A Past Returned

by TacoTues4Eva

Wednesday Dec 21 e

Dinner went pretty quick as Susan already had it done which included a nice salad, some breadsticks and spaghetti which Sunset had to admit was the best she had ever tasted. Sure Granny Smith was a great cook, but her home cooked meals never consisted of anything Italian as far as Sunset knew. The only time she ever had Italian was at school and pizzas the girls ordered. It wasn’t something she made at home unless they were cheap microwavable dinners in those small green boxes.

“You really loved it that much?” Susan asked ecstatically as Sunset nodded while wiping the corners of her mouth with the napkin.

“It was the best!” Sunset gushed wondering if perhaps her decision to stay based on this woman’s cooking would be ok or not if everything else went wrong.

“Well, I’ll get the dishes loaded into the dishwasher if you want to go find something to watch while we decorate.” Susan said with a large smile as she was very happy her daughter was having a good time.

“What if I bring out a music CD with Christmas songs? I know most people like them and they have kind of grown on me. Well, that is, if you don’t mind my singing. I recorded them with my friends back in Canterlot.” Sunset suggested figuring if they were going to be doing Christmas decorations maybe a little festive music would be good. It would also save her the embarrassment of admitting that while she knew how to use the TV, the sheer amount of apps on the thing was intimidating.

“I’d love to hear that darling!” Susan said in excitement as Sunset excused herself from the table to go to her room. Pulling out her old laptop Rarity had given her when her family bought new ones, she pulled the disc out of the drive and went back to put the CD into the blu ray player and loaded up the MP3s to play. It was the last CD they made together before Anon-A-Miss started and now Sunset knew why Rainbow Dash kept insisting on making what she called studio quality tracks. Not that Sunset would call it studio quality as most of the time they were done in the music room or Rainbow Dash’s garage.

The first song started up which Sunset ranked in her top five songs they did based on the holiday songs. Jingle Bell Rock began blaring through the TV speakers just as Susan came in bobbing hr head to the music. “I knew you had a beautiful voice, but your singing voice is something else! The video I saw of you singing at the Battle of the Bands was too hard to hear, hearing you this clearly is so much better!”

“Thanks.” Sunset said with a blush as she turned to look at the bare tree already standing a little off from the TV with numerous bags and boxes not far off from it. “I know you mentioned putting up the tree, but it looks like it is already up.”

“I meant decorating it silly!” Susan giggled, giving Sunset a side hug as she walked by her and toward the pile of items near the tree.

“Want to help me spread this stuff out on the coffee table and couches to see what we have to work with?” Susan asked as she grabbed a few things and started pulling them out of the bags, showing packages of lights and garland as she started spreading them out. Sunset did the same finding more lights and some ornaments for the tree as she looked over the stuff, then back to the tree trying to remember just how the trees at the girls’ home looked.

“How do we do this?” Sunset asked as she looked to Susan for an explanation.

“There is no right or wrong way really dear. We string the lights and garland around the tree best we can, then hang up the ornaments and candy canes where we think they will look good. Then I guess put either the star or angel on the top. After that I have a special blanket to wrap around the base with silver glitter to kind of make it look like snow.” Susan explained as she looked over to Sunset, who sucking on a candy cane from one of the boxes she found in another bag.

“Wait, these are decorations?” Sunset asked looking aghast making Susan giggle a little.

“We hang them up and when someone gets a sweet tooth they take one and eat it.” Susan said taking one herself. “Let’s get started.”

It took about two hours for them to finish the tree and decide to wait until tomorrow when they either could borrow a ladder or get one of Susan’s friends to help hang the wreathes, mistletoe and lights around the walls. Susan wanted to smack her own forehead that she didn’t think of that sooner.

Something was bothering her though as Sunset started out really happy as they talked about their likes and dislikes as well as their hobbies. Mostly just having fun and learning about each other, but the longer it went on the more Sunset kept zoning out and looking a little sad. It hurt to see her little girl looking like that and decided she was going to make sure she found out what was wrong. There would be no secrets like the ones that destroyed her relationship with Will. She understood that somebody was messing with her mind, but the lies and hiding things didn’t help in any way.

“Sweetie?” Susan said as she brushed the trash from the packages off the couch and sat down before patting the place next to her. “Please come sit with me.”

“Is everything okay?” Susan asked as she pulled Sunset into her and started stoking the girl’s head and running fingers through her beautiful fiery locks. “Please, if something is wrong tell me. I don’t want either of us to have any secrets from each other since all it does is cause trouble.”

Sunset sat there for a few minutes thinking about what to say as she was used to being alone and not really having someone expecting her to tell them everything. Sure she had the girls, but at the end of a day they were a poor replacement for an actual family wanting to be a part of your life.

“I met a boy today at the mall.” Sunset sighed making Susan freeze up a little bit.

“I kind of wish it had longer before you found somebody, but with your brains and beauty it was bound to happen.” Susan said wistfully, “Did you two hit it off?”

The memory of having a mini battle of guitars and the time in the food court flashed through her mind making her wonder if it really was just all a lie. Matt seemed like he was genuinely having fun, so could he have been distancing himself when he realized they were getting too close? No, that didn’t seem right to her. Yet it also didn’t seem right that he had broke her heart like that which was a whole other level of confusion.

“Is it normal to get close to someone so fast that it feels like you knew them already? That you just want to be with them so much because it feels like they truly get you and care for you?” Sunset asked.

“Well, of course there is love at first sight or even soul mates which I’m not to fond of either really. When it comes to romance, of course you might feel a really strong attraction to someone but without getting to know them to see if you are really compatible. It’s alright to feel that way as long as you don’t move too fast.” Susan explained slowly as she tried to figure out just how to say it.

“Soul mates?” Sunset snorted. “Like that destiny crap?”

“I take it you don’t believe in destiny?” Susan giggled at Sunset’s reaction.

“I’m really sorry to be crass, but I kind of like this saying someone I knew in Canterlot told me. Her name was Gilda and she was probably one of the toughest girls I knew there. She once asked me if I wanted to be destiny’s bitch or if I wanted to be the bitch to kick fate’s teeth in.” Sunset laughed. “Personally, I want to be the bitch to kick fate’s teeth in.”

“That’s my girl!” Susan laughed giving Sunset a squeeze. “Is that what has you down, your worried about your feelings?”

“A little, but not that I like him. Well, that’s not what has me down, he told me he was only giving me the time of day because his Mistress ordered him to protect me.” Sunset said bracing herself for Susan’s reaction.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Susan asked in a frightened tone as she pushed the teen away to look over her closely to make sure there was no injuries which Sunset found pointless as they had a nice dinner and had fun putting up the Christmas tree.

“No, but he said as soon as his Mistress rescinds her orders he will be coming after me just like the other guardians.” Sunset said.

“What was his name?” Susan asked urgently.

“Matt, he’s Mr. Olsen’s grandson.” Sunset said noticing the color draining away from her mother’s face. “He turns into this dark angel like thing that calls himself Shagon.”

“No. No, no, no. This isn’t good.” Sunset said as she almost leaped from the couch and started pacing in front of Sunset biting her thumbnail.

“What’s wrong?” Sunset asked as she looked up at the woman who was so calm and collected look so scared and worried at the same time.

“Shagon is one of the girl’s enemies, one of Nerissa’s generals I guess you would say.” Susan said, “Are you sure you are okay honey? I swear if that witch had her pet hurt you I will tear her apart with my bare hands!”

“I’m fine, really.” Sunset said.

“I want your permission to do this honey, I won’t betray your trust. This is very important though and I need to call Yan Lin to let her know who Shagon is. He might either be mind controlled or Nerissa might have the real Matt.” Susan explained, “I’ll ask her not to tell the girls about you until you are sure what you want to do about that. I know you don’t know them and I won’t let them be forced on you, but they need to know about Shagon.”

“Thanks, I don’t mind you calling Yan Lin about it. I know she’s your friend and you want to protect her granddaughter and her friends from getting hurt.” Sunset said now worried for Matt though she was still going to have words with him as he hurt her very badly.

“Thank you honey.” Susan said as she leant over to kiss the top of Sunset’s head. “If I had my way I’d whisk you away from here away from all this craziness.”

Sunset heard what Susan said and she believed it and was also thankful that it wasn’t what she was trying to do. Despite feeling as if none of this really had anything to do with her she still felt some kind of urge to take care of it. To stop what ever evil was threatening those girls and protect her mother. She just didn’t know if she believed Nerissa was as evil as everyone seems to think if it was the same woman she ate with not all that long ago.

Author's Note:

I wanted to thank Sunny Scriber for proof reading and all the great ideas and help HarmonicPriest has given as well as the awesome new omake he wrote in the comments of the last chapter so check it out everyone.

Comments

[Shrouded Lunes]

Oof. Just want to take a moment to say that the biggest issue I'm having with this story is that it's not tomorrow already. Seriously, stumbled upon it yesterday and got caught up. Now I'm stuck waiting for the next chapter. Loving it so far and looking forward to seeing where it goes.

[TacoTues4Eva]

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Thanks, I'm doing a part every day so the next part will be out tomorrow which will be ending the day out so the following day will be a new day.

[HarmonicPriest]

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Well, it's nice you liked it, as for making a copy on my profile...I don't know if I can, isn't it some plagiarism violation? (After all, Omakes are already kind of "Mooching" out of your amazing story)
But it would be nice to have them in one place other than some word files... Or maybe when this story ends you could add them and omakes made by other readers (I don't think I will be the only one to make something) as post-epilogue chapters?

Yes that is Discord and not the local one. I wanted to write it so that reader can't be sure if it is truly him ... or a local one and Susan is just hallucinating but it seems that was too obvious. Besides where else he could be? Politics are already a chaotic mess and earth at this point is "Neutral territory with one equestrian and one kandrakar outpost" so it would be for him hard to resist adding his flag to a territory.

Shady dealings were inspired by merchants from games and in particular Resident Evil 4 merchants. They are everywhere, even in ancient tombs or evil castles so it's not hard to believe that bunch of teens from a couple of high schools could replicate such a trading ring. I also wanted to add Fluttershy to the mix with her using her wings and animals to replicate supernatural aura ... but I thought it was already long material.

Ahh, Twilight and future MiniTwily!Lilian, isn't it terrifying?
I mean besides the fact that Cornelia would be pissed knowing who her sister chose as an example to follow, even canon!Lilian is terrifying and smarter than eight year old (In her episode she warped reality on a building scale, FORCED activation of Heart of Kandrakar, dragged Nerissa from OTHER DIMENSION, and empowered three individuals to guardian level ... and she did that without even thinking or knowing she did that. If that is not a Godhood-Lite I don't know what is. So imagine that, with the tutelage of Twilight Sparkle in SCIENCE! mode, and the ability to subconsciously alter the experiment's rate of success to 100% ... always. Have a nice nightmare.)

As for slime, what self-respecting mage/scientist/alchemist doesn't have his ooze, they are perfect cleaners for all mishaps. And the "Dragon Quest" slime variant is perfect for mascots (Much better than Blunk for sure).

Ahh yes, the poison joke, the entire reason for the creation of the entire chain to make a reason for Twilight to have access to that. I must admit, I'm not exactly proud of the ideas that were used, I know what I wanted to do with Cornelia since you mentioned Poison Joke in one of the comments ... but I had a hard time coming up with ironic ideas that could work for the rest of group (Why only Cornelia should be a victim when there is the chance for spreading joy?)

Cornelia --> Equestrian name : Corny Fella . The irony was her not intended hurtful comments against coloration ... so she became reversed!pallet Fluttershy ... and then magic pushed further making her closer to true equestrians instead of only EQG by giving her "customized angry Rapidash reaction" and synthetic cutie mark fueled by guardian magic ... in being a corny teenager.

Irma --> Senator Irmastrong , fueled by memes. In my mind that is one of the weaker ideas because it's not true irony.

Teranee --> Well she is an intelligent telepath but lacks the wisdom to apply those two things so in a way of introspection she became a shaman ... Zecora in particular. That is the second of the weaker ideas.

Hay Lin --> Here that was easy, Hay Lin was embracing the American style of life and not rejecting but ignoring her heritage ... so the irony was that she could not stop spewing said heritage.

Lilian --> Flower Girl. Well, the irony was that she saw pink skin, thought it was a chemical reaction, and used some dust on herself and she got effect connected to name. The power of the heart didn't protect her because she thought it will be a set effect so magic didn't change it and once it started working ... well she would need to think about it, rather hard with an allergic reaction. I was playing with the thought of a poison joke changing her into palleteswap!cozy glow ... and then the "a little hoarse" pun came...

Shagon--> Faceless. That irony came with the thought of Persona games, in particular, persona 5. Shagon was in control of the body so magic latched onto him, he has no personality except what was given to him by Matt his host, and Nerissa his creator, he has no persona of his own, so he has no mask ergo no face.

As for the ranch story ... well that's a must to write ... but for later, at this point girls received enough kicks and I don't want to enter "bashing" territory.

Eyup, Sonata is pure in soul taco queen. I often think of her as a "follower in for fun with friends", she doesn't decide, she just goes with it, and when she has an idea she is sadly ignored. Besides, I just couldn't fight off the "Sonata!SecretGenius" plot bunny so she became an accidental business savant, I just don't know what went right.

---

And Susan scores more mother points. Couple more on the card and it's redemable free power up.

Yay sharing important pieces of information, and finally some competency.
But why do I think that after saying all of this to Yan Lin, and her sharing it with I.T.C.H ... they will ignore that information because it came from an "unknown source" and ergo "it's a trick and shouldn't be trusted"?

It's so tasty irony that Sunset Shimmer, an Equestrian Unicorn that has "mark of destiny" on her flanks says that she doesn't believe in destiny ( I mean I also don't believe in destiny and I think calling Cutie Marks as tools of fate is misconception (I have my own headcannon on how they work but it's kinda long to write)).

Also, Susan got points for rationality, why fight for some big cause when you should say "screw it" and protect your family first place (I'm looking at you Potters).
I now think that Susan could win a fight with Nerrisa solo, Mama Bear is scary ...

Now I am thinking about what would be a potential affinity or fighting style for Susan in case of magic awakening. I would think it would be sound affinity considering her job and previous husb... oooh ... I didn't think about Will's Father ... he could be troublesome if/when he chooses to show up.

Bravo Sunny, no one is a villain in their story, it's a shame it was never revealed in the cartoon what pushed Nerrisa in that direction.
I mean her methods were known. But that is a question of "How", it was unknown "What is her endgame? Why is she doing that, what is her motive?"
Shame that not many heroes ask questions , it would be so easy to defeat "villan" with therapy ... or ignore when plan would bring more good than evil.

[TacoTues4Eva]

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I don't think it's plagiarizing and thank you for the compliment and I really loved your omakes. If you really want I'd be happy to post them as an omake chapter credited to you after the ending.

I actually thought it was human Discord but that just make it that much better when Fluttershy finds out mwahahaha! Would have been funny to see Flutters too, but now that you mention it merchants always seem to show up in the strangest places where they really shouldn't be. There is something seriously wrong with some of those merchants. I do believe it could be very easy for them to replicate it though I loved where Twilight got her gems from.

It is kind of terrifying even if I do love it lol. You do have some good points and she does seem smarter than those her age. Might have to do something more serious with her in the sequel. To think that even the most wild ideas that has no chance to logically succeed could be pushed to actually pan out with a little help from Lily? The science world could be turned on it's head with those two and I imagine that nightmare would be so awesome to witness.

I've actually come to love slimes after discounting them for so long. From Remeru to those slimes who help do laundry in that one anime, slimes are a lot cooler than I once gave them credit for. They would make the perfect mascot and pet for a couple mad scientist. And yep, much better than blunk.

I love the ideas you used, though some were better than other, they were all still great. It's perfect to see her have to live a day in an EG's shoes and the pallete was perfect. The Rapidash reaction and cutie marks were great too. Irma was funny, but Taranee was hilarious. I would write some Zecora stuff as she is a very interesting character but I have a lot of trouble writing dialouge like that. It was pretty funny seeing her unable to speak english and the others having trouble understanding without writing stuff down. While the pallet swap would have been funny, what you did with the little hoarse was just perfect. Poor Shagon lol, a perfect punishment lol.

I'd love to see it when you do though I never put much stock into bashing unless you literally set out to bash characters and outright do it in a bad way. I've seen a lot of people get blamed for bashing when there really wasn't any. Sure it might look like it at first glance but a lot of times you are seeing the one side of things until he author shows the other side showing it was just miscommunication or the point of view that changes from one character to another...I hope I explained that right lol.

I think the whole idea went right, but Sonata is an awesome character. Fun fact, my name is actually because of her lol. I can see her being a secret genius as well as just going along with what her friends say because she cares for them and wants to support them. Too bad they don't seem to support her as much at times.

She needs a good powerup.

Possibly as teenagers will be teenagers thinking they know everything. Serious though, sometimes I think it kind of is that as they are kind of inexperienced and the wildly different personalities sometimes clashing that creates problems in groups that in turn makes them mess up everything from group dynamic to actually thinking and doing something logical.

I actually sometimes like the thought of destiny and sometimes I hate it...sometimes I think it depends on the day of the week. Here though I'm trying to think of her not believing in it as to her cutie marks is just a physical representation showing something they are naturally gifted or skilled in. At the end of the day it is the pony's choice to pursue it and while most do, some actually try different things and make a whole new life with something the worked hard on and learned themselves.

I like to think of Susan who really loves Sunset and wants to see her safe and happy yet at the same time knowing that even if she wants to it would be pointless to run as crap will catch up eventually. She might just be able to straight up beat Nerissa too as the power of love conquers all, and parental love in this case is very powerful.

II do like your idea of an affinity as sound could be very powerful. And I do have plans for Tony if I bring him into the story, I'm just not sure if I will in this part of the sequel.

I think Sunset has a bit of a unique view of the situation being she was once a villain herself. I actually show her motivation and how, or at least I plan to, near the end of the story when the truth of everything comes out about just why she is doing what she is doing. You have a point about leaving them alone sometimes if plan will bring more good, but they could also even end up helping them with it.