//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer: Mostly Harmless? 
// by Hokuto Ulrik 
//------------------------------//

The next day found Jackie waking up to the sight of her new roommate, the strange girl named Sunset Shimmer, sitting in a half lotus position and seemingly meditating. Shrugging to herself, she grabbed a change of clothes and went to the dorm's lavatory to get ready for the day. 







Sunset was indeed meditating. She had woken a couple of hours earlier and already taken care of her morning ablutions and made a discovery that shook her. 

Her cutie mark, the familiar yin-yang sun that had adorned her shoulders for the past few years, was gone. In her haste and disorientation the previous morning she had missed its absence. 

That coupled with her lack of a horn, had sent her into a momentary spiral of dark emotions. She quickly pulled herself out of it, and after getting dressed for the day, had set herself to meditating. 

She was growing more and more worried as time passed that she was without her magic at all, but as she was just about to give up, she felt a flicker of the familiar warmth that was her magic. 

In her mind's eye, what was once a raging inferno of powerful magic was now a small ember, barely anything to make note of back home. But here, in a place that as far as she could tell, had no magic whatsoever, it was tremendous. All she had to do was coax that ember back into being a fire and she would have her magic again. 

'But what good will it do me?' Sunset thought as she came out of her meditation. 'Magic, as far as I can tell, isn't the norm here. For all I know, if I started to show off my magic, I would wind up in some government laboratory somewhere and no one would miss me. Just another missing person out of millions. Probably billions. No one would care. No, magic won't do me any good here. I need to learn. Find out what I need to do to survive. Find out the players on this galactic stage so I know who to avoid pissing off and who to make friends with.' 

At that thought, Jackie exited the lavatory and saw that she was back to paying attention to her surroundings. 

"Hey, glad to see you're properly awake." Jackie said. "It's almost time ta get ta classes. I am sure that they are gonna want ta test ya before they get ya started with any lessons." 

Sunset nodded. "Probably. Well, lead the way." She replied. 

Jackie gave a smile and waved for Sunset to follow. "Alright Sunny! Let's go!" 







Several hours later, Jackie was sitting across from Sunset in the canteen near the school after classes watching with a bemused expression as Sunset rapidly demolished several plates of food.

"Land's sakes girl, slow down. It ain't going nowhere." Jackie chided gently. 

"Honestly Jaqueline, how many times have I asked you to work on your elocution?" A refined voice called out. 

Jackie turned to a girl about her age, but more finely dressed and with, of all things, purple hair. "Tabs, I talk how I talk. It has served me fine up until now and it will for a long time." She replied. 
"I do wish you wouldn't use nicknames either, but I guess it would be a lost cause." The girl, Tabs, said. "Now who is this, er, delightful young lady?" 

"Tabs, this is Sunset Shimmer. She is a new intake to the orphanage, just arrived the other day. Sunny, this is Tabatha Belle. Her family runs the one of the clothing shops on this station and a few others. She is in one of the more advanced classes." Jackie said. 

Tabatha smiled. "It is a pleasure to meet Miss Shimmer. I do hope they are treating you well at the orphanage. If you need anything to spice up your wardrobe, let me know and I will do what I can." She said. 

Sunset nodded, not wanting to speak through the mouthful of food she was currently chewing. 

"They gave her a knowledge test this morning and then got her started with catching up her education to fill in the holes." Jackie explained. "It was her first time learning the way we do out here in the black." 

Tabatha's eyes widened. "Oh dear, that must have been an experience darling. What did they have her set at?" She asked Jackie. 

"Four ta one, I think. Relatively gentle and not too much of an overload." Jackie replied. "Though, she did come out of it with that 'l know kung fu' look on her face and demanding food." She added waving to the now sated Sunset. 

"That was delicious." Sunset said as she leaned back in her seat. "I'm not sure what that was a reference to, but I learned so much, a lot more than I expected to for the few hours I was in there." 

"Yup. That's the beauty of advanced technology. By stimulating certain areas of yer brain, they can make it seem like hours have gone by, when it is only minutes." Jackie replied. "Granted, you don't want to turn it too high, otherwise your brains start leaking out yer ears." 

"Don't be so dramatic Jaqueline." Tabatha said.

"I'm not. Didn't you hear about that moron a couple of weeks ago?" Jackie asked. "He got tired of the slow pace and overrode the safeties and set the system to a twenty-four ta one rate. When they found him, his brain was fried."

Sunset gulped. "That sounds horrible." She said.

"It was. Learnin' center was closed for a few days while they cleaned up the mess and made sure that it couldn't be replicated." Jackie explained. "It was enough of a warning for most of us, but there is always someone dumb enough to try it to get ahead."

Sunset nodded at that. She remembered a few occasions when another student at Celestia's school had pushed themselves too far and had nearly died as a result of overestimating their capabilities. This was a similar situation, just with technology rather than magic.

"Are there ways that you can safely go higher on the time dilation effect?" She inquired.

"Well, one can get implants that can help, but those are generally restricted to either the military or those that can afford them outright." Tabatha said, brushing her purple hair behind one ear. "They are exoberently expensive and a lot can go wrong if not properly installed, so they are very hard to come by."

Sunset nodded. "What is the military like?" She asked.

"Well, that depends upon which one you mean. There are three primary factions in the galaxy. The Federation, the Empire, and the Alliance. All three are in a state of cold war, using proxies to shift the borders. There are also several factions within those three as well, all of them jockeying for more influence." Tabatha explained. "Currently, and most likely for the foreseeable future, this system is in Federation space. We are quite deep within it, but with all the major and minor factions within the Federation, who exactly is in overall control of it changes on a semi-regular basis."

"Who are the proxies that these factions use to affect the balance of power?" Sunset asked, curious about how the politics of the galaxy could be so fluid.

"The Pilot's Federation." Jackie answered. "My brother was a member and would do missions to bring the credits in between the big harvests. They're a group of independent commanders who fly for whoever they see fit to fly for. Only thing they respect is ability. When you're flying in the black, you have to be good, or you're dead."