Tuesday, Part 1
Dawn streamed over the Foal Mountains, directly into Sunset Shimmer’s face. Fortunately, the EUP had some room in its budget for official sunglasses. As the funicular descended towards East Slope, she passed the other car going up the mountain, packed full of sleepy commuters.
She’d have plenty of time to think on what to say to him.
Most of the unicorns who attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns also called it the School of Magic. They’d refer to the institution they attended as one or the other, depending on which name they’d seen most recently on a form or sign.
These things were not identical. The School of Magic contained Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It also, in theory, contained equivalent schools for earth ponies and pegasi.
In practice, neither of those schools existed as a going concern in the local area.
Pansy’s Own Flight and Weather Academy was once moderately successful, but the centralization of cloud production into the Cloudsdale Weather Factory resulted in a centralization of academics related to it. Over the past two hundred years Pansy’s Own had gradually shrunk, now existing largely as a correspondence school. It still employed a fair amount of ponies, but none that the students in the main campus would meet.
For earth ponies, the downfall of The Root and Branch of Learning was far more rapid. Alone among the three main types of pony, earth ponies did not feel a sense of safety in being higher up. This lead to a variety of academic and political silliness, but its main cultural effect was to congregate earth ponies in plains, lowlands, and coasts. While tall buildings in Manehatten could be tolerated easily, Canterlot, being the highest non-cloud city on the continent, was uncomfortable to many earth ponies. The loss of students led to the loss of funding and space, until the entire school was reduced to a dim office in a basement of one of the many government buildings.
The main difference between it and Pansy’s Own was that The Root and Branch was legally the only institution allowed to cover some particularly sensitive matters of earth pony magic. Thus, if earth ponies would not come to Canterlot for school, the school would come to them. Prestigious schools like Manehattan Technology and Thaumaturgy had a small set of classrooms that were designated “The Root and Branch of Learning at Manehattan” (or other city).
Despite this, sometimes an earth pony with a particular interest in those restricted subjects would attend the School of Magic, in order to also participate in research. Whatever virtues Sunset may have had prior to taking an Element of Harmony beam to the face, tribal tolerance was not one of them.
The idea that a mud pony would dare to sully the halls she walked upon was not taken lightly in her eyes. Fortunately for her, inflicting great pain upon him was an easy path.
Finding Ghost Pepper was easy. The Magus Corps was authorized to access the files for any magic-related crime. All she had to do was show her issued ID at the Guard station.
As the funicular came to a halt she rose and stretched, undulating her back like a cat.
Most ponies, if asked to picture a necromancer, would think of a unicorn with a bone-white complexion and lanky frame. As a percentage, those were in fact quite rare.
Earth ponies possessed magic, but many dismissed it as mere strength and endurance. “Good with plants” was also an option. Few understood how or why exactly.
The truth was what earth ponies manipulated with their hooves was life energy itself. They redistributed it from the weeds and fungi and into the crops and flowers they grew. They pushed it into minerals to move them around and concentrate valuable ones. They could use this to make subtle changes to the environment to better suit them, even changing the flow of rivers with time and effort.
Most earth ponies never really explored the limits of this, any more than most unicorns explored the limits of their spellcasting or most pegasi explored the limits of their speed. Ghost Pepper wasn’t most earth ponies.
He’d been twiggy then, just finishing up his teenage height. His coat had been wavy and red, looking like it rippled. His mane had been grey and wispy around the edges.
And his cutie mark was a skull in a leaf.
Sunset knew what it meant. She knew earth pony magic was a thing, a thing she’d have once she ascended. She knew what necromancy was because Celestia had included it in her lecture on the various magics of the world.
Necromancy wasn’t necessarily evil. The process of pushing in negative life force energy rather than positive energy of life was very strictly regulated, due to the inherent dangers. Archaeological evidence indicated that at least one past civilization had been destroyed by rampant necromantic magic.
Thus only a set number of licenses were allowed, and only to practitioners that could be trusted to handle the discipline. These licenses were for life, and a few months afterwards, just to be certain. You can never be sure with a necromancer.
Fortunately for the ponies making the decisions, destiny seemed to work out. There were always exactly as many ponies with necromancy special talents as license spots. Nopony remarked on this as much; destiny magic was just doing its job.
Until Sunset Shimmer butted in.
She knew exactly how to destroy Ghost Pepper: get the license first. Her application and his arrived for consideration at the same time, but hers won out. Perhaps it was that she had heavily emphasized her status as the Princess’s Personal Student. Perhaps it was that the Special Magic License Committee was almost entirely unicorns, the type of pony that was most likely to request a license.
Regardless, the outcome was the same: Ghost Pepper was forbidden to use his special talent by law.
Sunset was glad she had chosen to wear the Magus Corps uniform, a khaki shirt with a few yellow-white glowing runes along the side. The ruffians loitering in the poor district of East Slope had shuffled off upon making eye contact with her, and soon she was inside the seedy apartment, preparing to knock on the door. She wanted to clear her thoughts for a bit before she knocked, but the door opened from the inside before she could, leaving her staring into the red eyes of Ghost Pepper.
He looked a lot bigger than she remembered, a gigantic slab of muscle. “Sunset.” His glare was directed right at her.
“Ghost Pepper.”
“You here to check up on me?”
Sunset shook her head. “Not exactly. Mind if I come in?”
He looked down at the uniform. “I feel like whether I mind doesn’t bear much on this.” Before Sunset could object, he stepped back. “Come on in.”
Sunset looked around the apartment as she stepped in. It seemed mostly bare, except for a large number of potted pepper plants.
“So, you here to check up on me? Gloat? Apologize? The suspense is terrible.”
“The last one.” Sunset bowed her head. “Sometimes when I think about how much has changed, I find it hard to believe now that I’d do something so terrible back then.”
“Well, ya did.” Ghost Pepper picked one of the peppers from the plant and bit into it, chewing loudly. “Made my life Tartarus. You ever read Head Case’s paper on failing to follow your destiny?”
“Yes. After I… did that to you.” Sunset looked away.
The chewing slowed down, became softer. “You don’t know what it’s like. Your talent’s always there, in the back of your mind. You gotta use it. But you can’t. And then one day I did, just for a moment. One little use. Just a squirrel claw, to scratch my back. But I can’t practice, so I put too much in. And it goes out on its own. And somepony sees it. And now I get inspections every week. At least I got off easy. If they’d thrown the book at me I’d have been in the dungeon.”
“I get what you’re saying, but in a way I have been there. I was totally unable to use magic of any kind in the human world – did you hear about that?” Sunset winced at the last part of that, she hadn’t meant to be confrontational, it had just slipped out.
“Ya.” The chewing continued, mostly to keep the mouth occupied.
“And I took it out on everybody around me.”
“Of course you would.”
“And then after I got smacked with a rainbow laser clue-by-four, I turned all that into taking it out on myself. Trying as hard as I could to help everyone else to silence the voices inside me.”
“Ha, sounds like the last life you messed up was your own.” The laugh was so unemotional Sunset couldn’t tell what Ghost was feeling.
“Yeah.” Sunset looked at the peppers. “Those look pretty good.”
“Careful. They’re super-hot. Burn your fancy mouth and then I’d like as not end up in the tank again.”
Sunset shook her head. “I’m not out to get you. I need to find some way to help you.”
He turned sideways on to her, and tapped his cutie mark with his forehoof. “Ya, good luck. Maybe have Starlight Glimmer swap your mark with mine, but I’d still be going crazy trying to use a horn I don’t have with that damn sun on my hip. Licenses are for life, you can’t cancel yours.”
Sunset looked away from him. “I know. I researched this before coming here. The only way I can give up my license to you is to die, or to become an alicorn princess.”
“What, you want my help doing that last one? ‘Trust me, it’s a win-win’ and that sort ah thing?”
“No.” Sunset felt sick at the idea. “I’d almost rather do the first one. I shouldn’t be an alicorn. But if I can’t do either of those, there’s not a lot of options. We could petition to increase the amount of licenses.”
“Ha. I read the lawbooks on that after you did me over. You need to convene Parliament to do that. And Celestia wants to convene Parliament like she wants to send herself to the moon.”
“I… have experience with Parliament. I doubt I could get her to do it. Maybe in a few years, we could get Twilight to do it. I’m sure she’ll eventually want to change some aspect of Basic Law.”
“Ya she’s a real busybody. But that won’t help me if I can’t keep it together until then. We don’t even know when Celestia actually retires.”
“Well, there’s one option to tide us over until then. You become my apprentice.”
Pepper seeds sprayed across the dingy floor as Ghost Pepper did a spit-take. “Whaaa!?!?!?”
“Yeah. If I’m in the room with you, ‘supervising,’ my ‘apprentice’ is allowed to use necromancy.” Air quotes didn’t work nearly as well with hooves, but Sunset thought they still got the point across.
“So what, I’m tethered to you? I go to the human world and turn into an ape until it’s time for me to be allowed to do my thing?”
“No, I…” Sunset shook her head. “...I’m doing more research on the portal. I think I can move it so that we can position it somewhere more convenient. I’ll have Twilight move the mirror to the school, and then we can set up in one of the labs. I’ll just do my human schoolwork while you do whatever.”
“Well, that’s a little better than nuthin’, I guess. Still not exactly ideal.”
“Well, let’s both hope that Twilight gets that Parliament together fast.” Sunset looked towards the door of the apartment. “Truth be told, I do have a slight ulterior motive in seeking you out.”
“Ah, there we go. Here it is.”
“Nothing quite like I used to be, I assure you. I’ve been assigned to defend Equestria and I shall. How familiar are you with Princess Twilight’s Friendship Journal?”
The earth pony poked his chin in thought. “Eh, parole officer gave me a copy. I resold it to buy some pepper seeds.”
Sunset looked around at the plants. “Probably not the worst choice. Are you familiar with the saying ‘Friendship is Magic’ then?”
“Feh, it’s in the school motto. Nopony actually believes that, do they?”
She turned to look him dead in the eyes, with an intensity that made him flinch back involuntarily. “I was there when it happened. Friendship is literally magic. It created it in the near-total vacuum of magic on the other side of the portal and smacked me down, smacked the sirens down. Again and again.”
“Ok, that’s pretty impressive I guess. But what’s that got to do with me?”
“So I’m wearing this dumb uniform because Twilight’s busy and the elder Princesses are on vacation. I’ve got to blow up some stupid monster called the ‘Ice Skate’ this Friday…”
“Get outta town! I heard of that thing. It’s related to windigoes or something, maybe an ancient construct made in their image?”
Sunset shrugged. “There’s a few theories on where it came from, but if it was made by someone it promptly destroyed them; no one ever tried to take credit for it.”
“Eh, it’s not technically necromancy so I’m out of ideas.”
“Well, the point is that I feel like I should make up for some of my past mistakes before I fight that stupid thing.” Sunset stood, and pointed to the door. “Want to go out? We can get that apprenticeship set up, then I’ll buy some food.”
He stood as well. “Sure.”
“You know he has a criminal record, right?”
Sunset glared at the stammering unicorn clerk. They’d been getting a runaround for a while and she’d begun to wonder if she could surreptitiously set a fire, declare a state of emergency, and take charge.
“Aggravated reckless magical discharge is a class B misdemeanor.” That wasn’t what Ghost Pepper had originally been charged with. It was what the plea deal led to. The clerk of course had access to the plea deal, so he knew that. Sunset just wasn’t going to let him say it.
“He sent undead squirrel claws across Canterlot! He shou–”
“Look. I already explained to the last pony that the Magus Corps is still on the books as a response agency for magical crimes, so I do count under regulation 2227.1-C as an appropriate supervisor.”
“But his parole officer…”
“Can contact me himself, thank you.”
“Fine.” The clerk huffed, “I’ll need to get form 449-AK so you can sign off on this.”
“Don’t take any coffee breaks on your way back.” Sunset glowered as the clerk turned and left.
“Now that you said that, he’s taking a bathroom break and then a snack.” Ghost Pepper lay on a cushion along the side of the room, away from the desks.
“Hmph. If he does, I’ve got a good look at his nametag.” Sunset flopped down on the cushion next to him, folding her legs up under herself.
Ghost Pepper rolled his eyes. “Don’t you go ruining some other pony’s life.”
Sunset looked down and away. “I don’t do that anymore. I’m just planning on a little prank.”
“Ooo, I love pranks.” Sunset stared down at the cushion, looking deep into the eyes that she really hadn’t expected to be there. “Let me get up, just a moment.” A long serpentine body unwrapped itself from under Sunset, somehow leaving her still sitting on the cushion she thought she’d sat on in the beginning.
Sunset quirked her eyebrow at the odd discontinuity, then turned to the goateed figure. “Discord.”
“Ah, Twilight, how are you today? Getting bored with your new responsibilities already?”
That stumped Sunset. She tried to be unflappable, but that flapped her non-existent wings. “I’m not Twilight. I’m Sunset Shimmer.” A slight huff crept into her voice.
Discord hovered over her, circling around and looking at her from all angles. “Bravo, excellent disguise! But you can’t fool me.”
“Discord, Twilight is in the castle right now. We are seperate ponies.”
“Oh, come now.” Another Discord appeared from inside the pillow, unzipping its way out. Sunset knew that zipper hadn’t been there before. “It’s not like I’ve never been beside myself.” The two Discords wrapped an arm around each other, then stood straight up in midair and posed.
“Ugh.” Sunset shook her head. “I am a unicorn. Twilight Sparkle is an alicorn. We aren’t even the same color.”
“Oh, please.” The Discords began to split apart, forming each of his component creatures. Dragon, pony, goat, cockatrice, and more hovered around Sunset. “It’s not like you’ve never grown or lost any appendages, Twilight. You’ve mastered plenty of transformation magic. And as for color, give me some credit.”
Sunset looked down at her foreleg, now the exact same purple as Twilight’s coat. “Discord. What on Ear– What in Equestria makes you think that I’m Twilight?”
“Ah, trying to do better next time? Well, here’s a thought experiment. As the spirit of chaos, I can’t rely on color, shape, or any malleable properties to identify somepony. How would I go about determining who you really are?”
Behind Sunset, Ghost Pepper made a soft cry of alarm. Sunset turned to see that he’d been turned bone white, despite apparently trying to hope Discord wouldn’t notice him. She groaned as she realized she’d have to play Discord’s game. “Well, I suppose you could, I don’t know, see their DNA or something?”
“What… OH!” The floating Discord-components snapped back together into one Discord, who had turned Sunset’s bright yellow and had her yellow and red hair cascading halfway down his back. “Ah, right, the humans do that. While I suppose I could, with ponies and other magical creatures I’ve got a faster option.”
Sunset considered. A fundamental property of magical creatures – of course! The signature of their magical core or cores. “Discord. I only have one magical core, and it’s all unicorn.”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Really, Twilight? You’re absolutely the worst at lying. I suppose having Applejack in you would do that to you. Let’s count, shall we? Party pony core, apple pony core, sonic boom pony core, Fluttershy’s core, clothes pony core, overeager Celestia’s student core. The cores of the same type stick together, so combine that with the...” The noise coming out of Discord’s mouth suddenly began to break up like a phone call on one bar. “...and that makes four cores!”
“Uh, Discord?” Sunset shook her head. “Even if what you said was remotely true, that doesn’t add up to four.”
“OK, excuse me.” Discord folded his arms and glared down at her. “I know I mess around with a lot of things, but changing how math works is actually a bit tricky for me. One, two, three, four. I can’t add secret integers between them!” Discord turned to deliver an aside to an empty space in the middle of the room. “Believe me, I tried.” He turned back to Sunset. “But I’ll let this silly thing slide. What’s so important that you made time for it away from the Swan thing you and the others are so worked up about?”
“Oh, I’m just doing the paperwork to sign Ghost Pepper here up as my apprentice.”
“Ooo, choosing another personal student already? Or maybe…” Discord loomed over Ghost Pepper, now imitating the stallion’s once again red body and gray mane. “I see! Yes, you’re worried about outliving your friends, all this responsibility has gotten it through to you. Don’t worry! They’ll always be with you. We just covered that they’re literally a part of you. Although personally I’d rather have the real Fluttershy around; I’m working on it. I don’t think most of your friends will go for necromantic preservation, but it’s an excellent option. Just watch out for pesky dogs stealing their bones, and overzealous busybody do-gooders.”
“Discord.” Sunset huffed as she tried to stall while thinking of something to say. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m Sunset Shimmer, former student of Celestia–”
“Yes, I said that part.” Discord had now assumed Celestia’s color scheme.
“–and I spend most of my time in the human world with alternate versions of Twilight’s friends.”
“Pfeh. Pull the other one.” Discord rolled his eyes as bell-pull cords extended from his ears.
“Now you listen to me.” Sunset stood up and approached Discord. “I–”
Sunset poked Discord and the world exploded.
Sounds, lights, sensations washed over her in a neverending torrent, as if she’d pressed her face into a fire hose. The sensation was overwhelming. She was dimly aware her body still existed, but was locked in place as if by electrocution. With a tremendous mental effort, she was able to draw her hoof away from Discord a fraction of a hair.
The world returned in a haze of pain as Sunset toppled back. Everything looked slightly oranger than it had before.
“Oof, well. That’s a new one. And take it from me, I’m very hard to impress.” Discord sat back on his haunches, having been launched away from Sunset when the connection was broken. His eyes stared straight ahead, unfocused. “Sunset Shimmer, I believe? I owe you an apology. You have five magical cores.”
“Five?” Sunset unsteadily tried to rise to her hooves. She felt forelegs wrap around her as Ghost Pepper assisted her into a standing position.
“Yeah, that extra one. It took me a bit to see, since it was hiding itself. Haven’t felt anything like that since the last time I was turned to stone.”
The orange haze had faded now, and Sunset surveyed the room. Wait, orange? That’s the color of my geode. Was I seeing Discord’s memories? She’d been carrying her geode in the Faraday cage Sci-Twi had made for her since the overload incident, and it had enabled her to avoid using it unless she needed to. When she returned to Equestria, the geode, container, and jacket whose pocket it was in all vanished. Now, if Discord was correct, she’d obtained solid evidence it had merged into her like it was part of her.
“Discord, what just happened?” Ghost seemed entirely flummoxed by the situation. Or possibly just alarmed.
“Shimmy there attempted a psychic link with me.” Discord rubbed his chin. “Haven’t had any of those ever succeed even a little before. And her head didn’t explode. She’s got the durability to survive all sorts of things!”
“I didn’t mean to, I assure you.” Sunset shook her head to try to clear out any remaining fuzziness. “I try to avoid that sort of thing unless it’s an emergency.”
“Or you need some cash.” Discord smirked at her.
“Hey, you run a contest, you take your chances.”
“True, true.” Discord suddenly shrunk into the figure of an elderly earth pony mare. “I’ve been banned from Las Pegasus casinos 173 times so far. You’d think that they’d understand that as the spirit of chaos, when I alter probability it is not ‘cheating’–” Discord grimaced and made hoof-quotes “–but instead merely part of my nature.” He changed into a young pegasus stallion. “At least I’ve become much better at my disguises. I’ve slowly eliminated every single one of my tells.”
“Well, that’ll help me sleep better tonight.” Sunset rolled her eyes.
“But I must digress.” Discord turned to Ghost and bent down to look at him. “Sunset, don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that your friend has forgiven you so quickly?”
“Hey!” Sunset shouted. “Were you looking at my memories too?”
“Of course. Turnabout is fair play. Incidentally I think your little crush has a slim chance, so if you want ‘that’ you better make your move.”
“Hey!” Sunset blushed, stammered, and sputtered. “Hey. Hey!”
“Hay? Well, you were planning to get food after this, and it has run long.” Discord snapped his claw and piles of Burger Princess bags rained down on the two ponies. “But whether you want me to or not, I will successfully digress this conversation. I don’t think the esteemed Mr. Ghost Pepper here has actually come around to you, and I intend to help you in this matter.”
“Do I get a say in the matter?” Ghost spoke up.
“No, my taciturn little pony, you do not.”
“We don’t have time for this. I’ve only got a few days to prepare for the Ice Skate’s arrival.”
“Don’t worry, Sunset, this won’t take any time at all, I assure you. Unlike a certain somepony, my temporal machinations are on pointe.”
“Discord no!” Sunset lunged at him.
“Discord yes!” He snapped his fingers.
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Well now, Discords mistake is quite interesting now isn't it. I know that Twi and Sunset are very much alike in many ways, but I don't think it would be quite that close.
As for Ghost Pepper... didn't think his first name would be quite so, um, literal? When and if she figures out what she is at least Ghost can get that license and be free, right?
The cores are also interesting. The main six was two of each tribe to start, and if Twi and Sunset have a bit of their friends inside them, putting them together would give them Earth and Pegasus cores and make their unicorn a bit stronger, with more control from Rarity, right? The fourth would be their Alicorn magic as they grow into it.
Both Twi and Sunset should both have a fifth thought, right? Magic and Empathy, respectfully?
The Vegeta No, Vegeta Yes joke always kills me. Also totally didn’t see the necromancy part coming.
9865442
Discord kind of is the Vegeta of this setting, isn't he?
9865474
It’s either him or Sunset. I would say he makes a better Mr. Popo, ungodly powerful, in way more control than we would normally think, and scary beyond all reason.
9864906
I hadn't considered that for Ghost Pepper either, but I feel like I should have. Also, the associated earth pony headcanon is amazing and the author should feel amazing.
The fifth core was actually the geode, not any of her actual cores. She'd only have had four if she'd left it at home. (Equestria isn't her home. Not anymore.)
9865699
her geode is her element, Empathy. Twi should have Magic, even with it on the tree/clubhouse it's still tied to her.
Sunset's might be a bit stronger, as her geode is merged into her via the mirror. However, all the elements should have theirs tied to them as this kind of core, at least if my understanding of Discord's "lessen" is right when Sombra did what he did to the tree is correct.
9865868
Except they clearly don't, or the entire scene stops working by way of Discord being able to tell the difference between the two of them. (Rule 1 of science: facts trump theorycraft. Twilight is repeatedly guilty of violating this rule)
Why? Discord claimed not to see the difference between them until this fifth core showed up, and it was, seemingly, actively hiding from him.
If the elements are hard for him to see, as a being of chaos, then they can both have this extra core and he just hasn't had reason to look at Twi's or Flutters' or any of the rests, that closely. I could well be wrong, but the girls pulling out the Rainbow with the tree broken and their elements shattered vs Sombra does kinda point to this, doesn't it?
9865868
I’m not going to provide a definitive answer on Twilight’s cores until I see the finale.
9866183
Ok, only asking about this story. Honestly never thought she had more than one.
Oh, sequel. Nice.
That's so quintessentially Discord of him
I'm a bit confused by the core counts here. Wouldn't Twilight have five and Sunset six, one for each of the other friends in their group? Or is he saying that tribal cores are grouped, so that the Earth + Pegasus + Unicorn + Alicorn = 4 kinds of core?
And if that's the case, why are there more types for Sunset? I'd count Human + Unicorn + Alicorn = 3 types, max.
Also, was Discord referencing FoME's "Memento Morient?"
Anyhoo, tracking.
9950085
So for core counts, Sunset's got earth pony and pegasus cores because she absorbed some of the leftover magic of her friends in the compact at the Friendship Games, and tribal cores do group if they're compatible. She's got an alicorn core that showed up when she ascended, her own unicorn core with some Rarity mixed in. The fifth core is her geode, which merged into her when she went through the portal. It's the only one she could potentially shed easily by leaving the geode on the other side of the portal. Princess Twilight would have a similar arrangement, but with Element of Magic Plus rather than a geode. I'm planning to put a partial explanation of how becoming an alicorn works (filtered through filly Sunset) in the Cadance chapter.
9950479
I think I was thrown off by treating the Equestria Girls as belonging to pony tribes, rather than "human." Makes sense either way, though. Thanks for the explanation.
I'm not the only one who read that last line in a DBZ abridged Vegeta voice right ?
9959455
No. No you are not.
Well... this is gonna be a mess.