The Adventures Paused

by Dragon Shimmer

A "normal" day

After the unexpected event, Sunset comes back to the Aran Family to say goodbye. Avin rushes to hug Sunset, making her smile as Athew gives her a bag of money as he requests her. Sunset nods and takes a flight to Maple Village to enjoy the night sky.

Sunset flies up above the clouds to see the night sky. She closes her eyes to enjoy the flight. It has to be a long time before she leaves Equestria, but that is not in her mind because the pony is forgetting her. Then Sunset flies down the cloud to see the town in the electric light and continues flying.

After flying a while, she finally sees her guild and flies down there. She opens the door and sees new members are in the guild. All of the new members stare at her then start chatting like normal. Violet walks to Sunset and announces, "Sunset, Queen Sabrina is summoning you in the private room." Sunset nods and goes upstairs to the room.

When Sunset comes to the meeting rooms, she knocks on the door, and the door is opened by Javen. Inside the room, Eldaro and Sabrina are sitting on the chair while Sakira sits opposite his sister. Sunset nods and comes inside the meeting and closes the door. Sabrina glares at her, making her uncomfortable. Sunset asks, "Eh, how long does she like that?"

Sakira rolls her eyes, "Since she went to this guild. It looks like she wants something from you."

Sabrina slams the table, "All right, Black Mage. No more hiding,"

Sakira and Javen grasp at Sabrina's sentence, Javen asks, "Is Black Mage here? Then where is she?" Sabrina points her finger at Sunset, Javen looks at her with disbelief, "You really the Black Mage?"

Sunset takes a seat and protests, "Eh... no, I..." She gets cut off when a chakram flies near her face and pins into the door. Sunset looks at Sabrina, who is tapping her finger on the table. Sunset finally accepts, "All right, I am the Black Mage, Happy?"

Sabrina folds her arm, "Finally you admitted. Where have you been, huh? I just want to meet you so much but you never appear, except last year's celebration."

"You know I really hate popularity, right?" Sunset waves her claws, "Besides if my team can't save the world, someone will do that to replace us." Sunset folds her claws, "Anyway topic aside, we are here to discuss the monsters, right?

Sabrina nods as others are confused. Javen asks, "What monster?"

Eldaro takes out the photos of the siren, and passes them to Javen and Sakira, "Here." Then he puts his hands under his chin, "You know what monsters are, Sabrina?"

"No, this is the first time I see this kind of monster." Sabrina rubs her head and is silent for a while. "When I fight with Sunset here, she seems to know about this monster."

Everyone looks at Sunset, which makes her sigh. Sunset pours the wine in the cup, "What now? They are Sirens, ok?"

Sabrina tilts her head, "Siren? What the hell is that?

Sunset answers, "Just imagine they are mermaids but replace the human part with a pony part or horse part in this case." Sakira is going to ask her more but Sunset raises her claws to stop, "To answer the following question, they can make anyone angry then they will absorb mana from them."

"I see," Eldaro rubs his chin and turns to Sabrina, "Do you have any record about this monster, Sabrina?"

Sabrina shakes her head, "I don't know. But I will search for a report about the cases."

Eldaro nods, "I see." Eldaro turns his head to Sunset, "You are not get away from this thing, Sunset." then he pulls out a present, "Welcome to the "A" rank, Sunset.``

Sunset takes the present and sighs, "Looks like my free time is gone, I guess." Eldaro smirks as Sunset opens the present. It has two small golden plates that attract a short chain. Sunset lifts one plate, " Did you separate these parts from the balance scale or something?"

Eldaro rubs his head, "Yeah, because you are a dragon so I can't find anything accessory that fits you, and this thing doesn't have any enchantment. "

Sunset grins, "I see. See you later,"

Sunset goes out of the room and stretches her body. She takes a deep breath and goes downstairs to see the wooden board. There are plenty of "C" rank quests sticking on the board. Sunset is going to take one quest but someone caught her claw to stop. Turning her head, Sunset sees a muscular man holding a staff and a little young woman is holding a big axe. Sunset nods and picks another quest. When she is done, she goes outside and does the quest.

---

----------At night------------

Sunset locks the door and goes to her working group. She takes out the plates that Eldaro gives to her. She sighs and draws a magic circle to put the plates on that. Then she starts working on the enchantment of the plates.

------ Meanwhile, at White Leaf Lake------

The Dazzling is currently in the middle of the lake. Adagio can't defuse the magic circle on her neck, this stops her from absorbing mana from others. This makes her frustrated and she wants to get rid of that dragon. Aria and Sonata try to comfort her and find a way to defuse the magic circle but they can't. Aria taps her hoof on the stone while Sonata tries to find a way to bait the dragon out. Adagio looks at Sonata and is confused. She uses her hoof to tap Sonata.

Adagio asks, "What are you thinking? I saw you like this for like three hours."

Sonata looks at Adagio, "I don't know how that dragon can use magic? Before we sleep, I don't see any dragon that can use magic. In Equestria, we don't have that type of dragon. "

Aria swims next to Sonata, "I see you want her to take off that magic circle, we can't do this if Adagio is still sealed with that circle,"

"How about we all attack the dragon to force her to unlock Adagio's ability?" Sonata looks at Aria, "Just make her angry and we can take all of her magic, right?"

"I see you have a plan." Aldagio asks as Sonata nods, "Let's hear it."

---

-----The next day-----

Sunset opens her eyes and finds that she is sleeping on the floor, again. She stands up and picks up the plates that she enchanted and sees how it works. She put the plates on the ground and transferred some mana to them. It appears as a green orb on the right plate and a white orb appears on the left plate. She sees that and takes out the orb, then she puts one of them on her left horn and tests to see if it works or not. The plate is shining and creates a yellow orb. Sunset smiles at this and wears another one to her right horn. The job is done, she takes the orbs and heads to the guild.

Inside the guild, there is an adventurer who is heavily injured and lying on the ground. Everyone in the guild tries to treat him, to make sure that he is not dying. Eldaro is standing upstairs and sees the injured adventurer with a worried look. Sunset will go upstairs to ask him what happened, but she trips and drops all of the orbs on the floor.

The green orbs are rolling to the injured adventurer. When it touches him, he is covered in a green aura and all of the wounds on his body slowly disappear. Everyone in the guild just stoned when they see that while Sunset is trying to get up. Karen tries to pick the blue orb, the orb explodes and Karen is covered in ice after that. Jezz picks the yellow orb and he gets electrocuted after that.

"Ouch," Sunset rubs her head and looks around to see her orbs, "Hey, where are my orbs?"

One of the female adventurers rushes to hug Sunset, "Thank you... for saving his life" Then she shakes Sunset, "I don't know what happens when he dies. Thank you so much."

"Ca..Can.. yo..you... sto...stop...shak...shaking... me?" Sunset is trying to say and the girls stop. She looks around and sees Karen is covered in the ice, "Can someone break that ice for her?" Some of the guild members take out hammers and break the ice for Karen. Sunset sighs, "thank you."

"Oh... eh..... Can I know your name? At least I can remember who saved my teammate," The girl rubs her fingers together.

Sunset rubs her head, "Call me Sunny, I am an "A" rank adventurer." Everyone in the room turns their heads to Sunset and murmurs about her. Sunset feels weird about this, but she goes upstairs and sees Eldaro shake his head. Sunset confuses and asks, "What happens?"

"You should stop crafting something not so natural like that," Eldaro pokes the plate that hangs on Sunset's horns, making it swing around, "Well, this accessory fit you though,"

"Thanks. Anyway, why do we have an adventurer who is heavily injured?" Sunset stares at the adventurer. "I believe that he is safe." Eldaro points at the room, "I will meet you soon, wait there and the others will come. I have to ask that adventurer to see what happens?"

Sunset goes inside the room and sits down. She starts testing the plates that she just enchanted before because she wants to make sure that this accessory works perfectly.

---

After one hour, Sabrina and the gang are coming there. Eldaro leads to the meeting room; when Eldaro opens the door, many orbs of different colors roll outside the room and drop to the downstairs. Eldaro facepalm while another tilts their head in confusion. Sabrina takes a blue ball and squeezes it. She gets frozen after that. Javen and Sakira panic and they quickly break the ice for Sabrina.

Eldaro carefully steps inside the room and sees that Sunset is holding a green orb. The orb is glowing and all of the other green orbs are rolling to Sunset's claw and fusing to the orb. The green orb is bigger and bigger until all of the green orbs are completely fused. Sunset starts doing that with another orb. After a while, the room now has red, blue, yellow, and green orbs on the table. Everyone goes into the room and takes a seat.

Sabrina starts to complain, "You should not create anything weird, Sunset," she points at the yellow orbs and continues, "What is this thing? Is that some kind of your spell?"

Sunset shakes her head, "No, that's just my enchantment to my accessory," Sunset pokes at the plate

Javen is going to say but Eldaro stops him, "Anyway, you all stop asking her from now." Then he takes out a paper, "We will start with the main problem. According to our injured adventurer, he has been attacked by three monsters. The upper part is like a horse while the lower part is a fish, which has scales and kinds of stuff. He gets attacked in White Leaf Lake when he has slain some " Giant snails"

Sabrina looks at Sunset, "Sound like them," Sunset nods as Sabrina continues, "Bet that this is their trap."

Eldaro closes his eyes, "We already know that. This kind of trap is wanting someone to go there," Then he looks at Sunset, "I think you shouldn't go with us."

Sunset shakes her head, "Sorry, but I can't let you if they aim at me, I will go alone."

Eldaro raises his hand, "Then you will go with us, I will pick some snipers to support you from outside." Then he folds his arms, "This can break their plan, and surprise them."

Sunset stays silent awhile, then turns to Eldaro and smiles, "I know why Sabrina prevents you from retiring." Then she steps out of the room, "See you tomorrow."

Eldaro turns his head to others, "Who wants to support her? Raise your hand," Sabrina and Javen raise their hands while Sakira doesn't. Eldaro asks, "What's wrong, Sakira?"

Sakira answers, "I will stay to make sure our guild does not become chaos,"

Eldaro nods and everyone in the room helps to take out the orbs that Sunset has created and puts them in the middle of the room. Everyone in the guild sees that and starts talking about the orbs. Some people are scared but Eldaro has comforted them that these orbs are safe and explains that the one who gives these things is the Black Mage. Everyone inside is happy and tests them, and it was fun that day.