//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Hopes and Dreams at Canterlot High // by Rainbow Sparkle //------------------------------// Sunset was many things. She was a fully grown mare, one of the best spellcasters in all of Equestria, outclassed perhaps only by her former teacher the Princess herself. She was practiced in combat and had even on a few occasions faced off against powerful creatures to test her abilities. She was also someone who had grown up with stories of zombie ponies and the undead being used as it sometimes was for many young foals- to encourage them to be good and go to bed when they were told. Adding on top of that, she was without much of her magic and in an unfamiliar world in a body whose abilities she didn’t quite know… The shrill, terrified scream she let out was thus a rather natural and understandable reaction. As was her trying to make a run for it through the door on the other side of the room that the skeleton wasn’t standing in front of. She heard the skeleton say something, but her brain didn’t register it. Her focus was on getting away as fast as possible! She managed to get through the door and made it about a dozen steps through a hallway, before suddenly she was confronted by a pair of… dogs? Only they were taller than her, and wearing long black cloaks. She paid them only a glance before she spotted stairs down and bolted for them. “Hey wait!” One shouted, the other barked something that sounded like it might have been words, but was too gruff and guttural for her to be sure. Didn’t matter though, she needed to get away from the skeleton, and for all she knew, these two were friends of theirs. “O-Outta my way!” she shouted as she rushed the stairs, only to lose her footing and yelp as she started to tumble down them. For a split second, she was suddenly worried her haste to get away to keep from being hurt, eaten, or who knew what else, was going to be done in by her cracking her head on the ground again. Only, instead of crashing her head into anything, or smacking hard into the ground, Sunset felt something grip onto her. Or rather, it gripped onto the very essence of her being. Suddenly, she was no longer tumbling, and instead, was floating (and flailing) in the air as adrenaline and fear continued to reign supreme. “ya know, ya outta relax. get any jumpier, and ya might leap right outta your skin.” A deep baritone of a voice called out, causing Sunset to jerk her head up, the source of it coming into view and making her eyes shrink yet again. Another skeleton. Only this one was shorter. And her brain managed to catch that he was wearing a shirt, jacket of some kind, shorts and… Are those bunny slippers?! The incredulousness of a skeleton wearing such a thing managed to side track her fear long enough for her brain to catch up and approach things more rationally. Which allowed her to recall the rather… strange outfit that the other skeleton had been wearing. And that, while loud and boisterous, all he’d done was comment on her cursing and say hello. Stories of skele-ponies had often painted them as out to feast on the dead, or rip the bones right out of someone to add to their numbers. Neither of which had occurred to her and which they would have had ample time while she was knocked out. And the giant dogs, while strange and surprising and semi-ominous in those black cloaks, weren’t actually holding any weapons. If they were Diamond Dogs, or similar, then at worst they’d try to enslave her. And even without magic, she was confident she could get out of that kind of situation. All of which led to her glancing down, eyes going wide as she saw what looked like a glowing heart shaped object hovering just above her chest, its hue currently colored a bright blue color. “Ah, there you are!” the first skeleton called out from behind her. She didn’t look back, too confused by what she was seeing and feeling as the academic part of her mind wondering what the light was, and what was making her defy gravity.  Especially since this was supposed to be a world without magic! Slowly, she was lowered to the ground as he brought his outstretched hand down. Her eyes caught a tell-tale blue glow around them, which faded once her feet were on the floor. They then shifted to that of the skeleton itself, their gazes locking for just a moment. Sunset couldn’t help but shiver. For a split instance, she felt something ripple over her very being. Like her essence, her past, her very life was being reviewed and considered. The feeling didn’t last, and if not for the goosebumps, she’d have thought she imagined the whole thing. The skeleton simply hummed, before the smile on his face seemed to stretch just a bit. Which should have been impossible. It gave her a long look, before remarking, “i just bet you’re bursting with questions. or maybe you aren’t, but i can guarantee that we’ve got more than a few for you. as do our friends who found you and that portal you came through.” “Y-You know about the Portal?” Sunset found herself blurting out, mouth moving before her brain could fully engage. “No one on this side is supposed to know about it! At least, according to Starswirl’s book they shouldn’t…” She then clammed up, closing her eyes and mentally smacking herself. Before the skeleton in front of her could say or ask anything else, she felt a bony, glove covered hand clasp onto her shoulder and yelped as the taller skeleton remarked, rather loudly and enthusiastically, “There’ll be time for us to play 20 questions later! Our guest is awake and I am sure that having spent much of the day unconscious they will have worked up quite the appetite!” The skeleton wasn’t wrong. Her stomach let out a rather loud rumble at that. The enthusiastic skeleton of course used that to say, “See! And it would be ever so impolite to keep them hungry while we wait for the others to return. So let us adjourn to the kitchen, where I shall whip something up for everyone to sink their teeth into! And we can get around to introductions!” Probably referring to that biped creature… and the minotaur. Sunset thought to herself as she did her best to keep her worries in check. Panicking wasn’t going to be of any help here. She was outnumbered, and at least one of these… creatures? People? Whatever, one of them at least could use magic. “I get the feeling I don’t have much choice in this, do I?” Sunset asked after a moment as the shorter skeleton closed its eyes. Which was… disconcerting to say the least. “kid, there’s always choices. some are just better than others.” The shorter skeleton supplied in a cryptic tone that made her tense up just a bit. But then the skeleton cracked open an eye and chuckled as it said, “like the choice of me taking care of the cooking, rather than my boneheaded brother. kinda hard to ask questions or get answers if you’re busy losing your lunch to the trash.” The brief spike of tension was gone like that, akin to a needle giving a balloon the tiniest of pokes. A single teasing comment set the two skeletons (males to her further confusion) bickering as she was forcibly marched into a nearby dining area. Where she was offered a seat and then almost forgotten about. Almost, being the key word, as the two black cloaked dogs had followed after and were keeping an eye on her as well. That and chiming into the conversation between the other two every so often. A part of her was tempted to tune out of it all and focus on trying to figure out how to get out of his situation. Her plan… what there was of it now that she had thought about it, had involved laying low and getting a lay of the land. How was she going to do that captured as she was? But another part of her held her back. For though this wasn’t what she had expected… she could still work with this. They had questions for her, and she had plenty for them. She might need to be careful what she shared, but she was positive she could manage. She had gotten plenty of chances to observe the games the nobility got up to amongst themselves after all. Yeah, she was confused. She was lost. And what shreds of a plan she had right now was going to rely entirely on her winging it and hoping things worked out. But she was Sunset Shimmer. She wasn’t going to let anything stop her from learning and achieving what she desired.  Not even this setback would keep her away from her dream. Yet as her stomach rumbled again, that little kernel of doubt she’d felt when she woke up couldn’t help but quiver, even if only a little. -*- Stretching and groaning in relief as they walked back to the car, Frisk declared, “Thank fucking heaven we’re on the way home!” “Frisk!” Toriel exclaimed, giving them a firm frown. “Language!” Normally, Frisk would have been a bit chided by such. But this time, they simply shrugged and stuck their tongue out. “I heard you using some rather choice language yourself Mom. I think in this instance, I can be forgiven.” Toriel continued to frown at that, but she didn’t say anything else. There wasn’t much else to say after all. The dinner had been… well boring, as Frisk had expected. However, there had been a brief moment of excitement. If one could consider a protestor coming in and making a scene about the presence of “Devilish creatures” and their “Witchcraft” infecting the city to be exciting. Sure, it had been handled quickly. And Mayor Mare had apologized profusely, as had a few of the security personnel. But it had still put a damper on the rest of the evening, one that even talk of the success integration here had been so far hadn’t done much to fix. Frisk sighed as they looked at their phone. Since the incident, they’d distracted themselves by texting their friends. Whom had managed to wrangle out of them what had them down. “Every place has a few bad apples. Don’t let’em get ya down.” Applejack had sent. And she was right, but it was hard to do when the treatment they’d gotten in Ebott still left a bad taste in their mouth. Frisk was about to stuff their phone back into their pants pocket, but several chimes from it stopped them. They flicked up the messages, then hurried up to Toriel as her mother was just about to get into the car door. “Mom, that strange girl woke up.” They said, showing the texts. Sans and Papyrus were keeping an eye on her, and had sent the Dogs home after Sans determined they’d be fine between the two of them. Toriel hummed, then glanced at the time. “School hasn’t started yet, and even I am quite curious now so… very well my child, we’ll head over right away.” “Awesome! Thanks Mom!” Frisk exclaimed, giving Toriel a tight hug before hurriedly getting into the car. As they made their way through traffic, Frisk exchanged a flurry of texts with Sans and Alphys, who was quickly brought into a group chat to relay information. Sans and Papyrus had made an attempt to learn what they could, but the girl, who was named Sunset Shimmer, had mostly clammed up. The most they’d been able to get from her was that she was from a different world, and that she hadn’t expected anyone to be able to figure out about the portal she’d come through. Seemed she wasn’t inclined to talk more until Frisk showed up. Which was, and wasn’t, surprising. They had tried to help her out when they first saw her, and given the reactions she’d had thus far with everyone else… On the other hand, it was because of Frisk’s decision that the girl in question was, after a fashion, being held captive by her friends. But maybe they’d told this Sunset Shimmer such and she’d decided they were the nicest of the bunch thus far.  Which, frankly, is more true for Papyrus. He’s the nicest person in the world. Frisk thought to themself. Though they knew Papyrus, and all their friends really, would contest that. Sans had also sent them a separate text, giving them insight from the Judgement spell of his. Sunset’s LOVE was a 3, but she didn’t have any EXP. From what Sans had explained, LOVE was not always something gained from EXP, but could in fact be a sliding scale based on a person’s innate ability to harm others. So the mysterious girl’s LOVE being 3 meant she was at least slightly willing to use violence, more willing than Frisk at least. But with that being said, she had never killed anyone. Still, it didn’t exactly sit well with Frisk knowing the girl was like that. But it did explain some of why they had felt there was more to the girl than met the eye. When they pulled up to Alphys’s place, Alphys and Undyne were already waiting for them by the door. Alphys looked a bit nervous, while Undyne had an air of anticipation to her. No surprise there really, she got like that anytime the chance for something exciting came up that could lead to a chance for her to show off her fighting abilities. Toriel, having been filled in, was more the opposite. But while her eyes carried an air of worry to them, she bore a resigned smile. She knew well enough how stubborn Frisk could be. Walking on in with the three of them forming a half circle around them, Frisk strode in and made for the living room. They could already hear Papyrus asking all kinds of questions, not that their ‘guest’ was answering any as she sat on the couch with her arms folded across her chest and bored, if slightly bemused expression on her face. Sans was watching from nearby, his gaze on Sunset and keeping a very careful eye on her. “Alright Papyrus, I’ll take it over from here.” Frisk called out, the enthusiastic skeleton giving a nod and a ‘nyehehe’ as he took a few steps back. Frisk meanwhile, moved to sit on the couch. They made a point of giving the girl some space as they both proceeded to size each other up. Frisk took a special note of how the girl seemed to be holding herself. Most folks would assume she was relaxed, unconcerned or even disinterested in the situation. But Frisk could pick up small hints that she was tense and wary, though strangely, once Sunset took in Frisk’s eyes the wariness was replaced with an intense curiosity. They weren’t exactly sure why. Sure, Frisk knew red eyes were exceedingly rare, especially if you weren’t also someone who had albinism. Still, Sunset didn’t say anything at all. Leaving Frisk to be the one to break the ice. Glancing up to where the bump on her head had been, Frisk asked, “Does your head still hurt at all?” Sunset shook her head. “No. I assume one of your friends used some magic earlier to heal it, and the excitable skeleton here,” “Papyrus.” Frisk remarked, while Papyrus naturally added, “The Great Papyrus!” “Right, he used a spell to finish the job after I had something to eat.” Frisk gave a nod at that, “Good, I’m glad to hear that. It looked like it might have been a doozy after all.” Sunset merely raised an eyebrow at that term, but Frisk quickly moved to the next thing. A proper introduction. “My friend Sans already told me your name. Did he share mine or my other friends?”  Sunset shook her head no, and Frisk pointed to the others. “Well then, this here is Alphys and Undyne, friends of mine. And this is my mother, Toriel Dreemurr.” Frisk noted how Sunset seemed to carefully eye, all three of them, though she paid more attention to Undyne and Toriel. She’s got an eye for sizing folks up, gauging how much of a threat they are. Frisk found themselves thinking. Though they weren’t sure exactly why they’d see Toriel as one, unless she was somehow able to sense that Toriel was a Boss Monster.  At any rate, Frisk concluded with, “And I’m Frisk Dreemurr. A pleasure to meet you, Sunset Shimmer.” They stuck their hand out, and while it took a moment, Sunset reluctantly reached out and took it and gave a shake.  “Not quite what I am used to.” Sunset noted when she let go, which served as a good opportunity for Frisk to ask the two biggest questions. “So, Miss Shimmer…” They began, but Sunset cut them off. “Just Sunset will do.” Frisk inclined their head, then continued. “Would you be so kind as to tell us where you are from? And why did you come here?” The ghost of a smirk came to Sunset’s lips. “Very direct and to the point. I can respect that.” She sounded sincere, though she still let out a sigh as she remarked, “Since ya already know the portal exists, not much reason for me to try and fake my way through this. But I expect answers to the questions I have as well. Is that a fair trade?” Frisk looked at all the others. All save Sans seemed fine with such, but Frisk had long since learned Sans could be more cautious and guarded than he let on. For their part, Frisk didn’t see any reason to say no, even with what little knowledge they had. “That sounds fine to me.” Frisk said, and Sunset gave them a nod before sighing and getting a contemplative look. Then she launched into her story. Explaining that she was a Unicorn from a world known as Equinica, specifically the country of Equestria. How she was the personal student of the Princess, who ruled the kingdom. And that she was sent through the portal as both a test of her abilities, and to learn more about the world in question. The entire time, Frisk was keeping a close eye on her as she spoke, just as Sans was doing. Though they were being less… overt about it. Alphys in the meantime was taking notes, with Undyne managing to keep the scientist from rushing over and asking dozens of questions a minute. They couldn’t blame Alphys though. Frisk had a horde of questions themselves, given the fact that his Equestria she came from was ruled over by a Princess Celestia. Who resided in a city also called Canterlot. They briefly wondered if the girl was trying to pull one over on them, but that wouldn’t explain the portal nor the fact she and all her things were made up of more magic than anything here should be. Something to figure out later… Frisk thought to themselves. When Sunset had finished, she returned her focus to Frisk and said, “Now, it’s your turn. And the first things I’d like to know are… what exactly are your friends here? And how do you know about magic?” “They’re Monsters.” Frisk said readily enough, earning a surprised, worried, and even questioning look from the mare turned girl as she tensed up. Frisk just smirked and added, “It's what they call themselves. And you can relax, they’re all good folks.” As for magic… well, given Sunset had mentioned the last Equestrian to observe and study this world had been centuries ago… Frisk explained, in a much more short and simple fashion than usual, the history of Monsters and Humans, and their recent liberation from their prison. Alphys happily chipped in, noting that magic was beginning to spread back out and over the world now that the barrier wasn’t keeping them locked away. Sunset now had a rather inquisitive glint in her eyes, and her hand was twitching in a fashion that reminded Frisk of Alphys. Otherwise though, she kept that neutral, otherwise disinterested look she’d been maintaining thus far. “Well, there’s more I’d love to ask, but I suppose right now, the most important question is… what happens now?” She looked at each of them, her nervousness only showing when her gaze met Sans’s for a moment. “As I said, I was sent to learn and observe, but I was supposed to lay low until or if I felt it was safe to make myself and Equestria known. Kind of difficult to do that now.” Undyne snorted at the exact same time as Frisk. “It’d have been difficult no matter what, kiddo.” Frisk couldn’t help but get a bit of a smirk at the glare Sunset sent Undyne at being called such, but if Undyne noticed, she didn’t care. “Ya might be an adult back home, but here I’d wager you’re at best just a bit older than Frisk. Someone would have noticed ya and reported ya once school starts. And a random kid with no ID would have ran into numerous issues.” Frisk nodded. “Without you being able to use magic from the get go, you’d be in all sorts of trouble. Either your teacher thinks rather highly of your abilities, or she was throwing you to the wolves.” For the briefest of moments, anger flashed across Sunset’s face. It was the most expressive she’d been thus far. She looked ready to snarl something out… but seemed to think better of it after a moment. Still, it took a few seconds of breathing before Sunset managed to steady herself as she curtly replied, “Princess Celestia isn’t the sort of teacher to risk her students like that.” Touchy subject. Frisk thought, making a mental note of such. They then glanced at each of their friends for a moment, then asked, “Meeting in the adjoining room?” They all nodded, and made for the door. Frisk looked to Sunset and asked, “We might be able and up for helping ya out, but we gotta talk it over. You’ll be fine in here by yourself for a little bit, right?” Sunset just shrugged. “I don’t exactly have anywhere to go, do I? Except back home. And…” She got a distant look in her eyes briefly, before steely resolve flashed in them as she shook her head. “That’s not an option.” Frisk nodded, then followed the others out. They spotted a soft glow coming from Sans hands once they closed the living room door, and could already hear Toriel sighing as she asked,  “Is such really necessary?” Sans shrugged. “no idea. but i can tell ya one thing- that girl isn’t being entirely truthful with us.” “And that’s not accounting for the fact she’s got a LOVE of 3.” Frisk added, drawing gasps from Toriel, Papyrus, and Alphys. Frisk jerked a thumb towards Sans as they noted, “Sans told me she doesn’t have any EXP, which means she hasn’t killed anyone. But the fact her LOVE isn’t a 1 with that isn’t a good sign in itself.” Undyne glanced to the door, conjuring a spear in her hand as she asked, “Ya sure one of us shouldn’t be in there keeping an eye on her then?” “my magic has the doors and windows sealed. unless she wants to try breaking through a wall, without magic i’ll note, she’s stuck in there til we go back in.” Sans noted. “She doesn’t seem like a mean girl…” Toriel remarked, Papyrus nodding as Alphys looked between Sans and Frisk. After a moment, the scientist inquired, “Frisk, what about her story do you think is a lie? I-I mean, it all sounded rather sincere to me. I-I know I’m n-not the best at spotting such things, but well…” Frisk sighed, and took a few seconds to go over it. They brought a hand up and ticked them off as they noted, “She’s definitely telling the truth about being from another world. Though I can’t help but wonder a bit about said world…” “Yeah, that was… weird.” Undyne remarked, rubbing the back of her head. “Made it sound like it’s a magical pony filled version of this place.”  Frisk gave a nod, and continued. "But her story that she was sent here by her teacher?” Frisk shook their head. “I don’t really buy it. When she was speaking about Princess Celestia, it was hard to pick up on, but there was an edge to it.” And after another moment of thought… “When I mentioned her teacher there at the end, I think she got upset at me suggesting her teacher thought highly of her abilities.” Toriel hummed at that, giving a slight nod. “I do think if she’d wished to defend her teacher, it wouldn’t have taken as long for her to give a response.” “I don’t exactly know the dynamic there, but at the very least, I think she’s lying about being sent here by her teacher to learn and observe.” Frisk said, shaking their head. “Beyond that though… I can’t say. Maybe she chose to come here of her own accord, maybe she was tossed here by her teacher…” “Still, that leaves the question of what to do with her.” Toriel concluded, Frisk nodding as they glanced towards the door. “if we wanna take her back through, we’ve only got two days to do so before that portal closes back up for, what was it she said, thirty moons? that’s almost three years.” Sans said, though as he looked at Frisk, he sighed and asked, “we aren’t gonna do that though, are we?” “Just because I think she’s not telling us the full truth, doesn’t mean I think she’s a threat. Sides, I don’t think she wants to go back home anyways. Not yet at least.” Frisk said, then rubbed the back of their head a bit sheepishly.  “Though, it's not really just my choice.” They looked to Toriel, whose brow quirked up curiously. It took only another second for Toriel to catch on. “You want us to take her in.” At Frisk’s nod, she hummed. A slight smirk came to her mother’s muzzle as she asked, “Is this just you wanting to learn more about magic, my child?” Frisk’s cheeks tinged a bit pink, but only a bit. “Hey, this is a chance to learn a whole bunch of stuff about a new, or perhaps even parallel world. And it could be fun showing her what this one is like too.” Their tone softened a bit as they added, “Besides, we don’t know why her LOVE is what it is. Maybe she’s been put in situations where she had no choice… or at least, didn’t have any good options.” “Y-You did say you didn’t get any F-Flowey type vibes from her…” Alphys noted, and Undyne just smirked and added, “If she tried anything, she’d have no chance. Not with Frisk around. Magic or no magic, Frisk’s way too Determined to let anything happen.” Frisk chuckled nervously at that, rubbing the back of their head even more as they shared a glance with Sans. Their good friend just sighed and shrugged as his hand glowed blue and he waved it over the door. “if the queen and frisk are fine with it, i guess i can be. ‘sides, i’m sure we’d all be making sure to keep an eye on her. worst comes to worst… frisk or i can deal with it.” Toriel considered it for a moment, then nodded to Frisk. “There’ll be rules she’ll be expected to follow, so if she isn’t up for dealing with those…” Frisk gave a nod. “I mean, if she isn’t up for boarding with us, we can still at least help her out and keep an eye on her either way. Less likely to cause trouble either way.” There wasn’t much to go over then. Figuring out ground rules for either case wouldn’t be the hard part. Getting the girl sorted and situated would. But that would come after they got an answer. And as they all headed back into the living room and presented the options, it at first seemed that Sunset might take the offer of getting her own place… But then she shared a long gaze with Frisk again, and for whatever reason, that seemed to decide it. Sunset didn’t seem all that bothered by the idea of ground rules, though the thought of them keeping an eye on her did have her giving them curious looks. “Just take it from us kiddo,” Undyne had responded, “Sans and Frisk are very, very good judges of character.” That wasn’t quite enough to mollify Sunset, but a look at Sans certainly made her reconsider pushing the question further. With that sorted, Frisk and Toriel led Sunset out to their car. Sans… did as he did and took a shortcut home. Papyrus saw them off alongside Alphys and Undyne, deciding to take the invitation to stay over and watch a new anime Alphys had found. Frisk enjoyed the ride home, having quietly asked Toriel if they could take a bit of circuitous, scenic route back. It was fun watching Sunset as she observed everything she could as they drove through the city. It was clear she had a thousand more questions she wanted to ask, but as they were pulling into the driveway, it wasn’t just Frisk or Toriel letting out yawns. “Mhm, I think we’ll all be heading to bed soon…” Toriel remarked as they walked in, Frisk stretching and letting out a satisfied sigh as a few pops followed. “Probably a good idea. Especially since tomorrow’s going to be very busy.” They said with a glance towards Sunset. Toriel gave a nod. “Indeed. I’ll need to make some calls before I head to bed, but why don’t you show our new guest her room and then head to bed?” “Sure thing Mom!” Frisk said, grinning as they turned and offered their hand to Sunset. The girl from another gave it and Frisk an uncertain glance, but after a moment, hesitantly took it as Frisk led her upstairs.