A Unicorn in the Clover Kingdom

by LordBrony2040

Page 14: Banquet

Noelle finished putting on her clothes for the day and stepped out into the hallway, blinking when her mana sense found Sunset still in her room. Because of her newfound interest in astronomy, Sunset usually got up in the predawn hours to take a look through her telescope from her room, which had somehow gotten a rather large balcony of its own a few days ago for no explanation. Which meant she almost always beat Noelle out the door and down to the hall for breakfast.

“Sunny?” Noelle called out. “Is everything okay in there?”

Inviting herself in, Noelle opened the door and looked around cautiously, only to find her worries were rather unfounded when she saw Sunset sitting at her desk, looking at an odd stone with a rune in the center that she held in between a thumb and finger. “What’s that?”

Sunset let out a startled yelp as her whole body jerked, the item in her hand being tossed into the air before she quickly snatched it. “Oh! Noelle, I um…” she looked at the gem in her hand, then back to the girl with silver hair before letting out a long sigh that made the tension just slip out of her. After that, she went back to looking at the gem as she turned her chair to face the royal. “I’m just examining this thing. It’s a...magic item of some type, or maybe some kind of power source for one. I’ve been meaning to take a look at it for awhile but...”

When Sunset didn’t answer, looking around the room instead, Noelle crossed her arms. “But what?”

“Well...helping you was just more important to me, that’s all,” Sunset said with a shrug. “Then I put it out of my mind for a few days.”

The admission made Noelle blush. It was odd to have people that cared about her again. Grandmother had, but she hadn’t lived long past Noelle’s ninth birthday. After that...there hadn’t really been anyone. When it came to her siblings, they ranged from cruel to indifferent about her plight.

“So...what’s it do?”

Sunset looked back up to the young woman and raised an eyebrow. “No idea. That’s why I’m examining it,” she said before the gem began floating in her magical power. “And now, since I don’t have to worry about you guys finding out my magic is different, I can do a full diagnostic spell to see…”

The glow around the stone intensified. Noelle caught sight of a multicolored light inside the gem, followed by an odd illumination at the very center of the gem that looked black in color, somehow, surrounded by a red tinge. The two lights collided and…

Noelle stumbled backwards and closed her eyes as a loud pop echoed in her ears. When she looked back, Sunset was laying on the floor, her chair having been knocked onto its back with her in it. The girl’s usually gorgeous red hair completely sticking straight out and around her head in all directions. “SUNNY!”

Sunset groaned. She rolled onto her side and felt around before finding the magical gem and standing up while holding it in her hand. “Ugh! Okay, that wasn’t pleasant,” she groaned before looking down at the gem.

“What happened? What did you do?” Noelle demanded before looking down at what was obviously a faulty magical item. Had she picked it up from that stupid black market? Noelle had told Vanessa those magic items were dangerous without the proper safety inspections done to make sure they didn’t blow up in someone’s face!

After stumbling around a little bit and getting her footing, Sunset put the gem down and rubbed her head. “A complete...no, you really wouldn’t get that explanation,” the alien told her before floating her chair back up and sitting down. “It was...basically, the magic inside of me and the magic inside of the stone really don’t like each other.”

Noelle gave her a quick inspection and had the redhead count how many fingers she was holding up. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine...long as you don’t tell Secre,” Sunset added as an afterthought. “Oh, and can you make some water so I can maybe get by hair combed down?”

Giving the gem Sunset had set on her desk a cautious look, Noelle led the girl back out onto her balcony to begin generating the liquid between her hands. “Just uh...don’t mess with that thing anymore, okay?”

---

Like had become her new normal come breakfast, Sunset found herself surrounded by meat. Charmy didn’t seem to understand the concept that the first meal of the day needed to be a light one as not to bog someone down. So, she served up everything from cow to pig, with a bit of vegetables on the side, as well as a bit of fruit.

However, the thing that surprised Sunset was what one of the cotton sheep golems put in front of her. “What do you think?” the impossibly short human asked as her magical automaton gave Sunset a bowl of grains with milk and several berries on top, stuck in the whipped cream. “I really should go to town and pick up some better quality oats, but all the extras are where the flavor is going to come from.”

Sunset poked at the blueberries that had probably been grown in the wild. “Uh...well, I’m not really a cook, and my taste buds are completely different now, but...maybe something with bits of apple?”

“Good idea!” Charmy agreed before reaching into a pocket inside the apron she had on and pulling out a little notepad. “I didn’t know how much you still enjoyed equine things so...yeah. Maybe some brown sugar for a bit of extra flavor. Not as much cream next time.”

The lengths Charmy was going to make her feel more comfortable made Sunset blush. While she had been used to better for a long time, after living at the orphanage for so long, she learned to make do with so much less. “This is fine, Charmy.”

“NO!” the impossibly short mage declared as she leaped up on the table. “A person’s meal must fit them perfectly, and after all the meat you’ve had to endure despite being a horse-”

“Pony,” Sunset corrected her.

“Pony,” Charmy went on. “I will cook a meal to make all of my previous transgressions void!”

With the little mage making such a declaration, Sunset held up her hands to try and stop the girl from going on. “Come on, that’s not...I like meat just fine now. See?” she asked while taking a bit of the bacon that was up for grabs. “And we always ate eggs.”

Before Sunset could think of something else to try and calm Charmy down, Gauche came up behind her. “Hey, unicorn. I need more stories about that place you come from,” he told her before holding up the little picture of his sister. “My little goddess demands to know everything there is to know about all you ponies.”

“I already told you like, twenty stories about Equestria,” Sunset said to the guy who liked his sister way too much in her option.

After looking at the picture of his little sister for a moment and getting a nosebleed for some reason Sunset still didn’t understand despite running a medical diagnostic spell over him when it happened earlier, the man turned his attention back to her. “That’s only twenty, I’m going to need four-hundred and eighty more.”

Sunset’s eye twitched. “I don’t have four-hundred stories!”

A second later, Gauche was shoved to the side by Vanessa, who sat down next to Sunset. “Lay off my little sister,” she said before reaching over with a bare arm and hugging the smaller human to her nearly nude body to kiss Sunset on the head. “Everything okay this morning, Kitten? I heard something odd coming from your room after I woke up.”

“Everything’s fine,” Sunset assured her while Vanessa loaded the plate in front of her that sat next to a full bottle of wine.

When the close contact ended, Sunset felt an odd loss. Although she would rather die before admitting it out loud, the former pony liked it when Vanessa held her close. Despite the infantile nature of the thought, sometimes she just wanted the older human to hold her and never let go.

Asta walked into the room with Secre on his head, his body showing obvious signs of perspiration from whatever he had been doing outside. “Hey guys, what’s to eat today?” he asked in anticipation, making Charmy act like a showroom floor girl as she presented various plates with ham, chicken, burgers, some kind of pasta covered in cheese, and a dozen other side dishes.

Then there was a loud crash as Yami kicked one of the side doors apart before walking into the room. The attention getting action made Charmy look up and wave. “Hey Captain Yami!”

“Alright, gimme some food, and then it’s back to...oh wait, almost forgot,” he said before sitting down at the head of the table. “I got a letter last night from HQ. After that little ruckus the other day, they want a full report about what happened in the dungeon and any information we can give them about the attack on the hideout. So, everyone involved that doesn’t have work today will go and talk the the guys in charge in person.”

Luck jumped up excitedly. “Headquarters?” he asked while lighting crackled around his hands. “Oh boy! That’s in the noble realm! I bet there will be tons of people for me to pick fights with.”

“Which is why you and Magna have a mission to go on,” Yami told him. “There’s supposed to be a group of bandits hiding out near the border with Heart. Go find them and bring them in alive.”

Instead of becoming depressed at the news, Luck seemed to get even more excited. “A combat mission? Alright!” he said before leaping over the table in a flash. “Come on Magna, let’s hurry up and get ready!”

The enthusiasm seemed to put Magna on edge. “Are you sure your brain is working right?”

“You’re wanting us all to go to the noble section of the capital?” Asta asked in excitement. “THIS WILL BE SO COOL!”

As her baby brother geeked out over what was probably nothing, Sunset leaned back a little while she mentally constructed their party for the journey. “So, then it’s going to be me, Noelle, Asta and…”

Charmy raised her hand. “I can accompany them, Captain!” she offered. “I bet the noble realm has all kinds of yummy food to-”

“No,” Yami told her before she could finish, making Charmy stutter while he kept talking. “All you’ll do is try and eat everything in sight, you little glutton. Causing a famine is the kind of heat I don’t need.”

“WHAT?” Charmy cried. Literally cried before she jumped off the table and began to run out of the room, turning the corner until she was out of sight. “You’re so mean, Captain Yami!”

Secre cleared her throat. “If you need someone to chaperone and guide these idiots, I’ve been there plenty of-”

“HOLY CRAP! IT’S A TALKING BIRD!” Yami exclaimed, making the cigarette he was smoking fall onto the floor as he jumped to his feet.

The entire room went silent for a moment before Secre actually ruffled her feathers. “How do you not know about me? I’ve been talking to everyone for over a week!”

Yami snorted. “Feh, you expect me to notice every little detail that goes on in this place? I just saw someone installed a pool two days ago.”

The feathers on Secre’s body ruffled for a second, again. “YES! That’s the whole point of you being a squad captain!”

“Well Captain, I can’t go,” Gauche told him. “I’ll be busy writing my daily letter to Marie.”

With the more normal...or relatively normal statement, Yami focused and looked back at the man with only one eye showing on his face. “Wasn’t going to tell you to go anyway.”

Before the conversation could continue, Sunset held up a hand. “Hold on a second,” she said. “If they want everyone involved in both incidents, wouldn’t that mean they want to talk to you too, Captain?”

Yami froze in the middle of taking another cigarette out of the pack he carried around everywhere. “Ah damnit,” he mumbled. “I was hoping to get some extra sleep in, not go to the snootiest place in the kingdom.” After giving the redhead a glare, the man let out a groan. “Well, I suppose things could be worse.”

---

A hard glace got the people in their fancy clothes to get the hell out of her way as Mereoleona walked up the inclining streets of the Clover capital’s noble realm. As usual when Mereoleona came home, she was in a bad mood. She absolutely detested the nobles and made sure they knew it at a glance while her specific shade of red hair made sure they knew who she was at a look as well.

Despite being the most powerful magic users in the kingdom, most of the figurative bastards, although there were some actual ones thrown in as well, sat on their fat asses instead of doing something really useful; like actually developing their magical potential. Sure, they oversaw the commerce and that kind of crap, but anyone could sign papers and draw up plans for a new business. It was such a disgusting waste!

But, getting pissed at lazy people wasn’t why she had come back to the Clover Kingdom’s central city. With today being one of the few days a year when individual stars were tallied and promotions handed out based on the performance of each knight, Mereoleona had come to check on how those three cubs she met on her way to Hage were doing.

She walked into the stone courtyard of the tiny keep that was the base for the Crimson Lions and frowned at the lack of men or women anywhere in sight. While promotion day was usually a period of rest for the squad, there should have been a few knights around as a kind of ceremonial guard. Nobody was suicidal enough to actually attack the capital, much less a fortified position that held an entire squad of magic knights, but there was the principal of the thing. She had thought Fuegoleon got all that pompous ass kind of stuff.

“Looks like little brother’s getting lazy. I’m going to have to whip him back into shape,” Mereoleona told herself before she matched up to the large double doors of the miniature castle and promptly kicked them open. “HEY! SOMEBODY GET MY LOUSY BROTHER...down...here?”

The entrance hall to the base was completely empty. On top of which, the candelabras weren’t lit, and… Are those SPIDERWEBS? Mereleona asked herself as she examined one of the standing candle holders that was next to the door. A quick inspection of the rest of the room confirmed that not only was the room and its adjoining ones empty, they had been for several days.

What the hell is going on? Mereleona asked herself before she focused on her mana sense to better examine the area and blinked when she did detect a small cluster of people up in the barracks.

Needing answers, the woman rushed upstairs and down the hall to one of the few private rooms provided to the Crimson Lions and knocked the door open to walk inside. There, she saw her baby brother holding up a red cape and without a shirt on as he was talking to a pair of Lions that she didn’t recognize.

“Hey, do you guys think I should go with this for the promotion ceremony or-” Leopold said before he saw his big sister and froze after turning to face her fully. “Oh crap! S-Sis! What’re you doing here?”

“AHHH! It’s the demon!” a man with short hair and a good build screamed.

A spatial portal quickly opened up. “Quick sir!” the second man shouted. “Back to the encampment!”

As the two mages fled through the portal in front of her baby brother, Mereoleona reached out to grab Leo’s long braid before he could escape and drag him away from the portal. It sealed itself a second later, leaving the two of them alone in the dusty room. “Leo,” Mereleona said before she took in a deep breath and pulled the kid closer to make sure that he could hear her. “WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYONE?”

Leopold cringed at the simple question and gave a nervous laugh. “Um, well...uh, you see, Sis…” the boy gulped and looked at the window, then at the hand that was still holding onto his braid before turning his attention back to his patient and understanding sister, who really should have beat the crap out of him for taking so long to answer a simple question. “Brother decided to create a forward operating base for the Crimson Lions to work out of for awhile, so he moved all of us to the northernmost point of the Common Realm to better respond to missions while leaving the southern half of the kingdom for the Silver Eagles to take care of.”

The explanation made Mereoleona blink in surprise. “That...that’s brilliant!” she said before slapping her baby brother on the back as everything fell into place. A base outside of the capital, which would have been more like a camp than an actual building, exposed to the elements, living in concert with the land. Now it made sense why Fuegoleon hadn’t wanted her finding out about it. If I had known I could have just moved the base out of the capital, I would have signed off on being captain of the damn squad! “Glad to see Little Brother’s finally picked up a brain!”

“R-Right,” Leo said as he got off of the ground while Mereoleona laughed in joy at the squad being taken in the right direction. “Well uh, I’ve been working so much, me and those guys who...ran off, got enough stars that the Wizard King is giving us a promotion. So uh, we had to come back to the old barracks to pick up some clean clothes and-”

Mereoleona gave her baby brother a congratulatory slap across the back. “That’s great!” she told him before remembering the real reason why she had come back to the capital. “So, how are those three cubs I sent you working out? I know Asta’s probably got some issues, but that Yuno boy looked very promising and Sunset’s got some crazy skills, am I right?”

For some reason, the expression on Leo’s face became one of absolute terror. “Right...those three...uh…” he said before grabbing onto his clothes and running for the window. “I’d really like to tell you, but I’m gonna be late for the ceremony!”

“Huh?” Mereoleona asked as the boy put his bundled clothes up in front of him before smashing through the window and falling down the courtyard below, then running as fast as he could when he landed, crimson mana surrounding his legs. “...did I miss something?”

---

The stupid way they had built the path up to the palace where the Wizard King lived hadn’t changed a damn bit from the last time that Yami had been forced to come up to the palace without a broom. Stupid royals making everyone walk up their damn hill of a road to get to their overblown houses, he thought before looking over at the people traveling with him.

Of course, after they had finished giving their report to Headquarters, Yami couldn’t just go back home to drop off breakfast and head to bed. Julius had left him a message to come to the Wizard King’s palace with all his minions in tow. Which quickly became its own little pain in the ass.

Asta was looking at everything with a twinkle in his eye, like some kid who had too much sugar one day and couldn’t stop moving for five seconds. Noelle didn’t seem too impressed, which was expected since she had lived in same neighborhood until recently. As for their resident alien, she was...about even with Noelle. Something would catch her attention from time to time, but nothing really held it for more than a few seconds.

In contrast, Yami had to drag Asta away from a house or expensive shop about every other block. He was actually so busy making sure the brat didn’t get too distracted by anything shiny that he missed seeing the three people in front of him until they were just a few feet away. Even Asta noticed them before he did.

“Hey, it’s Sir Four Eyes and Yuno,” the boy called out as he ignored the most important member of the trio, what with her having the biggest boobs and all, before running up to them. “What’re you guys doing here?”

Four Eyes pressed up on his glasses. “Hello, Asta. You’re looking well,” he said before looking up to Yami and giving a bow of the head. Which was pretty considerate, what with how big a stick most nobles had up their asses. “Captain Yami, Sir. Noelle, and...ah, how are you finding your visit to the Noble Realm in the daylight, Ms Shimmer?”

The question got an uneasy shrug from the redhead. “Eh, reminds me a bit too much of home.”

“Oh my,” Big Boobs said in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry. You must miss it terribly.”

Sunset got a little less dower. “Not really. I ran away, remember?” she told the girl before getting a bit awkward. “But uh...thanks for worrying about me, Mimosa.”

“Yuno,” Asta greeted the other kid.

“Asta,” Yuno, who Yami couldn’t really think to give a proper name to, replied. “What’re you doing here?”

The runt stood up a little taller, which didn’t do all that much since Yuno was not only taller, but standing further along the road to the castle than he was. “The Wizard King sent word for us to attend some ceremony.”

With the word ceremony ringing in his ears, Yami took a drag on a cigarette. “Is that thing today?” he asked before looking back to the knights that had come with him. Crap, was there something about a promotion for one of them in the letter Julius sent?

He tried to think back to when he was reading it the other night before going to bed. Yami remembered going to the can, reading through the thing and...running out of toilet paper. Hmmm, maybe I should have read the whole thing before putting it to better use, the man told himself.

Although, if someone was to blame for this whole mess, it was obviously Finral. As the spatial magic mage of the Black Bulls, it was his job to make sure everything was properly stocked. So...he’d have to punish the little twerp properly when they got back to the hideout.

Four Eyes just stared at him for a moment. “You’re not here for the promotion ceremony?”

Yami let out a loud yawn, and blinked when an odd ki suddenly appeared before some kind of little...thing popped its head out from the hood of Yuno’s robe and yawned. “What the hell is that? You into playing with dolls, pretty boy?”

After stretching, the creature seemed to register the words and frowned. “WHO YOU CALLING A DOLL?” the flying doll yelled before she flew up to Yami’s face. Then, before Yami could just blow some smoke in the little thing’s face to put her in her place, the little thing zipped over to the redhead. “Sunset! Tell Yuno to stop ignoring me!”

“...huh?” the redhead asked before she looked over to the taller teenager. “What’s she talking about, Yuno?”

Yuno blinked at the question. “No idea.”

The little pixie flew up and stood on the boy’s shoulder before pulling on his ear. “Don’t you pretend that you don’t know what’s going on!” she said before looking over to Sunset. “He won’t talk to me at all!”

“You know, you should probably treat her a little better, Yuno,” Sunset told him. “We’d probably all be dead without her, you know.”

“HA!” the little thing shouted in victory. “See? Listen to your big sister, Yuno!”

Then Sunset blinked and looked over to the fairy. “Although, if that’s how you are in private Sylph...maybe...tone it down?”

Sylph froze and let go of the boy’s ear. “But...okay,” she said before sitting down on Yuno’s shoulder in a pout. “Spoil all my fun.”

So that’s the legendary Wind Spirit, huh? Yami asked himself. Kind of terrifying that she’s just a snotty little brat.

With that little pain in the ass out of the way, Yami continued walking. “Alright you three, come on and let’s get this over with,” he said before moving on, with the members of the Golden Dawn going in the same direction shortly thereafter.

Although, when they got to the front gate, there was a surprise waiting on the newbies. Even Four eyes looked a bit shocked to see the Wizard King just standing there. Almost immediately, all of the kids and the guy with the stick up his butt got down on one knee. Yami just raised his hand. “Julius...yo,” he said.

“What are you…” Four Eyes said before he noticed Sunset had also declined to take a knee. “Ah, Madam Shimmer. Perhaps you are not aware, but it is the custom of our people to bend down like this in the presence of royalty and important officials.”

The redhead straightened out her little green dress/tunic thing and held out a hand that a scroll just popped into, like a reverse teleport spell. “Uh, yeah...about that,” she said before unrolling the Scroll of 101 Rules.

Sylph floated up into the air. “Article five, subsection C clearly states that outsides are not required to uphold the social norms of the country they settle in. That includes bowing, or the adding of any titles to the humans in question,” she explained. “Although...she could, if she wanted to.”

“In other words,” Noelle deadpanned, “you’re just being rude.”

Letting out a mock gasp, Sunset took a step back. “Oh! You’re so right, Your Highness,” she said before getting on her knees and lowering her head to the ground. “Please forgive me, Princess Noelle!”

“DON’T BOW TO ME!” the little royal shouted at Sunset after jumping to her feet. With her face a bright red, Noelle started to shuffle around in her sandals. “Seriously...stop it.”

Sunset looked up at her. “Why? Aren’t you royalty?” she asked before situating herself comfortably on her knees. “In all seriousness, you’re about the only royal I’ve ever met that I actually...might consider doing this for.” Then the girl looked over at Big Boobs. “Well, you and Mimosa...maybe.”

The color of Noelle’s face turned pure crimson. “You can’t be serious!” the little Silva said. “I...I’m like, thirtieth in line for the throne! And that’s even if House Kira gets completely wiped out and Vermillion doesn’t want to take over.”

“So…” Sunset looked over to Big Boobs. “Does that mean you...outrank Noelle, Mimosa?”

Big Boobs held up her hands. “Oh no!” she assured the girl. “I’m from an offshoot of the Vermillion and Silva families. Since it’s not the main branch, I’m not quite sure where we fall in the line of succession, but it’s far behind Noelle.”

Sunset picked herself up and dusted her knees off. “Eh, from what I’ve seen, you’d both be good princesses.”

While Noelle somehow managed to get even more red and looked down at her hands while tapping her fingers together, Big Boobs blinked in confusion. “Don’t you mean queens?”

“Oh, right! Queens...yeah,” Sunset said. “Sorry, in my home country, ranks only went up to Princess when it came to titles. I asked about it once and after talking to a bunch of people, I think it has to do with some kind of image marketing thing. Because you know, queens are mean while princesses sound more...approachable?”

Julius let out a little laugh. “Heh, yes. I can see how that would be a plus. Lord knows I could do with a little less bowing and scraping,” he said. “Now, as to the matter I called you all here for. We’re having a ceremony, and I thought it would be advantageous to let our first outsider in decades to see it firsthand.”

After getting to his feet, Asta jumped in front of the group. “Mr Wizard King, sir?” he asked. “Can I ask you a question real quick?”

“Oh-kay,” the man replied slowly, clearly a little put off by the boy’s sudden appearance. Probably because his magic senses never even saw Asta coming.

“What does it take to become the Wizard King?” he asked, talking so fast that he just about stumbled over his own words.

As Julius laughed at the question just a little bit, Four Eyes took a step towards Asta. “Impudent!” he shouted before taking a breath and calming down. “Listen, Asta. The Wizard King must be of noble heart and have the implicit trust of all the people in-”

“No Klaus,” the Wizard King spoke, cutting the man off, his voice sounding much more regal than it usually did. Unless he was giving a public speech or other such dumb thing. “A noble heart will get you nothing on its own, and the trust of the people must be earned. To become the Wizard King, one must get results. By showing the kingdom what you can do through your deeds is the only way to stand at the top.”

Yuno let out a little grunt. “Well...that’s a bit heartening, I suppose.”

“Now, shall we all-hm?” Julius said before looking past the two parties and down the road. “That’s odd, I thought Fuegoleon sent a letter telling me that he wouldn’t be in attendance today.”

Yami blinked and looked back at the redhead walking up the path towards the castle. He had the same uniform and hair as Mr Manly Voice, but… Oh no, Yami told himself as he recognized the fiery ki of the monster approaching them at a brisk walk. “Julius quick! Sound the alarm! THERE’S A WILD ANIMAL ON THE LOOSE!” the Black Bulls’ Captain shouted in a real panic.

Mereoleona stomped her way up to the front of the castle and blinked. “W-What the?”

Asta raised a hand and waved at the monster. “Hey Ms Mereoleona!” he said happily before running over to the woman and showing off his shoulder-covering. “Check it out, we made it onto a pair of magic knight squads.”

“W-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN A BLACK BULL’S ROBE?” she yelled at the twerp before looking at the other redhead. “You too? I can maybe forgive the bean sprout sister-lover over there for picking the Dawn since they got more stars last year, but HOW IN THE HELL ARE YOU TWO MEMBERS OF THE BLACK BULLS?”

Yuno flinched and half-stepped behind Klaus while the fairy gave him an even look.

As he did, Sunset gave the meaner redhead a nervous grin. “Oh...right, about that. You see...we were a little late in getting to the castle town where the exam was held and so we put off delivering the letter until after the tests were over. Which...by then, we were already Magic Knights, so...”

“That…” Mereoleona paused as she looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers as if she was practicing to strangle someone. “That cowardly little bastard! No wonder he ran away! When I get my hands on Leo-”

Julius stepped forward. “Oh, you want to see your youngest brother?” he asked with a disarming smile. “Well you’re in luck, he’s actually the highest earner in today’s ceremony. We’re having a party afterwards, you can speak to him then if you’d like.”

---

Sunset looked back and forth as she walked down a red carpet with the rest of the combined group, the Wizard King leading them from a respectable distance away. Although the hallway they were in would have been moderately spacious if it was just them, the fact that they were being flanked on both sides by a line of mages that extended the entire corridor made things a bit tight.

“Who are these guys?” she mumbled as she looked at the men in their dark blue robes with yellow lining and raised hoods over their heads. “I thought Diamond were the ones with all the faceless minions.”

Yami snorted. “You don’t think the Magic Knights are the only defense of an entire kingdom, do you?” he asked. “These are just basic soldiers, guys who failed the exam or never had the balls to take it in the first place. They catch purse snatchers and all the other riffraff there just aren’t enough knights to bother with.”

“So...they’re more of a civic guard than actual military,” Sunset clarified.

The Wizard King opened the door and Sunset blinked as she found a good gathering of mages already in the room. She recognized two of them as captains, as well as their two assistants from the exam. There was also the redhead kid that had been with Fuegoleon, although that captain wasn’t to be found amongst the gathering of knights. Three men were wearing uniforms like Klaus, marking them as Golden Dawn, while there was also a third Silver Eagle among the group. They were all standing in two rows, flaking the entrance, while that Marx guy was standing much further back in the room.

As for the room itself, it was covered in dull red carpet and well lit thanks to a good deal of windows at the back. There was also a raised area with a table covered in a white tablecloth and a brighter red covering in the center, while a display showing off the female saint of the church in various statues of gold and silver were set up.

As Yami took them over to the back corner, moving the Dawn group and his own knights out of the doorway, Sunset heard a terrified scream coming from the redheaded that was getting promoted as Mereoleona walked into the room. “S-Sis, what’re you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing here, you idiot?” she demanded. “I’M GOING TO POUND THE CRAP OUT OF YOU AND MY STUPID YOUNGER BROTHER FOR NOT GETTING HIS HANDS ON THESE THREE FOR THE CRIMSON LIONS!”

Leopold, quickly ducked behind the tall man Sunset remembered was Noelle’s oldest brother. “Nozel, if you save me, you can hold it over Fuegoleon for the rest of his life!”

After looking back at the boy for a moment, Nozel stepped aside. “Tempting. But...I don’t want to die.”

Leo let out a scream when his protection walked away. “Come on Sis, let me make this up to you!”

Mereoleona growled before she marched over to grab her younger brother and drag him along. “You want to make this right?” she asked as she walked over to Sunset and held Leo up in front of her. “This is my slightly less useless brother. He’s stupid and cowardly, but he’ll make a good husband. Marry him.”

Silence filled the room for several seconds before most of the occupants, Sunset included, mouthed their confusion as one. “What?”

“Uh...Sis...isn’t this like...your daughter?” Leo asked as the woman held him up by the scruff of his neck.

The woman from the Silver Eagles next to Nozel let out a groan. “See, this is why rumors about royal incest keep cropping up!”

Mereoleona gave her baby brother an unamused frown. “What the hell are you idiots talking about?”

“Oh yeah!” Yami said with a laugh. “You don’t know...hehehe...okay so, you’re gonna love this! Just sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale, The Legend of Babygoleon!”

-The Legend of Babygoleon-

Once upon a time, there was this wild animal of a woman, Sisgoleon. She was a real monster in every way, but she really looked up to this one woman who had a lot of kids. So, Sisgoleon decided to have a kid of her own and she went to the local tavern to find a man.

Sisgoleon knocked down the door and went inside the tavern before going, “If anyone is tough enough, I’ll let them make a baby with me!”

But, Sisgoleon was too strong for everyone in the tavern. So she went to the next watering hole, and the next, until she had checked out every single drinking establishment in the capital, knocking out all the guys and a few of the girls. But, she just couldn’t find a man to make a baby with, so she went, “FUCK IT! I’ll just do it all by myself!”

Then, seven months later, when Sisgoleon was in a heavy mana zone of Flower Fruit Mountain, she started to feel a kick inside of her. So, she decided to discipline the child. “STUPID BRAT! HOW DARE YOU KICK YOUR MOTHER!” Sisgoleon yelled before she punched herself in the stomach so hard she knocked Babygoleon right out of her. Then, Sisgoleon looked up at the sun and went, “huh, Sunset is as good a name as any, I guess.”

But Babygoleon got right back up and pointed at her mother, going, “Hey you bitch, I still got two months of free rent in there!”

“You shut your mouth you ungrateful brat!” Sisgoleon yelled back at Babygoleon. “I’ll teach you not to talk to your mother like that!”

So, Sisgoleon and Babygoleon fought for three days and nights. But in the end, Sisgoleon came out on top. As she stood over the defeated Babygoleon she pointed down at the child and went, “You’re such an embarrassment, I can’t even be seen in public with you! Stay out here until you get stronger!”

So, Sisgoleon left Babygoleon on Flower Fruit Mountain, where she beat up all the lions, tigers, and bears until they made her the queen a month later. Then, she went around the world, beating the crap out of everything she could find until she met up with some other kids that gave her the idea of becoming a magic knight. So, the three of them headed off to the Magic Knight Exam, where Babygoleon was forced onto a cool and tough squad boss because everyone else was afraid of her.

The End.

-Present Day-

Silence filled the room as the captain of the Black Bulls finished his tale. Mereoleona simply stood there, actually dropping Leo as she just became more dumbfounded by the second.

“Yami,” the female squad captain that was attending the ceremony, Charlotte Roselei said. “Please, for the love of God, don’t tell me you actually believe that. I am seriously begging you to tell me that you don’t actually believe that!”

Nozel snorted. “Stupid foreigner. It’s obvious that Mereoleona found a commoner somewhere and conceived a child with him,” he said. “Then, she went to the Flower Fruit Mountain mana zone to have the child early, fought with her, and left the baby there to be raised in the wild by animals.” Standing next to the man, both of his siblings nodded in agreement.

After several more seconds of silence, Sunset leaned over to her best friend. “Noelle, no offense...but I think your brother is crazy.”

“You have to admit, it sounds a lot more plausible than your actual origin story,” Noelle told her.

Finally, Mereoleona snapped out of her daze. “THIS ISN’T MY KID YOU MORONS!” she yelled at the assembled knights, getting confused looks from everyone present. Even Charlotte took the news with a bit of shock on her face. “How in the fucking world can ANY OF YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT I AM RELATED TO HER? We don’t look alike, we don’t sound alike, t-that isn’t even the Vermillion shade of red on her head! I met her, okay, we did meet on a mountain, but the rest of that load of crap is a pile of horseshit!”

A few people over from Sunset, Mimosa took one of her locks in her hand to look at for a moment, then sighed.

Nozel blinked, but the rest of his face remained frozen. “Then, how can you explain the fact that her magic contains several spells that have the distinct flare of House Vermillion?”

“The hell are you talking about? She’s a water magic user!” Mereoleona yelled at the man with the silver braid hanging down his forehead.

Feeling that she had been caught, Sunset gave a nervous giggle. “Um...actually, that’s not...entirely accurate,” she told the other redheaded female in the room. “You see, uh…” As all the attention in the room turned to her, Sunset began to feel more uncomfortable.

“Ah, allow me to explain,” the Wizard King spoke up. “Lady Sunset here is an outsider, recognized by my office and parliament as a guest of the Clover Kingdom. Her magic is adaptable, enabling her to wield several elements and more exotic forms of magic. I’ve invited her here today, along with her friends, to see some of the best and brightest of our kingdom in the hopes that it will encourage her to continue supporting our land.”

A second later, Noelle’s biggest brother looked over to Sunset with a look that seemed a bit too interested to her. “What realm are you from?” he asked evenly, getting surprised looks from all three of his siblings at the question.

Sunset blinked. “Uh...it’s not one of the big ones. I’m from a land called Equestria. It’s...well…” Not knowing how much the man knew, she didn’t know where to start with her explanation.

Sylph sighed and floated up into the air to fly in front of her. “It’s not a core realm. More of a mix between the Celestial and Spirit Realms. With a tiny bit of Mortal thrown in.”

If anything, Nozel’s interest only seemed to grow at hearing the first word. “Are you saying that she’s part angel?” he asked. Which in turn got the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Well, what you guys call angels,” the Wind Spirit said before looking back at Sunset for a few seconds. “It’s say...something around forty to fifty percent celestial.”

Sunset crossed her arms. “It’s rude to talk about someone when they’re in the room, you know.”

After Nozel turned his attention to Sunset, he gave her a bow of his head. “My apologies,” he told her, getting a surprised look from all of his siblings before he took a step back to resume his previous place.

“Okay,” Sunset asked before leaning over to Noelle. “What was all that about?”

Noelle blinked. “I have no idea. Big Brother Nozel isn’t really a church guy.”

The tall amazon standing next to the Blue Rose captain leaned towards her boss. “Kind of makes me wish we had snatched her up, huh Char?”

“...call me Captain, Sol.”

Julius clapped his hands together. “Now that we’ve got that settled,” he said loudly. “I must order you to keep this all quiet until Lady Sunset turns twenty, as her life may be put in danger before she is ready to defended herself from all of the extra attention news of her presence will undoubtedly cause. Now, we are here today to recognize and promote several exemplary knights, who have served this kingdom through acts of bravery that surpass all expectations.”

Then, he looked over to Sunset. “For your sake, I think I’ll give a brief explanation. As in any organization, there are many ranks of magic knight from me, all the way down to Junior Magic Knight, Fifth Class. What everyone starts off as. There are five classes in total, and five sub-ranks for each class. As a person accumulates stars, they rise up in the ranking system, all the way to Wizard King.”

With the explanation done, the ceremony quickly got underway, with each knight stepping up until they were all standing right in front of the raised area, while the captains with knights attending the ceremony hung back and the guests stayed to the back wall.

It was a lot more...subdued than Sunset had come to expect from formal ceremonies. Back in Equestria, Princess Celestia made big deals out of anything she could, filling the throne room to bursting with ponies that watched while she handed out medals from anything to finding a lost filly that had gone missing for one reason or another, to simply saving a cat from a tree. Hundreds of ponies would cheer and she would bask in the adulation of her subjects after the ceremony, most of the time more than the medal bearers themselves.

First up came Sol Marron, the extremely tall woman with dark skin and clothing that could have given Vanessa a run for her money in the skin department. She had earned six stars since the last ceremony and was promoted to Intermediate Magic Knight, Third Class.

Then there was Noelle’s lesser older brother, Solid Silva. He had rather narrow eyes and an odd hairstyle that created several pointy ends out of his silver hair. He had earned a total of seven stars, which was enough to push him up to Intermediate Magic Knight, Third Class as well.

After him was Noelle’s older sister Nebra, who looked a few years older than the brother who had just been up. She had earned seven stars and the title of Senior Magic Knight, Fifth Class.

Then came Hammond Cassius, a plump member of the Golden Dawn with his hair done up in little knots all around his head. A glass magic user, according to the Wizard King. Like the woman before him, he earned seven stars and was promoted to second class intermediate.

A stone faced man with blonde hair that ran down the back of his cape in a tight braid named Shiren Tium got eight stars and was bumped up to first class intermediate. While the last member of the Golden Dawn gathered at the ceremony, a man by the name of Alecdora Sandler, who had black hair that was done up in a mess of spikes pointing away from his head earned eleven stars and got to the position of Senior Magic Knight, First Class.

“And last, but certainly not least,” the Wizard King said before he looked over to the redheaded boy. “We have Leopold Vermillion of the Crimson Lions, who after earning thirteen stars, will be promoted to Intermediate Magic Knight, First Class.” After handing the boy a medal of some kind, Julius added some advice, like he had done with all the others with varying degrees of success. “Your flame magic is powerful, but...you might want to tone it down from time to time. Incidentally, I thought there were going to be two more of your compatriots here. Did something happen?”

Leo took the award. “They fled in terror of my sister, Sir.”

The Wizard King nodded. “Ah,” he said before smiling. “Well now, I don’t know whether to chastise them for running away, or congratulate those boys on withdrawing when faced with a superior foe. We loose so many young knights who think they can take on more than their ability allows simply because they gained the robe. Still, your brother’s recent efforts look to be outpacing the Golden Dawn in stars, so I can’t be too angry with him for missing this meeting.” He looked past Leo and to the others. “You need to tell William to keep on his toes if he wants to take first place again this year.”

With the ceremony apparently finished, Julius lowered his voice. “Now, I know we already had a bit of an introduction already. So, aside from the first outsider that has graced the Clover Kingdom with her presence in some time, I’ve invited a few special guests. We’ve prepared a banquet for all of you. Please, let us away to the ballroom, where everything has been set up.”

Right as he started to move, Marx let out a surprised gasp and his hands were covered in magic before he cupped one to his ear and another to his head. “Are you certain?” he asked before looking to the Wizard King. “Your pardon sir, but…” He ran up to the taller man to whisper something into his ear.

“...oh dear,” Julius mumbled before turning to the others. “Please excuse me. I’m afraid that something has come up and I must see to it myself.”

---

The atmosphere inside the royal banquet hall was so thick that Noelle thought she could have cut it with a knife. Although a buffet table had been set up and several round smaller ones dotted the room with its stone floor, someone had forgotten to include any chairs.

Which meant everyone was standing.

And staring.

Staring at her table, with Asta, Sunset, Yami and Noelle herself.

She just thanked God that Mereoleona had been the first to walk up to them and demand an explanation of Sunset’s abilities and why everyone thought they were related because of her magic. An explanation that was winding down, as Sunset altered the display of mana in her hand from fire, to water, then earth, and finally wind, before going back to fire.

“-the basic four are the easiest,” she said before the mana in her hand turned into a ball of light mana. “Although, something like this is one of the first things we learn how to do with our magic.”

Mereoleona looked taken aback for a moment; and she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the room became more interested in the girl’s magical display after that. “Are you telling me that you come from an entire species of light mages?”

After ending the display, Sunset took in a deep breath and sighed. “No...and...yes,” she told them as her mouth pressed her lips together while she obviously tried to think of an actual explanation. “I don’t use magic in the same way you people do. I create approximations of the spells I pick up from your grimoires. It’s easier with the four basic elements because I already have a starting point to work with, same with light magic. Say something more exotic, like...ugh...it’s hard to really think of something for you guys to wrap your heads around properly.”

“What about stone?” Shiren Tium asked in his monotone voice.

Sunset mulled it over for a moment, then shook her head. “No, that’s just a form of earth magic. I mean something that can’t be expressed by the four elements.”

“Like time?” Mereoleona suddenly spoke up.

After another second of thought, Sunset became a little hesitant. “That’s a good example, only...I’ve already studied temporal magic back in Equestria so...I have a bit of a start point there too.”

“What about curses?”

Everyone in the room turned to look at Nozel as he gave Sunset an even look. Just having his eyes on a person so close to her made Noelle shiver a little bit.

Sunset snapped her fingers. “Yeah! That’s a good one,” she told him. “That kind of magic is so rare where I come from, most people think they’re just superstition. I’ve read up on them, of course. You know, malignant enchantments that work against the natural order of the world to cause some kind of harm that can’t be cured by healing magic or normal medicines. But, that’s like just reading about an animal as opposed to actually seeing one in the flesh. Not that I’d actually want to curse anyone. I don’t even know if I could. The idea of that kind of magic goes against everything my magic is about.”

“Interesting,” Nozel replied as he rubbed his chin.

From his place beside his sister, Leo looked back at the buffet table. “So uh...are we not going to eat or...what?”

Mereoleona groaned before grabbing her younger brother by the hair. “Idiot! Do you have any idea what that girl really means for the kingdom?” she demanded as she dragged the boy away towards the table.

Feeling a little curious, and somewhat hungry, Noelle headed after them. She wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but if Mereoleona wanted to keep talking…

“Uh...not really,” Leo told his sister as they got some plates from the table.

Mereoleona grabbed her little brother with one hand by the front of his clothes and pulled him close. “Ugh! Did Fuegoleon teach you nothing? Why do you think it is that Clover has so many strange types of magic compared to Diamond or Heart? Hell, those water pansies are still stuck using the four basic elements while we have things like chain magic and a little boy who can make pictures come to life!” she told him through gritted teeth. “It’s because we breed with outsiders. We bend over backwards to make them feel welcome and in return, they sire offspring with bits of their magical lineage. The last outsider we had in this country was something called a Time Lord about two-hundred years ago, and his descendant is now the Wizard King!”

After thinking things over a bit Leopold blanched. “Wait...were you actually serious about that whole marriage thing?”

“If she had just been some commoner, I would have dragged the two of you to the altar and tied you both to the bed because of her mana skills, but now?” Mereoleona went on. “That girl can use every element under the sun and has mana skills that will equal my own within the year, at most. And lucky you Leo, you’re just a year older than her. So, you are going to do everything you can to get her to like you and more, understand?”

Noelle cleared her throat. “Uh, Mereoleona,” she spoke up, getting the attention of the redheads. “That’s um...Sunset’s my best friend...and um…”

The reveal that Noelle was listening to their conversation didn’t have the reaction she was expecting it to. The larger woman smiled with those odd teeth of hers that looked like one of them was more of a fang than something that belonged in a human’s mouth.

Which had Noelle actually wondering if Mereoleona really wasn’t completely human either.

“Great!” the woman told her happily before patting Noelle on the shoulder. “Then you can help introduce Leopold and-hm? What’re you-”

Whatever Mereoleona was going to say got cut off by the sound of flesh striking flesh, followed by metal hitting the floor along with a splash. When Noelle turned around, she blinked at the sight that greeted her.

Solid was laying on the ground, clutching a reddened cheek while a silver goblet and spilled water lay next to him. Above him stood Nozel glaring down at the younger Silva male. “B-Brother!” the Solid exclaimed. “What was that for?”

“Did you honestly think I didn’t see what you were trying to do with that water?” Nozel asked him evenly. “Behave yourself, or do you truly know nothing of manners?”

The question had Solid stammering. “M-Manners?” he asked from his place on the floor. “She was the one listening in on her betters! That worthless piece of-urk!”

Noelle’s mouth dropped as she watched Nozel strike Solid in the gut with his foot, stopping him from talking. Did I...miss something? the royal asked herself as she felt like the world had just fallen out from underneath her and she had landed in some alternate universe. Although Nozel never took part in Solid or her sister’s bullying, he never did anything to stop it, either.

“Huh...did you actually grow up while I was gone?” Mereoleona asked.

The question got a frown from Nozel. “Do not concern yourself with affairs of my family.”

Mereoleona snorted and leaned in close. “You can feed that kind of shit to my idiot brother, but I’ll shove it right back up your ass if you try and give it to me,” she said before leaning in close to the other man. “I know what goes on inside your home, Nozel. And don’t think for one fraction of a second I’m happy about it.”

After a second, Solid picked himself up from the floor. “The Crimson Lion runaway is lecturing us?” he asked before his face became vicious. “That little monster murdered our mother!”

And there it was, out in the open. Solid hadn’t said it very loud, but…

Noelle looked over at the table Sunny was sitting at and thanked God when she saw Captain Charlotte was standing at the table rather awkwardly for some reason as she spoke with the redhead, commanding her full attention. “I don’t actually have to carry any seeds for my magic to work, but it does help to channel it through a medium like this hilt,” she explained while tapping her sword.

“A baby doesn’t kill anyone, you idiot,” Mereoleona told him simply. For some reason, Nozel became extremely tense as her words came out. “Your mother knew she was going to die and chose to give birth rather than let her child be killed just to add a few years onto her own life. And the way you treat this girl that your mother died to give that life is as good as spitting on her memory!”

Noelle had to fight to keep herself upright. What? she asked herself as she grabbed the table behind her.

It was a simple thing. Just a sentence. But…

All her life, Noelle had blamed herself for her mother’s death. Everyone did. So, with everyone yelling at her all the time that she did something, it had to be true. And yet…

Although she had never heard the details, it made sense that Mother knew that her birth would have complications. They weren’t commoners from the Forsaken Realm. They were royalty, given the finest care in the kingdom! Even if they would have had to cut Mother open to remove the baby, a mage skilled in healing would have been able to patch her right back up.

Nothing had really changed.

But…

“I...I didn’t kill her?” Noelle asked with what little breath she could muster while the world around her started to blur.

Solid snorted. “Of course you did, you little-”

“Solid,” Nozel spoke up in a cold voice that was just as hard. “Get your food and go back to our table. You will stand there for the rest of the banquet and shut, your, mouth. Or I will break it, is that understood?”

The younger brother quickly leaped to obey, gathering up food as fast as he could before hurrying back to his table to stand next to his very confused sister.

Noelle could barely form words. “T-Th-ank you...big-”

“Go and clean up your face,” Nozel told her evenly.

Despite the abruptness of the command, Noelle moved to obey, stumbling a little as she did. The sheer impossibility of what was happening made her wonder if this was all some grand illusion.

“Leo, help her get to the bathroom,” Mereoleona ordered her little brother.

---

As the lion cub held Noelle’s hand and gave her some support to get out of the banquet hall, Mereolona rounded on Nozel with a whispered snarl while forcing him down along the table with all the food. At the last moment, she got a plate and handed it to him. “Hurry and get your damn food. Nobody else can come until the royals have been to the table.”

The command rankled the eldest Silva, but he did as told and began to put some of the assembled meats and cheeses on his plate. As he did, Mereoleona studied him for a few seconds to get a read on the man. Something was definitely going on underneath the man’s usually stoic exterior. “Okay, so what’s going on? The way I hear it, you never had a problem with your other two siblings beating your baby sister before now.”

Nozel’s hands shook for a fraction of a second. “They never beat her. I made sure that they understood such things were forbidden.”

“Yeah right,” Mereoleona grumbled before turning her head to look at the younger Silva boy out of the corner of her eye. “After some of the things I heard about your brother, I’m surprised Noelle isn’t carrying his rape child.”

A disgruntled sound came from Nozel. and Mereoleona looked back to see the man’s arms were shaking ever so slightly. It must have been killing him that he couldn’t just shut her up with a fist to the face like his little brother. But they both knew very well who would lose such a confrontation. “You do not know of what you speak.”

Mereoleona snorted. “Yeah right. You decided to be the big man of the house after your mother died, but you never did the fucking job and put those idiots in their place like you should have.”

“Considering that they have a good reason to hate Noelle-”

“I’ve had words with Dorothy,” Mereoleona told him before he could finish the lie.

Nozel stopped as they came to the end of the table. “...I see,” he said before looking down at his plate.

When the man didn’t volunteer any information, Mereoleona frowned at him. “So, are you going to tell me what’s really going on, or do I have to beat it out of you?”

After a few seconds, Nozel picked up his plate and walked over to a corner on the side of the room, away from all the tables. Mereoleona followed at his heels until he turned around to look at her once they had increased their distance from the others. “Since the day Mother died, I have been reaching outsiders of the lower realm. The information is scarce, but all the relevant sources I found on the subject say that normal magic is ineffective in ending their lives. Only magic that comes from an outsider bloodline, like what the Novachrono family possesses, could hope to wound another outsider. But now, a pure blooded outsider from near the opposite end of the spectrum has come to Clover and attached herself to Noelle,” he told her frankly.

After that, it didn’t take much for Mereoleona to connect the dots and see what was going on. “Well...best wait for that fruit to ripen before you try to use it,” she told the man. “And from what I gathered of the redhead, once she gets attached to people, she stays that way. So you’d better start kissing your baby sister’s ass if you want to stay on her good side.”

---

“Okay, now can we eat?” Asta asked as he watched the last of the royals finally leave the buffet table. He thought they were going to pitch tents and camp out there, they had been standing around it so long.

Yami groaned and reached up for a cigarette that wasn’t there. “Stupid no smoking zones. Little smoke never hurt anybody,” he grumbled. “All that coughing is probably good for your lungs, keeps them strong.”

After looking around the room for a minute, Sunset sighed. “Where’d Noelle go?”

“Bathroom, probably,” Yami told her as he got to his feet. “All that walking and talking is really good for digestion.”

Sunset frowned. “She’s not you,” the girl said before standing up. “I’m going to go check on her.”

After his big sister left, Asta made his way over to the buffet before loading his plate up with as much as it could hold, then moving back to the table Yami had led them all to. He took a bite of the roasted beef and...shivered. There must have been something about the meat, because while Charmy was good, maybe even as good as Sister Lilly had been, all the stuff she made was with things that had been in storage for a few days now. Even the little mage said that having stuff down there too long took something out of the flavor.

But, after taking a few more bites, Asta noticed a change in the atmosphere of the room. Not the actual atmosphere, the metaphysical one. Or was it metaphorical? Well, lots of people’s attitudes seemed to shift.

Noelle’s family had on some unhappy looks, with the younger two giving everyone else the stink eye while the oldest was keeping his on them. The Golden Dawn guy who asked Sunset a question looked to be imitating a statue, and the fat one...he was looking pretty normal as he ate his food.

That Blue Rose captain was looking at Yami, but her face was all red and her lips were a bit wavy. Asta wondered if she had eaten a bad egg or something. The other Blue Rose girl was just happily munching away at all the finger food she picked up, probably watching her weight or something. Girls always seemed to be doing that.

Yuno and his group were being...well, Yuno and his group. So, they weren’t much of a concern.

Not that Asta cared much about anyone else in the room either. If the Wizard King thought they were cool, then that was fine with him. So, he just went about eating his lunch with gusto and… Asta blinked when he looked back down at his plate to find some of the food missing. Huh, guess I got a bit distracted at everyone glaring at everyone else, he thought before finishing things off and going back for seconds.

“Filthy, gluttonous commoner,” the guy who got second in the star count, Alecdora Sandler, mumbled as Asta walked by.

The comment made Asta slow down in confusion. Usually, people mocked him for being magicless. But this time...oh, I get it. They probably don’t know about me, he told himself before going on. And I guess even jerks can do their job right.

“What a positively atrocious eater!” the fat guy added. Although, he still sounded pretty cheery.

Which...Asta had to agree with, not that he cared. Noelle and guys like her took their time with food to ‘savor’ it and stuff, but Asta didn’t much care for holding things in his mouth for several seconds to suck all the flavor out. It hit his tongue and it was gone.

“It’s a lot like having a rat in the-ow!” Noelle’s little big brother jumped back on one foot several times as he held the other in his hands.

“You should be more careful where you put your feet when wearing sandals,” Noelle’s bigger big brother told him evenly.

Asta took a moment to look at the weird scene that was Noelle’s family, then got some more food. Guess Noelle really takes after her biggest brother, Asta thought to himself. Since they were at a party and all and Noelle wasn’t around to introduce them, Asta took it upon himself to walk up to them. “Hey there! My name’s Asta, and I’ve gone on a few missions with your baby sister.”

“Begone filth,” the younger guy said.

“Do not dirty me with your presence,” Noelle’s older sister added.

Then the oldest of the three glared at the boy. “Commoner’s should show royalty proper deference, boy. Get out of my sight.”

Asta blinked. “Wow,” he said with a smile that broke out a second later. “Noelle must really respect you guys, because that’s how she acted when we first met too.”

There was a slight change in the oldest brother’s expression as the younger one called up his grimoire. “Perhaps I should teach you a lesson on how to behave in the presence of royalty.”

Taking the hint, Asta gave a little laugh as he backed off. “Oh yeah, you guys are definitely related to Noelle.”

“Do not say the name of that tr-” the female Silva paused for a moment before glancing over to her older brother. “Noelle’s name in my presence, commoner. The sound of your voice sickens me.”

Asta just kept walking away while that Sandler guy glared at him before looking over to the table pull of silver-haired people. “Is this how House Silva keeps the commoners in their place, now?” he asked. “No wonder you sent your baby sister to roll in the mud with them. You were testing the temperature of the filth to see if it was comfortable to do the same.”

Nozel turned his attention to the other noble. “I would suggest shutting your mouth before something tears out your tongue, Sandler. There are some internal injuries that can’t be healed,” he warned the man evenly.

The other man grimaced, but looked away and over to Asta. “Filthy commoner trash. Why the Wizard King invited Black Bull scum like you to the ceremony is a mystery.”

“Don’t you guys have commoners in your squad too?” Asta pointed out.

From across the room, Yuno gave him an even glare. “What’re you dragging me into this for?”

Alecdora glared at the shorter knight. “Feh, he may be Golden Dawn, but he’s still a sub-par magic knight that nobody expects anything of. Just like you.”

Back in familiar territory, Asta found himself going down an old verbal road as he smirked at the guy who had a stick shoved so far up his ass it put a hole in his brain. “Well then I guess-”

“Now hold on a minute!” Klaus said before Asta could really get started, taking the wind out of the boy’s sails and causing him to look back at the other man. “In the mission that I served alongside him, Asta performed quite admirably as a magic knight.”

The comment got a snort from Alecdora. “I don’t want to hear anything from you, Klaus. I’ve heard the rumors about you actually exercising before dawn. You’re the embarrassment of the nobility, just like your squad is the disgrace of the Golden Dawn! Even the royal on your team was next to useless on your last big mission. You shame House Vermillion with your ineptitude.”

Mimosa let out a pitiful squeak and took a half-step behind Klaus.

Having taken a table by herself, Mereoleona gave a growl. “Huh, so this is what happens when someone who has their tongue up another guy’s ass all day long steps away from it. Go back to licking your master’s butthole, dog. Because your mouth is full of shit, and it seems to be leaking” she cut in before looking over to her niece. “And you! STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, BRAT! YOU’RE NOT A BABY ANYMORE!”

“Y-Yes Ma’am!” Mimosa replied as she hid even further behind Klaus.

Asta looked around in confusion after getting back to his table. “You know...this is a really lousy party.”

---

Sunset placed her hand on Noelle’s forehead. She didn’t feel hot, but Equestrian medical diagnostic spells weren’t really meant to work on humans when it came to diseases that she had never encountered before. Which also made her worry about getting sick with some kind of ape flu to which she had no natural immunities, but if it hadn’t happened in the hovel that was Hage, then it probably wouldn’t happen where the people had running water.

“I’m telling you, I’m fine,” Noelle replied as Sunset blocked her up against the washbasin that looked a lot more like the kind of bathroom fixtures she was used to in Equestria than the ones in Hage had been. “I just got a bit dizzy is all.”

Human toilets were still weird, though.

After considering Noelle’s flushed cheeks, the dizzy spell, and her miffed attitude, the not-unicorn came to the obvious conclusion. “So, you’re having your monthly bleed, then?” she asked before reaching down to lift up the pink skirt of Noelle’s out and check for any red spots on her underwear.

“S-SUNSET!” the girl shrieked before pushing her away and reaching down to pull on her dress a little bit. “I swear! How in the hell did you ever pass for human?”

The scandalized look on Noelle’s face made Sunset roll her eyes. “The real question is, how did your species ever survive?” she asked right back. “But if you’re having girl problems, I can show you some ways to masturbate that really helps. Even give you a hand if you want.”

Noelle’s face became even more red. “You did not just say that!”

“What?” Sunset asked as she rolled her eyes at Noelle’s expression. “You know, where I come from, mares help each other out with their monthly problems all the time. I just never had a friend to...ask before.”

After taking several deep breaths, Noelle managed to turn back to a normal color of human skin. “Okay, so...that’s not how we do things here,” Noelle told her before standing up straight. “And hey, you know what? I’m feeling perfectly fine now. Yep! Let’s get back to the banquet.”

Although Sunset knew that Noelle was lying through her teeth, there was something that she wanted to find out, and the answer was just standing around in the banquet hall. “Okay,” she agreed before washing her hands and following the girl towards the bathroom door. “By the way, why aren’t there any chairs out there?”

“Oh yeah, I was thinking about that too,” Noelle replied. “The last royal banquet, the guy who planned it had all the tables set up with different food on them and no chairs, so we had to go around filling our plates and eating at different tables. It made us be a lot more sociable. Maybe the Wizard King was going for something like that, but somebody messed up on the details and just did a normal buffet while somebody else did a social thing.”

The two young women stepped outside and blinked when Leopold suddenly stood to attention. “Oh! Hey...uh...it’s you again...eh-he…” he managed in a rather lame fashion.

“It’s...Leo, right?” Sunset asked, trying to remember how some of the humans had referred to him earlier.

Leopold nodded. “That’s right, uh...look, so…”

Before the awkward boy with the tooth in his mouth that looked like a wild animal’s fang could finish, Sunset looked over to Noelle. “So, help me out here, Noelle...is he cool, or a jerk?”

“Huh?” the girl with the silver hair replied.

Sunset sighed before rubbing her head. “Look, back where I come from, most of the nobility are just lazy, greedy assholes that are riding the on the success of their ancestors and the only royal I knew is a stupid, stuck up, hypocritical, fat, piece of...ahem!” she cleared her throat. “Look, point is, I’m a little biased. Not that it isn’t deserved, especially after Klaus proved to be...well, Klaus. But...he was also you know...Klaus. So...is he cool?”

For some reason, Leo became extremely nervous, as shown by his face while Noelle looked him over, thinking about her answer. “Eh, Leo’s okay, I guess. I spent most of my time with Mimosa.”

“OKAY? Leopold shouted, more mortified than angry before he pointed a thumb at his chest. “I earned the most stars this quarter out of all the Mystic Knights!”

Sunset felt the need to point out a little fact. “Isn’t that because you and your brother ran away from your big sister, using work as an excuse?”

The boy’s heroic pose shattered, along with his self image. As he sat there, crumbling, Sunset took Noelle’s hand and hurried past him. “Come on now, I want to find something out before the party’s over,” she said as they made their way to the dining hall.

“Find what out?” Noelle asked before Sunset opened the door to the banquet hall and moved through all the tables.

Halfway there, Noelle made a sound like a bug flew into her throat before Sunset had to drag more than lead her across the room with the table full of magic knights that had those squad robes that looked like big feathers. “Hey! So, you’re the rest of Noelle’s family, right?” she asked before Noelle let out a tiny squeak and jumped behind her for some reason, grabbing into Sunset’s shoulders to use her like a shield.

Sunset wrote the odd action off as her usual embarrassment and held out a hand. “”I’m Sunset Shimmer. I knew that she had siblings, but she’s just so damn private that she never talks about any of you.”

The eldest Silva, the one with the silly braid that hung down his face, stepped forward and took the woman’s hand to bend down a bit and kiss it. “There is a reason for that. Although, if Noelle wished to keep it private, then I shall honor her wishes.”

“...huh?” Noelle sounded from behind the redhead as the tension just went slack to the point that it felt more like she was holding onto Sunset’s shoulders because of a need to remain upright.

Although she knew she was missing something, Sunset just let it go in favor of getting to the important stuff. “So, tell me. You guys are all obviously Silver Eagles, but Noelle was put into the Black Bulls, why is that?”

Noelle’s fingers dug into Sunset’s shoulders, and she felt the girl tremble as the two other younger Silvas stepped to the side as one, almost to flank Noelle’s defenses. For her part, Sunset just looked back as the girl practically cowered behind her and blinked. What in the world was up with her?

“You mean, you didn’t notice?” Nebra asked with a smile that would have looked more at place on a predator.

“Come now, dear sister, Noelle might have gone on that dungeon mission, but that doesn’t mean she actually did anything,” Solid told the other silver-haired woman before he looked over to Sunset. “You see, our dear sister is quite useless as a mage. It’s rather shameful, to be honest. A royal who can’t even control her magic.”

When the two royals finished speaking, Noelle actually loosened her grip just a bit and blinked in confusion. “...that’s it?” she asked in a tiny voice before looking at her older brother, who was giving her an intense glare.

Sunset reached up to rub the back of her neck thanks to all the pressure Noelle had put on her muscles in that area. She wanted to reach over and smack the two of them, but they were Noelle’s family and...they had a good point.

So, not wanting to get in her best friend’s bad side, Sunset forced herself to stay positive. “Yeah, we’re working on that and making some progress. But that doesn’t really explain why she’s in the Bulls and not your squad.”

Both of the middle Silva children made disgusted faces before glancing at the eldest, who stepped forward and shot them both little glares. “The Silver Eagles is one of the most prestigious squads in all of the Magic Knights. We take on the most dangerous missions and fight at the front line of every battle. If Noelle were to have joined us in such endeavors, she would have died. I put her in the Black Bulls, a squad of layabouts and misfits so that she would not be put in any real dangerous situations beyond simple animal control and the odd pathetic group of bandits.”

“...say what?” Noelle mumbled, completely dumbfounded.

Then, Nozel looked up past Sunset to raise his voice. “An arrangement that I have come to find that your commanding officer did not bother to honor.”

“Hm?” Yami asked as he looked over to the royal that was staring daggers at him to give a lazy death glare in response. “You say something, braid brain? I don’t remember agreeing to making your baby sister into a fixture in my hideout. She’s there, so she’s going to be pulling her own weight.”

The comment had Nozel glaring at Yami and walking towards the man. “Your disrespectful tone displeases me, foreigner. Perhaps I should beat some manners into you,” he said before drawing the mana in around him to the point that the pressure of it started shaking the room.

Yami turned his whole body towards the other captain to create just as big a disruption in the atmosphere as he took a few steps towards the silver-haired man. “You wanna pick a fight with me, pretty boy??” he asked before the silvery mana of Nozel and the dark purple Yami was emitting collided to begin pushing at each other, much to the detriment of the room’s cracking windows.

Back at the more quiet side of the room, the amazon with the dark skin looked back to her captain. “Uh...shouldn’t you try and stop them, Char?”

The third captain in the room gave the brewing fight an uneasy look. “Ugh, why did it have to be Yami, of all people?” she moaned before turning her attention to the woman standing next to her. “And call me Captain!”

“Whatever you say, Char!”

Sunset groaned at the display of the two men, pressing their proverbial dicks up against each other as they engaged in their male dominance ritual. As impressive as Yami was, it seemed that Nozel stood a bit higher than him in the display of power. Although, just because he could put on a better show didn’t mean that the substance of his grimoire was necessarily better.

The whole thing reminded Sunset of what she had learned of magic insofar when it came to the Clover Kingdom’s general view of it.

For starters, there was mana, the fuel for spells. Everyone in the world was born with a set amount that was determined at birth. Although she had heard stories about ways people had tried to artificially increase their mana reserves and other tales involving children who had been crippled to the point of barely being able to produce mana at all, a person’s mana was more or less determined by their parentage.

Then there was a person’s magical power. If a person’s mana was their endurance, magical power was their mystical strength. That attribute could and did increase over time, as a mage’s body developed and they worked with magic. But it also usually walked hand in hand with their mana supply, as the more a person used their magic, the more their mystical muscles increased. If someone didn’t have much mana, they couldn’t build up their magical power as much as other mages. There were other factors, like how emotion and determination that could cause spikes in a person’s maximum level of power, but they weren’t something that could be counted on to happen very much in a person’s lifetime.

The third determining factor in what made a mage strong or not was their grimoire. In most respects, the higher level of mana a person had, the bigger book they got. The bigger book they had, the more spells they might know. However, the biggest determining factor for a mage’s grimoire seemed to be the state of mind of the mage herself. If she didn’t believe in herself or didn’t want to develop her magic for some reason, then it didn’t matter how many times she went through the motions of blowing craters in the ground with water blasts. The spells simply wouldn’t come.

Magic Knight Captains had all three requirements in abundance.

But, despite the impressive display going on before her, Sunset was more put off by the important things. “I didn’t get to finish my conversation,” she grumbled before leaning over to her friend. “Noelle, go tell your brother to get his butt back here.”

When there wasn’t any response from the girl in white and pink, Sunset turned her head and blinked. “Uh...Noelle?”

The youngest Silva was standing behind her and off to the side a little, but her eyes said that her mind was even further away. “...everything I knew about the world before today was wrong,” she mumbled.

“What the hell is going on with you?” Sunset mumbled before snapping her fingers in front of the girl’s face, drawing her back to reality.

But, before Noelle could do anything, something else happened to keep Sunset from getting her answers. The double door leading to the hallway that gave access to the castle banged open and one of Clover’s faceless mages ran in, wearing his blue robe. “Emergency! There’s an emergency”

“SHUT IT!” Yami told the man before smacking him with a fist when he got too close to the arguing captains.

Nozel sneered at the man with the dark hair. “Did you not hear what he was yelling, ignorant savage?”

“Like I care about what some lackey is going on about,” Yami told him before the building began shaking once again. However, it was short lived and only made the big man confused. “Huh, that wasn’t one of us.”

The sound of an explosion shook the windows, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. When Sunset made her way up to one, she blinked at the sight of a large fire burning in the middle of a crowded residential area. “Huh, looks like the city...or, Townsville...whatever it’s called, is under attack.”

Comments

[Snow Fire]

Okay, I think this is one of the most hilarious chapters to date. And looks like the revelation of Noelle’s situation comes early. Thanks Mereleona.

Speaking of who, I wonder how this affects future events down the road since Fuegoleon isn’t present for the Eye of the Midnight Sun to take his magic stone....and now I dread said organization actually learning about Sunset and their plans for her.

Looking forward to more of this. It’s really hard to find good Black Clover stories that are continuing nowadays.

[Creus]

I love this story, it's an excellent crossover!

[Neverafter]

Interesting that the Black Bulls don't get a closer look at how Noelle is normally treated by her siblings. Rather, the subtly altered events that lead to Mereoleona and surprisingly, Nozel, to shatter Noelle's worldview on how she's treated and viewed by her eldest brother Nozel. Nozel still hasn't seen anything like Noelle proving herself during the Elf Arc, so he still doesn't think that she can be strong at this point; as he said himself, Nozel wanted Noelle to be on the lowest-ranking squad to minimize the risk of being sent on dangerous missions-- not what ends up happening because she's always in the thick of it, but that wasn't Nozel's intent.

Ironically, this display of actual concern for her will, I think, motivate Noelle more than ever to become strong, to prove that she doesn't need to be protected, that she'll step on the front lines and confront her problems head-on. Much like canon, I can't say that he's treating Noelle better for the best reason but hey, Nozel isn't a perfect older brother, far from it, and he's not supposed to be; if he was, Noelle's backstory would have been much different, after all. I don't envy that conversation he'll have with Dorothy because we all know that Mereoleona didn't censor herself.

[Neece]

Sunset's nonchalance towards the attack's hilarious

Ah, the honesty of a pony. Dunno if Noelle gets in a relationship with anyone in cannon, but I ship her with Sunny. Not like Sunset couldn't bypass that pesky gender requirement with magic, if it really came to it. Would be ironic if the most powerful and versatile mages of the next generation came from the black sheep of the Silva family.

I wonder how the religious ones will take the news Sunset's half-angel makeup when it becomes public. Likely cause even more turmoil.

Extremely interesting point on breeding with Outsiders. That would explain the laws about marrying before 100, gotta get that magical blood on the population somehow. And pony blood seems to be on a level of is own for the kingdom.

Speaking of ponies, is the event the spirits are story for the rise of Nightmare Moon? Would make it even more understandable that Sylph cares about Bacon Horse, indirectly having caused her suffering by influencing Celestia to be how she is.

Curious to see how many Grimoires she'll manage to nab and give a read this time. Oh, and if she'll be able to stop the next Dungeon from collapsing, now that she knows what's with the timer.

[Rictor Yagami]

I've been reading this story for a while now and I had favored it like weeks ago and it kicks ass! Man I absolutly love this crossover as I have read 20 volumes of Black Clover and saw a couple of episode of the anime. First chance I get I'm going going to watch every episode I can from the begging all the way up to the last episode I saw on last Saturday. I also enjoy how bad ass Sunset is in this story and I hope she can learn some more hand to hand combat and even create some of her own spells. I know this may sound cliche but do you think she can have some spells from the series Bastard? Just wondering but if you haven't seen or read the series I recommend it. There are so many ideas and suggestion's I want to give I don't know where to start, but on to the review of this chapter.

This was the most funniest one I read, especially with the story Yami told about how Mereoleona gave birth to Sunset which I couldn't stop laughing at! Honestly though I wonder if there is someone who can tame her? LOL! It is too bad that Sunset, Asta and Yuno didn't end up in the Crimson Lions but after reading this story it is for the best, especially when Sunset and Asta are helping out Noelle.

Speaking of Noelle I honestly hate her siblings as they blame her for something that was not in her control and honestly I wanted to see them dead until I learned of the true reason later on when I saw some clips on YouTube. Still it didn't give them the right to abuse her like that and Nozel is a coward for not doing anything. At least now he's starting to act like the adult after what he and the other magic knights learned about Sunset which I'm surprised as I thought that was a secret that would only be kept with the Black Bulls. Reason I say this is because I can see a lot of people wanting to use Sunset for their own selfish motives. Speaking of which please do not pair Sunset up with Leo. Mereoleona has no right to try to force those two into marrige.

I honestly don't know who I would like to see Sunset pair up with as I'm thinking either Yuno or maybe Vanessa but then again Vanessa might be more of a big sister type. But I'll wait and see in future chapters. First chance I get I'm going to review every chapter I can to share my thoughts.

An idea has come to mind if you are interested in it. I'm thinking you should have Twilight, Autumn Blaze and even Thorax end up in the Black Clover universe as Thorax could help out the Clover Kingdom after Reincarnation Arc where he can be Julius. Autumn Blaze can be a friend and pair up with one of the Black Bulls plus I think it would be funny if she started winning in any gambling games that Yami played! As for Twilight Sparkle she can have real friends and learn how to be a lot stronger.

Oh yeah there was this part that I read in the chapter.

“Who are these guys?” she mumbled as she looked at the men in their dark blue robes with yellow lining and raised hoods over their heads. “I thought Diamond were the ones with all the faceless minions.”

Yami snorted. “You don’t think the Magic Knights are the only defense of an entire kingdom, do you?” he asked. “These are just basic soldiers, guys who failed the exam or never had the balls to take it in the first place. They catch purse snatchers and all the other riffraff there just aren’t enough knights to bother with.”

“So...they’re more of a civic guard than actual military,” Sunset clarified.

This reminds me how the Wonderbolts really are or as I like to call these losers the WonderDolts.

Another I want to let you know is there were a couple of miss spelled words and there was a bunch of words bunched up together that didn't make sense. Just thought you should know. Also I really hate how people started being rude to Asta as they reminded me of the asshole nobles of Canterlot and I really want to tear into Celestia right now. I like her but even I have to agree that she can be stupid at times and more then once her negligence has put Equestria in danger more then once. This is getting good and I look forward to more.

Good Luck LordBrony 2040.

[Babroniedad]

10293568
Oh my gosh yes! The story of Babygoleon was hilarious! I haven’t laughed that hard in ages!

[red-sun]

-The Legend of Babygoleon-

the best origin of Sunset

[Midknight Defender]

Charmy didn’t seem to understand the concept that the first meal of the day needed to be a light one as not to bog someone down.

Eh, a lot of cultures disagree with that. A heavy breakfast has been quite normal in lots of places over the ages, with much lighter meals at midday and in the evening.

Because you know, queens are mean while princesses sound more...approachable?”

Julius let out a little laugh. “Heh, yes. I can see how that would be a plus. Lord knows I could do with a little less bowing and scraping,”

You know, your title's already been changed over the centuries from "Magic Emperor" to "Wizard King" anyway. You could swap it out to "Arcane Prince" anytime you wanted.

And just make that obnoxious, blueblooded fop in the palace change his title to Prince, too.

We’re having a party afterwards, you can speak to him then if you’d like.

Ahh, Julius. Such a thoughtful host, providing top-tier gladiatorial entertainment for the party guests!

Nozel snorted. “Stupid foreigner. It’s obvious that Mereoleona found a commoner somewhere and conceived a child with him,” he said. “Then, she went to the Flower Fruit Mountain

HAH! Ol' Braidyface bought the conspiracy theory hook, line, and sinker.

[Blue Horizon]

Considering Charlotte looked to be the only captain who wanted Sunset during the exam, and just from, overall, how much I love the Blue Roses... I really hope Captain Roselei can strike up some relationship with Sunset.

Excellent, and hilarious, chapter. As always, can't wait for more!

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

“Oh yeah!” Yami said with a laugh. “You don’t know...hehehe...okay so, you’re gonna love this! Just sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale, The Legend of Babygoleon!”

And what a remarkably entertaining tale it was!

Can’t wait for the shipping bells to start ringing for Sunset and either Finral or Leo! ....And I’m still going to ship Charmy and Yuno. That must happen. No arguments.

[ILikeFanfiction1234]

Just caught up and i like the reveals, and the story and action and character interaction. I liked the scene between sunset and the wizard king.

[Pinklestia]

Well, look a distraction!

[Derpy_DragonV1]

Despite the infantile nature of the thought, sometimes she just wanted the older human to hold her and never let go.

*Crazed laughter that quickly evolves into pained sobbing*

[Midnight_Hellfire]

The sound of an explosion shook the windows, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. When Sunset made her way up to one, she blinked at the sight of a large fire burning in the middle of a crowded residential area. “Huh, looks like the city...or, Townsville...whatever it’s called, is under attack.”

[SpiritD3t3ctiv3]

After looking at the picture of his little sister for a moment and getting a nosebleed for some reason Sunset still didn’t understand despite running a medical diagnostic spell over him when it happened earlier, the man turned his attention back to her. “That’s only twenty, I’m going to need four-hundred and eighty more.”

He's saying he wants 500 stories for his sister?!?!
....gotta hand it to him, his love for his sister is still creepy, but I'll give him props for going all out when it comes to spoiling her

[SpiritD3t3ctiv3]

“You have to admit, it sounds a lot more plausible than your actual origin story,” Noelle told her.

And not for nothing but, it's also kinda cooler than the actual origin story. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it, it's just...AU's exist for a reason. Who doesn't like to spice things up with a remade origin? Lol

[Aemon Targaryen]

10478629
At the very least, being adopted by her.

Now, a Sunset send back to the age of 6-7 and becoming the adoptive daughter of Mereoleona sound good.

[Darkriver101]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[Snowdrifter]

The sound of an explosion shook the windows, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. When Sunset made her way up to one, she blinked at the sight of a large fire burning in the middle of a crowded residential area. “Huh, looks like the city...or, Townsville...whatever it’s called, is under attack.”