A long train ride followed by a moderately long ride on another, track-less sort of transport, and it was evening before Sunset arrived at Surrey.
The vehicle had exited the great city of London, traveled through a sort of dip in building density, and then entered an area of moderate urbanization again.
Uneven patches with houses of various sizes made way to denser, more orderly zones of townhouses.
Some of the humans around Sunset gave her strange looks when they realized she was suddenly holding a wooden mug, which she had kept from Hogwarts, filled with gently steaming hot tea.
Sunset pondered her options as the house-covered landscape, illuminated in the evening sun, slowly passed through her window.
Finally making a decision, she put her mug inside her jacket where it seemingly vanished, and disembarked away from the town center.
Most muggles had come home, and were relaxing in their houses and backyards. The scent of burning charcoal and sizzling meat and vegetables could be smelled from several directions, and the odd passerby gave Sunset polite, if slightly aloof, nods.
There was a hard border zone for buildings and a partially kept field beyond. Copses of trees of various sizes were placed in that random way that nature tends to arrange things when left to its own devices, and between them the field was clearly mowed roughly and on occasion as opposed to a garden, enough to keep saplings from establishing themselves.
On the border of this area was a playground in a large sandpit, empty until Sunset walked into it. Swings and park benches were out in the open, but a playground fort made of wood, with a wide metal slide going down from it, was partially obscured by young oaks… by oak standards at least.
Sunset sat on the slide, set her shoulder bag down beside her, and pulled out her robe, throwing it around her like a blanket.
She looked around the area, so calm and empty in the light of the quickly setting sun, to make sure she was alone.
With a few waves of her hand, her nails glowing, dry twigs and a newly fallen limb from a tree floated towards her from the feet of nearby trees and shrubs, forming into a pile in front of her.
Not that she actually needed kindling, or even fuel, but she felt it best to make it look genuine in muggle lands. She clenched her fist, sucking out the moisture from the wood and levitating it above her hand before tossing it into the sand, then fired a jet of orange flame towards the pile of wood, which lit up into a cozy fire within seconds.
She retrieved a bag, formerly for onions for potions class, and pulled out some other things from Hogwarts, in this instance a fork and some toast.
As she was holding the toast over the flame, a voice called out. “What’s that you’re doing there?”
Sunset looked up to see a woman with graying hair looking at her, dressed in a robe and ill-fitting rubber boots, with a grocery bag of what seemed like tin cans in her hand.
Sunset suddenly felt a lot less sure than she did mere seconds ago. She had figured that some muggles were going to be easy to deal with compared to the faculty at Hogwarts, and the students on top of that, but now, confronted with a nosy muggle, she stumbled.
“Uh… enjoying the fire, I guess.”
“Well!” the woman said, and stomped up towards Sunset. “I’ll be…”
The woman suddenly stopped when she got close enough to get a proper look at the young girl.
Sunset would’ve liked to believe she just looked that impressive, but felt it was risky to assume that, and just sat there in silence.
“... I’ll be… happy to have your name, young miss,” the woman suddenly said.
“Uh, it’s… Sunset. What’s… yours?” Sunset said, very much caught off-guard.
“Oh, my name is Arabella,” the woman said. “May I ask why you’re lighting fires in the playground?”
This was not according to script at all, Sunset felt. Even Flitwick would probably softly admonish her for something like this.
“I was… reheating some toast,” she said, giving the fork a little wave.
Arabella opened her mouth slightly. “Where are…” she started, before she realized she was whispering, and cleared her throat. “I mean… where are your parents, Sunset?”
Sunset tried putting on an indifferent facial expression, which came across as a lot less casual than she intended.
First at the orphanage, and then at Celestia’s school, most ponies she met knew she was an orphan. Here though, she understandably had to repeat that fact to people quite often.
“Gone,” she eventually said. “You know… dead.”
Arabella’s mouth hung open slightly longer, before she clearly put effort into pulling herself together. “And where do you live? Who cares for you?”
“Eh…” Sunset said, grasping for explanations and words a lot more than she had intended, before noticing that her slice of bread was blackening at one end.
She grunted in annoyance, and inspected the blackened piece, before putting it in her mouth. “Mmm… you know,” she said, between chews. “I’m making do.”
This clearly did not satisfy Arabella, who nodded slightly to herself.
“I… have a couch,” she said, making Sunset raise an eyebrow in her direction. “If you want to sleep on it I mean.”
“Oh,” Sunset said, making her feel both grateful and flustered. “That’s… very nice of you, but I’ll be fine out here.”
“... What if I insist?”
Sunset smiled up at her. “That would speak well of you, I suppose, but really, I’ll be fine.”
Arabella looked at Sunset for a few more moments, before nodding to herself, a little sad. “Well… alright,” she said. “But… then I will insist that you come and visit if you’re ever hungry.”
That was a direction Sunset felt she wanted to take this conversation in. It was both a possible boon in the future, and a possible closer to the conversation.
“That’s very nice of you,” she said, and smiled at Arabella. “Where do you live?”
Arabella pointed down the road. “Take the right over there down Wisteria Walk, on the left hand side, in number seventeen.”
“Great. Thanks,” Sunset said.
“Not a problem. You try and have a pleasant evening now, Miss Sunset.”
“I will. You too.”
Arabella nodded, and walked off to where she had pointed.
Sunset let out a sigh of relief, and finished the rest of her piece of bread.
She thanked Harmony that had gone so smoothly. For a moment there it looked like she might’ve had to cast perception manipulation spells on both Arabella and a bunch of muggle law enforcement officers. While she felt confident she could pull that off, she didn’t want to risk it before knowing more about their organization and capabilities, and more importantly, she just didn’t feel like it. Something made Sunset feel drained and a little wistful tonight, perhaps it was all the traveling today, but she was not in a fighting mood.
She looked around herself carefully, before picking up the little bonfire with her magic and moving it closer to the little playground fort, and pulled the fallen larch limb and snapped it in pieces to make more fuel.
A quick spell cleared the dust, sand, and cobwebs from the structure, and she lay down on the planks, partially protected from the elements, and wrapped her Hogwarts robe around her like a blanket. Placing herself staring closely into the little pyre and holding her hands in the fire and idly playing with the flames, she slowly drifted off to sleep.
—
It took several minutes of waking up before Sunset realized her brain wasn’t just doing a very poor job of dreaming.
No one had found Sunset this morning, which was no wonder considering the thick mist that blanketed everything around her.
That’s when she noticed that her shoulder bag, which she had been using as a pillow, was vibrating slightly.
“Mmmmmm…” she groaned, and gingerly raised herself up a bit, shook the ashes from her hand which had laid in the fire as she slept, and fished the book out of the bag.
She flipped through it to the relevant page, where Celestia’s usual, elegant writing greeted her.
Happy birthday, Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset just looked at the message for a while.
“... Oh.”
She took out a pen from her bag, and set to writing, a bit gingerly.
Thank you.
Back in Canterlot, Sunset had preferred to not make a big deal of her birthdays, and after Cadence had arrived, she preferred to not celebrate them at all.
She did relent when Celestia threw together something with a cake and some attention given to Sunset, and in return Sunset tolerated Cadence’s presence, but it was nothing compared to the lavish festivities when the pink terror had a birthday of her own.
Sunset did her best to not think of her birthdays, but now she suddenly missed them.
How are you? I’m sorry I can’t be there for you. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.
It’s okay. It’s nice to talk with you anyway. No, I just woke up and I’m just
Sunset struggled with the next bit.
I’m just lying here.
The book was still for a moment.
Where?
In a playground.
Sunset thought she detected a bit more firmness to the text being formed in front of her eyes.
Sunset, have you been sleeping rough? On your own birthday?
Sunset chewed the stale saliva in her mouth and tried blinking the sleepiness from her eyes.
Celestia would scold her for this and be worried, which was bad, but she couldn’t really do anything about it, which helped. This made telling the truth feel somewhat better.
Yes. Don’t worry though, I’ll be fine, I can magic myself comfo
Sunset.
I wish I could help you, but I can only offer advice and make requests, and my advice, and request, is that you go and find somewhere comfortable, and treat yourself to something nice
Well I kind of planned that anyw
I insist that you take care of yourself, and I request, most sincerely, that you always remember:
I love you.
Sunset stopped, and after a moment, realized that her vision wasn't blurry because she was still waking up.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffling slightly.
I love you too.
The following words formed at a bit more hesitant pace.
Now I want you to go to treat yourself. I wish that I could be there with you, more than you can imagine, but I want you to know that I’m thinking about you.
We’ll have a cake when you come back. A big one.
Sunset smiled, and sniffed only once more.
Okay. I’d like that.
Now get going. I’ll write later.
Okay.
Sunset shut the book, and put it back in her bag, taking just a few more moments to get her emotions sorted out.
To her dismay, she realized that schadenfreude had helped motivate her to admit that she was, at least on the surface, vulnerable, uncomfortable, and worthy of sympathy.
She realized that she hoped that Celestia would think of that when the birthday, or whatever big event, surrounding Cadence came up. Or perhaps even better, that Cadence would find out and… something. Feel bad perhaps.
Sunset gingerly stood up, feeling tired, sore, cold, and guilty, when she had been hoping to feel sorry for herself.
She very reluctantly removed her Hogwarts robes, stuffed them in her bag, and immediately cast a slightly overdone heating spell on her clothes, from her shirt to her thigh high socks, which made her exude quite a lot of vapor as she walked across the playground, feeling much more comfortable, but only physically.
Bleary-eyed and unfocused, she took to wandering the streets of… wherever she had ended up.
Rows and rows of identical houses continued on in the distance, or at least that was the assumption, since one could barely see the upcoming house in this mist.
Sunset thought the morning was remarkably quiet until she realized it was just after sunrise on a saturday.
She didn’t mind being alone, at least normally, but she would’ve liked some more comfort, and something to do. She could of course conjure up mattresses and cushions to make herself comfortable, but she suspected that that would make muggles ask where she got them and why she was dragging them around. In turn, she could always use magic to slip out of their perceptions, but that would require concentration and continually looking for people to neutralize, which was suboptimal.
Sunset continued sauntering down the street, her hands held behind her head as she stretched the kinks out of her spine.
The option to just teleport into the wilds and compress soil into a little bungalow and furnish it with conjured articles was also an option, but while she could hide her magic from this magical ministry she had yet to interact with, if someone were to track her down it could lead to suspicions. Again, she could use magic to slip out of people’s thoughts, but she was concerned that would also lead to a runaway project. Again, this was suboptimal.
It was then she noticed that one of the houses had activity in front of it. A whole family by the looks of it was carrying out bags of various kinds out into their auto-vehicle, filling up the rear storage compartment.
She cast a limited perception filter on herself, and walked up to the mother, who was stacking the pile of bags in a more efficient way.
After several moments of consideration, Sunset nodded to herself.
“Going on vacation?” she asked, innocently. “If so, where and how long?”
“Yes, to our summer house in France. We plan on being there for two months,” the mother said, not even consciously aware that she was speaking with someone, until one of her children caught her attention. “Steven! Go to the bathroom before we leave, and brush your teeth,” she ordered, as she walked back into the house.
“Perfect,” Sunset said, and smiled to herself as she walked across the road and took a seat on a stone fence.
Thirty minutes later, the mist was slowly clearing, and the family’s vehicle rumbled away down the road.
Sunset hopped down from the fence and walked towards the backyard of the house whose family just left, which was obscured by a tall wooden fence, casting a cleaning and silencing spell on her boots.
The door there was child’s play to unlock with magic, but Sunset still waited on the precipice.
Was she really going to take advantage of someone else’s property?
What was her motivation? She needed a place to sleep. She wanted privacy and shelter from the elements. She certainly didn’t want to go and ask Dumbledore for help, as she suspected that might come with strings attached.
What were the cons? Perhaps it was a little undignified. A little bit amoral too.
What were the pros? She could always use her magic to clean up after herself and not leave a trace. She might even be able to help in some way.
She struggled with herself for a moment more, before reminding herself that she was an orphan without any income.
And, of course, Celestia was worried about her, and insisted that she take care of herself.
That made her take the first step into the house.
She listened carefully as she stepped into the living room, constantly wanting to aim her ears in different directions.
The large room was comfortably furnished, though with some strange devices that Sunset had never seen before. She recognized one of the communication units hanging from a slot on the wall, but the large box with the darkened window that the couch and armchairs were aimed at puzzled her.
Aside from that was a dining area, and a kitchen with a serving bar that partially separated it from the rest of the room, the only door, other than the one she had entered through, led to a hallway, with the front door on the far side, shoes and boots resting, semi-organized, on a low shelf.
Sunset kept creeping through the empty house, the bottom floor revealing a washroom with futuristic-looking laundry machines in it, two storage areas, and a closet for outer-wear.
Up the stairs was where the risk increased, Sunset felt, as it was clearly the rooms for the individual humans. Even on other planes of existence, the posters with the bold, sharp-looking fonts in chrome, and the ones with the pink hearts, kittens, and cursive writing, told her which room belonged to a colt and which one belonged to a filly.
One interesting feature was in the colt’s room, which was a poster of four lean-looking stallions (men, Sunset reminded herself) dressed in ragged clothes, sharp-looking accessories, and more importantly, very voluminous manedos, looking fiercely at the camera.
“Mmm.” Sunset found herself approving, squirming a little where she stood.
Sadly, she had a job to do, and turned back to securing the house.
Other than that there was a spare bedroom, another bathroom, and a large, carpeted room for the parents, and an attic which was clearly rarely used. A quick search through the closets also revealed enough garments to rival a true Canterlot clothes horse.
Suddenly, Sunset heard the front door click open, and cursed her luck.
The family had probably agreed to lend their house to neighbors or friends from out of town while they were away.
As the sound of footfalls rapidly ascended the stairs, she wondered if perhaps these humans had some cleverly hidden technology-based intruder-sensor she wouldn’t have been able to locate with her magic.
She dropped to her stomach, rolled under the parents’ bed, which had drapes hiding her from sight, and spied out from underneath them to the corridor at foot-level, readying a whole array of spells.
“And don’t forget your sister’s toothbrush as well!” a man’s voice called from downstairs.
The colt, boy, probably a few years older than she looked, rapidly stomped past outside, entered the bathroom, and after a moment of clinking sounds, hurried back.
“Got ‘em!” he called, and descended the stairs again.
The front door closed, followed by the sound of it locking.
Sunset stayed where she was for a moment. The carpet was fluffy and soft, and so it was a good hiding place for if they came back.
After several minutes though, Sunset carefully rolled out from underneath the bed again, and did another quick inspection of the house, before letting out a sigh of relief, and lay down on the couch in the living room, recuperating from her poor sleep that night.
She forced herself to stay awake, in case something like with the occupants happened again, but after an hour, she felt much safer.
She also felt really hungry.
A small pile of muggle money was spread around the bottom of her bag. Sunset wished she knew how much it was and how far it could get her, but she’d just have to find out.
Gathering up the notes of money, she noticed her Equestrian coins, and took one out, looking at Celestia’s serene face.
Inspecting the room around her, Sunset then looked back at the depiction of her old teacher.
“I hope you had something like this in mind.”
A sudden thought made Sunset pause, and she chuckled to herself.
“Well that and a chocolate cake. A big one,” Sunset said, and nodded to herself. “Time to find out how muggles do groceries.”
—
A human grocery store reminded Sunset more of one of Canterlot Castle’s supply cellars than the city markets in that it was clean, well-lit, sturdy, confidence-inspiringly free from odors, and perhaps a little lacking in character. It was comfortable in a sense though.
Sunset started by scouting the whole store. Past the isles with vegetables and fruits was the bread.
Sunset inspected one of the bags, mumbling to herself.
“Wheat flour, water, vegetable oil, sugar, salt, etc… sounds, uh, familiar.”
The food in the wizarding world had been largely what she was familiar with from being a pony, with a few notable differences like animals, both land and aquatic ones, and a lack of hay, and it seemed like muggles ate the same things that witches and wizards did.
And so the fridges with the meat were something Sunset was curious about.
“What is a ‘beef’ anyway?”
She walked slowly through the aisle, her eyes scanning the little transparent plastic boxes in the glass fridges, when she noticed the sign for exactly that; Beef.
When she saw the outline of a cow on the package, she paused.
“... Uhm…”
She looked around, but the hour was still early, and not many muggles were shopping.
Sunset walked to the most quiet corner of the grocery store she could find, and pulled out her old encyclopedia out of her bag, starting with the one covering the letter “B”.
A few minutes later, she had gone from beef, to cows, which had not included any mention of sapience. That had led her to look up ponies, which was a subsection of horses, and had a picture.
The feral, clumsy-looking animal was looking into the camera, not comprehending.
Sunset looked at the picture for a long while. A distant relative, genetically speaking? Maybe. But she couldn’t see any real kinship with the creature.
She closed the book.
“It’s just shapes,” she said to herself. “If a human came to Equestria and turned into a pony, she wouldn’t freak out when learning that there were unintelligent primates in the world.”
She decided to give meat a miss for now though. The chefs at Hogwarts knew what they were doing. She’d let them handle cooking that.
An hour later, Sunset was walking through the house she was… borrowing, looking through the windows from all positions indoors and checking which ones needed to have the curtains drawn to keep the neighbors from seeing her. Luckily, the tall wooden fence meant that the ground floor was entirely safe, and so was most of the backyard.
The technology-based stove was something she decided to learn some other time, but the pots and pans were, thankfully, of the traditional kind.
A short while later, she had finished a big bowl of vegetable stew, and was slicing up a chocolate cake with strawberries, singing a birthday song to herself in Equestrian, and was surprised at how much better she was feeling.
The mysterious box demanded attention though. Taking a large slice of cake in her mouth, she got up and bent down in front of it.
Five of the six sides were patterned plastic, and one side, the one aimed at the couch, was glass, with a half-opened panel hiding an array of buttons next to it.
Sunset hesitated, and decided to press the biggest one.
A low burst of distorted sound shot out of a set of speakers hidden beneath the patterned plastic, and after a burst of light, a woman in a suit appeared in the window, looking at Sunset with a stack of papers in her hands.
“And in other news, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall continues,” she said.
“What!?” Sunset yelled, falling back on her behind and spraying the carpet with chocolate cake.
The woman inside the box continued, undisturbed, having just mentioned that someone was at… whatever site she was talking about, with more information.
“Hello?” Sunset said, wiping the crumbles of cake from her mouth.
Suddenly, instantly, and without ceremony, the woman, and the entire room she had been in, was replaced by an outdoor, urban scene, where a man with a black, fuzzy stick was suddenly staring at Sunset instead.
“That is correct, Janet. As you can see, the demolition is still ongoing, this is good timing as there is currently not a lot of noise, this being a lunch break.”
“Who are you?” Sunset ventured. “What happened to the other one?”
The man obviously had a job to do, because he ignored Sunset and briskly moved on to present another person, standing next to him.
“... with some locals making sure to benefit from this still on-going event,” he said, and moved the fuzzy stick closer to the face of another man, who nodded in confirmation.
“Ja, zhere iz a lot of people who come to zee the dismantling,” he said, in what Sunset swore was a Greifenhausian accent.
“Und wer bist du?” Sunset tried, but he was more interested in talking about his pub.
“... so it became zomesing of a trend to vatch zhe vall come down while having a drink. Zhere’s less parking space right now, but to me, it’z vorth it.”
“Haaalloooo? Können Sie mich höööreeen?”
Suddenly, the room with the woman came back. She was still there, looking out the window. “Thank you, Robert, and prost from the UK to the people of Berlin. And now, the weather, with–”
“What’s going… oh,” Sunset said, and looked behind her.
There was no projector there, but she was already grasping the concept.
She stood up as another human, presumably a muggle, showed a map of the British Isles, with little pictures of suns and rain clouds showing what the weather was predicted to be in the coming days.
“Huh,” Sunset said to herself, not having thought about how if no one could control the weather, naturally there’d be people who would have to predict it and share the predictions.
As the human described the weather, Sunset inspected the rest of the box, looking at it, listening to it, and sniffing it.
There were no moving parts as far as Sunset could see though.
If she had owned the box, she would have been more willing to prod and poke it, but as things were, she would stick to just using it in the way she was, which she was fairly certain was its intended purpose.
That jungle of black and gray cables behind the device was also quite intimidating.
“That’s really cool,” she said, and nodded to herself.
After a few more moments of inspection, Sunset sat down on the couch with a spellbook, and noticed that the excited, but oh so boring discussion of sports that followed the weather analysis reminded her of her classmates around the Gryffindor dinner table, providing a blanket of chatter that helped her drown out the world as she went through more third year spells.
With a chocolate cake, a comfortable couch, and some study material, Sunset felt a lot better than she had this morning. A good night’s sleep and all would be well again.
However, the single-unit projector box proved quite the distraction. It turned out it had different programs organized by time slots, and near the evening, Sunset at first scoffed as she looked up from her book, eyebrow raised at the silly-looking puppets dancing very unconvincingly across the screen, but then the song started.
“♫It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights!♪
♪It’s time to meet the muppets on The Muppet Show tonight!♫”
Sunset found herself tapping along with her foot, and a, to start with, uncertain smile slowly grew on her face.
There was no more studying done that night.
—
Sunset played it safe the first two nights, and slept underneath the double bed upstairs, hidden from view. But no threat appeared, no people walked in through the door, and no one would have found her snoring on the couch and called the city guard while she was asleep.
She was also careful with the lights, so that the neighbors wouldn’t notice that there was someone in the house. Luckily, the days lasted longer in the summer, which gave her plenty of daylight hours to work with.
With a bit of discipline, she forced herself to go outside, which was easier now that the sun was shining, unlike the last two days which had been cold and rainy for the middle of summer.
And it was pretty nice feeling the fresh, outdoors air again.
Sunset walked in a semi-coherent pattern in the afternoon sun, having stuffed everything in her bag again and carrying it with her in case someone came to the house while she was away.
A part of her felt it was unworthy to be skulking around in other people’s houses when they were away, but that part was almost completely silenced by necessity, and replaced by a feeling of excitement and nervousness.
It was fun, in a sense, but she’d also be glad to be back at Hogwarts, even though she’d miss some of the muggle inventions. Particularly that pinnacle of technology-based entertainment, the interactive excitement box, the little adventure-engine, the Super Nintendo.
Past houses, playgrounds, parks, transportation-stops, and small businesses, Sunset walked, her stroll punctuated by the occasional nod and “hello” to people out strolling as well, or walking their dogs.
“Oi, find a rock or something,” a voice sounded from a little ways away.
“No way, D! People will know it’s us,” another voice said.
“You stupid? We don’t go here anymore,” the first voice said.
Sunset climbed a small set of cobblestone stairs in the shade of some trees to reach a fenced-in area, with a large building, with wings, playgrounds, and empty stands for those two-wheeled vehicles she had seen around.
Sunset recognized it as a school, empty during the summer.
A small ways away, in front of a glass door, stood a collection of boys, and Sunset could smell, and gag at, the scent of nervous bravado even from where she stood.
These boys were scared, and had been for so long that it was as if their scent had been permanently discolored.
Not even Neville smelled like that.
The largest one, an obese example, pointed at a sign on a utility hatch with a picture of a lightning bolt that read ‘No Entry Allowed’ and said, “take that down.”
One of the other boys, one with a permanently scrunched up face, chuckled. “A’roigh, why?”
“I want it.”
The scrunched up boy brought an abused multi-tool out of his pocket, and started stabbing at the small space between the sign and the hatch.
“Heh, remember when we chased your cousin through the swings?” another one, with a very ape-like posture, said.
“I remember you missin’ him with the swings and hitting y’self ‘stead,” the boy with the tool interjected.
“Little git’s bloody quick,” one said. “Where he at, if he ain’t at Smeltings?”
“St, Brutus’ Centre For Criminally Incu… Incubat… Insecurable Boys,” the obese one said.
“Shame. Good for a lark.”
“Oi! Someone’s comin!” a runty specimen said, as he spotted Sunset casually strolling up to them.
Scrunchy-boy let go of his tool, still lodged in between the sign and the hatch, as the group turned around to see Sunset.
“Who-oi! Whatchu wan’ then?” ape-boy said.
Sunset shrugged. “I’dunno. I just thought it would be fun to see you get electrified from that,” she said, nodding to the utility hatch.
Sunset had spent an hour inspecting all the muggle tools in the house she was in, amazed by how much electricity was running through the building, and how safe it was, assuming you didn’t stab at the boxes containing the arcane arrangements with a blunt tool of course.
Not that the boys were in any danger from what they were doing specifically, but Sunset felt it could be a good idea, and fun too, to let them think otherwise.
“Yeah? Who you den?” scrunchy-boy demanded.
“Sunset. You?”
“Whu?” the obese one said.
“Sunset. That’s my name. You?”
The boys tried to straighten out their posture and unfold themselves to greater stature, which didn’t really have much effect, as they seemed to collapse in other areas in proportion.
The obese one spoke up instead. “‘M Big D, this is Piers, Den, Mal, Gor,” he said, indicating the others.
“Right.” Sunset nodded, and looked expectantly at Piers, the one with the tool. “Well go on, Piers, Big D, the rest of you, I’m expecting a show.”
“Oi who do you think you are?” one of them, Gordon, Sunset thought, said.
“Sunset, remember?”
But the so-called Big D just put a placating hand in front of Gordon, and nodded to Piers.
“Yeah, ain’t no trouble,” Piers said, and started stabbing and bending at the ‘No Entry Allowed’ sign again.
It was almost a shame that the sun was bright and lively in the sky, an amused Sunset thought, as she put her hands behind her back and balanced back and forth on the balls of her feet while she prepared an illusion.
Suddenly, there was a bang and a bright light, or so it seemed to the boys, that shot from the metal hatch, momentarily engulfing the metal tool that Piers was holding.
He jumped back with a startled cry, dropping the tool from his hands, and himself onto his rear, as his friends took a step back in surprise.
“Ah! Aaaah! It got me!” he shouted, looking at his absolutely unaffected hand with terrified eyes.
Sunset was chuckling to herself, as Piers stumbled to his feet, and staggeringly ran away in a panic-like state.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Big D said, and started a sort of waddling jog after Piers.
His friends gave Sunset a look of equal amounts terror and impressedness as she smiled at them, and then hurried after their friend.
Sunset thought that maybe she had misjudged them ever so slightly, if they were actually concerned for their friend.
“Thank you!” Sunset called after them.
Sunset walked up to the dropped tool, and picked it up.
It was a pair of foldable pliers and cutters combined, with small tools folding into the handle, like a knife, a little saw, a small pair of scissors, and screwdrivers.
“Cool.”
She looked around to make sure she was alone, and then waved her fingers at it, channeling a quite impressive wizarding spell, which smoothed out the dents in the metal from careless use.
Sunset pocketed the multitool, and sauntered on with a pleased smile on her face, having prevented minor vandalism, and hopefully taught a group of children to respect electricity.
“Helping people is fun.”
And thus a fan is born.
Hahahahaha.
Well; that was a fun start to the summer, with the perfect amount of wistfulness mixed in. She’s run into Dudley, wonder how long it takes till she runs into Harry.
You could have investigated a little, use some Google maps, read some blogs, and the descrption would have been more precize, personally, i thought You described a typical Texas house, but that just me.
Anyway, i hope sunset knows Magic interferes with electricista, and doesnt use it mucho inside the house.
Well crap it looks like she may see Harry’s little prison break.
11260974
You seem to like it. Glad to hear it
We'll see if she runs into Harry before school.
11260988
I did investigate, and I've seen English suburbian houses on TV, both inside and out, but that doesn't really substitute for having lived in one, or writing about a location made up from scratch. I think magic messing with electricity is fanon though.
11260993
Indeed she may
11260996
Is actually canon, but is not mention much, Magic interferes with electricity, but there are exceptions, and with those exceptions wizards modified some machines to work with Magic instead, fanon improved and extended the concept thought, but in canon, Magic interferes with most common house appliance if used near them.
11260996
Perhaps they got magic messing with electronics from The Dresden Files, but it didn't seem to mess with it in the earlier generations of MLP.
Always nice to see an update on this fic. Thanks for the entertainment!
11261017
I quickly looked it up in book 4, where Hermione says technology "goes haywire around Hogwarts" and there being too much "magic in the air" (which just makes me think of Can You Feel The Love Tonight), so I guess it's true. It's very vague though, no hint if all kinds of magic does it, or specific kinds of magic.
11261018
You're very welcome. Thank you
11260996
Magic messing with electricity is Fanon otherwise the Ministry which is in the Heart of London would cause all kinds of havoc.
11261026
I always thought of magic messing with electricity as wizarding propaganda
11261040
There's that too.
11261050
That could be an interesting plot, although I think I'm gonna let someone else write it
11261050
Lightning wards maybe
11261052
For what it’s worth, my take on magic and tech in Harry Potter is that there is a few specific places where they magic does mess with tech, such as whatever wards make something unplottable interfering with transmissions, and the wizards in their ignorance of how muggle tech works have just shrugged and generalized the whole thing.
11261026
The issue with that is the fact that Diagon Alley doesn't mess with any of the electronics in London, I'm certain that if anything it's a specific ward on Hogwarts that messes with them
11261060
Yeah that sounds about right. On the whole, they are very dismissive of muggles.
11261068
In an old city like London, I can see it messing with muggle technology and the only explanation they can think of is that the stuff is old.
She's very lucky that she was 100% successful in turning off the tracer spell, or she'd be being brought up on charges of using magic so fast it'd make her head spin. Even so, someone could notice, assuming the lady who offered her the couch wasn't set up by Dumbledore.
I am surprised the family with the summer home didn't turn off the electricity for the couple of months they were gone. They WILL be surprised when the bill is not the tiny amount an empty house generates when the bill comes in. Thing is if she had offered to house-sit for them, especially if augmented by some magic, they might have agreed to such.
She has been preternaturally lucky thusfar.
Oh, and Big D will almost certainly be complaining about Sunset and the name is odd enough that Harry will immediately figure out just what Sunset Big D is talking about.
11261141
She may not have been set up by Dumbledore, but I am sure that she will report this to him.
So, she was bluffing. She had zero plans. Thankfully she got lucky.
I'm not sure why she was so shocked by TV, considering she already seen moving photos and portraits.
11260988
Magic does not really interfere with electricity in Harry Potter canon. Car can be enchanted, house alarm can be frozen etc. I think you're thinking of electronics not working at Hogwarts, which is another matter.
Flat screen TV but no computer at that time in the UK?
Forgot what the stats where but if 20% of houses had one make of machine, the rest shouldve put it up a fair way, but thats still a chance of the place not having one.
Holiday in France though? Middle class?
If Magic interferes with Technology, I assume its more energy levels and power densities. If it needs delicate control such as consumer digital electronics its all over the place.
If youve ever seen te power levels in a microwave oven, strength of magnet etc, then if a general magic field could affect that, theres a good chance the average muggle would feel it from the electrostatic build up and magnetostriction of bone minerals?
11261141
Well, besides luck she's got skill and intelligence, and in case you haven't read the books, the lady was set up by Dumbledore, but to make sure Harry is alright, rather than Sunset.
I've never heard of anyone actually turning off the electricity when going on vacation, although I'm mostly familiar with people going on one-week vacations, where it's not worth emptying the freezer.
11261183
Yeah, but the moving photos and portraits were magical, whereas the technological box was not. Sunset has seen glimpses of muggle communication, and didn't know whether the tv was for one-way or two-way communications.
11261192
There's no mention of a flat screen TV. It's described as a box. In my experience it's tricky to use a Super Nintendo on a flat screen tv..
11261201
Im not sure on the years, but Sony Trinitrons were popular being flat CRT screen TVs of quite impressive sizes. I believe the glass was formed curved, but the air pressure caused it to deform until was far flatter as the vaccuum within was formed. They were horrifically heavy. I think I lifted a 26 inch diagonal once. A very short vertical distance. Was lucky to put it back down without shattering the plastic case through dropping it.
Sorry, got confused a little with the descriptions, as home projectors and screens were used for home cinema rigs. X11 automation goes back a long way for the real techs and early adopters?
Still, this is Sunsets story, not a techfest. Unless she wants to compare a ZX Spectrum to her book, in size? Just so she can discard any further thought at that point?
11261183
If magic really don't interfere with electricity, electronics would work at hogwarts, but that is not the case, is another matter that the interference is small, which explains the countless of passive spells that the Dursley house had without it interfering with their aplliances.
11261205
I don't really know what any of those things are, never had the money to try out a bunch of tech. I'm just gonna say it's a Philips.
11261214
As far as I know we weren't shown that electronics don't work at Hogwarts , we were told that by Hermione who probably read it in a book.
11261141
Arabella, as in Mrs. Figg. As in the Squibb woman Dumbledore assigned to keep an eye on Harry. I imagine Sunset will be surprised by a visit from Dumbledore before the day is out.
11261201
One week, you can leave it on, but probably shouldn't. Two months or more -- certainly no. The main reason for turning off utilities is safety -- you don't want water flowing through the house because if a leak happens, it could be a rupture by the time you get back. If the electrics short out, instead of you noticing the smell, or aberrations in the house, your house burns down. There are fewer things that can go wrong in a house that is powered down without water, gas, etc, than one where it is all left on.
11261262
You'd turn off all the electrical things that can be turned off though. Anyway, I guess these aren't the brightest or most careful people in the work. You're touching on one of the things I'm planning on Sunset repaying them with though.
I've never been in a house that uses gas though. So I'm not sure how dangerous that is.
11261286
You turn it off at the main junction to the switchbox or the main fuse in the switchbox depending on your set up. As for gas, any leak can be explosive, but it is treated with a foul odor so you notice it. That strategy doesn't work in a vacant house. I have oil heat in my house -- go me -- I got my new payment schedule for the next year -- $480 per month instead of the $230 it was last year.
LMAO!! Sunset's discovery and reactions towards technology were hilarious and oh-so-genuine! I especially liked the last scene with her (unknowingly) bumping into Dudley and co. I wonder if the fat lug will remember her? And now it's a question of if and/or when she'll find Harry before the Weasleys whisk him away. Although, I strongly suspect Ms. Figg is going to be keeping a close watch for her all through summer due to a certain Headmaster's request.
Overall, though clearly just a filler chapter, it was a very nicely done and enjoyable one. 9/10!!
11261311
Thank you. I'm glad you liked it
Too tired to say anything more right now
11261309
For the heating alone, or for the whole house?
Excellent chapter as always. It's fun to see Sunset's reactions to technology and normal human markets.
Now putting this aside: wouldn't you be interested in doing another sort of crossovers like with the Touhou Project franchise.
11261356
Yes that is for heating the house(What else would you do with oil?). Things are a-getting more expensive.
11260988
"Anyway, i hope sunset knows Magic interferes with electricista, and doesnt use it mucho inside the house."
That's "The Dresden Files", not "Harry Potter".
That last line was downright wonderful and hilarious. Sunset's so cheeky and chaotic, and it makes me super excited to see what other mischief she gets up to. (Also, that scene with her and Celestia writing they love each other was just so wholesome)
11261382
Well touhou crossover with this is a good idea. But considering the time,the characters possible are limited, like Usami Renko or
Yakumo Yukari. And the language is also a problem
Lucky Sunset, she gets to enjoy the best entertainment on TV.
11261311
Dudley isn't characterized very deeply in the books, so I wonder if he is as paranoid about the supernatural as his parents are, and is willing to assume that Sunset did magic, or if he just writes it off as Piers having messed up when trying to take down the sign.
11261382
Thank you. Glad to hear it
I'm not familiar with Touhou Project (at first I thought you were talking about Microsoft Sharepoint) Although I will say that someone expressing interest in me making a story come into being is flattering in itself, so thanks for that. I'm happy to focus on this story for now, since it's coming along nicely and people seen to enjoy it, but it also sounded like you had other suggestions, and if you do, I'm curious what they are.
11261418
Just heating your house is almost more than I can afford.
11261599
Glad to hear it
There are a few bits of mischief left, but then it's back to the wizarding world, to the second book, which hopefully introduces a lot more stuff for Sunset to react to.
11261730
Not to mention the legendary Super Nintendo
11261730
Especially if you count that Super Nintendo. That's really when games could feel like worlds instead of blocks.
11261729
11261802
Actually the crazy idea I have is more tragic and includes Fluttershy, Discord, Spike, Angel.
Who managed to escape (thanks to Discord) from the reset of their universe (since we know that their universe is reset every so often) and found themselves in this strange land. Transformed into human forms except for Discord (because he is a shapeshifting chaos entity).
It would be more of an everyday life story. With the human Fluttershy.....y for the Asian culture Discord would look more like a dragon right? Kind of like the celestial dragon of chaos. And their mutual daughter.
Acting as the middle brother would be the transformed youkai, Angel the rabbit.
And as the eldest would be the humanoid (human looking) Spike the dragon.
Fluttershy would be the only human in the group but she would still retain certain abilities such as her ability to communicate and understand animals, weather prediction, gaze, etc.
They would be living in the human village since let's be honest Fluttershy, Spike, Angel. They are pretty civilized by Japanese (anime) standards.
Discord on the other hand would be trying to find a way home (gary goes home) by traveling the world.( not that he is trying to escape his parenthood, no... no... no... no... not that he had any fear since as a being of chaotic energy that came to have consciousness, he never had parents so. not that he was afraid of being one no...no...no...no...no...well yes).
And her little daughter, part time chaos lady. Only when her mother takes off her butterfly shaped necklace, which is only in her house.( your name I don't know if it will be something in Japanese or some pony name ).
Although most of the events would start at: Immaterial and Missing Power and Imperishable Night.
That would be the main idea.
(I could put more details but it would result in a very long text) (A lot of text).
PS: I know it has nothing to do with Sunset and actually I had an idea with it but it was too much of a mystery.
PS2: if you want to know more about the franchise there is a good anime series called touhou project memories of phantasm (it is not canon) but it is a good account of the first games).
! Sunnybuns! Old Helioplot would be so proud right now!
Or, as Dr wolf would say, it's good to be helping.
Another great chapter. Honestly every update with this story has me running back.
11262512
She would. She'd be absolutely glowing with pride
11262878
Glad to hear it. I'll try not to disappoint
11262494
As someone without a frame of reference, trying to understand that is an exercise in futility
11263052
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVRpNAxBiXI
Another fun chapter! Keep up the good work.
I am a little surprised that Sunset would be breaking and entering, but then again she robbed a bank earlier on, so maybe I shouldn't.
Seems like she's somewhere near where Harry Potter lives. Too bad she doesn't crash with Harry and turn the tables on the Dursley's, especially given her new sense of egalitarianism.
What's your favorite SNES games?
"Treat yourself nice on your birthday".
Immediately breaks into and squats in someone's house.
Well I guess Sunset treating everyone else like NPCs is pretty typical for her. She didn't seem to realize she did a pretty poor job at her normal conversation with that totally normal woman either.
Is it less weird in Equestria for someone to just live outdoors? Or is that just Sunset being Sunset; Celestia guessed what she was doing pretty quickly. She didn't even seem to have a plan for that conversation with a stranger noticing her, or realize how quickly the questions would get awkward to answer.
11263607
Thanks, and I'll do my best
Yeah, like most people, and especially heroes, there's a mix of helping people and causing damage to society involved when Sunset does things. And correct, it's in the same suburbia as where Harry lives, but it's unlikely that she'll run into him before school.
11263613
I was far too young to have enough pocket money for games when the SNES was relevant, but I had access to a quite a few through other people, and maybe it was coincidence and I missed bad games for the SNES, but it was only good ones. Super Mario World, A Link To the Past, Megaman X, Castlevania 4, Starwing, Another World, Flashback (and that's the full title, damnit), Super Star Wars, Mario Kart, Mario All-Star, Mario Paint, Turtles in Time, Donkey Kong Country. It was just homerun after homerun. I don't think I was ever disappointed with a game on the SNES, and years later I had the means to explore some things that I missed or didn't have available before, which tended to be even more impressive, especially when I had a better grasp of things like technological limitations, like Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Shadowrun, and Star Ocean. When Metal Gear Solid came out I realized that there was no 16-bit entry in the series, and I was very curious what it would've been like. I think the games I have the most fond memories of on the SNES might just be A Link To the Past and Super Mario World though.
11263701
She does mind her own business a lot. To the point where others thinks it might be a bit much.
I'm gonna say it's more normal for ponies to have a nap outdoors, especially if you look at Rainbow Dash, and with the obviously predictable weather, and it clearly being late spring most of the year, I think it would also be more normal for ponies to drag a large cushion out on their balcony or porch and sleep there, but sleeping rough isn't normal, no. It's just Sunset and her self-image of being strictly self-reliant. If she actually was confronted in some way, she could just slip away, first physically, and then with magic, she just wasn't in the mood for excitement at all that day.
11263801
Yeah, I don't remember any bad ones. SNES was great.
11263801
There are Metal Gear games on the NES & SNES
Metal Gear 1, Metal Gear 2, & Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge which was an american made sequel to the first game, without Kojima's input.
MGS is almost functionally a complete remake of MG2.
11264749
I am familiar with all of those, but I'm not aware that any of them are available on the SNES.
11265102
Huh, I could've sworn MG2 was on the SNES.
Nope, something else, although in my defense I played it on the PS2 as it was part of MGS3 Subsistance, and just made an assumption.
And thusly made an ass of myself.