Sunset didn’t think she managed to sleep that night. She had lain in bed for a good eight hours, but if she did sleep it was for less than one.
Even still, she felt wide awake around five in the morning.
Restless, she snuck out of her house and went down to the school, the streets dead quiet this early. She felt ambivalent about being completely alone in the dark city at the moment. It could be a good or a bad thing.
Finally, she got down to the school - no doubt the nexus of this place. She looked up at its dark windows, wondering if Celestia was looking back down at her, if she lived inside the school. She slowly put one foot down on the school grounds.
Principal Celestia didn’t appear in a burst of fire, so Sunset decided it was safe to take another step... then a third... until finally she got back to the courtyard she first appeared in. Sunset went down to the statue she had emerged from yesterday and sat down next to it.
How could she possibly open it back up when the time came? There had to be some way to use magic as a human. If she could just nudge the inert portal a tiny bit she’d feel much better.
Her fingers were vaguely horn-shaped and humans used those to do everything else. She held one of them up against her forehead like it was a horn but that went nowhere. She tried wiggling her fingers and toes, making various hand signs, rubbing her temples, and concentrating as hard as she could. But nothing.
Incantations! That was one way to use magic without a horn. Sunset closed her eyes and tried the simplest incantation she could think of.
“Vita est quasi impetus tempestatis in anatine mundo,” Sunset chanted.
But nothing happened.
Could humans just not use magic? Even earth ponies could kind of use magic a little and they were already the short end of the stick!
Sunset kept trying to use magic for hours. She tried punching the statue but just ended up bloody. She tried rubbing her hands on it, licking it, and even singing but got nowhere.
Soon it was seven. The school bell rang and other students started walking past her and into the school, chatting excitedly with one another.
Well, there was a school right here. Maybe she’d get lucky for once and there’d be a class about using magic as a human.
She wearily rubbed her eyes while others went past her. They were all so energized and happy looking. It kind of pissed her off.
Sunset followed the crowd inside.
The entrance was a large hub directly across from the cafeteria. There were halls leading left and right and stairs leading up and down. Everyone looked like they knew where they were going, which brought up a problem to Sunset’s mind.
What classes was she taking? If she just walked into one and sat down would anyone say anything? Did they take attendance?
If she already had a house then she must be on their files, right? And if not, she could try gaslighting everyone, insisting they simply had made a mistake.
There was a small office connected directly to this first room, with an adult human sitting behind a counter in it. The sign promised this was the ‘coordinator’. She looked much more alive than the other human adults.
“Excuse me,” Sunset said. “I seem to have lost my schedule.”
“Of course, dear.” She turned to her side, punching something into a noiseless typewriter and looking into a magic mirror. “What’s your name?”
Bit of a relief she didn’t already know.
“Sunset Shimmer.”
“And you said you were a transfer student, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Wonderful! We’re glad to have you here!” The receptionist looked into her mirror for a moment longer. “I think the reason you can’t find your schedule is that you never made one in the first place.”
“Oh, right.” Sunset gave her fake laugh.
“Well, you can make it here.”
The receptionist gave Sunset a form, then reached under the counter and pulled out a huge book, one that had to be six or seven inches thick. The cover said ‘Canterlot High Courses vol. 1’.
That last part made Sunset’s eye twitch. The receptionist took out a second, third, and eventually the sixth volume of this, all of them just as massive as the first. Did you get to graduate if you finished all of these?
Sunset started flipping through random pages.
It was like they had a course for everything. Train repair. Bulgarian cuisine. 18th-century technology. History of printing. History of language. History of historians. Basket weaving. Extreme basket weaving. Dynamite fishing. Lightsaber dueling. Fashion critique. Horse breeding?! That one crossed the line.
A lot of them had another course listed that you needed to have taken ‘the prior semester’, not just ‘prior’, which was interesting. Most of them went in a sequence of one to seven, meaning a lot of these lasted seven semesters.
So the question now was that if Sunset could learn anything, and apparently she could, what would it be?
As she deliberated, idly flipping through pages, she stumbled upon the most important section of them all.
Magic! There was a way to use magic as a human!
Sunset immediately signed up for sorcery one. But what else?
There was page after page of courses about magic. Sunset carefully combed through them, trying to decide what the most useful type of magic would be in this situation. That’s when she saw it.
Interdimensional portals.
Sunset stared down at it in awe like she’d found the lost crown of the stars. That was the perfect course. It almost seemed a little too perfect, like it might be a trap.
She needed to play this cool! Make it look like she wasn’t too interested in that course. Obviously, it would look suspicious if every course she took was one that revealed her ignorance or was directly related to escape.
Sunset quickly signed up for marine biology and pottery as red herrings before going back to what might be useful. She wanted a recent history course to learn what the heck happened here.
20th-century history sounded good. That had to be fairly recent - how many centuries could there possibly be? She didn’t see any courses that mentioned the 21st century.
Come to think of it, she didn’t know what year it was and there was no calendar around. But asking that had to be a suspicious question.
After signing up for an etiquette class and one about car mechanics, Sunset finally wrote down ‘interdimensional portals’.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow you to take that course,” the receptionist said right as she wrote it down.
“Huh?” Sunset’s heart skipped a beat as she looked up. What if it really was a trap?! “Why not?”
“You need at least two students to sign up for a course before you can take it,” she explained. “Right now, no one has signed up for interdimensional portals this semester. You can tell how many students are currently enrolled in a course by double-tapping the name.”
Sunset tried it. Interdimensional portals had a zero appear next to its name in the book. Thankfully, the other courses she signed up for had at least one other person in them.
Sunset spent so long going through all the courses that she missed the first two periods. No etiquette lessons today it seemed.
As the third period started, the halls flooded with students again. One of them was one of the few Sunset recognized, Rainbow Dash.
“Ah hey! Sunset! You came to school!” Dash ran up from behind and leaned over Sunset’s shoulder. “Are you still picking courses? If you want suggestions here are some rad courses I’m taking. Falconry, history of swords, evolution of poisons, 18th-century battle tactics, film theory—which is great cause you watch tons of movies.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Sunset turned around to face her. “How do you feel about interdimensional portals?”
“Um.” Dash slowly shrugged. “I don’t feel anything? That doesn’t make me a sociopath, does it?”
“Do you want to take it with me?” Sunset put her hands together pleadingly. “Please? Portals are my favorite thing!”
“They are?” Dash rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, they’re a little cool. At least, the swirly ones are. But I kind of already have a full schedule this semester.”
“What about next semester? I’ll take falconry this semester if you take interdimensional portals next one,” Sunset promised.
“Yeah, I’m down for that!” Dash held out her arm like a falcon was perched on it now. “You’re gonna love falconry! It’s one of those outdoor classes!”
Sunset finished penning her schedule. Just one more period and she’d be in sorcery class.
I would have wanted that lightsaber class and any Jedi classes as well.
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I imagine Sunset would have pictured a small saber rather than a lightsaber when reading that course.
Oh crap... "You can tell how many students are currently enrolled in a course by double-tapping the name." As a pony from magic land, she probably doesn't think on the significance of this, but I as a Human am very concerned when print media matches paradigms set forth by certain familiar technology.
Excellent world building here, the amount of and nature of classes already start to paint the picture.
Side Note: I'm a little annoyed this ended up in a certain fiction group. I almost hope it was added by accident at this point cause it feels like the mystery was spoiled for me before it even got truly started. There's a need to categorize things, but when it comes to suspense/mysteries, it'd be best to wait to add it to a group that spoils it till after the story has made the reveal I think. For example, what if at the end of a story the main character dies and then first chapter in an editor that read the draft adds it to the "Main Character Dies" group. Kind of a let down for people just getting started now know what's going to happen in the end. Here's hoping it's wrong so I can keep wondering, but even if it's not, it's still a fun idea with a great execution so far.
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If it makes you feel any better, this is very much in the 'tangentially related' category, a bit on the edge. I wasn't 100% sure if I should post it there, buuuuut asking around the Optimalverse Discord I was encouraged to.
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That does help a little. Cool, I'll at least be able to look forward to what variant aspects are going on here then.
"Dynamite Fishing"
Ah yes, my favorite childhood memories as a Russian.
And another tally mark for incredibly bored eldritch aliens.
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Well it does kinda spoil the mystery, I never would have found it otherwise. Also this is in "Non-Canon" and the fact it is Equestria Girls, instead of ponies, adds to the mystery of just how AU this is that group.
Yes Sunset. You ain't got no magical juice on your side.
Ah yes. The classic invocation of the three Chaotic Fates and He Who Nests in Gold.
In... in a physically printed book?
Huh. This may actually be a hint as to the greater scope. "I don't understand your hip ways" is a good default phrase for limited AI.
Fascinating further developments. We'll see where this goes from here.
Cromulent.
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I was wondering if someone would notice. Nice work.
This keeps getting more and more intriguing and I love it. :D
Initial attempt: "Life is half furious movement in the duck's world" Had to look up the word 'duck' but yeah.
Google translate, as there's like a 50% chance that's what was used: "Life is like a whirlwind in the world duck"
And now I realize it's probably not the saying 'like a swan: calm on the surface but furious underneath' (sometimes it's a duck not a swan), but more likely "Life is like a hurricane in Duckworld."
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Ah, I see you beat me there. Hey I know you... you show up a lot of the same stories as me.
Tangentially related: What does Quackaroni mean anyway? Is it some arcane incantation?
RIP earth ponies
For the last time, Sunset, you can’t just use gaslighting to solve all your problems!
That must be a weird one for a pony to go through
Implying everyhuman already knows about interdimensional portals? Interesting
Thousand Sons theme intensifies.
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Yeah I've noticed that too, but at this point nothing about what's happening around seems mundane anymore, so, tactile-reactive enchanted book? Sure, even Sunset didn't blink an eye.
In a way what's more concerning is how unconciously 'in tune' Sunset seems with the world. Robots. Punk aesthetic (leather!). And so on. Could be Celestia implanting the concepts in her during their initial meeting. But more logical concepts than knowledge. She still defaulted into considering the car as running off coal (although who's to says that's not the case here?)
But does falconry come with its own falcon? Hmmm...this might have been a class that I would have been interested in attending waaaay back in the day if it did. Especially with infinite free food to feed them.
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Falconry I is a purely theoretical course