//------------------------------// // Page 1: Orphans // Story: A Unicorn in the Clover Kingdom // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Sunset fell through the portal before a sense of vertigo overcame her and she found herself stumbling around in the dark. Her body didn’t seem right and when she tried to move one of her forelegs, it felt completely wrong. A second of concentration that should have lit up her horn with a basic light spell only produced a brief spark and made her head hurt just a but before she felt something beneath her. Wood. She was standing on wood. But, her limbs were...wrong. something extended from the end of her hooves and her hind legs extended past the point where they should have been hind hooves. Then there was the wood, which she actually felt. The greatest amount of tactile response for a pony was the nose, which had the least amount of fuzz and was why ponies like Cadenza liked to give Sunset a little nuzzle every day before they started their lesson. But what Sunset felt coming from her malformed hooves surpassed all of that. She might as well have been standing on the frog of her hooves for how much sensation she was getting. Muffled voiced sounded from not too far away over what could have been rain falling on the roof of...wherever she was. A door opened in front of her and Sunset realized she was in a small room that was barely big enough to stand up in as the mirror she had come through lay on its side. Some light came in from the outside, but it wasn’t very much and had a weird tint to it, like Celestia had decided to just stop the sun right when she had gotten to the horizon.  Outside the door, there were these three...creatures. They were large and odd looking, standing on the hind legs like diamond dogs, or immature dragons. But that was where the similarities ended, because the parts of their bodies Sunset could see that weren’t covered in cloth where completely hairless. They looked absolutely freakish. “Wha-What is that little urchin doing inside my wagon?” the one in the middle, a fat male with far too many jewels in his clothing screeched in a voice that sounded like someone tearing into a chalkboard. “Is she trying to steal my new acquisitions? Those are artifacts that were owned by the first Wizard King! Teach that little rat a lesson!” Sunset blinked in confusion as she suddenly felt an odd stirring of magic around her through senses that felt like the unicorn had a bad case of horn blockage. Then, the two other bipedal creatures were holding a pair of floating books that glowed with magic. “What the hay are you two-” The one of the left, thinnest of the three, began talking. “Chain Magic: Choking Chain!” A slight length of chain flew out of the book the thin man was holding and Sunset focused her on power in alarm, only to be hit with another splitting headache a second before she felt the chain wrap around her neck and jerk her whole body forward until she fell out of the covered wagon and onto the muddy ground. Sunset reached up to try and free herself, her frantic mind not caring for the moment that her hooves were now the same strange clawless appendages that the creatures above her had. She tried to talk, tried to just force some air into her lungs, but the chain wrapped around her neck prevented her from accomplishing either. The other naked ape, which was the only description Sunset could ascribe to these creatures, held up his book with arms that were a good deal bigger than the other book user. “Enhancement Magic: Striking Shoes.” Then, Sunset felt something hit her in the stomach, forcing out what little air she had left before she was kicked again, and again, and again. A...something broke in her body and pain started to fade away with her vision as her body went numb and the darkness began to close in around her. This...wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Princess Celestia...help me, Sunset begged through the pain as she tried to curl up into a ball to protect herself. “HEY! JUST WHAT DO YOU JERKS THING YOU’RE DOING?” a rather obnoxious sounding voice cut through the darkness before the pain died away. “More of these flea-ridden mongrels?” the fat ape said to his cohorts. “Get rid of them.” Before Sunset blacked out, she felt a very strong gust of wind whip around her, followed by the fat man’s panicked screams. “AAAH! Put me down you filthy rat!” Yuno frowned as he watched the fat merchant and his hired goons chase after their wagon and carriage as the two teams of horses galloped away. Although he didn’t let it show on his face, the teen was glad that Asta had thrown those rocks that ended up hitting the animals and caused them to panic. While the black-haired youth was the most powerful magic user in the village and for far as he knew beyond, it would still be almost another year before he would go to the tower that could be seen on the horizon and receive a grimoire to unlock his true power. Going up against a pair of full-grown men who already had their tomes of magic might have been pushing it.  They weren’t magic knights, but they had been impressive enough to at least get some self-important merchant to hire them as protection from bandits. “Hey Yuno, I think she’s hurt!” Asta called out as he knelt over the redhead’s unconscious body. The comment got a little groan from Yuno as he walked over to the much shorter boy with the gray hair. Unlike Yuno, Asta had absolutely no talent for magic; less than none, in fact. While some people could at least perform some kind of mana manipulation, starting fires with a spark, creating water to wash clothes, or make slight grooves in the ground for planting crops, Asta couldn’t do anything. His powers would probably come through when he got his grimoire, but it was still rather odd. “Of course she’s hurt,” Yuno told him evenly as he knelt down to look at the girl. She looked about their age...maybe. It was hard to tell with teenage girls. Especially since Asta and Yuno were the only children in their age range at the orphanage. Sister Lilly was in her early twenties, and the girl laying in the mud was a good deal younger-looking than Sister Lilly. “Not everyone does a million strength building exercises a day like you do.” It was hard not to call Asta an idiot, but Yuno wouldn’t be the one to lose and start with the insults no matter how Asta needled him. Putting his sort-of brother out of his mind for the moment, Yuno knelt down and looked the girl over. The swelling had already started and from what his hands could tell, she probably had a few cracked, if not broken ribs. The big guy had also given her a good kick to the head before Yuno had been able to stop them from attacking. Her neck didn’t look in good shape either with the imprint of that metal chain still there. The girl was dressed in some high quality leather pants and matching boots, while her top was made from good cotton. Whoever the redhead was, she wasn’t some poor homeless child. A runaway? Yuno asked himself as he tried to think of why a girl that had ten times more than he ever did would have left home. It didn’t make sense to him at all, so his mind settled on a much more likely possibility. Or a kidnap victim. Father Orsi Orfai liked to tell the younger children that bad men might come and take them if they stayed out too late after dark. Yuno knew that there weren’t any people like that around Hage Village, but then...the people he had just chased away had only been traveling through the village. Although he didn’t want to aggravate her injuries, leaving her in the middle of the road with night almost here wasn’t an option either. Hopefully, Sister Lilly’s healing magic would be able to undo the damage to the stranger’s body. Yuno was about to tell Asta to help him pick her up when he heard the sound of something...vibrating? There was a light coming from the girl’s backpack, which Asta immediately opened to look through and pull out a large book with a red and gold sun on one end and another sun on the other, albeit less stylized. “Hey Yuno, check it out! She’s got a grimoire!” Unable to hide his surprise, Yuno looked up as Asta held a glowing magical tome almost too thick for him to put his fingers around at the edge as it shook in his hands. But, there was something different about it in comparison to every other magical book he had ever seen.  There was no clover on the front. He remembered Sister Lilly telling him once that not every book out there had a clover, but it had just been an offhand comment and Yuno couldn’t remember her saying what symbol was there in its stead. “Awww! I can’t read this one either!” Asta complained. Distracted once again, Yuno looked back up at Asta. “Nobody can read grimoires,” he said in response to Asta’s ignorance before glancing back down at the girl. She still looked a little too young to have a grimoire. Asta turned the book around so that Yuno could see the golden script. “Yeah, but this looks way different than the stuff in Sister Lilly’s and Father Orsi’s books.” “We don’t have time to mess around. Now put that away and help me get her to the orphanage, she needs Sister Lilly’s healing magic,” Yuno told the shorter boy before looking back at the roll of cloth they had been sent into town to buy sitting in the mudd. Sunset awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling. It was a red wood ceiling that looked like it was about to cave in and patched in a dozen different places. All in all, it matched the rest of the building, made from crumbling brick and mortar. In short, the place was a total dump. The haze of her mind quickly disappeared when she remembered what happened before sitting upward to reach for her neck. As soon as she touched it, Sunset felt her entire body scream in pain and she let out a cry. At least, she tried to, what came out was only a gurgle before she fell back onto the hard bed underneath her. What happened to me? Sunset asked as she raised her hooves to find that they were no longer there. In their place were the clawless digits the other creatures had. A second later, she reached for her face and felt around. Her muzzle was gone and air was coming through a misshapen protrusion that had the air holes pointing down instead of forward. The rest of her body had similarly been changed and with a great deal of trepidation, Sunset reached up to the middle of her head where a lack of sensory input already told her what the new appendages only confirmed. Her horn was missing. Tears swelled in Sunset’s eyes over the loss. Her magic. Everything that made her worthwhile. How was she supposed to use magic without her horn? I should have just let Celestia’s guards get rid of me, Sunset through to herself. Or those stallions, they should have killed her while she was laying in the mud. It would have been preferable to living without her magic. Wait…  The stallions...hadn’t they used magic? That small light of hope was crushed when she realized they had pulled out magical books first. Such things existed in Equestria, self-powering spells that were built around doing a few very specific things. But they were a poor substitute for a unicorn skilled in magic like Sunset. “Sister Lilly, she’s awake!” the sound of a foal’s voice cried out before Sunset heard something scampering across the floor. It sounded wrong and unnatural not to hear hooves on stone. A door to Sunset’s left opened and she watched as another biped came walking into the room. It was dressed in some kind of robe of black with a little bit of white on top. A strange t medallion hung from its neck, but gave off no magical power whatsoever. “Hello there! It’s good to see you’re alright. You took quote a nasty blow to the head. For awhile, I didn’t think my healing magic was going to be enough to save you.” The female spoke in a gentle voice that reminded Sunset a little too much of Celestia. The old Celestia that had been gentle and kind enough to let a homeless foal into her castle before becoming demanding and cold while telling Sunset to do impossible things. Sunset blinked away her tears and opened her mouth to ask where she was. When she tried to talk again, she only made a tiny sound before a spike of pain stopped her. “Whoa, hold you horses there,” Lilly told Sunset as she opened her book. “I had to concentrate on your head injury and make sure your ribs weren’t going to puncture a lung. It will still be a while before you’re well enough to talk again. But, I’ll do what I can for now.” Sunset stopped any attempt to protest no matter how much she wanted to tell the bipedal creature to buzz off and focused all of her senses on what the female was doing. Despite her horn being missing and causing her senses to be dampened, Sunset could still feel the magic being used. It was...more crude than she expected, almost wild. Then, the woman’s mana was filtered through her book and snapped into place in a complete juxtaposition of what Sunset had felt before as moisture collected around Sunset’s throat. It’s some kind of matrix for directing the mana, she realized. There might have been some kind of amplification effect as well, but she would need more time to study the magic. It also looked like the set output for naked ape magic were their clawless digits. When the magic had finished, the spike of pain had faded to a dull throb. “There we go,” the female told Sunset before she started to get up. “Now, I’d recommend not talking for at least day before I can come back to heal you some more tomorrow. And even then, you’re going to be a little hoarse for the next two or three days after that.” As the female started to get up, Sunset reached out and grabber her...well, whatever these creatures called a fetlock. The former pony opened her mouth again, but stopped. What was she even going to say? Ask for help back home? She couldn’t go back to Equestria. She knew too much. “Is something wrong” Sister Lilly asked. But to be stuck here, looking like this and having no horn… Sunset eyes began to water. A gentle touch enveloped Sunset’s digited hoof and the larger female knelt down to wrap her in a hug. “It’s alright. You’re safe here,” the female told Sunset as she held her close. Memories from the night before played in her mind again, and it became impossible to see things through the tears as she began to cry. The anguish from learning the truth about Celestia. The fear from the night before. The pain of losing her horn and coming to this strange land. She let it all out, not caring how much her throat hurt as it simply let out the raw sound of how Sunset was feeling at the moment. The hug only tightened as Sunset cried herself out. “There, there. It’ll be okay. Everything will be okay now.” Another person came to see Sunset in the following hours, but communication was hard. They didn’t give her any paper, but all he asked were simple yes or no questions. No, she didn’t know where her parents were. No, she didn’t know where Hodge village was. No, she wasn’t from the Noble or Common realms, whatever those were. Yes, she was hungry. That was quickly followed by feeding her some kind of potato that made her thirsty. When asked about her age and the creature telling her to demonstrate with her ‘hands’ she got nervous. It was obvious that they were in some kind of orphanage. Although it was tiny and run down compared the one she remembered from Canterlot, the sound of foals making noise all around was a clear giveaway. Ponies who were too old weren’t allowed to stay in an orphanage. For some reason, the man was intent on learning if Sunset was fourteen or fifteen. Finally, she settled on the younger age. That seemed to confuse him. “Then, that isn’t your grimoire?” Father Orsi asked as he pointed to the journal laying next to a satchel that looked like it was supposed to go across Sunset’s back rather than her midsection. Her saddlebags had apparently undergone alterations as well. Sunset thought about it for a moment. The book was certainly magical, but didn’t have any of the properties the human books did. Unable to give a real response, Sunset opened her hands and gave the man a shrug before opening her mouth and moving it without making any sound. The old man who looked a bit like Celestia’s majordomo Kibitz let out a sigh. “Well, I suppose there’s a story behind it then,” he said. “Strange, I’ve never seen a grimoire with so many pages that has been filled, but it lacks any of the affiliations. Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to tell us when your throat is full healed.” Sunset knew she would have a story made up by then. When it came time that Sunset needed to go to the outhouse, she saw it.  Filling the horizon was the skull of a giant creature that was equal in size to a small mountain, or a small mountain range if you counted the horns sticking out the side of its head. It looked like it had three eyes, and if it’s head had been so big, Sunset wondered how big it must have been when it had a full body. “Hmm?” Sister Lilly said before turning back to the girl. “Oh, right, you were brought here in the back of a covered wagon. Well, that’s Hage Village’s biggest tourist attraction, not that anyone wants to come and see the remains of the demon that almost destroyed the whole kingdom. There’s also a statue of the first Wizard King at the very top. I’m sure once you’re well enough, the boys would love to take you.” The rest of the day passed with Sunset learning a few more things from the humans talking around her and her own little experiments. The world she was in differed greatly from the one she left. For starters, there was a great deal more ambient mana in the background than in Equestria. Whether this was a natural occurrence or a side effect of not having environmental controls on everything from the weather to the sun, she didn’t know. Sunset had heard about places like the Everfree, where everything still ran wild, but the world around here didn’t look like a chaotic mishmash of death from which nopony could ever hope to escape. So, she simply explored her new body and got used to moving it as well as pushing magic through her hands rather than a horn. All in all, she didn’t like the human form. Hands didn’t have the precision of a horn, the things on her upper midsection were much too sensitive, her eyes couldn’t take in as much light, her ears didn’t hear as well as they used to, and toes were just weird. When night came, which meant she had less than twenty-four hours to go home if the mirror’s cycle had started the night she left, Sister Lilly applied her healing magic once again. More importantly, Sunset had gotten a look at her book from the other side around after getting it across to Sister Lilly that she wanted to see the book. The characters were almost nonsensical, but there was a structure to them and she could feel that there was a logic to the magic just by seeing how everything connected. She also met the two boys who had apparently saved her life... “SO THAT ISN’T A GRIMOIRE?” the short boy with the gray mane shouted as he almost stood right on top of her and pointed to one of the books on the desk. Sunset frowned at the boy. She had heard his name was Asta, one of the boys that had brought her back from the middle of the road the day before. If he wasn’t so loud and annoying, Sunset might have felt a bit of gratitude towards him. As it was, she considered not tossing him into the fireplace with her magic when she learned how to channel it properly would make them even. The other boy responsible for her not dying sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair as he stood next to one of the candelabras providing light to the room. From what Sunset had gathered, everyone at the orphanage was sleeping in the same room, but she was being allowed to sleep in the priest’s office (whatever a priest was) to be given some time to recover from a traumatic experience.  Sunset had been very thankful for the day of privacy. It had allowed her to take stock of herself and see how her body reacted to trying to channel mana, not to mention just getting up and walking around despite the pain it caused. Because she hadn’t been wanting to do anything too flashy or blow up the building she was in, the former unicorn had restricted herself to using very minor amounts of mana. Thankfully, Lilly thought the wet sheets were just a result of Sunset spilling a drink. Still, without the ability to actually speak, it was annoying to be spoken at as loud as possible. “Can you try to be a little quieter, Asta?” Yuno asked him in a way that sounded more like a command. “Some people are trying to get to sleep.” The comment got Sunset curious, so she pointed back and forth between the two. Asta just looked confused, but Yuno apparently picked up on what Sunset was getting to. “Sister Lilly wants us to watch you tonight in case you need anything or have any problems,” he explained. “She a says head injuries can cause problems for days afterwards and you shouldn’t be alone. Falling in your condition could be very bad, if not fatal.” “Then what is it and why can’t I read anything that’s in it?” Asta asked in a less eardrum-splitting voice. Sunset just gave him a half-lidded glare. Did he really expect her to answer him? For his part, Yuno just crossed his arms and looked over to Asta with a frown. “Most people can’t read what you write either, you know.” As the boy’s started to argue, Sunset looked down at herself. She had seen some of the books in the office. Although the verbal communication they used was the same, the written word was very different that Ponish or even Old Ponish. Maybe her transformation had included some kind of subconscious translation spell, but that sounded a bit too simple for Sunset. “AAAGH! I’m not made for just standing around and doing nothing,” Asta complained. Yuno looked over to the nearby bookshelf. “Then read something. Father Orsi doesn’t want you waking everyone up with your exercising again.” After thinking about it for a second, Asta agreed. A second later, he was holding a children’s book. “Hey Yuno, look! It’s that story Sister Lilly always used to read us when we were little kids! Hey Red, you want to hear it?” Well you still scream like a baby goat, so it couldn’t have been that long ago, Sunset thought to herself evenly. “I think she’s a bit old for that story,” Yuno told the shorter human. Asta smirked back at him. “You just don’t want to hear it because it always made you cry!” The reminder made Yuno frown at the shorter human. “Read the book.” As Asta went on to recount how an ancient demon appeared one day to block out the sun with its darkness, Sunset rubbed her head where her horn should have been while wondering if going back to Equestria for a real jail cell rather than having to deal with the problems of two testosterone-fueled teenagers would be less cruel. However, as the boy continued with the story about how a mage stepped forward to banish the demon and bring on the sun before he was crowned the Wizard King, Sunset couldn’t help but draw a connection between the story and an old tale from her homeland. “And I’m gonna be the next Wizard King!” Asta announced proudly. Yuno frowned. “Sorry, but I’ll be the one take that position, Asta.” As an argument started to build that was mostly Asta being loud while Yuno gave as few monosyllabic responses as possible, Sunset groaned and laid back down on her bed. Being turned to a garden statue couldn’t have been as torturous as it was to hear the idiots above her. “My name is Sunset Shimmer.” There was a bit of ruckus around the former unicorn as all the orphans made their introductions, although Sunset already knew the louder or whinier ones. There was the third oldest child in the orphanage, a redhead with bushy hair named Rebecca, a snotty brat by the name of Nash, a little girl with black hair named Aruru and an even younger blonde child named Hollo. It didn’t take long to nod to the children as they told her their names. Because her throat was still healing, Lilly had told her to refrain from talking too much after treating Sunset’s throat again when morning came. Not that Sunset would need the nun for much longer. She knew that a few more demonstrations of her healing magic would show her enough of it to try it out for herself. Of course, if she was allowed to do a proper study of the woman’s abilities, it would go much faster. But it looked like Lilly was rather weak when it came to magical power. In fact, they all were, with the exception of one. “HEY THERE SUNSET, I’M ASTA!” the shorter oldest boy yelled. Yuno looked away from the display as he leaned up against the wall next to the dining room’s fireplace. “She already knows your name, loudmouth.” “Inside voice, Asta,” Sister Lilly told the loud idiot. The fact that she did it with a little smile and a gentle reminder was too close to Celestia for Sunset’s liking. At least, before Celestia had revealed herself to Sunset as a manipulative monster and destroyed any hope of Sunset having a real future in Equestria. Father Orsi clapped his hands. “Alright now, that’s enough out of all of you. There are chores to be done today,” he announced before looking back to Sunset. “By the way, we managed to wash some of the clothes you had in that pack of yours, since you’ve been in that old shirt of mine all day yesterday I’m betting you want to get changed.” Sister Lilly gave Sunset a little smile. “We didn’t find any extra underwear in your pack though. And yours is still dirty. I know it might be a little odd, but I can let you borrow some of mine. At least the bottoms. A bra might be a bit tricky though.” What’s a bra? Sunset asked herself before she slowly got on her feet with the help of the table she was sitting at. “Do you have a bra I could use for an example and some spare materials?” Sunset asked as an idea formed in her head. She had tried any actually complex Equestrian magic since she arrived in the Clover Kingdom. So, now was a good time as any. Not that what she was planning was all that difficult, but the lack of a horn made her a bit clumsy. So it probably wasn’t that good an idea to try performing magic when everyone was around to watch her work. But, Sunset had already started down this particular path, so there was no backing out now unless she wanted everyone to think she was a coward. After leaving for a few minutes, Sister Lilly came back with a mangled sheet of cloth. “Will this do?” she asked. “We’ve had to patch some holes in our blankets yesterday.” Sunset nodded before looking back to the woman. “And the bra?” For some reason Sunset didn’t understand, the nun blushed as she pulled out the item in question. Studying it for a few seconds made Sunset realize what the thing was. Oh, I get it. It’s clothing to support their teats, she thought before looking down at her own chest. It was a bit smaller than Sister Lilly’s, so there would have to be some alterations made. Getting to work, Sunset held out her right hand over the bra and let her magic run over the item, examining it down to the smallest molecule. Then she moved her left hand over the material and transferred all of the parameters from the first item to the second, accounting for the differences in quantity and size. There was a loud pop and Sunset’s vision was obscured along with everyone else’s by a dense cloud of gas that quickly disappeared. When the smoke cleared there was less unrefined cloth, but a second bra sat on the table. The children all looked impressed by the feat while Sister Lilly looked more happy to get her underwear back after Sunset reproduced the spell to make more duplicates. However, Sunset looked down at the under-clothes with a frown. Her spell had been sloppy. There was as much as a twenty-percent loss of original material that was consumed rather than transmuted into its new form. Stupid clumsy hands, the former unicorn thought to herself. “Amazing! With you around, we won’t have to worry about providing new clothes for our growing boys and girls!” Father Orsi said with tears in his eyes. “So, it’s some kind of thread magic?” Yuno commented from beside the fireplace. “Seems a bit complex for raw mana manipulation.” Sunset didn’t really like the fact that she had just been demoted to being a simple seamstress, but she had come from an orphanage before Celestia snatched her up. She knew how things worked. Everypony who was old enough to do something had to pitch in to keep things going. And the dump she was in didn’t have anywhere near the resources of Canterlot, which included the volunteer from time to time and a charity or two to help provide for luxuries that foals could enjoy. Which was why sticking around the dump she had landed in was repugnant to Sunset. As soon as she healed up, the former pony was going to be out the door and...well, she could figure out what to do once she was gone. Well, better get into the right clothes, the less I borrow from these idiots, the easier it will be to leave without them wanting something in return, Sunset thought to herself before she started to take off her shirt.  She got it halfway up past her chest when Sister Lilly let out a horrified scream. “I don’t see what everyone was so upset about, all I did was try to take off that old man’s shirt to put the bra on,” Sunset told Yuno as they walked alongside each other, both of them carrying a load of laundry in their respective magic. Although while Sunset had wrapped her basket in the tried and true unicorn method of levitation, Yuno was using a strange form of wind magic to create air pressure all around the objects with a less powerful side in the direction he wanted the object to move. For the third time since she put the thing on, Sunset reached down and fidgeted with the bra as best she could since it was being covered by the green sundress that had been inside per pack, transformed to fit her bipedal body. The only options were that she had either gotten something wrong when trying to size it correctly, or bras were just evil torture devices that these stupid humans invented to make themselves feel more horrible than they already were. And since the first option meant that her magical skills were in even worse shape than Sunset had thought they were, it was obviously the second option that was the case. Yuno gave her an even look as they got near the oven that the orphanage used to heat the large pot where they put clothes to soak and boiled the water to help remove the stains. Apparently, the world Sunset had landed in never heard of detergent, or the orphanage was just too poor to afford any. “You took Father’s shirt off in front of everyone. In a church.” “That doesn’t really explain anything,” Sunset pointed out as they set down their respective burdens. Like what the hay a church is. While she wasn’t pleased about performing menial labor, it was the least degrading task. And they wanted a girl to wash the clothes for the females while a guy took care of the men’s clothes for some reason. While Yuno gave her a startled look for a second before he went back to a calm demeanor with a raised eyebrow, like some colt trying to keep his calm and look cool, Sunset took the opportunity to look around and see what she had to work with. There was wood by the stove and the river wasn’t that far off, so they had natural resources to work with. But it looked like she would have to make the fire herself. “What do you mean, it doesn’t explain anything?” Yuno asked, a little more tense than before as Sunset went to work on her chore. “You don’t just take off your clothes in front of...other...people.” As Yuno talked, Sunset reached out with a hand to guide her magic to gather water from the nearby stream and pulled it into the kettle, only losing a little bit on the way over with her less-than-perfect control before she levitated some wood into the stove and set it alight, then stoked the fire until all of the logs were burning. It was only after she dumped the dirty clothes into the small cauldron that held the water that she realized Yuno had stopped talking. Sunset looked over to the boy and found him staring at her in confusion before she glanced back at the laundry, then to Yuno again. “I did something wrong again, didn’t I?” “Fire. Water. The clothes. You just used at least three different types of magic,” Yuno told her in a curious daze. Then, the confusion seemed to wear off and he frowned at Sunset. “That’s impossible.” Wait, so humans only have magic that relates to one specific thing? Sunset asked herself as she began to feel incredibly stupid. It was a like a cutie mark for unicorns. “Uh...I’m really...flexible?”  Yuno’s frowned deepen and Sunset felt the wind stir around him. “That’s a lie.” Even though the accusation was true, Sunset found herself getting angry at the boy as he tried to intimidate her. “Oh come on!” she yelled at him. “So my magic is a little different than anything you’ve ever seen in your little nowhere town! Big deal! You live your whole life in a hole and think you know everything there is about the world you little twerp? And even if I am different, what does that even mean? You think I’m gonna go around eating kids or something?” The expression on Yuno’s face faltered. “Well-” Sunset didn’t give him time to finish. “You and Asta saved my life and Sister Lilly gave me medical treatment and food, which I notice you guys don’t have much of by the way,” she powered on before the teenager could regain his mental footing as her own thoughts began to catch up with her mouth. “It’s...well...it’s-it’s actually the best thing someone has ever done for me in a long time.” Celestia had always wanted something in return for everything Sunset did, even if that return was a long-term investment. And if she had faltered on her lessons, the alicorn would have thrown the younger pony out on her plot. Just like she had been about to do the night Sunset learned of all her lies. Her vision started to blur. “You guys have next to nothing, but you share it with a total stranger and waste your energy healing my injuries,” she continued as she found herself comparing what she had experienced in one day with her previous life. Celestia had given her the best food, dresses and everything else, but that was next to nothing compared to her true wealth. And when it came time to actually share real power with Sunset, she had tried to throw her out. Or worse. Sunset felt her legs wobble and she sat down on the ground before looking down at the grass. “So if you’re going to kick me out or beat me up, go right ahead. It’s not like I wouldn’t be here right now without you.” The wind died down and Sunset saw Yuno slump before looking uncomfortable as he sat down. “Sorry. I just…” He reached up and touched the blue gem at the end of the necklace he was wearing. “People try to take advantage of us because we don’t have any money or anyone else to help. When I see something odd, I get suspicious.” “So I’m odd, huh?” Sunset asked. Yuno looked over to her with a deadpan expression. “You tried to take your shirt off in front of everyone and can use three types of magic. That’s even more odd than Asta’s complete lack of it.” After a few seconds, Sunset laid back on the grass and frowned. “I’m going to be nice and not take that as an insult,” she told the boy before raising her hand with just a single finger extended and moving it in a circle. Wind manipulation was a bit too pegasi for her, but Celestia had made Sunset help out with Winter Wrap-up for the last few years, so it wasn’t that hard to create basic weather patterns and effects. Like a little tornado that flew into the boiling cauldron of clothes to swirl it around a bit. “And if you’ve got such a limited view of magic, you’ll never be the-what did you guys call it? The Wizard King?” If Yuno was surprised by Sunset’s use of wind magic, he managed to not show it. “Okay then, just how does your magic work?” Sunset looked up at the sky in thought for a moment. “Well, giving you a detailed explanation might be a waste of time. So, how about you tell me what you know when it comes to magic, and we can go from there.” That way, she could buy a little time to come up with something. “The basic theory of magical manipulation states magic can be broken down into the four different elemental attributes of Earth, Water, Fire and Wind,” Yuno told her as if reciting from a long remembered lesson. “There are subcategories for each one, like weather magic being a form of wind, or ice being a form of water. There are also different talents when it comes to magic, like healing or defense. While people can do more than one thing with magic, a person who is a talented healer will probably have weak attack spells, while someone who specialises in combat magic probably won’t have any recovery magic at all.” So that’s how it works, Sunset thought to herself while replaying some of her experiences in experimenting with the surrounding mana. Now that she had the basic explanation, a lot of what she tried to do and had trouble with made a lot more sense. Although her natural unicorn magic didn’t work along those lines, if the different types of mana just floating around had their own affinities, she would need to attune herself before trying to mess with them to any real effect. In theory, anway.  “Okay, so is a particular magic stuck to one element?” Sunset asked. “Like, can only people with water magic perform healing?” Yuno frowned. “No. But the methods and success differ depending on the element,” he told her. “Fire is best at treating diseases and infection, but there’s some debate over which element actually heals the body better than the others. With water considered better at treating internal injuries and earth for taking care of external ones and mending damaged bones. But that doesn’t mean water can’t help cure the sick and you can’t use fire to close wounds. They’re just less efficient.” Ironically glad that she had been forced to mentor Cadenza for so long, since it helped her pull off faking her knowledge, Sunset raised her hands and clapped them together. “That’s a good grasp of the basics. Although...why can’t someone just be intuned with magic, period?” “Because that just doesn’t happen,” Yuno told her. Despite the fact that she had no idea if it was going to work, Sunset slowly got up while doing her best to ignore the aching protest of her body and looked over to the dirty laundry that was still spinning around. She walked over to the cauldron and held out her hand while extending her senses. Now that she was looking for it, Sunset could feel that there were subtile differences in the magical energies swirling around in the water. Four different wavelengths in total. The motion caused by her tornado still had a different feel to it than the water around it, while she could also feel the clothes and heat each had a distinct flavor. Unfortunately, the dirt and other blemishes on the clothes had the same feel to them as the clothes themselves. So Sunset’s original plan of just pulling the stains off of the wet cloth fell through the minute she got a good sense of things. Instead, she didn’t bother trying to align her natural magic with the differences and just reached down with pure unicorn power and pulled out a wet shirt that was still hot from the water and grabbed the bits of moisture that still clung to the shirt with magic directed from her other hand before altering it just a little and pulling the water with magic more intune with that particular element. As soon as she pulled all of the water from the shirt and collected it above her hand, the dry shirt that was hot enough to have come from a modern equestrian drier fell back into the water, slipping right through the field of magic that no longer had the particular flavor of unicorn to it. Huh, guess it’s all or nothing then, Sunset told herself. “Hey, you haven’t given me an explanation on how you can use more than one element,” Yuno said, some irritation entering his voice. Sunset looked back at him before tossing the water to the side. “Yeah, you’re right,” she said before looking back at the laundry. Maybe if I have something holding down the clothes and just lightly tug on them, the dirt will come off. “But I never actually said I would.” Yuno frowned as he followed Sunset back to the house, their clothes cleaner than they had been in a long time thanks to what had to have been earth magic pulling out the dirt while he held the clothes in the cauldron with his wind magic before Sunset drew out the water to leave them hot and dry. She tricked me, he thought to himself as he frowned at the girl from behind. When they did get back to the orphanage, the two of them were sent to rest after Lilly took the clothes. With the need to look after Sunset last night, Yuno had to admit that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep and Sunset was still recovering from her injuries, so she was sent off to Father Orsi’s study to lay down. However, since Yuno didn’t feel tired he went to get a book from the priest’s office and found the girl looking at the pages in her magical book. “Hey, did this thing glow and shake while I was still unconscious?” Sunset asked as she sat up with her back against the wall. The girl’s face had gone back to being miserable. Yuno thought back to a few nights ago. “I think so, but you’s have to ask Asta to be sure. He was the one who grabbed it.” Sunset closed her book and set it aside to curl up into herself. “Hey Yuno,” she asked in a dead tone. “If you had the chance to go back to your parents, even if they were horrible people, would you do it?” The question was something he knew every orphan thought from time to time. Most of the kids in the orphanage liked to imagine their parents were good men and women, heroes that had to go away for some reason or another. Although the truth was that everyone living at the orphanage aside from Asta and himself knew where they came from. Hoge Village was so small that everyone knew everyone else and parents who died from things like accidents or going out hunting were a well-known fact. “No,” he told her. “My parents left me here when I was a baby. I have everything I need in this church.” Sunset put her head on her knees. “I’m an orphan too, you know. But I was...picked up when I was six,” she said slowly. “This woman, she brought me into her house and gave me lessons on magic. Taught me how to cast spells. Made me think I was special. But it all turned out to be a lie. She never loved me, she was just using me. And when I learned the truth, I ran away.” How can you cast spells without a grimoire? Yuno wondered before he glanced over to the girl’s magic book. “But even so, you want to go back.” Tears fell from the girl’s eyes to land on the ground. “Yes,” Sunset whispered. “Why is that, when everything I thought I knew was a lie?” “A year from now, I’m going to go and take the Magic Knight exams,” Yuno told her after thinking it over and realizing what she was feeling had some similarities to his own thoughts now and again. “It’s the first step in becoming the Wizard King. I have to do it, but I’m also worried about what’s going to happen to me after I leave the orphanage. I’ve lived my entire life in this village. So I have no idea about what’s out there, aside from some old books Father Orsi has. Most of which are out of date. The fact is, I don’t know what’s out there, so I can’t even prepare for it. And that’s what you’re going through right now. Your old life might not have been the best, but it was familiar to you. But you don’t have to worry, you’re an orphan of Hage Village. That means you’re part of this family.” Sunset looked up to the boy with wide eyes that had trails of tears falling from them. “Say what?” The lost look in the girl’s eyes made Yuno turn his attention elsewhere as he reached up and rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand. “It’s just something I figured out after I talked to Sister Lilly a few years ago. If you stay here and want to be one of us, that makes you family. So, I’d be something like a big brother.” Which turned out to be the wrong thing to say, as Sunset frowned at him. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m the older one between the two of us.” Yuno was about to ask her just what her birthday was supposed to be when he heard a voice outside. “SISTER LILLY, PLEASE MARRY ME!” Which made him sigh when a loud splash of water soon followed. “Hasn’t Asta learned that he can’t marry a nun?” “What’s a nun?” Sunset asked. Yuno blinked and looked back down at the girl. She’s serious, he thought as the boy saw the clueless look on Sunset’s face before she turned her head back to the book laying on the ground. “Not like I’d be able to find the mirror in time anyway.” “You’re fourteen years old and you can’t read?” Sunset glared at the smaller boy Nash, resisting the urge to smack him upside the head. Although Sister Lilly tended to knock Asta into walls with her water magic in the shape of a human fist, violence against other members of the community was frowned upon. “No, but I can get through a night of sleep without wetting the bed.” The young boy’s eyes widened before his cheeks reddened. “T-That was just some fluke!” “It’s alright Nash,” Sister Lilly told him. “Everyone has an accident now and then. And of course I’ll teach you Sunset. Just sit next to me during story time, and we can go through the books together.” A month later, Sunset had gotten a firm enough grasp of the language to tackle the largest books in the church on her own. Although, the God character that was supposed to move the sun and moon across the sky sounded far too much like Celestia for her liking. The grass crunched underfoot as Sunset followed Asta through the woods while Yuno trailed behind them with a scowl on his face. They had gone pretty deep into the forest, which was much too close to that creepy skull for Sunset’s liking, but it was the best place to hide what they were about to do. “Why in the world did you talk Asta into digging through the village mayor’s garbage last night Sunset?” he demanded with a scowl. “Well I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it,” Sunset answered. Asta looked down at the rotting apple core in his hands. “What is it about this thing is supposed to make Sister Lilly happy? And why did you want it?” he asked before exiting the mass of trees. “Oh,  here’s the clearing I told you about. It’s where I do my sprint training!” The proud declaration actually made Sunset pity the poor boy. In a world of unicorns, he seemed to be the only earth pony. So instead of working on magic that he swore would come with his grimoire, Asta ran off to exercise in the forest all day after chores before coming home close to dark, needing healing from Lilly half the time because of so many scrapes and cuts. The magic also helped keep his muscles from being overtaxed and needing to rest, which was why a fourteen-year-old boy looked more fit that most of the men in the village, even with the orphanage’s poor diet. “I don’t actually need the apple core,” Sunset told them as she took it out of Asta’s hands with her magic to break it apart in the air. “It’s the seeds I’m really after.” There were three of them, more than enough for what she was wanting. Sunset held the three seeds above her palm and studied them for a moment. They looked undamaged. “Hey Yuno, you were asking how to do spells without a grimoire, right?” While Asta blinked in confusion, Yuno frowned. “Yes. Multiple times. For over a month.” Despite the hypocrisy of it all, Sunset found herself smirking. It really was fun to play the all-knowing teacher sometimes. But Sunset actually had a reason for holding out, unlike some other pony that just did it to look cool. The trip to this new world had made her grow clumsy. While her hands still weren’t up to a horn’s level of control, they were more than enough to get the job she needed to do done. “When it really comes down to it, grimoires are just pre-designed spell matrices that people just pump mana into for a desired effect,” Sunset said before flicking one of the seeds onto the ground a good twenty feet away. “Magic very complex and complicated. It’s easier and faster to just pour something into a mold for a spell than to make a mold every time you want to cast something. Plus, humans are ridiculously clumsy when it comes to handling mana. A lot of it goes to waste, even when you’re doing the most basic things. People don’t really get stronger when they get a grimoire, they just don’t spill as much mana because it helps them focus, even when it’s in a carrying case strapped across their back.” “Okay, that really doesn’t tell me any-” Yuno stopped talking as Sunset cast her spell a second before a tree erupted from the ground before he could finish. By the time he turned around to look at it, the plant was almost full grown. Apples sprouted from it nearly a second later. Sunset took in a little breath. Although she hadn’t created a plant that overgrew and completely clogged up a tower, the spell had taken a bit more out of her than she was expecting. Had turning human been even more detrimental to her than she first thought? “SO COOL!” Asta yelled before he looked back at Sunset in confusion. “But...you don’t have a grimoire.” After flicking the two other seeds away to a place where there was more than enough room to grow two more trees, Sunset looked back to the shorter boy with a deadpan expression. “Were you not listening to anything I just said?” she asked evenly before putting out her hand to cast the spell two more times. Asta took a step back. “You were talking to Yuno, it would have been rude to eavesdrop.” “I was standing right next to-” Sunset stopped and took a breath to help clear her head. “Never mind, just help Yuno gather the apples. Because of the speeded growth, they’ll go rotten in about forty-eight hours and the seeds they produce will be useless for planting. Even the trees will completely decompose inside of a week. But I’m getting tired of eating nothing but potatoes.” After pulling a dozen apples down with his wind magic and holding them in the air, Yuno looked back at the redhead. “Can you do this with any crop?” Sunset pressed her lips together. “Yes, but trees produce multiple things to eat while something like a turnip only gives me one plant for the same amount of mana. And it also causes a strain on the soil. So we’ll need to find somewhere else if you want me to do it again.” As the boys went to work, Sunset found herself wishing she had told one of them to bring a basket or something, because they couldn’t carry all the fruit with them. Then, as she looked up at her work, she watched a fat bird with black feathers, a white crest and red feathers on its face suddenly landed on the tree. It was a bit odd to see, since the animals of the Clover Kingdom didn’t seem to be as friendly with people as they were to ponies. A tree suddenly sprouting in the woods should have sent animals scurrying away, not flocking towards it. I could swear she’s looking at me, Sunset thought to herself as she frowned at the bird, who frowned down at her in turn. Sunset looked down at the ‘banquet’ of numerous potato dishes that Sister Lilly had created for what was apparently a yearly celebration at the orphanage. After nearly three months of living among the humans, Sunset had found herself adjusting well enough but managed to be caught off guard by some things that everyone just took as a fact of life. “So, you all just celebrate everyone’s birthday with one big party?” “That’s right,” Sister Lilly told her as they set out the plates. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough food to do this more than once a year. And while more of the children know when they were born, we still don’t have a date for Asta and Yuno. Which reminds me, when is your birthday, Sunset?” The former unicorn blinked at the question as memories best left forgotten came to the surface. Back when Princess Celestia had first brought her to the palace, there had been a celebration a few months later. When Sunset had asked her about it, the white pony had told her that it was for her birthday. Only, it wasn’t her birthday. It was the day that she had shown up at the orphanage. The anniversary of the day she had been abandoned. It had also been the last time Princess Celestia had thrown a party in her honor. “I don’t know,” Sunset told her after a long pause while she leaned over to rest her arms on the table. “My mom and dad didn’t decided to leave that information in my basket with they ditched me. Just a note with my name on it and basic medical information.” Not that creatures with this level of technology would know what a blood type was. If humans even had more than one. “So, birthday parties aren’t really my thing.” A clap of Sister Lilly’s hands brought Sunset’s attention back to the nun. “Well I’m glad to have met you,” she said, getting a confused look from Sunset. “You know that’s what birthday parties really are, right? A lot of people just think they’re an excuse for presents. But what those presents really are is a thank you gift for being in that person’s life. So, thank you for being in my life Sunset.” It was a good thing the nun had come up behind her and hugged the younger girl, because it was the only thing holding her up a second later as her vision started to become blurry. “I-I’m sorry, I...think I have to...get some air,” Sunset told Lilly before she tore away from the young woman and ran outside. Once she had gotten outside and made it to the nearest tree, Sunset turned around to lean against the trunk and look up to try and clear her head. The sunlight shining down through the leaves didn’t brighten her mood any. Even if it wasn’t under Celestia’s control, she still hated the sun. It was too hot and bright. “Maybe the demon had the right idea when he wanted to blot it out.” A rustle of leaves drew Sunset’s attention, and she looked up to see the bird with the mix of red, black and white feathers. The damn thing had followed her back to the church one day and disappeared from time to time, but she always caught a glimpse of it at least once a day. And for some reason, it felt like the bird was glaring at her. “Well where I come from, the sun is run by an arrogant bitch goddess that demands everybody kiss her fat plot all the time,” Sunset told the bird. “So there!” “Nine-hundred-ninety-eight, nine-hundred-ninety-nine, aaaaaaaaand, one-thousand!” Asta just about yelled as he finished his last pushup while Sunset sat on a nearby fallen log. She didn’t bother watching the boy as she studied the liquid in the bottle Asta had shown her. He had called it mogro leaf juice. He said that it was supposed to enhance magic, but any such claims were completely unverifiable since only Asta drank it. Because as far as Sunset’s continually developing senses could tell, Asta didn’t have any magic. It had become more than just a curious oddity that Sunset had wondered about during her first few days in the Clover Kingdom, the whole thing was downright freakish. Everything in the world had magic, as far as Sunset could tell, except Asta. And what was really weird about it was how mundane he was. He wasn’t like a black pit that sucked in the magical energies around him or canceled out any magic that touched him. He just didn’t have magic. Period. Which made Sunset feel conflicted whenever she watched him try so hard in preparation for getting his grimoire. Because grimoires didn’t give people magic, they just helped them focus it. And Asta didn’t have any magic to focus. The thing he was preparing for would never come. “Hey Asta,” Sunset said to get the boys attention as he finished drinking the cold tea that was supposed to help him develop his magical potential. After taking the bottle from his lips, the boy looked over to her. “Yeah Sunset?” Should I tell him? Sunset asked herself for what had to be the fiftieth time since she figured out the major flaw in the boy’s life plan. He probably wouldn’t believe her, no matter how she broke it down to him and spelled it out. Some of the other kids mocked him for believing he could be the best and, as much as she didn’t like to think about it, Sunset probably would have been one of them if not for the fact he helped to save her life. From the way Yuno told the story at least. That had made her put up with him long enough for the brat to grow on her. Kind of like an annoying fungus. Maybe she needed to try and ease him into it. “You know...your idea to become the Wizard King,” Sunset said slowly as she tried to think of how best to get him ready for disappointment. But Asta being Asta, took her hesitation as an invitation to start talking. “It’ll be cool, won’t it?” he asked excitedly. “I’m going to show everyone that even a nobody orphan from the middle of nowhere village like Hage can climb to the top of the magical world! Everybody likes to think money and status are the be all and end all in this world, but I’ll show them that by believing in yourself and working hard, you can do anything!” Sunset froze, her mouth open just the slightest bit as she found herself experiencing a strange sense of dejavu. How many ponies from Celestia’s School had looked down on her because they had been part of the nobility? How many had thought themselves better than her by nothing more than the fact their several times great-whatever had done something worthwhile so they could coast through life? How many times had she proven that an orphan who showed a bit of talent had more potential than any of them? She closed her mouth and hung her head. “I think that is the most sensible thing you have ever said,” she told the boy before the former unicorn stood up and started heading back to the orphanage. What was she supposed to say after that? But, wouldn’t Asta find the truth about the world when it came time to open his grimoire and find the spells didn’t respond? He would find his truth in a book he wasn’t meant to have, just as she did. I really am just like Celestia, Sunset told herself before realizing she was still carrying the bottle of tea. After taking a swig, she swirled it around in her mouth and drank it down. While certainly not the best drink, it was better than plain water. “Oh man, tomorrow’s the day!” Asta said as he looked at the calendar in the church’s dining room while Sunset sat repairing the clothes the children had managed to tear and scuff the previous day while playing.  Despite living at the orphanage for the better part of a year, no one besides Yuno had caught on to Sunset’s multiple forms of magic despite using her abilities to fix the ceiling, walls, and some of the foundation as well as take care of other minor chores. While she didn’t advertise it like she did on the second day, anyone who looked at her work could tell she used more than one element. Then again, when you had next to nothing, looking a gift horse in the mouth was the height of foolishness. Sunset looked up at the calendar and saw it was the last day of February. She knew that the first of March was when everyone in the town who was of age would travel to the tower Sunset had seen on the horizon to partake in a ceremony that would grant them a tome of magic. It wasn’t the only such tower in the kingdom, but it would be the one several of the surrounding villages would be going to. So there was going to be a crowd. “So, I’m curious. What happens if someone gets sick and can’t make it tomorrow?” she asked. From his spot across the table from the redhead, Yuno looked up from the book he was reading, or trying to at any rate. Sunset never had shown him how to read the squiggles that were the Ponish language, and based on how basic the human alphabet was, nobody would ever be able to translate the research project that delved into unicorn weather management and if it was any better than work by the pegasi as well as any possible side effects. But Sunset had promised Yuno to teach him her secret if he ever figured out what the book said, so he had yet to give up. “If someone misses their chance today, they can just go whenever they can make it. March first is really just a marker for everyone who is fifteen this year to claim a grimoire and an excuse to hold a festival in some villages.” So much for my merciful plan to give Asta another year of not having his dreams crushed, Sunset thought to herself as she nixed the thought of putting something in his drink at dinner. “So, what’re you doing to do when you get your grimoire?” Sunset blinked at Asta’s question and sat up a little straighter. “I...never really thought about it,” she lied. I don’t even know if I’m compatible with this type of magical item. Or what would happen if she did get one. Or if she could get more than one. A disturbing image ran through Sunset’s mind of all the books in the tower suddenly falling on the former unicorn and burring her in a mountain of books that would become her tomb. “You should join the magic knights!” Asta said as he rushed over to her. “Then, you could be my subordinate when I become the Wizard King!” After closing the book he was trying to read, Yuno looked up at Asta. “That’s going to be my job,” he said before looking at Sunset before Asta could argue. “But you should seriously consider joining. Nobody can deny you have a talent for magic.” Unable to stop herself, Sunset snorted at the irony before glancing down at her right flank where her cutie mark was before looking back at the boys. “So, the two of you wouldn’t be mad if I beat you out for the position, huh?” “Don’t get cocky! I’m the one who’s going to be number one!” Asta declared loudly as he pointed a finger at the redhead. Sunset held up a hand to forestall Yuno joining in on the attack. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any interest in the job.” But, that didn’t stop Yuno from talking anyway. “Why’s that?” “Eh, it’s just…” Sunset blinked as something she had managed to avoid thinking about for nearly a year clawed its way up from the depths of her mind.  “MAKE ME A PRINCESS!” “The idea of me becoming royalty brings up some bad experiences is all,” she said. Asta slapped his hands down on the table. “That’s just because you don’t know how cool the Wizard King is! Don’t you know the story about how the first king saved the whole country from a giant demon?” Repressing the urge to smack the boy, Sunset looked up at Asta. “Yes. Because you told it to me. Repeatably.” She could recite the whole thing from memory with every syllable exactly how Asta said it too. “Well...hearing is one thing, but seeing is another!” Asta declared. “We should make a pilgrimage to the top of the demon’s skull so you can see how awesome the wizard king is!” Sunset barely kept herself from cringing. Even though she had lived as a naked ape for so long, there were plenty of things that still creeped her out about human society. Like how comfortable they were around pieces of fried corpses and bones. But, since it was Asta, a few moments of absolute disgust were better than hours of having to listen to his very loud and annoying voice. So… “If I go, will you shut up and never ask me about it again?” A powerful hand shot in front of Sunset’s face. “Deal!” Asta agreed. “I think I’d like to see that,” Yuno said as he stood up. The comment made Asta look over to his not-brother. “The memorial?” “No, you shutting up. I’ve seen the statue,” Yuno told him. Sunset groaned before she stood up and rubbed her head. “You know, it might actually be worth it to become royalty. Then I can make a decree that you idiots have to go without fighting for at least five minutes a day,” she said before heading to the door before either of them could continue their passive-aggressive feud. Well, I suppose it’s better than them arguing over me, Sunset consoled herself. Asta was enamored with Sister Lilly to the point of being delusional and Yuno was about as cold as a fish. Which suited Sunset just fine. She might have had human hormones in her body, but she had about as much desire to get with a naked ape as they did to plow a farm horse. Not that stallions had ever done much for her either. Mares might have been okay, though. The only one she had ever really gotten close to had been Cadenza. And that would have been like sleeping with her little sister. Which was another realization that had been an odd pill to swallow for Sunset. The former unicorn actually missed Cadenza. She had all of Asta’s enthusiasm and an inside voice. Even thought she had lied to Sunset about becoming an alicorn, she knew who the real culprit behind those actions was. The little pink moron just didn’t have it in her to be deceitful without a hoof prodding her along. Once they got outside, Asta cracked his knuckles. “Okay, it’s a hard climb, but if we run as fast as we can, we can probably be up at the top a little past lunch. Then-” “Yeah, screw that,” Sunset said before she grabbed both of the boys by their shoulders and popped out of existence. Then popped back into the world at the top of the demon’s skull. Yuno bent over and caught himself on his knees while Asta looked about ready to throw up. “I still think you’re doing it wrong,” Yuno complained as he tried to steady himself. Sunset put a finger in her ear and applied a little pressure, it seemed to help. Human bodies just weren’t made for the stresses of teleporting the unicorn way. Aside from the sense of vertigo that came with the instant change in location, a sudden alteration of temperature, air pressure, and a dozen other things made getting ones bearings with the internal compass a headache. “Okay, let’s see you pop us dow-oh wait, you can’t teleport at all, can you?” While Yuno just glared at Sunset some more, the former unicorn looked over to the statue of the first Wizard King as it stood in front of them with an open book of magic, dressed in what was probably the royal fashion at the time. “There he is, the man who saved the country, the whole world even!” Asta said. It looked absolutely terrible. The craftsmanship was horrible, like a blind man had made it with a sledgehammer and a screwdriver while drunk. Although, judging by the height, the king couldn’t have been out of his teens when the statue was made, right after he died.  Sunset walked around the statue, then looked over its shoulder at the open page of the grimoire in its hands. Surprisingly, the book had been copied in such detail there was arcane script written on the page. Okay, that’s interesting, Sunset thought to herself as she examined the text and blinked. This is an actual spell. A spell that used light as a weapon, unless she missed her guess. “And it hasn’t been worn down by the rain or anything else.” Still looking worse for wear, Asta looked up at the redhead. “Huh?” “Hey, when did all this supposedly happen again?” Sunset asked. Yuno blinked. “You mean the first Wizard King’s battle against the demon? It was around the start of the Clover Kingdom. So, about five-hundred years. Give or take.” Sunset looked back to the Wizard King and gave it a once-over with her magic senses as an anti-bird landed on his head. “And the king has been here every since then?” “Probably,” Yuno told her. “Maybe a year or two less. They would have needed time to make it. What’s that got to do with anything?” “Because it’s not a statue.” Both of the boy’s blinked at the statement before Yuno spoke. “Come again?” Sunset looked back at them. “This thing has been up here for five hundred years. Which means wind, rain, snow, and everything else. But it’s still in once piece and possess enough detail that I can read his book. This isn’t a statue, it is the first Wizard King, turned to stone.” Once again, both the boys were silent for a second. This time, it was Asta who broke the pregnant pause. “Oh come on!” “Look,” Sunset growled. “I know what I’m talking about. My wannabe mom liked to decorate her garden with petrified psychopaths. This isn’t a statue, it’s your damn hero turned to stone by a spell.” Both of the boys continued to give Sunset incredulous looks until a third, female voice broke into the conversation from a place behind them. “So, you really are a sorceress from Unicornia.” Sunset just about jumped out of her skin as she turned around and harmonized her magic to better produce fire in her hand as she turned around to see who had gotten the jump on them, but the only thing there was the black, red and white bird sitting on the statue’s head. “DID THAT THING JUST TALK?” Asta shouted as he pointed at the bird. “Of course I did,” the anti-bird with the red, black, and white coloring replied. “What are you, deaf?”