Adventure. Such a simple word, only three syllables, and yet, that single word can contain so many memories for so many ponies. For one, it can mean travelling into the unknown, searching for something new and risking your life just for the thrill of the discovery. For another, it means the process of discovering oneself, journeying into the deepest recesses of the mind in order to found something you never thought you had it in you. Even for some people, it just means a little bit of both, venturing into the unknown, and discovering oneself in the process.
The current predicament I am in seems to firmly fit into the third category. I am discovering new things, and learning a great many things about myself in the process. Well, perhaps less on myself and more on the companion that is sitting right next to me right now. A companion that’s looking at me, drinking her coffee, and generally having a good time in the coffee shop right now.
“Hey Sunset? What’s wrong?” The companion asked, her bulbous eyes intently looking at my face, seemingly examining every single muscular movement I did. “You seem to be lost a while back.”
“Huh? What?” I replied, finally snapping back to reality from my extended process of introspection. “Oh, It’s nothing Sonata. I’m just wondering about stuff, that’s all.”
“And what’s that stuff about?” She pushed. “C’mon Sunset, the battle of the bands is sooo like a couple years ago.”
Alright, this ‘adventure’ isn’t really an adventure at all, unless you count hanging at a coffee shop and talking with your best friends as an adventure. Still, with our history together, I can’t help but feel like we’re both writing a new chapter in some big adventure book somewhere, when your friend is a former siren, lots of things can feel like an adventure for you.
I sighed at her. She’s such a sweet girl. If it weren’t for the fact that I knew her as a siren, I would’ve never thought she’d do half the things she did. After the battle of the bands, we’d… kinda separated on our own ways. I myself have school to finish, while Sonata was doing… Wait, I don’t think I know what she’s doing nowadays. Is she going to some other school? Is she still singing? How did she even make money in the first place?
Huh, that’s an interesting thought, and with that in mind…
“I was actually thinking of you Sonata. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you in school or anything, how do you pay your bills? I mean, surely you work or something.”
“Oh, that? Paying the bills and stuff? Pffft! That’s easy! we did a TON of gigs at various clubs and stuff! They pay us REALLY well Sunset, let me tell ya. Honestly, with someone like you, I think they’ll pay you really well too. You should probably try it!”
It took me a couple of seconds to process what she just said. This is an outcome I certainly didn’t expect, I originally asked that question on the intent to distract her, skew her off into a tangent, make sure my musings are for me and me alone to contemplate. Did she just? Is she?
“Sonata, are you uhh… you know, working those kind of jobs? Not to shame you or anything, but… are you?”
“Huh? What’re you talking about sunset? What kind of job?”
“You know.” I said, slowly moving closer and whispering something to her ear. I noticed Sonata’s face change, her eyes widened, her cheeks flushing, and her mouth now forming a big O.
“Oooohhhh, that. No, I don’t do that kind of performance Sunset, just some singing! Nothing really sleazy or whatever. Gosh! I don’t think I could live with myself if I did those things. Heheh.”
I sighed, this time in relief. Truly, this is an adventure, an adventure of the mind and heart.
“Anyway, Sunset. I can tell that you’re a bit peeved about something. Did something happen?” She asked. “Is it your love life? Because if that’s what you’re thinking, then I know a perfect remedy for-”
“What?!? No! No!!” I stammered. Where did Sonata even get that idea in the first place? “I’m fine Sonata. It’s just… ugh.”
“Is it that portal by the high school?” She then asked. Completely to my surprise, how did-
“How do you know about the portal? I thought nobody knew about that outside of…”
“Your friends? Oh yeah! Definitely, I just heard Pinkie chatting up about it the other day. No biggie honestly, I’m not really interested in getting all that Equestrian magic back honestly. That’s more Aria’s thing.”
I facepalmed as Sonata explained how she got the whole idea. Honestly, I have to talk with Pinkie about not blabbing around whenever she pleases, It’s going to lead to us to deep trouble one day.
Speaking of trouble. I know there’s one thing I must do.
“Hey, Sonata, I know that we’re friends and all. But can you keep that to yourself? You know, the thing about the portal and all?”
“Oh, definitely!” Sonata answered, her usual happy go lucky tone bleeding through as usual. “Your secret’s safe with me Sunset. Although I’m not sure about Pinkie Pie… she seems to be too much of a blabbermouth to keep anything on tight lip.”
“Oh, oh yeah. Don’t worry about that Sonata. I’ll take care of that one.” I finished. Now drinking my coffee in earnest. I kept a note on my mind to visit Pinkie someday, but for now, I just need to finish my day with Sonata and check at the portal again.
“Oohh. So this is where the portal’s located!” Sonata said, the former siren looking over the statue, examining, prodding, and touching every single piece of marble she can get her hands on. She’s almost acting like a kid in a candy store, with the candy being the statue of course, incessantly and unapologetically curious and yet, at the same time, in awe at the display in front of her. “I never thought that the way back home would be located in here out of all places. I mean, who knew?!? Just right under our noses is Equestria itself!”
“Hey uhh, Sonata. You’re getting a bit close to the portal. I don’t want you running off into Equestria or something.”
“What? oh, don’t worry about that Sunset. It’s not that I want to go back anyway. I know the last time I was there, didn’t really ended up well for the three of us.”
I breathed a sigh of relief the moment she said that. It has always been in the back of my mind now, Sonata and her dazzling pals silently slinking off into the night, evil intent in mind, before she suddenly leaps off into the portal and unleashes chaos in Equestria.
Well, fortunately for me, assuming that happened, there’s a current predicament with the portal that’ll give all of them a nasty surprise.
“Well that’s nice Sonata, I thought you would’ve jumped into the portal or something. It would’ve been such a weird trip to the hospital, telling the nurse that you got a head injury because you jumped into a statue.”
“Hmm? What? What are you talking about sunset?” the Siren questioned. “What head injury? wouldn’t I’d be fine if I jumped into the portal? At least from Pinkie’s explanations, the portal is like, not solid right?”
“Normally, it should be. It should be just a jump and I’d be back in Equestria. But...”
I walked into the portal, hand outstretched into the mirror-like walls, and felt the cold touch of concrete and glass on my hands. “For some reason the portal’s not working. I’m not sure what happened on the other side, because I’m pretty sure I did nothing much to interfere with the portal’s mechanisms, but something happened on the Equestrian side that made the portal go haywire.”
My explanation seems to have piqued the interest of the blue haired girl. Now walking towards the wall and touching it as well. “Oh wow!” She said. “It is just solid wall. Who would’ve thought?!? That’s super weird...”
“But, don’t you have that book where Princess Twilight tells you about stuff? Y’know, that kind of text messaging book or something? Shouldn’t she tell you what happened on her side?”
I raised my eyebrow once more, firstly thinking that Sonata was some sort of psychic, but a thought dawned on me as I pieced the puzzle pieces together. “Pinkie?” I asked.
“Yep!”
“UUGH!! Now I really need to talk to her!! What in the world is she thinking?!? Blabbering secrets like that!!”
Now I’m not happy, visibly frowning now, just thinking about the stuff that I need to talk to Pinkie, about keeping secrets, about being trustworthy, about being dependable and maintaining a quiet mouth is just making me even angrier. C’mon Pinkie! just what are you thinking?!? Blabbering about the portal just like that! What kind of friend are you?!?
I imagine that Pinkie will be super peeved about that, but a good friend doesn’t mean being nuzzly and friendly all the time. The sooner I get this over with, the better.
“Anyway, to answer your question. She would’ve, but whenever I wrote on the book, there’s literally no response. Like, at all. And before you ask, it is weird.”
It’s way more than just feeling weird, I feel like I’m stranded, almost left for dead if you want to stretch it. Perhaps It’s just Twilight being busy, or something else that’s much more mundane, but being away for this long. So long that It’s been a couple of years since the portal opened. Well, I can’t help but get a little bit nervous. I mean, what if something happened to Equestria while I’m gone? Is there a war? Did Equestria get destroyed or something?
This lack of answers have been gnawing at my mind for years now. It’s past 30 moons already for pony’s sake! this damn portal should open! I want to see Twilight again and…
I miss Equestria…
“Sunset? Are you alright?”
“What? Oh, I’m fine. Thanks for the concern Sonata.” I said, now leaning into the now defunct mirror portal. I mean, the portal’s dead and all, what’s the worst that could happen?
“I’m Just wondering what happened to the portal, that’s all. Y’know, just concerned about what’s Twilight doing. All that fun stuff.”
Sonata listened, her head nodding and her interest now piqued, further interested in what I have to say, she stopped prodding around the statue and started getting closer, now leaning into the same defunct mirror portal with me. Giving me her ear and listening attentively as I spilled more and more about my concerns to her.
This feels nice.
“I mean, she is the Princess of Friendship, and also probably one of the best spell casters of all time. So I don’t expect her to need my help or anything. But, y’know, it’s nice to keep in touch and all. Don’t you agree?”
“Oh yeah, definitely.” Sonata nodded. “One of the things I missed about Equestria is just how calm everything is. Sure, there’s like, a buuunch of areas around Canterlot city that’s like, super calm and everything, but it doesn’t feel the same y’know? The calmness around Equestria is much more natural, much more serene, I don’t usually hear the sounds of cars when I’m in a forest back in Equestria. Ugh, cars. Hate them.”
“Definitely!” I complemented. “Never was a fan of cars, big, hunking, high maintenance pieces of metal. I don't know if you were there to watch it, but there’s a time when some of Flash’s friends just trashed, and I mean trashed his car, and-”
I didn’t manage to fit in that last sentence when the world suddenly turned upside down, all I see are rainbows as my body felt stretched and modified beyond belief. Wait, is this?
“Whaaaaat iiiiiiiiiissss haaaappeeeeniiiiiing?!?” I said to myself, in confusion by what’s happening around me. Is the portal really opening at this moment? When myself and Sonata are just talking about stuff? Chalk that up to my misfortune I guess…
Suddenly, everything went blank, and everything was blank up until I opened up my eyes. The first thing I saw with my two eyes is white, almost pure white marble. I shook my head as my vision got clearer, and it seems that I was in what looks like the interior of Canterlot castle.
And in front of me is what looks like a purple pony. A purple pony that I may be all too familiar with.
“Oh gosh! The spell worked! It actually worked!!!” The purple pony exclaimed, now rushing into my direction and hugging me, my body visibly deforming as she squeezed me into submission.
“Twilight, Twilight!! Stop it. I can’t… breathe…”
“What? Oh, sorry sorry!!” Twilight said, now backing away and smiling at me. “Well, at least it worked!! Sorry for the very long AWOL sunset. I know it must be hard on you.”
“Well, yeah. What happened Twilight?” I asked her. Now standing up and shaking my head, the remnants of my disorientation going away the more I looked at her. Ponyfeathers! She has indeed grown! Maybe not Celestia tall, but she’s certainly taller than me. Also, is her mane flowing? W-wow! How old is she even?
“Well, a lot of things have happened since that portal went haywire. Like, a lot. Maybe It’s better to show you than to explain it to you.”
At that moment, I noticed the place that we’re standing in. Hmm, it seems that we’re in some room within Canterlot Castle, I look upwards and saw chandeliers hanging above me, and all around me are numerous pieces of paper strewn around, an old wooden table, a wooden chair, and what looks like a makeshift bed as well.
Now that I think of it, the room kinda smells. It smells like sweat, body odour and probably a bit too much recycled air inside here. Something tells me that Twilight has been a bit too busy researching how to make the portal work again. The condition of this room tells me everything I need to know about her.
“Hey Twilight? Just how long have you’ve been researching on the portal?” I asked. Following her towards one of the closed windows within the room. Wait, what is that sound? It sounds like an engine revving. What?
“Oh, years Sunset. Celestia and Luna actually gave me this room to do my research. It’s been almost 3 decades since you’ve been gone Sunset. And a lot has changed in Equestria.”
“Wait, what? What has changed?” I heard a voice behind me, turning my head around. I saw a sight I certainly didn’t expect.
Sonata Dusk, not in human form, but… in… Seapony form? She looks like a crossover between a seapony and a siren, and she’s also… floating? I have so many questions right now.
“Sonata!! I thought you’d be more, uhh, sirenish!”
“What?” She questioned, then turned to look at herself. It didn’t take a long time for her to look just as confused as I do. Scratching her hoof flipper thing on her head. “Yeah, that is weird.”
“Wait, Sonata Dusk? As in, the Dazzlings?” Twilight asked. Her face taking a more serious turn as she started powering up her horn. “Sunset, stay back. If Sonata tries anything to hurt you I’ll-”
“Wait wait wait!! Twilight, stop!! I’m friends with Sonata!”
The princess of friendship’s focused determination took a sudden hit from that last statement of mine. Like a flick of a switch, her horn powered down and she looked at me with visible confusion. “You’re friends with her? What happened?”
“Well, not a lot honestly. Sonata’s the nicest out of all the Dazzlings, and after that battle, and a couple of meetings together, we… kinda, well, clicked. Okay, It’s perhaps a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it really.”
Twilight seemed unconvinced by my sudden explanation, natural given that that the last memory between herself and my friend here is during a battle to determine a high school’s fate. Nonetheless, she seemed to have dialed down her hostility towards Sonata, at least for now.
“Well, I may not believe her, but I do trust your judgement Sunset. Anyway, I think that you need to see just how much has changed.”
She finally opened the curtains, and I started trotting towards it to see what was in front of me, the more I looked, the more my face turned from visible interest, to just outright confusion. I turned my head and saw Sonata forming a similar face, pointing her hoof-flippers at certain sights while her eyes squinted for sometime, before widening up, and then squinting once more. Her mouth mimicking the movement of her eyes to an extent.
It feels like we’re back at Canterlot city once again, a bit less technologically advanced, but nonetheless still back. The curtain revealed a window towards the valley below the mountain, where I saw not only train tracks, but visible tracks of asphalt, and… are those cars? They have cars in Equestria now? And what are those trains? They’re unlike any of the trains I’ve seen.
Also, wow. That’s Ponyville? That sizeable city in the valley below is Ponyville?
“Twilight, I have so many questions.”
“I’m sure you do Sunset, please, ask away.”