Sunset was exhausted, but she desperately wanted to talk to Hifumi before she went to sleep, so she knocked on her suitemate's door immediately on getting back.
"It's open."
Hifumi was a slender girl with long, straight brown hair and bangs. Normally she wore two hair ties, making a dangling bundle of hair in front of each of her ears. Now, though, it was late enough that she was wearing something like the sleeping outfit Akechi's men had provided for Sunset, and her ties were on her bedside table. She herself was sitting on the bed with some kind of game board.
"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt," Sunset said.
"You aren't," Hifumi said. "I'm just practicing moves. It's not very useful without an opponent, but I like to think about the game anyway."
"I see," Sunset said, though really she only did in broad terms. "I guess we didn't have much time to talk about our hobbies."
"It's not a hobby for me," Hifumi said, "I'm going to be a professional player."
"Sorry," Sunset said. "I didn't mean to imply--"
"I know you didn't mean anything by it. I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea. I try to keep balance in my life, but this is my passion."
Hifumi reminded Sunset of nothing so much as a pony talking about her cutie mark, though she already knew humans had no such things.
"I wish I knew how to play," Sunset said, "I'd love to help you."
"If you mean it, maybe I'll teach you," Hifumi gave her a small smile. "It's called shogi. But let's see how our schoolwork goes first. Sorry, I'm sure you had another reason for coming."
Sunset nodded. "Do you have a moment to talk? I don't mind if you play at the same time."
"Of course, go ahead."
"I was wondering, uh, how people feel about magic."
Hifumi turned from the game to stare at her.
"Magic? I assume you don't mean stage magic. Or the card game."
Sunset shook her head. "No, I mean a paraphysical or psychic connection to the aether allowing it to reflect a p-creature's nature or will."
Hifumi gave her a long look she couldn't quite interpret. "That's a very...precise definition, for something that doesn't exist. Every culture has stories about magic, but none of them really agree on what it is, other than things we don't understand. Sometimes people use it, sometimes gods or spirits or other supernatural creatures do. A lot of people have some superstitions - do you know the word?"
Sunset could, of course, parse it, because she was the beneficiary of actual magic. But she wasn't sure she understood it right in context. "Little luck magics?"
Hifumi gave her another odd look, but nodded. "That's an unusual way to put it, but it works. The idea that there are rituals you can do that make things more likely to break in your favor. Almost everyone has a few, even if they know they're ridiculous." She blushed. "I often eat katsu curry before an important match. I know it's silly, and shogi doesn't even have luck like a card game. But it makes me feel better."
"And some people believe in God or gods or other supernatural religious entities, and think they intervene in the world to help believers. But these days what we mean by magic is powers people can use that we don't understand, and belief in that is almost unheard of here in Japan. We have a lot of ways to look for it, and no one can find much evidence at all, let alone anything strong and convincing. It's the same with strange creatures like lake monsters. We all have cameras all the time, on our phones, and lots of governments have done studies. If there's magic around, it's subtle. Personally, I think if there is a God, He's decided we're grown up, and left us with a universe we can solve."
Sunset knew she'd be unpacking that for a long time, but still considered for a little while. The snap of the pieces hitting the shogi board was oddly comforting, and each one made her feel like she'd bracketed a thought. If nothing else, it seemed like her friends had the same view of magic Hifumi did - that it was a myth.
"So the phones are, what, machines? You just solved the universe enough to make them work?"
"That's right."
"Then why are they so quiet? And how do they get energy?"
Hifumi finally looked up from her board.
"I don't want to be rude," she said, and Sunset's blood froze, worried she'd somehow given up the game, "I know you really have memory problems, and I'm sympathetic. But it's fascinating too, because it seems like you have some idea of what a machine should be, and it's at least a century out of date."
Sunset nearly dropped her bag. Hifumi had caught her red-handed. Between her long, eventful day and sleepless night, it was getting harder and harder to keep her secrets. Her brain raced trying to figure out what she'd do when Hifumi called her out fully.
But instead, she just laughed, and snapped another shogi piece into place.
"I think it must be all this talk of magic. The human mind is a kind of magic, I think, to do such amazing things, even when it goes wrong. But sorry for rubbing it in. I don't really know how cell phones work, though. They're really complicated. They run on electricity, which they store in batteries and get from the electrical grid. That's why you have to plug them in. You could probably look it up on the computer if you're interested. It's complicated, but if you get good at it you can build your own electronics. Some people do it as a hobby."
Sunset had tuned out the second half of what Hifumi said, after it was obvious she wasn't going to call Sunset out. And of course, that made sense - she'd just been describing how the idea that Sunset was a magical alien was completely beyond belief.
But with that relief she also felt an unexpected disappointment. Sunset was, of course, a practiced liar. She'd spent years, after all, plotting revolution against the immortal monarch who personally instructed her. What she was finding now, though, was that it was different lying to someone you hoped to befriend, and even harder to maintain lies of this complexity while also trying to learn how to deal with an alien society. On some level, she'd hoped Hifumi would figure it out, so that she could come clean.
And with that realization came the temptation to just do it anyway. After all, she was pretty sure the app was going to do something supernatural the next day, and if it did, she planned to come clean to Akira and Ann. She didn't have the same kind of bond of adversity with Hifumi; as far as she knew, there was no tyrant at the heart of Hifumi's life. But they would be living together, or at least in close proximity, and Hifumi had already been so kind and helpful. She didn't want to feel like she was keeping secrets. But how should she best raise the topic?
She must have thought too long, because the predictable clank of Hifumi's moves stopped, and Sunset looked up to find the other girl staring at her.
"Too much information?"
Sunset shook her head.
"No, I...want to tell you something, but it's hard to find the words."
Hifumi nodded and blushed slightly. "Okay. Take your time." The clacking resumed.
This response only solidified Sunset's resolve. Finally, she decided to go with a basic technique - give Hifumi an out if she needed it. It wasn't even an unreasonable out. If she couldn't feel the tingle of magic every time she brought up the mysterious phone app, she might have been only a few weeks from doubting herself.
"You're right about the brain," she said, and Hifumi stopped again to look up at her. "And maybe it's just all in my mind. I didn't want to tell you, because I didn't have a good feel for things, and I didn't know if you'd believe me. I'm not sure I can believe myself. But I don't really think I have amnesia."
Hifumi's hands were folded in her lap now, and Sunset seemed to have her full attention. She had a twinge of her old paranoia, and felt compelled to probe a little, hoping that the human-reading ability she'd been growing more confident in over the course of the day would serve her well.
"Sorry, but I just have to ask first, you don't know Akechi, right?"
"You mean, will I tell him what you tell me?" Hifumi cocked her head. "Interesting. No. I don't and I won't. He has some relationship with the school, I think, to get you in here so quickly, but this was just an open room appropriate for a girl." She chuckled. "I think if anything he expected you not to see much of me. I spend a lot of time practicing off-campus."
Sunset's instincts were telling her this was the truth. It was the best she could do. She took a deep breath.
"Okay. Sorry for asking, I just wanted to be sure. You had it right when you noticed the thing about machines." She gathered herself again, and Hifumi waited patiently but intently.
"Akechi didn't tell you, which is one reason I don't trust him, but he found me at midnight in Shibuya station, and couldn't figure out how I got there. The truth is, I come from another world..."
Sunset proceeded to fill Hifumi on on her background as Celestia's student, her original form as a unicorn, her failed revolution, and her flight through the mirror. She summarized heavily, but didn't hold anything back.
Hifumi took her own long silence, but it didn't seem an unkind one. Finally she nodded.
"It's hard to believe," she said. "I don't know that I exactly do believe it. Not because I think you're lying! I know you're telling me your true memories. Just, I have to consider you might have a different kind of messed up memory."
Sunset nodded. She'd left that option intentionally, after all.
"But I want to believe you. I had a cryptid phase in middle school. I may not believe the world is a magical place, but I'd like to believe some worlds are, and that we could visit someday. Of course, you're not a unicorn here. So sadly, it probably doesn't matter if it's true. I don't see how you can get back, and you don't know any more about this world than you would if you had no memory at all. Less, really, since you've got all these false assumptions."
Sunset nodded. "And I don't know why I'd want to go back. I can't fight Celestia, and she's not going anywhere. I'd hoped to tune the portal to people who could help me, but with the friends I made today, it seems more like it found people who need my help. And that's okay! I'd like to go back someday and bring justice to Equestria, but she's ruled there for thousands of years, and this world matters too. If it takes a long time to find my way back, maybe that won't be so bad. Anyway, thanks for taking me seriously."
Hifumi nodded.
"Thank you for trusting me. It's a big thing to share with someone, even if there's not much practical effect. I assume you'd like me to keep it a secret?"
"Please. I might tell a few classmates tomorrow, depending on how things go. But I don't want everyone to know. Especially because of what you said about people trying to find magic. I don't want people studying me, and now that I'm thinking about what happened when I first got here, I think Akechi and his crew might be the types to try."
Hifumi nodded again, then met her eyes and, finally, gave a smile. It was a little thing, and seemed intensely private. But it was no less pleasing for it, maybe more, and Sunset found she couldn't help but return it.
"Can I make my own embarrassing confession?" Hifumi looked down, but her smile remained.
"Of course."
"I know we just recently met, but I don't have any friends. You wouldn't know, of course, but I'm what we call a 'D-list' celebrity. My shogi skills aren't where I want them to be, but they're unusual for a player of my age and especially for a young female player. And some people seem to think I'm attractive, which sadly means a lot here. They call me the 'Venus of Shogi.' I hate the title, but even more, I hate that people get close to me because of it. It makes it hard to trust their motives, and I've been hurt before. So even though I sympathized with your memory loss, I was sort of relieved to have a suitemate with no idea who I am. That you asked me for my thoughts, valued them, and chose to trust me with your secret...it means a lot to me." She giggled, and Sunset found herself blushing. "Especially since I can't imagine I look very pretty to a unicorn. I feel like you know me as me, and like me anyway."
Sunset thought about Hifumi's secret little smile, and wasn't so sure about the beauty angle. But she wasn't anywhere near ready to unpack that one, so she let it lie.
"I'm really lucky you're the one who had an open room. I'd never even have made it to school on time," she said instead. "Would you mind if I gave you a hug?"
"Please do."
Hifumi was shorter than Sunset, like most Japanese women seemed to be, and was already sitting hunched on the bed, so Sunset wrapped her gently in her arms, savoring again the close contact she'd taken for granted as a pony. Hifumi turned into her, resting her head on her shoulder, and sighed.
Eventually, Sunset's fatigue overcame her, and she shifted.
"Sorry," she said, "this is nice, but I didn't sleep at all last night. I need to go to bed."
"Oh, of course," Hifumi's faint blush was back. "Can I ask you a favor first?"
Sunset nodded.
"I want to get to know you better. When you have time at night, will you come by and tell me about your world?"
Sunset hugged tighter, and felt a matching tightness in her chest.
"Of course. Thanks for asking." She chuckled. "Besides, it seems only fair, you've been telling me about yours. Maybe you can teach me shogi while we talk." At that, Hifumi hugged her closer and nodded.
She stayed a little longer, then finally let her fatigue win, bid Hifumi goodnight, and headed back to her own room. Her heart felt light, and the hug still lingered. She fell into sleep nearly as soon as she hit the pillow.
For the first time since arriving, or the first time she remembered, Sunset dreamed.
At first she wasn't sure that was what it was. She felt lucid, remembered falling into bed, even. And something felt so right that it took her a moment to realize it was that she was in her real body, her hooves firm beneath her, her horn tingling with ambient magic.
But, in the way of dreams, she became aware of her surroundings, and her breath caught. Under her hooves was black marble, reflecting the light of countless clear stars. But the light on her coat was strong, nearly as strong as daylight. She looked up and the sun shone brightly in a black sky, and opposite it, suspended among the stars, she recognized the shape of Equestria and its surrounding continent. She glanced to the horizon and saw only grey rock, shining in the sunlight. She looked the other way and saw she stood on a structure, a massive slab of black marble, surrounded by four pillars. From each of the pillars stretched a chain, and they were bound firmly around the barrel of an apparently sleeping pony.
Her face and body shape made Sunset read her as a mare, though she was larger than most stallions, nearly as large as Celestia, though lacking the tyrant's unusually willowy proportions. And, like Celestia, she had both wings and horn. Even sleeping, the power radiating off her made Sunset's horn and coat tingle, but she stepped forward, and the other pony stirred, then rose.
"Hello, Sunset Shimmer," she said quietly, and Sunset stopped.
"You know me?"
"I know every pony, but few remember meeting me. Only in dreams can I aid you now."
"Why are you bound here? Is it that tyrant's fault?"
"We do not have time for exposition, Sunset. Find me again, when I do not need to bridge worlds to speak to you. Now, please approach. I have a gift."
Sunset hesitated.
"Please."
It was so humbly said, so plaintive, that Sunset couldn't believe it hid ill-intent. She stepped forward, her hoofbeats echoing on the dark stone, until she was close enough to touch. The dark pony leaned towards her, pressing her horn lightly between her eyes, and she felt an outline of power around them, like a blindfold, though there was no observable effect.
"My power can no longer stand the light of day," she said, "but I believe you will soon find yourself in a half-light realm. When things look hopeless, call my name, and my aid will find you. Now go. The link fades, and unfriendly eyes seek us."
The dream grew misty around the edges, the once breathtaking view already dimming.
"Wait," Sunset cried out to the vanishing mare, "what is your name?"
"Luna."
The name echoed in her ears as she awoke. A sliver of moon hung in her window, and she stared at it until sleep took her again.