//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Wondercolts Forever // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Getting Sunset back to school certainly put Principal Celestia in a good mood. Sunset felt like an incredibly rare trading card that Celestia was delighted just to hold onto for a little while. At the end of the day, Sunset was a piece of cardboard, but a priceless trading card was still something to be taken care of. Celestia would have food sent to her house and got rid of the two ‘parents’ at Sunset’s request. She let Sunset sign up for the interdimensional portals course despite the typical regulations, and suggested the other courses she should take for her goal. She even let Sunset keep the staff for now (though she had to give back the car). Sunset had no doubt she’d be comfortable, if nothing else, for as long as she stayed here be that one year, three years, or all eternity. On the first night back, she took a long bubble bath, ate a delicious salad, and slept in a cozy bed in a perfectly air-conditioned room. After ten days of driving through the desert and sleeping in the back of a car, this felt like an amazing luxury. Yet still, wrapped up in the blankets as she drifted asleep, she couldn’t help but imagine herself inside one of those graded card sleeves, mounted on the wall above a gentle fireplace. She wasn’t stoked about going back to school the next day, and lacked the spring the other students all had in their steps. She knew she wasn’t going to be killed or anything now, but it had only been a few days ago that the other students here had booed her out of the school. As Princess Celestia was always quick to point out, Sunset never really had any friends at any point in her life. It wouldn’t be too different from back home, she tried to remind herself. Especially since she was getting private tutoring from Celestia, yet again. No one said anything to her since she came crawling back, not yet anyway, but that wasn’t a good sign. Normally, everyone here was way too friendly, but now that they knew she was an outsider they seemed to be avoiding her. The ‘younger’ students seemed the most suspicious. Sunset silently wondered what determined whether you were 13 or 18 forever. Those were the ‘ages’ the people here ranged from. She briefly checked the revolution club posting and, surprise, not one person was interested. Comfort really was the best cage, it seemed. There was a long homeroom lasting about an hour before the first period where you mostly just hung out with your friends. You didn’t actually have to be here for this, and Sunset had no friends, but she came anyway to look around the library. She wasn’t taking any more history courses, but was still curious about the subject. Specifically, she was curious if she could find any more historical interactions between the fae and humans. Skimming through a book of ancient history, she did find what must have been a more famous example. Well over a thousand years ago, Celestia and Luna’s father lived on a mountain called Olympus. Long before the invention of staves, the humans feared him and his magic powers and gave him all sorts of offerings in hopes he’d be kind to them. But neither of them understood the other. Sunset wasn’t sure why, and the author seemed to share her confusion, but Celestia’s father, perhaps taking insult at an offering of precious metals, made it so the king who offered it would turn everything he touched to gold. That turned out to be a horrible curse. Before long, Olympus became a forbidden place. Indeed, it seemed like most of the fae cities were off-limits, the names of the places they lived always written in red text. It was enough to make being here, in essentially a fae city, even more unnerving. Sunset noticed two familiar faces nearby, Dash and Pinkie. She hardly wanted to talk to anyone right now, so she kept her book up high over her face just in case. Dash and Pinkie looked disinterested in reading any one book in particular. They were going through the library pulling out each book and then putting it back. Sunset made the mistake of peeking out from her book for a second, out of curiosity, and was immediately spotted. “Oh! It’s Sunset!” Pinkie ran right up next to her and whispered. “I knew you’d come back because there’s nowhere else to go.” “Ah, hey, it is you!” Dash was back to one hundred percent chipperness. “You wanna help us with something fun instead of sitting there reading stuff like a nerd?” Dash had her hands on the table, leaning against it and smiling down at Sunset. She didn’t even look slightly upset about before. “You’re not angry at me?” “Huh?” Dash drew a blank but remembered after a moment. “Oh! That whole thing with the revolution and me having to remember stuff! Nah, that was before last Friday. It’s hard to be mad about stuff that happened before Friday, you know?” Maybe Celestia did her a favor and ate the growth that would have made them stay mad, or grow bitter or whatever. That would keep this place largely drama-free. No drama would be nice for a change. “We’re looking for the secret library.” Dash jabbed her thumb at one of the bookshelves. “Figure it’s gotta be behind one of these shelves, right? Cause that’s how it works in the movies.” “There’s a secret library?” Sunset asked. “Oh, sure! There are all kinds of secret places.” Dash shifted through another five books. “I’ve found the secret library four times! Problem is, Celestia eats everyone’s knowledge about secret places at the end of the month so nobody can remember where it is, or how to get there, or what’s inside. But you remember it exists.” “I remember it being huge and there being all these magical kinda things there, and there was this one book series I can never finish but I remember really liking,” Pinkie said. “You want to help us?” Dash looked excited about it. “No thanks.” Sunset lifted the book back up. “I still want to be alone for a while. I’m a bit depressed about the whole 'being trapped with an ancient god who wants to eat my potential', and being betrayed by my legal guardian, and my whole life being a lie and all that.” “Depressed, huh?” Dash closed her eyes and rubbed her chin. “Well you know, Celestia can instantly solve that problem for you forever, right?” “I’ll pass,” said Sunset. “And it’s really more like she’s making them not problems anymore rather than solving them.” “I don’t get why you wouldn’t take it. I mean, if I was horribly depressed and had someone who could instantly solve my problems -“ Dash gave that a second of thought. “Oh wait, that’s exactly what happened to me.” “Look.” Sunset turned the book around to face Dash and Pinkie. “I’ve been reading about Celestia’s kind and I don’t get how you can trust them. Even when they mean well, they’re so bizarre they can end up destroying you anyway. I already have a short list of times they just screwed someone over for reasons that make no sense at all.” “Oh, Sunset!” Pinkie laughed and sat down next to her, putting an arm around Sunset reassuringly. “You’re only scared of the Fae because they wield powers that can destroy you in an instant, and are ultimately beyond your comprehension. You can never know how they’ll react to your actions, meaning whether you live or die when interacting with them is completely beyond your control.” Pinkie smiled like that was supposed to reassure her. “Are you disagreeing with me?” Sunset asked painfully. “Well it’s not like I’m unagreeing with you.” Pinkie pointed to her head. “You can’t not agree with someone before you don’t. Just remember the perspective before and you’ll have nothing to worry about because you already did.” “What?” Sunset’s eye twitch, unsure of how to even respond to that. “Are you messing with me?” “You’re doing it again, Pinkie.” Dash flicked Pinkie’s ear. “Pinkie thinks like one of them, see? She gets them and she says we’re fine.” “Hey, it’s not my fault if this is super hard to explain to you nut cakes.” Pinkie rubbed her ear, then grabbed Sunset’s book. “Here, let me try one more time. See, you’re on this page right now. But then you turn the page -“ Pinkie turned the page. “And now you’re on another page!” Pinkie smiled wide. “Do you understand now?” “I honestly don’t know if I understand,” Sunset admitted. The concept was either incredibly complex or simple. Sunset, not seeing this as obvious, confused Pinkie in turn, who then pulled the book to herself and inspected it. “The important thing is that Celestia understands us after centuries of practice,” said Dash. “She’s been taking care of Rarity for 1400 years just fine, so we got nothing to worry about at this point. Celestia knows how we think and what hurts us. Just hide behind Celestia if any other fae show up, and we’re good. That’s all we gotta know.” “Maybe.” Sunset took her book back. “I guess Celestia herself hasn’t done anything bad to me yet.” As long as no other 'elves' showed up, that is. “At least now I can be more straightforward without worrying about being executed,” said Sunset. “Is it okay if I ask you… what it’s like? Like do you remember taking classes from a few years ago?” “Sure,” said Dash. “I mean, stuff from long ago goes away completely. We kind of remember it a little, you forget just enough to make everything feel like it’s the first time. I think there’s like emotional memories and uh, the other kind?” Dash looked at Pinkie who nodded with a thumbs up. “Yeah!” Dash nodded too. “Like, Celestia ate the emotional memory of last week, which is why I’m not all depressed and angry about it. It’s great! But I still remember it happening. For now.” “It’s so much more fun being like this,” Pinkie promised “You don’t need to worry about everyone hating you or falling into a spiral of depression.” “But what about your feelings of love for other people?” Sunset asked. “Does she eat your love and friendship and happy memories too?” “Sure! But that’s a good thing!” Dash folded her arms and nodded. “Huh?” “The best phase is the puppy dog phase,” Pinkie explained “Your first year in love is always the best, after that all your shared experience just dulls your love for each other until it’s no longer magical. Then you drift apart. Celestia keeps us in the happiest, most loving part forever! We’re like everlasting puppies!” “Yeah! Without it all your friends would just move on with their lives eventually and forget about you.” Dash put her hands on the table and leaned forward. “You should try it! You’ll see how great it is and you’ll never want to go back! Trust me.” “No, thanks.” Sunset shook her head. “I’m not even going to think about sacrificing myself to Celestia until I’m one hundred percent certain of everything. I mean, you were fully informed when you decided to go through with it, right?” Dash was left wondering if that was the case. The bell rang a moment later, signaling the end of homeroom. At least now Sunset knew that she couldn’t upset these people for very long. This kind of gave her license to be a bit of a jerk… didn’t it? Sunset got her staff and went onto the roof to meet for personal tutoring with Celestia on dimensional rifts. “Hello.” Celestia opened her arms to greet Sunset. “I hope you don’t mind, but I found another student interested in taking a few of these advanced magic courses with you. She’s a new transfer student who just came here this morning.” Celestia gestured to another girl sitting on one of the benches of the school's rooftop garden. She was purple-haired and scrawny, holding a staff as well. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle,” said Celestia. “Twilight, this is Sunset Shimmer.”