trace of any spell, curse, or jinx on the position. I have found nothing in the classrooms for the subject, nor in the teacher’s office and living quarters. For several years I moved one or the other to a different location, just to see if it would have any effect. I even had the name of the subject changed in a number of ways in some years. None had any effect and I never found any other indication of magic acting on the position or the one holding it.” He sighed again. “And yet, for forty-six years now, no teacher has held the position for more than a year at once. And never more than once for the same reason. Some returned to teach the subject for a second year some time later, one even did so twice, but no teacher ever held the position for two consecutive years. If there is a curse, I have not found it, but if there isn’t one, we are dealing with an unprecedented chain of misfortunate coincidences. “I cannot find it in myself to believe the latter option over the former.” As Professor Dumbledore returned his attention to the other professors, Sunset and Lyra found themselves discussing the implications of that admission. None of them were specialists on the subjects, but the basic mechanics of curses were covered in the first year at Princess Celestia’s School. The curse, assuming there was one, was manipulating chance to ensure no teacher kept the position for more than a year. Sunset had read Hogwarts: A History and several of the reasons teachers had left over the years were truly contrived. The way things came together spoke of planning, almost as if there was some level of sentience to the curse. But a simple spell shouldn’t be able to do that. It would, at the very least, require a powerful anchor. Sentient magical items were not unheard of, in a school where talking portraits and hats were a possibility, a magically created sentience controlling the curse’s actions didn’t seem too far fetched. But such a curse would still have to be powerful dark magic. And there were rather few places at Hogwarts where one could hide such a thing. The keystones that maintained the wards came to mind, but Sunset had studied them all carefully during the previous year’s upgrades, if the curse had been anchored in one of them, she would have certainly noticed. But if it wasn’t anchored in the wards themselves, any dark magic powerful enough should easily be picked up by them. The two of them found they could well understand the Headmaster’s lack of success in finding the curse or even confirming that there was one. The very logistics of it should be impossible. Perhaps they should ask Princess Celestia. She was still a good bit older than the school and its wards. If anypony could help them figure out where or how the curse could be hidden, it would be her. To say the rest of the group was surprised when Sunset and Philomena suddenly appeared beside the table where they were having dinner with Princess Celestia would have been an exaggeration. Some of them jumped at the sudden burst of fire, sure, but they had all been expecting the two of them to make an appearance some time soon. That they had brought another unicorn filly with them was less expected, but also not entirely surprising given recent trends. When said filly ran up to Princess Celestia with a yell of ‘Thank yooouuu!’ they were a little more surprised, but given the Princess’ only response was to reach out a hoof to forestall the young filly for a moment while she put down her fork and swallowed the bite currently in her mouth before smoothly flowing into her human form, sitting down on her cushion once more and letting the little mint green unicorn curl up in her lap after hugging her fiercely, they all assumed that she, at least, understood what was going on. Sunset and Philomena simultaneously rolling their eyes before sitting down at the table themselves also helped calm them. The princess introducing Lyra while gently stroking the ears of the filly that was now practically melting in her lap, much to her amusement, was met with polite greetings that soon stopped when they realized Lyra wasn’t hearing any of it. The announcement that Lyra would be joining them at Hogwarts for the next year of school sparked great enthusiasm from the group. They all speculated if she would be joining them in Gryffindor, but ultimately decided it would be alright so long as she didn’t end up in Slytherin. At least the Weasleys said that, the others agreed either noncommittally, or to appease them. Lavender’s idle comment that Slytherin green would clash terribly with Lyra’s mane color sparked a round of laughter. Sunset nervously glanced at Hermione’s reassuring smile. Her sister simply gave her a nod. Suppressing a sigh, Sunset turned to the two other girls. All of them, Lavender, Ginny, Hermione and Sunset, were lying on the bed in Sunset’s suite, yet there was still plenty of room for them. Truth be told, Sunset wasn’t sure why her suite had such a massive bed. She would have understood it being sized to an adult pony, but it was sized to fit at least three adult ponies comfortably, four of five if they squeezed a little. Why she would ever need such a large bed for was a mystery to her. Unless … Of course! Princess Celestia. Thinking about it, Sunset could actually think of multiple occasions the princess had slept with her in this bed, comforting her through her very presence. The first time she’d been foalnapped, for example. Sunset shook her head forcefully, prompting confused glances from Lavender and Ginny and another encouraging nod from Hermione. She was getting distracted. Magic required a lot of mental control, so she recognized her own thoughts getting away from her as she was instinctively trying to think about anything but the matter at hoof. Hermione had pointed out to her that this would be an ideal opportunity to finally read up on her new … friend. She had agreed, but felt the need to point out that Ginny and Lavender were staying in the room with them. Hermione, always reasonable, had simply pointed out that there was no way she’d be able to hide something like that forever anyway and that these girls were their friends. She could trust them. Intellectually, Sunset knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. She never had been the best at controlling her emotions. After their hushed conversation, Hermione had told the others that there was something Sunset wanted to tell them, so they had all settled on the bed. Now the other two were looking at her expectantly. “Alright,” she finally spoke up. “Sorry, this is a bit hard to explain.” “Do you think the book you used to show me might help?” Hermione asked gently. Sunset thought the idea over, then nodded, sending her sister rushing off to quickly fetch the book. Feeling the comforting warmth of the connection the two of them shared fade as she got further away didn’t help keep Sunset calm at all. At least the other two were now staring at the corner Hermione had vanished around rather than at her. Before long, Hermione was back, the book held in her magic. “Equestrian wildlife?” Sunset didn’t need to look at Ginny to see her skepticism, her tone was quite clear. Apparently deciding to help Sunset, Hermione spoke up. “A few days ago, the night before we toured Ponyville, I woke up at night and realized Sunset was gone.” In a few concise sentences, Hermione summed up the events that had brought the two of them to this suite that night, finishing with, “when I looked, she was reading this book.” She poked a hoof at the tome before folding it open with her magic. “Opened to this page.” The two of them gave Ginny and Lavender a few moments to read the entry. They could see their eyes flashing back and forth between the text and the illustration, occasionally looking over to shoot Sunset a confused glance. After a few minutes, both of them looked at each other, then back at Sunset. “So, any particular reason you were looking up that in the middle of the night?” Ginny asked pointedly, prompting Sunset to groan and Hermione to giggle. If anything, the skepticism in her voice had grown more pronounced, and this time Sunset actually was looking at her. “You know, I asked her the same thing.” Sunset threw Hermione a pained glance before focusing back on Ginny. “Why do you think?” Ginny looked at her for a moment longer, then glanced back at the book for a split second before looking back at Sunset. Slowly, her gaze drifted from Sunset’s eyes down to her barrel. “No. Are you telling me-? You know, you have been eating more these last few days.” Sunset simply nodded. “Really?” Ginny grinned. “Oh just wait until Fred and George hear about this. Just make sure I get to see their expressions. You wouldn’t believe how many of their plans to prank you involved giving you something to eat.” Sunset stared at Ginny disbelievingly. “That is the thing you focus on? Seriously?” Lavender just shrugged. “I can see why. These things are kinda tame compared to some of the other magical creatures we’ll get to deal with if we take that subject for third year. Trust me, I know, my mum has a NEWT in that.” Hermione simply smirked at Sunset. “And here you were worried about how they’d react.” Sunset snorted. “Sorry, I’m just the unicorn from another dimension with a mini-lizard-pony-thing living in her gut and a phoenix for a familiar. I guess I’m not used to being the normal one here.” The others looked at her for a few moments, then broke into giggles, accompanied by a series of musical trills from Philomena’s perch. After a few moments, Sunset joined in herself. Her situation was just too surreal put like that. “Have you told any of the others yet?” Lavender asked after a moment… then smacked herself a bit as she said, “Wait, dumb question. You wouldn’t have been so nervous if you had… think your parents are going to be bothered when you tell them?” “My parents?” Sunset snorted. “Lavender, I haven’t talked to my parents in over eight years. Of my biological family, my brother is the one I’m closest to and I haven’t talked to him in two years.” She sighed. “I probably should at some point. But that isn’t the point anyway. I know they’d be fine with it. Alp-Luachra are pretty uncommon and somepony being chosen as a host is rare. Seriously rare. Culturally it’s actually seen as a great honor by those who know about it. Though that doesn’t make it feel any less weird.” “You know,” Hermione idly pointed out, “I think she was talking about my family.” Lavender just nodded pointedly. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll make sure they don’t freak out.” Sunset nodded and sighed as she got up and quickly shifted to human form to reach into her bag and pull out the tome she’d borrowed from the royal archives. Ginny’s eyes widened in recognition. “Wait, isn’t that the book you two have been trying to read for a few days now?” Sunset nodded as she settled back onto the bed, not bothering to shift back. There was something nice about lying on the bed as a human surrounded by small ponies. “It is. There should be something more about their magical properties in here. We just haven’t gotten any chance to read it yet.” “And we knew you’d ask,” Hermione pointed out logically, “hence why we told you now.” Lavender flapped her wings to settle on Sunset’s back, careful not to harm the girl with her claws, and looked into the book over her shoulder. “So what language is that now?” “Oh, that’s Griffonian.” Lavender stared at the back of Sunset’s head for a moment, before flapping again and landing before the girl to stare pointedly at her. “And you didn’t think the griffin of the group would like to be able to speak that language?” Sunset chuckled ruefully. She placed a glowing finger against her temple and, when she removed it a few seconds later, pulled an orb of teal light from it. Rolling over to free up her other arm, she brought her other hand up to the orb and pulled them apart a few moments later. Suddenly, she held two identical orbs, one in each hand. She grinned as Lavender and Ginny eagerly came up and gently dropped one of the translation matrices into each of their heads. Seeing them wincing, she was reminded of the momentary, stinging headache learning a language this way always brought with it. Sitting up, she pulled the two of them into a gentle hug to keep them distracted until the unpleasant sensation faded. Then, after seeing Hermione’s expression, she rolled her eyes and lit up her magic, pulling her sister into the hug as well. “I don’t think I’m going to ever get used to that.” Lavender groaned after a moment. Ginny nodded even as she seemed to recover a little more readily. “Still, it beats having to learn a language yourself,” Ginny pointed out, visibly growing more excited by the second as the pain continued to fade and her mind assimilated the information. “I remember when I tried to learn French once. Merlin, that was confusing.” Sunset chuckled lightly. “Want me to teach you French as well?” Ginny stared at her for a moment, narrowing her eyes. The expression of suspicion was somewhat undercut by her still being curled up in Sunset’s arms as a little white pegasus. “You’re not joking, are you? You actually could do that. Just how many languages do you speak?” “Eight, I think. I don’t really keep count.” Lavender stared at her for a moment, then gently used her wing to push Sunset’s arm aside and disentangle herself from the hug to turn back to the book. “Moving swiftly on, any idea where in this book I need to look?” With a giggle, Hermione lit her horn and opened the book to a specific page before her and Ginny also extricated themselves from Sunset’s arms to look at the book. Sunset watched them in amusement for a few moments before shifting back and joining them. So they read. They all looked over the book page by page before curling up beside one another and closing their eyes to actually process what they’d just seen. It certainly cut down on issues with one person reading faster than the rest and having to wait before turning a page. After half an hour of silently going through the text, Ginny finally stirred and turned to look at Sunset. When Sunset turned to meet her gaze, she smirked. “So... when do we get to meet her?”