Conversations
"Sunset? I can't hear you none, somethin's wrong with the reception." Applejack spoke into the reciever, recieving garbled noise followed by a prolongued beep. Cursing under her breath, whipping her head to check wether or not Mac had noticed her foulmouthing, the cowgirl breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed her brother was none the wiser.
Playing with the phone in her hands, Applejacks gaze drifted towards her brother's broad back partially obscuring the side of a unmarked black van blocking the road. Worry stirred in the pit of her stomach, mixed with stomach-churning unease. Applejack wasn't one to jump to conclusions, Granny raised her better than this, yet each passing moment gave the cowgirl more and more reason to rationalise her fears as something more than that.
The noise of agitated conversation reached her ears, and with a weary sigh the Applejack stuffed the phone in her pocket, taking long, purposeful steps towards her brother's broad back.
"Sir, please get back into your car, the situation will be resolved shortly." A man's voice spoke with practised level and authority, expecting to be obeyed.
"That's what you told me fifteen minutes ago." Big Mac's reply seemed even on the surface, but Applejack could see irritation under the thin veneer of calm. "And I ain't seeing any less cars on this road."
"We are currently rerouting incoming traffic back into the city, sir." The man donning a road worker's attire replied, emphasising the last word. "You must understand it takes conciderable time and effort to do this with entire city's worth of traffic."
"Then how 'bout you let people out of the city? That'll clear the road in no time." Big Mac replied, his arms crossed on his chest. The construction worker's face fell a little, the man all but rolling his eyes as he replied.
"I told you a hundred times already, there's a sinkhole forming under the road. Until it collapses, we can't let anyone through." The man was about to return to his post, when Big Mac's reply forced him to stay.
"Can't you lead cars around the sinkhole? How many sinkholes even are there?" The farmer's tone took an accusatory turn. "Don't pretend this' the only road outta the city that's blocked, people are talking, you know."
"Listen, cowboy, I don't know more than you do. You want answers? Go to City Hall or something." The workman snorted, shrugging his shoulders, before walking off to supposedly return to his work. Big Mac's squinted, following the man with his gaze before shaking his head and turning to Applejack. He nodded towards the pickup truck, earning a sigh out of Applejack as the two proceeded to take their seats in the car.
Applejack was about to open the door when she heard an annoyed voice behind her.
"First the demon girl, now this? What's going on in this city?"
Applejack frozen in place as her mind went into overdrive. She's talkin' 'bout Sunset? The girl ain't no demon, she just took a bad turn! Everyone deserves another chance... Nevermind that, how does she know about what happened at CHS? After a second's indescision, the Applejack's curiocity and sense of justice won over, the girl turning sharply towards the source of the noise.
A plain, white-yellow t-shirt layered over pine-green skin, well-worn blue jeans ending in grey-green sneakers. Clean, apple-green hair were tidied up into a ponytail, blue eyes half-hid behind squinted eyelids staring at the multiple mile long traffic jam behind her.
"What in Tartarus are you talkin' about, lady?" Applejack's question came out brazen, but was successful in grabbing the woman's attention.
"The demon girls from CHS?" The woman said, turning to Applejack with a disbelieving eyebrow-raise. "Don't tell me you haven't seen it, it's all over the Internet!" The woman gave Applejack a look over, her eyes widening in recognition. "Aren't you one of the girls from CHS?"
"Well, uh..." Applejack stumbled, taken aback as the woman turned tables on her, gaining the initiative.
"Oh my God you are!" The woman exclaimed, causing Applejack to look around to see if any of the drivers had noticed. Thankfully, nobody did. "You're one of the girls who stopped that monster with the rainbow beam thingy!" Applejack nodded instinctively, and before she could utter a word, the woman was back on her, continuing her tirade. "We all owe you girls for stopping that thing." Applejack cringed visibly as the woman referred to her friend in that fashion, anger bubbling up from within her. "With powers like those, who knows what that monster could've-"
"Sunset's ain't no monster!" Applejack all but shouted at the woman, her face taking on an owlish expression at the cowgirl's outrage. "She's a girl who made some bad descisions, I ain't denying that, but that don't mean she's a goner! Everybody deserves a second chance! She's my friend, for Lord's sake!" Applejack pointed a finger at the woman, flashing her an accusatory glare. "And I ain't take too kindly to people badmouthing my friends."
The woman took a step back, raising her hands defensively. "Sheesh, calm down, girl. I'm just telling you what I heard, word of mouth is all." A pregnant silence fell upon the two, the woman sighing, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry for all that about your friend, didn't mean any of it."
Applejack mulled over the words, nodding after them figuring they were truthful enough. "It ain't me you got to apologise to. Just be more mindful next time, okay? Ain't right spreadin' rumors about people."
A sheepish smile appeared on the woman's features. "Yeah, I'll take that to heart..." She trailed off, seemingly losing interest in conversation, before animating suddenly. "So you're friends with this girl?"
"Yep."
"She's a special cookie, right?" The woman chuckled at Applejack's questioning expression. "No offence, but you don't see girls with bat wings and a crooked horn everyday, do you?" The cowgirl bit her lip, debating on wether or not to speak more about her friend. "I don't doubt your friend can change, it's just-" The woman sighed, shaking her head. "I worry, alright? Haven't gotten a nick of sleep since I've seen that video. If that can happen to a girl who's not that bad, who's willing to change... What happens if that kind power ends up in wrong hands?" A shiver ran down the woman's spine as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, sorry... Didn't mean to offload all that onto you." She cleared her throat, turning to walk back to her car. "I better go, forget I said anything..."
"Wait." Applejack spoke, her voice barely above a whisper but it made the woman stop dead in her tracks. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." Applejack winced as the woman recited an unusually grim rendition of a Pinkie promise, but nodded.
"Sunset... well, she ain't exactly your average kind of gal." Applejack began, still unsure about revealing this kind of information to a stranger. She did make a Pinkie promise...
"What do you mean?" The woman said with a tilt of her head.
"She... ain't round from here." Applejack sidestepped the question, uncomfortable half-truths not being her best suit. "And that stuff you've seen? That magic? Something that powerful ain't common from where she's from." The woman's mouth turned into an O at the words.
"She must be real powerful then." Applejack shook her head.
"Sunset's real bright, and she ain't exactly scrawny, but what you've seen was the crown's doing, not hers." The woman's eyes turned to dinnerplates at the words.
"She's royalty?!"
"No-no-no!" Applejack waved her hands in denial, the woman's expression turning to confusion again. "It's not hers..." Only after the words left her mouth, did Applejack think of their weight.
"So she stole a powerful magic crown from alien royalty?!" The woman's voice turned panicky, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. "What if they're coming to get it back?!"
"No-no-no, Twilight's already took it back!"
"They've been here already?" The woman's expression was all but horrifyed.
"Twilight's not holdin' any grudges, she came and left in peace!" Applejack's voice was desperate as the woman staggered away from her, backpedaling in the direction of her car. "It's all fine, Sunny's turned a new leaf! Everything's gotta be alright!"
"If you say so." The woman blurted, practically jumping into her vehicle and slamming the door close.
Applejack almost jumped when a heavy hand was laid onto her shoulder, but a familiar voice grounded her.
"Get back into the car, sis." His voice was as even as ever, but had a nervous edge to it. "Quit causing a scene."
"Scene?" Applejack retorted, hurt and confusion clear in her voice. "I ain't causing no scene-" Words died in her throat as she noticed drivers all around them staring at her with either confused or unnerved expressions.
Applejack coughed, her ears burning as she followed her brother's advice.
Sunset's going to kill me.
"Ah, miss Shimmer, speak of the Devil." Alex said, pulling out a notebook with a pen out of his pocket. "I believe we have much to discuss."
A multitude of question darted through Sunset's head as she watched Celestia's perturbed expression shift into that of disappointment. Was she directung it at Sunset? At her former student?
At herself?
The girl fought off the urge to shake her head, focusing instead on the sole man in the room.
Sunset always took pride in her ability to read people. It's what got through the bloody battlefield of intrigue and betrayal that was Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the constant cutthroat competition between conniving classmates shaping her up to be one of the privileged few ponies who got the title of Princess'personal pupil. Her towering ambition and ruthless determination made her a force to be reckoned with, one that was all but destined to rule Equestria, for that was what she deserved.
But fate had other plans.
Fate had nothing to do with it, and you know it.
Even after her abrupt change in morphology and the definition of people in her lexicon, Sunset remained who she always was: a ruthless pragmatic, and a violently versitile one at that.
With new restrictions came new possibilities, new points to pressure, new strings to pull.
But her goals remained the same.
Neutralise the opposition, accumilate power, get the title she deserved.
It all felt surreal in hindsight. Take Equestria by force? By force of what, one hundred and fifty teenagers? Even with the power of the Element of Magic, her chances against an entire country's worth of military might were slim to none. Walking through that portal would've been a suicide mission.
So why did she want to do it?
A dull pain resonated from her shoulderblades, accusatory and vitriolic.
You know why you did it. Why you always do these things.
Her memories of the night were hazy at best, the actual timeline of that faithful evening javing been reconstructed from flashes of images and sounds, coupled with her new friend's accounts. But there was one thing she remembered clearly, one thing that she will never forget.
The rush of it all.
The euphoric, mind-numbing excatsy that came with holding all the cards, the sheer amount of magic coursing through her body bringing a never-before felt high with it.
One I'll never feel again.
She fought past the lump in her throat as a distant echo of the feeling returned, sending a shiver down her spine. She feared it. Feared, that if even a tiny sliver of it returned, she'd turn back, fight for it, burn all the bridges she'd built just to feel it again, if for a passing moment.
Not much left to burn, anyways.
She feared, that whatever the Elements did to her, while was undoubtedly for the better, carved some integral part of her out, apart that made her, her, and left a gaping hole in its stead. Or worse.
What if the Elements replaced something?
The thought terrified her, because it was too likely of an outcome. Too real.
If you slowly replace each part of a ship, until not a single original part remains, is it still the same ship?
Was that why now when looking at Alex, instead of reading him like an open book, she felt confused? His posture was firm and adamant, refusing to yeld or be ignored. His smile was the closest to arrogance she'd seen on the man, but wasn't close enough to be called that. His eyes, in stark contrast with the rest of his body, had a strained look to them.
Just a week ago, Sunset would've had him pegged on the spot. Now though?
Now I don't know what to think.
Not one to give up easily, Sunset cleared her head as much as possible, her voice brash as she spoke.
"I don't have anything to tell you, said enough at the docks already. You know, that time you broke into my house?" She huffed, not missing the disapproving look Celestia gave her. "Besides, weren't you supposed to go away already?"
"We were" He began, his brows furrowing as he looked through her. "but the roads are blocked. Risk of sinkholes, or something like that."
"Why don't you call them? I'm sure they'll let a pair of big shots out of the city." Sunset said with a snort.
"I'd love to, sarcasm aside, but the phones as good as dead, no net or reception." He tapped the pocket of his jeans, the shape of a phone protruding from within. "So I've got spare time, why not spend it reminiscing?" He flashed a smile at Celestia, who rolled her eyes in responce. He turned to focus on Sunset. "All the while clearing a few things up."
"I don't want to talk." Sunset said curtly, her arms crossed. "Not now, not ever." She added, once she saw the beginnings of a retort forming on the man's lips.
"One, just one question." The man said, raising a finger to accentuate his point. "And I'll leave you be."
"Alex, I think it is best if you leave my office." Principal Celestia said sternly, her steely gaze centered on the man.
"One tiny question, and I you'll never have to worry about me again." Alex ignored his ex-mentor, eyes squarely on the bacon-haired girl.
"Alex." Celestia's voice was as calm as ever, but Sunset felt a shiver go down her spine at the cold intonation it held, the only saving grace being that it wasn't directed at her.
Unlike last time.
"It would be in your interests to end this discussion now." Her tone made the Alex stop, not quite freeze in place, but reconsider.
"I-"
"What do you want to know?" Sunset said with a sigh, a tiny sliver of self-satisfaction bubbling up inside her as she saw both of their faces adorn a surprised expression.
"Sunset, you don't have to." Celestia replied after a moment of silence, her voice full of almost parental concern.
The resemblance is frightening.
"If I don't, he'll either tell his buddy to pester me, or break into my house again." She spoke, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "So I'll ask just this once. What do you want to know?"
What do you want to hear?
The man didn't gloat or pause, he didn't do much of anything but ask, calmly and evenly.
"Of what use is the portal to your people?"
Sunset didn't pause because she hadn't anticipated the question, but rather because she'd struggled to find an answer.
Why did Celestia create the mirror? For what purpose?
Decades of academic knowledge flashed through her mind's eye, and the answer she found wasn't particularly promising.
"Exile for magical creatures was one use." She began, her thoughts wandering to the sleepless nights she spent in the Royal Library prior to her escape. "Those that were deemed too dangerous to hold in prison, but too powerful to execute." She grimaced as the word ledt her mouth. It wasn't a nice page in Equestrian history, not reflective of the country's modern-age peace and tolerance shtick.
No wonder they censored practically all of it.
"So you people thought that stuffing all highly-powerful magic creatures into one place was a good idea?" Alex said with a raise of his eyebrow.
Second question, asshole. But I'll bite.
"There's not much magic this side of the portal." She shrugged. "With all of them on one side, they'd run dry by just staying alive." She cleared her throat. "Maybe they can't even guarantee that."
Alex was about to ask something else, when Sunset raised her finger.
"Nope, no more questions. I was generous enough humouring the second one." She pointed her thumb towards the door. "Out."
After a moment's indescision the man nodded, strolling towards the door, stopping just shy of it to flash the girl a small smile.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
Before she could come up with a responce, the door shut close.
"So?" Daniel spoke from his desk, breaking away from sorting his soon-to-be staff personell files to adress his already-staff.
"Shimmer's story held up." Pine replied from her seat in the small office relegated to her superior. "Miss Applejack really thinks she'd turned over a new leaf, keyword thinks." She passed Daniel a torn notebook page. "No hard feeling either, from what I gathered, you can find the whole transcrpt here." She cleared her throat, glancing at her wristwatch. "Of course, I'd still recommend a proper interrogation of everyone involved as soon as our resources would allow it."
"Great work, Pine!" Daniel replied enthuseastically." Have a pizza, on the house."
Pine heard a sigh from the seat next to her, ignoring it to address the Site Director.
"We don't have pizzas yet, sir. The staff's still furnishing the kitchen."
"Guess we'll have get takeout?" Daniel chuckled as the man beside Pnie groaned, rubbing his eyes.
"You gave this asshole an office? Really?" Alex pouted.
"Someone doesn't like pizza, it seems." Daniel cracked his knuckles in a failed attempt at intimidation, before shooting a good natured smirk at his friend. "Got anything for me, Agent Cawthon?"
"Sure, Director Miller." Alex said with a roll of his eyes, crossing his arms on his chest. "Apparently, Shimmer's people ised the portal as a prison for powerful magical creatures, to powerful to kill or contain." Anticipating Danny's question, he continued. "Apparently there's not enough magic to sustain them, so best case scenario, they're dead or powerless."
A fown etched itself into Danny's features as he ran the information through his head. "Good job, Al, I'll report to Memory, see if he can hurry those reinforcements up. Lord knows we don't need any more trouble coming our way."
A dreadful though visited him as he opened his work email, typing away a report.
Shouldn't have said it outloud.
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Don't worry, she won't. She'll just burn down everything you love and care for
I mean, it's too early for me to tell, but I hope that none of us got the same idea in what is being replaced.
This starts to get epic, excited for the next chapters!
11408110
At least she won't die, nothing worse than that, right?
My money's on the liver, give or take a few blood vessels.
Glad to hear you're excited, hope I won't disappoint!
A really good episode though the conversation with the woman was really weird like, suddenly talking to some random woman you don't know?
11408181
She was talking smack about Sunset, and AJ's not one to stand someone shit-talking her friends.
I swear it made sense in my head
Murphy call in Aisle 3, 14, Freezers, Butchers, Playpen and Toilets.
Cant call out? see that dot moving? thats the ISS. See this grreen laser pointer, Morse towards it and the streaming camera in the Cupola will be picked up by someones automatic pattern recognition scanner. As for return call? Thats what helicopters and Cruise Mail missiles are for.
11408208
My brain is too smooth to understand even half of this
Can’t tell if this means that some/most/all of the SCPs didn’t originate from the Equestrians yeeting undesirables through the portal, or if Sunset is just wrong about them ‘running dry’ and or dying. I’m assuming running dry means something like losing their anomalous/magical abilities, but obviously if the SCP foundation is around that either didn’t happen or they were just weakened.
I wonder how the Foundation would feel if the cause for all their problems was this one civilization dumping things into their world without a care for what they do afterwards. Do you think they’d hold a grudge? Regardless, this is a good chapter :)
11408318
There is a good chunk of anomalies that come from other universes, at best they would try to ask Equestria to close or stop using the portal and ask a list of all the creatures that were send to Earth.
Sunset really should keep asking what the Element done to her since is indicate that her transformation was extremely painful and was changed in to a demon. A thing that was made to keep harmony drove someone insane, that's a cause for concern.
It should be best case scenario they are powerless, worst case scenario they are not powerless and are causing havoc across the world.
11408387
Yeah, that definently sounds better than whatever I meant to say. Fixed.
11408318
Even a single SCP can be a major pain in the rear depending on its properties, guess what happens when that object can think, make plans, hold grudges e.t.c. ...
Guess the Equestrians should've disposed of their stuff more carefully?
11408698
woooAAAH IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW
11408745
The. Number of fics where Sunset beats up Star Swirl? Seriously due liked to banish things didn't he?
I kinda love this question. From an outsider perspective it might seem like curiosity, perhaps an insulting jab, but coming from a SCP agent it's their experience with such things being surprised at how the equestrians didn't do a very good job.
11417163
Isn't what SCP is doing? Also they had a disposal program, which had a lot mostly theoretical scenarios