We're Going to the Park
Three Little Visitors: Pt 9
Nothing whatsoever happened.
Sunset had been so sure that something would happen, that once the realisation that nothing was happening began to settle into her mind, she actually felt a profound sense of disappointment. Her insides sank like deflating balloons, and her renewed sense of determination and optimism buckled slightly as reality punched it in the gut.
Sunset sat back in her chair with an alarming creak of protesting wood, staring at the little red chunk of pendant sat dully in the spot of equally red blood.
“How is that possible?” she asked no one in particular. “How can nothing have happened? I have magic inside of me, in my blood. Something should have...” she exhaled and leaned forward on the desk, glaring at the little pebble. She was visited by a strong urge to swat it away, but instead channelled her sudden anger into flipping through her notes.
“There has to be something. Something we missed. Something has to make these damn things work!”
Lines of text, haphazard diagrams and magical calculations; she shoved them aside, disturbing her boxes of arranged pendant shards which toppled over and spilled across the desk. With a guttural cry of frustration she slammed her fist down, and was instantly met with a lancing pain.
Sunset swore loudly as she clutched the side of her hand, which was now bleeding profusely. The culprit protruded like a thorn from her flesh; one of the larger chunks of transparent pendant. Cursing under her breath she tried to pull it out, wincing with each attempt, until it occurred to her to use the tweezers. Once it was out, she held up the shard to inspect. Apart from the fact that it was splattered with blood now, it seemed undamaged, so she set it down in the microscope tray.
“Well at least I have bandages here,” she grumbled angrily. She dabbed up the residual blood with a wad of bandage, and then tied another length of it around her hand. “Great. Another injury to add to the rest of them.” She exhaled irritably and looked down at the mess of shards all over her desk. The careful arrangement of size and colour was now simply a mess of little sparkling glass pieces amongst the papers, stationary, and blood. Oh, how her hand hurt...
“Sunset?”
Sunset’s heart surged up into her throat. Clutching her stinging hand she spun around in her chair. Sonata leapt backwards, looking a little scared. Sunset blinked.
“E-Err...” she swallowed to moisten her dry mouth. “Y-Yes?” she asked, trying to sound upbeat.
Sonata looked unwilling to speak for a few moments, as though she thought that Sunset was going to yell at her. Sunset felt a stab of guilt. She also noticed out of the corner of her eye a bright purple eye peering through the crack in the door to the lounge, and a magenta one above it.
Sunset forced a smile and turned around fully in her chair to face Sonata properly. “It’s okay,” she gestured to the desk. “Work makes me angry.” She chuckled.
This air of lightness seemed to relax Sonata a little. She prodded a few of her fingers together in complex ways and swayed from side to side, looking thoughtful.
“You were shouting at the table?” she asked, looking at the desk.
Sunset smiled genuinely then. “Yes. The table made me angry,” she confirmed. She stood up. “How about we go to the park?” she suggested on an impulse. She suddenly found that she didn’t want to be inside right now. “It’s a sunny day; we can all go over by the pond and feed the ducks if you like.”
There was a moment of confusion whilst Sonata tried to interpret some of this. “Ducks?” she asked, tilting her head to one side and looking puzzled.
“Oh, um...” Sunset snapped the fingers of her good hand. “Birds. The ones that go quack.”
Sonata’s expression filled with recognition. “Ooh!” she said excitedly. “Ducks!” She giggled and started making quaking noises too.
“Ducks?” said a puzzled voice from the door. Sunset pretended not to hear the sounds of squabbling and hissing that was going on behind the door – which was somewhat duck-like in its own way – but said in a louder voice
“Yes, feed the ducks. Is that something you want to do?”
Sonata erupted into such peels of excitement that she forgot to speak in English, and leapt onto the bed crying out ancient words so fast that it all blended into an incomprehensible babble. Sunset reached up and plucked Sonata off the bed. “Well we’re going to need some bread first.”
“I like bread,” Sonata commented absently, swinging her feet a little in the air.
“I know you do,” Sunset said, setting her down. “I know. So, are you two coming?” she asked as she and Sonata entered the lounge.
Whilst Sonata sat down to put her sandals on, Adagio and Aria were trying their best to make it look like they hadn’t been listening. Unfortunately Aria had apparently forgotten that she had been against watching television since Adagio had won the rights to the channel, and so her sitting companionably next to her sister on the big chair was not entirely convincing.
“What is ducks?” Aria asked, trying and failing to not seem interested.
“Birds that eat bread!” Sonata squeed, leaping to her feet.
When Aria continued to look unenlightened, Adagio scoffed and said something fast and low in Ancient Greek.
“Ahh,” Aria said, trying to look knowledgeable. “Ducks.”
“So, are you coming?” Sunset asked, slipping her own boots on. “Dress up warm. The spring might be coming, but it’s still cold.”
Aria shrugged and got up, retrieving her coat from its hook on the wall. Adagio on the other hand remained seated.
“Adagio?” Sunset asked. “Are you coming?”
“I won,” Adagio replied, not looking away from the TV.
Sunset glared at her severely for a few moments, but Adagio simply remained watching the TV. Sunset let out a quiet sigh that Adagio wouldn’t hear, and nearly pinched the bridge of her nose with her damaged hand. And then she thought of something.
“You know,” she said to Aria and Sonata, who were waiting by the door. “I bet the baker has some fresh hot-cross buns too.”
Over Sonata’s eager cooing, Sunset distinctly heard the creak of the springs in Adagio’s chair. She knew that all three girls liked pastries, and waited a moment to see if Adagio was enticed enough to come. But nothing happened.
Pursing her lips, she ushered Aria and Sonata ahead of her. “Stay inside, okay?” she called back to Adagio. “Don’t answer the door to strangers, and don’t use the telephone.”
Adagio didn’t reply, but waved her hand half-heartedly over the back of the chair.
As Sunset expected however, once they reached the lobby and said goodbye to Old Jim, she heard light footsteps on the stairs behind them. Adagio marched up to them, wrapped in her purple coat and hat, and determinately not looking at any of them. Sunset smiled at her, trying not to look too smug.
Adagio cleared her throat. “Nothing on TV right now,” she mumbled through stiff lips.
“Too right,” Old Jim grunted, giving his magazine a little shake.
Adagio stoically maintained her not-caring, don’t-look-at-me attitude all the way to the park, and quite a ways in.
Sunset had been surprised and somewhat delighted to discover that her girls had prior knowledge of the park, since the three of them were aware of the disc golf course, and that Sonata was very good at the game. Sunset herself was terrible, and the remaining two fairly good, so Aria and Adagio had insisted that Sunset be on Sonata’s team the first time that they’d played.
This time, Adagio stubbornly stood on the sidelines, sitting down and tearing blades of grass out of the ground while the other two played. Sunset sat next to her, not saying anything for the moment, but simply inflicting her presence on Adagio whilst watching Aria and Sonata play.
“They’re having fun,” Sunset commented innocently, as Sonata somehow managed to ricochet a disc off a metal sign-post and into the chain basket. Sonata gave a whoop of joy which was swiftly cut off as Aria shoved her to the ground. “Don’t you want to play with them?” Sunset asked coaxingly.
Adagio hmph’d and scowled.
“Are you going to be grumpy all day?” Sunset asked patiently. “It’s only TV.”
When Adagio didn’t reply, Sunset put an arm around her shoulders. For a moment she didn’t say anything, remembering her realisation.
My daughters...
“Come on,” she said in an upbeat tone, giving Adagio a little shake. “They’re having fun. And I know how much you hate it when they have something that you don’t.”
Adagio seemed to take a moment to digest that. She stared at a particularly green blade of grass that she’d just torn up. The grass all around shone with the lustre and brightness of spring, nurtured by the fresh sun and the melted snow.
“Are you going to play?” she asked, giving Sunset a side glance.
“Sure. Want me to be on your team?” Sunset grinned as Adagio leapt to her feet. Barking something in Greek, Sunset just managed to catch something that sounded like “Listen up, girl-boys!”, which Sunset guessed from the tone was Adagio trying to sound like an army commander. Apparently the Ancient Greeks hadn’t referred to their soldiers as “maggots” in their time.
Sonata sprang to attention, throwing out an arm with her fist clenched in a military salute. Aria stood next to her, but folded her arms and looked unimpressed.
The teams didn’t change; Sunset and Sonata played on one side, and only just managed to keep up with Aria and Adagio as they made it across the course to the other side of the park next to the football pitch.
Despite being repeatedly shamed by three people at least seven years younger than her in a recreational sport, Sunset was in high spirits by the time that they’d finished. The cool air and bright colours brought on by the cloudless sky made her feel refreshed, and all three of her kids having evidently had a good time was immensely gratifying, even if one or two of them were trying their best not to show it. Aria would no sooner have shown enthusiasm about winning than she’d spontaneously learn to speak Spanish, and Adagio was so careful of her dignity that she would rather bite her own arm off than jump for joy like Sonata did. Instead, Aria and Adagio maintained a revolting air of superiority and delicate victory, which they both managed to ruin for each other within seconds when Adagio reminded Aria that she’d won twice today now.
Holding the two of them apart, Sunset took both firmly by the hand and led them out of the park to the bakery next to the newsagent. Sonata skipped after them, snickering at Aria and Adagio on either side on Sunset, whilst the two of them pouted and refused to look at anything.
“I swear, you two,” Sunset sighed, setting their hot-cross buns in front of them whilst they sat facing away from each other. “It’s just a game.”
“Your fault,” Adagio muttered resentfully at Sunset. “You made me play.”
“Adagio,” Sunset began with forced calm, sliding the plate with her bun back across the table. “Pouty children don’t get treats.”
Fast as lightning, Adagio snatched for Aria’s bun, but Aria had seen it coming. She seized the bun first and, to Sunset’s disgust, hocked an enormous wad of spit onto it before rubbing it all over the bun. Sneering at Adagio, Aria proceeded to eat the pastry as slowly and obviously as she could while Adagio scowled at her.
Sonata belatedly took up her own bun and held it close to her, in case Adagio got any ideas. After a few moments of fuming, Adagio unknotted her tightly folded arms, and seemed to make an effort to calm herself.
“Sorry,” she muttered without moving her lips.
Sunset hesitated, but thought that it was probably the best she was going to get, and so returned the bun to her.
Adagio took the pastry back soberly enough, but then took a massive bite out of it, and ate it right next to Aria’s ear, her mouth open and making loud chewing sounds.
“Oh for goodness sake...” Sunset sighed, as Aria growled and shoved Adagio away from her. As they began to fight, Sunset decided it was probably best just to let them settle it themselves. There was no one around to complain about the noise so far as she could see. Just to make sure, she looked surreptitiously at her surroundings.
The baker had a small number of tables and chairs outside of his shop underneath an awning, European style. Perhaps owing to the sunny and mild day he’d decided to put them out in hopes of attracting sit-down customers, but so far it seemed no one else had taken the bait. In fact no one was walking about on this sleepy street, and even cars didn’t seem to be frequenting it. It was quiet. Except for...
Sunset spotted them at once and almost choked on her coffee.
Chrysalis – along with her enormous-haired secretary – were walking down the street towards them. Both wore their suits; Sunset supposed that they were on lunch break or something. Neither of them seemed to notice Sunset and the kids, but turned right into the park and disappeared behind the high hedges.
If Sunset was blunt, she couldn’t say that she was overly happy to see the social worker, not that it really mattered. In many ways she had screwed Sunset over, but in many other and more numerous ways, intentionally or not, she had benefited Sunset and her new family. Sunset had quickly discovered, much to her horror, that three prepubescent girls ate a lot of food, tended to create a lot of mess, and needed a great deal of school supplies among other things.
“Call this a school system,” Sunset had growled as the register at the stationary store escalated into the triple digits.
Sunset shivered at the memory. In short, the welfare check and her status as a caregiver had saved her neck several times in just a single week. Her job wasn’t exactly low end, but it certainly couldn’t keep up with herself and three children.
“Can we feed the ducks now?”
Sunset blinked and looked around. Sonata was looking at her hopefully.
“Oh. Um, sure, yeah. Let’s go get some bread. And knock it off, the both of you,” Sunset said sharply to Adagio and Aria, who were still poking each other in a half-hearted way. “You’ve fought enough today.”
The pond – a somewhat misleading name – sat at the centre of the park. Its extent was quite large, broken up into five or six large man-made pools. At the centre of the largest of these pools was a tree-infested little island, where the birds who weren’t able or weren’t inclined to go further south for the winter liked to dwell in the winter months.
Handing the bag of bread to Sonata and strictly instructing the three girls to share the bread equally, Sunset allowed them to run to the water’s edge and tempt the ducks and swans away from their island.
“And don’t let me catch you throwing the bread at the birds!” Sunset warned them.
She watched them for a little while, just to make sure they didn’t instantaneously disobey her the moment they thought she wasn’t watching. She observed further around the pond another trio of girls walking and laughing together. Within moments she recognised Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, and decided that with someone else around to make her children feel observed, it was probably safe to sit down and watch from afar.
Turning to the bench near a low wall where flowers usually bloomed, Sunset was somewhat disconcerted to find that she was not alone. The person on the bench smiled a somewhat creepy smile.
“Well hello there,” said this person, watching Sunset with an amused eye.
“Oh,” Sunset said, caught off-guard. “Um, hi there, Ms. Chrysalis.”
“Looks like they’re having fun,” Chrysalis observed, glancing towards the water front. “Why don’t you sit down, and we can watch out for any unsavoury types whom might be around.”
Sunset made no verbal reply to this, but sat down regardless, trying to not make it obvious that she was trying to lean away from the older woman. Chrysalis either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, but sat with one leg over the other, tapping away at a little touch-phone.
“Nice day,” Sunset observed lamely, feeling the uncomfortable silence pressing in from all sides.
“Yes,” Chrysalis replied absently, and then was silent.
Good grief, Sunset Shimmer thought to herself, trying to watch the three girls holding out bread for the ducks to eat. She half wanted Aria or Adagio to start teasing the animals just so she’d have an excuse to go over and tell them off. Misbehave, one of you. Come on!
“So, is that secretary that was with you around?” Sunset asked eventually, finding nothing else to say.
“She went to visit her sister who lives on the other side of the park,” Chrysalis replied. She looked up at Sunset Shimmer, and seemed to read the unspoken question in Sunset’s face. “No, I didn’t go with her. Her sister creeps me out.”
Sunset had to hold in a chuckle at this. She had to wonder how frightening someone would have to be to creep someone like Chrysalis out.
“So,” Chrysalis herself began, putting her phone away. She leaned forward on her knee and looked sideways at Sunset with her deep green eyes. “How’s family life?”
Sunset’s lips thinned a little. She was honestly almost instantly incensed by the question. How this woman had the audacity to sit there with that I-know-exactly-what-I-did look on her face...
“It’s fine,” Sunset said, trying to keep the anger in her voice to a minimum.
“Looks to me like you’ve had your hands full,” Chrysalis remarked, looking at Sunset’s lap.
Sunset looked down and saw her bandaged fingers and hands. “Accident in the kitchen,” she said briefly.
“Mm.” Chrysalis eyed her for a moment or two. “You don’t seem like the clumsy type to me. But then,” she shrugged, “with three little six or seven year olds running around, perhaps it’s not so surprising.”
After another awkward silence, Sunset felt she’d best speak up again. “I don’t think I thanked you for going to that extra trouble.”
“And so you shouldn’t,” Chrysalis said, sounding callously amused. “Kudos to you if it helped you out, but I won’t lie to you; I only did it to get one over on Princess Pastel. If I could only have seen her and Moonface’s expressions when you told them.” Her smile dimmed momentarily. “You did tell them, didn’t you?” she asked quickly.
The little fire burning in Sunset’s gut crackled hotter and higher inside her. “No, I didn’t,” she lied.
“Yes you did,” Chrysalis said with satisfaction, her smile returning to full vigour. “You’re a terrible liar, Sunset Shimmer.”
“I didn’t used to be,” Sunset muttered to herself.
“To be frank, I rather thought that you’d be having a great deal of trouble,” Chrysalis said blithely.
“Yeah, well,” Sunset grumbled. “Teenager still in school with a job and three kids.”
“Oh, it’s not that,” the older woman continued in the same off-hand sort of voice. “It’s little carrot-top over there.” She pointed ahead towards Sunset’s three children, who were by now talking to her friend’s sisters.
Sunset frowned. “Adagio? She can be a handful, sure,” she admitted. “She’s very independent.”
“Is that so?” Chrysalis asked, as though mildly interested. “Are you sure you aren’t misinterpreting that a little?”
“What do you mean?” Sunset asked, genuinely bewildered.
Chrysalis looked her dead in the eye, as though trying to read something in her expression. “My god,” she sighed. “You don’t know, do you?”
Sunset wasn’t going to play that game. Making an effort not give any signs of impatience, she returned her gaze to the girls.
Chrysalis didn’t seem pleased with this tact. Her expression soured a little; she looked rather put-out. Leaning back in her seat, she forced her face back to cool, sneering civility. And then she dropped the bomb. The one thing guaranteed to knock Sunset right out of her complacency with the situation.
“That girl has been sexually abused.”
Sunset’s heart suddenly seemed to gain ten times its usual weight. A noticeable tremor ran through her entire body. She looked at Chrysalis again, thinking, hoping even to see a sign that she was making some cruel, sick joke. Surely, she couldn’t possibly be serious. But a deep pit of dread had opened up underneath Sunset’s leaden heart. Her own suspicions as to Adagio’s past problems aligned disturbingly with this statement. She had tried to assuage the idea as much as possible until she had some more definite evidence of it, until she was sure...
“How can you tell?” she asked, her voice a little weaker than before.
Chrysalis wasn’t smiling anymore; if anything she looked a little thoughtful. “I’ve been a social worker for thirteen years; you pick things up. When you say she’s independent, do you happen to mean that she likes to do things alone? Doesn’t cooperate well? Is she perhaps the leader amongst the three of them? I’m guessing she can be rather possessive and controlling.”
Sunset reluctantly agreed that this was indeed the case. “I don’t quite see how that—“
“What happens when you touch her when she’s not expecting it?” Chrysalis interrupted her.
Sunset paused. In her mind, she remembered the few times that she’d grabbed Adagio’s arm, touched her shoulder, or even when she’d tried to comfort her at the siren’s mansion. The colour draining from her face, the widened eyes, the almost instant need for seclusion.
“She never wants to be alone,” Sunset objected, feeling she should try to insert a little back and forth in case Chrysalis was wrong. She really hoped Chrysalis was wrong.
The older woman gave Sunset a blunt stare. “Would you ever want to be alone if that had happened to you?”
Sunset didn’t feel herself qualified to say. She tried hard for a moment to empathise with the hypothetical. Then a wave of cold shot over her as the events of a week ago came back to her with sudden clarity. That terrible feeling of cold and loneliness; she would have held onto anything at that point, anything at all just to feel that she wasn’t falling away into a shrinking world of darkness.
She swallowed. “I suppose I wouldn’t.”
Chrysalis gave her a sharp, searching look. After a few moments she looked away again. “I’d keep an eye on her. She seems to be coping well with it, but you don’t want it to internalise and eat away at her.”
“What should I do?” Sunset asked nervously.
Chrysalis exhaled. “Well I suppose I’ve put you in a bad position. You can’t go to a doctor about it. I’d suggest just be a mother to her. Love, support, and affection. All that sort of thing. I’m sure she’ll get over it.”
Sunset frowned at Chrysalis and her evident lack of empathy.
“How did you become a social worker?” she asked resentfully before she could stop herself.
“One of life’s little jokes,” Chrysalis said with a dark little chuckle. “You might be interested to know that Pastel and Moonface sort of got me into it.”
“Principle Celestia did?” Sunset was so surprised that the question dropped from her mouth without her volition.
“Shocking, hm?” she asked, smirking. “Believe it or not, we used to be on... erm, friendlier terms. Not any more, obviously.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” Chrysalis snapped. She glared at Sunset for a moment or two, holding Sunset speared on her gaze, before cracking a malicious little smile. “Oh, I like you. You’re so easy to tease. In short, we used to know each other, but they were both good and wonderful and perfect, and wanted to go off to better the next generation. Me, not so much, so I went into bureaucracy. The fact that I happen to be in the particular bureaucratic office that deals with distributing wealth equally to the needy is just one of those little ironies.”
Sunset sat a moment to digest all of this. Everything that Chrysalis had told her.
“Why are you so open about all of this?” Sunset asked.
The other raised an eyebrow to show that she had no idea what Sunset meant.
“I ask you questions and you give me straight forward answers. I used to be a bad person, and all I ever did was lie, and drive people apart without them knowing it was me.”
“Used to be? Seems I met you too late.” Chrysalis laughed. Sunset waited for an answer. “What can I say? Who is out here to hear me other than you? And what are you going to do about it?” She inspected her phone and then stood up, evidently about to leave.
“But you can’t be all bad,” Sunset persisted. “Like you said, you work for social services. And even if you didn’t mean to, you’ve done me a few favours.”
Chrysalis actually laughed aloud at this. “Sunset Shimmer,” she began, her voice still trembling a little with laughter. “Villains who twiddle their moustaches are easy to spot. But those who cloak themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.”
With that, she walked away.
Sunset sat there frowning for a while, thinking.
“Did she just quote Star Trot: The Next Generation?” she wondered aloud, incredulous.
A sudden sound broke her from her ruminating, and she looked towards the water’s edge to find that Sonata was crying loudly and pointing at the bag of bread in Scootaloo’s hand.
“Whoa, hey!” Sunset cried over. “Aria, you let go of her arm! Adagio, get off her back!”
Compared to the events of the park, the return home was more-or-less ordinary. After managing to pry Adagio from Scootaloo’s head, and calm Sonata down enough to stop bawling, Sunset had apologised to a teary-eyed Scootaloo for the missing patch of hair Adagio had ripped out. Scootaloo put on a decent show of no concern, and walked away with her friends without additional fuss, her jaw set as though experiencing rigor mortis.
Sunset had had little patience with Aria and Adagio, but hadn’t felt up to really yelling at them after her conversation with Chrysalis. In front of the door to her apartment however came an ample distraction.
“Hey Pinkie Pie,” Sunset called.
“Sunset!” Pinkie squealed. “I was wondering why you weren’t answering. I was about to send you like a bujillion text messages.”
Sunset heard Adagio mutter something in Greek. She didn’t catch all of it, but thought she heard “the homunculus again”.
“What’s up?” Sunset asked, pulling out her keys.
Pinkie held up a thick book she was carrying. “Came to give you this. It’s the book Maud used. I thought it might work better for you than the one I used, since you so brainy and all.” She snorted with laughter as Sunset ushered the kids in before her. “I think you make a good mom,” she observed, but then looked suddenly guilty. “Sorry, I forgot that... sorry.”
Sunset waited for the internal writhing to take hold whenever Pinkie made her Momma Sunset genialities... but none came. The sensation seemed to have moved upwards, out of her guts, and into her chest. She looked at the three of them a moment, Adagio holding up the remote like a trophy whilst Sonata and Aria watched her like rabid animals ready to pounce.
“It’s okay Pinkie,” Sunset said, managing a warm smile. “I am their mom in some sense. At least, now I am. And if I am any good at it, it’s because you guys all helped me to—“
She got no further than that. With tears in her eyes, Pinkie seized Sunset around the middle and hoisted her into the air in a rib-crushing hug.
“Aww!” she cried, snuggling her head into Sunset’s jacket. “You’ve embraced motherhood! It’s an awesome responsibility!”
Sunset found it a little strange to be told about responsibility by Pinkie Pie of all people, or might have found it strange had she not been undergoing the sort of physical pressure usually exerted upon tectonic plates during earthquakes.
“Thanks, Pinkie,” she wheezed through the hug.
“It’s like my Momma-Cloudy used to say,” Pinkie went on. “Life’s like a pile of bricks. You stack ‘em just right, and you get a pretty nice looking wall!”
“I don’t know what that means,” Sunset gasped, as she heard several disconcerting cracks come from her spine. “Not to rag on the lovin’, Pinkie Pie, but could you let me down?”
“Oh,” Pinkie said, setting Sunset down and grinning bashfully. “Sure thing, Mommy-Sunset.” She poked Sunset coyly in the shoulder, her face one immense smile.
Sunset rubbed her arm a little where it had been bent the wrong way, grinning sheepishly, and felt something collide with her middle. Looking down, she found a patch of bright blue at her waist, magenta eyes sparkling up at her.
“Mommy-Sunset,” Sonata said eagerly, holding her tight.
Sunset quite honestly believed that she might have cried something tearfully aloud, if Pinkie Pie hadn’t beaten her to it. In a torrent of excessive emotion, Pinkie erupted into voluble sobbing.
“It’s just s-s-so beautiful!” Pinkie bawled.
Sunset set a hand on Sonata’s head, feeling the full impact of the moment. Leaning over the back of the chair meanwhile, Adagio and Aria amused themselves by making loud and obviously retching sounds.
“It’s so exciting!” Pinkie Pie continued as Sunset shut the door to her bedroom. “Sunset Shimmer: Official Mom! Eee! I’m just so excited!”
“And I thank you for it. Saves me the trouble of getting too emotional about it myself,” Sunset joked, grinning.
“I wish I had kids,” Pinkie said dreamily, staring off into space.
“Now there’s a frightening thought,” Sunset muttered, rubbing her chin.
“What?”
‘Oh. Um, nothing,” Sunset said quickly.
“Oh, neat!” Pinkie began suddenly, her limited attention span drawing her to Sunset’s laboratory table. “Love the decorations, Sunset. Very evil wizard.”
“Evil wizard?” Sunset asked, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well there’s blood all over the place,” Pinkie observed.
“Oh,” Sunset mumbled, remembering. “Yeah, forgot to clean that up.”
“Isn’t this your magic texting journal?” Pinkie asked, plucking the book itself from its stand and holding it up to look at. “Why are you sending Twilight your math homework?”
“I’m not,” Sunset said. “Those are magical equations.”
“Ooh!” Pinkie cooed excitedly. “Can you tell me what they mean?”
Sunset blinked. She hesitated with her mouth half open. “You want me to explain what the equations mean?” Pinkie nodded. “Well... they’re complicated.”
“I got time,” Pinkie said happily, sitting on the bed and looking expectantly at Sunset.
Sunset hesitated just a moment more, and then gave herself over to the inevitable. She sat down on the chair and took the journal from Pinkie.
“Okay,” she began. “Well, I tried first to gauge the level of TP the pendants have.”
“Uh huh,” Pinkie said, nodding wisely. “And how did you do that?”
“Well in Equestria there are simple spells to gauge the power of magical objects, but there’s also Velvet Night’s Theorem of Sensory Extrapolation,” Sunset explained. “That’s what this is here.” She pointed to a complex series of symbols arranged in a mathematical format.
“I see,” Pinkie said, still nodding.
Sunset looked at her askance. “You do?” she asked cautiously.
There was a pause. “Well... no, but you made it sound important, so I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Pinkie grinned awkwardly.
Sunset was patient. “Well, the theorem is also called the Thaumaturgic Aura Differentiation Test. An object, if actively magical, will give off an aura, which if in contact with another aura, will give off a resonance as the two interact. This resonance can be measured to determine the TP of the object—”
“Tee-pee?” Pinkie asked, breaking momentarily from her torpor.
“It’s an acronym,” Sunset explained, not pleased at the interruption. “It means Thaumaturgic Power. It simply a term referring to its various magical properties; amount of magic energy, certain active abilities, stability of the object, etc. This can be extrapolated by feeding the results of the resonance, and the known amount of energy being generated by the controlled aura into the theorem.” Sunset looked doubtfully at Pinkie Pie. “You follow?”
“Huh?” Pinkie said, jumping a little. “Oh, um, yeah. Yeah, I do!”
Sunset stopped herself sighing. “Look at it this way. When I sing and transform, I give off a magical aura that I am able to regulate. When that aura comes into contact with the aura around the shards, they disturb each other and give off a measurable resonance. Since I can independently measure and control the level of energy used in my own magic, I can apply that number and the figure measured from the resonance effect to extrapolate the TP of the magical object.”
“Okay,” Pinkie said, putting on grave and serious looks. “Just as a matter of interest... what does thaumaturgy mean?”
“It’s the scientific term for magic,” Sunset summarised. “Magic is a very broad term. Thaumaturgy refers specifically to the active practise of magical arts by individuals learned in a recognised field.”
“Right,” Pinkie said, still putting on the uncharacteristic look of serious reflection. “So with that in mind... explain the whole thing again, because I didn’t understand a word of it.”
Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose, trying her hardest not to groan aloud.
“Look,” she began is as patient a tone as she could muster. “Maybe we should just leave it. It’s a very complicated field unless you understand the basics. It takes years to learn.”
“Oh no, come on!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I can learn!” She looked over the desk for inspiration. “That, tell me about that. You found something out, right?”
Sunset turned to see what she was pointing at. She grimaced a little to see the little plastic tray and the two pendant shards inside, the one sitting on a single drop of dried blood, and the other splattered liberally. She sighed.
“No I haven’t found out—“ she stopped, doing a double take at the contents of the tray as her mind told her that something was amiss. She looked back at the tray, trying to determine what her mind was telling her wasn’t right. She frowned, and then blinked as a pink hand appeared from beyond her peripheral vision and reached towards the tray.
“Oh wow,” Pinkie said, sounding either disgusted or awed, it was hard to tell.
Sunset opened her mouth. She had an unaccountable urge to tell Pinkie to stop, but as she puzzled as to why, no words escaped her. Meanwhile Pinkie’s hand stretched forward unencumbered, and reached the tray. No sooner had her finger reached the two little red shards, then Sunset realised what was wrong.
Two red shards!? she thought wildly.
“Pinkie, wait! Don’t touch—“
It was too late of course.
Pinkie plucked the shard from the tray, and instantly it began to glow, radiating a malevolent crimson light. Pinkie gave a noticeable shudder and caught her breath in her throat. Sunset saw her legs give way beneath her and caught her half way to the floor.
“Pinkie? Pinkie, are you okay? Pinkie?” Sunset gave her a little shake.
Pinkie’s eyes were wide open, dilated as though with fear.
What could she possibly be seeing? Sunset wondered. She looked down at the shard on the floor. As Pinkie fell it had dropped from her grasp to the floor, where the light inside of it flickered like a malfunctioning LED. Apparently the contact had been too brief for it to build any momentum, for it shuddered only once or twice on the floor before the light dimmed to nothing, and it remained quite still and innocent looking. Except for the dark splotches of dried blood still present on it.
Pinkie muttered something. Sunset leaned in to hear what it was she was saying.
“I’m sorry...” she whispered, her eyes still wide and staring. “I’m so sorry... I didn’t know...”
“It’s okay, Pinkie,” Sunset assured her, trying to lift her up and onto the bed. “You’re going to be okay, I don’t think you held it long enough to—“
“I didn’t know there was another way...” Pinkie muttered, staring fearfully into space.
The out of context nature of this sentence puzzled Sunset. Her brow furrowed, and she was about to ask Pinkie if she could hear what Sunset was saying, when for what felt like the tenth time that day, Sunset’s heart froze over with what Pinkie said next.
“B-But all I’ve ever done since being here is... drive everyone apart... I don’t know the first thing about friendship...”
Sunset retracted a slightly trembling hand.
“I’m sorry...” Pinkie sniffed, two thin streams running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry...”
It took a little time for Pinkie to quite recover from her exposure to Sunset’s memories. Sunset herself had not been able to comfort her, having been rather shocked when she realised what had happened. Sitting in her chair, her mind slowly recovered, and dwelt on the source of the trouble; the little red shard.
After a while, Sunset regained enough sense to remove the dangerous little thing, using the tweezers on her desk to drop it into a ziplock bag. With a black marker she labelled the bag.
My Worst
After a while, Pinkie seemed to come back to herself. She appeared to be surprised to be seated against a wall, and for a moment looked around as though not recognising her surroundings. As soon as she spotted Sunset, she instantly looked away.
“Are you okay?” Sunset asked, quietly.
Pinkie opened her mouth to say something, but then paused. “Yes,” she said eventually. “I just... I saw...”
“I think I know what you saw,” Sunset said when it became evident Pinkie couldn’t continue. “You... said some things.”
Pinkie said nothing in reply to this. After a few moments of staring determinately away from Sunset, she hesitantly muttered
“I didn’t know that you felt that way.”
“Really?” Sunset asked, bravely trying to smile. “I thought I made it all sort of obvious. I was basically a bitch to you guys back then.”
“No, I mean... when you put the crown on, I saw you crying then, but... you were so scared.”
“Pinkie, please don’t,” Sunset said quickly.
“It was like... I thought someone was going to—“
“Pinkie, please just stop!” Sunset snapped. “Yes, I was scared. Of course I was scared! I made myself alone, I made everyone else frightened of me so I could get what I wanted. Do you have any idea how scared someone has to be to live like that? All it takes is one moment of weakness, one instance of opening up to someone. If you let them know how you really feel, let them know who you really are—”
Sunset stopped herself, realising that she was ranting. She subsided into an awkward silence.
“You’ve been carrying that around for a while, huh?” Pinkie said, a small instance of humour in her voice.
“I guess you could say that,” Sunset said, surreptitiously wiping her eyes. “No one is going to be scared of you once they realise that you’re just an ordinary person like them. You guys proved that to me.”
“Are you still... I mean, you don’t still feel like that, do you?” Pinkie asked, picking herself off the floor. “Afraid, I mean.”
“Not so much anymore,” Sunset admitted. “It helps having friends. I’ve been able to do things I didn’t think I would usually be able to because...” she paused, her thoughts drifting to the three in the living room. “I’ve known you guys were there to help me out.”
Pinkie smiled rather more sincerely. “You know we got your back,” she said, patting Sunset’s shoulder with a slight return of her usual enthusiasm. “Whatever it is, we’re there like that.” She snapped her fingers.
“I know,” Sunset said, feeling the warmth of gratitude in her veins. “And actually,” she said, looking at the shard in its plastic bag. “Although I’m sorry you had to go through that, I think that you might have actually helped me out again.”
“Really?” Pinkie asked, suddenly brightening as her tone zoomed upwards to its usual high pitch. “Wow, I’m good. I didn’t even know I was helping.”
“Indeed,” Sunset said, her sense of academic interest starting to reappear. During her brief deep rumination on what had happened, she believed that she had come to an understanding of why it had happened.
When Sunset had seen the memories within the shards at the siren’s mansion, it had happened when Adagio had touched them. Sunset had occasioned the shards no disturbance up until Adagio had come into contact. And now, Pinkie had experienced the same phenomenon, only with Sunset’s memories.
Sunset gathered two things from this occurrence: first, that the shard, which had previously been clear, was now red. From exposure to Sunset’s blood, it had imbibed her memories. The more intricate ramifications of what this meant needed to be explored of course, but it gave some insight into the nature of how the pedants had worked.
The second inference that Sunset made, and this was perhaps the more important discovery, was that to access the memories within the pendants, there needed to be contact with the original holder of those memories. In Adagio’s case this was evident, but in Pinkie’s case, Sunset had not touched the shard herself. Instead, the shard had been smothered in her blood; an indirect link. And perhaps more importantly, the shards had not suddenly become active and tried to latch onto either Sunset or Pinkie.
Did that perhaps mean, Sunset wondered, that this indirect contact limited the pendant’s ability to drain magic to power itself?
- To be Continued
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This was very heartwarming. They're starting to get somewhere with the pendants.
THAT made my heart melt.
DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was wonderful! Love this story so far and can't wait for the next chapter.
That opening! xD I love how it says nothing happened, she essentially flies into a rage, and then it turns out she was actually just angry and not being influenced. Her poor hands though! She's not going to have any skin left if she keeps this up.
The development of the stones is fascinating. The way you had the indirect contact with Sunset through her blood is brilliant, and makes the whole scene with the blood experiment have more long-term relevance. I also personally love how Pinkie relieved Sunset's memories. Actually, I love the Sunset/Pinkie interactions altogether. The way you write them has such a wonderful dynamic. And then there's Chrysalis, who just became all the more interesting....
And somehow, I always knew this fic would eventually have the sirens at the park. It was inevitable.
(It's also good to see that Sonata and Aria have made up)
Woah. Things are getting dark
And boom goes the dynamite.
Your fanfic is good and you keep making some little hints about Sundagio, though I know that you are an Sunata fan! You monster XD
You would think that the sexual abuse wouldn't be a revelation in any way, given that Adagio's memories, plus them mentioning being sold to a bordello make it kind of extremely obvious what happened in the memory that Sunset saw. I don't see how she could've even tried to deny it at that point.
5826447 A large part of this story is about Sunset denying the reality of her situation, and that of those around her in order to maintain the familiarity of her life. She had already guessed what had happened, even experienced herself. But it's simply more comfortable to pretend it's not happening, until it becomes impossible to deny.
5825491 I like Sunata in the romantic sense, but there's not gong to be any romance in this story. There's going to be a different sort of bonding.
5824837
An old meme, but still applicable
5823295 I had to do that "nothing happened" beginning. It was just begging to be done. Who ever wanted easy answers?
5822776 I've had that little scene in my head for ages
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120422150448/mlp/images/8/89/Twilight_face_S2E25.png
^ My reaction whenever you mention that thing.
Apart from that very nice chapter, but damn are you watching yourself for possible innuendos now, or maybe I'm just losing my dirty imagination, but I can't make any easy Sunset pedopihlia jokes anymore, and maybe that's for the best considering what happened to Adagio.
5826860 You're not still sore about me using whilst instead of while, are you?
It's just a difference in how I was schooled. Does it really bug you that much? Or do you just like teasing me about it?
Well I'm afraid that indeed, the paedo jokes kind of peeter off here, now that Sunset's moved from awkward-teenager-with-kids-who-have-strange-customs, and onto beginning to accept motherhood.
I think it's about time I moved this from Watched to Favorites.
I like the personalities of the characters and how you portray the child Dazzlings. I'm keeping my eye on how you develop things with Adagio now that you've crossed from "very strongly hinted" to "Well, duh" territory in regards to her past and sexual abuse, at least to Sunset. It's actually my job working with children who have had such abuse. So it always intrigues me when it is written about.
I really like how Chrysalis is a social worker. It actually fits well with her Equestrian counterpart. Queen went to extremes to feed her hive, and if they follow anything regarding most insect colonies that would make them her children. Human is in a position where she has a ability to break rules and ignore red tape as well, but still with the main goal of making sure children are kept safe.
I...do wonder who Fluffle's sister is though.
5829011 Not sure if sincerely misunderstanding or just trolling...
5830648 Oh my...
I'll admit to you that I have absolutely no experience with people who have been abused, so all of my writing here goes on second hand research and my own empathy for how I suppose I might have reacted to it as a kid. I can only hope that I do a decent job of it.
Fluffle Puff's sister appears in the most recent halloween video done by Fluffy Mixer. She scary.
5831090 Oh, did I not get what you were talking about?
What were you talking about?
5832077 ....
Flufflepuff
There, I said it.
5834584 Oh for goodness sake, she barely got a cameo this time. I'm sorry that you don't like her, but I do. I'm afraid that if you're holding out for that to change, you're going to be waiting a while.
5832070 Wow, I actually completely forgot about that video.
Mommy sunset......that did it
.......had a feeling that was going to happen sooner or later though
This story is just amazing.
I love what you have done with the pendants, and the magical explanation with the tee-pee .
Please continue !!!
Please continue. This is absolutely adorable!
Poor Adagio no child should have to go though that....
But it dose explain a LOT about her personality and I would love for us to go deeper into the subject.
Overall I love this story please continue.
Well . . . this is a pretty crazy little development. So I'm going to guess that contact is needed to gather the memories (maybe taps into the magical energies within the person or pony or thing), and the blood is there for the development of a second shard that withholds the memories. Seeing as it was already stated that the heart is considered the strongest organ in the body or something along those lines (I'm too lazy to go and verify. XD), it all fits together nicely.
But now Pinkie and Sunset are on equal standing. Pinkie has a better understanding of Sunset, so I think that their friendship will truly become the strongest out of rest, which is pretty cool. Also, child Sonata is adorable. Like, stupidly so.
And mama Sunset! Many 'daaawwwwwws were had this day.
temper temper (I expected it to work with Adagio's blood, since it's hers)
I actually really love little Adagio, I'd like to think she reminds me of me, but I don't think I was that cool *reads the buns scene* yeah I'm definitely more of an Aria
I find it hard to believe Sunset was in so much denial about the abuse! She really needs to get with the program.
“Life’s like a pile of bricks. You stack ‘em just right, and you get a pretty nice looking wall!” I love this
also I continue to love the magic lessons - that it's not some vague magic concept or that they're equations for magic, but you actually go to lengths to describe a basic core concept as a foundation to any magic-math
holy fuck that's amazing (Pinkie channeling Sunset's past) I admit I'm still a little fuzzy on how it all works, but I'm sure I'll get more insight in upcoming chapters/getting sleep and rereading this chapter
6142835
Omg that's exactly what I was thinking when I read that XD
Hmm, is that how Marksaline would look like in EG universe?
derpicdn.net/img/2015/2/23/835773/large.png
Yeah, meeting a person with three mouths full of fangs would be creepy.
daughternata!!!!!!