A Sunset of Flames and Swords

by SuperAvenger3

Chapter 1

The inside of the portal was like being submerged in water with only one bright spot at the end, which seemed to be the source for the illumination of the entire tunnel despite its distant appearance. Sunset kept trotting towards the light, and at some point she found herself swimming. (or at least that was the analogy she used) when she finally reached the source of the light she extended her hoof--which for some reason was invisible to her, in fact; her whole body became invisible--she found that the spot of light felt like a membrane. And so, she kept extending her hoof until she could tear it and see the other side. But as she felt it ripping through the membrane, the light became brighter and brighter until it finally gave in as Sunset felt being blinded by the (now) highly intense light, and she fell through.

At the other side, in a forest, during an early and chilly morning--electricity started to fill the air on a clearing and it became intense enough to form sparks and tendrils in the center until they were numerous enough to converge and meld forming a shining sphere of light. And after a few seconds, the sphere threw up a slowly floating mass of light that started to form a bipedal figure and right before the figure lost its shine, it fell to the ground.

Sunset fell flat on her chest. The first thing she noticed was how cold the ground, being laid on a flat, rocky surface. She looked around taking sight of the forest around her, the morning sunlight hadn't reached that part of the forest yet so everything seemed to have a dull gray tone to it. She tried to get on her hooves but she couldn't feel them on her hind legs, in fact, her hind legs felt drastically different. The same was with her front legs, she looked down only to realize that she didn't even have hooves anymore. Instead she had completely different limbs, she looked back and saw that that was the case with her legs as well--hands and feet if she remembered correctly what she read about the apes from the jungles in Zebrabwe, who enjoyed playing pranks on the zebras when foraging in the jungle.

After a fit of panicked surprise at acquiring whole different body and an even bigger shock at discovering that her horn was now gone, Sunset realized she couldn't get up as she would normally do. She kept inspecting her new body and concluded that she needed to stand on her rear legs--as ponies sometimes did--only this time, it would have to be mostly permanent.

Sunset made her first attempt and found that it was even easier to stand that way with her new body. Now, she only needed to know how to walk. She made her first try and... She fell forward almost hitting her face on the rocky ground. As such, she spent the next twenty-five minutes practicing through trial and error on how to walk efficiently.

When she finally learned to stand walk normally, she picked up her saddlebags, although now she would have to put them on her shoulders rather than her back. She looked in one of them and picked a compass that she remembered to bring along, then she started to walk to what the compass indicated north. All throughout the way Sunset felt the harshness of the terrain on her feet and the coldness of the weather on her whole body, and the morning sun didn't help that much. She shuddered and grunted before saying:

“My Celestia, how can beings with this body be so poorly adapted to such an environment?”

after many, many stings and bumps on stones she was careful at every few steps not to step on anything hurtful “could it be a matter of getting used?” she stopped paying attention for a moment and stepped on a mildly pointy and broad stone “Ack! Something tells me I'm gonna have many troubles not hating this body.” She leaned against a tree to check her compass again and found that it slightly turned left from north, so she figured that she would need to make a small change of direction. Sunset began walking towards the indicated path; and after several more minutes she heard another set of footsteps behind and, startled by this she turned to see what was it. And what she saw caused the beginning of a barrage of cold sweat on her forehead.

It was a wolf, lonely, it seemed. Its fur was of a deeply dark tone of gray, having only its face of a lighter gray color. But none of those things made a difference. It wasn't growling but Sunset noticed its stance, it was cautious, yet hostile and was beginning to slowly advance towards her. During her days un Canterlot, she read about the Wolves tribes to the northeast and how they prided themselves in their honorable ways, resistance to the roughness of nature and their connection with it, in that regard they were much like the indigenous groups of zebras. This one, however, this one lacked any trace or sense of intelligence. This one, was far more akin to what she read about the Timberwolves.

As it kept advancing, Sunset couldn't help but think about her misfortune.
“Why me? Why now?” she thought.

She spent all this time travelling without incidents and it was now that she got to face a life-threatening situation? Normally, anyone would rationalize this situation and get to a logical scientific conclusion--like a consequence of the circumstances. But, no. Not for Sunset Shimmer, for her, this couldn't be a coincidence. For her, such calamity could only be brought upon her by someone like Celestia.

This was a completely different world, but, was it really that farfetched? After all, not even she got to see the full extent of Celestia's power. For all she knew, Celestia sent this wolf after her. Was this the fate for all those who turned their back on her? As she growing up Sunset Shimmer never considered the idea of somepony crossing, scorning of--in her case--turning her back on Celestia’s teachings. For her, Celestia simply was that perfect of a pony, now however? She started wondering why she never heard of anypony doing what she just did, were they erased from history? Or did Celestia have them erased? Sunset didn't want to find out and her instincts finally kicked in, turning her back and sprinting away.

As it turns out, this body already had its own muscular memory to be kick started during critical situation such as this one. She ran as fast as she could ignoring the pain on her feet and only careful to avoid the trees in the way, she ran disregarding all sense of direction or time until she dared to look back, and when didn’t see the wolf behind her, she stopped to breath. However, after just a few seconds, she heard crackling of fallen leaves and saw that the wolf simply delayed a little bit on catching up to her. And now, it was actually growling at her and walking preparation for a lunge. Sunset realized with horror that this new body of hers wasn’t nearly as fast as that of a pony. Her desperation grew with every second, she couldn’t keep running forever. But, what else could she do? She didn’t like being without options and she hated feeling so powerless, if she only had her horn she would teach this wolf a lesson in manners.

But alas, she was running out of time and despite what her better judgment dictated, the rest of her mind and body decided that she should take her chances running away again, and so she did. This time the wolf was being more determined and Sunset could hear it terrifyingly close. In her panic, and considering how extremely unlikely it was for someone to be listening, she screamed:

“SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!” had she not be so utterly terrified, she would have noticed that she was running directly into a cliff, but the realization hit her far too late. And thus, she fell. Hurting her face on the first contact with the descent acquiring a nasty bruise right between her right eyebrow and her nasal bridge.

She rolled down fast and powerless to stop herself, every time she tried she only managed to rake her hand and add a small bump on her trip down and not even slowing down. When she finally stopped she was facedown three meters away from the actual end of the descent, but the terrain was flat enough to finally stop her fall. Almost every inch of her body was covered in numerous bruises and cuts, the pain was intense and the first tears started to come out of her eyes, she then heard what she could only hope it was her salvation.

Hoff steps and voices, at first she couldn’t understand them due to the distance, but once they were close enough she heard words in perfect equestrian such as: heard and stay she heard one set of hooves approaching and, judging by the sound, they didn’t belong to ponies; perhaps, Saddle Arabian horses, or whatever they were called here. She crawled until she was on absolutely flat terrain so she could call out to them and have a chance to be heard:

“Heeeelp!” Sunset managed to yell despite the constant pain. However when one the voices was close enough for her to see, what she saw equal parts relieved her and confused her. It was a horse to be sure. However, much like with the wolf, this horse--as well the rest of them lacked any sign of understandable intelligence and it was mounted by a being of a body much like hers. Except that, judging by the proportions--and the fact that he had a small beard--it was likely a male. He was covered in reinforced leather and metal, when he was two meters away from Sunset and with a shocked expression he whispered:

“Oh my gods!” He dismounted his horse and kneeled beside Sunset “Girl, can you stand up?”

“I-I’m not sure. It hurts too much.” The rider seemed to ponder for a moment and standing up, he took off his cape to cover Sunset’s back as he helped her to her feet. Once she was sure she could stand, other riders with similar attires came along.

“Sir, what was--” one of the riders, which Sunset assumed to be soldiers of some type hesitated when he saw her current state.

“Just what happened to you, girl?” he asked her as his superior was using one of his arms to offer her something firm in case she couldn't use one of her legs as support.

“I fell from there.” Sunset pointed at the cliff that was the top of the hill. The soldier looked at the spot which was at least one-hundred and thirty-one feet high, and with a concerned expression he turned to see Sunset in the eyes.

“Did you break any bone? That looks like one scary fall.” The adrenaline and shock were starting wear off and Sunset started to feel an alarming pain in her right forearm as well a specially searing burn right down her right shoulder and the other was on her thigh above the rear part of her knee--she had two serious gashes that would need stiches.

“Gah!” she winced holding her right forearm as the pain let her know about the rest of her injuries, including the bruise down her forehead “y-yes, I think I broke this” she hesitantly pointed at her forearm. He looked at her, observing a few cuts she had focusing on the bruise she had and realizing she might have a head injury, he made up his mind.

“Well, you’re one damn lucky girl, that’s for sure. The gods must love you!” he looked at the uphill ascent once again realizing the full scale “oh yes, they do” We will take you with us and have our medic look at your injuries.” he said as he helped Sunset climb up the mount on the rear side sitting sideways, and once he was up there with the reins, told his subordinates:

“All right, soldiers. We are resuming our planned route.

“Aye, sir!” the rest of the men said in unison. Sunset didn’t know how handle herself while being on a mount, but she deduced it would be better to cling to the rider controlling it. Now; by looking back to the entourage (which she learned it was a small company) she could see that it was formed by at least one-hundred other riders with her and her rescuer at the head of the formation, and only now she noticed that they had sheathed weapons such as swords and spears. The whole ride was little too rough for Sunset with her not being accustomed to traveling mounted on another animal and her current state of pain but the feeling of at last being safe and on the way to a chunk of civilization overwhelmed all those nuisances for her.

Sunset didn’t have a way to measure time--a pocket watch she had and the rest of her belongings got lost during the fall, but she calculated and made an educated deducing that; since the moment she was picked up and the moment they finally reached their destination had been about two and a half hours. The place itself seemed to be--considering that she was with soldiers--some sort of military base, though, it didn't look at all like the ones she had seen (if the military base at Canterlot was to be considered the standard for all military bases).

The tents looked strictly functional and the cemented buildings were blunt and--honestly speaking--uninspired. Perhaps because it was a military facility and, in this world, such places didn’t have to look stylized. On the way, sunset saw many more members of the species she just met, and by the conversations she overheard, all of them used simple names with hidden meaning--much like the Gryphons or Zebras. And the males were referred as men, and the females as women. They stopped and Sunset’s rescuer--who she also learned was called captain Ignace--said:

“Paul, come here” the rider right behind them trotted on his horse to stand next to his captain. Captain Ignace, on his part, started dismounting as he started address his subordinate again “Take her to the infirmary. Get the surgeon to see to her injuries, when you do that, see me at the commander’s tent.”

He helped Sunset to get off the horse, he saluted placing his fist on his chest, at the level where their heart was likely located and took off with her on foot. Other servitors came to help the rest of the company with their horses. Paul took her to the infirmary building entering along with her, inside there Sunset could see who the medic--a woman in her forties. She was washing some instruments using a piece of cloth with a substance Sunset couldn’t recognize.

“Surgeon Maria” Paul said breaking the concentration on her work. He gently pushed Sunset so she could enter to the room first “captain Ignace has ordered for the treatment of this girl’s injuries.” she turned to look at the new arrivals taking notice of Sunset and her deplorable appearance.

“Oh my gods! Just what happened to you!?”

“I’ll leave her in your care, surgeon.” Paul said leaving before they could say anything else.

“All right, come this way, dear.” she said as she pointed her to a nearby bed meant to quick examinations. She spoke in a reassuring tone, Sunset carefully walked to the bed, she was still in pain and didn’t want to make any unnecessary moves and sitting down the surgeon asked again:

“So, really. What happened to you? And, by any chance, can you tell me your name?”
Sunset hesitated for a moment about telling her real name, but she decided that--despite the different structures--the worst that could happen would be receiving an odd look, however, she was still cautious and opted for telling only her first name.

“Sunset,” turned her head to look the surgeon right in her eyes “just Sunset.” She finished. As the surgeon was taking a piece of cotton in a pair of pincers, soaking it in the same substance she was using to wash the instruments.

"My, that’s one original name, but then again, I have only been to two kingdoms. So perhaps is more common than I think. And how exactly did you ended up like this, dear? It’s like you were attacked by a group of demonic cats, tell me. Was it demonic cats? That would be strangely specific, though.” Sunset snickered at that. Normally, she would have been annoyed to hear such a sudden joke, but after everything that happened to her, she could kindly take some humor. She didn’t think this doctor was of the funny type, though. The few doctors she met on her life were very no-nonsense type and she found it amusing to have a funny one now.

“I fell from a cliff. But it was a downhill fall, so, I guess that saved my life…?” the medic looked at her with an almost incredulous expression, but she asked another question to complement any rationalization she was already making

“That sounds terrible. Also, just what was doing an adorable girl like you doing alone in the woods anyway? Not to mention… your nudeness…” she wanted to hide the awkwardness from her voice but she failed. Sunset figured that, since there was no way she could tell her the truth, she should resort then to the art of lying--an art she perfected while living under the methodical and scrutinizing watch of Celestia, in her experience, she learned that the best way to start a series of lies was beginning with a half-truth:

“I… woke up in the forest already… nude.” she stretched to word for herself that for Maria so to keep in mind that, in this world, it was the absolute norm to wear clothes at pretty much any time “I can’t remember anything else before that. Except for my name.” she finalized not forgetting to keep eye contact and blinking only once at most. As Sunset said this, she was looking her with an uncomfortable expression, like she didn’t want to accept the reality of Sunset’s situation.

“Dear gods! I can’t believe it. And I really mean it, just what or who would have a way to leave a girl in your state all by herself in the forest??? It doesn’t make any sense and it’s just… Revolting.” Sunset remained silent slightly downing her look so to convey--falsely--that the answer was as lost to her as it was for the surgeon.

She asked her for her left arm and started to clean the cuts on that arm, when she was done with that, she proceeded to tend the cuts cleaning them as well as applying a very herb-smelly salve on her bruises. And finally applying stiches to her two deeper cuts (which she had to endure despite the effect of a pain-reducing medicine, it just wasn’t enough for her. However took it with all the dignity she could) It wasn’t helped by the slight awkwardness when Maria put Sunset’s arm in a sling. She couldn’t help but notice the funny look on Maria’s face, although she later figured that maybe it had something to do with the fact that, unlike Maria and the rest of the hominids she met, she didn’t have any garments on her other than captain’s Ignace cape.

“I’m sorry this couldn’t be faster and less painful” Sunset turned to look at her with a perplexed expression, which the doctor didn’t notice “one our healer-priests was deployed with a hired group and the other was transferred to a different post, they usually tend to wounded soldiers on the battlefield, but I’m sure they would have made an exception with you” She still couldn’t understand, what did she mean she couldn’t do it any other way? This exactly as she expected a treatment with any normal doctor back in Equestria.

“Ms. Maria, how does a healer-priest do better than you?” Sunset finally asked

“Well, for one, they are adepts of the magic healing and can treat deep wounds and injuries in a matter of seconds. Me on the other hand, I’m just here to give first aid to the staff in the base and prescribe medicines.”

“Magic!? Did she just say magic?” Sunset thought in alarm. Ever since arriving on this world and losing her horn to this new body, she simply assumed that there was no such thing as magic arts, at least not in a form she could harness. However, she had renewed hope now. Still, she reserved her excitement for herself.

“Then what does a surgeon do?” she asked with a legitimate sense of curiosity. She was familiarized with the term back in Equestria, but she knew that it was too big of a chance it wouldn’t mean the same thing on this world.

“You see, manual surgeries are pretty much a dying practice, and they have been ever since the advent of health magic around a century ago. Nowadays healer-priests in the temples of the twelve gods use their magic to treat wounds and diseases for those who can pay it or they are sent to some military unit, such is the case here with us. Fortunately, us, surgeons--when we’re not in the role of assistants for those same healer-priests--can tend to those less favored for a much lower price.” she said the last two words with in a very jaded tone.

“Well, I think you did an excellent job… Even if it still hurts so much, but thanks to you, only the stitched cuts on my shoulder and under my behind hurt.” she winced when a small shift in her shoulder reminded Sunset of her broken forearm.

“Oh, that reminds me. Wait here, I’ll bring you some clothes.” Sunset spent her waiting time glancing around the room, pondering about everything that had happened to her up until now. In hindsight she never knew what to expect from this side of the mirror.

This journey had already started pretty freaking awful already--her inability to use her magic turned this world against her and made every from now on far more dangerous than anticipated. At least she still had her intellect, which was the only other thing she prided herself in, but, she figured she would need to push the limits of it if she wanted to find her way around this world… at least until she could learn how magic was harnessed here. And she would find the way. She decided to start thinking on her current situation as an algebraic problem she needed to solve, and there was never a single equation that she couldn’t figure out. She had such prowess and merely in her mind, at least that was what she believed.

Surgeon Maria finally came back with clothes folded up on her hands.

“These are the closest to your size, I hope they fit you well.” she said while handing them over and started to place the sling on Sunset’s arm (which was just a mildly long piece of, yet soft and thick fabric). Once she was finished, Sunset stared the clothes in her good with an intellectual interest. However she remembered not to think into it too much, at least not in front of the hominids--as she decided to call them until she could find out the actual name of their species.

“Thank you, I’m sure they will do fine.” Sunset said in a tone of doubt that betrayed her neutral-looking face.

“You can change in my bedroom.” she pointed to a door in the far corner in the back of the room.

“Yes, I’ll get to it.” and as she started to walk to the door, Maria said:

“Are you sure you don’t need help with that?” She turned her gaze at the sling in Sunset’s arm. She, on her part, looked at the clothes in her good hand, the she looked to the sling in her arm and finally looked over Maria. She was about to take a yes to her offer, however, she remembered her own resolution to use her sheer intellect to solve each and every one of the problems she could find from now on. So, with determined face she said:

“I appreciate the concern,” she most certainly did not “but I think I can manage it on my own.”

“Um, all right. If you change your mind I’ll be here cleaning my instruments…” she was still worried about her chances with the clothes and her sling arm “And, err. Good luck.” Sunset was, perhaps, starting to get worried herself, considering the fact that she only had one usable limb, and she wasn’t all that good with her newfound hands. But she remembered once more her resolve and moved those thoughts to the back of her mind.

She closed the door behind her and dropped the cape that had been covering her this whole time, she placed the clothes on the bed and saw they were a very simplistic gray dress with long sleeves accompanied by a belt and a pair of leather flat shoes. She then turned to towards a mirror on the left of the door, on the right and near the extreme of the room was dressing table. This was the first time she got to get a full view of her new body and; unsurprisingly, she didn’t like what she saw--her mane (although, she was sure that it wouldn’t be called that for these hominids) was still a mess from her little trip down that cliff and looking at the rest of her body, she saw the all the cuts she could barely feel now and bruises that already had a purple tone to them. And then, she finally glanced at one the most notorious features of her body with a grimace of discomfort.

“My Celestia, I’m like a cow...” concluding that she was done inspecting her body she returned to the clothes on the bed, she already knew how they should be worn--remembering all the females she had seen including looking at Maria, yet, she knew this would prove to be a formidable challenge. And so she got started.

More than thirty minutes later Maria was had finished cleaning her instruments ten minutes ago, she was on a different task now--making inventory of her medical supplies. During all this time she heard several grunts and sounds of complaint from Sunset, but she was firm on not offering her help again unless she asked her directly. However she was getting impatient and worried at the same time, so, right before she could go and knock on the door, Sunset came out with the dress, belt and sling on the arm, she had a worn out face and a clearly humid forehead. Maria was actually really impressed--everything seemed relatively in order considering the big handicap that Sunset had, still, she couldn’t resist pointing out the one thing that looked even worse than before:

“My gods, Sunset. I sincerely didn’t think you could make it, yet here you are proving wrong. Really, really impressive. Your hair looks like a nest made bird village’s idiot, though.” Sunset gave her a painfully exasperated look, after such tiresome and difficult task, she found out that Maria’s jokes could be rather nerve-racking.

Later that day. Commander’s tent.

Paul entered saluting everyone inside, there was a generalized air of impatience. This was; mainly, due to the fact that captain Ignace’s superior, major Fahid was expecting his report on the minimal time of only one week on deployment. Captain Ignace knew that he wouldn’t be making the major lose his time, he, himself felt a trace of shame for abandoning his assigned mission. However, he also knew that, after hearing what he had to say, even a man as inflexible as major Fahid would understand his reasons.

“Captain Ignace of the 12th company reporting in, sir.” He would rather not have such formalities of protocol, since he had so much to explain. The major looked at him with a stare of urgency, the other officials in the tent simply limited themselves to whisper one another.

“Proceed.” Said major Fahid. Captain Ignace took one last look at the officers around him and his second in command, first sergeant Paul and finally spoke:

“One week ago, in the assignation to a small town twenty-eight miles southwest from here; we were there to seek and purge any sign of demonic sorcery, a black cult, is hardly a problem for trained soldiers, but we needed more men to cover more ground on the town. However what we found instead were six attacks by demon spawn over one week in which I lost a total of twenty men and only during the seventh day we found only one black invoker. And; as you may know, there is no way he could have invoked that many demons in such a short period of time… At least not by himself.”

“Then why did you not stay longer for a more exhaustive search?” Major Fahid interrupted him with a grimace of disbelief

“I was about to get to that, sir. On the eighth day… Holy Knights of the Iron Lion order arrived at the town,” major Fahid lowered his gaze in realization and the other officials whispered to themselves curse words while other whispered those next to them comments of concern “170 of them. They told us that they were aware of the situation and that they appreciated our efforts, but they would take responsibility from there and that they would even take care of the burials for our fallen comrades, without much option, we departed the town.”

The Major placed his right hand on his forehead in thought. He didn’t have his armor at that moment but he still had a pair of reinforced leather wristbands and, since they were slightly loose enough so when he did that movement, Ignace took glance of something on the skin under his right wristband, he couldn’t see more. It could have been a spot, or birthmark or perhaps even an actual tattoo. However he refrained from pointing that out right at that moment since it would have been the single, most irrelevant thing he could bring up and a contradiction of his resolution to not make the major lose his time. For almost two major Fahid didn’t even move, so, when he finally uncovered his forehead said:

“Nothing of that is a good sign. If those zealous bastards feel the need to intervene, that means the town reached a state of emergency… At least I can trust those knights can handle any more attacks,” he leaned against his chair and asked “is that all?” Ignace shifted forward without losing any air of discipline in doing so.

“Sir, you do realize this is way above the average, correct?” major Fahid leaned forward; fingers of both hands together in thought, after another moment he insisted:

“Well, it’s not like we can tell the king about this isolated case of one town. And even if we do, by the time our hawk reaches him, the Holy Knights would already take care of the situation.” Captain Ignace placed his hands on his commander’s table meeting his gaze directly, this prompted even more whispers of outrage.

“Sir, with all due respect, when was the last time you learned about enough black invokers to cause six attacks of demon spawns in one town over such a small span of time…? Or a smaller group of such power?” This time, even the face of his first sergeant adopted a somber tone.

“I think I see your concern, captain. The Shadow Legion has always been a concern, like a tumor--plotting and scheming in the dead islands. But they haven’t made a move in over two hundred years. Is like I said, we can’t alert the Royal Army over this single incident. We already have enough threats in our lands, the Royal Army has its hands full.” Reluctantly, Ignace had to admit that his major had a good point--the army of the king had to stay on the lookout for barbarian raids on the north, the peace with the Orcs and the vampiric race, Marhi’em was extremely fragile and in no way they could count on the Elves for any assistance.

“What about hiring mage warriors?” Suddenly suggested Sergeant Paul, Ignace looked at him with a negative expression

“Bah! Those coin-grabbers wouldn’t get up from bed for less than fifty gold dragons and only if it serves to further cement each one of their reputations” Major Fahid spat, he was right again, mage warriors followed trails of treasures and challenging monsters, not only they wouldn’t be interested in serving the kingdom for only a symbolic quantity--they would never do a job with such a big variable of testing for their skills. Bottom line: they weren’t an option here.

“It’s the same problem with mercenaries. They want a stable payment and they never do anything that is not previously established in their contracts. The only reason we hired one group of them is because they were going to assist us as soon they were done with their last job. And then, maybe they can give us back the healer-priest we loaned them” Ignace added. Major Fahid leaned back against his chair once again thinking that the issue was being dropped right then.

“Well, regardless of other warrior groups, the only certain thing is that we must focus on defending our lands full filling assignments where needed. Is that’s really all?” Ignace kept rummaging his thoughts for one more convincing, but he couldn’t come up with anything else. He would have to resign himself to accept the incidents at that town as slightly more aggressive action of another black cult, but that thought was bound to eat away at his mind.

“Yes, sir. I’ll try and keep a clearer and more objective judgment from now on.” He reluctantly forced himself to say.

“All right then, you’re all dismissed now.”

“So, do you really it?” Paul asked Ignace as they were exiting the commander’s tent.

“Believe what, now?” Ignace replied feeling slightly confused by the unexpected question.

“I mean, do you seriously believe, within your heart, that we might have the threat of the Shadow Legion once again on our lands?” Ignace pondered for a minute as they walked to armory to stash their armors, he was still exactly as troubled now as he was when he exited that town.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I’m telling you, those were many attacks, too many and we only found one black invoker.”

“And it’s not like we can ask the Holy Knights about it either, those guys simply tolerate us at best. And I think the only reason why they offered to bury our friends and prepare funerals was only so we could leave all the faster.”

“Ha. You go that right, my friend. Oh how right you are.” After several minutes of walking in silence, they reached the armory and while they were taking off their armors of leather armors, Paul decided to ask one final question on the matter:

“So, what will you do about it?”

“Huh?” came the caught-off-guard answer from Ignace, but the realization came to him again and remembered what his first sergeant was talking about “Oh, of course. Well… there’s not much I can do from my position of captain, I guess that, before something far, far worse happens in another town… Or greater city, or if the threat comes right here at our doorstep, all I can do is prepare a big, big I told you so to rub on the major’s face.” Paul chuckled at that and kept stashing each piece of his armor as he was taking them off.

Base’s infirmary.

“You’re very good at this. I, uh… Appreciate that you help me with my hair” Sunset said as Maria was brushing her hair after helping her wash it.

“It was no problem, love. Really, you have one of the loveliest hairs I’ve ever seen and I would hate to see it ruined.” That brought genuine joy to her chest. Even though she now was stuck with a dislikeable body, she was happy to know that she at least kept one pretty feature from her previous body. And Sunset felt the slightest of blushes coming to her cheeks, still, she remained expectant for a comment about her unusual hair color. She still hadn’t seen that many hominids up until now, but she was fairly sure that there weren’t many of them with a bright colored hair like hers. However, the comment the comment never came and she felt a little bit puzzled by this. Even still, she allowed herself to enjoy this hair brushing, which--for some reason--felt oddly nice considering she just met this woman today.

“…So, I was thinking that, maybe I should take some fresh air and go out for walk.” She said while sounding a little too pleasant for her own taste “As much as the stitches behind my left thigh still hurt, it would be worse to just sit here doing absolutely nothing.” Maria, who was just finishing folding her clean clothes was staring at Sunset with an amused, yet pensive face.

“That’s quite all right, love. My watch just ended about an hour, I’ll be going to the nearby town on the north to get a drink or two… And then it will begin again at midnight.” she said in a deadpan tone that didn’t match her bemused face “Anyway, you can use that time to find your way around the base!” With her quick changes in mood, Sunset was starting to have problems on whether take this medic--or surgeon, as she needed to remember--seriously or not.

“Awesome!” Sunset said, to which Maria retorted:

“Don’t exaggerate.” Maria said with a bemused face.

“Oh, all right. Thanks anyway!” Sunset made a mental note to use less word of her slang from Equestria.

“By the way, Sunset. You must be hungry, there isn’t food here right now, but once I come back I will something for dinner, is that good?”

“Sure, that sounds fine. Well, I’ll be going now, thank you!” She paused her steps for a moment, she didn’t actually meant to say thank you right at that moment. In Equestria, she reserved her best manners until she was around important ponies. Here however? She didn’t feel the need, yet she just did it. Sunset decided to forget about it for the moment, she was far more interested in going outside. Right before she could exit the infirmary house, Maria told her to just stay out of the restricted areas, to which Sunset simply nodded and made a sound of acknowledgement.

By this hour of the day, many members of the staff and soldiers had already left the camp and head to the close town at the north to eat a fancy meal, buy nice things, and take some drinks; maybe even a pleasurable companion until the evening. Still, there was enough people to keep its busy appearance. Sunset was limping ever so slightly and this, summed to her sling arm must have looked a little bit pitiful.

Not that she cared, she was too interested staring at the tents and buildings in the base, and she even noticed just now that they had walls--not very impressive by themselves, but she was amused at not having notice them before--she kept taking notice of the various signs and on each building, written in a language she still couldn’t understand. But this made for an interesting discovery--they had the same lettering as in that diary. That served as a confirmation that this, was in fact, the world she meant to live in. Due to this, she made a new mental note to learn the language spoken by this hominids as soon as possible. She found the blacksmiths shop and peeking through the windows she saw a table with a few tools as well various blades for swords and spears along with armor pieces.

She then came across a pair of men playing a board game with sixteen pieces made of stone each, similarly to chess back home. And, if this game was anything like chess, she was going to enjoy playing it. She could certainly appreciate a duel of intellects, like the ones she used to have with Celestia” With those memories crossing her mind, she turned to leave faster than she thought.

She headed to the east of the camp, where there was a relatively big gathering of men. There was a wood fence in the form of a box about the half the size of the average men in that camp. Inside it, there was another fence, this one made with four sets of rope held by four wooden posts each. And, in the middle of that, there were two men with their bare torsos using their clenched hands to hit each other standing on a floor covered by one or more layers of a thick fabric. Sunset heard all the cheers accompanied by insults to one of the rivals; despite the violence of the spectacle, each the participants seemed to carry a strategy of their own with discipline. Still, the match didn’t last long and of the men emerged victorious, a portion of the crowd cheered even louder than before and as the winner was exiting the arena a group of men approached to congratulate him personally. Sunset wasn’t exactly thrilled by any of this.

“So pissing contests aren’t just common among stallions…”

As she kept roaming around the camp she started to feel that there weren’t more interesting places to visit without counting the restricted areas she kept in mind not to enter, and the afternoon wasn’t even mid-way through. At this rate, she was going to get just as bored as she feared. She thought about her saddlebags and the belongings she lost. She remembered bringing with her Rubix cube of numbers as well a board of another numbers puzzle, oh the combinations and permutations she could create. She remembered spending hours creating her own challenges by scrambling all those numbers then setting them in order again.

“How I miss all of that, I miss my saddlebags… Are they truly lost?” She went to the south of the camp and saw the gate guarded by one guard in a booth. Making up an excuse to wander off in the woods wasn’t a problem, but she remembered just how bad it went for her adventuring alone without her magic.

“I wish I still had my horn.” Sunset thought with yearning. She rubbed her forehead on the place where her horn used to be and then she intently looked at her hand--she remembered all the men and women she had seen up until then. The way how all of them used their hands to fulfill just about any task imaginable, and how they could tools for even more complex purposes--how the camp’s blacksmith used a hammer to forge blades, the way Maria swiftly stitched her gashed, even the men that fought in that rudimentary ring. She realized the evolutive basis and purpose of such a set of limbs, when she did this she formed a connection to this civilization and the few achievements she had seen counting as well those that she had yet to behold. Doing this she came back to the pony civilization and the influence of unicorns, influence made key by their horns…

That train of thought led her to a new realization--one that took her to form a crazy theory. And she was bent on testing. She went back to the infirmary and headed to the kitchen, she placed a spoon on a table. Sunset closed her eyes for a moment then she focused on the same things that she did when she used to have a horn, she felt a warm sensation in her hand and what she saw brought a genuine smile to her face.

“Hmmm. The color is the same although the aura is a little different… somewhat akin to a flame” But this is definitely my magic” she directed her hand to the spoon and made it float, satisfied with the result, she attempted to do something advanced, like giving it the consistence of rubber. But even though she mustered right amount of concentration and intensity of magic, nothing happened, except for making the spoon shake and spin while floating.

“So, only my telekinesis now, huh?” This managed to diminish her joy, however it also brought a determination in her, now she at least had an effective way of defending against any more insolent beasts she could find in the forest. Now that she had a real chance of survive and even beat that forest she could start with the easiest step. She took a wicker basket and with hastily headed towards the base exit, when she reached the guard’s booth she greeted him and said:

“I need to go to the forest, surgeon Maria asked me to gather several medicinal plants herbs
--her stash is running low.” The guard kept looking at her with skepticism

“Look, she said I would need go deep into the forest. But she said it was safe,” after the lie, she played a gamble with under a guess about something that a civilized settlement would already have “since you all managed to clear this forest from dangerous animals.” The guard simply nodded confirming the success of Sunset’s tactic, she then shifted forward, closer the limits of the guard’s booth and finalized:

“Besides, we already gave a pray to the gods for my safety.” The guard leaned forward on his window and simply said:

“At the first sign of trouble, just turn on your feet and run. Is that clear?”

“Like water for tea, sir!” she playfully made an attempt at salute conveying a sense of cuteness. The guard, on his part simply formed a small smile. After this, and when Sunset was sure that she was out of sigh, she threw the basket to the side.

“Dear Celestia, I feel unclean.” Sunset said after shuddering.

Silverdove town. Two miles north the 12th company’s base.

Garth’s Pub was the chosen drinking place for all type travelers, from simple tourist and merchants to mage warriors and bounty hunters. It was also the preferred drinking place of several members of the 12th company, including its captain. Ignace was drinking on his favorite table--the one further from the entrance yet at a safe distance from the corner, this was so he could efficiently keep an eye on any member of his company, since they weren’t known for their good behavior when drunk. And being so close to mage warriors--which weren’t known for appreciating royal soldiers--seemed the safe thing to do. Finishing his current mug, he asked for another refill, and when he was about to grab it, someone else beat him to it.

“I’ll take this one, thank you very much.” Came the voice of certain a woman.

“Surgeon Maria, how nice to have you on my table” he said as she was just taking a seat next to him

“Save the formalities for our working hours at the base, you sound like an idiot.” Maria sardonically retorted.

“An you sound even dumber when you forget that I say it just annoy you to no end.” He called the one the bar maids and asked for another mug.

“Of course, of course. And I just might punch you just to remind you you’re not immune to broken noses.” Maria declared almost letting a chuckle scape her lips.

“So, it’s always bad news when you sit and drink with me. So what is it?”

“Oh, it’s bad. I assure you,” she took a deep sip from her mug and continued. “I came here looking for a nice hunk. But, since there not one to be found in this pub tonight. And since you’re the relatively most handsome man around here, I decided that I just might as well try and hit on you. Like I said, these are bad news.” Ignace looked at her with a painfully bemused face and simply replied:

“…Seriously?” There were so many reasons why her joke--or the lack of one--was so wrong, it was as if she had told him that she now had the ability to materialize dragons out of thin air. Maria looked at him with an annoyed grimace while saying:

“You dense dunderhead.”

“So tell me why you are really here already, gods damn it.”

“It’s about the girl you brought to the base this morning”

“What about her?” The bar maid finally came back with a new mug of beer, which he didn’t lose time in taking a sip immediately after taking it from the maid’s tray.

“In order to tell you that… Um, I know it’s dumb to reply with another question, but, just level with me. What were you planning to do with her after making sure her injuries were treated?” Ignace looked down, pondering for several seconds until he turned to see Maria again.

“I honestly didn’t give it too much thought until you reminded me about it just now. I saw some troubling things during my last deployment and they have worried like you wouldn’t believe. But, as to your question, I guess I’ll just ask her the location of the town where she came from and then take her there.” He took another sip from his mug.

“Yeah, I don’t that’s going to be possible--She wouldn’t be able to tell”

“…Why not?” He asked looking at her with a face of mild disbelief

“Because…” It was Maria’s turn to take a sip “She doesn’t seem to remember anything before waking up in the forest, aside from her name.”

“How is that even possible” Ignace said as he turned his face away from Maria with a grimace of discomfort.

“Well, there are only a few explanations, but…” she leaned forward trying to emphasize her firm stance on what she was about to say “Look I’ve seen people who had been tainted by sorcerers… Or by simple human malice, there is something in their eyes that completely changes even if the rest of their body is unscathed. But with her, there’s nothing of that, not a single trace, not one bit. This should normally be a good thing--and it really is--but it just makes her origin an even bigger enigma.”

“Well…” He turned to face her again “What do you… What do you suggest we I should do?” he hesitantly asked.

“All right. For starters, we can’t leave her in some orphanage here--or that of any other town--she’s young, but not that young. They would have her for two years and then she would be back on her own. She’s an extraordinarily smart girl, that’s something I was able to see in her eyes as well. And she already shows signs of being a girl that values any ability to stay independent above everything else, but… I just don’t think we should quit on her… at least not yet.” She almost forgot to say that last part.

Ignace looked at her with skepticism for a few seconds, then his face changed to something almost resembling a grin. But, before he could say anything, they heard a particularly loud laughter coming from one the tables near the center of the pub. It was a young brunette woman, and, judging by her attire, she was most likely a mercenary or a bounty hunter. She was apparently having a very amusing conversation with a moderately bulky man of very short hair and a much longer beard who also appeared to be adventurer of some kind.

They both turned away from the momentary distraction and Ignace addressed Maria again:

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“Right, of course. What I was trying to say is that, maybe she should stay with me, you know. I can teach her a few things about the job, just enough so she can work as my assistant, don’t you think?”

“Well, you are right about what you are surely thinking now--as far as our base is concerned, it does depend on me to make the call,” after saying this a full-fledged grin formed on his face “you are a good woman, and a reliable one at that… Of course I trust with this, you have now my full authorization to handle the issue.”

“Thank you, Ignace.” She said that in a tone that carried a little too much gratitude, but, he decided not to say nothing of it. He still had far more important matters in his head and he was just trying to relax and took a deep sip from his mug emptying it, he was about to call another bar maid when they heard more laughter from the table near the center. This time, it was a frivolous giggle and the same patrons from the same table were quickly leaving their seats with the man holding the woman’s hand.

“Whoa! Take it easy, mighty warrior! You should know that preambles just make it more enjoyable!” The man seemed understand just the opposite of what she had just told him, and so he lifted the woman and carried her in his shoulder.

“Oh no! I’m being taken as a prize! What will I ever do?” She said in the most playful and coquette tone she could muster as the man was taking her upstairs.

“Girls these days… They just take the challenge out of it.” Maria said as she watched the pair going upstairs to the rooms and have an afternoon of fleshly paradise.

“Yes, absolutely” He said absentmindedly as he watched them go to one of doors out of sight right before calling a bar maid for a new mug.

Meanwhile, at the woods.

Sunset Shimmer remembered being asleep most of the trip to the base on horse, so, under other circumstances, it would difficult to trace a road back to the place where she was found. Luckily there was grass-free road all the way from the base that seemed to extend indefinitely; there one or two detours that could perhaps confuse her. But, she calculated that, since this forest was a fairly plain terrain, there wouldn’t be many hills, and even then she only needed to look for the one that ended--or started, in Sunset’s case--with a cliff.

She was following the same straight route when she started to hear a sound in the distance, at first, she thought it was some animal. But, when she stopped to listen more carefully, she realized that it was actually a voice. Driven by her natural morbid curiosity, she started to rapidly walk towards the source, and since she was making a detour into the dense sections of the forest, she made sure to leave a mark on each tree with a knife she took from Maria’s kitchen.

The more she approached to the source the more she could discern different tones of fear, rage and indignation in the screams, at some point, she could see at the distance a group of three figures, two of which were standing up with the third one leaned against a tree on the ground. She hastily ran towards them, but when she was finally close enough, she could see that they were two relatively young men one which had a long knife.

Identifying a possible danger, she flanked them to get a better view of them and the other one in the ground. Using a set of a small tree and a bush for cover, she peeked over and saw that they were menacing the third hominid--a female--in the ground, who was young girl--clearly younger than these men-- of long and jet black hair, she was wearing similar clothes to hers except for a notorious silver medallion hanging from her neck.

“I told you already! I don’t have anything of value with me! I am a sacred servant of the twelve gods and I don’t possess jewels or coins!” Sunset ducked behind the bush limiting herself to hear, what that girl just said sounded reasonable enough and without valuable things to strip from her, they would leave her alone and then she could continue with her own mission.

“Oh, Is that so? Then what about this pretty medallion?” The man with the shorter hair yanked a silver medallion the size and weight of four coins.

“NO!” The girl desperately took it away from him but he snatched her hand and, in return, he gave her a nasty shove that made caused her to hit her head against the tree, something that they either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Well, if you don’t have any coins we can take, then I guess we can at least do something fun for everyone--you included.” Said one of them. Sunset peeked over again, puzzled by such a bizarre change of purpose for these troublemakers.

“Aw, horseshit, Jorl! Tell me you’re at least gonna let me go first!” Said the man with brandishing the knife.

“No way, mate. You’re just a wuss, they always scape from you”

“Don’t you dare! If you desecrate me, you will face the wrath of Kal'Theon, judicator whether on this life or the other!”

“Wait, what...!? Desecrate her!?” Sunset ducked once again just to try and process what she just heard and what those two were planning to do to her. It didn’t take long for her, she wasn’t that naïve. Those two troublemakers were about to inflict upon that girl something she had only seen in overly gruesome horror novels she used read back in Equestria. For someone to live some so heinous…

“Gods, deliver me!!” She heard the girl scream with helplessness.

“Celestia was paranoid, retrograde, self-righteous and obnoxiously arrogant. But she was right about some things and as long as I have the power to do something about it, I can’t let this happen, she taught me as much.” Sunset thought remembering that wielding magic carried its own weight of responsibility, she stoop and walking away from his hiding spot, she started to address the men about to abuse the girl. “Hey you!” They turned to see her “Yes, you, dunderheads! Just what do you think you’re doing?” With her sling arm and slightly limping steps, she wasn’t doing a very good job on the intimidation department.

“And just who the flaming pit are you?” demanded the man with the knife

“I am the one who’s going to give you a beating if you don’t leave that girl alone.” Indeed to her previous suspicion about her own appearance, the troublemakers couldn’t take her threat seriously, so they laughed for a moment.

“Oh, and what are you gonna do about it? Scream even louder than her and hope to actually bring help?” She let go of the girl who was already whimpering “maybe I should take you as well and Eddard can have his way with that prude bitch.”

He started advancing towards Sunset and with her good hand, she summoned her magic grip freezing him place… for about four seconds, everyone, including Sunset fell silent. They did it because the sudden display of magic power and she, because she couldn’t believe her grip lasted so short. It didn’t take much for Jorl to overcome his initial shock and then resumed his menacing advance towards Sunset. She didn’t have time to figure out what went wrong and so she used her magic dig up a nearby rock the size her two fists together and it to the side of his face rendering him unconscious while also--most likely--injuring his jaw and breaking more than one tooth.

Eddard seemed to start panicking and, due to fear getting close to her, he threw his knife at Sunset, she quickly grabbed it midair--out of sheer instinct rather than skill—and after two seconds of staring at it, she flung it to the side. If Eddard wasn’t panicking before, he was now.

“You damn witch!” and he turned to start running away, however Sunset grabbed his body in her just enough to alter his route and send him to a tree and hit his head hard enough to remain unconscious.

Sunset approached the girl, who was looking at her in shock and relief

“Oh, thank you, thank you so very much. I begged the gods and they provided!”

“Err, it was nothing, really. I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”

“Oh, but you don’t understand! It was no coincidence that you were nearby to help me…” She clasped her hands together like in a prayer “When I asked the gods for help, you appeared and saved me. You were meant to find me--this was their plan!!”

“Um… I’m fairly sure it was a coincidence, I’m not even a member of your church or whatever. Anyway, that’s just something I can’t help but do, so if you aren’t lost or anything, I… Uh… need to get on my way.” Sunset turned on her feet to go back to the main road and resume her business, but she was intercepted by the girl.

“I know it can be difficult to understand, since it seems you are a non-believer. But listen to me for a moment--when a servant of the twelve gods is saved by a stranger that stranger becomes their agent, and as such they are representative of their protection towards their devotees. And being this the case, I can increase my devotion to them by loyally serving such agents. Please let me serve you as the envoys of the gods that you!” Saying that Sunset was perplexed by the suddenness and strangeness of the situation would have been and understatement, even still she remained calm.

“Look, I don’t like meddling in someone else’s religious affairs, so, if you don’t mind, I really need to go back on my way”

“Hey, wait! I can’t do enough to repay you saving my life, but, let me start with your broken arm.”

“Just what are you--” she fell silent as the girl advanced towards her and, as she waved her hands around Sunset’s arms and a transparent green light appeared in her eyes as well in her hands. Around 9 seconds passed and Sunset started to feel a nice and fresh sensation in her arm, enough for her to try and move her sling arm, which didn’t hurt in the slightest.

“What--how did you that!?” Sunset asked utterly impressed

“This was a healing magic art, it should have taken less time, but I’m still mid-way through my studies and--“

“Wait, did you say studies?” Sunset asked, now more interested than impressed.

“Why yes, yes I have been studying in the cloister with the sisters of the Flame Chalice order.” Sunset started thinking about the implications of this--if she was studying, that meant books and books meant information, which was what she needed the most right now, concluding that this girl could become an very reliable source of information on this world. Besides, now that she thought of it, if she wanted to acquire a position of authority, she would first need followers. And this girl seemed to be as good start as any. So she finally made up her mind.

“Interesting. And what’s your name anyway?

“Helena. Helena Heartford.” She moved to make a small reverence “In service of the twelve gods.”

“Well, Helena. I thought about everything you said earlier and I changed my mind, I needed healing for my arm and now it feels better than ever thanks to you. So, I will of course take a yes to your offer. You can come with me.”

“Oh, praise the gods!” Helena cheerfully exclaimed “But, um, I still don’t know your name”

“It’s just Sunset, I’ll tell you more about it later, now come. I had a very important issue to solve in this forest.”

“Oh, of course, Miss Sunset! And I promise you won’t regret becoming a conduit for the gods’ protection.”

“Oh, I already know I won’t.” She affirmed with great smile of satisfaction

Comments

[Silver Inkwell]

I look forward to this story.
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[andres_arg]

very interesting I hope I can see the end