The siren call of Sunset

by Hope

Power

“Soo… are you going to show me around your town?”

Sunset twitched a little and blinked, looking away from Twilight while her mind tried to catch up with her emotions.

“Sure, yeah, I just… We’re going to need to hide your wings,” she finally decided.

Twilight opened those wings, turning her head to examine them, trying to find something wrong with them before shaking her head.

“I don’t understand. Why? Surface ponies have wings.”

“But not when they also have a horn,” Sunset insisted, trotting to her saddlebags and finding a rain jacket that she pulled out with her teeth and draped across Twilight’s back. “I haven’t heard of any modem ponies having wings and a horn, it just doesn’t happen. So, to blend in–”

“Why don’t you use your magic?” Twilight interrupted as she used her own magic to adjust the jacket a bit, clasping it around her neck.

Sunset hesitated yet again. Everything Twilight said took her off guard, interrupting her smooth and easy attitude. Normally, Sunset could lie for days on end while barely thinking about it, but even the simplest questions from Twilight made her mentally trip. Thankfully, this lie was one she’d practiced.

“An accident when I was young,” she said, zipping up her bags and clasping the belt around her waist manually. “My horn took a blow, and my magic hasn’t worked since then. But it’s fine, I get by without it.”

“Okay,” Twilight accepted the explanation and started walking towards the stairs off the beach.

Normally, Sunset was used to ponies offering apologies, groveling for Sunset’s forgiveness for even bringing up the topic. But Twilight just accepted the explanation and moved on. Sunset didn’t know whether to be grateful or infuriated, as she followed the transformed merpony up onto the street.

Through Twilight’s eyes, the town of Maritime Bay wasn’t just a small town. It was a town built like a fortress. Every building had a door, every door had a lock. Every window was a solid pane of glass, instead of a curtain or slats. Heavy carts transported heavier goods from and to dense single-story structures made of stone block or brick. Every bit of the town was overbuilt and hostile to her, but also fascinating. Here, a simple fence post was carved elegantly with flowers. There, a sign had swirling delicate paint that would decay in hours if underwater, brightly colored declaring Posey’s General Store and the hours it was open to all the world. An entire stack of newspapers inside of a covered container were whole and legible, available to anyone with a bit to pay.

In this surface world she saw the dichotomy of everything being harder, but so many more possibilities.

“Do you want one?” Sunset asked, after Twilight had spent a few moments trying to squint through the newspaper box to read the front page.

“Yes! Yes please,” Twilight replied immediately.

Sunset inserted a bit, pressed a button that checked for the presence of a bit, then dropped it into a holding container and allowed the newspaper box’s front cover to swing open.

“How do they ensure that each customer only takes one?” Twilight asked as she floated one newspaper up to open it in her purple magic glow and begin reading the obituaries with incredible interest.

“Well, it’s an honor system,” Sunset shrugged, remembering stealing a whole stack when she’d first arrived, and using them as bedding.

Twilight paused her reading to look at Sunset incredulously.

“You surface ponies can’t trust each other not to enter buildings you should not enter, but trust a stranger not to take a single extra newspaper?”

Sunset smiled a little, shaking her head.

“Newspapers just aren’t that useful for most ponies. So they don’t need as much security.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and went back to reading, frowning as she kept going.

“Why do they have to list all the ponies… All the creatures,” she corrected herself, noting a griffin among the list. “That have died in the last month? Doesn’t everyone already know?”

Sunset laughed softly, closing the newspaper box and walking slowly enough that Twilight could follow even while reading.

“We ponies,” she said quietly enough that passers-by wouldn’t hear the strange conversation. “Don’t know everyone in our communities. We might know some, but word also takes a long time to travel between towns and cities. That paper is from Manehattan to the North, we aren’t a big enough town to have our own paper.”

“I see, so this is a regional death listing,” Twilight muttered, flipping past the obituaries and finding the advertisements, puzzling her way through goods and services for sale which she had no context for.

“Hey Sunset!” An earth pony called out from the door of one of the shops.

Sunset almost responded, but realized very quickly that she’d told Twilight that her name was Golden Breeze. She kept trotting, leading Twilight deeper into the town instead of towards Gilda’s house or the other beachfront buildings that Sunset frequented.

“Sunset?” The voice was faint enough that Twilight didn’t seem to notice, focused intently on her paper.

“What is an ‘agriculture worker’?” Twilight asked after a bit more walking.

“A pony that harvests food, usually grains, vegetables, and fruit,” Sunset said simply as she shifted their path to steer clear of a music shop whose owner might recognize her. “That’s all that most of us need. Though Pegusi and griffons eat fish, and sometimes unicorns or earth ponies will eat fish, it’s just that it can upset our stomachs more easily since we aren’t used to it.”

“So gatherers,” Twilight nodded. “You have hunters too, right?”

“No,” Sunset said quickly. “All the land animals have flesh too similar to ponies for us to process. It’s also considered immoral, the animals can provide milk, or other byproducts, but it’s very rare for ponies to kill and eat surface animals.”

Twilight huffed, scowling. “I see. So it’s just our animals, our fish that are considered acceptable to eat.”

“Do you not eat fish?” Sunset asked, feigning surprise.

That gave Twilight a bit of pause.

“We do,” she admitted. “But it’s odd that you surface ponies are so morally righteous when dealing with surface animals, but accept harvesting our animals without pause. Especially with drag nets! They should be banned, absolutely heinous methods.”

Of course, Sunset agreed in part, but she was playing the role of a surface pony with no experience in life beneath the sea.

“I don’t even know what a drag net is,” Sunset said with a huff. “I’m not exactly a sailor. But I don’t have any power anyway, I can’t change laws. I’m just a citizen.”

“Then maybe I can make them change the laws,” Twilight said darkly. “Who leads your society? Who makes those laws?”

Sunset, in a dark way, wanted to see just how much trouble Twilight could get herself into. At the same time she figured that the soon-to-be-queen, literally out of her depth, wouldn’t get too far.

“President Novo Sumera was elected to her position a year and a half ago. She is the head of state, but she doesn’t have complete power. She’s part of the Hoof party, traditionally in line with earth pony interests, though in the last twenty years the Hoof party has shifted into much more isolationist and regressive policies, using budgets and austerity as an excuse to starve their political opponents of resources. Chancellor Cosmos is the head of the Council, from the Horn party, a progressive party that usually has their interests so grand and extravagant that they never finish a project or follow through on their promises. The Prime Judge is Clapper Crimp, also from the Horn party, but everyone says that he’s actually just a third party patsy that is there to make the Horn party look even more inept than it already is.”

Twilight had stopped walking, staring at Sunset in horror.

“Golden Breeze. Are you telling me that… your entire society is built on divisions and opposition? That even your political organizations are divided on tribal lines?” she asked incredulously.

“Well, no,” Sunset smirked. “The Wing party collapsed decades ago from infighting. And anyone can join the Hoof or Horn parties, not just earth ponies or unicorns.”

“I hardly think that disproves my objection,” Twilight snapped.

“Then yes, that is what I’m telling you,” Sunset shrugged. “Our society up here is built on division and conflict. Why, what wonderful system do you have under the sea?”

Twilight hesitated, a bit confused by the question.

“Well… We have Queens, that are biologically selected by the magic of Unity to become queens, and they rule over the cities that they were born in.”

“I see. We had queens once, hundreds of years ago,” Sunset said sourly. “They ruled with an iron hoof. Nopony could tell them they were wrong, nopony could stop them when they were determined to ruin the world around them. They had absolute power, and those who lived under them were forced to bow to their whims. Are your queens like that, Twilight?”

Twilight took a step back at the sudden anger emanating from the small pony, struck by the way that ‘Golden Breeze’ had been so calm until now. How deeply she was opposed to the idea of absolute rule by a monarch.

“I… I’m…” Twilight stuttered, slowly shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’ll think on that question. I’ll… try to find an answer for you.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Sunset said, her bitter voice bleeding anger out of her until she just sounded tired. “Come on, I wanted to show you a cafe, if you have time.”