//------------------------------// // A Long Way Left To Go // Story: Magic Mirror On The Wall, Who Is Mightiest Of Them All? // by Snakeskin Ducttape //------------------------------// You mentioned that there had been outright war a decade earlier? The rest of the school were still deep in their studies, letting others assume that any lingering brooding on Sunset’s part from seeing the corpse in the woods was just her way of expressing stress. She looked at the spine of the most informative history book on her bedside table, sweeping her memories of what it said. Eleven years ago now I suppose, but yes. Although I’m not sure how a war in this society would play out. The magic population is not large enough for battles for one thing, so those are out. I imagine it would look much like civil unrest. What I wanted to get to however, is that I’m curious what you think of that world. Seeing a murder within a year of arriving is worrisome, but with a war so recent in its history, many evils and tragedies would be lingering, waiting to unfurl, even as more benevolent forces struggle to rebuild for the benefit of all. While I can help you, you are the only pony who can judge that world, and what you should do for the next many moons. I cannot lie, I worry for you, Sunset, but I also trust your judgment. Sunset hummed as she tried collecting her thoughts. I think you’re right about the effects of war. Remember Hagrid? He was very upset at even the thought of a hurt unicorn, even though it was a very different being from himself. People here are not so callous as one might fear from hearing this. Yes, you mentioned the poor stallion was different. Can you tell me more? He had smaller eyes, was larger, and looked more feral than what is normal on Equestria. Interesting. I would’ve liked to see him or his kin, preferably alive and well, and see if I recognized them, but I suppose it will remain a curious little detail. Now, my little Sunset, I’ve promised myself to make more time for you, but if I don’t attend to some courtly business, I’m afraid Kibitz’ mustache will start fraying. It’s okay. Tell him I said hi, and that I found his bangs. The book was still for a moment. “Very droll, young mistress,” he says back, and wonders if they were next to your humility. Now, let us respect our elders, even when we’re many centuries older than them, and let Kibitz have the last word. Goodbye for now, Sunset. With love. With love. — Finals were finally upon them. The heat was sweltering for all students who didn’t have the foresight or skill to use magic to regulate their body temperature, which to Sunset seemed to be everyone except herself. It played out much as expected. McGonagall was strictly refusing to indicate anything with her expression as Sunset transformed mice into snuff boxes, and Flitwick was brimming with encouragement and congratulated Sunset as she made pineapples dance across a desk. Snape was no doubt seething at Sunset’s perfect forgetfulness potion, and Binns had a list of boring history statements with dates and keywords missing that they were supposed to fill in. Sunset’s classmates cheered as the final minute of the final exam came to a close, and filed out of the classroom, talking to each other with that particular kind of relief at finally having escaped something stressful and not really threatening at all. “So how did you do, Sunset?” Dean Thomas asked, drawing her into the conversation he was in the process of pulling the whole class into. “I believe I passed,” Sunset said, evenly. “Tsh, yeah. You never have any problems with anything,” Seamus Finnigan said, making Lavender and Parvati nod with an expression on their faces that Sunset couldn’t identify. “If only,” Sunset said, wistfully. Most of the rest of the class tried talking loudly about the finals, speculating about the details about thresholds for passing and failing, until Hermione’s overbearing opinions on the entire subject exhausted everyone. Sunset slowed down to walk next to Neville, nudging him with an elbow. “Well?” “Uhm… I’m not… I don’t know,” he admitted. “Naturally,” Sunset said. “Wanna speculate?” “Uh… no?” Sunset nodded. “There’s wisdom in that,” she said. The entire school was trickling out of the castle to relax on the grounds, saunter across the lawns, or skip stones across the lake. The exception was the older students who had more subjects and more extensive tests. Sunset followed the example of many other students, and found a tree to sit in the shadows of, lying in the grass of a slope and looking down across the grounds to the lake. Humans didn’t determine the weather. This went without saying for humans without magic, but wizards and witches didn’t seem very interested in doing so either, and like their non-magic counterparts, used shelter instead when the whimsy of the weather was disagreeable. It led to a lot of dreary days, but this was not one of them. The sun was shining, the sky was blue with just enough spontaneously occurring clouds to make for interesting shapes to look at, and the mountains were a comforting, lively green in the distance. It took a while before Sunset figured that the relief of the students, and the scent of that, might be affecting her, but she decided not to fight it. Today was a good day to relax. She heard a bumblebee buzzing close by, and held out her hand in front of her face. Her nail glowed slightly, and gathered up some stray pollen from the flowers growing here and there around her, collecting it into a small glob on the tip of her finger. The bumblebee landed on her hand and eagerly started eating and gathering as much as it could, as fast as it could. “Shhh, relax,” Sunset encouraged it, and gently placed her other index finger on the back of its thorax. “It’s okay.” The poor creatures would work themselves to early deaths if left to their own devices, their limited capacity to perceive and interpret the world making them plan for the worst at all times, and achieving it on an individual level. Both out in the country, and in gardens in the cities, beekeeping ponies spent a lot of time simply calming their bees down. It led to each bee being slightly less productive per day, but much more productive over their lifetime, as they lived much longer lives. After a few moments, the bumblebee worked less frantically, and gathered up the pollen in a more relaxed way. Once it had gathered almost everything, a shape plopped down next to Sunset, causing the bumblebee to take flight back to wherever its hive was. “So how did you do at finals?” Draco Malfoy asked. Sunset chuckled to herself. “What?” Draco asked. “Nothing,” Sunset said, amused by Draco’s consistency when it came to starting conversations. “I think I did okay.” “Yeah, you would,” Draco said. “You’re from a powerful family.” Sunset cast him a sideways glance, wondering how he came to that conclusion. “I’m an orphan.” Draco opened his mouth, before looking away for a moment. “Oh. I’m sorry. But, uh… what I mean is that your family must’ve been powerful magically.” “Possibly,” Sunset said, looking back up into the sky. She slowly started looking Draco over, magically, to try and discern how powerful he was. It was hard to truly tell, much like it was hard to tell how strong someone actually was by looking at their bulk, but it worked to some degree. Sunset felt that Draco had an above-average amount of magic power, for a wizard, but not freakishly so. What was interesting was that he, like all wizards in this school, was training to master a type of magic where one’s inner magic strength rarely had any impact on the results. This was very obvious in the case of Hermione, who had a below-average amount of magic power, and still won more house points than all of Gryffindor’s third year students put together. “So where do you live if you… if your family is, ehm…” “Gone?” Sunset suggested. “Yeah.” “I used to live with a… a woman,” Sunset started. “A witch?” Draco quickly asked. “She could do magic if that’s what you mean,” Sunset said. “But I left, joined Hogwarts, and for… reasons, I can’t stay with her for now.” “So what will you do during the summer?” Sunset wondered if McGonagall and Dumbledore had finagled Draco into trying to pull information out of her. “I’ll make do,” she said, as she casually pulled her wand out of her inner pocket, and held it out in front of her. “Aurus.” Puffs of water vapor started spilling out of the wand, and in the warm air, it quickly dispersed, until Sunset said, “Glacius,” making it cool down and form mist hovering over the ground, rolling down the soft slope she was resting on. Draco looked on for a moment, before he too pulled out his wand. “My father taught me this one,” he said, and aimed at the mist. “Anguis Figura.” Sunset lazily looked at the utter lack of effect, not noticing Draco’s blush. “Anguis Figura,” he repeated, this time making the effect form into a snake formed from mist, large as a boa. It slithered down the slope with great speed, making a pair of Ravenclaw girls shriek and jump up when they saw it move past them. Sunset sniggered, and Draco smirked, as the harmless shape continued towards the lake, slithering out over it. “Glacio,” Sunset said again, making the vapor snake turn into a solid, snake-shaped chunk of ice, which plopped into the water and lazily floated along the bank to some onlookers’ curiosity. “My parents would be impressed by what you can do. I’m sure they’d like to know more about you,” Draco said. Sunset thought back to hazy images of a richly dressed couple with elitist expressions seen on the other side of The Leaky Cauldron main dining room, and tried not to let her skepticism show. “It’s just a few tricks I ran across,” Sunset said. Down by the bank, a group of second year Hufflepuffs had fished the ice-snake out of the water, and one of them was making a big show out of swinging it over his head and smashing it into pieces on the ground. Draco was silent for a moment. “That’s a very Slytherin thing to say,” he eventually said, smirking a little. “Cunning, you know?” “I suppose so,” Sunset said, watching the other student pick up chunks of the formerly snake-shaped sculpture and throw them out towards the water, trying to skip them across the surface. “I’m still not sure what the point is with the whole house system. No, wait, I suppose it’s meant to be motivational to have it be a competition.” She thought back to an afternoon in Canterlot, when Celestia was holding court. To the side of the hall was a flight of stairs in the wall, cleverly hidden in plain sight, leading up to an overlook. One of several, which provided one with views of the hall, much like a box in a theater. Only they were hidden behind a tapestry that only a select few ponies could see through, like Celestia’s security detail, Sunset Shimmer, Raven the secretary, and of course, Kibitz. Kibitz. If there was a pony more dedicated to his task than Celestia or Sunset, it would be him. A high-functioning, world-class workaholic, he tended to sit in these and quietly preside over the proceedings, except one time when Sunset had finagled him into showing his considerable skill in chess, which in Equestria had three dimensions. Sunset had decided beforehand to not bristle at any defeat she suffered at his hooves, but it was still difficult to keep her face straight as she felt Kibitz playing with her and dangling layers upon layers of traps and distractions disguised as opportunities and openings, even as he barely focused on the game, and mostly looked at Celestia and listened to the droning of the court. “Ask yourself if you think there’s a difference between winning, and winning with style,” he had said, as he checked Sunset, without even looking at the board. Lying in the shade outside of Hogwarts castle, Sunset smiled easily at the memory, lazily watching a set of giant tentacles rising out of the water and batting the ice-chunks to the cheers of the students by the bank. “I think it’s also useful to know who belongs where,” Draco ventured. “I guess… maybe,” Sunset admitted. “Did you say the sorting hat said you could belong in Slytherin?” Draco carefully asked. “Yep.” “Good.” Sunset chortled, making Draco blush. “I mean, uh… it’s good that we- uh, you’re… cunning,” Draco hurried to say. “You better be too or else it speaks poorly about me that you’ve noticed,” Sunset noted. Draco struggled with that one for a moment, before smiling a bit. “Yeah. My whole family has been in Slytherin. Got to keep up the legacy, you know?” “Can’t say I do, but I can imagine,” Sunset said, and remembered that she hadn’t reciprocated to Draco’s probing. “So how did you do at the exams?” “I believe I did well,” Draco said, nodding regally. “I’d be surprised if I didn’t get the highest grade in all subjects. Professor Snape is a friend of the family, you know?” “He certainly approves of you in potions class, I know that much.” They sat in silence as Draco fumbled for things to say, watching the tentacles splash water at the students by the bank, making the girls shriek and retreat and the boys laugh and cheer for the creature to do it again. “I’m… sure he approves of you as well,” Draco ventured. Sunset scoffed while smiling. “I mean… he’s, ehm… a little harsh, but you’re still learning a lot from him.” Still smiling, Sunset shook her head. “Nope. It’s all me. Like just about everything here.” Draco fell silent, and after a while, he stole a glance at the side of Sunset’s face as she kept looking out over the water. Something about her made him keep searching for things to say, but not finding anything. This made him internally frantic, rather than angry, though he didn’t notice. — The next night, Sunset had heard Hermione sneak out of the dormitory again. This wasn’t suspicious in itself, as the common room was still open to the students after curfew. It was the half-loud thump that was odd. Still, Sunset went back to sleep. It wasn’t until the next morning, when Sunset sat down by the Gryffindor table, that she noticed that the student body was absolutely buzzing with whispering and gossiping. Sunset glanced around and noticed a few missing faces, and realized that her brain was already picking out the puzzle pieces with the flat edges. “Where’s Hermione?” she asked. Her classmates looked at her. “Haven’t you heard!?” Parvati asked. Sunset looked at her. “... Yes… I know everything, I’m just talking about it because everyone else is and I don’t want to be the odd one out.” Parvati shot Sunset a glare before Lavender and Dean spoke up instead. “Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville are in the hospital wing,” was what you would get if you combined their sentences into one and pruned it appropriately. “They say dark wizards snuck into the castle, and they dueled them,” Seamus supplied. “Nah, I heard it was You-Know-Who they fought,” Dean said. “Oh come off!” Parvati interjected. “Four grown wizards couldn’t fight him, four first-years definitely can’t.” “Ah!” Dean said, holding up a finger and leaning past Lavender to address her. “But he kicked it when he tried killing Harry the first time, didn’t he? Why not this time too?” “Excuse me, isn’t he dead?” Lavender noted. Dean shrugged. “Who knows with wizards that powerful? They say only Dumbledore could fight him.” “Yeah, and is Dumbledore immortal?” Parvati asked. “He might be,” Dean said, shrugging. “We don’t know. Or maybe he doesn’t wanna do what you need to do to become immortal. Evil, dark magic and all that.” “You need evil magic to become immortal?” Sunset asked, skeptically. “Sure, otherwise, we’d have heard about it being taught in school, wouldn’t we?” Dean noted. “It stands to reason.” Sunset shook her head. “So what happened to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville?” she asked. “I heard that they fought dark wizards until Dumbledore saved them, and then they collapsed,” Lavender said. “I heard that they all got horrible scars everywhere,” Seamus said. “I heard that they all got dark magic inside them so now they need to suck magic out of witches and wizards to stay alive,” Dean said, in an excited voice. Sunset glanced around at them. “And you all heard this from where?” That made them all glance down at their plates again. “From… people.” “I see,” Sunset said, and looked around. “Where’s Fred, George, and Percy?” “They came in while we were eating and put some food on trays, and then went out again,” Parvati explained. “In the direction of the medical wing?” Sunset asked, to which the others nodded. “With food for about four people?” and they nodded again. “Right. Good.” Breakfast proceeded quietly after that, with some quiet ire being leveled at Sunset for bursting such a fine gossip-bubble. Sunset herself was glad that her classmates were all alive. She felt challenged enough that there had been some sort of battle right under her nose that she managed to miss. If people had died it would’ve been too much, something would’ve had to be done, flanks would’ve had to be kicked. Hermione and Neville came back around lunch, and were immediately pelted with questions by students of all ages and from all houses, except Slytherin, although everyone could tell they were trying to listen in on every word. It actually looked pretty funny as a long table of people were all glancing in a way that was no doubt supposed to be discreet in the direction of Hermione and Neville. It didn’t really do anything to quell the rumors. Quite the opposite in fact. For a brief moment, some of the more sensible rumors were in the lead, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had found out that a dark wizard had infiltrated the castle as part of some nefarious plan, and maybe Neville was with them, it was unclear, and that said evil wizard was defeated, possibly dead. Also, it was said that Professor Quirrel of all people was the dark wizard all along. He certainly was nowhere to be found, although others said that he had also fought against the dark wizards, and had died or been sent to a place called St Mungo’s hospital in the aftermath. But soon enough, the rumors started to mutate again. The Dark Lord’s former followers had all assaulted the castle to steal something that could resurrect their master, Harry Potter had all fought them single-handedly, Hagrid had sent the castle menagerie against them, Salazar Slytherin had woken up in a secret crypt as a vampire, Albus Dumbledore’s evil twin had tried to take the headmaster’s place during the night but was defeated, or perhaps even succeeded and no one could tell, the faculty had all been replaced by body-doubles, and so on. There was also the fact that Fred and George, ever struggling to keep straight faces, were pouring copious amounts of fuel on the fire, saying that no, it wasn’t just The Dark Lord’s servants, but the whole ministry of magic, which had been infiltrated and turned to evil, that Harry fought, and that Ron had led a board of giant chess pieces to battle against them alongside him. Curiously, Percy did nothing to try and stop them doing this. Like the Manehatten stock exchange, the rumors and speculations grew to such ridiculous heights that a critical mass of people pulled out and rejected the whole thing out of hand, and the illusion shattered almost instantly. Sunset had sometimes wondered what it would’ve looked like if Celestia didn’t use her influence to surreptitiously keep redirecting all the funds back into repayment plans just before it happened. A thousand years old ruler makes sure she heads off economic collapse. So, finally, the rumors simmered down into more sensible but longer-lasting levels. Some villain had been in the castle during the night, Harry Potter and his friends had snuck out, and… all was well the next morning. To many, that spoke volumes. What caught Sunset’s attention however, was what her classmates had spoken of, that it stood to reason that immortality could only be obtained through dark magic. Sunset played with the idea that evil magic was what had led to Celestia’s immortality, perhaps as an unwilling experimental subject, or perhaps she had been a villain who had a change of heart, but she dismissed that idea quickly. Sunset knew Celestia too well, and besides, if powerful magics were required to become an alicorn, then Cadence, and her, in Sunset’s opinion, bottomless ineptitude at magic, made no sense. But perhaps something like a combination of wizarding magic and pony magic could be possible, replacing the evil aspects of dark wizarding magic with more agreeable supplements from pony magic. It was too early to tell, but Sunset filed it away as something to consider in the future. So a few days passed, Harry came out of the hospital wing, and it was time for the feast to celebrate the end of the school year. Harry arrived among the last students, and for once, Sunset noticed the student house competition that everyone kept going on about, since the hall was awash in Slytherin green and silver. Apparently, Gryffindor had come in last, and Slytherin first, before Dumbledore handed out one hundred and seventy points to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, at the last minute, changing the decoration to Gryffindor red and gold. Sunset joined in the applause aimed at her classmates, but she refrained from cheering. She let others do that. “We wouldn’t even have needed those points if Snape hadn’t docked so many points from you,” Dean told Sunset, grinning. “He did?” Sunset said, mildly surprised. It was an evening of excellent food, and Sunset couldn’t help but let the scent of high spirits influence her around the table, before one more night at the castle. The next morning, the first years took the boats over the lake, towards the train station. Sunset still wasn’t sure why only the first years took the naval route, and it seemed like no one else knew either. Some said that children under the age of twelve were not allowed in the village of Hogsmeade, which the road towards the station skirted along, some said that was because the villagers kept vicious monsters that feasted on too young people. Hermione said it was just tradition. The train ride was fairly uneventful. Sunset ended up in a compartment with Parvati, Lavender, and Neville. After listening to their gossip for about an hour, Neville followed Sunset’s example, rolled up his cloak to use as a pillow, and slept most of the way. Before long, she pulled off her robe, revealing her more muggle-appropriate attire underneath. “See you after the summer then?” he asked, as they stepped off from the train. “Probably, yeah. Unless I get myself expelled before then,” Sunset said. Augusta, Neville’s grandmother, was there to collect him on the magical train platform. Neville hurried up to her, and waved goodbye to Sunset. Augusta nodded to Sunset in the distance, who nodded back, before Sunset set off towards the exit leading to the rest of King’s Cross. She had straggled behind, and was surrounded by people and students she didn’t know, and before long, she felt like she had given everyone the slip without even intending to. “So… where to now?” she said to herself, looking around the people milling around, looking at the large signposts showing which trains would be departing from which platform, buying snacks from the kiosks, reading newspapers, and waiting on benches. Adjusting her shoulder bag with all her school supplies in, she sauntered away, looking for something promising. Looking out a window, Sunset spotted a section of the street with the self-propelled vehicles parked, large ones, with their destinations displayed in large, glowing letters on their fronts. One of them was going to Surrey, which sounded familiar. “How much?” Sunset asked the large, sweaty man in uniform behind the wheel, bringing up her bag. “Two quids,” he muttered, clearly not in a good mood. Sunset fished out two one pound coins, and handed them to the man, who had a little device print out a receipt and ticket for her, before nodding his head to her to take a seat. Sunset sat down in a factory-made polyester seat, and waited. She’d be worried the vehicle wouldn’t travel before nightfall, if not for the sporadic boarding of other people, and when the bus was nearing capacity, it rumbled to life, and slowly rolled out onto a larger road, before picking up speed. Sunset pulled out her book, but only sat with it in her lap, thinking about what to write to Celestia. Sunset would be fine, of course. She had her magic, she was smart, and observant, and she didn’t need anyone else. But she still couldn’t help but feel that the summer would be kinda boring compared to life at Hogwarts. She’d just have to make it interesting.