Seven Days in Sunny June, Book I

by Shinzakura


April 5: Breaking the Girl

The house was deathly still as Sunset trudged up the stairs, in desperate need of sleep. It had been a long day: doing the laundry with Twilight, going with Blossomforth to her pre-natal checkup, then a full day at work made longer by the store’s annual inventory for tax purposes, and by the time she’d arrived home at 11:30, anything else was far from her mind. The only thing she wanted to do was throw herself in bed and dream of whatever bizarre things that her subconscious decided to bombard her with.

As she went up the stairs, she looked briefly at the open door of her foster parents’ room. Both of them were out for the weekend: Velvet was going to be in Denver for the week at a conference sponsored by the HHS; Night Light, as a physicist, was attending some experiments at Fermilab and teaching his classes for the week via remote from there. Thankfully, Twilight was here for the weekend helping to watch Spike, and either Shining or Cadance would be shuttling the youngest member of the family to-and-from school for the duration of the week. Sunset could take the subway to school, and one of the seniors at Twilight’s school, Champagne Dreams, offered to give her lifts during the course of the week. All in all, it was going to be a dull week at home.

Reaching the top of the flight, she could hear games coming from the room with a woodcarving of a cartoonish dragon holding a sign that said SPIKE’S ROOM. She knocked once, saying through the door, “I must be imagining things – I swear I’m hearing videogames when someone should have been asleep a while ago, right?” Suddenly on the other side of the door there was commotion, the kind only made by an eight-year-old throwing everything into a corner before hastily throwing himself under the bedsheets. After waiting a few seconds more, she opened the door, seeing him in his bed, fast asleep…or at least credibly faking it.

“Yeah, must’ve been my imagination,” she said to no one in particular as she started closing the door.

“Thanks, Sunny,” he whispered.

“No problem, squirt,” she told him. “Now get some sleep this time.”


That sidetrack dealt with, she went towards her room, when she heard some odd moaning from Twilight’s room. At first she thought…. No, not Twily…and it’s probably going to be hugely embarrassing for both of us if she is doing what I think she’s doing. But amongst the moaning she thought she heard the words, “No, go away!” and that was more than enough for her to change her mind.

Making sure that Spike wasn’t going to come out of his room all of a sudden, she put a palm against Twilight’s door, splaying her fingers. As Sunset closed her eyes, a soft cyan glow began to envelop her hand, for a brief span of a second, the whole door was wrapped in the same mystic aura before the magical flash winked out of existence. Well, at least it’s not that. Opening the door, she poked her head in just in time to see Twilight sitting up, breathing heavily, soaked in sweat and a terrified look on her face.

Sunset was at her side in an instant. “Hey, you okay?”

“No….” the bedraggled girl said, pushing the mop-wet hair out of her eyes. “I…I went to bed early because I wasn’t feeling well, and…nevermind. It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

A minute’s worth of silence compressed into a few seconds followed. “I’m…sure,” came the hesitant response.

Sunset reached over and took her foster sister’s face in her hands. “No, you’re not. I know you better than that.”

“You’re going to laugh.”

“No, I won’t, especially if it’s something that’s really bothering you.”

“O-okay,” Twilight began. “I was in this dark, smoky place. It wasn’t dark like night, but dark, as in horror-film dark.”

“Were you watching horror films with Rainbow again?”

The plum-haired girl shook her head. “No,” she insisted. “But, in my dream, I was in this dark, smoky place. It wasn’t dark like night, but dark as in horror-film dark. Nothing around, like walking at the bottom of the ocean. And after a few minutes, I thought I saw…well, I saw three figures before me, running towards me, shouting something that I can’t quite understand.

“The figures…they’re horses, but not like horses. They were smaller than ponies, about…maybe the size of German Shepherds or so, but definitely equine. Well, at least in body shape, because they didn’t look at all like any horse I’ve ever seen: smaller snouts, rounder heads, thicker legs, and their manes and tails were groomed like…well, like people do with their hair, as weird as it sounds. And if that wasn’t enough, they had these…freakishly huge eyes, almost like a squid’s, and the eyes were in a predatory place on the face, not on the side, like normal horses…it was almost like they were human or something.” She paused for a split second, thinking further about the strange creatures. “Also, the colors on these things…the first one looked normal, gray coat and black mane. The second one, however, had a maize-yellow coat and a mane of red-and-yellow, kept in a feathered hairstyle. Actually, she kinda reminded me of you, for some reason,” Twilight admitted. She paused once more, again wracking her brain for further details. “Oh, and that yellow horse-thing was a unicorn, if you can believe that.”

“Go on,” Sunset said dully, while her mind was floored by the descriptions Twilight had given her. Maize-colored unicorn? That’s me! But…but how?

“There was also a third one, lavender, with a mane the same color and cut as my hair…but it wasn’t me,” Twilight continued. “She was a unicor – no, scratch that. She was a tulpar.” Twilight nodded her head in confirmation. “Yup, definitely a tulpar, now that I recall.”

“A what?”

“It’s a Kazakhstani term for a unicorn with wings – I think you called it an…alicorn?…in the story you told the kids at the Christmas party.”

At Twilight’s words, Sunset fought to keep the look of confusion that was roiling within her off her face. Twily, you’re describing yourself. Or rather, not exactly herself, Sunset knew, but her otherworldly counterpart: Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Anything else?” she asked, just to cover her silence.

The sweat-soaked teen suddenly became deathly quiet as she murmured, “And these three almost managed to reach me…until they stepped in something like tar, or smoke or some sort of gooey sludge-type thing. And like quicksand, it’s dragging them down, so they can’t move towards me any further, but I can see the fear in their eyes – they’re worried about something. Then I try to run over to them, but they get pulled into the gunk, and by the time I get there, they’re all gone and I’m alone.

“But not for long. Then I feel…it. There’s…there’s something behind me. I turned and ran, but when I look back, it’s another unicorn…but this one is, it’s evil. I just know it was, don’t ask how. And while it looks vaguely like the yellow one, the colors are all…wrong. Dark. Twisted. And I just kept running, but each step just seemed to slow me down further, and I can’t get away!”

“Twily—”

Twilight never heard Sunset, her mind completely entombed in the nightmare; her eyes were pinpricks of fear, constricted by the force of terror. “The creature – it’s trying to ensnare me in some sort of smoky tentacles and I ran and I feel my skin being sliced to ribbons while the thing behind me was laughing and I’m screaming for help for those other unicorns to save me but no one’s there and I suddenly feel stabbed through the chest and I look down and there’s this giant bloody spike of red that punched through me and ohmiGod ohmiGod I’m screaming and there’s blood and I feel something sharp against my neck and I’m screaming for help and begging for my life and then there’s nothing and I—” Unable to take the memories any longer, Twilight glomped Sunset, crying into her foster sister’s shoulder hysterically as Sunset held her tightly and caressed her.

Sunset spent countless minutes holding Twilight, cooing, “You’re safe, Twily. Nothing’s ever going to get you. I’ll protect you. I promise.” At the moment, Sunset felt very ineffectual; Twilight had helped her countless times, but now that she needed the emotional boost, Sunset felt completely unable to do anything. Save her from Flash? Sure, bring it on. But to save her from nightmares, as Twilight had saved Sunset herself?

I wish Tavi were here, Sunset groaned inwardly. Unfortunately, Octavia and her parents were back in LA for more stuff regarding the La Musica exhibit. And all of their mutual friends had very busy schedules this weekend. All in all, Sunset was going to be very alone on this one, and while she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, this was her family – to her, it was a do-or-die situation. She then winced inwardly at her mental choice of words, given that Twilight had just had a nightmare where she’d apparently been decapitated.

Meanwhile, Twilight started to calm down. Letting go of Sunset, she said in a tiny voice, “I…I think I’m okay now, Sunny. Thanks.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, just a weird dream. Besides, I can logically know what a nightmare is, even though my subconscious disagrees with me, and it’s just my neurons processing the sensory input.”

“Yeah, that sounds like the Twily I know,” Sunset said with a smile. A second later, she said, “C’mon – change into some dry nightwear and you can sleep with me tonight, okay?”

“You don’t mind? I might have another nightmare.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t. Besides,” Sunset said with a grin, “it’s always better when sisters are together, right?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You are never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Of course not. Now get changed – you’re sweating enough that you probably need a shower, too.” Scooting the purple-haired girl out of her room, Sunset immediately stripped Twilight’s bed, noting that the sweat had soaked almost all the way down to the mattress. Yeah, this is going to need some airing out. Rolling the sheets up, she went downstairs to toss them in the laundry room, glad that this episode was over.

“That’s your third cup of coffee,” Sunset noticed as Twilight poured herself another one. “You almost never drink coffee.”

“Yeah, I’m…I’m just tired,” she mumbled, pouring in cream and enough sugar to make Pinkie pause. “Sorry about last night, sis.”

“Hey, it happens.”

“But it’s not supposed to,” Twilight moaned. “I should be able to control my dreams!”

“No one can, Twily,” Sunset said flipping the omelet in the pan. “Besides, you’re only human.”

“I know, but this is the third time already, an—”

“Third time?” Sunset arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah. It started the week I had chickenpox. If I remember correctly, the first one I had was the night after I finished the translated copy of the book you bought me for Christmas.”

“Have you talked to the parentals about this?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, Mom’s focusing on making sure that everything’s ready to go for our trip in June, and Dad’s got a lot on his plate, since they offered him the Science Department Head job. Besides, it’s just a nightmare, Sunny. I’ll be fine.”

“Fine? Twily, you held onto me for dear life last night at one point. I woke up this morning and you had a death grip on me! Granted, I’m used to sleeping with you at this point – and oh boy does that make for one hell of a porntastic comment – but you were seriously freaking out. Sorry if I’m worried, but that’s just how I feel.”

“I’ll be fine, Sunny, I promise.”

“Look…just, when you get a chance, talk it over with your parents. They’re older and wiser, so they might have some idea on how to fix that damaged brain of yours,” Sunset said with a slight grin, hoping to turn her foster sister away from her gloomy mood.

Unfortunately, Twilight was either too tired or too fried to appreciate the humorous comment. “Hey, I know you’re going to work in an hour, but do you mind if I just crash in your room? I’m sure my bed’s still airing out.”

“Yeah, knock yourself out. Spike’s probably going to be asleep for a couple more hours anyway; caught him playing games well past his bedtime. Don’t worry, I chewed him out over it, but if he does it again, I guess we’ll just have to ground him.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, draining her mug, then looking at the empty ceramic, then the Mr. Coffee machine again.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Sunset said, swiping the mug from her. “Go to bed, Twilight. Now. I’ll put your breakfast in the microwave so you can just nuke it when you wake up.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Hey, trust your older sister, okay?”

“Older?” Twilight asked. “Since when are you the older one?”

“Your birthday’s, what, August 5th?”

“Yeah, and Tavi’s is July 16th, why?”

“June 27th,” the flame-haired girl replied. “So that makes me five weeks older than you.” Sunset knew in truth she was far more than just thirty-nine days older, but June 27th was the date showing up on her records. She wondered if that was the actual birthdate of the human Sunset Shimmer, wherever she was in this world. But she was more than content at this point just to be a teenager physically if not in reality and just be a part of this family.

Besides, right now, that wasn’t an issue. Pointing to the stairs, Sunset ordered, “Now get!”

“Yes, grandma,” Twilight cracked.

“You know, that was almost funny.”

“I thought so.”

“That’s because you’re addled due to sleep deprivation. Now get going so I can eat and get to work.”

“Have you heard a single word I said, Sunny?” Rainbow asked as she momentarily removed her mouth from the straw of her cookie cream Frappuccino.

“Sorry, I was working,” the flame-haired girl said tartly, as she paused to drop off a slice of cake for Rainbow. “You have to remember, I’m not carrying this tray for nothing, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don’t see Blossom or Pinkie worried about it,” the athlete replied.

“As if the Cakes are going to fire their niece or the pregnant girl,” Sunset drolled.

“Well, they won’t fire you – you’re like the more better employee of the three.”

“‘Better’ or ‘best’, Rainbow – not ‘more better’,” Sunset corrected. “And people say my grades are pathetic. So, now that I’m done lecturing you on that, what brings you here?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was just getting to that. Anyway, there’s an exhibit that just arrived at the museum that I wanted you to go with me.”

“The museum? Thought you didn’t care for all that ‘egghead’ stuff, quote unquote.”

“Hey, I put up with you, Twily, and Tavi all the time!” Rainbow reasoned. “So I can deal with eggheads, okay? Besides, this is supposed to be really cool stuff and…well, I really wanted to know if the magic was real or not, okay?”

Sunset just shook her head. “Look, it’s a really busy day today,” she said, waving her hand to encompass the whole of the café’s interior space, “and with Pinkie at Cheerleading Camp this weekend and Blossom having the weekend off because of her checkup, things are busy. But once I’m off for the day, you’ll have my undivided attention, okay?”

“You promise?”

“Yeah, I promise – just don’t make me say that weird-ass rhyme Pinkie came up with last week, because that’s not happening,” Sunset insisted.

“I’d almost forgotten about that!” Rainbow laughed. After Pinkie’s announced distaste for the childhood promissory swear, she’d spent some time formulating a new one and had come up with it last week, vowing to make it her goal to have children everywhere swear by the new one. After her friends had heard the “Pinkie Swear” and its innovative use of hoping to fly and sticking cupcakes in one's eye, Applejack insisted the old one was fine enough – after all, nursery rhymes never made sense, anyway – and that no kid was going to take either of them seriously.

Finishing her drink and cake, the rainbow-haired Latina rose from her chair. “Anyway, I’ll see you at six, okay? Hell, I’ll even treat you to dinner, okay?”

“If you’re paying, I’m okay with that.”

“You know, Rainbow, sometimes you amaze me,” Sunset said as the two waited just outside the Alamo Drafthouse’s Canterlot location. “And I really appreciate you offering to pay for the three of us to see the new Captain America film. Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out the concept of superheroes anyway.” A slight breeze blew past the pair, its brisk edge reminding both that spring had not entirely set in yet. Even still, the sky was clear, and despite the light pollution, Orion’s Belt was visible this evening.

“Well, yeah, I’ve been dying to see this film for the longest time. Was going to see it with my sister and parents, but with Scoots doing some weird girl scout thing this weekend, I figured I can just catch it again with them later on. ‘Sides, I’m sure you and Twily and Spike don’t mind getting out of the house and having dinner at the movies, so….” Rainbow’s eyes wandered towards a particularly cute guy smiling at her; she waved back…much to the irritation of his girlfriend. “And lastly, I figured you’d owe me if I did this.”

A genuinely hurt look came over Sunset’s face. “Rainbow, we’re friends. All you had to do was ask.”

“I know, but…look, just…I didn’t want you to laugh at me when I mentioned the favor I needed.”

“You know me better than that. So what’s this thing?”

“I was playing a pick-up game the other day with Mystic, Roseluck and Glass Slipper, when Glass mentioned that some artifacts from Italy are coming to the Equestria County Museum of Art and History. Then Mystic pipes up all about it being the stuff from some ancient sorcerer from Flomens—”

“Florence.”

“—yeah, that place. Anyway, Mystic’s a little funny: She’s one of those conspiracy nutbars who thinks that an ancient civilization of magical beings from another world brought magic to people and did it via….” Rainbow suddenly trailed off when she realized who she was talking to. “Heh, so anyway, she’s insistent on it, and I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t true and stuff.”

“Why?”

“Because I have a $50 bet riding on it?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Rainbow, what’s the chance that any of that is true?”

“Says the girl who would be doing grocery shopping at Petco if she was in her normal form,” Rainbow jibed.

“Okay, point. Fine, I don’t have to work tomorrow and we can go after school, unless you’ve got something going.”

“Naah, our team’s got a light week other than a game against Whitetail Woods High on Thursday.”

“Well then, we’re all set,” Sunset said as she saw Twilight and Spike approaching in the distance. “Now let’s get the tickets and get in line so we can get the really good seats.”

Throwing on her sleepwear, Twilight pulled the sheets back on her bed and crawled in. She didn’t tell anyone, but she’d gone into her parents’ medicine cabinet and took the bottle of Xanax from when her mother was having sleeping issues a few years ago after minor surgery. The hypnotics would still be effective after all this time, and while Twilight didn’t think she’d need them, they were there just in case. The only concern she really had was if Sunset found out about it; that would take some explaining.

Looking at the clock, she caught it as the time rolled over to 11:00 PM. Well, Champagne will be here at 7:30 to come get me, so I’d better get in a few hours of shuteye. She reached over and turned off her lamp, letting herself drift into sleep.


She immediately sat up a second later. The room was dark – darker than night – save for two red dots, close together, facing her. They disappeared for a split-second before reappearing and Twilight suddenly realized they were eyes – very unnatural eyes – peering at her.

Stalking her.

She felt a soft exhalation of warm mist on the back of her neck. Like breath.

She turned around, just in time to see the dark unicorn of her nightmares once more, leering at her. “I wonder if you taste as good as you look?” the creature said before smiling with multiple, shark-like rows of jagged, bloodstained teeth. Then the mouth opened, the maw unnaturally large as the jaw dislodged, showing even more unnatural rows of teeth and a tongue like that alien from the same movie. “Let’s find out!”

Twilight didn’t have time to move as the teeth clamped down on her face, ripping it off in one blow.

But she did have time to scream.

“TWILY!”

Twilight suddenly felt herself being shaken and she did the only thing she could – something she’d learned from both Sunset and Applejack in the wake of her near-miss two months ago. “GET AWAY FROM ME!” she screamed in terror, lashing out with a fist driven of fear and terror.

OW! Twily, what the fuck?” Twilight suddenly blinked, realizing she was shivering. Laying on the ground by her bed, hand covering her eye, was Sunset; and standing by his bedroom door, looking completely confused, was Spike.

“Twi—”

“Spike, go back to bed,” Twilight ordered.

“But Twily—”

“Go back to bed, Spike!” both girls said as one. Realizing it wasn’t a good idea to have either of his sisters angry, he took the wise route only children knew and beat a hasty retreat back into his bedroom.

Twilight was out of bed in an instant. “Oh God, Sunny, I’m sorry!” She grabbed her sister, embracing her both out of worry and fear. After a second, she said, “Here, let me look at that.” Sunset pulled her hand away from her eye, which was already swelling. Twilight knew she’d inadvertently just given her sister a nasty shiner, and looked at Sunset in horror. “Sunny, I’m….”

“It’s okay, Twily,” Sunset said in a voice that indicated that no, it wasn’t okay. “It…it was an accident. I know that. I’m not blaming you; it was a once in a lifetime hit.” Her good eye fixing on the purple-haired teen, she asked, “Was it another nightmare?” When Twilight nodded again, Sunset said, “Fine, let’s get to sleep.”

“We should have that chec—”

“I’ll go to the school infirmary in the morning, okay?”

“You promise?”

“You think I want to go to school looking like this?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Look, just…just shut up, get in bed, I’ll join you and you’d better sleep, okay,” Sunset grumbled, her anger briefly getting the better of her. As Twilight complied and Sunset got off the floor, she flicked the bedroom light off before crawling into her foster sister’s bed. And as Twilight’s arms wrapped around her in a gesture of comfort, there was little to be had by the flame-haired girl. The eye was already stinging like hell and it was the least of Sunset’s concerns right now.

No, what was on the ex-unicorn’s mind was that Twilight’s nightmares were becoming more and more prevalent, and it was starting to affect her. I’m going to have to talk to Mom and Dad when they get back, she vowed, or else this is going to start getting out of hand.

But what’s going on that is making her do all this?

Sunset’s day had already started bad the moment she walked onto school grounds. Standing over by the apple tree planted by the parking lot in front of the school, Lightning Dust shouted at her, “Nice shiner, you bitch! Finally get what you deserve?”

I see this morning’s already turning out to be one huge fucking mistake, Sunset grumbled, wondering why she hadn’t bothered to bring sunglasses with her – or conjured them along the way. “Shut the fuck up, you frigid-ass lesbo cunt!” Sunset seethed, glaring at her enemy and feeling pretty vindictive at the moment.

“You see, that’s your fucking problem, you Goddamn skank,” Lightning snarled back. “You just don’t know when to leave well enough alone. Bad enough you got me kicked off the track team and put my Olympic dreams in danger. But then you had to get my best friend kicked out of school – and then you chased off Cloud Kicker. Do you know how good of a lay she was? Actually, I guess you wouldn’t, given that you’ve already got some hot action in the privacy of your own home, don’t you? So tell me, is your sister a moaner, or do you prefer your cous—”

Sunset strode right up to Lightning, her good eye narrowing – her bruised one wasn’t that far from doing so already. “Just keep pushing your luck, you idiot. You’re lucky that you and Gilda aren’t behind bars.”

“You deserved it for being such a bi—” The runner was suddenly interrupted as she felt someone tapping on her shoulder from behind. “Yeah, what?” she asked, turning to face the person wanting her attention.

“Better be careful where ya step,” a laconic voice said, as two hands suddenly shoved Lightning. The blonde fell, landing in a nearby puddle of mud thanks to a faulty sprinkler, and a teal t-shirt and white jeans became various shades of mud brown.

Applejack looked down at her, chuckling. “Whoops,” she said, a smile forming on her lips.

“You’re going to pay for that, you freakin’ hick,” Lightning snarled.

“Ah don’ think so,” the freckled blonde replied. Applejack then turned to Sunset and said, “C’mon, Sunny – y’ don’t need t’ be ‘round this mess.” As the two walked towards the school, Applejack asked, “So whut’s with th’ shiner?”

“Accident. Twily had a nightmare and popped me one while I was trying to wake her up,” Sunset said, sighing.

“Cain’t y’ jest…?” Applejack wiggled her fingers in a hint.

“I could, but then I’d have to explain why a black eye went away instantly.”

“Eyup, Ah c’n see how that’d be a doozy of a probl’m,” Applejack said sympathetically as she fell into stride with her friend. “Well, if’n it helps any, they go away in ‘bout a week. Got one last year while sparrin’ with Mac. Wasn’t pretty.”

“I remember: I called you ‘raccoon face’ all week,” Sunset said, the guilt from that time finally setting in. “You know, I never did apologize for teasing you like that.”

“Water unner th’ bridge,” Applejack replied laconically as they reached the front doors, where Rainbow waited for them.

“Heya,” the athlete chirped to her friends, then seeing Sunset’s face, added, “What the heck happened to you?”

“Fist of Accidental Twilight,” Sunset said, getting a little tired of having to explain the black eye – and this was just the fourth time this morning…and it wasn’t even eight yet.

“Man, that has got to suck,” the rainbow-haired athlete said, before a look of recall crossed her face. Slipping off her backpack, Rainbow then opened the front pouch, producing a pair of Ray-Bans which she immediately passed to Sunset. “Here – don’t say I never covered for ya.”

“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver,” the flame-haired girl replied, gratefully slipping on the shades.

Looking at Applejack, Rainbow continued. “Considering who that freakstick is, AJ, I’m surprised you showed…destaint.”

“Restraint?” Sunset corrected.

“Yeah, that. In any case, I’d have messed her up but good.”

“Weren’t ya th’ one who got her butt kicked by Lightnin’?” Applejack teased gently. Before Rainbow could rejoinder, Applejack continued. “But Sunny’s our friend, an’ we stick t’gether.”

“Yeah, that we do,” Rainbow agreed.

At that point the warning bell rang and Sunset looked at her friends. “Well, time for science class,” she groaned. “I hope Dr. Hooves isn’t going to be too confusing today – I swear, I wonder if that man forgets that he’s teaching at a high school, not a university.”

Later that afternoon, Sunset and Rainbow arrived at the Equestria County Museum of Art & History. The centerpiece of Exposition Park, ECMAH also had a rose garden and was adjacent to the Three Heroes Memorial. Rainbow insisted their first stop be the memorial, and to Sunset’s surprise, the athlete was carrying a batch of red roses.

Sunset, who’d never been to the memorial before, looked at the three marble statues: a man dressed in what was a WWII US Navy officer’s uniform, a second man dressed in the fatigues of a WWII soldier, and a well-dressed woman standing regally, holding a wreath in her hands. She then read the plaque at the base of the statue:

CMDR. Hurricane, USN
August 7, 1908 – October 14, 1944
Commanding Officer, USS Steel DD-421
Posthumous Awardee: Medal of Honor

SSgt. “Chancellor” Puddinghead, USA
March 21, 1924 – March 20, 1945
Company F, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division
Posthumous Awardee: Medal of Honor

Princess Platinum
August 9, 1911 – January 6, 1996
Founder, United Service Organizations and Senator, State of California
Awardee: Presidential Medal of Freedom

OUR HEROES

Sunset watched as Rainbow stopped in front of the statue of Cmdr. Hurricane and gently placed the flowers, pausing to look up with a gaze that was unabashed pride, a look Sunset was unaccustomed to seeing on her friend’s face.

Without taking her eyes off the statue, she said, “He was my great-grandfather on my mother’s side. My grandfather never knew him, though he grew up with some stories, which he passed down to my mom, who passed them on to me. I know, it seems maudlin, but…sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be in his shoes.”

“Rainbow, you could always join the military once you graduate,” Sunset said.

But the athlete shook her head. “Naah, Mom and Dad would kill me if I even thought of it. And besides, I don’t have the grades or the smarts to be a fighter pilot; plus, I’m probably going to be a pro soccer player for a living. But….” She paused. “You know, sometimes I’m a little jealous of you. You know what it’s like being someone else – twice, if you want to count the time you were possessed. And sometimes, I wonder how different my life would be if I was someone else.”

“Something wrong, Rainbow? You know I’m always here if you need an ear.”

Rainbow shook her head. “Naah, just…thinking, ya know? I know I’m not the ‘deep’ type, but sometimes….” She shrugged. “Anyway, nevermind. Let’s go check out the thing I wanted to see, okay?”

“Sure,” Sunset replied, filing the conversation away for later. If something was wrong with Rainbow, she would have to be convinced to admit it later.


A few minutes later, the two were in the main building, walking towards the special exhibition space. Looking at the pamphlet that was provided by the entry window, the two passed by countless paintings, sculptures and historical artifacts as they made their way towards the Aquapasto Exhibition Hall. Normally, the room hosted the artworks of famous Renaissance artists such as Aquapasto, Gouache, and Fresco Colore, but those were currently held in storage for ECMAH’s guest exhibition: Italian Sorcery: The Life and Times of Baldassare di Cavalcanti (1533 – 1603). There, in the room, amongst the scrolls, related paintings and the artifacts from the life of this strange man, a person who, according to the pamphlet supplied, believed he got all his magical powers from a unicorn.

Even I can’t believe that, she laughed inwardly, and I am a unicorn!

Part of Sunset noted the striking similarity between this exhibition and the last one she’d been to, namely that of Musica Allegra. It was likely for show, and thinking back to her trip a few weeks back made her wonder how silly it was that she’d been concerned that La Musica – and thus some of her descendants like Octavia, Midnight and Screwball, had pony heritage. Truth was, after she’d had some time to think about it for a while, she had to realize that she wasn’t a perfect copy of a human: sure, it was thankfully more than enough to make her appear so, even to somewhat intrusive medical examination, but that was just the basics of her biology. She’d never gotten pregnant after all the times with Flash – thankfully so, though she worried about Blossomforth’s situation – and in hindsight, it was possible that she didn’t have that capability.

Maybe La Musica was just a normal human with a penchant for a cutie mark-esque sigil and I’m overthinking the whole thing, Sunset considered. Besides, she had more important things on her plate right now: mainly the fact that she was going to have to do summer school; and how to talk to her foster parents about Twily’s condition.


Halfway through the exhibition hall, both Sunset and Rainbow suddenly heard voices bickering:

“Look, I’m telling you, unicorns are real! They had to be, to create something like this! You of all people shou—”
“I of all people should ‘what’, praytell? Look, yeah, I’m into magic, but really, this is no more real than what I do onstage!”

Finally, standing by a glass case pedestal displaying grimoires and a large dais towards the back of the room, were two teens. The first one, a fair-skinned girl with a short, unruly mop of celeste-and-ivory hair, wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that read Horse_ebooks 4Eva! She was currently glaring at her friend, her citrine-colored eyes radiating both annoyance and mirth. Meanwhile, her friend, a girl with light tan skin, expressive blue eyes, and waist-length Alice-blue hair and wearing a magenta polo and white jeans, just shook her head, though it was clearly not entirely meant in disdain.

“Oh, hey, someone with brains,” Trixie Lulamoon spoke up, seeing the two new arrivals. “Hey, Sunset, tell this idiot that magic doesn’t exist except for what we do on stage?”

Lyra Heartstrings rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Trix, why do you have to be such a bitch?”

“Hey, Lyra,” Rainbow teased, “you cheating on Bon-Bon again?”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “I oughta beat the shit out of you for that,” she snarled.

“Hey, let it go, Ly,” Trixie answered. “She’s just messin’ with you. So, what brings you two here?”

Before Rainbow or Sunset could answer, Lyra perked up. “We’re here researching this Italian guy! He said he was trained in magic by a unicorn, so obviously it proves that unicorns exist!”

Rainbow and Sunset merely looked at each other, sharing a glance. They then looked back at Lyra and Rainbow replied in a dull tone, “Lyra? Are you off your meds?”

Trixie stifled a giggle while Lyra looked fit to be tied. She then patted the taller girl on the shoulder, saying, “See? And this is why Bon-Bon didn’t want to come. I swear, just because your mother’s a fantasy author, does not mean that unicorns are real, am I right, Sunset?”

“I plead the Fifth,” was Sunset’s only answer.

“But anyway, you know why Lyra’s here. As for me, I was fascinated at the Gematria that Baldassare was into.”

“Ge-what?” Rainbow blurted.

“Gematria,” Sunset repeated. “It’s a divination system using numeric values assigned to the Hebrew alphabet.” Sunset then looked at Trixie. “How’d you know about that?’

Trixie shook her head. “Uh, my Mom runs the freaky New Age store with all the crystals and tarot cards and shit? Look, I love my Mom, but she’s a nutcase, and neither Dad nor I believe in any of it. But I did promise I’d look this stuff up for my uncle, who has a magic act in Vegas. Uncle Presto’s always interested in this stuff, so he can mention it in his act.”

“Wow, that’s neat!” Rainbow said, while Lyra merely rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” Trixie said, a smile on her face coming to the front as she had a genuinely interested audience now, “if you look at the computer that has scans of Baldassare’s personal notes, as well as his grimoire, you’ll see a lot of references to this symbol,” she said, pointing to Hebrew letters she’d written down on her copy of the pamphlet:

ס וֹ מ ב רַס

“What’s it mean?”

“Well, I could be wrong, as I’m not really into Gematria, but numerically it means 253, which can translate to either ‘beginning and end’, ‘despair’, ‘I am the magician’, or ‘the black seed’, all of which sound really freaky, if you ask me,” Trixie replied.

Pinpricks started to crawl up the length of Sunset’s spine for some reason. I know I’ve heard the term “black seed” before, but where have I heard it?

“Hey, guys,” Lyra said, “check this out! Now this proves that he had to have learned something from a unicorn, right?” The celeste-haired girl pointed them towards a painting, entitled “The Young Bride with His Master” by Zampieri. The image was of a young woman in the blush of her late teen years, blonde with soft brown eyes, gazing longingly into the eyes of a black-and-gray unicorn. A sign next to the painting indicated that it was reputedly of Baldassare’s wife Crisalide della Lucca with the unicorn that had taught Baldassare his magical prowess.

But Rainbow saw it differently. “Uh, is it just me or do they look like they’re about to jump into bed together?” she asked.

“Rainbow?” Trixie said, not taking her eyes off the painting. “That is the freakiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, I think I’m done now,” Sunset muttered, blushing furiously…but not for the same reasons that the others were. Ohmigod…flip the genders and that’s me and Flash. Granted, Flash didn’t know about Sunset’s true nature nor did he think she was anything but human, but…. I think I’m going to be sick.

“Hey, what’s that?” Rainbow asked, looking at a final display against the far wall. Unlike the others, there was a black fabric sheath over it. Based on the rough shape, it looked like a triptych or a screen.

“Well, I’m guessing that’s The Mirror of Cavalcanti,” Lyra said, looking at her pamphlet. “According to this, it’s the mirror that the black unicorn appeared from and approached Baldassare in order to make him his pupil.”

“Wonder why it’s covered? They afraid that another black unicorn’s going to walk through?” Trixie cracked.

“Actually, the security guard just happened to mention it: they’re still fine-tuning the laser tripwire net around the dais and getting a bulletproof case for it. Supposedly they’re going to be working on the former tonight and there’s a case being lent to the museum by the Smithsonian, but that’ll take a couple of days to get here. He did say that it should be on display about sometime late next week, though.”

“Spike, just…look, do me a favor and go order a pizza, okay?” Sunset pled.

“But I…!” The look on the boy’s face was worried.

“I’ll take care of this, okay? Just…just do it, okay?” Finally Spike agreed and went downstairs, leaving Sunset staring at the bathroom door. “Twily?” she said, knocking. “Look, I’m coming in, okay?”

“No! It’s going to get me!” came the ruffled reply from the other side of the door.

“Twily, you’ll be fine,” Sunset insisted, jiggling the locked door in the hopes that it would open. “Please, sis, let me in.”

“No!” The voice on the other side of the door sounded terrified. Whatever was going on, Twilight was completely and utterly terrified.

Sorry, Twily, but I gotta do this. Sunset’s hand glowed cyan for a second, allowing her to unlock the door. Once the familiar click of the lock sounded, Sunset opened the door and walked into their bathroom…which could politely be called hell.


The mirror was smashed, there was blood all over, and lying naked in the bathtub in a fetal position, with both the showerhead and the bathtub faucet on, was Twilight. She was covered in bloody scratches and trying to crawl away from Sunset in the shower. Immediately, Sunset turned off the water, grabbing a towel and looking at her foster sister with complete and utter shock. “Twily?”

Twilight’s immediate answer was to grab Sunset and hug her for dear life, crying in incomprehensible, unintelligible sobs. Sunset held her close, trying to towel her off while promising, “You’re okay, Twily, you’re safe.” She then turned her head and screamed, “Spike!”

“Yeah? I just ordered a deluxe from Pizza Guys,” the boy called up. “Is that okay?”

“Forget about that!” Sunset shouted. “Call Shiny or Cady now!”

“I’m okay,” Twilight insisted half an hour later. She was laying in Sunset’s bed, dressed in a bathrobe, holding a paper plate with pizza and a Diet Coke.

“Twily, the mirror’s shattered, there’s blood all over the place and you’ve got scratches all over your body,” Cadance said, a concerned look on her face. “If Sunny hadn’t broken into the bathroom, you could have drowned in all that water! Don’t you think we have a right to be a little worried?”

“But Cady,” she began.

“‘But Cady’ nothing,” the older girl replied. “I’m taking you to see the doctor tomorrow, okay? I don’t want to hear any argument about it.”

“Fine,” Twilight groaned in a petulant tone.

“Look, get some sleep and I’ll be by first thing in the morning; I’ll also call Tavi’s parents and have them let your school know.”

“Fine,” Twilight repeated, in no mood to argue.

“Okay, I gotta get home, myself. I’ve got some paperwork to do for a case this week.” Kissing Twilight on the forehead, Cadance stepped out of Sunset’s room, heading downstairs, to where Sunset was eating dinner with Spike. “Sunny, good call,” she told the teen as she pulled up a seat and grabbed a slice of pizza. “If you had called just a few minutes later, I would have been so buried in legal documents I wouldn’t have bothered to answer the phone.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Spike asked.

“She’ll be fine, Spike,” Cadance replied. “But just in case, I’m going to take her to Dr. Zecora’s first thing tomorrow. I’ll tell Shiny and he can call your parents,” she told both Sunset and Spike.

“I’ll see if I can switch with Pinkie, for tomorrow,” Sunset said. “I probably should be home just in case.”

“Good idea. We’re going to have to rely on you a lot, Sunny; Shiny’s on-loan this week to the Red Bluff PD on a big case, so he’s not going to be of much help here. Normally I’d stay over, but the documents I have are sealed by the court, so I can’t have them laying around, sorry – I’ll have to work at home. But I’ll make sure I keep the phone on – and don’t forget, in an emergency you can call your aunt and uncle.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said, “but I’d really like to know what’s bothering Twily.”

Making sure both Twilight and Spike had gone to bed, Sunset braved walking into the shattered bathroom to clean up the broken glass and the blood. Mom and Dad are not going to be happy about this, she thought to herself. Pouring water into the soap-filled bucket, she dunked a sponge in, ready to wi—

What. The. Fuck? Sunset hadn’t paid too much attention to the blood spatters that coated the wall, as she’d been more focused on Twilight at the time. But now that they were the center of attention, what she saw unnerved her.

253, the blood splatters spelled out in various places on the wall. And carved into the wall with one of the shards of glass, were the symbols that Trixie had pointed out earlier in the day: ס וֹ מ ב רַס

What the fuck is going on?

“What are you reading?” Rarity asked as she sat down next to Sunset at the lunch table the next school day. She was engrossed in her iPad, with what appeared to be a book on-screen.

“Hey, I’m just amazed that Baconhead is reading at all,” Rainbow teased.

“Hey, I learned to get past Dick and Jane, okay, Ms. Living Gay Pride Flag?” Sunset teased back before she went back to her iPad. Changing the page, she said to Rarity, “Reading a book on a subject that involves another book I got Twily for Christmas. Something bothered her about it and I want to know what it was.”

“What’s it called?”

Baldassare and the Black Unicorn: The History of Italy’s Infamous Hermeticist, by Dr. Wisdom Seeker, a medieval historian over at Harvard. The book I’m reading also includes the whole text of the book I got Twily, along with some extra information that’s been found since.”

“Yer awfully protective ‘bout her, Ah noticed,” Applejack said. “Big sis complex firmly in place, Ah see.”

“Guys, you forget that in reality, I’m pushing thirty,” she reminded them. “You could say I’ve got that complex towards you all already.”

“TMI,” Pinkie said. A second later, she asked, “Why do people say that? It’s just a website.”

“That’s TMZ, Pinkie dear. TMI means something else.”

“Oh.”

“I hope it’s nothing serious,” Fluttershy said.

“Well, so do I, to be honest. I mean, it’s just the histo….” Sunset’s words trailed off as she read the text of the book:

It was in approximately March of 1541 that the first reports of Baldassare’s statements of meeting with the black unicorn on the other side of his mirror came about. The mirror, which historians have dubbed Lo Specchio di Cavalcanti (The Mirror of Cavalcanti), in and of itself is a simple glass mirror with silver backing, typical of the looking-glasses of the era. But it was the frame of the mirror that has given researchers pause: a wooden frame covered in gold-leaf, with five ornately-carved cardinal gems set into it, some in familiar shapes, and others the meaning of which is still unknown to researchers. Clockwise, from top, they are: ruby, sapphire, emerald, amethyst and diamond.

On the next page was an image of the mirror, taken when the first edition of the book was made, around 1997. As described, the mirror had the cardinal gems set into it, and that wasn’t really a big deal. But what had caught her attention were the shapes of the gems: the ruby at the 12:00 position was carved into a circle that had curved, parenthetical-shaped spikes on its sides; what it meant she didn’t know. The sapphire and the emerald – a rare blue-green emerald vice the normal deep green type – at 2:00 and 5:00 respectively, both held the same shape, that of a rounded cloud with a crescent-moon sort of sigil in the center of it. But it was the amethyst at 7:00 – a pinkish-lilac color instead of violet – and the diamond at 10:00 that gripped her attention: the lower one set in a fanciful sunburst design, while the diamond was carved into a quill and inkbottle.

She knew in an instant what these were: cutie marks. Worse, the cutie marks on the mirror’s left-hand side…were Celestia and Faust’s cutie marks.

“Sunny? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I have,” she said, turning her tablet so the others could see. “I know these marks.”

“Well, duh,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “It’s a sun and an inkbottle and quill. Even I know that and I’m not the egghead you guys are.”

“Rainbow, they’re not just symbols, they’re cutie marks.” Sunset gave a quick explanation as to what they were, then continued. “And this one is Princess Celestia’s cutie mark, and the one above it is that of her mother, Queen Faust.”

“Are you sure? Could it be a coincidence?” Rarity asked.

“The guy claimed to have learned magic from a unicorn back in the 16th century. I’m a unicorn. I wonder if somehow there’s a second mirror that leads to Equestria – could Star Swirl the Bearded have created one of his own?”

“Who?”

“Nevermind, I’m just thinking aloud,” she said, as she continued to read. After a second, she said, “Wait – the principal and vice principal are originally from Italy, right? Maybe they know something about it?”

“Sorry, Sunset, I can’t tell you much,” Celestia said as the two and Luna were sitting in her office after school. “Luna was only five and I was just barely shy of eight when we immigrated to the US, and other than the fact that we can speak Italian, we really don’t know much about our heritage.”

“If you want, we can put you in touch with our sister Armonia,” Luna advised. “She was twelve when we left, so she should have a better memory of things – she still has a slight accent, even. But even still, the castello was only open on special occasions and I doubt she’s ever been there. I’m sorry we can’t be of further assistance.”

“What’s this all about anyway, Sunset?” Celestia asked.

“Um…believe it or not, I was doing some research for Cadance’s trip – since they’re all going, and I can’t, I thought I’d at least try to dig up some stuff for them.” She opted not to tell either woman the real reason; while both had seen her magic first-hand, the possibility of having to deal with another evil magic source might be too much for either of them.

“That’s very sweet of you, Sunset, but both my parents and Armonia are going with your family and Cadance – trust me, by the time they’re done, mamma e papà and Armonia will have talked their ears off in English and Italian.”

“And for what it’s worth, Celestia and I would have preferred you go as well,” Luna added. “While summer school is commendable, there’s nothing for gaining worldly knowledge via travel…even for aliens from other universes.”

“But don’t worry, I’m sure everything will be okay,” Celestia assured her.

I’m afraid it won’t be, Sunset thought to herself as she nodded in gratitude to the principal. I’m afraid it won’t be at all.