Sunset of Star Strider

by ScopeEva

First published 28th of June, 2020

When she fled Canterlot, Sunset travelled so much further then she thought possible, into a galaxy so much larger then any first thought. Yet with her homecoming, she finds that galaxy has not left Equestria alone. But ambition only sees opportunity.

Sunset Shimmer always saw herself as the hero of her own story, her pride would settle for nothing less. Such views were challenged after spurning the controlling, demanding influence of her mentor, and finding herself an outcast. But never one to take life's hits without hitting back, she finds her way back to Canterlot Castle and via the relics hidden there, to a galaxy so much larger then she first thought.

Beyond the mirror portal, the colony ship Star Strider and its fleet has proudly wondered the galaxy for aeons, spreading Earth's many children among the stars and life to the barren worlds surrounding them. Planning on taking advantage of her new home, hitchhiking aboard the alien star ship far from Equestria, Sunset sets in motion plans to bringing technological and magical revolution to Equestria, intent on sating her lust for recognition and forwarding her uncertain path to alicorn ascension.

However it seems fate would derail her plans for the second time when she returns to Equestria, only to find it empty and pillaged. It is evident Earthlings are not the only creatures exploring the galaxy, and there are others that covet Equestria's bounty of magic with uncompassionate fever.

But Sunset is no pony who would see her ambitions crumble beneath poor circumstances, and knows that any calamity just another opportunity in disguise. Her victory will not come come through conquest, but with some good old fashioned heroics. After all, she has an unwitting rival to catch up to when it come to saving the world.

Chapter 1 - The Empty Castle...

It was as quiet as a tomb, the only sound the harsh whistle of winds spilling into the empty depths of the cavernous crystalline citadel. No life was to be seen or heard, only scarce, scattered debris remained to show it was once there. Formerly a bustling metropolis and the centre of a country still steadily reviving from its thousand year absence from the world, the Palace of the Crystal Empire was empty in a way it should never have been. Not even aeons ago when Sombra ruled with an iron hoof had it been this disturbingly silent.

That was until - tucked away in a lonely side room - a tall ornate mirror flashed to life. The jewels set into its horse-shoe shaped frame sparked with an other-worldly energy that rippled out from the frame, spreading across its surface in an instant. It was left glowing so brightly with swirling, pulsing colour that it seemed white hot like the naked sun and would have been similarly hard to look at had anyone been there to see it. A moment later a form stumbled out from the swirling vortex, briefly standing tall on two legs, forelegs flailing in mid-air before the cloaked figure fell forward onto all fours. Gasping to catch her breath, the mare steadied herself and stood tense, looking about so far as to ensure she was alone before taking a moment to relax.

“I swear I’ll never get used to that damned thing,” she muttered irritably under her breath while stretching out her legs and rolling her joints. “Starswirl may have had skill but he clearly knew nothing about comfortable travel arrangements.”

With a sigh she took account of her surroundings and found herself stunned at just how utterly unfamiliar the untidy room was. Objects lay scattered and discarded everywhere; there was an overturned empty book case, papers littering the floor, what looked like a smashed clock, some broken glass and most notably a spear just lying there, alluding to a missing guard. Stranger still to her were the cold blue walls of solid crystal.

“Where in Tartarus did you move the mirror to Celestia?” she asked quietly to herself, a slither of fear working into her voice at the thought that this might actually be the mentioned prison dimension. “The caves under Canterlot maybe? A garbage dump in the caves under Canterlot?!” she continued asking to herself incredulously.

In the midst of looking around she caught sight of movement, sending her flinching back for a moment before realising it was simply her reflection in the mirror she had arrived through. It was, however, subtly unfamiliar.

“Oh… wow. I’m taller,” she said, a grin painting itself across her face as she slid back the hood of her odd, scaly black cloak, allowing her vibrant gold and red mane to bloom around her face.

The amber unicorn stared back at herself gleefully as she swept more of her cloak aside to get a better look at her body. It was only an inch or two but she knew she was now at least a little above average hight and boasted a set of lean muscles. Her horn even seemed a bit longer and sharper though she couldn’t be sure given the lack of light.

“Ha! Looking good Sunset… but I wonder,” she murmured before shutting her eyes for a moment, her grin resurfacing once more as she opened them.

In the mirror Sunset Shimmer’s cyan-green eyes now boasted a slight light behind them, much like a cat’s. To her, the room now seemed brighter and clearer, the dark a little less pervasive even if the colour was still washed out. Sunset’s grin quickly grew more vicious at the change.

“So they survived the transformation too. This is going to be too easy,” Sunset said with a chuckle, before her cloak shimmered to life with but a thought.

Instantly it began changing colour and blending with the surroundings. It wasn’t perfect by any means, given it was a salvaged older model that’s ability to adapt lagged a milliseconds behind the wearer’s movement. A trait that made it obvious when moving with any haste, erratically shimmering as it struggled to keep up. But when moving through the darkened hallways with steady caution she knew it would hide her well enough from even watchful eyes.

Taking care to tread lightly, Sunset slipped through the ajar doors and emerged into a long corridor carved out of yet more crystal. After glancing back and forth for a moment she turned and scampered off to her left, following the distant sound of howling winds. She reasoned that if she could get outside, she might be able to narrow down just where in Equestria she was.

Sunset’s ears twitched under the hood each step of the way, unconsciously trying to pick up on anything missed by, or beyond the range of her nervous darting eyes. The place - wherever it was - had been abandoned and in a hurry by the looks of it. Debris were scattered all over just like the room the mirror was in. After stepping over a fallen pedestal and an expensive looking vase that now lay smashed across the floor, Sunset caught sight of a discarded newspaper. Its header proudly proclaimed it was the First Free Empire Press, a paper she had never heard of before but the interesting part was the date. By her count it was published roughly two years ago, though definitely after her last visit. With an uneasy frown she levitated it into her saddlebag hidden under her cloak for a closer look later.

As she made her way through the hallway towards the sound of rushing wind it began to get colder. Not that it hadn’t been cold before but the winds were noticeably sapping any warmth from the air around her.

“Maybe this is some place high up on mount Canterhorn, above Canterlot,” Sunset wondered to herself quietly, memories of walking mountain-trails and the occasional climbing or camping trip coming back to her. “Some place only the Princess knows how to get to I bet. Would make sense if she’s figured out I’ve been paying her uninvited visits.”

Eventually her steady and stealthy pursuit of the sounds of the outside world - and hopefully a landmark to determine her location – ended with a gaping doorway. She looked on at the sight with concern; the doors had been bashed inwards with such force as to sheer one of them clean off its hinges. The cutting winds that forced their way through, carrying a nasty chill with them, offered further deterrence. However her ever insatiable curiosity beckoned her forth, to the balcony beyond them.

Beyond the doorway, those cold winds howled ever louder as a light blizzard danced across the view. Edging out to peer through the haze of airborne snow she soon found she wasn’t nearly as high up as she had thought. Much to her astonishment an unfamiliar city lay sprawled before her, blanketed with a good foot or two of snow. Its construction mirrored the building she was currently in; each house, hall and shop wrought out of crystal of one soft shade or another.

Sunset craned her head back to look around and up at the towering structure she was now in. Under her an archway that her current balcony sat centred atop, while the wider supports tapered up at a steep curve before splitting into three towers far above her that easily surpassed some of Canterlot Castle’s tallest.

The sight was a bleak one, doused in the muting fog of snow and devoid of the living or any sign of their recent activity.

“Again… where in bucking Tartarus am I?!” she exclaimed, panic now seeping into her voice. “This isn’t anywhere in Equestria, did the Princess seriously just banish the place I’d been banished to?!”

The idea was outrageously childish but seemed to somehow be true, and the only forthcoming explanation for the mirror’s presence in this frozen ghost city.

Her contemplation of the empty city was broken with a change in the wind. A sound similar enough to almost blend in with the wind but alien enough to make her ear twitch, their artificially enhanced hearing enough to pick out the subtle difference and set off alarm bells in her head.

Sunset immediately spun about and dropped into a defensive posture; letting old instincts take hold to find herself ready with her horn lit. She wasn’t a moment too soon as an ominously prehensile cloud of black smoke appeared from the depths of the palace, surging towards her. With a vicious smirk she let loose a teal stream of concentrated cutting magic, something that could leave a nasty but clean hole right through a pony. The smoke however simply growled and split in twain at the point the beam would have made contact.

Thinking fast she let loose another spell, an unstably charged dispersal spell; the sort meant to drain a pony’s magic or cancel out the effects of an already active spell. With her own little twist on the spell it spat forth like a shotgun blast, showering the smoky entity with smaller charges. It reeled with an unpony-like howl as its form was disrupted, but only for a moment.

Unfortunately it seemed it wasn’t enough, that whatever this thing was it had been holding back in the name of stealth. It swelled upwards and around her, a towering figure that threatened to come crashing down upon her as two crimson red eyes, aglow with baleful magic manifested in the depths of the living shadow.

Sunset Shimmer knew she was in a poor position to fight however, and so flight became priority. In a flash of light she vanished, a split second later the semi-blind teleport deposited her back down the corridor she had approached from. Quickly breaking out into a gallop, Sunset made haste back towards the mirror room. She didn’t want to leave so soon but she wouldn’t take an unnecessary risk fighting this unknown, so Sunset took the smaller victory of outmanoeuvring whatever monster this was in stride. Besides, once she reached the mirror she could make the choice of fleeing altogether, or summoning a few nasty surprises.

Her confident smile was dropped when a sharp shadow seemed to spear through the floor below her before a number of jet black crystals sprouted in her path. Rapidly they spread across the hallway and forced her to skid to an abrupt halt as they grew at a rate of inches by the second, quickly becoming too tall to jump. Unperturbed she simply lit her horn once more to teleport past them.

Only, as soon as she did, she felt something wrap and contract around her horn, almost as if there was a thorny vine digging into it. She only caught a glimpse of the doorway and the mirror beyond it before her spell was inverted and she was violently catapulted back beyond the wall of crystals and into the waiting cloud of smoke.

Panting from the exertion of being violently forced to reverse her own spell, Sunset had to painfully force her next spell. A simple concussive blast that shattered and cracked many of the crystal growths, but sadly did little to remove the messy barrier of criss-crossing crystal spikes now formed.

A deep throaty chuckle drew her attention back to the creature now more lackadaisically closing in on her.

Sunset simply snarled back at it, whipping around and dropping into a crouching stance once more. “Fine, we fight! I’m not out of tricks yet anyway!”

A wave of fire washed out from around her, driving apart the shadow long enough for her to gallop through it in the other direction, back down the hall way. Contrary to her statement she would be more than happy to try and circle around and find another way back to the mirror room. Unfortunately the creature or whatever it was simply repeated its action, filling the opposite end of the hallway with a barricade of jagged crystals that sparked with dark energy.

Turning about, she threw out another unstable blast of a disruption spell that shredded through the creature’s form. It convulsed and howled yet persevered to climb into the air while sweeping around her sides once more, planning to envelop her as it first had. In an act of last ditch desperation she projected a bubble shield around herself as it congealed around her and blocked out the light leaving her only illuminated by the cyan glow of her magic.

She felt the pressure pressing in on her and grit her teeth. “I’ve come too far. It won’t end like this! Not to some demented cloud of smog!” Sunset declared loudly, more for herself than the thing that assailed her from beyond the thin film of magical protection.

Her magic had always been strong; Sunset Shimmer knew she could boast being the strongest Unicorn in Equestria even if she had been replaced as Celestia’s student. This thing was sapping her strength fast though, she had to act before she lacked the energy to do so. Remembering how it had reacted to her earlier display, with a spark of magic she modified her bubble shield, setting it alight with fire. The inefficient trick worked well enough, and she breathed easy for a moment as the shadows were burnt away with a pained hiss allowing her to recoup her strength, albeit slowly.

The respite only lasted a moment though. From around her smaller black crystals with an ominously dark purple aura began to slowly sprout up around her. Sunset had an unsettling feeling they would pop her shield like a balloon if she just sat there.

Eyes darting about desperately, Sunset searched for any avenue of escape but the only thing she could see was the faint light from the top of the hallway where the crystal wall hadn’t quite reached yet. A split second later she realised that was all she needed to see.

The spell she wanted was tricky and dual casting it while holding her shield was even trickier but it was do or die and Sunset Shimmer had no intentions of dying. Ever. In an instant she felt her stomach lurch as she began to fall… upwards.

She nearly crashed into the ceiling and would have, had the spell not included the safety feature of reorienting her to the new direction of gravity. In spite of the shock Sunset wasted no time in throwing herself forward, galloping along the ceiling, through the obscuring fog of her enemy, over the wall of crystals… and straight into a barricade of similarly black, thinner crystals pointed right at her like a cluster of spears.

Sunset screeched in pain as she impaled her own shield on them instantly forcing magical feedback through her body. The shock instantly caused her spells to fail, shield shattering as gravity returned to normal harshly yanking her downward into the waiting cloud and its smug red eyes.

Sunset never reached the ground, instead she tumbled endlessly within the thick shadow smoke, forcing her to breath it in as she gasped for breath and hack it back out in coughing fits.

Desperately she reached out with her magic for one last spell, or rather set of spells. Concentrating she pulled the disparate elements from the air around them to a single point. Then, having gathered the minute but thankfully sufficient quantity of deuterium and helium, she pressed it tightly together with all her remaining magical might.

Seemingly without warning the bright and burning light of a miniature star burst into existence, searing away at the oppressive living smog. It howled and growled with pain, suddenly releasing its quarry, letting Sunset fall to the floor with a painful thump. She cried out in pain but did not release her hold on the precious mote of light, nor the small umbrella of shielding that prevented her from being burnt and irradiated by her own creation.

Unfortunately, for all her effort, her enemy was not neutralised by the hail-merry of a casting, despite the potency of its light. With an animalistic grunt, a poisonously purple bolt of burning magic, encapsulating a small black, seed-like crystal was fired back at the unicorn.

Immediately Sunset’s world was pain and agony once more as the spell impacted directly upon her horn, that crystal like seed stabbing into the precious carnitine spiral. Immediately all concentration was lost, the light of the magically forced fusion reaction exploding out in a small woofp. The spell’s effects did not end there, for the crystal now set in Sunset’s horn parasitically drank in the magic she desperately tried to channel, only feeding the growth of further black spurs.

Only as Sunset began to realise this and try to think of an alternative, did the entity sweep back in with a guttural chuckle and smother her once more.

“No! No… Not…” was all Sunset’s strangled voice managed to wheeze out in fear as a few meagre sparks of fire spurting weakly from her horn in spite of the crystals strangeling it. The enveloping cloud cared little for the fast fading struggle she put out, fighting futilely as her strength was sapped. The shadows clung to her and hugged her like an anaconda around its prey, all the while stealing her energy with mere contact alone.

Sunset felt her magic fade.

The world around her dimmed.

Soon, so did her last desperate thoughts.

She fell limp, her consciousness snuffed out.

But to what would have been to her surprise had she been conscious, she was not discarded on the cold hard floor or run through with a lance of black crystal. Instead the shadows made to cushion her and steadily carry her away, the black crystal barricades crumbling into dust around them now they had served their use to their creator.

An amused chuckle filled the empty halls, accompanied by a deep but wispy voice.

“A remotely worthy opponent after all these years. Unfortunate you came into this fight so very blind; if only you had time to properly prepare you might have stood half a chance. I do so relish a fighting spirit instead of those cowards who rely on artefacts to fight for them.”

The cloud of shadows swept along, caressing the mare almost soothingly as it and its captive crept into the throne room. She only whined in subconscious fear, adrenalin driving nightmares in her unnatural unconsciousness.

“Fear not brave little unicorn, this will not be your end,” it whispered in a mocking imitation of comforting care as his dark shadow sunk into the floor. “I do hate wasting true talent, and we have much to discuss regardless.”

The floor beneath them seemed to crumble in on itself as it fell away revealing a shaft and staircase through thick crystal floors, solid rock and impossibly, the thin air beneath the Crystal Palace’s elevated architecture. Swiftly the shadow thing and its captive descended, before the floor remade itself, crystals interlocking like a set of jagged teeth closing shut and swallowing them whole.

The cold crystalline citadel was once more left as it now had been for nearly two years.

As quiet as a tomb.

Author's Notes:

Okay! So, first story I've actually put out in a while. Not going to lie, mostly putting this out as a trial to see how people react. Wanted to build up a nice big backlog of chapters first but my perseverance failed me and the story been sitting stagnant for a while. Fingers crossed actually publishing something will help reinvigorate me a bit.

Well, I hoped you enjoyed this little start to the adventure. Do please leave a comment if you did. Likes are nice but feed back is so much more satisfying. Plus I like to engage with my readers, get their perspective on things.

(Last Updated 02/06/12023)

Chapter 2 - ...and Its Well Stocked Pantry

It was cold. Far too cold.

“Which one of those twerps left the AC on again…?” Sunset mewled to herself, quietly whining out half formed thoughts in her barely conscious state. “Not even having a real winter this year. Ugh, or did the heat pump brake again…?”

Only when her hooves reached out for some non-existent blanket did she jerk awake. Sunset abruptly realised just how hard the floor was compared to any reasonable sleeping place, just how unusually frigid the air was and how the last time she had fallen asleep with hooves had been five years ago. The seemingly impermeable darkness surrounding her certainly didn’t help her keep her panic in check.

Sunset Shimmer scrambled to her hooves, standing as fast as she could - which in retrospect caused her to stumble and slow far more than if she had done so more slowly. Gulping down a breath she forcefully steadied her breathing. Sunset ignited her horn to bring light to her situation, only to immediately start spasming in eye watering pain.

“Ahhhggg! What in Bucking Tartarus?!” she shrieked out in shock, reeling from the sensation of what felt like iron splinters lancing through her horn. Pain sharp enough that her forelegs buckled and she collapsed in a painful twitching heap, once more becoming reacquainted with the cold hard crystalline floor.

Heaving deeply she hoisted herself back onto her hooves once again even as the memories of her fight came rushing back to her. One hoof reached up to gently stroke her horn, to check for the dreaded prospect of damage to the precious keratin spiral. The soft frog of her hoof was not met with smooth keratin however, but a sharp glassy spike. Her breath hitched as she gently felt around further, finding her horn encrusted with small prickly growths of crystal that put an uncomfortable weight in her stomach.

“Shit, this is bad… fucking horn rot bad!” she exclaimed to herself as she desperately tackled with an oncoming panic attack over her most valued appendage being crippled.

Eventually a little calm breathing was enough to bring it under control. With it came calmer thinking… and a bitter but satisfied smirk. Her bags and cloak had been taken, her horn – hopefully temporarily – incapacitated, but they wouldn’t think to remove what was hidden inside her, not when Equestria had never seen the likes of such technology. She closed her eyes and opened them once again a second later to a seemingly far better lit room. Though the colours were washed out, the enhanced night vision held true. What it revealed to her though was more than a little disturbing.

She had to edge closer to be sure, but inside a translucent block of bluish crystal was the form of a pony, sitting on its haunches with its head dipped and looking rather sorry for itself. The longer she looked the more she realised there was no way this was some illusion or sculpture. This was an actual pony trapped inside the crystal.

More chillingly, it was not the only one. There had to be dozens, maybe a hundred or more of the crystal lumps in the cavernous room, and many large enough to easily hold more than one pony.

It was eerie and disturbing walking among them; wondering why they were there, if they were dead or maybe fully conscious and aware of her echoing hoof steps as she meandered among them. Some were clustered together in families, others were standing alone, some sobbing, others standing tall and resolute and a few even appeared to be guards dressed in some sort of crystalline patterned armour, which made sense as the last place she was, was some sort of palace.

“What is it with these ponies and crystals?” she idly wondered before moving on from the guard pony.

All had their eyes closed she noted, but one thing she didn’t see however was panic or outright fear. Distress maybe, but all were holding still, as if they had accepted this fate. It only unnerved her further. These ponies were hopeless, or at least resigned to some sort of hardship.

Eventually she came to the largest crystal, one big enough it could have been a moderately sized hut. Inside eleven grown ponies crowded around an object she soon realised was a crib. Six were just the same uniformed guards she had seen smattered among the other crystal blocks, stoically standing outwards at attention around what Sunset assumed were the VIPs of the group. But there was a seventh guard, a pegasus in what looked like the more familiar golden plated Equestrian Royal Guard armour, a curious anomaly. There was also a tall, white furred and honestly rather handsome unicorn decked out in a fancy officer’s dress uniform. Then another unicorn; one with glasses, a goatee, a cloak of some sort and an interesting set of fur markings that seemed vaguely familiar to Sunset. The next figure was almost indescribable; Sunset had certainly never seen anything like the creature. It was vaguely pony shaped but bore fangs, with insectoid features like black chitin in place of a fur coat and disturbingly holes running clean through its lower legs.

The last adult was the most interesting, an alicorn mare and a very familiar one to Sunset. She was taller and more mature than Sunset remembered, but none the less familiar.

“Cadence,” she murmured quietly to herself in surprise, gazing up at the morose pink mare.

She found herself unconsciously raising a hoof as if to reach out and rouse her but it only found itself resting against cold hard crystal.

“What happened to you? And how did you even get here?” she wondered to herself, examining the familiar forlorn face for any clue. She found none, but a more suspicious detail did come to mind, “And why was the mirror here with you for that matter?”

Finally her eyes wandered to the crib. Sunset found she had to rear up and lean on the block of crystal to get a look inside but the effort was well worth the view. It was one that made her eyes go wide and her mouth hang agape with the astonishment of it. Resting in the crib, fast asleep was a chubby infant alicorn. The idea, the mere notion made Sunset… deeply uncomfortable. Indignantly so. It lit an all too familiar simmering jealousy in the pit of her heart that she knew would not be so easily dispelled as when it previously flared up.

She found herself turning her head to once more stare searchingly at the more familiar, fully grown princess.

“Yours, I take it?” she asked the entombed pony rather bitterly. “Well congrats I guess. Cute kid. Wings a little on the freakishly large side though.”

From this vantage point something else became clear. In Cadence’s forehoof, clutched to her chest and mostly obscured by her wing was an object. Something roughly shaped like a heart, angularly cut and glowing dimly. Looking at it she couldn’t shake the feeling it was something important. The fact it pulsed with light, seemingly aware of her gaze only vindicated that feeling.

“What is that I wonder?”

“The Crystal Heart.”

With a sharp gasp she spun around on the spot and brought her horn to bear… only for it to spark painfully once more as the stunner she instinctively cast failed to so much as start charging.

“I would not attempt to call on your magic if I were you,” the deep masculine yet scratchy voice chided with amusement. It was a voice that conveyed an arrogant sense of strength and superiority, even though it seemed to ebb and flow like a sand storm. “You might do some permanent damage to that honestly quite marvellous horn of yours. I would be quite disappointed if we could not duel again because you went and crippled yourself, and at such a pitifully young age at that.”

She quickly regained her composure and levelled a venomous glare at the animate cloud of smoke and the two scarlet eyes peering down at her from above. The performance did a fine job of projecting the courage and self certainty Sunset did not so keenly feel as her mind desperately tried to think out a plan of action.

“Undo whatever the hell you did to my horn and I’ll be happy to oblige,” she spat back at him, whoever - or whatever - he was.

“No,” the shadow said simply as it sank to the floor, petering out for a moment before blooming back up.

Its eyes came to rest just above level with her own and it condensed into a form vaguely resembling that of a stallion, though far too vaporous to be real.

“Your presence here risks unwanted and quite dangerous attention,” it explained with condescending slowness. “Too much activity exacerbates the risk and I doubt these few words will sway you into inaction if I gave you the option not to listen to your betters.”

Sunset sat back on her hunches and raised her snout just so she could look down her muzzle at the disembodied stallion with the most imperious sneer she could muster. “So you attacked me out of fear? Fear of some other bigger badder monster? All the more reason to let me loose. I might be rusty but I’m more than a match for any opponent. Even Celestia was afraid of me!”

The cloud barked in laughter, clearly enjoying her angry tirade to the contrary of what she intended. “You’re feisty I will grant you that! But Celestia was afraid of so very many things, including myself as well! It would be a curious coincidence we happened across each other, except it is no overly great achievement to scare the so called unconquerable sun. These invaders however, have proven they can do more than simply scare, and come in great enough numbers to deter any army our world has seen before. You would be quite foalish to try and fight them all alone.”

The news sent the gears in her head spinning wildly out of control with less mundane possibilities given what she knew. Her time away had opened her to many ideas she used to think flights of fantasy before departing Equestria, let alone concepts no pony had imagined, period.

“Invaders? What are you even talking about? There’s not a nation on the planet that dares challenge Equestria,” she asked in a less harsh tone, relaxing her posture a touch as morbid curiosity took over.

“Highly debatable,” the stallion shaped cloud huffed indignantly and stuck its nose into the air, only briefly though, his tone softening thereafter. “But also irrelevant. These invaders… they were not from here. They came from the sky, or rather the void beyond it in great metal air ships the likes of which neither I nor the Princess here have ever seen before,” he explained with a gesture towards the entombed alicorn.

“What did they do? And what did they look like?” she demanded abruptly, thoughts running frantic.

The Smokey form rose up, expanding merely so the disembodied eyes could peer down at her with suspicion. “You know something… yet are also entirely ignorant of the situation. Where have you been hiding little unicorn?”

The amber mare wasn’t impressed by the crude intimidation tactic and made that clear with a steely gaze and firm words. “Nothing I’m telling you until I’m certain! Now what did they do? Kill everyone? Take over? Because wherever that was out there it looked pretty abandoned.”

“You don’t even know where you are?! Now I’m particularly interested in knowing where you have been and how you got here,” he said, drifting closer, examining her with hungry eyes before retreating once more. “But very well, it is not like giving away that information hurts me. Quite the contrary perhaps. When they came they took measures not to kill anyone, though they did not hesitate to use force against those who resisted. That might not be a mercy however, for they rounded them all up, forced them onto their ships and flew them away into the endless night above. For what reason and to what fate they were sent, I do not know.”

Sunset could only frown as she mulled over the dispassionately delivered news, the potential scale of the crime as astounding as it was disgusting. “And they did this across all of Equestria? That’s millions of ponies, easily…”

“All of the world I believe,” he said ponderously with a shrug. “But I cannot say for sure. I have only seen what happened within the bounds of My Empire and the skies above it. So very many false shooting stars marred the skies night and day for months after their first arrival.”

“So no clue how they got by Celestia then,” she concluded. “I know for a fact she could spear any ship with her magic, metal or not.”

“Probably through the use of hostages and living shields - she is quite susceptible to such tactics - but not for sure, no,” he amended casually as his form continued to drift and swirl at random, distorting in a seemingly invisible wind before correcting back to a more equine shape.

Sunset snorted irritably at his tone. “Who even are you anyway? And what’s with your collection of equine popsicles?”

The smoky stallion shrugged dismissively and made to pace his way around Sunset in an unnerving manner, gazing at the collection of ponies centred around Princess Cadence. Sunset made sure to start edging carefully outside of the circle of smoke he was creating incidentally, or as Sunset feared, intentionally.

“They are here to hide. We made a deal; I would preserve them down here suspended in cold crystal while I would feed off their ambient magic and the Heart. Like this we might eke out a living for some centuries, maybe even millennia waiting for the right time to emerge,” he explained simply. “As for who I am… I am King Sombra, rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire. Though the insufferable pink one and her entourage would debate that now moot point.”

The young mare found herself blinking in astonishment as her mind processed and placed that information. “THE Crystal Empire… the one that has been missing for over a thousand years? The one cursed into oblivion by well, you?!”

Sombra chuckled deep in response, looking back to her with a smug smile. “Yes, the one in the same. I’ll admit I even impressed myself when I found out just how long my hornwork held up. Well over a thousand years… still, ultimately it was time put to waste,” he boasted, voice turning sour at remembering his defeat soon after.

“Explains why everything is made of crystals I suppose, never thought the name was so excessively literal. Congratulations on landing a gig running your own little country Cadenza” she muttered to herself, glancing back towards Princess Cadance. Shaking off her astonishment she levelled a calculating glare at the smoky form of the deposed king. “Well, what happens now? If you were going to add me to your little collection you would have done it while I was nicely asleep.”

“Actually that is exactly what will happen young mare,” he said drifting closer and inflating to loom over her with a sharkish grin that had Sunset backing up until her rump bumped into the cold hard crystal behind her. “Soon I will have indulged my curiosity for too long a time; the invaders come for every living pony eventually and I doubt they will make an exception for you. Well, that or you starve to death, or perhaps the cold would leave you a stiffened corpse first.”

Sunset found herself snarling at the somehow smug cloud of smog, as he nonchalantly shared his opinion of her inevitable end.

“Yeah… Not. Happening.” she declared before diving to the side and scrabbling around the nearest crystallised pony to block his line of sight and continue her retreat.

“Bah! Stubborn filly,” he spoke, irritated by her refusal, casually wafting around to keep pace with the fleeing mare in a dementedly lackadaisical game of cat and mouse. “There’s no point in running. There’s nowhere to hide down here and I have sealed this chamber quite tightly.”

She simply snorted as she continued to work her way around the cavern and away from him, searching for any possible advantage. Of course the magically warped tyrant would want her to think that regardless of if it were true or not. There was no way she was taking his ultimatum laying down. Hiding out here was a move of both desperation and inaction. She might have been familiar with the former but she was as good as deathly allergic to the latter. It certainly didn’t help Sombra’s case that she knew what circles of dark magic he dealt in and if he could feed passively off the ponies that had been sealed away he could definitely sap a lot more if he felt threatened, likely doing permanent damage in the process to his pony shaped batteries.

“You are a risk to us all little unicorn,” he called out tauntingly as he snaked through the maze after her. “If you would just join the dear princess and her little cohort here, your safety would be guaranteed and the magic you would add to mine would keep us all alive a little longer should it come to that.”

“Such lovely honeyed words,” Sunset muttered to herself with a sneer. Switching tactics she called out in an attempt to keep him talking and thus at least a little distracted, “You seem a little paranoid about just me running around! If it was really that easy for these invaders to find one live pony how come they haven’t yet huh?”

“I have watched them from long enough from the shadows, long enough to know they should not be underestimated,” he replied, patience clearly starting to strain. “They come for every pony sooner or later, the more that are gathered the sooner they are swept away. Perhaps there are stragglers hiding among the wilds of the world but they will never achieve much I wager, not without attracting the invaders attention, as you eventually will here.”

The unexpected answer gave Sunset a surprising moat of insight. An answer as to why it worked that way wasn’t hard to imagine given what she knew from her time away from Equestria.

“Sooner or later… but not immediately?” she asked, risking a momentary pause to look back and do so.

Sombra’s disembodied eyes looked on at her suspiciously. “They may not be omniscient, but they and their machines are extraordinarily perceptive even when so far away one cannot see them. I do not pretend to know how,” he admitted grudgingly. “What do you mean to say Mare? Speak plainly if you wish to buy yourself a few more moments of consciousness.”

“It sounds like they’re using infrared to track people down. Which is good because I happen to have – or at least had – a cloak that could hide that,” she called out pointedly, not giving a moment of thought to his threatening.

Sombra billowed larger as he closed in so he could pear down at her sceptically, a position he seemed fond of. “What do you speak of mare? No mere cloak, no matter the illusions applied to it could hide one so easily. Yours was in fact quite poor at it.”

She snorted back at him, jumping up on top of the nearest crystal block so she stare back at him at eye level. As far as Sunset was concerned she could give as good as she got, fighting his indignation with her own.

“All heat sources emit light. Usually it takes a lot of heat or special materials for it to become visible to pony eyes but even a little gives off infrared light which we can’t see but a handful of animals can. It’s also possible to make machines and weave spells that will let you detect it, the latter a little invention of yours truly,” she explained as condescendingly as possible, which was considerably so for her. “The more ponies there are together, the more heat they create. If they make a campfire that’s a lot more heat plus whatever left over heat is in the smoke it gives off. In buildings or underground eventually heat can accumulate and show to the outside world but there are limits. It’s one of the easiest and quickest ways to find something alive somewhere out in the open. The only place it’s not so useful is where you’re looking for a specific life form in a place already full of life like a jungle where it could just as easily be wildlife as someone. That, or if they’ve got a lot of material between them and whoever’s looking, so deep underground, like we are now.”

The stallion stood there giving her an unamused glare as she lectured him in her patented condescending, snooty tone. He clearly did not appreciate it one bit. Something she privately relished.

“I fail to see how this is relevant. All you have done is explain the exact reason why you remaining here is either a danger to me or implausible for you. You need food and warmth and water. Unless you plan to join me in the shadows that is not changing any time soon,” he said bluntly. However a thoughtful, almost wistful look overtook him for a moment before he murmured something further, “Though if the idea does appeal to you I certainly would appreciate the company. The books I first learnt from are still hidden away here; training an apprentice would be an interesting experience to pass the time.”

She had to give herself a moment to re-evaluate the shadowy pony. He wasn’t what she expected from a deposed tyrant. He didn’t seem bitter nor angry. Just morose for the moment.

“At an earlier time in my life I might have said yes, though with the caveat of sudden and inevitable betrayal somewhere down the line,” she admitted with a half-hearted smirk. “Yours or mine that is.”

Even Sombra seemed amused by the thought, chuckling deeply. But Sunset didn’t let the banter distract her and kept up her initiative, stepping forward on her perch to emphasise her next point.

“Fortunately I have a better plan in mind, with a lot more mutual benefit and lack of back stabbing. We - all of us that is,” she said gesturing at the surrounding collection of crystallised ponies, “leave the same way I came in. Take refuge where I’ve been living, a long way from Equestria, this planet and the invaders.”

He went quiet for a moment, clearly thinking over the proposition, seriously considering her words. That, was a victory Sunset knew she could work with.

“An intriguing prospect, I certainly see the benefit of a secure place to retreat to, to recoup our strength before returning to strike out. However you are decidedly sparse on the details,” Sombra admitted to her while maintaining a scrutinising gaze. “One does not live as long as I have without watching out for the catch in any deal.”

Sunset nodded contently, perfectly ready to tip a card or two to reel him in. “True, quite true. In this case the catch is we only have a couple of days to decide and when we do we’ll be cut off on whichever side of the portal we’re on for two and a half years. That and you’re going to free me and let me retrieve as much as I can of value before I tell you anything else.”

The shadow pony scrutinised her intensely for that last comment. “You want something, and searching for that something brought you here of all places, the Crystal Empire, a place which you have little to no knowledge of instead of wherever you expected to arrive. Your irreverence displayed little respect for the wishes of your venerated princesses, your admitted willingness to explore the darkest depths of magic as pony kind knows it reveals your amoral attitude. Yet in spite of that, instead of offering to turn tail and run, to disappear into thin air the same way you arrived, you instead propose we work together towards some nebulous goal of – I assume – striking back against these invaders within moments of learning of them. That is, even after learning my infamous identity, that I have a number of your friends held captive and acknowledging the likelihood I might betray you in any future collaboration. So, with that in mind, why should I trust you? Why should I let you frolic around my Empire to take what you want and potentially disappear just as my adversaries close in? Why should I comply when I am expecting you to act against me, either for your own interests or preemptively against some perceived duplicity on my part? What is it you have to gain from this?”

For a moment she worked through her thoughts on the matter, a glance back at the miserable pink alicorn she both loathed and sympathised with actually made her wonder to herself why she wanted to step in. She didn’t exactly want Equestria to suffer, but did she really care all that much if it did? After it collectively chewed her up and spat her out like an unpleasant tasting piece of spoilt fruit?

Then she shrugged, stitching together the most plausible reason she could come up with, even if she wasn’t sure it was entirely true. “I want a lot of things; knowledge, power, glory, magical resources, my rightfully due recognition… and as regrettable as its happening is, this invasion is my opportunity for getting most of what I want. If I set this right, no one will ever forget my name and no one will dare ignore me again. Helping you and these ponies here is just the first step. As for the trust issues, I need you on my side. Not just to free the Princess but as an ally to get rid of these invaders. That fight will be no easy task, no matter what assets I’ve got on my side already. Once that is done, we can sort out our differences.”

He continued to study her carefully, gaze not letting up. “And what guarantee can you offer me your solution is real?”

Sunset groaned and wrung out an exaggeratedly exasperated sigh. “I can’t believe this, throw a drowning man a life line and he complains it won’t hold,” she griped aloud to herself before locking him with an irritable glare. “What do you want, huh? To be stuck indefinitely drifting about an empty castle until time grinds it to dust around you or these aliens take a closer look and finally notice you and your living batteries are hiding here? I am offering you a way out! A chance to recoup your strength and come back to actually do whatever it is you want to do instead of rotting in a cave for millennia! I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, or comfortable, but it’s something! Are you going to take that opportunity or not and ruin both of us?”

Sombra stared down at the snarling mare in bemusement for a moment. Then he started to chuckle, a chuckle that grew to a hearty laugh.

“Very well young sorceress. You have made a rather impassioned plea. I am convinced you speak honestly, if maybe not knowledgeably. You say you have a way to somewhere safe and I... believe that you believe that,” he spoke smoothly, starting to whisper around her in a snake like trail. “But if I am to leave this place I need something first. Something you will retrieve.”

“Right. I offer to do you a favour and you ask a favour in payment. Because that’s how things work,” she said with a strong dose of sarcasm and a roll of her eyes. “Why can’t you get it yourself? I mean you certainly pack a punch magically and you moved me down here somehow.”

Sombra frowned like he was sucking a particularly sour lemon - or at least did as much as a nebulous cloud of pony shaped smoke could – before offering a very reluctant explanation, “Unfortunately I cannot venture far from here. I am tied to these ponies for now. Without them I would soon dissipate into near nothingness and they would slowly die without me to maintain the spell work holding them. Naturally what I need happens to be beyond my range.”

“Is this really necessary?” she asked with a strained voice.

“Yes,” was his unflinching reply.

She sighed and slumped in defeat. “Fine. I’ll do your little fetch quest. But I need to know what I’m looking for and where to find it.”

Sombra’s gaze drifted for a moment in thought. “It is to the south of here, somewhere not far from the rail line to Equestria but…”

A glint of light reached his eyes as he reached some small epiphany. Darkness seeped into the crystal floor; an act reminiscent of their earlier fight, causing Sunset to edge back a touch. Sure enough just like then black jagged crystals began to grow from the floor, though this time in a short singular column rather than a wall. At its apex grew a new crystal, a long shard the same crimson colour as Sombra’s eyes. It separated from the column and hovered there above it.

“Take it. Hold it in your hoof and it shall point to what I need much like a compass needle,” he explained simply.

Hesitantly she took it in the crux of her hoof and released it. The shard lifted from the frog of her hoof and gently spun to point off in some direction, presumably south.

“Neat,” she said dismissively. “Now hurry up and undo whatever you did to my horn so I can get on with this.”

Sombra seemed to meander around on the spot for a moment, sporting a smile and a mockingly fake expression of thoughtfulness. “Hmmm. No. I think not.”

Her eyes bulged and for a brief moment she only saw red as rage took over. “WHAT?! You want me to go marching out there in freezing weather conditions with hostile aliens possibly running around without my greatest asset?! If you want me dead there are easier ways you know!”

“You do not need your magic for this task,” Sombra declared dismissively, maintaining his smug look of superiority. “The aliens have not visited this place in many months, not since they sniffed out some gathering stragglers hiding in the outskirts. Besides, think of it as an incentive not to delay in your task, or run off for that matter. To be quite honest I have not experimented with this particular creation of mine and how it reacts to magical forms of travel. Though I expect the results to be quite visceral.”

She sat there, glaring and fuming and seething at the not-quite-alive, debatably-not-a-pony stallion shaped cloud in front of her. He was technically right, any magic to help combat the environment would risk drawing attention so she couldn’t use much anyway and anything less would likely be superfluous in this climate. But it did not mean it would not be useful, and she hated giving it up again with her visits to Equestria being as infrequent as they were. More than that, Sunset in no way trusted him not to continue holding it over her after this.

However, for the time being she had little choice.

“Fine. But I’m definitely not going out there without my cloak and my supplies!” she replied firmly. “Where did you leave them?”

“I would not deprive you of something that will ensure both our safeties, in spite of my curiosity for your intriguing artefact. Now follow. I will return your possessions and show you the quickest path to the southern outskirts.”

She merely grunted in acknowledgment and fell in behind the smoky amorphous pony. Or she did, until he stopped in his tracks and turned to look back at her.

“What?” she asked with a deadpan tone.

“It has just occurred to me, while I have introduced myself to you, you have not returned the courtesy. What is your name, young sorcerer? From whence do you hail?” he asked, ponderously appraising the mare once more.

She snorted indignantly at him but obliged with a smirk.

“Sunset Shimmer. Most gifted Unicorn of the century, protégé and apprentice to the Princess of the sun herself, bane of stuffy nobles, monster hunter, professional finder of artefacts, Canterlot orphan gutter trash, future saviour of Equestria, and as of today would be challenger of kings.”

Sombra’s chuckle rang true as he drifted back into motion. “Yes, you will be competent help, and possibly a most dangerous ally. The orphans that survive always are. I would know, yes I would…”

Sunset merely followed on in silence, cyan-green eyes staring hard at the back of the deranged king’s head. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, today was going to be a very long, very cold day.

Author's Notes:

Well, this took far longer to get out then I would have liked. To be honest it was mostly complete around the same time as the first chapter but I wasn't really happy with it. Especially how I portrayed Sombra, so I went back and rewrote a lot of it. To be honest still not quite happy with it but it feels a lot better now. A shame I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas off of for the moment.

Oh, also some minor changes have been made to the first chapter but nothing significant.

(Last Updated: 19/06/12023)

Chapter 3 - One Hundred Percent Discounts

Sunset growled nasty nothings under her breath as she trudged through the snow, freezing her hooves off, cleaving twin tracks through the knee high snow. Not for the first time that day she wished a lot more than her cloak had come through the portal. The nice thick combat boots she had been wearing before coming through would have been very welcome in hoof form but no, the near incomprehensible enchantments of the mirror decided she didn’t need them. At least the storm had let up some time before she had crawled out of the end of Sombra’s secret tunnel, and had shown no signs of returning since.

She took solace in the fact her frustratingly simple but arduous task was almost over. Her eyes idly glanced to where her saddle bag rested under her cloak and the piece of strange black and red horn tip inside, the prize she had been seeking now secure. While she desperately wished she could have run some diagnostic spells on it to work out exactly what it was and why it was so important, she at least had the running theory that it was Sombra’s own horn and maybe what anchored him to life. It might even be the last physical piece of him left. That led to a conclusion that had her standing dead in her tracks when it finally came to her.

“Ugh, no wonder the old bastard didn’t want me to have my magic. He wanted me to run off and fetch a serious bargaining chip,” Sunset growled to herself, turning the realisation over in her head and more importantly how she might be able to turn it back to her advantage.

Sunset quickly got herself moving again though, if for no other reason than the thought she might actually freeze in place if she sat still for too long.

Eventually she found herself on the outskirts of the city once more, naturally ending up next to the train station given she had been following the train tracks out of and back into the city. This time however something caught her eye, something that infuriated Sunset with herself that she had failed to spot before her trek.

Almost audibly grinding her teeth in frustration, Sunset marched up to the window of the train station’s large gift shop and peered in at the thick winter coats hung up on display alongside a poster sprouting some spiel about winter wonderland mountain hiking trails. She wasted no time shoving the snow that had blocked off the door aside and barging right in.

Her cloak and saddle bags were hastily thrown off in exchange for a teal parka that covered her from forelegs to over her rump. It quickly began to help her warm herself with its insulation and she let herself indulge in a contented sigh.

After a few moments the bliss subsided and Sunset came back to her senses. Her curious eyes darted around the room, taking in the displays of cheap tat that made up the majority of the souvenirs or the overpriced essentials a first time visitor might need. Among the latter she found some warm looking hoof boots that quickly became a part of her new outfit. She also saw a heating stove but in spite of the temptation she resisted the urge to get a fire going. Some old chocolate coated granola bars provided a safer temptation though, and soon found themselves demolished by the mare.

Looking back outside, Sunset felt a good deal of reluctance about stepping outside again too soon. The shop wasn’t really any warmer but it did keep the wind off of her, stopping it stealing her warmth far better than her cloak could. She knew she would eventually have to make a move but for now she decided she could afford to have a closer look around.

Most of the souvenirs were the typical garbage like I ‘heart’ the Crystal Empire T-shirts, plush toy mascots, bits of pretty geodes or those super abbreviated and disgustingly sanitised history books containing nothing but useless trivia. One purple baby dragon seemed to crop up a lot and apparently the Equestria games had taken place here not too long ago going by some postcards and pictures of the event. There was the occasional treasure though; the snow globes were especially pretty. Pretty enough she decided to box one up and slip it into her saddle bags in spite of its size.

There were also a scarce few useful things like stationary and overpriced hiking gear. Most of it she passed up but the maps made Sunset stop and think. The bigger geographical ones had her curious but she knew they weren’t relevant for the time being, the local ones however…

Sunset soon found herself pouring over the shopping streets and market places, grinning with every store she marked off as a point of interest with a pilfered pencil. Slowly, as she registered several of the more magic oriented stores a plan began to form in the back of her mind, a plan to finally implement a project that had been waiting in the wings far too long.

“And they have a nice big library too by the looks of it,” she spoke excitedly, before her enthusiasm began to drop off. “Fingers crossed Celestia hasn’t gone and pillaged it first. The old nag forbid ponies ever get to learn anything real.”

She took a deep breath to help clear the sneer off her face before bringing her attention back to planning out her route through the city, setting a path to make best use of her time. It was still a significant detour, but the fact her delay might agitate Sombra only brought a smirk to her lips. They were on a time table but it was hardly wasting that time so long as she was getting something she wanted done.

Before long Sunset was bracing herself at the front door, and with a hoof full of pilfered odds and ends - including the contents of the cash register – she once more set out into the dazzling white snow her cloak blended so easily into. This time however, there was a grin plastered across her face and a power in her stride.

“I was wrong, he gave me a mere chore. This, is going to be a fetch quest worthy of my time,” she muttered gleefully to herself, trotting off into the snow with enthusiasm the cold could not dampen.

---

The cold could indeed not dampen her enthusiasm, but what she found - or rather didn’t - most certainly brought her spirits low. One of her first stops was the library. It wasn’t essential but it was the most likely place she would encounter something new she wanted, such as the most recent magical, medical or science journals. She had managed to swipe a few things she needed on the way here already, a few small precision tools from what passed for a hardware store here in the Crystal Empire, so she had been even more excited to loot the place from her previous success.

Instead, she found her eyes sweeping over empty shelf after empty shelf with a most uneasy feeling of despair.

“This feels so wrong somehow,” she murmured, running a hoof across a cold crystalline shelf, hoping irrationally it was some sort of illusion. “A library without books… never really thought about it before. Like a sea without fish or a forest without birds. Sterile. Dead.”

Sunset wondered morbidly through the empty hall for a while, hoping to find something, anything. All she found was a scattered pile of blank parchment and stationary emptied from the librarian’s desk. She felt compelled to tidy it away, irrationally hoping she could right some small amount of wrongness with the building.

After many long minutes Sunset finally turned and trudged back to the exit with a defeated sigh, uncomfortably accepting the place was a dead end. Then Sunset found herself finally asking herself the questions the empty library brought to mind.

“This isn’t Celestia’s work, that’s for sure,” she admitted to herself ponderously. “The invaders took all those books. But why? Were they looking for something? But then what?”

As she began to trudge through the snow, Sunset found herself becoming painfully aware of the empty houses – the homes – around her.

“They took all the ponies and all the books. What do they gain from that?” The thoughts and ideas running through her head were almost continuously shot down before she eventually gave up. “I don’t have enough information to solve this yet. Hell, maybe these damned pillagers didn’t even know what they wanted and took all the books out of potential gains… like me, I guess. I suppose I just have to hope Cadenza can tell me more.”

With another sigh she marched out into the snow again. Sunset still had a shopping list to see to, and she was determined to nab every last item on it and more.

---

When she finally reached the palace once more Sunset quickly realised she had a problem. While she had certainly planned ahead and had been fortunate enough to gather all the components she needed with aplenty to spare, she had overlooked something.

With a sigh she flung open the doors at the base of the palace’s archways and marched on in, accepting she would have to wait for Sombra to find her again as she had no idea how she got to the cavern from the palace before and definitely wasn’t trudging all the way back through the snow to the tunnel entrance she came out of.

It didn’t take too long to find her bearings, emerging into the hallway where she had her initial struggle with Sombra. From there she made her way to the mirror room, shutting herself inside and spilling the contents of her saddle bags so she could get to work on her side project. He would find her again eventually after all, he certainly found her quickly enough the first time. Only this time – Sunset thought with a smirk as she glanced towards the mirror - she would be more than ready for him.

---

“I told you to return to me once you had retrieved the item!” the ever billowing cloud that was Sombra growled loudly, aggressively announcing his presence as he swung the doors wide open with smoky tendrils. An action that left the sole occupant of the room he gazed in on, completely unfazed.

Sunset smirked to herself past the inscribing tool held in her mouth but didn’t budge otherwise, not until she had finished carefully etching the rune onto the brass plate. With deliberate care that slowed her down significantly she stowed her tools using her mouth and hooves before getting up to face the king.

“I took the time to do some shopping on the way back and decided I didn’t want to traipse all the way through the snow again just to try and find a tunnel entrance halfway across the city,” she explained to the king, blasé attitude on full display.

Sombra swelled with indignation – literally so - but otherwise held still. “I take it you at least have it?” he hissed at her.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Of course. You don’t think I would be stupid enough to come back here and confront you without it now?”

Digging a hoof through one of her saddle bags she brought it out, taking one last moment to survey the sharp, curved remnant of a horn… before tipping her hoof and letting it clatter to the floor.

“Now, get your crystal shit off my horn and you can have your little pseudo phylactery back,” she announced with pointed anger, bringing her hoof down to rest firmly on top of the horn.

Sombra’s form immediately bloomed to a much larger more menacing size, staring down at Sunset he made his displeasure painfully clear with a growl. “If you have the slightest sense of self-preservation peasant, you will hoof my rightful property over to me immediately, and pray I decide to spare you for the second time.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Sunset replied, standing her ground with a vicious smirk. She had seen his shadowy tendrils moving through the floor, his increased stature no doubt a ploy to distract from that.

But it was already too late for him to finish acting. Before Sombra could commit to an attack, a dozen buzzing forms swooped through the portal and began erratically dancing through the air, shooting off simple miniature rockets that slammed through his shadowy form and exploded within. It certainly wasn’t enough to truly hurt him but it stung badly enough to leave him roaring in pain as he lashed out at the things, trying to knock them out of the sky or catch and crush them but their erratic behaviour made that extraordinarily difficult.

He indeed caught one or two – those few violently self-destructing in contact with his form as a small spiteful retaliation - but the combined swarm spread his attention thin and wore him down in a way one unprepared pony caught off guard could not. Much to Sunset’s satisfaction his influence visibly receded from the crystal flooring, his concentration so dramatically broken.

Meanwhile Sunset sat back and enjoyed the show, knowing it was only about to get better as the sound of mechanical wining and whirring entered the room immediately followed by a resoundingly heavy stomp. From the portal emerged a hulking if squat mechanical humanoid form, many times taller than the average pony. In place of a head, built half way into its chest was a sphere bearing a single large blue eye that immediately began scanning the room.

“HOSTILE TARGET IDENTIFIED. PRIMING WEAPONS SYSTEMS,” the thing boomed out in an alien tongue, mechanical arms rising to point at the dark cloudy form.

Clamped to the underside of its right arm a modified arc welder sparked with deadly intent, while on each wrist lay a long pair of boxy lasers and over its right shoulder a magnetically powered grenade launcher of sorts. Not that Sombra would know how dangerous all that hardware was, Sunset had to prove her point.

“Give him a warning shot Atlas,” Sunset ordered verbally in the same alien language.

Immediately in the same moment the small swarm of drones backed off and in the next second a violent fizz of the air itself igniting before the shrieking pop of crystal shattering under the same heat.

The room – after the tinkling of shards of crystal settled down – was cloaked in tense silence.

“Two more Atlas,” Sunset instructed, staring down the not quite corporeal stallion with a stern glare.

This time Sombra got to see the lances of ruby red energy as it filled the air, literally too fast for the eye to catch before it struck the ground, heating, deforming and expanding the crystal there so it shattered outwards. The brief but violent event sent fragments of crystal tinkling across the floor and leaving the previously smooth surface pot marked with a flower of scorched dust surrounding it.

Sombra however didn’t seem to be at all daunted by the message as he swelled up, thinned out and prepared to dive on the mechanical menace from as wide an area as possible. In that brief moment, from behind her mechanical beast Sunset snarled at the stupidity of the old half-dead king. He was at the same disadvantage she had been at with him, facing off against a complete unknown. Except unlike her, he was charging in head first where she made a fighting retreat. Well now the tables had turned and Sunset sent her next order through more silent means to Atlas.

Immediately the ark welder sparked to life, a nozzle below it spraying the area with an invisible ionised gas. A fraction of a second later the air was filled with the shrieking buzz of arcing electricity and Sombra’s furious, pained screams. Atlas’s arm swept back and forth across the area occupied by the gaseous creature, raking him continuously for a good twenty odd seconds.

When the barrage ceased Sombra immediately withdrew himself into a dense, whirling ball. Parts of himself convulsing and flexing in such a way that it reminded Sunset of what she knew of solar flares, though in this context it also reminded her of an animal licking its wounds.

With a victorious smirk Sunset knew she had him where she wanted for the moment. Taking more than a little pride at her own handy work standing strong in her defence she calmly ordered the robot to stand down and called off the drones with a silent command, transmitted courtesy of the small handfull of implants at her disposal. They immediately retreated, the quad copters coming to rest in the air at Sunset’s back.

“Do I have your Fucking Attention Now?!” she spat out at him, scowling at the treacherous stallion. “Are you going to see about fixing my horn? Or do I need to bring through a few more of my friends here to convince you?” she continued, asking him most condescendingly, picking up his curved horn and examining it to emphasise her confidence in her new bargaining position.

“You petulant brat! I should refuse and kill you now for attacking my person!” the quivering ball of smoke spat back, though not without significant confusion. “What manner of magicless contraption do you dare threaten me with?! Do you seriously believe this is any real danger to me?!”

“Like I’m telling you my secrets. And one alone? I would have thought not before that pathetic display. However, the army I’ve been building on the other side of the portal? Definitely. Protest and threaten all you like,” Sunset argued back dismissively, “all I’m asking is for you to stick to the original deal. The only thing I’ve changed is the fact I can now add ‘or else’ to the end of that sentence. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to restore my horn or am I going to have to kill you and figure that out myself?”

“Oh? And what if I simply decide to suck your little friends dry of magic to swat you and your miserable contraptions aside?!” Sombra, literally fuming, demanded of her.

Sunset found the fact he wasn’t acting on that threat very telling.

“If you’re not willing to keep our little bargain now, then I have no reason to believe you ever had any interest in upholding whatever deal you made with the Princess. So that leaves me better off running the risk of an all-out fight to put you down then leaving them at your mercy to use and abuse now or in another thousand years’ time. So, if I get even the tiniest hint you’re syphoning off of them, I am taking that risk to save them rather than gambling on the mercy of a despot and a slaver. I’ve read the restricted and quite unsanitized history books, I know what you’re capable of.”

Silently she stared down the deposed king with stony resolve as he visibly bristled in anger.

“Very well child… step forth and we shall continue our little bargain,” he finally conceded after a strenuous minute, strained patience audible in his voice.

With a nod, Sunset turned to her bipedal robotic companion. “Atlas? Hostage protocols,” she commanded in English, before sliding the horn fragment over where its steel foot came to rest atop it.

“AFFIRMATIVE. MONITORING LIFE SIGNS AND HOSTILE DESIGNATED ‘SPOOPY CREEP’,” the robot replied in its same forcefully loud yet neutral voice.

Sombra’s look of confusion at the alien babbling was not lost on Sunset. “Atlas here will just be keeping an eye on things, just in case you happen to get any crazy ideas. Wouldn’t want you accidently getting rid of me at some vulnerable moment now would we?”

“Perish the thought,” he muttered with sarcastic venom in his voice. The thought of being further backed into a corner by the mare did not sit well with Sombra but deep down he had to acknowledge this was a step forward, as little as he enjoyed giving up his most potent point of leverage over her.

With a deep breath Sunset strode forward. It was only now, approaching the rather overwhelming form of Sombra that she showed the slightest signs of apprehension.

It was a show of weakness Sombra didn’t miss, or hesitate to comment on. “Having second thoughts are we? My tender care not cushy enough for you mighty little sorcerer?”

A glance back at Atlas’s icy blue eye diligently watching was all the reassurance she needed. “Just shut up and let’s get this over with.”

He sniffed at the dismissive command but acquiesced. “Very well. This might… sting a little,” he said with a tone of nasty amusement.

Before Sunset could reply or ask what he meant a tendril of shadow shot forth and curled around her horn. Immediately the crystals around her horn began to crumble away starting tip first, but as soon as it reached the surface of her horn the pain began. It burned and itched in a way Sunset could only describe as like someone was pouring scolding hot sand into the sensitive organ. She desperately tried to hold it back as she grit her teeth and her legs violently trembled but the cry of pain was inevitable, and enough to wake the dead.

The pain didn’t end as soon as the deed was done either. An achy sensation lingered in Sunset’s horn as she swore under her breath, panting profusely and sweating like crazy as her strength slowly returned to her. It was a few minutes before she could steel herself to look up angrily at the surely-would-be-smirking-if-it-could-be cloud.

“Stings huh?” she muttered venomously as she panted for air. “Can see why Celestia wanted to throw the book at you for under-selling the side effects of your particular bag of magic tricks.”

Sombra simply chuckled at her sarcastic rebuke. “Celestia? Throwing books at people? Surely not, that might damage one and she values them far too much for that.”

Sunset grunted back at him as she put herself back on her hooves. “You may be right but you’re still an ass. A creepy one too.”

“Yes well, regardless of your inability to appreciate someone of my intellect we still have a deal to settle. Now, return to me my property. Unless of course, you want me to expend the vitality of your friends downstairs to retrieve it myself.”

As real as the threat might have been, Sunset couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his posturing. “Whatever.”

With a deep breath she concentrated upon her horn, feeling her magic once more flow freely through it. The luminous red glow was a comforting one in the cold abandoned palace. With a flick of magic the many dozens of pieces of rubbish still scattered around the room came to life, dancing around her in the grasp of her magic before being trailing off to be set aside in one corner.

A quick mental command later and Atlas lifted its foot, allowing Sunset to take Sombra’s horn and give her one last moment to survey the sharp, curved remnant of a horn before she passed it off to him. Or rather, threw it at him. A part of her hoped it would fly right through and clatter to the ground behind him but she knew better.

The horn flew through the cloud that was Sombra for a moment before slowing to a stop and drifting back to his centre, hanging there in mid-air. The black sooty mist that was his body quickly thickened, obscuring the fragment.

Uneasily Sunset took a few steps back as the air in the room picked up, currents of wind whipping Sombra’s smoky form into a whirlwind of energy potent enough to put every hair on Sunset’s back on end.

Things looked like they were only getting worse for a moment as the condensing whirlwind cackled with black and purple bolts of pseudo lightning. Eventually however it began to calm, and when it all dissipated the oppressive black mist was gone and Sunset was presented with an admittedly handsome unicorn Stallion. He stood tall and strong with a victorious grin that looked convincingly charming – in spite of the sharp fang like teeth that smile was filled with - on his strong, chiselled features, all backed by his voluminous flowing pitch black mane. Though, looking at it sceptically for a moment it did feel like Sombera was striking a bit of a pose for his audience of one.

Sunset however shook off her thoughts, getting back to a business as usual demeanour. “Nice trick. Top marks for presentation. Now can we finally get back to the Princess and start bailing on this winter wonder wasteland?”

“Leave it to Celestia to render a magical prodigy a philistine,” he scoffed, smile dropping away as he levelled a mildly disgusted glare at her.

“Like you have room to talk,” Sunset scoffed right back at him. “You’ve undoubtedly ruined magic for far more ponies in a far shorter time frame. Now come on! This portal doesn’t stay open forever you know. How do we get back to Cadenza from here?”

Sombra clenched his teeth in growing frustration. “I do not take orders from you,” he spat back at her.

Sunset could only groan and role her eyes in disbelief. “Ugh! Drop the tough old tyrant act already! If you haven’t noticed, it’s a bit late to save face with me, smoky.”

He growled and bristled at her but Sunset didn’t so much as flinch, not with the hulking form of her robot at her back and her restored horn faintly glowing red at the ready.

Sombra closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reluctantly pushing his anger aside. “Clearly Celestia neglected to teach you neither manners nor patience.”

“Impatience is a virtue and playing mind games pretending to be polite only slows you down. Try living in the real world and you’ll quickly learn time is money,” she dismissed with another roll of her eyes. “Or in this case, lives. Not only do we have to get everyone up and through the portal before it closes or these aliens turn up, but I also have to convince the Princess this is the right move. So you can hopefully see why I don’t care about your posturing.” Sunset emphasised the point with a stomp of her hoof, seemingly causing Atlas to shift behind her as if to remind him of its presence.

“This way,” he growled out, audible strain in his voice as he finally gave in.

The small collections of drones whizzed off back through the mirror as Sunset began to follow, Atlas not far behind her. She only briefly paused in an effort to collect what little was left of the ones Sombra had destroyed, tossing the remains back through the mirror as well. They were very nearly worthless, but she wasn’t going to carelessly leave such telling evidence of higher technology lying around.

Their walk was not a long one. He led Sunset back through the previously travelled corridor, turning left as they reached the familiar balcony and into the throne room.

“A dead end,” Sunset observed simply, before looking to Sombra with a bored expression. “Well go on then, make the dramatic reveal to your secret lair oh great Warlock King.”

Sombra did his best to pay the mare no mind, but Sunset caught a twitch of irritation cross his features none-the-less. Silently he lit his horn, privately revelling in the use of it once more, tugging and twisting magic to his whims in a far more comfortable fashion than he could in his previous dispersed irregular form. He smiled as he felt the shadows - his shadows – creep out through the floor of the throne room.

Steadily the centre of the room began to crack and crumble, falling away to reveal a spiral staircase, much to Sunset’s confusion. She quickly caught on however.

“The space below the throne room… it’s empty, I was walking around under this very spot! Extra spatial warping to implement some non-Euclidian architecture…? Nice!” she exclaimed, a bright and surprisingly genuine grin expressing her inner glee at unfolding the magical puzzle in her mind.

Much to Sombra’s astonishment Sunset giggled, looking around like a wide eyed filly as she almost skipped down the stairs, crimson magic flickering to life as she scanned and probed the physics defying space.

“You really should have started with this if your aim was to impress! No one’s paying attention to something as trivial as a little pseudo immortality and resurrection these days, far too mundane,” she rattled off casually as she continued to disappear down the circling stair way, her mechanical bodyguard following behind her as fast as it dared on the steps barely large enough for its feet.

Sombra meanwhile was left perturbed by her comment. He could not decide if she was simply mocking him by brushing aside the not insignificant act of magic that gave him the ability to endure aeons trapped in ice or… if there was truth in what she said, and similar such secrets had been propagated to mundane status in her unrevealed hiding place.

With an irritable growl he shook off such thoughts. After all, soon enough he would know for sure.

“Insufferable creatures, mares,” he griped to himself, following at a far more dignified pace. “I will extract from you payment for every petty insult yet, little sorceress.”

With that quiet promise made, the two unicorns and the robot descended into the ancient sanctuary deep below.

Author's Notes:

This took... well, way too long to get out. I am sorry about that. This chapter has actually been sitting on my computer nearly complete for quite a while now. But, you know, life happens and it's been rough for me lately. Not to mention I've kinda been worrying over whether the first two chapters were good enough or not.
I do feel like Sunset should have maybe been able to put up more of a fight in the first? I mean crazier stuff is coming in the future and I feel like it might sell her a bit short. What do you think?

On that note, the first two chapters have been touched up a bit. There are no serious changes so don't feel like you have to go back and read it again if you don't want to.

I am also still looking for and editor or proof reader so if you're interested do let me know! Preferably by DM.

Well, hope you enjoyed reading, take care till next time!

Edit: Wow, cool new trick! Turns out the text to voice reader is supper handing for catching all those malapropisms and a few other mistakes I made. This chapter in now a little better thanks to that. I'll be using that trick more in future before publishing.

(Last Updated: 25/06/12023)

Chapter 4 - Stepping Through Light Years - Part 1/2

For the first time in what might have been millennia that dark artificial cavern beneath the centre of the Crystal Empire felt alive. Perhaps not with ponies, or even life precisely, but with magic. Mingling tendrils of cyan and crimson energy sprouted through the air, each caressing the crystalline block in which Princess Cadance and those closest to her lay entombed and slumbering. Some strands that formed were useful and remained while every so often others were deemed not and were discarded, fading from existence. At the centre of it all - like some sea creature reaching out with its many tentacles - lay Sunset Shimmer, lying still between two magically fuelled crimson tinted fires. Her horn alight as the bright centre point for the surrounding strands of magic and eyes clenched shut, deep in concentration as she metaphorically picked the magical lock that lay before her. It was a challenge she happily lost herself in the simple pleasure of, something new and unique compared to the rarely updated protective spells plastered across Canterlot palace she had long since puzzled apart over her many visits.

“I really do not see why you insist on this pointless exercise,” the deep, droll voice of Sombra spoke out from the darkness behind her, expressing his boredom with long rolling words. “You are simply wasting time. Time we do not have according to you.”

Of course, she was not used to having an audience – specifically a peanut gallery - either. Sunset could not help but groan out in mental pain at the latest interrupting commentary from the King, the manifested strands of her magic twitching irritably along with her.

“And yet again, if we used your brute force method we would be wasting far more time helping them recover from this sorry excuse for a stasis spell you threw together,” she rebuked him in a poisonously condescending tone. “Besides, after I’ve figured out how to dismantle your cage safely once, I can do it again. Far. More. Quickly.”

“Bah! I had taken you for a far more sensible mage,” the former king continued to criticise as he began to pace back and forth behind Sunset, expressing his own irritation with her. “Instead here you are, like every other, putting comfort before utility. A task I have told you, you will fail at anyway.”

Beyond his field of view Sunset rolled her eyes and turned a deaf ear to his tirade, immeasurably more interested in actually performing her own work then discussing the methods. Besides, many components of this spell were unknown to her and simply breaking it open like an egg destined for the cake mixer wouldn’t allow her to learn the secrets of how it all worked. The thought made her smirk a little; it was after all a happy coincidence of making sure the shock of waking up more violently didn’t leave anypony having a heart attack, or worse. One she would happily deny intending with all the pretend innocence she could conjure if ever called out on it.

Tuning out the despot to concentrate on her work, it was not much longer before Sunset had indeed puzzled it all out. Dozens of luminous streams of magic locked onto points around the crystal block, causing a previously invisible network of fractal lines and shifting runes to glow in a cascade of light sweeping across them, before vanishing once more. But a second later, hairline cracks rapidly spread and multiplied across the crystalline prison, so many eventually covering it so completely it appeared opaque. Then - instead of shattering - each and every fragment simultaneously dissolved, leaving a fine mist that fell, spreading out across the floor before vanishing entirely. It was quick, quiet and smooth; exactly as Sunset had intended.

With a satisfied smirk Sunset sprung to her hooves to survey the fruits of her meticulous horn work. As expected, lying sprawled out in a rough heap before her was Princess Cadance and her cohort. With a gentle magical shove she brought the princess closer to the twin bonfires before retreating back, prancing up on top of another crystal block where she could look down on them and lie in wait for the fun to begin.

---

Cadance’s world was abruptly filled with throbbing pain. Everything was a blur and she felt weaker then she had in some time, so it would have been no surprise why she had collapsed into the hard floor, had she been conscious enough at the time to register that. At least it wasn’t too cold, the nearby crackling fire she could feel blazing against her coat and steadily warming her bones saw to that. The cold was all she could remember for what felt like an eternity, a sort of mellow but endless nightmare she could not escape from. The question though, was why? What happened? She knew something had, something terrible…

“Yet more tedious waiting. The meagre results of your methods are truly pitiful.”

“Gah! Are you still harping on about that? I told you they would need a little more warmth to wake up properly. Would probably need it regardless of how we got them out. I get you’re a cold hearted, pragmatic tyrant and all that but it doesn’t give you the excuse to ignore simple equine biology.”

Voices, two of them somehow reached her through her fogy, cotton stuffed brain. One was familiar somehow, if a struggle to recall. The first… an instinctive repulsion told her she didn’t want to remember that cold but strong and masculine voice. All it brought forth were images of thick billowing smoke, disgusted sneering stares and hungry fang filled grins, memories that made her reflexively curl in on herself.

“Humf, your poorly masked concern is just as pitiful. They would have recovered sooner or later regardless.”

“Again with the pointless complaining! I swear, you’re worse than Blueblood when he was in a mood. Now quiet, she’s waking up and I wana make my dramatic reveal.”

Again, that old familiar voice - with that similarly familiar snobbish demeanour behind it - beckoned her more buried memories. It was certainly not an easy task in her current condition but Cadance knew she had been through far worse before. Wrestling up what strength she had, she drew in a deep breath of harsh and frigid air that left her throat feeling raw all so she could simply muster the energy to pry open her eyes.

Her reward for her efforts was the blurry image of a pair of steadily burning crimson tinted flames - or rather bonfires given their size – flanking her and a crystalline mound. Surrounding it and her, a forebodingly dark cavern scattered with both erratically flickering light and deep shadows that greedily drank in the light. Above that, the source of at least one of the voices sat. What initially appeared as a fuzzy teal blob topped in a mass of red and yellow, resolved itself into that of a pony. Specifically a unicorn pony, one as distantly familiar to Cadance as the voice that belonged to it. Cadance knew her, the disjointed thoughts of her barely roused mind just couldn’t place from where.

“Wakey wakey Mi-Moe~ Or do I need to give you a kiss and start calling you sleeping beauty?” the pony, lounging atop the lump of crystal as if it were some sort of shezlong asked with a sickening dose of faux niceness backed by smug superiority. “I mean, I’m sure you’d enjoy it. I am pretty sure I’ve caught you staring at my flank a few times.”

That old, almost forgotten nickname was the jolt to her memory she so desperately needed, sending her stumbling up onto her hooves even as the smirking muzzle of Sunset Shimmer resolved itself in her eyesight.

“S-sunset?!” she gasped out the name in shock, jaw loosely working as confusion muddled her mind.

Cadance was still trying to place where she was and why, but regardless of that she knew the mare before her – wrapped tightly in winter proof clothing - was the last thing she should expect to see, especially after so very long. Too long.

“Awwww, what’s the matter Mi-Moe? I thought you’d be happy to see me. It’s been, oh what? Twenty odd years now?” Sunset continued on with the same supercilious attitude she loved to tease her victims with.

“What’s going on?!” she blurted out, her head whipping back and forth as she desperately tried to gain her bearings. “Where… how?”

The frantic questions had a noticeable effect on Sunset that might have surprised Cadance a little had she the presence of mind to notice.

“Wow… you really are out of it aren’t you,” she said in surprise, sickly sweet voice dropping off and concern starting to seep into her expression as she frowned down at the frazzled princess.

With a single bound Sunset leapt from her improvised podium, landing not far from Cadance and closing the gap, looking up and down the taller pink mare with a focused, searching gaze.

“Come on Princess, focus here. You’re safe and sound for now. Do your little breathing thing and get your head in the game,” Sunset addressed her firmly but sympathetically, one hoof reaching up to rest firmly on Cadance’s shoulder to help steady the pink mare.

The gesture only fed Cadance’s confusion, but she none the less took the life line of a rational voice. After a couple more deep breaths of the bitingly cold air she finally centred herself and found herself under the searching eyes of Sunset Shimmer. Again, looking around herself she began to recognize the rough cavernous room… and with it her desperate situation.

“The attack…” Cadance spoke under her breath, eyes widening in panic once more and desperately blurting out more half formed thoughts. “Sombra, the deal… Shining, Flurry!”

In the blink of an eye Cadance had spun around on the spot before franticly stumbling the short distance between her and the unconscious form of her beloved husband and child’s crib. From there her arms were wrapped around both, the reappearance of an old acquaintance – who was left in the dust muttering irritated and explicit comments - momentarily forgotten.

“Shining! Please wake up, please,” she begged in naked desperation, looking between him and the crib even as her hooves reached to check his pulse. “I need you two to be okay…”

The heart wrenching worry gripping Cadance was fortunately not left to fester long. However the response was far from matching her desperate pleas in tone.

“Nugh, come on Caddy. Five… mmm, ten more minutes. Just… just keeping the troops on their hoof tips, honest. Un-unpredictable uh… drills. Yeah, surprise late drills.”

The complete lack of worry carried by his voice discordantly broke the tension, as did Flurry Heart’s tired babbling, seemingly in perfect agreement with her father’s sentiments as she pulled her blankets tighter around herself. Sunset bursting into boisterous, uncontrolled laughter a moment later demolished what was left of that tension entirely.

Unfortunately that laughter was also enough to violently shock Shining into the waking world. He pulled his eyes open to the sight of his wife’s face shooting a glare off somewhere.

“Cadance…?” he murmured questioningly, pulling her relieved eyes back to him.

Immediately his instincts kicked in and the trained eyes of a captain of the guard began searching the surrounding cavern, even as he continued to regain his hoofing and wrap one leg around his wife protectively.

“Right, we’re still down here,” Shining said disgruntledly, searching the many crystals containing their still sleeping subjects and the slowly rousing forms of their closer friends. The unknown unicorn standing a short distance away with an amused smile, staring them down smugly didn’t escape him, not to mention how suspicious her presence was under the circumstances.

Still, he deferred to his already waking wife before jumping to conclusions. “Are you alright? What’s going on?”

“I… I don’t know,” Cadance admitted, looking back and forth between her husband and Sunset with a confused but searching frown.

“You’re being rescued, obviously,” Sunset called out with an offended huff, clearly hearing them in spite of the distance between them and their low voices. “You’re welcome by the way! I only travelled a few hundred light years to be here.”

Uneasily and somewhat reluctantly, Cadance parted from her husband, glancing around at their still mostly unconscious friends and guards. “Let’s get everyone closer to the fires and then work out what’s going on,” she murmured to him.

“Allow me! After all, such menial labour is hardly befitting of a Princess now,” Sunset called out cheerily, offering the royal couple a mocking bow as she spoke.

Before either could say a word the seven guards who were with them and their two friends were sent tumbling through the air, clutched in the glow of Sunset’s magic before being unceremoniously placed down. The seven guards around one of the clearly magical fires, while Sunburst and Thorax landed next to the other. The journey left them all far more awake from the adrenalin now pumping through their systems, scrambling up and looking about to get their bearings.

“Sunset!” Cadance called out in shock, aghast at the casual magical manhandling. The display probably shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did, having known the mare as well as she did, but after so long the simple fact of seeing Sunset again still had Cadance’s mind spinning.

“What’s the matter?” Sunset asked nonchalantly, looking back over her shoulder with an all too innocent smile, having already turned about and started sauntering back towards the fires. “I’m just being helpful. You know you had better get that baby over here. This cold can’t be good for a child that young. You really should know better if you want to call yourself a responsible mother.”

Cadance was left staring incredulously at Sunset as she swung her hips, making a show of strutting off towards the highly confused Sunburst and Thorax. She had to deliberately slow her breathing in a more private version of her little exercise once more to force her anger down at the callous accusation.

“I… take it you know this mare?” Shining questioned, distastefully considering the amber unicorn before looking to his wife with concern.

“Yeah. I do. Or did?” she replied with uncertainty, hesitating further as a slew of old memories, both good and bad played back through Cadance’s mind. Pulling herself together a bit more she gave him a sheepish look. “It’s kind of a long story, and it was a long time ago too, almost before we met. But she’s right, let’s make sure Flurry is safe and warm first.”

Reluctantly he joined her in levitating the crib and trotted closer to the magical bonfire. They arrived only to find Sunset Shimmer already engrossed in something – or rather someone – else.

“I mean, what even are you? You got wings and a horn… are you the result of some sort of ill-advised experiment to become an alicorn?” she asked unabashedly. Leaning over a now distressed and skittish Thorax, examining him far too closely for comfort and making it clear any pretence of personal space had been forgotten. “If so, I want your research notes! I mean, I am rescuing you so you owe me right? It’s only fair. Maybe a medical exam or two as well.”

“Back off and leave Thorax alone, Sunset!” Cadance instructed firmly, staring her down with a glare that barred any messing about.

Sunset simply looked back at her, briefly perturbed by the rebuke before shrugging and backtracking to sit down on the other side of the fire. “No need to get so touchy Mi-Moe, was just being curious.”

“Mi-Moe?” Shining murmured, looking to his wife questioningly at the odd never before heard nickname.

Cadance’s eyes were sharp enough to pick up on the private amusement behind his own eyes as she felt herself blush at his mention of the old, annoying nickname. She didn’t give him the dignity of a response and while he would clearly remember it, Shining was thankfully more than mature enough to set the subject aside. There were far more important things to concentrate on in the here and now.

“Sunset Shimmer,” Cadance finally said, addressing her properly as she sat herself down on her hunches on the opposite side of the fire. She hoped her tone was as appropriately regal and serious as she intended, anything to get the rouge unicorn to behave herself a little more. “It has been a long time.”

“Yeah, some would say not long enough,” she said dismissively tossing her mane back as she examined the fluffy rim of one boot clad hoof in a blatant display of disregard. “But to be honest it’s been cruel of me to keep my charm and brilliance from Equestria all this time. Neigh sayers be damned.”

Cadance sighed and let her head collapse into one hoof, quickly remembering an authoritative tone was likely the last thing to gain Sunset’s cooperation.

Shining meanwhile was far from impressed with her attitude, and had no issue making it known. “Oh, great, our so-called rescuer is one of those kinds of ponies,” he griped to himself.

His comment seemed to succeed in breaking her disinterested attitude, only for Sunset to turn her gleefully predatory teasing on him.

“Awww, you’re only saying that because you haven’t got to know me yet, stud,” she spoke with low husky words, sending him a seductive smile and a wink.

The words had Cadance bristling and sending the unicorn a death glare. “Shining Armor is my husband, Sunset.”

“Oh, I kinda guessed that,” she replied playfully, utterly unabashed and not lifting her eyes from him. “You don’t mind sharing, do you? I know you said something about that being nice and what good friends are supposed to do and I know you were always trying to get me into that sort of thing.”

“Ugh!” Cadance buried her head in her hooves and quietly screamed to herself before rearing back up to all fours to pace off her irritability. “You’re just trying to drive me up the wall aren’t you? Like you always do. You haven’t changed a bit.”

Sunset appeared to do a double take at that, so much so as to take a stand, one hoof over her heart as if hurt by the accusation.

“I have changed to! I’m harder, better, faster, stronger!” she proclaimed in mock hurt, before entirely dropping the façade and putting on a sharkish grin. “Still a bitch though.”

For a moment Cadance was left staring on at Sunset in silent disbelief. At least until her husband spoke up.

“Okay, I think I’ve figured it out. She’s one of your crazy evil exes, isn’t she Caddy? And at some point I’m going to have to fight her to save your soul from some convoluted deal to keep her from dragging you to Tartarus with her when this little punk finally bites the dust,” he concluded, hooves steepled and holding a seemingly natural straight face, as if it were the most logical thing in the world. He subsequently left that world in shocked silence. “There might even be an epic guitar battle,” Shining added thoughtfully before letting the quiet continue.

The silence was broken by a snorting sound shortly followed by Sunset breaking out into a full blown laughing fit that had her struggling to stand.

Snapping around to her husband, Cadance did her best to stare him down with wide, horrified eyes. “Shining! She is not my ex!” she blurted out angrily, aghast at the suggestion.

“Well then who in Tartarus is she?!” he cried out in frustration, returning the anger as the cracks in his patience began to make themselves known. “Because no pony has ever talked to you like that before Cadance. I want to know where this little chaos spawn came from so I can send her back there.”

“S-s-s-sunset Shimmer!”

Cadance blinked in surprise at the unexpected and heavily stuttered proclamation. Slowly she turned her head to look at Sunburst where he and Thorax stood looking almost comically bemused, beyond them their squad of guards not looking much better. Though they at least seemed to be trying to get their bearings and assess the situation, much to Shining’s satisfaction.

Flash Sentry however… he was discreetly looking over Sunset when he could and with a particularly cold glare. He clearly recognised her as well, but it seemed he was keeping his mouth shut for now. Cadance made a mental note to ask about that later, it was a long shot but if Harmony had any mercy he might know something to help Sunset shed her bad attitude.

“She’s S-sunset Shimmer your highness, Princess Celestia’s personal student,” Sunburst reiterated, his need to explain starting to take over from shocked realisation. “Uh, that is to say she was, before your sister, Twilight Sparkle,” he continued, seeing Shining’s confusion.

“Wait-wait-wait-wait, you’re Princess Twilight Sparkle’s brother?!” Sunset exclaimed in wide eyed horror, having only just recovered from her giggle fit. “Damn, that just killed any and all interest I had. Too bad, you’re a hilarious dork as well as fit. Oh, but I do play guitar! So we’re still on for that rock battle!” she remarked eagerly back, rebounding quickly.

That vague insinuation didn’t do anything to alleviate Shining’s concern over the abrasive mare, rather it left him hunching forward and aggressively staring Sunset down. “Wait, what is that supposed to mean? What’s my sister got to do with this?!”

Cadance let out a deep sigh and placed a hoof firmly on Shining’s shoulder, locking eyes with him as he looked her way. It worked to calm him somewhat. “Please Shining, let me handle this,” she whispered to him, leaning in close for a moment. “Trust me when I say Twilight represents some bitter issues for Sunset, for understandable reasons even.”

Turning to Sunset, Cadance began to trot around the fire to better address the unruly old acquaintance.

“Sunset, please, I’m not sure if you know why we were sealed away but dire circumstances conspired to trap us down here. I’m… not sure how long it has been but danger might still linger outside,” Cadance explained in a pleading tone as she sat before her. “I ask that we put any old grievances aside at least for the moment while we work out what’s going on.”

The amber unicorn shifted uncomfortably under her teal coat for a moment before grumbling out her response, “Fiiiiine.” Her more hostile demeanour quickly melted away into something much calmer and more professional. “I’ll cut the theatrics. We are working against the clock right now anyway. And it’s not like I haven’t learnt half of what’s going on already, but I am short on a lot of details. The last pony I talked to – if you could even call him that any more – made for even less pleasant conversation then I do.”

“Sombra!” Shining spoke out in shocked realisation a moment later, legs dropping into a tense battle stance as he scanned the thick darkness of the cavern wearily, circling around the crib of his baby daughter. “Where is he?!”

“Cool your jets,” Sunset replied, entirely unconcerned as she dismissively waved off their worries with one hoof. “He’s just sulking in the corner because he lost a bet with me. As if I couldn’t pull apart his crystal fuckery safely enough. Did a better job than he would have bothered with. You can thank me any time for that, you know.”

“If he’s here he should show himself,” Shining said firmly, eyes still darting around the ominous darkness, as it ebbed and flowed with the flickering of Sunset’s bonfires. In that moment it seemed all the more foreboding to the ponies present, now they knew what was waiting in the inky blackness obscuring the distant walls of the cavern.

Their fears were realised when a deep rumbling laugh rang out through the chamber, immediately pushing everyone besides Sunset into a far more tense state of alert. It did not help that the way it echoed gave no clear indication on what direction it came from.

“You must have lost a great deal of your vision since we last talked young colt,” Sombra claimed as he strode tall and proud out of the thick shadows that seemed to cling to his charcoal grey coat for a moment before falling away, “if you cannot see the shadows all around you. For I am wherever they are, and the shadows… are everywhere.”

Immediately - as soon as Sombras first hoofstep landed with a deafening clack on the crystal floor - the cluster of guards jumped around to face him and started edging back. They fell into a combat stance, one meant to ready a pony to charge but they looked anything but ready, involuntarily shaking in their armoured boots as they backed away from the confident and now quite solid form of their dreaded former tyrant.

Sunset meanwhile was looking on at the poor display of discipline in disbelief. Naturally a critical barb came to her tongue, “Wow, who trained those jittery foals? I would say they need to grow a backbone but that would be insulting to all the molluscs I’ve met.”

Her comment was pointedly ignored by the royal couple beyond an errant ear flick from Shining, much to Sunset’s chagrin. Instead, the royal couple were laser focused on the dark furred stallion.

“Sombra,” Shining Armor spoke, practically spitting out the name once more. He had dropped into a well braced combat stance himself and his horn was flickering dangerously, Cadance standing strong and similarly grim beside him. Unlike his comrades Shining Armor let no sign of fear taint his features. “You said you wouldn’t be able to reconstitute your body. What changed?”

Sombra raised a single incredulous brow at the Captain and his accusatory tone, regarding him with a detached contempt. “Matters of sorcery well beyond your meagre purview, boy. I have had much time to divine the deeper secrets of magic while you have been sleeping, and have fortified my skill all the more for my efforts. You would do well to address me more carefully.”

The statement left the group looking him over with apprehension… until Sunset loudly scoffed. The scornful look Sunset shot at Sombra left no illusions as to the equal measure of contempt she held for the stallion playing himself up in such a fashion, no matter how hypocritical it might have been for her to criticise.

“What the old bastard isn’t telling you is he blackmailed me into bailing him out, otherwise he’s just blowing hot air up our asses. Fortunately for us, I managed to turn the tables on him, so unless he wants to know what flying through a supercharged thunder cloud feels like – for the second time – he, is going to behave,” she indirectly instructed him, with a tone that promised no hesitation on delivering her threats. “And if you so much as think of exploiting the other ponies trapped down here, know that I could have every one of them free in a moment! It won’t be painless, but I can do it.”

The stallion levelled an equally scornful death glare back at the mare, bristling in anger so much so a purple smoke began to gently waft from his eyes. He faltered at making his displeasure known, unable to contradict her claim, not to mention how her reassurance for their fellow ponies’ safety seemed to galvanise all else present. However that hardly meant he had nothing to say.

“You had best be most careful when threatening me mare!” he snapped at her, a growl underscoring his words. “Your victory was a fluke that was only made possible because you had the element of surprise! Now however you are alone, and cut off from all but one of your mechanical thralls. Do NOT, try my patience, else you might meet a very sticky end.”

“Except she isn’t alone!” Shining Armor spoke out loudly and firmly, equally perturbed by the former Kings’ threats and showing his displeasure by readying his horn. “I might not know her but by Harmony I trust her far more than you. If you turn this little spat into a fight, you had better believe it’s not your side we are taking! Stand ready, Guards,” he ordered more softly but with no less resolve.

Much to his satisfaction – and to a lesser extent Sunset’s for that matter – the six Crystal Guard formed up around him, eyes hardening into focused glares as they aptly swallowed their fear, their sense of duty reaffirmed by the words of their Prince and Captain. Meanwhile Flash Sentry was no different, taking to the air and hovering just behind Shining, wings and hooves gently crackling with small sparks of lightning in a subtle show of force.

Again Sombra was left quite literally fuming in anger at this apparent betrayal. Fortunately someone else decided to intervene before more fuel could be added to the fire. Cadance – while certainly equally weary of Sombra - had had more than enough of the verbal sparring, an opinion she decided to make known loudly and firmly.

“Can we please cease all this pointless bickering! This childish posturing is getting us nowhere. Sombra, we had a deal and I have every intention of honouring it; you shall have amnesty from your past crimes until and even after we have dealt with these invaders. Sunset’s assistance makes no difference to that. In turn we expect you to uphold your end of the bargain and keep your temper in check,” she both conceded and warned firmly. To back up her words she shot a silent pleading look at her husband.

Reluctantly he nodded back at her before raising his horn and letting it dim once more. His troop followed his lead, relaxing and backing away to once more take advantage of the warmth from Sunset’s bonfire, though they still remained weary and far more ready to act then they had been before.

In return – with one last irritable growl – Sombra closed his eyes and forced down his anger, eyes returning to normal before he once again looked to the Princess expectantly.

With a relieved sigh Cadance relaxed a little more now she once again had control over the situation. Looking back to her old acquaintance she decided to seek answers to their current situation.

“Sunset… I can only dare to hope, but can you please tell us if the crisis is over? Has Equestria managed to defeat the invaders?” Cadance asked gently, eyes beseeching Sunset with unspoken pleas for good news.

Sunset - switching demeanour once more - shuffled uncomfortably on the spot for a moment, frowning and looking down and away from Cadance in a fashion that was unusually remorseful for the mare. Cadance, Shining and their eagerly listening retinue didn’t need to hear her answer to know what it would be at that point.

“I’m afraid not. I only just got here a short while ago and the city is still abandoned and feeling very spooky,” she explained somewhat nervously, recalling all too easily the desolate sights and lack of sounds surrounding the many abandoned homes and businesses.

“Yes, I myself have not seen any intelligent creature in months,” Sombra added in confirmation, far more stoic but still betraying a hint of discomfort with the fact.

“P-p-pardon me ma’am,” the strange insectoid creature Cadance had named Thorax spoke, addressing Sunset with what scraps of courage he could scrape together, “but, I thought you said you were here to rescue us?”

“That I am,” Sunset said seriously as she looked over the group, doing her best to put on a show of stead-fast confidence. “I know I haven’t come here with the best of news, but I do have a way out of what’s right now looking like a hopeless situation.”

“The mirror,” Cadance murmured in realisation, quickly connecting the dots and widening her eyes in surprise as she ran the idea through her head. “You mean… it’s open? It’s safe?”

Sunset snorted and rolled her eyes at the tepid question. “Of course it’s open, I’m here aren’t I? And you think Celestia would leave the thing practically on open display if it weren’t safe? Of course it’s safe. More importantly it leads somewhere a very long way from Equestria, so it’s safe from these invaders to.”

“Look,” Shining butted in, brow furrowed as he glanced between Sunset and his wife in suspicion, before settling more firmly on Sunset. “I don’t know what you’re talking about but it doesn’t sound like a lot. Besides, I would be lying if I said I trusted you enough to follow one of your plans right now, not without a good explanation.”

“Really. You trust me less than the literal tyrant?” Sunset replied sarcastically, not missing a beat as she levelled a pointed look at him that questioned the integrity of his intelligence. “I get you didn’t have a choice before but you do now. Stay here maybe for centuries locked in a crystal controlled by a damned slaver king or come with me where we will have the freedom, resources and maybe even allies necessary to take back Equestria from a technologically and likely numerically superior foe. Again; wait around for the slim possibility of rescue, or take action.”

“Unfortunately that’s not quite true,” Sombra spoke up as he chuckled with dark amusement. “As irksome as she is to converse with, I fully intend to take the young sorcerer’s offer. As little as I trust her – like you – and as sparse on details as she has been, she makes an excellent point. Action is always preferable when the alternative is to merely sit and hope fate deals you a kind card. So in effect, without myself to guard your sleeping forms, your alternative choices become gambling on the mercy of the invaders or a slow cold death huddled down here.”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Most of the ponies present were naturally disturbed by this sudden removal of any real choice. Shining and a number of the guards however were now visibly angered by the prospect of being forced to follow this mare.

Sunset meanwhile stared disbelievingly at the former king, only to break the silence with a pained groan that quickly turned into a scream of frustration before ploughing her fore hoof into her own face even as it contorted with outrage.

“You just had to turn this into a life and death decision!” she shouted scathingly at him as she snapped her head up to look at him once more, fuming. “Here I am, at least trying to inspire some sense of confidence and hope, and you go and knock it all to pieces!”

“Your sympathies are once again getting in the way of performing the task at hoof,” Sombra said dismissively, looking away from the mare with a tired expression. “I once again suggest you do your best to prune away such weaknesses from your mind.”

“Ugh! You utterly moronic bastard!” Sunset screeched at him. “I have had it up to here with your brutish sociopathic shit! You never heard of morale? Ponies tend to work harder towards something when they have something to look forward to! No wonder your stupid empire of pain, misery and fear collapsed in on itself at the first sign of serious opposition! Who the hell would willingly stand up for the likes of you?!”

The room was left stunned and captivated by the budding shouting match, with the exceptions of Cadance - who had quickly put a soundproof bubble around her daughter - and Shining Armor who’s patience had already worn thin.

“Enough!” the stallion bellowed at them, his patience well and truly worn through. He looked towards Sombra with a hateful glare and accusatory hoof pointed right at him. “You can keep your damned muzzle shut even if you think you have something useful to say.” He then turned his fiery gaze on Sunset. “And you can give us an actual explanation! None of this vague, manipulative promising what you think we want road apples, especially if you actually want any of our trust. What is going on and where in Tartarus did you come from and are planning on taking us? Without any of the bad attitude. I am in charge of these ponies’ safety and I won’t compromise that safety on the word of some arrogant little filly I only just met.”

“I-I… I am not being-” Sunset sputtered before she cut herself off, looking off into space as she came to a realisation. She groaned to herself and her face fell into her hooves. “Sunset you stupid mare… falling into Celestia’s bad habits… swore I would never… ugh, fucking riddles,” she muttered almost incoherently to herself as she massaged her own temples.

Shining was about to press her for answers when Cadance’s hoof came to rest on his shoulder once more. He looked to her and she looked back with a face that begged for a moment of patience. Fortunately that moment was what Sunset needed to pull herself together. She took a deep breath and sat tall upon her hunches once more, her teal eyes meeting the glaring stallion’s angry deep blue eyes with a firm but calm gaze.

“I take issue with being called arrogant and especially a child, but you’re right,” Sunset admitted with a straight and serious expression. “I was indeed being vague and I apologise.”

“Thank you, Sunset,” Cadance said calmly, stepping closer to reassert herself as a part of the conversation in her attempt to cool tempers. “However I can’t help but share my husband’s curiosity. Just what is there on the other side of that mirror that managed to convince Sombra of all ponies to follow you through it?”

Sunset smirked and shared a venomous chuckle at the question that had been asked in good humour. “Oh, old king Smogra over there knows nothing. He’s assuming he could survive fine over there just because I can.”

“Again with the inflammatory tangents,” Shining interrupted once more, glaring lightly at Sunset who had the good sense to appear at least a touch bashful this time. “And what is this mirror you two keep going on about?”

Cadance sighed tiredly, feeling all too overwhelmed by everything, especially knowing how Shining would react to this piece of information.

“The one Celestia sent to me – well, to us – to protect. She found out that Sunset shimmer had been visiting the castle through it, somehow avoiding tripping any of the alarms and… and suspected of stealing things from the castle. Mostly books as I understand,” the mare admitted reluctantly, but added with a slightly amused murmur a moment later; “Though the royal cake repository was notably raided around the same time to.”

As expected, Shining was left scowling and struggling to hold back harsh words over the news but nodded in understanding anyway as he recalled it, choosing to focus on gathering information to abate his growing grievances with Sunset. “That old thing. Why wasn’t I told about this? I knew it was important, anything belonging to Starswirl would be but this was a serious security hazard to the palace.”

“Glad to see the boy has some sense,” Sombra muttered to himself with an amused huff.

His comment was naturally ignored by the Prince, getting Sombra little more than a disdainful glance from Shining. “That mirror should have been under much tighter guard if some thief and traitor could come waltzing through it at any moment.”

Sunset snorted derisively, face warped in a bitter grimace as her anger rose in response to his ignorance. “Celestia was the one who betrayed me I’ll have you know. Practically promised me the world growing up and not only failed to deliver but ruined my life, publicly humiliated me, tossed me out of my home and on to the street with nowhere to go, all over a trivial but impossible task she couldn’t even fulfil herself, the hypocrite! I was just collecting on a mere fraction of what that contrary lying manipulative hag owes me!”

The irate rant garnered no sympathy from Shining Armor, a loyal soldier of Celestia’s Royal Guard to the end, no matter his current position in life. However Cadance did her best to project an apologetic look to Sunset after a sympathetic wince that fortunately seemed to calm the unicorn a little.

The Princess stepped up before Shining could launch a rebuke that would no doubt have only stoked Sunset’s anger further. Gently she placed a hoof to her husband’s chest as she did her best to explain.

“I won’t excuse Sunset’s wrong-doings but Celestia did make a mistake in how she dealt with her afterwards. One of many mistakes she made in how she treated Sunset, truthfully. Because of her harsh punishment Sunset eventually broke back into the palace to travel through the mirror, though I don’t exactly know why,” Cadance admitted as she shot Sunset a questioning glance that briefly interrupted her soft spoken explanation. “When we realised she had been returning, we agreed a more passive or welcoming approach was needed to reconcile. The hope was that if Sunset was uncomfortable revealing herself in Canterlot with Princess Celestia and the threat of punishment bearing down on her, she might instead be comfortable coming to me.”

“Really now?” Sunset asked rhetorically, knowing her bitter feelings were plain to see upon her face. “And just how exactly did you two plan on luring me back into Celestia’s web? Because she made it perfectly clear to me she had nothing left she was willing to offer me, in spite of everything she promised.”

“We weren’t trying to lure you anywhere!” Cadance stated firmly but without anger, carefully raining in any frustration, though a groan did escape her. “If… you really wanted to stay where ever you found on the other side of that mirror then, well I convinced her we should let you. All three of us made mistakes back then. We - Celestia and myself - we just wanted a chance to see you again, to talk things out, maybe mend what went wrong. And if all you wanted in exchange for a chance to do that was a few books and materials we were both more than happy to provide that. I already left a few for you as a gesture of good will! Information on the Crystal Empire, material I know you have never seen before… but I take it you never saw the letter I left with them.”

As Cadance beseeched her, Sunset refused to seem even remotely convinced, her critical expression holding fast even as her eyes wondered in thought. Cadance couldn’t help but despair at the sight, that even after all this time she was still weary of Celestia’s and her own intentions. Though maybe that was to be expected considering those books were essentially a bribe, or even bait from Sunset’s point of view. Her dour mood however, was quickly derailed when Sunset’s expression abruptly changed to one of both realisation and confusion.

“Wait, what? When? I mean, where? Where were these books?” she asked rapidly in surprise, an ever so subtle greedy glint reaching her eyes at the mention of previously long lost magics.

“In the room with the mirror, you can’t have missed them,” Cadance explained with an eager smile, more than happy to have the mare’s attention and maybe even a mutually interesting topic of conversation, given the magic was a part of her heritage. However in the next moment she quickly realised how strange it was Sunset would have missed something so obvious, feeling her own face fall as her thoughts shifted to that of concern. “I left a whole bookshelf full of books and scrolls, even a fresh linked diary too. The letter was on a lectern in front of it, addressed to you.”

“Yeah, there was a bookcase,” she murmured in remembrance. Cadance could almost see the gears turning in Sunset’s head as she put together what had happened, a sour expression clouding her face as she did. “I guess that makes sense, they took them too. I’ll admit I had a wonder around the city after fetching Sombra’s horn. I stopped by the library but… it was empty. These invaders, they didn’t just take ponies but emptied the library and even a book store I visited. I guess they looted the castle for them as well, but there were still books around in other shops, out of obvious line of sight, so they can’t have been too thorough.”

Sombra took this moment to add his own confirmation, concerned by the invaders’ actions for his own reasons. “That is true. After they abducted every member of the population they could lay their greedy eyes upon, they did loot the city of any obvious literature.”

“But why?” Cadance asked, perplexed by the notion. “I don’t understand… I thought maybe they might want our ponies as slaves but… why take our books and then nothing else?”

“If I were to make an educated guess, magic,” Sombra supplied simply. “They used many strange mechanical weapons not unlike the young Sorcerer here levelled against me, but their methods were entirely devoid of any manner of magic I could sense.”

Shining discreetly eyed over the amber unicorn at the mention of her possessing weapons and Cadance couldn’t help but do the same with a less trained eye. She didn’t know what they were looking for given the vague and somewhat strange description of mechanical weapons. Following conventional thinking she obviously did not have any kind of cannon on her person and absolutely was not dragging around any kind of siege engine - not that it stopped Pinkie Pie from conjuring those out of thin air. However the invaders and what little they had seen of them had changed their notions of how small and compact non-magical weapons could be made to be. It made Sunset’s spacious winter wear an unsettling option for concealing nasty surprises.

“Seems likely, I guess,” Sunset admitted with a dismissive shrug, though not before Cadance caught a brief look of serious consideration pass over her features. “Magic opens the way to much that might otherwise be considered impossible and they wouldn’t be the first to covet our abilities. But we can’t know their motives for sure. Not with how little information we seem to have. Could maybe lure some of these invaders into an ambush to catch and interrogate but I doubt any of you want to take that risk right now. You have more pressing issues; the royal concubine here was right, you need to know where you’re going before you follow me there.”

There was an angry huff from Shining and Cadance felt an equally irked feeling – not to mention a deep blush - overtake her at the joke, and the guards bristled with irritation likewise at the insult to their commander but no one interrupted her.

An uneasy look passing over Sunset’s face told Cadance the unicorn almost wished they had. Especially so given the next few moments were spent waiting for the amber unicorn to continue, as she sat there, eyes darting about as she silently thought and struggled to put words together. Cadance couldn’t help but feel concerned, it was most unlike Sunset to be caught without one response or another. It only spoke to the enormity of what she had to reveal to them.

“Well?” Shining eventually prompted, drawing Sunset’s attention back to the waiting crowd.

Sunset fought back both a blush and a scowl at having been caught lost in thought and called out on it. She cleared her throat and straightened herself up, quickly doing her best to scrabble together an explanation.

“Sorry. It’s just… it’s hard to explain. The truth of it is just so… immense. Our history and culture has very little that quite compares to it!” she exclaimed, gesturing wildly, not able to clearly articulate her thoughts on the matter.

With an irritated sigh Sunset actually began to pace back and forth, much to Cadance’s surprise. It was a nervous tick Sunset rarely showed in her experience. Sunset even began to mutter incomplete thoughts under her breath much to everyone’s concern. Things Cadance had only ever seen her do behind closed doors and never with such an audience.

Then – quite suddenly - she stopped, abruptly turning to face them all with a scrutinising look.

“Are you familiar with Light Reader’s distant suns hypothesis?” she blurted out, seemingly out of nowhere. In truth it was something of a rhetorical question; one Sunset clearly did not actually expect anyone to know.

As expected, Sunset was met with looks of confusion and gentle shakes of the head… with two exceptions. Shining had a distinct glint of recognition in his eye but said nothing. The other was none other than Sunburst. He had hummed to himself thoughtfully and was now staring down through the floor ponderously, before his eyes went wide with shock.

“I-I’m sorry if I’m reading this wrong but… do you mean to say he was right?” Sunburst asked hesitantly, nervously darting eyes looking over her making it clear he was still apprehensive of Sunset.

That said, behind that apprehension was a burning curiosity that won out over any fear. It was a rare something that Sunset showed respect for.

She rewarded him with a pleased smirk and a nod of approval. “That he was. A whole lot more than even he knew.”

“Uh, sorry but would you mind explaining it?” Cadance spoke up, voicing the rest of their group’s curiosity. “For those of us who don’t know,” she mentioned as she glanced at Shining, having caught the look of familiarity in his eyes herself.

“You know I don’t think I caught your name. You want to do the honours on this one?” Sunset asked the stallion with a sudden interest. “Kinda rare I run across a stallion smart enough to be so well versed in such obscure topics.”

“Oh! Uh, sure, if you really don’t mind… and my name’s Sunburst,” he stuttered out, introducing himself with a friendly – if shaky – smile.

“My pleasure,” Sunset purred with a mildly flirtatious smile and half lidded eyes. “Love the goatee by the way. Real cute.”

In the distance - as Sunburst stuttered and spluttered at the sudden and unexpected advances - Cadance gave a tired sigh. She knew Sunset was likely just teasing the poor colt, maybe because he had done something to upset her and was setting him up for a fall, or because she was just curious. Much to her chagrin Cadance had seen Sunset do both before. Too much like a cat, playing with its prey.

Meanwhile her husband was less amused, as evident by the irritable grunt and sigh he let slip.

“Tangents. If you would Sunburst, please ignore her and explain,” Shining ground out with displeasure. “I would rather listen to her as little as possible.”

“Oh, how charming,” Sunset sarcastically muttered back with a scoff, giving Shining the stink eye.

Sunburst looked back and forth between the two for a moment before daring to continue. He did not want to get caught between the two and whatever grudge was building between them. So instead, he cleared his throat and did his best to dive into the subject matter; hopefully distracting them both in the process.

“Ah… well, Light Reader’s hypothesis suggests that some or even many of the stars in the night sky are in fact other suns, much like Celestia’s, simply very far away. Ah, very far being something of an understatement here,” he mentioned with an uncertain chuckle that surprisingly earned him a sympathetic laugh and a knowing nod from Sunset before he continued.

“He wasn’t the first pony to suggest this; the idea had been around for a very long time. He did however do a great deal of research into the possibility, more so than any other pony before; travelling the known world to collect records and performing experiments just to prove his theory. Unfortunately he never quite managed to get solid enough data, from what I remember at least,” Sunburst continued to explain, quickly slipping into the comfortable role of reciting knowledge.

“And he was laughed at and ridiculed for it,” Shining declared quietly, with venom in his voice. He glanced between the gathered ponies, noticing their questioning looks before answering with a reluctant sigh. “Light Reader was my great grandfather; he left quite the impression on Dad who followed in his hoof steps, studying astronomy. He used to love telling stories about his expedition. Though I think he might have exaggerated and made up a few things to make it more exciting for a young colt. He made himself sound like a real life Daring Do at times, though this was before those books even came out,” Shining recalled with a nostalgic chuckle.

However his head fell low with melancholy as he recalled more, a bitter frown twisting his features. “I decided to do an essay on him for some family history assignment or something; I forget what exactly, wasn’t even ten at the time. That’s how I found out the truth about how it ended. The expedition wasn’t supposed to be a huge deal but he got a hefty commission from the crown to do his research. Railways weren’t so well developed back then and airships weren’t common, so he had to hire a lot of ponies to help him haul equipment across the country and even beyond it. When he came back without solid proof, his peers – or rather rivals – went to the press with it and he got smeared by them something nasty for his so-called ‘flights of fantasy’ and wasting so much public money on them. He was laughed out of his job, forced to leave the Royal Astronomical Society to protect their reputation and universities refused to talk about his work for years.”

The miserable admission left the room in awkward silence as all the formally frozen ponies sympathised for their friend’s distant relative and his woes. As for those who had not been entombed in crystal, Sombra was unsurprisingly unbothered by the tale and only silently wished they would decease with the pointless moping. Sunset on the other hoof was - much to everyone’s surprise – looking far more remorseful. Feelings she soon put into cautiously spoken words.

“He’s… not around anymore, is he?” Sunset asked tentatively, gaze flickering over the stallion with a far more compassionate light behind them.

Shining levelled a sour but searching look at her for a moment, before softly shaking his head.

“I’m… sorry to hear that. I wish he could have been here, to see his work vindicated,” Sunset admitted softly with a sad smile.

“Why do you care?” Shining muttered at her, again scrutinising the mare with a critical glare.

“Because I know what it’s like to have to fight jealous foals with money and influence just to prove your worth. And I’m not talking about Celestia.” For once, Sunset’s defiant words were spoken plain and calmly. There was the usual angry fire deeper behind her eyes but it was seemingly tempered by her sympathies.

Shining’s glare lightened and turned into a more searching look. It seemed - much to his disbelief – that the petulant punk of a unicorn who had been sitting there moments before, was making an honest attempt at empathy.

“Hay, uh, Sunburst,” the distinctly not-quite-equine voice of Thorax whispered quietly, “I… I don’t get it, how are you supposed to prove something like that without going there? Was he looking for a special scrying spell or some… thing?”

Thorax quickly huddled in on himself when all eyes turned to him, realising that as quiet as he tried to be, he had just drawn all attention to himself.

“Uh, good question!” Sunburst spoke up far more loudly, apparently trying to distract from his friend who was visibly uncomfortable in the spotlight. He slipped quite easily back into lecture mode. “To put it simply, triangulation. Light Reader’s plan was to determine the distance to a number of stars by measuring the difference in their observed angle from different points and combined with the distance between those two points, calculate their distance. The distance was expected to be substantial so to increase accuracy he had to measure those angles from as far apart as possible. Once he had a distance he could then compare the brightness of those stars to the sun. If - after accurately compensating for distance – their brightness matched, we would have strong evidence that they are in fact the same or at least very similar objects!”

“Except,” Sunset continued with less enthusiasm now knowing the reception his results received, “he could never create precise enough equipment to measure those angles accurately enough, or get enough distance between measurement points to compensate for that. Turns out there’s more that might have tripped him up later. Like I said, I’ve learnt that our star system – if we can even technically call it that – is pretty anomalous. However this is all background information. The important part is the larger implications of Light Reader’s work.”

Sunset couldn’t help but turn up the theatrics a bit, quieting her voice and looking about, catching the gathered ponies eye to eye to help communicate the excitement behind the more profound epiphanies gained from her travels.

“If the stars were simply distant suns, then those suns might orbit - that is to say, rise and set over their own worlds. Worlds with their own forms of life. Turns out it’s supposed to work the other way around, planets like ours normally orbit their much larger suns but again, the point is he was right. There are other worlds out there, with other peoples living on them. Alien creatures with alien societies and alien values. Ones that have perhaps been around far longer than we have, and might have even advanced further than we have… that might already be exploring the stars for other life to befriend, or to conquer,” she explained, finishing on a more ominous note.

“…so the invaders truly are aliens from beyond the void,” murmured one of the crystal pony guards in dumbstruck realisation. “That’s just so… insane! It sounds like something out of one of those Equestrian comic books.”

Shining actually chuckled at that, though the laugh was almost mirthless. “Well, that might be because my great grandfather helped inspire a lot of those stories. The press, nobles and academics didn’t take his work seriously but in the end many writers and artists did.”

A proud smile tried to work its way across Shining’s muzzle for a moment, however it was quickly fought down as he turned his attention back to Sunset.

“Anyway, how does this all relate to that mirror and where you’ve been? I mean, I can kind of guess where this is going now, but I want details,” Shining asked her, his voice firm but no longer quite as demanding.

Sunset nodded promptly in response, her more straightforward and professional demeanour returning. “Right. Mostly wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page because this is where things get a little more complicated.”

Another guard – a rather blurley mare this time - snorted out loud, perhaps inspired to speak out because her comrade had. “More complicated than astronomy and alien life coming to kidnap us and our books? I find that hard to believe.”

Sunset just rolled her eyes and ignored her, proceeding with her explanation without the slightest stumble. “The mirror that I came though was created by – controversial opinion here – the idiot savant Starswirl the Bearded. It… well it actually does a lot of things. It’s frankly a frankenstinian- uh, that is to say, chimeric mess of experimental magical enchantments under that pretty frame. Most importantly to us however, it maintains a long distance portal. The other end is anchored to a statue that allegedly used to sit outside some school on a distant planet known to the locals as Earth. That crazy bastard and Celestia have been sitting on proof of alien life for well over a millennia now and never bothered to tell anyone,” Sunset explained, her more composed demeanour starting to fade as she griped about the ancient unicorn and her former mentor.

“If either of them had done something with that information, well we might just have been prepared to fight off these invaders. But no, that safe stable status quo was apparently more important to her and going by his writings Starswirl dismissed it as a mere curiosity… all because he could find no trace of magic use on the other end of that portal!” Sunset ranted out of frustration, her anger taking over as she seemingly forgot she had an audience. “Then again, I might not have jumped through the first time if I had known that at the time. Glad I went anyway. What they’ve got in spite of that is just too amazing for words.”

“So… we’re going to take refuge on this Earth? A world without magic?” Cadance asked, feeling – and likely sounding - far more tepid about the prospect. Looking around, she could see she wasn’t the only one concerned by this.

“What? No! There’s magic there,” Sunset corrected quickly, voice a little frantic. “Or rather it can be accessed like anywhere else. In theory. It’s just that no Earthlings ever evolved a means to use it. Their technology however, that is the stuff beyond even some of our wildest science fiction. Some of it is so advanced it might as well be magic to us anyway given how most ponies take it for granted, which brings me to the next big complication. The statue tethering the other end of the portal is no longer on Earth.”

Cadance found her eyes narrowing at Sunset. She had brushed aside that little detail about magic too quickly for her liking. Unfortunately for her concerns however, Sunset had also succeeded in changing the topic, another speaking out before she could press her for details.

“So you just put us all through a lecture about a place we’re not going to?” the same sceptical guard’s mare asked, face showing her lack of faith in Sunset’s state of mind.

Sunset huffed as an aloof expression pulled at her features. “It’s necessary information; context. The anchor to the other end of the portal didn’t change or move by itself. Earthlings mastered artificial flight and furthermore space travel a very long time ago; travelling to their moon, mining out asteroids, collecting the energy of their sun up close and beaming it back to their homes and colonising the other more barren worlds that orbited their sun alongside theirs. Eventually, they moved on to making the journey to other stars themselves, ironically using miniature bottled up artificial stars. However they don’t have the benefits of magic to just disappear and reappear on a new world, they had to make those long slow journeys on ships. Fleets of massive colony ships, full of people, farms, factories, resources and technology centuries or even millennia ahead of anything non-magical we have in Equestria. One of those ships is where the anchor to the other end of the portal ended up. That, is where we’re going.”

The room was left in relative quiet at that point, save for the ambient crackling and pops given off by the two magical fires. No one could yet muster the means to put their thoughts into words. Sunset seemed content to leave them to begin murmuring amongst themselves though Cadance kept an eye on her… and how her attention seemed to slowly drift off in thought as she discreetly scrutinised all the ponies and their reactions.

It took Cadance a moment to realise Sunset might be reminiscing. After all, Sunset had been through all these revelations herself once upon a time. Only back then she had to go through it all alone.

She was drawn from Sunset by her husband gently touching at her leg to get her attention. Cadance cocked her head questioningly as she examined his less than usual expression; he looked rather haunted by some realisation on his mind.

“Cady,” Shining whispered quietly but urgently to her, “I hate to be the bearer of bad ideas but, what if… the invaders and these Earthlings are the same? She hasn’t exactly described them yet and by the sounds of it Sombra hasn’t told her much yet about the invaders.”

Cadance nodded thoughtfully, before smiling a little as her gaze travelled back to the still distracted Sunset. “Well then, let’s ask her. It really couldn’t hurt to do that much.”

Shining didn’t look so convinced. He didn’t trust Sunset, and Cadance had to admit Sunset had not given him much reason to do otherwise. But he didn’t know Sunset like she did… or at least she hoped she did. The Sunset Cadance remembered while belligerent had her own moral code and a well-hidden soft side, things that would never allow her to be knowingly complicit in such an atrocity, she reassured herself. Ready enough to restart the conversation she made a show of clearing her throat to catch Sunset’s attention.

The mare’s eye immediately came back into focus as Sunset stiffened up, ever so slightly blushing in embarrassment at being caught daydreaming.

“While you have presented us a golden opportunity to act,” Cadance said, addressing Sunset with uneasy scepticism, “I think I can safely speak for most of us when I say we’re not entirely certain about placing ourselves or our ponies in potential danger. There’s also… other concerns, regarding these… Earthlings you called them, yes?”

Sunset nodded, without verbal comment, not looking entirely certain on where the Princess was going with this.

Cadance shifted uneasily from hoof to hoof as she struggled with saying what came next. “Right… well, is there a possibility that these Earthlings are the invaders? That they took all our ponies?”

Blinking rapidly in surprise Sunset baulked at the hesitant accusation, if Cadance had to guess she would have thought Sunset was about to spit out a firm and even offended, no. However she seemed to catch herself and agonise over her answer for a moment before finally grudgingly answering with a pained groan.

“There’s a farfetched chance that a group of Earthlings I don’t know about could have done all this,” she replied, stressing the uncertainty of such a thing, before she waved one hoof in Sombra’s direction, accusingly. “Like I said, I haven’t been given many details so far so I can’t outright deny the possibility. However it’s unlikely in the extreme as I’m sure no other group from Earth has had the time to travel to Concordiae Cunabula. On top of that I am absolutely certain the group I’ve been travelling with, have had nothing to do with it. They’ve been in deep space for decades before I even joined them, nowhere near anything but empty void. But hey! You all think there could be a chance right? So, why don’t we settle this for sure and one of you finally tell me what these guys looked like?” Sunset finished with the sarcastically toned questions and eyes glancing between the members of the group expectantly.

“Well, I can’t say I personally got the best look at them,” Cadance admitted, uncertainty glancing at the others, hoping someone would contribute. “My husband and I were trying to keep them out, helping power the city’s shield.”

“Except some massive metal airship that had no business floating around the way it did, came gliding in and fired a volley of burning bolts of red and green energy that overloaded us in a single salvo,” Shining continued for her, sparing them none of his bitter frustration. “That was when their smaller air ships came swooping in to… well, Like Caddy said, we weren’t in the best shape to actually see what was going on by then. The backlash from the shield failing wasn’t pleasant.”

Sunset nodded thoughtfully at that, then gave a sympathetic wince at the aforementioned backlash, as did Sunburst and Thorax, all knowing that particularly nasty brand of pain.

“I got a good look, your majesties,” the buff guard’s mare piped up again before looking to Sunset sceptically, “and ma’am. Was on the rear guard as we evacuated into these catacombs.”

Sunset merely rolled her eyes at the disrespectfully hesitant address. “Well then, do share uh… you got a name? Or do I just call you guard filly number thirteen?”

She bristled at the more overt rudeness from Sunset - amber yellow eyes narrowing dangerously - but held her composure. “Sargent Hail Hooves of the second Royal Crystal Guard Cohort, Ma’am. As for what happened next; like his highness said, their smaller airships started flocking in. Stupidly nimble things for their size; three times the size of a train carriage at least and almost as nippy as a small air chariot. Boxy things apart from these strange curvy blisters on them, all painted white with swirling black patterns on them. Can’t say I don’t wish we had some, would make patrols and logistics so much easier,” she said almost wishfully.

“Heh, you would think that,” Sunset murmured with amusement. The looks she drew prompted a quick explanation. “Vehicles like that are complicated things. Like a train engine only hundreds of times more so. They also tend to need fuel like a train too, so it ends up a trade off. If you had them and could walk wherever you need to go, chances are you’ll be walking because rations are cheaper.”

That got a humourless chuckle out of Hail Hooves. “Figures. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway… troops started jumping off them into the streets, making a lot of noise, blasting their weapons off into open air and letting loose these trilling wails like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Naturally the civics all panicked but… that quickly started to look like it was intended. They were hearing them. Splitting up bigger groups, keeping them in manageable pockets and surrounding homes and businesses where others were hiding. Shot and smacked around anyone brave enough to stand up to them but didn’t kill anypony. I think… I hope,” she recalled uncomfortably trying to remember the details of something she would rather not.

“I see,” Sunset said softly, with a growing sense of sympathy, picking up on the subtle tremors behind Hail Hooves’ professional demeanour. “And what did they look like?”

Hail grunted in irritation before continuing, seeing the sympathy but not quite believing it. “Was hard to tell from that kind of distance but… there were three kinds I could see. One looked like some sort of messed up cross between a porcupine and a gorilla, except it had no head. Its face was in the top of its torso instead. It had four eyes and a vertical mouth filled with a bunch of large, plate-like teeth. Coloured grey and black with a bit of orange thrown in, all wearing some dull iron looking armour with some bits of fabric hanging off in places. There was the most of them, they seemed to be their front liners, being big and strong and scary. Half expected them to start eating ponies on the spot, the way they salivated all over the place” she recalled with visible disgust.

The mental image caused most shiver in revulsion, though Cadance noticed Sunset simply appeared sceptical towards the idea. Still, that was barely a reason to interrupt Hail Hooves’ report.

“The second was these tall leaping fellers, all upright on two legs with two arms but nothing like a minotaur. They were jumping all over the place, clinging to walls and wouldn’t stand still so didn’t get a good look. Could tell they were skinny though, and it didn’t look like they had any fur. Green, grey or blue skin and not wearing a whole lot. They were scary flexible though, the way they bent it didn’t seem like one side or the other was their back or front. Their heads just… flipped up and over to look backwards! They seemed to be watching mostly, except when they were chasing down the odd pegasus, grabbing them right out of the air,” she recalled with a visible shiver. “Was downright unnatural the way they did that, can’t say I appreciated the screams either…”

With a tired sigh she shook off her discomfort once more and continued, “Then there were the officers. Or at least the ones that acted like them. Long lizard-like things, though they were teenaged dragons at first but none of them had wings. Snout was the wrong shape too, long and kinda pointy. Eight legs, or four legs and four arms given how they walked most of the time. Not so sure on colour because they were the most dressed up, all had what looked like fancy long coats but their heads were anything from blue and green to purple, red and black in a bunch of patterns. And like I said, they were the officers. Some of the last on the ground and seemed to be giving all the orders. I think a few of the first guys were a bit like that too, maybe NCOs but… well, it were hard to tell with all the chaos.”

“That’s ‘bout it,” Hail Hooves finished with a tired shrug. “We all disappeared down here before we could see much more and I was one of the last, leading the rear guard and all that.”

All the while she explained, Cadance discreetly watched Sunset; she sat patiently, nodding along and mentally taking notes. Cadance watched in fear of any signs of realisation or betrayal or… something. Thankfully however, the closest Sunset came to that were thoughtful frowns. In the meantime though, they were all left in uncomfortable silence.

“Larger, more clumsy airships followed the first,” Sombra spoke, interrupting the silence with his matter-of-fact tone. “They looked much like your Sargent described, except they were entirely black. Landing on the outskirts of the city, they organised their captives into groups, taking pains to separate out all the tribes before coaxing them onto those black ships. After that… they merely swept the city, looking for stragglers and loot before leaving themselves. I will admit the brutally efficient display held my attention enough so that I failed to notice the princess and her refugees sneaking into my sanctum.”

“I see,” Sunset said with a nod after a moment, before dropping back into silent thought.

“Well?” Shing prompted her after it became clear she wasn’t going to offer her thoughts on her own initiative.

“Huh? Oh, right,” Sunset blurted out as she jolted to attention. “Well, the whole truth is a bit more complicated than a simple no but… I’ve never seen anything like what you described. Were there any robots? Mechanical metal golem like things walking around? Or perhaps flying around like metal birds or insects?” she asked, probing them with clearly simplified terminology.

The gathered ponies all looked amongst themselves, collectively shaking their heads and murmuring in the negative. It was enough to paint a satisfied grin across Sunset’s face.

“Definitely not any operation run by typical Earthlings,” Sunset replied with certainty. “And it’s safe to say my hosts aren’t involved, even tangentially. I would have heard about it. News travels fast and freely in the fleet. On top of that nothing there matched their descriptions and that doesn’t even remotely resemble what I know about Earthling military doctrine. Not to mention most Earthlings’ sense of morality wouldn’t abide by something like this.”

Her words put Cadance’s worries to rest enough to visibly relax her, and that in turn seemed to put most others at ease much to her relief.

But not all of them.

“But you don’t know they aren’t responsible for certain? How can you even know that much? In fact, how can we even trust anything you say?!” Flash Sentry burst out, a cold and furious glare locked on Sunset. “For all we know you could be working with them and just want to lure us out of hiding.”

The hostility caught Cadance and everyone else off guard. She liked to think she knew Flash reasonably well. He was always a kind and unfailingly affable stallion, not to mention a competent and upstanding example of a career guard’s pony. Lashing out like this was disturbingly out of character for him, however Cadance had to silently admit to herself, if anyone could get under his hide, Sunset was a likely candidate.

Sunset growled to herself, clearly irked by the guard’s pony’s apparent paranoia and bias against her. Cadance couldn’t help but cringe at the tell-tale signs of Sunset’s anger being set alight and braced herself for the coming rant.

With a condescending sneer levelled at Flash she began; “Firstly – let alone that I would never stoop to serving some foreign power to undermine Equestria nor the planet - if they knew well enough where your little group was why would they bother sending a double agent to come and pick you all up? Secondly, do you want another lecture on the nature of the universe and how incomprehensibly vast it is? That the easiest way to measure the distance between stars is the number of years it takes light itself to travel between them? How that even given the millenia Earthlings have been travelling the stars, even they can’t have possibly had enough time to reach as far as Concordiae Cunabula? Or are you just looking for holes and excuses to pick apart my story for… whatever reason you have?”

Flash’s eyes bulged in disbelief, incredulity taking hold of him as his features twisted in anger at the disparaging remark. “Seriously? You don’t even remember me?! You make a big talk about how Princess Celestia ruined your life after you started practising illegal magic behind her back but completely forget about the lives you casually trampled? Like Mine?!”

The enraged rant didn’t seem to have the intended effect, if Flash intended to accomplish anything with his words that was. Instead it only left Sunset looking more bemused, scrutinising the Stallion with a frown.

However they weren’t going to be left to sort it out on their own.

“Stand Down Lieutenant!” Shining barked out, cutting off any further comments. “We don’t have time for petty arguing and your behaviour is unbecoming of your position.”

Flash bulked at the order for a moment, his emotions pushing him to lash out further. Fortunately his training was far stronger than his impulses and he reigned himself in, though not so much as to withhold his thoughts entirely.

“Sir, I apologise for letting my anger get the better of me, however I insist I have good reasons for not trusting this mare. Sunset Shimmer is manipulative and deceitful in the extreme,” he insisted firmly, holding back his more volatile emotions regarding the mare. “I would be bereft in my duties if I did not warn you of as much.”

Cadance had to hold in a sigh at the developing news. It was abundantly clear Flash was one of the ponies Sunset had wronged in the past.

“I appreciate your caution Lieutenant, and while what you say is circumstantially true, I feel comfortable in trusting Sunset. I know her well enough to understand she would never lie over such things.”

Out of the corner of her eye Sunset seemed to swell somewhat under the indirect praise. Flash Sentry however was hardly placated, an ugly grimace pulling at his muzzle.

“With all due respect Princess, I don’t believe you do. We cannot afford to be naive with her,” he reaffirmed with a suppressed air of desperation.

The condescending demeanour that carried his comment however, lit a fire in Cadance’s heart in that moment, sparked by what he implied or even outright said if she assumed malice. It was an attitude Cadance was all too painfully familiar with, one she had thought she had escaped after leaving Canterlot for the Crystal Empire. Remembering those unkind words she unleashed a near wrathful glare upon the guard, who out of instinct shrank back a little before correcting himself and bringing himself back to attention.

“That, will be quite enough Lieutenant,” Cadance ordered all the more firmly, an unmistakably stern and most displeased undertone. “You will put aside whatever grudge you might hold until we actually have the luxury of addressing such personal issues. Until then, I expect you to contribute only what is needed to secure our safety and most certainly not to poison any discourse or so publicly question my sense of judgement!”

The cavern was left in shocked silence at Princess Cadance’s rebuke. After all, it was not often the kindly princess of love was stirred to such firmly spoken anger. Though it seemed, that shock didn’t extend equally to all the ponies watching.

Sunset, blinking away her astonishment rather quickly, let out a low whistle while her muzzle broke out into a devilishly delighted grin. “Damn Mi-Moe, you grew a backbone. So proud of you right now. Hope you gave that attitude to those old farts back in Canterlot.”

Cadance locked Sunset with a firm look, silently rebuking her childish chortling. “Sunset, the portal. What more do we need to know?”

Sunset grunted unhappily and nodded, reluctantly letting go of her amusement. “Right, right. Honestly, there’s not much more to tell anyway. The mirror applies a disguise as you pass through it, even providing clothing if needed so going unnoticed isn’t too much of an issue. I’ve got a nice base of operations set up right on the other side with room to expand, so we have a safe place to stay. I also have the money to cover food and stuff for a while, though I’ll eventually need you all to pull your own weight one way or another if we want to make progress. I can’t say it’s going to be the most comfortable arrangement for the time being but, well, it beats this little frozen hell hole and your asthma inducing neighbour here,” she explained almost off-hoofedly, gesturing at Sombra as she mentioned him.

“That’s not exactly a lot to go on, you know?” Shining asked rhetorically, trying to prompt her to continue. “How much space are we talking here? What kind of disguises? What exactly do you plan on having our people do for you?”

With an exasperated sigh Sunset rolled her eyes and addressed him with an irritated glare and a bored tone as she got up and started to walk away. “In order; about one hundred and sixty square qubits of warehouse plus two or three more we can use if we shift some stuff around. Magical obviously, what other kind of disguise would Starswirl use? And nothing if they don’t want to, besides cooking their own meals and pooling their universal basic income for the sake of efficiency once I can get them set up with it. There? Are we done for now? I’m going to have to play twenty thousand questions again when we wake this lot up anyway so why bother saying everything twice? I’m probably going to have to explain everything I’ve said so far again anyway. Just tell me when you’ve made your damn minds up and we can get this show on the road.”

As Sunset talked and trotted she stopped periodically, casting a spell to bring more magical bonfires into existence. Spacing them out so as to create a circle around the centre of the room, she continued even after she had finished her dismissive explanation, ending the conversation. It only took Cadance and Shining a moment to figure out Sunset was preparing to give the soon to be released ponies the same warmth they themselves had woken up to.

“I really don’t like this,” Shining muttered to his wife. “I get the feeling she’s not telling us something. Something important.”

Tiredly Cadance sighed, knowing how right he likely was. “I know… but for what it’s worth I know Sunset well enough to trust she’s not leading us into harm’s way. Not on purpose.”

“You did know her. She said it herself, that was twenty years ago. That could have changed since then,” Shining argued back grimly.

Cadance sighed again. She knew he was only looking out for them but the lack of trust grated on her nerves. It didn’t help that he had a valid point; it really had been a long time since she had last seen Sunset, even if the familiarity of her attitude made it seem like yesterday. She could have gotten worse… but at the same time Sunset could have changed for the better as well, in spite of the bad attitude.

“Maybe she isn’t trying to keep secrets from us exactly…”

The raspy, whispering voice made Cadance jolt upright as she glanced around to see who had spoken. A little to her surprise it was Thorax standing there and looking more than a little sheepish at having startled her, a similarly bashful Sunburst not much further behind him.

“S-sorry, your majesty,” he murmured, refusing to meet her eyes out of embarrassment.

“It’s alright. I trust your council Thorax,” she murmured back kindly. Thorax brightened up a little bit, her friendly smile helping shore up his confidence and letting him stand tall again.

Shining nodded in agreement, speaking just as quietly, catching on to the changeling’s implied need for discretion. “Yes. Now what were you saying? Do you think there’s something she doesn’t want some of us hearing?”

Thorax frowned, keenly glancing around for a moment as if looking for something, relaxing a little when he seemingly found it.

“In a manner of speaking. I just wanted to remind you, we’re not entirely in friendly company,” Thorax said uneasily, discreetly nodding his head and glancing in the direction of where King Sombra was standing, observing Sunset’s spell casting from the edge of the quickly receding shadows. “I know from experience it’s sometimes necessary to keep secrets or lie to allies so someone else doesn’t overhear. I uh, I think you can guess why,” he admitted, shying away once more.

“Don’t worry, we all know that’s behind you now,” Cadance reassured him, giving him a beaming smile and resting a fore hoof on his shoulder. “Right now? I’m actually happy for the unique insight you can bring us.”

“Well! Now that’s finished, how about we hurry up and start getting the hell out of dodge?” Sunset called out loudly as she approached the group from the other side, having finished creating her circle of bonfires and sounding far too excited. “Guards first I imagine, you’ll want ponies who can keep their cool to help thaw out the others. Oh! Actually wait a sec, I had better introduce you to someone first…”

Sunset turned off to face into the darkness and whistled loudly, before calling out in a chipper tone, pre-empting anyone getting a question in edgeways. “Come on out Atlas, got new friends for you to meet!”

Following Sunset’s gaze out into the dark depths of the cavern, none of them missed the single large, luminous, blue eye that blinked to life in the company of a couple of synthetic chirps. All of them – with the exception of Sombra who was rolling his eyes at Sunset’s theatrics - flinched at the heavy, almost thundering footfalls as whatever that blue eye was attached to strode closer.

Cadance found herself flinching back with the first few heavy foot-falls as the clanking metal monstrosity emerged into the light. The metallic, bipedal figure with its eyeball shaped head was as strange as it was intimidating, especially given it might be able to look down on even the towering figure of Celestia.

“Don’t be shy Atlas! Why don’t you come over here and warm up with the rest?” Sunset asked it, mischievous grin a mile wide as she gestured to the space within her circle of fires.

With another affirmative chirp the whirring, clanking thing strode past them, long arms gently swinging with its motion as it made its way to the indicated spot and paying little notice to the stunned group of ponies. Once there it turned about to face the ponies, standing there impassively beside a smug Sunset Shimmer.

“Mechanical weapons,” Shining murmured wearily, the first to shake off his stunned expression for an analytical frown. “She’s got a robot right out of a damn sci-fi comic.”

“Indeed,” Sombra affirmed. “Do not let its behaviour fool you, that thing is devoid of life.”

Sunset huffed indignantly at that and shot Sombre a withering look. “I’m offended at how shallow your definition of life is! You’re all going to have to be a little more open minded about that sort of thing if you don’t want to end up a social pariah where we’re going,” she said, mixing mock offence into what might in fact be legitimate advice. In the following moment she side-stepped closer to her mechanical companion and patted it on the thigh affectionately. “Don’t listen to the mean old king of collecting tacky crystals; you’re a good boy Atlas!”

The towering robot chirped happily in response, sparing its mistress a glance before returning to vigilantly watching over all the others once more.

Sombra huffed irritably before stalking off once more, probably to think and plot. Cadance did her best to ignore him as much as was safe to do so, instead carefully examining Sunset and the way she looked up at the thing. Surprisingly enough, under the exaggeration Sunset did seem to harbour a measure of genuine affection for the machine. Matters of the heart were her area of expertise and Sunset had never been the best at keeping her stronger feelings hidden. Not for long or not without some sort of plan in motion that required she wear one mask or another.

“So! Are we going to get on with this or not?” Sunset asked, with an air of casualness unbefitting of the situation. “I mean, it’s not like the fate of Equestria and beyond is on the line here. Oh, wait.”

“Are you even capable of taking anything seriously?” Shining griped at her, with a shake of his head and a tiered sigh. “Never mind. Can you wake the others safely?”

Sunset shot a glare at him but visibly fought down her irritation. “Yes. Or at least as safely as I did it for you. They’ll be groggy and disoriented when they wake up, but otherwise alright,” she answered straightforwardly, before offering further advice. “I was planning to wake up the other guards first, if they’ve had even half decent training they should be able to keep calm and make themselves useful the quickest. With them helping the civies I can pick up the pace while you lot provide some familiar faces to help them stay calm and get oriented.”

Shining bristled a little at being told what to do by her, but couldn’t offer any counter to what was honestly a logical and straight forward plan. Seeing this, Cadance quickly butted in to prevent any more hasty harsh words or bruised egos.

“It certainly seems like a sound idea, though I wonder how easy it would be for you to teach us to free them ourselves. Might be able to get to everyone quicker. What do you think Shiny?” she asked him, knowing the likely answer but wanting to reinforce the fact he was actually involved in the decision making.

Shining snorted unhappily as he relented once more, head hanging a little as he spoke. “No, she’s right,” he admitted. “It would take too long for no real gain. Better to stagger the wake up process and only deal with only a few disoriented ponies at a time. That said, I really would like to know exactly what you’ve learnt about our… equally trusted friend over there,” Shining finished more quietly, gesturing discreetly towards Sombra with one hoof.

Sunset looked back at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding in full agreement. “I would be more than happy to, given the sucker punches he threw at me during our first round. That said, I'm not sure we have time right now. Until we do however; Atlas!” she abruptly barked out, switching to an unknown alien tongue and startling Cadance a little in the process. “Guardian protocols, if Spoopy Creep so much as twitches aggressively towards the ponies gathering in the circle don’t hesitate to lay down the hurt.”

“What?” Cadance blurted out as the machine, Atlas shifted and chirped in affirmation.

“Just telling Atlas to keep Sombra off your ponies. Language barrier is something else we’re all going to have to overcome. Ugh, not to mention all the cultural crap. Now come on,” Sunset explained, complained and prompted them, already trotting off to the nearest crystal containing a pair of guard ponies.

With a stern stare at the back of the mare’s head Cadance reluctantly followed Sunset’s lead into the darker recesses of the crystalline cavern. She could only hope this plan would turn out to be one of Sunset’s better ones, it was after all very rare any idea dreamt up by the amber unicorn ended unspectacularly.

Only ever in sensational success, or calamitous and often explosive failure.

Author's Notes:

Oh boy... this has been a long time coming. If you couldn't tell I had a lot of fun writing Sunset's part in this. Maybe too much as it ended up getting so long I had to chop the chapter in two. I did want to do one last editing run through as there was a chunk added relatively last minuet but... it's been far too long a time coming at this point. I want to finally put another piece of this story out there.
And don't worry! Part two is incoming soonTM!

...no! Really! It's all there! It's all written! Just likely needs a little more editing. Giving it a week at most.

Anyway, thanks for reading and please leave a comment. Really, we authors thrive on the attention.

Chapter 4 - Stepping Through Light Years - Part 2/2

Fortunately the next few hours went as smoothly as could be hoped for. The remaining guards were roused promptly, adding to their horsepower. However waking and herding the more civilian ponies proved a slightly greater challenge, some breaking out in panic attacks, still stuck hopelessly sobbing or shocked into near catatonic stupor. Cadance didn’t miss the looks Sunset spared them, the mare oscillating between contemptuous disgust and awkwardly sympathetic. Eventually they were left with a few hundred ponies, a mix of guards, maids, cooks, administrators and even non-crystal pony tourists that had been fortunate enough to be in or near the palace.

All the while Sombra skulked around the perimeter of the room, eyeing the activity with nought but cold analysis and the occasional disdainful sniff whenever some pony behaved in a manner particularly pathetic in his mind. Everyone present did their best to steer clear of the prowling former king, only daring to gaze wearily in his direction when they were certain his attention lay elsewhere. Many were still terrified of the dark king, his mere presence agitating old traumas that had hoped to be forgotten with his apparent death.

Meanwhile Sunset’s mechanical companion - Atlas - provided a similar source of trepidation due to its intimidating stature, or at least it did at first. Word that the machine was there protecting them from the tyrant and rumours that it had helped best him in a fight gradually turned those opinions around to ones of admiration and gratitude. Feelings that gradually extended to its mistress, most having seen the fiery maned unicorn trotting around releasing ponies from their macabre crystal prisons.

Soon, came the most difficult part. Informing and organising the ponies present for the tumultuous – if thankfully brief – journey to come.

Cadance, Shining, Sunset and a couple of the more senior guards gathered at the arbitrarily chosen ‘head’ of the circle, while Sombra seemed to be content to lurk in the shadows behind them. The crowd looked up to them with a nervous mix of hope and trepidation, their uncertain expressions begging their bedraggled Princess for good news. With a small gulp, Cadance resigned herself to the fact she was delivering less pleasant news first.

Her scuffed, gold plated shoes clattered and echoed loudly through the now largely empty crystal cavern as she took a couple of hoof stomps to gain the complete attention of the crowd. The noise quickly abated at the unspoken command of their Princess.

“My dear subjects,” Cadance addressed them, stealing her voice with confidence and certainty she did not feel. “It is with grave reluctance I have to inform you our struggles are not yet at an end.”

A cascade of mournful whispers radiated outwards through the room. Cadance put on a stern face and loudly stomped her hoof upon the ground thrice more to regain order, determined not to allow the mood to mature into outright despair.

“However! Circumstances have changed, and thanks to an old friend of mine a new opportunity has emerged,” she explained, gesturing with one hoof to Sunset, who was suddenly busy looking uncharacteristically bemused at being called a friend by the alicorn. “Sunset Shimmer - one of Princess Celestia’s past students – has returned from studying far abroad, offering safe shelter in the most distant… location, she has been exploring. The means of travelling there being a magical portal Princess Celestia entrusted me to protect until Sunset returned.”

At that point Cadance felt herself stumble. In truth she wasn’t sure what to say next, how to pose the need to leave perhaps indefinitely, or the fact they had been given little choice in the matter due to Sombra’s current lack of cooperation. Unfortunately somepony took this as an invitation to interrupt with a question, and not a comfortable one at that.

“B-but why didn’t we just use this portal before then?! Is it not safe or something?” a stallion called out, one of the less senior cooking staff if his greasy clothes were anything to go by. “Can anywhere truly be safe from those monsters?!”

Much to her embarrassment, Cadance silently fumbled over the question for a moment too long. The mirror was after all supposed to be something of a state secret, and not one she was terribly familiar with, let alone what awaited on the far side. In fact, Sunset’s earlier explanations were the most information she had ever received on the mirror.

Fortunately Sunset interceded at that moment to save the Princess from more serious embarrassment.

“No, it’s not dangerous. Not directly at least. It is however a very old and somewhat temperamental artefact with a number of idiosyncrasies to its function. One of those quirks is it is only able to open every thirty moons, a fairly detrimental drawback born of its ancient reliance on the cycles of the moon to power itself. That, is why I have only been able to return to Equestria now rather than any time earlier, for better or worse.”

The straightforward and calmly delivered explanation seemed to put the stallion at ease, or at the very least made him worry about looking like a fool trying to argue with her.

“Thank you, Sunset,” Cadance said warily, grateful but surprised by the unexpected diplomatic save from the fiery mare.

However she mentally swept the matter aside. Not that she didn’t appreciate the gesture, but she was privately busy lambasting herself for slipping up like that. The finer details of their earlier talk should not have already degraded into a disorganised soup of information in her mind. Furthermore she couldn’t let a fumble like that become a regular occurrence and erode their trust in her and by extension their rather delicate morale.

With what Cadance hoped looked like a determined expression she continued, “As a result, our current plan is to take this lifeline, retreat to this foreign world to recuperate and plan how to retake the Empire and Equestria from these other-worldly invaders.”

“W-we’re just leaving? Just like that? But this is our home!” one much younger mare - on the cusp of exceeding her teen years if Cadance had to guess – exclaimed with distress.

“Isn’t there some way we can stay and maybe fight Your Highness? I don’t want to give up yet,” one of the guards spoke up next, echoing the sentiment with a more aggressive edge.

“This is not defeat!” Shining spoke out firmly, trotting forward to take centre stage to speak. “Pony kind is facing a foe unlike any we have before. Magical monsters and powerful entities the likes of Discord and Tyrik are familiar threats, but a numerically and technologically superior foe like this? Never. We need time. Time to research our options, time to study our enemy and time to plan our counter attack. That is what this opportunity gives us! We will overcome this threat like we have all others before and return to the peace and prosperity we once knew. We just have to have a little patience and perseverance.”

Silently, Cadance couldn’t help but ponder how her husband’s impassioned speech mirrored Sunset’s own arguments so closely. She wondered if he realised that they shared a common line of logic or not; hoping it might be a nice point to start building a friendship at, and worried if he might instead resent that commonality.

“The Prince is right!” Flash Sentry spoke out, backing up Shining's words much to their relief given Flash’s previous sour attitude. “We might not know how to defeat these invaders but we overcame every other foe laid before us! Nightmare Moon, Discord and Changelings in recent years, foreign warlords, Windigos and worse in times long past. If we overcame them, we can overcome these invaders and survive! We just need to take what chances we can get to see that day come.”

The gathered guards ponies cheered in agreement with their Prince and his Equestrian attache, more in tune with the more aggressive variety of rousing speech but the civilians weren’t far behind with determined calls rousing each other. Discreetly Cadance stole a glance at Sunset, confirming what she knew she would see. Sunset was glaring at the guard thoughtfully, but did not stand still for long.

“This is one of those chances,” Sunset said, stepping forth to take her own slice of the speech and all the prestige that she could pridefully soak up, just as Cadance expected. “I can’t say it’ll be easy or comfortable, at least not at first, there’s a lot to do and that’s after just as much that you’ll all need to adjust to. I’ve established myself a modest if not-so-little home on the far side of the portal but it will take time to reorganise things for a larger population. On top of that you will need to adapt, not just to a whole new, literally alien society but to a new body as well. But the rewards are well worth it. What we can learn there, and assets we might bring back with us,” Sunset mentioned, gesturing at Atlas, “might very well give us the edge we need to overcome these vile foalnappers and revolutionise life in Equestria and the Empire in the process.”

Cadance reluctantly prompted Sunset to continue, as while this only encouraged Sunset’s opinion that the current crisis revolved around her, she really was the only expert on their temporary new home to be. Flash certainly did not seem too happy about this but held his tongue, reluctantly so given how he continued to wearily glare at Sunset.

There were a lot of uncomfortable murmurs as Sunset continued to explain. Initially she tempted them with the fact that both familiar and exotic new luxuries awaited them with only a little hard work in the short term; an expansive variety of food, theatre you could watch anytime and anywhere, new music, and games both athletic and mental among them. Meanwhile in the longer term the technologically superior weaponry of the Earthlings – some of which was briefly demonstrated by Atlas – truly gave them a fighting chance for reclaiming their homes and neighbours.

Once they were captivated with the idea, she swiftly moved onto the practical information they needed to know. Namely that the mirror portal would disguise them as one of the bipedal natives and moving on to the improbable fact that the new world they were going to was not really a world at all but a void ship on a mission to colonise the stars. Naturally there were questions from the sceptical audience, mostly revolving around how safe this new place would be, whether these other aliens were violent or if machines like Atlas might accidentally step on them.

Unfortunately, as informative as the session promised to be, there was the threat of it dragging on. A fear Cadance’s husband shared as they exchanged knowing looks, followed by a few private words of confirmation and nods of agreement.

“As much as I would like to learn more myself,” Shining began, interrupting between a round of questions, “we can’t have much more time here. We need to get organised and moving if we’re going to succeed.”

“Agreed. I’ll need to be one of the first through. Need to make the place safe,” Sunset spoke up quickly. “A rear guard might also be a good idea too, if any of the invaders unexpectedly turn up.”

“Sending you in alone with all the civilians while all the guards stay behind?” One nearby pony questioned with barely suppressed suspicion, a maid who was close to a now embarrassed looking guard - likely family given the foal between them – who had been initially awake among the six with Cadance. No doubt he had gossiped to the mare about Sunset’s less friendly first impressions. “That doesn’t sound like a terribly safe idea to me.”

“Yeah, and didn’t you just say this place was safe?” another maid close to the first – likely a friend and fellow gossip – asked next, though more fearfully rather than accusingly then the first.

Cadance caught a flash of anger or frustration pass over Sunset’s features, thankfully quickly enough that most would not notice. Surprisingly to Cadance, the normally temperamental unicorn had brought herself under control in but a moment. In fact, the longer Cadance watched the more she realised Sunset was behaving almost like an officer of the guard, as if she had received training on how to deal with such crowds. She couldn’t recall if the mare had ever gone out of her way to learn something like that all those years ago while still living in Canterlot palace, but it seemed unlike her at the time.

“Safe is always a relative term,” Sunset spoke apologetically, before continuing loudly and clearly enough for all to hear. “My home is also my workshop and laboratory. A bit like foal-proofing a kitchen with a baby on the way, I need to tidy away my tools and materials to help prevent any accidents, especially when you might all be unfamiliar with what is and is not safe to handle. I know it’s not the most flattering comparison but it’s the truth as I wasn’t exactly expecting so many visitors, especially ones bringing a number of actual foals with them. Additionally, I am the only one present with experience to help orient newcomers. This is not some attempt to swindle you out of what little safety you have down here, I am very much trying to help you.”

The seemingly earnest plea for cooperation placated the vast majority present. However any with a keen eye would have noticed Flash Sentry still looking on suspiciously, and it seemed a hoof full of guards tentatively trusted his opinion regarding Sunset.

Clearing her throat to bring attention back to herself, Cadance moved to speak once more. Sunset with but a glance and a nod complied with her wishes, stepping back.

“This is not a decision we have made lightly. Yes, we must proceed with haste but we are not proceeding without caution nor care,” Cadance spoke out again, comforting in her display of self-assured confidence. She only wished she felt every bit of that confidence she had put on display. “Shining, would you care to manage our ponies into groups?”

He nodded and stepped up, an intense and serious expression across his muzzle. “Alright, I want families to group up. Guards, into your squads. Everyone else, into groups of no more than six…”

---

It took a while to get everypony ready to move, to the point where it was well into the dimly lit early morning before the first of them re-emerged into the palace. The guards quickly spread out and set about securing a clear path to the mirror portal, ready to keep their civilian charges safe and moving in the right direction. Flash Sentry led the way by wing, scouting out the planned route before beginning to patrol back and forth along it, quietly ensuring everything was continuously in order and checking via what windows were easily reachable that no threats went unspotted from beyond the palace.

The lumbering mechanical form of Atlas followed soon after, crossing the threshold between the jaggedly hewn shaft and the pristine throne room with an ungainly stride from climbing the stairs that were smaller than comfortable for it. It quickly took up position near the largest exit; the open doors to the corridors and balcony beyond. Its eyeball-like ‘head’ swivelling back and forth at a dizzying rate between points of potential interest, searching for threats.

Right behind it was its mistress, leading the Crystal Princess, Prince Consort and their personal guards. Their own eyes nervously shiftied about as Sunset led them with a more confident stride to her hoof steps. Almost forgotten was Sombra, left trailing behind. His eyes were equally alive and searching though he was far more cold and arrogant in his overall demeanour, as if anything that might surprise him would be quickly crushed. Accounting for his range of allies however, he might not have been wrong to assume such.

They were so nervous and on guard, that it almost came as a surprise when they all arrived at the mirror portal without incident.

Cadance stood there in the doorway, allowing Sunset and her Husband to wander ahead. The mess that had been left by whoever had ransacked the castle drew her attention most. The empty bookcase and broken lectern stood a sore reminder of all her giddy hopes back when she was planning for reuniting with Sunset, and how remorselessly they had been crushed under the weight of the current crisis.

“So, what now?” Shining asked, eyeing the mirror sceptically before switching his gaze to Sunset. “You are the expert here, so how do we do this safely?”

“At most two at a time through the portal, with at least a few minutes between transits. Don’t run or jump and try to keep your eyes shut and hold your breath when you step through,” Sunset replied quickly and curtly, sweeping her eyes over the guards present to check they were all paying attention. “The whole thing is harmless but pretty damn disorienting. We’ll need the time to get people on their feet and out of the way of the next to come through. Unless we want to embarrass ourselves by getting hurt in a pile up on the far side that is. On that note, might want to give me and Mi-Moe a little extra time so we can actually get ready to help whoever comes next.”

“Wait a minute!” Shining called out, hoof held out in a halting motion. “Since when were we sending Cadance through first? It’s my job to take those risks and make sure everything is safe.”

“No, and for good reason,” Sunset replied back curtly, looking him dead in the eye to convey her seriousness. “No offence but you don’t trust me. If I tell you to do something, even if it’s for your own good, you’re going to be second guessing me. Cadance won’t have that problem. She at least trusts me far enough to know I’m not going to do something asinine like boiling her brains by sticking her head in a working microwave. We also need you here to watch Sombra and make sure he waits his turn.”

Shining grunted under his breath as he considered her point, even if he didn’t understand the details. “Fine, I can’t really argue with-”

“Oh? And exactly how long do you plan on making me wait, little sorceress?” Sombra butted in pointedly glaring at Sunset, as if promising a violent and sticky end should she slight him once more.

“Last,” Sunset said firmly, head whipping around to stare down the stallion. “Second to last if you want to include Atlas. No negotiation. I’m not letting you through, only for you to pull off some bull shit and leave your rivals here cut off and alone for the invaders to deal with for you.”

“You dare dictate to me-!” he immediately burst out before being cut off just as sharply.

“We, Sombra! We dare to dictate to you,” Shining Armour announced back, interrupting Sombra in turn with his own steely gaze. “Frankly I share her concerns, even if I weren’t predisposed to getting all of our civilians through first.”

“And how exactly am I to know you plan on no similar betrayal against myself?” he seethed, returning their glare with a malicious venom, one that seemed to leak from his eyes in a purple haze.

Shining scoffed back at him. “Because you very well know we would never behave so dishonourably. We have an agreement and we will stick to it, no matter how inconvenient you make yourself in the meantime.”

“So quiet down and drop this argument before we get bogged down in it and you only end up waiting longer,” Sunset said with firm finality.

To punctuate her point Atlas took that moment to loudly stomp closer with a far more grating, electronic bleating noise. Arms tensed to move into action he made for an even more intimidating figure, towering over the dark stallion who was already overtly tall for a pony.

Cadance meanwhile could not help but indulge in a weary smile. Besides how amusing it was watching them verbally tag-team Sombra, it seemed the two of them – Shining and Sunset – were beginning to trust one another just enough to work well together, whether they realised it or not. It was a small something to warm her heart in the midst of these cold and abandoned halls.

Sombra was clearly reaching the end of his patience, snarling and putting his fangs on full display. However it seemed his sense of discretion prevailed as he simply turned about with one final growl, stalking off back into the Crystal palace.

They all followed him with weary eyes until he was well and truly out of sight. A tense moment later Atlas made a set of more familiar, far less aggressive tones and seemed to relax. This seemed to draw Sunset’s attention who looked up to the mechanical hulk with a smirk.

“Heh, couldn’t have said it better myself Atlas,” Sunset replied to the uninterpretable noises.

Before either of them could enquire as to what had been said, Sunset sharply turned to Shining with a serious look.

“I’m giving you the authority to command Atlas,” she said sternly. “Its Equestrian isn’t great so keep it simple, but if you tell it to wait somewhere, patrol between a few points or attack something you point it at, it will.”

Shining was more than a little taken aback by the sudden offer. “Your robot soldier thing? You’re just giving it to me?”

“No,” she said with a snort, shaking her head. “I’m letting you give Atlas orders. They won’t supersede my own of course and I expect you to try and bring it back in one piece if things get dicey but Atlas will be there if you need the extra firepower, especially against Sombra. That said… as much as I value Atlas, pony lives - including yours - do come first. It’ll toss you through the portal and hold whatever off if needs be,” she explained further, casting a glance and a wink in Cadance’s direction.

“Right…” Shining gave the robot an uneasy look as he accepted her words. “So it’ll do what I tell it to?”

Sunset shrugged. “Sort of. Look, if it helps, think of it as a well-trained dog. Atlas is about as smart as that anyway. Keep it simple, and it’ll do it,” she explained dismissively, clearly trying to end the conversation and move on. Something she achieved by switching her attention to Cadance. “Come on Mi-Moe, let’s get this over with. The sooner we’re gone the better. Getting kind of tired of saying that too.”

Shining sighed and scraped his hoof against the floor irritably. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to talk you into sending someone else in your stead? I wouldn’t dare volunteer anypony but… I don’t know a guard who wouldn’t step up in a moment, myself included,” he asked his wife, clearly knowing the answer already but reluctant to accept it all the same.

Cadance felt the loving concern role off of him and shared a reassuring smile as she trotted up closer to the stallion she loved so dearly, for exactly this sort of reason. She cupped his cheek with one hoof, prompting Shining to look her in the eyes as she spoke. “It will be okay, Shiny. I promise Sunset will take care of me. She’s a difficult pony to get along with, but not a bad one deep down. You worry about taking care of our ponies and I’ll see you again soon.”

With that, Cadance leaned in to kiss him, deeply and warmly communicating her love and confidence in him as best she could with the intimate gesture. It didn’t last nearly long enough, but alas - Cadance lamented - such moments where true love was meaningfully put forward never did.

He sighed more gently and put on a forlorn smile. “Alright. I’ll hold down the fort. It’s what I’m good at. Just… stay safe. I love you,” Shining murmured warmly to his wife.

“You stay safe yourself,” she said with a friendly smirk, “and I love you too.”

Cadance continued to stare as he disappeared out of the room and around the corner with Atlas stomping along in tow before she turned back to see Sunset waiting with a pensive stare.

“Sunset? Is something the matter?” Cadance asked uneasily with one raised eyebrow when the mare did not react. Some sort of crass joke over their display of affection would not have been out of character for the amber mare right about now.

“Uh, nothing,” Sunset replied, instead dismissing the query with a shake of the head. “You know, I wasn’t lying. He’s a nice catch. And don’t worry, Atlas will watch his back.”

Blinking heavily in surprise, Cadance felt herself rear back a bit. The reassuring words were rather strange coming from Sunset’s mouth, but after a moment Cadance accepted them with a weak smile nonetheless. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Sunset reared back herself and sharply turned away to hide her light blush. “Yeah well… you’re annoying when you get sulky and cry. And there would be a lot of that if he died fighting off an army of alien goons in some heroic last stand. Something as cheesy-tragic as it would be awesome and full of explosions,” she said quickly, in a desperate attempt to further herself from any kind of sentiment.

It was enough to get Cadance to giggle at her immature bluster.

“Anyway!” Sunset shouted to drown out Cadance’s laughter. “Portal time.”

Promptly the amber unicorn trotted the short distance up to the mirror and Cadance followed promptly, only to halt there. She found herself wearily examining the strange artefact once more, its comfortably alicron proportions and horse shoe shaped frame, studded with gems that seemed to pulse with magic, its wide circular base and unnaturally perfect sheen. She had imagined greeting Sunset by it so many times, running through all the different ways their meeting might hopefully, or probably would, pan out. Never had she actually thought about using the mysterious artefact herself, not since Celestia’s vague warnings over how dangerous its use was.

Looking back at Cadance questioningly, Sunset made a curious comment. “Almost thought you were going to ask for one last look around before we left. If things go as planned… well you’re not going to see this place again for a while.”

Cadance glanced back past the doors again briefly but quickly turned her eyes back to Sunset and shook her head. “No. I would rather have fewer memories of my home like this,” she said, head dipping with the bitter admission.

Sunset looked up thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I can get that. Now come on,” she said, tilting her head towards the mirror. “Might be leaving this mess behind, but there’s whole new worlds to see.”

Uneasily Cadance strode forward and lined up beside Sunset. “Uh, so how do we…?”

The unicorn nodded understandingly as she began to recap her instructions once more, “Just walk. Keep it slow and steady and hold your breath when you enter. The… currents - for lack of a better word – in the portal’s space between here and there can affect movement pretty randomly. Run and it might spit you out like a cannonball. Or spinning like a boomerang. Or just do nothing at all but you don’t really want to gamble on that.”

“O-okay,” Cadance murmured with an uncertain nod, glancing between Sunset and the reflective surface of the portal.

Sunset smirked as she nodded back at her. “Good. Then just follow me… and allons-y!” she cried out before gently skipping right on through the portal, seemingly in defiance of her own advice.

The mirror flashed causing her to wince and flinch away as Sunset passed through, the dazzlingly bright colours from the mirror unpleasant to the unexpecting eye.

With a gentle frown and one final deep reassuring breath Cadance steadied herself and took the plunge, stepping forward through the still rippling portal, eyes clenched shut as she pushed past its strangely liquid like surface.

Immediately her senses were assaulted with a violence that made the earlier display seem so very tame. Painfully bright swirling colours, some she had trouble putting a name to that flashed and ebbed away filled her vision. Meanwhile a cacophony of assorted sounds that crashed and cascaded like white water rapids penetrated her ears. To add to the confusion she felt herself tumbling endlessly in a way that made her native pegusi instincts protest in horror; falling, swirling and spiralling in contradictory directions according to her eyes and inner ear. Compounding her panic was the budding burning sensation in her lungs as she tried to breath, feeling the sensation of her lungs filling but gaining nothing from it in some paradox of asphyxiation. Beyond all of that was the marginally more familiar stretch and contorting of transformative magics playing itself across her body.

And then, just as it was starting to feel like it would never end, Cadance suddenly found herself able to breathe once more. It was a liberty she took a great deal of comfort from indulging in, gasping in deeply even as she fell from the portal and awkwardly landed in the blissfully dark room.

It took a few moments for her head to stop spinning and notice the next thing that demanded Cadance’s attention, namely her body. Knowing what would happen in advance made the sensation no less strange, but now she was left awkwardly propped up on four limbs, two of which were far too long to stand straight as her front two did. Not to mention her head now naturally rested facing down towards a cold, hard floor of smooth concrete.

The final thing to become apparent was the string of curse words from a distinctly Sunset sounding source not far in front of her.

Craning her head up – with what felt like a frustratingly short neck - Cadance saw a sight jarring enough to leave her speechless, and cause her legs to collapse beneath her into an awkward kneeling position. The pose did however provide her with a clear view of Sunset, sprawled out on the floor, still wrapped up in her winter wear on top of more clothing that seemed to have materialised with her new body from transiting the portal.

“Blyat! Stupid fucking portal! If you weren’t a few thousand years dead smeg-for-brains-Starswirl, I would turn you into a tartarus damned worm and feed you to Philomena!” she swore with a snarl while throwing a hoof boot off her clearly un-leg-like forelimb.

As Sunset wrestled and wriggled in her tangled mess of mismatched clothing - including a pair of ripping hoof boots stretching over a pair of differently shaped boots - Cadance couldn’t help but break out into giggles. The sight of the previously suave and confident mare swearing up a storm in multiple languages while looking like a filly that had got tangled up playing dress up in her mother’s clothes, was an innately amusing - if rather crass - display.

Almost immediately Sunset’s head whipped around to stare venomous daggers at Cadance, as a blush began to bloom across the honey skin tone of her now oddly flat face. An oddly flat face that Cadance quickly realised they now shared as she instinctively brought up her fore limb to stifle her still growing giggles. Indeed, Sunset’s embarrassment only spurred on her laughter much to the fiery maned girl’s fury.

“You can either learn to walk in the next five seconds and help me, or shut your pretty little trap, you feather brained home wrecking whore!” Sunset shouted out in furry, snarling as fiercely as any beast.

Immediately Cadance’s laughter choked up and died down, the vile vitriol robbing the situation of any humour as she felt her own face scrunch up in disgust at the foul language. It was a poignant reminder that sunset did not respond well to any kind of humiliation.

With a commiserating sigh, Cadance distracted herself with something more immediately pressing to herself. Namely her new form and especially the odd claw like appendage she had just been pressing to her face. Turning it this way and that with wide eyed fascination Cadance quickly began to experiment with moving the new groups of muscles in a series of erratic twitches that reminded her far too much of a flailing spider. It very quickly became apparent that it would take some time to master the perturbingly complex thing, but thankfully basic grasping motions seemed simple enough.

She was quickly distracted by the faux coughing of Sunset trying to get her attention, who was now casting a somewhat foreboding shadow as she loomed over Cadance. Uneasily, Cadance looked up to see a now much taller and imposing Sunset Shimmer, rid of her surplus clothing, glared down at her with a disgruntled look.

The imposing new bipedal form was more than a little intimidating from her position kneeling on the floor, and Sunset’s silent expression left the atmosphere tense enough that Cadance flinched when a forelimb abruptly extended towards her. It took Cadance a moment to figure out the outstretched limb was an offer of help. Taking a small steadying breath, Cadance clumsily extended her own foreleg to take it, placing her new claw against Sunset’s own which clenched around hers as Sunset began to pull her up.

With unexpected ease Cadance felt herself come to a shaky two legged stand. If she was entirely honest the tall pose gave the foreboding feeling she might become overcome with vertigo at any moment. Fortunately that didn’t seem to come, though a primal part of her did decide her new forelimbs might be better thought of as wings, stretching them out to her sides for balance.

With a tired sigh Sunset brought Cadance’s attention back to her just as she released Cadance’s hand and turned away a little, seemingly embarrassed.

“Look… I’m sorry for snapping at you,” she said, easing out the apology with a sour expression. “But I think you know how I get about people laughing at my expense.”

Cadance accepted the apology with a slightly stiff nod, even if she could not help a discreet roll of her eyes at the hypocrisy of Sunset’s attitude.

“I suppose I do. And for what it’s worth I’m sorry too. Still feeling… rather disoriented,” she uneasily apologised with partial sincerity, distracted as she compulsively kept glancing down at the now much more distant ground.

That also brought to her attention the elegant if simple white dress she was wearing, along with gilded white boots, bracers and belt. She also felt a chunkey segmented necklace resting around her neck but that was almost impossible to see with the limited length of her now short and inflexible neck.

With a discrete glance towards Sunset, she quickly realised that even with her shaky posture she was still a good half a head taller than her, something she had to suppress a small smirk at. Sunset had always liked to hold her head high, and pointing out Cadance was seemingly forever just a little taller than the mare was yet another means to light the fuse on her explosive temper.

Abruptly Cadance shook her head to dismiss those less then relevant thoughts and bring her attention back to the here and now. The rather expansive room she found herself in was dimly lit but thankfully not entirely dark. She could make out a few familiar shapes in what furniture was present, including a set of stairs running up along the far wall. But there were many more objects scattered around the area she could not recognise, especially with the lack of light.

Fortunately she didn’t have to wait long for that issue to be resolved as Sunset parted from her and marched off to a box on a far wall. Flipping a number of switches causing long light fixtures hanging from the rafters high above to gradually fade to life. It was surprisingly warm and comfortable compared to the jarring flickering Cadance had experienced from the rarely used electric lights of a similar scale back in Equestria.

The room revealed was both simple and alien at the same time. Walls composed of flat, featureless, light grey cladding between metal support beams painted a dark blue, occasionally interspersed with well organised wires and pipes of red, black and yellow fixed to those walls. The staircase meanwhile seemed to lead up to an overhanging second floor that looked down on most of the area with large windows. It was starkly strange in how utilitarian it was, and yet somehow Sunset had made her home in this distinctly un-pony-like place.

True, most of the area was scattered with strange contraptions with many blinking lights, work benches, odd tools and a few tarpaulin covered shapes but there was also a space set up like a crude drawing room. The floor there was covered with a collection of mismatched rugs and composed of three large, blanket-covered sofas in a semi-circle around a low table and a strange black, squat mirror.

Even as she examined the space with wide, cautious eyes Sunset rushed about, muttering and grumbling to herself as she tidied away things and adjusted the controls on machines. Cadance couldn’t help but notice how deftly she manipulated things with those strange grasping claw like appendages they now shared, or just how practised she was at moving on two legs. It truly brought home that Sunset had been living here for a good twenty years. Twenty years away from Equestria and whatever Sunset might have called home there. It left Cadance wanting to give the mare a tight warm hug, though she doubted the gesture would be appreciated.

With a sigh Cadance shook off her musings. It seemed she had temporarily been forgotten by Sunset, so with a few shaky steps she took her new situation into her own hooves as she did her best to mimic Sunset’s walking motion. It was a passable enough attempt as it at least got her to a nearby work bench where she could use her new fore-limbs to steady herself.

Any further attempt to teach herself was forestalled by a cry of panic and the distinct sound of metal clattering to the hard floor. Cadance turned her attention back to the plinth just in time to see a another newly transformed pony – a maid going be the dress that had morphed with the pony to fit their new form – screeching as she fell out of the portal and atop the poor transformed gardspony that was still gathering his faculties.

“Damn it! I should have asked for more time,” Sunset called out irritably as she turned away from her work and strode back towards them all. “Cadenza, I’ll need your help here.”

Cadance couldn’t help but bulk at the curt demand. “Sunset, I can barely stand myself right now!”

“That’s better than these two can handle! We don’t want anyone getting hurt in a crush, that would just be embarrassing,” Sunset yelled back at her as she gently took hold of the maid’s arms and cajoled her up onto two legs.

Cadance did her best to stumble over to and provide support for the fellow former mare, no easy task as she was still trying to find her balance herself. Unfortunately the end result was monarch and servant alike left awkwardly leaning against each other and mutually avoiding eye contact, quietly too afraid to move in case they should both fall over. Still, at least the closer look allowed Cadance to recognise the maid as her head maid, Jade Standard, something that perhaps should have been more obvious given her distinctive green and black striped mane. The strikingly dark, ebony brown skin tone threw her off given her previous coat of more faded lavender fur.

Sunset catching sight of this as she more roughly helped the guard to his feet and out of the way of the portal, could not help but sigh in exasperation. Still, a somewhat sympathetic look lingered behind her frustration and as she left the guard there leaning on his spear for support. Her next words were delivered with more patience.

“Okay, I know this is going to sound strange but the best thing you can do to maintain your balance is focus on your hips,” she instructed - with the smooth professionalism she had previously used when addressing the crowd - as she offered a hand to both women. “Unintuitively, because you’re so much taller now your centre of balance is actually lower in your body. Namely around your tummy area rather than up over your hunches. Stand up straight, avoid looking down too much, concentrate on balancing through that and the rest should follow much easier.”

Uneasily Cadance accepted Sunset’s hand in getting out of the awkward lean-to she had found herself in with Jade Standard and did her best to follow the advice. Her legs were still somewhat shaky but she could at least hold herself upright in one place without feeling like she was narrowly avoiding falling over.

The fact Sunset moved so fluidly on two legs helped reassure her it was possible. Furthermore it appeared rather graceful as a form of motion, certainly a lot more so than the more lumbering motion Minotaurs made with bipedalism.

Shaking off the distraction Cadance offered a sheepish smile to Jade before doing her best to support her journey to the same nearby table she had lent on earlier. Cadance left her there just in time for the next pair to come tumbling out of the portal.

Steadily a sort of routine was established. Those who had been there longer – especially guards who often came with a spear ready to lean on – helped newcomers up and passed advice around. Meanwhile Cadance grabbed another transformed pony – Glistening Page, an aid – she tasked with keeping a head count on everyone. Sunset herself had soon absconded from that duty to continue to make her workshop safe for them, or rather, make sure it was safe from them, given Cadance caught a murmur from her about not leaving her stuff out for idiots to break.

Immense relief filled Cadance when a pair of the maids that typically acted as nanny for Flurry Heart came through with her crib. Unfortunately the arrival was naturally accompanied by a lot of crying from the confused infant who had just had to endure the horrible sensations of the transit without any understanding as to why.

“Hay now, hush now, you’re safe sweety. It’s all over now. You’re safe,” Cadance cooed at Flurry as she drew closer and reached out an arm to gently comfort the child flailing in her blankets.

Cadance flinched back when her baby only screamed louder at her close approach. The fear clear in her eyes especially stung Cadance to see directed at herself. In front of her she could not help but notice once more her now recoiled hand and it hit her just how frightening she must have looked to her own child in such a strange form.

With a reluctant sigh she turned to some of the other former ponies standing nearby. “I need someone to help get Flurry out of the way and someone else needs to help these two get up as well please.”

That help was quickly rendered by Jade Standard and they lifted the crib clear into a less occupied corner of the room, where Cadance made to once again confront her still wailing child.

“Stay back a moment, I have an idea,” Cadance said, doing her best to stay quiet but that was not exactly easy given how healthy a pair of lungs Flurry had.

Cautiously Cadance dropped down to her knees, edged around the crib so she was out of sight of Flurry, and with a deep breath in, she began to softly sing.

“My little child, be not afraid. The Rain pounds harsh against the window, like an unwanted stranger… but there is no danger, for I am here tonight.”

As the mellodey began to waft through the air Flurry steadily caught on to the familiar tune and the voice behind it. Cadance couldn’t help but smile as her child began to calm, though Flurry was still making nervous babbling noises.

“My Sweet little child, be not afraid. The storm clouds mask your beloved moon. But its candlelight beam, still keep pleasant dreams, and I am here tonight…”

Cautiously, Cadance made to peek around at Flurry, locking eyes with her still distraught baby girl. The sense recognition at the bob of three tone hair and purple eyes further reassured her that mother was close.

“And some day you’ll know, that nature is so, and the same rain that draws you near me, falls on river and land, on forests and sands, makes the beautiful world that you see, in the morning.”

Playfully, Cadance used a hand to flick a lock of hair towards Flurry who quickly reached out a limb to bat at it, only to murmur in surprise at the sight of her own new limbs. Briefly she shook it around, as if trying to throw the strange little pink worms off. Seeing her confusion Cadance rose up a little to show Flurry her own strange transformation, uneasily raising a hand and wiggling her own hand in mid air. She sighed a little in relief as instead of bursting out into more crying Flurry stretched her own arm out in front of her and mimicked the wiggling movements before turning her attention back to Cadance and reaching out in her direction with a burbling cry of desire.

Carefully, and with a reassuring smile fixed in place, Cadance reached out her hand towards Flurry who ended up grabbing one of Cadance’s fingers in her hand. The burble of surprise and laughter as she tugged it closer prompted a giggle from Cadance at her daughter's newfound curiosity.

Glancing back at the other ponies present and the many dour faces, Cadance couldn’t help but feel a bout of envy at her daughter’s innocent naivety.

With a sigh and a sad smile she lent down to gently stroke her daughter’s hair and - a little awkwardly - plant a kiss on her daughter’s head. That resulted in another bout of giggles as Flurry made to grab onto Cadance’s strange little nose next.

Soon though, she had to pull away, much to her daughter’s protests. “Can you take care of her for now Jade?” she asked the still waiting maid who had been struggling to keep her own laughter at the adorable display of affection contained.

“Of course Princess,” she replied with a sympathetic smile.

Reluctantly Cadance turned and made her way back into the crowd, intent on returning to helping her subjects.

After a while the warehouse was beginning to feel rather well filled by the time the last two members of their party arrived. The lounge area was being used to contain all the children while Sunset was left to run around glowering at or chewing out anyone who looked like they were about to touch something or open some cabinet they were getting curious over. Her barely contained neurotic frustration was something Cadance could not help but inwardly chuckle at, in spite of the potentially real danger.

However both Sunset’s rushing and Cadance’s amusement were quickly dispelled by a new surprise.

Out from the portal came a pair of more masculine screams and one blurry black blob that was flung across the room at significant speed. The resulting crash caused a cascade of yet more cries of both surprise and pain as many former ponies on shaky legs were bowled over by the speeding ball of chitin.

Immediately the two rushed in to help get people up and out of the way, heaving people off of one another less anyone be left asphyxiating under the weight of numerous others. What they were left with once the pile cleared up left everyone in shocked silence.

“Ooooow… anyone catch the plate on that cart?” Thorax mumbled out in pain. “Wait, I wasn’t pulling the cart was I? Oh no, not again…”

Blinking away her surprise, Cadance knelt down to gently lift and place a few comforting pats on Thorax’s still very much Changeling body. Even though the form was familiar Cadance could not help but let her eyes wander over him, examining him for anything out of place. Everything was exactly as she remembered it, from pointed horn to all four holey hooves.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Sunset commented, similarly eyeing the changeling up and down with shameless curiocity once more. “And interesting always leads to the best discoveries,” she declared with an all too eager grin.

“Oh wow… right, the mirror,” Thorax murmured as he steadily came back to his senses and started sweeping over the crowd with his luminous blue compound eyes. “Huh, she wasn’t joking when she said humans were weird. Uh, but not bad weird! You all look fine! Really!” he commented, speaking all the more frantically as he tried to reassure them all from some imagined slight.

It was only then that Thorax realised what had happened, catching sight of his own forelegs as he flailed them in a calming movement. Looking between his hooves and the staring crowd of humans, blinking a few times in surprise, he calmly and rationally let out a long, shrill scream.

To make the matter worse, Flurry Heart began to make her displeasure at the loud noise known with a few sharp cries that were working their way up to something worse.

“Fuck!” Sunset cried out the foreign curse in irritation before she dove forward and clapped her hands around his muzzle. Notably she showed no fear of his protruding fangs. “What the tartarus is wrong with you?!”

The only answer she got was a few stifled mumbles and a gulp.

“Are you going to scream your little buggy head off again? Or am I going to have to muzzle you?” Sunset asked her captive, aggressively getting in his face with her own to stare him down more closely.

The now cowed changeling could only wiggle his head from side to side a little in Sunset’s grip.

With a grunt she released him, backing off but keeping her displeased and expectant glare locked on him.

“Not a bug…” he mumbled as he straightened himself up. “You, uh, I… caught myself by surprise?” he explained uncertainty, sheepishly smiling back at her.

“You got freaked out… by the fact you didn’t change?” Sunset asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose, face further twisting up into a scowl. “This had better be some sort of weird instinctual reaction because there’s no way I’m putting up with someone that stupid around this much delicate machinery.”

“Uhhhh…. Maybe? That would make sense since, you know, changeling, surrounded by strangers… exposed…” Thorax tried to reason, trailing off as Sunset’s continuously scrutinising glare derailed his thoughts with anxiety.

“Whatever!” Sunset declared loudly after a moment of silence, throwing her arms up in the air in exasperation. “I don’t get paid enough to put up with this.”

Cadance could only sigh and roll her eyes and held back a snarky comment about no one getting paid for this as Sunset stormed off to continue fiddling with her equipment. Meanwhile she busied herself with reassuring Thorax, finding him a place to regain his senses on one of the couches and then getting back to her other subjects and their needs.

However, before she could get much further than that, the sight of her beloved finally emerging safely through the portal put all other concerns on hold and sent her rushing back towards the strange statue’s plinth.

“Shiny,” Cadance greeted him with a sigh of relief as she hastily stumbled closer.

He merely groaned and shook his head with a groggy expression, as he stood there. On all fours. His confused looking around prompted a giggle from her just as he caught sight of her feet and began to crane his head upwards to look at her. Cadance promptly offered him a hand up.

Shakily, he too - with her help – pulled himself uneasily onto two legs.

“This… this is going to take some getting used to,” he said wearily as he looked down at his own trembling knees. “Feel like I should be getting vertigo or something.”

“Believe me, I know,” Cadance affirmed with a mirthless chuckle. “Just… try to imagine there’s a string pulling you up like a puppet, keeping you straight. Then move with your hips, that’s where your centre of balance should be.”

Meanwhile, Sombra who had been left to help himself out of the collective fear and resentment of the present company only had Sunset to grudgingly help him up. This happened to suit him just fine, given the girl’s terse and direct instruction, compared to the needlessly emotional prattling and hand holding the others exchanged.

It was not more than a moment after they had gotten up and moved away from the statue that a familiar mechanical whirring and stomping resounded through the room. Atlas, having been deposited into the room via the portal itself, rapidly looked about as it identified all the faces present before giving a friendly chirp and a wave in the direction of the largest congregation of people staring on. A few of the less skittish young even dared to wave back to which the robot chirped happily at, levelling two thumbs up at them.

It was a little strange to Cadance but the mechanical figure while still taller, broader and likewise imposing seemed a lot less intimidating now it more closely matched their height.

“So,” Shining spoke up uneasily, as he examined the room with analytical eyes. “This is where we’re going to be spending at least the next few years?”

Those words set the wheels in Princess Cadance’s head turning. No matter the circumstances, these were her people and she was their ruler. She had a responsibility to guide and protect them to the best of her abilities and at the moment… it seemed she had led them into somewhat bleak living conditions. Not that Sunset’s home wasn’t exactly homely even given its improvised nature, but it had only been one person here before. It was extremely tight quarters for so many.

“Bunkbeds will be a must in the long run,” Cadance murmured. “Ones larger than we’re used to as well,” she added, looking down at her much longer form.

“You’re… you’re saying this is all we’ll have between us!? Uh, you’re majesties?” A nearby maid, one of the younger ones spluttered in disbelief before hastily adding the honorific.

Cadance couldn’t help but wince at her blunder of so publicly highlighting their new living conditions. Worry was visibly overtaking her and several nearby people too who had overheard.

Shining meanwhile glanced about, searching for Sunset for confirmation or hopefully reassurance to the contrary. Unfortunately she had now run off to attend to her robot, hooking Atlas up to a large yellow support frame, connecting numerous wires to him while trying to answer a volley of questions fired at her by a couple of the braver children.

“Not quite… Sunset Shimmer mentioned more space we could move into but only another two or three rooms like this,” Cadance admitted.

With a defeated sigh Shining added his own two bits. “I’m afraid we’re all going to have to get used to being considerably more cosy with each other. All theoretical talk of void travel reasoned ships would need to be pretty tight quarters, given they would need to take literally everything ponies would need to survive with them. Much like a regular ship but worse; food, water and even the very air, not to mention fuel to keep everyone warm. Honestly I’m surprised we have as much space as we do. To have this much unused real estate on a spaceship implies it has to be pretty damn huge,” he explained, eyes darting around as he began to appraise the space with greater regard. “In fact… I’m starting to really want to know how they do it all. Recycling all the water they would need and not to mention the air as well! The first is an easy enough task with a little Earth Pony magic, enchantments and all sorts of spells but I have no idea how they could probably manage the latter with the hugely impractical task of hauling a whole forest along with them. Air freshening spells can only take you so far… and they don’t even use magic for any of this?”

Despite their situation Cadace could not help but chuckle ever so slightly as her husband began to geek out over his enduring love of science fiction speculation. “Dork,” she said to him teasingly.

“Ah, you know you love it,” he countered dismissively. “I make it at least half as adorkable as Twily.”

Unfortunately their brief moment of humour meant little to the crowd of former ponies and their growing murmurs of discontent. With a sigh Cadance made to speak up and deliver an impromptu speech about solidarity and how this was a temporary state of affairs while they adapted. However Sunset quickly blew those plans out of the water as she strode by loudly making light of their situation.

“Oh me, oh my! Woe is Us! Whatever will we do crammed into so few square qubits per person?!” she moaned out, dramatically waving her arms and pressing the back of one hand to her forehead sorrowfully as she ploughed through the crowd to the far wall.

She turned on the spot, standing there between a door and a set of long panels that composed a large span of that wall, looking back at the crowd with a lazy smirk. Uneasily, Cadance, Shining and the others better acquainted with Sunset’s antics edged closer through the crowd to get a better look… or easy access to intervene if needed.

“At the very least we have a decent sized closet to leave all our spare things in,” she said teasingly as she reached up to a yellow box fixed to the wall at chest height.

Grabbing and twisting a knob on that box the whole crowd jerked with surprise as a soft clunk rang out and those metal slats began rolling up into the ceiling. The bright, natural light of the outdoors shocked all of them as it started spilling in, leaving many blinking away the spots in their eyes from having been confined to low light conditions of the catacombs and this new warehouse for so long.

When Cadance’s eyesight finally cleared up they were rewarded with the sight of water, a whole lake’s worth of it just beyond a short wharf and down a ramp flanked by concrete piers. As the doorway continued to creep up and up more came to be revealed. Along the far shore of the glittering lake lay a gleaming city.

Distantly it resembled Manehattan or one of the other built up coastal cities. Many a tower rose from its skyline and there was a modest amount of water traffic along the shoreline that itself was smattered with docks to support such. That was where the similarities vanished. Unlike Manehattan naked concrete seemed a rarity, though not entirely absent. Some buildings were towering shards of glass, be it blue, green or black in tint. Others beckoned to older architecture looking like sandstone or marble structures with pillars and reliefs while bright but deeply coloured banners hung down their many stories. Another common architectural style were the starkly white buildings from which an abundance of greenery hung from like a multitude of hanging gardens. The variation didn’t end there with many more examples such as the black, gothic style hall complete with flying buttresses and gargoyles.

It was a magnificent sight that spoke of not just material wealth but rich cultural diversity, not to mention a display of the superior technology present as flying machines visibly zipped overhead, landing, taking off and weaving through the buildings. However it quickly became the second most astounding thing that came into view.

Beyond the lake and the city the horizon did not disappear in a flat line. Instead, to their left and right, fields, forests, rivers, roads and even further more distant settlements curved upwards into the sky above in a massive circle that stretched forwards beyond the city for many miles before terminating at a blue disk, dotted with concentric lights and containing an enormous crystalline flower-like structure at its centre.

Cadance’s mind struggled to make sense of the situation, to the point where edging forward to peer directly up at the ground above her invoked a bizarre sense of vertigo, even as she felt gravity pulling towards the ground. The ground that she spent a moment gazing back down at just to reassure herself it was still there.

Somehow, they were standing inside a ginormous cylinder.

In the background Cadance heard barely stifled laughter break out into full blown bellowing. Turning uneasily to face the source, Cadance predictably found Sunset grinning ear to ear. However her expression strangely seemed devoid of the tinge of cruelty that accompanied her pranks in the past. There was amusement at their expense certainly but… the expression was ultimately joyful in nature.

“Sunset… what? Wh-what’s going on?” Cadance asked uneasily, doing her best to straighten up and regain a posture more appropriate for a Princess.

With a further chuckle, Sunset stroad out the door and turned to face the crowd, smile wide and excited.

“Mares and gentelstalions! Colts and fillies! Whatever that Throw Axe, bug guy is!” Sunset called out, arms raised wide as if announcing to some hidden fanfare. “It is my pleasure to welcome you to the interstellar colony ship, Star Strider!”

Author's Notes:

Sunset: “Role Credits!”

Throw Axe Thorax: “Not a bug! Also my name is Thorax. Don’t you know basic Entomology?”

Sunset: “Of course I do! I know all about words. They’re my favourite thing to listen to myself saying.”

Well, this was a long time coming... probably too long. Again. Life be hectic an all that and mood swings suck.

Anyway! As I hope you can tell I loved writing Sunset bing, well, Sunset. As I imagin her anyway. A little unsure about how I'm going to handle the next few steps in all this but I at least have some rough ideas typed up for chapter 5 already.

Most importantly, I would love to hear what you all think about how things are going so please do leave a comment! They feed my creativity.

Chapter 5 - A World in a Bottle in a Ship - Part 1/4

Sunset could not help but grin in mischievous glee as she looked back at the gathered group of now human shaped ponies… and one changeling.

That was an oddity she would need to investigate later.

Each were stumbling forward, a little shaky on their two long legs, not unlike freshly born fawns. That was kind of amusing by itself, however what Sunset truly relished was their faces; each looked up and around with disbelieving but wondrous stares at a sight they couldn’t quite make sense of.

Sunset herself couldn’t help but lose herself in the view for a few minutes too. How vast empty meadows filled with wild flowers, rolling hills, scenic sparkling rivers and lakes of perfectly blue water, distant mountain like formations all blended together occasionally intersecting with roads, regularly dotted with villages or individual homes and a few scattered patches of farmland. And then it just all curved up. The horizon never visible as the land gently peeled upwards until it was directly overhead and then started to curve back down again towards you from the other side. But what was more, it wasn’t some product of universal laws and nature’s slow work, it was made, crafted by thinking and relatively mortal minds.

Again she looked back to her new companions. Their faces mixed with barely believing fascination, wonder and just a touch of fear - not to mention a little vertigo – as they looked up into the sky and at the ground above them, eyes falling around in circles as they surveyed the lush cylindrical vista before them.

“That look’s never going to get old,” she murmured to herself, empathetically basking in their sense of awe, remembering all too well when she first emerged out of the underworks and service tunnels below, into the light of the habitat.

The break in the silence, however small, seemed to break the spell the sight wove over Cadance’s faculties. Her now muzzle-less head turning slowly to look at the grinning woman, she struggled to articulate her thoughts.

“Sunset… how… what is this?” Cadance stumbled out her question uneasily.

Everyone began looking to Sunset to answer the question Cadance had so helpfully voiced for them, as vague as it is.

Sunset merely shrugged, grin growing cocky and gestured to the view before them. “Told you. This, is the colony ship Star Strider. Flagship of the forty ninth galactic colonisation fleet; Endless Venture. Locally? Cylinder A, section two, generally known as Catalonia District. That little city over there? Great Sticks. Don’t ask me where the name comes from, believe me, I tried pretty damn hard to find out and came up empty anyway,” she explained, as one thumb stuck out pointing out across the glimmering lake at the small city with its shining spires beyond. Dropping her arm she turned back to look around for herself once more, before adding her own thoughts more wistfully. “Quite the view isn’t it? Been living here years and… and I could still just… stand here for hours looking at it.”

“We’re on a ship? Just… how?! And the sky, or the ground, how can it just… wrap around like that?! Without falling… at least the water should be,” Shining sputtered out in turn, mind reeling as it struggled to comprehend the seemingly impossible sight.

“And just how big is this ship? How could anyone possibly build something this big?! And this is only one section you said? Only one ship in a fleet?!” Sunburst – uneasily stumbling up next to Shining and decked out in a more human fitting variant of his usual star spangled robes – asked far more excitedly and looking very interested in the answers to all their questions.

With a continuously excitedly smug grin answered simply, “Approximately thirty seven kilometres long, a bit over five wide and three tall. As for the how of,” she paused to gesture all around her at the scenery that curved up and over them, “that takes a little explaining.”

“C-c-c-can we m-maybe start w-with why the sky, uh, the ground? The…. why isn’t it falling on us?!” a young mare - presumably an accountant of some sort going by her scales and coins cutie-mark embroidered on her rather official looking blazer - stuttered out while staring up with visible agitation and fear behind her eyes.

Sunset could not quite hold back the giggle that worked its way out from her lips. The chastising glance from Cadance certainly helped her cut it off though.

“Don’t worry! The whole place has been like this since long before I got here and I’ve been living on Star Strider a good twenty years. The ground isn’t going to fall down on us or anything,” Sunset loudly and confidently clarified, using her dismissiveness over the issue to help put everything to rest. It didn’t seem to work too well but she continued anyway with a shrug. “Now as to why, gravity doesn’t exist out in space. Sorta. The details get complicated. Point is, normally you need a planet like ours for that, but great big balls of rock and dirt are expensive and super slow to move. So instead you have to get creative and, well, create it. Imagine! You got a bucket full of water on the end of a rope. You swing that bucket around in a circle and it creates a constant force on the water inside so whichever way the bucket swings, it stays inside, pinned to the bottom. Now instead of a bucket, imagine you have a giant cylinder. You spin that cylinder at a nice constant speed and everything sticks to the insides like it was the ground. That’s… well that’s what you’re looking at right now!” she explained with somewhat staged excitement and more than a few wild gestures.

It was all old news to her, but she recalled just how mind bending it was the first time it had been explained to her. Sunset could even imagine she had a similarly half disbelieving look of astonishment back then the same way her audience did.

“This… this is amazing!” Sunburst cried out as his sense of wonder won out over his trepidation and he stumbled forward as if trying to get a closer look at it all. “It’s absolutely immense! And all…. Artificial? These Earthlings created all of this? Even the gravity! Ha ha! Just think about it, using centrifugal force for something so mundane, that we simply take for granted from birth. And on such a scale… though I suppose it would have to be if they didn’t want the tangential force from the rotation to be noticeable. I wonder how long it took to build.”

“Sure did. They don’t think small, and not just because some of them are twenty or so metres long whales. Colonisation is a big task. They’re building a whole civilisation from scratch every handful of decades. This isn’t even the only ship, there’s a small fleet of them travelling alongside the Star Strider. Fortunately for us, that means there’s plenty of cracks for us to fall into and hide. Plenty of scraps left over for us to build ourselves up with.”

“And that’s what you’ve been doing, haven’t you? All these years, learning from these people…” Cadance said as realisation dawned on her, and she looked back over the room with a smidge of amusement. “It’s no wonder you’ve built yourself a laboratory here.”

“And where you’ve been able to build your army in secret,” Sombra added sharply, a small grin breaking out when his words caused no small number of eyes to look between Sunset and him uneasily. “Though I fail to see where exactly that promised force is now.”

Sunset did not like the negative attention, but she had been expecting this. And desperately held back her grin as she feigned confusion at his comment. After all, where was the fun in setting someone up for a fall, if you couldn’t toy with them a little first?

“Army? Whatever army are you talking about? Oh, you don’t mean… surely you aren’t talking about my little bluff?” she admitted as she finally let her lips peel back into a mocking smile.

The growl that overtook Sombra - as stilted as it sounded with human vocal cords - caused the vast majority of the gathered former ponies to edge backwards. He strode towards sunset, fingers curled into claws and teeth barred, using his physical stature to tower over the woman in an attempt to intimidate. Sombra had taken care of his physical body in life unlike some warlocks, so it was reflected in both his magically reconstructed body and his new human form here, leaving him with substantial muscle mass, though not too much. Sunset had to admit he made for an extremely attractive man in the traditional tall dark and handsome sense.

However Sombra’s posture didn’t phase Sunset in the slightest, she confidently soaked up the attention the confrontation gained them. It helped that she felt his outburst was likely artificial, something to help publicly smear her image and authority with.

“You mean to tell me, that you are merely some posturing coward?! That you cannot bring to bear the force you promised?” he questioned pointedly, confirming her suspicions before his tirade even reached its conclusion. “How, perchance, are we to trust you can deliver on any of your promises? Your word is clearly a flimsy facade, you only hold a shallow mirage of the ocean you promised us.”

“I hardly lied. Not to the Princess and not to her ponies anyway,” Sunset said, brushing off his claims, with the flick of the wrist. “Atlas is a nice proof of concept, a prototype we can easily build on once everyone is up to speed.”

“We need an army!” he roared in her face, continuing his power play. “Thousands, hundreds of thousands! Not what pitiful mob we can cobble together in our sparse free time from working to survive this new… place.”

Sunset scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You’re thinking too small, not that I expected you to do otherwise. We don’t build the robot soldiers, we build the robots that build the robot soldiers. A constant tierless workforce creating weapon after weapon until we have the numbers we need.”

“A very pretty picture you paint,” Sombra admitted sarcastically - though the sharp eyed easily caught the look of genuine intrigue that passed over his face for a moment. “However, any plan needs competent execution. Something you have shown no ability to deliver on. And if you cannot deliver your promised victory, I would propose new leadership is required. Leadership that has actual experience fighting a war and managing an army.”

In a move to begin his little planned coup, Sombra raised his right arm in an instinctual gesture of power, focused a nasty grin on Sunset and reached for his magic… only to find nothing at all.

“Wh-what?!” he sputtered out, confusion taking over as his features as he oscillated between fearful confusion and anger. “What did you do to my magic?!”

Sunset’s smirk twisted into a snarl as in less than the blink of an eye she dropped forward into a fighting stance, lunged forward and lashed out with her hand, holding it straight and driving it finger first like a spear right into the man’s solar plexus.

Sombra, taken unawares by a weak spot he did not know he possessed, cried out weakly as the wind was knocked out of him and he doubled over in pain.

The crowd gasped in shock at the sudden and vicious attack, but no real pity was spared for the former king as the initial shock wore off. Many of the guards shared a small, less than friendly laugh at Sombra’s expense and a few of the watching children even cried out in excitement, cheering on Sunset for laying low their collective boogeyman. That attention was enough to distract Sunset for a moment, long enough for her to flash the kids a charming grin and mischievous wink.

Sombra however needed far more than a moment to recover so had no opportunity to strike back before Sunset was once more in his face, leaning over him to glare at him straight in the eyes.

“Listen here you sorry excuse for a Sauron knock off,” she demanded of him harshly. “First off, I’m not in charge here and you sure as hell aren’t either. That honour belongs to the Princess and her arm candy over there. Secondly, I hold all the fucking cards right now. Your magic - don’t worry, it’s not gone for good - is nicely locked away by this transformation, but all of my many non-magical tricks and weapons are plenty effective. So, don’t think you’ll get away with using violence to take over or even intimidate anyone - and I mean anyone, I’ll damn well find out if you do - into playing your games. You’re going to behave, learn to play nice and you might even earn a few privileges. And if you don’t like it…” Sunset’s stern look turned into a nasty grin, “well, the portal should still be open for a bit longer, I can offer the same alternative choices you gave all your former subjects here; a slow cold death, or gambling on the mercy of the invaders.”

With that all said she stood and stepped back, regarding Sombra with a sneer even as he glared daggers at her.

Abruptly she turned to face the stunned crowd, especially focusing on Cadance and her entourage and gave them a cheerful smile, mood having flipped from vicious to friendly in the blink of an eye. “Well! Now that that’s dealt with, why don’t I get a head count? Boys, girls and children separately. Then I’ll see about ordering us all some pizza!”

Author's Notes:

Sorry this took so long once again, and for so little by comparison. This chapter was originally a lot longer but I've decided to break it up a bit. Not sure how it compares to the (massivly) longer chapters previously posted so... let me know your prefferences! Comments and reviews are an author's life blood when it comes to fan-fiction.

In theory the next few parts should be done sooner but, well life be stressful as always so we'll see.

Also, on a side note for long term readers, I've updated a few of the erlier chapters. Mostly there's no serious changes, cleaning up a few typoes and re-phrasing a few things, but I have added a little more to the initial fight in the first chapter. If you check it out, hope you enjoy~

Chapter 5 - A World in a Bottle in a Ship Part 2/4

The promised pizza arrived fairly promptly once an order with the top five topping choices had been argued out. The real surprise was how it had arrived. Sunset was once again left smirking at everyone’s wide eyed expressions as the three buzzing machines - each easily the size of a small chariot - descended towards them.

That began the first round of questions soon after they had dropped off the recognizable pizza boxes and side drinks on a pallet, only pausing for Sunset to verify her identity to one using a small pad on an extendable arm.

“They work a bit like an autogyro. Well, similar principles at least. You all saw those whirling circles on the ends of those six arms right? Well each one of those is just a set of spinning wing blades. They just have an internal power source instead of needing to be towed up by a pegasus or dropped off somewhere high,” she explained nonchalantly. “That and a small fraction of the intelligence Alas has to navigate.”

Naturally that gave way to questions about what an autogyro was, which Sunset elected to ignore and leave to the Equestrian ponies to explain. She was seemingly more interested in setting out the pizza and drinks on a couple of cleared workbenches with the help of a couple of drafted guards and maids.

Fortunately, the excitement for hot food was more than enough to distract everyone from their question for the moment. A moment which led Cadance to observing Sunset collapsing into a chair, hidden away and alone next to some bulky, long, tarpaulin covered object, looking absolutely exhausted.

Glancing back at the pile of pizza and the collection of paper plates and cups, she decided to do her old acquaintance a favour. No one protested when their Princess nudged in ahead of the que and started piling up two plates worth of food, in spite of any apparent unfairness.

When Cadance approached, Sunset seemed not to notice her, leading to a brief awkward pause. Gently Cadance cleared her throat and a glance of suspicion was promptly shot her way.

With a gentle smile she simply spoke, “Here,” and offered up the second plate.

Blinking away her surprise, Sunset took the plate with a sigh and a small smile. “Thanks.”

Awkwardly grabbing a stool and bringing it close she sat with her and the two began to quietly eat. Conversation not coming so easily as hoped, Cadance took to people watching; carefully studying her transformed subjects as they all awkwardly tried not to make a mess of eating their food. Uncertainty, thoughtfulness and curiosity were all abundant, which she was thankful for opposed to the alternatives of fear and despair. She had had enough of that back in those catacombs while bargaining with Sombera.

“So, you’ve been busy,” Sunset eventually spoke up. “Crystal Empire huh? And I thought I was the ambitious one, Empress Mi Amore Cadenza.”

Quickly pushing her surprise aside at Sunset starting the conversation, Cadance rolled her eyes and huffed dismissively at the playful jab.

“I don’t hold the title of Empress, just Princess, Sunset. The Crystal Empire is, well, barely much more than the one city now days. The name is a holdover from a time long since passed. But… I suppose you are right. I have been busy.”

“Yeah. Got married, conquered a whole new country, held the Equestria games there, then went and squeezed out an alicorn foal to add the impossible cherry on top the improbable cake,” Sunset listed out humorously.

Cadance glanced slyly at the mare before adding to the list, “My wedding was also crashed by an invasion of shape shifting emotional vampires. And participated in a musical number with a bed ridden Discord. But I suppose those are just details.”

“You’re kidding,” Sunset said back, blinking owlishly at the now confidently grinding Cadance, who merely pointed towards Thorax. “Okay, you’re not kidding. How the tartarus did I miss that?”

“I suspect… because the Canterlot Times doesn’t deliver subscriptions this far outside of Equestria’s borders,” Cadance commented innocently after a moment of thought. Sunset’s deadpan glare was exactly what she was aiming to provoke.

“The Times? Are you kidding?” she asked, bristling with exaggerated anger. “No way I would pay bits for that sensationalist and elitist trash. And I was reading through the newspapers, the respectable ones, in the archive.”

“Oh? So that framed article of them accusing you of launching a coup against the crown and nobility was stolen then?” Cadance continued, now feigning an astonished gasp.

“Damn straight it was! Straight from Celestia’s breakfast table,” Sunset asserted with mock outrage.

The two fell into a giggle fit a moment later, knowing full well the sorts of stories that frequently worked their way into the newspaper that pretended to be so much more distinguished then it actually was.

“Ugh, seriously, I accidentally set some drapes on fire and those rumour mongers jumped straight over arson to treason,” Sunset complained, recalling one of many rumours that had run amuck back in her day.

“To be fair, you really annoyed the editor’s nephew in law earlier that week. Namely by emptying a bowl of custard over his head,” Cadance reminded her with a titter.

That reminder only prompted further aggravated nostalgia from Sunset’s past. “Oh now he totally deserved that! Narcissistic twat wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then pretending otherwise, as if I couldn’t hear him boasting to all his friends about taming the ‘wild flaming flower of Celestia’s bosom’. The prat was almost literally asking for it, tempting fate with a lie like that in public, at a party I was actually attending.”

“Wait what? Celestia’s bosom?” Cadance asked, struggling to contain her laughter. “I hadn’t heard that one before.”

Suddenly Sunset’s amusement evaporated. “Yeah. One of those rumours were going around back then. About me being Celestia’s secret love child or something,” Sunset explained bitterly.

Cadance’s expression similarly sobered. Silently she cursed herself for trotting right into that minefield of a topic.

“Uh, miss Sun Shims?”

Both mares immediately snapped their heads to look down towards where a young child with mixed strawberry pink, golden blond hair and deep green eyes was shackally standing, looking up at the pair nervously.

“Ah, y-your highness,” the child added hesitantly with a clumsy bow, one that promptly sent her off balance.

“Woah there!” Sunset called out as she lunged forward to catch the girl before she fell, catching her beneath the shoulders and gently pulling her back to her feet. “Heh, I don’t think Cadenza here minds if you pass up on the courtly manners until you all adjust better. And it’s Sunset. Miss Shimmer if you really gotta be formal. Please don’t.”

The gentle if slightly awkward smile from Sunset fortunately did plenty to reassure the now blushing child.

“S-sunset. Uh, we were wondering if… is your big metal friend okay?”

“Huh?” Sunset boggled in confusion for a moment before looking over at where the child was now pointing to see Atlas hanging in his maintenance frame. Looking back and around to see some of the other children near by peeking around the edge of a work bench, she could only chuckle. The way they were holding their hands in fists while making little nervous gestures was particularly adorable.

Cadance likewas couldn’t help but giggle a little.

“Don’t worry. Atlas is fine. It’s just recharging, or resting if you like,” Sunet explained happily enough. “But it’s not my friend exactly. More of a pet really. If you like I can teach you guys how to give him orders later.”

That seemed to intrigue the other children to edge out closer a little more.

“Yes, it’s alright to come out,” Cadance encouraged. “Sunset is an old friend of mine after all.”

The comment once again got Cadance an odd, slightly suspicious look from Sunset but she refrained from questioning Cadance.

“Yeah… I only smack around people my own size or bigger, and only if they deserve it. Old king smoggy certainly counts.”

The silly name got a few chuckles and smiles out of the small group.

“So, what do you little gang of monkeys want?” Sunset asked teasingly.

“Wha- we’re not monkeys!” one young boy - or former colt - objected loudly.

“Yes you are. Humans are just funny looking monkeys and we’re all human,” Sunset continued to tease with a growing smirk. She swiftly cut herself off however when she caught a couple of them looking frightened and moist-eyed. “For now. Don’t worry, like I said it’s not permanent. Until then… there’s perks. Like hands. Humans are scary good at climbing you know, and there’s plenty of trees around. Swimming too, surprisingly enough. Uh, but don’t go doing that without supervision yet.”

The uncertain platitudes Sunset was now awkwardly sprouting seemed to somewhat help… but not entirely. The shaky smile that was steadily growing more forced certainly did not.

So Cadance decided to step up and pull her out of her own rut.

“Sunset’s quite right. This isn’t something we wanted, but it is an opportunity to learn new things. We’ll get home in time but until then we can make the best of the situation, even have a little fun. If we’re all lucky we might make some new friends too,” Cadance added, giving them all a more natural smile and wiggling her fingers at them. “Speaking of which, I’m sure you all came here for more than one question. What did you want to ask?”

Hesitantly one young boy with grey hair streaked with bright blue waddled forward a step or two and began to ramble bashfully. “Oh, uh, well, some of the grownups were talking all about how this was impossible and stuff and maybe it was some kind of trick but they don’t think the princess, uh, you your majestyness could be tricked by something obviously fake and… and we’re all just kinda confused.”

Sunset butt in with a grunt, and a mouth half full of pizza much to Cadance’s dismay. “Gona’ havta be a bi’ more sp’cific.” She thankfully did not take another bit after swallowing. “I mean, there’s a lot of stuff here I can imagine you got questions about, so got to start somewhere.”

“Sunset, please don’t talk with your mouth full,” Cadance chided.

Sunset merely levelled a blank stare at Cadance… before poking her tongue out at her. Their audience of children broke out into scandalised gasps and giggles not more then a second later. Meanwhile Sunset just took another large bite of pizza while keeping her eyes locked on Cadance.

The Princess couldn’t suppress the sigh and role of her eyes, but could not hold back a smile either when she caught sight of the children’s amusement.

“Really, you would think you were raised in a barn, not a castle with manners like that,” Cadance huffed with pretend annoyance, nose pointed skyward.

“Clearly you’ve never seen Celestia when she thinks she’s alone with a pile of cakes,” Sunset argued back before cringing and pretending to shiver. “There are some things that cannot be unseen Mi-mo.”

“Then lets not discuss that,” Cadance replied curtly, ending the mock bickering so she could turn her attention back to the children, a kindly expression replacing her show of snootiness. “So, what was the matter exactly?”

“Uh, well, Miss Crystal Drops kept saying that Equis wasn’t a ball but a big flat plate and the stars were just big gems floating up there like the sun and moon,” their little leader said hesitantly.

“Mhum, and Mr Bronzer said that wasn’t true and it was one big flat plane that goes on forever,” the one boy with the grey blue hair said. “Oh, and like, the night sky was just a sort of curtain with holes in it and those were what stars were.”

“Yeah, and then Miss Drops was all, like, well if it goes on forever where does the sun and moon go when the Princesses lower them!” another former filly added exuberantly, clearly wondering the same thing herself.

“Uhuh! And then Miss Amythis Polish said that means we must be in some place like Tartarus because this is all so impossible,” the fist continued. “A lot of them started looking kinda worried after that.”

As they talked Sunset grew increasingly disgruntled. “Yeah, bet they also said the moon wasn’t real and was just a hologram, and Nightmare Moon was an inside job,” she snarked quietly before straightening up and abruptly launching herself forward and up onto one of the work table in the middle of the room.

“Alright! Listen up!” Sunset called out loudly, scowling lightly at the crowd.

Immediately every eye in the room was on her. Most nervously considering her angry tone, but Shining and a few others were more cautiously waiting for misbehaviour.

“I’ve heard there’s been a lot of talk about how everything I’ve said is a bunch of Minotaur crap,” Sunset accused the crowd collectively, sweeping her gaze over many of them. “But I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, I’m going to teach you you are. Then, when we got time, I’ll show you you’re wrong just to drive the point home. So! Lets get started! First of all, we don’t live on bucking Equis. That name was invented by a stuck up society of Unicorn Nobles who preached that pony kind had inherited the earth and all upon it. They even actively advocated for the slavery of so called lesser species. Given your history, might want to think twice about using it. The proper term is Cunabula Harmonia, or Cradle of Harmony if you don’t like ancient Pegasus fancy speak. Now, onto gravity and orbital mechanics one oh one…”

The ensuing lecture was informative to say the least, including a fun little demonstration where she recruited a few guards into holding out a blanket and left a large bal representing a sun in the centre weighing it down then let the children take turns throwing marbles representing planets around it to give a crude facsimile of how gravity and orbits worked. Apparently it wasn’t very accurate given it was a force that allegedly operated on at least four dimensions, and was more of a pulling force then the pushing force one imagined when picturing a blanket of space-time pressing down on you, but gave a good impression of how things worked practically speaking.

Then she bounced onto how this entire place could probably be built and where that much metal could probably be found. The answer she delivered was naturally delivered as disturbingly as possible.

“You see, Stars don’t live forever. They sure live a long time, longer than even Celestia has been alive for but they eventually burn out. But they don’t just smoulder into nothing, no. They Explode!” she announced with a grin and wide-spread arms. “This throws bits of rock and metal and dust and gas all over the place! Some of this has enough gravity to attract other bits to each other which draws in more and more stuff and if there’s enough, the gravity starts crushing all that gas together and they light up with something called nuclear fusion. The rest though, kinda settles into an orbit around the new star. Sometimes you get enough to make a planet, one made out of dirt or a great big ball of gas. But a lot of stuff is left sort of just… floating around. Asteroids, meteors, or shooting stars if you like. Stuff you can mine,” she explained smugly, having happily mimed out all the crushing and swirling motions associated with it.

Of course, she was not done yet. Sunset just had to elaborate on how they mined in space, in her own disturbingly intriguing style.

“Smaller ships, mining ships, that extend an array of spider-like limbs around the asteroid. Then! Like some sort of deep sea jellyfish it extends a membrane around the asteroid as if extending its stomach around it to digest it… which is kinda what it’s really doing when you think about it. It makes the place safer for people to go out and start mining the asteroid, pulling it apart and feeding it to the furnaces of the mining ship. Maybe they’ll use a few explosive to break it up if it’s a tough one,” she happily explained, mimicking the enveloping with one hand over a fist and the explosion likewise with a mimed boom. “That said, if they really need the raw materials they’ll just eat entire worlds instead.”

Naturally the first horrified question was how.

“Oh! I am so glad you asked,” Sunset exclaimed in a singsong voice and a giddy grin. “You see, humans learnt to create artificial suns a while ago. They actually use special bottled up stable ones to power this ship. But to crack a world apart? They use special short lived ones that unleash all their energy in one, brief explosion! They still need a lot of them to do something so titanic as break apart a planet, but the rewards tend to be worth it as often the more valuable and heavier metals they want have sunk into the core of the planet while it formed. Denser stuff being heavier and all that.”

She finished up with a pleased smile, eyeing the now uneasy looking crowd. “But don’t worry. They wouldn’t do something like that to Cunabula Harmonia. They’ve only ever done this to barren, airless, lifeless rocks and the fleet has never needed to do it anyway. They’re crazy, not evil. Something like that would be a reprehensible crime of the highest level. Not to mention a waste of good real estate. And just impractical now I think about it, takes a long time to set something like that up.”

“Oh? And dare I ask why you have not suggested procuring a few of these weapons to use against our enemies?”

The uneasy crowd once again turned their attention to the speaker, an extremely disgruntled - but now also curious - Sombera who had been glaring daggers at Sunset for her whole speech.

“Because, using such things as weapons have consequences,” Sunset replied without hesitation, voice becoming stern and entirely down to business. “Ones beyond just the immediate destruction they cause. You of all ponies should understand power comes at a price. That’s what we have the opportunity to gain here. The power to create and destroy in astounding measure. The price to gaining that power, is the time it takes us to learn how to use it… and more importantly the consequences of doing so. The Earthlings are here now, but there were times when they almost weren’t. They learnt their lesson, now we don’t have to.”

Sunset let the uneasy atmosphere sit for a moment before turning and jumping off the table she had been using as an improvised stage.

“Anyway, that’s enough questions and lectures for now,” she called back grumpily. “I have an appointment with some cold pizza and my bed.”

Author's Notes:

Well, here's another chapter. Sooner then usual as well. I hope that's welcome.

Not sure if this one measures up to my usual editing standards but I figure it's better to get stuff out then anxt over making sure it's perfect for weeks.

Also not sure how good this one is? I mean, half of it is Sunset giving them a lecture. Not sure if I should have leaned into that more and went full on into trying to teach some of the basic science through the story or tried to avoid it. Definatly feel I need to work on the reactions of random citizens to this stuff. Feel like they need to be less passive.

Eh, either way I hope it's enjoyed. And if you did, please to leave a like and a comment. Would be thrilled to get this story over 100, a hard task now the site is much lower trafic then a few years ago. As for comments, they seriously make my day.

Chapter 5 - A World in a Bottle in a Ship - Part 3/4

Sunset collapsed onto her sofa with an exhausted sigh, relaxing into the black faux leather and mixed cyan and red pillows that adorned it. Not the hangout spot’s patchwork sofa that had been pulled out of a recycler and tidied up, her sofa. A sleepy smile tugged at Sunset’s lips at the thought, reassured by her more private domain. Said hang out spot was quickly turning into a creche for the children while the rest of her workshop was becoming a community centre. Much to her annoyance. The sooner she could set up dormitories in the disused boathouses she was not actively using as a laboratory, the better.

At least now she could rest after so many long hours awake, with so many expectations for her sparse time in Equestria having gone so horribly sideways.

“Oh, easy now! Yes, forward, wait, hold up! Let them catch up…”

Or at least she hoped she could soon, Sunset corrected her thoughts with a groan as she heard Cadance’s voice, echoing up the stairs along-side the excited shrieks and babbling of her child. It was an abrupt reminder of having agreed to host the little royal family in her own little apartment area. At least it seemed the baby wasn’t much of a cryer and was instead enjoying its jolty trip up the long flights of stairs to Sunset’s more private quarters in the former office space.

Forcing down her frustration Sunset swung her legs over to leave herself sitting upright on the sofa and facing the bay windows that overlooked the warehouse and its open entryway. She focused on the view to help calm her, as limited as it was from this angle. A few moments later the noise of awkward footsteps and the shuffling of people carrying something bulky filled the air as Cadance and her current entourage entered the room. Sunset declined to look at them, content with her peaceful - if narrow - view of the lake and the pod of dolphins jumping out and across the water in the distance.

“Ah, Sunset. Where can we…?” Cadance asked after her, trailing off awkwardly.

“Three doors ahead of you. Furthest to the right is my room. Don’t go in there. Middle is the bathroom and the one to the left is a guest room. You can set her down in there,” Sunset directed her flatly, still not looking over. She really didn’t have the energy left to try to be nice, or get annoyed either for that matter. Now she didn’t have an audience to keep up appearances with, she could finally relax a little.

“Ah, thank you,” Cadance said stiltedly as she lead both Shining armour and a guard who had volunteered to lug the crib over to the room in question with a single maid in tow.

That left her with Sunburst and the rather short form of Thorax hovering awkwardly.

“Uh, thanks for the lunch by the way!” Sunburst said, trying nervously to look and sound friendly.

Sunset’s only acknowledgment was a quiet grunt. Again the two were left standing there, sharing awkward glances for a while. She guessed he was probably hoping to start a conversation too, given he had expressed no shortage of curiosity for every tiny little thing of hers he saw, let alone the rest of ship around them. Sunset knew she would have to keep an eye on him less he became the first pony to have a close encounter with an industrial electrical socket.

“So, um… any idea why I didn’t change?” Thorax asked tentatively, taking his own turn at starting something.

“Yes! Quite ironic that, the only one who didn’t change was the changeling,” Sunburst added with a chuckle.

Sunset felt herself sigh in frustration as she looked over to stare at them blankly. It was obvious they were not going to shut up so she resolved to put the bare minimum into satisfying them.

“You’re a changeling right? I’m guessing that means you’re some sort of shape shifter,” Sunset reasoned, waiting only a moment to see Thorax nod. “Whatever mechanism you use to transform must interfere with the portal’s own transformation… thing. Matrix. Spell set. Ugh, I’m too tired for this. Definitely not for technical details.”

They were left in awkward silence for a moment as Sunset slumped back into the sofa, eyes shut and head back.

“Truth be told, I thought something like this might happen with Sombra. It’s another reason I wanted him going last, as fighting him on his own turf with other ponies still at risk and in the way was a bad idea,” she continued to explain idly.

“Well, good to know you actually somewhat care,” Shining Armour’s far more steady voice rang out, surprising Sunset a little. Not that she missed a beat in responding.

“Sure I do Prince Shining Dork. I can stroke my own ego all day but it just gets boring after a while without others to admire my magnificent, crazy ass,” she said with a smirk, quickly adjusting.

Shining only snorted at that, striding around to take a seat at her second couch where he collapsed, not unlike Sunset had.

“Ugh. Come on, why don’t you two help yourselves to a seat already,” Sunset groaned to the two standing occupants, gesturing to the empty comfy chair done up in the same style as the couches and a somewhat out of place tie-die bean bag.

Uneasily Sunburst took the seat and Thorax the more height appropriate bean bag. As they did Cadance reemerged - alongside the guard - with a tired but relieved sight.

“Finally asleep,” she murmured to herself before asking the guard to keep watch over the crowd outside. Unceremoniously she stumbled around the seating to collapse alongside her husband and snuggle up to him sleepily.

“So, uh, what now?” Thorax said eventually, breaking the silence.

Sunset grunted irritably, head still laying back with her eyes shut. “I get some shut eye before I have to march out there and sign for the supplies I ordered and organise a team building exercise where we all build bunk beds and camping stoves and… ugh, some fucking latrines or something. Hygiene and personal stuff like that is going to be a headache with so many people to look after.”

“You know, you still have a lot to explain,” Shining said sternly. “And new stuff seems to come up every time you act. For example, exactly what kind of stunt were you trying to pull with Sombra?”

The probing was enough to raise her heckles and produce a growl. Abruptly snapping to her feet loom over them and levelling a glare at Shining she wasted no time making her brewing irritation known. “I don’t have anything to explain until I get some fucking rest! But you know what? I’ll do you the courtesy of explaining why I don’t have to explain shit! I have been up for close to two days straight now. I got my ass handed to me by Smogra when he was still a demented cloud of smoke, I had to hike miles through the snow to find his bloody horn while mine was infected with his dark magic crystal crap because I offered to help him and consequently you, I had to unlock his maliciously neglectful spell work that would have left half your ponies with heart attacks or suffering pneumonia, and then I had to organise an evacuation to my home where my privacy will be ripped to shreds and no small amount of delicate equipment is no doubt going to be wrecked by curious idiots who want to stick their newly acquired fingers into electrical outlets, band saws, welders or worse!”

The brief and furious rant left Sunset red faced and panting from the effort, and her audience sitting in silent shock. With a deep breath she did the best she could to shed the stress and tension from her body and slumped in on herself. Without ceremony she turned on the spot and strode into her room, slamming the door for good measure.

There, in the blissfully quiet and dark room she let out one last sigh of relief before collapsing onto her bed. The frustration from the constant accusations and suspicion were more than enough to drive her mad. It fed back into itself as she thought about the hypocrisy of it, as if they never acted in the best interests of themselves and what they cared about. That even when she acted charitably towards others it was either ignored or rebuffed with suspicion. At the same time, perhaps that was hypocritical of her to complain. After all, it was all she had ever known since a time when she was too ignorant to see past the two faced double dealings of every pony around her, something she had accepted a long time ago.

She tossed and turned restlessly atop her bed, trying to get comfortable while her mind raced. At least all the trouble would be worth it and her own first share of pay off would come much sooner than theirs, she thought as she peeked open her eyes. There, at the side of her room sat the backpack filled with her pilfered magical supplies. A smile tugged at her lips as they slid shut once more and she finally stated drifting off to sleep.

Author's Notes:

I'll be honest, I'm a little uneasy publishing another chapter so quickly. I certainly don't think I'll be able to keep up the pace but... well there's not much sense leaving this one laying around when it's compleat so what the heck? Why not.

Hope you all enjoy⁓.

Chapter 5 - A World in a Bottle in a Ship - Part 4/4

Cadance sighed deeply, the fatigue of the day catching up with her. She lent over the railing, staring out across the lake and the multitude of glimmering lights that reflected off of it. Dusk had come, or at least what passed for it in this strange artificial world. The translucent flower shaped structure that sat at the centre of the end of the cylinder revealed its purpose now as it ever so slowly closed, enveloping the artificial sun, filtering its light into dimmer oranges and reds. If she strained her eyes carefully she could even see the thin guide wires or tracks that the thing ran along, crossing the length of the cylinder, allowing the vague imitation of a real sun that crossed the sky.

It was a thought that Cadance could not help but smile at, not so much for the content of the amazing fact, but for how she had learnt it. After Sunset had slept for a good four hours, she had finally marched out - grumbling about needing more sleep the whole way - to receive another drone delivery. One she apparently wasn’t entirely happy with, though never clearly explained why.

Still, what had arrived was quickly unpacked, giving the group a project of setting up almost a hundred triple bunkbeds. They weren’t terribly luxurious, but they were more than sufficient for the time being, even having thick, sound dampening privacy screens so each bunk could become enclosed. While the group project of building and arranging them went on, Sunset had relented in answering more questions about their temporary new home. She had taken to it surprisingly well, explaining with wild gestures and genuine excitement over a number of things that made this place work, tiredness momentarily forgotten.

Not for the first time Cadance wondered if Sunset was bi-polar or something similar with the way her mood could flip on a bit. Regardless of that however, she was glad this place had brought out those better, more joyful sides of Sunset’s personality.

“Hey there.”

Cadance jumped a little as her thoughts were interrupted by the call. Looking back, Shining Armour approached her, doing his best to put on a happy face as he joined her leaning over the railing. She greeted him with a smile of her own as he experimentally wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a hug. Both of them had to adjust their position a few times before it became entirely comfortable, as were the awkward trials of adjusting to entirely different bodies.

They stood there for a time, watching dusk turn to twilight, and the range of activity that accompanied it. The city became alive with lights, as did a number of the roads and other towns all around the inner surface of the cylindrical habitat. What appeared to be a light show started up, accompanying an open air performance or rave along the lake side. Much to their surprise the lake itself came to life as well, with vague leviathan like forms lit with bioluminescent lights alongside pods of smaller ones that drifted in and out of view. It lent credence to the claims by a number of their people that they had seen whales out in the salt water lake.

“This is crazy…” Shining murmured as his gaze dropped down to his unoccupied hand as he flexed and stretched the still alien appendage. “I mean I’m living it and I still can’t quite believe it. I almost think we’re still back under the empire dreaming while we’re all sealed away but… there’s no way Sombera has this kind of imagination. Not when every rational idea for space travel I’ve heard described it as cramped and spartan.”

“I’m… not so sure,” Cadance replied back, as quietly but more thoughtfully. “Not about the dreaming bit, I’m with you there but when you think about it… a pony needs a lot of space to live happily. Living on a ship like the sea going ones we know, is fine for weeks or even months but not for decades or longer. I… hate to think of having to get used to such tight quarters, I think it might drive me mad. If you could, if you had the choice, why wouldn’t you make mini cylinder worlds like this if you needed or just wanted the living space? Even if you weren’t going anywhere, it seems a lot easier than finding a planet to live on, and Sunset did imply there weren’t very many of those, not with an atmosphere we could breathe. It makes an abstract kind of sense.”

“Maybe,” Shining admitted with a shallow nod. “But we don’t know for sure yet. There are still a lot of questions waiting for Sunset.”

“I think… I don’t think she’s going to answer them,” Cadance admitted, prose still thoughtful. “Not all of them anyway. She’s not that kind of teacher. I believe she’ll give us the tools and teach us how to use them and find it all out on our own.”

“Oh? And how would you know that?” Shining inquired wearily. “I’ll admit I’m more than a little curious how you know her so… so well you feel safe trusting her like this.”

Cadance sighed and shook her head tiredly, staring down into their faint reflection in the deep, dark waters sloshing gently below. “Sunset can be a prickelly character to get on with. But she’s a good pony deep down. As for how I know that, well for starters, she taught me how to use magic in the first place. Even when Aunti Celestia of all ponies couldn’t.”

Shining screwed his face up in disbelief at that. “Okay now this is a story I got to hear. How the heck does that little punk out teach Princess Celestia?”

His wife couldn’t help but giggle a little, both at Shining’s adorably boyish look of bewilderment and her own memories of the story. “Because while Celestia has plenty of experience teaching unicorn foals how to use magic they’ve already had their whole lives, teaching an adolescent who’s never before had access to it, let alone used it, is a different matter entirely. I did start out a pegasus after all.”

“Okay, I follow why you were an unusual case… but then how did Sunset solve that?” Shining accepted with an uneasy nod.

“Simple. She literally threw the rule book out the window, screwed up my homework into a ball and threw it at me,” Cadance replied succinctly, without hesitation nor doubt… but also with an all too innocent smile.

Shining refrained from commenting, simply staring back at her with one eyebrow raised sceptically. As expected, Cadance broke out into giggles under the steady, inquesting gaze.

She did, however, manage to compose herself and explain eventually. “Well, she did do that, and then told me to try levitating that, instead of constantly breaking Celestia’s tea cups, or messing around with those annoying precision training spheres that only respond to the correct amount of magical pressure. According to her, I was pretty much a foal using magic for the first time. Instead of trying to regulate it carefully, to only use as much force as necessary, I first needed to get used to using my magic at all. So, I practised with her on a bunch of screwed up paper balls which I could compact into little wooden marbles, bounce off walls or set on fire without worrying. Soon enough I was doing little aerial obstacle courses with origami birds, racing through rings of fire, being chased by little illusionary dragons and all sorts that Sunset provided to make it less boring.”

Slowly Shining processed the mental image, accepting it with a slow nod. “Okay. I’ll admit that sounds inventive. And kinda fun for somepony figuring out magic for the first time. But… why’d she do it? I mean, she doesn’t seem like the charitable sort. I can tell the only reason she’s putting up with us is she has something to gain from it all.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Cadance objected gently but confidently, even as she mulled over her memories of Sunset. “I mean, she did say the only reason she was helping me was because she was sick and tired of watching me embarrass myself, but… she changed. She really got into things, encouraging me and challenging me and seemingly enjoying the whole ordeal herself too, even if she denied it later. I think that was the first time I saw an honest smile on her face. And it was hardly the last or only time she helped me either. To be honest I owe her a lot for teaching me how to keep the nobles off my back without causing an incident… and for taking the fall for a few times I did offend or embarrass someone. Though now I think back on it, given how she did that, it was usually just a way for her to annoy the various nobles further,” she admitted with a giggle.

“Well I guess I can’t begrudge her for that,” Shining admitted with a sigh. “Especially with how my own interactions with the higher nobility have gone. Not that they’re all bad ponies but… they’re almost always… entitled? Up tight? Snobbish?”

Cadance could not help the chuckle that escaped her lips.

“So… mind explaining the Mi-Mo thing as well?” Shining asked next, causing Cadance to stiffen up and gently glare at him. It had little effect on Shining and his barely suppressed smirk.

Groaning in defeat she resigned to explain it as briefly as possible. “I suppose it goes back to how we first met. Celestia was… quick, to adopt me as a niece. To make me close, both to keep me safe politically and… I think because she was lonely, for any kind of company that might last. This… didn’t exactly ingratiate myself to Sunset, as in short I was getting between her and Celestia. The details aren’t really mine to share however.”

Shining nodded slowly, wanting to ask more but at the same time aware of the firm boundaries Cadance had when it came to spilling other’s secrets.

“Anyway, this meant she did her best to stay distant, always remaining stiffly formal and addressing me with my full name or title whenever she had to talk to me. Backhanded compliments and veiled insults were sprinkled in whenever Celestia wasn’t in ear shot. It was some time later when Celestia began to introduce me to various Princessly duties when she came up with it. I was on edge at the time, trying to take myself as seriously as possible. We got in a spat over… ugh, something I can’t even remember any more and the topic of how formal she always was came up. She just came up with it on the spot, used it to baby me and I hated it. It sounded so silly and immature when I was trying to be everything but that. Naturally she caught on to how much it got on my nerves, and from then on Sunset did her best to call me that, especially in public. Threw my previous insistence on her calling me something shorter and less stuffy then my full name back in my face every time I complained about it.” Cadance could not help a derisive snort as one memory in particular surfaced. “She even managed to get a group of kindergartners to call me that when they were struggling to say my full name. This also happened to be the first time Celestia ever heard it and naturally thought it was adorable, especially coming from a group of excited foals and started using it to tease me too. At least she was more tactful.”

Shining was now looking far more uncomfortable. “And you just put up with it? And all the other things like it? I remember some of the things she said back in the catacombs.”

Cadance snorted in half amusement, the memories exasperating and souring her mood. “Of course not. I tried to give as good as I got but… well, I was never very good at tearing others down. In Sunset’s own words my insults were; cute, like a naughty foal demanding icecream. So… I suppose that is the other side of my relationship with Sunset. On one side, tutor and political protector, on the other a jealous bully.”

Shining sighed and wrapped his arm around her once more, pulling her into a hug. “And of course, you being the wonderful, beautiful mare you are can’t help but put all your faith in her better side.”

The compliment was enough to bring a light blush to Cadance’s face. “She did get better, her teasing became friendlier and I think she no longer blamed me for Celestia’s growing distance in the end. It’s almost funny really. I’ve had so little family since… back then. I guess I got attached and she became like a bratty, know-it-all, older sister to me. I think she might even feel the same way, even if she doesn’t realise it. Sunset doesn’t exactly have any family of her own.”

“Orphan?” Shining asked quietly at the morose admission.

Cadance simply nodded with a bitter-sweet smile. “I suppose it’s one thing we have in common.”

“And she saw you as getting between her and Princess Celestia,” Shining murmured as he thought through the situation to its logical conclusion. “Because she adopted you but not her.”

Cadance tensed up, even before Shining had come to the full conclusion pulling away and beginning to fidget. “Please Shiny, don’t say anything!” she spoke up worriedly, looking back at him with darting eyes that couldn’t seem to decide whether to stare him down or look away in shame. “That’s not supposed to be my secret to tell. I realised it myself of course, but Sunset is very sensitive about it.”

Shining sighed tiredly, eyes staring off thoughtfully before responding. “I won’t. But I can’t pretend this won’t colour how I think about-”

“Yo! What up Mi-mo.”

The pair jumped at the unexpected greeting and spun around to see Sunset strutting towards them, hands buried in the pockets of a lightly worn charcoal hoodie, decorated with the silhouettes of red flames. They both gaped at her a little, so suddenly being interrupted by the subject of their conversation.

“Don’t tell me, talking about me right?” she guessed correctly with a smirk, having caught their weary looks at being interrupted. “Can’t blame you. Not like there’s anything more impressive around to talk about,” she boasted as she strolled over to join them, a distinctly relaxed sway to her steps.

Cadance couldn’t quite tell if she was serious or not, though she strongly suspected not given Sunset had taken a moment to pointedly look up, over and around at the miniature cylindrical world surrounding them as she spoke. She then proceeded to collapse onto the railing and stare out at the city beyond with a slightly dopey smile. Now Cadance thought about it, the way she had looked at them had a distance to it, like she was looking through them, rather than at them. It was a drastic contrast to her typical, sharp and searching gaze.

“Are you alright Sunset?” Cadance asked tentatively, remembering her erratic mood over the day, and especially how she allowed her frustration to surface in more private company.

“Peachy,” she replied cordially and seemingly without a care. “Still need more sleep but I’m not holding myself back from biting everyone’s heads off anymore. Hummm… biting. You know humans are kinda cool but I always wanted to try out being a dragon. Rawr~”

Cadance couldn’t say she was entirely convinced of Sunset’s wellbeing, especially with that non-sequitur comment. Something to add to her confusion was the slight smell of something oddly pungent she briefly caught wafting off of her. Not that Cadance had an opportunity to ask thanks to her husband.

“Don’t suppose you’re up to answering more questions then?” Shining asked with a tentative expectation, though schooled of any hostility.

Sunset groaned and rolled her head on her shoulders. “Yeah, I guess so. What about?”

He was actually taken aback by the quick agreement, needing a moment to blink away his surprise that she didn’t waste further time griping about it. “Well… you were pretty determined back in there we had nothing to worry about. That survival was guaranteed. That we’ll never be discovered or found out.”

“Never said that last bit, just that it was unlikely. At least in the near future. But I guess I did imply that, and to be fair guaranteed survival is almost true,” Sunset argued back, firmly correcting him but not without an understanding look cast his way. “We’re not going to starve even if we have to resort to chowing down on ration packs and we’re not going to go without housing even if we have to go squat in one of the emergency shelters. Just as importantly, there’s enough to go around and enough to do, no one is going to notice a couple of hundred extra mouths and working hands unless we do something drastic to advertise ourselves. And even then, well no one is going to try and kill us just for being here. They’ll be suspicious and invasively investigate us down to the muscle strands of our sphincters but they won’t be out to harm us.”

The explanation seemed to satisfy Shining for the moment, who nodded as he mulled over the implications. “Emergency shelters huh?”

“Yeah. Sealed habitat pods in case of a serious hull breach. Through all four of them plus armour, gas tanks and more,” she said with an amused snort. “Cramped quarters and basic amenities only. To be honest we’re not any better off now besides having immediate access to the outdoors, but they’re there and no one really keeps too close an eye on them. The plan I’m working with for now is hiring some people to build a bunch of apartments inside them,” Sunset said as she pointed a thumb back at the row of other abandoned warehouses, all connected by a much longer, squatter building behind them. “But ultimately I guess it’s up to you what you do. As long as it gets everyone out of my lab, I don’t care.”

“And the authorities here won’t notice or mind all that construction?” Shining asked a bit more pointedly, not quite able to ignore the dismissive comment. “Do you own the whole place or are you just a squatter?”

Sunset’s face scrunched up once more and she grumbled under her breath for a moment before weedling out a response. “It’s… complicated. I don’t own the place and private property doesn’t really exist here the same way it does back in Equestria. There’s a hard cap on real estate in a spaceship after all, even one as big as this. But the place is practically mine to do with as I please so long as someone more important doesn’t decide it’s needed for something else. Since there isn’t any reason to fear a famine it’s not going to be turned back into a fish factory any time soon and it’s not much good for anything else right now so… yeah.”

“Fish factory? Right. You did say they were meat eaters,” Shining mentioned uneasily. “I suppose there are worse ways to get meat.”

“Well, we are just using the boathouses if it helps. Apparently the idea behind this place was they could fill the lake up with fish for food, turn it into one giant farm. I didn’t mention it because I know how squeamish most ponies are but the area in back is where they would gut them and can them. The boats are long gone, but there’s still some old machinery in there so I’ll reiterate; Don’t. Go. Back. There,” Sunset explained, her finishing stern warning delivered with a hard glare and a finger wag to drive it home.

“Don’t worry Sunset, you’ve made it quite clear it’s dangerous, and locked up for a reason,” Cadance reassured her with a tired smile, having heard her the first couple of times she had made the warning that day.

Sunset merely grunted in response, before giving over her attention to the distant, steadily dancing lights below the water. It was then, far off near that distant light show that one shape began to rapidly ascend. Breaching the surface with a distant crash of water, an echoing moan reverberated across the lake, closely followed by a distant round of cheers. Cadance watched, slack jawed as the wale of some breed or another soared almost airborne for a moment before flopping over and crashing back into the water. She found herself looking to her husband, silently asking if they had really just seen that, only to receive the same questioning look in return.

“Heh, drama queen,” Sunset merely murmured with a smirk.

“What are they like?” Cadance asked blearily after a moment, still blinking away her amazement. After all, what kind of species would bother to bring along such massive creatures to other worlds?

Sunset looked to her questioningly for a moment, prompting Cadence to give a gentle hand wave to the city across the waters.

“Huh,” Sunset actually scrunched her face up in thought as she stared idly at the city. “Not the easiest question to answer.”

“Why not?” Shining prompted. “Are they just like ponies? Are they more or less violent? Who are their rulers?”

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Not that simple. I mean, could you sum up all of ponykind in a sentence or two? Without sounding racist towards the different tribes? Sure, I can sprout the same old song and dance as old as Equestria itself about us being one harmonious family, in tune with nature and whatever, but then I would be spending the next decade listing all the edge cases and other points of view. And don’t even get me started on fleet politics. Their government is a multi-tired mess of lottery appointed experts, different overlapping elected positions and a theoretically neutral, theoretically meritocratic hierarchy of ship officers. Nepotism still ends up playing a big role there though, even if they would never admit it. The colonies and Sol are even worse, being much larger population centres.”

“Well why not just try to explain the here and now then? What’s relevant to us in the immediate future,” Cadance asked, trying to tease out an answer of any kind, if only to have somewhere to start with.

Sunset hunched over the railing and reluctantly nodded at the idea. “Well I guess I can try that… I could certainly use the practice before everyone starts demanding to be let out of the play pen,” she griped out before starting. “To concede to some stereotypes… humans are generally more aggressive than ponies. They’re omnivorous predators after all, so it’s kinda in their nature, a bit like Griffons or Dragons.”

That last comment drew out some worried looks from both Cadance and Shining, which Sunset quickly caught and groaned at.

“Oh, stop fretting!” she near enough demanded of them, shooting a light scowl their way. “They’ve long outgrown hunting and even farming cattle. Mostly. I don’t think I even know any humans who have killed something before. Griffons or Diamond Dogs are way worse. I know I kept the menu vegetarian but you could even give meat a try yourselves as it’s all pretty much grown in a vat these days. Don’t ask for details, it’s… a bit gross, if ethically clean. Moving on… They’re curious to a fault, so expect them to go gaga over us when they finally find out, we’d be their first contact, first sapient life not from Earth.”

“Well, I can’t say we would be any different, under better circumstances,” Cadance added, with a bitter sweet smile.

“Maybe. Having the benefit of the two to compare, most ponies are a lot more reserved, or just skittish,” Sunset argued back with scepticism lingering in her voice. “Anyway, they can be incredibly creative, imaginative and driven, as you can no doubt see,” she continued with a gesture up towards the surrounding habitat. However her expression fell into an uncomfortable frown. “Friendly most of the time too, being highly social creatures. However they can also be greedy, cruel and capricious. Though their greatest pitfall might be their tendency towards paranoia. It’s likely the biggest reason they might refuse to help us.”

Cadance felt a more confused frown overtake her as she absorbed that line of thought. “Their paranoia, not their greed means they might not help us…? I don’t understand, how could they see a few desperate refugees as some kind of threat? A drain on resources, maybe but-”

Strangely enough, that statement caused Sunset to break out into laughter. “Ahhhrg! The pretty pastel ponies are here t’ take ‘er jerbs!” she called out in a strange faux accent between guffals. “Don’ git too close, you might catch dem diabetes!”

After a moment of steadily subsiding laughter, Shining lost his patience. “What in Nightmare’s name are you raving about now?!”

Sunset stifled her remaining giggles and shook her head, a little out of breath from her own outburst. “Sorry, sorry. You’d have to look at some old human history to get it. Suffice to say they can find or fabricate malicious intent anywhere,” she began to explain more rationally. “For example, they might suspect our presence here to be some kind of ruse to trick them into attacking our enemies. They might even consider ponies in general to be fake, a deliberately engineered form to play on their sympathies and protective instincts. Weirdly enough they have pretty good reason to think that considering non-intelligent equines exist on Earth, and ponies as a species coincidently fit the human definition of cute to a T.”

“So… we might come across as too good, or too unfortunate?” Shining summed up thoughtfully, the more tactical side of his mind chiming in. “A honeypot trap of sorts.”

“Something like that,” Sunset agreed glumly with a nod. “Even if they take us at face value they might suspect we’re at fault somehow, that we attacked first or did something to piss these other aliens off. And they might have a point, as they might be right.”

“What?!” Cadance felt herself burst out. “We would never! Equestria, the Empire, we’ve long since resolved towards peaceful coexistence with other nations! Celestia has even set a precedent for permitting cities or regions to secede from her rule! Given valid motivation to of course.”

Sunset snorted and shook her head, implying Cadance wasn’t understanding something she did. “Yeah, I know that. And I sure as hell don’t believe we attacked them first, even if we could. But we still might have done something to provoke them. It might be something subjective, like magic or moving stars around is against their religion. Or it might be something more serious, like them actually knowing more about magic than we do, and came to stop us from blundering into some unknown danger. Hell, magic could even be poisonous to them and they’re here to stop us polluting their space or something. Not that it justifies what they’ve done to us. Just explains it.”

That explanation left Cadance standing there in shock, and as the idea sunk in she felt herself go limp against the railing, staring down into the dark waters below. She had never thought about it like that before, nor was she inclined to, she realised soon after. It was not natural to think of oneself as the perpetrator of their own victimhood, yet somehow Sunset had managed.

“I see,” Shining murmured, looking troubled. “I think I understand what you mean about paranoia. That kind of combative thinking would make peace… difficult. Are you sure we’re going to have such an easy time hiding ourselves?”

Sunset shrugged a little dismissively, still unconcerned by the prospect. “Yeah. They can be paranoid, it’s not their default state of mind. As long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves no one is going to start pointing fingers or jumping to conclusions. As far as they’re concerned we’re just some weird comune getting back from reconnecting with nature or some bullshit like that. Way more feasible than hitch-hiking aliens that jumped aboard their ship mid-flight via magic portal.”

“That still doesn’t explain a lot… let alone let us know how we should act around them,” Shining was quick to point out. “We still risk setting off that paranoia if we appear too out of place.”

Sunset let out a deep exasperated sigh, head rocking back as she stared up at the sky, or rather the ground above them. “Honestly? The easiest path would be to just not. Hide up here and keep interaction to a minimum. Make a little hermit community of ourselves, it’s not entirely uncommon. But that would hardly reap the best rewards.”

“So? What are we supposed to do then?” Cadance urged. “I’m not entirely keen on isolation on principle. Building bridges is always the better option.”

“Well, in the near future, learn the main language. A little bastardised amalgamation of several popular languages they call Iglish. After that Pan-Asian Lingo if they’re feeling more adventurous. But immediately…” Sunset trailed off for a moment as she looked over the two of them carefully. “I’m probably going to regret offering this tomorrow but I’m going to need to go out, sign for some camp stoves among other things. There’s some stuff they refused to ship in quantity and by drone without an in person contact, for safety reasons and other red tape crap. You - or some of your little court - could come with me… see it all for yourselves up close. It would be a start at least.”

“That sounds…” Cadance trailed off, not actually quite sure what it sounded like. Her eyes drifted to the distant city of lights.

“Daunting, to say the least,” Shining finished for her. “But I can’t say I don’t want to confirm everything with my own two eyes.”

“Not quite the word I had in mind,” Cadance corrected, “If only because I have no idea what to expect.”

Sunset smirked back at them yet again. “Yeah, that’s pretty much where your expectations should be. There’s a lot I have yet to tell you just because there’s so much to tell. We turned your world upside-down with the big impossible stuff, now we get to spin it around with all the little improbable stuff. So… you in?”

Author's Notes:

This chapter part should have been out a while back if I'm honest. It's been sitting around waiting for my final edit pass for some time, so apologies for that.

I hope the world building in this chapter, including it previous parts have done a decent job of painting the picture of where humanity is at. There's a lot more to come of course, including a few big things Sunset here has failed to mention for the LoLs, but I hope it serves as a solid start. I know I haven't mentioned a solid date yet which might muddy the waters but we are well into the 3000s by now if it helps.

I also know I might be projecting here a little bit with Sunset's views on humanity. A lot of people would say our worst trait is greed, and that certainly is true when it comes to the more powerful members of modern society who got to the top by ruthless acquisition of wealth. However, I feel fear of other's malice or their greed taking away what we see is rightfully ours has done or enabled a lot more damage over the course of history. Even a lot of those powerful wealthy people are likely hesitant to give up their wealth even if they wanted to because of the security blanket it provides against injustice, and protects them from any undeserved punishment the "mob" might throw their way for living the high life while others suffered. But that's just my opinion.

One question in particular I have for you all... should I add the narcotics warning for Sunset's implied indiscretion here? I feel like the tag is a little overkill most of the time and might tern off some new readers when it's only mentioned or just a little alcohol showing up in the every day sense but maybe someone knows better.

Anyway, just want to apologies again, in advance as I feel like the next chapter will take a while to show up. It's not terribly complete yet and my muse has been hijacked by one of my old loves when it comes to fanfiction; James Cameron's Avatar. I know, the films are pretty bad in a lot of ways, with shallow character depiction and an absolutely awful sense of embedded misanthropy... but sometimes half the fun is playing fixit with these things.