13 - Complications
Sunset, upon opening her eyes, found her muzzle was pressed up against a crystal surface.
'Wait, 'muzzle'?'
Picking herself up, on all fours, Sunset found herself back in the form of a pony. No matter. She had simply tripped into the portal by accident, nothing more to be worried about. Or at least that was what she was trying to tell herself.
As her memories came back, she remembered what had happened on the other side of the mirror. A purple girl - one of the sirens, she could not remember their names, pushed her through the portal. Frantically looking around, Sunset found there was no Twilight in sight.
"HEY TWI! You back yet?!"
"Spike?!" The mare looked around once more, but he was no where to be seen. At least, he was, until he entered the room and quickly as possible.
"Sunset? What are... You..." He trailed off, staring with an unhinged jaw at Sunset, his already large eyes widening even further.
"Spike? What are you- oh. Right. Dragon. Spike?" It seemed the baby drake had wandered off, but he soon returned, pushing a mirror on wheels. "What is this for?"
His only reponse was to rotate the reflective surface so Sunset could see her own reflection. In the mirror, Sunset of course saw herself. But there were a number of changes. Most noticably, she was wearing her leather jacket, something that was normally not kept whenever she crossed over. Sunset was also significantly taller, and looked slightly more muscular too. Her horn was longer, and the grooves in it gave off a bright glow of pure sunlight. Turning to examine the rest of her body, Sunset found her mane and tail appeared to shimmer slightly. The most shocking alteration was the blanket of flame that was draped over the mare's back. Suspicious, the unicorn attempted to feel them, and when she did, they extended, flapping slightly. Realization quickly came to her, as she recognized the strips of fire as the wings that she had been given in the human world. Experimently, she started to move them in a steady motion, causing her to rise off the ground, before she let herself drop back onto her hooves.
"Woah." By now, Spike had snapped out of his trance. "That's cool. But why are you here?"
"No time! I think-"
"Sunset?" It appeared Celestia had been waiting around for Twilight to return. "Not that's not nice to see you again already, but why are you here?"
"I think Twilight's in trouble! I need to-"
A golden-clad hoof found its way to the amber mare's shoulder before she could work herself into a panic. "Then we shall go."
Celestia didn't waste any time striding back into the portal. Not wanting to get left behind, Sunset dashed after her blindly, leaving Spike to comprehend what had just occured. "So that happened..."
Twilight slowly came back to her senses, letting out a soft groan. There was a throbbing sensation on the back of her head, and once she could see again, she found herself in a dingy room, dimly lit by a single light. Attempting to move, Twilight was prevented from doing so, as she was secured to a chair by several pieces of rope. Recalling her memories, the girl attempted to make sense of the situation. More pieces fell into place as a trio of girls entered the room, one looking extremely smug, and the other two quite guilty.
"Ah, the princess is awake. Tell me, do you know why we kidnapped you?" The confident, yellow one spoke. Her captive could only shake her head, too scared to do anything else. "No? Fine. We want our magic back, and we think you're the one who can help us. If you can't, then you can lead us to someone who can."
"What?! No one can do magic in this universe properly!"
"Oh, don't play the fool. We saw what happened yesterday. Both you and that other girl were there. And besides, if you don't tell us anything..." She brandished the same knife as before, guiding it towards the bound girls neck. "You know what'll happen. And what a shame that would be, hmm?"
"I didn't do anything there! I didn't even know what was going on!"
"Then what were you doing there with the ruler of Equestria?"
"Because she ran off in the middle of court! What was I supposed to do, just let her-"
"Alright, we get it." The purple girl was certainly reluctant to speak, but felt the need to nonetheless. "We don't need a lecture."
The yellow one shot a glare her way, before turning back to Twilight. "We want our magic back, and we'll do anything to get it. So are you going to help us, or are you going to sit there and be stubborn."
Twilight was too frightened to answer properly, and simply let her head drop, staying silent. Seeing she was getting nowhere, the captor removed her knife, and told the others to leave the room, which they swiftly did.
"Do you really have to be this difficult, princess? It's not this hard. You at least point us in the right direction, and we might let you go."
Something moving past the window caused the captive girl to smile, knowing what was coming. "In that case," She raised her voice, making sure she could be heard. "You should look up."
Right on cue, a flash of light came from just above them, and two figures now floated there. One, a pale woman with flowing rainbow hair far too long for what should be possible effortlessly levitated, and wore the same armoured robe she had been seen in before. The other figure, a younger girl, was kept aloft by a pair of great wings made of fire, and had a horn made of light coming out of her forehead. Her hair shimmered in any and all light, while her eyes glowed intensely. She wore a battered and bloodied leather jacket, but the rest of her clothes were armour of some sort, some had runes on it, some didn't. Both people had a fierce scowl on their faces. Twilight could only smile.
"Y-you tw-two, b-back in here n-now!" The yellow girl called for her companions while in a panic.
"No chance, 'Dagi! This is what you get." The two flying people glanced at each other, and they descended, the older exiting the room in search of the other voices. The remaining girl remained floating slightly, glaring at the free girl.
"So, siren, was this worth it?" The siren growled softly, finding new courage, once more taking out her blade, lunging at the girl. "Fine, be that way." She seemed to emit an even brighter glow, as she literally melted the knife, and surrounded the other girl in a red aura, causing her to rise into the air and stay frozen in place.
"Sunset? Any chance of being freed?"
"Huh? Oh, of course." Sunset landed, and after a flash of light, Twilight was able to stand, rubbing her wrists to work out the aches from the ropes. "Now..." The god-like girl rotated the face the yellow girl, approaching her. "What did you hope to gain from this, huh?"
The siren struggled against the invisible force holding her, before deciding it was futile to put up any resistance. "We wanted out magic back, was that too much to ask?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about 'Dagi. It was you who forced us into trying to get magic." The other two sirens, along with Princess Celestia, were standing at the door. "We were fine with living normal lives after that fiasco with CHS, to just become another few faces without names, but nooo, you wanted to go back to Equestria with magic."
This caught Twilight's curiousity, and took the oppotunity. "Why didn't you go through the portal, then?"
"I don't know if you knew, but those stones essentially acted like our hearts in Equestria. If we got magic here, our hearts would reform, and we'd be able to actually survive in Equestria." One of the free sirens shrugged. It was actually hard to differenciate the two at this point. "Don't feel bad for us. We're okay living here like any other human. We have a steady income, and we're able to just blend in."
"If we had magic, we'd be able to live again!" The bound siren snarled at her compatriots, causing some very unimpressed looks.
"Yeah, no. Rather stay like this than get what might happen to you. By the way, did you ever tell us why we decided to make two immensely powerful beings angry? Doesn't matter anyway. We've got our own lives to live. Seeya." The other sirens turned back into the door from which they came from, leaving their sister to her fate.
"Siren." Celestia stepped forward stiffly, letting no hints of her emotions show. "What did you seriously expect to come of this?"
"Magic, what else?" The captive was almost spitting by this stage, furious at how her endeavour had ended.
"You're blinded by your goals. You set your mind on one thing, and it stuck." Sunset stepped forward, using all her knowledge from her own experience from being a reformed villain. "The question is, what are we going to do with you? You could've just become another face, your fellow sirens did it quite well, but just had to go back for more. We need to make sure you don't do that again. You're the resident villain reformer here, what do you think, Twilight?"
"Resident vill- nevermind. But you're right. This is going to be a tough decision to make..."
"So what gonna happen?"
"Her sisters are going to keep an eye on her. Give them your phone number, so they have a way to contact you if things get out of hand." Twilight had just just finished her discussion with the other sirens, and they had reached a conclusion. Once Sunset had written down her number, and given it the the other Equestrians, they went back to the portal, preparing for the trip. "You're going back too?"
Sunset nodded, confirming Twilight's suspicions. "When I was pushed through, something happened to me. It'll be easier to show you rather than explain. But first... Hang on, be right back."
The girl ran back to the house, not bothering to activate her magical abilities and teleport, and quickly explained what was happening to the family. She also took the oppotunity to change out of her jacket and armour, claiming she wanting to keep it for a later date. She rushed back as fast as possible, not wanting to leave the princess' waiting
Once back in Equestria, the three ponies was quick to orient themselves, and Twilight was quick to stare in wonder at Sunset's new form, and then bombard her with questions.
"How much more powerful do you feel? How fast can you fly? Can you-"
"Twilight, please. Lets take this one step at a time." Sunset was flexing her new muscles, looking at the white fabric wrapped around her forehooves, stretching out her wings as far as possible. "Besides, before we do some testing, I'd like to go around of my own free will, test everything out." Sunset could've sworn she heard Twilight deflate in disapointment, before composing herself, smiling hopefully at the amber mare. "Plus, I want to know what it's like to properly fly."
She shot a quick grin at the alicorns, before dashing away, leaving them in a wave of heated air. They shared a brief glance, before taking flight and rushing after her. Celestia could already tell her ex-student was going to enjoy herself immensely, and that wasn't just from the loud laughter sounding from outside. Once the royal ponies did emerge, they were treated to the sight of Sunset's antics.
The mare was doing various stunts in the air, leaving behind a trail of fire where ever she went. Using the flaming wings, Sunset shot up into the sky, doing a loop in the process, then rotated in the air, twisting her self around, then diving down as sharply as possible. A shrill cry escaped her lips, something similar to a yell of pleasure, as she reve'led in the excitement.
"KIYIYIYIYAHAHAHA!" Sunset was certainly enjoying her wings, manuvering with all the skill of a Wonderbolt. Before she got too caught up in herself, however, she paused in midair, hovering. Her head snapped to the side, and she shot off once more, ignoring the alicorns now frantically trying to keep up.
Once they did eventually catch up, they found she was conversing with a particular cyan pegasus, and then they disappeared in a burst of flame and rainbows.
'This would be much easier if we could see things from Sunset's point of view.' Twilight mused, while in pursuit.
Sunset raced alongside a rainbow-maned pegasus, both starting to push themselves to their limits. They occasionally gave each other a competitive smirk, before focusing on their flying. Two loud bangs sounded. The cyan pegasus had a ring of rainbows expand outwards from her, while Sunset let out a burst of harmless flame, forming the world's biggest Venn diagram in the sky. At this stage, they weren't even looking where they were going, so they just went faster and faster. At least, that's what they were doing, until they reached Canterlot. Where they quickly reached the mountain. And crashed into it. Well, Sunset didn't, but that's only because she teleported herself so she would stop moving. The other racer, however, had no such ability, and smashed straight into the wall of rock, creating a pony shaped tunnel at least a foot deep.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" The mare's voice came from within her creation, sounding a bit too giddy for her own good.
"Yeah, great race, Dash." Sunset leaned into the miniture cavern so she could levitate the pegasus out in a deep red aura. "Draw?"
"Oh, no way! I was going so much faster than you when we stopped! You didn't even stratch the mountain!"
"That's because I didn't hit it. I can do this thing called..." Rainbow Dash found the other mare leaning into her face. "stopping! I know! It's great, you should try it sometime."
The pegasus pushed Sunset away, brushing off her comment. "Race you back? First one to reach the star on top of Twilight's palace?"
"You're on. Last one there has to explain to Celestia and Twilight what we were doing."
"Wait, Celest-"
"Three two one go!"
Neither of them missed the mark, and soon enough the world had transformed into a blur, greenery flashing by, and mountains being left in the distance. Letting out another pair of booms, two particular shapes flashed by - one purple, one white, tinted by gold. Not that either of the racers noticed. Instead, they focused on the tall spire that was coming into view. With one final push, Sunset extended her wings as fast as possible, causing her to rise up a little bit, before tucking them in as much as possible, shooting her towards the castle. If Sunset could turn her head around right now, she would see the most gobsmacked expression on Rainbow Dash's face, who was clearly not used to be beaten. Like a huge dart, the amber mare headed directly to the center of her target, her eyes, horn, and wings glowing even more fiercely.
Without warning, she extended her wings again, and tilted her self roughly upwards. The sudden resistance caused Sunset to slow down at a significant pace, and she came to a gentle stop just as her hooves touched the middle of the star. Wisely deciding to move out of the way before celebrating, she scrambled up the surface, balancing on the top spike of the star, and spun to view her opponent.
Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash was hovering at least fifty meters from the finish point, eyes wide and mouth open in a gape. A full minute passed, where the cyan pegasus continued to float and stare, and the cause of her dumbstruck look used various tricks to try and get her attention, to no avail. After even more time passed, two alicorn flew up to them, the smaller of the pair panting heavily, breaking out of her exhausted state when she noticed the look on the cyan mare's face.
"Rainbow? What happened to you?"
"I thiiink I might've broken her." Sunset gave a small giggle when she noticed a small stand of drool escaping the shocked mare's mouth. "I guess she isn't used to being bea-"
"You have got to tell me how to do that! It was sooo cool! I can't even be mad at losing! I have to-" Rainbow Dash rushed forwards, muzzle to muzzle with Sunset, and just as quickly has she had started, she halted herself, staring at the white alicorn floating next to her. "Oooohhh. That's what you meant earlier."
Now out of her trance, the cyan pegasus started to piece things together, and started to understand the situation, she perched on another one of the points, letting her wings rest. Seeing no one wanted to speak next, Princess Celestia approached her ex-students.
"I think I know what happened to you, Sunset. Come, I believe the answer to this will be in Twilight's library."
Leaving their multi coloured friend to calm down, the three horned ponies flew down to the entrance, Sunset still taking every oppotunity to enjoy her newfound ability. Soon, they found themselves looking for a book called 'Predictions of the Everfree', recently delivered to Twilight's library, and as a result unsorted. Never the less, Twilight's talents almost immediately located it, passing it over to Celestia, who nodded in appreciation. Quickly flicking through the pages, the royal stopped at a particular section, and then laid it down on a tatble in front of her.
"This book is where the most likely predictions are documented, typically taken from the words of some great mystic. It started when the rumours of my sister's... return were revealed to have stemmed from some sort of magical source. Any similar claims were documented in here. Most of the ones in this copy have been met, there's even one about how there will be six different element bearers, as opposed to the one. Anyway, read this." She tapped the open book lightly, prompting the other two to read on.
There will be a pony who possesses a great number of qualities. The start of the possibilities will be avarice. These qualities will be varied in type, both ones that could be linked to the Dawnbringer, the Chaos King, or a mere victim of society. A treasoner, a protector, a lost soul. This pony will achieve all of this while not a pony.
Once these quotas are met, there will be a short period of recovery, then, once the sacred magic of Horse-land Equestria reaches this being, they shall ascend, but not reach immortality. Their magicless form will regain a soul, a family, a bond, and they will use that bond to regain what they have lost.
"I believe this is relating to you. I could be mistaken, but it seems to match. The 'treason' most likely relates to you rejecting me and your bully period in the other world, the 'protection' being when you fought the sirens, and the 'lost soul' part is most likely reffering to... recent events."
"Just call it what it is, suicide. No point in hiding it." Sunset winced at how harsh it came out, but knew it was fruitless to apologise to Celestia.
"Ahem. Yes. Either way, you did most that while 'not a pony', a human rather, and these new abilities did emerge when the portal was next used, yes?" Sunset confirmed this, and started to work out the rest of the prediction.
"Does that mean I'm an-"
"Alicorn? No. I know not who wrote this, but the rumours claim he had a very close natural connection with phoenixes. As a result, I have reason to believe you have been infused with some sort of phoenix..." Celestia twirled her hoof around, looking for the right word. "essence. I would like the try and confirm this with Philomena-"
"Oh! Yes!"
"-but at a later date, once this fiasco is resolved."
"Awww."
It was hard not to smirk at Twilight's disapointment, even if it did perk up when she realized she could still do research later. Her changing expressions morphed into confusion, as she noticed Sunset was adjusting her bandages awkwardly in her dark red aura, letting her wings twitch irritably. "Something wrong, Sunset?"
"Just want to go back. The others must be getting a little impatient, at the very least."
"No one's stopping you from leaving. Just keep us informed, that's all we ask." Twilight gestured towards the whirring portal, giving a reassuring smile to the phoenix-unicorn. Thanking the alicorns for the chance to leave, Sunset quickly departed, feeling, much to her suprise, homesick.
"Starting to worry for your sister, eh?" Twilight was sat on her bed, nervously twiddling her thumbs, when her father came in to check on her.
"Dad! She hasn't properly confirmed anything yet! But yes, I'm kind of getting nervous. Not just about Sunset."
"You're right. I shouldn't make such assumptions. But what else is bothering you?"
"I was talking it over with Shiny earlier, and I don't really know what to do about Crystal Prep. I'm just-" Twilight buried her face in her hands, shaking her head in even more stress. "The thing is, I want to leave. That's not the problem. It's just that the only other place is CHS, and from what I gather from Sunset..."
"It's not the best place to go at the moment. Talk it over with Sunset, when she gets back. Speaking of which, I think she-" A blinding flash of light came from the nearby window, causing them both to groan at the sudden interruption. "She'll be back soon, or rather, now."
The both approached the window, only to find Sunset was inside already. Entering the corridor, they could hear the conversation from up the stairs.
"So what was that about? You just rushed in, tell us you'll be gone a while, in some armour at that, quickly change, then leave."
"Yeah, I should've explained properly. What basically happened is I got pushed into the portal by one of those sirens from earlier, they kidnapped Princess Twilight, I discovered I had this new form in Equestria, me and Princess Celestia went through the portal, saved Princess Twilight, made a deal with two of the sirens, came back here, went to Equestria to find out more about the new magic, had a race, almost crashed into a mountain, pulled someone out of a mountain, raced back, didn't hit anything that time, did research, found out I might be infused with phoenix essence, and now I'm here. Wow, that's a lot when you say it out loud."
"I-I... that's... Yes, I mean yes, it is."
A snigger was stifled at Twilight Velvet's dumbstruck reaction. "I'm going to head to bed, if you don't mind. This magic business takes alot out of me, and the sun's going down anyway."
Steps were heard coming up the stairway, and a red haired girl emerged, giving her greetings to the father and daughter. "Hey Twi, Mr. Light." With the simple acknowledgement, Sunset passed the pair, and swiftly moved to the room she had been staying in. Within moments, a soft thump was heard, followed by a sigh of content, and then snoring, which quickly turned into heavy breathing. Pushing back their laughter, the two people glanced at each other, before calming themselves.
"I should probably get to sleep too. I really need to get some rest." Twilight went into her own bedroom, and performed a less dignified repeat of what Sunset had just done, leaving her father to go downstairs, chuckling to himself. His wife noticed his descent from the stairs, and gave him a small smile.
"I didn't think I'd ever say this on such a day, but this has been fairly relaxing, at least for us."
"Agreed. No immortals shouting at our house, nor are there any mythological creatures breaking in. Only the foster child rushing in wearing armour."
"Now now, that sounded a little harsh. Sunset say anything concerning that? She already said yes, and casually at that, but I still suspect that was a heat of the moment response."
"We'll see in the morning. Both her and Twilight have a lot to work out."
The couple sat in the dining room, as the sun set outside, and they tried to leave the thoughts of magical ponies, sun goddesses, and magical phoenix girls behind them, and attempted to imagine a future without anything supernatural.
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Interesting route to take. You do say libary as opposed to library several times after the race back though.
8920642
I swear, I actually googled how to spell it, and I still got it wrong. Bloody hell...
Now fixed. Thanks!
What was the plan if these two turned up. Seriously this should have been planned for.
So it was the sirens who snuck on them, they're gonna pay for kidnaping twilight!
dragon not drake
Huh, that's interesting
not should be replaced with it.
Really, that's why! I'm afraid to say this but she won't be much help at all adagio.
She's not gonna help you adagio, face it your not gonna get your powers back.
caused should should be replaced with causing.
Wow, she just melted that knife, I sure didn't see that one coming.
the is the second to last sentence should be replaced with to.
That's a good settlement to do if you ask me.
was should be replaced with were.
scratch*
alicorns*
Huh
The in the first sentence should be replaced with they.