Sunset nearly groaned as she slowly regained consciousness, but was able to refrain making any sounds or movement when she sensed the four girls sitting around her. She could feel her boots missing and a blanket draped over her and if she had to guess, she would say she was on the couch from the feeling of it. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself just yet as she was trying to get the dull throb in her head to settle down a little more and figure out what happened.
The easiest explanation would be that she simply overdid it as she hasn’t used magic this much since coming to Earth. With the fact that she tapped into her abilities as a unicorn, which has been hit or miss with small things such as levitation, it possibly could have strained her more than anticipated. If that was the case though, her reserves would be a lot lower than what she felt they were. Not that she was having an easy time feeling her mana system, as it was vastly different than her unicorn’s body, but she could remember feeling them from the battle as when she absorbed the fire, it lit up the pathways like the Christmas lights on the tree. It was thanks to that battle that she now knew the basic pathways and structures of her current magic system not coming from the Heart of Kandrakar, or perhaps in addition to it.
Another, possibly which may have been more a bit more likely, is the fatigue she had been feeling. She knew it could happen to people and had even seen examples from it. It could be caused by a number of factors including stress, emotions running highly wild over a short or intense period, or even just from extreme exhaustion. Magic was largely mental, but it also took some physical effort to cast even the smallest of spells. She had been going through a lot of that lately, added to the fact that she wasn’t exactly eating very much before coming here because of being isolated during Anon-A-Miss. It was all a recipe for disaster, or at least her collapsing, yet it was something Sunset didn’t really want to believe as she wasn’t feeling very strained.
There was one other conclusion Sunset could come up with, she just couldn’t wrap her head around the who, where, or why of it. When she first realized she could levitate things at Fluttershy’s house it did seem easy. It was actually pretty easy to cast the magic during the battle, which was a little odd compared to how it seemed harder to do it here in her home. It was as if something was fighting the use of magic in the vicinity, which would explain the resistance Sunset felt when she was teleporting them. It may have only taken seconds to teleport them, but to Sunset it took longer. She felt something pushing against her spell’s anchor, which made her use a lot of her strength to brute force her way through the resistance.
If there was something like a magic nullification field it would explain the headache and the nearly paralyzed feeling she had right before collapsing. It could have caused a feedback loop that damaged the source of the nullification field as well as cause negative effects to the caster. The questions that bothered her was who would even know how to create something like that here? How did they even know how to make something that advanced? The magic the girls seemed to use was basically training wheels for unicorns. And finally, why do something like that here in this specific building? While this was the most likely of options, it was also the most unsettling.
“Do you mind if I stay too, Ms. V?” Came Irma’s voice, the girl sounding frustrated.
“I guess so, Irma. Just no causing trouble when Velvet and Twilight get here.” Susan replied. Sunset could imagine the stern look from the older woman. Sunset had to admit, she was a little surprised she didn’t feel her mother in the room, but these girls were connected to her through the Heart, which could possibly explain sensing them close by.
“Why would I cause trouble with Twilight?” Irma asked, “Corny was the one who flipped out about crayons.”
“Don’t call me Corny!” Cornelia snapped.
“First, I don’t ever want to hear you girls use a derogatory term like that again! A crayon is something you color with, not a human being! Do I make myself clear?” Susan said, her voice growing angrier. After a guilt filled acknowledgement from the girls, she continued, “Second, what is she talking about?”
“Does it matter?” Cornelia asked, sounding cowed.
“Yes, it matters.” Susan said.
“Ms. V, Cornelia had a breakdown at the mall. She saw Matt and Sunset, then freaked out about Will. She didn’t truly mean to say those things.” Taranee explained.
“I won’t force you to apologize, it wouldn’t mean anything if I did. I do expect you to show my daughter and niece the respect they deserve as human beings.” Susan said. “Sunset will probably wake up soon and it is way past lunch time. I assume you girls are hungry and I know Sunset will be, so I’ll order pizzas and breadsticks for you until your parents pick you up after the mess at the mall is cleared up.”
“You don’t have to do that, I can call home and see if I can get some take-out brought over.” Hay Lin suggested.
“It’s fine dear. Despite not seeing you girls as much as I would like lately, I do still love you all. You were like family to Will, which meant you were like family to me.” Susan said, silence following a few moments before Sunset felt a soft kiss on her forehead and a whispered, “You know they’re going to realize you are awake sooner or later?”
“Thanks mom.” Sunset whispered back, not realizing a certain air guardian would hear.
“Are you okay, Sunset?” Hay Lin asked softly.
“I’m fine.” Sunset groaned, earning a hair ruffling by her mother who was climbing to her feet from the floor in front of where Sunset was laying. “Just thinking, I guess.”
“Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be back.” Susan said, giving Sunset a questioning look while helping her sit up. “Unless you girls want some alone time.”
“It’s ok mom, I’d love if you came back.” Sunset said as she smiled at the older woman. “Actually, girls, I’ll be right back.”
“Do you need help sweetie?” Susan asked, making sure Sunset didn’t collapse as she climbed to her feet as well.
“I’m okay mom, I feel great other than a headache. And a lot of nervousness I guess.” Sunset explained.
Susan walked with Sunset as the two moved into the kitchen where the teen started digging through cupboards. Susan couldn’t help wonder what the teen was doing as she pulled out a bag of chocolate chip cookies and dumped them on a plate. She didn’t miss Sunset causally calling her mom, which made her smile even more. She was afraid to tease Sunset over it, or bring it up in case the girl became self conscious over it and stopped.
“I bet not as good as your homemade ones, but I’m sure they will break the ice.” Sunset said with a grin.
“You remembered that?” Susan asked, her eyes watering a little thinking about Will’s first day at Sheffield Institute.
“I’m sorry, Mom, I read about it in Will’s diaries. It is one of the few things I read in there I can actually picture happening. Not sure if it’s de ja vu, or just how detailed some things were.” Sunset explained.
“I’ll be out in a couple minutes then dear.” Susan said, giving an encouraging smile. ”Good luck, honey.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll need it.” Sunset snorted as she walked back out where the girls quickly stopped what ever they were talking about and turned to look at her. She couldn’t help taking a sheepish expression as she placed the plate down on the coffee table. Not that she meant to do it, but her expression combined with how she asked, “Want a cookie?” triggered something in the blonde that was unexpected by all of them.
“WILL!” Cornelia shrieked, sobbing hard as she threw herself at Sunset and wrapped her arms tightly around her. The way she threw herself at Sunset forced both girls off balance and fall back on the couch where Cornelia refused to let go while sobbing out over and over again, “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!”
“Corny, what are you talking about?” Irma asked, “That isn’t Will.”
“I’m sorry, Cornelia.” Sunset said, wrapping her own arms around the girl. “I’m not Will, not anymore.”
“Not anymore?” Irma asked, hands covering her mouth as she stared at Sunset in shock. “You made it sound like Will’s dead!”
“In a way she is, Irma. When she made that wish, she was sent back in time in a new body. Something happened though, it destroyed her memories or sealed them up really tight. I grew up as Sunset Shimmer, not Wilhelmina Vandom.” Sunset said, “I don’t remember you girls, and I don’t really remember mom either. All I know is that she loves me and I love her, I’d do anything to keep her safe.”
“Oh sweetheart.” Susan said, leaning over the back of the couch and hugging Sunset from behind. “I’ll do anything to keep you safe too, you mean the world to me.”
Sunset looked at the other three girls who had varying degrees of pain and confusion on their faces as Sunset rubbed the back of the sobbing blonde who wouldn’t stop begging for forgiveness. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to do it, but she opened her arms and signaled for the other three girls to join them. It wasn’t a second later when Sunset was part of her first group hug since the whole Anon-A-Miss mess started. She hated to admit it, but she missed them.
11496840
Desperation more than logic you say ... *Notes another clue for villain identity.*
Yup, never had a chance to watch RWBY but it has so many crossovers that I might as well watched the first two seasons from all pieces of information absorbed from said crossovers.
I would say that if I was in the position of secret villain then I would not regenerate Tridart because :
a)It tips my hand that I can semi-consistently bring an elemental back even if his/her body was annihilated. That gives information about my power level and knowledge base making it easier to discover my identity and it gives heroes option to prepare countermeasures with that knowledge;
b)Considering knowledge brought by Ember (assuming she reports to her master) wasting power on an elemental that is ice-based and feeds off fear is exactly that: a waste. Guardians at this time have two fire users and high morale making Tridart overall useless;
Besides villain still has Ember for potential fetching of information and some minor tasks, even if the mascarade using Nerissa as patsy is almost certainly broken, (the villain may not know that his plot secrecy is dead due to earlier contact between Sunset and Nerissa) having a disposable foot soldier with no further cost of energy makes Ember worth keeping but not further resurrections for her.
Also if that comment about Sunset's ability to take a dip in the sun is not an exaggeration ... then that ability alone puts her into the "Demigod" bracket since it's not "fire immunity" per se but "heat immunity". What's the difference? Well, fire immunity doesn't let you tank most of the effects of the nuclear explosion (most of the parts of a nuclear explosion are heat based except for emp pulse, concussive blast, and nuclear waste fallout and that last one could be partially mitigated), If you add Heart of Kandrakar boost on top of that ... Sunny suddenly looks scarier than her fully powered demon form.
As a shock value ... well at this point in time using clues collected, my foggy carton knowledge, and all comic knowledge that is within the story and comments (Considering my own is close to zero) my suspect list is as follows:
1. Oracle himself; Potential Motive: He tries to bring about a particular vision of the future "For The Greater Good" and Will reincarnation throws a wrench into that vision so he tries to return everything on track. All manipulations and mind shenanigans could be explained as playing chess with human lives to bring the scenario closer.
2. Halinor; Potential Motive: She has gone crazy for power like Nerissa and uses her ex-friend as a smokescreen for her own machinations.
3. Nymph-turned-fifth-dragon; Potential motive: Rage over her "brethren" being used for centuries as batteries and seeking their freedom.
4. Some not-known-to-me member of the kandrakar council; Potential motive: Same as Halinor.
5. Luba; Potential Motive: She hates seeing the power of aurameres to be given to young unexperienced guardians and wants to reform the system.
(I must admit that it is a very loose theory.)
Probably all of those are blank shots and I will be pleasantly surprised by the twist thanks to my lack of comic knowledge.
The guitar is safe, the car doesn't matter, says the guy that walks everywhere on foot because it's free.
Well, at least Sunset has time to take it slow for a couple of days.
Yeah, I can imagine what could be a problem because of new outfits considering that they were already waking new powers earlier: council starts whining about unsanctioned power-ups and the fact that heart has been found. Personally I think the new outfits look nice even if I prefer older ones.
Eyup throwing bad karma on any possible sparkpires incarnations is a service to society. Besides, I needed a reason for Flutters to have an awesome enforcer outfit next to Rarity one (which is totally a human version of her pony counterpart outfit from the episode"It isn't Mane thing" ) and after one thought jump from Flutterbat to bats=vampires and voila, Alucard outfit reskin, then I was thinking about the reason why she would have that and hearing that blasted "Twilight" on TV I had an epiphany that seriously tickled my funny bone: MrShy saw Fluttershy cry and took a page from Abridged!Alucard book and gone for an enthusiastic walk to the Forks, and a decade later Flutters inherits the mantle of The Verdant Bucker, continuing her father's noble work. Besides, in that case, Zephyr Breeze is an even more pathetic part of family by comparison. (I don't need to say that if team four star made MLP Abridged , I would die a happy man ... right after watching of course.)
Yeah, I wanted to make Shining Armor take a dip into the"Overprotective family member" trope when it is neither needed nor wanted but it was not enough and I added a drop of "Yandere" into the mix just for that additional creepiness.
Wait what? A NullField around the Susan house? But who could and needed to set that and why...
*Adds Dean from the list of patsies back onto the suspected villain list*
This NullField is pretty damning evidence of manipulations and evil intentions (And makes me 96% sure that my first suspect from the list is the correct one, especially considering knowledge and materials needed to set this ward up.). Fortunately, it's probably "only" absorption/restriction field, and it's a good thing, nullfield would probably kill all people in the building via withering long ago. Hell, even the absorption field kills nature with prolonged exposure.
A good example is the desert surrounding the Chrysalis hive. That is a much stronger version compared to the standard issue but shows nicely why in most universes that type of "protection" is classified as Black magic, wartime use only or as a Last Measure.
Now the question is, where is wardstone? Those types of things aren't cheap and easy to create so it's either something in the house if it was Dean who was responsible, or somewhere within the building's boundary, most likely the basement(Because it's easy to hide something where everyone runs out even before the light is off ... or is it only me? Besides, ward stone in the basement is such a villain cliche.)
As for why such field exists ... restricting guardian growth, damaging guardian growth, making occupants more vulnerable to outside influence, using will/sunset as the battery, destroying guardian family magical potential... well there are too many options, to pick one or more. And now I suspect that all W.I.T.C.H and maybe even C.H.Y.N.K houses have similar fields.
And Susan Momma Bear lays the law: No more talking about drawing implements.
And now long awaited closure/disclosure is within the next chapter's reach.
Oh and don't worry about responding to comments quickly especially when something more important drags you away. It's not like coments are going somewhere.
11496982
Yep, someone's in trouble and knows it.
I love the earlier RWBY episodes the best, I don't much like where it has gone but I don't hate it either. It's just that you can tell somebody different is in charge and get the feeling they took it in a whole other direction than what the original creator intended. RIP Monty.
You make very good points with both and I think I have a new idea I might use to replace Iceman with. One to possibly help the real villain achieve their goals more efficiently.
I'm actually debating the extent of that as Sunset is connected to Equestria's sun and could draw power from it there. If something happened to Celestia, Sunset could actually take her place. She just never knew that and it is something Celestia may not have ever noticed. She can draw power from Earth's sun, but I'm actually wondering if she could survive it like she can Equestria's. Here she's always had the power to become an alicorn, she just never understood harmony because of the subconscious pain from her past before it was too late as she was no longer in Equestria then. So much potential wasted because of Celestia's hangups and Sunset's pain and anger.
All of the guesses are pretty good, but I can't say for sure. If you or anyone else actually does get to the point of really wanting to know who the villain is and their motivation, send me a message and I'll be happy to spill the beans there.
I just couldn't take her new guitar away, I can't play the thins myself but the image of it in my head is so cool I want one lol.
I agree, the older ones are much better. Especially Will's, for some reason I never liked her new one as much. Then again, I never really cared for the stocking/leggings either as to me they just look a little weird. I'm sure a lot of people like them though which is cool. The council will likely not like them skipping the trials to earn the new powers though.
The more bad karma for them the better, mwahahaha. I love enthusiastic walks in the moonlight. I loved Rarity's look too, but Alushy for the win. I'd love to see just what there father would have to say about Zephyr's crap lol.
Not tonights part, but tomorrow night's part will reveal just what was causing it. I won't ruin the surprise, but I will say all your theories are great though you are missing one last important possibility.
Yep, I can easily see Susan laying the law down on that subject without any problems defending her daughter and niece.
Yep, not too much longer, just hope it is ok as I'm not the best at writing really god stuff. And thank you for understanding.
11497521
Huh, so Sunset of this dimension (story) is connected to the equestrian sun with the potential to connect to the earth's sol ... nice . Well, the safety of power drawing from the Equestria sun comes from both family connection to it and the fact that Celestia is a caring individual so her sun takes that quality from her, while the earth sun is both unfamiliar and as far as information goes it's not bonded with anyone so it will fight against being bonded to (as much as that kind of colossal old subject can fight, it depends on many variables including humanity belief). Well, at least that's my theory.
As for Sunset's possible ascension ... well that is one barrel that is not easy to open. I mean I am all for her ascending to godhood but it can make most villains... trivial for lack of a better word. But them having all those long monologues about being omnipotent and that no pathetic guardian teen will beat them... and then being comically smacked by a teen pony god is an entertaining opportunity.
Personally, I'm using Infinite Time Loops mechanism for Alicorn ascension as headcanon since it's both easy to comprehend, not easy to achieve, and is close to the canon!Cadance ascension from pegasus to alicorn of love.
1. Pony in question must hold at the time an artifact of great power (or in the case of infinite time loops there is the option for items from specific material). Artifact works as a catalyst.
Twilight: Element of Magic
Cadence: Fragment of the crystal heart (if I remember correctly)
2. Pony in question must achieve a legendary feat ( something that goes in history for the first time, bonus points if the said feat is connected to cutie mark)
Twilight: Surpassed Starswirl The Bearded, an unsurpassed pony Merlin (and all around a-hole) in the field of Magic while helping her friends.
Cadence: Being a pegasus she used love-based magic to defeat the villain.
3. A near-death experience to push the soul into an astral plane (Celestia's little hangout)
Twilight: As far as I can tell she died in body but not in spirit when elements overloaded her body, ascension saved her life.
Cadence: Similar situation considering that she was casting the spell as a pegasus.
4. All of the above must be achieved unknowingly and without premeditation.
No matter if this qualification (Heart of Kandrakar qualifies as an artifact of power, and the rest of the points are not beyond her reach) or by another mechanism that you could use/create Sunset is worthy and ready ... at least that's my opinion and I for one, welcome our new Infinite dimensions, pretty pony overlord.
The question is: Alicorn/Princess of what? What would be her divine domain/domains?
Celestia: Sun (and maybe teachings/politics/baking)
Luna/Nightmare Moon:
Night, Moon, Dreams / Moon, Darkness, Nightmares
Twilight: Friendship. Magic(And that is OP domain to have, shame it's secondary)
Cadence: Love, Crystals
Flurry Heart: I dunno, destruction?
So Sunset has a wide field to get a position in the Equestrian pantheon ... or maybe start a new earth one ... or go multiversal?
Also, I wholeheartedly agree with lost potential ... but it's nothing that forced therapy can't fix.
Nah, Instead of spoiling the story for myself I will wait for the in-story reveal and then I will either shout "I knew it" or take my head to the wall and make a new hole in the price for not foreseeing... or make a good impression of "surprised Pikachu face" at some villain I don't expect. No matter the scenario, still having fun with the story all the way.
Hmm that outfit discussion gives me a short idea for omake ... hmmm something for later...
Alushy, I need to remember that one. As for Mr.Shy/Zephyr's interaction ... probably the same as his Equestrian counterpart and that includes ignoring when someone else smacks him.
11497590
Yep, though I'm still debating having her bond with it or just letting it give her a power boost Superman style. Parts of Sunset could be seen as Celestia's daughter, or even maybe cloned from her as her DNA was used to help stabilize Will into Sunset, so it would be so much easier to use it in Equestria.
I most likely won't ascend Sunset as she won't really care about it anymore, just that she was so close before she left Equestria if she could have just understood Harmony and impress the Spirites of Harmony enough to deem her worthy. After reading what you wrote about the Infinite Time Loops thing, I have to say I really like that. It makes a lot of sense and would probably be several more safeguards keeping unworthy ponies from ascending.
Dying and being reborn, that would actually explain a lot in so many ways.
I would have to agree on Flurry Hearts domain lol. As for Sunset's, I'm not too sure...I'll have to think on that one.
That's cool, just letting you know (or anyone else) I'm willing to talk to them over messages about it as long as they don't spoil it for anyone.
Your omakes are really fun.