Phoenix in Another World

by Cheer

10

Sunset stared between her fingers and the now lit torches. She knew this nostalgic feeling. It was magic. She hadn’t used it in so long. Hadn’t been able to. Earth didn’t have any. But now… She took a breath and focused on her memories. A moment later a small flame appeared at the end of her finger.

“M-magic…” She shuddered as she moved the flame between her fingers. It’d been so long… not since -

She cut off her line of thought and crushed the flame in her hand. The formal wasn’t exactly something she wanted to remember. She almost killed people with her magic then.

She looked back down the stairs and took a step, and then another. She looked back and found herself past the first step. The snap seemed to have changed whatever it was that stopped her before.

She continued walking down. Nothing really changed. Stone, torch, stone, torch, stone. Even as it flattened out and the stairs ended it was still a matching corridor. After what felt like far too much walking she could finally see a difference. Or feel, rather. That safe feeling had persisted through the entire walk, but it was gone as she entered a large room with a single stone container in the middle.

There were a few statues around the room, but they’d been destroyed beyond recognition. Someone had spent a special amount of time on the faces. As she approached the container it quickly became apparent what this room was. A burial chamber.

Inside she could see what was left of some skeleton. It was almost impossible to make out what it had been though. Most of it was nothing but dust and she sure as heck wasn’t going to dig through that to see if anything identifiable was left.

Honestly, without the safe feeling of earlier she wanted to just get out of here. It felt creepy, and now that she looked up, there was a large dark hole in the ceiling that only added to her worry.

She was about to turn around and leave before something caught her attention. Something that had the same safe feeling as earlier, it wasn’t a full body feeling though. It had a source.

She felt it coming from the base of one of the statues. She almost couldn’t control herself as she got on her knees and put her hands around the base. It took a bit of searching but eventually she found something. A loose piece of stone under an overhang of the base. It was clearly meant to be hidden.

As she pulled it out, she found a ring inside. This was where the feeling was emanating from. She took it out and looked at it. It was a simple looking obsidian ring, but as she held it she saw strange symbols appear in a flickering red glow.

Much like when she started looking for the ring, she watched herself as, without control, she put the ring on. The symbols brightened. She let out a small scream as a burning sensation overtook her finger. She tried to pull the ring off but it was stuck, all the while the pain intensifying.

Eventually something changed. Not the pain, but the ring. It was gone! With a small whine she looked at her finger. The base of her finger glowed with the runes for a moment before disappearing along with the pain.

She didn’t want to stick around. This burial chamber made her feel uneasy. She didn’t like this. It felt dangerous, the only safe feeling thing hurt her and honestly she just didn’t like this place.

She made her way upstairs with a grumble. There were no losses of control and no strangeness while moving along the stairs. It was just a normal set of stairs. At least she could feel that sense of safety again.

She took a deep breath as she exited. The air around here was a little stale, but it was still much better than inside the chamber. It looked like the wolf-spider things hadn’t come back. Another plus.

She sat down, leaning against one of the dilapidated structures and looked at her finger. The symbols had disappeared, but if she started focusing magic into her body, they would appear again.

She took a deep breath as she did just that. Focusing magic into her finger and watching as the flame grew at the tip, and then another on her thumb, and then all five. She pulled them together, causing a small ball of flame to form at the base of her hand.

She immediately crushed it as she realized her breathing had picked up. Whatever. Fire wasn’t all she knew. She was Celestia’s student! She’d be a pretty poor student if all she knew was fire. It just took a little more focus is all.

After a couple of seconds she could see the fruits of her labor as her hand was coated in ice. That was a bit different from what she was used to. She expected the ice to form above her hand. Still, this was what she needed. Proof that she had magic once again. It was a strange yet enthralling thought. However, magic wasn’t the most important thing right now. First things first, finding civilization. Ideally a town or city, but she got the feeling something that big wasn’t to be expected.

She grunted as she stood to look around. One of these directions should work. Well, except the one she came from obviously. Not only did it lead back to the woods, but that was where those… things were. She let out a sigh and shook her head. Might as well get moving before it gets dark again. Hopefully there weren’t more monsters.

---

The forest seemed much kinder now as Sunset walked through."There were a couple of creatures entirely foreign to earth, one of them did resemble a jackalope though." Luckily, all the ones she saw seemed pretty harmless.

How big were these woods though? She’d been walking for ages and the sun was nearly down. It was more than a little worrying. But, soon enough, she found it. Finally. A clearing in the forest, and as an added bonus she could see what looked like a village a little ways away. It had a wall made up of thick log pikes surrounding it with a break for a gate facing her. The warm glow of village lights spilled out over the wooden barricade, filling Sunset with a sense of comfort that could only be felt along with one’s return to society.

She let out a sigh of relief as she left the forest behind. The cool evening air brushing against her skin, no longer stopped by the trees felt liberating. But, there was little time to waste since night was quickly approaching and she had no way of knowing if that village allowed anyone in at night.

Sunset tried not to rush too much. Her body felt much better than it had when she first woke up but still ached. Nonetheless, a part of her still pushed onward. She winced at the sudden spark of pain in her ankle. Running had been a common activity as of late.

As she approached she was greeted by the welcome sight of someone standing guard of the open gate. "Thank goodness" she sighed as she approached.

"Hello! I'm sorry to bother you but I'm really lost. My name is Sunset," she figured that would be a good opening. It explained pretty simply what she was doing here. Unfortunately something still seemed to set him off as he lifted his spear towards her.

"And where did you come from then? Not very common for folks to come out of those woods in weird clothes and covered in blood," he didn't seem very keen on lowering that spear.

"Ah. The uh, the blood is old. An injury I got a while back. I've been wandering lost for a while so these clothes from my homeland is all I've got," she was trying to make it sound believable, but she could already see multiple possible issues with the story.

"Uh-huh. I'll ask again where did you come from?"

"Equestria?" she tried to not make it sound like a question, but honestly, she was getting a little worried. She may have been killed once already, but she really didn't want to risk it happening twice. "It's really quite far away. Hidden and isolated from the world. I wanted to explore and was banished for leaving once so I know very little about the rest of the world," she hated coming up with stories. The human world was easier. She was orphaned and grew up on her own. It wasn't far from her real experience and in a city a lost kid or two was a possible thing. But this was a new world, and she was starting to panic a little.

The guard stared at her a little longer before finally lowering the spear a few degrees. "Like the elves, eh?" He sighed and shook his head, "I don't like your story. Sounds like a load of shit to me," –he raised his spear again and nodded to a nearby building– “Wait in there. I'll get someone so we can figure out how much of what you said are lies."

"I'd rather wait out here if that's alright," an unknown man in a position of power, telling her to wait alone in a similarly unknown building? Yeah. Nah.

He rolled his eyes "Whatever. Suit yourself. I'll be back. Don't move. If you do, consider your entry denied." He nodded towards the dark at seemingly nothing before taking his leave deeper into the town

---

Maria blinked as she pulled her eyes away from her book. What was- her line of thought was cut off as another knock came to her door. She sighed, pulling away from her desk. She was afraid that she’d heard right. Maria hoped it was just a simple issue, but knowing how today had gone, it was doubtful she’d be so lucky.

Another sigh left her lips as she found Sanse on the other side of her door. “Sanse. What do I owe such a late visit to?” She knew he wasn’t the kind of person to just avoid his duties, but he was a bit… paranoid. At he least he didn’t try to take care of things on his own.

“There’s a stranger at the gate. I think she might be a vampire.”

Maria waited for a moment before sighing “Okay? Why?”

“Ah. Right. She looks unharmed but her shirt is covered in blood with the worst at the neckline. Her name, “Sunset,” is strange, and her clothes aren’t like any style I’ve seen.”

She had to admit. That was pretty odd. But bloodied clothes weren’t automatically a reason to assume she was an undead monster . He’d only seen travelers and locals. Any other clothes would of course seem odd to him. “So I’m guessing you want me to make sure she isn’t? Why didn’t you ask Yvonn to?”

He frowned and Maria already knew how this was going to go. “Because she’s still new. She hasn’t actually found any. How can we trust that she won’t get it wrong? As the head guard it’s on me if something gets through.”

“You have to give her a chance. She’s not “under” you. She’s not the “backup”. She’s your equal. She’ll never have a chance if you come to me every time!” This was ridiculous. She’d trained Yvonn in all she would need to know and Dolf taught her the rest. She knew what she was doing.

“Look. I’ll come with, but you’re going to let Yvonn check. You need to be able to trust more than just me with checking those you’re suspicious of. Otherwise, what will you do if I’m gone for some reason?” She shook her head and softly smacked his head “Now, let’s get going.”

As soon as Maria saw the girl, she could sort of see why Sanse had been worried. Her bright, though messy hair was like nothing she’d ever seen. She’d seen some of those rich types with fake hair, but this… looked natural. Then there was her clothes. They looked in a way like casual clothes, but the fabric looked higher end. It was a strange mixture.

Then there’s the fact that her shirt was covered in blood from the neck to halfway down.

“Well then,it’s been a while since we last had a visitor.” Maria said with a small smile. “Though I have to wonder why you’re out here” She said, glancing back towards Sanse.

He shrugged in response “She didn’t want to.”

“Is that so?” She looked back towards Sunset who also shrugged

“No offense, but I don’t like the idea of going into an unknown building waiting for strangers.”

“Ah. That’s fair. But you wouldn’t have been alone.”

Author's Note:

I had this sitting in my Doc for so long. I'm super sorry I never posted it y'all. ;-; forgib me

Comments

[blargg]

Time for Sunset to blow their minds with how much magic she can safely use

Also: not golden but... the one Ring makes an appearance?

[Cheer]

10031637

Ha. Wasn't intentional. But I get where you're coming from.

[Spellflame]

10031744
Will it update more often?

[Cheer]

10031921
I'm trying to. my own motivation is trash